Chapter 10
Firestorm quickly flew through the Waverider and separated as they reached the medical bay. Jax placed Stein on the seat.
"Gideon! Fix him!" Jax demanded, just as Caitlin rushed in.
"His pressure is dropping," she announced. "We have to stanch the bleeding."
Right away, Dr. Snow. Gideon responded. She immediately started doing her work on Stein.
"Jax, relax," Mick said, as he, too, entered the med bay. "The Professor is going to be fine. He's a tough bastard."
Suddenly, Jax doubled over as he started coughing up blood. Nate entered the med bay and tended to him.
"Jax is hit!" Nate exclaimed. He placed Jax onto the other seat. "I can't find an entry wound!"
"Look at their vitals," Caitlin said, looking at a screen. "It must be because of their connection."
"What the hell does that mean?" Mick demanded.
"Even though Jax isn't injured, their life functions must still be linked somehow," Caitlin explained.
"Well, how do we unlink them?" Nate asked.
"We can't," Caitlin apologetically said. "Their connection is the only thing keeping the Professor alive."
Barry entered the bridge of the Waverider and approached Iris. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Oh, I can't begin to answer that right now," Iris replied, as she and Barry embraced. "We should be on our honeymoon."
"We should be on a beach drinking mai tais out of coconuts," Barry added.
Iris chuckled. "Instead we're on this spaceship looking for our friends' evil doppelgangers."
"We should have just eloped," Barry said.
They then embraced once more.
"It's amazing what this spaceship is capable of," Lois commented, looking down at the long-sleeved purple shirt and blue jeans she was now wearing. She, Clark, Conner, Chloe, Ollie, and Bart were walking along the hallway in the Waverider. "These clothes actually feel real, and they look and smell brand new. Can you imagine how much money you could save if you actually owned a machine that can make clothes for you?"
"It really comes in handy for me and the team since it helps us to blend in and not stand out in the different time periods we visit," Conner said. "We don't just have a fabricator that makes clothes, though. There's also one in the galley for food and drinks."
"Hang on, this ship has a machine that can make food too?" Chloe asked.
"Any kind of food you want?" Bart added.
"Oh, yeah, any food you want," Conner answered.
"Cool," Bart said. "I gotta check that out."
"Of course you would get excited whenever food is brought up, Bart," Clark said. "I'm still having trouble counting all the times you've completely cleaned out each of our refrigerators over the years."
"Well, it's not my fault that my powers come with a super-fast metabolism," Bart said.
"No offense to you, Ollie, but I doubt even you would be able to afford to get your hands on a ship like this," Lois said, "let alone the fact that it's capable of time travel and has unlimited access to clothes and food."
"Oh, yeah?" Ollie said, somewhat defensively. "Well, if I was really interested in buying this ship, that wouldn't stop me from trying."
"Of course it wouldn't," Lois said, knowingly. "But you wouldn't have a penny left in your bank accounts after you've made the purchase."
"Don't listen to her, honey," Chloe said, smiling. "I'm sure you could afford this ship easily and still have plenty of cash to spare afterwards."
They entered the bridge, where several of the other heroes were gathered around.
Mick sighed as he was sitting in the galley knocking back a few beers. He was about to grab his next bottle when, suddenly, someone took it away from him.
"Hey there, friend," an extremely familiar voice greeted.
Mick looked up at the person, and much to his utter surprise, he saw the face of none other than his former partner in crime Leonard Snart. Maybe the arsonist was hallucinating yet again?
"No need to numb your feelings with alcohol," Leo continued. He sat across from Mick, who let out a groan as he hit his forehead.
"The ghost is back," Mick said.
"No, I'm not a ghost," Leo assured him. "I'm Leo, Leo Snart of Earth-X. It's okay, buddy. I know you're hurting over Firestorm."
"Get your hand off me," Mick growled, as Leo placed a comforting hand on his arm.
"What is wrong, partner? Talk to me," Leo said.
"You're not my partner," Mick said. "You're a... gangbanger."
"I think you mean 'doppelganger'," Leo corrected. "There was one of you on my Earth too. Rest his soul."
"Wait," Mick said, "I'm dead on Planet Nazi? Let me guess, in a fire?"
"You just kept going back into that burning police station," Leo explained. "Till the last officer had been rescued."
