A.N. Webnovel is making my life hell, so I'm having to split this once very long chapter in two parts on this website because apparently the full chapter exceeds the word limit...when I know for a fact it doesn't!
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Chapter 6
-General POV-
The ocean did not remain displaced for long. Once the enormous column of green energy had ceased tearing into the heavens, gravity and the weight of the Antarctic sea began asserting themselves again, and water came rushing back towards the exposed seabed in walls that rose higher than mountains. The returning ocean was already breaking upon itself when Bardock remained suspended above it, his transformed body hanging effortlessly in the air while the green aura surrounding him continued to churn with enough force to keep the atmosphere in constant motion.
The winds generated by his presence screamed across the ruined continent, lifting enormous sheets of snow and ice into the sky and sending them spiralling into distant cloudbanks. His torn clothing fluttered violently around his body, but Bardock himself remained perfectly still, his amber eyes fixed upon the League. The transformation had altered more than his size. The sensation of his energy moving through him was fundamentally different now, no longer feeling like a vast reservoir trapped behind damaged gates, but like an ocean whose currents had finally found their proper channels.
Every breath drew power through his body, every heartbeat seemed to pulse it farther. He could feel the strength returning not as something newly acquired, but as something that had been waiting for him to remember how to reach it.
Shazam was the first to move. Billy Batson had spent the last several seconds hovering above the battlefield, staring at the transformed Saiyan with an expression that was difficult to reconcile with the confidence he had displayed earlier. Whatever else he might have been, Billy was still a young man carrying the power of ancient gods, and there was enough experience within him to understand when an opponent had crossed some invisible threshold.
Yet the League had no luxury of standing still and contemplating it. If they gave Bardock the initiative, there was no guarantee they would ever recover it.
Lightning flashed around Shazam's body as he accelerated, his fist drawing backwards as the magical strength of Hercules and the speed granted by Mercury propelled him towards Bardock. He crossed the distance between them in an instant and drove his fist directly into Bardock's face with enough force to flatten a mountain. The sound of the impact travelled across the sea like artillery, but Bardock's head did not move. His expression did not change. Shazam's knuckles simply appeared to have struck an immovable wall.
Bardock slowly turned his amber eyes towards him, and for one uncomfortable moment Billy seemed to realise that the entire force of his attack had accomplished absolutely nothing.
Bardock's fist moved before Shazam could withdraw his own. There was no elaborate technique to it, no glowing charge, no dramatic preparation, only a compact movement of the shoulder followed by a straight punch that struck Billy in the abdomen with such force that the young hero folded around it. The impact launched him backwards through the air, through one enormous glacier and then through another, pulverising thousands of tons of ancient ice as his body continued travelling long after the initial force had been delivered.
The glacier collapsed behind him in a thunderous avalanche, but Bardock was already moving again. His aura surged, and the space around him seemed to distort as he vanished. The League barely had time to react before he appeared amongst them. Superman caught the first blow intended for Hal, both of Clark's hands locking around Bardock's forearm as the Saiyan's punch drove him backwards through the air. Kara attacked from the side, her fist striking Bardock's ribs, while Diana came in from above with her shield raised and Shazam tore himself free from the glacier behind them.
For several seconds the four of them attacked together, their blows landing from different angles as Bardock turned through the middle of them, absorbing impacts that would have devastated lesser beings without giving ground. Then his elbow struck Kara beneath the ribs and sent her spinning away, while a backhand caught Superman across the jaw and hurled him towards a distant mountain range.
The battlefield became a moving catastrophe almost immediately. Bardock did not remain where the League expected him to be, and the difference between his previous fighting style and the one he displayed now was immediately apparent. Before, every movement had carried the careful restraint of a man consciously limiting his own strength. Now that restraint was still present, but it was no longer restricting his physical motion to the same degree. His body moved with the instinctive confidence of someone who had finally regained access to the machinery that had made him terrifying in the first place.
He pursued Superman across the ice, disappearing and reappearing between one heartbeat and the next, each arrival accompanied by a pressure wave that blasted snow from the surrounding peaks. Clark managed to block three punches before Bardock changed direction and kicked him sideways, sending him tearing through the side of a mountain. Kara attempted to intercept, only for Bardock to catch her wrist and use her own momentum to swing her through a massive ridge of ice. Diana descended upon him immediately afterwards, sword flashing as she attempted to force him away from the Kryptonians, and Bardock met her blade with his forearm before striking her shield with the heel of his palm. The resulting shockwave threw both of them apart, yet Bardock recovered first, and the expression on his face suggested that he was enjoying every second of rediscovering himself.
Farther from the main clash, Batman and Flash were having an entirely different kind of battle. Neither man could afford to remain where the fighting was occurring because the ground beneath them had ceased behaving like ground at all. Every time Bardock or one of the Kryptonians struck something, the resulting pressure fractured the ice sheets beneath their feet, and enormous sections of the continent were breaking apart and sliding towards the sea.
