Chapter 15: Dawn of Justice (War World – Part 2)
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
Princess Diana of Themyscira, known the world over as Wonder Woman, felt a simmering rage deep inside her belly as she looked upon her best friend. In the years they had known each other, Diana had never seen Kara, her sister-in-arms, so battered and wounded. Diana still won the majority of their regular sparring sessions, but Kara's bruises always faded in minutes and there was never any lasting damage. Not so today, as her friend's broken right arm was supported by a cast and the bruises on her face and visible skin had yet to fade, despite almost a day having passed.
Diana swore that the creature who had harmed her sister, this Mongul, would pay dearly for every bruise, every broken bone, and every drop of blood.
"We can delay no longer," Kara said, addressing the room.
They were currently in the only functional module of the Watchtower. For several years now Kara had worked on assembling an orbital station high above the Earth, a fusion of human and Kryptonian technology, a first line of defense for her adopted world. Bruce, the Batman, had helped with the technological and logistical sides and Diana herself had assisted with some of the heavy lifting on the ground, but most of the work had been performed by Kara herself as the only one of their trio who could fly into space under her own power. Currently the satellite was less than halfway finished, but the main module was pressurized and the artificial gravity worked as well.
It was a good place to assemble their forces for the coming war.
"Thank you all for coming," Kara began. "I had hoped we would have more time and gather more allies, but an emergency has come up, one that threatens not just our planet but possibly the entire galaxy."
She quickly summarized the events of yesterday, her encounter with the Martian called J'Onn J'Onnz and their battle against the alien powerhouse called Mongul. Kara did not mince words, describing how close she had come to being killed, how extremely strong Mongul was, and how dangerous this War World was. To be honest, it boggled Diana's imagination somewhat. A satellite larger than the Earth itself? Equipped with weapons powerful enough to demolish entire worlds? Part of her refused to believe it, but she trusted her friend's word.
Next to Kara stood the Martian, J'Onn, who had used his shape-shifting powers to appear somewhat human. The first time Diana had seen him he had looked far more alien, now he seemed almost human except for his green skin and somewhat prominent forehead. Diana knew that he had aided Kara, helped heal her wounds, so as far as Diana was concerned he was a comrade-in arms she would gladly have at her side during the coming fight.
Bruce Wayne, the Batman, stood next to Diana and listened intently. He had heard the story already, just like Diana, but his mind was always working, always looking for more details. Diana knew that he had to feel even more out of his depth than she did, but that didn't stop him from contributing and wouldn't stop him from fighting.
"Mongul has a head start on us," Kara said, "but hopefully we can circumvent that advantage somewhat."
She looked at the newest member of their alliance. Diana had first encountered the man called Adam Strange two years ago, but it had only been during the last few months that they had managed to get into regular contact with him. Strange was from Earth, but he wore a suit of red and white battle armor - along with a rocket pack allowing him to fly and a futuristic gun at his hip - that were clearly not of Earth design. He had gotten those while spending a large amount of time on an alien planet called Rann.
He had only told them the short version, but apparently Rann was a highly developed world, whose citizens had sworn off combat and aggression many generations ago after a devastating war that had reduced large parts of their world to rubble. So when they found themselves facing an alien threat, they had sought a champion to do their fighting for them. Strange had become that champion.
"I've spoken to the Sardath back on Rann," Strange said, stepping forward, "and they have prepared a Zeta beam to teleport us to the system where J'Onn here said War World is parked. Transport will be instantaneous, but it has its limitations. Once the Zeta radiation dissipates from our bodies, we will be brought back to our place of origin automatically. They can only give a rough time frame for that, approximately thirty hours or so, given the distance and the number of people to be transported."
"I do not think we need to worry about the time limit," Kara told him. "If we haven't stopped Mongul within thirty hours, odds are we will have much bigger things to worry about."
