Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned or used.

"You know, something has just occurred to me." Peter said as he held up the belt that Atomica used to change her size and had his lenses scan it's inner workings "This belt of yours, has to be the most impressive piece of tech I've ever seen produced by human hands. I mean anyone can make a trans-dimensional teleporter that will allow them to travel to other planes of existence, but to shrink one's self down to the size of a atom while maintaining their cellular and atomic structure, and by proxy shrink said cells and atoms down with you so as to not unintentionally implode in on yourself, is no small feat."

The science behind it was admittedly impressive, primitive, but impressive given it's capabilities and potential applications.

A lack of a response from the Crime Syndicate member caused Peter to tear his gaze away from the belt and aim it towards the woman, her arms and legs bent at unnatural angles and held to the grime, graffiti covered wall. Her face was bloodied and bruised and her right eye lid had been ripped off earlier when she tried to flee from Peter and her once long deep chocolate brown hair was now torn, bloodied and in a few places, burnt from his Venom Blasts.

Well actually he's pretty sure the spot on the back of her head was from when he slammed her into the late Jester's main computer monitor but that was beside the point.

"Umm, hellooooo!" Peter said as he tossed the belt over his shoulder, unconcerned where it landed, and leaned in towards the whimpering woman "You still alive? You should be, far as I know, I hadn't severed any major arteries in you or caused too much internal damage which would result in internal hemorrhaging."

Atomica's response was to slowly raise her head and glare at Peter with her bloodshot eyes.

"Ah, so you are still alive, your just being rude and not responding to me is all." Peter said with a shake of his head as he leaned back from Atomica "You know that hurts. I would've thought you'd get pass this state of utter loathing for me after I broke your arms. I mean from where I'm from, that practically makes us best friends!"

"F-F-F-Fuck... y-y-you..." Atomica muttered as her head fell back down and she was left to stare aimlessly at the bloodied floor beneath her.

"I'm flattered, but I have a wife already." Peter shook his head in mock disappointment before he felt a tremor at the base of his skull. He paused for a moment to visually scan his surroundings for signs of what could've set his sixth sense off before he suddenly felt a painful stab from his left arm.

Peter looked down and blinked dumbly at the sight of his right arm missing, leaving only a bloodied stump in it's place.

"The fu-" Peter began before he felt something something slam into him and send him flying across the room and into the opposite wall.

Peter's body hadn't even begun to slump towards the floor before a red blur suddenly came to a stop in front of him and began to hit his chest with a barrage of punches traveling so fast, the air around them seem to blur. Peter tried to lash out at whoever was hitting him, a speedster obviously, likely the Jaden Quak fellow he heard of earlier, but just as Peter's eyes began to glow, and four more opened up on his head, the speedster suddenly pulled away only to slam right into Peter with the force of a megaton. The entire factory shook under the impact and every window still relatively intact shattered as cracks formed throughout the room, some large enough to dislodge several chunks of ceiling which in turn fell to the floor.

Peter winced as he felt the armor on his suit's torso cave in slightly and pierce parts of his chest while a shower of sparks erupted from the point of contact.

"Ow..." Peter groaned as he slid to the ground, his chest felt like half his ribs were just broken.

The blurred figure standing in front of Peter stared down at him with glowing red eyes, arcs of red electricity shooting out from the corners, before they sped towards where Atomica hung and quickly tore through the webbing restraining her broken limbs.

"Baby, it's me, it's Johnny!" the speedster said as he gently helped Atomica tot he ground, his body's high intensity vibrations ceasing, allowing him to take on a more solid looking form.

He gently cupped Atomica's face and raised it slightly xo she could see his face and vice versa. The size changing serial killer's one good eye widened slightly at the sight of her boyfriend.

"J-Johnny...?" she whispered as a lone tear dripped from both her eyes.

"What did that bastard do to you?" Johnny asked, horrified at the state of his girlfriend's body.

Before Atomica could answer, a loud groan from Peter drew their attention back towards the New God as he used two spider like limbs protruding from his back to help him back to his feet.

"Okay... that... that hurt." Peter groaned as he leaned against the wall and tried to breath.

His suit wasn't reading any broken ribs or punctures to his lungs, but his suit's torso had been compromised beyond any remedial repairs he could apply to it outside of his lab back on Apokolips.

'Guess I better call Ultron and have him bring me a new suit.' Peter thought as he pushed himself off the wall and looked towards where he last saw Atomica and her speedster twat of a boyfriend "Okay, now that I can somewhat breath properly and I've yet to regain feeling in the bloody stump that's now my arm, you can both do me a favor and d- oh, your gone."

It seems in the second it took for Peter to gather his bearings, the speedster had fled with his broken girlfriend, likely back to the Syndicate's headquarters.

Peter sighed as he looked around the destroyed room as more chunks of ceiling began to collapse and other parts of the factory began to cave in now that what little structure integrity existed was now all but gone. He just knew he was going to be blamed for all this, though personally Peter thought the caving in halls, shattered glass and cracks livened the place up a little.

Or maybe it was the now black figures slowly slipping out of the shadows, all armed with either knives, swords, axes and knife like weapons attached to long chains. Peter hissed as he was now surrounded by well over a dozen armed men and women, all clad in some sort of odd black clothing that looked to be a mixture of cloth, leather and some sort of metal. The figures faces were all covered in masks with large lenses covering their eyes that vaguely reminded Peter of those owl things that he'd sometimes see Diana looking at back at Scott and Barda's house.

"Hnn, I wonder 'who' your supposed to be." Peter said as he reached up with his remaining hand and placed it on the bleeding stump and with a quick surge of his Venom Blast into the wound, cauterized it.

