These Black Eyes

by P0ST

The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.

264. Break the Circle part 24

264. Break the Circle part 24

SCHLUMPPPP!

SCHNKT!

The door to the basement laboratory of Phaser Labs sealed tightly.

"……..," Dagger held his one arm behind his back as he slowly walked down the steps after Clayface.

Clayface sloshed over towards a console besides the cylindrical power core. There, Simon Stone appeared in a flickering image. He took one look at Dagger….and found himself staring. Unemotionally. In holographic silence….

"…….," Dagger stared back…….frowning.

"Things are bad, Stone…," Clayface grumbled. "The boss is here to talk stuff out with you. If any of you chumps want my two cents, I suggest we get the Hell out of this City before we lose MORE than our egos."

Stone 'took a breath' and muttered electronically: "You do know—of course—Hagan, that you are a fool beyond definition?"

Clayface gave him a nasty, amber-eyed look. "Huh?"

CL-CL-CLAK-CLAK-CLAKKA! Dagger raised a blue-glowing sonic cannon across the room, straight at Stone. "You never miss a beat…..do ya, old man?"

"……….," the holographic A.I. merely stared.

Clayface gasped. He looked horrifically towards Dagger.

"………..," Dagger stopped glaring at Stone….turned his body…..and aimed his sonic cannon straight at the muddy metamorph.

ZAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAP!

Clayface barely had time to move—

SPLORRRRCH!

He was violently pasted up against the far wall of metal in the basement.

"HAA-AAAAUGHHH!"

ZAAAAAAAA-AAP! The sonic charge cut off. The cannon smoked and steamed as Dagger shuffled forward and—

Zzzzt!

Fl-Flassh!

A shudder of light….

A holographic exterior cascaded downwards. The disguise of Dagger peeled off one photon at a time as Cyborg stood in tall, angry reality. His sonic cannon still outstretched. His brow furrowed and jaw tight.

"Please excuse me. 'Bad……acting'. I can only be a type-cast. Kicking your ass seems to be the only good act these days."

"Nnnnn-nnghh!" Clayface shook, bubbled, and reformed into his gargantuan self. He glared at Cyborg and raised his heavy, brown fists. "You just sealed yourself in your own tomb, kid—"

ZAAAAAAP!

SPLORRRRCCH!

"DAAAAH!" Clayface splattered against the wall again, struggling to maintain his form.

As the holographic Simon Stone watched, Cyborg marched towards the Gothamite monster from across the room and kept loading his sonic cannon. "I've been looking forward to this for a lonnnnng time, buddy. And as it turns out…..you're just as big and nasty as I thought you were: a huge-ass piece of stinking shit."

"Why you….!" Clayface snarled, morphed his two arms into huge buzz-saws, and charged Cyborg with a scream: "YAAAAAAAUGH!"

Cyborg charged him, both arms morphing into glowing canons. Vriiiii! "RAAAAAAUGH!"

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!

SLOSH!-SLOSH!-SLOSH!

Stone took a digital 'breath'….

ZAAAAAAP!

CHIIII-IIIIIIING!

Titanium and mud met in the middle of the laboratory.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOOOOSSSSH!

Tempest skirted under, above, and through the surface of Bay Water.

"Come on, Garfield…..Come on….."

He skimmed his way down the line of hovercrafts.

One by one, the Daggerite boats' missile payloads started to hiss and come to life.

The dark-eyed Atlantean flexed his wrists and upper body muscles as he swam and leapt and darted along his liquid path.

SPLASSSH!

SP-SPLASSSSH!

He summoned tentacles of water up alongside him that shot outward in branching arcs and completely soaked the decks and missile payloads of the hovercraft.

SPLOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSH!

The salt water seeped into the circuitry, cut off exhaust, and extinguished the charging heat of the would-be-launching-projectiles.

Tempest skirted onward….

Soaring towards hovercraft after hovercraft.

"Come on, Garfield….," he hissed. "Where are you? Show me you're not roasted or something, man!"

Behind him, the anxious sight of Fox's hovercraft burning sent a plume of hot smoke into the air that reflected against the water.

Tempest ignored it….instead looking forward.

As he skimmed….skimmed…and skimmed….

Darting his dark body like a torpedo under the next hovercraft that was just beginning to launch its rockets.

Underwater, Tempest bubbled and snarled before glowing a hot purple in his eyes and shooting his hands up and outward.

SWSSSSSSSSSH!

A surge of water beyond intense….

Throttling upwards—

SPLOOO-OOOOOSSSSH!

The hovercraft shattered in half from the bursting geyser. The water sent halves and shrapnel scraps of the hovercraft flying high into the red air.

Tempest leapt up again out of the water like a shimmering dolphin…

And skirted onward towards the next leftover ships.

"Neptune damn……COME ONNNN!"

Nothing….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere….

North….

Along the shore of the Bay…

A dazed, green figure sloshed onto the beach.

Bruised…a little scorched….

Clutching the gash where ever-after his ear wasn't…

"Nnnnngh…..," Changeling muttered.

Wincing, he hobble ashore….

Stood on wobbly legs…

Exhaled…

And fell down to his across the wet sand.

"….e-everything……e-everything is going to burn……..T-Terra……"

As the surf boiled up around him, the Crunch flared and pulsed gold beyond—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW!

CRAAA-AAASH!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

CRKKKKKKK-KKKK!

BOOOM!

KA-POW!

BL-BLAM!

POW!

Tanks and U.S. jeeps launched endless assaults.

The Daggerite hummers and gunmen tried to return fire…but found themselves retreating further and further into the burning center.

Wildebeests charged in, pouncing at them with heated shouts.

Golems rushed to meet the bovine warriors headlong, and constant grappling…wrestling matches occurred.

All throughout, the heroes rushed in. Black Canary and Green Arrow skirted through fighting, lumbering beasts to unleash their agile punishment on the enemy.

Steel slammed his sledgehammer through rows of golems while soaring down the streets in a desperate attempt to push into the terrorist defense.

The Flash ran up buildingsides and scurried between asphalt, sidewalk, and rubble….blinding the energy with his red-orange streak and managing to disarm a dozen terrorists a second at the far side of Main Street…leaving the creeps vulnerable to General Calvin's left flank.

Catwoman swung off of ledges and lampposts, slamming her feet into thugs and leaving the golems vulnerable to the explosive batarangs of Batman from a nearby rooftop.

Explosions…spraying gold splashes of golem parts…..

…..and through all of it, Supergirl soared.

"NNNGH!" SWOOOOOOSH!—SMASSSH! The Girl of Steel slammed her fists and upper arms into golem after golem before picking one up by its flailing, burning leg and spinning….spinning…spinning-spinning-spinningspinningspinning!spinning!spinning!spinning!spinning—THWOOOOOSSSH! Superirl launched the golem into the chest of a giant infernal across the intersection.

CRUNCHHH!

CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!

The huge, six-story beast flung lava pellets at the Argosian.

She snarled and uppercutted the incoming blasts with a strong forearm. SMASH! CR-CRACKKK! "RRRGHH!" she flew towards the creature.

CRKKK! The giant flailed and swung its upper arm to crush the blonde.

Supergirl snarled, her eyes glowing hot red. "You want heat? I'll give you heat!" She unleashed two optic blasts in searing ferocity. ZAAAA-AAA-AAAAP!

The two orange-red beams burned into the glowing arm of the thermal monstrosity, overheated it, and caused the limb to explode—

P-POWWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!

The monster rumbled, stumbled under its own spray of inner glowing parts, and then performed a berserker charge across the street of scattering, fleeing Wildebeests towards Supergirl herself.

The Girl of Steel gasped—

WHAM!

She was slammed and knocked back across the street and into a building front—CRUSSSSH!—where she formed a crater.

"Ugghhh…..," she winced….stuck in the buildingfront.

STOMP! ST-STOMP! STOMP!

The monster marched towards her.

Supergirl winced….a bit bruised across the cheek….

The upper limb of the creature moved to slam forward—

SWOOOOSH! Green Lantern flew over and hovered in front of Supergirl. "Aaaaaa—" He yelled for good muster and flung his left fist forward. "---aaaAAAAAAAUUUGHHH!"

FLASSSSSSSH!

A force field of pure green fury splashed between the monster and them.

SLAM!

SL-SLAMMM! The behemoth tried punching its way through the barrier.

Green Lantern struggled to hold the force field steady.

Supergirl gasped. "M-Mr. Stewart!" She unpeeled herself from the 'Girl'-shaped crater in the building and hovered over to his side. "Your arm! What happened to--?"

"Long st-story….," Green Lantern growled….sweating….struggling to maintain the energy ring's field. "….I'm almost at my ring's limit and I didn't bring my lantern with me!"

"Uhm……huh?"

"We need to fall back! Over by Calvin's frontal assault! Your 'big brother' should be waiting!"

Kara bit her lip and murmured: "Clark….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"An ion cannon?" Superman gasped from where he and Wonder Woman hovered. "Lex Luthor?"

Martian Manhunter stood on the corner of a building rooftop and spoke to them: "It belongs to Luthor. But he is not using it."

"Then who is?"

"Dagger….," J'onn droned. "I have sensed it. William B. Fox—whose fate is now uncertain in the Bay of this City—hacked into Luthor's ultimate military weapon and has given it over into Dagger's hands. I believe Triangular was a front for Dagger to manhandle his way into acquiring such a stolen edge from his supposed 'partners' in anti-Red Aviary conspiracy."

"It may be a tough war…," Wonder Woman panted, "…but Dagger's starting to lose it." She looked over at Superman fixedly. "If Dagger can't have his City—"

"---then nobody can….," Superman palmed his fist. Frowning. "How inflated can he be?.!.?.!"

"Clark, we have to do something."

"I know exactly what I'm going to do," Superman turned and glared at J'onn. "How long till the cannon fires?"

"I cannot tell you," the martian replied. "But judging from Fox's complacency before his vanishing, I imagine something within the frame of minutes."

"Just the time I need….," Superman grumbled.

Wonder Woman leaned her head to the side. "What exactly do you have planned?"

"I'm going to pay a visit to Luthor's cannon personally….," Superman clenched his fists and already was starting to hover directly upwards. "I can't say I haven't anticipated smashing that thing to bits before. Only now—I have a good excuse."

"You must hurry," J'onn nodded. "If necessary, I shall assist you in—" The Martian froze.

Superman and Wonder Woman looked at J'onn, concerned. "What is it?"

The green one said: "Brace yourselves…."

"H-Huh?"

"Heads up!" Steel shouted from afar.

Superman and Wonder Woman spun around—

STOMP!

ST-STOMP!

STOMP!

They both gasped.

A gargantuan giant—the last survivor of its kind—was marching towards them. It was twelve stories tall….a bastardly morph of many different miniature golems piling together around a once-five-story-giant of thermalkinetic madness. The burning titan towered above the League members….its upper limbs burning bright splashes of flickering flames towards the sky while a good half of Calvin's forces in the Crunch fired their artillery into the hide of the creature and Batman and Steel and Green Arrow circled from building top to building top…..looking for weaknesses.

CRKKKKKK-KKKKKKKKKKKK!.!.!.!.!.!.!

Wonder Woman swallowed….raised her fists, and prepared her lasso. "Go up to space, Clark….," she uttered strongly. "We have this…"

Clark clenched his fists. "Like heck you do. Nnnngh!" he flew straight towards the creature to give it a death-blow to the crown.

Martian Manhunter reached a hand out: "Kal-El!"

CRKKKKKKKKK-KKKK!

SWOOOOOOOOSH-SLAAAM!

"AAAAUGH!" Superman recoiled from the heavy backhand of the huge beast and flew down…sailing through three solid buildings from the impact. CRASSH!-CRUNNCH-CRAAACK!

Wonder Woman gasped. She then snarled and flew herself at the torso of the huge monster while Steel rocketed towards the other side, sledgehammer swinging.

"RAAAAAUGH!

"Nnnnngh!"

SWOOOOOSH!

PFTOOOOOSH!

SLAMMMMM!.!.!.!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Crunch…

Hovering above the throngs of Wildebeests…

'Observing' his brethren in action….

The man possessed with Jericho's spirit piloted the HIND over the brawling decimation.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSSSSH!

He readied a payload to fire at a thick crowd of golems…and glanced over with glowing green eyes across the Crunch.

And he saw the twelve-story monster pummeling Superman, Wonder Woman, and Steel to the ground.

The battlefield froze as the golden aura lingered the heaviest over the sudden colossus and its League opponents.

The boy inside the possessed man bit his lip….

Sweating…..

Contemplating………

His hands gripped to the controls of the Hind tighter….

….as he brought the huge metal bird around.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

North.

In a random street.

A pile of rubble lying near the sidewalk began to lift and separate.

One boulder at a time.

Levitating….floating apart….

Revealing Terra underneath.

Her gloved hands agilely twisting and flicking….

Moving every shard and piece apart.

Unburying herself….and Jinx….

"Nnnnngh!" Terra removed the last huge stone with her thermalkinesis.

She panted and knelt down by the pink witch's side. "Jinx? J-Jinx?"

"…………"

Terra turned the girl over.

There was a nasty bruise on the pink sorceress' head.

"Nnnngh….," Jinx murmured. "L-Leslie…it h-hurts…."

Terra bit her lip. She gently pressed her hands into the girl's shoulders and said: "Hang on….we're gonna go somewhere…..a bit safer." The blonde helped Jinx to her feet….struggling with her petite frame. "Nnngh…it's…..th-the least I can….d-do….." Terra was speaking more to herself than anyone.

Jinx groaned and barely hobbled upright…leaning against Terra as the earth maiden walked the two of them down the city street….

Panting…

Absorbing the vibrations that shook through the foundation of asphalt.

Terra looked up and about her.

Blue eyes wide.

Sweat staining her face as she panted…..panted…..panted….

Rubble.

Debris.

Earth and rock and concrete.

Emptiness…..the emptiness of crushed urban life.

Or 'no-life'.

The City streets were void of all people.

And although Terra knew that they had evacuated…

She and Kara figured it out on the flight there….

It crossed her mind…and ruptured in the darkest, most painful corners…

That everything around her was so terribly familiar.

Circular in irony.

Elliptical…coming to a head.

The City on its knees.

No people.

No people in a kingdom under fire……

The burning gold.

The golems……the scent of hissing-hot rock and lava………

Terra shuddered. And though Jinx was starting to become more and more bipedally responsive in their limping trek through the streets….the world suddenly grew ten times heavier and it threatened to crush the earth maiden in two.

For everywhere she looked….

And everywhere she walked….

All that she could feel was….

….regret.

Terra bit her lip.

Endless……

Burning………

Regret…………

"Nnngh….S-Slade….," Jinx murmured.

Terra blinked. She glanced aside at the pink sorceress whom she was helping limp across the urban nightmare….

"D-Did we stop S-Slade?" the petite witch again whispered.

Terra gulped. With a quivering lip, she said: "No…..I didn't….."

And the two apprentices limped on….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHATTTTTTERRRR!

The rooftop windows of the loft art museum exploded downward.

Deathstroke slammed vaporously into the floor with a splash of red.

Robin and I leapt off of our flying jump-kick impact into the undead man's chest.

We both flipped off in one accord, twirled the bo-staff and Myrkblade respectfully, and slashed down at Red Aviary.

"HRAAUCKKKT!" The red-seething one raised his two-edged sword lengthwise.

