"The Fall of the Tyrant"**
***
The battlefield was chaos incarnate. Burning skyscrapers framed the horizon, their shattered silhouettes flickering beneath crimson light as the heroes clashed with the god of tyranny himself — **Darkseid**.
Lucian led the charge, his aura blazing with white Kí. He sprinted past fallen concrete and overturned cars, gripping the twisted frame of a destroyed vehicle. With a guttural yell, he hurled it toward Darkseid. The warlord barely blinked — his hand lashed out, swatting the car aside as though it were no more than debris. But the second of distraction was all Lucian needed.
A sharp burst of Kí flared in his palm. He blurred forward, landing a blow so fierce it cracked the air and made Darkseid stumble half a step — just long enough for **Wonder Woman** and **Cyborg** to tackle him through a row of buildings.
Darkseid emerged through the rubble, eyes aflame with fury, blood trickling from one of them. From behind, **Hal Jordan** materialized an emerald warship, sleek and angular like something born of alien nightmares. Its cannons rotated and unleashed a barrage of missiles that chased Darkseid through the air. With an enraged snarl, he countered — fiery **Omega Beams** twisted through the sky, obliterating the ship in a spiral of emerald light. Hal plummeted, his constructs fragmenting before he hit the ground.
Hovering above the wreckage, one eye bleeding, Darkseid turned to see his enemies rise again. "You dare," he growled, "mortal insects… defy a god?"
Lucian's eyes flared. "You talk too much."
Darkseid charged, dragging an army of **Parademons** in his wake. He hit Lucian like a meteor, sending him crashing through four city blocks. Before he could recover, Darkseid seized Diana by the head, smirking coldly. The ground split beneath them as he flew through one building after another, dragging her through glass and steel before flinging her aside and pounding her into the floor of a shattered tower.
The **Flash** zipped in through the gaping hole, landing an endless flurry of strikes that blurred into afterimages. Just as he delivered a finishing blow, Darkseid matched his speed — the two vanished in flashes of lightning before Flash was slammed into a wall so hard the concrete webbed around his body.
Raising his hand, Darkseid's Omega Beams charged once more — but **Hal** soared back into the fray, forming a shield around Flash. The beams spiraled and coiled snake-like toward them, forcing Hal to reshuffle the construct into a reflective disk that turned the blast back on Darkseid. The impact sent him flying, and **Cyborg** immediately followed with a sweeping energy cannon strike that tore through the smoke.
Lucian appeared behind him, hair glowing white with Kí energy. He unleashed a beam from his palms, sending Darkseid smashing upward, through a collapsing ceiling, and into the night sky.
"Now!" cried Diana, coiling her golden lasso around the tyrant. The cord crackled with divine light, unbreakable even to a god. Over her shoulder, **Shazam** flew in, pressing both palms against Darkseid's back. "Say hello to lightning!" he roared, discharging bolts of raw energy that made Darkseid scream in fury.
The **Green Lantern** descended, summoning a giant construct hammer and slamming it into Darkseid's torso, sending him crashing back toward Diana — who tightened her lasso, using it as an anchor.
"Flash!" she shouted over the roar of thunder. "Now's your chance — blind his other eye!"
Down below, Flash looked around and spotted a firefighter helping civilians from the rubble, holding a steel crowbar. In a blur, Flash grabbed it with a breathless apology — "Sorry! Need this to save the world — thanks for helping!" — and zipped back up the lasso, sprinting along it like a glowing bridge. With a resounding crack, he drove the crowbar straight into Darkseid's remaining eye.
"AGHHHH!" The god's Omega Beams detonated inward, exploding within his skull. Cyborg's cannon fired again, striking his back, while Lucian rocketed forth with his sword drawn — only to be caught mid-charge by a devastating hook punch that sent him flipping through the clouds.
Floating in midair, Lucian steadied himself, breathing hard, his eyes glowing fiercely. Below, Superman blurred past in a flash of red and blue, tackling Darkseid straight through three city blocks.
"Looks like the Boy Scout's back," Lucian murmured.
