So here was the deal: Ollie had gone out of his way to recover a late friend of his, delivered his body to his family, and pay his respects. Sounded pretty easy, right?

Well, it should've been that easy.

Even though Ollie and his men had been successful in taking down the guards at the park, the entire thing had been under surveillance by Cyborg. He followed them with a satellite until they arrived at their little hideout, which was a building currently seeking new management. That is to say it was just one of such properties owned by Ollie on the lowdown, this one being one of many safe houses he had in his possession.

Unfortunately, it wasn't so safe anymore. Once he had the location, Cyborg called in a team to apprehend him, or simply kill him—it could've gone either way considering the company. One moment, the five men had begun tossing back brewskies, the next the door was incinerated into flames.

The door burning was the moment Ollie had realized he had been set-upped.

"Oh, boys!" a sultry redhead called out, sauntering through the flames. She was Volcana, a pyromaniac with the power to generate fire. Talk about giving the wrong person the wrong power.

Throwing his beer aside, Ollie had his quiver back on his back and his hand on his bow. That was all before Volcana raised one of her dainty hands and fired a stream of fire. It hit Nick dead on, the man screaming as he was engulfed in flames.

Taking cover behind a couch, Ollie was wondering just where Volcana's teammate was. All of these Regime guys traveled in packs after all; this should be no different. Damn it all! Why had he risked his operation like this?

He knew the reason though. He couldn't let a friend be used for the Regime's purposes even in death. He kinda hoped the others would be like that for him; then again, that was assuming he left a corpse that wasn't cremated.

"Awww, don't hide, boys. It's just little ol' me, here to give you guys a night you won't ever forget," Volcana called out to them. So it was just her, huh? Perhaps Cyborg had given up on the Alive part in Dead or Alive. Made sense if you asked him.

So how did one deal with a walking, talking furnace? A glass of water wasn't going to cut it. Pulling out a trick arrow, one with a long green canister towards its head, Ollie notched it, took a deep breath, then spun around to face the couch, keeping himself crouched. He then stood up as quickly as he could, aiming right at Volcana. "Hey, Hotness," he called out, causing her to turn her head to look at him. By then, he released his arrow and watched it fly right at her. Volcana had barely raised a hand up to either incinerate, or protect herself when the arrow hit.

The arrowhead and canister exploded, releasing a chemical compound that soaked in heat from the air, which in turned dropped the temperature in the surrounding area until ice crystals formed. In short, a bluish-white cloud erupted all over Volcana, covering her in ice until she was an ice sculpture.

And that was how you dealt with a walking furnace. Staring at her, Ollie soon saw the three other guys slowly emerge from their respective hiding places. Cautiously, two of them, Eddie and Tommy approached her, one even reaching a hand out to touch the ice.

However, because he had been watching the frozen Volcana, the archer saw her eyes move. In fact, had it not been for the ice, he would've sworn she would have grinned evilly at that moment. "Get away!" he shouted.

Despite the ice, a redness glowed from within it before the ice shattered and a wave of flames blasted out in all directions. Eddie and Tommy took it head on, burning to blackened skeletons in an instant as they screamed.

Ollie ducked down behind the couch, only to have it rammed against him from the force of the blast. Knocked off his feet, he hit the floor, rolling over it as the couch flew over him, crashing against the wall before it dropped to the ground. The blond man ended up tumbling right into it, finally coming to a stop.

"Well that was fun," Volcana remarked, stretching her arms up above heard. "I've never been encased in ice before," she then added sarcastically. Ollie got the feeling this hadn't been her first time dealing with that very situation.

And then the last of his crew, Sam, came running at the redhead from behind, a chair in his hands. He swung the chair at her, breaking it into pieces against her back and knocking the woman off her feet. Still holding the chair legs, Sam went after her, drawing a leg back before swinging it forward.

However, even though Volcana had fallen to the floor, she had managed to keep on her feet, her legs coiled beneath her. Twisting around, she pointed a hand right at Sam and fired a brief burst of flames at him. Sam caught on fire immediately and stumbled backwards, screaming as he began twisting and turning his body in a vain attempt to put out the flames.

