PART THE THIRD
"Reality's Twilight"

What has gone before: After a freak earthquake struck Arkham Asylum, Roger Hayden, better known as the Psycho Pirate, escaped and found himself transported to Egypt, where he was joined by Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman's nemesis from the Fifth Dimension. Giving the Psycho Pirate a golden spear, Mxyzptlk claimed the weapon could grant Hayden anything he desired. As the Psycho Pirate began to test this by recreating a world he alone remembers from before the great Crisis, the Justice League was forced to respond to multiple, extremely powerful threats around the globe, calling in their reserves for assistance. While attempting to stop the bizarre, in some cases oddly familiar villains, some heroes' appearances began to change dramatically, as the Psycho Pirate continued to "fix" reality …

"There he is, Diana," Steel said to his companion, indicating their target by gesturing with his hammer. "Think it's past the time where we try to talk reason with him?"

A man with bright pink skin, wearing a blue sleeveless top and trunks, alighted atop an oil pump. Once balanced on the rig's head, his form morphed into a female shape, costumed in a full black body suit with a rainbow band running across the front. Long blond hair framed a pretty face, and the transformation into the heroine Halo was complete. Concentrated waves of intense light emanated from her hands and irradiated the metal of the pump, causing it to glow red, then yellow, and finally a near-blinding white. With an ear-piercing sound of protest the pump exploded, and the fiery metal fragments ignited the crude oil as it geysered uncontrolled out of the desert sands. The shapeshifter, meanwhile, morphed again, this time into the form of the original Red Tornado android, and shot into the sky on a column of swirling air. All around were the remains of other oil pumps, destroyed in various manners as the shapeshifter had taken on different forms. Most of the wells were now burning.

"It may indeed be far past the time for talking," Wonder Woman agreed with her teammate. "See if there's anything you can do about those fires, and I'll stop this menace here and now." The Amazon princess flew at the shapeshifter, while Steel descended to the ground to assess the damage to the oil wells.

Steel grasped the handle of his hammer in both of his armored hands and strode toward one of the oil-fueled columns of flame. Stopping just a few yards short of the fire, Steel raised the hammer high over his head and then brought it down in a heavy swing at the desert surface. A spray of sand flew away from the hammer's head and rained down on the open well. Steel swung and swung again, burying the flames and extinguishing them, then turned his attention to another burning pit.

Wonder Woman soared toward the Red Tornado, who spied her approach and reverted to pink-skinned form. "Gaah, Wonder Woman!" the creature spat with disgust. "I thought I might have to reckon with most of Hawkman's teammates, but I expected him to come as well! Don't try to tell me he has finally learned fear, and sends others to fight his battles with Byth!" he sneered.

"Hawkman has not been among us for some time, fiend," Wonder Woman answered, a trace of confusion clouding her features for a moment. "The fact that you caused this wanton destruction is travesty enough, but doing so to lure out a dead man is mad!" The emissary of peace in man's world extended a hand to the shapeshifter. "Come. Perhaps we can help you."

Byth considered Wonder Woman for a second, and then his countenance twisted with rage. His features literally darkened to pitch black, along with his entire bodily surface, and a crackling yellow nimbus surrounded him as he took on the shape of Negative Man's energy form. With his legs disappearing in a long, dwindling trail, he brought both his fists to bear on Wonder Woman and flew directly at her head, landing crashing blows across the Amazon's face before she had time to react. Wonder Woman reeled back through the air, and Byth pressed the advantage, pounding his energy-laced ebony fists mercilessly at Wonder Woman with blinding speed.

A red blur streaked through the air and collided with Byth, sending the shapeshifter hurtling down to the sands below. Wonder Woman regained her airborne balance as the red blur came to a stop several feet away, now easily recognizable as Captain Marvel. From the same direction he had arrived, closing the distance between themselves and Wonder Woman, approached Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr.

"We came as fast as we could, Wonder Woman," Captain Marvel apologized. "But Holy Moley, hitting that guy was like hitting a tank! Who is it?"

"He seemed to know me, but I've never seen him before," Wonder Woman confessed. "He calls himself Byth, and apparently he plans to put up quite a fight."

