Reign of Krypton: The Rogues

Issue 3 of 3

Written by Bodhi Ouellette

Previously: The Rogues, a super villain team of crooks and enemies of the Flash were in the mists of being sent back to jail when the Kryptonians blasted the truck. They escaped, and The Rogues all return back into Central City to find that the Kryptonians had begun invading the city. They stood up against the Kryptonians, using whatever they could to fend them off, saving citizens and helping out the cities police and military. But this isn't going to stop their problems. Luckily, Captain Cold's on the job, and he has a plan in mind to stop the Kryptonians once and for all…

"So here's my plan…"

"So these guys; Kryptonians, are they? I'm going to assume that the ship up in the sky would have some sort of mirror somewhere inside. We're going to get ourselves inside that ship, through a mirror, courtesy of our good friend Mirror Master. From there, we split up into two teams. From there, we'll make our way into the main controls room, kick all of their alien asses and then drive the ship out of the city. And then we'll blow it up…"

"Does that sound like a plan you can get behind?"

A couple of army officials, police officers and Central City politicians stood before the Rogues, listening to Cold's strategy plan. Their expressions saw mixed reactions, which Cold could tell. They stayed silent for a long while. Cold was getting impatient.

"Well?" asked Cold. "Can I get something out of you guys?"

"It's... something," said one of the police officers.

"That's it?" said Heatwave. "That's all you have to say?"

"Sorry for our reluctance," said one of the politicians, "but we're still getting over the fact that all of you are helping us out with this whole mess."

"Yet you guys don't seem convinced," commented Mirror Master.

"You're criminals," spoke one of the soldiers. "And you don't even have any powers. What makes you think you can take out an entire ship?"

"Uh... have ya seen us what we've done today?" Captain Boomerang pointed out. "We've probably done a better job at stopping these punks than you guys could've. And we don't even have powers!"

"Face it," said Captain Cold. "You've got no one else left."

They all looked at each other, without any other options to pick, they complied. "Alright fine," said the General. "We give you the go ahead. Don't do anything stupid."

"Gee, thanks for the confidence," Captain Boomerang sarcastically said. "Really appreciate it. Don't come to us crying for us when we end up saving your asses."

Before the General could reply, another U.S. Soldier rushed into the room they were in.

"Mayor Fox! Mayor Fox! There's a Kryptonian who want's to speak with you!" the Soldier informed them, gasping for air. "And… and they want the Rogues out here too!"

"Well, ain't that just perfect," proclaimed Cold. "I've got another idea; Mirror Master, Heatwave, you guys go into the Kryptonian ship."

"Me? The hell, Cold," complained Heatwave. "You've seen how I've handled these punks. I can't even damage them!"

"That's why I'm sending you inside to burn the ships generators," explained Captain Cold. "Boomerang, Trickster and I will confront these Kryptonian guys-"

"Um… it's not a guy, sir," the Soldier corrected. "It's a woman. She was in Washington, D.C. with Zod. Faora."

Kryptonian Ship:

In the dark narrow hallways of the Kryptonian ships, Kryptonian soldiers stroll past a mirror. When the coast was clear, the Rogues appeared inside of the mirror. They all stepped outside from the Mirror. "We've made it inside," announced Mirror Master, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Ok, good," Captain Cold said through the Bluetooth. "Now hurry the #$% up, and blow the freaking engines up."

"Already on it," said Heatwave. And the two proceeded on to their main objectives...

Outside of the Underground Base, above on the abandoned and wrecked streets of Central City, a small Kryptonian Ship flies down near the group outside, consisting of The General, the Mayor, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Trickster and an assortment of soldiers and police officers. The ships hatch doors opened up, and out came two Kryptonian soldiers, and the leader of the Central City invasion: Faora, General Zod's fearsome second-in-command of the Kryptonian forces. Faora quickly notices the two Rogue members standing up front of the group. She steps forward to the Rogue members.

"Are you another one of this cities defenders?" Faora fearlessly asked of them.

The three were hesitant to reply back, fearing for what their answer might bring to them. Captain Cold finally grew a pair for the team, and stepped forward. "We're not," calmly answered Cold. "We're just a bunch of petty crooks that wield super awesome tech."

"So you are all just normal humans under those costumes of yours?"

"That'd be correct, yeah."

Faora was baffled. "Forgive me, I'm a bit unnerved that mere humans have been able to beat our kind. Have you seen what we can do?"

"Yeah. We have. Now I have a bunch of questions I want to ask you; who are you? What do you want?"

"I am Faora, second in command to General Val-Zod, and we are the Kryptonians. We traveled across the stars and passed lifeless solar systems and dead planets to come all the way here on a mission; to find ourselves a new home, by taking it away from you," explained Faora.

