Undisclosed location.
Batman and Black widow had been surveilling one of Waller's properties for a few hours now waiting for her to arrive as scheduled. Tony Stark and Cyborg managed to hack and clone a phone belonging to one of ARGUS top officials thus monitored their channels of communication and activity which lead them to her current location. The property was filled with motion sensors, surveillance cameras and security personnel that were frequently patrolling the private residence heavily armed.
"She'll know we're coming." Black widow stated as they infiltrated the place and realized there was no way they could bypass all the security systems and personnel in the home.
"I know. She's expecting us." Batman answered as they breached the elevators top hatch before firing a grappling gun up in the elevator shaft deciding it was the safest option for them. Black widow fired one too.
There was no form of security on the top floor so they walked cautiously to the huge double doors and after checking for traps, they pushed it open to reveal Waller sitting on her desk nursing a glass of bourbon with a computer in front of her.
"I must be getting sloppy if you've managed to find me this fast." Waller looked up from her desk as the two vigilantes strode in. "I wasn't expecting you for another couple of days." She revealed knowing he had some of her employees under surveillance. The Dark Knight was the only vigilante she respected in terms of his code and detective skills.
"You know why we are here." Batman stated standing in a corner in the dimly lit office. Black widow was casually looking and walking around the office.
"I have an idea. Who is she?" Waller's gaze turned to Black Widow who was examining everything in the room. From all the information she had, this lady was highly trained and did not have any qualms on killing making her more dangerous than the dark night. Neither of them answered her.
"I had nothing to do with it" Waller spoke up after some seconds of silence and added when she saw the disbelieving expressions on their faces "My team is working on tracking him down."
That got the dark nights attention. "Name." Batman's modulated voice demanded. Black Widow had since returned to his side and was observing the woman who basically handled all the governments illegal operations. It was difficult for her to believe that someone could compromise one of their assets without her knowledge. Then again Hydra infiltrated shield without Fury's knowledge she thought slightly understanding the situation.
"I am handling it." Waller insisted. In no way will she allow them to arrest the one responsible before she made an example out of him. No one messes with my business!
Batman knew what she meant by that statement but they couldn't let her get to the perpetrator first. He had questions that only he would answer. He started to respond but his partner beat him to it.
"We are not leaving without a name" Black Widow finally spoke up gaining Waller's attention who looked at her understanding the subtle meaning in her statement and was inclined to believe her. Batman would not in any way condone torture but she had a feeling he would not stop her either from acquiring the information they needed.
Calling for back up was out of the question too as she was sure they could neutralize any number of forces that responded to her call. The amount of bodies left at their previously infiltrated warehouse supported her theory.
"We haven't had the pleasure of meeting." Waller addressed and focused on Black Widow noticing she was much younger than they earlier speculated and unlike Batman, she did not cover her face to hide her identity. She looked to be about 25-26 years old, very beautiful with a defined figure and had dyed her hair red since the last time she saw her on video. The innocent look and vibe she gave off no doubt some kind of misdirection to make her targets lower their guard. Waller had to admit she could be a great addition to her suicide squad.
"Waller!" Batman's voice interrupted her train of thought.
She alternated looking at the two of them and noticed they never dropped their guard down. They are probably expecting an attack.
"Black Mask" she revealed. She had managed to extract that name from one of the surviving assailants when death stroke was in the process of torturing them. Ever since then she had put aside a substantial amount of resources to track the kingpin down. Yvonne could not find any digital trail or fingerprint of his activities and all the warehouses her team raided did not yield much result as they had to kill everyone because of the heavy resistance they received and it was infuriating. No one screwed over Amanda Waller and live to tell the tale.
The name meant nothing to Black widow but going by Batman's facial expression, he was familiar with it. "Are you sure? No one has seen him in years" Batman knew all the top players in the illegal arms trade industry and Black Mask was in the top three just below Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage. Initially, he found it difficult to believe someone was brave enough to use Waller as a smoke screen but Black Mask was a different story. He had resources that rivalled Lex Luthor and was rumoured to be the leader of Inter gang, an international crime syndicate with ties to everything crime related. He was also more brutal in his dealings than Lex.
"My team is working on it." Waller replied completely disregarding his earlier scepticism of her revelation. She produced a flash disk and tossed it to Batman but The Widow grabbed it mid air and pocketed it inside her utility belt. Waller taking note of every little detail.
"That's everything on the attack on your sidekick."
"You're loosing your touch." Black widow spoke up again focusing on Waller and continued when she had her attention. "From what he's told me...you usually run a tight ship but that seems to be changing" she summarized her thoughts. "Get rid of the mole before it gets rid of you." All the experience she gained during her undercover work in the black widow program caused her to notice the clear signs of insubordination and a hostile take over. That's how Hydra took temporary control of Shield.
"I beg to differ given that incident involving scare crow and your team." Waller smirked impressed by their schooled expression not portraying any emotion. She had read the report on scare crows condition and was also one of the people monitoring his progress in order to extract whatever information he had.
"I don't need you to tell me how to run my business!" Waller stated pointing to the door. "You have what you came for."
Both of the vigilantes jumped out of the window disappearing into the night.
She's not wrong Waller thought of how the warehouse information could have ended up in Black masks hands and it strongly pointed to the presence of a mole in her organization. What worried her was that the mole had to have top clearance to gain access to their list of black sites and manage to convince one of her operatives to betray her. She had to get her house in order, starting with finding and eliminating Black Mask to send a message.
OA.
Superman for the past hour or so had been trying to convince Maxima that Hal and Blaze were on a mission in space and would not return for a couple of weeks when he received a distress call from the fortress. The guardians intercepted it and the board rooms ambience turned red and warning signs emerged from the projections in the middle of the room with pictures of Lobo and Mongul on display.
As soon as they explained to him who the two intergalactic travellers were, he vanished from the room via his super speed heading for space. All the lanterns and Almeraci soldiers standing guard outside the huge building were dispersed by the sudden strong wave of wind the man of steel dragged behind in his race to earth at top speed, the only thought being that Kelex informed him Kara and Cate were engaging the two titans.
"I did not know he could move that fast." Maxima commented biting her lip very impressed when she tried flying after him only to be left hovering mid air squinting her eyes at the disappearing red and blue blur in the distance. She had a mischievous smile on her face at the thought of choosing a mate between him and Blaze. Maybe both.
"He can." The guardians came to a stop and hovered beside the Almerac Queen. "He didn't give us the chance to suggest he use our teleportation device but at his current he should reach earth's orbit within no time."
The queens head whipped round to look at them an idea forming up. "Yes, I recall it. Hal and my future second husband used it to bring that space ship here." She looked around from her high point of view. "Where is it?"
"Yes they did and it's only used in times of emergency" the guardians informed her not liking where this conversation was heading to.
"This would suffice as an emergency, would it not?" Maxima challenged them. Anything to do with Lobo being on a mission counted as an emergency. The last time she had an encounter with him, they ended up destroying a very nice tropical resort when the bounty hunter came to hunt her. She ended up seducing and bedding him after trying everyway imaginable to kill him making her the first person in the universe to succeed in neutralizing a contract on her. She in turn paid him an obscene amount of money to go after the person that contracted him to retrieve her and that's how she came to know Granny Goodness was the one responsible even though he didn't reveal her identity. Apokolips setting its sights on her was a wake up call and she proceeded to upgrade every aspect of security in her planet and whenever she travelled throughout the universe. She knew she could handle herself but having extra security wasn't bad either.
