Chapter 3 - Chapter 3

I do not own any of the Star Wars and DC characters and ideas represented in this work.

This story is a mixture of Legends and New Canon

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Luke, sleeping under the covers of his room that was in the watchtower, woke up prematurely when a set of knocks came to his door. Getting up and dressed in the appropriate sleep attire, he went to the door and pressed the open button. The sliding door hissed, revealing Wonder Woman, or Diana, as Luke was more comfortable with. The notion of calling people by their 'hero identities' was a concept he still was getting used to.

"Morning," he said while yawning, he hadn't been able to do his morning routine of exercises and meditations, so his energy was at a low. "Is there something up?"

Diana made a pleasantly charged smile at him. "No, actually, just wanted to see if you were busy this morning."

"My schedules have been, uh," he tried to find the right words for it, "fairly flexible as of late."

"Oh great! Batman was here yesterday and asked me if I could test your abilities, seeing how you're in the team for the moment."

Luke inclined his head a bit towards her, "He was here yesterday?" She nodded, "He couldn't ask me himself or even say hello?"

She shrugged, "He comes and goes but doesn't really stay here for long. His duty in Gotham usually takes away time from here. And, well…I think he's still not over how we have a new member." The smile on her face faltered a bit, "Especially since Superman is gone."

Luke didn't outright say anything but understood by his expression. Grief is such a difficult process and one Luke knew too. This Batman doesn't seem to be that trusting towards the Jedi, everyone in the League has talked to Luke after his recruitment, all but Batman. Luke wasn't going to force a mutual understanding between them any time soon; he could only let his acts tell the caped crusader that Luke could be trusted.

Regarding the team wanting to comprehend Luke's abilities better, he saw no reason to be against it. If he was going to partake in whatever roles they would do, either situation de-escalation, crime apprehension, crowd control, or just plain battle, having to know what he could and could not do was a need.

He replied, "I think I understand, and it's not a problem if we do some tests," he moved back a bit, "Let me get ready for a quick second."

"No problem." She said,

The door slid back over to close behind him. He did the necessary hygiene and care before dressing in his black tunic and boots. Attaching the lightsaber to his belt, he went out again. Diana, now leaning next to a wall, walked to Luke as they both headed to the Watchtower's training room.

Large in terms of height and width, the training room, without the holographic features, was a simple cubed-shaped space with dull hull plating. With the holographic training sequences, it can take the form of any environment in great detail. This didn't come as a great shock to Luke, Multispectrum suites—advanced hologram technology—were used by his Galaxy, though in lesser numbers, due to its high cost. It was also primarily used for espionage and hidden surveillance.

What texts he had that put into detail about the Jedi Temple on Coruscant said how there was a training dojo that was able to cast holographic Sith Lords of the past for Jedi trainees to spar with. It was an interesting and great achievement on Earth's part that they had this technology, even if it's not totally known and available.

The entrance of the training room coming close now, Luke asked Diana a question, "What exactly do you want to start with?"

Diana gave his question some time in thought, then replied with a thin smile that betrayed her expression of excitement within her. "How about your sword talents."

"My lightsaber? What interests you about it?"

"The way you used to take down Lobo," she explained with some admiration, "And doing that mess in Metropolis. All of that shows you're definitely an above-average swordsman."

"Well, I learned from the best," Luke replied with an honest reaction, and he did learn from the best in a strange and unorthodox way.

Ahsoka Tano had said before that Master Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi were some of the best lightsaber duelists in the old order. If not the best of all time, then definitely in their era, Luke's father was also a great Lightsaber master. With Luke's journey to Jedi Knighthood giving thanks to them, one would think that he had the best training sessions regarding Obi-Wan's calm Soresu or Yoda's energetic Ataru. But that wasn't the case.

Obi-Wan never really did teach Luke that much about how to handle a lightsaber, seeing how it was just a couple of days under his tutelage. Yoda did give him some insights, but those teachings were more aligned with Luke connecting to the force rather than learning combating techniques. Funnily enough, Luke learned more about lightsabers with his duel against his father in Bespin than he did with Obi-Wan or Yoda. In fact, Luke took most elements of Vader's techniques, mainly because of how no one else was around to actually teach him.

Luke definitely grew his skills at the lightsaber after Cloud City and it showed it during his final battle against his father. Years later, Luke searching the galaxy of old Jedi lore brought more lightsaber forms that he never even heard of. Shii-Cho, Makashi, Shien, Niman, and one that he was still trying to learn, Vaapad. Yet, with him being outside of his galaxy and what little notes of that form remained on Ossus, that was a difficult lesson.

He was confident in his lightsaber skills, for sure, but he still knew that total mastery was a long way to go.

Diana answered to Luke, "You handled yourself admirably. But we won't know how good you are until we test you."

"If that's what needs to happen." Told the Jedi Knight just when they were at the doors of the training room. "Then I won't argue."

The sliding doors opened for them, Diana and Luke entered the expansive training area. No projections were online, so the boxy, grey metallic hull was all seen. When the doors slide back to the closed position, Luke asks Diana, "You don't mind if I warm up, do you?"

"Go ahead," she said, then pulled out her sword that was sheathed onto her side the entire time, "I was gonna offer the choice anyway. Can't have stiff arms and shoulders." She tilted her head to the side and cracked it. "Ah, that was needed."

Luke laughed softly and went to a corner of the training area. Going into a cross-legged position on the floor, shut his eyes, and meditated for a considerable amount of time. Diana started her own warm-up routine, doing her own katas, practice swings, and stretchings. At first, she gave Luke a questioning look at his mediation but heaved her shoulders, occasionally giving glances at curiosity.

After swinging her sword a few times, she paused and glanced at him. "Hey, Luke." He broke his communion into the Force and opened his eyes. "Can I ask you something?"

"I don't mind." Luke calmly answered

"What's the reason for meditating?" She asked with genuine interest and minor confusion.

Seeing Diana being truthfully curious, he took a brief moment to explain it to himself in his head, then spoke to them. "The mind is just as important as the body. Exercising your thoughts and mind is a great way to improve yourself emotionally and mentally." He explained, "It's all about finding the balance within yourself."

Diana gave his answer some thought but seemed perplexed about it, "I do know that, well…at least the health of our minds. But there are other ways of doing that, meditation seems so…" she trailed off, and Luke answered for her with no hint of offense.

"Boring?"

"Not how I would describe it, but yes."

"Meditation is not for everyone." He said. "And there are other ways of meditating than this," he gestured to himself and his seated position. "For example, when you practice with your sword, Do you find it comforting?"

Diana made a surprising look that seemed like she realized something new when she always had it. "Come to think about it, yeah." She glances at her sword still in her head. "It feels so instinctive practicing my drills."

"Then that could be considered another form of meditation." Luke supplied a commentary. "If you feel more balanced and relaxed doing so, then well, you're meditating. Just in a different way, of course."

With a new way of thinking, Diana nodded as she then made another question. "You think you could show me how to meditate?"

The Jedi Knight had a warm smile and offered a spot next to him. "You're free to join me, who knows," he speculated, "You might just like it."

Taking the spot next to him in front of Luke, Diana puts her sword onto the side next to her and puts herself cross-legged. The Amazon did her best to copy Luke's posture and demeanor, putting her hands on her knees, straightening her back, and closing her eyes with no purpose.

He held back laughter when he saw her struggling a bit and really not understanding the subject. He assumed that the culture of Themiscyria doesn't really have anything similar to meditation, or in any form for that matter.

Correcting Diana with a gesture that showed her to stop, he said, "That's not exactly how you do it. No one is saying you can't, but you're not going to get a whole lot out of it, either. Here, let me show how I usually do it." Diana took note of Luke's words and tried to fix her posture, which seemed more discomforting than relaxing. "First, find a position that's most comfortable to you, not how you see how I am."

She made a nod of understanding, going out of her cross legged and into a kneeling position, knees on the metallic floor, hands on them. He had a look of approval and, sensing herself getting a good place to start, he continued. "Next, don't be so tense, this is supposed to be uplifting and washing away the negative aspects." He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. "…relax."

It took a minute for Diana to actually untense her body; her back became less rigid, her shoulders lossend, and she breathed more deeply and slowly as she did what Luke advised. After sensing that she was calmer and less stressed, he only said, "Now, simply remove yourself from everything that has been and will be, you are here; no past to regret, no future, just yourself."

There was a pause of silence, Luke communed to the greater currents of force, submerging himself within its shifting flow. He let himself get carried by the swirling rapids. Barely in his physical body, he heard a voice call out to him in a disappointed tone with a huff, "I don't think I'm getting this Luke." Traveling back within himself, he recognized the voice as Diana's. She had a face that looked impatient. "I don't have your force, so it might be just different for me," she tried to theorize.

