Opportunity

It was gone. In an instant, the city of Metropolis vanished in a brilliant light. Gone were the buildings, the people. In fact, Shayera could see out to what had been the other side of the city, short buildings being left, though there were a few that looked as if they had been cleaved smoothly apart. The biggest difference was the presence of a large crater, one that seemed to stretch right into darkness.

On the bright side, the shield was gone too.

Unfortunately, the little kid wailed with the disappearance of not only the city, but his mother. "Mooooomyyyyyy!" he cried as he bolted from behind the Thanagarian and ran right out into the crater, falling over the edge.

"No!" Shayera shouted before she dove over the edge. She immediately spotted the falling child plummeting towards the darkness below. Chasing head first after him, the redhead pulled her wings in tight, her arms pressed to her sides, and legs together. Making herself as aerodynamic as she could, she gave chase, her eyes focused on the wildly flailing boy.

The wind screamed in her ears as she urged herself faster, slowly closing the distance between her and the kid. She could hear his screaming faintly, but it was steadily growing louder as she drew closer to him.

Seconds seemed to pass by in record time. Her heart began to beat a little faster. She could see the ground now, the bottom of the crater, and it was starting to become a little too close for comfort.

Reaching out with a hand, then the other, the moment she was within grabbing distance she snagged the boy's wildly billowing shirt and pulled. This allowed her to yank the boy to her, where she was able to wrap her arms around him, then promptly open her wings. Immediately their freefall leveled out and the Thanagarian flew out over the crater's bottom.

"Shhhhhh," she cooed to the whimpering boy as he clutched at her. Looking at the top of his head as his face buried into her chest, she then glanced around them, taking note of how smooth the sides of the crater were, as if the very ground had been slid out of the planet rather than torn out. She had to resist the urge to clench her hands as she held the child. No need to crush his bones while they were in midair.

Swooping upwards, she made to head to the crater's edge. She wanted to get ground level at least and then figure out what she could do with this kid. His mother was clearly gone and she had no idea what his family situation was like. Once she had him safe, then she could go give the skull ship in the sky a piece of her mind.

Starting with her mace.

He was the fastest man in the world, and he had seen a lot of things. Recent events from only a few months ago had literally been out of this world...and on it too. Headache inducing things.

The quiet was new. You couldn't even hear the wind. Shock kept the people of Metropolis quiet, all staring at the big hole that had once been their city. Flash stood among them, unable to get his legs moving, running to get to what he needed to do next.

What could he do next?

Before, whenever the League came together and fought some big baddie, it didn't matter if they found themselves on the ropes. Sure, there was a lot of desperation, and when that happened, a lot of heroics came after. There was horrible stuff, brain-washing stuff, evil clowns that didn't have red balloons, but no matter how close it got, it never felt like they were at the end.

This here felt like a total loss.

All the other times had come out of nowhere or maybe they stumbled upon them. Those times they had won. This time, they knew something was coming, they got ready for it, prepared for the worst, got Batman back and everything. But it wasn't enough to stop…

...this.

This was a giant hole in the ground that they were supposed to stop. Something they never should have let happen, but did. It was something he never should have let happen, but had. He...he hadn't been fast enough. Again.

Damn it, why had this happened? Why couldn't they have stopped it? Where the ever-loving hell was GL? When was he coming back? Why wasn't he here? They could have used him! They could have...could have…

...could have still failed even with GL with them.

Normally, the speedster was so much more optimistic. Even Big Blue had trouble with that on a bad day. Or good day. But it was hard to do anything, especially since the bad guy was all the way up there in the sky, and he couldn't fly. At all. And didn't have a nice Flash jet tucked away in a Flash cave or anything.

Maybe it was because he was feeling uncharacteristically dark that a thought in the back of his head seemed to be louder. As if saying there was something else, something about to happen and that this, this big hole in the ground, wasn't the end of it. The worst had yet to come.

Normally, he'd tell himself not to think that way, that now was not the time for that. Because there was a giant, floating, skull thing up in the sky, and that the Justice League needed to stop it.