"It is an emergency your highness but superman has already departed and with his current speed it is difficult to get his precise location to assist him." One guardian explained what they had tried just some minutes before.
"I am not talking about him." Maxima straightened her posture indicating she was now using her status as the queen of Almerac. "Send me to that place so that I can help him."
"I am not sure that would be wise..."
"My next stop is Earth whether I go with my entire fleet or you teleport the two of us." Maxima had decided motioning for all her ships in OAs orbit. "You're choice."
The guardians were silent for some seconds communicating telepathically with one another.
"You've said two of you?" One of them inquired although they had an idea who it was. Earth would not take kindly to having her fleet of ships floating in their orbit and it could quickly escalate to a war. They also knew she could help superman because she was already familiar with the bounty hunter. They had heard of their encounter.
"The general is coming with me" Maxima stated.
"Of course" the guardians agreed.
Themysciran Embassy
Thor had gone to visit Diana in the embassy after he became bored in the watchtower as all his team mates were nowhere to be seen and the other heroes also had errands to run. Arriving he was surprised to find Queen Hippolyta, the fabled queen of the amazons, lecturing her daughter on how she allowed her sister to get involved with the justice league during her first visit.
"Mother, I would like you to meet Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard." Diana introduced them. "Thor, this is Queen Hippolyta, ruler of Themyscira. "
"Your Majesty." Thor bowed when he came to stand in front of Hippolyta.
"Pleasure to meet you, prince Thor of Asgard." Hippolyta motioned for him to stop bowing.
They took some seconds to size each other up obviously thinking about the tales they read and heard about the other. Thor confirmed the truth about amazons being blessed by their gods because they were all more beautiful than the statues erected back in his home.
Hippolyta was also surprised when she saw Thor and true to the mythology Miljonir was firmly held in his hand. It looked like a square mallet made out of pure metal. He definately had the muscles and physique of a god.
"I must thank you on behalf of my sisters in aiding to stop that Doomsday monstrosity, without you Themyscira would have been in danger too." Hippolyta spoke up not intending to continue arguing with her daughter in front of another royalty.
"Don't worry about that your Majesty, I was fulfilling my duty as the protector of midguard!" Thor couldn't help but smile at the compliment from the queen.
"Please, call me Hyppolyta. We are among friends, aren't we?" She reciprocated his smile.
Diana in the other hand raised an eyebrow looking at her mother. She had never allowed any man except the gods to refer to her without using her title including Clark when he visited Themyscira. Technically Thor is a god in his universe the thought came to her and she dismissed her mothers behaviour.
"Yes we are. I can't take all the credit when your daughter and the justice league helped." Thor motioned to Diana.
"It was a team effort" She agreed. "What brings you by?"
"I got bored at the watchtower and wanted to see where your embassy was. Probably assist in any ongoing mission here on earth." He answered inwardly cursing his timing. Now she probably thinks I just laze around he inwardly groaned.
"That's very thoughtful of you, offering to help steer mans world in the correct path." Hippolyta responded much to Diana's dismay. Her mother would sensitive anyone willing to listen on the rotten ideals of mans world. Thor looked puzzled and confused for a moment then turned to Diana with a questioning gaze. What was it that was happening to midgard to warrant such a remark from the queen. He will have to right whatever wrong was being committed to it.
Before anyone could respond, Diana received an SOS from J'onn about Kara and Cate being in trouble at the fortress of solitude.
Thor took off faster than Diana because she had to carry her mother who refused to be left behind when the matter concerned her youngest daughter.
The Fortress of Solitude.
"I'm going to fucking kill that good for nothing double crossing bastich!" Lobo cursed punching the fortress wall as he climbed out through the hole created from the earlier fight.
He had agreed with Mongul that the portal device would only be used in times of emergency like a hasty retreat but this wasn't the case. The warlord clearly left him in this back water planet knowing very well his space hog needed some repairs for it to function.
He was carrying a bag full of elongated kryptonian crystals he figured would house the database he was looking for. The buyer was prepared to offer a huge payday to him if they were delivered safely. Combined with what he would get from the collector when he turned in the Martian, he won't have to work for a couple of years. He loaded up the space hog together with the Martian still in agony from being burned by the chain's flames into the space ship abandoned by Mongul. He will have to pass by war world to have word with him. He's going to regret fucking over The Main Man he thought.
Once inside and seated, the ships engines revved up and turned on but a loud crash was heard followed by 'Systems Malfunctioning ' appearing on the screens.
"What the fuck! This planet is starting to get on the Main Mans nerve" he was getting angry. The last planet to get on him this angry was his home world which was now non existent and his people extinct. He got up and walked out.
Outside he saw a hammer of sorts beneath the ship that struck straight through it causing untold damage to its engine and propulsion system.
"Are you the one who responsible for all this damage?" Lobo straightened up and turned to see a man standing not far from him wearing some sort of armour made from metal and had a long red cape just like that kryptonian lady. A warrior he thought.
"Who's asking?" He shot back. "Get lost. I have had enough of you worthless creatures today."
"Where are the two ladies supposed to be here?" Thor asked surveying the surrounding and the fortress which looked like they had just been bombarded by several explosives.
"What's it to you! Are they yours? I cant believe I missed my chance with the pretty one" Lobo frowned for a second before smirking again. "You must be the kryptonian"
"I am Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard and I order you to surrender!"
"The Main Man does not take orders from anyone! The hot foxy ladies tried but failed." He pointed a finger at Thor. "Get out of here before I break your primitive spine into two!" His anger rapidly rising at a human giving him orders. Fucking planet! Got no respect for their elders.
"I will not ask again!" Thor clenched his fist in anger. "Where are they!"
Lobo watched as the hammer floated and returned to the humans hand who gripped it tightly and short bursts of lightning arcs could be seen on it.
"Fine! The Main Man needs to punch something right now and you have just volunteered." Lobo smirked flexing his recently healed arm and chest muscles. He needed to vent. He moved forward.
Thor flung Miljonir at Lobo who puffed out his chest intending to stop its momentum with his durability and strength.
"Bring it on!" He roared, banging his chest with his right arm but was very surprised when all the air in his lungs was knocked out, his chest muscles and ribs shattered when the hammer collided and dragged him back slamming him on the wall of the downed space ship. Miljonir retreated back to its masters hand.
"Fuck!" Lobo groaned struggling to get up with his injuries healing at a rapid rate. "This place is full of surprises." Thanagarians mace and axes made of Nth metal could not do the kind of damage this simple hammer had just done to him in one attack.
"I need to get me one of that" he struggled speaking up. "What's it made of?" He asked standing upright.
"Surrender now or you will have to face the full might of Miljonir!" Thor ordered again watching how the aliens injuries healed within seconds, something he had ever only seen the hulk do. No matter! He will fall by Odins word!
"The Main Man will have to take it from your corpse" Lobo stretched his new muscles and cracked his knuckles eyeing the guy. "Fucking primitives needing toys to win a fight!"
Thor heard the comment. "I do not need Miljonir to show you the error of your ways!" Miljonir landed on the ground with a loud THUD and Thor moved forward cracking his knuckles too. He attacked.
He had to admit that Lobo was abnormally strong and combined with his fighting skills and healing abilities he was a worthy foe but he had faced tougher ones before him and none escaped his wrath.
