re: Bard's Poor Attempt at a Combined Marvel/DC Universe (an ongoing project)

They were tremendously outmatched. This Doomsday beast was a machine of destruction. The Hawks had come in behind it, one swooping in behind each knee to deliver tremendous blows with their maces. The beast staggered but quickly recovered. Part of their attack plan was for the Atom, who had shrunken to mere inches in height, to leap from Carter’s shoulder at the last minute and onto the behemoth. He would then climb into the monster’s ear canal and attempt to distract it and disrupt its sense of balance (assuming its equilibrium was anything like that of humans).

The plan seemed to work as shortly after the Hawks made their way off, the creature began shaking its massive head in an attempt to dislodge whatever was annoying it. But then they learned that, unlike Grundy, this beast was clever.

As Shayera came in from behind it, aiming for a shot at the back of its head, the beast turned inhumanly quickly to snatch her out of the air. It had been tracking her since the first hit and used the Atom’s attempts to lull them into believing it was too distracted to defend itself. Now it had one of its assailants in its enormous hand, covering much of Hawkwoman’s head. She was able to get out a muffled scream just before the loud, sickening cracks from the crushing of her skull silenced her.

Katar Hall had changed his first name to Carter when he and Shayera wakened in America in order to better blend in with the populace. He had done this through many lifetimes while Shayera had refused to. She had joked many times with him that while she was trying to make it easy for him to find her in each new cycle, he was purposely making it difficult for her.

They had seen each other die more than once over their many lifetimes, it didn’t make it any easier each time it happened. Carter Hall’s eyes glazed over with rage, all attempts at strategy were thrown to the wind as he went straight for the brute’s head.

Instead of intercepting the blow or dodging it, the Doomsday creature just stood there and accepted it. The blow, powered by naturally heightened Thanagarian strength, the releasing of absorbed kinetic energy into his mace and his own momentum should have been enough to liquefy much of the creature’s skull. Instead, in a voice sounding like rocks being crushed, the beast laughed.

The laughter drove Carter onto even more careless rage. Somewhere in his mind Katar knew Captain America was yelling something at him, probably something wisely strategic, but he simply didn’t care. He embraced the heat of his anger as he charged in again. He would continue to rain blows on this demon until the end of time, if needed.

“HAWKMAN! Dammit, pull back! We need a plan!” Steve knew he was shouting at a brick wall, but he had to try. Amazing Man had transformed into steel as he circled behind the brute while Steve came in from the front in an attempt to get its attention. The idea was to stall this thing until the others, especially Dr. Fate or Superman, could return. Hawkman’s rage-induced, undisciplined attacks were putting them at risk.

It didn’t last long as the beast finally decided it was tired of Hawkman’s attacks and used Hawkwoman’s corpse to swat Carter out of the air on his next pass. Amazing Man had taken the opportunity to leap on the creature’s back, holding onto one of its shoulder spikes for balance and leverage in order to distract the beast from Hawkman’s prone form but it did no good. The creature ignored Will Everett’s blows while it ended Hawkman’s life in this cycle with a brutal stomp to his head.

The spiked horror reached behind its head, grabbed Amazing Man and casually tossed him aside as a child would an old rag. Will crashed somewhere in the distance.

Not for the first time today, Captain America found himself alone and facing a monster. Unlike last time though, he was still injured. Doctor Fate had done what he could to set and mend the bone itself, but there hadn’t been time to heal the muscles and ligaments adequately. He rolled, jumped and dodged for all he was worth but he quickly realized his evasions weren’t going to do anything but tire him out and just annoy his opponent.

The beast surprised him by kicking a large rock at him. The angle of the rock’s trajectory and the weakness of his shield arm combined to knock the shield from his grasp and send it flying. The power behind the stone projectile knocked him back while spinning him around. He hit the ground hard, his shoulder dislocated.

The beast had come toward him to crush him under his foot just as it had Hawkman. Even though he was in excruciating pain, Cap managed to roll out from under the massive foot just before it landed. It left a deep impression where Cap’s head had just been. The pain in his shoulder had made Steve overcompensate on his roll, now he was flat on his back. He knew that when the creature came for him this time, it truly would be his doomsday.

The monster knew it too. It managed a chuckle and sick smile as it turned to look down at its next victim. It didn’t hurry. It didn’t have to. Instead of moving to stomp him, the creature reached to grab Captain America, it wanted to do something especially horrific to him.

With its large, incredibly strong hand just inches from his face Steve made peace with death. He was more vulnerable before any enemy than he had ever been and this enemy was more powerful than anything he had ever encountered before. He had always known the end would come, death comes for us all eventually. He just hoped it would be in the pursuit of a good and noble cause.

The beast’s hand… was suddenly gone?

Steve shifted to sit up enough to see what was going on and there before him was Will Everett, the ‘Amazing Man’, skinned in a dull silver and holding Cap’s shield. The monster, Doomsday, was picking itself up from the ground dozens of feet away.