#2: A League Of His Own, Pt. 2 (Charlton / Tupper)

The Monitor Room of the Hall of Justice was in shambles. Batman picked carefully through the rubble, occasionally stooping to examine something.

“Green Lantern was taken down here.” He grimaced, having already witnessed the scene on the security tape. “And as none of the other members are answering their signal devices, we can assume they suffered a similar fate.”

Ray Palmer watched the Dark Knight sift through the wreckage, puzzled. “What are you looking for?”

Batman didn’t even look up. “Some sign of who--- or what!--- did this.”

“But I already told you!” Ray began, frustrated. “Amazo---.”

Ire flashed behind the eyescreens of Batman’s cowl. “You expect me to believe some mad scientist’s robot did this? Took down not only a man armed with the most dangerous weapon in the universe, but the rest of the League as well?”

“Amazo’s not a robot, he’s an android.” Ray shot back. “A highly advanced synthetic lifeform, built from state-of-the-art nanotechnology. His absorption cells allow him to drain and mimic the powers and abilities of any metahuman he encounters.”

Batman was taken aback. “Are you saying this android is a one-man Justice League?”

Ray nodded grimly. “Nor is Professor Ivo, his creator, your run-of-the-mill mad scientist. I’ve known Anthony Ivo for years. He’s brilliant. His mind is able to make profound intuitive leaps, and see things that the rest of us don’t even know to look for yet! The technology that went into building Amazo is light years beyond anything we have right now--- it was a stroke of genius!”

“Well, what the hell is wrong with him, then?” Growled Batman. “Why did he send his science project after the League?”

“He’s erratic. Prone to delusions of grandeur that are not entirely delusional. And he’s obsessed with immortality. He thinks the Justice League is stealing his place in the history books. So he’s doing something that will ensure his name lives forever: he wants to destroy the Justice League.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about Ivo.” Batman grunted, folding his arms across his chest.

“He’s a colleague.” Ray shrugged. “And a mentor. He took me under his wing when I was just a graduate student.”

“And he resents your success.” Batman commented, intuitively.

“We argued. I saw uses for his absorption cell technology that could benefit all mankind, but he wouldn’t see reason.” The physicist admitted. “He tried to kill me. I barely escaped with my life.”

Batman stared pointedly at Ray’s briefcase. “What’s in the case?”

Ray clutched the leather briefcase protectively to his chest. “Two things. The first one is a belt. But the other is the schematics to Amazo’s neuronanitic brain. I--- I stole them from Ivo’s lab, and I’ve been pouring over them, looking for a flaw in the design…”

“It has a weakness?” Batman asked hopefully.

But Ray only shook his head. “If he does, I can’t find it. The design is a veritable symphony of cybernetic evolution.” He could not hide the admiration in his voice. “No. The only way to beat Amazo, is to reprogram him.”

“Do you think he’ll stand still long enough to allow me to do that?” Batman snapped in frustration. “Tell me what I need to do.”

Ray snorted, amused. “Sure. You’ll just need about six years of background in nanorobotics, quantum physics and microcybernetics to even grasp the basics of what you need to do. I’ll handle this part.”

“Out of the question!” Batman’s hand slashed down decisively. “That android has already taken out Superman and Wonder Woman, and Ivo already wants to kill you. No way am I taking a civilian into this.”

A hesitant grin spread across the professor’s face, and he patted his briefcase. “Yeah, about that: you see, I'm not exactly a civilian...”

The Martian’s scream of horror was as of nothing compared to the stricken expression contorting his unconscious face--- which was clearly visible behind the glass faceplate to his likewise imprisoned teammates in their torpedo-shaped containment tubes. The six tubes lined the walls of the circular chamber that was a macabre mockery of a scientific laboratory. Microscopes, test tubes and what looked like miniature atom smashers and cyclotrons, sat strewn atop work benches, all vying for space with computer discs, keyboards and even a few books. In the middle of it all, bustled a warty-looking man in a dirty lab coat.

