Post by David on Jul 28, 2009 20:52:56 GMT -5
His first mission with the Justice Society of America, and Commander Steel already felt in over his head. No sooner had he sat down to his first meeting than the team had received a mystical summons across the Multiverse to the parallel world dubbed Earth-Two, a summons that now appeared to be a ruse. Now the JSA was sundered: their leader Captain Marvel was missing in action, as was Dr. Fate, their only way home, Green Lantern and Power Girl had gone down with the Satellite HQ of this world’s JLA, and he, Wildcat and the Flash were following the iron-haired police commissioner of Gotham City down rough-hewn steps into a lightless cavern below stately Wayne Manor.
“It’s all a little much, huh?” Wildcat asked, pausing on the downstep and waiting for Steel to catch up. “Alternate universes, flaming satellite headquarters, missing members…”
Steel nodded with a rueful smile. “Kind of, yes sir.” He admitted, grateful for the opportunity to express his building feelings of helplessness. “I’ve never felt so---.”
Wildcat slapped him upside the head and growled. “Well, suck it up, soldier. You’re in the JSA, now, and this is what we do before lunch most days.”
Steel stared in stunned surprise at Wildcat a moment as Bruce Wayne and Jay Garrick continued walking down the steps, oblivious to the exchange behind them. On what could be seen of Wildcat’s face was a toothy grin. And Steel laughed, a good, clean release of frustration and uncertainty.
The two resumed their descent into the darkness below, chuckling softly.
“Your grandfather said something like that ta me, back in ’44, on my first mission with the All-Star Squadron. Tough as a tank, your granddad. I once saw him jump out of a plane onto a kamikaze Spitfire, and literally tear that sucker apart, before leaping onto the closest Blackhawk. He’d be damned proud ta see you in the JSA.”
Hank Heywood III had no comment, but felt himself flush with pride.
“Watch your step,” the grating voice of Bruce Wayne came back to them. “It gets slippery with bat droppings near the bottom.”
Wildcat grimaced and rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath “Never thought I’d see the day...”
In moments, they had reached the bottom, and stood in a vast cavern. Dim emergency lamps shone out, serving only to cast vague objects into garish shadow. Commander Steel stared about in wonder though--- he was in the Batcave. Sure, it was the Batcave of a parallel universe--- and obviously one that had been all but abandoned!--- but it was the Batcave nonetheless. Even in the dim light, he could just see the outline of the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, and towering above him was an enormous penny… Along one wall, brightly lit like a shrine, was a display case of Robin costumes, all of them different, but all variations on the same, and all perfectly preserved.
“Doesn’t look like you’ve been down here in a while, Bruce.” The Flash remarked, taking in the tables and consoles draped in white, and the inch of dust that coated everything.
“Not since Alfred died,” Bruce Wayne’s voice was steady, emotionless as he walked purposefully across the cave towards a large sheet-covered shape. “I told you, I stopped being Batman a long time ago. No use for the cave after that. But if what you say is true, then…” he let the words hang out there, the rest of his thought unspoken.
With one yank, he tore away the covering of the large shape, revealing a control panel covered in knobs and dials and buttons, below a bulky cathode-ray tube TV screen.
Even Jay Garrick was forced to lift his eyebrows and smile in gentle amusement. “Jeez, Bruce, you should get Barbara to update this for you…”
Bruce regarded it thoughtfully for a moment, chewing his moustache, as if hesitating to take a step he couldn’t come back from. Then, with characteristic decisiveness, he threw a switch and the Batcomputer hummed to life. The screen gradually brightened into a geometric test pattern and Bruce began typing quickly into the antique keyboard.
“This always got the job done before,” he snarled but there was an undertone of engagement in his voice now--- he was starting to enjoy this. “And I have done some modifications over the years… Besides, I doubt the Mayor of Gotham wants to do my tech support.”
All three JSAers shared a look of impressed surprise.
The old-fashioned TV screen displayed streams of data, at which Bruce frowned.
“I can’t raise Red Tornado on the Satellite. In fact, it doesn’t looks like there are any systems online up there at all… And there are reports of an impact in the Atlantic Ocean that could be a splashdown… Ground zero is not far from Atlantis. Arthur ought to be able to tell me more.”
The JSAers crowded behind Bruce as he hailed the undersea kingdom. In moments, the screen displayed the visage of a regal red-haired woman, her head surmounted with a coral crown.
“Greetings, Bruce. I had a feeling one of you would be in touch.”
“Mera, where’s Arthur?”
“My lord husband has gone with an offworlder Green Lantern to Paradise Island, seeking healing for the stranger’s gravely wounded comrade.”
“Power Girl, wounded…?” Jay exclaimed, confused. Wildcat shot a look at Commander Steel, who knew her best, but Steel just shrugged, equally at a loss.
Bruce Wayne swore under his breath. “That was foolish. The Amazons don’t suffer visitors from Man’s World anymore.”
“I am well aware,” Mera glared at him through the screen. “But once my lord husband has made up his mind to do something, he moves wind and wave to do it.”
Bruce nodded curtly, said. “Thank you, Mera. Please keep me posted,” then disengaged the line to jab a suddenly flashing red button. The Queen of Atlantis’ offended expression was replaced by an image from a jerky hand-held news camera, recording a scene of chaos on a Gotham City street.
“… explosions rock downtown as mysterious armored robots invade Gotham, leaving in their wake only destruction…”
Bruce, the Flash, Wildcat and Commander Steel stared aghast at the screen as a huge mechanized form on spindly metallic legs lumbered into view. A laser perched atop its bulbous body sprayed sizzling destruction across a line of cars, exploding them. Faint screams could be heard through the speakers. Then the gun turned towards the camera, there was a bright, blinding flash--- and the feed went dead.
The JSAers were not prepared for the vehemence with which Commissioner Wayne whirled on them. “Ten years! Ten years and no supercrime in Gotham. You’re here ten minutes and I have giant robots in the streets!” He bit off every word as if he were spitting nails at them. “This is your fault. Fix it.”
The Flash was already a blur, following Bruce’s pointing finger towards the tunnel leading out of the cave. Wildcat sprinted towards the hypercycle he’d had his eye on since they entered the cave, kick starting it as Commander Steel leaped onto the seat behind him. Wildcat wheeled the jet-powered bike in the direction the Flash had gone, calling over his shoulder to Bruce, “You coming, Caped Crusader?”
Without waiting for an answer, the ‘cycle shot away in a burst of jetflame and a whoop from Wildcat.
Bruce glanced towards a locker he hadn’t opened in ten years, and as his eyes swept across the cave, they landed on the form of the woman watching him from the stairs. His wife still moved with a feline grace, as she came up to him, insinuating herself into the circle of his arms. He had seen the look on her face: she was concerned.
