Sorry the update took a bit longer than I said before, everyone. It took me a while to make this chapter come out right, but I'm pretty happy with it and I hope you enjoy.
Chapter Eleven: Waking Up
Shayera stared into the infirmary, uncertain. She was running out of time. She had to save her boyfriend, but she couldn't kill J'onn… she had never been so conflicted. She thought about telling Flash, but decided against it. There was nothing he could do about it anyway, so there was no reason to bother him with it. So she sat in her room, listening to the clock tick, knowing she would have to decide soon. She took a deep breathe, grabbed her mace, and stood up. Tears were streaming down her face, but other than that she was completely composed. "I'm sorry J'onn." She said, and then she began heading toward the infirmary…
Meanwhile, in the Bed Chamber at the Fortress of Solitude…
Things were slowly swirling back into reality… and then fading out again. This seemed to go on forever, certain memories would float back, and for a moment things would feel real again, and then it was over and everything suddenly faded away. It continued on like this in a constant, seemingly never ending cycle. "Got to live… got to live…!" Diana said to herself, struggling to stay in this reality. She began winning the fight, staying alive longer and longer every time. Then finally, feeling began to come back. She existed again, she felt that. She tried to move, but found that she was completely bound to the cold steel beneath her. She tried to open her eyes, only to find that they weren't even closed… she was blind! "Damn it!" She screamed in anguish, beating her head against the metal behind her.
"I have to fight…" She began repeating to herself. Finally, after what seemed like days of struggling, she managed to break the holds binding her wrists. She immediately raised her hands up, but found that there was a sheet of glass above her. Then she began to feel the pain. Pain everywhere. Everywhere. Her entire body ached like never before, every ounce of her being felt like it had been put through a meat grinder! But she continued to fight. She was born to fight, raised to fight, bread to fight. And she would win! She kicked up as hard as she could, and finally blew the glass top off of the chamber. She heard it crash somewhere on the other side of the room. She was immediately cold, freezing cold. And the breeze made her realize that she was completely naked. "Damn you Clark…" She cried. Painfully, miserably, she pulled herself out of the chamber, only to fall hard onto the icy floor below. She screamed in pain, hearing her echo. Everything was still dark. A deep, endless darkness that she knew no light could ever break. Clark had blinded her. He had beaten her and most likely raped her. She had no idea how long she had been in the chamber, for all she knew it could have been years.
She pulled herself across the floor, unable to stand. The movement made her hurt even worse. She finally fell flat on the floor, giving up. She would have been crying, except that her tear ducts were nonexistent now. She continued to scream, feeling her throat bleed. Then a voice rang out, a cold, wickedly familiar voice.
"Well, well, well… what do we have here? Diana, beaten, bloodied, naked and blind, struggling to crawl like an infant. This is the sight I have dreamt of for ever so long." The voice said. The voice of Ares, God of War.
"Ares, what are you doing here… what the hell could you possibly want?" Diana asked, completely defeated.
Ares laughed. "I want to help Diana."
"I don't need your kind of help."
"I'll restore your sight, my dear. With just a wave of my hand, you'll see again."
"But there's a catch, right Ares? There's always a catch."
"Sort of, yes. But it's one that shouldn't be a problem for you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll restore your sight, and all you have to do for me in return is go to Themyscira."
"What for?"
"Think, my dear. Hippolyta has been wondering about your location for quite some time now, and when she sees what this man has done to you, she will never tolerate it. She will declare war on man's world until she has the head of the one who did this on a spike! It will be an amazing war, one of epic proportion. A battle the likes of which the world has never seen!" Ares proclaimed.
"And you'll be feeding off of it the whole time." Diana said hatefully.
"Exactly." He moved closer to hear and kneeled down. "I don't normally reveal my plans like that, but this is an offer that you really can't refuse, can you? After all, it will turn out the same either way. If you die here, Hippolyta will find out eventually, and declare war anyway. It's a win-win situation for me!" Ares explained.
"Then why offer to help me at all?" Diana demanded.
