JLA SATELLITE - MONITOR ROOM
Hawkman sits at the montior station, staring at the screens while
fingering his wedding ring. He stops when he realizes what he's
doing and smiles to himself. Both the smile and the self inspection
which brings the smile on are rare for Katar Hol. Thangarians
do not traditionally exchange wedding rings, the ring is a concession
to Earthly social norms. But Katar has come to cherish the ring
as a symbol of his love for his wife Shayera.
He is not, as many would say, a man who lacks emotion. He is
simply, as most Thangarians are, extremely reserved and private.
He smiles again when he thinks of Shayera and her boundless energy
and lack of reserve, the qualities which attracted him to her.
"What are you doing here, buzzard beak?"
Katar had not heard Oliver Queen enter the room. Queen walks
over and sits down on the edge of the montior station.
"I could ask you the same thing, Arrow." Katar replies.
"I got kicked out of my apartment. Dinah & the girls
are getting ready for the wedding. Plus there's the whole "I
can't see her before the wedding" deal. How about you? Shayera's
at my place, why are you here?"
"You answered your own question, Oliver. My home is fairly
boring without Shayera there, besides, I am covering the shift
for her."
Oliver Queen studies Katar closely. There had been real animostiy
between the two at one point. What had started as humorous jibes
at each other based on certain differences in their central characters
had denigrated into an animosity which had threatened to hurt
the League as a whole. Fortunately, the women in their lives,
Shayera & Dinah had orchestrated a truce and the two had resolved
their differences. In fact, though (completely in character for
him) Ollie would not admit it entirely, he liked Katar for his
reserved ways and staunch dedication to what was right.
"Can I ask you something?" Ollie asks.
"Go ahead."
"It's kind of funny. I spent years trying to come up with
any way to avoid asking Dinah to marry me. And now, I can't imagine
how I ever lived a single day without her. Is that odd to you?
Katar looks at him for a moment. He supresses a smile at the
thought of Ollie asking him this, as it shows how far things have
come between them. Finally, Katar draws a breath and replies.
"She lifts you up when you have no wings, but must fly and
she is the solid bedrock upon which you can land when the day's
hard flight is done." Katar says.
This response surprises Ollie. "I'd have never guessed you
were a closet poet, Katar."
"I can't take credit for that. It's part of the traditional
Thangarian wedding vows." Katar replies.
"Well, I'm stealing it. Dinah and I are writing our own
vows and I'm stealing that line."
"Feel free." Katar stops. He may be more comfortable
with Ollie than he had been, but this sort of bonding is awkward
for him. Ollie sees this.
"Well, I'm gonna go off to bed. I won't sleep, but I should
at least try. Thanks for the line."
Ollie walks towards the door to the room. He turns back to Katar,
who has turned back to his monitor.
"And the talk."
"Any time, Oliver." Katar says, smiling.
STAR CITY
The others had gone home. She appreciated their company and support,
but at the moment, she was glad to be alone with her thoughts.
She wanders absently around her apartment. Stopping before one
vase, she pulls single white daisy. A Larry Daisy, she thinks.
The one he wore every day in his lapel and got everyday from her
shop. Until the day he died.
They say that the day you get married is the happiest day of
your life. And for Dinah Lance it had been. Larry Lance was an
unapologetic rogue. A man of limitless charm and humor. He was
also a surprisingly loyal and thoughtful husband and Dinah had
loved him deeply. But he had died and in her mourning and pain,
she had decided to move to Earth 1 to start a new life. And she
had. She valued her membership in the League and the friends she
had made. And she loved Ollie.
For all his stubborn pride and sometimes mindless speeches and
knee jerk reactions. Dinah Lance loved Oliver Queen. And maybe
for all of those things, all his faults. And she wants to marry
him. Being entirely honest with herself, she knows she needs to
marry him. He is her other half, his strengths are what make her
faults disappear.
She kisses the flower in her hand once and then places it down.
A tear runs down her cheek.
"You know, Dollface, you think about things too much."
A voice says behind her.
Dinah turns rapidly, seeing what seems to be her late husband
Larry Lance. "Larry?"
"Yeah. Sort of." Larry nods sidewards at the figure
next to him, the Phantom Stranger. "I don't have a lot of
time, Dinah. You've got some friends in high places, so they let
me come back for just a second. This Ollie guy, is he good to
you?"
