Countdown. Part 24

Think, Palmer! He concentrated with all his might on the insidious improvements to Jimmy's "green matter." Gritting his teeth, he scrutinized every nanometer of the corrupted neurons, looking for some clue as to how to disable the arcane circuitry without killing or crippling Jimmy. He would have killed for an instruction book written in any earthly language. You're supposed to be a genius, so figure this out!

"Are you enjoying your last moments, Kryptonian?" Darkseid gloated. "I know I am, although I admit my attention's been usurped by young Mary." He turned away from Jimmy and Superman to admire Mary's lopsided battle against Donna and Jason. "Look at her fight. Such power. Such vigor. Such anger!" He chuckled in approval. "When the Fifth World dawns, I just might let her live."

Her opponents, on the other hand, were unlikely to last that long. Running out of ammo, Jason holstered his gun and tackled Mary head-on. A twelve-inch knife appeared in his hands and he jabbed it straight at the golden thunderbolt emblazoned on her chest. Darkseid admired his ruthlessness, but not his lack of common sense. The tip of the blade shattered against Mary's insignia, leaving him defenseless before her superior speed and strength. A backhanded slap dropped him like a sack of potatoes. He landed flat on his back amidst the rubble and didn't get back up again. Blood seeped out from beneath his skull, staining the floor of the gorge.

"Jason!" Donna cried out. She flew at Mary with her fists stretched out before her. Sunlight flashed off her silver belt and bracelets. Her outraged face no longer held the slightest bit of sympathy for the other woman. "I swear by the G.o.ds, Mary... !"

Mary laughed at Donna's approach. "You want your boyfriend so badly?" She grabbed Jason by one ankle and swung him like a club at the oncoming heroine. Jason's head smacked against Donna's face, knocking her out of the sky. She crashed to the ground at Mary's feet, providing an easy target for Mary, who clobbered her over and over with Jason's limp body. She looked like she was playing a grotesquely brutal game of Whac-A-Mole, using the former Robin as her hammer. Donna tried to fight back, but every time she lifted her battered face from the debris, Mary pounded her back down into the dirt . . . until Donna finally stopped moving. Only her labored breathing revealed that the super-powerful Amazon still possessed a spark of life.

"Heh." Mary casually tossed Jason aside as she stood triumphantly over Donna's p.r.o.ne body. "How about that? Looks like I'm the last girl standing!"

Indeed, Darkseid thought. It seems Eclipso was right to see potential in you. A pity she did not live to see her efforts bear such delicious fruit . . .

The unnatural green light flooded the inner corridors of Jimmy's brain, serving as a constant reminder that something was terribly wrong. The Atom realized that there was no time to conduct an exhaustive a.n.a.lysis of the artificial implants infesting the cerebellum. I can't stall any longer, he realized. I have to do something.

His eyes zeroed in on the blinking array before him. At a loss, he wondered how his fellow League members would handle a situation like this. I know what Hawkman would do, he thought. The avian avenger, who was probably Ray's closest friend in the League, had a fondness for medieval weapons like maces and battle-axes. What did Carter say once? His teammate's words of wisdom came back to him: "When in doubt, break things."

The Atom took a deep breath, then grabbed on to the crystalline array with all his strength. Hostile electrical impulses shot up his arms, numbing him, but he didn't let go. The alien gizmo resisted his efforts to wrench it free, but, using the white-star technology embedded in his costume, he increased his strength disproportionately to his size. Sparks flew from the infected synapses as the entire array came free at last. Jumping backward from the unleashed energy, he let the crystalline lattice slip from his stinging fingers.

The kryptonite glow flickered all around him, then went out entirely. The emerald brain matter took on a more natural reddish hue. Only the strobe-like glare of flashing synapses allowed him to see his way around the murky cortical folds. Bright arterial blood pulsed warmly beneath his feet. He could only pray that meant Jimmy wasn't brain-dead yet.

I did it! he exulted. I think....

His triumph was short-lived, however, as a loud scuttling noise suddenly echoed through the winding convolutions, growing louder by the second as the source of the uproar grew ever nearer. To his alarm, a horde of silvery alien insects came rushing toward him. Vaguely resembling beetles, they clattered over and under each other in their eagerness to tear the Atom apart. Although the size of fleas, they looked as large as king crabs to the tiny Atom. Their scaly sh.e.l.ls bore the same alien circuit patterns as the array he had just dislodged. Angry pincers snapped at him.

