"You're late."

Kara frowned. "I had to sub in and put Jon to bed. Kal is still away at Altair IV helping T'nalak with the provisional government, and Lois went out with Dinah for some girl time. It was all I could do to get away at all." She nodded at Diana. "I'm surprised you're even here, given…you know."

The Amazon frowned, running a hand over her armored midsection. "The bump isn't big enough to slow me down or make him vulnerable yet." Her lips pursed. "I knew I'd be forced out of the field eventually, but…I'm hoping to delay that as much as possible."

Kara bit her lower lip. "Just don't overstress, and if I see you looking off—"

Diana rolled her eyes as she led the younger woman toward the meeting room. "Please, not you too. Bruce is already making preparations to pen me into the manor…and Alfred is helping him."

"And Damian and Cass?"

"They're mercifully ambivalent." She scowled. "Don't even get me started on Jason."

Kara laughed and flicked her hand through her hair. "Well he should be a little more invested than the rest, considering who it is you're carrying."

Diana frowned crookedly. "Fair point."

"I'll try to keep my mothering to a minimum." She winked at her.

Diana chuffed and smacked her arm as they made their way into the core members' conference room. Kara raised an eyebrow at the table in the center. Of the nine chairs, only two were occupied. She waved at that absence before taking her seat.

"Just you and Hal today?"

Batman frowned. "Unfortunately, yes. Which is problematic, given this situation."

Kara drew back slightly. "What situation?"

He waved to Green Lantern. "Hal, if you would."

Hal activated the table's holoprojector, lighting up a 3D map of an all-too-familiar geographical region.

"Six hours ago," Batman said, "Watchtower sensors picked up heavy movement toward the northmost Bialyan border with Qurac. We've been tracking their progress and numbers; they've only been increasing by the hour."

Diana crossed her arms. "Can't say I'm surprised. After that stunt at Christmas, it was only a matter of time."

"What concerns us most is the area the Bialyans seem to be advancing on." Batman blew up a hilly region on the northern border of Qurac, where a small city called Karbala sat just below a small mountain range. "Karbala, approximate population of ten thousand. Our contact in ARGUS supplied information from within the Quraci government showing an underground nuclear power plant built into a nearby mountain—against UN mandate, and with output and enrichment far above regulation."

"You think the Bialyans know about it?" Hal asked.

Diana's lips pursed tightly. "I can see several far more advantageous insertion points within twenty miles of Karbala just considering the terrain, places that'll allow their forces a bit more concealment. I can hardly see another reason for them to gravitate toward this place."

"The question is what they plan on doing with that plant," Kara said. "Taking control of it would require strong-arming the existing staff, and I'm not even sure it would be of much use short-term."

Batman's jaw tightened. "That's exactly it; nuclear power is a consolidation tactic once you have an active occupation. Selecting this location for an initial insertion has two likely objectives, and they certainly aren't mutually exclusive: first, to intimidate the populace and spread word of an overwhelming invasion force, and second—"

"Trigger a meltdown," Diana said, horrified.

Kara's eyes shot wide open. "The fallout from a reactor of that size would be…devastating. It'd be Chernobyl all over again, worse even."

Batman nodded. "And what better way to break the people's spirit by using their own government's secret installation to wipe out an entire city?"

Kara released a shuddering breath.

"That said, our primary objective is to halt that invasion force by any means necessary, preferably without resorting to violence. Failing that, we stop them from crossing the border and ensure the power plant remains secure. Any questions?"

"Does the Quraci government know we're coming?" Diana asked.

Batman's head shook. "Despite our assistance at Christmas, they've been reluctant to ask for our help."

Hal frowned. "As much as I hate the idea of letting Bialya get away with something like that, do we really want to be seen as foreign interlopers? It could cause more problems than it solves."

Diana nodded slowly. "True, but this feud doesn't just affect those two. If Bialya sets off the equivalent of a dirty bomb, nations across Europe and Asia are going to start moving in on the region to secure their interests. They'll have a lot more 'foreign interlopers' if we don't intervene." She huffed. "Not to mention the thousands of civilian casualties that'll result from their war even without a meltdown."

"Bialya's not exactly known for having the best rules of engagement," Kara agreed grimly.

"Then we're agreed," said Batman. "Prep and meet in the Javelin hangar in thirty. By our projections, they'll still be a good fifteen miles out by the time we reach the border."

"You got it," Hal said.

"Dismissed."

The four dispersed, Kara tapping her gauntlet to see a short text from Jason.

[Going into the field with Cass. I'll be out of contact for a while.]

Kara smiled. He'd been getting better about letting her know since they'd gotten together a little over a month ago now. One of the key benefits of dating someone who knows your secret is not having to lie about where you've been that you haven't been able to respond. Fewer misunderstandings that way. Despite the unsettling trend of in-the-know relationships tanking, Kal's horror stories about his early days with Lois had scared her away from most relationships with civilians. That was one of many reasons she hadn't dated anyone seriously apart from Brainy and Jason, despite being on Earth for more than four years. She'd take the drama of hero work and danger any day over having to lie to her significant other.

Kara absently typed off a similar response and sent it before closing the app and making her way to the Javelin bay. It wasn't like she had any gear to gather; she always carried her arsenal within her. On the way there, above the hum of the Watchtower's reactor, she caught something in her peripheral hearing that she couldn't help listening in on.

"Are you sure you want to come on this one?"

"Bruce, for the last time, I'm fine, and so is the baby."

"We're repelling a fully armed invasion force with military explosives and likely some alien tech."

"We've handled worse."

"Not with our son on the line."

"…"

"You know what I mean."

"Bruce, if I weren't absolutely certain I could defend us both, I would stay out of the field. I'm not that stubborn. Besides, we already agreed on the five-month deadline."

"Di, August to April. Eight months."

"Your point?"

"My point is, he's already going to be a month premature without the added stress of this job. Future son or not, we can't take anything for granted."

Diana sighed. "I know, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for our children. You know that. Tell you what…if this gets too hot, and you are absolutely certain that the danger is too great—and trust me, I'll know if you're overblowing it—I'll pull back and support from the rear as best I can."

"…figure that's about the best deal I'm gonna get."

"Bruce, you are the sweetest, but you really need to stop mothering me—that's my job." She chuckled and kissed him with a smack. "Also, Kara—"

Supergirl stopped mid-step, eyes wide.

"—if you let yourself get distracted because of what you just heard, I'm dragging you back to Themyscira by the ear for remedial training…which I will oversee personally."

