#18: A Game Of Escalation, Pt. 2 (Walsh / Flinchum)

Previously, in Justice League...

...various members have come across an increase of weapons sales centered on highly-advanced weapons that Hawkman identifies as extra-terrestrial in design; while on the trail of Exeter in the Middle East, the Dibnys meet with Black Lightning, struggling with similar sales in the hot spots of the world, increasing tensions and bloodshed; and all roads lead the League to an alien criminal calling himself Byth, his power source and minions in the form of a race he calls Exorians, and his partners in the weapons trade, a group called Injustice Unlimited; as the League is surrounded on all sides by enemies seen and unseen, the Question reveals himself in a desperate attempt to prepare the next phase of his plan! And now...



The two men appeared in the opulent dining room, as if emerging from a hidden partition in a wall, though there was only empty space where they stepped out from. I.Q. was first, recall device in his hand, and Merlyn followed behind quickly, arrow nocked and ready in case of any trouble.

“Anything wrong, gentlemen?” Angle Man asked as he watched the two cohorts dart into their base. He clutched the humming Penrose triangle in his left hand. He pointed one corner at the warped space that provided his allies their escape route, watching carefully as he maintained the portal.

“The demonstration went fine, Angelo,” I.Q. replied as he turned around, watching and waiting as well.

“Then the Justice League showed up, rather ruined the whole party,” Merlyn added as he held the bow steadily toward the portal, also waiting. “And when did they get so large? I didn’t even recognize half of those losers.”

“Heh. Yes, well, I have to admit that came as a surprise to me too,” the mad scientist chuckled in response. “We definitely need to update our files on some of them. Though our little girl did quite well in evening the odds, didn’t she?”

“I suppose, but where is she? She was supposed to be coming in right after me,” Merlyn grumbled. “We can’t leave this up much longer, the League will try following.”

“Can’t have that. If they nabbed poor Cynthia, then we’ll just have to liberate her at a more auspicious time,” Angle Man said as he traced along an impossible, invisible line with the point of his device, re-sealing the ‘angle in space’ he’d created. “Can’t let the poor girl stay all scared and alone after all, can we?”

“You’re a bad, bad man, Angelo,” I.Q. chuckled as he shook his head. “She’s damn young for you, isn’t she?”

“But it helps make her so loyal to the cause,” Angelo Bend replied with a laugh. “Now, you say the demonstration went well? Give me details. I want to know everything our space partner is up to.”



Meanwhile, back in Africa

“Well, I believe I’ve proven the worth of my new weapons systems to my partners,” Byth announced as he lashed out with his right arm, the end turning into an extended ‘man-catcher’ weapon and pinching Wonder Woman in its grasp. “I think it’s time to bring this demonstration to a close, and shut the showroom down.”

Diana coughed and struggled to recover from the brutal steam attack, hands gripping the pincer to pry herself free. Before she could though, Byth had smashed her into a large junction box which began to explode into a shower of sparks. Lights fluttered as the Amazon cried in pain.

“Twins, to me!” he demanded as he stepped back against a far wall while the base began to shudder and crack, and the ruined power supply started the planned-for chain reaction. The alien siblings responded quickly as the wall behind Byth slid open and pulled the trio into the depths. “Have fun saving everyone, Leaguers!” he taunted with a wave of his hand and the door slammed shut behind them.

No one really had a chance to pay him much heed, as Flash began to shuttle the scientists and guards out of the base at his best speed, and Hawkgirl swooped down to scoop up the unconscious Manitou Dawn. Ralph stretched out a flattened arm to wrap up Black Lightning, Atom and Green Arrow to help them out quickly as Wonder Woman took several precious moments to look around the complex.

“Come on, Diana, we have to get out of here!” Flash cried as more rock and debris crashed around them. “We’ve got everyone!”

“Not everyone,” Wonder Woman replied angrily as she followed the Flash from the area, unable to find her quarry. She wouldn’t have left, but Flash would refuse to leave her side, and while she might survive the impending explosion, she knew he couldn’t.

