Faux DC Presents (still trying to figure out how we got talked into it):
"Command Decisions"
Issue 7 (of 7)
Written by Gary Dreslinski

 

"So let me get this straight," Blue Beetle paced back and forth in front of the monitor, "You want us to stand aside and let you destroy the planet?"

"Yessss" the alien on the screen hissed. Booster Gold tried to remember what race it was from, in vain.

"And in exchange?" Beetle asked, "What's in it for us? You don't destroy Detroit? Until you destroy the rest of the planet that is?"

The alien shook its furry multi-eyed head, "We offer a deal," it repeated, "In exchange for your inaction during the attack, we will transport you to a comfortable world a few light years away where you will be able to continue to do... whatever it is that you do."

"He's not seriously considering this," Buddy Baker, the Animal Man, whispered to his teammate Beatrice DaCosta, Fire. She shrugged with a knowing smile, "This is Ted we're talking about. Who knows what's going in in that head."

"I don't like it..." Ray Palmer, The Atom, repeated, with his arms folded in front of him, "We should be out there, doing something. Not sitting here talking to them. There are already reports..."

"About the destruction of Leesburg*," Buddy interrupted, "We've all heard that by now. The only reason that I'm not screaming my head off at the thought of dealing with these things is the chance that Detroit might be able to escape the same fate."

(*In the cyberpages of Supergirl - GD)

"What of the rest of the world?" The Atom asked, "Who is going to save them? I don't know about you, but I have family out there..."

"So do I," Buddy snapped back in a whisper, "And I hope that there is someone out there thats doing whatever they have to do to save their lives. Until we've heard out what we need to hear... until we know what there is to know... maybe what Beetle's doing isn't completely crazy."

"Weren't you the guy..." Bea started with a smile.

Buddy nodded, "Who was just asking if he was serious?" Buddy smiled back, "Yeah, I was. I guess I was a little less upset about it than I thought."

"We wouldn't be doing this in the Justice League..." Ray muttered under his breath.

Buddy shot him a glare, but it was Bea who stood up, walked over to him, and kissed him on the cheek before returning to her seat, watching the goings on, "You're in a whole different League now..."

Gnort stared at the ships that filled the sky in awe. He'd seen his fair share of alien invasions. But this one was rather neat. There were just so many ships he had never seen before. So many new races to meet. As a Green Lantern, interplanetary understanding was a priority. That and trying not to shed on the couch. And nachos. Nachos were more often a priority than not.

He shook his head, and not this time because he was hoping to shake off a flea.

He had heard the sound of a sax playing in the distance. He had been SURE of it.* But when he had got there, she was all ready gone.

(*Last issue - GD)

Was she just playing coy? Or did she just not want to see him? Or, could it be, he asked himself, that she didn't even know that he was anywhere around and had gone someplace safe when she had noticed the mass of alien ships covering the sky?

He wasn't sure. All that he knew, knew in his heart of hearts, was that Sax Girl was out there somewhere, in his new city, and that somehow, he was going to find her again.


He looked over to where the Scarlet Skier was conferring with Streaky in mid-air. The two had seemed to come to a meeting of the minds, as it were, with the Skier taking his cue from the cat of steel. Gnort stared at Streaky for a moment, wondering why Beetle and Booster kept calling him the "cat of steel". He seemed to be made out of the same things most cats were made out of. In fact, it was all that he could do to resist chasing after him.

"He's a teammate, he's a teammate..." Gnort repeated to himself over and over again, trying to think about Sax Girl, or when necessary, about the alien fleet, instead of the thought of chasing Streaky across the sky. It would be fun... his tail started to wag of its own accord. He forced himself to calm down. A Green Lantern had to be responsible, resourceful. It was all about the willpower... that and being replaced by aliens from other dimensions and turning all of your friends into energy while making the universe think that you killed them. That was what being a Green Lantern was about. He was going to have to work on the latter parts... he knew that he would never be as good at them as Hal Jordan. But someday, he might just be able to stand proud among the ranks of the Green Lantern with his head held high, and his "will power" safely non-erect in the way that the Guardians had always been the most comfortable to see him being.

The Signal Man watched the Blue Beetle negotiating with the aliens with a great deal of interest. On one hand, it was fascinating to see an alien. Despite his life of crime, he had not had much of a chance to see the other worldly beings he had heard so much about - with the notable exception of Gnort and the Scarlet Skier, neither whom seemed to live up to his expectations of what an alien being would look or behave like. On the other, there was the fact that the Blue Beetle was talking to them in the first place. The Signal scanned the faces of his teammates, wondering who he could approach to further divide the team. Surely not everyone could be happy that this discussion was even taking place. While the monitors showed other heroes fighting the "good fight" against the alien invaders, they were sitting in their headquarters, a decent target if he had ever seen one, TALKING to the fleet about the possibility of sparing their city.

