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

Clark was flying so fast he could hear nothing but the wind. The world was a blur beneath him, he had never gone so fast before. He slowed to reorient himself again, saw the troops which had been behind him, focused where he thought he remembered being last, then saw the fight. Someone silver was fighting a massive beast with spikes coming out of its body. He shot toward the battle at the fastest speed possible then arced down. He timed his arrival to strike the giant assailant right as it swung over the head of its opponent, the person Clark now realized was a silvery Will Everett. His punch connected squarely on the monster’s jaw, knocking it from its feet.

Will jumped back, not quite sure what that blur of motion over his head portended.

“Amazing Man?”

Without looking away from his opponent, Will answered Superman’s question. “More ‘amazing’ than ever, I think. I took on the shield’s properties, I think I might be as strong as you.”

Superman raised an eyebrow at that.

“We’re going to need all we’ve got. This thing, the Red Skull called it ‘Doomsday’, it’s killed the Hawks. Steve, Flash and Lantern are out of the fight. It’s just you and me now against it now.”

“Not quite,” the Atom said as he trotted over. “If I can shrink small enough, I think I can get between this thing’s cells so I can get into its brainpan, grow back and bit and give it a lobotomy.”

“Do it,” Superman stated as the creature began to get up. “We’ll keep it occupied.”

Superman flew back at the beast unleashing an incredible punch to his face once again. The beast oriented on him then stopped. The two combatants looked at one another for a moment as Amazing Man circled in behind then tossed the shrinking Atom up to Doomsday’s head. Clark let the staring contest last, knowing that every extra second it went on was another second for the Atom to get in place and do his work. After almost a full minute Doomsday cocked its head to the side then grunted out a single, questioning word: “Kryp...tonian?”

Superman returned the look as he responded, “Yes, I’m-“

The sentence wasn’t finished as the creature lunged at the floating hero. While he wasn’t set quite well enough to stop Doomsday’s leaping charge fully, he was set enough that they didn’t leave the clearing. The two combatants were ruthlessly pummeling one another as they fell to the ground.

When they landed, the monster was holding Superman with one giant hand while pummeling him with the other. Having a shorter reach, Superman was holding himself to within his own reach of Doomsday by clutching a wad of the beast’s untearing skin with one hand while returning blows with his other. Amazing Man leapt upon the beast’s back, he rained down blows of his own to the back of the creatures skull.

Doomsday twisted, dislodging Amazing Man enough for him to grab with his free hand. He weathered Superman’s repeated blows while he pulled Amazing Man free of his back then tossed him beyond the clearing.

During this exchange, Clark heard a small voice. “Superman, if you can hear me, it’s Atom. I’m still not able to get through this thing’s hide, I’m going to have to go even smaller.” Clark put wild abandon into his swings, beginning to let loose. With Fate’s magic helping him back to full power, he was hitting Doomsday far harder than he had hit even Nefaria. It threw Will out of eyesight then returned its attention to Clark.

Unfettered by a third party, Doomsday turned its full attention on Clark. The two powerhouses gave in to their deepest, most primal instincts and fought savagely. Neither held one another any longer, they just traded devastating blow after devastating blow. The ground shook, birds took flight away from the scene for miles around. The troops a mile back thought they were under attack from Nazi artillery, except there were no blooms of smoke and debris near them.

Will Everett returned to the battle to find Doomsday holding Superman to the ground by pushing down with his massive hand on the Man of Steel’s torso. Both combatants were bruised and bleeding. Will intercepted Doomsday’s punching arm and held firm.

Clark had tripped and fallen backward during the fight. Doomsday had taken full advantage by leaping atop him. Will had just reappeared and was keeping Doomsday from hitting him for the moment. Doomsday slammed a huge need on Clark’s chest as he moved his unhindered hand to Clark’s neck and began squeezing. Clark’s battle frenzy had ebbed just enough for him to realize he had two choices.

If he focused his strength on keeping Doomsday from choking him to death, he could hold out for a while longer against him. Maybe he, the Atom and Will could stop Doomsday, maybe they couldn’t.

The other option was he put everything into a full dose of his heat vision directly into Doomsday’s eyes, through his skull and into his brain. The Atom was in there somewhere so this wasn’t an op-

“Oh my God, I'm not able to reverse the shrinking” it was the Atom, his voice sounded weak,, tinny and as if it were receding. “…stars… It's full of stars...I don’t think I’m going to-“.

That was the last Clark heard from Ray Palmer.