Just outside Gotham City

“We are connected, Bruce.”

It was strange for Bruce Wayne to hear a voice inside his head that was not his own. Perhaps even stranger was that he’d agreed to this. But time was of the essence. The Conqueror had corrupted Superman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and soon Wonder Woman would be among them as well—if she wasn’t already.

The fate of the Earth was now in the hands of an alien who has been in the shadows for decades and a billionaire whose childhood trauma drove him to dress up like a bat.

“It’s Batman while we’re in the field,” he replied as he approached the facility with the Wayne Enterprises logo on the side.

Batman approached the building’s entrance. When he came to a door with a touch panel, he removed his glove and placed it against the pad. It flashed green and the door opened.

“I’m not sure why you wanted to be transported to this location, Batman.”

“You’ve got all the powers of Superman and then some. I’m just a man with some toys,” said Batman. “So I decided it was time to get one of my biggest ones.”

“I will try to hold them off as long as possible, but I need you to hurry.”

Lights flashed on inside the large, seemingly empty complex and Batman went over to the control panel. He went through a few more security protocols and then panels on the floor slid back. A platform raised a state-of-the-art aircraft up through the now-open floor. It was sleek, black, and shaped like a bat.

“Don’t worry, J’onn. I’m en route now.”

THE CONQUEROR

PART IV

By Dino Pollard

Metropolis

Diana of Themyscira was trapped. Bound by the energy of the Green Lantern’s power ring and the trident of Aquaman pinned to the side of a building. The Flash and Superman were beside them. Each of the heroes had that strange starfish-esque creature affixed to their face. The creatures had only one giant red eye that stared unblinking at Wonder Woman.

Muscles forged from the might of Olympus strained against the power of the Guardians of the Universe. Perhaps given more time, Wonder Woman could have broken these bonds. But time wasn’t something she had the luxury of. The Scarlet Speedster was gone and back in a flash of lightning and a blur of red and yellow. He had brought something with him and handed it off to the Man of Steel. Superman held one of those same creatures in his hands and brought it towards Wonder Woman.

Diana turned her head away, trying to exert as much strength as she could muster. There seemed to be some give in the Green Lantern’s energy lasso, but he redoubled his efforts, with additional strands emerging from his ring and wrapping around her body, while Aquaman pushed his trident deeper into the building, the curve of the prongs pressing up against her throat.

“I’ll die before I let you claim me,” she said.

“That can be arranged,” they all said in unison.

Superman raised the creature. Diana knew this was it. She had nothing else to do, no escape to muster. She was beginning to wonder about how she could end her life to avoid her power falling into the hands of these invaders.

Fortunately, any thoughts of suicide were quickly rendered null as bursts of crimson energy flew completely out of nowhere. They struck the starfish-esque creature and an inhuman screech of agony wailed out from it for a moment and was cut short almost as quickly. All that was left of the creature in the wake of the blast was a smoking husk.

From what Wonder Woman had seen of the Superman, he appeared to be a being of incredible power, perhaps unchallenged by any on the planet. She had even started to believe that he could challenge Zeus himself. But now she watched agape as an invisible force battered the Man of Steel. The blows were so strong, she could feel their reverberations.

Superman managed to recover from the initial strikes and flew back. His eyes burned bright crimson and then a scream echoed. Flames started to appear around an unseen figure, which quickly came into shape. And then Diana could see the green man engulfed in flames.

But fortunately, the alien’s intervention had distracted her captors. With Green Lantern’s attention divided, Wonder Woman was able to flex her muscles and the energy constructs cracked before they shattered. She grabbed Aquaman’s trident and pulled it from the wall to free herself. The Atlantean came at her, but Wonder Woman spun the trident, building up momentum, and then struck Aquaman with his own weapon. The force of the blow cast him away from the battle. She hurled the trident at Green Lantern, shattering a construct just as he was forming it.

Wonder Woman moved towards her mysterious, burning saviour. But before she could reach him, there was a blur of red and yellow combined with flashes of lightning that separated the two. Diana turned in each direction, seeing the blur on all sides. And she noticed that the air was quickly getting thinner—the Flash was using a vortex to suck out all the oxygen.

Diana unfurled her golden lasso and started to twirl it. She watched the blur, even as it was becoming harder to breathe. She focused her senses, trying to wait for the right moment. When she could see the figure within the blur, Diana hurled the lasso out.

The blur vanished as the Flash stumbled and fell on his face, Wonder Woman’s lasso wrapped around his ankles. She bound him quickly, even as he struggled, and then drove her fist into his face.

