Lightshear
02/10/2011, 23:18
Justice League #45
“Summit”
by Lightshear
“Well, Lexie – here we are,” Kyle said as the two walked the hall together. “Home again.”
“Honeymoon’s over, I guess,” she sighed, swinging her arm with his. She held two fingers of his hand, her own being too much smaller than his to comfortably hold it properly. “Not that we got that much of a honeymoon anyway.”
“I only took off a couple times,” he said, smiling defensively. “And they were both really important.”
“I guess that’s what I get for marrying Green Lantern,” she sighed. “I have to share you with the world. We don’t even get our own house.”
“Oh, come on – it isn’t that bad. I mean, we were always renters anyway. And seriously, can you beat this view?”
He turned and they looked out the windows of the League Satellite at the planet Earth spinning gloriously beyond. He put his arm around her and she leaned into him with a smile.
“I guess not,” she said. “And that teleporter makes up for a lot. I don’t mind you being a big-time superhero, Kyle. Not really. I really couldn’t be more proud of you. A few years ago I didn’t think you’d ever be able to get serious about anything. Now…”
“I’m almost as goal-oriented as you are.”
“Okay, yeah, I’ve been itching to get back to work myself,” she shrugged as they started walking again. “And getting to be the de-facto quasi-official Justice League photographer is a pretty sweet deal.”
“You’ll be the Peter Parker to our Spider-Man. It’s win-win – you get access to the kinds of action photo-journalists dream of, the League gets a chance to show people we’re on their side and maybe remind them they like us after all, and I get to go to work with a hot, feisty red-head.”
“I’m actually amazed you’re so cool with this. I expected you to freak out about me being in danger all the time.”
“Like it would make a difference? If you weren’t chasing us around, you’d be chasing some other life-threatening insanity. This way I get a chance to keep you safe. Well, me and the rest of the team. And I know it will make you happy to do this. I want you to be as excited and fulfilled by your work as I am by mine.”
“You’re just angling for something extra in the sack tonight, aren’t you?”
“Always,” he grinned his most scoundrelous grin. She smacked his arm but smirked back.
“Maybe so, Mr. Big Shot,” she laughed like she was getting away with something. “Not to change the subject, and not that I want to pry, but what’s the word on Dinah and Ollie? He hasn’t been around since they had that thing go down and I was going to be doing dinner with her and Kara later and I don’t want to accidentally say something if I should be keeping quiet.”
“They’re pretty much done, near as I can tell,” he rubbed his head. “What happened with her and that… whatever it was that happened to her because of Effigy’s power getting into her – well, that aside, he still cheated on her. Peege says Dinah’s feeling pretty awful because of what she did under the influence of that power infecting her, but…”
“But it doesn’t get Ollie off the hook. God, it’s all so sad.”
“I know. I just don’t know what the hell he was thinking. I mean, he’d said to me flat-out that Dinah was the most important thing in his life. How does a guy go back on that? I mean, I know how, but I don’t, you know?”
“Yeah. I know.”
They walked quietly for a moment before she squeezed his fingers and smiled at him.
“Tell you what,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “You never cheat on me and I promise never to get infected with some weird energy stuff that turns me into a greedy, selfish looney-toon.”
“You’ve got a deal,” he smiled, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “I can’t imagine having to fight you like he did.”
“That’s ‘cause you know you’d loose,” she said, trying again. She knew how he was – if she didn’t do something drastic to bring his mood back up, he’d wind up lost in a funk that could last who knew how long. She loved him to death, but the boy certainly had his moods…
Smirking, she pushed his arm hard. He shoved back, and she slammed a fake-punch into his stomach before turning and running down the hall. Stopping a dozen paces ahead of him, she turned and waited with a big smile to see if he would follow. He shook his head with a laugh he couldn’t help and ran after her, shouting how much trouble she was in while she cackled like a mad-woman all the way around the corner.
________________________________________
“You’re a dead woman, Lex!” Kara heard Kyle shouting as he ran past the lounge. She just shook her head as she stirred the cream into her coffee.
“Yo, Kyle,” she called after him. “J’Onn called a meeting. We’ve gotta head up to the CIC.”
“Be right there,” he shouted as he rounded the corner after Alex.
“Those two are dumb,” she said with a roll of her eyes to Dinah as the two women left and headed the opposite direction down the hall. “And with them living here… we might have to institute some kind of rules to keep all their sappy cr#p to a minimum.”
“No joke,” Dinah snorted, sipping her coffee.
“D#mn, girl,” Kara whistled. “You have any coffee with your cream and sugar?”
“There’s a little in there. I don’t like the taste of coffee.”
“But you drink it anyway.”
“Girl’s gotta get her kick somehow,” she shrugged, sipping again.