“Who’s missing?” he asked as they reached the safety perimeter, and felt the earth shake and a wall of heat wash over the group from the explosion behind them. Before Diana could answer though, he caught sight of Dawn and Kendra, and their worried looks told them everything. He scoured the outer edge of the destruction, and the area around it, taking forever in his mind, though he returned in less than five seconds for everyone else. It had been no good.

“No sign of either of them,” Flash said dismally.

“Katar,” Kendra muttered as she took to the air and swept the area, keen eyes seeking out any signs, to no avail.

“What could have happened to them?” Dawn asked as the heroes regrouped. “Hawkman is bad enough, but how did we lose Kit?”

“I have someone who can explain that,” the Question said as he came up from a depression where he and his new-found ally had taken cover.

Wonder Woman stepped forward, with Elongated Man and Flash close behind her protectively, the other heroes looking warily at the man with no face. “Question. I’d heard you were dead.”

“I get that a lot,” he answered glibly.

“You a ghost too?” Hawkgirl said snidely, fluttering above the group.

“Nope, he’s alive, and he’s been my ace in the hole,” Ralph explained as he tried to calm things down. “Remember, I said I had to get someone else to help what with the whole...Gotham mess going down? Well, this is him. The other help.”

“The Question,” the vigilante introduced himself to those in the group he’d yet to meet directly. “This is Gypsy, and I think she has a lot to explain to you guys.”

“You said I could help turn the tide,” the young woman pointed out quietly, standing very close to the Question as she spoke, and staring out nervously at the assembled Justice League. “I didn’t get to do anything before the base blew up, and I have no clue what that creepy guy was up to, and I don’t see how I can save their friends.”

“I never said anything about saving their friends,” Question replied to the bedraggled teenager. “This isn’t the tide we need you for.”

“Do we need her for anything? The way she’s trying to fade out there just standing next to you, No-Face, I’m betting she’s the girl that put my lights out,” Manitou Dawn said, her voice thick with anger.

“She is. She’s also the one responsible for ambushing several of your team,” Question responded in a matter-of-fact tone, ignoring the resentment building. “She’s also going to help break open the truth on Injustice Unlimited, because believe me when I say, I.Q. and Merlyn are just the tip of a very nasty iceberg.”



At that moment, somewhere else...

...Hawkman slowly came back to consciousness. He forced his eyes to open, despite the stabbing pain in his head, and the throbbing down his spine. He looked around, trying to get his bearings, and found himself in a glass cylinder, that reached up from the floor to the ceiling, each end sealed in advanced security systems. And it wasn’t really glass, he quickly determined with a few experimental kicks and punches that left him bruised and the surface unmarred. He had been divested of his wings and armor, clad in only a yellow undershirt and green pants now. He frowned, snarled for a moment, and then looked around beyond his prison.

It was a rather dull-looking room, he realized quickly. There was only a cube a few feet away, some eight feet to a side, and made of an undistinguished gray metal. There was a heavy sliding security door that was the only way to exit the room, from what he could tell. And though he couldn’t see them, he had no doubt this holding pen held cameras.

“Anybody out there?” The voice was panicky, and muffled for it came from the gray cube. Speakers? So we can communicate? There has to be a way to make that backfire on that low-down snake, Katar Hol mused with dark glee. “I heard a grunting. Was that you, Hawkman?”

“Kid Eternity?” Now Hawkman was more concerned. “Is that you?”

“Yeah. I’m trapped in some kind of metal box, and I’ll be damned, but I can’t get through it,” Kit answered. He was clearly rattled, and Hawkman could easily understand why. “Well, considering my circumstances, maybe I shouldn’t mention the being damned part.”

“Good. Keep the humor up, Kid,” Katar replied, encouraging his team-mate. “We’ll figure out how to get out of this. I see your cell. I’m in a...glassteel or plastisteel cell nearby.”

“Glad to know I’m not alone. But I’m not liking this, not one bit,” Kit replied. “I can’t even hear Mister Keeper, so I can’t ask him about what’s going on. How can I not just walk out of here, Hawkman?”

