An almost deafening silence filled the cavernous room known as the Grim Grotto once the call disconnected, the weighty matters pressing down on the eldest occupant. A heavy sigh escaped Grim’s mouth, rumbling out like a quaking growl. For a moment she remained leaning over the console of the great computer encompassing her wall, but finally the vigilante’s posture straightened and she turned, staring at the two others present in the room - animals excluded. It seemed almost lonely, after how much was going on earlier.

The glowing white of the battle armor beta settled on the two boys, underneath the helmet a frown hidden. For a moment, Zoey wondered if it was unethical to gas her sons to keep them safe.

… Probably.

Another heavy exhale before she raised a hand, despite not feeling it rubbing her palm across her face. ”You can’t come.” Grim finally stated in that artificially deep voice.

David could only stare at his mother in disbelief. ”... I get that we’re in trouble, but you’re telling me that when the world is in danger, when it needs us, when we can actually do something that will matter… We can’t come.” He took a deep breath, then shouted: ”GODDAMMIT!”

The eldest foster brother would tear off his helmet, throwing it to the ground. ”You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me…”

”...Seriously?” Malcolm chimed in, head turned slightly away from the other two as his eyes scanned over the death metal album being reenacted outside their home and through the city at that very moment in time ”Look, before you give us the schpeel about keeping us safe, I don’t think sitting here twiddling our thumbs is gonna keep Dave and me outta harm’s way with all that noise going on outside.”

The boy’s glowing eyes locked onto Zoey as he said that, burning orange locking onto emerald green, even through her helmet.

”...And let’s not forget that they definitely know we’re here now anyway because we all just spent the past hour or so decorating the yard with their broken asses.”

”This isn’t a punishment!” Grim almost snarled in return, throwing a hand to gesture to the screen. ”Look at that thing! It’s more than just some mythological beast, it’s a Titan! And we’re going to use it to lure what is potentially a God!” Another growling exhale escaped the billionaire, her metallic hands raising up to run over the helmet, a movement that almost seemed like she was attempting to run her digits through her hair absently.

”Listen to me. I know you don’t want to hear it but I need you two here. You’re only children,” A pause here, the metal helmet raising to gaze upon them. ”But you have the same drive to fight, to protect others that I do. That’s why I need you here - I’m not asking you to cower down here and protect yourselves, even if part of me wants to do so in an attempt to keep you safe. While I’m out there, fighting this thing, I need you out here.” She jabbed a finger to the screen, a side window showing a mere hint of the carnage being wrought across Gotham.

”There are people in danger. People dying. Those are the ones you want to protect, isn’t it? This is our home, and while I’m gone it needs you two … even if I don’t like it.”

David stared blankly at the screen showing the chaos in the streets of Gotham. Slowly, his lips curled into a smirk. ”You’re damn right it needs us.” PIcking up his helmet, he turned to his foster brother with a grin. ”Wanna fu- I mean screw some shi- I mean stuff up?” His one-liner sounded far less cool when censored. Didn’t need a chewing out from ma right now.

”As a kid from Blud, it’d be my shit-eating pleasure to save a bunch of Gothamites from the end times.” Malcolm replied in a tone that heavily implied a cheeky grin had come into existence beneath his visor, though his eyes lingered on Zoey’s for a few seconds after the fact, quietly perturbed by something, though hiding it with practiced smoothness.

It wasn’t that he was annoyed he wasn’t going with her- she needed him here, and so here he would be.
It wasn’t that he was scared about handling all this alone with Dave- His foster-brother was pretty adept at handing big steaming cans of ass-whuppin’ and any notion of fear had been beaten out of Malcolm the hard way by that point anyway.

Was he… worried about her? That’s just stupid, Zoey’d been at this for years. Longer than he’d been alive. She knew what the hell she was doing. He didn’t have to worry about her going up against literal Gods with people he’d only read about in newspapers he’d used as bedding and occasionally as toilet paper during the end of the fucking world.

So firm was he in that last thought that he immediately (and forcefully) tossed it right to the wayside of his mind and moved over to one of Zoey’s many (many) equipment lockers to restock on some goodies, voice not wavering from it’s plucky confidence even for one second.

”So what’s the plan, then? Get in touch with the Cops and see where they need help?” Malcolm floated to either his foster mom or brother as he plucked up a pair of flashbangs and slid them into one of his many pouches ”...Maybe make sure your friend Jaina’s alright?”

”Language,” Zoey intoned absently, gazing down at her two adopted sons as they got ready. ”That’s a good idea, though. See if Jaina can tell you where you’re needed most. Stick together. Take the Grimmobile, too - don’t be afraid to use it for protection if you’re in trouble. I want you both coming back, alright?”

Especially since it was entirely possible that she wouldn’t be.

Watching them for a moment Grim stepped forward, only to pause. After a moment she straightened out, the metal armor hissing as the back opened up. Climbing out of the suit of armor Zoey moved around it, only to approach her eldest son.

”Malcolm,” She said simply, gesturing the other boy close.

”Hm?” The boy in question intoned with an inquisitive tilt of his head as he looked back toward the other two, but complied all the same, zipping his pouches shut and flicking up his visor as he did so. ”What’s up?”

Zoey reached out, hooking an arm around Malcolm and David’s shoulders respectively. Hugging them close she squeezed them tightly, keeping them against her, muttering lowly. ”Be safe out there, and watch each other’s backs. There’s no shame in not being ready for anything, if you need to pull back. Just… I’m already so proud of both of you. Nothing will change that.”

It was true, too, not just simple empty platitudes brought on by the destruction being wrought across the lands. Zoey was proud of them. Even if the words usually died on her tongue. David has grown up so much in the years she’s had him, and even though it’s been only a few months with Malcolm he’s been working so hard. They’d both grow up to be men others would look to.

David found himself freezing slightly as his mother trapped himself and Malcolm in a hug and told them how proud she was of them. However, after a moment he found himself wrapping an arm around his mother, and his other arm around his brother. Zoey could die out there. Malcolm could die out there. Hell, even he could die out there. This time it wasn't just a group of low-life gangsters, this time it was something really serious. He was going to protect the people of Gotham tonight from those beasts, at all costs.

After all, isn't that what heroes do?

"... I love you guys." David had said this to Zoey on a few occasions, but he had never said this to Malcolm. Here they were, all together, as a... Family. He had been living with Zoey for years, had constantly called her mom, and had even started referring to Malcolm as his brother, but it was only now that he felt like they were really, truly a family.

For his part, the younger of the Brothers Grim remained stock still and silent as Zoey wrapped both of them up in a tight hug, an unreadable expression lingering on his face for a few moments before his one free arm slowly and awkwardly extended outward before suddenly snapping back and wrapping around his foster-mom and returning the embrace with all the strength he could muster.

What was going through his head at that moment? Hell if he knew, he was never good at this kinda thing. The only thing he did know was that he… wanted these two to stay in his life. And he’d be damned if some namby-pamby half-naked storybook bullshit creatures were gonna take them from him.

Staying like that for a solid few minutes in silence, the boy finally broke off and abruptly snapped down his visor before the other two could see the look etched into his face at that moment. The voice modulator in his helmet thankfully stopping the feelings in his head from leaking into his voice with it’s mechanical growl.

”So… shall we?”

”Be safe,” Zoey reiterated as she drew back finally. Ruffling David’s hair and patting Malcolm’s shoulder one last time she turned back to the Iron Fang beta armor, once more going to climb in. Before she did she glanced around it, adding on, ”Malcolm! Make sure David drinks lots of water on the way or that buzz of his is going to get him killed!”

”Already on it, mom!” David called to her, opening up the fridge that was kept in the Grim Grotto (his request, which he made once upon a time when he didn’t want to leave the Grim Grotto to get food) and pulling out a whole package of water bottles. He took one out, chugged it down, and continued.

”Aaaand, you might wanna head to the can first, too.” Malcolm added in such a way that you could almost hear the sly grin working it’s way onto his face beneath his helmet as he glanced back at his older brother ”...Because in about thirty seconds, that pizza you had earlier with all the spicy crap on it’s gonna wanna exit, stage rear.”

There were some benefits to seeing literally everything. Cracking jokes at the expense of others was one of them.

Though the humour in his tone faded slightly as his head turned back to Zoey, staring at her in silence for a few seconds before reaching a hand out and giving hers a quick squeeze.

”...Take care of yerself, Zo.”

And just as quickly as he’d quietly muttered those words, Malcolm spun around and left her to go get himself ready for he and his brother’s big night out on the town.

David scoffed at his brother’s comment, chugging down another water bottle. ”I’ll be fine, you don’t know what you’re talking abo-” He stopped, and began to sweat. ”... Oh fuck me with Anarkee’s hammer!” With that, he ran as fast as he could to the bathroom.

As Dave ran like hell to the crapper, Malcolm’s head just swivelled slowly back to his foster-mom for a few seconds. Visor deliberately flicked back up just so she could see the insufferably smug look that was on his face at that moment.

”...Don’t worry, I’ll look after him.” He snorted with a slight wave as he went back on his way towards the equipment lockers.

As the Iron Fang armor came back online and Grim straightened out once again. Gazing after David and Malcolm as they seperated a slight grin curved her lips beneath the helmet, but finally she turned to the computer across the back of the Grim Grotto. They were good kids, they could handle themselves with each other’s help. Plus the Grimmobile, moving tank that it was.

Now it was time to finish up her own preparations for meeting Tank and Trident Man by the harbor.

”Bring up Metawatch sightings.”

---

North Springs was a small town by any standard, but any modern city had an amount of electronics available inside it. After scouring Metawatch for sightings of heroes - of which there had been many, as people deemed it necessary to post about despite the crisis befallen their homes - Grim had located where the “Emerald Knight” had been spotted. His popular status between his interview and helping in the Arab Federation Crisis had been helpful, as Grim couldn’t remember his name for the life of her…

”Emerald Knight,” The deep, slightly synthetic voice of Gotham’s hero boomed out of various speakers around town. Mostly those in commercial properties, used to advertise products and even let music play throughout buildings. It had been a hassle to get so many working, but to get the message to him, it was needed.

”It’s Grim. Meet me in Gotham Harbor as soon as possible.”

Año 2020, 25 de Diciembre; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Un Sangrienta Prólogo: Bane en El Territorio de Los Enemigos (Ambos Las Bestias y Los Hombres)
<“...What are you doing?!”> howled out Bane at his accomplice known as Doctor. At this moment of inquiry, Bane was on top of a cyclops performing a camel clutch. While the cyclops was trying to escape by flailing its legs and thrashing its head; but these attempts were of no use as the creature passed out. Bane slowly got up and now took the time to fully observe what failing his gangster was committing.

Doc was shakily throwing rocks at a Harpy who was swooping down in an attempt to attack him. While his aim with a rock was poor, as each an every attempt he did missed its mark, he was at least decent at running away as he was not struck by tooth or talon. <”Waaaaaaah!”> shrieked out Doc as he lunged sideways and in his folly slammed headfirst into a mailbox.

<”Calm down Doc. Now’s not the time for fear.”> Bane explained towards the Doctor as he gazed around to see how the others were faring.

Giggling wildly, Hummingbird was swinging his switchblade in a frenetic and wild pattern against a Monopod. For those who were unfamiliar with the Greek monster that was known as the Monopod, it was a rather humanoid looking creature except it had only one leg and a single massive foot. Many of these creatures would use it for shade, but this Monopod was using it as it was hopping up and down in an attempt to squash Hummingbird. At the moment they were at a standstill, as Hummingbird only was able to get small slashes upon the creature while the Monopod was only able to get a few punches in against Hummingbird as it was unable to stomp down upon the cartel-member as it wanted to.

<”Hummingbird.”> Bane casually walked towards the pair who were engaged in combat. The Monopod bounced in place trying to plot out how to best slay its foe; Hummingbird jumped back as he turned to stare at Bane. With his eyes darting to and fro he gnashed his teeth together as he gave a hasty salute to Bane, in the process dropping his knife.

Scrambling to obtain his knife he spoke, <”Yesyesyes? P-patrón!? Ineedtheknife! I s-s-s-swe-sweeeear I’ll try to lucha!”> He finally grabbed a hold of the knife and as he looked up he saw the Monopod jumping upward to slam down upon him. Fortunately instinct kicked in as Hummingbird was able to roll off to the side and spring back up with his blade in hand.

<”Oh no that is not the purpose of this speech, fledgling warrior.”> Bane elucidated to his associate, <”And you do not need refer to me as Patrón yet; after all I have still not conquered Juarez and its allies, and all of the others who haven’t yet learned from Sinaloa, to follow MY WAYS!. I came here to give you just a bit of advice while I allow you to use your foreign object. Get behind the Bigfoot and slash its tendon. Then you will practice holds, as it will be crippled.”>

Making that clear Bane marched to check on the others, with an occasional idle adjustment of the spandex speedo.

Bane next checked on the methods of combat that Miguel was using. Miguel was fighting, well fighting was a bit of a euphemism in reality he was being slaughtered by, a Panotti. The Panottis were another set of curious creatures; these were men who had massive ears that were the size of their own bodies and dragged against the ground.

And it was easy to see why Miguel was being slaughtered as the Panotti was utilizing the finest of head swings to whip out his ear lobes to batter Miguel. With loud cracks Miguel was sent backwards each and every time. Bane simply narrowed his eyes and focused his attention on Miguel to see how he would, or even could, get a turnabout in this battle.

While that fight was going on, Doc was once again being pestered by another harpy that was trying to swoop down upon him. However, while he did slam against the mailbox, Doc was able to regain his composure. It was as Bane said, the time for fear was later. Armed with a cola bottle Doc threw it against the harpy and it made its mark. The glass shattered and embedded itself inside the shrieking creature which flapped about wildly now blinded.

As for Hummingbird he was indeed able to fell his foe. The Monopod left on the concrete below sobbing, bleeding from the tendon unable to move. Hummingbird proceeded to do as his boss commanded and was practicing holds; with a half-hazardly applied bear hug Hummingbird had a huge grin on his face, <”I AM D-DOING IT! DOING IT! DOINGIT! WOOOOOOOO!”>

Rafael who had successfully thwarted a set of pgymies who were riding a set of feral dogs, was slow-clapping as he approached Hummingbird, although with a distinct limp in the leg. <”Good on you.”>

And now we return back to Miguel, who was sent flying straight back into a fire-hydrant with enough force that it shot the fire hydrant out. Miguel who surely died from this blunt force trauma, both evident from a now concave skull and the sounds associated with it, was shot up into the air from the pressurized water.

The Panotti turned its attention towards Bane and whipped its left earlobes in an attempt to strike Bane. However this was denied by Bane who caught the creature by the ear with both of his hands. With a mighty thrust upwards, Bane caused the creature to ascend. With a firm grip, Bane began spinning around with the creature firmly intact screaming for mercy in some forgotten language.

After three cycles, Bane flung the creature into a building sending it both through bricks but also the support beams causing the building to collapse.

<”Hmph.”> Bane grumbled as he rolled his neck around. He glanced towards his associates, <”You will be fine on your own. You three can survive. Take Miguel’s corpse to back to the vehicle, I will decide whether he shall get a warrior’s burial for the attempt or if we will just leave it there to rot for his failure. Die or survive, at least know that you are partially helping in my machinations.”>

---

Año 2020, 25 de Diciembre; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; La Armería de la Nueva Línea
There was a brief amount of gun smoke from a machine gun, alongside a large amount of dead harpies just outside the armory.

Panting in and out heavily, stood a man with several scars across his face with buzzed black hair dressed in riot grade gear, and armed to the tooth with guns. Gazing upon the assembled members of Nueva Línea, the one enforcer gang that was kept to stay in Juarez to hold off the invasion because the leaders of the Juarez Cartel knew this band of ex-cops and ex-military would obey orders, he knew what had to be done.

<”We are to hold the line; and chances are we’re going to die.”> stated the man to a few groans and anguished cries from some of the weaker spirited men, <”But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to go down without a fight. I know I’m not.”>

<”I saw that monster on that pay-per-view, I know many of you did as well. But what you might not know was that my brother, Officer Santiago was there suffering at the hands of CRIMINAL CHICANERY! DEAD, BECAUSE OF CRIMINAL CHICANERY!”>

Martin Santiago, the finest damn operative this Enforcer Gang ever saw, began tearing up. Gritting his teeth he flung his hand to the side, <”And I don’t know about you, but I liked the old ways of crime! When we just bribed officials and got into a few shoot outs. I am not going to live in a world of BARKING SNAKES! My children cannot live in a world where BIRDPEOPLE AND CYCLOPS ROAM!”>

<”A LINE IN THE SAND MUST BE DRAWN HERE; IT MUST BE DRAWN HERE AND NO FURTHER!”> Martin shouted out to the very heavens.