Lobo punched Thor so hard that his nose cracked, some of his teeth fell out and blood started flowing out before stopping after some seconds. He grabbed Thor by his neck and threw him against the fortress walls before wading through the heavy layers of snow to land successive punches on him. He had also acknowledged the human would be a problem for him if he wanted to get out of this backwater planet very soon so he had to be taken care of.
Thor blocked one of his punches and head butted Lobo so hard who yelled, "Fuck Yes!" Before being punched away and landing in a crater that was gradually filling up with snow. He pulled himself up shaking his head with a huge grin on his face looking at Thor who was walking towards him.
"I can see why that bastich Darkseid had a tough time taking this planet!" Lobo shouted excited. During this short period of time on earth, he had encountered more beings capable of keeping up with him than he had during the last few hundred years.
Before he got out of the crater though, a golden rope wrapped itself around him before being pulled taught and suspended mid air. "Shit! What gives!" He yelled and looked up when all his attempts at breaking the rope using his strength failed.
"Stop moving!" Wonder woman ordered him and to his surprise he found himself obeying whatever she said.
Lobo suggestively whistled, "I really want to fuck you" he revealed still looking up at the warrior babe dressed in the second skimpiest warrior attire he had ever seen in his life. He was clearly undressing her with his eyes. "You're so hot! I will have to mark this planet as a vacation spot for the Main Man." Lobo couldn't understand why the hell he was saying these things instead of thinking them.
"What!" "I will have your head for that!" Diana and Queen Hippolyta shouted simultaneously enraged by the comments. Hippolyta was moving forward Unsheathing her sword while Wonder woman just looked on, never before had she seen such an alien or creature or enhanced individual, she was confused.
Lobo twisted his head to see another strikingly beautiful woman who was basically an older version of the other warrior lady. The resemblance was present.
"Oh! You can give me head anytime baby" he half whistled already salivating at the enhanced thoughts running through his mind. The fight with Thor already forgotten. "Why do I keep saying shit even though I mean it!"
"The Lasso compels you to answer honestly." Diana told him tightening her hold on the rope and it glowed. "Shut up. Speak when you are spoken to"
Thor moved to intercept the queen who had not deviated from her original plan of beheading Lobo. "Apologies your Majesty but we will have to put a hold on your plan for a little while longer till he tells us where your daughter and Supergirl is." The mention of her daughter further enraged Hipppolyta but she knew that was the only way to deal with this.
"Where have you taken my sister and Supergirl!" Diana's question reverberated through the Lasso to Lobo who tried with all his power not to open his mouth but found himself loosing that particular battle.
"I haven't taken them" he answered much to their confusion. They couldn't sense any of the girls around.
"What do you mean! Where are they?" Diana asked again.
After a long battle with his inner self Lobo answered, "War World"
"What's that!?" Hippolyta demanded angrily looking up at the suspended hunter.
"It's a planet used to hold gladiator tournaments. You should get yourself another daughter and sister, those ones are gone for good" Lobo had no their choice but to answer while making suggestive faces at the two women meanwhile thinking on how he would escape his predicament.
"I order you to take me there right this instant!" Hippolyta was beyond mad. Her youngest daughter in such a planet did not sit well with her.
"You don't have the means to travel there" Lobo answered gritting his teeth. Fucking rope! "The ships fried cause of that fucker" He nodded towards Thor.
"I happen to know where it is located." A smooth feminine voice spoke up from behind them causing them to turn two sew a man and a woman.
Thor could count on one hand the number of times beauty made him speechless and this instance just added to that list. The woman's beauty and attire was in the same league as Princess Diana and he was sure had he been back in his own universe, his brother would have attempted his luck in getting to know her better.
Lobo on the other hand grinned and licked his lips suggestively leering at Queen Maxima. He couldn't speak yet but his eyes and body language conveyed a lot clearly recalling their last encounter.
Diana and Hippolyta stared at the new arrivals with suspicion as they had never seen them before. The lavish and extremely expensive looking crown on her head and the way she was looking down on them suggested that she was a queen but they did not know of her. She was definately on the same league as their sisters in terms of beauty. The man on the other hand remained vigilant observing every move they made.
"Who are you?" Hippolyta asked the lady who smiled at the question as if she was expecting it. "If you've come to assist this degenerate you will have to go through me" She unsheathed her sword.
The woman sauntered forward gyrating her delicious hips with every step she took. "You are privileged to be in the presence of the Queen of Almerac, Queen Maxima of the Imperial House of the Blood Royale." She announced in a haughty tone looking over everyone on the battlefield before her eyes widened when they landed on Thor.
Diana was shocked to finally meet the famous Queen who gave her friend such a hard time and Lobo noticed. He lifted his leg up and put all his weight when he tugged the Lasso dragging Diana down to the ground with him thus loosening the lasso around him. Lobo got up, produced something from his pocket and threw it down where it exploded generating a high pitch noise designed to disorient his targets and a cloud of black smoke hindering visibility all around with only Lobo's laughter being heard then a loud thud followed by him screaming, "You can't subdue the Main Man!"
The others regained their visibility and hearing to see Superman pinning Lobo to the ground with his eyes glowing red, his heat vision threatening to spill out at any moment.
"Where are they!" Superman demanded before releasing a small burst of heat vision narrowly missing Lobos head.
"Fuck off! The Main Man ain't a snitch." Lobo dismissed his threat. That's what was so awesome about his healing abilities, he didn't have to be afraid of anything.
"Superman" Diana flew over to them. "We need him alive if we have to get to war world." She reasoned.
Maxima watched intrigued at how easily Superman subdued the bounty hunter and held him firm against the ground despite his constant struggling. The Committee members of the House of the Blood Royale will be so thrilled in her choices for mates.
Somewhere in space
Hal hovered gazing at Bens new form. The omnitrix was definately more powerful than his ring given the fact that he was now looking at Ben's Martian form.
His entire skin was a dull green in colour, he had Ben's facial structure but had no hair on his head. His eyes were orange in colour with a thick black outline around both of them.
He had the same physique as Supreme and was wearing his signature white shirt with a black line cutting across it and his long forgotten green hooded jumper that had the omnitrix symbol as its badge. He had black soldier boots and pants that seemed to be a hybrid between sweat pants and the regular jeans. All organic and able to adjust when he phases through things or takes on another appearance while in his Martian form.
The omnitrix which was still positioned on his left wrist seemed to be insistent on somehow retaining his original look.
"These are the times I look forward to turn into any new species I come across in your universe." Bens voice had also been altered a little. "I think I'll just call him The Martian" He declared feeling how powerful Martians were. In the first minutes of turning he caught a glimpse of Hals thoughts on how superior the omnitrix was to his ring. He suppressed that ability for now even though he grinned. Everyone deserves their privacy. Vilgax is so going to be in trouble when I get back home.
"Very original" Hal rolled his eyes and scanned Ben using his ring. He had to confirm. He brought up a construct of a screen that displayed the result indicating the specie as Martian and the details of the watch was marked restricted.
"What!?" Hal exclaimed and tapped the omnitrix logo on the results. That outburst redirected The Martians attention from Trixxs HUD to hover close to Hal and peak at the results.
"Guess they don't want anyone else knowing about it just yet." The Martian suggested watching how Hal tried to refresh his search results.
