Chapter 4: Incursion

It was easy for J'onn to ensure that Batman and Wonder Woman had some privacy. None of his staff in the control room even knew that Wonder Woman was there, so none of them would be guessing the true reason for him sending them all away on various unnecessary tasks any time soon. That meant that he alone was now in the control room and, with only the two of them down there in the teleporter area, that meant there were no eavesdroppers around. As for J'onn himself, he could easily chose not to listen. It was a simple task of giving his mind something else to focus on.

Someone else, to be more accurate.

That was why he took yet another moment to reach out to his wife. It didn't matter if it had only been a matter of minutes since he had last done so. It didn't matter if in that time her feelings were completely unchanged. He just liked to feel close to her.

However, his pleasant moment did not get to last as long as he hoped.

It turned out that stretching out telepathically was a big mistake. In doing so he had opened up his mind. That had never been a problem before. He had not expected it to be a problem now. It wasn't like there was a lot of active, adversarial telepaths out there to assault him, even if said enemy had known how to. Therefore he had not even considered the possibility that opening up his mind could be dangerous, let alone reject it.

He was wrong there. He was very wrong. The external mind – or minds – imposed upon his suddenly, forcefully. It came completely out of nowhere, so strongly that it took all of his effort to try and keep it at bay. However, that effort wasn't enough. This other mind was stronger than his, far stronger, almost like it was hundreds of minds in one. There was nothing he could do to keep them out. There was no way this outsider, whoever they were, could take control of his body, but that didn't mean that they couldn't hurt him, badly, knowingly or otherwise.

J'onn was suddenly regretting his timing. After dismissing his staff for Batman and Wonder Woman, he was up here alone. There was no one there to help him. There was no one there to see him through the pain. There was no one there to make sure he was all right.

What there certainly was was a whole lot of pain. It made the strongest of possible migraines pale in comparison. The effect of the external force on his mind didn't make his head feel like it was splitting in two, it made it feel like it was splitting into a thousand pieces, if not a million.

He tried to hold off the screams. He tried to maintain his control, to regain it. He tried to kick the external force out, or at least find out who they were and what they wanted.

He failed on all counts.

The yells were ceaseless as soon as they started, full of horrific amounts of hurt. J'onn could no longer even hold his eyes open, collapsing down to the deck in a rough crumple. All his muscles tensed through the incredible pain.

And it was a pain that didn't show any signs of stopping.

Flying, it didn't take them long to get back to the Watchtower's main chamber. It made it a lot easier to rise up to the elevated command area too. With the rate and way that J'onn was still screaming, it was a good job too. From the sound of things, he needed their help fast, and needed it badly.

Batman was throwing himself from Wonder Woman's grasp before she had even begun to set him down, landing on the metal with great pose and grace. However, Wonder Woman, for the first time since Batman had come back up to the Watchtower, was not looking at him. The sight of J'onn curled up on the floor and howling his head off in agony saw to that.

"J'onn!" she called out his name as she quickly landed and knelt down at the Martian's side. She knew that she was safe to do so. She knew that Batman would be checking the room, looking to see if there was any sign of someone else in there who was causing this. She also knew that that freed her up to focus on their friend in need.

She was hoping he would respond to her shout, that he would at least be able to tell her what was wrong with him. But she knew from the moment she saw J'onn like that that he was not about to be saying a word at any time in the immediate future.

"Hera, J'onn, what's wrong with you?" Diana softly said, voice full of concern. She wasn't really talking to anyone, it was just her way of voicing the fact that she didn't have a clue what to do. She was no doctor, especially no Martian doctor. Even if she was a physician, she doubted she would know how to help him. She was studying him, looking for any sign of what could be causing him so much harm but she could see nothing there. Whatever was hurting J'onn, there was no visible trace of it. Still, she dare not touch him. J'onn looked ready to thrash out, completely unaware of his surroundings, overtaken by the pain. Wonder Woman could probably take the hit, but it could well be best if she didn't interfere, not without knowing what she was doing.

