Fair warning guys: this chapter is going to be a big jarring compared to previous chapters. There's a lot of fighting that's going to not make sense, but that's sort of the point. AV and I wanted to show the chaos of a giant battle and I think we confused even ourselves at times. Hopefully there's enough that makes sense here for some cohesion. You've been warned.


The crash had drawn Fire's attention, something that she should not have allowed, especially with the Legion of Doom right here. However, Volcana was just as distracted as she was, attention drawn to the same boom.

From the cloud of dirt and dust emerged what looked like a large man. He easily towered over her and she didn't need to be close to figure that out. He was without clothes, only gray skin and a dark region where the eyes were located. The gray man stood to his full height, spotted her, and then began to walk towards her.

Was this another ploy from the Legion? A member of this villainous group that had been kept out of sight until now? At this point, she knew not to dismiss anything that the Legion did.

"So, a friend of yours?" Volcana snarked.

Fire frowned. "I thought he belonged to your group."

"Oh yeah, sure, blame me. You hero types aren't the sort to accept responsibility, are you?" the fiery villainess drawled.

By then, the gray man stood before the two of them, his eyes glowing with a bright white light before fading away.

"Okay, I definitely know he's with you. This is so stupid," Volcana spat out. Massive fireballs lit up around her hands, heat expanding throughout the area. "At least I know how to deal with stupid!"

Now, Fire did not know anything about this gray man, but she wasn't about to let him get hurt. "Wait!" she cried out, attempting to stop her adversary.

Volcana was too quick, bringing her hands together and meshing the fireballs engulfing her hands into one massive source of fire. From this, she fired an enormous stream of flame and Fire had to back away shielding her face from the incredible heat. The fire slammed into the gray man and he vanished instantly.

"Nothing to it!" Volcana crowed, not in the least reducing her flames. "Burn! Burn, baby, burn!"

The stream of flame had not abated, but the emergence of the gray man was sudden. First his head appeared, and then his shoulders, and he was moving closer and closer to Volcana. Fire's eyes widened, unable to believe what she was seeing.

The stream of flame ended abruptly, surprise and shock getting the best of Volcana. "How…?" her voice cracking.

The gray man held up a hand and around it flame consumed it much, much like how Volcana's. A massive fireball fired, scorching everything around it. Before she could summon the ability to move, Volcana was hit by the fireball, and much like how the gray man had earlier, vanished in the flames. Unlike with her stream, the fireball detonated, and the explosion threw Fire back.

Regaining her balance before she could fall, she turned to the gray man, perceiving him to be the greater threat. Green flames were fired, zooming through the air and hitting the gray man in the shoulder. He showed no signs of being affected, merely glanced back at her with no expression on his face.

Now his other hand raised up, and to Fire's shock, green flame appeared and fired right at her. Unlike Volcana, she was able to gather her wits and leap out of the way, the green fire nearly searing her. Then she was dodging again as regular fire almost hit her, detonating on the site. Again, she was flung back, this time with a cry as the force of the explosion slammed into her.

Her body bounced against the pavement, skipping across it until she began rolling the asphalt before coming to a stop. Soreness overwhelmed her for a moment, but then she started to push herself up, grimacing at the gray man who was beginning to start walking towards her.

"Fire!"

Her head snapped to a side, and she saw Ice was incoming, rushing to her rescue. Unfortunately, this attracted the attention of the gray man who looked at her long-time partner, his eyes glowing white briefly.

"Get away from her!" Ice snarled, blasting a freezing gale the froze everything in its path. The gray man responded with flame, countering frost with heat and canceling out both attacks. However, this did not stop Ice who rushed through the area where the two attacks had collided, one of her hands covered in a thick layer of ice. Swinging her fist, Ice rammed it into the side of the gray man's head.

The gray man leaned into the hit and did not move an inch. Inexplicably, ice formed around a large gray hand, identical to Ice's, and then the blow came. Ice was cast back, crying out as she flew until her body slammed into a lamp post, her flight immediately ending.

Fire did not understand what was happening, but what she did was that Ice was hurt. This would not stand.

Back on her feet, she swelled a large ball of green flame and fired it at the new enemy. History, unfortunately, repeated itself when her attack was met with a blast of ice that ripped through the flame and nearly hit Fire.

As she began to try and pick herself up again, the wielder of green flame noticed how the gray man was approaching her once more. This was not good and she needed to get up, now.

A loud crack followed by a boom had the gray man abruptly skidding backwards, his feet digging small trenches into the street. Floating there was Firestorm, her savior at the moment.

