Chapter Twelve: Confrontations
The beast flew over Themyscira, the Paradise Island. On Diana's command, it flew downward and touched down on the island, directly in front of the palace. A group of twelve Amazon's had already gathered, with their bows ready, in case the creature was hostile. Diana down from the beast, and the Amazon's immediately lowered their weapons and bowed. John slid down and stood next to her. "Am I going to be welcomed here?" He asked doubtfully.
"No." Diana said. She was soon greeted by Phillipus and Artemis. Phillipus was much like an aunt to Diana, and Artemis, well… she was hot and cold. Sometimes her and Diana got along, sometimes they didn't.
"Princess Diana." Phillipus said, bowing. She looked upon the princess's bruised, scarred body. "What has happened to you, my dear?"
"And what is this creature you have ridden?" Artemis asked, looking at the Kryptonian beast.
"I'll explain later Phillipus. And Artemis… this is Atlas." Diana said, patting the beast on the side.
"Atlas?" John asked cynically.
"Yes, I thought I'd call him Atlas because he's so big and strong."
"Diana… we are not keeping this thing, you know that right?"
"Who is this man you have brought here?" Phillipus asked.
"This is a friend of mine, he is not a wicked man. He was attacked by the same person as I, and he requires medical attention. Please treat him as if he were one of our own." Diana said.
"Very well, come with us, man. You will be fed and your wounds will be treated." Artemis said, turning and walking off. John followed her.
"Phillipus, where is my mother?" Diana asked.
"She is inside the palace. She has been horribly worried about you."
Diana nodded and headed into the palace. Soon she was in Hippolyta's chamber. Hippolyta smiled as she saw her sun and stars, but the smile quickly faded when she saw that her daughter had been beaten and broken. Thoughts of Heracles traced back into Hippolyta's mind… this was the same, she knew.
"Diana, who has done this to you, my child?" Hippolyta demanded.
"Mother, promise me you will not do anything brash, but-"
"Who?"
Diana looked her mother in the eyes and realized she already knew the answer. Hippolyta knew.
"Mother, before we get into all of that business… do you still have the communicator I gave you? So that you could contact me?"
"Diana, I demand the name of the man who has done this!"
"And I will tell you, but first, there are more pressing matters at hand. The communicator, please tell me you still have it?"
Hippolyta was silent for a long moment, rage billowing up inside of her. Not rage toward her daughter, but toward man itself.
"Yes, I do." Hippolyta sighed impatiently, taking a JLA communicator from a table and handing it to her daughter.
"Thank you." Diana bowed, trying to contact Shayera. But there was no answer. After several attempts, she sighed in disbelief and sat down. "Why won't you answer…?" Diana pleaded, knowing Shayera did not hear her. She thought about trying to contact Bruce, to let him know that she was ok, but according to John, Bruce had dropped off the map after her disappearance. If he was in some sort of danger, she didn't want to make it any worse. There was only one person left to contact. She set the communicator to contact the last person left who she could trust…
Meanwhile, back at JLA Headquarters…
Wally West was awakened by the beep of his communicator. He shot up on the couch and fumbled for the device. "Uh… hello?" He responded, still half asleep.
"Wally? This is Diana, I need-"
"Diana? You sure?"
"Yes Wally, I'm sure it's me! Now pay attention!"
"Uh… sure, but, where have you been?"
"Wally we can talk about it later, but right now please listen to me! John is with me right now but… Shayera thinks Clark still has him! She's going to kill J'onn!"
"Slow down a minute, Shayera hasn't been out of her room all night… um, that I know of anyway."
"Go talk to her Wally, tell her John's ok! Please!"
"Alright, I'll go tell her, and-" Before Wally could finish his sentence, his communicator died. He realized that he had not charged the device in over a year. "Oh yeah… batteries." He sighed.
