2014.02.27 - A House Divided: Breaking point

Just a few miles down the road from the Kent Farm, the home that most of the superman Family comes to when they need down time, to heal, or just find their center is the Kansas farm town of Smallville, birth place of Superman. It's been a few days since Jon brought Superman to the farm, and he's been staying close by in case the man who would be his father in another world needs something. But for now he's off doing something that Jon couldn't join him in, so leaving the farm Jon is walking through the town looking around at the local people hands in his jacket pockets. Currently he is wearing the bluejeans and leather jacket he normally wears in his civilian disguise the Planet Krypton logo obscured by his pony tailed blond hair. Quietly brooding to himself forehead furrowed in a slightly foul mood as what's become an almost subconscious headache thrums in the recesses of his mind. He looks up into the sky his thumb worrying the legion of superheroes ring as he tries to think what to do next..
Quite suddenly and without any warning, a great CRACK echoes in the air above Jon-El. A ball of white is hovering, brightening the sky. Before it collapses in on itself, and circles of white start warbling out in expanding pulses. From within shoots out an unknown figure; wearing heavy gray armor, with a large build of honed muscle, black mesh spandex is visible beneath the plates. One forearm has a peculiar sort of gauntlet upon it, while the other is grasping a blaster pistol. Only his face is fully revealed, bald with many scars and black wraparound goggles.
From behind spill out a number of huge Parademons, green and yellow bestial creatures with their own Apokoliptian armor, wielding large high-tech rifles. They immediately spread out in the air in all directions, menacingly.
"You... You are one of the -El! Enemies of Apokolips...!! I am Xerzes, a mighty warrior of Lord Darkseid. And your executioner!!" He levels his pistol and begins firing it, surprisingly accurate with those plasma blasts that would create neat meter-broad potholes in the asphalt street!
You see live wire flying through the sky on daily scout run over head. His eye looking over the town of Smallville as he notices someone that look a lot like Powerboy walking the streets. Garth begins to hover down to the ground when hears the crack of sound in the distance coming their way. Like a bolt he land to the ground and take a defensive position a little way away from Jon as he takes his the horde and Grey foes" Hey peions you throwing a party and forgot to invite me so I'm crashing this party." Garth says with a smirk.
Thankfully it's mid day and most folks are busy helping out at their respective farms and the like, school is in session as well which means the streets are nominally empty as the light show starts up in the air and 'things' start pouring through. The large plasma blasts slam into the titanic teen and send him flying across the street to slam into a pickup truck. "ugg" The blond says as he stands up, his jacket ruined the golden T-shirt ripped away to show his muscled torso. "Executioner my tuckus, you're nothing but one of Darkseids mangy mutt hounds, and if you think that'll hurt me, you're sorely mistaken." the boy says as he digs himself out of the bent door of the truck. "But thanks for coming, I've been wanting to hit something." he adds as he suddenly rushes forward with super speed. One of the Parademons moves though and gets in the way blocking Jon's direct line to the leader of this bunch, but that doesn't slow him down much, bringing his fist up in an uppercut, the remains of his shirt and jacket explode off him as his muscles tense and the fist slams into the Parademon..
"A hound... I might be a hound now... but with your head presented before Lord Darkseid, I will become a Fury. No... an Elite!!" Xerzes is certainly a New God; which alone means he's not a completely harmless threat. Without his Aegis on, the weaponry wielded by him and the Parademons is certainly able to hurt the hybrid warrior to some extent. The parademon that shifted to intercept is struck with incredible force, sent launching away like a missile. Xerzes opens his mouth in surprise, but a heartbeat later snaps his gauntleted fist. A long cable whirls out, some meters long, before he cracks it towards Jon-El, trying to entwine him. "Underestimate me at your leisure!!"
Already hovering, she waves, "Well, let's go punch some things! Whatever those things are!" She looks back in their direction and wrinkles her nose. Gross!
