Son Of The Bat (Son of Batman Reader x Raven)

Chapter 3.4

They all sat in a briefing room, as Lois spoke, pictures and maps projected onto a wall as she spoke.

"Darkseid's machines have gone online in the Congo, China, and off the coast of England."

"What the heck are they?" Harley asked, stepping away from Bane and Boomerang to the spider-like devices, sending glowing beacons into the ground and into the sky.

Lois explained, "They phase the Earth's magma into Darkseid's base."

Shiva glared from the back of the room, sitting behind Y/n's right side. She crossed her arms, "So these things must be destroyed."

"That's a temporary solution. We need to blow up Apokolips."

"Oh is that all?" Captain Boomerang asked sarcastically. "Piece of cake."

Lois ignored his comment, "We can't brute-force this. On Apokolips, Darkseid has Paradooms. Parademons upgraded with Superman's DNA, like Doomsday was."

"Don't rub it in, Honey," Clark said from next to the screen.

Lois kept her gaze forward, "We have to get them off of Apokolips to have any chance. To do that we plan on mounting simultaneous attacks on two of the machines. That should cause the Paradooms to be sent to Earth as reinforcements."

Nightwing spoke up, sitting between Constantine and Rachel. "Why not attack all three?"

Lois looked down, "We... don't have enough people." She regained her composure, "If the two teams do enough damage, we'll be fine. The boom tube gate is located in LexCorp tower. That's where we come in. We take the tower. Our strike team transports to Apokolips, sets its power generator to go critical, reverses the boom tubes, bringing all the Paradooms back to Apokolips. Then we get out before it blows up."

"There's a lot of 'if's," Y/n thought.

But Harley disagreed–or maybe she was being sarcastic, he didn't know–, "Easy peasy, rich n' cheesy. Ha-ha!"

"King Shark is a shark," King Shark agreed.

Constantine was quick to utter his doubts, "Aren't you forgetting one small detail, name of Darkseid?"

"'Warm beer, soggy chips' here is right. We can't take him. No one can," Cap agreed.

"Darkseid is going to Oa. We only begin after he's gone. Once we're there we shut down the portal so he can't come back. Without Apokolips, he can't destroy Earth."

Rachel spoke the thought rattling around Y/n's brain: "How do you know he'll be gone? Did you steal his diary?"

Lois stared her down, "I have a source in Darkseid's camp called 'Sleeper.' He or she has been slipping me information for months."

Y/n shook his head, standing up, "No wonder you and Kent are together. You're both gullible fools. Darkseid is playing you. Or Batman is. Odds are, your 'Sleeper' is sending us into an ambush."

Clark leaned off the desk was on, uncrossing his arms, "The information from Lois' source has led to every victory we've had since the conquest."

Y/n looked at Clark's stance, his eyes. It was as if the older man was sizing him up. Y/n was roughly the same height as him, with broad shoulders and a form that showed every muscle through his suit.

He was confident he could take Clark if things escalated to a fight. He relied too much on his powers. Y/n was used to fighting at a disadvantage. But it was rare that he lost fights.

Captain challenged Clark, "You have a strange concept of 'victory,' mate."

Lois drew the attention back to the briefing, "The planet's molten core will be gone in a week. Then it's game over. I know this plan has astronomical risks and impossible odds, but we're out of time."