#29: Black Colossus, Pt. 2 (HoM / Rimmer)

Batman watched as systems shorted and exploded throughout the corridor he was standing in. He could hear explosions rumble through the headquarters, and he could hear the alarms blare as the craft began to loose altitude.

“Well,” he mumbled to himself, “this sucks.”

Dick Grayson didn’t like the idea of crashing the Justice League’s new flying city headquarters. As he sprinted through the hallways, heading back to the Monitor Womb and the rest of the Leaguers present, he formulated ways of escape, contingency plans that would allow the city to be safe-guarded-- but they all ended in them landing hard, and a crater being formed with their bodies on impact. He was never a pessimist before he donned this cowl.

“Alright,” he shouted, as he saw The Atom, Doctor Light and Animal Man standing over the device they’d spent the last hour tinkering with. “Kimiyo, you need to get outside right now, and we need a hard light buffer between us and the ground that’s coming up on our rear very very fast.”

“On it.” Doctor Light nodded, and shot down the corridors, a blazing trail in her wake.

“All major systems are down,” said The Atom, presiding over a console that was detailing all the damage inflicted, “there are fires across the city-structure, and the retardant systems can’t keep up. This was never supposed to happen.”

“Of course it wasn’t,” shrugged Batman, as he began packing up the device. “Animal Man, you need to get this to solid, non-flaming ground ASAP. Ray, you’re with Buddy. This device will lead us to the guy that did this to us. His name was Lord Havok. He projected himself into my head before he detonated whatever did this to us. Lord Havok. He is not a nice guy. We need psychic bafflers. Get on that! Hit the ground running!”

“What about you?” asked Buddy, as he hefted the device onto his back, the Atom shrinking to land on his shoulder.

“I’m going down with the ship,” was Dick Grayson’s response. He winked, and then vanished into the fiery corridors, leaving Buddy Baker and Ray Palmer silent for a split second, before they shot off in the opposite direction.

Batman arrived in the centre of the base, and removed his glove. His hand-print activated a secret door that was hidden in a wall, and he slipped inside. He descended the staircase, and reached The Cell. He entered the dark chamber, and then strapped himself down in front of the door. “We’re going for a trip,” he whispered, as he stared inside, past the door. “Just you and me.”



Wonder Woman’s cheek was black. The energy swords that Meanstreak wielded had cauterised the wound just as soon as they had inflicted it. She ignored the pain. She ignored everything but her opponent, and the fact that her body was lagging behind her thought processes. “Why...”

“Why are we here? Why am I killing you? Why am I so awesome? Why?” Meanstreak grinned, and lowered her hands, allowing the energy sword to dissipate. Superman writhed in the distance, Kryptonite energy seeping into his skin, sapping his solar charge, and the Martian Manhunter was a green pile of burning ooze, trying to shift into solid, but failing. “So many questions. And you can’t even think to--”

Wonder Woman grabbed Meanstreak by the throat, and threw her to the ground, headfirst. “Why are you talking so much?”

Meanstreak wiped the blood from her nose and lip, and grinned. Wonder Woman’s body was a patchwork of wounds inflicted by Meanstreak, and she was still struggling to stand.

“I find it’s distracting. Infuriating. Downright irritating,” Meanstreak said, prancing about the sand, “I like the look of your lasso. Gift from the gods, right? Gods go bye-bye, but you still have it to remind you, right? Nice, nice.” Meanstreak weaved her fingers in midair, and a green lasso was formed, “I like it so much, I’m gonna’ steal the idea. It’s the sincerest form of flattery. And whilst yours is all golden-delicious, mine’s gonna’ be--” she snapped the lasso down on Superman’s chest, leaving a deep gash across the ‘S’ insignia emblazoned there, “--Kryptonite sexy.”

Meanstreak was about to lash her lasso down against Wonder Woman, but her hands were suddenly ensnared in emerald shackles, and she was weighed down as they buried themselves into the sand. “You’re under arrest,” said Green Lantern.