Once again, the one called Animal Man was unpredictable. He had thought that "Buddy" would be one of the first ones to get to his feet in protest. However, he seemed to be willing to see where things were going to lead. As was Fire... another surprise there, since she had been ready to take the leadership post herself. But now, perhaps in the name of friendship - he still wasn't completely sure of her motivation, she was waiting it out, because the Beetle had asked them to do so.

The Signal Man shook his head. The only one who seemed at all upset was The Atom. He seemed to think that this was a violation of some sort of hero code.

Which, the Signal pointed out to himself, should mean that he should be all in favor of sitting around and talking to the enemy. After all, the more that the group violated the "hero code" the further from being heroes they became, and the more enjoyment he would have from their eventual destruction.

Instead, there was a knot in his gut. A inexplainable knot that told him that he should be outside defending his planet. It was a strange feeling... perhaps born from a connection to the place of his birth, he noted. One of those "its us against them" feelings of nationalism he had read about but never understood, but blown up to fit a worldwide scale. Maybe there were other villains out defending their places as well... he hoped so. After all, if the aliens destroyed the world - what would the use of ruling it be?

Perhaps though, perhaps this new place that the aliens were offering would be the place he would rule over instead... over the desecrated corpses of Extreme Justice if need be. Or, more to the point, if he got the chance to do it.

Solomon Grundy waited outside. There were high level talks going on, ones that might need his attention. But there was something else... something that drew him to look to the stars, to look to the advancing fleet. A gut feeling perhaps. But a real one. One that told him that what he was seeking would be coming soon... that the one he was missing would be arriving with the fleet.

He wasn't sure what that feeling was about. Not even remotely. But he knew it to be true.

So he stayed outside, watching the fleet for any sign of movement, and wondering what it was going to bring. And why he felt excited about it.

Winnipeg

"Janna!" Zan called out to his twin sister. But it was too late, the alien invaders had already fired their lasers along the thin red line pointed at her forehead. He sprang forward with all of his strength, knocking her off her feet as the beam cut the air where she had been standing.

"That was close!" she exclaimed as they picked themselves up off the ground.

They watched as the ships continued to descend, as they continued to cut their bloody swathe of destruction.

As the Wonder Twins, they had come to the planet for other reasons... reasons that their time with Captain Atom and his team Extreme Justice had taken care of. Now though, now they were on Earth for other reasons. Personal reasons. Love. Not love of a person, but love of a place. Love of a planet.

And now there were other strangers that came from the sky that seemed to want nothing more than to wipe that beauty, to wipe that planet, from the face of universe like a stain.

Zan felt his blood boil. Janna just kept staring at the ships, wondering what they were going to have to do to defeat them... wondering how wide-spread the invasion was. Were there going to be others that would be coming to their aid? Or was this, as incredible as it seemed, going on all over the planet? Were the heroes of the world stretched thin? Were they, the Wonder Twins, the only hope for the city's survival?


She kept wondering until a blue monkey fell from the sky, landing in her arms... and the aliens released the gas...

Detroit

"He knows what he's doing," he repeated to himself as he paced the hall, "He knows what he's doing. Good Indian. Good Indian."

"Funny, you don't look it."

Ray Palmer raised his head just in time to stop in front of Jonni Thunder, the team's newest member.

"I don't look like what?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

"A good indian," she remarked, "Quite frankly, you don't look like much of an indian at all. You live in New England don't you?"

Ray felt a smile form, "Actually I do. Which wouldn't stop me from being a native american, but that's not what I was talking about."

"Anything you care to share?" she asked, a hint of a smile on her face.

He shook his head, "Maybe later," he replied, and continued walking, "once I've had the chance to sort things out."

An alien invasion. She had seen them on television of course. She'd even heard of how heroes had gone out and fought them.

But she had never done it. Not even the first time she had worn the armor. Now it was much better of course. It was far more functional. She'd even managed to get a flight pack built into the design. It wasn't a flight ring, but it was the next best thing that modern technology could design.

They were out there, waiting for her to make her move against them. Well, maybe they weren't exactly waiting... but she knew that her time in the spotlight was about to start. She was about to become a real hero once and for all... no hanging off anyone's coattails - no trying to impress her old boss.

Trixie Collins was ready for the big time. And the aliens were going to learn just what it meant to go toe to toe with the might of Goldstar.

The alien on the screen was enraged, "What do you mean no deal? Why have we been talking terms if you did not want to deal?!?!?"

Beetle shrugged with a coy smile, "I just cute that way," he replied, "And while we've been talking, I would like you to take a look at the Green Lantern in the air. Want to lay odds on your fleet's chances against even one of them?"