Not the most effective way to stem major bleeding, or painless, but it'd have to do until he could summon Ultron from Apokolips with a tissue modeler to help reattach his arm on top of brining him a new suit to wear.

Once Peter was certain the bleeding had for the most part, been halted, he looked around to see the black clad figures slowly approaching him, readying to cut him down.

"Anyone willing to lend me a hand here, anyone?" he half asked, half joked.

His question was met with a silent charge by the would be assassins.

...

Things were tense, for the lack of a better world, amongst the members of the Justice League.

Ever since the end of the battle against Deathstorm and Power Ring, the latter who was now dead while the former had fled following the death of the former, the team of heroes, minus Luthor, had been debating on what to do in regards to Diana.

"She murdered Power Ring. I saw it with my own eyes. It was no accident, it was no 'him or me' scenario or even Power Ring choosing death over defeat. Diana killed him without any hesitation." Clark said when Green Lantern, Flash, Nightwing and the recently arrived Martian Manhunter and Donna Troy were assembled before him.

Luthor was busy coordinating with the local authorities on how to best transport the captured Made Men and keeping a close eye on Diana, who herself was sitting against a burnt wreck of what was once, ironically enough, a fire truck. Luthor had contemplated offering his own two cents in regards to the situation the Amazon was now in before deciding against it.

Most of them were weary enough already given he happened to share the same name and face as some criminal on their world.

"I still don't believe it..." Flash said with a shake of his head as he crossed his arms across his chest and sighed "I mean, this is Diana we're talking about!"

"She's killed before." Nightwing pointed out.

"Yes, to stop Maxwell Lord from having Superman kill Batman, her, and potentially the rest of us since his OMACs' in the end weren't capable." Donna snapped with a glare aimed at her boyfriend, causing him to wince.

"Superman, are you absolutely sure Diana killed Power Ring?" Martian Manhunter asked with an expressionless face "Luthor has mentioned that ring of his has a will of it's own and it's possible it forced Power Ring to take his own life by throwing himself on her axe."

"I thought so too, at first..." Clark said with a disturbed look on his face before he closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath "But that look in Diana's eyes... that wasn't the look of horror or confusion when the blade of her weapon hit home... it was, it was some kind of perverse pleasure. She enjoyed it J'onn."

"Maybe she's under some kind of influence? Mind control maybe? Or one of the Syndicates brought in someone with mystical abilities and affected her mind." Nightwing said as he turned away from the group to seek out Luthor and question him on any of the Made Men being captured having magical ties or skills.

"Could've been her 'husband'" Green Lantern said as he cupped his chin in thought "Maybe he implanted some kind of device on her that'll allow him to take control of her or make her do something she wouldn't normally do?"

"I've sensed no such things whenever I've spoken to Diana telepathically. Such devices tend to leave signs in one's mind." Manhunter revealed.

"But her husband's also smart, much as I hate to admit it. He could've come up with something even you can detect!" Flash argued.

"And if that were the case, why now? Why not the times he came into conflict with the League, such as the altercation with the Teen Titans?" the Martian native asked.

"If you think Diana would allow anyone to control her, then I suppose I should start to question whether or not you were ever her friends in the first place!" Donna said as she began to approach Flash before Nightwing got between them, his hands up in attempt to keep the situation from escalating any further "She's not under some sort of mind control!"

"Then it'd be worse, because it raises the possibility that perhaps Diana, after all her time on Apokolips, exposed to such malevolence, could've begun to negatively affect her state of mind." J'onn said, causing Donna's glare to snap towards him "I do not doubt Diana's inner strength, but if mind control was not the reason behind her actions, then perhaps we must contemplate the possibility of mental and spiritual corruption."

"Are you serious right now?" Donna said as her gaze snapped towards the Martian hero "This is DIANA we're talking about. She's as incorruptible as it gets!"

"In the words of the late George Herbert, 'where there's a will, there's a way'." Luthor said as he approached the team of heroes, causing a few of them, namely Superman and Green Lantern, to look at him with weary looks.

Or in Donna's case, anger.

"Excuse me?" she said as she turned towards the bald man with a scowl.

"I'm just saying that if someone, anybody, wanted to corrupt your friend, they'd find a way if they put their mind to it." Luthor said with a slight shrug before he turned towards Superman "The local authorities have successfully detained the last of the Made Men Power Ring and Deathstorm brought with them and the President's safe with minimal loss of life. All in all, not a bad day I say."

"Too many people had still died Luthor." Superman said with a narrowing of his eyes "First responders, local law enforcement, the entire Presidential Security Detail and Power Ring."

"I don't know if it's sunk in yet Superman but my world is currently at war with a coalition of super humans with little to no morality. People have and will continue to die in far to great of numbers we can only dream of preventing because of that." Luthor said with a grim but resolute expression on his face "The best we can do, any of us, is keep those numbers as low as realistically as possible. And honestly... Power Ring's death was a mercy after spending so long attached to that ring of his. Even if he was freed from the ring, it's affect on his mind will leave him a broken man for the rest of his life."

"Are you seri-" Superman began before he was cut off by an all too familiar sound.

BOOM!

The Justice League members turned to the source of the sound and were greeted to the sight of an open Boom Tube before a figure stepped forth from the cosmic tunnel.

It was Peter, who took the time to carefully analyze the expressions of the people before him.

"Hello to you too..." Peter said dryly as the Boom Tube behind him closed.

