Vlativastok, Vlativa
September 20, 2019
10:10 PM
Outside on the lawn the small skirmish of Arrowette, Wonder Girl and Terminator turned into a full on brawl and shoot out.
Behind an armored car Cassie and Cissie stayed covered, waiting on Cyborg to fix himself up and reach their position. They were pinned to the ground by Terminator, Red Hood and a newly conscious Deadshot; all spraying fire in their direction.
Behind a second vehicle Terra and El Dorado crouched under the smaller car's window, the glass flying over their heads and spraying everywhere.
"Wonder how the others are doing?" Ed said, the rifle fire stopped for a moment; he peered over the car door and squinted. Grid was dragging Superboy across the field.
"Not too well I'm assuming," Tara answered, clenching her fists and behind them a fifty yard long chunk of the ground ripped out from the lawn and flew into the air.
Tara jumped up onto the hood of the car and with her geokinesis chucked it at the woods passed the castle, crushing a castle spire on its journey.
The three mercenaries of The Light all watched it instead of focusing on the metahuman known for moving earth with her mind and taking advantage of their ignorance Terra, Ed and the others charged forwards.
Ed disappeared in a flash of gold and reappeared behind Deadshot, punching Lawton in the back of the neck, then teleporting away.
Distracted Deadshot was open to Wonder Girl's lasso wrapping around him and yanking him forwards to Cassie's balled fist.
Jason dropped his gun and pulled the swords from their scabbards as Arrowette charged at him with her bow.
Cissie transformed her bow into a staff and swung it at Jason, who blocked the almost connecting blow to his head with the blade in his left hands. Using the handle of the sword in his right he hit Cissie in the hip, making the smaller girl to lose her balance.
Jason took advantage and raised the sword in his right arm and went to swing at Cissie's head, a streak of yellow and red flashed past and as it did Jason's swords were ripped from his hands and thrown to the ground several yards away.
Bart skidded to a halt, leaning over with one hand grazing over the grass and his feet leaving srips of brown in the green lawn. He stood up and cracked his knuckles running back to Jason.
Nate ran through the dark corridors of the dungeon, searching for Perdita and Courtney, with a thud he ran into an older man's body and fell to the ground before him and several other people.
He stood up expecting someone who wanted to fight him and almost punched Dick in the face. Stopping himself, realizing that the team had arrived.
"Nate, what are you doing down here," Dick asked, infuriated to see the young speedster.
"Batgirl deactivated our collars, I went running to find Perdita and the others," Nate answered.
The briefing of the situation above was stopped by a scream off in the distance. Dick, Nate, Tim and the others all peered down the dark corridor. The voice was familiar to nobody but one.
"Tayna!" Nate shouted, running off into the blackness.
"Nate!" Dick shouted after him, "Follow him before he gets himself killed!"
Nightwing, Robin and Geo Force all ran into the blackness without so much as thinking about it or what they'd see down there, Speedy, Halo and Breacher followed suit after exchanging worried glances between one another.
Perdita, Tayna and Courtney all trembled in fear at the sight of a man in maroon and black, with a skeleton face and a containment mask over his face.
Mano grabbed hold of one metateen and was starting to drag him away when Nate came rushing through, as brash as he was he grabbed the young boy from the time traveler's acidic clutches and ran him behind Perdita and Tayna, then going back up to Mano.
The expression on Nate's face was nothing short of anger, confusion and disgust at the sight of the villain.
"The hell are you supposed to be?" He couldn't stop the words from coming out in the disgusted tone he used, "Black Mask as an astronaut, and why is your hand all drippy and green?"
Mano let out a low cackle, just as Dick and the others arrived. Dick put his arm in front of the younger heroes. Halo almost puked at the sight of Mano, at least the back of his head which was just as horrifying to look at as was his face.
"The answer to those insolent questions," A voice Dick had not heard in several years, little over a decade in fact, echoed through the dark hallway.
Two shadowy figures, holding a spear in between them approached behind the metateens. Perdita turned around and her eyes widened in awe as the spear started to glow a bright white.
One shadow figure was revealed, a young girl, with fear and terror in her eyes. Tears weld in Kara's eyes as she looked at the other fearful children who also looked at the verge of crying.
The second was revealed much slower, but Dick knew the yellow, black and red uniform anywhere.
"Professor Zoom," Dick whispered, the terror Thawne's presence brought in this moment made the five yard area they all resided in at this moment feel much tenser and small.
