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.

15. The Dark Age: Paint It Black

The Dark Age: Paint It Black

Once, long ago, John Henry Irons had taken up his hammer and armor to defend his corner of the world. Circumstances had arranged it so no one else could seemingly protect his part of Metropolis, so Irons had done it himself. It had been the start of a long twisted road, one that had seen him nearly lose his life and his soul. In the end, he had retired, passing his name and armor down to his niece.

He shown have known better. In a way, he did. No hero ever retired for good, and as Metropolis had come under siege once more, Irons had donned the armor he'd kept aside once more and gone out to do his duty.

A fragment of Churchill echoed in his head: Men will say, 'this was their finest hour'…

Perhaps their blackest as well, as the Lord leapt backwards in a whirling dervish of death, knocking away Breach and Firehawk before landing on a piece of rubble and leaping backwards again. A circle of black energy blasts appeared around him, spinning briefly as the Lord leapt backwards once more, slashing out with his sword: the blasts went flying up and swiftly came crashing down, exploding across the ground and sending heroes and villains flying.

Steel rode it out: he also remembered another fragment of World War II. Fighting a war on two fronts was suicide. And this battle has a lot more than two fronts, as more heroes leapt to attack the Lord.

Bulleteer flew in, metal fists at the ready, but the Lord saw her coming and met her with a whirling blade. The cruel cutting weapon spun like a cuisinart, as he slammed it into her and sent her flying away in a spray of shredded costume and smartskin. Not learning from her example, the villain Torpedo Man also flew in afterward…and met the other spinning blade, which reduced him to bloody scrap metal.

"Idiots." The Lord said, actually taking a moment to wipe blood from his face.

Bad move, as Steel made his own with Nastasha, the two of them flying in from each side and hurling their hammers in perfect synchronization. The hammers smashed into the Lord's upper set of arms, snapping the hands right off and cutting off the two whirring blades above him. The twin hammers electronically returned to their wielders, and both Steels charged in, pistoning their weapons to crush the Lord's head between them.

Too slowly, as he blurred away. Unfortunately, it was not to retreat.

"And you're not exempt!" The Lord said, as he grabbed both hammers. Before the two armored heroes could react, the Lord countered, sending blasts of dark energy crackling down the weapons and into their armors, the power surging through them and scrambling their systems. The process not only hurt like hell, it also had the downside of locking their hands onto their weapons, as the Lord yanked up the hammers and lashed down, smashing both Steels into the ground with a bone-breaking impact, twin small craters left in the ground from the attack.

"Worthless…" The Lord said, raising a hand to finish the job.

"BACK OFF ASSHOLE!" Loose Cannon yelled as he slammed into the Lord, the seven-foot purple skinned giant and the Lord tumbling briefly along the ground before Loose Cannon took the blast the Lord had intended for the Steels. Said blast blew Loose Cannon into a pile of rubble, even as the Lord flipped and lanced up and off of the ground, showing a terrifying awareness of his surroundings as he went smashing into the giant Elast-Girl's sternum, sending her staggering back and collapsing onto the shattered streets of Metropolis.

"RITA!" Negative Man yelled, dropping down near her from another piece of rubble. His only response was a groan, as the Lord flew back into the air. Negative Man looked briefly at his fallen long-time companion, and then with an angry growl, he met him there, focusing and letting loose his 'negative soul'. The black energy being flew out and rammed into the Lord, his radioactive fingers wrapping around the Lord's throat even as he twisted his malleable body around him like an irradiated anaconda. "BURN!"

"There's no fire…you could ever…HOPE TO MUSTER…" The Lord snarled, though he clearly wasn't ignoring Negative Man's crushing wrap; wisps of smoke were rising from his body, even as the shadow god began slashing at the 'soul-being' with his weapons and found they didn't work very well. "Get off!"

"No!"

"GET OFF!"

"NEVER!"

"I SAID GET OFF!" The Lord bellowed as he emitted a gigantic pulse of black energy that blew Negative Man's soul-form right off of him, the ragged pieces retreating to Larry Trainer's body. The Lord growled to himself, and then slashed out with his clawed arms, sending a spraying of cutting black blades after the entity.

"NO!" Robotman said, getting in the way of the attack. One blade sliced his arm off, while the other took off a chunk of his head, but he successfully protected his teammate's softer form.

He didn't protect Lock-Up, who took a blade to the chest and was cleaved clean in half. Though if asked, Cliff Steel would have likely told the person he didn't give a damn.

"Who's next?" The Lord said.

Mary Marvel prompt axe-handled the Lord right into the ground.

"Oh, you. Back for more you…?" The Lord said as he began getting up.

Firehawk returned as well, sending another spear of flame into the Lord's body as he was driven backwards. He snarled and retaliated with his own spear of dark energy, blowing Firehawk backwards into Mary Marvel through another wrecked building.

The Lord had a moment to briefly glance at his hand again before a staff smashed over his head.

"Here come the DNAngels punk-ass!" The black female staff wielder yelled, as an Asian girl blazed up to the Lord with non-Speed Force superspeed and hit him with a combined superstrong/telekinetic blow that floored the shadow god, sending him backwards into the kick of a short-haired blonde girl. The Lord flew through the air some more from the kick before smashing through some rubble, even as the black girl hurled her staff after him; he recovered from the previous blows just in time for it to nail him right between the eyes. The weapon bounced off, as The Lord went staggering back again.

"Ah, I think I…" The Lord said, before a combined telekinesis attack took him completely off his feet and then pancaked him into the ground in a quick one-two shot. "Yes, those are definitely Kon-El's genes. So you have his tactile telekinesis, do you? Well…do you have anything else?

"COME AND SEE!" The blonde-haired DNAngel yelled as the three charged in. The Lord flipped up to his feet, leaping backwards as they closed in.

"WE'LL KICK YOUR ASS!" The black one added.

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" The Asian one finished. "GIVE UP!"

"…no I won't. No you won't. No I'm not. No."

The Lord promptly stopped on a dime, slamming his hands down. An eruption of black explosions tore up the ground towards the three young heroes; now it was their turn to fly backwards, as they slammed on the brakes and retreated away from the attack…

The Lord flew up in turn; they weren't the only ones who could one-two assaults, as he thrust out his right hand. A massive spray of blasts flew from it, exploding all around the DNAngels, the three girls trying to defend themselves…

None of them saw it was coming until it was too late, as the gigantic black energy ball bloomed into existence behind them.

"WHAT THE…!?!"

"It's called dying." The Lord said, as he whirled around and snapped his fingers.

He preferred one-two-three attacks himself.

The blast consumed the DNAngels with a scream, blasting a smoke cloud into the air and blowing shrapnel and debris in all directions, the wind buffeting the Lord's cape as he stood there. A smoking blackened boot, the foot still inside, bounced past him, as he cracked his neck.

"I do hate knock offs."

"HOW ABOUT KNOCK YOUR BLOCK OFFS!" Loose Cannon roared as he returned, slamming his now-purple fist into the Lord's face and sending him staggering backwards.

"I like that just fine!" Robotman echoed, coming up from behind the staggering Lord, grabbing him by the head, and smashing him face-first into the ground.

Said ground ate the Lord's reply, which happened to be 'Very poor choice of maneuvers'.

His curved claw-blade promptly sliced off Robotman's other arm.

"Lo, Hemingway." The Lord said as he surged up, seized Robotman, and hurled him into Loose Cannon like a javelin. "If you lack the intellect to get that…"

Mary Marvel slammed into the Lord again, cutting off his comment, and the two proceeded to brawl across the shattered streets.

---

"Come on Hero, turn into something with solar powers!" Sparx said, as she approached the battle between the Lord and the World's Mightest Girl. Her companion, the oddly named Hero Cruz, grunted in reply. She smacked him on the shoulder in return, a family gesture from their old days on the Ravers, a lifetime ago.

"Not my decision, D.C. It's all in the spin." Hero replied, as he removed the H.E.R.O device from his belt. He also recognized the familiar feelings, in better days, on an endless party. "Okay buddy, don't let me down…"

H. E. R…

The Lord was not aware of the two: he was busy seizing Mary Marvel, swinging her up, and smashing her into the ground. A golden flash erupted near him, but he ignored that was well, spinning and hurled Mary Marvel's limp form into the air. Holding one arm out from the throw, he brought his other behind his back, charging up a blast to fire after her…

The golden energy bolt cut him off, exploding on his upper body and drawing a snarling scream as he turned to face it, along with the man with golden armor and massive projectile weapons attacked to both arms who had fired it.

"Yeah man! Time for you to mess with Gun Of A Sun!" Hero said.

For a moment, the battlefield went dead silent.

"…WHAT?" Sparx said.

"WHAT?" The Lord said.

"WHAT?" Negative Man said as he lay nearby.

"WHAT?" Breach said as he returned.

"Hey man, you try and come up with fresh names at a drop of a hat!" Hero snapped, as he aimed his namesakes at the Lord and fired again. The Lord leapt into the air to dodge, only to immediately be slammed back down into the ground as Sparx called down a lightning bolt on him. Hero promptly blasted him with more solar energy shots, yelling wordlessly all the while.

"That's right! How's it feel, you bastard? HOW'S IT FEEL! HOW'S IT FEEL!" Sparx screamed, providing the actual words.

"LOOK OUT!" Negative Man yelled.

The blade of shadow erupted from the ground, spearing into Hero's gut as he gasped in shock. Sparx screamed as the Lord slid up, the shadow tendril ripping up from under the street, as the Lord yanked Hero back towards him.

"You tell me." The Lord said to Sparx.

Never taunt the Lord.

He would go out of his way to make you eat your words.

And make them as bitter as possible.

In a flash of power, Hero exploded in the Lord's grip, blood and body parts spraying everywhere. Sparx let out a horrified wail, putting her hands to her face in sheer aghast disbelief.

"Well?" The Lord said.

Sparx screamed and raised her arms again.

The Lord just turned and snapped his fingers. Sparx was consumed by a gigantic underground explosion, her cry of agony vanishing like her silhouette.

"YOU BASTARDDDDDDDDDD….!" Breach screamed as he flew in in turn. Right into the Lord's curved blade arms, as they pinned him to a nearby piece of rubble.

"I thought that was established." The Lord said, and fired another blast that blew Breach through the rubble and into another mass of it that buried him beneath its weight.

"Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret!"

The use of Latin would have caught the Lord's attention regardless of the situation, as he turned around.

The blazing energy sword sliced down across his body, cutting clear through one of his curved blade arms and slicing a long wound across his chest. It was not Zauriel who had returned though, but another man in golden armor, a high tech version of Roman Centurion armor to be precise.

"Your cruelties do not impress me, infernal demonspawn! INTERETE!" The Alpha Centurion yelled, slashing at the Lord with his energy sword again. The Lord dodged aside this time, retaliating with his own sword. A shield of energy appearing on the Alpha Centurion's other arm blocked that blow, as the Alpha Centurion spun off the strike, ducked in, and stabbed the Lord right in the throat.