Kara gulped and quickened her pace toward the hangar.

…

Elsewhere, unbeknownst to them, the Quraci army personnel guarding the entrance of the aforementioned power plant sank to the ground, paler than they'd been a few seconds ago for the massive flow of blood from their carotid arteries. The tungsten flechettes in their throats hummed with magnetism for a moment, then returned to their source, a pair of gauntlets held by a six-foot figure stalking toward a side entrance concealed in an alcove etched into the mountain. That figure was encased from head to toe in black-and-gray ballistic armor with external trauma plates and a full helmet that emitted a near-inaudible hiss with every breath.

His left hand waved toward the door he'd just vacated, prompting movement on either side of him as the hallway beyond was flooded with bodies in desert camouflage. Gunfire and shouting rang out ahead of him as he strode through the gap behind his men, one of them doubling back to fall into step with him.

"Their security is in disarray; Teams Gamma and Theta are reporting minimal resistance at the other entrances."

"Of course," grated the man, his expressionless gray mask showing Greek phrases inscribed into the fringes and a hint of dark eyes behind the slits. "The arrogant never fear being cast from their pedestals."

"Yes, sir."

"Have the other teams located the control room?"

"Not yet, but we have locked down the primary coolant system. Our engineers are getting to work isolating the necessary systems to execute the operation."

"Excellent. As soon as they've figured it out, have them commence immediately."

The other man frowned. "By our estimation, it should take maybe an hour to complete."

"Good."

"Our Bialyan allies will be well within the radius by then."

"Did I stutter, Lieutenant?"

"…no, sir."

The masked man turned to his subordinate at a junction of hallways littered with bodies. "Then I expect you and the rest to get to it."

"Yes, Lord Achilles."

Achilles watched the man beat a hasty retreat, a quiet groan drawing his attention to one of the wounded guards still drawing breath. The man's sun-kissed features twisted in terror as that featureless mask rapidly approached. He went for his sidearm with violently shaking fingers, barely managing to clear the holster halfway before Achilles' left gauntlet flashed with silvery light and the gurgle of blood filled the silent hallway. A sharp twist of his arm brought the 12-inch blade spinning back into the gauntlet as he straightened up.

Without another glance at his most recent victim, Achilles strode deeper into the complex, quietly humming along to the symphony of panicked screams.

…

"I have a question."

Lucas arched a cheeky brow. "Just the one?"

Jason restrained an eye-roll as he glanced at the rapidly-passing planet below. "You said this was a timeline where you could finally be happy about my parents. What did that mean?"

The speedster frowned. "Well, usually those two dance around each other for the better part of half a decade before anything happens, and it's rarely satisfactory. He's usually giving excuse after excuse about wanting to keep her safe from his enemies or himself—or both. She's usually all 'I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself.' And eventually, she gets frustrated enough to decide on dating other people. The more vindictive versions of her do it intentionally to make him jealous—which works, but usually not enough for him to do a thing about it. The rare occasions when he does…well, they usually end up broken up after a few months."

Cass frowned, exchanging a look with Jason. "And how many have you seen defy that trend?"

Lucas leveled him with a pointed look. "…one."

Jason kept staring at him. "The way you said it kinda implied that there was more to it, like there was a version of events that you actively hated."

He hummed absently, stroking his chin as he looked up. "Well…" he shrugged, "I guess there was that one timeline where Superman went crazy, murdered the Joker, outed Bruce as Batman, took over the world, and…" his gray eyes focused on Jason's face, "hooked up with your mom."

Immediately, Jason's face contorted into a red-splotched mess of embarrassed disgust. "Blegh! Ugh!" He glared at Lucas. "Thank you so very much for that mental image!"

"What?" he asked confusedly. "It's not like they're related."

"They might as well be! I grew up with Uncle Clark teaching me Kryptonian, and in no reality could he and my mom ever…you know…"

"Well, they did." Luke snorted derisively. "Which is probably the smallest of the horrors that happened in that universe."

Given the suddenly awkward air in the glowing warp bubble, nobody asked him to clarify.

Caden turned to Alex to break the silence. "How much further?"

"Coming onto just the right angle for reentry now." He winked at the rest. "Hold onto your butts."

Aaaand they promptly dropped like a rock, causing Jason to bite back a dozen curses in nearly as many languages. Despite her lead stomach, Cass didn't look too far behind—and he could only tell because he grew up seeing her in that suit. Caden was tense, but more resigned than alarmed, probably because he was used to Alex's antics. And Luke…well…

"Weeeeeeee!"

Enough said.

By the time Karbala was within sight, no one wanted to stay within that bubble a second longer than necessary. Lucas' exuberant mood faded with one look at the borders of the city.

"That's a lot of soldiers for a small town like this."

Caden glanced his way. "It's a border town; the new government might not be as stable as the last, but they're not idiots. Bialya and Qurac have been flirting with war ever since the regime change. Still, it's a massive improvement over the last tyrant. Trust me, I would know."

Cass sent him an inquisitive look. "And what exactly does that mean?"

He shrugged. "The bastard and his cabinet funded terrorists with the money he extorted from his own people. The lot of them vanishing was probably the best thing to happen to this country in decades."

Jason turned to explain to Lucas. "There was a war with Olympus a while back; pretty much every high-ranking member of the last regime got taken out. Collateral damage."

"Mhm," Caden agreed…a little too readily.

Alex gave him the hardest side-eyes. "Caden…they were collateral damage, weren't they?"

"Sure."

The Lantern gaped at him, his tone scandalized. "Caden!"

Drake met his eyes firmly, face blank. "I'm not sorry."

Lucas glanced between them. "What am I missing?"

Alex's lips pursed tightly as he jabbed a thumb at Caden. "This cheeky little bastard used a duel between Shazam and Hecate as a cloak to assassinate the last regent and his cabinet." He semi-glared at Drake. "Or did I completely misread that?"

"I'm still not sorry. They were kidnapping children as soldiers for their BS racial cleansing wars, for frack's sake."

"But killing a head of state—"

"Is just part of the service." Caden's arms crossed as he glowered at the darkened city. "Hanukah came early that year."

The bubble was silent for a good minute or so before Alex sighed and said, "We're coming up on the portal coordinates now. The signature's a few minutes old, though, so it might take a bit of looking before we get anywhere."

As soon as their feet touched the gravel of a rooftop, Rev stretched out as best he could.

