The Valkyrie Descends

Looking back at the events that happened a few days ago, Bruce could say that things went to hell in a handbasket faster than anything he had seen in the last few years. The first time that Superman invaded the Batcave, it had only been him who entered that place.

That time, the man of steel broke his back and even before he had access to the pill, it took him quite some time to be able to walk again.

Over the course of the years since Superman's Regime took off, things escalated from just Batman and his starting members of the insurgency, to the members of the lantern corps fighting each other, to demons against magic, and then finally, the ancient Greek gods against the Regime itself.

Those battles especially the last two years almost tore the world apart. If those two years of conflict were that intense, who knew what this next new issue would cause?

The kid had been out for a few days since his bout with the Regime. To be honest, Bruce couldn't really blame him. When he started this rebellion he didn't want to involve civilians, nor teens. Though now that he looked back on it, this kid was both; a civilian and a vigilante to boot. To make things worse, he was starting to see him as some powerhouse weapon that could go toe to toe with anybody in the regime even the man of steel himself.

That gave him great cause for concern. Once he started down that path, he would become the very thing he sought to defeat and he couldn't deny that he was tempted by the thought this time around. If phantom was this powerful, he would have recruited him years ago. Now though…

Being from a different dimension and away from his home was hard enough, he wanted to send this kid home since it was his machine that brought him here. At the same time though, because of his capabilities, he didn't want him to leave… Bruce had become… reliant on the kid's abilities to get them out of a jam.

Making his way away from the boy to give him some space; he decided to confront the rest of the league on their opinions for this mess.

If there were any allies he needed advice from right now it was them. Bruce always thought about the best scenarios to come out of a terrible situation. Thinking back, in the earlier days of the justice league, he at many points displayed actions that came into question with the rest of the league. From making strategies involving their weaknesses to when Hawkgirl's own people invaded the planet to destroy it and make way for their own world.

Making a call to Lex he asked for the league to assemble in the hall for a meeting.

Minutes later, Batman found Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan, Green Arrow, and Aquaman in the lounge wondering what made the dark knight call this meeting.

"I am sure most of you are wondering why I called you here."

"You're right about that Bruce 2. We just got our butts handed to us by the regime and we are no closer to finding a way to bring them down. Your newest recruit is currently asleep, he has been for the last couple of days." Oliver reminded him.

Batman wasn't going to compliment on that. Despite how much he deserved it. He knew that Oliver was right.

"Is your insurgency involved in any current plan right now that involves taking on any of the Regime the way it is? Right now the inner circle of the Regime is in chaos and while I know that in a time of chaos it is the best time for an opponent to strike, you don't seem to be very enthusiastic about attacking." The king of Atlantis spoke up.

"Hey, I am sure like us he wants to attack but there is something on his mind regarding it. Is it about the latest issue where we almost got caught Bats?"

Batman's cowl narrowed but Diana believed behind the mask, the Dark Knight's eyes were shut with worry. "You're half right Jordan, the kryptonite is still salvageable but even with Lex Luthor's help, we don't have the resources to fix the machine. But that isn't what is truly haunting my thoughts."

Aquaman tensed. "It's the kid isn't it?"

Batman lowered is head as if in an apology. "When I first started this rebellion, I wanted to avoid dragging any teenagers or vigilantes who weren't capable of fighting the regime in an effective manner. Yes I may have brought a couple of vigilantes who joined Harleen's group but those who were new metahuman's were afraid and kept their powers under wraps. Some didn't survive because they failed to get control in time. Teens were the same way. Superman has most of the former justice league on his side right now and they do not want to get involved fearing for their lives and that they and their families and friends would be targeted."

Diana released a repressed sigh. "Throughout History even in the times of the ancient Greeks, men have always sought power to enforce their rule. From what we have read on Superman's past actions over the last few years we had come to the agreement that his accomplishments do not outweigh his actions."

"Well you got to cut the man a small sliver of slack." The voice belonged to the black haired teen. Apparently he had woken up though he was feeling a little woozy after sleeping so long.

"Five years is a long time to try and let go kid, even for Superman." Green Lantern put in his two cents.

Danny shook his head. "I had my own share of close calls regarding my family and my friends. You also have to look back on your own history Batman and not just Superman's."

That got Diana's and Batman's attention. "Let me put it to you this way. Out of the five of you, how many of you have lost family and close friends."

Everyone looked at each other and finally back to Batman as they knew even in this reality the parents' death was the same. Each of them had their families and loved ones endangered more than once.

