(Several Weeks Ago...)

"The elements are all scattered about us. Hrmmm... ...Yes. A woman who is supposed to be dead, arrives incognito into the Heartland of America—the very home of her political and philosophical adversary—and she asks for help from a nubile member of her beloved's rival team to assist her in the search of something that is 'precious' to her, so precious that she will not even relay a hint of the thing's identity, assuming it is a thing. But when do we know women to travel halfway across the globe because they've lost a thing? No...I would much rather say it's a person. Women will do all manner of things for a person—Hrmmm, not that I'm one to personally testify."

The figure stood before a bizarre collage of images, photos, headlines, obituaries, and newspaper clippings—all strung together in a schizophrenic structure of desperate purpose and geometry.

He swiveled about to face her. "The plan is simple. You do everything she asks of you and take as many notes as you can. I would very much like to see every bit of those notes, but that is not my place to ask. This is, after all, your search, and not mine."

"My search?" Courtney Whitmore gawked incredulously at him from across the hotel room. "Look, sir, you roped me into this meeting. All I wanted was advice—and maybe a few answers."

"... ... ... ..you do know who you are talking to, right?"

"No. Not really. I don't." The blonde folded her arms and frowned. "And all that considered—I'm to accept the fact that you're telling me to go through with a scavenger hunt for this mad woman?"

"People are as mad as love, commitment, and a good bowl of soup will lead them to be. Honor, dedication, alliance—Those are all abstract words invented to gloss over the fact that people, deep down, only hold true to their own personal convictions. You should know that. After all, what happened in Jump City wasn't a slumber party. Or did Green Lantern actually give you the go-ahead to fight extraterrestrial lizard men instead of rendezvousing with the Justice Society like previously ordered?"

"Uhm...I-I..."

"By the way, the alien lizard attack was prophecied years ago in an album by The Doors. Jim Morrison had more connections than the spirits of dead Native Americans-"

"Okay—Look—You're seriously beginning to creep me out! No offense, but—A woman from the Middle East nearly running me over with a limousine, mysterious lightning storms across Nebraska, a bunch of missing kids from across county—Tell me, what does it all really amount to? And, for that matter, why should I bother to go any further with you on this?"

"Hrmmm...that is the question."

"Uh... ...wh-which one?"

"Why, the one that matters the most to you, of course."

"... ... ..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(April 23, 2005...Today)

Stargirl blinked.

She hovered high in the rafters of the Vaughan Concert Hall, her body planted acrobatically in a sitting position atop the hovering cosmic rod that Jack Knight gave to her. With a long, deflated sigh—she gazed down at the hundreds upon hundreds of heads gathered thickly in the audience. Her blue eyes scanned attentively, looking for anything out of the ordinary, anything dangerous or awry—using skills that Green Lantern had taught her, which Cyborg had perfected.

Cyborg...

Courtney winced slightly under her mask, the half-android's words still ringing sharply in her mind. She shuddered to think of the cold kiss of their tone, and tried—instead—to distract the listless hemisphere of her brain with something else. Her lips and tongue danced mutely, reciting mathematical figures that she had to have down pat in order to e-mail to her calculus teacher the next morning.

The City was wracked with crime, an Underworld loomed somewhere threateningly, and Kensuke Kobayashi's daughter needed her superheroic protection—and yet she was still pressed to get her homework done.

The cello strings gave her a meditative cadence around which to weave her below-breath mantra, but even that—all of that—was briefly interrupted by a musical chime that lit her ears. A blink, and she reached down for her communicator, raising it to her hovering visage.

"St-Stargirl. I copy."

"Dearest Courtney, have you witnessed anything from your vantage point?"

The blonde smiled, her braces glistening from a nearby studio light. "No, Kory. The coast is clear. Nothing horrible to report."

"Alas, that is the same from my position as well. Do not judge me rash to inquire, but could we be redudantly employed in the act of staring down a collective evaporation of charged water molecules?"

"... ... ..." Courtney blinked. "... ... ..are we 'watching a boiling pot'?"

"Affirmative."

The blonde giggle. "I swear—Starfire, are you seriously trying to sound so adorable?"

"Do not tease me! I am still helpless to understand the reasons for accurately stating your Terran phrases in one way and one way alone!"

"Perhaps you're just being the wise one of the bunch, Kory..." She gazed down at the jet black cranium of Madeline Kobayashi far below. "So many people are slaves to cliches. It'd be a crime for superheroes to be so as well." She shifted her weight on the cosmic rod. "As for what we're doing here—Yeah, I know it seems rather pointless. Heck, I could be using this time to get some much needed homework done."

"Your educational system is curiously merciless."

"Not all that far from the truth."

"If our time here is so pointless, then surely Cyborg has an ulterior motive."

"You heard what he said about his meeting with Mr. Kobayashi. We're here as a gesture of good faith and partnership."

"The corporate businessman is nao our personal ally?"

"Uh... ... ...Well, Starfire, I'm not entirely sure. I mean—I could have sworn I saw some of Kneehouse's people outside when we arrived. So, it's not like we're the only ones here offering the guy and his daughter protection. But-"

"I am pleased at the honorable nature of this favor we are doing. It seems a most appropriate way for us to make up for our error of judgment when we assaulted Kobayashi's entourage."

"I don't think it's that simple either, Kory."

"What do you think, then, Courtney? Because nobody has endeavored to tell me..."

"I think that Cyborg and Kobayashi have known each other long enough to see that this City requires saving on the nitty gritty level..."

"Nitty... ... ...Gritty?"

"Don't get me wrong. Commissioner Kneehouse and the JCPD do some really awesome things for this City. And as bad as things have been, it would have been a lot worse without the police force. But—The thing about people like us, superheroes—is that we can get in deep, into the little details of this City's problems—and fix stuff that others can't. I think Kobayashi realizes that. And so, he's reached out to Cyborg, and Cyborg shook his hand. Both men have found each other in the same train of thought..."

"And what train is that, do you suppose?"

"My aren't you Socratic today, Kory."

"I beg of your pardon?"

Courtney giggled, but then cleared her throat; "Cyborg and Kobayashi are willing to look at the tiny details of what needs to be done here in this City. And us being here is a start to that-"

"But would we not be better employed at the time being with our persistent chase of the Underworld?"

"That's just the thing, Starfire..." Courtney murmured, her ears pricking as Madeline's cello strings changed in pitch, moving into the second half of Bach's Prelude in D minor.

The Second Suite.

"A lot of times, you can't let yourself get swallowed up by the Big Picture."

"You believe that, Courtney?"

"... ... ..."

"Courtney?"

"... ... ..."

"Star Spangled Kid?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(January 05, 2004)

"Hmmm?" she glanced up, attentively.

"I can't thank you enough for returning this to us safely," Dr. Ray remarked, his voice echoing across the basement of Phaser Labs. The young scientist took the metal container from her and cradled it like a fragile diamond. "The robbery that happened several weeks ago put us years behind in researching the effects of Project Schwarzer Geist. There are over a thousand people in Europe today—descended from victims of that Nazi paranormal experiment—who are suffering to find a cure to many horrible, hereditary ailments." The technician adjusted his specs and smiled up at her. "Because of the Justice Society, those afflicted people may live long enough to see their grandchildren completely, utterly cured, along with themselves."

She leaned against the cosmic rod and smiled—teeth full of braces. "I'm honored and excited to hear that, Doctor. But the proper thanks goes to the rest of the team—my mentors and such. Hehehe—I'm just the deliverer."

"Oh, I'm sure you had a marvelous part to play in this artifact's rescue." He opened the container's lid slightly, glancing at what rested within: What seemed to be a half-century old vacuum tube, quivering with an unearthly black mass inside...Clap! He shut it and took it over to a large vault. "Wildcat himself once told me that your modesty becomes you, Star Spangled Kid."

She rolled her blue eyes and smiled. "Wildcat is known to say many things. And please, doctor, just 'Stargirl' will do."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" He shut the vault—HISS!—and strolled quietly back across the basement, his hands resting in his labcoat's pockets. "I must not read the headlines much these days. I thought—"

"I know, I know," she sighed. "I'm dropping the whole 'Star Spangled' thing. It's quite a mouthful anyway. Besides, the rest of the team agreed. The 'Stargirl' moniker is more appropriate, especially considering who gave me this." She twirled the Cosmic Rod, hit a switch, and collapsed it into a tiny cylinder inside her gloved hands. Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clack! She stowed the remarkable trinket away in the center of her Cosmic Converter Belt and placed her hands on her hips. "Ta daaa." She blushed at her own cheesiness.

