Central City
December 31st, 19:45 EDT
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At Central City University, a portal opens with a loud: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Out of the portal steps Victor, still carrying Sarah in his arms as the portal closes. “Try to get to safety…” Victor said as he put Sarah on the ground. Before Sarah could say anything, Victor opened another portal. “Wait!” Sarah said. Victor turned around to look at her, and was met by her lips meeting with his own for a few seconds.

“For luck…” Sarah said, a little embarrassed. After a few moments of awkward silence between the two, Victor snapped back to his senses. “Thanks… I think I’ll need it…” He said before he jumped into the portal and closing it behind him.

Happy Harbor
December 31st, 19:46 EDT
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The other six heroes managed to get to the edge of the structure that was surrounding Happy Harbour. Batman and Aquaman quickly got out of the Batwing. Batman walks up to J’onn’s side. “Can you find a weak point?” He asked. “I can try…” J’onn replied before his eyes glowed orange. Using his Martian Vision, J’onn was able to scan every square inch of the structure in record speed. “Nothing…” He said. “The structure is uniformly spread, no weak points…”

“Then let’s make one…” Batman said before hurling a Batarang at a single point in the structure. The Batarang beeped for a few seconds while the bat symbol repeatedly flickered, before it exploded. After the smoke cleared, the structure seemed to be untouched. “Batman has the right idea…” Wonder Woman said as she drew out her sword. She jumped at the structure and stabbed it with her sword. Aquaman quickly followed in her footsteps as he stabbed the structure with his Trident.

After a few seconds, the two withdrew their weapons. “Nothing…” Flash mumbled. “You’re missing the point…” Batman said, right before Superman swooped past him at top speed and crashed into the structure. He dug his fingers into the goo-y/crystalline material the structure was made out of, and began to tear it apart. After struggling for quite some time, Superman managed to create an opening big enough for them to pass through.

“That was the point…” Batman said before he drew out his Grappling Hook from his Utility Belt.

He fired it at the structure and the Batarang at the end of the rope lodged in place. As soon as it did, the light-metal rope immediately retracted itself, and pulled Batman to his destination, causing him to go through the opening Superman created. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this opened…” Superman said, struggling. “GO!” He yelled. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and J’onn quickly went through the opening, allowing Superman to enter into the city himself, and let the structure close behind him.

“Alright… What was the plan again?” Flash asked. “We keep those things occupied until the Cyborg can find a way to turn this thing off…” Batman said. “Cyborg? You mean Victor?” Flash asked. “Yes…” Batman replied. “Can we waste time when there is any time to waste?” Aquaman asked. “Aquaman is right…” Wonder Woman said as she drew her sword. “Let’s go!”

Meanwhile, in the center of the city, an Appellaxian is wreaking havoc. This Appellaxian looked like an average-sized, walking tree. Naturally (or UNnaturally) it was made of wood.

The wood Appellaxian made a gesture that looked as if it was taking a deep breath. “Even though I lack what these Earthlings call, a ‘nose’, I can smell their fear!” The wood Appellaxian said. It spotted a man trying to escape the havoc that was rampaging across the city. The Appellaxian extended its arm towards the man and pointed at him. The roots that resemble fingers began to extend and turn into wooden tendrils.

The tendrils wrapped around the man, who was screaming in fear. Before the man could say anything, much less plead for his life, the tendrils planted roots all over the man’s body and began to suck out the moisture and nutrients out of him. The man screamed in pain until he was knocked unconscious, at which point the Appellaxian let him drop to the ground.

“Why didn’t you just kill him, Wood-King?” Golden Roc asked. “I never liked killing the simpletons…” Wood-King answered. “It ends the fun…” Wood-King continued. Before long Stone-God, Fire Lord and Crystal Creature joined up with the other two Appellaxians. “Where are Mercury Monster and Glass-Man?” Crystal Creature asked. Stone-God grunted angrily. “These two inferior beings destroyed their host bodies!” Stone-God.

“Interesting…” Wood-King thought out loud. “Maybe this conquest won’t be such a bore, after all…” Wood-King continued, just before it got sucker punched in the face (or whatever they have). The other Appellaxians turned around to see that it was Superman who threw the punch. “Alright… Who’s next…?” He said while smirking and cracking his knuckles.

“I’ll have a go!” Golden Roc exclaimed before launching its super-sonic screech, blowing Superman away. Quick to help his friend, the Flash raced over to Golden-Rock and distracted it with a few Super-Speed punches, allowing Wonder Woman and Aquaman to double uppercut it. Fire-Lord blasted them with a stream of fire, but Batman threw some Liquid Nitrogen capsules at the stream, causing them to explode and cool the fire enough, to put it out.

