JLU SPIDER-FRIENDS VOL. I:THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Chapter 14: God of War Part 2
So now, the dots are finally connecting and the next chapter begins! Of course Ares, Eris and Aresia might put together a team of villains just for the soul purpose of conquering the whole world, and battling the whole Justice League. Now that's just for starters, Aresia is still the same bitter criminal that she was in 'Justice League: TAS' so prepare for some criminal action in this chapter.
"Wait, how can I know that I can trust you?" Aresia demanded pointing a finger at Ares who simply smirked "I have suffered defeat at the hands of your Amazon sister in the past as well. For example, the last time I had Hephaestus build something for me, it was a living suit of armor called the Annihilator. Its strength was drawn only from aggression whenever its enemies were attacking, I made good use of it by giving it to the Northern tribes of the country Kaznia so they could spearhead a unique counterattack against the Southern forces. But thanks to the inference of Princess Diana and two of her male friends, the Annihilator was drained of its power when the Southern forces were told to stand down. I vowed that one day I would return and finish what I have started, so I plan to get back the Annihilator one way or another. Now what do you think?"
Aresia pondered his words for a moment before grinning deviously, this would be her chance to get back at Diana for ruining her past plans and if she worked with the god of war. He just might make it possible "Alright, I'll help you in any way necessary, but on one condition."
"Name it" he said to her.
"I wish to be made queen of Themyscira" she told him "Since that wretched Hippolyta spurned and disapproved of my methods, she doesn't deserve to wear a crown." The god of war smiled in approval, this still might work to his advantage. Once the Amazons had a new ruler on Themyscira, they would learn to hate the things that most mortal men did.
"Very well" he replied "I shall grant your request as soon as we have obtained the Annihilator, but first we have a lot of work to do."
Meanwhile in the Watchtower
Spider-Man, Cyborg and Firestorm were in the cafeteria sitting and talking to Diana about the Kaznia crisis where she had gave aid to the Southern forces of the country against the Northern ones with help from Hawk and Dove.
"So let me get this straight, Dove figured out that the best way to stop the Annihilator was to stop fighting long enough for it for power down?" asked Victor.
Diana nodded, this was really starting to fascinate the young technopath who, like Peter, had a love for science. Firestorm, however had a much different opinion.
"If I were there, I could've given them a little bit more than just a simple stand-off with the giant Grecian robot." Ronnie told them "I would've just melted him down and reconstructed his atomic structure, so what do y'all think?"
"I think you'd better just keep your own opinions to yourself before I bust you wide open." Peter told him seriously, causing Diana and Victor to burst out laughing at the Nuclear Man's wounded expression.
Just then their commlinks went off, and Diana was the first to answer.
"Yes?" she asked, before Batman's voice answered "Diana, we've just received some confirmation. Ares and Eris are already in Bermuda after leaving Athens."
Diana looked at the three young men, before she discussed the Kaznia crisis with them, they had disclosed the fact about Ares robbing the Grecian Museum of Natural History. The matter had been very disturbing to her indeed, she thought that Ares had been gone for good. Now it looked like that she needed to stop him once again.
"Something tells me that we should call on help from a certain thunder god." Peter remarked drawing everyone's attention, he explained to them that he still had some access to his old homeworld. So not only could go visit there, but also get help anytime he wanted, or needed. "Very well, it seems that we should call on this thunder god from Asgard that you've told us about before. I for one, would really like to meet him in person." Then Diana turned back to her communicator.
"Alright Bruce, give the four of us the accurate coordinates and we'll be there in no time at all." She told the Dark Knight through the communicator, as Batman told her which part of Bermuda it was, they all went to the teleportation deck where J'onn and Mainframe were still on monitor duty.
"J'onn! We need to get to Bermuda as quickly as possible. This is a very important emergency." Spider-Man told the Martian who looked down at the group before typing in the right coordinates "Good luck, and safe travels." J'onn called, the quartet simply waved at him before they disappeared in a flash of light.
Elsewhere
Troia, Supergirl and Miss Martian were flying towards Bermuda as fast as they could go in Miss Martian's Bioship, due to being tipped off of Ares's accurate location by Batgirl. Queen Hippolyta and Antiope were with them, so as to hunt down Ares and stop him, wherever he might be. "How long is this wild goose chase going to take?" demanded Antiope, she was feeling very impatient with the whole idea of flying to Bermuda and it was really getting on her nerves.