"Astonishing!" the young man gaped. He stroked his goatee'd chin, smirking. "You must let us here at Phaser Labs examine that marvelous device someday. I've always read about the technological masterpiece of Jack Knight, but never had the chance to see it up close."

"I'll see about paying a more informal visit next time," she glanced around at the various experiments, instruments, and diagnostics tools spread throughout the subterranean interior. "I've always wanted to spend some off-time along the East Coast—especially here in Jump City. With the likes of Phaser Labs, Star Labs, Powers Inc, and Kobayashi Tech—This place is a technological haven!"

"I take it you have the bustling young mind of a true-blue-scientist." Dr. Ray smirked.

"I'm more attracted to history than the sciences." She glanced aside and her finger tapped a retractable magnifying lens atop a table. "But, the child in me often wonders." CL-CLANK! The lens fell loose to the floor. With a girlish shriek, Stargirl juggled the thing, caught it, and gently placed it back while biting her lip. "Among other things..."

"Quite alright." Ray chuckled. Then a sigh: "Jump City is a place full of promising research. But, it's a shame that half of the young populace here is too busy trying to keep their heads intact to bother with exercising their intellectual might."

Stargirl winced visibly. "It's...uh...It's that bad, huh?"

"I'm exaggerating, of course," Dr. Ray shrugged and walked over to a workbench where he filed a few papers and slid them under a clipboard. "Though, I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of Metropolis, Gotham, and the rest of our sister cities. When Vandal Savage stole the Schwarzer Geist components last month, the Justice Society answered in hours flat. The Flash, Green Lantern, Hourman, Mister Terrific—a whole lot of you were suddenly here and scouring the City blocks for evidence. Having so many heroes at once in any part of the City was wonderfully refreshing. I swear, crime stopped for half a week right afterwards."

"Y-Yeah..." Stargirl clutched her arm and looked towards the ground. "...it's the l-least we could do."

"Again with such modesty!" He chuckled and glanced back at her. "I've read the headlines. Just last week, wasn't the Justice Society responsible for helping the Justice League defeat another invasion of Starbreaker?"

"I wasn't there for that," Stargirl shuddered. "Green Lantern and the others said it was 'too dangerous for me to t-tag along...'."

"Still, your team and Superman's did save the entire world from total annihilation," Dr. Ray remarked. He paced over towards a distant table to reposition a piece of lab equipment. "I hesitate to wonder just how many times in a given year such near-apocalypses actually happen!"

Stargirl shut her eyes beneath her blue facemask and murmured just out of earshot: "What good is stopping the apocalypse when the all people left alive only suffer...?"

Dr. Ray craned his neck back towards her. "Wh-What was that?"

She reopened her eyes and smiled innocently: "Sometimes it's the 'little pictures' that matter more than the 'big picture'."

"Jee, I dunno," Ray chuckled, pacing back. "I kinda like not having my Sun devoured by a hideous space vampire."

"Hmm...You and me both." Her eyes trailed.

Dr. Ray stood there for a beat. He was silent, quizzical. "Are you doing alright, Stargirl?" He looked at her, concerned. "You seem spaced out—If you pardon the pun. Eh-heh."

"Tracking down Savage to get ahold of the 'Schwartz Guts' thingy took a lot out of me." She yawned. "Nnngh...I'm going on thirty-six hours without sleep at the moment."

"Story of my life!" Dr. Ray smiled proudly. "These experiments just won't finish themselves, you know. I've lost my alliance to slumber over a decade ago. Heh heh heh..."

"Then I don't envy you." She smirked. Something resembling a curtsey, and she stepped backwards towards the elevator. "If you will excuse me, Doctor, but I have to get back to my headquarters."

"Much thanks again, Stargirl. Godspeed."

"You too...uh...'Eureka Away'!" She turned, exhaled, and proceeded to ascend the elevator.

The trip through the bright, white metal halls of Phaser Labs was slow and solemn. Thoughts were ringing through Courtney's head—throbbing with the exhausted anxiousness baked into her soft, blue eyes. There was a fidget to her fingers—twiddled together—as she made her lone exit out of the labs and into the cool, spring night outside.

The roar of a gigantic highway overpass just four stories above her claustrophobically drowned out the rest of Jump City's nocturnal commotion. She was immediately aware of barking dogs, graffiti stains, and random burning trash barrels in the extremes of her peripherals. A depressed breath escaped her, and she stayed put there...far away from home...and yet ten times as anchored to a single place than she had ever been before.

"..."

Stargirl glanced over her shoulder towards the West, towards where Jump City's skyline shrunk into green parks and quaint suburbs. There was a dividing line—exactly where, she could not quite put her visual finger on—but at some spot in the urban sprawl of it all, the City knew when it had to transform from frightening to pleasant.

Not even a minute had passed, and Stargirl took notice of a family of four, wandering hurriedly across a sidewalk with a grocery cart full of impoverished belongings. They made brief notice of her costumed figure across the street and—in a throttling burst—quickened their steps like frightened quail.

"This City deserves more." Stargirl murmured. A burst of frigid air kicked at her long blonde strands. She brushed them back, suddenly immune to the cold. "All of it."

Another burst of air. But by the time Stargirl was straightening herself out—the burst turned into a tumult, and nearly sent her reeling onto the concrete floor below.

"Aaackies!"

SHOOOOOOOOOM!

A huge, burning comet of green energy went sailing overhead, shaking the overpass, Phaser Labs, the sidewalk—All of Jump City's Western District. Stargirl parted her tossed hair just in time to see the meteorite hurdle along the last mile of its trajectory and land somewhere Downtown in a huge burst of green thunder.

Boooom!

"Uhm...The fluff?"

SNkkkkt! There was a crackling sound, followed by a familiar, authoritative voice. An old voice. A voice she had gotten to know, respect, and sometimes fear: "Stargirl. Come in."

A bit flustered, Stargirl shook off the cobwebs of comet-awe and answered the communicator built into her glove. "Yeah, Lantern. I'm here."

"Did you finish the delivery yet?"

"Uhhh..." She stared at the distant, green glow of Downtown.

"Stargirl?"

"Yes, Lantern. Dr. Ray at Phaser Labs got the stolen device back. He said that he can continue the Experiments...erm...and stuff."

"Well done. Nao get back to HQ as quickly as you can. We're having a mandatory meeting to resolve the recent defeat of Starbreaker."

"Uhhh...I-I'd love to, b-but..." She marched firmly towards the distant glow. "I think something's come up."

"What's come up?"

"There's something going on here in Jump City. Some sort of fire in the center of town. And I think something just landed from—"

"Is it a life-threatening blaze? You know they have firefighters there just like anywhere else-"

"Yeah, sure. But can't I just—"

"Snkkkt—This is important, Courtney. Starbreaker has been knocking on Planet Earth's Door. We need to take as much time as we have at our disposal to prepare ourselves for the inevitable. Tonight, Mister Terrific is going to lecture us on some new plans to scan for Starbreaker's future attacks."

"Y-Yeah, I know! Starbreaker's bad and all that stuff. B-But-" Stargirl gestured helplessly towards the green blaze in the distance. "I swear, I just saw-!"

"Stargirl, Remember what I told you about keeping your focus on the Big Picture…"

She frowned, breathing heavily out her nostrils.

"Courtney? Stargirl, are you there? Come back to HQ immediately—"

The green light billowed in the distance, across the forest of buildings—both grimey and mysterious, a literal sea of places and people that Courtney knew only from a distance, from spotting them like ants while flying in formation with Stripsey and Green Lantern overhead, from the news reports taken at the scene of a battle she had just abandoned—bare minutes before—just in time to avoid the cleanup, the backdraft, and the aftershock of a superpowered surgical strike—all because she was young, vulnerable, and all because she was told when was a time to begin and when was a time to finish things she never had a gloved hand involved with in the first place.

And then there she was, stripped down to her own resources, alone, sound-minded, and soothed to clarity by the clean-slate kiss of dark, january nightshadow...inking down all around her on that suddenly frightening moon of moons.

Never before had Courtney felt so scared and so inspired at the same time. It felt bizarre, alien, disturbing.

It felt right.

"I'm sorry, Green Lantern. But I'm going to be a little late."

"What? Didn't you hear what I said—?"

She slapped her palm, cutting the conversation short. Her march turned into a sprint. In mid-run, she swiftly reached to her belt, pulled out the cylinder, and jerked it to the side.

CL-CL-CL-CLACK!

