This is the part 2 of the 3-part finale. Shout out to Ansa88 for betaing this chapter.
Enjoy!
Previously on The Outlaws:
The sky suddenly opened up in a hail of red and green light. Most of the men on the ground closed their eyes, certain those blasts of energy would be the last thing they would see on this earth. Hawkeye and The Outlaws stood in defiance, throwing everything they could at the aliens, trying to take as many of the aliens with them as they could.
Washington D.C.
As Hawkeye and The Outlaws moved to eliminate the aliens around them, they were stopped by the blasts of red and green energy. Instead of killing the small group of humans on the ground, the blasts sliced through the ranks of the parademon horde. The men's heads snapped up to the sky where they saw a red ship, quite familiar to the members of The Outlaws, alongside a contingent of Green Lanterns as well as a duo with very distinct wings on their back. Ahead of the Lanterns flew a lone woman, who was raining green blasts down on the invaders.
After the initial barrage the newcomers broke off, chasing after the aliens. The Hawks got in close on a group of demons, using their maces to bash in their skulls. The Lanterns remained separated from the main battle, using their rings to pick off the invaders from a distance. The unidentified young woman flew toward the Outlaw's position on the ground as they fought off a group of aliens. Two green figures dropped out of the ship, their eyes glowing green as the nearby aliens were knocked out of the sky by a powerful psychic blast. With the immediate threat neutralizes the newcomers regrouped on the ground.
Hawkeye surveyed the group before assume a mock angry tone. "What took you guys so long?"
The comment drew a light laugh from the Lantern. While Hal conversed with General Lane the largest of the Lantern slapped Thomas on the arm. "Came as fast we could, poozer. And I'm still waiting on a thank you for saving your hide."
Hawkeye shrugged off the jab. "I had them right where I wanted them, Kilowog. You guys just stole my Thunder."
While Kilowog got a good laugh out of Hawkeye's remark, J'onn J'onnz and M'gann M'orrz floated over to The Outlaws. The Martian Manhunter's accented voice greeted the younger heroes. "Apologies for our late arrival. Our communication with Earth is quite limited and it was not until Hal Jordan informed us the situation that we became aware of invasion."
M'gann nodded in agreement. "I'm just glad we got here in time to help.
Arsenal uncrossed his arms as M'gann flew out around the hug each of the Outlaws. "Us too, M'gann. Us too."
Todd stepped toward the Hawks. "Still doesn't explain how you two got here. From what I remember of my galactic geography Thanagar is pretty much on the other side of Oa from Earth."
"A subspace communication from Oa informed us the coming battle." Hawkman swung his mace for emphasis. "And we never miss a fight."
Cameron turned to the new girl. "And who are you?"
The girl stood awkwardly to the side of the group and didn't acknowledge the question at first. The team watched her for a few seconds, Todd and Harper mostly just looked at her body. The young woman's yellowish skin was sparsely covered by a purple garment that would not appear out of fashion on a Florida beach during spring break. When she saw everyone staring at her she started speaking in an odd alien tongue. It took her only a few sentences, or what the humans guessed were sentences, before seeing the confusion on everyone's face. Without any hesitation she strode up to Arsenal, the person nearest to her, and kissed him. Arsenal was shocked at the action, but not wholly unpleased by it. But before he could return the gesture, the girl pulled back and began speaking in near perfect English.
"Greetings. My name is Koriand'r, of Tamaran."
While Arsenal was recovering from the kiss, Todd leaped forward the great the beautiful young girl. "Hi, welcome to Earth. So what's brings you to this corner of the galaxy?"
Koriand'r gave the earthling an up-and-down glance before answering. Her tone shifted from neutral indifference to fierce rage. "I have come to exact revenge on Darkseid for the destruction of my world."
Hal and the general rejoined the conversation. Lane was mostly interested in her last statement. "He destroyed a planet of people like you?"
