The Titans of Justice Chapter 19 – “A Star Is Born Part 2”

Written by: Power Guy
Co-conspirator: Scotty2Hotty
Editor: Marcus Mebes


Coast City, U.S.A.

Green Lantern stood speechless at the revelation that the new Star Sapphire was none other than Monique Le Claire. He had thought that during their last encounter in Paris, he had set Monique down the right path.

“Surprised, Green Lantern?” asked Star Sapphire. “You are looking at your equal. I am now in a position to make sure that men will never get the best of me again. Your inspiration has bore its fruit!”

“But Monique, killing men is not the answer!” chastised Green Lantern! “Those men down there didn’t deserve to die!”

“Yes, they did!” shouted a defiant Star Sapphire. “Those men put women on display for their own selfish desires! They coerced women to get up on a stage, strip for them, and then submit to their filthy molestation! All for a few measly dollars so that those women could make ends meet! Do you not agree that those men had committed sin?”

“Yes, of course I do, but it is not your place to judge them,” countered Green Lantern.

“Someone had to stand up for the woman and take action! No more shall women have to wear skimpy clothing and perform sexual favors to accomplish their goals! No more shall women have to submit to cooking and cleaning while the man comes and goes as he pleases! No more shall women be forced to live their lives as second best or first runner-up. Today that all changes!” Star Sapphire screamed in a rage.

Green Lantern could tell that Monique was deeply troubled and not herself. “Monique, that’s not you talking. It’s the gem. It’s manipulating your thoughts and emotions.”

“Your compassion is sweet my love but it is not necessary,” advised Star Sapphire. “I am in full control here. In fact, let’s go for a test drive!” Star Sapphire then flew away urging Green Lantern to follow her. Green Lantern took the bait and was quick to follow.

While Green Lantern and Star Sapphire were bickering, Celsius and the other fallen Titans of Justice had recovered.

Celsius tried to shake off his grogginess. “Can’t believe that Monique is the new Star Sapphire. I’ve got to warn GL about her,” he muttered. He then raised his communicator in front of his mouth and spoke into it. “Green Lantern – come in.”

Green Lantern was struggling to keep up with Star Sapphire. Her quick mastery over the Star Sapphire gem was impressive. She was using it like a pro. He then heard his communicator going off with Celsius’ summons. “I’m kind of busy right now,” he uttered, annoyed.

“I know,” confirmed Celsius, “but I’ve got to tell you about our new Star Sapphire. Her name is Monique Le Claire.”

“I’m aware,” revealed Green Lantern. “I saved her from suicide a short while back. I thought I had set her down the right path but apparently I was wrong.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” commented Celsius. “Monique is a deeply troubled woman. I know her from the model circuit. While she’s a beautiful woman, she had a habit of only taking first runner-up in all of the pageants she entered. Let’s just say she doesn’t take being second-best very well. There were reports that she had harassed and stalked several of the pageant judges that put her as first runner-up. And she doesn’t get any modeling gigs anymore. I’m guessing that she views being the new Star Sapphire as being the ultimate beauty queen.”

“Could be…” commented Green Lantern. “Still, I’ve got to try to get through to her. The side of Monique that I saw was fragile and vulnerable.”

“Understandable,” affirmed Celsius, still trying to clear his head. “Let me rouse the rest of our friends and we’ll join you.”

Within seconds of Celsius signing off his communicator, Green Lantern’s ring lit up again by the vision of Ganthet. “Daniel Jordan – you are correct. The Star Sapphire gem has been stolen from our vault.”

“I knew it was the same jewel,” Green Lantern said with confidence. “It would be hard to make a copy of an object with that amount of power. Have you talked to the Zamarons to see if they know anything?”

“I have,” confirmed Ganthet. “They know nothing about the situation but they are overjoyed to have a new queen even though they did not choose her. They will be of no help,” Ganthet stated in disappointment. “I should warn you however, that whoever stole the gem and gave it to the woman you are facing must be very powerful. They slipped in and out of our vault completely undetected.”

“Not to worry Ganthet. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Good luck and good day Green Lantern of sector 2814,” wished Ganthet as he signed off.

While communicating with Celsius and Gathet, Green Lantern had followed Star Sapphire throughout the city. Surprisingly, they had doubled-back almost to where they had started. Green Lantern noticed Star Sapphire turn intangible and fly into what appeared to be a large, run-down townhouse. He flew into the house after her.

Star Sapphire flew into main dining room of the house where several ladies of the night and a couple of pimps sat counting money.

One of the pimps held up some money in his hands and then threw it at the women. “Here you go ladies. Here’s your five percent!”

Star Sapphire then called attention to herself. “Five percent? Give them ALL of the money!” she ordered. Her sudden appearance called all gathered in the room to jump up or fall over in fear.

