Chapter 3
Metropolis
"So, I'm guessing that's the big bad." Green Lantern broke the silence, as the assembled fighters which consisted of, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Shazam and Scorpion, watched Darkseid approach, his fleet of Parademons following in perfect formation behind him.
"Lucky guess." Batman replied in the most sarcastic tone he could manage in their depressing situation.
Superman seemed to pick up on the tone, snorting as he folded his arms and confidently said. "He doesn't look so tough!"
"Your arrogance will be your downfall." Scorpion warned, having sensed how powerful Darkseid was.
As if to prove Scorpion's point, a trio Fighter jets dove from the low hanging clouds gathered above, and descended towards the harbor. They quickly entered the bay with their weapons locked on Darkseid's massive form, and a second later they all unleashed their payload of missiles at the New God before flying past him. The thunderous shockwaves of multiple missiles successfully detonating across the gods face and body soon echoed through the bay.
Unfortunately despite the impressive explosions, the missiles had absolutely no effect on Darkseid or his clothes. Something that went a long way to showing the Superheroes exactly what they were up against. The bank of smoke concealing the gods body from view parted as Darkseid continued flying forward towards the harbor at the same leisurely pace as before, revealing himself to be completely unharmed. Then tragedy followed as his eyes lit up like they were illuminated by some unholy hellish blaze.
Twin beams of brilliant crimson energy shot forth from the dark gods eyes, zigzagging at right angles in a plethora of seemingly random direction, too fast for the un-augmented eye to follow save for the trail they left. The two beams suddenly veered backwards in an unpredictable pattern, and began tracking the three fighter jets with ridiculous ease.
Before the pilots could even hope to react, the twin beams of destruction came in at unexpected angles and punched massive holes clean through each of the three fighter jets. A second later, the three military aircraft's blossomed into a trio of thunderous, fiery explosions, leaving their scattered debris to fall into the sea without any survivors. It was over in seconds and not once did Darkseid ever look back over his shoulders as he proceeded to the harbor unimpeded.
"No!" Flash gasped in horror, the tragedy of what he had just witnessed getting to him. The others stood, equally horrified but did not vocalize it, however, by the way they clenched their fists and their jaws tightened, their feelings on the matter were clearly visible.
Green Lantern on the other hand, got excited or perhaps impatient. "Stand back and peep the light show! Green Lantern's got this!" The space cop loudly announced as his ring began to glow a brilliant emerald and he flew off to attack Darkseid. It was colossal mistake.
"No, Lantern wait!" Batman yelled in a vain attempt to stop his teammate.
Green Lantern formed a giant green spiked gauntlet and flew straight at Darkseid before slamming it in the New Gods face. The impact shattered the construct, and succeeded in turning Darkseid's head to the right.
What happened next, However would register in Lantern's memory for a long time. Literally before Green Lantern could even begin to straighten from his overextended punch, Darkseid decided to punch him back, hard.
The impact of the god's fist meeting the indestructible force-field right above Green Lantern's face, created a massive shockwave as the force-field shattered, and the space cop was accelerated backwards, like a rocket. Green Lantern slammed into and then through a lamppost before punching a hole into the side of a building, and then caving in a wall further inside. That also seemed to be the signal for the Parademons to attack for they all simultaneously charged at the downed member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Like a bolt of lightning, Flash took off to protect his injured friend, followed by Superman who scythed dozens of Parademons out of the sky with his heat vision, with Wonder Woman right behind them. Shazam with his eyes aglow joined in, throwing enhanced punches and kicks that combined his incredible strength and the power of lightning together, to blast Parademons out of existence with each blow.
Besides Scorpion, Cyborgs arm turned into a white noise canon, which began firing a steady stream of super-heated plasma bolts at every flying Parademon nearby. Acting as an anti-air deterrent for the Parademons trying to head deeper in the city.
Batman pulled out a few Batarangs to begin assisting but Scorpion raised his hand to stop him, and said. "We need a plan, else we'd just be fighting a losing battle."
"He's right." Cyborg said, while blasting a Parademon. "These things are popping up all over the world."
