Nightwing finds himself back in the room with the slab of stone, now as featureless as before. His knees feel weak and he startles when a large hand land on his shoulder, making him quickly turn to look up at Highfather. "The Source has shown you what it wished to show." He says.
"But what does it mean?" Richard asks, briefly wondering if Highfather knew what he had seen or not.
"It is difficult to say for the Source is rarely clear, you will have to meditate on its meaning if you believe there is a deeper one to be had. Or perhaps you are more at ease with debating?" He asks, keying Nightwing in on that Highfather didn't know.
"I saw Raven, different versions of her. Different outcomes of her life." Nightwing replies before Highfather gestures for him to follow him out. "The first was perhaps the worst, she had gone mad and claimed Hell as her own and… I don't know what she had done, but she said I had died because of Heaven. Then I saw her lying dead in a place called Elysium, where she would sleep forever. I only caught a short glimpse of the next one, but it was bad for her. And the last one… It just seemed so real, she had become Queen of the Amazons, I saw some of the Justice League being with her and… she could see me." Nightwing says, not knowing that he was almost rambling it all out. "I mean, she could see me before, but this time it felt like I was really there, everything else feels like a dream now."
"Did you speak with her in this place?" Highfather asks.
"Only long enough for her to assure me that she was ok, she could tell I wasn't going to stay around for very long. I met Hades as well in Elysium and he could tell I wasn't from his world either." Nightwing replies as they walk down a hall and into a circular elevator that will take them to the ground floor. "What does it all mean?"
"I would say you saw potential futures, many years into the future and one or more may have come true or none. It is equally likely it was to show you how your influence affects her." Highfather replies while his mind remains in thought.
"Has it ever been like this for you?" Nightwing asks.
"It has. Such as when the Source guided me to her." He says and Nightwing looks at him in question. "It is best you do not know what I saw, what is important is that I understood she would need the aid of New Genesis."
"So… this isn't just a gesture from your good heart." Nightwing notes, feeling a little uneasy with the sense that things were beyond his control now and that he was just a tiny speck that was being pulled along with Raven as she appeared to be at the center of it. "What is really going on?"
"You are correct, it is not. New Genesis retains a strict policy of non-interference with the worlds that remain under our protection. We may send agents to protect them against certain treats, but had the Source not instructed us to, we would have let her be." Highfather explains as he looks at Nightwing. "I can see you feel caught in a greater game, and you are, as are all of us here. All we can do is play our part."
"I don't like that idea, makes me think I don't have a choice." Nightwing replies as he looks away.
"You do, that is the game, the game of choice." Highfather replies as they finally reach the ground floor. "Remember, it is the choices you make that shape the game in the long run."
"Are you saying that the Source told me, that I am the one to choose what becomes of Raven?" Nightwing asks.
"Not entirely, but that the Source chose to show you, says that your part is indeed significant. Consider it young one and I wish you a pleasant night." Highfather replies before he leaves Nightwing to find his way back on his own.
"It's been more than an hour. Where have you been?" Batman asks Nightwing as he arrives back in the laboratory.
"Out walking." Nightwing replies as he notices Cyborg and Beastboy playing a video game on Cyborgs systems while sitting on their colorful bunks, which looks like beanbags. Starfire isn't here, which makes Nightwing assume she is out to absorb the last of the day's sunlight. J'onn and Philipus are hovering in the air before Raven in meditation. Antiope is quietly playing a small flute while lying on her back, with Io fast asleep beside her. And Hippolyta, Artemis and Penelope are doing something as unusual as juggling their swords between the three of them. Batman just gives him one of those looks that told people he thought something else happened. "You stormed off after we got out of her head." Nightwing notes.
"I needed air." Batman replies flatly getting a glare from Nightwing, because it was obvious to them both what he was doing.
"Right. I had an encounter with Highfather." He mutters getting Batman to nod at the door before they both head out for some privacy. "I had some visions of Rae, not all of them good."
"Visions?" Bruce asks with a raised eyebrow. "Anything we need to be worried about?"
"I don't know, what I saw appeared to be years in the future. I can't even say any of it is going to be real or not." Nightwing replies getting a nod from Batman.
