chapter 67: No Evil Shall Escape

Komand'r couldn't contain her fury.

First, they dared, dared, to come to Tamaran at all. Second, they did it well AFTER Kalibak had his way with the planet and her people. Third, they did not come to arrest Kalibak in a stupid show of strength to save face, but to attack the man who was the sole reason (at least in her mind) for Tamaran regaining her freedom.

All that anger, all that bottled up frustration... She didn't really noticed when she 'accidentally' tore a Lantern's arm off its socket and beat her to submission with it, if having one's skeletal system grinded to dust could be called that. She'd survive anyway, so who would care?

All around her, the Justice League proved their mettle. Even outnumbered two to one, and with some of them holding back, it was becoming increasingly clear that the fight was in their favour, not the Lantern's. Be it Superman being just too fast, strong and tough, or Grundy being so overwhelming three Lanterns were ganging on him, to no avail. The rest were or less evenly matched, but with the heavy hitters requiring several Lanterns to be fought, plus the surprise return of Spartan and Wolf Princess in a near literal whirlwind of rage... The only reason they weren't winning faster was that they were liminting themeslves to cow the Lanterns to submission, not kill them.

Didn't change the fact Doom Slayer left the battle to duel Stewart with the witch in tow.

"Did they just ditch us?!" She heard Spartan shout as he locked axes with a large alien.

"Do YOU want to fight John Stewart?!"

"Why are you talking about him like he were the Grim Reaper?! He's just a man!"

The warrior had a point: why did Doom Slayer and the witch drag that shaved son of a bitch away from the fight? He led the others, but for what little she knew of the Corps, no Lantern was stronger than the other, only more skilled. Did they know something about this man, Stewart, that the others didn't? Not that she cared.

Another Lantern flew at her from behind, but Steel intercepted him, hammering at the green barrier before shouting at her.

"Stop thinking and start finish him off while we keep these fucks away!" He pointed at something at the edge of the fight.

A large-ish lump of fur dragging itself out of the brawl. Even with all that ruckus, Komand'r could hear soft whimpering coming from it.

Komand'r's eyes widened, then narrowed when she realized it was Kalibak taking advantage of the distracted warriors to crawl away from the battle. Even without his legs, even with all the damage he sustained during the fight, the bastard dared to continue living!

The sword. Somehow it had landed on its tip, and it was obvious Spartan didn't need it. Komand'r promptly grabbed it and flew after Kalibak (some Lanterns tried to grab her, but the League stopped them), who didn't get far before she slammed into him hard enough to crack the ground.

"You aren't getting away, you mongrel!" She roared at him before flipping him. She wanted her face to be the last thing he saw before going to whatever hell did apokoliptians go, probably another level of that hellish planet.

And then something kicked her in the belly with enough force to send her flying. Maybe her battle-adled mind was playing games with her... but wasn't Kalibak legless? Standing up, she watched as Kalibak's moans deepened in pitch as he moved around... and then stood up.

To Komand'rs amazement and horror, Kalibak's legs had begun growing back!

Then, Kalibak's moans turned into chuckles, then a full on maniacal laughter as he stood up on his new limbs, looking nearly unscathed. He was still covered in blood, but aside from that it looked like he hadn't fought for his life, and got mauled for it, mere minutes ago. All those cuts and bruises, the missing teeth... They were gone, or rather back. Kalibak was clearly enjoying the bewilderment of the tamaranean.

"Fool! I am a GOD, a New God!" He roared before smacking a bewildered Komand'r in the face, sending her flying. Thanks to the adrenaline pumping through her body she recovered and tried to ram into Kalibak with all the strength she could muster. "I possess powers beyond your comprenhension, powers only Supermand can overpower! I can't be killed by a mere mortal whore like you!"

Komand'r forced herself no not think about why hadn't he done that, healing, during the fight. "And yet you let a mortal beat you to near death!"

Kalibak replied by punching her in the face with enough force to cause a sonic boom and send her flying across the landscape, followed by grabbing her again and slamming her against the ground.

"If I had used my full power from the beginning, the kryptonian and that green monster would have killed me outright! By feigning weakness, I got to live to kill you!"

Komand'r, bruised as she was, glared at the apokoliptian overlord as she stood up and wiped the blood from her mouth. "That doesn't mean you're strong, only that you know you can be killed."

Kalibak growled, but then he grinned. "Yes. Many of your people thought they fit that category."

Komand'rs hands clenched into fists, but she refused to do what he wanted her to do, do what he'd do. No, she had to be smart about this. He might have been able to heal, but how much could he keep it up? So, letting go of the sword, she rose to the air and began bombarding Kalibak with energy bolts.

Had someone reminded Komand'r that Spartan's sword had been forged by another god, she'd grabbed onto it and tried to cut his head off instead of dropping it in favor of her own body, but she didn't, and thus began to grow desperate.

Bolts, then kick punching, then kicking... they all worked on Kalibak, wounding him, bleeding him. The problem was, he didn't stay down, nor wounded, whereas she was exhausting with each attack.

