9
Meanwhile, half-way around the world at the Apokolips Inkorporeyted Headquarters (Incorporated in Russian)
After speaking with Hippolyta, he doubted her abilities to retrieve his personal property. Traveling halfway around the world to St. Petersburg, he found himself seated in front of a burly, gray-fleshed man, Darkseid, the god killer. Apollo took great amusement from the name, never asking his underling to change it. It was fitting. Darkseid had murdered his gods, but they were weaklings like his father.
The god killer sat nervously before Apollo as flame ridden walls burned around them. Something to remind him of home, the sun god believed. But it was of no consequence. There was no more thrilling feeling than having a creature called the god killer afraid of you.
"Why is he here?"
A squirrely-faced man whispered into the god killer's ear. Unamused at the old man's muttering, Apollo said.
"Keep your serpents tongue silence, Desaad!"
The sun god's voice echoed off the glass walls, shaking them down to their foundations. Apollo waved his hand, stopping the old man's pacing. A string of gold wrapped around the old man, singeing his tattered robes.
A drop of sweat trickled down Darkseid's face. He knew he was no match, at the moment, for his master.
"Forgive the old fool, my lord," Darkseid said lowering his head. "His age allows for too many slips of the tongue."
"Indeed,"
"I shall see him properly punished for his actions,"
Darkseid 's hulking body relaxed as Apollo's face lightened.
"You are my most vigilant servants, god killer," Apollo answered.
Standing to his feet, Apollo placed his hands on the molten table before him. A golden light oozed from his fingers, flowing down to the center of the table.
"I have a mission for you…."
Darkseid nodded.
Reaching the center of the table, the molten light formed a female figure; full breasted and curvy. Apollo's eyes flared golden as the figure took a more flesh-like hue, revealing a beautiful nude raven-haired woman.
"Who is she?" Darkseid asked.
His eyes ogled the woman, to Apollo's displeasure.
"Mine," Apollo growled.
Darkseid immediately lowered his gaze.
"A foolish queen has sent her away somewhere beyond my sight," Apollo continued. "I need you to retrieve for me... by any means necessary."
Darkseid sat in silence as Apollo dismissed the nude figure from the table.
"Do this for me and I shall reward you beyond your wildest dreams,"
"But I have avenged my wife's death," Darkseid replied. "You have given me power and made my name feared beyond this world, what more could you give me..."
Apollo smirked. Walking around to the other side of the table, Apollo's left hand dragged along the table's edge. Darkseid tensed as Apollo reached his side. Bending down to his ear, he whispered.
"Do not think me a fool, god killer. I know your machinations, Darkseid..."
"I know not of what you speak," Darkseid muttered.
Apollo tapped Darkseid's head with one finger. His blackened skin pressed into Darkseid's gaunt grey flesh, burning him. Darkseid bit down on his tongue.
"... Tsk, tsk, my foolish god killer," Apollo replied. "I know you wish me dead, even though it was I who blessed you with your... gifts."
Apollo's finger dug deep into the side of Darkseid's head.
"Please..."
Apollo moved his finger down Darkseid's cheek, burning his flesh. Cupping his hand under Darkseid's chin, Apollo forced him to look at his face. The god killer grew pale as he saw unspeakable horrors in Apollo's eyes. Eldrich creatures, older than time itself, latched on to his limbs. Their slimy touch burned, cooking him from the inside out. They strung him up, rending his stoned flesh from his bones. Darkseid screamed as his bones began to dissolve.
"... forgive..." Darkseid begged.
Apollo smiled, as he released Darkseid's chin. Collapsing down on the table, two guards rushed into the room.
"Leave us..." Darkseid ordered.
His usual booming voice was hoarse and feeble. Apollo met their gaze.
"I would listen to your 'master', if I, were you?"
The guards slowly back out of the room, closing the door behind them.
"Bring her to me and all shall be forgiven," Apollo said.
The gray man didn't reply his body still feeling the sensation of being eaten alive.
"Hippolyta spoke of a man, Ultraman, I believe she heard Circe call him," the sun god added. "That is whom she shall find her with..."
Darkseid gradually sat up.
"Ultraman, you say?"
Apollo nodded.
"Do you know of this man?" Apollo asked.
"Yes!" Desaad hissed from behind them. "We know of this man. He is a small-time gang lord... from Metropolis... Metropolis... My lord..."
