*James, (Krios), Tricorner Docks, Gotham
"Well, well, well, this is a bit of a surprise," the Joker said as Krios raised him into a hovering t-pose position.
With his one good eye, the Joker looked at his position.
"What, you gonna crucify me now?"
Krios ignored him and spoke softly, "What was the purpose behind shooting Barbara?"
"Barbara, is it?" The Joker mocked, "Oh my, talk about playing with fire. What stories do you have with the Commissioner's daughter?"
Hearing the madman talk only made him madder. There was nothing to gain by dealing with this man.
"You really are just the biggest joke of this city, aren't you?"
Joker merely smiled at Krios.
Krios, through gritted teeth, said, "The heroes... the heroes of this city are a joke. Constantly locking up Gotham's rogues only to get out within a week. The police? A joke to find a single one who is not corrupt. This whole city is a joke with you being its greatest."
He then whispered, "But your joke is not funny... You shouldn't have hurt her."
The Joker's sickly smile grew, and his voice chuckled as he said,
"Oh, Krios by dear boy... I think that's about the worst thing I've ever heard hee hee hee mwhahaha HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!..."
'Fu%*k him!'
Krios lost it.
With barely a thought, his powers gripped the Joker's skin and began to pull. Steadily and roughly, it pulled until a distinct ripping sound erupted and the laughing man was nothing more then a slab of meat hanging in front of him.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA COUGH AHAAHAHAHAHAH COUGHAHAHAHAHA..."
Still, the clown prince of crime continued to laugh despite what Krios did.
He was surprised by that and grudgingly felt respect for the psycho who must be in immense pain, yet continued with his sinister laughter.
What Krios expected was very different from the reality of getting revenge on the Joker. His stomach felt sick at the sight of a man being skinned alive, though that was more at the grotesque sight rather than any merciful thoughts.
Overall, it was lacking.
He honestly thought he would feel better about ruining his life to save Barbara, but he still felt a degree of doubt and anger.
When he had his vision at the hospital with the entity and struck a deal, he felt assured that it was worth the sacrifice. Now that he was here, getting a hollow revenge, he felt great unease over his actions.
Looking away from the Joker, he focused on a presence he felt earlier.
Victor Fries was here and was currently embedded in a shipping container. From what he could tell, his former partner was stuck, furious, and also amused, perhaps at seeing him.
With a shake of his head and a wave of his hand, he dislodged Fries. Whether the man was able to escape while Krios distracted everyone was up to the good doctor.
Sparing a final glance at the Joker, he pondered again the sick joke Gotham was, and Batman must be to allow such a lunatic to live in its borders.
This was no super meta, this was no alien warlord, not an eldritch abomination with powers protecting it was harm. It was just a man. A man who should have been taken care of long ago.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Batman break free from the police cruiser he had thrown him at. He felt nothing but disgust at the hero. He was really going to stop him from ending one of Gotham's greatest threats, someone who had nearly killed Barbara, all because of his stupid code.
But not today.
Focusing on the Joker, he wondered if he was missing something. Some protection the clown had, or an external source, was stopping him from doing what he wanted to.
But as he raised his hand, nothing stayed it, no warnings sounded from his powers; it was surprisingly mundane.
He snapped his fingers, releasing a built-up telekinetic ball he crafted inside the man.
POP SPLURGE
Blood splashed all around, with some of the police and emergency crew shouting and screaming at the gore. Not a drop had touched Krios as he will it away from him.
Batman, who had been charging towards them, had stopped in his tracks as a geyser of blood covered him from head to toe.
The Cape Crusader stood there in shock and disbelief.
Undoubtedly, he would soon be mourning his part-time boyfriend, Krios thought vindictively.
'Damn, still feel like shit,' Krios' thoughts were still chaotic.
He shook his head slightly. He really needed to figure out his life.
Turning from the blood splatter of what remained of the Joker, he walked by a shocked Batman and whispered forcefully.
"Do not follow me rich boy."
With that, he continued walking and opened a portal, which he stepped through quickly and closed swiftly as he left Gotham for a much colder environment.
The night was pitch black in Devon, Canada. It was the last place he had trained and one perfect for the roar of frustration and rage he felt.
"THIS IS SUCH BULLSHIT!" he yelled, practically tearing his throat out.
