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Legal disclaimer: I tend to liberally "borrow" character profiles and art from the Earth-27 wikia created by Roy Westerman with principle art coming from digital artist Phil Cho. Other creators and artists are found there as well and I will specifically list any creations with creator citations as I utilize them. In short, this is the single most comprehensive retelling of all things DC and beyond I have encountered. It's worth your time to explore.
Cover art provided by Martina Havlikova.
Free, commercial use art by her can be found at the following URL: martinahavlikova84 | Pixabay
She is also available for private commissions. Her art can previously be seen as covers of Renfri for Evil Queen, Hellequin for Hellequin and the Paragons, Oracle for Oracle and Oracle Sees All, Enchantress for Enchantress in Peril,Ace of Blades for Blades Free, Killer Frost for Killer Frost: Blades in the Heart, Dorothy Gale for Wickedest Witch, Goldilocks forInjustice Reigns, Hellequin again for Marian Drews, Renfri again for Evil Delights, Dorothy Gale in Something Wicked,Patti O'Brien in Plastic Woman, Claire Connelly in Repo Men, Disco Mummyin the Disco Mummy Strikes, Oracle for Oracle Undercover, Wendy Harris for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt1: Wendy Harris, Jayna for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt2: Jayna Penny Lark for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt3: Penny, Clock Queen for Injustice for all, Dazaar for Dazaar the Arch Fiend,Li Harper for the Red Hood,Priscilla Rich for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt4: Cheetahand now with Nazi era Ace of Blades for Frosted Blades with more yet to come.
That having been said, the properties, and their variations belong to DC Comics through Warner Entertainment and its parent, AT&T, with notable exceptions. More on that in the footnote. I do not own DC characters or their interpretations and reimaginings. My own characters are implied Public Domain since I have not included a copyright notice as required by the 1974 revisions of the copyright statutes and regulations. While an intellectual copyright is implied without the due symbols and language, all such considerations are generally voided under CC-BY-SA, which governs this site, unless duly noted otherwise.
Open Source attributionsare listed after the story concluded to satisfy legalese requirements. And all "super" characters other than Open Source have been seen in comic books before barring any original characters coming from the Earth-27 Wiki or myself. You can look into Public Domain Superheroes Wiki and the DC Database Wiki's own vaults to verify this.
Although this is primarily set in the DCAU, I incorporate attributes of dozens of interpretations of each character, comic telling era, and medium into the telling.
Priscilla Rich had never intended to become Cheetah. but her trust fund allowed her to travel the globe well before her inheritance would kick in. It had been in Africa that she had been bonded to the spirit of the Cheetah by a witch doctor who sought thank her in exchange for her sexual favors. The rites involved capturing, single handedly, a live Cheetah and sacrificing it on an altar drenched with Priscilla's blood drawn while the cat had sex with her so that her blood and the cat's intermingled before Priscilla drank of the draught and their spirits fused together. Her wounds, inflicted by both the captured cat and the witch doctor healed but left tell tale scars. Scars she couldn't explain to later lovers.
Wonder Woman had inspired Priscilla to become the Cheetah. But not in emulation but rather in rivalry. Cheetah quickly became first amongst foremost amongst Wonder Woman's arch-nemeses. Traveling back in time, Cheetah had won the Amazonian contest that selected Princess Diana to be Wonder Woman. That spell wore off as did Cheetah's triumph.
But she'd learned about many of her foremost foe's weaknesses. The story revolving around Wonder Woman's origin was complete bunk. Hera didn't have the power to enchant a clay sculpture and infuse it with life. The Greco-Roman gods only had one method for creating life and that was to impregnate women or get impregnated by mortal men.
So Diana was a demigoddess and it seemed Hippolyta would spread her legs for nearly every god. So determining who impregnated the Amazon queen was like being blinded and choosing candidates from a buffet line.
Lex Luthor was the designated leader of the Legion of Doom through grudging agreement of his fellow Legionnaires. Most grudging of all from Grodd and Sinestro. Only Brainiac saw the pure logic of Luthor's leadership role. But Tyr, the Joker, the Penguin, and Cyclotron, were no longer the newest recruits. Darkseid sent a cadre of his E,lite New Gods in recompense for his presence on Earth's moon. Where he watched and waited as his adopted son, Orion ruled over Darkseid's former fiefdom of Apokolips. But Steppenwolf and his armies of parademons were under Darkseid's orders not to be "under orders". The legal fiction being that Steppenwolf was acting as an independent defector who was aiding the Legion of Doom. Also operating under this premise were Desaad, Kaliback, and Mantis. The arrangement being Darkseid's forces assisted in conquering Earth and then Earth's captive superhumans would liberate Apokolips in Darkseid's name. The fate of the universe was then to carved up by Luthor and Darkseid.
