Chapter 5 - Fight!

Somebody pointed this out to me. For clarification, Giovanni Zatara is Dr Fate. When Nabu says something, I will say as much. On with the chapter.

---

Chapter 5

{Glimpses of the Past}

-Whis-

Whis had long ago learned that Lord Beerus's apparent laziness was not quite the same thing as inactivity. There were days when the God of Destruction could spend an entire afternoon sprawled upon a lawn chair, one ankle resting lazily over the other, while the universe continued to turn beneath him without receiving so much as a flicker of his attention. To an observer unfamiliar with Beerus, such behaviour might have suggested indifference, but Whis knew his charge better.

Beerus was capable of sensing disturbances across an astonishing distance, and even when his eyes were closed, some portion of his attention was invariably occupied by the affairs of Universe Seven. Besides, the Destroyer had developed a rather impressive talent for convincing himself that anything which did not immediately require his intervention could safely be ignored.

At present, that philosophy had been enhanced by a steaming bowl of ramen, prepared according to Bulma's preferred recipe and delivered to the God of Destruction's tree castle. Beerus had been eating with such concentration that Whis had not disturbed him for several minutes, although the Angel suspected that the bowl itself had received considerably more devotion than most of the universe ever did.

Beyond the balcony, however, something considerably more interesting was happening. The planet's surface lay beneath the floating palace in a vast sweep of green, blues and purples, its distant mountains and forests glowing beneath the afternoon light, in view of Beerus's great tree palace, while the atmosphere shimmered faintly around the upper reaches of the world.

Bardock stood alone in the valley below, stripped to his training clothes and surrounded by several enormous weight enhanced boulders that had been arranged into a crude series of obstacles, each creating its own gravitational field. He was not transformed, nor was there any visible aura around him. To an ordinary observer, there would have been nothing particularly remarkable about the young Saiyan's appearance beyond his physique and the rather obvious tail coiled loosely around his waist.

Whis, however, could see the movement beneath the Saiyan's skin, the extraordinary circulation of energy through a body which had never quite behaved according to the rules by which Saiyan physiology ought to function. Bardock moved between the stones without touching them, changing direction at impossible angles while maintaining the same measured breathing pattern he had begun with. There was no wasted motion. Even his mistakes were instructive, because Bardock rarely repeated the same one twice. Beerus lifted another mouthful of noodles and followed Whis's gaze without moving his head.

"You've been watching him for quite some time," he observed eventually, his voice carrying the faint irritation of someone who had noticed an interesting development only after deciding that he did not particularly want to admit he had been curious. "Longer than you watched Goku at this stage, anyway. Longer than Vegeta, too. You've taken him to the Grand Minister, arranged for him to spend time with the Time Patrol, and you've even been personally supervising some of his training. I understand why you find unusual mortals amusing, Whis, but this is beginning to look suspiciously like genuine interest." He slurped the remaining noodles from his chopsticks and frowned into the bowl when he discovered there was considerably less ramen remaining than he had hoped. "And don't tell me it's because he's a Legendary Super Saiyan. We've already got Broly, and the last thing the universe needs is another Saiyan getting drunk on his own strength while you stand around looking pleased with yourself!"

Whis smiled faintly, keeping his attention on Bardock below.

"I wouldn't say that Bardock's transformation is uninteresting, Lord Beerus. On the contrary, it is extraordinarily interesting, particularly when one considers the statistical improbability of encountering a second Legendary Super Saiyan while Broly is still alive and developing. However, you are correct that his mutation alone is not what has held my attention. Broly is remarkable because his power grows in a manner that is almost frighteningly organic; Bardock is remarkable because of what he does with power once he possesses it. There is a distinction between the two that I suspect you have noticed yourself, even if you have not yet bothered to put it into words."

His staff rested lightly against the balcony floor as his eyes followed Bardock through another sequence. The Saiyan suddenly stopped, allowed one of the mobile boulders to swing past him, and redirected its momentum with a palm rather than destroying it.

"Bardock loves combat. There is no question of that. He enjoys the sensation of being challenged, the process of understanding another fighter and the satisfaction of discovering something he did not know before. Yet he does not possess the usual Saiyan compulsion to prolong a battle merely because prolonging it is entertaining."

Beerus's ears twitched. "So he's efficient. Vegeta can be just as efficient when he wants to be."

"Fitting given your personal instruction to him that accommodated his gain of that Ultra Ego form, yes. But Vegeta's efficiency is generally subordinate to his pride," Whis replied, and there was a trace of amusement in his voice as he considered the distinction. "Bardock's is subordinate to curiosity which is quite different. If Bardock encounters an opponent whom he considers beneath him, he tends to end the confrontation quickly. He does not need to demonstrate superiority, and he has little interest in humiliating someone merely because he can. If an opponent is dangerous but predictable, he becomes even more economical. He studies the pattern, identifies the structural weakness and dismantles it. There are very few occasions on which he deliberately drags a fight out. When he does, it is almost invariably because something has caught his attention. An unfamiliar technique. An opponent whose strength behaves in a manner that should be impossible. A form of power that contradicts what he understands about the world. In those circumstances, Bardock becomes almost scholarly about combat. He wants to know why the opponent works. The fight becomes an experiment, although I suspect Bardock himself would object rather strongly to that description."

Below them, Bardock finally made contact with one of the boulders. Rather than shattering it, he allowed his fingers to close around its edge and used the momentum of his own movement to spin himself around it. His feet touched the ground for less than a second before he launched himself backwards, landed on another stone, resisting the intense gravity, and immediately dropped into a defensive stance. The boulder behind him continued rolling. He did not look at it.

Whis watched his eyes instead, noticing the minute movement as Bardock tracked the stone through his peripheral vision. It was a habit developed through years of fighting enemies who could attack from directions that ordinary senses could not reliably predict. Another admirable thing about Bardock. Even if he struggled to grasp even the defensive aspect of Ultra Instinct, he didn't depend on his energy sense completely in a fight but instead honed his instincts so evasive manoeuvres became reflex.

There was something almost old-fashioned about the way he approached martial arts, despite the absurdity of his strength. He treated his body as an instrument that ought to be understood rather than merely as a weapon that ought to be sharpened. Even now, after all the power he had accumulated, Bardock was deliberately training in a state that denied him the easy answers available to him through transformation.

"He's also rather peculiar about the idea of being a warrior," Whis continued after a moment. "Saiyan culture, at least in the form that survived within the memories of his people, tends to associate strength with conquest, hierarchy, pride and the right to impose one's will upon another. Bardock has almost none of that conditioning. He grew up in circumstances that would have been utterly incomprehensible to a Saiyan born on Planet Vegeta, and his understanding of combat consequently developed without the cultural assumptions that would normally accompany it. He can be fiercely competitive, certainly, but he does not equate victory with superiority as a person. He can respect someone weaker than himself if that person possesses courage or skill, and he can admire an opponent who is vastly stronger without feeling that his own worth has diminished. His sense of chivalry is similarly unusual. He is quite willing to kill when he believes it necessary, but he does not confuse killing with winning, nor does he consider mercy inherently weak. In many respects, and so many words, he has the instincts of a Saiyan and the mind of a human."

Beerus finally stopped eating. He lowered the bowl onto his stomach and stared at Whis from beneath half-lowered eyelids.

"A human mind in a Saiyan body," he repeated. "That sounds dangerously sentimental even for you, Whis."

"Does it?"

"I just said as much, didn't I?"

Whis's smile broadened slightly. "Perhaps. But sentimentality is not necessarily the same thing as inaccuracy."

Beerus grunted and looked back down at the valley, leaning his head on his palm. Bardock had resumed moving, this time performing a series of hand-to-hand techniques against nothing at all. His movements were precise enough that Beerus could now see what Whis had been talking about. Bardock was not training his strength anymore. Not primarily, anyway. He was training the transitions between movements, the ability to shift from defence into attack without conscious delay, the precise distribution of weight through his feet and hips. He could have demolished every boulder on the planet with a casual gesture, yet he was treating them like pieces on a chessboard.

"There is another matter," Whis said, his voice becoming quieter. "One that I find considerably more perplexing than his temperament." He turned his head slightly, allowing his gaze to rest on Beerus rather than Bardock. "Bardock was born in Earth's Hell."

Beerus's expression changed. "Yes of course, that particular enigma. Let alone the fact that most Saiyans died with their wretched planet so they should have no reason being in Earth's hell, it should be impossible for new life to flourish in the afterlife."

"Precisely, my point. In the beginning, when I initially found him, I kept him close to keep an eye on him. I'd hoped that should he prove a threat, he was within reach of your hand My Lord."

For several seconds, the only sound on the balcony was the faint breeze moving through the gardens. Beerus's tail shifted against the chair. Whis had expected that reaction, because he had experienced much the same disbelief when he had first sensed the youth's presence there. Hell was not a place where life was ordinarily created. Souls arrived there after death. Bodies did not develop within its confines, and certainly not bodies capable of existing as living organisms while surrounded by the dead. Yet Whis had sensed Bardock before he had ever met him, when the Saiyan had destroyed a portion of the hellsplane so utterly that it ripped open a path into the Demon Realm. And what he had sensed had been neither the conventional spiritual signature of a deceased soul nor the clean vitality of a living mortal. It had been something in between, something that refused to settle into either category.

