Chapter 8 - Neutron Array
A/N Im back in the swing of things, bit more situation development im afraid, hell there may even be politics at this rate.
Katar looked out of the watchtowers windows towards the location of the fleet which was now visible again, spreading in all direction across the void of space that could be seen from the window. A bright cyan light lit up the darkness of space, no doubt visible to the earth, signifying the beginning of the firing process
"Dad? The neutron array? Even I thought it was a myth" asked Shayera
"No, only a few Thanagarians of high rank knew of its real existence"
"Why did so few know of it"
"We feared it, history and other races teach us that this kind of power usually destroys the race that wields it in the end, look at krypton with all their power, look at our past before we managed to change"
"But all the people it could've saved, the Gordanians would never have posed a threat, we would still be a family, Arwynn and Mom would still be aliveā¦."
"You think I haven't thought about that, I'd do anything, but it's one time only Shayera, after making one the creators memories of it were wiped and all documents destroyed, all research was outlawed, left only to be used in a most desperate hour"
Shayera was silent as she contemplated what she'd learnt "then don't fire it"
"We will have revenge Shay"
"But if anything of Darkseid survives you'll bring a war like no other to the earth, you can't" Shayera almost pleaded
"Shay. They sent a scouting party, they engaged our fleet, you've studied military tactics, tell what that means shay" asked Katar looking solemn.
"Regardless of our presence they were always going to invade the earth. Damn it" admitted Shayera
"Darkseid has been consolidating his power for years it seems, occasionally launching failed attacks and invasions so people become comfortable and safe, he has lured most of the galaxy into a false sense of security, he doesn't care if were here or not he believes he is that powerful now. Also Shay, Arwynn isn't dead either, she's missing"
"Some one needs to take a serious look at the computer systems on my ship then because my information told me that you, Arwynn and Rhian have been dead for over six years. Earth years" Shayera added once noticing Katars bemused expression "How long has she been gone, what happened"
"She took after Kendra, became I pilot, damned good one too, picked up some heavy damage went to engage hyper speed to get out of there, just as she started she took another hit, comms and navigation were destroyed just as it blasted her into deep space, we couldn't find a trace, she could be anywhere, maybe not even the same galaxy. This happened barley a week after you were "killed" it shook her up pretty badly"
"Rhian?" asked Shayera
"What about him"
"How did you get him back, me, Arwynn and Rhian practically hated you after you cut us out of your life"
Katar was silent for a moment again "I realised at last and too late that death is inevitable, Mom died because I was arrogant Shay, so indulged in my work, so high flying, moving through the ranks. I was an idiot. Didn't realise the danger my position put my family in until Kendra was taken. It hit me like a Nth metal war hammer to the face, I feared that my position would result in your deaths as well, so I cast you all out, I watched all three of you from a far, I saw all three of you graduate from the academies, I always checked to make sure you came home from missions, but I kept my self away other than that. I am sorry Shay. I am. After losing you and Arwynn in a week I decided to try and get Rhian back in my life, It took a long time but it worked, I hope you can come to forgive me as well one day Shay" Almost pleaded Katar
"I can't hate you, you're my father, we like to think ourselves emotionally secure and strong, I've come to question that lately im still waiting something to go spectacularly wrong with all this, for it to be another trick.
"I take it the lantern that was just in here is more than a friend" asked Katar
"Perhaps, I hurt him in a way I didn't even think I could, it's going to be a test to rebuild anything like what we had, im just thankful he's even given me a second chance, its more than I deserve"
"Fight for it Shay, trust me I-"
"I know dad, Rhian said the same thing" laughed Shayera
"Well it's good to see him talking again and smiling" added Katar
"What? What happened"
"You remember the girl he kept seeing from the academy days"
"Paran? She was in the invasion fleet" growled Shayera
"Yeah were investigating this, but she wasn't, Batman can fill you in on this, anyway Paran and Rhian became much closer friends after you "died" and Arwynn vanished, Rhian told me that once we got back to Thanagar he was going to propose to her"
"What happened"
"We never got back, we were the last portion of the fleet to get sent back from Gordan, Paran was already on Thanagar, we were just coming in for final approach when the planet shattered beneath us, he's barley said a word since then, he went down with the search parties, went to the Dul's family home, found only her sword and helm, both of which he keeps locked away now"
"Oh god, I thought he was the one who got off lightly out of all this, he seemed so, himself"
"Lightly, shay you died to him, Arwynn died to him and I had abandoned him at this point, if anything he got the worst of it, then to top it off Paran dies. Your like rehab for him"
"I could say the same, he's like rehab for me too"
"Shay I don't want to cut it short like this, but im assuming im going to have another angry conversation with your friends in a minute and I have a fleet to run as well, hopefully we'll get a better chance to talk before anything big kicks off"
"Oh, yeah I guess, good luck"
Katar turned to leave, as the door to the med bay opened he was confronted by Batman and a yet again angry Superman, before either of them could say anything Katars communicator beeped again "Captain?" sighed Katar
"Sorry Sir, but were ready for you"
"For what?"
