Chapter 26: Ghostbusters

The Imperium were coming, but J'onn couldn't worry about that, nor could any of the other Martians. He made sure they received and understood that message. It was vital. They needed to focus, to concentrate on their task, instead of letting fear back in again.

The cage was ready to go, they just had to ensure that it encapsulated every single Imperium soldier once the bars were sealed. That was the only way that they could be sure that the Imperium wouldn't be in a position to interfere with the rebirth of the Martian race beyond a lone survivor. It was what they needed to do to ensure they could live again.

J'onn knew that they were closing in, but this was an all or nothing job. The cage couldn't be stretched out for more of them once it was already in place. They had to get this right first time. The problem was how long that might take. With no other way to change things, J'onn had to believe that his faith was well placed to see them through this. That included faith in himself and his Martian brethren to get the job done. But more than that, it was referring to his faith in his friends.

Wonder Woman and Batman were the last line of defence. And it was a line that had to hold, for however long it took.

They were here. Thankfully Batman had had patience enough for two. That meant that at the first sign of the Imperium's arrival, both he and Diana were still perfectly primed to pounce.

The batarang was flung from his hand at the first sign of the white creatures forming. By the time that they were starting to finally come together, it blew. The explosion tore through the entirety of the first bunch, buying Batman that bit more time. Likewise, through their link Batman could see as Wonder Woman pounced on the Imperium emerging close to her, flying the short distance to them and pummelling the closest ones apart before they had even fully formed.

The next wave of the fighting had begun. The Imperium were coming to try and kill the Martians. They were coming to try and stop the efforts of J'onn and his fellows. That could not be allowed. Batman and Wonder Woman would make a stand. And it was time to put that shared link of theirs with the cloud's control core to further use.

The lights had practically gone out the second that the Imperium had started to arrive. They had learned their lessons from last time. They were keeping things dark enough that Batman knew any efforts to light things up would at best just get things back to normal. There would be no defeating the Imperium with light this time. Luckily that wasn't his plan. He was adaptable.

They couldn't create it before the Imperium arrived. If they had done there would have been no guaranteeing they would have put the thing in the right place. Now that the Imperium were coming, it was time to throw up the barricades.

The idea already being present in his mind, all it took was for Batman to pass the final instruction on to the core. That was done in no time. It emerged from out of the ground even faster than the Imperium were doing, but growing with a remarkable silence and stillness. They stretched up for high enough, effectively building an encampment all around the circle of close knit, meditating Martians. The dome atop it and the floor beneath it only added to the security. With the shared minds of both Batman and Wonder Woman feeding the protective shell, what had once been an open field was now completely shielded. Before it had taken a complete focus to create light. Now, thanks to the merger between each other and the one with the core, Batman and Wonder Woman could keep this barricade alive by hardly having to think about it. The Imperium may have arrived, but that didn't mean they were any closer to bringing about the Martians' end.

Of course, even with their link to the core the minds of Batman and Wonder Woman would not be enough to withstand the full force of the Imperium should it be turned on the barricades. Batman had accounted for that. That was the beauty of this barricade. There were openings, two of them. They weren't big ones, but they were enough, enough to keep the Imperium's attention. And should the Imperium stop focusing on them, then the barricade could easily roam, adapting to where the Imperium were attacking instead. There were only two ways inside the barricade, and there would only be two ways.

Two ways that Batman and Wonder Woman could now defend. Before it would have been easy for the Imperium to get by them to the Martians. Now they had to get through them.

Wonder Woman was more than ready for the fight, Batman could feel that. But he hardly needed to feel her emotions to be inspired either. The Imperium were coming, thick, fast and in force.

It was time to end this.

Wonder Woman didn't stop fighting to admire the barricades Batman had just thrown up with the help of some of her brain power. She could see it all well enough through his eyes. She knew that it was there to help them win the fight. Pausing would do nothing to aid that effort.

Only seconds had passed by since the first signs of the Imperium's arrival, but now there were scores of them around, far too many for Wonder Woman to have the time to count them. Thankfully most of them were irrelevant. Most of them were blocked out by the barricade. As for the rest, well that was where she and Batman came into play. She only had to fight the urge to dive right in to the heart of the Imperium and take them on for their midst. Instead she had to hold her ground. She had to stay here and keep the Martian's safe.