“You haven’t been to the satellite in a while. What’ve you been up to?”
“Working. Mostly running with Huntress on the east coast, tearing some things up and giving some bad men a few extra orifices with my boot.”
Kara laughed. “Wouldn’t want to be a pair of balls on those guys right now. But I thought you hated Huntress?”
“Ugh. Total v-rag, but if you just want to find somebody to kick the s### out of, she’s the v-rag to run with. Actually, Batgirl’s been coordinating for us. It’s been a total girl-power kind of thing.”
“Is it helping?” Kara asked as they got onto an elevator to head up a few floors.
“Yeah, actually. Surprised the heck out of me, but apparently Babs is some kind of computer genius. I was thinking of trying to strong-arm Batman into setting her up in the satellite to coordinate the League, but he’d never go for it.”
“Nice, but not what I was talking about.”
“I know,” Dinah sighed as they stepped off the elevator onto the command floor. “The answer is hell no it isn’t helping. My life sucks, right now. It’s just been one thing after another, and it all came down on me at the same time. Bad enough I let those chumps in Prometheus’ gang get the drop me, but then I get cheated on and possessed by what is apparently an alien energy that turns on every greed switch in my brain at once.”
“It’s a tough list,” Kara nodded.
“Little bit, yeah,” Dina huffed with wide eyes and a ‘no kidding’ face. “So now I’m homeless, up to my eyeballs in debt, my credit is shot through to hell, and the man I l—my boyfriend revealed himself as a cheating douchebag.”
“What was it like? The energy possession thing, I mean. I can’t imagine you as the gimme-gimme, mine-mine type.”
“It was… it’s hard to describe. It was just like, like waking up slowly to the idea that everything wrong in your life is somebody else’s fault. That you’re entitled to better than you have. And giving in – getting the stuff you want – it’s euphoric. Filling that hole inside me with every little status-granting piece of cr#p money can buy was like… it was like a drug. Every step I took toward living the life of the rich and famous got me high as hell.
“Then, when I lost it and the energy took me over completely, it was like the bottom falling out. Suddenly all that was left was the hole that couldn’t be filled. I was nothing but want. Need. And I was entitled to have what I deserved no matter what, and if I wanted something then I automatically deserved it.”
“Sounds like pretty much everybody our age I’ve ever met,” Kara rolled her eyes. “Congratulations, honey – you were turned into a proud member of the Millennial Generation.”
“Don’t patronize me, Kara, I’m not in the mood,” Dinah sneered. “My life is a wreck right now. All I have left in the world is this job, and I’m not even really enjoying that anymore. The last thing I need is one of the only friends I have left to act like she knows what I’m going through, because you don’t, okay?”
“Jesus, dial it back, alright?” Kara said with some surprise. “I’m just trying to be a friend, that’s all. Things suck right now, I get it. I have your back, okay?”
As they passed an observation deck on the way to the CIC, Kara saw someone standing alone in the room.
“You go on without me,” she said. “I’ll catch up in a minute.”
“Whatever,” Dinah shrugged. “You’re gonna be in trouble…”
“Hey – it’s a J’Onn meeting,” Kara raised her coffee mug in salute. “There’s no Batman to chew me out and no Diana to make me feel like I’ve disappointed all womankind, just J’Onn the lovable uncle. See you in a bit.”
“See you.”
________________________________________
“Hello, Kara,” the Cyborg Superman said as Power Girl walked up to him in the observation deck. This deck was pointed out away from Earth and at this moment had a nice view of the moon and the infinity of space beyond.
“Hey, Clark,” she smiled. “Coffee?”
“…No. Thanks,” he regarded her and the cup in her hand, trying to give her the expression of a smile with his one real eye, compensating as much as he could for the fact that three quarters of his face was an exposed metal skull. “I can’t drink anything anymore. Or eat, for that matter. I couldn’t taste it if I tried.”
“Dang,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, Cuz. I didn’t mean to… sorry I brought it up.”
“It’s fine, Kara – you didn’t know,” he said in a light voice. He’d been adapting to the lack of facial expression by trying to add more expressiveness to his voice. It helped, but it was kind of odd – especially when he overdid it. “I appreciate the thought.”
“I just always remembered you spending every morning with a coffee and the Daily Planet. It’s the reason I started drinking coffee. Tried keeping up with the news, but it never took.”
“I know,” he nodded, and she could tell he was smiling. “I don’t read the Planet much either, these days.”
“Too hard to see all those stories without your by-line in there?”
“No, that isn’t me. I miss the job, sure. I loved being a reporter. But it’s more the friends that I miss. Every name in there is either somebody I knew, somebody I had lunch with, stayed up with crunching for a deadline, stood outside with, shaking our heads about the future of journalism… and the names I don’t know are people I’ll never get to have that with.”
