4 Justice League Family Affairs

Supergirl headed straight for Bizarro. He saw her at the last possible moment and braced for her attack. She rocked him with a right cross, which threw him to his right and she followed up with a left which propelled him in that direction. She threw another right but he caught her fist in his left hand and squeezed.

"You hurt I. Me am no liking you." He decided. Acting upon that decision, he held her arm fast while he punched her in the face twice at super speed. She managed to block a third shot but then they were stuck grappling with one another. Bizarro was marginally weaker than Superman but then again, so was she. They were caught in a titanic struggle with no hope of victory.

An emerald force beam erupted from just over her shoulder and struck Bizarro in the face. He let go of Supergirl and this afforded her the opportunity to punch him straight into the ground. She turned to see Kyle floating nearby. She blew him a kiss, "Thanks. There's more where that came from, trust me."

"Just take care." He admonished.

"Will do. See ya." She rocketed towards the ground.

"Now let's see what we can see." Kyle said as he ventured into the battlefield.


Mammoth leveled Vixen with a massive left. He turned on Vigilante and began to advance. Vigilante fired but Mammoth stretched his left hand out in front of his face and peered between his fingers. Vigilante's hyperkinetic rounds expended themselves on Mammoth's hand and that did nothing to slow his advance.

"Wuh-oh. Ah think Ah'm in trouble." Vigilante commented as he desperately sought to come up with a new plan.


Black Vulcan streamed lightning at Man Bat and Charaxes but the Bat and the Moth continued to elude him. Meanwhile, Samurai was creating turbulent wind gusts to keep Kestrel at bay. Distracted as he was, he forgot about Shimmer. She closed the distance between them and when she was close enough she encased him in a zirconium sphere. She repeated the performance with Black Vulcan only with lead this time. Only having the air trapped within the spheres with them, the JLers would soon asphyxiate. She couldn't wait.


Kyle rushed into the scene only to be intercepted by Star Sapphire. She wore a sultry smile, "I knew they'd send a Green Lantern. Not only that but one of my favorite GLs."

"I thought Hal Jordan was your favorite." Kyle reminded her.

She shrugged, "Times change. We adapt and move on."

"Well you can keep your grubby thoughts, intentions, and paws to yourself." Kyle declared.

Her smile turned wicked, "That's right. Supergirl, the other woman. Trust me, she doesn't stand a chance."

"You stay away from her." Kyle warned.

"My dear, dear boy that depends upon you. Love me, and make love to me, and she'll be forgotten." Star Sapphire offered.

"Lady, you're as nuts as you are disturbed." Kyle commented.

Star Sapphire looked thoughtful, "A pity. I thought we could be reasonable about this…apparently not. Just a fair warning: I don't take rejection well."

She projected a force beam from her jewel and knocked Raynor out of the sky. She swooped down on him as he was recovering and began firing violet blades from her mask. Kyle responded but not before he was nicked a few times. The ferocity of her attack surprised him. There was a whole new dimension to Star Sapphire's personality. If this was her way of capturing the attention of those she professed to love he'd hate to be someone that she despised.


Captain Marvel, carrying Stargirl, came rushing into the situation. On a three count, he dropped Stargirl. She maintained her protective forcefield until she slowed enough to withstand the friction. Captain Marvel slammed into Mammoth, knocking the brute back twenty feet.

"Are you all right?" Marvel asked Vigilante.

"Ah'm fine. Just rustle up that hombre, pardner." Vigilante urged him on.

Marvel flew straight into Mammoth. They began exchanging blows. The force of them shattered nearby windows. The Chennai police retreated in order to give the fighters a wider berth.

Meanwhile, Vigilante ran to Vixen's side. Cradling her head he whispered, "C'mon darlin', just open yore eyes. Kin ya do that?"

"I'd forget about her and worry about yourself instead." Giganta snickered as she loomed over the couple.

"Ah'm warnin' ya, Giganta, if'n ya'll don't back off Ah'm gonna put a bullet between yore eyes." Vigilante stood and pulled a revolver free.

Giganta smirked, "Do your worst."