"I take it you can't teleport all of them back?" Batman asked Scorpion
"No, even if I could, they would still use those boxes to return." Scorpion said
"If only I had one of those boxes." Cyborg said, causing Scorpion and Batman to look at him for more details. "With one of those Mother box, I could send them back and probably lock their access to Earth."
"You can do this why?" Batman asked
"I got fused with their technology." Cyborg said, gesturing to his body
"Here." Batman said, handing Cyborg a mother box. "Now what?"
"I need more energy." Cyborg said, after connecting wires to the box
"I'll get the Thunderer, the both of you head to high ground." Scorpion said
"Tell him to meet us at the Daily Planet's top." Batman said, as Cyborg grabbed him, before flying away
With them gone, Scorpion leaped into the air, crossing a hundred meter distance in an instant. A Parademon spotting him, flew low and directly into his path to stop him but he punched it right towards Darkseid on the ground, the action canceling out his own forward momentum and making him drop from the air like a rocket. Darkseid, backhanded the improvised parademon projectile aside almost negligently, but in doing so created the opening Scorpion wanted.
Darkseid was standing with his right hand still hanging somewhat to his side, after backhanding his minion.
In an instant Scorpion was there besides the giant, and then he shot past Darkseid, while wrapping his chains onto Darkseid's still extended arm. His sheer acceleration was more than sufficient to pull Darkseid completely off balance and nearly topple him. This also served to distract him from paying attention to a charging Superman who chose that exact moment to drive his fist into the New God's face...hard.
Darkseid's Parademons could only watch in shock as Darkseid landed on his back. Seeing Superman knock Darkseid over, Shazam turned to Wonder Woman
"Is that your boyfriend?" He asked
"No." Was Wonder Woman's simple reply
"Cool. Watch this." Shazam said, as he flew towards a rising Darkseid, while also charging a massive lightning bolt. "Hey, Blackheart the Deatheater, or Whatever your "World of Warcraft" name is, suck on this." He said, sending his attack at Darkseid, we growled slightly
Unfortunately, all they had done so far was knock Darkseid onto his back, and while Scorpion tried to retrieve his chain from Darkseid after setting him up for Superman to land his punch, Darkseid had decided to hold on to. With a mighty tug, he tossed the ninja straight into Diana.
The duo groaned as they collided with each other in a thunderclap of power, before bowling into a nearby building, which collapsed on impact
The duo were in the midst of recovering when Shazam tried to punch Darkseid in the face with a mighty roar, but Darkseid in a surprising show of speed sidestepped the attack and punched the Thunderer away.
Darkseid's eyes lit up with crimson power, in order to incinerate Shazam but a wall of ice started heading towards him, courtesy of Superman. Despite this, Darkseid's eye beams caused the ice to burst into steam, concealing the battlefield for half a second.
A wave of Darkseid's hand immediately cleared away the steam, and it came just in time for Flash to appear from seemingly nowhere, before slamming his fist into Darkseid's face at speed close to the speed of light. Their was an explosion of light and energy as Darkseid flew backwards for a few hundred meters, bouncing and tumbling head over heels before he rolled over and stopped in a crouch, then slowly rose to his feet. His face was covered in black soot, unfortunately their was no clear visual indicator of him having taken any damage. Darkseid did look pissed though.
Almost on instinct the entire team of heroes save Batman and Cyborg, quickly assembled around the Flash, almost protectively. It made sense, with him having done the most damage to their enemy so far, even if it was just cosmetic damage. Turning to Superman the speedster asked. "Now what? That didn't seem to do anything"
Before the Man of Steel could reply, Darkseid cut in. "Now, you die!"
The New God raised his arms above his head, each one glowing a brilliant red and then shifting to white as he channeled enormous amounts of destructive power into the limbs. His intent was clear, to bring them down and unleash all that energy in an instant. The shockwave and sheer amount of destructive energy would likely level an untold amount of the neighborhood, possibly city. Scorpion knew he couldn't let that happen, so he reacted immediately.
