Justice League of America: Revolutions #4

[arcalian]

The mental static hit them hard and fast, like a migraine that bounced from side of their skulls to the other. “There’s been another murder,” came the sub-harmonic psychic screech. “There’s been--”

Superman was dressed and ready before Lois even had the opportunity to notice he was gone. Normally he slowed, took a moment to say ‘goodbye’, ‘I love you’, ‘I’ll be home soon’, but now was not the time for that, and as Lois Lane rolled over, her arm expecting Clark, she opened her eyes, and worry filled her. This had not been a good month for anyone, and he was taking it the hardest.

[arcalian]

“Did you get the call?” Green Arrow was headed to the warehouse district, where the teleporters he used during his tenure in the Justice League still resided. They worked on a different carrier wave, and right now, he didn’t want to be on the JLA’s radar. In his ear was the voice of Ted Kord, and he could hear him bringing the Bug’s engines to life. “Qs got some information. Did you get the coordinates?”

“Opal City,” replied Ted, “I’m half an hour away if I kick the engines up to eleven and don’t stop for hitchhikers.”

“Not using the teleporters?”

“Never liked them before, like them even less now. Get there, Ollie. Find out what he knows.”

[arcalian]

Charles Szasz was suspended against the brick wall, blood dripping from the wounds inflicted upon him. His clothes were caked with blood. Old blood, dried and hardened, was given a sleek shine by new blood drawn by new wounds. He couldn’t move. He was in agony, and he laughed as he struggled to breathe inside his mask. “I… was right…”

“Prove it.”

He screamed as his torture continued.

Justice League of America: Revolutions
Snuff
Story by House Of Mystery
Edited by Jay McIntyre

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[arcalian]

Alfred Pennyworth, much to his pleasure, had forced his bodyguards and house guests to allow him to do the dishes from the evening’s meal. He’d already returned from cleaning the library to find Dinah Lance elbow deep in suds and dirty dishes, and Helena Bertinelli drying them with expert precision. He took solace in the solitude of the dishes, allowing him to take stock of his time spent and his time to come. So he used his British charm to eject them, suds and all, into the lounge, and he prepared himself for the task at hand. It had been good for him and the Manor to have guests, even if they were there to protect him. It was good for there to be life here. If only Dick would return. If only Tim could persuade him. If only Bruce… if only… if only…

Alfred finally broke down, tears and sobs mixing in with the bubbles of the sink.

[arcalian]

Punch after punch after punch after punch, the wood eventually splintering and then cracking as his fists unleashed the fury of an orphan child’s rage. Dick Grayson was training, he’d taken up residence in Titans Tower, and much to the rest of the teams surprise, he’d locked himself in the training centre, and hadn’t spoken to anyone but Tim since.

“What’s he doing?” Rose Wilson looked over Tim Drake’s shoulder as he surveyed the training scenario. “He’s been in there for ages, Boy Wonder, is he alright?”

“He’s not alright, no Ravager, his dad is dead,” snapped Tim, before catching himself. “Ah. Oh. I’m sorry, I’ve… I’ve not slept, and this entire… situation…” He rubbed his forehead, and looked down to the displays, the ones Dick hadn’t disabled, the ones he didn’t know of. Nightwing’s uniform was shredded, his gloves replaced with bandages to cover his bloodied knuckles, and yet he wasn’t stopping. “Why doesn’t he talk to me, Rose?”

“We all need time, Tim,” replied Rose slowly, her hand squeezing his shoulder. She wanted him. She knew that with every fibre of her being, she wanted him, to be with him, their skin pushed together… and right now, she saw the chance. Her ability to see the future kicked in, and she saw them together, on the cold metallic floor of the room they resided in right now. She blinked with her good eye, and then sighed. “I’m going to head out for some air. You be careful, kid.” Again, her ability to see the future kicked in. She left. He stayed. And then… and then… again, she sighed.

Tim sat alone in the dark. He continued to watch his ‘big brother’ as he destroyed all the training apparatus in the training room. “Maybe… I should go down there…”

“Leave it to me,” came a voice from behind him, and Tim turned and smiled.

