A New Era

On a planet hundreds of thousands of miles away. A planet consumed by fire and ruled through fear. One that has cost Earth many lives, and much despair. Heroes and villains alike cursed this planet's existence. But none dared to oppose it, or its leader. A god among gods. His royal blood bonded to this planet in a way that has become unbreakable. Very few dared step foot upon it's molten soil. And even less have enough courage to even stand in his presence. Apokolips. One word. A thousand meanings. A million souls claimed. But his presence remained unseen for almost a decade. As he planned in utter silence something far greater than a silly math problem. No. He planned a annihilation. And here, on this hell, Lord Darkseid revealed his intentions. Among thousands of millions of mindless soldiers. All thirsting and hungering for destruction. Some acted against each other, killing their fellow creations. Utter Chaos invoked by Lord Chaos himself.

But within his chambers, his stone-like skinned lips enjoyed a delicate beverage. One oh so sweet. He rarely did so. But with his plan coming to fruition, times called for celebration. And he chose to spend it with his most loyal of subjects. His bulky build filled his room with a certain demonic elegance. An Overlords presence accompanying a monsters aura. And his voice roared like never before. Filled with excessive pride and arrogance. His strongest pawn, a being of pure anger and power capable defeating one quite like himself.

"Purge," He groaned. "The time is nigh. We will destroy that which protect, and control the protected. To break a man, you must rid him of his shield. To do that, we ourselves, require a sword capable of doing such a task. And for that, I bestow upon you, your next mission. I gathered a list of powerful beings whose actions show your thirst and blood lust. Go to every planet necessary and gather our army. An army able of destroying the Universe's greatest heroes. And do not worry about those who are above man. They have little care in earth's affairs."

His servant covered in darkness opened his eyes. Glowing with a crimson fire that matched his flaming hair. His voice deep yet mysterious. Powerful and raw. Able to command both respect and fear. A presence of utter annihilation. With a darkness he answered...

"Yes, Lord Darkseid."

Back on Earth, a well known a criminal turned assassin, was jumping on the roof tops of Gotham City. For she was not hunting that night, she was running away. She knew that it was extremely bothersome to fail a mission. Tonight, she failed to kill her old time arch-nemesis, that is, Sarah Harpar, also known as Black Wing. She was chased by half of the city cops. "Not good, I knew today wasn't my lucky day!" exclaimed Veronica as she vaulted a wall, displaying her acrobatic prowess. Using her free running skills she quickly evaded every obstacle in her way and with her being extremely nimble on foot and escape artistry training she managed to befool the police but that was not end to her botheration. Actually, the police were one of the things she was least worried about. It could be said with her demeanor and expressions that she was not overtly fond of what was following her.

"For old times sake, leave me alone, you bitch!" shouted Veronica as she pulled one of her guns from her holster and with her masterful aiming skills, took a shot. Apparently, injuring a figure in shadows, supposingly a girl. Scaling tall buildings and after working out (sarcasm) for a while, she reached her safe house. Treating her wounds, and regaining her lost strength. She prayed for a miracle to occur, she was tired of being tailed off. She wanted to do something more than just chase people around, kill for money and steal. She knew, she was made for something more. Something, truly evil. She held her father's sword and said, "Father, I swear to you, I will make you proud. I will fulfill your ambitions! I will kill and slay every creep who wears a suit and calls themselves a hero! Then, I shall rule this planet!" The night was dark and cloudy, yet the moon just managed to sneak out, casting its pale lights which pierced through the fleecy clouds and reached the city.

The gods worked in mysterious ways. Those who prayed with their hearts received their desires. No matter how cold or cruel. The universe had little to no morals, and it existed in a constant state of chaos. Today, he would serve as their angel. Answering a prayer of a child. Distance from his home base to any planet became easier with his ring. Especially fully charge, cross galactic travel took mere minutes to reach point B. He absolutely hated retrieval missions. They wasted his time. A crimson falling star's purpose was not to retrieve but to crash and burn everything in its path. A unnatural phenomena of devastation. An energy capable of purging all that surrounded it. He especially hated earth, his home planet. One filled with infinite hope and annoying speeches of destiny, love and happiness. Those things exist, but they were lies. Only hatred and anger existed. Only red.

Suddenly, he crashed through his targets safe house. A cloud of smoke and dust covering his initial appearance. And in utter silence, awaited for things to calm. Falling debris. Cracking stone and even car alarms. A large hole appeared under his feet. Street lamps illuminated this alien figure. A red and black uniform with a demonic lantern symbol painted on his chest. His arms covered in a liquid blood red, leading to incredibly sharp claws. Flames roaring atop his head instead of hair, and white eyes burning like the sun. A mask covering to hide Daniel from The Purge. For years has he been Purge or Hotspot. No one lived to know his true name. He radiated a red aura of anger. Animals scurrying around became rampant. Loud barking, screeching. Beast attacking beast. All because of his sudden appearance. His aura died down after a short while.

"Veronica," His deep voice finally called out. "You're coming with me."

"What makes you think so, creep?" she questioned, as he hurled her sword with all her might towards the stranger, aiming for his chest. Without, wasting a breath, she reached for her dual guns, she turned of the safety mode and began shooting at the so called intruder. Changing her direction and with various mannerism to confuse her presumed enemy. She was both afraid and curious of the being, all she could discern was "it" was no human. She was starting to be instilled with the fear of unknown, the more she was afraid, the more shots she'd take at her enemy,

Using her innate ability to manipulate her opponents, senses, she tried to alter the humaniod like creature's sight, touch and sense of smell. Also, she tried to reduce his tolerance for pain, in order to make her attacks more effective. A trained assassin like her had no problems, formulating such plans. She took a foreign stance, with her left hand reaching for an unknown device, she was planning to bombard the creature to make sure, it would not survive.

