JSA: The Face Of Evil

By Bruce Wayne

DISCLAIMER: Most of the characters portrayed in this story are copyright by DC Comics, an AOL/Time/Warner company. They are used without permission for entertainment without profit by the author.

CHAPTER 12

"Now bend over and blow through your lips," Batman heard Mr Terrific saying. "Come on, Bruce, do it now!" The Gotham Avenger felt Mr Terrific's hands near his throat. "I'm pulling this off from your chin. Blow through your lips. Don't hyperventilate. Blow against the mask."

Batman blew. He felt as though his skin were tearing away. Tiny hairs near his sideburns were ripped out of his face.

He blinked. The pressure was suddenly gone from his eyes, and the light was blindingly bright.

"It looks like a good one, Batman. You can rest easy now," Mr Terrific said.

Batman leaned back in the chair.

Mr Terrific turned to the Flash. "Flash, in that box you'll see Derma Wax. If you'd start working it in your hands, then we can get -- Oh, I see you've done it already -- damn, you're fast!" He laughed. "I need it rolled into soda-straw-sized lines, so -- done already? Okay, I can start building False-Face's face onto Batman."

Mr Terrific turned back to Batman. "This is spirit gum," he said, producing another container from the makeup kit. "It'll sting your skin and make your eyes water a little -- it contains ether. Don't worry about it."

"I've used it before," Batman said in a bored tone.

It did sting, and Batman's eyes did begin to water. "Now you're going to look stupid for a while," Mr Terrific continued. "I'm applying cotton to your face to stick to the spirit gum, so your head is going to look like a giant cotton ball for a few minutes. Just relax."

Batman only nodded, resigned to this situation and listening to the all knowing Mr Terrific lecture him on applying theater makeup. Truth be told, Batman was master of disguise as well, and had used many of these same makeup techniques several times in the past.

When the bulk of the cotton was removed, his complexion had the look of peach fuzz.

Mr Terrific was laying into place the strips of Derma Wax. "This is just like being a sculpter working in clay," he commented. "Something I've done many times, I'll have you know."

"Of course, you have," the Flash snickered.

Batman watched the changes in the shape of his own face in the mirror.

Mr Terrific continued with his dissertation, "I use the tools of a sculptor to shape the nose, the cheekbones, everything, to get it as possible to the face of False-Face."

Looking at the picture of Catwoman's father, the Flash said, "The nose should be thinner."

"Thinner? At the bridge, you think?" asked Mr Terrific.

"Yes. Like that, I believe."

Mr Terrific nodded and his thumbs and fingertips molded the Derma Wax against Batman's face.

Batman exhaled hard, asking, "You going to add skin texture to this, right?"

"I'll stipple it with a sponge -- you'll see. I've got to age the face now. False-Face is a little younger than you and a little older than Catwoman's father in this photograph."

He reached to the table beside the makeup kit, picking up tools with wooden handles and wire at the ends. "Now I'm going to give you some smile lines. I assume even neo-Nazis smile once in a while."

Batman watched in the mirror as Mr Terrific sculpted lines near the corners of his mouth.

Mr Terrific finished with the sculpting and picked up a sponge. It seemed that the crimefighter from Gateway City had barely touched the sponge to the Derma Wax before the desired results were starting to be revealed.

The Flash looked on in amazement. "Wow -- except for the color, it looks like skin!" he remarked.

"That chalky whiteness will go away in just a bit." Mr Terrific set down the sponge and took an aerosol can from the makeup kit. "Fixative," he said. "Close your eyes and mouth, Bruce -- I'll watch out for your nostrils."

Batman closed his eyes, feeling the spray where it contacted his own skin.

"Okay, you can open your eyes, Bruce. "You've got the basic face. Now we finish it." Mr Terrific reached into the makeup case again, removing several small jars and brushes.

"What's that stuff?" the Flash asked.

"Acrylic paints to add color, to darken creases in the skin, to the give the skin the shadows and highlights. Relax, Batman, this is the easy part for you. Just sit perfectly still."

Turning to the Flash, the advocate for 'Fair Play' said, "Flash, I ever tell you that several of my oil paintings have sold for a fair amount of money?"

"I'm sure they have," the Flash responded just to humor his teammate who liked to list all his accomplishments.

As Batman watched in the mirror, he could begin to see the new face emerge.

"He's going to need that scar. Flash, I think it's safe for Catwoman to come in here now," Mr Terrific said. "She can't see Bruce's real face under the makeup now."

Batman thought to himself that if Selina thought the face was good they might have a chance to pull this off.

