HOLDING THE LINE

Peter is flown through the portal and is transported to the planet Apokolips. He looks at his tracking device and sees that he is being taken to where clark is.

Meanwhile on earth, Thanoseid is still destroying Metropolis while the other heroes are regrouping. At that moment, Hal shows up and lands infront of them.

"You guys ok? Good, listen up."

A long silence passes between them.

"Uh.... We need to- um... We need to play offense instead of all coming up to bat."

An even longer, more awkward silence passes between them.

"Um, what?" Mercury asks.

"I apologize, but I don't know your games."

Dinah then steps up.

"I think what Stark is trying to say is that it's time for some teamwork. So let's pull it together." She says.

"Yes, exactly what I meant." Hal adds.

"What's the plan then?" Mercury asks.

"Well, he blasts those beams out of his eyes, right?"

Before Hal can finish, Diana pulls out her sword.

"It's settled then. We blind him." She says.

"That's- as good a plan as any. Yeah, we follow and we stay out of sight. I'll turn on the fireworks to get his attention. Princess, you get into striking distance and stab that son of a bitch in the eyes."

Diana smiles.

"Like poor damned Oedipus."

"Sure, ok." Hal replies.

"And what about the invasion of monsters raining from the sky?" Mercury asks.

Hal thinks for a moment.

"I haven't got that far yet, give me a minute."

Hal then flies into the air.

"Alright team. We got this!"

Everyone stares at Hal for a moment.

"Really? That's your big battle cry?" Mercury says.

"Don't worry about it, smart ass. Stick to the plan." Hal says as he flies away.

As Ms. Wonder follows, Mercury looks over at Black Raven.

"You need a lift?" Mercury asks with smile.

Dinah smiles back at him, jumping into his arms.

"Just try not to go- too fast." She replies.

Mercury starts to blush as he follows Hal and Diana.

Back on Apokolips, Peter is taken to a room where they turn innocent people into ParaChitauri. Before the creature can put him on the table, Peter flips onto his back and puts an explosive device in his mouth, taking him down. He then takes off the coat and hat and puts on his mask to be Spider-Bat again. He looks around and sees multiple people trapped but no sign of Captain Krypton. He runs down a hallway where he hears screams of pain nearby. Peter enters a room and sees Captain Krypton strapped to a machine that's actually causing him pain and another child of Thanoseid, Desaad stands infront of him with a smile on his face.

"Yes, my greatest prize. Now I can splice your Kryptonian genetic code to create a new form. A Super- ParaChitauri. In the service of Thanoseid."

Clark tries to break free, but it's no use.

"And once we have our champion... We will seize the other supers and break them as well. All hail Thanoseid." Desaad says.

The Captain's screams get louder and louder until soon he passes out from the pain.

"True, the metamorphosis is painful. But soon you'll never feel anything ever again."

At that moment, Desaad notices someone standing behind him. He quickly pulls out his knife and turns around but before he can use it, Spider-Bat grabs his wrist and his throat tightly. He then makes him drop the knife and holds him up in the air by his throat.

"Let him go." Peter demands.

Desaad smirks.

"I am impressed by your resourcefulness, Earthling. But once the transformative process is set in motion, nothing can stop it. Your friend is gone. With the help of the Kryptonian, I'll see to it that your world will be just another that has fallen to Thanoseid." Desaad says.

Peter thinks for a moment, soon webbing the knife off the floor and putting it towards his throat.

"And what if you never see it?" Spider-Bat says.

"You wouldn't." Desaad says.

Peter then glares at him for a moment.

"Wouldn't you?"

After a brief stare down, Desaad presses a button that let's in ParaChitauri.

"Welcome, my children. Protect your-"

Before Desaad can finish his sentence, Peter punches him in the face, knocking him out, and faces the ParaChitauri.

"Ok. Maybe I didn't think this through enough." Peter says.

Back on Earth, Iron Lantern and the other heroes launch an attack on Thanoseid. The Evil Titan quickly blasts Ms. Wonder with his Omega Beams, sending her flying. Mercury puts down Black Raven and uses his speed to out maneuver Thanoseid. Pietro lands quick strikes, frustrating Thanoseid. At that moment Thanoseid stomps the ground, causing Mercury to go flying. Hal quickly blasts Thanoseid with his repulsors, getting his attention. The villain shoots out his Omega Beams at Hal, but Ms. Wonder quickly blocks it with her sword, saving him.

