Chapter 33: Young Blood
"Ladies first." The Lord said. No sooner had he formed his sword then he had put it aside and gestured with his bare hands.
In the space of half a second, Arrowette drew one of her namesakes, cocked it, aimed it, and fired. The arrow head exploded a foot from the Lord, as a bolo flew out of it and wrapped around him.
"Do you actually think…"
The bolo balls exploded. When the smoke cleared, the Lord was standing there, unharmed but looking a tad bit chagrined.
"Then again…"
"Azarath…" Raven chanted, as she lifted several groups of sand up in individual telepathic holds. "Metrion…" the black energy formed the sand into triangle shapes. Impulse blurred around them, reaching his hands through the energy and rubbing the sand at super-speed, creating enough friction and heat to transform the sand shapes into glass daggers. "ZINTHOS!" Raven hurled the glass daggers at the Lord.
The Lord waved his hand and they exploded in front of him.
Superboy flew through the storm of glass, the shards not harming him, and pistoned his fist across the Lord's face, the impact so loud it sounded like a thunder crack. The Lord staggered back as Superboy reared back for another punch.
The Lord caught his hand.
"Say, your older self has great hearing. Ever wonder what Richard Simmons sounds like at the volume of 10,000 Hiroshimas?" The Lord asked, and slammed his hands over Superboy's ears, sending sound waves into Superboy's brain. The waves were so powerful that even Superboy's innate "invincibility" couldn't handle them, and his brain would have been turned to mush had a Birdarang not impaled itself in the Lord's hand, getting his attention. Superboy staggered back, his ears bleeding, as Robin leapt at the Lord from behind, swinging his staff.
"Ever wonder what twenty-eight teeth sound like getting kicked down the back of a psycho's throat?" Robin said as he leapt in.
"Please." The Lord replied, and swung out his leg, catching Robin with a back kick and sending him flying through the air. Robin would have splattered against a cliff face had a teleportation portal not opened behind him. A second later he and Raven re-appeared near the Lord.
In the meantime, Beast Boy had become a grizzly and reared up before the Lord. Grizzlies are a lot faster then most people realize, and combined with their terrible strength and cruel claws, can do a HUGE amount of damage to a human body. And Beast Boy had every intention of doing just that, as he swiped his paw across the Lord's face. A strike like that would have torn a normal man's head off like a cheap doll's.
The Lord's head snapped to the side, and then slid back. Long wounds had been opened up across his face via Beast Boy's claws, but those didn't last long as dark power glowed in the Lord's blood and the wounds slid shut.
"Bad memories there." He said, and blasted Beast Boy in the chest with an energy burst from his hands. The bear he had become tumbled back before he turned into a hummingbird to right himself.
Batgirl jumped in with a kick, but the Lord twirled and his cloak swung out, knocking the teenager away. Wonder Girl and Secret attacked in twin, throwing a punch and a gas-formed temporarily high-density battering ram at the Lord, but he stopped them with both his hands and shoved the two girls backwards. The Lord ducked as Empress flew over him, missing her staff strike, stood up and leaned back Matrix-style as Starfire missed her own charge, and then spun and kicked Cyborg in the chest as he charged, putting a large dent in him as he flew back.
"This is boring and not working, children. If you really want to make a stand, make it interesting. Why don't you all attack me at once?"
"As you wish."
The Shimmer lashed against the Lord's back, throwing him forward, right into a punch from Cyborg, which sent him back into a kick from Wonder Girl. The Lord flipped and landed, and then another arrow struck him, the tip exploding and covering his body with sticky goo. The Lord took a step and found his movement extremely inhibited, as Young Justice charged in again.
"Very well."
Robin was there first, swinging his fist at the Lord, and then the Lord's body suddenly disintegrated, solid form becoming swirling black mist. The goo fell on the ground, as the Lord reformed his body from shadow, his arm now clutching Robin's.