"I was talking to J'onn about what we can do about Granny." He says flatly.
"In regards to the League?" Nightwing asks getting a nod.
"It will be uncovered sooner or later. And you know she isn't going to keep it secret even we asked her to." Nightwing nods at him in understanding of this, if anything he would think Raven would go around assuming everyone knew, which would make her paranoid till she broke and told.
"What's the worst that can happen?" He asks.
"She is most likely going to be expelled from the League because she already had the warning due to what she did to Dr. Light." Batman replies getting a sigh out of Nightwing.
"But no putting her in prison or anything like that?" He asks.
"There is a remote chance of the Guardians of Oa considering it a Deicide, which is described as against one their laws, even if it's obscure to most of them. Otherwise, no, this is simply going to be a disciplinary case within the League."
"And what are we going to do when Waller and the like find out? They are going to use every excuse they can to have something on her." Nightwing notes.
"We will have to deal with them if they come." Batman shrugs.
"By what you are saying, I am guessing she isn't leaving Gotham." Nightwing notes, but Batman just remains quiet before turning away. "Batman?" Nightwing asks with a rapidly rising worry in his gut.
"I never entertained the thought." He says without turning. "Wake me up at the end of your shift."
Raven's P.O.V.
I can only stand here and watch the others sleep with my physical eyes. It's sometime after 2 in the night and it's J'onn's turn to hold the vigil, which I know he will spend by meditating, his Martian mind is simply more aware of the little things in that state and to him it is as good as sleeping. Not that he needs it, I've learned that despite that Mars has only a slightly slower rotation than Earth does, Martians only need to rest every week or so thanks to their much slower metabolism.
The machine above me has begun to extract the Omega-Force that is otherwise killing me, and it keeps me awake with the constant dull throb of pain I am now feeling from my entire body. But even if I can't move my eyes, my mind can still wander as I please, and if by design or not, I can feel I can project myself beyond my body. And right now I can't help but consider the people who have elected to remain here for my safety.
Richard is first in my mind and in my heart, I don't know what I would have done with myself if he hadn't appeared in my life. Who could I have found to look up to that would have wanted me around if he didn't? Who could have walked the delicate balance that needs to be kept around me? I don't know. I can see he has troubled dreams, and I wonder if it is because of me... like so much of his time has recently revolved around me, and now this, the murder of a god, I imagine he is now questioning many things about me, about himself and our relationship. Even if they don't openly say it, I know they all are.
Garfield sleeps the sleep of the dead, as usual, but he's stopped the drooling and sleep-talking he did in the Tower, something I imagine Kori has played a large part in. I still find him annoying at times, but I think it's more of an unconscious trigger now than real annoyance, I get irritated because I've become so used to being irritated with him regardless of action. And still I love him like a brother, and I wish nothing but happiness for him and Kori.
Speaking of her, I see her lying with her head over the edge of her bag. In her person, I see a mirror of myself, an image of how I wished I could be; free, able to express feelings without fear and indulge myself in the good feelings of those around me. I think she chose the right one when she gave her heart to Garfield, they compliment each other well when it comes to temperament and humor.
And Victor, snoring slightly, is lying on his side to allow a cable in his back to recharge his batteries from a socket in the wall next to me. In front of him is a motherbox that one of the scientists had lent him earlier this evening, probably to stop him and Io from bothering them with the tide of technological themed questions. I know Richard and some of the others think of me as a rock on the teams I am on, but Victor is mine, and he knows it. Even if Alfred has taken up this job as well, Victor is still the one I feel most at ease with sharing things that bother me.
This group of kids coming together around me really was a stroke of luck unlike any other, and I can't thank Azar, Olympus or whoever it was enough for it. Without them, I am sure I wouldn't be standing here now… I'd probably be dead or much worse; they would.
I know J'onn considers me a kindred spirit, perhaps more so than most others because of our pasts and our powers and that for a very long time, we both felt totally alone. And I value him greatly, there is so much I can still learn from him, things I know Azar would never have been able to teach me. While I genuinely don't know how he once was, I admire him for having survived what he has, and still remain himself.
