Okay, this is Part 2 for Chapter 6. I'm going to be taking a two-week break from posting chapters for Second Chance, so don't expect to see any chapters until at least December 7. Because I've spent so much time dedicated to this story that I've gotten so invested in, I fear that my grades have begun to suffer. It's okay if you guys feel disappointed. I'll love you anyway.
Thanks to DC Watchergirl for Beta Testing.
Terry paused the holorecording, and noted with some irony, "Yet another superhero showdown that no one really wants to see."
Terry resumed the footage, and the fight continued.
Batman dodged a trio of blows, and decided to do a risky maneuver.
Instead of fighting back, he took off his cowl, to reveal the face of Bruce Wayne, who served as best man at Clark's wedding.
Superman, finally recognizing who he was fighting, finally stopped, and looked around in wonderment over what he had almost just done.
"Bruce, we've got M'gann onboard, but the Watchtower's under attack!" Dick called on the communicator. "The U.N. inspection was a sham; a front for Luthor's forces!"
"Damn, we're on our way!" Bruce responded. "Clark, we've got to go!"
The revived Kryptonian obeyed his friend and followed the running man.
The Watchtower shuttle was under siege by mercenaries, which were being held off by Red Hood's expert marksmanship skills.
"Start the engines, and let's get the hell out of here!" Bruce ordered Jason.
The gunslinger nodded and all three men boarded the shuttle.
Damnation. I thought that Cassie and Damian would be safe on the Watchtower. Bruce internally worried as the shuttle flew out of Camp Omega.
When they reached orbit, the space station wasn't a pretty sight. Fires were everywhere and there were boarding pods that marred its hull.
"Green Arrow, this is Batman!" Bruce called on the communicator. "We're almost in the hangar! Where are you?"
"Same place, Bruce." Oliver called. "Luthor's mercenaries got one hell of a body count. Think they got Cassandra."
No. Not her too. Why do everyone that's connected to me have to suffer?
"Bruce, are you still there?" Oliver asked. "Should I give you a full casualty list?"
"We will kill them all." Bruce answered, referring to any mercenaries under Luthor's employment. "No mercy."
Nightwing looked back at his mentor, and realized that Bruce had gone off the deep end right at that moment.
The shuttle landed in the hangar, where the other heroes and employees were evacuating onto the shuttles.
Bruce exited his shuttle, and grabbed an assault rifle from a mercenary he beat to death.
He began firing indiscriminately on anyone who wasn't Justice League or Watchtower staff.
By his own estimates, he killed almost six dozen men by the time Oliver dragged him back onto the shuttle.
The half-dozen of shuttles had barely escaped the hangar when it was destroyed by debris, and the Watchtower was little more than a gargantuan meteor that burned up upon entering the atmosphere.
Oliver hit the wall of the shuttle they were in out of frustration with how they were played like a damn fiddle.
Bruce! M'gann finally spoke telepathically. Luthor has the Mother Boxes! He's going to use them to summon the forces of Apokolips!
No, hasn't Luthor had enough success? Bruce asked rhetorically.
"Contact all survivors!" Bruce ordered Oliver. "Tell them that Apokolips is about to invade!"
As the news became widespread among the survivors that Darkseid was coming, Bruce contemplated over how he didn't see Zatanna among the survivors.
While their relationship was never that long, they had always remained friends ever since he adopted Dick Grayson. Bruce would truly miss her like he had missed Rachel.
Speaking of ex-lovers, he realized that Diana needed to know what was happening.
"Dick, see if you can contact Donna!" Bruce ordered! "The Amazons need to know what's going to be happening within minutes!"
"I'll take over the piloting for you, Dick." Jason volunteered as Dick contacted Donna via communicator.
None of that seemed to matter within a few minutes, though, as an enormous boom tube appeared in Earth's atmosphere above the shuttles that were no longer in orbit.
Millions of Parademons started to appear, and some had, whether accidentally or deliberately, rammed into the shuttle that Bruce was on.
"Hold on!" Jason shouted. "We're going down!"
The shuttles started spiraling towards Metropolis, and crashed in the downtown area.
Bruce was knocked unconscious by the impact, but the other occupants were luckier.
The holorecord then continued to show various footage all over the world of the massacre that was taking place: the forces of Apokolips, combined with Brainiac, LexCorp, the Yellow Lantern Corps, General Zod, and Bruce's rogues gallery, were mercilessly taking billions of lives. Men, women, children, animals, the evil did not discriminate in picking their targets.
In the real world, Bruce was barely keeping his anger and horror in at what happened in the alternate timeline.