"Well don't worry, 'cause the Marvel Family is here to help," Captain Marvel, Jr. assured her proudly.

"As am I!" a girl's voice added from behind. The Marvels and Wonder Woman turned to see a beautiful young girl flying toward them, dressed in a red and yellow costume, with long blond hair crowned by a red headpiece. "We'll stop that monster together, Mother!" the girl said to Wonder Woman earnestly. Wonder Woman's mouth opened in silent shock, as the Marvels looked round at each other in surprise.

Before any questions could be asked, however, Byth rocketed up from the ground, having assumed the form of Hawkman himself. "Grah! If Hawkman will not deign to meet me in combat," Byth raged, "I will simply have to fill his role!" With that Byth smashed the end of his huge, knobby mace into Captain Marvel's jaw, repaying the World's Mightiest Mortal's punch in kind.

The Blue Beetle's airship glided toward the square, and its three occupants observed the battle below on a video monitor set into the ship's control panel. The Martian Manhunter and Plastic-Man faced off against four beings in the middle of the Square alone; the local citizenry had departed in a panic shortly after the arrival of the Monster Society of Oom. The monitor showed J'onn J'onzz grappling hand-to-hand with the gray-skinned, eight foot tall Oom, while Plastic-Man wove his pliable form back and forth between Oom's underlings: Nyola, Ramulus and Mister Who. Plastic-Man's torso penned the villains in while his elongated arms delivered roundhouse punches to each one in turn.

"Well, I'd say J'onn and Plas have the situation well in hand, wouldn't you?" Blue Beetle asked his companions.

"At the moment they do," the woman who bore the mantle of Dr. Light agreed cautiously.

"See, I gotta hand it to Plas, he fights with … I don't know, I guess with more reckless abandon than Ralph ever did. Makes him a bit more formidable, wouldn't you say, Booster?"

Booster Gold rolled his eyes irritably. "Ralph was always more interested in sniffing out mysteries than kicking tail, Ted. But that's hardly the point. Oracle called all of us to help out the Big Leaguers. You and I were visiting Kimiyo in Japan so we came to the closest hot spot, here … and now you're just doing color commentary from the blimp!"

Blue Beetle sucked in his gut almost reflexively. "I just don't want to do more harm than good," he protested. "And the fact is J'onn and Plas …"

"Are in trouble!" Dr. Light cut in, pointing at the video monitor. The monstrous Oom fell onto his back and kicked the Martian Manhunter across the square. Oom was then free to assist his henchmen.

"Oom will rule world!" the slow-witted but powerful creature intoned. "Oom already control earth!" At that statement, Oom aimed a hand at the ground beneath Plastic-Man and a mystic bolt issued forth from his large gray fingers. The earth swelled and three columns shot up, lifting Nyola, Ramulus and Mister Who above Plastic-Man's constricting loops of body. As the villains leapt to safety, the columns collapsed around Plastic-Man, trapping him under their rocky mass. Only a few ribbons of Plastic-Man's body protruded from the mystically animated earth.

"See? We should already be down there - this wouldn't have happened if we were!" Booster Gold hollered, already heading toward the exit hatch at the back of the airship.

"Don't worry, Ted. We'll help them," Dr. Light said over her shoulder as she followed Booster.

Blue Beetle set the airship on autopilot to hover over the square as he rose from his pilot seat. He too made his way to the back of the ship, and soon was descending down a cable line from the belly of the craft as Booster Gold and Dr. Light glided through the air ahead of him.

Mister Who, dressed in a bright green suit, adjusted the thick-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose. He pointed at Plastic-Man and sneered, "Face it, you big rubber goon, we're taking over, starting here and now! You shouldn't have messed with us!" Behind Mister Who, the woman called Nyola pulled two long, slender knives from the sleeves of her slinky, dark red outfit, while Ramulus spread his arms wide and threw back his black cape, fingertips sparking as his lips moved in incantation. Plastic-Man strained against the dirt and stones holding him down, his jaw ridiculously hyper-extended, as the three villains advanced on him.

Booster Gold flew at top speed between Nyola and Ramulus and grabbed Mister Who by the shoulders. Booster made a 90 degree turn to rise straight up into the air, and then body-slammed Mister Who from a height of twenty feet. At the same time, Dr. Light arrived above Nyola and unleashed a blinding flare that caused the femme fatale to drop her weapons and clutch too late at her eyes, sightless for the moment.