Bruce moved across the unstable terrain with the precision of someone who had survived impossible environments before, his experience scaling Tibetan mountains in his youth helping him here, but even he had difficulty predicting which section of ground would remain intact from one second to the next. Barry was moving faster, but speed could not solve the problem when entire cliffs were collapsing faster than he could establish a safe route.
"This is getting ridiculous," Barry called as a fissure opened beneath him and he accelerated sideways, barely reaching solid ice before the section he had occupied fell away into black water.
Batman landed several metres behind him, glanced towards the rapidly expanding fracture and then looked back towards the battle.
"Ridiculous stopped being an adequate description several minutes ago." Bruce replied, his voice controlled despite the circumstances. Another mountain collapsed in the distance, and the resulting wave of displaced snow swept towards them.
Barry stared at it for a moment before looking at Bruce. "You know, I was beginning to think you might have a plan."
Batman fired his grapnel towards a surviving ridge. "I have several. None of them involve fighting him now. Not like this."
That assessment proved increasingly correct. Batman could not meaningfully engage Bardock in this state or any state, and Barry's usual advantage was becoming difficult to exploit because there was no longer a stable battlefield from which to operate. The Flash could outrun virtually anything on Earth, but Bardock was not simply moving quickly. He was teleporting, appearing in places before Barry could account for his arrival, and the destructive radius surrounding each exchange was becoming so enormous that even the Speed Force could not make the collapsing continent convenient.
Bruce watched another mountain explode beneath a collision between Bardock and Superman and understood with growing unease that the Saiyan was not merely overpowering individuals. He was changing the environment simply by fighting within it. Every movement carried enough kinetic force to destroy structures. Every exchange displaced millions of tons of material. The Antarctic continent was ceasing to resemble a continent and becoming a battlefield shaped by the movements of beings who had long since surpassed anything the ordinary physical world had been designed to withstand.
Then Bardock opened his hand. The green light appeared so suddenly that even the Lanterns recognised the danger before the first projectile was released. Hundreds of spheres of compressed ki gathered around the Saiyan's body, each one no larger than a human fist, but each radiating enough energy to make the air vibrate. Hal's eyes widened.
"Everybody move!" he shouted, but Bardock had already swept his arm forwards. The first wave of ki blasts screamed across the battlefield, followed by another, then another, until the sky seemed to fill with green stars.
The projectiles struck mountains, glaciers, cliffs and exposed rock with devastating force, each impact producing an explosion that consumed everything around it. Bardock did not stop. He continued firing, thousands of blasts becoming tens of thousands as the green projectiles poured from his hands in a seemingly endless stream. Entire mountain ranges disappeared beneath the bombardment.
Valleys were carved open in seconds, frozen lakes evaporated into vast clouds of steam, and ancient rivers were ripped apart as blasts struck their channels and transformed ice into boiling water. The attack was not a single beam intended to overwhelm a target; it was an entire storm of concentrated destruction, and the horrifying part was that Bardock seemed to possess no concern whatsoever about exhausting himself.
The Lanterns attempted to answer with constructs, creating enormous walls and domes around themselves and the other heroes, but the green projectiles struck those barriers with such frequency that the constructs shook continuously under the punishment. John Stewart formed layered defensive structures beneath an advancing barrage while Hal created enormous reflective surfaces to redirect individual attacks away from the others.
Neither solution lasted. Bardock's ki was simply too abundant. Every time a construct shattered, another appeared. Every time a blast was redirected, ten more followed it. The Lanterns were accustomed to fighting enemies who possessed finite reserves, even when those reserves were extraordinary. They could measure expenditure, force an opponent to divide attention and eventually wait for fatigue. Bardock offered them none of those weaknesses.
He fired until mountains disappeared, then fired more. He fired while flying. He fired while exchanging punches with Superman. He fired backwards without looking as he kicked Shazam through a glacier. The green explosions illuminated the Antarctic sky so continuously that for moments the continent looked as though it had been submerged beneath a second, violent (green) sun.
"He's not slowing down." John said through the comms, his voice strained as he reinforced another construct.
Hal glanced towards Bardock, who had just released another wave of ki while simultaneously blocking a strike from Diana. "I noticed."
John's construct groaned beneath another impact. "No, I mean he's genuinely not slowing down. His output hasn't dropped."
Batman's voice came through the communication channel from somewhere near the edge of the collapsing battlefield. "Then stop treating this like an endurance fight." John hesitated before answering.
"What exactly would you suggest?"
Bruce's response came after only a brief pause. "We need to make him spend more energy than he can replenish."
Hal looked at the battlefield, then watched Bardock unleash another barrage so enormous that it transformed a distant ridge into a chain of expanding explosions. "I don't think we've established that such a limit exists." There was silence over the comms for a moment.
Then Batman answered quietly. "Neither have I."
Diana discovered the difference in Bardock's strength when she met him head-on. She had fought gods, monsters and beings whose power could challenge civilizations, and she understood better than most of the League what it meant to stand against something that possessed overwhelming physical strength. She planted her feet upon a fractured shelf of ice and raised her shield just as Bardock descended towards her. His fist struck the centre of the divine weapon with a sound that seemed to silence everything else for an instant.
