AN: Thank you for all the reviews
Where we left off: The heroes find themselves lost in some foreign planet at the hands of Lobo.
Two men slid down the sand hills in sleek black clothes similar to what Clark, Diana, and Steve were wearing. They seemed comfortable in the sands, trained. They controlled their descent, skating through the sands with animal-like maneuverability. They were silent, and the only sound in the air was the hissing of arrows through the winds.
The other men stood on top of the dunes, looking down like predatory crows, ready to pick through the scraps of whatever they found. The second Diana stepped out from the building she was overwhelmed by the magnitude of what surrounded her. Arrows were flying from every angle and corner. There were a small amount of men, perhaps ten total, but their marksmanship was impeccable. The ting of arrows hitting her bracers created a metallic melody that echoed through the desert.
Clark leaped out of from the building ruins. He ran to Diana and put his back against her, defending against the arrows hitting her from behind. The men, realizing the ineffectiveness of their arrows, were abandoning stations and shot across the sands like sleek black bullets to face the heroes head on.
"We aren't going to make any progress if all we can do is deflect arrows the whole time." Clark was eyeing the men coming at them from the distant black sand dunes.
Clark attempted to use his laser sight to knock the remaining shooters off balance. The men stumbled and fell in the sands, but Clark's eyes burned red and flickered off in seconds. He flinched, closing his eyes to alleviate the pain resounding through his eyes and yanking nerves on his brain. The glare irritated his eyes and made the world an angry blur of red. It felt like someone had set his eyes on fire and grains of sand pricked his eyes furthering irritating it.
"You alright?" Diana screamed over the sounds over the remaining whizzing arrows. "You seem weaker here."
"I am, but I'm fine." Clark fought through the pain in his eyes and attempted aiming at the shooters again. He shot blindly into the distance and caused giant eruptions on the sand dune surfaces. He was frustrated, stumbling, and could not help but feel as though he was just drawing more attention to the scene.
Meanwhile, Steve, behind the ruins, had found a weapon of sorts. He could have sworn it hadn't been there just seconds ago, it was almost as if it manifested in place. But Steve did not have time to question. He ran his calloused hands across its alien surface. The gun felt cold and metallic, like any other gun he'd ever held. Steve fidgeted with it for seconds before hastily deciding to shoot it. His shaky hand rested uneasily on the trigger before he applied to pressure to send the gun into action.
The kick of the gun almost knocked Steve off of his feet, but his military training kept him stable, feet buried in the sands. The gun sent a laser flying out of the muzzle. It cut through the air, leaving a cackling sizzle in the air.
Steve smiled. That's what I'm talking about, he thought to himself.
"Big blue, focus on the guys on the floor, I got up top." Steve screamed across the plain.
Clark's eyes were still a painful and irritated red. But he was no stranger to pain. He replied an easy "Got'cha" before slamming a man in front of him down to the ground with a single booming punch.
Better, Clark thought.
Steve shot another beam from the gun. It pierced the skies and sent the top of a sand dune flying haphazardly upwards. The last shooter abandoned his post and slid down the dune effortlessly.
Clark was trying to knock the ground attackers out, but his punches were having such a little effect on them. They had weapons; it felt like swipes and stabs were coming in a constant barrage. He was growing tired as the ones he knocked down came right back up. His sides ached and bled.
Clark looked over to see Diana was having the same problem. The men were building up on them. Diana and Clark were both getting overwhelmed. The men's punches felt stronger, something wasn't adding up. In ordinary circumstances Diana could knock ten men out in her sleep.
At this point, Steve tried reloading his gun, but there was no click as he reloaded this time. His heart dropped in his chest when he realized it was empty. He pulled the trigger repeatedly; the empty click sound sent panic coursing through him. His two allies were being pummeled; they were already in pain from the landing on the odd planet. Their chances of success at this point were almost nonexistent.
Steve steadied, took a breath, and launched into the fight with his fists cocked.
The fight raged on, but the men attacking had the upper hand. They seemed comfortable in the sands and had knifes, more people; they were prepared for this fight.
"Metahumans?" Diana screamed at Clark. "They don't stay down."
Clark motioned away from the fight, "We could—"
"We aren't running. We are warriors. We do not run with our tails behind our legs." Diana screamed.
"The bracers?" Steve screamed before a man's punch knocked him to the ground.