"Patience Antiope." The queen reminded her "We will reach our destination in time, so until then try to be a little more rational."
The three younger women smirked, it felt good to hear the queen rebuke one of the other Amazons. But before they knew it, M'gann finally landed the ship on the island of Bermuda where they disembarked upon the beach.
"Okay M'gann, how far out is your telepathy range?" asked Kara, the Martian girl put both hands on her head and focused all her energy until her eyes glowed green. When she finally finished scanning, she turned back to the others "I've located the god of war" she told them "And I've sensed a few others with him, including a blond woman wearing white Amazonian armor." Hippolyta's eyes widened at that last thing M'gann mentioned, it was entirely impossible since Aresia was long thought to be dead since last year. Even Donna and Antiope were shocked and confused to hear all that.
Just then a beam of light appeared and a familiar person materialized on the ground next to them, Queen Hippolyta was even more surprised to see her older daughter here in person. Unlike Donna, who was overjoyed at seeing her sister "Diana! What are you doing here? where are the boys?"
"They were taking a brief detour, they will be here before you know it." Diana replied "So do you have a pin on Ares' location?"
"Yes, we just did." Donna told her "M'gann telepathically discovered him and found that he had several others with him, including Aresia." Diana's eyes widened at the mention of the rogue Amazon who had gone to so much trouble trying to kill all the men in the world.
Meanwhile the God of War was making his second move by having Aresia and Eris recruit several villains to their cause; the first one was James Sanders alias Speed Demon, the second was Eve Eden alias Nightshade, the third was John Doe alias Copperhead, followed by Carol Ferris alias Star Sapphire (she had indeed survived that fall in the ocean), Barbara Ann Minerva alias the Cheetah, and Kalibak of Apokolips.
"Thank you all for coming, now that we all have some plans to discuss." Ares greeted "But first, we must relocate somewhere else before the entire Justice League finds out we are here."
"But where can we go?" asked Star Sapphire "We've only just arrived, it doesn't make any sense to just leave."
"You will all see." Ares replied, he spread out his hands and a portal opened before them and they were all amazed to see it. Even Kalibak was as astonished as any of them, but still he figured that Ares could be of some use to help destroy Superman one day. The group passed through the portal and came out into an alley that lead out into the streets of Metropolis.
"I remember this city, it was where I first started with trying to wipe out all the men in the world." Aresia told them, Ares nodded before changing his appearance to blind in with the crowd out in the streets. Fortunately for them, it was now sunset and that made it easier for the villains to find the place that they were looking for; it was an abandoned warehouse.
"Well, isn't this convenient." Nightshade remarked dryly, the others took a moment to take in their surroundings. Kalibak was the least skeptical of them all, he simply stared at the interior until Ares called their attention. "Alright, let's get down to business. I wish to discuss a very important topic with all of you."
"So what is it suppose to be?" asked Cheetah.
"It concerns something very valuable that the Justice League stole from me, which was later on stolen from them." Ares told her, "It is one of Hephaestus' creations that was designed for battle, it's called the Annihilator and it is a living suit of armor with the purpose of destroying anything in its path. Especially on the battlefield in the time of war, but its only weakness was whenever someone did respond in anger nor violence then the armor would lose its power."
"Then it must be very valuable." Speed Demon said "But how do you know its weakness?"
"During the crisis in Kaznia." Ares explained "Wonder Woman and two of her male friends supported the Southern troops of the nation, I gave the Annihilator free of charge to General Narboc of the Northern forces. For a few moments, the North had the advantage until a young hero called Dove interfered by commanding the Southern troops to stand down long enough for the armor to lose its fuel."
"So then it looks like we have our work cut out for us." Copperhead sneered. The other villains grinned wickedly, along with Aresia who was looking forward to settling a score with her 'sister' Diana.
Meanwhile
Spider-Man, Cyborg, and Firestorm were still busy contacting the person that Peter needed to get in touch with. They were synchronizing the interdimensional device that Peter had with him just in case he ever needed assistance, or wanted to go on a vacation.
"How long is this going to take Pete?" asked Ronnie.
"Chill out Ronnie!" snapped Victor "We're almost done, so you don't have to worry about it. All we're trying to do is contact one of the people that Peter knew from before he got here in this dimension."