Ollie really wanted to shout for Sam to stop, drop, and roll, but he had his own problems at the moment. Namely, Volcana spotted him, standing up to her full height as she held both of her hands up at him. "Supes is gonna give me a fiefdom for this," she said as her hands became enshrouded by fire. "Too bad you're not going to see it."

By then, Ollie had another trick arrow in hand. Holding it out in front of him, he retorted, "Neither will you."

Flicking a switch on the canister at the arrow's end, a bright, blinding flash erupted. Even though he had his own eyes closed, the darkness beneath his eyelids went a painful red due to his proximity to the flash. Volcana shrieked as she was blinded.

However, that didn't stop her from firing a stream of fire. Above him, a blast of heat made itself known, pouring hot air all over him. Thankfully her temporary blindness caused her to miss him.

Opening his eyes, Ollie saw that not only was Volcana blind, but she was spinning back and forth, one arm pressed over her eyes as she held out her other hand. She was pouring out fire, setting the entire room ablaze.

Jesus, lady, burning everything wasn't the answer for everything!

However, Ollie knew an unstable room when he saw one. The fire was burning everything it touched, which meant the support for the ceiling wouldn't last very long. He needed to get out of here. Looking at the other side of the room, he noticed it was burning from the fire.

And speaking of weakening support…

Pushing himself up onto his feet, Ollie took off running, heading right towards and to the side of Volcana. Taking hold of his bow at one end, he dropped to his knees, skidding across the floor. Holding his bow out to one side, he swung it like a baseball bat and nailed Volcana just below her knees, knocking her legs out from under her.

As his slide began to slow, the archer was back on his feet and running for the burning wall. Moving his arms out to shield his face, he leaped at the wall at the last moment, ramming into it, and bursting right through it.

Unfortunately, he didn't quite stick the landing. Though he managed to get a foot down, it suddenly jerked to a side and Ollie found himself falling to the floor, going into an unintentional roll, one that lasted until he came to a stop on his back. Yeah, could've done better with that part.

The room he was in was less cozy as the club room. This one was just a wide open, empty room, with cement flooring, walls, and ceiling. He didn't recall its purpose, but for now he was going with "better than the last one."

That was until he heard a sharp boom. Jerking his head to a side, what was best described as a red portal—in fact, several portals—appeared in the room. The outer rim of the portals were swirling, which left its centers to be something red, thick, and gushing.

Why was he getting the feeling that was blood?

"This just isn't your day," Ollie muttered to himself.

Being the eyes and ears of the world was an awesome thing. Some people found that to be boring, but to Cyborg, that made him indispensable. Ever since he had gotten this mechanical body, he had slowly become accustomed to it, not to mention enjoying the company of other machines.

For instance, he had a pretty good relationship with the local satellites. They gave him views of everything from a few miles above Earth and he kept giving them work. It was mutual beneficial. They even helped him track Oliver Queen down.

So that left him with a few options: one, he could report it to the High Councilor; two, he could report it to Green Lantern, or Hawkgirl; or three, he could send a team in to clean up the mess. Seeing no reason as to why Volcana couldn't handle some nutjob with a bow and arrow, he sent her in alone. While she wasn't the most loyal of the group of reformed bad guys, she did enjoy her work. She might burn the building down, but as long as Queen was part of it, then it was a job well done.

A sharp beep caught his attention then. Looking the console he was at, Cyborg noticed a flashing red light. Tapping it, a window appeared on his monitor screen. At first, all he saw was the blackness of space, not something that was all that threatening. Still, he watched it for a minute or so. That beep was part of an early warning system in the Watchtower, one that picked up incoming objects that were either of massive size, or were approaching Earth at an incredible speed.

And then he saw it. There was a flash of light. Then another one, and another. Soon, there were several twinkling lights on the screen. Quickly, Cyborg had the computer calculate how big the lights were and if they would be hitting the Watchtower, or Earth.

The results came instantly. The Watchtower was definitely not in these lights' path, but Earth was. As for the size, they were small, maybe the size of a full-grown man. Well, that was nothing to worry about.