"No. We will find another way." Diana, gritted her teeth forcing away the images she saw seconds before when her bracers were off. The thought of it distracted her long enough for someone to hit her squarely in the ribs.
"I just healed those, asshole." Diana said as she staggered momentarily, too weak to continue.
"Make them kneel." A voice commanded from the top of a dune. The three earthlings turned to the dune and squinted, trying to see the man standing in front of the blazing sun. He wore the same attire as them, but carried himself differently. His voice sounded like sandpaper, but oozed with authority. Regal, calm, and controlled. He slid down the dune with ease and grace as well, not once breaking eye contact with Diana.
"By the way, not metahumans— aliens dear." At this point his men had a hold on Diana, Clark, and Steve. They had each grabbed a part of the body and were refusing to let go despite the kicks and sharp elbow jabs they took to their bodies.
Steve powerfully elbowed a man in the ribs and promptly received a sharp punch in the face. He took a mouthful of sand.
"Right in the money-maker." Steve muttered as he spit the sand out of his mouth.
Clark's vision was no longer a ruddy red and he was having the most success with breaking away from his captors. There were just barely enough men to hold all three of them down.
"Did you not hear me the first time? Make them kneel." the man leading the group now loomed over them. He had long scraggly hair; his eyes were a fiery red, and his body a dull yet steely grey.
Aliens, Diana thought, why can we understand them?
The men holding the three down started kicking at the back of their legs trying to make them kneel. Steve fell first; Diana heard a crack and was certain they broke Steve's leg in the process of forcing him down. Steve didn't even make a sound as he fell; he was staring un-phased at the monster in front of them, fearless, yet his face was scrunched up in pain.
Diana fell lopsided as they tried to force her down. A man forced Diana's face down with his boot and she had to close her eyes to protect from the sand her face was drowning in.
"Diana!" Clark exclaimed.
The monster talked over Clark's screams. "Even better. Let the dog lay. I've had my eye on her the whole fight. She's feisty." The monster went up and lifted Diana's face from the heated sand. He paused, looking at her before squeezing her cheeks. "Next time sweetheart, take the advice of the man and run. Now you have no choice besides what we provide you with." He cracked an ugly rotting smile centimeters from her face.
"I tend to make my own choices." Diana spit at him, wriggling across the rough sandpaper as she escaped from the monster's touch. His skin felt flaky and dry, a sensation she would expect from having a lizard or snake rub against her skin.
"We mean you no harm, let us go and we will continue on our way." Clark said, his blue eyes earnestly looking for a simple solution to the mess they were in.
The man laughed, "Haha, you mean me no harm? Now how is that? How do you expect to survive then? Everyone here means to harm each other; it is the nature of the game. You've already done a great job contributing to it; look at how scraggly these men look. It's incredible! "
The man turned his back to the heroes and spoke with showy gestures at the nothingness of the desert, "The games in action. It incites such exhilaration, does it not?" He then turned back to the heroes, "A little fan service for the cameras, you know?"
"You are insane. What game? What camera?" Clark questioned.
"These are the earthlings Titan. They never understand the game." A man restraining Diana spoke.
"Much too powerful to be Earthlings. The Earthlings are normally nothing more than game animals." Titan's voice was dripping with sadistic cruelty.
"This year it differs. My family read of it. The first woman of the contest. There were supposed to be a man and woman, Gods among their people."
"Yet, there are three here," Titan hissed, "Kota? Show yourself, we need to decide which ones we want to live. How unprofessional of you to waste their time like this."
Sand started drifting towards a plot of empty land. The coal black sand built up, into a skinny black pole. Winds blew violently, and all the people there closed their eyes to shield against the sands. When Diana opened her eyes again, a human like creature was in front of her.
His eyes and skin were black orbs. His skin flaked and fell in clumps, but the sand crawled up his body and filled in the spots. Kota resembled a zombie: dead, empty eyes with flaking, decomposing skin.
"I sense power." Kota dragged his dark body form over to Diana. His movement towards her was an unsettling disjointed limp.
"Her magic is different, I can't place it. But it is powerful here, our magic is making her stronger. Look at her right now, her eyes burn with power. She pulls from me—she is an interesting specimen, better to study dead."
Diana was on the floor wriggling more and more violently. She felt stronger, she felt in control. She viciously bit the leg of a man, causing him to bleed and recoil.