It didn't take long for the Imperium to realise attacking the barricade was fruitless. Either Wonder Woman or Batman saw it from their eye corners – she didn't know or care which of them it was. The Imperium's destructive efforts, even those that did some damage, were fruitless. Whenever the barricade looked like breaching, its connection to Batman and Wonder Woman's now joint subconscious saw that it was rebuilt, that it stayed firm. The Imperium were not going to get in that way.

They wouldn't get in any other way either, not while Wonder Woman was still standing. And she knew that Bruce was thinking along similar lines at the only other entrance. The fight was ongoing, both ends a blur of action. Wonder Woman was hardly paying attention to the actual details of it, at least not to the degree of remembrance. She was just too lost in the motions. The Imperium seemed desperate to get past, to see the Martian's dead. Shots and punches were flying in from all directions, but thankfully so far Wonder Woman was proving up to the task. Her bracelets were keeping at bay everything that was coming at her, her punches destroying every opponent who drew too close, the puddles of goo resulting from them forced to pull back. Nothing was getting past her.

And across the way, beyond that central pool of Martians, Batman was standing firm too. She could see it all, could read the tactical thoughts pouring through his mind as he engaged his own batch of the evil aliens. Despite the circumstances, Wonder Woman actually felt quite privileged to be able to claim that. She had heard all the stories, she had seen him in battle, but to actually completely witness how he did it was remarkable. Wonder Woman wasn't modest enough to forget her own tactical nous, but she also knew that she so often had her powers and strength as a fall back position. Batman didn't have that, and yet he was still such a warrior. He didn't even have the protective bracelets as Wonder Woman did. That was why he was even more in motion than she was, keeping the Imperium lured in close to take their weapons out of play and bring his own skills into it. Using all sorts of martial arts, all the Imperium at his side of the barricade were being beaten apart too.

Or almost all. Because Batman hadn't got the defence that Wonder Woman had, he couldn't stand as deep in the barricade. He had to be closer to the Imperium. That meant there was a gap. A small gap mind, and one Batman was doing a great job of keeping shut. Unfortunately the Imperium had other ideas. They were organised themselves. Even as she was engaging her own set of the villains, through the link Wonder Woman could see it unfolding through Batman's eyes. He was surrounded, engaging multiple Imperium all at the same time. That meant there was nothing he could do without leaving himself open to get killed, nothing he could do to stop the Imperium that was sliding its way along the edge of the barricade and through the opening, towards the defenceless Martians...

But through the link Wonder Woman saw it happening. She saw the Imperium getting through. She felt Batman's desperation to make an opening so he could take that soldier down, along with his inability to do so.

And she also knew that Batman felt the sense of hope she was sending his way.

In one smooth motion, she spun, sending one arm up and flailing to smash apart the two Imperium nearby. At the same time her other hand darted up to her own head, whipping her tiara free. By the time she had completed her spin – less than a second – she was flinging it with all of her might and skill.

Wonder Woman hadn't the time to watch it herself. With those last two beaten more Imperium were attacking, more shots to parry off of her bracelets and send right back at the shooters. But Batman could see. As he finally got those Imperium off of his back, his eyes showed them both as Wonder Woman's tiara ripped that Imperium in half just moments before it could kill the nearest Martian. A sonic batarang made sure it wouldn't be getting back up quickly to try again.

But that wasn't the only batarang that Batman threw. Once more Wonder Woman punched the Imperium off of her on the spin, this time to catch the tiara which was arcing back her way. She had thought she had done enough to buy herself the moment to make the catch. Moving to finish off the Imperium had shown Batman that she was wrong. There was one Imperium that she had missed, one who was now moving to shoot her down with her back turned. Even with Wonder Woman seeing this now courtesy of the mental link, she knew that she couldn't spin back quick enough to protect herself. Batman, of course, knew that too. That was what the second batarang was for. The explosive one stuck in the Imperium just as he was about to fire. The resulting blast made sure he never had the chance to.

