Android 18 looked at the group for a moment and considered her options.
Fighting multiple opponents at the same time was troublesome; even if not all of them could hurt her, they could get in her way and distract her, as the previous battle showed.
So she took the most logical step.
As the heroes were preparing to fight, the android flew away at high speed.
The leaguers started to chase her, but then she aimed at them while flying, and the sky was filled with explosions.
They dispersed, dodging the attacks. They were all able to fly, but at different speeds and with different skill levels, so they were forced to separate and that gave 18 an opening to strike.
She moved fast and grabbed Hawkgirl by the wings, spinning her and throwing her to the ground.
Hall Jordan conjured a green baseball glove and caught her before she hit the ground.
Then John Stewart shot a green laser, aiming at 18.
She reacted by raising her arm, and when the attack hit, it was absorbed, disappearing in an instant.
Before he could understand what happened, she flew and grabbed his arm, and the energy of his ring was dropping fast.
18 was able to absorb energy, it wasn't needed, as she had the infinite energy battery, but absorbing others' energy allowed her to use their attacks against them.
Before she could absorb everything, she was tackled and Captain Marvel hugged her from behind, locking her arms in place, then he screamed.
"SHAZAM " ⚡️
Lightning struck from above. If it were normal electricity, she would have no problem, but this was magical Lightning and it was strong enough to hurt her.
18 groaned in pain and she elbowed him on the ribs and when he let go, she used her hand to absorb the energy.
"You guys love to tackle people."
Then she saw a blue blur coming at her at high speed.
She crossed her arms in front of her head, blocking Superman's attack. The shockwave expanded and the sound was heard kilometers away.
She exchanged blows with him; this one was the one she was more wary about. His regular attacks were much stronger than the others.
While she was distracted, Zatana the magician chanted.
"Dnib ym ymene htiw sniahc"
Yellow magical chains surrounded 18 and they tied themselves around her body. Wonder Woman used the chance to tie her with her lasso as well.
Android 18 was struggling to escape, while the heroes forced her to the ground.
They landed on an empty section of the desert, the green lanterns added their own restraints and the others surrounded her.
Diana, holding her lasso, spoke to 18.
"It's over. Now you will answer our questions."
The android grunted, still struggling to escape.
"Who are you and what is your objective?"
18 thought it was stupid to expect her to just comply, but then her voice came out, ignoring her will.
"I am Android 18 of the Red Ribbon Army. My primary directive is to bring fear and destruction to the world as revenge for Doctor Gero."
She was surprised by her own answer; she didn't know anything about such an order.
"So you are a machine?"
"Only partially, my body was modified to become the perfect weapon for Doctor Gero's ambitions, yet I was once human."
"Where is this doctor you speak of?"
"Death in another dimension, I killed him myself."
Before Wonder Woman could ask another question, the magical chains lost their glow and the green lantern bindings broke in pieces. They noticed too late that 18 was using her hand to absorb the energy of her restraints.
Android 18 grabbed the lazo and pulled it towards herself. Wonder Woman, caught off guard, was pulled as well and got headbutted by the android.
The attack sent her flying backwards and 18 managed to free herself from the lazo, jumping to dodge an attack from Superman.
He was strong, but she was faster, so she kept her distance and shot at him while also keeping the others at a distance.
Until something slammed into her so fast she didn't have time to defend herself, a person dressed in red was running around the area, he looked similar to the kid dressed in yellow, but way faster.
And he didn't come alone; two more heroes joined in the fight, a man who looked like he was made of metal and a man wearing green with a bow.
"Now this is getting ridiculous. How many of you insects are there?"
The flash responded, smirking.
"Enough to take you down, now give up."
She looked around and saw many enemies. She was sure she could win; most of them were weaklings, but there were a few who were troublesome.c
If her brother were here, they could easily kill them; the combination attacks and tactics of 17 and 18 were their most powerful asset.
Alone, she would struggle and if they somehow managed to defeat her, even if unlikely, she would die without doing something she must do.
So it is better to retreat for now and look for a way to win later.
Zatara chanted again.
"Enots husrc eht diordna"
The floor folded, forming a mouth that bit 18, locking her in place. She quickly exploded out of the rocks, then a flashbang arrow blinded her and while she was stunned, Superman, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman held her.
They learned from the previous experience and avoided using energy attacks to bind her.
Even with the 3 of them, they were struggling to stop her. She even used ki explosions to try to escape. Captain Atom used his energy manipulation to disperse part of the power, allowing the others to hold her.
"John do it now."
