CHPT 1: My Ancient Follower, Our Future Endeavors…..

Sector 2814, Milky Way Galaxy, Earthen Date- Unknown, Planet: Ma'aleca'andra….

Mars. With its endless red sanded hills and city-wide ruins. It was hideous. Hideous for the beauty that had long fled the sanded landscape Rankorr traveled. It was like a endlessly decaying corpse in the form of a planet.

Each breeze shifted and swayed the sands, revealing more destroyed and hollow skeletons of

buildings that stood as tall as the skyscrapers belonging to earth. While others were as short as the homes belonging to dogs.

As he flew overhead, under the light of the two moons shrouded in debris clouds, he couldn't stop thinking. What he now flew over the remains of was an oasis once. Torn and stripped of its luster by war. Much like his own home in a lot of ways…..

"Hey, hothead- I hear movement."

The feminine voice emanating from his power ring shook him from his thoughts. Another voice in the background followed, further grounding him in reality. The sound came through his ring, choppy and unclear like an old radio.

BZZSHT!

"—She'-s doing that Kryptonian shit again."

Rankorr halted his momentum and hovered. Tens of thousands of feet above ground listening to nothing but the harsh winds and his communicative power ring that connected him to his team through a shared network of rage.

"Kara. On me." He spoke flatly into the ring as he scanned the grounds below with eyes that couldn't perceive much more than endless sands and ruins.

Something deep in the distance behind him exploded with a gust of deadly winds, followed by a steady stream of violent sound. Sound, broken by speed.

"Here she comes…." He thought.

Not even four seconds later, the gust reached him— twisting and turning the flames that adorned his head like a living crown of red fire.

"What's the plan?" Kara said from behind him.

He turned in the air to face her. Kara Zor-El. The Red Daughter of Krypton. The Blooded Beast of Ysmault. If earth no longer felt comfortable in Superman's presence, they'd lose their mind being in hers. Good. Just how he liked it.

She hovered a dozen or so feet below him, seamlessly dodging and ducking the peeking rays of Mars' two sibling moons. Phobos and Diemos that attempted to shine on her from behind the shifting debris clouds.

Her golden hair hung short, above the shoulders and cupped around her young solemn face. A face she often covered with the garb of the Red Lanters, leaving only her cool blue eyes and soft pink lips to be seen.

"Stop staring and tell me the damn plan." She repeated, angst building up within and causing her blue eyes to shift to a heated shade of red. That same red ran along the interwoven energetic seams of her suit, giving it a lively pulse that stood out against the black skintight fabric.

Silence followed. Save for the flutter of her tattered cape that accented her blurring movements as she dodged more moonlit beams from above.

"Hold on." Rankorr replied.

"For what?! Let's hurry up and get the hell out of here. I don't get why you don't just let us turn this desert ball to rubble." Kara replied, ending her response in a sort of cross armed pout that revealed her exposed stomach and almost made him forget she was supposed to be years older than him.

"Our objective isn't destruction. Not in that way."

Kara turned away from him, waving him off while she continued to dodge the sky bound moonbeams without looking.

"Why are we waiting again."

BZZSHT!

"Because you forgot someone, blondy!" The second feminine voice came over Kara's power ring that Rankorr heard from below.

Kara's cheeks reddened for half a second. Or maybe they always were.

A few seconds later and the sounds of flapping wings in the distance alerted him to the final person he was waiting for.

He turned, looking ahead of where Kara continued to move around in a blur.

Following her previous direction, a blaze of red headed straight for them. Backed by skeletal wings and a hooded head submerged in shadows.

The figure came to a stop, purple glossed lips twisted into an aggravated smirk that matched the physical tension of her body from beneath her skintight lanterns' suit. "Thanks for waiting up."

"Always a pleasure, blue." Kara said, blowing a kiss to her frenemy, Bleez, with her middle finger.

"When we get back to Ysmault, I'm gonna kick your skirted ass a thousand miles." Bleez spat.

Suits glowed, eyes flickered.

"Why not try right n—"

"Before I get to witness my first super cat-fight, allow me to remind you why we're all here. You bloody idiots." Rankorr said before raising his ring to the sky.

Red energy glimmered and danced, slithering from the ring like a snake with wings.

"Oh for the love of Atros! No more light shows! We remember!" Bleez interrupted, placing her long nailed hands on her hips as she leaned forward to enunciate her pleas.

"Oh, you do?" Rankorr inquired.

Bleez glowered, "Yes."

"Then get your fucking head screwed on straight before I take them both off."

"….."

Silence. Silence was good.

Rankorr turned to Kara— who was staring holes into him beside Bleez.

"You still hear movement?"

She nodded. Red sparks popped from her ring.

"Get eyes on it before we engage."

"Isn't it safe to assume it's just more of the Whites? We are on Mars…" Bleez mumbled as Kara began looking at the ground below them.

"No. It's not safe to assume anything on a desolate planet to which we know little. Especially when you consider what brings us here. It could be one of the whites…..it could also be the very ones that almost made my home look like this planet. We got dark energy readings here. I'm not assuming a damn thing. I'm getting eyes and ears on everything that moves. Only then are we going to burn it to ash." Rankorr explained.

Bleez didn't seem to have a counter argument. An occurrence that happened about once a millennia.

"It's too cluttered. I have to get closer." Kara said, pulling them from their conversation.

"Cheeky…." Rankorr said before motioning for them to move closer to the surface with the movement of his head.

