FIC: Faith Wayne (16/?)
Metropolis
Superman zig and zagged through the city's looming skyscrapers, telescopic vision searching for any trouble and concentrated on listening for shouts for help even as he struggled to find a pattern to the mysterious plague of natural disasters. Another part of his mind was considering his best friend and his new daughter. He was glad for his friend, but worried that his new contentment might seep into his crime-fighting and cause him to lose that edge that had made him so awed and feared throughout the criminal underworld.
Superman sighed as he flew under a tunnel. It seemed he and those he cared for were fated to never fully enjoy life, that there would always be down-sides to their triumphs, worries to taint their victories.
Suddenly he chuckled. He sounded more human than he'd ever realised.
He'd barely exited the tunnel and begun to regain altitude when scorching pain blazed through his head, tearing his senses from him. The wind whistled around him as he plunged to the ground.
And then he hit it, the tarmac cracking under him, creating a crater-sized hole. Superman leapt up, unshaken by his fall but his head still ringing from the attack. His eyes widened as he recognised the red-skinned mastodon with a webbed fin on top of his head and a third eye in the middle of his forehead advancing on him. "Despero," he growled.
Gotham City
Batman stalked through Gotham's shadowy alleys, as always careful to lurk in the darkness, ready to leap out on any unsuspecting criminal. Then some instinct had him falling onto the dirty ground and forward rolling into a crouch behind some trash cans even as brick chipped level with where his head had been.
A throaty chuckle greeted his escape. "Tactics dictated I had to take the shot, but I'm so glad you ducked it." Batman glanced through the trash cans to see a figure dropping from the roof opposite him, his heart dropping as he recognised the assassin's half-orange, half-blue mask and blue costume with orange gloves and boots, his tautly muscled torso criss-crossed with bandoliers of bullets, and an as yet sheathed broadsword buckled to his waist. "The chance to try myself against the Bat, well it's exhilarating."
Batman squared his jaw. Yes it could only be Deathstroke….
Fawcett City
Captain Marvel flew through the city, noting the way his home city's air seemed to hum with tension. Just what was happening?
"Ahhhh!" Blind instinct had him shielding himself a split-second after the blazing heat engulfed him. Pain blazed through him as he fell, not even the chill of recognising his attacker enough to force away the pain of Cyborg Superman's heat vision.
Star City
Green Arrow crouched on the rooftop, peering over the edge to check out the busy streets. His back prickled uneasily prompting him to spin around, heart dropping as he recognised the towering mastodon stood watching him at the roof's far end, the man's face concealed by a black and white mask, his hulking-muscled physique clothed in a black singlet and matching trousers. Green Arrow felt a shiver run through him as he rose and glared at the monstrous man. "Bane."
"The same," Bane rumbled. "I've some pleasure to finish with the Bat's pretty little child, but first business, namely your butchering."
Metropolis
Wonder Woman was naught but a blur as she flew through the city, the air around her parting before her inexorable progress as she raced towards the now smouldering Stryker Island Penitentiary. Suddenly her flight was reversed when she crashed into a yellow shield with enough force to fling her backwards and through a twelfth floor window. Glass flew everywhere as she hit the carpet and rolled up to face the figure flying towards her.
Detroit
Martian Manhunter shook his head as he continued to fly through the derelict, depression-stained city that had once been the automobile and music capital of America. His physic abilities made him more sensitive to the coming troubles than other heroes who had only the facts to rely on and what he felt made him quake inside.
His eyes widened as he sensed a very alien, very powerful presence nearby. Even as he sent out an urgent message for assistance, he dived towards the malign presence, teeth baring as he recognised the gigantic, yellow-skinned figure carelessly blasting cars and buildings with the energy weapon mounted on his barrel chest. "Mongul."
This would not be an easy battle.
Metropolis
Despero charged him, heedlessly knocking speeding cars out of the way like they were little more than toys. Superman's eyes widened when a gallant fire-fighter drove his engine directly at the rampaging alien, only for the vehicle to bounce off the monster's shoulder like a high school running-back off a NFL linebacker.
Rage burnt through Superman's veins as he charged to meet the alien, ducking under a straight right only to catch a jarring left hook to the jaw. The punch had enough force to rip a normal human's head off their shoulders, but didn't even knock him back a step, his own fists pounding out a rhythm on the alien's belly.
Superman saw another hook speeding towards him, blocked it on his forearm, then grabbed the alien's thigh-thick forearm at the wrist and elbow, and tried to leverage his attacker to the ground. The moment Despero was forced onto one knee, pain exploded in Superman's head, forcing him to release his grip as he staggered backwards. Despero laughed as he drove a side thrust-kick into Superman's midsection. Air gusted out of his lungs as he was lifted from his feet and flung into a lamppost twenty feet behind, tearing it out of the concrete. Superman caught the lamppost in his hand as he fell into a crouch, and swung it at his merciless rival's head.
Despero staggered as the post smashed against his head but kept on coming. Superman dropped his makeshift weapon and jumped forward, catching his fellow alien with a swinging uppercut even as Despero caught him with a hook to the jaw.
Superman stumbled, the blow's force knocking him back a step. Despero's knee swung up at his gut, Superman looped his arm under the knee and pulled up. Despero dropped onto his back, the tarmac cracking with the collision's impact. Superman stepped forward, but as fast as he was, Despero still managed to catch him with a double heel to the gut.
Pain exploded in his belly as he reeled backwards, giving his adversary time to leap up and begin a blistering barrage of blows, some that he managed to block on his arms others he managed to slip inside or outside of, but too many that caught him, exploding off his frame.