Cheetah though approached Steppenwolf and Desaad with a proposition. All three of Darkseid's wives remained on Apokolips. One had even taken to Orion's bed thereby earning his condemnation from Beka, his wife on New Genesis. But Cheetah's offer was to replace all of former wives with his bring obsessed over Wonder Woman. Cheetah had a plan in place and was already recruiting allies. but Cheetah needed to dispose of Wonder Woman so she'd gladly hand her over to Darkseid. Under decree from Darkseid, "his" forces on Earth were to assist in capturing Wonder Woman, securing, and star gating her to their Master on the Moon. Cheetah was just left recruiting terrestrial forces.
Giganta naturally volunteered to dispose of their mutual archenemy. Cyclotron was the second person to volunteer. Cheetah received a mixed bag of cronies afterwards. Batman's arch enmeies largely ignored her offers. The Scarecrow being the one exception who would only work from the sidelines. Bizarro agreed as did Black Manta. Sinestro threw in as well, alongside Solomon Grundy who was restless so he joined in. but Brainiac's assistance came as a surprise but also bore a price.
Brainiac wanted the bottled city of Kandor returned to his possession. He'd shrunk the Kryptonian city and its captyive poopulace ten years before Jor-El and Lara heralded Kal-El to Earth to escape the inevitable destruction of Krypton. Cheetah debated on whether or not to call in the Royal Flush Gang or anyone from the Legion of Annoyance. She disregarded the notion though.
The Justice League was currently divided into three terrestrial teams and one intergalactic squad. Superman and Green Lantern headed up a team consisting of Firestorm, Cyborg, and the Wonder Twins on the planet Traum. Whose energy crisis had reneweed itself after the Justice League fateful encounter with a Traumian four years ago. This time instead of giving stored energy to the society, the team was there to supervise building new power sources and secure the hapless planet from raiders while construction was underway.
In Superman's absence, leadership rolled down to Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter. Batman and the adult Robin led a squad consisting of Golden Pharaoh, Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief, and El Dorado as they attempted to curb the excesses of the newly replenished membership of the Royal Flush Gang.
Wonder Woman led the Atom, Hawkman, the Flash, and Green Arrow in chasing down the Legion of Annoyance. That left Aquaman. Plastic Man, Dr. Fate, J'onn Jonzz, Shazam and Red Tornado on stand-by along with the "junior super friends". Wendy Harris and Marvin White manning the Situation Center while Marvin's dog, Wonder Dog, idly snooped out the locations of treats Wendy had hidden throughout the Hall of Justice just to keep him busy. Plas was planning his wedding to Penny Lark with the assistance of the long-time friend, Hula Hula. Shazam had reverted back to being Billy Batson, who was still in Jr. High. He was enjoying the tutelage of Red Tornado and J'onn as the Martian Manhunter occasionally tutored Wendy and Marvin on some of their college courses. They were Criminal Justice majors and J'onn played at being Sheriff John Jones back in Yuma.
Wendy and Marvin were out of their own stylistic uniforms they would don as Proxy and Paragon during JLA missions. Dr. Fate and Aquaman were comparing notes on Atlanteans sorcery and the Order magic Dr. Fate employed as the Helmet of Nabu that he wore contained the essence of a Lord of Order to combat the forces of the Lords of Chaos on Earth. But their discussion today was two-pronged: purifying the oceans and protecting Atlantis from humankind's waste products by combining Order magic to Atlantis' own efforts and second how Atlantean magic could aid in Dr. Fate's efforts at staving off a new Age of Chaos.
Aquaman interrupted their discussion as Wendy took down Wonder Woman's report from the field.
"The Legion of Annoyance vacated this property some days ago," the Amazonian princess reported.
"But we just got the tip this morning that they operating from that location," Wendy frowned.
"Someone must have realized that the Legion of Annoyance had been in residence just this morning, Proxy," Wonder Woman was feeling far more generous than Proxy did at that moment. Wendy just felt that someone was jerking their collective chain off.
"Fortunately, the Flash's expertise as a CSI is proving invaluable in telling us where the Legionnaires may have relocated to," Wonder Woman explained her optimism. The signal began warping and finally devolved into static.
"That can't be good," Wendy scowled.
"What can't be good?" Marvin was naturally feeling the absence of his boyfriend, Zan of the Wonder Twins.