Diana nodded, even as her eyes found the sixth and final member of their team. Even if there had been no other indication of how dire Kara thought the situation to be, the presence of Green Lantern Abin Sur spoke volumes all by itself. Kara still had trouble looking at the Green Lantern who had failed to save Krypton without becoming angry in the process. Kara had confessed to Diana that she knew these feelings to be irrational, that she knew intellectually that Abin Sur was not to blame for her original home world's destruction, but that her feelings didn't change with that knowledge.
"Can we expect any reinforcements from the Green Lantern Corps?" Diana asked Abin Sur.
"I have contacted the Guardians of Oa to let them know of the impending reactivation of the War World," he answered. "I am certain they will send aid, but with the Corps spread out over the known universe, I fear we cannot wait for them to arrive."
"We need to leave now," Kara told everyone. "We will use Abin Sur's ship and the Zeta beam will transport us. Hopefully we will arrive before Mongul. Let's move, people!"
Walking towards the airlock where Sur's ship had docked, Diana caught up with Kara and touched her shoulder.
"Have you said anything to Clark?" she whispered. Kara's young son was almost fully into his powers by now, but neither of them had entertained the thought of taking him along for more than a second. No doubt the boy's time to join them in battle would come soon enough, but not today.
Kara shook her head. "No! I wanted to, but couldn't think of anything that wouldn't sound like 'good bye'."
"What about your wounds? He can't have missed those."
"Oh, he saw them, just like Martha and Jonathan. But as far as they know the alien who did this to me is already beaten and everything's fine. I'm just going away a few days to recuperate, nothing else."
Diana was not happy that Kara was lying to her family, but she could understand it. The Amazons were different, a warrior race, so while her own mother would certainly worry, Queen Hippolyta was also proud of her daughter as she went out to face so dangerous a foe. It wasn't that long ago that Kara had finally confessed to her that Clark was not, in fact, her son, at least not biologically, but Diana knew that he was her son in every other way that mattered. Almost everything Kara did was out of the motivation to keep her son safe, so dragging him along to battle a foe as powerful as Mongul was not going to happen anytime soon.
"Let us make our families proud then, sister," Diana said, clasping Kara's hand in her own, "and do our best to ensure that we shall all safely return to them when the battle is done!"
Batman blinked away the spots in his vision and focused on his surroundings again. In a strange sort of way he was very thankful for the training he had received at the hands of Henry Ducard aka R'as al Ghul. Learning to operate calmly while feeling intense fear was certainly coming in handy today when he found himself so very much out of his comfort zone. For all that the Batman had become a larger-than-life presence in Gotham and was considered superhuman by many a criminal, he was still just a man.
A man who had just travelled across many light years of space by way of an alien teleportation beam. A man in the company of three different aliens, a warrior princess from Greek myth, and someone who, while "only" a man himself, had been to alien worlds several times before now. No one would be able to see it on his face, but Bruce Wayne had never been so far out of his element before.
"We have arrived in the designated star system," Adam Strange announced, shaking off the dizzying effects of the beam far more quickly. Well, he did have plenty of experience with it, Batman told himself grudgingly.
"I am scanning the system for our target," Abin Sur announced, the Green Lantern manipulating the controls of his star ship without ever moving a finger. The green ring on his finger glowed and the ship responded. Batman was certainly interested in the technology behind it, but figured that it was far beyond his understanding. For now, at least.
"These are the coordinates the Largas left us with," the Martian called J'Onn J'Onnz announced. "War World should be in orbit around the system's sun."
Said sun was now visible on the ship's view screen. It was a white dwarf star, Batman had been told, a sun nearing the end of its life cycle. Only about two times the size of Earth, it nevertheless had as much mass as Earth's sun, if not more. Not enough mass to collapse into a black hole, but more than enough to keep several planets in its orbit.
And something that was not a planet at all.
"I think we have found our target," Strange said in a low voice.
The light of the white dwarf barely sufficed to illuminate more than the outline of the huge dark shape that was moving onto the view screen from the side. At first glance it might well have appeared as a planet, but the contours were too sharp, the surface too gleaming even in the weak light. Abin Sur manipulated the controls and the view screen shifted, pseudo colors overlaid the images, and the huge globe of the War World snapped into sharp focus.