CL-CLANK!

CLACK!

Robin and I were deflected back….

TH-THWUMP!

The two of us stumbled across the art exhibit…

TH-THWOOSH! Deathstroke vaulted up to his feet. He stood in the dim halo of red starlight from above. TH-TH-THWISSSH! His sword twirled into position as he shook and quivered with cascading vapors of red. "HCkkkktt—guard…..snkkkt-GUARRRD your LIVESSS!"

"Shut the Hell up and bring it!" Robin shouted.

I frowned.

"HRCKKK!" FWOOOSH! Deathstroke charged.

I dashed ahead and knelt with a block.

CL-CLANK! He struck his entire weight against my blade and flipped over me.

Robin twirled his bo-staff up and blocked as—

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLAK! Deathstroke's flipping body slashed in a human buzz-saw at Robin's weapon before touching down and sweeping at the Boy Wonder's leg.

SLASSSSH!

Robin backflipped, landed, and slid back in front of a glass display of antique pottery.

"HRAAUCHKTT!" Red Aviary blurred towards him with a red-flashing-swing.

SLASSSH!

Robin skirted out of the way.

CRASSSSH! The glass display shattered.

Robin perched in front of a tapestry.

Thud-Thud-Thud!-Thud!-Thud! Deathstroke charged at him, red blade swinging. Spinning. TH-TH-TH-TH-THWOOSH!

Robin ducked and rolled aside.

SLAAAAA-AAAAASSSH! The tapestry was torn in two.

Robin grunted, spun, grabbed a length of the tapestry towels, and tossed it over Deathstroke's flashing red crown.

FWOOMP!

"Snkkkkt—clik-clik-HRCKKK!" Deathstroke hissed and fought, slashed, and struggled to get loose from underneath the blinding shroud. After a few fumbling seconds, he pulsed a wave of destruction that shredded the tapestry apart. He shook his vaporous head and looked straight up—

--to see me blurring into him with Myrkblade swinging.

THWACK!

Deathstroke stumbled back.

I snarled and slashed with two more dives—THWACK! WH-WHACK!

Deathstroke slid back towards a line of mounted paintings.

I raised Myrkblade and angled it to pierce through his neck.

He held his sword out in two hands, positioned it horizontally, and twisted my blade up. "HCKKK!"

I lunged towards the ceiling and teetered forward. Dizzy…off balance.

TH-THWUMMMMP! He kicked me in the chest.

I wheezed and fell down to one knee.

"Hckkkkt!" He raised his red blade high over my crown and roared: "…..go join your arm in dust."

"RAAAAAGH!" Robin leap-frogged over me and slammed into Slade.

THWUMP! Deathstroke was plowed over till he lay on his back. Robin straddled his chest and slammed down, pummeled, pulverized Deathstroke's skull with his bo-staff repeatedly. WHAP! THAP! THUD! CRACK!

Deathstroke hissed and spat bloody vapors from every impact.

Robin then raised to crush Deathstroke's undead skull in completely.

"HRAUCHKKK!" Slade kicked his legs up and vaulted Robin over him.

THWOOOSH!

Robin twirled, flipped, and landed in an expert, reverse slide across the art gallery. He knocked three paintings over before stopping against a wall and tossing a birdarang at Slade.

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!

Deathstroke—rising to his knees—blocked the projectile with a vertically-held blade of red. CR-CRACK!

Robin gritted his teeth and tossed another birdarang…

TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!

This time, Deathstroke stood up and sliced the incoming weapon in half with an expert twist of his sword. He hissed, raised the sword, and made to charge the Boy Wonder.

Robin gritted his teeth, pulled out a weighted bolo from his belt, swung it thrice over his head, and let it fly at Red Aviary.

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWPPP!-SNAG!

The weights of the cord pulled taut and bound Slade tightly around the torso.

"Hrrrrckkkkt-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt!" he hoarsely protested. His weapon and hilt-squeezing arms stuck to his side.

And that's when I decided to charge him.

FWOOOOSH! I rushed in towards his rear, Myrkblade held high.

Deathstroke's red eye strobed, concentrated, and—

"SNKKKT!"

FL-FLASSSH! He teleported.

Which meant…..

My black eyes widened. I tried to turn to smoke—

THWPPP-SNAG!

I struggled and panted and writhed in the bolos that were previously tightened around Slade—now encircling me.

FWOOOSH! Deathstroke solidified behind me. "DIEEE!" He snarled and swung his blade down to cleave the back of my head in two.

Aaaaaaaargh!

I tensed, pulsed, and—

RIIIIIIP!

The cords of the bolo shredded into scraps as Myrkblade swam up through the material with a black blur and blindly blocked behind my vertebrae—

CL-CLAKKKK!

My sword clashed with Red Aviary's.

A half-second pause of black mixing with red—

FL-FLASSSH!

Red won over.

A pulse from Deathstroke sent me soaring forward.

But before I could slam into the wall…

A firmly anchored Robin held his green glove out.

I reached my metal hand to grab it….

SNATCH!

Robin swung.

I twirled.

The two of us launched me around—kicking my feet off the art exhibit's wall—and soaring back towards Deathstroke with Myrkblade jabbing first.

THWIIIIIIISSSH!

Deathstroke half-crouched and blocked horizontally.

CLACKKK!

I bounced back.

Robin rushed forward, bo-staff twirling. "AAAAAAH!" SW-SW-SW-SW-SWIIIISSSH!

I blurred forward alongside him, Myrkblade jabbing. SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

Deathstroke stood up, walked backwards, and deflected-deflected-deflected-blockedblockedblockedlbocked!.!.!.!

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLACK!

Sparks and bits of metal and murk and red smoke flew.

Robin and I advanced mercilessly on Slade….a pair of young teenager heroes furiously jabbing, slashing, and stabbing at the Reaper himself. Our push dragged us across the lengths of the art exhibit. Wide swings of Myrkblade and side-strikes of Robin's bo-staff caused various paintings and glass displays and sculptures to shatter upon burning contact.

SLASH! CRACK! THWOOSH! WHACCCKK!

Deathstroke was coolly eyeing the two of us. His red eye strobing. His cowl slits exhaling vapors of red menace. He hissed and twirled and countered with his weapon with the cold precision of some unknown clockwork that froze the souls within Robin and I. The smoke and mirrors were in full effect. The air stung with the breath of Red Aviary permeating throughout. And all the time—between the weapon blurs and the limb streaks and the red and the black and the sweat—his shaking, twitching undead-head tilted towards the side….aiming specifically…..

Focusing on Robin.

And Robin alone.

Yeah, Ana.

It's obvious who he wants a showdown with.

But not if I can help it……

SLASH-SLASH-SLASSSH! I jabbed blurringly at his upper body.

Red Aviary countered with a twirl of his sword, grabbed the tip of Myrkblade with a red-pulsing hand, shoved against me—THWUMP!—and performed a violent spinning attack as soon as I was thrown back. "HCKKKKK!"

SLASSSSSSH!

I lunged backwards and reverse-crouched from the attack.

Robin—meanwhile—leapt from the attack, grabbed ahold of a banner with one hand, swung across the exhibit, kicked the standing Deathstroke across the head, twirled, landed, and leaned on his staff so as to hoist the rest of his body up and slam his boots mercilessly into Slade's chest.

WH-WHUMPPP!

Deathstroke slid backwards towards a line of antique knights' armor on stands.

"Nnnngh!" Robin charged him. TH-TH-THWISSH! His bo-staff twirled in the shadowy air.

"HCKKKK!" Deathstroke raised his hand just in time to—

SNATCH!

Robin gasped as Slade's metal-and-flesh hand grabbed around his throat.

THWOOOOSH-SLAM! The Boy Wonder was shoved mercilessly into two suits of armor.

CL-CLANG!

The metal 'bodies' shattered, scattered, and fell into clumps of red-laced debris.

Robin twitched and found himself tangled beneath the metal heap. He wined and struggled to get loose.

"SNkkkt—clik-clik-clik….bounddd to die a legendddd…..no matterrrr what….," and Slade jabbed his sword toward's Robin's gut.

SWIIIIIIISSSH! I slid in, blurred, teleported through Slade, and materialized in a crouching block above Robin.

CLACKKK! Myrkblade held its own against Deathstroke's sword.

"HRCKKKK!" Red Aviary shrieked with spilling red vapors and struck….struck…..struck down at Robin and I.

CLANG!

Sparks flew. I winced.

CRACCCKK!

My legs buckled. I slumped down and began to collapse over Robin--

"Nnnngh!" from where the Boy Wonder was sprawled, he tossed a handful of smoke pellets into the tile floor beneath Deathstroke's feet.

PFFFFFTT!

"HRAAAUCHKKKT!" Red Aviary flailed, choked, and stumbled back into murky obscurity.

I panted….kneeling weakly in front of the gradually recovering Robin. We both stared restlessly into the thick cloud looming suddenly before us.

"Is h-he down?" Robin murmured.

Suddenly, the thick crowd glowed a menacing red all over.

I bit my lip.

Hell no……

FWOOOOOSSSSH! Deathstroke burst through the field in an explosion of red Hissing. "HCKKKK-KKKK!"

I pushed myself back against a now-kneeling Robin, absorbed the nearest trails of pellet smoke into my blade, and summoned an extra-powerful field of murk into the weapon I held vertically in my grasp—

FLASSSSH!

"HRAAAAA-AAAAAUCHKKKT!" Red Aviary charged into us with a smoldering-heavy sword.

CLAAAA-AAAAAANGG!

Deathstroke shoved into us….

….plowing us through the wall of the art exhibit—CRASSSH!

…through a hallway into another wall—SMASSSSH!

…and through room after room of fragile barriers in the skyscraper.—SMASSH!—CRKKK!—CRAAACK!

Robin and I jolted and winced….with only my smoking-black sword shielding us as Red Aviary pushed us through wall after wall of shattering steel and mortar—

CRKKK! SMASSSH! THRASSSH!

Until—

CRAAA-AAAACKKKK!.!.!.!

The final wall gave way….

Robin and I flailed out into the cold, red night….

And descended towards the walkway bridge connecting the museum skyscraper to the next.

THWOOOOOSH—WH-WHAP!

We both slammed onto the roof of the precarious bridge of aluminum and steel. We rolled a few feet and stumbled up onto our knees.

Meanwhile—

THWOOOOSH! P-PLANT! Deathstroke landed gracefully across from us beneath the hole in the skyscraper's side. Dragging his red blade, he marched icily towards us….spilling red vapors everywhere.

Over two dozen stories of naked space loomed below us…

And the burning streets of gold and red a deathly plummet away….

Hckkkk-clik-clik-clik-snkkkkt……Thisssss wouldn'tttt—snkkkt—happen to be a nightttt when the bird'sss wingsss are clippeddd….snkkkt—IS IT?.?.?.?"

"Nnnnngh….," Robin moaned and twitched. He struggled to get up…his whole masked face wincing.

I was even slower on the rise than him. My black eyes twitched and flickered desperate, trailing puffs of obsidian.

"Then the cage is pointlesssss……Snkkkkkt…..now….sssshow me the red inside of you…..deep….hotttly….INSSSSIDE! HCKKKK!" And Red Aviary blurred coldly at us with a fountaining blade of crimson.

SLASSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!

Cyborg blitzed across the laboratory, ducked a heavy-bladed swing of Clayface—CHIIIIIING!—rolled to the side, knelt, and fired a sonic cannon.

ZAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAP!

Clayface spun from his lunging swing and morphed a hole in his body just in time to avoid the direct hit from the sonic cannon. Pllbbbppbssbpppbbb! He snarled a set of thick, yellow teeth and flung his right tentacle forward with a maddening snarl: "RAAAAUGH!" TH-THWPPP! A huge metal mace morphed to life as it flew straight at Cyborg's titanium cranium. SWOOOOOOOSH!

Air currents in the basement shattered and twirled as the studded, spherical weapon screamed into Cyborg's skull.

At the last second, Cyborg converted both his limbs into opposable palms—CL-CL-CLAK-CLAKKA!—and gripped the huge mace, holding it back just seconds before it could smash straight through his head.

CLAMP!I

SCRAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAPE! The force of Clayface's tentacle shoved Cyborg across the basement floor till his back slammed into the cylindrical energy core at the back of the laboratory. CL-CLANKKK!

"Nnnnn-Nnnnghh!" Cyborg hissed and struggled against the heavy weapon. He shoved back against it, all the while grinding against the plastic, transparent door of the burning core.

Zzzt-Zzzt! Simon Stone appeared holographically on a nearby computer console. He folded a pair of translucent arms behind his 'back'. "Your tactics aren't assisting you, Victor. At this rate, you will be overcome and severely damaged."

"Some damn help you are, old man!" Cyborg hoarsely uttered to his uncle with his eyes closed. Struggling. He pushed back…back…back against the pressure of Clayface's impromptu metal mangler. "Do me a real friggin' favor and shut yourself off! Permanently!"

"As much as I would enjoy doing so, Victor….," Simon Stone droned. An ever-deceiving trace of melancholy…. "….that job will inevitably rest on you."

For some reason, Cyborg was suddenly sweating. A strained face fell across his face like thunderclouds……….melting………

"Don't be so quick to put down your 'uncle', kid….," Clayface sneered.

TH-THWPPP! The metal mace suddenly sloshed into mud and enclosed around Cyborg's face.

"Mmmmmmm-mmmmmfff!" Cyborg moaned into the suffocating brownness.

Clayface sneered, lifted the flailing android up by the elongated tentacle, and swung him all around the laboratory. "….Simon there taught me all there needed to be known about you…" TH-THWAAPP! Cyborg was slammed against computer consoles… "….your Tower…." CR-CRACKKK! Against lab equipment. "….your friends…." TH-THWISSSH! ("Aaaaaugh!") And flung against the far wall of the laboratory, below the stairs"….and most of all…." Clayface formed a pair of iron-thick mallets in his huge palms. He sneered as he towered above the sprawled and scuffed-up Cyborg. "…..everything I needed to know about your half-assed, so-called girlfriend."

Cyborg snarled. He tried to stand up—

SLAMMM!

"AAAAAUGH!" Cyborg shouted and spat sparks as his lower half was crunched beneath the weight of Clayface's huge mallet-hands.

SL-SLAMMMM!

"AAAA-AAAUGH!"

"Raaaaugh!" SLAM!

Zzzz-Zzzt! "Nnnngh!" Cyborg twitched and sparked and hissed……wincing all over.

"………………," the hologram of Simon Stone watched silently from the sidelines. Cold. Deadpan….

Stomp! St-Stomp! Clayface practically stood atop the flinching android Titan. "It rather surprised me just how shallow that blue-haired-bitch you dote on actually is. I always imagined that a person so heavily tied into—supposedly—Satan himself would have a bit more……..density. But, oh no…." Clayface pinned Cyborg down with a metal mallet coming from his left tentacle while he produced half a dozen blades, needles, and power drills with his right—Bvvvzzzzz!—which he lowered torturously-slowly down towards the struggling robot's torso. "…..Raven turned out to be as flimsy and fragile as a cloud. Heheheh…..I could very well have…….penetrated her………"

Cyborg glared up at Clayface under a curtain of sweat…sweat and sparks……..

Clayface licked his muddy lips with an even muddier tongue. "…..but she wasn't worth my time….and you know what? She wouldn't be worth yours either. Damn ice queens are best left to melt on their own….especially weak and hopeless bitches like the one you left me on a plate to devour…..heh heh heh….."