Diana's boots dug trenches through the ice as the force travelled through her arms, shoulders and torso, and she felt the shield itself buckle beneath the impact. The weapon had been forged and gifted to her by gods, an instrument that had endured attacks from beings who could shatter ordinary matter as effortlessly as paper. Yet a crack appeared across its surface. Diana stared at it for the briefest fraction of a second in shock before Bardock struck again.
She brought the shield up in time, but the second impact sent her hurtling backwards through the remains of an ice shelf, and the divine metal groaned audibly beneath the strain. When Diana emerged from the wreckage, her expression had lost the confidence it had possessed earlier. She looked at the cracked shield in her hand and then back towards Bardock.
"That is not something my shield has done before."she said through the comms. "He just damaged an artefact of the gods. This foe…what in Hera's name is he?"
Bardock did not give her time to recover. He crossed the distance between them and met Diana in a clash that sent another pressure wave across the continent. She blocked his first punch, redirected his second and attempted to cut across his shoulder with her sword, but Bardock twisted around the blade and drove his knee into her abdomen. Diana managed to remain conscious, but the force launched her through several kilometres of ice before she crashed into a mountainside.
Bardock pursued her, but Superman intercepted him halfway there. Clark hit him from above, driving both of them down through a mountain, and the two disappeared beneath the surface in a cloud of pulverised stone. Kara followed them, then Shazam, and for several seconds the mountain itself became the centre of an underground battle whose shockwaves could be felt across the surrounding continent.
Huge slabs of rock were thrown into the air as Superman and Bardock emerged from one side, only for Kara to strike Bardock back into the mountain again. Shazam followed with a magical blow that drove the Saiyan through the opposite wall. Bardock emerged laughing, wiped a smear of blood from the corner of his mouth and immediately returned the attack with enough force to send all three of them scattering.
The Lanterns did not fare much better. John and Hal were attempting to reinforce a defensive position when Bardock appeared above them, his shadow briefly swallowing the light from the green constructs surrounding them. They looked up just in time to see him descend with both fists clenched. John threw up a reinforced barrier while Hal added three more layers behind it, but Bardock's strike drove the entire structure into the ground. The ice beneath them collapsed, and the two Lanterns were buried beneath a block of ice the size of a building as the surrounding shelf broke apart. Their constructs remained active, forming a glowing green shell beneath the weight, but the pressure pinned them in place.
"John?" Hal's voice crackled through the darkness.
"Still alive."
"That's encouraging." Hal sighed in relief.
"Don't get sentimental."
Hal pushed against the ice with a construct shaped like an enormous hand, attempting to create enough room for them to escape. Above them, another explosion shook the entire block. John grimaced.
"We need to get out before he hits this again." Hal looked upward through the green transparency.
"Agreed." Neither mentioned that they had no idea where the others were anymore.
Above the ruined continent, Superman finally stopped holding back. It was not a decision he made lightly. Even in battle, Clark's instinct was to protect the world around him, and Antarctica was still part of that world. After a lifetime of being careful about his strength, walking around like the world was made of cardboard, he had spent the entire confrontation unconsciously restricting himself, trying to strike Bardock without turning every exchange into a natural disaster.
But that restraint had become increasingly meaningless. Bardock was already tearing the continent apart simply by fighting, and Superman realised that continuing to limit himself might actually place the League in greater danger because it left him incapable of matching the Saiyan's acceleration. Clark rose through the clouds, his bruised face tightening as his eyes fixed upon Bardock.
"You wanted to know what I could really do." he said, hovering several metres away.
Bardock's amber eyes narrowed with interest. "I did. I was beginning to think this was the limit of what you could do. A fair bit more than your cousin but I was hoping you were hiding something."
Superman lowered his shoulders and allowed the final restraints he had placed upon himself to fall away. "Then stop assuming I've been fighting you at my limit."
Bardock's grin widened. "Now that sounds more interesting. Come at me Kryptonian. Let me see the power that gives hope to the people of this world!"
Superman disappeared. The collision happened high above the surface, and the resulting shockwave blew the clouds apart across a distance of hundreds of kilometres. Bardock and Clark struck one another simultaneously, their fists meeting between them with enough force to create a circular void in the atmosphere. The surrounding clouds were not merely pushed aside; they were annihilated, scattered so violently that the sky briefly became clear from horizon to horizon.
Bardock followed with another punch, Superman blocked it, and the two vanished through the air in a succession of impacts that sounded like thunderclaps occurring faster than the ear could follow. They tore across mountain ranges, each blow sending fragments of ice and stone into the atmosphere. Bardock caught Superman by the shoulder and hurled him through a cliff. Clark emerged almost immediately and drove his fist into Bardock's jaw, knocking the Saiyan backwards through three separate ridges before he stopped himself in midair. For a moment they simply stared at one another across the enormous distance they had created. Then both accelerated again.
