Jez: 1) Because the missiles were expecting Lantern, not the fighters, plus the blast went straight through the center of the missile, without touching the weapon, as it flowed around the blast.
2) The missiles were entirely Nano-Tech, meaning they could simply reconfigure the entire missile for each stage of flight. Initial launch would only have needed an alternate fuel to get it supersonic, at which point the nano-tech would have configured it into a scramjet for the race to orbit. Once past useable atmosphere, it would have shifted to another on-board fuel for the final leg of flight. When targeting was confirmed, it could have shifted the entire missile into a single giant war-head.
3) These aren't conventional missiles, and would require very specific construction techniques, to avoid having it become another hive mother, as in Dark Heart, and so they'd only have had time to build 48 or so of them.
4) Missiles of this complexity would have been designed specifically to attack the Watch Tower, and wouldn't be bound by the same rules as standard missiles.
5) The fighter craft are UCS F-2 Thunderhawk ASF (AeroSpaceFighter) fighters. Inertial dampners mean they can run at Mach 20 without compromising the pilots, and they're using Halo crystal refraction lasers, which are designed for anti-missile work. Since the missiles were non-nuclear at that stage, they were used as singles, but for a nuclear weapon, they'd be used together in a triangular pattern to knockout the guidance, control, and engines all at once. That would make the missile drop back to earth, to be recovered without detonation. UCS Halo flights were created around the principles of stopping nuclear ICBM's from reaching targets.
6) They would simply have been taking targeting data from the Javelin's.
7) The missiles may only have been a distraction to drain Lantern before the fight they knew was coming.
8) No, I meant instead of a full space suit.
9) The asssumption would be to hit on the trailing side, since like the other league heroes, she doesn't want to kill anyone.
10) With an airlock, since that kind of debris would have caused a second hull breach on the Javelin.
11) Yes, he would have communicated that he was going to.
12) In theory, he'd have been too busy dealing with the opposing Tower itself to keep watch on who was heading for the escape pods. As for herding them together, they were all headed for the same location, and he could have relied on lesser heroes stationed planetside to do that for him.
13) I understand, but since this is near-orbit combat, rather than true deep-space combat. The difference is near-orbit has a gravitic down reference, since we're so close to earth.
---
"This has to be the worst day I've had in a long time." Fate complained. Zatanna laughed. Amazo stared impassively. "I have not encountered magic this old, or this powerful in many years." He sighed.
"I have managed to disrupt the electromagnetic field before the doors, but the seal on the door itself is a combination of both magic and science, that I cannot touch." Amazo reported.
"I'm just lost. I not entirely sure why I'm here, and Etrigan is not." Zatanna sighed. Fate looked at her, the emotionless mask somehow conveying a shrug, even though his shoulders didn't so much as twitch.
"Jason Blood and Etrigan are the same being, but they can't be one being all the time." Fate replied to the question that was not. "Perhaps your magic can see what mine cannot."
"I'll give it a shot." Zatanna lifted her arms, and spoke, slowly and carefully, enunciating each word. "Wohs em eht eno ohw tsac uoy." She commanded. The air shimmered, forming into the image of a heavily robed man, whose features were not clear at first, but became instantly recognizable.
"Faust." The two magician's reacted as one. Amazo waited patiently for an explanation. Fate turned to him to explain, as Zatanna began to speak incredibly fast.
"Faust is an ancient, and powerful magician. I have battled him before, and each time, we have come to a standstill. I believe with Zatanna assisting me, we can stop him for good this time." Fate explained. "Will you keep a watch for him?" Amazo nodded. "Thank you." Then he to launched into a monologue of spells. Time seemed to not pass at all as the two worked. Amazo watched on every frequency he could at once, keeping an eye out in every possible sense of the word. The two spells they were casting came to a single apex, two great maelstroms of energy whirling in a singe glorious one. They ended with the same word, spoken forwards by Fate, and backwards by Zatanna. The combined effect was exactly as intended.
"Backlash."
"Hsalkcab."