"I died trying to save pigs?" Mick asked, with revulsion. He sat his beer bottle down on the table. "I'm gonna be sick."
Sara, Thea, Dinah Drake, and Dinah Lance were sparring in the cargo bay as they fiercely smacked each other's sticks.
"So you're a Black Canary from another Earth?" the brunette Dinah asked her blonde namesake.
"I am," the blonde Dinah nodded. "My name's Dinah Lance."
"I'm Dinah Drake," the brunette Dinah said.
Suddenly, both Dinahs stopped fighting as looks of disbelief appeared on their faces after learning each other's names. Sara and Thea stopped as well.
"Did you just say your name is Dinah Drake?" Dinah Lance asked, taken aback.
"I did," Dinah Drake answered. "And did you just say your name is Dinah Lance?"
"I did," Dinah Lance nodded.
"Your middle name wouldn't happen to be Laurel, would it?" Thea asked.
The blonde Dinah nodded. "Dinah Laurel Lance is my full name. But I'm not the version of her that you guys knew."
"Obviously," Thea remarked.
"I don't think I've gotten your name yet," Dinah Lance said.
"Oh, it's Thea Queen," the red-clad young woman introduced herself. "I'm Oliver Queen's sister. You could also call me Speedy."
"So me and Ollie each have a younger sister on this Earth," Dinah Lance noted. "And I should've guessed you were this world's Speedy based on your crimson-colored hood and quiver, not to mention that your name also rhymes with Mia, who was our world's Speedy until she retired from vigilantism a couple of years ago."
"So you're from the same Earth as the Ollie we met last year," Thea said in realization. "You're that Earth's Laurel Lance."
"Wait, this Dinah is another version of Laurel?" Dinah Drake asked.
"Yep, pretty much," Sara answered.
"But how when she doesn't even look like Laurel?" Dinah Drake asked, frowning. "Shouldn't she be identical like Black Siren is?"
"Don't bother trying to overthink it, but apparently, people who have counterparts on Dinah's Earth look entirely different there than they do here," Sara explained. "For example, her world's Green Arrow, who is here as well, is Oliver Queen just like ours, but they look nothing alike. And what did you mean by Laurel looking identical to someone called Black Siren?"
"Oh, I guess Ollie and Felicity haven't filled you in on what's been going on in Star City lately," Thea said. "Black Siren is basically an evil, vicious killer doppelganger of your sister from another Earth. She looks exactly like our Laurel."
Sara rolled her eyes. "What? There's another Laurel on this Earth?"
"Oh, yeah," Dinah Drake answered in a hardened tone. "And she's been causing all kinds of problems, including committing murder, in Star City over the past few months."
"So, wait, this other, evil version of Sara's sister that you guys are talking about, she isn't from the same world as the Nazis, is she?" Dinah Lance asked.
Thea shook her head. "No. Black Siren's from a totally different Earth. One we call Earth-2."
A glare formed on Sara's face. "Whoever this Black Siren is, whenever I see her, I am going to seriously give that bitch a piece of my mind with my fist! I really don't appreciate some stranger going around killing people while wearing my sister's face!"
With that, the four women resumed their sparring.
"So, Dinah and Sara, are you two related?" Dinah Lance finally got around to asking the question that had been on her mind for the last couple of minutes or so.
"No, we're not," Dinah Drake answered.
Dinah Lance frowned. "Really? Are you sure you're not related to Sara and her family? Because your last name is the same as our mothers' maiden name and you're a Black Canary with your own Canary Cry just like I am. And I think that's a bit too much to just be a coincidence."
"Well, I guess some things are just that," Dinah Drake said. "A coincidence. Just because I have the same first name as the original Black Canary and the same last name as her mother doesn't make us related. Besides, Oliver, Felicity, Curtis, and Quentin all looked into it last year and they couldn't find anything remotely linking me to the Lance family."
"That's odd," Dinah Lance remarked. "Then again, after the past decade of working alongside aliens who can fly, a guy who can run faster than the speed of light, and an actual cyborg, that's one of the words I've grown accustomed to."
"Haven't we all?" Thea remarked, in the midst of dodging an attack from Sara's stick.
"Oh, man, I have just died and went to geek heaven," Curtis Holt gushed, as he was geeking out over the Waverider.
