Manhattan:
Thick-gloved fingers danced over the control board, the slightest
movement flicking switches, twisting dials and knobs. Her
eyes watched the display monitors intently, watching as needles
fluttered to and fro, shifting from dangerous red to green and just as
quickly back again. There was a chime of bells, annoying, a
claxon on top of that and a metallic buzzing.
Oubliette felt the shake and rumble of the modified Star Core Shuttle
as she brought the outdated ship to life. The gantry was
vibrating wildly with the barely restrained thrust building in the
archaic atomic engines. She gritted her teeth as her fingers
flew over the console, silencing the warning lights, bells and whistles
as quickly as she could, almost as quickly as they came to life.
She had been training for this day for some time now, and she had not
even tried to hide her pleasure that it had finally come. She
was getting bored with the learning, the countless drills, and even
though she knew the hours upon hours of dry practice runs were
necessary, if not for her love of her father she would have slain her
instructors long ago, no matter how much they had cost.
The Exterminatrix sighed, licking her lips as she waited for the
internal pressures to rise to meet the pumping levels of oxygen and
even out. A moment’s reprieve, she stretched her
arms and popped her neck as best she could strapped thus into the
command chair in the shuttle’s cockpit. She could
hear the voices of her father’s various scientists babbling
in the background of her helmet’s internal radio.
Occasionally she even heard her father’s voice, conferring
with that cute Doctor Janus that had made this all possible.
She hoped that she would get a piece of that when all of this was over-
but that was up to Daddy of course.
Oubliette cracked her knuckles, waiting, barely able to feel her
fingers in the thick NASA suit. It had been modified to
withstand the rigors of the Negative Zone, but as far as looks went it
did little to inspire. It was huge and bulky, cumbersome
despite her best efforts and did little to accentuate her
figure. It served its purpose she supposed, but she hated
it. It made her look fat.
Bad as her own space suit was however, it had to be worse for the man
sitting beside her in the co-pilot’s chair. He was
sealed head to toe in the over-sized Mark I Mandroid armor that her
father had bought years ago from Stark Industries- initial patents et
al. Despite his legendary strength, Oubliette knew that the
man within the archaic, obsolete armor could barely move with all of
the additions that Doctor Janus had jury-rigged in the last few
hours. The bulky energy converters alone had to weigh tons,
and ad to that the boot jet apparatus and the redesigned sensory array
it had to be hell. Despite it all however, when the
Exterminatrix glanced at her companion she saw the golden gauntlets of
the armor gripping the arm rests of his chair fiercely and the face
barely visible in the view port of the helmet looked grim and
determined, pale and covered in sweat. Oubliette giggled-
“Nervous, Count?” she asked, wincing at the raspy
sound of her usually sultry voice as her helmet radio mangled her
words. The Mandroid armor shifted ever so slightly but could
not turn to face her.
“Only slightly child.” Oubliette was pleased that
Count Nefaria’s own basso voice seemed just as distorted as
her own. “I’ve had several bad
experiences in air craft over the years, usually resulting in
explosions. I will be fine once we are under way.”
The Exterminatrix nodded in understanding even as she sprang back to
action, her hands dancing over the command console as a fresh series of
lights flared to life demanding her attention. She flicked
the proper switches, “Shouldn’t be long
now,” then adjusted her radio-
“All systems go, Daddy!” she said with a smile and
glee in her voice. She could feel the excitement growing
within her, hear the excitement in the voices of the
scientists. Nefaria simply oozed anticipation, even through
his armor.
“Good!” Oubliette’s heart swelled to hear
her father’s approval. His metallic voice rang in
her ears and she could hear the pride in what she was about to do-
pilot a ship into the very heart of the Negative Zone. She
was going where few had gone before; the Fantastic Four, the
Avengers. She almost felt like a hero.
Something on the console ‘pinged’ drawing Oubliette
from her reveries and she saw a series of lights shift green.
She glanced at the power ratio indicator and saw it topping into the
lower half of red. Her radio was abuzz with static and dozens
of voices babbling in her ears. She licked her lips again,
her hands grabbing the steering column almost lovingly. The
countdown had reached fifteen… ten…
“Good luck, daughter,” she heard her
father’s voice almost cracking with emotion.
“Do me proud.”
Whatever her response it was lost in the roar of the engines as the
old, rebuilt Star Core shuttle lurched in its gantry and began to shake
madly even as it started to rise in its track. Oubliette had
little to do but hold the course until they actually passed through the
hole, the rip in the air that Reed Richards had created years ago that
led to the Negative Zone. Once there she would have her hands
full holding the course as the craft passed through the Zone of
Distortion. There would be a few wild seconds, but then the
scientists assured her that it would be no more difficult than flying a
normal plane through normal skies. She had her doubts of
course- they had been wrong before, but she was hopeful.