As Thanoseid is distracted, The Black Raven uses her sonic scream against him, pushing him back a bit. But the Sonic scream is not enough, as Thanoseid begins to slowly walk through it. Soon Dinah drops to her knee, exhausted from over using her powers, and Thanoseid prepares to crush her. At the last second, Mercury speeds in a moves her out of the way.

"Are you ok?" Mercury asks.

"Yeah. Just need to rest my voice." She replies.

Hal then shoots Thanoseid with multiple missiles that all land. Seconds pass and Thanoseid jumps out of the smoke with great speed and knocks Hal out of the sky and down to the ground. Ms. Wonder then kicks Thanoseid in the back and blasts him into a wall. Thanoseid is unfazed by this and glares at Diana.

"Come on, giant! I'm getting bored!" Ms. Wonder yells.

Thanoseid stares down Diana.

"This world is mine." Thanoseid says.

Diana then charges at the villain with her sword and lasso, dodging a punch and jumping behind him. She then wraps the lasso around his neck, choking him, and jumps on his back. Thanoseid quickly shoots his Omega Beams, covering them at Diana, but Ms. Wonder blocks it and plunges her sword right Thanoseids eye. As the Titan screams out in pain, Hal hits with giant truck, sending him flying.

"One down, one to go." Ms. Wonder says.

Back on Apokolips, as the ParaChitauri get closer and closer, Peter looks over at the controls for the button to free Captain Krypton.

"Spider-Sense, please don't fail me now." He says to himself.

As he's about to press a few buttons, his Spider-Senses continues to go off. He finally makes it to a button that doesn't trigger his senses and presses it, turning off the machine. He then flips in the air, avoiding being grabbed by the ParaChitauri and throws a web bomb onto them, blowing them up, but causing no damage.

"You guys are stronger than the others. You've been eating your vegetables?" Peter asks.

As he prepares to fight, Desaad gets back to his feet and runs away but gets hit in the face by Captain Krypton who slowly wakes up. He then breaks free from the machine and uses his heat vision on the ParaChitauri, slicing through them, and the ship that they are on. Peter slowly realizes that Clark isn't in the right state of mind right now as he slowly walks towards him, eyes glowing red.

"Yep. Definitely didn't think this through enough." Peter says.

Meanwhile on earth, an angry Thanoseid glares at Ms. Wonder, with blood dripping from his eye. Ms. Wonder stares him down, with no fear or remorse, ready to take his other eye out. At that second, with incredible speed, Thanoseid flies straight at her, grabs her by the face and tackles her to the ground, dragging her through concrete. He then throws her through a building and begins to punch her over and over again.

Mercury then super speeds in and hits him over and over again, backing him off Diana. Pietro goes for another punch, but Thanoseid is able to dodge and hits him in the face, knocking him through a car. Thanoseid then shoots out one Omega Beam at him, but Hal quickly shields Mercury from the blast, some how able to redirect it back at him. Ms. Wonder then hits him with a powerful energy blast that sends him flying through a wall.

Back with Peter, he quickly dodges multiple swings from an out of control Captain Krypton, flipping out of the way before he can crush him.

"Captain!" He says, trying to get through to him.

But Clark doesn't listen as he shoots his heat vision at him. Peter ducks and dodges the heat vision, while still trying to get through to him.

"You need to fight whatever they're doing to you. We need you, Clark. The world needs Clark Kent."

The Captain then shoulder blocks Peter into a wall, using his super speed. Clark then grabs Peter by the throat and raises him up in the air.

"Think about, Lois!" Peter struggles to say.

When Clark hears this, his expression changes. Memories start to come flooding in of him meeting Lois, moving on with her from is first love Peggy Carter, asking Lois to marry him. Clark then let's go of Peter and let's out a loud scream, freeing himself from whatever was happening to him.

"Sorry. I didn't hurt you, did I?" Clark asks.

Peter smiles.

"No. Unless you call a few broken ribs hurt." Peter says

He then takes the shield off of his back and offers it to Clark. The Captain smiles, and takes it from him.

"We should probably get back out there." Clark says.

Peter pauses for a moment.

"Not just yet." Peter replies.

He then walks over to Desaad and grabs him by the throat.

"First, you're going to do something for me."