Issue # 8

Objects of Possession - Part I

"Any Landing You Can Walk Away From ..."

* EASTERN EUROPE *

"Is everyone all right?" Pierce asked with a mixture of irritation and concern.

Amazingly, everyone was, thanks to two factors combined. The stealth aircraft provided by Checkmate* had been engineered for rough treatment, and the passenger compartment was thoroughly reinforced to withstand abuse, moreso than the wings and stabilizers which had been sheared off by the crash landing. Additionally, Hangfire's forcefield had expanded on a desperate survival instinct to encompass nearly the entire cabin, deflecting a majority of the bone-crushing force at the moment of impact with terra firma.

(* Last issue - DWG)

The members of Bad Blood pulled themselves up from the partially mangled seats of the stealth plane, checking themselves for injuries but finding none aside from scrapes and bruises. A hole large enough to admit a Mack truck had been torn in the cabin wall where the door had been, and Pierce leapt out to the grassy terrain beyond. Ember ignited and rose out of the plane and into the air, followed closely by Valence, as if the two were vying for better positions overhead.

More and Enigma stepped out of the plane wreckage next, followed by Karnival and finally Hangfire. Pierce surveyed the torn earth strewn with aircraft fragments, and asked Hangfire, "You know about where we were when the ship went down?"

"Somewhere over Vlatava, last time I checked," Hangfire nodded.

"That fits," Pierce replied.

"Yeah," Karnival assented.

"Huh?" More said.

Karnival hesitated a moment, waiting for Pierce to enlighten their teammate, but the former Checkmate knight was once again engrossed in examining the plane's remains. Turning to More, Karnival explained, "Vlatava is the home of Count Werner Vertigo, a completely uncharming psycho who can distort people's perceptions and make them disoriented, dizzy ..."

"So it's not just a clever name," Ember interrupted from above with a smirk.

"If it even is his real name," Valence countered.

"Anyway," Karnival reasserted himself, "if everyone else experiences what I did right before we crashed, it would definitely fit Vertigo's M.O."

"But random attacks don't fit his M.O.," Pierce interjected, turning to face the rest of the team. "Theft, yes. Assassination attempts, sure, but if that's what this was then it was sloppy as hell. Plus he would have had to know we were here, which my dear Checkmate friends assured us was impossible. Unless it's a set-up." Pierce's voice dropped, still audible but obviously not intended to be heard by anyone but himself. "Checkmate wanted to keep us from getting home? Vertigo's not on their payroll. Steel could have cashed in a favor with Waller, she would have known how to get hold of Vertigo, pass the info on our plane, but how would he know when...? No, no." Pierce snapped back to attention. "Something else is going on," he finished distinctly.

"Think maybe it has something to do with that?" Valence asked, pointing into the distance.

Pierce vaulted to the top of the plane wreckage for a better view, while the rest of Bad Blood followed Valence's indication with their eyes. Near the horizon, two large shapes rose up from the ground, undulating against the sky like oversized garden slugs. Two much smaller, human shapes disappeared and reappeared around the girths of the swaying slugs, and a third human figure stood separately a short distance in front of the rest. As Bad Blood watched, a grassy hill rose up beneath the figure standing apart, then rolled like a hazy wave toward the others. It stopped in their midst and elongated, until an opening at the peak began to suck in the sky. Almost before their minds could absorb the image, green and blue were restored to their rightful places. Through it all, thunderous crashing noises rolled across the countryside.

"Definitely looks like Vertigo in a fight with ... someone," Karnival observed. "Maybe we just flew through some crossfire."

"Maybe," Pierce repeated skeptically.

"Well, let's just go over there, hand out some beatdowns, and then find out what's what," More suggested.

"I can live with that," Pierce agreed. "We'd better approach on foot, though. If any more of Vertigo's wild shots come our way, the worst that happens is we fall down. I don't want to think about what would happen if Enigma couldn't tell up from down bringing us out of a warp. No offense, Dirk."

"None taken," Enigma shrugged, as Valence and Ember landed on the ground to obey Pierce's command. Together, the team set off at a trot toward the conflagration in the distance.

Pierce aimed for a small copse of trees near the combatants, reaching it in a few minutes, and the rest of Bad Blood followed, crouching behind the natural cover in order to observe the fight more closely. The undulating shapes were in fact gigantic worms, dusky, green-skinned things with gaping, segmented mouths lined by sharp teeth. Of the two figures between the mammoth invertebrates, only one was shaped entirely like a human, a well-proportioned female in a skintight costume of maroon and black, with a wide hood that tapered down her back in a tail and obscured all but the bottom of her face. She accompanied a half-man, half-worm hybrid covered in jagged dark brown scales. The creature's head was deformed but still bore its human features, sitting atop a muscular torso with bulging arms, which blended into a serpentine tail like a monstrous earthworm.

