Phantom 35

Kalibak had last been seen centuries ago, destroying a small offshore planet and turning it into a wasteland—all because he hadn’t liked the way their women felt. The Green Lantern corps had arrived when one of their own had sent a distress call, unable to stop the Apokoliptian’s sadistic rampage, only to find New Genesis intervening in the situation… Kalibak had been called back by Darkseid, and Highfather had restored that planet—or as much as he could, considering only about a dozen people had survived the Scourge of Apokolips’ demonic savagery.

He was never seen again…until now that is. John gulped quietly as he felt sweat drip down his neck, silently commanding his ring to heal him quickly as he turned towards the two heroes with him. While Flash was fast, and had somehow powered-up during their battle with Grodd, he had his doubts about the speedster clashing with Darkseid’s eldest. The monster was known to survive the nastiest of blows the galaxy had to offer—and there were rumors of him having clashed with Mongul too, if such a thing was possible.

“Who the fuck is that?” Hal muttered as they floated side by side, and John silently watched as more and more Parademons swarmed out of the portal, “Kalibak?”

“Do not engage him without backup,” he instructed, turning towards his partner and pointing towards the Parademons. “Handle that swarm before they start escaping the city. Kalibak is not someone you can handle right now, especially with how depleted our rings are.”

“What’s so ba—oh,” Hal raised an eyebrow, only for his face to blanch in horror as his ring continued to supply him with information about the monster standing a few blocks away. His eyes turned towards Kalibak’s rugged, bestial form and John saw Hal unconsciously gulp. “We might need to call on Superman for this.”

“You just said he is busy saving the world,” The Flash interrupted, thumbing in the direction of Kalibak, “How tough can this be? I am easily moving over supersonic speeds right now, and this guy looks slow. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with that much bulk on him. Let Superman be, I can handle this guy.”

“Wai—FUCK!” John began, cursing as a sonic boom shattered the quiet around them as a red streak zoomed off towards a visibly smiling Kalibak. “Hal, get to the parademons. They are going to go towards the nearest city first!”

“What about the Flash?”

“I will back him up~” his words trailed off in a whisper as he saw the red, electric blur reach Kalibak, and with an earth-shattering boom crash against the towering behemoth that was Darkseid’s eldest. A cloud of dust and rubble was kicked up as the unstoppable force that was Flash’s hypersonic punch met Kalibak’s immovable mountain of muscles. His breath caught in his throat, John willed his eyemask to filter out wavelengths until it was thermal.

What he saw, chilled him to his bones.

A red giant was standing still amidst the shifting hues of yellows and greens, a large arm extended in front of him and raised away from the ground. 

And a limp, crimson form hanging at the end of its length.

However, before he could even process the sight of the Flash most likely having died at the hands of Kalibak, someone else literally blurred into the picture. The Flash disappeared from Kalibak’s grasp in an instant as the still swirling cloud of dust churned and was swept away by a sudden draft of wind

“Take care of him,” a calm, resolute voice spoke up from behind him, and he whirled around with his ring raised. However, all of his alarm and aggression bled out in a single moment as he saw the red cape touch the ruined ground, and the broad arms gently lowering the Flash the loose pebble gently stirred from the man of Steel’s landing. “He has begun to heal already, but if you can assist him in some way, It would be helpful. And I will take care of the Parademons.”

It was not a boast.

It was not a cocky declaration.

And neither was it an uncertain idea.

It was a statement, a fact that Superman was going to follow through with.

In that moment, having battled Grodd and Flash both in a span of a few minutes—-and having fought hundreds of Parademons while reducing civilians…John was on his last legs. As the dipping sun shone upon the Kryptonian before him, the red and blues reflecting the golden sunlight along with the hope and strength Superman stood for, John finally had an inkling of just what the man of Steel looked like to the common man. His compassionate but firm eyes were smiling in a way that only Superman could, and the superhero gave him a nod before his gaze turned towards the swarm of Parademons starting to overwhelm Hal, “Take care.”

Heat gathered behind his eyes as he directed the solar energy from his cells to his optic nerves, feeling the temperature rise exponentially within milliseconds as he stared at the thousands of parademons swarming the lone pinprick of emerald in the sky above. Already having confirmed with X-ray as well as his super-hearing that the Parademons were nothing but bionic robots at this point, Clark sighed and let the energy inside his eyes loose. 

Heat washed all over the city below as twin beams of destructive pure heat energy lanced out from his eyes, the crimson rays instantly incinerating the Parademons to ash and atoms. He had never directed his heat vision on such a large scale and intensity, and Clark felt the little throbbing ache develop behind his eyes, that little sting that came with utilizing so much solar energy from such a tiny bundle of nerves and cells.