“Now, now, never fret, I’d never leave you both in the dark for too long,” Byth chided his prisoners as he stepped into the room through the security door. “Let me correct myself. I would never leave you both ignorant for too long. I am rather forced to leave Kid Eternity in the dark.” He rested his hand on a metal wall and then glanced over his shoulder at Katar. “Isn’t it great? Charged inertron. A nice little spirit-catcher, wouldn’t you say?”

“You bastard,” Katar snarled as he pressed up against the clear surface of his prison. “When I get my hands on you--”

“When you do, I’ll just pound you again. With something different, I think. Last time it was weapons. What should I use for shapeshifting next time?” Byth walked over and sneered at the captured hero. “I’ve a whole catalog of types to choose from now.”

“They’re real then? What did you do to them?”

“Exorians are real. Think of it, just...imagine it, if your dull cop’s brain can. Exor. Where there lives a race of people, each one able to alter his or her body into some range of objects. Like my dear siblings, Zan and Jayna. He can assume any water-based form, while she can turn into any animal.” He stepped backward, staring up, gazing off distantly as he indulged in his moment. “And thanks to my boss, I have a few to sell as weapons, and the rest...the rest make Byth. A drug, addictive and powerful, and all mine. I can take up any of their shapeshifting powers I want. It’s...quite a rush, Katar.”

Katar stared in shock. He was tough, he’d seen a lot in his career, and he prided himself on his hard exterior, but he could indeed imagine what the maniac was telling him. He’d reduced a race to slave warriors and worse. He stepped back from the transparent wall, shaking his head in horror. “You’ve snapped, Bydar. Gone completely insane. If what you say is true...”

“Oh, it’s true, wingman. Very true. And soon, I’m going to be able to expand my product line.”

Katar was confused a moment, trying to figure out what he meant. Byth gave an exaggerated nod with each outward sign that the hero had fit another piece into place. “Your boss, your master...he’s coming here. To do whatever he did to Exor. To Earth. And you want the heroes--”

“Not just the heroes, Hol. Why limit myself? I want all the metahumans, to expand the Byth, yes.” He laughed and tapped the glass approvingly. “Now I see why you were one of Thanagar’s best bird-cops. Anyway, I have to go. Next stage is just about ready to begin, and I’d hate to be late. Now that I’m an entrepreneur, I have an image to maintain.” He turned and sauntered from the prison room, waggling his fingers in a taunting farewell wave.

“This is really bad,” Kid Eternity said shortly after the security door clanged shut and left the heroes alone.

Katar Hol had nothing to add to that.



Back at the Hall of Justice

In the conference room of the Justice League, none of the members were sitting. A restless fatigue wore on all of them as they tried to deal with the recent battle and the events surrounding it. All the newcomers in the room, and the strange, quiet young girl who had so recently helped their enemies, just made it worse, it seemed.

“I have to say, what Question says helps make sense of some recent incidents,” Flash mused as he forced himself to pace the room at a normal speed so he could be fully understood. “Like the Atomic Skull and Penny Dreadful. How those two started pulling off perfect crimes was leaving me and...Batman...leaving us stumped.”

“Injustice Unlimited,” Ralph said. “We got two names, do we know who else is involved?”

“We’d better know very soon, considering we have her here,” Hawkgirl snapped as she walked up behind Gypsy, who was the only one seated at the moment. She curled her legs up, hugging them to her chest.

“I really don’t know that many,” Cynthia Reynolds said in a soft voice, staring up at the large number of masked, angry faces. “I was in an orphanage up to a year ago. This man, Ira Quimby, he offered to foster me, and I couldn’t figure out why. I thought it was because he had something pervy in mind, because he kept going on about how he was looking for the perfect person, how I was exactly what he’d been looking for.”

“This isn’t finding us Kit or Hawkman,” Dawn interrupted as she slammed a hand on the conference table. “I can’t sense him anywhere, and I didn’t think that would be any more possible than someone capturing him in the first place.”