Bruce I still struggle with, there are days when I don't know what he sees when he looks at me. But when I look at him, I see something to aspire to, a father figure, a person who can turn the bad things in life into fuel in order to push themselves ever further forwards. It is an admirable trait and I genuinely hope I haven't ruined too much of that while I've been in Gotham, probably not going to be doing it any more.
Then I turn to Hippolyta, who looks so much softer when she sleeps. But then again, she would, since no one has any expectations of her in her dreams. In her I see the sort of mythical being you hear a hero encounters, her presence is nearly overwhelming them before she's said a single word and then they find out how human she is. Very much like I imagine Tolkiens Galadriel would be if you met her.
Artemis is almost lying on her own sword and barely asleep, out of all of them, she appears to be the one that's most uncomfortable about being here, but I don't know if it's the lack of privacy of her own home or the presence of the opposite sex that's doing it. In some ways, she is very much like Bruce, always striving to be better and spends a lot of time hiding the real person they are. I admit I haven't seen any more of that other person than that one night, but deep down I think Artemis would be very different if she allowed herself to move out of the idea that everyone would turn on her if she relaxed.
I can nearly see the cogs turning in Io's dreams as her sleeping mind comes up with technical solutions to problems we haven't even seen yet. I like her, she's amusing to be around, she's very intelligent in a strange way and down the line, I could imagine learning from her should I one day have to leave the rest of the world behind. Cassandra has a tough time with her, I know, but that's mostly because she tends to point out how some of Io's recent projects remind her of better things from Man's World. I should tell her at some point that there are better ways of delivering such comments and remind her that much of what Io ends up presenting to us are proto-types she's built from scratch, they haven't been smoothed out and given a proper exterior design yet. Case in point, the Healing Ray, on paper, it was handheld, the machine she smashed was large and cumbersome owing to the many changes she'd had made to overcome her own inbuilt flaw, had that worked, Io would have tried to miniaturize it and then give a proper finish, if she didn't get distracted. And now the Purple Healing Ray is lying next to her, finished and apparently fully functional.
Antiope is, as always, hard to gauge, she has a hunters instinct and mind, quiet, calm and unmoving for long periods of time before sudden rapid action, which even seems to extend to her dreams. I know from the others that she is generally a solitary soul, preferring the wilds to the city when she has the time to indulge her passion for hunting. She says she doesn't need to have used her bow while out to consider the trip well spent, she's said she often just ventures out for the sights only she knows where to find and have the patience for and that if any of us could keep quiet for long enough she'd take us along one day like she has Philipus. Actually, she has a bit of a reputation for going out empty handed and return a week later with bow, stone knives and other such things she'd need to survive. And I know that much is true; she has at least 6 flint knives in her room that I have seen and 2 crude bows made of branches and vines. But for war, she keeps a single bow that's extensively reinforced with metal and enchantments thanks to Io to make sure it lasts for a prolonged battle.
Penelope rests easy, but lightly in her sleep, undoubtedly ready to rise and fight at a seconds notice. Out of all of my sisters here, she is perhaps the one that resembles me the most, quiet, not much for humor, and dedicated to perfecting her art as much as I am to preventing my own evil from getting out. Magala, however, has a special name for Penelope, one I think fits; Great Spirit. It's hard to really describe it for those who can't see it and even then we have to be looking at her to notice it. It happens when Penelope meditates, but more often it happens when she is in a battle; it's as if her mind and spirit transcends her body, leaving pain and fatigue behind, making her a seemingly unstoppable killing machine in the field. None of us have actually asked her if she experiences it the same way we do, because we all suspect the chance is that it is not the case. I know for a fact that Bruce doesn't when he enters his.
