Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Life Equation

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 25:

Watchtower

Batman stood in front of a large table, surrounded by numerous heroes. Many of them were new and young, recognized for their talents and heroism by the founding members of the Justice League and trained to use their abilities with perfection. Some had spent time with the Titans in San Francisco, learning from Dick Grayson and his team. League members often accompanied others to assist those in need or help them complete their missions. And at times, such as now, the League called these talented heroes together for a threat to the planet.

Now they were here, over twenty of them, along with a large screen projection on the wall showing the Titans in their own meeting room, watching and listening.

Clark and Diana walked in, taking up positions next to the Dark Knight as the room quieted. When the Trinity of heroes came together people stopped talking and listened.

Bruce began by telling the group what the Justice League knew of Brainiac, what the Coluan had done so far, and the thousands of unknown objects that were now heading towards Earth.

When Bruce completed his summary of the events leading up to the current situation, Clark looked at Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern took over speaking, telling the large group everything he and the Guardians of the Universe knew about the Coluan.

When he was finished speaking, it seemed the room turned chaotic as question after question was asked, one more loudly then the other and continuing.

“Quiet!” Diana snapped. Immediately, all voices stopped. She cleared her throat. “Thank you. We have guests arriving shortly that will give us more information on the thousands of enemies or weapons that will be approaching our atmosphere. We will then split into teams and go to the most populated cities on Earth. Transportation will be arranged by Zatanna and Green Lanterns who have mastered the ability of making portals as Hal and John Stewart have. Every Lantern near our sector is coming to our aid.”

“And the military?” Has anyone informed the UN?” Ronnie Raymond asked.

Diana looked towards the back of the room where Alex Danvers stood silently, leaned against a wall with her arms crossed. “We have contacted the DEO and asked that they not warn the UN before we understand more about the situation and what we are facing. Considering the technology Brainiac has, we have a better chance than the military. The Green Lanterns will be in Earth’s orbit soon, setting up a first defense and on the ground we will have… powerful allies.”

Clark looked up and saw the cloaked Kryptonian scout ship hovering above Watchtower. A smile spread across his face as he saw his fellow Kryptonians disembarking. “Allies you will be meeting shortly.”

Silence reigned in the room for the next two minutes, everyone lost in their own thoughts, until the door opened and helmeted individuals in black armor and a red insignia resembling a thin blade on their chest walked through.

Moving in pairs and forming two rows in ceremonial fashion, these individuals were obviously soldiers. Rifles were attached to their backs by seemingly nothing and two handguns of obvious alien design were strapped to each thigh.

Once they were in place, the group of heroes took note as Supergirl walked in, an unknown man next to her. She was dressed in her blue body suit and red cape while the man was dressed in similar armor to the soldiers, equipped with the same weapons but with his helmet tucked under his arm. His dark hair was slightly long and tussled.

Behind the two were a man and a woman. The woman appeared slightly older than Kara but was just as beautiful. She wore an elegant blue dress with the crest of the House of El just below her neckline. The man was tall, with neatly cut blonde hair. He was wearing the same armor as the soldiers only a different red crest was emblazoned across his chest… one resembling the head of a bird in flames.

The blonde-haired man and Supergirl stepped up next to Superman.

“Greetings.” the man said, addressing the assembly. “I am General Non of Krypton. To my right is Lieutenant Kell Ur of the Kryptonian Flamebird Corp, and my niece, Kara Zor El, Councilor of Argo City and Head of the Kryptonian Science Guild.”

“This is Chief Justice and High Councilor of Argo City, Krypton’s leader, Alura El.” Non waved his hand at the regal woman who stepped up beside him to his left. “The men and women who stand in formation are a group of elite soldiers designated ‘Red Shard’. They are assigned as Lady Kara’s personal guard but will fight with Earth during this threat.

“Given our presence, it should be obvious to all here that there are more survivors of Krypton’s destruction than just Kal El and Lady Kara. As of now, the Universe, outside of the Green Lantern Corp, is unaware other Kryptonians exist and that gives us a tactical advantage over Brainiac.

