Chapter 38: Earth wasn't invaded in One Day Part 3

[AN: Decided to get the final draft to avoid missing any details that would be important for the story later on. Also I would like some feedback with the fight scene that is in this chapter like if it is too little, not enough sound effects or so forth.]

[Third Person's Point of View]

Intergang emerged as one of the major Metropolis crime cartels after several years of attacking and assimilating smaller cartels into its force. This continued until Intergang became the top criminal faction in Metropolis along with being a nationwide criminal organization.

Intergang was led by Bruno Mannheim who, barring Lex Luthor, was the most powerful man in Metropolis. In the Intergang's golden age, Luthor often made business deals with Mannheim which allowed both to rule Metropolis in their own way but that changed when a certain man of steel came.

After Superman appeared in Metropolis, he proved to be a far more formidable adversary for Intergang's criminal activities. He would thwart any and every single one of their plans, be it taking care of a snitch to getting rid of a certain female reported with a loud mouth before whatever dirt she managed to dig up on them became public.

With each failure and defeat, Intergang lost years of progress, respect, and influence as fewer and fewer people were afraid enough of them for the name of Intergang to mean something to them. It came to the point where they could not even bribe a police officer.

This was a pitiful state to be in for a criminal organization when in their prime a single word from Mannheim would have been enough to have the imprisoned members walk out of their cells in a matter of seconds. How low had the mighty fallen... is a question Mannheim often thought of every time he saw or heard of Superman defeating Intergang once again... while he was imprisoned.

Still, he did not give up. He used his remaining connection and got out of prison with all the charges against him being dropped. Mannheim was able to resume his leadership of Intergang but had a harder time committing crimes due to its weakened state both caused by Superman and his absence.

Intergang seems all but lost and Mannheim saw no way to fight the man of steel not when his only usable weakness was being hoarded by Lex Luthor or as Mannheim now calls him, the overgrown evil results of Mister Clean's failed pullout at his one-night stand.

When Mannheim was ready to give up, he was greeted by a mysterious individual, and said individual offered Mannheim the solution to his problem. It was a strange twist of fate, almost as if that individual had observed Mannheim for months if not years, and waited until the very last moment before the latter gave up.

That individual provided Mannheim and the Intergang members weapons, which unbeknownst to them were from Apokolips, giving them a means of fighting Superman. Superman emerged triumphant once more but with a bit more difficulty this time, prompting Mannheim to gain hope in defeating Superman if given enough weapons from Apokolips.

Thus began the partnership between Intergang and Apokolips or at least from the former's perspective. They did not realize that the weapons that they received had been made with the unique function of ceasing to function if a certain button was pressed.

[AN: I just figured that it would be dumb to arm the planet that you are going to invade even if by arming the planet you also convert some of its inhabitants into your followers.]

The latter faction gave the former more and more weapons which began to be sold off after a demand appeared since which criminal organization would not want to buy weapons that could hurt Kryptonians. In a matter of weeks, Apokolips tech was now being shipped all around the globe.

Unbeknownst to the members of every part of the hierarchy, Intergang's business became a front aspect of the tyrant New God Darkseid's quest for the Anti-Life Equation, which he knew to be contained in the recesses of the human collective unconscious. 

At first, Darkseid planned to slowly conquer Earth. This was to minimize human deaths during the process for the sole purpose of maximizing the chances of acquiring the Anti-Life Equation from their collective unconscious.

That, however, changed when one of his Elite members brought him the news of a Life Spirit claiming that a young Atlantean could acquire the Anti-Life Equation. With the possibility of attaining his most sought-after prize being at a hair's length, the plan to conquer Earth was revisited.

Apokolips planned to, through and unbeknownst to Intergang, secretly plant Father Boxes in several locations around the Earth, including Metropolis, Central City, Keystone City, and Gotham City. While Apokolips was preparing to invade Earth, the general reason behind the invasion being clues to the Anti-Life Equation reached New Genesis, the home of one of the very few forces that could rival Darkseid and Apokolips.

