Chapter Eleven: Battles Upon Battles
Hong Kong. A polluted, overcrowded city. In the middle of this great city of metal and black mists was a hoard of aliens. Some looked like people with shells like that of an insect. Others were minotaurs. There were some that looked like great metal men. And there were robots as well. It was a task for the Justice League. But this one, the Justice League of America could do.
Green arrow. The Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Vibe, Stargirl, Catwoman, Katana, Steve Trevor and even a Green Lantern - Simon Bazz. They were in no way less than equal to the Justice League itself. And they, unlike the other league, were sanctioned by the government of the United States. They were on the ground, just as they saw the alien hordes.
"This will not be a cakewalk," said Vibe, already feeling for his powers, readying an attack.
"Batman hypothesised that should Superman beat Helspont, the rest will crumble. We need only stop their advance and save as many of the civilians as we can," said the Martian.
"Yeah, well, I ain't here for just stopping. No reason not to kick their asses back to the outer space. Let's get some!" And with that hard and gruesome yell, Hawkman flew straight into battle. His great wings, majestic in flight but lethal in combat. His mace raised and a call of war issuing from his mouth. Green Arrow shot one arrow and zip lined right behind his winged comrade. The rest of the team followed suit. In a way, Steve Trevor wanted to be the leader of this outfit, but he knew that that was almost impossible. So many powerful personalities, there could never be one true leader. It all depended on the situation. And he was happy to let this work the way it had so far.
Stargirl flew right into the thick of it on her cosmic staff, she jumped off, still holding her staff and as she was going down smashed it on the head of an adversary. A robot, whose head emitted sparks and fell at her feet. To her right was Hawkman already working on a second Minotaur, mace hitting face; while the fist of the beast struck Hawkman as well. Green Arrow was somehow fluid in motion. His dodging method seemed to always work in synchronisation with his arrows. He'd jump and then an arrow would find its mark as he avoided getting hit. Vibe was there blasting away, being careful to not bring the whole block down. Each person there was fighting, they all seemed to agree with Hawkman: best way to win is to beat your enemy. Whoever that may be.
"Wonder Woman, take Green Lantern with you and go to Germany, another force has emerged there," said Batman, "Flash, Aquaman, you're needed in Central City."
They all moved to the teleporters to get to their designated area.
"There's another attack on Gotham," said Cyborg.
"This is the Bat-family and Arsenal. Gotham is under our protection," came Nightwing's voice.
"Can you handle it, Nightwing?" asked Batman, he was concerned though he knew that they would take it as him not trusting them.
"Yeah, we've got it," said Dick, always cocky, but never afraid to receive help if he needed it.
"Another attack in Kahndaq," said Cyborg.
"I've got this one," said Shazam.
"Firestorm, meet Shazam in Kahndaq."
"Understood," said Firestorm, and Shazam left to meet his teammate in the nation that spawned his powers.
There was a little bit of irony in that pairing: a man made up of magic working with two people that literally embodied science. Fighting side by side. It was almost inspirational.
"Batman, there's another attack on Metropolis. Who shall I send?" asked Cyborg.
"No one. Boom us there, Cyborg. This one's on us," said Batman.
A sly smile crawled to Cyborg's lips. He never liked not being in the thick of things when his friends were. Something carried on from football perhaps. Or something that was always a part of him.
Shazam made it to Kahndaq first, and saw what looked like a town's population worth of monsters and robots. They haven't spotted me yet, he thought.
Boom!
The missile came from behind him. And it hurt.
He wasn't actually hurt or injured, but it did help his mental state to turn even more into aggression. Behind him was a robot with a rocket launcher for an arm. Shazam wasted no time, and flew at the robot. The robot was destroyed, parts flew in every direction. He turned around and faced the great amount of monsters there. But this was Kahndaq, this was the origin of magic for him. He could feel his strength rise, his magic magnify.
"Shazam!"
A great bolt of lightning struck three different monsters and they fell to the ground. That was easy, he thought.
"You sure know how to light up a beacon," said a voice from behind.
Firestorm.
They stood one beside the other, looked at each other and exchanged a mischievous grin. And then flew right into the thick of their enemies. Firestorm blasted through with his fire, scorching everything within his path. Shazam, on the other hand, took a more direct approach of fist upon face. Lightning sparked off every blow he made, it seemed to bounce out of his own body. It did. Punch after punch sent both monsters and robots flying this way and that. Then the right moment happened for him: he was covered up by enemies, each one trying to get at him that they all were one great pile on top of him.
"Shazam!" cried Firestorm and rushed over to him.
"SHAZAM!" came a voice, seemingly from the ground itself. A great blast of lightning came from the sky and exploded on the ground. There were opponents strewn everywhere, all scorched by the great power of the lightning. And in the middle stood a young boy, laughing.
