Thanks again for reading and/or giving feedback, everyone.
Deadpan - You're quite right, it could have been anyone insofar as achieving the basic premise of the story goes. I picked him out of the various choices for a variety of minor reasons: I didn't want an OC for this, I liked some of the worm-DC crossover fics that are out there (I might try a proper one after I'm done with this), and J'onn, I figure, would be used to being in other people's minds. At the same time, he's somewhat unfamiliar with humanity in general, and is coming from a rather more upbeat earth, which makes his being in this situation less of a cakewalk than it would be otherwise.
AlltheAces - You may be on to something there. Though as you'll see from this chapter, the endbringers aren't the only opportunity he has for things to head south quickly...
As J'onn approached the chaotic scene, three individuals flew up to meet him. They were of varying height, somewhat more so than typical for humans, and dressed similarly, in flowing dark robes.
They look familiar, but-
His precognition almost blared in his psyche, warning a fight was imminent.
Of course it is, that monster below's giving the other heroes quite a bit of trouble... Oh.
To his astonishment, he wasn't able to react in time. The oncomers unleashed three different ranged attacks, one serving to paralyze him and the others exploded with extraordinary force, sending him sprawling.
He opened his mouth, raised his hands, in a bid to reason with them.
Before J'onn could get a word out, the attackers launched a second barrage, with each unfamiliar blast sending him higher into the atmosphere. If this continued, they'd launch him into space.
He launched three bolts of golden light in retaliation. They homed in on each of the aggressors, but unprecedentedly, each of his targets dodged or parried his attack. In doing so, however, they'd been forced to pause their own onslaught. J'onn managed a second strike: a golden sphere of light, expanding away from him, catching everything else in its radius. Briefly, the cowled fliers were subdued.
The past few moments really did feel as though he'd woken from a dream, for a number of the powers he'd come to rely on seemed to be subverted by his new foes. His future sight and uncanny 'intuition' weren't quite abolished, but it was almost as if the attackers had suppressed them somehow. He took the opportunity to ask why they were attacking him.
To serve their master? Who is...
Of course the giant monster was their master. But how could that possibly-
His powers didn't answer that question directly. Instead, they directed his attention to the creature below. Looking at it, from afar, he felt a mixture of horror and disgust which intensified considerably when one of its large orifices - a mouth?- vomited out a slurry of bile and, improbably, what appeared to be a middle-aged human male. His proportions might have been unusual; J'onn couldn't tell. He could, however, sense that the man in the vomit had powers, which the latter demonstrated by conjuring a cowled costume.
The monster is the source, then-
His next question was preempted by the recovery of the three cloaked fliers. Their improbably variable attacks were geared towards putting as much distance between him and their master, he realized. They must know they can't win in a direct fight.
J'onn wasn't actually so certain of that last assumption. He was holding his own against the caped attackers now, though they'd managed to catapult him into a cloud when the fourth one joined in. They were diluting his powers, but he was getting the hang of launching golden blasts manually, successfully suppressing their improbably varied attacks. They moved quickly and evasively, however, and every so often, they got a hit in.
They can actually deal damage. It was more than could be said about anyone else he'd run into in this world. Worse, they somehow made his own powers costlier. He was experiencing something like fatigue, as well as the suspicion that the odds of the battle ending well were lowering as time passed.
He allowed himself to be hit by one of the vomit-people. As he was launched upwards, all four lunged in pursuit. J'onn unleashed his golden explosion again, rendering them immobile. He wasted no time diving to the battle below.
The heroes on the ground were in a full-scale brawl, fighting others who seemed to be partisans of the monster. They all drew attention from J'onn's ability to sense powers, but more interestingly, there seemed to be two 'flavors' of heroes... one which seemed to have something in common with the beast's.
Disturbing. But I'll process that once I've stopped its cloning. He hadn't even phrased it as a question, but he came up a quick solution. He bombarded the creature with beams of golden light, searing away its flesh faster than it could regenerate. The light only hurt the monster, fortifying anyone else who happened to be struck by it. Its mouths bellowed in agony, a reverberating, horrible noise.
Mixed in with this was the scream of a human female. His attention was briefly drawn to the upper half of a woman fixed upon the repulsive mountain of flesh. J'onn realized she was, in the end, a human with powers from the common source.
Unexpectedly, a beam carried a woman in a costume out of the monster's body. She was the first of many to be rescued, including one that seemed to be the template for the cloaked villains.
My power knew that would happen. How -
He felt his mental powers flicker again, and was ready for his attackers, this time. He flew obliquely, and, at the second he found himself equidistant to the four, unleashed a half sphere explosion, aiming to catch all of his descending enemies.
They'd wised up too, it seemed. The copies broke their formation and spread out, charging at the heroes' battle lines. There were collective gasps of horror; they seemed to know what the clones were capable of.
Can I still resolve this, without killing any of them?
His power gave him the answer.
So, first chapter with actual action in it... This is the first time I've written a fight, actually, and I'm not sure how it came out. Constructive criticism would be appreciated.
I was originally going to have this whole fight be from J'onn's perspective, but I think instead we'll see the rest in an interlude, instead. See ya next time.