CHAPTER 38: LEAGUE VERSUS LORD PART 2
-Watchtower-
The heroes at the moment were doing their best not to harm the station's crew, but they weren't making it easy for them. Green Arrow launched a net arrow that while in the air the tip blew open and snared a small group of the crew. Then he pulled out an arrow with what looked like a giant novelty boxing glove.
"You're kidding right?" The alternate Supergirl asked seeing him pull that out. At the moment she was just throwing crew aside like rag dolls but made sure not to hurt then too much.
Green Arrow just flashed that usual grin that he gave the ladies, "Trust me I know how it looks but it works." He took aim and then fired the boxing glove arrow, it sailed through the air and landed with into the face of one of the zombie crew members knocking them out.
"See what I mean?" He grinned at her and she did blush a bit but kept it hidden. But when he had his eye on the alternate Kara one of the crew with a large wrench came at him. He quickly brought his bow over his head to block the blow. "Sorry about this but you leave me with no choice," He told them as he pushed with his bow then sent it into the gut of that man, with a quick reversal arc he hooked the curve of the bow around the back knee and pulled. The man went down to the ground quickly from that.
Long Shadow had grown to twenty feet tall and was using his size to try and hold them like living dolls. "Hey what can I do with these people? Some of them are starting to get free." He asked the others.
"Hold on," Flash said and was gone in a crimson streak of color and was back again with what looked like some extra cables, "I found these in a storage room for parts I think we can just tie them up and leave them until we fix this."
Superman like the Kara from another reality, was doing his best not to harm the human workers. He used his ice breath to chill a few of them into submission and thankfully he didn't feel the blows they used. The bad part was that they did, but they kept on attacking, he was sure they would keep hitting him until their fists were bloody and broken so he had to do his best to keep them from hitting him as well.
The Justice Lord Batman however took a more direct approach, using batarangs and his martial arts moves to take them down quickly. He was used to this type of fighting and his main concern was just stopping his former friends. He ducked under the right hook of a male worker and gave an uppercut counter knocking the man onto his back. He quickly spun around for a side kick to a female technician's stomach.
He saw a group of them a safe distance from them and tossed several small metallic balls. They landed and rolled within the group, suddenly they spewed out gas among them. The knockout gas took quick effect taking out a nice group of them.
Flash also used his speed to trip, tie up, and in a few cases pulled the back of the shirts over the heads of a few of them and tied them up to the belt buckle. So that the civilian workers couldn't see and their arms were stuck in a bizarre upright angles. He looked over his work with a smile, "Man who knew that move I saw in hockey would actually pay off one day."
By then the crew members were all pretty much incapacitated in some form or another, "You know when they wake up we better give them a raise this is over, I just know they'll have a union thing about this." Green Arrow said to himself.
"We can talk about that later now we got bigger issues," The Justice Lord Batman said to them as he rushed forward. They had lost time and they need to hurry now. The rest of the heroes took off after him and it didn't take that long for them to reach the control room and saw what looked like Wonder Woman and J'onn there.
However the Lord Batman knew it they were his old team members. They both looked down coldly at him, "Well I see that you decided to wear that suit one more time then." The alternate Diana said looking at him. She couldn't believe he had the audacity to put that on after he betrayed them. Yet here he was about to do the same thing all over again.
"I can't let you do this," He said to them, "Whatever you're planning I can't let it happen, you know that."
The Justice Lord J'onn nodded, "Indeed, but you are too late," He keyed in a few commands at that moment, "I locked out the computer, you will never stop it since by now you have only ten minutes before all the Javelins are sent into the sun."
"What?" Long Shadow said in horror at that. He couldn't believe they would do something so horrible, "Why? There's no reason for this."
"Revenge child," the evil J'onn said to him, "We suffered for trying to bring order to this world and lost everything. That is the second time that has happened to me, we were stripped of everything that we had and treated as villains."
"So we're going to return the favor," The other Diana said crossing her arms, "First we take everything, your station, your friends and colleagues, you're reputations, and then we finish you all off. At this moment our Superman is patching in the super laser to the reactor, the debris from the station will fall to the Earth, and the damage done to by the laser will cause everyone to mistrust you all."