“That was Mr. Quimby,” Gypsy explained, cringing into the chair. “You call him I.Q.? He’s a bad man. He...he said that I could use this blackjack he gave me, hit a switch and it would disrupt his etheric rhythms. He explained he was an evil spirit. I’ve never seen a ghost before, I had no idea!”

“What would disrupting him do, Gypsy?” Atom asked as he landed on the table in front of her. “What was the overall plan?”

“He had a trap beneath the floor. He’d sink into it because he’d be stuck intangible for a while. I think it was some kind of box,” Gypsy explained. “He built it for that creepy alien guy to use.”

“Creepy alien guy who probably made off with Beak-nose too,” Green Arrow said. “Man, I was just drawing a bead on him when he did that disappearing act. Too many teleporting bastards running around these days.”

“Sounds like they have some way of neutralizing Kid Eternity’s spectral nature,” Barry said as he and the Atom plunked away at the computer banks. “That’s got to take up some big power.”

“And something unusual too. I’m betting I could whip up something that could detect it,” Ray Palmer added with a grin that quickly vanished. “Maybe. If I had some idea of what I was looking for.”

“Maybe I can help with that. Seeing as I’ve been next to useless so far.” Black Lightning stepped forward. “I do more than just throw lightning bolts. I can sense electrical fields. Bigger ones tend to make a bigger splash. Makes the local air feel all different.”

Ray grinned and leaped into the air, to high five both tiny hands against the Flash’s one. “We can work with that!”

“If Gypsy was fostered by I.Q., then she’s got to know of some places he used as safe houses,” Ralph pointed out. “I know that the Q here and I were close to something solid. With her, I bet we can pin down some good locations to search out.”

“We have to focus on this Byth character!” Hawkgirl countered angrily, as Dawn rubbed her temple and shook her head, stepping away from her friend. “Saving Katar takes priority. And Kit. And stopping...whatever he’s doing!”

“They’re in partnership; we can’t lose track of the left hand because the right hand has something shiny in it,” the Question replied, stepping toward Kendra as Dawn backed off.

“Something shiny?” Kendra’s voice rose quickly and she stepped up to the faceless vigilante.

“Enough!” Wonder Woman interposed herself between the two, forcing them back with a minimum of her strength. “Enough yelling, sniping and bickering. We’re all tired, we’re all worried, and both hands need to be stopped.” She looked at the snickering Ralph and rolled her eyes. “Both sides. Byth and this Injustice Unlimited. Gypsy, please. Do you know any more people involved in this?”

“Please call me Cindy,” Gypsy said at first. “He has two people he talked to a lot. They had lots of meetings in the year I was with them. One was some accountant-looking guy called Temple Fugate. The other was a really creepy, sleazy looking guy. Every time he talked to me, I wanted to take a long hot shower. He was Angelo Bend.”

Diana’s hand gripped the edge of the table and crushed it in surprise and anger. “Angle Man. How is he even alive?”

The Question looked over at Diana and shrugged. “Your Majesty, it’s your call. What do we do next? I know what I want to do. But if I’m working with you guys now, I’ll follow your lead.”

“You’re working with us now?” Green Arrow snapped as he stalked up to the Question. “This is the Justice League. We don’t let just anyone in. You don’t get a membership card in your Crackerjack box. You get invited...if you’ve proven yourself. If you’re good enough!”

“Your team is short-handed, you need the extra thinker, and I’m the one with the goods on Injustice Unlimited, and who got Gypsy to switch sides,” Question ticked off, not backing down. “What have you done for the team? Oh right. Went on reserve and sulked in your city.”

“No more!” Wonder Woman shouted, as she gaveled a hole into the conference room table. She stared at the heroes assembled around her, angry and unnerved by the vicious bickering. She looked closer and started to notice it.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right,” Black Lightning said as he caught the look in Diana’s eyes. “Seen this kind of thing before. Battle fatigue. Strain. Stress.”