He stood and zipped over to Shayera's room. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He quickly glanced into the infirmary to make sure she wasn't in there, but only J'onn was present. "Hey, Shayera, you in here?" Wally called. He began vibrating his finger and used it to burn through the lock on the door. He then cautiously pushed the door open. Shayera was standing there, holding her mace at her side, her head down. She was frighteningly still. She didn't even breath. She reminded Wally of every zombie movie he had ever watched. Except for the wings, zombies usually didn't have wings… though it would make for a great twist in a movie. Wally shook his head and reminded himself to focus.
He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Shayera, you ok?" He asked. She did not respond. She didn't even look up. He noticed the heavy tears dripping down onto the floor in front of her. "Shayera? It's me, Wally, come on, snap of it!" He pleaded, both hands on her shoulders now, lightly shaking her. She looked up; there was a blank, lifeless stare in her eyes. "Shayera, have you been here all night?"
"Trying to make myself move." She said in what was nearly a whisper.
"Shayera, I just talked to Diana. She said John's ok."
"Clark took him. He's going to kill him." She was eerily calm.
"No, him and Diana escaped or something! I don't know the details, my communicator died, but-"
"Shut up."
"What? Shayera I'm serious, I was just-"
"Shut up Wally. Just shut up! You don't get it!"
"Get what?" But without answering, Shayera punched him in the stomach and threw him across the room. She then began walking toward the infirmary. She made it across the hall and opened up the glass door, heading over to J'onn's bed.
Wally struggled to get to his feet. He saw Shayera raise her mace, and he flashed over.
"I'm sorry J'onn." She said again, swinging down at him with the mace. Wally blurred into focus behind her and pulled her back, causing her swing to miss. She began struggling, so he vibrated his body fast enough to make her pass out. But she didn't pass out. She stopped struggling, dropped her mace, and fell on the floor, sobbing. Wally calmed down and helped her up. They sat down in the corner, both of them shaken up. Shayera rested her head on Wally's chest, still sobbing.
"John's ok, I promise." Wally told her.
"No he's not." She sobbed. "The way Clark is… he's not ok. None of us are."
Meanwhile, back at Blockbuster's old hideout…
Green Arrow had been struggling for hours, but he finally managed to work a vibration arrowhead out from under his glove. He then jammed into the ice that he was encased in, and allowed it to go off. It completely destroyed the prison of ice that held him, shaking it into shambles. Green Arrow fell to his hands and knees, shivering, but free. He looked around the battlefield, still unable to believe what he had witnessed. From inside the ice, he had seen Superman murder Sonar, and kidnap Nightwing and Huntress.
Green Arrow stumbled over to Black Canary, who was just now beginning to wake up. She was moaning softly, trying to come awake. Green Arrow helped her up, and then supported himself against the wall of a barn. Black Canary opened her eyes, and began to make sense of what was going on around her. Then her eyes got wide, and she swung a punch at Green Arrow. Arrow dodged and tried to calm her down.
"Chill out! I'm not looking for a fight, I swear." He told her.
She began to speak, but then groaned and placed her hand on her forehead. "I've never put that much power into a sonic scream before… I feel horrible." She said.
Green Arrow looked up to the large magnet were Supergirl was stuck, still unconscious. "We'd better go before Superman comes back for her." He said, helping Black Canary move along.
He had regained his composure now, and no longer needed the support of the barn, so he was able to move much faster. He literally began to piggyback Black Canary, her arms around his neck and her legs propped on his hips. She was barely awake, and her head throbbed like never before. Then he stopped in his tracks.
"Oh!" He cried out suddenly.
"Ouch! Super-scream hangover here!" She said, clutching her forehead.
"Sorry. I just remembered something." He said, picking up his pace and heading into the building that had previously been Blockbuster's hideout. He moved up into the hallway and found the piece of kryptonite that Supergirl had blown down the hall earlier that night. He reached down and lifted the glowing green rock, sliding it into his pocket. "This could come in handy." He said to himself.
"So why'd you do it Ollie? Side with Luthor, I mean…"
"You wouldn't understand it." He said, almost sadly.