“It’s alright, Selina,” he soothed her, holding her by the shoulders so he could look down into her worried face. “I’ve worked too long and too hard to turn back now; there’s no place in the Gotham I’ve built for a Batman.” He kissed her gently. “But let’s just hope this Justice Society is up to the task…”
Towing behind him the unmoving body of Power Girl in her Atlantean medi-tank encased in the green beam of his ring, Alan Scott cut through dark waters, a grimly silent Aquaman swimming next to him. They were racing against time: the Atlantean sorcerer-physicians had only given Power Girl a few hours to live…
*How much further is Paradise Island?* Alan asked, his ring carrying his thoughts telepathically to Aquaman.
The Sea King continued staring straight ahead, as if unwilling to let his concentration falter--- or to let his guard down. *We’re not far now. Already the seas feel different… Cursed.*
*Cursed?* Green Lantern was alarmed. *By whom?*
*By the Olympian gods. It is a tragedy. A real-life Greek tragedy, of doomed love, fatal hubris and inevitable war. Can’t you feel the anger of the gods all around in these waters? We haven’t seen a single living thing for miles…*
Alan was appalled. *What happened? Did Wonder Woman die?*
*Yes, in a way.* There was a deep sadness in the tone of Aquaman’s thoughts. *Many years ago, Queen Hippolyta of Themiscyra fell in love with Ares, the God of War. It is impossible to say if she was seduced, glamoured, or if it was a true passion. But together they had a dream, a dream of overthrowing Zeus, of freeing the world of the meddlesome gods, that mortals could control their own destiny. And so the Amazons went to war against Olympus, and Princess Diana, our Wonder Woman was caught in the middle. Diana was the champion of the Olympians, the most vocal proponent of peace and truth in the world--- but Hippolyta was her mother and the Amazons her people. Yet they were the aggressors, and there was much horror and bloodshed. It was only after Ares struck down Athena did Wonder Woman enter the fray. To end the war, she met her mother in single combat on the slopes of Mount Olympus, and slew her.*
*Polly…!* Alan groaned inwardly, unable to imagine the women he knew committing such actions. Of course, on this world, Hippolyta had never been the Wonder Woman who fought evil and tyranny in World War Two…
*As their rightful queen, Diana commanded her people to lay down their arms and return to Paradise Island. But the damage was done. The Amazons had been all but wiped out, barely a handful of their number remaining. Themyscira had been mostly destroyed in the war, and the gods no longer looked kindly upon Paradise Island--- and only with suspicion on its heartbroken new queen.*
*This… this is awful.* Alan didn’t have the words to express his horror and sadness. *Still, I don’t see why the Amazons might be so hostile to the outside world. Couldn’t anyone help them, or----.*
*I haven’t told you everything.* Aquaman’s thoughts now held a tinge of shame. *The gods of the Amazons are also the gods of Atlantis of old. As king, I rule the waves by the divine grace of Poseidon, and when Olympus came under attack, he summoned the aid of the only people left on Earth who gave him any kind of reverence. I… I led my people against Themyscira, laying siege and sacking the city. I tried to keep the bloodshed to a minimum, but the Amazons are matchless warriors. Only our superior numbers saved us from being thrown back into the sea. But Atlantean killed Amazon, and I fear there will be bad blood between us until the end of days. And Amazons paint all not of Paradise Island with the same brush. After Diana returned from Olympus, I relinquished the city to her. We wept together, one last time as comrades, then she commanded that the shores of Paradise Island were forever denied to any but her poor surviving sisters--- And now we are here!*
Green Lantern followed in Aquaman’s wake of bubbles as he swam upwards. They surfaced into bright golden sunshine and sapphire-blue water sluiced off of them as they strode up onto the sandy beach. The once verdant island paradise was now little more than a blasted rock. Zeus had hurled thunderbolt after thunderbolt down upon the land, and the scars could be seen on the cliffs, burned into desolate hills, and in the splintered husks of rotted tree stumps. In the distance were the ruins of a once-proud city, its walls and temples broken.
Alan Scott could only stare in painful disbelief, and again he thought in sorrow of the woman he knew a lifetime ago. He turned in anger on Aquaman. “I can’t believe you and the others let it get to this---.”
His words died. Though still wet from having just crawled from the ocean, the tears on the face of the Sea King were obvious. Before either of them could comment, however, the leaf-head blade of a spear thudded into the sand between them. Looking up, Alan saw that they were not alone. A troop of armed woman, their hair shorn close, emerged from a rocky outcropping, weapons at the ready.
“Atlantean, I should kill you where you stand,” said a dark-skinned woman who approached with an air of unassailable command. “You know this island is forbidden to any but the Amazons. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t have the two of you gutted and fed to the wild kangas right now?”
“Because there are three of us, Phillipus,” Aquaman faced the Amazon general with all the dignity of his station, gesturing to Power Girl in her medi-tank, which now sat on the surf. “This woman is gravely injured and will die unless you help her.”
“And who is she to us?” Phillipus demanded, taking another step closer, her hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword.
“She is a warrior woman like you,” Alan interjected fiercely, his ring sputtering in his intensity. “She was injured saving millions of lives. And on my world, my Wonder Woman calls her sister!”
Phillipus regarded Alan in unmistakable surprise, while behind her, her troop muttered at the sight of his green flame. There was real awe and a little fear in their reaction. Green Lantern and Aquaman shared a quick glance of mutual bewilderment.
When the Amazon general spoke again, it was with noticeable uncertainty. “Come then. Queen Diana will decide this.”
Jim Corrigan felt like he was going to die… again. Never before had he experienced so much agony, not even when “Gat” Benson had plugged him full of holes and ended his life, and certainly never in all his years bonded to the Spirit of Vengeance as the Spectre. But that Spirit was gone, and Jim Corrigan’s soul still had not found its rest. Possessed of the Helm of Nabu, the Amulet of Anubis and the Cloak of Nergal, he had taken up the mantle of Doctor Fate, the sorcerous agent of the Lords of Order, and had led the JSA straight into a trap. And now here he was, imprisoned in the Rock of Eternity, chained behind the throne of Black Shazam, the depraved and demented wizard of Earth-Two!
At the moment, the mad wizard paid him no attention, busy with moving the Rock between dimensions. Slumped in his stone chair, Black Shazam focused on the vibrational plane that was the home of the JSA’s Earth-One, drooling at the prospect of the chaos he was poised to unleash. Beside him, his narrowed eyes feverish in the light of the fire-pits around the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, Captain Marvel waited to do his new master’s bidding.
<Captain!> Dr. Fate groaned. <Heed me: this is madness! The Rock of Eternity is a Multiversal singularity. It cannot exist in more than one place at the same time! What the wizard is trying to do will cause irreparable damage and have vast, unknowable consequences…! You cannot allow this!>
His uniform darkened to the color of dried blood, Captain Marvel turned slowly to face his former comrade, a grin spreading across his face.
