DC: Don't Utter A Word

Chapter 194:

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[David Lance POV]

"Well, here goes nothing," I muttered, pulling the ring out of my clothes and on my finger. As things were now, I had nothing to lose, so why not bet it all?

As soon as I put the blue ring on, a wave of calmness rushed through me. It was so strange, so foreign, something I hadn't felt in a long time; I felt... safe. I was still angry, but it was different now; it was... refreshing.

The next second, the metamorphosis started as time seemed to freeze around me. The environment turned into something else entirely as I focused both power rings on myself and exerted control over every single cell within my body.

Forcing the regeneration to stop.

I could tell right away my control over the ring's power was limited, very limited. Not only was I not a Blue Lantern, but this ring already had an owner, meaning I was shackled to the very basics the blue ring could offer.

But that would have to do. So, without wasting any more time and hoping Brainiac hadn't prepared for this outcome, I combined the energy of both rings into one before shooting at the walls of my prison in a singular beam.

At first, the crystal-like walls of my cage resisted the attack, fighting against my attempt like they had done before, but just as I was about to stop, with my energy running low, I heard a crack, and before long, my beam was pushing through, melting the walls away like butter.

"It seems I have underestimated you," Brainiac spoke through some sort of speakers, his detached voice echoing through the place in a haunting manner. "I assure you, that's a mistake I won't repeat again."

"You won't be alive to have that opportunity again," I replied with a growl. Having said that, it was time to test if his entire ship was David-proof. So, taking a deep breath of relief at the fact my plan had worked, I took a step forward, and unchained I screamed. "Goodbye!"

What followed after that was a scene of utter destruction. One moment, everything was normal. The next, a massive explosion ripped through Brainiac's ship, leveling everything in its path and reducing it all to dust. The blast of my voice was so powerful that through both rings, I knew it could feel light years away, shaking planets outside my immediate reach.

When the dust finally settled, there was nothing left but the vast emptiness of space around me. It was as though my attack had erased all traces of Brainiac's existence.

If only that was that easy.

Just as nothing had been around me after my scream, in the blink of an eye, that void was filled, and I was now surrounded. By hundreds, no.. thousands of ships all identical to the one I had just destroyed, and in front of each ship, a brainiac stood, his face expressionless.

"Resistance is futile," All the Brainiacs said in unison. "Give up, and accept your purpose."

How to kill something without a body? A real body.

This wasn't looking good for me, not at all. I had never seen so many ships before, or Brainiacs for that matter, thousands of him. They were everywhere, an army of never-tiring machines controlled by a single mind.

I was rather confident I could fight him off for a long while, keeping the upper hand against his numbers and everything, perhaps not as long as I would be able to fight him in top conditions, but that wasn't the question right now, no, the real question was, would I tire before his resources ran out? or would his resources run out before I tired?

No matter how I looked at my situation, my only option right was to escape, if anything, in order to fight another day.

So, with a scream to act as a distraction, I collected the remaining energy from both of my rings before blasting out of sight at full speed. My destination, Apokolips.

Darkseid owed me a gift, one he had promised if I succeeded in killing Superman, and right now, that was an offer I intended to collect; I was in no room to be picky.

Besides, of all the beings in this universe, Darkseid was quite possibly the only one with enough resources to match Brainiac's.

I had the raw power, and of that, I had no doubt; I just didn't have the numbers to make this an easy challenge. There was such a thing as too many enemies.

[Hostile ships approaching you at high velocity. Collision imminent in 10 seconds.]

I heard the robotic voices of my rings alerting me, one in a calm, soft tone, the other fueled by rage. This wasn't good, not at all. The fact Brainiac was already on my tail and would reach me in ten seconds meant his ships flew faster than me.

How to escape an enemy when said enemy is faster than you? And has unquantifiable clones of itself to chase you down?

Grinding my teeth, I pondered over my situation, trying to formulate a plan to escape Brainiac before the former reached me, forcing me to engage in a battle I knew I had no hopes of winning right now when all of a sudden, a boom tube opened in front of me, a millimeter away from my face, sucking me in.

The entire scene had happened so fast and so suddenly that I didn't have time to question it or realize what was happening; I was simply... Whisked away to who knows where.

Passing through the boom tube at full speed, I crashed against a planet, almost reaching the core of the same before managing to come to a stop.

Looking at the hole I had created, thanks to my inability to stop my momentum at this sudden change of scene, I sighed. Besides almost destroying a planet by flying right through it, it seemed like I had been saved by someone, but by whom.

There were a few beings in the universe capable of using the boom tubes, Cyborg, Darkseid, and the New Gods of New Genesis.

I doubted Cyborg had any intentions of saving me, and the New Gods of New Genesis probably considered me an enemy thanks to my dealings with Darkseid, and if they didn't consider me an enemy, well, they had no reason to help me anyway.

Which left only one option, Darkseid.

But why?

It just didn't fit in his character at all to save me. In fact, from a purely strategic point of view, he would gain more by just letting me die.

Shaking my head, I decided to leave those questions for later. Right now, what I actually needed was to recover my energies, and in order to do that, I needed to find a safe place to do so.

"Rings, where am I?" I asked, looking around me.

[You are on planet X7892546837, sector 1487. This planet is currently inhabited by nothing more than microorganisms. According to the data, this planet hasn't been named because it will inevitably die along its sun in 1617.6 years. Leaving no room for sentient life to evolve or form.]

Taking note of that information, I started to fly out of the hole while looking through the rings and their respective databases for a safe place to recover before going to Apokolips. However, once I was out of the hole, those plans came to an abrupt end as I was met by no other than Granny Goodness herself and a few of her furies.

"It seems Granny was just in time to save you," Granny Goodness smiled in a sinister manner as she slowly walked towards me. "You have to take better care of yourself, if not for you, for Granny; after all, it would've made Granny very, very sad if you died, sweetie."

Rolling my eyes and clenching my fists, I snorted. "Why did you save me?"

Granny Goodness raised an eyebrow as if she was surprised I asked that question. "For the same reason, I do anything to make sure Darkseid's will is done."

Well, I suppose I won't have time to recover before meeting with Darkseid. I could easily defeat Granny and her furies, but I didn't want to risk getting on Darkseid's bad side, especially now I already had an enemy with a seemingly endless army to face; I didn't want to add another to that.