"What... what the heck happened to you?" Nightwing asked with wide eyes as he took in Peter's appearance, which was a far cry from how he looked not too long ago, before they left the factory to confront Power Ring and Deathstorm.

His suit was covered in dents and scratches and sparks were occasionally erupting from his left lens, which was cracked and seemed to be one good breeze away from shattering entirely. But what really caught Dick and the other's attention was the distinct lack of a left arm attached to the New God, instead a bloodied stump that looked to have ended just above the elbow and had been partially cauterized.

"Oh you know, wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, Source I can already hear Kalibak chiding me, and took a wrong step." Peter said with a shrug, seemingly unbothered by the fact he was missing an arm and looked to have gone ten rounds with Black Adam.

"The Toy Factory, it was attacked?" Luthor demanded.

"More or less." Peter shrugged before he made a groan of discomfort and reached up to rub the stump that was once his arm "Ow... not long after you guys left a bunch of people dressed like those birds that like to go 'hoo-hoo' showed up. Also, fun fact, I found out the hard way, their all dead- err, undead. Reanimated? Look, you try to kill them and they don't die."

"The Court of Owls, Talons to be specific. Their Owlman's personal assassins." Luthor said with a troubled look on his face "I've had my fair share of run-ins with them over the years. Their partly why I've never maintained a permanent base of operations, always on the move. But they've never been able to find any of Jester's hideouts before..."

"Huh, guess you got careless, Lex." Green Lantern said with a snort, causing the bald headed hero to glare at him.

"In his defense, it wasn't his fault." Peter said, causing the League and Luthor to look at him with varying looks of confusion and suspicion, mostly the latter.

It was Superman that spoke first "What do you mean by that?"

"Turns out, we accidently acquired a little rat back at the cue ball's old HQ when we first got here. Three guesses who it was." Peter said as he began to look around for his wife.

He hadn't seen her since he got here and it was... odd.

Peter doubted she was dead, the lack of grief and pain on her friend's faces confirmed that, but it was odd not to see her appear yet, if anything, to play peacemaker between the two opposing factions. He supposed that she was aiding law enforcement or some other Emergency Services, but that didn't explain why the rest of the League wasn't helping her. At the very least, the Kryptonian would've been helping her, and perhaps Nightwing in a effort to stay on the Amazon's good graces.

What'd he miss?

"Stop playing coy and tell us what your talking about." Superman demanded, his jaw tight and the look in his eyes, cold and unforgiving.

Peter, who was used to such stares since the day he could walk, was unbothered by what he assumed was supposed to be an intimidating look "Like I said, you have three guesses-"

"Atomica." Luthor said as a look of horrified realization appeared on his face "She was there with Owlman and Superwoman. She must've gone microscopic and hitched a ride on one of you when we fled. Likely either Nightwing or 'Spider-man's' suits."

Green Lantern couldn't help but scoff at this "What makes you think it wasn't YOU she carpooled with?"

"Because my armor would've detected her and employed countermeasures." Luthor said with a straight face "But any of you? None of you didn't know who she was until I revealed her and the rest of the Syndicate's Heads alias and abilities, and while I have no doubt some of you might've kept an eye out for her given her abilities after the fact, she likely had already broken away and found somewhere in the factory to hide and monitor us by then."

"Or maybe HE outed the hideout to the Syndicate." Flash said with a glare aimed at Peter, causing the New God's lenses to narrow at the speedster.

"Oh darn, you caught me. And here I was hoping getting nearly killed and having MY FUCKING ARM ripped off would place me above suspicion." Peter said with a shake of his head before he glared at Superman "Where's my wife Kal-El? I'd like to talk to her about something-"

"Wait, the Talons, the Syndicate, are they still at the Factory?" Luthor asked in a worrying tone.

"No, their gone... least the ones 'alive', if you wanna call it that. Still plenty left there whose legs I tore off or left as broken torsos and heads. Though the fire I accidently started in the generator room might've spread by now... hmm." Peter hummed before he turned towards Luthor with a brief glance "Quick question, that teleporter of yours, the one that brought us to this universe... you've deleted your travel history on it, right?"

The blood draining from Luthor's face, leaving it almost as white as chalk was telling.

"Well, the undead owl people got it, or at least one of the ones I didn't get my hands on." Peter said, annoyed that the Syndicate made off with it before he could properly analyze it so he could build one of his own later.

And he's already checked the computer terminals before they were destroyed in his fight with Atomica to see if for whatever reason Luthor saved the schematics on them in the event his current one was destroyed or stolen.

No dice, as they say.

'I guess there's some merit to having a mental record, but it's too easy to lose things like that.' Peter thought as he retrieved his Mother Box from his suit's subspace compartment and brought it up a little "Find Diana."

PING!

Peter looked passed the Justice League, half of whom were looking at him with suspicion, and promptly marched passed them to where his wife was located. It was odd that she wasn't among them but he supposed she was starting to grow tired of their nauseating 'heroism'. Source knows that Peter was one lecture away from saying to Hell with it all and just start releasing their 'secret identities' to their enemies-

"Oh and Manhunter?" Peter said as he suddenly stopped and looked towards the Martian with narrowed eyes behind his equally narrowed lenses "If I feel you try to read my mind again, I'll kill you, understand?"

Thank you Mind Stone, Psylocke's mental shields, and decades of experience dealing with very intrusive telepaths.

The Martian's response to Peter's threat, was silence, causing a spike of anger to erupt in Peter.

"Did you hear me, Martian?" Peter growled as he began to step towards the Martian, his remaining hand crackling with the blood red bolts of his Venom Blast "I said if you try to read my mind again, I'd kill you, do you understand-"

"Touch him, and it'll be the last thing you ever do!" Superman said as he was suddenly in front of Peter, his eyes glowing red with built up solar energy.

