"Ascendance"

Fifty feet above the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a constantly shifting web of alien energies was being woven and rewoven against the sky. Blazing strands of jagged luminous force in colors from crimson to turquoise, neon green to deep gold, and brilliant white to inky black crisscrossed with lightning speed. In the midst of the deadly discharges flew Ember, zigzagging wildly to avoid being scourged by any of the energy attacks, his entire body burning at over two thousand degrees Kelvin. In a ring that delineated the edge of the net of arcing multi-colored bolts hovered twenty flying drones, their curved metallic horns generating the crackling web.

Ember had hoped to draw most of the drones away from the boat holding the rest of his allies, but even generating maximum flame and heat, he had attracted less than half of the robotic force to the area high above the Gulf. He had also expected to eliminate at least some of the drones with aerial maneuvers that might cause them to target him but accidentally shoot each other. So far, the drones had proven uncannily well-regulated, as if the organic-looking yellow-green material inside their glass globe shells possessed cunning and instincts beyond simple programming. The drones worked in unison, creating elaborate patterns of energy beams generated by their metallic horns, and never came close to shooting each other. Ember, meanwhile, pushed himself to the limit of his flying ability to avoid being hit.

"Times like this I really kind of wish I could throw fire, too," Ember muttered to no one in particular. He climbed higher in the sky, alien energy blasts trailing close behind him, then extinguished the sheath of flames emanating from his skin and began to plummet. For half a heartbeat the drones ceased their barrage as they lost Ember's heat signature as a target and recalibrated. Ember fell through the center of the ring of drones, then burst into flames again and barreled toward the underside of the nearest drone.

The gamble worked, as before the drone could reorient itself to shoot at Ember the hero was smashing into the automaton. The metallic pincers lining the drone's underbelly were warped by Ember's personal inferno, and the glass body bubbled and cracked. Ember continued flying past the damaged drone as it began to sink towards the Gulf, trailing dark smoke. He had no time to watch, as the targeting systems of the other drones acquired him once again and all his concentration was occupied by evading their attacks.

On the experimental AXIOMech watercraft, Enigma defended his companions from the circling drones. Three spinning discs of swirling scarlet light formed a triangle above the heads of Enigma, More, Sojourn, Vigilante and Vic Wagner. Whenever a drone fired an energy blast toward the heroes, the nearest warp would draw in the attack and absorb it completely. The drones floated in a rough circle around the boat, drawing inexorably closer.

One drone broke from the ranks and flew directly toward the heroes, its pincers spreading wide with predatory menace. Like a weird cybernetic cannonball it bore down on the cluster of bodies, until More stepped directly into its path and caught it by two of its horns in his massive fists. The drone immediately tried to retreat, nearly jerking More off his feet, but the strongman held his ground and maintained his grip. With a quick snap of his left wrist, More broke off one of the drone's horns. He then raised the drone over his head in his right hand and hurled it at one of its robotic fellows in the ring around the boat. The wounded drone caromed off another, splashing into the Gulf, clearly too damaged to take to the air. The automaton the fallen drone had impacted showed some minor scarring but continued to hover in formation with the others.

"Damn, these things are tough," Vigilante said, flexing her fingers around the stock of her rifle. She had stopped shooting when the shells of the drones proved themselves to be sufficiently bulletproof. "Any tricks up your sleeve, Vic?"

"Yeah, I'm sure these flying deathbots will just surrender if I pull out a rabbit or a couple of doves," Wagner snapped.

"How about a few white tigers?" Sojourn asked. "Might as well go all the way, Vegas style."

"Hilarious. I think I can get off a few shots without killing myself. The problem is that right now the drones seem content to keep us here in a standoff. If I magically blast four or five of them, the other twenty-five are gonna take a bit more of an interest in me."

"And the rest of us," More added.

"Something will have to be done to break the standoff eventually," Enigma said, his voice tightening with the exertion of keeping his warp-discs open and aloft. "By us, or by the drones."

As if hearing Enigma's words, three of the drones surrounding the watercraft broke rank, but rather than approaching the heroes, the trio of automatons flew farther away. The heroes watched them go uneasily.

In a dome-shaped chamber that appeared to be formed from one continuous, reflective sheet of an unearthly mineral, four of the members of Bad Blood were held in stasis fields. Pierce, Hangfire, Valence and Karnival hung suspended in mid-air, their limbs splayed so that their bodies formed X-shapes, encased in vibrating iridescent halos causing them to defy gravity. The drones that had carried them through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and into the structure lying at its darkest depths were now silently arrayed against the curving wall of the chamber.

"Who's awake?" Pierce asked flatly.

"I am," Valence volunteered. "Definitely too pissed off to be otherwise."

"I hear that," Hangfire put in. "I've been trying to turn up my forcefield to reflect away whatever's holding me here, but so far, nada. Must be something neutralizing my powers."

"Same here," Karnival said. His monstrous skeletal visage had reverted to Ed Baird's normal, human aspect, angular, clean-shaven, with messy brown hair and dark eyes.

"So we're immobilized, de-powered, but still able to talk to each other," Valence observed. "Anyone wanna take bets on why?"

"Because I intend to make your time here instructive," a voice answered from behind the foursome. "Ignorance breeds chaos. Enlightenment engenders order. You may speak because I allow you to ask questions, to find your own way to knowledge."

The speaker stepped between Pierce and Hangfire, a tall, bald man with skin an inhuman shade of deep pink. He was dressed in ornate robes of fuchsia and black with a high-swept collar. He turned around and stared at his prisoners with eyes that were completely white, framed by an upswept brow that looked vaguely like flattened devil's horns.

"Who the hell are you?" Valence asked.

"If it is a name you seek, Zyl'yrag will suffice," the alien answered, drawing slightly closer to Valence's suspended form. "But I sense deeper curiosity in your inquiry. You know that I ... like you ... am not from this planet, yet you wonder what has brought me here. You know that I am your captor, but you know not why I have taken such pains to entrap you." Zyl'yrag stared opaquely into Valence's eyes and hissed, barely above a whisper, "Just as you once knew that the Dominators had captured your people, and yet the reasons were unfathomable to your young mind."

"How ... how did you know that?" Valence stammered.

"Don't let him mess with your head, Valence," Pierce urged brusquely from across the chamber.

Zyl'yrag turned toward Pierce with a tight-lipped smile, then continued, "I bring up the Dominators with good reason, human. For my purpose here on your world, and my reasons for imprisoning you, can be traced back to a flawed and thwarted effort by the Dominators themselves. I have simply improved upon their imperfect plan and brought it to a far more satisfying conclusion."