"It must be a telepathic attack," Batman's voice broke her from her reverie over J'onn.

She quickly looked over to Bruce. He wasn't looking back at them. His attention was fully on the computer systems in the controller area, visibly working away. At least that meant that the area must be clear of any foes. Batman would not have put himself in the more vulnerable, less watchful position otherwise. Therefore, Wonder Woman would not have to waste time fighting the enemy before the efforts truly got underway to make sure J'onn was okay. The Martian was still howling in agony. Wonder Woman knew they had to find some way to ease his pain.

"Is there anything we can do to stop it?" she rather desperately asked Batman, urgency blatant in her tones.

"Unless you've developed even more powers in the last few months, the best if not only way will be to cut off the source," Batman answered her, his own voice remarkably under control given the state one of the few people he would call 'friend' was in. Of course, he did have to speak louder than normal to be heard over J'onn's endless howls of pain. "And I think I've found it."

Batman didn't need her to ask before he was hitting the buttons to put what he had found up on the screen in front of his station. Wonder Woman found herself reflexively standing at the sight of what was before her. What she was seeing was filling her with confusion, but she didn't get the chance to voice it. The suddenly arriving red blur saw to that.

"I heard the screaming!" Flash called out as he halted by Wonder Woman's side, immediately starting to take in what was going on around him. "What's up with the big guy? Is he oka... What the heck is that thing?"

Seeing what was on the screen cut Flash's question off. He may be immature at times but Wally West wasn't stupid. He would know that with both Batman and Wonder Woman already at J'onn's side then steps would already be being taken to help their still embroiled friend. He would know that if Batman and Wonder Woman were focusing on what was on that screen, then that would be where he would he would have to focus on too to best help save J'onn.

Wonder Woman quickly looked back from Flash to the screen. What she was seeing was hard to comprehend or understand. It certainly didn't look like something that could be causing the damage it was apparently doing to someone who was usually so tough. It was something out there in the emptiness of space, not something that Wonder Woman was as well versed in as the likes of Green Lantern and Shayera, but her eyes weren't deceiving her.

That thing out there didn't look solid. In fact, it looked like there was nothing really holding it together at all. It reminded Diana of a cloud, albeit a vast and angry one, and not one just made of evaporated water. It had a glow to it, a real vibrant energy pulsing out pure white light, so bright against the black backdrop of space. And it looked like it was close. It wasn't moving, but Wonder Woman, even without knowing what the thing was, was feeling that it was too close to the Watchtower for comfort. J'onn's ongoing enveloping agony was all the proof she needed of that.

"Now isn't the time to speculate unnecessarily, since I've never come across anything like it," Batman answered Flash over J'onn's continuing screams, though Wonder Woman could see that his fingers were still a blur over the keyboard. He was doing something, and from how the screen was unchanged she felt safe in guessing that whatever he was doing was intended to stop whatever that thing was doing to J'onn. However, she needed to hear out his answer before she could get in there and help him. "It seems to made almost entirely of energy. Its the size of a small city but it only has the mass of a few people. But whatever it is, its giving off a lot of telepathic readings, which means that its alive. Its almost like its a non-corporeal mind, which would explain why its latched onto J'onn. He's the closest of all of us to its kind of existence."

"So how do we unlatch it?" Wonder Woman quickly pressed Batman for answers. "Whatever its doing to J'onn doesn't seem to be healthy."

"It looks like a cloud," Flash commented before Batman could answer. "Can't we just blow it away?"

"That's not as simple as it sounds," Batman was quick to answer Flash, still working away on the console. "We have to make sure we direct it accurately. We have to make sure that we don't make it collapse. We've no idea how that "cloud" will react if it comes into contact with anyone, and it's close enough to the Earth as things are. Keeping it in one piece will make it easier to keep all of it away from the atmosphere; if it breaks it would be so simple for some of it to make its way to the billions below. But you're right, repulsing it is the only choice we have. I doubt we have the time to modify the equipment to cut the telepathic connection directly, and we don't know what effect doing so would have on J'onn. It might wound him even more than doing nothing. We need to push it away and make the increasing distance steadily weaken its connection to him."