"Can you get on your feet?" her teammate called out, glancing back at her over his shoulder. Because of this, he did not see how the gray man looked at him, eyes glowing white.

Something peculiar happened; the top of the gray man's head began to wisp, moving even, as if it was mimicking fire itself. Then he began to float, much like how Firestorm was.

Flames ignited in both of the gray man's hands. In one hand was normal fire and in the other the green-hued. Red and green clashed as they were brought together and blasted as a swirling red-and-green fire, racing their way to the two Leaguers. As if comprehending what was approaching them, Firestorm turned and flew towards the Brazilian native. Snatching her up, he arced out of the way of the double-hued flame, beautiful in appearance and terrible as it detonated against the street.

It was the last thing she would see.


Alright, so trying to take off a Green Lantern ring was harder than he thought it would be.

Despite his speed, Flash found that the hard part was actually getting close enough to John to get his ring off. He constantly had a barrier surrounding him while firing beam after beam after the speedster while he was left to easily dodge them.

It was kinda boring, but until that damn shield came down, he couldn't do much else.

Their fight had moved out from between the houses and was on the street with the rest of the League. A cursory look showed that everyone was really going at it. He could see Captain Atom punching Grundy; over there was Manhunter charging up her staff, pointing it right at Metallo, who had his full attention on Steel; Green Arrow had just fired one of his trick arrows, the arrow heading for the back of Star Sapphire.

Because of his speed, it was like looking at a slow moving portrait. Of course, he had to return his attention to John as another beam fired from his ring.

Alright, it was time to change this stalemate of theirs. Changing direction, the speedster went right for the Green Lantern, changing direction mere feet away from him. John fired another blast when he was at point blank range, but Flash avoided the attack as he took off running to his right, running a circle around the man. Faster and faster, he ran around the Lantern, dust kicking up from every step he took.

John paused as he watched what was happening, twisting and turning in a vain attempt to keep up with him. "The hell are you doing, Flash?" he demanded.

A red tornado formed around the two, Flash just picking up his speed in response. The wind produced by his wind tunnel was sucking things up its funnel, pulling anyone and anything towards it. A quick glance around told him the League, the Legion, and—Team Batman? Yeah, the name needed work, but he was kinda busy to workshop it at the moment—Team Batman were trying to stand their ground, stopping their fighting as they fought to not get sucked up into the Flash Tornado.

And then he heard it. John began to cough as the dust and dirt he kicked up flowed through his green barrier construct and began choking him. Yeah, weird right? Apparently gas could go through a Green Lantern construct. Physics really needed to come up with an answer for that one.

With one hand pressed over his mouth, eyes squeezed shut to protect his eyes, John continued to cough, oblivious to what was happening around him.

Flash held one hand out, the other continuing to pump at his side as he ran. With his extended hand, he began to vibrate it, drawing in kinetic energy until electricity was dancing over his fist and up his arm.

Alright, GL, get ready for the Infinite Mass Punch.

As he planted a foot down, he pivoted on it so that he was now facing the Green Lantern. Pushing off the ground, Flash leaped high into the air, his energy-infused hand trembling with power was held behind him. He soared towards the green bubble, GL none the wiser to his approach.

Flash threw his punch. His knuckles hit the barrier.

A deafening CRACK! rang out over the battlefield. Whatever windows hadn't been broken by the fighting shattered. The faces of the buildings and the asphalt of the roads splintered into spider webs of cracks. GL's barrier erupted into pieces as Flash's punch burst through it. Already Flash could feel quite a bit of the power he had collected was lost from the breaking of the green construct bubble, but there was still more than enough to cause some damage, he felt. Less than a second later, his fist connected with the side of GL's face.

The Lantern vanished from the speedster's sight. That changed an instant later as GL hit the road, tearing a trench through it as he skidded across it. The other heroes and supervillains jerked out of the way to avoid getting caught up in the destruction.

By the time Flash landed back on the ground, he saw the broken pavement leading far down the street. It was a clear trail of where his former friend went. Immediately, he took off, racing down the trail to finish off GL once and for all.


Wood had stood no chance against the sledgehammer and down it went. The cables and wires that carried electric current through them went down with the pole and various light sources in the immediate areas shut off.

It made the light from the various fires more obvious, but Steel only had eyes for Metallo. He was breathing heavily; while his suit could take a lot of damage, that didn't mean that his body couldn't exhaust itself. Metallo, on the other hand, and through his limited understanding, was nowhere near his limit. The former-human-turned-robot was powered with kryptonite and who knew how much energy one could get from a rock like that.