The Spectre blurred forward with speed that impressed even the Flash before stopping Infront of Darkseid, just in time for the Apokoliptan god to bring down both arms. There should've been an explosion of light and shockwave of incinerating power that would reduced the local landscape to nightmare vision resembling Darkseid's homeworld. Instead, the attack was stopped dead in its tracks, caught upon Scorpion's forearms and held firmly in place.
Gritting his teeth, Scorpion dropped to his knees as he kept Darkseid's arm in place. The rest of him was focused on ignoring the mind-breaking pain cause by the foul energies trying to invade his body and break it down to its last atoms.
Thankfully for his pain tolerance, this all happened in the span of seconds, and before Darkseid could even react to his foiled attack, Scorpion yelled. "Superman!"
As if knowing exactly what he was thinking, Superman appeared in blur of his own speed and delivered the most powerful haymaker in the history of Earth directly to Darkseid's chin. The sheer power of the shockwave generated from the impact was enough to launch Darkseid through the city like a rocket.
Scorpion grunted as he got back to his feet, before facing the others. "Shazam, Batman wants you at the Daily Planet's rooftop."
"Roger that. But you're hurt." Shazam said
Scorpion winced in pain as he tried to move his arms but immediately relented, settling for simply replying. "I am already healing, I will be fine in a little bit. Now go!"
"Yes Sir." Shazam said, before flying off
"What now?" Flash asked
"We hold him off for as long as we can." Scorpion said
Elsewhere
Darkseid frowned as he hovered above a collapsed building in Metropolis. This changed things, this newcomer was an unexpected development in the invasion plan.
From the minute he had laid eyes on this version of the Justice League, Darkseid had known that something was different. He had already defeated and killed the Kryptonian called Superman many times, in other iterations of the Earth, along with his fellow teammates. He had done it so many times in fact, that he wasn't even taking this whole fight seriously.
However, Darkseid was fully aware of one thing. Throughout the Multiverse, across every Earth he had conquered, the heroes that came to the worlds defense were largely the same.
It was almost always the Kryptonian, the insane human dressed like a Bat, The Amazon Princess and The Speedforce conduit that were the groups core members. As a result he always killed them in much the same way.
However on this Earth was different. This newcomer whom he did not recognize from any of the other Earth's he'd conquered, not to mention his powers were intriguing. Demonic in nature and also magical. Had Darkseid been any other god, Old or New, this unknown factor would've been enough to give him pause and make him wary.
Unfortunately he was Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips, and this newcomer wasn't a threat to him at all. Darkseid had killed entire teams of Justice League members. Darkseid couldn't deny that the demons strange abilities made this battle intriguing.
"A Demon like that would make an excellent addition to my army." Darkseid thought, while smirking as five heroes teleported to his location
Daily Planet
"So basically you want me to hit you with a thunderstorm?" Shazam asked, after Cyborg finished explaining his plan
"That's pretty much it." Cyborg confirmed
"All right, but this is gonna hurt though." Shazam said
"Well, it's better than what Darkseid has installed for us." Cyborg said
"Whatever you're planning to do, you better hurry up." Batman said, after noticing a massive explosion from a distant area in Metropolis.
With Darkseid
"Is that all your world has to offer heroes?" Darkseid asked in a thunderous but clearly mocking voice. If not for the fact that he was clearly taunting them, he would've sounded almost genuinely disappointed.
"We are not done, not by a long shot Darkseid." Superman replied
"Then come and fight me, let us see how long it takes my Omega Beams to reduce you to ashes!" The god challenged, with his eyes flaring to brilliant crimson in the same sentence. The zigzag pattern of his now named Omega Beams shot straight towards the group of heroes.
Due to their unpredictable movement, no one knew who Darkseid was aiming for. Regardless, Diana decided to take that particular risk off the table right away by charging directly at the Omega Beams and then deflecting them away with her Bracelets.
The Man of Steel then used that opening to flank Darkseid's left side and slam a right hook into the side of his face, disrupting the New God's focus and dissipating the Omega Beams he was projecting. Superman's follow up, left fist landed just as quickly as his right, creating a shockwave with the impact and forcing Darkseid a step back, then his third right actually knocked the New God over.