"So how do we do that?" Wonder Woman stressed the question. Batman may already be implementing whatever plan his brilliant mind would have come up with, but that didn't mean that she was happy to just sit by and watch him work. She would be determined to help fight the aggressor back even if it wasn't so badly hurting her friend. With J'onn in so much pain, that determination was even stronger. As if to firm it up all the more, she glanced back down at the collapsed Martian, who was still writhing and screaming as much as ever, seemingly completely oblivious to everything the others in the room with him were doing.

"So long as you haven't been taking things apart up here in the last months, I installed a device on the Watchtower and its satellites for deflecting meteorites if they come too close to the Earth," Batman answered, still working away. His work clearly required his full, uninterrupted attention. After what he had said moments ago, Wonder Woman figured that what he was doing was very delicate.

"You been watching Armageddon much?" Flash muttered in a rush, but both Batman and Wonder Woman ignored the comment, Batman continuing on with his explanation before Flash had even finished talking.

"It was designed for solid objects, not this type of thing. I have to be incredibly careful targeting it so that we don't break it apart and threaten everyone's lives, J'onn's included. I have to keep the repulsor hitting what part of that cloud is solid, minimising all contact with the vastness of pure energy that makes it up. The problem is it seems to know what I'm trying to do. It's somehow shifting its state. It's moving its solid core around within itself quicker than I can adjust the controls."

"Sounds like you need a guy with lightning fingers," Flash jumped in again, only this time far more literally. Before Batman knew it Flash had moved the short distance to be right at his side. Wonder Woman knew that Flash was right; he could hit the buttons quicker than Batman could. The only potential problem would be if Flash knew what he was doing. No-one knew the Watchtower systems as well as Batman, even if he hadn't been aboard it for months. He had built the thing, after all. Twice.

"You know what you're doing?" Batman said that with a growl and a glare, somehow still hitting the right buttons despite looking away from the screens for a second. Flash's knees looked like caving under it, but his words did not sound that way.

"Sure, just point and click right? Come on, Bats, I can do it. J'onn needs me to do it."

"Fine," Batman growled, making a split second decision with J'onn's ongoing screams the signal that he had no time to think about it. He stepped back, allowing Flash to jump in and take the controls. He took a second to get going, but then he was soon taking over Batman's work hitting the buttons.

However, in just those few seconds of the change over, Wonder Woman could see that the cloud had jumped forwards, even closer to the Watchtower. She suddenly had the impression that Batman's efforts had been what had made it stationary before. He hadn't been able to drive it off due to his slower hands, but he had been keeping it at bay. She had noted earlier that the cloud looked angry. Now she was convinced that it was attempting to surge towards them, towards J'onn. She didn't want to think about what might happen if it reached him.

She was distracted as she watched Batman move over to a different one of the control rooms many consoles, booting it up in a second. Rapidly, she was at his side, still nothing she could do directly to help J'onn, whose screams were beginning to weaken but only because their endless nature meant he had less air in his lungs.

"What about you and me? What can we do?" she was asking even as Batman began to get to work again. She hated this almost helpless feeling that she had. This wasn't the kind of threat that she was in her prime fighting. She hated having to keep asking for information and instructions. But it was the hand they had been dealt, and she would be damned before she would stop fighting, whether it was in a way she liked or not.

"We guide the kid," Batman answered. "We watch the sensors for him so that he can focus on the controls. We tell him if a part is breaking free or breaking through. We tell him if the solid core is moving without his notice. We make sure Flash doesn't fail. We're his safety net to prevent anything from going wrong."

"Hey! Fastest man alive, here! I can cope with the buttons!" Flash shouted out, clearly not liking the implication that he may need such help, even if he didn't truly argue about getting it. Wonder Woman noticed just how fast his hands were moving just before she began her part in all of this. She wasn't too happy about her role essentially being observational, but it was all she could do. Batman had the sensor screens up as quickly as humanly possible. Then there was nothing else for it but for the two of them to watch over Flash's desperate attempts to save J'onn.

