A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
[ ] : System.
Discord invite link: https://discord.gg/wBcFDgBsRF
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Omniscient POV
In some other parts of the North American continent, similar scenes could be seen, with portals to Apokolips tearing open. In S.T.A.R Labs over in Metropolis, Victor Stone, son of Silas Stone, had just pulled out a Mother Box from a magnetic scanner, only to have it explode in his hands, severely wounding and mutilating him. Seconds after the flash of light from the Mother Box's explosion faded, the portal to Apokolips had finished forming, and Parademons rushed out in droves.
In Washington D.C, a Mother Box that had been taken into the White House, which was supposed to be headed to the Pentagon for proper analysis, exploded, soon forming the portal to Apokolips, from which scores of Parademons erupted out. Wonder Woman, who was talking with Steve Trevor with an ice cream cone in her hand, saw the Parademons as they began their assault. "There is my true responsibility: combat. Leave them to me." She said, pulling her sword from her waist, and jumping into battle.
Back at the Lexcorp demolition site, the Parademons were just about to cross the portal, when Nolan stepped forward, and let off a powerful Tempest Kick, which he enhanced by channeling wind nature chakra into it. "Do it now!" He shouted, and his clones, which he had communicated with, ran forward, just behind the high-pressure wind blade.
The instant the slash hit the first Parademon, the clones put their hands forward, and manipulated the air around the portal, causing it to become the same as the wind sent forward by Nolan's Tempest Kick. The winds around the portal quickly picked up speed, churning and twisting into an extremely violent, 20ft tall and 10ft wide cyclone that also carried the sharpness of the Tempest Kick and wind chakra.
After the cyclone formed, every Parademon that exited the portal clashed with the winds and got shredded into a mess of alien flesh and metal scrap. "Alright, we can leave this one to them." Nolan said, splitting off 10 clones from his body. "You guys! Make a few Shadow Clones to keep you charged up!" He said to the four clones that were holding up the cyclone. They nodded, and with a one-handed Tiger seal, the four clones each created 4 Shadow Clones that then moved to their backs and started punching them.
"What are they doing that for?" Green Lantern asked, and Superman and Batman nodded, curious at the strange actions of the clones' Shadow Clones. "My body absorbs kinetic energy from physical impacts and converts it to electrical energy, which charges up my energy pool and enhances my body. They're gonna be keeping this up for however long the invasion is gonna run, so they'll need to keep their energy up." Nolan explained, then turned to the other clones he made.
"You guys make your clones as well. You'll go around in teams of 6 to any part of the world that has a Boom Tube and take care of the invasion fronts there. Four to make and hold the kill field, and two to take care of the ones already there." He said, and the clones all created 8 Shadow Clones, and began splitting off into their teams.
"Boom Tube?" Batman asked. "A portal's essentially a tube through space, and this type opens up with a loud explosion… so Boom Tube." Nolan explained, then pulled out his handheld computer. "Since we're assuming that every Mother Box on the planet has been activated, we're gonna also assume that anywhere there are Parademons, there's a Mother Box nearby. Now, get moving" He said, and his clones and their Shadow Clones all went into Godspeed and vanished, leaving behind the violent crackling of lightning.
"Flashy." Green Lantern said, then turned to Nolan's clones that were keeping the cyclone active. "Lightning usually is, Lantern." Nolan said, asimages on the screen of his computer quickly shifted multiple times, until they eventually stopped.
"Got it." He said, and the screen showed multiple locations across the globe that had been selected. "Got what?" Superman asked. "The general locations of most of the other Mother Boxes across the planet." Nolan said, surprising the three older heroes. "Wait, wait, wait. I couldn't get into this thing with the ring, and you got into it with… what even is that?" Green Lantern asked.
"Any tech that sends information of any kind creates a signal of some kind. All I had to do was identify the signal that the Mother Box gave off, hack into some geo-positional satellites, and track down similar signals around the world. And this is a handheld computer." Nolan said, casually glossing over the fact that he had very easily slipped through multiple defenses to use multiple satellites.