“As I mentioned, Red Shard will help defend Earth, covered in our armor and using our weapons to disguise our nature unless it becomes necessary to show our true power. A group of ten will stay in Metropolis under Kal El’s direction and the other ten will travel to National City under the direction of DEO Special Agent Alex Danvers.

“I apologize for our tardiness, but we have managed to get a clearer picture of what is coming. The objects are not missiles. For lack of a better description, they are androids. At this time, they appear folded in on themselves, in an almost a spherical form but I believe once they land, they will activate and be heavily armed. Kal El has faced the power of one of Brainiac’s human hosts but none of us know what to expect with a completely artificial one.”

Non looked towards Kara. “Lady Kara has discovered that Brainiac is using a different type of transportation to enter and exit this galaxy undetected. He is using interdimensional travel, cutting a tear through the space time continuum and stepping in and out of these tears as often as he wishes. Thanks to her, we now have the ability to travel in this manner, though we would rather not until more tests are conducted.”

“Tested it myself, it works.” Kara interrupted him, rolling her eyes.

“Kara, would you like to address the group?” Non asked, ignoring her cheekiness.

She nodded and stepped in front of Non, much to his annoyance.

“Hi, everybody.” she greeted with a large smile and a wave. “I realize this seems bad, but Brainiac isn’t in the system at the moment. As soon as we take care of this android problem, I have a method for warning us whenever he appears in the planetary system. My personal fighter craft is in space, scanning the Galaxy for mathematical anomalies related to interdimensional travel. I know how to stop him from entering but it is going to take a lot of work for me to turn those scraps of metal humans call satellites into an effective shield… I’m sorry, that was rude. The scraps… I mean the satellites are totally great. Cutting edge stuff. Go, Earth!”

No one said a word, just staring at her instead. Kara cleared her throat. “So, anyway, as I said, Brainiac isn’t in the system right now. Looks like he dropped his minions off to ‘thin the herd’ so to speak. That’s a saying, right? ‘Thin the herd’? It has something to do with cattle, I think. Anyway…” Kara stopped for a moment, really taking in the crowd before her.

“Whoa. What’s your name?” She asked a young Hispanic man in the back of the room.

The boy became immediately nervous. “Me? I’m nobody… okay I mean I am somebody obviously but not like you. It must be cool being Superman’s sidekick. Nobody ever thought he really needed one. But I have to say if you must be a sidekick, you got a great gig.”

Kara clenched her teeth, smiling, choosing not to respond to that and beginning to understand a bit of Lois’s annoyance. “Yes… great. So, what is your name?”

“Jaime.”

“Jaime are you aware you have some sort of extraterrestrial symbiont embedded in your spine?” Kara asked, X-ray vision taking in the likely sentient being running through the boy’s body.

“It’s magical, not alien.” a young female next to him snapped. “He’s my boyfriend. I think I would know the difference between extraterrestrial and magical.”

Kara shook her head, knowing the two would never accept anything short of a magical explanation, and turned to the next person that had caught her interest. “I think I heard Kal mention you. You are Victor Stone, correct?”

The large man machine nodded.

“Is there any way you can turn yourself off if Brainiac arrives on Earth?” Kara asked.

“Turn myself off?” he asked skeptically.

Kara nodded her head. “If Brainiac can take over human bodies with parasites, I would think he could control you easily.”

Victor’s red eye lit up. “I think I can handle Brainiac. No one is taking over my body.”

Kara thought of arguing but let it go. She would figure out a way to protect him later. “Cool man. No disrespect.”

Looking around the room, she addressed all the assembled heroes. “I understand you are all nervous about facing thousands of unknown enemies on your ground, created by the second most intelligent sentient in the Universe. I would be too, but I have great news…”

“Second most intelligent? Who’s the first?” a woman with wings asked. Kara suspected she was a Thanagarian and fought the urge to roll her eyes.

Kara smiled widely. “You had better hope I am, or this planet and the Universe are seriously screwed. Now as I was saying, I understand you are all nervous but there is a high probability you will not have to fight anything. I have a plan to stop the invaders before they are even close to Earth.”

“You do?” Bruce asked, not having heard this in the Batcave earlier.

Kara shrugged her shoulders apologetically. “I figured it out on the way over. I decided to wait until we got here to break the good news.”