The Cosmic Rod extended, locked into place, and glowed its hooked tip in a golden pulse. VRMMM!

Stargirl leapt, aimed the Rod forward, and flew along the length of it like a missile towards the green fire in Downtown.

She didn't hesitate. Ten speeding blocks later, it still felt right...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(Eight Months Ago)

Her eyes should have been closed. She knew that it was the best way to concentrate, to narrow her mind and soul into a single beam of focus, for Him to collect in the palm of a Shepherd's hand. But, in spite of all her strength—all her faith—she couldn't bear to close her eyes, even in prayer. For everytime her lids closed, she could still see—with a freshness like yesterday's copper scent—the shadowy sihlouettes of things forever taken from her...

And of faces...

It was almost a blessing that the gentle thud of chapel doors echoed from behind to interrupt her. She tilted her eyes up, squinting, at the reflective gold glow of stainglass filtered light bouncing off a tall brass cross hanging over the alter before her. Footsteps increased, intrusive—but non threatening—until they ended just to her left side, standing next to the pew.

An obligatory silence, and then his warm, cherishing voice: "Hey, pumpkin..."

Courtney muttered back without looking. "H-Hey, Pat."

"Maxine said that you would be here. I'm not even sure why I had to ask her... ...You've been here nearly every day this week..."

"I... ...I hope y-you're not saying that's a bad thing..."

"Heh heh, no, Court. It's just that-"

"Did you want to sit down?" Courtney mumbled, still not looking his way.

"Hmmph...Sure thing-" Pat Dugan paused in mid utterance, staring quietly as Courtney moved a pair of crutches down to her side of the pew, allowing her stepfather a seat. "...Hrmm..." Pat slowly sat down beside her, not hesitating to take in the sight of the plethora of bandages formed around her left stub of a leg. "... ... ..Courtney, I do believe it's important to maintain a close fellowship with God. But there are more than one way to commune with Him. He gave us fellowship for a reason..."

"I've been to every family dinner this month..." Courtney remarked, running a hand through her hair and sighing. "That's the least I can say about Mike."

"Mike is Mike. We both know that. This is about you, Courtney. And if you're hurt over what he said last night-"

"'You enjoy the attention you get from being the sacrificial lamb'." Courtney unemotionally repeated her stepbrother's poisonous words into the sanctuary's air. "I'm not half as insulted as I am shocked that he could manage such a complicated statement."

Pat chuckled. "He's been hitting the books, at least. I'll give the boy that-" He winced at his own branch of logic, groaned, and turned to face her: "Look, Courtney-"

"I'm past crying about myself." She mumbled. "I'm through with feeling sad for the things that have happened to me. So if you're worried that what Mike said has torn me apart on the foundation of my sensitive girlish feelings—Don't bother, Pat. 'Sacrificial lamb'...Really?" She finally turned to thinly gaze at him. "I only wished he knew hao badly he was making himself look. I'm a superhero, Pat. I've been one half my teenage life. I know what to expect in this big, scary world—But I'm no lamb..."

"Courtney, you've been through a lot, sacrificed a lot, given up...g-given..." He choked on his own words, gently stroked the top of her shoulder with a fatherly hand and managed through a veil of adult male fortitude to say: "... ...y-you've given up far more than I had ever hoped for, back when...b-back when I finally gave in and let you fulfill your destiny..."

"Both you and I agreed it was my destiny to fulfill, Pat..." She murmured. "But it's not because I'm second guessing that or because I'm regretful that I've been here..."

"Then what brings you here, Courtney? Mary, Maxine, Jakeem—they all miss you. They wanna hang out with you—not out of pity, but because they miss their close friend..."

"Do you remember what I was like when you and Mom first married?" She blinked bluely at him.

"Heh..." Pat smirked. "Of course I do. You were angry, bitter, antisocial, caustic, you had issues with Barbara, and you had even more issues with me falling in love with her-"

"I was a bitch." Courtney exhaled.

"Watch the language."

"Oh Pat, come on-"

"I mean it. We're in a House of God."

She sighed, her head nestled in folded arms against the back of the pew before her. "... ... ...But it's true. I was... ...I so was..."

"But you're different nao." Pat leaned back, his arms stretched against the seat behind him. "You've grown up so much over the years. You've eased up, learned to be happy, become responsible-"

"It's nice to know that you believe that...and to some extent Mom..." She tilted her head up and gazed boredly at him. "But is that Whom I'm really trying to convince...?"

Pat squinted at her quizzically.

Her eyes darted towards the altar and back.

He took a deep breath, frowning: "Nao where would we be all the time if we took for granted His love?"

"Love isn't always about forgiveness.. ... ...Though God has done enough of that to make a religion out of it..." She gazed up towards the stain glass windows. "You read enough of the Bible, and you begin to realize—He wants someone to prove herself. It's not enough to bow on one knee, or to recite a prayer of penance... ... ...I mean, if it were, the world would be full of Christians, but no good people. Am I right?"

"That's an interesting way to look at that-"

"Is that all you have to say of it, Pat?" She briefly frowned. Her eyes thinned as she murmured: "People have died. People have died around me. People whom I used to lov-..." She exhaled and gazed down to the floor, running a hand through her blonde threads. "...people who meant a lot to me. Who had my respect, my admiration... .. ...And from directly around me, they were taken."

"And it's horrible, Courtney. A horrible thing that you lived through, but you and I both know that this ain't the perfect world that God first created-"

"Sin blankets it. I know." She glanced up once more. "And hao much of that is because of my sins? Because of the things I used to do, the way I used to be, the way I used to treat others-"

"Courtney-"

"Is it possible God's trying to teach me something about myself that I've taken for granted?"

"I like to think that God tests us by granting us strength, not by dousing us with suffering."

"And yet... ... ..Here I am." Courtney said, sitting up straight and resolute. "Not because I was strong that one day in the Capital, Pat. But because I was lucky. I was lucky, where others weren't. So what am I missing? In God's methodically planned world, what have I done that I need to fix...?"

"Courtney, when I first invited you and your mom to Church—It was because I wanted you to find the joy of Christ's salvation in your heart, not to develop a complex of guilt and condemnation. Yes, horrible things happen to all of us—But to analyze everything as a potential sign of God's displeasure, well, that just ain't healthy! And it's not what I ever, ever meant to convey to you. Because I love you—just like God does. I know it may never feel that simple at times, but I assure you—after having lived a life of confusion and painful things—it really is that simple."

"... ... ... ..." Courtney fiddled with a few fissures in the wooden finish of the pew before her. "There are some people in this world who.. ...who revere Black Adam as a god. If someone that powerful and that strong-willed on this planet could be so merciless, what does that say about Someone who spends all His time in Heaven?"

Pat frowned, but for far too long. Because he hadn't the time to formulate an answer when-

FL-Flash! A green coil of light unraveled, revealing a tall, muscular, senior aged man with graying blonde threads and a dark eyepatch. Standing in his red spandex and green cape, Green Lantern gazed across the church aisle until his one narrowing eye fell upon the Star Spangled Kid.

"Stargirl. There you are. We're having an emergency meeting in less than an hour to discuss the whereabouts of the League of Assassins members who attacked the Library of Congress last week."

"For pete's sake, Alan...Can it wait?" Pete swiveled and frowned at the superhero. "Kind of having a father-daughter moment here..."

"Would you like to come too, Pat?" Alan stared. "You know there's always room for Stripesy on the JSA."

Pat glared. "That's...not the point-"

"It's okay, Pat..." Courtney stood up on one hobbling leg and picked up her crutches. "All I was doing here was sulking anyways." She brushed past her gaping stepfather and limped on the instruments into the aisle. "Besides, I only ever do my serious prayers on the school bus these days."

"Courtney, please—I would like to talk to you more-"

"And you'll get that chance, Pat, I promise you." Alan raised an aura of green with his ring as she stood within the halo of his presence. "But for the time being, we have important business at hand."

"And this isn't important-?.!.?" Pat all but spat.

"Tell Mom I'll be a bit late to dinner tonight..." Courtney said, a hint of last second shame. "I'll make it up to her later this week. Just—yanno-important superhero stuff."

"Yeah..." Pat sighed.

FL-FLASH! In a green sphere of energy, Lantern and Courtney levitated out of the church and into the bright blue afternoon.

Pat slumped down into a pew and hung his head. "... ... ...I know you will, Courtney..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(Ten Months Ago)

The Star Spangled Kid couldn't breathe. She huddled, alone, clutching the cosmic rod to her chest. The teenage superhero had been buried twenty feet beneath a smoldering pile of rubble, and her desperately strobing shield of gold was the only thing keeping eight solid tons of concrete from squashing her into a pulp.