"Don't worry," said the speedster, "I'll have this place searched top-to-bottom in no time."

"No."

He turned to a frowning Jason.

"We stick together, or at least in small groups. We'll need strength in numbers to survive more than a few seconds if Janus is feeling motivated. Use that time to call the rest of us if you spot him—or he spots you. Then focus on staying alive until we get there."

"Well, in that case…dibs on Black Bat!"

Cass and Jason blinked in tandem, exchanging another look before the former shrugged.

"I'll go with you," Jason said.

"Then I guess Caden and I are the secondary," said Alex. "Keep your eyes peeled, everyone. And try to stay out of sight. It's pre-dawn, but I don't imagine these people will be too happy if they find whimsically-dressed foreigners skulking about."

"Whimsical?" Lucas asked incredulously.

Alex winked.

"Ignore him," Caden drawled, annoyed. "Stay on comms."

Jason nodded and tapped Cass' arm. "Let's move."

In a semi-fluid motion, the five separated into two groups and moved in a pincer formation around the approximate location of the last energy signature. Though he knew letting his mind wander was a serious liability, Jason couldn't help thinking back to what Caden had admitted to right before their arrival. The conversation was a stark reminder of why the operative had rejected the Justice League's offer. Not that Jason was a saint by any means—he fully intended to put Janus down once they found him—but outside of his Green Arrow persona, Caden seemed almost casual about the concept of taking a life. Though under the circumstances, he couldn't really blame the man's utter lack of remorse.

The oldest Drake had a checkered past, to say the very least, but the one thing that had remained fairly constant was his lone wolf status. He rarely had a partner for more than a few days and the few times he'd tried being part of a team, things had gone pear-shaped pretty fast. Caden just didn't seem to fit with the people he liked for anything more than a visit. He was too strong-willed, too independent, opinionated to the point of insanity, and—as they had just seen—flaunted any sense of rules or decorum that got in the way of his ideals. How a man like that could be such close friends with someone like Alex—who was basically the embodiment of rules and decorum—went against every sense of logic Jason could drum up.

Yet in spite of the scandalized tone Alex had adopted when Caden revealed his little…side operation during the Olympus War, Jason had never detected a hint of judgment. He was sure Alex didn't approve of his methods, but the Lantern wasn't about to turn it into a fight over a difference in ideology that they would never agree on. It was the exact same way Bruce treated him. Jason's mind suddenly wandered to his namesake, to the outcast of the family, and he wondered—not for the first time—if that was a bridge that could be mended in this time. His history said no.

His history could crawl up its own ass and die.

Shoving that thought away for later, the Knight returned his focus to the mission at hand, scanning the near-blackout streets from where he hovered above while his peripheral vision kept track of Black Bat's barely-visible form as she traversed the rooftops. Despite his boisterous nature, the Revenant was as silent as both of them, the only hint of his motion a faint flicker of silver lightning that could easily be mistaken for a trick of the mind, especially at a distance. Training with Deathstroke and Nightwing could do that, he supposed. Speaking of which, that was one hell of a resume he brought to the table—if he was telling the truth.

Considering the ease with which he dispatched Alex, Caden, and himself; he was inclined to think so.

TK sent a sonar pulse over the area, lighting up no less than fifty bodies in a one-block radius. All looked to be sleeping—except that one. He tapped his gauntlet to activate his comm.

"Black Bat, you see that straggler off to the east?"

"I see him. Looks armed. Could be a soldier."

"Right."

"I'm gonna take a closer look to confirm," Rev said.

A faint flash of silver lightning preceded another burst of static in Jason's ear.

"Uh, so unless the Quraci military adopted balaclavas and a triangular-partitioned circle-within-crescent ID patch on their arm as the standard uniform, I don't think these guys are locals."

Jason's blood ran cold. "Wait, guys?"

"Yeah, within this warehouse thing over here. He's moving in to meet with more now."

"Hold position," Alex said. "We're on our way."

"Negative, Blue," Jason replied. "Janus is our priority, and this could be a false alarm."

"What do your instincts tell you?" Caden asked.

Jason's silence was answer enough.

"Wait for backup."

He gave a grunt of acknowledgment and flew over toward Rev's location with barely a whisper of displaced air as he touched down on a rooftop overlooking the warehouse. Lucas was at his side a moment later, along with Cass not long after.

"Are they saying anything?" Rev asked.

TK frowned and pulled a laser mic from his belt. "Patching you in."

A moment later, the audio resolved into a frenzied mix of Latin American languages, Spanish predominant, though some Portuguese was mixed in as well. Jason did his best to focus on the loudest cluster, since sorting through all of it was proving harrying.

Suddenly, Rev pointed toward the northeast corner of the building. "Over there. That one sounds like he's in charge."

Knight arched an eyebrow at him. "How can you tell in that mess?"

"Enhanced time perception, plus I know what authority sounds like."

Jason adjusted the mic accordingly, picking up someone talking on a phone in Caribbean-accented English.

"Forward position secure. Moving on the base in twenty."

From the other end of the call, he could just make out a gravelly voice through the receiver. "Making good time then. Excellent. We meet at the prescribed point at 0530. Assuming el brujo follows through with his end, this should be over in no time."

Cass glanced at Jason. "El brujo?"

"Spanish for 'sorcerer,' or 'warlock.'"

Rev nodded to him. "Ten to one odds that's your Janus."

Jason nodded grimly, listening back in.

"Scrub the location before you leave, and if you run across any late-night stragglers or soldiers, remember: no witnesses."

"Claro que sí, capitán."

Cass frowned deeply. "I know the voice on the other end…but I can't quite…" Her head shook uncertainly.

"Send me the recording," Caden said. "I'm great with voices. Also, we're approaching the east end of the warehouse. Gonna move in as soon as we're in position."

"Correction," Alex interrupted, "you're approaching the warehouse. I've been here for the last two minutes."

"And I said that carrying me in a giant glowing bubble would attract too much attention for five in the morning."

Rev snorted a laugh, turning off his comm. and turning to Jason. "Those two are best friends, aren't they?"

TK grinned and shook his head slowly. "Sure sounds like it."

Luke kept chuckling, stopping short when the laser mic picked up movement from the officer toward his men.

Jason listened for a moment. "They're getting ready to move out, Drake. You in position?"

A moment or two of silence passed before he got a reply, in a tone that was none too happy. "We're ready, but I think I know who was on the other end of that call."

"Well don't keep us in suspense."

