Injustice 3: Rings War (Book 2)

Chapter 53: A Family Matter

A/N 3 Days Until the New Year

Harleen:

"Did we get an upgrade," I ask, staring and flipping my arms over and over again. My suit looks different from before. It feels different as well. It feels like I have power coursing throughout my body. "Is this how Blondie feels? Man, I'm burning up here."

I wipe some invisible sweat from my forehead. As I shake my hand, I hear one out of the thousands and thousands of super parademon landing on the Rusted. It stomps its foot before roaring and charging toward me.

"Shoot," I say, swinging out my hand. As I swing my hand, a new gun forms right in it. Unlike my normal pistol, this gun also appears to be different. The gun itself seems to be bigger, with glowing wires all over it. As the super parademon gets closer and closer, I shoot the new gun and it explodes.

"Holy H-E-L-L," I shout, the explosive knocking me off my feet. Shaking my head and dusting my hair, I look at my new gun first before looking back up at the super parademon. Only, there is no super parademon. It's gone, along with the two standing behind it. I look back at my new gun, my explosive gun. I would have kept on staring at it, wondering what it is exactly if I didn't hear Captain Cold screaming.

"Freeze," he yells, shooting an ice beam at one of the war machines. Despite the fire the war machine was shooting, it was nothing compared to Cold's new gun. "Why didn't The Man upgrade us sooner? This would have been so useful."

I look away from Captain Cold and see Cyborg blasting a bunch of super parademons with his arm cannon. Even his arm cannon looks different. It's covered in glowing wires and is more powerful. The super parademons Cyborg shoot are turned to burning piles of dust.

"Watch out," Cyborg screams, seeing a super parademon flying toward Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl seeing the parademon uses her new metal wings as a sort of shield. The super parademon crashes into the metal wings before Hawkgirl slams it into the ground with her mace.

While everyone is fighting the super parademons and the war machines on the surface, I can't help but notice some sneaking below deck.

"Arisia," I think, running toward the stairs.

Dr. Jonathan Crane:

As the Rusted shakes and tips, I stumble and fall against the counter.

"Ouch," I cry and hold my hip. As the Rusted shakes once more, the cabinets above open, and some medical supplies. One of the supplies to fall out appears to be a bottle of painkillers. It falls onto the floor and rolls until it hits my shoe. "Thank but I think I'll pass."

I kick the bottle away.

"What is going on up there?"

Arisia says something but because she doesn't have her green lantern ring, I can't understand a word of it.

"Uhh, sure," I say with a nod. While nodding my head, I hear something coming down the hallway.

The Man:

Jumping out of the way as the giant dog slams its nose into the staircases, I land a few steps back. The second my feet hit solid ground, I reach into my pocket and throw kunai. The kunai burst and unleash a powerful sleeping gas. Accidentally inhaling the gas, the giant dog sneezes before falling over. With his mound down, the palace guard had no other choice but to get up and charge toward me.

Swinging his spear, I block and grab it. Pulling the guard toward me, I shoot out my arm and knock him down. The guard doesn't even hit the stairs before I hear dozen of voices coming from up above. Looking further up, I see more palace guards running down the stairs toward me.

Prepare to fight every single one of them, Superman beats me to the punch and freezes all of them with his frost breath. Freezing not only them but also the reminding dogs and about half the stairs, he looks at himself with the new excellneno-suit.

"I never had this much power before," he says, "This is incredible."

"Don't get used to it," I say, running up the stair. "I want all of those back after our truce is over."

"Fine," Superman grunts as he flies beside me. Using my swords, I climb up the frozen stairs and reach the top in a matter of seconds. Seeing a grand set of doors in our path, Superman and I easily break down them and enter Darkseid's throne room.

"Darkseid," Superman shouts as he flies in. "Darkseid, where are you? Face you!"

While Superman hovers in the air and I stay on the ground, we both scan the area.

"It's empty," Superman says, "There's no one here."

"No," I say, placing my hand flat on the ground. "There's someone here. There are two people here. Behind you!"

Superman looks behind only to be hit with omega beams. Even with his yellow ring and my suit, Superman is knocked into a wall.

"Superman," I shout, looking at a dust cloud. I try to check up on Superman but stop when I hear something coming up from the side. Looking, I see dual laser beams moving in crooked lines.

"What the--?"

Crossing my swords, I managed to withstand the laser beams.

"Wait, crooked lines? Omega beams move in crooked lines, and only Darkseid had omega beams."

I replay what happen a few seconds ago.

"The laser beams that hit Superman," I think to myself. "They came from over there. Meanwhile, these beams came from there. They moved in a crooked pattern. Wait, these move in a crooked pattern, but the beams that hit Superman didn't."

As I think about it, I see laser beams shooting out in a straight line. Screaming as I push back against the omega beams, the beams finally stop.

"Please be wrong," I say, "Please be wrong. Please let me be wrong."

Unfortunately, I wasn't wrong.

Stepping out from an adjacent room, Darkseid shakes the whole room as he enters, his footsteps leaving holes with every step. As Darkseid enters the room, I look up and see Kara flying out from the shadow with bright-red eyes.

As she flies out, I notice she isn't wearing her blue and red suit. Instead, she's wearing some sort of black suit with something on her head.

"Kara," I say, stepping forward. "Kara, what are you doing?"

"I'm ending this," Kara yells back. She fires again, laser beams shooting from her eyes and hitting Superman. Superman screams as Kara burns him.

"Kara," I yell, "Knock it off. Now!"

"Why," she yells back, looking at me now with bright-red eyes. "Why? Isn't this the whole point? Isn't this why we're fighting in the first place? Kal-El had taken control of the planet, and now it's up to us to take him down. Before he kills anyone else."

"Yes. We're trying to take him down but we're not trying to kill him! Kara, stop this now! For crying out loud, he's your cousin!"

As soon as I said those words, Kara stopped shooting. The dust cloud finally dispenses and I can see Superman laying in a hole in the wall. He doesn't look hurt, but he does look horrified.

"That doesn't mean anything," Kara says, "After all, he locked me up for three months. His own cousin."

"I know Kara, but--"

Before I can finish, Superman blasts Kara with his yellow ring. Kara screams as Superman pushes her back. Once far enough away, Superman focuses and traps Kara in a bubble.

"That's enough Kara," Superman says.

"No," Kara says. "It's not."

Superman and I watch as Kara reaches behind her. She pulls something out and shows it to us.

"A red lantern ring," I say, remembering that I gave one to Kara so she could give it to Atrocitus. "Wait, Kara! No! Please!"

My pleading falls on deaf ears. Kara places the red ring on her finger.