Dawn blinked her eyes rapidly and looked over the scene now. “Why didn’t I see it? I’m the healer, it’s what I do.”

“It’s an attack, it has to be,” Question answered quickly. “Several of us pride ourselves on our observational skills, and we blew it off too. Good spot, you two.”

“We’re running out of time then. This strange attack won’t stop because we’re onto it. We need to move faster. Hawkgirl, Dawn, Black Lightning, and Green Arrow, you guys are with me,” Wonder Woman announced, “as soon as Flash and Atom have figured out how to help Black Lightning locate this theoretical energy field holding Kid Eternity.” She looked over at Flash, pointing out the rest of the team as she called their names. “Atom, Ralph, Question and Gypsy, you’re following Flash, and finding out if the leads on this Injustice group are any good. Recon and information gathering only, understood?”

“Understood, your queenliness, but you made a slight mistake,” Green Arrow said. “I’m going after Merlyn. Man gives a bad rap to archers everywhere. Which means I’m going with my buddies here.” Oliver jerked a thumb toward Ralph and Barry.

“I should probably go with you anyway, Diana,” Atom said before she could argue. “To help refine whatever we come up with for Black Lightning.” He paused and took a deep breath, then added, “I have to help with the rescue.” Diana caught the look of determination on both men’s faces and nodded.

“Okay, everyone. You have your assignments. Do a lot of counting to ten, and let’s get to work,” Wonder Woman ordered.



Later, in Waymore, Nebraska

“Okay, I gotta say, this is not where I expected all roads to lead to,” Green Arrow said as he looked out of the League’s transport and down to the sprawling plains below. “I caught up on the trail you were following earlier, Ralph, and after the hot spots of Europe and then Dubai and some real glamor spots,” he turned back to his stretchable friend, “this is where we’re ending up?”

“There is a reason for it,” the Question said as he sat next to the rattled Gypsy, who had remained very quiet the entire time, at least after explaining to the team that she’d not met Merlyn before the battle in Africa.

“Oh? There’s a reason the suspected investment expert of this Injustice Unlimited is hiding out in Nowhere, Nebraska, home to nothing?”

Ralph rolled up his eyes, which made the people around him recoil as he took it perhaps a bit too far. Flash never looked away from the controls as he piloted the craft to a smooth landing in a field outside of the small, sleepy town, but answered just the same. “Ralph has a public identity, Arrow.”

“Yeah? Your point?” Ollie shot back.

“Guess we know for a fact now that he never listens to our stories during poker night,” Ralph replied as he stretched his neck back and curled it around the archer’s neck before facing him directly. “I was born here. Raised here. Have family here.”

Oliver nodded at the news, shrugged and looked away. “Well...okay. That makes some sense. Guess that’s why the jokes haven’t been coming out quite so much.” The five heroes stepped out of the jet and looked around. “You were raised here?”

“Not out in the meadows, no,” Ralph replied with a laugh. “C’mon, the house we need to check on is this way, I remember a shortcut.”

“One main road, a gas station and a fashionable restaurant called ‘Eats’. How much of a shortcut do we need?” Green Arrow teased.

A while later, the city-slicker archer had learned just how large an area a small town in Nebraska could cover. But the group had reached the isolated farmhouse, looking empty but in excellent condition.

“Okay, now what?” Ralph asked as they paused to consider options.

“I can sneak in, if you want. See if anyone’s around,” Gypsy offered, blending into the terrain to show off her skills.

“No, Gypsy, none of that. We can’t--”

“Can’t trust me. I understand.” She looked dejected and Barry merely smiled and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“No. I was going to say, we can’t put someone as young as you out in front of us,” Flash explained. “You’ll get your chance to prove yourself to us, I’m sure. Not all of us see things the same as Hawkgirl and Manitou Dawn.” She gave a nervous smile and brushed dark hair from her eyes. “I’ll go do a super-speed run, and you guys follow me in after...ten seconds? That should give me plenty of time.”