But that wasn't why she was crying. She could have died any second—could have been reduced to dust in one last wailing breath. She wasn't crying because the last time she heard Pat Dugan's voice over the communicator, he was screaming in pain. She wasn't even moved to tears over the last sight of Hawkman, lying in the middle of the street with a lamppost superhumanly impaled through his torso.

No, the Star Spangled Kid was crying because she saw—above and around her, just beyond the shimmering shield of the cosmic rod protecting her—the deathly still arms and limbs of a dozen innocent civilians; those who had been crushed by the debris above her, those who had been caught in the way of the enraged Kahndaqi King's rampage, those whom she had failed to save...

...she had failed to save them, because she had been ordered to keep her eyes on the main mission, the big picture...

'Seize the Amulet'

Stargirl sniffled. Through a curtain of dust and tears, she glanced down at the nucleus of her fetal position—an ancient Egyptian artifact being clutched in her gloved hand—glowing from the resonance of a nearby magic.

An angry, corrupted magic...

As long as she was buried there, hidden—so was the amulet, and so was the safety of everyone on the Eurasian continent within three hundred miles of the nation of Kahndaq.

Or at least such was explained to her. Mr. Terrific's and Green Lantern's briefing seemed to make a lot more sense before the explosions, before the screaming, before the fireballs, bolts of lightning, and the angry death threats shouted from the heavens to the street pavement below, towards her even, as she dove like a blazing comet to grab the jeweled necklace—even as he brought down the wrath of gods to annihilate her, and took out an entire hotel building in the process.

She wasn't dead. She knew it. And she knew that he knew it.

He would find her.

He would find her...

It was just a matter of time.

A sniffle. A hiccup. Courtney raised her mask just slightly above her brow and squinted through the gold aura. The space between the clumps of rubble her grew darker and darker. The hellish earth croaked and groaned around her as the fresh grave settled, oozily collapsing into a dense death—one that she would have to share with the bodies of families and children merely inches above her.

For the first time in as many years as Courtney could remember, she didn't bother praying for her life. Hao on Earth could she possibly deserve-?

SCRKKKK!

The girl gasped.

BRKKK-CSCRKKK!

The rubble above her parted and shifted. A powerful force was barreling down through it, towards her.

She shrieked. One hand cradled the amulet. The other snaked around the stalk of the Cosmic Rod and fumbled for a sweating microscend before finally hitting the center button of her communicator. "G-Green Lantern! Green Lantern! It's C-Courtney! Black Adam's f-found me! Oh God, Bl-Black Adam's found me! I can't-"

KRAKKK! An impossibly huge glove burst through the last ceiling of rubble and reached for her. CLAMP! It broke through the golden shield like tissue paper caught the nape of her upper jumpsuit.

The Star Spangled Kid barely had the breath to scream. The wormhole patch of earth that was her grave flew away like a retreating nightmare, only for her to be thrown violently into the blazing sunlight of a new hell-

-and that hell melted into heaven upon the first clear glance at the mask of the person who had just yanked Courtney to freedom.

The blonde's lip quivered. "A-Albert?"

"Thank God..." Atom-Smasher exhaled. He dropped her to her feet as the two stood atop the mound of rubble of what was once a ten-story hotel. "Took me forever to find you. When Wildcat had said you dove for the amulet, I was starting to think-"

She flew forward and clung to him, burying her face in his chest. "Sh-Shut up, Albert! Just sh-shut up! I don't care about the stupid amulet! I-I just don't care anymore..."

He nearly stumbled back from her feather-light embrace. A few fleeting seconds...His powers reverse, and he shrunk down to normal size, his teenage chin to her sobbing forehead. "Kid? Kid?.?" A beat. He raised his facemask just enough to expose his mouth. "Courtney..." He whispered. "We can't stay here like this. You've got the amulet. You gotta take it back to HQ where we can hide it in containment-"

"Please, Albert. You have n-no idea!" Tears streamed down the Star Bangled Kid's eyes. She wiped a sleeve on her cheek and gazed forlornly down at the rubble beneath the two. "I...I-I let people die to get this thing..."

"You did what you had to do..." Atom-Smasher murmured, looking worriedly over their shoulders. The sites and sounds of Washington DC stretched around them, only they were grossly marred by several huge craters, flaming buses, and even a smoldering tank or two as the U.S. Army was also powerless to fend off the Kahndaqi's rampage. "If he gets that amulet, his powers could multiply, and he'd be stronger than Superman. You had no choice-"

"Yes I did!" Courtney squeaked, a bitter frown burning forth from her otherwise shivering figure. "Did it really have to come to this? Did we have to fight him over something so small? So pathetic?" She gulped and hugged him again. Tighter. "Albert, we could have saved these people..."

"We have no time to debate this, Courtney...You heard what Alan said! Black Adam could start World War Three! What else should we do? Just give the amulet to him?"

She stared up at him. For once, her eyes weren't tearing.

Atom-Smasher's lips pursed. He shook his head. "Okay. No. Enough of this. Just go, Courtney."

"But-"

"You've got the amulet. You're our best and only air support. Fly it back to HQ, quickly! We'll worry about blame, guilt, and all that stupid crap later!"

"Albert-"

"Courtney," he added in a firm but hushed tone, leaned down, and tilted her chin up to stare deeply at her. "I don't want you to be the next casualty-"

SWOOOOSH—CLANGGG! The metal body of Stripsey fell in a long arc and landed violently beside the two. Sparks flew and a pained voice of a middle-aged man groaned from deep inside the grey shell.

Courtney screamed. "P-Pat!"

"Oh my god." Atom-Smasher said, turning to look up...

She too glanced aside; she gasped, a hand over her lips.

Black Adam hovered down to his feet, his majestic arms crossed, not a scrape or speck of dust on him. His frown carried the venom of an entire hemisphere. The sun glinted furiously off the golden lightning bolt emblazoned across his dark tunic as he glared down at the two superpowered youngsters.

"Wrong god." He replied to Atom-Smasher. His head tilted like a rumbling mountain, and the air above the American warzone boomed with each word uttered: "I've come for my Beloved's treasure. Every sinner who so much as blemishes it with their touch shall be treated no less mercilessly than the heathens who murdered her."

"Albert..." Courtney began to hover, prepared to fly away with the treasure...

Black Adam's face remained still as stone. He stared at her. The concrete beneath his levitating figure bowled inward as he built up the kinetic energy to impale her in mid-air...

"No! Kid, no!" Atom-Smasher lowered his mask over his mouth and reached an arm out just as he began to enlarge. "Give it to me!"

Courtney glanced fearfully at Atom-Smasher, then at Black Adam, then at-

"Give me the amulet, Courtney!" Atom-Smasher hissed in burning desperation. "Nao!"

"Oh jesus—Albert!" Star Spangled Kid shrieked and helplessly tossed it at him-

"Insolent spawn!" Black Adam snarled. He turned from Courtney to Albert at the last millisecond. His eyes enlarged, his forearms swung, and-

THOOM!

The Star Spangled Kid could have sworn Atom-Smasher had screamed something else out, but the sound was drowned out by the sonic boom mere yards from her when Black Adam accelerated into him at Mach Five in a single blink.

A second blink, and Courtney saw—from her upside down position in mid-air—an office building exploding from the metahumans' dual impact.

At third blink; Courtney landed hard in the middle of the street. Her body was protected by the Cosmic Converter belt as the pavement dented from her impact.

Fourth, she weakly pulled herself up by the Cosmic Rod and winced in pain. "A-Albert..."

KAPOW!

She gasped and spun to see-

-Black Adam flew from the still-collapsing site of the office building, trailing glass and flame. Atom-Smasher stomped out of the mess, fifty-feet tall, his fist vibrating from the impact.

"-ou cannot have it, Black Adam!" His booming giant voice echoed across Washington DC as normal sound waves returned to the warzone. "Go terrorize your own country!"

Without so much as a breath, the twirling body of Black Adam uprighted itself. Another sonic boom, and he soared away towards the distant horizon. Gone.

Atom-Smasher looked every which way, standing on giant legs, confused and panicked.

Courtney began to hover towards him. Breathlessly glancing left...Right...

SMASSSH!

Both distant teens spun to look.

Black Adam smashed through a parking garage—flying from the opposite cardinal direction—and he held an entire semi-truck trailer in his grasp. Snarling, he flew straight towards the young superhero and slammed the weight of the vehicle across Albert's enlarged face. KRACKKK!