"Nothing's concluded yet, buddy," Hangfire averred, straining his muscles against the stasis field.

"You may engage in all the displays of bravado you wish, human, but I assure you it will be for naught. In the mean time, as I promised, I will enlighten you as to my purpose, which is simply this: to create order out of chaos, and to amass the power necessary in order to enforce such a vision as only my people can conceive. I seek only to save the grunting, thrashing, wailing denizens of the universe from ... themselves."

"I'm guessing that the power you need to amass isn't the kind you'd use to broadcast a message trying to talk everyone in the universe into seeing things your way," Karnival said. "What's it for ... a weapon? Mass mind-control? Something more fundamentally cosmic and reality-altering?"

Zyl'yrag flashed a cold grin at the illusionist. "I do, in fact, speak of military power, human. Though it pains me, I know well that the only path to peace lies in destroying evil. Not abating it, not subduing it, but destroying it utterly. Only after my army has traversed every star system and eradicated every evil within it can order prevail and peace reign."

"We're not interested in enlisting," Pierce said dryly.

"Yeah, I did my time in the service, no more tours of duty for me," Hangfire added.

"Your interests are irrelevant," Zyl'yrag scoffed. "Nor is your consenting will required. Years ago, the Dominators envisioned an army with powers and abilities that seemed to defy nature itself. In order to harvest the raw meta-genetic material they would need to begin propagating this force, they formed an Alliance and targeted the single richest vein of meta-genes in the known universe: Earth. But the Dominators were overly ambitious. They steered their Alliance toward a full-scale invasion of Earth, and a direct confrontation with all of your planet's altruistic metahumans, the so-called superheroes. They hoped in this way to gain in secret the prize they sought, while distracting both their enemies and allies with this impossible goal of planetary conquest. It proved their undoing."

"You ... you're a Controller, aren't you?" Valence asked, his face and voice still numb and haunted.

"I might have been, once," Zyl'yrag admitted, pale eyes narrowing. "I trace my own bloodline back to the earliest lineages of Maltus. But I have had a ... parting of the ways with each and all of my brethren. I am no Controller. I am Zyl'yrag. I am alone."

"You are delusional," Karnival interjected. "You think you can pull off alone what the Dominators and their Alliance couldn't?"

"I already have," Zyl'yrag stated coldly. "I have learned from the Dominators' folly. I am single-minded of purpose. The Dominators conflated their plans to build one army with their scheme to use another to enslave the Earth. Two cross purposes which consumed one another. The superheroes of Earth would never allow its peoples to be conquered and killed, and fought with passion and valor. And equally so did the merely human show their courage and fortitude, refusing to allow the Dominators to abscond with their heroes."

Zyl'yrag looked at each of the four members of Bad Blood in turn. "Do not think that I have chosen the seeds of my personal meta-genetic army blindly. I have observed your conduct for some time now. You are powerful, yes, but more importantly ... you are also alone. Who will notice that I have abducted you? What common man will demand your return? What heroes will rush to your rescue?"

Once again, Zyl'yrag smiled cruelly. "I have observed you long enough to know the answer. No one."

The three drones that had broken off from the main formation encircling the AXIOMech craft re-positioned themselves nearly five hundred feet away, directly behind the aft section of the boat. The drones oriented themselves toward the experimental craft with their lower extremities brushing the surface of the Gulf waters. Their crowns of metallic horns began to coruscate with synchronized energies.

The remaining drones began to increase their rate of fire. Enigma, in response, widened the scarlet portals spinning above himself and his allies. The energy blasts continued to be drawn into the blood-red voids as they screamed towards the deck of the boat from all sides, but the effort began to wear Enigma down. His head dropped and his shoulders sagged, as if some massive weight were bearing down him, and he spread his legs to steady himself on his feet. Sojourn, More, Vigilante and Vic Wagner braced themselves around him.

"Dirk!" Vigilante suddenly cried out. "Incoming at six o'clock low!"

The others turned their heads to see the three most distant drones firing in unison. Their beams merged into a single huge volley of energy that slashed through the waves like a blazing torpedo. Enigma tried to turn his body around while maintaining both his balance and his concentration, but was too slow. The energy blast struck the engines of the AXIOMech craft and destroyed them in a spectacular explosion that filled the air with the smell of burning gasoline and oily black smoke.

"That was nice of them, to give us a smokescreen to hide in for a second," More said with a sarcastic sigh.

"Yeah, we can hide while we sink," Wagner retorted. "When the smoke clears and we're all bobbing in the ..."

Before the mage could finish his thought, several elongated projectiles flew down across the bow of the boat. They cut almost silently through the smoke, coming from high overhead, and hit the surface of the Gulf just in front of the boat with the sound of water striking water. A moment later the entire vessel rose up through the burning black cloud as if pushed by a giant hand from below.

Sojourn ran to the rail at the edge of the bow, and looked down at the column of geysering water that was holding the boat aloft in the air. "What is up with that?"

Wagner and Vigilante shared a look of equal bafflement, but More chuckled and shook his head. "Nice timing," he said. "And nice shootin', Chandi."

Sojourn, Wagner and Vigilante remained in mute incomprehension until the whine of an approaching sonic sled grew closer and louder. Shielding their eyes against the sun, the heroes on the boat looked to the west to see the open-air vehicle carrying Blue Jay, Crimson Fox, Tasmanian Devil and Maya toward them. Flying under their own power, Dr. Light and Power Girl flanked the sonic sled, but Power Girl quickly broke off and flew toward the swarm of drones battling Ember higher overhead.

The sonic sled pulled level with the AXIOMech boat atop the waterspout, and Maya jumped from one craft to the other and ran toward More, the golden ornamentations of her headdress, earrings and bracelets jingling. "Les! Hi!" she shouted, before stopping herself as she noticed Enigma barely supporting himself on his hands and knees on the deck. "Oh my gosh is he OK?"

"I'll ... be fine ... in a few minutes," Enigma answered, utterly winded.

"You know these guys, More?" Sojourn asked, crossing her arms and eyeing Maya skeptically.

"Sure, we go way back," More grinned. "Good to see you guys."

"Wish this were more of a social call," Blue Jay acknowledged. "But it seems like your team is in the middle of quite a disturbance."

"As usual," Crimson Fox nodded, but with an insouciant smile on her lips.

"You could say that," Vigilante agreed. "And the hows and whys of what we're doing here is a long, complicated story, so can we safely assume that you Euroguard folks are here to help us shoot first and ask questions later?"