"But then again none of you will be leaving this station," J'onn said and then he transformed into a multi-headed hydra like green monster as he attacked them. The Justice Lord Wonder Woman flew into the fight as well.
Supergirl went after Wonder Woman as Long Shadow turned giant sized to deal with the alien shape shifter. Superman and Flash were about to deal with them when Batman stopped them both, "No we need to shut down the computer, they can keep them busy for now."
Superman looked at them and he had to nod, they had to save the other heroes as well as the station. The three of them quickly went to the control room as the others kept them busy. They got to the controls and tried to override the command. "He put on a six digit code," Superman said looking at the display.
"We'll have to stop the other Superman at the core," Justice Lord Batman said to them and then looked at Flash, "I need you to start putting in ever number that you can and try to get lucky with that."
Wally's eyes widened, "What? Are you kidding you know how many numbers that can be?"
"Yes, but you're the only one fast enough to maybe get them all in there and within the time limit." He told the speeder.
Supergirl was thrown into a wall near then and she pulled herself out of it, "Whatever you three do hurry it up! I don't know how long we can hold them off!" She said before flying back to grapple with Justice Lord Wonder Woman. Both women were strong but the evil Diana was stronger then the younger alien woman.
Long Shadow was holding two of the heads of the J'onn Monster at bay while the long snake like body was wrapped around him. The third head was snapping at Green Arrow who was doing his best to avoid the large and surprisingly quick head, while trying to find an arrow that would help out.
"Come on we have to hurry," Justice Lord Batman said while going to the main elevator shaft that he saw in the blueprints. He made sure to get at least a partial look at them before leaving for this mission. Superman didn't like to leave the others but Flash was busy trying to type in as many codes as the computer could keep up, and the others struggling.
He didn't want to leave them but if no one could stop his evil counter part then they all might end up dead anyway. He silently wished them luck as he caught up with the other Batman to hurry and make it to the core.
At that moment Peter was fighting alongside the superhero supermodel Vixen. "You know whoever thought up defense bots remind me to have a few strong works with the guy in research and development," He said jumping off a wall and firing a web at one of the drones.
"You an me both," She said using the power of a rhino to charge through a small group of them, shattering the machines.
So far for the past few minutes they had been fighting off wave after wave of drones, "Okay just how many could they have possibly have finished?" He asked kicking one into a wall before ducking a laser shot by another.
Vixen was using all the agility of several animals at different times to stay ahead herself, changing the power to a larger animal for her strikes, "I have no idea but the lab boys need to get a life!"
Peter really hoped the others were doing much better then they were. It took them just five more minutes to finally get through all the combat drones. After a minute to catch their breaths they made a break for the cells, given that if they had this security area on high alert the others would also having trouble of their own as well.
They finally reached her cell door and opened it up. Shayera leaped out of it so fast Peter barely reacted fast enough to dodge out of the way as she came charging out of the cell. "Whoa! It's me! I'm here to bust you out!" Peter shouted out.
Shayera looked around and took in the mess of the place. She took a more relaxed stance seeing that, "Sorry it's just that my last guest decided to drug me," She told him through gritted teeth. Peter then gave her the short version of what was going on.
"Of course!" She yelled out punching the wall, "Damn them, I thought we saw the last of the Justice Lords."
"Apparently not," Spider-Man told her, "Well we better met up with the others."
"Hey guys…I think this cell is also in use," Vixen had noticed how another cell was locked up unlike the others. She looked at the key pad and then punched in the release lock. The door slid open and her eyes widened. On the floor was J'onn only with a device on his head.
She rushed in with the other not far behind her. Vixen looked at the device, it didn't seemed to be attached to anything so it should be okay to pull it off. Well she hoped at least, she very gently pulled the device off of his head.
Shayera looked over her shoulder at him, "Is he okay do you think?"
There as a small moan from the Martian man as his eyes started to open up. He looked up to see the ceiling of a cell and then turned his head towards the others, "I take it there have been some…developments since I've been out?"
Peter smiled under his mask as they helped him up onto his feet, "Oh you don't know the half of it buddy, come on we can fill you in on the way to the command center."
