CHAPTER ONE

MEOW

Billions of miles above Earth, a bright light appeared amongst the stars hidden in the distance. It became bigger and more intense, slowly growing in size as it neared the planet. Once it reached the nearby satellites, it whooshed past them with incredible speed and sent them spinning in its wake. Were anyone to catch a glimpse of It, all they'd picture would be a flash of red, angry, and destructive energy hurtling towards Earth.

The first thing Mari saw when she opened her tired eyes was the cat. It was a blue cat, big enough to fit in a shoebox. It wore some sort of red clothing and had a ruby ring on its' tail. The two eyes on its face were yellow, yet teased a bloodthirsty manner.

And it was floating.

For somebody who happened to be the bearer of the Anansi totem, Mari was used to being visited by… unusual kinds of creatures. Once it had been the spirits of various pound animals desperate to say goodbye. Another time, it had been a date invite from the odd hero B'Wanna Beast (which she'd declined after about three minutes of thinking on it). Apparently, the universe didn't want to give up and had sent a cat with bloodthirsty eyes after her. So what else was new?

"Um…hi?" Mari said uncomfortably. "Good kitty?"

"Grrrrrrr," the floating cat breathed.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

The cat glared at her for a little before floating down to the bed covers and landing. "Dex-Sttarrr…"

"Your name…is Dex-Starr?" Mari asked. "Is that right?"

The cat looked at her with a grimace and purred in a way that signaled she was correct. Lightly tapping the totem around her necklace, Mari reached forward with a careful hand. Dex-Starr backed away and began to growl warningly.

"Look, I'm just trying to understand you better. I need to tap you to do that. You did come to talk, right?"

Dex-Starr's yellow eyes seemed to shrink into defeat; he purred lowly in what Mari interpreted as a sign of defeat. Still being cautious about what she was doing, the heroine stretched her hand out and lightly put a finger on the cat's head. What felt like unconscious thought went through both of their minds before Mari let go and opened her eyes. Dex-Starr opened his as well, though they looked a little bewildered at the experience.

"What…what was.." the cat breathed before realizing that Mari could hear him. "You understand Dex-Starr?"

"Yeah, no problem with that," she said. "My totem doesn't just let me mimic animal powers; it also lets me communicate with animals." Mari shifted the covers off a little as she gazed at the cat. "So, what's your deal? Why'd you seek me out, and in the morning no less?"

"Dex-Starr want…want help to find a bad man," the cat meowed. "Bad man hurt Dex-Starr's owner."

Mari looked at him perplexed. "Wait, by 'hurt,' do you mean-"

The cat nodded at her.

"Oh…I so sorry…" Mari was speechless and closed her eyes to channel the sudden grief that overtook her. A unique part of her was always feeling for when animals or people close to them died, but the deaths seemed magnified by how little average humans cared about them. It made the passing more tragic in her eyes.

"So, you need my help to find the murderer?"

"Mmmm," purred the Red Lantern cat.

"Hmmmmm…" pondered Mari. She moved the covers fully aside and began to walk to the small bathroom in her bedroom. "I'd help you, but I need to know just how you have those powers…Are you a
Lantern of some kind?"

"Dex-Starr is Red Lantern," he purred determinately.

"Red Lantern? Huh," Mari replied. "I've worked with the Green Lanterns. So, you're like that?"

Dex-Starr looked like somebody had offered him milk and then pulled away at the last second. "Dex-Starr not like Green Lantern! Green Lantern bad; Red Lanterns bathe galaxy in anger!"

Mari poked her head out of the bathroom. "Excuse me, but did you say anger? Because that sounds like a supervillain thing to say."

Unsurprisingly, Dex-Starr floated towards her in red energy. "Anger for owner of Dex-Starr fuels power. Anger of Green Lanterns fuels power."

"Right…" said Mari skeptically. "Look, I don't fully understand how this 'anger' power works for you or not, but I don't like what you're spewing about Green Lanterns. Some of them are my friends." Her arms folded as she walked out towards him.

The Red Lantern cat growled. "Dex-Starr still want help. Anger festering…"

Mari sighed. Maybe there wasn't changing how this cat thought, but she could still help some way.

"How about this? I'll help you find the bad man, and in exchange, you don't go near any of the Green Lanterns. You hate bad guys, right? You can focus on them and leave the space cops alone."

"But corps-"

"You can at least try. Right?" Mari held out a hand to the cat. At first, he looked suspicious of it, but after a few more seconds relented and held out his own paw. The two shook quite easily.

"Dex-Starr ready. When we start?" he purred.

Mari looked abashed. "Well, excuse me, but I still need to change into my costume. You can wait a little bit, right?"

Getting nothing more than a small meow, she turned and walked into the bathroom before closing the door.

Batman's eyes scanned the Watchtower computers like a vulture. He was picking apart the newspaper articles bit by bit, trying to figure out what evidence pointed towards a group of carjackers. With nobody on the watchtower, it made his time there all the easier.

A loud noise emanated from nearby, and he turned just in time to see a blue outline appear before two people appeared. One was Vixen in her orange-yellow tank top of an outfit. The other, much to his shock, was a floating blue cat adorned in red armor and an equally red aura. It had a look of pure venom kept back by feigned kindness.

"Vixen, what's going on?" Batman asked sternly. His eyes narrowed into their familiar slits of suspicion.

Vixen motioned towards the cat in a gingerly manner. "Batman, meet Dex-Starr. He's got a case for us to solve."