Crisis Point

by Legend Maker

There can be no better way of knowing, in a world beyond controlling...are you going to deny the savior right in front of your eyes? Are you, heroes? Titans? Alien? THEN YOU WILL ALL FALL.

8. War: Die Hand Der Verletz

War, Part 3: Die Hand Der Verletz

Space.

The center of the universe.

Kyle Rayner knew the feeling of helplessness. Knew it quite well. Considering he was a Green Lantern, a soldier corps that wielded what many called the most powerful weapon in the universe, that should have been considered very surprising indeed.

But Rayner had always been different from the Green Lanterns that had come before him. He had never planned on becoming a superhero. True, none of his fellow Lanterns had either, but all of them had been chosen by their rings: Kyle got his because a Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan had destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe, forcing the last Guardian, Ganthet, to flee to Earth with the sole remaining power ring. Kyle had just been in the right place at the right time. On top of that, he has massive shoes to fill: Hal Jordan was not only universally respected among Green Lanterns, but among Earth heroes as well, and they were still reeling from his then believed sudden descent into madness and villainy.

Kyle had gone into this world feeling he would never have what it took. And it quickly became apparent that the world of being a hero was more then stopping bank robberies and fighting nutcases in long underwear. There were sacrifices and costs, some quite dear. Kyle had learned that in perhaps the worst way possible when, fresh into the beginning of his 'career', he had come home to find his girlfriend strangled and stuffed in a refrigerator, a victim of his new status as a hero. That death had haunted him ever since, and had driven him to accept that while he couldn't replace Hal Jordan, he could put his own name in its own place.

And Kyle had done just that. He had grown into his role, won the acceptance of Hal's confederates, and had eventually in the course of his adventures become the godlike being Ion, power he had used to revive the deceased Guardians and begin the framework of a brand new Corps. True, he'd still suffered setbacks and tragedy: his girlfriend Jade, a Green Lantern herself, had ultimately left him, and Major Force, the monstrous villain who had murdered his girlfriend, seemed to repeat himself by murdering Kyle's mother and stuffing her head in Kyle's oven (it was thankfully revealed to be a mannequin's head). And then Hal Jordan had returned from death and dishonor, and it seemed that Kyle would be forced into redundancy. When he'd first started out, he probably would have welcomed that chance.

Not now though. He was a hero. He had proven it and it was a role he was not willing to give up. And so he had gone into space, gotten involved in the chaos of the Rann/Thanagar war with several of his companions…and then, as Donna Troy had arrived with her handpicked superheroes to play her part in this Crisis, lent her his power once more.

And again, the cost and sacrifice had come about. One of the heroes that Donna Troy had brought was Jade, Kyle's ex-girlfriend. Jade, the daughter of Alan Scott, the very first Green Lantern, was a Lantern herself, but she did not wield a power ring: her power had been natural at birth. During their time together, her power had faded…until Kyle, during the brief time he was Ion, had give her some of his own to restore it, empowering her as a Green Lantern again.

And it had not saved her, as she had been gravely wounded in the chaos surrounding the Crisis by an electromagnetic energy wave, dying in Kyle's arms.

But before she had, she had given him back the power he gave to her once, and Kyle had transformed once more. More then a Green Lantern: he was Ion again, the brightest light in the universe.

And he'd seen too much damn darkness. Too much helplessness.

Even in Donna Troy.

He'd been standing near where when she had seen the hands gripping the Earths, as he tried to finish rounding everyone up for an idea he had. He had been the one asking her whom she meant when she spoke…

"They're going to die…"

Superman. Wonder Woman. The paragons that he'd try so hard to emulate.

The actions playing out before him were going to result in their deaths.

LIKE HELL.

"No Donna. They're not." Ion said, as he took off into the air (well the vacuum, he WAS in space), a radiant green aura suffusing his form as he zapped towards the gigantic hands. "They're NOT."

---

Earth-1. The Arctic. The war.

Prometheus' charged nightstick could shatter steel, but Nightwing's Escrima sticks were made of a special supposedly unbreakable polymer. Just how unbreakable they were was yet to be known, as Prometheus barely missed his swing over Nightwing's head, as Nightwing balanced and swung both legs out, knocking Prometheus off his feet. The tech-genius landed on a hand though, and flipped back up, even as Nightwing did likewise. Rapidly spinning his weapon, Prometheus charged in again, as Nightwing ducked, dodged and blocked when he couldn't, feeling his arms vibrate every time Prometheus' weapon connected with his.

"Oh come on! Everyone talks about you Batboy! But I ain't seeing ANYTHING!" Prometheus said as he did a combination with his weapon and kicks, one kick catching Dick in the shoulder and knocking him back a bit. Prometheus charged in, swinging down, but Nightwing zipped away and inside Prometheus' range, as he planted one leg on Prometheus' knee and sprang up, slamming his other foot into Prometheus' helmet as he simultaneously flipped backwards. The 'Anti-Batman' staggered, but only a little.

Nightwing snapped out more Nightarangs and sent them flying, but once again Prometheus brought up his nightstick and smashed them out of the air. He grinned.

"You're just like him. A one trick pony. I'm going to turn you into glue." Prometheus said, as he leapt and swung. Nightwing dodged, Prometheus' nightstick carving into the ground, as Nightwing leapt back in with a punch.

Prometheus' arms seized his.

"Did I mention I added Judo-Master's techniques just now?" Prometheus said as he hurled Dick over him and onto the ground, hard. Prometheus leapt and stomped for Dick's head, but Nightwing was already springing up, as he fired off more Nightarangs. Prometheus, once again, smashed them out of the air.

"Quit running, Batboy! I'm not ready to break your knees yet!" Prometheus yelled as he went after Nightwing, who readied his Escrima sticks again.

Prometheus swung, and Nightwing blocked and whirled, slashing out a leg, but Prometheus ducked and blocked, trying for Nightwing's ankle again, as Dick spun away, flipped, and then leapt out of the way as Prometheus charged past him, his nightstick slamming into a tower of ice and sending shards of it flying, as Nightwing flipped away…and slipped. Damn icy ground, doubly damned for by the time Nightwing recovered Prometheus was on him again, doing wide thrusting and sweeping attacks towards Nightwing's midsection. Nightwing dodged and blocked, trying to keep his footing on the icy ground.

Which gave him ideas, as he lunged away and swept with his foot, throwing some snow into Prometheus' face. As Prometheus yelled in surprise, Nightwing tried to get him with Nightarangs for the forth time. For the forth time, Prometheus broke them all in mid-air.

"Ok, I now decree you can't do-HEY!" Prometheus said as Nightwing leapt in, rapidly swinging his Escrima sticks. Prometheus growled and blocked, but Nightwing's fighting style was quicker then his own and occasionally a blow landed on his chest and shoulders. Getting frustrated, Prometheus leapt back and aimed his gauntlet, and it fired, bullets shooting from the weapon, but Nightwing did a high leap over it and over Prometheus, landing…

And slipping again. Damn ice!

"Hey Ice Capades! Stop with the figure skating!"

The nightstick crashed down where Nightwing had just been, as he flipped away, slowed down by his need to be careful, as he found his back to the ice tower he'd seen earlier.

"So this is how Batman taught you: run away until your opponent decides you're not worth it! Well, I THINK YOU ARE!" Prometheus yelled, as he leapt at Nightwing. Nightwing jerked his head to the side as the charged nightstick shattered the ice again, and then he rolled, thrusting straight up and ramming both his feet into the still-coming-down Prometheus. Prometheus yelled in anger as he rolled with the blow himself, as Nightwing spun away, getting his sticks ready again as he glanced behind himself to check for ice…

Which gave Prometheus time to dart around to the other side of the ice tower. Nightwing blinked.

"Thanks for the idea BATBOY!" Prometheus yelled as he slammed his charged nightstick into the other end of the ice tower, this time purposely.

Causing ice on the other end to come shooting out like a bullet, and Nightwing yelled as they slashed across his body: they hadn't hit his eyes or anything but it still hurt like hell…

And that was just the warmup, as Prometheus leapt and smashed his nightstick into the top of the tower again, as the shattered lower section completely broke and tumbled towards Nightwing, who leapt away…

And slipped so badly he nearly fell on his face. This couldn't be coincidence, he hadn't had anywhere near this level of trouble before on the ice. Prometheus must have chosen it specially, showing his intelligence, as the ice tower crashed down…

And Prometheus leapt from the icy dust cloud that emerged, his nightstick a whirling blur, as Nightwing got up and stepped back, raising his sticks…

As Prometheus slammed his nightstick into the ground, causing ice to explode up and pelt Nightwing again, as he recoiled, covering his ices…

As Prometheus leapt again, catching Dick across the head with a kick and sending him sprawling to the ground. His ears ringing, Nightwing flipped back up, dodged away as Prometheus blasted bullets from his gauntlet again, and sprang in with his own kick…

Prometheus grabbed Dick's ankle and twisted, yanking Dick into the ground as he swung his nightstick up again and stabbed it at Dick's chest.

Nightwing got his Escrima sticks together at the precise point needed, as the weapon slammed into where they crossed as an X, as Nightwing kicked Prometheus in the ankle and then in the knee, shoving the nightstick aside into the ground as Nightwing whirled up and kicked Prometheus in the back of the head. The doppelganger grunted, but he wasn't stunned enough, as he spun and lashed his nightstick at Nightwing again. The crackling energy barely grazed Dick's chest, but it still made him feel like he'd been kicked by a mule, throwing him backwards. He landed on his back, flipped, and came to rest on his knees, gripping his ribs.

"Already feeling the effects?" Prometheus said. "Oh, there's a lot more coming Batboy. Because it's clear, just like your mentor, you can't keep up."

Nightwing answered with one final flurry of Nightarangs.

Prometheus almost seemed bored as he smashed them all, one final time. Nightwing's eyes narrowed, as Prometheus smirked and giggled in rapt anticipation.

"Hmmph. I'll give you one thing Prometheus. Your first near-victory as a villain was no fluke…but I also know why it was a near one and not one in and of itself."

"Oh? Enlighten me."

"You're clearly intelligent…but even the best brains can't think of all the questions needed to ask. Here are two. One, do you really think that, with as much skill as you showed, Batman wouldn't tell me that one day I could become your target? And two…do you really think Batarangs shatter so easily?"

Prometheus stood there. Why was he saying that his weapons shouldn't have been so…

It came to Prometheus, as he looked down on himself…at where the specks of shrapnel were still buried into his suit, armor, and helmet, shrapnel that clearly wasn't shrapnel at all: the Nightarangs had been specifically chosen to break and dig into him so…

Nightwing pressed the faint button on the thumb of his glove.

The electricity erupted through the madman, each tiny speck really a miniature taser, ripping through his suit and helmet's electronics, wracking his body, as he hunched and bellowed, trying to fight off the power, refusing to go down…

Nightwing figured he would, as he snatched up his combat sticks and hurled them at Prometheus' head.

Prometheus saw them coming…and dodged at the last second, despite the deliberating power surge, the sticks flying past him.

"Hah! Stupid kid! You missed!"

"Really?" Nightwing said.

As the sticks struck the piece of ice behind Prometheus, ricocheted off of it at an angle onto another piece of ice, and then deflected off it at a precise angle, maximum momentum maintained the whole way, as both slammed into the side of Prometheus' head, smashing half his helmet to bits as he pitched to the ground.

The sticks, having finally hit their target, had bounced off into the air again…and into Nightwing's hands.

"I'm not Roy, but I'm not bad." Nightwing said to his fallen foe. "That's the problem of starting at the top Prometheus. Nowhere to go but down."

And Nightwing turned and ran, taking advantage of the minimal OMAC presence: he had to get back to the front lines.

---

Slade Wilson. Deathstroke the Terminator.

Many men and women claimed to be the greatest assassin on the planet. Deathstroke was one of the few Noel knew who could live up to his own hype.

He'd been on the receiving end of it. Him and all his friends and allies. The Titans vs Slade. A battle for the ages.

Last round.

"I must say Collins, I am surprised." Slade said, as he crossed his arm, his casual pose hiding an alertness and skill that radiated off him like a star: he could have unnerved Bruce Lee. "Drake I could see charging in pell-mell. Maybe the aliens, possibly the would-be comedian…but you? Who prided yourself so much on having a hold over strategy? Where does it say, in your many readings, to commit suicide?"

"Heh. You're right Slade. Sun Tzu may have said the equivalent of "You need not fear your enemy if you know him and yourself'…but the old bastard never met anyone like you."

"So then. You come not in wisdom, but in anger? Hate? Do you want revenge?"

"We all have something to take out of your hide Slade. I'm just one of many." Savior said, as he started slowly walking around the top of the ice tower, as Slade mirrored him.

"Yet you think you can do it by yourself. Ah Collins. I thought better of you." Slade said. "You were always your own biggest fan you know. No greater is your skill then in your own mind. But I'm afraid reality will paint a much harsher picture. You're less like your father then I said: he never would have ever considered such an idiotic tact you have chosen to take."

"My father would never be here. And neither should you. Why are you Slade?" Savior asked. "You're clearly not affected by whatever is motivating most of the villains down there. Maybe it's a side effect of your greatly developed brain, or maybe a safeguard you took in advance, or maybe it's just because nobody controls Slade Wilson. Even if you were warped here against your will, you had no reason to stay around and watch. Yet here you are. You didn't even move when I headed for you. So Slade, I ask you in turn: why have you chosen the choice you made?"

"You first Collins. Mine should seem obvious."

"Oh you know why Slade."

"Do you actually think the fact that you are ready and eager to fight me this time will change what happened the last time we sparred? Child, like you, I wasn't even trying. Even your sorceress calumniator couldn't keep me down."

"Yes, and you certainly bounced back in a big way didn't you? The elite of the Society, the villain among villains…" Savior said, spitting out the words like they were poisonous. "You murdered a CITY, Slade. Your status needed nothing more, certainly nothing like that! You committed GENOCIDE, Slade. How could I not come up here? Such a thing is beyond any absolution."

"Oh, you Titans speak of cost, as if you are the only ones to bear it! Do you think our years have passed me by without effect?" Slade retorted, his forever calm, even tone making his words even more dangerous. "You Titans cost me everything. My children, my reputation, my pride…"

"Now who's proving unworthy of their own acumen Slade? You think we enjoyed our feud with you? Quite frankly, if you'd just gone away after our first skirmish we would have been much happier. No. You stayed. You persisted. YOU, Slade." Savior replied. "YOUR choices cost you your children. Your underestimation of us and the losses it led to cost you your reputation. And as for your pride? Sheh. You could fight a hundred generations of Titans, and you wouldn't run out of pride."

Slade chuckled darkly.

"You were always skilled with your words, Collins. That, I will give you." Slade said, as he stopped moving. Savior did as well. "Leave. This is the sole time I will make this offer, in recognition to the little of you I respect. Rejoin your allies. Pay me no mind. Go save the world and get its accolades, instead of dying at the hands of your superior many times over."

"Oh believe me Slade, I wish I could accept. But I'm afraid you misjudged my apparent misjudgment. Even the best make mistakes. I know." Savior said. "I thought at first even you may be a pawn in the Society, just another piece of Alexander's master plan. He was, after all, a genius, perhaps he could even fool you. But then I thought…of another possibility." Savior said. "Maybe you knew something wasn't right. Maybe you went along with it anyway. But why would Slade Wilson let himself be manipulated? Maybe he isn't as bright as I thought. After all, you saw what happened with Rose."

Slade tensed, ever so slightly, hardly visible at all. Savior saw it, and gave himself a mental back pat: he'd slipped under Slade's skin, briefly. But that back pat was followed by a reminder it may be the only thing he succeeded in in this fight.

"But then another thought occurred to me…perhaps you're smarter then us all? Because who wins in battles such as this? Usually…the one who comes to pick up the pieces." Savior said. "Lex Luthor isn't who he is. Black Adam has become yet another pawn. They are thus rendered moot. When this whole thing explodes, I believe Talia and the Calculator, believing it to be more trouble then it's worth, will slink back into the shadows rather then be dragged down in the chaos. And Dr. Psycho…well, his name is apt. Any attempt he makes to seize the whole thing will end swiftly and badly for him. But you…you could just slip away. Wait. Gather up the wreckage and rebuild as you bide your time. And strike when the heroes try and rest. Who better to lead a Society then you, Slade? And you could. What you could do with it…could make Bludhaven look small. And such a possibility would mean great danger for my friends and I. No. I can't allow it."

Savior slowly clenched his fists.

"I came here alone because my allies need each other more then they need me. So I will fight this alone. Perhaps it is a bad choice. But sometimes, choices have to be made from the heart."

"Henh. I thought such nonsense was below you Collins. You sound like a self-help book." Slade said. "…You will die. I will give you no quarter. There is no chance you can win."

