Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2015 4:16:52 GMT -5
The Titans of Justice Chapter 3: Doom’s Day Déjà vu Part 3
Written by: Power Guy
Co-conspirator: Scotty2Hotty
Editor: Marcus Mebes
We pick up where we left off: Within the towering Hall of Justice, a strange turn of events has unfolded… In trying to strike down Brainiac, Jemstone accidentally killed the Toyman.
- - -
“Jemstone–did you just kill the Toyman?” demanded Celsius.
“Yes,” gloated Brainiac, answering for her, “she did. He made the perfect human-shield.”
“Oh my God! What have I done?” wailed Jemstone as she dropped to her knees in horror. She covered her face with her hands in despair.
“We don’t have time for you to fall apart!” ordered Celsius, raising his hands toward the advancing Brainiac. “Get yourself together!”
Green Lantern quickly flew to Jemstone’s side. “It’s not your fault,” he said as he put his arm around her, helping her up. “You can’t blame yourself for this!”
Jemstone’s despair quickly turned to rage. “That mechanical monster is responsible and I’m going to make him pay!” Jemstone quickly took to the air with intent to assault Brainiac but was stopped by a yellow energy-wall.
“Not so fast my dear,” interjected Sinestro. Standing behind him was the rest of the Legion of Doom. While Jemstone was wasting time feeling sorry for herself, and the others tried consoling her, the other villains the other villains were summoned by the fracas.
“Well, well, wel,” drawled Luthor. “It looks like today’s heroes are a bit more like us than their goody two-shoes predecessors. Still, there’s no way the eleven of you can possibly take down all twelve of us. Destroy them!” commanded Luthor.
With no surprise, Bizarro was the first to attack. He flew into Power Guy and Wonder Man, knocking them both off of their feet. “Bizarro crush Justice League Junior! Me finish you blonde Super-boy!”
The Cheetah quickly pounced on Wonder Man and began raking him with claws as if he was a scratching post. She hissed at him and said “You must be Wooondah Wooman’s son! I woondah what she will say when she finds you in pieces?”
Solomon Grundy started running towards Celsius and Dark Arrow. “Not so fast ugly!” shouted Dark Arrow as he fired three pointed-tip arrows at Grundy. Unfortunately, two of the arrows just bounced off Grundy while he caught the other arrow and bit it in half.
“Not taste as good as crawfish, but better than nutria rat!” laughed the behemoth, crunching on the broken arrow.
Celsius quickly launched a barrage of flames at Grundy. “Halt monster or I’ll burn you where you stand!” he demanded. Celsius kept pouring on the heat but it was barely slowing Grundy down. The creature kept lumbering forward, oblivious of the immolation.
“Hold him at bay just a little bit longer Celsius. I’m trying to find my explosive arrow,” said Dark Arrow, fumbling through his quiver.
Just then the Riddler snuck up behind Dark Arrow and opened his trench coat. Vertigo-waves started rushing out of the Riddler’s coat colliding with the oblivious Dark Arrow.
Dark Arrow suddenly felt a wave of light-headedness, as nausea swept over him.
“What’s wrong, Arrow-head?” questioned the Riddler. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a weak stomach!” Dark Arrow collapsed to his hands and knees while the Riddler stood over him snickering.
In the air, Green Lantern and Sinestro were pitted against each other in a vicious battle. It was power-ring construct against power-ring construct. Flashes of green and yellow light lit of up the room. Swords smashed against shields with no apparent victor. Only the will-power of the ring-wielders could be victorious, and that seemed to be evenly matched.
On the ground, Giganta enlarged herself to fifty feet tall. “You puny heroes are no match for us!” The behemoth started making her way towards Vibe, Nighvision, and Sargona. The three heroes tried to run before she could catch them but Vibe and Nightvison were quickly snatched up by Giganta's immense hands. “I’m going to squeeze you slowly… until you both burst!” laughed the giantess. Giganta’s vice-like grip started closing in around both Vibe and Nightvision. The two of them were already writhing in agony, when Sargona quickly ran underneath Giganta and touched both of the giant’s ankle-bracelets. Instantly, the bracelets became helium-filled and yanked Giganta’s legs out from under her. The giant was pulled up to the ceiling by the super-strong balloons, where she remained stuck hanging upside-down. In the commotion, she had dropped Vibe and Nightvision; who both landed on a cushion of snow provided by Icemanling.
“Gotcha guys,” said Icemanling. He then turned to Sargona and added, “Smart move girl.”
Giganta bellowed from above “Curse you witch. As soon as I get these bracelets off, you’re toast!”
“I wouldn’t try it Giganta.” responded Sargona. “If you fall at the size that you’re at, you’ll crush most of your teammates and if you shrink back down to normal, you’re bound to lose enough of your invulnerability to make it one hard fall. Enjoy the view! We won’t forget about you!”
As the inexperienced novice heroes bantered with the suspended giantess, Black Manta blasted both Icemanling and Sargona in the back. “You certainly weren’t smart enough not to turn your backs on me!” gloated Black Manta.
