Justice League of America: The Presence

Prologue:

“This isn’t right,” grunted Aquaman, as he felt the pouring rain dribble down his face. He was drenched, longish blonde hair matted to his face, and a look of determination etched upon it too. “Not at all.”

“What clued you in on that, Aquaman,” smirked the Flash, “the fact that we’re standing in the middle of the Sahara? Or that it’s been raining for the past week with no sign of respite?”

“No need to get smart, Wally,” grinned Arthur Curry. “This isn’t right. I know water. And right now, what’s pouring down, it isn’t pure. It’s corrupted. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but what I do know… Is that we have to make sure no ones hurt by it.”

Ray Palmer, the Atom, looked up from where he was collecting a sample, and then turned to Wally West, the Flash. “Ok, I’m done here, do what we came to do.”

“ThatIcando,” nodded the Flash, as he began to run. He ran and his arms span around, digging and digging as the water poured down. Sand was scooped out of the ground, and then directed into piles with expert precision. His body became a blur, and then suddenly he was done, and a massive reservoir was constructed. Wally pulled down his mask and wiped his brow. “Easy. We’re trying to keep the eco-system from toppling, right? We can’t stop the rain, but this’ll keep the damage to a minimum. Gives us an easy source to collect samples from too.”

“Yeah, yeah, we know kid.” Aquaman looked around, and then activated the psychic link, <<Alright J’onn, standing in the middle of the desert is giving me the bends, three for matter transit.>> There was a flash of blue light, and all that was left of their presence were three pairs of footprints, and a reservoir that slowly began to fill.

[/i]

A hard day’s night. Tracked Scarecrow all the way to Opal, taken him down hard, and then handed him over to the OCPD to process. He’d be back in Gotham almost before him, he thought with a grim smile. That was the way things were with these freaks, they’d gravitate out of Gotham, have a spree out of his ‘jurisdiction’, maybe team up and then return to Arkham with a few broken bones. The jet flew silently, as he had built it to, and he was headed North, back to where his home resided.

He didn’t see the hand reach down from the sky. The massive, black imprint in the atmosphere that clutched at the plane and fried his systems. He didn’t feel the consciousness enter him. He didn’t feel the plane change course. He didn’t feel… Anything. But he flew. He flew toward an old friend. Batman flew; something else driving his body.

Clark Kent sighed. He’d just finished writing up an article for tomorrow’s edition of the Daily Planet, and was pleased with the result. He pushed his glasses up his nose, and stood, noticing that Lois Lane too was still here, late at night, at their workplace. “Finished, Smallville?” She spoke without looking up, feverishly tapping keys on her keyboard, writing and writing away.

“Yeah Lois. Just sent it to Perry,” he replied, removing his tie, which he had already loosened an hour or so earlier to the point of it nearly being undone. “What about you?”

“Good, cool.”

He rolled his eyes. She wasn’t paying attention. He drifted over to her, put his hand on the back of her chair, and swivelled her round to face him. “What you working on?”

“If you MUST know, Smallville, I’ve been talking to someone over at STAR. Apparently there’s a weird meteorological event spreading over the country. A weird mass of clashing ions. Nothing… Deadly, but interesting none the less.” She kissed him. “Now turn me back around, Man of Steel.”

The rain. The Justice League of America was investigating it. Maybe he should see how the others were doing. He span her back around, looked at the back of her head, and then continued speaking as she typed. “Isn’t this a bit… Generic for you? Weather patterns?”

Lois grinned. He could see her ears move up slightly from where he stood. It made him smile. “You would say that, but my source said they think the weather pattern originated from space.”

“You’ve piqued my interest, honey,” grinned Clark.

“And hopefully the masses. We’ll see.” She fell silent for a moment, and then changed the subject. “Are you heading home?”