"Uh-oh," he blurted. What were these things? Apokoliptian antibodies?

His only consolation as they swarmed over him, biting and clawing at his flesh, was the realization that he must have done something right to stimulate this kind of attack.

He could only hope that it wasn't too little, too late.

"Aack!" Jimmy gasped.

He felt a sudden shock at the back of his skull, then realized that he could move again. The bright green glow of the kryptonite evaporated, and he stared down at his hands in wonder, watching his flesh turn pink again. Thank goodness! He had no idea what had broken Darkseid's spell, but he couldn't have been happier. He glanced anxiously at Superman and was relieved to see the Man of Steel recovering as well. The greenish pallor retreated from Superman's complexion as Earth's yellow sun restored his strength. His swollen veins constricted. Yes! Jimmy rejoiced. It's a miracle!

Darkseid was taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. "This can't be!" he objected. "You're mine to control!"

Oh yeah? Jimmy thought. We'll see about that. He sensed instinctively that something had changed fundamentally inside his brain, freeing him from all of Darkseid's fiendish constraints. He could feel the stolen power of the New G.o.ds surging through him, merging with the unique abilities Darkseid himself had endowed him with. He was in command of the power now, not the other way around. Now he just needed to take it to the max-and buy Superman the time he needed to recover fully.

Jimmy clenched his fists and concentrated. A hoa.r.s.e grunt erupted from his throat as yet another freakish transformation racked his body. The soiled coverall came apart at the seams as his size and ma.s.s increased at an exponential rate. Thick, olive green scales spread across his exposed skin. Webbing formed between his fingers and toes. Bony claws sprouted from his nails. Darkseid, Superman, and the entire gorge seemed to shrink beneath his gaze as his head ascended toward the clouds.

"Holy Moley!" Mary exclaimed. She craned her head back to take in the entire mind-boggling sight. "Now, that's freaking sweet!"

Jimmy Olsen, helpless cub reporter, was gone. Towering in his place was a colossal turtle-man standing over fifty feet tall. Bulging reptilian eyes sported beady black pupils. Overlapping layers of h.o.r.n.y scutes, each the size of parking s.p.a.ces, armored his mammoth body. Only his flame red hair and freckles rendered him recognizable as he loomed above the startled villains like a prehistoric behemoth.

"You want the power inside me, Darkseid?" Jimmy reached for the smaller-looking New G.o.d with his giant claws. "Come and get it!"

4 AND COUNTING.

OUTSIDE METROPOLIS.

The suburban community of Bakerline was usually a quiet place, comfortably removed from the fast-paced hubbub of the city. Strip malls, supermarkets, and fast-food restaurants served miles of peaceful residential neighborhoods, where the biggest news was generally a bake sale at one of the local churches, or maybe a hotly contested high school football rivalry.

But none of that mattered today as the innocent suburb was laid waste by a t.i.tanic battle between two enormous, inhuman figures. Jimmy Olsen, now a gigantic turtle-man, grappled furiously with Darkseid, who had grown to equally Brobdingnagian proportions to confront his former p.a.w.n. Banks and hardware stores were smashed to smithereens as the wrestling giants lurched against them. Broken gla.s.s and masonry rained down into the streets. Flames erupted from collapsed homes and buildings. Gushers sprayed from fractured hydrants and water lines. Sirens blared above the thunderous din of the battle as ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks raced through the endangered community, trying futilely to cope with the devastation left in the giants' wake. Abandoned vehicles blocked traffic. Screaming men, women, and children ran frantically through the streets like extras in a j.a.panese monster movie.

"You will most certainly suffer for this, Olsen!" Darkseid bellowed. His stentorian voice reverberated for miles in every direction. Their epic struggle had carried them all the way from the Blue Mountains to Bakerline, leaving a trail of utter destruction behind them. Now over fifty feet tall, the evil New G.o.d towered over the hapless business district in their path. He b.u.t.ted his armored skull into Jimmy's jaw.

"Not if I've got anything to say about it!" Jimmy swiped his reptilian claws across Darkseid's chest, gouging the villain's indigo armor and driving him backward into the redbrick facade of a three-story department store. The unlucky establishment caved in beneath Darkseid's tremendous ma.s.s. Parked cars were squashed beneath the villain's boots. Jimmy's webbed feet crushed an empty SUV.

