For a moment, the two just stared at each other. The armor looking like nothing more than a cold-war era armored supervillain, with the woman looking like a cross between an ancient greek hoplite and a ‘America’-flavored Cheerleader.. A sword on her back, and the now-familiar lasso at her hip.

  “...You seem to have something on your armor, there.” She looked around at the surroundings. The ring of corpses, both man and animal…. And then back at the armor, with the corpse in hand. “...You realize that she’ll come back, yes? The moment that ward fails, she’ll pop off to some secretive chamber, and be revived, no matter what you do to her?”

  Eyeball glanced at the corpse in his hand; still rendered as a rough humanoid blob shape. “I actually had no idea of that. Huh. You know… that sort of nonsense goes a long way to explain this absurd game you people are playing.”

  She blinked. “....Game? What happened between us was very much no game. She tormented and killed quite a few people… and undoubtedly will again in the future. Why Hecate hasn’t stripped her gifts away, I will never understand.”

  “Well then. Might as well put an end to it. I don’t really need this ward. If I stuff it into her corpse… stuff her into a coffin… and dump it into the ocean… we should have a nice long while before she returns. Assuming the next ward doesn’t do the job.”

  “.....Interesting. I felt my powers fade as I arrived; I actually fell from the sky. What quarrel did you have with Circe?”

  A soft creak as the armor shrugged. “None. I wanted her to test my warding techniques. She attempted to kill me, and killed her… slaves, I’m assuming. I killed her. Now, I’m going to ensure she stays dead.”

  “Mute. Ascension, drop a shuttle to the island… with a nice, dense, heavy, coffin. Un-mute.”

  She studied the mangled remains. “....I am not averse to that course of events. You…. vex me. Rendering Circe a non-threat is a good thing. I will happily supply the coffin myself. But your skullduggery at the museum, and with Luthor… they concern me. He is a dangerous, foolish man, and may have led you astray.”

  Another shrug. “I don’t take what he says on faith, that’s for certain. I do my own research. Unfortunately, I’m not certain how much its safe to tell you; whoever is responsible for this game of yours might still be around… or you might have inadvertently killed him and freed yourself.”

  “...Again, you speak of games. What could you possibly be speaking of?”

  “...Your world. Its heroes. Its villains. They are a tangle of illogical nonsense. Impossibilities. Someone out there played a game with you, writing a story, turning you into his characters. I’m not sure if he’s still here interfering, or if all of this… the Kryptonians, Darkseid, Luthor, the Justice League… has been running on til its inevitable conclusion after his departure.”

  He lowered the corpse; absently separating whatever amulet had almost killed him from the corpse as it dropped. “First, I’m going to erect a ward strong enough to stop whoever it is from acting again. Then, I’m going to start cleaning up. Well. My friend Ascension will be doing most of the clean-up, but thats always how it goes.”

  Eyeball turned to watch the shuttle as it started to descend. “…. I’m the front man. He’s the whole rest of the band. I’m responsible for billions of deaths… him for quadrillions.”

  He chuckled… and turned to face the woman. “And yet, I consider him more trustworthy than your Justice League. What does that tell you?”

  She started to slowly slide the sword free. “... You speak in numbers that beggar the imagination. As if you personally have outdone all the gods together, and your friend makes them look like pitiful ants. And yet…. I sense you believe what you say. How could you possibly trust someone who drips with a galaxy’s worth of blood?”

  “Ascension has one core principle. One prime directive, above all else, and its one I agree with. To preserve humanity, and see it prosper. Humanity.” He pointed at her. “No gods. No masters. No alien overlords. No misguided tyrants. Humanity. With few exceptions, every body that laid at my feet, and at his, is in pursuit of that goal. So. You’re human. But pretend your ‘Amazons’ are a different people. Your ‘gods’ are human… but pretend to be something else. Some sort of almighty, omnipotent being, rather than just gifted people.”

  If he shot her with all of the suit’s weapons, even here, with her magic being pushed down by the ward, she’d survive. He’d see her, intact and angry, tossed out into the ocean; and if he left the ward in the area, it would likely take her a long time to swim somewhere safe.

  She lowed the blade, tilting her head. “...No. I’m not human. The gods are not human. Perhaps they created man, perhaps not… but they existed before him, and if he is not careful, they will exist after. My father, Zeus, will rule on when the nations of modern man have crumbled to dust.”

  “...You don’t understand how deluded you sound. Where I come from, the gods admitted the truth long, long ago. They know they’re merely people, just extremely old, powerful ones.” He smiled.

  “I was once on trial for killing Apollo… in self defense. I got to meet the lot of them, including my universe’s version of your father. They have this rule, that anyone who attacks a god must be immediately put on trial, questioned, and a vote held. With one exception, carved out for your father.”

  She frowned. “You…. killed Apollo!? How? Why?”

  “That’s not the point of the story, girl. Your mother, Hera, she carved out an exception; if anyone attacks Zeus, it can be assumed he deserved it on account of all his constant cheating and foolishness. He can retaliate, but none of the other gods will get involved.”

  Diana stared at him for a moment. “...Hera…” She swallowed. “...Isn’t my mother. My mother is the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta.”