Oom gradually realized that his Monster Society was now outnumbered and prepared to create a mystical counterattack. Before the gray monstrosity could summon the energies, however, twin red beams of intense heat engulfed his body. The Martian Manhunter had risen again and trained his Martian vision on Oom, effectively incapacitating him.

Ramulus turned his attention from Plastic-Man to the new threats from above in Dr. Light and Booster Gold. He pointed his fingers up to the sky and lightning bolts flew from them, multiplying as they arced upward until they seemed to fill the air. Dr. Light and Booster evaded the assault as best they could, but as the electrical net became tighter they could not avoid them all. Fortunately, Blue Beetle had landed on the ground and sprinted the distance between himself and Ramulus unnoticed by the magic-wielding villain. A swift chop to the back of the neck sent Ramulus sprawling to the ground, and Blue Beetle bent over and rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

The lightning bolts in the air disappeared as Ramulus fell. "Nice shot, partner!" Booster called down to Beetle.

"Houh … houh … thanks …" Blue Beetle gasped.

"Uhhh, 'scuse me, could someone maybe give me hand here? Or possibly a backhoe?" Plastic-Man asked from his entombment.

"Sure, Plas, one sec," Booster Gold affirmed. No sooner had the words been spoken than the mound of dirt erupted with gargantuan vines that seemed to grow in length and girth as they burst from the surface. The leafy tendrils curved down around the sides of the earthy mound and, when they touched the surface of the square, contracted to pull the mound apart. Plastic-Man stood freely as his prison crumbled, and his elongated limbs retracted to their normal proportions.

"Booster, how did you get your armor to make THAT happen?" Blue Beetle demanded.

"What are you talking about, buddy?" Booster countered. "I was about to compliment you on a new Miracle-Gro gadget or something."

"I didn't do it!" Blue Beetle insisted.

"Well I didn't do it either!" Booster and Beetle looked to Dr. Light, who could only shrug, as mystified as her companions.

"I'm sorry … I know you don't know me …," a young girl's voice was heard on the edge of the square. "I don't know any of you, and I'm not sure where my mother and father are … but I recognize the deeds of heroes, and my own duty as a Princess of the Royal Family to assist you in vanquishing evil!"

The owner of the voice approached the heroes, a young girl of no more than sixteen. She wore golden boots and bracelets and a red bodysuit that left her arms and legs bare. Her hair was pure white, curly and shoulder-length.

"Well … um … thanks, Princess …?" Blue Beetle managed to ask.

"Princess Fern," the young girl finished her introduction.

Suddenly, the Martian Manhunter cried out in pain. Oom had been forced onto his knees in submission as J'onzz approached him, scorching Martian vision unrelenting. Yet somehow, even at point blank range of the heat attack, Oom had managed to lash out at his attacker. The gray monster crashed his fist into the Manhunter's jaw, leaving an eldritch energy sphere surrounding the Manhunter's entire head. Before dissolving into the ether, the sphere reflected J'onzz's unceasing Martian vision back and burned the Martian's face. The Martian Manhunter was now the one who fell to the ground.

"Well, Ferny, your timing is pretty good, we've got one more piece of evil to vanquish," Booster Gold pointed out. "Come on!" Booster and Dr. Light flew closed in on Oom in the air as Blue Beetle, Plastic-Man and Princess Fern followed on the ground.

The Huntress stood atop the remains of the building, searching for a way to gain entry or, more importantly, a way to let the men and women trapped inside make an exit. She almost did not hear the woman who climbed up the rubble behind her.

"Huntress?" The woman addressing Gotham City's female representative to the Justice League was a well-built blonde, wearing a black body suit with a wide green stripe down the middle, which covered her neck, arms and torso and bared her legs. Black and gold boots protected her feet as she clambered up the pile of rubble that had once been a building on the outskirts of Central City.