"But I'm not just anyone!" Hal exclaimed frustrated "I was the one who told them about it for fucks sake!" Does it mean they don't trust me?
The Martian saw his defeated expression and felt for his friend, "According to Trixx they had to cut you off because when the rings come into close contact with each other they sync up thus whichever green lantern you would be next to would have temporary access to your rings data."
Hal looked up understanding what he meant and returned the reassuring smile The Martian had but it was cut off when he recalled something.
"Sync up? What do you mean?" He sounded alarmed.
"It means you can clone another green lanterns ring if you're in close range to them." The Martian supplied and saw the panicked look on his face and added "The guardians are the only ones who know that particular detail." He knew Hal enough to know he was just like Kevin 11 enjoying the perks that came with the job.
"Thank God!" Hal was relieved laughing by himself. "That's why I have no idea about it." He would never want anything he ever did with this ring to be seen by anyone else especially when alcohol and ladies were involved.
"But the guardians know everything." The Martian reminded him.
"How do you know this if the guardians are the only ones who knows it?" Hal inquired.
"It was mentioned in one of the files I got from the guardians when I hacked them" He shrugged.
"Oh, I can't believe you did that. What if they arrested you when we went to OA? there's not much I could've been able to do." He had actually wanted to talk to him about that.
"They wouldn't have because I am not a threat plus they also hacked the watchtower." The Martian defended himself. "Tit for tat is a fair game"
"You're right but next time give me a warning." He reasoned with him then looked at his new form again. "But won't everyone know you can read their mind when they see you." He gestured to his appearance.
"Yes, about that..." Trixxs evolutionary feature enabled him to have intimate knowledge on how to use every form he turned into. Including the various instincts of every specie. He morphed into Kevin 11.
"Whose that?" Hal asked when he turned into a human between 22-24 years old.
"A friend of mine back home. This place would be like Disney land to him." He gestured to the massive meteor rock before them.
"So he was a..." Hal questioned but stopped when he simply nodded.
"He's recently reformed to the good guys side." The Martian couldn't help but add.
"That would work. Let's go"
Hal lead them to a section of the meteor where he was recognised by some of the aliens who escorted them to a massive space ship docked in what looked like a private hanger.
"She never leaves her ship" Hal explained looking at The Martians puzzled expression. Inside the ship, they were taken to some sort of board room or interrogation room and locked in.
"The last time I saw you, I lost a tonne of men to the war you left behind." They both looked around for the source of the voice and saw speakers situated in the corners of the room.
"Trixx, can you track down the source of that voice?" He spoke mentally looking around the room for Trixx to scan everything the saw in his HUD.
"I will have to bypass their firewall and security." Trixx explained and displayed the process in his HUD clearly knowing it was hacking.
"Go ahead, will they detect the intrusion?" He asked.
"No they will not" Trixx answered and commenced hacking them.
"And had it not been for us, you wouldn't be running things by now," Hal countered knowing that when the dictator and his lackeys were taken down, all the current faction leaders rose to power each taking territories in the nearby planet.
"Still doesn't make me like your smug ass." The female voice icily replied. "Who's your friend?" the camera rotated focusing on The Martian.
"This is an associate of mine. We're looking into the recent disappearance in a nearby planet." He introduced and got straight to the point.
There was silence for some minutes.
"Maybe she bailed?" Hal suggested cursing internally.
"Nope, she's still there" The Martian stated as Trixx had tracked down the woman to some other part of the asteroid in what looked like her personal quarters. She was smart to use the art of misdirection making people believe she resided in the ship.
"How do you know?" Hal asked before he could stop himself. Obviously that damned watch.
"Yes, how did you know? " The voice repeated the question suspicion evident in her voice.
"Because we're still here" The Martian guessed an answer. Her lackeys would have already escorted them out incase of anything.
"I am afraid I don't have an answer to what you're looking for" the voice spoke up after some minutes and logged off.
"Damn it Stepper!" Hal called out her name frustrated with this whole thing. "You owe me." He pointed to the camera before they were ushered out the ship and the hanger opened, an indication for them to get out and exit the asteroid.
"They don't want us finding out what happened."
"Don't worry about it. We'll still find them." The Martian hovered close to Hal in orbit.
"How? She wasn't in the room for you to read her mind." He pointed out thinking on what to do.
"True, but I did hack their system and now have access to most if not everything that's connected to it."
Hal looked up with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, "That's what I am talking about!" He raised his fist and bumping The Martians feeling hopeful.
"It'll take a few minutes for Trixx to run an algorithm to sort any information regarding the disappearance." The Martian explained both hovering on the spot in space waiting.
"Want to see how she's doing it?" He asked the lantern who nodded his head immediately curious as to how that AI of his worked.
The Martian brought his left hand forward and the omnitrix projected a green hologram in space showing various commands happening at once. Trixx was scanning everything from videos to imaged to documents to audios to tapping into various live frequencies all around them. Everything moved too fast and was too many for Hal to follow.
"How in the hell do you understand any of that?" Hal inquired not understanding how it could fit in his field of view.
"You get used to it with time" was his answer.
"A fleet of apokolips harvest ships were spotted near the planet before the disappearance." Trixx spoke up via the audio system. "It is speculated they were taken as prisoners of Apokolips." She played a video of the said vessel captured by one ship that had just docked into the asteroid some minutes before their arrival.
"Shit! That's bad" Hal cursed. "We'll have to tell the guardians" there was a rule that any matter involving Apokolips was to be decided over by the guardians.
"What? Why? According to this, the ship will make a few stops before heading back. We can still intercept them." The Martian suggested as Trixx showed them the details on how the ships would travel to apokolips. "The guardians will tell you stand down even though they have Killowog" He knew the bureaucracy involved between two powerful groups who were avoiding crossing the other one.
"Okay, let's say we go after them, how will we know their location?" His determination renewed. Killowog would do it for him.
"Leave that to Trixx." The Martian smirked in anticipation of the rescue mission and using his abilities.
"Mapping out the route" Trixx voiced out before disabling the hologram and putting up a space map for The Martian in his HUD.
"How does she know so much about those Apokolips ships?" Hal was curious as they were nowhere near apokolips or the vessel for him to hack.
"One of the ships in there is apokolipian." He gestured to the asteroid. "She hacked it."
Hal became alert "Who does it belong to?"
"It's marked as a cargo ship. No names mentioned."
"Couldn't say I'm surprised by their shadiness." Hal shrugged. "We can't follow up on them when they are in there. Let's rescue the others first then we can come for them with some back up." They were probably the ones who organized the kidnappings. The asteroids leadership will have to accept or will be raided by the full might of OA for harbouring fugitives.
"Follow me." the Martian still in his Kevin 11 form took off following the vessels trail.
The Fortress
Lobo was held and tied up by one of Krypton's strongest chains in one of the containment cells in the fortress with Hippolyta, Wonder woman, Superman, a newly rescued J'onn, Maxima, Thor, Batman, Black widow and the general looking into the soundproof cell. No one was willing to listen to Lobo's colourful vocabulary and wild imagination.
"How are you feeling now?" Batman asked J'onn who was still trembling from time to time.
"I'll live. We need to get to war world." J'onn suggested with an urgent tone to his voice. He was currently rested while Kelex monitored his vitals in a nearby examination table.
"Kelex is conducting minor repairs to the other ship and I'll leave as soon as its ready." Superman stated anger steadily rising in him. If only I never went off world.
