Issue 4: "Week -52: The Late Adventure"

Where has Aquaman been before Crisis??? Who cares!?! More importantly, where have the members of Powers, Inc. been? They are infinitely more popular!!! Find out right here next month in the super-secret LOST LATE ADVENTURE!

Approximately one year and several months ago…

“I can’t believe this!” Booster shakes his head in disbelief. He really can’t believe this.

“What is it now? What is the problem?” Steel leans back in his chair, “We have been in the air for an hour, Michael. Please, do not make me regret volunteering to sit next to you on a seven hour flight.”

Booster rolls his eyes. “Oh I’m sorry, Hank… We can’t all be amused by… what the hell is that you’re reading… the safety manual?!?” He shakes his fist at the seat in front of him, and kicks it hard, causing Airwave to turn around, his face red, his hands full with his own copy of the booklet. “…But why are we flying with… With…” he shudders at the words. “The people?”

Airwave shakes his head. “What?” He tries to find the words but fails. “I don’t know if you failed to realize this Booster, but we are in first class.”

Booster shakes his head in disgust and then near bites Airwave’s nose off. “Read between the lines Harry, Josiah has a private jet and only him and Oberon are on it! A private jet!” He says outraged and looks up. “And we’re on a flight to God knows wherever with god knows whoever in the back of the plane! And you expect me to just follow along blindly? ”

“The film crew are here still, you dolt.” Looker looks over her shoulder, and shakes her head. “So keep it down or they might actually see what you’re really like, ok?”

Booster freezes until the reality of the situation has a time to soak in. “You know what?” He says pointing at her, wide eyed, “You’re right!” Steel rolls his eyes and steps up out of his chair, away from Booster. “Where are you going, man?”

“…”

“What?”

“To the facilities. Do not follow me.”

Booster feels the blood drain from his face. The thinks to himself Why would he follow Hank? “Why would I follow you, Hank?”

“I do not know, but there is a 0.6 probability that you will, so please, buckle up you’re seatbelt read the emergency booklet.”

Booster scoffs. “Emergency booklet? Ha! I have wristbands that allow me to fly! Why would I--”

“Your wristbands have a 0.4 probability that they will fail you mid flight. I’d ask someone to have a look at them if I was you…”

“Whuh?”

A flutter of energy, a distinct trail, and in the Antarctic… Something stirs.

Airwave puts down the emergency booklet and leans back, and looks past Booster to Power Girl and Vapor. He attempts to stand but Looker pushes him down, and he looks at her, confused. “What?”

“Just sit down, sparky.”

“But… I just want to talk to… Vapor…” He says nervously.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you, you know that Harry. Just leave it.”

“Wait, she said something about me? Because… I could just go ask her, no need to drag you guys in here.” he motions to get up again, but she pushes him down with a telekinetic buffer. “Hey!”

“What’s going on, man?” Booster pops his head forward, curious.

“Nothing, Michael, leave it…”

“Harr?”

“Nothing…” Airwave says quietly picking up his booklet and shaking his head.

“I don’t feel so good…” Audrey Spears looks to Hank Heywood, who walks past her, heading to the small toilet near the front of the plane.

“Air sickness?” He inquires as he smiles slightly and sits next to her. “Just take some deep breaths. Do not worry.” He places his hand on her shoulder and nods. As Audrey begins to breathe deeper, her glowing body fluctuates from green to red. Steek raises an eyebrow. “Is that better?”

“I’m sorry Steel… Eurgh… All day I’ve been feeling bad and no one’s… Remembered…” She looks down at her hands, then up to the masked hero, who’s glistening smile is ever present. “I’m sorry, weren’t you going to the toilet?”

“No need. My biological functions in that department are… Minimal.” The two share an awkward silence, and then her eyes widen.

“You don’t use the toilet!”

“Precisely. My body’s mechanical organs recycle anything I eat and it all powers my engines through vitamins in the food. Organic fuel.” He leans back in the chair, and watches as Prysm change from red to blue, embarrassed.

“I hope you don’t mind me saying but… Uh… Can you… Do you… Have you got a… Uh…” She smiles and laughs loudly, masking her embarrassment, then uncaps her water bottle, and takes a sip.

“Yes? Are you referring to my genitalia?”

She spits out her mouthful of water and looks to him, her body now glowing red. “I- Uh-Steel- -I…”

“No need to feel embarrassed kiddo. I do indeed have a fully functional-”

“Hank—Dude… What the hell?” The duo turn to the new voice, and look at Booster Gold, who’s face is tinged green. “Are you hitting on her? She’s like… 15 or something, right?”