Wonder Woman silently thanked Batman, though he was too focused on his fight again to respond. Wonder Woman was herself soon too fully back in the throws of battle to think of anything else either. The fight was still going. These Imperium were not going away any time soon.

But, hopefully, J'onn and the Martians wouldn't be needing that much longer.

She could sense the Imperium throughout the cloud. She knew they had located practically all of those who were swept up as the Martians transcended so many years ago. And she could sense just how close so many of them were. Coupled with exactly how well she knew how dangerous they also were, that wasn't a pleasing thing to recognise by any means.

But M'vall had made the decision to cast off the fear when she had led the Martians back into the Earth's fight for survival, and that couldn't be cast aside right now. Especially right now. Now they had something worth risking their lives for. Now they had the chance to have lives again. After living in fear, living without a physical presence for centuries, M'vall was definitely starting to think that death would not be as bad as failure. Living, truly living again, was just too tempting.

And so she would share the faith J'onn J'onzz was offering. She would follow his lead in trusting the Bat Man and the Wonder Woman to keep them safe.

But fear was not something that was easy to overcome, not completely. M'vall would be lying if she said she wasn't worried. Centuries of being afraid of what the Imperium would do should they locate the Martians was not easily cast aside. She kept that fear to herself, just as she could tell her fellow Martians were doing, especially at J'onn's motivation, but it was still there. That was why M'vall was so eager to get the job done.

And they were very nearly there. They just needed a few more moments, minutes at most. They just needed for the Imperium to be kept at bay for that little bit longer.

But that wasn't likely to be an easy task.

Even those who were distant could detect that they were in trouble. That the Imperium did not like. They would not break off their assault on the Earth city, not in the slightest, not when the place was beginning to fall. One tower had already toppled. Another was soon to follow, along with countless of the people on the streets beneath. That meant that they had no more resources to lend to the efforts to bring death to the Martians, but it didn't mean that they were giving up. They knew that that was not an option. The Martians were getting closer in their efforts to strip the Imerpium of their power over the cloud, a power the Imperium were by no means ready to give up.

It was time for some more drastic measures. The current assault was too slow, especially with those barricades that they just could not get through the old fashioned way. It was time to speed things along.

It was time to display the full potential of their abilities, both before and after the cloud. It had to be.

It had to be the time when the Martian race was finally wiped out.

Leaping upwards, his left shoulder tucked in, Batman acrobatically rolled over the nearest Imperium soldier's shoulders, driving a standard batarang down into it as he acted. That Imperium fell, literally torn in half. No doubt it would reform soon, but soon was not now. Now, Batman was flinging the batarang deep into the heart of the next nearest foe, cutting it down as well. As he landed, another Imperium stood before him, swinging an extended punch towards where Batman's head now was. By the time that attack reached though, his head had moved. This time he ducked low, swiping a straight arm through the Imperium's midriff, cutting it in twain.

He was just standing to come around and take on the next one when he noticed it. Well, truth be told Diana saw it first, but thanks to the link Batman recognised it in that same moment. It meant there was no next Imperium there for him to take on. They were melting away again, they same as they had done before while on the retreat. Batman, however, was sure that they weren't retreating. He was suspicious from the off. The Imperium would surely know by now what it was that the Martians were doing. They had already proved that they were not about to give up their rampage, their power. It made no sense for them to retreat now, no matter how unsuccessful they were being thus far. No, they were planning something. They were up to something.

"I take it we're maintaining position, then," Wonder Woman's thoughts rang out in his mind, clearly having just heard his own. It was a statement far more than it was a question. Through the link Batman could see her holding ground at her entrance through the barricades. He could also see the Martian's still silently working away in between them. But, no matter what, his focus had to remain on what lay beyond the barricade, on what the Imperium's next move was going to be. They would be coming back, and he would be ready for them when they did. There could be no distractions, no matter how pleasant they were. It was moments like this one that those eight months away in training were proven worthwhile.

"Until the moment that we know that we don't have to," Batman pointed out through his own thoughts. "Stay prepared Princess. They'll be coming back in some manner. Be sure of it."

