Chapter 38

Bruce looked through every file directory on the Batcomputer. He was searching in vain to find any files on Apokolips Helena might have added to the computer. According to Richie, she had found out Lash and Brainiac's plan by having the Jor-El computer scan a piece of Brainiac that had been left behind. Richie had not been told much beyond the basics about what the plan was. Richie had flown Clark and Diana to the Fortress in a Tamaranean ship to see what was in its computer databases. Bruce couldn't wait for them to come back, though. He wanted to know what his daughter was up to right now and he was hoping the files she got out of Brainiac had been downloaded to the Batcomputer. They might reveal what she was up to.

Bruce found nothing on the computer and his blood started to boil over his failure. He felt responsible for what Helena was doing as he knew he was the one who had led her down this path. He lost control of the anger he was feeling and started punching out the controls of the computer. He greatly overextended himself and felt winded and tired. He collapsed on one knee as he caught his breath and started whimpering as he fought back tears.

Bruce felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. They rubbed them to try and comfort him. He felt the person kneel down next to him. "You're going to find a way to stop her," he heard Lois say. "Clark and Diana are going to find out what she is up to. You guys are going to be able to track her down. The three of you never fail."

Bruce wanted to yell at Lois that she was wrong. His daughter never failed, either. He didn't get the chance to answer Lois as they were interrupted by Olivia. "Richie has had his communication officers do everything they could to try and contact Maril and Rex. They are getting no reply. It is likely they are already in Apokolips."

Bruce didn't want to look weak in front of the others. He composed himself and stood. The Batcomputer alerted them to an incoming message. Bruce brought it up and Diana appeared on the screen.

"We know exactly where she is headed," Diana said. Clark appeared on the screen behind her. "We found a current map of Apokolips and it had the location of the doomsday machine. It is in Vunderbar's lair. If we can make it to Apokolips we can head there and stop Helena."

"There's only one Mother Box left on Earth, and I'm sure Helena found it," Bruce said.

"Helena probably left it behind," Diana told him. "She would have known if she failed, someone else would need to use it."

"Meet me at Star Labs," Bruce told her. "I can fly there in the Batwing."

Diana and Clark disappeared from view as Bruce shut down the feed. Bruce had to lean against the console as he had little strength. "Are you going to be able to make it there?" Lois asked him.

"I'll fly him there," Olivia replied.

Helena chugged along in the tank. On the road she had come across several work crews. She fired a couple warning shots to get them to move off the road and passed them as they watched the rogue tank in bewilderment. The news of the runaway tank was apparently getting around and a couple of gunships were flying alongside her. As long as they didn't bother her she had no intentions of bothering them.

She continued on the road and soon saw the metal frame of the Lash statue rising on the horizon. As she continued, the unfinished palace came into view as well. As she rolled right up to the construction zone she saw Lash flying around and directing the slaves that composed his construction crews. As she approached, he took notice of her and the gunships flying around her. He hovered above the ground and floated in her direction. The tank had a periscope and Helena looked at Lash through it. She could see him squint his eyes at her, and she knew he was using his X-ray vision to see who was inside the tank. She saw his face change and a look of recognition came over it.

"You're that little whelp I fought in the Fortress," he yelled at her. He was seething with anger at her and it was evident in his voice.

Helena looked around at all the slaves who were fixated by the staring contest Lash was having with the tank. By coming alone to face him, Helena was presenting him with a challenge. He was going to have to defeat her all alone in order to keep the fear factor he used to rule over his slaves. He was going to have to prove something to them with his confrontation with her.

"Come out, coward, face me," Lash yelled at her. "I'll kill you, eat your heart."

Helena continued observing him through the periscope. As she looked at him she thought of her father and everything he had taught her. He gave her the kind of training almost no other superhero had been given. He tried to prepare her for anything. She wondered if when he trained her he ever foresaw her doing something like this. She wondered if he ever saw her facing someone like Lash.

"Come on," Lash shouted at her. "You're boring me."