“What are you doing, Hal? Why are you--?” asked Meanstreak, pained.

“I don’t know you, nor do I care, sweetheart,” said Hal Jordan, “but here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going ot think about you shutting up, aaand--” an emerald plaster slapped itself around Meanstreak’s mouth, and the Green Lantern nodded, contented. Superman was free of the Kryptonite field, his wounds were already healing in direct sunlight, and the Martian Manhunter attempted to collect himself, failing time and again. Hawkman recovered Ronnie and Martin, and Aquaman supported the injured Wonder Woman. “

“We’ve been played,” said Aquaman, “J’onn, the mental link has been compromised, we think there’s a--”

Wonder Woman grinned. “You’re such a shmuck, Aq.”

“What?” Aquaman’s expression shifted from confused to agonised, as he looked down at his chest, and the energy sword that Wonder Woman had shunted into his body. “Nuh.”

Green Lantern clutched his head, and then saw that he had Wonder Woman chained up. “Why... what...?”

“Because I thought it. And you did it.” An unforgettably ugly man appeared from nowhere, large, horrific tendrils lashing above his bulbous head and winding their way through the air. “My will against yours, want to try it?” He placed a hand on Green Lantern’s shoulder, and then tutted. “You won’t win. I’m in your head. Got my hooks in on you. Replicating, laying eggs in your consciousness and nibbling away at your higher functions.”

“Gorgon, leave him to me. He’s supposed to be the man without fear, correct?” Another man appeared behind Gorgon, his face a gaping void, swirling blacks and blues colliding in the centre of a horrific anomaly. He wore spiked armour, and even though he didn’t have a face, nor a mouth, his voice dripped with pure malevolence, and the cognisant Leaguers felt their fear receptors standing to attention.

The Flash tried his hardest to move, but his legs refused to budge-- He could see Gorgon staring at him, freezing his abilities. “Gghhh...”

“Oh, Dreamslayer, you are so conniving.” Gorgon said. He released his grip on Green Lantern, and turned to The Flash. “You’ll be my plaything then, Barry.”

“Hello, Hal Jordan,” whispered Dreamslayer, his body shifting, and then, without another word, he engulfed Hal, the two of them twisting out of reality.

“One of them’ll be back,” hissed Gorgon, his tendrils approaching The Flash. “Probably my guy. Not yours.”

Superman unleashed a barrage of heat vision on the tendrils, but his head was suddenly slammed to the ground, and the sand around transformed into glass as his heat vision went wild. “No fair, Superman,” growled his attacker, digging his claws into Superman’s scalp. “Hey, he ain’t bleeding, Gorgon, what’s up with that?”

“He’s a Kryptonian,” said Meanstreak. “There’s only one way to really hurt him, Tracer.” Her fingertips shone with Kryptonian energy, and she picked him up by the face, and smiled. “I’m gonna keep you as a pet.”

“No, you’re not,” said Hawkman, as he looked at the three members of the Extremists present. “You’re going to have to go through me.”

Tracer grinned. “Gorgon, you want to make him a kitty-cat?”

“Of course I do, m’boy,” said Gorgon, as he licked his lips. “Wait--”

Katar took a crossbow from his belt, and fired a bolt into one of the tendrils atop Gorgon’s head. “I’m not an idiot. I’m a soldier. And I watch and I learn.”

Gorgon screamed as the bolt flew through his tendrils, and impaled Meanstreak’s shoulder. “He’s got some kind of shield in his mind! Tracer-- he’s yours!”

The Flash went to Aquaman first, but Arthur grabbed his hand, and whispered something. Barry nodded, and then recovered Superman from Meanstreak, returned for Wonder Woman, and then saw Hawkman battle Tracer-- the two men snarling and tearing at each other. Katar was already a bloody mess, but the one known as Tracer was caked in his own internal fluids too, his mane matted crimson. Barry knew he had to help, but he also knew he had to get his teammates clear. Ronnie and Martin, both over his shoulders, were next, and when he came back to find J’onn-- he was nowhere to be seen.