"Kiss my web spinning asshole, sun guzzler!" Peter snapped at the Kryptonian, causing him to bristle before he reached out to grab Peter before his wrist was caught by Donna.

Peter's head slowly turned towards Donna, his lenses glowing as the power of the Omega Effect began to channel into his eyes. Diana's younger sister met Peter's glare with one of her own as she gave Peter's wrist another squeeze in warning.

"Can you just... just go and speak to my sister?" Donna said with obvious frustration "Please?"

"Gladly." Peter scoffed as he tore his hand free of Donna's grip and brushed past the Amazon and the scowling Kryptonian "Try and stop me again 'Superman', and every person that's ever known you will die cursing your name."

Peter didn't bother given the Man of Steel a second thought as he made his way over to his wife, who seemed to have been unaware of Peter's arrival. She was staring down at her axe with wide, haunted eyes while the metal of her weapon reflected the light of the burning fire truck not too far away. It wasn't until Peter was almost standing in front of her that her eyes finally tore away from Jarnbjorn and found his cracked lenses staring back at her.

"Wife." Peter nodded at Diana as he took in her state.

She wasn't as badly hurt as he assumed she'd be, likely thanks to that axe of her's and her own impressive durability and regenerative capabilities. Still, there was clearly something off about her given that up until a second ago, she was staring at her axe as if it had come alive and swore to kill her. That, and she hadn't approached him when he first arrived, if nothing else, then to keep the peace between him and the League.

Curious.

"Peter? What are yo-" Diana began with surprise at her husband's sudden appearance before she saw the state he was in "What happened?"

"Don't know, just got here." Peter said with a shrug as he made a show of looking around "But if I were a betting man, and I am because I have a crippling gambling addiction, I'd say you all just had an encounter with the Crime Syndicate."

Diana frowned at Peter's evasion to her question and was about to demand he answer her actual question in regards to his injured state before he suddenly tossed his Mother box over his shoulder.

"Privacy." he said as the cube stopped a foot off the ground and suddenly sent out a pulse of energy out from it and encompassed the two in a translucent shell of energy in the shape of a cube "Now then, you want to explain to me what happened?"

"What are you talking about?" Diana demanded, her grip on Jarnbjorn tightening as a surge of energy shout out from the axe's blade, down the handle and into her arm, up her limb and into her body, filling her with a sudden burst of adrenaline.

"Uhh, Diana?" Peter said as he felt a tingle at the base of his skull and took a small step back as Diana's axe began to crackle with electricity along it's edge.

Wha-" Diana began before she caught herself and realized that she was standing, her axe poised to strike.

Diana's eyes widened and she dropped Jarnbjorn, the blade of the axe cutting deep into the ground and burning the asphalt as bits of lightning danced off it's surface and partially burned the ground. Peter's gaze flickered back and forth between Diana and her axe before he waved at her.

"Uhh, Diana?" he asked again, causing her gaze to snap up towards his "You alright? You seem a little... frazzled. Is that the term? I heard heard you say something like that when you were on the phone the other day with one of your friends."

Eavesdropping really, but honestly he had nothing else to do that day... plus it was entertaining listening to one of Diana's friends acting all 'giddy' with excitement at her husband's upcoming birthday.

"I... I don't know." Diana said with a shake of her head as she reached up to grip the sides of face "I don't know what's wrong with me!"

Peter blinked at this "Huh?"

"I killed him." she said as she kept shaking her head, her eyes squeezed shut "Power Ring, I killed him."

"Okay?" Peter said with a confused frown.

Where was she going with this?

"I-I-I don't know why I did it. One moment we were fighting, I-I told him to stand down a-and he wouldn't! Then I... I felt... Gaia I felt so angry at him, angry that he refused to submit and then-..." Diana stopped and slowly looked down towards Jarnbjorn with tears beginning to pool in her eyes "I killed him... and I felt... I felt joy from it. Joy to see he who challenged me dying in front of me."

Peter's brow furrowed at this before he looked down at Jarnbjorn for a moment, the gears in his mind slowly turning.

He then looked back up towards Diana "Can I see your axe?"

Diana's gaze snapped up towards him "What?"

"Your axe..." Peter pointed to her weapon "Can I see it?"

"Why?" she asked, confused and a little annoyed that her HUSBAND seemed more interested in the damn axe then the fact that she just murdered someone!

"I have a hunch and just want to confirm it is all." Peter responded as he tilted his head to the side slightly "Now, do I have your permission, as the wielder of Jarnbjorn, to hold it?"

"...Y-Yes?" Diana said, now even more confused.

"I need you to be certain." Peter said with a shake of his head "I touch that thing without your permission... it's not gonna end well for me. At all."

He doubts it'll kill him, but he'd rather not be reduced to a smoldering pile of burnt flesh and bone wishing it had.

Diana stared at Peter for a moment, trying to understand his reasoning for any of this before she decided that trying to do so under any circumstance was liable to give her a headache. Sighing in frustration, she nodded and gestured towards Jarnbjorn.

"Yes, you have my permission." she said.

"Thank you!" Peter beamed as he suddenly reached down and tore Jarnbjorn free of the ground, causing a few stray arcs of electricity to dance off the blade's surface.

Diana watched, disturbed and slowly enraged at the sight of Jarnbjorn in another's hands, to have someone else dare to touch it-

'STOP IT!' Diana thought with a violent shake of her head.

