Chapter 9
The Monitor's realm
In his chamber, Mar Novu observed the thousands of holographic universe orbs floating before him. Only the orbs of Earths 1, 21, 50, and 192 were showcasing the live events of their respective universes, particularly the fights between the heroes and the Anti-Monitor's forces, while all the others were filled with nothing but pitch-black darkness. There were only four worlds left!
Amazo, whose eyes were glowing pure white, appeared in a yellow flash of light behind The Monitor. "Your time has come, Mar Novu," the android announced menacingly.
Knowing that Amazo was under the Anti-Monitor's influence, Novu turned around without saying a word and fired a concentrated beam of orange energy from his hands. Amazo raised his own hand, effortlessly blocking the beam with his palm. As Novu grunted under the effort, unleashing as much of the beam as he could, Amazo wasn't fazed in the slightest and, with a shoving motion, sent the beam back at the other cosmic individual. Novu was thrown several meters back as his own beam struck him and he rolled away on the ground.
"Now it's my turn," Amazo declared, before unleashing a powerful yellow beam from his hands.
The beam struck Novu square in the chest, ripping right through him.
"It was foolish to try to stop the Anti-Monitor, Novu," Amazo stated.
"No, Amazo," Novu responded, weakly. "It was foolish to allow Mobius' creation in the first place."
"The rest of your strength shall now be his," Amazo declared, intensifying his yellow beam as it expanded into an even brighter flash of yellow light that illuminated the entire chamber for several moments.
When the light faded, all that was left of The Monitor were a pile of ashes and scorched remains of his cape. Floating a few feet above Novu's remains was a cloud of orange energy, which Amazo sent into his palm, morphing the energy into the shape of a ball. His task done, the android teleported away.
Earth-1
Kara D was screaming in agony as Lena blasted her with a concentrated kryptonite beam. "Lena, please, I'm not your enemy!" the former pleaded desperately. "If you kill me, Lex will win. That's why you have to…"
Lena looked up as the red sky suddenly returned to its natural blue color, the distraction causing her to cease her assault on the Girl of Steel, who groaned and panted.
Then there as a whoosh of air as Barry appeared. "Lena?"
"Barry," the Luthor woman sneered, glaring at the scarlet speedster.
"So you are the Lena we know," Barry realized. "What happened to you? Why are you…"
"Trying to kill Kara?" Lena finished, scornfully. "Since you interfered, I think I'll kill her boyfriend instead and make her see your corpse when I'm done."
"I don't wanna fight you, Lena, but I will if I have to," Barry warned, preparing for a possible attack from his girlfriend's best friend.
"Then I'll make the choice for you," Lena declared, before unleashing a blast of electricity from her eyes.
Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, Barry was thrown to the ground as the electricity hit his chest.
As Lena fired another blast of electricity, again from her eyes, at him, Barry sped out of the way, ran in circles around Lena a dozen times, and delivered a lightning punch to her chest that sent Lena sailing backwards into a light pole, which was broken in half on impact. Barry ran up to Lena as she got back to her feet. Lena hurled a punch at Barry's head, but Barry effortlessly dodged it.
As Barry sped away and returned a second later to perform a supersonic punch, Lena stamped the ground with one foot, producing a shockwave that knocked Barry multiple feet back. She had accurately timed Barry's swift departure and return, allowing her to land a successful attack on her speedster opponent. As Barry recovered, Lena unleashed another blast of electricity from her eyes. Barry threw out an arm, countering Lena's attack with his own lightning. As the two electrical blasts clashed, the force of the resulting explosion threw Barry and Lena back in opposite directions.
The speedster battle between Jay Garrick and Zoom wasn't going well for the former as the Earth-3 Flash was badly beaten up while the villainous Earth-2 speedster didn't seem fazed very much by the fight. Zoom brutally punched Jay multiple times in the face, which was blooded with multiple bruises, and torso before speeding behind him and striking Jay hard in the back, breaking his spine as Jay let out a cry of pain.
As Jay fell to the ground, Zoom grabbed him by the throat with one hand and, in his deep, monstrous voice, sneered, "You put up a better fight last time, Garrick. It's too bad your old age is catching up to you."
Zoom punched Jay in the face three more times, breaking the latter's nose. Zoom then grabbed Jay's head and held the elder speedster in a firm chokehold.