The man opposing the worm creatures and the human woman was Werner Vertigo himself, blond hair flaring from the open top of his black mask, cape fluttering in the air around his green and black costume, dominated by concentric white circles on its chest. The gargantuan green worms took turns lunging at Count Vertigo, who was able to nimbly evade every lumbering strike, while aiming his own attacks at the hybrid and the woman. "I will take back what is mine, Puanteur!" Vertigo screamed at his foes. They, in turn, appeared content to hide between the green worms rather than attack Vertigo themselves.

"All right," Pierce began, "I'm not too sure about the bait from hell going after Vertigo, but if they were too tough the Count wouldn't still be standing. We should be able to subdue everyone fairly quickly. Karnival, Enigma, Hangfire, bring down the freak and his chick. More, Valence, you guys are on worm duty. I'll take Vertigo."

"Excuse me?" Ember spoke up.

"You sure, Pierce?" Valence asked.

"About Vertigo? No problem," Pierce assured him, tapping his helmet. "Vertigo's power comes from an electronic device in his own inner ear, broadcasting with enough power to screw up a person's equilibrium. But now that I know I need to get in his face, I've got my system setting up enough low-level feedback to block that. I'll be fine. Let's go."

"Excuse me!" Ember insisted. All eyes turned to the newcomer, who went on, "Come on, put me in, coach!"

As always, Pierce's expression was hidden behind his helmet, but a palpable sense of indignation seemed to emanate from his visored eyes. "I don't care what you do. Flambé a worm. Sit here and watch. Ask Vertigo for the pleasure of a dance." Pierce was up on his feet and moving out from behind the trees. "Just don't get in our way."

"Real people person, your boss there," Ember said to the remaining group.

"Obviously he likes you," Hangfire deadpanned.

Pierce sprinted from the copse toward Vertigo, detaching his telescoping bo staff from its forearm clasp as he ran. Valence and Ember took to the air and Karnival, More, Hangfire and Enigma charged ahead as well.

Pierce slid to a stop before Vertigo, who was so intently focused on the worms he seemed to take no notice of a new threat. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Pierce snapped the staff to its full extension and twirled it in a rapid figure eight, smashing an end into each of Vertigo's knees in turn. Astonishingly, Vertigo remained standing as if rooted in place, but his head jerked in Pierce's direction. Pierce fell back into a defensive martial stance.

Valence soared above the head of one of the colossal green worms, unwinding a length of steel cable as he flew. From behind the creature's head, Valence magnetically wrapped the cable around the segmented mouth, binding it in a steel muzzle. He pulled hard against the beast's struggle, and the binding held.

More set himself near the head of the other giant worm, which had just lunged at Vertigo, once again unsuccessfully. At the same time Ember glided alongside the worm's arching body. More sank his fingers into the edge of the worm's mouth and gripped it tight, bracing himself with all his might to pin the worm's head to the ground. Ember pounded the worm's hide with his fiery fists. The worm reared up in pain, carrying More high up off the ground, and snapped its head toward the sky, flinging More loose.

Hangfire and Enigma stopped in their tracks as More began to freefall. Hangfire drew both guns and began emptying rounds into the belly of the worm. Knowing More could survive the drop, Enigma readied a warp in case the worm tried to snap More in half mid-fall. Karnival was left to face the two beings between the worms.

"Mr. ... Puanteur?" Karnival asked in a nasal voice, his skull's grin widening wickedly. Between himself and the worm-centaur appeared a twenty-foot long Great White, rows of teeth exposed in its hungering mouth, dorsal fin stabbing toward the sky. In place of pectoral fins, the man-eater stood on four powerful reptilian legs, which it pushed off on at that moment to dive for the man-worm monstrosity. "Land shark!" Karnival delivered his punchline as Puanteur raised his scaly arms to ward off the image and screamed.

With a sinister hiss, the woman beside Puanteur sprang at Karnival, knocking him onto his back and landing astride him. The fingertips of her gloves were tipped with needle-like claws that dug at Karnival's neck. Karnival created the illusion that the flames emanating from his skull engulfed his entire body, as well as the woman's hands. Yet she maintained her savage stranglehold.