“Allow it? I can’t wait for it!” The World’s Mightiest Marvel laughed full-throatedly. “Do you know how hard it is to have the powers of a god, and to use them in the service of fleas? Do you know how long I have toiled to protect them, bled for them…? And how do they repay me? With suspicion and mistrust! Where is their gratitude, their adulation?”
<Would you have their hate and fear instead?> Fate entreated.
Captain Marvel looked down upon the captive Dr. Fate, his face expressionless. “They must be taught respect. They must be taught their place.”
<Billy,> Jim Corrigan decided on a different tact. <The Captain has been corrupted. Say the magic word! Reject this dark wizard and his mad schemes! Ygol sottoth, kalimah naur! Kalimah yuggoth---.> Before the rest of the words of the spell could be spoken, a meaty fist slammed into the Helm of Nabu, and Dr. Fate slumped in his ensorcelled chains, dazed.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to kill a ghost, but if you so much as mumble again, I’m sure going to try.” Marvel snarled, looming over Fate.
Then the Rock of Eternity lurched and all at once the Seven Deadly Enemies started gibbering in excitement. Captain Marvel struggled to regain his balance, but suddenly everything was off-kilter: with the exception of himself and Dr. Fate, everything seemed slightly blurry, as if everything around him--- the Seven Deadly Enemies, the Rock and even Black Shazam--- was overlaid with an exact replica of itself.
“I have done it!” The wizard crowed, lunging to his feet, bony fists in the air. “I have supplanted this universe’s conception of the Rock of Eternity! I have subverted reality!”
<No, you haven’t,> moaned Dr. Fate. <You cannot. All you’ve done is splintered one reality onto itself. And for that there will be hell to pay.>
But he was ignored. Captain Marvel stared in wonder at the strangely vibrating wizard, who in turn pointed a knobby finger at the suddenly activated Historama.
“Behold, Earth-One, your home, my Captain!” crowed the wizard. “Now go forth and make thyself its master, and return not until you deliver it unto me!”
Sirens wailed and crowds of people ran out of the paths of the deadly robots. More accurately, they were cybermechs, christened such by their diabolical maker because he had implanted human brains in the fearsome but only vaguely anthropomorphic forms. The gray-matter pulsed and throbbed in fierce stimulation behind reinforced impact-proof windows, connected to thought-trodes that manipulated metallic arms, tentacles, pincers, blades and weapons. A cybermech with writhing limbs like an octopus careened down Gotham’s main thoroughfare of Kane Street on four of his chrome tentacles, while two other arms thrashed about, smashing cars, telephone poles, and stop signs--- and the last two held screaming people, slowing being crushed to death.
“Let them go!”
The Flash slid to a halt in front of the cybermech, catching the thing’s attention. Optical sensors whirled in on him, and the cybermech released the two captives to hurl four deadly tentacles at Jay. The monster was fast, but nowhere near as fast as the Flash. Jay ran straight at the cybermech, ducking beneath its bulbous body, causing the monster to reach below itself with its pursuing tentacles. This caused the monster to become unbalanced, and it teetered. Pressing his advantage, Jay reversed himself and slammed into the metallic body like he was a cop smashing in a door, knocking the behemoth down! The thing scrambled at the air with its eight limbs, but was like a turtle on its shell, incapacitated.
A shadow loomed over Jay and he turned in time to see a second cybermech behind him, a chain gun turret swinging down and trained on him. The bullets blazed out, but Jay was already gone, the high-velocity armor-piercing bullets ripping through the downed cybermech, from which came sparks and smoke.
Another cybermech came around a corner, and Jay used the same strategy positioning himself between the two monsters.
“Hey ugly, over here!” he called, waving his arms.
The guns of the ‘mech blazed and Jay sped away, the bullets tearing apart the other mech.
A human sounding cry of rage sounded from speakers on the gun-totting ‘mech as it rotated its torso 360 degrees, its optical sensors searching for the Flash.
“I’ll find you, Jay Garrick, and I will KILL you!”
Jay circled the monster, never staying in one spot long enough for it to get a bead on him. He was surprised that the ‘mech had called him by name, but he had more pressing matters to deal with. A storm of bullets tore up the street and surrounding buildings, and Jay knew he had to find a way to take down the monster before a stray bullet killed a bystander.
Then, in a roar of jet-flame, the hypercycle bearing Wildcat and Commander Steel arrived, arcing high over a pile of twisted metal, Wildcat whooping it up at the top of his lungs! He landed the bike expertly, turning it into a screeching halt as Commander Steel flung himself from the back straight at the cybermech. The ‘mech’s gun turret blazed, but the bullets ricocheted off the invulnerable hero, who landed like a panther on the monster. With a mighty heave, Steel yanked the molten-hot turret off the metallic body, then reared back and drove his fist straight through the mech’s torso! The ‘mech toppled backward like a felled tree, it’s exposed circuitry sputtering and sizzling as Steel leaped clear.
“Just like his grandfather,” Jay noted, zipping up to Wildcat with an appreciative nod towards their newest member.
Ted Grant crossed his arms over his chest, smiling smugly. “I knew he had it in him.”
Hank Heywood III did not hear them; he swept up the disabled ‘mech’s chain gun, and pointed it at the last cybermech now lumbering into view. But before he could use it, a dark shape, trailing a long cape, swung across the thing’s path. From it came multiple high-tensile cables, binding the mech’s legs and tripping it up. The monster fell forward, crashing into the corner of a building, and bouncing down onto the pavement, immobilized. All three JSAers watched as the caped figure dropped down onto the impotent ‘mech, and could hear him rasp: “Tell whoever sent you that Gotham belongs to the Bat once again. Stay out.”
A police siren caused the shadowy figure to look up--- a patrol car was careening to a halt at the scene, and Commissioner Wayne was jumping out of the passenger seat before the car had even stopped. But the Batman was gone in a swirl of his cape, dissolving into the shadows across the street.
The patrolman who drove the commissioner took off running after the masked vigilante, but Bruce swore under his breath; he wouldn’t be catching the Batman this night.
He stalked up to the three JSAers, his blood boiling at the destruction and damage all around him. “Well, what the hell was this all about?” he demanded.
“What this was about, was us saving your town from these overgrown tinker toys,” Wildcat leaned over the handlebars of the bike and drawled. “Your welcome. When do we get the key to the city from Mayor Babs?”
Bruce glared at him, but Jay, cleared his throat sheepishly. “Uh, Wildcat, one of those things called me by name. My real name. I think they were here for us. We have to assume they were sent by the same person who tricked us into coming to Earth-Two.”