And finally there is Philipus, lying next to Antiope, I hope the burns she suffered can be mended, for her sake, she has enough issues of confidence as it is. It's no secret on Paradise, but I know she doesn't like for it to be repeated, but Philipus is actually one of those who came to Themyscira as a girl and raised an Amazon by the others. She doesn't exactly remember her age anymore, but puts it, to be some 1200 years, which is still only a little over a third of most of the others. That knowledge gnaws at her, thanks to the likes of Alkyone. And perhaps even more so because Magala chose her as her successor, despite not even Philipus herself, a scribe back then, knew she had any spark of the mystical in her. It's a big pair of shoes she will one day have to fill and she is very aware of that. Despite her vast age, and how Fate, Zatanna and I can see the equally vast power within her, she still considers herself inferior to all of us of the mystic arts. I just pray she won't ever run into someone like John Constantine, who'd play her fears like strings and leave her broken and hurt. It is good she has Antiope, for she is a great support to one's confidence, I know that much from my own miserable archery skills.
I let my mind drift out of the room, at this hour there probably aren't that many around and those that are won't see anything unless I push enough to make J'onn notice I'm out. Like the others, I am curious about my surroundings and like most of them, I haven't been to New Genesis before and I want to see some of it while I can. Also, a little trip like this helps me keep my mind off all the bad things it can dream up about my current situation.
As I drift through the walls and hallways, I remind myself that even if the Omega-Force doesn't kill me and we make it back, I am still standing to lose nearly everything I hold dear. I know the rules, I grew up under their like when I was a little girl and when I grew older and became a hero; no matter what, no matter the circumstances or reasons; you can never take a life, least of all me. I've been forgiven the killing of the Cyclops, the Amazons called it just, Bruce called it a beast and the League does the same. Granny… that is different. The Amazons are right, Granny is a god and a monstrous one at that. The League? Batman? The Titans? To them, she looks nothing like I see her, they see a powerful old sadistic woman, not that different from an alien… I see something else. But I know that what I see, doesn't matter, what matters is what I've done. And I know, that I am going to lose things because of it, my membership of the League, that's gone, it's at the top of the 'not to do' list. The Titans, even if they are my closest friends, they need to set an example, that even Founders, like me, aren't above the rules. Bruce…? To be honest, think he's already planning on what to do with my room when it's been emptied, it was his mothers after all.
In a way I think I've already started to prepare myself for the life of a pariah, an outcast amongst superheroes. I'll try and keep doing what I do, saving people, from others and themselves, but I know that amongst my colleagues, I won't be a welcome sight.
The Shadowpact and those like them are another matter. Zee might fall back on her old mindset, she'd have the patience to see me slip, she waited 8 years according to herself after all. But Fate and the rest? I think I stand a good chance of remaining in as much grace as one can with them, which isn't much. Between ordinary heroes any fellowship is ironclad, every team; a family, a family you risk dying alongside. Amongst mystics however… every ally, no matter for how long, is a potential enemy, corrupted my their own powers, their ambitions or the powers of others. And perhaps, most of them just expected me to come to this, one day or another. And for me; Raven, Daughter of Trigon, this day was more likely to come than for most.
And now all my morbid thinking has lead me outside, having forgotten to look at New Genesis as I meant to do. But this place I've ended up in isn't bad, small hedges, watersculptures and bushes surround me here, it's nice, it reminds me of the afternoon meditations I had in the small gardens of Azarath, where everything felt right. But right now, it is a moonless night dotted with stars. In another way, it reminds me of that night I spent eating with Hippolyta, or more exactly the meditation session I had after sending Diana home. It's the sort of night where I feel like I can sit naked and expose myself to a sleeping world, where everything is right.
But then I see it, like Aphrodite suddenly interrupted my calm that night, I see the falling star above me, and I know that something is coming, something bad.
"Child. What are you doing out here?" I turn around at the sound of the question and come mind to mind with that of Highfather, to my eyes a radiant being I can't be sure is actually here in any physical sense.
"Warn them Highfather, something is coming." I reply and gesture at the skies where I see that the falling star is not alone and that they all have the same course.
Highfather feels alarmed at the sight. "Return to your body, quick!" He says before he retreats to his body, as I do.
"J'onn!"
"Raven?" J'onn asks as I drag him out of his meditation before he realizes why I called while I sink into my own flesh. "Wake up!" He shouts and brings them all around, many of them bolt to their feet. "We are under attack."
"Darkseid usually prefers using boomtubes to get in close. Stay where you are! Whatever it is, it's bound to be a diversion." Nightwing says before any of the Amazons can run to the doors.
