Justice League: Dusk.

First thing is first: 
All things belong to DC comics. All of it. Haylen Cross is my own idea but hell, DC can have him if they like(So long as I get that Haylen Cross created by The Crowbar that killed Jason Todd... though do I belong to DC too? Probably...
 
This story is rated FR-18 for violence and graphic cheese.  Seriously though it's FR-18. Yes there is a more graphic version, but honestly I'm not comfortable sharing that where kids could get their hands on it.
 
Chapters will be posted every Thursday at 12 AM CST  

Now the setting is a merger of current DCU and Animated DC. The sole change from DCU is that the original 7 of the Justice League is the original 7 of my fan fiction's Justice League. Brightest Day isn't happening. And even though he won't be appearing CAPTAIN MARVEL HAS HIS POWERS.  Now on to the first:
 
Chapter 1:  Losing the Ego to Win the War.

3:45 PM:

There wasn't much left of her old home, not even the skyscrapers that used to cut into the sky were dwarfed and jagged. Dozens of buildings with only fragments of glass and steel at their peeks. She flew through it all, gliding over the buildings now, away from the street level trying avoid whatever bodies that maybe left in the city and still collapsing debris.

She used to be the Hawkgirl of Midway City, she used to love the wind channels the large buildings would make, she loved gliding from one channel into another, now that all seemed more like distant fantasy. She surveyed the buildings purposefully keeping to larger landmarks, she landed on top of the ruined Doom Patrol base. Her feet skid a bit on the weather beaten and mold laden shingles, she grabs the crest of the building holding herself steady. Stabbing her heel into the ruined roof, pushing up on the roof until she reaches the window sill, her gloves break the shards of the glass. Pulling herself up, she looks into the dark hallway of her former home, she stared at it a slight frown creasing her face, the emanation of week old wood soaked in water assaulted her nose.

She didn't let the smell or the memories stop her from entering, she rubbed the frame of the window and broke off the pieces of glass making sure they wouldn't cut her as she entered. She slid in, her boot hitting the floor first, it didn't make a creaking noise, she bounced her foot on it again; a small rush of pride washed over her, this old house was still strong. Her other foot came down in front of her other foot, pulling her wings through the small window as she walked forward, grabbing her small flashlight she started to search around the floor, making sure it was still there as she explored the second floor of her household.

The Science Police started using the mansion as a research center after the Doom Patrol left it, in their hasty abandonment of it, they left some Nth metal ore samples in a lock box. Who better than her to make sure it got into safe hands, she knew the mansion and the metal. Turning the corner a small metallic clash echoed from one of the old bedrooms, repeatedly. Hawkgirl took a deep breath through her nose, the dank smell filling her lungs again, she snorted out the repulsive odor. She paced herself slowly, the hallway was too narrow to use her wings, turning around the corner she could see a light out of her old room.

Hawkgirl unbuckled her mace and slid it out of her belt, “Whoever is there show yourself,” the clanging noise didn't stop she turned the corner and raised her mace ready to strike whoever was in her old room, “What--” a flash of light blinded her for a moment. A thick heavy net encased her, throwing her back and out of the room. The flickering of light from the Nth Metal shocks lit up the entire hallway, she screamed and struggled until several darts were shot into her. Two more darts stab her neck, the Nth Metal shocks only making her body convulse, punks dressed in brightly colored basketball jerseys and baggy clothes drag her back to the window she came out of. A few of the thugs pick her up and toss her out of the window, letting her roll down the roof unto the front steps of the mansion balcony.

They came out the front door of the mansion, they saunter toward her like they had all the time in the world. The city was completely abandoned, even the poorest of the people that survived were gone. They step over her wings crushing the smaller bones in her wings as they grind their heels into her. The closest one raises her head in his gloved hand and savagely starts to beat into her. The others join in, beating her into a bloody mess. The quiet city noting her death with several loud bangs and the light of muzzle fire against the broken walls of a nearby building.

“Vinny grab the tech Grodd gave us for this, we gotta make sure the League don't get a look at it yet,”

The thugs were careful, their gloves, the net, the signal scramblers they were pulled out of the mansion all betrayed their true origin, they weren't street scum looking for fun and violence. These men were trained professionals. Even their clothes were carefully chosen, the baggy clothes hid their weight and size, the skin tight caps cut down the chance of stray hairs falling to the ground, their gloves shielded them from the Nth Metal properties as well as kept their fingerprints off her. The leader pushes the gun into a brick of malleable explosives, he set the timer for 3 minutes and tosses into the mansion before jumping into the passenger side of an old rusted out Buick.