After a nod of agreement, a scarlet blur hurtled through the tall grass and into the farmhouse. Ten seconds later, the other four charged toward the building, and found it unlocked, easily entered, and Flash waiting for them in an empty living room.

“Nothing. Flat cleaned out,” Barry reported. “One more dead end.”

“Exactly.” Mister Exeter appeared in the front doorway, smiling and smug-looking. Then he looked frustrated as he took stock of the five people in front of him. “You’re barely Justice League. Not worth my time.”

Flash had landed a hundred punches by the time Exeter had finished the sentence, but not a one had any effect. Green Arrow and Elongated Man also launched futile attacks on the strange, short man in his business suit.

“Hard thought projection,” Exeter explained. “I’m not here. Really, I’m not even real. Honest. It’s been a useful ruse to keep an eye on my alleged ‘partners’, but the time for endgame is coming, and I don’t need this anymore.”

“Endgame?” Green Arrow fired an explosive arrow at the figure, but to no effect, other than to make his team-mates back up from the damage. “What endgame?”

“Doesn’t concern you, archer,” Exeter said, standing in place the entire time. “Gypsy, dear Gypsy. You’re teetering. You’re impressionable. My fellow conspirator, he’s a bit of a sleaze, but he’s going to be coming out on the winning side. Don’t walk away from this. Come back to me. Come back to Injustice.”

Gypsy stared at the man and his offer, frozen in place.

“Conspirator?” Ralph asked, trying to worm more information out of Exeter, twisting his body around the human-shaped projection. “Who is that? What’s your game?”

“Gypsy,” Exeter warned more harshly. “It’s about to get very ugly for the Fake League here. Come with me, or I can’t be responsible for you.”

“No.” She shook but she stood firm. “I’m going to be responsible for me.” It wasn’t loud, but she spoke it, and bit her bottom lip and stayed in place next to the Question.

“Fake League? You little piece of--”

“Tut tut! Impressionable teenager next to you, Arrow!” Exeter cut the archer off. “Set a good example. In your remaining few minutes. Sadly, this is where Exeter dies. Along with you. In five...four...three...two...”

The top of the house was sheared off by a roaring monsoon with a human face staring down at the heroes. “One. Ta ta.” The projection faded from view, as the wall broke apart under the powerful charge of an alien-looking beast reminiscent of a rhinoceros. The beast tore through the center of the house, bringing the remains of the building down around the five heroes.

Up the walk, undeterred by the pounding rains of the monsoon above, Byth strutted toward the beleaguered heroes. He laughed at their efforts to regain their footing and dig themselves up out of the debris.

There was a discharge of energy where the monsoon struck the alien beast, and soon, a large ape stood in the midst of the heroes, wielding a huge mace composed of ice. The ape swung the weapon down toward the Question, who deftly side-stepped it, only to have the weapon twist and bend to batter the vigilante anyway.

“Ah, Justice League,” Byth taunted them. “Don’t take this personally. We’re just doing a little favor to our business partners. You know, to keep up pretenses while the boss prepares stage two. What’s stage two? Don’t worry about it.” He slipped a syringe from his jacket pocket and toyed with it, the greenish-gray liquid within sloshing around. “You’re playing starring roles.” He jabbed the syringe into his thigh and jerked a moment, eyes rolling up into his head as Flash recovered his senses enough to dash in his direction.

“Your weapons can’t hurt me if you can’t hit me,” Flash said as he darted around the intergalactic criminal, remembering the effectiveness of the weapon-shifting arms from earlier.

“True. Good thing I’m using something different this time,” Byth replied as his body shimmered and crackled, turning electrical instead. “Shifting my body into any energy form. Not much of a scientist but I bet this hurts.” He laughed as Flash was struck by the jolting effects of his electricity and bounced away before finally coming to rest, hands smoking and body unmoving.

“Now for the rest of the League,” he chuckled, bending his electrical fingers back and crackling his knuckles.



Elsewhere, streaking over the Pacific

“Is it working?” Hawkgirl called out from the pilot’s chair. She didn’t want to move her eyes away from the horizon ahead and the controls at her hands, in case looking at the experiment going on in the cabin behind her would jinx it.