"Because if you're alive for this, you will no doubt try to put a stop to it, and it will be ridiculously entertaining to watch you go against your own people. Plus… well let's face it I absolutely hate you. And for you to watch the entire world die by the hands of the Amazon's, all because you couldn't defend yourself… you will be so tortured by it and it will be so satisfying for me." Ares told her.
Diana thought about it for a moment, but she already knew her answer. She knew Ares was right, ware was nearly inevitable now. Her only hope was to try and convince Hippolyta otherwise, and the only way to do that was to stay alive… so she had to accept Ares' offer. She knew it was going to come back to haunt her eventually, but right now she had no other choice.
"Ok. Do it." She said resentfully.
There was a swooshing sound, and then, instantly, she could see again. She now realized that she was inside the fortress of solitude. She turned around, and saw that Ares was already gone. She struggled to her feet, still in unbelievable pain. She quickly fell down again. It would be a while before she was able to walk. She took a moment to look herself over. It seemed as if there was no part of her body left unchanged. Deep bruises and scars covered nearly every inch of her skin. She knew she had several broken bones. She had grown very emaciated during her time in the chamber, nearly all of her muscle and body fat had withered away, and her broken ribs could be seen through her tight skin. Superman had destroyed her whole body, and she knew she would never completely heal. Not from this. Not physically or emotionally. She inched over to a door leading out of the bed chamber, and with great difficulty, managed to slide it open. She saw light now, she saw a window to the outside. She would be free soon. She looked upon her nude body again. She wanted to find clothing. She knew that nudity would be nothing new to the Amazon's, it wouldn't even phase them, but still she wanted something. Then a drone appeared behind her.
"Can I bring you some fresh clothing, Mrs. Lane?" It asked in a computerized voice.
"Mrs. Lane…? Huh! It thinks I'm Lois!" Diana gasped. Then she looked to the drone. "Yes, please. And some breakfast would be nice." She said, doing her best to sound like Lois Lane.
"As you wish, Mrs. Lane." The drone said, floating off and then coming back a few moments later with a fresh change of clothes and a plate with a bagel on it. The clothes were definitely Lois's, very formal and expensive. Not exactly Diana's choice of wardrobe, but at the moment she really didn't care. The bagel was extremely stale, but again, it didn't matter to her. She just desperately needed to eat. Once she was finished, she attempted to walk again, making it a few feet further this time. But she knew she would fall again soon. She decided she should stay there for a while before she attempted flying, especially over the ocean. But what if Clark came back? It was a risk she had to take. Then she heard a strange groaning from a door on the other side of the room. Cautiously, she moved over and opened the door. To her disbelief, inside was John Stewart, a.k.a. the Green Lantern!
He too had been severely beaten, and he was gagged and tied to a chair. She released him and removed the gag.
"Diana… we all thought you were dead." He said.
"I think I was." She said in equal disbelief.
"Clark… he's… he's…" John struggled to speak.
"I know, he's a monster." Diana nodded. "Do you have your ring on you by any chance?"
"Yeah but Clark kind of blew it up. It's useless right now."
"How did you even wind up here?"
"I was stupid… I tried to stop him on my own… he beat me… he's been torturing me for days, he- he's using me to manipulate Shayera… he's going to make her kill J'onn."
"Oh my God! We have to warn someone!"
"How? We're kind of stuck here until you've got enough strength to fly again, assuming he doesn't come back and kill us before then."
"I know." She said grimly.
The two of them stumbled out of the room, supporting themselves on each other. But then the drone saw them, the same drone who had mistaken Diana for Lois.
"Mr. Stewart, I have been instructed not to late you leave the fortress. I suggest you return to the room immediately." The drone said.
"Not a chance rust bucket." John threatened.
"You were warned, but did not heed. Now I am authorized to take lethal action against you." The drone said, the light on its faceplate suddenly turning red.
"Oh crap." John groaned. The drone charged toward them, and John and Diana stumbled into a hallway. The hallway was filled with large windows, revealing rooms filled with strange Kryptonian creatures. It was like a Kryptonian zoo! The drone grabbed John and began crushing him to death. In a bout of desperation, Diana swung with what little strength she had and shattered the glass to one of the rooms. A large, four legged beast with no eyes and razor sharp teeth leapt out! It tackled the drone, growling viciously. The drone and the alien began to fight, and soon the drone was ripped apart by the beast!