“Was waiting for you to show up,” said Tim, quietly.

“Well, Dick needs straightening out, he did it to me once, so now I’ll do it to him. Let me have first crack, then we’ll see what happens.” He picked up his bow, and his quiver, and laughed. “He’s going to hate me.” Roy Harper headed down to the training room, ready for action.

[arcalian]

Green Arrow was ready for anything. His bow was ready, an arrow positioned. The warehouse was empty, he thought, apart from the sound of rats scurrying about the place. Why rats, he thought? Why didn’t people keep their headquarters tidy? He expected more from the Question, of all people.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” He froze, the screen familiar to him. Question. What the hell was going on? He didn’t want to rush into things, so he crept around the outskirts, only to see two men suspend the Question from a wall, jagged black blades of shadow impaling his limbs and causing him to writhe in agony. He recognised the perpetrators immediately.

Sonofabitch, he thought, this is impossible…

[arcalian]

“Boy Wonder,” Dick span around, escrima sticks drawn and ready. His hands were bleeding, the once white bandages caked with blood. He hadn’t shaved, he hadn’t washed, but he’d been training, and Roy could see the muscle definition in his best friend’s body was tighter than before. But Dick was tired, thin, wasted. “What the £$%^ do you think you’re doing?”

“… Speedy,” berathed Dick, heavily, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“No, seriously, what the £$%^ do you think you’re doing? You’re living in the Tower? That was our dream ten years ago, come on.”

“Are you here to have a go at me, Roy? Because I am so not in the mood.” Nightwing pressed a button on the wall, and all the obstacles reset. “I’m training. Let me train. Let me get better.”

“So you can become like him? A £$%^ing shut in? You know what you’re doing is wrong. You’ll never be--”

The escrima stick flew brutally toward Roy, but the former ward of Green Arrow dropped his bow and caught it, spinning it around in his hand. “if you weren’t blunting your talents on extended sessions of masturbatory violence that would have hit me. You’ve lost your edge.”

Dick growled. He was so angry, and he couldn’t control it. He’d lost Bruce. He’d lost so much, his family… and he couldn’t process the pain. He was lost in a world of red, rage pouring through his body. “Then kick my ass, Roy. You know you think you can. Hand to hand, bow to fist, whatever, kick my ass.”

“You’re serious?”

Nightwing pulled off his mask, “do I look like I’m joking?!” He leapt at his old team mate, and Roy threw the escrima stick aside, Dick doing the same with his second, and then they went at it, violent blows raining down on each other. It was on.

[arcalian]

He aimed slowly. He centred his thoughts, hid them away like he’d been trained to. But it wasn’t enough. The two figures torturing his friend spun around in synch, and the smallest of them spoke. “Company. Green Arrow. Oliver Queen. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

The arrow flew, and struck the speaker square in the face, knocking him out. Boxing Arrow. “I could say the same to you.” He pulled another arrow from his quiver, but cried out in pain as the shadow behind him solidified, and lodged itself into his shoulder. “Ghhh…” he fell forward, clutching the wound. Another shadow reached up from the ground, and crushed his bow.

“Poor, poor, Green Arrow. You’ll die here. Alone.” Obsidian checked on his unconscious teammate, Brainwave, and laughed. “And you won’t be any closer to the truth.”

Oliver Queen grunted, “you’re an insane little daddy’s boy, and you’re part of a god damn conspiracy against all of us, ain’t ya’, kid?”

Obsidian laughed. “So you’re closer to the truth than we previously thought. Shame. That means we can’t allow you to survive. Maybe, if you were in the dark a little bit more, you’d be left wandering some far off city, with your mind taken away from you, and a faint idea that you were the King of New Zealand lodged into your brain. Or maybe, just maybe, you’d be sent where we send all the others. Away. But no, I think it’s escalating. You die.”

Oliver grabbed an arrow with his good hand, and threw it at Obsidian, who caught it in his hand, and merely laughed.

“Pathetic.”

“No,” whispered Green Arrow. “Flare arrow.”

