CHAPTER EIGHT: COMBINED EFFORT

There were few moments in Alexandra Smith's life that she felt extremely powerful and one of them was today. With her super-strength and her ability to manipulate cosmic energy combined, she felt like she was at her strongest. She was at her best and it was this that would hopefully help her beat Darkseid.

The alien in question was currently facing off against Cyborg and Shazam, who were both striking him with their respective attacks. Alex flew downwards and joined them, her eyes reduced to a less bright gold; but still, to those who could see how she looked, she looked scary. Joining the other two, she pointed her hands towards Darkseid, firing a steaming hot beam of cosmic energy at him.

Darkseid growled in anger and pain as he spun around, trying to resist the attacks on him. But, he failed as the three heroes kept up their assault on him. Angrily, the alien turned around and flew straight into Cyborg, grabbing him and slamming him into the ground. Darkseid started punching him before he tossed him through a wall.

Alex turned towards Shazam and nodded at the look on his face. Both of them had the same idea. Together, the two heroes flew at high speed towards Darkseid and with one furious motion, both of them slammed their fists against his back, creating almost a cloud of electricity and cosmic energy.

Darkseid once again yelled in pain, trying to resist the attacks. But once more, he failed. In anger, he turned around and made a swipe for them. Alex jumped out of the way, flying upwards. Unfortunately Shazam found himself caught in the alien's grip, who tossed him towards another wall.

"Hey asshole!" Alex yelled from her position. "Take this!"

Putting all her strength, she summoned a massive ball of cosmic energy. It glowed gold and blue, sparking, ready to be set free. Without even wasting a second, she hurled the ball of energy at Darkseid, sending him flying through a wall into a wall which immediately was destroyed. Alex let out a triumphant noise before she joined Wonder Woman (who looked absolutely perfect, as always) in hitting the alien further.

As Alex slammed her fist into Darkseid, chipping away at a piece of his armor, she heard Diana's voice call out to her.

"That was nicely done!" Diana yelled, before she slammed her fist through Darkseid, propelling him through the sky. Alex flew after her, and as did the others as all of them started attacking him once more. She twisted around, dodging the other alien creatures before once more blasting Darkseid with her cosmic energy. She was almost giddy with joy fighting him and nearly beating him. Admittedly, she felt like a total badass.

Wonder Woman pushed Darkseid through a building, creating a hole in its side. As the alien tried to move out, the rest of the heroes attacked him with their own weapons and powers. Somehow, after hours of fighting, their attacks were coordinated, almost as though they had subconsciously picked up each other's moves and were now using them to land the maximum attacks on the otherworldly monster.

And, it was working. Extremely well, in fact.

Diana jumped up into the air and pulled out her lasso, tossing it around Darkseid, before circling him, so that she could tie him up completely. The others, including Alex, continued to charge at Darkseid, with Shazam blasting him with electricity, Cyborg with some sort of energy beam, Hal with his green constructs and of course, Alex with her cosmic blasts.

As Diana fastened her grip on the rope to ensure that Darkseid wouldn't escape, she yelled to Flash. "Now, Flash! Take out the other eye!"

Barry jumped off the back of one of the creatures and ran to the roof of the nearest building. Alex barely managed another look at him before she turned back to the creatures she was fighting, even as she kept a beam focused on the big bad. She'd concern herself with Barry later; now was the time to keep Darkseid tightly bound.

But, in a furious roar, Darkseid managed to free himself, blasting all of them a couple of feet into the sky.

And unfortunately, Alex found herself crashing right into Hal, like he had done earlier. Hal immediately grabbed her by her waist, pulling her steady. "I'm beginning to think that both of us are going to keep on catching the other," He muttered into her ear, his warm breath fanning the back of her neck. She could feel herself turning red, but with a deep breath, she pulled herself out from his grasp, gave him a mildly annoyed glare and turned her attention back to the alien they were fighting.

In that short time, Barry had somehow found himself a crowbar. He ran up the side of a building, one which Darkseid hovered next to. The alien had noticed him too and was almost ready to fire his laser out of his remaining, non-blinded eye.

Barry jumped off the building, crowbar raised above his head and slammed it straight into Darkseid's eye before jumping out of the way, straight into a green bed construct made by Hal. Taking this as their cue, Shazam blasted the eye with electricity, which seemed to increase as soon as it hit the crowbar.