Bruce turned towards Jay, but before he could speak there came the sound of an explosion--- then a sonic whine. In a gust of wind and a blur of red and gold, a speedster dropped out of the Speed Force and skidded to a halt in front of their stunned faces, twin lines of fire flickering behind him.
“My god--- Barry!” Bruce Wayne gasped, as if he had seen a ghost.
“Barry…?” Jay repeated, thinking at first this was his friend from Earth-One, but with only a cursory glance, he could tell this man was older, his costume subtly different, more old-fashioned. But hadn’t his Barry reported that the Barry Allen of Earth-Two was dead…?
Barry Allen spared only a quick look at the JSAers, then faced Bruce, speaking urgently.
“Bruce, you’ve got to listen to me---.”
“How is it that you’re alive?” Bruce Wayne seemed to disbelieve the evidence of his own senses. “You died in the Crisis… We all saw Omegaddon kill you! I don’t understand---.”
Barry Allen, the lost Flash of Earth-Two, grabbed his old friend by the shoulders and shook him. “There’s no time for that now!” he hissed. “It’s Hal. He’s back.”
The color drained from Bruce Wayne’s face. “Hal Jordan’s not dead?”
Barry Allen nodded, soft blue eyes searching Bruce’s ice-cold blue eyes.
Bruce Wayne nodded once, curtly. “I’ll contact the others. I guess we’ll just have to do it right this time…”
Themyscira, the city of the Amazons, once a thriving, vibrant metropolis was now little more than a ghost town. General Phillips led Green Lantern and Aquaman through dusty streets that had once been lined with olive trees and date palms, but now nothing grew there.
“It is the curse of the gods,” Phillipus explained bitterly. “We eat only what fish we can catch far out on the sea--- Poseidon willing--- and there is a small garden where by the grace of Hestia and Demeter, we can grow a few crops: but the garden may only be tended by our queen; none of the rest of us are fit to trod upon the soil.”
Alan gazed up at the abandoned temples and villas, remembering a city of flowing fountains, athletic contests, music and feasts. There was music now--- a lamentation sung by a lyrist sitting in the shadow of a broken shrine to Apollo; she was the only living soul they came across.
“It is the anniversary of the death of the queen’s consort, Trevor,” Phillipus explained, leading them up a winding stair towards the Royal Enclosure. “Normally, at this time of day, she would be in the garden. Though our numbers are not many, it is hard labor for one person; it is a penance she bears selflessly and without complaint. But today she rests and remembers.”
Another singer greeted them at the top of the stair; she wandered a courtyard of cracked flagstones, repeating the same song as the singer below. Alan did not know the words--- presumably in Greek--- but the tone was mournful and heartbreakingly beautiful.
“Everyone's chopped off their hair,” Alan noted; more people were in evidence in the Royal Enclosure, watching from archways, staring unabashedly at the strange men and the gravely wounded woman floating behind them in the Atlantean medi-tank. “Why? Was there some sickness…?”
“We follow the example of our queen.” Phillipus told him. “We cut our hair as a constant reminder of what we have lost, of what our folly and hubris have cost us.”
They followed her across a colonnaded portico, out of the glare of the morning sun, and into a large, cool chamber with dark marble floors and green-veined speckled columns. Braziers lit the space dimly, and statues of gods and heroes could be seen in shadowy alcoves the length of the chamber, small baskets of fruit and vegetables laid lovingly at their bases. A solemn hush prevailed inside. By the light of the braziers, Alan saw that the marble floor was actually made up of thousands of separate tiles, all of them engraved with the name of an Amazon.
“This is the Enconaeum, the Hall of Remembrance,” Phillipus whispered to them. “It is here we propitiate the gods and give comfort to the shades of our fallen sisters.”
They walked a little way in, noticing a handful of Amazons were also in attendance; they knelt by the tiles of their loved ones, some weeping quietly, others simply lost in memory. Without preamble, Aquaman sank to the floor, and ran his hand over the smooth surface of a specific tile, tracing the name.
“Euryale. Hail, warrior.” The Sea King rubbed the flesh of his arm where it met the metal of his prosthetic harpoon. After a moment, he stood and faced Phillipus, who regarded him with less hostility. “Phillipus, where is Diana?”
The general bristled anew at the familiarity in Aquaman’s tone, but before she could respond a clarion voice shattered the stillness of the chamber: “Arthur!”
The queen detached herself from a knot of people not far away, and came over to them instantly, a sad but genuine smile on her face. But for her closely-cropped hair, she could have been the Wonder Woman of his Earth, Alan thought, sharing the same eternal youth and beauty--- though there were scars of experience in this queen’s eyes. Her robes were plain white, but trimmed in blue and red, and her bracelets were the only concession to her former life as a superhero.
Diana and Arthur embraced, but her violet eyes fell on Alan Scott and she pulled away, looking troubled.
“Arthur, this is indeed a surprise--- and not an unwelcomed one, given my other unexpected visitor today. Surely, this is no coincidence…? Is this a Green Lantern?”
A small frown creased Arthur’s bearded face, looking between his old friend and Alan. “Queen Diana of Themyscira, this is Alan Scott, a Green Lantern of a parallel world. He comes bearing a fallen comrade, who will die unless you can help her.” Diana’s eyes flicked to Power Girl and the medi-tank hovering behind Alan. “But I’m not sure what you mean by coincidence, or any other unexpected visitors---.”
“She means me, Arthur.”
The voice was as familiar to Alan Scott as it was to Aquaman. On both worlds, it held the same note of self-assured insouciance, of good-natured, cocky bravura...
A figure in glowing green and black armor stepped forward from the knot of people that had been crowding the Queen a moment ago. Even with the graying at the temples and the weight of extra years on the face, Alan Scott knew who he was looking at.
“As I was telling Diana before you arrived it’s good to be back, and among friends,” the man drawled, and there was no mistaking the menace in his tone, or the bitter twist of his mouth. “Maybe we can call Kal and the others and have a reunion?”
“Hal…?” Alan Scott stared in confusion at the newcomer, glancing from him to Diana and Arthur, both of whom looked tense. “I don’t understand. You’re Hal Jordan, right? The Green Lantern of the Justice League?”
With a curl of his lip, the brown-haired man with the graying temples raised a fist to brandish a smoldering power ring. “That was a long time ago. I go by a different name, now. You can call me Parallax…”
“It’s all a little much, huh?” Wildcat asked, pausing on the downstep and waiting for Steel to catch up. “Alternate universes, flaming satellite headquarters, missing members…”
Steel nodded with a rueful smile. “Kind of, yes sir.” He admitted, grateful for the opportunity to express his building feelings of helplessness. “I’ve never felt so---.”
