Justice League Legacies #4

Roll Call

Superman: Jonathan Kent, reporter for the Daily Star, son of the retired Clark and Lois Kent, and as Jon-El, inheritor of the legacy of the Man of Steel!

Wonder Woman: Supermodel Lyta Trevor, warrior-princess of a god-ravaged Paradise Island, doomed to never know love--- or lose the mantle of Wonder Woman!

Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, family man, heir to the missing Hal Jordan’s power ring, and the last Green Lantern in the universe!

Flash: Carrie Allen, the Fastest Woman Alive and STAR Labs research scientist!

Green Arrow: Connor Hawke, enlightened CEO of Queen Enterprises and modern-day Longbow Hunter of the Urban Jungles!

Firestorm: Bored heiress Lorraine Reilly and her godfather Dr. Martin Stein come together to form the Nuclear Woman!

Raven: Rachel Roth, the last daughter of Temple Azarath and spawn of the interdimensional tyrant Trigon the Terrible

Resurrection Man: Mitch Shelley, chief strategist and leader of the JLA!


Something in the mind of Dr. Horace Halley was broken. He was a scientist, a genius in the field of xenozoic studies widely respected in the halls of academia. Colleagues traveled from all over the world to work with him. But right now, he could barely think coherently. He was on the moon, at the lunar Watchtower of the Justice League, and while all hell was breaking loose around him, he could only stare and bare witness.

A being of almost unbearable lightness had broken through the portal of the witch Raven’s soul-self. It had come from Kornugia, the primal proto-hell that served solely as a prison for this entity alone, this Luciphage, this Starbreaker. Reduced to an incorporeal malevolence, the Starbreaker had been contained in ancient days by elder races long extinct, and it had almost followed them down into oblivion. But now it was free, thanks to Halley, and his manipulation of the Justice League. Free to ravage the cosmos once more…

But how did he know all this?[/i]

Something in him laughed. He tried to scream, but all he could do was watch.

Superman gritted his teeth and grappled with the Starbreaker, going toe-to-toe and hand-to-hand with the blazing entity. But even he could not look directly at it, the brightness of the entity searing his eyes, forcing him to turn his face away.

“Flash, kill all power in the Watchtower except life-support! Don’t give that thing any spark of light to feed on!” Jon-El heard JLA Chairman Mitch Shelley, the Resurrection Man yell, but it was too late: the Luciphage had already latched onto the most powerful source of solar energy around--- Superman! Jon’s Half-Kryptonian body was a feast for the Luciphage, and the creature eagerly absorbed the radiation stored in Jon’s very cells, sucking him dry like a vampire.

The Man of Tomorrow pushed back at the entity digging his heels into the bulkhead of the Watchtower, but the Starbreaker bore down on him, gaining strength every second as Superman got weaker and weaker. Black, light-deprived veins like a tracery of spiderwebs appeared on Jon’s face and neck, and his whole body cried out for the life and energy being stolen from him.

“It’s killing Superman!” He dimly heard Wonder Woman cry out, and thought he saw the exiled Amazonian princess assault the Starbreaker from behind, only to be repulsed by one outflung, luminescent arm.

“Soooo long since I fed on Kryptonnnniannnn….!” Said the Starbreaker in a drawn-out sibilant hiss and a sigh of ecstasy. The maw of a face composed of scintillating light loomed closer to Superman, washing his vision in burning afterglow. “Ssssucculent…!”

Jon-El summoned a last burst of power and defiance, keeping the Starbreaker’s slavering jaws at arms length, but he was fading fast, and in a moment he would be little more than a desiccated husk.

A green arrow whizzed past the Luciphage, which the entity did not notice--- until the shaft exploded in a dazzling coruscation. Another followed, then another in quick succession, until the dark of the Watchtower was filled with intense explosions of light. Hungry for the energy, the Luciphage dropped the nearly dead Superman and rose into the air, bathing in the phosphorescent discharges.

Green Arrow, his blindness allowing him to focus more clearly than anyone else around the Luciphage, continued to distract the entity as Wonder Woman pulled Superman onto her lap. The Man of Steel shivered uncontrollably, as if frozen.

“Lyta, he needs sunlight, fast, or he’ll die!” Mitch called to her. Slinging the nearly-dead Superman over her shoulder, Wonder Woman rocketed straight up into the air and smashed through the bulkhead, into space. The hole she left behind was instantly sealed up by Firestorm--- but not before the Luciphage glimpsed the lights of stars outside.

“No one does that to Superman. That thing’s going down!” Carrie Allen’s voice was all that remained of her as she blurred into motion, running up the side of the hanger and launching herself at Starbreaker. She hit it a thousand times before it felt the first blow, battering it from all directions, causing it to roar in frustration. But the Flash was sliding to a halt in seconds, her fists burnt and bloody. A spasm of pain twisted her face as she looked up at the thing hovering above, poised to incinerate her.