The boy turned to firestorm, smiled.
"Shazam!" And with another bolt of lightning Shazam took the place where the boy just stood.
"Fascinating!" said a voice inside Firestorm's head, "I wish I could learn how to do that!"
"How about instead you give me a couple of formulas I could use!" said Firestorm as he blasted another enemy with fire.
"There! Water!" said Rusch in Firestorm's head.
Even I know that one! thought Firestorm, but he hadn't thought of using it. He turned the foundation of a building to water. The building collapsed and toppled on top of a few opponents.
"Hey, Firestorm!" shouted Shazam, "turn some of the sand to water!"
Awesome! Thought Firestorm and proceeded to do just that.
"SHAZAM!"
And there went so many others, electrocuted by the lightning and the electricity that went through the water. They proceeded on, fighting any that came their way.
Gotham. The city of shadows. The city of the Bat. Was it such a wonder, then, that the Bat-family all fought so effortlessly together? They all knew each other's moves. Strengths and weaknesses. They all fought the same way. Probably even more in synchrony than the Justice League. I guess that's what happens when everyone was taught by Bruce Wayne. By Batman thought Nightwing. Well, everyone but Arsenal.
Nightwing never liked wearing a long cape, it made it harder to move around acrobatically, and he was the greatest acrobat, after all. With his escrima sticks he fought toe to toe with a robot, dodge, dodge and there was the opening. He struck his stick at the neck of the robot and a small jolt of electricity brought the robot down.
"Could you please take any longer taking these things down?" said Arsenal as he leaped over Red Hood and shot an arrow at the back of a monster.
"You never seem to be around to see me do the good stuff," Red Hood replied.
"I'm always around, you have yet to impress."
Bam!
A shot from Red Hood's gun and the bullet raced through the air, missing Arsenal's cheek by an inch and hitting a tentacled alien in his left eye.
"'Nough said," said Arsenal.
"The fate of humanity and you're trying to show each other up?" asked Batgirl, and with a flip and a throw three batarangs found their mark and exploded, taking three enemies out.
"They're boys, Batgirl. They'll find time for size contests anywhere," said Batwoman, firing her own gun at a great minotaur. He went down and she moved on to the next enemy. She was grabbed from behind in a headlock. It was too strong, too hard. How did this alien get behind her like that?
Elbow to ribs.
Slight effect.
Don't pass out.
Batarang to ribs.
Loosened grip.
Turn and uppercut.
Exploding batarang.
He's down.
Nightwing, hitting yet another robot with an electric charge. Surveyed the area. "I can't see an effective way to thin the herd, guys."
"Well, that just makes things simpler," said Robin as he decapitated a robot and moved on to an alien with swords for hands.
A smile came up on his face. Damian Wayne, he always did like a challenge.
"You know, I've been to a lot of places. Planets, moons. Asteroids. Outer space. But I don't think I've ever gone to Germany. Funny, right?" asked Green Lantern.
"Not quite the time for that," was Wonder Woman's reply. She had been to Germany. She'd been to Berlin before. Those were not fond memories.
"Want a strategy, or can we just pummel through?" asked GL.
"I think that the best strategy is to pummel through close to one another."
A devilish smile came to Hal Jordan's face.
"Here comes the choo-choo train!" called GL, and a train materialised, driving with tremendous force into the ranks of the enemy.
Wonder Woman had her shield and sword out. The lasso would not be needed as much for this battle. She charged at the first enemy she saw and with a graceful movement, she cut off his head.
Green Lantern then formed a gigantic suit of green energy armour and shot missiles from it. The suit towered over the area, almost three storeys high. He moved like a colossus, with slow and steady steps, causing havoc in his wake. A building may have also fallen during that time.
Gunshots were heard.
"Lantern, is that the German army?" asked Wonder Woman.
"Police by the looks of it," said Green Lantern, and tried to veer away from them, he didn't want to hit them by mistake.
"We've got fliers!" called Wonder Woman, as she blocked a club with her shield and cut the wielding arm off with a single stroke.
"I've got 'em!" and with that the suit vanished and Green Lantern flew toward the flying monsters. Except for their lack of armour, they looked awfully similar to paradeamons. He started shooting blasts of green energy at them, he hit a few of them. He tried not to stay in the same place for too long. He was a fighter pilot, he knew what he had to do. Keep flying, keep moving.
"You almost look like butterflies," said GL, and a large net formed and he caught a large group of the fliers and flung them at the ground. Taking out many of the enemies beneath.
Wonder Woman was doing everything she could. It almost seemed orchestrated.
Hit with a shield to stun. Stab the one on the right. Turn back to the stunned and take care of him while blocking the one from behind. Deal with him with a kick and use the momentum to stab another one. Dodge that sword. Get on his arm and cut his head off.
Tentacle coming.