"Actually, we're the Justice League Europe now," Tasmanian Devil corrected. "Er, again."

"So noted ... look out!" Vigilante yelled, pointing off the bow. The hovering drones had risen up around all sides of the watercraft and were preparing to fire on the gathered heroes.

"Behind me!" Dr. Light commanded, raising a shield of dazzling hard light. The first volley of energy blasts from the drones crackled against the wall of superdense photons and rebounded away, and the drones began to maneuver again. "Now counter, before they can strike again!" the Japanese mistress of radiation urged her allies.

Blue Jay spread his cerulean wings while shrinking to a fraction of his usual height, and began to fly in complicated zigzags through the heart of the mass of drones. Maya raised her bow and formed mystical arrows of white flame against the string, firing at will at the horned automatons. Dr. Light added her own ultra-violet lasers to the offensive, while Crimson Fox perched lithely on the railing at the bow, flexing her razor-sharp claws and waiting for a drone to hover within reach.

"Reckon you won't be needing your engines anymore, eh?" Tasmanian Devil asked More with a grin full of long white fangs.

"Nah, we got the supplemental insurance," More winked. Together the two burly strongmen sprinted to the aft section of the boat and reached the ruined, scorched remains of the outboard engines.

Tasmanian Devil gripped one engine in his furry paws while More laid hold of another. In seconds they tore the engines free of the hull. "Third one from the right?" More asked.

"Righty-o," Tas replied. With smooth synchronicity, each muscle-bound hero lobbed their engine at the same drone, striking their target with a satisfying clang of metal against the automaton's smooth exterior. The automaton wobbled and began to sink through the air, its carapace visibly cracked.

Overhead, Ember was caught in the grip of three drones. One had its pincers tightly clamped around Ember's ankles, another clutched him at the waist, and the third had its metallic mandibles spread wide to pin Ember's upper arms against his sides. Ember's body burned hotly, but the drones refused to release him, as they shocked him with short but painful bursts of energy. Ember supposed they were holding back in order to avoid accidentally overpowering each other with the close-range energy. Ember's personal sheath of flames offered him some defense against the energy bursts, but he was unsure how long he could withstand the slow torture of the stalemate.

Suddenly a blue-gloved fist appeared over his shoulder, thrown from somewhere behind his back and covered in small shards, twisted wires and yellow-green organic residue. Ember felt the pressure around his arms ease, and he wasted no time in moving his hands to his waist and grabbing the set of pincers there. For a moment his entire body ceased its perpetual combustion, as he focused all of his fiery power into his palms. His hands blazed at temperatures high enough to warp the robotic jaws away from his body, and the heat conducted itself throughout the drone's body, playing havoc with its internal circuitry. As the drone released his waist, Ember's body swung downward as he was held aloft only by the last automaton clamped to his lower legs. Ember employed the same strategy again, diverting all of his thermal energy into his feet, and was able to kick free.

His entire body ignited again and he righted himself in the air, finding himself face to face with Power Girl as she extracted her arm from the shell of the drone she had punched through. "Ah, Peegee," Ember sighed longingly, "I could not ask for a lovelier rescuer. I owe you one. Can I buy you breakfast tomorrow morning?"

"Dream on," Power Girl snorted.

"Believe me, I will," Ember replied, making no effort to hide the sweep of his eyes up and down her long legs and ample décolletage. "Until you come around, at least."

Power Girl tossed her hair out of her face and seemed about to deliver a cutting reply when another group of drones began to bear down on the two of them. She allowed a hostile glare to suffice before flying fists first like an airborne battering ram into the nearest automaton. Ember followed close behind, tackling a drone that had just evaded Power Girl's plowing attack.

"Aren't you guys a little bit outside your jurisdiction here?" Ember asked casually as he engulfed the drone in flames. "I thought you all stayed out of the U.S."

"The Mexican government called us in," Power Girl retorted, driving her elbow into the center of a drone's shell with a loud crack. "Or did you think this body of water was named the Gulf of Alabama?"

"Please, please, we're from Louisiana," Ember insisted. "No need to cast aspersions, Peegee."

"Do not call me 'Peegee'."

"Whatever you say, gorgeous."

On the AXIOMech watercraft, Vigilante unclipped a small gray sphere from her belt and lobbed it toward a drone off the starboard rail. The metal ball arced through the air, struck one of the armor-plated horns atop the drone, and fell to the center of the crown, where it detonated in a thunderous explosion that sent the wreckage of the drone toward the Gulf waters.

"What was that?" Crimson Fox asked.

"HESH grenade," Vigilante answered. "High Explosive Squash Head. Anti-tank munitions. I figured it was time to pull out all the stops."

"You know, you may be right, at that," Vic Wagner nodded. He raised his arms high, his hands clenched in fists shoulder-width apart, and a deep, silver light encircled them. The light seemed to move with its own volition, tracing an untranslatable sigil in the air between Wagner's hands, and then lashed out at two nearby drones. The drones began to shimmer and wobble, losing their solidity, becoming skinnier and more elongated; until they seemed to fold in on themselves, out of existence.

The response was almost immediate, as several drones fired jagged bolts of energy at Wagner. More leapt toward the mage and tackled him, offering his back to the incoming energy assault and taking the brunt of it. The two men hit the deck and were quickly joined by Sojourn. "Are you two all right?" she asked.

"Ow," was More's only response, but his voice sounded strong.

"I knew that would cost me," Wagner lamented from under the strongman.

"At least you can do something here," Sojourn said bitterly. "I feel so useless."

"There is something you can do," Wagner corrected her. "You're a spirit-walker. You can reach the others, wherever they've been taken. You can find them and maybe find a way to end this thing at its source."

"But I ... I don't know ..."

"You can do it, Sojourn," Wagner repeated. "And you may be the only one."

Sojourn looked up at More, who had just regained his feet. More nodded silently. Sojourn stood and walked to the bow of the ship. She vaulted over the railing and began to fall in a swan dive, through the chaos and fire and thunder of metal clanging on metal and energy expulsions and lightbursts and barking guns. And when she reached the surface of the Gulf, she passed through it without any splash at all, as her body had already shifted into its ethereal form.

Zyl'yrag waved a hand toward the far wall of the domed chamber, and the rounded wall split along an invisible seam. Through the newly created aperture, four automatons entered the room. The mechanical servants were nine feet tall, each in the shape of double helix. Coils of metal wound around each other, terminating in small clawed feet against the floor of the chamber and tapering to needle-sharp points at the upper extremities. The twisted metal rods were connected by glass-like rungs, some filled with various fluids and solutions, others empty as if awaiting fresh samples. The four automatons crossed the room with small, tottering steps, each one moving inexorably toward one of the members of Bad Blood held in the stasis fields.