“Whatever you’re doing to him, stop it, please!” Wonder Woman pled from her own containment tube. Her wrists were bound together, the one thing that could rob her of her god-given powers. But still she struggled, her heart going out to her tortured friend across the room.

Ivo looked up from where he was delicately adjusting a strange looking instrument, and glared at Wonder Woman.

“Foolish woman, why would I want to stop it?” He snorted. “I have carefully constructed each and every one of these traps especially for you and your precious teammates. The Martian is experiencing a delightful hallucination, fed directly into his brain by this telepathic projector.” He laid a gnarled hand on the instrument he’d been tinkering with. “Which, at the same time, commands his docility. The Flash, on the other hand, is victim to my ingenious quantum hyperbaric chamber.” He smiled over at the speedster, who glared back at him from beyond the faceplate. “It cuts him off entirely from the so-called ‘speed force’ that empowers him. Superman and Aquaman are being bathed in the same red sun radiation, negating the Kryptonian’s powers, and drying out the Atlantean until he is as weak as a guppy! Green Lantern was the easiest to contain, having no real powers of his own--- he’s just tied up!” He looked over his shoulder to the Emerald Gladiator; the hero thrashed against his bonds and made noises that were inarticulate thanks to a gag. “Of course, I also had to muzzle him, as he wouldn’t stop annoying Amazo.”

The fearsome android stood quietly by the door of the chamber, his pointy ears and skull-cap almost scraping the ceiling… On his fist glowed an Oan power ring, and at his hip was clasped Wonder Woman’s own golden lasso.

“You were the trickiest, woman.” Ivo admitted. “I had no idea how to negate your powers, until my research revealed an anecdote about the Wonder Woman of the 1940’s, who supposedly had been made helpless when the villain Baron Blitzkreig bound her wrists together in dominance over her. I took a risk, and it paid off!” He finished on a satisfied note.

Truth be told, Diana herself had no idea she could be made vulnerable so easily until now. Curse the brilliant, misshapen miscreant!

“What are you going to do with us?” She asked, glaring back at him defiantly.

Professor Ivo scuttled around a work bench, turning his attention to what looked like a computer motherboard. “Do? Do, do, do, do, do, do…” He fitted a visor to his head and began soldering--- much to the distress of the ant-like nanites that skittered and scurried off the motherboard, latching onto the next nearest one. “You will become living batteries.” He said to Diana over his shoulder. “You see, if Amazo has one flaw, it’s that his absorption cells cannot withstand your powers for very long; their charge weakens with time and distance--- he’s only as strong as you, when he faces off against you. But I am working on new technology that will allow me to imprint the molecular signature of your powers onto a kind of absorption supercell, permanently granting my android the powers of a one-man Justice League! Unfortunately, to do that, I’m going to have to dissect most of you.” He jerked his head towards Green Lantern. “Him, I’ll just kill.”

“Mad man!” Gasped Aquaman, his lips chapped and cracked, all moisture seeping from his body under the red sun lamps of his containment tube. His gaze was distant, as if he were concentrating hard, his focus elsewhere.

“Is that what they said about Da Vinci? Einstein?” Crowed Ivo, unperturbed. “History will vindicate me!”

“History will never remember your name.” Superman spoke up for the first time, his voice weak and thready, but his eyes bright and steady. “You see, you’ve miscalculated, Ivo. Your one man Justice League is missing one key component.”

The professor stopped what he was doing, and frowned up at Superman from beneath his visor.

“Do you mean Batman? Please! His only power is striking fear into the cowardly and superstitious.”

“He’ll come for us.” Superman asserted with grim satisfaction. “And he’ll take you down.”

Ivo bit his lower lip, mopping perspiration from his brow.

“He is only a man. Amazo will crush him.”

For a moment all was silent in that lab, Superman’s stare challenging the suddenly shaken professor.