She felt the gantry fall away as the shuttle’s engines
raged. Within seconds the old ship was flying free, gravity
trying to hold it back as it steadily, slowly climbed in arch towards
the wavering sparkle of light that was the doorway to another universe-
an anti-matter universe. Oubliette tried to relax,
unclenching her teeth and arms as she scanned the console watching the
indicators. Power was still touching the red, but all
suppressors were in safe zones. Oxygen was good, and internal
pressure was adjusting within acceptable standards. Atomic
batteries to power- turbines to speed…
Thunderbirds
were go!
Nearby…
Reed Richards watched as the obsolete Star Core Shuttle rocked and spat
exhaust as it forced its way skyward. It was shaking madly,
and just for a moment he thought that the old, battered ship might
explode in its berth but miraculously it took to the air- albeit
complaining- and continued to rise.
He watched as the scientists on the roof began to scurry about in the
ship’s wake, some pointing after it, others going about their
duties. He saw Doctor Midas there on the roof as well, his
golden armor sparkling in the sunlight only slightly tarnished from the
great plumes of burning exhaust spat out by the shuttle.
Apparently when Stark built something, even as ancient as his
second-generation Iron Man armor, it kept working.
He saw Midas watching as the ship climbed and returned his attention to
the shuttle and the hole beyond. He cursed to himself,
wishing that he had taken the time to close the hole above Manhattan
that led to the Negative Zone, or at least he should have kept abreast
of the property where the Baxter Building had once stood.
Times were hard though, and he had put off a payment on the tax
referral and Midas had pounced like a lion on the Veldt. It
was over before Richards even knew what had happened. This
was all his fault.
Still, he hoped that Midas knew what he was getting into. He
hoped that the shuttle was properly shielded for the rigors of the
Zone. He hoped that they were prepared for the strange and
unique wildlife that they would encounter- the denizens of the Negative
Zone were fierce and often fatal. He hoped too that they
could find their way back, remembering many of his own trips into the
Zone-
“Now we must hope for calamity.”
Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic turned to stare wide-eyed at the SHIELD
agent standing slightly behind him. Jimmy Woo’s
face was bland and impassive as he watched the shuttle’s
climb, a cigarette hanging limply from his lips. His dark
almond eyes turned towards Richards and the agent shrugged.
“They get what they deserve. Megalomaniacs like
Doctor Midas should be locked away, Professor. Their very
existence threatens our lives daily, the lives of the people we seek
and strive to protect. The least we can hope for is that the
crew of the shuttle never returns and Midas never achieves his
goals.”
Richards shivered, returning his attention to the shuttle. It
was almost to the hole. In seconds it would be
gone. “That’s why we’re here,
Woo; me and my team and you and yours. We have to show the
likes of Doctor Midas the errors of his ways.”
“Perhaps that is on your job description,
Professor,” Woo said, flicking his spent cigarette at a
corner of the roof where a small pile of butts was
accumulating. “It is not on
mine…”
Whatever Reed Richards was about to say was lost as there was a flare
of light in the sky. He shielded his eyes as he watched the
Star Core shuttle vanish into the rippling hole in the sky, and just as
quickly it was over. It was almost anti-climatic after the
long and drawn out activity to get to this point.
Richards watched the hole for a few moments, then turned his attention
to the rooftop of the opposite building. He could see the
scientists still, the technicians going about their collective duties
in the ship’s passing in a flurry of activity. He
could see Midas too, puffing on his telltale cigar. He saw
the Golden Doctor turn-
And flip him the bird…
Reed Richards blinked, unbelieving. He might expect that from
one of the villains they faced so often; the Sand Man or the Trapster-
even from Ben under the proper circumstances. But from one of
his peers? And all things aside, Doctor Midas was a
peer. He turned to Woo-
“He flipped me off!” Richards said, blinking and
Woo just shrugged, lighting another cigarette.
“Welcome to my world, Professor.”
 |
The
World's Greatest Superheroes.....
Vs
Part One:
Into
the Breach
|
|
JLA
#30-
July, Year 3
|
by Curt
Fernlund
Plot by Chris Munn and Curt Fernlund
|
Active Roster: JLA
AquaMan |
Atom |
Batman |
Black Canary |
Firestorm |
Flash |
Green
Lantern |
Martian
Manhunter |
Red Tornado |
Superman |
Wonder Woman |
Plastic Man
|
Zatanna
|
|
|
|
|
|
Active
Roster: Avengers
Beast
|
Black
Panther
|
Captain
America
|
Hawkeye |
Iron Man
|
Quicksilver
|
The Zone of Distortion:
There was just enough play in the thick metallic gauntlets of the
Mandroid armor for him to firmly grip the armrests of his
chair. The tiniest bit of comfort, support as he gritted his
teeth, half from the shattering racket and shiver of the obsolete
shuttle, half from fear. He clenched his eyes shut as the
hulking craft rumbled and swayed, the roar of the engines blotting out
the static in his ear piece, but that was no help at all. He
still saw the damnable Indian whenever he closed his eyes.