"When was the last time you heard Santa Priscan Spanish?"

TK's eyes widened as his blood ran cold. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Black Bat practically growled, "It wouldn't be the first time Bane has been hired by the Bialyan government."

"Then let's wrap things up here and find him. If anyone knows Janus' part in all this, it's him."

"Agreed," said Alex. "We're ready to move in when you are."

"Roger. Standby."

TK motioned to Black Bat, who fired her grapnel and reeled herself toward the building to rappel on its side wall.

"Rev," he said, "move to the rooftop entrance. You hit high, I'll kick down the front door, and Black will handle any runners."

"Caden and I will do the same from the opposite end," Alex chimed in. "I'll take the back door, you on the roof."

"Copy," he said.

Jason scanned the building and saw a cluster of no less than a dozen heavily armed gunmen beyond the heavy front doors where he was set up.

"Ready?" Alex asked.

He received a chorus of affirmatives.

"Breach, breach, breach!"

The Knight snapped both legs outward, flying toward the reinforced double doors fists-first. The deafening screech of shearing metal startled the squad of masked gunmen inside, all of whom instantly snapped ironsights toward him. He reached down in the next split-second, before any of them could get a sight picture on him, and flung one of the caved-in doors at a tight cluster of them. Two dove just out of its reach, but the other three were pinned under the heavy metal. Gunfire broke out before the dust had settled, a hailstorm of automatic fire shattering against his bracers as he mapped out his next move.

With a little over a week of having his powers back, Jason hadn't had a lot of recent practice with bullet deflections. It was certainly heartening to see that he hadn't slipped in his underpowered state. More, it was almost as if he could see them coming before they even left the barrel. With that advantage, he mapped out a plan of attack within the first two seconds, having long since lost count of the number of rounds he'd shattered so far. The other door was kicked upright and held like a riot shield as he closed in on a cluster of gunmen. The heavy metal door wasn't meant to withstand that kind of sustained fire, and quite a few rounds went through, but at significantly reduced speed that maximized the effectiveness of Jason's body armor. As a result, they failed to do any more than scuff his armor as he physically wrapped the door around four of them, pinning them to the ground.

One with a shotgun targeted him at point-blank range, and he lunged sideways a split-second before it went off, buckshot shredding the wall behind him. Screams echoed from the other end of the warehouse along with more gunfire as he grabbed the shotgun's barrel and squeezed it until it was useless. The ruined weapon bludgeoned its owner, then was flung into another, one of the two who avoided his first attack. He leapt for one of the last three, a batarang shearing through the barrel of his gun as TK twirled and backhanded him. That batarang was thrown into the lower leg of one of the remaining two, and as he screamed, his partner drew his sidearm and opened up on Jason.

He didn't even bother deflecting it, just snapped his head away from the first two shots and snatched the third from the air with one hand while the other palmed his opponent's face and rammed him skull-first into the ground. He punched the screamer unconscious, then carefully broke off the exposed part of the batarang to prevent it from jostling around too much. It was gonna hurt like a bitch when he woke up, but he wouldn't bleed out.

"Front is clear," he said. "How's the rest?"

Caden grunted over comms. "Slight problem. This isn't just a warehouse. There's a tunnel underneath here; they must've been digging for weeks, maybe months."

"Then I guess we know how they got into the city," said Alex. "And there's more coming. Once we've cleared this place out, I'm gonna drive 'em back and seal it up on this side. They can't unseal it in time to roll in reinforcements."

Knight flew through the hallways (well, metaphorically speaking; he was running at superspeed), but moments later his speed was put to shame by a white blur that barreled around the corner and bowled over a trio of Bane's mercs pinning Caden down. A thin cable shot out from the rafters to nail another gunman in the leg, tilting him upside-down as Black Bat used him as a counterweight to descend feet-first on his partner. TK lunged and kicked the crate those two were using for cover, sending it flying into another one who screamed as his leg was crushed. Rev zipped over to knock him out before flashing away to continue his sweep elsewhere.

Up ahead, Caden fired a burst of automatic fire into a hole (presumably the tunnel entrance) using one of their appropriated weapons. Then he pulled something off his belt and waited until Alex flew out of the hole, firing ring blasts with corresponding shouts of alarm. Those shouts turned into panicked screams when Caden dropped a live grenade down the hole and closed the hatch. A muffled thump sounded roughly three seconds later, followed by the rattle of shrapnel and dust. Drake held the hatch closed for a while, waiting for the sounds of more movement before opening the hatch again and scanning with his rifle. A shot rang out and he flinched just slightly before emptying the rest of his magazine into the tunnel.

Scowling, Caden tossed the spent gun down the hatch and shut it again, reaching inside his jacket to tug at something. Jason blinked when he tossed a crumpled bullet across the room. If he looked particularly close, he could see Caden breathing with a slight hitch.

"There's a slight problem with your means of subduing these people," Alex scolded.

Drake glared. "Bite me."

Rev stepped out, dusting off his hands. "He means we need someone to interrogate."

"Seriously? Just who the hell do you think I am?" He kicked one of the immobile bodies, causing a groan. "Oi! ¡Levántate, pendejo!"

Blinking and cringing, the man looked up at them, eyes darting from face to face. "You're not Quraci," he said in Caribbean-accented English.

Jason recognized his voice as the officer and turned to Caden. "How'd you know?"

Caden grinned ferally. "I have really good ears, even in the middle of a gunfight." His eyes returned to the officer. "Bane. Where were you meeting? And make it snappy."

The officer glanced between their motley uniforms uncomprehendingly before throwing his hands up. "Qué mierda—I'm not paid enough for this. There's an abandoned mosque some four blocks southeast of here."

Alex checked his map of the area via ring, frowning. "That's a stone's throw away from the city barracks."

"They're gonna try and cripple the Quraci military," Cass posited.

"That'd be my guess," he replied with a shrug.

"So Janus is working with the Bialyans," Jason mused, frowning. "Why? What could he have to gain?"

"All excellent questions," Caden conceded, "but I don't think this guy has the answers we're looking for. Thus—"

He struck the man in the head with the sole of his boot, hard enough to open up a nasty-looking gash. Jason winced at the sight.

At least he isn't wearing cleats.

Drake turned southeast and strode toward the nearest exit, the rest following suit.

"So what's the plan?" Luke asked. "Storm the mosque and take out Bane and his crew?"