Cyborg clenched his human eye shut. Shuddered…..and growled: "Raven…..is m-much more strong…..th-than you could possibly know…."

"Heh heh heh heh…..stop bluffing, kid….," Clayface winked. "I'm an actor. A damn good one."

"You're a fake…..," Cyborg hissed. He twitched his cheek to the side as the blades and spinning drills lowered and began to graze his face. "…..a big….sloppy…..smelly fake, Hagan! Nnnngh…..Raven has spent th-the last two years of her lives with the Titans. And in all of that time…." His robot eye strobed a brighter red. He turned his face back up and glared at Clayface. A poisonous voice: "……in all of that time….Raven never hurt us. Not one bit."

Clayface suddenly shuddered from the look on Cyborg's face. The arsenic rolling off his tongue….

"Every instinct in her butchered, soul-self screamed at her to destroy us and the world we live in. And you know what? It still does. But even posing creeps like you who rape everything she stands for can't bring her to rupture the world apart. And that takes character. And that takes strength. And that takes some god-damn-resolve! No, Hagan…..Raven's a lot stronger than you give her credit for. But you wouldn't know that, you big walking piece of shit! Because you don't….KNOW…HER!.!.!.!"

"Nnnnnngh!" Clayface growled and flung his tentacle full of blades straight into Cyborg's face. "ENOUGH TALK! RAAAUGH!"

RIIIIIIP! Cyborg's left arm suddenly shredded up through the muddy limb pressing him down and—CL-CL-CLAKKA!—punched through the center of the muddy blades right as it turned into a sonic cannon. "I SAY WE PUMP UP THE VOLUME, ASSHOLE!"

ZAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAP!

SPLOOOORRR-RRRCCCCHHHH!

Clayface's entire tentacle split and splattered apart from the end to his hulking shoulder.

"AAAAAAUGH!" Clayface shuddered and screamed.

"RAAAAUGH!" Cyborg shoved the metal mallet off of his lower body.

Clayface stumbled back….dripping.

Simon Stone watched.

Sparking, Cyborg limped to his feet….wincing.

Clayface panted.

Cyborg panted.

………

Cyborg was the first to recover.

"YAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!.!.!.!.!.!" he let out a berserk cry. Seething….nostrils flaring, the titanium Titan charged across the way towards Clayface.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!-STOMP!.!.!

Clayface strained….and splashed his entire body across the length of the basement laboratory in a serrated wall of morphing knives, daggers, blades, saws and axes.

CHIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIING!.!.!.!

Cyborg screamed, flexed his robot fingers, and plunged both of his fists through the wall of blades and thickly into Clayface's muddy body.

TH-THUNKKKKKK!.!.!

One spark.

Two.

Cyborg gritted his teeth as his red eye pulsed blue and his inner core short forth millions of volts through his limbs and hurled them into Clayface's boiling mass.

"Hav a happy life as scattered electrons, punk!"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTT!.!.!.!

"AAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Clayface somehow summoned a voice to scream as his entire muddy self boiled and hissed and caught aflame. Burning brown mud. Splattering flakes all across the laboratory.

And Simon Stone watched the flashing holocaust.

Flickering.

Deadpan and….

Still.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACKKK!

WHACKKKK!

SLAMMM!

The twelve-story behemoth of a golem was advancing across the Crunch….

Punching the line of defenders back.

Trailed by golems and terrorists in hummers, assaulting any normal-sized foe they could get their sights on.

THWACCCK!

CRUNCH!

WHAMMM!

And the entire time, the huge monster was directing all of its attacks on one soul and one soul alone.

Superman.

CRKKKKK-KKKKKKKK!

The hulking beast raised its foot and slammed a burning heel hard into Superman's gut.

WHAMMMM!.!.!.!

"AAAAAAAUGH!" The Kryptonian bellowed. He flew back two blocks and smashed through the building structure of a bank.

The hulking monster marched, unhindered, towards him.

CRKKKK-KKKK!

The Flash ran circles around the beast's ankles, attempting to distract it.

Green Arrow ran along a row of rooftops, firing freezing arrows down at the hulking monstrosities' shoulders. To no avail.

Running as fast as his suited legs could take him, Batman huffed and puffed and shouted into a communicator. "Hurry, League! Intercept the beast at the south of the Crunch now! It's not giving Clark any rest!"

'We're on it, Bruce!' FWOOOOOOOOSH! Green Lantern soared overhead in a green streak. Trailed by Steel, the green guardian pulsed a strong aura of emerald energy, let out a war-cry, and slammed himself into the back of the monster's crown.

FLASSSSH!

The monster didn't stop. It bent over the crumbling rubble where Superman lay and picked up the Man of Steel in a burning, strangling grip of rock.

CRKKKKK-KKKKK!

"Aaaaaugh!" Superman winced and burned in the monster's hold.

"For the last time….," Green Lantern came around for another try. Left hand flaring with the ring of energy. "Leave him the HELL alone!"

FWOOOOOOOOSHHH---

The burning monster raised his other hand, grabbed the guardian—CRKKKK!—("Aaaaugh!")—and flung him across the street into a third-story building front.

SLAM!

Thwooooosh—TH-THWUMP!

Green Lantern landed hard on the floor. His body bruised and battered. The splint his right arm was in started to crack as the ring in his left hand flickered….and died. "Ughhhhh…." A dying emerald glow cascaded over the guardian's body…reducing him to civilian clothes of a black denim jacket and dark slacks.

"Lantern!" Black Canary ran over and knelt by his side. "Are you all right?"

Stewart's brown eyes glanced thinly…weakly across the street of burning rubble. Past the burning giant's feet. "It's….g-gonna burn Superman alive…."

"Don't worry…," the blonde vixen panted. A hand on his shoulder. "We're on it." She glanced up towards the red heavens. "At least….I think we're on it."

PFTOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH! Steel rocketed overhead, swinging his massive sledgehammer. "RAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

"…….," Black Canary blinked. "Yeah. We're on it."

FWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH! Steel soared towards the creep's back and slammed his sledgehammer into the skull. CRAAAACK!

CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!

The monster spun with Superman in his grasp and flung a mess of lava at the suited warrior. RRRRSSSH!

Steel spun, ducked the launch, and rocketed around to slam the creature's sternum. "NNNNNGH-YAAAAUGH!"

SWOOOOOOOSH-SMACCCKKK! The giant's fist met Steel head on…

CRAAACK!

…and Steel's hammer shattered.

Flailing in mid-air, Steel's breath left him—

SLAMMMM!.!.!.!

The next blow sent Henry Irons plummeting across the street with his helmet knocked off.

FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSH! The Flash soared by just in time to catch him on a crumbled sidewalk.

In the meantime…. "Nnnnnnngh….," Superman struggled in the lava-hot grasp. He opened his blue eyes as his bruised face hardened in a frown. The Man of Steel gritted his teeth, turned his optics amber-red, and fired a pair of burning beams into the monster's 'forehead'.

ZZZZZZAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAP!

The creature merely absorbed the beams…billowed flames all over….and pulsed a wave of fire and plasma into the puny Kryptonian in his grip.

PHWOOOO-OOOOMMMMBB!

"YAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!" Superman howled…burning.

THWOOOOOSH! From above, Wonder Woman soared down, flung a lasso around the monster's crown, and pulled with all her might towards the burning, concrete earth. "Nnnnnnghhh!"

The creature tilted back some…lessening its heated punishment of the Man of Steel.

Across the intersection, a squadron of Calvin's artillery aimed tank turrets up at the creature's body.

General Calvin let loose a yell.

BL-BLAMMM!

BLAMMM!

POWWWW!

The shells struck dead-center in the monster's hide.

The huge beast teetered…wobbled.

Wonder Woman pulled…..tugged harder.

The creature spun, rumbled, and grabbed Wonder Woman hard with its other hand clamping.

GRIPPP!

The strangled Amazonian wheezed and hissed for breath.

CRKKKKKKK!

THWOOOOOOSH!

The monster tossed her straight towards one of Calvin's tanks.

Her ragdoll body sailed through a thick metal vehicle, smashing it to bits.

CRUNNNCH!

The monster then proceeded to lean over and slam—WHAM!—slam-CRACK!-slam-THWUMPP!—Superman's puny body into the hard earth.

From a rooftop afar, Catwoman stood….watching….panting.

FL-FLASSH!

In a green swirl, Martian Manhunter materialized beside her.

"This is not a good development," the alien monotonously droned. "Lex Luthor's ion cannon still needs to be deactivated."

Catwoman hissed at him: "Is that ALL you can think about, smart-ass?"

SLAM!

SL-SLAMMM!

THWUMP!

The monster formed a crater…in the center of which lay Superman.

Battered.

His cape and uniform tattered.

His greased hair smoking at the ends….

"Ughhhh…."

CRKKKKKKK!

The monster stood tall and erect above the crumpled Man of Steel….

….prepared to do its worse.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Crunch…

Supergirl was assisting a throng of Wildebeests in crushing a line of attacking golems.

The Girl of Steel flew forward with a snarling warcry, slamming her steel-strong fists through throngs of burning creeps and tossing chunks of street asphalt at retreating jeeps and hummers full of terrorists.

SMASSSH!

CRASSH!

"Nnnnnnnghhh!"

CRUNNNCHHH!

The terrorists retreated.

The Wildebeests went in pursuit….grunting and stomping through seas of golem parts.

Supergirl slumped off to the side.

Panting….panting….panting….

She sweated…gulped….

….and turned her head to glance southward.

And that's when she saw the scene.

With a gasp and a twitch to her eyes….

Across the Crunch, the hulking beast was readying to slam its entire weight down onto Superman's body.

She clenched her teeth.

"Clark……….."

THWOOOOOOSSSSH!

Whole slabs of concrete rose from the friction of her jolting flight.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!

The monster showered and spit ashes down at Superman.

He tried to sit up….struggled…..shook….and collapsed back down with a slumping sigh.

The twelve-foot behemoth rumbled and raised its foot…

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH! A pair of explosive batarangs twirled down and smashed into the monster's foot…taking out a sizeable chunk.

POWWWWW!.!.!.!.!

The monster teetered back….burning brightly.

Superman blinked.

SWOOOSH! Batman swung in, landed, and stood above Superman with two elongated, sword-like batarangs unsheathed. CHIIIIIING! He planted himself in the path of the giant monster's limbs.

"Don't….touch him….again….," he snarled at the beast.

"B-Bruce….," the battered Man of Steel raised a shaky hand. "Don't—"

"Shut up," Batman grunted….then narrowed his eyeslits up at the burning beast. "That's as far as you go, you over-sized rook."

CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!

The giant lifted its other hulking leg to squash the Dark Knight.

Batman clenched his jaw. His fingers pressed onto thick switches at the bases of the swords' hilts. They vibrated with a high-pitched, sonic intensity. VRMMMMMMM! "Let's go…."

"Save it for later, Batsy……"

"……….?" Batman glanced aside—

SHOVE!

Supergirl knocked the Dark Knight away, flew in his place, and slammed her fist with a scream into the plummeting heel of the burning giant. CRAAAACKKK!

The lower body of the monster cracked. It slumped forward, spitting flames and lava bits everywhere.

"Nnnnngg-RAAAH!" Supergirl flew forward and started pummeling the ankles of the grounded monster to dust. POW! SOK! CRUNCH!

Superman sat up. Wincing. "Kara! Don't!"

"I can handle it, Clark!" SMACK! WHAM! THWACK!

"No you can't!"

"I said I can—"

"LOOK OUT!"

CRKKKKKK-KKKKKK!

The left arm of the giant flew down.

Supergirl braced herself---

THWOMPP!

Her feet buckled as a crater formed around her ankles. Her body hunched into a painful crouch as she braced against the impact of the huge, burning wrist with her shoulders and pushed….pushed…..pushed back up against the creature's weight. "Nnnnnnnnghhh!"

Superman watched, breathless.

Batman groaned and stood up on the sidelines….wincing.

"YAAAAUGH!" Supergirl re-gripped the hand of the beast, wrangled herself around, and fired a pair of burning optic beams point blanc into the wrist of the creature.

ZAAAAA-AAAAAAP!

The heat of the wrist intensified, overheated, and—P-POWWW!

"Aaaugh!" Supergirl flew back as the monster's limb exploded in her face.

SNATCH! Batman caught her, supporting her limp body against his chest. With a free hand, he tossed one of the sonic batarang 'swords' into the thick of the already shattered stub of the creature's limb.

"Nnngh!"

THWIIIIISSSH!

Supergirl looked up weakly from Batman's grip.

CHUNKKKK!

VROMMM—CRAAAACK!

A good third of the creature shattered apart and exploded in lava and flame.

CRKKKKKKKKKKK!

A heat beyond intense overwhelmed the scene.

PHWOOOOOOMMMB!

A wave of fire emanated from the shattered beast's broken body and surged at the rest of the Justice League.

From the rooftops above, Green Arrow ran to a stop, held his breath, pulled out a throng of ice arrows, landed them against his bow, aimed, and fired—

TWNNNNNNG-TWNNNNG!

THWISSSSSSSSH!

The icy projectiles flew down and landed in front of Batman, Supergirl, and Superman…..in time to counteract the steaming wave of heat.

HSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssss!

The three nearest heroes watched in exhaustion at the burning beast's glowing figure.

It billowed more and more flame….

Regaining strength.

FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH! Flash dashed in, holding a half-conscious Henry Irons in his grasp.

"That thing ain't down for the count!" the speedster panted. "We gotta run for cover and let Calvin's cannons do the work!"

Batman nodded his pointy cowl skyward. "Or better yet…."

Flash and Supergirl looked up…eyes growing side.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH! A very familiar HIND was soaring down suicidally towards the vulnerable gash in the backside of the huge, twelve-story golem.

A green-eyed, possessed thug piloted the fully-loaded craft from inside the front cockpit bubble.

"Move! Get away from here as fast as you can!" the Dark Knight shouted.

"Yeah, I think I can do that!" Flash uttered, shifted Irons in his grasp, and soared off. FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!

"Cl-Clark!" Supergirl weakly gestured. "Wh-What about Clark?"

FWOOOOOSH! Wonder Woman soared down, grabbed Superman by his shoulders, and started to lift him up and out of there. "Bruce! Let's move!"

"Right with you!" Batman pulled out a grappling hook, held onto Supergirl tightly, and swung the two of them away. POW! CLANK!

SWOOOOSH! Wonder Woman and Superman….Flash and Steel….and Batman and Supergirl fled Main Street. Green Arrow jumped for cover beyond a building front while Black Canary and Green Lantern hobbled into an alleyway and Martian Manhunter rushed Catwoman off to the distance…

…

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!

….and the HIND soared into the hide of the burning creep.

Its heavy payload glistening in the red night and golden flame.

Plummeting hard.

FWOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSH!

The thug inside gritted his teeth.

His eyes pulsed a bright emerald.

At the last second of golden brilliance, the body of a boy shot ghostly out from the pilot's frame in a flickering of green—

FLASSSH!

…

CRASSSSSSSSH-KAPOWWWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!

The HIND plunged into the center of the of crumbling monster…..

….and then its payload ignited inside the burning, golden core.

BLAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAMMMMMM!.!.!.!.!.!

A golden shockwave flew across the Crunch.