"I told you we picked the right guy," Zari said to Amaya.
"Uh, picked the right guy to do what?" Curtis asked.
"Hunt Nazis," Amaya answered. "Meet our resident Earth-X expert. The Ray."
The three of them entered the lab room.
"But, uh, you can use my real name Ray Terrill," Ray said to Curtis. They then shook hands.
"Your secret identity is your first name with the word 'the' in front of it?" Curtis asked.
"Yeah," Ray answered. "Why? What's your secret identity?"
"Mr. Terrific," Curtis said.
Ray chuckled. "Really? It's a little boast-y, don't you think?"
"That's just one of my favorite wrestlers," Curtis explained. "Still, uh, you should change your name. Can we talk about these Nazis?"
"They vanished," Amaya said, "owing to the fact that they have their own Waverider."
Curtis rolled his eyes. "A Nazi Waverider?"
"Yeah," Zari said. "We had been tracking them using the radiation signature given off by Overwoman, because of her..."
"Extreme exposure to the solar radiation," Curtis finished. He headed over to a computer monitor. "Are these readings right?"
"Yeah, of course they're right," Zari said. "Why?"
"Well, because the trace radiation readings on here are slowly approaching the Chandrasekhar limit," Curtis explained.
"Which means?" Amaya asked.
"Overwoman isn't just dying," Zari said.
"Yeah, if she doesn't get her doppelganger's heart, she will create a supernova that will destroy... the entire Midwest," Curtis explained.
"Jeff... Jefferson?" Stein called, as he'd just woken up. Jax turned to the older man. "Jefferson, I need... I need to tell you something."
Groaning in pain, Jax climbed out of his seat and stumbled over to Stein. "What... talk fast. Because unless you're sedated, Gideon can't do her thing to patch you back up."
"Can't you see that… I'm dying?" Stein pointed out.
"What are you talking about, man?" Jax asked, incredulously. He was on the verge of tears.
"I'm old, Jefferson," Stein said. "And, even if I hadn't been shot, no one lives forever."
"Grey, I don't even want to hear you talking like that, man," Jax protested.
"As long as we're connected... I'm nothing more than an anchor around your neck," Stein said. "Which is why you must help me."
"I don't understand," Jax said, not liking where Stein was going with his words. As Stein then pointed to a vial that had blue liquid inside it, Jax shook his head and said, "Not Cisco's drug."
"Gideon resynthesized the liquid," Stein explained. "She assures me it will free you from my body's biology."
"And it will free you of mine," Jax countered. "I'm the only thing that's keeping you alive, man. You're asking me to kill you, Grey!"
"I'm asking you to let me die so that you may live," Stein said. "Please hand me the vial."
"No," Jax protested, as tears began to surface on his eyeballs.
"I know you think you're strong enough for both of us," Stein said. "But, unless I do this, we'll both die."
"Then we'll both die," Jax cried, more than willing to accept his possible fate. "I don't..."
"No," Stein interrupted, his eyes tearing up as well. "You have your whole life ahead of you. And now, it's time for you to let me go."
"But I'm not ready for you to go," Jax sobbed.
"I'm not either," Stein agreed. "But, when you think about it, compared to the cosmos, one's life is but a blink of an eye."
"Really?" Jax continued to sob. "You're gonna lecture me about astrophysics right now? Grey, please, don't do this to me. I can't do this."
"You once told me that I was like your father," Stein reminded the younger man, "and I said you were my son. How could a father do anything less?"
"Grey," Jax cried.
"Please," Stein begged. "Please."
Crying, Jax reluctantly grabbed the vial and handed it to Stein.
"Thank you, Jefferson," Stein said.
"Grey, no, don't," Jax tried, as Stein opened the vial and drank the blue liquid. They then took each other's hand.
"Stay with me, please," Stein said, as Jax nodded. "I'd prefer not to be alone."
"Yeah," Jax nodded.
"Please, tell Clarissa and Lily that I love them," Stein instructed.
"I promise," Jax nodded again, as he was openly crying.
"Thank you, Jefferson, for the adventure of a lifetime," Stein said. "I hope your life is long and full of love. Just as mine has been."
"Grey," Jax sobbed, as Stein closed his eyes and passed on, causing the heart monitor to flat-line. "Grey. No, no."
