Chapter 53: The Final Game 3

"talking"

'thinking'

"Ghost Rider Voice"

"Spells"

--------

Chernobyl, in the fight

Edgar arrived like a projectile to the battlefield at a speed of Mach 50. As he strolled through the entire outer area, he was dragging the humanity of Solomon Grundy, the great zombie that was about to finish off the queen of the Amazons, who was destroying the pavement wherever he passed.

He did not remain idle either and with his shotgun he sent projectiles specifically towards the weapons of the tanks that were positioned in the area. Before, he would have to take a long time to reload each shot, but that was no longer the case. Right now it looked like a machine gun, launching fireballs left and right, melting the tanks' plasma cannons.

In short, Edgar was wreaking havoc for the enemies on the battlefield.

For the heroes, his arrival was like the best of news. Not only because a strong ally had arrived and gave them a better chance of victory, but because his arrival indicated that the kidnapped children were safe, and that brought relief to everyone.

Well, not everyone. The Light was engulfed in despair over this event. One of the angriest, watching it all from the sky, was none other than Lex Luthor. At this time, he wore a less large neon blue robotic suit with the "L" on the chest. His biggest problem at first was mobility and weight, and now this had been solved. His suit was now for agility in the sky. But he had lost attack strength.

Holding a hand to his communicator in his ear, Lex communicated with The Thinker.

"Thinker, that monster just arrived. The plan to hold him didn't work"

"I know, Lex. My sensors picked him up first. We weren't alerted to him looking for the children either. If he had, he wouldn't have lasted so short a time"

And that was true. They were a lot of warehouses and if Edgar had searched for the children alone, he would have lasted quite a while, more than enough time for The Light to fulfill its purpose.

What they never expected was that the Teen Titans were the ones who carried out the mission and that Batman, with his great reasoning, had narrowed the search and shortened the time. Now the kids were fine, The Light was desperate for Edgar's arrival, and Edgar was at his full power.

"Then do something, call for troops, launch missiles, launch robots, but stop it. There's still time left to finish the Vandal process"

[Project Cadmus completion percentage: 86%]

"I'm on it" Thinker said, as he cut the communication. Lex could be very annoying at times. Thinker started programming everything with his mind and activated every missile he had available.

Quickly over 50 missiles flew into the sky with a single target. The largest heat signature that was strolling all over the outer zone and was quickly reaching the inner zone.

However, Edgar made no pretense of slowing down. On the contrary, he began to accelerate up to Mach 55. He, who had scanned the entire area with his sensors, practically 'saw' the most important thing on the battlefield. And so, he turned slightly to the right to head towards a tank that was upside down and was at an ideal angle to make a ramp. Edgar took advantage of this and, on impulse, jumped high into the sky.

However, he never descended. On the contrary, he began to use his fire to continue maneuvering in the sky. That's right, Edgar was flying his motorcycle. Something he learned in his training and that frankly, at this moment, excited him like a little child. And who could blame him. We all dream of flying in the sky sometime.

All the missiles turned and positioned themselves in front flying at full speed to intercept him. They were all powerful enough to easily destroy part of a large city. But Edgar was not fazed by this. He waited.

And waited

And waited

And when the missiles were just a few meters away, he finally moved.

What was happening at this moment was that while Edgar was flying in the sky, Grundy was hanging from the chain like a big rag. And this was what Edgar wanted.

Edgar used all the strength he had and quickly pulled on the chain, sending Grundy hurtling towards the front of the bike. Grundy was now in position to receive the missiles. Finally, Edgar released his grip on the chain, and, releasing his power, descended at great speed. The momentum left Grundy floating for a moment, and he was going to descend by the force of gravity, but it was too late. The missiles had arrived.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!"

Everyone stopped fighting for a brief moment to watch this spectacle. A huge atomic cloud was seen in the sky that blinded practically everyone. However, the beauty of the spectacle did not last long as chunks of rotting flesh quickly fell all over the battlefield. Grundy had practically been shredded into thousands of tiny pieces by the power of the explosion.