Helena pushed the periscope out of the way and prepared herself mentally for what she was about to do. Once she felt ready she grabbed a hold of the gun controls around her and used them to shoot herself out of the tank. The second she was free of the tank she was met by Lash as he flew and grabbed her. He flew to the ground in an attempt to pile drive her into it. She freed herself and leaped the great distance to the palace. The slaves all around her were running out of the way and seeking safety. She ducked into the palace to buy some time until Maril got the hellspore set.

Maril encountered no one as she flew over the desolate landscape of the defeated warlord's abandoned land. She found the entrance to the underground tunnels unguarded. She flew through it with the hellspore. She kept one hand on the bomb while with the other she lit a fire so she could see as she traveled through the tunnels.

Rex had his IED constructed. He mixed some dirt with his saliva to make mud and used the sticky substance to adhere the bomb to the door. He had a wire running out of the bomb attached to one of the gun triggers. He stood off to the side and pressed the trigger. The lock of the door blew off and Rex threw it open.

He ran through the door and through the complex to where he guessed the cells would be. He came across a few guards and knocked them all out. He ran into the main room to find a lone cell occupied by Vunderbar.

"I'll never do what you want me to do," Vunderbar immediately yelled at him.

Rex walked up to his cell so he could calmly talk to the imprisoned warlord. "I know you are attacking me like that because you're stuck thinking of me as your enemy. But you might want to look at your current situation and think about what is happening. You are imprisoned by a super-powered being who rules over your world. I broke into this prison for a reason. Now, you should be thinking I broke into this prison to get your help for defeating the warlord who imprisoned you."

Vundervar thought over what Rex said. "What do you need?" he asked.

"I need the protocols for activating a hellspore," Rex said to him. Vunderbar told him everything he needed to know.

"Maril, hon," he said into his comlink. "I have the information you need."

"Good, I just placed the hellspore under Vunderbar's lair."

"What are doing," Vunderbar shouted at him. "Are you going to destroy my lair? You said you were going after Lash. You lied to me."

Rex walked away so Vunderbar's tirade wouldn't bother him as he talked to his wife. He relayed all the information to Maril and she activated the bomb.

Helena stayed still in the palace. She knew Lash could use his x-ray vision and his super hearing to find where she was. He likely knew where she was and was thinking of the best way to attack her. She was willing to wait for him to make the first move.

She heard Maril's voice over her comlink. "I have the hellspore in place," Maril said to her. "I have the timer set for ten minutes and I'm starting it. . .now."

When she heard Maril say she started the bomb's countdown, Helena started her own countdown in her head so she would know exactly how much time she had. 600. . .599. . .598. . .

Bruce stayed silent as Olivia flew the Batwing. He couldn't stop thinking about how hopeless his situation was. Even if they did make it to Apokolips, none of them were in much of a condition to do anything. Finding Helena wasn't going to be easy, and they were going to contend with the whole army of Apokolips there.

Bruce felt the Batwing slow down and knew they were getting close to Metropolis. When the vehicle finally stopped he looked up and was shocked to find S.T.A.R. labs nearly destroyed. He jumped out of the Batwing right as the Thanagarian ship with the others landed.

Diana and Clark exited and immediately started looking for the Mother Box. It didn't take Clark long to announce he found something. Bruce ran over to where he was and found the vault that had been holding the Boom Tube. It was on the ground and busted open.

"It looks like it got blown out of the building when it was hit and opened up from the force of the impact when it hit the ground," Bruce informed the other two. There was no sign of the Mother Box. "The kids must have found the Box. If it was broken they would have taken it somewhere to get fixed. I know just where Helena would take it."

Bruce ran off without saying anything to anyone. He could hear and feel Olivia following him back to the Batwing. She jumped in right after him. He punched into the computer the coordinates she needed to fly to. She took off. Bruce didn't need to look back to know the others were right on their tail.

585. . .584. . .583. . .as Helena kept the countdown going in her head she started thinking about the message she had left her parents. Given the time they lost in order to repair the Mother Box, her parents would end up receiving the message before everything was over. It would be of little consequence as her parents would be unable to get here in time to stop her. Everything was set in motion and there was no turning back.

570. . .Lash came crashing through the wall and Helena was just barely able to roll out of his reach. She ran out of the room they were in fully expecting Lash to follow her. As she turned into the hallway he came crashing through the wall and she used his momentum to toss him through a couple more walls of the palace.