"His birth appears to have left him in an unusual spiritual state," Whis explained. "I would hesitate to call it death, because he is unquestionably alive. His body possesses a living metabolism, his soul responds to physical stimuli, and his life-force behaves as an active life-form's should. Yet neither can I classify him as entirely separate from the condition of death, or the luminosity of life. He was conceived and born in a realm intended for the dead, and some portion of that circumstance appears to have remained attached to him. He exists in something resembling a spiritual limbo, although even that description is imperfect. It is less that he belongs to both states than that neither state entirely possesses him." Whis's expression became thoughtful. "That may explain certain things. It may explain why his longevity behaves strangely. Bardock has spent well over eighty years of subjective time moving through other timelines, and yet his physical age remains almost indistinguishable from that of a teenager. A Saiyan should not retain youth indefinitely simply because he is powerful. His body should have aged. It has not."

Beerus frowned. "So you're telling me he's immortal."

"No. Not in the conventional sense." Whis shook his head. "That distinction is important. Bardock can still be injured and killed. I bore witness to this myself many a time. His body can still fail if subjected to sufficient damage. What appears to be suspended is the ordinary relationship between his soul, his body and the passage of biological time. His youth is not the consequence of a wish, nor is it a divine blessing. It is simply another consequence of something that should not have happened in the first place."

Beerus rubbed his chin, his irritation gradually being replaced by reluctant interest. "And you think that same nonsense is connected to his ability to use divine energy."

"I suspect it may be." Whis looked down at Bardock again. "The oddity becomes particularly fascinating when one examines his energy circulation. Saiyans possess enormous physical potential, but their relationship with divine energy is not naturally intuitive. Even Goku and Vegeta required extraordinary instruction and circumstances before they could properly perceive and utilise it. Bardock, however, seems to possess pathways that respond to divine energy with considerably less resistance. He does not yet possess the refined control of an actual deity, naturally, but his body accepts divine energy with an ease that is unusual for a mortal. His spiritual limbo may have weakened the boundary between the categories of energy normally associated with life, death and divinity. I have no proof of that, but the correlation is difficult to ignore."

Beerus gave a displeased little snort. "So he gets to be strange, immortal-looking, ridiculously strong and naturally compatible with divine energy. Wonderful. I suppose you are going to tell me there's still more."

"Oh, considerably more My Lord. I do wonder why you are so curious about him now. You've had all this time to probe me about my intentions regarding him and yet only now do you ask." Beerus just scoffed, making Whis laugh softly. "The simplest oddity is actually the one you mentioned earlier. Bardock is another Legendary Super Saiyan. You and I both know how rare that phenomenon is supposed to be. Yet we now have two living examples, Broly and Bardock, neither of whom appears to have inherited the mutation through any conventional lineage that would explain its recurrence. But even that is not the most unusual aspect. What concerns me more is the degree of control Bardock possesses over the mutation. Broly's struggle is understandable. His power is an enormous biological pressure that overwhelms his emotional control, and he is learning to coexist with it. Bardock's problem is almost the reverse. He has learned to compartmentalise his power so thoroughly that his base state alone is absurd. The figures are difficult to express without sounding ridiculous, but his ordinary combat output is comfortably more than four hundred times the level at which Goku and Vegeta operate in their base states, that is if we were to quantify it. He can remain transformed only when he chooses, yet he rarely bothers. Goku must move beyond Super Saiyan Three or invoke Ultra Instinct if he wishes to reliably overwhelm Bardock's base state. That is not simply strength. It is restraint made measurable, yet might embodied."

Beerus stared at him. "You said four hundred."

"Like I said, it's hard to quantify. But over four hundred does land in the appropriate ballpark."

"His base form." Beerus tapped the edge of his ramen bowl. "I would have noticed such a thing by now. It's hard to overlook that. Just what has he been doing in his Time Patrol service?"

"He does make a habit of supressing his power completely Lord Beerus. You must be slacking off if even you couldn't see past that illusion."

Beerus growled before he slowly picked up his bowl again, though he had apparently forgotten to eat. "You're telling me this child has been walking around Universe Seven deliberately pretending to be weaker than he is."

"Every universe. And not pretending," Whis corrected gently. "That distinction is rather significant when it comes to Bardock. He does not believe his base state is a disguise. He considers it his natural state and therefore the most honest measure of himself. Transformations are tools to him. He prefers to solve problems with the smallest amount of force necessary, partly because he enjoys the technical challenge and partly because he is acutely aware of what happens when he allows his Saiyan instincts to feed upon themselves. His Legendary mutation responds to battle with escalating enthusiasm. The more he enjoys a fight, the more readily his power rises, and the more powerful he becomes, the more stimulating the fight becomes. Bardock has learned that this can become a feedback loop. He remains calm because he knows what happens if he does not."

Beerus finally took another bite of ramen. "And I suppose you in your infinitely increasing obsession and equally excessive prattling with these Earthen mortals admire that."

"I find it responsible. Something I can't say for any other living Saiyan…besides Gohan perhaps."

"That's not what I asked!" Beerus grit his teeth, giving him his signatory impatient death stare that made entire galaxies brace for disintegration.

Whis just smiled unfazed. "No, it was not. But I suppose I do admire it."

The God of Destruction made a dissatisfied noise but did not pursue the matter. Whis knew that Beerus understood more than he liked to admit. There was a difference between enjoying battle and being ruled by it, just as there was a difference between possessing destructive power and understanding destruction. Bardock had been born with an instinct that could easily have turned him into another monster of pure appetite, yet he had instead spent much of his life constructing rules for himself.

Not because someone had ordered him to, but because he understood that his own pleasure could become dangerous when amplified by his mutation. A surprising philosophy because Hell was not full of any well-wishers but was just an infinite spiritual expanse of the universe's worst villains and warlords constantly being tormented or battling it out. That was perhaps one of the things Whis found most compelling about him. Goku loved fighting because it was joyous. Vegeta loved it because it tested his pride and identity. Broly fought because overwhelming emotion could consume him. Bardock fought because he genuinely loved the art of it yet had somehow developed the discipline to know when enjoyment needed to end.

Beerus eventually broke the silence. "You said you had another reason for all this."

Whis's smile became somewhat more mysterious. "Indeed." He raised his staff and tapped its base gently against the balcony floor. "Long before Bardock entered the Time Patrol, I contacted the esteemed Lady Chronoa."

Beerus's ears lifted. "Why?"

"Just a point of curiosity."

"Whis." Beerus said warningly.

"A professional curiosity."

"Whis!" The Destroyer's tail flickered angrily.

"Oh, very well." The Angel's smile remained perfectly innocent. "I wanted to know whether Bardock existed elsewhere." Beerus slowly lowered his bowl. Whis continued before he could interrupt. "Chronoa agreed to search. She examined the timelines under her jurisdiction, then expanded the search beyond the immediate branch associated with Bardock's known history. She checked for alternate births, divergent histories, altered causal chains and even timelines in which Raditz survived or circumstances surrounding Bardock's conception differed. Nothing. There was no other Bardock Jr. Not one. Not an equivalent. Not a version who had made different choices. Not even a distorted counterpart produced by an otherwise unrelated divergence. Bardock does not merely appear to be unique within Universe Seven. He is unique across the multiverse's timelines." Beerus stared at him as Whis's voice softened. "There is only one Bardock Jr."

The significance of that statement seemed to settle over the balcony more heavily than any discussion of power. Beerus had seen countless Saiyans. Countless Gokus. Countless Vegetas. The messes that the Time Patrol would bleed out outside of the Nest provided the opportunity. Time itself produced alternatives endlessly, creating lives that differed by a single decision or diverged so dramatically that they became almost unrecognisable. But Bardock was not replicated. The universe had somehow produced an individual who appeared only once, in a circumstance that should never have existed, with a biological mutation that should have been almost impossibly rare, a spiritual condition that defied classification and a relationship with divine energy that suggested his existence had consequences far beyond the ordinary life of a mortal. Whis had always found the concept fascinating, but even he occasionally wondered whether the universe was capable of producing something genuinely unprecedented without some larger pattern lying beneath it.

Beerus narrowed his eyes. "And you think that makes him suitable for the Destroyer position."

"I think it makes him worth considering. Such a rare specimen would be the perfect novelty for you to enjoy as your successor."

"That's not the same thing."

"No," Whis agreed. "It isn't."

He looked down again. Bardock had stopped training. He was standing in the centre of the valley, eyes closed, breathing slowly. His body was covered in sweat and dust, but his posture remained composed. He was not looking towards the palace. He was not attempting to sense Whis. Instead, he seemed to be listening to the planet itself, feeling the minute disturbances in the air, the movement of animals, the distant pulse of energy from the palace above. Whis could almost imagine what was going through his mind. Bardock did not crave the title of God of Destruction in the manner Beerus had once pursued it. He wanted the responsibility only because it offered him a chance to see the universe, to understand it, and eventually to protect its balance in his own way. That was precisely what made Whis believe he might succeed where many others would fail.

