Chapter 5: Resolution

Conquest had been interrogating Creeper for close to three hours now, and Kira was getting bored. Kira-Zod and Libra were becoming very bored indeed. Inside the dungeon like room, Creeper hung from the ceiling by his feet and was bleeding from his nose, while one of his eyes was completely removed. Creeper had not given anything away that would assist the Enforcers.

Conquest snarled,

"I'll rip it out of you! Wait, maybe..."

The Dictator trailed off, then his eyes lit up,

"Try not to think of where the Rebels are hiding."

Creeper yelled,

"Wait, you're a..."

Before he could finish his sentence Kon-El ripped out Creeper's stomach with his bare hands. Kon-El looked into the one way window,

"I just thought of something."

Within the Hall of Victory, as Conquest called it, Arsenal walked admiring the various people and objects in the displays. But, there was one area that every single person was banned from entering, and Arsenal needed to get inside. He had long-ago discovered a deadly secret that could end Conquest's reign as Supreme King. Arsenal opened the door to the chambers of Conquest and entered the forbidden chambers.

Arsenal set off down a huge dark staircase.

Kon-El was on the screen of the single t.v. owned by the Rebels, addressing New Krypton,

"All Rebels you are being forced to turn yourselves in, I have your friend..."

The camera panned to a horrifying image, Creeper laying on the ground with broken fingers and an enormous number of bleeding cuts.

Kon-El's image had returned to the viewer,

"Now, if you want to see your friend again I would turn yourselves in. No harm will come to you if you turn yourselves in. You may call if you are a Rebel."

The phone was silent.

"Very well it seems you don't need your friend, then he execution will take place tomorrow."

Duke turned the t.v. off.

"Well if your done trying to mutiny, we can go save your friend."

Duke spoke to Tasmanian Devil who had just years before taken Batman, Bunker, Creeper, among others to start another group of Rebels, because he didn't think Duke's group could do anything, after Professor Zoom was killed.

Duke prepared his armor, inspired by the original Trickster his shell consisted of white body armor with green and orange polka dots covering it, the helmet covered his face with a dome with infrared capabilities. Duke's suit included razor sharp cards from his stint as the 2 of Spades in the Royal Flush Gang, and acid spray, super-glue, various Tasers, and other comedic weapons.

Tasmanian Devil didn't use armor he didn't need armor. After a blood ritual, this metahuman became a supreme sorcerer able to go into an animalistic state of rage. Tasmanian Devil scratched his hairy hide, black like the way he felt. His red eyes sent most people running, if the huge fangs and claws didn't do it first.

Bunker, as a tribute to his mentor, Batman wore a gray suit with black wings and a large stylized blue bat symbol on his chest. His arsenal included, psionic abilities, batarangs, a kryptonite ring, flame-retardant cape, a grappling hook, and a collection of bolas and hand-cuffs.

Barry Allen wore a red skin-tight outfit, and wore 5 rings allegedly holding the speed of the 5 Flashes, and brass knuckles. While his best friend, Congorilla wore nothing but his golden fur, and held two machine guns and a pistol. Prometheus wore a white cape, and a knight-style helmet, with a chest plate with various devices hidden in its bullet proof casings. Among his gadgetry, Prometheus had Kal-El to improve his superhuman abilities, a night-stick that multiplies momentum, discusses, and a large collection of knives. Kiz*Mis wore nothing but his tattoos, his natural abilities to drain energy allowed him to fight.

Duke addressed the ensemble of colorful characters,

"Do you know what we are fighting for?"

Congorilla answered,

"For Creeper, sir !"

Duke shook his head,

"We are fighting for everything! Our world has been under the control of that tyrant for too long! He killed Aqualad, everything on Atlantis, Kyle Rayner, Wally West..."

Barry winced, and started to tear up,

"That is why we fight, no one deserves to suffer so much!"

Libra spoke to his master,

"Lord El, why are you preparing for battle?"

The kryptonian looked down from his 6'4'' height at his servant,

"You really suppose that the Rebels won't try and rescue their 'friend'?"

Libra nodded his approval and he too prepared for war, it all ends here he thought.

Arsenal rubbed the mist that had formed over the glass of the display that he was looking at, and underneath that was a terrifying image, it was Conquest! But he seemed younger, and he was in a screaming pose. Wait, I've seen this guy before, Arsenal thought and then he heard someone step down from the final step of the staircase.

"That is Superboy."

Arsenal spun around to the source of the voice to see Fire sneering like a hunter with guaranteed prey,

"You were told that Conquest wasn't Superboy right? Oh yeah you weren't because you are a traitor!"

Fire sent two fireballs at the Archer who sent 3 arrows at his enemy. Fire blasted him with white flames, but he missed melting the ceiling partially. Arsenal hit him in the head with the bow. Arsenal sent a fire extinguisher arrow straight at Fire's chest. The resulting foam canceled out Fire's ability. Arsenal hit Fire in the face with a powerful right hook, not super powerful but it still hurt. Arsenal yelled,

"That's for the man you fried! Now tell me what you know!"