Wildcat slapped him upside the head and growled. “Well, suck it up, soldier. You’re in the JSA, now, and this is what we do before lunch most days.”
Steel stared in stunned surprise at Wildcat a moment as Bruce Wayne and Jay Garrick continued walking down the steps, oblivious to the exchange behind them. On what could be seen of Wildcat’s face was a toothy grin. And Steel laughed, a good, clean release of frustration and uncertainty.
The two resumed their descent into the darkness below, chuckling softly.
“Your grandfather said something like that ta me, back in ’44, on my first mission with the All-Star Squadron. Tough as a tank, your granddad. I once saw him jump out of a plane onto a kamikaze Spitfire, and literally tear that sucker apart, before leaping onto the closest Blackhawk. He’d be damned proud ta see you in the JSA.”
Hank Heywood III had no comment, but felt himself flush with pride.
“Watch your step,” the grating voice of Bruce Wayne came back to them. “It gets slippery with bat droppings near the bottom.”
Wildcat grimaced and rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath “Never thought I’d see the day...”
In moments, they had reached the bottom, and stood in a vast cavern. Dim emergency lamps shone out, serving only to cast vague objects into garish shadow. Commander Steel stared about in wonder though--- he was in the Batcave. Sure, it was the Batcave of a parallel universe--- and obviously one that had been all but abandoned!--- but it was the Batcave nonetheless. Even in the dim light, he could just see the outline of the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, and towering above him was an enormous penny… Along one wall, brightly lit like a shrine, was a display case of Robin costumes, all of them different, but all variations on the same, and all perfectly preserved.
“Doesn’t look like you’ve been down here in a while, Bruce.” The Flash remarked, taking in the tables and consoles draped in white, and the inch of dust that coated everything.
“Not since Alfred died,” Bruce Wayne’s voice was steady, emotionless as he walked purposefully across the cave towards a large sheet-covered shape. “I told you, I stopped being Batman a long time ago. No use for the cave after that. But if what you say is true, then…” he let the words hang out there, the rest of his thought unspoken.
With one yank, he tore away the covering of the large shape, revealing a control panel covered in knobs and dials and buttons, below a bulky cathode-ray tube TV screen.
Even Jay Garrick was forced to lift his eyebrows and smile in gentle amusement. “Jeez, Bruce, you should get Barbara to update this for you…”
Bruce regarded it thoughtfully for a moment, chewing his moustache, as if hesitating to take a step he couldn’t come back from. Then, with characteristic decisiveness, he threw a switch and the Batcomputer hummed to life. The screen gradually brightened into a geometric test pattern and Bruce began typing quickly into the antique keyboard.
“This always got the job done before,” he snarled but there was an undertone of engagement in his voice now--- he was starting to enjoy this. “And I have done some modifications over the years… Besides, I doubt the Mayor of Gotham wants to do my tech support.”
All three JSAers shared a look of impressed surprise.
The old-fashioned TV screen displayed streams of data, at which Bruce frowned.
“I can’t raise Red Tornado on the Satellite. In fact, it doesn’t looks like there are any systems online up there at all… And there are reports of an impact in the Atlantic Ocean that could be a splashdown… Ground zero is not far from Atlantis. Arthur ought to be able to tell me more.”
The JSAers crowded behind Bruce as he hailed the undersea kingdom. In moments, the screen displayed the visage of a regal red-haired woman, her head surmounted with a coral crown.
“Greetings, Bruce. I had a feeling one of you would be in touch.”
“Mera, where’s Arthur?”
“My lord husband has gone with an offworlder Green Lantern to Paradise Island, seeking healing for the stranger’s gravely wounded comrade.”
“Power Girl, wounded…?” Jay exclaimed, confused. Wildcat shot a look at Commander Steel, who knew her best, but Steel just shrugged, equally at a loss.
Bruce Wayne swore under his breath. “That was foolish. The Amazons don’t suffer visitors from Man’s World anymore.”
“I am well aware,” Mera glared at him through the screen. “But once my lord husband has made up his mind to do something, he moves wind and wave to do it.”
Bruce nodded curtly, said. “Thank you, Mera. Please keep me posted,” then disengaged the line to jab a suddenly flashing red button. The Queen of Atlantis’ offended expression was replaced by an image from a jerky hand-held news camera, recording a scene of chaos on a Gotham City street.
“… explosions rock downtown as mysterious armored robots invade Gotham, leaving in their wake only destruction…”
Bruce, the Flash, Wildcat and Commander Steel stared aghast at the screen as a huge mechanized form on spindly metallic legs lumbered into view. A laser perched atop its bulbous body sprayed sizzling destruction across a line of cars, exploding them. Faint screams could be heard through the speakers. Then the gun turned towards the camera, there was a bright, blinding flash--- and the feed went dead.
The JSAers were not prepared for the vehemence with which Commissioner Wayne whirled on them. “Ten years! Ten years and no supercrime in Gotham. You’re here ten minutes and I have giant robots in the streets!” He bit off every word as if he were spitting nails at them. “This is your fault. Fix it.”
The Flash was already a blur, following Bruce’s pointing finger towards the tunnel leading out of the cave. Wildcat sprinted towards the hypercycle he’d had his eye on since they entered the cave, kick starting it as Commander Steel leaped onto the seat behind him. Wildcat wheeled the jet-powered bike in the direction the Flash had gone, calling over his shoulder to Bruce, “You coming, Caped Crusader?”
Without waiting for an answer, the ‘cycle shot away in a burst of jetflame and a whoop from Wildcat.
Bruce glanced towards a locker he hadn’t opened in ten years, and as his eyes swept across the cave, they landed on the form of the woman watching him from the stairs. His wife still moved with a feline grace, as she came up to him, insinuating herself into the circle of his arms. He had seen the look on her face: she was concerned.
“It’s alright, Selina,” he soothed her, holding her by the shoulders so he could look down into her worried face. “I’ve worked too long and too hard to turn back now; there’s no place in the Gotham I’ve built for a Batman.” He kissed her gently. “But let’s just hope this Justice Society is up to the task…”
Justice Society of America
Issue #8: “Crisis on Two Earths, Part Three!”
Written by David Charlton
Cover by Alex Vasquez
Interior Art by Brandon Herren
Scene Highlights by Rik
Edited by David Charlton
JSA Roll Call!
Captain Marvel (Billy Batson):With one magic word, the World’s Mightiest Mortal battles the enemies of man with the power of Shazam! New Chairman of the JSA!
Green Lantern (Alan Scott): Dark things cannot stand the light of the original Emerald Gladiator!
Flash (Jay Garrick): The emotional core of the team, this original super-speedster is proud to mentor the next generation of heroes!
Wildcat (Ted Grant): The champ with nine lives, always ready to deliver the knockout punch to crime!