Highfather, brother of Darkseid and leader of the New Gods that reside in New Genesis could not let Apokolips invade Earth but that did not mean he could stop Apokolips either due to a peace treaty between the two forces preventing one from waging war upon the other.

Still, every member of both factions knows that the peace treaty is temporary since as soon as Darkseid gains the Anti-Life Equation or Highfather gains the Life equation, the brutal war that was paused by the peace treated would resume and this time, it will be till the end.

Highfather and the forces of New Genesis started interfering with Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips, cutting off resources coming from conquered planets and such while sending some forces to Earth but that last part revealed to be difficult to accomplish.

This was because Apokolips did their best to prevent it albeit at the cost of holding off on their invasion for a while. Now most would be wondering where this was going on, well it turns out that Intergang regained their former influence through the sale of Apokoliptian weaponry and technology.

This did not go unbeknownst to the Justice League or the governments of various nations though the latter prioritized getting their hands on said weaponry and technology to reverse engineer it while leaving the responsibility of finding out who was behind Intergang to the former.

This did not mean that the governments would not investigate but they would prioritize gaining the Apokoliptian weaponry and technology as well as possible exclusive partnership with the ones providing Intergang weaponry and technology over arresting the one behind Intergang.

Superman, having managed to acquire a few of these Apokoliptian weaponries and technologies through defeating members of Intergang, brought said Apokoliptian weaponries and technologies to the Justice League as he could not find its origins even with all the Kryptonian technology at his disposal.

The weapons obviously being of alien origin, he figured that one of the two Green Lanterns in the Justice League would have seen such a thing or at least their Green Lantern ring would have some information about what the Intergang was using.

Superman's guess was correct as the Green Lantern rings had information about the origins of the weapons and technologies that he brought to the league, in an effort to find its origins, but due to the busy schedule of the Green Lanterns, it would only be after the emergency meeting between founding members, that Batman had called, that the origins of those weapons would be known to the League.

Still, that did not mean that the League was just twiddling their thumbs, most members had been informed to be wary of those weapons and report any news they found about its origins. Batman had even assigned a mission to the Team which was to investigate two warehouses in Metropolis run by Intergang.

To maximize the effectiveness of the mission, Acnologia decided that the team would split up and investigate both warehouses at the same time. The split was done as such, Acnologia would investigate one warehouse while the rest of the team would investigate the other.

Secretly investigating the warehouse was a piece of cake for Acnologia due to the abilities he gained from his shadow devouring the Dark Heart, the fog Machine, and Starro who was frozen in ice.

His shadow could now self-replicate, were no longer bound by any length of distance away from Acnologia nor light, and could assimilate themselves into others to gain control over their target. In layman's terms, Acnologia had succeeded in completing the Light's Project Sentinel before they did.

Having this at his disposal, Acnologia made part of his shadow turn into a fog-like state and had it eat matter around him, mostly bits of pavement here and there until it grew in size then had it sneak into the warehouse. It uses the shadow of objects to blend in as it goes from one spot to another while splitting itself up to cover more ground.

No goons of the Intergang would ever suspect that something would be hiding in their shadow and even more so, no one would suspect that their colleague who they are currently talking to just got his body taken over mid-conversation.

Once Acnologia's shadow resided itself in the Intergang's body, it would then search for any information that related to the one supplying the Intergang with alien technology. Once every member of Intergang in the warehouse had their body taken over by Acnologia's shadow, he learned that none of them knew anything relevant thus he decided to knock them by increasing the gravity above each one of them.

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

In a synchronized fashion, their body fell head-first onto the floor before Acnologia entered the warehouse. He used his shadow, the one beneath his feat, to grab every single Intergang member and gather them in one spot.

This was mostly a facade to cover up the pieces of his shadow exiting each Intergang member and returning back to his shadow. This might sound paranoid and overkill but Acnologia still prefers to keep as many of his abilities hidden as possible, even to those who knew him.

He then use Alchemy to tie up the intergang members as a group. With that his part here was done as the warehouse had nothing left, such as a computer or any electronic device that might have something on it, for him to gather intel.