He punched Robin across the face, ducked under a punch from Superboy as he flew in from behind and kicked him in the chest, spun around and smashed Empress away from him, and then started blocking rapidly as Impulse attacked him, throwing so many blows it was like he was fending off three separate attackers. Impulse broke through the Lord's guard and punched him several dozen times at high speed before a massive blast of force threw him backwards. A Birdarang and Batarang slammed into the Lord's forehead, throwing him backwards. Wonder Girl and Superboy grabbed him by the arms, but the Lord twisted, throwing his body upward and kicking the attacking Robin and Batgirl in the face even as he twirled and threw Superboy and Wondergirl into Savior and Cyborg. Secret materialized and rammed a fist that turned into a wall of spikes into him, and as he flew back Arrowette fired another arrow at him. But the Lord turned on a dime, grabbed the arrow in mid-air and threw it into Secret. It exploded and the girl recoiled with a scream. A Starbolt and telepathic bolt slammed into his back, and the Lord grimaced, but as he turned around Beast Boy leapt onto the Lord's back as a monkey and then turned into a gorilla, driving the Lord down. But the Lord's form transformed into black mist again and wafted up, re-appearing on top of Beast Boy as he landed, Then the Lord dove forward, grabbing Beast Boy with his legs and flipping him over him into Cyborg, knocking the robot into the air, his sonic blast flying harmlessly into the sky.
"HAH-AH!" Robin yelled as he attacked again, throwing several small metal discs at the Lord. They slammed into him, but the Lord barely seemed to notice as Robin pressed the attack with his staff.
The Lord grabbed the staff and flipped Robin over him, driving his body into the ground. As sand sprayed up, the Lord pulled the staff from Robin's hands.
"Let me show you how to use this." He said, as he twirled it.
Starfire flew in, Starbolts blazing past the Lord. He swung and smacked her into the ground, and then twirled away and swung the staff low, tripping Arrowette, Empress, Savior, and Batgirl as they swarmed around him. He spun and sliced the staff up, knocking Wonder Girl out of the sky, and then he spun again and hit Cyborg with a giant home run swing, smashing another large dent in his chest as he flew backwards again.
Beams of intense heat exploded against the Lord's side, courtesy of Superboy, and as he recoiled Raven's energy seized the staff and tossed it back to Robin, and then Secret re-appeared above him and transformed her body into a weight that she smashed down on the Lord. She dispersed, but as the Lord flipped up Beast Boy rammed into him as a triceratops, smashing him backwards. The Lord stopped his tumbling abruptly, and then Impulse hit him roughly 8523 times before Raven smashed a huge chunk of stone she had ripped off a nearby cliff down onto him.
For a moment, the desert was quiet.
The rock exploded, pelting the group with debris as the Lord flew up.
"Enough." He said, holding out his hand. His katana flew to him.
No sooner was it in his grip then Wonder Girl attacked. She flew right through the Lord as he turned into black mist, but she turned on a dime and flew back as the Lord reformed. He dodged away from her second attack as well, drawing back his black arm as energy claws exploded on it.
"Black Swan Reaper!"
Wonder Girl turned into the blow, the terrible claws slashing across her and knocking her from the sky with a scream of pain. Smirking, the Lord turned and then an arrow impaled on his chest. The point wasn't barbed, but what was attached to the arrow was no less dangerous as electricity surged through the shaft and into the Lord. The power crackled on him, but the Lord just looked annoyed before he grabbed the arrow and pulled it out.
"That was 200,000 volts and he just shook it off like it was a light itch." Arrowette said in some fear.
"Let's see him shake THIS off." Cyborg said, as his chest snapped open and he fired his mini-missiles. The projectiles flew in and exploded on the Lord, briefly lighting the dark desert as bright as day.
A pause.
And then the Lord flew out of the explosion, sword drawn back, heading for Cyborg.
"MOVE!" Cyborg yelled, shoving Arrowette aside. His right arm converted into his sonic cannon and his right arm into his machine gun as Cyborg aimed at the Lord.
"EAT THIS MOTHERFUCKER!" Cyborg yelled, opening fire. The Lord weathered the bullets and the sonic blasts, not slowing down until he reached Cyborg.
"Calamity Drive!"