Danny gestured to a spare seat in the corner "May I…?".

Batman nodded, eager to hear what this kid wanted to say. Taking a deep breath he steadied himself. "When your parents were killed Batman, how old were you?"

Batman eyed the teen wondering where he was going with this. "I was eight when I saw my parents die before me."

"Who comforted you?" Bruce thought about it.

"My family's late butler who died during Superman's reign. It took me months to years in order to get over it."

Danny nodded. "Even for a kid it would take a long time before wounds from loss of family close up. For adults it takes just as long, sometimes even longer. Can you replay every loss of family Superman experienced in the last decade? Not just with the justice league but blood family."

Bruce thought about all the instances he could remember, from Supergirl who left, to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen's death they were the closest things that he had to friends and almost blood family especially Lois's unborn baby. Conner Kent didn't factor into what he considered precious as a clone made against his will. His human foster parents followed a couple of years ago due to age.

"Usually whenever a person has a death in the family they are given some time to grieve, but after Lois's death, he became withdrawn from the man that he was. The breakdown worsened with the loss of the only other connections to his humanity. The responsibilities he had in the justice league tore at his psyche. The reliance of the people and the amount of powers he had from his birth did not help at all. Even metahumans, some of them have powers that are tied to their emotions too. I am one of them. How many of them put their faith in Superman and expect him to come through on top of all of the incidents in protecting them?"

Many of the Justice league could understand what the kid was getting at.

"My point though is that at the beginning of the five years when this had all started. After Lois's Death, the justice league was caught in another invasion. This one was from Darkseid's son. Kalibeck?"

Batman nodded remembering the event. It was the first time the Man of Steel fully went against his morals of not taking a life. The old Superman would have him in custody.

Once he killed Joker, all of the restraints came off. It was Superman against humanity.

"That invasion showed Superman that there are circumstances where he had to put the needs before the wants. The people needed to be saved from somebody like him. I am not saying that they are helpless but against other extraterrestrials that even the heavy hitters in the justice league could barely hold a candle to…. Do you really think that on their own, they would pick themselves up after those incidents or would they give up after so long?"

Diana tried to process the kid's thinking. It was true. The ordinary civilains who were afraid for their own lives would lose faith after fighting something like that for so long. Even the military was not equipped to dealing with people on Darkseid's let alone Kalibeck's level, their army involved made things complicated.

The differences in between the reality of the situation and personal experience was that those second hand lessons came from fighting opponents who were human in both appearance and nature. Putting that type of a burden on Superman especially after the loss of Lois would have broken any sort of balance he had.

"Put yourself in Superman's shoes, you have his experience, powers and responsibilities, do you think you could have handled all of that after losing someone who died by your own hand?"

Batman remained silent. By the sounds of it, the responsibility and the fear went to Superman's head and no one had the potential to calm him down. Losing the last link to his humanity fully broke him.

"What about you kid, you sound like you lost someone before?" Barry Allen inquired.

Danny shook his head. "It's a past experience close to what Superman went through along with Batman together to a point."

"At a moment in time I almost lost not only my family but my friends and an instructor of mine as well. A close mentor of mine showed what would happen if I took the path that lead to me cheating on a test."

Diana and the leaguers jerked their eyes at the kid. "Once upon a time the school usually offered the students the college aptitude test to see if they would be capable of entering a college or a university. The test was your standard writing test. I had acquired the test answers without intending to during a fight of mine. I broke the seal on the envelope but before I could look at even the first answer, I was interrupted by an opponent who looked like a mix of two of the toughest ghosts I usually fought. Yes, the opponents I fought were ghost and on occasion the average ghost hunter."

"The fight continued through the town with my friends and my-self finally managing to bring him down. The next thing we knew we were in a castle of sorts with a set of windows that displayed the future. The mentor who at the time I thought was my enemy, showed me that I would have turned into the most powerful full ghost on the planet and the realm the ghosts resided in. How that happened I had no idea. When he was about to have more ancient spirits attack us, I took the three of us to the future to escape."

"Wait..Wait…Wait… Back up a minute you went to the future?" Oliver Queen asked having his interest peaked.

Danny nodded reluctantly. "Went to the future, saw that my future-self turned evil. Humanity was practically an endangered species. I had to fight him to get my friends to escape; and barely put a dent in the guy's defenses. The items we acquired in the castle of time allowed them to return to the past once they were removed. Sadly, I was stuck in the future fighting my alternate self. Unlike my fight against my arch enemy who could just toss me around like a ragdoll, this version of myself outclassed me and him in several leagues. After I woke up, I had discovered that my family and friends died in the past after the test had ended. He returned to the past to keep himself from fading away.