The arrow head exploded in incandescence, and the tendrils Obsidian had laid with his power whipped back into him, and then, grunting in pain as his shoulder went numb, Queen threw himself at the shadow weaving ‘hero’, sending them flying through a wall. The Question fell to the ground, the shards of darkness dissolving as Obsidian continued to struggle against his attacker. He cried out as his wounds wept blood, but knew he couldn’t take this sitting down. He pulled himself up, his flesh groaning, and grabbed a fire axe from the wall. He was going to kill that son of a bitch.

[arcalian]

Dinah Lance put her finger to her ear as a voice whispered into her communicator. She turned to Huntress, who was, like Dinah, dressed in civvies, though her crossbow was hidden just within reach. “I’ve got to go, Ollie has something to tell me, it could be important… you’ll be OK here? Gypsy is en-route, and Zinda will be crashing her too.”

“A regular Birds reunion. You stay safe, Dinah.”

“Will do,” said Black Canary, as she headed down to the Cave, but not before seeing Alfred wiping his face, and continuing to clean the dishes. She lingered for a moment, wanting to say something, but before she could he turned, and smiled as best he could. What could she say, anyway? He nodded at her politely, and she did the same, before heading down into the Cave, and toward the transporter booth.

Her Robin Hood needed her. So there she went.

[arcalian]

Roy Harper had trained his entire life to fight and win. Dick Grayson had been trained to ends fight as efficiently as possible. Tim Drake didn’t know what to do, as he watched two men he always looked up to battle it out down in the training centre at Titan’s Tower. He could go down there, but what if this was part of Roy’s plan? The blood lapping out of Red Arrow’s cheek didn’t look like it was part of the plan, but the fact that Harper had broken Dick’s fingers as a seeming punishment for the fact…

“…What the HELL am I thinking?!”

Tim grabbed his bo-staff and hurried down the corridor, toward the training centre, praying he wasn’t too late. He reached the entry into the room, and stabbed in his entrance number. It buzzed in defiance. He tried his secondary code. Again, no.

“No, no…” he then threw a wad of C4 onto the lock and dove around the corner, detonated it, and leaped in through the smoke toward the battling heroes, praying he wasn’t too late--

Dick Grayson wept in Roy Harper’s arms. Red Arrow looked up through swollen eyes, and nodded at Robin, who nodded back. Roy cradled his best friend, telling him it would be ok. “… He’s dead, Roy, it’ll never… he’ll never… it’s not the same. It’ll never be the same. And I… I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“We’re here, Dick,” said Tim, as he knelt beside the man who he regarded as his brother, “you can’t lock us out. Don’t you leave us too.”

Dick breathed in deeply, and wiped the blood from his mouth, before embracing Tim tightly. “I’m sorry, kid. I’m so sorry.”

[arcalian]

Green Arrow continued to beat on Obsidian, blow after blow causing black ichor to spray from the man’s mouth and nose. He couldn’t let up, and as The Question joined in the fight, his own fists, as bloodied as they were with his own fluids, he thought they could win this. But even as the wet sound of the impact of their blows faded, there was another sound, getting louder and louder every second.

Obsidian was laughing. “You… you… think… this… means… anything?” He cleared his mouth of blood with a spit, a gob of saliva and internal fluid flying against Arrow’s already damp uniform.

“You were always £$%^ed up, Obsidian, we always knew, what with your flip-flopping from good to bad, but I didn’t know you’d side with Luthor and his bastard cohorts.”

“Luthor?!” Obsidian’s laughter deepened. “The Secret… Society…?!” He lurched up, “this is bigger than them!” The Question put him back down with a jab of the axe in his hands, the stub of the weapon slamming into the villain’s nose.

“He’s right… Ollie…” grunted Szasz, as he looked at the wounds on his arms, and felt dread filling him. He was losing so much blood, running on pure adrenaline, and he was already beginning to feel that buzz fade. “This isn’t just him. And this is bigger than paltry… ideas… of heroes versus villains.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means…” The Question and Green Arrow clutched their heads, as Brainwave pulled himself up from where he had been knocked unconscious. “…It means that when the men in charge arrive, you’ll be ruined. But until then, I’m going to tickle your brain stems, and make you dance the dance that dying men do. I’m in control.”

