Chapter 7
Justice League Rematch
After stepping out of the portal created by Cyborg, who wasn't present at the moment, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Martian Manhunter, all of whom were still possessed by Trigon's demons, found themselves in a vast desert with a city locate a few miles away. Raven was there with them, looking unhappy.
Superman then went up ahead and scanned around the a bit before flying into the air, and then he dived into the sand. The others watched where he dived into and waited for several seconds, and then the whole place began to shake.
A structure of some kind began raising out of the ground. It was a gigantic ring ranging between 30 to 40 meters tall, and Superman was underneath the top portion of the ring's interior, pushing it from below as he flew up so that he could raise the whole thing out of the sand. When the entire structure was raised out of the sand, a base was seen located in front of the ring, and a few feet in front of the ring was a small platform big enough to sit a person.
Superman landed in front of Raven and said to her, "Go and do what you have to do. Lord Trigon is waiting!"
Raven slowly nodded her head, and then she headed over to the giant ring and sat down on the aforementioned platform.
Back inside the headquarters of the young heroes, Cyborg was looking through the place's main computer to find out the current whereabouts of Raven, and the young heroes were with him, impatiently looking at the monitor and hoping to find an answer soon. As they were waiting, Robin came over to them, holding in his hand a small black box made of lead.
Noticing him, everyone turned to him and took note of the box he was holding. "Got it?" Starfire asked him. He nodded in response and then opened the box to reveal a glowing, green rock inside.
The students of Class 1-A had never seen anything like this before, so there were looks of curiosity and awe on their faces as they stared at the rock for several seconds before Robin closed it. "That's Kryptonite?" asked Momo. "It's supposed to be Superman's weakness?"
Robin nodded. "According to father, it's a piece of his planet that landed on Earth after its destruction. Superman and his kind are rendered weak and vulnerable when exposed to it. His enemies used this quite a few times in order to fight him. I heard that there were also a couple of times when he fell under enemy control, and father and the League had to use it to control him."
"Superman fell under enemy control...?" asked Izuku.
"Yeah, happened a couple of times in the past," Cyborg told him, "just like what is happening now..."
"Is it dangerous to humans?" asked Ochako.
"Only under long-term exposure," Starfire told her. "Unless you're carrying around it with you at all times, you don't have to worry about that."
Cyborg then turned back to the computer and said, "Found out her location. She's in Bialya."
"Biayla?" asked Tenya.
Blue Beetle turned to him and asked, "Never heard of that place? That's a country located in the Middle East."
"There's no country called Bialya in our world..." replied Tenya.
"Does that mean this world also has locations that don't exist back in our world?" asked Tsuyu.
"That seems to be the case," replied Cyborg as he turned to the side and stretched forth his arm to make a portal appear. "All right, let's head over there fast!" The others nodded, and then everyone wasted no time in going through the portal.
When they exited from the other side, they found themselves in the vast desert of Bialya. Ignoring the city visible in the distance, they focused their attention on the ring-shaped structure some distance away from their current location, and they could make out some people standing there. "What is that!?" asked Beast Boy, pointing at the ring.
"It must be the Infernal Gate Raven told us about!" said Starfire. "She must be over there trying to activate it! C'mon! Let's go!"
The heroes were going to move forward when they noticed one of the people there flying over to them at a fast speed. It was Superman. "Lord Trigon will soon arrive in this world," Superman said to them. "You shall not interfere! All those who dare interfere shall die!"
Robin fearlessly stepped forward and opened the box to reveal the Kryptonite. When the light of the glowing rock reached Superman, the Man of Steel felt pain coursing throughout his body, not to mention the feeling of strength being drained away from him. Superman cried in pain as he fell on his back while shielding his face from the glow of the rock, but it was no use. He cried for the Kryptonite to be taken away while slowly crawling backwards to get as far as he could from it, but he didn't go far before Katsuki went up to him and socked him across the face with a powerful right hook.
Superman tumbled on his side, and then his mouth was forced open when a shadow-like entity emerged from it and rose into the air while shrieking loudly, and then it disintegrated. Seeing this, Robin closed the box, and then everyone gathered around Superman, who was slowly getting back up, and Starfire asked him, "Are you all right?"