Metallo knew he was tiring; somehow his metal face devoid of all false skin by now was smirking knowingly. "Batteries almost dead?" the killing machine mocked. "Come, surely there is still more. You put up a much better fight the first time we met."

That had been a very desperate fight, stalling for time, and nearly losing his life. The stakes had been much higher and he had been alone. There—

A loud scream, one that had to belong to Silver Banshee tore between the two of them. The street was ripped up, concrete breaking up and flung about, some of it hitting him. His armor bore it easily, but that didn't stop Steel from shielding his face.

It was after the scream stopped and he lowered his arms that he saw the huge, gray-skinned man that had been pushed through the trench that now existed in front of him. It looked like this guy had taken the full brunt of Silver Banshee's attack and he didn't look worse for wear. Then he was standing straighter, and Steel, who tended to be a tall person himself, was looking up.

What happened next further stunned him. The gray-skinned man unleashed a scream of his own, one just as devastating as the one that had interrupted his fight with Metallo. The scream rammed into Silver Banshee further down the street, the woman unable to either dodge, or was completely taken off guard as something akin to her own powers struck her.

The hit carried her off her feet and didn't stop until her body slammed into the side of a building. Instead of a small crater about her body, the whole side of the building cracked and pressed inwards, destabilizing it. It didn't collapse, but there was sure to be demolition in its future. The man stopped his scream, waiting for Silver Banshee to pull herself out, and when that didn't happen, turned to him.

Already, Steel was tensing up, watching as this man's eyes glowed for perhaps a second, two tops. Then, the man turned around and faced Metallo, probably doing the same thing.

"And what, pray tell, is this?" Metallo demanded.

"What, this isn't part of your plan?" Steel retorted as the gray man turned to look back at him. A hand raised, then swung, and the next thing he knew, he was swallowed up by a freezing wind. In an instant, he was covered and restrained in ice, his head and shoulders for the most part untouched.

Before he could even start to struggle, fire engulfed one of the gray man's hands, but it was not fired at him. No, the gray attacker swung around and shot the fireball at Metallo, who weathered it easily. What was left of his clothes and false skin, though, were incinerated, leaving only the robotic body behind.

Metallo hadn't even shielded himself as he stood among the dying flames. "Oh, so we have a spicy one, hmm?" The robotic menace then lunged at this gray-skinned man, landing a blow against the head, then a second hit, followed by a strike against the chest. The unknown man took one step, then two back, but after the chest shot, it unleashed its scream.

Metallo was hit point blank, and he withstood it for the most part. Steel knew as well as Superman how tough this man-turned-robot was. Metallic alloy was more than capable of enduring Kryptonian level strength. However, Metallo's arm, the one that looked like it had a shoddy patch job done on it, did not have the same resilience.

In morbid fascination, Steel watched as the arm was torn apart, its innards flung about, and Metallo finally cried out, in shock more than pain, but it was still a remnant of the man's human psyche still in that cybernetic body. As soon as the scream ended, hands covered in either fire or shimmering with subzero temperatures lashed out, striking Metallo again and again with devastating results.

The scream blindsided the gray man, forcing him off what was left of Metallo and onto his feet. Steel jerked his eyes and found Black Canary, legs spread apart, arms bent with fists clenched and her mouth opened wide. It was thanks to his helmet that the true pitch of her cry was dampened. Still, it was a bit piercing…

Ice was fired, cutting through the cry. Black Canary stopped long enough to dodge, but then was just as quickly captured by the gray man, head wisping as if it was on fire. A large hand gripped her throat, and as Canary grabbed at the arm, the eyes lit up once more. Suddenly, an arrow hit the shoulder, followed by two more.

Green Arrow stood nearby, bow held up and several more arrows notched. "Let her go!" the Emerald Archer bellowed.

Surprisingly, the gray man obeyed, tossing Black Canary aside and turning to face Green Arrow. The eyes continue to remain lit up until they darkened once more.

"You do not have any powers."

The man could speak? Why now? Wait, powers?

"I got this," Green Arrow retorted, letting more of his arrows fly. Five of them struck the gray man all over his torso and stuck there. Then the explosive charges detonated, covering the man in a thick cloud of smoke.

The smoke continued to waft, but it was torn apart as green and red fire blasted out from within it. Green Arrow swore, tried to dodge, but was hit by the force of the fire detonating where he had once stood, the archer thrown away. An arm that was covered in both red and green flames swiped through what was left of the smoke and fired another dual color fireball at the crouched form of Black Canary, the woman holding her throat.