Ember shot through the air to intercept More's fall. Cooling only his hands, Ember caught the plummeting strongman and brought him to a gentle landing on the ground below. Seeing More out of danger, Valence yanked on the muzzle of his worm to smash its head into the second worm's. The two beasts' anterior ends collided with a sickeningly fleshy smack.

A look of hatred and outrage twisted the features of Werner Vertigo. He had just rained down wave after wave of disorientation on Pierce, only to find the hero down on his knees and struggling to stand when by all rights he should have been a nauseous mass writhing in the dirt. Pierce wrapped both hands around one end of his bo staff and swung it like a baseball bat into Vertigo's jaw, dropping the pretense that Vertigo's power had any effect on him whatsoever. Vertigo's head snapped back with the force of the blow, and Pierce moved in to press his attack.

"Stop!" a woman's voice commanded from above.

Pierce spun toward the sound, and watched as a scarlet transport platform slid through the air and came to a stop overhead. A huge, furry humanoid operated the controls of the sled, which also carried six other individuals. Near the front was an Asian woman dressed in a yellow costume with white trim that created a sunburst pattern across her chest. Behind her stood an imposing, voluptuous blond in a white leotard with a red cape and blue boots. Two men stood behind them, one in a burgandy and brown costume strikingly similar to the one worn by Puanteur's female companion, and the other in a blue and white costume with a bird's head cowl and wings. Near the back of the sled was a young girl in a skimpy, seemingly ceremonial outfit of blue, purple, orange and yellow; hovering near her was a man cloaked in a long black robe. The front apron of the sled bore a single word in black: EUROGUARD.

"What's all this?" Enigma asked.

"Got no idea," Hangfire admitted.

The Asian woman had given Pierce the command to halt, and she flew off the sled and alighted near him, followed by the blond woman. In reaction, Vertigo rose high into the air, distancing himself from the new arrivals. Pierce stood his ground, saying, "Dr. Light and Power Girl. I'd expect you to be here to help. I'm hoping I don't have to explain to you how telling me to 'stop' isn't terribly helpful."

Power Girl bristled at Pierce's tone, but Dr. Light held up a hand placatingly. "We're here to investigate a disturbance that was picked up by every seismic detector on this half of the continent," she explained. "If you're here to stop that disturbance, then we are here to help. But as official United Nations peacekeepers, we cannot allow you to attack a member of the royal family of the sovereign nation of Vlatava!" Immediately Dr. Light seemed flustered by her own vehemence, and under her breath she added, "Back me up here, Kara, will you?"

"We're going to do this our way," Power Girl chimed in on cue, fists planted angrily on her hips. "Don't like it, leave. And from what I've read about your 'Bad Blood' team and the way you operate, you're not going to like it," she seethed.

"I don't have time for this crap," Pierce spat dismissively, turning his back on the women.

"Kimi?" Blue Jay asked from atop the sled, deliberately louder than necessary. "Should we stop him? Say the word."

Pierce whirled around on Dr. Light and Power Girl, pointing his bo staff at them. "Try it!" he goaded. Then, relenting, he relaxed his stance and argued, "We're here because Vertigo swatted our plane out of the air. And he did that unintentionally. Next time, it might be a commercial jet he sends into a tailspin. He's out of control! You're worried that a bunch of diplomats aren't going to like the fact that you roughed up a member of the ruling class? Fine! Back off! But I'm taking him down!" Pierce yelled.

Vertigo responded at last, with a cascade of negative equilibrium upon the threesome. Pierce withstood the assault, but Dr. Light and Power Girl tumbled to the ground, flooded with debilitating dizziness as the world around them seemed to spin like a wobbly top. Pierce restored his staff to its holding place and fired twin sonic blasts from his armor gauntlets at Vertigo.

Across the field, Karnival gasped for breath, the painful pressure gone from his windpipe. The woman clawing at his throat had jumped up as the sonic sled arrived, and run as fast as her legs could carry her. The inexplicable reprieve had come just in time. Puanteur, meanwhile, had recovered from Karnival's illusion and began to slither menacingly toward the prone hero.

Puanteur had been hidden from EuroGuard's view by the giant worms he cowered behind. As he advanced on Karnival, however, the Crimson Fox caught sight of him. With a blood-curdling scream unlike anything his teammates had ever heard before, Crimson Fox jumped down from the sonic sled and bolted for the worms.

"Robert, what --? Wait!" the Tasmanian Devil called after him.

