Interlude -- Undead swarm

Brooklyn, New York

"Keep pushing, people! Nothing escapes the perimeter, you hear me?!" Captain America yelled into his comms. Portals had opened up throughout Brooklyn, and the Avengers were tasked with ensuring that the undead didn't spread out. So far, the undead had all stayed contained to areas that had been evacuated, but their numbers seemed to be growing.

"Understood," Wasp responded as she flew over the site of another portal opening. "More of 'em -- any idea where these guys are coming from?"

"SHIELD agents tell me something's going down on Mount Olympus. Natasha is on site," Steve answered as his shield ricocheted off of several walking corpses, taking them out.

"Let's hope whatever she's doing is successful... otherwise this is going to get a lot worse," Tony Stark said as Iron Man flew through the city, blasting the shambling corpses with his repulsors.

Cap parried a sword strike from a zombie, countering by hitting it with his shield and leaving it lying. "Nat'll pull it off... she always does. Carol, what's your ETA?"

"Not sure," Captain Marvel answered. "I've run across a horde that have cornered a few citizens -- I'm diverting now to stop them."

"Good. Get those people clear -- that's your top priority," Cap stated. Carol hit the undead fast and hard, punching & blasting her way through to the people cornered. She looked around, and there weren't any other zombies around... at least, not right now. But she knew more dead were rising, and that more portals were opening. She and the other Avengers couldn't keep this pace up forever.

"You're safe now. There's a safehouse a few blocks west of here -- get yourselves there ASAP," Carol advised the civilians as she landed, who quickly got to their feet and hurried away, thanking her as they fled. Carol looked around, wondering how much worse things would get.

"We're counting on you, Nat..." Carol muttered under her breath as she flew off.

Metropolis

"How're you holding up, Clark?" Barry asked as he and Superman returned from dealing with seeral undead trying to push through to Metropolis.

"I'm fine... for now," Clark answered, "This is clearly necromancy, but these corpses... their swords aren't enchanted or anything."

"Not yet, anyway," Batman answered through the commlink, patrolling the city from the skies in the Batplane. "Judging by the message Diana sent us, Ares' magic is only going to get stronger unless she can stop Joker."

"Then we keep these things away from innocents until then," Superman answered decisively. "What's the situation uptown, Kara?"

"Not great, Kal. More of these portals are opening up everywhere..." Supergirl responded grimly through the commlink. "Hal's got a wall up stopping these things, but he can only hold them for so long..."

Superman sighed worriedly. "Hal, how much longer can you hold out?"

"As long as I need to," Hal answered defiantly. "Green Lantern. Willpower. I got this."

"Yeah. I know better than to try and talk you out of that," Barry conceded. "But I really don't like our odds here..."

"Diana'll come through. She always does," Clark insisted reassuringly.

Flash nodded in agreement. "I know... let's just hope she comes through sooner rather than later."