Edgar, however, did not go down to the ground, but activated his power again and flew back into the sky. He had finally seen his first victim, and the one he believed to be the most troublesome.

Edgar was specifically seeing the soul of Mordru, the Lord of Chaos, and now he understood why he was so powerful. His soul was not at all like that of other humans. From its size and density, it resembled that of a god. However, it lacked divinity, and glowed in dark hues.

This indicated a major problem. The 'stare of penitence' would not work on him. However, this did not discourage Edgar, as he still had other ways to defeat it.

Edgar took his shotgun and aimed it at Mordru.

"BANG!"

"BANG!"

"BANG!"

Powerful fireballs were launched at high speed towards Mordru who was distracted fighting Doctor Fate. He didn't even turn around or notice this. The balls practically collided in all his humanity.

!!!!!!!!!!

Mordru finally felt the hellfire in his body and turned to see Edgar heading towards him. But it was too late. Slowly, his whole body, was disintegrating into little pieces.

"...You" was the last thing he said before his body completely turned to dust.

Mordru was dead....

..

..

..

..

Or so everyone thought, because quickly the dust began to form again and Mordru was back to his old self. No imperfection on his body was to be seen. Even his robes looked spotless.

"You.... You thought it would be so easy, hahahaha. How naive. I AM A LORD OF CHAOS. Killing me will be just as difficult as killing you, Rider. But I must admit that your fire certainly is a danger. I felt pain like never before"

Mordru began to summon his power. His eyes glowed red and thunder began to fall, as the weather darkened from the buildup of dark clouds in the sky.

"You are dangerous. And that's why I need to get rid of you"

Mordru activated a great seal and the black clouds accumulated forming a large monstrous form. It was a huge shadow dragon. 

"RAGGGGGGGGHHHHH" roared the dragon, as it flew with its large body towards where Edgar was standing. The sight was comical to see, as Edgar looked like a fly compared to the size of the dragon.

But Edgar didn't flinch, instead he began to perform one of his favorite moves. He changed his fire to a blue fire and grabbed his chain, setting it on fire. He then began to spin the chain in large circles, generating a huge blue tornado in the sky. The tornado began to grow larger and larger until it matched the size of the dragon.

Dragon versus fire tornado collided in the sky fighting to be the last to prevail. In the end, the tornado began to destroy the dragon's dark body, beating it in the fight. 

"Impressive, Rider. But this was just a decoy" Mordru said as he snapped his fingers. A red portal materialized right behind where Edgar was standing. Then a shadow came at a great speed, knocking him off the bike and sending him through this portal.

"That'll stall him for a moment"

"Where did you send him, Mordru?" asked Doctor Fate in his ethereal voice. Unfortunately he didn't reach out to do anything to help Edgar.

"A hilarious place, brother. To the first floor of hell. You know. Thousands of demons wanting flesh, potent smell of sulfur and death. Great place to vacation. That'll do for a while-"

But he could no longer say anything, when a blue portal materialized on the ground. Out of it came Edgar carrying two heads of two demons he had killed before returning.

"Well, I guess it didn't hold him long"

However, Mordru's mind had only one thought.

'As I suspected. He became more powerful' he thought. This confirmed his theory that Edgar had become more skilled in his power as a Rider in this time, and that was bad for everyone. He would be a difficult opponent to defeat of the same level as his brother.

Mordru looked at his brother, and then turned to look at Edgar. He began to build up power in his body. However, he couldn't do anything else, when a projectile arrived right where Edgar was at a much higher speed than he was driving. It was Black Adam.

Black Adam took him flying away from where Doctor Fate and Mordru were.

'Someone is anxious to fight the Rider' thought Mordru. This was for the best. If that Adam kid wanted to play with the Rider, who was Mordru to spoil his game.

Mordru summoned his power and multiplied into hundreds of identical versions of himself. Hundreds of Mordrus were now flying in the sky.

"Well, brother. Let us continue our dance" said all the Mordrus in unison.

