As the Scarlet Spider looked out over Khazan City, he knew almost instinctively that it was going to be another busy day for him. Khazan is the nexus of all dimensions, and naturally, commercial traffic is always unbearable for the common citizen. Today in particular though, something seemed wrong, as though today wasn’t going to be the usual rough day that every super hero in Khazan must go through on a usual basis. The Scarlet Spider couldn’t quite put his finger but there was a bad air rising with the morning sun, almost as if there was going to be trouble. Still, the Scarlet Spider saw no reason to worry about it. After all, in his line of work, trouble came in the form of symbiotic aliens and evil scientists attempting to replace the world with clones. So, the Scarlet Spider sighed, raised his hand to shoot a web line onto a nearby building, and without another thought to his silly notions of a bad air in the morning, swung off for his morning patrol.
Little did he know that War World was coming.
***
At the Avengers headquarters, the situation was anything but calm. Emergency calls had been placed out to virtually every super hero team that the Avengers could think of. Sadly, no one had yet answered the calls. In the main control room, Captain America was busy placing a priority call to the J.L.A headquarters with little luck. Suddenly the static on the screen cleared, as a tall figure in a blue costume with a red “S” in the center of his shirt answered.
“We read you Avengers, this had better not be another prank, oh, it is you Captain.”
Superman’s voice tone had quickly changed from casual to serious upon seeing who exactly was calling the J.L.A on a priority one signal. The J.L.A had occasionally received prank calls from Wonder Man or Hawkeye. However, Superman knew full well that when Captain America himself made the call, things were bad.
“Sorry Superman but no one over here at Avengers H.Q. has been laughing too much lately. This is dead serious. We are having a meeting in one hour and it is vital that every other team or individual contacted attend. We could be looking at a worldwide crisis here and we need everyone.”
Superman was all attention now. The expression on Captain America’s face almost sent chills down his back. Of all the seemingly limitless heroes he had met in Khazan, almost no one had earned his respect as much as Captain America.
“I’ll gather the rest of the J.L.A. We'll be over there in an hour.”
“No, not at Avengers H.Q. I am afraid that it is not even safe here. We are all gathering at the Khazan Hall of Justice. Meet us there. And incidentally, anyone else you could bring along would be greatly appreciated.”
Superman was now all attentive to the image on the screen in front of him. He knew things were bad. The Khazan Hall of Justice was supposed to be a museum of sorts, honoring and commemorating the many heroes that had defend the city of Khazan ever. At least, that is what it was to the public. But the many defenders of Khazan knew better. It was also an emergency headquarters. It was designed as a sort of fallback location for the heroes of Khazan in case an invader had managed to disable their primary bases of operations. It was equipped with the most advanced, state of the art technology ever and it was a last resort to be used only in times of great emergency.
“We’ll be there. I don’t suppose you can fill me in with any more details?”
Captain America’s voice almost turned pail as the words departed from his lips.
“War World is coming.”
***
At the Fantastic Four Freedoms Plaza, things seemed calm enough. And quite frankly, one Benjamin J. Grimm, better know at the Thing of the Fantastic Four, couldn’t have been happier with that. This was his one morning in what seemed like a long time that he was going to get the opportunity to sleep in and he fully intended to take full advantage of that. However, such was not the case.
“Ben, Ben, come quick, I think something is wrong with Reed”, said Ben Grimm’s friend and fellow FF member, Susan Storm, better know as the Invisible Woman.
“Ah fer crips sakes, what is it Susie, ya know how I was wanting to sleep in this morning.”
“Ah come on rock for brains, all you do when you are awake is watch tasteless T.V programs anyway,” said his friend and other FF member Johnny Storm, better known as the Human Torch who had walked in with his sister the Invisible Woman.
“ What are you calling tasteless, all you ever watch are dumb programs about some over grown lizards stomping the same city, that always looks fine in the next movie no matter how bad they are smashed in the first ones.”
“ Hey, those are some of the best movies made in America, unlike those boring spy movies you spend all day watching over and over even though you know in the end the spy kills the bad guy, saves the day and gets the girl.”