Seeing that this new attacker was distracted, Steel mustered up his suit's strength, and broke out of his icy restraint. Not waiting to see what would happen with Canary, he threw out a hand, activated the magnetic retrieval device and his sledgehammer was flying through the air until he caught it. Gripping the shaft with both hands, he went on the attack.

The head of his hammer struck the gray-skinned man in the back, right between the shoulder blades, and the man abruptly stopped his attack on Black Canary. The gray-skinned man's legs buckled under the force of Steel's blow, dropping him to his knees, Corben watching from nearby as he seemed to be down for the count, or so Steel hoped.

The gray-colored head turned, eyes spotted him over a broad shoulder, and then red and green flames blasted him away. Steel cried out as he flew back, his body skipping along the streets until he was stopped by a parked car. Electricity was crackling…wait, that was Black Lightning right there. In the air above was Star Sapphire, and the two fighters seemed surprised by his untimely interruption.

Lifting his head up, Steel grimaced as he saw the unwelcomed intruder strolling his way in their direction, eyes already lighting up again.

And then came a deafening CRACK!


The loud crack, followed by the trench of damage down Suicide Slums had caused most of the fighting to come to a standstill. Everyone stood and stared at the damage, smoke and dust wafting up into the air.

That all changed as a red blur raced by, heading for the end of the ruinous trail.

"John!" Hawkgirl cried, twisted around as she readied herself to launch towards her fallen comrade.

In an instant, Batman had a bola in hand, rotating his wrist around and around as he spun the metal balls around in a circle. As Hawkgirl turned more to face Green Lantern's location, the vigilante threw the bola, watching as it spun through the air. The cords collided with the Thanagarian's body, wrapping around as they pinned her arms to her sides. Hawkgirl immediately flared her wings up on instinct, the only thing that prevented them from getting tied down as well.

Realizing she was still in a fight, Hawkgirl spun back around to face the dark-clad man, only to lose her balance and stumble. Batman took that opportunity to rush her, leaping into the air as he leaned back, extending a leg out. He landed his flying kick to the side of her face, snapping her head to one side. She began stumbling in the same direction as well, somehow managing to regain her balance by the time he had touched down on the ground.

The winged woman went still then, leaning to one side, head facing away from him. She then slowly stood up, facing him now. "That wasn't nearly as hard as it should have been," she spoke, her piercing eyes boring into him.

Then a smirk appeared on her face. "You're not on the pill, are you?"

No, he wasn't, not that he had needed it thus far. In a contest of strength, yeah, he would lose to Hawkgirl outright. But so far he had been dictating the fight, blinding her, hitting her with electricity, even restraining her. Strength hadn't been necessary.

Hawkgirl flexed her arms then, pushing them outwards until she snapped the cord wrapped around her, the bola sliding limply down her body to pool at her feet. She spread her wings out to their full wingspan. "I'm going to enjoy this," she said.

Suddenly, her mace was in hand. She hadn't dropped it, but when tied up in the bola, she had let go of it, the strap on the shaft allowing it to dangle from her wrist. Drawing it back, the winged woman threw the mace like a javelin at him.

Batman immediately dodged to one side, avoiding the mace as it flew by. It hit a building if the crunching sound he heard shortly after was any indication. However, he couldn't verify as Hawkgirl had launched herself at him, throwing a fist for his face.

In response, he ducked down, feeling the wind pull at him as her fist sailed by him harmlessly. However, the redhead bent her extended arm at the elbow before driving it down, slamming it down onto his shoulder. The Dark Knight's knees buckled from the force he was hit with, causing him to let out a sharp cry from the unexpected pain.

Flaring out her wings, Hawkgirl pulled back, but only so she could swing one of her legs forward, landing a kick to his chest. The force of the blow lifted the vigilante off of the ground, sending him flying backwards through the air.

Had there been a window, he would have crashed right through it. Thanks to the battle raging around them, the large show window had been shattered, which caused Btman to pass right through the opening unopposed. He didn't stop until he hit the back wall, a line of used television situated on shelves around him. He then dropped to the floor, landing in a heap.

Damn, that hurt. Gritting his teeth, Batman pushed himself up. Seeing he was in a used electronics store, the only light coming from the daylight outside, he couldn't help but notice the oversized television sets that were quite common at the turn of the millennia.