**Meanwhile, on Apokolips…**
**Batman** moved like a shadow through hellfire. Inside the control chamber, alarms blared while he planted explosives, taking down generators and defense grids. His suit was scorched, his knuckles raw — but he pressed on. A hulking **Minotaur-like creature** appeared, its obsidian axe dripping molten steel. Batman sidestepped the swing, using the momentum to grapple onto its back, attaching a plasma charge to its neck.
"Not today," he muttered, detonating the charge and diving away as the beast fell in fire.
From the smoke emerged an alien controller with telepathic malice dripping from its every word. "You. A human. You think you can unmake a god's empire?"
"Been a long week," Batman replied, then slammed an EMP batarang into its chest. The alien shrieked, staggering backward just as a glowing portal ripped open behind them — **Cyborg** appeared, blasting the enemy away.
"Good timing," Batman said.
"Always got your back," Cyborg replied. "Opening more portals now. Let's get the civilians out."
They worked fast — saving thousands from the burning citadel before vanishing back to Earth.
**Back on Earth…**
The exhausted heroes surrounded Darkseid, pressing into a coordinated assault. Shazam hurled lightning spheres into the sky that detonated among the Parademons, thinning their ranks. Superman locked hands with Darkseid in a test of will, both snarling as power rippled through the city like shockwaves. Wonder Woman leaped onto the tyrant's shoulders, pounding his skull with divine fury.
Darkseid retaliated with raw rage — kneeing Diana in the gut and hurling her through rubble, then striking Superman down with a barrage of brutal punches.
Lucian, clutching his ribs, could take no more. "Enough running," he muttered. His Kí exploded outward like a supernova, painting the battlefield in blinding light. His aura turned white-hot, every muscle thrumming with unstoppable vibration.
"Let's finish this!"
He charged — fists flashing in a blur. Every strike cracked bone, every kick shattered sound barriers. His attacks came in a relentless storm: jab, hook, uppercut, spin-kick — each one screaming with fury and hope. The others rallied around him — Superman's blows drove Darkseid back, Diana's lasso held him fast, Flash dashed in with pinpoint strikes, and Hal conjured glowing barriers to pin the tyrant in place.
Darkseid roared, unleashing a shockwave that sent the team sprawling. Smoke and silence followed.
Then came a voice from the side Cyborg and batman arrived.
**Cyborg's**: "I can open a boomtube. We can send him back to Apokolips — for good."
Batman's voice joined, calm but sharp. "His base is gone. He can't return anytime soon. Do it."
Lucian nodded, bruised but unbroken. "I'll push him through. Just give me twenty seconds."
Superman grinned, wiping blood from his chin. "Thought you'd ask for more. Alright, everyone — let's buy him that time!"
The final battle erupted with renewed determination. Every second counted — every hero giving everything left.
"Ten seconds!" shouted Hal.
Batman climbed onto Darkseid before he flew away but not before attaching a bomb in Darkseid's throat that exploded and causes the God to stumble back.
Darkseid fought back like a wounded titan, energy crackling from every pore.
"Almost there!" Lucian yelled.
On Wonder Woman's cue, Superman and Flash tackled Darkseid toward Lucian. The team yelled in unison: "Now!"
Lucian grinned, raising his hand. "I've *always* wanted to do this."
Light enveloped him as he pointed two fingers forward.
"Spirit… GUN!!!!!"
A radiant beam of blue-white Kí erupted, brighter than dawn, slamming into Darkseid's chest. He roared, body contorting, dragged helplessly toward the boomtube as Lucian screamed, pouring every last drop of energy into the blast.
When Darkseid vanished into the portal, a cataclysmic explosion echoed from the other side. The boomtube sealed, and across the battlefield, the Parademons dropped lifeless from the sky.
Silence fell. Smoke drifted. The heroes stood shoulder to shoulder — battered, but victorious.
Lucian took a deep breath. "Well," he said with a tired grin. "That… was fun."
Superman chuckled. "You've got a strange definition of fun."
Batman simply looked up at the stars, voice low but resolute. "He'll be back someday. But so will we."
***