Countdown. Part 25

"Spare us your territorial indignation!" Darkseid growled. Exerting his G.o.dly strength, he broke free of Green Lantern's restraints, which evaporated into a spray of chartreuse sparks. The psychic feedback provoked an anguished groan from the emerald hero, who tumbled backward clutching his skull. Hawkgirl's mace shattered against the arch-villain's helmet. He swatted her aside. "Soon all worlds shall belong to Darkseid!"

The Infinity Man's visor glowed purple and an irresistible surge of antigravity catapulted Superman away from the New G.o.ds, back toward Wonder Woman and the others. Drax threw out his hands, and the heroes suddenly found themselves trapped inside a floating geodesic sphere, composed of transparent orange energy. "Forgive me, Kryptonian," the Infinity Man said, "but you and your allies cannot be allowed to interfere with my sacred duty. Thus I must cut short your misguided heroics by encasing you within a prison of solidified light."

"What?" Superman exclaimed. He pounded against the s.h.i.+ning barrier with his fist, but its adamantine walls refused to budge. His fellow heroes joined their efforts to his. Wonder Woman removed her tiara and attempted to slice through the unyielding light with its razor-sharp edges. Regaining his concentration, Green Lantern drilled at the wall with a jackhammer composed of emerald light. Hawkgirl beat her feathery wings against the cramped confines of their cage. The Batwing fired lasers at its edges.

Yet not even their combined resources could make a dent in the sphere.

"Cease your futile resistance, Uxas!" the Infinity Man exhorted Darkseid as they resumed their contest. Unable to withstand the tremendous forces at play, the flimsy tenement building disintegrated beneath their feet. Crushed stone and mortar rained down on the blasted ghetto below, leaving the dueling G.o.ds suspended hundreds of feet above a smoking wasteland. "Would you destroy this hapless world merely to preserve your own existence?"

"My name is Darkseid!" Locking his fists together above his head, he brought them cras.h.i.+ng down against the crest of his brother's helmet. The blow staggered but did not drop his formidable adversary, and Darkseid followed up the attack by firing a burst of red-hot plasma at his opponent's face. "And I will lay waste to all creation before I surrender to the likes of you!"

"So be it," the Infinity Man proclaimed. His tinted visor cracked by Darkseid's latest a.s.sault, he retaliated by delivering a solid jab to his brother's gut. "But surely you have not forgotten the prophecy?" He recited an infamous augury dictated by the Source itself at the very dawn of the Fourth World. " 'Brother shall meet Brother in the bloodred light of the Fire Pits, and there they shall decide the War.'" Golden light seared Darkseid's flesh. "That day is upon us, brother!"

A sudden tornado hurled them apart. The whirlwind whipped against Darkseid's face, spinning him through the air. Glancing down in surprise, he saw the Flash, overlooked before, running in circles directly beneath them. The Fastest Man Alive seemed determined to blow them out to sea, far from the teeming mortal metropolis.

"Enough!" the Infinity Man shouted impatiently over the howling winds. He waved his hand at the Flash and the irritating speedster was instantly teleported inside the same unbreakable orb that contained his trapped compatriots. "These valiant mortals shall not keep me from my task!"

Darkseid took advantage of his brother's distraction to blast him in the back with the full force of his Omega Beams. "Insufferable fool! I write my own destiny." The sneak attack stunned the other immortal, and Darkseid savagely kicked his brother toward the ground dozens of stories below. "Today shall belong to Darkseid!"

Engulfed in bright, luciferous flames, the Infinity Man crashed into the heart of the city.

Superman and his fellow heroes watched the appalling spectacle from within the floating sphere. He prayed that they had managed to evacuate the city in time. He strained his super-hearing in search of innocent bystanders, but all he heard were the frightened cries and whimpers of terrified civilians many miles away from ground zero. His X-ray vision scoured the ruins of the collapsed buildings. Thankfully, there appeared to be no casualties trapped beneath the rubble.

"I don't care what the Infinity Man said," the Flash said beside him. Wally West carried on the legacy of his uncle, Barry Allen. He tried to vibrate his atoms through the s.h.i.+mmering barrier, only to bounce back into Superman. He zipped about the sphere in frustration. "We've got to do something here!"