Audrey shakes her head, and the plane shakes. “I… uh… just…”

“I should get you done. Jus’ ‘cause we can take kids into battle and dress ‘em in tight green, yellow and red spandex, doesn’t mean we can hit on them… Jeez!” Booster near doubles over, the plane suddenly hitting more turbulence.

“For your information, Booster, she asked me a question, and I answered. I like to show her the same amount of respect she shows me. You would be wise to learn from her example.”

“I didn’t really…” Prysm says trying to ease the tension.

“No fear, Audrey. I shall take Booster back to his seat, he looks mighty dazed and confused!” He laughs, and then pushes Booster back to where he was seated. “.6 percent… never argue my statistics again.”

“Whatever Hank, I wasn’t the one hitting on the kid!”

Audrey nestles back in her seat, her body rapidly changing colour to colour, the turbulence continuing, but ending as she takes a deep breath, and begins to read the magazine by her side. “No one remembers my birthday, I guess…

“Hey, Harry.” A woman’s voice rings out. Airwave looks up from his suitcase, and his eyes widen.

“Carrie!” He says as his face lights up and he jerks himself to his feet, his costume laying on his bed, and him wearing a white tank top and blue shorts. “What… What brings you…?”

“I just wanted… We haven’t really spoken recently, since… You know.”

“Yeah?” Harry shakes his head, unknowing.

“Since we…”

“What… did I say something?”

“Since we had sex!”

“Thrice.”

“Excuse me?”

“Three times.” He smiles slightly. “Anyway, sorry, continue…”

“I just wanted to say sorry.” She turns slightly, and puts her hand on the doorway. “And I am.”

“Carrie?” She turns, and he stands right in front of her, his nose close to hers, and he breathes slightly, and then kisses her sofltly, closing the door behind them both.

The conference room is large, and the team all fit around the long mahogany table in the centre. Josiah looks around, and pulls down his tie, looking at each member of the team assembled. “Is this everyone?”

Oberon walks next to the large man who is his employer and whispers in his ear. “I don’t see Harry or Carrie boss man, maybe they--”

“Sorry we’re late guys…” Harry smiles, and Carrie follows him in.

“I’m glad you could all make it, and I hope the plane ride was satisfactory.” Josiah smiles, trying his best to be pleasant to his employees. Booster makes a noise when he finishes and the team roll their eyes, but say nothing. “Well, I suppose you’re wondering what this is all about?” He motions to Oberon and a tarp on the large mahogany table. “We’re here to launch these.” Oberon whips off the cloth, and reveals several boxes of action figures, each resembling the team. Booster’s jaw drops and he rummages through them till he reaches the one resembling him, and then snatches it up, and stares at it wonderment.

“At last…”

Josiah turns. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing. I was just… Expecting this.” He smiles. “Hey, you changed my costume…” He motions to the chest plate, with the large star reduced to a smaller one on his breast on the small action figure.

“Testing noticed that consumers of our products get Steel and you confused. We decided to spruce your look up. Sleaker.” Josiah smiles slightly. “Everyone’s thoughts?”

The team nod in unison, pleasantly surprised with the action figure set that had been created in their likeness. “I have a problem…”

“What is it, Booster?”

“Why couldn’t you have changed Steel’s look?”

“Steel’s uniform is iconic.” The team nods.

“And mine’s not?” The team shake their heads.

“Nope. You’re new blood, Booster, Steel’s an established name, thanks to his father, who served the country in the past.” Josiah nods. “The public love a war hero, and that’s what we’re marketing Steel as.”

Steel shakes his head. “I’m not… I’ve never been in a war…”

“Yes, but the public doesn’t know that. Anyway, we’re staging the grand launch party here, at the Kooeykooeykooey plaza, and I really thought you could have some time off. You’ve got the day off people, party starts tomorrow night, so don’t get lost!”

The team smile and Booster mumbles something, and then Josiah dismisses them, leaving Oberon and himself in the conference room. “Oberon?”

“Yes, Mr Powers?”

“What the HELL are you wearing?”

The air crackles with a dark blue energy that sweeps up across the island. It makes no noise, and you wouldn’t notice it unless it happened upon you, but something is lurking on Kooeykooeykooey, something that reduces Steel’s predictions for a calm holiday on the island. Hank Heywood sits in his hotel room in a pair of shorts, and looks at his replacement arm, the flesh still knitting over the metal he had used to create it. There was no pain, no real pain, but the idea that it should hurt clings to him, and he shakes it off, and looks out across the island, something catching his eye in the distance, across the ocean.