The Lord's sword slashed out, slicing Cyborg. Cyborg screamed, as the Lord turned on a dime and did a zig-zag motion, doing an even more vicious slice against Cyborg's back, throwing him into the air. But Cyborg didn't get to go far as the Lord snapped backwards again and slashed Cyborg again, and once more in a second zig-zag motion. Finally, the Lord stopped and flew up above Cyborg before he thrust down, stabbing the sword through Cyborg's chest and driving him back down into the ground with a scream. Pinned like an insect, Cyborg could only groan as the Lord raised his right hand, a black point of power glowing on his finger.
Then an arrow impaled through the Lord's head. And this was no gimmick arrow: this was a lethal one with a barbed point fired with an expert's eye. And it flew true, slicing through the side of the Lord's head and impaling deep into his skull.
The Lord stopped, blinked, and then with a look of annoyance, looked over to Arrowette as he calmly reached up and yanked the arrow out. He didn't even bleed. Arrowette gaped, and then the Lord aimed his finger at her. A small burst of black energy flew out and struck Arrowette in the chest, sending her flying and tumbling backwards with a cry.
"Now where were we…" the Lord said as he looked back down at Cyborg.
Starbolts exploded against his chest. The Lord was knocked back, and growled as he clutched his chest, smoke sifting from between his fingers. Starfire flew in with a kick, but he dodged it. Starfire turned as the still standing Titans, joined by Empress and Batgirl, charged at the Lord.
The Lord swung at them with his blade, and the group scattered to dodge the insane range of his sword. He dashed forward, slicing at Raven, and Savior predictably tried to protect her. The Lord blasted him across the desert for that folly, and then got crushed as the other Titans surrounded him and pounced.
"Ravage Outbreak!"
Fire exploded from the ground around the Lord, throwing all his attackers backwards. The Lord smirked.
"Anything you can do Sephiroth, I can do better. And speaking of which…"
Robin was already back on the attack. The Lord dodged his kick and smacked him with an open palm, and then with insane speed blurred over to Batgirl and did the same thing. Beast Boy was putting out a small fire on his arm (he thought he would be done with fire after Sizzle had died) when the Lord flew over and did the same to him. Beast Boy's eyes went wide as the Lord dashed away. A giant black bolt flew at the Lord, fired by Raven, but the Lord suddenly exploded into a swirl of black feathers, of all things, and disappeared. Raven blinked and then the Lord swirled back into existence some distance away.
"Sin Harvest…" he said as he raised his hand. Robin had recovered his staff and was starting a new attack when he noticed what appeared to be a black halo forming above his head. He saw the same thing appearing over Batgirl's and Beast Boy's head, and he swiped at it, not sure what to do. A Shimmer lashed at the Lord, but he flew up to dodge it as he snapped his fingers.
A jolt exploded through Robin, and then it was as if all his muscles went dead. He collapsed (and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Batgirl and Beast Boy fall too), all of his energy gone, absolutely nothing left. Indeed, he didn't even have enough to pull his face out of the sand, and he began to suffocate…at least until Starfire flew over and pulled him out.
Raven appeared near the Lord's side and kicked him. She disappeared into the shadows to dodge his sword swipe and re-appeared to kick him again. However, she tried one more time and that was going to the well one too many times as the Lord grabbed her foot and threw her down. Savior caught her, but the Lord just laughed as he flew up.
"This one comes right from your father, Raven!" The Lord yelled as his cloak flared out and then ripped off of him. New shadows flowed from the Lord's shoulders as the previous ones expanded into roughly dagger like shapes…that were all the size of an eighteen-wheeler.
"From Trigon to you! RAVEN SLAYER!" The Lord yelled, and thrust his hand down. The giant daggers of energy flew down and the ground erupted with explosions, everything within a square mile going up in the flames. The Lord smirked, pleased.
Superboy rammed into him from the side, pushing the Lord out and then slamming his fist into him. The Lord went blasting through the air, crashing through a rock face. He stopped and then Superboy flew out of the wreckage and collided with him via his shoulder, ramming him through another rock face. His eyes glowed and then beams of intense heat blasted out, striking the Lord at point-blank range and sending him flying back. He growled, trying to deflect the beams. But he couldn't. Annoyed, the Lord turned into mist, and the beams blitzed through him before the Lord reformed above Superboy. But he took too long and Superboy flew up, smashing the Lord high into the sky with an uppercut, and then zipped up above him, laced his hands together, and smashed the Lord back down into the ground, the impact leaving a twenty-foot crater.