"Yes." Dinah says, afraid to say anymore.
"Then be with him. You need to go on from me. I'll always
love you, Dinah, but it's time for you to go on. Goodbye, Dollface."
"Goodbye, Larry." Dinah says, holding back tears, not
wanting an image of her crying to be what Larry takes back to
the afterlife. Larry waves once and fades. The Stranger turns
to leave.
"Stranger, wait." Dinah says. "Why?"
"Because it was right, Dinah Lance. Consider it a wedding
present if you would." With that, the Stranger turns and
disappears.
------------------
OUTSIDE THE CHAPEL
Barbara Gordon sits in front of an array of screens set up in
a makeshift pavillion across the street from a large ornate chruch.
She sips on a cup of coffee as she presses buttons, making sure
that all of the screens are working.
It's probably overkill, she thinks. Most likely there's not going
to be a mass attack. Maybe just this once the bad guys could be
smart and not do anything. Maybe Bruce is just being paranoid.....
Nice try, Barbara, you can't even convince yourself of that,
she thinks. Sighing aloud, she checks the screen again. She knows
something's coming.
She had been surprised when Bruce had assigned her this task.
She had not been very active as a heroine recently, preferring
to concentrate on getting her Masters' thesis done and her work
at the library. But she was proud in an odd way that he had the
trust in her to ask. She was not going to allow this wedding to
be disturbed. Heroes rarely got moments of happiness like this.
This she knew, from bitter experience, as being Batgirl had cost
her every relationship she had ever been in. She would be damned
if she was going to allow anyone to steal this moment from Green
Arrow & Black Canary.
As if he knew she was thinking about him, or at least about her
prior failed relationships, Dick Grayson, the former kid sidekick
Robin, arrived. The no longer a Boy Wonder was still the most
handsome man she had ever met. Their brief relationship, well
fling really, had not lasted long as both decided the Dynamite
Duo (as the Gotham tabloids referred to them) of Batgirl &
Robin was much more effective as a crime fighting team than Barbara
& Dick were as a couple. She still loved him as a friend and
friend or not, the boy was still fine.
Accompanying him (actually carrying him, since she could fly
and he could not) was his new girlfriend, Starfire. Babs had heard
he had hooked up with the beautiful alien while both were serving
as members of a new group of Teen Titans, but Barbara had never
met her. If he was handsome, she was beautiful to a nearly painful
degree. Tall and extremely statuesque, but with a certain kindness
in her features which made her lovely despite her alien eyes and
skin color. She had a dazzling smile, which at that moment, she
was displaying at something which Dick said as they landed.
"Good morning, all knowing and all seeing Batgirl. I come
bearing bagels." Dick says to her.
"You're late." Barbara replies.
"Had to wait for the onion ones you like." He replies,
hitting her with his best smile. She ignores him and turns to
Starfire.
"Hello. You must be Starfire. I'm Batgirl. Barbara, actually,
but I think for today, I'll use the code name. But you can call
me Barbara."
"My name is Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, but my friends
and as you are Richard's friend, you are mine as well, call me
Kory."
--------------
Betty Kane knows she was only asked to join this gathering as
a courtesy. She knew, that as Bat Girl, she wasn't much of a heroine,
but since they were asking everyone to be a part of the protection
for the Green Arrow/Black Canary wedding, she had been asked as
well.
The other Batgirl had assigned her to be part of the group watching
one of the possible routes to the chapel. In her group were Cyborg
of the Teen Titans and Tempest of the Doom Patrol. Two heavy hitters
to watch over the wanna be, Bat Girl. At the moment, the two men
were discussing the Knights' chances of winning the World Series,
so Betty, who was not a baseball fan was left to her own devices.
She was staring into a shadowed alley when an amazing thing happened,
the shadows moved. She fired off a jump line and swung closer.
As she reached the end of the alley, she was able to see the source
of the movement, it wasn't a natural shadow, but the villian known
as the Shadow Thief.
She trailed him to a nearby park where she saw him join a fairly
large assembly of villians. Being something of a student of superheroes
and their villians, Betty recognized many of them. She watches
as the Thief walks over to where Lex Luthor, arrayed in a green
and purple battle armor waits.
"There's a number of heroes patroling the area, but we should
have more numbers." The Thief reports.