There wasn't much much Earth could offer a man like John Stewart, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Most of the time he was just that, Green Lantern, no mask and no secrets but today was something special though it was the last day his childhood barbershop would be open.

Coming down the old Kingsway Avenue not a single inch of his old home was present anymore, even the apartment his family lived in was a Starbucks, the barbershop was the last bastion of his old life. It was only right he'd come back to it, one last memory before it was all gone. A single breast black suit with a green tie, everyone knew who he was, but he didn't need to wear the uniform all the time. He covered his eyes with very dark sunglasses, not everyone was okay with the glowing green eyed man just waltzing about. Kicking the same rock for few blocks he took in what his old neighborhood, nothing was the same, there was definitely more coffee shops than he was comfortable with, though he wasn't comfortable with anything here.

Looking at his old basketball court, now a 24 Hour Fitness, he couldn't help but remember Hal Jordan's words “Heroes have to be unwavering and immovable, but the tragedy is the world changes regardless, leaving us behind, but it's what we're fighting for,” his shoulders slumped and he wrapped his raincoat tighter around him trying to insulate himself more from all the change. He didn't grow up here, but someone's kid is, and for all the change, the gangs were gone and the trash was still there but more neatly arranged, it was worth fighting for.

He took a deep breath of the cold city air and turned to corner, a large white placard and a paved lot replaced his barbershop, the last strand of his home was gone, paved down for a new building. His mouth hung open, the shock froze him, the realization that there was nothing on Earth anymore that he was ever a part of filled his stomach with regret, it felt like cold water splashing against the pit of his stomach down to his kidneys.

The air rippled around him, a slight gust built up with a growing roar until it lifted his raincoat. His mind was sluggish to the realize what was happening, he turned to look at the source of the picked up wind only to get slammed into a brick wall. Silver Banshee, a black and white clad undead wraith, gasped ready to scream the Green Lantern into oblivion. He rose his arm, revealing his emerald ring, it only flickered before a massive black fur covered arm grabbed his forearm and snapped it into pieces.

“I'm sorry, Mr. Stewart, there won't be a light show today,” Grodd smiled, crashing his gorilla fist into the Green Lantern's head, letting the back of his head bounce of the wall. The pain echoed through his head, he blacked out for a moment a vision of his neighborhood came to him, his actual old neighborhood only to blur back to its current state.

Grodd sat on the Lantern's chest as he relentlessly pounded into his head. After a few minutes of pummeling Stewart into the ground he grabbed his head and lifted him up, letting him face his old home. “It took weeks for me to establish a subconscious line into your mind Lantern,” He snarled behind John's ear, taunting and snorting out a laugh “Don't worry you brainless hominid, I'll give you a bit of mercy before you die,” The world around blurred around Stewart, the Barbershop was still there, it wasn't a paved lot, the last vestige of his home was still there. Grodd covered John's face and pulled his head off his spine and twisted his head quickly to the side letting out a terrible crack.

The Lantern's Ring slipped off his hand flew up into the sky, Grodd watched it fly off, “A shame, I wanted to keep that for a souvenir,” The murderous ape dropped the lifeless shell that was the Green Lantern of 2814 and knuckle walked out, strolling down the street like nothing was wrong while Silver Banshee flew over his head as cover, leaving John Stewart, Marine, Architect and Green Lantern dead in a pile of trash.

Pillars of smoke and fire rose up as high as the great towers of Metropolis, the city was getting rocked by suicide bombers, humans who were willing to die for some obscure ideal. The Metropolis PD would rush to one scene only to have an explosion shake the ground on the other side of the city. Even for Superman it was too much, the suicide bombers melded into the populace hiding among them. After the third attack he gave up trying to find them he had to save as many people as he could. A quick scan of a wreckage and he'd spin into the rubble and pull out survivors, he had to be careful though, recklessly diving into the fallen buildings could destabilize the structure and make it collapse further killing everyone else stuck underground, he had to be slow and methodical.

He chose his targets carefully, every time he'd rise out of the dust and steel he could feel another explosion somewhere else in the city, dozens of suicide bombers had to have been set up all cross the city. This was a full scale attack on his city, a gruesome message was being sent but he didn't have time to dwell on it yet, there were lives to save. The day surrendered to the night, the National Guard troops reinforced the police and first responders. The entire city was gripped in fear, even in places where the bombers didn't hit people avoided coming out. The city was dead quiet, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done while Superman bounced from one wreckage to another, some of the buildings had lead in their framing forcing Superman to wait on rescue crews to tell him if there was a survivor somewhere.