However, Doctor Fate did not stand still and also multiplied hundreds of times, matching Mordru's amount. A golden Arkh and a dark red Fasces materialized in the sky just then.

After looking at each other for a few brief seconds. They both moved. Hundreds of Mordru against hundreds of Doctor Fate collided, continuing their fight of biblical proportions. And from the looks of it, it was going on for a long time, as none of them gave any quarter.

-------

Black Adam had carried Edgar away and after several kilometers, he finally smashed him hard into the ground, creating a powerful crater and generating a tremor in the area from the blow.

Black Adam did not mince words and began to strike Edgar's skeletal face with his fists imbued with yellow lightning.

Right fist

Left fist 

Right fist

Left fist 

Right fist

Left fist 

Each blow he struck generated a powerful sound of thunder. It was so powerful, that Edgar's fire was momentarily extinguished with each blow struck. Finally, after severe blows, Black Adam had enough and looked up to the sky, and shouted.

"SHA-" however, he was unable to finish his mythical sentence, as Superman arrived at that moment flying at full speed, and carried Black Adam away. 

Superman had been sent away with a powerful attack earlier, and it had taken him to recover from the aftermath. When he was ready, he saw that Adam was hitting Edgar's humanity, so he no longer hesitated and went to help his partner.

Edgar, despite the powerful blows, stood up calmly, shook off his dirt-filled clothes with his hand, and put his fingers to his mouth.

'Oh, shit' he thought when it finally dawned on him. He was going to whistle, but right there he realized that Black Adam's powerful blows had completely dislocated his jaw, and it now hung completely loose.

Edgar adjusted his jaw. He moved his neck sharply, snapping it. And finally he did what he wanted at first. He put his hand to his mouth and....

"Phew, phew" he whistled loudly.

Then, he quickly ran several meters and jumped as high as he could. However, he never fell to the ground, as just then his motorcycle arrived and he climbed on it. 

Already on the motorcycle, Edgar began to increase speed to match the flying speed of the Kryptonian and the champion of the Egyptian gods.

They were flying at about 100 times the speed of sound, and Edgar had never reached that much before, but he was slowly using more power to match them.

If Black Adam thought it was too easy to just beat him and walk away without consequences, he was sorely mistaken.

-------

Batman was still battling Deathstroke on the battlefield. Both were proving why they were the best of the best among fighters as they used every thing at their disposal to defeat their opponent.

Kicks and blows delivered from both sides in spots that could easily cripple or kill a normal human. Bullets inches from the face and explosive Batarangs that could knock someone out with the power of the blast. None of them gave any quarter.

However, the one in a hurry here was Batman, as he was desperate to get out of there and into the subway area where the Project Cadmus was. Batman needed to get out of there, and continuing to fight the super soldier was no longer an option.

[Project Cadmus completion percentage: 88%]

Batman was at this point figuring out what to do so he could get rid of Slade and get out of there. However, in that moment of hesitation for his thoughts was enough for Deathstroke to take advantage and throw a kick at Batman right in the cheek, which knocked him completely to the ground.

"Distraction is death in our profession, Bats"

Batman quickly got up and spat pooled blood from his mouth onto the floor. The kick had numbed his chin and he was sure a tooth was loose. But this did not change his demeanor or interrupt his temper. Rather, he took this moment to visualize the battlefield well.

It was chaos. Everyone against everyone. Soldiers against soldiers. Tanks against tanks. And heroes against villains. But Batman saw in the distance that Edgar had arrived. At least that was a good thing. Finally, he saw the sky, and there he could see how he could get rid of Slade. Finally, he looked back at Deathstroke, and said.

"I'm done playing with you, Slade"

"Ha, only you can say this is a game, Batman. But I've had enough of this dance, too. It's time to kill you"

Slade drew his sword, as he had run out of bullets. Batman simply stood there covering his hands with his cape, in his classic upright pose. They both looked at each other. And after a few seconds, they finally moved.

Batman threw at an almost impossible speed, two batarangs, however, Deathstroke just nimbly dodged with simple movements, then ran at superhuman speed and arrived right at Batman. The sword cut right into his chin, but Batman was already expecting it and, in an unexpected move for Slade, he swept to the ground, and with his hand he levered Deathstroke's foot, making him stumble.