Superboy flew down, never stopping, zipping around so he couldn't be caught by surprise, heat vision recharged and at the ready.
And he was still caught by surprise when the Lord appeared behind him a swirl of shadows and black feathers.
"Million Knives." He said.
Superboy turned and suddenly suffered double vision, and then triple, quadruple, and so on as the Lord split off into copies of himself. It was so quick that before Superboy knew it, roughly 40 Lords surrounded him.
And they were not feeling merciful, as one zapped by, slashing him with his sword. Now, Superboy being Superboy, that wasn't so bad. Neither was the one after it, or the one after it, but before he could get out matters quickly grew bad, as the Lords zapped around Superboy in a storm of blades, the swords ripping apart his jacket and causing him to do the weird jerking dance people do when they suffer a whole bunch of hard impacts in a short span of time. The blows eventually stopped, but Superboy could only grasp that all the Lords had formed a square shape around him again before they held out their hands and the attack started all over again, this time with blasts. Superboy screamed as he was barraged by thousands of energy blasts, even as the Lord clones slid across the ground and back into the Lord. Finally there was just one Lord again, standing in front of Superboy.
With a big-ass energy blast charged. It zapped from the Lord's hand, striking the Teen of Steel. The explosion blew smoke around for hundreds of feet as Superboy flew backwards at nearly Impulse like speeds before he was buried in another cliff face, which collapsed on him.
And speaking of Impulse, no sooner had the Lord turned around then he was there.
"Say hello to my little friends!" he said, and suddenly there were six Impulses: the original and five new ones composed of an orangish energy. "Let me show you how to use clones!"
And the Impulse Speed Force clones attacked, blitzing around the Lord and hitting him with punches, kicks, handfuls of thrown sand, and the like. The Lord found himself doing his own jerky impact dance as he suffered the clone's onslaught, and every time he recovered enough for a sword slash or an energy blast the clones dodged it with ease. The Lord tried another Ravage Outbreak, but the clones ran away from the flame eruption and then ran back and started pounding on the Lord again.
And then it went from bad to worse, as Secret swirled up and then formed into a gas cloud around the Lord, her body as poisonous as she could make it. For all the things the Lord had survived, he still apparently had to breath (or hadn't figured out how to stop breathing yet), and he gasped for air, even as the Impulse clones continued to pound him.
And for the first time in a long time, the Lord experienced a strong emotion. He got angry.
And he expressed it with a scream, as he exploded in misty tendrils and black feathers again. Secret reformed into her human shape again as the Lord left.
"That's right, run!" Impulse said.
He shouldn't have.
The Lord appeared high up in the night sky, holding his sword above his head. The black blade crackled with dark purple energy,
"DIMENSION SEIZE!"
And the Lord slashed the sword down. The energy that flew off the sword acted as if a giant lightsaber had just slashed the planet Earth. Impulse and Secret could only watch in shock as the whole sky filled with destructive power.
And then the attack struck the ground. The whole continent of Africa shook at the impact, and giant plumes of smoke and sand were thrown into the air, some of it even reaching the Lord's high perch. He waited until the smoke had cleared before he flew down.
From the sky, a giant swath had been cut across the Sahara: a 75-foot long 12 foot deep gorge filled with broken glass fused from the sand. It went on and on, stretching far off into the distance and perhaps all the way to the edge of the Sahara and beyond.
The Lord looked at what his power had done. Amazing. He had scarred a planet.
So why were these bloody kids causing him such a headache?
Well, no matter, surely he had…
Out of the smoke strode a figure. The Lord cocked his head.
Savior appeared out of the smoke, walking with a stride of a man who refused to show fear, or whose mind had snapped and gone beyond the point of fear. He walked up until he was five feet from the Lord.