"You can't blame yourself for what happened. No one could have known this would happen" Wonder woman stood beside him placing a comforting hand on his shoulder much to the dismay of Maxima who was busy engaging Thor in conversation while occasionally peaking to see what Superman was doing.
Batman leaned against the ice wall observing everything. He understood why Hal vouched so highly for superman to give a relationship with the queen a try. The woman was drop dead gorgeous and beautiful and oozed sexual energy in waves. Standing next to her for some minutes would make the most disciplined of minds excited at the prospect of getting laid. Thor was seemingly unaffected by whatever Maxima was emitting because he didn't look uncomfortable or flustered while talking to her even though she used every opportunity to get her hands on him. Black Widow joined the two obviously wanting to rescue her friend.
According to him, Wonder woman was more beautiful than her as no natural beauty would surpass the one personally blessed by the goddess of love. It was also the first time he saw Queen Hippolyta, Diana's mother. Adding Cate to the picture, amazonian women truly defined beauty in every aspect. The queen sat silently deep in thought also observing all around her and thinking why she ever agreed to Cate's demands of coming to this place.
"I have to go after them." Superman insisted clenching his fists thinking back to when he gave Kara permission to show Cate the fortress.
"I have given the order for Almeracs mightiest warriors and fleets of ships to aid you in retrieving your friends." Maxima sauntered over to them and turned superman away from Wonder woman to face her. "I will help you take War worlds forces. They will regret messing with my beloved!" she declared trying to cup his face with her tender hands her expression full of concern.
"You will only slow us down!" Wonder woman had seen enough stated angrily at the woman's antics. Cates disappearance also contributing to the rapid rise in her anger. Everyone of them now understood why Superman had to run from Almerac that one time. The woman actually had the nerve to juggle flirting between him and Thor. Whenever one dismissed her she would change to the other one.
"What do you mean you insolent child!" Maxima's gaze towards Wonder woman turned angry and dangerous. Giving her a once over, "I will teach you how to talk to royalty" She threatened in a haughty tone sizing her up.
"I'd like to see you try" Wonder woman accepted the challenge moving towards her intending to let all her frustrations and anger on this spoiled queen.
"Enough!" Hippolyta's voice froze all movement inside the fortress. "If you two try fighting inside here I will go and retrieve the lasso, tie you up and lock you inside a cell with him!" she pointed to Lobo who was making suggestive gestures using his tongue when the women looked at him.
"I don't take orders from anyone! And I don't mind his company..." Maxima sent the hunter a mischievous smirk before turning to the two women "He's actually..." She paused when she saw the look in her eyes. The same one her mother used to have when she fucked up real bad.
"I'll be with the general and Thor planning our strategies." She stated and turned gracefully walking to where her general was. From what she had gathered the two women were also royalty from a land blessed by their gods and it was the first time Maxima felt threatened by another woman's beauty who turned out to be close friends with both of her potential husbands. Thor reminded her of Blaze, another fine specimen she intended to sample. It's a wonder why she never visited this less evolved planet before.
"I shall go with you to this war world and bring back my daughter. Who knows what they are going through" Hippolyta declared looking at the man of Steel who was waiting for Kelex to be done.
"No mother! It's too dangerous. As the champion of the amazon's it is my duty to ensure her safe return. I will accompany superman." Wonder woman declared.
"Wonder woman is right your Majesty, it is too dangerous for you to go with him. The amazon's need their queen during this trying time. I will offer my help to them during this endeavour!" Thor also declared.
"No!" Batman spoke up for the first time in a long time. " We need one of you two to stay behind incase this is a trap set to lure you away from earth. Who knows if they want every hero off world? Ben and Hal are already on another mission in space." The dark night always the strategist of their team enlightened them.
"J'onn told us that the hulk jumped in after them. That gives us sometime before this Mongul actually does anything to them." Black widow voiced out her theory.
"What do you mean? Who is this hulk you speak of?" Hippolyta asked.
"She's right." Thor reassured the worried queen. "Hulk is a good friend of ours and he will fight to his last breadth protecting your loved ones. He has the fighting spirit of an Asgardian" He bellowed, proud of his friend.
"You earthlings fail to understand why the planet is called war world. Your friend has already been captured and without our help you will not have a chance to infiltrate their security, let alone conduct a rescue mission." MC, the almeraci general gave his opinion on the matter. His queen agreeing with what he was saying moving towards Superman.
"And you aliens do not know our friend like we do." Black widow shot back not liking his tone. She was sure Hulk would destroy that planet before they manage to subdue him or would keep them busy long enough for help to arrive.
"Repairs complete" Kelex announced via the audio systems and Maxima hooked her arm around Superman intending to go with him and prove her devotion to him.
Superman disentangled his arm from her and started for the hanger before pausing. "Queen Maxima, thank you for your help but we can handle it from here. Go back to your planet and upgrade your security systems. Wonder woman will accompany me." He ordered his voice full of authority. No one had ever seen Superman so angry and tense. Not even when Darkseid first invaded earth.
Maxima was ready to argue her case. "You are not a member of the justice league or earth so you have no say in this matter. Go home. Your people need you after that attempted invasion." He stated in finality and Maxima deflated at the reminder that she wasn't the sovereign ruler of this pathetic planet and she couldn't afford to intimidate them for fear of losing her connections. She let her eyes rake over superman's retreating form then to Thor's and she felt excited just thinking of the fun they will have once they return from war world.
"What should we do with him?" Black widow asked pointing to Lobo who was trying to break the chains again much to his dismay.
"This cell will hold him till Superman returns then he will face the law." Batman told them. "I will contact the guardians to teleport you two back to OA" He gestured to Maxima and her general.
"You'll be lucky if he is still held up in there after a day" Maxima scoffed at the insinuation of these earthlings wanting to keep Lobo locked up for all that time. They clearly did not know of his reputation. Soon they would need her help again. She smirked.
Olympus
Haephestus was in his layer perfecting his latest creation, an impressive looking axe with one side as sharp as all the unbreakable swords he had ever forged and the other side had a mallet like form and the handle was obscenely long but the weapon was perfectly balanced and heavy.
Ever since her saw the god of thunder wielding Miljonir he had an urge to build his own version to gauge his skill in developing complex weapons from other universes no doubt attempting to pit his work against Miljonirs creator.
"What do you want? I am too busy to play your meaningless games and mind tricks." He warned the figure slowly descending the long flight of stairs into his lair.
"I am not here to pick a fight with you brother!" Haephestus turned so fast he would have experienced whiplash had he been normal to look at Ares. His voice was so low and emotional in contrast to his usual smug and authoritative one.
"Did father threaten you again? You probably deserve it." He noticed Ares was trembling and constantly checking his surrounding as if scared something would attack him from anywhere.
Ares decided to assume the accusations as he had urgent matters to discuss with him. "I'm fine. I need you to build me something I can use to disrupt a machine capable of transforming someone into another specie." He got right to the point.
"You've seen it!" Haephestus looked astonished and excited. "The watch the human uses to shapeshift." He stated and it was Ares turn to look surprised.
"I don't know why I am surprised you know about it. I need to have it. No mortal should wield such a powerful weapon." Ares insisted almost shouting at his brother.
"It's not that powerful! It mainly turns you into different things." Haephestus dismissed him. He wanted that watch in order to study it out of curiosity and not because it is such a powerful weapon.
