ELSEWHERE: INNOCENCES LOST
What happens if the Imperiex War Ended differently for Young Justice

---

They were called Young Justice. Robin, Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Empress, Lil' Lobo, Secret and Cissie King-Jones. They were the next generation of heroes, who had assembled to help protect the world. Like any team, Young Justice had good times and bad times in their careers.

The Imperiex War was one of the bad. One of the REALLY REALLY bad.

Imperiex had been a cosmic tryant who wished to reignite the universe in a new big bang. The Justice League of America, along with the Titans and Justice Society of America led the fight against the War Lord. But fearful of endaging their young counterparts, Young Justice was charged with a different duty.

Young Justice had been selected to be the premier Search and Rescue team to the The Paradocs Unit. The PDU had been an intergalaxtic medical unit designed to treat the injured and dying heroes during the war.

Their first few missions had gone on well enough until the Black Racer crossed their path. The personification of death had taken the fallen hero Steel as his latest victim, and going against Robin's orders Superboy and Lobo altered their ships intended course in persuite of Steel. Their 'choice' had cost them as they found themselves on the very doorstep of the Planet known as Apokolips.

Their craft the Max was immediately shot, leaving the teen heroes to fend for themselves. And as a result of Superboy's disobedience, a pandora's box of mistrust split the team.

Despite their best efforts to rescue Steel and repair their ship, Young Justice failed. Impulse was driven into a self-inflicted coma when one of his Scouts (A speedforce extension of himself) was murdered before his eyes and another member had been brutally slain on the field of battle. The de-aged bounty-hunter Lil' Lobo.

Soon the remaining members were made captives bythe Apokoliptic Ruler Darksied. Yet, in the end Young Justice had been able to escape their prision and with the gene-clone of Lobo, Slo-Bo, had been able to escape back to earth.

That was how it had happened.

This is how it could have been...

---

TEN YEARS AGO...

"C'mon! C'mon! Keep moving!" Robin shouted as he helped carry the injured Superboy. Behind them came Secret, Cissie, Empress and Wonder Girl carrying the unconcious Impulse.

Robin knew that this was a foolhardy stunt. This entire planet was under the control of Darksied. Even if they could escape Granny's lab, how were they going to escape an entire world of her minions.

'Don't think like that,' Tim told himself. 'There is always a way.'

But the fates were not so kind.

"Aww no..." the teen wonder moaned as they turned another corner, finding themself facing a massive firery Hellspore with no other way out. "BACK! BACK! THE OTHER WAY, BEFORE IT'S--!"

"Too late pretties," sneered an overly 'sweet' voice, and the team spun around to see Granny Goodness surrounded by her Female Furries and a mess-load of Parademons. "TOO LATE!"

"Not so confident now, are you kiddies?" mocked one of her pupils.

"Hah! Look at you!" chided Madd Harriet. "You've got fear on your face!"

"You're a big disgrace!" added Stompa.

"WE'RE GONNA SMEER YOU BASTICHIES ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!"

Everyone turned to see thousands upon thousands of Lil'Lobo, fill into the city, wearing pieces of Parademon armor and stricking everything they could in a rythimci manner.

>WOMP<>WOMP<>SMACK<>WOMP<>WOMP<>SMACK<

"WE WILL, WE WILL, FRAG YOU!" they chanted in unision. "WE WILL, WE WILL, FRAG YOU!"

The army of Lobo moved forward ready to make their attack and almost as if on cue, a familar ship came into view.

"Impulse's ship...!" Robin gasped in shock, but didn't wait to try an understand. "LET'S GO! LET'S GO! HURRY! WE'RE--!"

"You are nothing," shouted a new voice, just as a pair of matching red-beams appeared and struck the white spacecraft in the fuel tanks. With a massive explosion, the state-of-the-art vehicle crashed into a nearby building.

Following immediately after there was a deafening BOOM, as a giant vortext appeared in the middle of the city. Again a pair of red beams appeared, and began hurding the Lobo clones into the vortext.

It took only a few minutes, but for the members of Young Justice, it was an eterinity as they looked up to see HIM. He stood at over 8 feet, with stone like skin and glowing red eyes.

He was Darksied.

He was their doom.

---

THE PRESENT

Standing on his balcony that looked over his land, Darksied gave a hideous type of smile. Most saw this planet as a wasteland. To him, it was the most beautiful place in the galaxy. And there were few to disagree with him to his face.

So much had occured in the past ten years. After the Imperiex War had ended, he had done his best to regain the control that once he had. Unfortunately, he spent a great deal of time brooding over what they Amazons had supposed done to him.

But Wonder Woman had been wrong. They had done nothing. There was nothing of her soul within him. And he had made certain to show the Amazon that, when he destroyed her precious island.

Still there were draw backs. New Genisis continued to keep the Earth under its guard. And that made it difficult for him to expand his opperations. No matter. He'd have what he wanted one day.

Right now he had other matters to attend to.

"Granny," he said in his low booming voice. "Send in the Furries and my Captains."

A smirk crossed Harm's face as he saw the doors opening. It was that time again to speak to his "master". To be honest unlike almost everyone on Apokalips Harm didn't fear Darkseid. He didn't fear death, so according him there was nothing Darkseid could do to frighten him, especially since he knew where he'd go and he was close with the destination. It seemed like so long ago when he was finally able to get a solid body when Acolyte tried to bring him back, but Harm only had one allegience and that was to the Prince of Darkness, as soon as he had what he needed, Acolyte was promptly taken care of. Of course his first course of action was finding his sister again, luckily he knew exactly where she was.