"These syrinxoid units will collect your metagene samples," Zyl'yrag explained clinically. "The process is rapid and, ultimately, fatal. But fear not. You shall be the templates of the army that ushers in eons of universal peace, and in that way you shall achieve a special kind of immortality."

"I'd rather take my chances in a retirement community, thanks," Valence countered. "Maybe I'll die eventually anyway, but I'll get in plenty of bingo and early bird dinners first, you know?"

Zyl'yrag said nothing, and Karnival objected next. "Dammit, at least let Pierce go, you sicko."

"Thanks a lot, K," Hangfire gnarred.

Karnival pressed on, "Pierce's DNA isn't going to do you any good. He's not metahuman!"

Zyl'yrag walked slowly toward Pierce. "That is where you are mistaken," the alien said with obvious pleasure, as he reached up and his hands passed through the stasis field surrounding the former Checkmate knight. Zyl-yrag grasped Pierce's helmet and pulled it off, revealing the man beneath: a chiseled profile, scarred more than once, with keen pale blue eyes and light brown hair buzzed almost down to his scalp. "It is a subtle difference between this human's genotype and most others. But it is different enough. I suspect his will present the most fascinating analysis of all. But, first things first."

Zyl'yrag stepped out of the way, and the syrinxoid skittered closer to Pierce, as its three identical counterparts approached Karnival, Hangfire and Valence. Each syrinxoid swiveled its upper section so that it could place one sharpened metallic nib against the sternum of its sample target and the other on the center of the forehead.

A high-pitched whine began to fill the air as the metagenetic removal sequence began.

Sojourn kicked her legs and her spirit form descended through the dark waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The simulation of swimming was no more necessary than her imitation of running when her spirit form moved through the air, merely an extension of the way she visualized herself traversing one medium or another. The depths of the Gulf spread out before her like a void, with no signs of life, and barely any evidence of her teammates' passage.

Sojourn tried not to panic and continued reaching out through the water with her primal mystic senses, all the while sinking deeper and deeper. The drones had cut through the Gulf too quickly to allow her teammates to leave any kind of psychic trail, but there were intermittent spots of memory that Sojourn's spirit form flitted between, connecting dots of emotional struggle and spiritual strife. It was not a pleasant experience.

Eventually, Sojourn reached the floor of the Gulf, and found the objective of her search. To her spirit-form's senses, it was like an eldritch black shadow of nothingness, angular and utterly soulless, an unnatural aberration amongst the waters and rocks that comprised this area of Earth's surface. Sojourn had been expecting a spaceship, but the titanic obelisk before her was more like a fortress. Bracing herself, she phased through its walls.

The interior was similarly alien and oblique, and although Sojourn could not feel temperature any more than she had felt the water surrounding her outside the construct, she shivered as she traversed the corridors that were suffused with light that came from no apparent source.

When Sojourn reached a flat and featureless wall, she stopped. Her intuition told her that Pierce, Karnival, Hangfire and Valence were on the other side of the wall, undergoing some harrowing experience. She ghosted out of the corridor and into the chamber beyond.

Her teammates hung near the ceiling of the room, splayed out within sheaths of restraining energy. Thin, twisted machines were connected to each hero's forehead and chest like metallic, parasitic worms. And a tall, officious alien in fuchsia and black robes observed the process.

Sojourn flew across the room toward Pierce. She hovered above him and, feeling a little like an angel on his shoulder, silently spoke to him within the spirit realm: "Pierce, what's going on? What should I do?"

"Sojourn?" Pierce responded mentally. His jaw was clenched and the cords of his neck stood out.

"Vic sent me down," Sojourn explained. "How do I get you guys out of this?"

"Don't know," Pierce admitted grimly. "Our captor's a cosmic powerhouse with alien technology off the charts. His drones are taking genetic core samples so he can grow an army of metas."

Pierce paused for a moment and then finished, "I don't think there's anything your magic can do before we're dead."

Above the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, the remaining drones ceased their fusillade of attacks and regrouped several hundred yards from the Justice League Europe sonic sled and the AXIOMech craft atop Maya's mystic waterspout. Power Girl and Ember descended onto the deck of the experimental ship to rejoin their respective teammates.

"We scare them off?" Ember asked.

"Here's hoping," Power Girl said, crossing her arms under her bosom. Her superhuman toughness had allowed the blonde bombshell to emerge from the swarming attacks of the drones relatively unscathed, but the rest of her allies were not as lucky. The fur of Tasmanian Devil's left hand was matted with blood that had flowed freely after a drone had sheared off three of his claws. Blue Jay's costume had been torn open across his chest and down his right leg, and the skin revealed beneath had been burned and blistered by enemy energy bolts. Crimson Fox's right eye was bruised and swollen shut where a drone mandible had swatted her just before she could backflip and kick the automaton away. Ember had similar bruises all over his face, visible once he extinguished his aura of flames. Vigilante held her right arm close to her side, unwilling to acknowledge which part of it had been dislocated or broken. More's back was scored with the evidence of a direct hit from an energy blast. Vic Wagner had suffered a laceration somewhere on his scalp that trickled blood into his eyes. Enigma, Dr. Light and Maya had kept themselves reasonably free of injury, but all three wore their battle-weariness heavily.

"Jay, can you see what they're doing?" Dr. Light asked.

"I think so, Kimiyo," Blue Jay answered, training his metahumanly keen eyes on the distant drones, "and I don't think I like it."

"What does that mean?" Vigilante demanded.

"It looks like they're ... merging," Blue Jay elaborated.

"You're still not being crystal clear on the 'meaning' part, mate," Tasmanian Devil said.

"Doesn't matter," Blue Jay said, launching himself into the air with a beat of his wide azure wings. "You can see for yourselves. They're ... it's coming back."

The mass of drones approached the waterspout, moving as a single entity. As it drew nearer the heroes could observe the new shape, a fusion of the glassy globes of the drones stitched and bolted together with reformed horns and mandibles. The configuration resembled a colossal mechanical polyp, a columnar body several stories tall, with twelve tentacles undulating around its peak.

"All right, this isn't so bad," Ember insisted, flames spreading across his skin. "Now it's just one big target for us, right?"