He closed back his eyes, not giving anything else a second thought. "You don't need to feel the force to find your inner self, Diana." He said it without making it seem a chastization. "What you just need is patience for yourself. My first mentor told me this meditation and I never got it right at the start either, but all that this does is to center yourself and get rid of your negative energy. He never really gave it a name, but I call it Heji Tal."

"So I'm not supposed to think of anything else right now?" She sounded unsure.

He lightly shrugged, "That is how I usually meditate, but you feel the need to reflect on the past or speculate on the future with no judgment, you're allowed to."

Given guidance, she re-closed her eyes and breathed at a relaxed pace. Time passed before any of them talked, Luke plainly let go of himself, merely letting his spirit float in the force like how one can be buoyed in an ocean.

With Luke's presence largely in the Force, he felt Diana's state of emotions and thoughts at a greater scale. Diana's journey of centering herself was more fixated on the past and future rather than the present. Grief and the pain of loss buffered against his calm center, knowing well that her loss of her friend was still latching onto her, but that was a small ripple compared to the massive struggle in her.

It was feelings of frustration and discontent gripping her heart when she wouldn't acknowledge it. Feelings of silent and almost invisible intimacy to another person, a person that wouldn't openly express the same thing, even when both were feeling the same thing to one another.

It wasn't certainly love, as he would put it, yet it was a strong affection that can definitely turn into it when properly cared for.

Coming back to himself, he noted that she was more relaxed now, though attaching herself to those feelings heavily and tunnel visioning at the memories that caused them and future ones that can happen. "There's something in your mind," he asked with sympathy, "If I can assume correctly?"

Wonder Woman's reaction was a quick opening of her eyes and her face going into a surprised look that betrayed her emotions. She said, and almost admittedly said, "Is it that obvious?"

"That depends," replied Luke, "Your emotions aren't well protected when thinking about it, but then again, you do give some hints that don't help your case."

"Like what?!" She defensively shouted, though not totally serious.

He recollected for a moment, then said, "Considering what you and Hawkgirl talked last week about Batman's identity, you seemed very protective and offended when I suggested he was Lex Luthor."

"That's because it was slander!" She snapped. "Comparing Batman to that thug is disrespectful and false." Diana got calmer and seemingly reminisced goodly, "Batman is one of the most honorable men I've come to know on this planet. He is astoundingly brave despite all of the threats we've faced, resilient to whatever throws at him, better skilled than most Amazons I've known, brilliantly smart."

The words afterward became more appreciated, warm even while looking at the ground, as if she was indeed gazing at Batman. "He can be funny when you don't know it, kind when no one is watching, he deeply cares for everyone, he has the best smile and eyes and…" she stopped when the leading words would have been horribly obvious and heavy on its implications..

She darted her head out of horror when she realized that Luke was, still indeed, listening, as though she had forgotten he was there. Luke was grinning at her, and Diana started to blush red. "I think there's a saying that's appropriate for right now," he teased in jest, "The mask slips if I'm not mistaken." He inclined his head a bit, "Is there a thing you want to talk about?"

Her face was getting red; she had a face of consideration but, after the time of thought, shook her head. "No, I'm fine, Luke, it's just uh…it's nothing really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"It seems to be bothering you quite a bit."

"It's nothing, Luke," she started to get firmer.

"To me, it felt it wasn't just nothing. Maybe you should–"

"Luke, I'm!..." Diana quickly snapped at Luke but, just as fast, caught herself from continuing. Taking a breath to steady her nerves, she apologized honestly, "No, I'm fine, Luke, trust me. I'm sorry for that and appreciate your concern, but I can handle myself."

Regretting of pushing Diana despite not wanting to rouse her emotions, he nodded and had an apology of his own. "I understand, and I didn't mean to push anything."

Diana signed, "No, you're fine, Luke, you were just concerned." after pausing and wanting to end the awkward moment, she went to her feet and said, somewhat getting into a lighter mood, "Let's have that duel we've talked about."

Returning a smile, he got up, too, grabbing his lightsaber in his cybernetic hand. "Alright, if you insist." Both walked towards the middle of training at an equal distance. "Ground rules?" He asked.

Wonder Woman made a wondering face as she placed her non-sword hand on her hip. Making an answer, she nodded to herself. "How's this, we both don't use all of our powers. I don't use my full strength or flight," she gestured to him, "And you don't use your force to levitate me off the ground or throw things at me."

Luke nodded to accept the terms of engagement. "Fair enough." He looked down into the lightsaber and turned the weapon onto the low power setting. That way, if he hits Diana on purpose, it wouldn't proceed to dismemberment. He breathed in, letting the force flow through him, readying himself in a Soresu stance, he breathed out and activated his Jedi weapon. "I'm ready," he calmly told her. Diana, with great anticipation edging in the contours of her face, got to her own ready stance. Her blade was at a high guard stance.

Neither moved at first, Luke's lightsaber hummed within the space of time that seemed infinite. His precognition warned of a horizontal sweeping attack, and she blurred towards Luke. Anticipating it, he swung his lightsaber to intercept hers, matching her speed. Blades met, energy and supernatural metal clashed, and sparks emitted out of the intersection. Her attack was powerful, strong enough for Luke to pour more force energy into his muscles in an attempt to compensate.

She followed her unsuccessful attack with a low thrust to his midsection; he parried it with a swirl of his lightsaber by a flick of a wrist that fanned emerald energy. When noting that her effort at a quick victory ceased with a deflection of his lightsaber, she quickly went forth a series of heavy strikes made to pummel Luke into submission. He intercepted, blocked, and varied all of the swings he could manage physically; the ones that were overwhelming, he quickly dodged and sidestepped.

She ended the assault when her current strategy wasn't working. Diana backtracked a few steps a bit to review the situation as Luke stayed in his defensive posture. With all of her attacks a failure, she studied Luke carefully, cautious of his blade work. She got a smile of eagerness and enjoyment, seemingly liking the challenge.

Gauging his Soresu style the best she could, she readied her blade and attacked again. Luke defended himself from the swarm of attempted cuts. This time, however, there were more thrusts and jabs, trying to control his movement and undermine his defense. In one of her attacks, she lunged toward him, with one hand, thrust her sword to hit his side. Luke, sensing the attempt to flank him, switched to a backhanded grip on that side and then countered the attack.

From the marriage of the energy blade and alloyed sword, it birthed sparks and crackled. Physical might and force-imbued strength were put to the test when she pressed further to go against his side. His lightsaber close to his hip, he was straining at the contest of strength while she seemed more annoyed rather taxed that her flanking attack failed.

He ended the meeting of the blades when he tilted his lightsaber towards her, by shifting upwards and towards her, he could strike at her hand that held her sword and win the round. She perceived the subtle counterattack just by a hair and quickly rolled back a few meters.

Breathing in needed air, he still had his green lightsaber in her direction. Diana had an even more focused look to her, eyes pointing at his footwork, hand placement of his hilt, and postures. The grin returned, and she put her sword to the side and said out of concession, "I definitely wasn't expecting to have this much fun, are you?"

He shrugged, "I'm enjoying it as much as I can."

"Good, because I don't want it to end anytime soon yet. It's been a while since I had a good challenge." Diana charged.

Blows were exchanged, and flickers of sparks burst from brief connections that happened nearly instantaneously. If a baseline human watched the sparring, it would be almost staggeringly too fast to comprehend. Diana changed her tactics, mixing the emphasis between exaggerated sweeps, stabbing thrusts, and any feint to confuse her opponent.

Luke made a storm of lightsaber swings, blocks and parries, having subtle movements into his every evasion. His ever-moving green energy wall of defense didn't surrender to her strength and speed, he either deflected, parried or even deterred the Amazon's attacks. In this, Luke's senses of Shatterpoint reached into the heroine to discover any weakness.

An esoteric talent that even the old Jedi had few notes of, Shatterpoint was the ability to perceive weaknesses in people or objects. Advanced masters of the ability were said to interpret entire crack lines in timelines and events to know their weak points and to be able to change the flow of events within a decision.

Physically, the Amazon had very few weak points to really take advantage of, there were, however, faults within her fighting style that he might've been able to exploit and override. But her attacks had been relentless, her full commitment to blinding assaults had not let Luke actively pursue the openings she had.

He had to wait it out, let her expend her energy and focus, and let her frustrations weaken her resolve. Then when she makes a mistake, that is when his blow will come up, as that was the core philosophy of Soresu. He was a strong tree rooted in the ground, defying the raging typhoon of swings and cuts that was Diana's assault.