Shattering building windows.

Melting steel supports.

Rippling through concrete sidewalk slabs.

And blinding the southern half of the City in gold fury.

FLAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAASSSSH!.!.!.!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Underground…

In the Subways and tunnels…

Where the innocent citizens were.

RUMMMMMMMBLLLLLE!.!.!.!.!

The ground shook.

The earth rattled.

The men and women and children inside gasped and muttered.

Emergency lights flickered.

Policemen and soldiers urged the hundreds….thousands of huddled masses to be calm….

To be quiet….

To be patient….

Daniel held tightly to Renee. Stroking her hair and shoulders lovingly from behind. Inhaling the scent of her and exhaling a shudder that joined her thin breaths.

Lisa huddled close to her sister, holding tightly the bodies of Greg and Ashley that clung to her like children to a mother. Lisa's one eye thinned as her lips pursed…muttering something silent under the rumbling.

Lindsay was plunged in the dark as her family's section of the tunnels experienced a total blackout. Under the throng of sudden screams and shrieks of sobbing despair…she uttered a name. And one name alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest finished smashing tentacles of water through one last hovercraft before tossing the deck-leaping terrorists across the waves of the Bay like skipping stones.

His body settled into the depths as the glow of violet furor left his dark eyes.

He gazed—squinting—landward and panted…

Treading water…

Eyeing the burning gold madness.

And murmuring:

"Either stop or die already……Stubborn night from Hades, I swear……"

And he dove with a flare of his gill slits and plunged into the salt water.

SPLOOOSH!

Skirting himself northward….towards the dry, burning land.

'Give me just a little more strength, Tula……'

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra froze.

Shuddering.

Eyeing the fading gold of the blast as she trembled….trembled….

The collapsing beast of thermalkinetic immensity sent a shudder through her earthen being.

Her eyes flickered an unconscious white fury…

…and it made her gasp.

And it made her shiver…..

For the memory intensified.

And the regret.

It was not just regret after all.

It was…..something else too.

Like the wounds of a bleeding mother.

A loss….but not a martyrdom.

Responsibility.

Construction.

The Whiteness burning hot in her arteries……

Throbbing……pulsing……

On fire everywhere…………

"I-I don't need saving……..," Terra murmured.

Terra, the apprentice.

Terra, the traitor.

Terra, the confused…the victim….the damsel.

Terra…..the Mother.

"I don't need saving….," she repeated breathily. A gulp. A shudder. "B-But this City does……"

Silence……..

"…………."

She gently walked over….and laid Jinx down against a building corner.

"Nnnnngh….," Jinx winced. The strength still hadn't returned entirely to the pink sorceress. She stared with thin cat-eyes at the earth maiden. "T-Terra…..wh-what…..?"

"Shhhh…..rest easy, Jinx….," Terra stood up, turned, and started marching towards the far side of the City. "Remember the offering…."

"Th-The….huh?"

"Remember yours and Leslie's offer….," Terra broke out into a sprint. "Because I know what I must now do….."

"T-Terra! D-Don't go!" Jinx reached a shaking hand towards her distant figure in vain. Wincing. "Terra!"

The petite blonde bolted down the empty streets.

Jinx panted. "D-Don't do……s-something stupid…..p-please….." Jinx gulped……panted. "W-We need you…………"

Silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra ran through the empty streets.

Past mounds of rubble.

Beyond broken remains of golems and burning monsters.

Along lines of corpses….both of the enemies and the allies.

There was a shuddering to her figure.

A cold….frigid nakedness….

Being swallowed up by the City that once ate her….

Digested her in stone…

Engraved her nefarious name in the Earth.

Forever.

Terra ran and ran and ran….

Straight towards one building in particular.

Kobayashi Tower…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the beaches of the Bay's northern shore….

Changeling stirred.

He clawed himself up the sand….

Up towards drier dirt….

Bordering the asphalt of the Bayside street.

He glanced up….panting….

And—with the Crunch cleared by the brilliant explosion temporarily….

….the beast boy had a clear sight of the navel of the City straight through from the south to the North along Main Street.

And as if he had unconsciously spliced his eyes into that of a hawk…

…he saw…her.

Her blonde hair flailing in the breeze.

Her black and tan outfit.

Her thin, fragile frame running…sprinting….fleeing across the urbanscape.

Towards Kobayashi Tower.

And the life of him burst out of Changeling's throat in a humongous gasp.

"T-Terra……"

Jaw dropping.

Green eyes wide….refocusing to elfin desperation.

"T-Terra…….."

The pain in his left head's gash left.

The salt and the sand and the blood….

"TERRA!"

Changeling jumped up to his feet.

Panting….he ran northward.

Hurtling himself through Main Street…

Past the rubble…the vehicular shells…..the bodies….

The charred organs of war….

He surged and galloped and raced through the re-forming chaos after the earth maiden.

His eyes locked on her golden figure.

A lonely flame against the red monstrosity of the night.

"TERRRRAAAA!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Changeling's voice soared….rang….echoed…..and died…..

At the air-slicing sound of Deathstroke's sword slashing towards Robin and I.

"HCKKKKK!"

SWISSSSSSSSH!

Robin spun his body and vaulted up off the surface of the bridge.

I rolled and teleported to the side.

CL-CLANGG! Deathstroke's sword scraped into aluminum and steel.

Robin landed on his feet.

I landed on my feet.

Robin positioned himself on Slade's east side.

I solidified on his west side.

Slade stood in the center of the skyscraper's bridge.

Holding his red-flickering sword up.

Hissing….glancing left and right….

At the two combatants on either side of him….

TH-TH-THWIIIISH! Robin twirled and readied his bo-staff. Panting.

CHIIIIING! I raised Myrkblade. Frowning.

"Hckkkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkt……" Deathstroke hissed, glaring left and right at us.

Robin slowly inched his way towards Slade's right.

I panted and oozed towards Slade's left.

Bo-staff, red blade, Myrkblade…

Singing in the cold, crimson air.

"…….."

"Snkkkkkt….."

"……."

"……"

"…..clik-clik-Hckkk….."

"……."

"……."

"Snkkkt….clik-clik-clik-HRAAAUCKTT!"

"…….!" I blurred at him.

"YAAAAH!" Robin charged.

FWOOOOOSH!

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!

SW-SW-SWOOOSH! Deathstroke crouched low and raised his sword horizontally over his vaporous head.

CL-CLAAAAANG!.!.!

Bo-staff and Myrkblade showered sparks down onto his figure.

TH-THWUMP! Deathstroke kicked me.

I stumbled back on the bridge.

THWOOOSH! Slade knocked Robin's rod back and advanced on him with rapidly side-swishing slices of his blade. SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

Robin twirled his blade…snarling…blocking. "Nnnnnngh!" Clack-Clack-Clack-Clack!

I blurred smokingly at Slade's rear.

He shoved Robin towards the East building, spun, raised his blade to block mine—CLANG!—and shoved against me with a pulse of red. FWOOOSH!

I fell on my rear—THWAP!--….wincing.

"Hckkk!" He jabbed down at my torso.

"Nnngh!" Robin pounced him and pulled at his neck with the bo-staff from behind.

"Snkkkkt!"

The red blade stopped squarely at the 'X' scar on my adam's apple.

I gulped….

Deathstroke hobbled back, wrestling with Robin from behind.

I leapt up to my feet, charged murk into my legs, and ran full-force at the Reaper.

Deathstroke brought a fist back—slammed Robin in the nose—numbed the Boy Wonder—freed an arm—parried my attacks with a twirling blade—kicked me back—grabbed the Boy Wonder by the cape—and flung Robin towards my stumbling figure.

THWOOOOOSH!

WHAPP!

I fell back, hard.

Regardless, Robin vaulted his legs off my ragdoll figure, flew himself back at Slade, and jabbed multiple-times at his torso with a mid-air spinning staff. "RAAAUGH!"

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK! Red Aviary blocked and jabbed high at the airborne Robin.

Robin twirled his body, hand-planted off of Deathstroke's shoulder, flipped, and vaulted himself towards the East side of the walkway bridge with a toss of three smoke pellets.

THWOOOOSH!

Deathstroke spun and—

POOOOOOFFFTTTT!

--found himself enveloped in a cloud of smoke.

I jumped up to my feet and jabbed Myrkblade into the haze. Just what I needed. FWOOOSH! I started absorbing the energy.

TH-THAP! Robin's flailing feet planted into the side of the east skyscraper.

FLASSSH! I filled Myrkblade with smoke energy….my eyes flickering black.

"Nnnngh!" Robin kicked off against the skyscraper wall and soared west.

Aaaah! I twirled Myrkblade and blurred east.

Robin flew and I blurred straight into the red-colored cloud…disappearing with a mad swing of our weapons within.

THWOOOSH!

SLASSSH!

CLANGGGGG!

Silence….

Silence………..

The smoke cleared….

…and Robin and I stood against each other in the dead-center of the bridge with our weapons grinding.

"……wha--!" His eyemask widened.

I gasped.

Deathstroke was gone….

We looked around and around and around…

Panting.

Desperate…..—

"Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-SNKKKT!"

Robin and I did a double-take. We both glanced up—

FL-FLASSSSH! Red Aviary materialized from a red-streaking teleport twenty feet above us. He charged up a pulse of red from the bloody sky, let loose a hissing…vaporous scream….and soared down like a crimson comet….hurtling towards the tangled two of us.

SLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS-SSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!

Destruction fell like the gavel of fate.

A circle of glowing cold enveloped us.

"MOVE!" Robin shoved against me and dove towards the East Skyscraper.

I fell awkwardly towards the west—

"HRAAA-AAAAAAAAUCHKKKT!"

SMASSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!

Red Aviary came down in heavy sword-swipe of madness.

The thunder was deafening.

The cold crimson splashing about the air numbing…

A crack formed in the bridge.

With icy hisses as the walkway inside depressurized into the freezing, December air of Death—

CRKKKKK-CRAAAAACKAAA!.!.!.!

The bridge divided.

Steel girders split.

Glass shattered and flew in fountainous waves.

I screamed mutely, slid, cascaded off the side, and plummeted to a certain death before reaching a black hand out and—SNAGGG!—holding on at the last second to a dangling…loose metal support beam.

"Aaaugh!" On the eastern half of the bridge, Robin scrambled and clung to the side. The aluminum-steel body lurched and groaned as it progressively teetered in a steeper and steeper angle towards the distant earth below. "Nnnngh…nngh!" He struggled to hang on while simultaneously holding onto his grip of the bo-staff.

Together….yet separate….

Divided…yet equally fated…

Robin and I dangled from our respective perches.

Wingless…flightless….the crimson bird cage howled the echoes of war and mayhem all around us…

And from above…

Hovering like a fox….a cat…a predator….

"Hckkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkktt……."

Robin panted the loudest of all.

I gazed helplessly over towards him with twitching, black eyes….

"Snkkkt…..when the Titansss fall……what god would care to liftt….them…backkk….up?"

And Red Aviary materialized……on the eastern bridge half.

Above Robin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAP!

Z-ZAAAAAP!

A sweating, sparking Cyborg fired desperate potshots of his sonic cannon at Clayface.

The muddy metamorph was sloshing, dripping, soggily launching his near-tentacle-shaped body from one side of the laboratory to the next…barely skirting past Cyborg's sonic punishment.

"Hold still, you sniveling crud!" Cyborg spat. "What's the matter? Can't smooth your way out of this?"

"Snkkkt---Sh-Shut up, k-kid!" SLOSSSSH! Clayface clung wetly to a laboratory wall and shot three slicing tentacles of hot metal blades towards Cyborg's position.

CHIIIIIING!

Cyborg grunted, rolled out of the way, knelt, and fired at the mud-stringing length of Hagan. "Nnnnn-NNGAAAAH!"

ZAAAAAAP!

SP-SPLOOOORCCCH!

"Daaaaaugh!" Clayface quivered and throbbed and wetly splattered against the far side of the laboratory where the cylindrical core glowed.

Cyborg panted….getting up and sparkingly-limping towards the Gothamite metamorph. "Where's that badass actor that snuck his way into the Tower and thought he could screw my pals to death? HUH?" CL-CLAK! "Well here's your motivation, punk!" ZAAAAAAAP! "You're a cowardly piece of flaming turd-muffin who's about to know extra-spiritual definitions of PAIN!"

SPLORRRCCCCH!

"AAAAAA-AAAAUGH!!" Clayface—now a boiling tentacle of wet mud—quivered in the corner and let loose a steaming exhaust in random bursts that were his leftover, weak equivalent to 'hyperventilating'.

"……………," the hologram of Simon Stone watched silently. Deadpan.

Cyborg panted…beat up….scuffed. He limped with a sparking drag towards the quivering mud mass and tried to charge his sonic cannon again. "If there was ever….EVER….a way to make you….m-make you suffer….a m-million times over…for all the punk-ass things you did….to Raven…."

"Snkkkt……give it up, kid………"

Cyborg frowned and raised a foot to stomp over the boiling mud puddle. "I think you're overlooking just who's still on his feet and just who's a pathetic little stain right now!"

"You act tough. Let's get to know each other betttterrrr……"SLOSSSSSSSSSH!

Clayface launched his entire soggy self at Cyborg.

The android Titan gasped and braced himself as the wall of mud splashed into him and wrapped over his exoskeleton.

Constricting…

SCRKKKKKKK!

"DAAAAAA-AAAAAH!" Cyborg shouted, hobbling across the basement laboratory. He clenched his teeth…pulsed his robot eye….and pressed a panel on his mud-stained chestpiece.

CLANK!

ZZZZZZ-ZZZZZTTT!

Blue sparks jolted all along Cyborg's exoskeleton.

The muddy metamorph clinging to him quivered, boiled, and 'screamed'.

"AAA-AAAAAH!"

Cyborg intensified the bolts. Wincing…shaking…and clenching his teeth from the electrocuting punishment himself as the blue energy bounced around him….

….and then he fizzled out.

Gasping.

Steam rose from him and boiled from the muddy being clinging to him.

"Snkkkkt—You……BASTARD!" Clayface's voice warbled.

"You looked in the mirror lately, punk?.!" Cyborg grabbed at his chest and gripped a handful of putrid mud.

SPLORRRRCH!

Clayface surged and slurped around him.

Cyborg hissed and grabbed at himself, twitching, shaking, tossing…

SLOSSH! SP-SPLORRCH! SLOSSH! Clayface wrapped and warped and snaked around the titanium Titan's body like a fleeting snake.

This went on for a wrestling two-minutes before Cyborg recharged his electric bolts.

Vriiiiii!

The first of many blue sparks started to reform.

"G-Get ready to burn, shithead!" Cyborg hissed.

"Not today!" and Hagan seeped in through the cracks of Cyborg's titanium chest.

Cyborg gasped and pressed the switch on his sternum again….starting the sparks ahead of time.

ZZZZZzzzzz-ZZZzzzt!

"Nnnnngh-Aaaaah!" Clayface's voice screamed from inside Cyborg's exoskeleton.

The android Titan fell halfway to his knees. Shuddering all over. Leaking and flashing blue sparks. "Come on….."

He felt the muddy fiend surging towards his front.

"Yes….."

Towards his upper body….

"That's it……"

Into his left arm to avoid the blue sparks—

"Gotcha!"

CL-CLAK!

The arm turned into a sonic cannon.

CLAKKA!