Jon-El brings his arm up to catch the cable it wrapping around his arm several times his other hand snapping out to grab the cable.. "No.. I don't think so, I don't think you thought things through when you came here, and I don't think you're about to like what happens next." Jon says his voice edgy and sinister anger filling his words. "You come to /MY WORLD/ and think it's just fine to do what you please!" he says roaring in anger he pulls on the cable, the long thin metal whip snapping off halfway between himself and the New God the cable wrapped around his arm digging in and drawing blood as the broken end goes flying to the side to slam into the side of a Parademon at hypersonic speeds. "Who's underestimating whom." he asks darkly
"...!!" Xerzes is surprised by the strength shown from Jon-El, bracing himself upon the metal glider he's riding. It pivots and whirrs, before he's sent hurtling sideways as the cable snaps. He crashes through the side of a small brick building, impacting a number of shelves and rolling to a stop. His half of the cable retracts back within his large gauntlet, pushing himself upright and then launching skywards with his glider. The roof caves upwards, revealing the scuffed form of Jon-El's opponent. The whip-struck Parademon is also sent crashing into a storefront, much slower to pick itself up through the rubble, breastplate cracked in numerous places. The one Garth strikes is sent hurtling backwards, smoking heavily. But there are a lot of them; and they immediate unleash a veritable storm of plasma blasts towards Garth, shifting up in a wide range. Parademons are far from fodder, war whipped into their brain for years or decades to live and breathe in combat!!
"Come then...!!" Xerzes growls, bringing up his blaster and charging up a more significant shot; a heavy blast of plasma roars forward, a far cry above the spray he opened up the conflict with. An eruption of energy sufficient to send a car flipping away assaulting whatever is on the other end!
Garth Ranzz Eye going dark as he realizes he is the center of attention now for these scaly goons he brings his electric aura into the palms of his hands and charges further to increase his charge. As the Parademon begin to fire he lets loose a pulse of electric force pushing out of the center of the blasting zone and hopefully out of harms ways. As he is speeding backwards he redirects the pulse upwards making himself come to a halt and force him to one knee from the force as the charge with fired into the crowd of parademons hoping to use that force to take a large amount of them out with it's force.
The thunderclap of a Sonic Boom can be heard high over Smallville. The blue and red blur that flashes from the sky landing with such force on a Parademon that it's a forgone conclusion as to whom has just arrived. Red cape billowing behind her as it settles, long blond hair that seems totally unfazed by high speed travel or her mighty landing. The Maid of Might reaches down to the Parademon at her feet and with seemingly little to no effort picks it up and then looks at the other ones. "You have 10 seconds to leave before I get....angrier." Kara Zor-El says in the iciest of voices.
Jon-El brings his arms up to protect himself as his body turns to face away from the large blast of plasma that slams into Jon-el it's bright light washing everything else when it finally fades away, Powerboy is standing there the flight ring on his left hand. Smoking from the Plasma blast he leaps at the New God with every ounce of power his muscles will give him, a crack of the pavement breaking under him, the air misting and exploding out he brings a fist back to slam into the armored chest of the new god his other hand reaching out to try and grab the neck of his armor to keep him from flying off..
Parademons might be elite agents in Darkseid amongst the cowering lowlies, but they are complacent creatures that take their armor, innate strength, and ability to bully the weak to heart. Kara manages to rampage them before they even begin to register as a threat, and rather then heed common sense and back off, two of them lunge at her for a feeble sort of tackle. It's likely to end in them dangling impotently. A few more fire intense plasma blasts; this might actually be uncomfortable, making it all the more bizarre that some of them bothered to melee!! Garth is similarly herding them like cattle, continuing to fire blindly with no sense of self-preservation. A great CRACK of lightning rips through them, falling like flies too close to an electrical buzzer. About half the number are gone now, which Xerzes is certainly noticing. "Tch... useless worms..." Although then the New God blinks. He was a match for Jon-El without the boost from Power Boy; things just became radically different. He begins to float backwards, just as a fist strikes true, denting the advanced armor heavily. He'd have been launched into the horizon, were it not for the tight grip of Power Boy's other hand. Blood speckles from his face, eyes going a bit blurry. But a moment later he swishes out the whip from his gauntlet once more, trying to wrap it around Power Boy's neck in turn. "Impertinent... little...!"
Garth Ranzz smirks lightly seeing that his last minute plan worked as he wanted it to. He then stands again and launches himself into the air renewing his electric aura once more flying up to another parademon and aiming a swift knee into it's gut and if it hits he will follow it up with a axe blow to the back hoping to knock another out from the battle. All the while keeping his ears open for anyone needing help.
Kara actually takes a moment to sigh quietly when the Parademons lunge at her. Oh well. She TRIED to follow Kal-El's example and give the enemy a chance to withdraw. "Very well. You were warned." The one she holds in her left hand is -violently- thrown at superspeed at one of the Parademons that dared to shoot at her. The blast from the plasma blaster actually hits her in the leg and she seems to stumble a bit. Taken to one knee. The second blast slaps into her cape-covered back and the nearly indestructible material just bleeds the energy off. It does smoke terribly though. The two Parademons that are actually attached to Kara are for the moment ignored as she launches herself with a groundbreaking kick towards one of the flying Parademons that shot at her! Her right hand blurs, grabbing one Parademon that actually DARED to grab her left breast while reaching for her throat! She proceeds to batter one Parademon with the other intently.