The barrage of flurries and thrusts never stopped its pace, continuing to glide and bounce off Luke's barrier of lightsaber parries and blocks like water flowing off a rock. Minutes passed, and the unstoppable force of Diana's attacks clashed against Luke's unmovable defense. The fatigue that started to creep into his body was washed away when he poured more force energy into himself. The Amazon's annoyance continued to snowball, from a smile to tighter lips, and then it got to a face of grimacing.

At the height of her assault, an opening revealed itself, and Luke took the opportunity. He stepped out from the tranquil trance-like state of Soresu to the hardened focus of the Djem So. The counter-attack was surprising for her, ceasing her offensive style to a one-handed one, caught in a back foot.

Instead of becoming one with the force, letting the currents move his body where it needed to be, he channeled that energy to his resolve. He made overhand blows, large slashes, and swings against Diana, drawing the force into his muscles for maximum damage. Amazon, however, managed to take the beating. Some made her stagger, but no attack was the devastating one that the technique was supposed to have. She absorbed each swing, if she weren't supernaturally strong, then she would have crumbled.

One strike was brought down with his full might to bear; she blocked it head-on, and the two blades were locked in a bind. Luke groaned and struggled to push for any ground. The amount of leverage he got for pushing his blade forward was minimal at best; he wasn't going to win this wrestling match.

Diana, bringing a considerable amount of her own strength, ended the bind by pushing Luke with her sword. Luke braced all that he could but staggered backward. When composing himself, the Amazon was already committed to a continued offensive that saw her blade be put onto his shoulder before he could counter.

Neither moved, Diana's sword stayed perfectly still on his shoulder, nearly resting on it. Luke only looked at the Amazon, and she didn't hide the pleasure of her victory. "I won." She announced.

The Jedi deactivated his lightsaber and both relaxed. "You did". He admitted while blowing out his breath. "That was intense, but it got me."

"Don't be so defeated," she assured him, "That was probably the most difficult duel I've ever had. I'm not used to holding back my strength, and even then, you would be fast enough to dodge it."

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it."

"I did, the only two of the team that really care about sword fighting are Hawkgirl and Batman, this was really refreshing for me."

Luke gestures between them, "Best out of three?"

Diana glances at Luke with a meaningful, mischievous smile. "You're on."

Both stepped back to their starting positions. As Diana did quick practice swings for a warmup, Luke put both knees on the floor for a quick meditation out of reflection. Allowing the flowing energies of the force to rejuvenate his aching muscles and wash away his fatigue, he analyzed Diana's fighting styles.

If he can assume that she was using the Amazon way of sword fighting, the Themiscryan style is an aggressive form, utilizing brute strength to fight and dominate the enemy. Though the devastating swings of the style may be thought to be lacking in precision, the inclusion of thrusts indicated that the form included moves that wanted the most damaging hits possible.

Going further, he can draw the best comparisons; the Amazonian fighting technique could resemble some comparisons to Djem So and a few elements of Makashi. Luke thought an appropriate response to the style was to start with Soresu, as it seemed to completely stonewall her, then when he had the opportunity, counter by Djem So counters. But the problem didn't lay in his skill or techniques; rather, it was that she was able to deal with the output he was throwing, not only that, she could double it onto him.

If strength wasn't going to win this next match, then something else would have to come.

In the midst of his transcended meditation, Diana suggested something to Luke, "Hey, maybe this time, get more aggressive."

He opened his eyes and met her gaze, "Not liking my caution?"

"I think you being cautious is fine," she objected, "In fact, it's more difficult to lay a hit on you because of that. It's just that I think you'll be great at attacking if you fully commit to it. You're actually great at it. Even if I didn't restrict my strength, you would still outspeed me."

Luke had processed what Diana was saying and nodded appreciatively, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." He caught up and handled his lightsaber.

"Ready?" She asked.

"I am." He activated his lightsaber and entered Soresu again.

She went to her own two-handed posture too. Both tensely stared into one another, waiting for one to strike first. Diana was the one with a charge that included an overhand strike. Luke deflected with a parry, and both blades clashed again, making the sounds of energy crash against the whistling of Amazonian metal were crackling in the training area.

The Jedi continued to keep himself on the defensive, not fully confronting her strength but instead keeping her at arm's length, making her hesitant to do an all-out assault. That familiar frustration entered the Amazon again, not happy that her attacks weren't penetrating his defenses.

When an opening let itself be shown by Luke's Shatterpoint, his Soresu was replaced by Ataru. He loaded his body with the force, letting the energy charge his cells. Blocking away a sideswing, he jumped in the air and attacked in mid-flight. The performance of an acrobatic leap surprised Diana, and Luke would almost have hit her in the upper chest if it weren't for her bracelets deflecting his attack. The silver bracelet being put in the way of his lightsaber and her chest made the green blade bounce off it, still, he did multiple attacks before landing back into the ground.

He didn't let up, once back on the ground, he made multiple near-blinding attacks that were just a swarm of attacks. Her defenses were overloaded, making her resort to using her bracelets to fend off Luke's assault. So much so that his flurries were nearly overwhelming her that there came a point where she didn't use her sword and utilized her bracelets, as it was more instinctual for her.

The Jedi Knight made the Amazon warrior retreat backward while trying to defend herself, though she fought tooth and nail for every step she surrendered to him. Luke increased his storm of an assault, making short leaps over her head and attacking mid-jump, quick lunges to the side.

His offensive peaking soon and the Amazon possibly thinking that she might not be able to endure the lightsaber barrage, she instigated a counter strike of her own before her defense wore out. She forcefully made their blades lock into a bind and pushed closer to him by increasing her strength. Luke used all of the full imbued strength he could muster to escape, but the Amazon wasn't letting up. She pushed Luke backward, forcing him to lean backward.

Realizing that Diana was focusing on dominating him rather than paying attention to her defenses, Luke renewed his assault. While both of them had all hands on their blades for maximum power and strength, he willingly slipped his right robotic hand forward, aiming directly at her face. He put full power and speed into his arm, driving the empty palm of his gloved hand to the lower portion of her face.

The integrated punch surprised her, and there was no time to raise her bracelet to counter, the smack crashed to her face, snapping her head back by the impact. If she were a normal human, if the punch didn't outright kill her, then it would surely have cracked the front of her skull or paralyzed her. If anything, it would've been a sharp pain that would have knocked her focus off, and that it did.

The results came fast, Diana disengaged the bind and staggered back, cupping her mouth in pain. When she faltered backward, Luke kept the assault on, reading a power strike against her. Diana quickly recovered but not fully, losing her precision for a moment, she performed a sweep before he could put to bear his strike. Sensing the preemptive attack on his torso, he jumps into the air, though not that highly. He lifted his legs and his body in the air just enough so that when the flat end of her blade was directly below him, he could put his feet together, use it as a solid base to propel himself, and jump onto the swinging blade.

In the somersault, he targeted her arms that were outstretched by her overcommitted counterattack. Alarmed by the sudden burst of speed that she barely discovered and in a desperate defense, she quickly dropped her sword and did her best to stop the lightsaber from hitting her arm by raising one bracelet to stop it.

The lightsaber glided off the bracelet, but it did not bounce off, Luke guided it off to the side. He kept the momentum. However, it was not enough to have it ricochet back once it touched the bracelet. The lightsaber flew to the side, leaving the bracelet and connecting her elbow. Green energy hits her skin and Luke pushes it where it would have cut off her entire right arm if at full power. Luke finished the attack when he fully touched the arm and went back to the ground. Diana's reaction to the low-power lightsaber hit instantly, yelling, "Ow!" And comforting the elbow.

The Jedi went back up and saw his handy work; he deactivated his lightsaber. "I guess I have that round."

Hissing at her wound, she gave him a defeat nod, "I'll give it to you, you're good."

"Round three?"

She stopped rubbing her inflicted burn mark as if Luke's question healed it, and she smirked. "This time, I won't be holding back," she grabbed her sword off the floor, "And I expect you to do the same too."

The Jedi Knight had a friendly chuckle, "Alright then."

Both regained their composure and started into their familiar stances. Luke doesn't normally enjoy lightsaber combat very much, with the lack of a sparring partner that wasn't a droid and the notion of Jedi not supposed to hope for a violent altercation. But fighting someone with her strength and skills admittedly makes this match fun.

Alas, the fight will have to wait, the Watchtower's klaxons screamed throughout the station, including in the training room. Their swords dipped at the commotion when J'onn announced to them through the intercom. "Wonder Woman, Skywalker! You're needed at the control center!"

Both Jedi and Amazon understandably looked into each other. "Wanna put a lid on this?" She asked.

"Looks like it." He agreed.