"The closest signals are coming from Washington D.C, Coast City, and somewhere else here in Metropolis. It's best we get moving now." Nolan said, creating five more clones. "These four will give you two some backup. You…" He said, pointing to the fifth clone. "You're coming with me and Superman. We're going to clear the skies as much as we can." He said, his orders flying out like he was a drill sergeant.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know who the hell you think you're talking to, but I'm not taking any orders from you." Green Lantern said, as he walked up and jabbed his finger on Nolan's chest. "Besides, you already said that he's our biggest gun, so he should be fine on his own." He continued, not noticing that Nolan had quickly and surreptitiously removed his ring, which caused his uniform to dissipate into light, and reveal the man underneath.
"And besides, why the hell would I need you to give me any backup?" He said, and Nolan brought up his hand, holding the ring. "This is why, Hal." Nolan said. "What the…?!" Hal Jordan said, looking at his body and clothes, which would usually be covered in his Green Lantern uniform. His clothes underneath the uniform he normally creates with the ring were those of a US Air Force pilot, with his name on a tag on his left breast.
"You've got the drive and will, but your focus is finnicky. You're either unfocused because you're trying to be flashy or you've got tunnel vision. I don't have that problem, and neither do they." Nolan explained, then opened his hand, and Hal pulled the ring back onto his finger with his will. "That won't happen again." He said, and Nolan shrugged. "Maybe not by my hands, but if you don't fix your focus problem, it'll bite you in the ass when you least expect it." Nolan said, his eyes turned toward Batman behind his mask.
"I'll deal with that if it comes to it, and it won't." Hal said, gritting his teeth in anger, and Nolan scoffed in response. "Anyways, the reason I'm going with him is because from the three of us, I'm the only one who can take down Parademons at a rate similar to or greater than he can. Batman over here doesn't have the firepower or speed to keep up, and your finnicky focus means that you're more likely to miss some, which I won't. And if you want to take out more Parademons, there's some in the city. Turns out another Boom Tube opened up somewhere." Nolan said, then looked over to Superman, who had not only remained silent, but was looking towards the sky.
"What's up, Superman?" He asked, but the Kryptonian hero shot through the roof of the dilapidated building, flying away without answering. "C'mon, let's go." He told his clone, and they both activated Godspeed, and with the sound of multiple sonic booms going off as one sound, they sped off after Superman. Batman put his hands over his ears, while Hal created a barrier to keep the shockwave produced from damaging them.
"Okay, now that they're gone, what about you guys?" Hal asked the four clones that were meant to support himself and Batman. "He already told you. We're here to give you backup." One of the clones responded. "From what we're getting, the Parademons in Washington are already mostly dealt with. Same goes for the ones over in Coast City." Another of them said, with his hand against his temple.
"So that leaves only the one here in Metropolis." Batman said, and the four clones nodded. "Yeah. It turns out that the US was the forefront of their invasion. They probably used the Mother Boxes as surveillance, and used the information they got to classify us as the greatest threat to the success of their invasion." One of the clones responded. "What do you mean, 'forefront of the invasion'?" Hal asked.
"What I mean is that the other continents aren't being hit as hardly as we are." The clone responded. "And how would you know this?" Batman asked. "Telepathy, Batman. Now, are we gonna get going, or are you two going to keep wasting time with questions while people are still being attacked by Parademons?" The clone asked with a chiding tone. "Okay, okay. Geez." Hal said, then began to fly away.
"Wait. Make a bubble to hold yourself and Batman in." One of he clones said, causing Hal to stop his ascent. "Why?" He asked. "If you haven't noticed, Batman can't fly on his own, and like he said, we don't have time to waste. So create the construct and quit asking questions." The clone said sternly. "Alright, alright." Hal said, then wrapped himself and Batman in a bubble construct.
One of the clones walked over to the construct and hoisted it onto his shoulder. "Okay, let's get going." The clone said, and the four of them activated Godspeed, and just like their original, launched themselves into the sky at supersonic speeds, heading towards S.T.A.R Labs.
…
After dealing with his work over at the CCPD, Barry Allen took his phone out and called Silas Stone, wanting to see how his progress with the alien and the device he had sent over to S.T.A.R Labs was going. "Hey, Dr. Stone, I…" He began speaking once the call was answered, but was interrupted. "We're in trouble!" Silas' voice came over to him with great alarm, before the sound of metal crashing rang out and the call abruptly cut off.
Barry clenched his teeth, then quickly ran out of the precinct, and with a gentle tug on his connection to the Speed Force, he sped off at multiple times the speed of sound, and changed into his supersuit mid-sprint. As he ran through Central City, he noticed six black-clad figures destroying some sort of alien creatures that were covered in golden metal. "Get going to S.T.A.R Labs, Flash. We've got this." He heard a voice in his head tell him.