Fire chuckled,

"Couldn't you guess? After the Darkseid Invasion when Superman was killed the government realized they couldn't replace Superman with Superboy because he was only half-kryptonian. So they cloned him again, and created Conquest, but his cloning process was flawed, so Cadmus put him in a special chamber that was meant to increase his power. Conquest went rogue after the Plague. And the rest is history."

Arsenal replied,

"So if I pressed this button...?"

Fire yelled,

"NOOOOOO!"

But he was too late, even as the plume of infernal energy was blasted at the ceiling the button had been pushed.

At the exact same moment Arsenal pushed the button the ceiling came crashing down on his head, killing him. At light speed the machine realized the button had been pushed, and the glass was lifted and Superboy was thawed.

Superboy climbed out, and looked around, he spun around at super-speed and flew into the ceiling cleanly vibrating through the steel lined floor.

As the Imperialists prepared for battle, their legions were armed with weapons from crossbows to energy pistols.

Conquest wore his predecessor's S, with a black cape and red and black chest and leggings. Conquest's weapon of choice is the kryptonian energy blade. Hidden under his suit were various delicate circuitry that stimulated his cells, acting as a yellow sun. Kira-Zod's suit also acted as a yellow sun. Libra wore a black cloak and his spear of his own invention was his preferred weapon. Nightmare wore nothing, and used his telepathy to his advantage. Ten wore a low cut shirt with a stylized 10 on it. King wore a huge gown, stylized with a golden K, while Jack had a knight-like suit on with a black J on it. Fire was nowhere to be seen.

Conquest called out his servant on his absence,

"Where is the coward?! Has he not dealt with Arsenal yet?"

All of a sudden Fire came running and said hoarsely,

"Sorry sir, but during the battle I melted the floor slightly..."

"Think nothing of it, for you are here brother!"

Conquest said excitedly than spoke to King and Ten,

"King, you know what to do."

King handcuffed Ten and led her to a wagon.

Superboy had not seen the Sun in ten years, and he was sore. Kon-El sat in the center of the sun when suddenly he heard a scream.

Flying towards the sound, Connor Kent struck the ground with the force of a meteor shattering the asphalt beneath his feet.

In front of him, a confrontation was beginning to climax.

Conquest cried across the street,

"Give up now!"

Duke returned,

" As soon as we get Creeper back!"

Conquest spoke to his servant, King who wheeled the prisoner to the middle of the street then Conquest yelled,

"Now come and get it!"

Tasmanian Devil leapt straight in the air when in the same moment Kira-Zod melted the mystic with her well-known heat vision.

Duke cried out,

"Then it's war then!"

Duke throw his bottle of what appeared to be water into the mass of enemies in front of his forces, when the glass bottle shattered against the street, acid was splashed on everyone that wasn't a good guy. It only melted half of Jack's face, putting him out of the fight.

Barry Allen ran at speeds near the speed of light and blasted his opponent, King with a volley of fists and feet.

Kiz*Mis flew above the other fighters, taking on Kira-Zod. The kryptonian grappled with him until he latched onto her with both hands, and began his grim process of draining her life-force, but he stopped and just left her weakened, he had seen too much death,

"Do not kill them! That's what the difference between us and them is!"

Superboy at that moment realized who he was fighting for, he flew at speeds close to the Speed of Sound and punched one of the 'Imperialists' in the mouth, but his fist went straight through. This could be tough the Boy of Steel worried.

While others were fighting, Bunker had begun untying Creeper. The being pretending to be Creeper chuckled,

"Well, aren't you just a sweetie?"Then punched the hero in the face. Ten drove a knife into the back of Prometheus as he attempted to avenge his friend.

Congorilla was busy pounding the crap out of hundreds of Imperialist soldiers. Suddenly the gorilla's beautiful golden hair was set ablaze. The arsonist laughed evilly,

"Looks like the Rebellion's dead huh, Conquest?"

Conquest frowned at his servant.

Bunker recovered from the blow to his face just in time to see Ten looming over him, so he drove a strong kick to the girl, no older than ten, knocking her into the curb, putting her out of the fight, but not killing her.

Conquest cried to Fire,

"Kill that, Robin!"

Fire sneered and sent white fire-balls at the acrobat who dodged them and threw a large psionic brick at the meta, knocking him out. Just before he was trampled by the hundreds of soldiers that were recruited in his service. Bunker saw the legions and gasped.

King, Conquest, Libra, Nightmare, and their soldiers were the last of the Imperials, while the Rebels had Bunker, Barry Allen, Duke, Zauriel, Superboy, and Kiz*Mis who made up the rest of the fighters.