Nightvision picked himself up in an attempt to stop Black Manta, but was approached by the Scarecrow. “Are you sure you’re not afraid of him?” asked the Scarecrow as he blasted Nightvision with his fear-transmitter. Suddenly, Nightvision started seeing illusions of Black Manta growing claws and fangs. Shortly afterwards, it appeared to Nightvision that Sargona and Vibe had turned into vampires!
Expert training from Batman and his “family” had prepared Nightvision for such an instance. Steeling himself against the illusions, he was able to shake off the aberrant fear. Activating the hologram projectors in his gauntlets, he made it appear that there was ten of him. “You’re not the only one who can make people see things Scarecrow.”
Black Manta and the Scarecrow quickly backed each other up, trying to focus on which one they thought was the original Nightvision, but he had moved around amongst his doppelgangers, and they could no longer recall which one was which. In the midst of the confusion, Nightvision quickly took advantage of the situation and kicked the Scarecrow in the side of the head and then turned to Black Manta and stuck a knockout-gas pellet in Manta’s air-tanks. Within seconds, both villains were down for the count.
On the other side of the room, Jemstone had made her way over to Brainiac. Her timing was off, as the android had already turned on his force-field. In spite of the force-field, Jemstone continued to blast away at him. “Not even your energy-beams can penetrate my force-field!” challenged Brainiac in his monotonous mechanical voice.
With all of the heroes entwined in different battles, Luthor made his way to the computer terminal. “Now to finish what Brainiac started,” muttered the evil genius. Luthor entered in an algorithm to hack into the computer system; bolstering the efforts made by Brainiac; which ultimately proved successful. “At last! Now I will know the Justice League’s secrets!” He turned his attention back to the computer monitor and waited for entry.
Within seconds, the Hall of Justice computers were online. Luthor quickly tried to access the computer’s member banks. Just then, a voice came from the computer: “Warning! DNA scan identifies you as Lex Luthor. Subject is not allowed access to Hall of Justice data files.”
“Looks like I’m going to need Brainiac after all,” thought the disgusted Luthor.
As for Brainiac, his force-field continued to be battered by Jemstone’s energy-beams. Suddenly, she stopped firing and walked right up to Brainiac. She paused for a second and said, “You know, it just occurred to me that I don’t need to get through your force-field to take you down.” She winked slyly at her opponent. “I can cook you from the outside.” In a near instant, Jemstone wrapped her arms around Brainiac’s force-field and unleashed a blast of light-energy so hot that Brainiac’s robotic form quickly started melting. Brainiac’s circuitous voice screamed as he continued to speak monotonously. “My circuits are overloading. I will be back for your head!” Within mere minutes, all that was left was a pile of molten-metal.
Junjie Quick was busy trading dozens of blows with Gorilla Grodd. During the melee, Grodd caught off guard by one of Junjie’s right-hooks and fell on his back. Quick, straddling the prone gorilla, seemed about to claim victory when Grodd suddenly played his ace-card and used his telepathic abilities to fire a mental-blast at the speedster. Quick fell to the ground in great agony.
“I have no time for you whelp,” growled Grodd as he lumbered back to a standing position.
Noticing what Jemstone had just done to Brainiac, Grodd advanced towards her. “Well, my dear. That’s two members of my team that you’ve destroyed today. Not bad for a hairless wench like yourself.” He snarled at her as she turned to face him. “I wonder how well you’ll do when you’re pitted against your friends?” Grodd directed his mental abilities to take control of Jemstone. “Something’s not right about you,” he muttered as his brain attempted to take control of her own. “It’s almost like there’s two…” Luckily for Jemstone, Junjie Quick came racing up behind Grodd, slamming into him with the force of a speeding truck. Grodd was knocked out cold.
“Thanks Junjie,” said Jemstone. “I don’t know what I would have done if he would have made me kill any of you.”
“Not a problem. It’s always good to have someone covering your back, no?” answered Junjie with a wink.
Meanwhile Bizarro and Power Guy were trading blows that were rattling the structure of the building. “Bizarro really like you, blonde Super-boy,” said Bizarro as he pounded his fists into Power Guy’s face. “When me finished being nice to you, Bizarro take good care of rest of junior Justice League!”
Power Guy was aware that Bizarro was stronger than he was but not by much. “Follow me if you dare, you backwards simpleton!” Power Guy started to fly through the Hall of Justice searching for its trophy-room.
Wonder Man continued to wrestle with the Cheetah. “Lady, that was a $500 Italian silk shirt you just tore up! Enough is enough!” he yelled as he back-handed the feral villainess. The Cheetah flew about three yards… but like all cats, landed on her feet only lunge back towards Wonder Man. The Cheetah hissed violently in mid-air as she was about to land on him, but Wonder Man’s fist struck with the speed of Mercury. As his blow connected with the Cheetah’s forehead, she collapsed into unconsciousness.
Celsius was still trying to hold back Grundy while Icemanling was finding that he and Captain Cold were near stalemates. Celsius, noticing the near draw, quickly yelled over to Icemanling, “Let’s trade sparring partners.”
“Fine by me,” agreed Icemanling.
“Beware—this guy’s breath smells like a toilet!” Celsius commented. He focused his flames on Captain Cold, melting his cold-gun and burning up the villain’s protective-suit. Celsius then switched to his own ice-powers, and encased Captain Cold in a block of ice.