“Will you two both stop fighting and help me,” interrupted Sue Storm, now in a frantic and half-crazed tone.
“Yeah, yeah,” muttered Ben Grimm who was still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “What is the matter with ol’ stretch now.”
“I’m not sure. He went into his lab like he does every morning but something different happened.”
“What? He actually conducted an experiment without blowing out our fuse box or my t.v. for once,” said the Thing in a joking tone.
“ No, he locked the door and a few minutes later, I heard him yell ‘Oh my god’ in a frantic tone. And the lab door is locked and I haven’t heard a word from him since.” Sue Richards was almost completely frantic at this point. She was starting to breathe very deeply and it looked to the Thing that she might hyperventilate.
“ You interrupted my beauty sleep for that. Just ‘cause of a brief scream. Oh fer cryin out loud. I’ll knock on his door and see what the trouble is about.”
As the Thing got out of bed, he quickly dressed and headed straight for the lab, grumbling to himself all the way there. He knew he would get there and Reed would just end up saying how it was just ‘an accident I had with the lab’. “Well,” he thought to himself, “at least I get the chance to bother ol’ stretch for a change instead of him bothering me. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up stopping him from blowing out the entire city power grid like he ends up doing anyway.”
When the Thing and the rest of the FF did arrive at the lab, the Thing knocked at the door and shouted into the room on the other side of the door.
“Yo, stretch, will you please come out of there and tell your wife that you’re okay so that I can catch up on my sleep.”
There was no response.
“Come on stretch, I am not in the mood. Open up this door or I will open it up for you.”
The Thing was in a really grumpy mood and without another word or a second thought, brought his monstrous hands together and smashed the lab door down. Suddenly, the alarms went off, a standard security measure to prevent any forceful entrance to the Fantastic Four lab without the team being alerted.
“Smooth move rock head. Now my ears are going to be ringing for weeks” screamed Johnny Storm over the blaring alarms and sirens.
“Hey, you wanted to get into the lab, well here we are” screamed Ben in reply.
Susan Storm quickly pushed past her bickering teammates towards a nearby security console where she quickly activated the security code signaling the all clear and shutting down the security alarms. There, standing right in front of the scientific equipment and computers was Reed Richards, better know as Mr. Fantastic, the fourth and final member of the legendary Fantastic Four.
“Reed, darling, what is the matter?”
Reed Richards face was down right frantic with concern. He starred with his mouth wide open at a computer print out in his hand, and upon seeing him, his fellow FF members could swear that they saw the color leave his face.
“Yo stretch,” spoke Ben Grimm finally. “What the heck is the matter with you, ya run out of printing ink or something?”
“No Ben, I am afraid it is much worse. Much worse that I would ever had dared dream,” replied the panicked scientists.
“Well fer cryin’ out loud, what the heck is it,” asked the anxious and rather frustrated Thing.
“War World is coming”
***
Guy Gardner was not very happy. Were you to ask his comrades, they would reply that that was typical of Guy. Indeed, the former Green Lantern had a history of being grumpy. It was simply something that his allies and friends had come to tolerate and expect out of him over the years. However today, his grumpy mood almost seemed justified. Superman had gathered the J.L.A members as well as a handful of other heroes, many of whom had been on leave at the time, together at the last minute and, without any real explanation, had insisted that the entire team rendezvous at the Khazan Hall of Justice in one hour. “Well”, he thought, he was here and he was going to be really pissed off if this wasn’t important. How little did he realize that he was most definitely not going to be disappointed in the slightest.
As the Avengers and the Justice League of America members settled down and took their seats within the conference room, Captain America approached a podium at the center of the room and began to speak.
“ I realize that you must all be wondering why I called you here and believe me, it was a decision I didn’t have to think about twice, given are current crisis.”
“Okay, okay already,” shouted Guy Gardner in final frustration, “you have got everyone here all worked up and we are all sweatin' our pants. We get the idea. End of the world, we have to stick together, blah, blah blah. So what is the big deal?”