The stillness was broken by the shrill ring of the telephone, causing Ivo to start. He stared at the phone on the workbench as if it were a snake.

It rang again.

A hoarse chuckle sounded in the chamber. Ivo glared at Aquaman.

“You’d better get that. He doesn’t like to be kept waiting…”

Amazo flew over the steeples and gabled roof-tops of quaint and quiet Ivy Town, the hamlet dark and asleep below him. His enhanced vision searched the town, scanning again for some sign of the Bat. He’d spotted him earlier, swinging between the towers of the university, closing in on Professor Ivo’s cliff-top cottage, but he’d lost him now…

But Batman did not let his presence go unannounced for very long. He emerged from behind the lead (and thus impenetrable to X-ray vision) bell of St. Bruno’s belfry, his grappling hook firing! The batarang at its end caught and wound around Amazo’s neck, jerking the android from its flight-path, and with a mighty heave, Batman pulled his opponent from the sky! Caught completely unawares, Amazo tumbled headlong toward the belfry of St Bruno’s. Batman released his grapple and leaped from his perch just in time to avoid the hurtling missile that was the android. His weighted cape billowed out, caught air, and the Bat glided into the shadows of the alley below….

“You can’t hide from me, Batman!” Amazo thundered in a voice that shook the rafters of St Bruno’s. Freeing himself from the wreckage of the belfry, the android caught sight of his foe, floating gracefully into the quad of the Liberal Arts department, and forsook flight for the speed of the Flash. He ran down the side of the old, Colonial-era church, aiming himself like a missile at Batman.

This time it was the Dark Knight that was caught off-guard--- Amazo was moving just too fast. He hit Batman from behind, a blow that propelled the Caped Crusader across the quad, rolling into a line of hedges. But Batman used the momentum to roll to his feet, a glittering arc of batarangs flying from him at the same time.

The android laughed, and stood to receive them, presenting his impervious chest. The projectiles exploded on impact, much to the amusement of the malignant android. The blast did nothing to damage him, but that was not Batman’s intention: the green smoke that wafted around Amazo’s body cast an eerie, sickly glow--- and the android suddenly fell to its knees.

“Kryptonite dust.” Came the voice of the Dark Knight, close-by but muffled by a re-breather. “With Superman’s powers come his weaknesses.”

He emerged from the smoke, looming over Amazo. The android gasped a moment; even on his knees, he was but little shorter than Batman. Abruptly, his hand shot out and grabbed the surprised Batman by the throat.

“No matter, than.” He told the choking Dark Knight, rising to his feet and grinning malevolently. “I shall dispense with the Kryptonian’s powers and strangle you with the strength of the Martian Manhunter!”

His deep, vibrating laughter echoed hollowly on the air.

Starbursts exploded in Batman’s vision, and he knew he had only seconds before the cessation of oxygen to his brain caused him to lose consciousness--- unless Amazo snapped his neck first.

But Ray Palmer had armed him well. The way Amazo’s absorption cells work, he assumes the vulnerabilities, as well as the strengths, of those whose powers he steals, the physicist had told him. You can use that against him.

The Kryptonite dust had worked beautifully, forcing the android to abandon his deadliest arsenal: the powers of Superman. So he had switched to the next best thing: the powers of the Martian Manhunter.

Amazo forced the struggling Batman to his knees, and gloated over him in what appeared to be the Dark Knight’s final moments.

“Did you really think you could beat me, Batman?” He asked, even as Batman gave up all effort at prying the android’s hands from his neck. “One weak man against all the powers of the Justice League…?”

“I didn’t have to beat you.” Gasped Batman, his fingers busy at his utility belt. “I only needed to lure you away.”

Amazo grunted in momentary confusion. Then something caught his attention, even as awareness dawned on his neuronanitic brain. A spark from below…

The android looked down at what Batman’s hands were doing: in one hand was a tiny aerosol sprayer--- in the other, a miniature acetylene torch.

