It had been quite some time since John had talked with Shayera. Ever since the Thanagarains arrived, she had spent less time on the Watchtower. Then she had gone on the mission with J'onn and Diana to apprehend Despero. Her return had immediately jumped into the conflict with the Tamaraneans.
So yeah, he was missing her.
But, he was a man of action, so instead of just moping around, he hailed her over the comm link. While he knew she was dealing with her people, hopefully she could spare a minute or two.
"Hawkgirl, this is Lantern," he called out, a hand over his ear, a finger pressed on the device's button.
It took a few moments before he received a response. "Hey, John. Is something going on?"
Her voice was soothing to his ears. "Just wanted to check in with you. The Green Lantern Corp is still looking for Despero. Figured we could coordinate with each other."
There was a moment of silence before Shayera responded, and there was a clear note of irritation in her voice, "Our response isn't exactly what I hoped for. We're sending ships into the atmosphere and making certain no one comes or goes from Earth. Otherwise, there isn't much searching on our part. It doesn't help that one of our ships crashed just outside of Metropolis either."
That…seemed strange. John frowned as he considered this. Considering how much fuss the Thanagarians had made about Despero when they had arrived, to not actively search for him was out of character.
At least they were forming a dragnet around the planet though. If Despero tried to leave, he'd get caught immediately upon his departure. "That's better than nothing," John said, doing his best to be diplomatic. "Anything I can do to help with that crashed ship of yours?"
"No, we're handling it. Hro isn't happy about the crash, so he's trying to get to the bottom of it. As far as Despero is concerned, he's on the backburner, so what we're doing is just one step away from doing nothing," Shayera retorted. "I'll try to keep you informed if we find anything, but I rather doubt it."
"Same. I'll tell Ganthet about this and see what he thinks."
There was a pause before John ventured, "So, how are you doing?"
"Are you seriously trying to chat me up on a call?"
"Hey, I haven't heard from you in a while and the last time we talked, it was shouting while in the middle of a fight."
"Sweet," was all she said, which John took as short for "How sweet of you." Shayera had never been the gushy type, but she at least acknowledged moments. "I can't talk for much longer, but it was nice to hear from you."
"Got any idea when we can see each other?"
"Not any time soon. I'm trying to get my command to commit more than just babysitting a planet." A pause. "Hey, I've got to go. We'll be in touch."
And just like that, she was gone. John wished it could've gone a little longer, but he understood the redhead was busy. Still…
Shaking off those emotions, John decided he needed to tell Ganthet what was going on with the Thanagarians. Since the Guardian had returned to their makeshift base, he headed there, entering the warehouse. It was rather empty in comparison to when they first took it over. That had to do with most of the Corp searching for Despero, leaving the ones that remained to guard their position, or get some rest.
Ganthet was where he usually was, so John went right for him. As he walked, he couldn't help but glance around. In one corner of the building was their medical bay, where a few Lanterns were receiving treatment. He spotted Katma there, up on her feet, which was good to see.
Upon reaching the Guardian, John made his presence known. "Ganthet, I just heard back from Hawkgirl concerning the Thanagarians."
The blue-skinned Oaian glanced towards him. "What did she have to say?"
"The Thanagarians are forming a perimeter around Earth to make certain Despero doesn't leave it, but they're not actively participating in his search."
Ganthet looked thoughtful at that. "The idea has merit," he murmured. "Though it seems strange they would not assist in Despero's capture, perhaps most of their resources are tied up in the Defense Shield Generator."
That was entirely possible, though John had to wonder why Shayera hadn't mentioned that. While it was possible she didn't know, he rather doubted that. There wasn't much she couldn't ferret out and it wasn't like her to leave something like that out if she knew about it.
"We shall follow their example," Ganthet continued. "Pull some of our Lanterns out of the search and position them around Earth. They can shore up any openings in whatever dragnet the Thanagarians create."
"Shouldn't we keep more for the search?" John questioned.
"Despero has managed to remain hidden despite our best efforts," Ganthet gently reminded him. "The longer this goes on, the less likely we will be able to find him. However, he would be vulnerable if aboard a spacecraft. He will be easily captured then as he would on Earth. No doubt Despero would want to get into contact with his people to stage a rescue operation, so if we spot Kalanorians ships approaching Earth, we'll know exactly where he is at."
There was something to that, John had to admit. It was true that there were many places on Earth for Despero to hide, you did have to take into account that he was a large, pink alien. John had a thought occur to him. Though visually he stuck out like a sore thumb, he was also telepathic. Who wasn't to say he wasn't using those powers to stay hidden?
That was something he would need to ask J'onn, seeing as he was the expert on telepaths. If it was possible for telepaths to hide themselves out in the open with their powers, then there was no way they would be able to find him, even if he was right in front of them.