“ I am afraid son that this is quite serious. War World is coming to earth and is almost already here.” Replied Captain America in a tone that stopped all chatter in the room instantly.
Upon hearing the news, every person seated within that room froze right dead in their tracks. They knew War World. They had all seen the destruction it was capable of, and they knew that if it was as close to earth as Captain America had said, they were all in trouble.
“For those of you who don’t know or haven’t experienced the terrible might of War World,” interjected Superman’ “ I’ll give you an idea of exactly what we are up against.”
Superman then pushed a button at the center of the table in the conference room and a large video screen dropped down from the ceiling. It quickly turned on, displaying images of a large sphere shaped object. It was the size of a large planet but all around the surface; it was covered with machines and buildings, almost as if it was just one massive space ship, constructed to be the size of a planet.
“This,” said Superman, “is War World. It is a planet of sorts that has actually been turned into the largest space station in the universe. On board are trillions of aliens soldiers and the most advanced weapons and destructive technology in the known or unknown universe. Its might is so awesome that even mighty planets like Apokolips fear its awesome wrath. In my universe, I was forced to fight in the War World arena for the sheer perverse enjoyment of everyone who lived there. It was later taken over by a man named Brainiac who brought War World to earth and tried to shrink Metropolis down to table size. In the end, it took a concentrated effort on the parts of virtually every hero in my universe to stop it.”
“So”, interrupted Hawkeye, “if everyone in your universe was able to stop it, why can’t everyone in Khazan, the nexus of all realities, stop it. Why don’t we just get everyone together and go kick this Brainiac’s butt all the way back to whatever galaxy he dragged War World from.”
“Well,” replied Superman in an impatient tone, “ for one thing, it can’t be Brainiac who is controlling it. In our last attack, Brainiac was reduced to a vegetable when Maxima used her powers to attack him telepathically. In the end, she shut down all of his mental processes and left him in a coma. But that is not the real problem. Our real problem is that in approximately one hour, War World will be within Earth’s orbit and shortly after, we can expect it to begin transporting all sorts of alien soldiers down to Earth within seconds. We are, quite frankly, looking at a full scale invasion.”
The entire conference room went dead silent as every one gathered just stood there and starred at each other in silence.
Captain America was the first to break the silence.
“ We are mobilizing everyone we can to make a stand here in Khazan. We must organize small groups to protect the civilian population. We must also assemble a small group to make a stand here and defend this building from the invaders. As you know, this building is hooked up to virtually every government computer in the world as well as all the satellites orbiting earth. It is too valuable of a strategic position to allow the invaders to gain control of this installation. One of the problems that we also concerned about is how War World got this close to Earth without us noticing. As you know, our very solar system is patrolled by a variety of spy satellites that instantly report if anything enters or leaves the solar system. The satellites were originally designed to keep an eye out for either Galactus or an invasion by either the Kree or the Skrulls. The fact that War World is now within arms reach of us, means that it somehow managed to get past the satellites without them setting them off.”
“But I thought that it was impossible for anyone to disable or destroy those satellites without it setting off an alarm that would be radioed to both the Avengers and the J.L.A.” asked Spider-Man, who was one of the three reserve Avengers that the Avengers had actually managed to contact.
“That is correct,” replied Captain America. He then paused and finished “ at least, not without the proper authorization codes.”
“So,” replied Spider-Man, “who has the authorization codes?”
“Only myself and Superman. For reasons of security the only way that those satellites could have missed War World while it was entering our solar system is if either Superman or myself shut them off.”
There was an eerie silence in the room, except that is, for some mumbling from a few of the individuals gathered. Superman, this time, was the one to interrupt the silence.