Ronnie looked very deflated when he heard that, but before too long the device was up and running. The wide whirlpool of a portal opened up, and out stepped a tall man with long blonde hair and wearing a vast attire of Norse armor, and he also carried a heavy looking hammer that was almost shaped like a cast iron dumbbell.
"Greetings Man of Spiders, how are you this fine day?" greeted the tall Norseman, who was none other than Thor, crown prince of Asgard and God of Thunder.
"Greetings Thor, it's so good to see you again." Spider-Man responded shaking hands with the Asgardian, who then turned to Cyborg and Firestorm. "So who are these fine friends of yours?"
"Oh right, you haven't met them yet." Spider-Man turned to introduce his teammates "This is Victor Stone, a high tech specialist, but you can also call him Cyborg. And this is Firestorm the Nuclear Man, he's the merged super-form of two people; High School jock Ronnie Raymond and Physics professor Dr. Martin Stein."
Thor briefly shook with the two young men who were also present, of course the Nuclear Man took the time to briefly show that he was actually two people sharing the mind and body. "Now what is the dire favor that you request my assistance?" asked Thor.
"Well it's like this." Peter began, he told the thunder-god about the museum theft and Ares' threat to the whole world. Thor's eyes widened in surprise "So this god of war intends to wipe half of humanity off the face of the earth, eh? Well then, I shall lend thee a hand in this situation in any way that I can." The three friends grinned in relief that the God of Thunder was going to lend them a hand to stop the god of war.
"Well anyway, we were just contacting you before heading off to Bermuda." Cyborg told him "Have you ever been there before?"
"Nay, I have not." Thor replied "But it would also be an honor to go there for the first time in my lifetime." The three teammates then proceeded to lead him to the Telepod deck "This is what we use for part of transportation whenever we go on important missions." Spider-Man told the Asgardian "It's kinda similar to using the Bifrost in Asgard." Thor grinned, this was about to get more interesting.
But just as the Wall Crawler was about to dial in coordinates, he got a call on his communicator "Spider-Man! we just learned that Ares and his new crew are in Metropolis." came Diana's voice from the other end of the line, Peter was really shocked when he heard that. Victor and Ronnie were also shocked, Thor saw the worried expression on his young friend's face and wondered what could be wrong.
"Whatever is the matter young friend?" asked the prince of thunder, the wallcrawler told him what Diana had just said, and the thunder god's eyes widened in surprise "So Ares has moved somewhere else, eh?"
"Yes, I'm afraid he has." Peter told him "But this time he's assembled his own crew and went to the city of Metropolis."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let us go right now and stop him." Thor told the spider hero, and the four of them disappeared in a beam of light.
Metropolis
Kara and M'gann, along with the four Amazons, went to the abandoned warehouse where Ares and his crew were possibly hiding. They had found it due to M'gann's telepathy, and Diana was to try and reason with her former Amazon sister. Queen Hippolyta, on the other hand, was only hoping to stop Aresia before she went too far this time around.
"You must have faith Diana, that she will be stopped this time for sure." Hippolyta assured her older daughter.
"That's not what I'm concerned about Mother." Diana told her "I am more concerned with the fact as to why she is working with Ares, and what he could have promised her in return for helping him."
"Then I am quite certain that we will find out why once we get there." Donna told her sister, Diana smiled at her younger sister's certainty and before they knew it, the warehouse came into view. M'gann parked the ship outside and the six women went over to the front door which was surprisingly opened a crack, they exchanged glances wondering what this could mean.
"Criminals don't normally leave the door to their hiding place opened a crack or standing wide open, would they?" asked Antiope.
"No, that would implausible." The queen replied "The first time I came to the outside world, I had set foot inside one of those military airbases where they stored up the largest aircraft mankind had ever built. I had gone there to oppose Aresia and try to help her realize that she violated Amazonian law and customs. But what I failed to realize that she had set a trap, so it's quite possible that Ares and his new cohorts may have set their own trap."
"Then let me go inside first, and see what they're doing." M'gann suggested, she turned intangible and phased right through the ground much to the queen, and Antiope's surprise. "I must say that your young green friend is full of surprises." Antiope told Donna "Does she not have any relation to one of those four men that Diana brought to Themyscira?"