His timing couldn't have been more apt. It was in that moment when he saw the first signs. Wonder Woman saw it too, even with the barricade obscuring both of their views. The whiteness of the Imperium was back, draining upwards through the sands. However, this time they weren't raising all across the way around the barricade. This time they weren't forming up individually. This time it was forming as one, big creature. Made up of all the individuals, of course, working with all of the individual minds. Not the kind of link Batman and Wonder Woman had, but physically united. The Imperium possessed the ability to alter their shape, to become nothing more than a puddle should they wish. Two puddles were so easy to mix together. Having scores of them made that no more complex. It just made it a damn sight bigger.

And right now, the Imperium had become one big monster.

Taller than the barricades and almost as thick, and still it was growing. Already Batman was craning his head skywards to watch the thing form. He took note of how it was forming. He took note of its shape. It had grown arms, beastly arms, arms that looked capable of doing some serious damage, that looked strong enough that Batman doubted even Wonder Woman could hold them off. On top of all that, a lone Imperium was clearly formed atop the growing monster, the leader of the whole thing, the chief lookout among scores of watchful, vengeful eyes. At the sight of it, Wonder Woman sent Batman one more thought out message.

"Well... That's new."

It summed things up rather well. It voiced all of the shock and awe of what they were seeing, but it was also full of determination. Diana was far from ready to give up, no matter what was thrown at them. Despite that being no surprise, Batman felt proud to hear it. However, he had no time to issue a reply.

Finally the creature, the Mega-Imperium, ceased to grow, at least fifteen metres tall. That was the immediate signal. As soon as it was fully formed, it attacked. Scores of Imperium blended together soon came smashing down. Only it didn't hit the barricades. It struck the ground, masses of the thing. Even beings made of goo weighed plenty when they were joined together like this. The sands of the faux environment were sent flying. But that was only the start of things. Both "arms" were raging onwards in no time, charging towards the two entrances through the barricade like a pair of runaway trains.

Batman could spot their plan. Of course he could. They still wanted to see the Martians dead. They couldn't get to them the traditional way. Instead they were going to bulldoze their way past the Martians' defenders. They were going to pummel their way through Batman and Wonder Woman in a way they couldn't so easily stop. Hell, they could well be planning to simply drown the entire group of Martians within their liquified bodies, there was so much of them racing towards the barricade. But Batman wasn't about to let that happen. Wonder Woman wasn't going to either.

He might have stood no chance in holding all that mass off, not when a lone Imperium was stronger than he was. Even Wonder Woman would likely struggle. But there was something that did have a chance. It was time to utilise the power of the cloud's core even more.

Batman did not even have to think the instructions. Wonder Woman simply read the plan running through his mind. She had taken off at the exact same moment that he used the grapnel to launch himself up towards the ceiling of the barricade, both of them getting out of the way of the Imperium mass that was rapidly surging their way. But that wasn't all. A simple thought from each of them as they both rose was enough. It was enough to seal off those last entrances. It was enough to ensure that the surging Imperium mass had nowhere to go but splat into a solid wall.

Just so long as the now complete barricade would hold...

The mass struck, hard. The entire barricade shook beneath Batman's feet as he stood upon it. He kept his balance though. Just. The barricade held too. Just.

This time anyway. The Imperium were by no means done. Already they were winding up to go again. Batman was already running the calculations in his head. No matter how much he and Wonder Woman sured it up via their connection to the core, the combined strength that the Imperium were now throwing at it would soon prove enough, especially with their own link to the core not yet broken. There was only so much concentrating that Batman and Wonder Woman could do. They had to give the barricade a helping hand, at least until J'onn and the rest of the Martians were done.

"Plan?" Wonder Woman was quick to think the question, keeping it short. Batman could tell that she was itching to dive straight in there, to match strengths with this thing and to try and literally hold one of those arms off. It was only the fact that she would have already heard the workings of Batman's mind that was making her not to exactly that. He knew what the key was, what they had to do. The Imperium had found a new source of great strength by coming together. To take that strength away from them, they would need to be torn apart.

Or, more accurately, blown apart.

"Plastique," Batman gave Wonder Woman her answer, hand instinctively falling towards the compartment of his belt where he had plenty of the explosive stored. He didn't have to think through the rest of the details. Wonder Woman instantly understood, all of it. "You've got my back?"

