The world’s greatest heroes maintain a vigilant guardianship of Earth from their base on the moon. When the planet is threatened they are immediately dispatched to deal with whoever their enemy might be. When villains see the approach of these men and women their blood freezes and their limbs go numb with fear, for these are no ordinary heroes they face! No, for this group consists of the best of the best! It is the one, the only, Justice League of America! And within its ranks are the greatest heroes the universe has ever seen!

"Falling Apart"

Issue #285

By Ralph L. Angelo, Jr.

Bat shaped, black razor edged creatures flew at the embattled heroes, this substitute Justice League. Immediately, and without another word to one another these heroes fly into action. Firestorm the Nuclear man instantly attacks, firing blistering beams of energy at the bat shaped nightmares, who merely fly around his withering energy blasts. Gold’n does likewise with the same results. Guy Gardner instantly encases them in bubbles of golden light from his yellow Qwardian ring.

“Ha! Got ‘em!” The former Green Lantern shouts, when suddenly the bat shaped monstrosities pop effortlessly out of his bubbles and beeline directly for him.

“I have a really bad feeling about this.” Blue Devil shouts as he blasts the flying creatures with his trident. He scatters a few, but most simply avoid his energy blast.

“Not so fast.” Captain Atom growls as he unleashes his quantum force blasts which explode the dark shaped horrors in puffs of black energy before they can attack Guy.

“What are these things?” Gold’n asks as she continues to try to hit them with her energy beams, as they fly about her.

“They are dark matter constructs.” Zatanna replies.

“Ok who constructed ‘em?” Firestorm asks as he flies above the heads of everyone, trying to turn their matter into something less evasive, to no avail.

“Only one person I know of” Nightwing replies, “Nightshade.”

“My guess as well.” Captain Atom adds. “I’ve battled her many times in the past.”

“Well why’s she attackin’ the league?” Gardner asks as he creates a gigantic fly swatter and smacks dozens of the dark things into the ground.

Nightwing grimaces as he leaps over a swarm of attacking dark bats, then answers “She’s not. She’s not even attacking us. This is a delaying tactic. They want us to stay here.”

“You sure bat-boy?”

“Yes Gardner, I am sure. They don’t want us leaving here.”

“But why?” Zatanna asks.

“We have to get out of here.” Nightwing states flatly.

“I ain’t runnin’ from a fight.” Gardner grumbles flatly

“No, listen to Nightwing, he’s right. We have to go now.” Captain Atom adds with authority.

“Okay, got it lets move, Gold’n and I will fly point, we’ll clear these things out of the way the best we can then you gather up everyone and get them out behind us Guy.” Firestorm orders as he flies ahead. Gold’n looks around her at the others, sighs resignedly and follows immediately.

“Hey fire top wait up.” She shouts ahead.

“What is it Gold’n-locks?” Firestorm answers as he turns to face her while continuing to fly backwards.

“What’s with the orders? Where are we going?”

“To an air lock. I want to get us outta here fast, but I don’t want to just blow a hole in the wall if I can avoid it. This may all be nothin’, but if ‘Wings right, and I think he is, we may be in deep doo-doo here.”

“Uhh, we are. Turn around.”

He looks at her quizzically then slowly turns his head ands sees the hallway thick with bat shapes, all screaming towards them, blocking the airlock as well.

“Uh oh, Pray this works Goldi, otherwise this could be all she wrote.” The Nuclear man shouts, as he fires his energy beams into the flying crowd, instantly transmuting the air around them into solid amber, and with a thud the whole block of amber, bat things frozen in its embrace and all clunks to the hallway floor, rolls a few feet then comes to a stop.

“Whew, nice work Firestorm, now lets get outta here.”

“Yeah neat stuff if I do say so myself.” Then with a wry grin he adds, “Caught ‘em like flies in am-“

“Don’t say it!” Gold’n chides, a slight smile on her beautiful face.

Suddenly the amber begins to vibrate like a blender on steroids as the ebon horrors seek to escape their prison!

“This is so NOT good.” Firestorm quips.

“You got THAT right!” Gold’n shouts as she suddenly leaps forward and kicks the ball of amber, smashing it through the airlock!

Ba-KOOM!

Instantly the atmosphere begins to rush out. Firestorm shoots her an angry glare as he prepares to seal the breach when from behind them Guy Gardner sails past holding a yellow bubble from his ring around Nightwing, Blue Devil and Zatanna.