A shadow blocked out the sunlight then, alerting him that he wasn't alone. Looking towards the broken window, he saw Hawkgirl setting down, staring him down

Reaching to his belt, Batman pulled out both of his grapple guns. Leaning to one side so that he could see behind him, he fired one of the grapples at one of the bigger television sets. Leaning the other way, he did the same with the other grapple and another television.

Hitting the retraction button on one of the grapples, the grapple claw pulled on the television, yanking it off of the shelf. Swinging his arm, Batman released the claw, allowing him to send the television hurling towards Hawkgirl. Eyes widening, she shot both of her arms up, using her forearms to protect her face. The TV set slammed into her, knocking her back a step.

Batman then did the same with the other television, sending it flying towards his foe. Hawkgirl was in the middle of lowering her guard when she saw the oversized electronic. Again, she took the brunt of it as she quickly crossed her arms once more, but thanks to her balance still being off from the first TV set, she was knocked to the ground.

As the grapple claws returned to their respective gun, Batman returned one to its place on his belt. He then pulled out a smoke pellet, beginning to walk towards the store's front. No doubt he had only pissed off the Thanagarian and he needed to be ready when she got back up. Trying to fight her in a crowded resale store was not his idea of an ideal place to fight.


Black Lightning moaned, unable to get up from here he laid. Steel was in a similar state. Behind Amazo rested the defeated forms of other fighters, be they of the Justice League or the Legion of Doom. None were spared.

Huntress had her crossbow out and she was firing as many arrows as she could. Beside her, Manhunter was firing blast after blast from her staff. The two women stood protectively in front of the two fallen League members, mustering all they could in front of what was becoming an unstoppable threat.

Amazo landed in front of them, arms crossed in front of it, then swiped both out, knocking away both of the women. Neither had any powers, and so the programming it possessed acted accordingly.

A blast of energy had the android rebalancing itself. Lifting its head, Amazo looked up to the floating sight of Star Sapphire who returned its blank gaze with a contemptuous one.

"I don't know who you think you are," the woman surrounded in a violet-pink energy field declared. "I don't care. You are no match for the power of love—"

A blast of the same color energy that kept Star Sapphire afloat fired out of Amazo's forehead. The beam was fast and the hovering woman was sucker punched in her face. Down she went, her body bouncing off the pavement like a rag doll.

A sword struck its back, but did not cut. Glancing over a shoulder, Amazo spotted Katana, who was edging backwards, sword held in front of her defensively. Eyes stared at the powerless woman, then lowered to her feet. From its forehead, a violet-pink beam fired and detonated as it struck ground, casting away the sword master.

Seeing no need to remain, Amazo turned to seek out the next targets. Without warning, ice formed around its head, obscuring its vision and causing it to stop in its tracks.

"Forget about me?" Killer Frost cooed. "You've been making quick work of everyone else and with all that firepower. Think you can keep me warm? Let's find out."

Killer Frost's power had already been copied. There was no need to do so again. Utilizing Star Sapphire's energy attacks, the android blasted apart the ice that had covered its head, twisted its torso as it swung its arm and backhanded the homicidal criminal viciously. Frost cried out, her body going into a roll and then a crouch, one hand clutching out her chin.

From here its mouth would be, a scream copied from Silver Banshee was unleashed, and Killer Frost was carried out of sight, her own scream lost in Amazo's power.

Racing from the front, Nightwing swung his eskrima, electricity crackling at their ends. Multiple hits struck the android, but it took every one of them. Electricity meant nothing, Black Lightning's abilities grounding it. A countering swipe was dodged, but not the follow up violet-pink beam. It hit Nightwing in his chest, but then enveloped him. Now captured, Amazo threw the vigilante away, keeping the young man's body still until impact with a car carried him out of sight.

No more threats. To the next one.

The next one, as it turned out, came to it. A punch had its head tilted, legs stumbling but retaining balance. Robotic eyes slid over and found Vixen with her arm outstretched and glaring at the android.

The eyes lit up, analyzing and replicating the meta's powers.

Vixen was already going on the attack, not willing to give the android the opportunity to counterattack. She was leaping higher than any human should, her trajectory taking her over Amazo. Her body was twisting around and her legs were constricting around a gray neck in a manner that human shouldn't be capable of.

Up the android went, then over, and finally headfirst onto the ground. It endured and then responded. Its body behaved serpentine, lower body stretching out and wrapping around Vixen much like a constrictor. The wielder of the various abilities of the animal kingdom gasped, struggled, then inexplicably slipped out.

Which animal she had chosen to accomplish that feat, there were many, but the android had already selected its next choice. Pulling its head out of asphalt, its large body untwisting itself until it once again stood on two feet, it changed with all the power of a bull, headfirst.