"Not exactly like me. My family has the ability to absorb ultraviolet radiation, but I only acquired the ability to redirect it recently, I suspect due to the treatment of my captors."
"Captors?"
"I was sold into slavery in an attempt to save us from Darkseid and his minions. When I escaped my imprisonment, I attempted to fly back to Tamaran. On the way I was set upon by pirates, these Green Lanterns saved me and told me of Tamaran's fate."
No one spoke, save of Jason's barely audible statement. "Oh."
Koriand'r took a deep breath before beginning again. "But that does not matter. Now we must fight these invaders, or Earth will suffer the same fate as my home."
Lane nodded. "You heard the lady. Anyone of you heroes know the status of the Gotham team?"
Hawkeye shook his head. "We'll get on that, sir. They had the bigger team, so I doubt they're in much trouble."
Gotham City
As Hawkeye was in D.C., he could not have known how wrong his words would prove to be. Since Gotham was a much larger city than the capitol, the remaining active heroes had assigned a much larger force to defend the city and its inhabitants. In fact, everyone who wasn't in D.C. had been sent to the Gotham/New York area. Wonder Woman, Icon, and Captain Marvel roamed the skies, while Batman's protégés patrolled Crime Alley and the surrounding slums. Artemis, Kid Flash, Red Arrow, Chesire and Black Canary handled downtown. The members of Sigma Squad defended the harbor area alongside Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle and Beast Boy.
At first, the battle was decidedly in favor of the Earth's defenders. Having some of the League's heaviest hitters definitely helped, but it also served as a double-edged sword of sorts. Diana had been present during Darkseid's last attempt to conquer the planet and the Apokoliptan god ordered his parademons to focus on the big three of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. With only the Amazon on the battlefield, the invaders redeployed to Gotham upon confirmation of her presence. After half an hour of fighting, Gotham was nearly overrun and the youngest heroes were fairing the worst.
After tossing a few aliens in his gorilla form, Beast Boy turned back to his human form to speak into his radio. "Nightwing, Beast Boy. We need back up at the docks a.s.a.p.! We're being overrun!"
Nightwing's reply was quick. "Same here B. We'll come when we can. Stay traught."
After hearing Nightwing's reply, Garfield changed into a wolf and leaped back into the fight.
"Come on guys, we need to hold them back!" Wonder Girl yelled down to the ground as she swung a lassoed alien in a circle, knocking aside multiple invaders.
"We're trying, chica!There's too many!" Blue Beetled blasted a few aliens with his sonic cannon to give them a bath in Gotham Harbor.
While those three took the fight to the enemy, the members of Sigma Squad protected their position, keeping the aliens from flanking them or breaching the perimeter. Penny kept a constant swirl of metal around the team, opening for other's attacks when necessary. The metal provided a conductive material for Sam to amplify her electrical attack. Tom picked off any aliens that got inside the Penny/Sam tag-team. Sam had at first been able to keep the aliens at bay with her electrical ability, but started to run out of power due to the prolonged engagement. Soon, the aliens were crowding around Penny's defensive shield. As the number of invaders increased they began throwing themselves at the rotating mass of metal that the teens had all retreated behind. After several dozen attempts, they broke through, causing Penny to lose focus and drop the shield altogether. The nearest demon lunged for the heroes, his intent to kill written clearly on his gray face, but before he could reach his goal something silver struck him atop the head, rendering him either dead or unconscious.
The aliens paused to see the source of the projectile. If they could have felt fear, the sight of Wonder Woman would have inspired it as she caught her boomeranging tiara in front of over a dozen heroes.
"Now this isn't a very concerting situation." Nightwing, high on the adrenaline rush, couldn't resist the play on words as he sprang into action alongside the other heroes.