"It was like someone jammed Wonder Woman's signal at the source," Wendy explained.
"But no bad news yet?" Marvin wondered, "Or any word from Traum?"
"I'm positive Zan is doing all right," Wendy consoled him.
"Wonder Woman did look to be in distress," J'onn observed from where he and Red Tornado had witnessed the exchange.
"I don't know. We lost the signal far too quickly for it have been a malfunction," Wendy informed them, "It was more like they were jammed at the source."
"And lest we forget, she has Green Arrow, the Atom, Hawkman, and the aforementioned Flash with her. Wonder Woman's team can and will defend itself," Red Tornado's mechanical voice stated.
"And of not, they'll find a way to signal us," Billy Batson reminded everyone.
"You sure you're only fourteen?" Marvin was startled by the wisdom behind Billy's statement.
"Some of the Wizard's magically endowing me with the Wisdom of Solomon leaks out some time even when I'm just me," Billy told the group.
Dr. Fate scrutinized Billy while Aquaman resumed their previous conversation. Fate couldn't detect a trace of Shazma's magic beyond the single tether line that invoked Order magic into transforming young Bill intro the World's Mightiest Mortal. So "leaking" wasn't underway. Billy's "wisdom" was purely his and his alone. Satisfied, Dr. Fate reengaged with Aquaman just as the Atlantean was beginning to notice Fate's distraction. But Wendy wasn't giving up as she enlisted non-JLAer satellites to carry her and any JLAers' signal and route them all to the Hall of Justice.
"We have to divide the Justice League before we can begin to pick them off one by one," Cheetah instructed.
"Bah! Overwhelming force is all that is needed," Steppenwolf summoned his parademon army. The attack came seconds after Deesaad had jammed all comm signals in the area. Using the local cell towers to retransmit his jammer across Star City. The parademons swarmed in and Wonder Woman issued orders for Hawkman to meet them in the air, the Flash to super speed punch his way through while Green Arrow used precision shots to take down his enemy at first before confiscating a parademon's power lance and began blasting away at the enemy with his usual brand of deadly accuracy. Wonder Woman used her bracelets to deflect lance blasts and her her own inhuman strength to crush in the faces of the closest parademons. Once the initial wave was beginning to be defeated through sheer losses, Cheetah signaled the actual attack.
"Great Hera, goddess protect me," Wonder Woman said under he breath as her two greatest nemeses ganged up to attack her. Cheetah had abandoned her cheetah pelt skinned costume for durable leathers and her eyes had morphed into cat's eyes. Her entire body seemed electrified and ready explode through sheer violence. Giganta, on the hand, seemed the same as always. Enhanced and homicidal.
Cheetah moved with proportional speed of a big cat and her fingernails were no longer filed down to make a claw. Now she literally had claws. She exuded a feral intensty. Giganta proved to be an able partner. Whenever Cheetah struck, Giganta was her backup behind Wonder Woman. While she defended herself from one opponent, the other was striking .
Cheetah's claws tore at Wonder Woman's flesh. She'd been scratched across her voluminously exposed flesh. Gignata was a threat because of her greater height and strength when she was enlarged. But Cheetah provided the real danger now that the magic had transformed her. Wonder Woman recognized that magic was the culprit in Cheetah's change of status. Cheetah had always been driven by envy and revenge but those emotions and motives had found their way into the very fabric of her being. She'd been dangerous but now she was enhanced and lethal. Her inner vision of herself made physically manifest. In fact, Priscilla Rich didn't exist anymore, now there was only the Cheetah.
Sinestro's boasting and confidence shattered alongside his power ring derived construct and Green Arrow's arrow found its mark. Sinestro was horrified to discover thaHe also painted his arrowheads green fastened to shafts that came to him painted green. Green Lanterns, as Sinestro had once been a member of the Green Lantern Corps, relied on energy defined by the Emotional Spectrum harnessed the very force of Will. But the Central Battery contained the personification of the Yellow Light of Fear. So GL power rings couldn't affect anything made of yellow.
Sinestro's yellow power ring was forged by the Guardians for him to use against Parallax. But since the one singular emotion in the spectrum could conquer fear was the Green Light of Will, Sinestro's ring was harmless to anything colored green and that was Green Arrow's whole motif. After embedding three arrows into Sinestro, the intergalactic scourge swiftly retreated.