"Who…?!" He said as he looked around to find the source of the voice. "It's us, up here." The voice said, and he turned to the sky, where the black-clad figures were. "Go!" The voice said, and Barry quickly headed to Metropolis. After a few seconds of running and taking down any Parademons he came across, Barry finally got to S.T.A.R Labs, where he saw more Parademons running deeper into the facility.
He increased his speed, punching and tackling every Parademon in his way. The momentum that his body carried as a result of his speed allowed him to take out the Parademons with single attacks, and soon he came upon another pair of Parademons in the building, right as they entered into the Red Room, and he took them down. "I came as quick as I could." Barry said, fully clad in his Flash costume.
Right as he spoke, however, a Parademon came into the Red Room from behind him, snarling as it reared up to attack him, but it was stopped as a beam tore through its chest, and its body disintegrated swiftly after. Flash turned back to Silas, and properly looked at the people around him. He recognized Thomas Morrow and Sarah Charles as Silas' colleagues, but he was having difficulty recognizing the hulking combination of human and machine that was holding out an arm cannon.
Victor retracted the white noise cannon he used to kill the Parademon that was about to attack Flash, and looked at his hand and body in horror. "Can't feel my hand… can't feel anything." He said, grabbing his head as he tried to grapple with the fact that despite his ability to move around and create machines he wouldn't have understood prior to today, he felt no sensation.
Silas knelt down in front of his son and inspected him with a scanner. "What's happened to me?!" Victor said, and Silas looked into the half biotic, half cybernetic eyes of his son. "Your mind is now a quantum computer son." He told Victor. "There's buzzing in my ears. Make it stop, please." Victor said, as his body's sensors had picked up a signal that no one else in the building could catch.
"I can't. But at least you're alive." Silas said, and Victor stood, towering over his father. "You… call this living?! This half man, half machine? This is what it took for you to finally care about me?! You had to make me just another one of your experiments!" Victor said, the frustrations he'd had before his unfortunate transformation bleeding out, then groaned. "Don't you hear the buzzing?!" He said, then ran out of the Red Room, until he eventually stopped in front of the Boom Tube.
He stopped and looked blankly into the orange-hued portal, as information was being beamed directly into his brain. As he stood in front of the Boom Tube, Nolan's clones arrived with Green Lantern and Batman in tow, and Flash, who was about to rush out of the building, stopped, as he noticed the four black-clad figures that looked identical to the ones he saw back in Central City.
"Wait… what're you guys doing here?!" He asked, and one of Nolan's clones turned to him. "We're all duplicates. Our original went off with Superman. Parademon attacks are also happening in the air." The clone said, as Green Lantern withdrew the bubble construct and walked over to Flash with a smile on his face. "Flash, my boy! Great to see you!" He said, pushing Flash's hand in a sequence of awkward handshakes and fist bumps.
"Wait… you… you're Batman?! You're real?!" Flash said, then zipped over to Batman. "It is a real honor to meet you, sir, Batman. Sir, Batman, sir. Ahem." Flash said, clearing his throat after his enthusiasm caused the first meeting he had with one of the heroes he looked up to to turn awkward. "I've followed your efforts in Central City, Flash. You do tight, efficient work." Batman said, and calmly shook his hand.
"Hey, you alright?" One of Nolan's clones asked Victor, who had fallen to his knees after receiving the information from Apokolips. "Yeah… Darkseid…" Victor said, mulling over the information he'd received. He didn't notice that a pair of clones had walked up to him until they helped him up. What he didn't know was that the clones were also using their nanites to work on his machine parts.
What Victor hadn't noticed during the period he was assimilating the information from Apokolips, was that other programs had been installed into his new hardware. A backdoor surveillance program lurked deep in him, with another program beginning its formation inside him as well. With the surveillance program, Apokolips could spy on Earth and her systems through Victor, and the other program was building a secondary being within his body, one that would be loyal to Darkseid and Apokolips.
The two clones used their nanites to infiltrate Victor's systems and permanently purge them of Apokoliptan influence. Victor's body momentarily went still as he felt foreign presences in his systems, but he didn't feel anything negative from them being in him, so he didn't fight them, and seconds later, the clones removed their hands from him, leaving him with all the powers he had gained, and none of the danger of Apokolips using him against the Earth.