"A Destroyer requires more than strength," Whis said. "They require perspective. They must understand that creation without destruction becomes stagnation, while destruction without purpose becomes meaningless waste. Bardock already understands part of that principle instinctively. He values life because he has experienced death. He respects strength because he knows what it means to lose control of it. He enjoys battle without worshipping war. He can kill without hatred and spare without feeling diminished. More importantly, he is still learning. I believe that matters."

Beerus's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You've been planning this for a while."

Whis's smile widened. "I have been considering it for a while."

"And you've already involved the Grand Minister."

"The Grand Minister is aware. He assigned Bardock to the Time Nest personally."

"Of course he did." The feline deity grumbled.

"And it is the obvious conclusion that Grand Zeno is aware as well. He is rather fond of the Saiyan just as he is of his uncle."

Beerus went completely still at the name, tail rigid and covered in what Goku would call 'face-sweats'. Whis watched the expression that crossed his face and had to resist the temptation to laugh.

"The Grand Minister gave Bardock instruction at Grand Zeno's request," Whis explained pleasantly. "The Time Patrol placement was also arranged with the Grand Minister's full endorsement. Chronoa has been supervising him for some time. You could say that several rather important people have already taken an interest in the young Saiyan."

Beerus slowly placed the ramen bowl down. " And you arranged all of this behind my back."

"Not behind your back, Lord Beerus. You simply weren't paying attention because you were sleeping." Beerus's eye twitched. Whis laughed. "Besides, by the time you decide that you dislike the idea, it will be rather difficult to object."

"Difficult?"

"Extremely."

Beerus rose from the lawn chair. Whis could practically see the thought forming in his mind, the familiar combination of irritation, pride and territorial instinct that had accompanied every discussion involving his universe and the Saiyan who had somehow become important to it. Yet Whis was not particularly concerned. He had known for quite some time that this conversation would eventually happen. Beerus had been allowed to enjoy his comfortable certainty that Bardock was simply another promising mortal under his jurisdiction. That certainty had become increasingly difficult to maintain.

"There is one final consideration," Whis said.

Beerus glared at him. "What now?"

Whis gestured towards the valley. "Bardock is already stronger than you."

The silence that followed was almost magnificent. Beerus's face became utterly blank. Whis covered his mouth with one hand, but the laughter escaped anyway.

"Don't laugh."

"I'm sorry."

"You are not sorry, not by a mile!"

"No, Lord Beerus, I really am not."

Beerus's tail lashed behind him as he stared down at Bardock, who had resumed his training without the slightest awareness that his future had just become the subject of a divine argument. "He's stronger than me," Beerus muttered, as though saying the words quietly might somehow make them less true.

"Considerably."

"He hasn't even become a god yet."

"Not yet." Whis tilted his head. "In some of his forms, Lord Beerus, I believe the word 'challenge' would be rather an understatement if he were to use them against you. I think a Battle of Gods between the two of you would be quite the humbling spectacle." Beerus looked increasingly foul tempered. Whis's smile remained serene. "The amusing part," the Angel continued, "is that Bardock has no desire to take your position from you. He has deliberately refrained from exchanging his mortal energy for divine energy because he wishes to remain as he is for a little longer. He has been waiting for you to relinquish the mantle voluntarily. Until then, he regards himself as a mortal who happens to possess an unreasonable amount of power."

Beerus's ears flattened. "He's waiting for me to pass the title down."

"Yes."

"How considerate of him. But I'm not a sentimental fool like Belmond. If the Saiyan wants my office, he can take it from my cold dead hands!"

"I half-suspect he's come to the same conclusion My Lord. Most likely he's waiting it out to see what will happen."

Beerus stared down at the Saiyan. Then, reluctantly, he smiled. It was a very small smile, and one Whis recognised immediately. Beneath the irritation, beneath the bruised pride and the annoyance at having his successor selected without his enthusiastic participation, Beerus was interested. He had always been interested in exceptional fighters. Goku had fascinated him because the Saiyan had possessed an almost childlike capacity for growth, while Vegeta had fascinated him because pride and determination had repeatedly pushed him beyond limits that should have held him.

Bardock was different. He did not merely possess potential. He represented a question. What happened when a Saiyan was born outside Saiyan civilisation, raised among the dead, given a human understanding of morality, burdened with a mutation capable of overwhelming him, and then taught to approach divine power with restraint rather than hunger? What kind of Destroyer could such a being become?

Beerus looked down at his empty ramen bowl. "Whis."

"Yes, Lord Beerus?"

"I want another bowl."

Whis smiled. "Of course."

"And don't tell Bardock about this conversation!"

Whis glanced towards the valley, where Bardock had just begun another sequence of movements, each one controlled, deliberate and almost unnervingly graceful for someone carrying enough latent power to make the distinction between mountain and dust entirely academic.

"I suspect," Whis said softly, "that Bardock already knows more than you think."

Beerus followed his gaze. For the briefest moment, Bardock's head tilted upward. His eyes opened. Even at that distance, Whis could see the faintest suggestion of a smile. Or rather a smirk. The Saiyan had become considerably more sassy since his fraternising with Whis's younger sister. The trainee angel was rubbing off on him. Then the Saiyan returned to his training and Whis's own smile deepened.

Perhaps that was the most interesting thing of all. Bardock had never asked to be extraordinary. He had simply been born into circumstances that should not have been possible, and instead of allowing those circumstances to dictate what he became, he had spent his life deciding for himself. The universe might have produced him only once, but uniqueness alone was not what interested Whis. What mattered was that Bardock possessed the rarest quality Whis had encountered in a mortal: the ability to possess enough power to become almost anything, and still remain deeply curious about what it meant to be a person. That was a quality which could not be granted by any save for one of the wish-granting dragons, taught by an angel, or inherited through some ancient Saiyan mutation. It had to be chosen.

And Whis had a rather strong suspicion that destiny had not finished discovering what Bardock would choose, or where he wound end up.

-+-

-Kara Zor'El (Supergirl)-

Kara had never been hit quite like that, not since coming to Earth. The first blow had been almost insulting in its simplicity. There had been no flourish to it, no shouted declaration, no glowing fist or elaborate technique. Bardock had simply stepped into the space between them and struck her across the ribs with the heel of his palm, and Kara had discovered that the man possessed an understanding of force that was profoundly different from anything she had encountered before.

She'd then been thrown backwards through the roof of his unfinished house, and even as she recovered in the air, she had initially thought more about the fact that she had broken his new roof than about the fact that he had moved quickly enough to surprise her. That had changed when she had attacked him again. Now, several minutes later, the two of them were high above the countryside, moving so quickly that the landscape beneath them had become little more than streaks of green and brown, and Kara was beginning to understand why Batman had warned the Team not to engage him. She had dismissed that warning as excessive caution. She no longer did.

She drove both fists towards his chest, putting everything she had behind the blow, and Bardock twisted sideways by an angle so small that it seemed impossible he could have seen the attack coming. Her knuckles passed within centimetres of his shirt. He caught her wrist with one hand, turned with the momentum, and swung her around him like a weight attached to a rope. Kara tore herself free before he could throw her into the ground again, spun backwards through the air and came straight back at him, her cape snapping behind her in the wind.

She managed to connect this time. Her fist struck his cheek with enough force to produce a thunderclap that rolled across the countryside, and for the first time she saw his head move with the impact. She almost smiled. Then Bardock slowly turned his face back towards her. There was no blood, no swelling, not even an irritated expression. His eyes simply settled upon her with the quiet concentration of a martial artist studying a new technique.

"Better. Your attacks are getting better. Evidently, you're not used to fighting with your powers." he said, and before Kara could understand what he meant, his fist buried itself in her stomach.

The world disappeared. Kara shot backwards, travelling faster than she could consciously process, smashing through the upper branches of a forest before she managed to arrest herself. Trees exploded around her in a widening corridor, their trunks snapping beneath the pressure wave generated by her passage. She planted both feet against the earth and dragged herself to a stop, gouging two trenches through the soil that stretched for dozens of metres.

For a second she simply remained there, breathing hard, staring at the devastation around her. Her stomach hurt. That was the part that disturbed her. Kryptonians could be hurt. She knew that. Heat vision, magic, exotic weapons and beings with sufficient strength could all injure them according to Kal. But being hurt by a punch from a man who had barely seemed to move was something else entirely. Even with her senses, there were times she couldn't even see his arm move. Kara lifted her head and saw Bardock hovering in the distance, arms folded relaxedly not even breathing hard. The bastard looked bored.