Healing Barbara should have made him feel better, but it didn't. Destroying traces of how to find him should have settled his nervousness, but it didn't. Warning, Jane and his step-siblings should have calmed his anxiety, but it didn't. Killing the Joker should have brought satisfaction, but it didn't.
Around him, the ground shook, the earth ripped open as his rage got out of control. Chunks of rocks, trees, and dirt went flying a great distance as it was flung away from the distraught man.
His emotions, which he had kept in check with ease these last few years, erupted in perfect chaos.
Then things took a step further than ever when James lost control.
The limited light of the moon darkened, and lances of energy erupted sporadically like lightning strikes around the area as the wind turned into a veritable tornado.
For outsider viewers, it would look like a hurricane in the middle of a landmass. An impossible sight and one no sane person would get within miles of for fear of being killed by it.
In the center of this ever-expanding vortex of destruction, James stood, lost in his anger, frustration, and fear.
The sound of ripping fabric and the crackle of electricity started to become pronounced as a new sight came to be. Along with the chaos of the storm he created jagged lines appeared, hovering, as if reality itself began to break. Air began to be sucked into these gaps, into where dark abyss. It truly gave the appearance of an entropic dimension, yet an unnerving sense of being watched by something from the reality tear was pronounced.
James paid no attention to that as he slowly felt physical pain. The sheer amount of energy being released was beginning to tear at his body. Blood leaked from his eyes and skin, his muscles tore from strain, and his mind began to crash from the exertion.
With one final roar, he cut his power off and immediately felt silence.
A 5-mile radius was nothing but a crater from the destruction he had unleashed. The damage beyond that, though, was also significant; he had become a veritable weapon of mass destruction.
'Let's add the U.S. military as another problem to deal with,' he scoffed.
James lowered his head and looked over his body.
He was a mess.
Not since his fight against the Martian Manhunter had he been as bloodied as he was now. His healing had kicked in, but it was taking longer than usual to fix his body.
Looking at the flattened dirt, he fell to his knees and let his body fall over. He would rest for a few moments and heal enough to teleport somewhere else. Undoubtedly, his frankly embarrassing tantrum would bring someone along to check out the destroyed area.
He knew if Deathstroke or Ra's Al Ghul could see him now, they would mock him and make him run laps for his dramatic overreaction.
The thought of his teachers did make him smile for a moment before he drifted off to sleep in the rough dirt, in the cold of the frozen north.
---------------------------------------
*Commandant, Devon, Canada
The Commandant walked at a leisurely pace through the torn earth and destroyed patches of forest.
A slight grin tugged the corners of his mouth as he looked upon the destruction the young man had wrought.
'You would be proud, Sarah, if you could see your son now,' he mused as he hopped down into the crater zone.
It appeared to be the epicenter of where Krios had another dramatic meltdown.
Since finding the man a year ago, he had been impressed by the undercurrent of rage and deep psychological issues. Oh, he hid it well from his pretty girlfriend and friends, but the Commandant had seen men like Krios before. Deep issues that are either buried or hidden while things are going well, but as soon as a little pressure is applied, they crack.
It made them predictable, as well as manipulable.
It also made it easier for him to insert himself into Krios' life, both as a friend and mentor.
He smiled, 'Hopefully, we will continue our chess games...'
Soon, the Commandant stood over Krios.
He had cloaked his presence against the Krios' troublesome senses and, with a small wave of his hand, ensured he would not wake up for a few hours at least.
A small sigh left his lips, knowing he didn't need to fight Krios right now, especially as he looked around at a Krios who had fully Awakened. But now was not the time for those thoughts; now was to take the boy away.
'The boy truly looks like his parents,' he thought, staring at him.
He thought back to his beloved niece, how she managed to escape the clutches of the Order only to join up with the League of Shadows. The years that followed with her building a reputation, only for the Order to corner her and her husband.
Kneeling, he lifted the bloody young man and held him close. The last of the bloodline... the last remnant of Sarah.
The greatest failure and sorrow of his life revolved around this boy and his mother. He could practically hear the accusatory voices in his head:
'You promised to protect the family.'
'You betrayed us for monsters.'
'You chose power over us!'
'I don't want to be part of this anymore, uncle! I want to be free!'
He sighed. The past was the past. And though he had many regrets, he would not change anything.