"Stop feeding her power." One of the men holding Diana yelped.
Kota smiled with his rotting, shark like teeth, "It's just a little drama, a little excitement. I will stop though, because she bores me at this point." Kota stopped feeding Diana power and sauntered away. Diana watched in disgust, her face disgustingly close to the pool of blood from the man's leg.
"The middle one is good for us. Powerful, strong, reliable. A soldier, he'll do what we want to save others. He wasn't meant to be here, he was supposed to supply us the gods, but he got caught in it foolishly." He walked by Steve, who didn't even look up or turn to face Kota.
"Look at the creature, he won't even look at the people he condemned to death in the eyes. Won't even look me, his captor, in the eyes. Pitiful."
"Steve? What is he saying?" Diana was still pushed against the floor. She felt a wave of anger flood her and she fought desperately against the people who restrained her again to no avail. She realized it was Kota holding them all down. The men were merely contributing. That explained all the arrows, how three men were capable of holding her down.
"What the hell is this? Steve, what game is this?" Clark struggled against his restrainers as well.
"Kryptonian from Earth," Kota gasped, just now seeing Clark, "oh how powerful he is here. I knew a Kryptonian once, killed my family in one blow. My magic makes him weaker, that I know for sure, because I then killed that Kryptonian. Oh look at the poor thing."
Kota touched Clark, and Clark became a ghoulish pale. He collapsed to the ground and the restrainers just yanked him back up to just see him fall back down.
"Back the hell off." Clark fought the effect and stood back up, blood rushed back to his face until the effort of overpowering the magic overwhelmed him again.
As Clark stood back up, Kota pulled his hand off of Clark's face as if burned by fire. He laughed, hiding his discomfort at seeing a Kryptonian.
"Strong." Kota muttered.
Kota's words were followed by a loud rumbling noise and in the distance. In the depths of the desert they all saw a cloud of gas forming.
Diana looked to Steve and Clark hoping their expression would help explain something that was going on. Steve was keeping his head low, avoiding eye contact. Clark looked confused; he looked at Titan like he was insane.
Kota stared off into the cloud forming. "It is an Elimination. Harmless, only temporarily restraining to kill the weaker, not entertaining ones. I refuse to face it. Waste of my time." Titan's booming voice silenced the panic seeping into the people holding the three Earth heroes.
"Stay here with the three, we will come back for you. Those who are gone or do not hold their post will be murdered by my own hands. The men shifted uncomfortably.
"When has an Elimination ever been harmless?" One of the restrainers spoke out hesitantly.
"They treat you as disposables." Diana screamed. "Do not trust them, trust me. You do not have to work for them. You always have the power to choose. They need you."
Titan laughed sadistically and walked over to the dissenter, "We've kept you alive longer than we should have. If you say a word against me again, you will die a slow painful death. Do you doubt me?"
There was a silence, no one doubted Titan. Titan let the silence cook as he stared at the dissenter before he broke the silence with a laugh. His laugh rang through the desert and bounced off the sides of the ruins.
"I know you believe me, but I'm a big fan of getting the point across." Titan pulled a knife out form his black suit pocket and threw it squarely in the head of one of men holding Steve. The man fell to the floor with a surprised squeak before the knife settled in his head. As his body fell to the ground, the air filled with the sound of a horn. Diana, Clark, and Steve flinched at the surprise of the all encompassing sound, but the others seemed unaffected.
As the sound of the horn stopped, another sound broke through the echoes it left in its wake, "LOSS PLAYER 13."
Titan smiled. "Damn, I always thought he was 10. Shame. Now," he reiterated, "you guys stay, and we'll be right back. With these three dead, all of us will be closer. We will slay the false gods of Earth."
With that Kota grasped Titan and both of them disappeared. The heroes looked at each other, preparing for whatever the smoke cloud had in store for them.
It was an intimidating sight. It was a wall of smoke so thick seeing through it was impossible. It was purplish in color, and dispersed rapidly while bringing violent winds with it. The giant cloud of smoke hissed as it got closer, resembling the sound of crackling fire when doused with water. The sand formed towering sand tornadoes in wake of the powerful winds. In a matter of seconds, Diana could not see anyone or thing near her, everything was sand; yet, she could hear the cloud's hissing as it got closer.
Diana closed her eyes, "May the gods be with us."