In short order, the combined forces of the heroes dealt with the numerous aliens, but the victory was short lived. After dispatching the final aliens, another boom tube appeared near the heroes, announcing its presence with noise and a bright orange light. Instead of more parademons, a more unique set of aliens stormed out of the portal. The group was all female, and each was stranger looking and more menacing that the last. One tanned woman with white hair wielded a pair of sword. Another, dressed in black, held a wicked looking knife. A well-endowed red head looked like she could go toe to toe with Wonder Woman. There was even a woman who liked a cross between Joker and a parademon, complete with long green hair and razor sharp claws for hands. There were no grand introductions or threats of doom as women set straight to their task.
In the blink of an eye, one woman sped forward into the heroes, landing several knockout punches on the younger heroes before any of them could blink. Kid Flash took off after the women, but was unprepared for her skill set. While still moving at super-speed she turned and delivered a swift arm bar to clothesline him. Despite his recently acquired speed boost, he was still not up to the level of his uncle, who was still recovering in the Fortress. The alien speedster pinned down Wally with a bronze knife just above the heart.
Icon was set upon by the green clad woman, whose knife somehow pierced his invulnerable skin. He felt a burning from inside his abdomen that rendered him unable to continue fighting. Wonder Woman knocked out the knife-wielder, but found herself locked in battle with the red head. The white and green haired females set to work attacking the other heroes. Blue Beetle attempted to block the attack from the white-haired woman's swords, but the blades sliced through his armor and into his flash. The razor clawed one managed to leave four deep gashed in Wonder Girl's side. Seeing the blood pouring out of Cassie's side, Garfield grew enraged and attacked the assailant head on, which ended with the green skinned boy reverting back from gorilla form into his human body, clutching his stomach as green blood joined Cassie's on the pavement. The other heroes present took on a fresh contingent of parademons while Captain Marvel took on the white and green haired women, fighting them to a standstill.
Soon the numbers of parademons threatened to overwhelm the heroes' efforts, but from out of nowhere a torrential wave of water flowed out the harbor, suspiciously striking only the alien invaders. The heroes and the female fighters looked to the water only to find Aquaman and a legion of Atlantean troops rising from the water and onto the pavement. Despite the chaos the alien holding the knife on Kid Flash's chest moved to plunged the blade into his heart. She was thoroughly shocked when the man's body shook faster than even she could see and the knife passed right through him into the ground.
"Bet that's something they didn't teach you on Apokolips." Wally super-sped a punch to the woman's temple, knocking her out cold before speeding off the help the heroes turn the tables on the invaders.
After the parademons were swept away Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel were able to gain the upper hand on their opponents, bringing the attack to an end. With the immediate crisis was over, Dinah radioed Oracle.
"Oracle, Black Canary here. Gotham's more or less secure at the moment. What's the status of Hawekye's team?"
Before Oracle could respond, Hawkeye interrupted the conversation. "Got a little hairy, but we're all in one piece. How's things on your end?"
"Four critically wounded. I'm sending them with Artemis in a Javelin back to the Fortress for treatment. And you will not believe you showed up to help."
"Mind if I ask who that might be?"
"Aquaman."
"Well, if you don't mind would you ask where the hell his ass has been for the last 11 months?"
"I'm sure he will tell us when there is time. Oracle, what's the global situation?"
"Not good. While you lot may have saved two cities, we've got reports of invaders attacking 30 other cities around the world and we're already down four people."
No one spoke after hearing the grim news until Hawkeye came back over the comm. "Oracle, better get our Kryptonian friends out the UV pods. Looks like our big bad just showed up."
Washington D.C.
While Hawkeye discussed the situation with the other heroes on The Mall, another boomtube opened up, this one in front of the White House. A lone, towering figure stepped from the portal and started at the balcony overlooking the grounds. Though the president was deep in an underground bunker, the White House was not deserted. A news crew had setup shop on the on the grounds amidst the chaos. The reporters dropped their mics as the cameraman panned to capture the full seven plus feet of the being's height. Though the mic was on the ground, it could still pick up the reporter's solitary question.
"Who are you?"
The being turned his red-eyed stare toward the camera. "You're new Lord and Master. You may call me…Darkseid."
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