Chapter of the Week Poll Up at the Usual Location.
Chapter Nine: Countdown.
The minutes, the seconds, they all ticked by on a clock. Harry knew the end would be here, one way or another. So he needed to take a calculated risk which should, be all thoughts, be something which would pay off.
A flash of light engulfed Harry, and he stepped back a couple of feet. A satisfied smile crossed over his face. He turned to Kara and Alex, both of them surprised, even though they should not have been. They were getting used to Harry pulling off the impossible, to the point where they thought the word should have been eliminated.
"I'll take the first step," Harry said. "And if it's all clear, you can follow me."
Kara and Alex looked towards Harry and he stepped into the light. He waved his hand and caused a shield to appear around him. The shield allowed Harry to adapt more to the rather peculiar atmosphere around him. He continued to walk further into the light.
"Is it all clear?" Alex asked.
"Yes."
Kara looked as if she wanted to jump in first. Alex decided to take a step forward into the light. Her bones had been chilled the moment she walked through. Harry gripped her before too many problems could occur from this strange alien atmosphere. He pressed his hand onto hers and a shield appeared around her.
Now her sister went in, Kara had to follow straight behind. So she did, making the same landing. She could feel an unsettling presence. Harry grabbed her hand and a warmth spread over her body. The light flashed about her body a few seconds later.
Alex prepared to use her weapon. She wondered if the discs on here would be enough to take the master. If she unloaded her entire gun on the Star Conqueror, would it be a sufficient amount to take him down? Alex had so many questions.
"It wouldn't hurt," Harry said. "I shielded both of your minds. So he shouldn't be able to feed off of your thoughts and emotions."
Kara winced at the thought. She almost forgot about this particularly alarming quality of the Star Conqueror. The Girl of Steel walked forward and almost stepped in a hole on the ground. She stepped back a few seconds later.
Not a hole, more like a nest. Several purple eggs rattled in it. Harry moved around and placed an explosive device in the midst of the nest.
"You realize this is going to get his attention…her attention….it's attention," Alex said. "I'm not sure if STARRO even has a gender."
"Man, woman, or thing….it's pure evil," Kara said. Despite her mind being shielded from the horror, she could feel twinges echo through the back of her head. She shuddered a few seconds later.
Pure evil had been defined in many ways. Harry placed a hand on Kara's and pressed a button. A large explosion resounded and rocked the nest. His drones had been vaporized before they could be given life.
They were parasites, only born to feed into the Star Conqueror. Harry knew they would have been dead from the moment they were give life anyway. He had a sixth sense about these things.
A large and loud growl could have been heard. Kara turned towards the cave, raising an eyebrow. She extended her finger forward.
"So, that dark, spooky cave," Alex said, frowning when looking on. "That can't be the place where STARRO is holed up, could it be?"
Kara's senses only allowed her to hear a low and unsettling hum. She pieced together what she heard.
"It's hungry," Kara said. "And it will never be satisfied until it wakes up…"
Three larger than usual starfish rose up from a moist area of the planet they were on .Alex stepped back to see one of them. The eye opened up, and a light telepathic probe caught the three visitors from their planet.
The very second when none of the aliens could pull a thought out of the mind of their guests, it's when they snapped. One of them jumped up and tried to latch onto Alex. The shield around her caused the alien to ricochet back. It snapped down onto the ground as if it were a rubber band. The flesh burned the second it dropped down to the ground.
Harry heard a hint of a telepathic scream and new this battle would be a lot easier.
Hank Henshaw knew more entrances into the DEO base than anyone else, and he had to admit, this particular entrance was far from his favorite. No one, man, or anything else, relished having to wallow through sewers to get where he needed to go.
He made his way to the lower bunk and much to his relief, none of the prisoners had been taken out. Then again, releasing prisoners who might put up a resistance to them was not on STARRO's agenda. Hank turned around a few seconds later.
"Henshaw will find a way back," one of the guards said. "He knows every entrance into this place, including some these flesh bags in here don't know."
Henshaw waited for several agonizing moments, waiting for the STARRO controlled drones to pass him. He heard them pass and a breath had been brought from his body.
He pealed open the door. A solid humming could have been heard in the background. Henshaw opened his eyes, and looked at the gateway which was about ready to be opened.