(In case you were wondering, Secret and Impulse survived the Dimension Seize attack, but not uninjured. Secret's gaseous state made her less prone to physical injuries, but she hadn't been as fast as Impulse in her retreat and had been nailed pretty hard regardless, and now she was down and nearly out. Impulse had fared better and worse: he himself had escaped the attack, but one of his clones hadn't. And Impulse experienced everything his clones did, and nothing could quite explain the experience of feeling yourself disintegrate when you still somehow existed, and Impulse was now some distance away, curled up in a fetal ball, whimpering)
The two looked at each other for a time, and then Savior spoke.
"We are still here."
His hand snapped out, and the Shimmer extracted, forming into a sword. A second later black energy encased it, and The Lord's eyes widened as Raven appeared out of the shadows as well, holding one hand up as she shielded the Shimmer with her power. The Lord chuckled again, and twirled his blade.
"Not for long."
Savior attacked, and the Lord blocked his slash and fired an energy blast at Savior. Savior dodged aside, flipping over the Lord, and slashed again, but found his attack blocked. The Lord spun and backhanded Savior, but Shimmer strands caught him and he spun on them, kicking the Lord across the face. The Lord did an upward slash, which was blocked, and spun from that into a sideways disemboweling strike…which was also blocked. Savior reformed his one sword into two and slashed at the Lord with an X shape, but the Lord dodged aside, slammed his sword down on the makeshift blades, and punched Savior across the face. Savior staggered back as the Lord pulled his blade back to impale him…
Only to find a staff blocking his strike, a staff that then lanced out and rammed into his gut. It wasn't Robin: it was Empress. Growling, the Lord pulled back his sword.
"Stop." Empress said, as she glared at him, striking him with some kind of telekinesis that stopped the Lord dead. It wasn't powerful enough to affect him for long, but it worked long enough for her to ram the end of her weapon into his face, but as the Lord tumbled back he thrust his feet up, knocking Empress back. He leapt back to his feet and slashed, but Empress dodged as she reached into her costume and pulled a dagger from somewhere in the folds, blocking the Lord's follow up attack with it. A second later the Shimmer flew out and smacked the Lord across the face, and then grabbed him and slammed him into the ground.
Robin dashed out of the smoke, pole-vaulting on his staff and ramming his foot into the Lord's face. The Lord growled and shifted back into his black mist form, but no sooner did he reform then Savior, Robin, and Empress all attacked him. The Lord's blade met their weapons, and the three clashed for several seconds before Wonder Girl flew out of the smoke beside the Lord and kicked him in the face so hard it sounded like a gunshot. The Lord flew across the land scar he had made and came to a stop on the other side.
Wonder Girl pressed her attack, dodging a swarm of blasts the Lord fired out of his hand, ramming her fists into his stomach, then grabbing him and kneeing him in the face. She ducked a slash and stole a page from the Lord's book as she balanced on her hands and slammed her feet into the Lord. The Lord flew back, stopped, growled, and raised his hands…
A Starbolt hit him in the face, and he was thrown off his feet. He didn't get up, but instead reached up and touched his burned face in shock.
More Starbolts flew out of the smoke, and the Lord finally moved away, flying into the sky.
And right into the lashing tail of a brontosaurus. The Lord flew back into the sky, but not under his own power this time.
"Thanks for healing that weakened state he put me in Rae, that was VERY satisfying." Beast Boy said.
More Starbolts exploded against the Lord, as Starfire flew at him, smashing her fist across his face while he tried to recover. The Lord finally gave in and teleported away, re-appearing as Starfire turned around, her hands glowing as she charged up more energy.
And Robin, down on the ground, himself healed by Raven, finally had an idea why. Starfire drew the power for her Starbolts from solar energy absorbed through her alien physiology. The Lord claimed to now be one with the night, and what made the night go away but…
"STAR! KEEP IT UP!"
"That is fully my INTENTION!" Starfire yelled, barraging the Lord again. The Lord actually yelled in pain that time, and he slashed at Starfire, throwing a black blade of energy at her, but she dodged with ease and blasted the Lord with a twin-hand charged Starbolt. The Lord flew back into the eager fists of Wonder Girl, who smashed him across the sky, where he met the even more eager fist of Superboy, recovered and mad as hell. Superboy followed the punch with more heat beams blasting from his eyes, and the Lord recoiled from the also solar powered attack. Beast Boy flew up as a griffin, and Raven floated up as well as Starfire blew the Lord away with more Starbolts. Burned, and angered once more, the Lord stopped.