Diana's response was simple. "Always. Go."

She was instantly acting on her own word, before Batman ever had the chance to do so himself. She dove downwards, punching through into the side of one of those masses of Imperium just moments before it smashed into the barricade all over again. That one she managed to hold off, for now. There was nothing she could do just now to stop the other one. Once again, the barricade was buckling. Thankfully, once again it held, but it wouldn't much longer. Things had to move quickly.

Wonder Woman was the perfect distraction. Through her eyes Batman could see as that arm diverted. It didn't target the barricade again. Now it was going after her. Exactly according to plan.

Wonder Woman flew, hard and fast. The mass of the Imperium had narrowed, focusing on one person instead of an entire wall. Diana was ducking and weaving, zigging and zagging, flying around and trying to tie the thing in knots. It was chasing her all of the way, everywhere she flew. Including right to where Batman laid waiting.

The arm slammed right into the upper edge of the barricade a mere metre from Batman's feet as Wonder Woman flew to within touching distance of him. Batman didn't so much as see but feel her smile as she dove by, continuing her flight. She'd given him the opening that he needed.

He'd leapt a mere heartbeat before that arm had struck, late enough to feel the impact reverberate through the air. The arm, though, hadn't the time to move before Batman landed, right on top of it. He had scrambled his way far along it before the Imperium within seemed to realise that he was there.

Long ago he had been trained to walk on even the thinnest of ice, to perfectly mind his surroundings. Now that training was being put to perfect use. The Imperium below could make themselves solid enough, but they could also become practically liquid. Right now, they were doing the latter, as much as they possibly could without giving up the rest of the fight. They were trying to trap him inside of them, trying to make him sink and drown within their bulk. It was an effort that Batman was determined to see fail.

He ran cleverly, scurrying around every solid patch beneath his feet, using the sensors in his cowls lenses as his guide. The arm was still moving beneath his feet, twisting, turning. But it couldn't throw Batman loose. Every time it tried to twist him free, Batman saw it coming and was able to adjust his feet. In only seconds, he was practically at the body of the mass, practically exactly where he needed to be.

Right on time too. The other arm was slamming into the barricades all over again. It made the entire structure shake, right to its roots. The whole place felt like falling apart. Huge cracks appeared in it. It was almost gone. The core knew it too. The feedback was intense. The cracking barricade threw back energy at the core that formed it. In turn, the core threw it back to what was making the barricade in the first place – the minds of Batman and Wonder Woman.

Batman felt like screaming, it hit his mind so strongly. It was like being struck with the entire pains of a day's migraine within the space of a few seconds – short-lived but still just as damaging. It was enough to distract him for just long enough for the Imperium to strike. Batman managed to cling on to the mass, but that was all that he could do in those seconds. He certainly couldn't fight back as the Imperium emerged from amongst the mass around him, at the ready to finish him off...

Thankfully Wonder Woman was more resilient. There were occasionally times when Batman was genuinely glad that metahumans had their powers. This was one of those moments. Even with his pain, Batman could feel the benefits of her resilience, could feel as she was able to overcome her own hurt.

And he could see as she hurled her tiara and sliced apart those Imperium who had been about to kill him.

The pain was gone as quickly as it came. In no time Batman was on the move again, silently thanking Wonder Woman as he did so. She was back on the move again, back trying to keep those arms of the Imperium mass distracted. With the barricade protecting the Martians almost destroyed, that was more important than ever. It also made it more important than ever for Batman to reach the head of the Imperium mass as soon as possible. He had to destroy this thing, now.

He surged onwards. Now that their latest attempt had failed, the Imperium were trying more than ever to stop him. Hands were emerging from out of the great mass of their conjoined bodies now, grasping out for his ankles, trying to do whatever they could to halt his charge. None of those efforts managed it. In fact, quite often Batman simply trod on those hands, stamping them back into the mass. He was now practically there. He was now practically in place to end this thing. He was on the shoulder of the mass. He was so ready that he had already pulled the plastique from his belt, ready to plunge it deep into the Imperium bunch...

