Chapter 28 - Adapt Or Die

(Superman (Injustice) POV)

Nothing… For the first time in my life, I hated hearing nothing.

I held her as close as I could, her eyes closed in a visage of peace as she lay in my arms with the child's heart also stopping seconds later. 

I sit in this crater that was once my home, and all I hear is silence as the ringing just never seems to leave my ears. Between the quiet sobs and pleas for this to be a dream, nothing states otherwise.

For years I protected this city from Parasite, Doomsday, Metallo, multiple gangs, and crooks, yet one clown and his damn Harlequin ruined it all in one day. I lost my life, my love, my child, and any future with them. I don't hold out hope for them to come back as those that have never come back the same or came back evil or a clone.

My fists tighten slightly at the thought of someone cloning Lois and the child, yet the seconds feel like hours as I sit in that crater. As I sit there, someone touches down near me. As I looked up, my eyes burned with heat vision; I stopped seeing Diana standing there, her face empathetic and saddened at my state.

"Clark, is she?" Her question feels so far away.

"Yes..yes, she is; where is the joker?" The question was simple, yet she refused to answer, to which I stood up their bodies in my arms as I then had her to Diana and said, "Hold them for me, please."

Wonder Women looks me in the eye with certainty and nods as I take off, and while I hear her ask a question on where I am going, I don't answer as I am already out of the city and as I see Hal flying in front of me I slow down and ask yelling at the man "Where is the JOKER?!"

Hal looks shaken but says, "Batman took him to Gotham PD. He should still be there, but Clark, why do you want to know? Wait, Clark!"

I ignore him and fly at half my top speed to reach Gotham. As I see the police station, I stop at one of the nearby skyscrapers and listen to Batman interrogating him, but all I hear is laughter, and as my eyes glow red again with rage being all I can muster, I hear Batman slam his fist onto the table and yell "Where did you get the nuke?!"

The Joker, unamused simply, sighs and says, "Want one for yourself, huh? Didn't know you were a copybat." 

Millions are dead, and all he can do is joke!

As Batman reaches for him and throws him across the room, the pain does nothing as the Joker keeps laughing; I never realized how grating that laughter is on the ears and how condescending it is. But that was all I could take as I blitzed to the wall outside of the interrogation room and smashed it to pieces in one punch.

"Get away from him!" I yell as Batman's eyes widen upon seeing me as I float into the room.

"Well, it looks like big ole red and blue is here! Hooray! I should let off some streamers and bring some of your adoring fans…Oh wait, your fans are now unable to be even called human. HAHAHAHAHA!" Batman tries to hold me back as I walk towards him, but I simply look him in the eyes. He backs off, but I see him reaching for his belt.

Batman will be Batman, I suppose. But now to deal with him.

I throw the table into the wall and, grab the clown, and slam him into the glass of the interrogation room, and as he keeps laughing through the pain, I yell, "You drugged me! Made me..Lois and my daughter." He then pats me on the back in a faux caring gesture as he smiles.

"First Krypton and now Metropolis, people you love just tend to explode, don't they, Superman? Well, it's not like you can't try again, but oh wait, your wife is now less than able, isn't she? HAHAHAH!" The rage keeps buildings. I am about to slam my fist to splatter this clown across the wall, but Batman catches what I am about to do.

"Superman, no! This is just what he wants! Don't let him get to you." As he says this, my fist slams next to the Joker, and he simply clicks his tongue in disappointment.

"You see, Superman, that's why I like you better than Batsy over there because of all that strength of yours, all of that speed and durability. You're just so much fun to mess with," I yell in frustration as I throw him across the room into the other wall leaving a dent in it.

But the Joker just gets up and sits back in the interrogation chair while whistling "Atom Bomb Baby," to which I approach him as he takes his seat.

"How many times have we done this dance now, boy in blue? A hundred? A thousand? You can speak of peace, love, the American way, and all of that, but what does it matter when you can't even protect them from me? I mean, the crowd out there is going wild. HAHAHAH! Now look at you all, angry and seething. Who knew she was pregnant? If I had known before I would have sent you a housewarming present but again your house isn't exactly in tip-top shape anymore. AHAHHAAH!"

He then places his arms behind his head as I stand over him. "Now run along and go save a cat from a tree or something. I'm going to need a lot of planning to top this joke. Maybe I should try melting that fortress of yours to cause global floods. Now that would really up the pressure, wouldn't it? Hahahaha!"

My hands were moving before I could even think as I grabbed him in a chokehold, using both my arms and holding him in front of me. It would be so easy; so many lives could have been saved if I just squeezed a bit harder!

As Batman tries to grab my shoulder, I flick him into the wall, disorienting him as he hits his head against the broken wall.