She sheathed her sword, he turned off his lightsaber and both dashed out of the training room and into corridors. "Wanted to ask," Diana told Luke during their run to the control center. "At some point, could you teach me your defense style?"

He trained his head to Diana, sincerely taken aback, "You want to learn about Soresu?"

"If that's what you call it, then sure!"

"What makes you so interested in it?"

She shrugged, both still running, "I've noticed that the way you defended yourself was more form, every time I made a strike, you fended it off perfectly. And I say when you attack, I wasn't that great at keeping your speed at bay. Maybe we can benefit each other."

Luke smiled back, "I'll be honored to, and as a trade-off, you could teach me your Themiscryan technique."

"Sounds like a deal." She answered.

When the turbo-lift was coming up, both entered it and pressed the button to send them to the control center. "Who knows." Luke said while the lift darted upwards, "Maybe I could see your island and view the knowledge and wonders it has to get a better understanding of it."

Diana smiled in appreciative type, "That would be great," her smile somewhat left her, "But I'm still exiled from there, even then, no man is allowed on the island."

"I'm sure that if given the chance, I could speak to your mother and change her mind."

She shortly laughed a bit, "My mother would have a ranting fit about bringing another man onto the island, Artemis and my sisters would just try and slice you up. Eh, maybe it's the best for now."

The lift slowed down, "I suppose so." He admitted.

Both exit the lift doors when the doors open. They went straight to J'onn, the green Martian operating on the console. He turned his head back to them, "It's good that you're both here."

Diana asked. "What's up, J'onn?"

"There's trouble in Metropolis," he answered while pulling up a video on a monitor, "Metallo, Bizzaro, and Parasite are rampaging through the city."

The video feed shown on the boxy monitor was an overhead camera by a news crew helicopter. Angled downward at a city street, the crew captured footage of, as J'onn explained, Metallo the cyborg, Bizzaro, the crazed clone of the late Superman, and Parasite, the man who can absorb people's life energy into his own spinning chaos. Though Luke was briefed on previous super criminals that the League had entangled with, it was surprising to see the clone throw cars with no purpose or the purple parasitic man brush off bullets fired by Law enforcement.

This planet gets weirder by the day.

"I guess we'll use the Javelin then?" He asked both Leaguers.

"Indeed," J'onn confirmed, "We three should be able to handle them." He ran towards the lift with Luke and Diana closely behind.

Coincidentally, the lift doors opened, and R2-D2 went out of it as he beeped toward Luke while getting out of their way. "We got a mission, Artoo," Luke told his astromech companion, "Hold down the fort."

The droid complied with an electronic whistle, and the lift doors closed. The fast-moving turbo-lift showed them to the hangar, where a Javelin was already prepared for takeoff. They entered it and sent the ship flying towards space.

Entering Earth's atmosphere, J'onn was flying the Javelin as Diana sat in the copilot seat with Luke seated behind. "Is the plan the same as before?" He pressed.

"As usual, apprehend the criminals and ensure the safety of the civilians," J'onn responded.

Diana furthered the conversation with a suggestion. "It might be best if I handle Bizzaro," he looked at J'onn, "J'onn gets Parasite," then at Luke, "And Luke gets Metallo."

Metallo, a former gun for hire, was reconstructed into a deadly cyborg, blurring the line between man and machine, more so than Luke's father or the infamous CIS general, Grievous. Powered by a shard of radioactive Kryptonite, the former remnants of Superman's homeworld, the cyborg was known to be very powerful and was part of Superman's top rivals.

"Got it." Luke acknowledged.

"Remember," J'onn warned as Metropolis was coming into view and the part of the city that was under siege was obvious by the columns of smoke. "Metallo's entire carapace is composed of a nearly indestructible alloy; your lightsaber might find it difficult to penetrate it."

Wonder Woman continued, "The best way is probably removing the Kryptonite in his chest," she advised, "He won't be able to move once it's gone."

The Jedi Knight pulled his lightsaber to full power and nodded to her, "I understand."

The ship was brought hovering above the Street where the super criminals were conducting those nefarious activities, the trio went onto the boarding. J'onn wished the best of them all, "Good luck."

Luke applied back to all three of them. "May the force be with us."

J'onn and Diana flew downward, going after their assigned targets, Luke jumped and let the force catch his fall. Watching Diana and J'onn pursue the Bizzaro clone and Parasite; Luke saw that Metallo, most likely considering the heavy amounts of armored policemen around, was held up in a nearby bank. Local enforcement and their special attachment, the Special Crimes Unit, donned in their black and grey combat armor, surrounded the stone building behind their police vehicles, aiming their rifles and pistols at the double wooden doors.

The Jedi Knight entered the crowd of law enforcement, some noticing the blonde walking into the blockade and trying to stop him. One went up to him with three others behind, and he grabbed Luke by the shoulder, "Hey man, what the hell you think you're doing! This is a—"

Luke waved a hand nonchalantly, "You all will let me pass."

The lead officers said to his comrades, "We will let him pass."

"You will continue on your current objective."

The officer looked back at his group, "We will go on with our objective."

Luke ended with, "You serve your city well."

"We serve our city well." The officers who confronted Luke expressed their satisfaction and forgot of his existence in this blockade.

They returned back to their positions while Luke was sent deeper to the police formation. It was at least three layers deep, made up of men and women armed with deadly weapons. Regardless, Luke sensed their anxieties pressed against him.

In the front row of the formation, issuing commands and orders for officers, was a woman with light blonde, short hair, a short brown trench coat, and short black boots. She passed herself as a woman who didn't dare concede to the situation, no matter how dire it was and the resources she lacked.

Luke calmly went beside her, with the woman busy giving out commands, she barely noticed Luke up until he said. "You Inspector Sawyer?"

The woman jumped, quickly snapping her attention to Luke and making a face that was part scowl, part surprised, and part confused. "What the?! Who the hell are you?!" She created a reprimanding gaze at her subordinates, "Who let this guy through the damn police line!"

Before her officers could respond and take Luke off the site, he fished a Justice League Identification card from his pocket and offered it to her. "My name is Luke Skywalker, and I'm with the Justice League, Inspector."

The woman paused for a second and swiped the plastic card off his hand. Studying it for a moment, she went back and forth between looking at him and at the card. Then, recognition came to her eyes. "Hey, you're that Green Warrior guy."

Luke's reaction was dumbfounded, "You're Pardon?"

"Yeah, that's what the press is calling you after dealing with those psychos last week." She got skeptical, "You're supposed to be the League's replacement for Superman." She gauged him down and up, "Can't say I'm impressed."

"Great," he complained to himself, "They got a nickname for me."

"I'm not anyone's replacement, Inspector." Luke stated, "And looks can be deceiving."

She eased her temperament, but her skepticism still lingered. "Yeah, you're right, Inspector Sawyer of MPD's Special Crimes Unit." She introduced herself. "I guess I should be thankful that the League's here?"

Luke drew his attention to the entrance of the bank. "Is one of the criminals inside?"

"You mean the Terminator knockoff, Metallo? Yeah."

The Jedi Knight nodded affirmatively. "If there are no civilians in the area, hold your positions," he started walking on the steps, "I'll take a try to make dialogue with Mister Corben."

"Alright, that will…" Inspector Sawyer trailed off before realizing something that surprised him. "Wait," she said, and Luke stopped walking to turn to her. "You're just gonna talk to him?" Sawyer's question was genuine.

"If I can," he said, "If it's a way to avoid a violent confrontation, then I'll take the risk." Luke then asked her a question of his own. "Does the Metropolis Police Department not regularly negotiate down criminals?"

The police inspector and lead of the SCU heaved her shoulders with an honest answer, "With the number of crazies we deal with on a regular basis, negotiations from the start are just a legal formality."

"At least you're honest, inspector." He then continued walking up the slanted steps and onto the flat level, where just several meters ahead was the front entrance of the bank.

The emergency alarm could still be heard ringing inside, and there was indeed a movement, too, but he didn't sense any life. The only thing the force was describing to him was that there was trouble brewing. The sound of mechanical servos stomping towards the door caught his attention, following the startup of an energy surge.

An angry explosion erupted from the front entrance, sending debris and the double doors flying toward Luke's direction. A quick summoning of a force barrier caught the bits of shrapnel and chunks of brick and had them fall to the ground. The double doors would have had a straight course to crush Luke and the police formation, but he put up a hand, and the doors were caught mid-flight. A passive gesture to his side, and they were dropped off the side.

In the midst of the dust, smoke, and blazing fires that now made up the front of the bank came a figure. Luke saw the small green glow that came larger over time first. Stepping out of the shroud of smoke with bags of stolen money was a man definitely more machine than a normal man.