“No way lady,” disagreed one of the pimps. He quickly drew a magnum forty-five from his pocket and pointed it at the intruder. “Now leave or I’ll shoot that pretty lil’ jewel off of your head!”

“Go ahead!” challenged Star Sapphire.

The man proceeded to fire several rounds of bullets at Star Sapphire; all of which were deflected off of her Sapphire-created force-field.

“Hahaha!” cackled the villainess. “You worthless men think you’re so big and powerful with your guns and muscles! Your reign of terror is about to come to an end. No more will you use these women as a source of income.” Star Sapphire used her gem to gather up the women in a protective energy bubble.

As Star Sapphire was gathering up the women, Green Lantern made his way into the room. “Sapphire – what do you think you’re doing?”

“This!” answered Star Sapphire as she fired an energy blast at the roof of the building in hopes that it would collapse on the pimps and kill them.

The roof shattered as if a bomb had been dropped on it. Large chunks of debris began to fall. In the midst of the commotion, Star Sapphire and the women she had gathered up flew off to safety.

“We’re going to die! We’re going to die!” cried out the pimps, trembling in fear.

“No you’re not,” countered Green Lantern as he made a giant net to catch the falling debris. He then made a platform underneath the two pimps and towed them out of the house.

Once outside the house, Green Lantern noticed his teammates and Sonic Boom had tracked him down.

“What happened here GL?” asked Strato Hawk.

“Star Sapphire blew apart the roof in an attempt to kill these men,” replied Green Lantern. “I believe this is a prostitute ring.”

“You ain’t got no proof,” said one of the pimps smugly.

“Really?” taunted Sonic Boom. “I’ll bet if I break one of your kneecaps, you’ll be more than happy to confess…”

The two pimps looked at each other and knew that Sonic Boom meant business. One of them spoke up “Okay, okay... we admit it! We admit it! We don’t want any more trouble with you women today!!”

“Great,” Junjie Quick said as he grabbed the two men by the backs of their jackets. “Let’s get you two off to the police before you change your mind about confessing.” With a blink of an eye, the obsidian-clad speedster ran off, hauling the two pimps to the authorities.

“We’ve got to find Star Sapphire,” stated Celsius. “We can’t let her keep trying to kill men like she’s been doing.”

“Looks like we won’t have to search too hard,” Starman said, alerting his teammates to the man-hating villainess who had positioned herself a top of Gardner Inc. Gardner was a company widely known for their discriminatory practices against female applicants and employees, and its notoriety had made it to Europe, and to Monique’s attention.

“Oh, no! She’s already pulled out the female employees!” cried Celsius, noticing the women who were being lowered to the ground by the Sapphire’s gem. “I’ll bet ten buck that I know what she’s going to do next. We’ve got to stop her. Strato Hawk, Starman, Green Lantern—you take to the air and try and stop Sapphire. Sonic Boom, you’re with me. We’ll try to rescue the male employees while the others take care of her.”

“We’re on it boss!” shouted Starman as he took to the air.

“Hold up Starman!” requested Green Lantern. “Don’t go racing off half-cocked like before. Think about your approach before we confront Star Sapphire.”

“Sorry GL,” apologized Starman. “I guess you’re right. She did kinda put the smack-down on me last time. Let’s do this together.”

“See, you’re learning,” complimented Strato Hawk as the three heroes flew up towards Star Sapphire.

Star Sapphire was hovering over the building. With the blink of an eye, she had created a giant hammer which she intended to use to crush the ten story building. “You male chauvinist pigs will never discriminate against women again!” she screamed as she lowered her hammer towards the building.

“Monique! Stop!” yelled Green Lantern as he created a giant catcher’s mitt to stop Star Sapphire’s hammer from hitting the building. Even with the glove cushioning the hammer’s blow, the building still received considerable damage to it. Green Lantern worked quickly to mend the fractured structure.

“Green Lantern – don’t be a fool!” scolded Star Sapphire. “These men have discriminated against female employees for years! Many talented women at this company still make no more than half of what their male counterparts do even after working there for more than five years! Women are reduced to secretarial roles when they should be running the place. And the worst part about it all, some women are molested and raped and the company sweeps the scandal under the rug! They all deserve to DIE!!”

Strato Hawk and Starman flew towards Star Sapphire. Each of them grabbed one of her arms.
“Your reign of terror is over vile fiend,” Starman said, trying to sound like a pro.

“Unhand me you fools!” demanded Star Sapphire.

“Lady, you need a lot of help!” Strato Hawk said trying to get her to realize what she was doing.

“I SAID, UNHAND ME!” yelled Star Sapphire as she fired a double-shot from her jewel, hitting both Strato Hawk and Starman. She then surrounded herself with an energy-field.