Dodge below. Cut it off. Fling shield at it. It's stuck there. Run to it and stab. Extract shield with one hand and use the momentum from the pull to knock an enemy away.
Though it would seem that she was overwhelmed, she wasn't. This was something she was trained to do.
Aquaman never really visited Central City. He had gone there but the Flash and himself, whilst teammates on good terms, were not particularly close. And he had to admit, there was something nice about this city. It was a metropolitan city, but somehow it still maintained its suburban look. The sky scrapers were not overwhelming, but almost welcoming, and the river ran blue and beautiful.
Of course he focused on none of that at the moment. Right now he was staring at all the robots and a few tentacled monsters gathered here to challenge him. Though they seemed like fish, he could not telepathically communicate with them.
"They've all gathered in the square. I made sure of that," said the Flash, and he skidded to a halt next to Aquaman.
"I'll charge in, you take out the ones running away," said Aquaman and removed his trident from its sheath.
"Call if you need me." And before the words were even fully spoken the Flash was gone. Left to fight the enemy. Aquaman gripped his trident and leaped into the air. With a loud roar he crashed upon his opponents and brought the trident down, taking more than one robot out of commission. He didn't count how many he had destroyed, he was focusing on the next target.
The Flash ran around the perimeter. He couldn't reach the speeds he needed from a full stop, he needed a bit more of a run up. But once he had it, he went in. Using his ability to vibrate he was able to disconnect most of the robots' circuitry, thus rendering them useless. But the monsters he left for Aquaman, he didn't want to get into a fight with one opponent when he could defeat many more of them a lot faster.
But sometimes one has no choice.
In front was a blue octopus, but it wasn't exactly an octopus. It was a man with the face of an octopus and eight tentacles for hands, but its legs were normal. What kind of breeding was this? He wondered if Hal had ever seen anything like it before.
He kicked ahead with higher speed. He ran at the beast, and it flung two tentacles at him. It was fast, but nowhere near fast enough. It looked like the beast was working in slow motion for effect. The Flash quickly ran up to the monster and punched it right in the head before the tentacles were even close. The beast was out.
"Flash!" called Aquaman.
Flash ran around in circles, it was three seconds but that was all he needed. They'd rehearsed this move and Aquaman was ready. Aquaman raised his trident over his head and then the Flash made his move: the Flash threw the electricity that was enveloping him in the form of lightning and aimed it at Aquaman's trident. The trident was able to hold electric charges, and once the trident had been hit by the lightning the Flash sent, Aquaman brought the hilt down on the ground, sending bolts around him. A circle of defeated lay beneath him. The Flash ran to him and skidded to a halt.
"Ready for round two?" asked the Flash, as they both saw the remainder of the hordes in front of them regroup, readying themselves for the second round.
Aquaman removed a few beads of sweat from his brow, and ran into the fold once more. The Flash gave a sly smile and followed suit.
Metropolis. Batman always had an eerie feeling when he entered this city without Superman. It felt wrong. Like he was intruding on Clark's house. But he put that to the side, easily done after years of practice. He had a mission, and he was here to make sure it succeeded. There weren't many robots on this mission. He was sure that was to try and challenge Clark should he be around. Robots would be too easy for him.
Cyborg's arm was cocked and ready to fire. His sonic-cannons, as well as a few more gadgets, were a part of his body. He could turn them into almost anything. Batman looked at the enemy. They saw each other.
A batarang flew into the monsters, a few clicks on the wrist controls while the batarang exploded in the face of a walking crocodile and a grapple into the air.
The grapple clicked and Batman zipped up into the Batplane. Here he could do much more damage. He turned off the human safety protocol. No need to hold back with these creatures. He started firing at the centre of the mass with missiles.
Cyborg was on the ground firing away with his cannon.
Proximity alert.
Cyborg dodged a car from behind and fired at the alien that had managed to sneak over there. He swung his fist round and punched another that was coming towards him. Firing the gun again at the many hostiles coming towards him.
A building crumbled and large pieces of debris were falling. He opened a boomtube underneath the debris, the other end opened up above the hordes of monsters. Crushing them.
Batman's plane dove again, going for another run at the monsters. Using his guns he blasted at any target he could lock on, and a few he couldn't in order to line them up for Cyborg's cannon.
The Batplane got hit from above, Batman moved the controls and forced the 'plane to climb up. He saw a giant eagle with hands coming towards him. Evasive manoeuvres were executed but to no avail. The monster got onto the roof. Batman pressed a button and the ship electrocuted its outer shell. The monster fell towards Cyborg. Cyborg used its momentum to throw it at an oncoming hostile using a back flip that was made possible by his jet pack. He looked at the destruction wrought by these invaders. All in all not terrible. But he wanted to finish this quickly.
Batman was hoping Superman was doing alright.