Vixen jumped to a side, but this was anticipated. Amazo's hand lashed out and caught her wrist. Feet skidded to a halt, the outstretched arm pulled, then both arms acted to capture, trapping the animal wielder in its grasp. Legs then bent, and then both were shooting up into the air, faster and higher than humanly possible.

Eventually, ascent ended and descent began. Air buffeted around them, Vixen struggling against the android that would not release her, and then it ended in a cloud of dirt and debris. Air was polluted with the grainy particles, obscuring sight momentarily as it slowly returned to the earth and dissipated.

Amazo stood over its latest victory, an unconscious Vixen at its feet and breathing shallowly.

The android's attention was drawn to a clattering noise, and then it turned to face the Ultra Humanite, who stood there with horror on his beastly face. On the ground, his baton laid, released from slack fingers.

The robotic eyes lit up, but Humanite was oblivious to them, only uttering the words, "So this is what he wanted."

Then Amazo approached.


Higher and higher into the air they rose. It was perhaps what was best for the beleaguered city below them as the level of power being used was quite substantial.

J'onn was trading blows with Superman, the two dropping any pretense of defense and were throwing punches as fast as they could throw them. Even as Superman landed a blow to the side of his face, forcing it to one side, the Martian was doing his best to shrug off the skull shattering punch and throw his own, landing it against his foe's face.

Superman weathered the blow as well as J'onn had and threw another haymaker, one that knocked his head in the other direction. Each successful hit let out a loud, thunderous boom. Their altitude prevented further damage to the city below, a small blessing.

Tiring of their trading blows, J'onn flung himself at the Kryptonian, wrapping his arms around his opponent's, pinning them to his sides. Immediately, he felt Superman try to force his arms out, which he resisted as he squeezed tighter. Drawing his head back, J'onn then threw it forward, landing a headbutt to Superman's face.

The Man of Steel cried out as his head jerked back, but then he quickly threw it back forward, landing his own headbutt on J'onn. He cried out as well, but before he could retaliate, he saw Superman's eyes glowing red.

At this distance, he was certain to be fried, a predicament he did not relish. Immediately, he split his head down the middle, from the top of his skull to down through his neck. Either side of his head congealed into a viscous substance before launching forward, latching onto the sides of the Kryptonian's head and neck. The rest of J'onn body lost its solidity and became the slime-like form, molding over his foe's body, squeezing tighter around the man to restrain him. This form of his spread his strength throughout rather than concentrating it in the more advantageous areas, such as arms and legs.

Because of this, he was able to wrench Superman's head back, pointing his naked face straight up into the air. The man didn't fire his Heat Vision, but his eyes remained red. His arms extended out, stretching J'onn slimy form, but did not puncture or tear through. He continued to struggle, thrashing about, but was unable to free himself.

Certain he had Superman immobilized, J'onn drew much of his body towards the man's back, extending out and reforming his upper body, arms, and head. Once reformed, J'onn clasped his hands together and held them above his head. He then swung them down, delivering a jackhammer blow to Superman's face, the force of the hit sending the man falling like a missile down to the ground. J'onn was quick to remove every part of himself from the man the moment he hit him, allowing himself to completely reform his humanoid form.

However, just as Superman's plummeting body reached the height of the upper floors and roofs of the surrounding buildings below, he came to an abrupt stop. Straightening out his body, he tilted his head back and fired his Heat Vision, beams much larger than J'onn had ever seen the man use before.

Though his first instinct was to avoid the beams, he knew the Kryptonian would just follow him with the beams until he finally harmed him. So J'onn called upon his Martian Vision and fired the white beams from his eyes. The beams collided with each and promptly stopped the other in midair. The very air crackled with energy as the Heat and Martian Vision blasts struggled against each other.

However, this wasn't J'onn's preference, to struggle and struggle until one of their attacks overwhelmed the other. Instead, as he continued feeding his Martian Vision, he rose higher and higher into the air, reaching the white clouds above. The moment he entered one, he stopped his attack and pulled back as far as he could.

Moments later and Superman's Heat Vision penetrated the cloud, evaporating the gathered moisture almost instantly. The beams came to an abrupt stop, though they left a noticeable hole in the cloud. J'onn immediately went translucent before reaching invisibility, his entire purpose for taking refuge in the cloud. He continued to rise through the cloud until he exited out its top, blending in with the blue atmosphere around him.

And then Superman burst out of the cloud a short distance away, a scowl on his face. It was quite obvious he had realized what the Martian had done.