“Who..?”

Looker sits in her hotel room, alone in the dark. She can hear the television blaring next door, Booster Gold watching reruns of the Suicidal Squadron once more, finding a late night marathon on the Legends network. She looks at her hands and then to her face and stands, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

Prysm sits in her hotel room, and shakes her head. In two days it was her birthday, and no one had noticed. She thought that Mr. Powers might be organising a party in a secret location, but the sheer absurdity of that idea shakes her, and she grimaces, saddened that she might not see her mother till afterwards. Her mom wasn’t at all bad, she was just…

Protective? Her father had left when she was a child, before her powers kicked in and she was permantely ‘scarred’ with her body becoming a living battery for light energy. When she was six, she fell to the floor at the park, and a small boy laughed, and her body exploded with a red light that spread across the playing field, scaring the boy off and leaving her mother shocked and terrified. She was home schooled, her mothers fears taking over her life. Like she said, her mom wasn’t bad, but protective? An understatement.

“I don’t get you, Carrie…” Harry looks over to Vapor, who lies next to him in the large bed. “You enjoy… Ya know… this… but you barely look at me afterwards… It confuses me, you know?”

“Harry…?” She looks at him, her cheeks flushed, her eyes dark. “I just… I like you, you know? And you’re… The best at what you do… You know?”

He smirks. “I think I do.”

“Don’t be an idiot, I don’t mean that! I mean… you know when we go out and… do our jobs. I don’t want for the lives of the people we swore to protect to be in danger because we might be in the middle of a fight or if we broke up… do you know? I like what we have now, casual meaningless nights to ourselves without any emotional attachment out there. Do you understand?” He kisses her, and lies back down, his arm beneath her neck, and as he strokes her face she smiles weakly. “Thanks Harry.”

Harry lays down confidently looking at the girl beside him. Carrie Donahue. One day he is going to marry her if he can only get past the mindless sex their relationship is built on… “Carrie… did you feel the earth just shake?”

“Shut up, Harry. No need to get cocky.”

“No, not THAT, I mean literally, did you feel that?”
“Oh yes, Mr. Jordan. You are so good in bed that I felt the very core of the earth shake beneath your mighty-“ Suddenly a violent rumble knocks the two out of their bed and onto the wooden floor. “HOLY HELL, the ground just shook!”

“I KNOW!” Harry said jumping up. “Well… what do we do then?”

“I don’t know… help evacuate the island? I am no geologist, but I suspect the big one could seriously effect the little island we are on right now.”

”Good idea… wait… my suit…”

”Yes???”

“My suit is in the other room…”

“So go get it and lets go!”

“But… I am kinda… indisposed at the moment…”

“Damn it, hold on to me.” Vapor says grabbing Harry by the arm and turning the two of them into mist as she runs through the walls into his room down the hall.

In the air above the shaking island...

Airwave is first to get into the sky with Vapor floating by his side. Powergirl zooms in next followed shortly by a winded Prysm. The four wait momentarily until Steel rockets into the air on his trusty jet pack (things like that come in handy when one is a super hero without the luxury of flight). Finally, Vapor appears still putting away her make up as she gently floats up telekinetically shadowed by Booster Gold who has a hazed look still in his eye. Power Girl speaks first as per usual, “Harry, I need you to zip around and see how far this thing is reaching, for all we know the coast may be falling under right now.”

“Are you sure he can tear himself away from his little sex fest long enough, P.G.?”

”Hey!” Airwave and Vapor shout out quickly.

“Don’t be mad because you aren’t getting any Booster.” Looker says rolling her eyes.

”The offer is always open.” Booster retorts slyly.

“Pardon me, but I don’t think this is the time for repertoire.”

“You don’t impress me when you speak Spanish.”

“It’s French.”

”Whatever, they all have the same cheese.” Booster says as the group looks at him curiosity. “Can we get a move on, I got a party at like nine and we are really starting to push it here.”

“Steel, you find somewhere stable, try and find out what’s going on around here, is it just an earthquake or are we dealing with something worse.” Steel nods and flies away. “Prysm and Vapor, you go handle crowd control for now, Looker go find Josiah and Oberon, and Booster,” Power Girl says shaking her head, “Booster, you go find boats to start putting people in.

