Justice League of America Issue 21
"Doom" Part 5- Retaliation
Written by Mike Bernaschina & Bodhi Ouellette
The Watchtower:
Large chunks of the Meteorite were being picked off and were being escorted into a large room right in the heart of the Watchtower. The chamber had been reworked by the Dynasty, where tons of glass chambers were mounted on the wall, and tubes connected to a large cylinder shaped silver piece of machine, intended to be the satellite to send messages back to Earth. They place the meteorite minerals inside of the glass chambers, which make them glow, and sends a connection to the satellite. A Dynasty member looks back at Vandal Savage, Tala, and Prometheus. "We're connected," said the Dynasty member. "You're free to send the message."
Vandal then moved forward to a panel on the machine, where a keypad was placed. He imputed some text in, then pressed an enter key. Savage walked back to watch as the glow on the meteorite minerals intensified. Light traveled through the tubes and into the machine. Then the machines power intensified. On another panel nearby, Tala looked over to see a model of the Watchtower, with a display of the satellites, and sound waves shot out, indicating that a signal is being sent.
"The message is sending," informed Tala. "Soon we should get in contact with them."
"Perfect... Now we wait for a response..."
"While we do that, how about we discuss some important matters," suggested Tala. "Like, what to do with the Justice League?"
"They will be tried for their 'actions' in Chesapeake Bay," answered Vandal Savage. "And we'll make sure that whatever the verdict may be, they will not bother us for the rest of time."
"We should just kill them, and leave it be," proclaimed Prometheus. "We cannot underestimate what they might possibly do."
"What if we showed them the Light?" suggested Tala again. "If they could be turned over to our side, they may do all of our biddings."
"A valiant option," said Savage, "but a option that could backfire on us. We can discuss this."
"And what about Luthor?" asked Prometheus. "He has cut ties with any involvement he had with the Legion. Surely he could rat us all out on what we're doing."
"He won't be a problem," stated Savage. "His involvement with us is over, and I am thankful for what he has helped us with, but if he doesn't wish to be with us now... he will be later."
*BEEP*
The three turned around to find that they have gotten a reply from that who they had contacted. Savage approached the little panel, which displayed the message. Then Savage looked back at Tala and Prometheus.
"Well, what did they say?" asked Tala.
"The Children are here..."
Purging through the walls of the Watchtower was a bright light, like lightning phasing through effortlessly. When the light dimmed, Savage and the two looked back up to find an all black blob. The blob quickly resurfaced up and reformed into a man, about seven feet tall, wearing glowing armor and eyes glowing white. Savage looked up in amazement.
"You have called for us, Vandal Savage," said the figure. "What is it that you want?"
"Eius, it is a pleasure to see from you again," greeted Savage. "I bring good news. We're ready. I have prepared my own defenses against the being who will end this world."
"We know," replied Eius. "While my brothers and sisters keep the Destroyer at bay, I have been appointed to watch this planet and it's endeavors. I have seen everything this world has offered for years now: all the wars, inventions, and empires that have been built and crumbled over time. But one progression of time that I have taken to account for has been the rise of these superheroes. Of gods and normal people with powers of unimaginative proportions protecting the weak and defenseless. Take for instance the battle of the Kryptonians. They have done more to defend against the threats against Earth and Humanity than you have in your 50,000 years of living."
"What are you saying, Eius?"
"I am saying you are useless to us now, Vandal Savage. Don't think that we haven't seen what you have done over the centuries you've been alive; how you're views on the world and its people have changed into something more negative and violent. Why do you do this, Savage?"
Vandal had sense a bit of anger in Eius' demand explanation. "You're right; I have changed, but not without reason. When you live for thousands of years, seeing all the events that have happened, you grow to find the humans to be a pathetic species, and one who cannot rule on their own. They still haven't grown out of their animalistic behaviors."
"Yet you think you can rule over them? And tell them what they can or cannot do? And you use this foolish belief in what we have called you to help us achieve?"