"Good."
Standing next to Luthor is the Titans villain Psimon. "Do
you know you were followed, Mr. Sands*?
*Julian Sands is the real name of the Shadow Thief - DT
"No."
Psimon concentrates for a second and then points right at where
Betty's hidden. "There."
A villain nearby, The Electrocutioner, aims an electrical blast
at the chimney that Betty is hiding behind. The chimney explodes
and Betty is hit in the head with a piece of the debris, Staggering.
she runs away from the villians, jumping off the building and
firing off a jump line.
"I've got to warn the others." She thinks, swinging
off awkwardly.
Back at the gathering of villians, Shadow Thief braces to follow
her. Luthor raises a hand.
"Let her go, Sands." Luthor tells him. "Let her
tell them how big a force we are. Then we can arrive and crush
them."
The assembled villians laugh.
---------
Inside the church and oblivious to this, Dinah Lance is in the
midst of a fairly joyful reunion. Dinah had been born and lived
on the parallel earth most commonly refered to as Earth 2 and
had served as a member of that earth's counterpart to the League,
the Justice Society. Though she considered Earth 1 her home and
the League her team, she still had a very soft spot in her heart
for her former teammates. And at that moment, they had arrived
for the wedding.
"So you're not mad, Johnny?" Johhny Thunder was her
closest friend in the JSA and had orignally introduced her to
them in the first place. She knew he had a secret crush on her,
but had supressed it for years.
"Me, mad? At you, Dinah, never." He laughs somewhat
ruefully. "I'd have chosen Superman to walk me down the aisle
too. I suggested it, didn't I?"
Had she been looking at him when she hugged him after that comment,
she would have noticed the slight sheen of tears in his eyes,
but she was not and when she ended the hug, the tears were gone,
banished by a swipe of his hand.
Dinah turns to the last of the JSA she had to greet: Superman.
Kal-L, the Superman of Earth 2 was the first and greatest of them
all. She had always been vaguely intimidated by him when they
met early in her career, but over the years she had come to like
the older man. "Kal, I wanted to thank you again for agreeing
to walk me down the aisle."
"It is my honor, Dinah." The Man of Tomorrow replies
in his deep voice, one much deeper from age than his Earth 1 counterpart.
Ronnie Raymond is standing off to a side again. He was in his
civilian identity for this wedding. Professor Stein was here,
as well, talking to Ray Palmer & Barry Allen again. But with
everyone else in conversations or having dates, Ronnie found himself
solo.
"You have to be Firestorm."
Ronnie turns at the voice. There had always been a certain chemistry
between himself in his Firestorm identity and Power Girl, the
person who had spoken. For his part, he thought that PG was about
the most beautiful woman he had ever met, a pretty big statement
for a guy who hung out with women like Wonder Woman and Zatanna
on a regular basis. But he thought she was something special.
Too bad, he only saw her once a year.
"Yeah. Ronnie Raymond."
"You're young."
"You're only 3 months older than me." He replied, having
checked the fact on the JLA computers once on a boring monitor
duty shift.
"But I look older." She laughs in response.
"You're certainly more..." He pauses for emphasis and
sneaks a quick but intentionally noticable look at her figure.
"More mature."
"Keep dreaming, kid."
This is the end, Betty thinks as she blindly rounds the corner,
I can't go on. Finally losing her strength, she lets go of the
rope and falls towards the ground.
Only to be caught by a speeding red and yellow blur. A second
later, Betty finds herself in front of Robin and the other gathered
heroes.
"Villians.... In Papp Park...." Betty stammers.
"OK, everyone, let's get ready for incoming. Wally, get
her back to the base station." Kid Flash, the person who
had caught Betty, disappears for a moment and returns to where
Robin is.
"Done, Rob...."
Wally's response is cut off by the first wave of villains attacking.
"Roy's not coming." Ollie Queen says to the others
gathered in the foyer.
"It's OK, Oliver. I can get Katar and he can be in a tuxedo
faster than Zee can say Clothes into Tuxedo backwards." Shayera
Hol, one of Dinah's bridesmaids, replies.
"Maybe, you should...."
"I'm here."
The assembled League members turn. The speaker is Roy Harper,
Ollie's former ward and partner as Speedy. The tension is palatable
between the two archers.
