A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
[ ] : System.
Discord invite link: https://discord.gg/V35WgeqBT
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Omniscient POV
Nolan took the Parademon and pair of heroes down into the sewer system, out of sight of anyone above ground. At this point, Gotham's citizens had already developed the gumption to stay out of the sewers, what with them Killer Croc's abode at times, so they had very little chance of meeting anyone else down there.
"Okay, so what's this thing doing in Gotham?" Green Lantern asked. "Witnesses spotted it trying to plant some kind of bomb downtown. When the cops confronted it, it spewed fire from its mouth." Batman said, still eyeing Nolan and the Parademon. "Yeah, I noticed. And you, Nocturne or whatever you call yourself, what's your story, and how do you know anything about the Green Lantern Corps?" Green Lantern asked.
"That's not important. What is important is that I've recognized the symbol on this thing, and it's all giving me bad vibes." Nolan replied. "What do you mean?" Green Lantern asked. "That Omega symbol on its chest. There's only one place that I know that uses that as its insignia while also having a pretty high technological level, and that place is bad news for any planet that it appears on." Nolan said, then threw the Parademon forward, as they had reached an intersection point.
"Not to mention, there's no point trying to question this thing, since it isn't even sentient." Nolan revealed, right as the Parademon had stopped spasming from the electric shocks. It stood up and fired a blast of flames at Nolan, but he put his hand up, and caused the stream to spread into a wall in front of him.
The Parademon then turned around and pulled out a Motherbox from its chest and tapped it a few times, causing it to begin glowing a harsh red light. Immediately the Motherbox began glowing, the wall of flames concentrated, turned blue as its temperature climbed, and fired towards its arms. The concentrated beam of blue flames instantly burned through the Parademon's arms, causing it to drop the Motherbox. It turned to the trio, and for the first time, spoke.
"For Darkseid." It said, then rushed at them as its body started to glow an ominous red light. "Ice-Make: Cryo-Bomb." Nolan said, shooting out a ball of freezing magic, which upon impact with the Parademon, flash froze it and the dirty water on the sewer floor, and encased it in a glacial prison. The freezing didn't stop the Parademon from exploding within the ice, but the explosion only caused some cracks on the ice's exterior.
"Well, shit." Nolan said. "Darkseid? What's that, a band?" Green Lantern asked. "That name's bad news. The worst, even." Nolan replied, picking up the Motherbox. "Elaborate." Green Lantern said.
"Remember when I said that I was getting bad vibes from the Omega symbol on that thing's chest? Well, it's gone from suspicion to confirmation. Earth's being invaded, and we've got at most, a few hours before the invasion comes in full swing." Nolan said, and Batman narrowed his eyes. "What are you not telling us?" He asked.
"Fine, you want the rundown? I'll tell you what I know, and why Earth as we know it is in a fucked up predicament." Nolan said, his voice becoming notably solemn. "First off, that Omega symbol is the symbol of Darkseid, the ruler of Apokolips, and the literal god of evil and tyranny across the entire goddamn multiverse." He said, dropping multiple information bombs in a single sentence.
"Second, that thing that just tried to blow us up… was a Parademon, one of Darkseid's billions of foot soldiers. Parademons are first sent infiltrate planets, then plant Motherboxes, which open portals to Apokolips, essentially allowing them to funnel entire armies to whatever planet they're invading. So the fact that we're already catching one of them doing this means that there are many others doing the same in other parts of the world." He said, dropping even more bombs.
"Wait a minute, did you say a god?!" Green Lantern said. "That's not important. What is important is the fact that we actually have some knowledge of what we're dealing with." Batman interrupted. "Are you serious?! This guy just mentioned, and I don't know if you heard him correctly, gods and the multiverse in the span of a few seconds, and you're treating that like it's normal?!" Green Lantern said.
"It's not normal. But what I've said is very real and is headed for Earth. We have very limited time to prepare, and very few people who can and would actually fight to defend the Earth." Nolan responded, letting them see just how bleak the situation was. "But the good news is that we don't need to defeat or kill Darkseid, we just need to repel him and disable the Motherboxes. That way, we can keep him from coming back, even if temporarily." He said, then created a 10ft tall cube of ice beneath his feet, then sat on top of it.
He took off the top of the Nightingale Armor, revealing his bare torso. He placed his palm in front of the left side of his chest, and released a concentrated ki blast that tore a shotput-sized hole into his chest, destroying his heart. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he then created a cylinder of ice, which he placed in the hole, in order to prevent his heart from regrowing.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?! Didn't you just say that–" Green Lantern began shouting at him, but was interrupted by a slab of ice smacking him in the face. "If you're scared, just say so!" He shouted after pushing away the slab. "Lantern. It's best you read this." Batman, who had caught the slab, handed it over to him. "What're you–?" Green Lantern said, then looked at the slab, and noticed the words that had been seemingly inscribed onto it.