"Their needs to be a leader in this new world. It might as well be me."
"I am sorry, Savage. It is clear you no longer care for our cause. Like I said, you are now useless to us. Right now, the heroes of Earth have more of a chance to save the end of the universe. Do not contact us again."
Eius then bursted up and passed through the walls of the Watchtower again. Tala and Prometheus looked at Savage with disbelief. Savage, on the other hand, had pure anger on his face, almost ready to burst. His entire life goal-or at least his twisted version of it—has been taken away from him. His purpose was gone. But he now had a country under his reign, whether they knew it or not.
"Vandal?" Tala asked of him. "What do we do now?"
Vandal Savage looked back at the two, with a face of determination, frustration, and revenge on his face. "Our new world order begins now. Send the call down to execute the Justice League immediately. Get rid of the President as well. Our plans aren't finished yet."
White House; Washington, D.C.:
Heavily armed Dynasty agents impersonating U.S. Military soldiers patrol the grounds of the White House, both outside and inside. A Dynasty soldier turns around the corner of the building, and when he did, Shiva came out from the bushes and choked him out. Another soldier saw this happening, but he was quickly taken out by a swift kick to the head by Black Canary. Canary dragged the body over to the bushes.
A few minutes later, Shiva and Black Canary were out of their superhero costumes and dressed in the Dynasty's soldier's gear, hiding the two unconscious terrorists in the bushes. They looked back around to see if the coast was clear.
"See you around the entrance," said Black Canary.
"Likewise," Shiva replied. And then they moved out, on opposite directions. Black Canary placed her finger on a Bluetooth headset. "We're in position," informed Dinah.
"Good," Batman replied back into the coms. "You and Shiva will do a patrol around the White House grounds, then regroup back at the entrance. You know what to do."
"Understood," Shiva said as well.
Pentagon; Washington, D.C.:
John Jones is dressed up as an African American maintenance worker, walking through the halls, with sweat dripping down his forehead. Assisting him is Barbara Gordon, also dressed in a maintenance workers gear. They pass by hallway through hallway, pushing a black plastic cart, with an assortment of power tools and boxes. Nobody is even the least bit suspicious of their presence. When the two walked towards the room leading into Ray Palmer's lab, two Dynasty guards stopped them in his tracks.
"Identification, please," said one of the Dynasty soldiers.
"Just here to check on some hardware bugs Mr. Palmer asked me to fix," inquired John.
"Mr. Palmer is not here at the moment," retorted the other Dynasty soldier. "This place is on high alert. We need to see you're identifications. Also, doesn't she look a little bit too young to be a maintenance worker?"
"You've got a problem with me being here?" hollered Barbara.
"What? No, I-"
"It's alright," John interrupted. "She's my protégé of sorts. She's working for me."
"Whatever. ID card, please?"
"Fine with me," John calmly noted, and he gave his I.D. card to them. Barbara did not have one with her, because she was new. The two soldiers glanced at the I.D. card thoroughly, and when they found nothing wrong with it, they gave John the card back.
"You two may proceed," allowed the Soldier. "Don't touch anything you're not suppose to."
"Understood," nodded John. "This won't take long, hopefully."
John and Barbara then went inside of Ray Palmer's lab, with the doors closed behind him. John, using his telekinetic powers, locked the doors behind him. John then shaped into his Martian Manhunter form, while Barbara pulled out a laptop. John pressed his finger against his Bluetooth earpiece. "We're in," announced Martian Manhunter.
"Good," said Batman through the coms. "You know what you need to do?"
"Yeah, get into the servers and find out where our friends are," stated Barbara, connecting a cord into the USB port into a slot on one of the large computer modules. Pop ups surfaced onto Barbara's laptop. She then cracks her fingers. "Time to go to work."
Martian Manhunter looked around the room. "Which one of these devices is the shrink ray?"
"It looks like a science fiction blaster; red, white and blue. It also has an atom symbol on the left side of the handle."