The Purge expected resistance, and he reacted as such. His ring formed a European styled shield used by royalty. Something he once saw during his time as a regular Human. He spent summers travelling and learning about the world around New York City. Those experiences forged his imaginations. His constructs were nothing more than past sights brought to life. His shield deflected her sword, and grew larger to defend against bullets. But two slipped past and penetrated his arms. "AH!" He roared. A roar of a wild animal in total pain. What was that?! He thought quickly. ''Two bullets should never hurt as much as they did. I've taken much stronger blast....It felt like they ripped clean through my body.'' His shield weakened, forming massive cracks from her onslaught. And with every grazing bullets, his imagination broke further from the immense pain. But something started to burn inside his stomach. A deep fire of crimson hatred. Pain...Pain...Memories of that accident. Gasping for air. Watching the devil claw at their souls. Hatred burned his skin....

"Human? I've heard only human lanterns as Red Lanterns can form constructs, others are just mindless beasts!" She quoted. She didn't expect a human to hunt her or ask for her. "What do you want?" question, Veronica as she was amazed to see such a being with her own eyes. This was beyond, what she could ever imagine. Once, she thought to hurl the device at him but then, "Fine, you've proved yourself human lantern. What do you want and how do you know my name?" said Veronica as she looked at Daniel.

But Human or not, his instincts were filled with rage. As she calmed, his anger had already built. And like a pipe, it exploded. With a powerful roar, his hand pushed forward as if he reached to grab her heart and rip it from her chest. From his shield, a construct of a hand appeared and dashed at Veronica with great speed and power. A gigantic arm of crimson energy dashing at the source of his anger. Not only would it grab her, but push her through two walls before slamming her against the third. His rage burned like fire, creating a scorching sensation through his construct. One that would feel like Napalm and acid on Veronica. His low pain tolerance just boosted his anger. Increasing his power and decreasing his ability to think as a human.

"I...Will...Kill...You." The Purge groaned, Squeezing harder against her body. Sizzling flesh screaming loud. But he suddenly stopped. His Lord's voice ringing inside his head. His Lord wanted this girl...Alive. But when she served her purpose, Darkseid would surely feed her to him. So he tossed her against another wall, slowly approaching her body. "I am The Purge. And Lord Darkseid has requested you appearance. This is not an option, it is more of a demand." He got closer to her face. "And the next time you mention my humanity, I will show just how wrong you are."

She leaned and jumped back, performing a somersault. Then she activated her device and threw it right at his feet, the device had a timer on it, it was activated within three seconds. The device then demonstrated it's remarkable destructive prowess, destroying everything in vicinity. As, the gigantic sonic explosion occurred, Veronica tried to escape. However, with her being cautious just like the "Wayne", she set a multitude of traps in the way. She knew, that guy was a real monster, nothing more, nothing less. "Damn, the guy went all out!" Veronica thought to herself as she continued to run away. It seemed that, she had managed to grab an assault riffle before the building was destroyed.

Daniel realized his attack missed and caught sight of a small metallic device. Unaware of its purpose, he prepared a bubble of red lantern energy around himself. However, the increased damage weakened his construct greatly. The resulting blast sent him hurtling backwards, crashing through the falling building. His bubble the only line of defense protecting him from the crumbling concrete. But it gave way half way through. Causing an incredible amount of pain to his body. The building continued to fall around him as he tried to breath. The Pain made him angrier. Even if his body could not handle it, his anger could ignore his pain and continue fighting. But he had to relax. He had to calm down. He had to...If he killed her, Darkseid would be furious. She was important. Minutes passed of a settled silence....followed by a bright red flash and an even stronger roar.

Debris from her fallen building blasted in all direction as the crimson star started to levitate. Purge was covered in an aura of absolute anger and hatred. He wanted to kill her. His eyes glowed white with fury. From his ring, a giant Gatling gun formed. One of his more imaginative constructs. He was beyond words as it unleashed round after round of bullets towards Veronica. Enough force to take down a fleet of helicopters. He continued his barrage by creating a construct ontop of that construct which fired red lantern missiles twards her.

Veronica turned back and fired multiple shots from her riffle. Realizing, she could not battle him, not now. She spoke "Your master! He want's me, remember?" She knew, this was supposed to calm him down. Then she realized, she could increase his pain by 100, 000 times, if she wanted. Also, she could easily deaden all of his senses. She chose the later, she used her powers, to deaden all of her attackers senses, sense of touch, sight, taste, pain, etc. Everything was temporarily removed. Though, this could not harm him in anyway. However, she chose to keep his hearing intact so he could hear what she had to say. "DARKSEID" she shouted.

The one word strong enough to even stop HIM. Darkseid, the man who ruled his life and promised vengeance against that which caused him this cursed life of hatred and anger. The Purge stopped, calling back his heavy artillery which already caused enough damage to alert police officers an hour earlier. See, in such a blind rage, Purge already lacked sight. Everything was read. He only tasted anger. And felt nothing but blind rage. He calmed down and slowly descended. Trying his hardest to regain his consciousness. His power lit up a night sky for miles. "You are a strong human. But do not anger me again." He suddenly shot out his arm as a crimson bubble wrapped around her, protecting Veronica from police shots. "Come on." And with that he flew off into the night, brilliantly evading police fire.

Veronica was a bit scared, as she has never traveled inside a bubble made of energy. "You know, my mind is not like others. It's mostly digital, as such, I can download data from anywhere I want, anything I want. If you give me enough time to analyze your constructs, I maybe able to download that power too", said Veronica as she looked at Daniel's ring.