Icemanling kept his part of the bargain and confronted Grundy. Grundy made eye-contact with Icemanling. “Snowman has no chance of stopping Grundy if man with fire and ice couldn’t do it. Grundy will pick teeth with your bones!” The monster pressed forward.
“Think of Celsius as a jack of all trades and me as a master,” Icemanling commented. He coated the ground underneath Grundy with slick ice.
Grundy slipped and fell on his backside. “Snowman make Grundy fall!” he commented in a slurred voice. He struggled to regain his footing. “Grundy turn you into crushed ice!” threatened the swamp monster but every time he tried to pick himself up, he only fell upon himself again.
“You’re no threat if you can’t even get up you walking skunkweed!” taunted Icemanling. “What have you been eating!” he added, fanning the air with his hand.
Dark Arrow was still battling the induced sickness of the Riddler’s vertigo-rays. Riddler continued to taunt him. “Are you feeling a bit under the weather today my boy? What’s the matter? Can’t hold yourself steady enough to fire your stupid arrows at me?”
Dark Arrow used all of his strength to lift his head upwards towards the Riddler. “You know Riddler… I feel so bad… that I could just… scream!” At that instant Dark Arrow opened his mouth wide let out a blaring yell that increased in resonance into a sonic boom. The Riddler was thrown into the wall behind him and slumped unconscious to the floor.
In the midst of the chaos going on the main meeting room, Power Guy had found his way into the trophy room. “It’s gotta be in here somewhere,” he said to himself as he began scanning the room with his x-ray vision. “Ah-ha! There it is!”
Bizarro quickly entered the room mere seconds later. “Where super-sissy go? Bizarro am weakest man in world and me prove it by being nice to blonde super-boy!” Bizarro searched around the room looking for Power Guy.
Power Guy quickly popped out from behind a large statue. “You know Bizarro, since this it our first meeting, I’ve decided to get you a gift.” At that moment, Power Guy popped open a canister containing Blue Kryptonite, focusing its rays on Bizarro.
“Oh how nice!” cried the creature in agony as he shielded his face with his hands.
Thank you for Blue Kryptonite! It make Bizarro feel too wonderful to fight. Me can barely stand…” Bizarro dropped to the ground as he suffered from Kryptonite poisoning. “Me feel so good,” he gurgled as his eyes rolled back in his head. “Thank you…”
“I think I’ll leave this here with you while I go take care of your friends,” said Power Guy as he flew back into the main meeting room.
Meanwhile Luthor had realized that all bets were off. With the heroes focused on the more powerful villains such as Grodd, Giganta, and Sinestro, Luthor grouped as many of the remaining villains together as possible. He dragged Captain Cold, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, the Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, plus the remains of Brainiac as close to each other as possible. Luthor then turned his attention on Black Manta when Power Guy came flying in the room.
“Well Luthor,” said Power Guy, “I wouldn’t expect Bizarro to come to your rescue any time soon. Your little scheme has come to an end.”
Realizing it was now or never if he wanted to escape, Luthor activated Grodd’s time conveyer and fled back to the past with the villains he had rounded up. In a double-crossing turn of events, he had stranded Grodd, Giganta, Sinestro, Black Manta, and Bizarro in the future.
While Sinestro had been putting up quite a fight, he realized that not even he could take down all of the eleven heroes. “I know when I’m out-numbered,” grunted the red-faced alien deciding to surrender.
The heroes quickly rounded up the villains and brought them down to the Hall of Justice detention-cells. There they saw Strato Hawk still unconscious on the floor. Nightvision quickly unlocked the door to Strato Hawk’s cell and checked his vitals. “He’s still alive. Thank God! Junjie–get him to a hospital!” Junjie Quick lifted up Strato Hawk, flung him over his shoulder, and within moments had carried him off to Metropolis University Hospital.
“Well, that certainly wasn’t the piece of cake I thought it was going to be,” commented Nightvision. “The Hall is trashed, we’ve got a man who’s seriously injured, and five of the most dangerous villains that history has ever seen trapped here from the past. Let’s lock them in the cells until the authorities can come and take them to the Slab.”
“Don’t feel too bad amigo,” said Vibe. “I think we did pretty well for never having worked together before. I’d say we did our mentors proud.”
“Hmm…..” replied Nightvison. He did not quite agree with Vibe’s assessment. All of them were inexperienced. None had previously faced such competent villains.
• • •
Over the next few weeks, the heroes spent numerous hours restoring the Hall of Justice to state it was in before the Legion of Doom invaded. Once everything was completed Nighvision approached the rest of the heroes. He had called a meeting in the Hall, and thankfully all the heroes who had faced the Legion of Doom had returned to attend.
“Strato Hawk–how’s your back?” he began, once the meeting had come to order.
“Much better thanks to the surgery and my Nth metal armor,” responded Strato Hawk, flexing his arms to show he had reovered.
“Glad to hear it.” Nightvision stood to address the assemblage. “Everyone–there’s something I want ask you. In light of the battle with the Legion, I think we should form a new version of the Justice League.”