Soon enough, J’onn flew in and tackled Stone-God, knocking it into the ground. Aquaman quickly jumped on Crystal Creature, to prevent it from doing any harm, and Flash raced over to deal with Fire-Lord, by spinning in circles around it so fast, that it would suck out all the fire’s oxygen supply. “You think I need your stupid oxygen to produce my flames?!” Fire-Lord asked sarcastically before smacking its arms on the ground, causing an explosion of fire that knocked the Flash away.

Before Fire-Lord could finish Flash off with another stream of fire, Superman got in front of the Flash, shielding him from the flames. “You definitely need to chill out…” Superman said before knocking Fire-Lord away with his Super Breath. “‘You need to chill out’? Really?” Flash asked sarcastically. “Next time, leave the puns to me, big man…” He continued.

While our heroes were battling its Appellaxian brethren, Wood-King simply stood there, marveling the battle, as if it was enjoying a TV show or something. “ARE YOU JUST GOING TO STAND THERE LIKE A VEGETABLE?!” Crystal Creature exclaimed. Wood-King chuckled before slamming its hands together and sticking them into the ground, causing giant roots to come out of the ground and make their way towards our heroes.

Each hero got hit with a root on the back of the neck, causing them to scream out in pain. After the roots dislocated from their necks, most of them fell to the ground unconscious, but Superman was still awake. “Why you little…” Superman was unable to finish his sentence, as he felt his whole body become stiff like wood. A quick glance down revealed that his feet were now rooted to the ground, and were made of wood.

Superman’s body was getting covered by wood faster and faster, as were our other heroes’ bodies. Superman tried everything he could to break free, but it was too late. His vision went black, and he was completely turned into a wooden statue.

“Alas they were no match for us…” Wood-King said. The green symbol on Wood-King began to glow green, and so did the eyes of all our heroes. They each stood up with little to no effort put into their muscles, their faces emotionless. “But these new slaves can make conquering worlds even easi…” Wood-King paused. “What is it?” Golden Roc asked. “I can read their thoughts… There’s another one of them!” Wood-King exclaimed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Another one of Victor’s portals opened up right at the center of the citadel. “Whoa…” Victor said, both in fear and in awe at the design of this place. It looked like tree roots were used as a skeleton for the structure, with crystals partruting out of them, and glowing liquid gold passing through the cracks in the wood. The structure itself was covered in red glass, that looked as if it was on fire. The devices in the main hall looked as if they were molded with Mercury, with stones as the bases for the shape. Tl;dr, you could tell this place was made by the Appellaxians.

“Alright, Vic… Time to find something to hack…” Victor mumbled to himself as he looked around. The more he saw, the more worried he grew. He was even scanning the structure with his Cybernetic eye (now that he knew how to properly use the armor). After he was done scanning the area no less than three times, his worries were realised. Nothing here was electronic. There was nothing he could hack.

“Uh… Armor…?” Victor said, trying to talk to his own armor.

YES, VICTOR?

The Armor replied. ‘Okay, that just worked…’ Victor thought before getting right to business. “Is there any way you can contact Batman for me?” He asked.

OF COURSE.

The Armor replied. After a few seconds, Victor was able to get in contact with Batman. “Batman! We have a problem!” Victor said. “There’s nothing electronic in here, I can’t hack into anything!” He continued. There was no reply on the other end. “Uh… Batman…?” Victor said, starting to grow a little worried.

Batman wasn’t answering because he and the other heroes were transformed into the Wood-King’s wooden slaves. Mindless automatons that were following their master into the citadel to end Victor Stone. All hope is lost.

Or is it…?

‘My friends… Can you hear me…?’ J’onn asked the group telepathically. ‘I hear you, J’onn…’ Superman responded. ‘Loud and clear, green-man!’ Flash replied. ‘Wood-King was able to transform our bodies into wood, but our minds are still free!’ J’onn exclaimed. ‘We can use this to our advantage!’ Batman exclaimed. ‘But how? We cannot move our limbs at will!’ Wonder Woman exclaimed.

J’onn struggled, but he was eventually able to move his head towards Batman. ‘Then we rip this second skin off!’ J’onn exclaimed telepathically before blasting his Martian heat vision towards Batman’s arm and Utility Belt, peeling the wood off. ‘Leave the rest to me…’ Batman exclaimed as he reached into his Utility Belt and drew out a Batarang.

With all his willpower, Batman threw the Batarang at Flash’s legs. The Batarang’s symbol glowed intensely as a red hue surrounded the whole Batarang, burning off the wood over Flash’s legs and allowing him to run again, albeit barely considering his upper legs are still made of wood.

Thinking quickly, Flash used the minimal leg room he had to run towards Aquaman and tackle him into J’onn’s path, allowing J’onn to blast Aquaman’s arm. Absorbing the moisture from the wood and using it to for a blade-like water construct, Aquaman cut off the wood covering half of Wonder Woman’s body and revealing her golden Lasso.