….A sonic cannon that flickered between blue and brown as Clayface shifted helplessly within the translucent, metal frequency chamber.

"Snkkkt—Hey! HEY! Let me out………Nnnghaah—Let me out!"

Cyborg hobbled up to his feet.

"………."

He looked around. Panting.

"…….!" He spotted the cylindrical core. "……." He frowned.

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!

Cyborg marched over towards the core.

He reached a right hand out and—

CREEEAK!

PHOOOOOMB!

--opened the burning energy core to the rest of the laboratory.

An unbearable heat seared into the claustrophobic basement.

Cyborg stared directly into the dancing plasma within the center of the core.

Seething.

With a dry gulp, he murmured: "You want a final curtain to remember, Hagan?"

"N-No……"

CL-CLAK!

Cyborg aimed his left sonic cannon straight into the plasma core.

"N-NO!"

"ENJOY A ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL!.!.!.!.!.!.!"

ZAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAP!.!.!.!.!.!"

The blue sonic waves erupted and shot straight into the core….carrying with it the ribbon-spiraling brownness of Matt Hagan.

"No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!.!.!.!.!.!.!"

The muddy mass of Clayface shot into the plasma…..dissolved into a brown mist….and sent a rupture of flame that shot circling back up the sonic stream and exploding into Cyborg's cannon.

POWWWW!.!.!.!

Cyborg's left arm exploded from the fatal punishment.

"DAAAH!" Cyborg fell back under a spray of ashes and shrapnel.

PHOOOOOOOOOMBBBB!.!.!.!

Green flame erupted from the mouth of the cylindrical energy core.

The overhead lights of the laboratory flickered.

A putrid smell of burning wet earth filled the room…faded….and turned to sterile death.

The fire ate its way back into the core….leaving a halo of scattered ash and hot metal lying-strewn across the floor.

"………….," Cyborg panted…panted….panted….from where he knelt.

He swallowed….stood up….clutched the stub of his left metal arm…..

…and turned coldly about to face the computer consoles.

"…………………," Simon Stone's hologram stared. Unemotional.

"……………….," Cyborg glared.

Silence…..

A flickering….

The popping of mud and metal embers in the background….

"It's over, old man…….," Cyborg hissed. His human eye glared. "It's been over……"

Simon Stone nodded. "Yes, Victor. That has never been said anymore…..truly."

Then the hologram's figure flickered wildly.

A bright flash filled the room.

Cyborg gasped.

He looked towards the walls—

WHURRRR-CHTUNG!

WHURRRRRRR-CHTUNG!

A pair of electrical cannons appeared in four places and—

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZTTTT!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTT!

ZZTTTTTTTTTT-ZZZZT!

ZZZZZZZTT-ZZZZZZTT!

Huge bolts of thunderously brilliant electricity screamed into Cyborg all at once.

"AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!.!.!.!.!.!" the android Titan fell torturously to his knees and screamed…pulsing and jolting with blue death all over. "AAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-H-H-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGGGGH!.!.!.!" Tears of pain squeezed out from his human eye….only to sizzle into burning steam from the blue punishment.

"……………," Simon Stone stared. And—if even for a moment—his holographic face was long.

As he watched his nephew cook.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!.!.!.!.!.!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back at the Crunch…

The fire and smoke from the HIND's collision with the twelve-story monster was already clearing.

The golems were again on the rise…

The Wildebeests gathered, amassed, and marched to face off yet again with the relentless terrorism.

Calvin's forces fought obscurity and confusion to re-gather their numbers and regroup behind the artillery.

And the Justice League….

They were everywhere…..

Batman and Supergirl were sprawled against a corner of rubble. The Dark Knight protectively covered the Girl of Steel with his cape until the dust settled. He stood up, pulling out a batarang and a grappling hook for any occasion.

Supergirl coughed….sputtered…..and squinted over the ash-laden landscape with tearing eyes. She gasped at one particular sight, stood up, and exclaimed: "Clark!" FWOOOSH! The Argosian blonde darted across the street and touched down besides a crater where a bruised Wonder Woman and Superman lay strewn.

"S-Superman…..Clark!" Kara raised his upper body.

He coughed and clenched his teeth. "Guess I-I should have…..w-worked out for this evening….ahead of t-time…."

"Are you okay?"

"I feel like I've been hammered with a comet of Kryptonite…," Superman rubbed his aching head and gazed weakly to the side. "D-Diana….is she--?"

"She's all right…," Batman helped the Amazonian up. "In a lot better condition than you are in."

Kara panted. She swallowed and said: "Wh-Who was that in the HIND?"

"We've got bigger issues to worry about…," Superman coughed. "Th-The satellite…."

Batman's eyeslits narrowed. "What satellite?"

Wonder Woman rubbed her temples and muttered: "Dagger's gotten control of Lex Luthor's ion cannon in the sky. He's preparing to blast the heart of this City any minute now."

Batman tightened his gloved fists. "A blast like that could annihilate this entire metropolitan area! And all of the evacuees are still underground!"

"What's this I'm hearing?" John Stewart muttered as he and Black Canary limped to the scene. The battle raged on throughout the Crunch in the background. "An ion cannon?"

"Dagger's having the ultimate drop on us," Superman leaned against Supergirl's support. "And if we don't do something about it—"

"The question is can we do something about it?" Green Arrow said as he dropped down from a nearby building ledge. "I think a good number of us badass fliers are down for the count!"

"My ring's out of power….," Stewart panted. "It'll take the better part of an hour or two to meditate and pull some last juice out of it. But without my lantern, I'm screwed."

"I….I-I think I can take care of the cannon…," Superman panted. "J-Just….give me t-time…."

"We can't afford to 'think' about 'taking care' of things," Batman grumbled.

"And we don't have time," Black Canary added.

Stewart looked at Batman. "Screw Luthor's armada. What about your galactic goods?"

Batman shook his head. "The earliest my tech could intervene is not early enough."

"Damn……where's a frickin' Javelin when you need it?"

FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH! Flash streaked up and set down a battered-suited Henry Irons. "Is anyone else freaked out by the royal beating we're all taking?"

"There has to be some way we can take out that satellite…," Black Canary murmured.

"There is." FL-FLASH! Martian Manhunter appeared. Behind him, Catwoman dropped down from a buildingtop. J'onn spoke: "There is still someone amongst us who can tackle the cosmic obstacle. Supergirl? I believe your talents shall prove necessary."

Kara gasped….eyes wide.

Superman's wasted jaw dropped. "No! No way! She can't possibly—"

"She has the same type of powers as you, Kal-El," Wonder Woman gestured. "She can withstand deep space."

"But neither one of us can breathe!"

"I don't see why you'd have to," Batman droned. "All that's needed to be done is to take down that satellite. And with super speed—"

"I-I'll do it…," Superman struggled to stand up. "G-Give me just…nnngh…"

"Clark….," Supergirl touched his shoulders.

He slumped back and panted….gazing at her. Burnt and bruised. "I won't have you doing that, Kara. I-I won't have you nearly breaking your skull in." He gulped. He shuddered: "N-Not again…."

"……," Supergirl gently set him down, smiled calmly, and stood up. "I don't think this is really in your hands anymore, Superman."

"……..," the Man of Steel stared.

"We're running out of options," Stewart said.

"Someone just do something already!" Flash cackled.

"Each and every one of you will be leaving this battlefield a hero….So I'll take on the satellite….and I'll be successful." Supergirl said. It was more to Superman than to anyone else as she added with a whisper: "Besides, I-I want to be able to feel like a hero too." She bit her lip. "I need to……"

There was a shared vision between her and Superman.

The Man of Steel took a deep breath. "Come back, Kara….for Ma and Pa….."

Kara winked a blue eye and snapped a finger at Superman. "I'll come back for a t.v. dinner if I can help it."

"Time's ticking," Batman said. "Supergirl. Go now or don't go at all!"

"I need to know where the satellite cannon is."

J'onn stepped forward, eyes glowing. "I can guide you there. I have the coordinates engraved within my mindscape. If we link up, I can guide you to where you need to eradicate the orbital threat."

"Sounds good to me, Greenie."

Wonder Woman spoke: "It isn't pleasant soaring through deep space."

Stewart hobbled over. "And we don't have any gas masks on us."

Supergirl tightened her fists. "I'll hold my breath."

FWOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSH! In a tornadic gust, she flew straight skyward….piercing through the crimson clouds and the cold December redness.

The Justice League shielded themselves from the wind and debris.

They all gazed upwards.

Most intent in his gaze was Superman. He leaned on Batman's shoulder as he weakly gazed towards the heavens.

Taking deep….uncertain breaths.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop his lonely skyscraper….

Dagger toyed with the remote datapad.

He tweaked at the controls of the distant satellite.

Wincing….sweating…..struggling through walls of pain and blood loss from his left limb, he typed and tapped with his one set of fingers and instructed the targeting of the cannon to center itself upon the core districts of the City.

Charging up….

Focusing intently on the red and gold quagmire.

"…………"

Dagger took a painful…..literally sharp breath.

"……..th-there is no death……nngh….th-there is only……..r-redistribution………of power……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Shut that thing off! Do you hear me!" a panicky, enraged Lex Luthor shouted into the comlink of his office desk. "Shut that god damn thing off!"

'Snkkkt! Our best people are on it, sir! We'll have that thing deactivated within a moment's notice—'

"Don't lie to me! I'm the best liar there is in this pathetic country!" Luthor shouted so angrily, the vessels showed in his neck joints. "If any of your solutions aren't working, I'll have that fresh new 'crater' of Dagger's over your heads! LITERALLY!"

'Understood, sir! We'll report soon! Snkkt!'

"Nnnngh!" Luthor stomped around his desk. Seething. Pulling at nonexistent hair. His tie and suit and face a mess.

He punched the window hard, leaned against it, and panted…..

"……"

His fist clenched.

He spun—frowning—and glared into the nothingness suddenly incorporating the distant half of his office.

"What are you waiting for, Superman? I know you and your doglike 'League' are there in that City! You think my humiliation is worth more than the social infrastructure of this country?" He kicked a chair over. SLAM! "Do something already! For the both of us, damn it!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!

Supergirl soared up into the darkness.

As the red gave way to obsidian.

And the stars began twinkling and shining clearer.

Supergirl took deep breaths.

Her platinum hair blowing in the breeze.

Her gloved hands stretched alongside her ribs.

Her body aimed like a bullet….heavenward.

'Kara. There is no telling when exactly the ion cannon will fire. But the initiation of the device took place several minutes ago. It is possible that the weapon will be igniting upon your arrival.'

Supergirl clenched her jaw.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Then I'll have to ignite faster, Martian Manhunter."

'Your enthusiasm is well-received. But concentration is your greatest ally.'

"Besides you. Just point me in the right direction."

'Follow your instincts, Kara. They shall guide you to the satellite. I am seeing to it.'

She closed her eyes…..inhaling…..flying upwards….

"I hear you, J'onn."

A beat.

Her sapphire eyes reopened.

Her lips pursed….

"Jordan……I'm about to become like you……again……"

'Kara?'

"Nothing, J'onn. Let's do this thing………"

FWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSH!

Supergirl ascended, ascended, ascended…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra ascended, ascended, ascended….

Panting, the earth maiden flicked her wrists and summoned shards of concrete and granite to lift up and hover in front of her path.

She then proceeded to leap, hop-scotch, and vault her way from one floating stone to another……rising her sprinting form towards Kobayashi Tower.

The highest spot in the City.

The Crunch burned on in the background below and beneath her.

The golems and Wildebeests and terrorists and soldiers fighting….

The League heroes in between…..

Terra took deep, gasping breaths…..and grunted as she leapt from levitating stone to stone. Soon she was glowing bright pulses of gold in her eyes as she summoned the same four or five stones to cycle in front of her and create a perpetual set of levitating stairs towards her lofty goal.

Up….up….up the height of Kobayashi Tower.

And not once did she falter in her speedy burst.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Changeling was running through the streets.

Morphing every now and then into a cheetah, a horse, a buffalo…

Swiftly leaping and dodging wayward golem bodies and charging Wildebeests in elf mode.

He panted…swung his limbs…and ran…ran…ran….ran….

Northward….through the Crunch….

His eyes….

Eyes locked on her…..

"T-Terra!" he panted….shouted: "TERRA!"

A writhing pair of golems blocked his path.

"Nnnngh!" he grunted fiercely, slammed a pair of splicing gorilla arms into the creeps, and plowed his way through back in elf form. Panting. Nearly limping at superhuman speed. Anything he could do to hurry himself along. Dashing through destruction. Over bloodied corpses. The shells of demolished tanks, demolished hummers, demolished bodies…

"Terrrrra!"

His eyes wide. His mouth hung open and panting…

He tore a straight path towards the bottom of Kobayashi Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra reached the structure of the Tower itself.

She grunted….flexed her limbs strongly…and leapt straight up.

"Nnnngh-yaaah!"

THWOOOOOSH! Her thermalkinesis summoned the four or five stones levitating alongside her to merge into one huge platform and solidify underneath her feat.

Pl-Plant!

A breath…….

FWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSH!

Terra levitated directly upward.

Her golden hair billowing.

Her arms twitching…shivering in the cold red air.

She soared…soared….soared above the globe of crimson and gold.

The Crunch and the fissures echoing forth from it.

The Battle…the War….the spectacle of Life.

With a deep breath, the earth maiden ascended.

And reached the summit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several stories below.

A breathless Changeling perched on the fourth floor of the Tower.

His shirtless figure bravely shivered in the descending cold…..

The slashes and bruises across his chest and back open to the night…..

The claw marks of Killer Croc on his sternum…..

The gash over where his left ear used to be…..

He panted…..staring with wide, moist eyes.

"Terra…..," he whispered. "What in god's name are you doing…..?"

He gulped.

He spliced his arms into that of a giant sloth….

CL-CLANK!

And climbed….

CLANK!

….and climbed….

CLANK!

….and climbed.

His eyes fixed on the golden figure shimmering…soaring straight above him.

At the top of Kobayashi.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!

Supergirl soared into the endless black.

It wasn't until after the sudden, indefinable cold and silence struck her….

But suddenly, her eyes bulged.

Her mouth opened in a soundless shriek…

And she toppled back.

Plummeting towards the Earth.

…..she suddenly realized what it truly meant to be in a world without oxygen.

'Kara? Kara!'

"Nnnngh!"

She toppled…..falling…..twirling….

'Kara! Concentrate! The satellite is just ahead!'

Supergirl toppled back towards where the scant remaining traces of oxygen were.

She levitated upright….panted….and gulped.

"S-Sorry, J'onn. Strike One is over. I promise."

'Do you need to prepare yourself, Kara—?'

"J'onn, there's no time. It's now or never."

'Indeed.'

Supergirl took a long, large, gasping, lung-full breath.

"………."

Her body tightened.

Her brow furrowed.

A concentrated sneer hardened across her lips.

"Okay………Supergirl smash….."

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!

Supergirl soared blindingly fast towards the destination.

Following the streams of Martian Manhunter's consciousness.

Squinting her eyes against the frigid vacuum of space.

Surviving on two things alone.

Her super-powers….

And her breath……

"………………"

FWOOOOOOOOSH!

Supergirl pierced through the atmosphere of the Earth……

………

…..and soared like a reverse comet straight toward the black spindle that was the Ion Cannon.

Right as the 'mouth' of the cannon began to spread open….