"ENOUGH!" he screamed, tossing the sword he had somehow managed to hold onto the whole time above him. Black balls of energy exploded around his hands, spiraling around his wrists like protons on an atom.
"CARNAGE ANTHEM!"
The Lord fired out the balls, dozens of them flying out. The flyers dodged them, but Raven sensed something bad.
The balls stopped.
And then energy lines flew from them, and suddenly the five flyers found themselves locked in an energy cage prison. The Lord's eyes blazed black, and he brought his hands up.
The only one Raven could reach in time was Beast Boy, as she grabbed him and warped out.
The sound the balls made as the Lord slammed his hands together WAS almost musical as they glowed…and then they exploded. All the ground bound teenagers were thrown to the sand and pounded by great force as explosions rocked the sky. Smoking limp bodies, three of them, came crashing down to Earth.
"STAR! STAR! DAMN YOUUUUUUU!" Robin screamed, failing to learn from history as he charged at the Lord again, who had floated down onto the ground after his Carnage Anthem attack. He didn't even make it to the Lord this time, as a bolt of force blasted him off his feet.
"I just crushed the best your team had to offer. Did you really think that…"
Batgirl swung out and slammed her foot across the Lord's face. The Lord staggered and slashed in retaliation, but Batgirl ducked under it and pistoned her palm out, nailing a perfect strike that struck the Lord in a part of his body that still had somewhat human reactions: his solar plexus, in which several major nerve endings were placed. The Lord staggered back, in pain that for the first time that wasn't caused by a Starbolt or heat vision.
"It's not who has the power. Its how you choose to use it." Batgirl said.
Beams blasted from the Lord's eyes, burning a hole in Batgirl's cape as she barely dodged. Then Secret swirled out of the sand and smashed into the Lord with a wrecking ball shape. The Lord flipped in mid air and got the business end of a Stegosaurus tail. Even as he stopped in mid-air again after being flung off the tail, the holes healing up, Cyborg made his grand return as he ran beside Robin, the two leaping and perfectly meshing their sonic cannon and explosive disc into a Sonic Boom that blasted the Lord and threw him to the ground. As soon as he landed, an arrow stuck in the sand next to him and exploded in the Lord's face, sending him tumbling backwards across the sand.
The Lord got up, and then several boulders slammed into him, propelled by Raven's power. No sooner did the Lord stagger away from that then he turned into a combination attack from Empress's staff and Savior's Shimmer. He spun away from THAT into a combined thrust kick from Robin and Batgirl, sending him tumbling across the sand again.
Raven, in the meantime, had warped over to Arrowette, who was trying to help Impulse, who was still down and still whimpering.
"Can you heal him?" Arrowette asked. Raven gave the teenage speedster a once over.
"It's not a wound I can fix. He needs to…"
"ARGHHHHH!" The Lord screamed, as he leapt into the air. The stars directly above him glowed, and then formed into a X-esque shape as he raised his hands, as if he had the power to command the formation of new constellations.
"GRAND CROSS!" he yelled, and slammed his hands down. The X blast of power that had formed above him flew down, having just formed below the stars but still very deadly as it detonated amongst the teenagers. They vanished in the explosion. Grinning crazily, the Lord flew down.
"This battle is pointless children! The future is now, and it is inevitable!"
"How kind for you to finally admit you're losing."