She went to the alien’s side and pounded the flames into submission with her own hands. Diana turned him over and looked into his face. He had crimson eyes that glowed as he stared back at her and offered a smile.

“Thank you, Diana.”

“The others I know, but you have me at a loss, stranger,” said Wonder Woman. “You know my name, but I’ve never seen you before.”

“I am called J’onn J’onzz,” he said.

“Any idea what we’re dealing with?”

“Yes, and it’s far more dangerous than you can imagine,” said J’onn. “The Conqueror taking over this planet’s most powerful defenders is just the first step.”

“Wonderful,” said Wonder Woman. “But even with the Flash down, it’s still two on three.”

“That’s why I brought back-up.”

J’onn looked up to the sky. Wonder Woman gave him a quizzical expression, then followed his gaze. She saw a sleek, black aircraft burst through the clouds, forged in the shape of a bat and rocketing down towards them.

The Martian could hear the Batman’s voice inside his head through the established telepathic link. “J’onn, what’s our status?”

“Flash is down for the moment, but the others are still a threat.”

“You and the Amazon handle the kid and the fish guy,” said Batman. “Leave the blue boy scout to me.”

“Batman, are you certain of that? This is Superman we’re talking about—”

“What kind of paranoid bastard would I be if I didn’t have a plan to defeat the most powerful man on Earth?”

“Is that who I think it is?” asked Wonder Woman.

“It is,” said J’onn.

“I thought he was a myth…”

The Batwing opened fire, unleashing incendiary rounds at Superman. It was able to distract the Man of Steel enough so he could turn his attention away from J’onn and Diana and now addressed the new threat. He flew from the ground and unleashed a burst of speed, faster than Batman’s sensors could even track him.

An alarm sounded within the cabin just before the Batwing was rocked by a massive blow. Batman clung tightly to the stick to maintain altitude and throttled up. He had studied the footage of Superman’s activities, and even discovered through a hack into STAR Labs that they’d been collecting data on him as well. And though he had devised some countermeasures, he was nowhere near as confident he could actually make good on his promise to defeat the Man of Steel.

The Batwing looped around and Batman saw he was on a collision course with Superman. The jet’s targeting system locked onto the hero. Normally, Batman abhorred the use of guns and other lethal weapons. But this was designed for unusual situations, and he knew even these weapons wouldn’t be able to kill Superman. His hope was that they could at least stagger him long enough for Batman to get the upper hand.

Every rocket on the Batwing fired, a cloud of smoke and flames quickly engulfing Superman. The Batwing flew past the target and came around for another pass. And emerging from the cloud was Superman, apparently unharmed but he was at least stunned.

The Batwing slammed into Superman, the Man of Steel pushed between the two ears that formed the head of the bat-like shape. Batman looked at him through the cockpit window and noticed the red eye of the star-like creature was barely open. The appendages didn’t seem to hold on as tightly and they began to slip free. Superman pulled the creature off and threw it to the side. He looked a little groggy and stared back at Batman. But he looked surprised.

“Bruce Wayne…?” he muttered.

Aquaman fought with a level of ferocity that reminded Diana of the Amazon warriors she grew up with. But even with his strength and tenacity, there was no strategy to his actions. And that was where Wonder Woman had a leg up on him. She sprung from the ground, flying across the pavement and allowing him to give chase. He was fast, but she was able to stay ahead of him.

He clearly grew tired of the chase, because he hurled his trident. It cut through the air faster than a missile. Diana was waiting for just that opportunity. She flipped over the trident and snagged it with her lasso. Wonder Woman swung the weapon around, continuing to build up speed, and then released it right back at its master.

It struck the creature affixed to Aquaman’s face and there was a squeal of pain—clearly not something she imagined the Atlantean would say. He was on his knees and she went to his side. He touched his face, seemingly not believing it was there, and then he noticed her presence.

“Care to fill me in on how the hell I got here, princess?”

The Green Lantern threw everything he could muster at J’onn, but the Martian was able to simply phase through anything that came his way. All he was really trying to do was keep the Lantern distracted while he tried to pierce the psychic shielding of the Conqueror’s spores.

It took some work, but J’onn was able to find a way in. An entire world sprung up over his astral projection. He was in the center of a massive city that had suffered incredible devastation. Buildings had been destroyed, bodies were strewn across the cracked streets, and the stench of death filled the air.