“And Lois,” she said, rubbing his shoulder.
“…And Lois.”
“You know, Cuz, just because you can’t be Clark Kent again doesn’t mean you can’t be human. And don’t try any kind of that ‘I was never really human’ cr#p on me because we both know that’s bull.”
“I’m trying to find where my place is, now. Most people still don’t believe I’m really me, hard as I try. Maybe once I figure out how to be Superman again I can try and find an outlet for the rest of who I am.”
“Hey, you’ve still got me, right? I ain’t so bad.”
“You’re great, Kara,” he said, pressing his head to the top of hers. It was meant to be like a kiss on the head, and she took it as meaningful that she didn’t have to think twice about it. The creepiness about him was gone for her, now – he was just Clark.
“Alright, you old softie,” she elbowed him playfully. “I’ve got to get to that meeting before J’Onn gets all up in my business about it. You coming?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, giving one last look to the stars. “Right behind you.”
“I’m thinking of heading back and scoping Metropolis tonight. Wanna join?”
“I don’t think so. Another night, I promise.”
“Suit yourself,” she shrugged. “I’m telling you, though, it’s gonna be a nice night for a patrol…”
[Follow Power Girl’s night over in Metropolis #6!]
________________________________________
Batman sat at his monitors, conferencing with Blue Beetle, Huntress, and the Dibnys. Elsewhere in the cave, Robin and Spoiler were reanalyzing some genetic material taken from interaction with the Supermen and Batgirl was monitoring a wiretap operation they were running on Penguin’s gang. The JLI had just come back from a mission in Metropolis, working with the cold Superman to stop the Toymaster and they were reporting to Batman what had happened.
“…And when the smoke cleared, we had wound up at the memorial,” Beetle continued. “The big Superman statue? Where his grave was? Anyway, we’re wrapping up Toyman and Flash and a couple of the others go off to round up all the miniature airplanes and toy soldiers and junk, but the four of us are watching Superman.”
“And the guy’s zoned out,” Huntress cut in. “He’s dead to the world, just staring at the door to the tomb at the bottom of that statue. And I figure that’s weird, so I hang back to see what he does.”
“But that was the thing,” Beetle said, jumping in on her sentence. Batman was concerned at how well the two were riffing off each other. He hadn’t intended to implant Huntress in their little group, and if she became too attached…
“He didn’t really do anything,” he continued. “He just stared at it. He walked to the door and ran his hand over it, then he turned around and just flew off. Didn’t say a word.”
“No, but he did say something,” Sue interrupted. “It was silent, but I can read lips. He said ‘This was where it started.’ Clear as day. Then he flew off.”
“Which direction?” Batman asked.
“I charted it with my sensors,” Beetle said. “I’ll send you the trajectory now.”
Batman ran his eyes over the data as it came through the feed and rubbed his chin.
“He’s going back to the Fortress,” he concluded. “He remembered something that scared him and he’s running home.”
Batman sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers.
“Okay. Return to your work. I’m flying after him. He’s doing something up there, and it might give me some answers. I’ll be in touch if we find something important. Batman out.”
Turning off the communications feed, he stood and swept down the stairs.
“Robin, get Alfred and start prepping the jet. We’re going to the Fortress of Solitude. Pack for warmth and for heavy combat – Kryptonian defenses. There’s a Superman up there and we can’t guarantee he won’t be hostile.”
“And our work here--?” Batgirl asked.
“Will have to wait. I don’t like it either, but this has to trump everything else and I’m going to need all of you with me for what might be coming next.”
________________________________________
The cameras snapped madly as the eight most powerful men in the world met beneath the unusually bright Deauville sun. The Basse-Normandie region of France saw little sunlight this time of year, but it was bright and temperate on this winters day as the city hosted the 2011 G8 summit.
“I’m glad we were able to work out an early start for the summit,” President Lex Luthor said quietly, smiling for the cameras as he shook hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“You show the world cold fusion and think we would wait to talk about it until the summer?” Sarkozy asked, incredulous through his smile. “It is your first trip to this show, and you’re about to be surrounded by a lot of people anxious to hear how you plan to share this miracle.”
“Indeed,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan said, some venom in his tone despite his smiling face as he clapped his hand hard on Luthor’s shoulder. “If you plan to sit on this discovery so the rest of us will bow to your magnificence, you’ll be disappointed. You have a keen business mind, but none of us are interested in being treated like one of the corporations LexCorp so enjoys crushing beneath their shoe.”