"Yes" Donna replied "M'gann M'orzz is the adopted niece of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. They both originally come from the place called Mars, where J'onn's people were all massacred and wiped out from existence." Antiope was also surprised by that last statement of Martian genocide, she was about to ask further questions when Hippolyta cut her off "You may ask further questions about that later Antiope, but now is not the time. We must concentrate on finding Aresia, and stopping Ares for good. For he is also bent on committing genocide."
As the queen was still speaking, Kara was scanning the building with her x-ray vision while inside, Miss Martian was busily scouring the entire area for any signs of the criminals. So far she could tell that they were hiding in plain sight, according to her telepathy and no criminal would ever stand a chance. However, M'gann kept on until she found two of the criminals, Speed Demon and Copperhead crouching on top of the rafters, but luckily they didn't see her due to the fact that she was invisible, and was also hovering above them silently.
"I wonder how long we have to wait?" asked the snake-themed villain in a whisper, who was now getting bored with waiting. "Be patient you ridiculous reptile!" snapped the speedster criminal "You know that Ares wanted all of us to lie in wait for anyone who might try to stop us, so we've got to go through with this."
'Well it looks like it's now or never!' M'gann thought to herself determinedly, so she floated down and in the blink of an eye, she phased her hands through both of them, causing them to pass out from a psychic attack.
'So the god of war did set a trap.' She thought to herself, then she phased back outside and reported to the others. "It appears that Ares did set a trap and is hoping that we'll set foot inside." She told them, the queen frowned at this "So I was right to suspect something was wrong the first time."
"Oh really, if that were true. Then you also would anticipated this?" asked an eerie voice, startling the women who turned around to see none other then; Ares the god of war himself. He was flanked by the criminals that he recruited, including the rogue Amazon Aresia. Now Hippolyta was completely to see Aresia alive here, and in person. "It's so good to see you again your majesty" greeted the former Amazon, the other women, including Diana glared at her in disgust. She had no right to address the queen of the Amazons after her attempts to murder all the men in the whole world. M'gann was even more shocked to see that Speed Demon and Copperhead were there as well, and they were both awake so the Martian girl had a feeling that Ares must have awakened them with his magic.
But Ares simply just smirked "I doubt if either of you can ever hope to stop us." He told them "However, I believe you won't be able to stand a chance against all nine of us at the very same time."
Now the six women were starting to feel overwhelmed, for a few minutes they thought they going to risk battling nine villains all at the same time. But just then, there was a loud crack of thunder overhead. They all looked up, even Ares' crew, in time to four individuals perched on a rooftop directly above them; the first was a very tall, muscular man wearing a winged helmet and Norseman-styled attire. He was followed by three familiar figures that Kara, Donna, and M'gann immediately recognized.
"They're back." Kara whispered to her closest friends, Donna and M'gann silently agreed with her as they watched the boys, or rather Spider-Man, Cyborg and Firestorm came down from the rooftop (Peter jumped and swung down, while Ronnie and Victor both flew down), followed by the newcomer that Ares or neither of his followers had ever seen before.
"I'm sorry if we took so long, but we taking the time to inform Thor of the situation." Peter told them "But I hope we didn't miss anything in particular."
"Actually, I believe you're just in time." Diana responded, Queen Hippolyta was greatly relieved to see that help had finally arrived. But with Ares and Aresia, that was a different story.
"What is this? A surprise attack?" Ares demanded, scowling fiercely at the strange newcomers who were very unfamiliar to him. "Well no matter, my new followers will deal with all of you at once. Attack!"
The villains wasted no time in lunging forward at their leader's command.
"Spider-Man!" yelled out Speed Demon rushing forwards enraged, he too had also been defeated and humiliated before by the wallcrawler in the past. But just as he came closer, Spider-Man simply sidestepped and tripped the speedster villain up his feet by webbing his legs together.
Diana and Donna both went straight for Aresia, since she was still like one of their own. Even though Aresia wasn't gifted with the flying abilities that the two sisters had, but she was still pretty strong and agile enough to fight against them both. The Cheetah however, moved forward to her Amazonian comrade some backup and tackled Donna who managed to wrestle the cat lady to the ground.
Copperhead lunged straight at the Amazon queen who could only defend herself with a bronze knife, but he swatted it aside with his skinny tail and she gasped when he pounced upon her, but all at once the snake man was yanked backwards by the tail. He glared at his assailant who was actually Spider-Man, the Web Slinger was really pissed off that this lunatic would attack a woman, and Peter did not like the mistreatment of women "I'll take it from here, Your Highness." He said to the queen. Now Hippolyta was very grateful and relieved at that moment to be saved, and then Antiope rushed over to help her queen "Your Majesty! Let me help you get out of here!"