"Did that work?" Barry questioned warily, staring at a struggling Darkseid.

The alien let out a shout of pain as the electricity continued to attack him before he slowly fell to the ground. At that, Alex let out a small sigh of relief, although something told her it wasn't going to be over that soon.

"Yeah, I think that worked," Shazam said, grinning.

But Cyborg and Wonder Woman were on the ground, attacking Darkseid once more. And the monster himself? He didn't seem to want to back down at all. In fact, he seemed angrier as the heroes continued to attack him. His subservient creatures screeched and also joined in attacking the heroes.

"Both eyeballs blown out and he's still standing!" Hal yelled in annoyance, as he blasted some of the smaller creatures.

"Yeah exactly!" Alex added. "I think we just made him more angry."

She blocked an attack with one hand while blasting a creature with another. "What are we supposed to do now?" She asked, looking towards Cyborg and Hal who were currently back to back.

"Try and send him home," Cyborg replied as he blasted some of the other aliens with his hand.

"How?" Diana asked, tossing one of the little aliens towards Alex who blasted it away.

"Darkseid is transferring data to these metal cubes. They call them mother boxes," Cyborg explained quickly. "They're creating portals. Boom tubes. I just have to speak their language."

"I didn't understand a single word you just said," Hal stated, looking on in confusion as Diana and Cyborg kept on striking the smaller aliens. Alex almost rolled her eyes, but stopped herself in time as she realised, she also didn't really understand what the human-computer hybrid had said. While defending herself and the others, she kept an eye out on Cyborg who had pulled out one of those 'mother-boxes' from his arm.

"Gotta get some altitude," He muttered under his breath before he flew upwards, still blasting some of the creatures.

Suddenly, multiple portals opened in the sky, acting as vacuums as they sucked all the little creatures into them. It was the same portal from the warehouse, Alex remembered, but now it was acting in reverse by sending all the creatures away.

Alex smirked, dropping her defense temporarily, knowing that one of the portals would pull the monster away with ease. But when she turned to look at Darkseid, he was chasing after Barry on all fours, like he was Pennywise the Clown. Barry was much faster than him and the alien wasn't able to catch him at all.

Taking this as their chance, Alex blasted with her favorite cosmic beam while Shazam did the same, as he used electric blasts to stop the alien in his path and to push him back. Even as they did, a glowing omega symbol appeared on Darkseid's belt (or whatever that thing was) and a portal opened up behind him, sucking him in as well.

"Get him in there!" Diana yelled, as the alien tried to resist the pull of the portal.

"Got it!" Alex yelled, before she flew straight up to Darkseid, slamming her fists into his back. With as much force as she could muster, she started pushing him inside and almost succeeded when Darkseid suddenly spun around, grabbed her by the throat and slammed her straight into the ground.

Alex let out a groan of pain and started struggling in the alien's grip as he pressed his massive knee to her chest. 'I'm not going to die. I'm not going to die.'

"I'll crush you like a nut!" Darkseid growled at her menacingly.

Repeating that mantra in her head, Alex strained to remove his knee from herself. All of a sudden, the weight on her chest was gone as Diana lassoed Darkseid, pulling him backwards with Flash's help.

"How dare you?! I am Darkseid," The alien growled. He really did that a lot, didn't he? Barely a second later, a blue-red blur appeared through the portal, materialising into the form of a Kryptonian they all knew very well.

"Superman," Alex said with a relieved smile, huffing as she rolled out of the way.

"I don't care," Superman replied angrily as he ripped off the alien armor off his chest. He flew straight at Darkseid and the alien stumbled backwards, falling a few feet. Even as the Kryptonian continued to beat him up, Alex slowly moved away from the portal, pressing a hand to her chest. But then Batman also stepped out of the very same portal, wearing the golden armor of the aliens.

Alex got to her feet just as Superman shot Darkseid's blinded eyes with his lasers, joining the others as they kept up their assault on him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cyborg fly even higher, the mother box in his hand and she silently hoped that whatever he was doing would work.

Wonder Woman and Superman were combining strengths now, each landing heavy hits on Darkseid as they tried to push through the portal completely. But somehow, the alien was not going through; he gripped the metallic edges of the portal, trying to push himself out of it. And he succeeded in climbing out, forcefully pushing back the two heroes fighting against him.