Their next exchange drove them beneath the surface. Bardock punched Superman downwards, and Clark retaliated by reversing their momentum and driving the Saiyan through the Antarctic crust. Rock shattered around them as they descended deeper and deeper, their bodies moving through stone with the force of meteors. The temperature rose rapidly. Ice became rock, rock became fractured stone, and eventually the darkness around them was illuminated by the orange glow of magma. They burst into a cavern system deep beneath the continent, and the impact of their arrival caused enormous sections of the ceiling to collapse around them.
Superman struck Bardock through one cavern wall and into another, while Bardock caught Clark's arm and drove him through a column of ancient rock. The entire underground structure began collapsing. Magma surged through newly opened fractures as the supporting rock gave way. Bardock seemed completely unconcerned, driving Superman through another wall and tearing apart the geological structures that had held the cavern together for millennia. Every exchange removed another piece of the continent's foundations.
Clark realised with growing alarm that Bardock was not even breathing heavily. The Saiyan's hair whipped around his face as he emerged from a cloud of dust and steam, green energy crawling over his body. His expression was one of exhilaration rather than fatigue. Superman had unleashed enough power to destroy structures on a scale he normally spent enormous effort avoiding, yet Bardock continued to absorb his attacks and return them with equal enthusiasm.
There was something almost scholarly in the way the Saiyan fought, as though he were studying the limits of Superman's strength while simultaneously rediscovering his own. Bardock caught another punch and smiled, spitting out a small amount of blood into the magma.
"That's much better."
Superman's eyes narrowed. "You're enjoying this."
Bardock's answer was immediate. "Of course, I am! You're finally making me work. The greatest gift a Saiyan warrior can ask for is a powerful opponent. It is the driving force behind our very existence, the purpose for which blood flows through our veins!" He twisted Clark's arm, swung him around and released him through a wall of stone. "I've spent weeks fighting with half my body asleep. This feels like waking up!"
Their battle erupted back onto the surface in an explosion of stone. Superman emerged first, followed by Bardock, and the two flew directly through a mountain that happened to stand between them. The mountain did not survive the encounter. Its upper half was torn apart, sending a vast avalanche cascading down its sides. Bardock flew through the debris without slowing and slammed both fists into Superman's chest, sending him backwards through another ridge. Clark stopped himself and immediately charged again. Their fists met. The impact sent another shockwave racing across the land, and distant ice shelves fractured in response.
Neither gave ground. Superman struck Bardock's ribs, Bardock answered with a hook to the jaw, Clark drove a knee into Bardock's stomach, and the Saiyan responded by grabbing him around the waist and hurling him through the side of a plateau. They disappeared into a cloud of rock before emerging again, each still capable of continuing. Then the rest of the League returned.
Diana came first, shield still cracked but sword in hand. Kara followed from above, and Shazam descended behind them, lightning flashing across his body. Superman glanced towards the three approaching figures as Bardock turned his attention away from him for the briefest moment. There was no need for a lengthy command. They had been fighting together long enough to understand one another's movements, and after everything they had witnessed, they knew that individual attacks were no longer enough.
Diana accelerated first, forcing Bardock's attention towards her shield. Kara came from his blind side, Shazam from above, and Superman attacked from directly in front. Bardock blocked Diana's strike, caught Kara's wrist and twisted away from Shazam's descending fist, but Superman's punch struck him squarely in the chest. Bardock staggered for the first time in several seconds. Diana immediately struck his shoulder, Kara drove her fist into his side and Shazam hammered downwards. Bardock absorbed all three impacts before Superman seized the opening.
"Now!"
The four heroes struck together. Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Shazam landed their blows at almost exactly the same moment, their combined strength converging upon Bardock's abdomen in one catastrophic impact. For an instant, the Saiyan seemed to disappear inside the explosion of force. Then his body was launched backwards, tearing through the air and disappearing beneath the surface. He struck the ground so hard that an enormous depression formed across the Antarctic shelf, and the surrounding ice fractured in every direction. The four heroes remained hovering above the impact site, breathing heavily as the shockwave finally dissipated. Kara lowered her fists.
"Did we actually-"
"Don't!" Diana interrupted, her voice firm. "Do not assume anything."
Superman stared down into the crater. There was no movement. Shazam's lightning flickered around his body as he swallowed.
"She's right." Then the ground began glowing green.
Bardock rose from the crater. He emerged slowly at first, one hand pressed against the ground as he climbed from beneath the fractured ice. His expression was not angry. If anything, he looked thoughtful. He glanced at the four heroes hovering above him, then at the enormous crater surrounding him. Green energy began gathering around his body. It was not the concentrated glow of a conventional ki blast, nor the controlled beam he had used earlier. This energy accumulated around him in a sphere, beginning as something only a few metres across before expanding steadily outward. The air compressed around it. Snow lifted from the ground and began spiralling towards the growing mass. Rocks trembled, then rose into the air. The pressure increased with every second until the surrounding ice began cracking simply from being near it.
Superman looked towards the others. "Spread out."