His speech had stirred up the spirit of all the men who began cheering alongside him.

<”We will protect Kid Texano! We will protect Juarez! And we will bring SENSIBLE CRIME BACK INTO FASHION! NOW GET EVERY SINGLE ROUND OF AMMO, EVERY SINGLE GUN, AND GET INTO ANY VEHICLE! I have a plan to lure this monster into a place where we can try to assure his destruction!”>

With a final cheer, Santiago rallied his fellow gangsters and they began to set up the preparations to fulfill the boss’ plan.

---

Año 2020, 25 de Diciembre; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Los Túneles del Cartel Juárez

Of course there was not only trouble occurring upon the surface in Juarez, but there were problems laying underneath the city. The foundation it was built on was in tatters. This statement of course had multiple meanings. One of such would be referring so much to the metaphorical corruption caused by the Juarez Cartel. After all they, at the very least the brass ring and higher ups, took the opportunity to hide away in other safe zones when information came that The Luchador, the one they called Bane, was coming for them. A pragmatic decision yes, but presumably it would be one to bite them in the end. Either Bane would catch them or those who stayed and fought would start their own rebellion to cause a change.

However the more important interpretation of the trouble brewing underneath Juarez City was one that was meant to be taken literally.

Underneath Juarez City was a labyrinthine set of tunnels designed to aid the ‘Coyotes’, a more colloquial term for the leader of a human smuggling operation, and the drug trafficking. These tunnels helped transporting even more goods across the border to the States. While there were many tunnels, and many designs, for the most part they all had the same abnormally large height and width enough for a motorcycle or well honestly three to traverse through. Beyond this they were kept aloft and structurally sound with metal bracing and kept a lit by many torches.

And it served as catacombs for those who dare tried to oppose the Cartel; whether they tried to actively find Juarez Cartel routes or those who just happened to stumble in, they would all meet the same fate. Corpses were oft strewn in these tunnels.

But these corpses were different…

...They were fresh.

For anyone closely examining these bodies and knew their ways around the tunnels there were a few key points to note. The first of these points was that these bodies were not the corpses of those aligned against the Juarez Cartel. It was a small group of deceased, two Falcones- the scouts of the Cartel- and a Sicario supervising. For anyone looking for sentimental value they would clearly note that one of these Falcones had hardly entered adulthood and was still a boy, and the Sicario who was tasked presumably with handling these men had his dying moment clutching onto a photo depicting him with his happy family.

Now the second point of importance was the fact that these men were gored. Their deaths were not by a manner of ”Traditional Knife Culture”, or by gun. The gaping neck-wound, and associated blood clots, from one of the scouts testified to this. Another one had hoof-imprints which were stamped deep into his chest.

That certainly helped explained a small trail of bloodied hoofprints heading the other direction…

It was fitting that he was lost in this ‘Mexican Maze’.

This Minotaur here, this was the creature that Bane truly sought! It was the one footsoldier that was tasked, at least it was certain among its kind it was the chosen one, to cause devastation and to bring forth as much carnage as it and the monstrous legion could bring across this particular section of Mexico. The Black Bull of Crete tromped through the tunnels letting out a mighty snort. Sooner or later it would find something else to kill if it couldn’t escape this complex creation. Surely it didn’t have to worry about being here for that long, the allies on the surface would have to make their way here soon right?

Stopping for a moment, the Son of the Cretan let out a snort. The torchlight showed the glistening oil that was pouring down the chiseled chest of a man only to get stuck and matted in black fur of the humanoid bull. Red eyes glared while nostrils flared! Staring forward into the multiple pathways, raising his arms slightly upwards towards the top of the cavern, Minotaur let out an anguished war-cry!

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

---

Año 2020, 25 de Diciembre; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Bane en El Territorio de Los Enemigos (Ambos Las Bestias y Los Hombres)

<”Now then as that has been settled...”> Bane remarked as he heard the sounds of many vehicles, a lot of gun fire and more importantly a loud speaker coming from that way.

<”YOU WANT KID TEXANO?! THIS CITY!? THE CARTELS!? COME AND GET IT!”>

Bane cracked his knuckles and began cackling, <”Wonderful!”> and began to charge to chase this convoy which dared challenge him and taunted him with the prize he sought.

A shuddering boom resounded through the area as a minotaur fell, the spin of the auto cannons underneath the aircraft slowing. It didn’t take long for the low hum of the Grim Jet to descend upon Gotham Harbor, hovering a few feet above a stack of shipping crates. Finding an open space for an aircraft as large as it would be nearly impossible in the cluttered area of the harbor.

Luckily, any undesirable elements had either already been fended off by the mythological creatures, or took off on getting the gleam of the silver wolf’s head imprinted on the side of the jet.

From inside the cockpit Grim’s console was alight, showing not only the state of her jet but the surroundings as well. The sensors contained in her goggles were built into it after all, showing the heat signatures of those around. There were still harpies converging on the area, no doubt getting word of a flying foe. With a heavy sigh the auto cannons started once more as Grim turned the jet to the approaching figures. Seriously, she had more pressing things than flying whores to be concerned about, starting with gathering up the group of ragtag vigilantes.

A sudden explosion of water in the harbor sprayed the harpies with a sheet of water, which froze in place an instant later. The more drenched harpies began to fall as the ice held their wings in place, as Aquaman rocketed out of the water, an aura of magic still shimmering off the Trident of Neptune. Landing on the docks, Orin looked up at the familiar dark jet above him, holding the trident aloft and calling down a burst of lightning to try and scare away the regrouping harpies. The trip here had been a quick one, though it had taken some of his own magic to cut the time down; and Orin didn’t want to be drawn into a long fight with some small-time monsters when there were Titans to fell.

In only a short span of time, a green streak skated across the sky and slowed to a halt over Gotham Harbor. Long had he awaited the day where he could walk into Gotham and not have to worry about getting mugged. Today looked to be that day.

It wasn’t all that hard to look around the harbor and find the parked jet. Emerald Knight vaguely remember something like it back when he was fighting high tech future jets before his retreat to Oa. He could very well remember flying around North Springs and hearing that grizzly, synthetic voice asking him to come to Gotham. He knew right then and there that these monsters were attacking multiple places around the world, rather than just starting in some ho-dunk town and working up. Gods were prideful, they’d just march over the whole world all at once.

Crafting a megaphone, Emerald Knight surveyed the area and fought off which monsters came his way. “Did someone ask for the Emerald Knight? Fifteen minute ass kicking or it’s free!”

With his message announced, he recalled the megaphone and pull all of his focus into working on the harpies that had been annoying him since he had flown near the harbor. He flew back up to meet them halfway, and summoned a large hammer to swing at them with.

Loud thuds started sounding out from the north end of the city from the weighted hops and strikes of Tank having arrived and closing distance. It wasn’t long before a whistle came through the air near the harbor followed up by the big man riding a very beaten cyclops down into the concrete where he delivered a knockout blow to the thick head of it immediately to keep the monster out of his hair later. He started jogging over to the meeting place noting how close he had managed to land as an improvement over last time the rest of them had met up. A few moments later he came into view of the others with a wave as well as a smile though it wasn’t visible to them. For the moment it looked like the whole defense crew had been assembled for the show which was great given how tough the fight would likely be, the more the merrier so to speak.

Girard noted the fallen minotaur and harpies already in the harbor quite pleased to see the others doing well for themselves while thinning out some of the opposition before they tried to square off with a Titan. That was a good start but not quite all of them as he heard the tread of a couple more minotaurs coming around the nearest warehouse more than likely coming to see what the harpies were attacking, not to mention the other one who got its ass kicked ahead of them. The helmeted man gave a bellowing roar of his own as they rounded the corner charging at the bull men slamming into the legs of one toppling it before turning to catch the arm of the other trying to punch him. With a hefty pull he flipped the offender into the ground opposite side of him before getting a better grip on the large arm with both hands and starting to spin until shot putting the creature into its partner who was just regaining its footing.

Go figure one of them was still raring for a fight now angry with the relatively small human in front of them as it quickly got back to its feet rushing at the cause of its temper tantrum. The result was a little comical as Tank kicked the head of the minotaur downward hard enough that it flipped over allowing him to catch it in just the right position to powerbomb it straight into the ground cracking in the process, as it had through most of the one sided fight, leaving both defeated in a matter of moments. Afterwards the big guy walked his way over closer to the others who were engaged with the remaining flock of harpies which he would have had much more trouble with considering he couldn’t actually fly or freeze them out of the air.

“One Tank present and accounted for. If you need any help getting them feel free to lead them over here to dry land.” Girard shouted to his fellow vigilantes making his presence know as if they didn’t know from a moment ago. They were pretty busy but it never hurt to let them know he was on hand just in case.

Despite his offer of assistance, with Tank having taken care of the bulky minotaur on the ground between the three other vigilantes it didn’t take long to dispatch their own airborne problem. Between magitech autocannons, the freezing water of Gotham Harbor turned against them, and the sheer power of a green lantern ring, whatever harpies hadn’t been dispatched in their initial arriving assault were thoroughly routed.

Watching them scatter into the streets of Gotham was no comfort to Grim, especially knowing her two adopted sons were now patrolling the streets, however there were bigger things to deal with at this time. The Grim Jet’s autocannons once more spun to a quiet standstill before the aircraft lowered to hover as close to the ground as possible, the glass of the cockpit popping open. Grim stepped over the console to stand on the nose of the jet, something clutched in her right hand.

”Glad you could make it,” The deep rumble of Grim’s voice called out to the others, and without further delay she tossed them each an item one by one. Just like when they worked together in the middle east, they each held a small communicator to fit along their ear. ”These new ones work off my magitech satellites, so don’t worry about getting too far away from each other. Green…” For a moment Grim trailed off, trying to remember the code name of the green individual. She was so used to just discarding them - she barely remembered Lady Arcana and Tank at times.

”Green Knight,” She finally settled on, hoping it was close enough. ”The three of us have a plan to draw these creatures’ leader out. Up for challenging a Titan?”

“Challenging a Titan?” Emerald Knight felt compelled to echo the words that Grim said directly to him. He had something prepared, but a short breath stopped him. He hovered above the city and gazed around to see just what everyone was doing. “You know? Why not. Lets go and challenge a titan.”

Aside from taking out the occasional skyward monster, Emerald Knight would swoop in and dive bomb some creatures here and there. Some flew up into the stratosphere, others were sent into the dirt, and the small third category left special creatures mangled and broken from excessive blunt force. He could afford to take away some time from all the little things to hit a bigger thing.

He was quite glad to know that Grim was already a step ahead with giving out communicators. Maybe if this all worked out, they could get each other’s cell numbers and bug each other at inopportune times of the day.

“So, what’s the plan? Who’s the one behind all this?”

”A God,” Was the simple response from the Gotham Hero, Grim no longer looking to the three men, but rather down at her wrist computer. The small screen flashed with images as her gloved fingers glided across it. ”More than that, the same God we suspect was providing magitech to Al-Asad’s army in the middle east, as well as the Elysium in New York. Looks like he’s finally revealing his hand to the table.”

Finally Grim tilted her arm to show Emerald Knight, the small screen upon her wrist broadcasting the hundred-foot being rapidly approaching Washington, DC. ”So to draw him out, we have to topple his deck of cards.”

Tank caught a communicator turning to adjust his helmet’s newer face cover so he could place it on his ear. Apparently they had gotten an upgrade too and probably for the better with the ever rising amount of complications they were having to deal with. Communication would be extremely important in the long run he figured and having the support/company of others was always a treat. Plus with a team like this they were pretty well equipped to make something of this hammerblow opportunity on the whole invasion and if an actual god was behind the past several months it would be satisfying to give them hell for it in one way or another. This was going to be in a word, cathartic, to say the least.

”Looks like it's just about showtime by the amount of creatures that were in the area. If the deity in charge wants proof of how little ground we intend to give this might be a good start to sticking a nerve.” Girard said sounding excited for the main event ahead of time. “Plus we get to smack around something that big and powerful in the process of holding the line, win-win situation huh?”

Orin snatched the communicator out of the air and affixed it, glancing over and chuckling at Tank’s comment. ”I admire the optimism big guy, but I fear it might not so easy. After all, these creatures gave even the gods themselves a fight last time they were free.” Orin looked around, taking stock of the situation. The four of them here, the Wizard on her way to confront the root of the problem, the plant man dealing with the underworld… It seemed crazy. But none of them were ordinary people. Orin’s grip on the Trident of Neptune tightened, feeling the magical power hum through the artifact.

”On the other hand…” Orin said with a small smile. ”Though the Titans have fought gods before, I don’t think they’ve ever faced four at once. So long as we watch each others backs, I think we have a chance.”

”As do I.” The levels of excitement, determination, and resolve in the three other heroes was palpable. ”Plus, from looking at old myths about the Titans ... I have a plan.”

The smashing of glass rang over and over through Shams' mind as the creatures once again slammed their way into the apartment building. The riot officers in front held steady, but their shields began to show noticable cracks, and the line grew thinner and thinner as more of them were struck down by a speedy knife throw or a claw to the neck. One of the bird creatures howled as it dove down the elevator shaft towards the gathered tenants and their stalwart defenders.

As soon as it became visible in the stuck-open elevator doors, Shams fired her shotgun, ripping through the creature's wing and causing it to fall all the way down. Finally the blaring of sirens heralded the arrival of their getaway.

"Everyone fall back to the other exit!" the sergeant roared over the creatures' screeching. Alias gestured the civilians over alongside Officer Adams, kicking open the door and knocking over a centaur who was beating on it. She stopped his attempts to stand with a shotgun blast to the torso, leaving him disabled on the ground.

"Stay behind the shields and get to the vans!" Shams yelled to the civilians as she reloaded the now-empty shotgun. This was a mess of messes, at least most of the building had made it out okay,. What the fuck was even happening? Why were there monsters out of the English class of her nightmares attacking her? She was trying her best to help out, but it was kinda hard to do when every other cop was getting his throat ripped out in front of her.

She looked over at Officer Adams, he always smiled, no matter what the situation, he was one of the few cops in the department who wasn't on the take. She did also have a bit of a thing for him, but that wasn't important. What was important was the fake smile he flashed her in order to keep her from freaking out. He was an angel.

Then an arrow pierced right through his shoulder and he fell to the ground in a heap.

Shams' eyes bulged out of her head in shock, and she rushed over to his side.

"Ah fuck," he moaned as blood stained his outfit. Shams lifted an arm over her shoulder and lifted him onto her back, which drew an agonized growl from his lips. Shams gasped as she looked around for a car to comandeer.

It was her fault. Her fault. She'd distracted him and he'd gotten shot, she had to save him, she had to.

Finally she found a car, directing the civilians into the van as she moved to take the small two-seater. The van was already full to begin with, and crowding an injured person would lead to disaster. She bashed through the window with her shotgun and pulled the door open, placing the injured officer inside.

"I'll meet back up with you at the hospital!" she yelled at the captain, who regarded her with a thumbs up. That was all the confirmation she needed.

She entered the car and moved under the steering wheel to hotwire it.

"Shams?"

"No talking Adams, don't waste your energy."

"Fuck that, I'm dying anyway," his voice cracked in a mixture of fear and resignment.

"No no no, you're gonna be fine, I'm getting you to the hospital."

"I'm bleeding a fuckload, thanks for trying but you should be with the others."

Shams finished hotwiring the car and looked back at Adams with a pained look that somehow had a bit of rage hidden within.

"...Fine, let's go."

On the way to the hospital, Adams began getting paler and paler. Shams slammed the pedal as far down as it could go, smashing into a number of toga-clad monsters as she did. Each bounce drew a weak moan from Adams.

Eventually, Adams fell into her shoulder, she attempted to nudge him away, but he remained limp.

"Adams?"

She looked over at him, noticing his eyes, unfocused and looking off into the distance, his mouth slightly ajar, his chest not moving.

He was dead.

It was her fault.

She stared blankly at his corpse, her eyes tearing up ever-so-slightly.

In a rage she spun the wheel of the car all the way around, leaving a trail of burnt rubber in her wake. She drove towards her warehouse, where she and the Question had met over and over. She needed someone as competent as herself to at least try to take control of the situation.