Thawne's eyes were on fire with a crimson glow and his oily grin shone in the light of the Holy Lance, held by the pure, innocent soul of Kara Zor El. Behind them was Komand'r who was glowing a bright red, pouring red sunlight into Kara's system to make sure the Kryptonian would become superpowered abruptly.
"Hello Grayson," Thawne cackled, his voice carrying through the tunnels. "It seems that with this spear reacting to miss Zor El's presence that the heart of these children won't be needed."
"What does that even mean," Connor snapped, pulling his bow off his back and drawing back an arrow: pointed at the backwards lightning bolt on Zoom's chest.
"Mano, Validus, kill them all, Blackfire would you be a dear?" Thawne said.
Komand;r reached for a blackbox on her hip and pulled it up to her face.
"The main battle," She gave the command to the Father Box, warping her, Thawne and Kara to the lawn above in a flash of light.
Validus and Mano took great pleasure in the idea they'd get to kill more things that day, both taking their gloves off to relish the flesh on their hands.
"Nate, Breacher, get Perdita and the metateens out of here," Dick muttered, his right hand went behind his head. He wrapped his fingers around the handle of his baton and gripped it tight.
Nate and Amaya exchange glances, Amaya vanished in a flash of blue and reappeared with her hands on Perdita then they both disappeared in a cloud of blue.
Nate grabbed Courtney by the hand and ran off in a streak of black and grey.
The two came back and picked up Tayana and Miguel and left once again. Four of the six whom were in danger were out of the way, Dick decided it was time to play.
He ripped his baton from its magnetic sheath on his back and threw it at Validus's face, cracking the glass and embedding it into the alien's left eye. Validus yelpped in pain and pulled the metal rod out of his eye and threw it back at Grayson.
The impact knocked the wind out of Dick and he fell face first when his own weapon rammed into his chest. Tim knelt down and made sure his brother was still alive and when he found his pulse Tim pulled his staff off of his back and extended it.
"Go!" Tim shouted, using his staff to propel himself to Mano who couldn't react fast enough to stop Tim from striking him in the chest. Mano stepped back and balled his fists up, both dripping in acid.
Tim spun around and went to strike the villain once more only for his staff to be caught in his hands and melted into molten steel. Tim dropped his staff and opened the pouch on his right hip.
Tim threw three Batarangs at Mano's chest, all three digging into the skeleton man, Mano gave the seventeen year old Boy Wonder a cruel smile and the Batarangs fell out of his chest, melted and distorted.
Tim started to walk back as Mano reached out an acidic hand, dripping in lime colored liquid.
Mano was stopped in his tracks by a foam arrow encasing him in a layer of a cement like substance. Conner salluted to him and pulled back a second arrow and fired it.
A punching glove popped out of the arrowhead and collided with Mano's mask, imploding on contact. The glass didn't even crack, even slightly.
Connor pulled another arrow from his quiver and pulled it back, the standard arrow would've gotten Mano in the eye it the creature had eyes, or if it didn't melt from getting too close to Mano melting the cement off his body.
"Any more more tricks?" Mano asked, he was knocked off his feet by a laser blast of gold coming from Halo.
"Validus, kill her," Mano ordered the brute, who ran for Halo.
Halo glew orange and started to float high above him but Validus grabbed her leg and shook her around like a ragdoll, slamming her against the roof, floor and walls of the narrow cavern.
He threw Violet's corpse to the floor next to Dick; who was just getting to his feet. Violet started to glow purple to repair her damages and Dick shook his head.
He picked up his baton and pulled the second one off his back. He stared at Mano intensely and sighed. He spun the batons in his hands and connected them at the ends and both tips of the staff crackled in blue energy.
"Nightwing to Terra, we are right under you," Dick said into his earpiece, "Time to blow the top off!"
The roof of the cavern shook and rock fell as a large chunk of Earth above them was ripped from the lawn.
Geo Force grabbed Halo and pulled her into the tunnel as Tim, Dick and the others climbed up into the open field into the main battle above.
Dick took a look around to see news crews, helicopters and his allies and enemies brawling it out.
"Hey stranger," Stephanie said, landing next to him after being thrown out of the castle by Tommy Terror who jumped out after her.
"We need to get the news crews out of the area," Dick said, "Get them away from that spear Zoom's got."
Steph nodded and pulled out her grapple gun and fired it at the castle, flying away as Tommy Terror landed where she stood, watching her go away. Dick smirked and rammed his staff into Tommy's ear and then into his rib.