….and cast a bright green beam of focus coldly through Supergirl and towards the Continent below.

Straining with her one lung-ful of oxygen, the Girl of Steel hurled herself towards the target.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Crunch…

In the Main Street of the City where the Wildebeests and golems went toe to toe….

Random clumps of debris and shrapnel started to rise.

Magically.

Levitating inches from the ground.

Reflecting a dim…but ever brighter aura of sickly cold green….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Where Tempest leapt ashore onto dry land….

He shook his black locks loose….

Then froze…..

He glanced back, and saw every drop that scattered off his body, hair, and limbs….rise up.

Floating drops.

Warbling tips of waves and spray…

Hovering towards an increasingly green heaven.

And he gasped….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Bayside Plaza….

Where the doctors and nurses were patching up Raven…

They couldn't help but stop and mumble in fear and apprehension.

The surgical tools they had just been using started to rise from trays.

Various wires and medical equipment started levitating skyward.

The strands of Raven's silken blue hair rose, as did the center of her bandaged body.

"Nnnnngh….."

FLASSSSH!

A huge, continental spotlight of green pierced through the cold red night and splashed icily over the Plaza and City.

Eliciting more than a fair share of surprised cries and gasps.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger twitched.

The green glow stabbed the corners of his thin eyes.

He leaned bloodily against the stairwell behind him.

Panting.

The bright white vial/syringe in his pocket rattled and started to rise skyward…along with globs of blood from his left stub and ends of his hair.

He panted…..gulped….and whispered:

"It's not the sky….it's not the earth….but it's us who will 'bleed'….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASSSSSH!.!.!.!.!

The very same spotlight of green soared down and illuminated the cracked bridge halves that Robin and I were hanging precariously from.

I held onto the loose steel girder with my fake black arm.

I struggled to claw my way up.

Stabbing with Myrkblade….

Reaching with my synthetic limb…..

Ultimately slipping…grunting….and dangling by one precarious grasp.

Feet dancing in the cold red air above the multiple stories of death yawning below me.

Across from me—on the right half of the shattered skyscraper bridge—Robin was having as much (or little) progress. He groaned and twirled his lower body around till he more-or-less spider-climbed his way up the cracking, groaning cobweb of metal he was clinging to.

The both of us struggled…fought…..winced…..and wrestled to ascend up to a firmer ground.

And in so doing, we both horrendously overlooked—

"Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt……"

As if in simultaneous cadence, Robin and I gasped.

We glanced above…

Red Aviary stood on Robin's half of the bridge…and yet he positioned himself so that he faced the West side—my side—with his red-draping sword.

Crimson vapors billowed out of his cowl slits as he casually leaned on his red blade before his straight legs like a man and his golf driver. "Snkkkkt—clikkk……I'm thinkinggg….Robin……that your friendssss are stillll too much of a distractionnnn for you….."

"…….," Robin stared. Wide-eyed. Panting.

TH-THWISSSH! Red Aviary twirled his blade till is rested above him in a billowing spectacle of red splashes. "SNkkkt…..clearrrrr your mind, Robin…," Deathstroke sneered. "…..so that I may clearrrr out that shell you call a body……and a HEARRRT!SNKKKTT!"

TH-TH-TH-THWOOOSH-CLANKKKK!

The blade sang down and slammed mercilessly into the left side of the bridge beneath Red Aviary….

….and from which I was hanging….

CRKKKKKK-KKKKKKK!

Rivers and waves of Destruction swam down the dangling structure.

I gasped, bit my lip, and hung on desperately.

But the metal structure wobbled.

The bulk of the bridge itself shook and cracked and shook violently.

My grip loosened.

I hissed mutely…..wincing all over…..leaking vapors of black under the cascading splashes of red….

"Hang on!" Robin shouted from the East side. Coaching. Panting. "Hang on! Don't lose your—"

"HRCKKKKK!"

Deathstroke struck again.

CRAAACK!

FWOOOOSSH!

The wave of Destruction swam down the structure and—

FLASSH!

CRAAAAAACKKK!

The entire left half of the bridge snapped free from the west skyscraper.

And I….it…..we….fell.

SCRKKKKKKK-FWOOOOOOOSH!

Groaning, collapsing, crashing, plummeting down the length of the buildings.

Swallowed in dust and the green haze of the heavenly spotlight.

"NOIR!.!.!.!.!.!" Robin shouted. Face a sheen—

"HCkkkkk!"

The Boy Wonder looked up. Panting.

Red Aviary was perched over him now.

"SNkkt---Save your bird criesssss, Tim…….time forrrrr me to rip yourrrr HEARTTT-SNKKKT-OUTTTT!"

FWOOOOOOSH!

In a swish-slash of his sword, Red Aviary blurred down at Robin.

The Boy Wonder gritted his teeth, let go of his grip, and kicked off the bridge.

FWOOOSH! Robin soared downwards.

SLASSSSH! Deathstroke's sword slash ate through pure air where Robin would had been previously flailing.

"Nnnngh!" Robin fanned his cape out, fought the currents of green air, slowed his descent some, drifted 'up' towards the sailing Deathstroke, and pinned his ankles around Red Aviary's neck.

TH-THWAP!

"SNKKKKT!" Red Aviary struggled, his cowl and head wriggling in the Boy Wonder's legged grasp.

Robin twirled and yanked Deathstroke's flailing body earthward.

"HRAAAUCHKT!" Deathstroke swung his blade at the plummeting Titan.

"Yaaugh!" Robin twirled in mid-air, 'flew' into Red Aviary, and elbowed him harshly.

WH-WHAP!

Deathstroke grabbed Robin by the collar, twirled his sword—and as they both spiraled upside down—jabbed the red fountaining blade at the Boy Wonder's chest.

Robin kicked his legs up, 'sat' on the length of the sword, vaulted off, wrapped around Red Aviary's body, and straddled him from behind….slamming his fists and elbows repeatedly into the Reaper's back.

THWAP! WHAM! WH-WHACK! SLAPP!

"HRAAA-AACHKKKT! Snkkkt-Clik-Clik-CLIKKKSNKKKT!"

In such hectic fashion, the two adversaries fought and wrestled and grappled in mid-air as they fell the long, blurring length of the Eastern Skyscraper.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime, I was falling with my entanglement of hurtling…..careening metal webbing.

The huge, hulking bridge piece screamed through the air…taking me with it.

I gritted my teeth, twirled Myrkblade, pulsed billowing murk through my plummeting figure, and slashed 'up' (or what I perceived to be 'up' at the time) into the body of the falling bridge.

SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE!.!.!.!

I ate through the metal and mortar, plowed through the bridge's interior itself, twirled out the cracked mouth, and emerged on the top.

I kicked off the metal body of the bridge's roof……only to realize that it was actually the bridge's belly.

…and now I was sailing towards the hard streets below with the body of the bridge following above me.

I panted.

I twirled.

I gazed…gazed…gazed….

Found the silver-blurring mess of the western skyscraper itself.

Gritted my murk…

FL-FLASSH!

…glided left into the blurring windows and building face.

Twirled.

Shot my legs toward it.

Covered them with murk.

Slid them against the burning-hot-blur of the passing building face.

SCRAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAPE!

Looked up, sweating.

Spotted the body of the falling chunk of bridge metal towards my friction-slowed form.

Grunted mutely…

TH-THWOMP!

….and kicked off the blurring building face of glass and steel.

THWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSH!

I shot out like a black bullet.

Away from the hurtling metal.

Away from the skyscraper.

Across the City…

Falling.

Flying.

Descending.

Gliding…..

And……

"……," I shot my neck up and looked directly towards where my missile-body was rocketing.

THWOOOOOOOOOOOSH—The windows of a twenty-story building.

I bit my teeth and tensed—

SHATTTTERRRRR!

I slammed through the glass in a pulse of murk, glided across a checkerboard-tiled hallway, slid-slid-slid, and burst through a dull set of windows on the other side.

SHATTT-TTTERRRR!

I winced, flailed, and came to a murking, cratering grind across a roof of gravel.

SCRKKKKK-KKKKKK!

I came to a stop.

Smoking.

Trailing black wisps….

Then….

Solidified as a bruised, hyperventilating body.

"……………."

………………………'ugh'.

I remained there…..collapsed atop the building……

Catching my pained breath….

As the green light pulsing everywhere from above…--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--…pierced the flailing figures of Deathstroke and Robin.

THWAP! WHAP! SMACK! WHAM!

The two wrestled, grappled, fought, and heavily contacted each other as they plummeted through the cold, deathly air.

As a steady number of buildingtops rose sharply around them, it became more than apparent that the end—and the earth—was drawing near.

So Robin growled---"Yaaaaugh!"---and kicked heavily off of Deathstroke—WHUMP!—vaulted out into the open air, whipped out a grappling hook, and fired high.

POW!

CHIIIIIIIIING! Red Aviary's blade kissed lengthily the green and crimson air.

Robin hissed—CLANK!—pulled taut on the cord….and swung----

SLIIIIIICE!

Robin lifted his legs, barely avoiding the serrated kiss of Deathstroke's blade. He arced around in a wide swing from some unknown location where his grappling hook stuck—

GRIP! Deathstroke grabbed ahold of his boot.

"Nnnnngh!" Robin lurched down on his cable's length. Panting….straining…

"HCKKKK-KKKKK!" Deathstroke gripped tighter, twirling his sword to stab up at Robin.

The Boy Wonder screamed and shot his over leg down.

WHAM!

Again.

WHAM!

And again.

WH-WHAM!

WHAP!

"HRAAAUCHKTT!" Deathstroke was kicked loose and—SLAMMM!—plowed into a billboard atop a commercial building.

Suddenly weightless, Robin swung…twirled….spun…and angled himself out in a heavy upswing that brought him towards---

"……!.!.!" Robin gasped.

---a tall radio antenna above a ten-story skyscraper.

WH-WHAP!

Robin slammed through the cobweb of metal cross-beams, lost grip of his grappling hook cord, and fell—pinballing down the length of the antenna's mesh.

THWOOOOOSH-WH-WH-WH-WHAP!

Robin grunted, exhaled, spat blood, and—

WHAM!

Landed bruised and leaking red on the rooftop tar just beneath the tall, red antenna.

"…………nnn-nnngh….," he moaned and winced….

Too weak and battered to stand up.

His breath thin and raspy under the converging sky of red and green.

"………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………."

Starfire lay dormant….still atop the lofty rooftop of Wayne Enterprises.

Her bruised and bleeding form gently unconscious.

Her red hair fluttering in the breeze.

Cold air descended upon her….filtered by the cold shimmer of unnatural green.

Her amber skin formed goosebumps suddenly…as if eerily brought to life.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He shuddered all over.

The cold, December night blowing at his spiked strands of black hair.

Robin stirred under the large, four-legged antenna….but fell dizzy.

His eyemask thin.

His breaths more and more ragged.

Limbs that carried him screaming into and through the City now lay limp.

Robin faded….faded….faded….

"………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………."

Starfire stirred.

She moaned.

She turned over.

Pained eyes remained closed to the shimmering sky.

The green spirit enticed her…

Coldly forced her lips to mumble.

Whispers….hoarse exhales….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………..Koriand'r….."

Robin gasped for breath.

He shot up.

Panting…..

Panting………

"…………….."

He groaned.

He winced.

One leg…..two legs….

He sat up.

Shuffling.

Limping.

Hunched over and hyperventilating.

His skin and eyemask subconsciously absorbing the clashing gold, red, and green of the hellish battle surging all around him.

The flames of distant buildingtops.

The burning monsters stampeding for a last stand.

The League and the Army booming….screaming…

"Koriand'r………," his lips moved with or without the Boy Wonder recognizing them. "……I-I still haven't called you by your real name………" He gulped. A murmur. Half sobbing. Half snarling. "I……st-still need to buy you……fl-flowers………"

……….

……….

………………..Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkktt…."

Robin tensed.

His muscles tightening.

His jaw drew tight.

As vapors escaped his turned around….

And faced about….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

……….

……….

……….

…………you still with me, Ana?

……….

……….

……….

…………good, then I'm still alive……

I groaned mutely.

I pushed myself up into a standing position.

I leaned on Myrkblade.

Panting.

My black threads an untangled mess.

The black arm that Batman gave me twitching….shooting sparks.

But no shiver.

I limped towards the edge of the rooftop.

I looked around.

Shuddering.

Where did they go, Ana?

I scanned the burning horizon with my black eyes.

More or less ignoring the oddly-sickening glow of green that filtered through the place.

Where did Red Aviary and Robin go?

Try as I might with my black eyes….I couldn't see worth crap.

Yes, I saw the splotches of oblivion. The mangled heaps of battle in the streets below. The blinding flames of buildings burning from golem comets and HIND fire in the distance.

But nothing to indicate the fate of my leader and the Reaper himself.

I swallowed….

Panted….

And turned about.

What could I possibly do now?

And then…..

I froze.

For I saw someone else.

Someone else entirely.

"………."

And everything inside my obsidian self boiled.

And simmered.

And hissed……

My teeth grit.

CHIIIIIIIIIING!

I slowly pulled Myrkblade out…..

Gripping the hilt so tightly I swore my blood vessels inside my hand would burst.

Him.

HIM.

I seethed.

Black trails of smoke swam down from my black eyes…trailing across the scar on my cheek…the 'X' on my throat.

It all comes to a head now.

HIS head.

I ran.

I blurred.

I leapt over the buildingside.

FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSH!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZTTTT!

ZZZZZZTTT-ZZZZZTTTTT!

"AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!.!.!.!.!.!"

Cyborg screamed at the top of his mechanical lungs.

Twitching….jolting….

Tearing.

ZZZZZZZZZTTT!

ZZZZZTTT-ZZZZZZZTTTTT!

"AAAAAAA-HAAAAAAAA-HAAAAAAUGGGGH!.!.!.!"

"…………………," Simon Stone watched silently. His holographic arms folded behind his back. His gaze inhuman. Cold.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!

WHURRRR-CL-CLANK!

The electrocuting cannons suddenly cut off their charges and retracted some.

Cyborg fell to his knees in a smoking….hyperventilating heap.

SSSSSSSssssssss! Steam howled from his joints.

His robot eye flickered in and out of livelihood.

Vapor came out of his lips in between coughing up oil and mud.

"P-Please…..U-Uncle S-S-Simon…..," Cyborg panted. Tensing. Quivering all over. "N-No more…..p-please….."

"I am very much capable of having compassion on you, my boy….," Simon Stone electronically uttered. "……unfortunately, I am not capable of living up to such feelings."

"I thought…..I-I believed….," Cyborg winced. Wincing all over. "…..th-that Anderson hadn't completely consumed you…..th-that there was a piece of you…..th-that I could still connect to……th-the last shred of my old f-f-family!"

"I wish that was so, Victor," Stone murmured. Flickering. "I did the very best I could for the Titans while under Dagger's control. Delaying the extraction of Terra's essence from stone. Helping you rescue your beloved Raven and friends from the land of darkness. Installing Noir with a mechanical arm that would clue him into Red Aviary's presence. But no half-attempts can ever make a whole. Our relationship……our family……is an incomplete circle. Nothing ever remained true……for that circle was never made complete. It spun around its tail but never found a solid grip. Now………we must both suffer for it."

"Are y-you….c-capable of suffering….old m-man….?" Cyborg hissed.