He then proceeded to store in the alien technology present in his shadow. As he was about to head to the other warehouse, he sensed that the magic he had placed on Aquaman and Wonder Woman had just been activated and suddenly froze and then muttered something.

"I hope somebody picks up that phone..."

He wore a shit-eating grin as he continued.

"Because I fucking called-"

He stopped when he remembered that he was the only one there that was conscious. He sighed due to the fact that even if there was somebody else here no one would understand his Team Four Star references.

*BOOM*

Upon hearing the sound of an explosion, he teleported himself outside and saw that an explosion had occurred inside LexCorp. He decided to check in on the rest of the team before heading to LexCorp. He pressed his communication piece inside his ear and spoke.

"Aqualad, did you guys find anything regarding the supplier?"

He heard nothing for a few seconds before he heard Aqualad's voice along with background noise that indicated a fight was occurring.

"Yes, we found a lead that led us straight to the dock where one of the alien tech's shipments overseas was about to depart. We managed to-"

"Aqualad! Look out for the heat vision!"

Acnologia heard Kid Flash's voice followed by a grunt from Aqualad, most likely due to evading the incoming attack, and then Aqualad resumed.

"We managed to stop the shipment from departing but it seems that Intergang called in for reinforcement."

Acnologia spoke to Aqualad.

"Location."

This one word from Acnologia was understood by Aqualad as what he was asking was to send in his location. Being to busy fighting, Aqualad delegated this task to Robin who told Acnologia where, exactly, they were. Acnologia proceeded to teleport himself there and saw what was going on.

Supergirl and Miss Martian were currently, in the air, fighting a purple humanoid creature while looking drained of most of their strength. Kid Flash, Robin, Artemis and Aquald seemed to be assisting them at a distance though their attacks appeared to be passing through the humanoid creature.

"Get down."

Those were the first words Acnologia spoke when he arrived while pointing his index finger down. The purple humanoid creature felt itself getting heavier but before it could understand what was going on, its body was slammed to the ground which cracked at the impact.

"Wha-?!"

*BAM*

*Crack*

As the team noticed Acnologia's arrival, a magical aura began to appear around his body, and before long, a couple of small bubble-sized blobs started to be generated from that magical aura that surrounded Acnologia.

"Mini-Me to the rescue!"

A couple of small bubble-sized blobs spoke in unison before they went toward the bruised and tired members of the team. Shortly after they came into contact with the small bubble-sized blobs, each young hero had their wounds healed and regained their strength.

'Miss Martian, link me up with the rest.'

'Okay.'

Acnologia ordered to which she did with a nod then he proceeded to give them their next directives.

'Everyone, get into the Boiship and head to LexCorp, there was an explosion and it gave me some Cadmus vibes.'

Normally, this would be the time where someone *Cough* Kid Flash or Supergirl *Cough* would object to this but having known Acnologia long enough and hearing the words "Cadmus vibes" made the team comply without anyone objecting.

The teen heroes simply nodded and went to check what was going on in LexCorp. The fact that another explosion occurred as they were heading there further proved Acnologia's words. As for Acnologia, he stayed and watched as the purple humanoid creature stood up even with the intense gravity he was under.

"So you are the Parasite."

Acnologia said as he crossed his arms.

"Kid, you interrupted the meal I was having. Do you know how rare it is to taste Kryptonians and Martians? *Tsk* Now all that is left is just some measly Atlantean... then again my parents always told me to never waste food."

*FZZZZZ*

Parasite said as his eyes turned red and heat vision came out of them. Acnologia simply tilted his head to the side and avoided them. Such a feat was easy for someone like him who could see into the future thanks to Observation Haki.

*BOOM*

Parasite's heat vision landed on the ship behind Acnologia and caused it to explode. Parasite marveled once more at the power at his disposal, he had absorbed Superman's power time and time again but the rush of having such power always felt as great as the first time he wielded it.

'I! AM! HIM!'