“But I saw you an hour ago.” Batman pointed out.

Kara blushed a bit. “Yeah, it took me that long to figure it out. Sorry. I was really hungry though and Kell had nachos… anyway, you should all prepare for battle, but it won’t be necessary. At least I hope it won’t. I believe I have a 98.2% chance of pulling this off and believe me, I have accomplished a lot with worse odds than that.”

The room was once again silent, except for a few whispers, and Kara felt the heat of all eyes on her. She took a moment to study the strange gathering of people.

“So you are saying you are like the smartest person in the Universe? For real?” A large man, nearly the same size as her cousin wearing a red bodysuit with a white cape and a lightning bolt across his chest asked her, doubt obvious in his voice. “You are smarter than Batman? No offense. You’re just kind of… hot to be the, you know, smartest person ever.”

Kara focused on the man, holding up her hand before Hal Jordan could chastise him. “May I ask your name?”

“I can’t exactly say my name without a lightning bolt entering Watchtower and Batman gets pretty angry when that happens.”

“Oh, right, you’re Shazam… Kal El told me about you. You are fourteen, right?”

“Fifteen!”

Kara nearly laughed at his outrage but held it in, though a slight grin appeared on her face. “Well, while you were struggling with the theory of relativity in Junior High science, I was harnessing the power of a star, creating antimatter, manipulating particles most of the Universe has never seen, much less handled, reverse engineering the weapons of two huge battle cruisers, managing the power of a supernova and creating a White Hole to surf my people out of a pocket dimension that was a remnant of the universe prior to the birth of this one, all while telepathically communicating with my engineers using a celestial being.

“So yes, I am way smarter than Batman and thank you for saying I am hot. Don’t worry about the science. Just be ready to fight if needed.”

The room erupted in laughter causing the large man to blush. Even Batman smiled.

“Okay, Diana will assign your teams.” Batman told the crowd, quieting them. “Some of you were active during the battle with Darkseid. Some of you have never seen battle on this scale. Whether we fight today or not, Brainiac has made his move and eventually will come himself. Prepare yourselves mentally for war. Dismissed.”

As the group split up, Non was left standing alone with Commander Zol. The General was not surprised.

Hesitating a moment, the Commander asked, “Sir, can I ask why…”

“You want to know why you are going to National City under Alex Danvers’ direction?” Non guessed.

“Yes, sir.”

Non looked around, making sure that anyone who could hear him, including Kal El, was gone. “Because I want her.”

The shock on Zol’s face was evident. “Sir?”

Non rolled his eyes. “Not that way. Listen, there is a reason I have let her have access to our weapons and armor… that reason being Kara. She is impressed by Danvers’ intelligence and Kara is not easily impressed. Alex Danvers is not only a scientist who specializes in bioengineering, she is also a warrior. You have seen how she fights… you have evaluated her, correct?”

Zol nodded his head. “She is impressive.”

Non nodded in agreement, then continued explaining. “After terraforming is complete on our new planet, the environment, the ecosystem, all developing life must be watched closely. We have a number of scientists who can perform this task, but their jobs will be dangerous, and they will each need to be accompanied by soldiers… and those soldiers will be led by warriors.

Seeing the confusion on the Commander’s face, Non asked, “Do you know the difference between a soldier and a warrior, Zol?”

“Sir? I didn’t know there was a difference.”

“A soldier doesn’t question and always follows orders.” Non said. “A warrior is a different breed of soldier, one who thinks on their feet, not always following orders even though it might cost their career… doing whatever it takes to complete the mission, making every effort to ensure that the entire unit comes home alive.

“Danvers has been trained to think and act like a warrior. According to Kal El, she is highly regarded by the agents under her command.”

“I believe her to be fully capable of leading the missions required to study and tame our planet, as both the commander of the exploration groups and as a scientist. Both will be important traits in discovering what is transpiring on our new planet.

“Kara needs someone she can trust who is physically capable of performing these tasks, so she doesn’t feel the need to do them herself as Zor was so fond of doing, and she trusts Danvers.”