But don't think that just because Harm didn't fear Darkseid that he was an idiot. He still still highly respected the Lord of Apokalips. If there was any living being that came close to Satan's evil it'd be Darkseid which was the only reason Harm served under him. Of course, he had no clue as to why Darkseid let him be one of his generals. His only guess was that his presence pissed off Greta..which in turn made her that much more of a tool he could use. Whatever reason, it didn't really matter.

Bowwing to Darkseid, Harm looked up. "You called, master?"

---

"Dude! No! No No No No!" Supersonic argued as he strained in an arm wrestling match against CM3. "Superman would totally take out Captain Marvel, magic based or not." After Young Justice didn't return from Apokalips, the second incarnation was reformed, this time as the Teen Titans and currently the Titans. Currently they were chasing Dragon, one of they're old villains who had currently sneeked onto Oa and stolen one of the Green Lantern rings. Now on his way back to Earth, the Titans were currently on a space craft going to intercept him. Of course it wasn't the fastest trip and they needed to keep themselves occupied, hence the arm wrestling and superhero comparing.

It had been awhile since Supersonic first came to this dimension. Since he'd been there he'd been a member of the Titans since it was reformed and steadily became a respected hero. But even as he became more mature his humor never seemed to leave. Lately he'd been trying to get to know the Titans' newest member...kind of. More like she just showed up and no one really knew why. Wraith seemed to thrive on being mysterious, she only really talked to Super and even then he just knew her codename and some of her powers. But when he first met her, she convinced him that one of the villains the Titans were fighting, an angel with soul sucking powers was really a good person. Without her, it probably wouldn't have even occured to him that she could have been turned and now Shinigami would make a good addition to the Titans after some..uh...trips to the psychiatrist.

Shinobi had found a position off in the corner to relax currently undergoing some meditation exorcizeses his Kodachi out laying across his lap eyes closed and hands folded over the sword. "And yet, I'D take them both together." He finally interjected into Supersonic and CM3's conversation. This managed to surprise a few people on the ship, not because of the abserdity of his statement but because he'd been meditating for more then an hour and most people were beginning to think he was actually sleeping.

"Granted i'd need a few favors...such as Captain Marvel being in his human form...and a Kryptonite baseball bat...but thats not the point." He added on rising to his feet and stretching lightly before sliding the sheath and blade back into its position behind his back.

"I could take you on right now shinobi, as soon as i'm done humilliating Supersonic!" CM3 had quite a hard time holding his lead in the arm wrestle match that he was having with Supersonic yet he had a good time talking to super, who was beconing one of his best friends. "In strength, Superman would probably beat You know who, but what about the Wisdom of Soloman or the Stamina of Atlas? Don't forget I have those traits too!" Freddy was glad to be back on a Young Justice team after his first time went only one mission, he dosn't think his team luck has gone so well, but he has decided to give it another try.

(OOC: As Marx mentioned this team of heroes isn't Young Justice anymore. Its the Titans. This is ten years after the original YJ team vanished. These guys are all adults and no longer 'young')

Shinobi gave a short laugh. "Well considering you can bench press a bus, i'd say you being able to take me is a given. But then again if I could get to ya before your transformation...well...I just have to keep your mouth shut. Not likely but..." He gave a short shrug before he began another phase of training, this time physical as he started a fairly complex kata making sure it was one that took a fair amount of acrobatic ability as well, performing it once through fast, and the next with excruciating slowness. "So any guesses where exactly we are at the moment?"

Not to far away from the boys in unawares a lithe twenty-six-year-old figure crouched in a nearby storage closet. A Smile crept over the young Rachael Simmons face. So far everything had gone according to plan. She had snuck upon the Titans air craft stealthily without a trace, and had managed to control her breathing and movements long enough to be far away from land that they couldn't turn back. Still there was something in her plan that bothered her. God, this was a trick she would have pulled when she first arrived as a teenager. But she couldn't resist the element of suprise.

She wore no mask. She didn't feel a need to. She had no one to protect and technically she never exsisted here. She was just a face without a name. The only thing close to a mask she had was a sleek pair of glasses that she pushed up ontop of her head as if it were headband (and helld her chestnut shoulder length hair back), the closet being to dark and dank for their use. The rest of her costume consisted of a Black leather/spandex/nomex/ and bulletproof material one piece suit with a zipper in the front the was pulled down to form a semi-modest V with a bit of red pipping to compliment her form and a small belt around her waisty and small compartments sewed into her leather boots for any weapons she used.

She was trained to have enough self control to remain in one position for hours. But there was one thing that she could never stand no mater how many times she faced it.

First, she merely blinked as she felt the spindely legs of the brute descend on top of her head and shuddered inwardly. it slowly crept down her forehead and onto her nose. A spider. Not a small one. Those she could stand.This was ta least two, may three, inches big. She drew a sharp intake of breath before silently grabbing it and flingin it down, then quietly as possible, smashing it under her boot heel, then breathing a relieved sigh outward. Filthy little things. She froze again, crossing her fingurs that noone had heard her. You'd think someone like the titans could afford a bigger ship to give her more distance between her and it's other occupants. Hopefully noone had heard her sigh or the brisk little crunch under her boot.