"Try me." She said, beginning to feel better.
"Huh… well, a few months back, there this apartment fire in Star City. It was really bad, there were still some people on the top floor, but the fire fighters couldn't get to them. So I jumped in, I went in looking for anyone still up there. I got a couple people out, dropped them out the window and onto the fire department trampoline. Then there was this little girl who I found, probably about nine or ten. She was trapped under her burning bed. I pulled her out of the fire and started heading out of there, but then the entire floor started to collapse. Everything was coming down. I panicked, I knew I had to get her out of there, you know? So I made a break for it, and I threw her out the window like everybody else, but that was the dumbest mistake of my entire life…"
"What happened Ollie?" Black Canary asked when he stopped.
"Well I was in a rush, you know, I was panicking, and…"
"And what?"
"It was the wrong window."
"Oh my God!"
"Yeah… it was in the right hallway, just a bit too far to the right, and… and she hit concrete. She died instantly."
"Ollie, it wasn't your fault, everyone makes mistakes."
"Yeah. But then some news station got footage of me throwing her, and of course people got the wrong idea. They didn't even consider the fact that maybe I'm human… that maybe I make mistakes too… they just immediately assumed that I did it on purpose. Suddenly it was on every news station everywhere, Green Arrow, a kid killer. Soon everybody in America wanted my blood. I was more hated than ever… and that was when I decided enough was enough. Lex Luthor was organizing this Super Human Police Force, he still is, actually. I applied, and I fit the bill. I guess I was just tired of being hated, sick of being the vigilante, the monster. With this, we would nothing but positive publicity, and, and maybe I'm just selfish, but I think I did the right thing."
"Ollie. I'm so sorry for what happened, and they had no right to do that to you. But do you really think selling yourself out to Luthor was the right thing to do?" Black Canary asked sympathetically.
"I don't know. I thought I did, but… now I'm not so sure."
Suddenly, Green Arrow ducked to the floor and both heroes took cover. Superman flew by, holding his unconscious cousin in his arms. Green Arrow quickly shot a small tracer arrowhead onto Superman, allowing him to track the man of steel.
"Oliver, what exactly do you think you're going to do?" Black Canary asked once Superman was out of earshot.
"I think I'm going to redeem myself. I'm putting a stop to this."
Meanwhile, at the headquarters of The Oracle…
Hawk stood above The Oracle with absolute superiority. "Why… why are you doing this?" The Oracle questioned.
"Because I'm sick and tired of all your pacifistic peace making crap! Whether I'm with the League, or the Birds of Prey, or the Titans, it's always the same! None of you have the guts to stand up and take action, and that's why the world is so screwed up!" Hawk shouted, punching The Oracle again.
"And you really think Lex Luthor will make the world any better?" She huffed out through the pain.
"He'll do what needs doing. If there's a threat, he'll have us crush it. No mercy, no waiting around, no trying to make friends with it, we just take action and take it out! That's the way heroes need to be if we really want to make any sort of difference in the world! Luthor's Superhuman Police Force will get the job done right!" Hawk explained.
Hawk had been Luthor's spy in the Bird's of Prey for several months now. And he had finally been ordered to kill The Oracle. It was about time, as far as he was concerned. After a brief battle, he had beaten the woman down and pummeled her into the floor. Now he was going to draw out her agonizing death as long as possible. He had broken into her computer ahead of time, and sent Dove and Lady Blackhawk on an emergency mission down in southern California, to make sure neither of them would interfere with the assassination. But then Hawk's LexCorp communicator began to beep.
"Aw hell, looks like I'll have to finish this now!" He shouted, striking The Oracle as hard as he could. Blood pooled around her body. "That should do it." He smiled, turning to answer the communicator. The Oracle inched over to her keyboard, and put in a last resort code. A large red light began to blare. "What the?" Hawk shouted.