"GUH…grrrruuahh….heh heh heh heh." The Lord said, pulling back from the attack as his wound closed up. "A timelost warrior…Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem."

"Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nini insipient is in errore perseverare." The Alpha Centurion replied.

"Touché." The Lord said, and slashed out with his curved blades. The Alpha Centurion blocked them once more. The two briefly dueled before the superior power became clear, as a combined sword/curved blade shot to the shield knocked the Alpha Centurion to the ground, leaving him wide open. An opening the Lord went straight for…

Somehow, over all the chaos of the battle, the gunshots sounded, as The Lord doubled over, knocked out of his attack and clutching his chest.

"What the devil…" The Lord said, before one last bullet flew and exploded through his head, sending him staggering to the side.

"Nice shot lady." Wild Dog said, and he, Agent Liberty, and Deadlock opened fire with their own guns. Unlike Crimson Avenger's, theirs were not magical, but the Lord was still clearly feeling the effects of them, as the ordinary bullets tore through him. The Alpha Centurion added his efforts by slashing off the other curved blade arm, even as Firehawk returned again and smashed the Lord with another spear of flame.

"GET HIM! GET HIM!" Sparx screamed, having returned from her not-quite-death as well madder then ever. She continued her own blast of lightning to the assault, as both Steels returned and shot bolts of force from their hammers, adding to the overwhelming barrage of power that was being brought to bear on the Lord's head in turn. The Lord fell to his knees, the attacks exploding on and through him. "KILL HIM!"

Maybe he should have put more behind that eruption attack.

"…heh…hah…ha ha…vita incerta…"

Easily fixed regardless.

Firehawk blasted another spear of flame at the Lord.

He thrust out his arm in turn, the fire flying into a crackling black orb, as the Lord spun and hurled it at the Alpha Centurion. He brought up his shield to block it.

Which was exactly what the Lord expected, as he jerked his hand up.

The orb flew up above the Alpha Centurion, completely bypassing his defenses, as the Lord swung his hand down in turn and pointed, his manipulated attack slashing down onto the Alpha Centurion in an explosion of dark fire.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Firehawk screamed in horror, as the Centurion's body crumbled, his upper half scorched to a blackened skeleton.

"MORS CERTISSIMA!" The Lord bellowed, as he thrust up his other hand. A massive magical glyph appeared beneath his feet, moments before a myriad of black orbs surged up from it, arcing black power down. A moment later the earth beneath the Lord exploded in a overwhelming spray of black, corrupted rock, an avalanche in reverse, as the Lord flew up, his power boiling and shooting through the ground.

To him, it was the looks on their faces. He thought they'd have understood that no matter how angry or determined they were, they weren't going to win.

Then again, they were heroes. He might as well have been talking to a wall.

So he'd word it stronger.

"VAE VICTUS!"

The rock sprayed everywhere, slashing across the battlefield and through the heroes around it. The Steels were sent flying, their armor shattering under the assault, as Firehawk, Sparx, Breach, and Negative Man were knocked from the sky. The Crimson Avenger took a shard full to the face, her intangibility not working on the magic-cursed rock, even as another shard ripped apart Agent Liberty's knee and caused him to lose his guarded stance.

Which left him open for the follow up shard that pierced through his chest.

"…I regret…but one life…" Liberty said, and collapsed fully, dead. Wild Dog lay nearby, his own leg broken and his gun shattered to pieces, but alive.

Though apparently not for long, as the Lord floated back down. Wild Dog felt fear flood him, but the Lord didn't seem to notice the vigilante. He took the chance to crawl away, his heart cursing his brain's overwhelming urge to flee.

"You think I don't notice you?" The Lord said.

Wild Dog's chest went as cold as ice.

"You're just not worth line of sight." The Lord said, aiming towards Wild Dog even as he looked at the horizon.

Strangely, not where he should have been looking.

Another pile of rubble exploded across the battlefield, as Loose Cannon returned. No longer blue, no longer purple, his skin had gone a piercing white color. Like a hero from another universe, his power increased with rage, and he was completely out of his mind with it now, as the Lord turned to face him.

"I assume you still don't much like me." The Lord said. Loose Cannon snarled a wordless noise of rage in reply. Wild Dog wished he could help, but he knew he had no place in what was about to happen, as he began crawling away again, promising that if he survived the day, he'd find a way to make up for his cowardice.

"That's fine. I didn't like you to begin with." The Lord said, still speaking to Loose Cannon as he raised his hand. A shifting ball of black smoke whisping into existence above it.

"GRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR……..!!!!!!!!!!" Loose Cannon roared, as he charged at the Lord.

The Lord did not move, as slashing tendrils of energy entered his floating sphere, moments before it flew down into his hand proper, his fingers closing and black rays of power shooting from between them.

Loose Cannon closed in, his footsteps like thunder.

The Lord's attack made no noise, as he hurled what looked like a cloud of sparkling obsidian dust at Loose Cannon. It struck him in the chest…and did nothing, as Loose Cannon drew the last bit of distance and smashed out with his pumpkin sized fist.

The Lord took it full on, to the face.

He did not move.

The ground beneath him moved instead, shattering in a fifty square foot radius as the Lord re-directed the kinetic energy of the attack through his body and out of him, like a lightning rod grounding its namesake. That was the problem of announcing your attack to overtly. Sometimes it didn't work out so well.

Loose Cannon blinked with dull, uncomprehending eyes.

Which widened in sudden shock and horror, as black energy suddenly streamed from within his mouth.

"Haauugghh…won't…let…you…" Loose Cannon rasped.

"Unlikely." The Lord said.

The power exploded out of Loose Cannon's back, his whole posterior disintegrating as terrible, destroying force erupted from within him. Loose Cannon stepped back, his last scream swallowed as the Lord's entropic energies reduced him to nothing, his body falling apart and vanishing on the wind.

The Lord looked at the empty air before coughing briefly, looking down at his body once more. That kinetic re-directing had hurt.

It shouldn't have hurt.

Though considering all his enemies lay in broken heaps, that likely was meaningless…likely…

"…well now…anyone else…?" The Lord said, looking around at the destruction he'd created. There was no answer. "No one?"

Silence.

"…I can smell your fear."

The Lord phased to the side, knocking a hunk of rubble away from him…and finding something unexpected. An old man, with a trimmed mustache, in slacks and a cardigan, who looked like he'd be far more at home reading a book in a library than on a superhuman battlefield. The Lord cocked his head.

"…so…you call yourself…Looking Glass…ah, you were an associate of that unfortunate woman I ripped to shreds." The Lord said, reading Dexter 'Looking Glass' Fairfax's mind to figure who he was.

"…Jolt didn't deserve that." Looking Glass replied, as the old man's upper body turned to crystal and he projected the little energy he had at the Lord. It burst on him, barely even producing a smoke cloud as Looking Glass turned back to normal, already exhausted.

"…deserved has nothing to do with it." The Lord said, reaching out and seizing Looking's Glass's chin. "Why don't you do what your young friend never had a chance to do and beg for mercy."

"…no." Looking Glass said, his terrible fear clear under his attempted defiance.

"It would be smart."

"…you're why…I came out here…to help…instead of hiding away my last years…I saw…your breed…nearly destroy the world and shove whole populations into ovens…I will not…give you…the satisfaction…!"

"…hmnn." The Lord said, as he reached up and pressed a finger on Looking Glass's forehead. "As you will. Stand down, old soldier."

A moment later, Looking Glass was dead on the ground, passing quietly from a massive aneurysm.

"Your generation may have had more of it then these ones I exterminate…but the innate failing runs in you all." The Lord said, summoning his cloaks around him anew. "It would depress me if it didn't invoke so much of my rage."

"Hiya Ricky!"

The Lord's head jerked towards the voice, surprised that he hadn't sensed the speaker coming.

Then he saw who it was, and his eyes narrowed. Now he knew, as the young man in a full body black outfit and golden streaks in his hair dropped down from some rubble nearby.

"…Metestasnathean." The Lord said, in a tone that clearly indicated familiarity. "Summer Child."

Adam Matthews, aka Metatron, did not reply to this other name the Lord had addressed him by, as he glanced around for a second, taking in the death and the remains that were visible to him before looking back at the Lord.

"So, we have ourselves a storm of demons, hell on earth, and a black stormy sky to complete this apocalyptic fantasy of yours. I'd have recommended to just, you know, vent your anger by writing crappy fan fiction with ridiculously detailed character torture instead of breaking the planet, but then again, those flamers leave some nasty reviews. So hey, clearly the better choice to destroy the balance of nature. More power to ya." Metatron said, scratching behind one ear.

"As irreverent as always, I see. I should have burned that out of you." The Lord said. "I thought you would know of all people, Halfling. I am what I always was. The hand of the future. The same whisper that drove evolution and civilization, writ large. Nothing more."

"Uh huh. So, you were severely weakened by your fight with Prime then?"

The Lord's eyes narrowed again. He'd always hated that random perspicariousness that Metatron demonstrated, desultory nonsense disguised as double-edged barbs flitting between more babbling drivel. He hated not being able to pin down things, period, and Metatron was very good at refusing to be a butterfly beneath glass.

"Why don't you come and see how 'weak' I am, like the rest of this meat on the ground?" The Lord said, as his curved blades and 'spinning destruction' arms reformed above him.

"Not likely. The stench is strong enough from where I'm standing. I'm not getting closer." Metatron said, tapping his nose. "Strong stuff here. Curse sometimes. But you would know all about that, wouldn't you, Ricky! After all, you have that fun little faux pas deal going on in your insides, hmmmmmmm?"

"If you're bringing up that inevitability again, my answer remains the same: There needeth be…"

"Anyway, I take it that's a no on the weakness. Or you're lying." Metatron interrupted, clearly more interested in some nearby floating dust clouds then the Lord's words. "So, why didn't you just kill them?"

"…your sight may…"

"No no, they're dead." Metatron said, as he stepped closer. "Why TOY with them? Your power hasn't suffered according to you. You could have killed them, all of them, without touching them, quickly and efficiently. Instead you play Hannibal for the cheap power trip of it. Where's the practicality?"

The Lord snorted.

"You should have learned, demonspawn. When it comes to heroes, it's practicality second, and MESSAGE FIRST. AND THIS TIME, THEY WILL UNDERSTAND IT."

"Really? What does it matter what they think? Why do they need to understand your logic? You are going to kill them anyway. Pretty pointless, isn't it?"

"Allow me to give you your much needed point." The Lord said, as barbs formed on his weapons.

"REALLY, Ricky, that just makes it sound as if you can't stop the time consuming maimings in favor of the simple approach, and are desperately trying to come up with something in your view of things to excuse your blatant joy at elaborately painful murder."