Jax buried his face into Stein's chest as he just let out every tear that spilled from his eyes. Professor Martin Stein, one-half of Firestorm, was the second father Jefferson 'Jax' Jackson had lost, or the closest thing to a second father at the very least.
Sara entered the med bay to see Jax sobbing over Stein's body. "Jax?" she said, softly. She headed over to them, a sad expression on her face.
"He did it for me," Jax sobbed. He walked out of the med bay, as Sara stared at Stein's body in disbelief.
Sara moved closer and kissed Stein on the forehead.
Inside the Wellenreiter, Overman was standing over Overwoman as she was lying down on the seat. He was monitoring her vitals. Standing by the wall of the Wellenreiter were Dark Arrow and Dark Arsenal.
"I'm sorry," Overwoman whispered to her husband.
"For what?" Overman asked.
"For being so weak," Overwoman answered.
I've managed to stabilize her deterioration, but without a transplant she'll be dead within an hour. The Nazi Waverider's A.I. announced. Her voice was noticeably deeper than Gideon's.
"Silence!" Overman shouted. He turned to his wife. "Don't listen to her. There is more strength in you than in this entire planet of lesser humans combined." He turned to Dark Arrow and Dark Arsenal. "Let's get ready for the invasion."
After the assembled heroes (specifically Jax, Sara, Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Conner, Ray Palmer, Amaya, Zari, Nate, and Mick) had spent the better part of the last couple of hours dealing with Professor Stein's death, the members of Team Arrow, Team Flash, the Legends, and Earth-21's Justice League all had gathered in the bridge of the Waverider.
"Where are we with locating the other Waverider?" the Green Arrow of Earth-1 asked.
"We've got a pretty good idea," Mr. Terrific answered. "I mean, we've all heard of the Chandrasekhar limit, I assume?"
"The date indicates it's still in the vicinity of Central City," Zari said.
"Which also indicates that Overwoman isn't long for this world," The Ray said.
"Which means that this world isn't long for this world," Mr. Terrific said.
"No, failure is not an option," Superman announced, speaking loud and clear so that he could get the attention of every single person aboard the Waverider. As all eyes were focused on him, the Man of Steel continued, "Ladies and gentlemen, we will not fail this mission. No matter how hard the Nazis try, we will not let them take control of this Earth. If we cooperate with one another, if we all combine our abilities, combine our strengths, and combine our intelligences, we will succeed. And no more of us are gonna die today. Do you hear me? We are going to win. Because that is what us heroes do."
"Bravo," Lois commented proudly, as she and everyone else on the Waverider started clapping their hands in applause.
"Great speech," Killer Frost added.
Sorry to interrupt, Superman. Gideon announced. But we're being hailed by a fellow time ship.
"Let's see what's going on," Superman demanded.
Superman, Superboy, Green Arrow (Oliver), Green Arrow (Ollie), The Flash (Barry), The Flash (Bart), Lois Lane, Felicity Smoak, Chloe Sullivan, Iris West, White Canary, Speedy, Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Black Canary (Dinah Drake), Vibe, Killer Frost, Harry Wells, The Atom, Heatwave, Steel, Vixen, Zari Tomaz, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, Citizen Cold, and The Ray formed into a crowd as a hologram of Overman appeared before them.
"What do you want?" Clark demanded.
"To offer a truce," Overman answered.
"In exchange for what?" Barry asked.
"We will return to our Earth peacefully, if you meet my one demand," Overman said. "Your Earth's Lois Lane comes with us."
Most of the heroes glanced at the woman in question. Clark glared at this doppelganger. "That's not gonna happen!" he exclaimed, angrily. He stepped forward and shut off the transmission, causing Overman's hologram to disappear. "Everybody ready to go?" he asked.
"Never been more," Nate Heywood said.
"We can't bring Marty back," Ray Palmer added, "but we can protect the city he loved, and the family he left behind."
"For the Professor," Sara said.
"And for keeping Lois safe," Conner added.
"Let's get ready to kick some ass, everybody," Ollie announced.
With Overwoman at its controls, the Wellenreiter was flying above the streets of Central City, opening fire and shooting laser beams at a large crowd of innocent civilians, who were all panicking like hell and running for their lives.
"Let them run," Overwoman announced, sadistically. "We'll turn this city into a mausoleum."