Though marveling in such power was his mistake as he let his guard down. Now if it were some Manhwa, Acnologia would proceed to stand there and let Parasite use everything from his arsenal before the former proceeded to flex his power on the latter but this was not some Manhwa.

As soon as Acnologia noticed that Parasite was not paying attention to him, he dashed towards him thanks to Soru, and proceeded to gut punch Parasite then slapped Parasite before he turned around and kicked Parasite through a dozen of the shipping crates behind the purple menace.

'Huh?'

Parasite thought as, from his perspective, one moment he was marveling at his power then next he is flying through shipping crates with Acnologia running towards him and instantly grabbing him by the fact before bitch tossing him through another dozen shipping crates, rock skipping on concrete.

Parasite, enraged by the pain and humiliation, attempted to fly up and laser the entire dock in an effort to kill Acnologia. The key word being attempted since as soon as his head was high enough from the ground, Acnologia proceeded to deliver a three-sixty spinning kick to Parasite's face.

As he landed after delivering the kick, Acnologia proceeded to smack Parasite with his left hand followed by a punch from his right hand then another hook with his left hand. Parasite was shocked because he had attempted to phase through his attack but still felt them.

As Parasite looked at Acnologia, he saw the young Atlantean giving him a cold glare, as if he was staring at nothing more than trash on the side of the road, before Acnologia proceeded to combine a front hand with a backhand and then hit Parasite in the chest three times before noticing that Parasite was about to pass out and gave another front hand to keep him awake through the beating.

*SMACK*

*SMACK*

*WHAM!*

*WHAM!*

*WHAM!*

*SMACK*

Acnologia then punches Parasite with his left hand, he is about to follow that hook with another from his right hand but sees once more that Parasite is in a dizzy state. He stopped himself from throwing a right hook, gave Parasite a slap with his left hand then proceeded with a right hook.

*WHACK!*

*SMACK*

*WHACK!*

Parasite was at a loss for words since Martian phasing was not working and most important of all Acnologia's attack was hitting him without touching him. This confusion combined with the speed at which the attacks were sent as well as the intense pain each hit brought upon and inside him prevented Parasite from counterattacking or even escaping... or that is what he will tell himself later on.

For those that caught on, yes, Acnologia had used two advanced versions of Armament Haki called Emission and Internal Destruction to beat Parasite for dozens of minutes with a series of right and left hooks, chest punches, and slaps.

It went to the point that Acnologia had to step on Parasite's feet and sometimes pull him back by his arm along with the occasional slap to the face to prevent Parasite from falling down or passing out.

Acnologia only stopped when he noticed that Parasite no longer had either Supergirl or Miss Martian's powers. He let go of Parasite who fell down on his knees looking at some of his broken teeth while questioning his existence and what had just happened.

"Now that my hands are warmed up, tell me everything you know about Intergang's supplier or I will beat you up for real this time."

Acnologia said which brought one thought into the beaten and bloodied up Parasite.

'Beat me for real?! Then what was that just now?'

"Like I said that was a warm-up."

Acnologia said as if he read Parasite's thought, he then raised his hands soaked with the blood of Parasite and cracked them before he added.

"I will not ask twice."

This caused Parasite's body to jolt in fear then proceed to sing like a canary, telling Acnologia everything he knew. Unbeknownst to Parasite, Acnologia was confirming with his shadow that Parasite was telling everything. While he told Acnologia everything, Parasite had one thought.

'I am not him.'

[AN: Ngl, while writing this scene, I was thinking about Gojo smoking Miguel's pack from JJK.]

---

While Acnologia was given Parasite the beating of the latter's lifetime, the team headed toward LexCorp and managed to enter through the hole that was made by the Sentinel that was programmed to hunt down Acnologia.

They arrived just in time to notice Dr. Roquette and Professor Ivo getting carried away from some LexCorp personnel who proceeded to attack them as soon as they saw the young heroes. Naturally, the LexCorp personnel were easily defeated by the group of young heroes.

The Team then proceeded to tend to Dr. Roquette's as well as Professor Ivo's wounds before they brought them to the nearest Hospital. They then contacted the authorities and informed them about Ivo's whereabouts.