"There is no reason to keep you alive this time," Zoom pointed out. "Because, when the Anti-Monitor restores my universe, I will be its ruler and no one will be strong or fast enough to stop me."
"You will fail, Zoom," Jay hissed weakly, knowing he very likely didn't have much time left. "There are so many heroes in this Crisis and they will stop you. You, the Anti-Monitor, and the rest of your allies will not win in the end."
"Whatever happens, you won't be around to see the outcome," Zoom declared, before snapping Jay's neck as the life left the Earth-3 Flash's body.
While one speedster battle had come to an abrupt end, another was still taking place as Barry Allen of Earth-90 and Eobard Thawne continued engaging each other. Thawne knocked Allen on the ground with an uppercut and kicked him into a nearby wall, dazing the older speedster. As Allen got back up, Thawne prepared to attack him again when a vibrational blast, courtesy of Cisco, struck the yellow-clad speedster from behind, throwing him to the ground. Before Thawne could fully recover, he was hit by another one of Cisco's vibrational blasts, as well as a concentrated ice beam from Frost and an energy blast from a pulse rifle fired by Harry Wells.
That was when a trail of blue lightning appeared, knocking Cisco, Frost, and Harry on the ground before all three of them paled at the sight of the all-too-familiar speedster in black.
"Zoom," Cisco, Frost, and Harry cried out in unison with matching feelings of pure terror.
"That's right, I'm back," Zoom sneered, menacingly. "Did you miss me?"
"Can't say that we have, Hunter," Frost retorted, glaring hatefully at the speedster who had once kidnapped her.
"You're absolutely out of your mind you think we missed you," Cisco said, angrily. "Oh, that's right! You are out of your mind, my bad."
"Well, this ought to be nice," Thawne said with an insane grin as he stood beside Zoom. "Team Flash versus me and Zoom. The only person missing right now is Barry." He glanced at Allen. "Our Barry, mind you."
Cisco, Frost, and Harry were unsettled by the fact that Thawne looked and sounded exactly like Barry, which eerily reminded them of Savitar.
"With or without Barry, we're gonna kick your ass," Cisco said with determination.
"Your bravery has always been commendable, Cisco," Thawne commented. "It warms my heart to see you again, by the way. I want to apologize for..." He threw out his hand, vibrating it. "But had I not done that, you never would've had the means to become extraordinary."
"I didn't need my powers for that," Cisco retorted.
"Bring it on," Zoom challenged, before he and Thawne sped at Cisco, Frost, and Harry.
Barry approached Lena cautiously as she sat up on the ground. "Lena," he called out, warily.
Lena turned at him and Barry saw that the look on her face was one of remorse. "My God, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"Clearly, you weren't in your right mind, so whatever happened to you wasn't your fault," Barry told her, relieved that Lena seemed to be back to normal.
Lena stood up, suddenly filled with dread and panic. "Where's Kara? I hope I didn't kill her. Otherwise, I would never forgive myself."
"No, Lena, you didn't kill me," Kara D announced as she walked over, being careful not to get too close to Lena due to the kryptonite in her chest.
"Kara, I'm so sorry," Lena apologized. "I would never intentionally hurt…"
"I know," Kara D assured the other woman. "The only person to blame for what happened to you is Lex, since I'm sure he's the one responsible."
"You're right, it was Lex who had me abducted," Lena confirmed as she recalled the horrendous events after her abduction. "He turned me into a cyborg and stripped me of all my inhibitions, specifically turning my feelings towards you into pure hate simply out of spite. Kara, those horrible things that I said to you, I hope you know that I don't…"
"We can talk about that later," Kara D suggested. "Right now, we have supervillains to fight, including your brother, and since your mind is back to normal, thank God, we can definitely use your help."
"Of course," Lena nodded.
As Slade of Earth-1, Deathstroke of Earth-50, and Lyla Michaels continued to battle Evil Slade of Earth-193, the latter, especially with his greatly enhanced strength, held his own easily against his three opponents, deftly blocking the strikes of Slade's sword and Deathstroke's lance with his long iron rod, while Slade and Deathstroke also managed to block the strikes of their Earth-193 counterpart. While Deathstroke possessed superhuman strength too, it wasn't quite on the same level as Evil Slade's own enhanced abilities, which the latter used to his advantage.