“Yeah, do you want anything before I--” He paused. He slowed down. And he heard it. Something too silent to be right. He heard wavelengths bend. Natural, ambient sound being absorbed and amplified to fool the casual listener into complacency. He span around, and saw something head straight for the building. A stealth jet. Familiar in design. “God.” He was out of his civvies in between breathes, and then, storming out of the bottom of the building and shooting straight back up, he was Superman, and with one hand, he braced himself against the side of the building, and with the other, grabbed the Bat-Plane! He grimaced, his shoulders tingling, and then sprang off the Daily Planet building, dragging the plane with him.

Lois didn’t look up. She didn’t notice her partner’s absence. “I wouldn’t mind a latte.”

A blast of heat vision here disabled weapons systems. A blast of heat vision there disabled the engines. Something was wrong. He heard shallow breathing inside the cockpit. A familiar heart beat. Batman. This was Bruce, alright. But something was wrong. It was obvious to him. He flew and he flew, until he was on the outskirts of the city, and then he landed gently, placing the plane down gently on the long grass.

Lois turned around after the long silence. “Oh. Rude.” And then she turned back to her monitor and continued working.

Superman looked down at Batman, and then appeared in the Watchtower, just outside of the medical bay. He was immediately met by Wonder Woman, who looked at Batman with concern. “J’onn informed me immediately, and I prepped the instruments.” She had a shield strapped to her back, her W symbol emblazed across it. Had she sensed the danger? Was there something coming?

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Superman quietly. “It’s like he’s brain dead. I want to call in Hal and J’onn, so we can do some scans.”

Bruce twitched. “Clark,” whispered Diana.

“Gah,” spat Batman, as he suddenly came to life. He looked at Clark, who still carried him, and to Diana. “What just happened? Why am I here? Clark… Why are you holding me?” Superman smiled without noticing it. He put Batman back on his feet, and then turned to Diana. “People will start talking,” grunted Batman, as he straightened his cape. He finished, and then looked up at his friends. “Fill me in.”

“You just tried to murder everyone doing the night-shift at the Daily Planet. Luckily your stealth gadgets aren’t as stealthy to be silent to a Kryptonian’s ears,” Superman tapped the side of his head.

“(I’ll have to fix that.) I was on the way back from Opal. Something… Last thing I remember…” he pressed a gloved hand to his head. “Gah. I can’t remember. I was flying. Thinking about Arkham. Gotham. Then…” He looked to his two friends, and then pulled his cowl off, which gave the appearance of allowing him to breath for the first time. “Damn. I think I was brainwashed.”

“I will be the judge of that,” intoned the Martian Manhunter, as he drifted through solid steel to reach the location of his friends. “As it is my speciality, Batman. Come to the briefing room. Hal is in deep space, but I have thought-messaged him the events that have unfolded.”

“Yeah,” grimaced Batman, as he pulled his cowl back on. “Let’s find out what the hell just happened.”

The Flash and Aquaman were already in the briefing room when Wonder Woman, Superman, the Manhunter from Mars and Batman arrived. “We heard what happened.”

“Great,” muttered Batman. “Let’s just hope no one else caught me trying to kill an entire building’s worth of people.”

“Let’s find out what happened to you before we worry about that,” smiled J’onn reassuringly. “Wally, you and Clark go up to the hangar and recover the black box. We may be able to figure out what happened from there.”

“Good thinking,” nodded Batman, as he once again removed his cowl. Wonder Woman placed a hand on his shoulder; he put a hand on hers, and then turned to J’onn. “Ok. Let’s do this.”

“Entering…” whispered J’onzz, two green hands on Bruce’s face, <Now.>

Wonder Woman watched as Batman and the Martian Manhunter fell silent, and J’onn began his mental probe, and then turned to Aquaman, who sat opposite them. He smiled at her reassuringly. “We’re the best, Diana. We’ll sort this.”

“Hrm,” groaned Aquaman slowly, clutching his head. “Something’s wrong.”

“What is it?” asked Wonder Woman looking around.