-New York-
Donna was currently trying to avoid the mace of the Justice Lord Hawkgirl. She had some experience with this world's Shayera with a few sparing this was totally different. This version was more brutal and merciless then the one she was used to. This was a fight to the bitter end as well, not a simple sparing match. But then Donna was an Amazon warrior, daughter to the Queen and she had centuries of combat training under her fellow sisters.
She wouldn't go down easy she would make sure of that. So far her silver bracelets could help her block the blows of the mace but she still felt the sting of the electrical current through them. But she just gritted her teeth and fought on.
The Justice Lord Green Lantern was using his stolen ring to look for Batman. He knew that single attack wouldn't be enough to finish the job, "You better come out, I know you Bruce. I know how you think, and how you fight that's how we were able to take you by surprise. I know what you look for."
Bruce was in the shadows behind a few crates keeping silent. He had to admit that he knew this wouldn't be easy, they knew his counter part and so they knew him. 'Looks like a change in tactics is in order then,' He thought as he started to plan a few things out.
Meanwhile the evil John was taking away any and all shadows in the area, he knew they were one of Batman's greatest assets in a battle. His green light illuminated the area taking away these shadows while looking around. He knew that without shadows he would try another route, he never attacked head on unless he had to, using his wits in a battle. That meant that he would try a tactic like distraction while his real attack came from somewhere else.
He couldn't really hear with his love fighting that brat, but he intensified the glow around his body making it thicker and harder into a personal shield. 'Enough of this,' He thought and fired his ring, making a huge curved blade making it arc through the objects in the warehouse and slicing easily through them.
He looked around as he kept on slicing away taking more and more places to hide. Then Batman leaped out of his hiding spot jumping over the energy blade while throwing two batarangs. They just passed his head missing him. John grinned as he reformed the blade into a giant hand swatting him like an insect. He heard the Dark Knight grunt with being slammed into the ground.
John walked over as his hand kept him pinned down, "You're sloppy, our Batman would never had missed me like that."
"That's because he didn't miss," Came Diana's voice and he turned around just in time for his face to be met by her fist. He landed on his back and looked up shocked to see their prisoner freed. He looked past her as he got up to see the two batarangs there imbedded into the manacles. His eyes widened as he realized that he had thrown them at the locks breaking them open and not at him.
He suddenly was kicked in the lower back as hands grabbed his arm and threw him shoulder first into a support beam. He grunted with the pain seeing now both Batman and Diana standing together against him. "Well…this just got more interesting," He said and rushed at them, forming a large shield around him.
Donna was getting fed up with this sorry excuse for a 'hero' she was fighting. "What's a matter little girl? Can't handle being in the big leagues? Guess you're not up to par with your big sister then," The evil Hawkgirl smiled as she went to work on Donna.
That moment Donna had had enough of this, she blocked one blow with her left and then used her right elbow in an uppercut strike to Shayera's chin. This mad the villain fly back as she tried to keep herself upright, but unlike her Donna didn't need wings to fly. She kept up the pressure and was going to show this woman the might of the Amazons.
With a right hook she tapped the woman's head forcing her opponent to the cold ground. She landed over top to continue her assault but got a mace strike to her left ribs. She gave a small cry of pain as she shifted to the right. Shayera struck out with her legs tripping the young Amazon as she then leaped back onto her feet. "Well looks like Wonder Woman light has some moves after all."
Wonder Girl got to her feet and into a combat stance, "Just bring it chicken lady." She smiled seeing the reaction that got out of her. There was a moment of self satisfaction seeing that smug look fall from her face. She guessed hanging around Peter so much was rubbing off on her.
Batman and Wonder Woman had their hands full with the Justice Lord John. Without her silver bracelets she couldn't deflect any of this energy shots at them and had to dodge them as well. Also she didn't know how much power the ring had in it and it was more likely that they would get tired out before the ring did. Diana saw Bruce threw a few of those small explosives he carried with him at John to hopefully weaken his shield.
For a minute there it looked like he was straining to keep it up, so she decided to increase the pressure. Wonder Woman took on of the large metal support beams and with all her strength ripped it out of the floor and part of the top. She not had a giant club weapon to attack with, she knew that her John could only keep up a shield with more power and with concentration. Looking at Batman he nodded as if reading her mind. That made her smile a bit since he always seemed to know what to do without being told.