"I'm gonna be out of commission for the next 2 minutes. There's a restriction on my powers and what I'm doing now is breaking that restriction. In the meantime, try to see if you can get into the Motherbox. I'll warn you though, that thing is one of the most advanced pieces of tech in the entire universe." The inscription on the slab read. After reading the message that Nolan had left, Green Lantern clicked his tongue, but still went to inspect the Motherbox.
"Ring, scan and take control of this thing." He said, and his body glowed with the green light of will, while the ring tried to analyze the alien tech. |Initiating scan… Processing… Unable to infiltrate.| The ring announced. "That's impossible. The ring's one of the greatest pieces of tech in the universe. There shouldn't be anything it can't get into." Green Lantern said as he retracted the analysis construct. Batman walked up to the Motherbox and put up a scanner to it.
"Hmm. He told us that these things can be used to open portals, but from what I'm getting, this… Motherbox, as he called it, seems more like an alien computer." He said, then put the scanner away. "Alien? Like the guy in Metropolis?" Green Lantern asked. "Superman." Batman confirmed.
"You've met him?" Green Lantern asked. "I've researched him. His power levels are…" Batman was explaining, but got interrupted. "Not gonna be a problem for me." Green Lantern said, and a second later, another ice slab smacked his head. "Okay, that's it!" He shouted in anger, as his ring glowed harshly. "Lantern, wait!" Batman said, grabbing his shoulder.
"You'd better-!" Green Lantern began to scold Batman, but stopped, as he noticed the slab that had hit him, just like the one before it, had words inscribed onto it, except there were more words. "Superman is the currently the strongest person on the planet that isn't a god. The only reason that anyone ever survives an encounter with him is that he simply chooses to not kill. To him, everything around is like cardboard, and he has to be careful not to break everything by mistake." The first part of the inscription read, as if chiding Green Lantern for his earlier boast.
"But even with that, he's still not strong or skilled enough to take on Darkseid. Darkseid has enslaved and destroyed hundreds of civilizations, and has been around for thousands, if not millions, or even billions of years. What we should try to do is to repel the invasion and keep as many people from being abducted as possible." The second part of the inscription read, with Nolan trying to properly convey how dire the situation they were faced with was.
"Antagonizing one of our biggest guns is only gonna end badly for you." The last line of the inscription said, but Green Lantern felt that it was another dig at him. "Wait, if this Darkseid guy's been around and attacking civilizations for so long, why can't the ring identify his tech? Maybe, you're just blowing things out of proportion." He said, only to have another ice slab fly at his face yet again.
"Not this time!" He shouted, catching the slab with a bubble construct. "Hah. Now, let's see what you've written here." He said, turning the slab over. "The Guardians have known about Apokolips and Darkseid for millennia, Lantern. They just understand that trying to defeat him is realistically a suicide mission, even with all of the Green Lanterns. They also know that most of you have a pretty strong sense of justice, so they make sure that you don't know about Apokolips, because they feel that losing even a single Lantern to Darkseid would be a waste." The inscription read, and Green Lantern frowned at the revelation.
"Okay, but-" He turned his head to Nolan and began speaking, then stopped, as he noticed multiple esoteric markings beginning to spread over Nolan's torso and arms. "The heck?" Green Lantern said, then levitated over to Nolan. The markings were creeping closer to the plugged hole in his chest, and the sight filled Green Lantern with an eerie feeling. "Is this supposed to be happening?" He asked Nolan.
"Yeah. Just let it ride out. It's almost finished anyways." Nolan responded by forming lightning bolts into words, then dissipating them. "Wait… finished?" As Green Lantern asked that, the markings finally reached the edges of the hole.
Normally, when this happened, a diamond-shaped marking would begin forming on his chest, right over his heart, and all the other markings would begin to glow a bright blue, as Nolan's body would get pumped with vast amounts of electricity. But because Nolan had destroyed his heart and kept his regeneration from regrowing his heart, the Nen restriction Killua had put upon himself wouldn't activate, as its core was now absent.
Without the core to support its activation, despite meeting all other conditions for activation, the Nen restriction crumbled, and the markings dissipated shortly after. Nolan stood up, and ripped the ice plug out of his chest, and his Super-Regeneration kicked in immediately, growing him a new heart, healing his lungs andhis bones, and sealing the hole in his chest. Nolan looked as if he hadn't damaged himself even a little bit.
With him sustaining and healing from what was essentially a fatal wound, his Zenkai kicked in shortly after, drastically enhancing his ki, chakra, ethernano, Nen, and spirit energy. But deep within him, something that had seemingly remained dormant erupted. A powerful blue wave of energy erupted from within Nolan, and he looked at it with surprise.
Nolan had expected this energy to eventually bloom in his body, but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon. This energy was Aura. Thanks to him gaining abilities from Pokémon, his body had been altered to be like a Pokémon's, making it possible for him to gain Aura, which only a few people and Pokémon have ever been known to able to freely use. As it activated, it merged with his Nen, giving it a significant boost. The merge happened in an instant, and once it was done, he withdrew all of his Aura and Nen into himself.