Superman rubbed his cheek and said, "Yeah, I'm fine... Thanks for the help..."
"No hard feelings, okay?" Katsuki said to him.
Superman looked at him with a smile and said, "I should be thanking you for that!" He then stood up and turned to the giant ring-shaped structure. "I'm aware of everything that happened, so..." Before he could finish speaking, a bright flash came from within the ring.
After the bright flash, a purple wormhole appeared within the ring, filling it up entirely. Raven, who was still sitting on the platform in front of it, looked up at the glowing wormhole with a look of fear as if she had done something she regretted. A massive red feet emerged from the wormhole, followed by the massive body of an intimidating demon standing almost 40 meters tall. It was Trigon.
The heroes had looks of shock of their faces upon seeing the appearance of Trigon. Even from where they were, the demon still appeared massive. "That... That's Trigon?!" asked Blue Beetle.
"He's huge?!" gasped Eijiro.
"How are we going to take down someone that big?!" asked Tenya.
Izuku was at a loss of words. When Raven said that Trigon was incredibly powerful, he was in his heart ready to take on him in case they failed to prevent him from arriving in this world. Thinking that as long as he had help from his friends and the heroes of this world, they should be able to defeat him, even if it wouldn't be easy. However, after seeing Trigon's real size, thoughts and hope of victory seemingly disappeared from his mind. How on earth were they going to fight someone that big?!
"Having Mount Lady here now would be about right..." he told himself mentally while continuing to stare at Trigon with wide open eyes of shock.
Despite his daughter successfully bringing him into this world, Trigon did not show any gratitude to Raven at all. In fact, he didn't even bother to look at her. Completely ignoring Raven, the giant demon walked right over her and headed in the direction of the city in the distance with the intention of destroying it, perhaps to let the world be aware of his arrival or use this as a way to showcase his powers.
Realizing where the demon was heading, Starfire said, "He's heading for the city! We have to stop him!"
"You people go to Raven," Superman told them. "I'll go after Trigon and do my best to stop him! Perhaps she knows how to deal with this!" He was going to fly after Trigon when he noticed Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Martian Manhunter approaching them. "On second thought, looks like I'll have to deal with them first..."
"Need help with them?" Cyborg asked him.
Superman thought for a while when he heard that. While it was true he was considered the most powerful member of the Justice League and the strongest hero in the world, he had to admit that there were still certain people capable of giving him a run for his money, and Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter were two of them. Facing only one wouldn't be too big of a problem, but there were two of them at the moment, and due to being possessed, they weren't going to hold back anytime during the fight. "Yeah, that would be nice," he told Cyborg.
"Let me have a piece of this too!" said Katsuki as he punched him palm while smirking with enthusiasm. "Somehow, I think I will have more fun if I fight them!"
Superman looked at him and asked, "You sure you want to do this? This may be a bit too much for you."
"Right, Bakugou!" Tenya said to his classmate. "We shouldn't deal with things that are too much for us! You should let the pros handle people like them!"
"You shut up!" Katsuki rudely told him. "If I only do beginner stuff, I'm never going to improve! You lot can go console Raven if you want to. I'm going to fight the heavy hitters here and see what I'm really capable of!"
Shouto also agreed. "I think I'll stay here and face them as well."
"You sure you two want to do this...?" Izuku asked his two classmates in concern, and they assured him that they wanted to stay out here and fight alongside the adult heroes. Seeing this, part of Izuku felt like he wanted to help them as well, but he also felt like it might be too much for him and that he was better off accompanying the rest of the younger heroes. As long as the adult heroes were at Katsuki and Shouto's sides, those two should be all right. "All right, but please be careful... I don't think things here will be as easy as it is compared to how we handle things back in our world..."
"Which should make a good practice for us," said Shouto, sounding determined to get started.
"Well, now that you've decided on what to do, we should get going to Raven fast!" said Starfire. The others agreed, so they got ready to move, but the Flash had something to say about this.
"You're not going anywhere!" he said before running to them with the intention of overwhelming them with his speed, but Superman, in a showcase of tremendous speed, got in front of him in a blink of an eye an shoved him backwards with a simple palm thrust.
