Green Ghost had been working overtime, phasing through walls, floating just above the ground, and using her powers to immobilize any isolated Flaxan she could find. She'd already managed to subdue thirty of them, yanking their weapons through their armor, slipping through their defenses, and turning their own tech against them. But they weren't fools. The Flaxans were starting to understand her pattern.
Now, instead of wandering alone, they began patrolling in tight squads of five, and their weapons were constantly sweeping the area in synchronized arcs.
She ducked behind a crumbling wall in what was left of a corner office suite, her breathing shallow, her green-tinted form flickering from exhaustion.
BOOM
The building around her exploded in a deafening blast, and glass, metal, and concrete erupted outward in a storm of debris. Her phasing activated just in time, but the force still flung her into the open, glowing and exposed.
"No!"
She barely had time to finish the thought before five Flaxans aimed their rifles and opened fire, twin-barreled beams converging in a deadly spray. She twisted mid-air, activating her intangibility, but fatigue had dulled her reflexes. One beam grazed her shoulder, singeing flesh and drawing a sharp cry from her lips.
Then—
FWOOOOOSH
A blur of green and off-white slammed into the squad with elastic limbs coiling and extending like living whips.
SLAM
SLAM
CRACK
Martian Man wrapped his elongated limbs around all five Flaxans at once, compressing them into a tangled, writhing bundle. With a tight squeeze that echoed like bones snapping under pressure, he forced each one into unconsciousness. Their armor hissed and buckled. The invaders collapsed in a heap.
Green Ghost dropped to one knee, panting heavily.
"Glad… you showed up," she said between gasps, clutching her singed arm.
Martian Man's deep, echoing voice responded with its usual calm. "You were doing well. But you're not indestructible, Ghost. Fall back. Regroup. Let others rotate in."
She nodded, flickering into intangibility again and disappearing through the rubble.
Martian Man turned, scanning the battlefield with sharp green eyes, his form already warping and stretching toward the next hostile cluster. Around him, the skies lit up with red bolts of energy and pink shields, chaos reigned, but the tide had not yet turned.
In the sky above Chicago, Darkwing was circling for another bombing run when his scanners began firing off warnings about something approaching fast from orbit. "Is it Omni-Man?" He thought as he looked upward, unable to see past the cloud cover, a frown appeared on his face.
He chose to ignore it for now and focus on the task at hand as he once again ordered his protégé to drop more explosives.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Flaxans ran and hid from the area of the explosion, but they could not move quickly enough to outrun the blast or the blaze and were reduced to nothing.
WHSHHHHH
Suddenly, a large beam of energy from a tank down below shot through the wing and destabilized the vehicle, forcing him and his protege to abandon the vehicle before it spun out of control.
BOOOOOM
Darkwing pressed a button, detonating the vehicle's remaining explosive ordinance, and he and his protege landed safely on a nearby building.
He sighed and thought, "I'm so sick of rebuilding this thing!"
Down in the thick of the battlefield at another part of Chicago, Santana was weaving between Flaxan troops so quickly that they only ever shot at her afterimage's afterimage and with a pair of daggers turned them into ribbons of green flesh and purple blood.
WHOOSH
She phased through the body of one of the Flaxan troops and spun around in place, removing the alien's head from his shoulders in a shower of purple before sprinting off once again before the rest could even react.
PEW
PEW
BANG
PEW
Lasers and explosives rang out in her wake as the Flaxans she had left behind struggled to keep up, but as they were hyper-focused on her, they did not notice the explosives Rex had planted in the position they were headed for.
Santana waited, pretending to be out of stamina as the Flaxans approached, fifty large and angry, they continued to march forward.
BOOOOOM
A large number of planted explosives erupted all at once in the center of their formation, turning the fiercely charging warriors into flaming meat paste and leaving only a few screaming survivors.
Santana could hear Rex laughing in the distance as he watched it all go down, but as he was still in the middle of a melee encounter with a few of their soldiers, he had to return his focus.
However, his lapse in focus would cost him this time.
CRACK
One of the Flaxans took the opportunity provided by Rex and threw a powerful kick towards his stomach, causing the sound of breaking bones to echo out.
Rex opened his mouth, and a thick ribbon of blood shot out. "AAAAHHHHH YOU DICK!" He said as he was sent flying off the edge of the building, and luckily or unluckily, depending on perspective, he landed in a dumpster filled with bags of garbage.
"GYAHH... Why is it wet?" He held in his reflex to barf as he pulled a wet condom off of his goggles and looked up at the Flaxans with rage burning in his eyes.
"OH, you just think this is fucking FUNNY don't you!" He ignited an explosive and was about to throw it when the cloud cover just above the Flaxans suddenly disappeared as if by an explosive force.
He squinted his eyes and caught sight of what appeared to be a small ball of fire falling towards the surface; however, within moments, Rex was able to see details of the person within the flames.
"Oh good, this guy is back... YAAY!" He said with sarcasm before throwing the explosives at the Flaxans and turning them into chunks of burning meat.
William, still high in the air, abruptly changed his course, causing the fires around him to extinguish. He was headed straight for the biggest portal, as that would likely have the greatest concentration of enemy troops.
However, when he arrived, he saw Immortal and War Woman fighting madly in the spot.
William hovered for only a moment, his eyes narrowing as he took in the brutal spectacle below.