Huntress looked at the blonde, trying desperately to place her. She felt as if she should know her, but had forgotten her name. Then the blonde woman's garments began to shift - her flat boots lost their gold accents and became folded over at the tops; fishnet stockings snaked up her legs; the green stripe disappeared from her body suit as the neckline plunged downward; a navy blue jacket wrapped itself around her arms and back. Then, only then, was the Huntress able to retrieve her name from her memory. "Black Canary!"

"You look like you need a hand," Canary continued, reaching Huntress' side. Together the two women leaned their shoulders into a large piece of concrete debris. The former section of wall began to tilt out of the hole it rested in, but was jammed by a piece of twisted steel jutting from its side. Huntress, still applying her weight to the side of the concrete chunk, slid around its side and came close to the steel appendage. She popped a miniature acetylene torch from her utility belt and turned on its tiny but intense jet of flame, aiming it at the twisted section of girder. The metal glowed, and then snapped, and the piece of concrete heaved upward and rolled down the other side of the rubble pile.

"Thanks," Huntress offered to Canary. The two women peered into the darkness below. "Hello?" Huntress called out. "Anyone down there who can hear me?"

Several weak and frightened voices answered "yes," stirred by a renewed hope of rescue.

Huntress began uncoiling a rappelling line from her utility belt. "Canary, you can help me out by staying up here while I go down. I'll send civilians up, one at a time, and you can help them out." She shook her head as she lowered the line into the building. "I just hope the boys are holding out all right against the monster that did this."

"I wouldn't worry too much," Black Canary reassured her. "I know one more JLA reservist who's almost here, and he'll be able to lend quite a bit of help."

As if on cue, a yellow and red bolt cut through the air overhead, a streaking comet with a head that looked like a giant atomic model, orbited by smaller but equally fast streaks of yellow light. The airborne pyrotechnics heralded the arrival of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. As he approached the lumbering creature cutting a path of destruction through Central City, the Flash was dislodging himself from a crater in the side of the building created when he had been tossed into it. Green Lantern and Starman were slowly regaining their own feet as well.

Firestorm pulled up short and hovered over the creature, energy glowing around each of his fists. "All right, gruesome, time for you to eat some heat!" He aimed his hands at the beast and was about to fire when the Flash cried out.

"No, Firestorm! It absorbs energy - don't blast it!" the scarlet speedster implored.

The creature was now aware of Firestorm overhead, and in response it plunged its star-flecked hands into the pavement of the street, pulling up a huge section and flinging it forcefully at Firestorm. Firestorm reacted instantly, using his powers over matter to convert the approaching blacktop into harmless soap bubbles. Then he yelled down to his ally on the street, "Flash! I think I've got an idea for stopping this thing! I could use an assist with the fire hydrant!"

"OnedrenchedGalacticGolem,comingup!" the fastest man alive replied. In less than a heartbeat a heavy spray of water was shooting from the opened fire hydrant and dousing the Golem, after the Flash had sprinted to it and uncapped it at super speed. The Golem seemed practically unaware, as if the water were beneath his notice, when Firestorm began to convert the water into a harder, dark gray material.

"Not so easy to shrug off a depleted uranium casing, huh buddy?" Firestorm asked mockingly.

The Golem roared as it realized it had been cemented in one spot by the casing. It attempted to flex every limb in order to break free - and the ultra-dense coating bulged alarmingly.

"All right, time for me to lend a ring hand," Green Lantern announced as he limped toward the Golem. A purple bruise covered most of Green Lantern's left cheek, marking the point of impact when he had plummeted from the air to the street below. He raised his power ring and aimed for the exposed head of the Golem. "This ring can do pretty much anything I say it can, and right now I say it's a mean, green, power-sucking machine." Green Lantern focused his willpower through the ring, and a slender thread of green energy began to pour from the Golem's brow into the ring. The thread began to widen, faster and faster until a wide shaft of emerald light emanated from the Golem's head and engulfed the Lantern's fist.

"Hey, this guy owes me some power back, too," Jack Knight announced, nursing his own bruises from his impact with the street. He leveled his cosmic staff at the Golem and edged the point slowly into the green stream bound for Green Lantern's ring. A bright yellow current appeared within the emerald beam, flowing into Starman's weapon. As both heroes recharged with stolen energy, the pinpoints of light on the Golem's dark hide began to flicker and dim. The uranium shell thickened as Firestorm continued converting water, and became still as the Golem weakened too much to struggle against its heavy metal prison. Finally the power ring and cosmic staff were completely refueled, and Flash recapped the fire hydrant and cut off the flow of water. The Golem closed its eyes as Firestorm landed with the three other heroes.

