A hatch opened, allowing the Javelin Seven to enter a hangar. The vessel slowly floated in, the landing gear being activated. Its wings rotated to point upward as wheels descended downward. It came to a stop in the middle of the hangar, touching down on the smooth, polished floor. All around it were various vessels of Kalanorian design, each one parked and at rest.
The hangar doors closed then, shutting with an ominous finality. In an instant, Kalanorians flooded the large room, taking up positions in front of the spacecraft. Many dropped to a knee as they raised up their plasma rifles, taking aim. Others stood behind the kneeling ones, also with raised plasma rifles. Behind the standing ones were even more Kalanorians, holding their weapons in front of them, ready to take aim at a moment's notice. Their sheer numbers were staggering.
It was several moments before the Javelin Seven deployed its ramp, the bottom of the hull lowering down until the end of the ramp touched down on the floor. The Kalanorians remained as still as statues, not one finger budging to fire in panic.
Suddenly, a green beam raced out of the vessel, erupting in front of the ship as if formed a rounded construct. The Kalanorians immediately fired their plasma rifles, an onslaught of plasma beams striking the construct, but none of them doing any damage.
That was when the League took action. Diana flew down the ramp, darting to her left the moment she reached the floor. The edge of the domed shield construct left a gap between the ship and the shield, which the Amazon used to her advantage. At least, that was the goal, but that's when she encountered another unit of Kalanorian gunmen, one smaller than the main force currently blasting the shield construct, but with enough plasma rifles to be a challenge.
They opened fire the moment they saw her.
Raising up her arms, Diana began blocking the plasma blasts, ricocheting them away. Lunging forward, she charged towards the finned-headed aliens until she plowed into their formation. Many of the gunmen cried out as they were bowled over and fell to the floor, the Amazon emerging out behind them.
Meanwhile, Black Lightning had come running down the ramp, slowing down as he reached the bottom. Holding both of his arms up, one hovering over the other with the palms of his hands facing each other, he gathered electricity, causing the air between his hands to crackle and spark. Stepping towards the right, he went for the gap opposite the one Diana used.
However, he didn't charge out like she had, instead making certain to keep cover behind the shield. There was also a unit of Kalanorian gunmen waiting, eyeing the gap.
Peeking out, Black Lighting fired a lightning blast, one that not only struck one of the gunmen, but the one behind them as well. The Kalanorians screamed as their bodies seized. Black Lightning abruptly stopped his attack as he jerked back behind his cover, the rest of the gunmen opening fire.
That was when Hawkgirl came swooping out of the Javelin. Opting not to go around the shield, she instead went straight up over it. This caught the Kalanorians' attention as some of the gunmen changed targets, raising their plasma rifles up to begin firing at her. The Thanagarian, however, continued arching her flight as she flew up and then over the Javelin, disappearing behind it.
With their attention on the vanishing Thanagarian, this left many of the Kalanorians blind to Vixen. With the speed of a cheetah, she raced down the ramp and then out the gap next to Black Lightning. She was a blur as she pumped her arms at her sides, closing in on the Kalanorians rapidly. Suddenly, she changed her animal power at the last moment to an elephant. With an incredible strength, she rammed into finned-headed aliens much like Diana had previously. However, she had her arms stretched out as far as she could, clotheslining the aliens as she crashed into them.
Because of her momentum, she kept running through their lines, picking up two, three, four Kalanorians as they clung to her arms and body. She continued pumping her legs until she ran into the side of one of the Kalanorian vessels within the hangar, a deafening crash ringing out as she crushed all four aliens against the side of the spacecraft. The ship's hull cratered, the Kalanorians' eyes bulging out of their heads from the impact. One by one, they went limp against Vixen, the dark-skinned woman only backing away when she was certain they would drop into heaps on the floor. Re-summoning the cheetah, she then bolted away to take on more enemies.