Through his ears, he heard the audible sigh of relief that left the other Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and he heard someone come to the top behind him. Ignoring that for the moment, 

Clark swept his literally burning gaze through the thousands of Parademons that had gathered above the city of Detroit. A scream tore out of his throat as he increased the output of his energy, feeling more than seeing the twin pillars reach the size of a skyscraper each as he allowed his pupils to expand, destroying every one of these organic robots to the last.

Training with Kara had allowed him to get a much better grip on his powers, his older—or younger—cousin allowing a much better way of experimenting with different levels of his power than simple farm tools and remote ice caps. Of course, the fact that she could also use those same powers on him to make him experience them was a bonus, as he finally had someone with whom he didn’t have to worry about losing control over even an inch of motion.

“You are not from Earth,” a rough, grinding voice spoke up from his left, and Clark let the heat vision die down, staring at the scattered ashes and spare metal slag that dropped to the ground below. Having made sure that none of the Parademons were alive, he turned towards the lone remaining alien, his calm blue eyes meeting the amused but curious black ones. A large hand rose to scratch the shaggy mane of coal black hair as the heavy, square face split into a wide grin. “Are you one of my brothers? That heat almost reminded me of my home.”

“I am Kal-El…from Krypton,” he narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms as he took in Kalibak’s relaxed, unworried stance, “Leave the Earth and return to your planet. There is nothing for you here.”

“Krypton you say?” Kalibak grinned further, his beard seeming to split to reveal his sharp, angled teeth as he snapped his wide jaws, “Wasn’t that the planet that got blown up?”

“Leave,” he repeated again, crossing his arms over his chest as he floated closer to the giant, “You have no business on Earth.”

“Are you their ruler Kryptonian?” Kalibak crossed his own arms, burly and hairy like the rest of him as he raised a heavy eyebrow, “By what right do you make this demand of me, the commander of the legions of Apokolips?”

“I protect the Earth, that’s all the right I need,” he answered back, hearing John take Flash away to the edge of the city, “Leave Earth, Kalibak. There is nothing for you here.”

“Aside from the seven and a half billion Parademons waiting to join my army? Now, I don’t usually do this…but surrender and lower your head before me, and I shall let you join Apokolips’ army.”

“Return to Apokolips,” he repeated in lieu of answering, feeling the anticipation of combat raise the hair on the back of his neck, his heart starting to beat faster as his perception increased. A still descended upon the whole world around him as Clark saw everything in fine detail, from the sparks jumping off the ruined cables and dimming fires to the little particles of dust floating between him and Kalibak. It had been months since the Imperium incident, and ever since Kara had met him, they had traveled quite a lot to the Fortress and sometimes even outer space. He had trained regularly with her since, or as much time as they could manage considering he was sure Harry---or the Phantom—didn’t like him for some reason.

An ever-so-little sigh escaped his lips, and Clark moved through the distance sharply, and before the air even realized that it had been displaced, his fist was racing towards Kalibak’s still head. This close, he could see the coal black, coarse beard that covered his face, as well as the vertical scar that went down one of his eyes. His canines were slightly enlarged and with his wide skull and those pupils shifti—wait wha-

Kalibak’s hand moved too swiftly for his large bulk, so much so that even he faced trouble following its movement. Before he had even realized it, a large, beefy hand was encasing his fist perfectly. All of his momentum, all of his power was nullified perfectly, and Clark barely had a second to see the manic, rabid smile that had overtaken Kalibak’s wild features before a fist the size of his face was heading towards his head. 

Instinctively rising through the air, Clark knocked the strike off course by tugging Kalibak’s hand to the side, before landing a fist straight at the wrist holding his arm captive. A grunt escaped Kalibak’s lips and he tugged his hand free, diving quickly to punch him in his chest. Floating in place as he saw Kalibak stumble back from the force of his blow, Clark narrowed his eyes and once again flew in, feeling his whole body come alive at the way he was letting his control down. Aware that Kalibak was much faster than he looked—at least in reactionary speed if not conventionally, he was much more careful this time. His eyes flicking to the portal that still glowed dimly in the ruins of the STAR labs behind Kalibak, Clark landed on the ground in front of the giant, only to raise his hand to block the heavy swing that came at him from the side.

“You are strong, Kal-El,” the maniac grinned, and Clark winced as instead of pulling his hand back, the Apokoliptian simply swung his head down in a brutal headbutt. “Not many can make me even feel their puny little hands.”