Martian Manhunter grabbed her head and attempted to force her mind to shut down.
As he did, he got flashes of her past, then a powerful psychic wave slammed into him. He fought against it, but finally, he was pushed out of her mind.
"AAHHH"
Martian Manhunter fell to the ground and at the same time, Captain Marvel asked worriedly.
"John are you ok?"
He loosened his grip and 18 took advantage of the moment to blast him with a ki blast in the face. He winced in pain and let her go completely. She punched Superman away and grabbed Wonder Woman by the hair, throwing her at Captain Atom.
In the corner of her eye, she saw Zatara staring to chant again, so she shot at him. He barely managed to create a shield and stopped short of finishing the spell.
Before another round could start, 18 flew quickly into the sky and launched a massive attack.
The heroes prepared to block it, but she didn't aim at them; the blast was sent towards the city, which was still visible in the distance.
Panicking, several heroes flew at top speed to intercept it before it could land.
Meanwhile, the remaining heroes were prepared to hold her until they came back.
She turned to them, thinking of her next steps, weighing her options, can I kill these guys before the other come back?
Then an explosion echoed in the distance.
Superman, Captain Atom, the Green Lanterns and Captain Marvel went to stop the attack.
Leaving Zatara, Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian manhunter and Green Arrow to fight against her.
Of these, Martian Manhunter, like his niece, lost consciousness after attempting to access her mind, Flash wasn't able to fly, so he couldn't reach her and Green Arrow was more support than a threat.
So only Wonder Woman and Zatara could actually stand against her.
Still, she didn't have time, even if she killed the two; by the time she finished, the other would be back and she doubted they would fall for the same trick again.
So she made a decision.
"Enough of this."
She flew higher again and it took her a moment, floating slowly, to get where she wanted to be, the perfect position for her attack to land perfectly.
"I'm gonna erase you all together with this miserable excuse for a world."
The members who went to stop the attack came back after successfully saving the city, when they heard what she said and saw her preparing an attack.
Superman rushed as fast as he could.
"We need to stop her now."
18 smiled.
"Idiot."
She put her hands next to her face and screamed.
"SOLAR FLARE" 🌅
A light many times stronger than the flashbang arrows hit all the leaguers; they all were looking at the android, thinking about how to stop her and expecting another explosive attack, they were caught completely off guard.
18 smiled, satisfied at returning the favor for all those flashbang arrows.
By the time they got back their eyesight, the enemy was nowhere to be found.
The Justice League came back to the team's base after looking for the android for a few hours. They even tried the same method Robin used before, but she didn't appear on any security cameras, even after using the super computers avaliable to the league to increase the area of the search.
Flash ran all over looking and Superman used his super vision and super hearing to try to find her with no success.
Now all the available members of the league and the team were inside Mount Justice in front of a screen showing the news.
"Iris West reporting live from the city of Miho, where the Justice League fought against an unknown super villain."
A video of 18 walking out of the hotel and engaging the police was playing in the background.
"For now, the details are vague, but the residents of the city reported seeing several big explosions and seeing heroes clashing in the air."
The screen changed to several collapsed buildings and the members of the league helping rescue people trapped under the rubble.
"While there is still no official confirmation of the damage and the number of victims, preliminary reports talk about at least 40 casualties and hundreds of injured."
The city looked like a massive earthquake hit it, even with the league stopping the mayor's attacks and trying to keep damage to a minimum, moving the fight outside the city, the battle was still destructive enough to reach the city.
Not to mention all the attacks 18 fired before the league even arrived at the scene.
"We will keep you informed as the situation develops."
Wonder Woman turned off the TV.
"They will want the league to comment; we should do so as soon as possible."
They didn't look forward to explaining how a single enemy managed to escape from almost every member of the league at the same time.
Still, they would need to inform the public of the android and make sure that local authorities avoid confronting her.
At the same time, they would start looking for the android as a priority, knowing the blonde woman had the capacity and the willingness to destroy entire cities for fun was a very fridning though.
By now, all the heroes were aware of the story of the androids and now Batman was about to give them the information they got from the files Robin recovered from the computer.
"This is what we know of the currently hiding android 18, she is a woman of indeterminate age, her and her brother were created by a military group by the name Red Ribbon army, intending to conquer the world, yet they went rogue killing their creator and every hero on their own world, in the files it said that these warriors could perceive the energy of living beings."
The screen showed the scene of a house in the middle of a very small island.
A bald man with a tattoo of dots on his forehead was sitting cross-legged and meditating when he opened his eyes and greeted an old man who walked silently behind him.