Shutting down the window, Cyborg then left the computer station, heading for a nearby window. At the very least, he'd get a nice show of whatever was approaching burning up in the atmosphere. It helped relieve the doldrums that took over the place from time to time.

It was a few minutes before he saw the first signs of the debris. Or at least, he had thought they were debris right until he saw red contrails racing by. Focusing his robotic eye on the contrails, he closed in on one and looked to its head, finding an actually person. In fact, it was definitely an alien.

And then something hit the window.

Cyborg let out a cry of surprise as he jumped backwards. Pressed against the window before him was a big, round...well, alien. More importantly, it had some pretty sharp teeth and it looked as if it were trying to gnaw on the smooth glass window. Even through the glass' thickness, he could make out gurgling sounds as small, stubby, black arms and legs thrashed about. Though, if he weren't mistaken, there were red gloves and boots too.

However, he couldn't help but notice a weird symbol on its forehead. It reminded Cyborg of Green Lantern's, but different.

And then the round alien did something rather gross: it puked up red vomit on the window. "Seriously?" he exclaimed in disbelief.

Alright, he wasn't sure what this was, but it was best to report it planet-side. The others were going to have to intercept and deal with these things. It was such a good thing the Watchtower was made to resist all sorts damage to its hull.

Of course, that was when he heard sharp booms.

Spinning around, Cyborg saw three red portals, a blood-like substance flowing out of them. Slowly, three forms emerged from the blood, three goofy characters dressed in red with the same symbol on their bodies as the round guy outside.

If he wasn't sure about the resemblance to the Lantern Corp, he was now. All three had on body suits that looked just like a Green Lantern, only red. One guy was man-like, save for the horse face, antlers, and red glowing eyes. Another was of a greenish-blue alien with an elongated head and hands with long, creepy fingers.

The last one, however, got his attention. It was of a woman and a blue one at that. Hell, her little Lantern outfit looked more like lingerie than anything. With some sort of black mask covering her head with little wings sticking out of it, not to mention the skeletal wings emerging from her back, she was like a perfect depiction of a succubus.

Not that Cyborg knew what one of those looked like…

"Victor Stone," the woman said in a sultry voice, though the fact that she knew his name sent alarms screaming in his head. "The blood of innocence is on your hands," she announced. "They demand vengeance."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, lady," Cyborg shot back as he took on a fighting stance. "But you and your two friends need to find your way off of the Watchtower, pronto. If you don't, I will escort you off personally."

"Play dumb all you want," the woman replied evenly as she took a step to him, raising a hand to caress the side of her face.

A hand that had a red ring on it.

"But that doesn't wipe away the blood spattered on your soul. I can smell it from here." She then made a throaty moan. "The blood of Ted Kord calls to me."

Immediately, Cyborg's right hand transfigured, bulking up until a large cannon was in its place. It was pure instinct, reaction, but that name did that to him. Thrusting his cannon out in front of him, he shouted, "Booyah!" as he fired a large blast at them.

"I'm telling ya, you have to send me out," Major Force pleaded, following behind Green Lantern. The two were leaving a precinct in Neo-Gotham City, one in which they had performed the quarterly inspection on.

"The situation is being handled," John said irritably. "Right now, we've got more pressing issues to deal with."

"Oh, making sure the precinct jails are up to snuff, that's very important," the major snarked. "That's nothing compared to bagging Queen. You know and I know the only reason we hung out Pierce's body was to draw him out so we could track him. Cyborg has to have a location on him by now."

"Uh huh."

"You don't even have to bother coming," the man pressed. "Just send me and King Shark and we'll take him down. We don't even need Frost. C'mon! Just give the order!" He paused as he tried to plead his case. "Why are we even staying in Neo-Gotham anyways?"

"Major." John spun around with a hard look on his face. "If I wanted to send you in, I would have. Right now, I don't, so shut your trap, got it?"

Major Force glared at him, but wisely kept quiet. "You want to know why we're in Neo-Gotham?" John asked him rhetorically. "I'll tell you: bats have an affinity for this place and that's exactly what we're looking for. Now, we're going to regroup with Shayera and Shark. They should be finishing their patrol right about—"

"Watchtower to all points! All points! I've got a situation!"