"Perhaps I will finally teach you to shut up…"

"Work on that delivery. Makes you sound like a psychopathic killer. You were going for King, right?" Metatron said. "Swing and a miss, hmmm, Ricky? Much like trying to really decide who you are?"

"I KNOW WHAT I AM." The Lord said as he began floating up

"Or not. For all I know, you have changed your vaguely established goals since last time. So what…now you're shooting to be like whatsherface?"
The Lord stopped dead.

Alexander Luthor had managed to make the shadow god look surprised.

Metatron had managed to go even beyond that, as for a small minutae of time, a shadow of a second, a look of gut-wrenching fear swept over the Lord's features.

"Well?" Metatron said.

The Lord had no witty or vicious reply. Instead he just screamed, as power erupted off his body and tore the surrounding block around him into pebbles and dust, a crater burned into the ground beneath the Lord as he thundered the vehement rage that had exploded anew through him. The wind whipped Metatron's hair, but he did not change his expression.

"Say, where's the secret hidden practicality in this tantrum, Ricky?"

The ground tore apart beneath the Lord as he blasted at Metatron, who held out his hands, golden energy alighting beneath his skin, and his lazy grin holding just a hint of the grim determination beneath.

---

Hellhound was aware that his communication button was buzzing, but he ignored it. He'd thought it was a bad idea to get involved in another massive fight after the Arctic disaster, and he'd been right. Things had gone from bad to worse to appalling, and when the Lord had started ripping the group of metas he'd been previously fighting with apart, he'd decided enough was enough and run for his life. Let the Society take over, or die at the hands of that shadow monster, or the shadow clones, he was out of here…

"GET BACK FOUL ENTITIES! YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR THE WIZARD!" The villainous Wizard said as he managed to blow away two Abhorred. He wished he was as confident as he sounded: magic was still stabilizing and it seemed like the only one who'd gotten in on the ground floor was that Lord of Shadows or whatever his name was. Wizard would have to ask him about it later, before he threw him into a torture dimension for insulting him so grievously.

The Wizard spied Hellhound's running form moments before a building collapsed nearby. He threw up a shield to protect himself from the choking dust and was greatly annoyed when it hardly worked, forcing him to float away coughing and startling Hellhound, who nearly kicked him in response.

"Unless you wish to become a toad, mongrel, I would advise against it." Wizard growled.

"You in the Society?"

"Regretfully. No one remembers who came up with the idea…"

Two more figures appeared from the smoke, as Speedy II and III emerged, clearly uncertain where they were.

"OUR ENEMIES! DO SOMETHING HELLHOUND!" Wizard yelled, as he fired a bolt of magical energy at the pair. It came out far slower than he expected, and he cursed as Speedy II dodged and retaliated with an energy arrow, even as Hellhound dodged backwards to avoid a taser arrow from Speedy III…

The ground suddenly thundered, and the twin archers looked back the way they had come from a moment before. With expressions of clear alarm, they began to run towards the two villains; the Wizard hurled some fireballs, but the two archers dodged them and didn't even bother to counter-attack, as they fled around and past the pair of villains.

"What the…" Hellhound said.

"The fledglings have no spine these days! There will be dear consequences…!"

Doomsday emerged from the same direction the archers had, bellowing as he gave chase. The Wizard and Hellhound barely had time to turn around before he plowed through them.

The Wizard had a shield. He still ended up with several broken bones.

Hellhound had nothing.

His shattered form flying through the air, the last thought the villain had was that maybe he'd been better off with the heroes.

Then all was darkness, as both Speedy's fled from Doomsday's terrible wrath, all alone and likely not far behind Hellhound on the afterlife path.

---

"Gyeh…" The Lord said, emerging from his own cloud of dust. "Accursed child, favored of chaos…well, whatever works." The Lord said, as he shook his hand, sparks of golden energy flying off as he tried to rid himself of every last trace.

It wasn't working; the Lord held up his hand to see the golden energy eating into it, burning a hole clear through his palm while one of his fingers simultaneously broke off. This wasn't right. The Summer Child had heat manipulation as a power: despite some of the names he had given his attacks he could not actually manifest solar energy. The fact that his power was proving so vehement spoke of nothing good.

The Lord did some brief mental considerations, and then waved his hand back and forth for a moment: when he stopped, the damage was gone, as was any trace of the golden energy. Nothing to be concerned about. Now, with that settled, it was time for…

More movement. The Lord reformed his sword, once again creating his gigantic double-bladed nodachi, as he reached out towards the sound and used his power to toss the rubble aside.

It was clear from the stance that the person behind it had been attempted pure concealment instead of an ambush, as he slowly stood up, his military fatigues and combat vest clashing with his latex gloves and white face mask.

"…parlay?" The soldier/doctor said, as he took off his mask and waved it like a makeshift flag.

"Ah yes…Dr. Westinghouse, was it?"

"Westminster, sir."

"But of course. Now what are you doing here?"

"Getting dragged along in a massive jailbreak that despite repeated efforts I could not run away from. And then when I finally got into a situation where I could leave my obligations to others and make a tactical withdrawal, I found myself constantly getting turned around. As you might have guessed, I really have no interest in being here."

"Perhaps that's just your poor luck then." The Lord said, as he raised a claw. Dr. Westminster froze.

"…is it really necessary?"

"Do you really enjoy living the way you do? Trapped in that imperfect form, chased by your creators as a mistake, living in constant agony unless you drown yourself in painkillers? In the beginning of this new world, do you really think you have a place?"

"…I don't know. I just know what I'm good at." Westminister said, his tension fading to a more resigned, yet strangely relaxed, state of alertness. "I'd rather you not, but you do what you think you have to. Not like I can stop you, one way or the other."

"Ah yes…finally someone with a clue…" The Lord said, as a ball of killing energy began appearing on his finger. "Sadly, that…"

"LORD!"

The Lord did not immediately turn towards the voice: it was done in the style of getting attention instead of immediately preceding an attack. He waited a few seconds, as Nightwalker appeared from another field of dust, the White Hole slung over her shoulder. It was clear even with the girl's greater than the norm strength that she was exerting all the effort she could to hold the alien up, the mighty warrior nearly completely limp and unresponsive to Nightwalker's words or the Lord's eventual gaze.

"Miss Sine." The Lord said.

"Just stop. You might be all powerful and this world's destined ruler, but once you start being petty, it doesn't matter what happens. You end up scum, one way or another." Nightwalker said. The Lord's black eyes glittered.

"You dare insult me?"

"It's not mockery. It's a reminder of things you surely know." Nightwalker said.

"What I know is, there's too much bite in your words, young lady. You may have proven worthy of my sword…but my hand is a wholly different manner." The Lord said, as he swung his claw towards her. "You shouldn't tell the emperor what he is, or what he isn't, wearing. The Emperor never wants to hear it."

"………..can you not see what I am saying?"

"I see it. I just don't like your tone." The Lord said. "But don't worry. I won't harm you."

The Lord adjusted his finger.

"I'll just make sure you regret your words."

Now it was aiming at the White Hole, who was clearly in no shape to defend herself.

Nightwalker tried to harden her eyes, but like others before her, the fear came through regardless, especially after The Lord swung his pointing finger back to Westminster, as if trying to decide.

"Aren't you too great a being to play Eeney Meeny?"

"Every great being must have his foibles."

"Do we not fit your classification as practical?"

"Perhaps…perhaps not."

"Do I have to draw down?" Nightwalker tried to growl.

"If you wish."

Silence. The Lord looked at the three, Westminster looking back and forth between his enemy and his friend, the White Hole seething and swearing revenge in the small part of her brain that was aware of this, and Nightwalker standing between them, her expression cast between defiance and woe.

Before she lowered her head.

"….please." She whispered. "…if I have to prostrate myself, I will…but…please…"

"….heh." The Lord said, lowering his arm. "Get out of here. All of you. I'd rather not harm something that has some sense."

Nightwalker swallowed, anger mixing with relief as the Lord turned away, as Westminster dashed over and got under the White Hole's other arm. He noticed Nightwalker's face, and shook his head at her. Having your pride and self-respect assaulted was a terrible thing, but sometimes it was the lesser of two horrors.

Then his own face fell. Abhorred were creeping out of the shadows around them. The Lord had lied.

"Don't touch them." The Lord said. "I meant what I said."

Or perhaps not.

"Best get out of here." The Lord said. "This city is about to become hell on earth."

"I believe it already has, sir." Westminster said.

"Oh no." The Lord replied, as darkness flashed in his black eyes. "Not…even…close."

"…well, as they say, don't wish luck. So break a leg. Namely hers." Westminster said, as he himself pointed.

The Lord turned around into Mary Marvel's fist. He snarled and retaliated, while the trio made good their escape, the Abhorred turning away from them and surging towards their master.

It was not to aid him; instead they flitted past the warring pair and attacked the heroes beyond, as the Metal Men charged in and began brawling with the shadow creatures.

"You're going to pay for what you did!" Mary Marvel cursed, as she lashed out with another punch. The Lord took it, countering by ramming his hand into Mary's face.

"There isn't a price you could come up with!" The Lord snarled, firing a point-blank blast that blew Mary Marvel off into the distance again.

A moment later a massive blast of electricity combined with several blasts of volcanic heat and a telekinetic shockwave ripped through the Abhorred, allowing the Metal Men to finish off the remains.

"There he is." Looker said, as she was joined by her old Outsiders teammates Black Lightning, Geo-Force, and Katana and the new Outsiders Thunder and Grace. A moment later Hourman, Shining Knight, and Olympian joined them as well. "SMASH HIM!"

"…Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia." The Lord mused as the heroes charged in

Then he reformed his weapons and met their charge with his own.

---

"Well, here we are again Sine." Westminster said as he did his best to leave the fight behind him.

"Not now Richard. Not now." Nightwalker replied dully. "…but yeah, we always seem to be."

"Ghhnnn…sho'hem…" The White Hole murmured.

"Later Becky. First we need to assure there is one." Nightwalker said.

"Agreed. Let's get our favorite sociopath out of here first. Then we'll sit down, have lunch, and call it a day." Westminster said.

"B'strrddddd…"

"Without a doubt." Nightwalker said, as she and Westminster pulled the White Hole around a corner. "But other people are addressing that fact for us."

---

Therma Lad and Hydro Lass were exceptional even for superheroing. For one, they were fraternal twins. For another, they were only eight years old. Despite that fact, their powers had proven potent enough to be part of Uberton's Liberty League…but they'd never seen anything like the carnage that the Battle of Metropolis had wrought. Worst of all were the strange shadow creatures: the villains they knew said 'ow' and 'stop' and 'I'll cut you in on the deal!' whenever you blasted them. The shadow creatures didn't make a sound, no matter how badly they were hurt, and they just kept coming and coming, no matter how much their older teammates Jersey Devil, Baron Fisticuffs, Mole Beatle, and their leader General Havoc pounded on them. They didn't really feel comfortable standing still now, as Mole Beatle, saying he'd 'sniffed something out', had taken advantage of a brief lull and disappeared underground.