She launched herself again. This time she did not give him the opportunity to dictate the rhythm. Kara accelerated until the air around her compressed into a shrieking cone, crossing the distance in less than a heartbeat and striking him with a succession of punches aimed at his face, throat, ribs and abdomen. Bardock moved between them with astonishing economy. He didn't dodge so much as refuse to occupy the places where her fists were going. One moment he was directly before her, and the next his torso had shifted by inches, her punch passing beside him while his elbow slipped beneath her guard. She blocked it. His knee followed, but she was ready for it as she caught that too. He smirked and twisted, using her own grip against her, and Kara suddenly found herself being thrown over his shoulder. She corrected in midair and flew straight back at him.

Their fists met and the collision detonated, the shockwave flattening the forest beneath them as the clouds above them parted. Kara felt the force travel all the way through her shoulders and down her spine as she was hurled away. She recovered almost immediately and shot back, catching Bardock across the jaw. This time she put enough strength into it to make him tumble several rotations before stopping himself. Kara followed with a second strike, then a third, and for several glorious seconds she actually managed to keep him on the defensive.

She hit his ribs, his stomach, his head, his shoulder. He caught the next punch. She drove her knee into his abdomen. He grunted, folding slightly as Kara seized the opportunity to slam both fists down against his back. Bardock plunged towards the ground. As she gave chase, he twisted before impact, one hand touching the earth, and used the ground as a pivot to launch himself upwards. His heel caught Kara beneath the chin. She flew back into the sky her vision flashing white.

She tumbled end over end before forcing herself upright, only to find Bardock already above her. He descended with his fist raised. She crossed her arms but his punch struck them and drove her downwards like a meteor. She tore through a rocky ridge, disappeared into the earth, and emerged from the opposite side of the mountain in a shower of stone. Before she could regain control, Bardock was beside her. He caught her by the shoulder and spun with her, then released her at an angle that sent her screaming across the sky. Kara smashed through another ridge and finally managed to grab hold of a stone outcrop. It tore free from the mountain in her hands. She threw it at him.

Bardock punched right through it. He looked at the enormous chunks of stone falling back down to earth. Kara could almost hear Batman's voice in her head. Do not test him.

"You're a quick learner. Still though, there's no spirit behind your moves." He looked up at her. "Too much time up in shiny towers?"

She charged anyway.

There was something humiliating about how often she managed to hit him only for the result to mean almost nothing. Kara was not inexperienced. She had fought, metahumans, monsters and aliens under supervision, and she had trained under Clark. She knew how to fight someone stronger than herself. She knew how to use speed, angles and momentum. She knew how to exploit an opening. Bardock simply seemed to understand the same things at a level she had never encountered. Worse, he appeared to be learning from every exchange. The first time she landed a clean punch, he absorbed it. The second time, he caught her wrist. The third time, he shifted before she even committed to the attack. It was as though each successful strike taught him something about her, while none of her attacks taught her anything except that hitting him hurt her knuckles.

She caught him again across the side of the head. Bardock's body spun. Kara followed immediately, grabbed his ankle and swung him downwards. He crashed into the earth hard enough to create a crater. Kara descended after him, fists clenched, determined to keep the advantage. She struck the crater with both hands. The ground erupted. Bardock vanished beneath tonnes of dirt and stone. Kara's eyes narrowed as she scanned the wreckage. Her Kryptonian senses could hear movement beneath the earth, but before she could locate him, the ground beneath her feet exploded upwards.

Bardock came through it like a missile. His shoulder struck her abdomen and carried her hundreds of metres into the air. Kara managed to wrap her arms around him, intending to slow him down, but he simply grabbed the back of her head and redirected their trajectory. They became a streak across the sky. Mountains blurred beneath them. Rivers became silver lines. Forests became green carpets. Kara tried to force herself free, striking at his ribs with one hand. Bardock took the blow without slowing.

"You know," he said conversationally, "you hit pretty hard."

Kara stared at him in disbelief. "You say that like it's a compliment."

"Because it is." Then he accelerated. Kara's stomach lurched.

They broke through the clouds and continued upward until the curvature of the Earth seemed faintly visible beyond the haze. Kara looked down and realised, with a growing sense of alarm, that they had crossed an enormous distance during their exchange. Bardock released her without warning. She flew away from him, stabilised herself, and turned back.

The sun was behind him. For one instant he was little more than a dark silhouette against the brilliance. Then he vanished and Kara's eyes widened. She spun around, searching everywhere for him. Her super-hearing caught the faint displacement of air behind her a fraction of a second before his hand closed around the back of her cape. He didn't yank her backwards. He simply used it to redirect her body, turning her sideways before releasing her. Kara twisted, regained control and immediately fired her heat vision. Twin beams crossed the distance between them. Bardock raised one hand. The red beams struck his palm and scattered around his body in glowing fragments. Kara stared.

"What the hell?"

Bardock looked at his palm. "Heat vision. Interesting. Not the most unusual power but it's practically your cousin's trademark." He looked back at her. "You know, it's my uncle's habit to drag out fights. I like to finish them quickly. But that's because most of the time, my so-called fights are beneath me. In this world however, there's so many new things to see, so many more things to learn."

She fired again. This time he moved. The beams carved through the clouds behind him, illuminating the sky with crimson light. Bardock dropped beneath them, rolled forward and accelerated. Kara met him head-on. Their fists collided, then their shoulders, elbows and knees. The exchange became so fast that neither could have followed it with ordinary eyes. Every impact created another thunderclap. Every missed blow became a weapon against the environment. Mountain faces were cracked by shockwaves. Hillsides collapsed. Trees were flattened in enormous radial patterns. Rivers burst from their banks as the air itself was violently displaced. Their battle carved scars into the Earth as he carried their fight further south into the colder regions.

And Kara found herself laughing despite everything. She couldn't help it for some reason. This was what fighting someone truly powerful felt like. This was what it felt like to cut loose without risking collateral damage. It was battle for survival. There was no room for hesitation. No room for embarrassment. No room for anything except instinct and survival. Bardock's expression remained almost serene throughout it, and that infuriated her. He wasn't angry, he wasn't afraid. He wasn't even particularly excited.

He was enjoying himself. She punched him, he punched her back harder, continuously scaling up the power. She kicked him. He caught her leg and slammed her into the side of a mountain. She tore herself free and drove him through the opposite ridge. He emerged from the rubble and struck her across the face. Kara's head snapped sideways. She turned back towards him. His expression hadn't changed.

"Are you having fun?" she demanded. "Is this a game to you?"

Bardock actually smiled. "A little. I'm beginning to wonder if this is all you've got. Because it falls far short of what I've seen from your cousin."

That answer infuriated her more than the punch. Kara accelerated until the world became a blur. She hit him repeatedly; her fourth haymaker caught him squarely in his chest but he barely moved now. The fifth struck his jaw and his head barely shifted. The sixth landed against his ribs and he didn't even grunt this time.

Kara followed with a spinning kick. Bardock caught her ankle and her stomach dropped as he swung her around twice and released her. Kara shot away, but she immediately changed direction and returned, driving both fists into his chest. Bardock's body finally moved backwards. Kara saw her chance and pursued. She struck him again, this time driving him farther back as she accelerated. Then he stopped as she put her all behind one final haymaker. He just lifted a finger and stopped her incoming fist completely, and she felt like an ordinary human must feel trying to punch a steel post as he cancelled out all her power with such a embarrassingly simple defence.

"That's enough now." He said as something in the air changed around him. "You have nothing more to offer."

Kara's instincts screamed. She barely managed to raise her arms before his counterattack landed. His first punch struck her forearm and broke right through her defences like an unstoppable object, landing squarely in her face. There was no wasted movement. She flew backwards, her vision filled with stars as she felt her nose feel like it was on fire. Her body careened through several mountains before she finally smashed into the side of an iceberg her body buried into the ice as she made a her-shaped impression in it.

Bardock followed, hovering in front of her as blood trickled down from her nostril.

"You know, you're a feisty one. A bombshell to boot. I think you and my girlfriend would get along quite well." He said with a smile that dropped the next moment as his expression hardened. He lifted his hand, his palm facing towards her as before her eyes, a sphere of green energy forming as electricity crackled around it. "I doubt this would kill you. But it should discourage you enough for me to deal with our uninvited spectators. I'm going to cut loose on them more than I have with you and if you get in the way, I might end up hurting you more than intended in the heat of battle."

"Bardock-" she began, but a beam erupted from that energy sphere, the blast drilling her body through the iceberg and onto land as her body bounced along the frozen ground before she rolled to a stop. The beam itself continued for kilometres, carving a glowing tunnel through layers of frozen earth before finally dissipating.

Silence returned. Bardock remained hovering above the area she landed in, her body aching like crazy. He lowered his hand then as the sky changed and a boom echoed across the ice. Bardock looked upwards and Kara's eyes opened beneath the layers of dirt and snow piled onto her to see several figures descending from the sky.

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Green Lanterns, the Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Shazam. The Justice League's heavy hitters and bug guns had arrived. Kara stared at them through the debris, bruised, exhausted and suddenly very aware of how badly she had ignored Clark's warning. Above her, Bardock looked from one member of the League to another, his expression considerably less amused.