Darkseid lashed back at Jimmy, who landed hard on the mini-mall across the street, flattening the entire complex. "I don't know how my control over you was pried from my grasp," Darkseid ranted, "but no matter. I will still kill you, and the very essence of the New G.o.ds will flow from your corpse into me!" His crimson eyes blazed like h.e.l.lfire. "The Fifth World will be mine to shape as I will!"

"Over my dead body!" Jimmy blurted. "All fifty feet of it!"

"I don't get it," Jason griped. "How the heck did Darkseid get so freakin' big?"

Superman dropped him, Donna, and Forager off on the roof of a deserted apartment building before flying away to join the relief efforts. Thankfully, the entire JLA had teleported back from Rann in time to a.s.sist in the evacuation. From their elevated vantage point, Donna watched as the League did what they could to cope with the emergency. The Flash hurried panicked civilians to safety at lightning speed. Green Lantern used his power ring to scoop up entire crowds in spheres of glowing emerald energy. Wonder Woman rescued stranded bystanders from rooftops with her Golden La.s.so. Hawkgirl carried out her own airborne rescues. The Batwing made a rare daytime appearance, spraying burning buildings with fire-r.e.t.a.r.dant foam. Superman rescued injured men and women from mountains of collapsed debris. Green Arrow and Black Canary, freshly returned from their honeymoon, defended storefronts from looters. His trick arrows and her sonic cry sent the troublemakers packing.

"He's Darkseid," Donna replied simply. Her face and bones still ached from the vicious pounding she had received from Mary Marvel. A bandage was wrapped around Jason's injured skull, while Forager's arm was in a splint. Superman had wanted to take all three of them straight to the hospital, but they had insisted on seeing this earth-shattering drama through to the end. There would be time enough to tend to their sprains and concussions later-a.s.suming the world was still around tomorrow.

"Indeed," Forager confirmed. "The dark one's powers are beyond imagining. I still fear for my Olsenbug's safety."

I don't blame you, Donna thought. But at least we don't have to deal with Mary at the moment. The traitorous ex-heroine had bailed on Darkseid right after Jimmy decided to emulate G.o.dzilla. Donna scowled angrily as she recalled how the other woman had betrayed the Challengers and left them for dead. I've got a score to settle with that b.i.t.c.h, but not today....

She suspected Jason and Forager felt the same.

First, someone had to stop Darkseid from conquering all of reality. And, from the looks of things, that all depended on . . . Jimmy Olsen?

"Perish, Olsen!" Darkseid roared. "And provide me with that which I alone deserve!"

Their gargantuan strife had torn a destructive swath through Bakerline all the way to the banks of Hob's River. A powerhouse blow sent Jimmy reeling into the large suspension bridge connecting the suburbs to the city. Iron supports and trestles splashed down into the churning water. Jimmy's webbed feet found purchase on the silty floor of the river. The cold water invigorated his huge reptilian frame. He grabbed on to the bridge, wresting it from its moorings, and swung it like a club at Darkseid. Steel girders and concrete smashed against the New G.o.d's dark blue helmet. The clamorous impact rattled windows all across Metropolis.

"What you deserve, huh? Well, mister, you've got it!"

Tinier than ever, compared to Jimmy's colossal new proportions, the Atom scurried stealthily through the quivering canyons of the oversized brain. The silvery antibodies, which had also grown in proportion to Jimmy's cerebellum, now looked as large as crocodiles. They scuttled about aggressively, clacking their pincers together, but, without even shrinking on his own, the Atom had become too insignificant to attract their notice.

Thank heaven for small favors, he thought. No pun intended.

His blue and red costume was sliced and shredded from the antibodies' a.s.sault. Countless minor scratches and lacerations stung like h.e.l.l, but, taking a quick physical inventory, he appeared to have escaped serious injury. Jimmy had undergone his inexplicable growth spurt just in time.

A violent tremor shook the cerebellum, knocking the Atom off his feet. A ledge of spongy gray matter cushioned his fall, yet the seismic disturbances continued to toss the Atom from side to side. The Atom felt like he was stuck inside the San Andreas Fault during a major earthquake. Climbing back onto his feet, he stumbled awkwardly over the shuddering cerebral jelly. "Jeez, Olsen," he griped. "What the h.e.l.l is going on out there?"