The snarling, determined face, the fists hammering through the
windscreen of the jet aircraft, he could still hear the explosion, feel
the burn, the pain as he teleported away.
Gods, how he hated to fly.
Count Nefaria opened his eyes, willing the image of John Proudstar
away, out of his mind’s eye. It was no better with
his eyes wide open however, staring at the approaching, sparkling rip
in the very sky. He had no doubt that they would survive with
Midas’ daughter on board, but there was of course a chance of
calamity. Not that Doctor Midas would not sacrifice his
daughter in his lust for power- Nefaria would do the same in his own
quest for immortality- but he knew that the Doctor had invested much in
this excursion and would see it through to the end. Barring
accidents, they were safe for the time being.
Still…
Nefaria tried to focus on anything other than what lay beyond the
reinforced windows before him. He felt the slightest tingle
as the nose of the shuttle passed into the rip and started to
blaze. He could hear Thunderbird screaming at him, pounding
on the jet-
Light flashed and flickered as energy coruscated throughout the
cockpit. His skin felt hot, burning. He was
sweating bullets now, sweating like a peasant in the fields as the
world tore itself apart. His stomach churned, lurched as all
he knew, all that his body and soul were fell away as they passed
through the dimensional barrier.
Nefaria sucked air through clenched teeth focusing his gaze on a
charred panel overhead, burned by radiation no doubt years ago when the
Phoenix had been born. He tried to remember
Richard’s thesis and articles on the Negative Zone, he had
read them enough that he should know them by rote, but Thunderbird was
still screaming in his ear, hammering on the hatch…
They were passing through the ‘Zone of Distortion’
as Richards had dubbed it, that area where positive matter and energy
was transformed into the negative; anti-matter. Richards
theorized of course that this was the only way that anything might
survive in negative space. It was a null void that he himself
had created, patented. Nefaria wondered just how much he had
made off of that.
He could feel something happening. He could feel the tingle
in his body growing, raging as his very structure was changing to
accommodate the brave new universe he was entering. He licked
his lips, remembering when his body had been first enhanced by ionic
energy, energies stolen from Power Man, the Whirlwind and the Living
Laser. It was not so different he decided. Whatever
the new universe was doing to him, he could endure.
But the sights might drive him mad. As his vision began to
clear with the fading explosion of light and energy he tried top focus
on the swirling array of shapes and images. There- a cube
rotating, spinning madly. There- a starburst that swelled and
receded like a thing alive. A band of solid light seemed to
swirl and stretch far away, lost to the distance. Things
floated by, some whizzing past too fast to discern, others seemingly
exploding as they came too near. It was dazzling, boggling as
he tried to comprehend a fourth dimension in terms of the third
dimension that he had known all his life.
He could hear the girl too, her breathing erratic and gasping, rising
in pitch with her moans and movements. Nefaria could not
properly turn to see her, but the noises she was making, it almost
sounded as though she were nearing orgasm. And why
not? He was feeling better himself as the craft fared deeper,
finally bursting through the final barriers of Subspace!
And they were through…
He could hear the girl’s breathing slowing now, gasping even
as her hands started to flow over the controls. He could feel
a gravimetric pull tugging at the shuttle, drawing it into the ebb and
flow of the matter and debris speeding towards some central
source. If Richards was correct that source would be Earth,
and the drifting matter of the Negative Zone would be forever
inexplicably drawn towards that beacon only to explode in the
world’s positive atmosphere; the Exploding
Atmosphere! Within moments however he felt the strain of the
shuttle’s engines as it pulled away from the current and held
a course that would leave them orbiting the untouchable Earth until
they got their bearings. The girl was good.
“Still with me, Count?”
The girl’s voice was sultry static but he could hear the
condensation behind her mock concern. He felt the fool at his
inadequacy- damn the Mutant bastard that had instilled the
phobia. He felt good now though, stronger than he had in
months since he first noticed that his stolen powers were starting to
fade once again. He felt revived here in the Negative Zone,
almost rejuvenated with the flow of transposition of his molecules, his
very being to anti-matter.
“Of course, child,” he replied, his voice laced
with his own special arrogance. Damn the bitch that she had
seen his weakness, his fear. He watched as she guided the
craft through the detritus and debris of the Zone. He could
see the Earth, the Exploding Atmosphere far and away in the distance,
but as the ship banked, slowly turning away there was another blaze
that caught his eye.