Superman landed first. His boots touched the ice several dozen metres away, and the entire League spread out behind him. Batman stood slightly apart, already studying Bardock with the grim intensity Kara knew all too well. Wonder Woman had her sword sheathed but her hand close to it. John Stewart's ring was already glowing. Hal Jordan hovered several metres above the ground. Flash crouched low, ready to move. Shazam looked from Bardock to the enormous hole in the ice with an expression that suggested he had just realised exactly how much trouble they were all in. J'onn's eyes remained fixed on the Saiyan, his telepathic senses probing cautiously without attempting to force their way into Bardock's mind.

Superman looked at Bardock, then at the crater in which she lay. Then at the distant damage stretching across the Antarctic ice.

"Kara." There was worry in his voice, along with anger and disappointment. Kara slowly pushed herself to her palms.

"Kal…I'm sorry."

Superman closed his eyes for a moment before fixating on Bardock with an angry expression. Bardock simply hovered above them, arms behind his back as he stared back unperturbed. Batman spoke before they could escalate further.

"I told you not to engage him." The dark knight said in his gravelly voice. "You were explicitly ordered not to."

Kara floated upward, brushing ice from her suit as she joined them. "I know."

"And yet you came here alone. And you fought him across half the planet." Batman glanced at Bardock. "The Team had explicit instructions not to engage. What made you think you were an exception the rule?"

"Not to interrupt the disciplinary hearing or anything." Hal interjected as he kept his eye on the Saiyan. "But I think we have bigger problems right now."

Bardock shrugged his shoulders a little. "She started it. She blew in my new roof after I spent days of meticulous time and detail on it. I had to hand make those slates you know."

Superman stepped forward. "Bardock."

The Saiyan's attention shifted to him immediately. The atmosphere changed. Kara felt it as did everyone else. Bardock's relaxed posture remained, but the faint amusement disappeared from his face. His eyes moved across the assembled League, taking in every person, every stance, every source of energy. He had already fought Kara for what felt like hours. Yet somehow, he looked more alert now than he had at any point during their battle. The air around him felt heavy, and getting heavier as if something was building up, waiting to be unleashed.

Superman raised both hands slightly. "We're not here to fight you."

Bardock looked at him for several seconds. Then his gaze moved towards their entire assembly.

"Could have fooled me. If you were here to negotiate, you wouldn't have brought out all your most visually striking personnel for me, who are right now in battle stances. Though I'm quite flattered that all of you felt the need to come and face me."

Batman didn't blink. Kara could see the calculation happening behind his eyes. Bardock then looked back at Superman.

"You're the one from the Watchtower. The one I hit. I've not spent my time on this Earth idly. They call you Superman, and word is that you're an alien, a Kryptonian to be precise."

"Yes."

Bardock nodded slowly. "Good. I can now put a name to your scent." He then surveyed them all, focusing on Shazam. "You. Your energy is strange. Beneath that pitiful attempt at a stoic face is a soul full of giddy excitement and eager anticipation, like a child in a god's body, judging by the divine energy hanging around you." Shazam tensed a little, looking like a kid caught looking through a window store. Bardock then looked at Wonder Woman. "Something's divine about you for sure. Perhaps a god somewhere in your lineage?" Diana just put a hand on her sword hilt as she narrowed her eyes.

Superman glanced at Kara and the devastation around them. Then back at Bardock. "Can we talk?"

Bardock looked down at the enormous hole he had just blasted Kara through before sighing. "I suppose we could. Before you start, someone is paying for my roof."

Kara blinked as all eyes seemed to turn to her. Well, Batman was already staring at her. Superman just sighed and the daughter of Zor-El found herself wondering whether the ruined roof might actually have been the cheapest consequence of the evening.

"Dude, did you seriously duke it out with Supergirl and carve a natural disaster through the Indian ocean just because she broke your roof?" Shazam raised a brow.

"We Saiyans take pride in the things we invest our time and effort in, dude." Bardock grunted. "Even if my people are known for being fickle and violently impulsive, my enactment of much needed discipline on that blonde brat was completely justified! How would you feel if somebody crash landed into your safe space and sanctum instead of just doing the normal thing and knocking on the front door?!"

"I'm not a brat!" Supergirl shouted. "And police don't knock on the door to arrest a criminal, they kick the door in! I just decided to go through your roof to make a point."

"A point you weren't authorized to make." Batman said sternly. "There will be serious discussion about your insubordination when this is over."

"Who are you to order me?" Kara asked, her immaculate brow creased into a frown.

"Stop arguing Kara." Wonder Woman said before looking towards the Saiyan. "I recognise a fellow warrior when I see one. Can we not put an end to hostilities here? Regardless of our disagreement with your conduct since arriving on this Earth, I don't think a brawl is the solution to this mishandling."

"Oh, but that would be a waste of an opportunity would it not, godling?" Bardock said before opening his arms in a gesture to their surroundings. "Why do you think I guided the situation to this ice continent, one uninhabited by people for the most part? I don't sense any scientist encampments anywhere near here either. Meaning we can cut loose without worrying about collateral damage."

"…You're not saying you want to fight, right?" Hal asked, his ring glowing a little brighter. "The odds aren't in your favour buddy. It's like nine of us against you."

"More like eight." Bardock smiled. "I don't think the one in the Halloween costume will be able to participate much."

"You don't seem the type to fight needlessly." Batman said. "You were open to peaceful discussion before. What changed?"

"What changed is that one of you challenged a Saiyan warrior to a fight and left him unsatisfied." Bardock said as the air around him started to grow heavy, a bright transparent aura forming around him as everyone's hairs stood on end, instinctually feeling in their guts a sudden build-up of power around the Saiyan. Around them all, snow, bits of ice and small rocks began to levitate as the earth began to shake.

"What the hell is that?" Hal asked in a low voice as the very air seemed to tremble along with the ground. "It's like the continent itself is shaking! What's he doing?"

"The continent? More like the planet." Shazam retorted as bits of lightning began to crackle around his fingers, an instinctive response to another overwhelming power. "It's like he's powering up or something."

"But is that really enough to cause this?" Flash asked as he tried to keep his footing. If this continued, he would be the most effected. He needed the ground to run, and it would be difficult to do so if the Saiyan was going out of his way to make the ground shake.

"When I came to this world…" Bardock continued, "I was exhausted and wounded, a shadow of my true self. But now, I have recovered and my body is in perfect health. Even if I am still having complications regarding my full output, I am more than able to fight. And I have an itch that the blonde one couldn't scratch. So how about you be gracious hosts to your guest, and provide him with entertainment to go with all the delicious foods he's been indulging in here?"

"Wait, so you really were emptying restaurant stock all on your own across Japan?" Flash asked. "That's some crazy appetite. I didn't believe them when they said your metabolism was crazy."

"Be assured that the venerable owners were well compensated for their troubles." Bardock said as the wind started to pick up around him, the glow of his aura becoming brighter by the second. "I understand this is the last thing many of you want. Perhaps I am being unreasonable. But I've not had a fight in a while, nor have I remained idle. I've researched all of you, and seen what you're capable of. It's gotten me curious. And there are few better ways to get to know someone than to fight them. This confrontation may or may not have been inevitable, but I believe we should expedite it. We can talk afterwards."

"You really just want to fight?" J'onn asked. "I don't see any malice on your face, which means you're doing this just for the sake of it."

"Stop trying to slither into my mind greenie. You're no more subtle than the other one." Bardock chided the Martian. "And to answer your question, yes. Something you should keep in mind about my kind. Look at it this way. I want to get to know you, through good old-fashioned fisticuffs. Perhaps actual combat will help me find a way to deal with these roadblocks to regaining my full power…AND BREAK THROUGH THEM!"

His last words ended in something more of a roar than shout. The atmosphere around him exploded as his aura burst into a transparent, raging inferno that swallowed the area around him. Powerful gales ripped through the environment, blowing away the clouds and the snow as tidal waves were created on the sea, pushing entire icebergs away. What was ensuing made hurricanes look tame as the ones with super strength clung to their comrades to prevent them from being blown away too. Even still, their feet dug into the ground, digging trenches as the pressure forced them back.

"This is unbelievable." Diana said from behind her shield which she had thrown up in front of her comrades, creating a small pocket of tamer conditions as the shockwaves were deflected around the divine artefact. "We've faced opponents who've used energy based powers before but nothing like this."

"That's an other-universal creature for you." John said as he and lantern tried to keep up their own shield constructs that were constantly threatening to crack apart. "Is there no avoiding this?"

"No. He's made his intentions very clear." Batman said as Superman braced him, his cape billowing out behind him. "The only way out of this is to defeat him. Prepare to engage."

"What do you think we're doing?" Flash asked as the environment became calm again.

Looking back to the Saiyan, they found him enveloped in what looked like an aura of transparent flames, his hair flowing around his head. As he unclenched his fists, the aura dropped and he opened his eyes. Taking in a deep inhale, he let out all the air in a long sigh.

"It feels good to finally let go. Keeping it all bottled up gets tiring after a time. I can just feel the tension all gone now. Now then…" Casting his gaze on them. "I've never been one to not give my opponents a chance to back out of a fight. So a little demonstration after our opening act is in order."