Supersonic tried not to let Shinobi's comment about taking both Captain Marvel and Superman distract him from the match, but the slight chuckling did make his hand noticeably start going the other way. Whether he'd admit it or not, Shinobi's sudden entrance into the disagreement did surprise him. "I'm not even gonna lie about it, either one of them would take me out. Not that I'd go down easy mind you. And as far as stamina and wisdom goes, Superman could totally rival Cap'n in stamina and he's not a pushover in intelligence either." He said with a confident smirk which actually could be seen since his hood was down at the moment showing his face, though he still had shades morphed over his glowing eyes.

Supersonic's smile only got wider as he listened to Shinobi's bragging some more, he'd pay to see it. "How about this Shin? You two can spar after I prove my utter superiority." It was taking all of Super's willpower not to morph something even more distracting to beat CM3, but it was so rare that they were able to have an arm wrestling match...and be able to do it on a table that wouldn't break 10 seconds after they started.

"So any guesses where exactly we are at the moment?"

"Hm?" Super found himself glancing towards the control panel, which was exactly the wrong thing to do. SLAM! Marx's hand hit the table causing a slight shockwave through the ship. Lifting his hand Super began to rub his wrist. "We're so having a rematch, but that'll have to wait." Using his speed, Super was at the panel and looked at the controls. "At the speed we're going we're about and hour or two away from Oa so we should start getting ready."

"That's good, Marxy. That should give us enough time to figure our who our little 'passenger' is...and whatever they just crunched.." A young teenager around around 16 or so commented as she seemingly appeared out of nowhere leaning against the storage closet. She was wearing a skin tight black and red leather outfit with most of her face covered. The bottom half with the mask and the left half with her long, black hair. Her one visible eye glowing so brightly it resembled Super's. "Wraith I told you not to call me that. And what are you talking about?" Supersonic asked as he looked back to they're mysterious younger "member" as he pulled his hood over his head.

"But I always call you that, and I heard someone in there. Don't know why I didn't hear them before, whoever it is must either be seriously stealthy or they can teleport. Should I?" Wraith suggested as her hand began to glow red with energy. "No, Wraith. How about we find out who it is before we blast them into oblivion?" Marx suggested as he crossed his arms, his eyes trained on the closet. He knew the girl meaned well but she had some serious aggression issues. "Whose there?" The speedster asked preparing to attack.

"HA! I win!" CM3 laughed as Supersonic rubbed his hand "At the speed we're going we're about and hour or two away from Oa so we should start getting ready."

"Gotcha, I'm already ready" said CM3, "everything comes with the transformation" he said as he noticed Wraith come in and tease Supersonic he couldn't help but smile at the "relationship" that they had. Looking out at where they were, he saw a wierd figure outside "That should give us enough time to figure our who our little 'passenger' is...and whatever they just crunched.."

"I think I found our little mouse" said CM3 to wraith.

"Passenger?" Shinobi asked looking at the door as well. Once the comment about blasting them had been made he crept to the door and quickly fung it open pointing the tip of his Kodachi at the person inside. "You have five seconds to improve my mood about your presence here."

Rachael raised her eyebrow and folded her arms. "Gee, sorry. But I've never considered myself much of a crowd pleaser." She mentally cursesed the little eight legged vermen that had caused her to be discovered. No matter though, it was merely a matter of time before she was discovered and she was off only by thirty-five seconds.

"You canstand down. I'm not here to hurt you guys. If anything I'm here to help." She calmly walked out of the closet,looking around at the others, who were more than ready to attack. and casting a cool glance to wraith. The young girl seemed.....less than trust worthy for some reason, if not head strong and a tad pretentious. Rachael stood surrounded by the guys in what seemed to be a non-defensive stance. A trained eye could tell how alert she was of her surroundings however. She waited impatiently for a second. "What? You want my life story? names Rachael Leigh Simmons. Prefer Leigh. Hitched a ridecause you might be getting in over your heads and I believe I might be able to help. You could try searching oracles database for more info on me, but I doubt you'll find anything."

Shinobi reguarded Rachael his gaze lingered at her eyes before finally sheathing his blade however his gaze didnt waver. "I see. And what can you do that would be of use to use. If indeed we're getting 'in over our heads' I wouldnt mind knowing what you can contribute to this group."

"I'm a little curious about that myself. So, what do you think Miss 'Lets try to convert the soul sucking angel whose trying to skewer us alive'?" Supersonic calmly asked Wraith. Wraith seemed to sneer a little at the title as she looked over Leigh. "I don't know about how much help she'll be, but I don't think she's a threat to us."

"Well if we didn't trust random girls in skin tight leather outfits why we'd never get anywhere. Not to mention Wraith wouldn't be gracing us with her presence. We'll trust you for now, but we will be keeping a close watch on you." Quickly looking over her, Supersonic noticed the multiple compartments in her costume. While it wasn't obvious whether she was a meta or not yet, it was at the least that she used gadgets. And since she was in a room full of people ready to attack either she could fight or she didn't think they'd attack. "I'm Supersonic, that's Shinobi, CM3, Wraith, Ray's down below..and...to be honest...I don't know if Beast Boy/Changeling/Animal Man is on board...you know how it is."

Wraith raised her hand calling attention to herself as she pointed to the front screen. "I know I'm a little new here and all, but I'm going to assume that a green light coming our way is a bad thing." And on cue the entire place was shaken as a green beam hit the ship. "I think we just found our guy.."

Shinobi reguarded Rachael his gaze lingered at her eyes before finally sheathing his blade however his gaze didnt waver. "I see. And what can you do that would be of use to use. If indeed we're getting 'in over our heads' I wouldnt mind knowing what you can contribute to this group."