“Nothing of the kind, gentlemen,” Lex shook the Japanese man’s hand. “I’m hoping this is the start of a new era in human history. But Mr. Prime Minister, if you think I’m handing over the keys to the kingdom without serious reciprocity, then you are the one who’s going to be disappointed. And I’m not talking about more handshakes and minced words – we’re all going home from this summit with concrete resolutions, or you can tell your people why they’re still betting their future on fossil fuels.”
“Gentlemen, please,” David Cameron, PM of Britain, said as he came between them, putting a hand on each shoulder as they all smiled for the cameras. “Mr. Luthor, this summit is for discussion of proposals, not the signing of documents. Let us find a way forward together and we’ll hammer out the details over time.”
“Certainly, Mr. Prime Minister,” Luthor smiled. Cameron tried to pull his hand away from the grip of the American President, but Luthor wouldn’t let go. The man’s smile grew wider. “Tell me, David – how’s Uncle William?”
“He’s… well enough…” Cameron said, smiling awkwardly as Luthor stepped closer.
“And cousin Joshua? I saw The Unwinking Gaze – hell of a film.”
“Fine, fine… they’re all fine…”
“And your—eyes, David?” Luthor said with a squint. “Have they always been so… yellow?”
“Oh, sh—“
An shock ran from Luthor’s cuff through the filament laced in his palm and shot over 100 megavolts of electricity into the British Prime Minister. The crowd screamed and the press panicked and the other world leaders either ran or stood paralyzed with shock and fear.
But the real shock came as Cameron’s body began to darken and slide like liquid, his clothing seeming to melt into his flesh. At first it was a horrific sight, but then he began to thicken and his voice dropped more than an octave in timbre. When Luthor finally let go, the hulking form of Clayface staggered backward, right arm hanging limp and body smoldering.
“You never were a very good actor,” Luthor said, dusting his hands.
“He did well enough,” a voice said from behind. Prometheus appeared from thin air, Felix Faust lifting a veil of invisibility like pulling back a sheet.
“You didn’t notice us getting this close,” Prometheus finished with a smile.
“Looking to try me again?” Luthor asked, pulling open his suit jacket to reveal a high-tech undersuit. Running lights came to life and pulsed with power.
“Calm down, Tron,” Prometheus waved him off. “This isn’t about you and me – it’s about me and all of you!”
Holding out his hands, a wave of villains fanned out from behind him. “World leaders, your time has come! You have had your time in control and you used it to line your pockets. We think you’ve done just about enough, and it’s time the governments of this world fell to their knees so we can start fresh. Starting with you eight right here, right now!”
Secret Service agents and security forces of a dozen different countries leapt to action, and the Society set about defeating them with as much difficulty as they would have swatting flies. Faust waved a hand and guns melted into butter; Solomon Grundy, now mindless and savage, absorbed gunfire without hesitation before breaking mens’ necks like twigs. But it was Effigy and Merlyn the archer, sweeping the field with orange light and a spray of arrows, that seemed to revel the most in the carnage.
“What did I tell you?” Prometheus said to the pair as Effigy rounded the eight world leaders into a burning orange pen of pure energy. “Stick with my Society and not only will you be protected – you’ll be the vanguard of a new world order.”
“Glad to be with somebody who thinks big,” Merlyn smirked. “That League of Assassins didn’t have this kind of vision.”
“I just want what’s coming to me,” Effigy said with a frown. “I’m ready to take what I deserve.”
“Sounds great - I’m ready to give you what you deserve,” Green Lantern said as the villain was trampled under the feet of a tide of stampeding John Malkoviches, faces blank as they each chanted in their own time ‘Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich!’
“You won’t get away with this, Prometheus,” Superman boomed as he landed in the grass.
“All I’ve got to do is kill these guys and I’ve won,” the villain shrugged. “Seems like I’m about to get away with it.”
“You forget two things,” Superman said, narrowing his good eye as his robotic one glowed menacingly. “First, you have to get past us. Second, win or lose, you’ll never escape here. Not this time.”
“We’ll see about that, tin-man. We’ll see…”
________________________________________
The Justice League:
Cyborg Superman (R Icn Superman) - 197
LE Detective John Jones - 144 (-1 click of life)
LE CD Kyle Rayner - 144
* w/ Force Field - 10
JL E Black Canary - 50
LE Ray Palmer - 58 (-1 click of life)
E Red Tornado - 53
…and Lex Luthor (E WS Doctor Octopus) - 121
Total: 777
Vs.
The Society:
U Prometheus – 107
* w/ Nanobots - 10
U Felix Faust – 96
Effigy (U Larfleeze) - 212
E Merlyn – 55
* w/ Elite Sniper - 20
V Clayface – 89 (-1 click of life)
E AA Solomon Grundy – 115
* w/ Unstoppable - 5
Total: 777
Map: Avengers Mansion ( http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=AVO)
“Summit”
by Lightshear
“Well, Lexie – here we are,” Kyle said as the two walked the hall together. “Home again.”