---

"WHY! WON'T! YOU! FUCKING! DIE?!" Oscar Ellison found himself shouting whilst caving a harpy's skull in with a toaster oven. For a moment, he pondered how ridiculous this situation was. Here he was, having just gotten off work, only to find some abomination right out of Ancient Greece in kitchen.

And so for the past five minutes he has been in a death battle with this beast, only having just gained the upper hand by smashing it in the face with his brand new toaster oven. He had just gotten the thing a few days ago, and he was using it to decorate the kitchen floor with blood and brain matter from this fucking thing he never knew really existed. If he couldn't feel the weight of the damn toaster oven crushing the harpy's head, he would think it was just a bad acid trip.

He eventually came to a halt, sure the harpy was dead. Then it jolted back up, half of it's head crushed like a grape, and Oscar began to wail on it again, not stopping until the only sound that could be heard was splashing. So here he was, dressed in his usual suit which was now soaked with blood, slumped against the wall with a heavily dented and equally bloody toaster in his hands. This was not how he thought this day would go.

"... I need to get the fuck out of here." He needed to head to a safe place to hang out in, and he knew just the place: Alias's warehouse. Maybe if she was smart, she'd head there too, and they might be able to come up with a plan to handle this... Situation.

Heading to his closet, he took out his grey trenchcoat, spotless leather gloves, brown fedora, and mask, not even bothering to change out of his bloody garbs as he got into costume. Releasing a sigh, he becomes the Question, and pulls out his journal to scribble in a quick entry.

'December 24th, Entry #1
Well. Fucking harpies exist. Sure the one in my kitchen wasn't the only one. Going to warehouse to regroup with Shams. Hope she's doing okay. Can only hope Bruce and Rita are safe as well. Would hope for the same for Arcana and Grim but, well, they can handle themselves.'

He snapped the little leather book shut, shoving it back into his pocket along with the pen and heading on his way. Without a car, he can only hope to make it to the warehouse without dying horribly. '... I've been in worse spots.'

With that, he went on his way.

---

December 25th, 1:00 AM
Alias' Hideout, Hub City, Illinois

The police car slammed into a satyr as Shams turned onto the cracked and abandoned road that lead to the old warehouse. The poor fiendly rapist flew over the hood of the car, its goat-like legs shattered and bent horrifically. Where were all these fucking things coming from? She'd already smashed her windshield on that fairy, little bastard somehow broke the whole thing.

As he approached the lab, he spotted a strange thing, a man in a wheelchair, so far out in the wilderness. He was pretty far away, so she couldn't make out much of the details, but he appeared to have something white covering his mouth and nose, and a large green tank attached to the side of the wheelchair. She watched him roll along, his hands not moving to keep the wheels going, but somehow just drifting along.

Shams stopped watching when she noticed the giant cyclops approaching him, she wasn't gonna go kill herself just to help some half-dead old man anyway, this was an example of the circle of life.

She had just looked back at the road when she heard a horrific scream and then a thump. When she looked back, she saw the wheel-chair man rolling on his merry way. She was confused, but when she looked over a bit more, she switched from confusion to shock, her eyes bulging out of her head.

The minotaur laid on the ground, eye torn from its socket, and with a tree rammed through its chest.

What the fuck...?

---

The rest of the ride to her warehouse was silent, she spent most of it wondering just what in hell she had just seen. The unmaintained roads were hell on her ass, but the vibration did seem almost soothing in a way, to the point where she almost felt like going to sleep at the wheel. That was an awful idea, but it felt surprisingly tempting considering it was... she glanced at the radio. Holy shit 1 AM? How long had she been awake?

Too long, too long awake, and judging by the grease in her hair, too long without a shower too. She felt gross, but there was no rest for the law, and Hub City desperately needed a bit of law and order right now. Hopefully Oscar was there. Wait, what if he was there? She had to get her costume. Well, he already knew her name and face, but where could she go to change without him spotting her?

The garage would work just fine.

She was so focused on figuring this out that she only remembered she was driving when she crashed into the wall, sending the dead officer's body careening under the glovebox.

"Fuck's sake."

Shams threw open the door, kicking it once out of frustration, before walking over to the other side and lifting Adams onto her shoulder. It was a pity he had to go, but at least in death he would be able to help the people of Hub City.

She kicked open the metal doors with a crash, before Oscar could round a corner and spot her, she ducked into the small doorway to her right and entered the garage.

Dropping poor Adams' body with a thump, she snuck into the nearby office and grabbed her outfit. She snuck back into the garage and began to change, stopping halfway when she noticed the dead eyes of Adams continuing to stare at her. It was a little uncomfortable for sure.

She placed him into the seat of an old rotting forklift and snickered when he fell into the steering wheel. He made a pretty corpse at least, if a bit of a clumsy one.

It took a bit to button everything up, tie everything up, tie things down, stuff things in places, the usual routine. She'd gotten rather good at it over time, but this time was different. This time she put body-armor on top! That was a unique thing at least.

Finally she was in costume, and with a pull on the collar, she picked Adams out of the forklift and carried him into the main warehouse. She strode across the dusty floors towards her interrogation room.

"Anyone here?! Oscar?!" she called out, her voice echoing through the room.

Alias's voice echoed throughout the warehouse, reaching the secluded corner that the Question had set up for his meditation easily. Releasing his breath with a sigh, he fluidly stood up from his seated position on the floor and began to make his way into the warehouse.

"Shams. Good to see you're doing ok-is that a dead cop?" The masked detective found himself asking, staring at the body Alias had dragged in with her.

Alias looked over at her shoulder.

"Yes," she answered bluntly, walking closer with Adams' corpse in tow. "Good to see you too Oscar, this whole city's even more fucked up than usual, so it's good to see someone who can fight things without dying."

Alias dropped the body on the ground with a thump, leaving a little puddle of blood. She sighed and wiped her brow, pleased to be done with that.

"Right, we both know that this is going to take a lot more than hitting things. What I want you to do right now is take his body armor while I go and get us some guns. Got it?" she said authoritatively, quickly taking charge of the situation.

The Question was following along, only for his eyes to widen at the mention of guns. 'Guns? Oh, God, not guns...' Truth be told, he had never been exceptionally skilled in the use of firearms... That was the polite way to say a blind man with Parkinson's could shoot straighter than him.

He tried not to show it however, simply nodding coolly. "Right. I'll get his body armor on while you go get weapons." He began to take the body armor off of the deceased police officer, all the while racking his brain for ways to explain his... Predicament, to Alias.

Alias ran back out to the garage, picking up her gun-belt from her discarded police uniform, then running back through the warehouse to go out to the car. She hadn't hit the wall too hard, it would probably still run. Hopefully. She popped the trunk and grabbed the shotgun, placed in the proper spot. Whoever owned this car knew what he was doing.

She placed the shotgun over her shoulder and jogged back through the warehouse to where The Question was doing as asked. She pulled the clip out of the pistol on her belt and pulled it back to release the chambered round. As a matter of habit she kept her fingers away from the trigger, holding it by the barrel.

She walked over to the Question and planted the handle of the gun into his chest, offering the clip with the other hand.

"Here, I'm keeping the shotgun because I'm the cop here," she explained, pointing to herself. "Now let's go, no more wasting time, come on, keep up," she pressured as she rushed towards the car, shotgun in tow.

The Question broke out into a cold sweat, staring down at the gun and clip in his hands as he followed after Alias. 'Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck... Just act natural, act like you know what you're doing, play it cool... PLAY IT FUCKING COOL, OSCAR!' He didn't even realize he was in the car until he felt it pull out of the garage.

He gulped. This was gonna suck.

"So, uh... Kinda funny but... I don't... Know... How to use a gun."

One could hear a pin drop in the car as Alias processed what had just been said, she pulled over the car in an instant and took her hands off the steering wheel. One could almost hear the creaking of an old door as her head slowly turned towards Oscar.

"...Right..." she sighed, reaching over and grabbing the gun from his hands. She loaded it in less than five seconds and offered it to him, pointing the barrel out the windshield. "Finger off the trigger until we're in danger, never point at something unless you want it dead, wide stance, one hand under the other and look down the sights, they're there for a reason, if you miss, well, you trained with the kung-fu man for a reason," she stated simply, also handing him the gunbelt which she forgot to hand over.

She gulped. This was gonna suck.

"... Actually, he never taught me Kung-Fu, he taught me Judo, Savate, and more refined boxi-" Question stopped as he realized that maybe, just maybe, continuing on would just make things worse for him. Instead, he attempted to figure out just how to aim down the sights, keeping his finger off the trigger like Alias said.

Alias sighed as Hub City loomed in the horizon, the screeching of harpies and the panic-inducing screams of satyrs permeating the air.

She stopped the car here, pulling the shotgun off of her back and pulling back the stock to a satisfying click. She motioned for Oscar to follow her, watching in the woods around her with a wary eye.

Question nodded, getting out of the car and following after her, himself also keeping an eye out. He holstered his pistol, not trusting himself to not accidentally do something stupid like shoot himself in the foot.

Alias continued towards the city. Watching the bushes and trees that surrounded the road. "Glad you didn't shove that in your pants, I would have had an anyeurism if you'd done that," she said, relieved in a way.

She heard a sound in the nearby brush, and immediately lifted the shotgun to her shoulder, watching cautiously as she sidestepped down the road. Thankfully it was only a squirrel, so she exhaled and lowered the gun.

"Keep an eye out and your head up, I'd take that out of your belt if I were you but that can wait for the more populated areas," she instructed as she walked down towards the city, eying the abandoned cars as she did.

With a screech out of her worst nightmares, a satyr ran out of the woods, making a be-line for her. With a quick motion she lifted the shotgun and dropped the thing, only to hear another screech, and then another, as more satyrs poured into the road around them.

She cocked the shotgun once more, and fired into the shaking brush, she couldn't see them, but she could hope, she turned her head, cocked the gun, and shot the head off of another one making an approach, she started running towards the city now, yelling for Oscar to do the same.

"Oh fuck me!" Question shouted, running away as fast as he could. And he thought the harpies were bad! God, it doesn't get any worse than being chased through the woods at night by satyrs...

He heard a loud caw from the sky. Oh. Shit.

The faceless vigilante looked above him, seeing a swarm of harpies in the sky. "We've got more fucking company!" He yelled to Alias, pointing to the sky.

Those satyrs had attracted more company, now a swarm of harpies had appeared in the sky. So staying in the open was a bad idea, but they had abandoned that car for a reason, a wrecked police-car with no windshield was worthless in this situation, there was an abandoned car or two on this road, but she wanted one that was both defensible and could hold survivors.

A bus would work, Oscar could drive, she could shoot any that ended up in the thing, and that could hold so many people.

Too bad she didn't see any fucking buses. She growled in frustration as a satyr grabbed onto her arm. She headbutted the thing, smearing his nose against his face. She grabbed the shotgun by the neck and slammed the handle into the goat-legged man's face until he stopped moving.

In doing this, she had grown distracted, and a harpy began grappling with her, clawing and biting at her flesh.

"Shams!" Question shouted, coming to a halt as he saw his partner being attacked by a harpy. 'Oh fuck... I gotta do this... I gotta do this!' With that, he pulled out his gun, taking aim at the harpy's head. 'I can do this... I can do this... I can do this... I CAN DO THIS!'

He fired.

He hit the harpy right in the eye, the beast going limp on top of Alias. For a moment, he was stunned, but quickly shook his head and began running towards Alias. 'Holy shit... That was awesome!'

Alias jumped as the harpy's head suddenly exploded into a shower of gore, but her relief was uncontainable, and she released a shaky sigh.

"Good job Oscar! Look for a bus, I want to save as many people as possible!" she yelled over screeching harpies. One of which he shot in the abdomen, spilling her intestines across the road.

Eugh, fuck, I'll never get over that.

She ran down the road, hopping behind an abandoned car to avoid a divebombing harpy, who he dropped with a shotgun blast to the face. Four rounds gone, that was a low amount at least. As she ran, Alias pulled a few rounds from her belt and loaded two into it, not wanting to waste too much time fully loading it.

Are there no fucking buses in this goddamn city?

The Question, through his running, scanned over the high way for a bus. He dove under a car, continuing to look around, only to spot something.

'... Better than nothing." He thought to himself, before shouting to Alias. "Hey, Alias, bus at twelve o'clock!" He shouted. Once Alias looked to where Question had pointed out, she would see a bus alright... A tour bus for the popular bubble gum pop star 'Britney Britney', decked out in glitter and pink everything.

Alias looked at the gaudy thing, it was large enough she supposed.

"Good enough! You drive I'll shoot!" she cried out as she sprinted over to the thing. Thank god for treadmills, if not for them she'd have been dead on her feet by now. She backstepped, shooting a harpy that got a little close, protecting herself and Oscar.

The Question ran as fast as he could to the bus, forcing open the door and heading into the driver's seat. "Come on, Alias!"

Alias hopped into the bus quickly and ran into the middle, placing a foot on one of the luxurious sofas to steady herself.

"Move! Drive! Honk the horn every now and again to pull survivors towards us!" she roared as she fired through a window, accidentally hitting the flat-screen TV.

"Uh-oh, fell in love again (fell in love agaaain), what am I gonna tell my friends (tell all my frieeends)? It just happened, you walked in my door (you walked in my doooor), and now I don't wanna be, alone no mooore!" The sounds of Britney Britney's latest hit, (Uh-Oh) Fell In Love Again, filled the interior of the tour bus. If they weren't pissing their pants out of fear, the civilians inside might have found it to be rather funny. They were in a double decker hot pink tour bus glammed out with sparkles and fake jewels, being chased by mythological creatures. Their saviors were a faceless man in a Dick Tracy costume and a similarly faceless woman firing at the aforementioned mythological creatures.

However, because he wasn't pissing his pants out of fear, Oscar Ellison, better known as The Question, was currently laughing his ass off at the absurdity of the situation in between bouts of singing along to the music. "Hahahaha! Aw... Aw man... Okay, okay get a hold of yourself Q, get a hold of yourself... Hey Alias!" Question shouted to his partner, "How far is that military base?"

Shams Al-Harasa sighed from the back of the bus as she shot her shotgun out of the window at the closest fairy tale creature. She had been shouting directions at Oscar as he drove them through the city. All of this from memory of a place where she had never even been. She'd been around the city, yes; that was a police officer's job, but she had never been to the military base. That was the best place to go however, if there were still guys there they'd know exactly how to secure the area and protect the civilians.

"Just a few more turns from here, it's on the right side of the road from the... the ship-museum, the old battleship that you can walk around in," she instructed. Then she paused a moment. "And stop torturing these poor people, Britney's music's bad enough without you wailing the crappy lyrics."

"Hey shut up," Question barked at his partner, "I can't turn it off! There's no button or whatever for it! And so what if I happen to like bubblegum pop? At least I'm not afraid to admit it." The vigilante turned to the nearest civilian, "You like pop music?" The civvie nodded shakily, though it seemed more like he nodded just to get Question to look back at the Goddamned road.

"See Alias, this guy gets it!"

Alias scoffed as she reloaded her shotgun, cocking it as she looked over at Oscar and his apparent friend, who whimpered without making a move.

"He's just nodding because he's in a bus with a man who lacks a face, hell, if I was in his shoes I'd be doing whatever the hell you wanted too," she said with a hidden smirk. Standing to fire another shotgun shell out the window. When she pulled back, she heard a yelp from the back window, noticing a satyr holding onto the back of the bus.

The satyr also had a massive erection.

She really needed to read more mythology to find out what in the fuck this was.

The satyr's innovative method of trying to enter the bus was humping the window in the hopes that it would break. It did break, but not thanks to the satyr's gyrating hips.

More thanks to a shotgun. Right to the goat-face. It was quite satisfying.

"Is this really the fastest we can go? I only ask because we're being chased by a shit-ton of horny goat people."

"Uhhhhhhhhh..." Q checked the speedometer. Judging by it, they were going 90 miles an hour. "... A, we're going ninety. I don't think we can go any faster." Still, hoping that the van could somehow go even faster, Question put the pedal to the metal. Suddenly, the bus began to fly forward, right into a harpy which exploded in a shower of blood and guts.

Wordlessly, Question turned the windshield wipers on.

"One-seventeen now!" Question shouted to his partner.

Alias growled.

"You mean you weren't going as fast as you could?! We're in a fucking warzone!" she roared as angrily as she could sound. She yelped as a massive lion leaped onto the side of the bus, smashing one of the few non-broken windows. She fired a blast into the beast's eye with a roar. The beast's corpse lodged itself in the window, forcing Alias to kick it out of there.