We hear, only a moment later, the fearsome defenses of New Genesis coming alive around us, it sounds like no weapon of Earth, more like something traveling along rails in a tunnel of some kind, like a mag-train passing by.
"Are you certain?" Antiope asks as they all remain where they are.
"He's the master of deceit. He will sacrifice millions to claim what he wants. Be as petty as needed be." I hear Starfire saying as I send my mind elsewhere, we need something more, and I know where to find them.
Outside the room, the anti-aircraft batteries are doing their best to bring down the approaching objects. But they appear tiny compared to their normal targets, and still even direct hits seem to do little to stop them. Orion flies to engage them wearing his Astro Harness that provides him with ranged weapons and flight. As he closes in with the first object he notes that it is not a ship or even an object, but a creature, a creature covered with gray skin and bone protutions growing out of its hide. "Darkseid's teeth!" Orion growls as he spots the other four objects, identical to the first, then he opens fire to the sound of thunder heralding the arrival of more Apokoliptian forces on the ground.
As the New Gods wage war amongst each other, the atmosphere is tense within the extraction chamber. "This can't be right! We wait here while the battle is out there!" Artemis complains.
"We do not know this enemy Artemis." Hippolyta replies calmly. "You heard the thunder as clearly as I, the Gray Son's words have merit." She says and casts a look at Nightwing, who is studying the control panel the scientists had been using to operate the extractor.
"Nightwing, get into position." Batman growls from his position on a ledge above the door that circles the room.
"We need to figure out how to get her out of it if we need to." Nightwing says as he keeps looking at the panels, that is completely alien to him. "Vic?"
"Not now man, that thing is going to save Rae's butt; we don't turn it off!" Cyborg barks back, much less at ease with the situation than the Amazons and the Bats despite how he sounds. He was actually really concerned, he had never faced New Gods in a fight, he had read about them though, seen some of them spar on the Watchtower, but he really wished he could get out in case he needed to. And right now, he felt like the odd man out, he didn't an a soul mate to be brave for, sheer determination or battle experience to back him up. Ping. He looks behind his heels and finds the Motherbox standing on the ground. Ping. It responds to him picking it up. "Better keep this with me." He thinks as his arm opens to slip the mother box within a compartment he has there before the plates closes over it. Ping. Ping. Ping.
Just as Victor makes contact with the mother box in a way he didn't anticipate, they feel the air growing warmer and being pulled towards the door before there is a blink of light, followed by the sound of thunder as the boomtube opens in front of them.
"Wait for them to come through!" Batman orders from above while he is certain he hears another, smaller boom from somewhere behind him.
Beast Boy is almost relieved when he sees the numerous shapes coming through the portal and none of the matching his imagination of what Darkseid looks like. What is coming through however is the huge hunched over shape of Kalibak and more than two dozen men and women, including some the group had seen turned to stone or crippled.
"Stand aside for the glory of Darkseid!" Kalibak growls at the group in front of him and his warriors.
"Heh, nothing but girls in cloth." Guiliotina mutters to Stompa.
"You lot! Depart! You are not welcome here!" Hippolyta barks at the group.
"What is this? We were not informed she had servants?" Lashina asks. "Stand aside and death will be swift."
"You will come to learn, concubine, you do not order an Amazon to do anything, least of all their Queen!" Hippolyta snaps back as her hand rests on the pommel of her sword, as it was Amazon custom, the enemy had to make the attack first or show the intent to do so before they would act. Nightwing, Beastboy and Cyborg have a shadow of doubt if they had accidentally walked onto a movie set with how Hippolyta and Lashina were looking at one another, while Kalibak appears more annoyed that Lashina had spoken out of turn.
"Hrr… RAH!" Kalibak growls before he leaps at Hippolyta, bowling her over with his mass, but only for Hippolyta to roll backwards with the impact to get her feet under him to kick him back to the sound of her order.
"Amazons attack!"
"Titans go!" Nightwing shouts and most of the outnumbered defenders rush forwards, leaving Antiope and Cyborg to draw their weapons to open fire on their opponents. While Cyborgs sonic blasters bring many of Kalibaks men to their knees, Antiope's arrow is shot out of its flight by another arrow.