Hawkman grunted as the feral attacker gouged at his armour, but then headbutted him, cracking his own helm open. “Damn,” he hissed, and then turned to The Flash. Meanstreak was wailing on the desert floor, her shoulder bleeding out across the sands, and Gorgon was at her side.

They’re watching out for each other, thought Barry, as he leaped into the air, grabbed Hawkman and punched Tracer in the face, then hit the sand and threw up a sandstorm in his wake. “They’re a team,” he growled to Katar, travelling half a world away before stopping. “They’re playing as a team--!”

“Where’s Aquaman?” asked Hawkman, already tending to his wounds. “Where’s Arthur?”

“He told me...” mumbled Barry, “he told me to trust him.”



Lord Havok was smiling. Not that anybody could tell. The only part of his face visible were his eyes-- and even then, they looked artificial. Dead. “You think yourself the leader, do you not?”

Aquaman was bound with chains. Tied down to a chair. He said nothing. The wound on his chest was still bleeding, but his body was dealing with it, in its own imitable way. His lungs had re-inflated themselves already. If he were submerged, the flesh would have knitted itself back together in no time, but he was making do.

“I can see it in you. That arrogance. You think yourself better. Well, if you are so very much better than everyone else, why are you the one here? In my parlour?”

Arthur cracked his neck, and flexed himself in the chair. “Luck.”

It was a strange combination that allowed them to communicate so fast. A weird mix of telepathy and superspeed speech: “Come on, Arthur--” said The Flash, “--gottarun--”

“No,” snapped Aquaman, “leave me, trust me--”

The Flash was about to ignore Aquaman’s words when the King of Seas grabbed his arm. “--What?”

“Trust me,” repeated Aquaman. “Go, now!”

“Yes,” said Lord Havok, grinning, “‘luck’.”



<“This is a terrible idea.”>

Doctor Light threw up her hands, and mustered all her strength. Light began to bend and shift, and then, beneath the hurtling mass of the Justice League’s flying headquarters, she created a massive cushion of hard/soft light to lessen the damage that impact was going to wreak. When the massive city hit, she grunted, and focused, and she absorbed the impact-- her knees buckling. <“You can do this,”> she whispered to herself. <“Focus, focus,”> she kept repeating. The city slowed, until she gently allowed the projection to recede into nothingness. Waves lapped on impact, but buoyancy countermeasures came into operation, the city floated, and then she collapsed on the outer edges of the city. <“Oh, that hurt.”>

Animal Man flew over to her, The Atom holding on for dear life, a look of concern across his features. “Kimiyo, are you alright?”

“I feel like I just caught a city that was never meant to be thrown,” she replied. Buddy helped her up, and then looked at Ray Palmer, still standing on his shoulder. “What about Batman?”

“I’m alright,” said Dick Grayson, as he climbed out from the main doors of the city. “Fire retardant systems will deal with the blazes now that we have a new source of H₂O; everything’s under control. Where are we?”

“Middle of the Pacific Ocean,” Animal Man replied, quickly.

“How do you know that?” asked Ray Palmer. “I mean, I knew that, but how did you?”

Buddy Baker shrugged. “Indigenous species to this section of the ocean are tickling on the fringes of the Morphogenetic Field. I know.”

“Where did you go, Batman?” asked The Atom. “What happened?”

“Precious cargo,” said Batman. There was a sense of finality in his words-- Buddy knew not to pry any further. “First things first-- we need to get out of this place. If they sent us hurtling to Earth, then they’ll sure as Hell know where we landed, as will half the world’s media. Now, didn’t I tell you to get working on psychic bafflers?”

“I know a guy...” said The Atom. “Kimiyo, can you fly?”