Powerboy lets out a yell of anger the fist coming back to punch the New god in the face once more ignoring the whip as it wraps around his neck his eyes start to glow a pale red color but starts to grow in intensity till erupting from the depths of his blue eyes heat-vision pours out the twin lances of brilliant red energy slam into the breastplate of the apocaliptian the whip dragging his head down some as he punches the man.A
Well, Xerzes has certainly witnessed the wrath of Kryptonian blood this day. He's struggling just to survive at this point, forearm feebly interposing before his head. The heavy blows crack and dent the armor, bloodying his face even through the dampening blow. The heavy dented crack inflicted earlier erodes around the sustained beams of energy, reaching flesh beneath and causing a shout of pain. Suddenly, the whip ERUPTS into a sheathe of plasma; burning intensely and attacking the nervous system. Had he done this on Power Boy before he donned his full uniform, it might have truly been staggering. As it is now, the pain and mild inhibition probably only makes him more mad. All the same, he moves to press his plasma pistol to Jon-El's temple, and fire a sudden intense *CRACK!* of energy while whirling and attempting to whip him away, desperation visible.
The parademons continue using ineffective tactics. They are a terrifying force when properly guided, but at the moment it's a pack of dim-minded gnats with poor instincts and no concept of teamwork. Garth continues to tear through them. When they first blanketed him with plasma fire, it was genuinely dangerous, but now the occasional shot is uncoordinated and easy to evade. One bounces off another, easy prey for the relentless hounding. Kara is likely to be further annoyed, though. She kicks one so hard it emits a sonic boom, flying into the distance with fragments of armor trailing behind. Another is hammered into unconsciousness with the flailing form of a second. But abruptly a good dozen of them descend on Kara at once, trying to turn her into a giant green and yellow ball of tenaciously gripping and chittering Parademon's. It would literally not hurt her even if it succeeded, but they do stink terribly, a potent assault on Super Senses.
Garth Ranzz looks around at the remaining horde shaking his head knowing at the rate he going taking them out one at a time will get him no were he take further to the air getting the high on the crowd of beasts and focuses another shot of electricity into his arms and begins to spin aiming his blasts as he releases then to take out a horde of beasts opposite Kara hopefully helping in not letting more pile on her this blast is not as powerful as the first but hopefully can still do some damage.
Kara gets dog...well...parademon-piled! These things happen. Sometimes regularly. The Girl of Steel actually gets forced to the ground. Granted this is mostly from the SMELL of unwashed Parademon that is breaking her concentration. The problem with this though is that the Maid of Might was already angry because Darkseid attacked her cousin and beat him. Then she got angrier that apparently he wants to throw his minions at small, peaceful Smallville. Now they attack her in groups and they STINK! The young Kryptonian is PISSED!! She audibly growls and the sound is almost animalistic and loud. She gathers all her strength and speed and then releases them in a literal FURY of flying fists, kicks, headbutts, elbow strikes, groin kicks and she even BITES one of the Parademons on the nose when it tries to bite her face off!!
Powerboy's body stiffens with the crack of the whip as it shocks his whole body but he keeps a hold of the New God's armor as he gets shot at. Whipping his head back and forth faster than the New God can shoot the pistol he brings his fist down and around bringing it up into the villains armored stomach before he lifts the armored man up and back down slamming him into the concrete pavement his fist a blur as he slams into the armor over and over again his super tough fists slamming into the metal with the sound of a blacksmiths hammer.
Things are going downhill very fast. Xerzes obviously didn't know what he was getting himself into; the repeated blows hammer him into a crater in the street, goggles shattered, eyes pained as he continues to yank upon the whip, ineffective now. His breastplate finally shatters, exposing a torso covered in horrifying whip scars, layer upon layer. Trembling, he presses a button on his large gauntlet. A few moments later, from behind Power Boy, his metal glider rockets at him at subsonic speed, intent to strike him in the back and sent him flying down the street via ambush, whip shifting to retract. "Ha... ha..."