"You aren't getting out of here alive, Hall!" Oracle shouted, knowing she had to stop him before he carried out his next mission. "You're in charge now… Canary." She sighed, closing her eyes. And the entire place exploded, killing them both.
Meanwhile, at the old Cadmus Base…
All of the affairs were now in order. Batman, Question and Galatea had explained the situation to Zatanna, who was now ready to locate the body. After reciting a few incantations, Zatanna asked who they wanted her to contact.
"Diana." Batman immediately piped in. Zatanna nodded and closed her eyes.
"Anaid!" Zatanna proclaimed, saying Diana's name backwards to complete the spell.
They waited several moments, but nothing happened. Zatanna attempted the spell again, but again there was no result.
"I can't seem to contact her spirit." Zatanna said sadly.
"Does that mean she's alive?" Batman asked, a glint of hopefulness lining his voice.
"Well… no. The spell I used was an extremely high level one, it reveals around spiritual detection. If she were alive, I'd be able to at least detect her spirit…"
"So what are you saying?" Batman demanded.
"I'm saying it's as if Diana doesn't exist. Wherever she is, she is not in this world." Zatanna said in a confused tone.
"Not in this world? What the hell?"
"Maybe she already crossed over?" Question asked, but Zatanna shook her head.
"No, it wouldn't matter. Like I said, that was an extremely high level spell. We still would have been able to contact her. I could try an outer-dimensional spell to see if I could find her, but it could take days, if it works at all." Zatanna grimaced.
"No. It'd be a waste of time. Try contacting someone else." Batman said.
"Are you sure bats?"
"There are things more important right now. We don't have the time to waste. Contact Toyman, he's been dead the longest. He's probably pretty eager to speak."
"Ok, I'll work on it. What's Toyman's real name?"
Batman told her, and she went to work. But before the spell was finished, there was a blast, and the door to the hidden base flew across the room. Standing on the other side was Superman, with Supergirl next to him.
"Yup. This is definitely the place in my dream." Supergirl said.
"Good job Kara. You've been a lot of help to me." Superman said with a wicked grin.
"It's about time." Galatea grinned, standing and ready to fight.
"Hello, Bruce." Superman said.
"Question, get Zatanna out of here! Galatea and I will keep them busy, but it's important that Zatanna finishes that spell!" Batman shouted.
"Got it." Question said, grabbing Zatanna to pull her out of the room.
"Wait a minute, I want to-" Zatanna began to protest, but Question grabbed her and pulled her through the backdoor of the base.
Superman nodded to Supergirl, and the two prepared to go on the offensive. Batman immediately began to pull his Kryptonite out of his utility belt. But Superman did not seem scared. Galatea immediately moved over to the other side of the room. Why was Superman so unbothered by the presence of his weakness?
"Stand down Clark, or I'll jam this down your damn throat!" Batman barked, but Superman laughed.
"I knew you carried that, which is why I brought some of your Kryptonite." Superman smiled, reaching over. He then pulled up an unconscious Nightwing! Batman gasped and backed up a little.
Supergirl grimaced some, clearly bothered by her cousin's manipulative methods, but she said nothing. Superman held Nightwing by the arm, the young hero dangling like a rag doll.
"Drop the Kryptonite, or he dies." Superman announced.
"What?" Supergirl gasped, looking at Superman is disbelief. He gave her a look that said he wasn't really going to kill his hostage, but something inside of her told her to believe otherwise. She did not protest, however. Something about Clark had been scaring her lately anyway.
Batman reluctantly threw the Kryptonite onto the other side of the room, underneath a lead bomb shelter area. "Ok, now let Dick go!" Batman yelled.
"Sure thing." Superman threw the hostage with all his might, and struck Batman. He and his ex-sidekick tumbled across the room and crashed into a wall. In an instant, Superman was right in front of the dark knight and kicked him straight through the wall! Batman was suddenly falling in a part of the base that he had not known existed. This was a huge, dark, steel room that went thousands of feet into the ground! And Batman was falling. Superman flew down after him, murder in his eyes.