"If you're second in command, why are you here in Central City?" questioned Mirror Master. "Shouldn't you be doing other, better things to be doing, like conquering Canada or something?"

"General Zod has appointed many other Generals of the Kryptonian army to invade cities across the world. The superheroes known as Green Lantern, Flash and Kid Flash made an attempt to attack us in Washington, D.C. As such, Zod has personally assigned me to habilitate Central City, and eventually Coast City, as punishment for your heroes actions."

"Seem a bit unfair for us normal folks who were just minding their own business, but all right I guess," remarked Captain Boomerang.

"You dare upbraid the ways of a Kryptonian?" questioned Faora.

"Yeah," Boomerang verified. "You've got a problem with that?"

Faora smirked. "Idiots," she said. "You have no idea what we are; what we can do. Our power: our strength: our determination is what drives us to succeed. So, you ignorant sacks of meat… let me show you what we can do..."

Faora leaped up into the air. When she came back down, she slammed into a small group of the soldiers and police officers, the force pushing them away. She left a crater where she stood, and when she turned back around to face Cold, Boomerang, and Trickster, she gave the three a glance that almost resonated into their soul. The kiss of death, for her eyes glowed red and out came the laser eyes. The lasers cracked through the pavement, but the Rogues were lucky to dodge it; the blasted ended up blowing up an entire building. The Mayor was quickly evacuated back inside, and all who were left to face Faora were the three Rogues members and the few soldiers left alive. Cold stood back up and blasted his Freeze Gun at Faora. Her right arm became covered in Cold's ice. Captain Boomerang followed that up by throwing a slew of explosive boomerangs at Faora. She managed to hit all of the boomerangs with her fists, taking no damage from it. But then Faora heard a small ticking underneath her. When she looked down, placed under her feet was a small jukebox. The jukebox exploded, launching Faora into a building. Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang looked back at Trickster with proudness.

"Nice job, Tricky," complemented Cold.

But Faora got herself out from the dented wall, just slightly bruised on her face, but nevertheless clean. "That all you've got?" said Faora.

"Ok, Micky," whispered Captain Cold. "Hurry up in there, will ya?"

Kryptonian Ship:

Mirror Master and Heatwave snuck into a large room which held their intended objective; a large glowing ball of light, surrounded by the vast array of rings like the planet Saturn, continuously circling around the sphere, always moving, and always changing in size. The two stared at the engine in awe. "Wow," said Mirror Master. "You don't ever get to see one of these every day, do you?"

"Yeah," said Heatwave. "Looks nice, but we can't marvel at it for too long. We need to blow this Popsicle joint out of the sky. So, got any ideas?"

"Um… no."

"Well, shit. What do you think we should do?"

"More like what can we do to this? Think, Mick; what else in this room do you suppose we can use?"

"Don't look at me, you're suppose to be the smart one of the group."

"Yes, yes, but think about how we could blow this entire Engine up…"

They pondered for a full minute, thinking about all the possible ways they could destroy the Engine. Thinking of every possible situation they could do; heating it up, sending a full sized ship onto the Engine, or simply blowing it up (how they would do that was the next question). But then, Mirror Master came up with a brilliant plan.

"I've got it," Mirror Master proclaimed, pulling out his Mirror Gun out from its holster. "We'll shrink it."

"You sure that's going to work?"

Mirror Master pointed the gun at the Engine, and the blast shot right into the Engine. The Engine shrunk massively in size, until it was smaller than a jawbreaker. Heatwave looked amazingly dumbfounded.

"I can't believe that worked," Heatwave professed.

"Me neither," replied Mirror Master. "But I doubt whatever I did was good, so we should probably book it."

"Yep."

The two sprinted out from the room as fast as they could to avoid whatever might happen to the Engine. They returned to the Mirror they came through, just in time to evade an oncoming swarm of Kryptonian soldiers from arriving to check on the Engine. Once they left, the Engine exploded; the fire and cosmic rays spread through the doors like the wind.

Back down on the ground, Faora continues to give the Rogues the upper hand with her enhanced strength and agility, amongst her other abilities. Every move the Rogues make that would result in some sort of hit, Faora would retaliate with something harder than that. Needless to say, their work was not cut out for fighting a Kryptonian such as Faora. Yet, they still stand. A case that even makes Faora confused, but intrigued. Trickster attempted to use a charged up boxing glove on Faora, which did nothing to hurt her. She flicked Trickster away with her hand, smashing him into a window. Captain Boomerang threw another set of boomerangs, but none of them even made Faora flinch. When he tried to grab some more boomerangs, he found out he had no more. This prompted Faora to grip Captain Boomerang's wrist and broke it with little force. Boomerang screamed in agony, as she threw him back down on the floor. Cold was the only one of the Rogues left. Cold, without any options, aimed his freeze gun at Faora's head. Luckily, the blast hit her head, covering it with thick ice. This distracted Faora for a short time, until her laser beams burned through the ice. Then she sped forward towards Cold, slapped his gun from his hand, and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up in the air.