“Now we just have to find Annihilus,” the
Exterminatrix continued. Her words were almost lost however
as Nefaria gazed at the spiraling, spewing display of power far in the
distance. It was like a giant whirlpool of energy seeping
into another hole not unlike the one they had just passed
through. There were explosions, a dazzling display of light
being sucked away as though into a Black Hole. It was a rip
he saw, a tear like back in reality, back on Earth, anti-matter flaring
as it poured through. But to where?
There was no way to judge just how far away the other rip might be,
time and space seemed meaningless here. It might be a few
miles or light years for all he knew. Nefaria knew however
that that was where they needed to go.
“I do not think that finding Annihilus will be a
problem. I believe that he will find us.”
Nefaria pointed at the rage of energy and was satisfied to hear the
girl gasp. More so as she began to guide the sluggish craft
towards the phenomena. This was something new, something that
Reed Richards had never noted in his papers. A new rip in
space, beyond perhaps another dimension, unexplored and
favorable. Richards had called the Zone the
‘Crossroads of Infinity’.
Nefaria hoped that Mister Fantastic was right…
Elsewhere:
The Flash was the first to wake of course, the fastest.
Even as he woke he cried out, his leg muscles screaming in agony,
vibrating madly still. He churned, his body convulsing, his
hands a blur as he massaged his legs trying to ease the flaring pain
and spasms.
Tears in his eyes, Wally West, the third Flash scanned the platform of
the Cosmic Treadmill. He felt his breath coming in short,
choppy gasps. His heart hammered in his chest. He
was hyperventilating, fear clogging his throat as he stared at the
remnants of the device that he had helped to build. It was a
shambles.
The Treadmill had been ripped in two, unable to withstand the
turbulence of the Time Stream that they had encountered on the trip
back from the very End of Time. Wally could see bits and
pieces, shrapnel from the machine floating nearby. Energy
arched from shattered conduits, wires whipping wildly in the backdraft
of their movement, drifting from momentum, lost in space-
Wally’s eyes went wide!
He sucked in a lungfull of air, springing to his feet and wincing in
pain as his leg muscles rebelled. He held it, glancing
frantically about as he counted heads. They were in space-
open space! Any second now they would all blow up like
balloons and explode. He had to do something-
anything! He had to save them! He had to-
Nothing…
Wally West exhaled, almost collapsing over what remained of one of the
support struts that had lined the Treadmill. They had not
exploded, had not died, and that meant that either someone else was
awake and saving them or they were not in space as he first
thought. It looked like space, though he did not recognize
any star patterns, and there seemed to be a lot of asteroids flowing
past. There were planets in the distance, big rocks really
looking totally desolate. There were stars too, big blazing
stars that just did not look right. There were clouds of gas
and oddly shaped geometric forms flitting past-
Where were they?
“W-Wally…”
The Flash turned, surprised to hear the sound, any sound, shocked to
hear his name. Again he scanned the remnants of the
Treadmill, his eyes shifting quickly, lightning flaring as he
tensed. He saw them there, splayed and spread on the
platform, defeated. Dead? He hoped not.
“God no…”
He saw Kyle Rayner raise his head, his hand pulsing green and figured
that they were all alive due to the efforts of the Green
Lantern! The Lantern’s ring was sparkling,
crackling with energy as Kyle struggled to his hands and
knees. Wally saw him heave and retch suddenly, the verdant
energy flaring at the extra effort. The Treadmill shook then,
and the Flash saw the slight tinge of green that surrounded them all at
last, weak and flickering, fluctuating. It was Kyle keeping
them alive.
Flash was at his friend’s side instantly, helping him to sit
up and focus. Kyle Rayner hacked again, coughing up phlegm at
the sudden movement and Wally saw traces of blood in the spittle.
“Easy, man,” Wally West said as he eased his friend
against one of the bent support struts. He could see the
impressions someone’s fingers had made in the warped and
twisted metal and swiftly glanced about the rest of the fallen heroes
as Kyle sagged, moaning. “Stay here Kyle.
I have to see to the others. See-“
Wally’s voice caught in his throat as he stood once more and
surveyed the damage. His skin paled as he started counting
heads, a chill racing along his spine. Whatever force had
struck the Cosmic Treadmill in the Time Stream and ripped it in two had
also torn the JLA in half.
He saw Plastic Man; his pliable body a gooey soup that seemed to spread
over the platform like sewage backing up in a basement. There
were thick chunks of the man piled in the corners, sheets of him oozing
about the machinery, his elongated arms flowing, wavering in the cosmic
winds trailing behind what was left of the treadmill. Plastic
Man had been using his body to help hold the passengers together during
their wild ride through time, and West could only imagine what the
sudden assault had done to the man looking at the charred stubs where
his hands used to be, waving in the breeze. He must have
tried to hold onto whoever was now missing, even to the end.