“We have to organize into groups to defend this place as well as to protect the civilian population. Captain America, Gardner, Batman, Spider-Man, Vision, Tick, Arthur, and myself will stay here and protect this installation. Wasp, Orion, Justice and Firestar go to the business distract and begin evacuating people. Booster Gold, Fire and Ice, I want you three to head towards the eastern portion of the city and do what you can there. Thor, you, Plastic Man and the Scarlet Witch head towards the southern part of town. I want the Hulk, Flash and the Huntress to move towards the old business distract down by the docks and help anyone you can down there. Take Aquaman with you. Iron Man, Steel and Green Lantern, I want you three to try and contact as many other groups as possible and see if you can get them to rendezvous here at the Khazan Hall of Justice. The more people we have helping us, the more people we can help. Quicksilver, I need you and Goliath upstairs monitoring the citywide situation. We need to track any and all police calls and reports of disturbances and disperse ourselves across the city accordingly.”
Everyone in the room was all business. They each moved about the room, gathering into their assigned groups and prepared to depart. Just then, the Avenger’s butler, Jarvis walked in and spoke directly to Captain America.
“Terribly sorry to interrupt this gathering gentlemen but Mr. Richards of the Fantastic Four is on the line and I am afraid he insists that he speak with someone in authority.”
“I’ll take it Jarvis,” said Captain America, hopeful and a bit relieved that he was finally going to speak with the one man, other than Superman, who might have an answer to this crisis that they were facing.
As Captain America picked up the line, an image appeared on the screen in front of him. It was the image of the very original Mr. Fantastic. Cap tried to speak but before he could open his mouth, the elastic hero spoke out.
“Cap, I am afraid we have serious problems”
“I am aware of that. We know that War World is coming, if indeed that was the problem that you were referring to.”
“No, it is not just coming. War World is already here.”
***
Duke Nukem had been stuck in that conference room for over an hour, listening as the many other individuals gathered had been arguing their perspective viewpoints. Among those gathered in the room was Sonic the hedgehog and his friends Knuckles the echidna and Tails the fox. There was Lara Croft, Spyro the dragon, a fellow demon killer Doom, Mario and his brother Luigi, Donkey Kong the ape, Link, Samus, Captain Falcon, Pac Man, Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, Yoshi, Pikachu, Vectorman, Megaman, Kid Chameleon, Q-Bert, Space Ace, Dirk the Daring, Karate Champ, Tron, Chef Peter Pepper, Ryu from Street Fighter, Kirby and Toe Jam and Earl. The famous video game characters had all been discussing the making of a new video game in which the player would be allowed to chose his or her favorite video game character, play as them, and have to fight all the other characters. The idea was sounding better and better to everyone but there were still a few people who didn’t like the idea of being associated with some of the more wimpy video game characters such as Kirby, Yoshi or Q-bert. Duke Nukem was one of them and he was making this game very difficult to be produced. Needless to say, the meeting was going along rather slowly.
“Look Nukem, this game can be a big success for all of us and we can all come out of this with more popularity than ever before,” said Sonic who was reaching the end of his patience with Nukem.
“ Yeah, well you can take your game and shove it up your @$$, I don’t want nothing to do with any game that has a bunch of wimps in it,” said Nukem, staring his eyes slightly towards Kirby.
“Hey, I may not have as many guns or weapons as you do but I can still turn you into leftovers,” said Kirby, who was all but ready to just give up and walk out of the room.
“Pi-ka, Pi-ka.”
“You both had better shove it or I’ll be all to happy to put some bullet holes in both of you,” said Nukem after pulling out a pair of pistols and pointing one of them at Kirby and the other at Pikachu.
“Alright boys, that is enough. Play nice now,” said Lara Croft as she pulled out one of her own pistols and pointed it straight at Duke Nukem’s head.
As Duke Nukem seemed to ease off of his trigger finger, Pikachu used his lightening bolt attack, electrocuting Duke Nukem not enough to kill him but just enough to make him think twice about ever pulling a gun on Pikachu.
“Try that again and you are going to be the cutest thing that I have ever had the pleasure of blasting into tiny little globs of puss,” said Doom, who had now pulled out a double-barreled shotgun and had aimed it straight at Pikachu.