The next person to strike the alien was Batman. He slapped his belt around Darkseid's neck, slamming a button on it, producing a miniature rocket thrust. (or at least, that is what Alex assumed it was).

It pushed Darkseid straight back into the portal, but the stupid bastard was just not going through. Alex mentally cursed Cyborg as she blasted Darkseid with her trademark cosmic blasts, trying to push him through.

'Come on, Cyborg! You better shut the damn portal soon!'

All the heroes present kept up their assault on the alien, punching him, blasting him and stabbing him, only aiming to send him through the portal back to wherever the hell he came from.

The hairs on the back of Alex's neck suddenly stood up straight and she looked up to the sky, only to see a gigantic bolt of lightning hit both Shazam and Cyborg, who were holding the mother boxes. She clenched her fists in triumph. They were going to do it. She was sure.

The battle was now in their favour.

Darkseid, who somehow had Superman in his grip, was now being sucked back through the portal just as his alien servants were taken before.

"Kryptonian! You are coming with me!" Darkseid growled. (seriously, again? He really likes his growling, doesn't he?)

"Like hell I am!" Superman yelled back, headbutting Darkseid into the portal. He flew back and joined the others who were now combining their attacks to defeat Darkseid. Alex was keeping a steady beam of cosmic energy aimed right at him, Hal was punching him with a variety of his green constructs, Barry was blasting him with his speed tornadoes, Diana had thrown her sword at him and Batman had thrown his batarangs.

With a final punch from Superman, Darkseid went through the portal. The portal reduced in size in an instant, before completely disappearing from view.

It was over. Darkseid had been defeated.

The heroes were once more at the docks, assembled in slightly more peaceful circumstances. Cyborg landed right next to them and Alex turned to him, giving him a bright smile. Without him, they definitely would not have beaten Darkseid.

"Nice job, kid," Hal said, clapping Cyborg on his metallic shoulder before looking around. "Where'd Shazam go?"

"He took off," Cyborg replied. "Said he had a hot date."

"Right," Hal scoffed, sounding disbelieving of the statement. "Who'd go out with that immature hothead?"

"Uh, are you talking about yourself?" Alex asked, arms crossed and lips curled up in a smirk. When Hal shot her a glare, she started giggling. Annoying him was fun. And she had a feeling she was going to be doing a lot of that.

"What about the human victims?" Batman questioned, turning towards Cyborg.

"I can see them. Let me just get this baby to boom for me one more time," Cyborg closed his eyes, concentrating hard.

Alex looked towards the ocean, where massive portals had opened up. Hal flew straight out, saying, "I got this."

And she would have rolled her eyes, but for once, he actually got this. He summoned massive green fists and placed them right under the portal, so when people started falling out of it, they landed on them. Gently, Lantern flew them towards the direction of the docks before setting them down on the concrete.

"He's good for clean up at least," Batman stated, almost casually and Alex snorted. He was right about that.

The Bat vigilante looked at Cyborg. "How do we keep Darkseid from returning?"

"All those mother boxes are fried," Cyborg started to explain, but then Diana interrupted him.

"Then they won't be able to get back any time soon," She added, just as Hal rejoined them.

"Well, that's good because I really hate that guy," Alex muttered, pressing a hand to her chest. It still pained a little bit and she was sure that if she checked, she would find bruising that would eventually disappear by tomorrow.

"Heads up," Superman suddenly said, turning in the direction of the city. A crowd of people were walking towards them. Alex almost groaned. How could she have forgotten that the world was technically still wary about them?

Barry voiced the same thoughts out loud as he sped right next to them. "We should leave before they try to blame us again or..."

But the people were applauding. They were cheering for the heroes who had saved them. Some were even taking pictures and videos which would obviously be on the Internet within the hour.

Hal smirked lightly. "What's your hurry, Flash?"

Shaking her head with a smile, Alex also turned towards the crowd, smiling at them. Mentally though, she was getting ready to fall asleep. She had used a lot of her energy and she felt exceptionally tired. She'd probably have to take a day off from work tomorrow. Which she deserved.

Supernova had helped saved the world after all.

And with that, we are done with the Darkseid war part! There's going to be one more chapter involving elements of the movie, but after that we'll finally move into the AU portion of part one where you'll get to learn more about Alex's past. I've got a lot of "juicy" stuff planned for that portion hehe, especially a few NovaLantern moments that might...well, you'll just have to wait and see 😏😏

Till then, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!