"…the city's broken." Hydro Lass said.

"I know." Therma Lad replied. "I didn't even think you could break cities."

"What can we do against that? The city's big and we aren't."

"Don't worry sis. We're Earth's Greatest Heroes! We'll be all BOOM and FWOOSH and SPLASH and it'll be just like any other bad guys!"

"You really think so?"

"…not really."

"I don't like this." Jersey Devil said, fire burning between the gaps of his football-themed uniform. "I was here the last time this sorta crap went down. On the BAD side, but still. Someone's messing with stuff that shouldn't be messed with."

"I must say, I do feel a bit beyond my league. My stomach is rolling like a kaleidoscope." The old-fashioned Baron Fisticuffs said. It was understandable that he was old-fashioned though: he WAS a time-lost 19th century boxer.

"That'll be quite enough dissention in the ranks!" The near eight foot, incredibly muscled, and dressed in combat fatigues (much like a certain doctor) giant General Havoc said. "If you have time to jaw, you two have time to go stand watch on that hi-!"

A gigantic explosion blasted off in the distance, and the Liberty League's eyes were drawn to the sight of a large figure in golden armor being blasted up into the air on a building-sized pillar of darkness. A darkness that formed into a bestial skull and slammed its jaws closed on the hero before exploding, sending the smoking golden figure flying towards them, over them, and off into the distance before he landed with a crash a mile and a half away.

General Havoc was then aware of Therma Lad and Hydro Lass hiding behind him.

For about three seconds, he considered ordering them out of the city. Then he realized that if the heroes lost here, it wouldn't do them any good.

"Jesus Christ…" Jersey Devil said. "I thought I was bad…whoever's out there is taking on half the world's supply of heroes. And he's WINNING."

"It'll be a Pyrrhic victory…" Havoc growled, even as Hydro Lass began to cry and her brother tried to comfort her.

"Don't worry! We'll give it our all!" Fisticuffs trumpeted. "I didn't stop when asthma rattled my lungs or polio took my legs! I exercised until I could do without! Not that those cloned legs Cadmus gave me weren't appreciated…but with enough grit, we SHALL overcome!"

The ground erupted nearby, drawing shrieks from the 8 year old twins.

Fortunately, it was just Mole Beatle.

"I was right. Found some buried treasure." The tech-suit outfitted hero said, as a dirty and battered MSG followed out behind him, blinking and coughing as they reached the surface.

"What in tarnation were you doing underground soldiers?" Havoc asked as gently as his could. Which wasn't very, but he tried.

"We were fighting…a monster…and everything was suddenly falling on us…tried…" Hyperion said, coughing and taking the bottle of water Fisticuffs offered him. "We were trying to help the Titans…lost them…barely escaped alive…might not have made it but…lost them…lost them all…so many…so young…"

"Damnation! Weren't they the only ones that ever beat Shadow King or whatever?" Jersey Devil said.

"I don't know…but this…this is HIS fault." Victory Lad said, as he finished cleaning his gun, snapping a new clip into it. "I say we go and put another blemish on his record. Who's with me?"

"BULLY!" Fisticuffs said.

"For once, fancy-pants, I'll agree with you." Jersey Devil said.

Another explosion blasted in the distance a second after Jersey Devil was finished speaking. A second after that, a figure once more arched up against the horizon; this time it was a figure in black, as the Lord flipped over in the sky as Geo-Force, Looker, and Shining Knight on her flying horse Vanguard gave chase.

The chase didn't last, as the Lord threw up his arms, his cloaks flowing out as massive blasts of arcing black energy surged from within them. The bolts smashed into the three heroes, blowing them across the sky and sending them plummeting to the ground in smoking heaps.

The Lord lowered his arms, and even from the distance he was at, Havoc could tell he was admiring his work, as the clouds above roiled and crackled above him and more Abhorred continued to pour down.

"…well, who wants to live forever?" The general said. "FULL STEAM AHEAD!"

---

"A man said to the universe 'Sir, I exist!'…" The Lord said to himself as he touched back down on the ground. The remains of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit opened fire on him immediately and futilely, the bullets breaking on his twisting shadow cloaks. He looked at the human soldiers, and darkly chuckled at the irony. Most humans would have run away by now, or at the least retreated after seeing their efforts were worthless. Yet these humans did not. They stood their ground, refusing to give in to their failings…and in doing so, they died.

On one level, the Lord found it tragic. On the other, it simply demonstrated why he had to kill them. A mass of contradictions like that simply could not be allowed to continue. Everything they had laid the ground for, they would eventually tear down and destroy. They'd forged the reins, and the Lord would do the rest.

When he ruled the world, he would make sure that history was gentle on them. Why despise the dead?

" 'However,' replied the universe, 'The fact has not created in me, a sense of obligation'!" The Lord finished, and hurled a blast at the police officers.

It did not reach them, as a dull gray metal wall surged up and took it, the blast exploding on it as another Metal Man, the leader known as Gold, charged in. He swiftly transformed his malleable arm into a morning star, bringing it to bear as he smashed it across the Lord's face.

The efforts of the man of metal proved as pointless as the men and woman of meat.

"Oh look, Magnus' shining moment. Tell me, did he design you to feel pain?" The Lord said, and charged at Gold.

Their name, however, was the Metal MEN, and Gold was not alone, as Iron blocked The Lord's path, sending out his arm in a sword that sliced through the Lord's body. He briefly split it in half, but the Lord reformed from the so-called wound without losing a step. Iron also reacted swiftly, standing his ground before Gold as he tried to grapple the Lord.

"Iron don't! He's too…!" Mercury yelled, but it was too late, as the Lord reared back and plunged his fist into Iron's torso, ripping out a myriad of wires. Iron grimaced, but he kept on the pressure, as his thumbs formed into spikes and lanced out, stabbing into each side of the Lord's neck.

The Lord pulled himself free, the neck wounds causing no inconvenience.

His retaliation was anything but.

"IRON…!" Platinum cried out, as the Lord smashed his fist right through Iron's face and out the back of his skull. Iron's body jerked spastically, as the Lord yanked his hand free and flipped over Iron, landing on his feet and regarding Iron's fellows for a moment.

"Did he design you to feel loss?"

Then he snapped his fingers.

The energies he'd sent shooting into Iron exploded, the blast embedding several shards of metal junk into the Lord's back as the robot went up in a fireball. The Lord didn't even take note, as he started walking forward.

"Judging from your screams, apparently so." The Lord said. "I'd have suggested buying American, except, well….hmmmm."

Several arms of metal lanced at the Lord. He did multiple sideways flips to avoid the stabbing spears…and ran into Hourman's fists, as the legacy hero axe-handled the Lord into the ground.

A moment later The Lord's cape swung out like a massive blade, catching Hourman across the chest and tearing an ugly wound across his stomach muscles even as it sent him flying.

"Didn't see that coming, did you?" The Lord said.

Katana leapt from above, swinging her mystical weapon. The Lord whirled around, reforming his own sword, blocking the attack.

Grace immediately charged in from his blind point, swinging out her fist.

The Lord blocked her too. Specifically, with his foot, planting it against Grace's chest and causing her to be winded from the impact before the Lord leapt up and kicked with both feet, knocking his attackers away.

Which let Skyrocket smash into his chest, carrying him away.

"Oh, new blood! Literally!" The Lord said, as he fired twin blasts of concussive force at his attacker.

Her suit promptly absorbed it.

"…oh."

"THIS IS FOR DANNY!" Skyrocket yelled, as she gave the Lord his energy back, blowing him backwards into her teammate Sapphire's flying kick. Said kick knocked him into the giant orange fists of her other teammate Bork, who sent the Lord smashing through another pile of rubble and dragging along the ground.

"…maybe their name has some merit…" The Lord said as he got up…and another shadow fell over him.

The Lord stood up fully, looking at Josiah Power, leader of the 'the world's foremost supplier of superhuman services'. But this was no longer business.

"You killed a good man." Power said, his seven-foot tall rock form crackling with strange energies. "We're going to-"

"Save it." The Lord said, as he fired a blast point-blank into Josiah's face.

Josiah didn't move an inch.

"Hmmmm." The Lord said.

Josiah's punch proved more effective, as the Lord went crashing through the rubble of a building. He flipped back up to his feet, the Power Company gathering before him…

While several spears of metal lanced out of the ground and impaled him on the spot.

"GET HIM!"

"This is the song that doesn't end…" The Lord said, as Black Lightning, Skyrocket, and Power Company member Witchfire blasted him, before Grace, Hourman, Bork, and Sapphire charged in and began hammering on his immobilized form. "It just goes on…and ON…"

The ground began to rumble.

"So let's change the tune."

Only Witchfire was able to follow the Lord as he vanished, her magic-based abilities allowing her to see a brief trail as the Lord phased up into the sky and into the distance.

"I look inside myself and see my heart is black…" The Lord said, as glowing runes appeared on his body. "I see my red door and I WANT TO PAINT IT BLACK…"

"LOOK OU-!"

The Lord streaked back down from the sky and landed amongst the heroes like a meteor.

Blackness consumed everything, moments before piercing, exploding beams of energy erupted from the ground outside the nexus point before they detonated, catching everything in the surrounding in a massive explosion that blasted and scattered the heroes across untold square blocks of distance.

As the blackness faded, a deeper black surged up and reformed.

"No colors anymore…" The Lord said.

A golden spear of metal lanced at the Lord's head: he snapped it to the side and glared at the Metal Men, having returned so soon. Mainly because they'd turned themselves into shields to guard the Special Crimes Unit. Well, if that was how they wanted to play…

"Here he comes!" Tin, the weakest of the robot heroes, said as the Lord began his charge at the Metal Men.

"I see that can opener!" Mercury cursed, as Iron, Lead, and Platinum lanced more piercing, spiked weapons at the Lord.

Whose form abruptly 'skipped', his body abruptly leaving its charge path and appearing in several other places in the space of eye blinks.

"He's trying…!" Was all Gold got out, because then the Lord succeeded, as he phased back into proper existence inches from Gold and slashed out with his claws, carving deep wounds across Gold as the robot stumbled back.

"Gold! You…!" Lead got out, but he was too slow to say or do anything else as the Lord whirled in a flurry of black cloak.

Which disguised his claws switching hands. The Lord slashed out again, 'gutting' Lead as he continued onward. Mercury and Platinum watched in horror as the cuts on their fellows glowed black, and then Gold and Lead exploded, the Lord blowing them apart just like he had with Iron.

Screaming, Platinum lashed out with a drilling ram, even as Mercury slashed out his body in multiple scythe-like blades. The Lord phased out of existence, the attacks hitting just empty air…as the Lord phased back.

In front of Tin.

