Injustice 3: The Might of Magic (Book 3)

Supergirl:

I couldn't believe it. I can't believe it! It seems no one can either. All of us; Zatanna, John, Ares, and even the Lords of Order are all frozen. We're all stuck in place as we watch The Man stand over Phantom Stranger's body.

"Impossible," Master Pattern yells. "We---We ripped you apart! We threw your pieces into pocket dimensions that only we Lords of Order have access to! There is no way you could have escaped! It is impossible!"

As far as I can tell, The Man isn't listening to Master Pattern. Instead, he growls like a wild animal before howling at the ceiling. As he lowers his head and growls, I see what looks like sharp teeth in his mouth. No, not teeth. Fangs

"Fangs," I think. "Oh no."

"Because when I lose control," The Man once told me. "I risk destroying everything. This version of that is still somewhat human. That doesn't have fangs or claws. I need people around me. To keep me from losing control."

"The Man," I think. "He...lost control."

I keep watching as The Man, The Monster Man, looks at all of us. Despite still wearing his sunglasses, I feel nothing as The Man turns to look at me. He's not the calm and collected person he was before. He's not the quiet, yet mean person who reunited the Insurgency. He's not the angry and hopeful person who gave hope to the last green lantern. This is an entirely different person.

Screaming as he runs toward him, Master Pattern pulls back his glowing arm. The Monster turns to Master Pattern as he runs toward him. Master Pattern tries to punch The Monster but The Monster pulls back, dodging Master Pattern's hit. Lunging forward, The Monster bites down on Master Pattern's glowing arm. Master Pattern screams as his arm loses its glow.

"Oh my god," John shouts. "That's...unexpected."

"Master Pattern," Sister Symmetry screams. "Lords of Order! Attack!"

As the three other Lords rush to kill The Monster, I try to stop them but Zatanna stops me.

"Supergirl! Look!"

Stopping, I look at where Zatanna is pointing. There, where the giant statue of Raven was, now there is another giant. A giant, red-skinned man with sharp fangs, white hair, and four red eyes.

"I am freed," the red-skin man shouts. Raising his arms up, he breaks through the ceiling and escapes the room.

"Who was that," I ask, flying back as pieces of the ceiling almost crush me.

"Who do you think," John says, running to where I'm standing. "That big guy is Trigon! Practically, the king of hell. Ruler of the underworld. In case the horns and sharp teeth didn't tell you already."

Disappearing and re-appearing in a red mist, Ares joins John by my side.

"What do we do now," Ares asks. "We have failed to prevent Trigon from escaping. With him free, he will destroy the world. No one will be safe. Not even Superman and his One Earth Government."

"Is there anything we can do," I ask. "Can we close the portal?"

A wooden box appears in front of it, it opens and Zatanna walks out.

"No," Zatanna answers. "At least, we can't. Despite all of our knowledge of magic, we can't seal the portal. It'll stay open, and Trigon will be able to pull powers from his world into ours. There is nothing we can do. We've failed."

As Zatanna, John, and Ares all look down, I look past them and see The Monster.

"Maybe you guys don't know a way to close the portal," I say, "But I bet he does."

Raising my hand, I point behind them. Zatanna, John, and Ares all turn around and follow my finger.

"The Man," Zatanna asks.

"It makes sense," Ares says. "The Man knows secrets and spells that even I do not know. He knew how to enter the realm of Lords of Order and restore the timeline."

"Yeah, yeah," John says, "I'll admit, Sunglasses knows a thing or two, but I don't think now is the best time to be asking him anything!"

We all watch as The Monster grabs two of the Lords and slams them into each other. Throwing Sister Symmetry and Master Pattern to the sides, Count Control and Lord Structure fire beams of magic at him. However, their attacks don't seem to even faze him.

Walking toward Lord Structure, growling and teeth grinding, The Monster grabs Lord Structure's hand, lifts him into the air, and then grabs his foot. Lord Structure screams as The Monster starts pulling him apart.

Wanting to stop The Monster, before he truly becomes a monster, I rush forward but a hand on my shoulder stops me.

"Supergirl," Zatanna screams.

"What!"

"Trigon! He's already destroying the city! Look up!"

Looking up, through the hole where Trigon escapes, I see little bits of fire in the air. The cold black sky turns red and even from down here, I can feel the intense heat.

"Go and do what you guys can to protect everyone," I say, turning to face the three. "I'm going to stay here and help The Man."

Zatanna, John, and Ares open their mouths to say something but I cut them off.

"Go," I yell, turning around. Jumping into the air, I fly toward The Monster slamming him into the wall. Dropping Lord Structure, I grab both his hands and slam them against the wall.

"Hey, hey, hey," I shout. "It's me! Kara! Kara Zor-El! Do you remember me!"