  He clapped, and smacked his knee as he started laughing. “Now that, you see, is a perfect example. Was she one of his numerous rape victims, or did he actually seduce her? Not that they likely felt they had a choice either way… a man who could kill them with a gesture….”

  She took a step forward, glowering at him. “You know not of what you speak. Gods, for all their fault, are not merely human. You must speak with respect when you speak of my mother, and of Zeus, for you know nothing.”

  He took a step forward, to match her, mere feet away. At this range, the ward was so overpowering against her magical nature the anti-armor ‘peeler’ weapon would actually dig through skin and flesh to hit bone. “That is a lie. The only thing special about the gods is the Ambrosia they consume. If some other random tribe of nobodies had happened upon it, your father would be dust in the mud, and we’d have some entirely different ‘god’ to have raped your mother and produced a somewhat different girl for this mad game called the Justice League.”

  She raised the sword, and cried out in anger, slamming the blade into the heavy armor… and embedding it several inches in, driving the suit to its knees.

  Two Ascension drones; of the sleek, spindly variety; stood on the ground beside the shuttle, weapons raised… and Eyeball forced the armor to its feet, the sword driving deeper… and stared down at her.

  “You are a deluded pawn. Slave to false gods and alien masters.” He gripped the sword by the blade, and yanked; in a feat that would be impossible were she at full strength, he hurled it out into the ocean.. And she simply backed away a step, settling into a fighting stance.

  “I hope you survive whats coming.” He started walking the armor into the shuttle; tossing the amulet inside… followed shortly by the corpse of Circe. One of the machines started to place the corpse into an armored coffin, as Eyeball removed the warding charm from the armor… closing it back up, and tossing it to them as well.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “We’ll drop the whole mess in the ocean nearby. After we make the larger ward, we might come back to retrieve it… depending on how things go.”

  One of the machines nodded, and he could hear audio inside his helmet. “Affirmative. I’ve encountered research that will help in other ways. We can go over it on the way up. I’ve duplicated the radiation that comes from the sample Luthor provided, and the ship is already surrounded by a field that would protect it from the Kryptonian; possibly.”

  That made things a bit easier. The speedster couldn’t travel through space; so if they could shut down the Kryptonian, that left only the shapeshifter and the cyborg as ones who could go attack the Dragonslayer; and he had conventional weapons, sort-of, that could kill them both.

  Suddenly, the armor was jerked to a stop…. And yanked backwards as a lasso of yellow light wrapped around it. As the machines entered the shuttle, the door sealing… he could see on camera a single powerful fist rammed cleanly through the armor, from back to front, emerging from the chest.

  That armor was… much, much sturdier than his flesh was. Considering she was weaker than normal…. If he fought her with all her power, she’d be a nightmare. He remembered that if he’d hit her with a railgun when they first met, all that it would leave is a bruise. “I’ll consider that to be acting out in anger, and won’t hold it against you, next time. It does, however, merit an appropriate response.”

  He grabbed the fist with both hands… and yanked, pulling her arm all the way through the torso, smacking her against its back.

  Then, as she tried to pull free…the armor leapt backwards, hurling both of them into the air, then into the water… as Eyeball setoff the bomb he’d planted inside it. He was reasonably certain she’d survive the experience…. But didn’t really care either way.

  ***

  He blinked as he sat up from the floor. Remotely controlling the armor had felt weird; and just as he’d thought, he’d left a nasty dent in the roof when he’d ‘pulled’ towards himself; one of Ascension’s drones was already repairing a hole he’d apparently torn into the next floor.

  One of the other drones turned to face him.

  “The amulet is on the way back. Our continued research… and communications with Lex… have paid additional dividends. Luthor has acquired… and provided us… with plans for a device called a ‘Cold Gun’. Stolen from a local who has had encounters with the Flash in the past, this device is able to both generate ice, and create regions of supercooled air that can somehow stop even the infinitely fast Flash without being visible to the naked eye.”

  Jason set his helmet down beside himself on the counter, and smiled. “Well now. That…. Between that ‘Kryptonite’ and that device, it might just be what we need. Lets run down the known members, and what we know about their capabilities.”

  “In order of threat level. The first is ‘Superman’. Superhumanly fast, strong, and durable, he is able to fire laser beams from his eyes and generate bursts of extreme cold, as well as flying at speeds that, once he reaches space, can enter faster-than-light territory. If the Kryptonite works as advertised, it should allow us to stop him; and the ‘Cold’ gun used against Flash would slow him down to speeds we could handle if used properly, allowing us to penetrate armor if he shields himself from the effects..”

  The image of the man in blue and red was depicted next to an odd-looking weapon schematic, and a lump of glowing green rock.

  “Good enough. Next.”

  “The Martian Manhunter is a member of a fictional Martian species which has superhuman strength, telepathy, the ability to phase through objects as if they did not exist and re-emerge, as well as shapeshifting. If given sufficient warning he can ‘phase’ himself through projectiles. He is vulnerable to extreme heat, and cannot remain phased indefinitely. Your ability to predict his manifestation and a heat-generating weapon would be sufficient to counter him.”