'Do you think you will ever love again? Or do you think you won't kill your next family? Let's find out whether we shall be in the sequel! HahahahahAHAHAHAHHAAH!"

I have had it! Flexing with my left arm, I stab him through the chest as the laughter never seems to end. Even as I crushed his heart in my hands and disintegrated the entire artery, the laughter echoed in my ears.

The GCPD, along with Gordon, then rushed in with guns aiming right at me, and as I looked around, I saw them all shaking and could hear their heartbeats getting faster and faster, but before I could say anything, one of them rushed in and yelled out, "Sir, Harley Quinn has escaped!"

What now?!

"How did she get out, Bullock?!" I hear Gordon ask as he simply gestures to the room nearby all of them had been gassed with Joker toxin, and a hole had formed in the wall leading outside.

And as I scanned the area with my X-ray vision, I saw nothing! The streets were calm enough, and I saw nothing even as I scanned the streets and cars. 

And before anyone could say anything, I was already out of the building as I flew back through the streets with my bloodied hand. I don't know how she escaped, but I will find her!

(Harley Quinn (Injustice) POV)

Hah, the faces they had when I slipped out of those cuffs were classic! But I wonder how Mistah J will get out? Thankful he had set up an escape method the last time he was here and that the sewers were lined with Lead so the Supes couldn't use his pervy vision. It makes me wonder if that gives people cancer the more he uses it on people.

"Whatever, I should find red and shack up with her for a while. I heard she even managed to make a Kryptonite-laced poison that can keep me safe. Now, which way was it again? All these sewers looked the same." As I said this, I heard a creak from behind me as the maintenance tunnel lights began to flicker.

As I held the gun, I took it from one of the guards; I aimed it at the source of the noise and yelled, "Heya Batsy! It took you long enough to catch up with ole Harley!" I then fired off a few shots near him to make him move, but then the noise came from another direction, and I fired again.

Over and over again, creeks and groans were heard from all around me, and as I ran out of ammo, I took another gun and started running I looked behind me, but as the lights in the tunnel flickered, I saw what looked like shadow floating in the water, but as if fired at it the bullets just went straight through.

'Hey! Tall, dark, and spooky! Who sent you? I didn't know Bats had another sidekick." Yet as the lights flickered again, I found him gone and myself falling to the ground.

As I looked at my legs, they were gone, and after I saw that, I screamed in pain as the injury got to me. Before I could pass out, my legs were back. 

But then my arms were gone, and as the blood sprayed out and I screamed out in pain, I saw the thing looking down at me with a skull mask and yellow glowing eyes, and as he walked up to me, he lifted me up and slammed his fist into my face, and I knew nothing but the dark.

(Nathan POV)

It's a wonder that I was able to escape Superboy, but they were distracted by the bomb going off, so as I glided through the air, decreasing the weight of my cells through Blacklight, I went intangible so as not to hit bugs or be buffeted by rain or the water from the clouds. My destination is Gotham City. As while this may have been unforeseen, I could still turn this around.

The travel ticket didn't say I had a time limit, so I assume: A it's going to retrieve me at some random time, or B I need to affect things in this world for it to bring me back to my original universe. So the best way to get in with Superman is to follow his ways or his future ways, that is.

I knew he would kill the Joker as I could feel him flying past me, and this was a true Superman. While he may not be at the level of Silver Age Superman, this was still a Superman and not the nerfed DCEU or Young Justice Version. And there is a person I could access to get myself started.

Harley Quinn. The woman with the plot on her side, as in this universe, would survive so much for no reason. She essentially filled in a Deadpool escrow as she was able to talk to the audience, which somehow gave her plot armor to have Superman not rip her head off whenever she was around.

It's time to test Involate's power to kill beings permanently, and this may be a bit personal as I never really liked her character other than her looks. I can already feel the universe screaming that I was a heretic for thinking this, but I was never really into the crazy types, and the whole I can fix her/him thing is just odd.

But maybe I'm just doing this to see if I can, as this universe may work differently than a normal DC Universe; in fact, this may be a dark multiverse what-if scenario, so I may have even less time than I thought to bounce.

So, as I entered the city and phased through the ground, I used my sense to wait near GCPD as if Harley didn't escape. I would simply grab her mid-transport. And it's important that I do as she is the one who will let all the prisoners out of their cages during the riot at Arkham.

So, as I sensed Superman killing the Joker and Harley escaping, I waited a bit longer, but I then saw her crawl from the streets and run towards the docks in order to escape via a boat she had. I then manipulate the lights above us using mechu deru, and when she tries to shoot me, I simply phase through the shots she fired, and using the force, I enter her mind to make her believe that I cut off her arms and legs and make her feel the pain multiplied to the highest level.

As the pain made her scream out in agony, I knocked her out and began to take her further into the depths of the city as it was time to send a message. The world was changing, so it was time I changed with it.