[Eclipsed] Chapter 6 - J’onn J’onzz

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Chapter 6 - J’onn J’onzz

Initially outnumbered, Wonder Woman and Big Barda had a difficult time fighting against Darkseid’s four Furies. But after Big Barda thrust her spear into Stompa’s heart, killing her, the remaining three Furies could no longer overwhelm the two heroes. 

Wonder Woman ended up knocking out Mad Harriet and beating Guilotina to the point where she could not stand up. Meanwhile, after killing Stompa, Big Barda put Lashina out cold with a violent knee kick to the chin. 

Now, the two powerful women flew to the balcony from where Granny Goodness had been spectating their fight, never having thought that her furies would lose in such a fashion. Their bladed weapons pointing threateningly at her, they pushed the old woman towards the wall. 

“Let’s not kill her. Better to take her hostage and go to Darkseid’s throne room,” said Diana. 

Big Barda did not argue against her suggestion. Wonder Woman sheathed her sword and grabbed her Lasso of Truth when, all of a sudden, a silhouette appeared between the two of them like a ghost. 

It was only their reflexes they had honed in battle for centuries that allowed Diana and Barda to react in time and guard against the sudden double kick flying towards their heads. Although Diana had used her bracelets to block and Big Barda her spear, the two women were still pushed back over a dozen metres each by the strength behind the newcomer’s kick. 

“Naruto! My sweet Naruto! You came to rescue me!” said Granny Goodness in a sickly sweet, happy voice. 

“Don’t worry, Granny. As long as I’m here, I won’t let any harm come to you.”

Saying that, Naruto put his hands in a cross seal, and two shadow clones popped up next to him. 

“Is this him? Darkseid’s adopted son?” Diana asked Barda as she unsheathed her sword again, her eyes never leaving their opponent. 

Big Barda’s hands tightened on her spear, and her face tensed visibly. 

“Yes, that's him.”

As the two clones walked closer to the women, one of them spoke:

“Big Barda. So you were the one who led these intruders here, huh? It wasn’t enough that you stole a Mother Box and betrayed Father, but you’re attacking us now too?”

“He’s not your father. He had brainwashed you. He’s using you like a weapon, just like he did to me!” Big Barda said. 

“Almost word for word the same shit my demon blabs about every day,” Naruto laughed. “Well, no matter. I’ll make sure to turn this place into your grave. You won't escape from Apokolips a second time.”

“Prepare yours-” Big Barda tried to warn Wonder Woman, but she couldn’t finish her words before Naruto put his hands on the ground and an Earth Spear burst from the ground behind Barda, impaling her in the back. 

“Barda!” Diana shouted in worry. 

Distracted by Barda’s predicament, Wonder Woman was caught off guard by the clone who seemed to have teleported in front of her, a football-sized orb of ‘magic’ spiralling in his hand. 

“Rasengan!”

Wonder Woman was slammed back violently by the Rasengan he had smashed into her stomach, but she quickly righted herself in the air, seemingly not that deeply affected. Her Amazonian armor had extra durability against magic attacks, and Diana herself was extremely tough and durable. 

On the other side, Big Barda let out a grunt of pain from the rock spear that had smashed into her spine, but, fortunately, her Apokaliptian armour prevented that ninjutsu attack from piercing her body. Nonetheless, it had still hurled her into the air, and she was unable to dodge the clone who seemed to teleport above her with a Body Flicker Jutsu and slammed an Oodama Rasengan into her. She could only brace herself and use the handle of her spear to block his attack. 

“Barda!” Diana shouted her name again when she saw the clone slamming Big Barda down, the tall woman's body rotating out of control before she crashed into the sandy floor of the arena below, making a big crater in it. 

As she got slammed into the ground, Big Barda took out a hand grenade from her utility belt and threw it at the clone. Even as she crashed down painfully, she smiled when a terribly loud sound exploded from the grenade. 

Her smile froze on her face when the clone was actually not dispelled. 

“One of your friends already got the drop on some of my clones with those sound grenades. That won’t work on me a second time,” said Naruto, amused at her reaction.

