Post by >>Riz! on Jun 19, 2008 16:41:32 GMT -5
Justice League Legacies
An Earth-2 Title!
Issue #2: “Cosmic Crisis, Part Two: Lost in Kornugia”
Story and Art by Boris Mihajlovic
Written by David Charlton
Edited by Brian Burchette
Roll Call
Superman: Jonathan Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet, son of the retired Clark and Lois Kent, and as Jon-El, inheritor of the legacy of the Man of Steel!
Wonder Woman: Supermodel Lyta Trevor, warrior-princess of a god-ravaged Paradise Island, doomed to never know love--- or lose the mantle of Wonder Woman!
Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, family man, heir to the missing Hal Jordan’s power ring, and the last Green Lantern in the universe!
Flash: Carrie Allen, the Fastest Woman Alive and STAR Labs research scientist!
Green Arrow: Connor Hawke, enlightened CEO of Queen Enterprises and modern-day Longbow Hunter of the Urban Jungles!
Firestorm: Bored heiress Lorraine Reilly and her godfather Dr. Martin Stein come together to form the Nuclear Woman!
Raven: Rachel Roth, the last daughter of Temple Azarath and spawn of the interdimensional tyrant Trigon the Terrible
Resurrection Man: Mitch Shelley, chief strategist and leader of the JLA!The Flash stepped from the transporter pad onto the Watchtower, joining Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Lorraine Reilly in the Monitor Room. She caught the concern on their faces, and said: “This had better be good; I’ve been trying to find out where Prometheus and Silver Swan disappeared to. Somebody catch me up here; what’s the General Alert about?”
Green Lantern’s chair swiveled toward her. “Mitch, Jon and Lyta just went planet-side to investigate the discovery of some mysterious artifact. Something to do with a cosmic Hell.”
“That sounds ominous,” the Flash noted, with a shrug. “But we’ve faced worse. I’m sure it’s nothing the Big Three can’t handle, so why all the long faces…?”
Kyle Rayner glanced tentatively at Lorraine, who had been staring through the transparent dome at the spectacular view of Earth that dominated the horizon.
“It’s Professor Stein, Carrie.” Lorraine told her, turning to the brash young speedster with red-rimmed eyes. “It’s pretty bad.”
The Flash went to her and gathered her into an embrace. That’s all it took for Lorraine to breakdown, sobbing in her friend’s arms. Carrie Allen just held her, her own eyes brimming now; better than most, she knew what it meant to lose a father. Her own had given his life while she was still a baby, saving the world and leaving her an example of heroism she would always try to live up to.
Green Lantern and Green Arrow sat silently as the Flash comforted Lorraine. It wasn’t just Martin Stein that was dying; it was the hero Firestorm, as well. Without the professor, the Matrix that merged them into the Nuclear Woman was incomplete, and wouldn’t work…
Though he still couldn’t see, it was Green Arrow who first turned his face to the new arrival, standing awkwardly in the door of the Monitor Room. Connor heard a tortured, rattling wheeze, and smelled that distinctive odor of pipe smoke and ionized air that always clung to this person.
Kyle gasped, and jumped to his feet. “Professor Stein! What are you doing out of bed?”
Lorraine rushed to her mentor, horrified to see him exerting himself. The old scientist, dressed only in a hospital gown and wheeling along the portable monitor that displayed his fading vital signs smiled bravely for his protégé and allowed her to lead him to his chair at the Meeting Table.
He waved away her protestations, squinting at her from behind his square-framed glasses. “Nonsense! I will not spend my last days confined to a bed! My body may be failing me, but my mind is as sharp as it ever was,” he glanced past her at the others. “I’m still a member of the Justice League, and when a General Alert is called, I will answer it.”
In that moment, everyone one of them was touched by the strength and resolve of the veteran hero.
“And I thought I had willpower,” marveled Kyle.