"Hmm... hmm... mmhmm..." Peter sounded as he flipped the axe back and forth before bringing the blade up to his damaged lenses which proceeded to change to a bright, flickering neon green color and scanned the blade and handle of the mystically forged weapon "Uh-huh... so that's it... huh, who da thunk'? Also yes! I was right, initially!"

"What is it?" Diana asked in a quiet, dread filled tone as she waited for Peter to tell her what he had discovered.

"Oh nothing, just the enchantments on this thing are, for the lack of a better term, glitching a little. Nothing a visit to one of your mystics can't fix!" Peter said as he lowered the axe from his face and handed it back to a confused Diana, handle first "And while we're at it, I'll call over Psylocke to help you with your mental discipline so this won't happen again. Heh, who knows, you two might actually get along when this is all said and done, she might not look it, but she loves to teach. I use to tease her for it and joked she should become an instructor or something."

"W-What?" Diana said with visible confusion "What do you mean-"

"Anyways, we got more worrying things to deal with I think." Peter said as he turned to leave before he felt Diana grab his wrist, stopping him from taking a step.

"What 'glitch'? What did you mean by that? And what's this about Psylocke helping me with mental discipline?" Diana asked as her grip tightened, not out of anger, but fear "Please, just tell me!"

Peter slowly blinked at this wife, confused "Uhh, what I said? Not sure what you wa-... wait, do... do you not know what I'm talking about?"

Diana stared at him with an incredulous expression before she shook her head as he slid his hand out from her's "No."

Peter's brow furrowed at this before he sighed and reached up with his remaining hand to pinch the ridge of his nose "For a woman steeped in magic, you have very little understanding... Well to keep things plain and simple, your axe was forged with a number of mystical enchantments that would allow it to 'imprint' on it's owner. Thus why no one but you can touch or wield it unless you give them permission. Now one of these enchantments allows the axe to form a quote on quote, 'bond' with you and to some extant allows it's power output to be manipulated by your emotions and state of mind. So let's say you have a calm and clear mind, the axe is... well it's an axe, but upset and angry? Well the axe is now a hurricane infused into metal and reacts appropriately. And before you ask, yes it works both ways. The axe can store some of the emotions your feeling at a time, such as anger, and will at times inject such emotion into you when you require it, such as a burst of rage when your trying to perform some feat of raw physical strength and need the adrenaline boost anger can provide, or even a dose of calm tranquility in a situation that demands a focused and calm mindset. The 'glitch' I mentioned, it's this little enchantment in question. You see, this axe has gone several millennia without being properly maintained, what on the account Asgard being gone and the usual smiths and the like who handled it are all dead. Now because of that, the enchantment's original purpose has been corrupted and has begun to misinterpret your state of mind and even affect it with the stored up emotions it's sensed from you before, thus why you felt a sudden wave of anger and felt like you weren't in control of yourself. Essentially you had a concentrated dose of raw emotion injected right into your mind at a time where it was probably better to be calm and well... you know the rest."

Diana's brow furrowed in confusion as she glanced down at the weapon in her hands, her reflection slightly distorted by the dried blood on it's blade "So my actions... killing Power Ring... it was the result of... of a magical enchantment 'glitching'? Not because of some obscure evil magic at play, or you or your home's 'corrupting influence'... but because the enchantments on this weapon haven't been properly maintained in centuries?"

"More or less." Peter nodded.

"B-But why do I-... why have I been feeling this urge to always be near Jarnbjorn? To always touch it?" she asked.

Peter shrugged at this "Likely another 'glitch' with one of the enchantments, likely the one that allows you to feel the axe's presence and know where it's at, at all times and vice versa. It's likely fading in and out and thus your mind and what constitutes one for the axe subconsciously thinks one another is gone and thus 'reaches out' for the other, hence the need to always be near it or see it or touch it. As I said, nothing we can't have fixed by one of your mystic friends."

Though Peter is a little curious on how none of the mystics Diana associated with hadn't noticed anything odd. If he could see something was wrong with Diana's weapon, with the help of advance scanning equipment that defied the laws of science in over a hundred universes, then surely one of them could have as well.

Maybe they weren't as good as he initially assumed.

'Probably that.' Peter thought with a silent snicker before he let out a sudden exhale through his nostrils "Now that we've found the cause to your apparent moral crisis or whatever this thing you have going on is, and a solution to it, your welcome by the way, we can now focus on other things, like saving this pitiful excuse of a planet, maybe?"

"I-... Thank you. Really." Diana said with a small, grateful smile "For a moment... I thought I was losing myself. Turning into something I wouldn't recognize."

Peter shrugged at this "Even if that were the case, I'd still be at your side. Annoying as it would've been and detrimental to my health."

Diana blinked at this "Why?"

"Because... you're my wife?" Peter said, confused by Diana's question "Look, I know I'm... I'm not the best husband around. Source knows I won't be winning any award anytime soon for that title, but I like to think I'm good enough to stand by my wife's side when she's going through some sort of crisis, whether it's of her own doing or not and try to help her out of it."

"I..." Diana began before she stopped and adverted her gaze from Peter's, a faint coloring of red dotting her cheeks "I know that... that perhaps I myself haven't been exactly a good wife as well. How I've at times sided with my allies over you, regardless of the reasoning behind your actions. "

Peter grunted at his wife's apology "Yeah well, I can't exactly blame you. I mean with our own upbringings? Our differing views on life and it's worth? It's a wonder we haven't killed one another by now."

"We did get close that one time." Diana said with a small grin as she remembered their last night on the Justice League's Watchtower, shortly after they returned from the party at the Themysciran Embassy.

