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He rocketed through the clouds, leaving a jetstream of black mist in his wake. He needed to intercept the women before they brought their prisoner to their Master.his Father. He would be damned if Supergirl-Prime and Donna DesTroy were going to gain more favour in his Father's eyes. He was the favoured one, and would always be as long as he had the power to make it so.

He was still weakened from the nuclear Kryptonite blast Mia Dearden, the now deceased Speedy, had unleashed on him with one of her pathetic trick arrows. He had just done what his Father had failed to do; kill Clark Kent; he had ended the former Superman's life moments before Mia's attack. Of course, Clark had not been Superman in quite some time. His Father had exposed Kent to Gold Kryptonite, robbing him of his powers permanently.

Mia's attack might have killed him before his Father had upgraded him, but now he was merely set back momentarily at best. On top of his normal superpowers of tactile telekinesis and other Kryptonian powers, he now also had the abilities his cyborg components endowed him with. He could control other machines and artificial intelligences, remaking them into forms that suited his needs.

His internal radar told him that the women were several hundred miles from his present course. He would intercept them in minutes. Even weakened, he was more than a match for them. Their prisoner would be his to present to his Father. Him, and the method by which the prisoner had gotten onto Earth through the Great Barrier erected around the planet by the Guardians of the Universe. If the prisoner was able to get on the planet, he could get off.and with that secret, the universe would fall to his Father's wishes, with the Cyborg-Superboy at his side.

He poured on the speed, breaking the sound barrier, moving to take his objective from the two hated women.

 

DC Infinity Proudly Presents

#3

"Power Play - Part Three"

By Mike Hintze

 

Axel Asher pulled his jacket closer to himself. The chill night was getting warmer as the sun rose. The Green Lantern-made clothing he wore was quite good against the elements, but Axel still felt a chill. The camp Kyle had made was gone, destroyed by the attacker that had tried to kill Axel himself. Axel had escaped certain death by jumping to another alternate Earth, but had returned to the same point he had left from. The land was a barren radioactive wasteland, and despite the growing heat, Axel knew he was in serious trouble. Kyle had been using his ring to 'scrub' the rads from Axel's cells, keeping him free of radioactive contamination. Kyle had gone on to scout the planet they had arrived on for signs of the Keepers of the Cluster, and had left a ring-erected camp for Axel to rest in. Now, that camp was gone, Kyle was out of communication and all Axel had to protect himself from the rads were the clothes on his back. He would wait for Kyle as long as possible, but soon he would have to jump to another world rather than risk dying from radiation sickness. If he did that, Kyle would be stranded and lost in the Multiverse. Kyle had the power to jump worlds with great strain, but he had no way of knowing where he was going. That was Axel's job. He and Kyle had been assigned the task of hunting and taking down the Keepers of the Cluster from destroying the Multiverse by taking down Prime Realities, universes that were essentially supports in the Multiversal web. Take enough of them out, and the Keepers could collapse the Multiverse, remaking it in their own images.

Axel sat on a small rock. If.no, when Kyle returned, they would have to take precautions against just this situation. Until then, all Axel could do was wait.

But not too long.

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Earth 784567463

It had been a hell of a long day. Deadlines, more deadlines, Jenny wanting groceries picked up at the last second, his car breaking down and to top it all off, the credit card company had called about his overdue payment. He was sure Jenny had made that payment, but according to the stuffy caller from LexCard, she hadn't. Never mind that they had no cash until his next commission cheque came in. He had barely been able to pay for the groceries and the cab home from the mechanic.

The cab pulled up to his apartment block. He paid (thanking the powers that be that the cab hadn't had to drive another block) and got out with his burdens. He walked past the coffee house that was at the front of his building. A heavily moustached man met him as he walked by the front door.

"Kyle!" said the man. "I have new flavor of latte today, you try, yes?"

"No thanks, Radu," said Kyle. "I have to get this stuff up to Jenny. Um, hey, is it alright if rent is a bit late this month? I have a commission cheque coming in next week, but that won't be in time for the first of the month."

"Eh," said Radu, "Is good, Kyle, is good. You good tenant, is no problem. I save latte supreme flavor for another day, yes?"

"Yeah," said Kyle. "Thanks, man. I appreciate it."

"Eh," said Radu, "No worries. Tell Jenny I say howdy!" Radu headed back into his coffee shop.

With the rent hurdle down, Kyle headed up the stairs to his apartment. He walked down the hall to his door.and saw it was partly open. Jenny probably had it open for air circulation.

He stepped in and walked straight to the kitchen, dropping his bags on the counter. "Jenny?" he called. "Jenny, they were out of feta cheese." He walked into the living room. "Hey, you forgot to pay the credit card, I-"

He stopped cold. The living room was as he had left that morning.but Jenny wasn't. She lay on the floor, her eyes staring at the ceiling. A dime-sized hole was in her forehead, blood clotted down the side of her face.

"Jenny!" screamed Kyle as he ran to her cold body. He cradled her in his arms, tears running down his face. He didn't notice the man sitting in their recliner.

"I'm sorry she had to die," said the man.

Kyle spun to face the intruder. The man was clad in black from head to toe. "Who are you? What.what happened to Jenny?!"

"I killed her, but she was unimportant," said the man. "Now you, Kyle Rayner, are important. Maybe not a Green Lantern in this reality, but you are the reason I'm here. You have to die as well."