Lifting a finger, the League watched as a ball of green energy formed at the tip, growing in intensity as Bardock charged up for a few seconds before firing a thin beam, akin to a small green laser that blasted right past them. An explosion behind them lit up the area bright enough to cast shadows in front of them and make the sky turn dark briefly.

After it died down and they turned back, they were greeted by the mountain they'd put to their backs…a glowing hole punched right through it as molten rock dripped and burnt inside, ice melting and creating avalanches down its sides as smoke wafted out of the hole. The League stood there for a few seconds before turning to the Saiyan. The message was sent; a point had been made. But nothing they'd back down from. For they were the defenders of Earth. This was far from the most impressive feat they'd seen, but the casual manner in which it was executed spoke volumes.

This foe of theirs, was in a unique league of his own.

"You didn't run. Good." Bardock said, grinning as they got into their stances. "Let's begin."

-+-

-General POV-

Shazam moved first. There was no warning beyond the sudden change in his posture, no shouted declaration or dramatic gathering of power. One moment he was standing among the League, the next he was a streak of red and gold crossing the Antarctic air, cape snapping violently behind him as he accelerated towards the Saiyan. The distance between them vanished almost immediately, the frozen landscape below becoming nothing more than a blurred smear of white and blue.

Billy had fought creatures that could move faster than most people could think, and he had learned that the first moments of a battle often mattered more than anything else. If you could seize the initiative, you could force an opponent to react instead of allowing them to dictate the engagement. He had intended to do exactly that. Bardock simply disappeared.

Shazam's eyes widened as the world seemed to slow around him. It was not actually slowing; his own senses were simply struggling to reconcile what had happened with what should have been possible. The Saiyan had been several dozen metres away, and now he was directly in front of him, standing in the path of his charge with one hand already raised. Billy barely had time to register the dark eyes staring into his own before Bardock caught his extended fist. The Saiyan's fingers closed around it with terrifying precision, and then he twisted. Something in Shazam's wrist clicked loudly enough for him to hear it over the roar of the wind, pain shooting up his arm as Bardock turned his body with the motion and used the momentum of Shazam's own flight against him. The sudden fear that seized Billy was primitive and immediate. He had not even seen the man move.

Bardock released his wrist only to kick him in the ribs. The blow folded Shazam around it and sent him flying sideways, but before he had travelled more than a few hundred metres Bardock vanished again. A faint displacement of air was the only warning before another kick struck him from the opposite direction. Billy was redirected across the sky like a ball being struck between invisible walls, each impact coming from a different angle as Bardock teleported repeatedly, appearing just long enough to land another precise strike before disappearing again.

The attacks were not random. Every kick controlled Shazam's trajectory, preventing him from recovering his balance while simultaneously driving him lower towards the earth. Bardock appeared above him one final time, turned his body and brought both feet down against Billy's chest. The force drove him from the sky like a meteor, and the ground erupted when he struck it, ice and rock exploding outward as a crater several dozen metres across swallowed him.

The two Green Lanterns reacted almost simultaneously. John Stewart and Hal Jordan thrust their hands forward, rings blazing as emerald constructs formed around Bardock from opposite sides. The constructs were not simple cages. They were layered spheres of hardened energy, each one reinforced by the rings' power and shaped to contain the Saiyan from every direction. The first shell closed around him, followed by the second, then a third layer forming around both in a desperate attempt to prevent him from escaping through any opening. For a fraction of a second, Bardock vanished behind a luminous green shell, and the League might have been forgiven for thinking they had finally managed to restrain him. Then a fist appeared against the inside of the construct.

The punch shattered everything. The first sphere burst apart like glass, the second collapsed under the pressure of the same strike and the third detonated in a wave of emerald fragments. Bardock emerged through the wreckage without slowing, his fist still extended, and collided with Superman before Clark could properly raise his guard. The impact produced an explosion of pressure rather than flame, a circular blast that ripped across the Antarctic surface and cracked the ground for miles. Great sheets of ice split apart. Snow was thrown into the sky in walls. Boulders were ripped from frozen earth and hurled into the distance as the two figures remained locked together at the centre of the devastation, each gripping the other's hand.

For several seconds, neither moved. Superman pushed, Bardock pushed back. The ground beneath their feet groaned under the pressure, cracks spreading outward through the ice like lightning. Clark's expression tightened as he gradually applied more of his immense strength, muscles tensing beneath the fabric of his suit as he attempted to overpower the Saiyan through sheer physical force. Bardock's boots dug deeper into the earth, but his expression remained almost conversational.

"I'll give you this," he said, his voice carrying clearly despite the gale. "In terms of raw strength, you've actually got me beat." Clark's eyes narrowed slightly at the admission, though there was little satisfaction in it. Bardock's grin widened. "Don't look so pleased with yourself though. Raw power isn't everything."

Superman pushed harder, and Bardock's feet slid backwards several metres, carving twin trenches through the frozen ground. Yet the Saiyan's eyes remained fixed on Clark with an almost analytical interest, as though he were examining an unusual martial arts problem rather than fighting one of Earth's most powerful defenders.

"Your technique, though..." Bardock continued, shifting his grip. "Leaves rather a lot to be desired. As does your striking power." Clark's brow furrowed. Bardock suddenly pulled their locked arms towards himself and drove his forehead into Superman's face. The crack of the headbutt was drowned by the resulting shockwave, but Clark's head snapped backwards and his grip loosened for the briefest instant. Bardock immediately capitalised, driving a brutal kick into his abdomen that launched him upwards.

Clark shot into the sky. Bardock raised one hand beneath him and a sphere of green energy formed against his palm. The energy compressed almost instantly into a narrow beam that caught Superman in mid-flight and blasted him across the horizon. The beam tore through several enormous ice formations before finally dissipating, leaving a trail of steam and shattered snow hanging in the air. Bardock watched him go for half a second before his attention shifted back towards the rest of the League. There was no hesitation in his expression. He simply lifted both hands.

Hundreds of green spheres appeared around him. Then thousands. The sky seemed to fill with emerald stars. The first wave descended.

Ki blasts hammered the Antarctic landscape in rapid succession, each one exploding upon impact and throwing columns of ice, earth and snow hundreds of metres into the air. The League scattered as the bombardment intensified, enormous explosions rolling across the battlefield until the horizon seemed to flicker with green fire. Great sections of frozen ground were simply erased beneath the blasts, while distant cliffs collapsed under the repeated impacts. Bardock did not aim directly at any one member for long. Instead, he filled the battlefield with destruction and forced them to survive within it.

"This is crazy!" Hal shouted as his shield kept on being disintegrated by the explosions as he attempted to outfly the blasts. "How can he create so many?!"

"Focus on the fight!" John ordered as he carried himself in another shield.

Flash was the first to exploit the pattern. Barry Allen sprinted and he became a red streak weaving between explosions, moving so quickly that the individual blasts seemed almost stationary from his perspective. He slipped beneath one, ran along the side of another impact crater, jumped over a third and changed direction again before an explosion could catch him. Every movement was calculated, every footfall placed between the descending attacks. To an ordinary observer, it looked as though the battlefield had become a storm of green meteors and Barry was somehow moving through the gaps between them.

Bardock noticed. Barry suddenly changed direction and began running in a wide circle beneath him. His speed increased until the air itself began to twist. Snow lifted from the ground, followed by chunks of ice and loose rock as the circular movement created a rapidly intensifying vortex. The tornado expanded with every revolution, drawing more debris into its spiralling walls until it became a massive column of white and grey reaching towards the clouds. Bardock remained above it, hair and clothing whipping in the violent wind, and stared down at the phenomenon with something approaching amusement.

Then he shouted, his aura erupted. The transparent flames around his body expanded violently as he flexed, and the tornado simply came apart. The air pressure released in every direction, blasting the gathered snow and debris outward in a vast ring. Barry was thrown from his path, but Bardock was already moving. He dropped from the sky like a missile and drove his fist directly into the frozen ground. The resulting crater was enormous.

A shockwave raced across the landscape, spreading for miles and throwing walls of ice into the air. Barry was caught in it before he could regain his footing and was blasted backwards, tumbling helplessly across the snow before shooting over the edge of a cliff. His hands caught the lip at the last possible moment, his fingers digging into the ice as the rest of his body dangled over the freezing sea below. He looked down at the water, then back towards the battlefield, breathing heavily.

"Okay," Barry muttered through gritted teeth. "That was considerably worse than the tornado." He did not have time to climb back up just yet.

Shazam came back first. Billy grabbed Barry's arm and hauled him upwards, while Superman returned almost immediately afterwards, flying down through the lingering debris. The two powerhouses converged on Bardock together, intending to restrain him rather than simply trade blows. Bardock turned just as they arrived. Shazam came in from one side while Superman came from the other, their combined momentum enough to crack the ground beneath Bardock even before either made contact.

Bardock caught the first punch. He drove his other fist into Shazam's throat.