Superman knew how he felt, but he also understood that matters had escalated beyond even the League's control. The best they could do at the moment was make sure that ordinary men and women survived this literal apocalypse as best they could. "This is brother versus brother now, Wally. This is between G.o.ds."

A steaming crater, over a mile in diameter, now occupied the center of the slum. The blackened ruins resembled the wreckage of Granny Goodness's orphanage back on Apokolips. Darkseid felt quite at home as he descended into the depths of the crater. His imperial armor was charred and dented. Painful scars and burns defaced his stone gray flesh, but he paid his physical discomfort no heed. He would endure any ordeal, any torment, in his quest for ultimate power.

He found his brother's smoldering form sprawled at the bottom of the pit. The Infinity Man's once-gleaming armor lay in pieces amidst the blazing embers. The heat and impact of the warrior's descent had glazed the cracked floor of the crater. Drax's helmet had come loose, exposing his battered visage for the first time in ages. Darkseid barely recognized his brother's face. Blood dripped from an ugly gash across his brow. Teeth were cracked and missing. Cuts, sc.r.a.pes, and blisters formed a mosaic of suffering across his muscular body. More blood pooled beneath him.

"So much for the will of the Source," Darkseid gloated. Placing his boot atop Drax's skull, he ground his brother's face into the broken gla.s.s. "I should have made sure you were dead the first time we clashed, but I shall not make that mistake again. Your genocidal campaign is over. Now it is your turn to die."

The Infinity Man stirred beneath his tread. "Never," he grunted through cracked and swollen lips. An unexpected burst of antigravity hurled Darkseid away from his brother, who leapt ferociously from the ashes. Without giving the startled villain a chance to recover, Drax pounced upon the other G.o.d. Fists imbued with preternatural might pounded away at Darkseid's face and torso. "You cannot defeat me, brother! Ours is a battle of wills, and mine is untainted and true. I am evolution's champion, the harbinger of the Fifth World, while you have ever walked the dark path of Anti-Life!"

Darkseid was caught off guard by his brother's renewed ferocity, but he quickly recovered from his surprise. I should have known he wouldn't fall so easily, he chastised himself. Accelerated healing and superhuman endurance were among the Infinity Man's gifts. But even without the souls of the departed New G.o.ds at my disposal, Darkseid too is a force to be reckoned with!

Marshaling his strength, he threw Drax off him and lunged at his brother. The shock wave from their collision toppled nearby buildings. Mangled cars and trucks bounced into the air before cras.h.i.+ng back down onto sundered blacktop. Snapped steel girders jutted from the ground like twisted pieces of abstract art. Smoke and dust blanketed the sky. Flames erupted from the ruins. The entire neighborhood looked as though it had been blasted back into the Stone Age.

"Heh!" Darkseid chuckled. Locked in combat, their contorted faces only inches apart, they fought hand-to-hand, neither combatant giving an inch. Spittle sprayed from Darkseid's lips. He spit a mouthful of black blood onto the battlefield. "I don't see your vaunted Fire Pits, brother, so what good is your talk of prophecy now?"

Blood streamed down Drax's face from his wounded forehead. Sweat dripped from his straining limbs. "I shall fulfill my mission, Uxas, even if I must die to do it! Our deaths will mark the birth of a new age!"

Darkseid laughed at his brother's fanatical ravings. "That's the spirit! A pity you did not fight for your throne half so fiercely." Sensing victory at hand, he was willing to be magnanimous. "These are the words of one worthy to be called my brother!"

"And yet we are nothing alike!"

The Infinity Man broke free of Darkseid's hold and rammed his fist straight into his brother's chest. The weathered breastplate yielded to his might and his arm plunged elbow-deep into the arch-villain's rib cage. Darkseid roared in agony as the G.o.d-Slayer yanked back his arm. "What was it you said?" Drax asked. "No Fire Pits?" Gouts of bloodred flame erupted from the gaping cavity in Darkseid's chest. A foul black organ was clutched in the Infinity Man's grip. "Your h.e.l.lish heart is Fire Pit enough to fulfill the prophecy!"

"N-no. . . !" Darkseid dropped to his knees. He clutched at his wounded chest. The awesome power of the Omega Force, which had rendered him invincible throughout his reign, gushed out between his fingers despite his frantic efforts to contain it. Spidery fissures spread across his face and limbs. Lifeless gray skin began to flake away, flaying him alive. Raw, red muscles melted from his bones. An aura of crackling crimson plasma ate away at his very being. "Not me . . . it was never meant to be me. . . !"

