Disclaimer: Say it isn't so! Adam West, the Batman from the 60's, recently passed away at the age of 88 years. It's a sad time. Rest in Peace, old chum.

Of course, I don't own anything.

Chapter XXIII

Darkseid looked out of the viewing port of his throne room at the shockwave that came from below. His eye beheld something he never suspected would've happened, and nothing ever came close to surprising him in his entire existence. If something did surprise him, he never showed it on his stone-like face. This was an entirely different scenario as Darkseid stated wide-eyed at the image of Wonder Woman standing tall and holding Mjolnir. That should've been utterly impossible, even for Superman, and it was impossible for Darkseid himself to lift the hammer. But Wonder Woman had it in her hand. Darkseid was not pleased.

Kalibak finally returned to the throne room and dropped to his knees in exhaustion and found Darkseid at the viewing port. "Father…?"

"Kalibak…" Darkseid silently replied before turning his head at displaying his angry, fiery red eyes.

Kalibak weakly uttered, "Uh oh!"

Wonder Woman had Mjolnir in her right hand as she stared down the still brainwashed but now bewildered Thor. He was now upright and cocking his head to the side and the Omega symbol shown brightly enough to make out from a long distance. Wonder Woman began a slow walk toward the Asgardian, her grip on the hilt tightening with each step. Bolts of lightning crackled from the hammer as Wonder Woman slowly picked up the pace. Thor tried once against to fight the dark influence in his mind, only for the evil to compel him forward. From the first step, Thor sprinted forward with the sole intention of taking the Amazon down and reclaiming what was his rightful property. Wonder Woman went into a sprint all her own and holding the hammer to her far right side.

The second they came close to closing the distance, Thor made a running jump with his right fist up high. Wonder Woman instantly took a swing at Thor with Mjolnir. She connected with Thor's jaw and sent the Asgardian spiraling to the ground where he came down with a massive. Thor immediately was upright and made another move straight at Wonder Woman, only for Wonder Woman to bash him in the jaw again. Thor was able to stand straight on his feet but Wonder Woman pressed her advance.

She landed hard blows to Thor's face and chest with the hammer, including a third shot to the jaw and one to the shoulder and another to the chest. Wonder Woman focused her hits on Thor's face with the clear intention to knock some sense into him and break Darkseid's hold over him. Thor recovered and tried to throw a wild right cross followed to a left strike, but Wonder Woman weaved in between each move and responded with a quick double kick. Then she spun her entire body around, with the hammer outstretched, and cracked Thor in the face again. Thor went down with his face planting the ground.

Halting her assault, Wonder Woman said, "You have to snap out of it, Thor. Darkseid is only using you for his own ends."

"Never, witch! The Lord Darkseid is wise and strong, and I am his loyal disciple." Thor claimed, but his consciousness knew better.

"You don't believe that, Thor. You know none of what you've claimed is true." Wonder Woman replied.

Thor seethed but then appeared to hold his hands to his head in agony. "Do… do not stop, Amazon." That was the real Thor, not the puppet controlled by Darkseid.

Then Thor shouted in anger before charging straight forward toward Wonder Woman. This time, Thor was able to duck under a swing of Mjolnir and take Wonder Woman down to the ground where they landed hard. Thor planted one hand on Wonder Woman's right to keep Mjolnir pinned while he landed an assault of straight punches to the Amazon's face. Wonder Woman felt every punch, each one feeling as if it was close to knocking her out. She managed to get her free hand up to block a blow, and Thor tried to force down the oncoming hit. This allowed Wonder Woman to free her other hand, which had the hammer, and she swung it into Thor's head.