He threw me into the realm where the ghosts resided. I saw several of my old foes and what he did to most of them. They took their frustration out on me. After a time, …by some miracle, from my powers and my sister I broke free and sought out my old enemy to learn what had truly happened."

Here Danny looked away.

"After my friends' and family's deaths, I was sent to live with him. My alternate-self had asked him to remove what made him human to forget about painful human emotions."

Batman heard that and felt the blood leave his face. The rest of the insurgency wasn't that different.

"He refused didn't he?"

Danny shook his head. "He granted that wish. My other half lashed out at him and tore both of his own halves apart from each other making him fully human. He then tried to possess his ghost half. While he won dominance, my enemy's evil overwhelmed him….. My human half was killed in that timeline."

Batman was speechless at the story. Now he understood what the kid meant. The more you lose at once, the faster you break. Superman not only lost his love but the chance to start a family.

"My attempt to return to the past succeeded in trapping him in a containment unit. But had it not been for my mentor, the master of time, they would have all perished that day."

Batman had to concede at that point that the boy had been through a lot to be considered even a member of the justice league with what he had done.

Many of the league members present conceded at that point what the kid was speaking of. The reliance on the higher members of the justice league after they suffer a tragic loss never ends well for anyone. Prolonging that reliance only made things worse for Superman.

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM

A loud rumble was heard from outside of the building as the ceiling began to fall in.

Earlier

Sinestro brought with him… not one not two but ten fully charged lantern rings. This role of the mission was going to be crucial. He wasn't going to let this… this… boy escape a third time. To get the kind of environment he believed Shiera wanted, he would need to limit the kid's movement. Even if involved limiting Hawkgirl and himself as well.

Scratch that, even if it meant disobeying the Kryptonian's orders, it would be easier if it was more than one lantern handling this situation.

Without any further hesitation he contacted Jordan. "Jordan, is your health improved enough to the point where you can do a minor job?"

"Sinestro, you know it will be a couple of weeks before my hand is fully healed."

"I don't need you to do any of your pointless brawling like you did in the cave. What I want to know is if you are capable of holding a giant sized construct for at least a short period of time; say 1 Hour?"

Hal was getting suspicious. What in the world could warrant Sinestro to ask for him to assist him with when it came to the doing tasks such as the one he is asking.

"Get to the point Sinestro. I am not helping you unless I get full details."

Sinestro smiled on his end. "Superman has issued a plan for three members of the regime to apprehend that child. In that group involve myself, Shiera, and Cyborg. The role he had for me involves creating a type of cage construct that Shiara can fight him in."

"Unfortunately for Superman, I can't focus on both of the tasks at the same time so I will need your assistance with this in order to make this plan of Superman's even have a chance of working."

Hal thought about their plan and agreed though he had to make a call himself. Even though he knows Superman will greatly punish them for leaking the plan, he couldn't afford to have another plan fall apart.

Sinestro then transmitted a call to Raven. He knew that the High Councilor would be livid with him now for giving out orders and going against his superior. But he was not going to leave things to chance, not this time.

The members of the Regime stared out at the location that Raven's magic had pinpointed to. If they can take the boy by surprise, then they might deal a critical blow to Batman.

Sinestro brought the half demoness with him for a reason. It wasn't to fight the boy, but to contain the Insurgency and prevent them from interfering.

"He's right below us. Along with the small group of Batman's dimensional allies."

"Now, we begin." Cyborg stated as a beam fired from his cannon at the building.

A loud explosion sounded through the air as the roof to the hideout blew apart.

NOW

The Insurgency had been talking with Batman on how to handle the situation now that they had their new ally. Someone that the league were surprised that Batman wanted to leave out of the conflict. Their conversation ended with Danny about talking to the league about Superman and Batman's loss of family and how it was similar to his own. The talk lead from one thing to another and eventually the insurgency got the point about what happens in the state of depression and anger.

Their talk was interrupted as the ceiling collapsed showing a number of the regime to the insurgency and by the looks of it, they brought along some pretty heavy hitters: Cyborg, Hawkwoman, Sinestro, Hal Jordan. The thing that really terrified them was Raven being amongst them.

Said being raised a hand muttering a chant, next thing the Insurgency knew, all of them sans Danny were trapped in Raven's magic binding.