As Lyla fired her guns at him, Evil Slade blocked the bullets with his rod before using it to smack Lyla's hands in quick succession, disarming her of both firearms. Deathstroke threw a spin-kick at Evil Slade's head, but Evil Slade dodged it and tried to strike Deathstroke's with his rod, only for the Earth-50 mercenary to narrowly dodge the attack.
"Both of you are very impressive, though I'm better, faster, stronger, more durable, and more agile," Evil Slade said to his counterparts. "The three of us could've had an excellent partnership. We would've been an unstoppable force together, but unfortunately, you two chose to fight on the wrong side."
"You're the one who's on the wrong side!" Slade growled, delivering a flurry of punches into Evil Slade's chest as the latter shrugged off the blows.
"You're going to have to do better than that," Evil Slade retorted, elbowing Slade in the face before sidestepping as Deathstroke tried to stab him with his lance.
Lyla tried to smash her elbow into Evil Slade's face, but he grabbed her arm and clenched it, breaking some bones as Lyla cried out in pain. He then kneed Lyla's abdomen, making her cry out again as some ribs were fractured, and knocked her out with a punch to the face. With an angry growl, Slade drove his sword into Evil Slade's left shoulder, making the latter grunt in pain, while Deathstroke tried to stab Evil Slade too, only for the latter to catch Deathstroke's lance with his right hand. Evil Slade head-butted Deathstroke, dazing the Earth-50 mercenary, and kicked Slade in the abdomen, knocking him on the ground. With a grunt, Evil Slade pulled Slade's sword out of his wounded shoulder and tossed it aside just as Deathstroke tackled him on the ground and punched Evil Slade in the face twice. Evil Slade caught Deathstroke's third punch and threw the latter off of him before getting back up.
Unnoticed by the three Slades, who continued fighting and clashing their weapons fiercely, a glow of white light flowed through Lyla's body while she was still unconscious.
Nyssa and Talia were still fighting Bruce Wayne of Earth-113, who had quickly proven to be an extremely tough opponent even for them. While the al Ghul sisters were among the most skilled combatants of Earth-1, if not the entire Multiverse, Evil Bruce's superhuman strength, on top of his own highly advanced combat skills, gave him a noticeable edge over the two women. Not only did Nyssa's and Talia's punches and kicks barely faze him, but he managed to block and dodge all of their sword strikes, except for a cut across his right cheek that Nyssa dealt him. Evil Bruce knocked Nyssa on the ground with a punch to her face and kicked Talia's legs from under her in a sweeping motion, knocking her down too.
"This has been a fun dance, ladies," Evil Bruce sneered with his usual psychotic and sadistic grin. "But I'm afraid it's time to bring it to an end."
As Talia got back up, Evil Bruce brandished a knife, plunging it into Talia's chest, right through her heart, as she gasped in pain while blood spilled from her mouth.
"No! Sister!" Nyssa cried out in horror.
Laughing sadistically, Evil Bruce retracted his knife from Talia's chest and she fell on the ground, dead. Seething, Nyssa leapt to her feet and swung her sword in an attempt to cut off Evil Bruce's head, but the Joker-like villain blocked the blade with his bracers.
"I'm sorry, did I just kill your precious sister? Well, don't cry, because you'll be joining her very, very soon," Evil Bruce said with an insane grin as he tried to stab Nyssa in the chest, only for her to narrowly avoid the blade as she spun out of the way.
Earth-21
As Savitar was still engaging Bart and Flash, Superman of Earth-78 suddenly appeared and rammed into the villainous speedster hard. Savitar's metallic armor was shattered into a million pieces as the insane, facially-scarred time remnant of Earth-1 Barry Allen was violently thrown to the ground, howling in agony as most of his bones were broken, preventing him from getting back up. Bart and Flash were thrown to the ground as well, due to the shockwave resulting from Superman's attack.
The two scarlet speedsters looked up at Superman, who turned to them with a cold expression.
"Umm, should we be thankful that he helped stop our bad guy or should we be worried due to the scary look on his face?" Flash wondered, nervously.
As if in response, Superman unleashed a beam of heat vision that struck the ground between the speedsters.
"I think that answers your question, amigo," Bart said to his Earth-192 companion as they jumped back to their feet.
Clenching his fists, Superman charged at Bart and Flash, making them speed out of the way.
"Oh, great, he must be under someone's mind control," Flash noted.
"Looks that way," Bart noted. "Whatever it is, we gotta snap 'em out of it before things get really bad."