Missiles exploded against the Lord, and he flew backwards into a Shimmer bludgeon. The Lord rolled across the ground and got up to get a combined explosive/freeze disc attack that was even more violent when the two elements combined and caused a vicious reaction. An arrow exploded into six mini-arrows and impaled into the Lord's side, and then a Batarang slammed into his forehead. The weapons turned to ash, but they were no longer the last attack as Robin, Savior, Empress, and Batgirl leapt in and smashed the Lord with physical attacks. He slashed at them, but as they dodged beams of intense heat blasted the Lord's back again. The Lord twirled and swiped behind him, but Superboy wasn't there. Instead, he had flown in FRONT of the Lord, and as the Lord turned and slashed again at the Teen of Steel, slicing the sword downward to cut Superboy in two, the hero reared up and grabbed the blade with his hands, and with a sudden gleam in his eye the sword exploded into shards of metal. Wonder Girl suddenly appeared at Superboy's side, and the two reared back and struck the Lord with their combined best punch, shattering the Lord's crown. The Lord flew backwards, and as he did Starfire flew up, a giant Starbolt blazing above her, and threw it down onto the Lord. The explosion shook the desert, even as the Lord flew backwards through a cliff face, exploding out the other end and finally coming to a stop half a mile away.
Raven took Arrowette and Impulse via teleportation as Young Justice converged on where the Lord was laying. He slowly got up, looking at all the children who surrounded him.
"So, still think your murderous vision is the truth?" Robin said.
"Always." The Lord said.
"Then I guess we'll have to beat you right into the ground." Robin said.
"No…" The Lord said. "You children have proven wily, cunning, and strong, but it ends here. Since you dare stand against the ultimate manifestation of darkness, I shall show you the true face of what you dare defy, and it will be more then you can handle!"
The Lord set his legs, crossed his arms, and suddenly intense waves of force exploded off of him, throwing Young Justice backwards before they could stop him.
"Come children! Look upon your doom! Look upon the greatest darkness there is, a black so deep and powerful that even light cannot escape it!"
"What's he doing now?' Superboy yelled over to Robin.
"I don't…wait…" Robin said as he thought over what the Lord has last said, and then his blood ran as cold as ice.
"NO! HE CAN'T!" Robin yelled.
"Child, I AM THE LORD OF THE NIGHT! ALL DARKNESS IS WITHIN MY POWER, THE LAWS OF PHYSICS BE DAMNED!"
"What's he DOING?" Savior yelled.
"He's forming a black hole!" Robin yelled back. Young Justice made the appropriate noises of shock and horror at that possibility.
"WHAT? LORD, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Savior yelled, even as the Lord floated up and the intense waves of force coming from him grew stronger. "YOU CAN'T MAKE A BLACK HOLE! YOU'LL DESTROY THE WHOLE PLANET!"
"If I wanted a proper black hole, yes. But this won't be a stellar sized one, oh no! This will be a small one, one that will be on this planet for a very short length of time. It won't destroy my world, but I'm sure as hell certain it will destroy YOU." The Lord said, and threw his head back, clouds of darkness swirling around, on, and through him as he called upon all his power.
Young Justice attacked with everything they had, but nothing reached the Lord: it all vanished on the waves of darkness swirling around him.
"What do we do? WHAT DO WE DO?" Beast Boy panicked.
"Nothing! The only one who could get you away in time is the child at your feet, and he appears to be suffering from some kind of crisis!" The Lord laughed, indicating Impulse.
"Impulse, wake up! Snap out of it! We need you!" Superboy said. But Impulse was still locked in his fugue.
"We have to get away! Now!" Wonder Girl said.
"There's no way we can outrun something like that! We need a plan, fast, or we're all dead!" Robin said.
Raven suddenly appeared at Savior's side, startling him. Had she walked over? He hadn't sensed it.
"Guys we have to GO!" Beast Boy wailed.
"TOO LATE!" The Lord yelled. Young Justice looked at him, but he did not look at them, his eyes focused on the intense ball of black floating above him.
"Bravo Justice, and bravo Titans. You have represented all I see in humanity, all the potential brought to use, and all the great things that redeem this species. When this world is mine, I will have it weep on your graves."
The Lord slammed his hand down.
"NOW DIE! BLACK HOLE!"
The ball flew down. That was not the black hole, but rather the final stages of its summoning, as the ball pierced the sand and buried into the ground, as the orb shrank and shrank and the power built and built.
And suddenly, as all the laws of science wept, a black hole existed on planet Earth.
And despite its name, the entire world was suddenly consumed in white. All destroying, all consuming white.
The end is near…
The game is over…
The end is here…
To Be Concluded