The two words blended as one, and the energy lanced into the magical force shield around the magnetic generator. They collided, and reality seemed to swallow itself for a second, then snap back. It was only Amazo's Telekinetic intervention that kept the cave from collapsing in on them, energy flared in the air, as he melded the rubble back into a single solid piece, arched and curved, keeping the mountain from dropping on them.
"The Seal has shifted now to only magnetic. I cannot approach closer until the Kryptonite is weakened, since even I am not invulnerable to the mix of the two radiations." Amazo sighed. "The magnetics are down."
"Then I'll deal with the Kryptonite." Zatanna smiled. "Der etinotpryk become neerg etinotpryk." She spoke. The red Kryptonite shimmered, and turned green. Amazo confirmed that it was on the same frequency. Fate chuckled dryly.
"Lead and steel, contrasts of soft and hard, become as one, joined in heat, and cold." There was flare, as the door glowed first cherry red, as if heated in a forge, then frosted over, turning brittle. Zatanna scooped a rock from the ground, and tossed it. The door shattered. Revealed behind it as they floated forwards over the shards, was a massive underground cloning facility, sixty some odd empty tubes sitting open along the wall, some still dripping with fluid. A pile of fine ash lay in a corner.
"That ash has traces of the DNA associated with the woman known as Amanda Waller." Amazo reported after a moment's examination.
"Amazing revelation my friend." Faust smiled, stepping from the shadows. He was wearing blood-red robes. Two other Fausts, one in blue, the other in green, appeared beside him. "I have long sought the secret of life." The Faust in green, to the left of the one in red continued. "This will do for a start." Finished the one in blue. Lightning lashed out from the three, but Amazo stepped in front of it, putting himself between Fate, and Zatanna, and the lightning. There was silver flare, as he absorbed it. The Fausts swore in unison. Zatanna stepped to the left.
"Sebor ot sekans." The blue robed Faust instantly found himself wearing robes made of Blue Racer snakes. Not quite what Zatanna intended, but more than startling enough to stop him from attacking again. Fate on the other hand, simply nailed the green robed Faust with an energy blast. Amazo stared at the red robed Faust for a moment.
"Maybe a game of chess?" He suggested. The other stared him. He stared a split second too long, as a massive steel beam wrenched from the wall crashed into the back of his head. "Checkmate." Amazo smiled. An instant later, he realized what he'd done, having generated a mouth, and facial features in order to do so, without consciously commanding it. Perhaps a subconscious mind was developing? It was at once an interesting, and disturbing though. Several million volts of electricity running into his body caused him to refocus on the fallen Faust, who was now recovering.
"Checkmate this!" He hissed, and unleashed a blast of energy, intending to rend Amazo molecule from molecule. Amazo didn't so much as twitch, creating a barrier of telekinetic energy, formed of a single molecule.
"In all my travels, I did not have a chance to study such an excellent specimen for absolute stupidity, I think I shall study you." Amazo replied, reaching out, and lifting Faust from the ground. A moment later, an energy bubble appeared, and Faust's own blast was reflected back on him. It didn't kill him, because it's source of magic was cut off, instead it knocked him unconscious, back against the rear of the bubble.
Zatanna's Faust on the other hand, reached out, with his magic, and tossed a glass tube at her, attempting to trap her within it. She lashed out with her right arm, steel shards shattering the glass, and all joining to strike her opponent. He dropped the tube, and raised a wall of flames. The shards melted beneath it, but she smiled. "Semalf ta ym dnammoc!" The wall of fire bent around towards the Faust, and he found himself unable to quench them, as they formed a cage around him. After another few moments, the smoke and intense heat over came him. Zatanna stretched the flames into rope, wrapping him in them. After a moment of thought, she blindfolded him as well.
Fate however, had a slightly different challenge with his Faust. After the initial blast, the green robed magician vanished into invisibility. Fate scanned the air about him, but there was so much magical energy that he couldn't distinguish his opponent. A blast of energy lashed out at him, and he countered, missing violently. A bank of computers exploded. The heat from them made him slide back, but also gave him an idea. His vision shifted into the infrared, and he saw the man. Ice crackled from his hands, freezing the air, then forming around his opponent. Immobilized, the green robed Faust shimmered back into sight, and jerked at the ice.