“But why?” said Dark Arrow. “There’s not a lot of threats that require any real attention these days.” He looked around at the others, receiving approving nods.
“Well as of right now, we have five more villains to keep an eye on than we did a few weeks ago.” Nightvision was adamant about his suggestion, wanting to gain the other heroes’ trust. “Plus,” he added, “if nothing else, we want to keep this world as crime-free as it is today, don’t we? Showing the world that we’ve united to keep peace and order will go a long way in case any old villains even think about coming out of the wood-work.”
“No offense,” countered Dark Arrow, rising to stand as well, “but I think you’re being paranoid just like Batman was.”
“I don’t know,” interrupted Power Guy, “I think it’s kind of a good idea.”
“Me too,” added Junjie Quick.
“Same here,” replied Wonder Man raising his hand in assent.
“Whatever,” grunted Dark Arrow. “You can count me out.” He began to walk away from the meeting table, but remained in the room. “You guys are blowing things out of proportion.”
“Come on Arrow,” said Green Lantern. “I think this is a great idea.” He paused, and then guiltily amended, “Though I can only commit to part-time status due to my responsibilities with the Green Lantern Corps.”
“That’s fine,” said Nightvision, disregarding Dark Arrow’s doubt. “Who else is with us?”
“I’d love to be a part of this,” said Celsius. My parents were members of the Doom Patrol and I’ve always wanted to be a part of a team of heroes.”
“Great,” said Nightvision. A thought percolated in his mind. Surprising all assembled at the meeting, he announced, “In fact, I nominate you to lead our group!”
“Me?” gasped Celsius, taken aback by the sudden turn of events. “I’m not sure that I’m qualified!” He was not prepared for what seemed to be such a rash decision from the person who everyone had assumed was the leader.
“Didn’t both of your parents lead the Doom Patrol at one time or another?” asked Nightvision, folding his hands in front of himself. “You’ve got leadership running through your veins!” He pointed out a specific example of Celsius’ good decisions: “Weren’t you the one who thought of the plan for you and Icemanling to switch foes during the battle with the Legion… which led to your individual victories?”
Celsius was still shaken up, though his positive attitude forced him to accept the situation and make the best of it. “Okay… I suppose I can give it a shot!”
“Anyone else?” asked Nightvision. “I mean, do we have any support or disagreement for this?”
“I second it,” said Power Guy, raising his hand.
“Me too,” agreed Green Lantern. He had used his power ring to probe both Nightvision’s and Celsius’s minds, and—finding nothing to hold against them—agreed with the nomination.
With a consensus from all that agreed to join the group, Celsius arose and directed his attention to those who had not yet agreed to join. He turned to Icemanling. “Are you in with us buddy?”
“Sorry Cel–you know that Norway is my first priority,” responded Icemanling. “Put me on the reserve-list, though,” he added, smiling reassuringly.
“I can settle for that,” said Celsius, looking for reassurance from Nightvision. He nodded back to Celsius.
“How about the rest of you?” asked the newly-elected leader of the team.
“Well, after that accident with Brainiac and the Toyman, I could probably use some guidance and training,” said Jemstone.
“I would be honored to join,” said Sargona.
“How about you Vibe,” asked Nighvision.
“Sorry amigo but I’m all Detroit has since my father retired. I need to stick close to home…” He traded a look with Icemanling, and added, “but I’ll be happy to join the reserve-list.”
“What about you Strato Hawk? You’re the reason we all got together in the first place,” said Nightvision.
“Are you kidding? Of course I want to join! I’ve idolized super-heroes all of my life. I would be thrilled to join this generation’s first super-team.”
“Ok, we’re a team,” decided Celsius, smiling at the new members. Dark Arrow had already shrugged his shoulders and left, since he had been standing anyway. Vibe and Icemanling remained, having no urgent need to leave straightaway. “Now,” continued Celsius, “what do we call ourselves?”
“I thought you said that we were forming a new version of the JLA?” asked Green Lantern as he leaned his elbows on the table and folded his hands together.
“Yes but not all of us are linked to the JLA,” replied Nightvision, looking to Celsius. It appeared that thought Celsius was now the elected leader, Nightvision still called the shots… or at least advised the new team leader. “I’m thinking that we should think of something a little more diverse,” said Nightvision.
“I’d like to keep the word Justice in our name to represent not only the League but the Justice Society as well,” suggested Power Guy.
“Plus we need to pay tribute to the Titans. They were the first group of young heroes,” said Wonder Man. “My Aunt Donna told me about so many of their adventures…” Wonder Man had struck a chord with the group, and they murmured their assent as they all thought about what to name their new group.
It was Wonder Man, once again, who spoke up. “Hey, what if we called ourselves the Titans of Justice?”
Celsius raised his eyebrows and smiled. His parents, Niles and Arani Caulder, had both led the Doom Patrol, which had strong ties with the Titans and the Justice League.
“You nailed it!” said Nightvison, nodding emphatically.
“All right, it settled then,” commented Celsius. “We’ll meet back here on Saturday to set things up!”
If you're charcter didn't make the line-up, don't panic, they will still appear in the story. There are a lot of twists and turns coming up. Some members will leave, others will join, plus there's an "addition" in the works.