"It's alright Antiope" the queen hastened to assure her comrade "I'll be fine."
Then Spider-Man and Copperhead managed to duke it out by punching, wrestling, and deflecting blows. Kara and M'gann both tackled Star Sapphire before she could conjure up force fields with the gem she had on her forehead "Oh come on Darlings" said the British lady "Don't you know that it's not nice to go rough housing?"
"Why do you care?" Kara demanded "We have to stop you guys because you're all criminals. So you're coming with us now!"
"Yes" M'gann added "We're taking you in so the police can take you all to prison."
"Ares!" called Kalibak, he did not participate in the fight because he didn't want to risk losing to these young heroes. "We must get to New Mexico now while we still have a chance of reclaiming the Annihilator!"
"Yes, I agree with you." Ares replied, the war god turned to Speed Demon and cut open his bindings "Speed Demon! Save the rest of our comrades, I must conjure up a portal for our escape!"
"On it!" the speedster criminal ran with all his super speed, granted that he was much faster than Quicksilver had ever been, and sprang most of his teammates out of the fray. He separated Star Sapphire from Supergirl and Miss Martian, knocked Spider-Man off of Copperhead, and got Cheetah out of Troia's grasp; but he didn't even stop for Aresia since she was already down and captured. While Speed Demon was rescuing his teammates, Ares had been conjuring a portal with his magic so as soon as his crew had been saved, they all went in and disappeared.
"Nuts! They got away!" growled Kara in frustration. "No, they didn't exactly get away." Victor pointed out, they all turned to look at him "I heard that big burly guy tell Ares that they needed to get to New Mexico immediately, it sounded like they were going there for something very important."
"New Mexico?" asked Spider-Man "Hey, that's where Nightwing, Aqualad and I infiltrated Project Cadmus!" he exclaimed.
"But why would they go there?" asked Thor.
"There's this living battle armor called the Annihilator, which can only be powered up whenever mortals are fighting." Spider-Man explained to the thunder god "Now the only reason Ares came back was just so he could reclaim it."
"Then we must make haste immediately!" Thor urged him "Unless we can all fly there to stop him in time…"
"I've got a better idea." Cyborg told him "I've got the ability to harness any kind of technology with my mind, I can get us there in no time at all." The young technopath pulled a device from his belt "This device will get us there in no time." He then pressed a button on the device that activated a portal, very similar to the ones that led to New Genesis and Apokolips. Once the portal was wide enough, the group stepped on through.
New Mexico
Ares and his compatriots reappeared in the middle of the desert, not far from the perimeter of Project CADMUS Facility.
"At long last, will I ever regain the Annihilator and achieve the revenge that I seek." Ares gloated, his companions nodded in agreement. But right at that exact moment, another portal was opened and out the same heroes who had opposed them earlier.
"What is this?" demanded Ares, the other villains took their positions against their opponents.
"This ends now Ares!" yelled Diana, as she and her allies lined up against their adversaries. Even though Aresia had just been captured, that didn't stop the other villains from attacking their opponents. Then both opposing teams engaged in the fiercest battle of all time, known to man.
"You're right" Ares replied "It does end today, but after I have regained my living armor." He turned to Project CADMUS HQ, and was prepared to teleport himself inside when all of a sudden a bolt of lightning struck the ground, stopping him in his tracks. He looked up in time to see one of the newcomers descend from the sky and land right in front of him.
"Ares!" bellowed an angry Thor, wielding a flashing Mjolnir that crackled with lightning, along with a sharp battle axe. "Today, you will pay for what you have done. Starting with what you in the country of Kaznia!"
Ares sneered "Well who dares oppose the god of war?" he demanded, which only annoyed Thor even more.
"I am Thor, Son of Odin and Prince of Asgard." He replied "Surrender now and go back to whence you came, or prepare to be destroyed!"
The god of war only snarled in contempt "If you are a prince of Asgard." He answered "Then let me make it clear that I am Ares, Son of Zeus and the God of War. You on the other hand, are in no position to issue orders." With that, the two gods sprang towards each other and engaged in an assortment of striking sword against hammer, blocking punches, kicks and so on.