Doctor Light rolled her eyes. “Barely, but now isn’t the time for complaining. Where are we headed?”

“Midway City,” replied Ray Palmer. “Like I said... I know a guy.”



“We’re Firestorm again,” said Ronnie, smiling.

“Good, that’s a definite plus,” said Superman.

“There must have been a reason they tried to take me out of the game, right? Um... Superman, want me to charge you up?” Firestorm raised his fists, and solar energy swirled out of his palms as he opened them up.

“I’d appreciate it,” was Superman’s reply, as he clutched his head, and looked over to Wonder Woman. “They got us good.”

The Leaguers were holed up underground, inside a bunker under an old abandoned warehouse in a city somewhere in Russia. The walls were insulated, keeping them safe from incursion. A regular home away from home, if you were of a certain inclination.

“We weren’t expecting it. Now we are. Won’t hit us the same way twice,” Wonder Woman replied, bandaging her wounds. “Hnff.”

“I doubt they will,” said Superman. He turned to The Flash. “Where are we?”

“Safe Location,” said Barry. “It’s a hypnotic trigger, implanted by J’onn in case of emergency. We all know one, but no one else does. If we’re compromised, I can take you somewhere, Hal can take you somewhere, Ronnie and Martin can, that kind of thing. Seeing us screwed to holy hell like that, I remembered.”

“Whose idea was that?” asked Diana.

“Batman’s. The new one, not the old. He’s wiley, that one,” smiled Barry. Then he remembered the situation, and his features darkened. “Katar, how’d you manage to put up so much of a fight?”

Katar was hunched over in a corner, working on his helmet. “That... Gorgon... he’s a psychic. My helmet has psychic bafflers installed. I activated them, and then I shot him in the tendril.” He grunted. “Should have aimed lower.” He looked at Superman and Wonder Woman, and then sighed. “Or punched him into unconsciousness. You know. The right and proper way.”

“I didn’t know you had psychic bafflers in that helmet of yours,” said Superman. “Got any spare?”

“Afraid not,” said Hawkman, “and they’re new. Ted Kord built them for me. We had an interesting chat after the last poker night. He’s helping me improve my armour.”

“We need some more of those if we’re to keep him out of our heads. And we need to regroup. Where will the rest of the League be? And where’s J’onn?”

“I’ve been trying to contact them, but there’s no response. We need those bafflers, then we can get to finding them. So let’s head to Midway City, and to Ted Kord, and get to work.”

[/b]

Lord Havok punched Aquaman in the face, and then wiped his bloodied gauntlet with his scarlet cape. “This used to be virgin white when I first acquired it. Tore it off the body of our world’s greatest hero.”

“You... have very poor... personal... hygiene,” breathed Arthur, grinning.

“Ha.” Lord Havok said, punctuating his amusement with a punch to the chest. “Your world has too many heroes. Meanstreak knows everything about them, and so does Gorgon. And because they do, so do I.

Aquaman nodded. “And they’ll stop you. If I don’t.”

“I thought we could subjugate this world. Bring it to its knees as we have done a dozen others. But I’ve never seen a world so full of metapotential, both active and latent. It is not worth the effort.”

“You’re lazy?” laughed Aquaman. “Wow. Okay.”

“Another one of my comrades has been to this world already. He led the way for us. One of our world’s heroes’ follies. The Construct.” Lord Havok seemed to enjoy this. Aquaman knew of The Construct. The League had faced him before, teamed with heroes from another dimension-- were the two connected? Indubitably. “Blue Jay, that diminutive little bastard, built him. ‘For the greater good!’” Havok laughed, and punched Aquaman again. “Pathetic. I’m so glad he’s dead. It’s just a shame he didn’t die by my hand.”

Aquaman continued to smile. “Jay Abrams was a hero. And you’re a villain. I think I’ll ignore your opinions, Havok.”