"I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" yelled Kyle as he ran at the man. The man didn't move from his seat except for raising his arm. He fired a weapon, shooting Kyle between the eyes. Kyle dropped to the floor lifelessly.

The man got up and walked to the balcony of the apartment. He waved his hand and a portal opened. "One down, an infinite number to go," said the man. He stepped through the portal, tossing a metallic sphere behind as he went. As the portal closed, the sphere detonated. The apartment and the buildings around it were instantly vaporized.

No trace was left of this world's Kyle Rayner, or of the man that killed him.

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Kyle's thoughts drifted as he was taken through the air. He hadn't expected that much force from this world's Supergirl.he had to realize that not every world was going to have people he knew.and especially not as he had known them. He was essentially a living power battery, on the same level genetically as a Guardian of the Universe. He needed to realize that his use of that power was still backed by his own willpower. Just because he had the power internally didn't change the way it needed to be manipulated and used. The next time Supergirl took a swing at him, he would be ready.

He opened his eyes and watched as the Earth passed by below. At this speed, the desolation passed him by like a stop motion film. It made him sick. If he had been here earlier, he might have been able to stop it. There was so much that the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps could do if they looked beyond their own universe and expanded their scope across the entire Multiverse.

His ring began to glow and it spoke inside his head, silently so his captors couldn't hear. OBJECT ON INTERCEPT COURSE, BEARING 11.4 AT MACH 16. Kyle braced himself. Whatever it was, it was coming fast.

SECOND OBJECT ON INTERCEPT COURSE. SAME SPEED AS PREVIOUS. ESTIMATED TIME OF BOTH INTERCEPTIONS TEN SECONDS.

He willed his body into invisibility and intangibility. Supergirl-Prime and Donna DesTroy were several seconds before they noticed Kyle was no longer in their hands. Kyle looked around, trying to see what was coming to intercept them.

A black and silver streak slammed into the two women, knocking them into the ground hundreds of feet below. The streak continued to follow them to the ground, attacking them mercilessly. Considering they were wanting to kill Kyle and give him to their 'Master', he didn't feel too badly about their fates. They had helped kill billions.still, he wanted a good look at the attacker.

He floated down to the ground. Standing above the unconscious forms of Supergirl-Prime and Donna DesTroy, was someone that looked familiar in more ways than one to Kyle. He was a cyborg, half his face a shiny metallic sheen, the other human features. He looked like the Cyborg-Superman of Kyle's own universe, but younger. He also looked like Connor Kent, the Superboy of Kyle's home. Connor had died during the events of the Crisis.this version was decidedly more sinister than the one Kyle had known.

Supergirl-Prime stirred as she came around. She looked over at the Cyborg-Superboy standing over her. "What the hell do you want?"

"Where is he?" asked Cyborg-Superboy. "I want your prisoner. Now."

"You little bastard," said Supergirl. "You took him and you know it."

"I never did like you," said Cyborg-Superboy. Supergirl's body spasmed, her back arching almost to the point of snapping. "You should know my tactile TK can be a real bitch, even for you."

Kyle watched. Obviously his telekinesis had expanded beyond what he came into direct contact with. That alone made this Cyborg-Superboy a force to be reckoned with. Still, he couldn't just sit by and let anyone die, never mind what he had just thought.

A dark green energy beam coruscated on the three superhumans. Cyborg-Superboy looked up and saw a humanoid wearing a power ring drift down. His head was bald with a wet sheen like sweat, but not quite. His uniform was the same dark green as his ring's energies. Both the ring and the uniform had a symbol like a stylized X that resembled an explosion. Kyle recognized the symbol immediately.

"I know you're here, Green Lantern. Come out before I kill these sentients."

"He's still here?" said Cyborg-Superboy. "The women lied."

Kyle thought about his options. He didn't really care if any of these people lived or died. They had taken a hand in killing billions.but there was also the Power Ring. He was here, making this reality a damn good candidate for a Prime Reality. The Keepers wouldn't dispatch an operative of the Power Ring Cluster here if it wasn't one of the realities that supported the Multiverse. He had to be taken out, whatever it took.

It was then that he realized the constructs he had left with Axel were non-existent. He was still learning the aspects of understanding the power inside of him. He had assumed his ring's artificial intelligence would track his constructs, but he hadn't specifically told it to do so. It was an automatic task the rings normally did, but Kyle was different. He was the power source the ring drew on.essentially, he was rewriting the way the ring worked from any other Green Lantern. He concentrated on detecting Axel's tracker that was built into his Green Lantern-made clothing. He found nothing. He had to find Axel.but first, he had to take down this Power Ring.

"I'm right here," said Kyle as he materialized above Power Ring and Cyborg-Superboy. "No time for talk." He willed a huge coruscating ball of energy and fired it at the Power Ring. The earth around them all turned to glass.

As the steam dissipated from Kyle's attack, he saw figures in the haze. One was the Cyborg-Superboy, his organic components damaged and burnt. The other was the Power Ring, surrounded by a dark green energy shield.

"Ruthless.I respect that. Nevertheless, the Keepers will reward me for destroying you." The Power Ring's own ring began to glow brightly.

"Goodbye, Green Lantern."

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Next Issue: The conclusion to 'Power Play'!