"Were it so easy," Cass said, voice low. "Bane is a genius tactician nearly on par with my adoptive father. Whatever his mission here, I doubt he's the only moving piece. If it becomes clear that his troops are outmatched, he may decide to call in the rest of the attack early."

Alex arched an eyebrow at her. "So we're agreed that this is part of a larger invasion."

The other four gave various noises of assent.

"Then we need to take down these mercs quietly, or at least in a way they can't communicate back to the Bialyans."

"Caden, Cass, and I are best suited for that," Jason proposed, pointing between Rev and Blue. "You two are a bit too high-profile."

Rev snorted. "Oh really, Mr. Punch-You-Into-a-Dumpster?"

Jason deadpanned. "I said I was sorry."

"Actually…no, I don't think you did."

TK's eyes rolled.

"He's right," Alex said, cutting them off as they got outside. "You might be able to clear out most of the riffraff before they even know you're there," he waved to Rev, "but all it takes is one overlooked sat-phone or radio and this city is going to be a lot less populated."

"You really think the Bialyans would go to that extent for a small city like this?" TK asked.

Caden frowned. "If they want a speedy, easy end to this war, their first incursion needs to be about instilling terror. Shock and awe. Given the tyrannical tendencies of their queen, if they don't line civilians up in the streets and mow them down with machine guns on live TV, I would be very surprised."

Jason's stomach turned without his consent at the mental picture.

Drake met his gaze. "If I had to wage a total war like this, it's what I would do."

The temperature instantly dropped a dozen degrees, and Jason knew it had nothing to do with the pre-dawn air. As they moved on, he couldn't shake the sight of that look in Caden's eye, certain he'd seen it before.

Red. Jay looked like that sometimes.

Gulping hard, he took to the skies, eyes peeled for hidden snipers, and firmly reminded himself that Caden was on their side. Like any of the League's Trinity, heaven help them if he ever switched. For most of those present, four blocks wasn't a lot of distance, so they soon found themselves overlooking the mosque in question. A sonar scan of the building revealed about as many troops inside as in the warehouse, with the addition of one who stood at least a head taller than all the rest. What the sonar didn't pick up was the beautifully inscribed reliefs and frescoes all over its walls and doorways.

"If possible," said Jason, "I'd really like to not wreck this place."

"Do this quietly," Caden replied, "and we won't have to."

"I'll go top-down."

"Cass and I will work our way up, then. Good hunting."

Jason nodded and flew toward the minaret at the top, using that entrance to begin his incursion. He ran across two armed sentries almost immediately. Their shock at someone entering from above made them freeze up a split-second too long, as he closed the distance in half that time. They slumped to the ground a moment later, and Jason was already making his way further down.

"Atrium clear," came Cass's voice over comms.

"Making our way into the main hall," Caden added.

Jason clicked his comm. to indicate acknowledgement, since speaking would alert the four mercs huddled right around the corner. One was priming a Stinger missile, no doubt to eliminate any birds the Quracis might launch in response to their impending attack. Suddenly, they all froze in place, one hand drifting to their earpieces. TK couldn't tell their expressions given the balaclavas, but the tension in their bodies was clear enough. Very quickly, all four of them gathered their gear and moved downstairs, though one of them briefly stopped and knelt by the doorway to the stairwell.

Frowning, Jason followed cautiously, peering into the stairway and scooting forward just a tad too much.

Click.

He looked down, eyes widening to max when he found the source: an M18 Claymore mine…that he had just activated.

"Crap."

Fortunately, his shield expanded fast enough to stop the seven hundred steel ball bearings that shot toward him. Unfortunately, it didn't stop them from ricocheting and shredding a good portion of the walls around him—or making noise enough to wake the dead.

"They know we're here!" Jason shouted over comms., his ears ringing.

"With a boom like that, I bet they do!" Caden scolded.

"No, they knew before. That mine wasn't there earlier."

Drake cursed under his breath.

Cass chimed in. "Bane must've had the other team on rotating check-in and when they didn't…"

"Yeah," Caden said, "that'd be my guess. Welp, guess subtlety is out the window. Weapons free, people."

As soon as the Knight made it to the landing at the bottom of the stairs, he could see the main hall clearly, bustling with movement like a hive of black bees—appropriate, given who they were working for. Excited shouts came from the bulk of the mercs a split-second before silver lightning struck and four of them flew in opposite directions. Gunfire broke out a second later, peppering the walls and degraded furniture with holes. Jason winced and shook his head, leaping over the bannister to land on a light machine gunner with an elbow drop that shattered his gun. A shin-kick sent him back-first into a wall, and a pair of marksman rounds streaked toward him from an alcove at the very top of the hall.

His bracers shattered the incoming bullets, the laser sight easily traced back the source. His grapnel snagged the man's gun, the electromagnetic reel yanking him screaming into a sixty-foot drop. He met the man halfway and pummeled his head into the wall, then dropped him the rest of the way into a trio of his comrades. Rev finished them off with blows faster than he could track. For all their relative ease in dispatching with this crew, TK couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. A sonar pulse revealed the issue: the head-taller figure was making a break for it out of a second-story window. Snarling, Jason leapt toward him and flew out the window into the adjacent building he'd landed in.

Ordinarily, he would've seen this coming, but by some stroke of incredibly bad luck, it happened between sonar pulses. Thus, the Knight didn't see the lead pipe until it slammed the back of his head so hard he saw stars. Then his face was in the floor—literally; he'd been pushed face-first into the baseboards. His elbow went back, slamming his attacker's forearm hard enough to break his grip. When Jason whirled around, the look of surprise on Bane's face was clearly seen even through the shadows and limited exposure of his luchador mask. It was all in the eyes, which were just visible behind red-tinted lenses.

He planted both feet in Bane's gut before the massive man could adjust, rocketing him through a moldy wall. A Bane-shaped hole was left behind as Jason nipped up to his feet and gave chase, head on a swivel this time. Bane likewise clambered to his feet and snarled, pounding his fist into his palm.

"Did I come so close to breaking the Bat that he sends his children to fight me? I would be insulted if that did not reflect the damage I caused."

Jason smiled nastily, pacing around him. "Oh, he doesn't even know I'm here, and if he did, he broke you so badly that you're no longer worth his time."

Bane chuckled darkly, cracking his neck as one hand drifted to the Venom injector on his arm. "Then it will be quite the surprise when I send him your mutilated corpse."