As if in response, two of the tentacles slanted toward the waterspout, extending straight out from the main body. Small apertures opened at the tips of the tentacles, and spherules of viscous yellow-green spat out of each. One glob impacted with the prow of the JLE sonic sled, while the other splattered across the deck of the AXIOMech craft. Immediately the substances bubbled and smoked, eating through the vehicles.

"And this is the part where things go from bad to worse," Wagner lamented.

"We shall go down fighting, non?" Crimson Fox asked, her head held high.

Three more of the tentacles leveled themselves at the heroes, but before they could discharge their plasmic acids, a shining yellow lariat appeared around the automaton's appendages and yanked them upward. A moment later, Guy Gardner blasted down from overhead, brandishing his Qwardian power ring. Immediately behind him flew Green Arrow and Hazard, propelled by jetpacks strapped to their backs. Green Arrow modified his flight pattern, coming to a halt in an upright hovering position and readying his green bow, while Hazard continued to close on the gigantic polyp-construct.

While the mass of automatons tried to pull its three restrained tentacles free from Gardner's energy projection lasso, it pointed a free tentacle at Green Arrow and another at Hazard. The emerald archer aimed an arrow directly at the end of the tentacle and the aperture that opened there, and Hazard increased her speed as she closed on the writhing artificial appendage threatening her. Her ginger hair streamed back from her bright red visor.

Hazard came within inches of the mechanical tentacle and pulled back her right arm, then unleashed a powerful cross that struck the edge of the aperture at the tentacle's tip. The force of the punch, connecting at the most opportune angle possible, knocked the tentacle aside just as it spat forth another viscous, acidic projectile. At the same instant, the tentacle aimed at Green Arrow ejected its own chemical projectile, and Green Arrow simultaneously let loose his bowstring. One second later, the spherule fired from Hazard's tentacle collided with the one fired from Green Arrow's, and the amalgamated blob spun off course. Green Arrow's shaft, on the other hand, was on target, slipping trough the iris at the end of the tentacle. The arrowhead exploded within the automaton shell.

"That was some lucky punch, huh?" More said admiringly.

"It was," Dr. Light agreed. "I appreciate the timely arrival of our friends, but we need to find a way to assist them."

"Leave it to me," Power Girl said, flying off the deck of the boat.

No sooner had Power Girl rocketed away than the AXIOMech craft began to fall apart, the weight of the aft section finally shearing it away from the heavily damaged prow, as the acidic compound continued dissolving deep gouges into the hull. Dr. Light, Blue Jay and Ember took to the air, but the rest of the heroes could only brace themselves as the water of Maya's waterspout began to shoot up through the fractured deck. Blue Jay reached for Vigilante, and Dr. Light extended her hands toward Maya, as the boat started to plummet in pieces. Crimson Fox leapt for the sonic sled, but found it just as unstable as the devastated boat, and the JLE aircraft began to shudder and sink as well. Tasmanian Devil, More, Vic Wagner and Enigma plunged down toward the Gulf.

Blue Jay shifted his grip on Vigilante's vest to one hand and dove toward Vic Wagner, and Dr. Light projected a shallow bowl of solid light to catch Crimson Fox as the sonic sled's descent accelerated. But More, Enigma and Tasmanian Devil continued to fall unaided.

Suddenly, another flying craft roared onto the scene. The wide, long and open vehicle resembled a 1950's convertible with the exception of having no wheels, its exterior a bright metallic yellow and its interior dominated by white bench seats. Piloting the Sky Skimmer was Wildcat, with Abby Walker next to him and Paul Kirk the Manhunter, beside her. The rear bench held Paula Crock the Huntress, Artemis Crock, and Jake Crock the Sportsmaster.

Wildcat steered the Sky Skimmer expertly, rolling below the freefalling heroes. Abby Walker stood up and aimed one of her hi-tech gauntlets at Enigma, firing a grapple line that wrapped around the cloaked hero's waist. Jake Crock leaned over the side of the Sky Skimmer and extended his titanium lacrosse stick for More to grab hold of. Tasmanian Devil landed on the front end of the flying craft, which dipped under the furry behemoth's weight but quickly stabilized.

Abby and Jake helped Enigma and More into the JSA vehicle. "This gathering is getting larger by the minute," Enigma observed.

"Just happened to be in the neighborhood," Wildcat shrugged with a half-grin. "Give you fellas a lift?"

"Anywhere in the neighborhood of that mechanized medusa would be ripper," Tasmanian Devil said. Wildcat obligingly piloted towards the mass of automatons.

Sojourn frantically searched her memories for anything that could help her rescue her teammates. She felt completely overmatched, surrounded on all sides by bizarre alien technology, impossibly far from either of the worlds she knew, the New Orleans environs and the spirit world that infused it.

She broke down the situation in her mind. The most important task was to stop the process that seemed to be killing her teammates, but that process was being carried out by non-living agents, metallic chattel devoid of the stuff of life that Sojourn could affect ...

... except for the metagenetic material the robots had already extracted.

Sojourn invisibly lowered her spirit form into the midst of the syrinxoids, extending her influence through her personal aura. She could feel the primordial vitality in the samples that were held in the robotic helixes' glass rungs. The isolated metagenes did not possess power, but they were the fundamental biological potential of power. All of Sojourn's spirit magic was focused on potential, the potential to see through a lie, the potential to break free of a curse, the potential to move a mountain. She could manifest the potential of the metagenes, if only for a moment. With that belief, she focused all of her strength into the metaphysical effort.

For a moment, the only sign that Sojourn's magics were having any effect at all was that the motorized whine of the syrinxoids slowed and fell silent. Zyl'yrag's opaque white eyes narrowed; he took a step forward. Then the syrinxoids exploded. Waves of green-tinged magnetism tore the helix-shaped drones to pieces; shimmering forcefield bubbles deflected the shrapnel into the far reaches of the room; brilliant slashes of light like demonic inkblots took wing and caused Zyl'yrag to shield his eyes with his robed arms.

With the explosion still ringing in her ears, Sojourn collapsed, her spirit form reverting back to flesh and blood. Before she could hit the floor, Zyl'yrag had appeared at her side and caught her arm in his hand. "I have killed those who try to thwart me, little interloper, and I will not hesitate to do so again," the alien hissed as Sojourn dangled limply in his grasp.

"You're already hesitating," Pierce said stridently, lowering his Checkmate Knight helmet onto his head. His feet were on the floor, the stasis fields having been deactivated in the wake of the explosion, and behind him stood Karnival, Valence and Hangfire. "And you damn sure won't get a chance to carry that threat out."

"Impossible!" Zyl'yrag shrieked. "The process was nearly complete ... you should all be dead!"

