Justice League Past Imperfect 74
The Gordonian saucers landed at the edge of the forest. The forest was bisected by a river. Although the trees grew to the riverbank through most of the area, there was a clearing at the heart of where the JLers and Legionnaires had fallen. The shock troops disembarked and the support craft lifted off again. They patrolled the area and used their sensors to guide the troops to their prey.
One hundred and fifty Gordonians crept through the forest in a skirmish line. Between their numerical superiority and technological advantage, they were confident of victory. The race was still flush from Thanagar's recent capitulation and they felt no one could stop them.
The Gordonians utilized three man squads, hence the number of them in a support craft. Each squad formed a loose phalanx as they probed the forest. Soon, they found Superman and Supreme.
The Kryptonian and the Daxamite had fallen within fifty feet of each other. Each was stirring. Superman felt ripped apart and knew that his counterpart must be feeling the same way. Owing to his compassionate nature, he actually felt sorry for Supreme.
He heard heavy feet tramping through the forest and he unsteadily rose to his feet. A Gordonian saw him and unleashed a blast from his force lance. The discharge struck Superman and he cried out and went onto one knee.
Supreme was still semiconscious when the Gordonians overtook him. They pressed their force lances against his struggling form and fired as one. His scream echoed throughout the forest canopy.
Superman stayed low until his X-ray vision revealed the location of the squad hunting him. He then rose and attacked the closest Gordonian. Using his super strength he punched the reptilian and sent him hurtling through space until he struck a nearby tree. The assault trooper sagged to the forest floor and didn't get up again.
Another trooper leveled his lance at Superman. Before he could fire, Superman sealed the end of the emitter barrel with his heat vision. It exploded in the Gordonian's hands. He also went down.
The third trooper fired a shot off. The beam struck Superman and he cried out. Inch by inch, foot by foot, Superman marched towards the reptilian soldier. Despite the pain the lance caused he pressed on until he was able to reach out and take the lance out of the Gordonian's hands. He then swatted the trooper with it.
He then turned in the direction of Supreme's cry. The Gordonians there registered the fact that their comrades had fallen. Two of them fired at Superman. He leapt into the air, dodging their blasts.
The troopers tried to follow him with their discharges but he moved too quickly for them. Swooping down towards them he leveled one with a blow and then grabbed the other by his breastplate and spun him around and threw him into a tree.
The third Gordonian dropped his efforts at subduing Supreme and aimed at Superman. He caught Superman in the chest with his force blast and Superman staggered backwards.
Supreme got one leg underneath him so that he was kneeling on one knee rather than two. His head began to clear and he recognized what had happened. Anger swelling up inside of him, he leapt to his feet, delivering an uppercut while he did so.
The Gordonian flew into the air. He started to come down, breaking through branches as he did so. Superman turned to Supreme.
"As hard as it is to say, thanks." He said.
A grim Supreme shook his head, "I should be thanking you. I was helpless before these creatures. You may have even saved my life."
"Want to see if we can save someone else's?" Superman asked.
A ghost of a smile tugged at Supreme's lips, "Let's."
Supergirl awoke. She could hear heavily shod feet approaching. The crunch of branches. The slippery sounds of wet ferns being brushed. The dull echo of feet on the ground. Small animals scattering. Her super hearing bespoke of it all and it all meant trouble.
She tried to rise. Her entire body felt raw. Her head was still muddled and she desperately needed it to clear before the shock troops found her.
She used her X-ray vision to sweep the area. The Gordonian skirmish line was five minutes away. She swept the ground and found J'onn another couple of hundred feet away. Not wishing to give away her position by flying, she ran to his side.
She examined him for broken bones and internal bleeding. Not seeing either, she gently rocked him back and forth by the shoulder and whispered, "J'onn, wake up."
The Martian's eyes opened and a wracking cough escaped his lips. Supergirl shushed him, "Shhh. We're about five minutes away from being discovered by a large group of nasties. They're hunting us down on foot. I'm assuming that means we're all down."
"A distinct possibility." J'onn croaked and then he grimaced.
Supergirl tugged at his arm, "I know you feel lousy. So do I. But we have to get moving. They're gonna find us any minute now and we have to be ready."
"I may be able to shapeshift into one of them and you could be my unconscious prisoner." J'onn suggested.
"Can you do it?" she asked.
His features began to blur and then they settled on his normal appearance, "I can barely hold my customary form."
"Forget your regular look." Supergirl suggested, "I need you completely focused and if that means you have to wear your real shape, then do it."
His features melted into his natural form. Supergirl smiled, "Not so bad after all. You should consider staying this way."
"Humans are disturbed by my natural appearance. My customary form unsettles them enough. Not every alien on Earth is blessed with a human appearance."
"Point taken." Supergirl acknowledged, "Now, on your feet! They're within eyesight and they know we're here."
The Manhunter regained his feet to the sound of much shouting. Supergirl grabbed his hand and leapt into the air. J'onn boosted himself and soon he was flying on his own. Although they were both unsteady at first, they quickly regained their "footing."
Discovering they were surrounded on every side, they went on the offensive. Supergirl plowed through ranks of Gordonians like a bowling ball through pins. J'onn landed in the midst of a trio of phalanxes and engaged them in hand to hand combat.
The Gordonians began to amass their troops when they received a distress call from their flank. Sixty-six troops broke off and scrambled to assist their comrades. The remainder stayed behind to fight.
Rocket Red had laid Galatea on the ground. She was on a thick patch of grass. He'd taken them to a spot under the forest canopy but within a few hundred feet of the nearest clearing. An open field stretched forth behind him.
Galatea was still unconscious and showed no signs of stirring any time soon. Gordonians soon tracked them down. Red opened fired with his gauntlet blasters. Several of the troopers went down in that initial onslaught.