"I'll go make the assignments," John finally said after a moment or two. Turning around, he began to leave. What had started as a call to catch up with Shayera had turned into a job for his corp. It was funny how things ended up.
The trip back to Belle Reve had been a long one. The ship Waller's task force had been held on had been coasting through Earth skies rather than staying in the Gobi Desert. Because of this, they had ended up over Metropolis of all places. The ship had crashed just outside of its harbor.
Traveling over half of the United States while trying to stay out of sight of the Thanagarians and local PD had been difficult initially. Once they were outside of the Metropolis city limits, they "borrowed" a minivan from a used car lot and drove it the rest of the way.
While it would have been more convenient to use the Watchtower's transporter, none of the criminals with Batman and Flash were registered in the system, so they wouldn't be whisked away. Also, there didn't need to be anything that led the Thanagarians to the Justice League. As it was, both Batman and Flash had acted independently and had a recent history of being removed from the League to give it plausible deniability. No doubt the Thanagarian guards would give enough of a description of the two of them to cast suspicion.
After a couple days of travel, they arrived a mile or so away from Belle Reve. From there they made their way on foot and into Waller's preferred departure point at the prison. No one would ask questions if they went in or out.
Which led to the moment where Batman and the task force stood behind Waller as she worked in her office. "Waller," Batman spoke.
The woman flinched before she spun around, an angry look on her face. "Will you—" she cut herself off as she spotted her task force. "So you actually did it," she settled on a moment later.
"So this is what it feels like," Harkness remarked. "Sneaking up on people. I kinda like it."
Waller stood up from her seat and walked right up to Deadshot, who had taken off his mask. "Should I be worried?"
"No," Lawton answered her. "They hadn't begun torturing us, so none of us revealed anything. The Thanagarian in charge suspects we're government agents, though."
"Not exactly what I wanted to hear," Waller grimaced.
"Not gonna lie, I was expecting all our heads to be blown two ways from Sunday," Harkness said.
"You can thank Batman for that." Waller glanced at the vigilante. "If it wasn't for him, all of your heads would be in several different places."
"Happy thoughts," Killer Frost grunted.
It was a good thing Flash wasn't here to hear this. Thankfully he was busy disposing of the minivan and was just a call away from being an escape attempt.
"What were you able to find out about the Thanagarians' generator?" Batman suddenly asked, drawing the room's attention to him.
Lawton glanced at Waller, who only nodded. "Whatever it is, it's not what they're saying it is," he told the vigilante. "For something that's supposed to protect the planet, it doesn't have any maintenance tunnels, or anything that would allow for regular maintenance. Either their tech is so good that it won't break down, or they're building something else entirely."
Considering the tech Batman saw on the Thanagarian ship, he rather doubted it was the former. Those blueprints he had translated weren't an error then. "Did you overhear anything that might tell us what it is they're building?"
"No, nothing. The Thanagarians were more interested in what we knew than sharing with us what they knew."
"No evil monologues, mate," Harkness chimed in.
He had figured as much. Looking to Waller, he said, "I'll be in touch," before turning to leave.
"And if you find anything out, you better do the same," the short woman responded.
If that was how she wanted to play this, then so be it. Stopping, he glanced over his shoulder at her. "And don't forget, you owe me one." Waller narrowed her eyes at him, but otherwise didn't respond. She knew the score and it was worth pointing it out.
Leaving the government official and her task force, the moment Batman was outside of hearing distance, he activated his comm link. "Flash, I'm on my way out. We'll meet on the Watchtower."
The response was immediate. "Roger that, Bats. I'll sweep you off your feet once you're out and get us a good distance away before we teleport up."
Batman grimaced. That wasn't what he meant. He wanted the speedster to head back to the Watchtower while he did the same. Trying to convince him otherwise wasn't worth the effort at this point. He wasn't looking forward to that kind of sweeping Flash did, but there was some sense as to removing themselves from Belle Reve as quickly as possible. If there was anything in place to jam communication—and that was damn near a certainty—then there might be issues with having the transporter target them. Logically putting some distance between them and the prison would remedy that.
With the number of times Flash had carried him lately, you would think he would have gotten used to it by now.
That man was starting to crawl under her skin. Waller didn't like it, but now was not the time.
So instead, she got down to business, but not here, not in her office. Who knew if he had planted listening devices? That he could sneak up on her meant he could have taken the time to do so. Hell, he could have done it at any time she was out of the office; there was no telling how many times he had explored the prison by now, not when he seemingly avoided every security measure in place.
With a gesture, she bid the rest of her Alpha Squad to follow after her. They were going to be taking a little walk.
"I notice we're missing a man," she stated after putting some distance between them and her office. Waller took a random turn. No particular reason.