Galatea flew at Supergirl, flinging a mighty punch. Supergirl blocked the punch, and the impact was a thunderous crash that made the room begin to collapse.
"I've been waiting a long time to take you out!" Galatea screamed.
"How'd you get Batman involved in this anyway?" Supergirl questioned, punching Galatea away.
"Me? Batman's the one who get me involved!" Galatea responded, kicking Supergirl in the throat and then spin-kicking her across the room.
"But why? I mean, what made him go bad?"
"You really are clueless, aren't you?" Galatea laughed. "Batman's the good guy!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you? Your cousin's a murderer! He's on a killing spree and we're stopping him!"
"If you're gonna lie to me Galatea, at least think of something that makes sense!"
"Believe what you want, I don't really care. I'm just going to hit you some more."
Batman shot a grapple and landed on a steel walkway. Superman came thundering down in front of him. "You can't run forever Bruce!" He shouted, firing a bema of heat vision that Batman barely evaded.
"Clark, slow down and listen to me! Lex Luthor is using you! He's turned you into a weapon!"
"Luthor, huh?" Superman began laughing hysterically. "Luthor! Of course!" More insane laugher. "Luthor finally did something good for me, he opened my eyes! I get it now, I get what I'm supposed to do, I'm supposed to fix Earth! Fix it by killing every single one of you stupid, filthy monkeys!" He continued laughing.
Batman narrowed his eyes. "You've lost your mind." He drew a series of baterangs, and concealed them behind his back. "I don't know what Luthor did to you, but it doesn't matter now. This has to end!" Batman released the handful of baterangs, they flew out and landed in different locations around Superman. Batman then pushed a trigger. A strange blue light shone from one of the baterangs, and then connected to another, and this process continued until they had formed an octagonal beam around the man of steel.
"What is this?" Superman demanded.
"I designed those as a last resort… just before I went to recruit Question. They'll explode with the force of twelve atomic bombs!" Batman announced. Superman tried to move, but found that the blue light was projecting some sort of stasis field, holding him in place.
Nightwing slowly came awake, and sat up to see two beautiful blondes beating the crap out of each other. Supergirl and Galatea were still going at it, both bleeding now. Nightwing saw the faint glow of Kryptonite underneath some sort of bomb shelter area. He slowly crawled over to the glow, and pulled out the Kryptonite. But he couldn't tell which of the women he should fight… Galatea was a villain, but Supergirl was being manipulated like Superman's puppet… he watched them fight for a bit longer before making his decision.
Galatea was getting the upper hand against her opponent when she was suddenly struck with a grapple! The grapple hooked her shoulder, retracted and pulled her backwards out of the fight. "What the hell?" She looked to see Nightwing had pulled her out of the fray. The young hero then hurled the Kryptonite, striking Supergirl in the face! She fell to the ground, and the rock dropped next to her, beginning to kill her.
"Sorry Kara." Nightwing sighed, looking to Galatea and preparing to take a beating. But instead, she thanked him. That surprised him a bit.
"Dick Grayson." He said awkwardly, extending his hand. Galatea shook it.
"Galatea… well, Galatea. That's all there is." She said, equally awkward.
"I know who you are." He said.
"If that's true, then why'd you pull me away from the Kryptonite?"
"I don't know… you just kind of looked trustworthy." He said, staring into her eyes. "You don't look like anyone who could possibly be all that bad." He said, cracking a smile. She smiled too.
"Well, thanks." She shrugged. They looked over to the screaming Supergirl. "You're not going to let her die." Galatea said.
"What makes you so sure?" Nightwing asked, curious.
"I can already tell you're not a killer." Galatea said with nothing but honesty in her voice. Nightwing sighed.
"Yeah, you're right." He said. He got up, walked over, knocked Supergirl out for the second time that day, and took the Kryptonite. He saw a faint blue light coming from the hole Batman and Superman had made in the wall. He looked down and saw the octagonal light. "Oh God…" He sighed, leaping down to the area. Galatea followed.