"Maybe you don't know us as well as you think," Valence said.

No more words were spoken as a set of battle drones attacked and the chamber blazed within a maelstrom of combat.

"Gardner!" Power Girl called out as she approached the ring-wielder.

"Hey, babe," Gardner winked. "Just like old times, huh?"

"I kinda hope not," Power Girl retorted. "I'd like to think you might actually be useful for once."

Gardner scowled at the buxom beauty, and growled, "Sorry if stopping this thing from hocking any more death-loogies at you wasn't useful enough."

"Just shut up and give us some kind of platform so the non-flyers can stay in the fight," Power Girl insisted.

A mischievous light gleamed in Gardner's eyes, even as his expression softened in recognition of the validity of Power Girl's idea. "Ask nice," he needled her.

"Please," Power Girl rolled her eyes.

Gardner smirked with satisfaction and jabbed the air with his ring hand. The end of the glowing yellow lariat detached from the face of the Qwardian weapon on his finger and began to wrap itself around the mega-automaton's tentacles, reinforcing the noose. Gardner then aimed his power ring lower and projected a wide cone of yellow light that enveloped the entire cybernetic polyp.

The light from Gardner's ring coalesced into a complex system of scaffolding all around the mass of drones. Luminous spans of walkways and ladders ran riot around the gigantic automaton collective, some attached directly to the columnar central body, others supported some distance away to stand in the midst of the undulating glass and metal tentacles.

The other heroes wasted little time taking advantage of the golden architecture provided by Gardner. Green Arrow alighted on one of the platforms, shrugging off his jet pack and nocking three arrows at once. Wildcat pulled the Sky Skimmer alongside a mid-level walkway and allowed it to hover in place as his companions disembarked and took up various stations along the scaffolding. Dr. Light conveyed Crimson Fox and Maya to a walkway near the top of the scaffolding; Blue Jay deposited Vigilante and Vic Wagner on one of the lowermost ladders.

Together, the combined force unleashed a renewed assault on the colossal mass of automatons. Fists slammed into the armored exterior of the gargantuan polyp-shape, Power Girl's super-strong uppercuts colliding with a tentacle here, Wildcat's bare-knuckled haymakers seeking out a weak spot in the body there, and More's pummeling blows reverberating through the entire construct. A cannonade of weapons firing filled the air, as Manhunter squeezed off round after round from his high-powered mauser, Abby Walker unloaded a hail of bullets from her right gauntlet and a volley of fragmentation grenades from her left, Sportsmaster hurled boomerangs that exploded on impact, and Vigilante's sub-machine gun roared. Cutting through the thunder was the ringing of razor-sharp implements slashing at the mega-polyp: Huntress's knives, Crimson Fox's nails, Blue Jay's talons, Artemis's sword, Tasmanian Devil's claws, Green Arrow's arrowheads. Searing energies crashed into the cybernetic mass from all sides, the fire of Maya's mystic bolts, the lasers at Dr. Light's command, the argent magicks obedient to Vic Wagner, pulses from Hazard's modified version of her grandfather's walking stick, the yellow photonic force of Guy Gardner's power ring, the raw heat emanating from Ember's body.

The towering automaton withstood the blitz in eerie silence, as it was not equipped with any communication devices. The cybernetic tentacles extended themselves straight up in the air, then stiffened momentarily. The metallic elements of the limbs reconfigured themselves once again, standing out from the tentacles as huge spikes. The barbed tentacles slammed downward in unison, crashing through Gardner's platforms and tossing heroes wildly.

Hazard's jet pack propelled her towards Artemis, whom she caught in mid-air. "Hey, Arty," Hazard said. "Sorry I haven't called lately."

"That's all right, Haz," Artemis smiled. "I'd love to catch up after all this. You know, assuming we aren't dead."

Gardner reinforced his glowing yellow scaffolding, and caught Green Arrow, Vigilante and the Huntress on energy projection slides. Tasmanian Devil hung by one leg from the end of a ladder but quickly righted himself with an assist from Wildcat. Crimson Fox bounded to a more stable section of the platform system, while Blue Jay and Dr. Light began to fly back towards the automaton after being scattered by the flailing spiny tentacles.

Enigma had warped himself to an undamaged walkway and was drawing others through the red spinning discs: Abby Walker, More, Vic Wagner and Maya. "We need to somehow weaken the drones if we're going to have a chance of destroying them in their current configuration," Enigma proposed. "Perhaps with some kind of electrical overload."

Sportsmaster flew to Enigma's side, borne aloft on jet skates. The blades retracted as he settled on the walkway's surface, and he pulled an object out of his equipment bag: a soccer ball, with yellow hexagonal panels and blue pentagonals. "This might do the trick," Sportsmaster offered.

"Ideally we would attack the peak of the body, where the bases of the tentacles are clustered," Enigma clarified.

Sportsmaster whistled. "That's a hell of a kick, from here."

"In that case," Enigma replied, "kick it here." A wide crimson portal appeared in mid-air beside him.

Sportsmaster bounced the soccer ball off his knee three times, the final time hard enough to give the ball sufficient lift for him to fall back and bicycle-kick it into Enigma's warp. The warp's twin opened up over the automatons, in the heart of the writhing tentacles, and the charged soccer ball popped out.

Lightning arced from the ball in all directions, blinding snakes of electricity that coruscated around the body of the polyp and up and down the tentacles. Again the monstrous mass of drones made no sound in response, but it seemed dazed, its movements more sluggish. The heroes pressed the attack. The polyp fought back, less effectively than before, but still exacting a toll: Wildcat pushed the Huntress out of the path of a swinging tentacle, only to catch the full force of the artificial limb against the back of his head, and Blue Jay was swiped by a metallic spike that left a bloody gash down his left arm.

As the next volley of assaults began, a blue and red figure shot through the sky, bearing down on the cybernetic colossus. "Well all right!" More called out jubilantly. "It's Superman!"

The flying figure struck the polyp and both recoiled from the potent impact, but as the polyp swayed unsteadily the flying figure came to rest in complete control. "Not Superman," the blonde girl wearing the S-shield said with a smile, "but close."

Supergirl was not alone. From the west, four Green Lanterns glided through the air in their cocoons of verdant energy. From the east, another JSA Sky Skimmer cruised into view, this one piloted by Jay Garrick and also bearing Hourman and Jack Knight. Directly behind them, the Black Condor soared on outstretched wings, while the Ray, carrying Uncle Sam, streaked across the sky. From the north, the dazzling form of Gold'n scintillated, and from the south a quartet of futuristic airplanes bearing the insignia of the Blackhawks whooshed across the Gulf. From the lead airplane, Zinda Blake gave a thumb's up to the Freedom Fighters and the older members of the JSA. "Just like old times," she winked. And as if from nowhere, although in fact having been teleported from the Watchtower on the moon, Steel and Firehawk materialized in mid-air and joined the fray.