Deathstroke got up and was going to cut, but Batman simply pointed his finger up and said.

"Look at your surroundings, Slade"

Deathstroke finally saw what Batman was pointing at. A large red robot was falling at superhuman speed, which had been deactivated due to Batman's batarangs. Actually, these were special as they generated a powerful electric field that deactivated the circuits of these robots.

Batman had planned the whole thing. Distract Deathstroke and make a robot that was flying, fall by the deactivation of its battery to where they were.

Deathstroke could do nothing but run to dodge. In the end, he jumped into a ditch that was over there, and thank goodness he did, because when the robot fell, it generated a small explosion.

"BOOOOM!"

Deathstroke got up and saw that his suit was a little ripped but was generally fine. However, Batman... he was already gone.

'Shit' he thought. His prey was gone. Batman was now well on his way to Project Cadmus.

Deathstroke could lament no more, when a couple of Atlanteans wanted to get brave and attack him. But Deathstroke with a nimble swing of his sword cut off their heads.

Well, there were a lot of these soldiers around. Deathstroke would take it out on them.

------

In the inner area, in the West, there was a half-destroyed building, where a beautiful woman with mocha-colored skin was looking at the whole battlefield. Her face was one of disgust as she did not dislike what she saw.

She was Queen Bee, or Zazzala, who saw everything without moving. She was a queen. Getting her hands dirty at these events was not in her definition. However, a woman's voice interrupted her thought.

"Zazzala, let us avoid unnecessary fighting and surrender. You are alone and no match for me" said a beautiful blonde woman, who had arrived just then, as she struck a fighting pose.

"Black Canary. I can't say I'm glad to see you, because I'm not. Your friends have only brought inconvenience to our plans" Queen Bee turned and looked at the beautiful blonde woman. "But you are right. I alone would never be enough for someone as skilled in combat as you. Frankly I'm surprised. You, a woman, proving that you are better than many men in the League. That is to be respected. I'd give you a job offer, but knowing you I'm sure you'd turn it down"

"Work for you?, a woman who kills and kidnaps innocents, uses slaves and has her people in a dictatorship, yeah, no thanks, I only have a few words for you. You disgust me so much"

Zazzala turned red with fury at these words.

"How dare you talk to me like that, you damned commoner. I thought of leaving you alive since you would be useful, but you've made me change my mind. Shiva, kill her!"

Canary was shocked by this last sentence. Emerging from the shadows, a beautiful Asian woman jumped out and struck Canary. Canary could barely defend herself from the onslaught of this woman.

Canary wanted to scream, but Shiva proved she was on another level when it came to combat when in a perfect combo, she attacked the heroine knocking her out.

Black Canary never knew what happened, as she simply saw how Shiva's hand moved, and out of nowhere she was already on the floor, she couldn't move her arm, and her throat hurt like never before. She wanted to scream, but only a dry cough came out of her throat

"Cough, what, cough, it happened, cough"

If only someone could see it in slow motion. They would have seen that when Shiva attacked, that quick hand movement, it had actually been a combo of four attacks on key points of the blonde woman.

First, she struck quickly right in the center of Canary's throat, eliminating the biggest threat from her scream. Then she switched her hand into two fingers and struck her shoulder, arm and elbow joint at the 'chi' points of the body, putting her to sleep. And finally she extended her palm and hit the blonde woman's chest hard, knocking her to the floor. All that, at a speed not visible to the normal human eye.

"Shiva, kill her. And then, join the fight. Apparently the fools can't get the job done right"

"Yes, my queen" Shiva nodded. Canary crawled and wanted to get up, but Shiva arrived just then and with a hard kick, this one broke her leg with a jerk.

"Aghhhh, cough, cough" Canary grunted in pain, but could do nothing more, as she coughed again due to the powerful pain in her throat.

Shiva finally looked at her, raised her hand and was about to strike her in a key point that would cut off her breathing, leaving her with no air supply, where she would eventually die from suffocation.