As he fell to the ground Darkseid performed a combat roll and rose just as Superman came in with a fourth punch, but this time he ducked under the hero as he flew at him. He then grabbed Superman by his cape and yanked him backwards, straight into a clothesline.
Superman yelped as he hit the ground. He barely had time to even groan before Darkseid brought his boot down on his stomach, forcing Superman's body to fold in half at the waist, then pinned him there. While Darkseid's eyes lit up to incinerate Flash who was retreating to a safe distance.
He fortunately didn't get a chance because Green Lantern created a massive hammer and slammed it straight into Darkseid's head, preventing him from firing. Unfortunately Darkseid in retaliation whipped Superman around by the cape and slammed the Kryptonians indestructible body into the Lantern Corps member, hurling him into the distance.
Using Superman as Flail, Darkseid then swung Superman at Scorpion, but the ninja ducked under the improvised weapon. Wonder Woman who had pounced into the air in order to skewer the god with with her sword wasn't so lucky and got hit in the head, launching her across the battlefield. Lantern was the next target of Darkseid's improvised bludgeoning tool but Flash was faster than Darkseid's swing and moved him out of the way, to safety. However, the impact of Superman with the ground ruptured a gas pipeline and caused an explosion. The energy of the explosion, tossing Flash and Lantern to the side and obscuring Darkseid from view.
Wonder Woman burst through the dust, sword in hand and ready to skewer Darkseid, but the New God placed Superman in the path of the attack, as human shield. Superman would have ended up with a hole in his stomach had Scorpion not suddenly appeared on their flank and kicked the flat side of her blade up, redirecting away from their ally.
He then sweep kicked Darkseid's feet from under him, just as a powerful blast of focused green energy shot forth from a Mech that Green Lantern was piloting and hit the New God in his face. As he stumbled backward his grip loosened, and Diana's Lasso of Truth wound itself around Superman's arm before she pulled him away from the evil god. Superman took that same opportunity to open up with his heat vision on Darkseid, forcing him even further back.
Drawing from the Speedforce, Flash launched a massive bolt of lightning, that came crashing down on Darkseid pinning him in place, while Green Lantern projected a spaceship of some kind high in the sky that shot down at full speed and crashed into the god with catastrophic amount of force, causing a massive explosion.
The dust and smoke cleared enough to see a shadowy figure with crimson glowing eyes in its midst. In an instant, Darkseid fired his Omega Beams straight at Superman and Wonder Woman knocking them through the city. All hell broke loose as Darkseid fired an intense stream of Omega energy at the remaining three fighters.
Thinking quickly, Scorpion instantly teleported Lantern and Flash away from the attack, before meeting it head on.
"Time to test my theory." Scorpion thought, as he got sent to his knees by Darkseid's Omega beams. Despite the pain from said attack, Scorpion began to slowly rise to his feet, an act that seemed to slightly impress Darkseid.
"A futile effort." Darkseid thought, while increasing the intensity of his attack. Despite the increase in power, the Spectre remained standing
That was when Darkseid noticed something peculiar. His Omega Beams appeared to be warping around Scorpion. "He's absorbing my Omega Beams. How is this possible?"
After noticing this, the New god had intended to stop his attack, but it was too late. Gathering every bit of the energy he just absorbed, while also ignoring the corruptive influence of said power, Scorpion then channeled said energy into his swords before launching himself straight at Darkseid, impaling the tyrant's eyes. Said attack resulted in a massive explosion of Omega Energy that engulfed the entire battle field.
Daily Planet
"You ready?" Shazam asked, as he and Cyborg floated towards the sky
"Hit me." Cyborg said
"SHAZAM!" The Thunderer yelled, causing massive streams of lightning to appear, engulfing him and Cyborg
With a grunt of exertion and energy Cyborg focused on the Motherbox he held. He then focused on all the other motherboxes in the city and around the world. Once connected he forced hundreds of boom tubes to suddenly open, not just in Metropolis but across the planet.