Without warning, black smoke erupted from the bulkhead, and there was a flash of crimson. From the billowing dark cloud stepped Superman, Wonder Woman, Resurrection Man and a fur-clad, bearded scientist who must have been Dr. Horace Halley! The former Titan known as Raven emerged last, absorbing the black aether with a flourish of her robes.
“Nice entrance,” the Flash noted, looking to Mitch, as did the others, for an explanation.
“Folks,” said the Resurrection Man as he threw off his coat, “We’ve got a big problem on our hands…”
**********
“So let me get this straight,” the Flash, never one to be too concerned with her secret identity had her mask down, and was looking perplexedly at Dr. Halley. “The prophecy on this so-called Hellstone foretells the coming of not one, but two cosmic menaces that will destroy the earth…?”
“It can be interpreted[/b] so, young lady.” Halley was sitting in the chair usually reserved for the absent Martian Manhunter, and looking extremely agitated. “Though I should say that the Earth, while certainly in danger, is of little consequence to Powers who would seek Kornugia. We would merely be obliterated in the struggle between them, scarcely noticed as they annihilate whole suns and galaxies in their clash.”
“Uh huh…” mused the Flash, sitting back in her chair, at a loss.
“Nor are the Titan of Dread and the Father of Lies the only Powers mentioned in the prophecy,” Halley reminded them, glancing around the table at the assembled League. “Don’t forget the ‘breaker of suns’ and the ‘womb of death, birthing carnage.’ How can anything that lives survive that cyclopean struggle…?”
The ominous words fell heavily into the room, impressing upon every one of them the insignificant role the Earth played in the cosmic drama. Halley put his head in his hands, overwhelmed.
Superman stood, planting his fists decisively on the table before him. “The Justice League is how.” He told them all, utter conviction in his voice. “Don’t let this rattle us, people, we’ve faced threats like this before, and we’ve always come out on top. This sounds to me like something cooked up on Apokolips. My father always knew we hadn’t seen the last of---.”
“This is older than the Fourth World, Jon-El,” the low, breathy voice came from the depths of Raven’s hood. She drew it down, and allowed them to see the apprehension on her alabaster-white face. “Darkseid has no hand in this.”
Undaunted, Superman turned to the last Green Lantern. “Kyle, the Guardians must have had some knowledge of this. Perhaps they had some plans for this day…?”
But Kyle Rayner could only shrug and shake his head. “If they did, they never told me; I’m just as much in the dark as everyone else.” He looked apologetic. “There was so much Hal never got a chance to tell me before he disappeared…”
“It doesn’t matter,” Wonder Woman said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “We should just meet it head-on. We should seek out this menace and strike it down before it can destroy the universe.” There was fear in her voice, but a mad, reckless excitement as well.
Superman could only stare at her, his brow creased in uncertainty. He had the utmost respect for Princess Lyta, but she was the only person alive who could unnerve him.
A soft chuckle came from across the table, from Green Arrow. His sightless gaze was fixed at a point slightly above their heads, but his attention was intense.
They all looked at him.
“When dragons go to war, the world will burn.” He told them. “But even a tiny scorpion may slay a dragon if the stinger is sharp enough.”
“What’s that? Confucius?” snapped Wonder Woman, annoyed.
“No. Actually, I made that up.” Connor’s capacity to joke caused them all to laugh, relieving some of the tension in the room.
“Care to tell us what it means, then, O Enlightened One?” Wonder Woman asked, knowing that if Connor could not see her smile, he’d hear it in her arch tone.
“David and Goliath,” it was the Resurrection Man that answered for him. The League chairman had said little during the briefing, but had come to some kind of resolve now. “We just need to find a big enough pebble.” Before him on the table was the Hellstone. He’d been studying it, as if he could unlock its secrets. “Raven, what can you tell us about this thing?”
Professor Halley’s head popped up.
“What is it made of, what does it mean?” Pressed Mitch Shelley.
The empath had kept her distance from the ancient artifact, and only looked at it sidelong now, her lip curling in disgust.