The hit sent Thor to the ground but he was instantly right back on his feet. So was Wonder Woman as she charged forward with Mjolnir in hand. Thor tried to land a wild swing of his right hand but Wonder Woman ducked under it and retaliated with a high kick. Wonder Woman pressed her attack and landed a hard swing of the hammer, followed by a reversed swing across Thor's face and finishing with a brutal thrust into the chest. Thor was still standing and growing angrier, even as his consciousness was egging Wonder Woman on.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Avengers and the Justice League continued to mop up the remaining armies of Darkseid. Superman led the heavy hitters that included Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Aquaman, Green Lantern and Cyborg. They took out any of the remaining Parademons that swooped their way. Captain America fought alongside Batman, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Raven and Vision to subdue the less powerful troops, allowing the Flash to zoom in between each one in his efforts to secure a Mother Box. The Flash managed to land a few lightning fast hits of his own, all the while searching for the one target that had a Mother Box to steal. So far, luck wasn't favoring the Scarlet Speedster.

Iron Man blasted a pair of Parademon before Jocasta suddenly chimed in. "Tony, we have a significant energy signature heading our way."

"Let me guess; Doom." Iron Man said.

"Got it in one." Jocasta replied.

Iron Man immediately flew down to Captain America as he took out another soldier and said, "Doom is on his way, Cap. We've got to rap this up and get out of here."

Cap took out one more enemy before he replied, "We're not leaving without Thor, Tony. Find a way to buy us some more time."

It was then Captain Marvel that said, "Doom's mine." Then Captain Marvel flew off without a second thought.

"Danvers…" Captain America shouted.

"I've got her back." Green Lantern said before he flew after Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel was already halfway toward Doctor Doom when Green Lantern caught up to her. "Carol, are you crazy? You can't fight Doom alone."

"Doom's the reason we ended up here in the first place. It's high time someone paid him back in kind, so don't try to stop me, Hal." Captain Marvel shouted.

"Who said I was trying to stop you?" Lantern asked and smiled.

Marvel smiled back, and possibly blushed. Then she jetted forward to confront Doctor Doom, with Green Lantern following close behind. In the back of his mind however, and based on his first hand experience, Lantern was well aware that he and Marvel alone wouldn't be enough to stop down. There was certainly no guarantee that the two of them alone could even slow him down. That didn't mean they weren't going to try.

Doctor Doom sped toward the battlefield on his commandeered platform when he caught sight of two streaks of light, one green and one yellow. It didn't take long for him to determine that Green Lantern and Captain Marvel were heading his way. How foolish were they to challenge him alone? Then a green brick wall formed right in Doom's path, but he simply extended his right hand and blasted it apart. Green Lantern instantly made his move while he willed a sphere into existence. He tossed the sphere and Doom blasted that away before Captain Marvel unleashed an onslaught of energy blasts.

One of the blasts knocked Doom from his platform and sent him tumbling to the ground and he was upright within seconds. Captain Marvel flew straight for him and fired off another string of energy blasts, but Doom merely deflected the shots with one hand like they were nothing at all. He used his free hand to return a shot back at Marvel, and she rolled over to avoid the strike. Marvel managed to get as close she could and she landed a solid right cross to Doom's mask. Doom was staggered and Marvel landed a left cross, followed by a right uppercut.

Doom merely looked back at Captain Marvel before he grabbed her by her neck and hoisted up before Green Lantern hit Doom with a torpedo construct. A large explosion burst forth, but Captain Marvel was able to get clear of it. As she quickly regrouped with Green Lantern, they scanned the fiery epicenter for any sign of Doctor Doom. Within a moment of waiting, both were hit by duel blasts and knocked to the ground. Doctor Doom walked out of the fire without a scratch due to his erecting a force field around him long beforehand.

"Is that the best you can do?" Doom arrogantly asked.

But Captain Marvel smiled and replied, "No! This is the best we can do." Then she and Green Lantern crouched down.

The Hulk suddenly roared over them and went straight to Doom. Doom immediately took a series of shot at the Hulk, most of them barely fazing the green giant. The Hulk grabbed Doom by the tunic and hoisted him up, roared in his face. Then the Hulk landed a massive punch that sent Doom halfway across the battlefield. Doom was up to one knee and saw the Hulk rushing for him. He fired a blast that struck the Hulk in the face but it didn't halt his advance.