"You know, I knew this guy once. He said it best." Savior said, as he set himself into a combat stance. "I don't have to win. I just have to make sure YOU lose."

The shotgun was in Slade's hands, drawn from a back sheath, almost before Savior registered it.

"Easier said then done." Slade said, and fired.

Savior dodged to the side, the pellets tearing into the ice where he had been, and ran, as Slade re-aimed and fired once more, and again, and again, switching up his shots, leading and faking out, and showing a mastery that even Noel had to respect in his insane running dance.

But Savior had taught himself well in the time he had. Maybe nowhere near as well as Slade…but perhaps just well enough, as the shots missed and glanced him, the stray pellets bouncing off his jacket, as he jumped and dodged across the top of the ice tower.

And then Slade's finger closed on the trigger, and all that emerged was a dry clicking sound.

Savior stopped, several feet from Slade, looking at the master warrior, still in his firing stance, as he shot out a Shimmer strand and grabbed the shotgun.

"Not a single hit. Does that mean I've just gotten better or have you forgotten how to count your shots as effectively?"

"Neither." Slade replied.

The gun exploded, the final shot slamming into Savior at point-blank range and hurling him backwards, his Shimmer slipping off the shotgun as Savior hit the ice and slid across it, heading straight for the edge…

And slamming his hand down, throwing up a spray of icy chips as he stopped, groaning through his teeth as he curled into a near fetal position and retched. His chest SHOULD have resembled hamburger, which made the fact that the armor had taken most of the blast was quite impressive, but Noel didn't feel impressed, as he agonized for another moment, his chest on fire, unable to breath.

"I just have my weapon modified so that the second to last chamber can be empty." Slade said, as he calmly reloaded.

Savior pulled himself up partway, coughing violently, blood flecked in his saliva, as he glared murder at Slade.

"You made your choice Collins. Bludhaven was a heed to Nightwing on the imprudence of crossing me. Your fellow Titans are long overdue for such a thing as well. You will serve." Slade, as he finished reloading and snapped his gun back into a firing position. "But then again, isn't that what you wanted once? To be a martyr to their cause? Let it never be said I am incapable of mercy."

Savior was on his feet and charging even as the last words left Slade's mouth.

Slade's lone eye narrowed, and his shotgun blazed fire.

---

Sinestro.

He had been one of the greatest of them, a fearless warrior, and a truly skilled Green Lantern. He had even trained Hal Jordan, whose legend would grow to be known across the universe. But in the end, it seemed he lacked a fundamental aspect of his character. Kyra's father had always told her to be careful of men on white horses, because they often confused what was right and needed with what they thought was right and needed (her father among them). Sinestro had done so, enslaving his own planet to ensure order among it. Like warriors before him, he had become a dictator, but unlike most dictators upon being stripped of his power (in this case his power ring) he did not vanish or die for his crimes. Instead, he continued his descent, finding a new ring, and embarking on a life where he lost all his remaining nobility, becoming a bloodthirsty fiend who murdered and destroyed without care.

His name was still spoken of with hushed caution in Kyra's days.

But to be a Green Lantern was to confront fear and overcome it. Otherwise, said fear would get you killed.

And even if it didn't, Sinestro would, as the two battled in mid air, Kyra's power ring against Sinestro's Qwardian copy, the two firing beams of green and yellow force that clashed with each other. But while Kyra had both arms up, her other hand gripping the wrist of her ring hand while sweat ran down her face, Sinestro was just using one arm, floating with it sticking out almost casually, slight concentration in his eyes but nowhere near Kyra's level: it was mixed in with disgust and dismay, as if the whole thing was a waste of his time.

At least Kyra had one thing going for her: her ring could work against yellow objects, a weakness the Corps had long possessed without explanation, an explanation eventually found in the truth of Hal Jordan's descent due to the influence of the fear entity Parallax. But the fact that her beam didn't instantly disintegrate against Sinestro's didn't change the fact that she was throwing everything she had behind it and Sinestro wasn't budging an inch…

But she was, as Sinestro shoved his hand forward a bit and her blast was finally overcome, slamming into her and sending her flying across the sky with a scream. More pain slammed through her body, but Kyra had been taught by her dad to handle pain, she could handle this…here he came, a being who had murdered entire star systems, how could she possibly…

No, she couldn't let fear overcome her! If she did, she'd have lost in all ways, and she'd have failed John Stewart. His ring had picked her out of anyone on Earth, she had to live up to that honor!

And so she did, as she formed another massive suit of mech armor and opened fire, sending off a devastating green energy beam even as she added dozens of green missiles.

Sinestro sneered.

"Child's toys." He said, as he formed a shield before him and flew right into the missiles, shrugging them off, as Kyra directed the beam at him, the two forces clashing again, before Sinestro pushed through her attack and rammed into Kyra's suit, shattering it and sending her into freefall.

Before Sinestro reached down and grabbed her, but that was far from a mercy as he immediately punched her across the face.

"This is who they let into the Corps these days?" Sinestro almost sniffed, and kneed Kyra in the gut, before elbowing her in the head. "I remember back when they actually had some standards. That ring is unworthy of you. Give it here, so I can actually clash with a foe worth killing." Sinestro said, as he grabbed Kyra's hand and tried to yank her ring off.

She resisted, that he expected, but there was no ring trick he couldn't counter instantly…

But that wasn't the tact Kyra used, as she reared up and sank her teeth into Sinestro's hand: the arrogant villain hadn't bothered to shield it.

"ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!" Sinestro yelled, as he snatched his hand away. Kyra wrenched herself from his grip and spat a few scraps of skin into his face.

"ANIMAL!" Sinestro roared, as he punched Kyra into the ground, her impact leaving a small crater, as he formed a giant blade and plunged down towards Kyra.

Kyra leapt out of the way, and as Sinestro's blade slammed into the ground she thrust her arm out, the ring shooting out energy and forming a giant…soup can…and a giant…can opener, which opened up the can, and as Sinestro looked up, dumped the 'soup' out onto him.

Except this 'soup' had the temperature of molten lava. Sinestro yelled and then yellow energy exploded around him, blasting the liquid construct away.

"Says you." Kyra said, as her green power regathered and reformed into…a giant mass of rabbits.

"What in the name of…!" Sinestro said, and then the rabbits swarmed him, biting him, and they had FANGS, they were VAMPIRE rabbits, they were all over him…

"ARGH!" Sinestro bellowed again, as his yellow power once more dispelled Kyra's constructs. He was hardly hurt, but he didn't think he'd have been hurt at all, as he lanced out and slamming a massive yellow hand towards Kyra, the fist shattering Kyra's shield and sending her flying backwards, before the hand seized her and slammed her into the ground, then hurled her through a cliff of ice.

"It's only begun child." Sinestro promised, as he pursued with a vengeance Fatality wished she could have mustered.

---

Dr. Light.

At least Deathstroke the Terminator and Sinestro had some respectable aspects mixed in with their villainy. Light had nothing. He had been a small man who had lucked into great power and used it for his selfish needs and violent base desires ever since. He was a thug, a murderer, a rapist, and a child killer, who tried to fight the Teen Titans because he thought they'd be easier targets. His lifetime of hedonism had rewarded him with countless defeats, mostly due to his sickness driving heroes into a rage so great they had willingly lobotomized him, partially sealing his abilities and danger level.

But the memory wipe had been undone. And Light had been reborn, full of righteous rage on top of his violent predilections. The worst kind of villain. One who would need to be put down hard, lest he let his sick dreams combine with his great power and wreck unbelievable havoc.

Mary only knew a fraction of this, but it was enough: the bastard tried to shoot her when she wasn't looking. She'd teach him how to wreck havoc.

Once the darkness had scared Light. That fear was gone. He could cast away any darkness. He'd start with her. She'd be a good way to decide how to hurt the witch when he finally got back to her.

And so he just watched as she ran at his platform, slashing through any OMAC's that got in her way, as she leapt onto a piece of ice, slashed down another OMAC, leapt and bounced off another OMAC, flipped, and hit the side of the ice tower (not as tall as the one Slade was on, but still pretty damn tall), as she ran straight up the side, weapons out.

OMAC's followed her up, even as more came from above her. She slashed them even as she kept running straight up the wall, heading for Light.

He gave a vicious chuckle.

"I always did believe in giving a lady what she clearly needed." Light said.

And he leapt, doing a backwards flip as blades of deadly golden light appeared on his hand, and he fell, plummeting down towards Mary.

The OMAC's retreated, as per their orders, leaving Mary and Light a clear path as she kept running up the side of the tower and he fell to meet her.

It looked like they were going to miss, and then Mary took a few last steps and leapt up, as Light flew down.

Glaive and laser light blades slammed together.

The eruption of power was so strong it shattered the ice tower, cracking it in half, and as it tumbled over, even as it broke apart, Light landed on the ground, having used his powers to lessen his body weight. Light, after all, weighed next to nothing, and Arthur Light was the master of light.

As he showed, as he next used its speed, as his form blurred away from where he was standing, as Mary crashed down where Light had been, her glaive and daggertails throwing up massive swords of ice from the impact, as she growled and pulled her weapons free, as Light turned around, grinning, as the OMAC's swarmed around them.

"Be gone robots." Light said. "This girl is mine."

The radiant eruption that came from Light's hand nearly blinded Mary and sent pain shooting through her body, even as it scrambled all the OMAC's around Light, as they fell by the hundreds, their systems overloaded and shut down by Light's carefully controlled light blast.

He lowered said hand, rolling his fingers, as Mary leaned over, hissing at him as smoke wafted from her body.

"Come on bitch. Surely you're not done already." Light taunted.

Mary screamed and charged, slashing at Dr. Light with her daggertails.

Light blurred away, zapping about fifteen feet from where he had been (he could only utilize the speed of light for very short distances, but that was enough). Mary immediately changed direction and sprinted after him, but Light just warped away from her again. This time, Mary leapt, spun in the air, and fired twin blasts of darkness at Light. A dome of white power appeared over Light, blocking the shot, and then refocused and fired outward from his hands, enveloping Mary with another scream. She collapsed, her body clearly writhing in several areas, like her skin and clothes had a life of their own.

"Look at you. Cowering. Seeing that darkness is nothing before the Light."

Mary looked up, her teeth flashing fangs.

"YOU'RE NOTHING!" Mary shrieked, and a blast of dark power obliterated where Light had just been standing…except he'd zapped away again. He held out a hand and fired a spray of lightning-quick shots, which slammed into Mary and caused her to collapse again.

"And you're blind. You can't see the Light."

Mary sank into the ground, vanishing.

Dr. Light's eyes gazed around.

A massive surge of dark power erupted from behind him, washing over him, completely consuming his form, as it pressed down, trying to obliterate him.

And then beams of light began pouring out from beneath the blackness, and then it exploded away, Light revealed once more, his hands above him as he laughed, as a mass of shadow flew to the ground and transformed back into Mary, as she gasped.

"You are providing me no amusement. I guess I'll have to make it myself." Dr. Light said, and suddenly he zapped up into the air, doing another 'light-jump' in a vertical direction rather then a horizontal one, as he laughed and fired another spray of shots. Mary leapt away to dodge them, but Light just zapped to the side, still in mid-air, and fired another flurry, those ones exploding against Mary's back with a cry. Light 'light-jumped' to the side again, firing another spray as Mary frantically leapt out of the way, as she formed a spear of darkness and hurled it at Light, but he just light-jumped to the side again and fired another barrage, forcing Mary to retreat, and then once more as Mary ran for her life, before gravity finally reclaimed Light and he came back down to the ground, still laughing, as Mary leapt into the air.

A sphere of darkness appeared around her, and the light shots pierced through it…and flew on, as Mary, having sacrificed some pain to avoid the brunt of the shots, reformed…right above Light.

"You want to dance so bad?" Mary said, and thrust her hands down. Light reflexively threw his hands up to form a shield…which blocked his viewpoint and kept him from seeing that Mary's hands had plunged into a shadowy warp.

As warps opened up around Light, and he was bombarded by a spray of shots firing from each one in turn, the attacks slamming into him before he could re-focus his defense, finally drawing a scream of pain from him, as Mary grinned wildly from where she floated above him…

Too long.

"PERISH WENCH!" Light roared, and threw up one hand as massive columns of destructive light erupted around him, catching Mary and blowing her away with a howl of agony.

Light dispersed his upwards blast and headed after Mary. He'd been having fun until she hurt him. Now he'd hurt her. Much worse.

---

Killer Frost.

Well, she really wasn't important enough to be very well known…except she had frozen Metatron solid.

Yin could only stare in horror. Killer Frost had turned Metatron into an ice statue. He'd be dead in ten seconds, maybe less. But what…

"Adam!" Came a yell, and then Ragnarok dropped down from a rock he had been floating on. "Glomp! HANG ON!" Ragnarok said, as he put his hands on the Metatron statue and activated the Fire Catalyst.

"Hey! I didn't manage just the right pose for-ARGH!" Killer Frost yelled as Yin surged up and slammed into her: if he couldn't help Metatron he'd keep his attacker away from him, as he punched at the ice controller (glaciokinetic?).

Ragnarok had vaporized the ice in under two seconds, but the four or five that Metatron had been frozen had been more then enough, as he collapsed onto Ragnarok's arms, his skin a pale blue and his body shaking so violently it felt like it was going to break apart, as Ragnarok lowered him down to the ground.

"Hang on Adam, I'll warm…"

Metatron grabbed Ragnarok by the front of his shirt.

"Too s-s-slow! S-set me on fire!"

"What?"

"SET ME ON FIRE OR I'LL DIE!"

"…All right." Ragnarok said, as he subtly adjusted his Catalyst command. "…But."

"I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!"

So Ragnarok did just that.

"ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Metatron screamed as he burned…even as his body sucked the flames into it, the agony saving his cells from breakdown.

His scream was mirrored by Yin, as Killer Frost blasted him away and into the ground, freezing him there. He struggled to get free, the cold sinking into his rubbery body, as Killer Frost turned back to her previous targets.

Ragnarok heard her coming, as he turned away from the smoking, still twitching Metatron.

"Hey! Damn it, you wrecked my work! You're an absolute zero!" Killer Frost yelled, as she slashed out her hand and sent a deadly spray of razor sharp icicles at the two.

Ragnarok's eyes narrowed.

"Ah, snappy banter. I outgrew that nonsense years ago." Ragnarok said, as dark power zapped from the Dark Catalyst to his right hand and he waved his arm. A surge of darkness sprang out from Ragnarok, and the icicles abruptly reversed direction and flew back at Killer Frost, who yelped and dodged to the side, having to form another abrupt ice platform to avoid a deadly fall. She got up from it, eyes blazing with anger, as Ragnarok lowered that arm and raised the other, as the Fire Catalyst began to glow on it.

Killer Frost didn't know exactly what it was, but she had enough brains to guess thar a red glow meant it was heat…as she grinned. The idiot. They always assumed that since she used ice she was vulnerable to heat: her powers came from her SUCKING IN HEAT, leaving only cold: all he'd do is give her a charge…

Until a jolt of dark power flew from the orb in the center of his chest and into the glowing red orb.

Killer Frost's eyes widened. What…

"The melting point of ice is 32 degrees Fahrenheit." Ragnarok said. "THIS IS ROUGHLY 900 TIMES THAT!"

And Ragnarok fired out an intense blast of fire tinged with black, a blast that enveloped Killer Frost, heat she found she couldn't absorb, as she screamed in utter agony.

Her blackened body hit the ground with a dull thud, not dead but not happy either.

"Also, I do my research. Louise." Ragnarok said, and turned back to Metatron.

And found, much to his surprise, that the demon was getting back up.

"Adam? Wait a moment, let me at least…"

"Collin…move. Or I'll MOVE YOU." Metatron hissed: now that he was no longer frozen or dying, the second time he'd nearly died in the last half hour, he was PISSED: quite literally as mad as hell.

"But Adam…!"

"RAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Metatron snarled, as he charged: Ragnarok quickly got out of the way as Metatron ran on, heading straight for Gemini. Ragnarok blinked, and then spied Yin, still stuck to the ground. Right, he'd get him free next…

Hex crashed into the rock and collapsed to her knees, her vision blurring. This looked like the end. Figured: she couldn't even die in her rotten to the core world, she had to bite it in some world where she didn't exist and probably wouldn't even be remembered…

"Now…" Gemini hissed as she transformed her head into the fanged hood of a cobra…

For the second before the golden blast hit her. She recoiled and screamed, twisting towards the blast as her head and face flowed back into her normal look.

"Oh, you do remember!" Metatron said, as he sprinted towards the shapeshifter.

"You! Here's something I owe you!" Gemini yelled, as she grew and elongated her hands, turning them into deadly metal claws as she thrust them down at Metatron to tear him to shreds.