“It is an abomination,” her voice was still soft, but it seethed with vehemence. “A corruption of matter, a misapprehension of perception. Just to look at it assaults my senses. It whispers to me, gibbering profanities… In it, I see the reflection of unspeakable horrors and the promise of no salvation, an eternity of licentious, irredeemable chaos. It is not of this universe, or of any other. It is a… sinister anomaly.”
Mitch was nodding his head, as if expecting to hear just that. “Can you take us to wherever this thing came from?”
Raven turned a surprised gaze on the Resurrection Man, and for the first time seemed not distant and mysterious, but appalled.
“You don’t know what you’re asking…”
Dr. Halley was looking quickly between the steely-eyed chairman and the empath.
“He’s asking you to take us to Kornugia,” Martin Stein wheezed, catching on as well. There was a long drawn-out silence, as the old scientist cocked his head, then quoted: “Across gulfs of madness vast, lost Kornugia, foretold, returns, Awaits the Key of Future Past, and all the cosmos, weeping, burns…”[/b]
Connor Hawke nodded. “Best way to kill a dragon is to steal his fire.”
“Can you take us there?” Mitch pressed Raven.
Raven hesitated. She nodded. “Yes. Using the Hellstone, I can become[/b] a portal to that place… But I do not think I can hold it open for long…”
“We won’t need long,” Resurrection Man assured her and got to his feet. “Whatever it is these Powers are looking for, we just need to find it first, and get out of there. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, you’re with me. The rest of you hold the fort, and stay sharp: I don’t know what to expect over there, but we can’t leave the Earth undefended.”
The League started to rise from their chairs when Dr. Stein announced: “We’re coming, too. You’ll need Firestorm out there.”
Lorraine Reilly gave an abrupt, panicked cry, and before any of them could do anything about it, both she and the professor scintillated, became incorporeal and dissolved into each other! The professor had summoned the merge, and in a flurry of whirring atoms, appeared Firestorm the Nuclear Woman.
“Oh, professor what have you done…?” Lamented the heroine, in a voice not quite Lorraine’s. The rest of the League stared, aghast, at Martin Stein’s obvious sacrifice. A tear formed in the white void of the Nuclear Woman’s eye. She lowered her head, the flames that burned inside her, flaring high with the emotion that gripped her.
“Lorraine, Martin, I… we…” Superman regarded the heroine with a sad, helpless look.
Firestorm raised her head. “The professor gave all he had to trigger the transformation. He’s hanging on, though just barely. Martin Stein lives only as long as we are merged… He won’t survive a separation. And without him, the Matrix is incomplete.” She swallowed heavily, though held her head high now. “This is the last mission of Firestorm…”
**********
{You had no right---!}
[Lorraine, listen to---]
{No, professor, no! You’ve made me an accomplice to your suicide… How am I supposed to live with that?}
[Dear one, no. This isn’t suicide. My fate was sealed when Prometheus hit us with his Nightstick… This, at least, allows me to spend my final moments in such a way as I can do some good. Firestorm has a part to play in the coming battle.]
{It’s not fair…}
[No, it never is. But this is fairer than what most get. And for as many years as I’ve spent in the Matrix, with my consciousness melded to a Living Force of the universe, I know enough not to be afraid of what awaits me on the other side… I am at peace with this decision, dear one. And when the end comes, I will be grateful that you were with me all the while…]
{Professor… Martin… Don’t leave me…}
{I don’t care about Raymond! I can’t do this without you…}
[You can. You will. You are Firestorm, and you are a hero.]
**********
The team, plus Raven and Dr. Halley gathered in the Watchtower’s hanger-bay. Techs cleared out the fleet of Javelin shuttles, and were sent away themselves for safety. Raven sat cross-legged in the middle of the cavernous hold, the Hellstone placed before her, her hands placed lightly upon it, the very muscles of her arms quivering in rebellion at the touch of the hideous stone. She appeared to be meditating.