"Ever so arrogant, Darkseid, right to the bitter end." The Infinity Man gazed implacably down at the once-dreaded master of Apokolips. The unleashed energies gus.h.i.+ng from the villain's chest built toward an inexorable chain reaction that would ultimately consume them both. Resigned to his fate, Drax made no attempt to escape the inferno to come. "Farewell, my brother."

A fireball the size of Krakatoa exploded around them.

2 AND COUNTING.

METROPOLIS.

Green Lantern did his best to contain the shock wave within an enormous emerald force field. But even still, several city blocks were leveled by the volcanic demise of the New G.o.ds. The Infinity Man's energy-sphere vanished with him, freeing the JLA to cope with the collateral damage. Superman scanned the ruins for any trace of either Darkseid or his adversary, but reported not even microscopic fragments of their remains. Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the rest of the team fanned out to a.s.sess the extent of the disaster and render whatever aid they could. A pounding rain poured down from the sky, as though the heavens themselves wept over the extinction of a pantheon. The torrential downpour helped to extinguish the multiple fires ignited by the G.o.ds' final battle. Miles of yellow police tape were strung up around the perimeter of the blast site.

The observation deck of the Daily Planet Building, which had miraculously survived the city's latest brush with destruction, offered Donna and the other Challengers an elevated view of the battle's aftermath. She and Jason and the Atom watched as Superman put out a burning homeless shelter with his super-breath, while the Flash constructed temporary housing at the speed of light. Wonder Woman transported emergency supplies in her invisible jet. In the street below, Jimmy helped Forager into an ambulance. A heavy fire blanket was draped over Jimmy's naked shoulders.

"Wow." Donna contemplated the cataclysmic events they had just borne witness to. "Darkseid defeated at last . . . I never thought I'd live to see the day." She glanced up at the stormy sky. Were cool alien eyes viewing this very scene from afar? "I wonder if this is what the Monitor intended all along?"

"Maybe," the Atom said. "We may never know."

"Screw that!" Jason snapped. "Screw you all in fact!" He stomped away from the guardrail, turning his back on Donna and Ray. A noticeable limp hinted at the extent of his injuries. Ripping away his mask, he revealed a pair of swollen black eyes. Bruises and a busted lip attested to the brutal beating he had received from Mary Marvel back in the mountains. His tattered leather jacket was stained with his own blood. "I'm through with all this cosmic anomaly garbage. All I want now is to get far away from the rest of you!"

Although she sympathized with his frustration, Donna was still hurt and offended by his att.i.tude. "Oh, real nice, Jason!" she accused him. "You know, you're not the only one who's been used and betrayed here." Her head still throbbed where Mary had hammered her into the ground. "After everything we've gone through together, I would have hoped for more from you. Haven't you learned anything through all this?"

"Yeah," he spat in disgust. "I've learned the saving-theuniverse racket is for suckers." Favoring his sprained ankle, he hobbled toward the elevator. "Have a nice life, losers!"

Speechless, Donna and the Atom watched Jason exit in a huff. Ray shook his head in disapproval. He gave Donna a bewildered look, as though he couldn't believe Jason's appalling behavior. "That bitter young man used to be Robin?"

"And a Teen t.i.tan," Donna added sadly.

She wondered what she had ever seen in him.

1 AND COUNTING.

METROPOLIS.

Jimmy had played the scenario out in his head a thousand times. He was at the Pulitzer Prize ceremony, accepting the award for his acclaimed journalistic account of everything that had transpired over the past several weeks. But when he looked into the audience, he saw fifty-two Supermen, fifty-two Batmen, even fifty-two Beast Boys for G.o.d's sake. Fifty-two variations of a nearly infinite number of heroes and villains looking back at him. And that was when he realized that there was no way he could write the story. Who would believe it?

"It figures," he said as he stared gloomily at the floor of his apartment. He sat backward upon a rickety kitchen chair, his arms and chin resting on its back. A half-empty gla.s.s of orange juice dangled precariously in his grip. "The biggest story of my career and it can never be told."

"Yes. Well, life's full of disappointments," Forager buzzed unsympathetically, while she rummaged in the refrigerator behind him. A two-piece Lycra jogging outfit revealed that her alien metabolism had already healed the wounds she'd received from Mary Marvel. Her antennae twitched irritably. "Did I tell you that I'm still furious over missing out on the final battle with Darkseid?"