"The Thanagarians made off with Major Force," Deadshot answered almost immediately. "They were really interested in him. They boarded us on a ship and that's where we were separated. Who knows what they're doing to him."
If Waller had to guess, it would have to involve Force's special powers. The man was a walking atom bomb and if there was anything to be of interest, it would be that nuclear power within that body. Though, what an alien race that could travel the stars could want with nuclear power was an unknown. Waller didn't deal with unknowns unless it was ending them.
"The Detective vas very efficient in liberating us," Vertigo remarked. "Not that I am surprised. The man vas always the resourceful type."
"That's right, you said something about knowing the Bat," Boomerang brought up. "'Ow come I never heard of ya?"
"It vas another life, another time," Vertigo answered wistfully.
"And it's meaningless," Waller interrupted. "Save the nostalgia for your sad little moments in between your missions." This was business, not a gossip session with war stories. "Does anybody know where they took Force?"
"Beats the hell out of me," Killer Frost drawled.
"Not good enough." The shortest woman there slipped out her smartphone and inputted the password. Swiping her finger along the screen, she located the app she was looking for.
She could tell Deadshot was muffling a sigh. "What's the new mission this time?"
"You're on standby. I'll be finishing the clean-up of your screw up," Waller replied as she opened the menu. Pressing down digital buttons, she brought up the program she was searching for.
In her office, she had the device that would trigger the bombs she had implanted in all Task Force X members, Major Force himself not an exception. It had occurred to her there may be times when she wouldn't have immediate access to that device, and so a counter measure was taken. It was simple, an app anyone could download onto a phone, though for security reasons it wasn't. Now she was never far from enacting her insurance policy.
Halfway down the list, there was Major Force's trigger. Without even a second of hesitation, she selected the option and then pressed down on the detonator button.
The bomb would go off, and so would Major Force. Since the Thanagarians were so interested in him, they'd go with him too, and if he was anywhere near that structure that she suspected was something else entirely, then it would go up in flames as well. Two birds, one atomically charged rock.
There was more than enough evidence to at least disprove the claim of some global defense system. That the Thanagarians were hiding its true nature could only mean it wasn't something in the best interests of the United States.
Slowly, a frown formed on her face. According to the app, Major Force was still active. That couldn't be possible. She had just detonated the bomb in his head, so his name should have dimmed, indicated termination. She selected Force and then the detonation button once more. Force's name did not dim at all.
Something was wrong. Perhaps it was with the phone. Still, she had put time and money into developing it, so she was going to figure out if the problem was with the cellular device. There was still the master control in her office, the same place that needed to be swept for any bugs ASAP.
Her fingers tapped against the phone's screen, and she inputted the command to search and locate Force's tracker. The bomb and the tracker were one and the same, so locating one meant locating the other. In response, a small window popped up, which reported that Force's bomb was not responding. Some more inputting followed where she made queries into both the tracking and bomb functions. Each time, for each function, she was told that they were not functioning.
As a final measure, she requested to see if the bomb had indeed gone off after she had detonated it the first time. To her frustration, she was informed that even for that action there had been no response.
This was key; in order for the app to confirm detonation, it had to know that the signal it sent out was received by the bomb. Force's name in the option menu should have darkened as a result, confirming that the request for detonation had been received and executed.
Something was incredibly wrong.
"Get yourselves ready," Waller abruptly announced as she pocketed her phone. "You're relocating for the time being. You'll be updated on your new assignment when we're enroute."
There was some grumbling, and several footsteps left her. However, one member of the task force had remained behind.
"You looked spooked," Deadshot remarked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Lawton," Waller snapped back, not even deigning to look at the assassin. "You have your orders, now get to it."
She knew that the sniper was eyeing her up, already sensing weakness. The smart man that he was, he didn't pry further, but like a shark he sensed the blood in the water.
It would be handled later. In the meantime, she would need to update Bordeaux about these latest discoveries. Whatever this game was, it was starting to go south real fast.
Despero stood with his back to a forest clearing. He was not one to gaze at vegetation adoringly, but there was just something about trees and leaves and grass that were just strange to him. They were nothing like the stone and sand he had become accustomed to. Still, it would be of some use as a backdrop.
His scout ship was resting on the ground, its main hatch wide open with the ramp extended to the dirt and grass. One of his men was setting up a recording device, aiming it right at the Kalanorian. They were nearly finished with the setup, Despero could read it from their minds, so he was quiet and calm, allowing them to finish their work.
"We are operational," one of his men declared then. "Recording device is active, waiting for permission to proceed."
Excellent. "What of the signal jammer?" he asked.
Another man appeared within the doorframe of the ship. "We have frequencies jammed and are ready to transmit."
Despero straightened out his posture. "Begin the broadcast. It is time I let this world know what despair truly feels like."