"Terry, stop it." He ordered his son. "I think we've seen enough."
Terry obeyed, but had more to say.
"Bruce, the Battle of Earth was a worldwide massacre on a scale never seen in history." Terry recollected. "You guys did end up winning, but at a high cost."
A clip of Supergirl charging towards a LexCorp airship was shown, as she was terminated by a superlaser that evidently had Kryptonite qualities.
"So I guess I really was the last of Krypton." Clark said mournfully.
A clip of Damian dying in Bruce's arms as the latter was being captured by the League of Assassins and LexCorp played.
"How many of my children did I lose in this future?" Bruce asked, as he remembered that Cassandra was among the casualties.
Ra's al Ghul was shown shooting his daughter in the head when Talia insisted on stopping this madness.
"Okay, what did Bruce do to deserve all of this personal pain?" Dick asked.
Hal Jordan, as a Yellow Lantern, realized thanks to John Stewart that he was on the wrong path, and self-destructed his ring to destroy himself and Sinestro.
"At least I went out like a badass." Hal boasted, trying to hide his pain on the events that transpired in the alternate timeline.
Catwoman was evacuating civilians that would have been caught in the superlaser, but wound up being disintegrated herself.
"No." Bruce whispered somberly. "Not Selina."
Artemis Crock was killed as a result of Darkseid crushing her head in retaliation for trying to snipe him.
"Doesn't look like she made it." Wally mused. "Neither did Jinx, come to think of it."
Roy Harper destroyed a squadron of Parademons with a hand grenade, while trying to buy Wally time to escape.
"Can't believe I ended up dying for Wally." Roy noted with skepticism.
A post-battle clip showed Queen Hippolyta and Donna Troy to be among the many deceased Amazons.
"Guess we aren't immortal after all." Diana said in shock.
Vixen, Hawkman, Black Canary, and Huntress were able to destroy Brainiac, despite being mortally wounded.
"And this final clip is basically the final moments of the battle." Terry started, before somberly playing it.
The Batwing was shown heading to Luthor's airship, and carried Nightwing, Red Hood, Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle.
"Okay, gentlemen." Superman briefed via communicator. "We've got to get Bruce off of the airship before Colonel Trevor's Monkeyfighter Squadron does a bombing run on the ship."
"We'll get it done." Guy promised.
"Good. The knowledge Bruce has is vital to rebuilding Earth's infrastructure." Clark reminded.
The link was cut off when the Batwing was hit.
"Everybody, hang on!" Dick shouted as the plane crashed into the airship.
Fortunately, the landing left the Batplane relatively intact, and could be relatively usable after a few minutes of repair was done.
Unfortunately, Jason took an injury in the impact.
"Todd, are you okay?" Guy asked with some gruffness. "Your Dad's the key to saving Earth's ass, and Grayson over here is fixing our only ticket off this ship."
Jason was able to get up, and grabbed his revolvers.
"Alright, let's go!" Blue Beetle shouted.
"I'm going to save Batman today!" Booster stated with pride.
"Cut the chatter." Guy commanded. "This is a rescue op. No heroics."
The quartet made it through the ship with minimal resistance, and reached the bridge guns blazing.
A weakened Bruce was currently fighting Luthor to little avail.
The corporate mogul had drugged himself to make him effectively unbeatable.
The quartet attack Luthor, but the latter was able to counterattack, severely wounding Jason in the process.
"Fools." Luthor gloated. "If I cannot have an Earth with the aid of Darkseid, then I shall destroy it instead."
He raised a fist to deliver the killing blow to Jason.
"This shall be Batman's punishment for not-"
Luthor was interrupted when a sharp electrified metal blade ran through his head, causing blood to burst and his head to explode.
"Burn in hell, you son of a bitch." Bruce said as he pulled out the blade.
"You killed him." Ted Kord observed.
"Yeah. That's what happens when I've had a bad day." Bruce said. "Unless you can somehow atone for destroying the superlaser controls so that it can't be shut down, he completely deserved it."
"Guys, bad news." Trevor called via communicator. "All my squadron is gone except for me. And I don't have enough to send this airship to hell."
"You've got to destroy it somehow." Guy shouted. "Luthor programmed the superlaser to fire indefinitely unless the airship is destroyed."
"That's why I'm going to ram the bridge." Trevor said. "You've got only a few minutes to leave so you better get out of here now."
"I was just thinking the same thing!" Guy agreed as he cut the signal.
The Green Lantern grabbed Bruce and flew him back to the Batwing, where Nightwing would have hopefully finished repairs.
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold carried Jason back as well, as there was nothing left to be done here.