Sickly green liquid flowed through the tubes decorating his arms and neck, these as flush to his body as possible to avoid any added risk of disconnection. At once, Bane's form began to inflate—but only slightly compared to some of his other forms. He gained maybe six inches of height, and the added definition of his body was clearly seen through the fabric of his stealth uniform, but otherwise retained its shape. Jason frowned. This wasn't the grotesque form of the simulations he'd trained against. He could use that Bane's size against him, easily, but this one…

The advantages of Bane's new Venom tweaks were immediately apparent, since he moved with almost twice the speed of any other iteration Jason had seen. He crossed the distance between them almost before TK could respond, stopping Bane's grabbing hands just before he could get leverage and kneeing him in the chest hard. It didn't even slow him down. Bane kneed him right back—and he felt it. A spinning backhand laid Jason out on the ground, and a kick to his ribs sent him crashing through the same wall he'd thrown Bane through.

"The hell—"

Jason's exclamation was cut off when Bane grabbed him by the back of the neck and laid into his ribs with the other hand. Snarling, TK brought his knee up into an incoming fist, then snapped that leg out to catch Bane in the face with his boot. The other leg came up and push-kicked him in the chest, managing to break his grip on Jason's neck. Bane charged at him once more, the Knight twist-flipping over and catching him by the head to slam it into the ground. Jason twisted his body around to straddle Bane's chest, laying into his face with both fists. Bane brought both arms up to guard, smacking his blows away a few seconds in and grabbing TK by the neck.

The headbutt that followed should've made Bane at least flinch, but Jason couldn't tell one way or the other through the shaky haze as he staggered off. Bane tripped him with a sweeping kick, then grabbed him by the neck and steadily pushed him further and further down into the cracked baseboards. Panic seized Jason as he felt the life steadily throttled out of him. He elbowed Bane's forearms, punched at his joints—nothing worked. Black spots steadily overwhelmed his vision as he pulled at Bane's thumbs in a last-ditch effort to get a gulp of air. His fingers went numb and body went limp, and then he heard automatic gunfire and suddenly he could breathe.

Jason coughed and wheezed as he was distantly aware of a charging form toting a rifle rapidly emptying its contents in Bane's direction. Either Bane was wearing some suped-up body armor or his formula had done something inhuman to his skin density—or both—because he didn't even flinch as Caden pounded him. And these were the devastating 7.62 rounds of the AK-47. The gun itself was tossed at Bane as soon as it was empty. He caught and snapped it in half with his bare hands, which almost made Caden break stride in shock. Almost.

Instead, he drop-kicked Bane in the face, using the recoil of that impact to backflip onto his feet and draw two knives from the back of his belt. TK clambered to his feet and put a hand to his aching throat, coughing a few more times as Bane rapidly closed the distance to Caden. Drake backpedaled, twirling from one movement into the next until his knives became silvery spirals in the darkness, each strike just missing Bane as he weaved around them. Caden lashed out with a kick, following with a stab. Bane caught the former and snatched the knife by the blade, finally drawing blood though it didn't faze him at all.

Drake's eyes widened for a split-second before he grinned and whipped his knife through a trio of Venom tubes on the arm that had grabbed his leg. Jason's eyes widened.

He planned to be caught. Gutsy…risky too, with Bane in this state.

That was proven especially true when Bane grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and hurled him toward a cluster of exposed piping. The Knight leapt into the air and caught him before he hit, slowly letting him down.

"You all right, kid?" Drake asked.

"Should be asking you that," Jason huffed.

Caden snorted and twirled his knives. "I'm not the one who was getting choked out a second ago."

TK returned his attention to Bane, who was eyeing them curiously while tweaking something with his injector. "This new formula is something else. It's like he doesn't feel pain at all, and he's a match for my strength."

Caden arched an eyebrow at him. "You went mano-a-mano with a god."

He scowled. "Yeah, that's what worries me."

Drake's eyes narrowed. "We'll figure that out later. For now, let's flank him."

TK smiled malevolently and ran around Bane's left side while Caden made for his right. Bane didn't wait for them, charging straight for Caden. Jason intercepted him from the side, his flying kick caught and used to throw him past. TK whirled midair, using the wall on Bane's other side as a springboard to launch into another kick, this one a flying roundhouse. Bane ducked underneath and charged shoulder-first at Caden. Drake fell to the ground, just barely sliding between Bane's legs and whipping around in a crouch. He threw both knives at Bane's head, severing the last of his tubes, then stared uncomprehendingly when nothing changed. Bane didn't stop, didn't flinch, didn't diminish or slow in any way.

He just turned around and kept charging at them.

Caden's eyes widened sharply. "Oh sh—"

Was all he managed to get out before Bane's shoulder slammed into his chest and sent him flying out the window. Jason was about to leap after him when a flash of blue light from outside stopped him short. Smiling slightly, he returned his attention to Bane, who was laughing softly and shrugging.

"Surprise, niño."

Bane offered no more words, just a series of rapid-fire punches TK found himself struggling to block. He dodged under one of them and countered with an uppercut to the ribs, following with a shin-kick to the side of his knee. For the first time in their fight, Bane flinched, prompting the Knight to press his attack and lay it on with a half-dozen rapid-fire punches to the face as he floated midair. Bane tried to grab his legs, but Jason drifted up slightly and kneed him in the face, then wrapped both legs around his head and twirled his body to throw Bane across the room. His grapnel left his belt, firing at the far wall behind Bane and snagging a heavy-looking radiator.

A hard yank ripped it from its mountings and slammed it into Bane's back. He snarled and grabbed the device, using the still-attached cable to pull TK closer, then smack him in the head with the radiator. Jason's helmet went flying off somewhere, but he paid it no mind, snarling as he landed in a three-point crouch. He used that coiled position to springboard into a flying cross to the same spot as his uppercut, continuing to hammer on that point repeatedly. Bane kneed him in the face, now devoid of his helmet, and he could feel his nose on the edge of breaking. The Knight growled and leapt upward, grabbing Bane's head and headbutting him heedless of the resulting pain.

A tornado kick to the same knee as before actually pulled a hiss of pain from Bane, and he kept that twirling motion going with a kick to the ribs. He kept pummeling those two points until Bane lashed out with his other leg in a push-kick that caught TK in the chest. The Knight didn't move, standing there with a vicious look in his eye. Bane froze for just the briefest moment, and then Jason had a hand around his throat and was dragging him through the building, one room after the next. Things became a bit of a blur after that, until Jason was only distantly aware of the shocks of impact and an ever-intensifying scream splitting the air.