Danny shifted to his other form and was about to help them when a binding of yellow energy bound him and hurled the kid into the sky followed by Hawkwoman, mace at the ready.

The bindings let loose giving Danny the chance he needed to fly out of reach. Right as he was about to do so, a yellow barrier appeared in front of the teen.

Not willing to dwell on the wall, he focused on going around the barrier but to his shock, the barrier went all around him and Hawkwoman. "Oh Perfect, a cage battle. My favorite battlefield." He admitted in a sarcastic manner.

"Don't worry too much. I'm going to try and make it a little fun. Here's how it works: You try survive while I pound you into submission." She replied as she began to swing her mace at Danny.

Focusing the thoughts and imagination into four of the yellow power rings brought with him, Hal Jordan used a great deal of strain and determination to create a domed enclosure around the Phantom and Shiera. The battle ground was about the size of one and a half basketball courts and ten feet high. He wouldn't give Phantom a chance to fight back if he could help it.

"I don't suppose you could make that pathetic little cage of yours smaller Jordan?"

Hal growled at the fellow lantern. "Believe it or not Sinestro, if I made the cage smaller, it would hinder Shiera's maneuverability if she were to fight in such a small space. I could make it smaller, but only over the course of the time and she might get caught by the kid and he has gotten out of tight spots so far and I am not taking any chances."

It was humiliating to say the least that a teenager, a teenager, of all the people to be considered would be able to have this type of a crippling effect on the Regime.

Inside the dome though, Danny was having a bit of a tough time. He has tried to go intangible but surprisingly, her armor and the gauntlets she uses allows her to touch him even when he uses it.

Maneuvering around the member of the regime, he shot ghost rays at her in order to force her to keep her distance. She merely deflected them.

He tried going invisible but she swung her mace at him not only knocking him out of his invisibility phase, but because of her mace's properties, delivered an excruciatingly painful blow. It felt like a combination of both Cyborgs blows, and Nightwing's Kali sticks.

"How did she know where I was?" Danny looked at her and saw the com-link in her ear. But who could? He looked around. "I see now. You have either Cyborg or Sinestro telling you where I am to prevent any invisible approach."

Hawkwoman scoffed at that. "It's not that hard to figure out. Of course I won't be letting you get away from here freely just because you figured that out."

Danny shook his head and smiled. "You think that just because this little cage prevents me from escaping means your chances of victory are assured. I can promise you this much. It will soon turn into a double edged sword."

The regime narrowed their eyes. 'What does he mean by that?'

Down below, Hal Jordan kept trying to use his ring to break Raven's Magic. Unfortunately they were all caught by surprise and he and batman were the first to be apprehended.

To be truthful they couldn't do much of anything at this point. He was on his own.

Inside the dome:

Danny put up one shield after another but Shiera kept shattering them with her mace. Any constructs he made were shattered just from touching the thing. He wasn't focused enough to use the duplicates energy in order to make the copies in the first place. Electrical attacks were pointless against her own armor and she could just shatter the cryo energy with her mace or cancel it out.

Another one of Shiera's swings made contact with the boy's torso. It felt like he was getting hit by Technus's attacks only ten times stronger. His eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. 'Wait that thing can damage me even break through my own shield's and constructs. If that rule is true, the same thing should apply to the cage.. But…. I will need to time this just right. I can't stay in this cage much longer.

"If this is the best that the Regime could do in trying to do you're probably losing your touch. Maybe some of you should go back to small time work before taking on tougher tasks. Case in point ."

Shiera snarled at him as she swung her mace at the kid. Danny teleported behind her and shot her in the arm and shoulder with his ecto rays. This pattern continued for some time all the while frustrating Hawkwoman to her wit's end.

"Come on little chicken hawk, is that it? Even Catwoman could do better than that."

OK screw the plan. This kid would be eating his own tongue. Gathering as much of her strength as she could, Shiera swung her mace with all her might at the kid not caring what she was aiming at.

What Danny was going for was her anger. Instead of just plain attacking her or wearing her down, Danny led her straight to the wall that the lanterns had set up. Get her angry enough and she could lose the ability to think straight.

The second Shiera began assaulting, he split in two, with one going over the other under her.

Merging back together behind her, Danny took a quick deep breath and launched his wail at Shiera.

The soundwaves shook Hawkwoman to the core as the barrier behind her had the cracks spread and finally shattered, the wail in itself sending her directly to the building roof below them.

Sinestro, Hal, Cyborg, and Raven stood there shocked. "What … How is this possible, he shouldn't have been able to escape. " Hal proclaimed out of shock.

