A lush Earth practically devoid of humans, where vast wildernesses extended for as far as the eye could see. The only sign of Mankind was a walled city, surrounded by inhuman things.
Another Earth, this one with lifeless red seas that lapped at broken shores. Everything about it seemed off, from the geography, to the unsuspecting peoples inhabiting damaged cities.
An Earth that was a lot like ours, but almost fuller, like the damaging events of my world had never touched it.
We passed through the countless alternate Earths like a blur, rapidly transversing dimensions as we struggled. Finally, we arrived at a barren one, where the continents had remained connected instead of drifting apart. Scion pulled away from me, baring his teeth like a rabid animal, and fired a narrow golden beam. I dodged to the side, noting as the attack dug a straight trench across the titanic landmass beneath us and bisected it. He was using more and more of his full power, now that he had a better gauge of what I could do.
Two could play at that game. I blasted him with my heat vision, widening it into a cone that encompassed him entirely and stripped away all of his flesh. He began to slowly counteract against it, his body becoming more and more recognizable, but it was costing him thousands of pounds of flesh every second to do so. There was only so much he could do to defend himself from an attack when there was so much power behind it.
I waited a few more seconds, then switched back to melee. Scion opened his mouth to howl, only for me to completely pulverize his body with a punch. As soon as his body reformed, I lashed out with a wide kick, tearing away even more of his flesh. I began to speed up, moving so fast that Scion barely seemed to be moving as I ripped into his flesh. His strength could be easily turned into a weakness; such fast regeneration also meant that his reserves could be drained quicker.
Even then, I knew I was fighting an uphill battle. Even assuming I was tearing away at his well with maximum efficiency, it could be days before his reserves ran out. Meanwhile, every hit he landed on me was another sore spot, another bruise that took time to heal, even with the sun burning down on us. If, and that was a big if, I did managed to survive until his well ran out, what would happen to the Earths? How many people would he kill before he was stopped?
I dismissed the thought out of my head. I had to focus on stopping him, to find a way to quickly end the fight. Were Dragon and the others working on finding his real body, at the moment? Or did they have no clue about what was happening?
Scion was preparing another attack, most likely another one of his mass stilling blasts. I moved away from him, trying to clear as much distance as possible, then opened fire with my heat vision again. The beams blasted him down to the bone, but they didn't stop him from firing the attack.
It was a different from before. A massive flurry of golden bolts raced out of him from all directions, producing mushroom clouds wherever they hit the ground beneath us. I zipped about, dodging as many of the bolts as possible, but there were too many to avoid entirely. One of them struck me in the chest dead on, and I found myself smashing into the distant ocean like a bullet. The tectonic plate crumpled and folded at the point of impact, like a leaf curling as flames scorched it to ash.
Scion was quick to press his advantage, flying at me like a streak of golden light. I watched as he advanced, then stepped to the side, letting him plow through the thin oceanic crust. The heat of the magma beneath stripped away more of his tissue, but it didn't last. He punched back up through the remains of the continent plate to face me, as spotless as ever.
Wherever you guys are, you need to hurry, I thought.
Heat welled up behind my eyes, boiling the water around my face, and I fired again.
S
"So, you're going to help us?" Dragon asked. Her main suit was crouched in a sitting position, looking directly at the unexpected guest in the ship.
Legend nodded, sighing. "I know you have no reason at all to trust me at all. I was with their group, and it doesn't matter that I didn't know what was going on. Part of me was concerned about some of the things Cauldron seemed willing to do, but I was so caught up in what they were saying about producing the next generation of heroes. I might have figured it out earlier, if I wasn't so willfully blind about what was happening."
There was a pause as the group stared at him, considering his words.
"I believe you," the Batman said.
Legend turned slightly, fixating on the cloaked figure. "You do?"
"I have lie-detection equipment built into my helmet. Either you're a good liar, you're telling the truth, or you believe what you're saying. I'm leaning towards the latter, at least for now."
"Of course, there's still some reason for trepidation," Dragon said. "There's a possibility that this meeting is part of their schemes, whether you know about it or not. They might be trying to manipulate us into certain positions they find... preferable."
"Even if they're are, we can't let that stop us from trying to help Taylor. I can bring a lot to the table, and I'm willing to use it. All of us can bring something important to this fight."
"Like what?" the Batman inquired.
"Sunlight," Amy said. "He can make sunlight, like when he and I healed Taylor. Maybe he can act like a medic or something, making sure she still has the energy to fight."
"This is Scion we're talking about," Dragon said. "Chances are Legend would get torn apart before he could contribute anything useful."
"I'm right here, you know," Legend said quietly.
Dragon turned to face him. "It's a good point, however unpleasant it sounds. You going alone to help Taylor would be suicide, but you might be able to stand a chance if we help along, provide cover and distractions. I'll need to scan Scion's portals if I even have a chance of hurting him, anyway."
Legend managed a weak smile. "So you'll let me help?"
"In a word? Yes."
S
Our surroundings flickered once more, and we were back on my Earth. The air was already growing thick with dust and ash where we had torn up the countryside, tinging the sky a beautiful red, as well as other colors outside of the visible spectrum. It was an interesting contrast, that the most gorgeous sunsets were often the ones created by the most terrible things.
Scion roared, reaching an impossible volume as he advanced upon me again. Everything around us seemed to almost shy away from him, as though even they feared what he could do. Golden light began to lace the brazen flesh of his hands, wildly fluctuating as he lashed out. I dodged the first blow, then responded in kind with an uppercut that split him from groin to chin. Scion rounded on me, still howling with unadulterated rage as he swung at me repeatedly, only to miss each time.