“Ease up pal, or Nukem isn’t going to be the only gun totting, demon killing punk to end up charbroiled today,” said Vectorman who had his left blaster hand pointing directly at Doom’s head. Kid Chameleon, who it seemed, had been waiting forever to use his diamond powers, acted. He quickly called up a diamond snake to knock all the guns out of the hands of Croft, Nukem and Doom.
“Now that I have your attention,” said Chameleon in a rather impatient tone, “can we please get back to business.”
Duke Nukem had been waiting for long enough. “That’s it,” he said as he bolted for the door. He was just getting ready to walk out of the room when all of the sudden the wall leading into the room exploded. From out of the smoke and fire and into the room stepped over a dozen strange looking creatures. There was no pattern to their appearance. Some had more eyes than others; some had more arms or legs than other. It didn’t seem like they were all the same type of creature and none of them looked like anything that anyone had seen from any game anywhere.
“Okay Doom, let’s rock!” With that Duke Nukem quickly pulled out a minigun and opened fire almost at the exact instant as Doom opened fire with his chain gun.
However, no sooner had the two opened fire than the creatures standing in the doorway returned fire, shooting at the demon killers with a wide variety of strange weapons that made rocket launchers seem like water pistols.
As the shooting began, everyone in the conference room did their best to find some kind of shelter until the two demon killers had finished their gunfight. However, the group was quick to discover that in a small conference room such as the one that they were in, there was little to be found.
Even as Duke Nukem and Doom continued firing into the approaching aliens, one of them managed to dodge the oncoming bullet fire and managed to land a straight laser wound to Duke Nukem’s chest.
“Okay look,” said Samus finally, “Nukem is a pain but this has got to stop. Pikachu, thunder shock!”
“PI-KA-CHU!”
And with that, the Pokemon let out a massive electric bolt that laid waste to most of the attacking aliens. However, more poured into the room.
“Oh what the heck,” said Vectorman. “I could use a good fight.” And with that readied his blaster and opened fire, laying dead at least three more alien warriors.
“Amateurs. Here let me finish this,” said Spyro the dragon, who let out a breath of fire, killing the remaining aliens as they entered.
The rest of the room gathered themselves and looked at the entrance, almost expecting more aliens. It was about ten minutes later when no more entered that they finally relaxed. Laura Croft had gone over to check Duke Nukem and see how badly he was hurt.
“Man, what the heck were those things?” asked Link.
As Tails looked out the window of the conference room, he soon responded, “I don’t know, but the streets are crawling with them. Look!”
No sooner had Tails finished than the entire room had looked out the window to see a terrifying sight as what seemed like hundreds more creatures, all of a different variety, were all over the streets. They were attacking innocent people and destroying everything in sight with weapons that seemed far more advanced than anything any of them had ever seen.
It was the beginning of the end. War World was here.
***
The invasion had begun very suddenly, without any warning. However the heroes had been quick to respond. The Avengers and the J.L.A had instantly organized into their assigned groups and were all over the city within a matter of minutes.
It wasn’t fast enough. The alien hordes had begun a massive attack and it seemed that you couldn’t look anywhere without seeing some kind of hideous alien doing everything possible to destroy as much as possible. It was clear that the invasion had been well coordinated.
Outside the Khazan Hall of Justice, things were even worse. Whoever was in control of War World had definitely known of the Hall and had sent a large contingent of soldiers to attack it. Of the heroes remaining to defend it, only the Tick, Arthur, Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America, Warrior and the Fantastic Four were on hand. Superman and Vision, who were supposed to defend the hall, had agreed to investigate the possible sabotage of the spy satellites that Captain America had spoken of during the conference, if the Fantastic Four would take their place in helping to defend the hall.
The heroes had rushed out of the hall only to be greeted by a terrible sight. All over the city thousands of alien warriors and a wide variety of what appeared to be alien spit fighter ships had begun leveling the city building by building. All over the city, there was nothing but carnage and destruction. Each one of the heroes had agreed to each other, non-verbally, that it was going to be a long day.
Captain America was the first one to get it underway. “All right everyone, hit them hard and hit them fast and whatever you do, don’t underestimate them for an instant.”