"How naive of you brother! The god of craftsmanship, not knowing a powerful weapon when he sees one." Ares laughed mockingly.
"Then stop with your nonsense and enlighten me once and for all since you obviously need my help to get it."
"The watch scanned me" Ares stated.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Haephestus asked Impatient. "Lots of gadgets have scanners on earth"
"You don't understand." Ares used magic to access doomsdays fight with the league and paused when Supreme turned up. "I am certain that watch scanned the kryptonian."
Haephestus concentrated on the video his eyes widening at the implication. "Are you sure?"
"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." Ares shot back.
"If you were in close proximity to him, why didn't you just take it? Humans are very fragile" Haephestus wondered.
"I tried but he turned into something." Ares replied in a low tone willing his brain not to remember what lay beneath that Orgres metal helmet. His hasty retreat still fresh in his mind. The god of war running away from a fight with a human. That was the lowest point of his life.
"What was it?"
"I don't know but it was the ugliest and scariest creature I have ever seen in my life." Ares replied willing his body not to tremble at the thought.
"It can't be that bad." Haephestus stated his curiosity peaking.
"I never want to see that creature again. Its that bad and powerful." Ares revealed the reason he wanted to disable the watch first before acquiring it. "I am more scared of it than fathers threats and punishments. I think the only reason I retained my sanity after the encounter is my status as a god." He had checked in on scare crow and the guy was now completely insane and paranoid out of fear despite the power boost he had given him. Pretty ironic for a guy that had an affinity to fear.
"And you've said it scanned you?"
"Yes, I'm betting he can now shapeshift into me, or at least someone like me." That's the only thing Ares was able to think about ever since the encounter." with that watch he can become any one he wishes to, including other alien races and finally take what rightfully belongs to him, his father's crown.
"We need to get that watch." Haephestus declared brainstorming on the type of weapon they could use against it.
"Yes, and we shouldn't underestimate the human. He has an arsenal of aliens that he can turn into." Ares warned him of his costly mistake.
Somewhere in space
Hal and The Martian were rapidly closing in on the fleet of harvest ships making their way to apokolips to unload all the prisoners and head out again.
Darkseid had ordered them to ump up their operations in parts of the universe no one paid attention to. The dark lord was preparing for the inevitable war that was bound to break out in the near future.
The harvest vessels were humongous, the same size as their watchtower and they travelled in fleets so as to offer each other security incase they encountered resistance of any kind.
"Reminds me of Almeracs invasion." The Martian commented as to how they also helped to save a whole planet from conquerors.
"Yeah, but this one will be tough because I'm pretty sure their radar systems have picked up our trail. Darkseid always knows when a green lantern is in close proximity to any machine Created or made in apokolips." Hal informed him. Green lanterns can never carry out a surprise attack on any ship belonging to apokolips.
"How?" The Martian asked his eye brow furrowed.
"The guardians have never figured out how but we assume they have technology that can detect our power rings unique energy signature when in a specific range."
"That sucks." In his universe, Vilgax also had access to technology capable of tracking the Omnitrix unique energy which made it close to impossible to avoid the war lord for extended periods of time.
Before they could agree on a plan of attack, Hal's rings began beeping and a hologram of one of the guardians materialised.
"Hal Jordan, you are to abandon your current mission and report back to OA immediately." The guardian ordered glancing at Ben with intrigue no doubt aware he was currently in his Martian form even though he looked like Kevin 11.
"What! Why? We found out the cause of the distress call and are currently investigating it. We're almost done." Hal tried bending the truth a little bit for the sake of all those people in need.
"We are aware, but there are urgent matters to attend to and starting a war with apokolips right now is something the universe does not need." The guardians voice was firm.
"But..." Hal started complaining
"There's no physical proof that Apokolips was involved in that disappearance of the natives of that planet. You intend to start a war based on a video footage you acquired from an apokolipian space ship." The guardians had immediately called for a meeting when they got an alert from Hal's ring being in close proximity to the fleet of vessels.
"We know all those people are there on their way to Apokolips. Trixx confirmed it." The Martian tried supporting Hal's decision but his superiors were having none of it.
"We know you mean well Ben Tennyson but the lanterns have been responsible for the safety of this universe for thousands of years and we do not intend to stop now. But what do you think will happen when you attack that fleet of ships?" He asked alternating looking between them.
"We save a whole lot of lives..?" came The Martians unsure response.
"And save Killowog in the process" Hal added.
"You're both right." The guardian conceded much to both of the heroes relief. "But in doing so you will start a war with apokolips and we will have to focus and direct most of our forces to that war leaving many planets at the mercy of anyone who wishes to conquer them. Not to mention all the warlords from your respective universes." He pointed at The Martian.
"Oh..." Their expressions of relief fell and both of them seemed to be deep in thought.
"Is what he is saying true?" The Martian had to consult with Trixx mentally.
"There is a high probability of an all out war between Apokolips and OA given the data and information we now possess from both sides." Trixx told him displaying all the treaties both parties had signed long ago.
"I detect a steady increase in energy output from the lantern ring" Trixx alerted him. She had a better understanding of the ring based on all the data she collected from hacking the guardians.
"What does that mean?" He asked alarmed as Hal had not yet realized it.
"The guardians are activating their teleportation machine." Trixx explained.
"So you want us to abandon them in their time of need because any chance of a rescue would lead to an all out war?" Hal was still confused about this whole thing and wanted clarification.
"You are to report back to OA immediately." The guardian ordered looking at Hal then at The Martian.
Hal was stuck between a rock and a hard place. His moral code knew the right thing to do was to proceed with the rescue but disobeying the guardian would be viewed as insubordination and they may even take away his ring for an unspecified amount of time should he cause a war just like in Sinestro's case.
"I'll see you back at the watchtower." The Martian spoke up getting his attention.
"What? No! I'm not going back. I finish what I start" Hal declared before abruptly cutting the guardians connection. "We have to disable the fleets communication systems so that they don't call for back up."
"That's what I am going to do but I doubt you'll be helping me." He pointed to his ring which was now glowing a bright green.
"What the...!" Hal didn't finish that statement as he vanished in a flash of bright green light.
"That was close" The Martian spoke relieved. Initially the ring was to teleport both of them but Trixx managed to distort the frequency long enough for him to remain.
He turned to look at the distant fleet of ships traveling through the void of space and according to Trixx there was no planet nearby to fall prey to their cause. There were three of them with one so huge almost the size of the ship that had escaped during the Almerac invasion. He needed to take them by surprise so that they wouldn't use the hostages as shields or bargaining chips or just finish them all off, he couldn't put it passed Darkseid to destroy all of them. The Martian turned intangible and invisible then flew towards the fleet.
Inside one of the ships control room, the parademons piloting the huge vessels were looking at their radar confusion in their faces as to where the two signatures disappeared to. They soon disregarded it as being an anomaly as no one in their right minds would dare go against their lord Darkseid.
A bright green flash filled the control room blinding them for some seconds before they started looking around for the source.
It took their brain some minutes to process whatever they were looking at. They saw a vampire like alien with pale skin, green eyes and sharp yellow teeth wearing a black jumpsuit with a green chest and markings, black gloves with green fingers that possess sharp claws and a green mask with spikes on it. It had green flaps under his arms which resembled the wings of a bat and had a green hour glass symbol on its chest. The strange alien seemed to smirk before spitting out small dark green, diamond-shaped objects with light green eyes, little horns and black bat-like wings in rapid succession which quickly attached themselves to each of their foreheads.