"This is a mess," Blue Jay sighed with frustration. Collecting himself, he said more authoritatively, "Take us down, Hugh. I think our armored ally makes a good point. The good guys need to work together here, keep each other safe and subdue the bad guys with as little damage done as possible."

"Aye-aye," Tas complied.

"Understand, Maya?" Blue Jay asked.

The girl at the back of the sled retorted, "Of course I do."

"Good. Let's go." The sonic sled hummed down to the grass and the EuroGuardians disembarked. Tasmanian Devil loped toward the giant worms, while Maya moved into position to face-off against Count Vertigo, followed closely by her attendant, Brother Manindra. Blue Jay knelt beside Dr. Light and Power Girl. "Kimi? Kara? Are you both all right?" Blue Jay inquired urgently.

Dr. Light sat up slowly, holding her head. Power Girl forced herself to her feet and answered brusquely, "Fine, we're fine."

"We're in deep now, Kimi," Blue Jay continued. "Vertigo attacked the two of you, and Robert just went ballistic and headed for that ... worm-man over there. It seemed prudent to give the go ahead for everyone to do what they can to end the hostilities."

Dr. Light looked into Blue Jay's face, saw his expression seeking approval. "All right," she nodded.

"Well, then," Power Girl said with a hard smile, "let's get it on."

Pierce fired a volley of sonic blasts at Vertigo. Behind Pierce, Maya had summoned forth her flaming bow and let loose several arrows of fire at the floating villain. With agile mid-air maneuvers Vertigo was able to dodge most of the bursts, and the few that connected with his frame appeared to have little adverse effect.

Power Girl was in flight with Vertigo in her sights. Her left fist crashed into the dead center of Vertigo's face, snapping his head back. Power Girl flew past after delivering the blow, then noticed a weight on her left forearm. She glanced down and saw a blue metal bracer wrapped around that arm, part of her mystical Atlantean armor. The bracer was already fading from reality, but Power Girl had no idea why it had appeared to begin with.

Not far away, Ember stood beside More, his eyes locked on Power Girl's curvy form overhead. "I think I'm in love," Ember grinned wolfishly.

"Hey, not that I don't appreciate you catching me and all," More said, "but let's save 'sharing time' until after the creepy crawlers are finished, huh?"

Ember tore his eyes away from Power Girl. "Right. You hold him for me," Ember indicated the giant worm they had previously been attacking, "and I'll be right behind you." In a flash, Ember shot up into the sky at top speed.

More bounded over to the worm. Tasmanian Devil was lashing out at the creature with his claws, tearing gashes in the wormflesh. More reached his side and suggested, "Let's hoist this sucker up. I got a friend who doesn't want to miss him."

Tasmanian Devil spared a quick glance at More and growled his agreement. Standing on either side of the huge beast, the two men found grips on its hide and pushed up. Muscles strained and trembled, but the worm was upraised and unable to escape.

Ember swooped down at a steep dive, radiant with scorching heat, and hit the giant worm like a kamikaze. A monstrous sound of pain rumbled forth from the worm's mouth as its skin seared and its body reeled from the blow. More and Tasmanian Devil made eye contact just below the worm's belly, and together slammed the creature back down to the earth. The stunned worm lolled on the ground, incapacitated.

Valence had been able to maintain his hold on the steel muzzle wrapped around the other giant worm, despite the creature's frantic thrashing, but was too absorbed in that struggle to see the worm's tail end whipping toward him. The beast's posterior scored a direct hit on Valence, causing him to lose his grip on the steel cable. Valence floated, dazed, over the worm's head as Dr. Light arrived in flight, firing beams of hard light at the worm. Undeterred, the worm opened its mouth as the steel cable fell slack and moved to swallow Valence.

Enigma opened one end of a warp portal underground and forced a mass of soil and rocks out in a furious jet from a red disc which appeared directly in front of the worm's gaping maw. The worm crushed the dirt in its gullet, but the delay was enough to allow Valence to recover and join Dr. Light in her assault. Together magnetic bursts and laser-intense beams of light pounded the massive invertebrate down to the ground.

Between the two gigantic worms, Crimson Fox raged at Puanteur. "Killer! Murderer! Vivian's blood is on your hands, and YOU WILL PAY!" Crimson Fox's limbs flailed at the man-worm hybrid, occasionally connecting solidly. Puanteur defended himself, striking out when Crimson Fox's wild attacks threw him off balance.

Hangfire, helping Karnival up off the ground, remarked, "I think the guy in the fox get-up is out for blood."