Antiope immediately locates the shooter, finding a darkhaired woman in a green chiton-like attire drawing another arrow at her, as Antiope does the same, the two end up staring at each other down the shafts of their arrows. "Get her." The woman says to something near her. Antiope doesn't her eyes off the other woman as something makes its way through the ranks, nearly bowling Io over, are three steel wolves that make for Antiope. The archer is forced to make a hasty shot at her target before trying to draw again, but she doesn't manage it before the wolves are leaping at her, only to be battered out of the air by a giant green bear.
"Back off Wofie!" Garfield growls as he stands up on his hind legs facing the pack.
Meanwhile, Artemis had sought out Guiliotina and their blades crash against one another in a storm of blows. Hippolyta was trying to match the immense strength and savagery of Kalibak who wasn't giving her much of a chance to retaliate. Stompa is on the defensive against Penelope, whose spiked gloves are giving her an edge when combined with her skill and speed over Stompa's greater strength. Io has to make do with her fists as she and Philipus brawl with those of Kalibak's soldiers who weren't pinned-down by Cyborgs barrage. Starfire has the dubious honor of being targeted by a vampire-like vixen and an aged woman with a bulging cranium who's more agile than she looks.
And Nightwing was jumping and dodging to avoid getting ensnared by Lashina's whip-like straps. "Stand still little man, you cannot hope to win here." She says and smirks. "Yield and you might live to be my boy toy."
"I've seen worse odds than this." Nightwing replies as he spins in the air and throws one of his Eskrima sticks to have the butt bounce off Lashina's head. It didn't to any real damage, but it allows him to get in close and land a heavy blow with the other one on the side of her head. The blow is hard enough that the bandage covering her chin and nose snaps. He recovers his stick as she stands up and turns to face him again, with fury in her eyes, as he sees the reason why she wears it over her nose, which is missing.
"You are going to suffer for that boy!" Lashina growls before thrusting her lashes towards him, Nightwing dodges them both, but the man Io had pushed towards them takes them in the back, where they slip into his body.
"What happened to the toy bit?" Nightwing smirks, knowing he could handle her more easily if she lost her temper, which meant he had to irritate her some more as she pulls her lashes free, now dripping with the man's blood.
Outside the battle rages as the New Gods wage war on each other, using blade and blaster. And in the midst of it all, Orion is trying to contain one of the Doomsday's, having already thrown one over the edge of the city. But as he loses himself to rage as he fights, he knows the three others are wreaking havoc on anything that gets in their way, New Genesisian and Apokolyptian alike and he was barely able to contain this one. But the fight as a whole was going against New Genesis, it had come too sudden for them, with too many numbers to properly deal with them all.
"You still live, impressive. I might keep you after all." Lashina smirks as she leans over the prone Nightwing, now carrying a long wound she managed to land on his chest before she nearly took his head off with a punch.
He doesn't hear her, he is looking at is comrades trough a daze. Io and Philipus had been the first to be overwhelmed as the men were bolstered by the arrival of a dozen parademons. With them down, the others were falling, one by one, but not without a fight. Kalibak had his club destroyed and one of his eyes lost to Hippolyta's blade before a man pushed an electrified rod into her back, leaving her stunned and open to the blow to her head from Kalibak. The archer woman is still screaming as Antiope had planted her arrow in the woman's left fist and arm that she held her bow with, Antiope had then fallen prey to a trio of Parademons. He couldn't see Starfire any more, as she had taken her fight outside. Guilotina wouldn't be getting up again, her head having been lost to Artemis' blade, the last he had seen of her was the rise and fall of her the weapon as she was swarmed by a dozen men with the shock-rods to the sounds of her shouting in defiance. Beastboy is lying on his side, the remains of the robots lying around him, but it had been too much for him as he had lost a lot of blood. Right now, Cyborg is the only one still standing, saying nothing and still connected to New Genesis, he is firing repeatedly, trying to keep everyone away from him and Raven. But Nightwing notices that the Apokoliptians were reluctant to get too close and are hiding behind some transparent shields.
