11. United They Stand
Barry ran across the Atlantic Ocean at a moderate pace, making sure that Wonder Woman and Green Lantern were keeping up with him. Running on water at a reduced speed wasn't particularly easy. There were a multitude of factors to consider, ranging from ensuring that his speed didn't drop low enough to render his footfall pressure high enough to simply sink with each step to making sure that he didn't accidentally kick through a wave, break surface tension, and topple over into the water. At full speed, he could just zip past until he ran out of fuel, but he figured that getting there before the big guns flying above him was probably not the best idea.
Their comms with Superman and Batman had been down just like it had been for Kara and Aquaman's team. If it wasn't for the fact that he and Lantern had stayed in constant communication even during battle, he would've seriously questioned the utility of having the commlinks and this Batman's engineering capabilities.
Well, maybe he wouldn't go that far.
At the horizon, the skyline of Metropolis—and a conspicuously out-of-place Kryptonian ship floating in the middle of skyscrapers, its blue beam of doom still shooting into the earth—loomed ahead. Despite the distance, the destruction was evident from the crushed skyscrapers and buildings that circled the Kryptonian mothership.
Barry preemptively quashed that familiar rising fear. There was no time for him to fear. And with the Justice League—plus a Green Lantern and a Supergirl, minus one Cyborg—he felt like he didn't need to fear anymore. For the first time in years, that sight of the Kryptonian ship in the middle of Metropolis didn't fill him with that feeling.
It filled him with determination.
No one else was dying to Zod if he could help it. That determination made Flash run faster, speeding across the ocean toward the Port of Metropolis.
"Batman, come in," Flash said, pressing his commlink. There was no reply from the Dark Knight.
"Yo, Flash!" Lantern's voice came over the comms. "Slow down! We can't keep up back here!"
"I'll run ahead for recon," Flash quickly replied. "First sight of Zod, I'll scram. I'm gonna see if I can find Batman to get our comms with him and Supes back online."
He took off even faster before Lantern could respond. Water turned into concrete as he sped past shipping containers, huge metal cranes, and warehouses, and he broke right through the wooden barrier gate bar that controlled port entry in mere seconds as he sped toward the city proper. There were still people fleeing the city on the outskirts, but as he ran closer to the business district, the crowds thinned out dramatically. Most notably, there was a distinct lack of aircraft in the sky, which meant Batman had to be on the ground. If he was still alive at all.
Barry came to skidding stop when he finally saw the edge of the gravity field that the Kryptonian ship generated, rising and falling just like it had in his memories. Shaking his head, he turned and ran parallel to the edge of the field, skimming the circumference of the area of effect and zipping through the alleyways and streets of downtown Metropolis. In his semi-educated, somewhat-reasonable opinion, Batman, being the man that he was across the multiverse, would never elect to be far from danger, and eventually he had to find him. Running up the side of a medium-rise building, he finally found him, still clad in thick metal armor, standing on the rooftop and looking up at the Kryptonian ship.
"Flash," Batman grunted, not even deigning to turn around. "I assume comms are down, or you would've called ahead."
"Only between channels," Flash replied. "Lantern and I remained in constant communication."
"Hm," Batman intoned. He looked down to tap a few commands on small screen mounted on the inside of his left forearm. "The same for me and Superman. I'm resetting the commlink system, then. We need full team contact."
As the two waited for Batman's comm network to reboot, a booming sound above their heads drew the attention of both men. Barry looked up to see a small object speeding down, a faint orange glow visible from the friction of atmospheric re-entry. The object split into two, the first remaining stationary in the air while the second plummeted toward a high-rise office building.
"Superman," Batman confirmed, his helmet's magnification far more powerful than Barry's unaided eyes.
"Is he kicking Zod's ass or getting his ass kicked?" Barry squinted, but all he could make out was a figure floating in the sky with what appeared to be a cape. He couldn't even quite tell what color outfit the figure was wearing.
"He's not winning," Batman admitted.
The commlink finally burst to life, overlapping voices coming in.
"Clear the channel," Batman ordered, his voice—despite remaining at the same volume—overriding those of all others. The commlink indeed went quiet. "Aquaman, report in."
Barry could hear a sigh of exhaustion from the other end. "Aquaman here," Aquaman finally said. "We took out both Pacific world engines, but we got chewed up in the process. We've returned back to Atlantis already. No way we can hit the Indian Ocean one with what I've got left."