Well, she wasn't forced to, but it felt good none-the-less.

"There's too many of them, we're not gonna make it taking this route!" she yelled to Oscar, her voice breaking just a bit. She was usually quite good at hiding her fear, but this was not the usual situation she found herself in.

The other passengers seemed to notice, and quite a few began to panic, one breaking down into fearful hysterics and another hyperventilating.

Alias looked back at Oscar.

"I don't care what you do, just get us there as fast as possible!"

Looking at his partner and the panicking civilians, Question nodded, gripping the steering wheel tightly and swerving into an alley. Screams were heard behind him, but he didn't care; he was going to get them to the military base ASAP. Behind them were dozens of satyrs, a cyclops, and- holy fuck, is that a minotaur?

"HANG ONTO YOUR ASSES!" The faceless fedora enthusiast shouted, heading out of the alley and turning sharply to get back onto the main road. The back of the bus hit a minotaur as Question attempted to straighten it out, denting the bus and causing the minotaur to go flying into a brick building.

Question kept right on this road, he could see the city limits and with it the military base. Before long, the swarm of monsters chasing the bus were just dots in the distance, and the military base was in sight. Reassured they were away from the bulk of them, Question slowed the bus down to a reasonable speed of 60 MPH.

He turned back to the occupants of the bus. "That good?"

As a result of Question's sudden turns, Alias had tumbled head over heels, accidentally firing a shotgun shell into the roof before settling upside-down between a pair of seats, head staring up at the gum-coated underside of one of them. It was quite disgusting, at least the floor was consistantly cleaned, all the best for a pop princess she supposed.

As Question finally slowed to a reasonable speed, Alias attempted to pull herself out only to end up collapsing in an even less dignified heap. She huffed and made a few primal noises as she freed herself with a thump and pushed her way into a standing position. She grabbed her shotgun from the floor and cocked it again, sending the shell that she had spent during her graceful fall tumbling through the air in a manner that she imagined much resembled her own collapse.

"Yep, just fantastic," she groaned as her hip lit up in agony from being slammed into the wall. "Thank god for painkillers," she mused as she slowly made her way up to the front of the bus.

"Right, just a right turn up here and we should be there," she said, gesturing to the road with the hand not currently pressing against her injury. As she turned she mumbled to herself something about hoping the map was correct and that she couldn't wait to get the fuck out of here.

As Alias got up from the floor, Question couldn't help but feel a little bad about how fast he was going. He was caught up in the moment, the adrenaline making him do things he would regret later. Thankfully nothing too bad happened, like someone dying, but still.

However, that adrenaline was still coursing through him, so when he noticed Alias pressing a hand against her injury he said "Want me to kiss it better?" in a tone that wasn't exactly innocent. And it was only after saying that that he realized he actually said that. 'Oh fuuuck...'

Alias stopped suddenly.

She turned back to look at Oscar very slowly.

'Did he just hit on me?'

She waited in that spot for a time that felt like an eternity before walking towards Oscar and stealing the hat from off of his head and tossing it into the back of the bus.

She'd need that for later.

"Focus on the road," she reminded before walking back into the bus.

Question cringed slightly when Alias took his fedora, half wanting to shout at her to give it back. Instead, he focused on the road as she said, blurting out a quick "Sorry" as he did so.

Not long after, the bus was pulling up to the military base, which seemed to be abandoned. "Shit. What now?"

Alias turned back as she felt the bus slow, quickly running up to look out the windshield.

The base was in fact abandoned, and that crowd of harpies by the humvee appeared to be snacking on a corpse of some kind. Alias couldn't help but cringe at the sight of one of the fiends pulling a long string of tissue from what was almost definitely a deceased soldier. The fence was broken through in multiple places, and the glass of the visitor's building window appeared caked with fresh blood.

She almost didn't wanna go in.

"Well, the barracks or armory should be secure, they're probably holed out there, and even if not, it couldn't hurt to get some better guns. Especially considering I'm almost out of shells," she said, pulling four shells from within her trenchcoat. She loaded them all into the shotgun, making six in total.

She cocked the shotgun and made her way into the back, grabbing Oscar's hat and hiding it on her person and informing all of the civilians to follow her. She walked back through towards the door.

"Let's go Q, get your pistol out, you shouldn't need to use it if we're quiet enough."

She calmly made her way down the stairs with a few deep breaths, walking onto the faded asphalt that marked the enterance to the military base.

"We're going through the fence, head towards that big building over there," she whispered to the group, crouching into a more stealthy position.

The Question followed Alias' lead, crouched low and following after her with light steps. The civilians followed closely after, and before long the group made their way into the armory, Question opening the door and heading in first...

Only to meet the barrel of a rifle.

Looking up, the owner of the rifle was a man well into his thirties, his blue eyes filled with suspicion. "... Are you one of those Actor Activist types, or whatever they're calling them these days?" The man asked.

Gulping slightly, the Question nodded. "Uh..." he cleared his throat, taking on his trademark growl. "Yes. Call me the Question. Rescued civilians with partner Alias, took them here in the hopes we could find armament and provide them a safe haven with you."

"Bit too late for that safe haven, pal," the soldier said, lowering his rifle, "those bastards did a number on us." He extended a hand, "Captain Frederick Curie. Call me Fred."

"Hrm. Good to meet you, Captain." Question said, shaking the man's hand.

Alias moved up next to Question, careful to avoid pointing her shotgun anyware near the man in uniform.

"Always nice to see a man in uniform," she sighed in relief. "We have around five men, four women, and four children, a boy and three girls," she informed in as neutral a tone as she could manage through the adrenaline-driven hyperventilation.

"Alias, that's me, HCPD too," she said, recalling Oscar's introduction while also giving information as to her own identity in order to prove that they weren't just some morons out of their league.

They were that too but still.

"HCPD? Well, if you're risking your neck helping innocents as a vigilante, then you're definitely not one of those incompetent corrupt sons of bitches they have in the department." Captain Curie said to Alias, turning back to Question. "So, you want weapons, eh? General Wallicker was one of the first to bite the dust, so that leaves me as the CO of this place... So knock yourselves out."

Question was stunned. "... You're... You're serious."

Captain Curie just nodded.

"... You're not gonna pull some bullshit, right? No strings attached?"

"As long as there are rifles and ammunition enough for us to hold out until help arrives, be my guest."

"Jesus Christ, this is so much easier than I thought it was gonna be." Question muttered, both ecstatic that they were getting the weapons so easily and shocked that the man would just give them away to strangers. Grabbing a nearby duffel bag, Question began to grab explosives, rifles, shotguns, really any weapon he could find.

Alias was flabbergasted by the man's ease in which he gave away the weapons. She had thought military men would be a bit more stringent on such matters, but she wasn't one to complain. She grabbed as many grenades and other explosives as she could find, and that was a whole lot.

Those artillery shells probably weren't going to see much use, so why not use that to blow something up?

Alias grabbed as many shotgun shells as she could hope for and then tossed the sack over her shoulder, hoping to god that Captain Curie had no objections.

Clearly there was no way for this to serve as a defensible location, with the lack of soldiers other than this one and maybe the one or two friends he had, and the fact that all the fortifications appeared obliterated by the assault, if a crowd of the beasts came they'd be slaughtered. So she took all of the explosives and loaded them in the bus before going back for another load. Curie didn't seem to mind. By the end she had made a pile big enough to cover the back windows of the bus.

She drove all of the citizens back into the thing and ran back in to fetch Question.

"Right, you good Q?" she asked, heavily breathing from the effort required to bring those heavy sacks around.

"Yep, all good." Question said, packing up the two duffel bags filled to the brim with guns and ammo into the bus. "... Do we really need all this?"

"If we want to hold out till someone gets here to help, probably," she confirmed solemnly. "Come on, we have to get moving before any more monsters get here," she said, gesturing him onwards.

Nodding, the Question hopped onto the bus, getting into the driver's seat and waiting for Alias to get on before closing the door. "So where to? Are we staying here?"

"No, it's not safe enough, all the fortifications are broken. We're heading to the hockey rink, that'll house everybody and it should be defensible enough," she said, climbing onto the bus and pulling the doors closed with a wave to Captain Curie.

"And hockey sucks so nobody will miss it if we blow the rink to shit." she japed with a tired smile hidden behind her mask.

As Alias said that, an idea sparked in the Question's mind. "... This bus has a pretty good sound system, we can play the music pretty loud. Loud enough that it could be heard for blocks." Behind his mask, a maniacal grin lit up his face.

"... Let's crank it up, lure these bastards to the hockey rink, trap them in there, then blow it to shit."

Alias stared at him like he was the stupidest man on Earth at first, then she thought about it more and more.

"Well, I mean, that's stupid, but I suppose it could work, and even if it doesn't, it should distract them long enough to allow us to leave," she said with a hand on her chin. "Eh what the hell, let's try. Worst thing happens we die, not like that was ever off the table so what do we lose?" she asked rhetorically with a shrug.

"Nothing." Question said, his grin seeping through his tone. "Let's go blow up a hockey rink." With those words, he turned up the volume to max and began to drive, the monsters inhabiting the military base following not long after.

”IT’S A STRAAAAANGE TIME INDEED WHEN MY ESTRANGED LEEEETLE BROTHER CALLS ME, THE CREAM OF THE TITANIC CROP, TO OLYMPUS!”

A strained, almost pained sound escaped Ted’s throat as he withered slightly his rhinestone-clad brother’s flamboyant… hamming.

”Laz…”

”...AND THEN HE SHOWS UP WITH A LITTLE GIRL WEARING HIS COLOURS, LIKE THEY’RE ON SOME KINDA BASEBALL TEAM.” The giant a of a man continued unabated, much to the dismay of any eardrum present ”IT RAISES SOME… QUESTIONS...”

”Laz.” The shorter man began again, a hint irritation starting to snake his way into his voice, but stopped when he was cut off again by more of his brother’s… loud… flexing...

”MAKES THE CREAM OF THE CROP ASK WHAT YOU’VE BEEN UP TO THESE PAST FE-”

”Laz, wrestling’s fake. Macho Man’s dead and you do a terrible impression of him.” The more modestly-dressed Titan finally snapped, slapping the back of his hand against the palm of his other as he did so ”Now can you cut the shit? We kinda got a world to save here.”

For a moment, the apparently older Titan just stood there in silence and pouted. Before finally snapping his fingers and disappearing in a flash of light (and no small amount of grumbling) and being replaced by a… slightly overweight version of the same man in slacks, a white dress-shirt and a Walmart apron.

”Grampa’s balls; Thousands of years later and you’re still a hardass.”

”Don’t bring Grampa’s Balls into it. That’s a can o’ worms I’d rather not open in front of the kid.”

Karen had watched all of this in complete silence, her face doing its level best to remain neutral throughout the entire altercation between the two brothers. This…wasn’t exactly how she had expected a pair of ancient Gods to behave. If she wasn’t currently wearing physical proof of one’s power, she would even question if they were the real deal.

Pretending she had heard nothing of testicles, she turned her attention to the world they had just entered. They were standing on a vast, circular platform that was at the base of a equally monumental set of stairs leading to what could only be described as a city of pure, radiant gold.

She had never felt so tiny and insignificant before...and perhaps that was the entire point.

”So...whoever is behind this is in that city? I guess we have a lot stairs to climb,” she noted, remembering that she couldn’t fly like this.

Turning to Karen and following her eyes up the vast staircase towards the familiar, golden city there was a moment of pause in Ted’s mind as he actually caught sight of Olympus for the first time in… well, a long time. As familiar as it seemed, something was clearly off; The gentle, comforting and warm winds he remembered about this place were curiously absent and what used to be a vast blanket of the cosmos covering the night’s sky had seemingly been… removed.

There also used to be a vast, shining lake here. Floating in the ether and surrounding this platform, a work of Poseidon’s whimsy. He remembered taking a young Athena down here to fish sometimes…

And carrying her back up those stairs on his back when she inevitably fell asleep after prying him endlessly for old war stories her dad never told her instead of actually trying to catch a fish.

The ancient abruptly crushed that train of thought before it could pick up momentum. He didn’t have time to reminisce.

”It’s probably for the best we don’t rush anyway.” Ted stated coldly, stepping towards the stairs with a bit more drive than he’d shown previously ”Whoever’s up there, you can bet they know we’re here now and’ve got a few surprises in store for us.”

Casting a glance over his shoulder towards the armoured blond, he did manage a small grin, despite his current state of mind.

”Ya ready, Kiddo?”

Karen nodded once in response, and drew a deep breath. She had done a great many things this past year, but assaulting the realm of the Gods surely topped any of them by a large margin. As she gazed up at the almost endless set of stairs before them, she could already see the golden steps in the distance becoming darker, a legion of...something approaching them.

Placing one foot forward, she started on her journey to ascend to the throne of Olympus and topple whomever was sitting upon it. Step after step they drew closer to the onslaught approaching them, her hands flexing gently at her side.

These were unfamiliar to her, flames instead of lightning. She wasn’t as strong, wasn’t as durable, wasn’t as fast… and she couldn’t fly. Still, she felt confident that she could probably handle the oncoming tide of--were those ants? Right then, ants. She could deal with them, since she had her two newest allies fighting beside her now. In any case, she didn’t really have a choice: if she failed here, then it would spell the end of the world.

This was her life now.

”Uh-oh,” Karen gasped, noting the flash or orchid up ahead. Instinctively leaping into the air, she narrowly avoided countless streams of raw arcane energy that scorched the otherwise sweet-smelling air around her.

Whatever these creatures were, they weren’t swinging around swords and axes.

”Your kid’s got good instincts” The older Titan mused, absolutely casual even in the face of the vast horde of Myrmidons before them and the immense volley of arcane firepower screaming through the air towards where they stood.

”Not my kid, Laz.” Ted replied calmly as he removed a cigar from his jacket pocket and lit it off a small flame that spouted from his thumb. Eliciting an indignant snort from his brother.

”Riiiiiight…” He replied with all the sarcasm his massive frame could muster as he raised his hands before him ”Let’s be honest here, Brother, they’re all your kids.”

And without another word, the elder Titan slammed his hands together with colossal force, creating a thunderous shockwave that shot forward toward the rain of arcane death and ignited the whole volley in a massive explosion before it could reach it’s intended target. The younger taking this opportunity to take a long drag of his cigar before responding the Ant-Men’s little welcoming gift by exhaling a massive column of flame that raced forward, seemingly screaming with the sound it made as it set the very air around it alight and quickly bore down upon Myrmidons without even an iota of mercy or pity.

In retrospect, the Myrmidons probably weren’t expecting to be fighting anything other than people in tights and capes today. And they’d be paying for that oversight with interest.

Karen winced, watching him burn the Myrmidons to ash without a second thought. It made her quite hesitant to use her new powers, for one thing. While she had managed to gain a fairly solid grasp on how much power to put behind her magic, she had never thought to employ fire against any of her foes.

How did one hold back with fire, exactly?

Still, they seemed to be handling things pretty well as it was, and so she merely busied herself with avoiding the return fire from any surviving ant-men. Hopefully, they would make it to the throne room in relatively short order, so they could stop all of this bloodshed.

”KAREN!” Ted snapped, his eyes locked onto the girl and reading the wealth of expressions that played across her face, even as he backhanded a trio of Antmen off the staircase and hurtling into the abyss below (on fire, of course) ”They’re automatons! Meat-robots! You don’t have to hold back!”

Karen landed on the stairs after dodging the latest round of fire from the creatures, her eyes darting to the titan in surprise. ”Oh, r-really?”

She...supposed that made some sense, given that they were ants and all, but she hadn’t wanted to assume anything based on appearances alone. Still, that made things much easier. She could probably stand to experiment with her new powers before things really became difficult.

Extending her hands outwards to the seemingly endless waves, she drew upon the impossibly rich laylines flowing through Olympus, before expelling that power through her hands in the form of searing, blue flames. While not as overwhelmingly powerful as Ted’s had been, they nevertheless managed to consume their fair share of ant-men.

”Holy sauceballs,” Karen muttered in amazement, glancing down at her hands.

Even though she was used to having even more power than this, it still felt really...well, different. She wasn’t Lady Arcana right now. She was just Karen Hernandez, and this was far more power than her very human body had ever felt coursing through it.

”’Atta girl!” Ted shouted as Karen scythed away a good number of their foes with her own blue flames, something akin to pride making it’s way across his features in the form of a grin, before he turned and erased another advancing column of their insectoid attackers with a quick wave of his arm and another gout of flame.