The Justice League gathered in a half-circle before her, tense and ready for action. Resurrection Man, clad in a S.T.A.R. Labs-designed biosuit, glanced out from behind the faceplate at Flash and Green Arrow. “If something goes wrong,” he told them, his voice filtered through the tiny speaker on his collar, “Call the Reserves. Call the Titans, the Outsiders--- every superhero on Earth and get them ready for what’s coming.”
Carrie and Connor nodded, looking grim.
“Of course,” Mitch said with one of his infrequent and infectious smiles, “We don’t intend to fail, so just sit back and enjoy the night off.”
Connor chuckled at the chairman’s sangfroid, but Carrie only bit her lip and nodded.
Nearby, Wonder Woman said to Firestorm: “I just wanted to tell you I have never been prouder to be your teammate. What the professor has done is noble and honorable. I will always reverence his heroism.”
But if Wonder Woman was expecting a reaction, it wasn’t the one she received. Firestorm’s lip curled and she shook her head. “You just don’t get it, princess. There is nothing noble or honorable about sacrificing one’s life, despite what your precious songs and stories say. It’s just heartbreaking. So excuse me if I don’t share your approval.”
Taken aback, Wonder Woman nevertheless had no time for a response as Raven abruptly announced: “The way is ready.”
All eyes turned to her as she stood, the Hellstone held before her. An otherworldly wind stirred her ebony hair and crimson robes, causing them to flare wide, and like a bird bursting from a nest, her soul-self erupted from her and shot overhead, expanding as it rose. It hovered horizontally over them, growing ever larger until it was a black, roiling cloud, strangling out the floodlights of the hanger. The plane of the shadow rippled like the surface of an upside-down lake, and it was pocked with tiny pinpricks of multicolored light, like stars.
Dr. Halley craned his neck up at it, staring hungrily into the fathomless depths. “Behold, Kornugia…” he breathed, in equal parts awe and horror.
The dark surface that stretched out above them like an unquiet ocean seemed to barely contain a storm. It cast a chill over the hanger-bay, and sucked in the very light. For a moment, the League could only stare up at it, the only movement the ruffling of their capes caused by the inexplicable wind…
“Do not delay!” The taut, tightly restrained warning came from Raven. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, her concentration fierce. “I cannot keep the pathway open for long--- I can give you perhaps an hour, no more!”
They did not hesitate. Superman was the first off the ground. Without a second look, he flew straight up into the inky plane, and was swallowed up instantly. Wonder Woman and Firestorm were right behind him, disappearing into the shimmering blackness, the light that seemed to always radiate from them, snuffed out of existence. Resurrection Man nodded at Green Lantern, who ran a hand through his graying hair, then pushed off the ground, his green beam trailing a bubble that held Mitch Shelley.
“I always knew there would be a blackest night…” Kyle Rayner quipped, then the two of them vanished into the darkness.
**********
One by one they appeared--- Superman first, then Wonder Woman and Firestorm, followed at last by Green Lantern and the Resurrection Man, emerging from a patch of blackness more profound than the rest--- floating in a vast void that sucked at all light and sound. It was a stale realm of inertia and creeping, inexorable despair, a totality of emptiness lessened by not even the presence of the Leaguers.
In Kornugia, entropy had reached an ultimate state
*Ring, scan surroundings for… anything.* Kyle Rayner’s voice sounded in their heads, thanks to the limited telepathic link long-established by the absent J’onn J’onzz. The veteran ringslinger hovered, limbs akimbo, the light from his ring growing feebler by the second.
{Unable to process request. No known physical laws are in evidence.}
Hovering close together, like a group of swimmers treading water, the Leaguers cast about themselves for a sign of… something. Anything. An indication of what direction to start their search…
Everything looked the same: utterly devoid of life or matter.
