Unknown Location
October 4, 00:03
Granny Goodness and Desaad had made many attempts to kidnap people off Earth in the past years. They'd all failed thanks to the efforts of Shield, but instead of learning their lesson or giving up, they hatched their latest plot; the Goode Goggles.
Unknown to them and the Furies they usually sent to do their bidding, Elliot always tracked them back to wherever they originated from after every failed attempt. They used Hush Tubes to render any means of tracking useless, and it worked to an extent.
By their very nature, it was damn near impossible to track the destination of Boom and Hush Tubes once they'd closed. Metron designed them that way, likely due to his non-confrontational, observatory personality.
However, since he'd made himself a walking, talking Orphan Box, Elliot was the one person in existence capable of doing something about this problem. Anytime the Furies escaped through the large, swirling portals, he was able to hold them open long enough for an Oriole Drone or two to follow.
Most of them ended up on Apokolips, which was to be expected. That's where Darkseid and his sadistic bootlickers lived. A few of the drones, though, ended up in an entirely different place.
They followed the oblivious Furies into a base that had been built within an asteroid. A few minutes in there and little spies relayed every pertinent bit of information about the location. Chief of all that pile was the presence of Granny Goodness' other half. And boy did that change things.
The original end of the plan for Apokolips was to terminate everyone in Darkseid's employ not worth saving and imprison those that there was still hope for, like the Furies. Rehabilitation would come down the line for them.
Guess which category the orphanage caretaker fell into.
There was a small hiccup with that though. Elliot didn't know where Granny Goodness had stashed her other half. She wasn't on Apokolips, or at least, the drones couldn't find her anywhere on it.
This presented a problem where taking down her Earth half would not be enough to end her for good. Worse, there was always the possibility she could communicate with her other self, meaning making any move against her would only make the one in space more wary and cautious.
That wasn't a problem anymore. Just like the team of agents gearing up to raid Gretchen Goode's mansion on Earth, Grace, Magenta, and Nightwing were about to crash the asteroid party in space.
Using the fully upgraded Zephyr I, this team of three crossed the multiple light-year distance to the base in less than thirty minutes, a time that would make many space faring races envious.
Cloaked with the best tech and magic Elliot could offer, the three brought the ship to a hover right above the asteroid. They quickly went over Nightwing's plan and disembarked, dropping right on top of the hunk of rock with machinery jutting out of its three ends like an upside down triangle.
As soon his feet touched the surface, Nightwing crouched, dropping and activating a device Elliot had handed him. In all three of their HUDs, "Anchor Field Activated" flashed across and they took that as a cue to move on to the next stage of the plan.
"No Boom Tubing away for the enemy now," Nightwing said and kicked off the rock, skillfully using his grav boots and harness to maneuver the void of space.
At the breach point he'd chosen, he deployed a matter phase shifter and dove into the section of rock and metal caught under its effects. Grace and Magenta fell in beside him and kept pace through their own unique methods; Grace with her flight implant and Magenta by controlling the metal in her suit.
After swimming through several feet of rock and then finally the hull of the base, they emerged at the tippy top of the main chamber. Of course, they were each cloaked from every possible thing, so though they immediately put eyes to Granny Goodness and Desaad without being sensed in turn.
"Uh… are you guys getting this?" Magenta's thoughts came over through her teammates' comms. "The moment we decloak, that robot will locate us."
"It's just a robot, and we've taken down tons of them. It's that thing I'm worried about. What the hell is it?"
Several meters below them, a strange construction sat in a circular depression within the mega chamber. The closest analogue for it would be if someone had taken inspiration from the three legged monstrosities in War of the Worlds, flipped them over, gave the legs a technomechanical makeover, and then painted them a bright gold.
"We'll know when we get down there," said Nightwing. "You guys know your missions."
He nodded and they returned the gesture, flying off in separate directions and taking entirely different approaches to their objectives. Grace and Magenta decloaked and attacked, the former going after Granny Goodness and the latter, Desaad.
The metal walkway beneath the feet of Darkseid's chief scientist and torturer came alive with Magenta's hand movements and broke apart, the sheet of metal coiling around the New God like a sheet of pythons and restraining his movements.