"You'll be dealing with me!" Superman told him. He then told the young heroes to head over to Raven quick. They nodded and did so as fast as they could.
Seeing that they were on the move, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter attempted to stop them, but they had to get out of the way when Cyborg fired energy blasts at them to interrupt them, following by firing missiles from his shoulders that they managed to avoid as well.
The Flash backed away from Superman before running in circles around him, Cyborg, Shouto, and Katsuki at such a speed that it looked like a red ring was spinning around them nonstop. Superman was going to do something about this when Shouto stepped forward and pressed one hand against the sand. In doing so, he caused a large portion of the sand before him to freeze over, and when the Flash ran onto the frozen ground, he slipped and fell on his back.
The Flash got back up again, but he failed to get out of the way in time when Katsuki ran up to him and, with an explosion coming out from his hand, sent him tumbling backwards. A shadow-like entity came out of the speedster's mouth and shrieked loudly before disappearing, and then he got back up while rubbing the front of his body. "That was surprisingly simple... Thought it might take a few more hits before he leaves..." he said. "Glad that wasn't the case, though..." He looked at Katsuki and Shouto and smiled. "Good job, guys!"
"Glad to have you back, Flash!" Superman said to him.
"Yeah, and it's payback time!" said the speedster as he turned to Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter.
The young heroes successfully made it over to Raven, who was down on her knees, weeping bitterly at what she had done. "Raven! Are you all right?" Starfire asked in concern while bending down next to her and touching her shoulder.
"What have I done...?!" she said in between weepings. "I brought my father into this world... Now we're all done for...!"
"Don't say that! There's definitely a way to stop him!" Blue Beetle told her. "The adults are doing something about him, so we should be doing our part as well!"
"Yeah! You shouldn't underestimate us!" Beast Boy told her. "Together, we are unstoppable!"
"You sealed him away once, right?" Robin asked her. "Can't you do the same again?"
Raven tried to stop crying and wiped her tears with one finger. "I can try that again... I have to use the same crystal, but I'm not sure if it is still intact... It's probably still in his realm..."
"Then let's go find it!" suggested Robin. "You have to use it to seal him back inside!"
"You can do it, Raven!" Starfire told her. "We will support you to the end!"
"Right! Our class may only have known you yesterday, but we are still giving everything we have to help you!" Izuku told Raven.
"Yeah! We are all here to support you!" Ochako told her. "You can rely on us!"
"A hero shouldn't give up hope so easily!" Tenya told her.
The others all gave Raven words of encouragement as well, so much that she started to feel comforted. Nodding and then standing back up, Raven said, "You're right. I should be working on stopping my father rather than crying over what I did. Quick, let's go to his realm and find the crystal! Be warned, though, that there are various threats in his realm."
"I'm sure we can handle things all right!" Eijiro said with confidence.
Everyone then turned to the portal and went through it. When they emerged at the other side, they were greeted with a terrifying sight that might scar them for life.
The color red was what they mainly saw throughout the place. Towering rocks that almost resembled flesh were erected from pools of magma that look like they might actually be boiling blood, and sticking out of their sides were sharp spikes, some of them having tips dyed in red. Skeletal structures were found all over the place, some of them having rotting flesh covering them. There were also various indescribable and never-seen-before creatures wandering around the place, some of them fighting each other violently.
"This... This is your dad's home...?!" asked Blue Beetle.
"What a horrifying-looking place!" said Momo.
"Welcome to my father's realm," Raven told them. She was not in the least scared of the scenery before her at all. After taking some steps forward, Raven looked at a largest pillar located in the distance and pointed at it. "After sealing my father, I put the crystal there, so it should still be there."
Under Starfire's command, the young heroes ran forward to get to the aforementioned pillar as soon as possible. Their running attracted the creatures that were roaming the place, and one of them, a quadruple creature vaguely resembling a skinless dog ran towards them, making fierce cries as it did so. Starfire responded by firing a blast of green energy from her hands, and the bizarre creature was blown back by it and collapsed motionlessly onto the ground. Several other similar-looking creatures run past it, heading for the heroes to attack them.