The parademons tried going for their weapons but found they couldn't move a muscle. They tried opening their mouth to spit out fire but nothing happened. They were frozen in place, held by an unseen force even though they were trying their hardest to move.
"You can call me Whampire, I'll be your master for today." He grinned watching their strained expression from them trying to regain control.
"Why are you kidnapping people from their planets? Oh, and you are allowed to talk but do not spew fire at me" Whampire's hoarse voice was drowned out by their gibberish talk and roars.
"What language is that?" He wondered. "Trixx, turn on the universal translator" The Omnitrix symbol on his chest glowed and the gibberish started making sense.
"For Darkseid! Burn him! Warn the others!" Were the things he heard the parademons shouting.
"What are they?" He asked his Trixx knowing she had already scanned the weird looking aliens and since she did not go into capture mode he assumed they didn't have a substantial amount of DNA capable to be captured.
"Parademons are the advance forces in the armies of Apokolips, created from reformatted genetic material gleaned either from the living or dead remains of native species pertaining to parallel worlds razed throughout the universe." She explained showing him a detailed image of one of the parademons with its biological and mechanical parts fused together. "They are programmed to serve and enforce the will of Darkseid."
"That is one evil dictator" Whampire commented still shocked at what Trixx was showing him.
He looked around the ship and through the front glass panel to the other ships. He had to act before they grew suspicious.
"Teleport me to the other ship and don't do anything unless I tell you to, I have to take control of the other ships as well." Whampire instructed his new minions and repeated the same action in the two ships, taking control of every parademon in the ships then returned to his starting point. He forgot how cool and exciting having minions were since these ones only had one thought in their mind, OBEY DARKSEID!
Whampire looked at the parademons. "Change course and take us back to the planet where you kidnapped these people. And no warning Darkseid or anyone about this little arrangement of ours." His command resonated in every active corruptura and the parademons obeyed their master against their will. One by one the ships changed course. "As long as everything remains the same it doesn't count as attacking this ships, right?" Whampire tried convincing himself.
"I have detected and located their system network and database. They are heavily encrypted." Trixx informed him while scanning the control room through Whampire's HUD eyes. "Any attempt at infiltrating them would be detected."
"Have fun. We need information on Apokolips and it's not my fault if I have any sympathy for these evil people. Who the fuck kidnaps a whole planet?" Whampire gave her his permission and snarled irritatingly looking at the mindless parademons standing about.
Trixx went to work and immediately the ships computers indicated WARNING! SYSTEM BREACH! On repeat. He could see her brutally dismantling and bypassing their systems firewalls at incredible speeds and any data or information retrieved was stored in one of her very many very spacious cloud storage files.
"The kidnapped victims are being held in the lower levels of the ships." Trixx displayed the layout of the ship and continued. "60% of them have already been teleported back to Apokolips using the mother box."
"We have to rescue the rest of them." Whampire was determined. Better late than never.
EXTERNAL INTRUSION DETECTED! Flashed in his HUD making him focus on what was being displayed.
"What's happening?" He asked alarmed.
"Their system has deployed counter measures against me when I started connecting to their main server which I have located to be in Apokolips. I detect the presence of a sophisticated artificial intelligence fortifying and replacing any firewall I infiltrate." Trixx reported. Whampire's HUD was full of green lines of code(Trixx's) and orange lines of code (the foreign AI)
"Huh...?" Whampire could only try to make sense of all that . "So the AI activated because they don't want you to connect to their main server?"
"Affirmative. I have accessed all the databases in these ships." Trixx confirmed.
"Has it severed the link?" He asked because that's what the guardians did a while back when they were hacking the watchtower.
"Negative, it is trying to infiltrate my system." Trixx replied.
"What! Can it do that?" Whampire was alarmed. The guardians had been the only ones to ever succeed in infiltrating any of her firewalls because of their very advanced technology. Trixx and the other AI (now identified as Mother Box) each dismantled the others firewalls while replacing them with new ones instantly. He watched as Trixx balanced between analysing the data she retrieved from the ships database and countering the mother box's effort. It appeared to be a very powerful one as it was also fortifying and attacking while trying to retake control of the ships systems from Trixx.
"I cannot quantify that at the moment." Trixx replied in her cool stress free voice.
"Well postpone analysing this ships data and deal with it." Whampire ordered because she was also still analysing data obtained from the guardians. It was at 85% completion.
He watched Trixx pause her analysis and concentrate on the matter at hand. First she blocked all access to the ships servers kicking the mother box out of them for good and concentrated on refortifying her firewalls while infiltrating the other one.
Everything came to a stop as suddenly as it had begun. "What happened?" He asked watching Trixx finish adding the minor adjustments to her firewalls then resumed analysing that data"
"The link has been severed." Trixx reported as the ships computers returned to normal as they were nearing their destination.
"Did you manage to get anything?"
" Negative." Was her simple answer.
"Looks like the guardians are not the only tech savvy people in this place." Whampire spoke out. " What's so special about that mother box?"
"There is no information regarding it as an AI in any of the databases I have access to." She displayed her search results which showed it was labelled as a boom tube that creates portals for Apokolips forces.
"Well next time don't play around with it. We need all the information we can get if we ever want to go back home or find out what is happening." Whampire ordered knowing her capability.
"Can that mother box track these ships now?" He asked as he watched the parademons breach the kidnapped peoples planets atmosphere.
"Negative. I severed every link they had to these ships."
"Good, I have an idea." Whampire grinned picturing the various reactions he would receive for it.
At the asteroid
Kalibak and Steppenwolf had been reaching out to their contacts hoping one of them had information containing either Almeracs invasion or the new super powered people on earth or any useful information they could find when they received the news from Apokolips. Someone had just hijacked their fleet of harvest ships and cut off their connection. To top it all off no one in this whole asteroid knew anything about anything. This was not going according to their masters plan of searching for information.
They had escorted the ships to the intended planet, threatened them into submission, loaded them on-board and left the fleet heading to Apokolips while they made a slight detour to this place. As far as they could tell, no one was aware of what had just transpired with their ships and non dared to talk about them imprisoning a whole planets population.
Inside their ship they were greeted with an alert of a possible breach to their system. Someone hacked it. "I will tear out their spine and feed it to the hellhounds!" Kalibak seethed in anger. "Who dares to challenge Apokolips authority!"
"Whining about it will not undue it." Steppenwolf growled equally angry. "Dessad has sent the last known location of the fleet for us to investigate." He typed the coordinates and the ship took off.
"What's wrong?" Kalibak noticed him tense for a bit while looking at the screen.
"All the parademons on board failed to send out an SOS or contact Apokolips when they were attacked." Steppenwolf informed him.
"They're obviously all dead!" Kalibak half shouted pacing around the cockpit. "They're lucky I will not get my hands on them! I would have offered them a fate worse than death! Useless lackeys!" His ramble continued.
"I hope you're right and the ships were destroyed too. Father will have our heads for failing this simple mission." Steppenwolf dreaded when they will have to report back to him empty handed.
"Not really empty handed, the green lantern was already transported to Apokolips." Kalibak offered.
"We have still failed!" Steppenwolf gritted his teeth. "Let's hope your bounty hunter is successful in retrieving the Kryptonians database."
Kalibaks head whipped round so fast to look at him.