He and Flash sped off in a pair of red blurs as Superman flew after them at full speed, strongly determined to catch the speedsters.
Lex Luthor of Earth-78 walked along the Quantum Tower's rooftop, whistling a Mozart tune as he approached the edge of the tall golden structure. He planted a palm-sized, circular device on the wall of the Tower before marching to the opposite side of it to plant an identical device on that wall as well. Teleporting to the ground, a safe distance away from the Quantum Tower, Lex-78 pulled out the two pen-shaped devices and clicked the button on each of them simultaneously, causing the small circular devices on the Tower to unleash electromagnetic pulses that, just like on Earth-38, quickly shorted it out.
Alexander raised his gauntlets, unleashing a stream of green kryptonite gas into Ultraman's face. Ultraman grunted as the gas entered his lungs before he started feeling dizzy, weakened, and ill while his vision blurred. Lois-64 punched Ultraman square in the face, sending the sadistic Kryptonian murderer crash-landing on the ground.
"Hey, guys, look at the Tower!" Clara called out to Alexander and Lois-64 as the three stared at what was happening to the Quantum Tower.
"That's an electromagnetic pulse," Alexander realized.
"Which I'm guessing is disabling the Tower that's supposed to stop this world from…"
Lois-64 was abruptly cut off as she and Alexander were knocked to the ground by a recovered Ultraman, who had rammed into them. He then tried to punch Clara, but she caught his fist and clenched it as Ultraman grunted.
"I prefer your much kinder blue and red doppelganger so much more," Clara snarled, before smashing her fist into Ultraman's chest as the powerful blow knocked him back.
Ultraman steadied himself, glaring at the female Kryptonian. "That's because you're every bit as weak as he is! No, you're even weaker actually!"
"And what exactly makes you say that, huh?" Clara shot back.
"I think you know exactly what I mean and I'll teach you to know your proper place," Ultraman sneered, before reaching out in an attempt to grab Clara's throat.
Clara flew up to avoid him and delivered a kick to Ultraman's face, knocking him back as his nose bled. As Ultraman recovered, Lois-64 flew up behind him and punched him in the back twice, while Clara punched him in the face and Alexander slashed Ultraman across the chest with a kryptonite blade, making the murderous Kryptonian hiss in a both anger and pain.
Some of the heroes who were fighting the Manhunters, Parademons, and Shadow Demons were getting overwhelmed by the enemies as the most powerful of the heroes – Clark-93, Linda Lee, John Jones, and Cyborg Superman – did their best to protect the others. Zatanna was struck from behind by a larger Manhunter's rod and fell to the ground, where she was knocked out upon landing headfirst. The Manhunter aimed its rod down at Zatanna, preparing to finish her off, when Jones phased through the robot, destroying it. He then flew down to Zatanna, grabbing the magician and taking her to safety.
Two larger Manhunters grabbed each of Booster Gold's arms, while a third Manhunter raised its rod, about to blast him in the chest, when the three robots were suddenly destroyed by Linda's heat vision.
"Thanks, blondie," Booster Gold told the Kryptonian heroine, who simply smiled kindly at him before flying around to take out more enemies as he did the same.
Jaime Reyes was struck by a Bleed blast that knocked him on the ground, dazing the young hero. He was then ganged up on by several smaller Manhunters, as well as some Parademons and Shadow Demons, before Lois appeared in a blur and swiftly took the enemies out with a combination of super-strong kicks and punches.
As Lois helped him back up, Jaime looked at her in amazement. "You have powers?"
"Absolutely, kid," Lois replied.
"Cool," Jaime said. "You know, Ms. Lane, I still remember what you told me back when I was getting bullied in school, and you were right." He levitated into the air. "I'm gonna show these enemies that I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore."
As Jaime flew back into the fight, Lois grinned proudly. "He certainly did come a long way from that shy and timid teenager he used to be."
She rejoined the fight too, taking down more enemies with her strength and combat skills.
"I'm almost out of arrows!" Mia Dearden complained as she, Ollie, and Dinah were doing the best they could to fend off the enemies.
"So am I, which means we're gonna have to improvise and rely more on our fighting skills," Ollie told his former protégé. "Just remember everything I taught you, Speedy."
"And me, since Ollie wasn't the only one who trained you to fight," Dinah added, flipping around as she struck down multiple Parademons and Shadow Demons with her bo-staff.
