Chapter 16: Brightest Day (War World – Part 3)
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
It quickly became apparent that the most difficult part of Batman's plan would be to simply stay alive long enough for it to come into effect. If Kara had thought that the assault by the War World's automated defenses had been terrible, the full-on attack by a fully activated War World with a guiding intelligence behind it was on an entirely different level.
Space itself seemed to be engulfed in flame as missiles the size of buildings came at them, exploding into fireballs the size of small moons. Laser blasts as wide as rivers seemed to fill every available space and Kara had to strain her superhuman reflexes to the utmost limit simply to stay ahead of the wave of annihilation.
Flashes of green light off to her right was the only sign that Abin Sur was still alive and kicking, as neither of them had the time for talk. Kara was pushing her powers like never before, at the same time utterly thankful that Clark was nowhere near this calamity. His powers, while almost completely active, were still fickle and he wouldn't have lasted a minute in this storm. Rao, she wasn't sure she would last much longer.
"We need to keep at it," Batman's voice sounded through her ear piece even as she saw Abin Sur's ship streak past her, pursued by a huge swarm of missiles. She also spotted J'Onn J'Onnz and Diana, who had vacated the ship and were providing additional targets for the War World. Kara bit her tongue to keep from telling them to get back inside. She knew how quick and tough Diana was and J'Onn had already proven that he was formidable as well. This was not the time and place to be a worried mother hen.
"Spread out further," Batman ordered them. "We need to stretch Mongul's attention as wide as possible."
Suppressing the need to keep her friends in sight, Kara poured on her super speed and flew in a wide arc around the War World, laser blasts and missiles dogging her heels every step of the way. She could feel the vast gravity of the metal world pulling at her, just like the white dwarf star in the distance.
When she actually had a second to breathe, she focused her super vision on the control room far down below the surface of the War World, checking on Mongul. He was sitting in the command chair, his face contorted in a mixture of concentration and rage. He was gripping the handles of the chair hard enough to bend the metal and sweat was glistening on his huge forehead.
"I think it's working," she told the others, even as she had to speed up again to evade certain death. "Mongul looks like using the control harness is really taking a toll on him."
There hadn't been time for a long explanation, but Kara could follow Bruce's logic. The Warzoon had died on the War World. Not all of them at once, but rather in small increments. It was as if something had killed them off one by one. And seeing as the only body Kara had spotted that had not been put in a casket had been sitting in the War World control chair, Bruce had concluded that their murderer was actually the War World itself.
It made sense, she had to admit. The mental strain of controlling an entire world, its weapons, its flight path, and everything else, had to be monumental. Mongul certainly looked like he was feeling the strain already. Not that it lessened the danger for any of them. The destructive potential of War World was truly staggering. If they couldn't stop it here, there was no telling how many lives might be lost.
Time ceased to have any meaning for Kara as she pushed on, flying faster and faster, dodging even more missiles and laser beams. She risked a wider arc that took her closer to the white dwarf, feeling her cells soak up the much-needed energy, before jumping right back into the fray. Whenever she had a moment's breathing room, she used her vision powers to check on Mongul, seeing him looking ever more stressed. They were waging a war of attrition in time lapse, someone or something had to give very soon.
There was a cry of pain across their comlink and Kara was almost hit herself as she started. A brief check with her powers showed that the cry had come from Abin Sur, who had not quite managed to dodge an exploding missile. His ring had protected him, but only just. He looked hurt and singed.
"Abin Sur, can you keep moving or do you need to retreat to the ship?" Batman asked across the comlink.
"I am fine, Batman," the Green Lantern replied, though his voice sounded pained.
"I hate to be the spoil sport," Adam Strange announced, "but all sorts of displays are lighting up here on the ship and unless I'm reading it very wrong, we've pushed this rust bucket to the limit. We're going to have to pull back or we're scrap!"
"We're running out of time, Batman," Kara said, dodging yet another giant-sized missile.
"We need to keep it up, or we'll give Mongul time to recover," Batman replied.
Suddenly, though, the apocalyptic bombardment ceased and the eternal silence of space seemed all the more silent for it. The few missiles still in flight streaked away into the darkness, the laser cannons ceased firing.
"Kara, what do you see?" Batman asked urgently.
Focusing her super vision once again, Kara sighed in relief. "It appears you were correct, Batman. Mongul has collapsed and fallen out of the control chair."
"Is he still alive?"
Kara focused her vision even closer. "I'm no sure, he... yes, I can see his chest rise and fall. He's still alive."
"Then we're still on a deadline," Diana said over the com, making Kara sigh in relief that her best friend seemed unharmed from the terrible gauntlet. "If he wakes up, he might start this all over again."