Conquest suddenly realized that his force was losing the war when he drove his sword through Duke. He looked around, he saw Zauriel tearing through a dozen of his men in a minute while Barry Allen knocked out nearly three times as many. Libra was fighting Bunker, the fight was currently at a stand-still, however Bunker was slowly gaining momentum. King stabbed at Barry who dodged the sword and kicked the villain furiously in the groin.

Conquest did something he should have done a long time ago,

"Cadmus, Doomsday is sanctioned."

Maria Waller had filled her mother's shoes quite nicely, and she had gotten Doomsday sanctioned.

The obese African-American woman called up her head pilot, Harold Jordan.

A thousand miles later, Harold Jordan dropped the cargo.

Suddenly, Conquest flew above the scuffles below him and smashed open the crate.

"Doomsday, kill the Rebels!"

Normally Doomsday would have said no, but Conquest had planted a chip in his brain, forcing the beast to be under Conquest's control.

Doomsday plowed through the battle-field, hitting Libra by accident, killing the New God. Doomsday punched at Superboy while Zauriel fought Nightmare, sword to talon. Nightmare took the form of a winged beast-man with the head of a lion to combat the Angel. Zauriel's flaming sword plowed through the creature, but the monster laughed, Zauriel was suddenly plucked from the ground and was getting constricted by a huge grey fist. Doomsday laughed,

"Kill puny wing-man!"

Superboy beat the Agent of Armageddon over and over again, but the creature seemed unaffected.

Kiz*Mis flew towards the cause of his own death, Conquest.

Conquest saw it coming and met Kiz*Mis head on. Kiz*Mis began draining Conquest's energy before the Dictator blasted him with heat vision. Kiz*Mis used his newfound strength to hit the kryptonian, bruising him. But the fight was nowhere near over.

Nightmare began fighting Bunker, who sent his trademark psionic bricks at the creature, brick after brick, the monster for the first time had been affected by something. Nightmare lunged at the teen who hit him with psionic boxing gloves. Nightmare lashed it's currently serpent body like a whip. Bunker began strangling the creature with psionic oven mitts. Nightmare lashed out but was dying , slowing down.

Doomsday cracked the Angel's ribs, but Kon-El had recovered from his earlier blow, and punched the beast with both fists like a missile traveling at Mach 28.

Doomsday survived and returned the blow with a hit of his own, sending the Boy of Steel about a mile into the air with an uppercut.

Zauriel finally grabbed his mystical sword, and cut Doomsday's hand off, escaping the deadly chokehold. Doomsday gave Zauriel a vicious head butt, knocking the hero out. Doomsday swung at the only thing he could see, Bunker.

Bunker had been fast enough to summon a purple brick wall to take the brunt of the blow, but he was still knocked into the remaining soldiers knocking all involved in the collision out cold.

Superboy flew down to be level with the 9ft tall behemoth of bone and grey skinned muscle. He unleashed a beam of heat straight into the monster's brain, just before the creature's fist impacted with Superboy's face.

Doomsday was lobotomized, all of the fighters were either dead or injured enough to stay down, so why would Superboy still be hearing sound of struggle? The Flash had been knocked out by one of the Imperialists and Superboy saw the cause of the noise, Kiz*Mis and Conquest, who seemed eerily familiar.

Superboy rushed over to the tussle and saw Kiz*Mis draining Conquest's power, but Conquest drove a powerful fist into the alien's chin,

"Get off my planet!"

Conquest grabbed Kiz*Mis' head and smashed it into the sidewalk, the sidewalk splintered beneath their feet. Conquest did this again and again, until all he had was a bloody pulp.

Superboy grabbed him, and flew with him into the upper atmosphere,

"Murderer! You pretended to be me! You're no Superman!"

Conquest grinned,

"I'm not even close to being a kryptonian, I am a clone of Lex Luthor, evolved to have super-strength and super speed far beyond any normal human! But there is one major difference between you and me, I can do this!"

Suddenly Superboy kept seeing the moment that had driven him to go to Cadmus in the first place, the Death of Superman. Over and over again Conquest telepathically sent the image into Superboy's mind. Conquest punched Superboy back into reality.

Superboy punched the clone over and over again.

"Why are you doing this? You could be using your powers to help people!"

Conquest punched the Boy of Steel with both fists,

"I am helping people, MYSELF!"

Superboy punched him in the chest then flew above him, pushing him straight downward,

"That is why you fail!"

Superboy smashed Conquest straight through the Castle. Conquest lay dying,

"You will never win. You don't have the drive ... you can't fix this world. There will never be peace again! There will never be another man as strong as me! You can't end anyone's suffering!"

Superboy nodded,

"Maybe not, but I can still end your Tyranny!"

And Conquest died and with him his empire perished, fearing the world would go on without him. Conquest realized that, even though he was more powerful than Superboy, somehow the clone had beaten him. But how? Conquest chuckled, he knew the one possibility.

He was fighting for his world. Conquest's last thought was the realization that the world deserved Connor.

The world would never, ever have to suffer like they did under Conquest's reign of terror. Not as long as Connor was around.