Zol took this in, understanding the General’s reasoning but he still had his doubts. “You would trust a human…”

“I trust this human.” Non interrupted, knowing he needed to work to dispel the Commander’s elitist attitude as much as he was able. “Our helping Earth, our presence here, is not a one-time thing to satisfy my niece’s curiosity. In case you haven’t heard, and apparently everyone knows except Lois, the next child of the House of El will be half human. New Krypton will be tied to Earth in more ways than just Kal El’s presence here alone. He will come with Lois to Argo City for her pregnancy and I believe, once he sees what it is like to be among his people and the fact that we can return to Earth to protect it from invasion quickly if needed, he will wish to remain with us.

“Commander, I am not suggesting we bring a billion humans to New Krypton or even more than two. I am saying that I agree with Kara. There is much to learn here, both in what is wrong with this planet and what is right. Alex Danvers would be a valuable asset. I will offer her the opportunity before we leave. I think as a scientist, with few friends and no living family, the offer will be too great for her to turn down.

“As for Kal El, he has fought wars and led soldiers into battle and victory. Defeating Darkseid and Zod were not small tasks as you know. His fashion sense may come from his Mother, but he has his Father’s stubborn willingness to win even in the face of dire threat. Jor El was a great leader and Kal El has shown himself to be as well. All these gifted and powerful individuals would fight to the death at his word alone. He has a great understanding of Earth and unbelievable mastery of his powers.”

Zol could understand his General’s reasoning and it made sense. “But sir, to let Agent Danvers and Kal El lead us into battle? Neither have a full understanding of our capabilities and my men and women are used to following a strict chain of command. They may not listen.”

Non understood his commander’s reticence, but it didn’t matter. Red Shard were the ultimate soldiers, they would follow orders. “Then order them to listen. Alex Danvers knows National City. Kal El knows Metropolis. Evaluate Alex’s leadership skills and if the situation looks dire, take command but remember I want your opinion on how she leads, not how she follows. Are we clear?”

“Yes sir, perfectly clear.”

“Then prepare your teams and if these androids should land on Earth, show them how Kryptonians fight. No flying or heat vision unless absolutely necessary. Make sure they know that you are not just Red Shard… you are also Rao’s wrath.”

Zol gave a salute. “It will be done, sir. May Rao’s blessings be upon you during your mission.”

Non agreed he would need those blessings since Kara had told him to just do as she says, and everything would be fine. “You as well.”

On the roof of Watchtower, Kell was standing outside the cloaked scout ship waiting on his commanding officer when the ramp came down and Alura walked out.

Kell was stunned… utterly speechless.

“Astra carries a set of armor in every ship in the event she is needed in battle.” Alura told him, seeing the look on his face and explaining how she came to be wearing Kryptonian armor.

“I was under the impression you would be somewhere else… safe.” Kell responded, not yet recovered from seeing Argo’s leader in something other than her normal dress.

Alura smirked. “Safe? I am a Kryptonian. In times of hostility, we do not run to safe places. We defend our ground. Right now, this is my ground. I need your rifle and sidearms.”

Kell stood silently, wondering if General Non knew about this. “Do you know how to use them?”

Alura frowned and crossed her arms. “When Zod invaded the High Council Hall, I took the rifle from a fallen soldier and shot six men in their heads. My father and sister made sure I knew how to use weapons. I assure you, I have seen more combat than you. Weapons, please?”

Kell still hesitated, unsure. “But…”

“Lieutenant, I will not ask a second time. Something you should learn, considering you are a part of this family now, is when I ask for something, I am not really asking.”

Kell immediately handed over his sidearms and rifle to Alura, who checked them quickly and expertly before holstering them to her armor. She patted her soon to be son-in-law on the cheek. “Good luck up there. You may not know how to pilot but I know your father taught you everything there is to know about the weapons on that ship. He will be watching you from Rao’s light. Do not let our Kara place herself in danger. May Rao’s blessings be upon you, son.”

As Alura walked off to join Kal El, Non and Kara arrived, boarding the scout ship with Kell, ready to leave the planet. Kelex was already on board running the final systems checks before takeoff.

“Kara, when we get inside, please put your flight suit on. I believe I made my thoughts clear on these outfits.” Non told her.

Kara nodded. “You did make your thoughts clear. I would think after so many years of knowing me, you would realize I rarely ever do what I am told.”