But as J’onn continued to walk through the ruins, he realized something was strange. It wasn’t an Earth city he was in. For the first time, he noticed the red skies. And he could hear a sound. There was another presence here, one that he couldn’t feel.

“You should have died with your own world, Martian. Crushed under the weight of your failure.”

“The Conqueror…” said J’onn. “When you destroyed Ma’alca’andra, I swore I would have my revenge some day. Now that day has come.”

“Daddy…?”

J’onn turned. He saw two Martians standing in the ruins. One was a woman and the other a young girl. A lump rose in his throat as he realized that for the first time in decades, he could see the faces of his wife and daughter.

“M’yri’ah…K’hym…”

“J’onn, we’ve waited for you to return,” said his wife, moving closer to him, their daughter following and clutching her mother’s hand.

“You died,” he said. “This isn’t real. The Conqueror is trying to exploit my memories, weaken my defenses.”

“This is real, J’onn. As real as you want it to be. All you have to do is stay here with us and we can rebuild this world,” said M’yri’ah.

“Please, Daddy, won’t you stay with us? Be a family again?” asked K’hym, staring at her father with wide, red eyes.

J’onn turned away. He knew it was just an illusion, but a part of him wanted to lose himself in it, to forget all the years of loneliness. To just allow himself a chance to rest.

“The Conqueror is no longer your problem, J’onn, and Earth is not your world. Leave them both behind and live up to your responsibilities as a husband and father.”

“My responsibilities…?” asked J’onn. He then pulled back from them. “No! My responsibility is to Earth. I swore I wouldn’t let the Conqueror take another world, and I will live up to that task!”

The two of them started to rapidly decay, becoming corpse-like versions of themselves as flames started to erupt along their skin. Green flesh sagged and melted, dripping off their bones. And when they spoke now, it was in a singular voice. The voice of the Conqueror.

“You are a fool, J’onzz. A fool to think you can ever stop us. You should have died peacefully in your vision.”

“No!”

J’onn unleashed a wave of psychic energy, fueled by the sadness of losing his family and the rage of their memory being used as a weapon against him. The visions of his wife and daughter vanished in the wave and the city crumbled around him. And what was left was a cage constructed of green energy, with a man sitting in the corner, curled into the fetal position, staring in fear at something across from him.

“Green Lantern,” said J’onn. But the Lantern wasn’t wearing his outfit. Instead, he was dressed in simple street clothes. And J’onn could see the object the young man was staring at was a glowing green ring.

“No, don’t call me that…” he said. “My name’s Kyle. Kyle Rayner.”

“Kyle, my name is J’onn. And I need your help.”

Kyle shook his head. “You don’t understand. The Green Lanterns need willpower. They need to be fearless. But I’m afraid all the time. It’s too big for me. Too big for one man.”

“Do not run from your fear, Kyle Rayner. Conquer it. Control it. Do not let it control you.”

“I-I can’t…” He buried his face in his hands. “God help me, I can’t do it…defending the world is just too big a responsibility…”

“It’s not one you have to face alone,” said J’onn. “Not anymore.”

Kyle looked up and then at the ring. “What are you saying?”

“Perhaps we both need to learn to trust again. To fight for something. Together we can both conquer our fears and our shortcomings. But I need you to come out of this cage.”

“I can’t.”

“The Conqueror may have constructed this cage around you, but its energy signature matches your ring,” said J’onn. “All you need to do is put on the ring and tear it down.”

“What if I’m not strong enough?”

“Then you’ll have a friend to back you up.”

Kyle slowly reached for the ring. He picked it up and put it on his finger. As he did, the cage bars bent and twisted, becoming malleable and then pure energy. They closed in around Kyle, completely enveloping him. The emerald light was so powerful, J’onn couldn’t even see the young man anymore. But when the light finally dimmed, the cage was gone and the Green Lantern stood there.

“So what are we waiting for?”

Washington, DC

“Mr. President, the situation in Metropolis is escalating,” said General Wade Eiling, one of the military advisors to the President of the United States. “There’s a full-blown metahuman war going on and if we don’t strike back, there’s no telling how this will play out.”

“And Bialya?” asked the President.

“We may need to intervene there as well.”

The President sighed and sat back in his chair. “Okay. We’ve had a plan to take out Harjavti for some time. Let’s put it into action.”

“And the metas?”

“Consult with ARGUS and Director Waller. I’m giving you full authority, General Eiling.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Eiling closed his folder and left the Oval Office. As he did, he scratched his chest and felt the spore beneath the surface of his uniform.

To be concluded…