  The green-skinned alien he’d met before was depicted next to… a simple torch, an open flame.

  Jason blinked. “Goddamn that’s a dangerous suite of powers....I had no idea. Next?”

  “The Flash, as this universe’s variation of Lightning, has literally infinite speed, and the fact he isn’t the most dangerous on this list is unfortunate. It is rumored that he can run so fast he can travel through time; which is an obvious impossibility. Undoubtedly, whatever reality-warping individual is toying with this world simply changes things whenever he does so to convince him this has happened. The Cold weapon and ordinary firearms will suffice; or the same tactics you used to kill Lightning.”

  The stranger in the red and yellow was shown standing next to the same unique weapon schematic; and the familiar design of the Shroud grenade he’d improvised in a bank robbery, years ago.

  “He’s the one I’m most comfortable with. Time travel by running fast? Good lord these people are deluded. Whats next?”

  “Cyborg has an integrated ‘Boom Tube’, designed by the ‘New God’ named Darkseid’s technicians. This allows instant teleportation between locations, including those occupied by another target, which would lead to the target’s destruction. He also has a variety of advanced weapons, some of which are equivalent to the best I can manage, while others are superior or inferior. He could, in theory, teleport a kryptonite-based explosive inside Superman, or other, similar tactics, to kill any single individual on this team. His technology and AI are not more advanced them myself, but are a smooth integration of AI and organic; I would not be able to hack anything he directly controlled. Simple direct damage, and enough of it, would do the job; but ensure you don’t let him teleport a munition inside you.”

  This model showed the same dark skin and silver metal halves; and simple images of a series of standard weapons; with the molecular disruptor the Republic had built to handle unusually durable enemies in front.

  “Always a bad day. God. We either need to divide and conquer, or take out the watchtower with as many of them inside as possible, then handle the rest. Next?”

  “The individual known as ‘Green Lantern’ is equipped with alien technology that allows him to generate constructs of some sort. Observed data indicates the ring itself is the single most advanced piece of technology that has emerged on earth, and it seems capable of copying, temporarily, both organic and inorganic substances and devices. He’s been observed copying extremely advanced weapons, shields, drones, and simple blunt objects. This equipment is both more advanced than the ‘Boom Tube’, and could in theory be used to create a copy of one for temporary use, and limited to the imagination of the wielder. If I were able to access one, the capabilities would be limitless. In the hands of its current wielder; simple brute force, in sufficient quantity, would do the job.”

  He chuckled at the display of the man in green and black, standing there surrounded by a glowing green sphere. “Of course you want it. I assume you want a Boom Tube as well?”

  “If possible. Our next target is known as ‘Wonder Woman’. She has superhuman strength, durability, speed, flight, a pair of bracers which are almost impervious to damage, a lasso which is similarly nigh-invulnerable and capable of making those who touch it tell the truth, and a sword which is also nigh-invulnerable and able to cut through almost anything. Herself and ‘Captain Marvel’, both have magic-based powers, and a sufficiently powerful ward would allow common weaponry to handle them.”

  This pair was the woman he’d just seen; and another stranger in yellow and red with lightning bolts. Which… was odd. Were the two related? And an image of the railgun.

  “...Well. That’s a nasty group. Anything else?”

  “The subject known as ‘Aquaman’ has superhuman strength, endurance, and speed, as well as possessing a magical trident that allows him to control water, and is itself able to penetrate most targets. He also has innate abilities to swim at extreme speeds and influence aquatic creatures. He is part of a possibly fake species of aquatic humanoids known as ‘Atlantaens’ who live at the bottom of the sea but look like humans. Like the rest of his species, he is vulnerable to extreme heat and dehydration; and simple sheer brute force, though it will take something equivalent to a tactical nuke for this specimen.”

  “Wonderful. Another product of the mad trickster god. Are we done? What about the guy in the black cape?”

  “Bruce Wayne, AKA, Batman, is a multi-billionaire who lives in an enormous mansion outside the impoverished and ruined city of Gotham. He is #4 on my hit-list, and will be handled without need of your intervention. He is a very low-grade metahuman, who needs less sleep than normal humans, learns new skills faster than them, and most likely used advanced equipment to accelerate his ability to heal and learn. Still; if properly aimed and with sufficiently good reflexes, a common handgun is sufficient for that target.”

  He blinked. “Just… a regular guy, almost? Whats he doing with this team?”

  “He initially expressed distrust of the Alien, but is an extremely competent and inventive tactician, who has used quick reflexes, brilliance, and a wide array of gadgets to help the Justice League overcome various problems; supposedly the second invasion by Darkseid was thwarted largely thanks to his intervention. At some point down the line, he lost his distrust of the Alien and began working with him enthusiastically.”

  The machine tilted its head. “He also supplies all the needed funding for their operations.”

  Jason shook his head. “Was he brainwashed? Did the alien fool him? Or am I just wrong?”

  “Impossible to be certain; the only thing completely apparent is that these Kryptonians and False Gods are either the players of, or pieces of, some game being played against humanity.”

  “Well then. I guess we need to take things seriously. How do we get started?”