Most of them quickly began sucking any nearby Parademons into them, as if they were trapped in a gravity well, leaving the Earth clear of their presence.
Elsewhere
Relieved that he was able to free himself of Darkseid's influence, due to absorbing his Omega energy. Scorpion, using his teleportation, swiftly plucked both weapons from Darkseid's ruined eyes, while backing away from the thrashing deity. It was a gruesome sight to behold
"Two swords to his eyeballs, and he's still standing. What else can we do?" Green Lantern said with a grimace as his construct shattered under the might of the thrashing and now blind New God.
Scorpion jumped and delivered a spinning hook kick to Darkseid's face, knocking him over sideways in a setup for Wonder Woman to try and impale him through the neck. Darkseid somehow sensed what was about to happen and grabbed the sword in his bare hands before, punching the Amazon away.
Suddenly, a boom tube opened up behind Darkseid, to ferry him back to his homeworld, yet despite being blinded and attacked by numerous heroes, he completely resisted the gravitational pull of the portal.
Dashing forward, Scorpion attempted to slice the New god's head, but Darkseid manage to sidestep the attack, before backhanding Scorpion to the ground. Not letting up, Darkseid proceeded to stomp on the Spectre, forming a massive crater on the ground.
"You're getting sloppy Demon. It would seem having a taste of the Omega effect has weakened you." Darkseid said, as he placed more of his weight on Scorpion.
"The same could be said about you." Scorpion muttered
"Defiant to the end I see? Good, you will make an excellent addition to my army." Darkseid said
Out of nowhere, Superman shot forward like a bullet, to find Darkseid with his boot on a weakened Scorpion's chest, after managing to tag the exhausted ninja. The blind god was in the midst of fending of the other heroes who were attacking, when the god-like alien slammed into Darkseid, freeing Scorpion.
Though he could not see, Darkseid retaliated with a punch but Superman caught it and stopped it cold, matching and exceeding the New God's weakened strength. Darkseid immediately tried with his other hand and Superman caught that too before pushing, blatantly overpowering Darkseid who tried to dig his feet in and resist the man of steel. Within seconds, Darkseid was forced to his knees, meanwhile Superman's eyes lit up with solar fury and he instantly began blasting the New God's eyes, further damaging them, which caused the New god to scream in pain
Superman ignored his screams of pain and backhanded Darkseid away, sending him flying through the smoking remnants of several buildings. Speeding past the god as he was in mid-flight, Superman punched him right back the way he came, slamming him in the midst of the heroes
Darkseid rose to his feet quickly, sensing he was surrounded and moved to punch the nearest person, Green Lantern. However Superman was there in an instant and caught Darkseid's punch, holding the gods hand in place, while Wonder Woman's lasso wrapped around Darkseid's neck, pulling him in the opposite direction. This had the effect of fully extending Darkseid's right arm out, until it was completely straight. At which point Scorpion suddenly jumped and dropkicked Darkseid in his elbow joint, dislocating the limb with a sickening pop, resulting in another scream
Darkseid's cry of agony went completely ignored as Diana released him, while drawing her sword and slitting his Achilles tendon equivalent, making him stumble to one knee, only to get punched to the floor by Superman. Climbing above him Superman deliver two mighty punches, before blasting Darkseid directly in the face with his heat vision again, much to the gods agony.
He then grabbed Darkseid's foot and threw him at open portal hopping to get rid of him. Yet somehow, Darkseid even with only on arm fully functional, blinded and hamstrung, he managed to catch the edge of the portal and prevent himself from fully being sucked in. That was when another boom tube opened before the heroes, revealing Cyborg and Batman
"How goes the fight?" Batman asked
"The Damn bastard is really persistent!" Lantern cursed while visibly gathering energy in his ring. "Vic, get ready to shut the door in his face!"
Mimicking Lantern, the other fighters began charging various attacks before launching it at Darkseid. The result finally sending Darkseid through the portal, while causing Cyborg to also instantly shut the boom tube down.