Lastly, J'onn and Kilowog walked down the ramp, the two eyeing the fight as Diana was a blur of movement, darting back and forth as she punched, kicked, and tackled her own unit of Kalanorians. Hawkgirl suddenly re-emerged as she flew by, whacking a Kalanorian behind the Amazon on the head with her mace. With Vixen drawing attention as she ran, Black Lighting began firing more lightning bolts, stunning or rendering unconscious several distracted Kalanorians.
"My turn," Kilowog suddenly grunted. The face of his shield began to bubble up at random places, still immune to the constant impacts of the plasma beams. Then simultaneously, the bubble popped, large fists suddenly racing forward. The fists rammed into the Kalanorian gunmen, knocking them back into the lines behind them as they cried out. The barrage of plasma blasts immediately dipped.
Black Lighting instantly took advantage of this. Moving around the shield construct until he stood in front of it, he knelt down, slapping both of his hands on the floor. A web of electricity washed out across the metal floor, spreading out like a tidal web. The moment the voltage touched the aliens, their bodies were seized, freezing them in place as they were shocked. Smoke began to waft up from their bodies the longer it went.
Of course, this initial success could not have lasted. As the Kalanorian forces were subdued, doors on opposite sides of the hangar slid open. More Kalanorians began to pour in, assuming new formations before they began to open fire once more.
As Kilowog made yet another shield to defend the Justice League from the fresh Kalanorian troops, J'onn watched impassively as his teammates moved to take cover behind the shield construct.
The others' aggressiveness stood in stark contrast to the Martian's current passivity. He had yet to raise a hand against their opposition; faintly, he felt that this was intentional. The others wanted to make certain he was at full strength to take on Despero, so they would take on the despot's foot soldiers so that he conserved his strength.
Expanding his mind, he searched the present Kalanorians, detecting potent telepathic abilities, but it was quite clear these Kalanorians were not attempting to use such a power. Compared to the ones the Martian had encountered on Earth so long ago, none of them were of the same capabilities, which was likely why they were determined to use the plasma rifles. That meant the stronger telepaths were further ahead.
Tilting his head up, J'onn conducted a different search this time. It wasn't long until he felt a very formidable level of telepathy and he knew it was Despero. He quickly pulled his mind back when he felt the Kalanorian leader's mind shifted its attention. No doubt he knew there was a telepath here, but with any luck, he would not have realized it was J'onn.
Returning his attention to his friends and comrades, he saw they were engaging themselves against the Kalanorian gunmen. Diana had moved herself around Kilowog's shield construct, protecting herself with her metal bracers as she advanced on her foes. Vixen raced around the other side with her cheetah-imbued speed, performing a pincer maneuver.
That seemed sufficient for him to take his leave.
His body turned transparent and J'onn then lifted off of the floor. Rising up towards the ceiling, he passed right through it, entering a hallway. He ignored this as he continued moving to the next level and then the next. He could still feel the immense power of Despero and he headed right for it.
The others would be upset, but the sooner Despero was dealt with, the sooner this emergency ended. No matter their best efforts, they could not fight while concerning themselves with conserving his strength.
Soon, entire rooms and hallways flashed by him, J'onn passing through countless levels of the Kalanorian mothership. He faintly saw people performing their duties, but whether they took notice of him, he could not say. He felt some stirrings of minds, some out of surprise and shock, so he could only assume they had. Then he stopped abruptly as he emerged into yet another hallway, though this one was slightly different.
In front of him was a set of doors, large and imposing. The incredible telepathic power he felt was coming from behind them. Undeterred, he passed through the doors, entering the bridge of the mothership.
It looked just like the one he had first encountered Despero in on Earth. A round room with a seemingly endless amount of computer terminals and stations. They circled around the room along its walls, only ending a short distance away from the main entrance. At the center of the room was a throne-like chair, its back facing towards him.
Losing his transparency, J'onn stared at the Kalanorians that were seated at their workstations, coordinating the large Kalanorian force. Not a single one of them had taken notice of the Martian.
"You've come."