Also - check back in a few days for a preview of chapter 4!
Written by: Power Guy
Co-conspirator: Scotty2Hotty
Editor: Marcus Mebes
We pick up where we left off: Within the towering Hall of Justice, a strange turn of events has unfolded… In trying to strike down Brainiac, Jemstone accidentally killed the Toyman.
- - -
“Jemstone–did you just kill the Toyman?” demanded Celsius.
“Yes,” gloated Brainiac, answering for her, “she did. He made the perfect human-shield.”
“Oh my God! What have I done?” wailed Jemstone as she dropped to her knees in horror. She covered her face with her hands in despair.
“We don’t have time for you to fall apart!” ordered Celsius, raising his hands toward the advancing Brainiac. “Get yourself together!”
Green Lantern quickly flew to Jemstone’s side. “It’s not your fault,” he said as he put his arm around her, helping her up. “You can’t blame yourself for this!”
Jemstone’s despair quickly turned to rage. “That mechanical monster is responsible and I’m going to make him pay!” Jemstone quickly took to the air with intent to assault Brainiac but was stopped by a yellow energy-wall.
“Not so fast my dear,” interjected Sinestro. Standing behind him was the rest of the Legion of Doom. While Jemstone was wasting time feeling sorry for herself, and the others tried consoling her, the other villains the other villains were summoned by the fracas.
“Well, well, wel,” drawled Luthor. “It looks like today’s heroes are a bit more like us than their goody two-shoes predecessors. Still, there’s no way the eleven of you can possibly take down all twelve of us. Destroy them!” commanded Luthor.
With no surprise, Bizarro was the first to attack. He flew into Power Guy and Wonder Man, knocking them both off of their feet. “Bizarro crush Justice League Junior! Me finish you blonde Super-boy!”
The Cheetah quickly pounced on Wonder Man and began raking him with claws as if he was a scratching post. She hissed at him and said “You must be Wooondah Wooman’s son! I woondah what she will say when she finds you in pieces?”
Solomon Grundy started running towards Celsius and Dark Arrow. “Not so fast ugly!” shouted Dark Arrow as he fired three pointed-tip arrows at Grundy. Unfortunately, two of the arrows just bounced off Grundy while he caught the other arrow and bit it in half.
“Not taste as good as crawfish, but better than nutria rat!” laughed the behemoth, crunching on the broken arrow.
Celsius quickly launched a barrage of flames at Grundy. “Halt monster or I’ll burn you where you stand!” he demanded. Celsius kept pouring on the heat but it was barely slowing Grundy down. The creature kept lumbering forward, oblivious of the immolation.
“Hold him at bay just a little bit longer Celsius. I’m trying to find my explosive arrow,” said Dark Arrow, fumbling through his quiver.
Just then the Riddler snuck up behind Dark Arrow and opened his trench coat. Vertigo-waves started rushing out of the Riddler’s coat colliding with the oblivious Dark Arrow.
Dark Arrow suddenly felt a wave of light-headedness, as nausea swept over him.
“What’s wrong, Arrow-head?” questioned the Riddler. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a weak stomach!” Dark Arrow collapsed to his hands and knees while the Riddler stood over him snickering.
In the air, Green Lantern and Sinestro were pitted against each other in a vicious battle. It was power-ring construct against power-ring construct. Flashes of green and yellow light lit of up the room. Swords smashed against shields with no apparent victor. Only the will-power of the ring-wielders could be victorious, and that seemed to be evenly matched.
On the ground, Giganta enlarged herself to fifty feet tall. “You puny heroes are no match for us!” The behemoth started making her way towards Vibe, Nighvision, and Sargona. The three heroes tried to run before she could catch them but Vibe and Nightvison were quickly snatched up by Giganta's immense hands. “I’m going to squeeze you slowly… until you both burst!” laughed the giantess. Giganta’s vice-like grip started closing in around both Vibe and Nightvision. The two of them were already writhing in agony, when Sargona quickly ran underneath Giganta and touched both of the giant’s ankle-bracelets. Instantly, the bracelets became helium-filled and yanked Giganta’s legs out from under her. The giant was pulled up to the ceiling by the super-strong balloons, where she remained stuck hanging upside-down. In the commotion, she had dropped Vibe and Nightvision; who both landed on a cushion of snow provided by Icemanling.
“Gotcha guys,” said Icemanling. He then turned to Sargona and added, “Smart move girl.”
Giganta bellowed from above “Curse you witch. As soon as I get these bracelets off, you’re toast!”
“I wouldn’t try it Giganta.” responded Sargona. “If you fall at the size that you’re at, you’ll crush most of your teammates and if you shrink back down to normal, you’re bound to lose enough of your invulnerability to make it one hard fall. Enjoy the view! We won’t forget about you!”
As the inexperienced novice heroes bantered with the suspended giantess, Black Manta blasted both Icemanling and Sargona in the back. “You certainly weren’t smart enough not to turn your backs on me!” gloated Black Manta.