No words were spoken as the Kalanorian in the ship's door began making hand gestures, clearly to one of his fellow comrades inside of the ship. He then gave the sign that they were successful. That led to the Kalanorian by the recording device to activate it, then point a finger to Despero, informing him that he was—as the Earthlings say—"live."
"People of Earth," Despero began. "I am Despero, ruler of Kalanor."
"Many of you know me from my invasion years ago. That encounter did not end in my favor. Now, I have returned with a message for all of you."
J'onn was typing on the keyboard, trying to isolate the frequency. Only moments ago had Despero's face appeared on the main monitor, followed quickly by the other, smaller computer screens. Somehow, he had managed to unleash a broadcast, one that was taking over every available broadcasting service, not unlike Luthor's broadcast of the future footage.
Diana stared at the screen as well. "What is this about?" she could not help but ask.
"Your end is near," Despero then proclaimed.
"Clearly a message of doom," Steel responded, he too hard at work to isolate the signal. "I'm starting to wonder if all of these megalomaniacs aren't addicted to making these speeches."
"The first time I came here, I tried infiltration and recruitment. I wanted Earth to join my empire and assist in its conquest. Now, I have no desire for such trivialities. When I am done, this planet of yours will be space dust, forever a reminder of the consequences of my wrath."
And then the picture of Despero changed.
"My God," General Lane gasped.
Gone was the image of the Kalanorian leader. In its place was an image of a massive fleet of spaceships, no doubt the Kalanorian fleet that had been spoken of for so long. The sheer number of them was astonishing, outnumbering any country's military force. The difference in sizes among the ships was stark as well. Some were clearly larger than the biggest aircraft carrier ever built.
"This is my fleet. It is the same fleet that has destroyed all who have resisted it. While you depended on your idols, your Lanterns and Tamaraneans and Thanagarians, your Martians, my forces have entered your solar system. You believed that my capture would be the end of it, but you were sadly mistaken."
Within NORAD, men and women were hard at work to confirm if this was indeed Despero and not some fraud. Others were trying to isolate the signal while others were determining the scope of this broadcast. It was pure mayhem.
"I will leave you now to spend your remaining days as you please, but before I do, I will show you a demonstration of my power. I will show you the fate that awaits Earth. I will show you the power of the Py'tar Cannon."
The ship was long, its bottom flat and squared. It was the base for the large round cannon that sat on top of it, giving its top a rounded look. Within the cannon's mouth, purple light began to glow from within its depths.
A smaller ship was nearby, recording this powerful weapon. It was sending a broadcast to its sister ship on Earth, one that was now streaming every second at present time.
The Kalanorian fleet had slowed itself until it came to a stop within this solar system. That had been on the specific order of their Lord Despero. The Py'tar Cannon had emerged from within the fleet to take centerstage, aiming its destructive cannon on the fourth planet of this system.
The red planet, Mars.
The purple glow within the cannon grew brighter and brighter, flames seemingly licking the edges of the barrel. Then with a great burst, it fired an onslaught of purple fire right for the red planet.
Descending into its atmosphere, it burned through it with little resistance, greedily consuming it as its sky seemed to pull away from the blast, revealing inky black space where cloud coverage once stood. It was like a column of fiery death rushing down towards the red sands below.
The moment the fire touched the red ground, it blackened it instantly. The flames poured over Mars' surface, spreading across it like a flood. Cracks began to form within the blackened soil before it began to cave inward.
A ring of blackness spread outward, followed shortly by the purple flames of Py'tar erupting at seemingly random places across the dying planet's face. It reached out in all directions until they disappeared over the curvature of the planet. For a few moments, Mars was completely black, marred only by chasms growing as the dead ground split apart. It was through these widening chasms that a flash of orange appeared, emerging from the planet's center. The orange light grew brighter, the result of the planet's core becoming exposed.
And then the core detonated. Silently, the planet was torn apart, pieces of Mars being shredded, or launched out into space. The powerful force of the planet's destruction pushed into the Kalanorian fleet, rocking their ships back, even as pieces of debris collided with their hulls and ricocheted off of them. The damage was minimal, not even destroy one of the ships of the great fleet.
The light from the explosion slowly began to die down then. In its place were what remained of Mars, blackened chunks of debris scattered throughout space.
As the remains of Mars were streamed world-wide, Despero had one last parting word to say.
"Remember, you only have days before this is your reality. Enjoy them while you can. The simplest of pleasures are often the sweetest, or so I hear. Just ask your fellow insects."
A quick note: Despero's parting words at the end of the chapter are right from the Dragonball Z manga. Raditz says it to Piccolo after he is defeated, a last taunt before he's killed. I rather liked the parting shot and couldn't resist using it here.