“The Construct is an AI. A brilliant AI. And it seeds the worlds it travels to with markers. Markers that we can follow. You think that the Cadre, the Overmaster, all that business years back was the first that’s been tried? The Construct has been used by a dozen mad men. By a dozen leaders. And after he has been used, or believed ‘defeated’, he pierces the dimensional walls-- because he is a program, Aquaman, beyond feeble physical concepts assigned by humanity-- and he beckons us to new ground for us to conquer.”

“What took you so long?” asked Aquaman.

Lord Havok’s head tilted to the side. “Excuse me?”

“I know of the Overmaster incident. Of The Construct. That was years back. Why now? What took you so long?”

Lord Havok fell silent. “Well, that is the rub, Aquaman. Your world is so primitive. So behind, that only recently could The Construct slip through a hole in dimensions to track us down. I do need to remember to thank that fool in Science City,” said Havok slowly.

“The Justice League will stop you,” said Aquaman.

“You really think so?” Havok laughed. “Because a hundred men have said it before. And they have all died. Doctor Diehard crashed your flying headquarters. We broke your teammates. The Martian Manhunter is dead, did you not hear? In a few hours time, we shall be gone from this world. And we shall take life as you know it with us.”

Aquaman said nothing. He merely thought. And plotted. And planned. A dozen worlds? Mere bragging, or a deadly threat through the multiverse? Lord Havok and the Extremists would be stopped here. The line would be drawn.

“Not so talkative?” Lord Havok sighed. “Then I believe it is time I showed you my superpower.” The chair that Aquaman was chained to slowly purred back. Three buffers shifted around Arthur’s head, spinning into place in different places above his skull. “I built this in an hour. A torture chair. I am going to place it on the highest setting, and then I am going to leave you here. To suffer. To cower. To never die. But to be in pain until the Earth dies.”

“Don’t worry,” a thought in his head said, “this won’t be the end.”



Ted Kord was working in his lab. Music blared in the background, and the doors that led into his inner sanctum were sealed. The press were outside, as per usual, hounding him for some snippet of hero-gossip or a photo of him with his mouth open and his eye half open that they could pass as him being drunk-whilst-heroing.

Outing himself as Blue Beetle on national television had not been his greatest move, but hey, he’d done worse. He whistled as he worked, hunched over a worktop as he fiddled with a new circuit he’d created the night before. Busy, busy.

There was a tap at the twelve-inch-thick reinforced titanium door of his lab. “Huh?” He pulled himself away from his work, and activated the security feed outside his door. Batman, Animal Man, Doctor Light and The Atom were stood outside. Animal Man waved. “...What?” He opened the door, and the four Justice Leaguers moved inside. “What... can I do you for?”

“Psychic bafflers,” said Batman, sealing the door after they were in. “The League has been hit hard, Blue Beetle, and we need your help.”

“Right, that makes sense then,” said Beetle. He walked toward his safe, and then doubled back. “...Want me to grab my costume?”

“After you get us the bafflers,” started Batman, “we’d appreciate any help you could offer.”

“You’ve got a psychic problem then?” Kord removed his lab coat, and pulled off his shirt, to reveal that he was already wearing his Blue Beetle costume beneath that. “I have all sorts of gadgetry for a problem like that. What’s the trouble? Martian Manhunter gone stir-crazy? You didn’t hide his cookies again, did you?” He shook his head. “No matter.” He pressed his palm against a tablet, and scanned his retina. The door hissed open, and he took a small tray out from inside. “I love these gadgets. I have them in my cowl paneling. In fact,” he said, “I’ve installed them into your next shipment of cowls, B.”

“Cool,” said Batman, as he took one from the tray, turned away from everyone, and headed into the shadows to remove his cowl.

The Atom took off his own mask and placed the baffler in his ear, the rest of the Leaguers following suit. “This’ll block out any psychics?”