”Right, definitely not your kid.” Laz managed to muse just loud enough for his brother to hear as he shot past him to take advantage of the window he’d opened the Myrmidon lines to charge into the thick of them, sliding on his knees (lubricated along the way with goopy bits of Ant-men) and making another colossal clap upward, sending another platoon skyward.

”Shut up, Laz.” Came the fire-god’s expected reply just before he shot his hand upward and ignited the now airborne Bug-Gunners in another massive fireball. To which he was met with more snickering from his bearded brother.

”When was the last time we got together like this, anyhow?” Laz finally inquired, deciding to give his brother a rest from all the teasing as he grabbed two of his attackers by the throat and spinning like a top, sending their fellows flying off the staircase, some of them in a semi-liquid state.

”I wanna say… Egypt? With those ‘Sea Peoples’ or whatever they were called?” Ted replied unsuredly, hopping over the gap his brother had made in a single bound and firing another column of flame forward as he landed.

”Oh, yeah! the Atlantean death-cult with the doomsday weapon!” Laz laughed a little as he charged passed his brother, arms outstretched at his sides and knocking scores of them down like messy bowling pins ”Grampa’s Balls, that was a while ago.”

”What’d I tell ya about Grampa’s balls?”

”Ha!”

Shaking his head a bit at that, and almost, in some people’s eyes, looking like he might be enjoying having his brother around in spite of all his grumbling, Ted took a minute to stop and assess the situation. There was… a lot of these things. And if their Terrific Trio kept the leisurely pace they were going through this horde, Karen’d be dead of starvation and her bones turned to dust by the time they got to the top.

Honestly, he’d been holding quite a bit through this whole picnic, if only because he didn’t want to give any more clues about his identity to whoever was sitting up in Olympus right now… buuuuut, the time for subtlety had passed them somewhere around the time this encounter took long enough for the topics of Atlantean Death-Cults and Grampa’s Balls to come up again.

Letting out a sharp exhale, the scarred Titan stepped forward, in front of Karen and his brother as he rolled up his sleeves.

”Hey, Kid. Wanna see something cool?” He asked with a glance back towards the Usually-Wizard, the olive skin on his arms breaking and flaking away, revealing blackened flesh broken by cracks and veins of glowing orange.

Karen blinked at him in surprise for a moment, but quickly offered him a beaming grin. ”Always!”

Clicking his tongue in approval at her enthusiasm, Ted brought his now ember-like arms together… before suddenly snapping them apart as they suddenly burst into white, wreathing flame.

If the heat of his fire had made the air around it scream as it burned before, now it was absolutely shrieking.

Without any further preamble, snappy one-liners or cutting remarks, the paradoxically short Titan shot his arms forward, unleashing a column of flame that dwarfed all others before it… and didn’t stop, snaking it’s way up the vast golden staircase before them and revealing just how many more Ant-men had been waiting for them, hidden by the lack of light from the empty night sky, even as it quickly consumed them as it made it’s way all the way to the top where it abruptly slammed into some distant structure in the Home of the Gods.

To put it very simply, the way was now clear.

But if there’d been any doubt by those inside about who was knocking at the door, well, it had been thoroughly evaporated now.

Calmly blowing the residual steam off his ember-like arms, before his “normal” tanned flesh grew back over them, Ted cast a glance back towards his teammates.

”So… shall we?”

If he was hoping for an astonished reaction on Karen’s part, then he would get it. For what seemed like an entire minute, she simply stared at the now sterilized pathway ahead of them in blank amazement. Finally, she was able to find her voice.

”...That was brilliant!” She exclaimed, staring up at Ted with an open grin. ”I’ll bet you can handle whoever is behind this all on your own at this rate!”

”C’mon Kid, don’t make an old man blush.” Ted snorted as he started forward again ”’Sides, whatever’s up there, it dethroned an entire Pantheon. This is not going to be fun. ”

The roll of persistent thunder echoed through the streets of America’s capital, rattling windows and causing the abandoned vehicles packed tightly together to jolt on their wheels. The attack had occurred without any foreshadowing, allowing no one to evacuate beforehand. Some had chosen to flee by any means possible, while others cowered in their homes in the naive hope that whatever was happening would pass them by.

Flames painted the night in an orange hue as parts of the city were consumed by fire, a looming figure of impossible size standing above it all. His footsteps like earthquakes, his breathes akin to a hurricane...he was the Lord of the Titans, Cronus.

His snowy beard whipped about in the wind of his own destruction, massive scythe cutting a path through apartment complexes and office buildings alike on the harvest deity’s path towards the “White house”. He was to lead this invasion, to wipe away the seat of power of the strongest mortal kingdom as a show of their undeniable power. This was the task given to him by his…benefactor, a creature that seemed to only value chaos and disharmony.

But he had other plans.

This world had become rotten under the uncaring eye of his children, its people deeply flawed and broken. He would play along with the one who freed him from captivity for now, but it would only be to facilitate the return of the Golden Age.

“Ah,” his voice echoed across the city, being carried unnaturally on the wind to the unwilling ears of over half a million people. “The seat of decay, at last.”

Stepping out of the urban sprawl, the King of the Titans set his eyes upon the “White House”, and the similarly colored structures adjacent to it. Though constructed of marble, no one had even bothered to paint it, instead leaving the rock’s drab and stale natural color for all to see! But it should be no surprise: these were increasingly flawed, broken creatures he was dealing with.

Their leader had - in all likelihood - fled to safety when the attack first began, as humans are wont to do. Still, destroying the monuments of their political power will undoubtedly be a devastating blow to their morale.

And he could rid the world of that dull, uncolored marble.

Striding towards the diminutive house, a smile slid across Cronus’ face as tank shells and missiles impacted his body by the dozens, doing little more than giving him a mild itch here and there. Moving past them with little concern for whether or not he crushed them underfoot, his voice once more traveled through the air as his scythe was raised overhead. “Behold, humans! The destruction of your ruler’s throne!”

Tank’s brow furrowed at the sight of the massive figure storming through DC making an absolute mess of the place. It wasn’t a surprise how much was being destroyed but nonetheless upset the big man knowing how people in and around the path were in a lot of trouble. From where him and Emerald Knight were it would only be moments before they could be on the titan but the sight certainly put things into perspective, it's one thing to be told what your going up against and another thing entirely to take in the scale. Not to mention the military blazing away with absolutely no effect on they’re target which reminded him of fighting the Arab Federation’s forces. He was growing more sure he would have to really let loose to make a dent let alone get the attention of a being that large and tough.

“Got vision on him now and wow do we have our work cut out for us.” Girard said giving the other duo heads up on where him and his partner were, switching to Emerald Knight for the last bits before they got stuck in battle. “Lets give the big bastard his lumps for messing up the city, might try getting that scythe of his away from him while your up there since it looks like bad news, I’ll do the same if it comes my way down below.”

At this point, it was almost in character for him to be fashionably late, zooming through the skies in a bright green blur. First it was North Springs, then Gotham, now this damn dam. One would think that a powerhouse like the Emerald Knight would be the first responder to something on this scale. Normally, they’d be right. However, due to the size and scope of the invasion, and who he was paired up with, Emerald Knight’s powers made him the obvious choice for damage control and civilian safety. He was the one to sweep through, take out straggling monsters, and help evacuate any remaining civilians. Not all of them could be saved, but he did what he could.

It wasn’t even as if he could just walk in and walk out on this one. Before of his heavy hitter status and powerful set of abilities, it made him a prime candidate for going straight for the big man himself, Cronus.

He was on the way to Washington D.C. to go and lure him out. Away from the important government buildings, away from any figureheads still in the area, and towards a stage that was rigged from the start in favor of the mortals. Making Cronus give chase wouldn’t be easy, though. Emerald Knight knew this. Tank should already be there, causing havoc and making a scene for the King of Titans to be drawn towards. After that, He just needed to step in and help Tank string him on for a bit to where the others were. Simple plan.

He swooped in low as he arrived on D.C. “It’s so easy to be late when you’re the one stopping in every lefthand town to beat down a few harpies!” He complained over comms, arriving on the scene. “Might have taken longer for us to both do it, but at least we wouldn’t be disjointed. Sorry about my late appearance.” He knew it wasn’t anyone’s fault. That’s just how it was. Right now, he needed to watch Tank smash up stuff with his impossible strength to get the attention of a god.

He closed in. He readied his ring and sent a few missiles at the titan. Omnidirectional combat was something that was hammered down during training on Oa. Because green lanterns could fly, it was important to learn to be aware of things coming from every direction, even if poor little earth guns didn’t even scratch his shields.

The big guy started to relax the fine tuned control on his strength while ratcheting up his weight, trying to think of a total fit for smashing into a titan with that would definitely get his attention. He eventually settled on somewhere around 100,000 tons arbitrarily, it sounded good to him at the time, before dashing forward and with a powerful hop sending himself rocketing directly for the kneecap ready to make his presence felt. Tank was definitely worried about what might happen on impact to everything but his target as he hadn’t ever used this much force before but now seemed like the time to do it if any. This was going to be interesting.

The impact of Tank slamming into Cronus’ kneecap created a thunderous crack that rose above even the sounds of the flames now engulfing Washington DC. Despite this, his leg had only budged slightly in response to the attack, with no apparent damage having been inflicted. Turning his head slightly, the Titan swept his broad gaze across the city in confusion. “Who dares to strike the King of the Titans?”

Missiles homed in, they screamed and spun around one another as they closed in on their target. The booming voice of the titan reached Emerald Knight’s easily, and the Green Lantern replied in his humble tone.

“Oh, you know,” He sent another fleet of missiles, swooping in and around like a green dart. “Just the protectors of earth. I’m not sure where magic fits into my jurisdiction, but you’re going down either way.”

He knew he had to split up his missiles and keep his tactics different from the last. The third set, instead of being close together, spread quickly, intent on hitting the titan from all directions.

“Brrnn…!” Cronus grunted, the bombardment of missiles from every side causing the immense deity to stagger back as he slashed wildly in the air, unable to properly see from the explosive impacts engulfing his vision. While Tank had shown too much restraint in his initial strike, the repaired Green Lantern Ring of Preston had proven capable of extracting pain from the Titan King.

When the smoke at last cleared from his eyes, Cronus was quick to center his focus on the emerald glow above him. Moving with a speed and grace that should be most alien to a being of such immense size, he swung his scythe towards the Emerald Knight, hoping to annihilate him in a singular blow. “Insolent gnat!”

And extra push of force was required for him to beat the speed of the swinging scythe. While blowing up the Titan, Emerald Knight was forced to remind him that the fight wasn’t here. Instead, he and Tank still needed to draw him away from the ruined capital.

He could feel the displayed air behind him from the swing of the scythe, and a single gasp escaped his lips. Not a whole lot could make him worry like that anymore. Insurmountable power made that feeling almost nonexistent. In all honesty, he didn’t mind feeling such worry. Being hit probably wouldn’t be that bad, but Cronus wouldn’t be so slow next time. “You’re gonna have to be a little faster than that.”

He began to fly away from Cronus, but only so far and fast enough to make him want to give chase.

“You shall not escape my wrath,” Cronus promised him, his scythe continuing to swipe at the much smaller Emerald Knight. It was akin to an adult human attempting to swat a housefly, a situation the Titan quickly adapted to by twisting his weapon in his hands. His next series of strikes were instead made with the flat body of his scythe, attempting to pulverize the Green Lantern with it.

The plan seemed to - ostensibly - be working, the behemoth God pursuing his opponent away from the burning city without a second thought. Despite his power, he clearly displayed the intellect of one who might mistake an infant for a stone.

“I will smear your blood and entrails across this world!” He continued to roar.

Had it not been for the heat of battle, Emerald Knight almost would have stopped at the comment. He was almost tempted to fire back a quippy reply, but he only responded with some smaller, less impactful missiles. Just enough to keep Cronus’ attention fixed on him and to keep drawing him to the dam.

“Alright, Tank, time to move!”

Girard had at least gotten the attention of the Titan though not by much and it was Emerald Knight giving him more of a thrashing from above. Obviously what he did was nowhere near enough and honestly why should it have been? This was something he was having to size up on the fly and if that was what it took to make a mosquito bite then he was going to have to hammer the throttle, so to speak, on laying into this particular problem. He supposed it was going to come to it eventually at the rate but hey time to show what he could really do when pushed.

The big guy did just that as he began barraging both of Cronus’ legs with everything he had in just about every way he could within his little zone. Honestly he wanted the big bastard to feel it and to know he could definitely be hurt because what would piss off an age old being more than being smacked around by someone so tiny on both fronts.

“HRNGAAH!” Cronus roared in pain as his legs were knocked clean out from under him, his massive form toppling down onto the forest outside of the capital. Having cleared substantial distance in just a short time due to his immense size, he was now laying sprawled safely away from any civilians.

Slamming a powerful hand down onto the ground with enough force to cause tremors for miles, the Titan King began pushing himself up. “Nnn...who dares?”

Tank leaped the distance in one bound determined to catch right back up because he wasn’t done yet. He landed with a shockwave, smaller but nonetheless, turning to face the angry giant who was attempting to push himself up.

“That would be me!” He yelled out fully intent on getting the attention of the Titan. “The one who is about to feed you a whole humble pie!”

He quickly dashed over to Cronus’ head building up some speed for a proper takeoff as launched himself like an angry comet angling back to headbutt his fallen enemy right between the eyes. He knew one way to get to the high and mighty that he favored most, strike the ego, and he couldn’t think of anything else at the moment that showed quite a much disrespect than a mortal like him going head to head.

For an instant after their heads collided, there was no sound. The air in the immediate area had instantly burned away, and it was only when that momentary vacuum was filled that the ear-shattering soundwaves were at last heard. Windows in the next several states over shattered once it reached them, but this merely heralded the titanic earthquake that resulted from his head slamming back into the ground with enough force to instantly create a crater several miles in diameter, debris being ejected high into the atmosphere as a result.

Blood fell from the point of impact on Cronus, literal rivers of blood streaming down his face as his eyes shot open. Veins the width of roads appeared in the milky lakes of his sclera as he unleashed a scream that once again made the very earth beneath them tremble.

Rising to his feet in an instant, Cronus began to spin his scythe beneath and over his arms in an attempt to to hit his miniscule opponents. Each swing of his titanic blade rent the air, and hurricane force winds began to churn around him. “INSOLENCE!”

---

The clouds hanging in the air high above the large reservoir of Conowingo Dam broke, a slice along the white trailing the dark aircraft that plummeted down at an extraordinary rate. The Grim Jet cut up just feet above the water’s surface, almost skimming along the nine thousand acres of water as the magitech jets propelled it towards the barrier holding the water back. It was only coming up at this human-made wall that the jet slowed, drifting to stop beside the large building just beside the gushing waterfalls.

”Right, here we are. I’ve already warned emergency services in Maryland to prepare for a power outage. Give me ten minutes to work on the turbines.” The cockpit of the large jet opened, the metal clad Grim stepping out onto the nose without a backwards glance to her other passenger. The wings on the back of the Iron Fang armor spread, jets igniting as she hopped off. Landing before the turbine house she couldn’t help but mutter under her breath.

”I don’t have time for this.”

With that one sentence the door hiding what she needed was ripped off its hinges, a metal clad hand tossing it to the side. As she stepped inside the lights came on, illuminating the eleven turbines housed within the large building. Without hesitation she moved to the back, where the higher power ones were, and far more delicately opened the panel on the large machine. On the visor that covered her eyes a small signal flashed with an unseen motion, her communicator turned on to broadcast across the line to the other three heroes she was connected to.

”This shouldn’t be too hard to modify, but we’re going to have to be careful not to overload it too much before Cronus is near, King Orin. The majority of your efforts are going to have to be minutes before he arrives.”

King Orin unbuckled the harness keeping him restrained in his seat and stood up, leaping out of the jet a moment after Grim. Landing atop the dam Orin surveyed the manmade lake and turned to look at the artificial waterfalls tumbling down below. For a moment he thought to be offended by this taming of the wild forces of water, but he reminded himself that Atlantis had similar hydroelectric generators on a smaller scale. Stepping up onto the iron railing designed to keep unfortunate idiots from falling into the lake, Orin keyed his communicator on to respond to Grim.

”I’ll use the time to scout below the surface. Try and see where to direct the currents for their best effect. Just let me know when you’re ready.” Orin said before stepping off the railing and landing on the surface of the water. The Atlantean king took a few steps out on the surface, making distance between himself and the dam.