She lost all track of time as both she and Batman got to work. It was intense stuff. She knew that they couldn't afford to miss anything on that screen. Flash was doing a good job, the advantages of his speedy hands compared to Batman's in this situation blatant. However, it was also clear that he needed Batman and Wonder Woman helping him out. His hands were more suited to this than Batman's, but he didn't have the brain to cope with all the things he had to cope with keeping in check. Thankfully, with her and Bruce in place, he didn't need such a brain.

The three of them were working as a perfect team. Both Batman and Wonder Woman were barking out instructions to Flash, whenever they saw a part of that energy cloud trying to curve around Flash's efforts, or whenever a part of it seemed to be tearing loose from the rest. Flash was quick enough to be able to compensate for what they were telling him and keep up his efforts against the rest of the cloud all at the same time.

It was a good job that Wonder Woman didn't really sweat, otherwise she had the impression that buckets would be pouring off of her right now, despite the complete lack of physical effort on her part. J'onn was still screaming, and time was ticking away. She did not know how long he could continue to take this, how much longer he could stand the pain before permanent damage was done. She didn't know if such damage had been done already. That meant that the tension was unbearable, especially with how stubborn this cloud appeared to be.

"They sure don't take a hint, do they?" Flash shouted out, despite continuing working. Wonder Woman spotted the twitch of Batman's brow, knowing he felt like chastising Flash for talking when he should be completely concentrating on what he was doing. However, she also knew that Batman held it off so as not to cause even more distractions. Instead he merely blasted out more instructions for Flash, instructions were quickly followed.

At last, Wonder Woman saw the cloud begin to move back. At long last, they were starting to push it away. At long last, what they were doing was starting to work. Hitting the latest target Batman had identified with the repulsors had finally overcome the cloud's stubborn resilience. It had finally beaten through its defence and resistance. It was finally starting to push the cloud back. Slowly admittedly, very slowly, but it was the first sign that what they were doing was actually working.

The cloud didn't look too happy about it either. Even without the usual forms of expression on it, that much was clear. It flashed even brighter white, almost as if throwing even more energy into keeping the repulsor beams at bay, as if trying even harder to get beyond them and get to J'onn. As if to signify an added effort, J'onn's screams got even louder again. Whatever that cloud was, it was really starting to make Diana angry for what it was doing to her friend.

"Flash, there's a chunk trying to get over the top!" she called out as she spotted a chunk of the energy cloud attempting to sneak around Flash's efforts, voice displaying that anger.

"I've got it, I've got it!" Flash returned indeed hitting the buttons. The chunk Wonder Woman had spotted was forced back as Flash sent a blast of the repulsors its way. The chunk sunk back into the main body of the cloud like a petrified animal.

But, as Flash continued rapidly altering away at the repulsor controls, that wasn't it. The cloud was getting pushed further away. It was going back more and more, actually speeding up in its enforced retreat. It was virtually to the point were it was only taking up half as much of the screen as it had been before the start of all of their efforts against it. Most importantly though, J'onn's screaming was lessening too.

The plan was working. They were doing it.

But Wonder Woman should have learned her lesson from a few minutes ago. Plans could so easily go wrong, and they so often did when you least expected them too. Right now, unfortunately, proved to be no different.

"Flash, to the left! Bottom left! And there's another chunk coming middle right!" Wonder Woman hollered out yet another string of instructions. To her, it seemed that the cloud was getting desperate. They were forcing it away from J'onn. They were forcing it away from the Martian it seemed so desperate to take hold off, forcing it to stop hurting him, whether that was a deliberate act or an unfortunate side effect. She was determined to make this last desperate move of it's prove futile. She was determined to guide Flash into stopping it.

"I see them! Consider them toasted!" Flash gave the confirmation that he had it, sounding quite pleased with himself for their actions. However, Batman suddenly shouted out in a way that definitely didn't share in Flash's optimistic pleasure.

