"Roll call!" Red Hood yelled; the mission was nearly ready to go. He went down the list, making sure everybody that responded was actually there.

"Batman's here, I know that... Green Arrow?"

"I'm ready to go."

"Arsenal?"

"Good to go."

"Night- Nightwing? Who the hell is Nightwing?"

"Me." Batman turned to stare at Dick Grayson, and the two nodded to each other, differences resolved.

"Superman's on his way, Supergirl is with him... Deadshot?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

"Deathstroke?"

"Ready."

"Green Lantern?"

"Gotcha."

"Aquaman... you really sure you want to be here? There literally isn't a drop of water on Apokolips." Aquaman didn't bother responding, he just stepped onto the Watchtower's teleporter and left. "Hawkgirl and Hawkman?"

"We're here," Hawkgirl announced. Superman and Supergirl arrived, and the mission was ready to go. Batman stepped to the front of the room and took the podium, going over the mission plan.

"We enter Apokolips via the Mother Box attached to the Watchtower. There's no way of knowing exactly where we're going to land, seeing as there are no known maps of Apokolips. It is safe to assume that Nightweaver and Raven will be contained somewhere within or near Darkseid's main palace. Team One will consist of myself, Superman, Supergirl, and Green Lantern. Team Two will consist of Arsenal, Green Arrow, Red Hood, and Deathstroke. Team Three will consist of everybody else not placed into teams one or two. Now, Team One's job is going to be to distract and or defeat Darkseid, to prevent him from stopping the other teams. Team Three is going to do the same, but to Apokolips' main army. Team Two will handle the actual search and rescue portion of the operation. You have been chosen specifically because your abilities are solely yours, and not because of any magic or other outside force. No matter what Darkseid does, he cannot take them away from you. Keep that in mind. The leaders of the teams are to be democratically chosen; this will give us optimal power. Do what you have to do to get your jobs done. We launch in fifteen minutes." He stepped off of the podium, leaving the groups to themselves.

Red Hood, Arsenal, Green Arrow, and Deathstroke clustered together at the back of the room, talking to themselves.

"Who's leading us, guys?" Arsenal asked quickly, anxious to get going.

"I should," Green Arrow said, ignoring Deathstroke's glare. "Arsenal's my sidekick, and no offense to you two, but we don't know if we can trust you."

"I was one of the ones that helped get this whole thing together," Red Hood pointed out.

"I helped train the damn kid," Slade countered. "If anybody here wants him back, it's me. Not to mention I helped train you, Arrow, and as a result, your sidekick too."

"And, not to be a dick or anything, but I think you lead enough," Arsenal said almost sheepishly. "I don't want to, either. I'm not taking that responsibility."

"I'll do it if you won't," Jason said to Deathstroke.

"I'll do it," Deathstroke said, standing up and straightening himself out.

"So then what's the plan, big guy?" Arrow asked.

"I elect Batman leads our team," Superman said as soon as Team One got together.

"I do as well," Supergirl followed. Lantern nodded his approval, and Batman decided to explain his plan then and there.

"We'll start by getting rid of his palace itself. When we get it, we're going to need Hal to use his ring to create several nuclear missiles. He'll decimate the palace and hopefully injure Darkseid while Superman and Supergirl will either attack Darkseid personally or one of you will have to go and get our greatest weapon."

"You can't possibly mean...?" Superman asked, hesitating at the thought. Batman nodded and continued on.

"You don't have to if you think the risk is too great, but we will almost certainly win if we use it. Otherwise, I will handle Darkseid's personal guards while you three fight Darkseid. He shouldn't be able to hold all of you at bay at once. Superman and Supergirl, you'll most likely want to freeze his eyes with your breath. His Omega beams will take the both of you out easily without some kind of counter."

"It's time, people!" Red Hood yelled out. The Mother Box activated and opened up a boom tube to Apokolips appeared.

"I'll go and get him," Supergirl told Batman, speeding off towards the airlock and into deep space.

"Time to go," Batman said, being the first one through the portal, followed closely by Jason Todd and the rest of the crew.

Batman's entrance was greeted immediately with resistance; as he stepped through to the other side, an Apokoliptian rifle butted him in the face, sending him reeling, but the Dark Knight responded with a cluster of concussion grenades, scattering the squads directly in front of the boom tube and allowing his allies to follow him through. Team Three rushed through and took the fight to the Apokoliptians, pushing them back and fighting them to a standstill while Green Lantern launched his light construct nukes at Darkseid's palace. The first pierced the roof, sending the darkened bricks flying in all directions as explosion after explosion rocked the planet. He created several layers of shielding surrounding the heros, keeping them safe from the explosions.

"There wasn't any real uranium in there, so there shouldn't be any radiation. Just the explosion," Hal explained just before he dropped the shield and let the fighting continue on. A large portion of the Apokoliptian army had been destroyed, but the remaining forces kept on fighting against Team Three. Team One rushed towards the rubble; Superman reached Darkseid first, the vibrations from his punches felt even from their distance. Green Lantern grabbed Batman and the two flew to face the dark god.

Darkseid was on one knee, Superman's fist in his hand - he'd evidently caught one of the Man of Steel's punches before it could be delivered. He shot his Omega beams at the same moment Superman used his heat vision, the two lasers colliding in midair as they engaged in a battle of wills. Green Lantern interrupted it before anybody could win, smashing a light-construct jet into Darkseid's head and knocking him over. Superman took the opportunity to free himself from Darkseid's grip and started pounding on him with all his strength as Batman grabbed a hammer from one of Darkseid's Furies and smashed it into the side of her head, sending her to the ground and leaving him encircled by the rest. He dropped the hammer and moved into a defensive stance, taunting them to attack.

"Let's go! We've got to find them before Team One gets killed!" Deathstroke yelled, motioning for the rest of the team to follow him. Green Arrow and Arsenal ran past him into a lower floor in the palace, stopping on the other side, while Red Hood checked their backs to make sure they weren't being followed.

"There's got to be some kind of sign to lead us to the prison area," Arsenal pointed out.

"Yeah, and it'll be in Apokoliptian. They don't speak English, moron," Red Hood said, stating the obvious.

"Sorry. Just trying to speed this up." They came to a crossroads in the hallway, giving them three new directions to go in.

"You three check all of the passages. Return in two minutes. I'll stay here and watch your backs," Slade ordered. Red Hood ran off down the left hallway, Green Arrow went straight, and Arsenal took the right.

Jason yanked his pistols out of their holsters and turned the corner, aiming straight ahead.

Clear. Hope they're in here. He rounded the next corner to find four Apokoliptian soldiers huddled around a fire, cooking some kind of stew in a pot.

"Hey! Pay attention, you idiots!" He fired as fast as he could, draining both of his guns of ammo as he put the Apokoliptians down. He pushed the last one standing down as his blood began to pool at his feet, landing with a loud splat. He turned the final corner to see a pair of chains torn from the wall and a massive hole not too far from them.

Slimy bastard. The other's will follow me in a minute. Might as well go after them myself, he thought as he rushed out into the dust, making sure to leave deep footprints as he went.