Justice League #20

I race over to the one in orange who is poised ready to impale his opponent. I can’t let him go through with this. With all the speed I can muster I get just close enough to him that I manage to blast the anomaly off his body with my heat vision before he can go through with his killing strike. Phew that was too close. You’re getting slow Kent, too slow. I really need to work on my speed.

 

As I land on the ground beside the trident wielder as he places his head in his hands similar to what Wonder Woman did when I removed the object from her. The man in the cybernetic suit sits up straight having narrowly escaped a painful death at the hands of this man. He takes a couple of seconds to look at me before being able to see me clearly and recognize me as Superman.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“I’ve been worse……woah…”

 

“What's wrong?”

 

“You’re Superman.”

 

“Yeah last time I checked.”

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“When I see or hear people in distress I generally make it my business to help them as best I can.”

 

“What did you do to Aquaman?”

 

"Aquaman?"

 

“Yeah Aquaman. This guy.”

 

He points to the trident wielder, I suddenly think I recognize him from a couple of stories Finch covered a couple of months ago. Apparently able to communicate with fish and is King of the lost city of Atlantis. I thought it was nothing more than a fabrication of the media who chose to name him as the ‘Aquaman’.

 

“He had something on his person. I found a similar thing on Wonder Woman and the speedster. I suspected that these things were controlling them and when I removed it from Wonder Woman she seemed to collapse and stop her attacks. I just did the same to Aquaman over there hoping it would stop him as well.”

 

“It’s not Aquaman. It’s Arthur, King of Atlantis.”

 

I turn to see that Aquaman has come to and appears far less hostile than he did previously. It looks as though my guess was correct. Thank goodness.

 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

 

“It’s fine. I’m just glad my mind has stopped playing tricks on me.”

 

“Your mind wasn’t pulling tricks on you. There was something stuck to your body that I think was controlling your actions.”

 

“What did you see whilst you were under it’s control?”

 

“Everything looked the same as it does now. The only difference is that both you looked like King Shark.”

 

“King Shark?”

 

“An adversary of mine. He has been responsible for several attacks on my Kingdom during my reign thus why I ended up attacking you all.”

 

“You saw more than one of this opponent and you still attacked us? Didn’t something cross your mind making you wonder how there could be more than one this King Shark?”

 

“I knew it wasn’t possible. But for some reason, no matter how much I justified that this wasn’t possible to myself I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t hurt anyone did I?”

 

“No. Besides a couple of dents in my armor I’m fine.”

 

“You never attacked me in the first place so you didn’t get a chance to try and harm me.”

 

"The others!”

 

“Others?”

 

“Diana and the messenger?”

 

“Messenger?”

 

“You mean the speedster?”

 

“I think you both mean the Flash. If you and Wonder Woman both had those things on you the Flash must also have one on him as well, we have to help him.”

 

“Don’t worry, Green Lantern’s dealing with him.”

 

“Green Lantern?”

 

“Yeah he’s a man I’d say late twenties maybe early thirties with this ring on his right hand that allows him to create things from his imagination.”

 

“I know he is Superman. I’m just shocked that he’s here. If he’s here then I’ve got all the candidates for the team.”

 

“Team?”

 

“Before I came here I was given an order straight from the President.”

 

“The President of the United States?”

 

“Who else?”

 

“What does he want with us?”

 

“He wanted me to try and assemble a team of some of the planets most powerful super humans into a team.”

 

“A team? For what reason?”

 

“To save the planet from an approaching threat….”

 

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Come on Barry stop running and let me help you. I rise just above the Central City skyline to try and spot him running down a street. You can run Barry, but you can’t hide from me. As I scan for the fresh disturbances he will of generated I spot him running down a backstreet. Nice try Allen but a red blur can’t hide from me. Before he can leave the alley I form a construct in front of him, a new path that brings him up out of the alley and into my trap.

 

Barry always hated it when I trapped him in one of these hopefully he’ll understand why I have to do it this time. Barry races past me and before he can realize what’s happening I have him trapped in the hamster wheel. Good. I’ve got him trapped now to try and remove the damn thing off him and bring back the Barry I know.

 

Before I can scan him to find where object is on his body Barry punches me in a face. Ouch Barry, that’s not cool man but I know you can’t help it. Or at least I hope that’s the case as otherwise we’re going to have a problem once this is all over. With my concentration broken my constructs break and Barry plummets down to the ground.

 

Crap.

 

Come on Hal get your head in the game.

 

I regain my senses and successfully bring myself to a halt and as I do I spot Barry falling towards the ground. Before he can hit the ground I narrowly manage to form a cage construct around him cushioning him the impact.