"We took out the ones in Nairomi and Bialya," Flash quickly replied, his finger on his commlink. "I regrouped with Batman and—" Barry stopped to see Superman blast out of a collapsing high-rise building toward Zod, "Superman in Metropolis. Lantern and Wonder Woman will be joining us soon."
"Wonder—who?" Aquaman asked.
"You'll meet her later," Batman said, ending that line of inquiry. "No time to rest, Aquaman. Stay on standby off Metropolis in case we need to call you and your forces in."
Aquaman huffed, but then grunted in what Barry perceived to be in the affirmative before he cut his end off. Batman turned to Flash. "I assume Wonder Woman is Diana Prince."
Barry nodded.
"I've been trying to contact her for weeks. How did you find her?"
A shrug in response. "She found us, to be honest. Said she saw us on the news and had to help."
Batman stared impassively at Flash, though most of that was likely due to his expressionless helmet. "I see. Batman to Lantern."
"Lantern here," Lantern responded. "We're probably five minutes out, ETA-wise."
"And the newcomer is beside you?"
"Yep."
"Pass her your commlink."
"Ouch," Lantern replied, but Flash still heard the sound of rustling as Lantern took the commlink out of his ear. Another round of rustling later, and the familiar-accented voice of Wonder Woman came online.
"Is this Bruce?" Wonder Woman asked with some mirth. "You've been chasing me at galas across Europe for some time now, but this isn't the way I expected us to finally meet."
"Wait," Lantern's voice spoke out in the background over the wind. "Bruce?" There was a pause, and Flash could almost hear the gears grinding in Lantern's brain. "Wait, like Bruce Wayne? Is Batman actually Bruce Wayne?"
Flash was certain that there was some amount of teeth grinding behind Batman's helmet. "Diana," the Dark Knight greeted impassively. "It's good to have you onboard."
"Onboard what, exactly?" Wonder Woman's question came back. "I still do not quite understand what you've been trying to recruit me for."
"But you see the need now, clearly."
"Indeed," Wonder Woman admitted.
"We can talk the details later," Batman finally said. He turned to the port. "I see you both, and I suspect you can see us. Regroup here and we can talk strategy." Another boom echoed above them, and Flash and Batman both looked up to see Superman and Zod struggling against each other, crashing through another set of buildings even as the Kryptonian mothership continued to flatten an increasing area around itself.
Sure enough, Flash saw Lantern and Wonder Woman fly toward them in a matter of moments, coming to a stop a few feet above the rooftop in front of them.
Batman unclipped a pouch on his belt and tossed a small object to Lantern, who barely caught it and plugged it into his own ear.
"Everyone's online now," Batman said. "We need to help Superman and take out the Kryptonian ship since Aquaman's team couldn't hit the Indian Ocean world engine."
Flash, Lantern, and Wonder Woman nodded in agreement.
"Lantern, get me and Flash into the Kryptonian ship. Wonder Woman," Batman ordered, "help Superman." Without waiting for a response, Batman jumped off of the rooftop into a glide with his cape, and Lantern immediately conjured separate bubbles around the Dark Knight and Flash to lift toward the Kryptonian ship. Behind him, Flash half-turned to see Wonder Woman leap toward Superman and Zod's fight, away from them.
"What's the plan here, Bats?" Lantern said. He had combined both of the green spheres, also bringing himself within the confines of his creation. "It's going to be a really bumpy ride to the ship."
"Get us there, and I'll see what I can do inside to shut it down," Batman intoned.
The gravity field took hold of their green sphere of life and protection, and they shot up and down with it even as Lantern struggled to keep them from being flung around like ragdolls or getting smashed into bits against the ground.
"Holy mackerel," Lantern swore, his arm shaking as he repaired cracks in the sphere as quickly as they appeared. "This really doesn't need to be this difficult."
"Only way to the ship," Flash stated.
As they approached the Kryptonian mothership, Lantern used the upward force from the gravity field in a slingshot-like effect to catapult them to the top of the ship. The sphere landed just about in the center, and Lantern let it go long enough to conjure a giant pair of tweezers that punctured into the hull of the ship and pulled open paneling to reveal a corridor inside.
"Go!" Lantern yelled as the gravity field reached its zenith. Flash and Batman jumped in with Lantern following behind just as they felt the aftershock of the gravity field sending everything plummeting to the ground again.