When Batman destroyed those two clones with his sound grenades, the incident was relayed to Naruto and all of his clones, filling them in on what had transpired. Suspecting that the others might have similar weapons at their disposal, Naruto and his clones started protecting their ears with chakra. 

Forming a sequence of handseals that ended with Tiger, the blond inhaled deeply before casting a devastating technique. 

“Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!”

“Oh crap!” Big Barda let out a cuss, but Wonder Woman suddenly dropped from the sky in front of her and let out a battle cry as she raised her golden shield. 

That jutsu technique absolutely obliterated the entirety of the arena, turning reinforced concrete and rocks into liquid fire and the sandy floor into glass. Even Granny Goodness was awestruck and terrified, never having really witnessed the full extent of Naruto’s powers. 

There was only one spot in the entire arena that remained untouched: crouching lowly behind her shield, Wonder Woman had survived the cataclysmic attack and protected Big Barda too. 

“It looks like I have to get serious with the two of you,” Naruto said, all amusement disappearing from the tone of his voice as he recognized that the Champion of the Amazon wasn’t as easy an opponent as he had thought at first. 

He formed the hand seals of his most familiar technique once again, and 50 more Shadow Clones appeared on top of the now glassy ground. 

Grabbing the handle of what appeared to be a bladeless weapon strapped at their waist, the 52 Shadow Clones surrounded Big Barda and Wonder Woman in a circle from all sides. 

Standing back to back, the two women had a grave look in their eyes when they saw the large group of clones wielding Wind, Lightning, and Fire swords in their hands. 

“What do we do now?” asked Wonder Woman in a quiet voice. 

“We fight until our dying breath,” Big Barda said. 

The former Captain of the Furies had no illusions as to what the outcome of this fight was going to be. She had known from the start that invading Apokolips would be no different from suicide, and she had warned the Justice League about it too. 

Alas, she was a warrior. The very finest warrior of Apokolips. No matter the odds, regardless of how desperate the situation appeared to be, there was not a shred of fear or cowardice in her heart. She would fight until the end, taking down as many of those clones as she could with her to the grave. 


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Not long after his clones were destroyed by Batman and he received their memories, Naruto formed another Shadow Clone and sent it to the Armoury again. As far as he knew, his clones had already buried the intruder in concrete, but he did not want to risk letting him go free. What if that man had the ability to teleport or slither out of any bonds?

‘The Universe is full of people with all sorts of strange and never-before-seen abilities.’  

Hearing a powerful noise in the distance, he turned his sight towards the palace. 

‘Just who is strong enough to give Kara such a hard time?’ 

With her Kryptonian strength, she would normally make quick work of most fighters. But he decided to trust her. After all, he had taught her everything he knew. He had faith in her strength. 

‘Besides, Father himself is even more powerful than Kara, and I also saw Devilance, Bedlam, and a large group of Parademons heading towards the palace to assist them.’

Bearing that thought in mind, Naruto started thinking of different things. 

‘They’ve already targeted the Armoury, trying to detonate our Hellspores. . . If they’re trying to go for our weak points, then the next logical place they would attack is definitely the power plant.’

Having decided on his next destination, the real Naruto appeared to turn into a blur as he sped towards the outskirts of the capital city, towards the industrial district. 

‘Damn, I hope I’m not too late,’ he thought when he arrived at the power plant and saw numerous Parademon corpses littering the ground. 

As the General of Apokolips, Naruto had been taught and instructed not only how to lead the army and conquer other planets but also how to defend his home against alien threats. After all, no matter how powerful Apokolips and Darkseid were, their archenemy, New Genesis, was just as powerful. The possibility of New Genesis' armies attacking their capital one day could not be excluded. 

That being said, he was very familiar with the map of the capital, targets of interest, and other weak points. Therefore, he knew exactly where the control room of the power plant facility was located. 

He arrived there just in time to see an enormous serpent-like creature coiling around the last four surviving Parademons in the facility, constricting them to death. 

“That’s as far as you go, intruder,” Naruto said, taking out his high-tech weapon and making a Wind blade come out of its handle. 

The large serpent untangled itself from the corpses of the Parademons, letting them drop to the floor, before transforming itself into a green-skinned humanoid person with orange eyes. It was Martian Manhunter. 