Unfortunately, the Imperium's timing was perfect, from their point of view. Barely a second before Batman's hand rammed down into the mass of gelatinous material, it struck the barricade all over again with one of those arms. Wonder Woman had tried to stop it, but even she couldn't hold all that at bay. All that mass, all that power, crashed into the already weakened imaginary barricade. This time it was too much for it to be able to withstand. This time, the barricade fell. There were no pieces, there was no crumbling, the entire mass was simply gone.

The only upside was that the barricade vanished in a flash of light, a flash big enough that the Imperium's mighty arm was forced to retreat back for now. But that was the only upside, and even that was only short-term.

The pain before had been intense, but this made it look gentle. This time, with the complete annihilation of the barricade, it felt like his head was exploding from the inside. Once again, it didn't last long, but once again it was still long enough. Once again it was distracting enough. Even the Batman couldn't concentrate through all of that to continue plunging in the plastique. Even Batman couldn't concentrate enough to prevent the Imperium mass recoiling to the extent he was thrown clear.

Whether it was an effect of that brief light or by design, the Imperium had thrown him off of the mass. Batman guessed it was the former, otherwise the Imperium would have tried to kill him again. The thing was, now that he was falling that didn't matter. Now that he had failed to get the plastique into that thing, that didn't matter.

But he wasn't done. None of this was done.

Wonder Woman saw it unfold, through both sets of eyes. The barricade was broken and the Imperium had stopped Batman destroying their conglomerate. The Martians were open now, and they were still too busy focussing on their own task to be able to defend themselves. Everything looked like it was falling apart. Everything looked like the Imperium were about to win.

But looks could be deceiving.

Wonder Woman flew as fast and as directly as she could. Up until that point her job had been purely defensive, trying to hold the Imperium off as best as she could. Now it was time to go on the attack, not least of all because Bruce needed her.

He was in free-fall, plunging down fast from the pinnacle of the Imperium's height, yet she could tell that he wasn't worried. He knew that she was coming. He knew that she wasn't going to let him fall. He knew that with her, he was safe. Wonder Woman heard it in his thoughts. It showed just how far he had come in these last months.

But now wasn't the time to explore all of that. Now was the time to act.

She made it just in time. The sands of the ground were thrown up by the rush of the air as she soared past so close to it, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she made it. All that mattered was that she had managed to catch Batman in time. He was safe.

But the Martians weren't. Not yet. The flash of light had been enough to momentarily push the Imperium back, but that moment was over. The horde of innocent Martians were now at their mercy. What was more, the Imperium were already winding up for the kill. The conglomerate was starting to move forward, this time as one, clearly intent on simply emersing itself on top of all of the gathered Martians, planning on suffocating every last one of them in one fell swoop.

It was now or never. It was one or the other. Either Batman and Wonder Woman would destroy the Imperium mass, or the Martians were dead. The latter could not be allowed.

"Just get me close." The words ran through Batman's mind as he was thinking along the exact same lines. It was in that exact same moment that he had looked down at his hands. His incendiary device was still clutched there, despite his fall. It was time for him to try again, only this time, with no barricade to defend, he had Wonder Woman to get him there.

The thing was, he wasn't waiting for her to do that. Wonder Woman had hoisted him onto her shoulders when she caught him so that they were essentially flying side by side. That meant that Batman was facing the Imperium mass all of the way. It also meant he had the perfect chance to take aim.

But it wasn't his explosive that he threw, not the main one anyway. Wonder Woman instantly recognised the batarang that he flung, reading his thoughts to know his plan. She saw the device strike, right at the epicentre of the Imperium mass. It wasn't a standard batarang though. It was the explosive kind, detonating upon impact.

The mass was hardly slowed at all in its drive to kill the Martians, but what did happen was the creation of the opening. Those few Imperium hit by the batarang were blown apart, yet their pieces were caught up by the surge of their fellows, sticking to the rest of the mass. That meant that those Imperium were quickly reforming, filling in the hole that Batman had just created within the conglomerate mass.

They hadn't seen the plan. They fell right into Batman's hands. By the time that batarang had blown, Wonder Woman had herself and Batman in close, close enough that Batman's aim could be perfect. This time it was the plastique he hurled, right into the crevice he had just created in the Imperium.