"Galactic Golem?" Jack Knight asked incredulously. "Kinda hokey name there, Flash."

"You sore you didn't name yourself that first?" Green Lantern inquired sarcastically.

"I didn't name it that," the Flash protested. "That's just … what it's called." Confusion clouded the Flash's features. "But I don't know how I knew that. It's like something I remembered from an impossibly long time ago …"

"Hey, the important thing is that we stopped it," Firestorm pointed out. "Oracle's message said that there were lots of trouble spots that sprung up all at once - is there somewhere else we should go now?"

The Flash tapped the earpiece of his cowl to activate his JLA transmitter. "Oracle? What's everyone's status? Where should we be headed?"

"Everyone's holding their own," Oracle's voice responded in Flash's ear. "It might be best for you to return to home base … Zauriel requested as much."

"Really? Why's that?" Flash inquired.

"Ummm … because the Watchtower is now in orbit around the Earth. Or the Justice League Satellite is, and the Watchtower is gone. However you want to look at it. Zauriel says as far as he can tell the transporters still work, though," Oracle informed him.

"OK. We're on our way," the Flash agreed. He sped off, followed by the others in flight, to the devastated building which Huntress and Black Canary were helping the last victims out of. With hasty explanations from Flash along the way, the six heroes set off for the nearest teleportation transporter, located in the Flash Museum.

Before they could reach the Museum, a green and yellow-clad figure zoomed through the air to pull up alongside the flying heroes. The newcomer stood on what appeared to by a solid electrical current that arced through the air and supported his weight. Huntress smiled as she recognized the arriving hero. "Airwave!" she called out.

Green Lantern looked around at his comrades, but Black Canary, Firestorm and the Flash all seemed to recognize the brightly-garbed Airwave. Only Jack Knight returned his gaze with an equal measure of confusion.

THE SPHINX, EGYPT

"Errrrr, y'know, Hayden …" Mxyzptlk said thoughtfully, rubbing his pointy chin, "I don't mean to tell you you're doing less than a bang-up job, but … do you have to keep helping out those do-good saps by re-creating their buddies? I mean, Fury … Airwave … more annoying do-gooders?!?!? Don't get me wrong, Batwoman is always good for a few laughs, but … wouldn't it be more fun to bring in some more nasty creeps? Half the ones you brought in the first wave have already folded!"

The Psycho Pirate spun violently on Mxyzptlk, fixing his one good eye angrily on the interdimensional imp. The Medusa Mask covering his other eye socket also glared furiously, as he retorted, "I am trying to reconstruct an entire world! My world … my home!!! And everything that came with it, good and bad!" The Psycho Pirate pointed the golden spear in his hand directly at Mxyzptlk's heart. "Whether you like it or not," he finished menacingly, jabbing the weapon at his benefactor's chest with every other word.

"First of all," Mxyzptlk rejoined, leaning one slender elbow casually on the speartip, "you're not exactly firing on all cylinders, Hayds. Princess Fern was not from Earth-2. But more importantly …" Mxyzptlk's voice began to rise as his face turned an apoplectic shade of violet, "that's not why I gave you the Spear of Destiny! You were just supposed to cause a whole stinking garbage-barge full of trouble for the Superdupe! If you won't play my game, then give me back my toy!"

"Mxyzptlk … you vex me," the Psycho Pirate seethed. "And I suppose there is only one way to make you leave me be while I work." The Psycho Pirate raised the Spear high above his head, as if he meant to impale the tiny master of mischief. Instead, a bolt of light streaked from the Spear's pointed tip and exploded just in front of Mxyzptlk. As the light faded, a small figure stood where the epicenter of the flash had been.

The newly summoned being was slightly shorter than Mxyzptlk, less lanky, and wore a purple three-piece suit tailored as if it had been made in the 1930s. A purple bowler hat with a drooping daisy sat atop the midget's bald head. The glimmer in his eyes was eerily similar to the cruel capriciousness in Mxyzptlk's own, unsurprisingly, because the smaller imp's name was Mr. Mxyzptlk.