A small blue object dropped to the floor in front of Brainwave, and he looked down at it, and then up to Obsidian. “Todd?”

“HANK!” The grenade exploded, sending Brainwave hurtling back, and a strange silver haze filled the room. Obsidian looked up, anger and murder in his eyes, as the ceiling was wrenched from its moorings. A spotlight shot down onto Obsidian, who covered those same eyes with his arms. Green Arrow grabbed the axe from The Question’s open hands, and swung it, catching the flat on Obsidian’s skull, and knocking him out completely.

“Stay down you smug bastard!” Ollie threw the axe away, and looked to Charles, who was leaning against a wall, pale as a sheet, blood dribbling from his mouth. His mask was in his limp hands, blood caking the inside of that, too. “Q? Q?! No, oh, come on, come on…” He rushed over to his fallen friend and then to the origin of the spotlight. Ted Kord abseiled down, in full costume, medical kit in hand. “You can’t die on us now, Q! We’ve got medicine! We’ll get you help!”

Charles Szasz’s eyes didn’t move. They were pale and white. Ted placed a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “Ollie…”

“No, goddammit, no!” He jerked up and punched the wall, breaking a hole through the plaster in his anger. “He was on to something! He knew what was going on!” He balled up his fists, and then turned to Ted. “He was my friend.”

“Mourn. That’s all you have time left to do. To be honest, I think what’s going on is pretty obvious, Green Arrow, but as you’re no longer a threat to us, we might as well tell you the whole truth… don’t you think?”

Green Arrow and Blue Beetle span around, and Ted gasped in surprise. “It can’t be!”

They stepped out of the dark, illuminated by the green, warm light of a ring on one of their member’s hands. Alan Scott smiled, and erected a fiery prison around the two heroes, and then shook his head. “You couldn’t live with ignorance, could you? You had to look underneath the surface. It’s such a shame, we had such high hopes for all of you.” The Justice Society of America surrounded the duo, solemn looks on their faces. “Now we have to clean this mess up.”

“Is this a joke?! Because no one’s laughing!” growled Oliver Queen, as he paced his makeshift cell.

“No joke, Queen,” replied Hawkman, pointing his mace at the emerald archer, “this is the truth of the world. We serve. We protect. But we’ve made some decisions in the past that you and your friends might view as… muddy.”

“You murdering bastards!” screamed Queen, “you killed Batman, didn’t you? You killed Bruce! He was onto you and you got rid of him!”

“We got rid of him,” mused The Flash, stroking his chin, lost in thought, “that much is for sure.”

“And Wally! You did the same to Wally! You, Jay, how can you live with yourself? How can you sleep at night?”

“Who says I do sleep anymore?!” snapped back the golden age speedster. “Who says that every action we take doesn’t haunt us!? You think you’re so righteous, don’t you, but you’re just a little man in a big world with no idea how it works! You don’t know half the things we’ve done to protect this world! You don’t know of the alien gods, the cosmic despots, the inter-dimensional villains who want to rape this world and leave it a scorched ruin! You don’t know what we’ve lost!”

“You've lost the right to call yourselves heroes,” replied Blue Beetle, slowly. “You have murdered. You have lived hidden lives within hidden lives, and the actions you’ve taken, I’m not even going to pretend to comprehend, but you aren’t heroes.”

“The Beetle’s right,” laughed Wildcat, “that’s why we’re doing this. That’s why we’re making the world a better place before we just sit down and let you and yours take over. But the Justice League of America is ineffectual. Weak. A group of seven people, who think they can protect a world? What you need is an army, not a gang.”

“A society,” interrupted Beetle. “But if you’ve been saving the world again and again without us knowing, don’t you see that you’re the cause if we’re ineffectual? You’ve blunted us with your groping for domination--”

“Domination?!”

“Yes, Alan Scott, domination, you’ve taken it upon yourselves to rule the world in secret, to frame others for actions they haven’t undertaken. Don’t think we don’t know about what you did to the Shade, scraping his brain of the truth and putting something in there that’s dirty and wrong. Same as Harvey Dent, but the one thing I don’t understand, is how you got passed the League on that one, what with Wonder Woman’s lasso... explain it to me, if you don’t mind? I mean, we’re going to die anyway, aren’t we?”

