No Land for Men

The Crisis {EP-2}

The papers called it 'The Crisis'. 'The End is Nigh'. 'Apocalypse Americana'.
All around the world, everyone stood still, watching on screens, crying as they watched them die, they watched them get killed along with him.

Metropolis had been evacuated, millions of people were sent as far as way as possible, it had become a battleground now, an arena almost, with the surrounding cities involved.
He had arrived on earth multiple times in secret, boom tubing his way to different areas, he had sent minions in advance, but this time he was here to finish them, to take them out permanently, the dreaded Justice League of the World, with America being their battlefield.
He brought an army with him, he called them 'The Elite', his elite. They had murdered so many already, The Hawks, Batson, Arthur Curry. They were dropping like flies, and they needed a serious plan. The Bat had decided to break his one rule, he had decided that it was time to kill if it meant saving billions of human lives. He had spent years of capturing parademon spies and experimenting on them to try and find a weakness on him, to try and find some way to use his power against him. He was The Bat, so of course he found it, however he didn't have long, he was watching his friends die.  Barry Allen, he ran too fast, faster than he could blink, and it didn't give him time to react, he ended up running straight into a sword through the chest from one of the Elite. He dropped down, he was the life and soul, the goodwill and the hope. He had managed to keep everyone's morale up through everything and now he was gone.
That wasn't the breaking point though, the breaking point came just moments after that. Darkseid had a weapon, a weapon stolen from Lex Luthor, a Doomsday device of his own that he would use to take out the strongest weapon the Justice League had, The Kryptonian.

And it worked, shocked by the death of a close friend, Clark charged with might and fury, not using his head. He killed Doomsday, but at the cost of losing his own life. It was now down to The Bat to finish this once and for all, it would be a huge sacrifice, small chips that he had been implanting in parademons for years, it would spread through them like a forest fire, linking them all together, whatever happened to one happened to the rest. The main issue was that it needed metahuman DNA to work. Darkseid was one of the first metahumans, he was from the distant future but travelled far back in time and then was banished to Apokalyps, now seeking revenge on the universe. Each member of the League were linked, even those who had passed already. Batman hit the switch, the implanted parademons turned on him, and naturally, Darkseid used his Omega Beams to dispatch of them, however, a well-timed sniper shot into Darkseid's temple, and soon not only the parademon's were disappearing but each member of the League and even Darkseid himself vanished.

The world froze, it's protectors were gone, it's metahuman family were gone. No one knew what happened, but The Bat had planned it for so long, he had left a will. His only wish, after Alfred passed, was that Grayson attended College and University, went on to run Wayne Industries, he wanted a bright future for his son, he wanted him to still have hope and stay safe, and give up crime fighting.

Through the entire process, multiple friends of the League were shipped off by the Bat, Babs was sent to England with her father conveniently before the battle, and Grayson had been locked away. Bruce knew Richard would try and get involved, and he didn't want to see the boy destroy himself. It took roughly a year or two for them to rebuild Metropolis and parts of Gotham that had been destroyed by the God, Nightwing vanished for a while, he took a few months out before he and Batgirl returned. They were the only vigilantes left as far as they were aware, their gear wasn't as good but they had time to work on it. Babs soon retired however, hiding away her armour until the tremors happened until she had a city to revive.
"That's how it happened. He kept me in a box, a shipping container halfway across the world, hours trapped in there, barely any food and barely any water while the world was almost destroyed, America almost wiped off the face of the planet, picked off like a scab" He explained to her. "Where were you?"
"Me and my brother were evacuated out early, we were taking to France, they had monitors and screens on every street broadcasting the battle. The end of the world and everyone just stopped to watch." She said and scoffed, shaking her head. The two began to head back properly, the GCPD had cleared more of the Asylum, it was easy since 70 percent of inmates had been freed and were more than likely dead.
"Ooooh, who's that one?" Harper asked, nodding over to Jason sat in the corner, he had just gotten back and was fiddling with some walkie-talkies.
"He's been through a lot, go say hey. He's Jason."Gray said and nudged her, the girl did so, introducing herself.
"How's the chest plate coming along?"
"Good, actually" Babs replied, a screwdriver in her hand as she worked on the armour piece.
"I'm glad that you told her, you need to understand that what he did was for your own good."
"He left me, just ditched me. Spent years telling me that I was becoming my own man and then he decides to make decisions for me."
"I know, I understand, I do, but he's gone, and it's time to focus on 'the man'" She said quite cheesily which made him stifle a laugh.
"The man huh? He sounds hot."Of course, he spoke with a cocky smirk on his face.
"Piss off Dick"