 

Alright Barry, play time is over now. I shake the construct with him in to shake him up for a couple of seconds. I’m not aiming to harm him, I just want him disorientated enough for me to remove the object from him. After about ten seconds I remove the construct and drop him down on the ground in front of me. The ring scans him and manages to find the object on him and just before he’s able to race off I manage to trap it in an orb removing it from Barry’s person.

 

As Barry begins to race off he suddenly comes to a stop and turns to face me.

 

“Hal?”

 

“Hey man. It’s good to see you back to normal.”

 

“Normal? What do you mean? Where did Zoom go?”

 

“Zoom? Zoom isn’t here Barry. He’s never been here.”

 

I raise my right hand to so the orb floats just in front of Barry’s face.

 

“You had this thing on you Barry. It was controlling you and I guess making you see everyone as Zoom.”

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Jesus. I can’t believe it. It felt so real.”

 

“Yeah, it’s been a weird day.”

 

“You think it’s been a weird day? You know that fish guy on the tv?”

 

“What? That Aquaman guy?”

 

“Yeah he’s here! I met him.”

 

“I already know Barry.”

 

“What? How do you?”

 

“Because he’s over there.”

 

I point towards Superman, Aquaman and the guy in the robot suit and Barry’s face drops.

 

“That’s not…..Superman is it?”

 

 

“The very same.”

 

“Man, today just keeps getting weirder and weirder.”

 

“I’ll introduce you to him if you want.”

 

Barry rolls his eyes at that last remark of mine. Clearly he’s back to normal with that look. That’s a look Barry always gives me when he knows I’m having a joke at his expense. It’s good to have you back Barry.

 

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I’m not sure what just happened, all I remember is being surrounded and held by two duplicates of Killer Frost. Then next thing I know I’m waking up on the ground, my sword is nowhere to be seen and my head is pounding. I place my left arm on my forehead and take a few moments to regain my wits. I notice that I’m missing my lasso and my shield as well as my sword. Where did they go?

 

I go to stand up and as I do I hear faint footsteps approaching me. Immediately I suspect that it’s Frost surprised to see me awake. I jump up and see that the one who was approaching me isn’t Frost at all. It’s a man wearing a suit in the style of a bat. Interesting design choice even if it is a bit odd.

 

“What happened to Frost?”

 

“Frost?”

 

“Killer Frost. A female witch with the ability to manipulate ice, some how she was able to create duplicates and they were attacking me. The last thing I remember is two of them trapping me before I lost consciousness.”

 

I pause for a moment to try and piece together what could possibly have happened whilst I was unconscious. Perhaps the Frost duplicates abducted me whilst I was unconscious and I’m now imprisoned somewhere with this man. I race over to him desperate to know where I am.

 

“Where am I?”

 

“You’re in Central City. Don’t you remember?”

 

“Central City?”

 

Frost never likes to stray far from Gateway city so it seems unlikely that she’d come all the way to Central City just to attack me. So I believe I’m not a prisoner here, but if I’m not a prisoner of Frost where did she go?

 

“Are you alright Wonder Woman?”

 

Another man who calls me that name. The people of Man’s world do like to call me that name.

 

“I’m fine. Sorry.”

 

Suddenly it dawns on me. What happened to Arthur or the messenger?

 

“What are we doing here?”

 

“You don’t remember?”

 

“Remember what?”

 

“You were under the control of a small organism. It was manipulating your actions making you attack other people.”

 

“I was attacking people?”

 

“Yes. You attacked people such as myself, Superman and Aquaman as well as others.”

 

“Aquaman? Arthur’s alright?”

 

“If Aquaman is this Arthur then yes. He’s fine. Both of you were seemingly under the control of this thing along with the Flash and had been forced to fight one another.”

 

“Why would someone make us do that?”

 

“I’m not sure. But I’m going to find out.”

 

As the man in the bat themed suit says this, another man flies into the room wearing a blue suit and sporting a red cape. He turns to look at me and pulls a smile at me for some reason.

 

“Feeling better?”

 

I’m uncertain of how to respond to this but I know that I have to acknowledge him.

 

“Yeah, I guess. Thanks.”

 

“Good, because I didn't want to try and fight you again. That sword of yours is sharp.”

 

The man in blue turns to look at the one wearing the bat suit enquiring as to how he is. At a guess I’d suspect he’d sustained an injury in combat. I only hope I wasn’t the one who dealt him this injury whilst I was seemingly under that things influence.

 

“I need both of you to come with me. Cyborg says he has news on a potential threat to the planet.”

 

“Cyborg?”

 

“The guy in the robot suit, Batman.”

 

The one in the batsuit appears to be known as Batman. Fitting I guess.

 

“What sort of threat?”

 

“I don’t know but I think you should both see.”

 

He turns to look at me and smiles.

 

“Is that alright?”

 

I nod and he flies off out of the building. The one known as Batman follows behind him and I choose to follow him grabbing my sword from off the floor as I exit the building. This sure has been one odd day….

 

Done