The pristine blue and red clothing of the Man of Steel was covered in dirt and in places ripped open revealing his skin. He rose up out of his last building holding a pair of women gripping his arms tightly, coughing and desperately trying to open their eyes in the very present cloud of dust that still hung around. Though a dirty disheveled mess, Superman was still an inspiration and a light of hope in a very dark time; he brought the women to an ambulance, he let them go into the waiting hands of paramedics and doctors as he floated away from the scene when he heard the subsonic screech of Jimmy Olsen's signal watch, Superman twisted toward the Daily Planet.

One of the most iconic buildings in all of Metropolis was still flawless, the golden globe glittered in the light of the setting sun, a reassuring symbol for Superman. He landed on the roof to find Jimmy face down on the ground his watch still on his arm, he couldn't hear Jimmy breathe, he could hear his heart beat. The attack had come home for Superman, whoever orchestrated the attack seemed to be smart and ruthless and very gone. He grabbed Jimmy's still warm shoulder and turned him over, a small metallic clanging noise signaled the end, in a plume of fire fueled by the last vestiges of his homeworld and smoke the Man of Tomorrow had seen his last day.

8:00 PM

The news of the death of John Stewart was already all over the news, street cameras caught the totality of his death. The manhunt for Grodd and Silver Banshee was well underway, even non-local heroes like Red Robin and the Question had been sighted around the crime scene looking for a clue. The massive attack in Metropolis though soon dwarfed the news of the Green Lantern's death. Careful to make sure Gotham didn't join the list of tragedies, Batman, Dick Grayson had his robin, Damian Wayne recalled from the Teen Titans to help him patrol the city with him.

On top of Gotham Police Headquarters Commissioner Gordon sucked a cigarette hard trying to get every puff of nicotine into his lungs. The old man was there since the beginning and even then he wasn't that young. He had seen the city through its worst hours but now, he was older, he didn't stand as tall as he used to; he slid his cigarette to the side as a smile grew on his face, “If you're here you might as well come out, I was about to turn the Bat-Signal on anyway,” Batman rose out of the shadow of the doorway while Robin climbed over the entrance's raised roof revealing himself. “Sorry Commissioner,” Dick wasn't Bruce and Gordon wasn't dumb enough to fall for it the first time Dick stood in for Bruce, there was no point in acting like Bruce when it was just the three of them, “We've doubled our presence at and around Arkham and Blackgate, it's been otherwise a quiet night,” Gordon pulled a file folder from his coat and offered it to Dick, “What is it?” Batman took the folder, flipping the flap open, “The preliminary report on the Green Lantern's murder, I know you have people on the ground, but I thought you'd want to see this as well,” Dick flipped through the pictures of John Stewart's chalk outline and copies of written reports about the scene, “Thank you Commissioner,” Dick turned around, just as he did the two shots rang out from the other building, hitting Dick straight through his mouth tearing through his spinal cord.

Another two shots echoed out, the old man Gordon tackled Damian off the police building as he took two bullets, meant for Damian,through his chest, one cutting through his heart exploding it in his chest. Damian didn't scream as he fell, like a good soldier he reached for his grapple gun and fired it at the adjacent building swinging out of the sight of sniper. He looked at the police building and decided where he could swing to safely, bringing up his grapple gun again he pointed to the structure only to watch it rise up and collapse with a roar. The assassin was smart, made sure there was no way Batman or the Commissioner could be saved, he blew the fountains of the GCPD headquarters.

Damian didn't even wait for the dust to settle, he was on top of the rubble pulling whatever piece he could get his hands on, trying to dig Dick out of wrecked building. The ten year old's heart pounded in his chest, panic for the first time in his short life gripped him, clawing at the concrete and steel cut into his gloves at first then his finger tips, breaking his nails; he still didn't stop until he saw Dick's limp foot stick out. He scrambled to pull Dick's foot, pulling the broken body of Gotham City's Batman out of the ruins of the GCPD.

Coughing and spitting up terrible tasting flem as he dragged Batman's body into an alleyway. He knew Dick was dead, but he still had to get him out of the scene, no one could know Batman died, it was the first thing he learned when he joined his father's family. He kept an eye out for sniper angles as he waited for the Batmobile's automated driver to come pick them up. His heart was still pounding, breathing was much harder still even though he wasn't exerting himself anymore, his lips and throat were very dry but he pushed it all out as he saw the lights of the Batmobile as it came into the alley and open up to Damian and Dick.

Reserved.