Captain Atom flies on his own behind Guy and shouts “Move it you two, hurry!”

“NOW look what you’ve done!” Firestorm grumbles at Gold’n as he rockets onto the moon’s surface through the rushing atmosphere, smiling.

“ME???” She replies in mock anger as she chases after him in the escaping air of the Watchtower.

But then, less then a heartbeat after they leave the towering edifice, a huge explosion rocks the lunar surface! Scattering those who weren’t prepared, meaning everyone!

Ka-TROOOOMMMMM!

Guy moves solely on instinct, throwing the biggest yellow bubble he can around everyone, and drawing them in close.

“By the mystical Tomorrows!” Zatanna exclaims in shock.

Behind them the mighty Watchtower, home to the Justice League of America crumbles to dust before their stunned eyes!

“You know, I think maybe we don’t wanna find Superman, Batman and the others so fast. Cause when we do they are gonna be SOOOO pissed at us.” Firestorm breathes.

“Enough Firestorm. Let’s get back to Earth. Zee, we need a quick Teleport back there, when we arrive get ready to make another one I’ll give you the co-ordinates when we arrive in Gotham, go!”

“Gotham it is, Nightwing.” Zatanna answers, with an air of sadness to her voice as she continues to stare at the crumbled Watchtower settling all around them in the lunar dust.

In a flash of light, the group is gone! Instantly re-appearing in Gotham city, in the middle of a busy street, filled with nighttime revelers.

“Zatanna...” Nightwing begins as he leans over and whispers in her ear. She nods and speaks a quick phrase backwards, and the heroes all disappear once again quickly.

“Whoa! The batcave?” Firestorm marvels at his surroundings as the rest quietly look on in stunned awe.

“Yes, I needed some familiar surroundings, and this cave is the most well shielded place in the world. No spy satellite anywhere above the world can pierce these walls and no listening device can hear anything that goes on here. Precautions have been taken to make sure of that.”

“Alright people, let’s get a plan together. Someone just tried to kill us and they know we’re on their trail.” Captain Atom begins.

“That’s right, and we know Superman and Gold’n’s foe ‘Catalyst’ is involved as well as ‘Nightshade’ who left us her little friends awaiting our, or whoever’s arrival.” Nightwing continues.

“So you think that was just a trap we sprang by being there?” Zatanna asks.

“Definitely. I don’t know if they reacted to simply our presence or Zatanna’s backwards running time spell, but something set those things off.” Nightwing speaks to them all.

“So what’s your plan now? Where do we go from here?” Gardner asks.

“We know two of our foes, but I’m willing to lay good money down that there’s more involved.” Nightwing answers.

“You think its another Injustice league?” Captain Atom this time.

“Does it matter what they or we call them? They have the JLA, and right now that makes US the JLA that’s operating. We have to step up to the plate, people, and be the big guns.”

They all turn towards Nightwing, some slowly nod others more powerfully, more convincingly. Among those are Gardner and Captain Atom. Gold’n fades into the background behind the crowd a bit and takes a deep breath, when Zatanna touches her shoulder.

“Are you all right Gold’n?” Zee asks.

“I-I don’t know. I’m feeling really way over my head right now.”

Zatanna laughs, more of a chuckle really, “Who isn’t? We’ve all been here before sweetie. The League are the first tier heroes. If they’ve been taken down, what chance do we have?”

“Ummm that’s kinda my point.”

“And what’s your answer to your own question?”

“Not sure.” Gold’n bites her lip as she tries to form an answer.

“We have every chance they have, and more. That’s the answer. And, we have an advantage. We know at least two of the enemies we’re up against. The JLA was taken down without knowing they were under attack. Somehow that Catalyst guy got past the Watchtowers defenses and destroyed it as a message to us to stay out of his way, or to destroy us as well. He just didn’t count on the diverse powers we have here. If we were all powerhouses like, say Captain Marvel we might have still been fighting those shadow creatures there when the tower blew up. Now someone like Marvel would shrug that off, but not the rest of us. Nightwing made a good call getting us out of there. He’s a really good leader, ask the Titans.”

“I don’t have to, I see what you mean. See I trust you guys, all of you. You’re all legends, bigger then life heroes who I’ve heard about for years. Me? I’m a newcomer really. I’m in this business just over a year now, and a lot of it is still really scary to me. Right now is definitely one of those moments I feel so far over my head.”