John immediately pressed a hand against his comm link. "This is Lantern, go."

"The Watchtower is under attack!" Cyborg shouted, the sound of a laser cannon in the background being fired. "I don't know what these things are, but they look like some sort of Lantern Corps. More are entering Earth's atmosphere as we speak!"

Immediately, John looked to the sky. All he saw was a blue sky, but a second later, he caught sight of red streaks descending through the air. His stomach dropped at the sight of them.

Red Lanterns.

"Reinforcements are on the way," John shouted into his comm before deactivating it. Clutching his ring hand, a green aura appeared around his body. Dread was actually welling up in his stomach as he watched the Red Lanterns close in.

"What are those things?" Major Force asked, a hand hovering above his eyes to block out the sunlight.

"Those things are Red Lanterns," John answered. "They're like Angels of Vengeance, powered by rage."

"Rage, huh? What brings them here?"

"I don't know, but be ready for anything. They rarely travel in packs and as you can see there's a lot of them."

Which was puzzling John to no end. There was no reason for the Red Lanterns to come here, not with these numbers. At one time maybe, but Earth was at peace now. Their arrival was way off base.

"You wanted an order," John then continued. "Well, you got one. Take out as many of those guys any way you can."

Major Force's eyes widened with joy. "You mean I can go all out?"

"Hell yeah. Because if you don't, they'll do a lot worse to you."

Batman and Cassandra stared at the computer screen, a window showing the descent of several red streaks.

What on Earth were those?

Well, whatever they were, they were going to need to be investigated. There was no telling what they were, or what they would do when they landed. Looking to Cassandra, he said, "Suit up, we're going out there."

The dark-haired woman nodded before retrieving her mask, which she had set on the computer console. Slipping it on, her mass of red hair settled down her shoulders and back, the visage of Batwoman appearing before him. That was one thing he had been meaning to ask: why the wig? It was a question that would have to wait for later though.

Turning away from the computer, Batman began to stride towards his car, Batwoman on his heels. At least, that's where they were heading when a bright light suddenly flashed before him.

Immediately, Batman had an arm over his eyes, shielding them from the light, the same with Batwoman. His other hand instinctively dropped to his belt reaching for a shuriken. Slowly, he inched his arm down so that he could see over it as the light became more bearable.

Before him, a strange symbol floated in the air. It was much like a cross, save that its top part was of a loop rather than line. If he recalled his ancient hieroglyphic class, the symbol was of an ankh.

And then he saw something within the ankh. Slowly, the form of a man began to emerge until he was hovering right before the shining symbol. A blue bodysuit was highlighted with gold, from the gloves, boots, cape, and belt. More importantly was the gold helmet the person wore, masking his face.

The ankh disappeared then, leaving the man floating in midair. "Batwoman," he greeted Cassandra, nodding in her direction before he looked to him. "Time Traveler."

"Who are you?" Batman demanded, clutching his bat-shaped shuriken tightly. "How did you get in here?"

"We have never had the honor of meeting," the man declared, slowly descending to the floor. "And for that, I apologize. I have many names on many planes of reality, but on this one I am known as Dr. Fate."

Batwoman perked her head up. "You were the one that helped Zatanna!"

"Indeed," he acknowledged with a nod. I was saddened to hear of her untimely passing."

"Why are you here?" Batman questioned then, earning himself the doctor's attention. "In case you haven't noticed, there something falling onto the planet."

"I am quite aware of what is happening," Dr. Fate answered him. "However, I am here to protect this timeline, such as it is. You will not be joining the fighting."

The Dark Knight scowled. "Like hell I won't."

Dr. Fate did not looked perturbed by his growl. "If you go out there, you will be killed. For the sake of this world and your own, you must heed this warning."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I will use force."