Wonder Woman then grabbed her Lasso and hurled it at Superman’s neck. “By the power of Hestia’s Golden Lasso!” Wonder Woman spoke out loud, since half of her mouth was uncovered. “I compel you to break free!” She exclaimed. This magical willpower-enhancement worked, and Superman’s face was freed from any trace of wood.

Unfortunately for our heroes, they’ve already gotten to the citadel, and because Wonder Woman spoke out loud, Wood-King and the other Appellaxians caught on to their plan. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF APOCALYPSE?!” Fire-Lord exclaimed in shock. “HOW DID THEY BREAK FREE?!” Wood-King exclaimed. “IT DOESN’T MATTER!” Golden Roc replied. “SEAL THEM BACK UP YOU IMBECILE! BEFORE IT’S TOO…” Golden Roc was unable to finish its sentence as it and its Appellaxian brethren were blown away by Superman’s Super Breath.

“I believe the word you were looking for is ‘late’…” Superman said. Before anything else could happen, the wood covering our heroes was stripped away and they were all able to freely move again. “Alright, I don’t know about you but I’m really looking forward to kicking those guys up to low orbit!” Aquaman exclaimed as he drew out his Trident. “Seconded!” Wonder Woman said as she drew her sword.

“Guys!” Victor exclaimed as he got out of the citadel. “Victor! Any luck?” Flash asked. “No…” Victor replied. “I tried to contact you guys, but you didn’t answer… There’s nothing electrical or mechanical in there… I can’t hack to anything!” He explained. “Then we need a new plan of attack…” Batman said. “I have a plan!” Aquaman said. “It’s called attack!” He exclaimed before jumping at the Appellaxians and stabbing Fire-Lord with his Trident.

Before Aquaman could do major damage, he was swatted away by Crystal Creature. Victor transformed his arm into that White-Noise Cannon and blasted Crystal Creature with it. However, Crystal Creature absorbed the sonic attack and redirected it at Victor. “ARGH!” Victor screamed out in pain before falling to the ground.

Wonder Woman then got into her attack position and brought her arms apart. She then quickly slammed her wrists together and created a giant shockwave that pushed all the Appellaxians back. “Couldn’t you have done that any sooner…?” Batman asked sarcastically as he hurled a Batarang at Wood-King, which exploded in its face.

Superman and Flash then rushed Golden Roc at top speed, sending it flying backwards before it could unleash its supersonic screech. J’onn then used his intenginility to pull a sewer pipe from the ground and use the spewing sewage to incapacitate Fire-Lord, despite not being able to directly fight it. Victor then regained his senses and fired a bunch of shoulder missiles at Crystal Creature.

“Uh… Brethren?” Wood-King asked, as it was regenerating its limb. “These champions have proven themselves worthy, don’t you all think?” “Absolutely!” Stone-God exclaimed. The other Appellaxians nodded. “I think it’s time for a, eh… Tie! I believe is the human term…” Wood-King said. “Are you going to give up?” Superman asked. “NOT AT ALL!” All of the Appellaxians exclaimed simultaneously as their energy symbols glowed green.

A giant explosion of green light blinded our seven heroes temporarily. When the light dimmed, our heroes looked in horror as the Appellaxians appeared to have merged into one giant Appellaxian Golem. It had a stone body with wooden limbs, crystal claws and other random protrusions all around its body. It also had liquid gold coursing around it like blood and golden wings.

The Golem let out a huge screech. “O… Kay…” Flash said while looking absolutely terrified. “Are you all seeing what I’m seeing?” “If you’re seeing a giant elemental monster, Flash, then yes! Yes I am!” Wonder Woman said as she unsheathed her sword. The Golem took a single look at them, and its arms glowed pinkish, with an orange aura surrounding them.

Like this

The Golem slammed both of its arms to the ground, and created a huge explosion and a huge shockwave that knocked all of our heroes out cold.

(I wanted to add a gif of how massive the explosion was but it was too big...)

All of them… Except for Superman. “You… Won’t… Win!” Superman exclaimed as he flew to the Golem and threw a few punches. The punches knocked the Golem off it balance a few times, but ultimately it grabbed Superman by the neck.

“WE WON’T?” The Golem asked sarcastically, sounding like all five Appellaxians speaking all at once. “POOR INSIGNIFICANT CREATURE, WE’VE ALREADY WON! WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES TWELVE AT THIS STUPID CITY, JUST AT THE START OF A NEW DECADE FOR YOU HUMANS, YOUR WORLD WILL BE FOREVER TRANSFORMED INTO A NEW APPELLAX! WITH US AS ITS RULERS!”