Bardock raised both hands. The sphere of green energy continued growing. It became the size of a house, then a building, then something larger than the buildings they had left far behind on the mainland. The air screamed around it as its gravitational-like pressure crushed everything beneath it. Mountains surrounding the battlefield began shedding enormous sections of rock as the sphere expanded beyond their peaks. Bardock's aura merged with the weapon until it became difficult to distinguish between Saiyan and energy. The four heroes attempted to move away, but Bardock released the Planet Crusher before they could establish sufficient distance. The enormous mass of green energy descended towards them like a second moon.
"Move!" Superman shouted.
They moved. The Planet Crusher followed. The sphere slammed into the ground and the continent disappeared beneath the resulting pressure. Superman, Kara, Diana and Shazam attempted to resist it together, all four pushing against the enormous green mass as it descended. Their bodies strained under the pressure. Superman's boots dug into the ground. Kara screamed as she pushed with everything she possessed. Diana planted her cracked shield against the energy and tried to divert its force while Shazam summoned lightning through his body, attempting to reinforce his strength with divine power. Yet the Planet Crusher continued descending. It grew larger even as it pressed downwards, consuming more of the surrounding landscape as its energy expanded. The four heroes were driven into the earth until only their upper bodies remained visible.
"It's getting bigger!" Kara shouted.
"Thanks for stating the obvious Kara!" Superman answered.
The sphere continued expanding. The surrounding mountains vanished beneath it. For several seconds, the League managed to hold it back, their combined strength creating a shallow pocket beneath the descending mass. Then Bardock's aura surged. The Planet Crusher increased in size again, and the pressure became unbearable. Diana's shield groaned beneath her hands. Shazam's boots sank into the ground. Superman strained until every muscle in his body shook, yet the sphere continued descending. The land around them began collapsing inwards, enormous fissures opening beneath the weight as the Antarctic crust struggled to support something that was never meant to exist upon it. The Planet Crusher had become larger than the mountains around them, an immense green sphere whose surface distorted the air and whose pressure seemed to bend the landscape towards itself.
Bardock watched from above. His eyes burned amber as he continued feeding energy into the technique before clicking his fingers. The sphere exploded. There was no conventional sound at first. The sheer force of the detonation overwhelmed the atmosphere, and for a fraction of a second everything became white-green light. Then the shockwave arrived. Mountains were erased. Ice shelves disintegrated. Rock was thrown into the sky in enormous columns while the ground itself buckled beneath the explosion. The continent cracked open as the Planet Crusher's energy punched through layers of ancient rock, and the pressure released into the depths below. Magma surged upward through newly created fractures, erupting through the shattered surface in enormous geysers. Rivers of molten stone spilled across what had once been snow-covered ground. Ash and gas erupted from the wounds in the earth, filling the atmosphere with a blackening cloud that swallowed the daylight.
The Antarctic landscape became a hellscape. Lava geysers rose hundreds of metres into the air before collapsing into molten rivers. Ancient ice melted instantly, producing vast clouds of steam that collided with volcanic ash and transformed the atmosphere into a boiling mixture of darkness and red light. Earthquakes rippled through the continent in waves, causing mountains already damaged by the battle to collapse entirely. The ocean itself surged violently against the newly fractured coastline as enormous sections of land sank beneath the water. What had been a continent of white snow and blue ice was becoming a landscape of black rock, burning magma and poisonous clouds. Lightning flickered within the ash overhead, illuminated from beneath by the glow of the lava fields. The transformation was so complete that the sun itself seemed to have vanished.
For several moments, there was no sign of the four heroes. Then a green sphere rose from beneath the molten surface. Hal Jordan and John Stewart emerged with it, their combined constructs reinforced around the battered bodies of Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Shazam. The Lanterns had somehow reached them before the explosion had fully consumed the battlefield, using every reserve of willpower they possessed to construct a protective shell around the others. The sphere was scarred and flickering, its surface showing dozens of cracks where the Planet Crusher's energy had struck it.
Inside, the four heroes were barely recognisable compared with the figures who had entered the battle. Superman's uniform was torn across the chest and shoulders, his face blackened with soot and blood. Kara's suit had been shredded in several places, her hair scorched and her breathing visibly laboured. Diana's armour was battered, her cracked shield hanging from one arm as she struggled to remain upright. Shazam's uniform was torn and burned, lightning flickering weakly around his exhausted body.
Hal looked at them through the construct. "Everyone still alive?"
Superman forced himself upright. "Yes. Barely."
"That's not what I meant." Hal replied.
Diana looked towards him glaring, her breathing controlled despite the obvious damage she had suffered. "We are alive enough, Jordan."
John stared through the transparent green barrier towards the ruined landscape. "Then we should probably discuss the fact that the entire continent has become a volcano."
Barry's voice came through the comms from somewhere beyond the smoke. "I would like to formally point out that this was not my fault."
Batman answered immediately, the slightest hint of irritation colouring his voice. "Nobody thought it was."
"Thank you."
"I was actually going to blame Clark."
Superman glanced towards the comm device on Hal's construct. "Bruce."