"Law dictates before you can fire the neutron array you must deliver an ultimatum to the targeted planet, sir"
"What, Darkseid wont surrender, he wont even believe us"
"Sorry sir, that's what the law states"
"I'll be right there" looking up at Batman and Superman "You two want answers you can come see for yourself"
"three for transport" added Katar as the three of them vanished from sight.
Rhian noticed the flash and ran into the room, sword drawn, seeing Shayeras amused expression he quickly sheathed his sword before laughing a little at himself before saying "What did I miss?"
"Katar took Superman and Batman to the Horizon so they could see what was going on for themselves"
"He always gets carried away when he set his mind on something, can believe he just left me here though" laughed Rhian
"out of my way!" came a new voice as something fast shoved Rhian aside
Shayera braced herself not knowing what was going on, only to be pulled into a firm hug by Wonder Woman
"Di?" asked Shayera slightly worried about her health
"Great Hera don't you ever scare me like that again Shayera" stated Wonder Woman still holding onto Shay.
"Di your scaring me, I thought you were going to throttle me"
"It crossed my mind, but seeing you stand up to them made me realise you were on our side the whole time and made me realise what a selfish fool I'd been, can you forgive me?"
Shayera was stunned by this but quickly composed herself "Di, you have every right to hate me, hell I hate myself right now, it should be me asking for forgiveness not you"
"Still doesn't make it right Shayera, im a warrior like you, whilst I was down there just now I thought what would happen if I had to choose between my home and the mans world. I honestly cant say that I would have done any better than you did, so can you forgive me?"
"On a number of conditions" smirked shayerra
"Oh?"
"Don't ever hug me again, seriously you almost broke my back and wings, but most of all don't ever go soppy on me again, I miss the fire"
"Oh sorry- I mean you'll live" smiled wonder woman.
"That's more like it" added Shayera flexing her wings
"Too much hugging and soppiness going on right now" moaned Rhian
"Oh your just jealous" laughed Shay as she embraced Rhian quickly and let go again
"Diana this is Rhian my brother-"
"Older Brother" interrupted Rhian
"Twin brother" hissed Shayera before composing "and Rhian this is Diana, erm, fellow justice leaguer"
"Erm, Hi" said Diana
"Yeah, hi" added Rhian
Horizon
"Stay here a moment" said Katar as they appeared on the bridge of the Horizon in a golden flash. Superman went to follow anyway before Batman pulled him back with a surprising amount of force adding "Don't be an idiot"
"You trust them, him" whispered Superman
"No of course not, but look around, play it smart"
"Well why bring us here if were just going to stand here"
"He wants you to stay out of visual range of the monitors, because were about to contact Darkseid and he doesn't want Darkseid to know where with the justice league at the moment, you can see Darkseid but he cant see you if you stay there" interrupted a Thanagarian sitting at a nearby monitor, who didn't even look away from it as he spoke.
"Oh" muttered Superman
"Were ready Sir" informed the Captain
"Great, patch me through"
An image on the monitors brought up pictures of another ships bridge, Darkseid could be seen in the background, but a parademon was speaking at the moment "State your name and business" it spat
"General Katar Hol of the Thanagarian Fleet, Delivering a ultimatum for Darkseid"
The parademon burst into laughter at this before adding "Of course I'll patch you through"
The screen changed to bring up an image of Darkseid "General, Katar Hol, it has been a while since a last had a call from Thanagar" he said innocently. Superman clenched his fists at this but otherwise remained still.
"Don't play innocent with me Darkseid, we know your responsible for the destruction of Thanagar" accuses Katar
Darkseids expression and body language became much more aggressive at the accusation "So your smarter than I gave you savages credit for, do call me lord Darkseid General, I've been respectful enough to use your rank" replied Darkseid smugly.
"You'll get no respect from us now, we kept out of each others way all these years, why now?"