“Honeymoon’s over, I guess,” she sighed, swinging her arm with his. She held two fingers of his hand, her own being too much smaller than his to comfortably hold it properly. “Not that we got that much of a honeymoon anyway.”
“I only took off a couple times,” he said, smiling defensively. “And they were both really important.”
“I guess that’s what I get for marrying Green Lantern,” she sighed. “I have to share you with the world. We don’t even get our own house.”
“Oh, come on – it isn’t that bad. I mean, we were always renters anyway. And seriously, can you beat this view?”
He turned and they looked out the windows of the League Satellite at the planet Earth spinning gloriously beyond. He put his arm around her and she leaned into him with a smile.
“I guess not,” she said. “And that teleporter makes up for a lot. I don’t mind you being a big-time superhero, Kyle. Not really. I really couldn’t be more proud of you. A few years ago I didn’t think you’d ever be able to get serious about anything. Now…”
“I’m almost as goal-oriented as you are.”
“Okay, yeah, I’ve been itching to get back to work myself,” she shrugged as they started walking again. “And getting to be the de-facto quasi-official Justice League photographer is a pretty sweet deal.”
“You’ll be the Peter Parker to our Spider-Man. It’s win-win – you get access to the kinds of action photo-journalists dream of, the League gets a chance to show people we’re on their side and maybe remind them they like us after all, and I get to go to work with a hot, feisty red-head.”
“I’m actually amazed you’re so cool with this. I expected you to freak out about me being in danger all the time.”
“Like it would make a difference? If you weren’t chasing us around, you’d be chasing some other life-threatening insanity. This way I get a chance to keep you safe. Well, me and the rest of the team. And I know it will make you happy to do this. I want you to be as excited and fulfilled by your work as I am by mine.”
“You’re just angling for something extra in the sack tonight, aren’t you?”
“Always,” he grinned his most scoundrelous grin. She smacked his arm but smirked back.
“Maybe so, Mr. Big Shot,” she laughed like she was getting away with something. “Not to change the subject, and not that I want to pry, but what’s the word on Dinah and Ollie? He hasn’t been around since they had that thing go down and I was going to be doing dinner with her and Kara later and I don’t want to accidentally say something if I should be keeping quiet.”
“They’re pretty much done, near as I can tell,” he rubbed his head. “What happened with her and that… whatever it was that happened to her because of Effigy’s power getting into her – well, that aside, he still cheated on her. Peege says Dinah’s feeling pretty awful because of what she did under the influence of that power infecting her, but…”
“But it doesn’t get Ollie off the hook. God, it’s all so sad.”
“I know. I just don’t know what the hell he was thinking. I mean, he’d said to me flat-out that Dinah was the most important thing in his life. How does a guy go back on that? I mean, I know how, but I don’t, you know?”
“Yeah. I know.”
They walked quietly for a moment before she squeezed his fingers and smiled at him.
“Tell you what,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “You never cheat on me and I promise never to get infected with some weird energy stuff that turns me into a greedy, selfish looney-toon.”
“You’ve got a deal,” he smiled, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “I can’t imagine having to fight you like he did.”
“That’s ‘cause you know you’d loose,” she said, trying again. She knew how he was – if she didn’t do something drastic to bring his mood back up, he’d wind up lost in a funk that could last who knew how long. She loved him to death, but the boy certainly had his moods…
Smirking, she pushed his arm hard. He shoved back, and she slammed a fake-punch into his stomach before turning and running down the hall. Stopping a dozen paces ahead of him, she turned and waited with a big smile to see if he would follow. He shook his head with a laugh he couldn’t help and ran after her, shouting how much trouble she was in while she cackled like a mad-woman all the way around the corner.
________________________________________
“You’re a dead woman, Lex!” Kara heard Kyle shouting as he ran past the lounge. She just shook her head as she stirred the cream into her coffee.
“Yo, Kyle,” she called after him. “J’Onn called a meeting. We’ve gotta head up to the CIC.”
“Be right there,” he shouted as he rounded the corner after Alex.
“Those two are dumb,” she said with a roll of her eyes to Dinah as the two women left and headed the opposite direction down the hall. “And with them living here… we might have to institute some kind of rules to keep all their sappy cr#p to a minimum.”
“No joke,” Dinah snorted, sipping her coffee.
“D#mn, girl,” Kara whistled. “You have any coffee with your cream and sugar?”
“There’s a little in there. I don’t like the taste of coffee.”
“But you drink it anyway.”
“Girl’s gotta get her kick somehow,” she shrugged, sipping again.