Metatron didn't dodge: instead he ran right towards their impact point…and leapt at the last second, avoiding the claws as he landed on Gemini's arms and ran up them, heading for her torso and head, as her eyes narrowed.

"Just DIE!" Gemini yelled, as her jaw elongated and her tongue surged out, forming into a needle point as it lanced at Metatron.

He grabbed it, seizing the rubber-like weapon as he finished running up the arms and found himself face to enlarged face with Gemini, the shocked morpher's eyes going wide, as he, still holding her tongue with one hand, brought up his other one.

"You can stretch, right?" Metatron said. "Good. Then I can do this."

And he literally rammed his hand into her mouth and down her throat.

Gemini's eyes bulged…

And then Metatron activated his heat surge.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gemini wailed, her body and features blurring into a chaotic mix of form as she agonized over what Metatron had done, burning her from the inside, as she thrashed like she was having an epileptic fit, a fit that hurled Metatron through the air away from her. He landed fairly well, but still lost his balance and did a few minor tumbles before coming to a stop.

"Ok, didn't quite think that through all the way." Metatron commented.

Still wailing, Gemini shrank back down to her normal size, smoke pouring from her mouth as she gagged and choked, her groans mixed with curses, her eyes watering as she tried to recover…

She saw a flash of pink, and she turned…

Hex leapt, spinning, one foot slamming into Gemini's chest and the other slamming into her face, sending the shapeshifter staggering back, even as Hex flipped away, but the fresh blows seemed to have helped snap Gemini back into battle mode…

As an elongated arm ending in a fist flew at her.

Gemini caught it.

"You third-rate stretcher! You actually though a simple punch could hurt me!" She yelled at Yin, who was free and had thrown the punch.

"That would be your luck." Hex said, and fired a blast. None of her hex shots had had any effect before, but none of them had the right scenario.

As it struck Gemini, even as Yin tried to get his arm free…which he did, the arm slipping from Gemini's grasp…

As Yin grabbed his outstretched arm with his other hand and yanked on it as hard as he could, twanging it like a guitar string, as the waving motion traveled down his limb and ended at his fist…

And turned his sole stopped punch into a flurry of them that slammed into Gemini's face and chest. She staggered back again…

And then Yin fired out his other arm.

The punch slammed Gemini off her feet and into a 270 degree spin, where she landed with a crash and didn't move again.

"They haven't failed me yet." Yin replied, as he withdrew his arms. "And a thank you to Luffy. That's a great trick."

"You're just lucky I warmed you up enough to do it." Ragnarok said, as Hex limped over to him. "Here Llarenes, I got that."

Metatron landed nearby, startling the three.

"We seem to be free of OMAC attacks for the moment." Metatron said. "Since none of us is really a leader, I say we go looking for trouble."

"Hang on Adam." Ragnarok said, as he finished healing Hex's minor but extensive injuries. "We can't just leave the rock. Not just because you and Yin are vulnerable out there. We also have to look after the people who were in the OMAC's. BUT…I have a compromise." Ragnarok said. "Looks like our allies have done their fair share of damage. Go out there and grab as many as you can. I'm going to stay here and make sure that any OMAC's who come back can't just pick up their fallen brethren."

"How?" Hex asked.

"I have a plan. Just go! And remember, don't trouble trouble unless trouble troubles you."

"The only trouble I expect is trying to figure out that sentence." Metatron said, as he ran off, leaping off the rock and heading for the nearest people. Yin and Hex did likewise.

Ragnarok took a deep breath. He hadn't mentioned the strange tingling he was feeling in his chest and arms, but then again, he'd never used so many Catalysts for so long a period before. Probably just some minor side effects, and not worth mentioning to his fellows. He had to erect a defense, as he raised one arm, the Golden Catalyst shining…

As dark power surged forth from the center Catalyst and outward from Ragnarok, as he formed a dark dome over the whole rock. There. Any OMAC's that shot at the dome would just feed their power into the Dark Catalyst, and any that tried to go through the energy would find themselves short circuiting, while his allies could pass through it without effect. True, he probably couldn't hold it all day…but he could hold it long enough.

He could probably add to the rock as well, and got the Earth and Fire Catalysts working on that.

He ignored the weird tingling. It was probably nothing.

He had a job to do.

---

The unnatural.

Most people passed their whole lives without even getting a glimpse of it, without ever being aware of it. Raven remembered hearing the whispers of what had almost happened just after the first Crisis, where a maniacal South America cult called the Brujeria had attempted to call a 'primordial shadow' to destroy Heaven itself, an act that would have had catastrophic consequences in the mystical realms to say Earth itself. The battle to stop this evil power had claimed the lives of Sargon the Sorcerer and Giovanni Zatara, Zatanna's father, and had only been stopped by the intervention of, of all beings, the Swamp Thing.

And only those in the realms of magic and those they spoke to knew how close it had been. The rest of the world went on, blissfully unaware of how close they had come to their doom, so soon after escaping the mad dreams of the Anti-Monitor.

It had always been that way. Some saw, and most did not.

Raven had almost always seen, from the moment of her birth. She had natural gifts in such things, not to mention years of study and training. She could easily tell a phony medium from a true channeler of the dead, and while slight of hand could impress her she would always know it was something up the sleeve rather then true magic. In the realm of the unnatural, her viewpoint carried considerable weight.

So when she sensed herself in the presence of something that should not be, well, chances are she knew what she was talking about, as she stared at the portal of black…very much like the one Kyra had come from…

But…just because something should not be…does not mean it is always bad…

As she emerged, in robes of white.

For a moment Raven experienced a truly rare moment: she couldn't believe her eyes. She'd looked upon the horrendous bastard spawn of hell, seen the greatest atrocities of human and inhuman beings alike, watched reality shift and melt beneath her eyes like it was cheap clay rather then the fabric of existence she walked and lived on, and though these experiences had brought up within her many emotions (suppressed at first and felt later), very rarely did she look on something with the expression that she simply could not be seeing what she was seeing, that it had to be wrong.

Her mouth opened slightly, the closest thing to a dropped jaw that she had, as her eyes went as wide as they could. It couldn't be…

"…Mother?" Raven whispered.

"Raven." Arella said.

And Raven didn't think she could tumble any further down this rabbit hole. It was her mother. Her deceased mother, in her room…and her face wasn't a mask of solemnity, an expression eternally carved into stone as Raven remembered. She knew why it had been that way. Because of her curse, her birthright. In those days, any emotion was bad. Any emotion shown in her presence could trigger her demon bloodline. And so everyone had had no choice but to show nothing to Raven. Not even her mother. Not because of any lack of care…but because what that care could bring.

There was still aspects of that, on Arella's face…but for the most part, now there was peace. And…joy.

She'd never seen her mother happy.

"…This…this can't be happening…" Raven said. "I must be dreaming…"

"You are not, my child. Nor are you being deceived or manipulated. What you see…is the truth." Arella said. "The manipulations that have so tormented reality…they have undo what your father did. Azarath…I…live once more."

Raven blinked. She was more dependant as a lie detector then any machine any law enforcement agency could ever invent.

And she wasn't getting the slightest blip.

"…Oh Raven…my child…" Arella said, as she reached out. "I could have never dreamed to see you like this."

That was what did it. It wasn't black magic, or a dream, or an enemy trying to get at her in this time. It wasn't Psimon jabbing at her brain again or the glamour of an evil entity to get her to drop her guard. It was really…truly, her mother.

Raven never cried, even after the demise of her father. It just wasn't her thing.

But things weren't going as they usually did.

"…Oh…moth…" Raven sobbed, as she did what she could have never done before and fell into her arms, clutching her tight, low sobs coming from her throat, as Arella drew her daughter to her and held her, standing there.

Raven wished it could have lasted forever.

But she knew she'd probably already used up all her wishes, as she finally drew away.

"How…why…"

"It does not matter. It was done." Arella said, as she wiped away Raven's tears. "Oh, Raven. I always feared for your future…but I always held hope too. Even in the end. My hope was justified. You make me so proud, child. I always knew you would."

Raven didn't say anything. For a moment, she didn't have any words.

But when she found them…they were bitter. As happy as she was, Raven was still a realist. And even if what she was seeing was true…

"You came back because of what the…villains did? Even now?"

"Yes." Arella said.

And then a lone tear came from her eye, running down her face.

"…You can't stay, can you?" Raven said. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Many things are not supposed to happen. I never would have believed your mortal other could strike down Trigon in the way he did…but he did." Arella said, as she gave Raven an amused, mothering look. "He is not perfect. His surface is far rougher then he believes, and his heart and nobility are shot through with black…but he loves you Raven. As do your friends. They, and what you can build with them, and those you have yet to meet, are your future. I…and Azarath am the past. There is no changing that."

Arella was silent for a bit, and in that silence Raven could see why the solemn aspects had remained on her face, despite this gift of resurrection that had been visited upon her.

"We have been reborn in the chaos…but it is but a temporary thing. No matter how this ends…we will swiftly return to where we were. We cannot change this or stop it. This we knew, almost as soon as we returned. And in our knowledge, our realization…we decided that this inevitability could be better served. It is our choice. Our gift." Arella said.

She was glowing, Raven realized, a soft white light suffusing her body, spreading to Raven's own.

"Azarath has peacefully returned to their rest…and in doing so have given up the power that once again rested in their bodies before it could vanish as well. Their power is in me…even as I do likewise. When I am gone, the power will be yours Raven. To use as you see fit, in this time of great Crisis. What it did for us is far outweighed by who it has harmed, by who it still threatened. You have chosen a great life. This is our last gift to you, for your future. We know you will use it well."

"…Thank you." Raven whispered, as twin streams of sparkling liquid ran from her eyes. Arella smiled softly and gently touched her daughter's cheek.

"Remember. Our choices brought me great torment…but I knew, in the end, it would be for the best. That it would serve you to make what we were forced to deny. I was right. But remember…Raven, daughter, I always loved you. Always."

"I know…"

"I always will…my child." Arella said, as she lightly kissed Raven on the forehead.

And then she was gone, having been fading away even as she spoke her last words, leaving Raven along once more.

She kept her eyes closed, as her hands and arms, once again holding nothing, crossed over her chest. Her body released one final quiet sob.

"…Goodbye." Raven said.

As her outfit shifted, going from purple to white, as light swirled all around her.

As her eyes opened, the same brilliance reflected within.

Power.

Incredible power.

If but for a short time…and that time was now.

There were many artifacts that could have served her well.

Raven only had eyes for one, as she grabbed it and strode from her room, flipping her cloak up as she walked.

---

Even as the light joined with Raven, another brilliant light streaked towards the gigantic golden hands as they began to position Earth-2 and Earth-3, as Kyle Rayner, Ion, yelled and unleashed a cataclysmic torrent of power, so much force it could have reduced the average moon to fine powder.

It struck Alexander's hand, but it seemed to have no affect.

Alexander felt it, back at his Tower, but only in the sense of registering it. They continued to fight him over on the other side of his reality manipulation. Annoying insects buzzing in protest. Alexander's eyes narrowed.

And in space a massive wave of power erupted from his hands, as Ion flew back, retreating from it. Electromagnetic force waves, like the ones that had killed Jade, killed Jenny…

He was back where he had started.

Like Donna Troy…helpless.

---

Ion may have been feeling helpless at the moment (it wouldn't last), but Savior was feeling anything but, even as he ran at Slade, in a straight line. Suicide when you were facing an expert marksmen with a loaded shotgun: Savior's body armor couldn't keep taking direct hits, if Slade even aimed there and not somewhere else like say, Noel's head. He looked all the world like an angry child running in to try and pummel the bully who had taken his lunch money.

Savior wasn't expecting Slade to fall for it, but he was also hoping Slade wouldn't pass up such a supposedly easy shot.

And he didn't, as his shotgun blasted towards Savior.

But even as Slade's finger was tightening on the trigger, Savior was calling on the Shimmer, his amazingly versatile talent: being powerful was great but Savior often put it second to being multipurpose. It was springing out from the bottom of his boot, concentrating on one side of his foot: normally Savior would use the Shimmer like a spring and leap forward with extra punch, but in this case that was only half of it: leaping forward would just make him jump into the shot and Slade's reflexes and reading ability was far too good to try normal dodging at this range with Savior's speed and the type of ground he was on.

He needed something so abrupt Slade wouldn't be able to compensate for it.

And he did, even as the reaction began within the shotgun, Savior came down on the foot the Shimmer had emerged from at a dead heat.

The focused placement of the Shimmer was much like stepping on the edge of the world's most elastic ball, as it shoved back hard at a precise angle.

If Noel had placed the manipulation of his talent evenly over both feet, he would have sprang straight up, like he'd put Flubber on his shoes.

The way he had arranged it caused him instead to suddenly spring to the side at an angle that was almost all falling.

The blast from the gun fired past where he had been, a few of the pellets digging into Savior's jacket. He'd avoided the blast, but at a cost: like it was said, his dodge was more like an abrupt fall, where he'd hit the ground and be wide open to Slade's follow up shot.

If not for the Shimmer, again.

Lines shot from Savior's side, hitting the ground and stopping Savior in mid-fall before shoving him back up, as Savior kept going: the whole maneuver had taken less then a second and allowed him to keep up his sprint at Slade, whose eye had widened slightly as Savior closed in, as Slade tried to get the shotgun adjusted to fire again…

Savior knocked it aside with a hand thrust and followed up with a punch to Slade's face. Slade's reflexes weren't slowed in the slightest however, as he snapped his head aside, even as he grabbed his deflected shotgun by the barrel with his free hand and swung back, swinging the butt at Savior's head. Savior's own head snapped back, the tough metal and wood stock missing by only a centimeter of two, as he untangled his hands from his previous combat attempt and drove a punch into Slade's side.

Slade didn't blink, as he brought the shotgun back in one smooth, ultra-quick motion and rapped Savior on the side of the head, and as he stumbled back he had the gun back in the correct position even as he began squeezing the trigger…

Savior went with the blow, twisting and landing on his hands, using the Shimmer to balance and throw his body as he swept his leg out, kicking the shotgun aside as it roared again, its blast slamming into the ground near Savior as he whirled up again to be face to face with Slade, his guard broken, as Savior swung in to punch again.

Slade blocked with his left arm, expertly deflecting Savior's jab, as he tried to both step/slip away and get his gun back up to blast Savior at point-blank range, but Savior was back on him, yanking the gun up before Slade could fire and trying to wrest it away from him…

Slade headbutted him full force, his metal mask protecting his face but Savior having no such protection as his head snapped back, blood exploding from his nose…

As his body went with it, his hands snapping off the shotgun…and leaving white lines attached to it, as Savior fell back, the Shimmer holding him to the weapon like a winch and briefly immobilizing Slade as he couldn't move it back into firing position…

As Savior put his full weight on Shimmer strands that had shot from his back and lashed out with his legs, driving his right one full into Slade's gut, knocking the master assassin back just a bit…as he snapped his left leg up and kicked the shotgun, throwing it into the air even as the Shimmer lines connected to it snapped off and flew to the ground, digging in even as Savior did a flip from the upward leg kick, going 360 as he landed on the ground, briefly…

And then he pushed off with the Shimmer, flying up and slamming both his feet into Slade's chest, this time truly staggering him, as Savior bounced off and flipped once more, landing on his knees as his eyes filled with an intense gaze…

And he thrust out one hand, a strand of the Shimmer firing from it and going straight for Slade's head. There was less then five feet between he and his enemy, and Slade's gun was still in the air, he was defenseless…

And Savior then remembered the hard way Slade Wilson was never defenseless.

The sword had been on his back: then it was in front of him, held fast, draw and positioned too quickly for Savior to see. Positioned perfectly.

The Shimmer strand slammed into it, slicing itself in half for nearly two feet before it could stop, as the agony slammed into Savior, making his whole body go limp and numb as he fell on his hands, retching. This had been why he'd been trying to go it alone, using the Shimmer as little as he could in terms of offense, because Slade knew his weakness, knew how to exploit it, even more then Savior had realized…

He heard the cocking noise as he looked up, Slade in front of him, his shotgun having fallen back into his hands, his sword now in a makeshift sheath by his side, Savior staring down the barrel of his old weapon.

"Not bad." Slade said. "Not enough."

The gun fired.

Savior would have never said he could make a dodge like he did. But sometimes you didn't know what were you were capable of until you were literally staring down the barrel of a gun.

But Savior only managed to save his head from being splattered all over the top of the ice tower, as he jerked to the side…and screamed as the spray of pellets emerged, ripping through his shoulder armor and the skin and muscle underneath even as they ripped through the delicate tissues of his left ear, nearly blowing the whole thing off, as Savior's dodge turned into a staggering fall from the pain, his right hand slamming into the ground hard...