The parademons are all manhandled by Kara in short order. A number were trying to bite her, and one has teeth sunk into her hair so well that it probably hurts when he's punched off, leaving behind a number of sharp teeth. Blasts of lightning rip through the rest, and the Parademons glance over to the beaten form on Xerzes. A few of them activate their faux Mother Boxes, Boom Tubes manifesting in the air; a powerful suction draws inwards, debris, unconscious Parademons, and those lucky enough to survive being shocked or pounded spiraling towards it. Kara and Garth might be threatened by it... being drawn into Apokolips is an almost certain death sentence! To make matters worse, a few civilians who were watching from a distance shriek, starting to slide down the street in the direction of the open portals!!
Livewire watches as his blast hit their mark but his disposition quickly changes as he looks in horror as the boom boxes are activated he looks to sky and the clouds further up he fly with all the speed his ring can muster to make it to the cloud once he will try to use the force of his own electric power to cause a chain reaction with the clouds themselves to bring lightning down on the boom boxs in hopes of shutting them down.
Kara can feel the seething RAGE that she has for Darkseid burning within her. She see's the Parademons trying to retreat and for a moment she considers tearing them apart ALL the way back to Apokolips! She's -never- felt such anger and hatred before and for a moment, her eyes glow so brightly red that you'd think she was about to blast pure hell at her foes. A small girls cry snatches her attention though. The pitiful screech of terror as a child is yanked out of her mothers hands and goes careening towards one of the open Boom Tubes. A moment. A split second is all it takes. She channels that rage. That anger. That burning hatred for her enemy into SPEED. For a moment it seems people are LITERALLY vanishing off the street as if teleported. After a few moments as the Boom tubes begin to collapse in on themselves, Kara re-appears on the now empty of people street. She looks...winded. The Maid of Might is actually winded!
The glider slams into Powerboy's back with incredible power and speed, catching him in mid swing on the armored villain Caught off guard and off balance he goes flying into the partially wrecked building from before the whole building falling down on him and burying the titanic teen in several hundred pounds of rubble that even though it's not so heavy as to kill Powerboy it definitely takes him out of the fight for several moments as he has to dig himself out of the rubble looking for his target..
The Boom Tubes are slow to collapse, intended to allow large groups of Parademons either in or out, more like a giant vacuum than anything else. However, when overloaded with electrical energy from Livewire's sudden onslaught, the process is accelerated and they whisk shut with a *CRACK*, leaving no bystanders harmed. At least, from the Boom Tubes. With Kara winded for the moment, Xerzes pushes to his feet as his glider rockets back over to him, and the New God manages to leap on it. It carries him up into the air just as Powerboy breaks free. He only goes a short distance, suddenly leaping off and down amidst the buildings a few blocks over once more. It's not quick enough to escape Kara or Jon-El, out of breath or not. Yet his whip then lashes out from the large mechanical gauntlet; a young woman is caught by the midsection and yanked back to him, before he brings up his blaster pistol and presses it to her head. "There's still... one weakness of your kind. You don't kill... and these useless mortals are good shields..."
Garth Ranzz Come back down from the clouds only to catch the current scene. His clenches into a fist but know he is to far away to do anything he still tries his best to get undetected and ready and lightning zap strong enough to disarm the gun once he gets their if he makes it in time.
Kara is tired. Mad as hell but still tired. She knows she can't reach the woman before the New God hurts her so she gives Powerboy a glance. She hopes he understands that no matter how pissed off he is, the lives of others matter more. She knows that is what Kal-El taught her. Sometimes she hates it. It would be more efficient to just FRY this New God's brain with her heat vision through his eye sockets but Kara isn't like that. She knows better. Instead, she turns her heat vision to full power as she knows he can take it but she aims right at his blaster hand! She burns through the skin in a nanosecond, the muscle in another, and straight to the nerves and bones of his hand! She hopes to cause him to release the blaster not to blow the woman's head off.
Powerboy's head is on fire the headache full blown now, his anger barely contained eyes still glowing a sullen red he slowly starts to approach the Apokoliptian. "You'ed be surprised what you can live through." he says darkly "Let her go" he says with a tone of finality his arms unconsciously going behind his back his hands clasping behind him. "You have been warned."
The sudden blast of the laser surprises Xerzes genuinely. His blaster grip shatters and his gauntlet melts away, and he staggers backwards with a shout of pain. But the whip coils tighter around the captured woman, who gasps in shock and surprise. His mauled hand moves to grasp his captive by the throat. "Such savageness... hah. I did not expect it. But you could have taken my head... that means it is true. This girl... this useless, weak girl... is the greatest weapon I have... Take another step towards me, and I swear on the God of Evil I will snap her neck and take her to Hell with me...!!" It's certainly a difficult situation. Shocking him or striking him sufficiently hard is likely to hurt or kill his captive. And as a New God, poised to act, there is no guarantee a bum-rush will reach him before his promised threat is achieved...