The Monster looks at me. He stops growling and looks at me.

"It's me," I repeat. "Kara! Kara Zor-El. You remember me, don't you? You once told me there was a version of you that relied on swords and punches and kicks! Well, you need to go back to that version! Please! We need your help again! Trigon had escaped! The Lords of Order had---"

Before I can finish, something hits me in the back. It forces a scream out of me and knocks me to the ground. Fighting through the pain, I look up and see all four of the Lords of Order approaching us with their hands raised.

"Time to end the man in the sunglasses," Master Pattern shouts. The Lords all aim their hands at The Man and me. However, before they can fire, The Man roars.

He roars and shakes the whole room. Grabbing all of our attention, we watch as The Man punches the ground. As he punches the ground, something white shoots out from his fist. It spreads out, covering the ground and forming a large circle. It surrounds The Man, before jumping onto him.

We all watch as The Man, now covered in the white thing, twists and turns his body. He transforms himself into something I don't even recognize. Roaring as his two front legs slam into the ground, The Monster turns into some sort of massive, dog-like beast, with hard, white armor.

"Oh my god," I say, crawling away. Covering my mouth, I watch with tear-filled eyes as The Monster runs toward me. Getting down and covering my head, The Monster leaps over me and attacks the Lords of Order.

He bites down and scratches the Lords. They do everything they can to fight him, chant and cast endless spells but no matter what they do, it's useless. The Monster is too strong for them. All I can do is close my eyes and cover my ears.

Cyborg:

"Go, go, go," the squad leader screams, waving his hand as the other soldiers all rush forward. Running up the stairs, the squad leader and the soldiers all drop to their knees and begin firing. Joining them, I activate my arm cannon and start shooting at the red demons. Meanwhile, the soldiers and I keep them back on the ground, Yellow Lantern is up in the air, fighting Trigon.

"Pain," Trigon yells. "Misery! Destruction! Angry!"

"Blab, blab, blab," Yellow Lantern shouts. "You talk way too much!"

Flying back, Hal shoots out his yellow ring, and a bunch of rockets appear. Shooting his hand forward, Hal throws the rockets at Trigon. Despite being eaten by smoke and fire, Trigon doesn't even flinch. Instead, Trigon strikes the air and tears a hole in the sky. As he tears a hole in the sky, a whole bunch of flying, burning minions rush out. They all fly out and attack Hal.

Hal shoots out his yellow ring again and shields himself in a bubble. The flying minions attack Hal, forcing him even further back.

"Hal," I shout, watching as he struggles to keep his bubble up. Lining my shot, I prepare to shoot the flying minions but before I can, I hear screaming coming from behind. Turning around, I see a large, red foot incoming.

Barely jumping out of the way in time, I watch as the other soldiers are kicked all over the place by Trigon himself.

"Despair," Trigon shouts, his steps causing earthquakes as he walks. My soldiers try to get back up but they're quickly overrun by the red demons.

"Noo," I shout, pushing myself up and firing. I manage to get a few off, but the demons see me and charge toward me. Standing my ground, I fire my arm cannon, screaming as I hit as many demons as I can.

"Ahhhh!"

Firing as fast as I can, one of them still manages to reach me. The demon hits my arm cannon before another one lunges at me, and then another, and another. Before I know it, dozens of demons are on top of me, scratching me.

"Get off me," I yell. "Get! Off! Me!"

Switching from energy blasts to rockets, I fire. The rocket explodes, knocking all the demons and me away. Falling flat onto the ground, I cough and clear my throat as I push myself up. Letting out a groan as I do a system check, I take in a breath and this time, let out a sigh.

"A lot of dents and scratches," the system check says, "But no internal damage. Yet."

Pushing myself up, I hear something else and turn around.

"What the hell was that?"

Hearing what sounds like a roar, a ferocious roar, unlike anything I've ever heard before, I chase after it. As I run up the destroyed stairs, I bring up my arm and tap it.

"Attention Superman," I say as I run. "Attention Superman! This is a Code Red emergency! I repeat, a Code Red emergency! Trigon has escaped and is destroying Jump City! I need any and all available resources here now!"

Lowering my arm, I run up the stairs, only stopping when I reach the edge of a massive hole. There, at the bottom, I see Supergirl and what looks like a giant, white, four-legged beast attacking someone in a purple cloak. Grabbing the person with its mouth, the beast is about to bite that person in half.

"Hey," I shout, jumping down. Landing on my feet, I run up to the beast and aim at it with my arm cannon. However, as I aim at it, the beast turns and looks at me.

I don't know why but for some reason, I can't shoot. It feels like something is telling me not to shoot. I felt this once. Only once, and recently.

"It's...you. The man in the sunglasses."