The light flared at her but an emerald shield sprang up in front of her as Green Lantern entered the fray. Firestorm was close behind him, hurling concentrated nuclear blasts at the Luciphage.

“Firestorm, NO!” The Resurrection Man yelled, too late.

The Luciphage absorbed Firestorm’s blasts hungrily, its form swelling so that it all but filled the hanger bay. Engorged with power, it reared up, sizzling bolts of concentrated luminescence causing the League to fall back or be burned and blinded.

“Don’t let it get out---.”

The warning from the Resurrection Man came too late: the Starbreaker blasted a gaping hole in the Watchtower bulkhead, and the vacuum of space rushed in as all the air was sucked out. They all hung on for dear life, while above them, glaringly bright over the curve of the Earth, could be seen the sun… The Starbreaker rose through the opening, fleeing with a cry of exultation into space, before any of the Leaguers could stop him. There was a universe of light and life to devour--- and he was going to start with Earth’s sun.


On the other side of reality, the Lady Styx was very close to fulfilling her destiny… Events had been set in motion, events that had been written into her very being before the universe exploded into life. She knew not how it was possible, but she could sense the hand of a secret manipulator, of a rival at work… and the Lady Styx would not suffer a rival.

No matter: now that she had at last reached Kornugia, she would find the prisoner, the Luciphage, the Breaker of Stars--- and she would take him, suck him dry, steal the light of the Universe-That-Was-Before… He would give her the ultimate gift: she would be the Mother of the Necrospawn, the Last God, who would spring from her womb a Titan of Dread, who would at last herald the Stygian Apocalypse, the Harrowing of All Souls…

But Kornugia was empty. The lightless void held only echoes… and a few drops of blood. Lady Styx watched the globules of perfectly-formed red drops hang motionless in space, her cruel, and sleek face tightened in concentration. Her tongue flicked out, lapping-up the blood, tasting it, reading it… There had been a battle here… this was the blood of an unusual being who called itself Firestorm… It had battled the Luciphage, been wounded by it, then it had fled, and the Luciphage had followed, escaping its prison of a time before time.

Here, again, was the hand of the manipulator at work. What was its game? Was it seeking to deny her her destiny?

She would find out soon enough: Lady Styx felt the tug of the portal through which they had escaped. It was closed now, the trail fading, but she could still find it, could force her way through. She would pursue the Luciphage into the material universe, and destroy all those who would keep him from her.



Raven had fallen, collapsed on the floor of the Watchtower. The Prisoner of Kornugia had been unleashed upon the universe, and she had been the doorway he had come through. The pain of his passage had left her weakened, hollowed. She hardly noticed the battle that had raged around her and only her soul-self had saved her from being sucked into space when the Starbreaker had escaped the Watchtower.

When she was able to look up again, emergency protocols had secured the breach in the lunar base. The Resurrection Man was shouting orders into a communicator, the Flash seemed to be everywhere, helping stunned technicians, and Green Arrow only stared sightlessly out a viewport into space, where a battle for the universe was now raging: Green Lantern and Firestorm must have pursued the Starbreaker, but what chance did they have against him?

Raven’s eyes fell on Dr. Halley. The eccentric scientist was still curled into a corner bulkhead, but he was looking at her; his expression was one of petrified terror, but Raven could not shake the thought that something else was staring at her behind those eyes, something sinister and smug…

Before she could consider it further, an unbearable agony ripped through her. Her sheltering soul-self splintered and cracked into a thousand shadowy shards, and from it emerged a hideous and terrifying creature. She was an emaciated thing, gangly yet whip-sharp and devoid of color as if desiccated by antiquity. Her body was segmented, like an insect’s, and two pairs of arms writhed from her torso. From behind her sleek head rose up a serrated stinger like a scorpion’s tail; it curved around, its point glistening over her brow, from which glared two dark pinpricks of eyes. Her mouth was a gash of red, which opened to reveal rows of shark-like teeth, lashed by a serpentine tongue.

So unexpected--- and so hideous!--- her appearance, none of them could do more than stare in stark horror. On all limbs, like a crocodile, she surged among them, a hitherto unnoticed long barbed tail thrashing out. The barb of the tail caught a stunned Resurrection Man through the chest, piercing his heart; he was dead instantly, and the abomination that was the Lady Styx shook off his limp body and lunged, hissing, for a knot of terrified technicians.

Her entire body spasming from the violation, Raven pulled her head up to look--- and saw only Dr. Halley laughing uproariously.



Sol. Like the unblinking eye of a vengeful god, it burned in the blackness of space, and the Starbreaker yearned for it. The thermonuclear furnace of the yellow sun would provide the Luciphage with enough power to make it like unto a god once again. He would leave it a burnt-out husk, an orb of ash and inert gasses. And then he would devour Alpha Proxima, the star nearest the Solar System… Eventually he would have enough power to assail the Galactic Core, essentially eating the Milky Way…

Only two heroes stood in his way.