“And also,” said Spider-Man, “don’t forget to wash your hands before every meal, get to bed on time, listen to your mother..”
Spider-Man seemed to go on like that but no one else really minded. The Tick was the first one to reach the alien hordes, screaming his famous battle cry.
“SPOON”!
Charging forward like a bull in a rodeo contest, he ran forward, knocking at least a half-a-dozen attackers aside. Yet no sooner had he done so than aliens were surrounding him, attacking him from all over. He fought ferociously, knocking aliens all over the place, but this was harder than he was making it look. The Tick seemed overwhelmed by the sheer strength of some of his attackers. Some of these guys seemed almost as strong as he was.
Captain America had discovered this too. He was also already knee deep; it seemed, in invaders who seemed all too anxious to reach the hall over their dead body. As Cap looked around, he could see that some of the other heroes were having trouble too. They needed a new strategy, and they needed it soon.
***
Joe’s Diner is the place to eat in Khazan. Its meals are considered to be the finest in all of the multiverse, and its liquor is imported from every dimension there is. Unfortunately for Joe’s, it is that very liquor that has often turned it from a restaurant to just another bar. Once considered one of the most promising and prospective looking places in all of Khazan, it was now the worst dive in existence, were fights broke out almost every hour on the hour. One such fight that was in progress at that very minute was a battle between T-1000 and Scud. They had both stopped in just take a load of their minds, and decided that the best way for the two of them to do that was by bashing each other’s heads in. Hey, this was typical of Joe’s and almost no one in the room even bothered to look up at the two fighters, not even one bounty hunter known throughout the cosmos as Lobo. Lobo had just stopped in for a few drinks of Romulan ale and was finding the stuff to be as strong as he had heard it was. Behind the bar, the man in charge of the place, Joe himself, stood busily making drinks. It seemed that this invasion had been the best thing for business in a long time. The invaders had pretty much forced every body on the street to find shelter, and apparently, many of them had done so in Joe’s Diner. However, the policy was no loitering, and so many people had been forced to order something rather than go back outside in the middle of an invasion. Joe couldn’t help but smile. Business hadn’t been this good since he had first opened.
Also seated at the bar where a few other super powered beings from dimensions less known than the ones that Superman or Captain America were from. At the far end of the bar was a powerfully-muscled, dark-haired man who looked like he hadn’t shaved in forever, wearing a metallic green-and-lead costume, his eyes and fists glowing green with gamma radiation. His name was Gammablast and he had just come in for something to drink. Sitting next to him was the world renowned, and hunted villain known as Sinestro who was only in Joe’s to lie low for a while. He wasn’t a criminal any more but a lot of people didn’t know that and would rather arrest him than let him explain that. On his right was a young man in his early thirties. His name was Rimfiztrik and he was an EVA pilot. He used to design them until he was fired due to cutbacks. Next to him was Packrat, a young man who used to be part of a "heroes for hire" group until no one needed any heroes for hire anymore. He wore a special kind of suit that give him peak human strength, speed, agility, and endurance and was an excellent leader in all respects. Finally, the last one at the bar was a tall man dressed in what appeared to be royal garments from medieval England. His name was King Ggnictee and was just a knight that was out of time and place. No one really knew where he came from and no one seemed to care.
“Mind if I take this seat,” said a voice from behind King Ggnictee. Ggnictee looked behind him to see the T-1000, apparently finished with his brawl with Scud, towering over him and looking down into his eyes.
“Sure, go ahead,” was all Ggnictee said in response. He wasn’t impressed with T-1000 for defeating Scud if that was indeed what he had wanted. He simply looked back at the bar and ordered another drink. T-1000 simply sat down and took a look around, almost as if he was looking for someone else to start a fight with.
As if right on cue, the entire south wall, which opened out to the street, exploded in a pile of derbies. As the dust cleared, one could see dozens of aliens, wearing whatever passed for body armor in their culture and carrying a wide variety of weapons. No sooner had they entered, than the invaders opened fire, slaughtering the numerous patrons of Joe’s and doing as much as possible it seemed to destroy everything in sight.