Aquaman could feel the strength of the currents below, the water being divided into channels as it was forced through the turbines. A moment later, Orin allowed himself to sink, taking his first breath of cold, fresh water. It was a strange sensation, somehow harsher than the salty brine he was used to, but oddly refreshing. Ignoring the pull of the currents, Orin sank lower as he peered through the darkness at the mostly drab wall of the dam. He could see the turbine channels now, and he could feel the currents sweeping through them. The dam was impressive, but not entirely efficient. Whorls and eddies caught at the edges of the channels, slowing the water and creating drag. Aquaman could fix that. Add in a large rush of water thanks to his control over the Trident, and Orin imagined he could supercharge the dam to its new capacity (Thanks to Grim’s tinkering) in just a couple minutes.

Eight minutes after the duo had set down the first of the high powered turbines had its safety protocols disabled, along with a few modifications to allow it to pump extra energy from the falling water. To be honest, it wasn’t safe at all and the turbine was likely to be fried after all was said and done. Yet here Grim was, repeating the same modifications to the second of four high powered turbines. It took considerably less time now that she knew what she was doing.

Then again, they weren’t exactly looking to wear kid gloves when faced with a Titan.

”King Orin,” The deep rumble of the modified voice came on over the comms once more a few minutes later, as two of the turbines were now ready to go. It was really a good thing these magitech communicators worked underwater. ”Start increasing the flow - slowly. I’ve set two of the more powerful ones so far to start storing the extra charge, working on the third now. We’ll get them up to nearly full and then overload all eleven when Cronus is near.”

Aquaman had nearly finished clearing the silt from the bottom of the dam channels when Grim’s message came through. He grinned to himself as he scanned the expansive concrete wall in front of him. This was it. If Grim had done everything on his end correctly, the dam would begin building up energy, and then it was just up to Tank and Emerald Knight to bait Cronus to their location.

”Affirmative, Grim. May luck be with us all tonight.” Aquaman said, before tightening his grip on the Trident of Neptune and backing away from the dam. Once he got a better viewpoint, Aquaman pointed the trident in the direction of the dam and began to channel power. The currents around him began to speed up, and Orin made sure to spend special care on the channels themselves. Eliminate drag, speed the currents, faster and faster and the electricity would begin to build. ”I’m starting, Grim. Currents are moving, you should be seeing a spike in power now.”

”You’re correct,” Grim rumbled over the comms, taking one last glance at the fourth high powered turbine. The storage levels were building slowly but surely, which meant she had to move quickly to modify the low powered turbines now. All in all, their side was working out as planned.

Now just to get the main player in position, then the sparks would fly.

---

The distance between Washington DC and Maryland might be a distance worthy of an automobile for humans, but for a Titan such as Cronus, it was but a short jaunt. In barely any time at all, he had chased Emerald Knight and Tank all the way to the Conowingo dam, neither noticing or caring. With his immense size and speed, he could return to the human’s capital in an instant once he had squashed the insignificant gnats tormenting him so.

They had even had the audacity to injure him! Him, King of the Titans!

Of course, he could heal from these wounds near-instantaneously, but it was nevertheless a blasphemy that couldn’t be tolerated. Much of the surrounding forest had been hacked down just from the aftershocks of his immense scythe missing its targets, and it would only require one of those errant swings to completely obliterate the dam as well.

“Your death is imminent, human filth!” Cronus thundered, eyes scanning sky and ground alike. “End this futile game and accept your fate!”

Girard turned his head back to get the view of the Titan hunting them down and true to form the huge being was wrecking everything in his path while trying to get a decent swing to connect into them. He had been having to adjust his weight and mass on the fly to keep the massive scythe from being able to find proper purchase. There was the feeling that maybe they might have done the job of angering Cronus just a bit too well but it also was kind of a point of pride in having done it. After all it was going to plan for the moment with them being practically on top of the dam now quick as anything.

”I hope you have the dam ready because we brought a special guest, a very pissed off special guest!” Tank said confirming as if they weren’t aware of the huge being probably casting a shadow over the place. “We should have him in position momentarily, just need to get him to move a little more!”

In a similar train of thought, Emerald Knight figured that while making Cronus angry enough to give chase, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to continue spurring him on, only making him angrier and more likely to kill them. However, He refused to back down. Every few moments he would give Cronus a new reason to hate the green suited mortal. He wanted to make sure, just in case, that Cronus’ attention was dead set on them.

“We’re getting there!” Emerald Knight called back to Tank. “Just a little more, almost there!” Other than lead him on and make sure that the Titan ended up in the right spot, there was little else for the Emerald Knight to do. He could create constructs to ensure that Cronus would be unable to escape the trap, but it was up to the others to make sure that the plan was carried through to the end.

So it was time.

The shadow of the great being had fallen over the dam before the three had arrived, giving signal to the two heroes already busy at work within. By now, the turbines had been released from any safety measures, and were nearing full capacity with King Orin’s gentle efforts. Yet, it wasn’t just the sting of full capacity they were looking for, now that Cronus was near. It was a storm.

”Your Majesty,” Grim rumbled over the comms in her modulator’s flat way. She stood apart from the turbines now, hovering to gaze upon them from above. Their efforts were coming to a head, now all it took was just that little bit more, and to spring the trap. ”The turbines are ready and Cronus approaches. Unleash the flood.”

Orin cracked a smile and chuckled at Grim’s approval, spreading his arms as he began to channel more power through the Trident. ”Your wish is my command, Grim!” He affirmed before twisting to point the Trident at the dam itself and focusing his powers. Water began to rush around him, the currents speeding up and up, past flash-flood speeds, surpassing the strengths of a waterfall, the magically enhanced currents roared and bellowed as the water forced its way through the channels and past the turbines. Hundreds and thousands of gallons of water overflowed and overcharged the dam, relying only on Grim’s tinkering and the promise of nearby release.

”And Grim, we’ve worked closely enough by now; please don’t call me Your Majesty. Orin is fine, or Aquaman if you insist.”

”As you wish, King Orin.”

As the cascade of water worked its way through the dam, the fail safes that were once put in place began to fail. Inside the building that housed the turbines, the machines began to let off sparks of warning as the energy climbed. As soon as those sparks began to manifest the wrenching of metal filled the room. The power of the Iron Fang armor showed as the metal slides against the wall were already twisted to connect to one another, and with the power building Grim forcefully pulled one end of the metal lining to the largest of the turbines. Just like that, electricity began coursing through the walls of the building - turning the building lethal as the drab grey metal heated up to fluorescent whites and reds.

When the immense foot of the Titan at last came crashing down onto the dam, the darkness of the night was instantly sundered. Countless billions of volts coursed up through the behemoth deity, the power of the dam augmented far beyond its natural capacity by Orin’s trident. Almost immediately, lights began to switch off throughout the state of Maryland as the dam that powered so many businesses and households was overloaded.

So intense was the luminous current of power that surged through Cronus, that his own thunderous screams of agony could barely be heard. Finally, as his body fell forward onto Conowingo Dam, the darkness reasserted itself fully. Collapsing beneath his immense weight, the Titan found himself sprawled out onto his back amidst the ruins of the once proud hydroelectric facility.

Pillars of smoke slowly trailed from the burnt flesh that now covered his body, his eyes rolled back into his head.

The waves of Myrmidons hadn’t ceased once they had cleared the stairs. More had soon arrived, floods of the mindless creatures all raining arcane-fueled firepower down at them. Even after clearing those, they had barely been given a moment’s rest. Cyclopes had soon arrived, carrying with them the same magitech as the ant-men.

These were no mindless brutes, however, and used their superior strength to wield a much larger, much more powerful arsenal of weaponry.

“Man is a blight!” one roared, unleashed a small storm of arcane missiles that detonated on impact in an orchid ball of fire, the force behind the explosion dwarfing any conventional human weaponry by a great deal.

“Gaia must be purged!” Another declared, firing what Karen could only describe as a magitech autocannon from above his hip.

She was on the defensive, once again unsure how to fight these clearly sapient creatures with her unfamiliar powers. She had been clipped a couple of times, and it had hurt...she wasn’t nearly as invulnerable as was normal for her.

’Well, that’s not good.’ Ted deadpanned internally at the sight of the new and improved welcoming committee and their new toys. ’Couldn’t just come at us, screaming, with clubs and axes like the good ol’ days, could ya?’

Yes, even in his own mind, Ted somehow found a way to make light of their current predicament... but that didn’t mean they weren’t in trouble.

...Well, not him and Laz, mind you. They were Titans, not exactly the easiest things in the universe to kill, never mind make stay dead... Karen, however, was a still very much a squishy little mortal underneath all that magic armour and was slightly more prone to becoming hamburger meat under concentrated fire.

Which was kind of a bad thing, considering that pretty well all of them had just decided to level their shiny toys at her.

The sight brought him pause for a moment, before a low growl escaped his throat and the flesh on his arms returned to their glowing ember state he’d shown on the stairs earlier.

”Charon’s Jokes, this was a lot easier back when I just fried the bad guys and went home...” He grumbled under his breath before launching himself between the girl wearing his gear and the One-eyed Monsters and their big guns. Calling out to her in his usual casually grumpy tone ”Okay, Kid. Listen up.”

Rushing forward and ducking under a barrage of missiles, the scarred old man bore right down on his first victim, getting right into melee range and reeling his fist back… before just anti-climatically tapping the magic weapon with his knuckles and skidding between the giant’s legs before he could swing at him.

”They’re holding big metal guns and you control fire and heat.”

It took a few long, comical seconds of confused silence for the Cyclops to register what just happened and why. Before it began screaming in pain and juggling it’s red-hot weapon around like some sort of cartoon character, before throwing it off in a panic and in the process smacking his brother in the face with the damned thing, who also began to scream.

”They’re also awkward, clumsy and prone to doing dumb shit when they panic. Think you can work with that?”

Karen honestly felt rather dumb for not thinking of it at first. She was used to being a lot more quick-witted than this while fighting...was it because she didn’t have the Intellect of Mnemosyne right now?

”R-right! Thanks,” she called back, now having a moment breath thanks to the Cyclopes being distracted by his attack.

Taking a page from the one who had given her this power, she leveled her palms at the sizable weaponry carried by their opponents. Blue flames burst from her hands to engulf them, and sure enough the Cyclopes carrying them began howling in pain and throwing them aside. Not that they would’ve been of any use: her mystical flames had partially melted them almost on contact.

The three of them had by this point ascended through multiple levels of the great golden city, powering their way through endless scores of every sort of mythological creature: cyclops, centaurs, harpies, minotaurs, even a kraken that guarded the lake that sat just below the palace of Zeus.

Karen was, in all honesty, beginning to feel exhausted, beads of sweat trailing down to her brows. Her stamina had certainly been enhanced by the armor Ted had given her, but it wasn’t limitless. While she wouldn’t be giving up, there was little doubt in her mind that her usefulness as a fighter would soon reach its end.

The battle to breach the palace and then the throne room was a whole new level of brutal. Tight corridors, close quarters combat, and the most elite warriors they had yet to face. Most terrifyingly, Gorgons now joined the ranks of the creatures they now faced, a fact that had nearly resulted in her death via petrification.

”Nngh…” Karen averted her gaze from the snake women before, an action that was immediately exploited by a towering minotaur. Slamming its oversized axe into his torso, it bit into her armor and knocked the breath from her lungs. Flying back into the golden wall of the staircase they were fighting on, her impact left a heavy indention as she fell back to the ground.

”Shit.” Ted hissed, wincing slightly as Karen slammed into the wall behind him- That didn’t look fun ”...Laz?”

”I got this.” The older Titan snarled, eying the reflections of the Gorgons on the polished gold of the wall and bringing has hands back and then forward in another of his signature sonic claps, made all the more effective by the tight spaces of the stairwell. ”Go check on yer kid.”

If the apron-clad Titan was expecting the same brand of grumpy retort for that statement he’d been receiving from his brother since they arrived here, he never got it; as Ted wordless closed the distance to Karen’s still stunned frame, gripping her shoulder and easing her into a sitting position.

”How ya holding up, Kiddo?” The scarred deity asked, a note of concern in his voice… before he looked away for a moment to deliver a thundering jab straight to the dangly bits of a Minotaur who’d been sneaking it’s way up the stairs behind them, axe at the ready with all of his Titanic strength, sending it half wheezing, half screaming and fully airborne back the way it came ”Still with us?”

Karen was dazed, her head ringing after the impact with the wall. Still, she was just able to make out the sound of Ted’s voice, giving him an ambiguous groan. Forcing her eyes open, she slowly staggered to her feet - though not without using the old man for support. They couldn’t be far from the throne room now. The big guy’s thunderclap had also cleared the stairs before them for the most part, too.

Placing a hand to the wall as they ascended the remaining steps, it took only a few minutes of climbing before they finally stood before a pair of large double doors. Before any of them could even think of knocking them down, they began to smoothly slide open.

Before them now was the resplendent throne room of the King of Olympus, every bit as opulent and brilliant as the city it ruled over. But it was no King that sat upon its throne.

“My, my,” the dark haired woman on the throne exclaimed, her black wings fluttering. She wore a golden diadem and a suit of flawlessly crafted armor of the same color. “If it isn’t the Firebringer and the Skybearer, and the little Wizard as well. I must confess, I never considered that not one, but two of the Titans would decide to stand against their brethren for the sake of the Gods who so abused them. Just what, exactly, are you thinking?”

That gave Ted pause, a sharp sound escaping the scarred man’s lips with the force and disdain of the ugliest curse imaginable;

”Eris.”

Of all the deities and divine lunatics who could’ve been sitting on that throne causing all this madness, it just had to be her.

Giving the room a quick once-over for any sign of her husband and clenching and unclenching his fist once in thought, the now-identified ‘Firebringer’ stepped forward, sparing his brother a quick glance as he did so.

”What I’m thinking? Frankly, I’m not entirely sure whether I should be surprised or disappointed.” He began, his voice calm, even as he studied the Goddess of Discord on her stolen throne. ”You honestly thought I’d just sit on my hands while you wipe out the entire human race? C’mon Eri, you know who I am. And you know better than that…”

Sticking his hands in the pockets of his flannel jacket, the Titan spared one more glance around the room.

”So… where’s the pretty boy?”

“Doing something even he should be incapable of failing at,” Eris replied, resting her face on her knuckles. “He’s guarding the very much incapacitated forms of the old Pantheon. They’re just over there, through the doors.”

She lazily gestured to her left, at the large chamber in the distance, the golden doors shut tightly.

“Your little friend there,” she glanced to Karen, “is welcome to try and free them...not that she would stand a chance against my husband as she is, pathetic though he may be.”

Her black lips then curled slightly into a smile. “As for you two, however...you’re both going to stay right here with me. We have a lot of catching up to do...”

December 25th, 2:28 AM
Conowingdo Dam, Maryland

In the aftermath of the quaking footsteps, booming voice, not to mention the rumble of machinery and moving water, the silence was nearly deafening. In the middle of the night as it was, pitch dark surrounded the facility for miles as the city's power grid was in disarray after the surge of voltage being redirected through the Titan's body. Now he lay still.

Above the great body of Cronus, Grim's Iron Fang armor hummed quietly as the jet-wings worked to keep her hovering in the air. Beneath the glowing gaze of the mask her eyes roamed along the smoking, charred being before them, half submerged in water.

To be honest, she wasn't expecting it to be that easy. No plan survives contact with the enemy. Yet through their combined efforts, mortals had brought down a Titan. A literal mythical being. It was empowering and humbling all at once.

With the sparking of the hydroelectric dam having been exhausted not even sparks emerged from the turbine house as Grim set down near the foot of the man, flipping open a compartment in the armor on her left arm. After all, when else would she have an opportunity to collect samples like this?

"Good work," Was the short comment that filtered through Grim's helmet as she moved, the modulated voice being broadcast to her communicators. "Everyone stable?"

December 25th
2:28 AM
Conowingdo Dam, Maryland

"Stable." Emerald Knight reported promptly. After his part in the fight was over, He regulated himself to making sure that the damage was minimized. Cronus had done a massive amount of damage on his own, not to mention the hordes of monsters that flooded the world. "What are we going to do with the big guy? I could take him back to my...." He suddenly realized that he still hadn't told anyone of the Green Lantern Corps, or even the fact that aliens existed. "Base. My employers can make him answer for his crimes, assuming theres still life in that titan body of his."

Aquaman rocketed out of the water as he felt the earth shake from the Titan's fall. Thanks to his enhanced speed, the Atlantean made it to the rest of the group in only a moment, time enough to answer Grim's question in person. "Affirmative Grim, stable. I must admit, this was an incredibly effective plan." Orin said, watching the others gather around the monstrous form of the prone foe.