This was done very quickly, and just as the clones finished their work on Victor, the Boom Tube closed, reverting to a single Mother Box. "How the hell did that happen?" Hal asked. "I don't know, but I do know what… or rather, who's coming for Earth. It's…" Victor began speaking, but stopped – ""Darkseid."" – as Nolan's clones completed his sentence in unison.
"You know about him?" Victor asked. "More than we want to, but less than we need to. So any new information's appreciated." One of the clones replied. Victor opened his mouth to speak, but a Parademon dropped through the laboratory's already shattered roof, landing beside him. The Parademon screeched as electricity surged through its body, and an imprint of a palm had pushed its breastplate inward.
"Excuse me, but this is the hole these wrigglers crawled out of, right?" A voice said from above, and they all looked up to see a large, buff man dressed in a red supersuit with a white hood, golden vambraces and bracers, a golden belt around his waist, and a two-toned golden lightning bolt on his chest, throwing another Parademon down at the one he had dropped earlier.
As the man looked at the faces of the people gathered around, his eyes flashed with recognition. "Vic Stone?! What the hell happened to you?!" He said in surprise, as he pulled his hood back. "We can get to that later. Victor, we don't have time to talk about the information that you got from the Mother Box, so we're gonna have to use something quicker." One of Nolan's clones said, then put his hand to the human half of Victor's head.
"Guys, you'll feel something try to enter your minds. That'll be me, so don't fight it." The clone said, then delved into Victor's mind to pull out the information about Apokolips he had gained from the Mother Box, then transmitted the information into Batman's, Green Lantern's, Flash's, and his fellow clones' minds, but was stumped when he came into contact with their newcomer's mind. Hal and Bruce rubbed their heads as the information rushed in, but once the information had finished settling, their faces immediately sported grimaces.
"Now you see why we're making sure that none of these guys get away." The clone said. "Yeah. When you said that this situation was fucked, I didn't know how bad it could get." Hal said, and his eyes became focused. "Things could reach that point, if we don't fight together to stop it." A clone said. "But how? How do you stop something… someone like that?" Flash asked.
"We repel him. Defeating Darkseid isn't an option we have at this point, so the only way we can stop the invasion is to repel him and cut him off. Victor, think you can jack into that Mother Box." The clone said, and Victor picked up the now inactive Mother Box. "I don't know, but I'll try." Victor replied, as he picked up the Mother Box. Two cables came out of his forehead and connected into the Mother Box, helping him communicate with the alien machine.
"Wait. You said you guys' original went off with Superman. Where'd they go?" Flash asked, and the clones looked at each other before answering.
…
Up in the sky, far above Washington D.C, Air Force One was under attack by a swarm of Parademons. One of its engines on the left wing had been damaged, and most of the President's security detail had been beaten down and taken out of the plane by the Parademons, and the only person between them and the President and First Lady was Wonder Woman, and if she didn't get any support, the plane and everyone on it would soon be a lost cause.
The damaged engine exploded, sending the plane careening downward into a nosedive. Julian Dale, the current President of the United States of America, was unable to hold his footing, and ended up falling out of one of multiple holes that the Parademons had torn into the plane's hull. As he fell out of the plane, Wonder Woman dove after him, preparing her lasso to catch him, but a black blur caught him mid-air, grabbed Wonder Woman by her arm, and flew them both back onto the plane.
"Superman, balance the plane out! I'll plug up the holes the Parademons made." Nolan said, as he gently dropped Julian and Diana in the plane's cargo hold. "Mr. President, Wonder Woman. It's a pleasure to meet you both, though I'd hoped we'd have done so in better conditions." He said, then plugged the holes in the hull with ice constructs.
"I didn't know the Boreas' children could fly." Diana said. "That's because they can't, Diana. And I assure you, no Greek or Roman god could ever birth me… except for maybe Chaos themselves." Nolan replied, sealing the floor overhead. Once he was done, Superman caught the plane, repositioning it to be more stable in the air. "Took you long enough, Supes." Nolan said at a level that only Superman could hear.
He then split off four clones, and they created eight Shadow Clones, which they sent out to eliminate any Parademons still around, and rescue anyone they had abducted. They exited the plane via the holes in the passenger area of the plane, and once they were gone, Nolan sealed those holes as well. Diana went to the cockpit, with Julian and Joan, his wife, following behind her.