Sandman (Wesley Dodds): Donning a gas mask and a fedora, this haunted dreamer delivers the sleep of the just to wrongdoers!
Doctor Fate (James Brendan Corrigan): Separated from the Spectre, the ghost of Jim Corrigan dons the magical artifacts of his missing friend Kent Nelson as an agent of the balance between Order and Chaos!
Power Girl (Karen Starr): All the powers of Superman--- and twice the attitude! Her past is a mystery, but her future seems to be with the JSA!
Commander Steel (Henry “Hank” Heywood III): Grandson of the Golden Age Indestructible Man, this super-soldier with a cybernetic titanium-alloy body is unstoppable on his crusade for justice!
Towing behind him the unmoving body of Power Girl in her Atlantean medi-tank encased in the green beam of his ring, Alan Scott cut through dark waters, a grimly silent Aquaman swimming next to him. They were racing against time: the Atlantean sorcerer-physicians had only given Power Girl a few hours to live…
*How much further is Paradise Island?* Alan asked, his ring carrying his thoughts telepathically to Aquaman.
The Sea King continued staring straight ahead, as if unwilling to let his concentration falter--- or to let his guard down. *We’re not far now. Already the seas feel different… Cursed.*
*Cursed?* Green Lantern was alarmed. *By whom?*
*By the Olympian gods. It is a tragedy. A real-life Greek tragedy, of doomed love, fatal hubris and inevitable war. Can’t you feel the anger of the gods all around in these waters? We haven’t seen a single living thing for miles…*
Alan was appalled. *What happened? Did Wonder Woman die?*
*Yes, in a way.* There was a deep sadness in the tone of Aquaman’s thoughts. *Many years ago, Queen Hippolyta of Themiscyra fell in love with Ares, the God of War. It is impossible to say if she was seduced, glamoured, or if it was a true passion. But together they had a dream, a dream of overthrowing Zeus, of freeing the world of the meddlesome gods, that mortals could control their own destiny. And so the Amazons went to war against Olympus, and Princess Diana, our Wonder Woman was caught in the middle. Diana was the champion of the Olympians, the most vocal proponent of peace and truth in the world--- but Hippolyta was her mother and the Amazons her people. Yet they were the aggressors, and there was much horror and bloodshed. It was only after Ares struck down Athena did Wonder Woman enter the fray. To end the war, she met her mother in single combat on the slopes of Mount Olympus, and slew her.*
*Polly…!* Alan groaned inwardly, unable to imagine the women he knew committing such actions. Of course, on this world, Hippolyta had never been the Wonder Woman who fought evil and tyranny in World War Two…
*As their rightful queen, Diana commanded her people to lay down their arms and return to Paradise Island. But the damage was done. The Amazons had been all but wiped out, barely a handful of their number remaining. Themyscira had been mostly destroyed in the war, and the gods no longer looked kindly upon Paradise Island--- and only with suspicion on its heartbroken new queen.*
*This… this is awful.* Alan didn’t have the words to express his horror and sadness. *Still, I don’t see why the Amazons might be so hostile to the outside world. Couldn’t anyone help them, or----.*
*I haven’t told you everything.* Aquaman’s thoughts now held a tinge of shame. *The gods of the Amazons are also the gods of Atlantis of old. As king, I rule the waves by the divine grace of Poseidon, and when Olympus came under attack, he summoned the aid of the only people left on Earth who gave him any kind of reverence. I… I led my people against Themyscira, laying siege and sacking the city. I tried to keep the bloodshed to a minimum, but the Amazons are matchless warriors. Only our superior numbers saved us from being thrown back into the sea. But Atlantean killed Amazon, and I fear there will be bad blood between us until the end of days. And Amazons paint all not of Paradise Island with the same brush. After Diana returned from Olympus, I relinquished the city to her. We wept together, one last time as comrades, then she commanded that the shores of Paradise Island were forever denied to any but her poor surviving sisters--- And now we are here!*
Green Lantern followed in Aquaman’s wake of bubbles as he swam upwards. They surfaced into bright golden sunshine and sapphire-blue water sluiced off of them as they strode up onto the sandy beach. The once verdant island paradise was now little more than a blasted rock. Zeus had hurled thunderbolt after thunderbolt down upon the land, and the scars could be seen on the cliffs, burned into desolate hills, and in the splintered husks of rotted tree stumps. In the distance were the ruins of a once-proud city, its walls and temples broken.
Alan Scott could only stare in painful disbelief, and again he thought in sorrow of the woman he knew a lifetime ago. He turned in anger on Aquaman. “I can’t believe you and the others let it get to this---.”
His words died. Though still wet from having just crawled from the ocean, the tears on the face of the Sea King were obvious. Before either of them could comment, however, the leaf-head blade of a spear thudded into the sand between them. Looking up, Alan saw that they were not alone. A troop of armed woman, their hair shorn close, emerged from a rocky outcropping, weapons at the ready.
“Atlantean, I should kill you where you stand,” said a dark-skinned woman who approached with an air of unassailable command. “You know this island is forbidden to any but the Amazons. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t have the two of you gutted and fed to the wild kangas right now?”
“Because there are three of us, Phillipus,” Aquaman faced the Amazon general with all the dignity of his station, gesturing to Power Girl in her medi-tank, which now sat on the surf. “This woman is gravely injured and will die unless you help her.”
“And who is she to us?” Phillipus demanded, taking another step closer, her hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword.
“She is a warrior woman like you,” Alan interjected fiercely, his ring sputtering in his intensity. “She was injured saving millions of lives. And on my world, my Wonder Woman calls her sister!”
Phillipus regarded Alan in unmistakable surprise, while behind her, her troop muttered at the sight of his green flame. There was real awe and a little fear in their reaction. Green Lantern and Aquaman shared a quick glance of mutual bewilderment.
When the Amazon general spoke again, it was with noticeable uncertainty. “Come then. Queen Diana will decide this.”
*******
Jim Corrigan felt like he was going to die… again. Never before had he experienced so much agony, not even when “Gat” Benson had plugged him full of holes and ended his life, and certainly never in all his years bonded to the Spirit of Vengeance as the Spectre. But that Spirit was gone, and Jim Corrigan’s soul still had not found its rest. Possessed of the Helm of Nabu, the Amulet of Anubis and the Cloak of Nergal, he had taken up the mantle of Doctor Fate, the sorcerous agent of the Lords of Order, and had led the JSA straight into a trap. And now here he was, imprisoned in the Rock of Eternity, chained behind the throne of Black Shazam, the depraved and demented wizard of Earth-Two!
At the moment, the mad wizard paid him no attention, busy with moving the Rock between dimensions. Slumped in his stone chair, Black Shazam focused on the vibrational plane that was the home of the JSA’s Earth-One, drooling at the prospect of the chaos he was poised to unleash. Beside him, his narrowed eyes feverish in the light of the fire-pits around the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, Captain Marvel waited to do his new master’s bidding.