Slowly, the chair spun around, revealing Despero's hulking form. He was calm and collected, his elbows propped up on the armrests of his chair so that he could hold his hand in front of him, the palms and fingers pressed together by his chin. His three eyes all focused on J'onn.
Immediately, J'onn felt a mind probe him, nothing too unexpected. He held himself firmly, even as the other Kalanorians in the command room slowed their activities and glanced over their shoulders towards him. He could sense no alarm from them, however.
Then Despero's mouth twitched, each end spreading until his sharpened teeth began to show. "I knew you would come."
Diana ducked as she avoided a blast from the plasma rifle. Considering it was a mere foot away, she had used her speed to allow herself to dodge.
She used that same speed to immediately close the distance between her and the gunman, grabbing the barrel of the plasma rifle, and with a squeeze of her hand, cripple it as the alien metal crumpled beneath her fingers. The end of the barrel even twisted upwards, creating nearly a ninety degree angle with the weapon.
Then the Amazon counterattacked. Lunging forward, she led with the elbow of her other arm, ramming it right into the chest of the Kalanorian before her. The force of her blow sent the Kalanorian flying backwards, immediately crashing into the side of one of his compatriots, knocking the two to the floor. For good measure, there was a bolt of lightning that struck them, causing their limbs to seize before they went limp, lying in a heap on the floor.
Diana only spared an appreciative nod to Black Lightning for finishing the men off before she turned to another Kalanorian. Their numbers had dwindled to three—make that two as Vixen raced by, performing a move Flash would have been proud of as she punched the side of a Kalanorian gunman's head. He was knocked off of his feet, landing hard on the floor, where he did not move.
That's when Hawkgirl descended from above, shouting her war cry. "Haaaaaaa!" Landing in front of the two remaining Kalanorians, she swung her mace, nailing one against the side of their head. She immediately performed a backswing, hitting the last remaining Kalanorian with sparks erupting from the electricity dancing across the head of the mace, burning flesh and breaking skin for blood to flow out.
Silence fell over the heroes then. Sparing a look to the doors to the hangar, there was no sign of reinforcements showing. Straightening out her posture, Diana asked, "Is everyone alright?"
She received many confirmations as their team gathered together. "I have to say, that was kind of fun," Vixen remarked. "You know, if you ignored all of the plasma beams."
"What's the next objective?" Black Lightning asked.
"We search for Despero," Diana answered. "He is the key to putting a swift end to all of this."
Seeing the man nod his acceptance, that was when Hawkgirl spoke up. "Has anyone seen J'onn?"
Shooting a curious look to her winged sister, Diana then realized that the Martian was not among them. Immediately looking around, she found J'onn wasn't in the hangar at all. Continued searching confirmed this.
"Where did he go?" she couldn't help but ask.
Shayera growled. "That idiot. He must have gone after Despero while we all were fighting."
"But he was right next to me!" Kilowog exclaimed. "I didn't even see him leave!"
"J'onn can pass through walls. He could have gone in literally any direction," the Thanagarian explained. "And he could pass through every single level and room without having to search for Despero, which we can't unfortunately do. That selfless bastard."
"All the more reason we need to reunite with him," Diana proclaimed. What was done was done. This wasn't the first time either of them had taken matters into their own hands and they all knew J'onn fighting Despero was the way this was going to end. Still, having backup could only help him.
"Which way do we go?" Black Lighting inquired. "We all saw how large this place was when the tractor beam brought us in. We can't just go searching randomly."
That was an excellent point. Thankfully, Kilowog had an answer. "I'd be willing to bet shekels that Despero will be on the ship's bridge. We find that, we find him and the Martian."
"Then that's where we'll head," Shayera declared. "Any idea where the bridge is?"
"Not a one. I'm not familiar with Kalanorian designs."
So that left them on square one still. "We'll just have to get it out of one of the Kalanorians," Diana suggested. "Let's go before we are attacked with more reinforcements and are effectively trapped here."