“Because it wasn’t my lasso. And because we’re not stupid,” replied a feminine voice. Wonder Woman stepped forward, flanked by the Martian Manhunter. “And because we agree with what the Society is doing.”

"Oh, no,” whispered Ted, Oliver barely containing his surprise as they revealed themselves from the darkness. “Diana?”

Wonder Woman waved her hand at that comment. “No, Theodore, Hippolyta. I think you’ll find Diana is a fabrication, someone to whom you would all trust. And it worked, didn’t it? A perfect princess, sponsored by gods you couldn’t wrap your poor heads around.”

“And you then, J’onn? Who are you?” spat Oliver Queen.

“A survivor,” replied the Martian Manhunter, “Do you know what it is like, Oliver? To see into the minds of evil-doers every day of my life?” The Martian drifted toward the cage, and the fires muted at a thought, his fingers playing against the bars slowly, a look of melancholy on his face. “I could show you, if you wanted, but you couldn’t bare it.”

“Try me,” snapped Arrow, before Beetle stepped in front of him.

“So you’re doing this because of evil? Because you’ve been driven to it? This is pathetic.” Ted shrugged. “Stop your half hearted explanations and just kill us.”

“That’s the plan, Beetle,” smiled Wildcat. “But don’t worry, you’ll die fighting as it were. We’ve got some villains on the loose still, remember? The little army the Justice League assembled allowed some of the bastards to fall through the cracks, so we’ve got some culprits lined up for the act. Heroes. To the end.”

“Bravo, that’s just what we £$%^ing wanted!”

“Watch your mouth, Queen,” said Alan Scott. “Show some respect.”

“You’re all insane.” Ted Kord’s hand jerked to his utility belt before anyone could react, and he triggered a device inside the Bug, and it detonated, shards of metal flying down and dispersing the JSA. “Ollie!” Green Arrow spun around and swung a punch, catching a speeding Flash in the jaw. “Nice move, but stop messing around and grab my--” Ted reached out to Ollie, and Beetle pressed another button on his belt, and the two men shimmered out of existence, leaving the Society looking at each other.

“Where have they gone?!” screamed Hippolyta, “Lantern, use your ring!”

“I can’t get a lock!”

“Then where have they gone?!”

[arcalian]

Blue Beetle hit the ground hard, dust welling up on impact. Green Arrow vomited, and grunted, rolling onto his back. “Wh, wh, what was that?”

“Escape hatch, slipped us through space/time, we’re… not… where… we…” Ted himself vomited, clutching his stomach. “We’re not where we were. It’s in the experimental stages, using some tech Bruce and I were developing. God…”

“We need to talk to the League, to Arthur, he’ll believe us, and Dinah…”

“Sure, sure, stop thinking for a minute--” Ted opened up a pouch in his belt and took out two small metal strips. “This’ll block telepaths getting into your head. I thought it had to be something to do with mind-readers, kept these in reserve. I’ve got a third, but… Charles…”

“Didn’t make it,” Green Arrow shrugged, attaching the device to his head, and cringing as it pinned itself into his flesh. “Hh… we need to get to cover. I knew Garrick would slow down his perceptions, dodge the shrapnel and make a beeline for us, so I punched where I expected him to come at us. I caught him, so we have time before they find us, but we need to get to cover, contact the League, or, I don’t know, whoever.”

“They got J’onn.”

“We’re alone.”

“So we run,” replied Blue Beetle. “For our lives.”

[arcalian]

End of Phase I:

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“Canary?”

“Dinah, are you there?”

“Zinda, is that… is that blood?”

“Oh. Oh, no, Helena…”

“NO!”

“Cut her down! CUT HER DOWN!”

“What… what… what are they…”

“Arrows. Green… green £$%^ing arrows. The League. The League. CALL THE LEAGUE!”

“SOMEONE’S MURDERED BLACK CANARY!”

Phase II begins.

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