“So what is the plan?” Kell asked, hoping to head off a fashion discussion and trying hard not stare at Kara in her suit with her Uncle so close.

Kara seemed happy with the change in subject. “Let’s just fly. Kell you have the guns, Uncle you have the controls. Once we reach the group, we will need to fly in front of it closely. Kell you will have to launch rear missiles on my command. Once I send you the coordinates of the target area, it is important that each one not detonate until I give the word. We will be flying at just under lightspeed when we make the run, so reaction time will be critical.”

Non shook his head, somewhat alarmed. “You want to fire rear missiles to detonate at a certain spot? Our missiles are not designed to work in that manner.”

Kara nodded. “Which is why Kelex and I will be in the weapons bay, altering them. I am going to take the detonation core and reconfigure it to split gravity and magnetic pull.”

“You are going to open a tear in the space time fabric, close enough in front of them that they cannot change course, sending them away.” Kell realized.

Kara smiled, pleased that he got the idea. “Exactly. That is why we must move so fast. As the missiles change the fabric of space, the rip behind us will need to be huge. Uncle Non, you will have to get us out of there quickly.”

Non sighed. “How many missiles will we need? I hate the idea of using our entire contingent before we have a chance to combat Brainiac’s ship.”

“Six.” Kara told him. “Six perfectly placed shots. Luckily, I have a great gunner and pilot with me. We should go.”

They moved to the bridge as the ship took off quietly, hitting light speed as soon as they were out of Earth’s atmosphere.

Kell and Kara took a communicator from Non and moved to their respective areas.

Non stood in front of the command console on the bridge and lifted his hands waist high, triggering two black columns to rise from floor as smooth as liquid, wrapping around his hands. He molded the liquid metal inside to allow him firm control as he maneuvered the ship.

Concurrently, black liquid molded his feet to the floor and a helmet dropped from the ceiling, the visor lighting up and showing him the galaxy, even light years away, allowing him to handle the ship at unreal speeds with nearly a thought, considering how sensitive the controls were. The man smiled, despite the situation, as he prepared to take the ship to five times the speed of light. It had been a very long time since he had taken actual control of a ship at this speed, prepared to enter battle.

His smile did not last long when the alert came on in his visor.

“Open.” the man whispered. In front of his eyes was his wife, looking a bit worried.

“Why are you flying the scout ship so fast and not in the direction of Argo City?” Astra greeted without preamble.

“Brainiac entered the galaxy long enough to launch thousands of androids towards Earth. I am on a course to intercept them.” Non answered succinctly.

“And I suppose Kara and my sister are in her fighter craft being escorted by Green Lanterns back to Argo City?” She asked but it was not a question and one Non didn’t look forward to answering if it were.

“Kara is… not in her fighter…” He replied vaguely.

“Then she’s under guard in a secure location?” Astra prodded her reluctant husband.

“She’s… with Kell… but…” Non was stammering now.

“But what? What are you hiding, husband?” the General demanded.

“Kara is… not on Earth.” He stated simply.

Astra looked at him sharply. “Where exactly is she?”

Non sighed, knowing he couldn’t get out of this one. “Kell is manning the weapons… Kara is in the weapons bay, altering our proton missiles…”

“Have you lost your mind?!” Astra shouted, the sound making Non wince from the sharp sound directly in his ears. “You are letting her play with missiles in flight! You are letting her play with missiles at all? Have we learned nothing over the years?! I sent you there to protect her, not take her into battle! Where is my sister?!”

Non tried to clear his throat but it was very dry. “Using your extra set of armor, prepared to defend Earth with Kal El and our soldiers in the event we fail to stop the androids from making their way to the planet. The Green Lanterns in nearby sectors are converging on Earth now.”

Astra was silent for a moment. In a more normal tone, she finally said, “Brainiac just popped into the galaxy, launched an army of androids towards Earth and hasn’t followed them.”

“This doesn’t feel right, does it?” Non asked, sensing she was seeing something in Brainiac’s attack that he was missing.