"Thanagarian Nth metal. The mace would work on him but the same thing also applies to energy constructs. He probably figured that out after he saw that the mace kept shattering his defenses." Cyborg stated observing the fight.

'Doesn't look like we can hold back much longer, it's time to call in a big gun.' "Alright, Captain Marvel, you're up." He spoke into his comlink.

Danny's ears picked up on that sentence as his eyes widened in shock. Did he just hear that right? Captain Marvel? Things were about to become pear shaped and fast.

Looking around, Danny saw that the League was still being held by Raven. Not wanting to have to deal with Captain Marvel on top of the rest of the of the Regime he sped towards Raven hoping to at least free the Insurgency. Holding out his hand he shot a beam of ecto energy at the sorceress. The blast was phased out by a shield created by Sinestro. "Out of my way." He yelled at the Yellow lantern corp member.

Sinestro's smile widened as Danny heard what equaled a jet from the distance. A fist made its way towards his face. He managed to turn intangible but the speed of the electrically enhanced punch added in with its speed was enough to bring Danny into phase.

Shock was locked onto his face as Captain Marvel yelled out Shazam and as if controlling lightning itself teleported behind Danny kicking him into a wall. "You know many would consider it cowardly to attack someone from behind. Especially a girl."

Danny stood up. "You're one to talk. You and the Regime attacked us in masse and tried to converge all of your power on me while I was still recovering from the last fight. You also had the audacity to involve yourself in another person's fight when they wanted a one on one fight to begin with and you call yourself honorable? I may not know very much about this world but it seems to me that a lot of the people seemed to have misplaced what we call a moral compass."

Hal wanted so badly to just take all his lantern energy and pound this kid into the ground. Batson wasn't that far behind. "SHAZAM!" Gathering energy for a lightning bolt, he launched the beam of electricity at the kid. Danny barely made a shield but the bolt tore through it like a car through concrete.

Feeling the electrical shock Danny shot backwards to think of a plan but the Regime wasn't letting him go so easily this time. They just seemed adamant on taking him down. "SHAZAM." Another lightning bolt hit him, this one more powerful.

He wasn't getting anywhere with this….Wait the lighting. He has teleportation too. He needed precious timing, closer than he did with Hawkwoman.

If that lighting appears where he is about to be then the lighting would follow. Taking a shot in the dark, Danny flew around till Captain Marvel Yelled "SHAZ…." Danny teleported underneath the man in tights and let him finish "AM.." The Lighting shot from above them both as it struck Captain Marvel head on causing him to revert back to Billy Batson.

"Wow…wasn't expecting that to happen, but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." Who would have thought that it turns him into a kid? He only expected him to be severely wounded.

Acting fast Danny flew at the kid and straight into Billy Batson's body, causing the kid's eyes to flash green alarming the rest of the Regime that the kid could do even this.

"What… What are you doing?" Billy spoke in his kid form's voice.

"Kid this has to stop. Look at what everybody's actions have led to." Danny replied.

"Just because a person doesn't like it doesn't mean that it is the best method to handle the situation."

"Situation? Batson Look at what Superman has done. He practically is trying to keep mankind from moving forward and past this trauma… No he is practically dragging the rest of the world into his grief."

"Who are you to tell me that?"

"Who are you and the regime to tell the people how to live their lives?" Danny replied back.

"If people continue to wage wars there will always be death and no more life." Billy spat at him.

"I learned myself that the death of a culture is the death of people can you really say that Superman isn't doing that. He is practically taking away who they are. Same with you."

Billy Batson struggled with the possession. Danny was going to try and bring this kid to the rooftop and leave him there but Billy had other ideas. "Whatever… you are….. planning ….you won't…. win."

"SHAZAM"!

Danny shot out of Shazam's body, his body crackling with electricity as the shock caused him to revert back to his human form.

Shaking from the pain of the electricity spreading through his body, Danny slipped into oblivion.

"I can't believe it took that just to bring him down." Cyborg proclaimed as he walked towards the unmoving body. His scanners analyzed everything regarding the boy's condition.

"Kid's still alive if barely. Raven you ready?"

The half demoness used enough of the magic to throw the rest of the insurgency a fair distance away, then flew straight at the Regime members and their captive. "Just hope Superman won't be too mad." She reminded them as they were wrapped in the sorceress's magic which turned into a bird and disappeared into the ground just as the Justice League arrived to retrieve their ally.

"They're Gone."