“Oh right, I get the hard job while you do what? Fly around and look pretty? Forget that!”

“No, I have to go see a man about a fish.” Power Girl says as the team separates to go about their individual tasks.

Like a flash of white, Power Girl zooms back to the island. Booster Gold and Steel are there to great her trying to grab hold of as many people in their arms as possible and fly them into the small freighter being carefully lifted over the turbulent waters by a distressed Looker. Power Girl takes hold of the boat and swiftly carries it to Booster and Steel who immediately begin to load it as quickly as possible with the worrisome throngs of people.

Power Girl now wet and tired of carrying the large boat full of people blows the hair out of her face and gently lets the boat onto the troubled water again. She gives it a shove that sends it crashing through the to and fro of the fierce waves and she flies up to Booster, Looker, and Steel. "Where is everyone else?" Booster smiles and opens his mouth beginning to speak, "Shut up Booster not now. This isn't like when he fought all those overgrown marshmallow Peeps in Times Square, this is serious not even the Atlanteans wanted to deal with it as long as we were involved."

"You spoke with the Atlantic people?"

"I spoke with one of them." She says, answering Booster’s question, and then turning now to Steel, "Where is everyone?"

"Vapor and Prism are trying to control the people inside the cargo vessel we managed to fit people into. Airwave is trying to create winds to counteract the waves heading towards the coast by flying in circles."

"Is everyone off the island?"

"As far as we know." Steel says reporting back. "Prysm has been trying to locate isolated brainwaves and my radar has been able to pick up the locations of most the people.... Booster claims to have super microscopic vision that would be able to locate a needle in a hay stack... so I am confident they are off the island."

"How many times do I have to tell you Hank, I DO have super microscopic vision!" Booster says

"No you don't."

"Okay well... next time we have a needle, a haystack, and like two seconds we'll see who has the super microscopic."

"Will you two quit it?" Demands Looker, now fed up with Booster. "We don't really need this right now and I can't even concentrate on finding more stragglers on that island! Something really big is throwing off weird signals from underneath it."

"Looker, nothing is underneath it," Power Girl says quickly “Those brainwaves… those brainwaves belong to the island.”

Booster squints hard and rubs his chin, “Yes, I sensed that with my microscopic vision, thanks for confirming that for me.” Steel raises his finger to protest and Power Girl shakes her head. “So how should we take him down? I have an idea… I just want you to confirm it.”

“Well,” Power Girl says looking back over at the massive island biting her lip, “I think we are going to have to punch it till it kind of just… stops.”

Looker raises an eyebrow “Typical, we fight a giant island and the only way to stop the thing is to punch it over and over, can’t we ever do anything creative?”

“I like Pee Gee’s idea better, lets go with that.” Booster says already clenching his fists. Before Power Girl can respond the blue and gold clad hero was already a blue streak in the sky. Suddenly, the blue streak stops as it crashes into the base of the island. Moments later the blue streak crashes out of the bottom of the island and splashes into the ocean beneath. The team watches as the water bubbles and he zooms up into the island this time slamming into the bottom. Again the blur disappears in the island for a few seconds and Booster is tosses out of the top back toward the group who moves out of the way as he comes closer. He rises from the ocean to take his old spot in the group. “That idea sucked.”

“Well that’s really the only option I have. Can’t hurt to give a combined effort. Looker, can you try and ya’ know… calm it down while we beat the hell out of it?”

“That’s not really what I do but I can try, I guess.”

“Good. You two,” She says nodding at Steel and Booster, “Let’s go.” Power Girl then grabs Steel by the hand flies toward the island as fast as she can with booster trailing behind. As she gets closer she uses her momentum to sling Steel into the island. His metallic body crushes into it causing large chunks of rock to burst out from the impact. She then follows in slamming her fists onto the side of it knocking boulders off with each swing. Booster squirms and then takes their lead and sails into the island base again with all of his force. Steel makes his way onto the surface of the island and grabs a palm tree by the base and rips it out to use on the massive island. He raises it up and sends it crashing down onto the surface. The island shakes mildly from the blows but continues to rumble as it had been before creating massive title waves. Booster zooms flies quickly weaving between falling rocks, splashes of water, and the islands violent shakes and is hit on the head by a red gloved. Power Girl turns her head to see Booster falling quickly into the ocean and as she rushes to grab him she is also hit in the head by a falling palm tree. Steel rips another tree from the island and slams it down hard onto the earth and discards it like the last several after it begins to break in half.