It was a mistake to come down on the ground, Clark realized as he quickly back-stepped out of the way of the second headbutt, already feeling the dull ache of the first one disappear. Kalibak had a massive height advantage on him, and from the few little blows they had traded, he appeared to be on the same level of strength and durability as him—though he still wasn’t going all out. And of course, the fact that he had knocked out the Flash in a single blow while the speedster had been going closer to hypersonic speeds than not.

Dodging another punch by the nick of his hair, he quickly shot up in the air before coming down like a missile and kicking Kalibak right on his nose. Taking advantage of a brief moment of lapse in his defense, he rushed in. in a single second, he rained dozens of punches against the alien, increasing his power with every single one as he pushed him back towards the porta-

The world blurred as Clark felt something large hit his chest and send him flying backwards. Before he even knew it, he was skipping and rolling across the ground, digging a trench through the already destroyed, puddle-filled road. Flying through an abandoned truck, he regained some of his focus and stopped himself above the ground with his face an inch from another mud-filled ditch—and why the hell were there so many watery holes around here?!

His eyes glanced down at his suit instinctively, something about the usually smooth Kryptonian bodysuit feeling off to him. Feeling the material around his chest with his fingers, Clark’s eyes widened as he was met with bare skin and torn edges of the suit. It a small area, barely more than finger’s length…but ye-

“You think a lot!” Kalibak’s loud voice echoed in the destruction around him, and Clark had barely turned around while flying up before he saw the alien’s fist an inch from his face. The full might of Kalibak’s heavy, muscled arm met his durability and Clark grunted as he broke through the ground below him instantly. Head tilted at an angle inside the shattered asphalt, Clark grunted as another punch pushed his head farther into the ground, the smell of dust and sewage entering his nose as he broke through into the pipeline below. “Don’t think when you fight!”

A kick stomped him further through the road, and Clark felt the grin on Kalibak’s face as the giant ground his heel in his chest, right over the symbol of the House of El. The pressure on his chest mounted, and Clark grunted as he finally felt some pain. But before he could even move an inch, the remains of the concrete below him broke into fragments and he fell into the pipeline. This time, however, Clark was ready and stopped his descent swiftly before the tip of his cape touched the sewage below him. Methane and other gases escaped the hole his body had created and Clark glared back at the leering face of Kalibak through the gap, his irises glowing crimson.

An explosion rocked the area around them as his heat-vision ignited the methane and hydrogen sulfide, and Clark rocketed up towards Kalibak, tearing through the explosion in a red and blue blur. An uppercut with the full force of his body behind it hit the alien, and Clark saw the surprise on Kalibak’s face as his relatively tiny fist connected with the man’s chin. Kalibak was thrown through the air, and the ground beneath them broke even further as Clark pursued instantly, dragging the Apokoliptian through the building behind him, punches raining down rapidly on his face, crumbling the structure around them to dust and pebbles.

Coming out of the windows on the other side, he grabbed Kalibak by his collar and tossed him up, before reaching above him with both his hands clubbed together. A shout tore out of his throat as he saw the still smirking face of the Apokoliptian, and Clark threw his whole weight behind the overhead swing as he brought his arms down. Something beneath his fists gave away, and he stopped in his place as Kalibak shot downwards like a meteor, cratering the ground around him for dozens of feet. 

“Is that all you have got, Kal-El?” his voice called out from the shadows as the sound of shifting and grinding concrete echoed in his ears and Kalibak shot out of the hole with a powerful jump, a stream of dark blood going down from his nostril. “You hit like a child!”

Meeting him in the middle with a furious punch of his own, Clark glared into his eyes as their fists met each other, a shockwave blasting out from the impact and shattering through the buildings around them.

The axe dropped like an executioner’s blade, its edge glowing with the finality that he had often associated with the Killing Curse—and for all purposes, that axe did look like an executioner’s weapon of choice, a distracted part of him thought. However, the other part of him was focused on saving his mother-in-law from her death, and thus, Harry teleported before her, manifesting a shield around them as he looked down at her. 

“Good evening, Hippolyta,” he muttered softly, noting and repairing the cracks that had appeared in the barrier separating them from the steel minotaur as he kneeled down. Shifting to X-rays, he studied the Amazonian before he met her eyes…or eye, considering one was just a ruined socket. “I can heal you, but it will sap your endurance. You will be unable to fight. And no, I was not asking.”

Hippolyta opened her mouth to protest as the remaining eye glared at him with defiance and anger, but all she was able to do was spill more blood on herself as the stump of her arm continued to bleed. Shaking his head at her stubbornness, Harry grabbed her and teleported away as he felt the shield give way against the minotaur’s axe. Alighting in the chamber he and Diana had shared, Harry laid Hippolyta on the bed and poured as much magic as he could into her directly without harming her, directing to literally every system inside her as he gave it a single direction.