It took him almost a minute to realize he was the one screaming—or that he now had his hands around Bane's neck, their positions reversed.

That didn't make him stop.

He kept squeezing harder and harder, throttling him steadily until his eyes rolled back. Then he kept going.

"Jason! Jason!"

The approaching voice didn't quite register until Cass was right on top of him, yanking on his arms.

"Jason, enough! Stop!"

He blinked once, twice, slowly turning to see Black Bat staring at him behind her faceless mask. Then he looked back down at Bane's near-lifeless form and remembered where he was. His hands went limp a moment later, and he staggered back, eyes wide in shock. And that was before he saw his surroundings. What had once been a dilapidated building was now a thoroughly wrecked building. Holes in the floor and walls, torn insulation everywhere, piping ripped from its mountings. If the supporting columns hadn't remained untouched, Jason would have been very surprised that the building was even standing.

Holy crap…I did this? When did I do this?

It was like the duel with Philippus, but worse. He hadn't even been aware…

"Jason," Cass said softly, hand on his shoulder.

He blinked and turned toward her. "I'm okay, I…I don't know what came over me."

She eyed him carefully as the room steadily began filling with the others. "Okay. Just take a breath. And a step back," she added with a slight edge to her voice.

Still disoriented, Jason nodded and did as she said.

Caden strode up to Bane's unconscious form and stared at him for a long moment. "Damn. And I thought getting dragged behind the Batmobile did a number on him." He turned to Jason. "What are you, kid?"

"Hey, ease up," Cass chided. She turned back to Jason. "You okay?"

He took another deep breath and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, just needed a second."

Cass knelt at Bane's side, slapping a pair of WayneTech shock cuffs on him before snapping open a packet of ammonium salts to wake him up. The juiced-up brawler jolted awake, eyes casting about until they landed on Jason, giving the rest a cursory glance.

"So…" Bane's eyes narrowed, "Wayne and the ahijada created a monster."

Jason flinched.

"I underestimated you, chico. Not a mistake I'll be repeating."

"No, thanks to the maximum security cell you'll be getting at Belle Reve," Alex said.

Bane chuckled. "As if any of us will survive that long."

Caden frowned. "What does that mean?"

He shrugged. "No point holding back now, I suppose. Los tontos who hired me, the Bialyans, aim to destroy this city. We were meant to eliminate the military presence to make their incursion easy, but barring that, they will soon turn their guns to the city itself."

"Meaning—"

"Artillery, tanks, rockets—they will level the full might of the approaching force against Karbala." He smiled grimly. "And it will fall when they are finished. No more than dust and echoes."

Lucas glanced to the east nervously. "When?"

"We were meant to move ten minutes ago, so…any second now."

They all pulled back, Bane in no position to go anywhere.

Alex turned to Luke. "How fast can you evacuate the civilians?"

Rev's gray eyebrows shot skyward. "From a city of ten thousand? I'm fast, but I'm not the Flash."

"Get on it for the east-most section of Karbala, at least."

"Closest to the incursion point, got it." He was gone an instant later.

TK moved with Alex as they exited the building. "I can fly over, aim for their strongest guns, see if I can mitigate the damage."

Caden's head shook. "If Bane's right about the size of their force, they'll have enough guns trained skyward to shred the crap out of you before you do any real damage."

"Well what else are we supposed to do?"

Alex's soft voice instantly stopped their bickering. "Just stay behind me."

So they moved east, with Blue Lantern at the lead.

…

The Karbala barracks picked up the aircraft first, on long-range radar. They weren't even trying to hide their approach. Not that it helped the Quracis much. As soon as the guards in the towers looked out to the east, their hearts dropped into their feet. All across the horizon, as far as the eye could see, tanks, helicopters, and mobile artillery peppered the desolate hills to the east, illuminated by the break of dawn. Escorting them were what had to be hundreds, if not thousands of infantry, all armed to the teeth. They halted at the edge of the tallest hill overlooking Karbala, their guns trained on the city, and foremost on the barracks. Orders were screamed into radios and troops were scrambled to every city entrance, but the guards in the towers knew it was too little too late.

A flash engulfed the horizon as a volley of destruction erupted from the Bialyan lines.

Shells and rockets streaked death toward Karbala, the sun nearly blotted out by the smoke of their volley. All who saw it braced for the end.

A wave of near-blinding explosions erupted when every last one of them burst—half a mile from their target.

Eyes turned back toward the city as an azure light to rival the sun emerged from its gates. The source strode toward the encroaching force with calm steps, a stern expression of focus etched into his features. He got twenty feet outside the city when the second volley came. His left arm rose, flaring up as a thousand streaks of light lanced toward the incoming missiles. Another series of deafening explosions split the morning air, even further away this time. The third volley erupted even faster as they opened up at the maximum rate of fire. He broke into a run as his shoulders and arms sprouted surface-to-air launchers made of hardlight, letting off an endless cascade of missiles that struck the incoming explosive rounds.

His eyes darted back and forth, his ring casting a HUD over his eyes as a mere touch of his vision tagged each incoming round before immediately sending a missile to hit it. His feet left the ground as he flew toward the Bialyan battle lines, conjuring new launchers and shooting even faster in his attempts to keep up with the incoming fire. One managed to get through and nearly hit him, the backwash of the explosion forcing him back to the ground. He rolled with the impact and rose to his feet, thrusting his ring out as all finesse was abandoned and a massive shield of azure light obscured the entire eastward side of Karbala. The air on the other side of that shield was a never-dissipating cloud of smoke and fire, the endless explosions pounding his projection and rapidly whittling away his focus.

Alex's teeth gritted as his head throbbed with the pain of holding back so much destruction. His legs buckled, and he fell to his knees, only his ring-arm managing to stay up. Alex hissed and gasped for breath, his other hand braced against his wrist as he began to crumble under the strain. His eyes darted behind him, to the soldiers and civilians Rev had yet to evacuate, to the trio of heroes he'd asked for trust—and had given it. He had not come this far to give up now. The revolutionaries who had taken this country back from their tyrant rulers, the soldiers who now stood to give their lives to defend it, even Caden's actions to set the stage—they all acted on the hope that Qurac and its people could be free of the shackles of bondage.

Every gun in the world could never compare to the power of that hope.

And neither would this armada.

So there he stood, the Blue Lantern of Earth, rising to his feet as the living embodiment of that hope, and with a cry of triumph thrust his ring forth. His hope was the barrier between life and death, literally pushing it back with every passing second. For all that, the headache still hadn't gone away, and he had no idea if he could keep this up until they ran out of ammo.