“Gee, what do you know? I was hoping I would have some more fun today.” And with that T-1000 charged forward at the aliens. He leaped forward and tackled three of them to the ground. He soon leaped to his feet, grabbed a weapon right out of the hand of a nearby alien soldier and began shooting at the other soldiers.
Gammablast hadn’t planned on getting into any trouble today. He had just come in for a drink, but it seemed that fate had other plans for him. And so, as he let out a silent sigh, he turned his seat around, aimed his arms at the invaders, and without thought or hesitation, opened fire, releasing blast of gamma radiation at the invaders that disintegrated them upon contact.
Gammablast wasn’t the only one who had decided that something had to be done about these aliens. Whoever they were, they were definitely on some kind of search-and-destroy mission, with just about every citizen in sight as their target. Packrat, almost inspired by the heroic efforts of Gammablast and T-1000, turned around and leapt forward, drop kicking two nearby aliens. He hadn’t even had the time to really knock them out when he heard a sound behind him.
“Ack-ack-ack-ack. ACK!”
Packrat wheeled around too see three or four little green men, wearing some kind of glass helmets completely encasing their heads, perhaps allowing the aliens to breath. One of them raised his weapon at Packrat and fired. The weapon released a red beam that hummed as it fired. As Packrat dodged out of its path, the beam hit a nearby tourist. As the beam hit him, Packrat watched in horror as the man’s skin almost seemed to melt and disintegrate at the same time, leaving only a burnt skeleton where an innocent tourist had stood a few seconds earlier, sipping a quick shot of whisky. As Packrat turned back towards the three aliens, he could see all of three of them level their weapons again at him. From this close range, Packrat knew he wasn’t going to be able to dodge their blasts again.
“Ack-ack-ack-ack. ACK!”
Packrat didn’t really understand a single word of what the aliens standing before him had just said but he could get about the gist of it. “Prepare to die”. Suddenly, a large yellow beam shot forward at the three aliens, blasting them into little tiny pieces. Packrat looked up to see the face of his savior.
“No need to thank me.”
“Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting I would have to, ever. But all the same, thanks, Sinestro.” Packrat knew that Sinestro was a villain wanted several times over for multiple crimes. However, the fact that the man had just saved his life definitely meant something to Packrat, and as he looked into his eyes, Packrat could tell that the man that was even now helping him to his feet was a friend. And as he looked around, he could tell that he was going to need all the friends that he could get.
T-1000, Gammablast, and Packrat weren’t the only ones to have gotten involved in this effort to repel the invaders out of Joe’s Diner. King Ggnictee had also grabbed up his sword and had also leapt into battle. Slicing and slashing away at the invaders. Despite the fact that they were better armed with a seemingly endless variety of blasters, they seemed reluctant to use them and more interested in unarmed combat than in shooting everyone.
The battle seemed hopeless. The combined efforts of T-1000, Packrat, Sinestro, Gammablast and King Ggnictee should have been more than enough to drive the invaders away and it would have been if not for the constant reinforcements that the aliens kept receiving. It seemed that for every alien warrior that was killed or simply defeated, ten more arose to continue the battle. Needless to say, it seemed pretty hopeless. Suddenly, the ground shook and the bar seemed to shake suddenly. Then it happened again, and again. The aliens seemed as confused about it as the heroes were. Without any declaration of a cease-fire, everyone in the diner, aliens and heroes alike rushed outside to see what was going on. There, standing in the middle of the street, was a forty-foot tall EVA unit. The EVA lowered its head as if to look down at the battle. As it looked down upon the heroes and the alien invaders, it opened one of its portholes to reveal a collection of concealed mortars. The EVA locked on to its targets and without another thought opened fire, raining death down upon the alien invaders, leaving only a trail of dead soldiers where ever its guns fired. As the EVA ceased fire, a speaker was turned on and a familiar voice was heard.
“Hey guys, you boys looked like you could use a little help.”