Under the newly reinforced and intensified offensive, the collective of drones began to reach the breaking point. Glassy spherical bodies at certain critical junctures in the leviathan structure began to shatter; metal spikes snapped off from the tentacles and bands and wires holding the polyp's shape together split and frayed. The semi-cellular yellow-green material inside the drones leaked from dozens and dozens of gouges. Some drones detached themselves from the main body and reconfigured to their individualized shapes, but were quickly picked off by an emerald wolf projected from Hollika Rahn's power ring, or a crack shot from the Blackhawk planes, or the crushing momentum of Steel's sledgehammer. After several brutal seconds that seemed to stretch out like hours, the cybernetic polyp fell into the Gulf of Mexico, fragmented and disfigured and defeated.

"Wow," Gold'n beamed, seemingly as awestruck by the assemblage of heroes as by the conclusive victory, "I guess everything's taken care of!"

Ember, More and Enigma had gathered on a single platform, and looked at each other uneasily. "Not quite everything," Ember said ominously.

Hangfire cradled Sojourn's unconscious body in his arms, shielding her within his personal forcefield as he endeavored to bounce all incoming fire back at the drones. Valence hovered near the ceiling of the chamber, generating tight bursts of magnetic radiation that kept the drones off-balance. The drones, for their part, evaded their reflected energy barrages and maneuvered to compensate for Valence's electromagnetic manipulations.

Karnival, his visage once again a sepulchral white skull with a fiendishly jagged brow and pronged jawbone, stepped toward Zyl'yrag. Spectral flames leapt from the rift that split the illusionist's cranium as he held his bony hands out to his sides. In the air between Karnival and Zyl'yrag, a bestial apparition shimmered into view, spreading batwings the dusky color of nebulae and opening wide a voracious mouth that seemed to open on the gullet of a dark infinity.

The pink-skinned alien sneered at the horrific image. "Do not presume to manipulate the perceptions of one such as myself, human," Zyl'yrag admonished. "I see your deception for what is is."

"Maybe you do," Karnival acknowledged through his fleshless grin, "and maybe you don't." With that, Pierce emerged from where he had been hidden behind the phantasm, launching a roundhouse kick that caught Zyl'yrag squarely in the temple. The alien reeled with a shout of pained bewilderment, and fell hard to the chamber floor.

Before Zyl'yrag could respond to the blow, the wall of the chamber collapsed inward, brought down by a wave of incandescence that wiped out the remaining drones. As the particulate dust settled, the figures responsible were revealed: Umburu and Xax of the Green Lantern Corps, the Ray of the Freedom Fighters, Supergirl, and Ember.

"A Controller," Umburu glared balefully. "I might have guessed."

Zyl'yrag ignored the muscular, white-bearded Green Lantern of Z'Nang. "My time here no longer serves my great purpose," he announced coldly. "I will end this now, and I will begin again when I deem best. Perhaps after a suitable period of mourning." Zyl'yrag began to fade from sight within a halo of pale blue energy.

"Dammit, no!" Ember shouted, blazing and throwing himself toward Zyl'yrag. By the time he reached the area occupied by the unearthly mastermind, it was empty, as if Zyl'yrag had never been there.

The walls of the chamber began to pulse with internal light, glowing bright yellow, fading to a smoldering red, and brightening again. The cycle quickened with each iteration.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that the lightshow is part of a countdown before this whole place goes boom," Hangfire said.

"We need to get topside," Pierce rejoined. "Hope we have the muscle to contain the explosion."

"There's more of us up there," Supergirl informed him.

Karnival, Valence and Hangfire exchanged the briefest of curious glances, and then the group was in motion. The grasshopper-like Xax projected a huge emerald beetle for Hangfire to ride, holding the still unconscious Sojourn in front of him. Karnival put an arm around the Ray's shoulders, and Valence magnetically levitated Pierce. Together, eleven heroes began their evacuation as red and yellow lights strobed wildly throughout the underwater fortress.

The flying phalanx followed a direct course, retracing the path that Supergirl and the Green Lanterns had bored through the walls of Zyl'yrag's citadel. When they reached the outermost walls, the Ray dissipated a solid light barrier that held back the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The heroes plunged into the onrushing water as it flooded the fortress.

In the span of a few heartbeats the group rose from the pitch black substratum of the Sigsbee Deep, protected by pressurized power ring forcefields, and burst through the waves of the Gulf's surface. Dozens of heroes, in Sky Skimmers, on energy-construct platforms, held aloft by jetpacks or hovering under their own power, were waiting overhead.

"Is it just me," Firehawk asked, "or is the Gulf starting to look like a giant lava lamp?"

The surfacing heroes rose to join their compatriots in the air, looking backwards over their shoulders as they did so. The alternations of red and yellow light were suffusing the waters beneath them, the oscillations ever accelerating.

A yellow balustrade extended towards Valence and Pierce, and More and Enigma hurried to their teammates. "You guys got the bad guy good and mad, didn't you?" More asked, with evident pride.

"Could say that," Pierce agreed. "Thoughts on how to contain a self-destructing cosmic sanctuary?"

Enigma knew the question was directed at him. "The Gulf itself might contain the explosion," he replied, "if we could create a quantum ionization matrix."

"And by 'we', you mean me," Valence presumed.

Enigma nodded. "Your electromagnetic control could hyper-ionize the water that the explosion is traveling through and essentially neutralize it, given sufficient energy to work with."

"Energy we seem to have in pretty good supply," Valence said, looking around.

"Right," Pierce acknowledged. He touched his helmet to increase the amplification of his vocal transmitters and called out, "Everyone who can pump out energy, pour it into the Gulf! The rest ... take cover!"

Umburu, Xax and Hollika Rahn trained their power rings on the water below and shone spears of emerald energy into the waves. Their fourth companion, Apros, climbed higher into the sky and created a jade force bubble to enclose the heroes who wielded no energy powers. Guy Gardner added the beam of his Qwardian ring, and Jack Knight leveled his Cosmic Rod at the Gulf as well. Gold'n, the Ray and Dr. Light shone their luminous energies, joined by Firehawk's atomic blasts and Supergirl's heat vision. The varicolored energies mingled in the water, but beneath them all the fury unleashed by Zyl'yrag throbbed so rapidly it had become a burning, rancorous orange.