Apollo lifted his hand causing the older man binds to vanish. Desaad crumbled to the ground.
"Metropolis..."
Apollo muttered the name over and over. For the sun god had not heard of such a place. How insignificant was this Ultraman, that he had never heard of the name of his city before now.
"He is new on the scene, my lord," Darkseid replied. "He has a small collection of cities under him, Gotham, Star City, and Metropolis..."
"Ad you are just now telling he of this!" Apollo said coldly.
"He was of no consequence..."
Desaad began to reply but Apollo yanked him upright by his hooded robes.
"He has what is mine!" Apollo bellowed. "I find that of great consequence!"
Desaad grew silent.
"Maybe my trust in you was unfounded, Darkseid,"
Apollo glared at him.
"The opportunity hadn't arisen to inform you, Lord Apollo," Darkseid replied. "And I…"
"Enough!"
Darkseid's eyes grew large as he heard the rage in Apollo's voice. He needed to fix this and quickly. All his planning could not end here.
"Hippolyta is an Amazon, right?" Darkseid asked.
Apollo nodded.
"...that must mean her daughter is a formidable foe," Darkseid added. "Maybe she has already killed Ultraman."
"So, my prize has returned to her mother to inform of her success... right..." Apollo snapped back.
Darkseid remained silent.
"Why so quiet, god killer?" Apollo growled. "...She was sent to kill Ultraman and told to return home. If she had done so, I would be here!"
As Apollo spoke his voice echoed off the walls causing the two men in the room with him to jump with every elevated word. Suddenly Apollo slammed his massive fist down on the table. The table cracked under the force of his hand.
Darkseid kept his head down to avoid looking directly at Apollo's emotionless gaze.
"Use the boomtube I gifted to you to bring her to me?" Apollo bellowed.
Desaad stood to his feet. Shaking, he said.
"We can't,"
"What do you mean you can't?" Apollo asked.
The sun god's gaze bored into the old man's haggard face.
"... Metropolis is a den of lions," Desaad added. "They have something blocking teleportation technology in their territory."
Apollo snatched Desaad and slammed his back against the wall behind him. The old advisor screamed as the sound of his back cracking filled his ears. Apollo ate up Desaad's screams as blood spat out of his mouth. Desaad's body grew limp in Apollo's hand, but his eyes remained alert. He tried to speak but no words came out. Apollo laughed as he made a mockery of the old man's attempts to speak.
"Everything belongs to me," Apollo said. "... and nothing is beyond my reach..."
As he spoke, Apollo leaned close to Desaad's face. Darkseid clapped his hands together loudly, interrupting Apollo
"I'll have one of my Furies bring her to you my lord,"
"No, you shall bring her to me yourself, god killer,"
Apollo let Desaad's broken body crumple to the ground.
"Mr. Miracle," Apollo bellowed as he stepped over Desaad's dying body. "Heal him, I still may have use of him yet."
Suddenly behind him appeared a man with a multi-colored mask.
"Of course, master," he replied.
Darkseid turned his head slightly so that the masked man came into view. There was a look of knowing between the two men. Mr. Miracle nodded.
"Be sure to leave him slightly broken," Darkseid ordered. "So that he will remember to keep his tongue in check."
A deep callus laugh seeped from Apollo's cracked lips as he left the room.
Outside of the room, a grizzled pale man stood waiting for him.
"Was that really necessary brother?" the man asked as he raised his eyebrow.
"They are a nuisance Ares," Apollo answered. "You know sooner or later they will betray us. They have already become a thorn in my side..."
Ares nodded, "True but I have a feeling they are right about one thing, this Ultraman maybe a major threat to you."
Apollo laughed as he started to walk away from his brother. Ares quickly followed behind him.
"This is no laughing matter, brother," Ares said. "Shall I lend my hand to the search for our youngest sister..."
Ares placed his hands immediately over his mouth. As if he knew he had overstepped a boundary he shouldn't. Apollo stopped in his tracks.
"You are a boy playing a man's game," Apollo said without looking back at his brother. "Have Artemis search for this Ultraman."
As he finished speaking, Apollo continued to walk down the hall. Ares watched his younger brother vanish in a beam of golden light. After a few moment he smiles.
"Yes, lord brother,"
Ares's laughter filled the halls.
"We shall see who the boy is soon enough, my brother," he cackled. "We shall see..."