"All league members, report to the following co-ordinates, priority Zero." J'onn's voice flared in the ears of Fate and Zatanna, relaying the location. Fate turned to Amazo.
"Will you remain, and keep watch over these three until we return?" Fate asked. Amazo nodded. Fate floated close to Zatanna, and they vanished through the Ankh shaped gateway. Amazo turned to the green robed Faust, who was swearing at the ice.
"A game of chess?" He offered. Faust stared, and sighed.
"I suppose." He grunted. Exactly where Amazo produced the set from, he didn't want to know.
---
As Superman descended into the Chaos of battle, he saw that every league member had been cloned, with the single exception of Adam, who was doing his best to fend off the Clones of the few heroes who had not yet arrived, namely Man-hunter, and oddly enough, Flash and Dancer. The clones were circling him. Superman was distracted from his observation, by a blast of heat vision. He rolled in air, and came up just in time to catch a fist from his clone across the jaw. The massive battle raged on for hours, some heroes and clones dropping out of the fight, and then rejoining later, some not at all. The fighting was pretty even, until Batman fell in a blast of unfriendly fire. His clone swung, and ganged up on Red Tornado. Instead of being destroyed again, he retreated. This freed his clone to battle others. The tide turned rapidly in favor of the clones. The events that brought about the end of the battle, happened remarkably fast. The Arrow clone smashed his bow over Green Arrow's head, knocking him out and to the ground. He picked up the original's bow, and spun around, drawing an arrow unlike any other in the world. Tipped with a Red Kryptonite head, it had one purpose. To kill Supergirl. Standing over the fallen Steel clone, having already trampled Tea beneath her heels, Supergirl was unaware when the clone fired the Arrow. Only one person was close enough to see the fatal shot, and stop it. I lunged across the ten feet of intervening space, at the same instant the arrow leapt from the bow.
"Look out!" I screamed in warning. She spun around as I felt the arrow punch through my chest, and into my heart. I hit and rolled, snapping off the arrow shaft. She caught me before I fell the last time.
"Adam, no." She shook her head. "You shouldn't have..." Tears were forming in her eyes.
"I had to." I shook my head slowly, feeling death begin it's inexorable creep upwards. "I would do anything to keep you safe. Now run. I'm about to do something that might hurt you."
"No, I won't let you die." She shook her head. I smiled.
"And I can't let you die either. Tea, get her." I sent the mental call to the clone. She ripped past me, grabbing Kara by the cape behind her as she left. As I fell, I finished it. "FINAL STRIKE!"
---
Weeks later, after the last of the clean up had ended, and the grass had begun to grow back, Flash and Dancer, who had arrived late, were the only two far enough away to see what really did happen. But neither of them was entirely sure they could believe what they saw. Both said a great blue-green bird rose up in the middle of the fighting, and swept into the air, then slammed back down in a massive strike, energy spreading across the battle, laying low everything in it's path. The league members, with the exceptions of Flash, Dancer, Supergirl, and Longshadow, all were knocked unconscious. The clones, with the exception of Galatea, were destroyed mercilessly. Exactly why she was spared, when the other's were annihilated, is uncertain, though speculation abounds, some of it being the feelings Adam had for Kara, and others simply that they were out of the blast radius. Tea vanished shortly after the battle, and her current whereabouts are unknown, at least by anyone that will say anything.
The only two things that occurred of oddity, involved the two oddest people around. Longshadow's DNA was somehow stabilized, and with a bit of care in the infirmary, the other cellular damage has been repaired. The second, was the restoration of Chi'ambi's powers. Though it is still unclear what happened to them in the first place, the last ditch effort attack, seems to have given them back. Without a body to bury, a simple memorial plaque was erected in the middle of the Watchtower, to later be placed permanently on the wall. As for Kara, she's been Supergirl for over two months now. The only person she will even talk to any longer is Zatanna, and only then on earth. The last vestige of Adam's presence, is the Adamantium, which floats in high orbit, roughly half-way between the moon and earth silent, and dark. It resists all attempts at communication, and entry, replaying the same message.
"This ship is currently under maintenance." It's a feeling that Kara seems to share. An endless attempt to repair what was broken.
To be continued...