By then Spider-Man had once again managed to get the drop on Copperhead, who didn't really stand a chance of round 2 with the wallcrawler. "Oh man! why do these things always happen to me?" groaned the snake man before laying his head on the ground in disbelief.
At that same instant, Star Sapphire was really getting the best of Supergirl and Troia as both girls had a hard time taking advantage of the cosmic-powered woman. "Oh come now Darlings" taunted Sapphire "You can't honestly believe that you can take me down that easily."
"Maybe, or maybe not." Kara answered "But I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to fight all three of us at the same."
"Three?" said Star Sapphire, in that instant Miss Martian grabbed her from behind and provided a telepathic blast to her system, and the British woman collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Nightshade tried to surround Firestorm in darkness, he used his atomic energy to tunnel through the rocks in the ground and explode the spot where she was standing, rendering her unconscious.
Diana had finally defeated Cheetah, who was dismayed at being captured once again. Cyborg was dealing Kalibak who could tell that he stayed here any longer, then he may get captured and imprisoned. So he quickly deserted the fight, and activated his Mother Box to open a Boom Tube and escaped back to Apokolips.
Diana and Antiope both ganged up on Eris and pounded her into the ground before bounding her with the Lasso of Truth. Then they all turned and witnessed the duel between Thor and Ares, the Asgardian swung his mighty hammer and struck Ares's shield so hard that the shield broke and shattered into a thousand pieces. The war god roared with fury, he raised his bronze sword and a volley of fire erupted from it. But Thor just deflected the fire by spinning his hammer in front of him, once the fire was extinguished, Ares lunged at Thor with his sword and a spear.
"That is a splendid way to fight" said Antiope "I have never seen anything like it."
"Yes, I agree." Diana told her "In fact, that warrior battling Ares, is called Thor the god of thunder." She was telling her fellow sister based on what Peter had told her about the Asgardian prince.
Back with the fight between gods, Thor was really at it with Ares who couldn't really stand for being upstaged by a warrior that he had never seen before. So he knocked Thor's battle axe away and tried to impale the Asgardian with his spear, only for the long shaft to be broken in two.
"I have been a fighting man, and a warrior since my youth!" Ares shouted "What chance do you have of ever beating me?!"
"Technically, I've been a fighting man and a warrior for 15 centuries!" Thor fired back "So you should know, that I never back down from a fight."
"Then tell me." Ares countered "What kind of god were you suppose to be? And what are you the god of?"
This was what Thor had been waiting for, he threw Mjolnir so hard that when Ares caught it, he was thrown backwards instead of standing upright. He landed on the ground and got back up to try lifting up the hammer, but to his shock and misfortune, it wouldn't budge an inch.
"Unfortunately for you, Mjolnir can only be lifted by whomever it deems worthy." Thor explained "Now as to who I am." He raised his arms to the sky, and a huge bunch of dark clouds gathered followed by thunder rumbling "I am the god…of THUNDER!" At the last word, a bright flash and a bolt of lightning poured down from the sky, striking Ares head on. The other heroes and the Amazons watched in complete awe and amazement, even Hippolyta was shocked.
"So Thor is the god who will destroy Ares." She said to both her daughters, who just shrugged their shoulders. Ares, however, was very shocked that this warrior was actually a thunder-god, never in all his time did he ever imagine that this could ever happen to him. Now the god of war slowly rose to his feet while clutching his wounds, but before he could make his move, the god of thunder leaped forward and impaled Ares with his battle axe.
Ares howled in immense pain with Thor's battle axe in his chest while from the sides, the other heroes continued to watch with participation. "Oh man, it looks Ares really had that coming for a long time." Firestorm commented.
"Yes, I agree." Troia told him "Thor is fulfilling the prophecy of Ares' downfall, and the god of war will be no more." While she was still speaking, Thor continued to press his axe further into Ares's heart. "I warned you before to go back to whence you came, or prepare to be destroyed." The thunder-god reminded the war god "But nevertheless, you chose the latter!" With that being said, Thor pushed his axe through Ares's heart, causing the god of war cry out in pain once more before he breathed his last and disintegrated into a pile of dust.
Ares, the God of War…was finally dead.
Afterwards
Queen Hippolyta and Antiope returned home to Themyscira, taking Aresia with them, but not before the queen expressed her thanks to Thor and his valiant young companions, including her own two daughters. Then Thor had to return to Earth-616, after promising to come whenever Spider-Man and the others needed assistance.