He was tempted to exit the brain through the nearest convenient orifice. Unfortunately, he still had work to do inside Jimmy's violated cranium. Although he seemed to have turned off the kryptonite effect, and somehow transformed Jimmy into a giant, by disabling that one biomechanical implant, still more alien circuitry extended deeper into the innocent reporter's hindbrain. Like a prospector tracing a vein of glittering ore through a sweltering underground mine, he followed the flickering circuitry down the cerebellum into the brain stem, along the path of the posterior inferior cerebral artery, until he glimpsed a brilliant golden glow up ahead.

That better not be just an overactive synapse, he thought as he squeezed through a slimy cortical fold to get a closer look. The light was so bright that he had to shield his eyes with his hand. Blinking into the glare, he stared in wonder at the source of the dazzling illumination. Paydirt, he realized at once. That is definitely not a synapse.

Embedded in the throbbing fissures of the medulla oblongata was a crystalline disk boasting intricate patterns of glowing circuitry. Alien symbols, of unknown meaning and origin, were etched into the surface of the crystal. The arcane characters vibrated before the Atom's eyes as though imbued with literally supernatural power. Raw energy emanated from the disk, enough to make his hair stand on end.

"Oh my G.o.d," he intoned. Ray Palmer was not a religious man, especially given everything he had endured over the past few years, but a sense of genuine awe flooded over him as he beheld the futuristic artifact before him. He knew in his bones that he had discovered the hidden repository in which Darkseid had trapped the souls of the New G.o.ds.

And was it just his imagination, or could he actually hear their voices whispering at the back of his mind, calling out to him in unison?

Free us, Ray Palmer. Return our souls to the Source.

The tide of battle was turning against Jimmy.

In the heart of Suicide Slum, not far from where Jimmy had witnessed Sleez's death, Darkseid seized the giant turtle-man's throat. Scarlet energy flared from Darkseid's gauntlet, delivering a volcanic shock to his foe. Smoke rose from Jimmy's singed red hair. His scales cracked and blistered. He let out a high-pitched yowl that sounded like a tyrannosaurus in its death throes. His clawed hands slashed wildly at Darkseid's wrist, but could not break the New G.o.d's death grip upon his throat. Darkness encroached on Jimmy's vision as he started to black out.

"All this destruction, all this struggle," Darkseid mocked him, "and all you've managed to overcome is my patience." He levitated from the trampled cityscape surrounding them until they were floating in the air high above Metropolis. An unnatural vortex, composed of turbulent black clouds, formed overhead as though the atmosphere itself was reacting to the cataclysmic forces unleashed today. Violent winds filled the air with debris. Heat lightning flashed over the city. The rivers girding Metropolis were whipped into froth.

It's over, Jimmy realized. His arms dropped to his sides as the last of his strength deserted him. He hung helplessly in Darkseid's grasp, his webbed feet dangling above the demolished slum, while praying that somehow Superman and the Justice League would succeed where he had failed. Darkseid was just too powerful. I can't beat a G.o.d....

"Now," Darkseid proclaimed for the all the universe to hear, "for the Fifth World to be mine, Jimmy Olsen must die!"

"Or not," a much smaller voice disagreed.

The Atom leapt from Jimmy's ear, rapidly gaining size and ma.s.s as he did so. At the same moment, Jimmy suddenly shrank back to his own normal proportions. His scaly hide melted away so that he was no longer a turtle-man, but simply plain old Jimmy Olsen once more. "What?" Darkseid gasped as the tiny mortal slipped between his fingers.

Jimmy plummeted toward the ground. A cold wind rushed past his face, reviving him just in time to see the broken pavement rushing up to meet him. Closing his eyes, he braced himself for the final, fatal impact. Just my luck, he thought. I escape Darkseid just to get splattered all over what's left of Suicide Slum!

"Don't worry, Jimmy. I've got you." With only seconds to spare, Superman swooped to the rescue. He grabbed on to Jimmy and swiftly flew him away from Darkseid. Opening his eyes, Jimmy saw the rest of the Justice League hovering at the fringe of the battle, waiting for the right moment to intervene. Donna and Forager waved at him from a glowing emerald platform generated by Green Lantern's power ring. Standing between the two women, Jason Todd nodded sullenly in his direction. He was relieved to see that they all were still alive.

Especially Forager.

"You're safe now," Superman promised. "Thanks to the Atom."

Shimmering atomic orbitals surrounded the Atom as he let the swirling winds carry him onto the top of one of the few dilapidated buildings left standing in this urban war zone. He touched down on the tar-papered roof of the tenement. The luminous rings around him faded as he a.s.sumed his normal human height. His right hand held on tightly to a palm-sized glowing disk.