The three heroes were suddenly thrown several feet away as two Bleed blasts struck the ground near them.
At the same time, Bruce, Barbara, and Dick had been tackled to the ground by many Parademons and Shadow Demons that were ganging up on the three, who were struggling heavily to get the creatures off.
As Ollie, Mia, and Dinah recovered, three larger Manhunters fired several Bleed blasts upon them when a bright green dome-shaped construct suddenly appeared, shielding the heroes from the deadly red beams, while the Manhunters were abruptly destroyed by several green energy blasts.
The groups of Parademons and Shadow Demons who were upon Bruce, Barbara, and Dick were suddenly blasted down by the same kind of energy blasts.
"Sorry for returning late to the party, kids," John Stewart announced. Hovering alongside him were fellow Green Lanterns: Aya, a green-skinned woman with cybernetic features; Kilowog, a muscular, broad-shouldered humanoid whose features resembled a cross between pig and bulldog; and C'hp, a small squirrel-like individual.
"Better late than never," Dinah pointed out.
"Glad for the assist, Lanterns," Ollie said, gratefully.
"Right in the nick of time, which seems to happen a lot in these situations," Barbara noted.
Stewart, Aya, Kilowog, and C'hp were suddenly bathed in a bright blue light, while Ollie, Mia, Dinah, Barbara, Bruce, Dick, and some other heroes in the vicinity stared in awe.
"Don't worry, the cavalry brought backup of its own," Stewart announced.
"Power levels at three hundred percent," the power rings of the four Green Lanterns announced simultaneously.
"Aya? Kilowog? C'hp?" Stewart called them.
"Ready when you are, John," Aya replied.
"Now!" Stewart ordered before he, Aya, Kilowog, and C'hp unleashed power blasts that effortlessly tore through many Manhunters, Parademons, and Shadow Demons around them.
"Fear not, heroes of Earth, all will be well," a new voice announced in a kind tone.
Ollie, Mia, Dinah, Bruce, Barbara, and Dick looked up to see a white-skinned alien figure who was clad in bright blue and black suit. It was Saint Walker, a Blue Lantern!
"Aya, Kilowog, C'hp, and Saint are here to help too," Stewart stated.
"Good, because we'll need all the bodies we can throw at this," Bruce said.
"I hope the heroes on those other Earths are holding up pretty well," Ollie said with concern.
Earth-50
All the heroes involved in the battle taking place in this world continued throwing everything they had against the enemy forces when new allies soon arrived. Shazam appeared, flying in with five other individuals, who were each dressed in a costume very much like his own, complete with the glowing yellow lightning bolt chest emblem and white cape, though each suit was a different color. The young handsome man clad in the blue version of Shazam's costume was Freddy Freeman, while the bearded, muscular Hispanic man in the green version of the same costume was Pedro Pena, the young Asian man in the gray costume was Eugene Choi, the young black woman with short curly hair, clad in the sleeveless purple costume, was Darla Dudley, and the attractive Caucasian woman with long dark hair whose costume was red like Shazam's, but consisted of a skirt instead of pants, was Mary Bromfield.
"So robots, Parademons, and... what are those shadowy things called?" Freddy asked.
"Those would be Shadow Demons," Shazam answered. "Those are very easy to destroy. The Parademons aren't that hard either, but those robots, be careful not to get hit by their missiles and energy blasts because, even with our powers, they hurt."
"There are so many superheroes here," Eugene noted in awe.
"Well, some of them are not from this world," Shazam reminded them. "And like I said, this will be our biggest fight ever because the Multiverse is literally ending and many worlds already got wiped out by that anti-matter wave."
"I feel so terrible for all the people who died," Darla said sympathetically.
"We all do," Mary said in a similar tone.
"We can still save our world and the rest that are still around by protecting that Quantum Tower," Shazam pointed out.
Pedro clenched his fists. "Let's kick some ass."
With that, Shazam and his foster siblings joined the rest of the heroes in taking down the Manhunters, Parademons, and Shadow Demons.
Not long afterwards, Bloodsport, Ravager, Harley, Cleo, and King Shark emerged from Novu's portals, immediately taken back by the intense battle around them.
"Bloody fuck," Bloodsport muttered.
"Well, there's definitely plenty of action to go around," Ravager said with a smirk as she readied her sword. "I'm always up for dropping more bodies."