"Sweet Hera," he heard Diana whisper, the awe in her voice mirroring his own. The mere thought of something so huge being built, constructed from metal by mortal hands instead of being shaped by forces of nature, boggled the mind. Even as they watched the monstrous sphere continued to move and a moment later Batman had to revise his estimate of its size upwards several magnitudes once again. For the War World passed BEHIND the white dwarf star, not in front of it.
"It's roughly three times the size of your planet Earth," Abin Sur said, his own voice almost a whisper as well in the face of such enormity. "My scanners detect only minimal energy output, though. The War World appears to be inactive, at least for now."
Batman looked over at Kara, who was not looking at the view screen but rather at a blank wall off to the side. Knowing her superior vision powers, he did not doubt she was studying their target in detail.
"What do you see, Kara?" he asked, drawing everyone's attention to her.
"Almost the entire surface of War World I can see is covered in weapons of some sort. Missiles the size of buildings, gun muzzles hundreds of meters wide. Huge hangar doors, behind which I can see millions of drone craft, all of them looking ready for launch. There are also thousands of smaller satellites orbiting it, all of them displaying active energy patterns."
"The Largas said that they locked away the War World by activating its automatic defenses," J'Onnz added. "I would assume those satellites are part of the defense system."
"Well, if they are still active, then Mongul hasn't yet used to key to shut them down, has he?" Strange said. "We beat him here."
"No, we didn't," Kara simply said, causing Batman's blood to run as cold as the space outside.
She walked over the manual controls Abin Sur had installed on his ship – apparently he had wanted a backup in case his ring ever ceased to function, which was just smart thinking in Batman's mind – and focused the view screen on a specific spot on the War World's surface. Powered by the Green Lantern's energy, the sensors were capable of zooming in across the vast distance and showed a space ship on the ground, right next to what was obviously an entrance into War World's interior.
"That's Mongul's ship, we saw it on Mars," Kara said. "He's already here."
"He must have reactivated the defenses once he was through," Batman said. "Insuring that no one can follow him in."
"I hate smart bad guys," Strange muttered.
"Can you see him?" Batman asked.
"Yes. Thankfully the construction of War World seems to include no metals with a similar density to lead. Mongul is already several levels below ground and heading for what I assume to be a control chamber of some kind."
"Surely he can't control something this size all by himself, can he?" Diana asked. "I would imagine he would need a crew of some kind."
"The control room appears to hold but a single chair and some kind of harness. There is a dead Warzoon still sitting in that chair, even. I fear the War World has been built to be controlled by one individual without any need for support."
For a moment no one seemed to know what to say or do next.
"We need to get to the surface of War World and reach that control chamber," Batman finally said. "If it can be controlled by one man, then it can be stopped by taking out that one man!"
Kara nodded in agreement. "We need to hurry. Abin Sur and I are the only ones capable of taking on those automated defenses and survive. We will try to break through or, if that won't work, at least to occupy the defenses to create an opening for the rest of you."
Batman listened as Abin Sur gave them brief instructions on how to pilot his space ship, a job Adam Strange eagerly took on. Apparently the design was not that different from the ones used on Rann. As the Green Lantern and Kara prepared to leave the ship, Batman focused on the screen, which was still showing the landing site of Mongul's ship on the surface of War World.
"Adam, can you draw back the image a bit?" he asked, having spotted something at the very edge.
The other man gave him a curious look, but did as he was told and the image zoomed out. Close to the spot where Mongul had landed was something resembling an open field (using the term 'field' loosely, as War World was made entirely of metal) with rows upon rows of something that looked like boxes, lined up in neat patterns.
"It looks like a cemetery," Diana said from beside him, studying the image.
"I'd say it is one," Strange added, fiddling with the sensors. The image zoomed in once more and showed that each 'box' had something resembling a window. At extreme close-up, the screen showed the skeletal remains of an alien head inside.
"From what I have learned of the Warzoon," J'Onn told them, "they had the custom of sealing their fallen warriors into caskets that allowed them a view of the sky. It was said that they should gaze upon all that their successors would conquer in their name."