These drones intended to punch a hole through time and space. The leader, the same herald which had been imprisoned, looked on with a smile.
"You can come out and play, Martian," the leader STARRO herald said. "We know you're in here right about….."
The two guards had been punched to the ground. The blood trickled out of their mouths, when Hank Henshaw shifted into J'onn J'onzz, the last survivor of the fourth planet form the son.
"Yes, I've been looking to pick your mind clean," the herald said. "You're the one I wanted this entire time….."
"You want me, here I am," J'onn said, eyes glowing red. "Your master will not have Earth…"
"You've sent them ahead, haven't you?" the herald laughed, mirth soaked in his voice. "You've just sealed your fate. Like I'm certain you've sealed the fate of all of your fellow Martians…."
J'onn took down the DEO agents which had been possessed. He needed to take extra care not to do anything which to have injured them. He turned around, avoiding the attacks of these DEO possessed people.
"You can't fight them for long, because you won't hurt them…"
"I don't need to hurt them," J'onn said. "I just need to hurt you…"
J'onn slipped through the attacks and rushed his way through to the computer. He pressed a red button, which caused a feedback loop.
His own ears had been blasted from the feedback loop in a hard way, but he took a mild amount of satisfaction in the face the alien intruders also had been nailed hard from the attack. The lead herald rushed towards him, almost detaching from the chest of his host.
"No!"
J'onn grabbed the parasite his hands when the connection had been loosened, but two more of them pinned down, one of them holding a torch at the back of his neck.
"Martians, and your fear of fire," the leader said. "Typical…..well, this is your lucky day…..because…"
J'onn tried to summon all of the strength he could muster to break free. The drone staggered back when J'onn dove at him. J'onn made an honest attack to take the STARRO drone down, but it lead to pretty much nothing in the end.
"Typical in your fear of fire," the STARRO drone said. "And just like your kind, you'll be forced to stand by and watch when another planet you've called home burns."
"You won't get away with this," J'onn said. "They'll stop you…."
"STARRO is the truth in this world," the drone said. "The perfect world will be here. Soon our leader will have a brand new homeworld."
J'onn could see one of the starfish drones. Under the thrall of hot fire, his mental processes had been harder to keep together, to prevent any possession. He would attempt to keep his head above the ground, because he had to. There was no way he could drop down, not when the world counted on him.
He just hoped Harry, Kara, and Alex had better luck on the other side of the universe.
Harry grew tired of a couple of things. One was the super villain monologue. He heard them way too many times for his comfort, to the point where he could recite them point by point.
"I know what you're going to say," Harry said. "You're planning to take over the world…..you're going to enslave all humanity. There's nothing we're going to do to stop you, and you're going to destroy us all for thinking we have any chance of doing so."
Harry blinked for a moment, waiting for some kind of response. The moment he received none, his lips curled into a devious smile.
"Did I get all of the points?" Harry asked.
"I'm afraid so," Kara said with a sigh.
"You think this is a joking manner?" STARRO asked, his voice rumbling. "You think I am something to be taken lightly….you think I will not crush you three for your insolence."
"Why don't you come out in the light if you want to crush us so badly, then?" Kara asked. "I think you're terrified. Scared, scared to fight without your children, without your trickery. You're pretty much nothing."
Alex wondered if her sister should have been riling up STARRO like this. She peered off to one side and watched as the starfish started to rise up high off of the ground. One eye flashed open, peering at STARRO with a sinister sounding growl.
'Yeah, I'm beginning to think this might not be the best idea,' Alex thought to herself, frowning.
STARRO was several times bigger than its children. The number of worlds it consumed were obvious thanks to the massive and immense girth it exhibited. STARRO stared at them with one blinking eye, sizing them up.
"You think you can stop the inevitable…"
Harry super charged a branch on the ground and aimed it to the flesh underbelly of STARRO in mid sentence. The branch impaled the belly of the creature and resulted in one of the most inhumane howls imaginable.
"You cannot stop me!" STARRO growled. STARRO thrashed about in an attempt to rise up before flopping down onto the ground.
"Alex, hit him with everything, and I mean everything."