"Ha, you think I left you, I've been watching for years, it was I who set the Gordanians up to destroy Thanagar, I was most disappointed they failed, but still it left you weak enough for me to take you out"
"You set the war with the Gordanians up"
"but of course, it would be far to close a battle to go for an honourable battle between our forces, so I got others to do the dirty work for me"
"You coward, hiding behind the skin of other races"
"Coward, no, im merely smarter than you honourable fools, your so easy to manipulate, make a few cyborgs that look like you idiots, send them to a primitive planet and watch as they tear apart everything you stand for and eventually build up enough hatred that they declare an all out war on you"
"So that explains why the earth reacted badly to our presence" lied Katar
"Ah, you followed my little bread trail then, im assuming you took care of the earth already for me then hmm?"
"You sick bastard, why earth, you could take that planet any time you want, why us?" added Katar. Batman smiled to himself realising what Katar was doing.
"Well I must admit you reacted a lot faster than I anticipated, my sources were wrong it seems, they shall have to be corrected. Anyway as you now know im responsible and you must know your extinction is now inevitable, I guess there no harm in informing you that my fleet shall soon be on its way to wipe you out, my scout reports inform me you have only five hundred ships left and most are battered anyway"
"argh, enough of this, im only talking to you because by law I have to give you the chance of surrender before we can fire the neutron array" acted Katar
"Hahaha, surrender, the neutron array, oh the desperation is most amusing General, I know from my sources that the neutron array is just a legend, made up by Thanagar to scare anyone who opposes you"
"were those the same sources that told you, we would take ages to leave Thanagar?"
Darkseid smug smile vanished momentarily confirming it essentially "well further evidence, given how close the Gordanians came to destroying your planet came and you didn't show it then, I believe this is a sad bluff to prolong your inevitable demise"
"I hope your right Lord Darkseid, for your sake" Finished Katar in a sarcastic caring voice, as Darkseid cut of the communications.
"Are we clear" asked Katar
"Yes sir"
"excellent" he added beckoning the two heroes to come over
"What was all that about" asked Superman as Batman noticeably rolled his eyes at Superman.
"we have the element of two surprises"
"Been what?"
"Darkseid doesn't believe the Earth or the Neutron Array exist and believes the Thanagarians have a much smaller fleet than they actually do" cut in Batman
"Erm, exactly" replied Katar who looked as if the wind had been taken out of his sails some what.
"Commander where ready again"
"Yes, of course"
"What now?" asked Superman
"Now we remind Darkseid why he stayed the hell away before" informed Katar "Now on the count of four open the warp gateway and on the count of five fire the neutron array"
"1!"
Aboard the ISS two astronauts looked out in reluctant awe at the spectacle they could see.
"2!"
Downtown Metropolis ground to a standstill as people looked up in bewilderment as seemingly a second sun lit the night sky.
"3!"
Even Lex Luthor looked away from his scheming in amazement
"4!"
Everyone on the Watchtower, Thanagarian Fleet and most of the earth watched as a white hole tore space apart revealing Apokolips on the other side
"5!"
Everyone looked away painfully, as a searing white light shone brighter than even the sun on the other side of the earth, people could see the outline of the bones in their hands.
"Success, the firing was a su-BOOM!" the anouncement was cut short as an almighty explosion could be heard as the sound waves from the shockwaves finally reached the fleet, alarms blared the fleet shook tremendously, superman broke a monitor station entirely as he attempted to stop himself falling. The Shockwave dissipated against the Fleets shielding, but the sound waves carried all the way to the earth, where all around the planet a colossal Explosion could be heard.
After all the commotion aboard the Fleet the silence of space quickly returned, somehow seeming quieter than ever before. Batman was the first to his feet, his cowl had an inbuilt sound reducing system if a sound wave became to much to cope with normally, even still the system had been fried entirely, Batman surveyed the bridge, superman had propped himself into a sitting position blood could be seen slowly leaking from his ear, batman deduced his super hearing may not have helped in the situation, most Thanagarians including Katar had been driven to their knees their heightened hearing not helping them much either.
Batman then looked out of the bridge window and out to Apokolips, huge cracks were appearing all along the planet, massive fissures were erupting and the three moons of Apokolips appeared to be drawing closer and closer to the planet, untill finally the stability of the planet failed altogether and the palnet collapsed in on itself fading from existence as a black hole opened up inside the planet devouring the rest extremely quickly and the three moons aswell. The newly formed black hole continued to spin on its own for a moment, but with no mass left to feed on it shortly faded from existence, leaving nothing but the void of space where Apokolips once stood.
Batman was both astounded, amazed and for the first time since he was eight, afraid of something.
Batman continued to stare until the portal closed and the familiar space around the earth returned, seemingly as if nothing had ever happened.
A/N Im gonna say it right now, that's not the end of Darkseid before people jump to conclusions, but Apokolips. Damn, that's a cold ass exit.
Also Hurrah for updates :P
Random-jack
I aint got twenty dollars neither.