“You haven’t been to the satellite in a while. What’ve you been up to?”
“Working. Mostly running with Huntress on the east coast, tearing some things up and giving some bad men a few extra orifices with my boot.”
Kara laughed. “Wouldn’t want to be a pair of balls on those guys right now. But I thought you hated Huntress?”
“Ugh. Total v-rag, but if you just want to find somebody to kick the s### out of, she’s the v-rag to run with. Actually, Batgirl’s been coordinating for us. It’s been a total girl-power kind of thing.”
“Is it helping?” Kara asked as they got onto an elevator to head up a few floors.
“Yeah, actually. Surprised the heck out of me, but apparently Babs is some kind of computer genius. I was thinking of trying to strong-arm Batman into setting her up in the satellite to coordinate the League, but he’d never go for it.”
“Nice, but not what I was talking about.”
“I know,” Dinah sighed as they stepped off the elevator onto the command floor. “The answer is hell no it isn’t helping. My life sucks, right now. It’s just been one thing after another, and it all came down on me at the same time. Bad enough I let those chumps in Prometheus’ gang get the drop me, but then I get cheated on and possessed by what is apparently an alien energy that turns on every greed switch in my brain at once.”
“It’s a tough list,” Kara nodded.
“Little bit, yeah,” Dina huffed with wide eyes and a ‘no kidding’ face. “So now I’m homeless, up to my eyeballs in debt, my credit is shot through to hell, and the man I l—my boyfriend revealed himself as a cheating douchebag.”
“What was it like? The energy possession thing, I mean. I can’t imagine you as the gimme-gimme, mine-mine type.”
“It was… it’s hard to describe. It was just like, like waking up slowly to the idea that everything wrong in your life is somebody else’s fault. That you’re entitled to better than you have. And giving in – getting the stuff you want – it’s euphoric. Filling that hole inside me with every little status-granting piece of cr#p money can buy was like… it was like a drug. Every step I took toward living the life of the rich and famous got me high as hell.
“Then, when I lost it and the energy took me over completely, it was like the bottom falling out. Suddenly all that was left was the hole that couldn’t be filled. I was nothing but want. Need. And I was entitled to have what I deserved no matter what, and if I wanted something then I automatically deserved it.”
“Sounds like pretty much everybody our age I’ve ever met,” Kara rolled her eyes. “Congratulations, honey – you were turned into a proud member of the Millennial Generation.”
“Don’t patronize me, Kara, I’m not in the mood,” Dinah sneered. “My life is a wreck right now. All I have left in the world is this job, and I’m not even really enjoying that anymore. The last thing I need is one of the only friends I have left to act like she knows what I’m going through, because you don’t, okay?”
“Jesus, dial it back, alright?” Kara said with some surprise. “I’m just trying to be a friend, that’s all. Things suck right now, I get it. I have your back, okay?”
As they passed an observation deck on the way to the CIC, Kara saw someone standing alone in the room.
“You go on without me,” she said. “I’ll catch up in a minute.”
“Whatever,” Dinah shrugged. “You’re gonna be in trouble…”
“Hey – it’s a J’Onn meeting,” Kara raised her coffee mug in salute. “There’s no Batman to chew me out and no Diana to make me feel like I’ve disappointed all womankind, just J’Onn the lovable uncle. See you in a bit.”
“See you.”
________________________________________
“Hello, Kara,” the Cyborg Superman said as Power Girl walked up to him in the observation deck. This deck was pointed out away from Earth and at this moment had a nice view of the moon and the infinity of space beyond.
“Hey, Clark,” she smiled. “Coffee?”
“…No. Thanks,” he regarded her and the cup in her hand, trying to give her the expression of a smile with his one real eye, compensating as much as he could for the fact that three quarters of his face was an exposed metal skull. “I can’t drink anything anymore. Or eat, for that matter. I couldn’t taste it if I tried.”
“Dang,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, Cuz. I didn’t mean to… sorry I brought it up.”
“It’s fine, Kara – you didn’t know,” he said in a light voice. He’d been adapting to the lack of facial expression by trying to add more expressiveness to his voice. It helped, but it was kind of odd – especially when he overdid it. “I appreciate the thought.”
“I just always remembered you spending every morning with a coffee and the Daily Planet. It’s the reason I started drinking coffee. Tried keeping up with the news, but it never took.”
“I know,” he nodded, and she could tell he was smiling. “I don’t read the Planet much either, these days.”
“Too hard to see all those stories without your by-line in there?”
“No, that isn’t me. I miss the job, sure. I loved being a reporter. But it’s more the friends that I miss. Every name in there is either somebody I knew, somebody I had lunch with, stayed up with crunching for a deadline, stood outside with, shaking our heads about the future of journalism… and the names I don’t know are people I’ll never get to have that with.”