560. . .Helena ran through the holes Lash put in the walls and punched him right as he was righting himself. He went through a few more walls and emerged outside. Helena ran after him and jumped outside as he took off from the ground and started hovering above her.

550. . .549. . .548. . .Lash floated around as the two sized up each other. The area around them was bare as all of the slaves had abandoned the area. "You can walk away if you want to," Lash yelled at her. "I don't know what you think you are going to do to me."

540. . .539. . .Helena was glad that Brainiac was not able to figure out what she might be up to. She hated having to wait for him to make the first move in a situation like this. Being unable to fly while he could was a severe limitation for her.

531. . .530. . .Lash feinted in her direction and Helena responded to the expected attack that didn't come. Lash laughed at her. He made another feint and Helena once again moved back in response. He made another feint and Helena reacted once again. Lash kept a big grin on his face to indicate he was just taunting her, but Helena figured Brainiac was feeding him fight strategy. He was making these faints to try and figure out how she was responding to these attacks. She kept doing the same thing as she tried to think about how he would attack her.

500 . . .499. . .Helena had been watching him to see what he did when he feinted. As she watched him she saw the grin disappear on his face as it was replaced by a look of seriousness. She knew it meant he was about to attack her. When he lunged at her she figured he would anticipate her moving back and lunge for that spot. She countered this by rolling forward. He flew at her with such speed he couldn't stop himself and he drove himself into the ground.

474. . .473. . .Helena flipped over and landed in front of Lash. As he lifted his head up she punched him in the face a couple times. Instead of counterattacking he flew back and then right at her again. She tried to sidestep him, but she wasn't quick enough and he was able to wrap an arm around her waist. Together they flew towards the wall of the unfinished palace. Lash stopped just before they reached it so instead of flying through the wall they merely hit it. Lash landed two punches on Helena's face before she kicked him back.

460. . .459. . .Lash lunged at her again and she rolled along the wall out of his way. One of his punches had bent the metal on her helmet around her eye hole and she took it off and threw it away so she would have clear sight. Lash moved laterally to try and hit her, but she backed away and then kicked him into the palace.

447. . .Helena didn't follow Lash. Instead she jumped on top of the palace and started running towards the metal outline of the statue. She knew Lash would use his x-ray vision to find her and then come after her.

434. . .433. . .432. . .Helena could feel the vibrations as Lash flew through the walls beneath her to get to her. She made a quick halt and leaped back as he crashed through the roof and flew up into the sky.

428. . .427. . .Lash once again hovered above her. This time he didn't focus his attention so much on her as he did the palace, or what was left of it. The two of them had done a pretty good job of destroying the structure so that there wasn't much left standing. Helena wondered how angry he was about that and how much that might be fueling him now. If Lash was angry that was actually good for her. The angrier he was the more he would fight on emotion and the less he would listen to the rationality of Brainiac.

410. . .409. . .Helena was surprised when Lash calmly landed on the roof about twenty feet away from her. He suddenly appeared fuzzy to her and Helena knew instantly he was vibrating. She knew his plan was to get the unstable palace structure to vibrate until it collapsed. Helena thought about just simply running off the building and not playing his game, but she was afraid that might take her further away from the statue she hoped to use to trap him. She instead charged right at him, hoping to disrupt his plans to bring down the palace.

400. . .Helena could feel the palace vibrating as she ran up to him. Before she was even close he flew off and landed on another part of the palace. He increased the rate of his vibrations and it caused the palace to shake as if it was caught in an earthquake. Helena knew if she went after him again he would just avoid her the same way he had before. She now realized her best bet was to get off the palace and she ran full speed ahead to the edge.

389. . .388. . .The palace was shaking so much she had to concentrate as much as she could on running merely to keep from falling over. Because of that she didn't notice when Lash charged right at her. Before she could do anything he picked her up and threw her down on the palace roof. As he did this he tore her utility belt off her. When she hit the roof the palace collapsed as she plunged to the ground. She found herself buried under a huge pile of rubble weighing several tons.