Hawkman had already broken his favorite mace across the ruined Superman clone called Bizarro who had all of Superman's strengths in reverse. Instead Heat Vision, Bizarro had Freeze Vision. Ice Breath became Fire Breath. Yellow suns actually dampened Bizarro whereas red suns would bolster his strength to immeasurable heights and Kryptonite energized him while he was around it. But as Hawkman lured Bizarro into pursuing him, he crafted a plan in his head.
Solomon Grundy was surprisingly fast for an oversized zombie with incredible strength and reflexes. But as the Flash raced around distracting Grundy, he saw Hawman's dive towards the Flash's position. With Bizarro right behind him. Flash overstretched himself racing around Solomon Grundy until Hawkman barely avoided colliding with Grundy. Bizarro didn't share that evasive tactic and he tackled an already enraged Grundy.
"Get off of Solomon Grundy," he roared.
"Bizarro sad to making you forgiving," Bizarro said in his backwards way. simply meaning he was happy to anger Grundy. So the pair broke into a fist fight while Hawkman alighted next to the Flash.
"We should do this more often," Hawkman chuckled.
"It is pleasant to relax for a minute," Flash admitted.
"They'll figure it out someday," Hawkman sighed.
"But hopefully not for a while yet," the Flash agreed.
The Atom was really Dr. Ray Palmer, as sometimes astronomer and full time physicist. Tracking down dawrf white star material on Earth had led to his shrinking suit that now could also reverse his power and the Atom could grow outside his normal size and strength. As Cyclotron was discovering. Cyclotron was also a human particle accelerator. Who had also discovered he had the ability to shrink or to grow.
But the Atom could shrink to subatomic levels and grow to be twenty feet tall. Cyclotron couldn't match either ability. But he could throw energized particle blasts all day and night long. So it was that Atom avoided all of Cyclotron's discharges and came up from underneath him with an uppercut that nearly dislocated Cyclotron's jaw and splayed Cyclotron all over the ground.
Brainiac and Darkseid's Elite held Black Manta in reserve with them but as their comrades failed, Brainiac signaled the second wave of parademons. And these too were decimated as an animalistic parody of life. That acknowledgment stemming from Mr. Miracle's advising the JLA on Darkseid's forces. Scott Free and his wife, Barda had escaped Apokolips and made a home on Earth. So as the last of Steppenwolf's forces failed again, the reservists went into action.
Giganta nearly crushed Wonder Woman by stomping on her as Wonder Woman leapt away and rolled back onto her feet, Cheetah was already on her. Wonder Woman detected a certain pattern to Cheetah's attacks. She freely scratched and clawed all over Wonder Woman's body ...except for any facial wounds. Seeing Darkseid's Elite inner circle, it was easy to guess. Wonder Woman was intended to be Darkseid's next trophy wife and Cheetah knew better than most that would be a horrific state of being for Wonder Woman. But she was so entranced into fighting Cheetah, Giganta got the drop on the Amazon princess as Cheetah dodged to her left. When Giganta got done pressing her full weight down upon her victim, she then scraped Wonder Woman along before stepping clear. Cheetah provided a one-two combo while straddling the afflicted Wonder Woman. There would be come facial bruising but nothing even remotely like torn flesh. Victory was Cheetah's first reward of the day.
Black Manta's helmet derived eye blast nearly seared Green Arrow. the Atlantean tech stolen even before Aquaman rose to thr throne fo Atlantis. And the lens aperture was set wide enough to blast Green Arrow's arrows out of the air. Black Manta herded Green Arrow by hemming hin to a retreat by blasting the ground, surrounding walls and vehicles. Finally trapping the Emerald Archer into a corner and then unleashing his energy beams to knock Green Arrow out.
Kaliback was made of stern stuff, easily Bizarro's equal. Which the hostilities between Solomon Grundy and Bizarro had been forgotten. Hawkman was beaten senseless as a 'thank you' for falling prey to them.
Steppenwolf was strong and capable but it was Bizarro's super speed and strength that knocked the Flash out.
Desaad had an agonizer energy net he deployed to stun the Atom in the most painful way imaginable. Afterwards he collectd the miniaturized body. But reinforcements arrived via zeta beam.
"We need to stop meeting like this," Aquaman told Black Manta.
"I will not rest until I've killed, your entire family, and crushed the seven Atlantean cities under my heel," Black Manta advised Aquaman, "It is my only passion since you killed my son."
"That was accidental and know it," Aquaman was frustrated by the usual litany, "But you must face justice for your acts of terrorism. And you killed my half-brother."
"Ocean Master was owed his death," Black Manta stated blandly, "Prince Orm desired the death I gave him"
"More lies!" Aquaman snarled, "No one ever desires the type of death you inflict."