Inside the ship, the effects of the gravity field were nonexistent – as were any personnel or guards.
"There were definitely a lot more people here before," Lantern commented. "Where'd they go, to the other outposts around the world?"
Flash looked around, frowning. "None of those had more than a handful of Kryptonians. Unless Zod only had twenty to start with, that wouldn't explain why there's no one here."
Batman didn't say anything, striding forward until they reached the closed door that in front of what Flash presumed was the command center of the ship. Placing a few shaped charges on the door, Batman turned away and triggered them, sending a blast inward to the command deck and blowing a sizable hole in the middle of the closed hatch. Batman stepped through first, and Lantern looked at Flash and shrugged as he flew through the new opening. Flash followed last, looking around as he came in.
It was an open space with a large viewport at the front. A number of consoles off to the side had blinking lights, but the most conspicuous thing was the distinct lack of people.
"It's like a ghost ship," Flash murmured. "Zod came to Metropolis alone?"
"He may have spread his forces too thinly," Batman replied, sitting down in front of one of the consoles, though his tone didn't seem to convey a sense of confidence in his own assessment. He examined the consoles before promptly standing back up. "New plan – we're going to destroy this ship from the inside."
"Didn't exactly find a USB port on there, huh?" Lantern remarked, crossing his arms. Batman shot him a look.
"We need to take this thing down. I'll place charges here. Flash, you take Lantern to the reactor core with these." Batman extended a handful of charges, which seemed to magically appear from his utility belt. "Strategically placed, we should be able to bring the whole ship down."
"Right-o," Flash replied. He took the charges and shoved them into Lantern's hands before grabbing Lantern and holding him bridal style. "Come on, Barbie."
Lantern frowned. "… uh, who're you call—" His words were cut off by a shrill shriek as Flash sped off into the bowels of the ship with him.
He levitated in the sky, reveling the sheer, raw power that he felt flowing through his limbs. He hadn't felt such pure capability in his entire life – not during his youth, or his training, or even when he first arrived on the backwater world that humanity called a home. The potent sensation of potentiality from what he was about to achieve was as ripe as an in-season shurrima, and he could almost taste that fruit's juices on his lips once more after so long. Krypton was on the verge of becoming reality once more.
But for now, General Dru-Zod of Kandor was the mightiest being on the planet Earth.
Mightier than the scrawny brat Kal-El that called himself Superman. It was foolish for such a youth to believe that there was no one stronger than him. When Zod had arrived on this world, he had forcibly adjusted himself to its atmosphere almost immediately, forcing his lungs to breath in the toxic-seeming atmosphere of Earth and letting his eyes and ears be scorched by the tortuous assault of inane babble and sights. He had soaked in the radiation of Earth's Sun, letting his body greedily drink its power as he expedited his own growth in strength to match that of a farmboy's. He had done so because he remembered.
Zod remembered. He remembered a life that he did not live, battles he never fought, and a victory that he had been on the brink of.
It had been a cold spring morning on Krypton when he had first awoken and found that he was not himself – no longer the same Dru-Zod that had spent so many cycles honing himself in the treacherous terrain of Krypton. The pain that he had felt was immense, but he had forced his way through it in usual fashion, nonetheless. Such pain was no inhibitor to him. When that had been controlled, what he found were two Dru-Zods, so alike yet distinct in key aspects. One Dru-Zod had rose in rebellion against the Kryptonian Law Council in success, wiping out the five fools that had once ruled Krypton and capturing the infant Kal-El. However, he had failed to find the Codex even after extracting all that the infant had in his frail corpse, and he had to journey across the stars to find where Jor-El, the insufferable and arrogant betrayer, had sent his niece, Kara Zor-El.
When he finally found the last scion of the House of El, he remembered a battle in the desert. The humans that had fought against him were of little concern, and while the girl had put up a fight, she was ultimately no match for him – even with that human aiding her, running almost faster than his eyes could see. He remembered tracking their movements, finally catching her mid-blow and sending them both tumbling into the sand. He remembered striding to her, with Faora holding her upright, his dagger at the ready to pierce her frail body and rebirth Krypton with her blood. He remembered—
Nothing. There was nothing after that. On the cusp of victory, he had been robbed. Whatever had happened, all that was left was that he found himself in bed on that cold Kandor morning, with nothing but dual sets of memories conflicting with each othser.