It did allow Doom to move in and land a few hard punches to the Hulk's face before he took the behemoth down with a throw. The image of Doom throwing the Hulk to the ground was enough to startle Captain Marvel and Green Lantern, prompting the latter to construct rocket launcher and fire a single salvo at Doom. Doom erected a force field again to deflect the rocket, but it bought the Hulk time to recover and move in on Doom again. The Hulk hit Doom with a straight punch that put him down to the ground and followed with a string of punches while the villain was down. Doom recovered and punched the Hulk in the face repeatedly, and the Hulk merely shook off the attacks.

Doctor Doom wasn't impressed by the Hulk's resilience even as the Hulk hoisted him up and slammed him to the ground and picked him up again. The Hulk held Doom by the tunic and proceeded to drive his giant fist into the villainous dictator's armor, and Doom never seemed to let out a grunt or a scream or anything. The Hulk halted his assault to look right into Doom's eyes. There was no fear or intimidation whatsoever.

"PUNY HUMAN!" the Hulk growled.

But Doctor Doom simply retorted, "Yes… you are, Banner."

Then he hit the Hulk was a strange energy blast that was different from his previous attacks. The Hulk appeared to suddenly be in a state of agony, leaving Marvel and Lantern in a straight of bewilderment. Doom maintained the stranger blast and the Hulk began to change form. He was shrinking in size and his green skin was losing its shade. The Hulk roared his disapproval, which in itself changed to a more human scream. When the process ended, Doctor Doom ceased his attack. The Hulk was gone and Bruce Banner was left in his place, grabbing his chest as if he was on the verge of cardiac arrest. Then Banner looked up at Doctor Doom.

"Who is the puny human now?" Doom mockingly asked.

"What did you do to me, Doom?" Banner asked.

"My gauntlets are modified to siphon the gamma radiation that makes you change into your... better half, with no side effects to trouble me. Naturally, you couldn't have seen it coming." Then Doom reached down for Banner before he was blasted away by Captain Marvel.

"Stay the hell away from him, you son of a bitch." Captain Marvel snapped.

Doctor Doom didn't flinch at the sight of Captain Marvel, instead musing, "Your hybrid Kree/human physiology has always interested me, Carol Danvers. I would welcome the opportunity to study it further."

"I'm not lab rat, Doom." Captain Marvel angrily claimed.

"I wasn't asking." Doom said.

Captain Marvel instantly became more enraged and heedlessly launched herself directly at Doctor Doom. Doom merely reached his hand out and grabbed Marvel by the neck. Marvel tried to produce an energy blast but Doom squeezed on her throat and lifted her up. Banner, in his weakened state, could do nothing to but reach out in protest. Doom tightened his grip on Marvel's throat, and Marvel slipped into unconsciousness. Then a glowing green fist slammed into Doom and forced him to drop the unconscious Marvel on the ground.

Green Lantern flew into the fray with a piston construct and waylaid Doom across the field. Doom was on the ground as Green Lantern willed a jackhammer into existence and hammered Doom into the ground repeatedly. Then Lantern constructed an aircraft carrier of all things and dropped it right on top of Doom. With Doom incapacitated and if only for a short time, Green Lantern rushed over to Banner and Marvel. While Banner appeared to be fine, Marvel appeared worse for wear.

"Is Carol okay?" Banner asked.

Green Lantern checked for a pulse and found one that was very faint. "She's unconscious but alive. We'd better get out of here."

As soon as Banner was near enough, Green Lantern constructed a sphere around himself, Banner and Marvel. The sphere instantly lifted up off the ground until it was high enough to be just out of reach of Doctor Doom. Down below, Doctor Doom was starting to rise up from the crater that he was pounded into by Green Lantern's attack. He made it to his feet and took in the view of Green Lantern taking Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner away from him. They were clearly heading back to the primary battle… and it was one Doom did not intend to miss.

The Flash continued to search for a Mother Box on any one of the attacking soldiers while knocking out those that didn't have what he wanted. The Justice League and the Avengers put down the troops that the Flash, and he quickly searched them before moving on to the next victim. He stopped for no more than a brief second to see Captain America laying out one such soldier before tossing his shield into the face of an approaching Parademon. Batman knocked out another soldier that he taken down and punches repeatedly in the face. The Flash ran up to that solider and found nothing.