"Nice move Diana… now it's going to eat us!" John shouted. The strange creature turned to the two heroes, snarling.
"Maybe I can tame it, I have a natural resonance with animals." Diana said hopefully.
"It's not an animal it's a freaking monster!" John shouted, already coated in the snarling beast's saliva. It prepared to lunge, but Diana stood in front of it and held up her hands, speaking softly to the creature.
"It's ok, we mean no harm." Then she began making shushing sounds. To John's disbelief, the creature sat down! Diana began to scratch behind his strange, wolf like ears, and his back leg began to scratch like a dog. "See, he's friendly once you calm him down." She said.
"How do you think he'd do against Clark? Because with the shape we're in, this thing might be our only defense if he comes back!" John groaned, struggling to get up.
Then the creature stood prominently on it's back legs like a dog excited for a treat. It was easily as tall as three John's stacked on top of each other! Then folds on it's back began to quiver, and then two large bat-like wings expanded!
"No way." John said almost resentfully.
"You're gonna have to get used to him pretty quick John, because he's our wide out of here." Diana said cheerfully.
Meanwhile…
Batman, Question and Galatea arrived at Zatanna's live performance in Star City that night.
"We'll confront her after the shows over." Bruce said, out of the Batman costume. Question had also removed his face-remover, expressing his facial features, and they had gotten Galatea a new outfit to wear from a garage sale. She complained that the outfit was horribly ugly, but she did acknowledge that it was better than the jumpsuit. The three of them blended seamlessly into the crowd, waiting for Zatanna to appear on the stage.
Question horribly wanted to bring up either Nightwing or Diana, to get an idea of how Bruce felt about the current situation, but with all of Batman's vague answers he decided not to.
"Be on guard, everyone. We may have a fight on our hands later on. I checked some records… Anna White was taken to a morgue after she died. Problem is, she didn't really exist. So my guess is that Clayface disguised himself as one of the morgue employees and walked out. And not-so-coincidentally, the morgue bleeder has been missing ever since 'Anna White's' death. So Clayface probably killed the bleeder and hid the body somewhere, and escaped under his guise."
"If that's the case then why would we have a fight here?" Question asked.
"Because I checked the missing bleeder's credit card usage. Three days after he was reported missing, he used his card to buy a ticket to this very show. Again, not a coincidence. For whatever reason, Clayface bought a ticket to this show." Bruce explained.
There was suddenly a burst of smoke on the stage, and then Zatanna appeared. She leaned into the microphone and began giving an introduction, but Bruce did not pay attention. He was too distracted with thoughts of what might be happening to his old sidekick right now… and thoughts of what might have happened to Diana…
Zatanna started off the show with a few simple tricks, impressive of course, but not awe inspiring. She always started the shows that way, it made the bigger tricks seem even more spectacular. "Ok everyone, for this next trick, I'll need the help of my handsome assistant, Milo!" She announced. A large, burly man dressed in all black stepped out onto the stage. "Now, Milo will crawl into this coffin." Zatanna said mysteriously. Milo casually climbed into the stage coffin. Then there was a burst of smoke, and suddenly a series of flaming swords were levitation around Zatanna! The audience went crazy. But the trick had not yet reached it's climax. Zatanna raised her hand, and then made a down-swinging motion. All of the floating, flaming swords flew down and impaled into the coffin from all angles! The audience was mystified.
"Now, you may be asking yourself, how could any man survive this? Well-" Zatanna started, but then she was interrupted by a sick slurping sound. A thick brown ooze began leaking out from the holes made by the swords, pouring out of the coffin and pooling onto the floor. The audience was slightly disturbed now, but still thought it was just part of the trick. "What the hell…?" Zatanna muttered under her breath. Then a large arm molded out of the sludge and struck Zatanna, sending her flying offstage! The crowd gasped, as a huge, ghastly figure formed out of the sludge. Clayface!