"One Lantern means nothing to us." The alien hissed back.

"Certainly not," Beetle agreed, "But what about a Kryptonian?"

The alien's eyes enlarged, "We - we have the Kryptonian called Superman already. He is of no threat to us."

Beetle held his face still. He hadn't heard news yet that Superman had fallen. He hoped that the other behind him weren't giving that away, but he didn't dare a glance at them to check. "I wasn't talking about him," Beetle replied, "I'm talking about the cat."

The alien leaned forward,"You're claiming that the flying cat is of Kryptonian origin?"

Beetle shrugged, "Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. One thing's for sure, he can tear through those ships like they were nothing. AND he's already in position to attack at a moments notice. Can you say the same? OR have your men had a couple hours to stand down from being at hair trigger?"

The alien onscreen shifted uncomfortably, "We will not surrender this city." it said, as if reminding itself, "This city, this world will be destroyed. The only thing in debate here is if you will be destroyed along with it."

Beetle smirked, "I could say the same thing about you," he replied, before stopping to listen to his sentence.

In the background, Booster slapped himself in the head, hard.

The alien regained its confidence, "Prepare to die!"

Beetle puffed himself up in front of the view screen, leaning in for effect, "Prepare to make us!" he answered, causing Buddy to have to grab Booster's hand firmly to prevent him from slapping himself again.

Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle took in a deep breath before he turned back to his team, wondering what he was going to say next. The words found themselves: "We're at war".

Space

"So why are we going to Earth again?" someone asked.
The leader of the ragtag group chuckled, "Isn't that what everyone is doing these days? Going to the glorious destruction of the planet Earth?"
"Well, yeah. But I thought that we didn't want any part of that."
"Correction: we don't want any part in the destruction of Earth. Nothing was said about not wanting to help the other side. Some of us are FROM Earth after all. You weren't like it very much if some armada showed up at the doorstep of YOUR birthplace now would you?"
"Oh course not, and I'm glad to have hooked up with the rest of you. Space isn't what it used to be."

The leader shook his head with a sigh, "No its not. I know that the Green Lantern Corps are trying to do their best at getting things set to rights, but there's just been so much damage done out there. So many people that don't want to believe that anything can ever be right again."

"That's what Dox was trying to do," another offered, "to offer hope."

The leader tried hard not to smile. That was hardly the only thing that Dox and his LEGION had been offering. But then, he'd learned over the years to be more suspicious than he liked. Perhaps everything had been on the up and up. But that hadn't stopped internal problems from gutting the organization in civil wars. That hadn't stopped... he shook his head again, several people in his new group had come from that organization. The others he had been with, they had chose the glories of space over the slim chances that they had of turning the tide in the battle for Earth.

He stared at the approach, wishing that he could see the planet of his birth. But everywhere he looked there was the main body of the armada, surrouding the Earth that they were bent on destroying.

"Will the cloak hold?" he asked.
"I hope so," someone else answered. He still didn't have all of the names down. With any luck, he wouldn't have to. They would do what they came to do, and everyone would just go their seperate ways. Or maybe they'd all end up hanging out with the Justice League. That was the way things happened in the old days after all. Groups would come together, and some of them would end up joining the other team. Maybe there would be a place for him there as well. Maybe for all of them.

He held his breath as they passed through the alien defensive grid. There was so much that could go wrong, but they HAD to be planetside to know what was happening... anything else was just another suicide run.

"Where is the best place to land?" someone asked as they approached the Earth's atmosphere.

"Probably New York," he heard himself saying,"That's where the League will be..."

Someone pointed to New York on the overhead projection map. "It doesn't look like the best place to scout the area. There seems to be major activity there."

"Then where?" he asked, scanning the map himself, looking for a likely spot.

"What about here?" another asked, her finger pointing to a spot on the map of North America. There seems to be activity, but not nearly as much."

The leader nodded his head, "The League had a base there at one point as well. Maybe there are still some members around in the area that can help bring us up to speed on what we need to know about the planetary defense plan."

They stared at the projection for a moment before someone got up the nerve to ask, "Do you remember where that base is? Perhaps we can use it as a command center."

The leader nodded, "I was thinking the same thing," he said with a satisfied smile.

"Do you think," another one said, looking out at the mighty armada,"that even with our help, that we are going to be able to win?"

The leader smiled warmly, "Do I think we're going to win?"

His questioner nodded.

"Of course we are!" the leader proclaimed, "It's going to be a SNAP!"

NEXT: Snapper Carr and friends join forces with Extreme Justice against the might of COLD ARMAGEDDON, but will even they be able to save Detroit from total destruction?