“This is where we draw the line, Firestorm!” Kyle Rayner grimaced, his face limned in emerald as he slammed the Luciphage with a non-stop locomotive construct. “If this thing reaches the sun, everyone is dead!”

Hovering over the pocked surface of the moon, Green Lantern and Firestorm pounded on the Starbreaker with everything they had, in a light show that was visible on the Earth below. At their backs, the light of the sun beckoned to the crazed Starbreaker--- it howled in anticipation.

While Kyle conjured a shield to withstand the Luciphage’s furious assault, Firestorm swooped up and around, blasting at it from above with the equivalent force of a hydrogen bomb. The Starbreaker screamed, lashing out with a wave of photonic force that sent the Nuclear Woman hurling end over end into space.

Kyle swore, even his prodigious will buckling under the relentless fury of the Starbreaker. Cracks appeared in his shield, blinding light seeping through, burning him…

But the universe’s last Green Lantern would not give way! He shoved back with every last shred of willpower that he possessed, releasing his determination in an equally blinding coruscation of emerald and a defiant scream! The detonation hurled both combatants in opposite directions, both of them falling to the surface of the moon, creating two new impact craters…

But the Starbreaker got back up; Green Lantern didn’t.

The Luciphage blazed anew, alone on the field of battle. Hurt but undeterred, it turned its face up towards the sun, basking in its glow. Now nothing stood in its way.

From out of its glow, a figure descended towards the Luciphage, red cape drifting in the weightlessness of space. Slightly behind him was the form of a fierce warrior woman, sword drawn.

“Round two, monster,” declared a revitalized Superman, cocking back his arm as Wonder Woman screamed a battle cry.



“Where is the Starbreaker?[/i]” shrieked Lady Styx, whirling around in place but unable to avoid the beating she was getting from the Flash. The speedster did little damage to the cosmic harridan, but her actions did serve to distract Lady Styx.

“Bright-eyes stepped outside for a bit, you hag,” the Flash taunted her. “But you can’t go out to play with him until we finish beating the crap out of you.”

Styx swiped disdainfully at the Flash, but growled in frustration when bolo-arrows wrapped high tensile restraints around two of her four writhing arms. Green Arrow hopped up on an overturned pile of smashed equipment, firing another two arrows simultaneously, which bound her other two arms and snagged her tail.

“I may be blind, but you sound[/i] ugly,” Connor Hawk quipped, lowering his bow.

“No!” Raven cried, pulling herself from the ground. “Do not underestimate her! She is---.”

Lady Styx let loose with a high-pitched wail and snapped her restraints with ease. Thinking her foe subdued, the Flash was caught unawares, was sent crashing into a bulkhead with a swipe of that deadly tail.

A flare of intense light came from a porthole, catching the Lady’s attention. In the distance could be seen the Luciphage in battle with the League’s big guns.

Wasting no time, she tore through the bulkhead and flew towards her long-denied prey…



[This creature is pure energy, and cannot be destroyed,] Martin Stein insisted as Firestorm flew along the curve of the moon, back towards the battle. [You’ve seen what little impact our attack has upon it, Lorraine…]

{So what are you saying, Professor?} demanded Lorraine Reilly, fury and fear vying within her. {If we don’t stop this thing, it’s going to destroy the Solar System.}

Up ahead, she could see that Superman and Wonder Woman had rejoined the fray, but all they could do, like Kyle, was hold the creature back temporarily. Before too long, for all her ferocity, the Starbreaker would overpower Wonder Woman, and even Superman was susceptible to the hunger of the Luciphage.

[There is only one way to stop the Luciphage,] Stein told her. [And only we have the power to do it: we must absorb its energy into the Matrix!]

Lorraine was appalled at the scale of what the professor suggested: that was like nothing she had ever done before, but even as she considered it, Martin Stein was showing her, instinctively, how it could be done.

It was unspoken between them that the effort would undoubtedly destroy them both.

She threw up her arms, and concentrated, steeling herself against the immensity of the Luciphage. The Justice League continued to battle back, but in the darkness of space, and with her own elemental powers, she could see Superman's solar charge being depleted by his proximity to the horror.

"Bring it on, you bastard," said Lorraine to herself, and she clenched her hands into tight fists, and felt the Luciphage begin to quake.

It knew what was happening. Even as Superman's blows raged against it's mass, as Wonder Woman's sword sliced and Green Lantern tore into the monstrosity with his emerald might-- it knew that Firestorm was depleting it silently.

"Nooo," it hissed, and even though they were in the vacuum of space, Lorraine could hear it speaking directly into her mind. "Noooo youuuu donnnn't!"

