Favors

Captain Cold:

A parademon landing on the ship, I aim my cold gun at it but before I can shoot, it charges and hits my gun out of the way. This time, punching me square in the chest, I can feel the breath as it flies out.

Stumbling back, the parademon raises its arms and is about to slam them down on me. However, as it brings its arm down, fire shoots out and forces the monster back.

Looking behind me, I see Firestorm stepping forward while shooting flames from their hands.

"Come on," Blue Beetle says, dropping to the ground and helping me up. Another parademon charging toward us, Beetle fires a blast from his arm cannon. Hitting and knocking the parademon away, he drags me away.

"Come on," bug boy says, "Este es un mal lugar para bajar."

"English kid," I yell, "English!"

"This is a bad place to go down," Beetles translates.

"Believe me," I say, pushing myself up. "It's not by choice."

Back on my feet, I aim my cold gun and fire. Hitting and freezing an entire line-up of demons, the ones behind didn't care. They shatter all of the frozen demons before charging ahead. I stop shooting and switch the dial.

"Everyone," I yell, looking at Firestorm, Catwoman, and Oliver as they stop to look at me. "Get down!"

Raising and aiming my cold gun, white fog falling from the barrel, the three realize what is about to happen and jump down. Firing, I unleash an ice bomb that freezes almost every one of these darn demons.

The second they're frozen, everyone makes quick work and takes them down.

"Shoot," I say, looking at my cold gun as the blue light on it dies down.

"Que," Beetle says. "Que sucdeio?"

I look at Beetle.

"What happened," he translates.

"My cold gun is out of power," I say, "It's dead. And so are we."

Somehow, as if one cue, the second we clear the deck of all the frozen demons, another swarm of these bastards land on the ship and charge toward us. One heading right for me, I cross my arms.

"I got you," Beetle yells, stepping forward. Shooting out his arm, it changes into a sword, and Beetle slices the demon in half.

Superman:

Shooting my ring, I trap a few dozen parademons in a giant yellow bubble. The parademons clawing at the bubble, I swing with all my might and throw them into a bunch more parademons. They crash against each other, all of them stunned now. As they try to clear their heads, my beta fliers and I focus fire on them.

We turn every one of them into dust.

"What," I say, turning around when I hear something strange. It sounds like a mirror is cracking. Looking past the mess of parademons, I see the flying pirate ship being attacked by parademons. They somehow land right on the ship and are attacking the Insurgency.

"What happened? How are the parademons getting through? I thought I saw a shield on the ship earlier."

All my questions are answered when I hear another strange sound. Looking up, I see a pair of laser beams coming at me. Unlike mine, they move in a crooked pattern.

"Omega beams," I say, recognizing the attack right away. Moving fast, I raise my ring and summon a shield. The omega beams hitting the shield, I concrete as much as I can and try to keep it up. Finally, they stop.

"Superman," Darkseid says as he hovers in front of me. "Quite a surprise to see you here."

"I can say the same," I say, wiping my mouth as I prepare my own laser visions.

Darkseid's eyes glowing red, we both shoot.

The Man:

Ducking under a parademon's swing, I run forward and stab the parademon in the chest with my sword. Quickly pulling it out, I hear snarling coming from behind and turn. Blocking with one of my swords, I hit the parademon in its leg and force it down. Spinning around, I slice the down parademon.

Not having enough time to catch my breath, I jump out of the way as a 23rd parademon swings at me.

Its sharp claws going wild, I pull out pellets and throw them. Landing in the parademon's mouth, I watch as they explode and the parademon falls back.

"Tell about spicy," I say, looking around as more and more parademons jump on. "Okay. That's enough! Unless any of these parademons can load cannons, then I don't want them on my ship."

Slicing my way through a few more parademons, I make my way to the Rusted's control. About to reset her shield, I stop when I see Superman not too far in the distance. He and Darkseid are locked in a dual of laser visions, and it looks like he is losing.

"I owe you a favor for saving us," I think, resetting the Rusted's shield. They take a few seconds to recharge before coming back online and stopping any more parademons from boarding. "And I hate owing favors."

Once the crew finishes the rest of the parademons, I scream from the bridge.

"Hold on," I order, putting the thrusters at near full power. Entering ramming speed, I sail right into Darkseid. The Rusted's bowsprit hits Darkseid, he clings onto it at first before sliding off.

"Ahoy, Flyboy," I say, waving at Superman as I sail past him. "This makes us even from before."

Darkseid:

"What is that," I say, shaking my head as I watch the strange spacecraft fly away. I'm about to shoot my omega beams and destroy the spacecraft but before I can, I turn around.

My first wave of parademons is defeated. Their bodies are floating all over space. If I stay, I will have to fight Superman and the green lanterns by myself.

"I will come back," I say, pulling from my belt a remote control. Pushing a button, I call forth a boom tube and enter.

Superman:

"Coward," I say, watching as Darkseid enters a boom tube and vanishes. With the parademons defeated, I look toward the man in sunglasses and his flying pirate ship.

"Kara is most likely on that thing," I think, looking back. "I can attack now. There aren't any green lanterns around, and I still have a lot of beta fliers."

I think it over, before turning and flying away.

Supergirl:

Watching as Kal-El flies away, his beta fliers following after him, I turn to The Man.

"Superman isn't attacking," I told him. "Why isn't he attacking us, and why did he help us before? And why did you help him just now?"

"Because I hate owing favor," The Man replies. "As for the first three questions, I can't really answer these."

The Man turns to look at Kal-El as he soon disappears from sight, his fliers also disappearing one after the other.

"Whatever the reasons," he says, "I'm thankful, and so is the Rusted. We've taken one heck of a beating, and really need to catch our breath. Come on. Back to Oa."

Still staring into space, I nod my head and stand beside The Man as he steers the ship back to Oa. Stopping in front of the planetary's shield, Laria and Arisa fly off and start to chant.

"What's going on," The Man says, looking at Laria and Arisa and then at me.

"What," I ask. "What's up?"

"Oa's planetary shield," he says. "It's down."

"Wait, what? What do you mean by Oa's shield is down?"

Before The Man could answer, green chains wrap around both Arisa and Laria. The chains pull them into the grip of other green lanterns, and the one ordering them is Tomar Re.

"Laria," he yells, floating right in front of their faces. "Arisia. What did you two do?"

"What are you talking about," Arisia screams, struggling to break free.

"The planetary's shield," Tomar Re screams. "The entire fate of green lantern corps. The central battery. It's down, and we have proof it was you two."