"I'm still of the belief your just jealous I wanted to dance with Vanessa over you!" Peter said with a snort "What's wrong? Scared that your friend was going to swoop in and snatch me out from under you?"

Diana's response was a soft chuckle as she reached up to wipe away some of the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes "Oh, yes, most definitely."

"I mean, can you blame her?" Peter said as he took his lone arm and gestured to his battered body "This is the kind of physique all women wish to curl up next to. Plus I'm a God. A New God, but a God all the same."

Diana giggled a little this "Well you certainly have the arrogance and complex of one, there's no denying that."

"I prefer pride." Peter countered.

"Too much can be bad for you I'm told." Diana said.

"Meh." Peter said before he hissed in pain and reached up towards the remains of his right arm "Ow! Damn healing, why can't you be gentler?"

Honestly, the healing seems to be worse then the actual pain of having your severed!

"What did happen to you to leave you in such a state?" Diana asked with a worried frown as she gently reached out and placed a hand gently on Peter's shoulder "Was it your father again?"

"No, this was the Crime Syndicate. The size changing woman, Atamica or whatever she's called, turns out she's been snooping around the place, called her friends while you were gone and they proceeded to attack little old me." Peter revealed.

Diana's brow furrowed at this before something clicked "The rat... that's who you cornered. Atomica."

Peter nodded "Correct."

"Why didn't you say something?" Diana asked, an annoyed look on her face.

"Cause I was hoping to torture her with my newfound abilities in preparation for when I get my hands on a certain New Goddess of Luck." Peter answered honestly, causing Diana's brow to twitch.

She didn't know who or what to be more annoyed at, herself for not realizing sooner that of all of the Crime Syndicate's members, Atomica might've been the most likely to infiltrate their base of operations, or Peter who would've likely caught on to her presence, somehow, and keep quite if for nothing else, petty spite.

"How is it in the span of a minute you can get me to go from feeling sympathy for you, to outright wanting to hit you and make you feel worse?" Diana asked with a tired shake of her head.

"It's a gift." Peter boasted proudly as he held a hand out towards his Mother box "Privacy end."

"Or curse." Diana sighed as the translucent cube of energy around them dispelled and the Mother box returned to Peter's hand which was then subsequently returned to his suit's subspace storage.

"Curse gift, it's just a matter of perspective really." Peter snickered before he noticed Superman approaching them out of the corner of his vision "Oh joy, here comes the mood killer. Should've kept the field up."

"I doubt it would've stopped him." Diana said in a low voice.

"Yeah..." Peter sighed.

First thing he's going to do when he get's a chance, update the privacy setting to resist forceful intrusions.

"Ah, Superman, I have good news for you and the rest of your super friends back there." Peter said as the Man of Steel came to a stop a few feet from himself and Diana and nodded in the direction the rest of the Justice League was standing, watching them, before he suddenly reached out and wrapped an arm around Diana's shoulders, pulling the surprised Amazon against him "She's not crazy or evil! Shame for both honestly, would've made things waaay more interesting, but what can you do?"

Superman's eyes narrowed slightly at this "What?"

"I swear if I have to explain things to another person again like I'm talking to a child... Diana's axe has a number of mystical enchantments that are glitching out so she needs to get them fixed." Peter said before he glanced at Diana "Like I said, one of your magically inclined associates might be able to fix them. If not, I know a Demon that owes me a favor that can do it for a nominal fee."

Diana quirked a brow at this while she slid out from Peter's arm "A Demon owes you a favor? And you want a Demon to have access to Jarnbjorn"

"We'll discuss that later." Peter said as he turned back towards Superman "Now is there anything else Superman or are you just going to keep standing there all day, seething in jealousy at the sight of me touching Diana?"

Diana's brow twitched at this and just as she was about to slap Peter in the side of the head, Kal's voice stopped her.

"Really, that's the best you could come up with?"

Diana blinked at this, that... was not what she was expecting to hear, and from the narrowing of Peter's lenses, neither was he.

"Excuse me?" Peter said as he titled his head slightly to the side.

"You expect me to believe that Diana killing Power Ring, was some... some sort of magical glitch?!" Superman said with a look of disbelief and outrage.

Peter stared at the Kryptonian for a moment before he slowly nodded "Uhh, yeah?"

Superman stared at the New God for a moment before his gaze flickered to Diana's, who in turn was looking at him with surprise before he suddenly shook his head and turned away from the pair.

"This... this is absolutely fucking unbelievable." he said.

"Uhh actually it isn't. It's actually a pretty common thing really. Least amongst novices wielding their first mystically enchanted weapon that is." Peter said with a frown.

True some of Diana's other weapons, such as her bracelets were mystically forged, but those enchantments were woven into them as they were being forged. Jarnbjorn from what Peter could see, had it's attachments incorporated into it post forging, thus why said enchantments were acting out.

"Kal-" Diana began before Superman held a hand up, cutting her off.

"Don't. Just... just don't." he said.

Diana's eyes widened at this before they began to narrow as she felt a rush of anger flow into her and took a step towards the Man of Steel before Peter put his arm out in front of her.

"Tempting as it would be, I'd rather you didn't." Peter said with amusement in his voice.

Diana stopped and turned to glare at her husband for a moment before she realized what was happening and took a deep calming breath and slowly began to will the anger back into Jarnbjorn. It was not as easy as drawing it out, she noted, likely because it was expected that said drawn out emotion would be utilized for combat. Perhaps when she's having Jarnbjorn examined, she'll ask for a detailed summary of all of the enchantments attached to the her axe and what they are capable of.