"Stay out of the kitchen." The Lord said, and with one swiping backwards flip he scythed up a blade on his foot and cut Tin in half from groin to gullet.

"Sorry, wasn't chancing a nice one's eruption." The Lord said as he spun in mid-air and landed facing Platinum and Mercury again. A second later Tin exploded behind him, and the Lord leapt up into the air again.

Faced with such sudden, violent loss, the two remaining Metal Men could only continue their attack, sending lancing spears after the Lord.

"Your actions! So much like humans!" The Lord said, as he dodged their blows in the air, holding up an arm as shadow energy surged through it. "And that's why you lose."

And the Lord retaliated with his own arm spear, his limb lancing down towards the two remaining robots. They dodged, the spear burying itself in the ground, as the robots quickly retreated, moving away from the follow-up upward spear…

Except it wasn't an upward spear. It was a horizontal one, the lances of darkness tearing out not from the ground beneath the Metal Men's feet, but from the rubble around them.

"Doc…" Platinum whimpered.

The points impaled the pair, dark corruptive energies surging into their bodies. They exploded moments later, as the Lord dropped back down.

"What measure?" The Lord mused.

Untold voltage exploded through the Lord's form. For a moment he thought the teenage Sparx had returned to resume her futile attempt to avenge the pain and loss she'd suffered in this battle. But instead of blue, this electricity was golden colored.

It was also seemingly more effective, as the Lord staggered briefly under its power, before turning to look at Black Lightning, who grimaced and redoubled his efforts, the air filling with the scene of ozone as he poured electrical power into the Lord.

"…ah yes, I am in the presence of history here, am I not, Mr. Pierce?" The Lord said, as he began to walk towards Black Lightning. "I wonder if that should…"

Geo-Force erupted from the ground near the Lord, his hands burning with volcanic power…

The Lord blew him away with a gesture, sending Geo-Force tumbling into the distance. The Lord glanced back at Black Lightning, briefly smirking with one corner of his mouth in wry bemusement as Black Lightning saw his attempted ambush lure fail so quickly and catastrophically.

The smirk, however, swiftly turned into a grimace. Black Lightning had been in enough fights to know the expression: he was getting somewhere. Despite the Lord's attempts to keep the poker face, the electricity was hurting him.

The Lord knew it too.

It just made him angrier.

The shadow god's eyes flashed, and Black Lightning gasped as a piercing ray drove itself through his gut. He staggered and fell to one knee, feeling a deep sensation of cold and liquid, as blood began to run down his legs.

It didn't make him let up his attack; the electrical onslaught only weakened briefly before Black Lightning returned to it full force, pouring his power into the Lord. The shadow god's slight stagger from his efforts was all he needed to drive him to continue, ignoring the wound he had been struck, ignoring the creeping coldness, refusing to give in…

His willpower had an equal in the Lord's own though, as the master of the dark began pressing towards Black Lightning once again.

"I have no heart to stop. I have no flesh to burn." The Lord said as he approached, the power coursing and ripping through him: there was so much electricity in the air it was causing the hair of the nearly a mile distant Special Crimes Unit to begin to stand up. And despite the Lord's taunting, Black Lightning could see he wasn't ignoring it. He was FIGHTING through it.

"This is pointless. Hopeless." The Lord said, closing in.

"Always…a point…always…hope…liar…" Black Lightning whispered.

The Lord stepped up to him.

"Strong accusation." The Lord said, his tone flippant despite it all.

In that air, Black Lightning saw every ice-eyed street thug who grinned at him in sadistic defiance of their crimes, every smug, self-satisfied crime lord who thought their ill-gotten gains made them untouchable and unstoppable, every psychotic nut job who treated the powers they had been given not as a responsibility to themselves if not others but an excuse to act like responsibility no longer applied to them, and every other crime Black Lightning had put on a costume and pledged his life to fight.

He knew his answer.

"You…WANT STRENGTH?!?"

Black Lightning reached out and planted his hands on the Lord's chest, sending one last final, gigantic surge directly into his body.

He saw it, the Lord's chest briefly expanding and then blowing apart, the slight wince across the shadow being's expression before his body resumed its normal shape.

He'd done it again.

He'd shown the evils he faced down that something could be done.

For the last time, as the Lord snorted, smoke blowing through his nostrils. He seized Black Lightning by the wrists, dragging him up.

Jefferson Pierce knew what was coming. He had one regret.

He did not let it hold him back.

"I do not fear your lightning." The Lord said.

"…AND I DON'T FEAR YOU!" Black Lightning bellowed, as his whole body abruptly lit up with golden power.

Thunder crashed down nearby, as she saw her father in the Lord's grip…

"DAD!"

"Oh." The Lord said. "This."

The tower of electricity could be seen from miles away, the shockwave of the attack knocking even Thunder's greater-density form on her rear end and sending ripples of disruption through the distant equipment of BULWARK and Marissa Mori.

Thunder sat up, staring at the sight, ice filling her guts.

"…no. No please…no Dad no…"

The tower faded away.

The Lord still stood there, his body no longer smooth and refined, instead a ragged mass of flickering shadows, like a candle flame…holding the charred remains of Black Lightning in his hands. The hero had brought everything he had and more to bear in one final strike, even with the knowledge that it might turn out the way it had. It was the path of least regrets.

"…if that's how you want to handle it." The Lord said, and dropped the body at his feet.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! DAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDD!" Thunder screamed, as the Lord glanced up at the agonizing young hero.

"…ah, the prodigal daughter." The Lord said. "…so, was it worth it?"

Thunder had no immediate reply, as tears streaked down her cheeks.

"He was proud of you. Always was. But he never wanted this for you. That's why he made the deal he did. And what did you do? You went out and joined the fight as soon as its requirements were done. You put on a costume and tried to save the world. Well, this is the world, little girl. And this is what you end up as. This is what you earn."

The Lord's body smoothed back over. He paused to examine his hand, and then looked back at Thunder.

"So tell me, orphan. Was it worth it?"

There was no coherence in the scream Thunder made as she leapt up into the air, all words lost in a raw, overwhelming eruption of grief and anger.

The Lord knew the sound well.

In a way, it was all he really knew.

Thunder spiked her density, lancing down at the Lord with a multi-ton stomp. The Lord dodged, Thunder shattering the ground and sending her own shockwave of force, her namesake power. In this case, though, it worked against her, as the ground was weak and semi-porous from its constant battering and Thunder found herself nearly sinking to her waist in the shattered rock.

If the Lord had wanted to run and kick her head off, she wouldn't have had much in the way of defense. Instead, he stood there, his cloaks blowing in the breeze, regarding her with calm, detached analysis.

In its own way, that was worse.

Thunder lost most of her fingernails clawing her way out, as she lunged for the Lord, who dodged to the side. For the next several seconds Thunder clawed, lashed, and grabbed for her father's murderer; none of her attacks came even close to touching him.

Then he stopped moving.

Thunder swung at him: he ducked. Several more blows also hit nothing, as the Lord dodged out of the way each time, he last time a backwards matrix-esque dodge, as he stood back up and looked deep into Thunder's eyes.

"Got an answer yet?"

Stronger fingers seized the Lord's hair, yanking him backwards.

"Yeah! %#$& YOU!" Grace yelled, as she smashed her fist down on the Lord's chest, driving him into the ground. He began sitting up, right into a super-density kick from Thunder that smashed his head backwards into the ground again, as Grace picked up a nearby wrecked car and smashed it down on the Lord's fallen body, moments before Thunder decreased her density, leapt up, and increased it again, crushing the Lord into the ground below it.

"Don't I at least warrant something origin-" The Lord said as he got up, shoving the car off…and met both Grace and Thunder's fists, sending him flying backwards and bouncing off a nearby wrecked bus. The Lord landed on his feet, only for Thunder to tackle him and drive him into the ground, Grace joining her as the twin women rained down blows on the Lord's form, Thunder's out of control screams and Grace's cursing filling the air…

"All right, IT'S OFFICIAL." The Lord snarled.

A pulse threw the women backwards. They quickly scrambled back up to attack…as the Lord's body phased away. The two women stopped, looking around.

Then the Lord phased back. Between them.

"YOU BORE ME!"

Twin gigantic blasts flew from each of the Lord's hands, enveloping and blowing away the twin vengeful girls; Thunder was carried up into the air as the blast arced up and exploded in the top of a leaning building, while Grace was blasted through several piles of rubble before being buried in a final one.

The Lord lowered his hands, staring at them as they began to flicker once more. Was it getting that bad? First Metestasnathean, then electricity…now even physical blows were starting to have an effect? Had he stretched himself that thin? Had he, despite his efforts, overestimated himself?

Would he have to resort…

A question to answer later. More enemies approached him. The Lord refocused his hands, as Katana dropped down near him.

Even if the Lord wasn't a mind reader, he would have just had to seen the guarded pain in Katana's eyes to know how she felt.

"Familial relationships mean nothing in the end." The Lord said, as he turned to face Katana. Twisting the knife. A precarious but effective tactic. "Neither does camaraderie."

"…Jefferson…" Katana said, as she knelt by Black Lightning's fallen form. If she shed any tears in her brief repose, the Lord didn't see them.

He saw the anger, as Katana snapped up her head.

"YURUSENAI ZO!" Katana screamed, as she ran and leapt through the air, swinging her namesake blade.

It met the Lord's double-bladed nodachi, as black sparks flew from the clash.

"I DIDN'T ASK." The Lord snarled, the pair breaking apart and swinging their weapons again, the twin magical sword crashing together in another spray of black sparks.

---

"Did we lose him?" Speedy II said, as he touched down on the ground after swinging over a hazardous sinkhole with his fellow archer. Speedy III was about to reply, except Doomsday appeared at the other end of said pit first.

"NO! RUN!" Speedy III yelled, and she and the teenage boy who had usurped her mentor's ward's name for his own purposes did just that. Doomsday leapt after them, flying across the pit and landing on the edge…

Which buckled and tore off, Doomsday tumbling into the sinkhole. The two Speedy's barely outran the broken ground that would have dumped them right in after him, and even then they still took a tumble.

"Why is he picking on u….UUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH!" Speedy II yelled, as he whipped out two arrows and fired them over Speedy III, the energy projectiles blasting through the heads of the Abhorred that had appeared behind her. A few more quick arrows blew the creatures further apart, before Speedy II reached down to offer a hand.

Speedy III instead nocked her own arrow and fired past Speedy II's ear. The Abhorred leaping towards him with an axe was zapped by a massive amount of electricity and blown apart. For some reason, Speedy III felt a sudden sense of déjà vu.

"Mind your surroundings, dumbass." Speedy III said as she got up.

"Can we save the insults? I don't have many arrows left, you?"

Speedy III's reply was swallowed by another bellow, as Doomsday launched himself up from the pit he'd fallen into. This time, the ground did not completely buckle beneath him when he landed.