Nightvision picked himself up in an attempt to stop Black Manta, but was approached by the Scarecrow. “Are you sure you’re not afraid of him?” asked the Scarecrow as he blasted Nightvision with his fear-transmitter. Suddenly, Nightvision started seeing illusions of Black Manta growing claws and fangs. Shortly afterwards, it appeared to Nightvision that Sargona and Vibe had turned into vampires!
Expert training from Batman and his “family” had prepared Nightvision for such an instance. Steeling himself against the illusions, he was able to shake off the aberrant fear. Activating the hologram projectors in his gauntlets, he made it appear that there was ten of him. “You’re not the only one who can make people see things Scarecrow.”
Black Manta and the Scarecrow quickly backed each other up, trying to focus on which one they thought was the original Nightvision, but he had moved around amongst his doppelgangers, and they could no longer recall which one was which. In the midst of the confusion, Nightvision quickly took advantage of the situation and kicked the Scarecrow in the side of the head and then turned to Black Manta and stuck a knockout-gas pellet in Manta’s air-tanks. Within seconds, both villains were down for the count.
On the other side of the room, Jemstone had made her way over to Brainiac. Her timing was off, as the android had already turned on his force-field. In spite of the force-field, Jemstone continued to blast away at him. “Not even your energy-beams can penetrate my force-field!” challenged Brainiac in his monotonous mechanical voice.
With all of the heroes entwined in different battles, Luthor made his way to the computer terminal. “Now to finish what Brainiac started,” muttered the evil genius. Luthor entered in an algorithm to hack into the computer system; bolstering the efforts made by Brainiac; which ultimately proved successful. “At last! Now I will know the Justice League’s secrets!” He turned his attention back to the computer monitor and waited for entry.
Within seconds, the Hall of Justice computers were online. Luthor quickly tried to access the computer’s member banks. Just then, a voice came from the computer: “Warning! DNA scan identifies you as Lex Luthor. Subject is not allowed access to Hall of Justice data files.”
“Looks like I’m going to need Brainiac after all,” thought the disgusted Luthor.
As for Brainiac, his force-field continued to be battered by Jemstone’s energy-beams. Suddenly, she stopped firing and walked right up to Brainiac. She paused for a second and said, “You know, it just occurred to me that I don’t need to get through your force-field to take you down.” She winked slyly at her opponent. “I can cook you from the outside.” In a near instant, Jemstone wrapped her arms around Brainiac’s force-field and unleashed a blast of light-energy so hot that Brainiac’s robotic form quickly started melting. Brainiac’s circuitous voice screamed as he continued to speak monotonously. “My circuits are overloading. I will be back for your head!” Within mere minutes, all that was left was a pile of molten-metal.
Junjie Quick was busy trading dozens of blows with Gorilla Grodd. During the melee, Grodd caught off guard by one of Junjie’s right-hooks and fell on his back. Quick, straddling the prone gorilla, seemed about to claim victory when Grodd suddenly played his ace-card and used his telepathic abilities to fire a mental-blast at the speedster. Quick fell to the ground in great agony.
“I have no time for you whelp,” growled Grodd as he lumbered back to a standing position.
Noticing what Jemstone had just done to Brainiac, Grodd advanced towards her. “Well, my dear. That’s two members of my team that you’ve destroyed today. Not bad for a hairless wench like yourself.” He snarled at her as she turned to face him. “I wonder how well you’ll do when you’re pitted against your friends?” Grodd directed his mental abilities to take control of Jemstone. “Something’s not right about you,” he muttered as his brain attempted to take control of her own. “It’s almost like there’s two…” Luckily for Jemstone, Junjie Quick came racing up behind Grodd, slamming into him with the force of a speeding truck. Grodd was knocked out cold.
“Thanks Junjie,” said Jemstone. “I don’t know what I would have done if he would have made me kill any of you.”
“Not a problem. It’s always good to have someone covering your back, no?” answered Junjie with a wink.
Meanwhile Bizarro and Power Guy were trading blows that were rattling the structure of the building. “Bizarro really like you, blonde Super-boy,” said Bizarro as he pounded his fists into Power Guy’s face. “When me finished being nice to you, Bizarro take good care of rest of junior Justice League!”
Power Guy was aware that Bizarro was stronger than he was but not by much. “Follow me if you dare, you backwards simpleton!” Power Guy started to fly through the Hall of Justice searching for its trophy-room.
Wonder Man continued to wrestle with the Cheetah. “Lady, that was a $500 Italian silk shirt you just tore up! Enough is enough!” he yelled as he back-handed the feral villainess. The Cheetah flew about three yards… but like all cats, landed on her feet only lunge back towards Wonder Man. The Cheetah hissed violently in mid-air as she was about to land on him, but Wonder Man’s fist struck with the speed of Mercury. As his blow connected with the Cheetah’s forehead, she collapsed into unconsciousness.
Celsius was still trying to hold back Grundy while Icemanling was finding that he and Captain Cold were near stalemates. Celsius, noticing the near draw, quickly yelled over to Icemanling, “Let’s trade sparring partners.”
“Fine by me,” agreed Icemanling.
“Beware—this guy’s breath smells like a toilet!” Celsius commented. He focused his flames on Captain Cold, melting his cold-gun and burning up the villain’s protective-suit. Celsius then switched to his own ice-powers, and encased Captain Cold in a block of ice.