"NNNNGH!" Atom-Smasher reeled from the blow, his stomping feet shaking the ruined streets beneath him.

Another godly scream; Black Adam flew high, and came down hard. He impaled the full length of the semi trailer through Atom-Smasher, from head to toe. CRUNNNNCH!

Where Albert had stood, a tower of crunched and splintering metal nao formed, collapsing—beneath Black Adam's punishing blow.

Courtney gasped-

CRACKKK! A giant fist blew through the middle of the trailer—exiting out with a right hook across Black Adam's chin. WHAM! The Wizard's twisted disciple stumbled back in mid-air.

"RAAAUGH!" Atom-Smasher flexed his muscles, shrugging the shredded body of the trailer off him. He reached out—GRIP!—grabbed Black Adam by the leg, and repeatedly pummeled him left and right across the city streets of D.C. WHAM! POW! SM-SMACK! His other hand held something tiny, dangling, reflective.

The amulet...

"You want this piece of garbage, Adam, you're gonna have to do it through me!" And Albert body-slammed Black Adam's flailing body down into an intersection. POW!

Black Adam winced under Atom-Smasher's giant palm, then sneered: "So be it, mortal." He wrenched two hands free, formed a pair of fingers in each, and flung them like superhuman daggers into opposite sides of Atom-Smasher's wrist. SL-SLIINK!

"AAAUGH!" Atom Smasher lurched back-

FWOOOSH! Black Adam flew straight up and moonsaulted backwards, bicycle-kicking Atom Smasher's chin skyward.

CRACK! The giant hero stumbled, a glob of blood flying skyward-

"HAAAAA-AAAUGH!" Black Adam brought two fists together and aimed them straight towards Atom-Smasher's masked skull, to split in twain-

ZAAAAAAP! A stream of golden energy sailed down into the god, plowing him deep into the street, forming a thirty-foot long ravine in pure concrete. He groaned, snarled, and looked up.

The Star Spangled Kid hovered down, her cosmic rod glowing hard. A deep breath, and she gave her best growl: "God or not, hands off my boyfriend!"

"Nnnghht..." Atom-Smasher limped dizzily, shrinking down to a helpless human size. "C-Courtney..."

"Run with the amulet, Albert." She gulped, reinforced her courage. "I-I've got this..."

"I don't th-think either of us do, Kid."

"As much as I disapprove of slaying children..." Black Adam slowly levitated up. A curtain of lightning briefly danced up his muscular body and shimmered with finality in his eyes. "...you two have forced my hand." Waves of heat emanated from his fingers as superhuman friction clenched his iron fists together. "Iris forgive me..."

"Forgive this, asshole!"

Black Adam glanced aside-

WHANNNNG! A bent lamppost bloodily slammed across his face. Black Adam reeled from the blow.

Atom-Smasher and the Star Spangled Kid gasped as Hawkman limped into view, a huge bleeding gash in his chest. He sneered from under his mask, his wings twitching.

"Wanna try that again with my mace, ya murderous punk?"

"You know as well as I do that you can't wield your weapon of evil, Hawkman..." Black Adam icily pivoted back to frown at the three. "...You're too weak. You're already dead."

"Yeah, speaking of dead, you've got a lot to answer for after today..." Hawkman achingly gestured towards the carnage of Washington DC around them. "Trust me when I tell you this: Karma's a real bitch."

"I will not let you lecture me on justice, vigilante." Black Adam turned to look at Atom Smasher. He stretched an arm out. "Simply give me what is rightfully mine, and this needless holocaust will end."

Atom-Smasher was mute.

"Not on your life, Adam." Hawkman bloodily spat.

Star Spangled Kid gulped. She glanced at Black Adam, at the amulet, at the warzone around them. "C-Carter..."

VRMMMM! A green aura. Black Adam twitched—but before even a god could react. CLANK! A giant, translucent green wrench clamped over his head and pinned him like a moth to the ground. "NNNnkkkt!"

The three heroes looked up to see Green Lantern, his masked eyes glowing a hot emerald, his ring outstretched to secure the invader in place.

"That's as far as you go, Adam!" Green Lantern spat, his outfit and cape in tatters from hours of intense combat. "Don't make us send you back to Kahndaq in a coffin!"

"Green Lantern!" Courtney hovered over to Hawkman and helped support the hero's careening form. "Hawkman! He's hurt badly-"

"The Amulet!" Green Lantern shouted. "Do you have it?.!.?"

"I've got it!" Atom-Smasher yelled back. "Where the Hell is Jay already?"

"Salvaging victims from the Lincoln Memorial battle!" Green Lantern then leered down at the prone form of Black Adam. "You're going to answer for everyone you've murdered today!"

"I am not the real murderer here!" Black Adam roared deep from the center of his being, stretched his mighty arms up, and brought them down like dual meteors into the asphalt beneath him.

P-POWWWW!

A cloud of ash and debris fountained up to envelop both Black Adam and Green Lantern. The other three JSA'ers flinched from the explosion. Before they could intervene-

"HRAAAUGH!" Black Adam flew out of the tumult, uppercutting Green Lantern violently. WHAMMM!

Green Lantern flew back in a dissipating bubble of green energy. He spun his elderly self upright and formed an emerald buckler in time to block Black Adam's second punch. CLANG! Snarling, he converted the shield into a huge hammer and knocked the god back. SMACK! With the distance between them, he formed a green bow-and-arrow and aimed it square at the invader's chest. "Last chance, Adam!"

"No." He frowned and stretched both palms out. "Yours." He slapped his hands together.

THOOOOOM! A huge concussion of air billowed outward, pummeling all of Green Lantern's senses.

"Aaaugh!" Green Lantern faltered and 'shot' the arrow off target. Thwiiiift-

-Snatch!Black Adam grabbed the green arrow in midair. Before Green Lantern could dissipate the energy, Adam bolted over behind the hero's back and put him in a headlock. "Behold, the fury of your own evil weapons." SLUNKKK! Adam stabbed the energy arrow deep into his left eye.

"AAAAAAUGH!" Green Lantern screamed.

"Lantern!" Courtney shrieked. Trembling, she aimed up and fired the cosmic rod.

Swooosh—CLACK! Black Adam effortlessly flung a free arm and back-handed the gold blast away—Just before Atom-Smasher's enlarged body pounced on him in mid-air.

"Hold on, Alan!" Albert hissed as he fought to wrench Adam's body off of Green Lantern. The three metahumans wrestled and struggled in mid-air.

"Dammit, boy-!" Hawkman clutched his chest and sneered up at the amulet in Atom-Smasher's grip. "At least drop the-"

"Take him out already!" Green Lantern hissed, clutching his bleeding eye-socket. Everything was going South. When wasn't it? "For the love of-"

"ISIS!" Black Adam suddenly screamed. "GIVE. ME. STRENGTH!"

A bolt—like lightning—and the three soared skyward as Black Adam shot them with a burst of magic and fury.

Hawkman's breath left him.

Courtney hovered helplessly with the Cosmic Rod, squinting for everything—and nothing—from cloud to cloud. "Where did they-?"

About a mile away...Straight from the heavens...

Swooooooooooosh—The conjoined shadow of the three combatants soared earthward like a comet and landed in the dead center of the Smithsonian.

It wasn't the Smithsonian for much longer.

KA-POWWWWWWW!

The ground shook, the streets rumbled. Hawkman's legs gave out from underneath him and the Star Spangled Kid had to practically hug the cosmic rod to prevent herself from being thrown back several hundred yards from the ensuing air blast. When the waves of thunder subsided, she looked up, pushing aside several tossed blonde bangs.

The Smithsonian had been shattered in half. A pillar of smoke rose from ground zero, and there were several more, tinier explosions going off. The fight still hadn't ended.

"God in heaven..." Hawkman wheezed, clutching his chest, coughing up more blood. "It ain't worth all of this. Dammit, Alan, Mr. Terrific, we had a plan!"

Courtney touched down beside Hawkman. "We're going to tear the City apart at this rate...the WHOLE City..."

"What do you mean we?" Hawkman hissed, though the defeat in his voice betrayed his denial.

"Carter..." The Star Spangled Kid gulped. "Did you lose your communicator in the battle?"

"Among a good chunck of brain cells, yeah."

"Take mine..." She handed it to him. "I've already hit the emergency signal. Dr. Midnite will get to you and Pat in no time."