"My, aren't you the handsome one? Sorry, Barry Darling,
but I think I'm trading part..." Zatanna says, obviously
trying to break the tension.
"It's OK, Zee." Ollie cuts her off. "I'm glad
you came, kid."
"I wouldn't miss it. I couldn't do it to Dinah."
Another second of tension and the two men break, entering into
a tight embrace. A second later, both step back as if embarrassed.
Roy walks over to Zatanna, smiling rogueishly.
"Zatanna, isn't it?" He offers his arm to her, which
she excepts. "Shall we?"
Hal Jordan has to supress a slight shiver of jealousy as he watches
Dinah walk down the aisle, from his best man's position next to
Ollie. Not over Dinah specifically, because though he geuinely
likes the blonde bombshell, he knows she's not for him. Brambles
and all, Ollie & Dinah are perfect for one another.
Rather, Hal's momentary jealousy is due to the fact that the
two have one another. Hal reflects for a moment on the women in
his life. Carol, Olivia and the faceless others he had been with
over the years. Looking over at the silly, yet scared forced grin
on his best friend's face, Hal wonders if he will ever be the
one grinning with Ollie at his side, watching some girl walk down
the aisle.
The battle rages outside and the first wave of villians is repulsed
by the heroes. They pull back, regrouping.
"We've got them on the run now, Robbie." Changeling,
in the form of a small green bird, chirps in Robin's ear.
"I don't think so, Gar. These are just the small potato
guys. They're up to something."
Robin's words are prophetic as the wave of villains parts to
allow their most dangerous ally, the 50 foot tall artifical monster,
Chemo to join the fray. The other most powerful villians flank
him. Luthor in his alien battle suit. Sinestro with his near invincible
yellow power ring. The indestructible and nigh unstoppable Shaggy
Man.
"Now, striplings." Luthor addresses the heroes, his
voice ampliphied by the battle suit. "The battle begins in
earnest."
"You're aware of what's going on outside?" the Earth
1 Superman asks Batman by way of Super ventriloquism. Both were
near the back of the chruch, having rejected Ollie's request that
they be groomsmen for him, both preferring to stay in the background..
"Yes."
"I have heard it as well, Kal-el" Earth 2's Superman
adds, by the same Super ventriloquism. "Shall we go out and
handle it?"
"No. We won't always be here. Dick and the others need to
be able to handle things like this. If it gets too bad, you can
act. Until them, we wait." Batman tells them in a voice so
low and soft, only their super hearing can detect it.
And the heores had risen to the occassion. With Robin's inspired
leadership and strategy and the advantages gained from their greater
teamwork and Barbara Gordon's surveillance equipment, the heroes
were beating back the greater numebr sof Luthor's villains.
'This guy's not so tough." The Silver Scarab, who had come
with the rest of Infinty, Inc. from Earth Two to help with the
security says to Starfire as the two concentrate their efforts
on stopping the monstrous Chemo.
And for a moment, it seems like they will succed in taking down
the monster alone. However, the creature fires a deluge of toxic
waste at Scarab's teammate and fiancee Fury, distracting the hero.
"Lyta!" Scarab screams. Disregarding the battle, he
flies to the young Amazon's side and takes off carrying the fallen
heroine, leaving Starfire to face the giant alone.
"X'Hal!" She screams as she redoubles her attacks,
but is slowly being driven back. But then her Titans teammate
Cyborg is there with a blast of white sound and other heroes join
in, firing energy attacks at the creature, slowing it until as
they had planned, Chemo's traditional foes, The Metal Men are
able to attach a devise created by their inventor Dr. Magnus which
renders the creature inert.
Shayera Thal was somewhat amused by Oliver's efforts to put together
and speak his vows. Dinah had been much more polished in her vows,
but Ollie was struggling. Not unlike Katar had at her own wedding.
Or most likely, like very man struggles, unnerved by the wedding
and the end of his independence.
"I guess, pretty bird, that you kinda lift me up when I
have no wings, but must fly and then you're the solid place I
can land at when I'm done flying....."
Shayera Thal stops listening after Oliver's mangling of the Thanagarian
wedding vows. She looks over at Katar, who is sitting in one of
the front pews. He smiles in response to her gaze and she mouths
"I love you, still" to him.
"And I, you." Katar mouths in response.