"Ocean Master was tired of life, tired of competing with you to gain Atlantean loyalty. It was a mercy killing in the truest sense."
A star gate opened beneath Black Manta, "I'll be seeing you soon in your nightmares."
Aquaman knew he couldn't follow as the star gate collapsed soon as Black Manta's helmeted head cleared its horizon.
Kailback was murderously motivated to shut Plastic Man up. He couldn't seem to harm the flexible Plas. Plastic Man in return for Kaliback's multitude of attempts to murder him stretched and flexed and made his hands mallets with which to concuss Kaliback's head. Kaliback seized Plas' body as it looped his own and tossed Plastic Man aside like he was tossing a spiral unbaked pizza crust. then he too used a star gate to escape.
Solomon Grundy didn't have enough mental where-withall to manipulate the psychic plane. But the Martian Manhunter continued his physical altercation with Grundy. Even the sorcery and chemical waste that created Grundy instilled with him a modicum of intelligence but instead he was inexplicably cagey. But J'onn Jonzz rendered him unconscious for a brief timeline. :ong enough to shackle him.
"Me am loving you," Bizarro professed while trying to kill Shazam.
"I don't want it or need it," Shazam said while exchanging thunderous blows.
"Me not saying hello," Bizarro streaked off into orbit. Shazam stayed behind in case of an imminent counterattack.
Steppenwolf was forced to admit defeat against Red Tornado and the elemental android was immune to fear. But his fiercest whirlwinds threatened to pull Steppenwolf apart. So he blindly lunged into the eye of the storm and star gated out.
Desaad kept the Atom as a prisoner as he gated away from Dr. Fate.
"We are missing five of our comrades," Dr. Fate informed the group, "I fear for them."
"Why spend the time taking them by star gate and risk facing us?" Aquaman wondered.
"You will note the ready appearances of parademons and Darkseid's Elite taking Wonder Woman to Darkseid. The question remains what will become of our four other missing teammates?" Dr. Fate bleakly stated.
"I fear we shall learn all too swiftly," Martian Manhunter bitterly said.
Cheetah & Giganta delivered Wonder Woman to Darkseid.
"So, when none of my servants and even the rest of the Legion of Doom fail to bring my intended bride, only you two have ever come close to it," Darkseid's gravelly voice rumbled.
"We know how Wonder Woman will consider marriage a fate worse than death," Cheetah gleefully shared, "That alone is motivation enough."
"So be it," Darkseid grumbled his attempt at laughter, "You each have earned one boon from me," Darkseid informed them, "I would take time to consider your requests. For I shall not rescind them even if they turn out to plague you."
"We understand and will do as you say," Cheetah bowed to him. Darkseid granted them a nod of approval and then they used a star gate to return to the Hall of Doom.
Only Brainiac was unconcerned on how casually Cheetah and Giganta handed their arch-nemesis to Darkseid. All the others wanted to claim a portion of that success but Cheetah refused to bow before their glutinous demands.
Giganta and she were the ones fated to deliver Wonder Woman to her soon-to-be-spouse. Darkseid's Elite even left the universe behind to return to Darkseid's secret encampment inm the Fourth World realm where the New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips reigned supreme.
Their fellow Legionnaires felt scandalized by being upstarted by women. For many it was a glaring confession of their personal weakness. And so, Cheetah and Giganta were temporarily suspended from all access to the Hall of Doom and its resources. Furthermore, they couldn't interfere with any Legion plans during their exile. But Cheetah had been well aware fo the potential consequences for succeeding where no others had. So it came to be that Cheetah, Giganta, and Brainiac began making separatist plots to secure and achieve their every whim.
Notations: This is Part 4 of 13. I was approached by a reader with the request that I transcribe the existing episodes of the Super Friends/Super Powers cartoon back in 2019. Apparently he hadn't read that I had never taken a requerst from anybody. I actually agreed to a modified position. I would write a six-12 mini/maxi series of original material with those shows as the world the characters would inhabit. But I also warned the person rhat I wouldn't be up for it until 2022.
It was the challenge of the thing that got me to even approach the project and not simply disregard the request. HOWEVER that doesn't mean I'm opening a request line for petitions. It appealed to me because I'd always wondered what happened after 9 seasons. So partially excepting one request since 2010 doesn't mean I'm your author to bounce requests off of.
My reasoning is simple, those people making the requests have it already in their minds and they'd end hating the work published on their behalf. So my advice is write a rough draft and give it someone who shares your interests and revise as needed prior to posting it yourself.