The man did have clothing—shoes, pants, and a plain yellow blouse—but the man's irregularities were laid on the right side of his body, mainly his face and torso. The left of the face was normal, fair skin and blonde hair, if not messy hair, but on the other side was a near-perfect droid replica of a human skull. The eyes of the droid part glowed an eerie green; the teeth almost cast an unmovable smile. The same alloy also made up the right side of his chest and arm, none having skin. By the way, the skin tissue and clothing were damaged, it almost seemed like it was ripped off.

The Jedi didn't sense the man's life force, which meant the man was actually a full machine, not a bio-droid Luke assumed.

The man, Mettallo, as he was normally referred to, walked out of the fuming smoke with a smile of self-accomplishment on the skin part of his face. "Ha ha, ohhh it's great to do this without blue bo—" the moment Metallo's vision was clear from oily smoke was the moment when he saw the Jedi Knight standing unharmed by the explosion. "Oh bugger, you're that new Leaguer that's supposed to replace Superman."

Luke didn't reveal his annoyance over people making great assumptions and falsified ideas about him; he sure learned that in recent years to ignore it. "I am new to the league," Luke told the man-droid, "I'm no one's replacement, and you're John Corben if I'm correct."

Metallo gleefully smiled, "In the indestructible metallic flesh, and may I say, congratulations on the new promotion."

"Thank you," Luke faked the friendly gesture, "And may I say thank you to yourself for saving those people's hard-earned money." A hand wave commanded the bags of money to escape from Metallo's exoskeleton grip.

"What the?!" Metallo exclaimed and tried to regain his stolen prizes, but the bags flew too quickly, and they landed right next to Inspector's feet. The droid shot an icy stare at Luke, what was left of his face contorted to rage.

"Now," Luke calmly gestured to the police formation, "If we can settle this by a talk, I think we both would benefit from it."

Metallo gave no ground, "I should take back the congratulations," he said sinisterly with his imposter hand and robotic hand clenching, "And the League should open a new hiring position again, they wouldn't want what's left when I'm through with you!" He charged robotic arm cocked back to jab a hole through Luke's chest.

The Jedi dodged the attack almost effortlessly, ducking the first strike, and when Metallo realized this and tried to kick him, Luke backflipped and stretched his hand to send a massive telekinetic force to the droid. Metallo, caught off guard, yelled in surprise as he flew straight backward and fast.

He flew parallel to the street, to the side of the police formation, and landed in an abandoned truck, crashing in the trailer. By the sheer power of the force throw with the addition of Metallo's most likely heavy weight, the impact made the truck shake from its axis before teetering and finally falling on its side.

Luke went to the part of the police line that was closest to the truck with Inspector Sawyer running behind. Law enforcement officers retrained their aim at the truck, expecting Metallo to come rampaging out. The Jedi faced Sawyer, "You're not gonna do any good with those weapons, Inspector, it's best if you have your men evacuate and make sure the entire block is free from civilians."

The blonde woman made a sour look at Luke, almost taking offense. "Since when did the MPD take orders from the League and especially from you?"

Before any response could be made by Luke, the truck frame that Metallo crashed into was ripped open like tissue paper. A fuming Metallo exited as he made a gaping hole in the truck. Police and special armored teams opened fire; projectiles consisting of semiautomatic and automatic whizzed in the air to hit the angered droid. All bounced off, not doing anything noteworthy.

A compartment in his chest opened, and a glowing green rock formation was shown. Energy dazzled around it and then charged into a tight, high-intensity beam that was aimed at Luke's and Sawyer's direction. Immediately, Luke's lightsaber was shot into his glove hand, igniting the blade, he went forward of Sawyer and deflected the heavy continuous beam. The angle at which he sent it made the deflecting beam target an unoccupied building that exploded within impact.

The beam itself was heavy, making Luke groan as he put his strength into stopping his body from being pushed back. Sawyer and the rest of the officers barely had time to perceive the whole ordeal, when they registered that Mettallo returned fire, most took cover while others made futile attempts to keep volley fire.

Luke turned his head with his face strained to Sawyer, "This isn't exactly a situation you might be able to do anything, Inspector!" He answered her question.

Sawyer nodded in concession, "Okay, yeah, you're right." She then delivered orders to clear the area quickly. Officers stopped firing at Metallo, and all the policemen and women left the formation of vehicles behind.

Now, it was just him and Metallo.

Luke put strength into his body, going against the weight of the beam going down to his blade, and pushed forward. He pushed himself closer and closer as the beam continued to bombard his direction. Metallo saw that his energy assault wasn't working on the Jedi, so he increased the intensity of the green beam. The laser grew larger and hotter, and Luke was pushed back some more but did not falter. He continued to deflect the beam, and pushed once more.

The expression of annoyance came to Metallo's left face when that didn't work either. Luke angled the lightsaber to where the deflecting beam faced the barraging beam that created it. With one quick snap of the lightsaber, the beams intersected into a ball of swirling energy.

The conflicting streams of green energy combusted into a large ball of light just as bright as a star. An explosion occurred, the shockwave blowing away Metallo and Luke Skywalker back. The reverberations send loose debris and vehicles flying and crashing in the street and surrounding buildings. Metallo crashed against a brick wall, causing him to be stuck. Luke landed hard on top of the hood of a police cruiser.

The painful impact stunned Luke for a considerable amount of moments, letting out a gasp of pain. A rib had to be at least fractured. When he gathered himself and turned his head in Metallo's direction, he saw the droid get off the wall and began stomping his way towards Luke. The Jedi tanked through the pain, noticing that his lightsaber was far to the side, separated from Luke by the intense explosion. He saw a lamppost next to the coming Metallo, and he crushed the bottom of it with the force. The base of the structure warpped within itself, and gravity did its magic. It fell on top of Metallo, temporarily confining him to the street floor.

Groaning out of the sharp pain in his back, Luke got off the car hood and issued the lightsaber back to his hand. It shot out of the rubble and into his cybernetic hand, he activated it and dashed forward to the trapped droid. Metallo busted out of the lamppost, ripped half of it, and was going to use it to swat the incoming Jedi with it.

When Metallo made the first swing, Luke responded with a strike of his own and the lightsaber cut the lamppost in half, sending part of it skittering to the side. Metallo struck again, and the same thing happened twice, with the lamppost being shorter. He tried it three times over after that last attempt, backtracking and trying to keep the Jedi at bay, but after the fifth swing, the part of the lamppost that Metallo gripped was the only part left.

Metallo snarled, throwing the bit of metal only to have Luke cut that one too. The droid charged and raised both arms to crush Luke. The Jedi raised his lightsaber to block, and when the robotic arm was put down, the lightsaber halted it. Metallo, the metal alloy that made up the droid, was said to be indestructible. Naturally, there were few elements of Luke's galaxy that could stop a lightsaber blow apparently the alloy Metallo was.

Sparks raged out of the meeting of Metallo's arms and Luke's green lightsaber. The pressure of the droid's mechanical might was starting to increase, making Luke bend back. Then, Luke spotted something. The robotic arm that was free of fake flesh of Metallo's was the arm that connected to the lightsaber, with the other behind it to apply pressure. The green beam of energy was slowly digging into the robotic arm. He guessed that it wasn't truly lightsaber-resistant after all.

Metallo saw this, too and gasped. He disengaged the brawl by stepping back and saw the damage. The lightsaber made a narrow slice into the silver carapace of Metallo's forearm; the metal glowed red hot. If that's the case, then a heavy strike of the lightsaber could penetrate Metallo's frame casing.

Metallo was boiling with rage, clenching his teeth, "Do you know how much this costs me?!" He pointed at the welded part of his arm. Luke didn't answer since Metallo's next step was to throw the nearest object, a motorbike, towards Luke. The Jedi sliced it into two and dashed towards the angered droid. Metallo didn't let up; he kept throwing debris and remnants of vehicles in a blind fury. But Luke avoided the danger by evading, slicing it into two, or using the force to bat it away.

When the Jedi got closer, and Metallo ran out of things to throw, the droid made a desperate attempt to put Luke at bay with punches and kicks. Either by evasion or by the deflection of his lightsaber, Luke defended himself as he kept charging at the backtracking droid. The lightsaber parried the robotic arms, making both weapons bounce off each other. The strength of Luke's strikes wasn't powerful enough to land a strike to cut off a limb or even penetrate the alloy.

Sensing a shatterpoint, he went out of himself to decipher the exploit. There were two exact, though technically in many. The first and the one that had multiple points were the small segmented spaces in between his hand and forearm; legs and knees—the joints—parts where the metal joints needed clearance to move, where a small section wasn't covered by the strong alloy. The second shatterpoint was the small compartment in Metallo's chest.

