Chapter 12: The Battle of San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO
JUNE 13, 08:18 PDT

On the West Coast of the United States, a second battle to rival the one currently underway in Metropolis was about to begin. Another 170,000 troops were rallied there along with more than five hundred U.S. battleships, aircraft carriers, and submarines, and in the air were thousands of enhanced F-15s and F-16s as well as Tomcats and Raptors, and at the head of the Air Force were several of the new Phoenix jet fighters.

At that moment, the Air Force was attempting to prevent Darkseid's contingency against San Francisco from reaching the ground forces, and for the moment, they were holding the line decently. But their luck changed when several thousands of Parademons made a dive toward the ground while regiments of Draco-Tanks and Hell Hounds lumbered up the street. It looked as though the battle would be over without the Justice League's next squad getting a hit in, but General Neil Morris got a surprise when Captain Marvel showed up, followed closely by his two protégés Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel. The three Marvels were followed by Starfire and Raven, and together they formed Zeta Squad.

"Captain Marvel to Justice League. Zeta is about to engage," he reported. "Apokoliptan Parademons in range."

Sure enough, another huge swath of Parademons and Doom Hawks was coming at them. The Parademons screamed, "For Darkseid!" But as they came, Captain Marvel shouted, "Charge!"

He rammed into the front lines and sent hundreds of Pardemons flying in all directions. He punched, kicked, twisted, and grappled them, creating a huge display of sonic booms in the sky. Even though hundreds more flung themselves upon him, Captain Marvel only shook them off like flies. Then he dashed to help the ground forces, who were firing plasma blasts and impact missiles on the oncoming Hell Hounds and Draco-Tanks.

"Okay, Batson. You can do this," Captain Marvel told himself. "You've done it a million times before, and having higher stakes doesn't change that."

He flew at the attackers and called out, "Speed of Mercury! Strength of Hercules! Stamina of Atlas!"

With that, Captain Marvel charged head-on at Darkseid's forces and his first blow shattered a Draco-Tank, leaving only half of it intact. He shot lightning bolts at more Draco-Tanks and several Hell Hounds, blasting them to scrap. Then he flew in circles at supersonic speed, creating an artificial tornado that sent thousands of Doom Hawks whirling through the sky every which way.

General Morris shouted to his men, "Take your positions, men! This is what we trained for!"

With that, the soldiers opened fire on Darkseid's attackers with plasma impactors, orb cannons, ion static cannons, and the new plasma mortars, which fired great balls of superheated plasma at the Parademon ranks and all but vaporized them. On the ground, Captain Kenneth and Lieutenant Brenda Barker were leading several platoons of men on the north flank as Darkseid's Parademons came on the attack. Just as the monsters were about to strike, Captain Marvel Jr. flew out of the sky and hit the front lines hard, scattering the Parademons like building blocks. That caught their attention and many of the creatures followed Marvel Jr. into the sky. It was a grave mistake, for suddenly, hundreds of thousands of jet fighters soared through the air with thunderous booms and opened fire on the Parademons, instantly blasting the creatures to scraps of organic material, armor, and synthetic bone.

For a while, the battle for San Francisco's defense was going in Earth's favor, but as Captain and Lieutenant Barker's units held the line, they found a squad of Hell Hounds tromping through the streets in their direction, belching fire as they went. The troops fired a couple rounds, but only a few Hell Hounds went down. The mechanical beasts didn't get far before Captain Marvel was overhead, and he yelled, "SHAZAM!"

A searing bolt of lightning shot from the sky and ripped through one of the Hell Hounds, shocking it so much that it flew apart in a shower of sparks. Then as Captain Marvel began knocking a few more Hell Hounds over, Mary Marvel came in from behind and began tearing the metal monsters apart or flipping them on each other. Then Captain Marvel saw another swath of Parademons incoming and said to his protégés, "Jr.! Mary! Let's head back into the sky! I have an idea that might make things easier on the Air Force!"

With that, the three heroes flew up into the sky and signaled the Air Force to fan out so they could perform their ultimate battle tactic. When the planes were out of the way, Captain Marvel called to his companions, "Okay. All together."

And together they yelled, "SHAZAM!"

The lightning strike that came was so brilliant that the only word the soldiers below could use to describe it was "incredible". Three huge streaks of lightning rushed through the sky and hit a number of Parademons, and there came several smaller lightning bolts that caught every Parademon and Doom Hawk within range. In an instant, thousands of the Apokoliptan invaders were blown out of the sky in one fell swoop, and then Captain Marvel and his protégés led the Air Force into another charge.