He moved on to the next soldier that was littered with arrows thanks to Hawkeye, and another was stung by one of Black Widow's stingers and littered with bullet holes. Neither of them had a Mother Box and the Flash was starting to get frustrated. Then Superman and Iron Man brought down a Parademon together and Aquaman quickly finished it off, and the Flash moved on that one. He searched quickly and finally found what he was looking for. He lifted the Mother Box triumphantly.

"Got one!" the Flash declared, only for the Mother Box to be blasted to bits by a lucky soldier.

Superman was the only one to hear the Flash's boast and asked, "Say again, Flash."

"Uh…" the Flash stammered for a moment before he bolted to the random soldier and knocked him out, finding through a little bit of dumb luck that he also had a Mother Box. "Got another one!"

"Activate it now, Flash," Batman shouted and quickly looked to Cyborg as he was fighting alongside Raven and Vision. "Cyborg, can you stabilize the Boom Tube?"

"It shouldn't be a problem," Cyborg said while shot down a Parademon. "Just get it open."

The Flash quickly hit the activation switch on the Mother Box. It shook for a moment before opening a Boom Tube and throwing the Flash down to the ground. Cyborg moved in on the Boom Tube and used his tech to stabilize the Boom Tube. Vision and Raven covered him and Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow aided them. Green Lantern returned with the unconscious Captain Marvel and the de-Hulked Bruce Banner in tow. Iron Man, Superman, Batman and Aquaman joined in the defense of Cyborg.

"Lantern, are they okay?" Superman asked.

"Carol's unconscious but alive, and the Hulk is, well, he's not the Hulk." Green Lantern said.

"Take them through Boom Tube. Everyone else, follow them through one by one." Superman said, and Green Lantern took Banner and Marvel through the Boom Tube.

"Wait a minute. Where're Thor and Wonder Woman?" Black Widow asked, and her and everyone's attention were drawn to the fight between Wonder Woman and the brainwashed Thor.

"Damn it," Cap cursed under his own breath. "Iron Man, take the others through the portal. I'll catch up."

"We didn't come all this way to leave you, Cap." Iron Man claimed.

"I gave you an order, Stark. Go!" Captain America snapped before bolting off.

"I hate when he does that." Iron Man mused.

Wonder Woman continued to battle Thor with his own hammer and she landed a number of hard hits to his face and torso. Thor tried to fight back with only his fists, and he managed to land a number of rough haymakers across Wonder Woman's face. He managed to gain the upper hand and clobbered Wonder Woman over the back of her back with a piece of the ground. Another hit kept Wonder Woman down long enough for Thor to grab her by the hair. Thor grasped her throat and squeezed as hard as he could, but his consciousness was holding him back from dealing a fatal strangulation.

Out of nowhere, Thor was hit in the head by Captain America's shield. The shield landed right back in Cap's arm as he pushed ahead to confront Thor. Thor wildly threw more haymakers, some missing their marks and others striking the shield. Thor grabbed the top half of the shield and pulled it down so he was face to face with Captain America, and Cap jabbed the shield into Thor's jaw to stagger him. Captain America quickly threw a series of punches and kicks that landed squarely on Thor's chest and face and he was able to push him back. All the while, Wonder Woman was recovering from her near suffocation.

Captain America pressed on with more strikes while saying to Thor, "Snap out of it, Thor. You're an Avenger and you're stronger than this. You can't let Darkseid win."

Thor took more punches before he caught him and stared Captain America. "I… only serve… Darkseid."

"I don't believe that." Captain America, and Thor responded with a vicious punch to the gut that Cap felt through his own armor.

Thor stood over the fallen Captain America and was about to deliver the final blow before Mjolnir struck him right in the face. Thor was knocked to the ground while Mjolnir landed beside Captain America. He didn't bother to lift the hammer himself as Wonder Woman walked over him, taking the hammer with her. Thor was back up but Wonder Woman was on him immediately a Thor threw a completely inaccurate punch. Wonder Woman quickly ducked under the swing and hit Thor with the hammer to the jaw, staggering Thor and pushing him back.