"What? How? No! NononoNO!" the yellow-and-purple clad Mxyzptlk screeched. "Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-99, I don't care! There's only one Mxyzptlk!"

"Yer right about dat," the smaller Mxyzptlk barked. "And it ain't you!" With a wave of his hands, the imp summoned a pair of Hollywood mummies atop the Sphinx's head. The mindless monsters shuffled toward the taller, thinner Mxyzptlk, arms outstretched.

Mxyzptlk floated into the air, well out of the mummies' reach, and in the blink of an eye had transformed the monsters' burial wrappings into rainbow-colored ribbons. One loose end on each creature rapidly unreeled, spinning the mummies like tops and revealing them to be hollow within, except for oversized sets of wind-up chattering teeth which began chomping through the air toward the white-haired Mxyzptlk.

The bald Mxyzptlk laughed hysterically, until his counterpart transformed into a yellow and purple cannon with wild tufts of hair and devilish eyes surrounding the barrel opening, and took aim at the approaching teeth. Two swift shots blew the teeth to bits, and then the anthropomorphic cannon set its sights on the second imp. With a thunderous boom, that Mxyzptlk was similarly reduced to a pile of broken shards.

The first Mxyzptlk reverted to his skinny, dwarfish form, just as the shards of the other Mxyzptlk rose up, turning into a swarm of purple bees that swarmed over his opponent. The cloud of Mxyzptlk bees carried Mxyzptlk off the Sphinx, and into the desert distance the battle continued.

The Psycho Pirate, meanwhile, had already returned his attention to his viewspheres. There was more left to do, and his bickering with Mxyzptlk had worn Roger Hayden's patience thin. He focused more and more of his memories through the Spear of Destiny, faster by far than he had at any time since the imp had given him the weapon. As reality itself buckled under his command, the fabric of all things strained. If nature had an audible voice, it would have screamed.

The Psycho Pirate, however, did not scream. He threw his head back and laughed wildly, and as he did the black leather trenchcoat he wore morphed into a flowing red cape with a high, stiff collar. A red hood wrapped itself around his head, leaving only his face exposed, and his clothes transformed into skintight costume with a broad checkerboard pattern of black and red, bearing icons of the masks of Comedy and Tragedy.

JUSTICE LEAGUE SATELLITE,
ORBITING 22,300 MILES ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH*
(*Just had to say that!)

"The Spear of Destiny," Zauriel pondered aloud. "That is what the creature from the Fifth Dimension called the Psycho Pirate's weapon, was it not?"

The being to whom the angel spoke was another of Heaven's servants, the Spectre. But the green-cloaked visitor said nothing. The Spectre had said nothing upon his arrival, as the strange villains and monsters had made their simultaneous attacks around the globe. He had said nothing when the Watchtower on the moon had magically transformed into a satellite station and begun orbiting the Earth. The Spectre's only action had been to run his hand across one of the monitor screens in the satellite's array, causing it to bring into focus images of the Psycho Pirate and Mxyzptlk atop the Sphinx, along with audio of their conversation. The glowing screen was edged with small, faint white and green flames, and obviously allowed observation of a mystical rather than technological nature. Other than providing the window on the Psycho Pirate's actions, the Spectre had remained immutably silent and inactive, standing impassive and alone. For all Zauriel could tell, he would remain so indefinitely. But at least Zauriel had learned the Psycho Pirate's location, and now, the power he wielded as well.

"I will have to tell the others when they arrive," Zauriel continued, speaking aloud to himself. "Although if it truly is the Spear of Destiny held by that villain, our peril is of the greatest magnitude." The angel's ruminations were interrupted then by multiple alarm signals from the monitor equipment. The satellite tracked global weather, seismic activity, magnetic field fluctuations, and other natural occurrences against normal parameters. At the moment, all incoming data was outside those boundaries.

Captain Atom's mind raced as he swooped down on the piazza, trying desperately to come up with a plan that would mean victory for himself and his allies. Already they were faring poorly, Captain Atom could not deny, as he grabbed the stone arm of a petrified Tasmanian Devil and lifted his fallen comrade off the ground to fly him to the relative safety of a nearby rooftop. As he set his friend-turned-statue on the roof tiles, he resolved that the monsters would be stopped at all costs.