"Don't start doing that super speed kryptonian shit." Bleez mumbled.

"Kara." Rankorr said, stopping them a final time.

"What?" She looked up at him, cape and skirt fluttering in the wind.

"Stay out of the moonlight."

She gave a silent nod before taking off toward the surface with Bleez.

Rankorr remained. Emboldened in figure by the light of the twin moons at his back as he watched red beams of light silently streak across the landscape.

His team was scanning the planet, slowly but surely. They'd find the energy source caught by their power rings. And he'd devise the plans needed to maintain their safety and possibly gain a shot at vengeance.

BZZZSHT!

"Hey, fireface! We've got a weird energy reading over here."

A deep and beastial voice said over the rings intercom, vibrating his hand slightly as the voice went on.

"—we thought it was a bug…..but it isn't."

Rankorr raised his ring, "Skallox, how can you be so sure?"

The voice made a neighing snarl before replying, "It's got residual dark energy readings…"

The flames adorning Rankorr's head burned brighter in an explosion of red light before he took off in Skallox's direction.

"Kara, Bleez. On me." He spoke into his ring.

BZZSHT!

"You're lucky it was just some flesh eating horses. I'm on my way." She replied.

"DON't leave me, you bitch!" Rankorr could hear Bleez scream over Kara's ring intercom as another sound barrier was shattered hundreds of miles behind him.

With nothing left to say, he moved to regroup with the rest of his team.

"Found you…whatever you are." he growled.

***

Minutes passed in a blur of destroyed buildings unidentifiable corpses and petty bickering as they chased after their source of dark energy.

"Well if you'd fuck off and get your fat arse out of my way maybe I could shoot a hole in the damn thing!" Rankorr snapped as he flew, bobbing and weaving around his teammates while he argued with a certain giant purple skinned and veiny brute that was the reason for his power.

Before Atrocitus could answer, a blur flew in from above and smashed into the ground where the odd shelled insectoid object skittered across the sands ahead of them.

Like a bomb, the ground quaked and an explosive wave of debris ripped them off the objects heels as a mushroom cloud of sand rose from the crash sight.

"*cough* *cough* who the fuc— "

"AHHHH!! Stupid fucking insect! Making me stay on this moon cluttered dusty pile of FILTH! FUCKK!!" Bleez' words were cut short by Kara's unintelligible curses as she spat caustic blood and shoot purple laser beams from her eyes in search of the object she was attempting to divebomb.

The rest of the team continued to watch and dodge as purple laser beams and flaming blood balls flew from the base of the mushroom cloud. Each beam blasted off into the distance, allowing them to listen as already destroyed buildings collapsed and mountains were sheered in half and burned to glass shards.

"She needs a leash." Atrocitus mumbled.

"You wanna say that a little louder, mate?" Rankorr asked.

"Die in a fire, human." Atrocitus replied.

"Hey, you purple asshole— I'm offended." Skallox said from behind them as they continued to watch.

"So what do you think it was? It's gotta be dead now right? I know we had dark energy readings….but it was residual." Bleez interrupted.

"I can't read anything anymore. No dark energy no nothing…meow…"

Rankorr turned to find the familiar blue furred cat brushing up against Atrocitus' tree trunk legs as it spoke to him. Slitted red eyes teeming with unnatural intelligence.

"I've seen all manner of aliens….I've seen men throw buildings at eachother in the middle of a highway…..I've seen a man in a batsuit with gadgets nearly slay a god. I still thinking speaking to a cat is too far. Get away from me, Dex." Rankorr said.

"The cats right though— I don't have any readings…" Skallox added, equine jaw clacking as he considered if the thing was actually dead.

"Hey, Blondy! You turn it to ash yet Or are you in there having a pillow fight?" Bleez yelled into the clouds.

Before she could reply the ground shook again— only Kara hadn't moved.

The cracks running through the sands widened, allowing it all to fall below ground where it reflected the moons rays and shined a pale blue light on a flurry of shapes flowing through the shadows below surface.

"Oh great! You woke up the natives!" Skallox said.

"That is a terrible sentence for a number of reasons…." Rankorr said as he began to hover above ground and aim his ring at the beings below the cracks.

Before anyone could attack an inhuman chortle shook the silence followed by the blast of a beam.

SSZZHKT!

Woo!

A pale white collection of flesh, muscles and teeth hit the floor below Rankorr.

It was humanoid in appearance. Only larger- at least 8ft and packed with muscle that didn't exactly match the shape of humans. It's skin stretched over its bulging muscles and protruding bones— pale as the moonlight above aside from the scars and burn marks that sat where it's eyes used to be.

He knew what it was. The extra mouth full of bladed teeth centered at its stomach and spiked head only solidified his ideas.

"WHITE MARTIAN CLAN INCOMING!"

Only it wasn't just a White Martian clan. Something they all realized as their rings hummed and spoke into their minds.

BSSSHZT!

"Dark energy recognized…"

Skallox headed for the fray, "Could one of these lowly gods be cowering underground?"

Rankorr thought a reply to himself before he followed along.

"No. They don't have cowardice in such a way…..I'm sure they aren't even here. But whatever is giving off that energy will be mine."

As he flew below surface to join his team in battle, something in the distance rose from the sand. A blue surface. Hard and smooth like a shell. It skittered across the sands on insectoid legs and leapt into the shadows following Rankorr's trail.....