Braedey Martin: Unlimited

Ch 20: Lines In The Sand

Metropolis

A supervillain stood on top of a building, energy crackling around his hands and his green bodysuit. He looked at the terrified people below in contempt.

"Here is where I make my stand!" he yelled, "Here is where I shall carve out the kingdom I am destined for!" He smashed his hands against the roof of the building and, with a roar, ripped a chunk of it into the air.

"Bow before the power of Mantis!" He hurled the debris at the people below, intending to crush them all.

Before the debris could strike the citizens, a bolt of blue energy vaporized it. Mantis looked around for whoever dared to interfere. When he saw who it was, his eyes widened; it was Superman, Megatron, and Captain Atom, the latter of whom had fired the blast.

"Is it just me," Captain Atom asked, "or are the world-conquerors getting mouthier?"

"He's from Apokolips," explained Superman, "they're all pretty chatty there."

"Really?" said Megatron, "Maybe all the supervillains from my universe came from there too, since none of them would ever shut up!"

Mantis sent another bolt of energy at the heroes, hitting Captain Atom dead-on and freezing him solid. As Megatron and Superman flew back down to catch him before he hit the ground, he had to marvel at the stuff that came from Apokolips. The technology and the powers of its metahumans were all crazy. He'd once tried to figure out a piece of tech from the planet with Ratchet, and even then, all he got was a headache; Batman later warned him not to try to think about it too hard, or he'd go insane.

Superman managed to catch Captain Atom in time, but before he or Megatron could think about thawing him out, Mantis tackled Superman through the side of a building. While the Apokoliptan was busy with the Kryptonian, Megatron slapped the Transformatrix dial.

"MAKESHIFT!" Makeshift sent a wave of fire over the ice, confident that Captain Atom would be fine; after all, it took the power of a giant, nuclear-powered robot to break his suit the last time, so a little fire wouldn't do much, if anything.

After a few seconds, the ice was melted enough for Captain Atom to break out with his own strength.

"Thanks for that," he said, "now where's Superman?"

Makeshift jerked his thumb to where bolts of energy were flying. "Three guesses where, and the first two don't count."

"Got it," said Captain Atom, "I'll go back him up."

"I'll be right behind you," said Makeshift, "Going Ultimate!" He slapped the dial.

"ULTIMATE MAKESHIFT!" he looked at Captain Atom. "Okay, let's go."

The two ran, or in Captain Atom's case, flew, to Superman's location, where they found their friend on the ropes. Whatever energy Mantis was hitting him with must have had magical properties, or energy blasts from Apokolips' metahumans ignored Kryptonian invulnerability, because the bolts were actually hurting him.

"Bow down before your better, Man of Steel!" Mantis gloated, before two blasts, one of nuclear energy and the other of incredibly powerful flames, sent him flying into the subway.

Ultimate Makeshift looked at Superman in concern. "You okay?"

Superman nodded. "Just needed a second; let's get him."