"Don't worry, Ah will." Vigilante promised.


Man Bat, Charaxes, and Kestrel flew at Stargirl. At first Courtney tried blasting them with an energy burst from her staff but they just flew circles around her. Now she was focused on maintaining the shield she'd erected around her while they pounded at it. Kestrel assaulted her field with her mace and that was bad enough but Charaxes was spinning a cocoon around her. She'd tried dropping her field to escape but the Man Bat's claws and Kestrel's attacks made her reseal herself up. Knowing that Charaxes liked to dine on human flesh, Stargirl wondered if she'd be on the menu if she couldn't escape.


In the Himalayas Ray was melting the snow off of an entire peak. He'd seen Mary impact the mountain and as predicted an avalanche ensued. He could've melted the snow in her general vicinity but that would weaken the shelf above her and likely produce a second avalanche. His solution was to get rid of all the snow.

The dangers were that she would suffocate under the weight of the snow. Then again, she could drown in all of the water cascading down the mountainside. He fervently hoped that Mary was awake and staying alive.

The snow was melted off of the peak so he streaked back to the cliff that Mary collided with. There below him was the familiar red and gold of her costume. He alighted next to her and found her struggling to keep her head out of a streaming rush of water as she coughed and sputtered. Dropping onto his knees he lifted her up and held her close as the coughs wracked through her body.

After the worst of it had passed she asked, "What happened?"

Ray explained her encounter with Bizarro's ambush and her subsequent flight to the Himalayas and the avalanche that swallowed her up. He described his desperate plan and exulted in the fact that it had worked. It was then that he noticed that Mary was shivering.

"You're soaked to the bone and the temperatures are freezing up here. C'mon, let's get you to your feet." He helped her up and then radiated a solar blast out of his chest, arms, and hands that completely bathed her. Her front was dry within minutes. He suggested that she turn around and she did. After moving her cape off to the side her back was completely dry as well.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Now I reward you." Mary said as she pulled him close. She hesitated and he commented, "You look nervous."

"I am nervous. Now shut up." She ordered.

"You don't…mmm." Ray was interrupted by Mary's kiss. This was different than their first kiss where she had forcefully gotten his attention. This was soft and tender. If anything, its gentle promise made him even more intrigued and excited than her first attempt.

Their lips parted and she smiled, "I guess I didn't have to be nervous after all. Ray?"

He grinned, "Sorry. Just lost in the moment. Now, back to business, what now?"

"Who all is coming to help?" she asked.

Ray rattled off the names he knew about and said a team was being assembled in New York to assist as well. Mary frowned, "Who's the opposition?"

Ray answered that as well, "L-Ron listed off Mammoth, Shimmer, Bizarro, Giganta, Star Sapphire, Cheetah, Man Bat, some human moth guy, and Kestrel."

"Sounds like we'd better get there fast." Mary replied, "Ready?"

"Of course." He smiled.

Mary took to the air, "Let's go!" Ray joined her and they flashed off into the distance.


"Ow! Ow! Ow! You'd better cut that out cowboy or I'm gonna get mad." Giganta warned.

Vigilante tried to reload before the giantess could respond. He saw a golden streak approached from his right. With a yowl Cheetah pounced upon him. Slashing at him with her claws and trying to bite him with her fangs she knocked him over. Having him prone, she was able to bring her legs into the fray and he desperately struggled to stay alive under her onslaught.

Relief came when Vixen tackled the feline villainess. Having channeled the essence of a cheetah herself, Mari was a match for the mutated woman. Vigilante gathered up his guns but before he could begin reloading them, Giganta loomed over him, "I said I was gonna make you pay."


Supergirl tagged Bizarro with a left to the gut and then a knee to the face. The misshapen clone staggered back but recovered quickly enough to hit with a roundhoused right. She went down on one knee and wiped the blood off of her lip.

"I have to admit, you're better at this than ever before. Who's been teaching you?" Kara asked.

"Me am learned by Superwoman." Bizarro proudly declared.

"Great. A psychopath for an instructor." Supergirl muttered.