"Are we okay? What's going on?" The pilot asked. "You're being saved." Nolan said. "Superman, I take it you're moving the plane to the nearest airport?" Nolan asked the Kryptonian of Earth. "Yeah. Where'd you think I'd be taking it?" Superman said, as he fired out a laser beam from his eyes, eliminating a Parademon that had gotten past Nolan's clone that stayed outside the plane.
This was recorded by the camera on the plane's underside, which was streaming the footage directly into the cockpit, where the remaining people on the plane were. "By the gods." Diana said, pleasantly surprised by Superman's abilities. "They could never bring about a man like him, Diana. I trust that you wouldn't want to be left out of this battle, would you?" Nolan said as he began walking out of the cockpit.
"Hahaha. I wouldn't miss a battle like this for the world." She replied, following Nolan and exiting the plane via its landing gear. As the landing gear dropped, Diana slashed at a Parademon, bifurcating it in one swing.
"You're strong." Superman said. "I know." She replied. "Well, we're gonna need that strength, 'cause all these guys are is the vanguard of this invasion." Nolan said, firing out lightning bolts that arced between multiple Parademons, while applying Domino to take down even more. "Right, that. Who's even behind all this?" Superman asked.
"Excuse me." Nolan said, then walked on the underside of the plane, before kneeling and putting his hands to Superman and Diana's heads. "Hey, what're you…?!" Superman began to ask, but stopped as the information Nolan's clone had retrieved from Victor's mind played in his head. "That's what we're up against. If we fail to stop him, all of us will either end up dead or as Parademons, and those who are unlucky enough to be seen as special by him will be given a more… intense conversion process." Nolan said, leaving the possible treatment they could receive under Darkseid to their imaginations.
…
The streets of Metropolis were empty, with only the sounds of chirping insects and birds, the howling of wind, and the hum of electricity showing any form of activity. A powerful gust of wind blasted through the streets as Flash stopped running through the city. "Okay, we've evacuated everyone so far. What else now?" He asked.
"Now, we wait." Nolan's clone said. Since Nolan had made sure to keep the Parademons from spreading, they weren't able to plant any more Mother Boxes, which in turn, kept their numbers down. And since all other Parademons had already been dealt with by his clones, it bought time for them to evacuate the people from the city.
Nolan's clone brought up the arrival of Darkseid, and told them that he believed that the god of tyranny would most likely appear in Metropolis. When he was asked why he thought that, he simply reminded them that together, they were the biggest threat to the success of Apokolips' invasion, and even then, the strongest amongst them was Superman, and Darkseid would want nothing more than to get rid of his greatest obstacle as quickly as possible.
After a few minutes of waiting, Nolan, Diana, and Clark came down from the sky. "Greetings, fellow warriors!" She said greeting them, then turned to Victor. "Mine!" She said, drawing her sword and beginning to run towards him. "Diana, stop! He's with us." Nolan said as he grabbed onto her arms with water tentacles. "He was with them at S.T.A.R Labs." He said, and she stopped her advance. "I see. Then I apologize." She said, sheathing her sword.
"But you're sure that he'll come over here?" Clark asked Nolan. "Yeah. Darkseid's the god of evil and tyranny. Beyond simply beating you, he wants to make a show of taking out Earth's strongest guardians. That way, taking over everything else would be easier for him." Nolan responded. "He'll have to step over my dead body before he gets what he wants." Diana said. "I assure you, he fully intends to do that, but we don't have to give him the satisfaction of doing so." Nolan said, then turned his head to look towards Metropolis' shore.
As he did, he noticed a large ring of flames begin rising from the water. "Form up, everyone. Darkseid's coming." He told them, and the ground began rumbling, as across the entire world, black tower-like structures bathed in red light rose from the ground, before firing large pillars of white light into the skies. On the water where the flames had appeared, a similarly colored structure rose, its entrance peeking over the ocean like a monstrous maw.
Out of that maw came a giant of a man. His skin was grey and had a rock-like appearance. His eyes incessantly glowed an ominous red, and he was dressed in armor with a blue, black, and gold color scheme. At the center of his breastplate was a simple red circle, and on his belt was a vivid Omega symbol. Darkseid had finally arrived on Earth.
Chapter End.
…
Don't have a clear schedule, but if I have a chapter, I will always post on Fridays, so check those days.
Word Count: 4,489
Thanks for reading!