"One, I hold a handful of secrets of this universe as well as several secret i.d.s...I know how things should have been." She left it at that. Not how things were supposed to be now tho, but a long time ago... "Two..." She met Shinobi's penetrating gaze. "I've trained with the best. Shiva, Richard Dragon, The Bronze Tiger, ect. And third, I can be of help because a Dr. Fate said I might be of need. Not much more than that. I have a few others who are interested in this mission, and thats about it." Noticing everyones narrowed glares, She smiled and removed her glasses from her head, placing them in a compartment. "Sorry if I come off as a tight ass though. Been awhile since my last social contact that didn't involve a drug raid and a trip to the hospital. I'm just here to do whatever I can."

As the ship gave a violent shake, Rachael bent down slightly to keep her balance Her head snapped in the direction of the screen. "Well CM3, seeing as you appear to be the leader of this group, what do we do now?"

Shinobi managed to keep his balance as the ship was shaken violently, he quickly looked around at the teammates he could see, and the new arrival waiting to see what the suggested plan of action was.

Outside of the ship, the green aura around Dragon glowed brightly as he sent beam after beam with surgical precision damaging the ship. "Come out come out wherever you are kiddies. You did come this far to 'stop' me didn't you?" He said as he sent another blast.

"CM3 and I should go after him directly. Wraith, check to see what our damages are. Shinobi and...Leigh, you can take the weapons, let her know how to use them if she doesn't know and please try not to shoot us." Supersonic said flashing the new member a smile, even if it wasn't quite visible under the hood. Using his speed, Super dashed to the back of the ship and opened his comm/link. "Ray! We might need some help out here!" After he made the call, the speedster opened up the shoot and flew outside, morphing onto his head a miniature oxygen tank.

Meanwhile Wraith gave a nod to the others and began to transport around the ship and realized that the shots had taken out the reverse thrusters. "Okay...that's bad."

"Well CM3, seeing as you appear to be the leader of this group, what do we do now?"

"Woah!" CM3 felt the attack on the ship and said to Leigh "Well if I'm the leader, I say we kick some ass!"

"CM3 and I should go after him directly.

CM3 heard the shout from Supersonic, "got it!" and with the speed of mercury inside him he rushed after Supersonic onto the battlefield.

Shinobi gave a curt nodd before dashing off to the weapons array's. "look at them and if you have any questions ask me." He said and wasting no more time on words began to operate the systems waiting for a clear chance to use them.

Gar "Changeling" Logan came into the room, "What was that?"

The green shapeshifter had been taking a short nap when the rocking ship had thrown him into a wall.

When he looked outside and saw the green flashes and everyone getting to business.

He quickly ran over to the flight controls, and tried to make the ship a harder target to hit. "Sorry, Shinobi, but if we just sit here, we're an easy target."

CM3 was weaving in and out of the blasts that were coming out of the Dragon's mouth "Got to try harder than that!" he yelled at the dragon "Come on, bring it on!" He looked over and saw the other Titans in the ship trying to defend the ship "god, there doing a good job!" he thought. He looked back and said, "Supersonic! Ray! lets hit it with what we got!"

"Sorry we're late Daddy, I finally got around to having that talk with Guillotina....She won't be a problem anymore." The speaker strode into the room, her expert training evident in how she carried herself. Behind her followed the femme fatales known as the Female Furries. The most deadly fighters, willing to die for their master. They bowed to the lady who should have been knitting rather than standing there in leather, all murmuring the name with reverence. "Granny"

Granny looked over the girls, at the back, being held up by Lashina and Stompa, was the form of Guillotina. She'd deserted them one too many times and steps had to be taken, by the looks of it she'd learnt a lesson she'd never forget. She'd never be called beautiful again. Granny gave a slight nod to the girl in the front, approving her work.

Granny had let her keep the name 'Secret' when Darkseid had brought the young 13 year old to him, she'd agreed eventually to train her, even though Secret was young she had immense power it seemed.

Secret had, at first, fought against the training, not uncommon though the girls that did that were usually dealt with harshly. It was an honour to be a Fury!! The trouble with Secret was that she was intangible. It just lead to new exciting ways of punishment. But after the first two years she was making good progress. She could stay solid for longer and longer, create many different things with her smoke ability at the same time. She was also trained in the Art of Death, how to kill quickly and without remorse, knowing to ignore pain and inflict it on others to the point they wished they would die and beyond.

DarkSeid also had sessions with her, where they explored the Abyss together, allowing him to harness the power he so wanted from her was so close, almost right there in his reach. He'd taken her as his daughter almost, becasue she believed what he was doing was good and just, she didn't fear him at all and gave him ideas and advice, something his advisers neglected to do.

Interestingly enough Greta didn't age, she stayed exactly the same as the day she had died. When she was suppost to be turning 20 she still looked 13 and when you're a killing machine its a little frustrating to be mocked for your shortness just before you rip their larynx out. So Doug had given her 5 years of his life, making her look 18. Since then she'd worn nothing by spandex and leather, feeling it was about bloody time she could look like the others.

Secret stood there now, Guillotina's blood matching the colour of the PVC catsuit, her long blond hair perfect, a look of insanity mixed with clarity deep in her blue eyes. "You sent for us Doug? Our lives are at your request. How may we serve you?"

* ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: * ::wwoman:: *

"Come on, bring it on!"

"Considerate it brought, little Captain." Even though CM3 wasn't technically little, Dragon had grown accustomed to calling him that. But this time it was different, he actually had the power to back up his intellect now. The green aura he had around him began to shine brightly, especially the power ring as Dragon sent another emerald blast, this one hitting CM3 in the jaw.