Unfortunately, the Batwing was again under siege by the remaining mercenaries, and a grenade was launched at them.
Bruce and Jason were knocked out momentarily, as Guy got them back on their feet.
"Bruce, you've got to go!" Guy urged. "Make sure that the world is rebuilt!"
"I didn't leave Clark or M'gann behind!" Bruce argued. "I'm not about to leave anyone else!"
They narrowly avoided a rocket-propelled grenade, at which Bruce shot the man who fired it.
"Fine, but if you're not right behind me, I'm going to kill you." Bruce shouted as he gently grabbed Jason to get back to the Batwing.
Booster Gold was now killed, and Blue Beetle was breathing his last handful of breaths.
"Gardner! It's time to go, move!" Bruce ordered.
"Just go! Get the hell out of here, Bruce!" Guy shouted.
A grenade ended any more arguments, as the Batwing was starting to fall out of the airship.
"Just go! Go!" Guy shouted as the hallway he was on started to collapse.
"Bruce, we can't stay here!" Dick said. "We've got to leave now!"
"NO!" Bruce screamed as the airship fell apart to pieces, a result of Colonel Trevor's successful kamikaze.
"Damn it, Dick!" Bruce shouted. "Get us back here!"
"It's too hot!" Dick argued. "If we go back, we all die!"
"Gardner, do you read me?! Gardner, come in! Gardner, do you copy!? Gardner, are you still there?" Bruce asked a nonexistent radio frequency.
Down below, the streets were just as chaotic as people were trying to avoid falling debris, and in the middle of it all, Linda Park was still looking for her boyfriend who was somewhere directing evacuation.
"Everyone, find safety now!" Wally shouted, trying to disguise his terror at the circumstances.
As Linda narrowly avoided a chunk of debris, she reached Wally, whose foot was stuck in the concrete, as a result of fighting Darkseid, whom Superman had already destroyed.
"Linda, it's no use!" Wally screamed at his girlfriend. "There's not enough time to get my foot out! Leave and go save yourself!"
It was obvious that he was trying to put on a brave face for her with his words, but his eyes and his voice said everything about his fear.
"I'm not leaving you." Linda declared, as she embraced Wally. "Not this time."
Becoming calmer, Wally embraced Linda back.
"Then at least we die together." Wally said just before kissing her.
Linda returned the kiss, as a final piece of airship debris crushed them.
Even as the Batwing was returning to Metropolis, it was obvious that Jason would not make it.
Knowing this, Bruce carefully removed Red Hood's helmet.
"You're alive." Jason said, as he was apparently unconscious the past few minutes. "Did I save you yet?"
"Shhh." Bruce said comfortingly, removing his cowl. "Quiet, Jason. You've lost a lot of blood."
"Your eyes... That bad, huh?" Jason noted, observing Bruce's horrified look. "They always were ugly. Now the outside matches. I was waiting for this, but..."
Jason coughed blood before continuing.
"It's not fair. I let you down. I was supposed to save you."
"I think we were all supposed to save each other, Jason." Bruce admitted, noting the horrific numbers of fatalities that day.
"I guess I'm just tired of living anyway." Jason confessed. "Too many deaths. I never told you. I lied to you."
"It's okay. All that has been forgiven. Be still." Bruce comforted.
"I don't want you to see me like this." Jason protested. "I don't want to die in front of you. I can't bear it."
"No." Bruce quietly protested. "I'll stay with you until the end comes."
"You saved me. Joke's on me." Jason scoffed. "Hurts when I laugh. Hurts."
Jason Todd was no more, and Bruce Wayne remained in the Batwing even hours after it landed, devastated by what had happened.
"That was the Battle of Earth in my timeline. It was a winnable battle, but the cost was not worth it. And Earth ended up worse off afterwards, because Bruce was too traumatized by the events of Veteran's Day to come out of seclusion." Terry summarized. "The bad guys all ended up dead, not that anyone missed them, but newer bad guys took over, and there weren't enough heroes to stop them. All because the sacrifices the many heroes made didn't even matter in the end. Ain't that a bitch."
Terry then showed Bruce's memorial list of those who had died in the alternate timeline, starting from "Superboy (Kon-El/Conner Kent)" to "Miss Martian (M'gann M'orzz/Megan Morse)".
"These other files, you guys can look over." Terry offered. "Me, I guess I'm done here. I'll go tell Conner and M'gann the short version."
Terry left the assembly chamber, and those within it to ponder on how to prevent it.
Yeah, that was one hell of a chapter. Fans of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords can probably tell that I practically copied certain scenes from those games.