Astra shook her head. “No. It would make sense to bombard the planet from orbit, while the men and women on the ground dealt with the androids. He could even use his supposed superweapon to shrink a city, hold it hostage in stasis to find a clue as to where his target is… this isn’t right. It is a dumb tactical move on his part. The destroyed androids would give us a clue as to his technology and a few thousand have no hope of overtaking the planet. From what I have found on him, there has never been an instance where he has sent androids before invading.”

Non cleared his head as he knew Astra was doing. Now that her initial anger was over, she was focusing on the problem at hand.

“I am about to hit lightspeed five. Thirty minutes before we reach target. Kara has a plan to alter six missiles in front of them, open up a large tear into space they cannot avoid, sending them to another section of the Universe.”

“I will get back to you after the battle is done. I am watching.” Astra told him sharply and her image was gone from his visor.

Non was left alone with his thoughts, focusing on becoming one with the ship while his wife worked the problem out in Argo City.

Once he was comfortable, the man spoke to his niece. “Kara, how are you doing?”

Kara was not doing well. She had thought it would be easy to change the purpose of the missiles, to turn them from brute force to slick blades. Instead, she was crawling through the bay of weapons, sliding between missiles under her and two feet above her.

“Not a lot of room but I’m almost there.” She somewhat grunted in answer.

“Target will be in range in twenty eight minutes.” Non told her.

Kara shook her head and continued crawling forward. “These ships really need more leg room in the missile bay!”

“Then we could not carry as many missiles. I don’t believe it was ever designed for the purpose of someone altering the payload midflight.” Kell chimed in unhelpfully.

“I know… I’m here at the first one. Opening it up.”

Kara pulled a multitool from her waist and opened the highly volatile weapon, eyes squinting from the small, but deadly, dwarf star core.

After a few minutes, she had the first one done.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Kelex asked through her com.

“Of course, it’s going to work. I sure could use you in here, buddy.”

“I can’t fit.” Kelex told her. “I am analyzing speed and course and believe based on our path of travel, we will reach the point of no return in less time than your Uncle has told you. You need to work faster.”

Kara groaned, squeezing towards the third missile and wishing she had worn dark goggles due to the brightness of the cores. Thankfully, the star cores had been altered and not radioactive or she would have been toast by now despite her current indestructability.

After the sixth one, Kara wiggled out of the bay backwards, feeling Kelex suddenly grabbing her ankles and pulling hard, causing her to land face first on the floor. She jumped up and ran towards the cockpit where her Uncle was, moving to the control board to the right and checking their heading.

Perfect.

“Kell?” Kara queried through her headset.

“Yes?”

“Are you ready?”

“Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Kell responded, then after a moment of silence, added, “Please don’t tell me this will be a recurring theme in our marriage.”

“Probably good practice for you at least.” Kara said nonchalantly. “I’m sending you coordinates now. Uncle Non, how long until we have them in sight?”

“They are coming up now. The first wave is packed tightest, perhaps four hundred of them stretched across fifty miles. I’ve decelerated to half lightspeed. Second wave not far behind, nearly on their aft but spread out… third wave… triangular formation, straight vector, looks like two hundred miles. Kell we will have less than ten seconds to drop the missiles.” Non told him. “Kara, give the word.”

Kara watched the hologram in front of her, numbers flashing across at incredible speeds, but she read them easily.

“The androids are accelerating.” Kell told his crewmates.

“Good.” Kara responded.

Kell felt she was missing the point. “Not good. It is lessening our window. The first wave may overrun us. General I need to force the right guns to merge and form a large blast wave to disintegrate the first ones approaching as we skim past them.”

“Can you do that and still fire the missiles on my mark?” Kara asked, concerned.

“Can you add and subtract? Of course, I can.”

“Do it, Kell.” Non ordered.

Kell merged the twenty cannons as closely as possible on the right side of the ship, the weapons sliding through the seemingly liquid metal. A large blue wave of energy exploded from that side of the ship as Non entered the field in front of his enemies. The androids flew into the wave, disintegrating on contact while the others unsuccessfully attempted to slow down.

“Now!” Kell heard Kara’s voice yell. The coordinates having been preprogrammed, he reached with his free hand and pressed the controls, launching the first missile even as his continuous fire from the cannons left a dissipating wall, just enough to keep the Androids in front of the missile.