Billy recoiled, hands instinctively going to his neck, and Clark immediately stepped forward to compensate. Bardock turned and headbutted Superman before Clark could strike, then reached out and grabbed both men by the hair. Their heads collided with a brutal crack. Bardock released them only after the impact, spinning his body and kicking Superman sideways. Clark was launched through a wall of ice and into the face of a distant cliff, while Shazam was kicked in the opposite direction and disappeared into the sea in a tremendous splash.

Bardock did not even look behind him when Supergirl attacked. His arm swung backwards and his fist caught Kara squarely in the face. The blow stopped her attack immediately and sent her spinning head over heels through the air, her body becoming a blur of red, blue and gold as momentum carried her away from him.

Bardock's attention shifted almost instantly towards Martian Manhunter. J'onn flew straight through his extended fist as his body became intangible, the blow passing harmlessly through his chest. The Martian's expression remained focused as he pushed his telepathic abilities harder, attempting to breach the strange barriers surrounding Bardock's mind.

For the first time, Bardock's expression changed. He clapped his hands together, the resulting shockwave exploding outwards. J'onn was thrown backwards as though struck by an invisible wall, his body becoming briefly solid before he was hurled across the battlefield. Bardock immediately flew down towards the cliff where Superman had disappeared. Clark had barely recovered when the Saiyan appeared in front of him. Bardock punched him. Superman went through the cliff.

He tore through one layer of rock, then another, then another, the force of the punch carrying him straight through the mountain range until he burst from the opposite side in a storm of stone. The mountain shook behind him, and enormous sections of its face collapsed into the valleys below.

Bardock teleported again. This time he appeared directly before Wonder Woman. Diana barely raised her shield before his fist struck it. The impact drove her backwards across the ice, boots carving deep furrows through the frozen surface as her shield glowed with a faint green tinge. The divine artefact absorbed and dispersed a portion of the energy, but even so the force behind the strike nearly drove her from her feet. Diana dug in, shoulders braced, and then launched herself forwards, her sword flashing forwards with all the discipline and ferocity an Amazon could conjure.

Bardock just deftly caught the blade between two fingers. The motion was so casual that for a moment Diana could only stare. He twisted his fingers and flicked the sword aside, using her own momentum to lift her from the ground. Diana's feet left the ice as her body was carried forwards. Bardock turned with her and delivered a spinning kick directly into her abdomen. The air left her lungs.

Diana shot backwards across the ground, skidding violently through snow and ice before colliding with Supergirl, who had been flying towards the fight at that exact moment. The two women became tangled together as the impact sent them both tumbling into an enormous iceberg. The ice shattered around them, collapsing in a thunderous cascade that buried them beneath tonnes of broken blue-white ice.

A cluster of Batarangs came next. Bardock caught them without even looking. The small weapons stopped between his fingers, their mechanisms already primed. He turned his head towards Batman, who stood some distance away, cape snapping in the wind. Bruce had managed to survive the opening exchange by doing what Bruce Wayne always did best: remaining somewhere he was least likely to be noticed while everyone else was being thrown through mountains.

Bardock examined the Batarangs briefly. "How have you managed to survive this long?" he asked genuinely bewildered. "We're kind of terraforming here, so how are you not a bloody paste by now?"

Batman did not answer. Bardock sighed, seeing no answer coming his way and squeezed. The Batarangs crumpled in his hand before their explosives could detonate. He then flicked one finger towards Bruce. The resulting shockwave struck Batman in the stomach and sent him sprawling backwards across the ice. It was not remotely close to the sort of attack Bardock had used against Superman, but it was enough to leave Bruce gasping as he rolled to a stop.

Shazam returned. He came from above, fist extended, moving fast enough to crack the air around him. Bardock turned and caught the fist in his palm. The collision forced the ground behind Bardock to split apart, fractures racing through the ice as the two forces met. Bardock's feet remained planted. His free hand drove into Billy's stomach, fingers curling slightly as he twisted the strike into a short, vicious blow. Shazam screamed. Bardock followed with a punch to his face that launched him across the battlefield. Billy smashed through a ridge and disappeared behind a distant mountain in an explosion of snow and stone.

Barry attacked almost immediately afterwards. The Flash became a blur around Bardock, fists striking from every direction in a flurry so rapid that most of the League could barely follow the movement. Bardock simply stood there. Punch after punch landed against him, each one producing a dull impact, but his body barely moved. He looked down at Barry with one raised eyebrow as though genuinely puzzled by what the speedster thought he was accomplishing.

Then Bardock moved. Barry never saw the hand. One moment he was circling the Saiyan, and the next Bardock's finger was inside his mouth, hooked beneath his lower lip. Bardock pulled down sharply. Barry's legs flew upwards and his head slammed into the ground hard enough to crack the ice beneath him. Bardock released him before he could recover.

Diana attacked from behind. Her sword came down in a clean arc. Bardock caught it without turning. He twisted his wrist and sent her flying, releasing the blade only at the last moment so that Diana was carried backwards by her own momentum. Bardock immediately followed, crossing the distance in a burst of speed and striking her shield again. The impact drove her backwards. Before she could regain her footing, Bardock thrust his hand forwards and fired a concentrated green beam.

Diana raised her shield. The beam struck. The resulting force drove her boots through the earth as she braced behind the divine artefact, her muscles straining while the beam pushed her backwards metre after metre. The shield glowed brighter, dispersing the energy across its surface, but Bardock continued firing until Diana was forced almost to one knee.

Then something struck him from behind. Heat vision. Clark's red beams burned across Bardock's back, searing through his shirt and leaving scorched fabric fluttering away in the wind. The attack did not seriously injure him, but Bardock hissed sharply and looked down at the ruined remains of his clothing. His expression became deeply irritated.

"That was my shirt!" He disappeared.

Superman barely had time to react before Bardock appeared directly in front of him and delivered a tornado kick. The blow caught Clark across the side of the body and launched him backwards with such force that the air itself seemed to be dragged along with him. The shockwave ripped boulders and loose rocks from the ground, dragging them into the wake of Superman's flight as if the earth itself were being pulled towards the departing Kryptonian. Clark vanished into the distance beneath a cloud of debris.

For several moments, Bardock appeared almost untouchable.

He moved between attacks before they could connect, teleported around ranged assaults, redirected physical strikes and answered nearly every opening with a blow powerful enough to send one of the League's strongest members flying. Yet the battle was beginning to change. The League had stopped trying to fight him individually. They were adapting, communicating, and beginning to combine their abilities in ways that forced Bardock to respond to several threats at once.

It started with the Lanterns.

John and Hal stopped trying to contain Bardock and instead created barriers around the battlefield, forcing him into narrower lanes while Flash exploited the restrictions. J'onn attacked his concentration from outside his physical reach, probing his mind whenever Bardock's attention shifted. Diana began coordinating with Kara, using her shield to cover the Kryptonian's approach while Clark attacked from the opposite direction. Shazam rejoined the fight from above, lightning gathering around his body as he came screaming down towards the Saiyan. For the first time, Bardock was forced to block. Supergirl's fist struck his ribs. Superman hit him from the other side. The combined impact sent him skidding across the ground, and before he could recover Diana's shield slammed into his chest. Bardock caught the edge of it, but John Stewart's construct wrapped around his arm and Hal's followed around his legs. Bardock tore both constructs apart, but Shazam's lightning struck him at the same instant.

The explosion threw him backwards. He landed on one knee. A moment later, Superman was there and Clark's fist struck Bardock's jaw. The Saiyan was launched into the air, and Kara followed with another punch that sent him sideways. Bardock twisted, recovered and fired a beam at her, but J'onn phased through it while Flash dragged Kara out of its path. Diana's shield struck Bardock in the back. He spun and struck her, but Superman intercepted the blow with his forearm.

The fight became a storm.

For every attack Bardock answered, two more arrived. For every opponent he knocked away, another filled the space they left behind. The battlefield became increasingly difficult to recognise as Antarctica. Cliffs had been carved apart, icebergs had been shattered, valleys filled with craters and enormous chunks of rock had been thrown across the landscape. Green energy burned against the white horizon while red heat vision cut through the smoke and lightning illuminated the clouds above.

Bardock was still winning. But now he was being hurt.

A punch from Superman split his lip. Kara's fist bruised his ribs. Diana's shield left a deep ache across his shoulder, while Shazam's lightning crawled over his skin and forced him to grit his teeth. Even Flash's attacks, individually insufficient to move him, became dangerous when combined with the others. Bardock's breathing grew heavier. Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. The League noticed.

"Soften him up!" Superman shouted.

Bardock smiled through the blood. "Now you're learning."

Shazam descended again, lightning gathering around his body. This time Bardock did not move quickly enough. The bolt struck him squarely. His body convulsed as electricity tore across his muscles, and before he could retaliate the Kryptonians attacked together. Superman and Kara opened their mouths and unleashed their freezing breath. A cloud of supernatural cold enveloped Bardock, coating his body in ice almost instantly. His limbs locked beneath the frozen shell, and the temperature plummeted around him.