She gave a war cry as she started to thrash the large metal makeshift weapon at him forcing him to increase the strength of his shield. Batman came at him at another angle throwing whatever he could to destabilize it. He used exploding and electrified Batarangs and John was starting to have trouble.
Then Bruce pulled out a small device and threw it near John's feet. Suddenly a high pitch wail came out of it. The evil Green Lantern felt the pain in his ears and went to cover them in a vain attempt to stop it. It was enough that his concentration broke and the next strike from Wonder Woman broke through it hitting the man dead center with the mass of metal.
Being hit with such a large piece of metal and then having the speed of it hit not only was powerful enough to cause him great injury but being slammed into the far wall was what did him in. John's body hit the wall and fell down unmoving. The device turned off thankfully as it wasn't set to go on for long.
Diana felt her ears ringing from the sonic assault and looked at Bruce dropping the mass of metal. She could barely hear it hit the ground. "Did you have to use that thing?" She shouted out not knowing it.
"You don't have to raise your voice," He said to her, his cowl was designed with a filter for that and any other sonic attacks.
Diana tried to read his lips but didn't get it all so she resorted to the basics, "WHAT?"
Bruce was about to answer when Donna was dragged back an unconscious Hawkgirl, when the sonic device went off Donna got an opening. Pushing through the pain she gripped the mace, then did an elbow strike to the solar plexus. Hawkgirl had lost her grip on her weapon so Donna used it to strike her opponent in the head for a knockout shot.
Bruce raised an eyebrow under his cowl from the fact she beat her, "You seemed to have done well."
Wonder Girl blinked a few times at him, "WHAT?" She yelled out not being able to hear.
-Watchtower-
Superman had to punch his way through deck after deck to get to the core fast enough to the core as the other Batman followed him. When they reached the core room and he opened the door he say the other version of him standing there by the controls in a reproduction of his uniform.
Justice Lord Superman stopped his work, "Well I see we have a little reunion here. I had hoped to keep you on the surface as everything you built came crashing down but I guess this will have to do." Kal-El said looking at his counter part, then to the man that had once been his friend, "I see you decided to put that on again, and once again you're trying to betray us."
"This has gone on far enough Clark," Lord Batman said stepping forward.
"I don't answer by 'Clark' anymore Bruce, it's Kal-El," The Kryptonian criminal said coldly to him. "Clark Kent died a long time ago when the world turned its back to him."
Bruce looked at the man and nodded, he knew that he was too far gone to see reason but he still had to try, "You can't stop the both of us."
Kal-El looked at him as his eyes started to glow, "We shall see about that."
The evil Superman fired his heat beams at Bruce but he was already dodging him, the good Superman immediately flew at him with super speed hitting his evil counter part with enough force to send him sailing into the air. Kal-El stopped himself and looked on as Clark came at him with a fist drawn.
Kal-El dodged it and sent a fist of his own to his 'twin' and followed with a left to the stomach. He raised both hands up over his head to bash both fists into the beck of his opponents head. Clark recovered just in time to grab both of them and then fired his own heat vision beams at Kal-El's chest. He flew back a few feet feeling the searing pain and looked to see the S shield now burnt.
Then both opponents fired their heat vision at the two struggled ass both beams hit. At the two titans fought on Justice Lord Batman went to the control area. He knew that his Clark…no…Kal-El he reminded himself, was smart but he was better with computers then he was. He knew how to get around them, and it didn't take long to see how he had overrode the safety protocols.
The two aliens were still going at it, although both had to control themselves seeing as if they did too much they could breach the reactor killing them all. Although that still didn't stop them from trying to harm the other as much as possible. For Clark this was more about then just fighting for his friends and for the safety of others, this held a bit of a personal touch for him. This was fighting against everything he feared he would become.
Ever since he had been brainwashed years ago by Darkseid, he was deeply afraid that he would turn again. This was just another way how he could fall from grace, his own powers and sensibilities being his undoing. But he kept on telling himself that this was not him, not the real him. He would not become this kind of person.