As soon as Supersonic got outside the ship he took off full speed towards Dragon with a punch of his own, when suddenly the ship started bobbing and weaving and dodging Dragon's blasts. Apparently someone had taken the flight controls, most likely Changeling. Hopefully Shinobi and Leigh would still be able to use the ships weapons, they'd need all the help they could get. The fact was further proven as Supersonic wasn't even able to successfully make the hit as a green hand quickly came out of the aura, grabbed Super and flung in into CM3.

"Okay...direct attacks didn't quite work so well. We're going to have to be different about how we attack. When we get an opening, lets hit him at the same time. Follow my lead." With a nod, Super began to circle around Dragon at his maximum speed hoping he'd be moving so fast he'd be much more difficult to catch. All the movement was clearly distracting the villain since he momentarily forgot about the ship.

Leigh quickly sat herself down at the control panel and her eyes narrowed as she looked at all the different buttons. She had studied the ships plans before ever bording it, now it was just a matter of remembering..... She turned a thruster all the way to high intensity, leveled a knob that must have acted as a steering device for the weapons, and pressed a few buttons and....bingo!!

A lagre beam popped out from underneath the ship and a large surge of energy came thrusting out, hitting Dragon with all it had before much smaller little ray guns popped out and started firing. First at tandem, but Leigh had it stebilized and under control after a bit of tinkering.

Following Secret, Lashina, Stompa and Guillotina into Darksied's chambers, was another two forms. One was crouched over, and sort of walking on all fours like an animal, though he was clearly a humaniod. He was a somewhat sickly looking creature, not very fit, but not weak either. His skin was an off sort of white, and his eyes were surrounded by a black tattoo-like markings. He had a full head of dark black hair that was spiked all over. Around his neck was a collar and chain that was being held by his mistress.

She was a tall, beautiful woman with dark brown skin, flashing violet eyes, and legs that went on forever. She was clad in a tight red-leather costume, that looked like something a warrior princess would wear with an assortment of jewels and charms at the collar, the belt, the guantlets and such. Her long tresses of her redish hair were tied back into a tight pony tail.

"Slo-Bo," she said with a deep sultry voice and her eyes flashed gold. "Heel."

In a past life she had been known as Anita Fite or Empress. Now she was the Priestess. She had been the last of the teen heroes to join his side. Her voodoo powers had kept her safe for many years, until Darksied had shown her real power, by force feeding her the blackest of Magicks. Now she was hooked, and she was his.

Her 'pet' froze stopped suddenly at her command and crouched down. His expression was one of an animal ready to strike, though his eyes held no life in them. Of course they were completely black to begin with.

Through her budding powers, Anita had saved the life of the pathetic clone known as Slo-Bo. His body had been falling to ruin, but she had cast a spell that kept her body and strength connected to him. She was his lifeline, but now he had no will of his own.

Darkseid studied those before him with a critical glowing red-eye and the corners of his mouth quirked into what could be thought of as a half-smile if that. The warder, the creature, the witch, the Clone and another. All his to control and mold as he saw fit.

He still remembered what their former leader, a simple insect of a Terran had said in defiance. "We will NEVER bow to you!"

Kids. His 'friends' had known better where their loyalties should lie.

The God of Apokolips strolled purposefully to his throne and sat down, his presence calling immediate fear and respect to those in the room. "Yes, I sent for you my child," he replied. "My scouts have brought word that the rebels are on the move again in the south sector. Six more slave encampments have been destroyed and its occupants released. AGAIN."

His eyes flashed with the umbridaled power of the Omega Beams. "The little Amazon is proving to be a great nuasance," he continued. "And I am curious how she had been able to avoid detection from both my Furries and my Guards." this was not an actual query but rather a danger accusation from Darkseid. His eyes fixed on the members of each squadron.

"And where is my General?" he demanded looking at Harm. "Where is the Kryptonian's Clone?"

"Yeah, just keep us moving." Is all Shinobi said in reply to Gar's words. He then placed his total focus on hitting the target, Dragon, with the weapons he had control over, it was a bit difficult however with the ministrations of the teammates fighting him outside of the ship but every so often he found an opening to send an attack at him.

As he kept the ship moving, Changeling hoped that CM3 and Super were having a better time with the bad guy outside.

"How the heck did this bozo get a power ring?" he asked no one in particular.

The ship's controls bucked with another hit, no, not a hit, someone had found the large cannon on the underside of the ship. The recoil from the blast had caused the ship to buck.

'Well, at least those two are shooting back.' Gar thought to himself.

"That isn't the best you is it?" Kon-El said hovering in the air and holding a Parademon around it's throat, a smile spread across his face as he looked below him at the broken heaps of Parademons, the one who he was strangling in his hand was the only 'survivor' of the training exercise that Kon had subjected the group to. Some of them tried their best to move, maybe not realising that Kon had already broken all of their limbs, or maybe out of sheer determination and the undying urge to do whatever their master said. Kon didn't care, the only reason he even held these training sessions was so that he could relieve his own stress, he understood that by doing that he was probably no better than Darkseid but, he'd be lying to himself if he said he hadn't changed. All of his friends had changed, "None of you are going to ge--Wha?" Kon said as a Parademon flew up behind him. He carelessly through the Parademon in his hand to the ground as he turned to the flying one.