And rearing up as the Shimmer lanced out, pierced through the ice, carved out a head sized chunk, seized it, and even as Savior recoiled away to protect himself from a follow up shot he hurled the chunk at Slade.

Slade slashed the gun out, slamming the barrel into the chunk of ice almost as soon as it had been let go, shattering it, but it bought Savior the time he needed as he leapt a few dozen feet away, his knees nearly giving out as he landed from the pain on his upper left side, clutching the wound, feeling blood and what he swore were bits of cartilage running down his neck. The only reason he wasn't deaf in that ear was because the Shimmer had formed a last-microsecond plug: not because Savior had ordered it to but because it had instinctively been trying to protect the brain, where it 'lived' (along with the spinal column). It withdrew now, trying to clean up the mess as Savior growled through his teeth, pain burning through his arm, torso, and head.

"That's one body part Collins." Slade said, as he lowered the gun a bit. "I wonder how many I'll have to destroy before you finally give up the ghost. Personally, I think the number will be countable on one hand."

Savior spat on the ground, as the Shimmer finished tying off veins to stop the blood flow. He twisted his left shoulder: pain shot through him but the arm felt useable. Fine.

"'Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.'" Savior snapped.

"William Churchill. Quoting again Collins? How like you." Slade said. "That was always a rather dolorous and enervated aspect of you Collins. You parrot the words of wise and great men, in the thought it somehow makes you wise and great. But it doesn't Collins. Taking words from dead men's throats makes you nothing but unoriginal."

Savior's eyes narrowed.

"You want originality?" He hissed.

"It doesn't matter." Slade, and snapped his gun up and fired again.

This time Savior leapt straight up, a shield already forming in front of him, as Slade snapped the gun up and fired again, the shot tearing into the energy barrier but not breaking it, as Savior went with the kinetic impact and flipped backwards, heading back towards the tower stop.

He glanced down as he did, and blades of Shimmer energy sprang from his feet, forming into twin carefully formed edges as he landed…and slid to the side.

He'd formed skates.

And he used them, as he slashed back towards Slade. The ice of the tower top was nowhere near as smooth as it would be in a rink, but Savior's footwear was infinitely more adaptable then a normal pair of ice skates, as they took every bump and obstacle and kept Savior upright and balanced as he headed for Slade, who had watched for a second. Skates.

How droll.

His gun blazed again, exploding the ground near Savior as he zipped to the side, going around Slade, but that didn't matter, the first shot had just been a calculating one, as Slade figured out the proper leading angles in milliseconds, as he aimed and fired.

Savior's dodging move looked like he combined a torpedo lunge with a triple axel, but it worked, as the deadly blast only glanced the teenager as he landed on his hands, flipped back to his feet, and continued skating around Slade in a tight circle, as Shimmer strands began to flow out from his right arm and form something, as Slade, out of ammo, rapidly but still irritatingly began replacing shells, only taking the time to reload about three before he stopped and aimed again.

As Savior thrust out his arm.

The Shimmer fan he had formed started up, going from zero to about 200 miles an hour in a second, and an intense wind slammed into Slade, causing him to stagger, snow blowing up and stinging his eye, as Savior dispersed the fan and leapt, thrusting a bladed foot at Slade.

It met sword, as Slade switched weapons faster then the eyes could follow, his knees bending ever slightly to take the impact, as the two stood there, Savior frozen in the air.

And then he flipped off the blade, landing as he dispersed the Shimmer skates.

Slade's sword stabbed at his head: Savior dodged to the side, ducked under the following decapitating slash, and went low and swung for Slade's legs: Slade flipped backwards and came back to his feet as Savior charged in. He blocked Savior's kick with one of his own and slashed, Savior again ducking as the blade swung over Savior's head…as Slade twisted his body and lashed out in turn with his leg, slamming it across Savior's cheek, and even as the teenager staggered Slade was balanced again and bringing his sword down.

It slammed into a Shimmer arm shield, as Savior snarled in pain and thrust back, shoving Slade away as Savior tried to kick Slade in the chin. Slade blocked with his free arm, took two quick steps back, and swung his sword around him in a complicated pattern, keeping Savior from attacking him with the Shimmer, forcing him to come in close again. Slade lunged and slashed downward, as Savior darted aside and tried a haymaker…only to find Slade grabbing his arm and flipping him to the ground. Savior slammed into the ice back first, and Slade spun around and brought his sword up and down towards Savior's head.

Savior slammed his hands on it half an inch from his face, barely stopping the weapon, as he snapped a foot up and kicked Slade in the face, shoving his sword away as he spun up, growling as his hands started to bleed.

Slade came in again, slashing and stabbing, Savior barely keeping away from his master's hand, unable to even attack, forced onto a faltering defensive…

Or so Savior wanted Slade to think.

The blade slashed out again.

Savior caught it.

The act, involving wrapping his hand in more Shimmer energy, still sent pain exploding through him, but this time he was ready for it, like he had been with the arm shield, and when it was ready he could take it better, as strands of the energy extended out and seized the sword, yanking it violently, throwing Slade off balance if just for a half second…

As Savior shot another strand out, burying it into Slade's throat.

It should have crushed his windpipe. It should have rendered him a wheezing wreck heading for death.

If only Slade hadn't armored his outfit there too, the blow blunted, Savior now caught off guard…

Slade's fist slammed into his face, as the assassin tore his blade free and sliced out, tearing through Savior's arm armor and slicing a deep wound above the elbow, and even as Savior yelled Slade spun around and slammed his foot into Savior's stomach, rapidly snapping it free and back again, this time into Savior's face, throwing him up into the air…

As Slade leapt, spun, and slammed a foot into the teen, sending him flying across the ice several feet. He landed hard.

Slade spun his sword back into his back sheath and took the few steps necessary to reach his shotgun, kicking it back up into his hands as Savior got up…

And stopped, eyes wide, as Slade got the shotgun aimed directly at Savior's head.

"Like I said." Slade intoned. "Less then one hand."

And fired.

…Sometimes even the masters never managed to eliminate slight flaws in their styles of combat. And there was one universal among them: even they forgot when not to talk.

Had Slade just fired, he would have won.

But he stopped for two seconds to say something.

And even as battered as he was, two was all Savior needed.

As he lifted his right foot and then lunged out and back with his leg one, falling into a perfect noon-and-six split.

The shotgun roared, and the tips of Savior's hair was blown as off as Savior did the lunging split to avoid the blast, his right ankle slamming into the ground.

And he struck.

The Shimmer strand erupted from the ground beneath Slade's feet, an old trick saved for the right time, slamming up into Slade's face with the impact of a baseball bat, staggering the assassin even as the strand whipped around and seized Slade's shotgun, pulling as hard as possible to tear it from Slade's hands.

Slade took a step back to go with the blow and regroup…

As Savior slammed the shotgun, lengthwise, across Slade's chest as hard as he could, so hard he bent the shotgun, finally knocking Slade off his feet, as Savior pulled the strand with the shotgun back even as he contracted it, crushing the weapon in the middle, ruining it, Savior tossing it away even as Slade landed, near the edge of the ice tower…

He must have pulled it out in mid-fall. Even floored, Slade Wilson was a warrior's warrior.

As he hit the ground, he yanked the pin on the grenade he had drawn from his belt and hurled it.

It bounced and rolled across the ground, taking a second and a half to stop…right in front of Savior.

Savior's eyes went as wide as saucers.

Slade's lone one stared, a mixture of intensity, rage, and hate.

In moments like this, time seemed to slow to a crawl.

And then Savior's legs whirled up as he lifted himself up and flipped.

But not away. It was almost straight up, as if he was getting to his feet.

Savior had gone through his options in the two seconds he had had. He doubted he had enough time to disarm or throw away the grenade, and if he tried to block it the close range and shrapnel combined with his weakened state over the battle could punch through his guard and kill him…

If he did it THAT way.

So he had tried another.

He almost landed on the grenade, stopping at the last foot, as Shimmer strands sprang out and stopped him, spraying out in rapid patterns as a small dome formed over the explosive, Savior putting layer after layer into it as he crossed his fingers and hoped.

Slade's eye widened. What the hell…!

And then the grenade exploded.

Savior was blown into the air, shooting up into it like a rocket with a yell of pain…but it had worked. He'd put enough blockage over the weapon to reroute the shockwave of the detonation: instead of going everything, it almost all went in one direction: straight down into the ice.

Which wasn't happy.

The whole tower shuddered, as cracks began rapidly shooting out across the surface of the top, as Slade got to his feet: the damn teenager had destabilized the structure, he'd turned the top into a hazard zone, Slade had to…

The flaw had probably been developing for who knew how many decades, but with Savior's intense punch into all the stress points of the ice tower, it finished its journey within an instant, as a crack shot out towards Slade and hitting said flaw, which groaned and then broke, as the piece of ice Slade was standing on broke off and began falling off the tower, and it was a long way down.

But Slade wasn't Wile. E. Coyote, content to stand there as his footing collapsed under him: he was already moving, as he ran to the very edge of the chunk even as it fell and leapt, but the slippery ice and shifting nature of it screwed up his push-off, and even as the chunk continue to fall behind him Slade found he hadn't put enough behind him to make it all the way back to the main piece….

One foot made it: the other touched empty air, and even as Slade warred with his balance the ice gave way under Slade's foot, and he fell…but as he did he lunged forward, his torso slamming against the top of the ice even as his legs fell into the empty air and then slammed into the edge of the tower, the limbs' weight beginning to drag Slade with them.

Slade's eyes went as cold and as severe as perhaps it had ever been, as he lifted his hand and slammed his fingers, hardened by decades of training and use, into the ground, piercing into the ice, straining the muscles but that didn't matter, he would NOT fall, as he yanked, digging his other hand in, pulling with all his might, as he pulled himself back up and, wonder of wonders, pulled himself back up onto his hands and flipped away from the edge as a few more minor pieces crumbled off, as Slade landed and took several more steps back towards the center.

There were still cracks shooting through the 'floor': it didn't seem much more stable then the edge, all because that damn Titan…

…THE TITAN!

Slade's head snapped up.

Savior landed on him, somehow punching but mostly just pouncing on Slade like a cat would a mouse, slamming Slade into the ground with a furious impact…

And that did it: The top of the tower completely shattered and fell in, as Slade and Savior tumbled into the abyss beyond it.

Well, Slade did, as Savior flung himself off Slade and fired off a Shimmer strand, piercing it into the 'wall' of the inside of the tower and pulling himself through falling shards of ice as he slammed into the side, ready if his perch broke under his impact. It didn't, so Savior coiled up and sprang, leaping across the inside of the ice tower to the wall opposite him, avoiding the last of the broken floor. He looked down.

And his eyes widened again.

He stared for a few seconds, and then he bounded off the wall again, leaping from wall to wall until he made it down to the floor. The second floor.

Savior had no idea how melting and freezing had formed the exact design, but here it was before him: the top of the tower had been hollow, the previous top Savior and Slade had been fighting in covering a empty area about 25 to 30 feet tall. Now Savior stood on the second floor, ice all around him, like he was inside a gigantic water glass.

And Slade stood before him, on his hands and knees, as if having barely landed well from a long wall, his eye clenched shut.

For a moment.

He opened it, the cold gaze falling onto Savior again, as he slowly stood up. Savior blinked.

The two looked at each other.

And then Slade relaxed his posture, just a bit, as he briefly stretched and popped various parts of his body, loosening them back up.

"Well Collins, I will give you this: you have definitely improved since the last time." Slade said.

And despite himself, Savior found himself smirking, just a bit, with one corner of his mouth.

"Coming from you, Deathstroke the Terminator, I will actually, and genuinely, consider that a compliment."

"Enjoy it. It will be the last one paid." Slade said, as he stretched his shoulders one last time and then reached behind him, drawing his sword. "Your actions have only ensured that now I will take this seriously."

"…Heh. Fine." Savior said, as he held out an open hand as the Shimmer began to flow out again. "So will I."

Savior expected a few reactions, but not the one he got: Slade chuckled.

"Ah Collins. Your attempts are admirable…but face it: one of us is bluffing. And I think you know which one of us that is."

Savior wanted to make a smart-ass comment.

None came to mind.

So he charged again.

And Slade waited, like a spider in his web, like a man who knew everything already and was just going through the motions.

---

Potent wished he could be feeling 1/30th of the calm confidence Slade was: it probably wouldn't have registered at all with his opponent but it would have made him feel better.

"So…you ready to give up yet?" He rasped, his arms down, his gemsword partially on the ground, glaring at Solomon Grundy. Potent's immensely powerful shield had kept his face and body from being a bruised, swollen wreck with three teeth left in his head: indeed he looked more like how anime characters tended to get when they got in fights, covered with scuff marks, dirt, and the occasional bloody wound. But the truth was in his mind he shouldn't have a scratch. Not from a zombie running on growth hormones. One who simply would not stay down.

"Solomon Grundy born on a Monday." Was all Grundy said, as he lurched towards Potent. The older teen grit his teeth and got his gemsword up.

"Come on you sunnava…!" Potent snarled as he slashed his sword out, tearing another bloody wound across Grundy's arm.

Grundy didn't even seem to notice, as he brought his fist down on Potent's head, slamming him into the ground. Potent rasped out his air, and then Grundy began hammering on him again, pounding him into the ice, his brains rattling around in his head.

"Solomon Grundy." Grundy kept on saying. "Born on a Monday."

"Christened on a stark and stormy Tuesday?"

Grundy stopped dead, no pun intended, as the female voice spoke. Potent's lone eye above ground (half his face had been mashed into it) blinked open.

"Married on a gray and grisly Wednesday…" Hex said, as she stood nearby, ready to run for her life if necessary.

But Grundy didn't attack. Indeed, his face seemed to grow even duller as Hex spoke, and he actually took a step away from Potent.

"How did the rest go…Thursday…right. Ill on a mild and mellow Thursday." Hex said.

Grundy took another step back, as Potent shoved himself up from his semi-impression and stared.

"Worse on a…what…bright and breezy Friday…" Hex said.

Solomon Grundy actually seemed to wilt, as if the words were hurting him…or reminding him of an inescapable truth.

"Died on a gay and glorious Saturday…" Hex said, as Grundy's arms went limp at his sides, his face slack and fallen. "Buried on a baking blistering Sunday. That was the end of Solomon Grundy."

Hex's words were prophetic, as Grundy sank down a bit more, and then was still.

Potent got up, still staring, as Grundy sat there.

And them, with a bellowing scream, he charged.

Grundy's head flew through the air as Potent lopped it off, blackish-green blood spilling from the wound as his body collapsed.

"Well, that was…" Hex began, and was cut off as Potent reached down, seized the body, and whirled up, spinning around a few times before he hurled Grundy's corpse far off in the distance, snatching up his sword afterward.

"Really was…" Hex said, as Potent walked over to Grundy's head, and with a mighty stomp squashed it flat. "Was that really necessary?"

"He was dead. He needed to know it." Potent said, and spat.

"Right. Well no need to thank me…" Hex said as she briefly looked away, checking for OMAC's…and when she looked back Potent was gone, clearly desiring to take out his anger on other things. "…Right. And technically don't thank me. Thank Mr. Loeb."

Hex had been heading that way to pick up a fallen OMAC when she'd seen the pounding and inexplicably began reciting the nursery rhyme she faintly remembered when she heard Solomon Grundy say the first line. Best she didn't remain out here: the OMAC's seemed to be focused away at the moment but who knew how long that would last. She picked up the person (a young female, whose shorted-out OMAC armor was thankfully light: carrying deadweight for Hex was hard enough), and began making her way back to the rock as quickly as she could.

Yin was finishing placing a large number of recovered people down when she returned, Metatron helping him: Hex could barely see them through Ragnarok's disrupting shield. It worked: a few OMAC's had met their end trying to break it…

But no good thing lasts forever, for no sooner was Hex laying her retrieval down when the shield suddenly contracted and then vanished, and as Hex's eyes widened she looked around and found that Ragnarok had fallen to one knee.

"Collin!" She called, as she ran over, Metatron and Yin doing likewise. "Are you all right?"

"…I'm fine." Ragnarok said, as he stood back up, a bit unsteady but standing all the same. "Just tired. Normally I never use so many Catalysts at once…and never for so long, nothing ever required it. I'm unfamiliar with the effects…but don't worry about me…"

"Maybe you should rest." Yin suggested. Ragnarok glanced at him, his eyes hidden by his pulled down visor.

"The same applies to you Davis. You know cold makes your body brittle, and you've been out there too long. You need to heat up a bit. And what about you Adam?"

"The suit's holding up. I'm fine." Metatron said, as he took a few steps away. "In fact, I think I'm going to go…"

The punch nearly dislocated Metatron's jaw and sent him flying several feet to the floor, as Ragnarok recoiled, what, what had happened, he'd…

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Hex screamed as a gigantic series of blows suddenly slammed into her torso and face, causing her body to jerk backwards a few feet before she finally went down.