Looking around, he knew he needed to get going. The Justice League would have detected this level of destruction, as well as the various governments. He felt confident he could beat everyone in the League confidently, except Superman. Still, it was trouble the Commandant was not in the mood to deal with.
Besides, as he looked around the miles of destruction, perhaps he could let Krios wipe them out once he got him on board with the program.
FLASH
A white flash of light erupted a few yards in front of him, with a golden ankh appearing in the air. It seemed to glow white hot before a hovering man appeared, dressed in a blue and yellow uniform with an all too familiar golden helm hiding his host's face.
The Commandant laid Krios back down and took a protective stance in front of him.
With an easy-going grin, he said, "Ah, if it isn't the legendary Nabu, of all the destroyed wildernesses in all of Canada, I had to bump into you."
"You will hand over the boy now Klaus Kriegsmann, or suffer the fate of those who defy Order!"
"Oooooooh," the Commandant mocked, pretending to shake his shoulders in fear, "You learned a name that some scientist gave me. Really tells a person a lot when the supposed representative of Order can't even find my real birth name."
It felt like Dr. Fate narrowed his eyes, "Order prevails over all, over chaos and over dead gods!"
The Commandant cracked his neck, "Well, now let's not call each other names now, we both know my progenitors were never gods. After all, that would have been a downgrade for them."
Dr. Fate swept his hand, causing various golden ankhs to appear surrounding him. They glowed menacingly, promising pain and destruction.
"ENOUGH! Your impudence has gone on long enough; now you will face..."
"I'm sorry to interrupt," the Commandant spoke bored and impatiently, "But could we get this over with? I have plans later today, and hearing you spout non-stop propaganda on your rental level deities is really not in the books today."
The Ankhs fired blasts of golden fire that rushed the Commandant, but before they could hit him, he raised a single finger. A strange effect took place as the world went out of focus; the flames slowed drastically until they stopped in place.
Then, waving his finger in a no-no gesture, all the flames reversed themselves back into their respective Ankhs as if they were in rewind.
Dr. Fate immediately responded by firing a blast of pure order energy from his hand while conjuring chains with his other hand.
The Commandant jumped to the side, avoiding the direct hit of the blast, but with a twirl of his hand, caused the energy blast to slow, stopping and reversing back to the sorcerer. This time, however, the blast did not dissipate but returned in full force against Fate, who canceled the golden chains he was conjuring to create a shield to defend himself from his own attack.
The blast pushed Fate back a few feet, but his shield held. Seeing his opponent not press an attack forward, but rather looked bored. Such defiance infuriated Fate, who conjured clouds that began striking lightning down around the Commandant.
In response, he raised a hand, and the sky fractured. Seconds bled backward; lightning unstruck itself into clouds. Fate's cape rippled, caught between past and present. His sigils, he had summoned to shield himself, dimmed — time was being unwoven beneath him.
Fate found himself having visions of all the worst moments of his life. Every injury, every pain struck him as if he was reliving them and feeling the hurt all over again.
The sudden and surprising attack staggered the sorcerer, who collapsed to the ground, fighting the torrent of all his pain from his timeline, striking him for several seconds before ceasing.
The Commandant smiled, "I will admit that is one of my favorite tricks to use. Most can only handle a few moments, maybe a few minutes for the strong-willed. Such a useful tool to end a fight quickly, don't you think, Lord of Order?"
It was at first surprising to see Dr. Fate, one of Earth's most powerful heroes and incredibly strong-willed individuals, last less than 3 seconds—even the worm Felix could hold out longer than that. But then again, he had targeted Nabu's timeline, which had dozens of hosts and thousands of years of pain and suffering. Such a condensed focus of all that pain throughout his time would cause even the strongest to collapse.
And there was the problem with his host body being both his strength and his greatest weakness. The fact was that Nabu, the near deity-level entity, could probably take it, but the mortal body he possessed certainly could not.
"Still," the Commandant said conversationally as he walked to the now kneeling Dr. Fate, "I was hoping this fight would have been more interesting."
Standing to the side of the man, he bent his knees, taking a squat near him, facing where Krios lay.
"The boy will doom us all!" The helmeted man spoke in ragged breaths.
The Commandant's eyes seemed to glow with anticipation, "God, I hope so."
"Well," he said as he put a hand on Fate's shoulder, "This has been fun, but I think we need to wrap this up."