Icemanling kept his part of the bargain and confronted Grundy. Grundy made eye-contact with Icemanling. “Snowman has no chance of stopping Grundy if man with fire and ice couldn’t do it. Grundy will pick teeth with your bones!” The monster pressed forward.
“Think of Celsius as a jack of all trades and me as a master,” Icemanling commented. He coated the ground underneath Grundy with slick ice.
Grundy slipped and fell on his backside. “Snowman make Grundy fall!” he commented in a slurred voice. He struggled to regain his footing. “Grundy turn you into crushed ice!” threatened the swamp monster but every time he tried to pick himself up, he only fell upon himself again.
“You’re no threat if you can’t even get up you walking skunkweed!” taunted Icemanling. “What have you been eating!” he added, fanning the air with his hand.
Dark Arrow was still battling the induced sickness of the Riddler’s vertigo-rays. Riddler continued to taunt him. “Are you feeling a bit under the weather today my boy? What’s the matter? Can’t hold yourself steady enough to fire your stupid arrows at me?”
Dark Arrow used all of his strength to lift his head upwards towards the Riddler. “You know Riddler… I feel so bad… that I could just… scream!” At that instant Dark Arrow opened his mouth wide let out a blaring yell that increased in resonance into a sonic boom. The Riddler was thrown into the wall behind him and slumped unconscious to the floor.
In the midst of the chaos going on the main meeting room, Power Guy had found his way into the trophy room. “It’s gotta be in here somewhere,” he said to himself as he began scanning the room with his x-ray vision. “Ah-ha! There it is!”
Bizarro quickly entered the room mere seconds later. “Where super-sissy go? Bizarro am weakest man in world and me prove it by being nice to blonde super-boy!” Bizarro searched around the room looking for Power Guy.
Power Guy quickly popped out from behind a large statue. “You know Bizarro, since this it our first meeting, I’ve decided to get you a gift.” At that moment, Power Guy popped open a canister containing Blue Kryptonite, focusing its rays on Bizarro.
“Oh how nice!” cried the creature in agony as he shielded his face with his hands.
Thank you for Blue Kryptonite! It make Bizarro feel too wonderful to fight. Me can barely stand…” Bizarro dropped to the ground as he suffered from Kryptonite poisoning. “Me feel so good,” he gurgled as his eyes rolled back in his head. “Thank you…”
“I think I’ll leave this here with you while I go take care of your friends,” said Power Guy as he flew back into the main meeting room.
Meanwhile Luthor had realized that all bets were off. With the heroes focused on the more powerful villains such as Grodd, Giganta, and Sinestro, Luthor grouped as many of the remaining villains together as possible. He dragged Captain Cold, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, the Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, plus the remains of Brainiac as close to each other as possible. Luthor then turned his attention on Black Manta when Power Guy came flying in the room.
“Well Luthor,” said Power Guy, “I wouldn’t expect Bizarro to come to your rescue any time soon. Your little scheme has come to an end.”
Realizing it was now or never if he wanted to escape, Luthor activated Grodd’s time conveyer and fled back to the past with the villains he had rounded up. In a double-crossing turn of events, he had stranded Grodd, Giganta, Sinestro, Black Manta, and Bizarro in the future.
While Sinestro had been putting up quite a fight, he realized that not even he could take down all of the eleven heroes. “I know when I’m out-numbered,” grunted the red-faced alien deciding to surrender.
The heroes quickly rounded up the villains and brought them down to the Hall of Justice detention-cells. There they saw Strato Hawk still unconscious on the floor. Nightvision quickly unlocked the door to Strato Hawk’s cell and checked his vitals. “He’s still alive. Thank God! Junjie–get him to a hospital!” Junjie Quick lifted up Strato Hawk, flung him over his shoulder, and within moments had carried him off to Metropolis University Hospital.
“Well, that certainly wasn’t the piece of cake I thought it was going to be,” commented Nightvision. “The Hall is trashed, we’ve got a man who’s seriously injured, and five of the most dangerous villains that history has ever seen trapped here from the past. Let’s lock them in the cells until the authorities can come and take them to the Slab.”
“Don’t feel too bad amigo,” said Vibe. “I think we did pretty well for never having worked together before. I’d say we did our mentors proud.”
“Hmm…..” replied Nightvison. He did not quite agree with Vibe’s assessment. All of them were inexperienced. None had previously faced such competent villains.
• • •
Over the next few weeks, the heroes spent numerous hours restoring the Hall of Justice to state it was in before the Legion of Doom invaded. Once everything was completed Nighvision approached the rest of the heroes. He had called a meeting in the Hall, and thankfully all the heroes who had faced the Legion of Doom had returned to attend.
“Strato Hawk–how’s your back?” he began, once the meeting had come to order.
“Much better thanks to the surgery and my Nth metal armor,” responded Strato Hawk, flexing his arms to show he had reovered.
“Glad to hear it.” Nightvision stood to address the assemblage. “Everyone–there’s something I want ask you. In light of the battle with the Legion, I think we should form a new version of the Justice League.”
“But why?” said Dark Arrow. “There’s not a lot of threats that require any real attention these days.” He looked around at the others, receiving approving nods.