And then he finally managed to grab her by the head

"Your bloodline ends today, bitch! A shame I'll have to dirty my hands for it."

She tried to growl something, but Kalibak's clawed hand held her mouth tightly. However, before the New God could do anything, someting red and pink came out of nowhere with a scream and latched itself around Kalibak's head, forcing the startled Kalibak to drop Komand'r

It was that malleable human, Plastic Man. He had roped his body around an equally bewildered Kalibak, who soon entered into another rage as he tried to rip the alien off of him, to no avail.

"I'll hold him! You kill him! C'mon!"

She'd never thought the stupid-looking earthling who acted and looked like a jester, size and shape-changing capability nonwithstanding, would be capable of restraining someone like Kalibak. The monster roared and struggled, but no matter how much he tried, Plastic Man was not letting go of him.

So mesmerized she was (later it turned out she got a severe concussion), she didn't move until the man screamed at her again. "What the hell are you doing?! Kill him already! Ouch, stop biting me you Worf wannabe!"

She could kill him at that moment, but the way Plastic Man bind him, nearly completely except for a few minimal spots, meant he'd get hurt if she attacked. A voice in her head was whispering that if a New God couldn't kill him, a dinky little blade wouldn't do much... and that if he ended up as collateral damage, the League could afford one less member.

"Screw it, I'm going to choke you like a chi-" He began to shout before Kalibak suddenly stopped moving as a strange, even disgusting noise seemed to stop everything in the area.

Komand'r had heard it before, many times even, during Kalibak's early rampage: the wet sound of something going through flesh and bone with nothing to stop it.

It was Doom Slayer, with his entire left arm impaled right into Kalibak's chest, but apparently he didn't hit any vitals, for Kalibak still lived; either that, or he was indeed touger than he looked. His pale-skinned companion, Rachel, stood next to him. Far behind them, the thrice damned Green Lantern leader stood. Where cold anger and determination were, though, there was now only doubt and horror. Maybe it was because a monster out of a nightmare was screeching right next to him, a creature that seemed to be made out of fog. Too bad Komand'r no longer cared about him, for

"You can let go of him, Patrick."

"O...kay, then?" The humanoid unravelled himself from Kalibak, thoroughly horrified. "Say, can you... can you do that to, say, rubber people? I'm not being specific or anything by the way, nor talking about me either."

"I could, but you would shrug it off."

Plastic Man's expression went from uneasey to bewilderment. "Really?"

Kalibak seemed to say something, or rather tried to, but all that came from his savaged mouth was a moan accompanied by lots of blood, and even a couple of detached teeth, even though Slayer hadn't even touched his mouth. Maybe the sheer force behind the strike affected his entire body?

"He... can heal." Komand'r told them. "He feared you would kill him if he showed he could earlier."

"He won't recover from this, trust me." She then turned to Plastic Man. "Why did you go after them alone?"

"A bit busy trying to not cave those guys' heads in. As for me, well, I saw her flying away with Mr. Beast-Man here without the others noticing so, well, thought of taking the initiative for once."

Komand'r then pointed at the Lantern. "And him? What is that thing?"

"He's not going to do anything. As for the... creature, is not of your concern, but ours. It's the reason Kalibak is still breathing. Fortunately, you can fix that little tidbit."

Then, Rachel handed her something: Spartan's sword. The expression on her dark eyes and the way she looked at Kalibak made clear what she wanted her to do. And yet...

"He said he can only be killed by another god."

"This sword was forged by an earthling god. I'm fairly certain he won't shrug having his head cut off anyway."

"Why don't you slay him? You're already halfway."

Doom Slayer didn't bother to look at her when he spoke: "He's not mine to kill."

"Nor mine." Rachel continued for him. "This is your planet, yours is the people he's been tormenting. We think the right, the duty to kill him lays on you, and only you."

Komand'r looked at both of the strangers, her gaze moving from Rachel to Doom Slayer and back, before she grabbed the sword. It was time to end this

"This is for everything you've done to us." Komand'r whispered as she drew the sword back

She then screamed as she swung the blade at Kalibak's neck with all her strength, cutting through it like nothing. The head fell to the ground, blood still coming from its mouth and a terrified expression on the face, before Doom Slayer crushed it under his foot. It was over.

"Is it me, or did that seem a bit... anticlimatic?" She heard Plastic Man ask outloud. Not that she cared at that moment, standing on her knees as relief and closure coursed through her body.

She did not give a damn that the God of Tyranny himself might want to let this humillition go unpunished, that the entire Green Lantern Corps came to Tamaran in a stupid attempt to take Doom Slayer down. The monster that had been tormenting her people and world was finally no more.

Now, it was time to fix Tamaran, and after that, to find her sister. First, though, to kick the Green Lanterns off her planet.

Far away from Tamaran, in deepest reaches of space, a deity scoffed in disdain.

If the end seems anticlimatic, well, that's the whole point: when Doom Slayer stops pulling his punches, it doesn't matter if the one on the wrong end of those punches can match a fully powered kryptonian in a fistfight, they will DIE.