For Kal-El it was for revenge. This version of him had it all and yet he was weak, he couldn't make the hard decisions like he had to. He only ever tried to make both worlds a better place, paradise where you couldn't walk in fear of being murdered, robbed or any other crime. They world was a child and they had been the parents. So what did the 'child' do to the parents? Show them gratitude? No they locked them up and threw away the key, he lost everything because this man actually joined Luthor. So who was the real 'villain' here? He never would have done that, he took care of criminals and put them away from harming anyone.
Yet this version of him joined one of the most evil men alive, got him free, and they still call him a hero. It was insane and yet another proof just how warped and twisted this world had become. During the fight both of them had gained numerous injuries. Both had their costumed damaged and yet both never gave an inch.
"Clark!" Batman yelled up to him, "I can't stop it from here I need you to go to the fire control room for the laser and stop it there!"
"I can't leave you here!"
"Yes you can! If that thing fires we're all dead and it's pointed at Metropolis!" Clark froze there as images of everyone he knew there dead. Especially Lois, he couldn't bare to lose her. He looked down at him, "Don't worry about me…I got an edge."
Very reluctantly Clark nodded and flew off as fast as he could out the room and into the halls. Kal-El looked confused at Batman there wondering what was going on, "I never set it to Metropolis and the weapon isn't set to fire yet."
"I know, but he's a boy scout and I needed him out of here," Batman had already finished putting everything right, the laser had no power and the reactor wasn't set to overload. He looked up at the alien that was once his friend, "I think we have unfinished business between us."
With that he hit a key and the reactor room locked down. "Yes…We do," Kal-El stated before with blinding speed he was right there in front of Batman gripping his throat tightly, "That was a mistake sending him away."
Batman was lifted off his feet choking, "Not…Really…I…said…I have…An edge," With that he reached into his belt for something he had taken before leaving. Soon Kal-El felt the familiar pain as the green glow of kryptonite came out of a small lead lined container on Batman's belt.
"Urgh!" The evil Superman dropped his world's Batman feeling the weakness that the rock gave. "I…Should have…Known…"
"True, but I guess you were too busy plotting," Batman said a bit hoarsely his throat hurting from this. "I knew one day I would have to be the one to stop you…I never wanted this to happen. They aren't willing to do what is necessary to end this, they never were."
Kal-El did not want to be denied his revenge, he wouldn't let it end like this and he wouldn't let himself be beaten by Bruce either. He glared at the man angrily from his kneeling position and focused all his anger, his rage and power into one last move. At such close rage Batman couldn't dodge what was coming. With his last resolve the evil Superman fired one last heat beam right at Batman's stomach.
The man cried out in pain as the heat rays entered his body and he fell to the ground in pain. His grip on the green rock slipped and it fell across the floor. He tried to move but to his horror Bruce couldn't feel his legs, he fought the fear and panic that was rising in him like he always did. He guessed that shot hit his spinal cord at least. He looked down and saw that the wound was cauterized but he was worried about internal injuries.
"Nice try Bruce…But not good enough," Kal-El stated as he started to crawl to the kryptonite, trying to reach it. As soon he could reach it he would throw it across the room or somewhere safe, the entire room was lead lined so it wouldn't be easy.
Batman saw what he was doing and there was only one option left, "You know…There is one thing you lost…years ago that you should have kept…"
"What's what?" He grunted out feeling the burning sensation of the rock as he got closer.
"Self sacrifice, you never once thought of scarifying yourself for the greater good anymore," As Kal-El wondered what he was getting at he saw Bruce reach for a Batarang and puzzled it. He wasn't weak enough for that to kill him, not yet. Then Batman threw it, right at a weak glass area of the reactor.
"No!" The evil Superman said seeing that he had breached the core. Warning lights went off as the room was being flooded with radiation, "You fool you're going to kill us both!"
"I know Clark…I know…Maybe it's for the best…People like us…have abused what we've been given…They say power corrupts and for us it did…I just hope they…Learned from our mistakes." He said to him.
Batman just rested there, letting death finally come for him. He had a lot of regrets in his life, and he had made some bad choices. He just wondered if this deed would help make up for it? He didn't know but he was just so very tired, he just wanted to rest. He last sounds were of Kal-El coughing and the sounds of the alarms. Then as the lights faded there was nothing but darkness and quiet. And for the first time in his lifetime, Bruce Wayne the Batman, felt at peace.