On the ground, General Morris and the U.S. army units dispatched with him were preventing a good deal of Parademons and most of Darkseid's war machines from trampling the coast side of San Francisco, but the Apokoliptan ship in the area was allowing more of Darkseid's forces to mount their attack and the Army was fighting hard to hold the ground they had safeguarded. A line of Draco-Tanks were making their way toward the defenders, and Captain Marvel and his protégés were in the sky with the Air Force. Suddenly, there came a sound like cannon blasts, and the Draco-Tanks were enveloped in blasts of blue fire.

When the soldiers looked again, they found the oncoming Draco-Tanks now lay in ruins, and from out of the harbor were several strange ships that bore Aquaman's insignia. Right away, General Morris and the other soldiers knew who had come to help them: Aquaman had sent more soldiers from Atlantis to help the Justice League and the world's militaries defend Earth from the invasion. At that moment, over five thousand Atlantean warriors were marching ashore, and they had drawn the attention of Darkseid's forces. Several Parademons and Doom Hawks charged at them, but if the Atlanteans were feeling timid, they hid it surprisingly well and attacked the Apokoliptan attackers with swords, spears, and axes sporting mystic crystals that provided energy. Meanwhile, the vessels from the U.S. Navy along with several enhanced bombers from the U.S. Air Force and from the Royal Canadian Air Force were trying to disrupt the Apokoliptan ship's attempt to overwhelm the Justice League and the U.S. forces.

On the south flank, Private Fern Gleeson was with the rest of her platoon holding off another oncoming horde of invaders from Apokolips. The enhanced weapons had prevented most of the foe from getting through, but when Private Gleeson checked her plasma impactor's shots, she heard a scream in the air and saw a swarm of Parademons bearing down on her group. They howled, "For Darkseid!" and began attacking with fanatical delight, only stopping when they were destroyed.

Private Gleeson found herself and several other troops trapped by ten Parademons that looked ready to devour them. Suddenly, a great hand made of darkness shot out and seized the monsters in a crushing embrace, and there stood Raven. She looked at the soldiers and gave a nod and a brief smile before turning to fight more of the invaders, and Private Gleeson and her fellow troops thanked her as she went into the thick of the battle.

As Raven flew at Darkseid's oncoming forces, she released waves of pure shadow from the palms of her hands, enveloping the attackers in swaths of darkness so they whirled about until they were thrown in every direction. When some Doom Hawks came at her, Raven merely extended an arm, and spines of darkness shot from her fingertips, impaling the machines with ease. A few Draco-Tanks lumbered towards Raven, only for her to seal them in great balls of shadow that began crushing them like walnuts. A couple Hell Hounds bounded towards her, but again, Raven was quick to act and began sandwiching them between walls of shadow that crumpled the Hell Hounds like tinfoil. However, Raven had a reason to smile when more Parademons charged her from the air. As they swept over the ground, Raven used her power to seize them by their arms and legs and in a short amount of time, she dismembered the creatures.

"That'll teach Darkseid to think he can take Earth from us," she muttered icily.

The west flank of America's troops, led by Colonel Matthew Clint, had their hands full keeping Darkseid's forces pressed against the coast. The soldiers took cover in alleys and around buildings to surprise the attackers while sonic and Mazer tanks opened fire on the enemy flanks. However, the tanks gave away the soldiers' location, allowing more Parademons to drag them into the open and maul those unable to act swiftly. But as the next horde of Parademons prepared to attack, they and the soldiers heard a girl's voice shout, "I call you out, beasts!"

Starfire was in the air, and she had the steely face of a warrior at that moment. She charged at the Parademons and kicked out, sending one of them sailing two hundred yards away. She rounded on the monsters and began punching and kicking with all her Tamaranean strength, shattering their armor with every blow. Then Starfire saw another band of Hell Hounds lumbering in her direction and took to the air again, and this time, she attacked with her star-bolts and blasted the machines to shards. Starfire flung her energy bolts at several Doom Hawks and more Parademons, and even the Draco-Tanks were no match for the beams that shot from her emerald eyes.

As the fight went on, another large squad of Green Lanterns and Star Sapphires arrived on the scene to provide extra support. Hopefully, the struggle wouldn't continue for too long, or it was likely that the support of the Justice League and their sidekicks would begin to wane.


A/N: Hope you all liked the appearance of Raven and Starfire with the Marvel/Shazam family. Chapter 13 will have some more Star Wars callbacks for those of you who like what you have seen so far. See you real soon!