Wonder Woman too had been trying to hold the travelers
together. She had entwined her Golden Lasso around everyone,
anchoring it and herself to the machine, but apparently the force that
had struck the Time Stream had been too much even for her magical
rope. The indestructible cord was still glowing, faintly, but
it almost looked as though it had been severed and like Plas’
arms was now whipping about the treadmill’s
slipstream. The remainder of the rope was still loosely
coiled here and there in bunches, but almost useless by the look.
He saw the Martian Manhunter face down on the platform, his arms spread
around the Black Canary and Zatanna laying to either side.
The women were breathing Wally saw, but J’onn
J’onzz was still as death, though that meant nothing in the
Martian’s instance. Wally had heard the man sigh,
often repeatedly and heavily when dealing with the likes of Booster
Gold or Guy Gardner, but he could not actually remember even seeing the
big green man breathe.
Superman however did breathe. Wally knew that the Man of
Steel was really not so different from the rest of them, at least in
that respect. The Flash could see the Kryptonian’s
chest heaving even now, luckily, as he had endured the worst of their
trip to the far future. It had been he that the Time Trapper
had kidnapped along with Lois Lane- the reporter from Metropolis and
Superman’s one time media dubbed girlfriend- and an elderly
couple from Kansas- coincidentally Clark Kent’s
parents. Coincidence? Wally did not have time to
wonder as he saw the Man of Steel struggling to rise. The
Kents were gone however, and so was Lois Lane!
Wally West spun about, his eyes wide and frantic once again as he
looked to the rest. He saw a boy just a bit younger than
himself that had to be Ronnie Raymond, the alter ego of Firestorm the
Nuclear Man. Why the kid had powered down Flash had no idea,
though maybe unconsciousness brought about the change.
Firestorm had been in the League longer than Wally had, but still he
knew little about the Nuclear Man, and not a clue as to how his powers
worked.
And that was it…
Wally West, Fastest Man Alive slowly stood in place circling, watching
as his friends and teammates began to move and moan, began to wake up
and recover, hopefully. But what of the others? Red
Tornado, Atom, Aquaman and the Batman were gone!
“West…”
“Gaww!”
Wally West shouted, spinning about as his heart started hammering in
his chest, racing as adrenaline sped through his body spurred by shock
and fear. He was trembling as his eyes tried to quickly
adjust to the new view, his vision blurring as light tried to catch up
with his Speed Force enhanced sight. The dark, fluttering
silhouette slowly came into focus, the glaring white slits scanning him
in return, looking him up and down appraisingly before turning away and
ignoring him.
“Batman!” Wally gasped feeling his own pulse still
fluttering in his wrist. “Jesus, I thought you
were-“
“Have you inspected the treadmill?” Batman said,
ignoring the Flash as he waded through what was left of Plastic Man and
crouched beside the Martian Manhunter and the two women.
Wally heard a ‘pop’ and smelled ammonia for a split
second before Zatanna and Black Canary started coughing and choking.
“No, I-“
“Do so!” Batman ordered, his voice cold and
brooking no argument. He was taking charge of the situation
again- thankfully- and for once Wally did not mind. He saw
the Batman moving on quickly and silently to Wonder Woman, then to
Superman and finally to Raymond. He was ignoring Green
Lantern and Plastic Man, but thinking on it there was nothing really
that the Batman could do for Plas. Wally could not even see
the man’s face in the goop at their feet. Kyle on
the other hand seemed to be almost recovered if just a little shaky,
trying to stand. Wally offered a shoulder to lean on as he
did as Batman had ‘asked’ and scanned the
wreckage. It was hopeless.
As Flash held onto his friend he saw the others recovering one by
one. Too as they came around each slowly turned their gaze
skyward, a look of awe washing over each face. All save one,
Superman, a mask of sorrow contorting his visage. Was he
crying?
“J’onn,” Batman’s grim voice
caught Wally’s attention. “See what you
can do to help O’Brien.” Even as the Manhunter
nodded Batman turned his own attention to Green Lantern,
“Lantern, are you well enough to keep us shielded from the
elements?” Kyle Rayner nodded-
“Yeah,” he said, his voice rough and
croaking. “There’s atmosphere though, so
I don’t-“
“Just do it!” Batman said gruffly, turning away
then glancing back. “Keep us shielded for now, just in
case. At least until we’ve assessed the damage and
determined where we are.”
“And just where is that, Batman?” Black Canary
asked her own voice hard and grim. She had a swollen lump on
her forehead that was coloring a nasty shade of violet.
“This doesn’t look like space to me.”