Alex was a couple of steps ahead of Harry, unloading everything on her gun into STARRO. The discs impaled into him and sent a blast of bio-energy towards the creature. STARRO growled and caused some dirt to fly into the air. Several purple spikes appeared in the air.
Kara blasted them with her heat vision. A purple fog almost obscured her vision. The Girl of Steel stepped back, heart hammering against her rib cage.
"I think we just pissed him off," Alex said.
Kara cast one of the most obvious, "well duh" looks towards her sister.
Harry figured about as much. An angry enemy made for a sloppy one as well. If he could only find a way to lure the creature into a trap.
It would take a little bit of timing, which Harry knew all about. He was the master of cutting it close.
The lead herald turned his attention towards the alien planet, which his master had been left on.
"To think, if it wasn't for Supergirl, none of this would be possible," the herald said. "As a thanks for her, she will be offered a quick and merciful death."
The herald turned to J'onn, who had been forced into a ring of fire.
"Unlike you, J'onn J'onzz, who will meet his end in a fiery inferno."
J'onn refused to back down or wilt in fear. He refused to allow these monsters to get him, or take him down.
"You're not going to succeed."
"The final words of desperation from a man whose planet is going to die," one of them said. "And just think, you've suffered a dead planet the second time. But don't worry, it will be a mercy when we don't let you live with your failure this time."
J'onn's rage almost overrode the conditioned Martian fear of fire. He tried to block out the thoughts the fire would attack him and start to power on through. His breath had been labored and it took him a couple of minutes to start breathing.
'Never fear, never be afraid, never again,' J'onn thought a few seconds later. He tried to pull himself to a standing position and just collapsed down to the ground.
"Look at his weakness," one of the STARRO drones said. "Have you ever seen anyone who was more weak?"
"Yes, your master, and the way he hides behind deception," J'onn said.
Any humor which had been buried within these STARRO drones departed from the room in an instant. All of them locked eyes with the Martian, a hideous looking expression etched on their eyes when they watched him. Despite their agitation, J'onn refused to let this get down.
"Okay, this could have gone better," Supergirl said.
"We're not done yet," Harry said.
Harry found himself face to face with the monster which destroyed several alien races in the past. Some of them had been far more advanced than those on the planet Earth. His eye looked at them with complete and utter contempt.
"Do you really think you have any chance of….."
"Supergirl, while he's distracted!"
Supergirl flew to the right and came down from underneath the creature. The alien goo dripping all over her was not the latest skin purification. The Girl of Steel made her way underneath the creature and attacked him with everything she had.
Harry came from above just as much as Kara came from underneath. They worked as a well oiled machine, but unfortunately for them, STARRO had the upper hand.
"You are fools if you think I don't have the upper hand!" STARRO bellowed. "I have the entire planet's resources at this disposal. I am this planet…"
Vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around Kara. She struggled out of the grip of the vines and almost flipped a couple of feet back. The Girl of Steel allowed herself to catch her breath, in time to see one of the trees rise out of the ground.
Fighting a giant starfish monster proved to be enough of a challenge, at least in the back of Kara's mind. Fighting an entire planet on the other hand, she wasn't sure even Harry had the ability to do this.
Harry stayed calm in the face of certain fire. He waved his hand and caused the vines to retract backwards. Harry smiled when looking towards those vines which shot backwards a few feet.
One of them shot out of the ground, and plucked Harry off of the ground. He used his great reflexes to hurl himself high into the air. Supergirl blasted up into the sky, faster than a speeding bullet, and caught him before he landed onto the ground.
"For the record, I could have made that landing without splatting," Harry said.
"I'd rather not take the chance…"
The entire planet rumbled beneath their feet, rocking both Harry and Kara. Despite their ability to get up above the pull of gravity of the planet, it was rather hard. Some strong force started to weigh them down.
Supergirl powered out with her super strength. If she could only get to STARRO, finish him off, preventing him from leading.
Several purple pods rose from the planet. They were like the first herald and Harry could see the vortex start to crack open.
"My followers, there's another world ripe for the taking!"
Harry wondered if super villains had their own hand book for their nice little sayings. No time to really think about it right now. Harry swooped in and started to blast the pods. He used a field to block them all.