“And Lois,” she said, rubbing his shoulder.
“…And Lois.”
“You know, Cuz, just because you can’t be Clark Kent again doesn’t mean you can’t be human. And don’t try any kind of that ‘I was never really human’ cr#p on me because we both know that’s bull.”
“I’m trying to find where my place is, now. Most people still don’t believe I’m really me, hard as I try. Maybe once I figure out how to be Superman again I can try and find an outlet for the rest of who I am.”
“Hey, you’ve still got me, right? I ain’t so bad.”
“You’re great, Kara,” he said, pressing his head to the top of hers. It was meant to be like a kiss on the head, and she took it as meaningful that she didn’t have to think twice about it. The creepiness about him was gone for her, now – he was just Clark.
“Alright, you old softie,” she elbowed him playfully. “I’ve got to get to that meeting before J’Onn gets all up in my business about it. You coming?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, giving one last look to the stars. “Right behind you.”
“I’m thinking of heading back and scoping Metropolis tonight. Wanna join?”
“I don’t think so. Another night, I promise.”
“Suit yourself,” she shrugged. “I’m telling you, though, it’s gonna be a nice night for a patrol…”
[Follow Power Girl’s night over in Metropolis #6!]
________________________________________
Batman sat at his monitors, conferencing with Blue Beetle, Huntress, and the Dibnys. Elsewhere in the cave, Robin and Spoiler were reanalyzing some genetic material taken from interaction with the Supermen and Batgirl was monitoring a wiretap operation they were running on Penguin’s gang. The JLI had just come back from a mission in Metropolis, working with the cold Superman to stop the Toymaster and they were reporting to Batman what had happened.
“…And when the smoke cleared, we had wound up at the memorial,” Beetle continued. “The big Superman statue? Where his grave was? Anyway, we’re wrapping up Toyman and Flash and a couple of the others go off to round up all the miniature airplanes and toy soldiers and junk, but the four of us are watching Superman.”
“And the guy’s zoned out,” Huntress cut in. “He’s dead to the world, just staring at the door to the tomb at the bottom of that statue. And I figure that’s weird, so I hang back to see what he does.”
“But that was the thing,” Beetle said, jumping in on her sentence. Batman was concerned at how well the two were riffing off each other. He hadn’t intended to implant Huntress in their little group, and if she became too attached…
“He didn’t really do anything,” he continued. “He just stared at it. He walked to the door and ran his hand over it, then he turned around and just flew off. Didn’t say a word.”
“No, but he did say something,” Sue interrupted. “It was silent, but I can read lips. He said ‘This was where it started.’ Clear as day. Then he flew off.”
“Which direction?” Batman asked.
“I charted it with my sensors,” Beetle said. “I’ll send you the trajectory now.”
Batman ran his eyes over the data as it came through the feed and rubbed his chin.
“He’s going back to the Fortress,” he concluded. “He remembered something that scared him and he’s running home.”
Batman sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers.
“Okay. Return to your work. I’m flying after him. He’s doing something up there, and it might give me some answers. I’ll be in touch if we find something important. Batman out.”
Turning off the communications feed, he stood and swept down the stairs.
“Robin, get Alfred and start prepping the jet. We’re going to the Fortress of Solitude. Pack for warmth and for heavy combat – Kryptonian defenses. There’s a Superman up there and we can’t guarantee he won’t be hostile.”
“And our work here--?” Batgirl asked.
“Will have to wait. I don’t like it either, but this has to trump everything else and I’m going to need all of you with me for what might be coming next.”
________________________________________
The cameras snapped madly as the eight most powerful men in the world met beneath the unusually bright Deauville sun. The Basse-Normandie region of France saw little sunlight this time of year, but it was bright and temperate on this winters day as the city hosted the 2011 G8 summit.
“I’m glad we were able to work out an early start for the summit,” President Lex Luthor said quietly, smiling for the cameras as he shook hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“You show the world cold fusion and think we would wait to talk about it until the summer?” Sarkozy asked, incredulous through his smile. “It is your first trip to this show, and you’re about to be surrounded by a lot of people anxious to hear how you plan to share this miracle.”
“Indeed,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan said, some venom in his tone despite his smiling face as he clapped his hand hard on Luthor’s shoulder. “If you plan to sit on this discovery so the rest of us will bow to your magnificence, you’ll be disappointed. You have a keen business mind, but none of us are interested in being treated like one of the corporations LexCorp so enjoys crushing beneath their shoe.”