"Or worse," Batman added, "figure out what is wrong with the control harness and fix the problem. We need to move now!"
Kara immediately accelerated towards the War World's surface, but had to evade again when the satellites opened fire on her once more.
"Damn it, the automated defenses are still active," Strange cursed. "How are we supposed to make it down there?"
Kara desperately tried to figure out something, her gaze moving across the gleaming surface of the War World and the white dwarf star rising above its sharp horizon. Then an idea struck her. An insane one, granted.
"This system is devoid of life, correct?" she asked.
"Indeed," J'Onn answered. "Whatever life might once have thrived here was destroyed by the Warzoon before they perished. All the worlds in this system are nothing but dead rock."
"Good," she said, then looked towards Abin Sur. "Are you familiar with the Earth game called Pool?"
One would not know it from simply looking at him, but Abin Sur was not a young man anymore. He had served as the Green Lantern of sector 2814 for well over a hundred solar cycles now. The power of the green light kept his body in peak condition, but even the wondrous power ring could not stave off the effects of time entirely. Especially on a day like this, when he had fought harder and longer than at any other time in recent memory.
He felt old and tired. Still, he was a Green Lantern. Fear was something he had long ago overcome. At least for his own life. Not so much for the lives of others.
"Are you certain of this, Kara-El?" he asked, having just listened to the insane idea of the young Kryptonian by his side.
"It will work," she simply said, probably knowing full well that it wasn't their chances of success he had questioned. "Even if we could get down there somehow, we can't leave War World intact for someone else to find later down the line, who might be able to fix the flaw in its guidance system. We need to destroy it and this might be the only way to do it."
Abin Sur nodded, knowing she was right.
"Kara, what are you planning?" the voice of the one called Diana came over the com, sounding worried.
"Something stupid, probably," she answered, and then she moved.
Abin Sur blinked, even as he commanded his power ring to keep track of the Kryptonian's trajectory. It still amazed him how powerful the Kryptonians could become when charged up with potent solar radiation. How easily their race could have avoided their fate had they but migrated to another world with a younger star. But it did not matter now. He had to focus now, unless he wished for the last daughter of Krypton to join the rest of her people in extinction.
There was nothing to see for the naked eye, but his ring easily tracked Kara-El as she accelerated away from the white dwarf at speeds that would put most space craft to shame. She flew directly towards the system's largest planet, a gas giant, and arrived before he had even finished the thought. She circled the planet, allowing herself to be drawn in by its enormous gravity and accelerated even faster. After dozens of orbits she shot out again, faster even than before, and headed directly towards the white dwarf.
"Gods, the woman is insane," he heard Adam Strange whisper, the champion of Rann obviously having figured out what she was doing.
Kara-El circled the white dwarf at a ridiculously low orbit, diving deep into its humongous gravity well, and accelerated even further. Even his ring had trouble tracking her exact location from one moment to the next now, as she was barely more than a red and blue streak.
A moment later she shot away from the white dwarf again, angling towards the gas giant once more for the final leg of her intended journey.
"Hera, protect her," Diana whispered.
Kara-El used the gas giant to slingshot back around and was now heading directly towards the War World, which was still in an orbit around the white dwarf.
"Now, Abin Sur," she yelled into her com, her voice strangely distorted from the relativistic effect of flying at something approaching half the speed of light. It took but a thought and green light exploded from Abin's ring, reaching out towards the blurred shape of his comrade. His will made into light wrapped itself around her near-invulnerable form and Abin Sur's entire universe shrunk down to a single point as he poured everything he had into a single thought: protect her!
There was no sound in space, but had there been then Kara's impact into the side of the War World would certainly have put the voice of any god to shame. She hit the metal world at a carefully calculated angle, her speed far too great for the automated defenses to even begin to track her, and the entire huge planetoid shuddered from the tremendous impact. Huge cracks ran along its surface, thousands of tons of metal simply vaporized from the kinetic energy of the collision, and the artificial globe's orbit shifted.
"Immovable object, meet the irresistible force called Superwoman," Adam Strange cheered. "It's working! The War World's orbit is decaying!"
While larger than the white dwarf, even a satellite made entirely from metal was nowhere near as massive as a collapsed star. The white dwarf's gravity began to draw the War World towards it.
"Abin Sur, your ship's computer calculates that the War World will collide with the white dwarf in roughly two hours. We really shouldn't be here when that happens!"
"Where is Kara?" Diana asked.