Deep within Power Boy's head, the peculiar darkness and thoughts begins to stir. *No.* it whispers. *He is the one who is useless and weak.* Anger and rage are kindled unnaturally. Rationality and inhibitions subdued. The dormant shadow asserts itself now, in this incredibly volatile moment.
 Do it. Rush him. Strike him down. You are strong. He is weak. That is all that matters.
 Do it... Do it...* A maddening intensity, a demand that would rise like an irrevocable
 impulse. One mixed into Power Boy's very conscious, difficult to recognize as something 
 he does not think or believe himself.
 DO IT...!!*
Garth Ranzz Makes it to the scene but upon seeing how it has changed his plan of action changes as well. he quickly searches the area for anything he can use but finds nothing the only he can do is watch and wait and hope for a mistake knowing he absolutely has not paid him any attention during this fight he still hope for a sneak attack.
Kara was hoping that Powerboy would use his speed and flight to reach the girl after her disarming of Xerzes. When that doesn't happen and he instead wants to -negotiate- for the hostage, Kara is instead stunned and therefore she hesitates! This is NOT good!
Powerboy's face twists into a mask of anger his thoughts dark, why not, /why not/ WHY NOT! echos through his brain before the Titanic Teen pushes his body as fast as he can bringing his fist up he slams it into the face of Xerzes with all his might letting out a gigantic scream that shatters nearby windows.
It happens in a heartbeat. Xerzes' eyes widen. He starts to tense, preparing to go through with his threat. And then Power Boy's fist impacts him, straight in the face. A dull *CRACK* echoes in the air. His arms spasm outwards, whip uncoiling and sending the captured girl flying at dangerous speeds towards an adjacent building; but not so fast that Kara would be unable to intercept. She has ruptured ear drums and broken bones as a result of the blow given to the New God, but is not dead -- simply very unconscious.
The same can not be said for Xerzes. He flies back like a rocket, crashing through one building, two, three. They collapse like delayed dominoes, wafts of dust and smoke billowing up. When investigated, his neck is twisted at an unnatural angle, bone jugging against flesh. Eyes are glazed, and head dented. 
He is dead.
Garth Ranzz tisks tisks quietly to him as he watch the events unfold. He watches as Powerboy's relentless attack hit's it target and he himself jumps into action hoping to save the hostage so Kara can focus on trying to keep Powerboy in check from going to over board with what now looks like a corps of the New god" please let me catch please let me catch her" he mutters to himself.
Kara is shocked. Really. She didn't take the killing shot. She thought Powerboy would have had more control. Apparently she was wrong. Kara Zor-El turns to look from where the rather dead body of Xerzes lays some distance away to look directly at Powerboy. For a moment, she's terribly angry that he did what she couldn't bring herself to do but then she realizes that he just did exactly the opposite of what Kal-El has been teaching her since she decided to wear the Symbol. After a moment, Kara's face turns into a sneer of anger and betrayal. Quietly she says "You stay away from us. You don't....and you'll be just as dead as that monster from Apokolips. I promise it. You don't deserve that shield on your armor. I see it again...I'll burn it off of you." With that, she lifts into the air and flies away towards the farm.
Suddenly, the headaches gone, and with it.. everything comes crashing down, what he just did.. the blood on his hands..."Kara I..." he starts to call out, the look in his eyes tears well up and then there's a flash of light as he turns away a heavy thump to the ground as his armor The Aegis and the legion ring falls to the ground. Still shirtless and wearing torn bluejeans Jonathan leaps into the air away from Smallville unable to truly see where he's going.
As Jon-El begins to fly away, abandoning his legacy on the streets of Clark's hometown, the voice rises within him once more. The pain. The horror. The shock. Being coerced into doing something that stood against every value and core he believed in. The shadow inside him drinks it in. *Yes. You have been forsaken.* it whispers. Within his mind, shadowy hands slowly close about, fingers digging within and sinking to the core of his being. *You no longer belong in this world. You no longer belong with your adopted family. You, who arrived here through a Boom Tube... it has been too long...*
 Come home, my wayward son.*
And within the air in front of Jon-El, a warble of light manifests. A great Boom Tube erupts, showing the throne room of Apokolips... and Darkseid's broad smile.
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