<Captain!> Dr. Fate groaned. <Heed me: this is madness! The Rock of Eternity is a Multiversal singularity. It cannot exist in more than one place at the same time! What the wizard is trying to do will cause irreparable damage and have vast, unknowable consequences…! You cannot allow this!>
His uniform darkened to the color of dried blood, Captain Marvel turned slowly to face his former comrade, a grin spreading across his face.
“Allow it? I can’t wait for it!” The World’s Mightiest Marvel laughed full-throatedly. “Do you know how hard it is to have the powers of a god, and to use them in the service of fleas? Do you know how long I have toiled to protect them, bled for them…? And how do they repay me? With suspicion and mistrust! Where is their gratitude, their adulation?”
<Would you have their hate and fear instead?> Fate entreated.
Captain Marvel looked down upon the captive Dr. Fate, his face expressionless. “They must be taught respect. They must be taught their place.”
<Billy,> Jim Corrigan decided on a different tact. <The Captain has been corrupted. Say the magic word! Reject this dark wizard and his mad schemes! Ygol sottoth, kalimah naur! Kalimah yuggoth---.> Before the rest of the words of the spell could be spoken, a meaty fist slammed into the Helm of Nabu, and Dr. Fate slumped in his ensorcelled chains, dazed.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to kill a ghost, but if you so much as mumble again, I’m sure going to try.” Marvel snarled, looming over Fate.
Then the Rock of Eternity lurched and all at once the Seven Deadly Enemies started gibbering in excitement. Captain Marvel struggled to regain his balance, but suddenly everything was off-kilter: with the exception of himself and Dr. Fate, everything seemed slightly blurry, as if everything around him--- the Seven Deadly Enemies, the Rock and even Black Shazam--- was overlaid with an exact replica of itself.
“I have done it!” The wizard crowed, lunging to his feet, bony fists in the air. “I have supplanted this universe’s conception of the Rock of Eternity! I have subverted reality!”
<No, you haven’t,> moaned Dr. Fate. <You cannot. All you’ve done is splintered one reality onto itself. And for that there will be hell to pay.>
But he was ignored. Captain Marvel stared in wonder at the strangely vibrating wizard, who in turn pointed a knobby finger at the suddenly activated Historama.
“Behold, Earth-One, your home, my Captain!” crowed the wizard. “Now go forth and make thyself its master, and return not until you deliver it unto me!”
*******
Sirens wailed and crowds of people ran out of the paths of the deadly robots. More accurately, they were cybermechs, christened such by their diabolical maker because he had implanted human brains in the fearsome but only vaguely anthropomorphic forms. The gray-matter pulsed and throbbed in fierce stimulation behind reinforced impact-proof windows, connected to thought-trodes that manipulated metallic arms, tentacles, pincers, blades and weapons. A cybermech with writhing limbs like an octopus careened down Gotham’s main thoroughfare of Kane Street on four of his chrome tentacles, while two other arms thrashed about, smashing cars, telephone poles, and stop signs--- and the last two held screaming people, slowing being crushed to death.
“Let them go!”
The Flash slid to a halt in front of the cybermech, catching the thing’s attention. Optical sensors whirled in on him, and the cybermech released the two captives to hurl four deadly tentacles at Jay. The monster was fast, but nowhere near as fast as the Flash. Jay ran straight at the cybermech, ducking beneath its bulbous body, causing the monster to reach below itself with its pursuing tentacles. This caused the monster to become unbalanced, and it teetered. Pressing his advantage, Jay reversed himself and slammed into the metallic body like he was a cop smashing in a door, knocking the behemoth down! The thing scrambled at the air with its eight limbs, but was like a turtle on its shell, incapacitated.
A shadow loomed over Jay and he turned in time to see a second cybermech behind him, a chain gun turret swinging down and trained on him. The bullets blazed out, but Jay was already gone, the high-velocity armor-piercing bullets ripping through the downed cybermech, from which came sparks and smoke.
Another cybermech came around a corner, and Jay used the same strategy positioning himself between the two monsters.
“Hey ugly, over here!” he called, waving his arms.
The guns of the ‘mech blazed and Jay sped away, the bullets tearing apart the other mech.
A human sounding cry of rage sounded from speakers on the gun-totting ‘mech as it rotated its torso 360 degrees, its optical sensors searching for the Flash.
“I’ll find you, Jay Garrick, and I will KILL you!”
Jay circled the monster, never staying in one spot long enough for it to get a bead on him. He was surprised that the ‘mech had called him by name, but he had more pressing matters to deal with. A storm of bullets tore up the street and surrounding buildings, and Jay knew he had to find a way to take down the monster before a stray bullet killed a bystander.
Then, in a roar of jet-flame, the hypercycle bearing Wildcat and Commander Steel arrived, arcing high over a pile of twisted metal, Wildcat whooping it up at the top of his lungs! He landed the bike expertly, turning it into a screeching halt as Commander Steel flung himself from the back straight at the cybermech. The ‘mech’s gun turret blazed, but the bullets ricocheted off the invulnerable hero, who landed like a panther on the monster. With a mighty heave, Steel yanked the molten-hot turret off the metallic body, then reared back and drove his fist straight through the mech’s torso! The ‘mech toppled backward like a felled tree, it’s exposed circuitry sputtering and sizzling as Steel leaped clear.
“Just like his grandfather,” Jay noted, zipping up to Wildcat with an appreciative nod towards their newest member.
Ted Grant crossed his arms over his chest, smiling smugly. “I knew he had it in him.”
Hank Heywood III did not hear them; he swept up the disabled ‘mech’s chain gun, and pointed it at the last cybermech now lumbering into view. But before he could use it, a dark shape, trailing a long cape, swung across the thing’s path. From it came multiple high-tensile cables, binding the mech’s legs and tripping it up. The monster fell forward, crashing into the corner of a building, and bouncing down onto the pavement, immobilized. All three JSAers watched as the caped figure dropped down onto the impotent ‘mech, and could hear him rasp: “Tell whoever sent you that Gotham belongs to the Bat once again. Stay out.”
A police siren caused the shadowy figure to look up--- a patrol car was careening to a halt at the scene, and Commissioner Wayne was jumping out of the passenger seat before the car had even stopped. But the Batman was gone in a swirl of his cape, dissolving into the shadows across the street.
The patrolman who drove the commissioner took off running after the masked vigilante, but Bruce swore under his breath; he wouldn’t be catching the Batman this night.
He stalked up to the three JSAers, his blood boiling at the destruction and damage all around him. “Well, what the hell was this all about?” he demanded.