Luke took advantage of this knowledge, when Metallo raised a hand to crush his skull, Luke countered by a strike of Metallo's hand joint at—where one of the seems laid. A swirl of plasma slipped through into the space and cut the inner components that connected the hand to the arm. The hand fell to the ground in a clatter, and what used to be a right robotic arm was just a lump emitting smoke and heat.

Metallo stopped his assault and looked at his, sparking dismembered hand. "You…BASTARD!" A burst of speed from Metallo's left undamaged hand grabbed Luke by the neck and pressed him against a nearby car. The surprise knocked the lightsaber out of Luke's hand, the energy blade winking out, and Luke had to deal with a bloodthirsty droid and being choked.

Luke tried gasping for air but found little in the effort. The pressure on his neck increasing, Metallo yelled, "I hope the League has another replacement lined up for you!" He cocked his damaged arm and proceeded to lunge it forward.

The Shatterpoint within Metallo's chest called to Luke, calling to him in a way that came to be translated as, "Open me like this." And that is what Luke did. He reversed the polarity of the circuits, mechanisms, and components within Metallo's chest, creating sparks within the compartment following the seal releasing prematurely. The green rock that had to be kryptonite was revealed to Luke as the Shatterpoint screamed at him that was the weakness.

With a burst of speed of his own, the Jedi grabbed the green rock by his right hand into Metallo's chest, pulling the rock out of the torso. Sparks and wires flared out. The result was instant, just when the rock was pulled out and disconnected from his chest, the amputated arm that would have killed Luke by breaking his skull immediately ceased movement, just a hair from Luke's face. The metallic fingers that strangled Luke's throat also ceased. In fact, Metallo couldn't even move, stuck in the last place he commanded his droid body.

"What?" Metallo was flabbergasted with a noted struggle to voice past his frozen mouth. His eyes closed in the glowing Kryptonian rock in Luke's hand. "My…My Kryptonite battery! I can't move without it!"

Luke, feeling that being choked by unmoving hands was already uncomfortable enough, dazzled the circuitry in Metallo's figments that held Luke's throat. Ever so slightly, the finger released Luke's throat, and he dropped to the ground, comforting his sore throat. When getting up, Metallo begged Luke, still fixed at his original position. "Wait! Wait! Wait! You can't leave me like this!"

"You're right." Luke simply replied, "Let me put you in a more comfortable position." With one gentle tap of his gloved hand, Luke made the unmoving droid fall to the ground, still locked in his position.

"You bloody bastard! Get me up!" Metallo started to call out to Luke all sorts of obscenities.

The Jedi Knight ignored shouts and screams of Metallo when a group of Law enforcement and SCU led by Inspector Sawyer came back after the battle concluded. A squad of SCU armored personnel surrounded Metallo and proceeded to put him on an armored truck. Luke walked towards Sawyer, "I believe he won't be needing this anymore."

Dropping the handful of rock into her hand, newfound respect came to Sawyer, "Thanks…and uh sorry about the attitude earlier."

Luke smiled at the apologetic Inspector without making it seem prideful. "You don't have to apologize, Inspector, you were just skeptical."

A large explosion brought their short conversation to an end, Luke snapped his head toward the eruption and sensed that Diana was in danger. He was prepared to dash forward until Sawyer desperately grabbed his shoulder for his attention. "My god, man, you're bleeding."

Luke turned his head to see that she was concernedly staring at his back. He placed his flesh hand onto the spot she warned about and found wetness excreting from inside of his black tunic. When bringing his hand up forward to inspect it, he could already smell the iron protruding into his nostrils and saw the hand nearly covered in blood.

"Oh," Luke muttered out. That rib wasn't the only thing broken. He must've dulled his tolerance to pain to the point where he completely ignored it.

"Hey, we got medics here," Sawyer tried to guide him away from Wonder Woman's direction, "They'll be able to patch you up and—"

He gestured to her calmly to stop, "Thank you, Inspector Sawyer, but I wouldn't need a medic, you can put them to good use for someone else who actually needs it."

Luke caught Sawyer in a bewildered stare, "What?!" She let out, "You're bleeding like a cracked dam!" She pointed at his back and bloodied hand. "You need to get healed up."

"That's what I'm about to do." He kneeled to the ground, eyes closing. The force with him, expanded his perception within him. Feeling the rib broken, multiple bone fractures, and a gaping wound on his lower back. Nothing to scoff at, but he had deadlier injuries than this. Bringing healing energies to the wounds, he mended the bone fractures and sealed the gashing wound the fastest and best way he could.

Opening his eyes, he touched his back and found the hole sealed. Not fully healed, however, just enough to power through and help Diana in whatever situation she was in.

Lifting himself up, Luke didn't need to worry about blood spilling all over the place. Sawyer would have said another worried comment or perhaps even ordered Luke to see medical attention but she saw the wound relatively healed. "Hey, you just…wasn't that opened a minute ago?"

"It was," he confirmed and shot a smile at her, "Thank you for telling me."

"Uh, you're welcome?"

He nodded and ran full speed before she could make another comment. Dashing past wreckage and abandoned cars, it didn't take long for Luke to see the cause of the explosion he witnessed earlier. In a shallow crater in the street was Diana, wrestling against the hulking brute that was Bizzaro.

To say that Bizzaro was a "perfect clone" was very disingenuous. The Jedi had seen pictures and videos of Superman shown by members of the team; the man was definitely the pinnacle of near-human stature. Tall, muscular, big chin, he was more of a bodybuilder than a public servant. Bizarro shared the same characteristics but was more…twisted.

Skin pale as snow, sickly yellow eyes and crooked teeth, black messy, undone hair, and his posture seemed like he had problems walking, which, considering his origins, wasn't surprising. Cloned by the arch-nemesis of the late Superman, Lex Luthor, he was meant to be a test to see if his cloning technology could copy a non-human template. Luke, seeing the results, can tell that they were no Kaminoan cloners.

And despite the deficiencies down by the cellular level, the clone can still deliver attacks, fly, and do all the abilities that Superman had. At least the scientists did something right there.

Diana had her hands into the clones in a wrestling stalemate, fighting in a contest of strength with the Bizarro even though she was struggling to outmatch the clone. "Robot man said you, pretty lady, will be my girlfriend if I come!" The clones' words were choppy, but were insistent nonetheless. "Be my girlfriend!"

Straining under the strength of the faulty clone, Diana still held her ground the best she could, "Sorry," saying through clenched teeth, "But you're not exactly my type."

Bizzaro got massively offended by the rejection, "But a pretty lady is for Bizarro!" He cried out.

"If you stop trying to kill me, maybe then we'll talk."

Bizzaro cocked his head back, "Pretty woman is for Bizzaro! Like it or not like it!" He summoned a bludgeoning headbutt to Diana's face. The heavy impact crackled through the air and sent her to the ground. Bizzaro then prepared to follow through with a pummel by raising the arms over the concussed Amazon, but Luke surged a wave of force energy that blew back the clone. Bizarro, flying backward, confused, commented, "Hey! Where did the wind come from?" Then, he crashed into several abandoned cars.

The Jedi Knight went to Diana, helping her up as she rubbed the tender part of her forehead. "You alright?" Luke asked.

Groaning, she replied annoyingly, "I guess men can't really take 'no' for an answer."

Bizzaro enraged beyond belief, erupted out of the cacophony of broken vehicles, sending some flying as he roared out. Then, he made a huge jump towards them, taking him several meters closer to the duo. The ground shook as if an earthquake occurred, but Luke nor Diana staggered or held down.

Luke entered a defensive stance with his lightsaber activated, and Diana got into her own melee stance. "Does the clone happen to have the same weakness as Superman?" Luke asked as Bizzaro stomped over to them.

"No," Wonder Woman answered evenly, "I remember Superman talking about their cellular system being too different for Kryptonite to be his weakness."

At least he asked, otherwise they would have to get Sawyer back with the Kryptonite rock real soon. "Then we slug it out the hard way?"

Diana shrugged as the clone got closer, growling at the Jedi and Amazon. "Nothing wrong with the old-fashioned way."

The lightsaber dipped down a bit when another alternative came to mind in Luke. "They may not be necessary, actually." Diana eyed Luke curiously as he turned off his Lightsaber and calmly walked to meet Bizzaro with no sign of defending himself.

"Wait! Luke!" Diana cried out to stop the Jedi.