"The androids either didn't have this energy or were able to hide it, allowing them to attack by surprise and wipe out the heroes one by one, although according to the data, they were strong enough to do so directly."
Captain Marvel commented next.
"Dude, one android was giving us so much trouble, I don't want to imagine fighting two at the same time."
Wonder Woman also commented.
"Besides, we were unprepared and didn't know what she was capable of."
Now they looked at the teenagers, who felt depressed at the attention.
Right now, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Aqualad and Superboy were all in the medical bay, leaving only Artemis and Robin to deal with the blame for the result of their actions.
The league didn't openly blame them, but the actions taken by the teenagers were seen as reckless.
When the league got the message, they rushed as fast as they could, planning to lure the android away from the city and figthing on the desert.
Just to arrive in the nick of time to save the city from being blown up,
The team had the information about just how dangerous the android was and still underestimated her and almost died because of it.
They didn't lecture the teens and decided to talk about it later, as right now, there were more important things to focus on.
"This is a list of powers of the android."
The screen showed a photo of 18 with information on the side.
Name: Android 18.
Gender: Female.
Height: 5'7 [1.69m]
Weight: 132 pounds [60kg]
Hair color: blonde.
Eye color: blue.
Personally: 18 loves to go shopping for new clothes, although she doesn't pay for them, she is arrogant and sarcastic, enjoys playing with the lives of others and is a sadistic psychopath.
Powers:
Enhanced durability: capable of withstanding the destruction of a planet, according to calculations based on beings of similar strength.
Energy projection: Able to shoot ki blasts that can create explosions of different sizes. Other beings that are considered weaker were able to destroy a moon with these kinds of attacks; her output could destroy a planet if she wished to.
Energy absorption: she can absorb energy-based attacks and increase her power for a while or use an attack previously absorbed against an enemy; [she needs to receive the attack with one of her hands to do this].
Infinite energy battery: Her energy source is capable of constantly absorbing and amplifying energy from the environment, allowing her to never get tired and use as many energy attacks as she wants. [It is speculated that she doesn't need to sleep or eat and one of her favorite tactics is allowing the enemy to attack until they are tired and then counterattack].
Martial arts expertise: when she was created, she got knowledge of all known martial arts uploaded into her brain. After years of experience, she is considered the greatest martial arts expert in the world.
Enhanced strength: a serious punch or kick from her can break mountains easily; the limit of her physical strength is still unknown.
Force field projection: She can generate an energy sphere around her body that can block attacks and push enemies away.
Strategic mind: highly intelligent and capable of adapting and forming new strategies on the fly.
Know techniques:
Infinity bullets: she shoots a constant barrage of energy blasts like a machine gun, destroying the area around her or trying to overwhelm a single target.
Solar flare: creates a blinding light to stun enemies. [useful to escape or to create an opening].
Destructo disk: an energy saw used as a cutting attack, used to cut highly durable enemies.
Masenko: a single powerful stream of ki that can be shot for a while and disintegrates enemies that are unable to resist it.
Energy blade: a single sword-like energy construct used as a weapon in close combat.
Know weaknesses:
Shut down control: created by Doctor Gero, this device can be used to temporarily shut down the androids. 18 can resist it and you have to get close and hold it for 15 seconds for it to work. [You have to be at least 5 meters close to her and she can feel the device working, besides, time or distance can change after repeated use].
Containment chamber: once shut down is achieved, this chamber can force her to sleep; effectiveness is decreased with each use. [Currently, it is possible to put her to sleep for about a week, according to the data obtained by analysis.]
Short temper: 18 is arrogant and easy to provoke; a skilled opponent can use her propensity to be blinded by anger to create openings and force her to make mistakes. [Only use this strategy if you are very confident you can survive her anger, as a pissed-off 18 is more likely to break your neck than to knock you out].
Tendency to look down on opponents: both androids believe themselves superior to humans and any purely biological being, so they play with their opponents and let their guards down.
There was more information, like calculations of blast radius and recaps of known battles, but these were the basics.
Batman stood in front of the group.
"Now we need to create a strategy to capture her and bring her to justice."
As the league was discussing what to do next, Android 18 was walking down a street in a city in Greece.
She was hiding her face with sunglasses and a big straw hat after seeing herself in all the media during the day.
This world felt more connected than her own and news was spreading faster than she expected.
When she entered a silent and empty street, she was stopped by a voice.
"It was quite a show you gave us."
She turned around and frowned.
"Who are you?"
"Just a friend, trying to welcome you into the light."