Valence gave one sidelong glance to the Green Lanterns, each focusing the totality of his or her will through a power ring, and then steeled himself and thrust his hands downward. Polarized fulminations burst from his fingertips, blanketing the energized waters, seeking out the electrons in every molecule, coaxing them into a new shape. The furious orange bloom stabbing up through the waters grew larger, and the heroes responded in kind. Valence gritted his teeth, exerting himself so much that every muscle in his body trembled. A storm of electromagnetism, streaming from Valence's hands, raged across the surface of the Gulf, static freezing every wave in tableau. The orange inferno saturated every immobilized crest, as veins of flickering green lightning darted in high contrast against the surge. Valence howled, wordlessly, but the sound was one of defiance, of brazenness, and it culminated in triumphant laughter as the world went white.

As the dazzling eruption of light faded, the waters gave off tendrils of steam, as if tons of hot coals had just been thrown into the once-again animated waves of the Gulf. None of the heroes were harmed. They were exhausted, but elated – even Valence, who was shaking and sweat-drenched.

In the crook of Hangfire's arm, Sojourn fluttered her eyes open. "Did ... did we make it?" she asked.

"Damn straight," Hangfire nodded.

On the coastal shores, the heroes spent a few minutes enjoying the simple pleasures of making and renewing acquaintances before returning to their respective obligations. Vic Wagner wore a look of rapt attention as Uncle Sam answered his questions about reincarnation. Power Girl and Jay Garrick shared a private moment comparable to any flesh and blood uncle and niece. Ember regaled Supergirl with his personal account of the assault on Zyl'yrag's citadel, as if the maid of might had not been there as well, and Supergirl hid her bemused smile behind her hand. Jack Knight inquired with Zinda Blake about the possibility of a tour of the Blackhawk's island museum; Zinda pointed Jack toward the active Blackhawks – Ra'Gan, Tor, and Xeo – who were comparing scars with Hangfire. Valence listened to Xax's explanations of Green Lantern memorials, Hazard introduced Green Arrow to Artemis, and Guy Gardner informed Firehawk that he was available if the Justice League ever "came to its senses" on the subject of ring-wielders.

Eventually most took their leave. Dr. Light enlisted Umburu's help in transporting the JLE back to Mexico City, and the rest of the Green Lanterns flew off toward Coast City. Green Arrow, Hazard and Guy Gardner followed in their wake, bound for Las Vegas. Jay Garrick laid in an easterly course for the Sky Skimmer; Supergirl and Gold'n flew away in tandem, engrossed in conversation about Superman; the Freedom Fighters departed, with Uncle Sam saluting as he was carried away.

When the Blackhawks' planes took off and Steel and Firehawk teleported back to the Watchtower, the only groups remaining were Wildcat's contingent and Bad Blood. Abby Walker crouched near Wildcat, who was just regaining consciousness; Huntress, Manhunter, Sportsmaster and Artemis stood off to the side.

"Pierce," Enigma said, approaching the leader who, as always, stood apart from the others. The erstwhile Knight's arms were crossed over the horsehead pattern of his armor, but he turned toward his old ally. Enigma continued, "Most of us need some kind of medical treatment or at least rest. Pat's humerus is fractured, Delaina and Jack and Vic are completely drained, Rob may have a concussion ..."

"Get them back to the Riverboat," Pierce said firmly. "Do what you can."

Enigma warped himself, Vigilante, Sojourn, Valence, Vic Wagner and Ember off the beach. Watching them go, Hangfire said, "That was the right call, but how are you and me and More and Karnival going to get home?"

Before Pierce could answer, Wildcat made his way over, leaning heavily on Abby. Pierce extended a hand toward Wildcat. "You don't even know us, but you helped us, so thanks," Pierce said.

Wildcat took the offered hand and shook it heartily. "That's what heroes do," he shrugged.

"Watch each other's backs?" Pierce asked.

Wildcat shook his head. "Heroes do the right thing," he explained. "Doesn't matter if you and I have history or not."

"I see," Pierce replied.

"Glad to hear it," Wildcat said. "'Cuz now I need your help, and I'm counting on you to give it, if for no other reason than it's the right thing to do."

"How about that plus the fact that you have a working aircraft and we need a lift?" Karnival asked.

Pierce ignored his teammate's quip and asked, "What kind of help?"

"A little business in Colorado," Wildcat answered, "which, I know, is a bit out of the way on a ride home." The cat-cowled pugilist paused for a second, then added, "What do you know about the Ultra-Humanite?"

TO BE CONTINUED ... IN WILDCAT #10!!!

MESSAGES WRITTEN IN BLOOD ...

Send e-mail correspondence to badblood51@hotmail.com

There aren't any letters for the letter column this time around, but that's ok. I was planning on doing most of the talking anyway.

BAD BLOOD has finally reached two milestones, both of which I had grand yet distant plans for almost as soon as the series was approved, way way back in ... 1999? 2000? The mind boggles at how time flies. The first was to make it all the way to this magical number of issues - 25 - and although it took longer than I expected, it feels good to be here. The second was to make the characters in Bad Blood a part of the FDC Universe that touched many other parts, and the culmination of that took place in the story you just read. Of course there were other points of contact along the way: the first Bad Blood/Euroguard crossover during Year One of those titles, or the occasional shout-out in everything from JSA to Secret Six. But I wanted to make a grand statement about Bad Blood occupying the same universe as the rest of the FDC stable, and here it is.

Of course, you may have noticed the omission of The Magnificent Seven - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Green Lantern - from this particular story. That was a conscious choice on my part, because I didn't want those icons to either get lost in the chaotic melee or overshadow the other characters. Those meetings will happen in their own time ... I have to give you readers something to look forward to in the future!

As for the characters who did show up for the party, I'm extremely grateful to the authors who steward them for letting me temporarily take over the sandbox and play with all the toys at once. Paul Daimler, David Tillinger, Mikel Midnight, Chuck "da 'Cat" Burke, Bobby Danner, Ralph Angelo and Mike Hintze are cool guys. Go read Supergirl, Power Girl, Green Arrow, Blackhawks (coming soon!), Wildcat, Freedom Fighters, Superman and JSA, and then give those writers some well-deserved feedback.

NEXT ISSUE: While half the team accompanies Wildcat in pursuit of the Ultra-Humanite, the rest return to the Riverboat. Will it be a quiet, peaceful homecoming? Don't bet on it!