"Hey… you alright." Green Lantern asked. "Yeah. Just peachy." Nolan replied, then began putting his armor back on. "Hey, Batman. Since you've been researching Superman, you got a way to track him?" Nolan asked, then sent a mental command to his system, pulling out the Four Elements Manipulation Card, and assimilating it. The world around him became more perceptible to him, as his senses essentially flowed into the air, the earth, and even the slight moisture in the air.
"Yes." Batman replied curtly. "Good, then activate it and keep it active." Nolan said, then moved to and grabbed up the Motherbox, and put it in his inventory. "Where'd it go?" Green Lantern asked. "Hammerspace." Nolan replied, then decided to try his luck at a general 10x pull. His eyes widened behind his mask as he caught 4 flashes of dark blue, one of grey, 4 of green, and one of cyan.
"I'm sorry… What?" Green Lantern asked. "I've got a hammerspace, Lantern. Keep up." Nolan said, then turned to Batman. "So? Where's he now?" He asked. "Metropolis." Batman replied. "I see… then we're going to Metropolis." Nolan said, then began heading out of the sewer system, with the two older heroes following him.
…
In the skies of Metropolis, a flash of lightning and a streak of green light rushed through the air, and they landed on a mid-rise's rooftop, revealing themselves to be Nolan utilizing Godspeed, and a construct of a fighter jet with Green Lantern and Batman inside. As Green Lantern retracted the light that made up the construct, Batman rolled to the rooftop and pulled out a small handheld computer, showing a signal that was quickly approaching their location.
"Superman's close. I've been tracking his flight path." He said, and Green Lantern scoffed. "On what? Your own satellite?" He asked, and Batman silently looked at him. "I was kidding. You have a satellite?" He said. "Here comes the boy scout in blue… and he brought company." Nolan said, and a moment later, a blur of blue and red passed over their heads, crashing into buildings with a fire-breathing Parademon in tow.
"First one to the building is a…" Green Lantern said, wanting to have a race. But Nolan and Batman were already following Superman before he began speaking. "Huh, tough crowd." He said, then flew after them.
Superman soon crashed into a building in a Lexcorp demolition zone, throwing the Parademon around with enough force to cause explosions. Nolan and Batman arrived, with Green Lantern soon following. "You two wait here. I got this." Green Lantern said, putting up his ring and creating a construct to hold both Nolan and Batman in place, only for Nolan to swipe an arm covered with and enhanced by Nen, Aura, ki, and chakra at the construct and shatter it.
Before Green Lantern could react, Nolan rushed up to him, grabbed him by the neck, and roughly threw him backward. "You wait here. Unlike you, we actually know how to talk with people without escalating things. And don't forget who's holding the Motherbox." Nolan said, then walked into the dilapidated building, and saw Superman holding the Parademon by its neck.
Superman looked his way and raised a brow. "Who are you?" He asked, his eyes turning red as he prepared his heat vision. "Calm down, Superman. I'm here to help… and ask for help." Nolan said, raising his hands. "But first…" He continued, then fired a lightning bolt at the Parademon's head, killing it.
"Sorry, but its internal temperature was increasing pretty fast, and from what we saw with the one we faced, that means it's about to blow itself up." He said, and Superman dropped the headless Parademon. "Sounds like you've had a run-in with this guy's buddies. And by 'we', I assume you're talking about you and those two outside." Superman said, his expression now much calmer, and the red in his eyes gone.
"Yeah, it's them. You can come in now, you two!" Nolan called for Batman and Green Lantern. "Hey, how the hell did you break that?!" Green Lantern asked, the shock of Nolan shattering his construct with a single strike just catching up with him. "Not important. Anyway, we got this from the one that tried to blow us up." Nolan said, pulling out the Motherbox from his inventory.
"I saw one of those on that one that you just took out. You guys find out what it is?" Superman asked. "It's a Motherbox. It's one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the entire universe, and right now, it's set to be used against Earth." Nolan explained. "The Parademons…" He said, pointing at the one he just killed. "…are sent to infiltrate planets while carrying at least one with them. These are used to create portals that allow for the full invasion of a planet, and the abduction of its people." He said, and Superman's features tightened.
"Then we've got no time to waste. But… what can we do to stop them?" Superman asked. "We can't stop the invasion from starting, but we can repel it when it does. The only thing we can do is gather up to fight." Nolan said, then suddenly split off four clones from himself. "Didn't know you could do that." "You didn't ask, and we've not even known each other for up to two hours." Green Lantern said, and Nolan responded.
Right as he spoke, the Motherbox started to glow with a harsh white light, and he stiffened. "Shit!" He said, throwing the Motherbox deeper into the building. "What happened?" Superman asked. "Apokolips remotely activated it… and all the other ones around the planet." He said, and the three men immediately went solemn. "Apokolips' invasion of Earth… has officially begun." As the last word left his mouth, the Motherbox exploded in a bright flash of light, forming a portal to Apokolips.
Chapter End.
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A/N: The Cards Nolan has pulled in this chapter are going to be revealed in the auxiliary chapter. So, if you're curious what they are, check that after reading this.
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Don't have a clear schedule, but if I have a chapter, I will always post on Fridays, so check those days.
Word Count: 3,001
Thanks for reading!