Talking was over. Ultimately, if they continued, it would end in a fight. With that in mind, Batman threw his shuriken at the Fate. The man responded by raising his hand and then waved it off. Appearing out of then air, a ball of light fired off in time with the doctor's gesture. The light and projectile collided with each other and Batman got to watch his metal bat disintegrate before his eyes. The moment the shuriken was gone, so was the light, leaving only a whiff of smoke floating up to the ceiling.

"If that is your decision, then face the consequences."

Dr. Fate then held his hands out in front of him, his left at chest height, palm up, the right at shoulder height, palm down. A blue light appeared between the hands until a sphere of energy appeared, it's green core spinning.

Oh great, this guy knew how to use magic.

Fate then fired the sphere, which caused both vigilantes to dart to a side, one going left and the other right. The magic sphere raced through the air until it hit the floor, a cloud of smoke and dirt blowing up at the impact site.

As she circled around their opponent, Batwoman threw her arm out, two bat-shaped shuriken flying out and towards their target.

This didn't faze Fate at all. He held his hand out, the projectiles slowed to a stop before they hovered mere inches from his palm. His fingers relaxed before they straightened out. In turn, the shuirkens flew back towards Batwoman, causing her to skid to a stop, eyes wide.

Batman saw this and he too was surprised. However, he was not going to let those projectiles hit his partner. Already having his own shuriken in hand, the dark-clad man sent them whirling through the air, watching them fly until they collided with the other projectiles. Each one clanged against each other feet away from Batwoman's face.

However, because of this, the vigilante had slowed to a stop. The ground beneath his feet suddenly began rising, throwing him off balance. Parts of the earth extended out faster, forming fingers. Realizing what was going on, Batman leaped up, his feet touching down on top of the fingers as they began to curl in. He bounced off of it, landing a short distance away.

By then, Batwoman had taken off again, managing to get behind Dr Fate. Leaping forward with one leg bent, she rammed her knee into the back of his helmet, causing him to cry out as he stumbled forward. Keeping that leg up as she touched her other foot to the ground, she then kicked out her raised foot and nailed the helmeted man in his back, pushing him even further off balance. He awkwardly took several steps as he tried to regain his balance, head and upper body leaning forward.

Seeing the opening, Batman charged in. Raising a fist, he leaped at the last moment as he threw his punch.

Then out of nowhere, Dr Fate snapped his head up, extending a hand out in front of him. A team of light emerged from his palm and Batman flew right into it, instantly stopping in midair. Stunned by this, he tried to shake the sudden paralysis off, but found his body didn't so much as twitch. He tried to jerk his arms, turn his head, move his legs, but nothing budged.

Turning his head around, the blue-clad man threw up his other hand, the same light emerging and washing over Batwoman. "That is enough out of the two of you," he declared, not the least bit put off by their confrontation. "I know you do not see this as the right thing, but you will soon come to understand."

The ankh reappeared them, glowing brilliantly behind him. Gradually it began to glow brighter and brighter until neither vigilante could see the cave anymore. It wasn't painful to their eyes surprisingly enough, but when it began to fade they were clearly not in the cave anymore.

Diana entered the daylight, adjusting her shield against her arm. Strapped to her back was her sword, a gift from Hephaestus, which had allowed her to win the day in battle many a time.

They had received Cyborg's distress call perhaps ten minutes ago. Although it was John that answered it, they had heard the entire conversation. The dark-haired woman was more than ready to deal with the situation herself.

Which brought her to the courtyard. Though the public only saw the exterior of the hall, there was a large courtyard towards it center. It was something she had insisted upon during the construction and she had found it a welcomed reminder of home. A gazebo was situated in the middle as lush flowers and plants formed a garden surrounding it. Pillars of Ancient Greek architecture were littered throughout, a couple of which were purposefully tilted to lean against other pillars at diagonal angles. For now, it was a meeting area.

Standing by the gazebo were Shazam, Raven, and Killer Frost. They had been unable to hail Enchantress, but that was no matter. If she shirked her duties, there would be a reprimand at a later time.

"The Watchtower is under attack," Diana announced to her comrades as she approached them, coming to a stop in front of the group. "Cyborg is currently the only one aboard that can fight, so he is in need of assistance."