"How do we know who we're supposed to fight?" Harley wondered.
"That's rather obvious I'm sure," Bloodsport stated.
"Nom nom?" King Shark asked, clearly eager to take a bite out of some creatures.
"What's the plan?" Cleo asked Bloodsport.
"On one hand, it looks like these supers have it all under control, while we've earned a long rest after saving an entire city from a giant starfish," the mercenary stated as the others looked at him. "On the other hand, running is not what I do and, according to that 'Monitor' or whatever that mysterious, oddly-dressed bloke's name really is, we're here to protect the world." Having made his decisions, Bloodsport readied his firearms, holding one in each hand. "Nanaue, those robots and other creatures are nom nom. Harley, Ravager, get ready to engage. And, Cleo, you stay behind in case we need backup."
As the team leapt into action, King Shark grabbed several Parademons, ripping them to shreds with his hands and teeth, while Bloodsport opened fire upon the Parademons, Shadow Demons, and Manhunters. Harley impaled a Parademon through the mouth with her javelin before retracting the weapon and twirling it to strike down more Parademons, as well as some Shadow Demons. Ravager used her two swords to skillfully slice down Parademons and Shadow Demons in quick succession, while also knocking some away with punches and kicks.
Deep Space
The Anti-Monitor stood patiently in the command center of the high-tech space station that his assembled minions had been using as their base of operations. The destruction of the anti-matter cannon was merely a minor hindrance to his mission. Soon, he would have the rest of The Monitor's power, which would allow him to finish off the four remaining universes.
In a yellow flash of light, Amazo appeared in front of the Anti-Monitor with the ball of orange energy in his palm. Almost immediately, the energy flowed into the Anti-Monitor's body, making him more powerful than ever.
"The Monitor is dead, just as you wanted," Amazo announced.
Your next task is to confront and destroy the heroes who are on Earth-50. The Anti-Monitor commanded. I have deployed the Omega-Monitor who shall assist you. In the meantime, I shall make my stand on Earth-192, and then Earth-21, which will be the last positive matter universe standing before it, too, is obliterated by my anti-matter wave.
"Your wish is my command, Anti-Monitor," Amazo stated, before disappearing in another flash of light.
Earth-21
Clark was sent crashing on the ground as Lex-21 blasted him in the chest with two red sunlight missiles. Dazed and weakened, Clark clutched his chest with a painful groan and staggered back to his feet, while Lex flew down to him.
"Beating me isn't so easy when the playing field is equal, is it?" the bald billionaire smirked.
"This isn't a competition, Lex!" Clark snarled. "It never was between us!"
"Wrong," Lex countered. "It's always been a competition, Clark, despite what you want to tell yourself. The only difference is that, now, the game will never again be one-sided in your favor."
He punched Clark in the face, sending him crashing into a parked truck, which exploded on impact. As Clark flew out of the explosion, with burns and bruises visible on his face and hands due to having been weakened by the missiles, Lex flew at him with another punch, but Clark narrowly avoided it by weaving out of the way.
"You really think it's just my armor that's providing me a fair advantage here?" Lex sneered. "No, Clark. Thanks to the Book of Destiny, I've upgraded myself to be nearly as strong, fast, and invulnerable as you are, which means I could hold my own even if I were to take this armor off – not that I intend to do that, of course." He grabbed Clark around the throat with both hands. "Face it, Clark, in some ways, I'm physically better than even you now."
He threw Clark on the ground, forming a crater as the impact left the Earth-21 Superman in a near-unconscious state. With a smirk, Lex descended next to his heavily dazed Kryptonian nemesis and pulled out a glowing green knife. With a groan, Clark tried to stand back up, but couldn't due to the kryptonite in Lex's knife affecting him.
"When you're in the afterlife, I want you to remember your last moments before I killed you, Clark," Lex said. "I want you to remember that, despite your great efforts and God-like powers, I, your greatest enemy, defeated you in the end."
Before Lex could make his next move, Lois suddenly appeared in a blur and knocked him away with a powerful flying kick.
"You're not doing anything to him on my watch, you bastard!" Lois snarled at the bald billionaire. She turned around and looked down at her Clark, whose burns and bruises suddenly healed as he was already feeling better. "Clark!"
She grabbed her husband's hand, helping him up. "If you need to fly up to the sun for a quick recharge, go right ahead. I'll deal with Lex."