“Well as of right now, we have five more villains to keep an eye on than we did a few weeks ago.” Nightvision was adamant about his suggestion, wanting to gain the other heroes’ trust. “Plus,” he added, “if nothing else, we want to keep this world as crime-free as it is today, don’t we? Showing the world that we’ve united to keep peace and order will go a long way in case any old villains even think about coming out of the wood-work.”
“No offense,” countered Dark Arrow, rising to stand as well, “but I think you’re being paranoid just like Batman was.”
“I don’t know,” interrupted Power Guy, “I think it’s kind of a good idea.”
“Me too,” added Junjie Quick.
“Same here,” replied Wonder Man raising his hand in assent.
“Whatever,” grunted Dark Arrow. “You can count me out.” He began to walk away from the meeting table, but remained in the room. “You guys are blowing things out of proportion.”
“Come on Arrow,” said Green Lantern. “I think this is a great idea.” He paused, and then guiltily amended, “Though I can only commit to part-time status due to my responsibilities with the Green Lantern Corps.”
“That’s fine,” said Nightvision, disregarding Dark Arrow’s doubt. “Who else is with us?”
“I’d love to be a part of this,” said Celsius. My parents were members of the Doom Patrol and I’ve always wanted to be a part of a team of heroes.”
“Great,” said Nightvision. A thought percolated in his mind. Surprising all assembled at the meeting, he announced, “In fact, I nominate you to lead our group!”
“Me?” gasped Celsius, taken aback by the sudden turn of events. “I’m not sure that I’m qualified!” He was not prepared for what seemed to be such a rash decision from the person who everyone had assumed was the leader.
“Didn’t both of your parents lead the Doom Patrol at one time or another?” asked Nightvision, folding his hands in front of himself. “You’ve got leadership running through your veins!” He pointed out a specific example of Celsius’ good decisions: “Weren’t you the one who thought of the plan for you and Icemanling to switch foes during the battle with the Legion… which led to your individual victories?”
Celsius was still shaken up, though his positive attitude forced him to accept the situation and make the best of it. “Okay… I suppose I can give it a shot!”
“Anyone else?” asked Nightvision. “I mean, do we have any support or disagreement for this?”
“I second it,” said Power Guy, raising his hand.
“Me too,” agreed Green Lantern. He had used his power ring to probe both Nightvision’s and Celsius’s minds, and—finding nothing to hold against them—agreed with the nomination.
With a consensus from all that agreed to join the group, Celsius arose and directed his attention to those who had not yet agreed to join. He turned to Icemanling. “Are you in with us buddy?”
“Sorry Cel–you know that Norway is my first priority,” responded Icemanling. “Put me on the reserve-list, though,” he added, smiling reassuringly.
“I can settle for that,” said Celsius, looking for reassurance from Nightvision. He nodded back to Celsius.
“How about the rest of you?” asked the newly-elected leader of the team.
“Well, after that accident with Brainiac and the Toyman, I could probably use some guidance and training,” said Jemstone.
“I would be honored to join,” said Sargona.
“How about you Vibe,” asked Nighvision.
“Sorry amigo but I’m all Detroit has since my father retired. I need to stick close to home…” He traded a look with Icemanling, and added, “but I’ll be happy to join the reserve-list.”
“What about you Strato Hawk? You’re the reason we all got together in the first place,” said Nightvision.
“Are you kidding? Of course I want to join! I’ve idolized super-heroes all of my life. I would be thrilled to join this generation’s first super-team.”
“Ok, we’re a team,” decided Celsius, smiling at the new members. Dark Arrow had already shrugged his shoulders and left, since he had been standing anyway. Vibe and Icemanling remained, having no urgent need to leave straightaway. “Now,” continued Celsius, “what do we call ourselves?”
“I thought you said that we were forming a new version of the JLA?” asked Green Lantern as he leaned his elbows on the table and folded his hands together.
“Yes but not all of us are linked to the JLA,” replied Nightvision, looking to Celsius. It appeared that thought Celsius was now the elected leader, Nightvision still called the shots… or at least advised the new team leader. “I’m thinking that we should think of something a little more diverse,” said Nightvision.
“I’d like to keep the word Justice in our name to represent not only the League but the Justice Society as well,” suggested Power Guy.
“Plus we need to pay tribute to the Titans. They were the first group of young heroes,” said Wonder Man. “My Aunt Donna told me about so many of their adventures…” Wonder Man had struck a chord with the group, and they murmured their assent as they all thought about what to name their new group.
It was Wonder Man, once again, who spoke up. “Hey, what if we called ourselves the Titans of Justice?”
Celsius raised his eyebrows and smiled. His parents, Niles and Arani Caulder, had both led the Doom Patrol, which had strong ties with the Titans and the Justice League.
“You nailed it!” said Nightvison, nodding emphatically.
“All right, it settled then,” commented Celsius. “We’ll meet back here on Saturday to set things up!”
If you're charcter didn't make the line-up, don't panic, they will still appear in the story. There are a lot of twists and turns coming up. Some members will leave, others will join, plus there's an "addition" in the works.
Also - check back in a few days for a preview of chapter 4!