"Morbid," Strange added.
"There must be thousands of those boxes," Diana said, inspecting the image as Strange zoomed out again.
"And this is probably not the only cemetery on War World." Batman rubbed his chin. "It's interesting, though."
"In what way, Batman?" J'Onn asked.
"The Largas told you that the Warzoon died out when their campaign to conquer the cosmos had just begun, correct?" The Martian nodded. "From your tale I assumed that some sort of plague had killed them, maybe a bio weapon launched by one of their enemies, but this paints a different picture."
"He's right," Strange agreed. "If the Warzoon had all died out simultaneously, there wouldn't have been anyone left to bury them. Unless the Largas did it."
"I do not believe so," J'Onn told them. "From what they told us, they only visited the War World very briefly, just long enough to lock it down and activate its defenses. They were a peaceful race through and through. Even if they had found it prudent to bury the Warzoons' dead, they would hardly have done so following the Warzoons' war-like traditions."
"So whatever killed all the Warzoon did so gradually," Batman concluded. "It left enough time for the survivors to bury the dead, but still drove their race to extinction within a relatively short time frame."
Batman fell back into thought, remembering Kara's words about the dead Warzoon still sitting in the War World's control chair. "I believe I have a theory what could have happened to the Warzoon. And if I'm right, it could mean salvation for us all!"
Kara and Abin Sur had barely left the ship when the defenses of War World began to attack them. Automated satellites released swarms of missiles towards them, even as giant laser cannons began firing from the surface of the artificial planetoid. Kara moved faster than she ever had before, flying in a random pattern to evade the powerful energy beams coming at her, and vaporized incoming missiles with her heat vision. There were always more missiles, though, and the energy beams kept coming closer and closer, keeping her from getting closer to the War World itself.
"How are you doing, Abin Sur?" she asked through the com system in the oxygen mask she had put on.
"I fear this is going to prove even more difficult than we thought," the Green Lantern replied. "My ring's force field is at its very limit, I doubt it will hold against more than one or two direct hits from these beams."
Kara had no particular interest in finding out how her own vaunted invulnerability would hold up against these weapons, not after it had been strained (and overcome) by Mongul just a day earlier. She was still nowhere near 100 percent and the white dwarf star's fading light was nowhere near as potent as Earth's yellow sun. A prolonged engagement was not in her favor, even without factoring in the Zeta beam's inherent time limit.
"We need a new plan," Kara said, withdrawing from the range of War World's defense systems alongside the Green Lantern. "We won't be getting through with a direct assault."
She focused her vision powers on the control room she had seen earlier. "Mongul has already reached the control room. We need to act fast or he'll..."
"Let him take control of the War World, Kara," Batman's voice suddenly rang out in her earpiece.
"Say what?" she asked, not believing what she heard.
"Trust me, Kara! We WANT him to put on that harness!"
Bruce explained his theory to them.
"In Rao's name, Batman, I hope you are right about this."
In front of them the War World began to light up as more and more systems came online and the largest, most terrifying weapon the universe came back to life. With just the six of them directly in its crosshairs.
"I hope so, too," Batman said.
End Chapter 15
Author's Note: Yes, in this universe of mine Adam Strange is a founding member of the Justice League. What can I say, I always liked the concept behind him, as he's basically Flash Gordon but with the Zeta Beam taking him back to Earth at random times (usually just as he's about to kiss Alanna). I'm a big fan of the old Filmation Flash Gordon cartoon, as well as Defenders of the Earth, so expect those to influence my portrayal of Adam Strange somewhat. I might do a flashback chapter later on to show the first meeting between him and the Trinity.
Also, my League only has six members at the outset instead of the usual seven. I toyed with adding a seventh member, but couldn't really think of one that would fit at this point in the story. The only real candidate would have been Green Arrow, but I couldn't really find a way to logically fit an archer into an outer-space battle against what's basically the Death Star, only larger. Batman's presence is pushing it as it is and he's been friends with Kara and Diana for years at this point in the story. Adding someone like Hawkgirl or Aquaman out of the blue now would have felt like cheating.