“Complete and utter. Sends out mental chaff instead. Makes you look like you’ve got a void for a brain and nothing else.” He smiled at Doctor Light. “I’d say something corny like ‘I wear one on dates’, but that would be corny and I’m not corny. I’m awesome.”

Doctor Light smiled. “I’m sure.”

There was another tapping at the door. “Wow, I’m popular today.” He turned to Doctor Light again. “Not that I’m not popular everyday. Because I’m awesome.” He pulled on his mask, and looked at the security footage again. “Your teammates are here. They’re not evil, are they?”

“They’re here? Thank goodness,” said The Atom. “We were worried for a moment.”

Blue Beetle nodded. “And they’re not possessed? Not under some devilish influence?”

Batman reappeared from the darkness. “Damn. They’re knocking, that’s a good sign. Any thoughts, Beetle?”

Beetle thought for a moment, and then spun around and headed to his work desk. “I can project the mental chaff outside, that’ll clear their heads if there’s anything but them in there?”

“Do it,” said Batman. Beetle did so, and the Leaguers watched as Superman, Firestorm, Wonder Woman, Hawkman and The Flash took it. “We’re down three. Aquaman, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter aren’t here.”

“They’re clear,” said Beetle, and then he opened the door. “It’s a regular Justice League themed party, am I right?”

Superman’s eyes lit up as he saw the rest of the team assembled. Weary, bedraggled, but alive. “You’re alright!”

“Same to you,” nodded Batman, as he looked over the team, and handed them bafflers. “We need to compare notes, and we need to take this to the next level. They crashed home base.”

“Where?” asked Wonder Woman, a look of concern across her face. Animal Man noted this. He sensed something. Her concern wasn’t over the base.

“The ocean. Everything’s accounted for, but I had to shut everything down but the main containment system and fire retardants.”

“We can get back to that,” said The Flash. “We’ve met four so far. Gorgon, a psychic, Tracer, a brawler, Meanstreak, energy manipulation. And... Dreamslayer. He’s the one who took Hal.”

“And I think I met their leader,” said Batman. “Lord Havok. He mentioned Doctor Diehard. Don’t know Havok’s power set, but he mentioned Diehard was scrambling communications with electromagnetism. I think he was our rabble-rouser this morning.”

“There could be more,” said Wonder Woman. “And we think they took J’onn and Arthur, as well.”

“Then we get them back,” said Animal Man. “We’re all here, aren’t we? All here and more,” he motioned to Blue Beetle. “We still have the device that can trace... Doctor Diehard, right? He can lead us straight to the rest of them. And we can take them down.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Blue Beetle, as he leaned toward Doctor Light. “Are you busy after this world saving business? Because I could really go for a drink. With you. To be honest.”

Doctor Light shook her head. “We’ll see, Mr Kord. Impress me.”

Beetle grinned. “I fully intend to.” He looked over at The Atom and the device Animal Man had been carrying. “May I?”

The Atom nodded. “Of course.” Blue Beetle looked over the device.

The Flash suddenly jerked to attention. “What?”

Batman looked at his teammate. “What’s wrong?”

“Vibrations... picking up some weird vibrations in the corner of the lab, reminds me of... What is that?” There was a rumble, and then the lab began to shake. Beetle looked up from the machine, and then pointed at a swirl of light that was forming in the corner. “That’s a speedster. That’s a speedster piercing dimensions!”

“Who could--” started Wonder Woman, but then her eyes focused, and she answered her own question. “They’re friends.”

“Our problem has apparently becomes yours-- again,” said a familiar voice, as a man and a woman stepped off a foreign-looking cosmic treadmill, “so we came to help.”

“Captain Speed,” said The Flash, putting out his hand to the alternate-Earth speedster, “and Silver Sorceress! You could not have come at a better time.”

Animal Man looked to the two new arrivals, and then to Batman. “Someone’s going to have to fill me in. I am completely lost.”

[/b]


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