"I don't think all the arrows in the world will help!" Speedy III yelled, even as she drew another. Knowing outright running was out of the picture, Speedy II did likewise, the two of them firing the shots with literal bull's-eye accuracy, as both of them went shooting into Doomsday's eyes. While he bellowed at the brief discomfort, Speedy II shot an explosive arrow into Doomsday's chest before Speedy III fired two smoke arrows on either side of him, providing a fog of war for a few crucial seconds as the two began to retreat again.

Doomsday charged out of the smoke a second later: it was like he could smell them, and as far as Speedy II could tell, maybe he could. He whirled and shot some more arrows; this time, they just glanced off Doomsday's skull as he roared again.

Which gave Speedy III the opening she wanted, as fired her own explosive arrow into his mouth. It detonated…and proved as effective as a bland party sauce.

"…well I'm fresh out of ideas." Speedy III said dully.

Doomsday roared and stomped his foot, and the ground shook, causing both teenagers to lose their feet.

"…damn it all." Speedy II whispered, as Doomsday began to charge.

Two more arrows, connected by a crackling green line, flew over the pair. Each arrow shooting past either side of Doomsday and wrapping the energy line around him once before meeting together in front of Doomsday's chest. A loud popping noise sounded as they impacted each other, and then Doomsday abruptly flew up into the air; the trigger device, for the space of several seconds, completely negated his personal gravity.

Before it returned it at ten times the intensity. Doomsday smashed into the ground like an insect being slapped by an angry god.

"…TOLD you the Tower of Power would work." Green Arrow said as he dropped down. "Come on kids, this isn't a place for any of us!"

"I never said it wouldn't, I just said…!" Arsenal replied, reaching down and grabbing up Speedy II, and none too gently at that.

"Save it kid! We have to go!" Green Arrow said, as he began retreating with Speedy III.

"We need to…" Speedy III tried to say.

"I said save it Mia. There's nothing we can do here." Green Arrow said. "We need to go! Go go…!"

With (surprise surprise) a roar, Doomsday pushed himself back up, eyes blazing with anger.

A moment later twin arrows broke themselves against said eyes.

"We already tried that!" Speedy II said, even as he brought up his own bow and began firing.

"Well, if at first you don't succeed…!" Green Arrow said, as Doomsday batted the remains of the eye-arrows away. "RUN CHILDREN!"
"No! I'm not leaving you!" Speedy III yelled back as she also began firing.

"Speedy, THIS IS A DIRECT ORDER. GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Oh please old man, you couldn't talk me out of donning this costume, you couldn't get me out of it afterward, and you can't change my mind now!" Speedy II said, as the four backed up, firing arrows at Doomsday as rapidly as they could, the four instinctively switching up the offensive type and impact zones of their projectiles in the faint, desperate hope they might do something, ANYTHING…

"We hit him a whole bunch before this! Lots of us!" Speedy II said. "Maybe we can…cherry tap him…!"

"Hey kid! Here's something you never quite learned. SHUT UP!" Green Arrow yelled, as the archer team fought for their lives.

---

Something Katana was doing equally as hard, as she and the Lord clashed weapons again and again. After all the duels she'd fought since she began wielding the soul-eating blade, the Lord's technique was nothing to write home about, but his sheer strength and complete lack of limits more than made up for it. Not to mention his weapon defied the basic laws of physics: he was swinging his gigantic sword around like it was a whiffle bat.

One more factor gave him a clear edge: he cheated, as the blades met again, and black energy erupted off the Lord's blade, tearing into Katana and paralyzing her muscles in pain. A cry escaped her, as the Lord shoved outward from the blade lock and sent her flying backwards. She crashed against some rubble, as the Lord swung his blade up, gave it a brief twirl, then aimed it at her again.

"Don't worry about your old friend, mortal. You'll be seeing him again, VERY soon." The Lord said, and leapt towards Katana, slashing with his blade.

Fortunately, as mentioned, his technique wasn't exactly much to write home about. Katana pushed off from where she'd been driven, rolled under the Lord's incredible range, and stabbed out with her sword, driving it into his chest.

"…uch." The Lord said, sounding genuinely bothered.

A moment later Katana went flying backwards, but not through any effort on the Lord's part. Her own sword had done it, as she suddenly heard a series of panicked whispers in her head. The Lord touched the closing wound she'd inflicted on him, having seemingly lost interest in his enemy.

"…not what it expected?" He finally said, looking at Katana.

"…my sword…you…"

"It consumes souls, yes. Of those it kills. I'm not so easy to kill."

"That was not the reason! You…your…what ARE you?" Katana said as she stood up. "What they felt…writhing in your chest…it was no more a soul than cancer is a cell!"

"What were you expecting?" The Lord said, bringing his blade up again. "Something like YOUR breed?"

"…you are damned. Beyond any comprehension…"

"Yes yes. I've heard this before. You get the same answer." The Lord said. "There needeth be not the hell that heroes frame, To punish those who err. Earth in itself, contains at once the evil AND THE CURE."

The same energy the Lord had used before erupted on his blade.

"If you wish to fall on your sword like your ally, now would be the…"

The small wrist shield slammed into the Lord's face, carrying him away as the 'Lady of Battle' Sala made her entrance count, pushing the Lord through another wrecked building and leaving Katana behind. For a moment, the Japanese hero had no idea whether to feel relieved or ashamed.

Then Abhorred came for her, and as she carved one in half, she decided to feel vengeful again.

The Lord had, by then, pushed off Sala's shield ram and flipped backwards, running along the battle-devastated ground: the female warrior kept pace with him as she whipped out a thin golden scimitar.

"ISHTAR WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN!"

Sala leapt through the air, bringing a far more potent strength behind her than Katana could muster. Her sword blow caused faint scraps of darkness to erupt off the Lord's arms and body as he blocked her attack.

"Ishtar can get in line!" The Lord retorted, as he pushed Sala away and continued to run: Sala ran alongside him another moment before she leapt again. The Lord met her in the air, the two slashing their blades across each of their respective weapons before landing and continuing to duel at high speed, leaping, slashing, and striking for a quarter of a mile.

At which point the Lord smirked briefly.

"Ishtar has granted you great power, but the world's state of flux has blunted it, it seems! You lack a certain edge!"

The Lord traced his finger along his gigantic sword.

"Allow me to provide you with one!"

The black blade flew out from the Lord's slashing attack, tearing through rubble and zooming in on Sala, who stopped and crossed her sword and shield in front of her. The cutting blade struck it, boring against the weapons for a moment…and then shattering as Sala scattered the energies.

While the Lord appeared behind her.

Sala barely got out a gasp as five talons erupted from her chest.

Her aborted gasp turning into a gurgle, blood trickled from Sala's mouth as the Lord yanked his claws free and pushed the woman onto the ground, regarding her as his form briefly flickered again.

"Perhaps you could have been a contender, kid. But life is not so kind." The Lord said, turning away. "A lesson these heroes will yet lea-"

The white blast of energy streaked down; the Lord turned and held up his hand to block it, summoning a dark shield…

Which didn't hold. The blast pierced through and struck the Lord; he recoiled, looking at his arm as it hissed and burned. Solar energy. In a way, worse. STELLAR energy, the power of MULTIPLE stars.

"I always was a slow learner!" Stargirl said as she swooped down and let loose with her cosmic rod again. This time, the Lord leapt backwards to avoid the shot, snarling low in his throat.

"A pity, that." the Lord said, dodging to the side to avoid another blast. "Because there's a few lessons you should have known. One, I hate heroes. Two, I REALLY hate CHILD heroes. And THREE, I ESPECIALLY HATE CHILD HEROES WITH SOLAR-BASED POWERS." The Lord growled, as he fired his own black ray. Stargirl swung her Cosmic Rod in front of her, swiftly forming a white energy shield that deflected the blast.

"Hate away." Stargirl retorted, and countered with a piercing white energy sword. The Lord tried to grab it, but the blade burned through his hands and pierced into his chest, driving him backwards and pinning him against some wreckage.

"I assure you, the feeling is mutual." Stargirl said.

"Not. Even. CLOSE." The Lord snarled, as he made a slashing gesture. Twin gigantic clawed hands of shadow emerged from the rubble of buildings on either side of Stargirl and crashed together, squashing the nubile heroine between them.

The Lord yanked himself off Stargirl's stellar energy blade, crouching over as he felt the burning in his chest. This was not good.

It got worse, as with another blaze of white energy Stargirl blew apart the Lord's shadow hands, flying down and smashing the Lord with the glowing end of her staff, sending him flying backwards. He flipped over and thrust out his hands to counter, only for twin blasts of stellar energy to explode on either side of him and knock him off balance, canceling his attack as he fell to one knee.

"I'm beginning to see where you got your rep." Stargirl said. "The Titans didn't have ME."

"They can have your HEAD." The Lord retorted, as he held out a hand. Stargirl threw up another shield, as a glyph appeared in the Lord's hand…

Before flying backwards into his mouth.

"Huh?" Stargirl said,

The Lord screamed, and Stargirl suddenly found herself under sonic assault, the attacking piercing into her ears and rattling her concentration and equilibrium, her shield twisting and distorting as her focus was disrupted.

"Or whatever's LEFT of it!" The Lord yelled, as he leapt out and slashed with his claws. Stargirl managed to hold her shield, but the Lord succeeded in knocking her backwards this time. Stargirl was too busy trying to regain her bearings to see the Lord breaking off his attack at that, as the shadow god snarled and shook his hand, the white energy burning away at him.

"You're the new blood of the Justice Society, aren't you?" The Lord said, trying to cover his aborted blow with more taunting. "I wonder if they'll bleed out once I dump your corpse at their feet."

"Dream on nutcase!" Stargirl yelled, firing another stellar energy blast. The Lord dodged and fired his own, his blast exploding near Stargirl and throwing her to the ground. She pushed herself up, as the Lord touched down himself.

Only the fact he drastically threw his arms back gave her the time to thrust her staff out and mount a defense.

The Lord blasted a two-handed destroying ray at Stargirl, and she met it with her own stellar energy blast. The Lord snarled once more, feeling the power of her weapon even from this distance…but he had power too, even now….

A windstorm of debris was kicked up from the beam war, Stargirl pouring all her power against the Lord, and the Lord doing likewise. The difference rapidly became clear, as even with her 'base advantage', Stargirl found her attack beginning to be pushed back against the Lord's sheer vitriolic outburst. The teenage girl felt sweat bloom beneath her mask: she'd seen the end result of what this lunatic had done, and knew he played for keeps. If he hit her…

"Give it up!" The Lord said.

"No!"

"You heroes. Never know when to pack it in. As you wish." The Lord said, and redoubled his efforts, ignoring the burning pain ripping through his body. It would stop as soon as she was dead, and she would be dead soon, as his offensive tore through Stargirl's. "You shouldn't have crossed me girl! Especially not-!"

He saw it, a blink in the corner of his eye.

"Alone…?!"