It wasn't until the green one spoke up that Orin gave him much notice. He recognized the man, he had seen him during the incident in the Middle East, but the two had never stopped to speak. Up close now though... It was obvious to Orin who these 'bosses' of Emerald Knight were. The Green Lantern Corps, headed by the Guardians of Oa. In its heyday, Atlantis had a thriving space exploration program, and had been made aware of the Lanterns and their laws early into their expeditions. Now it seemed Earth had its own verdant guardian.

"If I may, my glowing green friend;" Orin said, stepping forward. "I think this particular threat is of a... Terrestrial scale. I see no need to involve bigger authorities here, especially now that we've proven that between us, we can defend against them pretty handily."

December 25th, 2:28am
Conowingdo Dam, Maryland

"Woo!...err stable. Just kinda taking the sight in after all that." Girard said/shouted lightly jogging his way back over to where the others were gathering brushing off dirt and debris as he moved until he got to his buddies. "Had to do a little bit of a tuck and roll to get out of the way of the big lug at the end."

The big man took a moment to enjoy the victory as it were with a smile and some astonishment that they had actually managed to pull the whole thing together. For a moment he was worried Cronus wasn't going down despite all of the punishment that dam had dealt the Titan but lo and behold there he was charred up like an overdone burger. It was seriously invigorating to have been a part of it too, he was going home with one hell of a story to tell Abby later. In his eyes it was something of a Christmas miracle so far which kinda made it all the better.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out for what to do with him. Cool story to tell the guys upstairs though at least." Tank said patting Emerald Knight on the back for a job well done and turning for a hand shake of some description towards Aquaman. "Good to work with all of you folks again, tis the season for delivering a titanic ass kicking together."

Emerald Knight wasn't expecting for anyone to be aware of the presence of other beings, especially this hydrokinetic standing near him. His wording was careful, like he was intentionally trying to tip off Preston to what he knew. It was a surprise, but one that was certainly welcome. He'd need to head back to Oa, or at least check his ring to see if there were any known societies on earth that would know about the existence of the Green Lanterns.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Tank beat him to the punch, and patted his back. It wasn't a whole lot, but just enough to serve as a distraction from his thoughts.

He looked around. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe Grim had planned it this way. Everyone here was from the attack in the middle east.. "You know, if we keep doing this, we're going to have to know each other on a first name basis." He joked, but inwardly, he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to let go of his secrecy, especially around other powered individuals that were just as strong as he was, and much smarter.

December 25th, 2:30 AM
Conowingdo Dam, Maryland

He hadn't felt such searing pain in over ten thousand years. That was how long it had been since his rebellious son had dared to defy him, using the power he had inherited from his grandfather to topple him from his rightful throne and chain him in the bowels of Tartarus. He had swore that he would escape one day - that he would have his revenge, no matter how long it took. Now, he had once again been brought low, not by a God, but by the most insignificant of creatures.

This was the world his foolish, ignorant son had spawned. A world where mere mortals would dare to strike at those of divine blood, to defy them openly and flagrantly rather than to accept their fate.

He had to bring an end to it. He had to set things right again, as they had been during The Golden Age of the Titans. No sickness, no war, no death, and complete obedience to the Gods. He would purge this world of the vermin infesting it, and remake it a new in his image, as he had once done so very long ago.

Cronus' eyes shot open with this thought, bloodshot and burning with hatred. Slamming his hands down into the water beneath him, he easily reached the river's surface below. Pushing himself upwards, his immense form once more rose to its feet. Though his burnt flesh reeked from the surge of electricity that had ran through him, his injuries were already starting to heal. He was, after all, a divine being. For all their pathetic mortal efforts, the lightning they could generate still failed to have the lasting impact that Zeus's had.

"Your defiance shall be repaid through the blood of those you care most for," Cronus boomed down at the five mortals who had attacked him. "As I purge this world of filth, I shall make their suffering linger for an Age, as mine has!"

Raising his scythe high into the air behind him, Cronus swept it forward. Instantly, the entire dam was wiped away, the river itself blasted clean from the water's surface as it flooded the opposite coast in a massive tsunami that was certain to wipe out any nearby towns. Cronus, for his part, was unsatisfied with this, and was already preparing for a second mighty swing.

Ted’s brow furrowed slightly at his cousin’s rather… theatrically blatant threat, glancing back toward Karen with no small amount of concern in his eyes, even as he maintained a stiff upper-lip through it all.

This seemed like a terrible idea, and he was clearly thinking that as his eyes flicked back towards their foe, sitting so smug and chewing the absolute hell out of the scenery on her stolen throne, before finally they knit shut and a weary sigh escaped him.

’Aw, fuck me- Sam’s gonna ream me out for this one...’

”Ya heard the crazy, genocidal lady, Kiddo.” He finally managed to say as he lifted his hands out of his pockets, his skin beginning to peel back once again- though not only on his hands as before, but his face as well. ”...Off ya go.”

Karen looked up at Ted, looking rather shocked that he thought she would be capable of doing such a thing by herself.

But then, the woman on the throne had apparently left them with little alternative in that regard. If either of them attempted to help her, she would surely attack all three of them right then and there.

And given that she felt confident about taking the two of them on, Karen didn’t feel like her contribution would make much of a difference.

Sensing her discomfort, Ted took a moment to give her a small, reassuring grin. Even while the skin on his face was starting to peel off, revealing increasingly hot, ember-like flesh.

”Kid, you just fought your way to the top of Olympus. Even with our help, that’s a first in history.” He snorted away her worries dismissively. ”Don’t worry, you’ll think of something clever- You always do.”

”...Okay,” she frowned up at Ted. ”I’ll um…try and be quick.”

A small chuckle escaped the diminutive Titan at that.

”Take yer time...” He called after her with something resembling confidence. ”...I made it through President King and ‘Nam. This should be a cakewalk.”

Karen had already started heading for the golden doors to her left, only to freeze in place at Ted’s words. She glanced back over her shoulder at the Titan in confusion.

There had been a sense of familiarity about him since he had first arrived, but she hadn’t been able to place her finger on it. Now...it seemed so obvious. That old man back in the alley, when she had first been given the mantle of Wizard...it was him!

...He really wasn’t in any danger back then. Shazam, you rotten liar. Heh.

Sprinting towards the doors again at full speed, Karen slammed her hands against them, forcing them apart. Soon, the teen was through them and out of sight as she dashed down the long hallway behind them.

“Well, then,” Eris finally spoke again, rising to her feet. “Who would like to be the first to obtain their shiny golden ticket straight to Tartarus?”

Still smiling slightly after Karen, Ted’s eyes flicked back to his brother as Eris spoke, finding him looking right back with his arms crossed and a quietly smug look on his face, despite the situation they were in.

”You sure that’s not your kid, Ted?” The older Titan asked one last time, as his massive musculature began to slowly harden and glow, smiling ruefully the whole while.

”Like ya said, Laz...” The younger brother responded with a small chuckle, as his eyes began to pulse a violent, fiery red and the ground began to shake malevolently ”...They’re all my kids.”

And then, to the unimaginable screaming of the very air around them burning and the thunderous, earth-shaking force of two Titanic hearts beating like the drums of war the pair vanished in a massive inferno, obscuring them from view and causing the marble columns of the throneroom to buckle and crack under the combined thermal and percussive force of what was happening.

When it subsided, there was a glowing crater. And in it, stood the Sons of Iapetus, in their true flesh-

Enduring Atlas, Bearer of the Heavens and the personification of overwhelming strength and Prometheus, the Bringer of Fire and former Champion of Mankind.

“Gasp!” Eris clasped her cheeks in mock amazement, before smirking. “I see you two still haven’t lost your penchant for theatrics.”

”Said the girl with the black lipstick and the movie one-liners.” Prometheus retorted mockingly, indicating towards his cousin with his burning hammer. ”Now are we gonna do this or what?”

Eris stepped forward down the golden stairs that preceded her throne. Once she had reached their base, she folded her arms and lifted gently into the air above them. Staring down at the Titans, her black lips parted into a grin.

“Come then, let’s find out if your pathetic existence as a human has dulled that flame of yours!”

Without warning, her dark wings swept forward to encapsulate her slender form. This lasted for only a brief moment, however, for they soon parted with stone-shattering kinetic force. Black feathers rained down at the two deities, and those that struck the golden floor erupted in brief-yet-blinding flashes of light.

While the size of the blasts were not terribly impressive, the concentration of power in each of them was more than enough to harm even the likes of them.

”Kids these days…” Atlas grunted as he dug his foot into the golden floor and ripped a massive chunk of it, large enough to shield both he and his brother, upward and then forward towards his cousin and the massive volley of death headed their way with a thunderous kick from his other foot ”...And what’s the deal with the golden freakin’ everything, anyhow? Isn’t that a bit too much, even for people like us?”

”Zeus’ idea.” Prometheus replied dryly, with a slight click of his tongue as he raised his free hand toward the still-moving ribbon of solid gold and firing what appeared to be the teensiest little spark of a fireball into it, which violently burst outward in an immense explosion of tactically compressed fire-magic, (hopefully) engulfing the rest of the doom-feathers in it’s wake as well giving the wave of moving metal a superheated second kick of momentum ”I wanted to go with marble, seemed a bit less… opulent. But ya know who’s always right...”

Eris calmly raised her arm at the approach of molten metal, backhanding it away as if swatting an annoying fly.

Stretching out her hands towards them following this, her grin grew darker as she spoke; “Rot.”

Pouring from her palms was what could only be described as raw, untempered pestilence and decay, a black miasma that swept over the throne room and threatened to engulf the two deities in a deadly fog.

“You’re both boring me,” Eris said, lulling her head to the side. “At least make our first reunion in millennia interesting!”

”Oh, ya hear that? We’re boring her.” The Firebringer noted with a hint of amusement as he casually hefted his hammer to his shoulder and raised his free hand once again.

”Oh, we can’t have that, can we?” The Heaven-Bearer added with mock thoughtfulness as he rubbed his hands together in a deliberately mocking fashion.

”So… Akkad Maneuver?”

”Akkad Maneuver.”

With that decided, Prometheus clenched his fist shut for a brief second, before snapping it open again as it glowed white hot and unleashed a yet another, even more dense ball of compressed fire straight into the encroaching cloud of agonizing death and the face of the Goddess standing in the middle of it as Atlas reeled his massive arms back and brought them together in a thunderous sonic clap that dwarfed all others he’d done that day by a wide margin and, more importantly, forced a colossal amount of oxygen into the already hyper-dense, explosive ball of fire.

The effect was immediate, as a miniature sun abruptly came into being where Eris stood with an impossibly loud-



Which, hopefully, caught her attention at least long enough for her to lose her grip on her magic murder-fog... if it didn’t already dissipate in the leviathan explosion.

The gas Eris had spawned had been instantly burned away by the miniature sun, and no more appeared afterwards. For a time, it was difficult to see what exactly had become of the Goddess of discord, the light of the newly born star obscuring her comparatively miniscule form. Then, the sun began to flash and oscillate violently…

Like water being sucks into a drain, the star began to dim. Soon, it was shrinking, and shrinking fast at that. It was at that point that they were finally able to see the form of Eris again, her mouth pressed against the dying star. After another few moments, what was once a golden orb of stellar power was reduced to a mere white spark, which was quickly consumed as well.

Wiping her mouth with her arm, Eris smiled down at them. “Well, guess I’ll be laying off the Vitamin D supplements until next month. Anything else?”

For a moment after Eris had just swallowed what was essentially a small thermonuclear explosion aimed directly at her face, there was a pregnant pause. Broken only by the slumping of the Firebringer’s shoulders and a small sigh.

”...Yeah, that just figures, dunnit?” He finally said with a weary shake of his head and a slightly annoyed glint to his smoldering eyes.

”Well, c’mon, we both knew it wasn’t gonna be that easy.” Atlas added with a shrug as he popped his knuckles ”So... ’Deep End’ it is, then?”

”Eeeyup.”

With that agreed, Prometheus abruptly snapped his fingers and disappeared in a burst of flame, just as Atlas dug his heel into the golden floor and rocketed forward, his immense strength propelling him with such speed that he seemed to simply vanish in a loud blast as he made the sound-barrier his bitch. Fist cocked low to deliver the mother of all gut-punches as his brother came back into being behind and a little to the side of the Goddess of Discord, already swinging his burning hammer directly at the back of her neck with all of his Titanic might, one thing became perfectly clear-

The Sons of Iapetus weren’t fucking around anymore.

“Uh oh!” Eris gasped when Prometheus vanished, her eyes settling instead on Atlas as he rocketed towards her with likely enough force to shatter the Earth into dust. His brother, too, had now descending on her from the opposite side. It seemed like they were getting serious.

She supposed it was time to return the favor.

Twisting in midair so that they were now closing in on either side of her, she raised a single hand for each of them, closing her eyes as Prometheus’ hammer and Atlas’ fist were respectively stopped dead by her outstretched palms. “Uh oh.”

Gripping both Atlas’ fist and Prometheus’ hammer, she sharply jerked the latter forward and issued him a kick to the stomach with a force that would even make Zeus pale in horror. She then released her hold on the hammer and brought her now free hand up beneath Atlas’ chin in an equally devastating uppercut. “Uh oh…”

A wet sound, as well as a small spatter of blood that resembled molten steel escaped the Firebringer’s mouth as he hurtled backward under the ludicrous force of Eris’s kick, only able to stop his rearward momentum by digging his hammer into the shining floor of the throne room.

’Well... that kinda sucked…’ He groaned internally as he finally slid to a stop, struggling to rise back up and take a knee, even as the combination of his divine nature and the old Curse of Zeus began knitting his thoroughly damaged insides back together. ’Probably should try to avoid any more of those…’

Casting an appraising glance back towards his… deceptively dainty cousin, he somehow found the strength to produce a sound that was honestly trying to be a chuckle, but came out more of a gargle as he spat more glowing onto the floor.

”Well, you’ve clearly been eating your wheaties.” He finally managed with his usual, dry humour as he steadied himself on his hammer ”Ya been hitting the gym recently or what?”

Eris stared down at him with a slight smile.

“If by ‘the gym’, you mean Tartarus, then yes,” she replied. “In fact, I managed to hit it so hard that I dislodged a spark of the Godwave from it.”

Lowering her hand, she rubbed her stomach. “Now it’s in here, granting me power beyond anything you could ever imagine.”

A moment of silence followed that statement, as Prometheus just stared at his cousin in incredulous silence, clearly trying to wrap his head around that one.

”You… ate a piece of the Godwave?” he finally asked, with a tone that strongly suggested that that was perhaps one of the most ludicrous things he’d ever heard in his immortal life. ”...Are you stupid?”

Eris tilted her head in confusion at his remark.

“And whatever is the problem with that? I’ve effectively become a primordial!” She spread her arms, grinning broadly. “The equal of the oldest beings in the universe. I fail to see any error in obtaining such a magnificent power.”

Leaning slightly more on his hammer and cocking his brow, Prometheus didn’t relent.

”You’ve spent millennia living in a massive massive golden palace atop of a massive magic mountain surrounded by the most egotistical and prideful beings that ever existed. And not one of them ever tried it.” The Firebringer explained, almost as though he found himself in the awkward position of having to explain that water is wet. ”Furthermore, in order to actually get it, you had to go to a place where both Cronus, ego personified, and my other brother, the literal God of Arrogance have been left stewing in their ravenous hatred for the rest of the universe since before you were born... and not one of them tried it either.”

Tilting his head slightly, he concluded;

”...You didn’t think there might be a reason for that?”

Eris paused at this, cupping her chin in thought.

A few moments passed between them, the goddess ultimately smiling and offering Prometheus a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “I imagine they had their reasons… but then, their goals were completely different from my own.”

“I’m not interested in ruling Gaia,” she said, drifting towards the ground. “I’m not even truly interested in ruling Olympus -- it’s just the most effective means to meet my ends. After I defeat you, I’ll allow Cronus to purge Gaia of humanity, so that he can build his new ‘Golden Age’...”

Her lips twisted into a malicious grin as her feet touched the golden floor. “Naturally, he’ll then seek to betray me… he cannot accept any ruler but himself, after all. Even if he somehow doesn’t, I’ll force him to. I’ll unleash devastation on his pathetic little paradise in a war that will last an Age.”

“An Age of Discord.”