"You can't hide from me, J'onn!" he shouted, twisting and turning as he sought out his location. "I will find you and you will pay for every transgression!"

J'onn merely began drawing closer to his foe. This fight had drawn out longer than it necessarily should have. The solution was not to continue trading blows with this man, but striking him where he was utterly defenseless. He would enter Superman's mind and shut it down. While it was something he could do from a distance, he could do it faster with a closer proximity. Ideally, all he had to do was touch the man's head and this fight would end instantly.

As he drew closer, he raised his hands up. The fight would end today. All of the years of suspicion and distrust would finally come to an end. With Superman out of the fight, it would only be a matter of time before his fellow comrades fell, defeated without their leader to protect them.


The next one was Captain Atom. The man capable of using atomic energy struggled with the undead Solomon Grundy, but Amazo did not care for who was winning. With its eyes lighting up, the copy program was engaged and the internal nanosystem adjusted for the new acquisitions. Strength was further enhanced. Manipulations of atomic structures were incorporated, any redundancies with Firestorm's abilities worked out to streamline.

Measured steps brought the android closer to the two combatants, Amazo's body beginning to glow with white light. As Captain Atom held Solomon Grundy in a headlock, the Captain glanced up and away from the zombie man, finally noticing Amazo's approach.

"Etarapes."

Oddly, Captain Atom was unaffected by the spell. Solomon Grundy, on the other hand, was torn out of Atom's grasp and moved away, only stopping when his body crashed into a wall. The follow-up attack was Silver Banshee's scream, the supersonic force slamming into the silver-colored soldier.

However, Captain Atom endured, his feet digging into the pavement, but showing little damage to his person. The android did not allow this to deter it; purple beams fired from its forehead, and this seemed to have an effect. Atom's body jerked with the hits, until his body lit up brightly with atomic energy. The beams no longer penetrated and so Amazo adjusted by accessing the quantum field.

The android's body glowed with the same brilliance and Atom's eyes widened in horror. Raising both arms up, Amazo fired a new kind of blast, one that wasn't fire, or ice, powered by love, or influenced by magic, but pure nuclear energy.

Captain Atom was the one to adjust, allowing the energy to strike him and then promptly began absorbing it into his person. There was no way this man could allow this energy to go anywhere else and so into his body it went.

"Don't…do this…" Atom spoke through straining grunts. "You'll…kill…so many…people…"

Instantly, protocols activated within the android's programming. The constant stream of nuclear power was cut off, Atom absorbing every bit of it. Immediately, the soldier fell to a knee, panting from his exertion.

He was vulnerable and Amazo began the steady march to the crouching man. Before the android could reach the Captain, a crashing sound interrupted the silence, heavy footsteps pounded against asphalt, and an enraged Solomon Grundy rammed into the AI-controlled machine.

The undead man gave a roar of anger and fury, the strength behind its club-like punches forcing Amazo onto the defensive. The resilience of Metallo was nearly the only thing that prevented Grundy's raw power from tearing apart the android, and only by a narrow margin. Fortunately for the android, it was also using Grundy's own resilience and indomitability to take the hits, but its programming knew it would not be able to sustain such an assault forever.

Amazo called upon Ice's power, solid ice entombing the zombie in an instant; Grundy broke the water-based restraint with might alone. Fire, red and green, engulfed the undead next, and only clothing was singed and burning away. Love-powered blasts were endured, even if the first hit caused Grundy to take a single, small step back. Before a Banshee Wail could be uttered, a massive hand clamped down on the robotic head.

With a snarl, Grundy picked up and swung Amazo over his head and slammed the android onto the street. To a side it was pulled, the large cybernetic body tearing through pavement until its course was reversed upwards then brought back down into the street.

Then Amazo clamped down both of its hands on Grundy's wrist and a surge of electricity brought the assault to a halt. Grundy gave a scream, initially high-pitched, but slowly getting deep once more as the undead man began to grow his tolerance to the attack. However, Amazo was able to rip its head out of the zombie man's grasp, remove one of its hands only to light it up with a higher voltage of electricity.

This hand stretched out and clamped down on Grundy's face, electrocution following. Slowly, the strength left the zombie's body until the whole massive frame began to droop and grow slack.

Head perking up, Amazo abruptly swung Grundy's gradually growing limp body as a club, hitting Captain Atom who had been trying to sneak up on it. The soldier was knocked away, but wasn't finished. So Amazo adjusted its grip on Grundy and leapt up into the air. At the apex, it began swinging Grundy's body down, slamming its former opponent onto the Captain overhead and creating a small crater into the road, an enormous pattern of spider web-like cracks breaking out throughout the immediate area.