I was speeding up again, just like with the fight against the Simurgh. His frenzied attacks, which would have been too fast for the naked eye to see, were almost graceful as they sluggishly arced through the air. I still couldn't go too fast, however, not with there still being people that could get hurt in the process.
I began to alternate quicker between heat-vision and melee, not allowing him any time to adapt to my attacks as I continued to chip away at his reserves.
That was when he blasted out in all directions, dazing me once more as that strange effect of his assailed every part of my body. I stumbled away from Scion, trying to regain focus, only for him to finally connect with a fist to the jaw. There was a flash of golden light, and suddenly I was flying straight through the stratosphere, soon leaving the world below me as I reached the upper levels of the atmosphere. I looked down at the curvature of the globe, watching it slowly turn under my gaze.
For the briefest of moments, a portal formed, and Scion emerged from it. His mouth was still open, superfluous muscles tensing beneath his golden skin as he screamed, but his howl was utterly silent in the void of space. If it weren't for the fact that I was in the worst pain I had ever felt, I probably would have found the image comical.
Unfiltered sunlight prickled against my skin, and I found the strength to move again. I dove at Scion, punching clean through his body, watching as the portals connecting him to his real body shifted away from me. Emerging from his back, I twisted about so that he was in my sights, then opened fire with more heat-vision.
It was a study in contrasts, seeing how Scion fought. Sometimes, he seemed nothing more than an animal, wildly flailing out as he attempted to land a blow, but at other times he was frighteningly effective with his powers. Was he accessing Thinker powers, using them to find the best course of action to take? If he was, then why wasn't he using them all the time?
It didn't matter. My strength was returning with every moment we were there, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. As the fight progressed, I would be getting progressively weaker, while he would stay at full capacity until the exact moment of death. I remembered the myth of Sisyphus, of how he pushed a massive stone up a hill, only for it to come rolling back down and forcing him to start all over again.
As I watched Scion turn to face me, I felt a lot like that old Ephyrean king .
S
"Just received a report from a station in Vladivostok. Scion and Taylor are currently fighting in orbit over Kamchatka, reentry over Korea likely," Dragon said. "I'm preparing the Phantom Drive weapon right now; we can be there in a few minutes."
The Batman turned to face Legend. "Now's your last chance, if you have any sudden qualms about this. We can't force you to do anything, no matter how badly we may need your help."
Legend shook his head. "When I agreed to get my powers, I knew that I wouldn't stop trying to help as many people as possible. I can't go back and look my husband and son in the eye if I turn my back on Taylor, on everyone, like that. I'll do what I can to help, even considering just what we're going up against."
The Batman watched him keenly, watching his expressions, then gave a curt nod. "It's good to see you're willing to help."
"We should be leaving now," Dragon said.
Legend nodded. "I'll scout it out first, see what's going on before you arrive."
He headed down the hallway that led to the airlock. It slid open, revealing the frigid Arctic wastes, and he stepped outside. The horizon was hazy with distant smoke, a sign of the ongoing devastation. Legend watched it for a few moments, then sighed.
"I'm hope I'm not too late."
With that, he took off.
S
I fell rapidly back to the Earth below, like angel cast from Heaven by the wrath of God. The ground rushed up to meet me, and I smashed through hundreds of feet of dirt and rock as I came to a definitely-not-soft landing.
Scion reappeared using the portal maneuver again, more golden light suffusing his body as he drifted towards me. I darted from the fresh crater I had made, pulverizing even more of Scion's body as I tore into him like a giant buzz-saw. He seemed to be completely nonplussed by it, however, and simply responded by preparing another omnidirectional blast.
As I flew away to avoid it, however, he suddenly shifted, instead opting to fire a massive ball of light that missed me by a large margin. It arced over the mountains, swiftly covering ground as it headed to its target-
-which was Beijing.
Time began to slow down again as I peered through the mountains, observing the city in every minute detail. It was still half-full; the evacuations apparently had not gone as smoothly as the other ones I had seen. It was understandable, considering the sheer scale and population of the place. If the blast hit...
I forced myself to my feet, groaning at the pain in my ribs. I felt like a boxer after 13 rounds in the ring with a heavyweight champ, and it would only be getting worse as the fight dragged on. As I watched the city's impending doom approach, however, I realized what I had to do, consequences be damned.
Taking a deep breath, I took off.
Outracing the attack was easy enough; it was almost like watching a rock fall underwater with how ponderous it was. At first, I attempted to disperse the effect of the light with a burst of heat-vision, but it appeared to do absolutely nothing to it. With a sinking feeling in my gut, I intercepted it about twenty miles or so from the city, letting it strike me dead on.
The next thing I remembered, I was lying down in a crater big enough for an ocean liner to sail around in. Blackened earth surrounded me for thousands of feet in every direction, smoke and steam rising from every nook and cranny of it. Wincing, I managed to rise to a sitting position and absentmindedly wiped my mouth, only to feel something warm and wet. Looking down, I saw a streak of pinkish blood on my hand. It was strange, seeing myself bleed; I had only seen it once before, while fighting Behemoth.
Compared to the fight I was in at the moment, Behemoth was a walk in the park.
Scion drifted down into the crater, his fists glowing. He had stopped howling with rage, though I could still see the furious expression on his face. Moving with almost forced ease, he floated towards me, pointing a hand in my direction.
Before he could fire, however, a flurry of blue-white beams began to tear into his flesh. Scion turned to the new attacker, as did I.
Legend streaked across the sky, followed by Dragon's main battlesuit.
Help had arrived.
A/N: Very sleepy at the moment. I will probably polish this chapter up immensely when I have the time tomorrow. My weekend is going to be very busy, so I wanted to get this chapter out before that happened. I guess that's one of my writing faults; I'm very impatient with this stuff. If you have any suggestions for improving the bit, feel free to comment.