When Luke walked closer to Bizzaro as the clone cocked back his arm, Luke raised his hand and infiltrated the clone's messy and confused mind. Bizzaro paused when he was just an arm's length away, face no longer in visible anger but now in surprise. He snapped his head to his side in starstruck happiness. "Ice Cream?" The clone said to himself in mystified disbelief, then conjured a crooked yellow smile. "Ice Cream!"

With no regard for Luke or Diana, he ran, almost skipping in a childish, innocent way, to a white trailer truck his eyes targeted. Diana, disbelieving in her own way, walked to Luke's side as Bizzaro giggled and barely contained his joy. "Ice cream man! I want Rocky Road!" He stared straight at the wall of the trailer. Thinking that the imaginary confectioner gifted Bizzaro a dessert of a lifetime made him joy out, "Yaaay!" Tearing a piece of metal frame from the trailer, he put the shard into his mouth, making sounds and expressions as though it was the most delicious, delectable treat known to man.

The perplexed Diana looked at Bizzaro, then at Luke, back to Bizzaro, who was still munching on the metal open-mouthed, and finally back at Luke. "Really?" She criticized but not truly seriously, "You made him think that truck was an ice cream truck?"

Luke answered with a shrug, "I didn't make him think anything, I simply suggested that he was hungry."

"Well, could you at least 'suggest' that I'm not his girlfriend?"

Luke didn't hide his misfit smile, "I could, but who am I to judge young love?"

Diana shook her head and pointed a finger at him with a smile of her own, "When we get back at the Watchtower, I'm not gonna go easy on you on that last bout you still owe me." She walked off behind Bizzaro. The happy clone, still in belief that the ripped-off chassis of the truck was a frozen treat, licking and taking bites off it, didn't notice Diana behind him until she politely tapped him on the shoulder.

Pausing his happy hallucination, he turned his head to Diana and saw that she had her arm cocked back, "Did anyone tell you it's rude to eat with your mouth open?"

His response didn't come due to the fact that Diana threw a punch so hard to his face that he flew into the truck and turned the vehicle into rubble. His crash spewing debris and chunks of what used to be a truck, Bizzaro tried to get up, but Luke telekinetically had another semi-truck lift onto the ground and pinned the clone down. Bizarro, groaning in pain, lay defeated.

Going beside Diana, Luke looked around, "I'm guessing J'onn is in trouble too." And by happenstance, an apprehended Parasite wrapped in steel frames crashed meters behind them on the ground. Turning about to the crash, Diana and Luke saw a J'onn J'onzz, catching needed breath with a captured parasite at his feet. Apparently, his own fight wasn't easy either.

"Alright, I'm currently free to assist," he breathed out.

Both Luke and Diana trained their eyes back at the downed Bizzaro and back at J'onn, Diana was the one who replied, "I think we got it covered."

***​

After the criminals, Metallo, Bizzaro, and Parasite had been properly detained by the SCU and transported to appropriate containment cells on Stryker's Island, Luke, Diana, and J'onn helped the authorities with rescue efforts.

When completed and no more threats were apparent, Luke took Sawyer's offer of providing medical treatment in an ambulance. While being cared for by a medic, seeing how this was the first time conversing with local authorities, the Jedi Knight explained his past story and involvement with the league.

"So you're an alien?" Sawyer asked as Luke saw the back of an ambulance.

In a more easy way to explain it, he answered with, "In a simple way of putting it, sure." He had his tunic lifted on his backside as the Medic examined it.

"So kinda like Superman," she compared, "Superman's from a different planet, Krypton, right? You two would have made good buddies."

"I'm sure we would have."

An unformed officer handed Sawyer a folded newspaper and walked off. Sawyer looked at it, "Ah, here it is." She offered the paper to Luke. "Since it looked like your nickname shocked you, here's where it came from." Luke put the paper in his hand and studied it, "It's from the Daily Planet." She supplied.

Reading the paper, English was one of the languages that the League was trying to have him learn. Though a fast learner, language wasn't his personal interest. Regardless, he read and understood the paper enough to read the main title as…

Jade Warrior, Superman's Replacement?

Hero or League seat warmer?

​Then the following on the bottom said…

A mysterious man in an orange jumpsuit with a futuristic laser sword assists the Justice League in apprehending Super Villains after Superman's Funeral.​

It showed a somewhat clear image of Luke in his X-Wing suit fighting Kalibak last week. The rest he can gather is the paper questioning Luke's motives in assisting the League, making it seem that his appearance was rather a happy coincidence after Superman's death. They also put into question the League's fast hiring process and almost indifference to "replacing" Superman with a nobody, judging the team's grief over how fast they got Luke.

Needless to say, they weren't very happy about Luke's appearance. He put the paper onto the side and made a huff. Public opinion on Jedi was truly a great ordeal. There were systems that still honored and loved the Jedi, others indifferent, and others that just flat-out hated the order, justified or otherwise. Whether manufactured by the Empire or not, opinions on Jedi might not truly return back where they were at, not when he's not even in his galaxy to begin with.

But the opinions of the public, good or bad, as he learned himself, should never put Luke at a dismay. The myths and inconsistent stories people discuss about him could never change the person he is. He fondly and embarrassingly remembers the holo-films made in his image when his popularity unintentionally rose. The dramatic stories that he never took part in or heavily exaggerated, such as, 'Luke Skywalker and the Dragons of Tatooine' or, 'Luke Skywalker and the Jedi's Revenge' and 'Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor'.

He found out the hard way that people will have opinions on him, outlandish and normal, rational or insensitive. From the looks of it, the people of this city haven't really gotten over their cherished protector.

A long black-haired woman wearing a purple blouse, Amethyst eyes, a white skirt, and black high heels managed to weave past onlooking officers in the police line toward Luke's direction. She was followed by a younger man in simple clothing, a red-haired mullet, and a camera device with a long strap around his neck.

The Jedi Knight saw the two before Sawyer did, and when the inspector perceived the trespasser's presence, the woman quickly flanked away from her. She pulled out a notepad and asked Luke a rapid question. "Journalist Lois Lane, Daily Planet, is it true that the League officially replaced Superman?" Her tone was slightly demanding.

Sawyer had an angry reaction to the intrusion, "What the hell, Miss Lane?!" She gazed at one of the officers, not paying attention, "What is the damn point of having a police line if they're getting through?!" Then Sawyer swung her eyes at the woman, irritation entering her voice, "I thought we talked about this, Lane; No bargaining like this unless a Press Pass." Lois Lane, revealed a white card from her shirt that dangled in a strap with her face and name on it. Sawyer wasn't convinced, "That doesn't excuse casually intervening in police activity."

Lane defended herself, "Well it's bad enough that any hero that comes down here leaves immediately, that's bad business, you know, and doesn't really generate great stories when I barely have time to talk with them."

Inspector rubbed her blonde hair and rolled her eyes, then gestured to the two officers coming over. "Get them out of here."

"Hold on!" Lane protested when the officers tried to escort her and the young man out, "He hasn't even said a word!"

Luke went off the ambulance floor and stood to intervene with placating hands up. "Wait a minute, there's nothing to get worked up over." He looked at the Lane women, "You did all of that just to talk with me?"

Land placed a hand on her hip, "No, I intentionally crossed a line of heavily armored police officers just to discuss the last football game. Yes! I came to have an interview."

Luke assured Sawyer, "Then we don't have a problem, Inspector, I can simply talk with Miss Lane outside of the police formation."

Sawyer stonily eyed Lane last time and then said to Luke, "Fine," she ordered her officers to stand down and said to Luke before leaving, "It's your funeral."

When the officers left, and the Jedi pulled back his black tunic, he, the Lane woman, and the red-headed young man went out of the police tape. "Never thought I would have fans this fast," Luke remarked to the two.

"Well, it's not exactly a common place for heroes coming out of the woodwork," she answered, then added. "Maybe we can start this off by giving us your hero name?"

"My hero name?"

"Yeah, you're the hero's name." Said Lane nonchalantly replied.

Luke, disorganized, had a puzzling stare before making a flattered chuckle, "I think you have the wrong impression, miss Lane, I don't have an alias, I prefer just to be referred to by my actual name, Luke Skywalker, actually."

Curiosity got into Lane's purple eyes while she wrote in her notebook, "Oh, so nothing to hide?"

"Nothing to lose is a better term," he said then pointed at the newspaper, "If I can ask a question myself, who gave me this nickname?"

Now it was the red-headed kid's turn to talk; he raised his hand in a hesitant manner. "Uh it was, uh, me, mister Skywalker, sir." He dropped the hand towards Luke to offer a handshake, "Jimmy Olsen, sir, Daily Planet Photographer with Misses Lane. I,uh, hope it isn't demeaning towards you." His tone got more apologetic.

The Jedi made a dismissive wave and smiled, "It's nothing, I just thought it was funny that someone would give me a persona."

