Advanced chapters on...fuck it, just enjoy the chap.
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(Jon's P.O.V)
Wotan's screams still echoed in my mind. His body had gone limp, drool trailing from his slack lips as his consciousness shattered beneath my psionic assault.
I stood over him, breathing steadily. Not from exertion—this hadn't been hard—but from the sheer anger burning through me.
Victor was alive. His father too.
But not for long.
Because The Light was handing them over to Darkseid.
Raven rubbed her temple, wincing. "Well, that was violent."
Supergirl crossed her arms. "Did you at least get what we need?"
I turned to them. "I know exactly where they're keeping Victor. And we don't have much time."
Raven sighed. "Where?"
I clenched my fists.
"A fucking swamp somewhere in Louisiana."
After notifying Robin to have an Argus Team pick up Wotan and any survivors, we left.
The moment we arrived, I felt the magic.
Thick, oppressive, ancient. It clung to the air like humidity, pressing down on my skin like invisible chains as I descended onto the misty swampland.
The swamp itself felt alive—trees shifting slightly when no wind was blowing, the water reflecting things that weren't there.
Supergirl landed beside me, shaking off droplets of mossy water from her cape. "Well. This is appropriately creepy."
Raven materialized from a portal, her dark cloak barely brushing against the gnarled roots beneath her.
"I found them but this place...isn't just a swamp," she murmured, her violet eyes glowing faintly. "It's a leyline convergence point."
I glanced at her. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, it was purposely picked." she said, scanning the area, "the magic here is amplified. Any spells will be stronger. Klarion will be stronger."
Supergirl cracked her knuckles. "Good. I was hoping for a challenge."
I didn't share her enthusiasm.
Something was wrong.
I couldn't see it. Couldn't hear it.
But I felt it.
"Let's go." I moved ahead, gliding slowly above the stagnant water, x-ray vision scanning the mist filled terrain, piercing through the trees. All my senses converged on the same task until...I saw them.
A few figures ahead, standing on a dry open landmass at the center of the swamp. A circle was carved with red runes into the soft ground.
And in the middle-
Victor. But not the same one I knew. Not the sports victor. Now, the entire left side of his body was machine. His hand and leg were covered in plates of gleaming silver armor with glowing red nodes on the joints, and his eye was replaced by a red lens.
He was on his knees, restrained by crimson shackles formed from said runes. His father lay beside him, gagged and unconscious.
I tried to mentally communicate with them, but they were affected by some kind of Stasis lock spell, that froze their whole being, including the mind.
The air vibrated.
"Look." Supergirl pointed at an area above them where a golden portal was forming.
A Boom Tube.
"Announce us." I said to Raven.
Just before it could fully materialize, she raised her hand and the Boom Tube collapsed.
The force of the disruption ripped through the swamp, sending a shockwave of arcane energy outward. The circle exploded in a burst of red ash, and suddenly, the silence was gone.
"It seems we have uninvited company." Vandal Savage turned around to face us, holding a smoking Motherbox from disruption spell.
Beside him, Klarion the Witch Boy grinned wildly, floating midair, his cat Teekl perched on his shoulders. "Oooh, more swamp rats to feed my cat."
"Who you calling rats, creep? Have you looked yourself in the mirror?" Supergirl growled, struggling against Raven's hold. "Let me go rearrange his face!"
I raised her hand to calm her down, before addressing our enemy.
"Vandal Savage, Leader of the Light, we meet at last. I owe you for you the numerous attempts at my life." I told him while gliding forward to a stop.
"And you've been a thorn on my side Superboy. Or do you prefer Jonathan Kent?"
He chuckled at the cold look I gave him.
"Yes, I know your secret identity. I've known it ever since Luthor's mysterious disappearance. Upon his death, I became the inheritor of all his secrets." His eyes turned sharp. "I could have killed you and your family anytime I wanted, boy."
"But you didn't because you thought I could be of use to you, right?Unfortunately that was your biggest mistake. Like a typical B-class villain, you underestimate your opponent while overestimating your own ability. And now I'm your reckoning." My eyes flashed with heat. "Let the Stones go or die."