Then the boomtube opens once more and Nightwing sees a massive humanoid shape appearing within, followed by a much smaller one and finally a floating box the size of a van. Nghtwing is manhandled, like the others to his feet before being forced to kneel and lower his head as Darkseid emerges into the room, followed by Desaad.
"Father…" Kalibak rumbles with a hiss from the pain in his ruined eye.
"You disappoint me again Kalibak." Darkseid rumbles without looking at his son, keeping his gaze fixed on Raven.
"You ain't getting past me you freak!" Cyborg barks as Darkseid makes his way to the front line of his troops.
"Desaad." Darkseid rumbles, but the twisted man is taken off his feet by a blast from a sonic cannon before he can do anything. "Hmm." Darkseid grunts before his eyes start to glow. Cyborg pours everything he has into a shot that for a moment manages to keep the Omega Beams away from him, but then his system starts to overheat, unable to bear the strain he was putting on it. But he keeps pushing and pushing until the Beams are less than an arm's length from him. He isn't sure if he should be fortunate or not, but his left arm suddenly explodes, sending him flying back into the wall, snapping the cable in his back and stopping the Omega Beams with the fragments. Letting Darkseid approach Raven unobstructed.
"At last, a crucial piece of the Anti-Life equation." He mutters to himself as he pulls out two small devices from his belt and mounts them on the back of his gloves. Then he places his hands on Raven's head before his hands start to blaze with angry red energy.
Raven is pulled back, screaming, into her body with the sudden jolt, her vision returns to see Darkseid in front of her and something burning it's way into her mind before she realizes what he was doing and that she had no idea how to stop him. And then it happens, she has a brief moment of her vision being thrown from side to side before the feeling of immense cold followed by tremendous heat embracing her before finally something crushing her throat.
"No…" Nightwing mutters as he is helpless to watch as she realizes what had happened. She is dangling over the ground in Darkseid's grasp in her human form, while her demon form remains standing behind her, Darkseid had completely separated her human half from her demon one.
"GAK!" She quacks as she realizes she can't breathe.
"Granny, let her watch." Darkseid smiles at her before tossing her back towards the box that immediately comes apart and opens to have several snaking cables drag her in before it closes around her.
"Hello again, you little brat!" Granny's voice rumbles menacingly to Raven inside the box as she becomes more and more immobilized by the machine, while she can feel other things making ready to inflict a great amount of pain on her. But as promised, she can see out of the front of the box, seeing Darkseid put his hands on her body again and continuing whatever it was he was doing as she can feel needles make their way into her flesh.
"No… get off her…!" Cyborg stammers as he tries to fire his remaining cannon again from his knees, his systems already screaming at him about the damage done to him. But then the unexpected happens, his damaged system activates the stored mother box instead of his cannon. Ping. Ping. Ping. It chimes as Cyborg looks at his arm in surprise before he is pulled backwards into the boomtube he had just opened. "Noooo….!" He screams before the portal is closed after him.
"Hmm, never leave an ape with the tools of a god." Desaad mutters besides Granny.
"Desaad." Darkseid rumbles and the man is quick to kneel beside his lord. "The field interferes." Desaad is quickly on his feet and by the control console and after a quick study, he pressed the button to disable the stasis field. Raven's demon form hisses before it roars in pain as Darkseid's ministrations continue. Then it starts to fight back, pushing and punching, trying to dislodge him, but Darkseid remains on her like glued before he lets up on his own. He smiles at it before unleashing his Omega Beams once more. Inside the box, Raven screams in agony with her demon half, not because she feels it's pain, but because Granny was inflicting some on her as well. Darkseid keeps it up for almost a minute and the air reeks of sulfur when he stops, leaving the demon lying blackened and burnt on the ground, barely moving. "Bring them." He orders as he turns away from the demon.
"See you little brat, it's futile to resist. And now you'll have all of Granny's love and care, forever." Raven hears inside the box an image of Granny appears before her. "All your powers are over there, and it will belong to Darkseid before long. And without them, you are nothing."
"I'm not done yet!" Raven hisses as she keeps pushing and pulling at the things holding her. "And I am far from powerless!" She says before throwing her head forwards and into the screen that's smashed.