"Wait! It's a decoy! They're coming fro–!"

Batman couldn't finish his sentence. There just wasn't the time. It was remarkable how quick a being of pure energy could move with nothing keeping it at bay.

What little Batman had managed to say proved to be absolutely right. The cloud had deceived them. Whatever it was, it must be fairly smart, smart enough to trick them like it had. The two assaulting strands that Wonder Woman had warned Flash about darted back into the main body seconds before Flash could hit them with the repulsor beams. It did so just late enough that the heroes hadn't the time to react to its true assault. Batman had tried to warn them, but there hadn't even been time to do that, let alone react to it.

A huge chunk of the energy blasted forward from pretty much everywhere that Flash wasn't keeping it at bay. There was no stopping it. It completely broke through all of their defences. It even managed to break clean through the Watchtower's hull without even scratching it. Being made of mainly pure energy, the solid barrier seemed to have no effect on slowing it, although all electric equipment in its path did start to spark and blow.

There was only the time for Wonder Woman's eyes to widen in horror as the pure whiteness suddenly enveloped the entire control room, not just J'onn. Herself, Batman and Flash were all caught in it too. What was more, once it had them, Wonder Woman found that she could move. Suddenly she was filled with an instant pain of her own. Suddenly she knew what J'onn was going through as her mind felt like it was being shred to pieces from the inside.

But it was all very sudden, very instantaneous. It only lasted a second before there was nothing left, before she completely whited out.

It only lasted a second before she was completely out of it. There wasn't even the time to curse their mistake before her mind completely shut down.

There wasn't even time for one last glance at Bruce.

Green Lantern had been with Flash when they had heard the scream. They had both instantly recognised it as coming from J'onn up in the control room. Naturally, they had both immediately wanted to go see what was happening and do whatever they could to help. Being so much quicker than him, GL had let Flash go on ahead, so that J'onn could get help as soon as possible.

But GL had been following on as quickly as he could. And he wasn't the only one. Several other heroes had heard the scream too. GL had wasted no time in telling the more junior or lesser powered members to stay where they were or to get the civilian workers clear of the potential danger zone, but he had given that order on the run. The rest of his fellow Leaguers were swept up in his wake, darting alongside him towards the control room as fast as they could all go. Shayera just happened to be the one who wound up right at his side on the charge.

They arrived just in time to see the sight that none of them had wished to see, but too late to do anything to stop it. The dazzling white light emerged from nowhere. It took hold of all four heroes in the room; Flash, J'onn, Wonder Woman and the returned Batman. And then it was gone, disappearing like a snake slithering clean through the wall, leaving nothing but wrecked electrical systems behind it.

As well as the now crumpled bodies of all four heroes.

As soon as that light had ceased to surround them, all four Founders had collapsed to the deck without a sound. None of them were moving. None of them were making any noise. None of them were displaying any sign of life.

John Stewart may have been pretty much avoiding Shayera for the past weeks and months as he desperately battled with his heart to try and figure out what it was in this world that he truly wanted, but in that moment none of that mattered. He couldn't stop himself from immediately looking down to her when he saw what could well be the end of four of his closest friends, already feeling the despair beginning to fill him. He found that Shayera was already looking straight back at him in precisely the same manner. Other heroes from their troop had already rushed forward, folks like Green Arrow charging in to check for signs of life in the still bodies of the four Founders, but John and Shayera were both equally frozen to the spot.

"It can't be..." she virtually whispered out all her fears in three words. GL very definitely shared the sentiment. He didn't want it to be true either.

But he also didn't see any way out of this. All four just looked so lifeless.

"They're gone," he whispered himself, so softly that he doubted she could hear him, his voice cracking with grief.

A/N:

Don't worry, I've not being a giant douche/turd sandwich with this. This is NOT the end, by any means. Stay tuned. All will eventually be revealed. In the meantime, review/follow/favourite as applicable, my good chums.