Overman, Dark Arrow, and Dark Arsenal were leading a horde of armed Nazi soldiers as they marched along the street, preparing to attack the city. Overman reveled in all the chaos, panic, and destruction that were going on. While he was leading his men, the Nazi Kryptonian started blasting beams of heat vision in random directions, causing vehicles to get flipped over and damage to several buildings and other property. He'd also incinerated several nearby civilians along the way. Dark Arrow and Dark Arsenal, on the other hand, attacked any civilians they walked past with their bows.
"That ought to teach them," Overman sneered. "If they don't wanna help save my wife, they will suffer the consequences."
The Nazi Kryptonian and his two archer comrades turned and saw The Flash (Barry), The Flash (Bart), Green Arrow (Oliver), Green Arrow (Ollie), White Canary, Speedy, Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Black Canary (Dinah Drake), The Atom, Steel, Heatwave, Citizen Cold, Vixen, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, and Zari Tomaz approaching in the midst of all the smoke surrounding the area. Also approaching, albeit in the air, were Superman, Superboy, The Ray, and Killer Frost, the last of whom was ice-sliding.
Once all the heroes and Nazis were face-to-face, Overman levitated in the air and shouted to his men. "Kill them all!"
"My doppelganger is mine!" Dark Arrow announced, staring intently at Oliver.
"Same here!" Dark Arsenal added, staring intently at Ollie.
As the massive battle began, Superman and Superboy almost immediately engaged Overman in the air, while Oliver engaged Dark Arrow, and Ollie engaged Dark Arsenal.
The Flashes exchanged glances. "Ready, Stretch?" Bart asked.
"Let's go get him," Barry replied. The pair of scarlet speedsters raced off to deal with the Reverse-Flash.
Targeting the soldiers, Killer Frost fired ice shards, The Ray and The Atom flew around and fired their beams, and Heatwave and Citizen Cold fired their respective guns. White Canary, Steel, Speedy, Dinah Lance, Dinah Drake, Mr. Terrific (armed with his T-Spheres) and Wild Dog (armed with his guns) took on the soldiers physically. Overall, Central City had become a straight-up battlefield, which wasn't helped by some of the soldiers tossing grenades at random people.
As Heatwave blasted a soldier directly in the chest, Citizen Cold approached him and said, "Excuse me! You can't just go around roasting people!"
"Why not?" Mick asked.
"You ever heard of due process? Rule of Law?" Leo asked.
"No," Mick said, as he moved on.
Near where White Canary, Speedy, and Dinah Lance were taking out soldiers, the Wellenreiter appeared and continued its attack on the civilians.
"I could use a little help here!" Sara announced into her comms.
"We got you covered," Felicity responded.
"Whoo-hoo! This is just like Star Raiders on Atari, except it's real!" Cisco Ramon announced excitedly, flying the Waverider as he was chasing after the Wellenreiter and firing beams at it.
"Cut the chatter, Red 2," Harry, who was next to Cisco, demanded. "Fly the ship."
"Launching torpedo one," Cisco said.
"You don't have to say it out loud," Harry said.
Cisco fired a missile at the Wellenreiter. Unfortunately, due to an invisible force field surrounding the Nazi time ship, the missile did absolutely nothing.
"Okay, guys, is it just me or is this not working?" Iris asked, as she, Felicity, Chloe, and Lois were also on the Waverider.
"It's not working," Cisco and Harry both answered.
"It's because you guys need to take down the other ship's shields," Chloe suggested. "That's why you can't put so much as a dent in it."
Meanwhile, Lois was looking thoughtfully over at Harry. She turned to the other three women and asked in a low tone, "Is it messed up that I just feel like running over there and slamming my fist into that guy's face as hard as I can? I mean, I know they're two different people, but I still can't help the fact that I'm having an extremely tough time distinguishing the poor man over there from the psychotic bastard that tried to cut out my heart."
Chloe shook her head. "Absolutely not, Lois. After what you've been through, 'messed up' is the last thing most people would think."
"Yeah, I'm ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent sure that the rest of us would feel exactly the same way had we been in your horrifying shoes," Felicity said to Lois. "Trust me, you're not a bad person for thinking that way."
Lois sighed. "Evil Nazi doppelgangers, multiple Earths, weddings from hell..." She turned to Iris. "No offense to you, Iris."