Resting her face against her hand, she released a delighted sigh. “It’s all I’ve ever dreamed of, you know? And once I’ve extracted every ounce of suffering that I possibly can from Gaia, I’ll move on to some other world, and start the whole thing over again!”

Prometheus maintained an oddly stoic silence throughout the God of Discord’s monologue, letting her talk unimpeded as the Curse of Zeus finished repairing the damage done by her colossal kick to his gut, the grip on his weapon tightening steadily with every insane, genocidal word that came out of her perfect little mouth.

”...You are a real piece of work, y’know that, Squirt?” He finally stated, voice even, calm and for the first time, lacking any trace of his customary wit. ”I’m gonna go have a talk with your parents, why don’t you take a seat.”

And it was with those words that Atlas, invulnerable, unimpeded by the crack to his chin earlier and quietly waiting for his chance to do so while the Goddess of Discord prattled on, abruptly ripped Zeus’ throne out of the floor and whipped it at Eris’ head in one motion.

The throne slammed into her skull, the metallic chair bending against her form. Reaching up, she pried the now U-shaped seat of the God-King from her body, a brow arched. “Now, I find it hard to believe that you expected that to work. What are you up to?”

”Wait for it…” Prometheus simply stated as the force of gravity slid open a pair of hidden compartments on the arms of the throne, where Zeus, being a creature of absolute dogmatic habit, kept his goodies.

Like his emergency stash of hardened lightning, the likes of which he had used prolifically throughout the Titanomachy, which came tumbling down toward the floor made of highly conductive metal.

Time seemed to slow at that moment.

Atlas leapt off the floor.

Prometheus vanished in another burst of flame.

And each and every one of those crystalised warheads of pure electricity shattered as they hit the floor, engulfing the room in a blinding flash of light and coating every golden inch of it with enough energy to power the Eastern half of North America for a good century or two.

Gold had been replaced with white hot electrical energy, enough to begin melting the ancient throne room that had stood for so many thousands of years and had overseen the entirety of human civilization. Far from mere gold, it had been enchanted by Zeus himself to be nearly indestructible. It did, however, still have limits.

After what seemed like a solid minute of divine electrical discharge, the blinding light dimmed enough for them to once again see Eris. Her feet had sank into the now liquid gold, which came up to her ankles. Her conductive golden armor had likewise melted, and her hair was now smouldering slightly.

”So...” The Firebringer inquired as he burst back into existence above the smoked Goddess, unable to hide his shit-eating grin. "...Still bored?"

Her eyebrow twighted ever so slightly as she ripped the ruined armor of Zeus from her body and threw it aside. “That...hurt, just a little.”

Her eyes shot up to where Prometheus had reappeared. Her eyes had become abyssal pits of hate, her lips twisting into a sneer. She began to slowly raise her hand towards him.

“But this is going to hurt a lot.”

June 1st, 3176 - Ankarra Breach

---

You're dying.

Flashes of energy burst with each stride, a thunderclap of power unleashed propelling her forward. To either side there was only the black. Endless space and the corpses of consumed stars slowly burning out. Behind her Sol burned brightly, the final beacon of life drawing the survivors to her bastion. The last few billions of mankind sheltered there, back at the cradle of their civilization among countless alien exiles. "Where did it all start?" It was always her first thought when she took to battle the great enemy. No one really knew the answer, not since The Severing so many years ago. She felt like she lost something there, but was never certain… It was just so fleeting and vague. Every Time she reached for it, it would pull away and become even more uncertain for a time.

There were others who suffered, many far more than her. With the arrival of the great enemy entire civilizations had been erased. Histories undone, reaching even into the past and destroying them before they began. Such a terrible foe had only the names they had bestowed upon it, and sown misery across the multiverse. Her companions had fought it of course, as they had done in the Great Cosmic Wars against Dominion, but this enemy was something beyond them. Perhaps that was the worst of it, and why she had to be the one. She had been there when the Lanterns died. Each light snuffed out one by one, a last stand that had united the Corps like no other threat, and killed them as if they weren't even trying.

What do you mean? What is causing it?
We don't know.

All that remained were the Seven. Seven heroes from across the multiverse, dedicated to defending it from the great enemy. Lady Arcana and herself from Earth-342, Tyrant from Earth-X, Deathstroke from Mars-36, Hawkman and Hawkgirl from Thanagar-17 and Uther. They were the last of what had once been a great Legion of Superheroes. At the thought, her fingers clenched around the chain at her waist, medallions of her closest friends hanging there as reminders of those they had lost. She would finish this. She had to finish it.

"Verra."

Uther's synthesized voice spoke quietly in her ear-piece. The construct didn't have an origin in any of the multiverse worlds, instead existing outside it until they had found it. An odd one, but reliable.

"Yeah, I'm nearly there."

Her leading foot found purchase upon a micro asteroid, propelling her forward towards the ongoing battle. A fleet exchanged blows with a vast entity before her, lances stabbing out into the black and piercing ethereal limbs that seemed to glimmer as they twisted in and out of every dimension at the same time. Few were successful impacts, but the Legion was determined and would not back down despite going to battle with fewer and fewer each time. She could just barely make out the forms of her companions ahead, silhouettes against the Breach. That was her destination, the great seeping wound in reality that preceded the arrival of the great enemy. It pulsed with the bleedoff of energy, cosmic threads spiraling off to spawn microsingularities which ripped apart the nearby planet and sowed chaos among the fleet as they struggled to maneuver.

All we do know, is that your connection to the speed force is connected somehow.
Are you saying my speed is killing me?
No, Verra… Just that… Well, it's not saving you like it should.

"Lady Arcana and Tyrant are preparing the vortex now, everyone else is buying you two time. Remember, you have to hit it at the precise moment of collapse at light speed."

"I know, Uther. We've run the simulations countless times, and we're all hedging our bets on this."

Tyrant spoke next, her gruff voice at odds with the face she wore. "Don't get lippy kid, you're our best shot at taking the bastard out." Despite the vast distance still to cross, she smiled as she knew there was a concerned look on the old woman's face. She had been like a mother to her oddly enough, despite her being friends with her eternally young doppelganger.

"I'll do what needs to be done, just get me a breach."

In the distance the two sorcerers were alone in the eye. A vast maelstrom roiled around them, ripping asunder Jupiter and throwing the debris of the dying planet across the solar system. Tendrils reached from within, questing into reality to try and grasp hold of the fabric of space-time. She could make out the winged shapes of the Thanagarians battling to keep the great enemy at bay, coordinating with the fleet and buying as much time as they could. It was a losing battle and everyone knew it, but they weren't fighting to close the breach this time. This time they were fighting to secure a way to undo everything. They were fighting in order to break the single most important rule imposed upon the Legion and the powered individuals within.

Everytime you go into battle, every time you run you build up speedforce within your body.
Yeah, I know. It all gets discharged as electrostatic energy.
Not all of it.
What?

"By the power given unto me by the gods, old and new, I call upon the powers of the Rock of Eternity!" Both women spoke as one, invoking their sorcerous powers and drawing upon it with everything they had. All of their experience, all of their arcane knowledge was being summed up into this one moment. She could time travel on her own of course, but it was almost always a very temporary and limited interaction. Just a few questions here and there, finding information. Anything beyond risked damage to hypertime, the conduit that ensured the stability of the multiverse across all of time. What she needed to do required going back further than she had ever gone, and enacting a change so powerful that the ripples would echo across the speedforce for eternity.

"SHAZAM"

Their call rang out across space, followed by the dual thunderclap of arcane energy flooding into them. For a split second, everyone could see the leylines of interstellar space flare, new conduits being formed directly connected to the two sorcerers. It was now that she stopped focusing on the battle at hand, and began to recite to herself the words she drilled into her mind.

"My name is Verra Valinova, and I am Velocity, the fastest woman alive."

"Verra! Remember, you're going to feel temporal dissonance when you arrive on the other side, and it will be far worse than any you've ever felt before."

"I know, Uther."

She clung to the treasured memories of this lifetime, of the last time she was with her mother. The short companionship she shared with a fellow hero. Her first time saving someone, and seeing the gratitude etched on their face. For over forty years she had been a hero with the Legion, and she was risking it all in order to ensure that there would be a Legion.

A flash in front of her alerted her to the opening of the singularity, a rip in the fabric of space-time through arcane means. It was shimmering and pure, a doorway that beckoned her to come forward.

"If I don't come back… I just want to say that you've all been wonderful friends… And that the sandwich in the fridge is mine."

Verra's foot pressed into the last solid surface of her home timeline, yellow lightning wreathed around her body as she sped past the defenders. In a single instant she was there and crossing the vast battlefield, just a streak of light aimed at the collapsing breach, and then she was gone.

---

December 25th, 2020 - Conowingdo Dam, Maryland

The skies above shifted suddenly, an ozone taste tinging the air as the cloud cover cleared away. Stars disappeared one by one and a clarity descended upon a vast region. It began to focus, steadily coalescing into a spiraling disk of energy, lightning crackling from the edges and striking the ground for a hundred miles from the focal point. Over a few seconds it shifted from what might have been benign to a slowly roiling vortex, then into a full-fledged singularity. The water loosed by the breaking of the dam began to stream upwards, stalling the tsunamis. Leaves were shorn from trees to mix into the updraft, drawn into the center of the black hole now dominating the sky.

"My name…. My name is…"

Verra struggled to focus as she ran down the speedforce towards her destination, feet pounding across the highway of pure energy. All around her she could see the events of her own life flashing by, memories of things that she had lived through, and curiously enough things she didn't quite remember. There were faces she didn't recognize, a woman she knew as a mother but wasn't her. A strange sense of belonging to a time that wasn't hers, and worse that the life she experienced was never meant to happen.

Ahead of her she could see reality opening up, exactly where they had chosen to deliver her, to strike the blow that would change history. Cronus was supposed to strike the blow here and now that would inspire centuries of bitter resistance. The defeated heroes would retreat back to their hideouts, laying low from a victory that had been so close at hand, yet yanked from their grasp. Dozens would die, and out of mourning the Justice League would be born in order to right the wrongs the Titans imposed upon them.

"I am…"

Everything went still. For that briefest of moment, the universe simply stopped. A building energy grew from the center of the singularity, expanding outwards and lashing out at the wounded titan to bind him into place. Chronus' rage broke the silence, sundering the fragile wonder of the event taking place. Everything fell back to the earth away from the singularity as a pinpoint of light formed in the center. Incredibly, something was exiting against the gravitational tides, and the titan's gaze fell onto it. With a flash of speedforce energy, the singularity collapsed. The shockwave dispelled clouds across the entire eastern seaboard, lighting up the sky in an artificial borealis. And at the center was a lightning bolt that struck Chronus directly in the chest, stopping his heart.

The thunderclap of the impact blew outwards, sending debris flying and briefly lighting up the surrounding area. In that moment a figure could be seen standing upon the ruined body of the fallen titan, electrical energy wreathing her as she slowly looked around herself.

"I am Velocity, the fastest woman alive."

The celebration was cut short. The exhiliration, the relief washed away as though beneath the great waves Cronus' palms made in the Dam's sloshing waters. The darkness of the night, once seeming so complete without any light within miles, now became suffocating as the great being rose before the four heroes and blotted out the stars.

As the Titan's voice boomed over the still night Grim's muscled tensed in her suit before lifting to hover, her communicator flaring to life to bring her low voice to the others. "We have to hit him before he fully recovers. Throw everything you have!"

The Iron Fang armor shot up as the great scythe was raised in the air, a curse flowing through her lips and deepening within her mask as the water from the motion created a massive tide of water. "Orin, focus on-"

A light glowed. Soft, at first, and perhaps for just a moment before with a sudden surge it reached for Cronus. Grim's helmet visor zoomed in to record the anomoly, though as a mighty sound tore through the air with a shockwave worthy of any shifting tectonic plate, it seemed her human gaze couldn't follow.

The crash of the Titan falling was almost as loud.

Slowly Grim lowered herself back to the ground, gazing up upon the person she had met only once before, in the middle east crisis.

... Speedy? No, that wasn't right, it was - ah, she introduced herself again. Convenient.

"You decided to come after all," The low rumble of Grim's voice modulator cut the air, and the hero gave a stiff nod in the direction of the woman. She hadn't expected Velocity to show up after her call had been ignored, but then again the fastest woman alive could cover a lot of ground. Apparently even while being flashy - literally, as the skirted heroine's fancy move parted clouds and painted the sky with that clap of thunder. It was almost awe-inspiring, and convenient timing. Had Cronus been able to fully recover it might've not worked.

... But that wasn't right ...

Grim hadn't called Velocity, had she? It had been...

...

No, it was definitely the speedster. It didn't matter, Grim always got their names wrong anyway.

"Thanks for the backup," The Gotham hero finally said, stepping close to the smoldering body of the Titan. Much like in her street armor, the Iron Fang prototype's left arm opened to allow Grim collection of a sample before she busied herself with the communicator aspect of her suit. "I'll see if I can't patch a message through to Lady Arcana. If not we're likely moving on to cleanup in another city - there's more than just Cronus wandering and our mastermind still hasn't shown. Will you be joining us?"

"You have got to be kidding me." Tank said as Cronus started to regain his footing sending all the water they had used to take him down previously everywhere.

The big man caught Grim's order through the comms as he got himself turned and ready to pummel the Titan again though it would probably take a lot more than just that at this rate. He certainly had the feeling that plan had gone over just a bit too well but he held out hopes that the big ugly would've decided to stay down, not today apparently. Not like they didn't have a bunch of other places to deal with whatever other monsters small or big in however many more cities needed them. It was really kind of frustrating Girard a bit at this point even if he never expected it to be easy, kinda made him think about what it was like trying to deal with himself or other super tough people. So this is what its like on the other side. He thought musing on the subject for the moment it took for him to get ready for a jump.

Tank wouldn't get the chance though as all the debris and water was launched in all directions followed by a massive lighting bolt which tracked itself straight into Cronus who collapsed back over unmoving in all of a split second. It was hard not to just take a moment to look up at the sky lit up like it was after the impact, he wondered if his girls could see it from home. He did however refocus back looking back to Velocity who had shown up fashionably late to the party but made an event of it at least. The woman usually did pretty well for herself in these sort of situations so it makes sense she might've been a bit busy doing some cleanup of her own elsewhere. Made for some serious backup like back in the Middle East which he could appreciate.

"Good morning to you too. Woulda been a shame if you missed out on the fun Velocity!" Girard called out giving a wave and quite happy to see another friendly face so to speak.

Aquaman snapped back into action as Cronus stirred, the Titan rising back up to his full height. There was nothing the gathered heroes could do as his massive scythe demolished the dam, sending millions of gallons of water flooding towards the city. Orin was moving before Grim could even issue the order, planting himself firmly on the ground as he gripped Neptune's Trident in both hands and pointed it towards the rushing wall of water. Drawing energy from the fixed leylines in the area, Orin channeled them through the powerful artifact, focusing on diverting and redirecting the flow. He needed to carve new channels for the water to flow into, send it to streams and rivers, into drainage ditches and empty spaces.

Then suddenly, with a flash of light and a crack of godlike thunder, their ancient foe fell, seemingly bested once and for all. Velocity stood among the group of them now, delivering her signature catchphrase. Aquaman laughed as he finished his own job, relaxing for a moment to turn back to the group.

"Welcome to the glory, Little Lightning Bolt!" Orin said loudly, and with cheer. "Looks like we're lucky to have you with us again!"

Emerald Knight was a fool to have thought that it would have been done so easily. Kronus, the god of gods, lord Titan, would no be killed with a single, though smartly planned move. The water rushed, lightning clapped, and everyone seemed to have forgotten that there was still water rushing down to drown any nearby town. Orin was already on it, thank god, and Emerald Knight flew out without a second thought to try and do his part in making channels and redirecting water with massive constructs. He couldn't move and work faster than the water moved, but something was better than anything.

Velocity, that was the speedster in the middle east. He never talked to them... Her. His conversations back then were all too brief, but maybe now he could get a little bit more acquainted with these heroes.

Grim was thinking ahead also. Emerald Knight made sure to stay close and wander back over to the group.

"Obviously Velocity here would do best in scouting, checking everything to see who needed help and how bad things are nearby. I can work damage control." He didn't want to just stand around and take orders. Preston, even though under a mask, still knew a thing or two, and wanted to help however possible. "Grim, since you were able to even find me in the first place, maybe you can work some magic to see how things are holding up tech wise, see how much people know about all this and DC." Again, he was just shooting dumb ideas around to try and be important.