"You and your friends fascinate me," Faora admitted. "How you've been able to last so long against such gods like me. You all fought a valuable fight. But now, it is time for you to perish."

"Thats-" Cold said gasping for air. "-That's what you think…"

Suddenly, they could see a massive explosion rupture the outside of the Kryptonian Ship. It started to decent down, off into the forest away from Central City. Faora watched as her ship began to fall.

"What?!" she cried out. "But how-"

"-Y'see that? That's what we can do to you…"

Faora turned around to see Mirror Master and Heatwave, who have returned from blowing up the Kryptonian Ship. Soldiers rounded out from the bunker, and they surrounded Faora, sticking their weapons at her. Faora dropped Cold onto the ground, seeing as the conquest to take over Central City has failed.

"Kryptonians…" she said, through some sort of speaker that's inside of her suit. "The battle has been lost. We've been defeated. Return now to General Zod, immediately."

Faora leaped up into the air, while the soldiers, and Rogues members watched as she does so. The other surviving Kryptonians followed her out of the city. With them gone, the soldiers raised their weapons and screamed a cry of victory. They had won back Central City, thanks to the help of some powerless super villains. Cold looked at Mirror Master and Heatwave with glee.

"We did it, guys," Captain Cold said. "We saved the city."

"Indeed," spoke Mirror Master. "And now, the city hates us even less."

"Hopefully not…"

Washington, D.C.:

The Capital of the United States of America has been occupied by the Kryptonian army, and is the current base for the Kryptonians. Hovering above the city is a bigger, narrower Kryptonian Ship, which acts as the main base for the Kryptonian army for the North American continent.

Inside of the control bay of the ship lays General Val-Zod, leader of the Kryptonians, staring out at the city of Washington, feeling his accomplishments of the cities takeover. Behind him, Faora and a few other high Kryptonian soldiers follow her inside. Her face shows disgrace, and failure. She kneels down to her leader.

"General Zod," said Faora. "I'm sorry. The invasion of Central City has failed. Our ship was destroyed, and a team of powerless villains has extinguished most of our forces. Forgive me, for I have failed you."

Zod turned around and walked over to the kneeling Faora. He brings his hand over to Faora's chin, and lifts her head up so he can stare at her. "I already know, Faora," said General Zod. "And I am very disappointed in it. But the loss of the city is of no concern to me anymore. Central City and Coast City will suffer dearly, and we will make sure of that."

"Yes. We will."

"Don't be so dispirited, Faora. You left the city with half of our men still standing. But now we must be more vigilant. We cannot endure more failures upon us. But now you must depart. I am sending you to Atlantis."

"Yes, General Zod."

Central City:

As cleanup for the city began, the Mayor was with all of the Rogues members, taken care of for their broken bones, cuts and bruises. "I cannot thank you more for your services in stopping the Kryptonians from taking over this city," the Mayor applauded. "I wonder what Flash will think of this when he comes back to Central City."

"His jaw will drop to the floor, I think. Also, the help was no problem," Captain Cold replied back. "It was the least we could do after our truck got blown up… speaking of which."

"Don't worry, you five; you won't be going back to jail," informed the Mayor. "I'm making sure of that. You'll all free men, just as long as you don't commit any more crimes."

"Can't promise anything, buddy," said a beaten Captain Boomerang. "As a matter of fact, I'm leaving this city once all'f this crap is over."

"I would have to agree to that," said Mirror Master. "Central City's just gotten too crazy."

"I think we can all agree to that, guys," stated Captain Cold. "As of now, The Rogues are disbanded. We're all going our separate ways. This'll mean that Flash won't have to deal with us on a weekly basis."

"Well, in that case, I hope you all have a good life away," said the Mayor. "May whatever you decide to do, it does not involve robbing banks."

Captain Cold looked back at his colleagues, then back to the Mayor.

"I think we'll all figure something out…"

The battle for Central City is over! The Rogues have won! To see the continuing story, read the following Reign of Krypton Issues! To see the aftermath of the Central City battle, tune in a few weeks for a Reign of Krypton: The Flash one shot!

Though the Rogues have been disbanded, that doesn't mean it will be the last we'll see of them! The whole team will be back in the next arc of The Flash, and they'll be equipped with some bigger upgrades!