This is it, Ray Palmer realized. This is why the Monitor sent Donna and Jason chasing all through the Multiverse to find me. This is my moment.

An ordinary man or hero might have been intimidated by the fact that Darkseid was now the size of a skysc.r.a.per, but the Atom was used to facing foes many times larger than himself. "Hey, stoneface!" He held the glowing crystal disk up so that the giant villain couldn't miss it. Waves of neo-divine energy emanated from the captured artifact. "I've got your little soul battery! Straight from Olsen's medulla!"

Darkseid's crimson eyes widened in alarm. For the first time in recorded memory, fear showed upon the tyrant's face. "What? It cannot be!"

"You want it?" the Atom taunted him. "Well, tough!"

Without hesitation, he crushed the soul-catcher in his fist.

3 AND COUNTING.

METROPOLIS.

"NOOO!" Darkseid shouted.

A pillar of cosmic fire escaped the Atom's palm, blasting into the sky like a sparkling golden geyser. Darkseid grasped desperately at his prize, but the released energy shot past his clutches as it rocketed beyond Earth's atmosphere into the uncharted depths of outer s.p.a.ce. Free at last, the souls of the murdered New G.o.ds sought communion with the Source.

Darkseid's fury knew no bounds. "Ray Palmer!" The turbulent storm clouds dispersed as the lord of Apokolips shrank back to a mere eight feet tall. Confronting the impertinent mortal atop the roof of a squalid human domicile, he sensed the manipulative hand of the Monitor behind this unfathomable reversal. "You've dabbled in these affairs for the last time. I may not have brought you back to this world, but I shall most gladly remove you from the game!"

He stalked toward the Atom, who backed up to the very edge of a precipitous drop. Darkseid's armored fingers flexed murderously. Death by Omega Beams was too merciful a punishment; Darkseid intended to crush the Monitor's despicable p.a.w.n with his own hands. Glowing orbitals enveloped the Atom as he attempted to shrink to safety, but Darkseid would not be deterred by so pathetic a stratagem. You will pay for your effrontery, the villain vowed, even if I have to destroy the entire nanoverse!

But before he could wreak his vengeance, the unmistakable detonation of a Boom Tube thundered directly overhead. A luminous pa.s.sageway opened up in the sky above Metropolis.

"Who?" Darkseid blurted. By his count, the rest of the New G.o.ds were dead. Before traveling to Earth for the penultimate stage of his grand endeavor, he had seen both Apokolips and New Genesis reduced to celestial ghost towns, devoid of all life. Even Desaad's endless scheming had availed him naught in the end; the torturer had been executed in his own dungeon. Darkseid alone had survived the final culling. There could be no one left to traverse the cosmos in this manner except-the realization struck the villain like the crack of doom-he who slew the New G.o.ds in the first place.

A radiant figure emerged from the Boom Tube, which swiftly dissipated behind him. Looking up, Darkseid beheld a humanoid male clad in formfitting armor of burnished cobalt and bronze. His athletic build was less stocky than Darkseid's. A tinted visor concealed the newcomer's eyes. His square jaw had a determined set.

"Greetings, brother," the Infinity Man said. "We meet again-for the final time."

Once, the being before him had been known as Drax, Darkseid's older brother and heir to the b.l.o.o.d.y throne of Apokolips. An idealist, Drax had dared to dream of a lasting peace with the G.o.ds of New Genesis, until his brother shrewdly betrayed him and seized his power for his own. For years, Darkseid had believed Drax dead, consumed by a cosmic conflagration that Darkseid himself had engineered, but in time he had learned that his brother had instead been thrown beyond the Fourth World into the realm of the Infinite, a transcendent dimension where the ordinary laws of time and s.p.a.ce did not apply. Reborn as the Infinity Man, he had provided a check to Darkseid's most grandiose ambitions, all in the name of the Source.

The time has come, Darkseid realized. He had long suspected that his accursed brother was the true agent of the New G.o.ds' destruction. All thought of the Atom fled his mind as he prepared himself, physically and mentally, for his inevitable confrontation with the G.o.d-Slayer. A conflict born countless millennia ago, when he first usurped his brother's destiny, would finally be resolved this day. One way or another.