"I said what I said. He baited you and you bit down."
"I thought you wanted to see if he could be exhausted!"
Kara gave a tired laugh at the argument, despite herself, but it died quickly when the ground beneath them began trembling again.
Diana looked towards the horizon. "Enough. We need to find him."
Shazam stared through the smoke. "After that?"
His voice carried something approaching disbelief. "We're still doing this?"
Superman looked towards the darkness beyond the Lantern barrier. "If we don't, he will eventually come looking for us."
John reinforced the construct around them. "And if he has enough energy left to do what he just did again?"
There was a long silence before Batman answered from somewhere in the smoke. "Then we have a larger problem than I estimated. This whole situation is unprecedented."
A green light appeared above them. At first it was little more than a glow behind the ash clouds. Then it became brighter. The clouds themselves began reflecting it, turning the volcanic darkness emerald. The temperature of the air changed as the pressure increased. Lava continued flowing across the ground below, but the molten rivers were slowly being illuminated by something brighter than their own glow. Superman looked upwards. Kara followed his gaze. Diana raised her shield despite the cracks running through it. Shazam's lightning began gathering instinctively around his body.
Bardock was there, staring down at them, unbothered and serene. He hovered above the volcanic wasteland, his arms hanging loosely at his sides as green energy poured from his body and filled the sky around him. The aura had grown beyond anything the League had seen earlier. It did not simply surround him; it dominated the atmosphere, rising into the clouds and washing the entire landscape in green light. The Saiyan's amber eyes burned through the darkness, and his enlarged frame seemed even more imposing against the enormous storm gathering behind him.
He had taken the full force of his own Planet Crusher's battlefield, yet there was no visible damage left upon him. The scuffs that had remained after his transformation were gone. His breathing was calm. His shoulders were relaxed. The energy surrounding him continued to rise. Superman stared upwards, and for perhaps the first time since the fight began, he felt something close to genuine uncertainty. Bardock looked down at them. His expression was one of pure exhilaration.
"You're still standing," he said, his voice carrying effortlessly through the storm despite the distance between them. "I was beginning to worry that I'd pushed things too far."
Diana tightened her grip around the cracked shield. "You destroyed half the battlefield."
Bardock glanced around at the volcanic landscape as though only now appreciating the scale of what he had done. Mountains had been reduced to broken silhouettes. Rivers of magma crossed the land where glaciers had stood. Black clouds obscured the heavens, illuminated from below by the red glow of the earth and above by the green radiance of his aura. His smile widened.
"I suppose I did."
Superman rose within the Lantern sphere. "You could have killed us."
Bardock's expression changed slightly. The delight remained, but there was a measure of seriousness beneath it now. "I know." He looked at the four battered heroes and then towards the Lanterns protecting them. "That's why I didn't."
John's eyes narrowed. "You call that restraint? This? You probably just melted the icecaps, and condemned half the word to drown."
Bardock looked down at him. "Unlikely. This continent is a little too big for that. At most Australia won't have anymore beaches." The answer was delivered so simply that nobody immediately responded. Bardock's aura continued to expand.
He rolled his shoulders, and the movement sent another wave of pressure across the battlefield. The volcanic ash clouds parted around him as though pushed aside by an invisible hand. His hair rose higher within the green flames surrounding him, and the energy pouring from his body became denser and brighter. The ground trembled beneath the sheer pressure of his presence. Far across the ruined landscape, enormous sections of rock broke apart and slid into rivers of lava. The ocean beyond the shattered coastline began churning violently.
Hal stared upwards. "He's powering up again."
John watched the readings produced by his ring and felt his expression harden. "He's not merely powering up."
Batman heard him. "Explain."
John hesitated. "His energy output is increasing."
"How much?"
"Continuously. On and on. It's like there's no limit to how much he can charge up."
Batman was silent. Barry finally reached the edge of the Lantern construct, his suit covered in ash and his breathing unusually heavy. He looked towards Bardock and then at the others.
"I think we've officially crossed the point where the words 'bad situation' aren't doing enough work."
Nobody disagreed. Above them, Bardock's grin returned. He lowered himself slightly, adopting a stance that was familiar to anyone who had fought him before, but now carried a different weight. His fists clenched. The aura surged. Green light flooded the volcanic landscape until even the lava seemed dim beside it.
The League prepared themselves. Bardock looked at each of them in turn, his gaze lingering upon Superman, then Diana, then Kara, then Shazam. He looked towards the Lanterns, towards Flash, and finally towards Batman standing at the edge of the ruined battlefield. There was no hatred in his eyes, nor any bloodlust that could be mistaken for murderous intent. What they saw instead was something considerably more complicated: the exhilaration of a martial artist who had finally remembered what his body was capable of doing, combined with the dangerous joy of a Saiyan whose natural restraint was being tested by an opponent worthy of demanding everything from him.