Shazam seized the opportunity. He grabbed Bardock around the waist and flew upwards. The frozen Saiyan was carried higher and higher until the battlefield became a distant smear beneath them. Billy looked down at him, then upward as the clouds gathered around the two of them.

"SHAZAM!!!"

Lightning answered. A massive bolt descended from the heavens and struck Bardock while he remained encased in ice. The entire sky flashed white. The thunder that followed rolled across the Antarctic continent like the sound of the world splitting apart. Bardock screamed. The ice shattered.

Shazam remained untouched because he had not called the lightning down upon himself, allowing him to retain his transformed state. He tightened his grip around Bardock and began flying forwards as fast as he could. Below them, Superman was already waiting. Billy released Bardock and Clark's fist came around in a full haymaker. It connected and the impact finally sent Bardock tumbling helplessly through the sky. Kara joined in, heat vision striking him from one direction while Superman's followed from another, red beams carving through his battered body as Shazam summoned another burst of lightning that struck him from above. Bardock's body convulsed through the combined assault before he was blasted downwards.

He hit the ocean and disappeared beneath the water. Silence followed. For several seconds, nobody moved.

The League remained suspended or standing across the ruined battlefield, breathing heavily. Diana's arm trembled behind her shield. Superman's face was bruised and bloodied. Kara had one hand against her ribs. Shazam's breathing was ragged, and Flash was still lying on the ground where Bardock had slammed him earlier. Even the Lanterns' constructs flickered with exhaustion.

They had done it. At least, for a few seconds, it appeared that way. Never before had a singular enemy been able to give them this much trouble, even in their coordination, and damage them so much. But as always, they'd managed to overcome the difficulty, overwhelm him and cut through his defences until every blow connected before they finally brought him down. After they caught a few moment's rest, they could go collect him and find suitable restraints to put him in.

.

.

.

Then the ground began to shake and the ocean changed.

Where Bardock had disappeared beneath the surface, the water began rotating. At first it was merely a circular current, but it accelerated rapidly, pulling the surrounding sea inward until an enormous whirlpool formed. The water descended towards its centre with increasing violence, waves being dragged into the vortex as the ocean seemed to collapse upon itself.

"What the hell..." Hal whispered.

The whirlpool accelerated. Then the eye turned green. A pillar of energy erupted from its centre. The ocean was blasted away. Water surged outward for miles in every direction, exposing the seabed beneath it as an enormous column of green energy tore into the sky. The force cleared the surrounding ocean so completely that the exposed floor of the sea stretched beneath the League, wet rock and ancient sediment steaming beneath the unnatural light. Waves were thrown back towards the horizon in towering walls.

Something moved below and Bardock emerged from the exposed seabed, levitating. Green energy surrounded his body. For several seconds he simply hung there, head bowed, steam rising from his battered form as water poured from his hair and clothing. His body was bruised, bleeding and covered in burns. His shirt was almost completely destroyed, leaving scorched fabric hanging from his shoulders and his pants had holes and tears in them. Yet something about his posture had changed.

His hands clenched, his head slowly rising. Then Bardock threw back his head and roared. The sound struck the League like a physical force. The air shook. The exposed seabed trembled. Clouds above the battlefield were torn apart as the roar rolled across the ocean, and the remaining ice formations vibrated beneath the pressure. Several members of the League instinctively braced themselves as the Saiyan's aura expanded violently around him.

Then his body changed. Muscle expanded across his frame in an instant, his shoulders becoming broader, his chest swelling as his already powerful physique became something far more imposing. His height increased until he towered over the form they had fought moments earlier, rising beyond seven feet as his body thickened with dense, almost monstrous musculature. His black hair stood upwards in thick, wild clusters, and his eyes opened with an intense amber glow that seemed almost molten against his bruised face.

The green aura surrounding him intensified. Bardock looked down at his hands. He flexed his fingers. Energy flowed through him, dense and indomitable. Not perfectly, not yet. But so much better than before…

He could feel the pathways inside his body beginning to settle into alignment, damaged channels reconnecting as his body adapted to the punishment it had endured. The battle had forced him to circulate energy continuously. Every impact had demanded reinforcement. Every teleportation had demanded control. Every blast had required him to force energy through pathways that had previously refused to cooperate with him since crossing into this universe.

And now, at the point where the League had finally managed to overwhelm him, something had clicked. Bardock laughed. It was not a mocking laugh. It was delighted laughter, a cacophony of joy filled cackles as his eyes gleamed in elated mania.

"Ohhhh..." he breathed, staring at his hands as energy crawled across his fingers. "So that's what I was missing." The League watched in stunned silence. Bardock's smile slowly widened. "All this time, I've been trying to force my energy back into the shape it had before I came here." He rolled one shoulder, feeling the damaged muscles move beneath the skin. "But that's not what this place wants from me. The pathways aren't broken. They're adjusting." His eyes lifted towards the battered League. The amber glow within them intensified. "And fighting you has been helping."

The statement was almost cheerful. That was perhaps the most frightening part.

Bardock stretched his neck from one side to the other, joints clicking softly as his body settled into its new state. The green aura rose around him in thick flames, responding to every movement. He looked stronger than before, not merely because his muscles had expanded or because his transformation had returned, but because something fundamental had become more stable.

The Wrath form. It was back. The first in a long list of transformations Bardock had achieved.

Bardock looked over the ruined battlefield, taking in the shattered cliffs, broken ice, exposed seabed and distant wreckage of the mountains. His expression became one of quiet appreciation. He had come to this Earth damaged, restricted and unable to properly access the power that had once been second nature to him. He had spent weeks rebuilding himself through mundane work and small acts of combat, slowly rediscovering the pathways inside his body.

The League had just forced him to take another enormous step. He looked towards them.

"Well," Bardock said, his grin returning as he slowly clenched both fists. "I suppose the first act of our little melee is over."

The green aura surged. The earth trembled beneath him. And the League watched as all the open cuts and wounds closed, green energy shimmering over them as they did so, and all the bruising fading as the only evidence remaining of his injuries being scuff marks. Bardock lowered himself slightly in the air, eyes fixed upon the League as his transformed body radiated power that made the battered defenders of Earth instinctively brace themselves once again. If his Base form was strong, then his Wrath form felt invincible to them. Bardock grinned at them with genuine gratitude.

"It's time for round two."

-+-

(Grand Zeno's Palace)

The two Omni-Kings sat facing one another across a small table, their attention entirely occupied by the checkerboard between them. Neither seemed particularly interested in the enormous palace surrounding them, nor in the silent attendants standing at a respectful distance. One Zeno carefully moved a piece forward, then leaned over the board with exaggerated concentration while the other watched him suspiciously, small hands resting against the table. The guards remained perfectly still, as they always did, until the Grand Minister appeared before the pair in a quiet flash of light. Both Zenos immediately looked up, their expressions brightening at the sight of him.

"Hey!" one of them said happily, while the other pointed towards the board. "Look! We're playing checkers!"

"I can see that, Your Majesties," the Grand Minister replied with his usual composed smile. "Although I am afraid I must interrupt your game for a moment. There has been a development concerning the Breach."

Both Zenos straightened. Their attention was now entirely upon him, though one still kept a finger resting protectively against his checker piece. The Grand Minister explained that the rupture between their reality and the strange universe beyond it had continued to expand, and that several entities from the other side had already begun making their way through. Fortunately, he assured them, these beings were not presently beyond the capabilities of the Gods of Destruction, who were already dealing with those incursions. The greater concern was the Breach itself. Despite every effort, it continued to resist attempts at closure.

"I have also managed to establish contact with the authorities of the other reality," he continued. "Their governing divine beings refer to themselves as the Celestials, a divine family of angels as it would happen, though vastly different to myself and my own children. Their leader is an archangel known as Michael Demiurgos, who serves as the mouthpiece of their supreme deity. That being possesses many names, but the angels there address him as Father. One of his more widely recognised titles is The Presence."

"The Presence?" one Zeno repeated curiously.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The Grand Minister then explained that neither side had found a means of sealing the rupture, and that evidence increasingly suggested it had been created by catastrophic events occurring simultaneously on both sides of reality. Bardock and Demigra's residual energies were certainly present throughout the wound, but they were not solely responsible for its existence. "In other words," he said calmly, "the evidence does not support the conclusion that either of them created the Breach alone. They were caught at the centre of something considerably larger."

The Zenos listened quietly. When the Grand Minister finally told them that he had located Bardock on the other side and that preparations were already underway for him to briefly cross over and visit the Saiyan, both Omni-Kings immediately brightened.

"Tell Bardock we said hi!" one exclaimed.

"We miss him," the other added, his expression becoming slightly pouty. "He's our friend."

"Very much so," the Grand Minister agreed.

"And tell him to come back soon!"

"For hide and seek," the other Zeno added happily.

The Grand Minister inclined his head. "I shall be sure to tell him."

The two Omni-Kings smiled, apparently satisfied, before turning back towards their checkerboard.

"Oh! It's your turn."

"I know!"

The guards remained motionless as the game resumed, while the Grand Minister quietly departed to make preparations for his journey across the impossible wound between realities.