Injustice 3: Rings War (Book 2)

Chapter 10: Bird of Dark Fate

Raven:

"Azarath," I chant, repeating over and over. "Metrion. Zinthos! Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos! Azarath. Metrion. Zin-!"

Stopping when I sense something incoming, I turn around and see a dagger heading for me. With no time to spare, I drop to the ground and watch as the dagger flies past me, hitting and sticking to the wall. Looking at where the dagger came from, I see the target standing on top of the destroyed seating area, playing catch with another one of his daggers.

"Do yourself a favor," he yells, catching his dagger and preparing to throw it. "Knock it off."

"It works," I smile, flying into the air. "You're here."

Jumping and flying into the air, I focus my magic into my hands, my hands glowing both black and gold. Grabbing the first thing I can, the entire seating area, I start to raise it into the air. The man turns his head as he too is lifted into the air, I toss both him and the seating area into a wall. However, before he can hit the wall, he jumps off and charges toward us.

"You must die," the Lords of Order command, raising Dr. Fate's hands. Two orbs appear out from them, they fire the orbs at the man but he dodges both of them, the orbs hitting the ground. While they call forth some more orbs, I prepare to grab the man.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zin--."

Before I can finish, something hits and slams me onto the ground. Groaning as I push myself up, I turn around to see Supergirl hovering above me.

"Ah," I say, back on my feet. "Superman's little cousin."

"Raven, right," Supergirl asks. "If I remember correctly, you were once friends with Robin. I doubt he would be happy with how you turned out."

Biting my tongue, I use my magical powers to grab a bunch of leftover betas parts. Hauling all of them at Supergirl, she crosses her arms and blocks the attack. Rocketing toward me, her arms stretch out, I spread out my arms and make a force field. Supergirl hits it, the whole thing barely shakes as she punches it repeatedly.

"Supergirl," I say, watching safety from the inside. "Superman ordered me to capture you, but he didn't say anything about you having to be awake when I do."

Letting the force field drop, I grab her hand with my magic and swing her into the air. Slamming her into a pole, I once again focus my power on the man.

The Man:

Screaming as I hit the Lords of Order with a left hook, I quickly jump to my right as they tried to hit me with a magical beam. Now charging with a right hook, I hit them right into their stupid helmet.

"Doing a very bad job of killing me," I say, jumping up and down with my two fists in front. "How about this? You release Kent Nelson, and I'll--Hey, what's going on?"

Something grabs my foot, it then pulls me to the floor. Before I can react, it drags me through a floor full of empty shells before raising me.

Floating via magic surrounding my feet, I look up as one of my feet goes right while the other one goes left.

"I wonder which sides will win," Raven mocks, smiling as her hands are glowing both pitch-black and bright yellow.

"Hey," I say, reaching into my jacket pockets to pull out some kunai. "For the record, I don't do splits. Unless it's a banana splits."

Throwing my kunai at Raven, she uses one hand to stop them all. Magic surrounds them, they stay in mid-air for only a few seconds before falling to the floor.

"You're going to need more than knives to stop me," she says, watching as my kunai drop. Looking back at me, her eyes go wide when she sees me tossing a pellet. Before she can catch it, it hits her in the face. Screaming and stepping back, she lost focus, and the magic around my feet dispense. Flipping over in mid-air, I land on my knee and look at Raven. She's struggling to pull the goo off her eyes.

"Does that count," I ask, running away. "Hmm, thought that was a smoke pellet. Oh well, it still works."

Running over to Kara, I drop to my knee and slide over to help her up.

"Hey," I say, offering her my hand. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replies, taking my hand as I pull her up. Now on her feet, we look at Raven. Waving at the goo, she hardens it before blasting it over. The goo, now just dust, fall off.

"She's stronger than I thought," Kara says, clenching her fists. About to charge, I shoot out my arm and stop her.

"She is stronger," I say, looking Kara in her eyes. "Stronger than ever before, and I think I know why."

Eyeing the Lords of Order as they slowly float toward us, I pull out some more kunai.

"Focus on the fake Dr. Fate," I say, "I'll deal with the evil bird lady."

Kara nods her head and jumps into the air before charging toward the Lords. Meanwhile, I throw kunai at Raven, the bird lady catching all of them in mid-air with a simple swipe of her hands.

"Your weapons are no use against my magic," Raven says, swiping her hand again. My kunai that are all in mid-air, all turn around, now the tip pointing at me.

"Oh, son of a bastard," I say.

Pulling back her arm, she then shoots it forward, all my old kunai come flying back toward me. I take a page from Raven's book and quickly start to catch them, one after another. Grabbing the last one before it can hit me, I pocket all of my kunai.

"Thanks," I say, shooting Raven a quick wave. "I go through a lot of these and never get the chance to pick them up."

Raven shooting out her arm again wraps my hand in magic and picks me up again. Flying into the air, she drags me along with me. Swinging and tossing me all over like some ragdoll, I brace for impact as Raven slams me onto the floor and drags me against it.

Now, lifting me back up until we're face-to-face, she starts to close her hands together. As she is doing this, my legs start to move up, until they're squeezing against my stomach.

"I will crush you," Raven says, my knees now sliding past my stomach and pressing into my face. "Literally."

Captain Cold:

"Watch out," I shout, freezing one of the dozen of Dr. Fates as this one tries to conjure some stupid spell. The Dr. Fate now stuck in ice drops to the ground and shatters into pieces.

"Cold," Green Arrow yells, backing up as he fires some more tricks arrows. "Did you just kill Dr. Fate?"

"Well," I start, thinking it over. "Yes and no. Don't you remember what Sunglasses told us? These aren't the real Fates. They're just a bunch of copies. Copies trying to kill us."

Freezing more Fates, all of them hitting the ground and shattering, I see one coming up from behind Green Arrow. Grabbing the rich fucker and tossing him out of the way, I jump out of the way myself, barely dodging a blast from the evil doctor. Getting to my knee, I fire and freeze the doctor.

"Watch out," Poison Ivy screams.

Looking behind me, I see another one of the Dr. Fates preparing some sort of black, glowing orb in between his hands. Shooting it out, the orb then rockets toward me. Cross my arms, a wall of plants burst up from the ground and block the attack. Still, the eruption from the attack knocks me down and away from the wall. As I recover, I look back at the wall, only now instead of being one whole wall, it's in halves, with the edges red and with blackened, burnt plants.

"You're welcome," Poison Ivy yells, returning to trapping all of the Dr. Fates. Ivy raises both her hands, massive, thick roots shoot up from the ground and wrap themselves around all the Dr. Fates. Squeezing the Fates until they vanish, more than a few appears right behind her. Summoning more orbs, I freeze every single one of them before they could so much as blink.

"They're never-ending," Black Canary cries after screaming and knocking a few Fates out of the sky.

Falling to her knees, gasping for breath, Green Arrow rushes to her side. "I'm not, I'm not sure, I'm not sure how much more I got in me."

"That goes double for me too," Arrow replies, pulling an arrow from his almost empty quiver. Firing the arrow, it hit a Fate in his shoulder, the copy vanishing. "I hope the man and Kara are doing better than the rest of us."