Wonder Woman pressed her advantage and landed strike after strike with Mjolnir to every conceivable body part on Thor. Thor tried to fight back but Wonder Woman only continued her relentless assault with more and more blows with Mjolnir. She struck the face and the jawline, the shoulders and the chests, the thighs and the leg and pretty much anything that part of the Asgardian. Thor tried once more to strike back but his attacks missed their mark, while Wonder Woman continued to administer more punishment. Thor was left dazed and beaten and yet he was still standing. Wonder Woman built up all the adrenaline she could muster before taking that one giant swing of Mjolnir. Thor was bashed directly in the face with Mjolnir, hard enough to lift him off the ground.

Thor crashed back into the ground with a heavy thud and there he lay unmoving but alive. Wonder Woman gathered herself while Captain America approached her. She wrapped the sling of the hammer's hilt around her wrist before taking the Lasso of Truth into her hands. Thor began to stir and barely made it to his knees before the Lasso of Truth was suddenly wrapped around him. Wonder Woman pulled on the Lasso as it shimmered a golden hue.

"Listen to me, Thor. You are not a servant of Darkseid. You are not a slave to his influence. Now, the Lasso of Truth compels you to answer; who are you?" Wonder Woman said.

Thor looked at Wonder Woman and Captain America with rage in his eyes, but there was regret as well. He laboriously replied, "I am… I am…"

"Who are you? Who are you?" Wonder Woman repeated and tightened her grip on the Lasso.

Thor still struggled against the Lasso, but his consciousness was winning the fight from inside. He gritted his teeth while saying, "I am…"

"Say it!" Wonder Woman demanded.

Thor finally lifted his head up and screamed, "I AM THOR, SON OF ODIN."

A sudden, blinding ray of light shot forth and knocked Wonder Woman and Captain America down. Thor collapsed to the ground while still wrapped within the Lasso of Truth and fell unconscious. Captain America was the first to recover and he rushed up to Thor, while Wonder Woman recovered soon after and retrieved her fallen weapons. She gripped the tail end of the Lasso and roped it around her forearm and she was ready to act if Thor awoke. But he didn't. Captain America checked his vitals and noted that they were faint. Wonder Woman checked for something else on Thor's forehead, and an Omega symbol appeared. She readied for the worst, but the symbol seemed to jump away from Thor and vanish from existence.

"Cap," Iron Man shouted. "We've got to go now."

"Get to the portal. We'll grab Thor." Cap said.

"I'll take him, Captain. Let's go." Wonder Woman offered.

Without waiting for a reply, Wonder Woman hoisted the unconscious Thor over her shoulders and ran for the Boom Tube. Most of the heroes from each team were already through, with only Iron Man having remained to ensure no one was left behind. His armor's system detected the approach of Doctor Doom and Iron Man saw him coming. He took several repulsar shots at Doctor Doom in order to cover Captain America and Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman was the first one through the Boom Tube and she took Thor with her, leaving Captain America and Iron Man to hold Doom off for as long as possible. Cap took a defensive to allow Iron Man to enter the Boom Tube. Once Iron Man was through, Captain America followed. Doom was within reach Cap but the Boom Tube closed at the last minute. This left Doctor Doom alone amid the chaos of the mighty battle that took place and he snarled in brutal rage.

Looking back toward the top of the citadel and knowing who was up there watching, Doctor Doom shouted, "DARKSEID! YOU FOOL!"

Author's Note: Well, it didn't take nearly as long this time to finish this chapter. I guess Writer's Block took a holiday.

So as expected, Wonder Woman held Mjolnir and she pretty much whipped Thor's ass. Meanwhile, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel and the Hulk tried to fight Doctor Doom… with mixed results.

The Lasso of Truth bit at the end took inspiration from Justice League vs. Teen Titans.

So that's that for this chapter so drop a few reviews and I'll be back soon.

In Memory of
Adam West
1928-2017