“Nothing of the kind, gentlemen,” Lex shook the Japanese man’s hand. “I’m hoping this is the start of a new era in human history. But Mr. Prime Minister, if you think I’m handing over the keys to the kingdom without serious reciprocity, then you are the one who’s going to be disappointed. And I’m not talking about more handshakes and minced words – we’re all going home from this summit with concrete resolutions, or you can tell your people why they’re still betting their future on fossil fuels.”
“Gentlemen, please,” David Cameron, PM of Britain, said as he came between them, putting a hand on each shoulder as they all smiled for the cameras. “Mr. Luthor, this summit is for discussion of proposals, not the signing of documents. Let us find a way forward together and we’ll hammer out the details over time.”
“Certainly, Mr. Prime Minister,” Luthor smiled. Cameron tried to pull his hand away from the grip of the American President, but Luthor wouldn’t let go. The man’s smile grew wider. “Tell me, David – how’s Uncle William?”
“He’s… well enough…” Cameron said, smiling awkwardly as Luthor stepped closer.
“And cousin Joshua? I saw The Unwinking Gaze – hell of a film.”
“Fine, fine… they’re all fine…”
“And your—eyes, David?” Luthor said with a squint. “Have they always been so… yellow?”
“Oh, sh—“
An shock ran from Luthor’s cuff through the filament laced in his palm and shot over 100 megavolts of electricity into the British Prime Minister. The crowd screamed and the press panicked and the other world leaders either ran or stood paralyzed with shock and fear.
But the real shock came as Cameron’s body began to darken and slide like liquid, his clothing seeming to melt into his flesh. At first it was a horrific sight, but then he began to thicken and his voice dropped more than an octave in timbre. When Luthor finally let go, the hulking form of Clayface staggered backward, right arm hanging limp and body smoldering.
“You never were a very good actor,” Luthor said, dusting his hands.
“He did well enough,” a voice said from behind. Prometheus appeared from thin air, Felix Faust lifting a veil of invisibility like pulling back a sheet.
“You didn’t notice us getting this close,” Prometheus finished with a smile.
“Looking to try me again?” Luthor asked, pulling open his suit jacket to reveal a high-tech undersuit. Running lights came to life and pulsed with power.
“Calm down, Tron,” Prometheus waved him off. “This isn’t about you and me – it’s about me and all of you!”
Holding out his hands, a wave of villains fanned out from behind him. “World leaders, your time has come! You have had your time in control and you used it to line your pockets. We think you’ve done just about enough, and it’s time the governments of this world fell to their knees so we can start fresh. Starting with you eight right here, right now!”
Secret Service agents and security forces of a dozen different countries leapt to action, and the Society set about defeating them with as much difficulty as they would have swatting flies. Faust waved a hand and guns melted into butter; Solomon Grundy, now mindless and savage, absorbed gunfire without hesitation before breaking mens’ necks like twigs. But it was Effigy and Merlyn the archer, sweeping the field with orange light and a spray of arrows, that seemed to revel the most in the carnage.
“What did I tell you?” Prometheus said to the pair as Effigy rounded the eight world leaders into a burning orange pen of pure energy. “Stick with my Society and not only will you be protected – you’ll be the vanguard of a new world order.”
“Glad to be with somebody who thinks big,” Merlyn smirked. “That League of Assassins didn’t have this kind of vision.”
“I just want what’s coming to me,” Effigy said with a frown. “I’m ready to take what I deserve.”
“Sounds great - I’m ready to give you what you deserve,” Green Lantern said as the villain was trampled under the feet of a tide of stampeding John Malkoviches, faces blank as they each chanted in their own time ‘Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich!’
“You won’t get away with this, Prometheus,” Superman boomed as he landed in the grass.
“All I’ve got to do is kill these guys and I’ve won,” the villain shrugged. “Seems like I’m about to get away with it.”
“You forget two things,” Superman said, narrowing his good eye as his robotic one glowed menacingly. “First, you have to get past us. Second, win or lose, you’ll never escape here. Not this time.”
“We’ll see about that, tin-man. We’ll see…”
________________________________________
The Justice League:
Cyborg Superman (R Icn Superman) - 197
LE Detective John Jones - 144 (-1 click of life)
LE CD Kyle Rayner - 144
* w/ Force Field - 10
JL E Black Canary - 50
LE Ray Palmer - 58 (-1 click of life)
E Red Tornado - 53
…and Lex Luthor (E WS Doctor Octopus) - 121
Total: 777
Vs.
The Society:
U Prometheus – 107
* w/ Nanobots - 10
U Felix Faust – 96
Effigy (U Larfleeze) - 212
E Merlyn – 55
* w/ Elite Sniper - 20
V Clayface – 89 (-1 click of life)
E AA Solomon Grundy – 115
* w/ Unstoppable - 5
Total: 777
Map: Avengers Mansion ( http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=AVO)