"Those will explode like twelve atomic bombs! That should be enough to kill anyone… even you." Batman said, holding up the trigger. "All I have to do is push this button again, and we're gone. Neither of us walk out alive. I could end it all right here, Clark."
"You don't have it in you." Superman said calmly, standing his ground.
"Try me." Batman prepared to push the button, but suddenly a hand grabbed his wrist. He looked back to see Nightwing standing behind him.
"Bruce, don't." He pleaded.
"Get out of here Dick. Find Question and Zatanna, help them find evidence. I'll finish things here." Batman said firmly.
"No! Don't do it Bruce, please."
Galatea landed behind Superman, ready to fire heat vision. "There are other ways to do this." She said.
"Come on Bruce, think about it. What if he survives? You've had wasted all our lives for nothing! And even if it does kill him, what difference will it make? Luthor's still out there, and who knows what he'll do with you and Clark out of the picture!"
"Dick, please… leave."
"No Bruce, I won't. Because I know you won't kill me, so as long as I stay…" Dick didn't finish his sentence; they all knew what he would have said next anyway.
Batman sighed and lowered the trigger, throwing it off the walkway.
"You're funeral." Superman smiled. The stasis field ran out of power, and in a blur Superman was on the attack, but was caught by Galatea, who held him back.
"Dick! Now!" She called. Nightwing took the Kryptonite he had just used on Supergirl and charged Superman. Superman saw it coming and fired a wave of heat vision that struck Dick in the leg! The young hero fell and accidentally tossed the kryptonite off the walkway. It fell down thousands of feet into the darkness. Superman and Galatea continued to struggle, but eventually Superman won out punched her down. But as he prepared to kill her, a sonic scream rang out that completely disoriented the man of steel. He looked up to see where the painful scream was coming from, and was then greeted by an incoming kryptonite arrow!
Superman reacted just in time and swerved to the side. The arrow pierced Galatea!
"No!" Dick screamed, rushing over to her. Black Canary and Green Arrow stood above, looking down through the hole in the wall. Approaching behind them was Huntress, who Superman had originally planned to bribe Question with, but that plan was scrapped and he left her near the base. Superman looked around. He was surrounded by Nightwing, Batman, Galatea (injured as she may be), Huntress, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. He grimaced, realizing that he may not be able to win this battle.
"Another day, Bruce." He growled, bursting through the ceiling. Supergirl, who was just waking up, saw him flying away and followed him. Soon they were out of sight.
"She's hurt! Bad!" Nightwing shouted, holding Galatea in his arms. The arrow was embedded deep in her lower shoulder, just above her chest. She was drenched in sweet, bleeding heavily, and the color was draining from her quickly.
"We'll tend to her as soon as we can. But we can't afford to stay here right now. Everyone move! They began to leave, and then Batman turned and faced down Green Arrow. "Everyone except you." He snapped.
"Bats… what I did was stupid, I know. But I'm ready to make up for it. I'll help take Superman and Luthor down, no matter what it takes." Green Arrow said honestly.
"You can trust him, please. He's been through a lot." Black Canary said.
"Fine. But one false move, and you're out." Batman said, staring the archer in the eyes. There was a moment of silence, but it was then broken by Galatea's painful moans.
"She needs help right away, guys." Nightwing insisted.
"If we try to remove the arrow right now we might end up breaking the kryptonite off, and then there would no chance of helping her. Once we get somewhere we can rest, we can help her, but you have to calm down Dick." Batman said, and Dick nodded. "Come on. We need to regroup with Question and Zatanna, to see what she found."
Meanwhile…
Superman sat on top of the Daily Planet, looking at Supergirl, who was resting down on a lower part of the building. "She's beginning to doubt me…" He said to himself. "But right now, I need her dreams, so I need to keep her trust… I should be more careful from now on." Then he looked off into the distance. "But… I think it's about time I paid Lex Luthor a visit."