"I think," Bardock said, his voice almost conversational despite the storm surrounding him, "we're finally getting somewhere." The green aura erupted upwards. The volcanic clouds were blown apart. For an instant, the entire Antarctic sky became green. And beneath that impossible light, the battered League understood that the fight they had believed was ending had not even reached its true beginning. Looking over the expressions of his adversaries, Bardock's own became more thoughtful. "You all seem to be staring at me like I'm some villain, the kind that would throw an entire planet into cataclysm just so I can have a battlefield. Perhaps, I should show you all something, at least those amongst you that can survive."
"And what is that?" Billy rasped out as he felt some broken ribs move with his breathing.
"Just how merciful I've been."
-+-
{Intermission – Universe Seven}
Dinner at the Son household had never been a particularly quiet affair, although on most evenings the noise was of the pleasant sort: the scrape of chopsticks against bowls, the occasional clink of ceramic, Goten's half-muffled laughter whenever his father said something particularly stupid, and Chi-Chi's running commentary on the state of everyone's manners, appetites, posture, and general ability to remember that a dining table was not, in fact, a wrestling arena.
Tonight was no different in that respect, save for the fact that the food had disappeared with almost alarming efficiency. Goku sat with the satisfied expression of a man who had just conquered an especially difficult training session, one hand resting against his stomach while the other still held his chopsticks, and Goten was working diligently through the last of his rice while occasionally reaching across the table for something that had already been declared his father's portion.
Chi-Chi, meanwhile, had been clearing bowls almost continuously, stacking them beside one another with the practiced efficiency of someone who had spent decades feeding Saiyans and therefore regarded ordinary notions of portion control as little more than an amusing suggestion. It was only when she turned to collect another bowl that she noticed the empty chair behind the towering piles of dishes, its wooden back barely visible above the remains of dinner, and her expression changed. She looked at it for several seconds before slowly turning towards Goku.
"Where is Bardock?"
Goku stopped chewing. It was not a particularly impressive reaction, nor was it subtle, and Chi-Chi immediately recognised the look of a man whose brain had just discovered that it had wandered into a conversation for which it had not prepared. He swallowed, scratched the back of his head and glanced towards the empty chair as though the answer might somehow be written upon it.
"Uhhhhhh…" he began as he scratched his chin with his index, stretching the syllable for just long enough that Chi-Chi's eyes narrowed. "I'm not really sure."
The words had barely left his mouth before the pan beside the stove came sailing across the room. Goku's instincts saved him from the full force of the projectile, but only just; he ducked, and the pan struck the wall behind him with a metallic crash before dropping onto the floor. Goten stared at his father, then at his mother, and finally lowered his chopsticks with the weary resignation of someone who had witnessed this particular form of domestic warfare before.
"What do you mean, you don't know?!" Chi-Chi demanded, her hands planted firmly upon her hips. "That boy was supposed to come stay here after his mission, and you don't even know where your own nephew is? Goku, you are supposed to be a kind and considerate uncle to that boy, especially after everything he has been through. His own parents abandoned him in Hell, for heaven's sake, and somehow you're still managing to act like keeping track of him is an optional responsibility?!"
Goku raised both hands defensively, although his expression remained more sheepish than offended, because he knew perfectly well that arguing with Chi-Chi when she had reached this particular stage of indignation was about as productive as trying to punch a mountain into submission...for a normie that is.
"I didn't mean that I wasn't worried about him," he protested, glancing briefly towards Goten as though hoping his son might provide some assistance, only to find the younger Saiyan wisely concentrating upon his food. "Bardock's pretty tough, and he's usually travelling around with the Time Patrol anyway, so I figured he'd probably just be busy with something."
Chi-Chi's eyebrows rose so sharply that Goku immediately realised he had selected the wrong defence.
"Busy?" she repeated, her voice acquiring that dangerous softness that meant another lecture was imminent. "Of course he's busy. That doesn't mean you stop wondering where he is. You know what makes this even more ridiculous? Bardock was born and raised in Hell, Goku. Hell. He spent his childhood fighting monsters and surviving in a place where most people would have gone mad within a week, and somehow that boy grew up to be the gentlemanly, responsible one in this family. He comes here, helps with the chores without being asked, works on the farm with me, carries the heavy things, repairs whatever needs repairing, and when he's travelling through Earth he even takes the harvest into town and sells it for me. Meanwhile, I have two perfectly healthy Saiyans who were actually raised on Earth, and neither of them seems to understand that contributing to the family is supposed to be part of the arrangement."
Goten's mouth twitched as he tried not to laugh, because there was something deeply unfair about being included in a complaint that was obviously directed almost entirely at his father, although he also knew better than to draw attention to himself while Chi-Chi was in full flight. Goku, unfortunately, had never possessed quite the same survival instinct.
He leaned back in his chair and gave her a suspiciously thoughtful look before saying, "You know, Chi-Chi, now that you mention it, maybe that's the real reason you miss Bardock so much."
The silence that followed was immediate and profound, and Goten lowered his head towards his bowl in an attempt to conceal the grin spreading across his face. Chi-Chi's cheeks coloured.
"I do not miss him because he does the chores!" she snapped, grabbing another pan from beside the stove. Goku's eyes widened.