Manhunter searched the room to find out where that gun might be. When Manhunter picked up something that described what Batman explained, Manhunter realized he found the invention.
"I've got it," informed Martian Manhunter.
"Now bring it over here," ordered Batman. "Barbara, what's the status?"
"I've just broken into the firewall," answered Barbara. "Didn't take me long to bypass it, but I'm going to have to work fast if we don't want to get caught."
"Can you handle being on your own for a moment?"
"I'll have to. Just hurry back, and everything should be fine."
"I'll be back," Manhunter assured her. He then phased through the floors below, bringing the gun along with him. Barbara was now alone, left to continue her breaking into the Pentagon. In her mind, she couldn't believe that she was able to get into the Pentagon's servers, but it's happening. Her superhero career has just reached a new high. But trying to achieve a successful hack is proving more difficult than she originally thought it was to be, considering her original thought was it was already going to be hard as it is.
Then, the Soldiers outside of the room shook the door handle. "Hey, why is the door locked?!" the Dynasty Soldier screamed through the door.
Barbara didn't reply back. She needed to be focused on her task. She estimated that she had only 30 seconds left before the guards burst in and arrest her. Her time was running out. Through layers of thick firewalls, she finally reached the last firewall. Another vigorous knock on the door. "Open this door now!"
"Crap," she muttered out. The last firewall was even more challenging than the others. Nothing Barbara couldn't handle, but she was worried she wouldn't be able to get past it. Miraculously, she did pass through the firewall, just as the Dynasty Soldiers busted through the locked door and pointed their rifles at Barbara, who jumped up and held her arms up.
"What the hell were you doing?" demanded the Dynasty Soldier.
"Um… congratulations! You successfully completed your fake training mission of catching a hacker in the Pentagon!" cried Barbara. The guards just looked at her in confusion.
"Where's your friend?" another Dynasty Soldier asked her.
"Well, y'see, that's the next part of your training…"
The whole room then went black. The Dynasty Soldiers struggled to turn on their lights on the side of their guns. The lights shined onto where Barbara was standing, but she was no longer there. They could hear a strange sound occurring behind them, and some sort of blue glow radiating off their backs. When they all turned around, they were quickly incapacitated. The lights came on again. All of the Dynasty soldiers were on the ground, and now present inside the room was Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Captain Atom, and Martian Manhunter.
"Nice job, Barbara," Batman complemented.
"Ah, it was nothing," replied Barbara. "I have full control of their entire servers, hardware, and more. The rest of this mission should be easy."
"Do you know where our comrades are detained?" asked Aquaman.
"Sublevel 17," answered Barbara.
Green Lantern made a smirk. "Then let's go get them…"
White House; Washington, D.C.:
Black Canary and Shiva passively walk throughout the hallways of the White House. Canary felt tense, due to most of the staff having been replaced with Dynasty worshipers and soldiers. Shiva was the opposite; she wasn't feeling worried at all. The key was not to get anyone's attention; nothing suspicious about them.
"God this is so unnerving," Black Canary muttered under her breath.
Shiva heard this though. "Calm yourself, Dinah," Shiva advised. "Once we get to the President, and remove Shade from his control, only then our mission be a success."
"Right," reassured Black Canary. "Right. We've got this. We've got this."
"Repeating the same thing over and over again won't help you concentrate."
"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to remind me. How did Dick even handle you when you trained him?"
"All men who train under me will have to deal with the might of Shiva. My strictness is only for the good of my apprentices."
"Can you make it so that people can be less rude?"
"Of course. I teach all types of manners. Why?"
"I may want you to know Oliver a little bit more. Maybe you can straighten him out with your ways."
"Call me up when I'm not busy cleaning up Gotham from it's criminals. Hm… maybe I could start my own business for straightening people up."
Black Canary chuckled. "I think you could make a fortune off of that."
Eventually, they've reached near the Oval Office, when two soldiers approached then. "Hey, what are you two doing in here?" asked a Dynasty Soldier. "You two are supposed to be patrolling outside the perimeter."