"Courtney—I know what you're thinking!" Hawkman hissed. "But stay with me, will ya? This is outta your league. It was never really your battle to begin with. This is a job for friggin' Superman...Captain Marvel...the Spectre—Hell, I dun care..."

"Well, I do." She stood up, the cosmic rod glowing in her grasp. "It became my 'league' over an hour ago..." She glanced at the rubble of a certain hotel a few blocks away. "...catch you later."

"Dammit, Kid, wait!"

For the first time since she joined the JSA, she didn't obey a superior—and yet she did. There was a mission to complete. A greater picture to examine, to deal with, to fix. As long as she kept that goal in mind, the rest was simple—right?

She soared through the heavens, over the craters and ash, the evacuated streets—the streets that were too unlucky to be evacuated in time. She briefly glanced down at them, searching desperately for the black and white hues she was taught to expect in the superheroic effort, but only saw the grey fumes of war.

Her head tilted up, masked eyes tearing against the beating winds. She saw the flashes, the billowing air currents, the turbulent chaos of battle—from deep within the hollowed out crater of the former museum. The closer she got in her descent, the grittier the details—and the more heart wrenching. Green Lantern lay down in a crumpled corner, blood pouring out of the left side of his face. And Atom-Smasher...

...Albert reeled from a thunderous punch from Black Adam. As he slumped towards the ground, his left arm fell free—a hand holding a vulnerable amulet, an amulet which Black Adam was nao reaching for-

"HEY!" Courtney screamed as she dive-bombed.

Black Adam looked up-

"See stars yet?" She reared the Cosmic Rod, spun, and came down with a three-sixty golden hammer.

WHANNNNNNG! Black Adam flew forty feet from the blow.

Star Spangled hovered above Atom-Smasher. She ducked to grab the amulet-

"HAAAAUGH!" Black Adam was already sailing back at her.

She shrieked. She snatched the amulet, planted the cosmic rod against the ground, and vaulted up in a flip-

SWOOOOSH! Black Adam flew past her.

-Courtney ended her flip in a hover, spun, snarled through her braced teeth, and aimed the end of the rod at him. ZAAAAAP!

Black Adam levitated around, stretched a hand out, and effortlessly collected the entire golden discharge in his palm. Muscles tensing, he scowled and flung his fist forward, flinging the platinum energy back at her in a fireball. PHWOOOMB!

She held her breath, twirled horizontally, dodged the fireball, and came to a stop-

FWOOOOSH! Black Adam charged at her.

The Star Spangled Kid gasped and held the length of the rod before her, charging up a shield at the last second—VRMMMMMM!

POWWWWW! Black Adam shoved the shield'd girl across the space of the wrecked museum. They plowed through an exhibit wall—POW!-another-POWWW!-and several more in succession—POW!-POW!-POW! Until finally they ended in a large chamber.

"NNNGH!" Sweating, spitting, Courtney shoved the end of the cosmic rod forward, hooked it around Black Adam's neck, and twirled around until she kick-vaulted off his shoulders. TH-THAP!

He flung an arm out, blindly, failing to catch her.

Courtney flew over his hand, planted her feet against a wall, charged her cosmic converted belt, kicked off, and flew at him, swinging the cosmic rod mercilessly back and forth. "HAAAUGH!" SW-SW-SWOOSH!

The golden weapon violently contacted Black Adam's face, knocking his cranium left and right. CONG! WH-WHANG! SMACKKK! Upon the last swing, he gripped the end of her rod, overpowered her, and flung her straight into the floor.

SLAM! Bits of tile flew up in a cloud. Courtney squirmed, winced through tearing eyes, and gasped-

Black Adam was slamming both fists down-

She blocked with the glowing gold tip of her rod. VRMMM-POWWWW! Her ears bled from the resulting sonic boom emanating between them. The air rang in a shrill horror as she then yanked the rod back and slammed them against the insides of Black Adam's ankles.

SMACK-SMACK!

His legs bowed...

Her face contorted into a bloody frown. THUNKKKK! She slammed it straight up into his pelvis.

Black Adam ragdoll'd ten feet up into the air...

Courtney leapfrogged up to her feet, spun the body of the cosmic rod gymnastically over her neck, spun one hundred eighty degrees, and swung the whole length of it like a bat into the god's airborn body. "RAAAGH!"

WHANGGGG! Black Adam pinballed through the nearest wall and into the Smithsonian's empty guest center. SMASSSSH!

Courtney slumped against the rod, leaning precariously, panting...panting...panting...

A gulp.

She turned.

She began to limp back towards where Atom-Smasher had been-

CRKKKK!

"...?" She turned and looked over her shoulder. She gasped-

SWOOOOOSH! An entire soda machine flew towards her.

She uppercutted at the last second with the cosmic rod. SLIIIIIICE! The vending machine spread into metal ribbons like butter before her. In slow motion, every soda can inside the thing exploded into an obscuring mist of startling confusion. Courtney squinted to see through it, but half-a-second in, as the mist first began to oozily dissipate—she was greeted with Black Adam's incoming headbutt.

WHUDDDD!

The Star Spangled Kid flew back through the same four walls they had previously smashed through: P-P-P-POW! But this time in the span of a single second. She rolled over ten feet and came to a wincing, blood-sputtering stop. Through the wracking pain, and the shorting-out of her cosmic converter belt, she realized she had dropped two things: the rod...and the amulet.

A whimpering breath, and she reached her hand out-

-for the amulet.

THUD!

"AAAUGH!" She screamed, for Black Adam's boot had stomped over her wrist.

"..." He scowled down at her, barely a scratch on him. "You are quick, young girl."

SWOOOSH! She was thrown up against a wall. WHAM! She fell to her knees, wincing so hard she could barely see straight-

"But I do not dance with heretics." Black Adam, nao wearing the amulet around his neck, kicked the cosmic rod up into his grasp, turned it upside down, and levitated until he was just over-

SWOOOOOSH-THUNKKKK!

"AAAAA-HAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Courtney wailed, her left ankle impaled by the tip of her own golden weapon. She began to plunge forward, hiccuping and clutching the ragged remnants of her limb in agony-

*GRIP*!

Courtney's eyes bulged. She gasped for air.

Black Adam only frowned and raised her higher in the air by the neck, her one and a half legs twitching and dangling in the shimmering firelight of the burned-out museum around them, her left foot bleeding, ragged, on the brink of falling off completely.

"Go on...Beg for mercy. Your only god is listening." Black Adam frowned. In spite of the carnage around him, his slick black hair and golden lightning emblem were untouched. He was a one-man army all along. Surely she—they had to have known this... "The so-called 'heroes' of your nation constantly pummel my country with incendiary weapons of 'peace', and every year—every month they make orphans of my people. Nao tell me...Why should I spare your virgin blood, today?"

She rolled her eyes back, tearing, barely summoning the lisp of breath to sputter forth: "You...c-cannot...h-have the amulet."

"It belonged to my Beloved Isis long before it ever fell into the hands of the robbers you intend to protect." Black Adam frowned at her. "That treasure means more in its preservation of her memory than ever its incidental wealth of black magic."

"Is th-that why...y-you killed over a h-hundred people t-today?" Stargirl choke-sobbed in his grasp. "To p-preserve memories?"

"Memories are just vessels of pain." The man said. He raised his other hand and aimed two fingers straight at the front of her skull. "Fortunately for you, child, you will not have to deal with them for long..."

Courtney fluttered her eyes closed, a deep childish breath murmuring a few memorized words-

FWOOOOSH! *THWPP!* Atom Smasher appeared in a blink, grabbing Black Adam's shoulders from behind.

"What-?" Black Adam glared over his shoulder.

S-S-S-S-S-S-SWIIIIISH! A red streak blinked in and out, and suddenly the Star Spangled Kid was completely removed from the god's grasp. She reappeared twenty meters away in another blink, draped limply in the arms of the Flash.

"I got her, Al!" Jay shouted, his body covered in dust from head to tow, his limbs still phasing in and out of reality from the cross-city dash. "Nao let him have it!"

"You're gonna rue the day you touched her, Adam." Atom Smasher grew twice his original size and mightily kneed the villain in the back.

Black Adam tumbled forward, but effortlessly ended in a twirling hover. He levitated icily towards Atom Smasher and held a golden amulet in his grasp

.