"No kidding," Karnival laughed dryly, looking around the field. "Anybody here who isn't?"

Maya summoned forth a geyser of water directly beneath Vertigo, almost completely obscuring the Vlatavan in its rushing torrent. Pierce detached and extended his bo staff once again, using it like an Olympic champion pole vaulter to rise up from the ground and fly feet first into the geyser, kicking Vertigo in the sternum and sending him toward Power Girl. As Pierce landed on the ground, Power Girl doubled her fists and reared back, laying them both mightily into Vertigo's head as he reached her. Atlantean bracers magically wrapped around both her forearms, while the strike knocked Vertigo back through the geyser and down to the ground near Blue Jay. He grabbed a handful of the front of Vertigo's costume and delivered a knife strike to the adam's apple.

"Half the battle," Blue Jay said as an unconscious Vertigo fell from his glove to the earth.

"Half the battle was convincing you what side you should be on," Pierce said, already heading toward Puanteur. Blue Jay's mouth opened as if to make an angry retort, but instead he followed Pierce. Power Girl glided after them.

As Maya began to follow, Brother Manindra intoned gravely, "With your vast power, you should have been able to defeat your foe without help."

"Maybe I'm not as all-powerful as you and your cult thinks," Maya snapped back.

Pierce and the EuroGuardians reached Karnival and Hangfire, who were still searching for an opening into the wild altercation between Crimson Fox and Puanteur. Puanteur scored Crimson Fox's face with his claws, and the Fox fell backward momentarily. Then Puanteur noticed how many warriors stood behind the Crimson Fox, and how many weapons were pointed at him. "Thisss will never do," the half-man, half-worm said leeringly. "I mussst take my leave now. My thanksss for dissspossing of Vertigo."

With that, the ground behind Puanteur began to cave in, and thousands upon thousands of small worms squirmed out of the depression as if it were a festering wound. In less than a heartbeat the indentation was a deep hole, a tunnel into the earth that Puanteur entered in a hasty retreat.

"No!" Crimson Fox bellowed, but before he or any of the others could follow into the tunnel, the giant worm that had been felled by Dr. Light and Valence spent the last of its strength rolling across the hole, blocking it completely.

"Stand back," Enigma said, opening a shimmering red disc in front of the worm's head. The worm was sucked through and redeposited a short distance away. But the ground had already closed up, as if the tunnel had never existed.

"Dammit, no!" Crimson Fox insisted, railing his fists against the earth.

"Robert," Dr. Light tried to calm him as she, Valence, More, Tas and Ember rejoined the group, "what's come over you?"

Crimson Fox said nothing, punching dumbly at the dirt, but Power Girl answered for him. "He's furious for revenge. Kimi. I've been there myself enough to recognize it."

"At least the fight's over," Karnival pointed out.

"Right on," Ember agreed. Standing behind Power Girl and Maya, he put one arm around each of the women's shoulders. "Now we can do a little ... celebrating," he smiled, his eyes roaming hungrily between Maya's lithe legs and bare midriff and Power Girl's ample cleavage shown off by her leotard's plunging neckline.

Maya stepped out from under Ember's arm uncomfortably. Power Girl made no motion except to turn her head toward Ember's. "I'd rethink exactly who you're propositioning, hot stuff, or you might be celebrating in an ICU."

Ember never stopped smiling invitingly, but did retract his arm from Power Girl's shoulders. "Well, the offer's open, I'm always up for a Power Hour," he winked.

Power Girl shook her head. "You couldn't handle a Power Five Minutes." She muttered to herself, "Robert at his lowest has nothing on this guy. 'Power Hour'?"

"I can't help but wonder if we didn't focus on the wrong one," Blue Jay said to the assembled heroes. "We don't really know what we stumbled across here. Now Puanteur's gone and Vertigo's out ..."

"FOOLS!" a hellish voice boomed behind them, and Bad Blood and EuroGuard turned as one to identify it. Vertigo had risen up, but his head slumped against one shoulder and his limbs dangled like a rag doll's. A blood red glow lit Vertigo's eyes, as the voice continued. "Of course you do not know what you came upon here! You consider yourselves champions of justice. Was it just for the worm called Puanteur to steal from me? Was justice not on my side when I appropriated this vessel" - Vertigo's arms flew over his head as if pulled by strings, then dropped to his sides again - "this deliciously powerful vessel, to take back what was rightfully mine? And yet you thwarted me, and allowed the worm to escape, still in possession of that which was stolen! This is an unforgivable injustice!" Vertigo began to float toward the heroes, his arms rising in front of him, zombie-like. The voice which came from the same beyond as the bloody fire in Vertigo's eyes continued, "I will find Puanteur and kill him slowly enough that he may watch me reclaim my possessions, and any of his own he holds dear as well! But first, I will satisfy myself in obliterating every last one of you! You will perish knowing the inescapable wrath of AVRYSS!!"