"General Steel, Master Darkseid wishes to speak to you." The Parademon said hovering in attention as two other Parademons picked up General Steel's cape and putting it on for him and then immediatly backing off, straining from the pain of their broken bodies. Without even acknowledging the Parademon he jetted off at speed nearing the speed of light to Darkseid's Fortress, wondering what on Apokolips the Darklord wanted with him. It was probably another rebel uprising that he had to take care of, meaning that he would probably have to work around Priestess and her 'pet'.

"Where is the Kryptonian's Clone?"

"I'm here Master." General Steel said, zipping into the room just as his Master said the word. When he first became part of Darkseid's cabinet he would cringe whenever he said it, but as the years went by it became easier, though General Steel wasn't sure if that was neccessarily a good thing...

"Considerate it brought, little Captain."

"Dude! The thing can Talk!" CM3 thought before Super was thrown onto him.

"Okay...direct attacks didn't quite work so well. We're going to have to be different about how we attack. When we get an opening, lets hit him at the same time. Follow my lead.

After he gave the order, CM3 and Supersonic rushed at the dragon and were trying to divert the dragon's attention away from the ship, "Good Super, lets keep it going!" he said as he rushed past him.

Leigh kept tinkering with her half of the weapons consul. Experimenting with different lasers, guns, ect. to see which ones had the most effect and trying to get around obstacles and teamates to hit dragon. Though with a power ring, it wouldn't do much good.

She looked over at the reserve energy gauge for the weapons quickly for a seoncd......and then took another look. Shhhhhhh*& The 'big bertha' ray gun was using up FAR to much energy. Another ten minutes, and the entire weapons control would be down far to quickly and leave them with zip. She tried to turn it off, but it wouldn't budge. "Stupid fricken...." She hit the consul a few times and eventually kicked a piece of equipment on the floor and the ray gun suddenly stopped. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked over to Shinobi and Gar. "Hard to tell thatr its my first space voayger, much?"

(I might not have made this clear, but Dragon's a guy with a GL power ring, not an actual dragon. Sorry for any confusion.)

"You sent for us Doug? Our lives are at your request. How may we serve you?"

"Hello sister dear, seems like you've been having fun." Harm commented as he looked down at the broken form of Gillotina and then back at Secret with a confident smirk. Since he couldn't really kill her without pissing off Darkseid, annoying the hell out of her was easily his best option.

"And I am curious how she had been able to avoid detection from both my Furries and my Guards."

Harm was about to make a sarcastic comment about Steel's whereabouts but he showed up before he was able to get it out. Making a slight bow, Harm kept his eyes trained on Darkseid. "I apologize, for the inconvenience my lord. But my men are on her trail as we speak." The word 'men' being a figure of speech of course. Harm refused to use the parademons for his forces. Despite the fact that there were legions of them, they weren't the brightest. With his connections, Harm was able to get his own forces from Hell, his very own Hellspawn(no, I couldn't think of an original name. <_<).

Of course there was always the issue of they're allegience, since they only followed Harm, himself. But since Harm pledged himself to Darkseid it never rose too much of a fuss, especially since technically it was adding to Darkseid's forces.

---

"How the heck did this bozo get a power ring?"

"He stole if from Oa." Wraith's voice came through on the comm/links. "And I hope you guys can steer this ship really well, I'm doing what I can but Dragon knew what he was doing with those blasts. At the moment we can't stop this ship." A red aura surrounded Wraith as she tried her best to fix the reverse thrusters, but they were totally shot.

"Good Super, lets keep it going!"

Supersonic gave a quick nod that was almost invisible at the speeds he was moving at and continued the joint attack, which along with the ship's weapons was making a dent into the slowly tiring Dragon. They'd been lucky that he just got the ring, despite his knowledge of it, he'd obviously not completely mastered it. As soon as Super saw an opening he was going to try to morph his hands into energy claws and hopefully get through Dragon's sheild, but it seemed that the Titans had underestimated the villains' control over his new weapon.

Finally getting a green blast to connect with the ship, a green aura emmersed the whole thing bringing it to a sudden stop. "You know...I think I like the idea of having an entire ship in my hands. But if you're not careful you might make me flinch, and I dunno...a flinch might make me crush it." To be honest, Supersonic didn't know whether this was a bluff or not, in theory if Dragon had enough will he could crush the ship and kill just about everyone onboard. Not being able to take that chance Super stopped his flight and motioned for CM3 to do the same.

A smirk crossed Dragon's face as he looked around, seemingly calculating something. "There it is...how about we play a game. Either you try to catch me...or you can try to catch the ship. The choice is yours." The smile only got bigger as he looked at the two heroes and suddenly flung the ship into the opposite direction and flew off. "Crap!" Supersonic shouted as he saw the retreating forms of Dragon in one direction and the ship in the other. Giving CM3 a look, Supersonic made his decision. As good as it would be to have stopped Dragon before he got to Earth, there was still the JLA that could stop him, right now the priority was their teamates. Flying full speed after the fastly retreating ship, Supersonic spoke into his comm/link and connected with his motorcycle. "Electro, I think I know the answer to this, but is there a planet in the current trajectory of the ship?" "Um...Yes actually...it's Apokalips..." "Great. Just great."

Darksied's eyes never wavered as General Steel flew into his chamber. "You are late," he said in a flat tone. "Do not let it happen again, general."

The turning of Superboy had to have been one of the sweetest of victories for Darksied. For too long the Kryptonian had stood in the way of his plans, but Darksied had been able to take his own flesh and blood and make him into one of his most powerful guardsmen. He had made certain to keep this knowledge hidden from Superman though. But he would discover the truth about his clone soon enough.