A gust of relief exited out from Olsen's lips, "Phew, thank goodness, for a second I thought that you were offended for a second. See, we were trying to come up with names in the editing part, and I was like "oh he had that crazy laser sword and was waving around like a ninja so why not Jade Warrior or something" you know? I also had Emerald Knight or—"

Whatever he was talking about with clear interest was stopped when Lane reprimanded him with clenched teeth, "Jimmy! Nerd talk later!"

Olsen lowered his head a bit, "Oops…sorry."

Lane changed her gaze to Luke, who had an amusing smile, "Wel,l I guess you're different, seeing how you don't have a special name and whatnot, and I can tell that you dress pretty modestly too." She studied his black tunic, then continued, "So Mister Skywalker, if you're fine about using your real name, you from here? You seem pretty American to me."

"Heh, far from that, ma'am. This may sound very strange to you, but I'm not from this planet, actually."

That piqued Lane's interest, Olsen more so, Lane, though, was intrigued by Luke's extragalactic origin…and saddened too, sparking a feeling of remembrance of someone. She shook off the memory and went on with her questions, "Oh really, you related to the Green Lantern by chance?"

[Note: Okay time out here, I know that in the Superman TAS, they didnt express the idea of Lois knowing Superman's identity. In the JLU seasons, it was implied but very fucking vague. The only time really it's shown that she knows Clark is Superman is in the 'Superman: Brainiac Attacks' movie. Though it is not really specified as canon, to make it easier, we are pretending it is and she knows that Clark is Superman.]​

"No, actually," he answered, "I'm from a different Galaxy altogether. My Galaxy hasn't exactly made contact with the corps as far as I know."

"So how's planet Earth and us Earthlings?" Lane jokingly asked, "We just weird for you or primitive?"

Luke rubbed the back of his neck while keeping a smile, "Not really, Earth isn't too different from the planets I'm used to."

"What planet are you from?" An excited Olsen said before adding, "Uh, mister Skywalker."

"Tatooine," Luke supplied, "Raised by my Aunt and Uncle on a farm, humbling, really."

Whatever person that was called back in her mind, made her face into a somber one. Looking away, she didn't respond to Luke's answer; she didn't say anything and there was a pause of awkwardness between the three. Wanting to end the uncomfortable short time, Jimmy Olsen gleefully spotted Luke's lightsaber clipped to his belt. "Aw! Is that your laser katana?"

The blonde Jedi nodded. "Yes, and it's called a Lightsaber, it's the weapon of my Order."

"Your order?" Olsen repeated in amazement, "Awesome! So you're like in a space knight order or like the Green Lantern corps?"

Luke liked the sparkling imagination of the Olsen kid, "You're not far from it, I'm a Jedi Knight and part of the Jedi Order, in my galaxy, we were tasked with keeping the peace. So I guess you're right, slightly like Lantern Corps but definitely different in practice and in belief."

"Cool." Olsen then gave himself the confidence in a breath to say, "Mister Skywalker, is there a chance you can bust out your lightsaber." He was quick to add, "For the paper of course."

It wasn't customary for Luke to show off his lightsaber, not when it was a dangerous weapon. Many beings from his galaxy already knew what a lightsaber is and would deduce that anybody who wielded one was either a Jedi, or killed one. No matter, a person who had a lightsaber would usually be granted some form of respect, and that would also stall violence or incline those not to be aggressive.

The lightsaber was a permanent symbol of the Jedi, something any being would know, except for this planet and this galaxy when Luke came to think about it. Since being misplaced in this new galaxy, explaining the image of the Jedi to those who don't know it wouldn't be a bad idea. Though he would not explain the inner workings so that potential enemies might exploit it, showing the simple ways wouldn't hurt anything.

"It's not a toy," Luke Skywalker said after he finished his quick thought, "It's a dangerous weapon that can easily kill, but I'm willing to show you just for the public to see." Pulling out the hilt and directing it to a safe distance, he pressed the activation stud, and the bar of emerald plasma shot out, then humming when fully stabilized.

Olsen was captivated by the Jedi weapon, while Lane seemed to be half-paying attention. Luke smoothly waved it around, the weapon making a 'swooshing' with each movement. Olsen grabbed his camera and took a picture of Luke and his glowing lightsaber. The photographer, like a moth attracted to the flame, wasn't able to let his eyes escape the lightsaber. "So, do all Jedi Knights have lightsabers or something?"

"Not every Jedi had a lightsaber," Luke explained then turned off his lightsaber, putting it back to his belt, "But primarily, lightsabers are a common Jedi tool."

Olsen tilted his head and had an unclear response. "Had?"

Luke kept the sadness within, not truly exposing the reality he was in, "I'm the last Jedi, if you can understand. It's not really easy to recruit beings such as myself, Mister Olsen."

"Oh so, last of your kind…that's very…" Olsen trailed off when he, too, got gloomy.

After Jimmy Olsen got quiet, a sense of resolve got into Lois Lane's eyes, one that was skeptical towards Luke. "Okay, so why are you here then?"

"I'm afraid that it wasn't my choice to decide whether I can be here or not," Luke replied evenly. "My ship malfunctioned, and I won't be able to return back to my galaxy."

"An alien that happened to be stranded on Earth," Luke felt the pseudo-accusation in Lane's words, "Also happened to come by when Superman was killed and helped the League when they were in a sticky situation, sounds like a pretty coincidence to me."

Understanding what the reporter was suggesting, the Jedi didn't take umbrage, only calmly nodding, "I personally don't believe in coincidences, Miss Lane." She doesn't let up her look; Luke continues his plea with complete honesty and empathy. "I can understand the way people feel and interact in my time here; Superman was a great man, and a person such as that could only strike great emotion from his death."

He gestured to himself humbly, "I'm flattered that people assumed that I'm his replacement, but I'm not Superman, nor is he me. I'm no one's replacement, and I feel that no one could truly replace Superman, given his achievements. If you want to judge me and my motives, Miss Lane, I would prefer that you do it based on my character, not from Superman's legacy."

The cynical face that Lane pressed onto Luke Skywalker faded after hearing what he had to say. What followed was a mixture of sorrow, guilt, and shame. Dropping her shoulders, she held back tears that ruined her purple eyes. He didn't mean to bring out such emotions to the woman, only saying that he wanted to keep Superman's name separate from his own. He sensed the turmoil within her that, supposedly, the Man of Steel had a strong relationship with her, otherwise she wouldn't be this griefed.

He looked over to Jimmy Olsen, who was saddened too, though he didn't know what to do with the grieving woman, "You should give us a moment."

Giving a sympathetic look towards Lane, Olsen left the two alone as Luke guided Lane to sit down in the back of the ambulance Luke was in. "You might feel better if we sit down." Sniffing and wiping a tear that escaped her eyes, Lane nodded slowly, and both of them sat down.

Luke let Lane handle herself for a moment, "Damn it," she cursed to herself, "I'm sorry for being an ass all of a sudden," she sniffed again, "It's…been really…difficult with—"

Feeling that another storm of tears is about to overwhelm her, Luke gently places his real hand onto her shoulder, transferring harmoniousness, calming, energies of the force to repel the great woe in her. "There's nothing to be ashamed of Lois." He reassured her, his voice smooth and comforting, "You are dealing with a great loss, I was in your position, too, just last week when I found out I won't be able to return home."

Her sorrow receding, sniffing, she asked, "I'm guessing you had family back, huh."

"I did, A sister and a baby nephew."

She sniffs again, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be, it wasn't no one's fault." Luke then tried comforting the woman some more. "They didn't die, but knowing that I won't see them again, it feels like it. And I had to let go because they wouldn't want me stuck in the past when I'm here in the now." He looked into her worn purple eyes, "I never met Superman, and I won't know the relationship you had with him, but I'm sure that he would not want you to be stuck in his memory when you still have a life ahead of you."

It was a sad one, but a thankful smile returned to the Lane woman. "You just sound like him." She recomposed herself after some thoughtful moments.

"Not intentionally," was Luke's response.

She chuckled and sniffed, "Well, sir Knight, I guess this damsel in distress is thankful that you came to her rescue."

Luke had a laugh, "Well, you're welcome then."

"Well, I'm sure you'll get a fine princess for yourself."

Luke's face blushed, "Heh, I don't think that would happen anytime soon."

"Nonsense, with that "boy next door" look, you'll get yourself one." She then had a grinning smile, "Here." She puckered her lips and kissed Luke on the cheek. "A token of gratitude." Said Lois Lane after she parted her lips from his cheek.

Luke's face got hot red, and Lois laughed hard with a snort, "Geez, you really are like him."

***​

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