The construction workers sat back and watched the paint dry. The Paris embassy of the Justice League International was finally reconstructed...but the United Nations, who owned the building, didn't know what to do with it. The Justice League no longer resided in embassies all over the world, instead choosing to fortify itself on the moon. The UN had hoped a new function for the building would have presented itself during construction. It hadn't.

A lone figure silently entered the Paris embassy. He passed through the just-barely-operational metal detector without commotion - he was free of any weapons. As he casually walked toward the centre of the main lobby he exploded! The growing fireball engulfed the entire building - knocking down walls - shattering all of the windows. The constructions workers "lucky" enough to have been far enough away from the initial explosion to have survived quickly dropped to the ground - trying to put out their flaming clothing - only to find the floor burning as well. The brand new building quickly became an inferno.

Meanwhile, in an isolated office of the New York UN Building...

Mary Moore burst into Catherine Cobert's office. Catherine hadn't left her office and days, and Mary had bad news. Nearly in tears, Moore said, "Catherine! I just got word...the Paris embassy of the old Justice League has just been destroyed!"

Catherine sat with her back to the door and Ms. Moore. With dark circles under her eyes, Catherine sat staring out the large window in her office. "I know," she said ominously.

Puzzled, Mary exited more silently than she entered.

Back at the Paris embassy...

The man who seemingly exploded - the cause of the burning building - strolled serenely out of the embassy, which was not burning. No one else noticed that the building was in fact nearly no different than when the mysterious man first entered. Absolutely no one noticed - not even the construction worker lying on the asphalt ground, who had thrown himself out a second story window to escape the imaginary flames. The man walking from the embassy, whose real name was long erased from every record, was known to his colleagues as Façade. Before he reached the edge of the illusionary flames, a cloaked figure, known only as Port, appeared out of thin air. From behind his hood Port peered at Façade, and the pair vanished. Moments later, the mirage fire vanished, and everyone could plainly see the embassy was in perfect condition...except for one broken window.

Catherine Cobert had had the same dream every night for the past month, or at least a variation of the original. First it had been the Paris embassy, and then the London one - always a Justice League embassy being destroyed, but it had never been the Watchtower. In the past week the dreams - hallucinations - had started coming to her even when she was awake. She had almost killed herself and a school bus filled with kids when the dream came to her while driving to work one morning. Ms. Cobert was convinced that a telepath was psionically putting these images in her head, and because of either telepathic taunting, or her intuition, she was convinced that after the Paris incident this morning the next embassy to be destroyed would be destroyed for real. Catherine moved her hand towards a button on the underside of her desktop; after briefly considering not to, she pressed it. A section of the left wall slid out of place, revealing a large computer monitor and keyboard. The long-darkened screen came to life with the now out of use JLI emblem on it.

Cath didn't want to contact the JLA - they were practically strangers to her. Contacting her old Justice League friends now was partly her way of preventing her premonitions from happening, and partly her excuse to see familiar faces again.

She programmed the computer to send out an alert to all active JLI communicators and communicards for a 24-hour period. If anyone responded, he or she would receive a recorded message, and would be requested to respond. Cathy just hoped that none of them had thrown away their old comm-units. Hitting a few buttons on the monitor board, Catherine recorded her message...

Kimiyo Hoshi, once known as Dr. Light, strolled into the home she shared with her mother in Japan. She loved her work at the Research Centre, but she loved her home life even more. In her time since leaving the Justice League she hadn't really continued her super heroing life much - she had too much catching up to do with spending quality time with her children - but she did miss it. Kimi smiled when she heard the laughing of her daughter, who ran to Kimi to welcome her home.

<"Mommy, Mommy, I had so much fun today with Erewhon. It's too bad you had to go to work,">* she said after quickly hugging her mother.

*(Translated from Japanese - Brendan)

Erewhon stood just a few steps away from the mother and daughter. The hard-light hologram, which served as a body for his disembodied soul, seemed to be more radiant than usual - he was happy. Although he and Kimi had yet to find out he used to be, when he had a body, he enjoyed his life right now.

<"Mother! I found this strange toy in your closet! I went to see what it was when I heard it beeping very loudly,"> Kimiyo's son cried out as he came bounding down the stairs with a JLI communicator in hand.