"We went inside to get some refreshments," quickly answered Shiva.
"And a bathroom break," added Black Canary.
"Hm… alright, you can go. Hey, wait, I thought you two were males-"
Suddenly, the Dynasty Soldier was smacked in the head by an escrima stick. Shiva and Black Canary looked back to find that Dick Grayson has removed his helmet.
"Nice job, Mister Grayson," Shiva complemented.
"I learn from the best," retorted Dick. "Now, uh. What should we do about this guy?"
"No time to deal with him," claimed Shiva. "We need to move, now."
The three hastily moved on from the scene, in order to get inside of the Oval Office, without anyone suspecting. But luck was not on their side that day, as a large squad of Dynasty Soldiers turned the corner. They quickly noticed the three heroes running towards them, but were slow to react. "We have an intruder in the West Wing-"
Shiva struck the guard down, kicking the first soldier in the gut, followed by another kick into another soldiers face. One of the soldiers pulled out a knife to try to attack Black Canary, but she blocked every attack that came, then head-butted the soldier in the head. Dick smacked two guards in the chest with his escrima sticks, which sent a shock of electricity through their bodies. All the guards became incapacitated, but now their cover was blown. They needed to move fast...
Pentagon; Sublevel 17:
On this floor, where the captured members of the Justice League, and Amanda Waller are being detained, they watch as The Outsiders walk into the scene. Barbara walks over to a keypad on the side of the cell, entering in a code, which opened the glass walls up. Wonder Woman went into the cell, and pulled off all of the Inhibitor Collars firmly wrapped around their necks. The Outsiders helped out the freed JLA members up, as well as Waller.
"I guess I should say thanks for freeing us," Waller contemplated, "But right now, I have more rage then that of a bull."
"We're all pissed off, Waller," exclaimed Green Lantern. "That's why we had to take stuff into our own hands."
"Thank god you did," Blue Beetle interjected. "Now we can get the hell out of here and find out what-"
*ZAP*
Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman were struck by an energy blast made by Major Force, who came out from the shadows, grinning profusingly.
"Well, whaddaya know? The good old Captain came back to save his friends," boasted Major Force. "And he brought some friends along too. Can't wait to squash you all like ants under my boot!"
"Major Force!" bursted Superman filled with rage at the sight of the traitor.
"Hey, Supes. How's dealing with all of those people you accidentally killed?"
"You were the one who sabotaged the robot," replied Captain Atom. "You overloaded the thing with radiation when I told you to take it out!"
"Precisely," admitted Major Force. "Smarty pants, you are, Cap."
"Major Force, stand down!" ordered Amanda Waller. "I order you this instance!"
"Sorry, Waller, but I don't work for you anymore," Major Force corrected. "I work for Vandal Savage. And right now, there's been a change of plans. Originally, Vandy wanted to try you all for crimes against humanity for your actions in Chesapeake Bay. But I just got a call a few minutes ago that said I could just kill you all. Ready for Round Two?"
Superman was ready to fight Major Force for helping to cause the deaths of so many people in Chesapeake Bay. "Let me have at him," said Superman, but he was still too weak to deal with him.
Captain Atom looked back at the group. "You guys go on ahead," ordered Captain Atom. "I'll handle Major Force."
The League members all nodded in agreement. They all slowly made their way over to the exit of the room. When Major Force charged over at the group, Captain Atom, who flew into him and bashed him into the wall, quickly thwarted him. He began to throw a flurry of punches with his hands glowing a bright orange. Major Force shot out a radiant projectile out from his chest that pushed Captain Atom off of him. Major Force lunged over to Captain Atom, cupping his fists together to send a powerful blow that brought Captain Atom to the ground. Major Force then grabbed Captain Atom by the throat and picked him off the ground.
"Poor Adams," chastised Major Force. "Always have to be that do goodie American hero, who has to follow the rules and abide by the terms of a soldier. Don't you see what you're doing? We're radioactive machines with the power of suns! Why not use that power to do something about it?"