But just before she moved, a large shadow materialized and a large dog came out, ramming Shiva and sending her, flying to hit the wall. It was Duke.

He was another important key to Batman's plan. One more wild card in the fight. Duke had one simple job. Hit and run. To melt into the shadows and strike at strategic points in the fight where soldiers or enemy forces would build up. That the heroes were not overwhelmed on the battlefield was to a greater extent to Duke. For every time he appeared, a massacre of enemies was left.

Duke, seeing that the bad Asian woman was knocked unconscious by the blow, turned to look at Zazzala, but she did not panic, but began to secrete her pheromones, at full strength.

"Oh, you cute little doggy. This queen demands that you follow her orders" commanded the queen. There, Duke could smell it.

Such a potent smell of roses, honey, and other combined scents flooded him. But the worst part was that his mind started to go numb because of this smell. Duke began to stir. His red eyes were starting to change from red to pink as a sign that he was being mentally affected by these pheromones. Finally, he stopped struggling and began to cry to prostrate himself before the queen of Bialya. 

"Sniff, Sniff, Sniif"

"How obedient, little dog. Now follow my orders and kill the blonde woman and I will compensate you properly" Zazzala smiled sweetly as she saw that her power had worked on this beast.

Her pheromones worked on men and weak minded women. But it could also work on animals that had no reasoning. Only those of strong will or with a power of telepathy could ignore her pheromones. Which this beast clearly did not have.

Duke stood up, began to growl, and made a pretense of turning to where Canary was.

However, just when Zazzala thought all was well, Duke quickly turned around and in one swift movement, this one swung the woman's head off. Zazzala couldn't even react and practically her gaze was now looking at her detached body.

'Shit' was the last thing she thought before the light of life left her.

Zazzala (Queen Bee) was dead.

"GRRRR, GRRRR" Duke growled as he bit the woman's head off and threw her away. He was angry at this woman for trying to make him mentally succumb to her power. What Zazzala never knew or could have guessed was that Duke had an unquestioning loyalty to Edgar. And that broke any mind control this woman wanted to do to him.

"Wof, wof" (Iugg, tastes like shit), Duke said as he spit on the woman's head. After that, the boss or the female boss had to give him a lot of cookies at the very least.

"Thank you, for saving me" Canary said hoarsely. Her voice still hadn't fully returned but she was already feeling better. Her arm was also starting to move. But the leg was still broken, so she could no longer fight.

'Wof, wof, wof, wof' (Give me cookies to get the taste of that woman out of me)

'Is he blackmailing me?' thought Canary. She couldn't understand it, but she sensed that he barking was not a 'Yes, it was nothing', but outright blackmail.

"Emmm, I don't understand you, but I need your help. I can't move. And I'll be easy prey here. If you could get me out of the city, I'd really appreciate it" Canary pleaded as best she could with her tone hoarse and dry.

"Wof, wof (Okay, but don't forget the cookies)"

Duke picked her up and ran at full speed through an area that didn't have as many soldiers. Zazzala was dead, Shiva was out cold, but Canary wasn't out of danger either. Now they had to get out of the city, to avoid the fight.

----------

At another point on the battlefield, Atom flew with his tiny body from man to man, knocking them all out. His strength was the same as when he was an adult, so he was practically a human bullet.

He went on like that for quite a while, until a strong dizziness came over him, which made him stop being small, and return to his normal size. This dizziness was produced by none other than Count Vertigo.

The ruler of Eastern Europe was walking with his cane all over the battlefield with a smile on his face. In a strong Russian accent, he said to the hero who was lying on the ground dizzy.

"Little hero, your strength is special. You have decimated many of my troops. I am impressed" Vertigo began to increase the frequency of sound he produced, causing Atom's world to spin out of control.

His dizziness was such that a little blood was starting to come out of his nose. And no wonder. The frequency Vertigo was using was so high, it would practically kill anyone easily. That he was still alive, only proved his willpower.