The second white beam flew out of the sky and exploded on the Lord's hands.

"WHAT IN DAMNATION-AUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" The Lord bellowed as Stargirl's beam struck him, his attack effort destroyed by the secondary attack. The blast pierced through his chest again, blowing the Lord backwards before he went crashing into more rubble.

"She's not alone."

At first, Stargirl had thought it was her stepfather Pat Dugan, aka S.T.R.I.P.E., who had come to her rescue. However, she wasn't too surprised when the man who dropped down was dressed in normal clothes instead of an armored hero. His only standout was his leather jacket, aviator goggles for windshear, and a small star-shaped badge.

A delighted smile appeared on her face. She knew this man as well, and not just because he was holding a slightly less impressive version of the Cosmic Staff she herself wielded.

"Jack!"

"KNIGHT!!!!!!!!!" The Lord bellowed as he got up.

"Starman." Jack Knight retorted, and let the Lord have it with another stellar energy blast, knocking the Lord down again.

"You bloody kids. This is the last time you drag my ass out of retirement." Jack Knight said, as Stargirl floated up by him.

"There were other times?" Stargirl said.

"Hey, I'm a busy man. Can't always be saving the world." Jack said, looking down at the Lord's form. Unlike the last time he'd been hit, he had stayed down, smoke rising off his body as he hissed air he didn't need through clenched teeth.

"Something wrong, murderer?" Came a voice, and the Lord looked sideways to see Firehawk back, a bad penny that kept turning up. "You don't look so hot."

"…heh…hah hah…don't even…BEGIN to think…the winner's been decided!"

The Lord fired a piercing blast at Firehawk.

She blew it out of the sky.

She should not have been able to do that.

The white stellar energy rope seized the Lord's ankles and yanked him off his feet. He yelled and slashed out with his capes, cutting through the power's grip, before Jack Knight followed up Stargirl's trip with a swinging bludgeon blow, knocking the Lord up into the sky.

"Looks like we have a winner!" Firehawk said. Jack grinned as both he and Stargirl thrust out their staffs.

"Jackpot!"

"Repartee means noth-GRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The Lord yelled as the twin Cosmic Rod blast blew him across the Metropolis sky in an out of control tumble. It took him several seconds to right himself, the momentum still carrying him along as he straightened up…

Right into Hyperion.

"This punch'll repart you in two!"

It didn't, though the blow knocked the Lord back across the black Metropolis skyline.

"Into what?" The Lord said.

He got his answer.

The flaming sword ripped into his chest as Zauriel hurled himself downward towards the ground, carrying the Lord with him. The impact was considerably less destructive than Prime's own fall, but it was no less devastating, leaving the Lord pinned to the smoldering earth.

"…so what happened…to God's love?" The Lord whispered.

"God loves. Man chooses. And you have made your choice." Zauriel said. "But it's not too late."

The angel dodged the Lord's counter blast, pulling his sword free as he did so. The Lord staggered up to his feet, taking several seconds and nearly falling down in the process, as he looked around.

He was surrounded. The remnants of the Power Company had returned, and Hyperion had rejoined his team up efforts with the Liberty League and his own group. Stargirl and Jack 'Starman' Knight had met up with STRIPE, along with JSA members Mr. Terrific, Hourman, Hawkman, and Sand. Mary Marvel had returned as well, with a friend: her fellow Marvel Captain Marvel Jr. On top of that, Zauriel had joined Firehawk, Looker, Breach, Geo-Force, both Steels, and Sparx, and for a moment the Lord could swear he saw a chimpanzee in a detective outfit in the background. That possibility faded into irrelevance in record time, as he stood and stared at his foes.

"He's down to his last efforts. His reach has exceeded his grasp." Witchfire said, as flitters of darkness wafted off the Lord's body and vanished, something that had been happening constantly since he'd taken the twin Cosmic Rod shot. The Lord's eyes betrayed no weakness though, as he turned them onto each enemy.

So it had come to this. For all his efforts, he didn't have enough.

"Any last words?" Firehawk taunted.

So be it.

"…………….three."

And the Lord leapt skyward.

---

Marissa Mori felt something like a faint poke on the back of her skull, a quick four taps that startled her out of her observations. She'd been watching her master go to war, all this time, and how for all his epic efforts it seemed that he was finished.

She also knew that her master's confidence and certainty was not misplaced.

She knew what he had planned.

What the taps on the back of her head meant.

She was to get ready.

Fast, as the Sorceress stiffened, and suddenly let out what sounded like a low sigh. For a split-second, Marissa could swear she saw a ghostly image flow out of the Sorceress' body and disappear.

Marissa looked at the Sorceress, who now lay limp, and then turned her eyes to what was to come.

She had her orders.

---

"Sir, the shadow creature has been pinned down by a large coalition of heroes including two Uberton teams. His strength appears to be fading, and his shadow clones, while numerous, seem to have hit a quagmire that is turning against them. The situation appears to be getting better." One of the Bulwark agents said, as Roger Candide stood at the somewhat-battered bridge of the Achilles, where he and his men had been reduced to spectators of the battles that had passed.

"What about Prime and Luthor's group?"

"Prime is still down: scans show no resurgent life signs. Alexander Luthor is still MIA, but there is still a fair bit of fight in his remaining Society members. The shadow clones have not been able to affect several of the strongest ones, and many others have proven clever in their survival tactics. Or fortunate."

"Keep an eye on Prime, and find me Luthor or his corpse. It's down to those two and the Lord as our axis of evil. Once those three are accounted for, this becomes cleanup."

"We should be in good hands." A returned, albeit grumpy Peregrine said as he popped up, an ice pack tied to his head, right shoulder, and right thigh. "I've checked the data. The shadow being's rudimentary combat numerical readings rose to 5200 for a moment or two during his extended fight, but they dropped back down and have kept dropping. He's finished."

"What about Prime?"

"I didn't get a chance to scan him. I was estimating 7500-7900 for him. Namely because in my analysis, anything beyond the 8000 range would be Buddha riding Zeus in a three-legged race with Thor. While waving around the Worlogog."

"…just how accurate are your…numerical analytical reading combat…scans…sir, wouldn't it be better to have a simpler name for such a measure?" A Bulwark agent said.

"Do not question my inventions! It is why I am your superior instead of in prison! And what, pray tell, would YOU call it?"

"…a power level?"

"Oh yes, let's not use the nomenclature of the man with six P.H.D's. No, let's allow the bridge man who's two steps up from Starbucks the chance…"

"He's calm…" Ermine Chalk said, partly to herself and partly to cut Peregrine off.

"Pardon?" Roger said.

"The shadow demi-god, the Lord…he's surrounded and low on power…yet he's…calm…"

He's calm. That concept put a terrible bolt of fear through Roger Candide's heart. Anger he could understand. But to be CALM under these circumstances…

"Countermeasures ready?"

"As best we can muster sir…" A Bulwark agent said.

"Why would he be calm?" Roger asked.

"Well, it has been demonstrated that when things do not go his way or surprise him, he, despite his efforts, tends to lose control. Lets his emperor mask drop to see the violent sadist and/or lunatic beneath." Ermine said. "So to be calm when, despite his efforts, he seems to be defeated…suggests…that…"

"He expected all of it."

It was around then that the Lord shot into the sky.

"…and had his own countermeasure." Ermine said fatalistically.

"FIRE, DAMN IT FIRE!"

Too late.

---

"YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY!" Firehawk yelled as she gave chase after the Lord's skyward form, several other heroes following her.

"I'm not running." The Lord said. "Oh yes, and those aren't my three words. They're these."

The Lord stopped.

"Full synchronization. INITIATE."

Firehawk and the other heroes were blown away by a pulse of force, as something all but invisible flew into the Lord.

He vanished in a brilliant eruption of light.

---

Sparks promptly exploded from the various monitors of the Achilles bridge, as the shockwave buffeted the battered skyship and nearly knocked it out of the air again.

"UGH!" Ermine said, collapsing.

"…what just happened!?!?" Roger yelled with an uncharacteristic lack of control.

"That magical power…the one we sensed him tapping for aid…"

"What about it!?!"

"He was just utilizing some of it…until now. Now he's fully merged with it."

"MERGED? Meaning WHAT, Ermine?"

"Meaning we just saw the first great power in a new age of magic, on top of residual and restorable powers of a demi-god level."

Roger stared dumbly for a second, and then turned back to Peregrine, who, as he had expected, had raised his scanning device back to his eyes.

"…Nathaniel…what does your machine say about his rudimentary reading hypothetical co…his power level?"

Peregrine lowered his device, his own face a dumb look of shock. Which was swiftly replaced by anger.

"IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!!!!!" Peregrine cursed, crushing the device in his hand.

"WHAT?! NINE THOUSAND?!" Roger said. He never understood, despite the terrible situation they were in, why several of the younger deck hands suddenly burst into giggles if not outright laughter.

"THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE!" Peregrine cursed. "It goes up to 10,000 for completion's sake, not because anything existing should be able to get anywhere near there! It's not a linear measure, it's an exponential! Nine thousand is akin to accidentally getting the whole history of the Justice League at once! It's inconceivable! INCONCEIVABLE!"

"You keep saying that word…"

The Lord's voice echoed in everyone's head again. This time, Ermine found she couldn't block him out.

"…I do not think it means what you think it means. Quite literally. Ha ha ha ha ha…" The Lord laughed, his words trailing off into a low chuckle.

"…when did he, in his terrible joyless life, ever see the Princess Bride?" Peregrine said in numb curiosity. Roger was too busy cursing, and spent longer then he needed to on doing so before he returned to his senses.

"FIRE THAT MISSILE!"

"Everything's offline! We can barely keep in the air!" The Bulwark agent replied, which sent Roger into another storm of cursing.

"…it's almost beautiful…" Ermine said in strange wistful tones. "Such pure, refined power, the brilliant glow of a new age…"

"CHALK!" Roger yelled.

"Snapping out of it sir."

"What do we do?"

"Quite frankly sir…you might as well ask me to put out a forest fire with a garden hose."

"THEN WE USE THE GODDAMN FIRE HOSE!"

"If the elements haven't sucked all the air out of our lungs before reducing us to wet ash beforehand." Peregrine said, slumping down in his seat. "You have never heard me say this before, and you will never hear me say this again. This is beyond the power of science to solve."

---

"…ah…ah, Ithlian…" The Lord said quietly to himself. The shadow god had transformed: his cloaks had become more like a robe, with a 'jack of spades' flare now behind his head. His all-black outfit was now shot through with white and glowing red runic marks, along with pronounced white veins that had bloomed on his face. "I see truly why now…how you made sure the Spectre never turned his deadly gaze on us…how you took off at a run when all the other magicians had to learn how to walk all over again…hmmmmmmmmm…had our choices and chances gone differently, you would be the rightful ruler of this world…but that is not how things went…"

White misty energy flowed up from the Lord's hands, black crackling power mixing with it, a series of massive magical emblems appeared in the air around him.
The heroes were coming again. The Lord turned his eyes on them.