"None taken," Iris said. "I agree with you."
"Story of our lives, right?" Lois remarked.
"Story of our lives," Iris repeated.
As the three of them were in super-speed mode, Barry and Bart were throwing intense blows at Reverse-Flash, who was doing the same to both of them. The yellow-clad speedster was managing to hold his own, despite going up against not one, but two Flashes. They raced throughout the entirety of Central City, not only running along the streets, but also going on top and the side of buildings.
As they were battling on top of a building, Superman and Superboy were not giving Overman the slightest chance to hit either of them back, as the two heroic Kryptonians laid punch and punch into the Nazi Kryptonian, who was lying on the roof with cuts and bruises all over his face, while Superman and Superboy were still completely unharmed. It helped that Superman was extremely furious over what the Nazi villains had almost done to Lois and was, therefore, not holding back like he usually did during his fights. He meant what he'd said to everyone during his speech back on the Waverider. He'd defeated the original Brainiac, he'd defeated General Zod, he'd defeated Doomsday, and he'd defeated Darkseid, of all evil beings. Nazis from a parallel Earth were no different. Just like with all his past foes, the reign of terror of Overman and Overwoman would come to an end as well.
Just then, both the Waverider and Wellenreiter flew past the three fighting Kryptonians.
"Guys, this isn't working," Felicity said to the others on the Waverider. "I think we need a bigger gun."
"And I know just who to call," Lois said, smiling. She spoke into her comms. "Superman! Superboy! We need one of you up here ASAP!"
"To be specific, we need one of you to keep Lois' evil twin busy while we continue to try and take out the Nazi's Waverider," Chloe clarified, speaking into her comms as well.
"Go, Conner! I got this!" Clark instructed.
"Okay," the smaller Kryptonian nodded, then flew into the sky.
At that moment, Overman managed to punch Clark in the face, sending him flying across the roof. Overman climbed back up to his feet and the two of them started trading blows. With Conner gone, the battle became more or less evenly matched.
"You could've been living like a God!" Overman spat out. "You could've even recreated this planet in your own image! But no! Instead, you chose the high road and wasted your abilities by protecting those worthless, inferior humans!"
"Humans are not worthless and inferior!" Clark protested, in the midst of punching his opponent. "And you and I are no different from them, believe it or not!"
"Of course we're different, Kal-El," Overman scoffed. "We are superior to the human race in every way one could possibly think of. We're better than them. That's why they envy us, and the things we're capable of under the yellow sun. You may refuse to admit it, but you know I'm right."
"That's where we differ," Clark hissed, glaring at his opponent. "Unlike you, I don't consider myself better than anyone, no matter what I'm capable of."
"I presume that's the exact kind of thinking that prevented you from becoming the leader of your Earth the same way my Lois and I did on ours," Overman sneered. "It's what the humans would've wanted, after all. Someone they could bow to. Someone they could worship. Someone who could lead them."
"What you're doing is not leading at all," Clark snarled. "It's ruling!"
"You're right," Overman agreed. "They're all like ants and they deserve to be treated as such. After all, it's not like the world is made better by protecting the weak. The better solution is to exterminate them. All of them... including your wife."
That hit a nerve. Enraged, Clark punched as hard as he can, striking Overman square in the face with so much force that he broke the Nazi Kryptonian's nose. Overman grunted in pain as he clutched his nose.
"YOU LEAVE LOIS OUT OF THIS! THIS IS BETWEEN ME AND YOU!" Clark shouted, rapidly and repeatedly slamming his fists into his opponent's chest and then blasting him off with heat vision. He then flew after Overman and they continued their battle, the red and blue Man of Steel currently holding on to the upper hand.
"General, we've got inbound," one of the soldiers on the Wellenreiter said to Overwoman.
"Then fire countermeasures," Overwoman demanded.
"We can't," the soldier said. "It's hovering directly off our bow."
Overwoman turned around to see Superboy hovering outside through the window. He was looking directly at the Nazi version of his brother's wife, his arms firmly crossed against his chest.
"I really hate to do this to you, 'Lois', but this needs to come to an end!" Conner announced.
In response, Overwoman swiftly flew through the Wellenreiter's window, shattering it. She and Superboy immediately engaged each other in combat.