Superman and Wonder Woman traded blows against each other with great intensity, each time creating shockwaves whenever their fists came in contact. The Amazon managed to catch both of Superman's fists before giving him a strong headbutt to the forehead. Superman recoiled from the hit, but his fists remained being grabbed by Wonder Woman's hands. He recovered almost immediately, however, and floated slightly into the air before giving the Amazon a taste of her own medicine using the same kind of attack, hitting her in the forehead as well. The powerful blow made her let go of his hands and sent her falling flat on her back.
"Leave Diana's body at once!" Superman angrily said to the demon possessing her.
The possessed Amazon simply responded with a demonic cry before jumping back on her feet and trying to punch the Man of Steel, but the latter stepped to the side before elbowing her in the back hard. Wonder Woman took several steps forward from the hit, and after recovering, the Flash dashed past her, punching her across the face while doing so. Before the Amazon could fully recover, the speedster dashed past her again, hitting her in the same way. She never got the chance to get a good footing, as the Flash kept this up nonstop.
Eventually, Wonder Woman collapsed onto the sand from getting hit one too many times, and then a shadowy entity came out of her mouth and disintegrated while shrieking loudly. The Flash and Superman approached her to see her waking up. Helping her up, Superman said to her, "I hope I didn't hit you too hard."
Smiling, Wonder Woman said, "On the other hand, I'm glad you didn't hold back just because I'm a woman!"
"Sure, gender equality!" said the Flash.
While those three were fighting, Cyborg was dealing with Martian Manhunter not too far away. The former fired energy blasts at the latter, who allowed the shots to phase through him harmlessly. "Geez! That move of yours is cheap!" said Cyborg in frustration.
Martian Manhunter then phased through the sand. Cyborg immediately changed his vision to an x-ray one so that he could see where the Martian was underground. The latter got close to him before shooting up from the sand in an attempt to hit him with an uppercut, but because Cyborg saw this coming, he was able to jump back and avoid it in time. He immediately fired an energy blast at the Martian and blew him back. It wasn't enough to free him from the demon, however.
Martian Manhunter then noticed Katsuki running towards him from the side with one fist pulled back. The short-tempered teen let out a cry as swung down his fist at him, but the Martian leaped back. When Katsuki's fist touched the sand, an explosion was created, catching the Martian by surprise. Katsuki suddenly jumped out of the smoke and successfully socked him in the guts.
Shouto swung his arm horizontally hard to generate an ice wave that spread out in Martian Manhunter's direction. The Martian responded by flying into the air, only for Katsuki to follow him up there when the teen generated an explosion straight down to propel himself skywards. He flew into Martian Manhunter and punched him hard across the face, sending him crashing back onto the sand.
Landing from his jump, Katsuki said to him, "C'mon! Is that all you've got? You're supposed to be a pro, right? Fight like one! Or is the demon possessing you a weakling who can't make good use of the body he's currently in?"
Martian Manhunter got back up and glared angrily at him before pulling off an unexpected move of stretching his arm to great lengths in order to punch Katsuki from afar. The teen managed to step to the side in time and grazed the attack. Martian Manhunter retracted his arm and then punched with the other one, also extending its length. Katsuki avoided the second time and then caught the arm. "Gotcha!" He then released an explosion from his palm, blasting it at point blank.
Martian Manhunter cried with intense pain as he pulled back his arm and placed one hand on the part that was burned by the explosion. Cyborg ran up to Katsuki and watched the Martian suffering from the pain like it was the worst thing ever. "Martians are weak against fire," Cyborg told the teen. "As long as it burns, it's effective against them."
"Then I'll gladly give him some fiery blasts!" said Katsuki with a smirk while punching his palm. He then pointed his palm at Martian Manhunter and fired a pair of explosions. Seeing this, the Martian phased through the sand to escape it. The two looked around for where he was going to show up next, and Cyborg had help from his x-ray vision. "Over there!" said Cyborg, pointing in a certain direction, as he was able to see that Martian Manhunter heading there.
Katsuki ran towards said direction, and the moment Martian Manhunter emerged from the sand, he was greeted with another explosion to the face by the teen. The Martian flew back and rolled along the sand a few inches before coming to a stop on his front. The shadowy entity came out of his mouth and disintegrated like all the others. "Yeah! Got him!" said Katsuki, striking a pose with his fist in triumph.