Somehow.

Like a large snow globe or a...bottle? Whatever it was, it was plugged into a large cable. Behind the glass, or whatever material it was made of, the insides glowed a subdued green, filling up all the space inside.

However, if you were to look at the bottom of this enclosure, you would see black, rising up and forming various rectangles. From where Superman was imprisoned, he could see how three-dimensional they were, his gut telling exactly what he was watching.

As the green glow faded away, an identical scaled down model of Metropolis appeared, though model was the furthest thing from it. That was actually Metropolis, or the segment of the city that Brainiac had just "acquired." If he was closer, would he have been able to see the people in there, confused and scared and calling up into the sky for him? He couldn't hear, because even his hearing had been reduced by the red sunlight exposure.

His eyes did pick out certain landmarks, like the top of the Daily Planet—Lois! Was she in there? Had she managed to get away in time? And Jimmy! Perry, and the rest! Noting a particular black building, his concern lessened slightly though increased for his co-workers and...loved ones. Was Luthor in there too? If he was, then he would be trying to find a way to take advantage of the situation.

Brainiac's footsteps clomped along the floor as the armored alien approached the stolen city. Green eyes peered down at his latest theft, an unnatural hunger in them that was the first emotion that the Man of Steel had witnessed so far.

"They call you 'Superman,'" Brainiac remarked. He began to lean forward, moving his face closer to the captured city. "Why would they call you that—when you are not a 'man' at all? And 'super?'" A snort, one that expressed contempt that the Kryptonian had not expected from the green-skinned monster. "There is nothing 'super' about you."

Facial muscles shifted, and Superman felt uncomfortable with the look that now appeared on Brainiac's face. It was hard to describe it, but the best the dark-haired male could come up with was, perhaps, anticipation. The way the forehead creased, the eyes lit up with life, and how soft the rest of it was, Brainiac was eager, but for what, the Kryptonian could not say.

Then, Brainiac added, "Not like me."

A cable disengaged from a port, one located just above the green forehead. From the base of Metropolis' prison, a small cable snaked out, one that Brainiac snatched then plugged into the free port. Green eyes began to twitch, the large, armored body falling completely still. Green eyes gazed down onto the city, clinically observing it in spite of the twitch.

Then Brainiac frowned.

"This data is redundant," the alien spat out, irritation clearly heard in his voice. "The culture is useless and disgusting." If looks could kill, then the captured Kryptonian would have been dead several times over as the city thief glared at him. "What could this world possibly offer you that you would care to protect it? Everything I have seen and observed tells me that this world, Earth, has robbed you of your full potential. You are not 'human.' You are not Kryptonian. Nothing but a brute who happens to be more physically enhanced than his peers, and nothing more."

The small cable was ejected, and the larger one replaced it. Brainiac turned his back on both Metropolis and Superman, allowing the city to remain close to its self-proclaimed protector and away from the other exhibits. Coming to a position before the holographic screens, the alien began to make preparations for his next plans.

"I have what I have come here for. Now to complete the last objective: the destruction of Earth."

Desperation energized the Kryptonian and he once more futilely fought against the bio-shell holding him. "Don't! Please! You have what you want! You have Metropolis! You don't need to kill the rest!"

"The knowledge of Earth, as useless as it is, must be controlled. No one else should have possession of it. Especially not a pseudo Kryptonian like yourself," Brainiac retorted. "This is the same process I have engaged in for 'centuries.' I am not about to do something stupid like cave in to compassion.

"However, I am feeling poetic. Over the many complete orbits and rotations, I have devised many means of planetary annihilation. For Earth, I believe I will give it the same fate as Krypton. I will destabilize its core and allow the natural gravitational forces of the galaxy to tear it apart. Unlike Krypton, this will not be an undertaking that lasts multiple orbits, but hours. After that, I shall begin with you and find out all the secrets you possess within your flesh."

"Brainiac, don't!" Superman cried out, squirming fruitlessly.