Heal.

Giving the visibly regrowing blood vessels and muscles and bones a glance, Harry looked her in the eye as he cast a wordless somnus, overpowering it enough to make her sleep for days. “That should about do it,” he sighed, giving the healing another look before he looked past the walls towards where he had found her, finding the giant minotaur literally hacking his way through a couple of Amazons, tearing them in half with his giant broadaxe. “Now let’s see about you.”

Appearing above the armored creature, Harry raised his palm as he created a giant fireball over his palm, before lobbing it at the enemy. Fire flooded out from the point of impact, swallowing up swatches of dead parademons and Amazons, but yet as the flames cleared from the area, Harry saw the minotaur was completely unharmed, its crystal blue eyes glaring up at him as it held a choking amazon in its grasp, snapping her neck casually before throwing her to the side.

“A human,” it muttered, a gravelly, heavy voice that matched its frame, “I had been led to believe that the Amazons didn’t mingle with the critters that roam this dirtball.”

“Yeah well, I am not a human exactly,” he answered back, floating down a little and pushing back his hood to reveal his face to the creature, eyeing the plated armor that conformed to its large, muscular build, “and neither do you look like someone living on Earth.”

“I am Steppenwolf, servant to Darkseid, the Commander of the armies of Apokolips and the New God of War,” the being snarled, its lips pulling back to reveal numerous small, sharp teeth bared towards him. Steppenwolf raised his glowing axe towards him, and Harry took a glance at the electrical current running up and down its edge, hungry little sparks crackling along the length of the giant weapon. “You were foolish to come here, Earthling. You have done nothing but buy the Queen of these Amazons a few more minutes to live.”

“Who is this Darkseid you speak of?” he hummed, crossing his arms behind his back and for a moment, Harry was sure he saw shock on the face of this scarred, alien minotaur, “And New God of War, a lofty title for someone who couldn’t even destroy an island worth of warriors.”

“What would a human know of godhood,” he growled, taking a step forward and puffing up his chest, “least of all about the Great Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips and the strongest being in this Universe!”

“A human?” he laughed, raising an eyebrow as he descended to the ground, looking up at the ‘New God’ twice his size with all the swagger and confidence both Riddle and he had possessed in their Hogwarts days. Pulling upon his magic, Harry ignored the slight ache in his head—he may heal from the Sun, but it was nowhere close to what Kara, let alone Kal-El could do, and he had still not recovered fully from his stint in the Atlantic. Reaching out towards the dead bodies all around him, Amazons and parademons alike, Harry fed them his power, kickstarting the dead nerves with a single command.

Fight.

As he saw the shock on Steppenwolf’s face at the sight of the dead rising again, he blurred forwards, punching Steppenwolf right in his chest. The horned creature stumbled back from the force of his blow, and Harry shook his hand with displeasure, eyeing the small marks on his knuckles. Of course, it would have been too easy if this stupid bull had paper skin, as if he didn’t have enough trouble to deal wi-

A clawed hand grabbed him by his face, covering his entire head at once, and before Harry had even realized it, he had been slammed head-first into the ground. “Puny human,” Steppenwolf snarled above him, raising him like a broken marionette and slamming him into the Earth again, “Thinking you can challenge a God?”

“You are no God!” a very welcome voice shouted, and he breathed a much-needed gulp of air as Steppenwolf disappeared from above him, whilst the sight of Diana’s beautiful, tanned legs replaced his ugly mug. The love of his life greeted him with a frown and a hand held down, her eyes sweeping through the undead fighting against the Parademons. “Mother won’t be happy about those.”

“She is alive to be unhappy, that’s more than what half of your sisters can say,” he said back, his eyes finding Steppenwolf striding towards them with his fearsome axe dragging along the ground. “Damn he is tough.”

“That he is,” she nodded, brandishing her sword, “What about your killing curse?”

“It couldn’t kill a sorcerer or a Kraken,” he snorted, summoning storm clouds above them, drawing upon the already stormy weather, “I doubt it can do much against this ‘New God’”.

“Hard way it is then,” she narrowed her blazing eyes, and Harry was struck by the sudden urge to just keep staring at the warrior goddess, the epitome of female form and strength. Melin, how was he so luc—”Not now, Harry!”

“Right. Yeah, giant minotaur first,” he muttered, turning his eyes away from his love, magic surging through his blood as he transfigured the land Steppenwolf was walking on into a pit of lava, “I swear I am going to find whoever sent him and kick his ass.”