Titans of Justice Unlimited Chapter 10 – “The Generations Saga Part 5 of 6 – The Attack of Toyman and Gigantus
Written by: Texgnome1
Cards by: Green Lantern
Edited by: Power Guy


Neo-Tokyo…

Atmosphere scanned the street from his position on top of the building. He and his team had been sent to free three captured members of the Legion of Superheroes. Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, and Shrinking Violet were completely helpless. He could see them very clearly on the street below. He and the others could also see very clearly that it was a trap.

The streets of Neo-Tokyo were completely deserted. Founded on the remains of the original city, the new version completely dwarfed anything even Lady Light had seen. “In my time, this is part of my home territory. It is a technological wonder. But this new place makes mine look like the Stone Age!” she exclaimed.

At 5 pm on Wednesday, the streets should, of course, be completely full with cars and people. Instead, three members of the Legion were tied to stakes in the middle of the street. Blindfolded, gagged, and chained, they were obviously meant to be found.

Starman set down on the building next to the others. He’d been scanning from high above, but hadn’t found anything of note.
“Well, wherever they are they’re well out of sight,” Ted said. “I’m not even sure who we’re dealing with here.”

“Aw, what does it matter at this point. With the five of us, we have MORE than enough firepower to deal with anything,” bragged Firestorm.

Atmosphere spoke up, “Especially in this time, firepower isn’t enough. We have no idea what we’re facing. I want to free them as well, but we need to be careful.”

“It’s okay though, Atmosphere. I can head down there and have them freed in no time. You guys just keep an eye out. Provide me with some cover.” Valor was nothing if not confident.

Lady Light tried to stop him, but he flew down from the roof before they could react. “He is certainly fast. Almost puts Superman to shame.” Imako shook her head in both admiration and disgust.

Atmosphere soared off the ledge to hover in the air and the others followed. For once, it was very refreshing being on a team where everyone else could fly.

Mon-el landed in the street, and moved towards his friends. He reached to unchain Saturn Girl and then suddenly stopped. He could feel a rumbling under his feet, and suddenly, several buildings fell on him and the entire street caved in. Caught by surprise, he didn’t even have time to begin flying. Hundreds of tons of rubble fell on him and his friends.

The others reacted immediately, as they began transmuting, blasting, and pulverizing pieces of rubble that threatened to fall on them. Starman seemed to be having a hard time concentrating, especially amid all the dust. Atmosphere used his wind powers to clear the air, and Lady Light was providing cover fire.

“Starman, are you okay?” Atmosphere asked.

“Yes, just all the dust and the explosion bring back some pretty unpleasant memories. Thanks for noticing,” Starman replied.

Atmosphere had always admired that first generation of heroes. They’d had to fight not only villains, but also prejudices, bigotry, and even their own government most of the time and public opinion didn’t usually fall on their side. He’d even heard that some of them had been forced to do horrible things for the US Government.

Lady Light saw it first, and yelled at Atmosphere just in time. He was snapped from his revelry just in time. The hand barely missed him, and he groaned as the realization hit him. “Oh please don’t let it be those two again,” Atmosphere said out loud.

“Aww, you’d think he didn’t want to play with us. Didn’t you like how we took down our erector set? Hahahaha!”

Lady Light recognized the costumed clown hovering before them from the files. Toyman was suspended in air on top of two miniature World War I airplanes. He was way more dangerous than he looked, and his partner was just as bad.

Firestorm looked at them curiously. “Who is that? Looks like Toyman, but I don’t recognize the other guy,” Firestorm said.

“Don’t look and ask questions, get them. If you need a name, the big guy is called Gigantus!” Atmosphere yelled.

Toyman began to cackle again, “Points go to the big ugly grape! Now Gigantus, please make me some wine out of that costumed fruit!”

“I’m more than happy to oblige my friend,” Gigantus bellowed. He began hurling beams and blocks of concrete into the air, literally turning the disaster below into a shooting gallery.

Lady Light began shooting, trying to get a clear shot at Gigantus below. Starman and Firestorm did the same. Atmosphere headed straight for Toyman.

“Ah ah ah, Atmosphere. I don’t think so. Did you forget what you were here for? You know, the ones currently trapped beneath hundreds of tons of debris? Hee hee!”

Atmosphere glared, but knew the Toyman was right. He headed for where he had last seen the Legionnaires, and began using windblasts to move rubble. Suddenly, he saw a large golden turnkey sticking out of the rubble. As he moved further rubble away, he realized it was attached to the back of Saturn Girl. Just as he cleared enough rubble, Saturn Girl stood up. Atmosphere’s mind exploded in fire. He heard Toyman taunting him from overhead.

“Isn’t that the coolest thing? I turned the Legionnaires into my own personal toy soldiers! Now tell me you’re impressed.”

Atmosphere hated that nasally voice, but couldn’t even see straight to begin to respond.

Meanwhile, Lady Light was fast becoming irritated playing dodge ball. “Starman, I don’t know about you, but I hated this game in school. What say we switch to a different game.

Maybe, jump rope?” Starman grinned, and used his cosmic rod to levitate a large metal cable over to himself. He tossed the other end to Lady Light, and they flew down towards the bottom of the canyon they were all in.

“Firestorm, could you please give us a diversion?” Lady Light asked him.

Firestorm thought for a moment, and then heard the all-too familiar voice in his head. “Martin, I wonder what would happen if you turned spandex into water?” Professor Stein asked.

Ronnie just smiled, dodged a very large piece of concrete, and then aimed at Gigantus. He roared in laughter at the look on Gigantus’ face, and Lady Light nearly lost her grip on the rope as she giggled.