"Rae…" The demon groans as a couple of Parademons grab it and drags her to her with them. "I don't want to go." She protests weakly with ichor dripping out of its mouth, she sees the others being pulled up as well and a boomtube opening the far end of the room. The she looks at the box, recognizing the repulsive aura of Granny Goodness surrounding it, and her other half within. Raven looks out of Granny for a brief moment to meet the eyes of Carnage, the only member of her fractured mind that was left in the demon body, the look they share feels like it lasts for an eternity. Raven hopes the looks she sends is enough to spur Carnage on to do something, but the demon just looks down in pain and shame, there is nothing she can do now as she is dragged to the portal.
Raven's hopes fade with the look, as does her own struggles. But then there is a blink at the other end of the room and another boomtube opens, to the confusion of the Apokoliptians, it even makes Darkseid turn as he had one foot in the portal.
More is their surprise when Tim Drake comes through, alone, but without the portal closing. "You guys are in big trouble now." He says as other shapes appear in the portal. "Titans! Together!" Beastboy bolts up as if he had just been waiting for the call, as Diana, Donna and Cassandra are the first to come through the portal, followed by rest of the current team of Titans, then by the extended team and finally, the Justice League, battered along with the fit ones.
"Father?!" Kalibak shouts in hopes his father would do something, but as he turns, the boomtube closes behind Darkseid and Carnage, leaving all of them behind before he feels someone tapping his shoulder.
"I see you've met my mother." Diana notes with a smirk at him as he turns before she punches him clear out of the city.
"No time to be lying down 'Wings." Tim smirks as he pulls Nightwing to his feet.
"This isn't the time for jokes, Rae's in that box." He says and points at Granny that's slowly hovering over into the far corner, followed by a few of the others.
"This is worse than I thought." Superman admits as he, with his arm still in a sling, helps Cyborg out of the boomtube.
"It's a warzone is what it is." John Stewart replies as his ring creates a hologram of what was going on outside. "And it gets worse."
"Mutiple?" Superman mutters as his keen hearing picks up the roars of the various Doomsdays running around outside. "We have to clean this up in a hurry, the real fight is outside."
"Oh no you don't, not with that arm." John says and holds Superman back before he can take off.
"I suggest you all surrender." Nightwing says as Granny, Lashina, Stompa and two regular soldiers have been pushed into a corner.
"No. You stand back, or the little brat dies this instant!" Granny barks back as a speaker lets them hear Raven growling inside.
"This aint good. She's stalling us, and doing something to the computers here." Cyborg mentions to Diana before he spots the cable he had been connected to and has an idea.
"All accounted for Ma'am." Donna says as she pulls Hippolyta to her feet and hands her the sword Kalibak had knocked out of her hand.
"That thing… by the gods, it's hideous." Philipus stammers as she lays eyes on the Granny Box, unlike the others, her senses allowed her to see it for what it truly was.
"And we cannot permit to hold her for long." Dr. Fate says as he hovers towards the Apokolyptians, his form glowing with power. "Ecksomiorum!" He booms and the able bodied Apokolyptians are hurled off their feet by a wave of force manifested as light, that gets a deep rattling noise out of the Granny Box.
"You sure about this?" Superman asks as he attaches the broken cable to Cyborgs back.
"Nope. But I have a better chance if Fate can keep her distracted. Wish me luck." He says before he has a series of cables in the socket clamp themselves onto the cable and he sends his own mind into the mainframe of New Genesis. What he sees is hard to describe, he had done this on man-made computers and they initially tended to look like he was floating between two green print plates with gold wiring. The New Genesis mainframe however, is bathed in strong colors and the feeling that everything is spinning in chaos around him, as if he was looking at a completely inhuman dimension that his mind couldn't adapt to. But what he can recognize is the creeping darkness in the distance, the cancer that was invading the city's mainframe; Granny Goodness.
But even if Victor Stone feels out of place fighting things that call themselves gods, because in heart and mind he is still a kid from the block, he is still confident he can handle one that's in this place. "Antiviral countermeasures, deploy." After all, in virtual reality, everyone could be a god.