"Well met, brother." Hatred burned in his blazing red eyes. "I hope you do not expect me to submit willingly to extinction?"

The Infinity Man landed on the rooftop opposite Darkseid. "Stay your Omega Beams, Uxas!" he said, addressing his brother by his birth name. Darkseid had taken on his more fearsome sobriquet, one fraught with meaning in the prophecies of the New G.o.ds, upon stealing his brother's birthright. "Reconsider, Uxas. The moment is cast. Our time is done. But how you meet it will determine the fate of your spirit. Think beyond your overweening ambition and anger. Surrender to the will of the Source."

"Pretty words," Darkseid retorted, "from one whose hands drip with the blood of the New G.o.ds!"

The Infinity Man did not deny the accusation. "I am but the agent of the Source. The Fourth World has been judged and found wanting. Eons of endless strife between New Genesis and Apokolips have left the Multiverse no better for the constant warfare." His voice rang with near-religious fervor. "A new and different tomorrow comes this way!"

"I'm not so easily put to pasture," Darkseid declared. His brother's sanctimonious plat.i.tudes did not impress him. If anything, they only strengthened his resolve to outwit destiny and turn this epochal upheaval to his advantage. "The Fifth World shall indeed come to pa.s.s, but it shall be mine!"

Wasting no further time on meaningless debate, he gave his brother a taste of his Omega Beams. The scarlet rays ricocheted off the Infinity Man's impervious armor, lighting up the skies like a deadly fireworks display. Discharged energy crackled loudly. Ozone filled the air.

"This changes nothing, Uxas!" He returned Darkseid's attack with his own show of force. Golden Infinity Beams shot from his visor, striking Darkseid at close range. Coruscating waves of lethal energy shot forth in every direction as the rival G.o.ds contended with all their might. The blinding glare and ear-shattering clamor of their clash could be seen and heard as far away as Gotham City. "At long last, your treachery is at an end!"

The Infinity Man?

Superman was shocked by the ident.i.ty of the New G.o.ds' murderer. He had fought beside the Infinity Man before, usually against Darkseid and his minions, and had always considered the extradimensional warrior one of the good guys. It was hard to believe that he was truly responsible for the deaths of Lightray and the others.

Although Rao knows he's powerful enough to take out his fellow G.o.ds....

Racing through the sky, Superman led the Justice League toward the destructive conflict tearing his city apart. Batman's jet-powered Batwing sliced through the air, while Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Hawkgirl soared under their own power. The Flash zipped through the devastated streets below. The Atom crouched upon Superman's shoulder, holding on tightly to the collar of the Man of Steel's cape. Donna Troy had volunteered to join the fight, despite her injuries, but Superman had convinced her and Jason to stay behind and guard Jimmy and Forager, both of whom were pretty roughed up by their recent tussles.

"Hey, Clark," Green Lantern said as they approached ground zero. An emerald aura, generated by his own willpower, surrounded his airborne form. His power ring shone brightly upon his fist. "Whose side exactly are we on here?"

Good question, Superman thought. Ordinarily, his first instinct would be to target Darkseid, but right now he just wanted to break the G.o.ds' fight up before it destroyed all of Metropolis. "We can sort out the good from the bad later," he informed the rest of the team. "Let's just shut this family squabble down ASAP!"

"Sounds good to me," Batman said grimly from the c.o.c.kpit of the Batwing.

"Agreed," Wonder Woman a.s.sented. They'd had their differences in the past, but today they were all on the same page. "Earth is no place for sibling rivalry of this magnitude."

I couldn't have put it better myself, Superman thought.

"Stop this!" he hollered at Darkseid and the Infinity Man as the heroes converged on the bloodthirsty immortals. He fired a blast of heat vision to get their attention. Batman unleashed a batwinged missile that exploded between the two G.o.ds, temporarily driving them apart. Wonder Woman spun her Golden La.s.so. Green Lantern willed glowing emerald chains around Darkseid, binding the villain's arms to his sides. Hawkgirl swung at Darkseid's head with a spiked mace.

The Infinity Man glanced at the JLA in annoyance. "Heroes of Earth, leave us be!" Wonder Woman snagged him with her la.s.so, but he effortlessly pa.s.sed through its shimmering links. "This fight is mine and mine alone. Depart immediately and you will be spared!"

"Not a chance!" Superman flew between the Infinity Man and Darkseid. "This is my city-and my planet-and I'm not going to see it wrecked by your private vendetta!"