"Like be a stooge for a madman?" remarked Captain Atom.
"The only madman that I'm seeing here is you, Cap for not joining up with me to take the opportunity of a lifetime."
Captain Atom smacked Major Force across the face, which forced Major Force to drop Atom back onto the ground. Major Force recovered quickly, as he was able to block the attack Captain Atom gave him. But something caught Major Force off guard, allowing Captain Atom a surprise attack; he grabbed Major Force and flung him into the holding cell that held the now freed Justice Leaguers. Captain Atom was quick to raise the doors down, and to activate the heat intensifier, cranking it up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Major Force was quick to feel the effects of the heat, as he began to smash on the glass door.
"Hey! Hey let me out of here!" Major Force begged. "I'll melt if you don't stop this!"
"Which is why I leveled the heat to a sustainable amount," Captain Atom told him. "Just enough to keep you in there."
"You can't do this!"
Captain Atom had enough. He walked off.
"Hey! You can't do this to me! Come back here, you bitch! Hey! HEEEEEEEEEEEY!"
White House; Oval Office:
Dick Grayson kicked down the door of the Oval Office. When they all looked in, they found a slew of Secret Service agents and Dynasty soldiers, all surrounding the President, with their guns pointed at the trio. Dick dropped his escrima sticks, and the three stuck their hands up in the air.
"I want these three to be punished to the highest degree," proclaimed the President. "These heroes are making an attempt on my life!"
"I wouldn't be babbling to us like that yet," told Black Canary. She turned her head over to a Secret Service guard, with combed blond hair and a fancy beard wearing glasses. "Honey..."
Ollie dropped a massive smoke bomb onto the ground, which quickly engulfed the room with the smoke. Completely blinded by the smoke, the President stood back towards his table, as he heard the swarm of punches and kicks that were happening around him. When the smoke finally died down, he saw the four heroes staring down at him. Green Arrow was holding his bow and arrow in his hands, while Robin, Black Canary and Shiva stood behind.
"We're sorry we have to do this to you," Green Arrow apologizes beforehand, "But we need to get the Shade out of you."
"Wait... what? How did-"
"Shut your eyes; this is gonna hurt."
Black Canary put on some glasses to protect herself from the flash. Green Arrow shot the arrow over the President's head. The impact of the arrow created the bright flash of light that brightens the whole room. The glasses Black Canary was wearing deflected the effects of the flash, which allowed her to see where the shadow of Shade was. She saw the shadow quickly detach from the President's actual shadow, and latched onto the wall. "There he is!" cried Black Canary.
Green Arrow quickly pulled out another arrow that he aimed and shot at Shade, attempting to explode another Flash Arrow directly onto Shade, but it did not get into contact with Shade. As he was running out from the room, a strange atom shape jumped towards him, growing bigger and bigger to reveal The Atom, striking the Shade in the jaw, knocking him onto the floor, unconscious. The rest of the Justice League grew to their regular size behind the Atom and all entered into the Oval Office. Quickly, Zatanna casted a "Light Shield" lacing around Shade, preventing him from escaping. The President, feeling ashamed for the whole debacle, stood forward to Superman and Waller. "I'm... I'm sorry for what has happened," said the President said. "Savage... he was controlling me."
"We know," replied Aquaman. "And he's going to pay for what he's done."
"We've informed the other state's officials about the incident," informed Captain Atom. "They're bringing in military officials to arrest the Dynasty soldiers in the White House and Pentagon."
"I thank you all for what you've done," said the President. "I don't know how else I can repay you."
"We'll talk about that later," said Batman. "Right now we don't have any time to continue talking; we need to get to the Watchtower..."
"And take the Legion out."
It's here! It's finally here! The Justice League is free, and now they must face the rest of the Legion of Doom against the battle for Earth! Don't miss this epic finale for the Justice League of America, and the lead in to the highly anticipated Justice League Relaunch! Don't miss the action packed conclusion to this series!