Fate turned his head to look at him, his hands twitched, causing golden sparks, but his body failed him. He was still recovering from the intense chronal pain lance he had shot at him. But someone of his abilities would probably be up and going in another few moments, so he needed to finish this.
He drummed his fingers on Fate's shoulder, and a faint shimmer spread across the body of the Lord of Order.
The blue and gold uniform of Fate began to fade as if the colors were worn. His arms became skinnier as did his whole body. The small patches of skin that could be seen around the neck and eyes withered and aged, creating wrinkles.
"WHAT HavE YoU done to me..."
The once-booming voice now sounded exhausted, old, and croaky.
"Oh, just sped some things along," he patted Fate's shoulder before standing.
"You cannot stop this! You cannot stop the others who will end the boy!"
The Commandant grabbed the sides of the helmet, "I think you mean I soon won't be able to stop the boy from killing all of you."
He lifted the helmet off Fate's head only for another flash of light.
In his hands, he held the legendary helmet of Fate, and in front of him was a decrepit old man who looked past a hundred years.
The man with cataracts in his eyes and withering skin looked up to him, "Please don't..."
"Shhhh," the Commandant said as the man slowly withered to the point of skin and bones, then literal bones, then dust.
Looking at the helmet of Fate over he had to admire the craftsmanship, "Truly a clever way to bypass the cosmic rules. I am tempted to simply destroy this, but then you and your friends would just find another way to get into this world."
Shrugging, he tossed the helmet in the air, and it vanished.
"Perhaps a few years in the North Sea will do you some good, Nabu," he murmured.
From there, he walked back to James and held the unconscious man with surprising ease as if he weighed nothing.
Looking around at the destroyed wilderness, he could only shake his head. It was only a matter of time before James was more powerful than him. With his Awakening complete, his growth now had no limits.
"God help me when he learns who sent the Joker to the Gordons' place," he chuckled before disappearing without a trace.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT__________________________________________________________
Phew, and now that is a wrap for now, counting the prologue that is over 80 chapters and nearly 245k words. For now, this story will be placed not on hiatus but rather on a break. I plan to write a backlog of chapters, finishing the story, which I suspect will take about 30 or 40 more chapters. So, with that being said, don't expect a new chapter until Thanksgiving at the earliest. I will post either a new chapter then or an update on when the chapter can be expected.
The other thing I want to mention is a massive thank you to those who have read the story. This started out as a hobby and just a practice for creative writing. It was also meant to serve as an outlet for some creative ideas I had. So to those who have enjoyed, hated, and just thought it was meh, thank you. I have such a long way to go to get my writing to where I want it to be, and I am just grateful that I can make small stories like this on the side.
Many of you in the past have asked about me starting a Patreon to help with the time commitment and offset the cost of spending time writing this story. That and to help pump out more chapters for you to read, which totally makes sense. I have always hesitated because, for one, I never thought anyone would pay money to read something I wrote, and two, if I did start something like that, I would need to commit. I am the type that would only start that if I had a plan in place and assurance that I could commit time to it and make sure it did not take advantage of people. That all being said, I will be revisiting that as an option for either earlier chapters of "The Rise Of Krios" or access to some of my other stories I am making drafts for.
As always, thanks for coming along this writing journey.
And now, a sneak peek of what is coming up!
________________________________________________
Metropolis' central district looked more akin to a warzone. Heroes and villains lay dead in the street with hundreds of civilians amongst the casualties.
The few survivors crawled and hobbled away from the center of the fight taking place as Krios was punched directly through the Statehouse and into a skyscraper on the other side.
Krios' shield flickered weakly against the blow, and his chest looked grotesquely crushed in.
Yet despite his injuries, Krios merely laughed, coughing up blood as he shakily stood up. His body quickly healed from the blow with sickening cracks as his bones realigned in his body.
"This ends now!" The Man of Steel growled, his eyes glowing faintly red as he hovered in front of the murderer.
Krios chuckled, "Oh, Superman... I am just getting started."
Superman flew fast, pulling his fist back for another devastating punch.
While Krios merely raised his hand, energy began to build, and reality bent. Heat caused the air to scream, and then he snapped his fingers.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
From his vantage point miles away, Batman stared as a Mushroom cloud dominated the skyline where Metropolis stood.