"He's ... possessed ...," Maya breathed.

"And how, kiddo," Tasmanian Devil agreed.

"Diabolical," Pierce murmured.

"Well, there's something about bullies threatening to kill people that's always pissed me off," Valence announced, rising into the air. "He can't stand against all of us, come on!"

"No, wait!" Dr. Light urged, flying after Valence. Chagrined, Power Girl followed as well.

Avryss uttered a chilling laugh as the heroes approached. Ribbons of blood-red energy leapt from Vertigo's fingertips, striking like lightning at Dr. Light and Valence. Power Girl reflexively crossed her arms in front of her face, and was instantly garbed in the shining blue metal of full Atlantean armor. The red glow enveloped Dr. Light and Valence completely, and tendrils of energy like ephemeral leashes connected their bodies to Vertigo's hands. Slowly, Dr. Light and Valence spun in mid-air, to face the rest of the heroes. Unadulterated hatred filled their eyes, and their mouths snarled with rage.

"Maybe I would not be able to stand against all of you, but for one such as I, there is no need," Avryss boasted. Dr. Light and Valence seemed to strain against the red energy, eager to tear apart their teammates. Avryss exclaimed, "What I wish to be mine, becomes mine! Your friends are mine, their will is mine, and my will is that you all die!"

TO BE CONTINUED ... IN EUROGUARD # 8!!!

MESSAGES WRITTEN IN BLOOD ...

Send mail to badblood51@hotmail.com

Well, lucky for all of you, I'm going to lay off my desperate pleadings for e-mail this month, for two reasons. One, to take a moment myself to give a mad shout out to Brendan "Bomb-Ass" Crowther, who agreed to let his EuroGuardians grace the pages of Bad Blood. In addition to that generosity, Brendan was extremely helpful as a collaborator in putting together an issue featuring more personalities then you could shake a retractable bo staff at. Thanks, Brendan! And two, my fan-mail reading ego has been placated by ... an actual letter! Without further ado, Chris Herr from Washington, DC writes:

Dear Badblood-

Wow, these stories are really quite engrossing! Especially with Dale's skillful word-smithing. Sentences and descriptions like, "The bodysuit resembled Pierce's Checkmate armor like two lifeforms with a common ancestor," is certainly more colorful and expressive then saying the armor looked much like Pierce's.

The interaction between the different teammates is really becoming more realistic as more of their personalities are fleshed out and revealed to the reader.

Two last comments:
Has Valance's outfit / manner of using his powers changed since the end of episode 6, or will that happen over future issues? (I'm sure the rest of the team will be quite curious about where the Green Lantern ring came from. Nice story in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps.)

This Ember guy sounds like trouble, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we don't find out it was his fault that the plan crashed.

I can't wait till the next issue!

Chris Herr Washington DC

PS:> Who do you think would win in showdown between Pierce and the Bat?

Chris, thanks for your letter. To the rest of my readers, I swear, I did not pay this guy to shamelessly promote Tales of the GLC! But if you haven't checked out issue #3, and seen the connection between the Corps and Bad Blood, give it a read. To answer your questions, Chris, Valence is still wearing the same biker jacket over a gray and green union suit as always, and as you can see in this issue, his magnetic powers haven't changed either. Which isn't surprising, really, since it wasn't a RING that Valence was negotiating for with Barter at the end of issue #6, it was a BATTERY. And we don't know for sure if he got it! But, have we seen the last of Jack Fenris' interest in all things Green Lantern, or of Barter for that matter? Only time will tell ...

Pierce versus the Bat? Smart money would probably be on the Dark Knight, but Pierce does have a way of pulling out an impossible victory just when all seems lost, doesn't he? Maybe in the future we'll get a chance to see this one played out.

NEXT ISSUE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there, bucko! Whether or not every member of Bad Blood gets out of Vlatava alive will be settled not in these pages, but in the one and only EUROGUARD by Brendan Crowther. So check out EuroGuard # 8 before moving on to Bad Blood # 9, featuring a battle royale of truly mind-boggling proportions! Don't miss your front-row seat!