Granny Goodness equipped her Mega-Rod and smiled at Grace as the latter flew head on in her direction.
"Child, why are you being naughty?"
BAM!
Granny went flying, unsure of who or what hit her as blood leaked from her nose.
"I'm not your child, bitch."
There was a reason Elliot persuaded Grace to join the team for this mission. Among everyone in the Justice League and the team, she was the only one apart from him willing to beat the brakes off a grandma. Or a villain who looked and acted like one.
Any other person would squirm or not give it their all, but she did not care at all for the visage of her enemy. So long as they could withstand her fists, they would get an all you can eat buffet.
That's why Elliot upgraded her Sandevistan implant, allowing it to sync with her flight one. That's how she crossed the remainder of the distance between her and Granny Goodness without the latter perceiving it nor the strike nor the ones that came afterward.
While Grace introduced the sadistic New God to levels of pain and disorientation she hadn't experienced since her younger days, Magenta disarmed her captive of the various knick knacks on his person, disabled his cybernetics with an EMP blast, and then finally, put the special restraints on him.
Since he was a New God and a scientist to boot, his cuffs froze him solid, the combination of induced molecular stagnation and chronostasis providing two immense hurdles for him to overcome if he wanted to wake up.
Once her systems registered an all clear, she gave the Oriole drones the command and they relocated him to a cell on the Zephyr, leaving her to focus on the trio of Furies screaming and charging her with their weapons raised.
Calling upon the teachings Elliot had imparted upon her, she held out both arms and released about a dozen tiny metal balls from her personal storage, locking her arms behind her afterward.
Apparently, it was a pretty normal thing for people with powers to use hand and arm gestures. After all, the hands were the primary way humans manipulated the world around them. However, Elliot explained that with regards to combat, it was in some ways, a weakness.
That's why part of her training had been to curtail this instinct. It had been hard in the beginning, but the image of getting her arms sliced off caused her to persevere. And what happened next was the result of the focused training.
Clearly, the Furies had trained together for a long time and had built an unspoken rapport that allowed them to coordinate their attacks with utmost precision. They were each also capable of flight and thus took advantage of it to split Magenta's focus.
But how could a mere three be compared to the twelve metal balls under her control?
Dividing the tiny spheres equally among them, she launched her attacks. All three furies became the targets of four overeager balls of hardened metal and impact enhancing technology.
Magenta hadn't moved or changed her stance. Her three assailants however, moved according to her whims, knocked to and fro by her spheres. They tried to retaliate and defend themselves, but their weapons could do nothing to halt the projectiles or even deflect them.
Every single hit knocked them back with force comparable to a punch from Grace. In a way, what they suffered was not much different from what Granny Goodness endured under Grace's onslaught.
How both battles ended went without saying. Granny and her Furies were defeated, restrained, frozen and then locked up. From the start of the individual fights to the end of everything, Nightwing helped himself to the terminal Granny Goodness graciously left behind.
Already an expert hacker, he bridged the small gap between his skills and equipment and Apokoliptian coding and tech with Elliot's interface device and found out exactly what purpose this asteroid base was supposed to serve.
"It's her new orphanage," he said to the two ladies as they joined him. "This whole place. It was going to be a training ground for the meta teens kidnapped off the planet. See those yellow, box-like things there," he pointed toward them. "Those are cells."
"Don't tell me…" Magenta looked away, trying not to count them.
"There's no one in them," Nightwing informed. "Not for lack of trying though. But that's besides the point. That thing in the middle there, is called a Ghost Dimension Device."
"That doesn't sound ominous at all," Grace crossed her arms.
"It connects to a place called the Ghost Dimension and projects the environment there into normal space."
"Is this where you tell us why?"
"As far as I can tell, Granny wanted to use it in her education. The field… it basically softens the person who comes into contact with it, makes them more pliable, more accepting of indoctrination and mind control."
Grace slapped her fist into her open palm. "Guess we're breaking it then."
"No need. It isn't complete. There's still a long way to go before it's done. Besides, we're blowing up the whole place. Come on, let's go."
"Right, forgot."
Magenta restrained her laughter and hugged Grace's arm. Together with Nightwing, they flew to the spot they used for the infiltration and swam back outside, hastily returning to the Zephyr.