“Nor to me,” Zatanna added. She seemed no
worse for wear but her voice was quivering, sounding fearful almost.
“I sense no magic here, wherever here is.”
Wally West felt a cold shiver run up his spine again, felt Kyle jump at
the same time. Both looked down to see Plastic
Man’s body slithering and flowing, coagulating almost as
though he were coming together again. It was sickening to
watch however and both men quickly looked away, Rayner gagging again.
“I feel we are not in normal space any longer,”
J’onn J’onzz said, his head cocking as he scanned
the area no doubt shifting his sight through a variety of spectrums
that only Martians could see.
“We’re not,” Superman said..
He gazed at the Amazonian Princess at his side who nodded in
return as some unspoken thought passed between the two.
Wonder Woman stepped protectively to the side, looping the good end of
her lasso about the treadmill's supports, then began to study the
frayed end in confusion. Superman looked to J’onzz
and then to the Batman-
“We’re in the realm of Qward I believe; the
Negative Universe. I recognize the feeling, the absence and
entropy, the loneliness.”
“Hmmph,” Batman shrugged, glancing at the Martian
Manhunter who again nodded in confirmation. Flash too
recognized the surroundings then, vaguely. He had been there
before, during the Crisis and the battle against the Anti-Monitor just
after Barry had… died…
“A feeling I’m familiar with,” Batman
continued, “and dealt with for quite some time. I
suggest you all do the same so we can concentrate on getting
home.”
“Wait-“ Flash started, but the Raymond boy was even
faster-
“What about the others?” he said stepping up,
actually standing in front of the Dark Knight, and looking up at him
defiantly. “What about the others; Aquaman, Atom,
Reddy? What about the Kents and Lois Lane?” Ronnie
Raymond glanced at Superman but the Man of Steel had his back to them
all, scanning the stars.
“They’re gone…” he said, his
voice catching. “They’re nowhere within my line of
sight.”
“Nor mine,” J’onn J’onzz added,
“nor within the range of my telepathy. They could
be still within the Time Stream, or even back home for that
matter. Perhaps they are elsewhere within this Negative
Universe, but if so they are lost to us. At least for the
time being.”
“We have to look for them!” Black Canary shouted
almost in unison with Ronnie Raymond. “We have to
try to find them-“ she continued.
“They must need help!” Zatanna added, but the
Batman seemed to ignore the outburst.
“All three men are capable and powerful,” he said
and Flash saw his hand slip into his cloak, his JLA Communicator
sliding almost invisibly back into its compartment on his Utility
Belt. Batman had been searching as well, after all.
“Aquaman is a born leader. Atom is perhaps one of
the smartest men I know and Red Tornado one of the most
powerful. If they are all together they’ll
safeguard the Kents,” did Batman glance at Superman,
“and Lane, and then they will carry on as we have
to. First order of business is survival.” Batman
scanned the protestors for any further sign of descent but each in turn
backed down, though not one of them seemed too happy to do so.
“Lantern,” the Batman said barely breaking stride.
“The original League once fought a being known as
Aquarius. Hal Jordan and Alan Scott defeated him by tricking
him into the Negative Universe through a hole in the
‘Corridor Between Realities’ as they called
it. Can you find that hole?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle Rayner said
truthfully. He held up his ring, ”The
information’s in here. All the victories and
defeats of the Green Lantern Corp are recorded for me to tap into, but
you know as well as I do that a lot of Alan’s power is based
on magic. I don’t know if my ring alone can do the
job.”
“Try,” Batman said with a frown, turning his back
on Earth’s Green Lantern. Wally West felt his
friend tense at the snub- as though he was something less than Hal
Jordan, Earth’s first Green Lantern. Insult or no
however, Wally saw the ring blaze to life as Kyle started searching the
greatest weapon in the universe for the answers they needed.
“J’onn?” the Batman asked, turning to the
Martian.
“I have only visited this realm with aid, Batman.
With the Monitor’s devices at the time of Crisis for
instance, or through the Psychic Plane. I fear I have no
solution.” Batman nodded, turning to the Man of
Steel.
“I’m sorry,” Superman said, his voice
still heavy. “Like J’onn, I’ve only been
here by artificial means. I was here for that final battle
with the Anti-Monitor, and I’ve fought the Weaponers here
too, but I always had help crossing the dimensional barriers.”
“What about the Cosmic Treadmill, Flash?”
Wally West almost jumped to hear his name. Licking his lips
he glanced about the remnants of the machine again.
“It’s wasted, Batman. No way we can
repair it without some kind of material to replace what’s
missing. Hell, I wouldn’t even know where to
start.”
“Firestorm can create the material, West,” Batman
said staring at Ronnie Raymond again, waiting. Raymond
snapped his attention once more to the detective-
“You don’t think I’ve been trying to
change?” he screamed, his voice cracking.