Bizarro still heard it, "You am not nice. Superwoman are me new love."

Great, now I've pissed him off, Supergirl thought but she said, "Look Bizarro, we don't have to keep fighting. Why are we fighting?"

"We fight because me love say so!" Bizarro bellowed, "You am insulting me love. You am dying now."

"Oh joy." Kara said as she braced for the fight to resume.


Apache Chief came to. His head hurt and he was having difficulty focusing. He got to his knees. A distance away he could see Shimmer standing next to two spheres. Considering what she'd done to him, he knew his teammates were trapped within them. Recalling that he'd only had the air that had been trapped within his own encasement he knew he had to act fast.

He ran up to Shimmer. She turned just as he reached her but it was too late. A chop to her neck's nerve cluster put her down. He went to the grayish sphere first since it looked like lead and would therefore be easier to split open than the metal sphere to its left.

He cracked open the lead ball and found Black Vulcan on his knees. Black Vulcan gazed up at his friend and bequeathed him a woozy smile, "Thanks."

"I assume Samurai is in the neighboring sphere?" Apache Chief asked.

"You know as much as I do, man." Black Vulcan slowly got to his feet and took a look around, "Great, it looks like our side is getting trashed."

"Do what you can. I will liberate our trapped brother." Apache Chief phased through the sphere's walls and ascertained that Samurai was indeed within its confines. Seeing that the sphere was open at its base, revealing pavement, Apache Chief phased into the ground. A drainage tunnel ran alongside the sphere's location. He compressed his molecular density and began digging at the surface.

It took several moments but he opened up a vent hole to the sphere's base. The infusion of air, foul as it was, revived Samurai. Seeing the hole, he ordered Apache Chief to stand back. Marshaling the air, Samurai created a whirlwind that lifted the sphere off of him. He allowed it to crash down to the ground twenty feet away from his present location. Apache Chief climbed up through the parking lot and joined the other "Super Friends".

"Someone's getting wrapped up by that moth guy." Black Vulcan reported.

"Can you neutralize him?" Samurai asked.

"Watch this!" Black Vulcan happily declared.


Twin streams of lightning struck Charaxes, knocking him out. Kestrel and Man Bat immediately turned on the Super Friends. Courtney could see that the cocoon was no longer being built so she projected an energy blast outwards from herself. The cocoon ruptured. She quickly surveyed the scene and decided that Kyle looked like he needed her help the most. Star Sapphire looked like she was brutalizing him.


As Mary and Ray flew over the city they saw Supergirl. Bizarro was giving her an extremely hard time. In fact, she looked like she was losing that fight. Ray mentioned this.

"So help her already." Mary said as they came to a mid-air halt.

"Yeah, but you…her…Bizarro." Ray verbally stumbled.

"If you notice, Giganta's about to squish Vigilante. That's where I'm headed." She declared.

"Yeah, you…" Mary was gone. Ray looked back to Bizarro and saw that Kara was down. He galvanized his resolve, "Okay ugly. You want to pick on my friends? That means you gotta deal with me."


"Boo-wah!" L-Ron cheered, "This fight is over!"

"What makes you say that?" Oberon asked, "The relief team is still 45 minutes away."

"I can say that because Mary Marvel is back." L-Ron sniffed, "Miss Mary will make short work of them."

"You seem awfully confident of her abilities." Sue quietly observed.

"If she can kick Darkseid's ass I'd say my feelings are justified." L-Ron shot back.

"No need to get excited, L-Ron. There just seems to be more to it than that." Sue commented.

"Mary's my friend." L-Ron revealed, "I don't have many of those. Most people view me as a tool. Mary, like Lois Lane before her, sees me as a person. Of course I'm gonna cheer for her."

"I'm cheering for her too, L-Ron. I honestly hope she can end this fight." Sue said. Inwardly, she worried about Mary's contribution. The kid was sweet but that was also her liability. If a villain held a kitten, Mary would be afraid to bash him. She seemed to be doing okay so far as a JLer but someone was eventually going to use her own good nature against her.

If only Sue had known the truth…