Of course that did not mean that Darksied fully trusted the clone. He was never stupid. He didn't trust anyone completely in fact.

"I apologize, for the inconvenience my lord. But my men are on her trail as we speak." General Harm said.

Darkseid looked at the demonic young man with a pointed expression. Harm was one person whom he kept a close eye on. Harm was brash, egominiacal and willing to betray somone at the drop of the hat. Darksied liked that. But again; he didn't trust him.

"I do not want appologies," he growled, his red eyes flashing again. "I want results. Nothing can interfer with my plans. I want the rebellion and their leader crushed. Is that understood? Or perhaps I should cut out my disapointments and take things into my own hands...?" He let the threat hang, keeping his eyes on the reactions of those. They knew he was serious. He did not take failure lightly.

The amazon girl had been causing problems for nearly a decade now, taking over for the Batman's terran assistant. A smirk graced the dark lord's lips. After losing the Supergirl Kara, Darksied was anxious to destroy the Bat as well.

"MY LORD!" Granny Goodness cried out suddenly. "Forgive me, but our orbital sensors are picking up an unidentified craft entering our orbit! They appear to be under the attack of a Green Lantern energy signature!"

Darksied didn't miss a beat. "Set up the orbital defenses and destroy them."

(This post has been edited)

"Hard to tell that its my first space voyage, much?"

Gar smiled at the newcomer. "Hey, don't worry. It takes awhile to get used to it." He could remember his own time traveling through space with Raven and Cyborg, but that was years ago.

Suddenly he heard Wraith over the intercom, "I hope you guys can steer this ship really well, I'm doing what I can but Dragon knew what he was doing with those blasts. At the moment we can't stop this ship."

Gar didn't like the sound of that. If they couldn't stop the ship, who knows where they could end up.

In a minute it didn't matter, as the ship suddenly stopped. Gar tried the controls, but then noticed the green aura around the ship.

"Nice catch,' Gar said uneasly. "Leigh and Shinobi, now would be a good time to shoot him I think before he opens us like sardines."

All of the sudden, the ship was moving again, and not in a good way. Gar did everything he could, but the controls just wouldn't answer.

"I don't like this."

(OOC: Stepi, first off DO NOT AUTO OTHER PEOPLE'S CHARACTERS. Marx was controlling Dragon, not you. And second: Re-Read Marx's last post. Dragon was running away to earth. Marx had written him out of the story and you altered his post as a result of autoing Dragon. He wasn't going to save them. He was going to let them die. Please do not auto other people's characters and read other people's posts before you do.)

"Shoot him? now?" Leigh stabilized clutching onto the consul as if it were an anchor as they hurtled through space. "Not only can we aim well enough to shoot him, it won't do any good anyway. The only thing that can defeat a GL is something yellow--and they got rid of that weakness over a decade ago." She yelled out as things that weren't anchored to the ground went flying and the ship moaned with the pressure that was being put on it by entering another planets atomosphere. Leigh pulled herself up to look over the consul a second to see a war-like red planet coming straight at them(Though technically the other way around. Meh.) "How about we focus on getting out alive before the ship burns in the atmoshpere in a few minutes or..oh, seconds." She faught off nausia. Between the alarms in the ship going off and the fact thaty the ship was spiriling out of control, she was lucky she could keep her mind clear somewhat.

Shinobi cursed, loudly, when the ship was flung by Dragon. "Just great..." He mumbled regaining his composure. "What's the planet?" He finally asked, leaning against a wall to support himself against the push and pull of entering the atmosphere. "Can we survive the planets environment...and if yes, what about it's inhabitants?"

(Is the modified post better, Alan? And again, I'm sorry. I was not trying to auto Dragon.)

(Much appreciated)

CM3 heard Super's decision to stop and halted, "good thing too, I was getting dizzy!" he thought, he looked up at Dragon, "how about we play a game. Either you try to catch me...or you can try to catch the ship. The choice is yours." The smile only got bigger as he looked at the two heroes and suddenly flung the ship into the opposite direction and flew off.

"Damn it!" CM3 yelled as he saw the ship get thrown into the atmosphere, with the speed of mercury, he flew after it and saw super do the same thing on the ground. "good thing I decided to fly, better to have one person on the ground and one person in the air!" he thought.

*Joint Post*
Wraith struggled outside the ship as it was hurled. She'd shown exceptional strength before, but the ship just being thrown like a toy wasn't something she really expected. It was quite obvious this was the plan all along, take out the reverse thrusters so they can't stop and throw them. But all she could do was hold on for all she was worth. Then looking ahead, Wraith saw they're destination. She was tough, but she wasn't completely sure she was tough enough to survive reentry. So she closed her eyes and went with her instincts.

As Wraith opened her eyes she was no longer on the ship, but standing in front of an office. Not only wasn't she near Apokalips, she'd traveled all the way back to Earth. Reading the name on the door, a smirk formed under her mask as she recognized the name. It was Duo's psychiatrist. Momentarily forgetting about her teammates' peril, as she listened inside.

Duo refrained from rolling her eyes, this type of therapy had never exactly sat well with her, but then again few methods did... the freudains tell her that it is repressed anger at her parents for conditionally loving her...

Others simply regurgitated what she said as if hearing fthe words from someone else would enlighten her to the depth of her problems...

A few had even advised that she be committed after she honestly told them that she was a demonic angel, hell-bent on consuming souls...although they often retracted their statement when she demonstrated the ferocity of her abilities, draining just a little bit of soul to instill the fear of Satan in them...