“Over your head?” Firestorm asks. He had quietly walked over and stood silently listening to their conversation. “You’re kidding right? You took on Ares and all his goons, with the JLA. You fought this Catalyst guy single handedly and beat him. You and Superman fought some crazy wizard recently and won. If anything, against you I think the bad guys are over their heads, not you.”

“He’s right Gold’n. You’re here because you belong here. If not for you, none of us would have realized the JLA was even missing.” Nightwing ads as all the heroes have moved over to this side of the Bat-cave to listen to the conversation.

“Hey Gold’n, you’ve got nothing to worry about, your ol’ pal Blue Devil is here to watch your back. We’re heroes, it’s what we do!”

The Blue skinned demon laughs as he puts his arm around Gold’n reassuringly and gives her a hug.

She smiles sheepishly, then looks at them all and nods. “Okay I’m ready to do whatever we have to. Just don’t expect me to come up with a plan I’m leaving that to you guys.”

“We already have a plan.” Nightwing replies.

Metropolis. Superman’s city. Metallo suddenly appears on a rampage, unstoppable by regular Police, even Metropolis’s famed SCU has failed against him as he barrels through the city. He robs a bank in plain sight, and is exiting the destroyed entrance to the building (Destruction he caused on his way in) when he’s knocked off his feet by a blinding blast of golden energy!

Zhrack!

“W-what the hell?” Metallo stammers, as the bags of money he had in his hands scatter everywhere.

“Hey! I know you you’re Superman’s pup.” The villain growls.

Floating before him in the street, arms crossed, Gold’n stares daggers at him.

“Where is he?”

“Wh- where’s who?”

She doesn’t reply, merely flies in, grabs him by the arm and hurls him across the street, into the parking garage across the way, shattering it, while tons of cars drop on top of Metallo she lands and waits in the street.

A rumbling emits from the parking garage as cars are suddenly thrown about and an angered Metallo exits.

“Girlie you just made a big mistake. Your lover-boy ain’t around to protect you. I’m the man with the Kryptonite heart. I’ve beaten Superman hisself. What chance have you got against me?”

“Oh every chance I’d say.” She answers with a powerful blast of energy, far more powerful then her first one, and smashes Metallo back into the parking garage a second time while more cars from upper levels drop onto him with a thunderous roar.

Dust settles in the deserted street as she stands there, hands on hips waiting. Suddenly, powerfully cars propel out of the wreckage of the garage, followed by a maddened Metallo.

“I’ll kill ya for that one!” He grunts as he leaps towards Gold’n.

“I don’t think so.” A voice from above answers.

Metallo looks up and sees “Captain Atom?”

“Right.” The silver skinned super-hero replies as he fires a quantum blast at Metallo, driving him into the pavement, and pinning him there. Gold’n walks over where Metallo is pinned by the quantum blast, digs her hands into the robots chest, and pries the hinged area open, then she reaches in grabs the chunk of Kryptonite that powers the cyborg’s body and rips it out of his chest.

“Now I’m gonna ask you again, where is he?”

Keystone city. The city of the Flash. Captain Cold laughs as he freezes a dozen police in place with his freeze ray, then simply walks down the street without a care in the world. All about him the street is frozen solid Police are encased in ice, as are average citizens. He hums a happy tune as he walks into a bank and immediately freezes everyone with his ray in sight. He grabs two bags of money from the safe and begins to exit, when a giant yellow fist suddenly smacks him hard, knocking him through the air, and to the other side of the street.

“Where are they?” Guy Gardner asks.

“What? Who?” Cold replies as he sweeps his freeze ray towards Guy who floats above him.

“Won eht nug stoohs srewolf.”

Cold pulls the trigger and flowers pop out the end of his gun.

“I-What-“ He stammers as Zatanna walks out of the shadows of a nearby alleyway. She grabs him by the collar as his hood falls back from his parka. Guy rips the sunglasses from Colds face and stares at him eye to eye.

“We’re only gonna ask this one more time twerp. Where are they?”

All across the country the same events play out again and again, as suddenly emboldened villains find themselves stopped dead by heroes they never expected to see in cities they knew to be protected by others. Others now missing.

Hours later back in the batcave...

“Alright heroes, we know where they are now, and if we’re lucky the villains we all captured never got a warning off. Now it’s our turn.” Nightwing concludes punching his fist into his palm for emphasis.

To be continued!

Send complaints and adulation to CptMarvell@aol.com