It was Rimfiztrik! Finally, something had gone right.
***
Khazan wasn’t normally this terrible of a sight. Oh no. Normally its skyscrapers strained the eye and the neck to the common passer by to get a good view of. Its skylines were the tallest in existence, stretching all the way to the clouds themselves. But all that was before the invasion had begun. Now, of the hundreds of skyscrapers that were normally standing, more than half of them had been reduced to rubble. All over the sky, thousands of War World spit fighters and hundreds of massive battle cruisers scorched the sky with their presence, firing massive beams that reduced the greatest and most awe-inspiring city in all of the multiverse to rubble. Already all of downtown was obliterated and it seemed that there would be no end to the onslaught. Even after everything had been reduced to nothingness, it seemed that the aliens would still be firing, thereby trying to eradicate any trace that the city had ever stood. It was more than many of the heroes that even then were spreading over the city could bear the sight of.
And there, hanging in the sky like an angel of death, hovered War World. Now positioned in a steady orbit, it blocked out the light of the sun itself, covering the massive city of Khazan with a dark shadow that stretched for thousands of miles.
***
Booster Gold, Fire and Ice had arrived only a few seconds too late. No sooner had the three of them landed than alien weapon opened fire at them, attempting to cut the other off from each other. Booster’s force field was able to shield him from the initial onslaught but Fire and Ice weren’t so fortunate. Fire maneuvered through the alien fire in a desperate attempt to reach a group of small children who were curious to see the strange looking “monsters” walking through the street. Using her powers of flame, Fire reduced several invaders to ashes in a desperate attempt to reach the children. Yet, just as it looked that she might reach the children, an alien energy beam flew just past Fire’s face. Though the size of the beam suggested that it was a type of alien pistol, Fire soon discovered otherwise, as the beam seemed to explode upon contact, taking the children with it. For an instant, just an instant mind you, Fire stopped dead in her tracks, mourning in her mind the senseless loss of life that she had just witnessed. In that very instant, a rather large alien reached out and with it’s massive hands pulled Fire down from her position hovering a few feet in the air and pulled her down to the ground. In that exact same instant, over a dozen aliens pilled on top of her, attempting to crush her, it seemed with their weight.
Booster Gold moved to help his teammate. Covered by Ice, who was throwing massive blocks of ice at the alien invaders, Booster attempted to fly in low and help Fire before she was crushed. The aliens weren’t making it easy. The streets were filled with legions of them, more of which seemed more determined to crush Fire within their ranks.
Superman flew past several spit fighters, dodging their fire at breakneck speed. As it seemed that the fighters were just beginning to close in on him, Superman pulled up in mid-flight, the chasing fighters flew right past him and into several of their comrades. As Superman flew past several more fighters, he couldn’t help but think to himself, “This is insane.”
***
Superman and Vision had arrived expecting to see the satellites damaged or destroyed somehow. Instead, he and the Vision had arrived to see an entire armada of ships there waiting for them. It had to have been a trap, but the same questions kept running through Superman’s head. Who was this mysterious new individual who was now in control of War World and how had been able to predict the heroes next move? Whoever it was had definitely known that someone would have been sent to check on these satellites and their malfunction just as they had known that the heroes of Khazan would gather at the Hall of Justice instead of at their separate headquarters.
Superman sped past three more ships, reducing their outer hulls to nothing more than scrap metal. Meanwhile, just barely out of his range of sight, at least his normal unenhanced sight, flew the Vision. Having phased immaterial, thereby making it impossible for the alien ships to hit him, he had begun firing away at as many ships as he could. Yet despite their combined efforts, they were achieving nothing. Superman knew that if there was such a large force gathered here, things had to be at least a hundred times worse back at Khazan. He also knew that at this point, the question of how the satellites had been disabled was not important to stopping the invasion and that it would be a suicide run for them to try.
As Superman turned to warn the Vision of his plan to retreat, he noticed the Vision running from several spit fighters. They had somehow found a way to adjust their weapons to hit Vision in his immaterial form. Things weren't off to a great start.

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