She received nods once more and then their team headed for one of the exits out of here. They entered a hallway, one that formed a T-intersection with another hallway shortly after. Glancing down both directions, Diana didn't see any signs of Kalanorians, or markers that could direct them. So she made the executive decision to take a right, the rest of the team following her.
Hopefully J'onn could hold out until they reached him. It was certainly going to take awhile.
"I knew you would come."
J'onn remained cool as he stared at the space tyrant. The toothy smile he wore was a little unnerving. "You have been causing mindless destruction," he intoned.
Despero shook his head. "Mindless, no. Everything I have done was to draw you out. I desired a face-to-face with the man that defeated me."
"For revenge, no doubt."
The large Kalanorian stared at him before he lowered his hands down, each one coming to rest on the armrests of his chair. "When I came out of that psychic coma you had placed me in, I will admit that wrath was present. No one has…violated me…quite like you had."
"A scenario you yourself performed on hundreds, if not thousands," J'onn responded.
"I do not deny that; in fact, you are correct in that I have crushed my fair share of minds. I can acknowledge that when one conducts a battle of the minds, such an outcome is likely." His face darkened then. "I did not like it."
No, J'onn could not imagine Despero had. The Martian did not enjoy doing such damage to another sentient being, but there had been little choice at the time. Defeating Despero as he had had stopped the Kalanorian invasion in an instant. If there had been another option, he would have preferred to pursue it. Yet, it was hard to argue against the results.
It seemed that Desper had sensed his emotions as he said, "However, that was the only way you could have defeated me and I acknowledge this. For that, I must salute your abilities, Martians. You are truly a master of the psychic plane."
Praise? From a man that had just regained his mind? This was unexpected. "You have committed many atrocities since your return," J'onn then spoke. "The destruction of Tamaran, the Citadel, and countless others. You did not have to do so."
"Perhaps," Despero replied, "and as guilty as I am for the devastation that I had wrought, those worlds are not innocent of this either. They had a choice to allow me to pass unmolested and they chose to stand in my way. They sealed their own fates when they stood in my way."
"So you chose to destroy entire planets?" J'onn seethed, images of the Tamaraneans on Earth flashing into his mind. It angered him.
"You speak of Tamaran," the Kalanorian said, clearly sensing this. "I may have set things into motion that caused its destruction, but it was the Tamaranean leader that saw to its doom personally. Considering all of her dealings with the Citadel, one would assume she would have stood out of my way. Her own desire for glory and the title of my defeater is what led her to be homeless."
It seemed there was more to Blackfire's story than she had revealed. It was only natural she would tell a version that elicited sympathy for her cause. Many humans had done much the same as she had. "And the Citadel?" he questioned.
Despero shrugged his shoulders with bemusement. "I can admit that I wanted to make an example of them. The damage I have done to their reputation and prestige will last for generations. It is not often one is able to cleave an entire quarter of a planet off without destroying it all together."
J'onn narrowed his eyes. "I will not allow you to destroy one more civilization, Despero. Your conquest ends here and now."
"No, it does not."
Despero stood up from his seat, a cape falling to his knees behind him. Holding out one hand, he gestured to the bridge around them. "This is hardly a place worthy of a battle between two beings like ourselves. There is another, worthier place that will be suitable to our destined struggle. If you would indulge me, I will lead us to this arena."
J'onn could not sense any malice in those words, so he found himself nodding. It was perhaps even ideal if the two of them went elsewhere for their fight. That way no Kalanorians would be caught up in the battle. Seeing his acceptance, another sharp-tooth smile graced the giant Kalanorian's face before he strode towards him with long strides. He walked by the Martian, only stopping at the doors so that they could slide open.
"If you would follow me," Despero said as he gestured with one hand. "This ship is quite large and one could find themselves lost without a proper guide. I wouldn't want this inevitable battle between us to be denied because of something as simple as a wrong turn."
If the outside of the Kalanorian mothership had been enormous, the inside was proving to be just as expansive.