Only eight times today, Jimmy thought. He had apologized repeatedly for having to leave her behind when he went G.o.dzilla on Darkseid's b.u.t.t, but it didn't seem to have done any good. Forager's ego had been smarting ever since.

"Hey, O.B." She sorted through the leftovers in the fridge. "Is this Chinese food still good?"

Jimmy repressed a sigh. You know a relations.h.i.+p is headed for the Dumpster, he mused, when your cute extraterrestrial girlfriend shortens her pet name for you from "Olsenbug" to just "O.B." He rotated his chair to face her. "Try some. If nothing moves in your mouth, then yes."

The quip failed to elicit a smile, let alone a chuckle, from the stir-crazy insect-woman. Being cooped up in Jimmy's apartment during her convalescence had left her notably short-tempered. Jimmy was starting to wonder if they had anything in common at all now that they were no longer united in a common quest-and he was just an ordinary cub reporter again.

His extraordinary powers were gone. Ever since the Atom had extracted the soul-catcher from his brain, and liberated the trapped spirits of the New G.o.ds, he hadn't displayed a single unusual ability. Just as well, he thought. They never brought me anything but trouble.

Forager sniffed a cardboard container of three-day-old chow mein, then lobbed it into the trash. She closed the refrigerator with unnecessary force before turning to face Jimmy. Her slender arms were crossed over her chest. Her inhuman features bore a serious expression.

"Seriously, James, we have to talk."

Ouch, Jimmy thought. The phrase that every guy loves to hear.

IVY TOWN.

Ray Palmer's living room was uncomfortably similar to the one he had left behind on Earth-51. No surprise there; Jean had helped pick out the furnis.h.i.+ngs in both universes. The only difference was that this house hadn't been trashed by a berserk Monitor.

Yet.

Home again, Ray thought morosely. He slumped on the couch in front of the silent TV. A stack of unopened mail was piled on the coffee table. The furnace churned noisily downstairs. The fireplace was cold and empty. A heartbreaking operatic aria played softly on the stereo. The soprano's tragic lamentations fit his mood.

To their credit, the Justice League had done a good job of looking after Ray's house during his long absence. A paid housekeeper had kept everything spick-and-span. Yet of all the bizarre places he had visited in the last two years, none felt more desolate than this lonely suburban home, which was way too big for one solitary super hero, even when, as now, he was his normal height. He couldn't help wondering how that other Jean was coping fifty dimensions away, in a reality he would never see again.

He hoped she was happy.

"So now what?" he wondered aloud. The League had been supportive, giving him time to acclimate before reporting back to duty, but was that really what he wanted to do with the rest of his life? His career as the Atom had cost him the woman he loved-twice. Was that even a life he wanted to live again?

The doorbell rang, interrupting his moody ruminations. Who on Earth? Ray wondered. He wasn't expecting anyone.

He was tempted to ignore the bell and pretend he wasn't home, but curiosity prevailed. Dragging himself off the couch, he went to the door. He opened it tentatively, half expecting to find a Jehovah's Witness or a youngster selling Girl Scout Cookies. Instead he discovered a tall brunette woman wearing casual attire.

"Donna?"

"I knew it," she said cryptically. Without asking for an invitation, she stepped inside the house. Her piercing blue eyes probed his own. "You too, huh?"

Ray closed the door behind her and followed her into the living room, where she shucked off her leather jacket and made herself at home upon the couch. He sat down on the arm of the easy chair across from her. "Me too, what?"

"That antsy, unfulfilled look in your eyes," she explained. "I know that look from my own mirror."

Her confident a.s.sessment unnerved Ray, who tried to shrug it off. "It's only natural we should feel at loose ends. We've been through a lot."

"And?" she prompted him.

No answer came. Ray squirmed awkwardly on the arm of the chair. What else is there to say?

"Yeah, I know," Donna said. He had to remind himself that, unlike the Martian Manhunter, she couldn't actually read his mind. "It bugs the h.e.l.l out of me too."

GOTHAM CITY.

The Bat-Signal shone above the city like a second moon. Jason Todd stood upon the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse down by the waterfront. Honking horns and police sirens filtered up from the grimy streets below. It was another busy night in Gotham.