Wonder Woman did not stick around. She knew what was coming. Batman was looking over his shoulder, keeping tabs on things for the both of them. Her role was to the them safely clear.

If Batman had simply hurled the plastique, there would have been nothing to stop the Imperium from throwing it clear before it could imbed in them and blow them apart. However, with the Imperium filling in the crevice the batarang had dug, there was something to stop them. The plastique got into that hole moments before several Imperium could. In fact, they dove in on top of it. Unknowingly of course, but it didn't matter. They were there, and they were essentially the shield. They were in the way. They stopped the Imperium from saving themselves.

They meant that the plastique detonated while still deep in the heart of the Imperium mass.

Even through the dampening Imperium the sound was near deafening. It was one hell of a blast, all things considered. But the charge had been directed too. The complete quantity of the alien fiends was blown away, literally. It had been so close to the Martians too, but it hadn't gotten close enough. Batman had the charge primed to ensure that. The Imperium had intended to descend on the Martians, to literally drown the Martians within themselves. Thanks to the blast, not only was the conglomerate broken, but all the pieces had fallen without touching a single one of the Martians.

And yet Wonder Woman remained on guard. As soon as she knew it was safe she was setting herself and Batman down, standing between the Martians, ready for another fight. After a blast like that she knew that it would take time, perhaps a long, long time, but Wonder Woman had also seen more than enough of these foes to know that they didn't often stay down. She was convinced that even after a blast like that one these fiends would be back, reforming from the now smouldering remnants of their bodies scattered amongst the distant grounds. She could tell that Batman was thinking along the same lines. He had even drawn another batarang, just in case. If these guys were going to start reforming any time soon, they would not be caught off guard. They would not be naïve enough to celebrate too early, even if they had just scored a good victory. Those Martians still needed protecting.

The world still needed protecting.

The next moment struck some horror into Wonder Woman. She had been ready, but that didn't mean that she had been expectant. After all it had took to just defeat the Imperium's latest attack, after how close they had come to total failure, she did not want to have to fight them again any time soon. She did not want the Imperium to be recomposed before the Martians had them caged. Unfortunately, her wants meant for nothing right then. Before her eyes she could see the remnants of Imperium start to twitch, then she could see full blown movement. Only seconds later, she could see the masses of separate puddles becoming one very big one. The conglomerate was coming back. Well she would just have to stop it all over again, preferably before it became anything more than a very big puddle.

But before she could take off to engage it all over again, Batman snatched a hand out to stop her. He recognised the signs only a second before she did. It was only once she was holding ground under his action, only when her focus was distracted from the growing Imperium that she registered the sensation that the core was now passing on to both her and Batman. Seeing the reforming Imperium split into their individual parts in the next second began to absolutely confirm it. Even if that hadn't, watching them all suddenly turn and run away definitely did.

The Martians had done it. The Imperium had been split from the core. They were powerless.

And now they were running scared.

There they were. They had it. They had found the last Imperium soldier. They had found them all.

It was time to lower the cage. J'onn did not wait before leading the Martians onwards. He did not wait before stripping the Imperium of their power. He knew it was happening, and he had to fight off his excitement. Things were happening. They were getting closer. They were getting closer to making the Martian race live again.

Through it all J'onn could sense the Imperium's last, desperate attempts to fight, to strike out against Metropolis and do whatever damage they could. They were not going to go down quietly. There was still a fight to be had. But J'onn could tell that it was a fight the right side was winning.

The cage was there. The Imperium's power was stripped. They were cut off from the core. And, through the telepathy, J'onn could also sense that Batman and Wonder Woman had succeeded in protecting them.

But then, things were suddenly going too well. The way the rest of the day had gone, J'onn was suspicious. He was worried. Things could take a turn for the worse, so very easily. J'onn could only hope that they wouldn't.

Not now that they were so very close. Not when so much rested on it.

A/N:

Alright folks, here's your next bit. Apologies for the delay compared to normal, but don't let that stop the reviews flooding in! They mean a lot, so cheers for that gang. In fact, the sure fire way to make me try and work faster is for a lot of you to have your say...