Chapter 13: The Battle of Kinshasa

KINSHASA
JUNE 13, 16:19 WAT

Vixen, Beast Boy, and Guy Gardner (Earth's third Green Lantern) were in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo as the Justice League's Omicron Squad with the armed forces of the Congo as well as advance troops from Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa. Not too far off, another Apokoliptan ship had touched down and was already releasing hundreds of millions of Parademons to mount another attack on Earth. Doom Hawks followed them in the sky, and Hell Hounds and Draco-Tanks followed from the ground.

"Time to fight for freedom as usual," Beast Boy said confidently.

"I like that confidence, but stay alert. There's more of them than us," warned Vixen.

Vixen didn't have time to say more, for already the African soldiers were fighting the invaders with the enhanced armaments the Justice League had provided; plasma impactors, sonic cannons, tri-laser blasters, plasma grenades, and more. Already, Darkseid's contingency was advancing toward Kinshasa with several losses already taken, but while most of the Parademons and Doom Hawks fell, the Hell Hounds and Draco-Tanks required the heavier firepower to be defeated.

The Justice League wasted no time in moving into the battle, for Vixen shouted, "All right! Let's move!"

With that, she and Beast Boy and Guy Gardner were off at a run to aid the African forces according to the League's plan. Just as before, the horde of Parademons was moving toward the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo intending to break down its defenses and overrun the city when Vixen and her party rushed into the the battle began, the Justice League was already seeing results from the Congolese army.

At that moment, General Kasongo Shukuru of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was leading a platoon of four hundred out of more than 150,000 soldiers, and he and his four hundred men were using the advanced Mechs that the Justice League had sent to them with the aid of Cadmus. These machines were more powerful than common tanks as they went on slender, mobile legs that enabled them to jump, turn swiftly, and cling to ledges both sideways and upside down. Most of them were built for one man, but others had two operators or even three. Moving nimbly over the plains like mechanized spiders, the Mechs took aim with their side-mounted laser cannons and opened fire on the incoming invaders. Their attack was unexpectedly instant and most of the Parademons were hit and plummeted from the sky with flames engulfing them.*

The Parademons who were armed with Apokoliptan weapons tried to fight back, but the beams of pain-inducing energy and the red-energy disks were no match for the enhanced armor of the Mechs. The Hell Hounds and Draco-Tanks fared no better, for the Air Force of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was mounting an aerial attack in an instant. Their laser fire tore smoking rifts in the Apokoliptan war machines and if lasers weren't enough to finish the job, the pilots let fly with their missiles.

On the ground, the Justice League's Omicron Squad were already engaged in the combat. Vixen led the charge when she used her Tantu totem to give herself the swiftness of a cheetah. Then when the horde of Parademons was almost on top of them, Vixen took on the strength of a charging rhino. She barrelled through the front lines and began tearing her way through the Apokoliptan ranks with all the fierceness she could muster. She took on the strength of a bear, the bite of a cobra, the sting of a scorpion, and even an elephant's brute power. Her choices were well-made, for with a rhino or elephant, Vixen found she could better withstand the pain-inducing energy from the weapons of any armed Parademons in her way. She also sliced through several Parademons with the razor claws on the ends of her gloves and even cut the right foreleg of a Hell Hound so it keeled over and crashed to the ground as scrap metal.

The story was relatively different for Beast Boy. As the teen hero went into the thick of the battle, he first turned into an eagle and began attacking several Doom Hawks, allowing the jet fighters to make easier work of the foe. On returning to the ground, he changed into a gorilla and hurled several Parademons around like baseball bats, occasionally throwing them into each other. Beast Boy also turned into a bear and tackled more Parademons, then he became an elephant and stepped on a few Draco-Tanks, then a hornet, a wolf, a zebra, and even a warthog.

Guy Gardner was in the air blasting Parademons and Doom Hawks out of the sky with a green-energy rocket launcher and then a huge fighter jet when he was joined by a few hundred other Green Lanterns and a number of Star Sapphires as well. He saluted his fellow Lanterns and led the charge to take the enemy on when he saw a sight that was as shocking as it was welcome. A Boom Tube opened on the side of the battlefield where Omicron Squad and the African militaries were holding the line, and out from it came some unexpected allies. The Forever People from New Genesis had come to help.

"Hero Dangar!" bellowed Bear.

Vixen, Beast Boy, and Guy Gardner all gave each other surprised looks. Who were these newcomers? Then their question was answered when Vykin took a Mother Box from his belt and instantly, the Forever People were speaking English.

"It is well, champions of Earth," Vykin said with a salute. "We are here to help you." Then he said to his teammates, "Forever People, move in!"

And together, the Justice League and the five New Genesisians charged at the oncoming hordes of Parademons with renewed vigor. Vykin and Moonrider followed Vixen as she took on the flying speed of a hawk. Then as she took on the kicking strength of a kangaroo and began knocking Parademons across the plain, she saw Vykin and Moonrider attacking the monsters.