But he was sure as hell going to try.

The next volley began with a bunker buster missile fired from one of the helicopters, Alex groaning at its approach.

Until it exploded some ways away from his shield.

The next volley fell to a wide beam of crimson energy that swept across the battlefield like a cleansing lance. A red-gold blur descended from the air and crashed boots-first into the rearmost artillery piece, shattering it with a furious cry that sent the crew and surrounding infantry screaming in terror. A torrent of micro-missiles streaked toward the front line of tanks and artillery, shattering their guidance and aiming systems as a Javelin fighter streaked overhead. And Alex felt the strain of holding back enough firepower to level the city a dozen times over lift when a green barrier was superimposed over his own.

"Hey there, Blue."

Alex's eyes snapped over to the form floating some twenty feet above him.

Hal Jordan grinned down at him, his entire body flaring with green energy. "Thanks for the power boost."

Alex grinned back, all teeth, and reinforced his barrier as the three behind him—four once a silver streak joined them—surged into the fray.

…

"You're supposed to be at home!"

"And you're supposed to be on bedrest!" Jason countered at his mother's assessment of both him and Cass.

She sent him a deadpan glare, twirling a shield from her back and blocking a hailstorm of incoming fire. "Well, as long as you're here…"

The Tomorrow Knight grinned. "Shall we?"

Wonder Woman smiled back and nodded as they both drew sword and shield and charged forth into the enemy's lines. Between the smoke and demolished tanks, Black Bat and Caden had plenty of cover and concealment as they followed in the wake of the two metas, mopping up the dregs. And Rev, well…he was everywhere. The White Revenant streaked across the battlefield, weaving around bullets and shrapnel and targeting the gunnery crews of every tank and artillery piece he ran across as the helicopters overhead chased the Batman's Javelin. He vibrated through the armor of each operable tank he found, snatching up the key crew—driver and gunner—then carrying them outside and slamming their heads into the ground.

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and TK carved through the infantry and armor they supported, slashing weapons and critical systems as they fought back to back. Diana kicked one soldier into a tank whose treads were falling off, and Jason intercepted another tank that was trying to level its .50 at her back, using his shield to tip it over with a flying slam. Gunfire from three directions lanced at him, his right bracer and shield moving to stop it until a blue-red blur toppled the shooters and came to a stop, her body flashing with bullet ricochets. Supergirl turned to him without a care for the rounds hitting all over her body and marched over to him.

"Uh, Kara, um—" Jason sputtered, raising his shield higher and higher as the ricochets got closer and closer to him.

Kara rolled her eyes and turned a glare on the infantry and armor peppering her body. That glare turned into a blast of heat vision that slagged their weapons, the red in her eyes fading to her normal baby blues as she turned back to him.

"So this is your idea of a third date?"

Jason almost laughed. "You said you'd been on worse dates than our first."

Kara grinned toothily. "Touché." She snapped an arm up in tandem with him to keep incoming fire out of her eyes, sending him a sideways smile. "Talk later, 'kay babe?"

Jason stared at her, blinking twice, then pulled off his helmet and lunged at her lips-first, his shield ensuring the privacy of their moment. She hummed and whined into his mouth, eyes slipping shut as he prolonged it—probably longer than it should've been—her left hand curling around his cowled head and keeping him pressed to her. They broke apart with a quiet smack that was drowned out in the hailstorm of gunfire all around them, both their faces red as a cherry and smiling.

"More of that, later," he said firmly.

Kara bit her lower lip, nodding excitedly.

Batman's voice on comms. interrupted their moment. "This attack doesn't make sense."

"Based on what?" Caden returned. "Bialya makes its living on government-perpetrated terrorism."

"There's a secret nuclear power plant just a few miles outside the city," Supergirl said amidst flipping a pair of tanks by their main barrels. "They take that out, they'll nuke the Quracis with their own regime's tech."

Cass chimed in. "Perhaps it's a failsafe in case their manual incursion doesn't work."

"In that case," Wonder Woman said, grunting with effort, "we need to get a team over there to make sure it's secure."

"The Lanterns, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and I will stay on the battlefield to drive their army back," Batman said. "We're the best equipped to deal with these numbers. The rest of you, I'm sending coordinates to the main entrance of that plant. Get in there and stop whatever they're planning. The League—and this city—are counting on you."

TK snorted as he landed next to Caden. "Well shit, as long as there's no pressure."

"I've got Black Bat if you grab the Ghost," Rev said.

Jason glanced at Caden. "Ghost?"

His brown eyes rolled. "The League of Assassins gave me that name a long time ago."

He nodded and outstretched his arms. "Shall we?"

Caden shrugged and sighed, bracing himself for rapid ascension. Two sonic booms sounded moments later, moving to the mountain north of Karbala, the sound lost in the deafening roar of the battle that raged on and on.

AN: Whoaaaakay, this took me absolutely forever to write thanks to school being a right pain. Dealing with interviews and appointments and family matters and—well, it's done, and this arc will be closed out by the next chapter. I'm hoping to get to that ASAP; I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm still kicking and still writing this story. Life has just been getting in the way.

If some pieces of this chapter seem out of place or choppy, I apologize. I wrote like the first half of this chapter back in July, then came back to it today, so there might be some discrepancies I didn't account for. It happens every time I revisit a story after a while. Just let me know in the comments if you run across anything like that.

Hope you enjoyed this newest entry and are looking forward to more. Next chapter will focus on the other half of the team, so stay tuned for the next chapter.

Drake out.

Musical Inspirations:

Crisis on Earth-X – The Flag Still Stands: 2:05-end—breaking into power plant/Achilles hums

Batman: Arkham Origins – Bane: The Tomorrow Knight and Caden vs Bane

Wonder Woman – No Man's Land – start-0:46—radar/approaching force/opening volley, 0:46-1:40—Alex intervenes/missile defense/forced to ground, 1:40-2:20—buckling/living hope/bunker buster, 2:20-3:08—the Justice League arrives/reinforcing the barrier, 3:08-5:37—League and Vagabonds together/Supergirl lands, 5:37-6:05—Kara and Jason/"later", 6:05-7:10—plan of action/splitting up/end of chapter

Formatting notes:

– Internal Thoughts/Flashback
– "Super-Hearing/Surveillance"
– Telepathy/Divine Speech
– "{Foreign Language}"
– [Text Message]