“So you are the mage warrior that Big Barda told us about,” said the Martian. 

“You seem to know a great deal about me. . . Who are you? And why have you invaded my home?” asked Naruto, narrowing his eyes at him. 

So far, most of the intruders who had invaded Apokolips appeared to have a special ability. They were powerful foes. This green-skin alien’s shapeshifting ability also had plenty of potential in battle, so Naruto did not let his guard down. 

Moreover, at the same time, he could not afford to use destructive techniques in that place. He was in the heart of a power plant, in its control room. If he demolished that place, the power plant would go out of control and kill tens of millions of people. Therefore, he would have to keep ninjutsu to a minimum and engage the alien in close-quarters combat. 

Martian Manhunter was no less cautious than Naruto either. 

‘Big Barda did warn us that he can control the five elements of nature with his magic,’ he thought when she saw the Wind sword in his hands. ‘Luckily, he can’t afford to use any fire spells in this place.’

Naruto was not aware of the Martians' weakness to fire, but it was true that he had to avoid using fire jutsu indoors in a place as important as the power plant’s control room. 

He watched the green alien intently, and the alien did the same too, neither of them wanting to make the first move. 

It was the Martian who broke the staring contest first because his friends depended on him shutting down the power plant. If he could cut the power, the enemy would lose all means of controlling and directing the army of Parademons, thus easing the burden on the Justice League’s shoulders. 

Watching Martian Manhunter flying at him headfirst with no hesitation, Naruto was inwardly surprised, but he didn’t think twice about swinging his Wind blade. . . only for his eyes to widen in disbelief when his chakra weapon passed through the green alien’s body as if he were a ghost. 

The Martian also phased through Naruto’s body and materialized himself behind him before punching him in the back of his head with his entire strength. 

Caught off guard by his intangibility, the blond was unable to react in time, and the Martian’s strike sent him flying into one of the walls in the back of the room, breaking through it and through 3 more walls of the adjacent rooms. 

‘Shit, this guy sure packs a punch.’

The Martian’s physical strength was so high that his punch had shattered Naruto's helmet into pieces, revealing his appearance. 

‘He looks like a human male. . . and a surprisingly young one at that,’ J'onn J'onzz thought when he saw Naruto’s face. 

Five clones popped next to Naruto, and the six of them sped towards the Martian once more. Now that he knew about the alien’s ability, he wasn’t caught off guard anymore. 

Outnumbered and attacked with techno-magic swords from all sides, the Martian had no choice but to stay intangible. He took out two of the sound grenades that Batman had prepared for everyone before they came to Apokolips and threw them at the clones. 

“We’ve seen that trick before already. It won’t work on us again!” Naruto and his 5 clones spoke at the same time. 

Eventually, both the Martian and the group of clones came to a stop. 

‘This isn’t going anywhere,’ thought Naruto after trying to cut down the Martian for several minutes with no success. 

‘Batman’s sound grenades did not work,’ the Martian also thought, his stoic face beginning to show some signs of distress. He was deeply worried about his teammates. 

All of a sudden, the Wind blades in Naruto and his clones’ hands disappeared, only to be replaced in the next moment with Lightning blades. 

‘Wind doesn’t work on him. Then what about lightning?’  the blond thought as he lunged at the alien one more time. 

Martian Manhunter made himself intangible once again, but this time around, when the clone’s Lightning sword slashed through his ghost-like body, J’onn let out an agonizing yell, screaming at the top of his lungs as the Lightning blade coursed through his molecules. (1)

Naruto was inwardly relieved to see the Martian collapse on the floor, seemingly unconscious. 

‘What the hell was that ability? I’ve never seen anything like it.’

He had never faced an opponent as troublesome as that, someone capable of phasing through nearly all of his attacks. 

Unbeknownst to Naruto, despite collapsing to the floor, J'onn J'onzz had not fallen unconscious. Considering that he was face down, Naruto did not see the way that Martian Manhunter’s orange eyes suddenly started glowing with a bright light. 