"Sigrid! Bea! Kara!" Captain Atom yelled for his teammates. Icemaiden, Fire and Power Girl responded to his call, joining him on the rooftop.

"Hey! What about … ah, to blazes with him!" Blue Jay lamented in frustration. He had kept his distance from Medusa-Man since Tasmanian Devil's transformation, and now turned his attention to the jet black Repello-Man. Swiftly Blue Jay zipped through the air toward the inky monster, who detected his approach and attempted to deflect him with a wave of invisible force. Making use of his relatively small size, Blue Jay dodged the attack and continued toward the creature, jabbing both fists into the monster's eyes. Repello-Man howled in pain and clutched its head, while all the rubble and debris surrounding the monster suddenly exploded outward. Blue Jay wove deftly amid the flying refuse, rising high in the air for another dive bomb attack.

"Huh. I think the little guy might be on to something," Captain Atom mused, then snapped his attention back to the three women before him. "We need to change dancing partners here, folks. Power Girl and I will see if we can't teach the scaly beast a thing or two. Icemaiden and Green Fury, both of you hit the white one with everything you've got. Let's go."

Power Girl and Captain Atom took off, leaving Icemaiden to look curiously at Fire. She was about to ask her teammate why the Captain had called her "Green Fury," when she realized her partner's entire costume had changed. What had been an outfit consisting of a dark green leather jacket, light green boustierre, green hot pants with looping belts and foldover green boots was now a skin-tight green body suit that included a connected face mask. Even Bea's hair had changed, from wavy to poker straight, though it retained its light green hue. Before Icemaiden could fully comprehend what she was seeing, Green Fury was airborne and flying toward Absorbo-Man. Icemaiden simply followed her.

Captain Atom and Power Girl flew at Medusa-Man from behind, with Power Girl hurtling in low to take out the monster at its knees while Captain Atom fired a quantum blast at its head. Medusa-Man went down hard, and Power Girl landed a tremendous haymaker on the back of Medusa-Man's skull before flying off, embedding the creature's head in the piazza stones.

Green Fury was scorching Absorbo-Man with bright, verdant flames as Icemaiden caught up with her and began assaulting the monster with a hard column of ice. Absorbo-Man growled menacingly as the flames and ice alike seemed to pass through the creature's white skin. The two heroines continued their attacks relentlessly, and Absorbo-Man continued to live up to his name. Soon, however, the monster showed signs that the conflict of heat and cold it was incorporating into its body at such a rate was causing it pain. Absorbo-Man bellowed and dropped to its knees.

Blue Jay flew in toward Repello-Man's head much more quickly now, just as Repello-Man opened its eyes and unleashed a double wave of force. This time Blue Jay was unable to dodge and found himself careening into a building wall. Absorbo-Man fought back as well, crossing its arms and unleashing a barrage of ice projectiles at Green Fury and a wall of green fire at Icemaiden. The heroines broke off their attacks in order to defend themselves. Medusa-Man, too, regained its feet and began staring at Power Girl and Captain Atom, who looked away lest they be turned to stone.

Without warning, the ground of the piazza began to shake violently. All of the heroes were able to rise into the air, but the monsters were earthbound as huge fissures opened up massive cracks in the piazza's surface. Fiery rivers of molten lava were visible in the depths of the crevasses, and the hapless monsters were one by one swallowed in the earthquakes as buildings around the piazza toppled and were swept away by lava as well.

"Dios mio!" Green Fury exclaimed.

"What in the world …?" Blue Jay asked.

Power Girl's eyes swept over the piazza. "And where's that guy who looked like Johnny Thunder?" she demanded.

"Don't know, but we need to do some damage control …" Captain Atom began, and before he could finish the earthquake stopped, as quickly and impossibly as it had begun. Only the structural damage to the buildings around the piazza and a few puddles of steaming magma served as evidence that the tremors and rivers of lava had ever existed. The heroes looked at each other in disbelief.

Around the world, the people of Earth were learning that the aberrations of nature were only beginning …