Ragnarok picked up the slightest hint of SOMETHING on his visor before a blow smashed into the back of his head and sent him pitching forward.

"Geezus!" Yin said as he tried to stretch away, his body making a strange creaking noise. "Where the hell…!"

The punch came from his left, and in a horrific wet cracking noise, went straight through Yin's body, his upper torso separating from the rest of his mass as he fell, screaming in agony, as Ragnarok looked up, his eyes shocked behind his visor…

As their attacker finally stopped moving, letting them see him.

"Ah childrrrrrrrrennnn." He said, a form Ragnarok knew, as his mouth went dry much like Savior's had earlier. He looked like the Flash…except instead of the color red, he wore yellow, a red lightning bolt of a black circle on his chest, his eyes hidden behind black lenses.

"You fall sovereasilyyyyyyy…butthenagain wwwwwwwwwhy expect anything else? What iswarrrrrrrrrr…but tragedy. And heroooooooeeesssss can only beimprovedby…tragedy." He said.

Zoom.

"Iffffffffffffffffff yousurvive."

---

Not many Green Lanterns had faced Sinestro and survived.

Kyra would have wondered if she was going to be on or off that list, except fear and doubt would just weaken her ring. So she didn't think about it and tried to treat Sinestro if he was just any ordinary foe.

Easier then it seemed, as Sinestro roared as he came down, swinging his gigantic axe. Kyra blocked it with her weapon, the Master Sword, and clashed blades with Sinestro…moments before she formed three triangles on her other hand and blasted Sinestro away with a beam of power from them. But his defensive shield neutralized nearly the entire blow, and he came back with a vengeance. Kyra flew back, reforming the Master Sword into a Keyblade and slamming her weapon against Sinestro's again.

"It was always the mark of the lesser Lanterns to try and cover their inferiority with ludicrous choices for weapons and offensive maneuvers!" Sinestro snapped as he shoved Kyra away and slammed her with another blast of force, throwing her back. "Seeing you reminds me why those hypocrite Guardians deserved to die all over again!"

"Not from where I'm standing." Kyra hissed, as she reformed her weapon once again…into a seven-foot long masamune sword.

It clashed against Sinestro's axe, as the axe slid along it, Kyra jerking to the side and slashing rapidly against Sinestro's shield guard. It didn't pierce it, but Sinestro didn't seem to care for being struck away, as he snarled in rage again and smashed Kyra with three rapid fire force bolts, sending her crashing into the ground.

Sinestro flew down as she coughed and got up, wiping her mouth before she raised her arms. A green object that looked a lot like a guitar formed in her arms.

"Dance water dance!" She said, and hit the strings, green power surging out…and Sinestro found the ice around him suddenly exploding up and shaping into clone of Kyra, a light green covering of energy holding them as they all attacked him, wielding various weapons of ice. Sinestro bellowed and tore through them, smashing them to bits, but they were replaced by others, as Kyra jammed on her sitar, sending endless legions of ice clones of her and every single fictional character she could think of: Marios jumped on Sinestro, Captain Jack Sparrows jabbed him with swords, Obi-Wans did the same with lightsabers, Elmer Fudds shot guns of ice, Edward Hydes tried to punch and mangle him, Gandalfs told him he would not pass, Jackie Chans did various painful stunts off ice debris, and…

"ENOUGH!" Sinestro bellowed, as a massive dome of yellow power erupted from him, shattering all of Kyra's ice manifestations to dust and throwing Kyra back as she grit her teeth and dispelled the sitar, as Sinestro re-emerged, looking as pissed as ever.

"That is it! I will no longer tolerate the childish scribblings of a fifth-rate spawn of the damnable Corps!" Sinestro yelled, as he fired a massive spray of blasts from his ring. Kyra retreated again, as the ground before her was consumed by explosions.

"This is it? I'm just getting started!" Kyra said, as Sinestro flew back down to find her, even as her ring abruptly cloaked her in green robes and gave her a wand. "Flipendo!"

A green fireball flew from her wand and slammed into Sinestro, but he barely seemed to feel it as he went after Kyra.

"Accio…a really hot cherry pie!" Kyra ordered. A green cherry pie flew and slammed into Sinestro's face. He was about as amused as a corpse could be.

"Alohomora!" Kyra yelled. A green door and doorframe appeared in front of Sinestro…and then the door slammed open into his face.

Sinestro yelled and smashed her construct to bits with a punch before he resumed flying at her. Oh yeah he was REALLY mad now.

"Ok enough screwing around…SECTUMSEMPRA!" Kyra yelled, and began slashing her wand around, as blades of green power flew from it and slammed into Sinestro. That actually stopped him for a moment, but his shielding protected him once more, as he lashed out, driving the final slashes away with an explosion of yellow power before going for Kyra again.

"Fine. Big gun. EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Kyra yelled, and thrust her wand out.

And out came…a green beaver.

"…If this is a joke I don't get it and it's not funny." Kyra said, looking at her supposed Patronus.

"RARGH!" Sinestro yelled as he swung in and slashed down a gigantic blade.

"But hey, when in Rome…!" Kyra said, as she dove to the side, avoiding the blade as she thrust out her ring.

The beaver suddenly grew roughly fifteen times bigger.

So, as Sinestro turned to attack again, its tail was more then large enough to whack him away, hard.

"It's not the size of…" Kyra muttered, as her 'Patronus' and robes vanished, as Sinestro recovered and charged at her again, this time firing another spray of deadly yellow light spears and blades. Kyra furiously dodged them as she leapt back several feet. She couldn't keep this up much longer: she might knock him around or away some, but Sinestro wasn't showing a scratch otherwise, while she was about one step away from being a foot in the grave. If Sinestro didn't shove her all the way in first.

"Enough mimicking those spells. TIME TO CAST THE SPELLS THAT MAKES THE PEOPLES FALL DOWN!" Kyra yelled, as she thrust up her arms.

Sinestro stopped as the ten-foot duplicate of the Black Mage appeared over Kyra.

"What in the name of…"

"HADOKEN!"

"RAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sinestro bellowed as the mammoth blast of green power blasted him away, sending him tumbling end over end into the ground.

A second later 'Green Mage' disappeared, as Kyra shuddered and hunched over, breathing heavily. No, couldn't stop, as she raised her ring again and both it and her eyes glowed…

Sinestro was pulling himself up when he heard it, and he looked over…

The semi-trailer truck slammed Sinestro into the air, and even as he flew from the impact the truck transformed into a very familiar robot who introduced Sinestro to his very big gun, blowing the psychotic Korugarian into the ground as he was consumed by explosions.

But once again, Kyra's new friend didn't hang around long, swiftly fading away.

"You got the touch…you got the…" Kyra said, and then coughed violently, doubling over. "Ok, come on…" She said, as she floated over, landing nearby.

She knew it couldn't have been that easy, but her heart still sank when Sinestro rose up from the crater, his arms crossed, looking none the worse for wear for all of Kyra's pop culture assault.

"So, you wish to battle in a test of constructs, hmmmm?" Sinestro said.

"Bring it on, you bastard." Kyra said, as green armor covered her body and gifted her with twin giant cursed swords.

"As you wish." Sinestro said, as Kyra leapt at him…

The clawed hand was the size of a building, as it exploded up from a portal below Kyra and smashed into her with terrible impact, sending her flying up into the air…as another yellow portal appeared above her and a gigantic clawed foot slammed down, driving Kyra into the ground with horrendous impact and an earth-shattering crash.

Coughing more violently, her green armor falling off her in pieces, Kyra tried to get up…as a third portal appeared in front of her, and as she watched, a massive, demonic head emerged, utterly dwarfing Kyra, as Sinestro floated down over its head, the thin trail from his ring barely visible to indicate he had created the monstrosity, as Kyra shook her head, growled and flew up…

And the beast opened its mouth and fired, sending a gigantic blast of yellow power out that engulfed Kyra with a scream, sending her flying far off into the distance.

The beast vanished, as Sinestro flew after Kyra, ready for any more nonsense that she tried.

She didn't: Sinestro found her lying on the ground, not moving, her outfit shredded, a broken doll.

Beaten.

All that was left was the final strike.

---

It was kind of hard to miss a huge lightshow of green and yellow, even in the chaos surrounding the battlefield. Especially when the green light suddenly flew across the landscape, crash-landed, and didn't move.

Brick blinked, his vision impaired by his swollen eyes but not to the point where he couldn't guess what had happened.

"Kyra…" He said. He was getting nowhere with his enemy, and Kyra was clearly in trouble, he needed to…

The foot smashed into his back, and Brick Wall stumbled and fell again.

"Getting distracted by pretty lights in the middle of a fight pretty much decides who the winner is going to be…though that was decided a while back." The General said as he stomped over. Brick Wall may have been, as the former 'personality' claimed "strong as a brick and tough as a brick", but the General was immensely strong too, and the fact that he was fairly quick as well meant he was landing eight punches to Brick's one, and that had added up, even for Brick's immense endurance level.

"I don't…suppose I could wave…a white flag and declare…you the winner." Brick grunted.

"This is war kid."

The punch floored Brick, throwing him onto his back.

"You can't just take your ball and go home when you don't want to play any more. You start what you finish. Even if that means your own." The General said, as he tightly clenched his fist, clearly going for a killing strike. "Thanks for the workout though. Be a good warm up for-ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The gemsword had exploded through the General's front, and as Brick watched Potent twisted the blade and yanked it out, as the General roared and swung a mighty backhand, but Potent was much smaller and quicker then Brick Wall as he ducked under it and went low…

And the General roared again as his right leg was severed at the knee, driving the General onto the ground from the crippling wound, as Potent spun back up.

"You…little bastard…you ambushed me…" The General snarled.

"Blah blah blah, can't you military types ever learn? All that garbage about honor, tactics, humility in victory, yadda yadda…it's just that. Garbage. All that matters is who wins. And I guess I do, General, for as loathe as the pun is, you no longer have a leg to…"

"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" The General roared, as he shoved himself up…and as Potent's eyes widened he saw that tissue was extending out from the bloody stump of the General's leg, even as the hole Potent had opened up began to close. "Thought you won with one successful sneak attack eh? Stupid little punk! Artificial and genetically enhanced salamander DNA!" The General said, indicating his growing back leg.

Which was fully back, as the General roared and leapt.

"Oh come on that's just…" Potent cursed.

The punch slammed into the teenager and sent him flying, crashing into a few OMAC's as the General prepared to pounce on him.

Brick's massive arms seized on the rogue military officer from behind.

"Perhaps I am not quite ready…to retreat…" Was all Brick got out before the General's arms reached behind himself and grabbed, seizing Brick and yanking him over his body and into the ground with a mighty crash, as the General leapt high into the air and came down feet first, aiming for Brick's head.

He only found ice, as a pair of hands grabbed Brick Wall and yanked him away, the General nearly buried up to his waist in ice from the impact, as he turned around…

Potent rammed the gemsword through his open mouth and all the way out the back of his skull. The General let loose with a gurgling scream.

"Grow back from that!" Potent snarled.

The General's punch nearly severed the arrogant teenager's head from his shoulders despite the shield and sent him tumbling away, as the General, with some difficulty due to his giant hands, seized Potent's weapon and yanked it free, even as the wound began to close up.

The taste of his own blood sent him into a frenzy. He'd pound this little bastard into mush!

But Potent didn't seem much bothered as he got up, as the General yanked himself free and leapt into the air, heading for Potent. Potent held out his hand as his gemsword returned to him.

"Ok then. I'll just find a piece of you that WON'T grow back." Potent snapped, and gestured in the classic "Just Bring It!" motion as the General came down.

The two vanished in an explosion of up-tossed ice and snow as the General crashed down.

---

Dr. Light was supposedly a poor hand-to-hand combatant.

Whoever wrote these things had to update their information: either he'd been training since his competence had been returned to him or the return of said competence had been enough.

He'd formed his golden light blades again, as he attacking Mary, slashing and whirring, using his light powers to speed himself up and lessen his body weight, as Mary tried to fend him off with her glaive, her face set in a permanent scowl as Light furiously slashed at her.

And did more then that, as he leapt, flipped, and while upside down continued to spin and slash, screwing up Mary's guard as she tried to block and dodge…and left herself open as Light landed behind her and whirled around, slicing both blades deeply across her flank, as Mary screamed and whirled, firing an explosive blast of dark power, which Light dodged by 'light-jumping' away again.

"Get over here!" Mary yelled, as she stabbed out with her daggertails. Light's own blades slashed out, deflecting the stabbing attack.

"Oh you wish to engage in a whip battle?" Dr. Light said, and then transformed one of his blades into a whip of his own, as he lashed out in a violent combo, forcing Mary back onto the defensive again…not quick enough, as the deadly tip found her shoulder and pierced into it, drawing another scream from her…

And then Light was back in her face, another light-jump, as he furiously attacked with his laser blades again, Mary reduced to using one arm as she tried to defend…

Her glaive was knocked from her hands, and with a yell of triumph Light lunged back and stabbed for her heart.

Mary's body broke down into darkness, like living oil, as she collapsed into a puddle, and even as Light stumbled forward a bit Mary surged over the ground and reformed behind him, as Light yelled and whirled around again.

Mary punched him in the face, sending him flying backwards. Light hit the ground, looking stunned, as blood began to leak from a split lip.

"Huh. Your blood is actually red. Maybe I should punch you in the back to see if you actually have a spine." Nightmare taunted. Dr. Light's face twisted in rage.

"SUFFER!" Light yelled, as he slammed his hands together and fired a massive blast of power, which Mary dodged, but Light was already back up and leaping into the air, as he thrust out his hands and fired a spray of needle-like blasts, the projectiles exploding on the ground around Mary…some on Mary, as she was knocked down with another yell, Light landing nearby.

"Come into The Light!" He snapped, as he thrust up his hands, and several glowing white spheres appeared around Mary, and even as her eyes widened they flew at her. Mary leapt-stumbled away, but Light wasn't done, as he light-jumped several feet to the side and formed more spheres around Mary, again making her scramble like a wild animal.

"Yes! Scamper! It will do you no good! Because the only light at the end of this tunnel…is The Light!" Dr. Light declared, as he zapped around twice more and called more radiant spheres, pinning Mary in…

Her eyes narrowed.

"Hey asshole, Dwayne Johnson called. He wants his gimmick back!" Mary snapped, and vanished into the ground again.

Light dispersed his spheres, his eyes flicking around.

And then a shadow flowed over him, and he turned around…

Nightmare stood there, now a twenty-foot giant of darkness, her eyes glowing with reddish fire.

It took everything Light had not to scream like a little girl.

Mary could tell. She'd gotten good at reading repressed fear.

For one, it made you screw up. Light may have been 'un-lobotomized', but that hadn't changed some things about him: doing great when you're in control does not mean you will do great when you're not.

And Light's reaction was pure knee-jerk, as he threw up his hands and threads of light bloomed between them before a few dozen smaller blasts flew from his hands and tore through Mary's gigantic body, and that hurt, but she could take it and return it…

As she roared and thrust her own hands out, and massive surges of dark power came in turn, one giant crushing wave of power instead of spread all over the place, as it came crashing down on Light.

As Nightmare expected, his scream wasn't exactly the most masculine.

But that only seemed to make it worse, as the darkness was quickly pierced through by light blasts as Light exploded from beneath it, encased in a golden orb of light as he screamed in fury and fired once more, this time with his own gigantic blast of power that enveloped Mary's upper half and destroyed it.

Light fell to the ground, panting heavily, as the remaining shadow material collapsed…and reformed, coming back together as Mary, who looked as exhausted as Light. But the fire was still clear in her eyes, as she formed another shadow glaive and gestured to the psychotic rapist.

"You know, if that's the best you can do, I don't see why this has to go on any longer." Mary said, with a confidence she didn't exactly feel. She'd hoped Light would falter, unused to long battles and vulnerable to the flaws in his character that existed mindwiped or not.

No such luck, as Light didn't falter. Instead…he grinned, a sick grin.

"Wrong." He said, as he raised a hand. "You don't see period."

And with a snap of his fingers, Mary felt something TEAR from her eyes, and she yelled and staggered back, shaking her head…

And, as her eyes blinked rapidly, she realized she couldn't see anything. No shapes, no colors, no movement, nothing. She was utterly blind.

"What is sight? Nothing more then the organic mirrors of the eyes reflecting…the light. And without it, well, your vision lacks anything resembling it." Light said.

And then he pointed and fired, and twin beams of light fired off…striking and blowing off Mary's long ears, as she screamed again.

"And that takes care of that." Light said.