A jet of flame engulfed the android, who--- possessed of not only the powers of the Martian Manhunter, but the weaknesses as well!--- screamed and released Batman!

The cliff-top cottage was currently under-siege by a hundred foot tentacled sea monster from the mythic past.

Sycorax clutched the house in his clawed hands and shook, all the while emitting a roar that woke even the soundest sleeper in Ivy Town that night.

Professor Ivo ducked beneath a table, yelling for Aquaman to “Call him off, call him off!”, and even the members of the Justice League could only watch in stunned silence at the ancient horror above them.

In the pandemonium, no one had noticed that the telepathic projector that was keeping the Martian Manhunter docile had fallen off its perch on the workbench, and had broken into tiny pieces on the cement floor. No one, that is, but the Martian Manhunter.

J’onn awoke from his imposed stupor, the afterimages of violence still flashing before his eyes. He needed but a moment to take it all in--- he and his teammates, alive, but captives of a mad scientist with a killer android, and somehow they were all under attack by… Godzilla?

He sighed and went to work. Instantly intangible, he slipped from his containment tube, stretching forth with his thoughts.

*Another fine mess, eh, my friends? I will have you free in a moment.*

His optic blasts raked the containment tube that held the Flash. In the space between blinks, the speedster vibrated outside the tube, and dashed across the room, his fist smashing the red sun lamps over Superman and Aquaman’s tubes, as J’onn worked on freeing Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.

“No, no, no, NO!” Professor Ivo pounded the floor with his fists, as his carefully calculated plans fell apart around him.

Above them, Sycorax raged, his big, scaly head peering down on them, his noxious breath causing them to gag.

Still irradiated and weak, Aquaman communicated to them via J’onn’s telepathic link. *We’re not out of this yet, people. I took a gamble waking Sycorax. He’s chaotic and uncontrollable--- and deadly. He won’t stop until he’s ravaged the entire Eastern Seaboard...*

*Say no more, Arthur.* Wonder Woman flexed her muscles, taking a measuring glance at the monstrosity that was still chewing on pieces of roof. *Mythological beasties are practically my specialty.*

The Martian Manhunter rose up into the air with her. “Would you like a dance partner, Princess?”

“Mr. J’onzz, I’d be honored.”

Their fists cocked, the heroes rose to meet the monster.

They hit him at the same time, twin haymakers that sent him staggering back away from the cottage. Superman, leaning against Aquaman for their mutual benefit, could only look on ruefully. “I guess they have that under control, huh?”

Green Lantern, freed of his constraints and gag, smiled in admiration and nodded. “I’d say so--- Incoming! Look out!”

His warning came just in time. Amazo had appeared like a comet in the sky over the cottage, arcing straight for them. Trusting to the vestiges of their native invulnerability, the Flash sped past Superman and Aquaman and snatched Green Lantern from Ground Zero, just as the android hit the lab with enough force to rock the house to what was left of its foundations!

The android was a fearsome sight. He was burnt and battered, but the flames had gone out in the superspeed flight, leaving him blackened and smoking, his circuitry exposed in places. But he rose from the crater of his impact, murder on his elfin face.

“Amazo, KILL!” Professor Ivo poked his head out from beneath the workbench and shouted with glee, spittle flying from his mouth.

The killer android smiled maniacally. Batman had robbed him of the powers of Superman and Martian Manhunter, but he still possessed those of Aquaman, the Flash and Wonder Woman. And one more thing besides: the most powerful weapon in the universe. He raised his fist, the Oan power ring glowing hotly.

In front of Amazo, the Flash stood protectively over the still weakened Superman and Aquaman, but Green Lantern stepped forward without hesitation.

“Idiot.” Hal barked a little laugh. “It only works for me.”

He held out his hand and immediately his power ring sprang from Amazo’s finger as if of its own accord--- much to the amazement of the android--- and settled back to its rightful place. It blazed with pent-up emerald fury, and when Hal extended his arm, the power ring unleashed a torrent of energy that sent Amazo crashing backward.

“Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.” Hal set his jaw and sprang after the android.

“Amazo!”

The android looked warily across the lawn. The Flash was all-but out of the fight, his speed gone; he had a spar of wood in his hands to use as a club, but Amazo laughed that threat away. Green Lantern could barely muster the will to stand upright, leaning against the remains of a crumbling wall, a few paltry flickers sputtering from his ring. But it was Batman, striding boldly across the grass, who had called out the android’s name as if in challenge.

“It’s for you.” Batman declared. He raised the object in his hand, and pressed a button. Then he tossed it, underhand, to Amazo.

“Catch!”

Protected by the invulnerability of Wonder Woman, Amazo reflexively caught the object, bracing himself for the explosion. But it was just a regular, ordinary phone. He glanced at it, bemused--- but before he could laugh, something the size of a mote of dust sprang from the phone, barreling into the side of Amazo’s head with all the mass and density of a 170lbs man!

The android staggered backwards, more surprised, than hurt. He clapped his hand to his ear, but it was too late: whatever it was had crawled inside his head.

Amazo lay on the grass, twitching violently, both hands clutching his head. Batman knelt over him, watching his convulsions carefully, and behind him stood Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Superman, all leaning on and supporting each other.

“What did you do to him?” Flash asked, peering curiously over Batman’s shoulder.

“Not me.” Batman said absently. “Dr. Palmer.”

“Who?”

“He calls himself the Atom. He’s in there right now, doing some ‘reprogramming’.”

Soaking wet and disheveled, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter flew up and over the cliff-top, alighting by the rest of the League around the suddenly still body of Amazo.

“I think it’s safe to say that Sycorax is out of commission again for awhile.” Wonder Woman pulled slimy bits of seaweed from her costume, grinning lopsidedly at Aquaman. “But we may want to relocate him somewhere a bit more removed from inhabited lands.”

“I hear Venus is nice this time of year.” J’onn added dryly.

Aquaman nodded thoughtfully. “He probably would appreciate going home.” He mused, then blinked at the surprised expressions of his teammates. “What? My friends, there are darker and stranger things in the depths than any surface dweller realizes--- and not all of them are of this world.”

They all seemed to contemplate that for a moment.

Just then, a tiny form sprang from Amazo’s artificial tearduct, expanding in size and shape, and landing full-sized on the ground.

With only a quick glance at the lifeless form of the android, the Atom faced the Justice League.

“Nice job.” Batman extended his hand to the surprised hero.

“Thanks.” Ray couldn’t refrain from a broad grin. “It was pretty messy work in there. Not a whole lot of finesse involved. Just glad I could be of service.”

“You probably saved our lives.” The Flash noted, after a superspeed trip back to the cottage to retrieve the newly-reviving Professor Ivo. Green Lantern clapped a glowing green hand around the startled villain’s mouth, as he was held by the Flash.

“It’s no more or less than what any one of you have done a dozen times already.” The Atom replied. “I’m still pretty new at this, but you guys have been an inspiration to me. For all mankind, right?”

Superman crossed his arms over his chest, and smiled proudly, looking to Aquaman.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Asked the King of the Seas.

“Only if you’re thinking we’re going to need a bigger table back at the Hall.” Said the Man of Steel.

The doors to the Hall of Justice slid open, revealing Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and the Atom.

He was waiting for them there, in the light of the full moon, his wings folded in close to his body. In his hands was a fearsome-looking mace that seemed to thrum with power, and behind his beaked mask his eyes were bright.

“Hawkman,” The Flash took a tentative step forward, the others cautiously at his heels. “Is that really you, Professor Hall…?”

The familiar figure moved to meet the Justice League. With one hand, he removed his winged helm, and shook out his dark hair. The face was young, but intense.

“My name is Katar Hol, Hawk-Knight of Thanagar,” He announced, fixing them all with his clear blue eyes. “And I’ve come to this planet to find my father…”