It took them over an hour to locate their missing comrade, who had ricocheted from the War World like a stone skipping across water. They were actually quite lucky that she hadn't simply shot off into empty space at the ridiculous speed she had been travelling, instead falling into the gravity well of one of the system's planets. Even as the War World was moving in ever-closer orbits around the white dwarf, they set down on the surface of the desolate hunk of rock that Kara had come down on.
They found their comrade lying at the end of a miles long trench she had dug into the rocky surface of the planet, Strange setting the ship down right beside her. Diana was the first out of the ship, running towards her friend.
"Kara? Kara, are you all right?"
She sighed in relief when she saw that Superwoman was in fact conscious and already sitting up at the end of the trench, giving her a tired smile.
"Remind me to never do anything like this again, Diana," Kara said, brushing dust and dirt off her shoulders. "Really, never again!"
Diana hugged her, though carefully as Kara was still favoring her right arm. "I hoped you tackled the planet with your left shoulder, you madwoman!"
Batman and the others walked up to them, even the dark knight's stoic mask clearly showing relief at seeing that Superwoman was all right.
"We really shouldn't linger," he said. "Once the War World collides with the white dwarf, this entire system is going to turn really inhospitable."
"No telling when the Zeta beam will wear off," Adam added, looking at the sky, "so we better put some distance between us and the star in Abin's ship."
Kara looked up, her eyes focusing on the War World and it's decaying orbit. It looked almost comical, the smaller object drawing in the bigger one, but the bang when they would finally meet would be a sight to behold, she was sure. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to catch a glimpse of the control center where she had last seen Mongul. Her head was still ringing from the impact, though, and her eyes refused to focus properly.
"Any sign of Mongul?" she asked the others instead.
Before anyone could give an answer, though, Abin Sur's ship suddenly exploded behind them, causing everyone to take cover. When the smoke cleared, a huge yellow shape emerged from the wreckage.
"The greatest weapon in the universe," Mongul growled as he approached them. "And you took it from me!"
The six heroes quickly lined up side by side, ready to face him.
"He's as strong as I am, probably stronger," Kara warned the others. "And a lot faster than his bulk suggests."
"Let him come," Diana growled, teeth bared, drawing the sword she had taken along for exactly this situation. "I am looking forward to..."
Her sentence was suddenly cut off as a blinding flash of light enveloped them all.
"What happened?" Diana asked, when her eyes managed to focus again. Looking around, she saw that they were back in the docking bay of the Watch Tower, surrounded by the wreckage of Abin Sur's ship. She also noticed that someone was missing. "Why isn't Kara here?"
"The Zeta beam wore off," Adam said. "But... somehow not for Superwoman!"
"It must be her Kryptonian physiology," J'Onn speculated. "Her cells absorb solar radiation. Maybe the Zeta radiation is similar enough to sunlight that her body holds a charge much longer than ours do."
"You mean she is still on that planet, all alone with Mongul?"
"Not alone," Batman said, looking around. "Abin Sur isn't here, either."
Abin Sur had not been a Green Lantern for well over a century for nothing. The moment he felt the pull of the Zeta beam, he enveloped himself in a cocoon of green energy and pushed against the spatial distortion effect that was looking to deposit him back in Earth's orbit. Mongul was still here and needed stopping, lest he somehow prevent the destruction of War World yet.
As the Zeta radiation dissipated, he was surprised to see that he was not the only member of their makeshift team that had remained in place. Superwoman, too, was still here.
"What happened?" she asked, never taking her eyes off the approaching enemy. "Where are the others?"
"The Zeta beam took them home, it seems," he said. "I resisted its effects. And it appears you did, too."
Attention, the voice of his power ring whispered in his mind. Ring charge below 5%. Recharge as soon as possible!
"Great," Superwoman muttered, unaware of the precarious state of his ring's power reserves. "Diana is never going to let me hear the end of this if we survive. She was so looking forward to taking this guy on."
Abin cursed under his breath, he really should have recharged his ring while they were on the ship. Every Green Lantern ring needed to be recharged by touching it to a Power Battery, a direct conduit to the central Green Lantern Power Battery on the planet Oa. It would take but a thought to summon the battery from subspace, but the recharging process would take roughly twenty seconds or so.
He was quite certain Mongul would not give them that much time. Looking over at his sole remaining comrade, he clearly saw that Superwoman was favoring her right arm and looked extremely tired. This was not going to be easy.
"You do realize that the War World was deeply flawed, right?" Superwoman said, facing Mongul. "The control harness was killing its users. It damn near killed you, too."
"Something I could have easily remedied, given enough time," Mongul growled at her, slowly coming closer. "You robbed me of that chance, creature! I hope it was worth your life!"