“There’s nothing there! The
power’s gone!”
“It’s the universe, Batman,”
J’onn J’onzz said in defense of his young
friend. “Like Zatanna, Firestorm’s powers
are based firmly in our own reality. The laws of physics
differ here in this realm, and the elements are widely
varied. Perhaps it is for the best, for even if Ronnie were
able to call upon his alter ego, the Nuclear Man’s powers
would be greatly altered and perhaps devastating to us. If he
could fathom a new and obscure set of elements at all.”
Batman sighed, his face going grimmer by the second as he turned back
to the Green Lantern. “Then it’s up to
you Rayner. Find us a door-“
“Right,” Kyle said, his eyes ablaze as he
‘communicated’ with the glowing bauble on his
finger. His face was awash in a green glow as the collected
memories of hundreds flooded his thoughts, the ring translating all
into some pattern of logic that he could assimilate and
understand. Kyle Rayner seemed almost in a trance, his face
going slack eventually, his mouth agape.
“Ohhh…”
Wally West looked to the source of the new voice and saw Plastic Man
more or less whole, sitting on the platform with a rubbery arm wrapped
about a leg of Zatanna and Black Canary respectively. His
hands seemed back to normal, though still a bit red from burn and Wally
could not help notice that he was running his fingers over the smooth
skin and fishnets of each woman with his tongue lolling from the corner
of his still elongated mouth.
“Anybody get the number of that Death Star ran me
down?” he joked, his face morphing to take on the image of
Sir Alec Guinness. “I felt a disturbance in the
Force. As though a billion souls hit me with the ugly stick
at once-“
“Welcome back, O’Brien,” Batman said,
cutting off the man before he could start rolling.
“J’onn, update him, then do what you can to help
Lantern-“
“Don’t need it, Batman,” Kyle Rayner said
finally stepping away from the Flash to face the Dark Knight on his own
two legs. “I found what you said, and the ring
found the ‘hole’ in question-“
“Good work-“ Batman said, but Green Lantern cut him
off.
“I’m not done. The ring is registering a
surge of power at that hole that’s off the scale.
It’s not just the collision of positive and negative matter,
energy, whatever, there’s something more that it
can’t identify. Something that it’s never
encountered- at least in its recorded history.” The Batman
nodded-
“Can you get us there?”
“We’ve been drifting that way all along,”
Kyle said as he focused his will power again, his mind setting aside
the information he had been fed for future reference, “along
with everything else. It’s like a huge black hole
drawing everything in, in that direction.” He pointed,
“You can see it now, that pinkish glow
there.” All eyes turned in the direction that Green
Lantern indicated and as one they all seemed to gasp. They
stared, a feeling of insignificance washing over them, memories
flooding their mind’s eye as each in turn remembered the
worst time of their lives.
They saw the image that their minds created, a construct that allowed
their fragile psyches to comprehend. It was huge, staggering,
a great flowing band that seemed to bend and fold back in on itself,
encompassing infinity. It was like a gigantic Mobius Strip, a
gargantuan, endless mass of solid energy there at that point where the
universes collided. Explosions rocked the space about it as
positive matter and energy met negative. Great crimson clouds
roiled, expanding and laced with lightning. A booming sound
of thunder rolled incessantly, deafening though oddly not
overwhelming. Plumes of cosmic force spewed out in churning
geysers about the strip, along its mind-boggling length.
There were holes, rips in the very fabric of space radiating a queer,
fluctuating strobe of light.
“God no, please…” Flash said as he
stared trying to take it all in. “Not
again…”
“It’s the Crisis isn’t it?”
Zatanna asked, her voice barely a hushed whisper yet heard by
all. “It’s happening again. It
never stopped…”
They all thought of their friends then, lost in the battle against the
Anti-Monitor; Dove and Kole, Barry Allen, how many more? How
many lives had been altered by the Anti-Monitor’s plot to
shift reality? How many more would have to die now?
“It’s just special effects,” Batman said
trying to quell their fears but all heard the odd edge to his
voice. He was not sure, not certain, and that worried them
more than anything. “The effect of positive and
negative colliding, it’s no crisis unless we make it
one.”
Batman looked to Superman and the Martian Manhunter.
“We need propulsion. Can you both survive out
there?”
“We have before,” Superman said casting a final,
longing look to the void. “We will again.”
“Then you two hold us steady until the Lantern finds our
hole. I don’t know what that is, and I
don’t really want to, but somewhere within that maelstrom is
our doorway home.” The Batman turned then to the
Earth’s Green Lantern, the frown still in place but the voice
suddenly softer, not so cold-
“Save us Lantern- Kyle. Get us home.”