One moment later, out of nowhere, Naruto let out a cry of pain and dropped his weapon as he clutched his head with both hands in agony. 


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As he broke into the young man’s mind, Martian Manhunter suddenly found himself in a dark, cold, and damp place. 

The visibility was very low; he could not see much other than the brown, mouldy walls of what appeared to be a flooded underground cellar of sorts. 

‘No, it looks more like a sewer,’ the Martian thought when he noticed the long, seemingly endless pipes running across the walls. 

He kept walking down the flooded sewer, looking around him cautiously in an effort to anticipate any potential attacks. 

‘I’ve been inside countless minds before, but I don’t remember ever seeing a mindscape as terrible as this one. . . What could have led to his inner world falling into this state?’

A light appeared at the end of the corridor, and soon Martian Manhunter arrived in a very tall and wide room, a room so large that he could not see the end of it. 

However, halfway across the room, two enormous gates, over 60 metres tall, appeared in his view. 

Martian Manhunter found himself frozen, stupefied at the sight of the massive creature that came out from the darkness beyond the gates. It was a titanic beast like he had never seen before. 

The water pooling on the floor of the sewer became crimson red as Kyuubi’s chakra flooded into it, and his deep, demonic voice caused a loud echo in the wide, empty room. 

“What are you doing here, in my jailer’s mind, alien?”

As a powerful telepath, Martian Manhunter was very sensitive to other people’s feelings and emotions when he put his mind to it. And, to his great surprise, he realised that there was no malice in the demon’s voice. 

“I’ve come to undo Darkseid’s control over this young man's mind.”

Kyuubi was no less surprised than the Martian because his Negative Emotions Sensing revealed the fact that the alien was not lying. 

Unable to contain his curiosity, the fox asked:

“Why would you care about that? Hardly anyone has ever cared about Naruto in the past, and those few who did were all killed by Darkseid. What are you after?”

“I have no hidden agenda,” J’onn J’onzz spoke sincerely. “We have come here to rescue Kara Zor-El, the cousin of a dear friend. Big Barda has warned us that Darkseid’s adopted son would be our biggest obstacle. My wish is to break Darkseid’s control over his mind so that he would stop opposing us. Nothing less, nothing more.”

Martian Manhunter felt chills going down his spine when Kyuubi lowered his enormous head so that he would get a better look at him. 

“I don’t sense any lies from you,” Kyuubi's voice rumbled thoughtfully.

The crimson chakra that had flooded the water pooling on the floor was sucked back into the demon's cell, and Martian Manhunter let out a breath that he did not know he had been holding.

“Take that door to your right,” Kyuubi advised him. “It will lead you to the innermost part of his mind, into his conscience.”

J’onn glanced at the demon and then at the sealing tag holding the gates locked. He did not know what the relationship was between the demon and the young man, but he chose not to interfere. 


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Having decided not to hold back anymore and fight his cousin for her own sake, Superman engaged Kara in a fierce battle. With their godlike Kryptonian strength and abilities, their fight devastated Darkseid’s royal palace. The entire building was razed to the ground, and massive craters littered the streets nearby.

“Give up, Kara. Please. You can’t win. I don’t want to hurt you any more than this,” Superman pleaded with her. 

His face had many bruises, a trail of blood fell from a corner of his mouth, and his red cloak and blue suit were in tatters. But Kara was not faring any better either. Although Superman had not gone at her with his full strength, the girl was still a mess, her lips busted up and her arms and face filled with bruises. Thanks to Naruto’s training, she had developed her combat skills splendidly, but, in the end, her cousin proved to be more powerful than her still. 

“As Naruto would say, as long as I’m drawing breath, I’ll never give up,” Kara said.

She was on all fours, struggling to get up from the crater in the ground where Superman had thrown her. 

Superman glanced at his cousin with a pained look on his face. He had found he had a blood relative only a few months ago, but he had hardly had any time to enjoy the happiness of knowing that he was not all alone in the world before she was taken away from him. Darkseid had kidnapped her, messed with her mind, and turned her against him. The Man of Steel could not care less about the many injuries littering his body. All he could think about was the pain that he was forced to inflict on Kara in order to subdue her. 