Immortal was a crimson blur, cleaving through enemy ranks with raw fury, his fists cracking skulls and snapping limbs with every thunderous blow. Beside him, War Woman spun like a force of nature, her glowing mace streaking through the air, smashing Flaxans like they were paper dolls. Her armor was scorched and dented, but her eyes burned with relentless fire.
William dove.
CRACKOOM
He landed with explosive force, sending a shockwave across the battlefield that shattered pavement and knocked a dozen Flaxans off their feet. The portal above flickered from the kinetic discharge.
"Good of you to finally show up," War Woman grunted, backhanding a Flaxan into a building with enough force to bring down half a wall.
William ignored the sarcasm and surveyed the portal, watching as more Flaxan tanks and shock troops began to pour through.
CRACK
He cracked his knuckles and sneered. He found his target currently yelling orders to his subordinates behind the line of tanks.
William took a single step forward, flew straight through a Flaxan that attempted to block his path, giving him a demonic appearance as he continued to move towards the commander.
Noticing his approach, the commander ordered the tank nearest to him to fire upon him at will, and the flaxan soldier within immediately complied.
BWOOM
A beam of concentrated energy crashed into William, sending him flying off into a building at the end of the street, but moments after, he was once again charging towards his target.
BWOOM
Another beam nearly smashed into him, but at the last possible second, William managed to spin his body in the air and avoid the brunt of the beam, allowing him to continue forward.
BWOOM
BWOOM
Two more beams were shot towards William, but he was flying in irregular patterns, which prevented them from striking true, and before the tank operators could stop him, William was staring down at the commander with a savage grin on his face that sent chills down the alien's spine.
The commander's personal guard surrounded him with their weapons pointed, but the calm, ever-present look on William's face and the fierce look in his eyes made them reluctant to risk offending him.
However, they were soldiers after all, and each and every single one of them opened fire all at once, dozens of bolts struck William.
When they were done, shock was evident on their faces as the only damage done to William was the singed marks on his suit.
"Are you done?" He asked rhetorically before he took a step towards the commander, the step causing the surrounding Flaxans to fall backward in fright.
Ignoring the rabble, he strode straight towards the commander, who was already waiting with his sword at the ready.
"I will use your flesh as a loincloth when I am done with you, human!" He spat venomously towards William and lunged forward with his sword raised high for a diagonal cut, aiming to either decapitate William or sever a limb.
SHNG
The air sings around the dark great sword as the commander attempts to kill William in one powerful swing, but with an agile movement, he ducks out of the way and slides closer to the commander while clenching his fist.
Before the commander could bring his weapon back under control, William's fist was already nearing the massive chest plate of the Flaxan commander's mech suit and sending visible waves of force shooting through the surface.
CRNNG
The chest plate warped inward and sent the commander flying backward, not willing to let him off so easily, William flew with great speed.
BOOM
William punched the commander through the wall of an office building and out the other side.
BOOM
BOOM
Another punch sent him flying upward, and the next sent the hapless commander flying towards the ground.
BOOM
The commander smashed into the pavement, cratering the asphalt and sending a shockwave that shattered windows for blocks. Dust and debris billowed into the air, swallowing the area in a grey cloud.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then—
ROOOOOAAARR!!
The commander exploded out of the crater, his mech suit sparking and hissing, armor now warped and venting thick green mist from cracked vents.
"You dare lay your hands on me?! I am the Storm-Warden of Sector Kryla! I have bathed a thousand worlds in ash!"
He slammed his fists together, and his suit surged with dark energy, jagged purple lightning dancing across its surface. With a sudden lunge, he tackled William mid-air, dragging him through two buildings and slamming him down through a Flaxan tank.
KRAKOOM
The tank exploded underneath them, launching both combatants back in opposite directions.
Two silhouettes emerged through the wall of smoke and flame, one dragging, twitching, and broken. The other? Standing tall.
William stood, chest rising with barely contained adrenaline, his boot planted squarely atop the shattered skull of the Flaxan commander. The alien's lifeless body twitched once before settling, his insides already pulverized from being slammed into a tank with such force his organs liquefied on impact.
William scoffed. "That's it? This was your champion? "He twisted his heel with a sickening crunch, grinding the commander's head into an unrecognizable paste.
Sparks lit the battlefield like fireworks as tanks, now without leadership, whirred and panicked. They rotated erratically, targeting shadows and smoke instead of enemies. War Woman launched herself like a missile through one, bisecting it in a shower of molten metal. The Immortal followed suit, a living storm tearing through the armored battalions with bare fists and centuries of fury.
With no one to command them, the tanks descended into chaos, firing blindly, clanking into each other like panicked beasts. Within minutes, they were nothing but twisted, crumpled coffins, still echoing with the last screams of Flaxan soldiers as they were sealed in their own mechanical tombs.
William rolled his shoulders, stepping forward. "Hope I didn't miss too much fun," he said with a grin. "Showed up late, didn't know things went full apocalypse mode."
War Woman smirked and raised her hand. "Better late than boring. "They slapped a solid high five, the smack sharp as thunder over the carnage.
The Immortal offered a curt nod, blood still dripping from his gauntlets. Then, without a word, he blasted into the sky, heading toward the next warfront
War Woman turns to William and smiles before saying, "He is just shy, don't worry about it!" before she too flew towards another direction.
William shook his head before turning back to the large portal before him and waited patiently for more Flaxans to emerge.
He was ready to complete the slaughter