Kyle Rayner blinked, swallowing a lump that had risen in his
throat. He stared at his power ring for a moment, the
greatest weapon in the universe and finally nodded,
“You can count on me, Batman,” he said, holding his
arm out straight as he began to probe the anomaly that was drawing
steadily closer. Superman and the Martian Manhunter were
outside his protective field now and guiding what was left of the
treadmill, slowing its inexorable approach to the Event Horizon, giving
Kyle time and space, buying him the precious moments to find the way
home. Could he do it?
Yes! If Hal Jordan could do it, so could he. Batman
trusted him. They all did…
He would get them home…
Earth,
Somewhere:
He was the first to respond of course. He always was.
Fastest man alive, fastest being on the planet…
He shut down the alarm claxons first; the noise was deafening,
annoyingly slow to his ears. He had been against creating a
Trophy Room. It seemed stupid, asking for trouble assembling
the weapons of their greatest foes, artifacts that could kill them all
and rend the very fabric of reality together all in one room, but the
others- most of the others anyway- thought that it would be a quaint
idea. They needed the boost to their egos apparently, a push
in the right direction. In the end he had conceded,
grudgingly. Now he wished he had stayed adamant.
His hands were a blur as he shut down the alarms and redirected the
defenses, his eyes flitting over the monitor array to determine what
had gone active amongst the dormant junk that they had gathered over
the years:
American
Eagle’s Starlight Shield…
Brainchild’s
Reality Converter…
Master
Menace’s Cosmic Annihilator…
Finally he found it, just a sparkling twinkle within the framework of
the Scarlet Centurion’s Dimensional
Escalator.
The Cosmic Stairs were rolling upward, invisibly to the naked eye, but
of course he saw things that the others never would in the span of
their lives. It was moving slowly, but it was moving, which
meant that something was trying to step between realities.
The Centurion was dead he knew, so hopefully it was something benign,
maybe a friend-
It was probably the Avengers.
Stanley Stewart watched as the Escalator rolled on, waiting for
something to appear. There was no way to shut the damnable
thing down that any of them knew once it got going. It was
the Scarlet Centurion’s master construct, designed to pluck
personages from the Time Stream, used of course to defeat them in the
past. They had fought beings like Heracles and Goliath,
Merlin and Cagliostro over the years, any time that the Centurion got a
hard on to attack. It had proved annoying at best, but if the
Centurion was back in action somehow with some new plot he would find
them ready-
“What is it, Stan?”
Stanley spun about, staring at his friend. Mark Milton looked
half-asleep, which was odd in itself, his thick-lensed glasses askew at
a rakish angle. His ‘new’ eyes seemed to
work fine, but he still had problems at time; psychosomatic more than
likely. Zarda was right behind him, pulling on her uniform,
her hair wild with sweat sheening her skin. It did not take
much to imagine what they had been up to-
“I dunno,” he said, returning his attention to the
Escalator. “It just seemed to be running when I got
here. Something’s coming, but I
don’t-“
They all three stared as the image took shape, the familiar dark
silhouette forming on the steps of the Time Stairs. They
recognized the billowing cloak, the stance of determination and
confidence. They saw the pointy ears of his cowl-
“Kyle?” Milton said, blinking behind the thick
lenses of the glasses that once enhanced his sight to a Radar-like
quality allowing him to see in an odd way, now simply easing strain
when he slept. He saw the shadowy figure on the stairs tense,
the hands flitting to its sides in a way that seemed all too familiar.
“I don’t think so,” Zarda said as the
figure leaped, twisting and spiraling into a defensive
crouch. It was almost Kyle, but the costume was dark in grays
and blues, not quite a bird, more a bat. There was another on
the Escalator forming behind. Someone big…
“It’s not the Avengers…”
The others were there, gathering at the alarm, at the door.
But for every one of them that appeared, someone new stepped from the
Dimensional Stairs, another doppelganger it appeared. They
all saw the similarities:
The big, muscular guy in the cape…
The slick man in the skin-tight costume…
The man with the glowing stone…
They were not the Avengers. They were someone else…
“The Squadron Sinister,” Hyperion whispered, not
quite able to see their costumes, not really.
“I don’t think-“ the Whizzer said, but he
was ignored.
“Squadron Attack!”
And the battle was joined…
Next
Issue: Okay,
who saw that coming? No one hopefully. Be right
here next month as the battle of the century commences when the JLA
takes on the Squadron Supreme, but first check out Avengers/JLA over at
Marvel 2K for the flip side of this adventure, and the next part of the
greatest cross-over in Fanfic History!
Surprises and guest stars abound!
Really…
Send
Reviews, Comments, and Other Mail to Curtis Fernlund
Story © 2005 Curt
Fernlund and
Chris Munn
and may not be reproduced without permission.