Vykin's magnetic power allowed him to throw several Parademons into one another, knocking them across the plains and causing several more Parademons to be trampled under the Hell Hounds or impaled upon the weapons of their fellows. For Moonrider, it was different. He only blasted his "moonbeams" at oncoming Parademons and the shock of his energy caused them to writhe with pain, for their programming could not abide by the good power of one from New Genesis. Moonrider also used his energy blasts on several Doom Hawks as well as Draco-Tanks to great effect, and he even stung a Hell Hound with his beams and when it lumbered back, it collided with a fellow Hound and both made a rapid descent.

Beast Boy was busy barreling every Apokoliptan monster and war machine out of his path when another swarm of Parademons struck at him with their energy pikes. It happened so quickly that Beast Boy didn't have time to transform into an animal with thick skin and he doubled over with blinding pain. But before the Parademons could finish him off, several bolts of blue energy burned smoking holes in their armored hides. Serifan had fired the shots. Though he had never met Beast Boy, he helped him up and gave him a hearty greeting, and together they resumed the battle. Serifan proved to be an equally tedious challenge for Darkseid's Parademons. He fired his extradimensional six-shooters with such rapidity that it seemed as though his hands produced the shots on their own, and he was surrounded by downed Parademons and Doom Hawks in a matter of seconds.

Dreamer and Bear were fighting the invasion alongside Guy Gardner, and though the Green Lantern didn't like to admit it, he was grateful to have the combat situation eased on his end. He watched as Dreamer stood calmly surrounded by another horde of Parademons, and then he saw her snap her fingers. Six illusions of her appeared and disarmed the Parademons before pounding them with their own energy pikes. Another tried to cut her down, only to find that Dreamer was behind it and the one that Parademon had tried to attack was an illusion. The lovely girl took that one down and then faced another swath of Parademons, enveloping them in an illusory wall of light energy. As for Bear, he swatted down Parademons left and right and even fought whole swaths of them no matter how large their groups were. He pulled several Hell Hounds to the ground with his immense strength, leapt into the air to smash a few Doom Hawks, and he kicked a Draco-Tank on its side.

While the Justice League and their allies held the line, the Congolese forces piloted their Mechs further toward the Apokoliptan vessel, intending to fire a payload of missiles on the ship to slow down the advance of Darkseid's monster army. The forces of Namibia, Angola, and South Africa went with them on foot and from the air. General Shukuru was at the front line, fearlessly blasting every Parademons and Doom Hawk in his path. Then he gave an order through his comlink, "All Mechs will reform ranks to counter incoming assault. Over."

"Order given, sir," came the reply of Captain Muoma Matondo.

"Distance to hangar doors?"

"29.46."

General Shukuru readied his Mech and locked onto the open hangers which were allowing Hell Hounds and Draco-Tanks to continue the attack. He trained his machine's laser cannons on the hangar doors and increased the power servos to full strength.

"Target: maximum firepower!"*

General Shukuru fired his Mech's cannons at the open hangars and in a moment, the Apokoliptan vessel had heaps of metallic rubble where its hangar doors used to be. That prevented more Draco-Tanks and Hell Hounds from continuing their advance on Kinshasa, but the Parademons and Doom Hawks were beginning to push the Justice League and the African soldiers back toward the outer edge of the capital. That's when the unexpected happened.

In a series of thundering booms, jet fighters from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, and Niger appeared in the sky from wormholes and instantly struck up another terrifying round of dogfights. Thousands of Parademons turned their attention to the jets and made for them, thirsting for more combat, only to be caught in the crossfire and thrown into confusion. And if that wasn't hopeful enough for the Justice League and their allies, Darkseid's contingency was met with a sight that surprised friends and foe alike. Seemingly out of nowhere, on foot or on aerodynamic pods came the gorillas from Gorilla City. They leapt upon the bloodthirsty Parademons with and began tearing through their lines while those on the pods fired on them with mounted blaster cannons. Some of the gorillas on pods rode higher to fend off the Doom Hawks, and soon Darkseid's forces were thrown into such chaos that they began to break ranks.

"Wow!" quipped Beast Boy as he turned his attention from the fight. "First the Amazons and Atlanteans, then the Green and Purple Lanterns, these Forever People guys, and now flying gorillas! Totally awesome!"

Suddenly, he heard an inhuman chuckle beside him and turned right to see the biggest, burliest gorilla he had ever seen standing beside him. The gorilla was Solovar, the ruler of Gorilla City, smiled and said, "And it's no stroke of luck that we came here, human."

Beast Boy nearly went bug-eyed at that, and he said, "Flying, talking gorillas? My mind is blown!"

"We are here to aid the human race in the protection of their civilization," Solovar told him. "If we do not fight, we will disgrace the animal kingdom through cowardice. We of Gorilla City are proud to fight this threat to save human lives."

Solovar returned to aid his fellow gorillas, and then Vixen said to Beast Boy, "Keep your head in the game, Garfield! We have an Apokoliptan invasion to fight!"

And the Justice League continued the struggle and with their new reinforcements, they held the line and began to gain ground. However, the battle had only begun elsewhere on Earth.


A/N: This battle against Darkseid's army is modeled after the Battle of Hoth from Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Also, Beast Boy calls the Star Sapphires "Purple Lanterns" because he has not met them officially though they fight alongside the Justice League and the Green lanterns at Kinshasa.

Hope you all liked this chapter of Justice League: All-Out Attack. Stay tuned for Chapter 14, which will feature another of DC's best members of the Justice League!