Stephanie landed a yard or so from the castle next to Cyborg and Blue Beetle who were pinned behind a armored truck as Grid and Tharrok fired their canons at it.
"Dick said that the news crews are too close," Batgirl informed them.
"KF and I can get them back," Vic said, peering over the hood of the truck and firing his Ion Blaster at Tharrok then ducking back under it.
*I can't do anything!* Bart shouted into the com, *Inertia's got me tangled up inside the palace!*
"And Barry's no doubt handling Zoom," Jaime said, "Where's Nathan?"
*He was with us,* Tim said over the com.
Suddenly Breacher landed next to Steph.
"I can do it,"" Amaya said, disappearing in a flash of blue.
Amaya teleported to the first news truck.
"Uh, you got to get out of here," She said to the reporter who gave her a confused look, "Shit right, Dodieties prom no šejienes, dzeltenā zibspuldzē ir miršanas ierīce!"
The news woman's eyes widened and she ran to her van and hopped into it. Amaya smirked to herself and went to get the next crew to leave the area.
Back in the fight Jason found Tim and was swinging his blades at the boy, Tim had lost his weapon in the caves and had no choice but to evade Red Hood till he had a real opening.
He looked over Jason's armor and saw a pair or nightsticks attached to the Red Hood's boots. Tim smirked and when a swing to his chest came for him he ducked under the blades and through Jason's legs.
He grabbed hold of the batons on Jason's boots and jumped back up to his feet and Jason spun around with a more powerful swing at Tim's head which a now armed Tim Drake blocked, with his nightsticks held under his forearms.
Over on the other side of the field Rose and Grant were now face to face, weapons clashed and scowling at each other.
"Failure," Grant shouted, swinging his katanas at his younger sister, "Scum, no honor little bitch!"
"Says the piece of crap who let Dad kill our brother!" Rose snarled, blocking the attack before it sliced her leg off.
"He volunteered," Grant said, ramming his forehead into Rose's.
"Dad manipulated him," Rose pleaded, landing on her ass and dropping her swords.
"Joey knew damn well that Brother Blood's lab was a dangerous place," Grant said, "He died in the name of science, in the name of the Light!"
Grant raised one katana high above his head, both hands clasped around its handle. He swung down at Rose, who rolled out of the way as Grant embedded the blade deep into the soil.
He tried to pull it out and out of the ground. He grunted as he tried viscously to rip it from the grass.
"Huh, talk about Excalibur," Rose muttered with a laugh and with a right hook she punched her brother in the jaw. Knocking him out and his mask off.
Barry groaned as Thawne drug him across the field to its middle. He threw Barry to the ground and laughed.
"I win," He said with a cackle. Thawne then grabbed Kara by her golden locks and close to him and grabbed the spear.
Kara looked around the battlefield in terror and her eyes fell on Superboy who came running for Thawne and the spear.
Komand'r, glowing in red sun radiation punched Conner to the ground and pinned him.
"Kal?" Kara whispered, hoping that Conner was indeed her cousin.
"No, he's not here?" Kon sighed, "My name's Kon El."
"And you lost Superboy." Zoom snickered, shoving Kara closer to Blackfire, "Now do it, make Vandal Savage's dream a reality."
"I- I can't," Kara cried.
"Alright, Komand'r kill Superboy."
And almost as if on cue, the battle stopped. Everyone's gaze turned to Thawne, Barry, Conner, Kara and Komand'r.
Komand'r wrapped her hands around Kon's throat and started to tighten her grip, holding him high in the air.
Conner's neck burned, as it it were on fire in Blackfire's clutches. He glared down at Thawne with gritted teeth and blue flames in his eyes.
"Don't kill him," Kara pleaded, "He's an El, he's my family."
"Indeed he is," Thawne laughed, "So is Kal, who is also on this planet, I'll kill and tourture them both before your very eyes, skin them alive and uncoil their intestines and arteries. Hang them using their bodily tubing. That is unless, you provide my master with his dream."
Kara looked at the spear in her hands, tears welled in her eyes. She watched her family die at this man's hands, she knew he'd do it again. She turned around at gazed at Conner who struggled to free himself from Blackfire, his hands wrapped around her arm as she choked the air out of him.
Kara sighed.
In a flash of white everything disappeared, except for the sound of Thawne's evil, ear piercing, and devilish laughter.
He won…