As Cyborg went over to see if Martian Manhunter was all right, Shouto came up next to Kastsuki, and the latter said to him, "If you would've get over your thick skull and use your fire side, you could've beaten him with ease. But then, I wouldn't have the privilege of beating him myself!" Shouto simply ignored what he said.
Martian Manhunter was seemingly all right, and all the heroes gathered together around him to make sure that it was so. Now that they were all free from possession, their next target was Trigon himself. Turning to the city that the giant demon headed for, Superman said, "The children are trying to find a way to seal him away, and before they do so, we'll have to try our best to keep Trigon from causing any more harm. Let's get to work, League!"
Under Superman's command, the heroes all rushed towards the city to do what they must do.
Hardening his body, Eijiro braced himself when a quadrupedal monster ran towards him with its jaw wide open. He allowed the monster to bite down onto his arm, which had hardened so much that the monster's teeth shattered upon impact. The monster reared back, crying in pain, and then Eijiro grabbed it by the head before hurling it behind himself and off the edge. The monster yelped like a dog in pain as it fell through the air into the magma below. "Haha! Take that!" the teen taunted while looking down at where the monster fell into.
Another monster of the same kind charged at him from behind, and he had yet to notice this. However, Beast Boy, in the form of a cheetah, pounced at it from the side and pinned it to the ground. The two beasts struggled and roared against each other fiercely, and eventually, Beast Boy bit into its neck hard and ripped off a good chunk of flesh, killing it. After throwing away the piece of flesh from his mouth, Beast Boy changed back to normal and wiped his mouth. "Ptooey! I'm not doing that again!"
"That was sick!" Eijiro said to him.
"Never did that before... Figured that this was all right since we're fighting monsters from hell," Beast Boy told him. "By the way, you should be careful of your surroundings. You could've been pushed off the ledge just now!"
Eijiro scratched the back of his head while looking embarrassed. "Yeah... Thanks for the help... I'll be careful next time..."
At the same time, winged creatures resembling cross between bats and lizards were swarming the air and occasionally swooping down to attack the heroes. With his sword in his hand, Robin swung it with great accuracy at any of the winged creatures that headed for him, cleanly bisecting them. He also took them down with batarangs that he threw with great accuracy, an incredible feat due to the size of those creatures and the speed they were moving at.
Momo was confronted by a limbless monster that resembled a skinless snake. The bizarre and terrifying-looking monster opened its mouth to such a size that it looks like it might be able to swallow a person effortlessly. Trying not to be intimidated, Momo reached into her chest and pulled out a grenade while jumping back to avoid the monster when it lunged at her. She hurriedly removed the pin and then flung the grenade towards the creature, and it thoughtlessly caught it in its mouth. The grenade exploded from within, obliterating the creature's head and killing it. "Hope you enjoyed the taste of that!" she said to the now headless creature.
The other young heroes continue to fight their way through the place in order to get to the pillar that Raven said contained the crystal for sealing away Trigon. As they were getting close to the ledge in front of it, a large claw suddenly appeared from below and dug its claws into the ledge. A large body soon followed the clawed hand, and it was revealed to be a purple-skinned monster about the size of a van. Its most notable feature was having three snake-like heads with mouths filled with sharp teeth, and none of them had eyes.
"What... What is that?!" asked Ochako in terror.
The heroes took steps back as the monster moved in their direction while constantly waving around their long necks and making growling sounds. Raven placed her hands close to each other to ready an offensive spell, but then Blue Beetle stepped forward and fired a large energy shot at the monster, striking it in the area below the three necks. The monster cried in pain while taking some steps back. "You go on ahead, Raven! Leave this creep to us!" Blue Beetle told her.
"Beetle is right! We can't afford to waste time here! You must get to the crystal fast, Raven!" Starfire told her.
"But how are we going to get up there?" asked Izuku, looking up at the towering pillar. Not only was height an issue, the pillar was also disconnected from the landmass they were on, and there didn't seem to be anything that could help them get there.
Ochako looked around notice a large piece of rock that had a flat enough surface for people to stand on. "I'll use that as a lift to get us all up there!" she said while pointing at it.