“My telepathic abilities aren’t as potent as J’onn’s but they work on a more subconscious level. Well I’ve just acquired a storming migraine, like someone just powered up a jack hammer on the psychic plane.”

“J’onn and Bruce?” Inquired Diana, as she took her shield from behind her back, ready for anything. “Should we awaken them?”

“I don’t think that’s it…” he spun around and nearly had his head punched clean off as a red blur entered the room. “Great… Neptune…” he groaned, as he saw the vibrating figure of the Flash standing above him, his eyes cold and dead. “Batman isn’t the only one who got taken over…”

Wonder Woman motioned to assist Aquaman, and then began to talk, “what about--” She brought up her shield instantly on instinct, and the magical metal clanged loudly, as a fist collided with it. “--Superman?”

“The lasso!” screamed Aquaman, as Diana unclipped it from her side and threw it at the King of the Seas. She moved on the defensive, dodging blows and using her shield to absorb the impact of the punches thrown. She was ahead of her attacker, Superman, but only because his attack was sluggish, relying only on brute power. Damn.

Aquaman moved with a grace and speed that had to be seen to believe. His muscles were built to last in the deepest pressures of the ocean, to swim against the strongest currents. He looped the lasso around the Flash’s foot before he could step out of it, and then whistled for Wonder Woman’s attention, who threw out a hand as Aquaman hurled it back. “Trade dance partners,” he then stated, Diana yanking the Flash in her direction and Arthur leaping at Superman, colliding with him and sending them both through the wall of monitors that constituted the right hand wall of the room. The duo flew through metal and wires, concrete and steel, Aquaman using Superman’s body as a shield whilst taking vicious, bone crunching punches to the back. He boxed the Kryptonian’s ears, and then jabbed his thumbs into his eyes. It hurt like hell, like pushing a boulder up a mountain, a boulder made out of the heaviest element in the world, but it worked. “Clark! You have to wake up!” Superman looked up, and his eyes glowed. “Damn!” Aquaman barely dodged the blasts of heat vision that came his way, and then leapt over the head of the Man of Steel, grabbed him by his cape, and then swung him over into the ground. The floors trembled, and the two fell deeper into the Watchtower, into Aquaman’s tanks below the main levels…

“Sonofa…” Hal Jordan wiped his brow, and looked up from the planetoid he had landed on. Rock and ice surrounded him, and he felt like complete garbage. His eye was swollen, his nose bloodied… “Bitch.” His ring buzzed. His fingers tingled. His mind ached.



<<Ring charge at 56%>>

“Thanks, ring.” He stood up, and looked around. He was in deep space, where he had been for the past few days. He’d been tracking an elemental force, something that was ravaging other planets in the sector. Causing hysteria. Madness. “Damn.” It had shot through his force field. Ravaged his internal organs. Knocked him out. Survival instincts had obviously kicked in. Kept his ring buzzing along. Healed his injuries subconsciously.

“Where did that little creep of a cloud end up?”

<<Tracking-->>

He thought about the symptoms. A precursor of the elemental was weird weather patterns. Crazy rain. And then the main body of the creature, if that was what it was (his ring had not been able to yet identify it fully), came a-calling, and made things worse. He’d never encountered a being like this before, and was enjoying the challenge.

<<--Location: Earth.>>

Hal cursed loudly. “Obviously it would be.” His ring spat energy, and he pulled his Power Battery from the dimensional rift he had been storing it in for his ‘working vacation’, “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil escape my sight, let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!” His ring burst with energy and then he was catapulted forward. He returned the battery to it’s home with a thought, and then received a message in his head.

<Green Lantern, we have a Justice League emergency. Batman was possessed by a force that nearly caused him to destroy the Daily Planet building and those inside. We have need of you.>

It had got Batman! “On my way,” grunted Hal, “on my way.”