A few yards away, Green Lantern struggled to his knees, glaring with one good eye. "The pendant...the Mission...It's already over..." He tried in futility to summon his ring's energy-

"Good heavens—" Flash suddenly eyed the heirloom victoriously hanging from the Kahndaqi's neck. He dropped the Star Spangled Kid to the floor and, in a half-blink—"Al! Get back—"

Black Adam just as quickly flung his fist out—WHUDDD—superhumanly contacting with the face of the half-blurred Flash. The old hero's pith helmet flew into the air from the impact. Grip! Black Adam grabbed the metal disc and flung it faster than a speeding bullet into Atom Smasher's skull. CLANG!

"AUGH!" Bleeding between the eyes, Atom Smasher stumbled back, clutched his skull, and shrunk a few feet—

Th-Thwp! Black Adam had flown behind him and wrapped the amulet tightly around the hero's neck.

"Snkkkt—Nnngh!" Atom Smasher writhed and struggled for breath.

"You wanted to share my pain...?" Black Adam sneered into his ear and pulled the amulet's chain tighter. "Then embrace it, unbridled." He then raised Atom Smasher's body directly above him and towards the shattered hole in the museum's ceiling.

"S H A Z A M!"

The Star Spangled Kid looked up, weakly. Her blue eyes lit up in the ensuing blue nightmare, descending. "Albert!" She stretched a hand out-

A magical lightning bolt tore down through the roof of the Smithsonian and connected with Atom Smasher's body above Black Adam. The magical energy channeled into the amulet, making it glow in a frightening pulse, followed by an explosion of chaos.

PHWOOOOOMB! Atom Smasher's body caught aflame. The last reserves of oxygen in his lungs came out in a blood curdling death scream.

Courtney's wail of horror joined the chorus...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(One and a Half Years Ago)

"I just can't believe it..." Courtney sat on the edge of the Meeting Hall's steps, her fifteen-year-old legs playfully scooting left and right across the marble steps that led down to the round table where most of the older superheroes were gathered, discussing the team's business. "...the actual Justice Society! To actually think I'm part of the same group of heroes who once fought back Hitler's own espionage forces in America! I-I mean, our country owes its history to these people. I spent years reading up on them..."

"A bit of advice," a slightly older teenager took off his blue cowl and smiled. A handsome, kind face. "Cut the hero-worship while you're ahead. Most of these people are just old farts, when you get to know them. Jay may like to give autographs, but Alan—yeesh—I swear the only person he smiles to is his daughter, Jade."

Courtney giggled, momentarily raising a hand to embarrassingly cover her fresh new braces Soon, though, she hugged her knees to her chest and produced a happy sigh, clad in her blue shorts and top, bespeckled with white stars. "'Distance is a great promoter of admiration'."

He smirked curiously. "Is that a quote?"

She nodded. "Diderot. If the men here need their space, then I'll be happy to oblige." A sigh. "Though, I doubt Pat will let me keep any distance. I've already been on a mission or two with him, Jay, and Richard. I swear—they never let me get so much as ten feet away from their watchful gaze while in the middle of a villainous scuffle."

"It was like that for a long time for me when I joined," he scratched the back of his neck and glanced over at Wildcat talking to Mister Terrific. "But they let me pick up my own speed, so long as I didn't make it look like I had sharper wits than the rest of them in a pinch."

"Oh, and, naturally, how could you and your young brains be any step ahead of these veteran heroes!" She rolled her eyes.

"Heaven forbid, r-right? Hah hah hah."

"Hehehehe..."

"Ahem..." He extended a hand. "The name's Atom Smasher." She shook it. "But you can call me Albert."

"Uh...H-Hi, Albert." She rested her head on her knees and exhaled. "….You can call me very lucky…"

He only chuckled at that. And for a while, he wasn't looking.

It was the perfect time for her to ever so briefly stop holding back...and blush.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(Three Years Ago)

"Damn you, Star Spangled Kid!" Shiv shrieked and leapt down from the rooftop of Blue Valley High. A dozen darkly-clad ninjas dove with her as the young vixen unsheathed a gloved array of claws. "I'm going to slice that smile from your smug face!" SHIIIING!

"Nnngh!" The Star Spangled Kid backflipped, dodged Shiv's serrated swing, and positioned herself on the hood of a car. "Nice can opener you got built into your wrists, tubby. You use it to open a can of spam every morning?"

"What—I...It...Y-You..." Shiv stumbled, examined her spandex'd waist, then shook with anger. "Rrrrgh—I am SO not fat! RAAAUGH!" She dove at the young hero with a flying kick.

The Star Spangled Kid absorbed the blow with the aid of her cosmic converter belt. Th-THUD! "Nnngh!" She gritted her teeth, charged a wave of cosmic energy through her uniform, and kicked a nearby street sign up out of the ground and into her grip. "Hey bimbo! School Zone!" WHANGG!

"Unnngh!" Shiv hobbled back, clutching her bruised nose. She pointed a commanding finger forward. "Gid Her, youh idiogs!"

The ninjas rushed forward in a blurred cloud.

Courtney gasped under her mask, spun three-hundred-sixty degrees, and clobbered five ninjas in a row with one swing of the street sign. TH-TH-THWAP! The rest dove violently at her, daggers glistening in the Nebraskan sunlight. The Star Spangled Kid dodged, ducked, twirled, and uppercutted one unlucky thug before flinging his body ten feet away into a pond beneath the school flagpole. SPLOOSH!

Next, the Star Spangled Kid shrieked as she was tackled by three ninjas at once. A fourth ran up, leapt, and came down at her with a gleamingly sharp katana—

"Awwwwwwwwwwwww shit." The young teenager hissed.

SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-THUD!

Out of nowhere, an eleven foot tall titanium robot in white and red stripes landed, forming a crater. He grabbed the sword-leaping thug and used him like a club to bat the three ninjas off of the Star Spangled Kid. TH-TH-TH-THAP!

She stood up, brushing herself off. "Aww...Damn it, Stripsey! I had them!"

"Watch your language, young lady." Pat Dugan's disguised voice emanated electronically from inside the creaking automaton. "And don't call me 'Stripesy'."

"Oh great." Shiv paced up with a bleeding nose and readied her claws, ninjas flanking her across the school lawn. "...the little brat's bodyguard has arrived."

"He's not my bodyguard!" Courtney stuck her tongue out. She glanced up at her 'robot' companion. "If you don't mind, Pat..." she hushedly grumbled so that only he could hear. "...but it looks like I suddenly got myself a nemesis here, so shouldn't I—you know—send her home packing all on my lonesome and stuff?"

"Not tonight you won't." 'Stripesy' pointed a commanding metal finger. "Go home. Your mother's worried about you. I can handle this."

The Star Spangled Kid smiled. "If you say so..." Using the energy field from the cosmic converter belt, she lifted Stripesy by his metal legs and flung his hulking weight straight into the line of thugs. "...they're all yours!"

"Wait—NO!"

"Awwwww crud—" Shiv recoiled-THUDDDD! The robot smashed into them, grinding the pile of aching thugs a solid twenty feet through the grass.

"Hehehehehe!" Courtney about bent over, slapping her knee.

"For all that's good and holy!" Stripsey stumbled to his whirring feet. "When will you grow up, already!"

"Stop trying to be my dad and let's just kick butt!" Courtney got into a running position. "I've got Algebra homework to do."

The stepfather's voice groaned through the electronic contraption. "Fine. Fine. Just don't get too close to the poison-tipped daggers."

"Last one in's a rotten egg!" The Star Spangled Kid grinned wickedly and sprinted across the lawn. She flipped over Stripsey like he was a pommel horse and jump kicked into the recovering crowd of ninjas while Stripsey exchanged blows with Shiv's weapons...

WHANG! WHAP! CL-CLACK! SMASH!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(Three and Three Quarters Years Ago)

"Is it too much to ask that you at least smile to him for a change?" Barbara Whitmore gripped the wheel with angry hands as she rolled into the Beverly Hills high school. California palm trees stretched up on either side of them. "He's only ever been nice to you. The decent thing is to return the sentiment-"

"Ugh...Mom..." Courtney rolled her eyes and rummaged through her backpack. "...the last thing I wanna do is smile at the man who's only nice to me because he wants to get into your pants."

The woman gasped so hard she made the car momentarily swerve. "Courtney Whitmore-!"

"Don't try and deny it!" The teenager tossed her short blonde bangs and muttered: "He's just like any other lousy jerk who's walked into your life. He only wants one thing-"

"That's no excuse to talk to me like that—I'm your mother, young lady-"

"Then be a mother for a change and give the guy the bird. He's bad news. They're all bad news."