Finally Superman fell to a knee, Despero hovering over him. Despair flooded him, making him shake with terror at this unbeatable monster beating him down.
Rage flooded through him as he realised it wasn't enough for Despero to break him with his fists, he had to break him mentally. He surged up, catching the bigger alien with a shoulder to the throat. The moment the alien stepped back a step, Superman slammed a heel in its gut, knocking the alien back another step.
A trio of Wildcat-taught and Kryptonian-powered jabs slammed into Despero's features. The red-skinned alien threw a retaliatory hook but Superman managed to duck under it and crash a right into his belly. Then the alien had a hand in his hair, pulling him down onto repeated knees into the face.
Dazed, Superman pushed his hands into the alien's thick torso and forced some distance between him and his rival. Then an uppercut crashed into his jaw, knocking him onto his back. Then blow after blow smashed into him, brutalising him.
Gotham City
Batman grabbed at the near-by trash can lids and flung them at the charging warrior. The mercenary slid in and out of the projectiles without missing a step, his grace extra-ordinary, finishing with a leap over the objects and at Batman, Batman coming up with a thudding brass-knuckled uppercut to Deathstroke's jaw.
At least that was the theory but somehow Deathstroke managed to twist away from his attack and bring up a high knee that he also somehow managed to slide away from. Deathstroke's teeth flashed in the stygian darkness as the assassin landed in a crouch beside him. "This is going to be fun."
Batman didn't respond, he was too busy throwing a karate chop that Deathstroke blocked on his shoulder, then somehow sidestepping a body shot, and ducking under an attempted elbow to the head. That was all it took to realise the killer's reflexes and skills were beyond even his.
Batman felt despair bite deep as he leapt into his rival, he had so much to live for now, a daughter to get to know, he wasn't going to die. His knee thrust up, pain exploding in his leg when Deathstroke deflected the blow with a karate chop to the thigh, but not his follow-up forearm to the face.
The two of them fell away from one another, rocked by their respective hurts. But then they sprang back at one another, like two rams eager to lock horns.
Batman went high, then changed to low, locking his arms around the assassin's waist and flung him backwards into the other wall even as the man drove a knee up into his chest and a karate chop down into his shoulder. Pain jarred through him, but Batman fought it off to rise, spring away from his rival, pull a pellet out of his utility belt and throw it to his adversary's feet.
Smoke gusted up, enveloping his rival as he darted forward, stepped behind the man and threw a backhand to the man's neck, meaning to frazzle his nerves. Then grunted as the man's hand came up and grabbed his forearm in a clasp of iron. "Nice try Batman," his grip still on Batman's arm, holding him in place, the assassin spun to face him and drove a knee into Batman's back.
The co-ordination and strength left Batman's legs plunging him to his knees, Batman rolled onto his back, grabbing the foot stomping down at his face, and twisting. The assassin let out a strangled groan as he stumbled backwards, Batman reaching up behind him to grab at the worn wall and pull himself back up, feeling returning to his lower limbs.
Deadstroke leaned away from his hastily drawn and flung Batarang before leaping at him with a thrust-heel kick that he sidestepped, his arm looping around the leg and yanking the man towards him. His other fist crashed into his rival's gut, and then the assassin had him in a front face-lock, darkness exploding before his eyes.
Fawcett City
Captain Marvel crashed into the flat roof of a six storey building with enough impact that he fell through it, timber and tiles showering him as he fell through each and every floor until crashing to the ground. "Aaaah," Captain Marvel had barely forced himself up to his knees, limbs shaking with the effort, when the wall to his left exploded, Cyborg Superman's arrival van-guarded by flying concrete. And then Cyborg Superman hit him with a battering ram's power, flinging him through the left wall, Cyborg Superman's fists pummelling him as the office block collapsed behind them, dust billowing up.
Captain Marvel crashed into the side of a parked car, the door denting under the impact. Captain Marvel fell onto his back, reached under the car, grabbed a hold, and flung the family sedan at his rampaging adversary then flew up into the air when Cyborg Superman palmed the vehicle and flung it back at him.
The two of them crashed together in mid-air, the air seeming to vibrate with the collision, Captain Marvel crashed a knee into Cyborg, the blow knocking his rival back a foot.
And then Cyborg Superman exploded a hook against his jaw, the blow's impact flinging him into and through an office's fourth floor wall. Even as he rose on slightly shaky legs, Cyborg's heat vision hit him, scorching every inch. Marvel ignored the blazing pain as he launched himself into the air, smashing into the cyborg and knocking him to the ground.
The cyborg bounced up and hit him with a barrage of blows that had him reeling, knocking him to the ground. Cyborg Superman snatched up a parked van and crashed it down on his head.
The impact drove him to his knees and before he could react the cyborg was driving the vehicle down again and again.
Star City
Green Arrow didn't even have to think, instinct taking over as he reached into his quiver and snatched out an arrow, flinging it at the charging behemoth. The massively-muscled villain swayed away from the flung projectile without pausing in his advance.
Bane was less than a foot away when Green Arrow launched himself into the air, his hands looping around the bigger man's head and pulling him down into a double knee to the chest. Bane just grunted as he rammed a rib-bruising left hook home.
Green Arrow gasped as he fell to the roof's gravel, the air leaving his body as he rolled away from Bane's stomping. His heart chilled as he realised how close to the roof's edge he was.
Metropolis
The moment she made her feet, Wonder Woman was blocking energy blast
after energy blast on her vambraces. The blows forced her back as her rival flew at her, her arms a blur as she parried the blows away, the blasts bouncing off into the walls and ceiling, one of the walls crashing down in a billowing cloud of dust.
And then the ceiling collapsed, burying her under the rubble.