And with a light-jump he was suddenly on Mary's left, as she jerked her head around. Light wished he could have said something, but he decided not to take the chance, as he threw up his hands, brilliance exploding on them.

Mary never saw it coming, never saw the concentrated blast of power, couldn't raise any kind of defense…as the blast struck her and engulfed her in an utter howl of agony.

It was music to Light's ears.

The light faded, and Light's eyes widened, not in surprise but in joy, as Mary collapsed to one knee, her arm blown clean off, laying next to her, her left side a mass of burnt gore. How could she still be alive, Light wasn't sure, but that just meant he could really enjoying grinding the last few sparks of life out of her.

Too bad she was fat, and this wasn't the best place. Otherwise Light might have even had other ideas.

---

The golden lightning of Zeus, in theory, could not run out like a battery. Especially after Ares had granted her his power.

But Wonder Girl was starting to question that, as she shocked her latest OMAC into submission. What number was that, No. 659 maybe? Or was it 759, she was never that good with numbers.

Superboy had lead all right, but it didn't change the fact that he was facing thousands of OMAC's, more then a few of which were now shooting kryptonite beams at him. They just couldn't pierce their lines. Even when Donar had shown up, lending his mighty hammer, it was still an endless process, one that would wear them out long before the numbers on the other side did.

Which was why Cassie was so glad when Nightwing returned to the fray, disabling an OMAC with some of his remaining Nightarangs (which wasn't much), before he was forced to let the stronger metas cover for him: Donar and Scorched Earth did nicely, as Conner flew back to Nightwing's side. Cassie swiftly did likewise.

"…ok?" Superboy was saying when she got close.

"Great. How's the charge going?"

"Well, instead of being utterly stopped, now we're just being almost entirely stopped." Wonder Girl said.

A deadly blade of plastic flew at the group: Wonder Girl deflected it with her bracelets and an arriving Scorched Earth neutralized the attacking OMAC.

"Dick…I tried…there's just…" Conner said, as he felt that old doubt creeping up again.

Then Dick grabbed his shoulder.

"Then keep trying! That's all we can do!" Nightwing said, as he pulled out his Escrima sticks. "Keep going! Keep trying! And don't get surrounded!"

"That may already be too late!" Donar yelled as he flew past, and Nightwing jerked his head around to see him attacking a group of OMAC's that had been circling around the front attackers, even as another group came to reinforce them. His eyes narrowed.

They couldn't go forward and it was beginning to look like they couldn't go back.

Which meant he'd just have to prove himself wrong about going forward.

"LET'S GO!" He yelled, and the Titans flew back to the attack again.

---

Like the situation before Nightwing and Co, Ion had felt helpless.

For a second, before he surged forward again towards the hands.

And this time he wasn't alone.

"EVERYONE!" Donna Troy yelled: she too was done standing around feeling like there was nothing she could do. She'd organized all this, she was alive when she could have been dead because of this, and if she couldn't do anything with her fists she'd do something with her words. "Follow Kyle's lead! GO! GO!"

"You heard the lady Kory!" Cyborg said, as jets opened up in his boots, ankles, waist, and back.

"I am ready Victor!" Starfire replied, as the two flew to join the charge, Ion in the lead, his fellow Green Lanterns and heroes backing him up.

As the hands began bringing the Earths together…

---

Well, there were worse ways for a Green Lantern to die. Hell, that alien Ch'p had been hit by a yellow truck…

But Kyra Collins didn't want to die…she'd barely begun to live, as Sinestro seized her with his ring energy and pulled her up, looking with angry disgust into her battered face.

"What a joke." Sinestro said, and punched Kyra again, snapping her head back violently before it went limp, her face dangling towards the ground. "I barely tolerated this Society in the hope they would find me more victims. But if this is all they can offer, then I may as well have destroyed them before accepting. You dare call yourself a Green Lantern?" Sinestro said, as he formed a blade on his other hand.

"…I'm more…then a Green Lantern…" Kyra whispered.

Sinestro drew the blade back to eviscerate Kyra.

As she snapped her head up, her eyes glowing black.

"I am my mother's daughter." Kyra said, as she and Sinestro locked eyes.

And Kyra shot out with her latent mental powers, the ones she had been given at birth…the same ones she had used on Fatality, blocking her sight so she didn't see the lines on her weapons, something that had required her to maintain eye contact with the alien for some time…but this required much less subtlety, as Kyra reached out into Sinestro's mind and did the equivalent of striking it in the genitals with a jackhammer.

"ARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Sinestro bellowed, rearing back, his yellow constructs disintegrating and his personal shield breaking down, his concentration to maintain them shattered by the telepathic blow. It was a dishonorable thing, something Sinestro probably would have done himself…but Sinestro wasn't worthy of honor. He was worthy of just one thing, as Kyra stood up, and as Sinestro began to recover she lashed out again, blood dripping from her nose as Sinestro reared back, clawing at his head.

As a chain emerged from the wrist of her long coat, covered in black power as it began circling around Kyra's hand, as she wove it in a well-known pattern and clenched her fist, as Sinestro ceased clawing at his face…

"In brightest day, in blackest night…" Kyra yelled as she ran. "All evil, shall beware…MY RIGHT!"

And she chain-punched Sinestro as hard as she could, the impact slamming down her whole arm, knocking Sinestro ass over elbows backwards even as blood and a tooth exploded from his mouth.

He hit the ground, hard.

Kyra lowered her hand, staring in disbelief. She couldn't believe it had worked. Power rings had automatic defenses to protect their user from harm, even under mental attack…except Sinestro didn't have a power ring. He had a Qwardian copy, built for offense…and that, in the end, was all she wrote.

Kyra sighed.

"The Green Lanterns taught me much, but humanity taught me my greatest lesson: Win if you can, lose if you must…but always cheat." She told the fallen alien, and turned away.

Sinestro surged up, screaming.

And Kyra broke two fingers punching him again, smashing him through the air and into a slab of ice, which shattered and collapsed on him. He did not re-emerge a third time.

"Ow. Rats." Kyra said, as she formed an alien medical device to tend to her hand. "I was hoping for one punch."

---

"I almost wish you could hear me." Dr. Light said as he approached, as Mary, in utterly torturous pain, moaned and mumbled nonsense, occasionally spasming a bit in the way those with horrendous injuries did. "Wish you could hear me saying just how utterly wretched you are."

A dagger of light energy formed in Dr. Light's hand. He wasn't yet sure if he was going to stick it in her throat or some place far more intimate, though he was leaning towards the latter.

"Women. All the same. That's the way I prefer them." Light said as he stepped up to Mary, still blind due to his manipulation. She didn't even know he was there. He'd have to watch her face as he thrust it in. "No sight, no sound…but still pain, bitch."

Light bent down…

And Mary seized him by his front, grabbing him in a grip of iron as Dr. Light's heart nearly exploded in shock.

"I CAN STILL SMELL YOU YOU BASTARD." Mary snarled.

And she slammed her head forward, ramming it into Light's face before he could react, and then again, and again, and again, blood spraying from the sadist's face before Mary stood up, despite her unspeakable wounds, and kicked Light as hard as she could, hearing some kind of bone snap as he flew away with a scream.

Her vision swam back, Light no longer focusing on the blinding technique, and with another cry of pain she reached out, shadow energy consuming her as a tendril reached out and seized her severed arm, pulling it back to her.

Light, his face severely bloodied and his wrist fractured, was in his own pain, but not enough to keep from seeing the shadows consume Mary again, writhing around her…and then dispelling back into the ground.

Light's eyes widened: it was all gone. All his damage was gone, like it had never been. Even when he'd hit actual skin and bone, the accursed bitch of darkness had just popped it back on like she was Mrs. Potato Head.

Nightmare certainly didn't feel fresh as new though, as she hunched over, feeling light-headed and hyperventilating. She was exhausted, she couldn't keep going, she'd already burned off nearly 40 pounds of weight from all her exertion, she couldn't…

"ARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!" She heard Light scream in frustration and rage (and under that, fear), and as she looked up he floated up off the ground, shining so brightly she could only make out his silhouette before she had to shield her eyes. "YOU WILL DIE! I WILL PURGE THE DARKNESS FROM YOU, AND YOU, WITH MY ALMIGHTY LIGHT!"

Ok so it wasn't the best battle declaration, but Light was immensely rattled and panicking…and also charging up a considerable amount of power.

…So much for napping. Well, the worst that could happen was she'd blow herself up.

"All right then, you wanna do the Z thing? Bring it." Mary said, as she thrust out her arms and began calling all that remained of her power, calling on the darkness, bending it to her will, becoming its master…

Light fired, twin blasts of all-consuming radiance.

And Mary fired in turn, a ray of pure night.

The two met…and exploded against each other, tearing up the ground beneath them, as neither backed down from their attack.

"No. You will cease to exist! The Light will CONSUME YOU!" Light yelled, and redoubled his efforts.

Nightwing had been avoiding another OMAC when he noticed it: like they were all fighting under a lone light bulb, the area around them was dimming.

"What the…!" Scorched Earth said, noticing it too. "Are the stars going out?"

"…No." Nightwing said: he'd seen this before. "It's Light! He must be around, he's sucking up all the ambient light, be careful, look…!" Nightwing said as he looked around, trying to see if Light was trying to blast them.

He wasn't, he was some distance away, even as all light vanished around the confrontation, leaving pitch blackness that was only pierced by Light's power, as it broke through the alien's ray, he was going to win, to destroy her…!

"Oh great idea IDIOT!" Mary yelled. "Suck all the light into your attack for power! Leaving just darkness! What do you think I feed on for power, OREOES?"

And Light's ray stopped dead, as Mary in turn called on the darkness around her caused by Light's manipulation and focused it into her own beam.

In reality, this should have simply ended in a stalemate until one of them collapsed.

But while their powers matched each other, their characters did not.

Mary remembered Mr. Collins telling her that in combat that if a man shoved a bayonet into his foe and felt mush, he'd keep pushing, but if he felt steel, he'd draw back.

And Mary felt the softness, as she screamed and sent one final blast down through her attack.

And proved that when it came to bayonets, she was the one that had the steel, as Light's attack disintegrated utterly before Mary's blast of shadow.

"IIIYYYEAARRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Light screamed as he was enveloped and blown away, blasted through two boulders of ice and bouncing across the ground for a long distance before he stopped, on his back, his outfit wrecked and his eyes wide with fear, as he whimpered and shook.

A shadow fell over her, and he looked up.

Mary's bladed foot stomped down on his throat, pinning Light to the ground.

"I could do so many things to you right now." Mary said, as Light's eyes filled with terror. "But then I'd be no better then you."

And Mary lifted her foot and violently kicked Light across the face, knocking him into blissful unconsciousness.

"And I AM better then you." Mary finished.

"I'd say."

Mary turned to look at Kyra, floating nearby.

"Man, and to think I kept telling you to diet." Kyra said, looking at Mary's greatly reduced frame, so much mass consumed in Mary's efforts. "I think you've earned a few cake binges when we've fixed everything."

"You're damn skippy." Mary said.

"Can you go on?"

"I feel like I've been pureed and then shoved into a tube, but I'm not quite done yet. But my power reserves are running low Kyra. I don't know if I can take another focused battle."

"Oh good. Because that's not my idea."

---

The Speed Force was gone.

But Hunter Zolomon, the man known as Zoom, did not use the Speed Force for his acts of velocity. Instead, he possessed a talent called chronokinesis: he could personally manipulate his own time-frame to grant the illusion of super-speed. An illusion that could surpass the actual deal.

True, recently Hunter Zolomon, who was more of a tragic and misguided figure then an actual villain, had seemed ready to enter another stage in his life, but Psycho-Pirate's manipulations had gotten him back into his old habit: making heroes 'better' through tragedy. And since the Flash wasn't around, anyone would do, including these teenagers.

"Suffffffering…it is what youallneedbelieve me…" Zoom continued to speak: his constant manipulation due to his 'out of sync nature' with normal time caused various vocal anomalies as he spoke: some words came out drawn out on syllables while others were mashed together. "You will immmmmmproveeeeeyourselfto try and make suuuuuurrrreeeeeee itwill not happen again…and in doing so youwillbecomemuuuuuccccccchhhh betterheroes. It is thewayitmust be…onnnnnnnneeeeedayyou will realize it."

"OH REALIZE THIS!" Metatron snarled, as he hurled golden energy blasts at Zoom.

Zoom was punching him almost as soon as they left his hands, and by the time they hit where Metatron had aimed Zoom had already punched the demon nearly 200 times. While Zoom couldn't do the 'greater-speed-equals-greater-mass' trick Speed Force users could have done, his punches were still hard, and directed all over Metatron's body, ravaging him as he collapsed, coughing up blood.

"Stop it!" Ragnarok yelled, as he tried to get over to Yin: he'd hit Yin while he was too brittle, Yin had broken, he had to save him. "You're killing him!"

"Killing? But that's thewhooooooolepoint." Zoom said as he phased back into human comprehensive sight.

Hex might have been trying to throw one of her namesake blasts: Zoom had punched her off her feet and was back before Ragnarok even realized it.

"Deaattttttttthhhhh…is a part of this worldyouliveiiiiiiiinnnnnnn…youseeothers die, so that you will motivate yourselftosaveothersintime…Iamonlydoing what is neeeeeeedddddedddddforyoutobecome better heroes."

"You…would lecture us on being heroes!" Ragnarok snapped, and pointed at Yin. "Is this what a hero does!"

"I neeeeeeeevvvvvver saidIwas…ahero…I am merely playingmyyyyyyyyyyrolein this eternal tragedy."

Zoom was gone as Metatron slashed at him, and then Metatron slammed into the ground as Zoom punched him in the back of the head.

"Though Istillwonderiffffffffffffff…any of you cannnnnnnnnnnnsurvive."

Hex was back, and Metatron wasn't down yet, as they both tried to attack Zoom.

The next second their heads were being slammed together. They reeled back, trying to recover and fire blasts that didn't have a hope in hell of hitting.

Ragnarok would have helped, except he was too busy trying to tend to Yin…except that he couldn't really do that either with Metatron and Hex being pummeled to jelly in front of him. But what could he do? Zoom was just far too fast…his power was clear in what he'd done to Yin…and was doing to Metatron and Hex, as he watched the two of them swiftly fall under Zoom's blows.

"STOP!" He yelled.

Zoom, surprisingly, did.

"But childreeeeeeeen…it has tobethiswayyyyyyyyy…"

Metatron leapt to attack again: Zoom punched him 58 times before Metatron could even begin extending his arm, and Hex despite a terrible limp was getting up again just to be…

"I SAID STOP!" Ragnarok screamed.

And dark power surged outward from his body and exploded over everything nearby.

And Zoom suddenly 'shorted' back into visibility as he nearly tripped, stopping at the last second from falling on his face.

"…What?" Zoom said, his voice sounding normal as he looked at Ragnarok. "How did…"

And then he heard it, and he turned, trying to call on his speed…speed that was no longer there.

Hex's boot heel slammed into his face and knocked him down, his head slamming into the ground to add to the effect as he went still, as Hex landed and nearly fell down from her hurt leg.

"…well, that was anticlimactic." She commented.

Then she remembered Yin.

"Davis! Oh damn…!" Hex said as she limped over.

And saw, much to her amazement and horror, that the adult shapeshifter was STILL ALIVE, barely, as Ragnarok snorted loudly, not sure just what he'd done, maybe the Dark Catalyst had reacted to his emotion and somehow snapped Zoom back into sync with time, he didn't care, he had to save Yin, as he called on both the White and Golden Catalysts and augmented it some more with the Dark one as he placed one hand on Yin's torso and the other on the rest of his body, floating them up and bringing them together…

And with a flash, they were one again, as Yin sat up, blinking his eyes in confusion.

"Did that just happen?"

"Believe it…" Ragnarok said as he got up. Before Hex could say anything Ragnarok had placed a hand on her and, with a smaller flash of light, her leg was fixed.

"…Collin, are you all right? You look like you've had it."

"Then you would be wrong." Ragnarok said as he fixed up Metatron. He wasn't lying. He wasn't in pain…he just felt…rather strange. Tired too, but mostly strange. "I still have plenty of gas in my tank."

"Good." Kyra said, as everyone jerked to see that the Green Lantern was now floating nearby, Nightmare with her. "Because I have a great place to start a fire."

---

"Grahhhhhhhhhh! Dammit Donar, you were with the hero team, didn't you have files on this damn incident?" Scorched Earth yelled as he blew away two more OMAC's.

"Perhaps we once did, but time itself is under assault, and perhaps in that the knowledge was lost!" Donar replied as he called upon the wind and managed to distract some OMAC's long enough for Nightwing and Superboy to take them out…and then immediately retreat as fourteen new ones tried to kill them immediately afterward.

