Through the haze, Darkseid's massive gray hand reached out as he struggled to crawl free of the chaos.
But the next second, a white-gloved hand shot out of the smoke, seized his ankle, and yanked him right back in.
"Aaaagh!!"
Three-dimensional words—"BAM!" "POW!" "WHAM!"—popped out of the dust amid Darkseid's furious, agonized roars.
The tyrant of the universe was enduring the most humiliating moment of his life.
Darkseid's pride and dignity were being torn to shreds by a beating as ridiculous as it was graceless.
"What... what is happening?" Batman asked, staring at the screaming Darkseid.
"No idea," Deathstroke said, shaking his head. "But I think we should never make her angry."
"DeSaad!!!"
A shrill roar erupted from the smoke.
"Attack! Attack with everything!"
"All the Parademons! All the Dark Elite!"
"Send them in to self-destruct! Blanket the entire area!!!"
DeSaad trembled at the order.
"Great master... those are our elite troops... If we expend them all here..."
DeSaad hesitated.
Unlike the expendable Parademons that could be mass-produced at will, these elite troops had taken enormous resources to train.
"Obey my order! Now!!"
Darkseid's scream rang out from below again, accompanied by a sharp crack. It sounded as though a joint had snapped.
Hearing his master's voice nearly break with pain, DeSaad dared not hesitate any longer.
"As you command... For Darkseid."
Across the battlefield.
Every high-ranking Parademon and Dark Elite warrior.
Their bodies suddenly went rigid, and their eyes blazed. The energy cores within them were forcibly overloaded, beginning an irreversible countdown to self-destruction.
"For Darkseid!!"
The fanatical soldiers abandoned all defense and tactics. Like living bombs, they dove madly toward the Earth forces' positions and cover, even toward unarmed civilians.
"No! They've gone mad!!"
Bruce Wayne's face changed, and he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"**Protect