"It's finally over." Flash said, after a moment of silence
"Not yet, we still need to bring back the people trapped on the other side." Cyborg said
"Where's Shazam?" Lantern asked, noticing the Thunderer's absence
"Said he had a hot date." Cyborg said
"That guy? I don't buy it." Lantern said. "Worse, he left us to cleanup on our own."
"I believe I've done my share of good dead for today." Scorpion said, while on one knee
"Nah bro, you ain't ditching us while we cleanup." Lantern said, in a no nonsense tone. "You're sticking to the end."
"I'll make sure to compensate you, if you stay that is." Batman said
"I don't need your money." Scorpion said
"It doesn't have to be money." Batman said. "Any request…that doesn't involve killing."
After watching the Dark Knight for any signs of deception, Scorpion reluctantly nods. "Very well, but not now."
The rest of the evening was then spent returning those trapped in Apokolips back to earth. With Cyborg's tech, Scorpion's teleportation, Flash's speed and Lantern's construct, it was done within an hour.
A week later
Seven heroes stood in front of the White House on a stage, except for Scorpion. Today they would be receiving medals of honor from the president, for their valiant efforts in saving the world.
"We gather here today to thank the costumed individuals for their actions and service of the world." The president began his speech.
"Costume? This is my uniform." Green Lantern said through his teeth, annoyed that they called him a in a costume.
"And now, I present to you seven, these medals of honor." The president went down the line, handing the heroes a medal.
"Sweet!" Shazam exclaimed childishly. He couldn't wait to show his brothers and sisters back home. "Too bad Scorpion couldn't be here."
"He's here." Superman said, having spotted the Spectre on a distant building, observing the event
"You know, it wouldn't kill the guy to show up." Lantern said. "Hell, even Batman is here."
"I can't believe people are no longer afraid of us." Shazam said.
"Or that they think we're a team." Lantern said
"We're not a team." Batman said
"But I am pleased to meet some folks who get me." Flash said
"Yes, it was good to walk among a pantheon again." Wonder Woman said
"How do you mean?" Superman asked
"Hades, Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus, Zeus…" Wonder Woman said, motioning to Batman, Lantern, Flash, Cyborg and Shazam respectively. "...each a god in their own right."
"And me?" Superman asked
"I have never met anyone like you." Wonder Woman said
"What about Scorpion?" Superman asked
"Him too. I believe there's more to him that meets the eye." Wonder Woman said.
"What do you call yourselves?" The President suddenly asked
The heroes just looked at each other in confusion
"Oh I know, call us, 'The Super Eight." Shazam suggested, getting a laugh out of Flash
"But you guys are Seven." The President pointed out
"The last guy is on vacation." Shazam said
Rooftop
Scorpion couldn't help but sign at the ridiculous name Shazam gave the group, regardless he couldn't care less. The Spectre had used this past week to study this Earth's heroes. For some reason, most of them held strongly to a code of 'No killing', something Scorpion was certain he would not abide to, regardless he would try to keep a low profile.
Another thing that bothered him was the disturbance he felt from one of the lower planes. At first, he merely dismissed it as an after effect of absorbing Darkseid's Omega Beams. But today, the disturbance felt more potent, as if someone had subconsciously reached out for help. This was the reason he could not attend the award ceremony, besides not wanting to attend it in the first place.
With the ceremony coming to an end, Scorpion chose that moment to teleport towards the disturbance. "My request to Batman would have to wait." He thought before vanishing.
Underrealm
Appearing in a burst of flame, the first thing Scorpion noticed was the intense power he was receiving from this Realm. The Fifth Plane of the Netherrealms never gave him such a power boost.
The second thing he noticed, was a girl, no older than 14, being overpowered by Demon the size of a mountain. Unknown to Scorpion, the two beings just happened to be Rachel Roth and her demonic father Trigon.
Author's Note: Incase you're wondering what inspired me to have Scorpion absorb Darkseid's Omega Beams, I basically got the idea from Scorpion's Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Tower ending where after the war he basically got possessed by the Kombat Rage to become a New Dark Kahn.