Vandal stiffened, meeting my gaze head on with an unreadable expression. Trying to read his mind yielded nothing. Mental blockers kept my psionic energy from accessing his mind.
"Well? Stop wasting time." Vandal addressed his back, leaving us confused but not for long.
The magical chains restraining Viktor pulsed before shattering into floating shards. The shards gathered into a vortex in the air.
"I'm sensing powerful magic similar to Klarion's." Raven supplied, creating a black shield before us that blocked a scarlet wave of force as the vortex exploded.
And then-she appeared.
A young girl with pig tails and in a school uniform, seated on the shoulders of a golem of crystal.
Child.
"Now we know why this particular location was picked. They used the Natural energy in the swamp to summon another Chaos Lord." I breathed.
"Correct. A contigency in case Wotan and the Injustice League were to fail. Child and Klarion here l will ensure no further interruptions from you heroes."
"Shuuut Up!!" Supergirl unleashed a thick beam of heat vision. The blast struck Child's crystal Golem and was deflected into splintering lasers that boiled the swampwater and cut through the vegetation.
The Crystal Golem was unarmed by the attack. Child tilted her head at us with an unnerving black look on her porcelain face.
Raven tensed beside me. "Oh, hell."
Savage exhaled through his nose. "A predictable interruption."
He glared my way. "The futility of your friend's attack should clue you in on your ultimate fate, if you continue your pestering."
I took a step forward. "My fate has always been mine to control Savage. I'd rather die than let you trade Viktor to Apokalips."
He sighed. "I figured as much."
Then he glanced at Klarion. "Kill them."
Klarion's smile stretched.
"Oh," he purred, "with pleasure."
Then all hell broke loose.
Klarion moved first, vanishing in a portal that swallowed him.
Then reappearing behind me.
I easily twisted to block his clawed swipe with a Ki reinforced arm, the clash of two different energies produced a concussion of unstable power.
I spun with the force, kicking him in the gut, but his body distorted, bending unnaturally before snapping back into place.
He laughed. "Oh, I missed this."
A foot stomp rattled the ground, sending up water which I molded into sharp ice crystals that tore up his position.
"Ow. I think...you severed a vein." The Witchboy coughed out blood, bleeding form trapped in the ice structure.
Before I could finish him off, the sky itself darkened, warping into a spiral of sickly green. The trees writhed, their branches curling inward, and the water beneath us solidified into black glass.
I turned, just in time to see Child's eyes burn like twin suns. The Golem unleashed a pillar of chaos at me.
Raven appeared between us, summoning her darkness to reinforce the shadow barrier, just in time for the chaos energy to detonate against it.
The impact sent her flying, crashing through multiple trees before she finally skidded to a halt.
"Raven!" I flew in to help only to evade a chaos portal that manifested in my path.
More portals appeared with magic tentacles reaching out to grab me. I flew up, weaving and ducking in a test of my agility until I was surrounded by portals all around.
I blasted out a barrage of heat vision, light attacks, elemental beams and Ki Radiation blasts to destroy them, only for all my attacks to be redirected through different portals.
An explosion strong enough to destroy 5 city blocks drowned out my position. I swept away the smoke with a wave of psionic energy-repurposed from a protective barrier.
"Hahahaha now what you gonna do?!" Klarion's voice came through every portal.
Far below us, Raven groaned, catching my attention as she pushed herself up.
Then I saw it.
A crack.
Right down the center of the gemstone on her forehead.
And her eyes.
For just a second, they weren't her own.
They were his.
Trigon's.
On the other hand, Supergirl was getting crushed in a bear hug from the Crystal Golem, her powers weakened by the kryptonite shard in Child's hands.
I felt my anger boil.
Savage smirked up at me and despite the distance my sharp hearing managed to catch his words. "You and your team's fates rests in my hands, boy. Give up, you've already lost."
My hands trembled. Death. Nothing else was going to satisfy my wrath. I was going to rip them apart-
[Calm down Jon-El. Your pulse is dangerously elevated and you risk losing control. Don't forget your Torquasm lessons] The crystal pendant pulsed with Grandpa Jor-El's advice.
I closed my eyes and sank into One-ness. A coolness came over me and I could think without the haze of anger.