This Dru-Zod was, in the past Dru-Zod's estimation, defective. He was more variable and less committed to the steadfast goal and purpose of his existence. Was that a failure of this world's Krypton, a weaker, flawed, and less perfect version of the Krypton that he remembered? Or was his past self's version the aberrant in the equation? It did not truly matter.
Even now, Zod could not quite understand who or what he was, and frankly, he did not care. He was who he was. He was General Dru-Zod, the protector of Krypton. What he remembered, even across worlds and times, was of little consequence in the end. What was left at the end was himself, now equipped with two sets of memories and learning from failures and successes.
Hence the pain he endured in forcing himself into adapting to the atmosphere of the squalor around him. He needed the power it gave him, as loath as he was to admit it. Faora and some of the other sub-commanders under him had tried to do the same, though they had struggled far more with adapting to the painful air around them. It was no matter to him; if they could do that, then they would be all the more formidable to the world's defenders, and if they didn't, then they were still powerful beings on Earth. He alone was enough. His memories assured him of that. He had debased himself by donning their clothing and pleading in a way that made him seem weak, but he did so out of expediency. Now, he had three world engines instead of one, and this world would be transformed into a new Krypton all the faster.
"Kal-El," Zod called out to the lesser Kryptonian that pulled himself out of the rubble beneath. "Why persist and delay the inevitable? Every moment you suffer now is another moment that I will add to my torment of your beloved humanity after this."
"You're insane," Kal-El spat out, faint traces of blood on his teeth. "How can this be what Krypton was like?"
Zod didn't reply and prepared a defensive stance as Kal-El shot toward him, but what he didn't expect was a blow to the back of the head that sent him stumbling forward in the air, and as he regained balance, Kal-El's fist smashed into Zod's face and sent him onto the rooftop of a nearby building, where he cracked the concrete upon impact. He looked up to see two figures—an armored man and a red-suited man—standing there all of a sudden, and a burst of lightning later, which he could only half-perceive due to the sheer speed, the red-suited man was suddenly back where he started. Zod had tracked him coming toward him but didn't see anything else. The red-suited man gave a little wave, and then Zod could hear a beeping from behind him.
He reached toward his back but couldn't touch the source of the sound. The beeping could still be heard, and suddenly Zod felt the heat of small explosions on his back that pushed him off-balance and off the edge of the rooftop, which was followed by powerful shield bash from the warrior woman that pummeled him out of the air and downward past the land, breaking the surface of the water outside the city in a hard landing.
Blinking as the water of the ocean hit his eyes, Zod came face-to-face with a human-looking face with considerable facial hair, wielding a trident. Said trident slammed into Zod before he could even react, sending him back out of the water and briefly into the air, where he was greeted by Kal-El and the warrior woman. They sent a joint punch into his sternum that flung him, out-of-control, into the sky just as Black Zero erupted into a fireball of destruction, its terraforming connection disrupted and flickering out of existence. He would've screamed in anger had his breath not been long since knocked out of him.
Zod felt himself spiral into the air backwards, spinning out of control from the force of that combined blow from Kal-El and the warrior woman. Before he could finally stabilize himself, Zod felt a pair of arms—thinner than his own and clad in the sleeves of a Kryptonian skinsuit—slip under his own arms from behind, leveling him out as his back colliding against his savior's chest.
"Faora," Zod breathed out, panting slightly from the exertion of battle, "good. I require—"
"I am not Faora," the figure behind him whispered into his ear. Zod's eyes widened, and he whipped around out of her grasp, seeing the disheveled visage of Kara Zor-El, her short black hair falling over her glowing-red eyes.
A blow from the woman caught Zod off-guard faster than he could react at that point in his exhaustion, sending him tumbling back to earth as he felt hot beams tear through his skinsuit and burn his skin. He roared in anger, but it was a futile anger as he looked up into the sky to see a green man send a gigantic green craft straight into his chest. Zod plummeted straight down, falling into the middle of the excavated circle that Black Zero's terraforming had created and into the midst of the debris from Black Zero's destruction.
Breathing heavily and now bleeding from cuts, Zod pushed himself to his feet as he saw the group assembled before him. On the ground, three figures—a dark armored man, a red-suited man, and the bearded man that he seen only briefly underwater—stood defiantly as Kal-El and Kara Zor-El floated behind them with the green man and warrior woman.