“Ugh… that hurt,” complained Starman. “Let’s see how you like it foul villainess!” Starman used his Cosmic-Rod to fire several bolts of energy at Star Sapphire’s protective bubble. While the beams jolted the bubble, they could not break through.

“Stop with the dramatics and let me try,” requested Strato Hawk. He then proceeded to slam his mace into Star Sapphire’s bubble. After several attempts, the bubble started to crack.

“You want me out of this bubble? Fine!” shouted Star Sapphire as she enlarged her bubble and then caused it to explode, sending fragments flying into Strato Hawk and Starman that knocked them both out of the sky.

Meanwhile down on the ground, Celsius and Sonic Boom had evacuated all of the male employees from the Gardner building.

“Just in time!” said a relieved Celsius.

“Yeah, if we would have waited five minutes, all of these guys could have been seriously injured,” added Sonic Boom.

Without notice, a large chunk of the damaged building broke off and came falling downward at the two heroes.

“Oh no!” shouted Celsius. “That chunk of building will crush us and if I freeze it will just fall faster and if I burn it, you’ll be roasted alive.”

“Calm down, I’ve got it!” assured Sonic Boom. Lifting her head upwards, she let out her inherited Canary Cry. “Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

The once-threatening chunk of siding was reduced to several million small pieces of rubble.

“That was close!” Celsius said complimenting his new teammate. “Thanks Sonic Boom!”

“Don’t mention it,” Sonic Boom said with a smile. “I just hope our Green Lantern and the others have as good of luck!”

In the air, Green Lantern had just finished putting the building back together after Star Sapphire’s attack. He turned and noticed Star Sapphire floating a few feet in front of him. “Monique! Don’t you realize what you’re doing? You could have killed all of those men!”

“They would have deserved it!” Star Sapphire growled. “They are filthy pigs not fit to walk this earth! You should join me in my mission to cleanse the earth of its garbage and then you and I can reign supreme as this planet’s king and queen!” she said, putting her hand on Green Lantern’s cheek.

Green Lantern walked himself through various scenarios on how to stop Star Sapphire and considered all consequences. “I’m sorry to do this Monique, but you leave me no choice,” Green Lantern said as he blasted the unprotected Star Sapphire.

Assuming that Green Latern would not harm her, Star Sapphire had let her guard down. The blast was enough to knock her unconscious. She started falling to the ground but Green Lantern quickly caught her. The rest of the Titans just gazed upon Monique with pity.

About twenty minutes later, Monique started to regain consciousness. Green Lantern had taken the liberty of removing the Star Sapphire gem from her mask. He was holding Monique in his arms. He looked down at her an asked “Monique, are you okay?”

Monique struggled to speak, “Oh… yes. My head is so fuzzy right now. That gem was pumping me full of rage and hatred. Did I hurt anyone?”

“Don’t worry about that right now. You need to concentrate on getting well,” Green Lantern said calmly. “Can I ask you a question though?”

“Yes, certainly,” Monique mumbled. “Anything for you.”

“Where did you get this gem?” inquired Green Lantern.

“A man… he had a strange name… not American. His name was… Mordru, I think.. He gave it to me…”

“Mordru!” gasped Strato Hawk. “Oh, this is bad! He was one of the Justice Society’s deadliest foes!”

“Jemstone told me something about him once,” added Celsius. “He came from another planet, or a dimension, I think. She called it Gemworld. She said he was a prince, the son of Topaz? I’m not certain…”

While the heroes were trying to take in this revelation, a red and yellow blur approached them.

“Hey, Junjie’s back!” stated Starman.

As the team turned to welcome Junjie, the speedster approaching them kicked up his speed causing an intense sonic boom. Windows in the area shattered while the Titans of Justice were all knocked off of their feet and covered in a cloud of dust.

A few minutes later as the group regained their senses, Strato Hawk was the first to speak. “What’s the big idea Junjie and where are you hiding?”

There was no response.

“Guys, Monique is gone and so is the Star Sapphire Gem!” Green Lantern revealed to his teammates.

“Did Junjie take her to jail?” asked Starman.

“No I didn’t,” answered Junjie Quick as he approached his teammates and stopped.

“What was with the sonic boom?” demanded Celsius.

“Yeah, that was pretty smart,” added the heroine of the same name sarcastically.

“What are you talking about?” asked Junjie.

“You just raced through here and caused a sonic boom that shattered all of the glass in the area,” answered Starman.

“It wasn’t me… but I think I know who it was. Look down at the ground!” advised Junjie.

The heroes looked downward and saw a large “Z” carved into the pavement.

“That’s Kid Zoom’s trademark,” revealed Junjie Quick. “It looks like someone else is interested in Star Sapphire.”



The End(for now…)