Power Girl wipes the sweat from her forehead as she pounds the giant twisting rock and the recoil of her punch sends her sailing back into the sea. Steel loses his balance as the punch turns the island on its side and he grabs a hand full of exotic bushes to keep from flying off the island entirely. Power Girl drifts underwater before she resurfaces to fight again and notices something tugging at her leg. Booster? She thinks impulsively. Instead as she looks down she sees a giant tentacle has grown from the giant rock and is now wrapped around her leg. Oh crap…It pulls her down violently and nearly rips her leg off, she tries to fight it off but more and more tentacles spring out of the rock and wrap around her limbs. Using all her might she tries to break free but the tentacles just pull her deeper into the black ocean.

Steel now tired of ripping foliage from the ground leaps into the air and uses his natural gravitational pull to shift the ground but to no avail. He crashes into the floor with no significant result to speak of. Newtons Third Law of Motion my a**! Steel rubs his head and is about to leap again when a large palm tree seems to spring from no where. He pauses momentarily as the palm elevates faster than any naturally growing thing should. Another sprouts up not too far away and suddenly the whole islands surface begins to sprout with life. Not just palms but also bushes and flowers and vines were spreading like wild fire. Once there were parking lots, now there’s a peaceful oasis. If this is paradise, I need a lawnmower. He thinks to himself trying to break some of the over grown palm trees at the base.

Booster Gold sinks rapidly to the bottom of the ocean when suddenly he hears whistling and whirling and can see bright red lights spinning and blinking. Skeets? He feels himself black out momentarily as the lights and sounds fade to darkness. Suddenly, he feels his body experience a second breath and his body feels more powerful then ever. He races to the surface of the water, crashing through the water like it was nothing but air. With fists charged and his visor gleaming in the sunlight, he whips his wet blond hair back and shoots a blast of energy at the blubbery tentacles covering Power Girl. She shakes them off her arms and without a word the two simultaneously sly into the island with all their force. Steel feels the impact as the trees lean into him. He grabs one of the stiff trunks and as it shifts back with the rest of the island he pulls on it using his momentum to fling himself out of the greenery.

As steel crashes to the island, he hears a grumbling from within the island like nothing he’s heard before. He takes the time to process this information and he frowns as he touches the earth… it couldn’t be…a volcano…

After the commotion has commenced and the merchandise has been shilled…

Team Powers walk into the airport together, probably for the first time they stood shoulder to shoulder with no one getting knocked into the ocean. Maybe. They’re greeted by adoring fans and local news crews, the team glad to sign autograph books and welcome the masses. Before Booster can even think to address the local news crews they’re rushed away by the MTV crews’ contractual exclusive coverage of the team automatically going to the network. Booster shrugs it off, and then smiles to the rest of the team. “I told you guys this would be great.”

A female fan approaches with a poster from the show for the team to sign, and the superheroes pass it along, to each member, and as Power Girl signs the fan leans in to ask her a question. “Is Booster a good kisser?” She giggles, and Booster looks around, smiling nervously as Power Girl rolls her eyes.

“No,” She says casually, “He’s horrible. He has no idea what he’s doing. He’s all thumbs if you know what I mean.” She nods, satisfied with how she handled the question.

“Hey!” Booster protested. “What the hell?!”

Harry puts his hand on Booster’s shoulder and smiles, then leans in to him, whispering. “Booster… Please… Don’t poke the bear.”

Power Girl finishes signing and watches as the young fan walks away, then looks at both of them, and smiles sinisterly. “I have super hearing.”

Harry quickly moves his hand from Booster’s shoulder and walks ahead of him, leaving the alleged lovers with a tense silence between them. “Uh… Karen?” Booster says scratching his head nervously.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

Power Girl stops walking, stunned. “Excuse me?”

“What?”

“I’m sorry for… Letting that rumour spread.” He nods slowly, and then follows after the rest of the heroes.

“What’s wrong Karen?” Power Girl turns as Steel places his hand on her shoulder.

“Booster just… Apoligised.”

Steel freezes for a moment, and then nods. “I’ll do a blood test onboard.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

The team board their flight and take their first class seats in silence. It doesn’t take long for some one to point out the obvious. “Don’t most of you fly?”

When no one answers for a few moments, a rejuvenated Power Girl smiles, and begins to answer. “Yes, but, when I fly by myself there’s no in flight meal or warm towels to put on my face… LexAir flights can take me anywhere they want to.”