"You cannot stop this…"
Several more vines wrapped around Harry. He tried to fight out of them, but there were way too many of them. Kara moved over to save him and she had been ensnared in vines once again. Her super strength sapped, the unfortunate consequences on running on reserves on a planet with no yellow sun.
Despite Kara's determination, she could not break free of those vines. They wrapped around her body with all of the force of a demented viper, threatening to crush every single inch of her in their titanic grip. The Girl of Steel made an honest attempt to break free, but there was really no way for her to break free, at least not at this moment.
"Damn it, so tight," Kara said.
"The two of you cannot stop me," STARRO said.
Alex crept around from the other side. Harry's plan, his insane plan, was to make sure STARRO's full and undivided attention was on the two people with powers, so the person without powers could slip underneath the radar.
She reconfigured one of the discs, and stepped back.
A loud sonic siren echoed through the alien planet. This echoed all the way through the portal as well. The paralyzing sound caused STARRO's control of the planet to be minimized.
Harry waved his hand, shielding the ears of the three DEO agents, before he amplified the sound.
"You can't, this horrible noise!" STARRO yelled.
"Ah, you can't handle it, can you?" Harry asked.
Harry waved his hand into the portal and created a vacuum effect. The STARRO drones had been sucked through the portal one at a time, back to their master's homeworld.
"No, you can't…!"
Harry could see the STAR Conqueror thrashing about. It smashed the disc, in an attempt to get control. The shrill sonic siren stopped, and left Harry standing in the middle of the planet.
He noticed a rather weaker area on the fleshy side of his underbelly. Harry waved his fingers, causing a dagger made of pure magical energy. Raw magical energy, the type which proved to be wild, untamed, and almost impossible to control.
Harry needed to take aim, one and a million shot to strike the underbelly of this monstrous creature. The dagger stuck underneath the creature and caused a huge explosion to resound.
STARRO exploded, and Harry looked over his shoulder. The portal was shrinking, but that wasn't the worst problem. The planets structural intergrity was about ready to explode.
Alex managed to find her voice quicker than Kara and Harry could.
"Run!"
A bright light flashed, and Harry, Alex, and Kara found themselves on the ground of the DEO. Purple fluids rolled off of their bodies the moment they dropped down onto the ground.
Kara was the first one to take a deep breath. She had never been so glad to be back on the ground and more importantly in an atmosphere which had not been controlled by some kind of demented alien starfish.
"So, we're alive," Kara said.
The Girl of Steel took a moment to catch her breath. She almost pulled herself to her feet, but slipped on the purple goo which had followed them through the portal. It was STARRO or rather what was left of STARRO.
Yes, that's what Kara was going with anyway right now.
"Yes, we're tired, sore, dripping in goo, and not in the good way either," Alex said, with a sigh. "We're still alive though."
Harry turned his attention towards them. He snapped his fingers and allowed the fire shield to appeared. A rather disshelved looking Hank Henshaw pulled himself to his feet and almost fell over. He looked at the DEO agents on the ground. Some of them had red marks from where the starfish had dug into their chest.
"They're going to be fine, for the record," Harry said. "Does the same go for you?"
"Is Earth fine?" Hank asked.
"Yes," Harry said.
"Then, that should answer your question," Hank said, turning around.
For a brief second, he thought all was lost. He looked at the mess which had been left all over the ground. The sickening and sticky amount of alien goo coated the ground.
Harry waved his finger on the goo. Could STARRO reconfigure from this goo? He was going under the assumption this was a distinct possibility.
"I think we're done," Harry said. "And with his children transported into the middle of the universe, and STARRO done…..well I don't think we're going to have to worry about them."
"On the safe side though, we should keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, at least for the next couple of months," Kara said.
Thankfully she did not get any of it in her mouth. Despite the fact it looked like grape jelly, she was the remains of the demented alien starfish did not taste like grape jelly.
"Yes, it's what the DEO does," Hank said.
Alex turned around and came to one conclusion.
"I think it'd be a good idea if we headed off for decontamination," Alex said. "Just to be on the safe side."
Harry thought it would be about as good of a plan as any. He was almost one hundred percent certain the alien goo would not be a problem, but one could never be too careful.
To Be Concluded in the Final Chapter