He was ignored as the alien widened his stance, his head tilted back. His next words would be the ones to seal Earth's fate.

"Commence drilling."

It was a numb feeling.

As his dark jet flew through the air, Batman stared out the side window at the crater at the heart of what used to be Metropolis. The buildings were gone, the people...gone. Just a gigantic hole that meant one thing.

Failure.

The League, the government, they had all failed. A quick check through the frequency scanner told him the U.S. fighter jets were just as crestfallen as he felt. The members of the Justice League were confirming with one another, but they too were in the same boat. No word from Luthor's aircraft, but that would be changing eventually.

And hovering above the crater was that blasted skull ship. It was almost as if it were gloating about what it had done. The long, tentacle-like appendages were drawing back to the spacecraft's body, clearly finished with its intent.

Even as Batman scowled at it, he soon began to notice a light appearing beneath it. With every passing second, it grew brighter and brighter, a brilliant green.

What fresh hell was this?

Suddenly, a large beam fired from the light, heading deep into the crater. An ear shattering roar rang out, almost deafening the Dark Knight despite the sound dampeners built into the cockpit. A large cloud of dirt and dust erupted from the hole, flying high into the air, almost to the point of washing over the skull ship. The very air seemed to shudder from the blast.

That's when turbulence slammed into his plane and Batman felt his aircraft be tossed aside. Immediately, he yanked on the cyclic stick, fighting to right the plane while he was sent flipping side over side. He jerked the stick one way, then the other, alarms blaring around him in the cockpit.

C'mon, you son of a bitch, work!

The plane suddenly jerked awkwardly. Immediately, Batman pulled the stick to the right. Thankfully enough, the plane began to move in that direction. Pushing the stick forward, he began descending, followed by it ascending when he pulled the stick back. The world around him began to straighten out until finally he was right side up and flying in control.

It seemed he wasn't the only one sent flying either. From his view, the vigilante caught sight of one of the government fighter jets. It too was flipping out of control. In fact, he watched as the canopy blew off and the pilot ejected, being sent sideways through the air rather than the preferred higher altitude. Thankfully the pilot was sent clear of his aircraft as it began falling to the ground below, where it exploded in the countryside.

Hold on, countryside?

Jerking his head around, the Dark Knight soon realized he was at the outskirts of what used to be Metropolis. Had he been hurled that far? Looking around, he was just in time to see other fighter jets either getting control of themselves, or crashing to the earth below in fiery explosions. That shockwave from that energy blast had affected everyone.

Angling his plane back to the crater, he was just in time to see the skull ship fire another energy beam into the hole, another explosion of dirt and dust flying out of it. The sound was duller due to distance, but not by much. The corresponding shockwave was not nearly as powerful either.

And then another beam was fired. Then another.

Batman frowned as he studied the sight. This was something more than just firing a weapon on a city. There wasn't a city to destroy left. So why attack the very spot over and over? All it was doing was sending dirt up into the air, and not enough to cause a climate shift either, if that was the intent.

No, this was something else. If this ship was trying to destroy stuff, there were other cities. There were other places to fire that beam for more destruction and death. Yet, with every fired blast, it was sending up less and less dirt. It was like the hole was being made deeper.

Deeper...was it actually trying to blast apart a hole? It was an ideal location after the destruction of Metropolis. But there wasn't a real purpose to making the hole bigger. There had to be another reason and he needed to think of it soon before that ship blasted a hole to China.

Batman's head jerked up. Or the core! It was trying to blast a way to the core! Much like Krypton, the purpose was to destabilize it and blow the planet up! Brainiac hadn't changed its tactics it seemed, only that it was speeding up the process.

"Attention, Justice League!" he barked into the comm link. "Brainiac's trying to destabilize the core. We have to stop it!"

The shockwave had blown them out to sea, but thanks to the prototype's technological and engineering prowess, it hadn't been far. Mercy was able to fly them back quickly, arriving back in time for the second energy beam to be fired into the crater.