J’onn analysed the psychic imprint left on Batman’s mind. He didn’t notice the mental image behind him twitch. The finger move. Batman too, wasn’t paying attention, rather waiting for them to leave his mindscape. “Anything?”

“Alien. I know that.”

He didn’t notice a hand form inside the mind of Batman. A black, flickering hand.

“Ancient. Elemental.”

He didn’t notice it jut forward with deadly intent. But Batman did. “J’ONN!”

A swarm of black bats collided with the fingers, pushing them back. “H'ronmeer!” J’onn span around, his form returning to its humanoid configuration, his blue cape dragging behind him.

“How did I do that?” muttered Batman. The hand swatted away the swarm, and grabbed onto J’onn’s mind form, his green skin suddenly cracking, like flames had washed over his body.

“YRAAAHH! It’s your mind, Batman, you control it! It’s destroying me!”

“I can fight.” Batman nodded, and then an almighty shadow, larger than the hand that had forced itself into his mind, engulfed it, and swallowed it hole, every iota of it’s being disintegrated by sheer force of will. “I can get rid of it.”

J’onn gasped a sigh of relief, and then placed a hand on Batman’s shoulder. “As it tried to take control of me, I became aware of its true form. I know what it is. A weapon, released millions of years ago by it’s creators on their enemies. It destroyed them, and then killed those who built it. Over the years it killed and it killed, and now it’s here for us. The weather we’ve been experiencing, the rain, the storms, those are its heralds, and now it’s here! Inside…”

The duo’s psychic selves returned to their bodies, and suddenly became aware that Diana had wrestled Wally to the ground, and held him tightly in a head lock, both his legs broken. “Wonder Woman?!”

“Glad you could… Hrgh… Join us, Leaguers,” grunted Diana, as she squeezed Wally’s head. “The Flash and Superman have been taken over. Aquaman is fighting Kal.”

“Oh, God,” spat Batman, imagining the broken body of Aquaman at the feet of a victorious Superman, “We have to save him!”

“I will handle Wally, Diana.” J’onn placed a hand on Wally’s struggling head, “Now I have faced it, felt its presence, I can destroy it.”

“AHH!” screamed Wally, as his legs began to heal wrong. “Ah, God!”

Batman put a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed. “We’re here.”

“This will hurt.” J’onn scanned the broken bones with his Martian Vision, and reached a hand into his team-mate’s body, and reset the mending injuries.

“HRnt.” Wally grunted. He hated having his legs broken, but he had nearly got used to the pain. Best way to take down a speedster? Find another one. Or break his legs. “T-Thanks.”

Superman was next. Diana was checking over Arthur’s wounds, and with one almighty crunch, J’onn reset Superman’s broken nose. It healed instantly, but Superman too grunted. “Thanks, J’onn.” He looked over to Aquaman. “You alright?”

“Could ask you the same question,” winked the Sea King. Both of his hands were bandaged, but there was no residual damage. “Now, what do we know?”

“It’s incorporeal,” noted Batman. “It can possess us in a moment’s notice. And it’s loose in the ‘Tower.”

“It needs a body to function. And it goes for the most powerful available,” replied Aquaman, motioning to Superman and the Flash.

Wonder Woman wound her lasso back up and hooked it to her golden girdle. “And it can inhabit machinery. Wally and Clark can attest to that.”

“As too can Bruce’s memories,” agreed J’onn.

“But if it can affect machinery,” started Wonder Woman, “then why isn’t it inside the Watchtower systems?”



The entire building shook and quaked.

“Apparently it thought the same thing!” Batman rushed over to a computer console and started typing manically. “Damn it! I’ve been locked out of the system. J’onn, the psychic hub?”

The psychic hub was the telepathic, living computers that backed up everything the main computers handled. It was a strange fusion of Kryptonian and Martian technology, built in a joint venture of Kord Industries and Wayne Technology, and it hadn’t failed them yet.

“Nothing! I am unable to access them!”

