Chapter 22

-[Mount Justice]-

-[Dante]-

He stood in front of a large rock, his mouth open as a sonic scream fired out. Cracks began appearing on the rock until it was completely destroyed, blowing the rubble away.

Ending the scream, Dante turned to Dinah who stood to the side. They were currently at the beach area at the foot of Mount Justice where Dante's random screams would cause less property damage.

"Well you're off to a better start than I was." She said as she looked to where the rock was no more.

It was true. Though the first outburst was unintentional, it had become more apparent that it was due to its sudden awakening rather than a total lack of control.

He was still working on controlling the amount of power he used in each scream but the random outbursts were no more.

"You make it look so easy." Dante half complained, getting her to chuckle.

"I've had mine for most of my life so it's expected. It's honestly impressive that you managed to come this far in a couple of days, though you might want to be careful about how much power you put into it." She said.

Seeing his slightly confused look, she explained. "I normally power down my screams to take down the bad guys in a non lethal manner. At full power, I could destroy the mountain but I'd be out for a while after that."

Dante's eyes widened at that. "That's…strong."

It was something he'd never thought too deeply of until now. He mostly assumed the amount of power she used was close to her max. It made sense when he thought about it now. It wouldn't be heroic to tear someone apart with a single scream.

Sonic attacks were very potent.

"That's why you have to be careful when you use it to avoid accidents." She said as a thoughtful look appeared in Dante's face.

Dante's eyes widened momentarily, an idea coming to him. Dinah paused in confusion as Dante levitated another rock in front of him, opting to quietly watch.

Dante grinned as he faced his palm to the rock, a sonic scream firing out of it, cracking and destroying it like he did to the other rock.

"So it can also be used like this…" he muttered in satisfaction as he turned to Dinah who had a shocked look on her face.

"How did you do that?" She asked in shock as Dante turned around to face her, showing his palm to her.

Her eyebrows shot up as she saw a mouth in the center of his palm, grinning at her. "It's fired from my mouth but it's apparently not picky on which one it works with."

"That's creative. I didn't think of that." She admitted.

'Thank you Deidara.' He thought, the image of the blond demolition expert appearing in his mind.

-[Batman]-

This was concerning to say the least.

He thought that he could finally develop countermeasures to stop Dante in the event that he went rogue. The boy had a good grasp of his Martian abilities, some even more than Manhunter himself.

Just when he was close to figuring out a method to stop him, he had been informed that he had apparently inherited Dinah's sonic scream. He'd even figured out a versatile way of using it in tandem with Martian shapeshifting.

Now it was back to the drawing board. With the added ability as well as Dante now getting more creative about using his powers, a lot of the contingency plans were rendered moot.

It also made him wonder. The reason for Superboy's creation was to replace or destroy Superman, Superboy himself had testified to that truth. Any mental programming from Cadmus had been scrubbed clean by Manhunter but that left him with more questions than answers.

What was the reason for Dante's creation? Though Manhunter had cross checked Dante's purging of the Cadmus' programming, it didn't give him answers as to why he was created.

Superboy was a literal tank and shield just like Superman but Dante was the direct opposite. He was more of a thinker but that didn't diminish his powers one bit.

If anything, it made him even more dangerous. With a mind like that and the set of abilities he'd shown so far, Cadmus had created a more capable weapon than they realized.

The question is; who is this weapon aimed at?

-[Teton County]-

-[Dante]-

The easiest way to solve a problem is to solve it before it becomes a problem. This was why he found himself at Yellowstone National Park.

There were children and tourists playing around at the park but if all went well, they wouldn't even notice that something happened.

'I don't expect it to take long really. He hasn't gotten them yet.' He thought as he moved to sit at the foot of one of the trees in the park.

He had assumed a form that didn't belong in this universe. A young man with spiky pink hair in an undercut and light brown eyes. A second pair of eyes rested just below his normal pair, unopened and unique markings on his forehead, nose, cheeks and torso.

The grey hooded jacket he wore concealed most of the torso markings. The marks could easily be played off as tattoos but anyone from his former world would recognize his form for what it was.

Spreading his mind around him, he made a minor use of his telepathy, making everyone ignore him if they weren't already doing so.

When he was sure there were no eyes on him, he entered camouflage mode, shifting his density as he sunk into the ground.

As he moved beneath the earth, he spread his telepathy once more, searching for something. With the directions he remembered, it didn't take long before he found what he was looking for.

Increasing his speed, he made his way to the mind he found. Soon enough, he found himself in what looked like a robotics lab.

Still in camouflage mode, he saw a male with green eyes, black hair and a pencil mustache working on a red robot that he recognized as Mister Twister.

'So he's making another one.' Beside him was a thin man with green eyes, longish brown hair and thick sideburns.

He needed to be in character if he wanted this to play out properly. He silently landed some distance behind both of them, undoing the camouflage.

*Clap* Clap* *Clap*

He clapped softly, gaining their attention as they turned around in shock. "Why hello. I saw that you were busy so I decided to let myself in." He said in a confident manner bordering on arrogance.

"How did you get in here?!" The black haired male questioned in shock as the other man quickly ran towards one of the computers, typing something.

"If I'm not mistaken, you must be T.O. Morrow, right?" Dante asked, uncaring as the incomplete Mister Twister raised its hand, a compressed blast of wind shooting towards Dante.

Looking as unfazed as possible, he wrapped his hand with his telekinesis, blatantly slapping away the attack as it reached him.

"Of course I am. If you know that then you should know that you're in the wrong place." Morrow said as Twister's arms rose to face Dante, unleashing another blast of wind.

They were disappointed as Dante used telekinesis on his body dashing forward at shocking speed as he was immediately in front of Morrow with his hand on his face.

"Wrong answer. I don't like dealing with fakes." He said condescendingly as he slammed the scientist's head into the ground.

*BOOM!*

The force was powerful enough to cause a shockwave that pushed the other man to the ground and flipped over Twister to the ground. The wind manipulating robot hadn't been fitted with legs so it was unable to quickly stand.

As the dust settled, instead of blood and gore that was to be expected from the amount of force he used, all that remained were tiny destroyed pieces of an android.

The android that was T.O. Morrow was no more. Wind picked up as Dante turned his head to see Twister hovering with the tornadoes it generated.

"Your turn." Dante said simply, waving his hand diagonally through the air.

Nothing happened for a moment until the tornadoes stopped as a diagonal cut appeared on Twister's torso, splitting it in half.

He had practiced his telekinesis until he had achieved an absurd level of life control. This was basic in comparison. Compressing telekinetic force into a thin but powerful blade…

Turning to the last man who seemed to be controlling the android from the computers. The man fell down to the floor in fear as Dante walked up to him.

"Stop! Who are you?! What do you want?!" The man screamed in fear.

"Who am I?" Dante asked rhetorically. "Since you're so curious, I'll let you know. I am…"

A cruel smile appeared on his face. "Ryomen Sukuna."