Luthor did not know what this meant; he could still see clouds of dirt and debris flooding through the remaining streets of Metropolis, slowly dissipating. There was a curious lack of glass on many buildings, more than likely shattered. This was the insult to injury, and none of this would no longer stand.

They needed to get close to the ship again; the distance was interfering with the signal from his gauntlet. The plan to board was still priority, but to do that, he needed to get into the ship's mainframe. With this latest development, the tycoon was increasing his efforts to hack in. Happersen's program still hadn't produced results yet, and that was beyond frustrating right now.

Wait. There we go. The small screen he was focused on had brought up a menu of sorts, one that needed seconds' worth of translating, but the point remained.

He was in.

It was time to see about entering that ship. First thing was first, that force field needed to be deactivated, or a weakness identified. So long as it was up, everything that was planned was moot. Fortunately, that shield only blocked physical attacks and not those of a cyber nature. Now to bring up those schematics and perhaps a means to shut it down.

Another blast fired into the crater that had once been downtown Metropolis. Coincidentally, Luther had just pulled up a real-time model of the ship's force field when the status of the shield, a solid line that appeared around the model of the ship winked out. Green eyes flickered up to the prototype's windshield, seeing the alien spacecraft in the middle of firing its current blast.

Frowning, Luthor tapped in several commands. There was something to that. Why would a simulation of that force field have such a response?

In his peripheral, he noted how several manmade missiles ran into the force field, the model showing the solid line once more. That meant it had to be up. So why did the model show it disappearing?

Unless…

It would be a gamble.

"Mercy, I want you to fly us straight at that ship the next time it fires," he ordered his bodyguard and current pilot.

Mercy glanced over at him. "Are you sure?"

The bald man gave it a second's worth of thought. "Go in at an angle, not head-on. If my guess is correct, we'll have a small window of getting through that force field, once all power on that ship is diverted into that energy attack. It's short, but it comes down. That's our opportunity. Take it."

Mercy nodded, on signs of hesitation. She trusted him enough to go along with this, a sign of a loyal employee.

They didn't have to wait long. Luthor watched with baited breath as the skull-shaped ship powered up for another blast. Eyes flickering down at his gauntlet, he waited until—"Now!" he ordered.

Mercy increased speed, going in at the suggested angle. Where the force field should have been, nothing impeded them. At the same time, another blast was fired, sending less and less dirt and debris up into the air. Luthor waited until the model showed that the force field was back up before declaring that they were in. Now for the next part.

This turned out to be slightly easier. Bringing up a blueprint of the ship, he was able to identify an emergency hatch located on the side. More than likely, it was placed there for, you guessed it, an emergency. Whether it was for escape, or something else, remained to be seen, but it would be their way.

It was surprisingly simply to get it unlocked while having Mercy maneuver them close enough that the prototype's retractable bridge could be extended, clamping down on the side of the ship and sealing itself against it, depressuring in the process.

Luthor pressed forward with the hack, disabling security around the immediate area of their boarding. To do more would be to risk detection, not just physically but on the cyber level as well. Doing this was risky enough as it was. Not that Luthor didn't expect a fight; he fully planned on there being one.

"Get your weapons ready. We're about to say hello," the CEO remarked as he closed off the computer in his gauntlet. A hand went to the gun holster on his chest and removed the firearm it carried. A quick check of the weapon was made before he unstrapped himself from his seat and got up.

You only had one chance to make an impression, and Luthor would be sure he wouldn't make the mistake of forcing one. Whatever secrets were on this ship would be his, and he wasn't leaving until he made the excursion worth his while.

A couple more missiles fired from the flying wing. Batman watched as they soared towards the skull ship, only to collide with that infuriating shield, exploding into balls of fire, but doing no damage whatsoever.

Further away, the vigilante spotted flashes of light all over the force field. White light indicated J'onn using his Martian Vision, though it was clear even from this distance that the attack wasn't breaking through. There were frequent flashes in a small area with quick pulses of light—Hawkgirl smashing her electrified mace and having the same results as the rest of them. He couldn't see Diana from his current position, but no doubt she was trying to break through as well.