"SHOWS OVER!" He called out, sending a series of tendrils into the audience, destroying several rows of seats in a crashing boom. The audience screamed and sprinted for the exits. Bruce ran into the bathroom and immediately suited up, heading into action. Question quickly erased his facial features again, and he and Galatea sprung into action as well.
Zatanna tried to get to her feet and fight, but Clayface shot a glob of sludge at her that slathered over her mouth and hardened. "You can't fight back if you can't say your little spells!" Clayface laughed, knocking the now defenseless Zatanna down again. He stepped in front of her and raised his hands above his head, molding them into a hammer of sorts, and prepared to swing down. But before the hammer made contact, Clayface was struck by a series of explosive baterangs that blasted him backstage. He reformed out of the smoldering puddle and saw Batman standing before him. "You! Will you ever just leave me alone?" Clayface shrieked, flailing a tendril toward the dark knight. Batman barely avoided the attack.
Galatea flew in behind and blasted Clayface with a wave of heat vision, severing his arm, though he quickly reformed it.
"Supergirl?" He asked, confused.
"Not even close!" Galatea shouted, flying in to attack. She quickly realized that punching him wasn't going to cut it, so she changed her method of attack to freeze breath, turning Clayface into an ice sculpture! But he managed to break out and struck Galatea, sending her spiraling into a steel support beam, putting quite a dent in it. Batman evaded several more attacks before throwing out a series of electric baterangs. The electricity surged through Clayface and caused him to involuntarily, and quite painfully, morph into hundreds of random forms, screaming the whole time. But he eventually pushed the baterangs out of his body and attacked again and striking Batman down. Galatea flew around at super speed, incinerating him with heat vision, but he quickly sank down to a puddle and slithered through a vent in the floor!
"He's in the air ducts!" Batman shouted.
"I'm on it." Galatea said, using her x-ray vision to scan the ventilation system. "Nothing. Looks he slithered out already, probably into the crowd of people outside the building."
"Then we've lost him. He could be anybody." Batman sighed.
"Not necessarily… his heart rate should still be up right?" She said, focusing in with her super hearing. "I've got him." She said, flying out through the window, attacking brashly. She flew down toward the person with the highest heart rate and pile drove him into the concrete! But a cascade of sludge quickly began rising around her, encasing her, crushing her. Her strength was superior, however, and she managed to smash her way out. Clayface reformed behind her, blast-tackling her and smashing through a wall! They rolled into the building, and when Clayface reformed, Galatea was trapped inside of him! He created a small window within his stomach, revealing her face!
"One move Batman, and I go down her throat! Trust me, that kills people really fast!" Clayface threatened.
"What made you work for Luthor anyway, Matt? Money, power, what?" Batman demanded.
"Try humanity. Lex Luthor can make me normal again! He promised me that! I just had to do him a few small favors… like dying in front of Superman. Apparently he was already screwed up, and that little move was all it took to set him off to kill Toyman! And then I was supposed to go after all the heroes who use magic, because Superman is so weak against magic… but then you interfered! You won't let me be normal!" He shrieked, suddenly slipping into a psychotic rant.
"Luthor's involved then… I figured…" Batman muttered to himself. "Matt, do you really think Luthor can cure you? Or even if he can, what makes you think he will? He's using you; he never follows through with this sort of thing!" Batman called, trying to coax the villain. But that only made him angrier. He began to close in, suffocating Galatea. "Shut up! Shut up! Just shut up, Batman! You don't know anything!" He shrieked.
"Um, bats, you aren't really helping!" Galatea said in a muffled cry, barely able to breath now. Just when things looked like they were at their worst, Clayface let out a pained cry, there was a surging electrical noise, and then he fell to the ground, a melted puddle. Galatea stumbled away, now free. And behind the puddle that had once been Clayface, stood the Question, holding a handful of electrical cords that he had yanked out of a stage light! He had used the wires to fry Clayface.
"I wondered where you were." Galatea said, smiling at Question.
"Well you didn't think I was just going to rush into the fight like an idiot, did you?" He said half-sarcastically, glancing up at Batman. The heroes moved over to Zatanna, and using the small electric prod, Batman removed the sludge from her mouth. She immediately began gasping for air.