*Stay close,* Mitch warned. *Only Jon could find us if we fall out of eyesight with each other. It will be easy to get lost…*
His words trailed off in a drowsy manner. But none of them heard him anyway; they were already in the necrotrance. They were lost from the first moment. Lost in Kornugia…
Jon-El stood on firm, familiar earth, a light breeze stirring his hair. As if awakening from a dream, he blinked, looking around in surprise. No longer in costume, he was dressed in a dark suit, and standing on the outskirts of a grassy plain, a warm welcoming sun beaming down upon him. In the distance, was the rusty old water tower he had flown over the day he had learned to fly…
What was going on?[/b] A moment ago he was in outer space, or in another dimension altogether… How had he gotten from Kornugia to Smallville[/b]?
The sound of sobbing caught his attention. Not far away was a crowd of people, all clad in somber clothes; he realized he was standing on the edge of the cemetery where his grandfather and namesake was buried. The clutch of people were gathered around a gravesite, the smell of fresh dirt in the air.
With a growing sense of trepidation, he moved closer, people on the outer edges of the crowd making way for him. When at last they parted to reveal the headstone of the deceased, Jon could not contain his astonished gasp.
It read: Clark Kent, beloved husband, father and son. We shall not see his like again…
“You!”
The strangled, anguished cry came from the weeping woman being supported by the younger, blonde girl. Jon could only stare at his mother, still beautiful but wracked, now, with grief, his little sister Lara’s arm around her.
“Mother, what’s going---.”
“How can you even show your face here?” Lois demanded, here eyes red and wet behind her veil. “After what you let them do to him…!”
The words hit him like a physical blow. As if the evidence of his eyes wasn’t enough, he refused to believe what was happening. He shook his head, not looking at the gaping hole in the ground and the mound of dirt waiting to fill it.
“I don’t understand…” He tore his eyes from his mother’s accusing glare, and scanned the crowd of faces. His sister’s eyes were filled with pain and rage. Beyond her was Grandma Martha, bent and devastated… His godparents Pete and Lana wore cold, furious expressions. Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Lucy wouldn’t even look at him. “Somebody tell me what happened!” His ejaculation verged on the hysterical.
A man with iron gray hair and a moustache to match stepped up to him, facing him with a look of disappointment bordering on contempt. This man’s eyes were not red--- Bruce Wayne had not shed a tear since he was eight years old--- but his grief was etched on his face in every line.
“Don’t act like you don’t know, Jonathan. You were there.” Rasped the man who had been like a second father to Jon. “Parasite, Luthor, Brainiac and Metallo. They attacked Metropolis, and you weren’t superman enough to beat them back, so instead you ran away, back to the Fortress, back to daddy for help--- and they followed you. They never cared about you at all. [/b] All they wanted was him[/b], and you lead them right to him! They even let you live when it was all over… That’s how much of a threat they think you are…”
Jon’s knees buckled, each word slamming into him like a kryptonite sledgehammer. He staggered, going to his knees, his head in his hands.
Bruce made no attempt to hide his contempt now. “And don’t tell me you don’t remember them smashing Kandor, destroying the Fortress, and firebombing Metropolis? And they’ll be back, Jon. They’re not finished. Smallville will be next. Then your mother and sister. They won’t show any mercy to Lois and Lara…”
Tears ran freely from Jon-El’s cheeks.
Without warning, Bruce snatched Jon up by his lapels, dragged him to his feet, and snarled into his face: “He was my best friend, boy! My partner! How could you let them do that to him?” [/b]
Jon’s only answer was a muttered “I’m sorry… ’msorry’msorry’msorry…” over and over again, between wracking sobs.
With a disgusted growl, Bruce Wayne heaved Jon aside and hurled him straight into the grave. Jon fell, screaming, falling and falling, his voice echoing out into forever…
In Kornugia, his body listed, and tumbled through the void, drifting far from the oblivious forms of his likewise-entranced friends, his wide-eyed stare vacant but for an expression of horror.
He was Lost.
TO BE CONTINUED! [/b]