All of a sudden, a loud roar rang in the distance and a powerful shockwave exploded, shattering the glass on any windows and vehicles in the capital city. A crimson-red pillar of light shone brightly in the night, piercing towards the sky.

“Hah!” Kara let out a chuckle but ended up coughing a mouthful of blood. “You guys. . . are so screwed right now!”

After saying those words, the girl lost all her strength and fell back to the ground, slipping into unconsciousness. 

Knowing from the plans and maps that Big Barda has shared with them that the pillar of crimson-red light was coming from the power plant, Superman quickly tried to contact Martian Manhunter. 

“J’onn! J’onn! Are you alright?! J’onn! Ah, darn it! It’s broken!”

He could not contact him because his earpiece was destroyed during his fight against Kara. 

Just as he took the girl in his arms and was about to fly towards the power plant, Martian Manhunter’s voice rang in his mind:

“Everyone, don’t worry about the pillar of light. I broke Darkseid’s brainwashing over Uzumaki Naruto. He is on our side now, but I suggest we take Kara and leave as soon as we can. He is in an enraged state of mind. There is no telling what he might do.”


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Their armour in tatters and sporting numerous slash and burn marks all over their arms, faces, and legs, Wonder Woman and Big Barda were running on fumes. No matter how many clones they destroyed, others would take their place right away. There was no ending to them, and Batman’s sound grenades seemed to have no effect on them either. 

“This might be the end of the road for us,” said Big Barda. 

“It’s been an honour to fight alongside you, Barda,” Wonder Woman said calmly. 

“The honour was all mine,” Barda replied.

They were fully aware that it was most likely the final moment of their lives, but neither woman appeared to be sad or in despair. They threw themselves at the clones again, fighting with all their might. There was no quitting in them. As a true warrior would, they kept their composure and fought with their entire strength, swinging their weapons until the bitter end. 

Eventually, Big Barda’s spear snapped from the middle, having reached the end of its durability after blocking dozens of Wind, Fire, and Lightning blade attacks. 

“Barda!” Wonder Woman cried out as she grabbed a shadow clone with her Lasso of Truth and threw it in front of Barda, using it as a human shield to protect her from the other clones’ follow-up attacks. 

Unfortunately for her, that distraction left her flank open, and a Wind blade sliced a deep wound into her side, making her blood gush out like a river. 

"Diana!" it was Barda's turn to cry out in worry.

Falling down to a knee, Wonder Woman was unable to stop the shadow clone who lunged at her next, his Lightning sword stabbing towards the back of her neck. 

However, just as the Lightning blade was about to pierce her throat, the clone dispersed into a plume of smoke. And it wasn’t just that particular clone. The 50+ shadow clones who had been surrounding them from all sides were all dispelled at the same time. Even the Naruto who they had thought to be the real body, the one who was protecting Granny Goodness, also burst up in smoke, disappearing. 

“What the hell happened?” Granny Goodness asked in bewilderment. 

Diana and Barda were also stunned by the unexpected development. 

“If I were to guess, something must have happened to the original body,” Barda said while getting up to her feet with difficulty. 

“Was he, perhaps, defeated by Superman?” Diana wondered. 

No sooner than she said those words, an ear-deafening roar rang and a pillar of crimson-red light split the darkness of the night sky. 


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At the same time, not far from the ruins of the royal palace, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl also froze at the bestial sound reverberating in the night and at the sight of the demonic pillar of red light piercing the sky. 

The Parademons and the New Gods, who had been fighting against the two of them, stopped in their tracks as well. 

The God of Evil, Darkseid, who had been spectating the battle impassively with his hands behind his back, was not unaffected either. He flew up in the air, his relaxed countenance from before nowhere to be seen anymore. A grave expression surfaced on his face as he glanced at the crimson-red pillar of light. 

At that moment, everyone in Apokolips’ royal city felt a bad omen. It was as if they all knew that something terrible was about to happen. 

Something that should have never been unleashed had snapped out of its chains. 

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AN:

(1) In the animated series, electricity can harm Martian Manhunter even if he is intangible. Ultra Humanite injured him greatly with an electric baton while he was phased out.