This sudden turn of events caused the Light to hold up an emergency meeting of their own to decide on how to resolve this messy situation. They were pissed when they heard that two Sentinels had gone rogue but focused on the more pressing matter which was Dr. Roquette.

"It would seem that Project Sentinel has been compromised by those meddling kids. On previous occasions, I would commend their resourcefulness in defying us but this time I am not sure if they got lucky or if someone's incompetence did not aid the young heroes in finding the doctor in their own home."

L-2 says.

"Well, perhaps that someone's incompetence stems from having to carry the task of finding the goal of Integang's suppliers after someone else failed to accomplish such a task."

L-3 retorts.

"Enough!"

L-1 says in an authoritarian tone before he adds on.

"Although the Light has been busy keeping up with Intergang's recent comeback to power and investigating their mysterious suppliers, this does not excuse the fact that once more these young heroes have gotten in our way, once more, albeit out of coincidence.

Currently, the Light does not have the time nor resources to fight the Justice League when taking the Intergang's supplier into the mix. The Light can also not have its existence revealed to the Justice League this soon... I believe it is time to cut our losses with Project Sentinel and focus on the Starro-Tech project."

It sounded like a suggestion as well as an order but all could agree that it was the correct choice as attacking the young heroes at this moment would bring in too much attention and as L-1 had implied an all-out war with the League was not in their best interest for the moment. They decided to eliminate Dr. Roquette via the magic they had planted inside her once she joined LexCorp for this sort of occasion.

It was the type of magic that would not be detectable unless you were on the level of Doctor Fate and made an effort to look for it. The Light knew that Nabue would never waste his time on something like checking if someone, whose life did not greatly impact the fate of the world, was all right.

With the cloning technology finally showing great results, some members entertained the idea of cloning the young heroes but they were in a hospital with too many eyes to perform a kidnapping that would allow the Light to clone plus they knew that a League member could arrive at any moment thus that idea quickly faded from their minds.

Had a certain Lord of Chaos not been to busy relishing in the chaos that came from the alien technology being distributed all across the globe, the Light would have already known who was the Intergang's supplier and what their goal was.

At the Hospital where the young heroes had dropped Dr. Roquette, one could see all six young heroes standing in front of the bed that held Dr. Roquette who was recovering from her injuries but not many could see that someone had just entered the room where the young heroes and the injured scientist were.

That someone was an attractive, pale goth girl dressed in casual clothes, a black top, and jeans. She also wears a silver ankh on a chain around her neck and has a marking similar to the eye of Horus around her right eye.

Nobody seemed to notice her as she came close to the bed where Dr. Roquette was lying in. She watched as the young heroes discussed among themselves at what could Dr. Roquette be doing at LexCorp and the red flag that Professor Ivo was with her.

"Well, she could have been mind-controlled into leaving her job and working at LexCorp."

Death casually spoke to which Robin, not realizing that it was not a teammate, asked rhetorically.

"But who would do this and when could they have mind-controlled her?"

"Well, it could have been while she was been captive."

Death answered his question which brought Aqualad to say.

"Her time while been captive would be a plausible tim-"

He stopped mid-sentence as he realized that he did not recognize this voice, this realization was shared by the rest. He took a fighting stance while the rest followed suit. Aqualad looked at, from his point of view, the mysterious woman then spoke.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?!"

"I'm Death, as for what I am doing here, I think my name already answers that question though... Let's just say I came a little bit early due to being in the neighborhood. The couple on the floor above this room just had a baby.

Anyway, you guys are not going to believe what I say so if you don't mind, I am going to sit back while you guys talk to yourselves."

Death said as she snapped her fingers and a comfy chair appeared behind her before she sat on it. The Team were at a lost for words as they watched her just sitting on the chair that just appeared out of nowhere.

[AN:

Again, I wanted to bring a bit of realism in this story since Apokolips supplying their tech to Intergang, what said Intergang would do with that Tech would affect the Light as well as the Justice League.

Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]