He sneered at the bat-winged emblem in the sky. Once, when he was young and naive, the Signal had promised adventure and excitement. Now it only reminded him of his lost innocence-and a life that had been abruptly taken from him.

"Still fighting the good fight, eh, Bruce?"

Part of him had never forgiven Batman for not avenging his "death" by killing the Joker, let alone for moving on with his life and training a new Robin. To h.e.l.l with it, he thought. That's water under the bridge now. No more masks and capes for me.

He'd seen firsthand just how insane that life could get....

A m.u.f.fled whimper reminded him that he still had business to take care of tonight. Turning his back on the Bat-Signal, he strode over to where a helpless figure, his arms and legs tightly bound with duct tape, struggled uselessly upon the floor of the roof. Gang tattoos marked the man's shaved skull. Perspiration glistened upon the faded ink. Bloodshot eyes were wide with fear. More duct tape was stretched across the prisoner's mouth. Blood dripped from a broken nose.

"They say knowledge is power," Jason said with a smirk. "As a made man in the underworld, I'm sure you know that."

The gang member mumbled something unintelligible. Judging from the man's panicked expression, Jason figured he was about ready to squeal. Rumor had it the Penguin was running guns in this neighborhood, and Jason really wanted to get a lead on the operation before Batman did. If nothing else, he thought, I can use the ammo.

He drew a switchblade from his black leather jacket and flicked it open. "So lay some knowledge on me, smart guy."

Forget that Multiverse c.r.a.p, Jason thought. This is where I belong. In the streets and alleys where I can make a difference-my way.

Too bad Donna couldn't see that.

IVY TOWN.

"Ray, you were there," Donna reminded him. "You saw what almost happened." She showed no sign of budging from his couch anytime soon. "G.o.dlike beings playing games with the cosmos, with every living soul their p.a.w.n." Her pensive eyes searched his face. "Doesn't that trouble you?"

He looked away, avoiding her gaze. "I try not to think about it."

"Really?" she asked. "And how's that working out for you? Because I know it's keeping me up nights."

Ray felt a headache coming on. He squeezed the bridge of his nose. "What do you want, Donna?"

She got up from the couch. "An answer."

"Okay," he grumped. "And the question?"

She fixed him squarely in her sights. "Who monitors the Monitors?"

Huh? It took him a second to realize what she was getting at. "Oh no! Absolutely not!" Throwing up his hands to ward off the very idea, he spun around and started to walk out of the room. He shook his head in denial. "Are you insane?"

Surely, she couldn't be serious!

THE KAHNDAQI DESERT.

Moonlight reflected off an arid wasteland that stretched for miles in every direction. Towering sand dunes s.h.i.+fted slowly beneath the relentless push of a cold desert breeze. The skeleton of a dead camel lay half buried in a gully, the remains stripped to the bone by windblown grit. A brawny figure, clad in a black silk uniform, contemplated the forbidding landscape surrounding him. A golden thunderbolt adorned his chest.

"Of all the kingdoms and empires that have come from the desert," Black Adam mused aloud, "none have ever been able to match its stark majesty and cruel beauty." He tipped his head to the sky. "Wouldn't you agree, Mary?"

Guess those pointed ears of his heard me coming, she thought as she descended from the sky behind him. Her boots touched down upon the lifeless sands. "Ancient history isn't really my thing, but as far as 'cruel beauty' goes, I'm with you all the way."

She wasn't surprised to find him here; this was his ancestral homeland after all. Nor was she startled to find that he had apparently regained his own powers, even after surrendering a portion of them to her months ago. Kind of like Billy kept his powers after sharing them with Freddy. Frankly, she was glad that she wasn't the only Black Marvel in the world. There was at least one other person on Earth who understood what it was like to wield this power. Now that Darkseid's gone for good, I'm a free agent. And I can team up with whomever I like.

He grudgingly turned to face her. His saturnine features were hardly welcoming. "Indeed?"

"Sure," Mary said. "You should have seen me stomping G.o.ds and super heroes. You were right all along. The Justice League and the others, they're no threat to beings like us. We can make our own rules."

She didn't expect Black Adam to greet her like a long-lost sister, but she figured he'd be impressed by how well she'd followed in his footsteps. Who knows? she thought. Adam and I have both lost our families, so maybe we can form a new Black Marvel Family?