Gigantus on the other hand was enraged. He was now soaking wet, and totally naked. He saw the two heroes flying towards them, and two late saw the rope between them. They knocked his legs out from under him, and he fell with a thud. Lady Light didn’t see Chameleon come up behind her. He had changed into a snake, and wrapped himself around her.

“Lady Light! Firestorm, down here,” Starman screamed. Firestorm though had problems of his own. The diminutive woman hit him square in the privates, and for such a small person, she packed a powerful punch. Starman looked for Atmosphere, and realized he was screaming down on the ground. Toyman hovered over him laughing, and Saturn Girl just stood in front of him with a blank look.

“I’ve been doing this long enough to figure that out. He must be controlling them somehow,” said Starman. Before he could fly over to help, his ankle exploded in fire. Gigantus had reached up and grabbed him, breaking his foot and probably his leg. He threw Starman into a nearby building, and Starman nearly vomited in pain.

Atmosphere could see things were going very badly, but couldn’t think straight. Then he heard his mentor’s voice in his head saying, “Focus on something good – something you want. Remember, sometimes the villains fight with the mind instead of their fists.” Suddenly, he was able to focus, and blasted the controlled Saturn Girl off her feet. He then managed a careful shot to tear the gold turnkey off her back.

“No no no no! Why do you always ruin things. I can’t even focus long enough to kill that stupid broad Jemstone without you interfering.” He pulled out a plastic golf club, and Atmosphere felt the swing across his back. “You always seem to get the worst of our encounters,” he laughed.

Luckily, Starman had seen what Atmosphere had done. He used his control rod to pull the key off Chameleon’s back. The morphing Legionnaire changed back into his normal form. Unfortunately, both he and Lady Light plummeted to the ground. Starman moved to help, but Gigantus hit him, preventing him from stopping them. Starman had just enough time to scream for Atmosphere before Gigantus hit him a third time.

“You do understand Starman, that I’m going to kill you. Time-stream be damned, I’m sick of losing to obviously less talented men,” Gigantus taunted.

Atmosphere heard Starman scream, and looked up to see one white blur and one green and yellow blur speeding towards the ground. He knew Toyman hovered over him, but if they hit they’d both probably be killed. He aimed a short blast that sent Toyman off balance, and used his wind powers to slow Chameleon & Lady Light’s descent. They still hit hard, but at least it was a cushioned fall. Unfortunately, Toyman recovered much more quickly than he anticipated. His head exploded again as Toyman hit him with the golf club square on the side of his head where he’d lost an ear.

“d**n, I bet that hurts doesn’t it fruit boy? Tell me, should I hit you there again or even things up?” Toyman pulled out a plastic eating knife that suddenly turned into a large machete. He also pressed a button on his wrist, and several stuffed lions came out of the shadows. Of course they had razor sharp teeth. Atmosphere’s mask was torn to pieces by now, so he pulled it off in order to see. He grinned when he heard the rumbling coming from underneath where he lay.

“Why are you smiling? Did you finally realize that I’m superior to you?” Toyman cackled in amusement at the thought.

“No, meatball. I’m smiling because even with one ear, I can hear my friend coming up from below!” Atmosphere said.

Valor exploded in a shower of dust and debris, scattering Toyman’s pets and knocking the club out of his hand. Atmosphere had heard tales of Superman’s anger at times when he was in his prime, and he couldn’t help but feel that this must be what it had looked like. Valor incinerated the lions, and crushed the plane under Toyman’s left foot. This sent Toyman spinning erratically into the side of the nearest building. Toyman smashed into the side with a sickening crunch.

He headed straight for Gigantus, who backslapped him into the remains of another building. Unfortunately for Gigantus, Firestorm had managed to free Shrinking Violet, and he began to change rubble into rubber. Firestorm soon had the naked giant completely encased, and Valor used his heat to seal it completely.

“There, even if he shrinks down, he’ll still be encased,” Firestorm said.

Valor smiled in approval. He turned to check on Starman, only to be enraged by what he saw. Ted was a bloody pulp, and it was a good thing he’d been taken from his time in his prime. Had he been taken later, he probably wouldn’t have survived. A very groggy Chameleon Boy, Saturn Girl, and Shrinking Violet gingerly made a cot for him, and got him airborne. Firestorm used his powers to merge the cable from earlier into Gigantus’ rubber room, and started pulling him into the air. Atmosphere picked up Lady Light, and carried her airborne. Toyman unfortunately was nowhere to be seen.

Later at Legion HQ…

Starman lay in the bed recovering from his many wounds, and Lady Light lay in a bed across from him. Valor and Firestorm joked with him, while Atmosphere tended to Imako.

Saturn Girl came up beside him, and said, “I’m so sorry. I know that hurt. I wasn’t using a mental hold – I was really trying to kill you. I couldn’t stop myself. How did you break free?”

“Training with my mentor Samurai. He wanted us to be able to fight off a variety of different types of attacks. He taught us a trick – focus on something you want that you haven’t yet accomplished.”

“So what did you focus on?” Saturn Girl asked.

“Hehe – a date with her,” he smiled, glancing at Lady Light.

The voice from the bed startled him, “Well, oh Grape Samurai, you never know what will happen until you ask.”

Atmosphere blushed deeply, and Lady Light smiled. Valor, Firestorm, and Starman laughed out loud.

Chameleon Boy though was deeply troubled. “I wonder what the whole point to this deal is. Why did Chronos have us captured in the first place? What is he planning to do to Sonic Boom that is so important that he had to recruit villains from different times just to keep us busy and out of his way?”

Next Chapter: The Conclusion to the Generations Saga featuring the Green Lantern Corps!