"Dammit!" Scorched Earth cursed again, as he barely avoided the eye beams of three other OMAC's. "I don't think I can handle this much longer!"

"You will Jack! Because you have to! That is our way!" Donar yelled, as he fended off his own attackers.

"I'm beginning to see why you heroes tend to die then! I don't want to die!" Scorched Earth yelled back.

"Then FIGHT HARDER!" Wonder Girl yelled as she punched another OMAC away from her.

"Easier said then-ARGH!" Scorched Earth yelled as he was blasted by four separate rays, flying back and hitting the ground as he clutched his wounds.

"Damn. Fall back! Fall back!" Nightwing yelled as he grudgingly gave ground. He never thought he would miss the villains, but their ranks seemed to have thinned down to nothing, leaving nothing to keep the OMAC's from mass targeting them.

"I…I can't…what?" Scorched Earth said. "What?"

"Hang on Conner! These infernal machines have not bested us yet!" Donar said as he smashed two OMAC's trying to flank Conner, and nearly got flanked himself.

"But they just won't end! There's a solid wall between us and the Tower!"

"All walls crumble! You just need…!"

"ARGH!" Wonder Girl yelled, but in frustration rather then pain. "The bastard's running!"

"What?" Nightwing said, as he looked over to where Wonder Girl was…and saw that Scorched Earth was flying away, leaving his teammates behind. "Ah damn!"

"Come back here you coward!" Wonder Girl yelled.

"Cassie! Watch out!" Superboy yelled as he flew in and punched an OMAC away before it could spear his girlfriend from behind.

"Damn, damn, damn." Nightwing hissed to himself: he didn't know the meaning of the word hopeless but this wasn't working, they'd regrouped and pushed and poked and prodded and the defenses remained impenetrable, and his teammates were losing hope and fleeing, like Scorched Earth just had…

Nightwing had happened to glance back again when he'd thought of Scorched Earth.

And he saw it. He hadn't been looking at the right angle the first time, which was the only way he could explain that he'd missed it.

The massive black sphere of power, floating over the rock platform of the rear guard…as Scorched Earth flew to it and stopped.

And Nightwing realized. He hadn't been running. He'd been…called. Didn't Myth have mild telepathy? Was her dad there planning…

And then Nightwing came onto a rough estimate of what they were planning: oh dear…

"Arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh! Kyra I can't hold this much longer!" Mary yelled, the effort burning through her as she held her attack above her head

"You don't need to! Ready Rag?" Kyra asked from where she floated in front of Mary and her massive black orb.

"Ready!" Ragnarok said from behind Mary.

"Ok then! Everyone else! FULL POWER INTO RAGNAROK!"

"You sure you won't blow up?" Scorched Earth asked.

"DO IT!" Metatron yelled, and Scorched Earth shrugged and fired, even as Metatron aimed golden beams of his own power and Hex fired her pink blast, all into Ragnarok's chest, as he grunted and then turned around, letting the power charge within him.

Yin coiled around and positioning himself near Mary, who was still forming her gigantic shadow sphere, as Kyra flew up into the air and thrust her power ring down, green energy flowing out into the massed Titans.

The three behind Ragnarok continued to pour their power into him, as Mary yelled and the sphere began to be drawn down as well, even as the green energy grew in mass around the ground, as Ragnarok reached out and seized it in turn.

Kyra flew down into the ground, as Mary's shadow sphere was sucked into the chaos…

And Ragnarok screamed, as his own power and Kyra's fully combined, as a gigantic gun appeared above the group and fell onto the four's shoulders, as the remaining three rushed up behind them and seized the end.

Ragnarok's arm, buried deep inside the group's creation, held the trigger.

"And…FIRE!" Kyra ordered.

And a colossal blast of energy exploded from the gun, blasting out from the rock platform and towards the front lines of OMAC's.

"Oh my." Nightwing said, and then hit the deck.

The blast tore through the OMAC's like they weren't even there, blasting through their ranks like nothing and blowing all the robots that weren't actually caught in the blast through immense kinetic power. Regrettably, the blast did not hit the golden tower: it flew past it and detonated in the distance, but the damage was done.

Nightwing looked up at it: a hole. They'd punched through the defenses.

"GO!" Nightwing yelled, as he ran for it.

"Come on guys!" Kyra yelled as the gun faded away, the combination effort no longer needed (and besides, Mary was too drained to attempt another shot like that again). "Let's provide a distraction!"

And distract they did, as they flew forward and attacked the remaining legions, keeping them from focusing entirely on Nightwing, Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Donar as they ran and flew for it…

And made it.

The hole closed again, far too quickly, but it didn't matter: those four were through.

Now Kyra and co would make sure they caused enough trouble to keep all the OMAC's from turning around and attacking those four, allowing them to finish their jobs.

"Hey Mary, I bet I can get more then you." Kyra said as she formed a green smart gun.

Mary just groaned, but then the OMAC's were on them and the blades were out, as the newly reformed group fought with renewed fury.

---

The explosion was so loud it even jerked Alexander out of his state of concentration, and he growled: he did not NEED this, he was in the final stages of his plan, what was that, it didn't matter, as he turned back to his rift and his work…

Considering how scared he had been before, you would think the Psycho-Pirate would now be running for the hills, but as said he had found something else to distract him.

Power Girl, plugged into the tower, the object of Roger Halston's maniac lust. He'd spent the last bit of time just looking at her, stroking and touching her (the superheroine thankfully unconscious and unaware of this fact). The fact that he was so deep into the fugue he didn't even notice the gigantic combined blast that had blown through the OMAC wall spoke of the depth of his obsession: he'd learned to tune the racket out, so he could be alone with his intended…

"Pretty little Power Girl…" The Psycho-Pirate cooed. "Alex promised you to me. And when this is over, I'll remind him of that."

"Hey, Pirate…"

Halston had learned to phase out the background noise of war…but not a sudden new voice speaking practically in his ear, as his eyes went wide behind his mask and he turned…

"She's WAY out of your league." Superboy said as he floored the Psycho-Pirate with a punch, sending him flying.

Halston's scream broke Alexander's concentration again.

"What?" He said, as he turned around and looked down on the Tower below, unable to believe it: some of those supposed heroes had broken through his defenses! They were right at his doorstop!

…Not that that mattered to him: the hundred or so OMAC's Potent had observed a long time ago had been reinforced by several hundred more, and they had already sprung to his defense, attacking the interlopers.

They'd deal with them. He had more important business, as he turned back to his rift.

---

Titans Tower.

Earths crashed and died above her.

Water from the ocean, the tides whipped into a frenzy, exploded on the Titans' island, hammering the building, some spray even reaching all the way up to the top of it. The tower had been designed to take tidal impacts, but the constant battles it had seen had worn it down, and the water slamming into it might yet finish it off.

But the figure on top of the Tower was a figure of calm, even as wind tore at her and the building shuddered beneath her.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" Raven whispered, as she held the artifact tightly to her, reaching out with the briefly augmented power she had, her normal range and abilities multiplied many times over.

But even so, this would not be easy…

---

"Hmmmm, nine minutes. Not only did we actually win the first fight, I think we set a new world record doing it." Gauntlet said as the Titans stood over the bodies of the fallen Metas they had brawled with.

Robin hadn't liked fighting with them, at least two were more scared and lashing out like animals then actually doing anything malicious, but in times like this, sometimes the only thing could do to keep from being consumed by the madness himself was cling onto whatever he could, even something seemingly as worthless as the law. And it was against the law to steal.

"Nice work. Though I must remind you there is a maximum of 32 minutes before there is another lightning superstorm that will destroy this city." Viridian said from Robin's communicator. Robin resisted the urge to tear it off and smash it into the ground.

"All right…Tara! You think maybe you could get, I don't know, some kind of rock shield over the city?" Robin asked.

"What? Maybe if I had a week or two! 30 minutes? I'm sorry Robin." Terra said. Robin gazed helplessly over his teammates. They all had so much power, he'd seen them do so much, they'd made him proud…but there was nothing any of them could do here…

And Nigel suddenly yelled, doubling over in agony, as Robin's eyes widened in shock.

"Nigel!"

"Nigel! What's going on?" Beast Boy asked. "Are you hurt?"

"No…I just…something terrible is happening…Sophie…she's in terrible danger…she could die…I can feel it, in my gut…I have to do something…anything…!" The alien stammered, as he began walking around in a weird jerky pattern like a broken machine, lost, unable to find a destination.

"Damn. What do we do Robin?" Terra asked.

Robin opened his mouth…and found nothing.

He couldn't even begin to conceive of a plan.

It really was the end of the world.

"Um, guys…?" Gauntlet said. For some reason, everyone looked at him. "It might just be the ringing in my ears from that sonic weapon Whathisgun used…but do you hear something?"

---

Ion had tremendous backup: along with him there were several other human and alien Green Lanterns, as well as Firestorm, Supergirl, The Red Tornado, Adam Strange, Shift, and several others, including Starfire and Cyborg.

And absolutely none of them were doing a damn thing in their second attack on the hands (which had been acting strangely: they'd begin to push the planets, then draw back, then start over, then draw back again, then actually leave for a moment and then return, starting to push and then draw back, like the owner of said hands was distracted on the other side). This time though, Ion could see the determination in the hands, as they began to shove the two Earths towards each other.

"Argh. NO!" Ion said. "EVERYONE! AT THE SAME TIME!"

"All right…" Cyborg said, as he adjusted his position. "Once more into the breach, Kory."

"I would rather not charge into underwear Friend Victor." Starfire replied. Cyborg stared for a moment, and then nearly cracked up.

"No no Kory! Underwear is britches, breach is…never mind! Here we go!" Cyborg said.

"Cyborg, I know that perhaps this is not unusual, what with the warping of the time and space by both sides, perhaps most clearly indicated we are both surviving and having a conversation in the supposedly airless vacuum of space…but is it wrong if I hear a whispering inside my head?"

"…No…I hear it too…" Cyborg said.

---

Alexander Luthor could feel the attacks, but he ignored them. He had completely devoted his mind to the task at hand, as he clutched Earth-2 and Earth-3 on the other side of the rift.

"Superman, the greatest hero on Earth-2…my father, Lex Luthor, the greatest hero on Earth-3…the universe says Supermen and Luthors are destined to be at odds…"

It is truly a terrifying sight to see twisted logic gel in a madman's eyes as he hits upon a solution…but only in his mind.

"Maybe the universe is wrong…I'll FUSE THEM TOGETHER." Alex said through clenched teeth. "It WILL work."

---

Wonder Girl flew backwards from the impact of a blast of energy, and cursed under her breath as OMAC's swarmed before her.

"Every time I get close enough to J'onn, they get in my way!" Wonder Girl said, angry that her attempts to free their allies was getting nowhere.

"I'll clear a path!" Superboy yelled as he charged into the fray, crashing through the OMAC's with renewed vigor: he'd made it this far, now he'd prove that the others had been right to have faith in him…!

Nightwing was avoiding the battle mostly, as Superboy, Donar, and Wonder Girl clashed with the OMAC defenders…as he had ordered. Distracted away from him. Nightwing was clambering up the Tower, heading for his target.

But he was too late.

---

The planets touched…and began to merge.

And on those planets, some felt the effects more then others.

"AIIIIIIIRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The Elementals screamed: they all, as it turned out, had counterparts on Earth-3, even the Air Elemental, and now they were being forcibly merged with them, as the JSA, the Scientist, and Sophie watched in utter horror.

Elsewhere, Owlman and Johnny Quick found themselves doing the same as the forms of their fellows Ultraman and Superwoman and that of their great enemy Lex Luthor seemed to magically appear before them being twisted into the bodies of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Kal-L. It was a hideous process, and the three were clearly in utter agony, crying out at this blasphemy of nature and life.

---

Alexander Luthor was heedless to their torment: it was just growing pain. It was for the best.

Even though the whole process seemed to resist him. But he pressed on, merging the planets, it would work…

"It HAS to work." Alexander said. "For the sake of REALITY."

---

Ion saw the merger as his troops gathered around him. And he knew this was it.

"Oh please don't let me be too late…" Ion said.

---

The power of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man was immense: the ability to manipulate matter itself, among others. Perhaps to contain all this power, Firestorm had rarely been just one man: he had been created when a nuclear accident had fused teenager Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize winning physics professor Martin Stein into a single being. This puzzle piece nature had continued through Firestorm's subsequent changes and rebirths. Recently, Ronnie Raymond had died, and his talent had been granted to a new man named Jason Rusch. Jason had been fused with his friend Mick to form Firestorm when Donna Troy had called on his aid, but the battles in space as Alexander Luthor had begun the final stages of his plan had disrupted the merging and nearly killed The Nuclear Man. In the end Jason had lost his friend Mick, but Firestorm had been reborn once more as Dr. Martin Stein returned to the merger. Now Jason Rusch was in space, readying for his part in the group attack.

Jason was still very new to the hero business though, and hence Stein served as his advisor. And the boon of that would become clear.

"Jason, look at the molecular structure of our target. Those hands are made up of something called antimatter." Stein said in Jason's head.

"What? Then why aren't we blowing up?"

"This does not appear to be the type of antimatter that would cause violent reactions when exposed to our natural positive matter."

"So what do I do Professor?"

"FIRE!" Ion yelled, and a myriad of blasts flew down towards the hand, Firestorm's among them.

"Jason! Don't just shoot! Reach out…change the Starbolts and the lightning-change everything they're throwing at it-into raw positive matter!"

"Ok!" Jason said, as he reached out, seized the energy with his mind…and transformed it, as all the blasts combined together as they struck the gigantic hand.

With cataclysmic consequences, as an explosion big enough to vaporize a continent erupted from the impact point, and then the hand jerked back, even as another explosion of brilliant light erupted from the rift and slammed into the group, hurling everyone away.

---

"ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Alexander howled in pain as he jerked his hand back out: his index finger was gone, blown clean off. Those so called superheroes had hurt him! Crippled him! And they'd screwed up his merging, as he looked back to his rift and saw that the two Earths, no longer being forced together, has separated and drifted back into the masses of other Earths, hiding among them.

Alexander grit his teeth in utter fury. Did they think they would get away with this?

---

Earth-2.

"What…what was that?" Wonder Woman said: a moment ago she had been in agonizing pain and now she was back in the ruins of Metropolis without a wound on her.

"Alex nearly merged Earth-2 with another." Kal-L said: he and Superman were likewise all right. "But we're out of his grasp. Something stopped him."

---

Space.

"Ugh." Ion said, as he shook his head: that had been one hell of a backlash…

And as Ion realized it, not everyone was with him, as he looked around.

"Where is everyone…"

"Do a head count…"

"Caught in that blast…"

"…all gone…?"

"What happened?" Ion said. "Where did they all go?"

---

Earth-1.

Blades, one metal and one energy, clashed together.

Savior had pulled out another old trick: by densely concentrating Shimmer energy he could form a weapon (in this case a sword) that would be immune to the Shimmer's usual blade weaknesses. This S4 (Shimmer Super Strand Sword) had other perks: it had no weight, Savior couldn't be disarmed like he could if he had a normal sword, and linked with its host it allowed Savior a near-sixth sense when it came to protecting his body.

And even with all those advantages…Savior was still losing.

The gulf between Savior and Slade, despite Savior's powers, was never more apparent: Savior had only inflicted a few light blows on Slade, while Slade had inflicted several more far effective blows…including slamming his foot into Savior's chest, as Savior stumbled back, hitting one of the ice chunks that had fallen down into this pit and impaled in the ice floor. His right arm felt like it was on fire: Slade's sword slash near the elbow was slowly causing it to grow more and more pained as Savior tried to use the arm.

"I will give you one thing Collins, you handle a blade well for an amateur." Slade said, as he leapt in and slashed. Savior slid to the ground as the blade cleaved through the ice, and kicked for Slade's gut, but Slade caught the leg and yanked backwards and up, throwing Savior up as he crashed into the ice chunk again, nearly landing on his head as he hit the ground.

Slade's sword stabbed down.

Savior blocked without looking, the sixth sense saving him as he extended the blade and stabbed at Slade, forcing him to back up as Savior leapt to his feet and attacked. The blades clashed, again and again, the sound echoing off the inner walls of the chamber as various reflections of the pair danced across certain ice surfaces.

Savior finally got a good hit in, knocking Slade's sword away and causing him to lose his grip on it with one hand, as Savior lunged for the opening, but Slade did an expert upward leap forward, just going over Savior's sword as he slammed a hand on one of Savior's shoulders and flipped over him. Savior didn't give him enough time to stab him in the back though, as he whirled and slashed, only to find that was just what Slade had planned: instead of going for an immediate attack he dropped low to the ground, and as Savior whirled around he exposed himself, as Slade slashed out his sword and sliced across the back of Savior's knee. Savior yelled in pain, but he managed to turn around to stop Slade's follow up stab, though he stumbled back and fell, his left leg giving out.