"You don't know the half of it, Courtney. This is different—Pat is different. We haven't gone into this thing harebrained. He's a decent, god-fearing, respectful man. But I can't expect you to know that—You never so much as leave your room when he visits—"

"Pffft-hahahaha!" Courtney laughed so hard, her eyes squeezed out tears.

"And what's so funny?"

"That whole 'god-fearing', church-going, Bible-thumping routine of his!" She smirked wisely at her own mom. "It's a total crock of shit and you're really, really desperate if you're giving into his jerkoff charms just because of that."

"Courtney Whitmore, you will stop saying such ugly things this second-"

"Why the Hell should I? It's true!" Courtney was already gripping the door handle as they rolled up to the bustling school entrance. "The guy's a total flake! Maybe dad was a total loser, but he wasn't so lame as to hide behind such a fake getup-"

"Your father was a cruel, dishonest, coward of a man who treated this family like crap. And you think you know him, Courtney? If you had any idea hao all these years I had to be the guardian shield to keep a monster like that from taking out his anger and vices on you-"

"Pfft. Mom, I watch Lifetime. I kinda sorta think I can imagine what you've been through. Kinda pathetic that it's reduced you to a drooling princess for someone as lame as Pat-"

"Young Lady-"

"Heh... ...Have a good day, Mom..." Courtney opened the door and marched out. "And nice try with attempting to make mine miserable with your self-righteous baggage-"

"You come back here this instant, Young Lady-! I swear to God-" She all but shrieked out the window.

"I won't be home until later..." The teenager tossed her shoulders towards the car and marched up the cold concrete steps, smirking. "... ..Not that you'll notice, or care..."

"Courtney-!"

"Heheheh-"

"Courtney, you—Oh damnitalltoblazes-" And the car lurched into drive and tore off into the California haze...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(Eight Years Ago)

A seven-year-old Courtney Whitmore sat in a pink nightgown, scrunched up atop the living room sofa of her apartment house. She was glued to the television where a brightly colored episode of "Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew" played gleefully before her.

The truth was, she was only pretending to be watching it.

In the kitchen, barely ten feet away...

"You're always doing this! You're always throwing our money away!—No, MY money, Sam! For I've yet to see you earn a damn cent from all the stuff you squander away like yesterday's trash!"

"Your money? YOUR money? Woman, don't get me started—"

"Started? Oh, by all means, Sam! Why don't you start! You haven't started a dayum thing! What's this glorious 'business' you keep dreaming up that will someday support our family—Our daughter through school, our retirement!"

"Is that all you think about?"

"Of course it is! I think about things, Sam! Important things! It's what being a family is all about! It's what LIFE...REAL LIFE is all about! Not all of these stupid schemes you keep getting yourself involved in—"

"What would you know about it? I'm trying to make a break here—"

"No..."

"And all you can do is make me feel stupid—"

"No-No-No-NO! ENOUGH—"

"Will you just—"

"ENOUGH! ENOUGH, Sam! ENOUGH—Okay? For once in your goddamn, worthless life—Be a man and do SOMETHING. Don't half-do something, or pretend like you really care for our future when you don't! I've been carrying this whole household on my shoulder for six stinkin' years—"

"Ohhhhhh bullshit—"

"For SIX...STINKING...MISERABLE YEARS and I'm TYRED of it! You go out there for fourteen hours a day and try being a waitress and nurse in a world full of ugly, hurtful people who just scoff and laugh at you and see if you're strong enough to have lasted as long as I have! I'm giving you one last chance to make a choice, Jack. Do something, or do nothing. Cuz I've had it. I have HAD IT."

"God in stinkin' heaven, why the hell do I come home to this shit—"

"Oh there you go, whine-whine about how pathetic your life is—Well you MAKE it THAT WAY, Sam! But not anymore—You won't hold down Courtney and I anymore—"

"As if you ever held something worth melting in your hand, ya selfish pig—"

"GET OUT—"

"Oh, bravo! Bravo to you—"

SHATTER! "GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR HOUSE, YOU MISERABLE LITTLE COWARD!"

"Fine—FINE!" Courtney's father, unshaven and smelling of whiskey, stumbled out into the living room, half-dragging a splotched coat behind him. "You give me so much crap and yet you're so blind, ya stupid bitch. I could have made you a queen if you just had the stinkin' patience to LET ME! You should have looked at the BIG PICTURE, Barbara! The Big Picture! Yanno, the Grand Scheme of things! But you're too stupid and selfish to look beyond your own nose, you dumb piece of shit—You can have this heap of garbage, for what it's worth!" He shrugged his coat on, straightened an invisible tie, and took two drunken steps before freezing with a dead, decayed gaze at Courtney.

"..." Courtney quietly stared back.

He muttered: "Like you were worth it either, you thankless little princess shit."

"GET. OUT."

He cast a poisonous glance towards the kitchen, rolled his eyes, and—loudly grabbing his truck keys off a table—thundered out the apartment.

Courtney waited until the sound of his truck engine roared and dwindled away outside. Less than a minute later, the television switched to commercial, and she could hear her mother's quiet sobs from the kitchen.

From a distance, she hid her face into her knees...and gently joined her...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(Eleven Years Ago)

Courtney hummed to herself, kicking her sneakers constantly—boredly—up and down from where they dangled off the edge of a church pew. The tiny church hall was hazy, smelled of rust, and constantly vibrated with the engine noise of Los Angeles looming outside. Somewhere in the distance, a Latino janitor muttered to a sphere of bilingual ghosts as he worked on cleaning a spot in the tile that wouldn't go away.

The four-year-old with pigtails blinked at the various stain glass effigies in the mostly empty place, hummed more to herself, rubbed her face, and sighed with boredom as she glanced to the side towards where a blonde woman slumped against the pew on her knees, shaking and hiccuping as if out of breath...

"Please... ...Oh please, God.. ... ...speak to Sam.. ... ... ...reach out to him. I keep trying... ...I keep trying, God... ... ...But he won't listen. He needs Your Truth. Your conviction. Please—If not for my sake, then for this family's... .. ...For Courtney. I ask you, Lord, in your Son Jesus' name... ...Please... ...Save this family... ..."

Courtney blinked. She squinted briefly.

Her mother's folded arms trembled and quivered. There were splotches of black and blue on the skin, just as her wrists slid out from hiding beneath a long sleeved jacket.

"Please, God.. ... ...reach out to Sam... ...touch him, Lord. Touch his heart..."

Courtney sing-song'd the whole scene out of her mind, glanced around, and stared at more stain glass windows, rolling her eyes until the various faces and images formed a blur, like she was staring out the car window on the highway...

Or perhaps dreaming...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

(April 23, 2005...Today)

Nearly through Bach's Sixth Suite, Stargirl's eyes fell once more onto the crowd, and she winced to think about hao long she had legitimately been distracted. But that realization wasn't half as numbing as the fact that nothing of importance had transpired to have necessitated her vigilance.

Barely a month in the City, and she felt like a flying doorstop. If working in mysterious ways was an art, then that made God look like Prince.

She sighed boredly and was about to page Starfire once again when the very same communicator vibrated loudly in her hand, summoning a startled yelp form her being.

But then, very hotly then: "Snkkt—Cyborg! Robin here! We've got trouble!"

"Cyborg here. What gives-?"

"We have an attacker! Somewhere in the building!"

Courtney's eyes went wide. "Oh my god." Her lips quivered and she murmured.

"X'hal!"

"Dude, hao in the wide world of sports do you know that-?"

"No time! Cyborg, you've got the eye! Scan all around you on multiple wavelengths!"

Stargirl panted. She craned her neck every which way—her blue eyes pouring over every inch of the rafters, the sidestage, the aisles, the seats upon seats upon seats upon seats that liquidly filled the shadowed volume of the Vaughan Concert Hall. Every rogue shape and flutter of refracted light turned into a potential killer, a strobing explosion, a ninja assassin with a dozen possible blades—glinting—as Courtney was flinching, palpatating and helpless—to find the source that Robin evidently could without so much as a second thought.

"I swear to God-" Cyborg's voice electronically growled. "-if someone's trying to take out Maddie-"

"Snkkt—It isn't Madeline! It's-"

Courtney could nakedly hear Raven's voice from right below her: "Front in center!"

Stargirl spun, gripping the cosmic rod. She gasped. Already halfway through its burning descent, a hot flash of fiery energy was sailing straight into the crowd...

And towards Kensuke Kobayashi's hapless chest.

"Ogod-!" She dove down on the cosmic rod.

"Dammit—NO!" Cyborg's lumbering form was leaping from the stage-

And Kobayashi-