Once Peter was certain that Diana wasn't going to be lost in a bout of rage, hilarious as that would be, he saw the rest of the League approaching them.

"Diana, are you alright?" Donna said as she came to her sister's side and hesitantly reached out to her.

"I will be, yes." Diana nodded, feeling tired from everything that's happened since arriving on this alternate Earth.

When they return to their home universe, she was going to take a very long bath, drink far too many bottles of wine to be considered healthy and sleep for the next decade if she can.

"Alright, so now that everyone's here, we can finally get to finally dealing with these evil yous so that way my wife and I can go home. Well back to Scott and Barda's home. And even then it'll only be for like a week before we have to go back to Apokolips and deal with New Genesis on top of my family." Peter said with slumped shoulders "And I can't try and miss it because then I'd never hear the end of it and Kalibak will likely come after me and beat me... again."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on a second." Green Lantern said as he stepped forward and looked between Diana and Clark before he gestured towards the former "Aren't we going to do something about-"

"What's there to do? The problem, ridiculous as it was, has been identified and a solution has been presented, end of discussion." Peter interrupted the Lantern with a frown "And even if that wasn't the case, she's my wife. Whatever issues arise with her, I'll handle it, not you. So please, do everyone a favor and keep quiet while the adults talk, yeah?"

"Excuse me?" Hal said as he stepped towards the New God, his ring glowing as he began to build up power in it.

Peter's lenses flickered a dark red-ish orange color and Diana could see his hand twitching as arcs of dark red bioelectrical bolts danged between his fingers.

"Enough!" Luthor shouted as he stepped between Peter and Lantern and shoved them both back "With the Crime Syndicate now in possession of my teleporter, I can only assume their going to use it to launch an attack on your Universe in retaliation for causing so many disruptions to their operations and defeating so many of their members. So how about instead of continuing whatever dick measuring contests you all seem to like having with one another, we focus on that issue!"

"I don't agree with the first part of that because those are fun but I do agree with the second part... kinda. Sides, this is probably the best time to attack anyway." Peter said.

"What?" Nightwing said with a confused look on his face.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Peter glanced at the first Robin "While the Syndicate is busy sending it's people to your Universe, we head up to their moon base and kick the ever loving hell out of them since they'll have less people up there. You know, cause they'll be in another Universe. And afterwards, if the ones sent over to your Universe haven't been dealt with, we Boom Tube back over and help out."

"It's too risky." Superman said with a shake of his head "We don't know who will be sent over or even if they intend to send over people at all. They could easily teleport weapons of mass destruction to our world and hurt us without even having to lift a finger."

"They won't. At least, not at first. It's too easy, too clean, no the Syndicate will want to make this hurt and the only way to do that is by sending it's people over personally. And if noting else, they have a few members looking to cause a bit of mayhem after taking so many defeats recently." Luthor said.

"All the more reason why we should return to our Earth and stop them. The rest of the League doesn't have an idea of the kind of people that'll be sent through." Flash said, causing Green Lantern and Nightwing to nod in agreement.

"But, wait, hold on a second!" Donna said as she stepped forward "Isn't this the kind of thing the Syndicate will be expecting?"

"What do you mean?" Superman said.

"Us, going back to our Universe to help." Donna said as she turned towards Luthor "Say we all go back to help fight off whoever is sent over to our Universe, what'll happen here?"

"Depends." Luthor said as he cupped his chin in thought "Owlman is likely consolidating power to be the new leader of the Syndicate and the members he'll send over to your Universe to attack it will likely be made up of those that he can't guarantee the loyalty of, mostly Ultraman's people."

"What about the speedster they have with them? The Quickie Guy or whatever he's called." Peter asked.

"Johnny Quick?" Luthor said with a snort at Peter's nickname for the mass murderer "I'm sure he and Atomica might go through as well, if nothing else, to alleviate whatever boredom their experiencing."

"Might be a little hard for her to go through considering I mutilated her." Peter hummed at the memory of Atomica, beaten and bound in front of him "But I'm sure Johnny will bring her back a sou-"

"You what?" Superman demanded with outrage as he glared at Peter.

"Huh?" Peter glanced lazily at Superman "The hell are you upset about now?"

"Kal, are you really surprised at this point?" Diana said with a tired sigh.

"I didn't even do that much to her." Peter scoffed "All I did was break her limbs and rip an eyelid off."

"Or, is that all?" Green Lantern said with a shake of his head.

"Well I was planning to burn away her face, least the skin on it, before her walking vibrator ran in and 'saved' her and took my arm." Peter said as he gestured to his missing limb "On that note, I'm gonna cut his legs off myself."

"You won't be cutting anything off." Superman snarled at Peter as he stepped right up to the shorter man and glared down at him with red glowing eyes "YOU are going back to Apokolips, now!"

"Superman-" Martian Manhunter stepped forward in attempt to defuse the growing tension between the pair before Peter suddenly shoved the Kryptonian back with a snarl.

"Out of my face Clark Kent before that little rathole of a house on Hickory Lane in Smallville Kansas get's a little visit from my brother Zunn. Believe me, hell won't even begin to describe what he'll do to them." Peter hissed.

Peter isn't sure exactly what his half brother will do after being given the home address of Superman's parents, kill the parents for certain, after he's done 'playing' with them. As for Superman's cousin, Kara... well he has a fairly good idea what Zunn will end up doing to the young Kryptonian. It's... cruel, to offer up the young girl to his depraved sibling to enslave and rape at his leisure, assuming of course he just doesn't outright kill her for being too bothersome to capture, but quite frankly Peter's getting sick and tired of trying to be civil with this damn Kryptonian.

