Next Level 1/3

"You are coming with us."

(A/N: He said it twice!!)

"As much as I would love to." He paused and glanced at Kara who was floating next to Clark.

Feeling his gaze upon her, Kara's face started to heat up as she was reminded of the kiss he forced upon her. She couldn't forget about him even when she was busy with her company which made her believe he did something to her. However, she was checked by her Clark and even their sorceress Zatanna said there was nothing wrong with her body.

Did that mean she actually wants to be with him?

Kara was seriously confused, but then she noticed a woman in Ethan's arms and suddenly she started to clench her fist as she felt uncomfortable seeing another woman close to him.

Was the Kryptonian jealous?

Only she would know...

"Hmmm...Honeybun.." Harley stirred from her sleep after all of the loud noise. She still felt a bit weak, but it seems like she was recovering like Tydris said which was a good sign.

"Ssh...Just go back to sleep." He muttered, planting a kiss on her forehead which caused her to murmur with delight.

Somehow seeing such a scene caused Diana to frown as she wished to be treated tenderly by the one she loved. She'd glanced at Bruce and sighed as she knew that he'll never be the one to do such a thing.

'Ethan at least found me attractive...otherwise he wouldn't have pinned me down at the restaurant right?... Ugh stupid! Don't think of such things.' Diana thought.

Ethan shook his head, "As much as I would love to...I have other plans. We'll have to do this when I'm not tired and carrying my injured wife here."

"What?! You're married?!" Kara blurted out and instantly regretted it as everyone started to stare at her.

Ethan chuckled at this, and held Harley a tighter, 'Hold a bit tight ok?' He whispered.

Harley happily obliged, burying her face into his neck as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

'Raven I need you.'

'I'm coming.' The half-demon quickly answered.

>>>><<<<

Unlike Myra and Pamela who went back to the RV, Raven was still nearby as she was watching over the boy she took to the hospital.

Alex's situation was a bit better, but the doctors said they would need to keep him in the hospital for a while. The boy would ask for Nightwing up until he finally passed out from exhaustion on the hospital bed.

The nurses on sight wanted to get more information from Raven, but the only thing she knew was the boy's first name. Luckily, a woman that was familiar to Ethan happened to be a nurse at the hospital and was dealing with another patient when she overheard a few of the nurses talking about a boy named Alex.

Of course, there were tons of people with the same name, but this one had short blonde hair and green eyes with a small scar on his forehead.

And before she knew it, the woman was already bolting down the hallway to reach the boy's room. A nurse was busy checking the boy over to find anything that could help identify him when the door slammed open.

"What?!" The nurse was startled by the noise and turned to see one of her co-workers who looked like they just ran a marathon.

"Narissa?"

"His name...Alexander Anderson."

>>>><<<<

After getting Raven's confirmation, Ethan focused as much as he could as he needed to stay away from the two Kryptonians until his help arrived.

"Well, See ya!" He shouted as the ground beneath his feet cracked just before he leaped into the air at breakneck speeds towards the opening the two heroes made.

Clark was a bit surprised by his speed, but it was still something he could manage. His body became a blur, flying in front of Ethan to stop his ascent.

"You're not getting away." The Kryptonian declared while throwing a devasting punch towards Ethan's face.

Seconds before the impact, Ethan's hair started to stick up as sides of his cheeks started to change into golden dragon scales.

*Bam!* Instead of hitting his face, Clark's punch was stopped by Ethan's right hand that quickly morphed into a hand belonging to a dragon with frightening claws.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Ethan said, showing his sharpened teeth as he tightened his grip on Clark's fist. "But you're not stopping me!" He roared as he hurled the Kryptonian as fast as he could with his strength.

"Gah!"

"Get out of the way!" Bruce shouted just moments before the impact.

*BOOM!* The floor they were standing on was smashed apart by Clark's body that was flung with enough strength to send him flying through several more floors, scattering smoke and debris in every which way.

Bruce's warning gave the heroes enough time to move out of the way. Robin managed to barely dodge as he moved the unconscious clone of Guardian out of the way.

"Clark!" Kara gritted her teeth and flew after the escaping Ethan to stop him. "You're not getting away bastard!"

Ethan laughed as he glanced back at the fast-approaching Kara. "You want me to stay with you?" He asked.

"Of course I want you to sta-NO!" Kara's entire face was flushed with red after she caught what Ethan was trying to make her say.

'That pervert! Bastard! JERK! AND HE'S MARRIED?!'

"Bitch! Stay away from my man! ILL KILL YOU!!" Harley screamed. She was still severely exhausted, but strangely had a boost in energy when she heard Kara speak. Harley loves Ethan too much to blame him for anything and so if he starts flirting with another woman then...

Obviously, the woman was trying to seduce her man!

"What?!" Kara couldn't believe what she was hearing and she nearly messed up her flying because of it, she was still learning.

"You heard me! KEEP YOU AND YOUR FAT TI-!"

Ethan covered her mouth as he landed on the next floor before leaping again to reach the next. His ascent was fast and smooth, quickly leaving behind the floor he obtain the dragon heart from.

Instead of being embarrassed, Kara grew very angry and started her attack on Ethan when he landed on another floor. Seeing that she was finally attacking, Ethan decided to meet her first head-on with his own.

*BOOM* The attack caused a shockwave strong enough to pick up wind that blew away nearly everything that wasn't bolted down on the current floor.