Droplets of it's being separated from the main entity, and drew themselves towards Firestorm's fingers, and as it watched, the parts of itself now separated seeped into Firestorm's body, and became part of her. Lorraine Reilly smiled. She could see it was in pain, see that it was weakening.

[You're doing it,] said Stein, [you're--]

There was a moment of silence in Lorraine's head, and her brow furrowed.

{Martin? Martin, what's going on, speak to me?}

[I take my placcceeee, devouring, hollowing out, replacing!] The voice was not Martin's. Something was in her head, and she could feel the Firestorm Matrix flex under the strain. Her head felt like it was on fire, and she didn't know what she could do--!

[He's... in here... I can feel him pressing himself inside the Matrix-- he's trying to-- to-- to--] It wasn't a stutter, not in the conventional sense; no, it was like Martin was stuck on a weird loop, like a CD skipping, unable to reach the next syllable on his lips, in his mind. [to-- he's attempting to absorb the Matrix!]

{No!} screamed Lorraine, and she concentrated all her ability and force, and dragged the main part of Luciphage away from itself, and suddenly she was no longer witness to a physical battle, but in her head, in the Firestorm Matrix that Martin Stein resided inside, a great darkness was descending, and the only thing able to protect her was Martin himself, who suddenly felt so whole and real in her mind's eye.

[The powerrrrrr... the poweeeerr and the potentiiiiial and it'ssss all hereeeee, resssssting in this flimsssssy cccconssssstruct!]

Pushing her hand gently he turned to the intruder. [You won't take her!] screamed Stein, and he glowed as brightly as the Sun as he leaped at the encroaching Luciphage, now scuttling in Lorraine Reilly's mindscape. Stein shattered the thing by sheer force of will, and Lorraine howled as the Firestorm Matrix forced the two of them apart-- only to be caught by Green Lantern.

"Lorraine, it'll be alright! You did it, the Luciphage has been defeated, we're heading back to the Watchtower!" Kyle's eyes opened wider as she saw that Lorraine was alone-- the thought hadn't struck him until that moment-- Martin Stein was gone. It was only Lorraine Reilly in that bubble... and Martin Stein was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, no."

The League descended back inside the damaged Watchtower, and once they had returned The Flash sealed the breach. Kyle's ring bubbles contained Lorraine and also the ruined husk of the Luciphage, defeated and inert.

“Where’s the other thing that came through--? That witch of a thing?” asked The Flash, eyes darting around the place as the League encircled the ravaged husk of the Luciphage.
“What?” The words left Kyle’s mouth before he could think to say anything else, and, as if on schedule, Lady Styx tore through the sealed bulkhead, black eyes glaring at the Justice League as they moved to attack-- but she had already shattered the energy shield around the remains of the Starbreaker, scattering the assembled Leaguers. She presided over the ruins like it was the most valuable of posessions, and then span around, pointing a clawed finger at the Justice League. "You... stole him... away!"

"Ready yourselves!" said the freshly resurrected Resurrection Man with as strong a voice as he could. The nanites in his body still repairing the hole in his chest. "Be ready for anything--!”

"I'll return," continued Styx, collecting up the husk, "and slaughter each and every one of you. Tear your souls asunder and feed your remains to my larvae, you are done!" With that, she disappeared, leaving the League on edge, and not knowing what to do next.

Lorraine sobbed, and clutched at her head. "He... he saved me... but why won't he get out? And why... why can't I hear him?"

Raven placed a hand on Lorraine's shoulder. "He is gone, Lorraine. He sacraficed his being to save you. I can no longer sense him. I am sorry..."

"Why?" whispered Lorraine, sobbing, "why?"

Connor Hawke frowned, and embraced her tightly. "I'm so sorry."

Resurrection Man shook his head, and then turned his attention fully onto Dr. Halley. "You bastard!" he screamed, "did you know that it was waiting for us on the other side? Did you lay this trap on purpose? Don't think I didn't see you grinning your little face off the entirety of this time!"

Dr. Halley blinked, and rubbed at his eyes. "Where... am I?"

"Don't play that game," snapped Mitch, dragging the scientist up by his collar, "you're still in the Watchtower, your actions still lead to the death of a Justice Leaguer-- you killed a good friend of mine, and I want to know why!"

Raven turned away from watching Connor cradling the shaking form of Lorraine, and shook her head. "He has no recollection of the events-- I couldn't feel it before but now... I can sense an absence inside him, something that was there before has now vacated his psyche...I couldn't feel it before now, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Raven," Superman said slowly, "it's not your fault." He looked over to Lorraine, and a morose expression moved over his features.

"I can't... I can't..." stuttered Lorraine, "I can't feel the Matrix... Firestorm is dead... I... we... oh, God..."

Two days later, a funeral would be held for Martin Stein.