If he wants Peter to be cruel and vindictive if it'll mean living up to this predisposed image he has of all of Darkseid's children, by all of those trapped in the Source Wall he will give him it in abundance. And who knows, maybe Zunn will die in the attack and Peter will have finally gotten him back for trying to rape his wife at their father's wedding-

"Peter, that's enough!" Diana said as she grabbed Peter by his arm and pulled him back and placed herself between him and Kal "Weren't you the one that said we have more important things to worry about at the moment?"

"Grr, fine..." Peter growled as Diana turned towards Kal with a glare.

"And YOU, need to stop blowing up every time he goads you with his comments. Be the adult or refuse to take the bait and he'll stop." Diana explained.

"So your saying I should be alright with him threatening my parents?" Clark yelled in outrage, causing the likes of Flash and Green Lantern to flinch while Donna took a step forward, her right hand slowly forming into a fist as she glared at Superman.

No one yelled at her sister like that... no one.

"No, I'm saying you need to keep yourself in check. Most of what Peter says is just that, words. Words that are meant to hurt or provoke." Diana said with strained patience "Believe me, his bark is worse then his bite."

"Your actually defending this monster's? What in the name of God is wrong with you Diana?!" Superman yelled with such intensity, Diana took a step back in surprise.

"Kal-" Diana began before Clark suddenly turned and walked away, not even bothering to hear her response before he shot off into the air.

Everyone was silent as they watched the Man of Steel disappear into the nighttime sky.

"Oh great..." Green Lantern said as Martian Manhunter shot off into the sky and followed after the League's leader.

"Come on, let's go talk to him." Flash said as he bumped his shoulder into Hal's, casuing the Lantern to nod and form a small platform with railings for the speedster and Nightwing to hold on to as they flew.

"Come on kid, let's go." Hal looked towards Nightwing with an expectant look.

"Uhh, I'll uh, stay here. Try and smooth things over." Dick said with a nervous chuckle as he scooted a little closer to a visibly angry Donna.

"After how he just spoke to my sister, I'm not talking to him." Donna snarled as she glared in the direction Superman flew off in.

"You know, I'm really, and I mean really, am starting to hate your Kryptonian." Peter growled as he, Diana, Donna, Nightwing and Luthor watched Flash and Green Lantern follow after Superman "We can literally end this whole thing but he wants to drag it out because he just can't accept that your backwater of a planet will be fine without him. And people say my father has a superiority complex!"

"Look I'll... I'll talk to him." Nightwing stepped forward "I think I understand what your trying to say and I'll try to word it a little bit better. I mean you are kinda making sense, but your delivery needs work. Like a lot."

"Don't bother, that asshole would rather have more people die in the long run then end things now with only a few deaths of some worthless nobodies if it means he can be the hero for everyone." Peter spat out as he turned to Diana "On that note, you want me to have him killed before we leave for Apokolips? For how he spoke to you? I can make it happen."

Diana made no reply as she watched Kal leave, a feeling of anger growing in her chest as his words echoed through her mind.

"Really, that's the best you could come up with?"

"You expect me to believe that Diana killing Power Ring, was some... some sort of magical glitch?!"

"So your saying I should be alright with him threatening my parents?"

"Your actually defending this monster's? What in the name of God is wrong with you Diana?!

She didn't know if this rage she was feeling was from Jarnbjron or herself and at that moment, she didn't care.

...

And done.

Next chapter, Counterstrike...

answers to reviewers questions or statements:

Tom2011: Yep.

Zhorvak: Maybe.

Davies96: Peter already has 'lightning' in the form of his Venom Blasts which are based off of Jessica Drew's Spider-woman.

Laser Crusader: People will realize it when it's too late.

badiullahmeri10: Yeah, the MCU more or less ruined the gravity of the Infinity Stone's power by making them seem that they aren't the greatest sources of power in the Universe or all that important in the grand scheme of things with all this other stuff cropping up and alternate timelines/universes and making them glorified collectables with the TVA in the Loki show. The What if... series they had actually did a pretty good job of showing what someone with all six of the stones could do, i.e. Ultron raging a multi-universal invasion with an army of Drones.

Harbinger Of Kaos: Yep.

Aemon D Boneless: Believe it or not, but Kaine will be making an appearance in this, though not for a while and not in the way you'd probably expect. As for him being the better choice of Darkseid's son then Peter, perhaps. But Peter's also to show that perhaps that being the son of such evil doesn't automatically mean you'll be just as bad.

Mashot Tito: More or less, Peter just wants to be left alone.

Guest: The downside of being a god like entity that tends to get involved with matters more often then most, people assume you'll jump at the opportunity your made aware of something bad when in reality, the times the Spectre did get involved, certain criteria were met. Well the thing is, Constantine's not wrong, Peter's curiosity of the Stones will drive him to seek out the rest, and really it's not so much him he's worried about getting them all, but rather Darkseid, who is already aware Peter has several Stones.

Guest: The Infinity Stones work a bit differently here.

Infinite Khaos: Just DC's.

G. Ward: It's happening now.

Guest: The Soul stone took too much energy from Peter when he first used it, thus all he could do at the time was threaten Constantine into silence and to some extant, hold the souls of his friend's daughter and that of the girl he unintentionally damned to Hell by summoning Nergal years ago and hope it works. Now as for why he didn't do anything to him after he recovered, simple, he totally forgot about Constantine, plus he was being watched by the League and his wife more closely then before.

Kal824: She'll be showing back up soon and become a regular.