"Nice timing… but what brings you to my show?" Zatanna asked. Police sirens wailed nearby, quickly approaching.
"I'll explain somewhere else. Come on." Batman said, and the four of them left out the back door.
Meanwhile, back in Bludhaven…
Nightwing, Huntress and Black Canary stood in a triangle. To their right were Green Arrow and Sonar, working for Luthor and ready for a fight. To their left were Superman and Supergirl, who had apparently lost their minds. Or at least, Superman had. His cousin was more of a clueless pawn in his game.
"You got a plan?" Black Canary asked.
"I was just about to ask you." Nightwing said.
"I've got one, get the hell out of here!" Huntress said.
"Huntress… running away from a fight! This is one for the history books!" Black Canary smiled.
"I like a good fight, but I'm smart enough to know when I can't win." Huntress replied.
"Thank you for all the encouragement." Nightwing groaned.
"Well what were you expecting, a cheery pep talk?" Black Canary asked.
"It would have been nice."
Superman made the first move, flying in toward the trio like a meteor! They all dodged, and he created a small crater in the ground. As he stood, he was struck by an arrow from Green Arrow, and their was a bright blue impact, and then Superman shouted in pain and stumbled back!
"These neutron arrows are designed to hurt even you, Sups." Green Arrow said, aiming for another shot. But Superman was faster, and fired a beam of heat vision up toward the archer. Black Canary, jumping in to defend her sort-of-boyfriend, released a sonic scream, but then Sonar absorbed the sound and used it to amp up own endurance! He stepped in front of the heat vision, powered up by the powerful sound waves, and took no damage from the hit. He then flew down at the speed of sound and hit Superman with an onslaught of thundering, deafening punches! Huntress prepared to take a shot at Green Arrow, but was then struck by a powerful kick from Supergirl that sent her tumbling! Black Canary hit Supergirl with a sonic scream that put the young hero on the ground, covering her ears, and Huntress shot her with an impact arrow that knocked her across the barn!
Nightwing moved in on Green Arrow with his escrima stick, and deflecting a few arrows. Green Arrow then fought back with his bow as his weapon, and they began striking at each other mercilessly. Superman managed to plow through Sonar's onslaught and kicked the villain through the roof. Before Sonar even began falling, Superman flew up and struck him hard, sending him sailing into an area of the hideout still in construction. Supergirl stood and blew Black Canary through a wall with a burst of super breath before striking Huntress down with a blow to the stomach, and throwing her outside the barn. Then she flew out and kicked Green Arrow into the air and grabbed Nightwing, slamming him against a wall.
"What happened Dick? It isn't like you to go out killing like that…" She asked, uncertainty in her voice.
"It was Clark! You have to believe me Kara, please! Clark killed him, and he framed me so that you would stick with him! Please, Kara, I need you to believe me!" Nightwing pleaded. She thought about it deeply for a few moments before shaking her head.
"Sorry Dick. I just don't." She said, punching him through the wall. He did a cartwheel and sprung onto his feet, throwing a birdirang into her face! I knocked her head back and he flipped up and kicked her down. Then she flashed into a burst of Super speed and raised Nightwing up into the air.
Green Arrow shot a grapple arrow and hooked onto her foot, but she grabbed the cable and threw both of the heroes toward her cousin! "Hey Clark, catch!" She called. Superman turned in the air and punched them both down as they flew, sending them head first into the construction zone! Sonar stood and absorbed the sound from the impact, firing it toward Superman as a destructive blast. But Superman only took minimal damage and charged toward his opponent again. Green Arrow set off a sonic arrow, and Sonar absorbed the sound, used it to augment his strength, and then matched the man of steel's might! The two titans fought on, clashing at equal strength and endurance. But the difference was, Sonar's strength was not permanent…
Huntress and Black Canary smacked Supergirl around a bit before she really got angry and started flashing around at super speed, pummeling them both to a pulp! Soon they were all in the construction zone.
Superman and Supergirl prepared to fire a wave of freeze breath at the same time, but at different targets, and Green Arrow shot a freeze arrow into the mix. The blasts all collided and created an icy explosion! The ice froze into triangles, diving the battlefield into three sections!