Like that, the fight was over. Amazo now stood over the fallen, surveying its work.

Explosions detonated nearby and the android knew its work was not finished.

Turning towards the sounds of detonation, it first spotted a red blur. Immediately. there were blasts of green energy and there was the next target.

With measured steps, Amazo continued its mission. Or would have had there not been a blow from behind. Stopping its advance, the android turned its head to find Steel, hammer in hand and arms outstretched with the hammer head against its back. The metal-clad hero glared though his body was wracked with exhaustion.

There could only be one response to such an attack like this.


John couldn't help but groan. He felt as if he had been beaten with a sledgehammer and tossed into a brick wall for good measure.

That punch from Flash had packed some serious power. He hadn't thought the guy was capable of such a thing. It was something he expected from Superman to be honest. Flash had literally punched his way through his construct and hit him with the force only the Kryptonian was capable of. At least, that was what Green Lantern had thought.

As he thought about it, John hadn't fought someone like Flash in a very long time. Most of the people he fought either died trying, or there were a series of encounters that eventually ended in death. None of them were as innovative as the Flash with their abilities. That was an underestimated aspect of the kid as he tended to rely on tried and true methods, then would do something completely unexpected. John was pretty certain that was how the kid figured out how to phase through walls.

Gingerly, the former marine began to push himself up, realizing he was lying on what was best described as a bed of broken asphalt. It had crumpled into bits and pieces, rising up into a large pile as John involuntarily dug into it. This left him lying at about a thirty degree angle, his lower body sprawled out in front of him flat on the ground.

There was a trench laid out in front of him, indicating where he had come from. He must have gone quite far as he didn't see too many signs of fighting anywhere. However, he could see a cloud rising up, one heading right for him.

John's eyes widened before he thrust his ring hand out. A small beam fired out a short distance away before it formed a ramp construct. An instant later, Flash arrived, running up the ramp and then going airborne. "Whooooaaaaahhhhhh!" the speedster cried out as he soared through the air unexpectedly.

Turning onto his side and then twisting so that he could follow the red-clad man, John watched as Flash sailed towards a building, only to suddenly become a red blur the moment he crashed into it, running up its face and safely disappearing over the roof ledge.

Chunks of asphalt fell off of the Green Lantern as he climbed onto his feet, ringing out as they hit the ground. It seemed he had only gotten a small respite from whatever Flash planned to do to him. It would be a matter of seconds before he was—

Suddenly, something landed close by to John, causing him to jerk towards it. Much to his surprise, it was Steel, groaning from what looked like a pretty good thrashing.

"Steel," he called out, "are you—?"

John cut himself off as he turned his head away from his fallen comrade. There was a blaze of fire nearby, a tall, metal man standing amongst the flames. It was a big son of a gun too, making the marine tilt his head back to look at him.

Then, without warning, it raised a hand up and then fired an energy blast right at him. It looked just like one of Captain Atom's attacks, so John immediately pointed his ring towards the incoming beam, forming his bubble shield construct.

The moment the beam hit his shield, John grimaced, gritting his teeth from the force he felt. Oh yeah, this was definitely a Captain Atom attack. The power that was being generated was just like his to a T. Whatever this thing was, it was definitely nuclear.

Meaning he needed to take it down fast before Flash came back and took advantage of his distraction. Maintaining his shield, John gathered his will, focusing it into his ring, causing it to glow brightly with raw energy. Once he felt he had enough, he fired a blast, one that split the atomic energy beam down the center. It raced through the attack until it hit the metal man, blasting it backwards through the inferno it stood in. The fires parted, seemingly trying to get away from the Green Lantern's beam, somewhat putting it out. The metal man continued being carried through the air on the energy beam until it crashed into a parked car.

Letting go of his shield and allowing his attack to end, a green aura glowed around John as he lifted up into the air, flying over to this new menace. He saw it laying in the remains of the car, the car itself caved in where it had been hit. For a moment, John thought the man was dazed.

Then it tilted its head to look right at him and its eyes glowed brightly for a second. John wasn't sure what that was about. "Alright, Tin Man," he called out to him. "What the hell are you and what are you doing?"

The tin man didn't verbally respond. Instead it raised its hand up, something changing on its middle finger just below the knuckle. For a split second, John could have sworn he saw the symbol of the Green Lantern Corp there.

And then the metal man fired a large green beam.