It seemed as if Diana and the others had been roaming the corridors of this ship for quite a bit of time. It was like they were in a maze with no idea other than where they wanted to go—except they didn't where the end point was either. It was definitely not ideal, but they had little choice.
Worrisome though, was the lack of guards. After being swarmed by them in the hangar, they had yet to run into a patrol. Either every available unit had rushed to the hangar and they had been defeated, or there were others lying in wait. Not to belabor the point of how large this spacecraft was, but Diana rather doubted the resistance they initially met was all that was available.
Currently, they were walking down yet another hallway. That was after they had climbed up a couple of levels. It was because of this that Diana questioned the lack of guard patrols. Surely they should have run into one by now.
"Any idea where we are?" Vixen asked after awhile. "I get the feeling we're lost."
"None whatsoever," Shayera replied, earning herself an incredulous look from the dark-skinned woman.
"Weren't you on a ship just like this the first time these aliens attacked?" she questioned.
"It's similar, but, well, we were all either brainwashed, or fighting for our lives to care," Shayera said bluntly. "The only person that managed to figure out where everything was was J'onn. As you can see, he's not here."
"Maybe you should tell us what happened the first time," Vixen suggested then. "So that we can be aware of what may happen."
That was a reasonable request. "The Kalanorians are powerful telepaths," Diana said in answer. "They were able to alter the thoughts of the League even as we fought them. This allowed them to capture us and then try to brainwash us into being their allies. I believe that was how they used to work, going from world to world, gathering allies from those they defeated. Thankfully, we were unable to undo the brainwashing before too much damage was done."
"Speak for yourself," Shayera muttered. "You didn't have to fight you. The Kalanorians weren't able to get in my head."
"Really?" Kilowog responded, interested in the redhead's words. "Why is that?"
"Thanagarians have evolved to prevent mental intrusions. It frustrated the crap out of those re-educators when they realized they couldn't get in. Assholes tried to beat me because of it. If it wasn't for J'onn and Batman, I would have introduced a lot of them to the business end of my mace."
Up ahead, an intersecting hallway created a four-way intersection. Diana only made note of it as a frown appeared on her face. "I seem to recall having issues fighting the Kalanorians on Earth, the ones that were preparing for the invasion. Because they were able to sense our thoughts, they were able to predict our movements."
"Yeah, so?" Shayera questioned.
"Then wouldn't it be logical for them to track us and set up for an ambush?"
As if that were a cue, Kalanorians swarmed from either side of the intersecting hallway, unleashing a barrage of plasma beams.
Immediately, Diana raised up her arms, bouncing off beams to prevent them from striking her and her team. A moment later and a green beam raced over her shoulder, forming a green wall that filled the entire corridor from ceiling to floor, wall to wall.
"Well, you certainly called that one," Shayera grunted. "No wonder we haven't encountered guards, they've been organizing an ambush. They probably have several more everywhere."
"We can only worry about this one," Diana said. "Kilowog, can you advance your construct to the Kalanorians?"
"Consider it done," the Bolovaxian confirmed. The construct began moving down the hallway, the heroes following close behind. The Kalanorians kept up their gunfire, only realizing at the last moment that Kilowog had every intention of ramming them with his construct. By then, it was too late for them to get out of the way as they were hit, the green wall shoving them backwards. Kalanorians that were able to leap back into the intersection corridor did so to avoid getting swept away.
The moment the wall had passed the mouths of the halls, the Justice League was on them. As Black Lighting fired a charged lightning bolt down one hallway, Diana and Hawkgirl charged into the opposite one. They needed to make quick work of these Kalanorians as this ambush proved there were plenty of these guards around and their telepaths knew exactly where they were at.
To Guest: Clearly the scene made an impact on you. And to elaborate on Hawkgirl, she hasn't had the time like Superman and Green Lantern to dwell on what happened. Her people arrive, so she has to tend to those responsibilities, then she takes off with J'onn to fight Despero. Meanwhile, the other two do manual labor, which with their powers allows them time to reflect on what happened. Hopefully that makes sense.