“The thing just locked down the transporters! We’re trapped inside the Watchtower!” reported Superman.

[/i]

“It’s…” he span around, and pointed at the Flash. “Wally, I need speed.”

The Flash nodded and hobbled over to his friend, who began typing, and as the Flash gave him more and more speed, worked furiously, keys being hit harder and harder and faster and faster, all in a blur. “I’misolatingacomputersowecan--”

FWIP.

All the lights went out, but a computer screen buzzed on, and Batman slowed to a stop. “Damn, it’s too quick! I could only get us a security feed.”

“Hera,” gasped Diana, as she saw the Watchtower from a camera installed on the moon’s surface, and above it, a massive black shape which became a hand, beginning to descend. “What’s happening now?”



The fingers pierced the Watchtower, and the entire structure rocked from side to side, the integrity totally compromised. “What in God’s name…?” Superman squinted tightly, microscopic vision being called upon instantaneously. “Oh, no…” He ran over to the doors that separated the briefing room to the rest of the Tower, and groaned as he began to pull them close. “We’re losing oxygen. It’s pulling the oxygen out of the Tower.”

“It isolated us so it can suffocate us!” shouted Diana.

J’onn and Wally looked at each other, and then went to work on the hole in the wall created by Superman and Aquaman’s fight, Wally super speed repairing the damage, whilst J’onn used his Martian Vision to make sure the room was evenly air tight. “This will not work. With its efforts, it is going to create a vacuum. We shall all be crushed.”

<Optimistic,> came a voice. <Green Lantern reporting for duty! I might be a few minutes late, seems we’ve got a trespasser.>

Batman came online, and shouted a reply, <Remove with extreme prejudice!>

Green Lantern came into view as he shot through the black shape that was attacking the Watchtower. The creature fizzed out of view, and then the massive structure stopped shaking, but Hal pressed the attack, speaking instructions to his ring both aloud and inside his head. This is what he had been trained for by Kilowog, big, earth shattering threats. And he wasn’t about to let down the big guy: “Ring, I need to see where that thing went, I need to make sure it doesn’t--” The elemental hand pierced the green barrier that separated Hal from the outside world, and the hero screamed, losing consciousness just as he had hours before when he first faced the entity,

“We’re losing Hal,” whispered Wally.

“No.” Superman turned to J’onn, who was sweating as he maintained contact with Green Lantern. “Put out minds on parallel. Divvy out what he’s experiencing. We can do this. Together, we fight it.”

<DONE!>

The Justice League was suddenly one with one another, and united in a shared mindscape. The hand appeared as an echo, weird, shimmering, separate variations of the same thing, each perceived differently by each Leaguer. It was weak, and when it was weak, the Justice League could defeat it! Combining their will power, pooling it for Hal Jordan to access, a massive green, intricate construct, bigger than anything he had ever imagined before, struck the mass, and as it connected, the pure unimaginable power of the World’s Greatest Heroes imaginations caused it to implode. Elemental circuitry, built of gasses and minerals began to strike each other! Psychic response mechanisms began to go haywire! Immaterial space travel capable engines, built by geniuses beyond their time, back fired, and the hand was gone from existence!

Hal Jordan, Green Lantern, fluttered to the moon’s surface like a leaf, and the Watchtower became operational again. J’onn J’onzz was outside the structure within seconds, immaterial, and Hal grinned as he gave his friend a thumbs up. <Your appearance saved the day, Hal.>

<You know me,> grunted Hal Jordan, as his ring knitted back together his injuries, <I love for my appearance to save lives.> The duo headed inside the Watchtower, and they were met by Wally as Hal lowered his green force field and J’onn became solid.

“Dude,” started Hal, “you look like you’ve been through hell.”

“I got on Diana’s bad side.” Hal’s face contorted into a look of shock at Wally’s words. “Come inside and I’ll tell you all about it. And you can help repair the damage.”

“Awesome.”