So Duo sat clicking her tongue in an annoying way as the elderly, grey hair, wrinkeled psychologist rounded off her conclusion of the life of Duo Merquise, sounding incredibly proud of herself as though this new insight was to absolve the woman of her problems and lead Duo onto the path of recovery.

The woman didn't get the chance, Duo had reached the end of her patience, throwing down $200 on the table, infront of the starteled woman Duo simply muttered "thanks for nothing" and headed for the door...clasping the door knob she turned to look back at the woman who had a look of outrage painted across her features..."Oh, and one word about my anger issues being caused by confused or repressed sexual frustrations and I will unleash the full depth of my anger issues on you!"

Duo stormed out of the door and almost crashed head first into the red eyes form of Wraith!!!

Wraith backed up slightly as Duo almost ran into her. "You know, I didn't think you'd like it there. That was Marxy's idea." Wraith continued to almost stare at Duo as she spoke, it was almost as if she saw something in her that even Duo herself might not have seen. Then again that could totally have been the issue. When Shinigami initially attacked the Titans, it was Wraith who stopped the fighting long enough to tell her teammates that Duo wasn't completely evil. There were good intentions, and therein lied her redemption.

"I can think of a much better place than...this." Wraith said in an almost discusted tone as she looked at the door of the psychiatrist, her visible eye glowing brightly. But the smirk soon returned behind her mask. "Ever been to Apokalips?"

Duo looked at the lean woman infront of her with some distatse...she had never really been able to figure Wraith out, which disturbed her a little since she could read peoples' auras, although she herself was just as much of a misfit.

"Apokalips?" Duo murmered the name, it had a pleasant ring to it that lulled on her tongue as she spoke the word, she had never been to this destination but she had heard of it...in truth it sounded like her kind of place, there were many a time, despite her freedom, that she truly missed the deths of hell in all its fire and brimstone glory, the stench of death, decay and lustful sins...it was an intoxicating place as long as you were to one doing the torturing...

Duo shook her head a little to distill these thoughts...no wonder Marxy had suggested therapy to her, her thoughts lingered a little longer on the speedster, they often did on him more than the others...

"Apokolips sounds interesting...what do you propose...?" Duo hissed, her eyes widening slightly as she felt that familliar gnawing in her stomach that surged saliva into her mouth and caused her to ache appreciatively...a hunger...

"Well, we'll just go there the way I came. Marxy and the others are about to crash land there. We were originally after Dragon but I think that mission just got side tracked and they could use all the help they can get. Of course I won't be able to make that big of a jump again if I wanted to which will definitely make things...interesting." Wraith stated as she studied Duo's reactions. It could have been a variety of things that called her here of all places, Wraith's inner desire to have Duo with the team or possibly Duo's desire to be anywhere but that therapy session, or maybe a little of both, but she'd take advantage.

As Wraith took Duo's hand, she seemed to wait awhile and smirk slightly as she studied Duo's reactions some more before everything went dark.

---

Flying as fast as he humanly could Super was able to approach the ship, but he knew at the speed they were going they'd be lucky not to be disentegrated upon impact. Of course the same thing happens that always happens when it seems like things can get any worst...they do. A series of beams seemed to come out of nowhere and fired upon the ship, most likely Apokalips' defenses. Just great, not only were they about to crash land on a planet of evil gods but the evil gods knew they were there.

The blasts did more damage against the ship than Dragon's attacks. 'Ooh its going to be a long time before STAR LABS lends us another ship.' Was ironically the thought going through his mind as he finally reached the front of the ship. It was a good thing that him and CM3 were the ones outside the ship. They might have been the only Titans not only strong enough to stop the ship but also have enough endurance to survive the heat of reentry, not that the planets defences were making things any easier. They'd already blown off enough parts of the ship that Supersonic seriously doubted that it was going to be taking off anytime soon, and that's if they got out of just landing the ship alive.

Morphing his hands as wide as he could, Supersonic began pushing against the front of the ship. At the speed it was going even if him and CM3 used all their power it was highly doubtful they'd stop the ship completely, hopefully they'd just be able to slow it down enough that the landing wouldn't kill anyone. His mind breifly went onto Wraith who was repairing the ship the last time he looked. He could only hope she was okay, though she'd shown previous times to be able to teleport.

---

"I want results. Nothing can interfer with my plans. I want the rebellion and their leader crushed. Is that understood? Or perhaps I should cut out my disapointments and take things into my own hands...?"

"That won't be necessary sir. I'll join my men and I'll bring her to you." Luckily it seemed like Darkseid was promptly occupied with an oncoming ship, giving Harm the opportunity to make good on his word. Giving the Lord of Apokalips a nod as well as Secret, Harm gave Gen. Steel a smirk almost a way of saying, 'I'll get her before you do.' as he melded into the shadows.

---

Wraith appeared with Duo on the dark planet, just as suddenly as they left. Immediately the smell of fire and death forced itself into Wraith's nose. They were here. As she looked up, her visible eye began to glow brightly as she saw what was left of the ship coming at them at an incredible speed. "I'm getting the feeling that we should probably move..."

As CM3 was flying as fast as he could, he could see the blasts coming from Apokolips and was wondering his fellow Titans were going to survive. "how are we going to get the others out of there with out having anyone getting hurt?" he thought.

Looking down at Super he saw that he was thinking the same thing. " Lets get the others to land safely first than we can deal with these guys." he said to Supersonic.