"Do we know what's attacking?" Shazam asked, a giddiness in his voice. It appeared he was more than ready for combat. "Are they aliens? Zombies? Oh! I hope they're zombies!"

"Zombies are planet-bound phenomenon," Raven said drolly. "The Watchtower, in case you didn't know, is in space. So it's not zombies."

"What about Space Zombies?" The somber girl looked at Shazam. "What? They're zombies in space. It could happen."

"Be that as it may," Diana interrupted, attempting to stop the tangent this conversation was taking. "Our excursion is leaving the Hall of Justice without its usual number of defenders."

"Superman is more than capable of watching the place," Shazam interjected. "If whatever's attacking, they'd be stupid to attack here."

"He's right," Killer Frost agreed.

"We still have our edict," the Amazon said sternly. "Raven, I want you to stay here and make sure the Hall is adequately defended. Killer Frost and I will teleport up to the Watchtower to lend Cyborg aid." She then looked to Shazam. "Shazam, this threat will most likely strike Neo-Metropolis. They will need assistance as well, so I'm leaving the protection of the city in your hands."

"Awesome!" the young hero exclaimed.

Looking to Raven, the dark-haired woman waited for her acknowledgement. "I suppose you'll want me to lend Shazam assistance if he gets in over his head," she said.

Ignoring the indignant response from Shazam, Diana nodded. "Yes, but he should be more than enough to protect the city."

Suddenly, red portals flashed into existence. Jerking her head around, Diana saw each one at an even interval from each other, circling the courtyard. Immediately, the four heroes turned so that their backs were to each other, facing the portals. The red swirling of its rim seemed to spin at odd rates, sometimes going faster, sometimes slow. Its inner core though, appeared to be spewing a thick, red substance, which never splashed upon the grass, or sidewalk. Diana had been in many battles, but she knew what that substance was.

Blood.

That was blood flowing in and out of those portals, yet never leaving whatever it led to. What sort of magic was this?

With blood and rage of crimson red…

"Guys?" Shazam spoke up. "Did you hear that?"

"I did," Raven confirmed, her black magic beginning to encompass her hands, forming black spheres.

"Somethings coming out of them!" Killer Frost reported then.

Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead…

Indeed, things were emerging from the portals. They were silhouettes at first, but as the blood surrounding them pulled away, their features became known. Before Killer Frost was a creature with six eyes, their furry head the only part of them showing from beneath its red and black costume.

Diana's eyes narrowed. She knew a Lantern Corps uniform when she saw one. It wasn't too different from the Green and Yellow Lanterns she had come across. Was it possible there was a Red Corps as well?

Turning her head, she could see a couple more appearing. One was purple, humanoid in shape, yet it had one giant black eye, a small mouth with fangs protruding out from its upper and lower jaws. The other was of a blue-skinned woman, a head with flowing red hair, and what seemed to be a black domino mask covering her eyes. Unlike her comrades, her Lantern suit was a leotard, revealing her toned blue legs.

Together with our hellish hate…

"Great Solomon!" Shazam swore then, earning Diana's attention. "That thing is just a floating brain!"

Turning her head, the Amazon saw what he meant. There was a literal brain with thin tentacles dangling from it.

Meh, she had seen more bizarre things.

We'll burn you all!

Finally something emerged from the portal before Diana. This one seemed to be the greatest of all. Its form towered over the other Red Lanterns and that was just its silhouette. However, as it moved from its portal, it became distinct. A similar Lantern suit to its...possibly male comrades, red skin, it seemed more menacing than the others though.

Its head looked just like a monsters. Bald, sharp teeth, enraged eyes, there was no way it could be sentient.

It came to stand before the Leaguers, looking them over with an intelligence the other Lanterns didn't seem to have. It's monstrous features only served to hide this, something Diana came to realize as it opened its mouth and spoke.

"That is your fate."

To the first Guest reviewer: Thanks!

To the second Guest reviewer: I see you've been keeping up with Of Earth and Sky. I can certainly say that these aliens are entirely different from the ones after Koriand'r. Not unless Anonymous Void decides to surprise all of us.

To Phebee: There's always hope. It all depends on what happens going forward.