"What? You're not the only one who can keep tabs on everyone." Was Steppenwolf's simple answer.
Kent farm.
"Did he say when he will be back?" Jonathan Kent asked his lovely wife.
"He said in a weeks time." Martha replied disappointed that they would spend the coming weekend alone again.
Ever since the justice league fought Doomsday both Clark and Kara's visit to the farm house became irregular and rare, thus made them to plan for a family dinner for the coming weekend.
"A week is not that long. Plus I know Lois and Kara will still come. They love your cooking skills." Jonathan tried cheering up his wife.
"Who doesn't?" came her witty retort. "If I would have a coin for every time someone said they love my cooking..." She smile kissing her husband appreciating him.
War world
Hulk jumped through the portal and fell to the ground raising his head looking around for the source of all his anger. He roared when he saw Mongul's retreating back carrying the two heroines on each of his shoulders. The war lord stopped, turned and grinned. "Welcome to my world, Beast." He disappeared round the corner.
The hulk pulled himself up and took off after the war lord with his newly regenerated legs. He was in some kind of a long windowless corridor with guards who he easily knocked out stationed at every corner and specific doors. The war lord must have alerted his security because at the end of another corridor stood a couple dozen of them all holding various weapons from clubs to energy canons and wearing all sorts of protective armor.
Some of them were actually surprised and tightened their grip on the weapons at the sight of an angry Hulk. Some of them activated their electric whips.
The hulk could see they were comprised of different alien species but he paid no mind to that as he had one goal in mind. Find his friends no matter what. He growled "Puny warriors!" and charged forward at the same time as the guards.
Whatever weapons they intended to use was forgotten as Hulk ploughed straight through not giving them a second thought as they either collided with the wall or were thrown back by the force. Only a handful of them remained conscious but couldn't pursue the intruder further.
Hulk punched and knocked down several walls going through several rooms and whichever guards were brave enough to face him would find themselves either unconscious or had broken bones.
"You called for me Master!" Dragga announced his presence entering Mongul's throne room.
"I need you to kill him." Mongul ordered pointing at the screen showing the hulk tearing down the walls and rooms in his secondary palace where all the portals and secret passages throughout war world converged. It was just a matter of time before it figured out that he was not there and would expand its search radius.
Dragga watched the hulk subdue dozens of guards with ease and break down any wall or door he encountered as if searching for something in the huge palace.
"What's in it for me?" he asked. In this planet everything had a price especially when dealing with the war lord himself.
"Free reign within war world." Dragga was a prisoner and a fighter in the war lords games. Actually he has been a champion ever since he was sold to the war lord by his people.
"Deal. He could be subdued and trained to fight as a champion." Dragga suggested as the hulk displayed tremendous amount of strength in his exploration of the palace which by the looks of it was coming to an end as it punched through one last wall and found himself outside high up on the palace. It would be an impressive drop should he proceed.
"I want it dismembered for body parts for my scientists to dissect." Mongul reiterated as he knew the amount of damage the hulk could cause if left unchecked. He also wouldn't stop till he found the Kryptonian girl and the strangely strong human who were currently unconscious in one of his specially designed cells.
"Don't double cross me!" Dragga walked out. The only reason Mongul controlled him and the other gladiators was because of a chip implanted in their heads that would implode if tampered with or when Mongul activates the detonator.
The hulk stood frozen for some minutes confused and looking at everything around him from the tall weirdly designed sky scrapers to the futuristic flying cars and the hundreds of aliens going about their business on the streets. The huge sky scrapers were advertising some type of gladiator matches while some were replaying past fights.
He heard movement behind him and turned to see a couple dozen guards unsure of whether to attack him or just prevent him from going back inside the palace. He growled and clenched his fists narrowing his eyes at them. They did not move an inch as they had just witnessed how he dismantled everything in the palace.
The hulk turned back to face the new world he found himself into with the thoughts of Kara and Cate coming back to him. He scanned the city and zeroed in on a particular one that had a huge statue of Mongul on top of it. That was what Stark would do if he owned a planet. He thought marking his starting point of the search though it was miles away from his current location high up on the other palace.
Mongul watched the hulk scan war worlds capital city before looking directly at his palace. "So it does have a brain" The war lord smirked thinking of a way to subdue and not have to kill such a worthy opponent before it made its way to him. He had already instructed his soldiers to intercept and try to finish him off incase Dragga failed. The other option was to put a bounty on him so that anyone can finish him off during his attempted rescue since almost everyone on war world was either a mercenary, criminal or a wannabe fighter intending to pay in order to fight Dragga. That is going to be one hell of a journey for him Mongul smirked maliciously as he saw the hulk retreat back into the palace.
The hulk turned facing the still unsure guards and walked for a few meters with the guards taking a step back for every step he took towards them. He stopped, roared, turned and ran heading for the huge hole he created. Each step he took shook the entire floor. The guards were curious as to what he was doing because every prisoner who attempted to escape never got far as the tunnels beneath the city were strictly forbidden and secured and no fugitive made it through the city. Even Dragga when he was first brought in attempted to escape but didn't reach far.
The hulk reached the edge and simply jumped, his trajectory already set. The guards ran forward and stared up at the hulks disappearing figure. "It can fly!?" One guard exclaimed in it species language.
Mongul's smirk disappeared immediately when he watched the hulk cover half the distance required to reach his palace in a single jump before landing and running for a short distance before launching himself up in the air again this time very sure of reaching it's target.
Watchtower.
Nightwing and team arrow were still recovering from their ordeal while the rest of the heroes helped out to keep crime rate at a low in their various areas. The avengers and the remaining founding members of the league were currently in the boardroom deep in discussion.
"So let me get this straight." Flash started rubbing his chin, "Big blue and Wonder Woman have gone on an off world mission to a planet called War world where Supergirl and Cate have been taken by an intergalactic warlord and your team mate Bruce banner followed them."
"That pretty much sums it up." Black widow confirmed sitting next to batman who was busy typing into his tablet. Ever since they found out about Black mask, Batman had been researching non stop and trying to track him down.
"And where is Thor?" Shazam asked. They had planned to spar but the god of thunder had been MIA for a couple of hours now.
"He's at the embassy trying to talk Queen Hippolyta out of taking their jet to go in search of her daughters herself." Black widow answered. "The others are somewhere on earth doing god knows what." She added when flash wanted to speak again no doubt intending to ask about Hawkeye, Wanda and Ironman.
"Okay, so what else should we know?" The flash asked leaning back digesting whatever they had been told.
Batman stopped typing and actually smirked at the two heroes who looked warily at him. Batman never smirked at anyone or at least they've never seen him doing that.
"Queen Maxima ruler of Almerac was on earth some few hours ago."
"Yeah... I forgot about her." Black widow added.
"What..! Where?" "Is she here?" The Flash and Shazam exclaimed simultaneously both of them sitting upright leaning towards the two vigilantes.
"She's already gone" Black widow answered.
"Noooooo!" The Flash groaned at the missed opportunity while Shazam just shook his head. Hals storied about the queen were very interesting not to mention her willingness to bed anyone she deemed worthy enough for her superior bloodline.
Fortress.
J'onn was in the control room monitoring all the emergency frequencies and news channels having volunteered to look after Lobo who had not stopped yelling threats and obscenities at the camera.
The screen displayed Lobo biting and spitting out his tongue onto the floor then smiling at the camera.