-Control Room-
Flash was doing his best to input the codes as fast as he could, but the computer could only take in so many, "Come on you stupid piece of junk! Hurry it up, man you'd think a multimillion dollar computer system would be faster then this!" He found that he could only input a few dozen hundred numbers at a time before the system nearly crashed from the overload. He thought about just crashing the computer but he wasn't sure if that would release the lock on the Javelins guidance computers or keep them frozen like that.
The other Supergirl was struggling with her world's Diana at the moment, both women were going at it in the air. Supergirl was knocked back her head snapping back from a powerful left hook. Before the evil Diana could capitalize on it Shayera flew in out of nowhere with the others not far behind.
"That's for drugging me!" She shouted hitting the evil Wonder Woman with her fist. She looked over to see the other Supergirl in the blue and red costume with the red headband. "You know that look works for you."
"Uh…thanks," She said still a bit odd seeing this version of her but she did dress differently then her counter part at least.
Spider-Man and their J'onn that they freed were trying to subdue the evil on. "Man, remind me to stay on your good side buddy," Peter said to his Martian friend as he webbed up one of the mouths of the evil hydra like monster. Their J'onn turned into a dragon to fight the other Martian, Long Shadow was able to grip on of the heads and with a giant fist punched it almost hard enough to knock it off the body. As the two monsters rolled onto the floor they shifted into several different forms.
"Uh oh…I think I lost whish one was which," Green Arrow said with an arrow ready in his bow trying to figure out which shape shifter was theirs. Long Shadow tried to follow it as well but he too lost track as the two kept on shifting form and fighting it out. Then they both turned into identical copies of the other.
"Which one is ours?" Long Shadow asked seeing the two circle each other.
Peter looked closely and took a few steps forward, "Guys the left one is the fake!" The Justice Lord Martian glared angrily at the red and blue costumed hero, as the other started to gang up on him.
With the women, both Shayera and Supergirl were doing well together fighting the evil Amazon. During the fight her wig had come off and now Diana's shorter hair cut was plane to see. Vixen unfortunately had been stuck on the ground as she saw Flash too busy to help. She looked around trying to find an opening since she couldn't fly.
Then she got hit with inspiration, she used the cheetah powers and ran quickly backing up. She waited for the right moment and when Diana's back was to her she ran full out. She jumped off the console and through the air. Just when she was about to land onto the Amazon's back she changed her animal powers to that of a blue whale. She figured the extra mass would be one hell of a surprise to her, and she was right.
The Justice Lord Diana felt like a ship had just landed onto her back and both fell straight to the ground with such force Diana saw spots in her eyes. She was groggy from the attack and looked up to see her J'onn falling in front of her beaten. She looked up to see the other heroes around her and she gritted her teeth. She was beaten and she knew it.
Over with Flash he was sweating bullets, "Come on, come on, why won't this thing-" He was cut off as the panel light green and he gained access. "Yes!"
He quickly shut down all the remote controls of the Javelins and sighed as they started back towards the station. He slumped back into his chair feeling like his heart rate was like a hummingbird having a panic attack. "I never want to have that much pressure again…that was just WAY too close." He looked down to see the other villains beaten. "Aw man did I miss the fun part?"
Just then the lights dimmed all around them. "Hey what's up?" Peter asked looking around then the emergency lighting kicked in. Their J'onn went over to the controls and looked it up.
"We lost main power the rector is leaking and it went into emergency shut down." He told them looking at the readings he was getting.
"Was anyone in there?" Vixen asked him from the floor.
J'onn looked at the readings it was hard with all the radiation and he had to vent it all until the room wasn't so contaminated. He looked up at them, "I don't know but I'm not detecting any life signs."
"Hey guys?" Superman's voice was heard over the communicator in their ears, "I'm in the firing control but everything just went dead…what's going on?"
"Uh…what's he doing there?" Green Arrow asked everyone since no one could remember that being part of the plan.
NEXT UP CHATPER 39: IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL THE OCTOPUS SCHEMES