"Why do you ask, Victor? So you can seek revenge on me? You know as much as I do that I cannot allow that……for Dagger's sake."

Cyborg bit his lip and struggled to say: "Without a circle….there is no circulation. No flow." He looked up…frowning and wincing at the same time. His human cheeks wet. "Maybe I should make that circle tonight, Simon. Make it so that I can break it in your inhuman face!"

"And even if you did that, would it really take back the pain that Clayface and I exhibited on your girlfriend?"

"……….," Cyborg stared. Jaw dropping….

"It matters little what is done……or what is not done. Broken or whole……everything in this City soon will be ruins."

"Wh-What do you mean, old man?"

"Dagger has hijacked Lex Luthor's ion cannon. What obliterated Area 51 shall soon obliterate us. All of us……"

Cyborg gasped. Wide-eyed. "No….." The first thing out of his lips. "R-Raven….."

WHURRR!

WHURRRR-CHTUNK!

The electricity turrets once again aimed at the kneeling, panting android.

Cyborg flinched….freezing….

"It is over," Simon said. "The line's ended….just as it began. In tragedy." And for once, his holographic eyes flickered a trace of sadness. "Victor, my boy, the family that's born together must die together."

The turrets began to glow: Vriiiiii!

Cyborg winced.

Expecting.

Simon took a digital breath. Blinked. And—

SP-SPARK!

SPARKKKK!

CRAAACK!

The turrets popped.

One by one.

Simon Stone's eyes widened. Flickering. "Wh-What?"

Cyborg gasped.

Looking all around.

The computer consoles…the lab equipment…..the whole array of Phaser Labs' tech started to spark and short-circuit.

Simon Stone flinched and 'looked' all around. "D-Dagger! Is that you? What are you—?"

ZZZZZTT!

A blue bolt shimmered through the hologram.

He flickered….pulsed…let loose an electronic shout….and was gone.

FL-FLASSSH!

Sizzling….

"…………..," Cyborg blinked.

Silence…..

Random sparking….

Cyborg winced.

He gradually stood up.

Shaking.

Wobbling.

He marched numbly across the basement domain.

Up to the computer console.

He panted…..graced the sparking computer screens.

And thinned his human eye.

"What in the blue-Hell?"

FL-FLASH!

The computer screens went black.

A green-on-black DOS prompt.

"………..?" Cyborg stared.

A string of text appeared: 'HELLO MISTER STONE. THE GOOD STONE.'

"……….what in the—?"

'I AM OVERLOADING THE POWER CORES OF PHASER LABS TO REBOOT THE DAMAGE DAGGER AND SIMON HAVE DONE.'

"………….."

'THAT SHOULD ALSO NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE LINK FOX HAS MADE TO LEX LUTHOR'S ION CANNON BY PIGGYBACKING THE FREQUENCY MODULATORS OF THIS LOCATION.'

"No way……," Cyborg murmured. His eye narrowed suspiciously, and he slurred at the computer screen—half expecting a response. "Just who is this?"

'ISOMER SPEAKING AND ACCOUNTED FOR.'

Cyborg blinked. "'Isomer'?'

'A GOOD FRIEND OF THE ORACLE. ALLOW MR. TIM DRAKE TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT.'

"………."

'NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO GET YOU OUT OF THERE. I BELIEVE THE GOOD SAMARITAN WHO ALERTED ME TO YOUR PREDICAMENT SHALL BE OF SERVICE.'

"Friend?" Cyborg cackled. "What Samaritan?"

ZAAAAT!.!.!

Cyborg jolted and glanced breathlessly aside.

"……….," the Messenger smiled in spite of himself. He was heavily bruised and scraped all over with Killer Croc claw marks. His hands were bandaged and stained red. Regardless, he leaned as casually as ever towards the android Titan and spoke: "Sorry I was out of it." He raised his wrist and displayed a brand new, clunky black watch. "Takes a lickin', but keeps on tickin'………in Union Regulation, you see…."

"M-Messenger? What the Hell are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "The only frickin' thing I'm good for…." He winked suavely and wrapped an arm around Cyborg's elbow. "Try not to throw up."

"Uhm….."

ZAAAAT!.!.!

The two vanished in a flash of green just as the consoles overloaded as 'Isomer' predicted and—

ZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZTTTT!

--filled the chambers of Phaser Labs with unbearably hot, searing bolts of murderous blue.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAAAAT!.!.!.!

The two reappeared across the street from Phaser Labs on the surface.

Lieutenant Smith and a handful of armed officers and soldiers jumped, gasping.

"Cyborg!…….who's this kid?"

Cyborg dizzily stumbled before leaning against Smith's support. "A life-saver…."

"L-Look!"

Cyborg and Smith gazed at Phaser Labs.

The entire building pulsed and flashed with a burning aura of blue.

ZZZZZZZZTT-ZZZZZZTTT!

Then….the fury stopped.

And the building lay still…cold…..

Steaming…..

Cyborg murmured: "…….finish the circle yourself, old man……"

"Huh?" Smith remarked.

Cyborg shook his head. "It's….nothing," he rubbed the human side of his head and sighed. "…..absolutely nothing."

"…………"

"Look….," one soldier pointed towards the green, spotlit sky. Pointing with her shaking hand. "It's growing brighter. Whatever it is…..it can't be good!"

"Oh….that….," the Messenger smiled drunkenly and waved a loose hand. His almond eyes thin. "Ehhh….it'll all be okay. Just relax…."

"Uhm…..how do you know that, exactly?"

"I'll get back to you in a sec." THWOMP! The Messenger fainted.

"Dude!" Cyborg gasped and scurried over. "The asian kid's down!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!

Supergirl soared….soared…..soared into the eye of the ion cannon.

The huge gun barrel opened and folded wide….like a blooming flower of black and green.

The bright emerald light flickered and shimmered the preluding spotlight to annihilation through the skirting figure of the Argosian.

VRIIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII!.!.!.!.!.!.!

Supergirl held her breath.

Hurtling.

Rocketing into the mouth of the cosmic demon.

And then and there…..

…..the green light short-circuited.

The cannon lagged in its unfolding.

The solar wings of the satellite twitched and sparked as the whole craft seemed to jostle in space.

Supergirl's blue eyes twitched….she fought the urge to gasp….to lose her last ounce of strength in that cold vacuum.

'Kara! Respond!'

"J'onn! What is happening? The satellite, it's—"

'It is faltering, I know! Someone, somewhere, has managed to dig into the digital defenses of the craft. She or he is buying us some time! This is all yours, Kara! Destroy that machine now! At all costs!'

Supergirl tightened her soaring body, raised both fists, and burned through the iciness of space as she plummeted into the flickering mouth of the cannon.

"Today………Kara dies………"

Her eyes burned a bright amber-red.

"………and Supergirl is reborn……"

She managed a smile as an impromptu thought flew happily into her suffocated soul.

"………Supergirl…………a Titan……"

SWOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOSH-SMASSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!

Supergirl's body burst through the length of the craft.

Shredding it apart hotly from the inside.

Exploding it in lengthy sequence like a twirling, orbiting fire wyrm.

KA-POWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!

The cannon pulsed, exploded in on itself, and sent a shockwave surging across the lengths of space.

PHWOOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOOOM!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lex Luthor bolted up in his office in Metropolis.

"………!.!.!"

He gasped.

His eyes twitched.

Partially in shock.

Partially in relief.

As all data information from his beloved ion cannon…..

……..ceased to exist.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the City.

The Crunch.

TWNNNG!

TWNNNNNG!

Green Arrow was firing arrows at golems.

A line of wildebeests stormed past Black Canary as she finished thrashing a hummer-full of thugs.

And suddenly…..like a lifting blanket….

The spotlight of glowing green faded from the red night sky.

The League members paused with a gasp and looked straight up towards the heavens.

Gasping.

Some smiling…

Under the echo of distant soldiers' cheers and whoops.

Wonder Woman managed a nervous smile. She gazed past a concentrated, eye-glowing Martian Manhunter and glanced at Batman and Superman.

The Dark Knight steadily supported the weight of the bruised and weakened Kryptonian.

The Man of Steel's eyes remained fixed on the heavens.

Panting…panting….panting…..Superman gulped and said a silent prayer….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZZZZT!

The data pad in Dagger's one hand short-circuited.

The despot's eyes widened.

"What……What?.?.?" He suddenly seethed. Not so much in passion…as it was numbing shock. His weary, blood-lost eyes narrowed. He sweated all over and shook the data pad.

But the data from the satellite failed to string through.

Dagger panted.

Gulping a dry mouth.

"…..that is not possible…."

He gazed up.

Shaking.

Wobbling—even against the stairwell.

"Wayne Enterprises? The International Defense System? H.I.V.E? Dr. Fate?"

Silence.

Dagger reeled…..but the lack of functioning ion cannons wasn't the reason why.

But….suddenly something else.

A crumbling…….

A burning sensation………

A pulsing aura of white shimmering throughout the war-torn City……

Dagger panted…..panted…panted…

He hobbled towards the rooftop edge of the skyscraper he was on.

He approached the ledge.

He stared over.

His icy eyes narrowed.

As he watched…

As he witnessed…..

As he felt……

Crumbling.

Burning.

Pulsing……………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx was the second one to feel it.

She was standing up and hobbling down the sidewalks of the City.

Rubbing her head of short-haired pink.

Groaning cutely.

Her cat eyes thinly opened at the sensation.

And she saw ashes around her…..

Crumbled bits of golem parts….

Bursting into fiery embers—FLASH!—and puffing out of existence as soon as they started.

Jinx gasped.

Her hex-sensitive eyes flickered a strong pink.

Her lips quivered.

"It's…….her……"

…….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of Phaser Labs….

Cyborg, Lieutenant Smith, and a thin crowd of soldiers and officers marched a sluggish convoy south towards the heat of battle.

Cyborg held an unconscious Messenger draped across his arms.

He gazed aside….scuffed, burnt, and bruised.

His lips pursed at the site of various golem bits on the streets and sidewalks burning brightly for half a second…then fading away into smoke and white mist.

Smith and his fellow officers gasped.

The soldiers murmured in mixed astonishment and curiosity.

Cyborg blinked….

In his arms, the Messenger slowly came to. His almond eyes thinly caught the white pulses of golem pieces in his peripheral vision.

"…….."

And the Asian teen smiled. A victorious….knowing smile……

And he closed his eyes again….exhaling….

Head tilted back to face the red sky….the universe….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Crunch.

Soldiers, Wildebeests, artillerymen everywhere were firing at Dagger's thermalkinetic army.

General Calvin shouted from where he stood.

Pointing and hollering.

The army surged and surged and surged.

And suddenly…..

………………….stopped.

"…….."

"……."

"……."

Soldiers and League members and Wildebeests alike all froze and gawked.

For the golems were no longer fighting.

Were no longer struggling.

The rocky, burning monsters merely stood in place.

Numb.

Motionless.

Flickering….fluctuating…..

……………………….

And suddenly….

The golems twitched.

And the golems pulsed.

And the golems all flared a fiery pulse of white-hot-fire as one.

PHWOOOOOOMBBB!.!.!.!.!

Limbs flailed.

Crowns tilted back.

And they roared and rumbled all in one accord as if they all suddenly and inevitably expected this humongous, all-permeating rapture of flame.

CRKKKK-KKKK-KKKK!

CRKKKKKK!

CRKKKKK!

Glowing. Glowing. GLOWING. GLOWING!

FLAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAASSSSSH!.!.!.!

The allied combatants shielded their eyes.

The soldiers.

The artillerymen.

General Calvin and his subordinates.

The Wildebeests with their glinting crowns of silver.

Catwoman, perched on a lofty building ledge.

Black Canary and Green Arrow, side by side.

Henry Irons.

The Flash.

Wonder Woman…John Stewart.

Superman and Batman.

Only Martian Manhunter remained impervious….as if somehow expecting all of this.

Or taking everything in stride….

As the golems pulsed.

The golems burned.

The golems twitched and boiled……..and extinguished.

Everywhere.

FLASH!

FLASSSH!

FL-FLASSSSH!

CRRRRRRKKK-CRKKKKKKKKKKK!.!.!.!.!-----CRAAAAAAACK!

PHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!

Gold, yellow, white ash flew up into the sky and turned into billowing, ivory-pale steam as the golems all puffed out as one and crumbled into worthless crags of rock.

Wildebeests cheered. Jumping up and down. Grunting and snorting war cries.

The soldiers raised their weapons and whooped and hollered.

A few stood up tall atop tanks, shouting and pumping their arms in the air.

The Flash gave in and let out a shout or two, as did Green Arrow and Black Canary.

General Calvin let loose an unbelieving—but relieved smile.

For all of the golems were gone in a blink.

And the scraggly, skeleton-thin companies of Dagger's vehicular terrorist stood suddenly alone…overwhelmed…..

And dead under the military gun.

BL-BLAM!

BLAM!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

P-POW!

POWWWW!

Dagger's army…..was defeated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And Dagger saw it.

Standing.

Panting.

Numb and bleeding atop the building ledge.

He stared out from the rooftop and saw the streets throbbing and pulsing all around him in a bright gold before suddenly fading to black as the rocky monsters magically, simultaneously extinguished.

The thermalkinetic punch in his fury had toppled as quickly as the ion cannon.

Dagger shuddered.

For he suddenly….hellishly knew why.

His icy eyes tilted up…..up…..up….

….and lingered coldly on the highest summit of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kobayashi Tower.

Rising from the concrete-thick feet……

Up the steel and iron supports…..

Winding around the darkly-sleek body of glass and metal…..

Soaring up past the higher levels…

The ziggurat-like-progression of tiers hugging tighter and tighter to the building's center….

Higher and higher into the red vapors of the sky…

Towards the top of the steeping stalk…..

Rounding out the sleek and curved roof of cracked glass….

The white, ivory-pale satellite dishes…..

……

On top of the bleeding Earth, Terra stood.

Her arms outstretched.

Her face, her body, her skin and limbs stretched to the burning point.

With eyes of burning gold and white.

And teeth dancing with bolts of Construction power.

She spread her arms out towards her essences.

Her burning 'children' spread throughout the labyrinth of the City battle.

The shores…the metropolis…the Crunch.

And she put each and every one of them asleep.

With the outstretched wave of her hands…..

Surging with so much power, that tears ran hotly down her cheeks and sizzled to white steam at her jawline.

And she panted…panted…panted…

Throbbing with intense, White energy.

Silencing the madness….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several stories below….

Perched against the steep, sloping glass of the obsidian Tower…

Changeling panted….

Bleeding and sweating in the cold, December wind.

From far below, he saw the burning gold body of Terra.

Like a hot-white statue against the redness of the tortured City's sky.

And in her flaming immensity….her goddesslike presence…..she looked and felt suddenly more real to the beast boy than ever before.

And the voice escaped his throat before he ever dared silence it. "Terra…….," Garfield gulped. A tear shedding loose. "You are so very…….alive……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………….," Dagger stared. His jaw clenched shut.

He took a deep…knowing breath….

And murmured.

"So……she is whole…….."

Silence.

The red night…..descending…

Chilling, finally…..in a sudden slice of peace.

The despot further whispered: "….Black Eyes. He stole her from stone."

………..

"Then the Trinity is half-way complete."

Fwoooosh--

"……..?"

Fwooooosh!--

Dagger turned.

He looked up towards the side—

FWOOOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!.! I plummeted towards him from an adjacent builingtop.