"I'm already feeling much better all of a sudden," Clark told his wife.
"Well, it looks like Ms. Lane's been given an incredible gift," Lex noted with a smirk as he reappeared. "After all, no regular human being could've possibly knock me more than thirty feet away with a kick like you just did."
"You're damn right, Lex, I'm super now," Lois retorted, glaring daggers at the man who was one of the main sources of her husband's problems. "So if you want to continue your fight with Superman, you'll have to fight me too, cue ball!"
"No need to address your beloved husband by his alter-ego around me," Lex told her. "I remember everything from my pre-resurrection life. That includes all of our not-so-amiable encounters."
As Lois turned to Clark for confirmation, the latter, with a nod, told her, "It's true."
Turning back to Lex with a glare, Lois sneered, "Well, then you know that I completely hate your guts just as much as Clark does."
"And I was never fond of you or your unshakably nosy nature either, Ms. Lane, if it's any consolation to you," Lex shot back, before aiming his gauntlets at Clark and Lois. "Anyway, I'm through talking."
"Me too," Lois muttered, before charging at Lex in a blur.
This time, however, Lex was prepared for it. He grabbed Lois around the throat with one hand and tossed her through the wall of a nearby building. Clark flew at Lex in a blur, delivering a powerful uppercut that sent the latter hurtling hundreds of feet into the air. Clark flew up to Lex at full speed, grabbed him, and tackled the bald billionaire back down, slamming Lex into the ground so hard that many cracks appeared in his green and purple suit of armor. To Clark's surprise, the cracks in Lex's armor sealed themselves back up as if it had never been damaged in the first place.
"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that, Clark," Lex said, getting back up before blasting Clark away with double kryptonite blasts from his gauntlets.
Lois appeared behind Lex, smashing a large chunk of broken concrete on top of his head. She then punched Lex in the back, knocking him several meters away. Lex recovered, only to get blasted back by Clark's heat vision, while Lois sped up to Lex, smacking him away with a metal pole.
Meanwhile, the heroes who were still fighting the Manhunters, Parademons, and Shadow Demons had already taken the majority of them out and there were not many enemies left. Suddenly, the unexpected appearance of a huge white portal drew the heroes' attention as feelings of intense dread immediately washed over all who noticed it.
Was it the Anti-Monitor, their current 'big bad', for lack of a better term, who was, at last, going to show his face? That was the one question on all of their minds. Although they were thoroughly terrified, even the most stoic and courageous among them, every single hero steeled themselves for whoever or whatever was about to inevitably make their appearance.
Everyone soon got their answer when a huge, powerfully built being stepped out of the portal, his hands placed authoritatively behind his back. He had dark gray skin resembling the surface of cracked rocks and was clad in a navy blue uniform with gold outlines, along a navy blue helmet that covered his scalp. His eyes glowed brightly with red fire, adding to his utterly menacing and terrifying appearance that sent chills down everyone's spines.
Then two more figures emerged from the portal. On the left of the first being was an all-too-familiar hulking monster with thick gray skin, sharp teeth, and a number of spiked bones jutting out of his body, predominantly the back, shoulders, arms, knuckles, knees, and above the menacing bloodshot red eyes. The monster's sheer presence instilled even greater fear in the heroes than the first being, and for good reason, especially for those who had at least one encounter with variations of this particular creature in the past.
On the right of the first being appeared a figure who was noticeably larger than the other two, standing over a hundred feet tall. This figure was a dark red robot whose head was a flaming skull, while flames emanated around its arms and legs.
If the arrival of these three powerful, terror-inducing beings of undeniable evil wasn't enough, also emerging from the portal were an army of flying creatures who were physically a mix of Parademon and Doomsday.
As the portal finally closed, a lot of the heroes were too horror-struck to speak at once.
"Great Rao," Linda gasped.
"It can't be..." Tess trailed off as she, Diana, and even Zod had ceased their fight.
"Oh, yes, it is," Zod sneered, masking his rare dose of fear and nervousness with a smug smirk upon recognizing the Dark Lord who had given him dominion over the Phantom Zone. "It's Darkseid..." He also noticed the beastly monster who was a version of his and Faora's genetically-engineered 'son'. "And it's my offspring... Doomsday."
"Things just literally got a million times worse," Ollie groaned in utter horror. "And I'm out of arrows on top of that."
To be continued…