Flash was not in a position to be of use at the moment. That must have been killing the speedster, but that's what happened when you weren't able to take flight. Checking his own systems, Batman saw he was low on everything. Missiles were in the single digits; he could still count them on two hands, but barely. Bullets were down too, so he would need to act sparingly with them. Seeing as he wasn't able to do any damage, it was best to save what he had until he knew he could do something with them.

And still, the skull ship fired its laser cannon right into the Earth's crust unhindered.

There was something he was missing, he just knew it. A weakness, an entry point, something. How did they stop this thing? Could they stop this thing? With every passing second, it seemed the answer to those questions were not favorable.

And then something caught his eye. Glancing towards it, he saw a ship—Luthor's—gliding through the air. What was he still doing here? Aside from some evasive maneuvers, Luthor's flying knockoff hadn't done much to aid the battle. In fact, it seemed like it was biding its time, watching the skull ship.

Watching…

And then it suddenly picked up speed, heading right for the skull ship. Batman watched intently at this sudden change in behavior. What was Luthor doing? He wasn't using any of his plane's weapons, so it wasn't to break through the force field. And speaking of, if he didn't change course very soon, he was going to crash right into it.

And yet, he didn't deviate his trajectory in the slightly.

"Wait, don't!" Batman cried out as he watched in horror as Luthor's ship plowed right into the force field. He knew Luthor couldn't hear him, but that still didn't stop him from doing it.

Except...Luthor's ship didn't explode. Immediately it veered off course, just as another blast fired from the skull ship. Once the beam was over, Luthor began closing in on the skull ship, not the least bit hindered by the shield.

What the hell?

Luthor had gotten through—how? That force field was clearly in place and yet he passed right through it as if it weren't there. That didn't make any sense at all. The skull ship was surrounded by all sides at all times by its force field. Luthor should have crashed into it. The shield clearly didn't allow anything in as the League's attacks had proven. It allowed things out though, as proven by the multiple energy blasts it had fired.

Or did it?

Batman narrowed his eyes. As he recalled, Luthor had appeared to be waiting for something just before he had bolted for the force field. Had he been waiting, or had he been timing himself? If the latter, then the Metropolis billionaire had realized something about the force field that the vigilante had not.

So what did he know? The force field stopped external attacks. That was certain. The only exception was Luthor's ship passing through it. It was assumed it allowed internal attacks to pass, though Luthor seemed to have timed his passage just before the previous blast.

Now there was something. The timing of passage and the beam, they were key. What if the force field wasn't there when the energy beam fired? What if it was dropped moments before the laser cannon fired? That would certainly explain Luthor's behavior and his passage of the shield.

This needed to be confirmed immediately.

Spotting movement, Batman caught sight of Diana pounding her way along the shield. She was the closest person and perhaps the only one he could keep a visual on for this. "Diana," he hailed.

The Amazon responded immediately. "What is it, Batman?"

"I saw Luthor bypass the force field. I'm not certain, but I think he found a point where the force field was dropped, just prior to the firing of the cannon. I need you to confirm this."

"On it," was his only respond. Keeping his eye on the dark-haired woman, he noticed she had stopped punching the shield, instead keeping her hands pressed against it. Seconds became minutes before she suddenly moved forward, right through the area where the shield was.

Immediately, Batman jerked on the stick, flying right for the Amazon. Pressing a button, he fired the after-burners on his flying wing, picking up speed in an instant. The cockpit began to rattle from the forces pressing against the aircraft.

And then he was passing right by Diana, just as another large beam was fired. Angling the flying wing, he avoided the blast, the aircraft rattling even harder now before it calmed down.

They were through.

"Diana, on me," he barked over the comm. He pulled back on the stick, ascending upwards towards the skull ship. It was time to catch up with Luthor and then see about putting a stop to Brainiac's scheme.