Sinestro knew the two heroes were named Hawk and Dove, but that
didn't really matter to him. They were currently irritants, little
bugs who were keeping him occupied when he wished to move forward
and they needed to be crushed. He had been toying with them, but
finally decided to end the battle as they attempted to recover
from an attack by his ring. Forgoing the formation of a construct
with his ring, he opted for a simple beam of the Quardian energy
to destroy them. But as had happened so many times, his attack
was thwarted as the stunned heroes were spirited out of the path
of the blast by a familiar beam of green energy.
"Jordan, I wondered..." Sinestro trails off as he sees
that his new opponent was not his rival Hal Jordan, but a beautiful
girl with green skin. "Ah, a female Green Lantern. I do not
recognize you, but I know, like all the rest, that you have the
same weakness to my yellow ring." Saying this, he directs
a yellow blast at the girl.
Who parries it with a green stop sign and then at the same time,
directs a huge green boxing glove at the surprised villain, knocking
him out.
"The name's Jade, not Green Lantern. And that yellow weakness,
that's so Earth One."
He had made it through the maze of heroes with a deceptive ease.
Attack them at their strength, Luthor had said, show them our
power. But the Joker knew better. Beating the heroes was never
a test of strength, but a test of intelligence. That's why Luthor
always loses, Joker thinks (conveniently forgetting his myriad
losses to Batman), as he reaches the area where Barbara Gordon
has set up her command area. He watches sliently for a moment
as Kid Flash whizzes in with an other injured hero, Northwind
of Infinity, Inc. and then sprints back to the battle a few streets
away.
Nothing but the Bat Bimbo and the gimps here, Joker thinks. Time
to take out the brains of the outfit.
Barbara does not see him getting closer to her. She finally senses
a presence as he pulls a gun with a large flag which says "Bang"
attached to it.
"Say good night...." The Joker says as he pulls the
trigger. But he's stopped by a hastily thrown batarang and the
gun, as it fires, is knocked aside, the bullet harmlessly bouncing
off a building.
"Bat Girls don't go down like that." Betty Kane, who
had thrown the batarang, tells him as she struggles to stay standing.
The distraction, however, is enough for Barbara to deliver a
right cross knocking the villian out. She turns to help Betty,
but Betty has already slumped to the ground unconscious.
"If there are any whom do not think that these two should
be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace."
The priest says after Dinah & Ollie have completed their vows
When no one responds, the priest takes each of their hands and
places them together. Then by the poweres vested in me, you may
now kiss the bride.
Ollie raises an eyebrow at his beaming new bride. She shrugs
once and they kiss.
EPILOGUE:
Barbara Gordon gave up the Batgirl identity after the wedding.
Her experience coordinating the heroes had convinced her that
she was more useful in that capacity and had, with the help of
the League, set up a new identity as Oracle, information broker
to the superheroic community.
Though she worked with a number of heroes, her most common partnership
was as part of what Dick Grayson had jokingly called the Birds
of Prey, along with.....
"....Flamebird. You need to get a move on, Betty. The bomb's
about to go off." Betty Kane had also given up the Bat Girl
identity and had chosen this all new name, based on a story Superman
had told her about his adventures in the bottled city of Kandor.
"I'm trying." Betty says as she disarms a thug with
a swinging kick. "But the bad guys don't seem to be accommdating."
Finally Betty has taken out the thugs and reaches a very exotic
looking bomb. An image of the bomb shows on Barbara's computer
screen, a second later, the words Rannian Impact Device trickle
below the screen.
"How in the world did a group of Gotham thugs get an alien
bomb?" Barbara says.
"Don't know and don't care, Babs. How do I shut it down?"
"Cut the green wire on the under casing." Betty does
and Barbara's screen reads Deactivated. "Betty, someone's
trying to leave the party. Four o'clock."
Without looking, Flamebird fires off a bolo, which catches the
thug and he falls. She goes over and grabs the thug by his lapels.
"OK, jerk off, where did you get an alien bomb?"
"I don't know. I didn't do the deal."
"I'm waiting." Betty says with as much pseudo-Batman
menace as she can muster.
"I.... I never saw the guy. The boss told me he got the
bomb from...." The thug pauses, truly scared.
"Give me a name." She growls, slowly biting off each
word.
"The boss told me he got the bomb from.... from the Monitor."
THE END?