Ethan's hand was slightly numb, and he could immediately tell that Kryptonian had grown stronger since they last met.

"You've gotten stronger." He smiled as he stared directly into her eyes which were starting to glow red.

"I don't need your compliment!" She was gearing up to use her heat vision to catch him off guard, but Ethan was a step ahead of her.

'Wind!' He used his breath attack, blowing Kara away with gale-force winds that forced her to shield her eyes. Ethan didn't want to injure her so he opted for the attack that will do the least amount of damage to a Kryptonian.

"Honeybun! You need to use your fire! F-I-R-E!" Harley grumbled.

"You want me to kill her?"

"Will you?" Harley looked at him with her bottom lip poking out, making herself look quite cute

"No." He answered with a straight face.

"But Honeybuuun!"

*Rumble* There was a slight tremor coming from below and Ethan already knew the cause.

Superman was coming.

*Swoosh!* Ethan could hear the wind as Clark quickly caught up with him to throw another punch.

Ethan thought about putting Harley down and fighting for real, but doing so would set her up to be caught as Kara was already making her way back to him.

"Two on one isn't fair."

"You should have thought of that when you became a criminal!" Clark shouted.

>>>><<<<

While the two Kryptonians were busy with Ethan, the heroes were met with a familiar face in the form of Martian Manhunter.

The martian hero was invisible the entire time and showed himself after the fight started.

"Is everyone alright?" J'onn asked as his eyes dart around to survey the area. He saw that Dawn, Diana, and Bruce were fine, but then he spotted Robin holding up an injured man twice his size and flew over to help.

"Thanks." Robin sighed. "Sometimes I'm envious of the people with super strength."

"Something that you don't need with Batman as your mentor. You will see that in the future." J'onn said.

"I'm not saying I need it. I'm just saying it would be nice. So, what's the plan, Batman?" Robin said while looking to Bruce for the next plan of action.

"We need to get down to the lowest level. If what Ethan said was true then-."

"He was telling the truth." Dawn interrupted while glaring at Bruce. "Honestly, I think this is wrong. We could have solved this a different way."

"I believe she is right..." Diana said. "If we just talked it over...perhaps-"

"Perhaps what? We'll let a killer join our ranks? That man can't be trusted. There's no telling what he'll do to reach his goal!" Bruce snapped.

Diana glared at Bruce in silence before dropping him on the ground. "I understand your thinking, but I disagree with it. I will never take a life on a whim, but if there is no choice then I will do what is necessary. You should know that I have killed before. Am I your enemy now?"

Bruce was aware of Diana's past but chose to ignore it because she was someone special to him. He couldn't imagine how many people Talia has killed and yet he ignores it because he has special feelings for her.

'What am I trying to do..?' Bruce started to doubt himself which was a rare occurrence, and in the back of his mind, he started to think he didn't deserve to wear this suit. He set out to bring justice on all criminals...not just some.

And the reason he doesn't kill?...

It's because he wants to honor the memory of his parents, and he knows far too well the destruction murder would cause.

However, there was another reason he doesn't kill and it's a reason that only his subconscious would know.

What would happen if someone such as him started to believe that murdering criminals were fine?

Seeing his silence, Diana decided to take the lead of their team. "There's a lot to do. J'onn please get Batman and Guardian out of here. Come back as fast as you can. The rest of us will stay as the cleanup crew."

J'onn only nodded his head before glancing up in the direction of the fighting. Normally, he would have helped subdue the threat, but moments after he arrived he felt like he was suffocating. A dreadful feeling came over him that forced him to turn invisible when he arrived. It was only until he was further away from Ethan that he felt normal again.

'Even now I'm still shaking...' He thought while looking at his trembling hand.

>>>><<<<

Ethan had been avoiding and striking back with the least amount of force to avoid killing the Kryptonian's.

One of them he desired and the other was related, and the situation he was in wasn't the best.

Whatever happened to him with that dragon heart left him exhausted and that exhaustion only increased as the battle continued. Kara's attacks were fierce, but he noticed that she was holding back a little unlike her cousin Clark.

The man came at him like he had some sort of grudge against him.

"!?" Ethan suddenly shifts his shoulder, seconds before Clark came flying at him with a right hook.

*BOOM!* The attack failed to land on its intended target, but still it manages to land on his body causing damage to Ethan's shoulder.

On a good day, he could have avoided that, but he was too tired to move and if he didn't then the attack would have hit the already injured Harley.

The boy scout was playing a bit dirty...

"Honeybun! You can put me down. I swear I'll be fine." Harley was worried about him as she noticed that he was breathing harder than usual and his body started to sweat.

"She's right you know, but of course that doesn't matter anymore. I'll eventually beat you."

"...Beat me?... Me? Lose to you? Hahahaha!" Ethan roared with laughter. It was like he heard the funniest joke in the entire world, something that would even make ones that are incapable of laughter to laugh.

He continued to laugh for a good minute which caused everyone to frown, including Harley as it started to scare her a bit.

"You really think so?" Ethan asked in an eerie tone that sent chills up Clark's spine. At first, Ethan just planned on running away, but now he couldn't even think of it.

The only thing on his mind was to crush the enemy in front of him with everything he had so that they'll never believe that they could beat him.

Never...

>>>><<<<<

A/N: Sorry for the really late chapter, I said I would update and I didn't because something came up. However, I should be having more time to write so my update schedule should be more stable.

Look forward to that and see how this fight turns out!