Mongul leaped forward, but immediately impacted against a glowing green wall that had sprung up in front of him. Superwoman didn't hesitate and immediately flashed forward when the green wall winked out again. Still off-balance, Mongul couldn't brace himself against her and a double punch sent him toppling backwards. Abin saw her wince at the impact, no doubt feeling pain in her still-healing right arm, but she pushed it aside.
Mongul was only just coming back to his feet when Abin hit him with a glowing green battering ram, taking him off his feet once again. Twin beams of red energy from Superwoman's eyes hit him dead on, causing him to cry out in pain. But a moment later he was back on his feet once again. Abin wrapped him up in glowing green chains, but the giant broke free of them and continued his charge.
Warning, ring charge at 3%! Recharge as soon as possible!
"Superwoman," he said, even as they kept up their joint assault to the best of their abilities. "My ring is almost out of charge. I will need roughly twenty seconds to recharge it."
He could see a mix of annoyance, fear, and anger on her face before a look of resignation came over her. "Then you better start right now, Abin Sur. I will buy us the time you need!"
She flashed forward again and he heard the impact of invulnerable flesh on invulnerable flesh, but didn't pay it any heed. He summoned his green battery from subspace, making it appear in his hand. A cry of pain didn't distract him as he touched his ring to the metal surface of the battery and recited the oath.
"In brightest day, in darkest night,
no evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship Evil's might
beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Ring fully charged! the ring's automated voice intoned as his ring glowed brightly.
Abin turned around again, just in time to see Mongul hit Superwoman with a punch to the belly that almost tore her in half. Superwoman dropped to her knees, gasping for air, and Mongul raised both his fists for what might well be a killing blow. The blow was stopped by a glowing green dome, though.
"I thought you had run away, Green Lantern," Mongul said, turning toward him. "Your mistake!"
Now it was up to Abin Sur to buy time while Superwoman recovered, the Kryptonian woman clearly at the end of her strength. Mongul was relentless, though, and nothing Abin Sur did seemed to be able to penetrate his hide or even slow him down for more than a few seconds. Abin winced when Monugl broke yet another of his ring constructs, the mental backlash becoming more painful as the fight progressed.
"I have fought your kind before, Green Lantern," Mongul said, fighting off yet another assault. "It's only a matter of time until your will fails! Your magic light show is no match for my power!"
Abin didn't reply, just focused all his will power into his ring. Construct upon construct sprang forth, fists and weapons, energy beams and barricades, and Mongul smashed past each of them. With each smashed construct Abin felt stings of pain in his head and now in his chest as well.
Warning, the ring intoned, neural feedback exceeding safe limits! Disengagement recommended!
Abin had not survived as a Green Lantern for so long by being foolish. Logic told him that he should retreat, wait for reinforcements, cease this direct confrontation that seemed unwinnable. There was just one problem with that strategy, namely that there was a wounded Kryptonian behind his enemy, who was still trying to get back to her feet. And a white dwarf star about to collide with a planet-sized weapon that would result in an explosion no one would be able to survive.
If Mongul was to die in the resulting supernova, so be it. Abin would not shed a tear. But the last daughter of Krypton would not die on his watch! He had failed her people once. He refused to do so again.
Kara was sure that there was something broken inside of her. She could barely breathe, every intake of air hurt. She had pushed her body far beyond its limits today, first with the extended engagement with War World's weapons, then accelerating far beyond any speed she had ever hit before, the tremendous impact against the metal world, and now a second fight against Mongul for good measure when she had not even properly healed from the first one.
Her thoughts were focused on Clark, her son, whom she feared she would never see again. He was ready, though. She had taught him well and he knew the truth of his heritage. He would become Earth's protector in her stead and Martha and Jonathan... mom and dad would help him through the grief. Diana and the others would be by his side, standing with him.
Managing to look up, she saw Abin Sur engaging the yellow-skinned monster that had set all this in motion. She could see the strain on his face, as well as the determination. Why wasn't he fleeing? War World was about to be destroyed and Mongul would not survive its destruction, just like the rest of this system. The mission was accomplished.
As if on cue, the sky above them lit up like all the universe's fireworks were exploding at once. The giant bulk of the War World had crashed into the far denser mass of the white dwarf. Millions of tons of metal were being vaporized, stellar mass was torn loose, and a star's fusion reaction mingled with generators large enough to power a dozen planets.
The death flash of War World's demise blinded her, even as her brain tried to calculate how much time they had left. The world they were on was a bit farther out from its star than Earth, so the shockwave of the supernova would take roughly ten minutes or so to reach them. Then this world and everyone on it would die.