“What this was about, was us saving your town from these overgrown tinker toys,” Wildcat leaned over the handlebars of the bike and drawled. “Your welcome. When do we get the key to the city from Mayor Babs?”
Bruce glared at him, but Jay, cleared his throat sheepishly. “Uh, Wildcat, one of those things called me by name. My real name. I think they were here for us. We have to assume they were sent by the same person who tricked us into coming to Earth-Two.”
Bruce turned towards Jay, but before he could speak there came the sound of an explosion--- then a sonic whine. In a gust of wind and a blur of red and gold, a speedster dropped out of the Speed Force and skidded to a halt in front of their stunned faces, twin lines of fire flickering behind him.
“My god--- Barry!” Bruce Wayne gasped, as if he had seen a ghost.
“Barry…?” Jay repeated, thinking at first this was his friend from Earth-One, but with only a cursory glance, he could tell this man was older, his costume subtly different, more old-fashioned. But hadn’t his Barry reported that the Barry Allen of Earth-Two was dead…?
Barry Allen spared only a quick look at the JSAers, then faced Bruce, speaking urgently.
“Bruce, you’ve got to listen to me---.”
“How is it that you’re alive?” Bruce Wayne seemed to disbelieve the evidence of his own senses. “You died in the Crisis… We all saw Omegaddon kill you! I don’t understand---.”
Barry Allen, the lost Flash of Earth-Two, grabbed his old friend by the shoulders and shook him. “There’s no time for that now!” he hissed. “It’s Hal. He’s back.”
The color drained from Bruce Wayne’s face. “Hal Jordan’s not dead?”
Barry Allen nodded, soft blue eyes searching Bruce’s ice-cold blue eyes.
Bruce Wayne nodded once, curtly. “I’ll contact the others. I guess we’ll just have to do it right this time…”
*******
Themyscira, the city of the Amazons, once a thriving, vibrant metropolis was now little more than a ghost town. General Phillips led Green Lantern and Aquaman through dusty streets that had once been lined with olive trees and date palms, but now nothing grew there.
“It is the curse of the gods,” Phillipus explained bitterly. “We eat only what fish we can catch far out on the sea--- Poseidon willing--- and there is a small garden where by the grace of Hestia and Demeter, we can grow a few crops: but the garden may only be tended by our queen; none of the rest of us are fit to trod upon the soil.”
Alan gazed up at the abandoned temples and villas, remembering a city of flowing fountains, athletic contests, music and feasts. There was music now--- a lamentation sung by a lyrist sitting in the shadow of a broken shrine to Apollo; she was the only living soul they came across.
“It is the anniversary of the death of the queen’s consort, Trevor,” Phillipus explained, leading them up a winding stair towards the Royal Enclosure. “Normally, at this time of day, she would be in the garden. Though our numbers are not many, it is hard labor for one person; it is a penance she bears selflessly and without complaint. But today she rests and remembers.”
Another singer greeted them at the top of the stair; she wandered a courtyard of cracked flagstones, repeating the same song as the singer below. Alan did not know the words--- presumably in Greek--- but the tone was mournful and heartbreakingly beautiful.
“Everyone's chopped off their hair,” Alan noted; more people were in evidence in the Royal Enclosure, watching from archways, staring unabashedly at the strange men and the gravely wounded woman floating behind them in the Atlantean medi-tank. “Why? Was there some sickness…?”
“We follow the example of our queen.” Phillipus told him. “We cut our hair as a constant reminder of what we have lost, of what our folly and hubris have cost us.”
They followed her across a colonnaded portico, out of the glare of the morning sun, and into a large, cool chamber with dark marble floors and green-veined speckled columns. Braziers lit the space dimly, and statues of gods and heroes could be seen in shadowy alcoves the length of the chamber, small baskets of fruit and vegetables laid lovingly at their bases. A solemn hush prevailed inside. By the light of the braziers, Alan saw that the marble floor was actually made up of thousands of separate tiles, all of them engraved with the name of an Amazon.
“This is the Enconaeum, the Hall of Remembrance,” Phillipus whispered to them. “It is here we propitiate the gods and give comfort to the shades of our fallen sisters.”
They walked a little way in, noticing a handful of Amazons were also in attendance; they knelt by the tiles of their loved ones, some weeping quietly, others simply lost in memory. Without preamble, Aquaman sank to the floor, and ran his hand over the smooth surface of a specific tile, tracing the name.
“Euryale. Hail, warrior.” The Sea King rubbed the flesh of his arm where it met the metal of his prosthetic harpoon. After a moment, he stood and faced Phillipus, who regarded him with less hostility. “Phillipus, where is Diana?”
The general bristled anew at the familiarity in Aquaman’s tone, but before she could respond a clarion voice shattered the stillness of the chamber: “Arthur!”
The queen detached herself from a knot of people not far away, and came over to them instantly, a sad but genuine smile on her face. But for her closely-cropped hair, she could have been the Wonder Woman of his Earth, Alan thought, sharing the same eternal youth and beauty--- though there were scars of experience in this queen’s eyes. Her robes were plain white, but trimmed in blue and red, and her bracelets were the only concession to her former life as a superhero.
Diana and Arthur embraced, but her violet eyes fell on Alan Scott and she pulled away, looking troubled.
“Arthur, this is indeed a surprise--- and not an unwelcomed one, given my other unexpected visitor today. Surely, this is no coincidence…? Is this a Green Lantern?”
A small frown creased Arthur’s bearded face, looking between his old friend and Alan. “Queen Diana of Themyscira, this is Alan Scott, a Green Lantern of a parallel world. He comes bearing a fallen comrade, who will die unless you can help her.” Diana’s eyes flicked to Power Girl and the medi-tank hovering behind Alan. “But I’m not sure what you mean by coincidence, or any other unexpected visitors---.”
“She means me, Arthur.”
The voice was as familiar to Alan Scott as it was to Aquaman. On both worlds, it held the same note of self-assured insouciance, of good-natured, cocky bravura...
A figure in glowing green and black armor stepped forward from the knot of people that had been crowding the Queen a moment ago. Even with the graying at the temples and the weight of extra years on the face, Alan Scott knew who he was looking at.
“As I was telling Diana before you arrived it’s good to be back, and among friends,” the man drawled, and there was no mistaking the menace in his tone, or the bitter twist of his mouth. “Maybe we can call Kal and the others and have a reunion?”
“Hal…?” Alan Scott stared in confusion at the newcomer, glancing from him to Diana and Arthur, both of whom looked tense. “I don’t understand. You’re Hal Jordan, right? The Green Lantern of the Justice League?”
With a curl of his lip, the brown-haired man with the graying temples raised a fist to brandish a smoldering power ring. “That was a long time ago. I go by a different name, now. You can call me Parallax…”