"Hmmmmmm. That wasn't as deep as I wanted, but you certainly seem to be feeling it Collins." Slade said.

Savior pulled himself to his feet, the same burning feeling going down his leg now. Son of a bitch…

"Well Slade, if this is the best you can do, you're slipping, old man!" Savior said, and charged.

Slade got into combat position as Savior ran at him…and then leapt away as Shimmer strands exploded from the ground below him. He slashed at them, and Savior jerked them away in a panic…and left himself open again as Slade's sword slashed into and cut deep into his forearm. Savior yelled again, this time with a more howling animal quality, as he tried to turn, and then Slade's fist slammed into his chin and knocked him to the ground again.

"I could have stuck this in your throat, you know." Slade said, as he held out his arm and partially withdrew a concealed dagger from beneath his wrist before slipping it back in. "But I chose not to, because I feel you haven't fully learned your lesson yet."

"Oh how nice…but I've been out of school for a while now Slade." Savior said as he somehow got up. He used the Shimmer to brace his new wounds, and even then it was clear both his arms and his leg weren't at 100 percent.

"The hardest lessons are the ones life teaches. And I'm afraid you never learned the proper rules about survival, Collins." Slade said, as he charged.

Savior met his charge, forming his sword once more…

And then leaping to the side, as he sliced off the top of another chunk of ice and seized it with a Shimmer strand, hurling it at Slade.

One fierce slash from the assassin smashed it to pieces, the parts splattering Slade as he recoiled a bit, quickly brushing his mask off as he…

Gone.

Savior was gone.

Slade immediately went still, listening, his eye darting around…

He heard it, a cracking noise, but the chamber was echoing it, he couldn't quite place it, as he looked around: not hiding around him, behind him, above…

Slade whirled and slammed his sword up as Savior leapt off the wall and slashed down. Their blades met.

And Shimmer strands flew from Savior's knees in mid-air and slammed into Slade's face. He staggered back, as Savior bounced off from the blow. Slade immediately went on the attack again, but Savior just leapt away, bouncing off an ice chunk and leaping to the wall, as Shimmer strands dug into it and he rapidly spiderwalked (heh) across the icy surface of it.

His eye narrowed, and Slade gave chase, as he sprinted after Savior, leaping up and slashing for him, but Savior sprung off the wall towards the ground before Slade reached him, and even as Slade's sword dug into the ice Savior bounced off the ground at a severe angle and lanced back, one foot slamming into Slade's back and smashing him into the wall. Savior bounced off the impact and bounded away, as Slade landed, clutching his chest and glaring.

"Oh you think you're clever." Slade said, as he snatched up his sword and gave chase.

Savior didn't know about clever, but he thought he'd hit on something. Their previous battleground, on top of the ice tower, had been too wide and open for what Savior was doing now, but inside it, with the walls and the large amounts of ice junk lying around, Savior could bounce around like an out of control pinball.

And he aimed to score all his points off Slade, as he rapidly leapt from ice chunk to ice chunk, his limbs still aching but the pain muted by battle-fueled adrenaline, and then lanced at Slade, who slashed up his sword to meet him.

Savior stopped dead three feet from the assassin, his Shimmer having grabbed the ground, and as Slade tried to interrupt his current slash the Shimmer threw Savior to the side, where he bounced off another ice chunk and flew at Slade, slamming a punch across his face as he flew on, avoiding Slade's retaliatory slash as he bounced off another ice chunk and flew to the wall, where he rapidly scrambled around the room, keeping out of Slade's reach: without the shotgun he had no distance attacks and he apparently didn't want to risk a grenade in the chance the floor could give out again.

Slade gave no indication he was frustrated though, as he leapt away from a Shimmer lash and found himself near the center of the room, as Savior rapidly raced around the chamber, like a bat out of hell…

And then, with one final bounce off the wall, Savior leapt high into the air. For a moment Slade though he was going to jump out the hole in the top and run away.

Then the upward momentum stopped, and Savior fell down towards Slade.

Slade had a feeling he wasn't just going to try pouncing on him again…

And he was right, as Shimmer strands suddenly shot out from Savior's hands. But not at Slade.

They buried themselves in the ground on either side from Slade, several feet away from them so he couldn't just slash out and catch one.

Not that he had time, as the Shimmer strands yanked as hard as they could, sending Savior firing down at him like a meteor.

Savior's feet slammed into Slade's sword, and though Slade had stopped the blow he felt the impact slam through him, stunning him for half a second…

As Savior flipped off the impact and slammed both feet into Slade's back. Slade flew forward, crashing into an ice chunk and partially shattering it from the impact.

Savior lowered himself down to the ground, trying to hide the fact that his legs were so sore from that stunt he couldn't put weight on them.

Slade shoved himself off the ice chunk, turning around as he blinked a few times. Damn, he'd somewhat underestimated how much Savior had left. He hated when he did that, especially with children. Though the only children that had ever happened with was the Titans.

Always the Titans.

"I will give you compliments for that maneuver Collins, but that doesn't change how this will end." Slade said, as he brought his sword back up, his brain already adapting to Savior's bounce and strike style. "And believe me, it will end soon."

"You have no idea how right you are." Savior said, and leapt forward.

Slade ran to meet him, but only a step, stopping as he waited for Savior to abruptly switch directions.

And he did, via another hard yank that ricocheted him into an ice piece, and then across at another, then back the way he came, up to a wall, off the wall, off another ice chunk, off another, and then directly at Slade, Slade having followed each movement and preparing as he slashed out.

He was an almost perfect counter, except for one thing: Slade's blade strike was designed to catch Savior with an upper slash if he went for Slade's chest and head, or a lower one if he went for his knees.

Savior went for door number 3, Slade's waist, as he shot out a Shimmer strand. Slade felt it punch into his side, and he snarled and tried to adjust his slash, but it was too late as Savior bounced away from him, Slade feeling a hard yank…

And then a clatter of something metallic on the ice nearby.

Slade's eye quickly found it, and it widened when it did.

A pin.

Savior had activated one of his remaining grenades!

Savior landed nearby as Slade dropped his sword and pawed at his belt, trying to find which grenade had been armed, his fingers expertly feeling over them within a second and locating the activated one, as Slade yanked it off and hurled it…

It didn't exactly go off in Slade's face, but it was still far too close, as it sprayed Slade with shrapnel and hurled him backwards, as he crashed into the ice chunk he'd slammed into earlier and completely shattered it this time, as he landed on his back with a loud thud.

But he was swiftly up, his eye blazing with hate, where was that Collins, he would rip his heart out with his bare hands…

Slade found out.

Savior had started bouncing even before the grenade had gone off, and as Slade got up he landed on the wall behind Slade, and with as mighty a push he could muster he flew off.

Slade felt the impact in the back of his knee as Savior slammed a Shimmer strand into it, and even as Slade staggered Savior arrived himself, as he slammed his foot into the back of Slade's head and neck.

Slade pitched forward onto his hands and knees, falling among the shattered pieces of the ice chunk

As Savior flipped and landed in front of him, his back to Slade. No more playing around.

He twisted as he swung his leg out and then up, aiming his heel kick right for Slade's face…

As Slade reared up and rammed the dagger of ice he'd grabbed off the ground deep into Savior's leg.

"AAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYRRRRUUUIAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Savior shrieked, as he stumbled away, falling on his face as he agonized, reaching for his leg, finding the shard of ice buried straight into his heel, his leg feeling like it was going to explode…

"Heh. I felt the tendon snap." Slade said as he got up. "You put too much effort into impact, Collins, failed to cover your blind spot. I thought you knew better."

"RAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Savior snarled as he yanked the shard out, the Shimmer rushing to staunch the blood flow.

"You just added unnecessarily to your pain Collins." Slade said, as he picked up his fallen sword. "Even if you try and brace yourself, you can barely manage to stand. Just stay down. It's over."

Savior made a few more whimpering cries…and then his eyes grew as hard as steel.

More Shimmer strands shot out, bracing Savior as he slowly stood…but it was clear his balance was tentative at best.

"Pain…is weakness…leaving the body." Savior said, as he snapped out his arm. His S4 returned. Slade arched an eyebrow. The Titan was going to try and keep fighting?…What should he have expected, after all. "And it's not, over yet, Slade."

"You really are foolish for someone who claims to be bright." Slade said.

"Pot, kettle, BLACK!" Savior yelled, as he surged forward, riding the Shimmer as he could no longer run, but he could still swing. Slade just chuckled to himself and brought his blade up.

The two slammed together, as the Titan and assassin dueled once more, but it was clear Slade wasn't putting everything he could into it, as he blocked and deflected all of Savior's attacks with one sword arm, as the two fought across the floor, their reflections dancing…

Slade dodged an upward slash by jumping back, whirled his sword around a bit, and then slashed out. Savior blocked in turn, and then, in an amazing move considering his severed Achilles' tendon, he whirled in mid-block, deflecting Slade's sword away from him and exposing his left flank, as Savior made a desperation lunge…

As Slade dropped his sword and dodged away, Savior going past Slade as Slade zipped back in and clamped his right arm down around Savior's own right one, as Savior's eyes went wide.

"Agony is what remains." Slade said, and broke Savior's arm so fiercely the bone punched through the skin. Savior howled in pain, and then Slade whirled a bit and slammed his left fist into Savior's face, throwing him to the ground, a wreck.

"You know, none of this is real." Slade said, as he picked up his sword. "You never recovered from what I did to you back in Los Angeles. You're still locked in some rubber room, tied up in a straightjacket, drooling on the ground while urine and feces accumulates within your diaper, utterly lost in the world you've dreamt for yourself because you could no longer face what a failure you were in reality. Except you're a failure in this one too, Collins. Time to wake up and smell the catatonia."

Savior could only stare, as slight tears leaked from his eyes from the pain…or maybe something else.

"You know the truth Collins. Accept it. Time to go into oblivion." Slade said.

The two looked at each other.

And then…Savior somehow managed a snicker.

"Maybe you shouldn't…tell me this is a world of my making Slade…" Savior said, as the Shimmer surged up around him and began pushing him back up. "Because if this is really…all inside my own head…then I'm damn sure not going to lose. And if it's reality as I know it, well…maybe the same can be said."

Slade chuckled himself.

"Your ability to deny amazes even myself, Collins. But even you have your limits. They are reached." Slade said. "Your right side is useless. Your left has its own grievous wounds. You've lost at least a pint of blood, and are one impact away from passing out from the pain. There are no more tricks or tactics you can use with your power to save yourself. What can you possibly give?"

Savior looked at Slade.

And then he held his left arm out, and once again, his S4 formed.

"More." Savior said. "Come on Slade. Aren't you still harboring the delusion I killed your son?"

"You WILL eat those words." Slade said calmly, and gestured with his sword.

And Savior attacked, a jerky, almost comical parody of himself, but he would not stop, as Slade effortlessly blocked his attacks, moving backwards only because he wanted to, as Savior stumbled after him, slashing desperately, as if hoping for a miracle, Slade blocking every swing with ease…

Until Savior finally did a half-hearted leap forward, trying to get past Slade's guard…

Slade slashed upward, knocking Savior's arm away, and then spun around as Savior fell to the ground, twirling his sword and then thrusting with it.

Savior's eyes widened as the end stabbed into his throat.

And stopped there, the tip just having barely pierced the skin.

Savior blinked.

"And that, Collins, is game." Slade said.

---

No one was coming to save Noel.

Potent and Brick Wall still struggled against the unstoppable General, while the rest of the group waged a furious last stand as the OMAC's swarmed around them. And at the Tower, Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Donar fought their own OMAC's.

And Alexander Luthor looked upon the Earths in the rift before him with furious hate, enraged that he had been so hurt and interrupted.

"Was this YOUR doing, Superman?" Alexander growled, as he mentally expanded the void, his eyes hunting for his target. "I'll find Earth-2 again. I'll pull it back to my petri dish. And I'll crush…"

And Nightwing dove, swinging on his grapple line as he slammed into Alex Luthor, kicking him from his floating platform as Alexander went into free fall.

As Superboy finally pushed through the defenses and lashed out, hands sinking and tearing into golden metal.

"Hnnf." Alexander grunted as he hit the ground at the base of his Tower: what had happened? How could things go so bad so quickly? But it didn't matter, he was still in control, he…

"Alex." Came a voice, and Alexander turned to face it, the rage still etched in his face…

Which slackened as he saw it.

They were free.

His original keys, plugged into the Tower to help him with the first steps of his plan.

Breach from Earth-8.

Nightshade from Earth-4.

Lady Quark from Earth-6.

The Ray, his grandfather from Earth-X.

And Power Girl, from Earth-2, in the lead and looking as pissed as Alex was.

And they were all heading for him.

"You have a lot to answer for." Power Girl said, as they charged.

---

"Come on. Up." Slade said calmly, and Savior found himself getting to his feet (well, more like the Shimmer pushing and holding him up). He had no choice.

Slade very carefully walked around Savior so he was standing in front of him, adjusting his wrist so his sword remained firm against the soft tissue of Noel's windpipe. They had almost reached the wall of the ice chamber they were in before Slade had claimed the final win, and Noel stood with his back to the ice.

"…All right then. You've won. Finish it." Noel said, trying to sound defiant. It didn't exactly work.

"Not yet Collins. There's one last thing you need to know." Slade said. "I know what you planned."

"…What?" Savior said.

"Come now Collins. You are not the only one to study his opponents inside and out. Attacking me by yourself? That simply is not you. And your words clenched it: you didn't have to win, you just had to see that I lost." Slade said. "I know what your power can do, Collins. With you…and apart from you. You thought that even if I beat you, killed you, it could emerge and avenge your death, letting it tear me apart. A very nice trick…but not one that would work on me, Noel. You should have known that."

"So what are you going to do? Leave me here, broken and humiliated, try again in ten years?" Savior snapped.

"No Collins. Like I said, I know what you are capable of, and I prepared accordingly." Slade said, and pressed a button on his sword.

Electricity immediately began to crackle on the blade, though it did not reach the tip or the hilt, as Savior's eyes widened again.

"Your power can resist electricity…but your power also comes from your nervous system. Those nerves use electricity to communicate. So I gathered that the insulation comes not from your power itself, but its surface. And using that information, I prepared myself." Slade said. "Even if you attack me now in one final gasp, you can't stop my blade from piercing your brain. Once it does, it will unleash a jolt of power so strong your tissues and nerves will be instantly overloaded and destroyed. This same jolt will also stun your talent, because its surface insulation will be irrelevant in there. This holt will render it useless for several minutes, and while it is helpless your dead nervous system will act like tar, dragging it down. By the time it revives itself, it will be trapped, unable to escape your body, where it will die…along with you. So even your final ploy is a failure, Collins. I do not use such words lightly. You have lost. In every way." Slade said.

It was truly a great sight to see hope dying in the eyes of a foe. Slade had seen it once with Savior, and now he got to see it again. Lovely.

"So Collins…here is your final gift: your last words. Pick them well."

"…'It is well that I die hard, but I am not afraid to go.'" Savior said, as he tried to match his face to the words. Slade chuckled again.

"George Washington. It figures. Even on the edge of death, you can't say anything original, instead choosing the words of others. That is quite a way to go." Slade said, as he began to push.

"…Mercy."

"What?" Slade said. "You want mercy?"

"If but for a few seconds. Let me try last words again. Please."

"…Let it not be said I am unnecessarily cruel." Slade said. "Come Collins. Make them good."

Savior slowly closed his eyes.

And then opened them again…and something was off. Slade narrowed his eye, just a bit. He seemed a bit more…at peace. Of course that could just be acceptance of death, but…

"…Heh." Savior said. "Funny. There are so many things I could say…but the only thing I can think of isn't original either."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Slade asked.

Savior chuckled again, and then opened his eyes wide as he glared at Slade.

"I WOULDN'T STAND THERE IF I WERE YOU."

The explosion erupted from the wall behind Savior, consuming him and Slade, and Slade found himself torn away before he could make the fatal push with his sword, hurled backwards, as he snarled and recovered, flipping to his feet and crouching as he prepared himself, ice chunks scattering around him…

And then his eye widened.

Dark power, pulsing and glow, where Savior had once been.

Power that swiftly drew away.

"…No." Slade said.

---

Great power, granted by a mother's final gift.

An artifact, made by her fellows, the essence of them, able to call to them, find them, let them know…bring them together.

And a beacon…and there is no greater then a loved one's pain.

As Raven drew back her cloak to let the Titans out, as they stood before Slade, all called by Raven, her warping talents greatly enhanced and put to good use.

The Titans were together again.

"Hello Slade." Robin said as he pulled out his staff. "We'd like a word."

---

Next:

The Titans.

Slade.

Their final battle.

Nuff said.