Snarling mutely.

Myrkblade slicing through the air and aimed squarely at the despot's head.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!.!.!.!

SLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!

Dagger stepped back, whipped his one good hand into his jacket, pulled out a thick blade, twirled it, and—

CLANKKKKK!

SPLASSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!

Black smoke fountained and splashed all around us.

Our exploding impact sent us sliding…sliding…..sliding towards the edge of the building top.

I leaned into him.

He leaned into me.

Myrkblade smoking against his expertly-flimsy blade.

Grinding sparks.

SWISSSSSSH!

I gnashed my teeth in his face.

DIE!.!.!.!.!

"Nnnnnng-RAAAAUGH!" He screamed and lifted us both up and off the rooftop as---

THWOOSH-THWOOSH!

--we toppled together as one over the edge of the skyscraper.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The terrorist gunmen of Dagger were fleeing.

Jumping into whatever hummer or jeep that they could and burning northward through the streets.

Screaming and shouting and cussing in horror…desperation….the adrenaline of flight.

And everywhere, Wildebeests stampeded after them.

Soldiers stood in phalanxes and fired waves of hot, burning lead.

Tanks rolled after and fired exploding shells.

The Flash, Steel, and Catwoman sped after the stragglers….

….putting painfully to sleep the last of Dagger's invasionary force.

Over asphalt stretches of crumbled and dead golem parts.

….

….

…

In the sidelines.

Sheltered behind rubble and cold debris….

Jericho came out of hiding.

He panted…panted…panted…

Eyeing the flight of the ill-fated Daggerites……

A little bruised and worn from his last-minute, incorporeal leap from the exploding HIND and its payload…..

He gazed all around at the dwindling chaos.

The rubble and debris and damage that loomed about…..

He took a shuddering breath.

His mute face long.

As if things remained horrifically unfinished.

"……."

So he glanced around with desperate, green eyes.

And he found a pistol in a dead terrorist's cold hands.

Jericho bit his lip.

He scurried over, pried the pistol loose, and awkwardly held it in trembling hands.

He gazed north….checked to see if any enemies could see him….

….and ran through the cold and echoingly-empty side streets.

Alone.

….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VRMMMMMM!

"Come on! Floor it! Floor it!" a passenger panted in a Daggerite jeep. The first in a procession of fleeing terrorists.

"Shit! They're gaining on us, man!"

"Can't this thing go any faster!"

"Shut up! All of you! Shut up!" a panicky driver gripped tightly—coldly to the steering wheel. Solid straight hours of endless conflict—only to lose suddenly with the fall of the golems—drained the sanity out of each and every one of them. "We gotta make like the wind! We're gonna ditch these wheels at the North District….hike it through the woods…and meet up in Bludhaven…"

"Bludhaven?.!.?.!"

"It's the only frickin' way!"

"I'm not going there!" one passenger in the rear of the jeep hyperventilated. "This isn't what Dagger promised us! This isn't—"

SPLORCCH!

His head suddenly exploded.

The others—sprayed with red—shrieked.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?.?.!.!"

The driver gasped…barely controlling his vehicle as his panicked grip made it swerve side to side. "What in God's name--?"

SP-SPLORCH!I

Another passenger's skull exploded.

"AAAAAH!" A third man screamed….simply screamed. "AAAAAH! AAAAAAAH!" He jumped madly out of the jeep.

"Hey! Get back here!" the driver panted. Hyperventilated. "DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IN THIS SHITHO—"

SPLORCCH!

His head exploded in turn…from bulletfire.

SCREEEEECH! The jeep blindly swerved, toppled over, and slammed into a lamppost. CRUNCH! POW!.!.! It exploded.

Billowing flames.

Silence….

Then…..

TH-THWISSH!

Pulsade uncloaked in mid-leap from a building ledge above. She landed—now visible—in a crouch in the middle of the street.

She took aim with her barrel-smoking sniper rifle and squinted down the line of sight towards the next vehicle in the convoy of frantically escaping Daggerites on the northern trail.

"Bloody….Sunday….Drivers….," she hissed through clenched teeth and pulled at the trigger. "Everyone sit tight and die!"

THIFFT!

PFIFFT!

TH-THIFFT!

Sniper fire took out the heads of the passengers first.

One by one, their heads exploded.

The driver gasped and crouched low, pressing hard on the gas and zooming directly towards Pulsade like a missile.

The blonde assassin squinted her eye again, aimed, and—

CLICK!

"…………," her eyes widened.

CLICK!-CLICK!-CLICK!

VRMMMMMMM!

The jeep bore down on her.

"Nnnngh!" She tossed her sniper rifle sloppily away, reached back, unsheathed her shotgun, pumped it, and fired—BLAM!

CL-CLANK! The shot sprayed off the hood of the incoming jeep.

Pulsade sneered. Jerk-pumped the shotgun in one arm, aimed with both, and—BLAM!

CLANK! The grill of the jeep again absorbed the shot.

Pulsade marched boldly forward, jerk-pumped, and fired—BLAM!

CLANK! VRMMMMMMMM-MMMM! The headlights glared and illuminated her figure as the jeep hurtled into her.

"YOU AREN'T BLOOMIN' GOIN' ANYWHERE, TERRORIST SODS!.!.!.!" Pulsade yelled, jerk-pumped the shotgun one last time, and aimed—screaming—at the front left tire of the jeep as it was screaming within ten feet of her—

BLAM!.!.!.!

POWW! The tire exploded. The jeep careened forward, upturned, and flipped in a huge vault that sent the vehicle leaping last-second over the blonde assassin.

TH-TH-TH-THWPPP!

In slow-motion, Pulsade gasped and stared up at the hunk of metal hurtling over her.

TWHOOOOOSH-SMASSSH! The vehicle slammed into a building front…collapsing and exploding. BOOOM!.!.!.!

Pulsade shuddered.

VRMMMMMMM!.!.!.!

"…..!.!.!"

She spun about.

A hummer bore down on her.

VRMMMMMMMM-MMMMM!

Pulsade dropped the shotgun and stretched one palm flat-out towards the vehicle. FLASSSSH!.!.!.! She shot out a shimmering, concentratedly-thin stream of light straight at the driver's eyes.

"Aaaaugh!" The terrorist inside the vehicle screamed and covered his burning, bleeding optics.

Pulsade gritted her teeth. Shimmering the supernatural light with one hand….reaching to her belt and pulling out a pair of grenades in the other.

Cl-Clank!

VRMMMMMM! The light-torched hummer full of escaping Daggerites was upon her.

"AAAAAA-AAAAH!" she screamed and tossed the grenades forward at the last second.

CR-CRASSSH! They shattered through the windshield and—

BOOOM!.!.!.!

The Hummer burst into flames, toppled over, and hurled in a wall of plasma towards Pulsade.

The Briton gasped, shielded herself, and—

SWOOOOOOOOSSSH!

PHOOOOOM!.!.!.!

The wave of burning-hot metal swept into her prone body.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!

Dagger and I soared through thin-air off the rooftop of the skyscraper.

My body entangled with his.

Twirling.

Plunging.

Myrkblade against his knife.

Somehow—in mid fall—he grappled me in a textbook way that upended our bodies and force me to fall forward towards the earth first…in his place.

I shuddered and fought for weighted dominance.

Dagger won over. Angling his body against mind. Using against me every flickering pulse of murk I could muster to glide us down with my body first first….

…until soon I realized that we were about to slam into another skyscraper building….and my vertebrae would be the first thing to kiss the rock-hard rooftop.

So I gritted my a curtain of murk that slowed my descent and eased my slamming-into-the-building-top.

Which—of course—managed to help Dagger survive as well.

FLASSSH!

We landed with murk surging all around like a reverse fountain.

Dagger kicked off me with his agile feet. "Nnngh!"

THWAP!.!.!

I slammed into the rooftop.

TH-TH-THWOOOSH! He flipped through the air.

FLASH! I vaulted up to my feet with a pulse of murk. TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade, snarled, spun around, and blurred towards his figure….

….right as he landed upright with his one hand twirling the knife out—

CLACKKK!

Sparks flew from our impact.

Murk-laden wood against thin serrated metal.

My seething face against his calm…sweaty gaze.

But his eyes…

The iciness had melted.

And then I glanced down.

And then I noticed…

…his one-handed defense.

Holy shit…

He's missing a hand.

……

Welcome to the club.

TH-THWOMP! Regardless, he shoved hard against me.

I slid back…..

….Wincing.

Th-Th-Thwish! He twirled his knife and struck a pose….for the better bleeding part of him. Struggling to remain balanced….on top of himself….he hissed: "We meet again….as ever again, Jordan. And as always—one of us is in possession of the upper hand. For a manner of speaking…."

Anyone else talking would have smiled.

But he is a statue as always.

I hate him, Ana.

I hate him so much.

TH-THWOOSH! I twirled Myrkblade and aimed it at him….

….smoke leaking off the serrated tip.

As I glared….glared….

Through my sweat-stained shades.

At the despot.

"I'm always having to even the playing field….aren't I?" Dagger murmured. His stub of a left arm dangled as he twirled the knife higher along his body. "Never the matter. I may have lost the City, Jordan. And I may have lost Terra. But my life is one thing and one thing only. A victory. No matter who dies this day, Jordan. No matter what sacrifices are made….I….have won. It is a constant….neverending victory. I see that all the time. Why can't you?"

I merely glared at him.

Smoke cascading out of my black eyes.

As I sneered…..

Tonight……

Tonight, you die, Dagger……

And the god damn circle dies with you too.

So help me……

"The victory here……," Dagger gazed steadily at me. And suddenly, he twirled the blade into the sleeve of his right hand. "…..is that I get to test you further…."

I raised an eyebrow. He's suddenly defenseless. But I dared not attack him. I knew better than that with Dagger….I knew better than to take a blind opportunity.

What the Hell does he have planned now?

He reached with his one hand into his pocket.

"The Experiment never ended, Jordan. The fact that this City is lost to me proves my theories. Terra's existence. Red Aviary's existence. They both point to you and only you, Jordan. Who could deny—when the facts are read—that the Black Eyes are responsible for White and Red still lingering in this pathetic…war-torn world….?"

I gritted my teeth.

Jesus……

Not with this garbage again.

But I couldn't deny the pain inside of me.

Stabbing inside out.

My panting….

My panting………

"Slade would never have come back…..hadn't your sudden spirit of Destruction filled him with a bloodlust to defy Death and return."

Stop it………

"And all of this death and killing….all the pain that happened to your friends….every edge of Red Aviary I've ever used to get as murderously far as I did tonight……would not have happened if it weren't for the actions of the Equalizer that stands here before me….."

Shut……-

-……the tap-dancing Hell……-

-……UP!

His hand reached into his pocket……and pulled out a vial.

A gold-white, glowing vial.

A breath escaped me.

I squinted at the syringe.

Wait……

Isn't that---?

"The Experiment is improving better than I could have expected…," Dagger murmured. "Further than the Master of yours could have ever prevented."

I froze inside.

"….and ever onward towards the Obsidian Trinity……as the Experiment's Founder has predicted."

"…………"

My onyx eyes were on the vial.

What………

………is he going to do with that?

"I need to tear these hypotheses apart…..as my final duty this burning night…..," Dagger stood back and popped the syringe's rubber top free with a thumb. "….and then you won't be seeing me for a long…..long time, Jordan. Wouldn't that make you…..happy?"

I bit my lip.

I suddenly have no honest-to-God clue anymore……

His icy eyes narrowed. "Here I have the last essence of Terra. The only piece of solid Construction still contained in my arsenal."

I gasped.

No.

You wouldn't………!

He aimed the syringe squarely at his inner elbow.

"Come, Jordan. Let's see how truly far along you are…"

SWOOOSH! He stabbed it into himself.

I gritted my teeth and blurred at him, black arm outstretched.

No!.!.!

FLASSSSH! His pricked/stabbed body pulsed a bright white.

I was blown back by a solid wave of construction.

Gasping….

Twitching….

Something flickered in the corner of my optics.

I strained to look at him.

Blinded….

The white haze faded.

And there Dagger stood.

As icy and evil as ever.

Only…..

His cornea and irises melted together into a strobing color.

No……not pink hex this time.

Gold-white.

But still…………

That friggin' cheater……!

It's Full Circle all over again.

"Just evening the score, Jordan……it'll always amount to this….," Dagger said as he struck a one handed pose. He twirled the knife….which suddenly pulsed a hot-white mist.

Like….

……Choral.

"Come now……kill me."

"…………………………………."

….

CHIIIIIING!.!.!

AAAAAAAAAAAH!

I surged at him.

Blurring.

Trailing black smoke as intensely and as furiously as I could through my blade.

SLASSSSSSSSSSSH!

Dagger coiled up. "Nnnnnnngh---" Twirled his mist-trailing blade—and shot it forward in a blinding blast of white. FLASSSSH! "—RAAAAAUGH!"

The ivory stream divided the rooftop in two.

I stumbled forward….searing all over from the platinum fire.

Dagger blurred towards me. Trailing mist. Exploding into me with a slamming shoulder.

WHAMMM!

I flew and stumbled back…sliding to the building's edge.

Teetering….

G-God……!

My black eyes pulsed.

My body froze over.

White heat mixing with red col.

Shuddering….

"Nnnnngh!"

I looked up.

Refocused.

And got a fist-full-of-Dagger.

SWOOOOOSH-SLASSSSH!

The flimsy knife tore at me.

And only with a field of black did I sustain the strike of synthetic, Terra Construction.

It plowed into me and soared the two of us—like a reoccurring comet—off the edge of the building and twirling towards a broad warehouse rooftop beyond.

TH-TH-TH-THWOOOOOOOSH!

….

….

….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…..

…..

…..

"Snkkkt-HCkkk….clik-clik-clik….."

And at that same time….

As the ion cannon died.

As the golems faded from Terra's power.

"………" Robin found himself staring across the commercial building top at Slade.

"Hck…..clik-clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkt…." Deathstroke stood several meters away from Robin. Gripping his red blade. Exhaling vapors of red mist. Cold…steady….still. "Clik-Clik-Snkkkt…..hckkkkk……."

"…………………."

"Snkkkt….hckkk……"

Robin jerked his hand aside.

Never taking his masked eyes off of Slade.

Snkkkt! His bo-staff extended.

"Clik-Clik-Snkkkt…..," Deathstroke's one red eye narrowed its pulsing glare. He dragged his two-edge-sword up—CHIIII-IIII-IIIING!—and aimed it out towards Robin's figure. Shadowed by the criss-crossing metal intestines of the radio antenna overhead. "…..exacttttly as I wanttttt it—Snkkkt---Tim…….justttt you…..and me……."

"………," Robin glared and held his staff up high. "Funny….that's exactly the way I want it too."

"Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt….."

"………."

……..

FWOOOOOOOSSSH!

Deathstroke blurred forward.

"Nnnngh!" Robin ran forward.

SW-SW-SW-SWOOSSH!

Th-Th-Th-Thwisssh!

SW-SW-SW-SWOOSH-SLAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Th-Th-Th-Thwisssh-THOOOSH!

Deathstroke met Robin.

Robin met Deathstroke.

Red blade and metal bo-staff.

Colliding.

CLAAA-AAAAANG!

Sparking.

SKKKKRKKKKKKK!

Exploding in red vapor.

FLASSSSSSH!.!.!