"Do you think this is over?" Zod growled. His body shook ever so slightly from overexertion, but he pushed through the pain of his wounds and the aches of his muscles. "Do you think that you have won?"
"Surrender, Zod," Kal-El calmly responded, floating forward. Like Zod, he looked worse for wear as well, though perhaps not as bad as Zod imagined he looked now. "That's your only option."
"Never," Zod retorted. "By the memory of Krypton, I will never surrender. Not the least to the likes of you and her. You two are traitors to your own people, siding with the pathetic lifeforms of this planet."
"Hold up," the green man loudly said. "These 'pathetic lifeforms' just whupped your ass, dude."
"I guess Kryptonian generals are crybabies," the man with the trident agreed, mimicking a crying motion.
Rage intensified within Zod's heart. His eyes burst out with heat vision, scorching the partially terraformed earth and scattering the assembled defenders. The warrior woman sped toward him, her shield partly blocking one of his beams, but as she swung her sword, he nimbly dodged and slammed her away with a swipe of his arm. She collided into the green man who was right behind her, and both tumbled away. A trident came flying toward him at breakneck pace and would've skewered anyone else, but Zod was Zod and caught it with a half-turn, sending it back to its owner with greater strength; the bearded man barely dodged out of the way, hitting the dirt to avoid being impaled by his own weapon. He shot another round of heat vision at the armored man, but Kal-El landed in front and blocked it with a grunt, the searing heat of the beams starting to cut into Kal-El's skinsuit.
Kara Zor-El whipped around in the air to swing at Zod's head, but he cut off his beams and grabbed her forearm, slamming her into the ground as he reached for her neck. She pulled back her head, but his grip found purchase around the high neckline of her skinsuit, tearing at it and pulling her up by the tightened his grip on the ripped neckline of Kara Zor-El's skinsuit even as she futilely hammed against his forearm.
"I should have snapped your neck in my hand the first time," he snarled, surging power into his eyes—
Out of the corner of his vision, a red blur of lightning ran toward him, carrying a dark gray object toward him. Zod, without loosening his grip on her skinsuit, turned and saw, speeding toward him, that human. The one that had fought against him in the past. It was the speedster that had dared to stand against him, though to no avail. Zod reached out with his right hand—his left still clinging onto Kara—and swung.
Despite his own speed, the human was monstrously fast, and he passed through Zod's swing. Zod had not missed – of that fact, he was sure. The human had simply phased through it somehow, the force of Zod's punch passing harmlessly past the human in a shockwave of power that ballooned out in the air behind.
It was almost torment to Zod, with his eyes being just about able to keep up with the human's movements—even if those movements were just a little too fast for Zod to make out the fine details—but his body being too slow and sluggish to react quickly enough to counter. The human passed through Zod's arm in a burst of electricity, but the gray object, which Zod could now see clearly enough was a long and thin fragment of debris from the hull of Black Zero, passed through Zod's arm – and then stopped, embedded in his shoulder.
Zod screamed as his nerve endings flared in hot fires of pain unlike anything he had ever physically felt before.
Finally, his grip on Kara Zor-El loosened, and she was whisked away by the human in his arms as quickly as the human had arrived. Zod paid no attention to that as he stared in horror at the stump of what had once been his arm. The rest of the limb sat limply on the ground, the faintest amount of blood starting to seep out of the clean cut.
Zod shook. For the first time in two lifetimes, he no longer felt confident. He no longer knew what he needed to do to win. He no longer knew if he could win at all.
He needed more power. And for that, he needed more time.
So, for the first time in any lifetime, Zod did the one thing he had to – he retreated.
"This is not the end!" Zod yelled, before shooting off into the sky as fast as he could, past the wreckage of Black Zero and all of his designs for Earth. He knew that, conceivably, Kal-El might have been able to match his speed, but he didn't look behind him as he sped through the layers of Earth's atmosphere and into the boundaries of space. There was no pursuit, and Zod bottled his rage within him as he set his course, knowing exactly where his destination was to be.
That rage would be saved for his revenge – on the weak Kal-El, on the traitorous Kara Zor-El, on that pesky fast human that seemed to cross him in every life, and on all of the other insects that inhabited that world.
With grim and cold determination, Zod flew away from Earth.
To Be Continued