"Then do it fast! We're counting on you!" Starfire said to her before joining Blue Beetle in attacking the three-headed monster.
Raven, Izuku, and Ochako then ran onto the aforementioned rock. Once on top of it, Ochako pressed her hand against the rock firmly to decrease its weight and gravity, thus causing it to slowly float into the air. The winged creatures that were still filling the air headed for them, so Raven released blasts of dark energy from her hands to shoot them down, and Izuku tried to punch ones that got too close.
Feeling concerned for Ochako, Izuku asked her, "Are you sure you can get us up there without feeling sick?"
"There are times when one must endure all sorts of hardship in order to get things done, and now is that time!" Ochako told her with a determined look and smile. "Don't worry about me; I'll definitely get us all to the top, no matter how much it will make me throw up!"
By the time the aforementioned Justice League members caught up with Trigon in the city, the giant demon had already laid waste to quite a bit of the place and taken the lives of several people. People were running around in fear, screaming their heads off, as Trigon stomped his way through the place and destroyed buildings without pattern and seemingly thought. Occasionally, he fired beams out of his eyes that sliced buildings in half and set things on fire.
It was as if apocalypse had struck the place.
The heroes were shocked beyond words at the damage Trigon had caused. Filled with anger, they wasted no time in attacking him. Unfortunately, progress was going poorly for them.
Superman struck the demon in the middle of the face with a powerful force, but somehow, he was only able to tilt Trigon's head back a bit. Trigon then responded by giving the Man of Steel a headbutt that sent him crashing onto the pavement so hard that cracks appeared on it.
Wonder Woman attacked next. With her sword gripped tightly in her hand, she jumped at Trigon's shoulder and brought down her weapons' sharp end into the skin as hard as she could. To her surprise, the blade snapped off the moment it came in contact with the skin. After recovering from her shock, Wonder Woman threw aside the now useless sword and then gave a powerful blow to the side of the demon's head, but it did nothing to him at all. She was caught in Trigon's hand afterwards and hurled afar.
The Flash ran up the building nearest to Trigon and then ran in circles nonstop. As he did so, he built up electricity in his hand, and when he charged it up enough, he swung his hand in Trigon's direction and hurled what was basically a spear made of electricity at him. However, the lightning bolt dissipated upon hitting the side of Trigon's arm and did nothing to the skin at all. In fact, Trigon didn't seem to realize that something hit him.
Annoyed, the Flash shouted at him, "At least you could say something! It's not nice ignoring people, you know that?!" He regretted when the demon responded to him by turning his head to him and then raising his hand over his head. The Flash ran for his life and jumped onto another building when the demon brought down his hand onto the previous building and smashed it into pieces.
From atop another building, Cyborg let loose more or less all of his arsenal, from firing energy blasts to launching a large amount of missiles. His huge mess of projectiles struck Trigon in various parts of the body and managed to grab his attention, though without actually hurting him. The demon turned his head to Cyborg and then unleashed his eyes beams at him. Seeing danger, Cyborg created a portal next to himself and leaped through it as fast as he could right before the beams struck the building he was on and destroyed it. Another portal appeared on top of another building, and he rolled out of it and was unharmed.
Down on the street, Katsuki was firing explosions nonstop at Trigon's legs, hoping to do something. "Take this! Take this! How'd you like that?!" As powerful as the explosions look, Trigon didn't respond to getting hit by them at all and kept on moving forward. Annoyed at being ignored and the fact that his attacks were doing nothing, Katsuki shouted at him, "Hey you! Don't ignore me! You're pissing me off! Fight me, will ya?!"
Shouto got ahead of Trigon by skating down the street, a feat made possible when he generated a trail of ice underneath his feet. After getting in front of the demon, he slammed both hands onto the pavement and froze more or less the entire path up ahead. In doing so, he hoped to either freeze Trigon's feet to the ground or cause him to slip and fall.
The ice successfully covered Trigon's feet and seemingly "glued" them to the ground. Unfortunately, it was unable to hold the massive demon at all, as he easily tore his feet off the icy pavement and continued moving forward like it was nothing. He didn't even slip and fall, as he stomped the ice so hard that his feet sank into it slightly, which helped him get a good footing.