Now Huntress and Supergirl were locked in combat together. In the second triangle of ice were Black Canary and Green Arrow. And in the third arena were Nightwing, Superman and Sonar.
Supergirl charged toward Huntress, who dodged the attack. Supergirl quickly turned around and fired a beam of heat vision. Huntress ducked, and fired a crossbow bolt directly into the chain holding a wrecking ball that was handing right above Supergirl! Supergirl looked up, heat vision still blazing, and melted the falling wrecking ball! Hot, melted steel poured all over her left side. But she felt very little pain from it, due to her steel like skin.
"Ooh… I get a free wax too!" Supergirl laughed, shaking the attack off.
"I figured I'd help you out, I mean, you really need one." Huntress mocked. Supergirl growled and flew in with a punch, sending Huntress sailing into the front end of a crane!
"Give up already! I'm way stronger than you!" Supergirl shouted. Huntress started laughing.
"Strength isn't everything honey." She said sweetly, pulling a lever in the crane. Suddenly, a large magnet being held up by the crane activated, and began pulling in the hot steel all over Supergirl! She flew forcefully into the magnet, stuck in place. "I fight smarter." Huntress smiled, firing a crossbow bolt filled with knockout gas that struck the struggling Supergirl in the face, causing her to pass out immediately. "Brains over brawn, even I know that." Huntress said, falling to the ground with broken ribs from the punch.
Black Canary and Green Arrow were fighting hand-to-hand, beating each other senseless. "How could you do this Oliver? How could you just blindly follow Luthor!" Canary demanded.
"You choose to be hated and targeted by everyone in the world, and I'm the blind one? I think you're a bit misinformed, babe! I'm tired of being the bad guy just for being the hero!"
"So you sell yourself out to the government?"
"I did what I had to." The two fought. Canary tried a sonic scream, but Green Arrow had a specialized arrow two fight her, one that absorbed the frequency. He then took her down and slammed her on the ground.
"Let's see just how much that thing can absorb…" She groaned, releasing the strongest possible scream she could. And she continued on and on, for almost ten minutes! Finally, the arrow imploded, sending Green Arrow falling onto his back. Black Canary, completely exhausted, grabbed stray freeze arrow and jammed it into Green Arrow's leg, setting it off and freezing her boyfriend.
"Sorry Ollie… I did what I had to." She huffed, and then passed out.
Superman struck Nightwing with a surprise kick to the chest, that completely took the young heroes breath away. Sonar prepared an attack, but Superman had had enough.
"I – am sick – of you!" He shouted, blasting Sonar with a wave of heat vision. He then grabbed the disoriented villain and ripped his arms off! Blood and circuitry spewed, and Sonar screamed. Then Superman thrust the villain into the wall of ice hard enough to completely shatter it, and Sonar. Sonar flopped to the ground, killed by the impact. Superman then ripped the dead villain's spine out, it was wired with circuitry. Superman dropped it on the ground and broke it in half. "You're done." He said abruptly. Then he turned his sights on Nightwing.
But to his surprise, the hero had risen, and fired his grapple out toward Superman's face! The rocket propelled piece of steel struck Superman, and knocked him on the ground with a bloody nose. Nightwing quickly retracted the grapple. It came back and hooked Superman's shoulder, pulling him back! Nightwing pulled up and flung Superman into the ice wall, burying him deep within it. Superman fell to the ground, injured.
"Batman trained you pretty damned well…" Superman muttered, standing up. "Too bad all that training was wasted on such a loser."
"What happened Clark? What suddenly turned into this- this monster?"
"Reality." Then there was a blur, and then Nightwing was on the ground. "Something you soon won't be a part of." He laughed. He then flung the unconscious Nightwing over his shoulder. He looked to the struggling Huntress. "I'll take you too, after all, Question is involved." Then he struck Huntress down. He looked up to his cousin, still sleeping and attached to the magnet. "I'll be back for you shortly. Sweet dreams…" He said, hoping his cousin would dream something useful to him. Then he flew off into the night, ready to take on Batman.