“Not too bad,” Atom called back as he clambered from one of Black Lightning’s shoulders to the other. “Sensory actuator is operating at 100%. You know, if it actually does what it’s supposed to. Picking anything up, Lightning?”

“I think so,” he murmured as he closed his eyes and concentrated. “There definitely seems to be some kind of disturbance. Ahead. Continuing west. It’s like trying to catch the direction of a breeze from a distance. Very hard.”

“Do you feel like something is wrong?” Dawn asked Wonder Woman as she stepped up next to the League chairperson, in the co-pilot’s seat. “I can’t shake this feeling. Like something heavy is hanging over me.”

“I don’t feel it,” Diana said as she looked up at Dawn. “But then, it’s not my area of expertise.” She gave a reassuring smile and added, “Are you sure it’s not just nervousness? I know you and Kit have gotten close. We’ll save him. Both of them.”

“You bet we will,” Kendra stated as the ship roared closer to China. She heard Black Lightning give off a vague direction and eased the jet to follow. “Damned bastard’s not getting away with this!”

Atom leaped away from Black Lightning and crossed over in a couple of bounces to the control panel between Kendra and Diana. “Whatever’s been eating at us seems to be eating the rest of the planet too,” he pointed to the various news alerts flashing in on the dash monitor. “We’d better get to the bottom of this Byth before the entire planet falls into World War III. Who’d have thought tossing a few alien weapons around would ratchet up the fireworks?”

“I would have,” Kendra replied without hesitation.

“Does that kind of thinking come with the feathers?” Ray teased Kendra.

“I believe it too,” Black Lightning said. “A little more west-northwest,” he informed Hawkgirl.

“It’s heavy,” Dawn said again, leaning against Wonder Woman’s seat. “I’m not imagining it. There is something...pressing down on the world.” She glanced out of the window, trying to look up.

“Dawn?” Diana stood up and Atom leaped up to her shoulder, both checking on her worriedly. “Are you sure?”

“I think she’s sure,” Black Lightning said. He sounded a little more alarmed now and moved up into the cockpit area too. “That feeling? It’s coming from above. Coming quick.”

Clouds suddenly tore apart as a violet beam lanced down from space and grabbed the jet, stopping it cold. Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman were unaffected, but the others found themselves thrown forward, barely kept from serious harm by Wonder Woman’s quick reactions, catching and holding Dawn and Lightning, while Atom spun himself in mid-air. He grunted in pain as he kicked off quickly from the canopy, his legs hurting from the stress, but managed to avoid injury.

“What’s happening?” Hawkgirl snapped as she struggled at the controls while the jet was pulled into the upper stratosphere, and toward a sleek, barbed, cruel-looking silvery ship. “So this is a tractor beam. Don’t like them, not at all!”

“Can’t say I blame you,” Atom added as he rubbed his calves while the jet was swallowed by the larger ship.

Dawn put her fingers to her temples and staggered against the hull. “It hurts...it’s hurting!” she moaned, hating the sound of her voice whimpering.

“What’s hurting? What is it?” Diana asked as the ship came to a stop in the starship’s hold.

“Hunger. The hunger. Angry, red hunger,” Dawn moaned, struggling to compose herself as Black Lightning offered a shoulder for support.

“Yes.” The voice echoed throughout the air, not coming directly from any one source, but filling the air. “Yes, it is just that. Angry, red hunger. My hunger. My hunger for the most raw of emotion. Anger, hatred...it fills me, swells inside of my breast.”

The League stared out of the window, seeing a tall figure with regal stature in dark black, swirling cloak hiding the details of his body, but the face was ghastly. Unhealthy in color, filled with hate, filled with hunger, his eyes burned golden-red, and swept over the heroes. A wave of fatigue crashed over them, draining their morale, as the burning eyes lashed out and shattered the jet’s canopy with ease.

“Your world will tear itself apart to feed Starbreaker!”

To Be Concluded!



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