Trigon continued to move forward when he saw Martian Manhunter floating in front of him. "This is as far as you go!" the Martian angrily said to him. He then began growing in size, much to the surprise of Trigon, until he was as big as the demon himself. "I will not let you do as you please any further!"
"You may have surprised me, but that alone will not do you any good! No one is ever stronger than the demon lord that is I!" Trigon said to him before swinging his arm at him.
Martian Manhunter avoided the punch by activating his phasing ability so that the demon's arm went through him, and then he changed back to normal before throwing a punch at Trigon, socking him right in the face with a force strong enough to make him take several steps back. Martian Manhunter then lunged at him, grabbing him by the neck and throwing multiple punches against his face. Trigon growled in anger as he fired eye beams right into the Martian's face, making him let go of him while crying in pain.
Fire then covered Trigon's hand as the demon threw a fiery punch against Martian Manhunter. As Martians were weak to fire, Martian Manhunter cried with intense pain when the punch left behind a scorching mark on his skin. He backed away from Trigon, who closed in on him to throw another fiery punch to further harm him. Trigon then grabbed him by the neck with his still burning hands and attempted to strangle him. As the fire burned him, Martian Manhunter screamed in agony while shrinking in size until he was able to slip out of Trigon's grasp and collapse onto the pavement unconsciously.
Trigon attempted to crush him underfoot afterwards, but Superman rushed forward to save the Martian in time by holding up the demon's massive feet. As he struggled to hold up the foot, he told Katsuki and Bakugou to hurriedly take Martian Manhunter out from here. The two students rushed over to the fallen Martian and carried him to the sidewalk, safe from underneath the foot.
"Seriously?! Out just like that?!" Katsuki angrily said to Martian Manhunter. "I was expecting you to do tons of cool s*** after seeing you grow in size, and then you just had to go ahead and get taken out in less than minute! How disappointing can you get?!"
They were then surprised by the sound of Trigon's foot hitting the pavement. They turned to see that he had seemingly crushed Superman underfoot. When he lifted his foot, a hole was seen on the pavement, revealing that Superman was actually pushed into the sewer below.
Raven, Ochako, and Izuku finally reached the top of the pillar. They jumped onto the surface and ran towards the center, where a red crystal the size of a hand was lying on the ground. Raven approached it and picked it up, saying, "This is the one. It's still intact."
"Can you really seal him inside it again?" Izuku asked her.
"I'll try," Raven said as she sat down with her legs crossed. "It'll take a bit of time, though." She was about to began meditating when she noticed something bursting out of the ground. It was a skeletal humanoid wearing ragged clothing and wielding a sword and a shield in his hands. It even had a bit of rotting flesh still clinging to its body.
"Is... Is that a zombie?!" asked Ochako in shock.
Izuku ran in front of Raven and got into fighting stance when the skeletal warrior slowly approached her, and Izuku told her, "You do what you have to do! I'll deal with this thing!"
"All right!" Raven said with a nod before closing her eyes to began meditating.
"C'mon! I'm not afraid of you!" Izuku loudly said to the approaching skeleton. Even though he tried to look fearless, he was actually feeling nervous about the situation. Not only did he have to battle a villain of supernatural origin from one's worst nightmare, he also had to defend a friend, who was trying her best to accomplish a huge task. If he messed up now, she would likely fail, and if she failed, the world would be destroyed by Trigon. He wasn't simply fighting for his survival or to protect one person; he was fighting for the sake of the world, something he had never done before. "I must win this! I must protect Raven until she is done!" he said to himself.
Ochako approached him and got into a fighting stance while facing the skeleton as well. "Let's take on that creep together, Midoriya!" she said to her with a determined look. "For Raven and the world's sake, we mustn't lose here!"
Seeing that Ochako was fearless and determined, Izuku tried to shake off the feeling of nervousness and said, "You're right. We have to do it for her and the world's sake! Together, we can definitely do this!"
TO BE CONTINUED
I originally wanted to end this arc with this chapter, but then I felt that would make this chapter too long, and it wouldn't be a good idea to shorten things, as that would make it look too rushed. Have to make sure that the finale is appealing and well-made, right?
And by the way, the headbutt exchange between Superman and Wonder Woman is taken from the Justice League movie.