<"My Justice League communicator?"> Doctor Light asked herself incredulously. That model had been made obsolete ages ago by a newer communicator. Dr. Light activated it.

"Justice League Reserve Members, this is Catherine Cobert...I'm in trouble. There is an unknown...force that wants revenge..."

"...Revenge against me, and against the entire now-defunct Justice League International."

Power Girl sat in bed listening to the message. The communicator had acted as an impromptu alarm clock - waking her up. Whatever the threat, Power Girl was ready to face it alongside her old friend Catherine.

The recorded voice of Ms. Cobert continued, "I think the plans for revenge may be directed specifically towards what was the European branch of the Justice League..."

"...Not only am I requesting your aid, but I also send this message as a warning. Once they have...dealt...with me, they will undoubtedly come after you..."

Blue Jay never thought he'd hear a message from the communicator from his days with the JLE again. He had left the League during one of its' many Breakdowns, but never rejoined during any of the restructuring - especially the most recent League's, which has often been seen as élitist. Jay had spent the last few years wandering the world, looking for a new home. He hadn't found it where he was in Canada, but maybe helping Catherine could lead him to a new home...

"...To anyone that can hear this, please contact me and come to the old New York embassy of the JLA as swiftly as possible. Godspeed to you all."

The president of Revson, Robert LeRose, listened intently to the message. Months ago he had found the hidden costumes and JL communicator of the Crimson Fox in his Revson office in London. The costumes had once belonged to Constance and Vivian D'aramis, as did the company. He had also found a journal written by Constance, which inspired him to take on the mantle of the Crimson Fox.

Robert thought, 'Perhaps it's time for the new Fox to move up from stopping small crimes to the big leagues.'

Hugh Dawkins, the Tasmanian Devil, didn't know what to do. He was a Global Guardian once again, but he was being called to help Catherine Cobert on Justice League business. He wanted to help her, but he wanted to remain loyal to the Guardians. With the newly reorganised Global Guardians he hadn't done much helping others, but he could help others with Catherine...

'This'll probably just be a one-time thing,' he told himself, 'I'll just help them stop the bad-guys, and then we'll all go our separate ways.'

Catherine couldn't believe how many Leaguers had responded so quickly. She watched the names already listed on the monitor board, and hoped others would flash on.

Dr. Light. Erewhon. Power Girl. Blue Jay. Tasmanian Devil. Icemaiden. Captain Atom...

"Hello? I'm...uh...Crimson Fox. I'd like to help."

"Crimson Fox?!?" Cath asked, obviously surprised. The Crimson Foxes, both of them, had been killed.

"Yeah...I was a...friend of Connie."

"It'll be nice to meet you. We'll need all the help we can get..."

Catherine trailed off, and closed the com-channel - she felt an odd sensation in her head.

"~ Here we go again, Cathy. Say good-bye to the Paris embassy ~" the voice said in Cobert's mind...

Night-time in Paris...

The Paris embassy was abandoned after the incident earlier in the day. With all of the meta-human activity that used to go on there, most of the people believed the lot of land to be haunted or something.

On the walkway outside the embassy Façade and Port appeared once again, Façade's sole purpose this time was to keep the teleporter, and himself, invisible. Since no one was around, he realised that his task was redundant, but regardless, he performed it. Port examined the embassy a final time with his psionic senses. With a flash of emerald light, he teleported away key elements from the support structure of the building - making it top-heavy. The Paris embassy crumbled to the ground - crushed under its' own weight.

The task was finished, but their work was not done. Port and Façade glowed with a nimbus of energy, and teleported to another location instantly.

Next Issue: Following in Justice League tradition, once the JL Reservists gather in New York, they split up into pairs to defend the world-wide Justice League embassies from their unknown assailants.

EUROPINION

This is the section where I'd like to post all of the letters I receive regarding EuroGuard, so let me know what you think of my series by e-mailing me at globalguard@hotmail.com Hopefully in the next few issues Europinion will be filled with questions, comments, suggestions, hate mail...whatever! I hope you've enjoyed my first issue of EuroGuard, and continue to read the rest of the series.

-Bren Crow