A cry of pain made her look away from the spectacle and what little breath was left in her body escaped her in a gasp. Apparently Abin Sur had been briefly distracted by the spectacle above or maybe his strength had simply given out. Mongul was within arm's reach of him and was crushing his hand, the one wearing the power ring, in his own much larger one.
"It's over, Green Lantern," Mongul growled. "This planet will be your funeral pyre!"
He turned to look at Kara. "And yours, too, creature! It will be ample payment for robbing me of the universe's greatest weapon!"
He started towards her and Kara desperately tried to get up, to find the strength for another burst of heat vision, anything. Her body refused to obey, though. This was it. She was going to die here!
"NO" Abin Sur screamed and the power ring on his crushed hand exploded into brilliance once more, a huge beam of power hitting Mongul in the back and propelling him away from Kara and into the side of a nearby mountain. Incredibly, the broken Green Lantern was back on his feet.
"Not again," he muttered. "Never again! Not while I still draw breath!"
Rubble shifted and Mongul was back on his feet, too, and coming towards them once again.
"Commendable, Green Lantern, but futile. I..." he trailed off, his eyes focusing on something behind them. Kara turned her head a bit, refusing to let him out of her sight entirely, until she saw what he saw.
Six streaks of green light were coming out of the sky and heading directly towards them.
"Another time then, creature," Mongul said. "Know that I will take my revenge on you, however long it takes!"
He touched a button on his belt and a moment later he was simply gone. Kara wanted to curse him, but had no breath left to do it. She barely had the strength to remain on her knees and Abin Sur was collapsing beside her. Six shapes surrounded by green light set down beside them, each of them looking entirely different, but all wearing the same green and black uniform. Green Lanterns! Abin Sur's reinforcements had finally arrived.
"We need to leave immediately," the one she recognized as a Xanthusian said. "The shockwave of the supernova will reach us within minutes."
Green beams of light gently wrapped around Abin Sur and herself and seconds later they were airborne, rapidly moving away from the doomed world below them. Kara turned to see the huge shockwave racing outward from the exploding star. War World was gone, at least. The danger to the universe was past.
"Abin?" one of the other GLs, a lilac-skinned man she believed to be from the planet Korugar, was inside the green bubble with them and kneeling beside his fallen comrade.
"She must live," Abin Sur said, his voice barely audible. "Last of Krypton… failed her people... could not let her... could not fail again!"
Kara's heart clenched as she heard his words. For so long she had carried resentment in her heart, refusing to let go of the anger she felt for the Green Lantern who had failed to save her world. In her head she had known that it hadn't been his fault, that her people had invited their doom themselves, but her heart had not listened.
Carefully moving over to his side, ignoring the pain, she took his unbroken hand in hers and gave it a soft squeeze. "You have not failed, Abin Sur," she simply said. "I live, thanks to you. Krypton lives on, thanks to you. Thank you, my friend!"
He nodded, his strained features softening. Then his eyes closed and the green ring slid of his broken fingers, hovering in the air before them. Looking up, she saw the six Green Lanterns standing in a circle around them, all of them with their rings raised in salute. The Korugarian had tears in his eyes.
"Honor be to Abin Sur," he said, his voice quivering. "Green Lantern of sector 2814. Champion of Justice! His light will shine forevermore!"
Abin Sur's ring vanished, zipping through the green bubble and shooting off into space. Kara didn't notice, she was still clutching his hand and tears were rolling down her face.
Even as Abin Sur, long-serving Green Lantern of sector 2814 and hero on hundreds of worlds, was taken to his final resting place by his comrades, a green ring of power was zipping through space. Sector 2814 was in need of a new protector, a new champion to wield the green light in the name of law and order. And be it fate or mere chance, the ring found a fitting candidate on the planet called Earth.
"Guy Gardner of Earth," the ring said, appearing before its new chosen one. "You have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps."
End Chapter 16
Author's Note: Well, sooner or later Abin Sur had to go, you all knew it was coming. I originally intended to replicate his original death scene and have it happen off-panel, but somehow found it more fitting for him to go out with a bang and reconcile his feelings of failure regarding Krypton in the process. Also, I'm going with the more modern take of the Green Lantern rings only having to be recharged when depleted instead of every 24 hours.
And yes, I have chosen Guy as my Green Lantern. To be honest I really don't like Hal Jordan in any of his incarnations and while I liked John Stewart in the Justice League cartoon and was a fan of Kyle Rayner's stint in the 90s, I finally decided to challenge myself and use Guy instead. We'll see how he fares when he eventually encounters Superwoman and her Justice League. Just a hint: I'm a huge fan of Keith Giffen's Justice League from the late 80s.