Once aboard it, Nightwing targeted the asteroid and fired a special missile. While the projectile crossed the void of space to its final destination, the Zephyr went the opposite direction.
The impending collision happened, and a blinding blue explosion filled the region of space originally occupied by the asteroid and then some for several seconds.
When the intense illumination finally faded, there was nothing left. Not debris, tiny rocks, nothing.
The trio stared silently at the quiet devastation for a few moments, taking in the devastation and reality of their actions before Nightwing plotted a course for home and announced,
"Strap in ladies. We're going back home."
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Apokolips
October 4, 00:43
"You weren't lying when you said we were backup."
Superman's remark earned a simple "hm," my concentration on the titanic fight happening below us.
This was Darkseid we were talking about, so the Jaegers I sicced on him were without question, the most powerful creations I'd ever worked on.
This didn't include me nor the operation I performed with the cannibalized father Box. Sure, it gave me the physical and mental power of a god, but its most potent benefits were utility based.
These giant robots were pure power and destruction taken to the utmost extreme. Based on the countless simulations I'd run with them, each could defeat Superman in a minute flat. Less, if they employed the numerous countermeasures that capitalized on his weaknesses and those developed for brutes.
Now this was all speculation, it hadn't actually been tested. Nonetheless, seeing the group of ten pummel the literal nightmare of billions across the galaxy like today was the first day he'd been in a fight was a sight to see.
I had even started recording.
When the fight first started, it didn't take long for Darkseid to end up beneath the numerous robotic feet of my creations. They expertly used their titanic sizes to bully him into submission, alternating between stomps and disintegrating cannon fire to keep him down.
Of course, these attacks barely scratched his stony hide. They only managed to piss him off, drive him deeper into the ground of the planet, and shake the foundations of his castle.
Said foundations failed to contain the might of an extra giant when the despot grew tired of the disrespect. Showcasing an ability that I had no idea he had, he grew to match the size of the Jaegers and the battle entered a new phase.
He got some hits in, but none did any damage.
Apart from the multiple, hyperdense, compressed layers of hardened metal forming their outer shells, the Jaegers had leagues of multilayered forcefields in various configurations protecting each part of their massive bodies.
Hell, before Darkseid could even reach these stacked up defenses, he first had to get past the field that shunted any received energy and impacts to another dimension. With his Omega Beams, what would be impossible for 99.99 percent became possible for him.
Sadly, even those hax beams had a weakness of their own. They could age anyone to dust, send them back or forward in time. It still didn't change the fact that the crazy, bendy attacks had to travel through space to reach whomever they were aimed at.
And I could manipulate space. You see where I'm going with this…
Anyway, the Jaegers were putting up more than a fight, and from the looks of it. They would win. They just needed time. Time that was too long for me.
"You guys can leave if you want," I said to those originally supposed to help face Darkseid in case he somehow tore through my Jaegers. "There are still more people who need help getting off the planet."
"Are you sure?"
"No," I answered Superman and summoned Stormbreaker. "But that's why I'm gonna win."
Gripping the handle of the weapon tightly, I waved it and summoned Hush Tubes for everyone present.
"They'll send you to the settlements that need help."
After that I sort of zoned out, faintly remembering the repeated "be careful"s and "call if you need help"s.
My attention had shifted solely to the battle and psyching myself up to join. It got to a point I grew tired of the hesitation and fear and simply dove into the brawl, my mind devoid of thoughts as I shouted at the top of my lungs.
Hey guys, I don't know if any of you guys have noticed, but the story is coming to an end. As a matter of fact, the next chapter is the last one. This is mainly because... well, I've done everything I wanted to do with the MC in Young Justice. I have some ideas for afterstories where he's traveling the multiverse. You'll see in the last chapter.
Anyway, all this is to say, thank you for sticking with me. This is the first story I'm going to finish, and though it many not be satisfying for some (which is fully understandable since its so abrupt) it's a big deal for me to finally finish a story for the first time ever. So again, thank you and I apologise.
On another note, I have another story coming up. It's set in The Boys. It's a CYOA story where the guy is a firebender and a supe. The title is Road To Heaven if you're interested. Thanks to you all.