After the sixth missile was launched, he felt something strange. Not an explosion, just a sense of… he couldn’t describe it. Kell just felt something was wrong.

He also knew the ship was speeding up. “Kara? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” she told him excitedly. “It’s working. If you feel weird, that’s because I just opened a huge gash in the space time continuum. We just have to make sure we aren’t caught in it. We should be clear in ten seconds.”

Kell glanced at the projected image in front of him and smiled. There was definitely something happening. Though there was no sign of anything unusual on the screen, the thousands of dots representing androids in motion were quickly disappearing.

“We are free!” Kara exclaimed through the comlink. “Are they gone, Kell?”

“Yes, the last wave just disappeared… to wherever you sent them.”

Kell rose from the gunner’s seat and moved towards the cockpit. He saw Kara hunched over a display and Non unlocking himself from the pilot’s stand.

“Kara?” Non asked.

“Rift is closed! Yes!” the blonde told him jumping up and down. “Good job, sidekicks. Couldn’t have done it without you! Kelex, play music. Remy Zero, ‘Save me’.”

Kell and Non placed their hands over their ears at the blaring music that filled the ship. Once they adjusted their hearing to it, they listened to Kara sing while Kelex played background music. Kell glanced at his General who was shaking his head slightly with a fond smile towards his niece.

“Amazing, isn’t she?” Non said quietly. “We just took out thousands of enemies without touching most of them. Nice job on the guns… well done. That large plasma wave is not an easy maneuver to pull off.”

Kell shrugged his shoulders, slightly embarrassed at the praise, but pleased as well. “My father never had the chance to teach me how to pilot but he made very sure I knew everything there was to know about the weapons.”

Non cleared his throat and looked towards Kelex, giving the robot a look that was clear. The music stopped immediately.

“Kara… dearest, where did those androids go? Another dimension?”

“No, I can’t open dimensional doors yet, just rifts to jump through. I don’t want to risk being stuck in a place I can’t get out of.” Kara explained. “I opened a door near the Phantom Zone perhaps two miles away. With their speed they wouldn’t have been able to slow down and are currently residing with my old friend, Aethyr.”

A red light in the cockpit alerted the trio to Astra’s call. Her image appeared instantly.

“The enemies?” She asked directly.

“Gone.” Non assured his wife.

“Excellent. I spoke to Alura over her comlink. She has told me that over three hundred Green Lanterns have arrived on Earth. They will be relieved there won’t be a need for them.” Astra reported.

Non rose his eyebrow. “Three hundred? How did three hundred Lanterns arrive so quickly?”

“Apparently, they had been gathering near Apokolips, prepared to protect it in the event Brainiac…” Astra’s eyes widened as the four simultaneously realized Brainiac’s true plan.

“It was a distraction!” four voices said at once.

“Return to Earth and I will contact the Green Lanterns. Brainiac is most likely attacking Apokolips now.” Astra ordered as her image once again disappeared.

Kara and Kell looked at each other, then both looked at Non.

“No!” he told them, seeing the unasked question on their faces.

“We could be there in twenty minutes.” Kell pointed out.

“We could just look around. It would give us a huge tactical advantage to see his ship at least.” Kara added.

“We could wait till Darkseid’s forces attack and take our own shots, see how well our weapons work on his shield.” Kell said, continuing to try and make their case to the resistant General.

“We are supposed to maintain anonymity. We cannot be seen in a Kryptonian Scout Ship attacking him!” Non argued.

“We will stay cloaked as long as we don’t fire weapons. He won’t be able to tell we are there and even if he does, he will not be able to distinguish our signature from the ships I am sure Darkseid has launched. We will stay back and watch.” Kara reasoned.

“My wife and your Mother will kill me if anything happens to you, Kara!” Non snapped.

Kara shrugged her shoulders. “If we pull this off, Aunt Astra can’t be angry and if we don’t, you will be dead with us, so you won’t be there for her to yell at you. Come on, Uncle Non. Pleaaaseee?”

Non took a look at his eager young charges and felt himself falter. Everything logical thought in his brain told him to return to Earth.

Non dropped his head in defeat. With a great sigh, he finally agreed. “Let’s go save Apokolips.”