"What's going to happen to us now Peter?" asked Kara worriedly.
"I don't know Kara." He answered "Whatever the future may hold for us, I'm sure that we'll be there when it happens."
She smiled at his words and intertwined her hand with his, she felt more comforted than she ever was before with him around. Then she repositioned her arms by wrapping them around his waist and he just held her in his arms.
Meanwhile
In a secluded laboratory at Project Cadmus, Dr. Octopus and Professor Hamilton were hard at work on a new cloning program that was called 'Project Lionfish'. Its purpose was meant for cloning Aqualad, ever since the Atlantean had infiltrated Cadmus along with Spider-Man and Nightwing.
"Forgive my curiosity" said Hamilton "But why call this 'Project Lionfish'?"
"Because my dear colleague." Octavius replied "We couldn't name it 'Project Tempest', due to the fact that someone else goes by that alias. As much as Spider-Man, Nightwing, and Supergirl already have their own clones, so I believe the same thing needs to be done with their friends as well."
"You mean… extracting DNA from not only Batgirl, but also Troia, the second Green Lantern, Firestorm, Jesse Quick, Miss Martian, and the A-Bomb?" asked the professor in surprise.
Before Octavius could answer, another voice cut him off "Of course that's what he means." Both scientists turned and saw Victor Von Doom standing in the doorway "But I'm afraid those programs are going to wait until the right time to be done."
"What do you mean by that?" Octavius demanded.
"I mean that you extract DNA from the rest of those heroes unless you have a proper plan." Doom reminded him "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few other things to take care of."
In a different part of the facility, Kaine, Galatea and the Red Hood were training really hard, along with the new arrival, Siobhan Smythe who liked her new home and hoping for revenge against the little creep who ruined her plans to discredit both Peter Parker and Kara Kent. Although Doctor Doom had reminded her that she needed to keep a low profile, she was looking forward to her first piece of action. Her train of thought was interrupted when the door to the training room was opened, and in came Dr. Doom.
"So my dear, how are you doing this fine day." Doom asked ever so politely.
"Oh I'm doing alright doctor." She told him "I've been practicing hard enough to make my new powers work, so then I can finally go out into the field."
"That's wonderful." He complimented her "Now as a reward for your progress, I recommend a codename for you. What would you like to be called?" Siobhan thought for a moment, ever since Doom came into her life and brought her to this place, she had found it very fascinating that he was actually from another dimension. When he showed her the files of different heroes from Earth-616, she had taken the time to study and learn about them, especially that one file about a mutant could produce soundwaves from his vocal cords and was called 'Banshee'. Now Siobhan wondered if she should call herself that, but Doom had also said that it wouldn't be very nice to have an alias that was already taken.
Then she had an idea, what if she used an alias that was on both her powers, and her appearance? Then she'd have a winner for sure "Alright then, call me the Silver Banshee."
Apokolips
Back on the fiery planet, Loki the god of mischief stood on a balcony overlooking the plains. He wore Apokoliptian clothing, and smiling triumphantly since Kalibak brought him that report of Ares's downfall. "What will we do now Lord Loki?" inquired Kalibak.
"I believe now that Ares has served his purpose, given that he never knew that he was being played, and that I actually wanted him to fight my so-called stepbrother." Loki replied before sneering at Ares's ignorance "A change of plans is called for."
"Like what my lord?" asked Kalibak eagerly.
"We shall now turn our attention to building a new battle arena for Mongul to train new warriors." Loki told him "And we will start having our own Contest of Champions, tell me have you ever been to Sakaar?
Finally another chapter is done! What are Loki and Kalibak planning do to this time? Tune in next time as Chapter 15 introduces the Contest of Champions! What Doc Ock was mentioned, he was refering to the fact that Garth, the original Aqualad was already called Tempest. So that's why I had figured to leave a teaser of Kaldur's own clone being called something else.
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Voice Cast
Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Nichole Tom as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl
Shemar Moore as Victor Stone/Cyborg
Paul Jeffrey Byrne as Firestorm
Danica McKellar as M'gann M'orzz
Grey Griffin as Donna Troy
Susan Eisenburg as Wonder Woman
Susan Sullivan as Queen Hippolyta
Julie Bowen as Aresia
Michael York as Ares
Travis Willingham as Thor