“There’s still… Plenty of time… Before midnight…!” Superman struggled to say. “THERE WON’T BE ONCE WE’RE DONE WITH YOU!” The Golem said before slamming Superman into the ground repeatedly. The Golem then tossed Superman around like a ragdoll before finally dropping his unconscious body on the ground and leaving to cause more chaos.

An undetermined amount of time later…

Superman struggled to get up. He didn’t know how long he was out, but it didn’t matter. There was still a world to save. “Get up!” He heard Batman barking while holding his ribs. “We need to stop that thing NOW!” He barked again. “Why the urgency…?” Superman asked while rubbing his head. “The Golem said we have ‘till midnight before…” “It’s eleven fifty two!” Batman exclaimed. “We were knocked out for four hours!”

Superman’s eyes widened in fear. “This is all machine-boy’s fault!” Aquaman exclaimed. “If he hadn’t shot the crystal one with that sonic cannon, I could’ve stopped them before they merged!” “How was I supposed to know that it could do that?!” Victor snapped at Aquaman. “And you weren’t any better, Aquaman!” Batman said. “If you hadn’t jumped at them like that without thinking, I could’ve come up with a plan to stop them!”

“I’m tired of you thinking you can boss us around!” Aquaman snapped. “Me too! Nobody voted you team leader!” Flash yelled. “You are all missing the point!” J’onn exclaimed. “We must stop the Appellaxians now!” “And why do you care so much?!” Victor asked. “Don’t pretend like you care about us! I bet you’re just trying to save your butt because you’re stuck in this planet with us! It’s not about avenging your world or your family! It’s about saving yourself!”

At that remark, J’onn snapled. He transformed into some sort of Martian dragon and tackled Victor.

“Oh… You wanna fight, tough guy?” Victor asked as he charged a weapon. “Leave him alone, Martian!” Wonder Woman yelled. “He’s but a child!” “CHILD?! I’M 18! I’M NOT A ****** CHILD!” Victor snapped. All of our heroes began arguing with each other. Some of them drew out their weapons and some of them charged their powers. They were wasting time when the Earth is about to end in 7 minutes and counting.

“ENOUGH!” Superman cried out while clapping his hands together, creating a shockwave that knocked all of our heroes to the ground. “LOOK AT YOURSELVES!” He exclaimed. “You’re fighting each other, while that thing is killing innocent people and is about to trigger the end of the world!”

The other six heroes looked at each other. Superman sighed. “Look…” He said. “I woke up this morning trying to figure out who I was and why I was here. Now I’m standing with a Martian, an Atlantean, a Human Lightning Bolt, an Amazon, a Cyborg and a guy who dresses like a bat… And you’re all standing with a Kryptonian. We’re all different, but we all have one thing in common. One thing I noticed from the short time we spent together… We’re all heroes!”

“We all risk our lives to do what’s right…” Superman continued his speech. “This world is our home, and we must defend it! But we can’t if we fight against one another instead of WITH one another… We look like a team, so we might as well start behaving like one! But if you’re all too childish to get over your differences, then I’ll have my way with that monster on my own…”

“Not on your own…” Batman said as he stood up. “I’m in!” “Me too!” Wonder Woman said as she stood up. “Me too!” Flash said. “Me too!” Aquaman said. “Me too!” Victor said. “So am I!” J’onn said. Superman gave a radiant smile. “Alright… We need a new plan!” He said.

“The mutants that we fought on the way here were stronger than the ones we faced on the mountains…” Batman pondered out-loud. “Maybe the Appellaxians need to be at a certain proximity to their victims and technology to control them…” He continued. “So we send them packing!” Wonder Woman exclaimed with a smile. “How?” Victor asked. Everybody stared at him blankly. “Oh…” He replied. “But we still don’t know where to send them…” Flash said. “Right… But they do…” Aquaman said as he smirked at J’onn.

J’onn smirked back as his eyes glowed orange for a split second. “Got it!” J’onn said. “Alright… Our first priority should be to help the civilians!” Superman said. “Should be easy… According to the armor most of the city’s been evacuated…” Victor replied. “So we get the civilians out of harm's way and we take the creature down… WHO’S WITH ME?!” Superman asked as he hovered and lifted his fist.

Nobody did anything. “Uh… We are…?” Flash said. Superman sighed. “Fine! No time to lose! Let’s go!” He said before flying towards the city, the other heroes shortly behind him.

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Hey guys! Infinityalbi10 here!

Second-to-last chapter and it looks like all hope is lost... the would-be Justice League only has minutes before the world turns into a nightmarish hellscape and humanity falls! Will they succeed in saving us? Or did the Mayan prophecy about the end of the world was actually late about 3 years? And what the Hell does a kid with the ability to snap his fingers can do to help our heroes? All this and more... in just a few days! And as always...

Thanks for reading! ❤