"And so instead, I stand here with your power, and my own. And MY WORLD."

The Lord snapped his fingers once more.

It was like the air itself exploded, a gigantic orb of power erupting from the Lord's body and scattering the heroes like rag dolls, a half mile-radius crater smashed into the ground below the Lord.

The Lord glanced at his hand again. This time, he was well pleased.

"And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, AND TO CONQUER." The Lord said, and thrust out his hand, as the clouds opened and Abhorred poured forth anew.

---

All down across Metropolis, the same runic symbols that had appeared on the Lord's cloaks suddenly alit themselves on the Abhorred as well.

They abruptly went crazy, going from shadow warriors to insane destroyers, abandoning all elegance for sheer overwhelming savagery.

Athena Jones had thought being attacked by the possessed body of an old friend was bad enough. Then Paragon Classic's head split open to reveal a snapping jaw and a spiked tongue.

"HOLY-!" Athena screamed, the metamorphosed THING nearly taking a large bite out of her chest before Faith blew it away. It immediately got back up, the body still going despite half its bones being broken, refusing to back down, quit, or accept anything but complete destruction.

"…RUN FOR IT!" Athena yelled.

"WHERE?" Metamorpho replied, as more Abhorred came crawling out of the woodwork, unfeeling, unnatural, and unceasing.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! GET AWAY! GET AWAAAAAAAAAYYYY!" Mister Who cried as he tried to turn himself two-dimensional and slip away through a wall crack. He was halfway there before an Abhorred dropped on his shoulders, seizing and ripping his head off in one clean jerk.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…this really isn't funny." The Creeper said, as he kicked away two Abhorred. He saw the Nazi super group Axis Amerikka in the distance, furiously fighting the Abhorred. With the appearance of the symbols, it quickly went from a stalemate to a complete slaughter, as the creatures sliced, cut, and pulled apart the so-called Aryan master race. Creeper would have normally found it hilarious that a group of racists had been so viciously slaughtered by what were in a sense 'black people', except no skin color matched the tone of the Abhorred. Their violence and cruelty crossed all skin and culture boundaries, found in the black hearts of people everywhere.

"This is nuts! We need to run!" Gearhead yelled, as he fired mini-missiles from his cybernetic arm and collapsed some rubble onto the nearest Abhorred. He turned to his erstwhile companions, the Russian villains Hammer and Sickle…

Sickle drove her namesake into his gut. Gearhead could only vaguely remember seeing their eyes glowing black before Hammer brought his own weapon down on Gearhead's skull and destroyed his memories along with everything else.

"LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME-AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Quakemaster screamed before another Abhorred pierced into his body. His eyes went black, and his screams turned to mad laughter as he promptly turned and unleashed his sonic jackhammer on the nearest group of metahumans, which happened to be a dazed Shining Knight and Bulleteer. They frantically tried to escape the collapsing rubble around them, the roaring sound of the destruction somehow not drowning out the madness of Quakemaster's cachinnation.

"YOU BETTER RUN MONOCLE!" Ubertron hero Black Sparrow yelled, as the new Monocle frantically tried to fend off the attacking Abhorred with his special eyepiece. He should have listened instead; an Abhorred slipped past his force blasts, and a second later Monocle was in two pieces, his upper and lower halves crashing to the ground as Black Sparrow looked away in disgust.

Sparrow's was getting an equally pleasant sight, as Bruce Cabot watched an Abhorred pounce on the villain Hardsell: the mercenary got out a brief scream before the Abhorred literally rammed its arm down his throat. Cabot didn't bother watching what happened next, as he turned away in horrified revulsion.

"This isn't getting 'us nowhere!" Sparrow said, as he flipped away from an attacking Abhorred, letting his superstrong partner punch it away. Cabot recoiled from the attack, clutching his fist as the Abhorred's essence burned him. "This is why we stay away from the big ones!"

"Agreed! I kind of miss the Purple Nurple right about now…!" Cabot replied, before another Abhorred dropped down onto Cabot's pronounced afro. Despite what some might think, Cabot was far more grateful for his partner kicking the entity off than any damage his hair suffered. He ripped up a nearby parking meter and added his efforts to Sparrow's, promising himself that if he survived, he'd get around to telling Fog O'War how he really felt…

"AYYYYYYYYYYYEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" New Wave screamed, as several Abhorred jumped into her body and promptly ripped her water form again, her face splattering into nothing at the hands of the glowing black claws of the creatures. The four-armed Rip Roar, having already vanquished so many Abhorred, just kept doing what had worked for him, blasting away with destructive streams of fire and ice. The spawn of Apokolips was too focused on his targets to see one leap through the air and transform itself into a whirring buzz saw. He did see it coming, however, and moved to grab it. Then he had no hands to grab it with. Then he had nothing else, as the buzz saw sheered him in half in an epic gout of blood.

"BACK OFF!" Kate Spencer yelled as she impaled the Abhorred on her glowing staff end and yanked it upward, ripping the Abhorred nearly in half. She was the eighth person to bear the Manhunter name, but there wasn't anything remotely human in these creatures, and she knew it as she turned to retreat…and drew up short. She recognized the man before her, the mountainous killer known as Bane, and he was proving to be one as he smashed and tore apart every Abhorred that attacked him, seemingly oblivious to the bloody wounds covering his form.

"Hey Bane! This is a bad place!" Manhunter found herself yelling for reasons she barely comprehended. "You should run!"

"NO! NEVER!" Bane thundered. "I have spent too long not knowing who I am! I know now! I always did! I AM BANE! I BREAK…!"

An Abhorred tore in from the side, stabbing a shadow talon into the side of Bane's knee. He roared and crushed the creature's head with a massive fist, but that let two more Abhorred get the drop on him from above. Bane bellowed again, grabbing them and smashing them together…as parts of their bodies speared out and impaled through Bane's chest. Bane yanked the points out and punched his attackers into the distance, and then grabbed the next Abhorred, smashed it into the ground, and stomped on it, as another Abhorred leapt onto him and sank its teeth into his thigh. Bane tried to remove it as well, but it proved far more tenacious, and that was the last mistake Bane ever made, as more and more Abhorred leapt on the giant, Bane vanishing beneath a sea of them, bellowing his defiance to the last.

His arm became the last thing to be seen out of his whole body, sticking out from beneath the writhing, destroying mass of Abhorred. It went limp, a sea of blood flowing out from the maniacal creatures, as Manhunter decided that there was no more time for advice.

There might not be any more time for anything.

---

Alexander Luthor could only watch in dismay.

The blackness of the world, the blackness he hated so much, refused to be beaten back, constantly returning again and again even more violent and destructive then before. Caring for nothing beyond its own dominance.

Why had the heroes opposed him? Did they not see what they had done? Instead of a clean, perfect Earth, they were stuck with this diseased parody of one, all the ideals and beliefs Alexander had once held dear thrown away, dragged down and devoured. Even when he tried to make this world better, they stood in his way…and this was the end result.

Had he caused this? Did his effort for a final blow against corruption lead to its final victory?

Would he have been better in the cave, looking at the shadows at the wall?

---

To some though, the shadows were less important then other problems. Like the unstoppable monster who refused to cease in his pursuit of them.

A pursuit that would only end one way; Doomsday had chased them right into the outskirts of the Metropolis battle. Some heroes and villains were still brawling with each other there, like they were unable to stop.

"You know, when this is over, I think I'll make new life plans! Keep fighting even in a wheelchair! God knows the next generation needs more time!" Green Arrow said.

"Oh cram it with walnuts old man!" Speedy II said, as the four continued their futile escape, the last of their arrows thudding impotently into Doomsday.

"…run Mia…" Arsenal said, and in his eyes Speedy III saw that her older namesake was planning to die for her. To give up the remaining years he had, years she might not have due to her HIV-positive status. To leave behind his daughter. Because he didn't want her to die.

Speedy III saw the same in her mentor, Green Arrow. Even her name-thief Speedy II refused to back down, though whether it was by stubbornness or a legitimate streak of nobility, she didn't know. But none of them refused to break and run.

Neither would she.

Doomsday was closing in, and this time the archers were out of ways to put some distance between them, as his stomping footsteps disrupted the ground, and caused Arsenal and Speedy II to fall at Green Arrow's feet, Speedy III being driven to one knee.

"…well, what NOW, old man?" Speedy II said dully.

Green Arrow had a second to answer.

In that second, he remembered why you never lost hope.

"Look up in the sky, kid."

Superman and Kal-L rammed into Doomsday, carrying him away from the archers as they hammered on the alien monster. Any proper observer would have almost seen Doomsday's eyes light up.

"MRRRRR-TROP-PLSSSSSS!"

Doomsday's punch sent Superman flying, but unlike the other battles they had fought, there was not just one Man of Steel bringing his strength to bear. Doomsday quickly learned that despite his advanced age, Kal-L's strength was nowhere near lesser for it, as Doomsday punched at him.

Kal-L stopped the blow cold, Doomsday's bone knuckles shattering in his grip.

"I don't think so, monster." Kal-L said, and seized Doomsday's head before he driving his knee into the alien's massive chest, flooring the creature as he staggered back. The Titans had mustered a mighty effort, but even their best was nothing compared to the strength of two kryptonians, as Superman returned and joined Kal-L in a furious, unrelenting assault.

For all his power, for all his invincibility, the Titans had worn Doomsday down some.

For all they'd suffered at his hands, Superman or Kal-L had learned not to hold back. And neither was in the slightest.

For all of them, they brought it to bear.

A twin combined punch shook the area and sent Doomsday flying, his jaw nearly ripped from his head. He smashed into the ground with another thunderous impact.

He did not rise again. His reign of terror was over.

For a moment, all the heroes and villains stopped and looked, some in astonished hope, others in anger or mortal fear.

The Arctic heroes had finally arrived. Batman. Wonder Woman. Nightwing. Power Girl. The Green Lanterns Hal Jordon and John Stewart. The Ray,. Lady Quark. Wonder Girl. Kal-L.

And Metropolis's favorite son.

"They murdered Superboy. And now they claim they're going to take MY city." Superman said, looking with black disgust and hate at the terrible damage that had befallen his adopted home, and the heroes who had so nobly defended it in his never-should-have-happened absence. He did not know all the details, or what precisely had changed. But he knew enough.

"Then…they're going to take Earth."

He knew what to do, as his fellow soldiers gathered around him.

"I SAY…"

And charged.

"LIKE HELL."

---

In the skies in the distance, the Lord felt the ripple, and turned his gaze towards the distant sight.

Masses of black power and white mist shone and tore through the air around him and the clouds above. He blinked as he took this latest turn in.

"…the world's finest."

Once more, a ghost of a smirk crossed his face.

"Henh."