"But, even though you're good, I always felt that you were never enough for the powerful group of The Justice League. There are even people who still forget about you, little hero. Simply put, The League is too big for you, hahahaha"

Vertigo began to analyze Atom's suit closely. There he could see that he was special.

"Oh, I couldn't understand how the bullets bounced off them every time they touched you. Now I understand that you have Promethium at your disposal. And dense enough to resist the high caliber bullets of ours"

Vertigo, positioned himself right in front of Atom, who was starting to bleed from his eyes.

"But this is better, much better, little hero. Since I like to do the hard work with my own hands"

There Vertigo started the massacre. He raised his staff, and repeatedly beat down Atom's face.

Blow after blow was leaving a bloody mess, all over the floor.

"You may wonder how this staff hurts more than bullets and wounds you easily despite your armor, well, actually, this stone that looks like a diamond" he said pointing to the stone on the staff, "It is not a diamond, but comes from a meteorite that was found in my homeland long, long ago, and was refined with many years of work. It is the highest standard of my people, and only the king carries it. Moreover, it is harder than Promethium. Unfortunately, there is only this small rock in existence, but it is enough to do the job.... You should have kept playing scientist and avoided this fight"

Vertigo was going to strike again with all his might, but Atom, in a fit of rage, ignored all the dizziness and all the pain, and, made himself small, flying straight for Vertigo's ear. Vertigo could not avoid it and felt as if a small mosquito had gotten into his ear. With his hand he wanted to dodge it, but he was too slow.

What followed next, however, no one expected. Not even me, the author writing this, expected it.

Atom, who was inside Vertigo, gave up his power and became great.

"SPLASH" all of Vertigo's brains scattered all over the place as his head exploded, splattering the whole area. From there, an Atom filled with blood, flesh and brains came out.

Count Vertigo was dead.

However, this was the last thing Atom could do because he quickly closed his eyes and passed out.

'I'm sorry, Jean' Atom thought for the last time. A tear fell from his face as he remembered his wife for the last time. He would have loved to give her one last kiss and tell her that everything would be okay, but he was feeling cold. The light of his life was fading.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a group of soldiers arrived, and were about to finish him off with their bullets, but just as they fired, a large lithe body covered the fallen hero. It was Plastic Man.

Plastic Man transformed his hand into a large sledgehammer and gave a sweep to all the soldiers, knocking them out in one go.

"Booyah, no one can match Plastic Man's style!" said Plastic Man as he smiled narcissistically. But his cheerful demeanor ended when he turned and saw the scene behind him.

'Holy crap' he thought. Atom was a bleeding mess. Then, when he went over to check, he saw that his breathing had stopped.

Just then, however, someone chanted a spell in Latin.

"Gnilaeh retaerg" chanted Zatara with his wand. A golden light flooded Atom's bleeding body, causing his severe wounds to heal at a visible speed.

..

..

..

However, it was already too late. The longed-for breath never came. Atom's heart had stopped long ago, and although the magic spell was powerful, it was too late.

Ray Palmer (Atom) was dead.

There was silence in the place. Neither Zatara nor Plastic Man spoke. They couldn't. They didn't believe it. Their friend. He was dead...

Zatara put his hand to his communicator and, though his throat wouldn't allow it, said.

"Zatara to the League and the Outsiders. Atom is... Atom is dead"

Everyone on the battlefield stopped when they heard him.

Canary, who had arrived outside with Duke, couldn't believe it.

Batman, who had snuck into the subway facility, also stopped for a moment, but then he kept running. He was sad, Yes, but he couldn't stop as time was pressing.

Superman even stopped chasing Adam and shed a tear at the news.

No one could believe it. There they finally realized that this fight would not be easy, and that a distraction would be fatal for anyone. However, this sad news brought renewed conviction in the heroes.

If this fight had once been for the liberation of the world, it had now become personal.

The fight continued…

-----

AN:

My P@treon 

TioIroh99 (12 chapters ahead). Finished this arc on chapter 64 in P@treon. 

If you like my story, leave me a review so that more people are interested in reading it.