"I didn't say that was the only reason."
"Goku!" she shouted, and the pan went flying. This time he caught it, but only because he had learned from the previous projectile. Chi-Chi folded her arms and looked away with an embarrassed huff. "I'm simply being a normal, worried aunt. That's what family does when one of their own disappears for a mission and doesn't come home when expected. Bardock is family, and I happen to care about him, regardless of whether he helps me with the farm."
Goten finally looked up, his amusement fading as the conversation began to settle into something more serious. "Dad," he said quietly, "when was the last time you actually heard from him?"
Goku frowned and began rubbing his chin, genuinely thinking now rather than merely trying to escape Chi-Chi's anger. His expression changed as a memory surfaced, something Whis had mentioned in passing during one of his visits.
"Hmm. I think Whis said something about Bardock disappearing into some kind of rift."
Chi-Chi turned around sharply. "A rift?"
Goku nodded slowly. "Yeah. Something happened during a Time Patrol mission, I think. There was some kind of tear in space or reality, and Bardock got pulled through it. Whis didn't seem too worried at the time, but then again, Whis doesn't seem worried about much."
Goten's expression had become distinctly more concerned. "You mean Bardock could be stuck somewhere?"
Goku shrugged, although even he could hear the uncertainty in his own answer. "Maybe. But if anybody can survive getting thrown into some weird place, it's Bardock."
Goten looked towards the empty chair again, his fingers tightening slightly around his chopsticks. "I hope he's okay. He's always been really cool to me. Whenever he visits, he actually talks to me like I'm grown up instead of just treating me like another kid."
Chi-Chi's expression softened immediately at that, and she reached across the table to squeeze Goten's shoulder before returning to her seat. "He does that because he remembers what it was like to be alone." she said, her voice gentler now. "Bardock may have grown up differently from the rest of you, but he understands family very well. That's probably why he tries so hard to be there for everyone when he can. He knows what it means not to have anyone waiting for you when you come home."
Goku was quiet for a moment, and then his expression brightened with sudden enthusiasm as another thought occurred to him. "I wonder what kind of people he's fighting right now."
Chi-Chi looked at him suspiciously. "What?"
Goku's grin widened. "If Bardock's out there somewhere fighting strong opponents, maybe I should join the Time Patrol too. I mean, it sounds pretty exciting, and I'd get to travel through different timelines and meet powerful fighters, right? Besides, if Bardock's in trouble, it'd be good to have another Saiyan around."
Chi-Chi stared at him with an expression of such profound disbelief that even Goten knew what was coming. "Goku," she said slowly, "you are not turning Bardock being missing into an excuse for you to go gallivanting across history looking for strong people to fight."
Goku's smile faltered. "I wouldn't call it gallivanting."
Chi-Chi reached for another pan. Goten immediately began laughing. "Dad, you probably shouldn't keep talking."
Goku noticed the pan and raised both hands. "Okay, okay! I get it!"
Chi-Chi nevertheless threw it, and Goku ducked beneath it with a laugh as the pan sailed harmlessly over his head and clattered against the far wall.
"You already spend half your life training instead of helping around here," she continued, pointing accusingly at him as though the pan were still in her hand. "You disappear whenever someone stronger shows up, you leave the housework to everyone else, and now you want to join the Time Patrol so you can use protecting Bardock as an excuse to go charging through history looking for opponents! Do you know what Bardock does when he's here? He asks if I need anything before he goes training. He helps with the farm. He sells the produce. He checks on everyone. He actually knows that being strong doesn't mean you stop being part of a family!"
Goku scratched his cheek, looking genuinely chastened for perhaps three seconds before his smile returned. "So… you think Bardock's pretty responsible, huh?"
Chi-Chi sighed deeply, but despite herself, the corner of her mouth lifted. "Yes, Goku. He is. Now eat your dinner before it gets cold, and if Bardock doesn't come home soon, you'd better be the one calling Whis and finding out where he is."
Goku nodded, this time without argument, and reached for another bowl while Goten quietly smiled to himself. The empty chair remained where it had been throughout dinner, half-hidden behind the stacks of dishes, but it no longer felt quite as empty as it had a few minutes earlier. Chi-Chi kept glancing towards it whenever she thought nobody was watching, and Goku noticed, although for once he was sensible enough not to tease her about it.
Somewhere beyond their little home, beyond the familiar fields and mountains and ordinary rhythms of Earth, Bardock was apparently caught up in another impossible adventure, probably fighting something far stronger than anything sensible people should ever willingly approach. Yet here, at the Son household, there was still a place waiting for him at the table, a chair that nobody had moved and would not move until he returned.
In a family accustomed to resurrected friends, world-ending battles and warriors who routinely disappeared into distant corners of the universe, that small certainty mattered more than any of them would probably admit. Bardock had spent much of his existence without a home to return to, but whenever he came to this house, Chi-Chi made certain there was always a seat waiting for him. And whether Goku understood it or not, that was perhaps the simplest definition of family she could have given him.
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A.N. Continue on for part two.