He found that his Apokolipitan armor was proof against their force lances and he waded into the midst of them. A few tried rushing him while wielding their machetes. His augmented strength and hardened armor discouraged them from repeating that performance.
The aliens were soon on the air requesting back-up. A dozen support craft hovered nearby in the clearing, trying to get a clear shot at Rocket Red. Those efforts ended as quantum blasts rained down upon them, crippling their ships.
Captain Atom dodged and swerved between the saucers, crippling them and tricking the pilots into shooting each other. They soon broke off and headed high into the sky. Atom did not follow them. Instead, he joined Rocket Red.
"How're you doing, Red?" he asked, "You seem to be making out all right."
"Da, tovarich." Rocket Red replied, "I think they have even called up more Cossacks to attack us. Your help would be appreciated."
"I'd be happy to." Captain Atom confessed, "What about Sleeping Beauty over there?"
"She is a beauty, nyet?" Red opined, "Just like Supergirl."
"Why Dmitri, I think you have a crush on them." Atom teased, "What would your wife think?"
"She has one on Superman and one on you." Rocket Red confided, "She can forgive me this."
"Look out but here they come." Captain Atom said looking over Red's shoulder.
"For the Motherland!" Rocket Red cried and flew head first into the enemy swarm.
Atom stayed further back to protect Galatea. After a few minutes, he wondered why he was here at all. He heard a groan and a wracking cough behind him. He turned to see Galatea rolled over and trying to rise.
He went over and knelt to assist her. She shrugged out of his grip and doggedly rose onto her feet on her own. Her eyes blazed with an unspoken challenge as she faced him. Slowly but slowly that lessened.
"I suppose I should thank you." She warily began, "The last thing I remember is a pair of arms catching me."
Captain Atom jerked his thumb in Rocket Red's direction, "That would be him. I'm just your bodyguard while he's busy."
"Then we should help him." Galatea demanded.
"Are you up to it?" Captain Atom asked.
"No." Galatea admitted, "But I'm going into the fight anyway."
Atom nodded, "Let's go."
Supergirl and J'onn were bogged down on the ground. She roundhoused a trooper which sent him flying. They surrounded her with their lances aimed it her. She took to the sky just as they fired and flattened one another.
J'onn was punching and throwing Gordonians left and right. He stretched and contorted his body to avoid getting shot. In fact, the troopers had given up on their lances and were now trying to kill him with their machetes. So far they'd had little success.
Supergirl landed again to avoid the melee of lancer fire that had been directed at her. On the ground she could keep them at bay through close quarters fighting. She used her heat vision to fuse the closest lances and they detonated in the users' hands. Like their battle with the Martian Manhunter, they decided to forgo the lances and to merely hack her to pieces with their blades.
The blades didn't affect her but the force behind the blow could faze her. After being staggered by a few blows, she blocked the swing of one and then threw a right cross to stun her opponent. Using her super speed, she took on trooper after trooper. Occasionally she'd get cold cocked but as she flew into another Gordonian trooper, she'd recover and then belt him out of the parkway.
As the pair struggled on, two new elements presented themselves. Superman and Supreme came upon the scene and threw themselves into a similar battle as Supergirl. Within minutes, those Gordonians left standing were laying down arms.
"Seems we have prisoners." Supergirl grinned.
"But what do we do with them?" Superman asked.
"I've an idea." Supreme suddenly said.
Galatea's attack was ferocious. Gordonians went flying everywhere. Rocket Red and Captain Atom stopped and stood by and watched after the first five minutes. The Argoan was swift, thorough, and utterly merciless. The conscious Gordonians surrendered in droves.
Superman and Supreme arrived on the scene only to smile at what had transpired. Supreme went to Galatea, "You're all right?"
She nodded in Rocket Red's direction, "Thanks to him."
"I'll remember that on the day that we crush the League." Supreme said. Superman heard the comment but ignored it. They were still enemies after all.
"What's going on?" Galatea asked.
"Superman and I are rounding up the unconscious and taking them to our prison camp." Supreme said, "Gather a few and follow me to it."
"Go ahead." Superman said, "I'll guide Captain Atom, Rocket Red, and the walking prisoners to the camp."
The Legionnaires began to haul bodies at super speed and the others herded disgraced shock troopers to their temporary prison. Upon arrival, Captain Atom and Rocket Red discovered that it was more like a giant wooden fort with no windows or gates. A pit had been dug out around it and stakes had been planted there. Hopefully these would discourage escape attempts without having to be used.
Supergirl, Atom, and Rocket Red began ferrying prisoners into the "camp". Once they'd finished, and Galatea and Supreme had brought the last of the immobilized Gordonians, they designated "wardens." Atom and Red were disgruntled to learn it would be them.
"Fine." Rocket Red sulked, "Set a Russian to watching the gulag. How appropriate."
"What about food or toilet facilities?" Captain Atom demanded.
"Several of them have already dedicated a corner of the camp to a toilet area and the rest are breaking out rations as we speak." Superman said, "Don't worry. We'll send relief forces in ASAP."
"That's what they said about Vietnam." Atom grumbled.
"Oh, get over it!" Galatea snapped.
That startled and silenced the reluctant pair. With a final farewell, the alien team members all flew away.
Rocket Red turned to Captain Atom. A pocket slid open in the armor of his thigh. Out sprang a deck of cards.
"How about a game of gin rummy?" Red was effusively cheerful, "A penny a point?"
Captain Atom wanted to be grumpy. He truly did. Red's enthusiasm was just too contagious, "All right. Do we have a table?"
"Look around you, tovarich." Rocket Red laughed, "We are in a sea of fallen timber. There's bound to be a stump of appropriate height."
"Then we'd best get to it." Captain Atom chuckled. So they did.