***

The tunnel was larger than the other passages through which they had moved. Doctor Mid-Nite continued to lead the Green Lantern and the Atom underneath the nation's Capitol building. In the distance he could make out a faint glow of light from one of the lanterns. The three crime-busters had thus far eliminated thirteen of the estimated two-dozen Nazis beneath the Capitol complex. But traversing the square footage beneath the Capitol in the interlacing network of tunnels could take days in the enforced darkness and enforced silence, and they had only discovered three of the bombs that were laced with the deadly VX nerve gas.

Doctor Mid-Nite kept moving. He felt a hand at his shoulder, it was the Atom.

"Hold it, Doc," the Atom whispered in the darkness. "The radio is buzzing."

The Atom whispered into the walkie-talkie, "Go ahead."

Wonder Woman's voice whispered urgently in his ear. Under differerent circumstances, the Atom might had enjoyed it. "Atom, how's your progress?" she asked.

"We've got a concentration of the Nazis up ahead, pretty lady," replied the Atom. "Sounds like more than a half dozen. We got thirteen bad guys so far. That leaves about eleven of the jack-booted scum. If they're all up ahead, maybe that's all the bombs."

"Have you questioned any of the evildoers?" she asked. "We've got to know. There's less than an hour before Batman and Mr Terrific go into the House chambers -- before Batman meets the lion in his den, so to speak."

"If I have to, Wonder babe, for you, I'll rip somebody's arms off and and beat them to death with them until they talk."

"Atom!"

"Okay, we'll see what we can do, gorgeous," Atom whispered. "Atom out."

He replaced the radio on his belt and said to his two teammates, "They want us to question one of the prisoners to see how many bombs are really down here."

The Green Lantern suggested, "Why don't we take these guys out and then have the Flash come down here and sweep through the tunnels at super speed? We're running out of time."

"Good idea," Doctor Mid-Nite replied.

The Justice Society of America's master of darkness looked at the fuzzy outlines of his companions. If all eleven remaining Nazis were by that single lamp, the odds would be nearly four to one.

That's just the way they liked it.

***

"One last thing remains with the False-Face face, Batman, some five o'clock shadow."

Batman looked first at Mr Terrific, then at the face in the mirror. At Mr Terrific's request, Hourman went to get Catwoman to bring her to the room. When she entered, she would get the full effect of the completed face -- the acid test of Mr Terrific's craftsmanship. The Gotham Avenger watched Mr Terrific as he dipped a sponge in paint.

"This is a natural sea sponge, ever use it before? I'm going to tap it against this paper until it's almost dry, and then I'll dab it against your face. After that, we have fifteen minutes of drying time on the paints and then we apply the life mask of your own face. Of course, I've made a few changes to that mask so it won't look exactly like Bruce Wayne. That won't take to long, though."

"When I take the cowl off, I'll immediately start ripping the life mask off. It'll only be a matter of a couple seconds." Batman explained. "What about your face? Do we have enough time?"

"To make me look like the President?" Mr Terrific replied. "No sweat. We look similar. I can do it in fifteen minutes."

"Don't you want me to help?" Batman asked.

"Naw, if I need anything, the Flash has been a great assistant."

The Flash smiled at the rare compliment from Mr Terrific.

Batman glanced at the clock on the wall. "There's about forty-five minutes before we start walking into the House chambers."

Wildcat rushed into the room and started to give his JSA teammates a message. "According to Flagg's report from what he refers to as his war room, False-Face plans to call his people outside the building at six A.M. and verify the blast at Reddington. And, of course, there won't be one."

Batman said, "If False-Face makes his outside contact and learns we busted the President out, any element of surprise I'd have with this face will be out the window. So I've got to be in the House before his deadline."

"Don't talk for a minute, I've got to work this around your mouth." Mr Terrific applied the sponge, while Batman watched in the mirror.

"Just what are you planning to do?" asked Wildcat. "What's the purpose of the False-Face face and then another face over it?"

Mr Terrific finished with the sponge and stepped back. "There, you can talk. But don't scratch your face."

Batman swallowed hard. "I'm gambling on two things I know about False-Face. That he's insane and that he's brilliant. If I'm right on both counts, we've got a chance. If I'm not, there's going to be a fast and bloody battle and the bombs will be detonated under the Capitol complex."

"But I thought Mid-Nite, Atom, and --" the Flash started to say.

"Even if they find every bomb under the building itself, False-Face said he has other bombs planted around the city. If even one of those goes off, thousands of people will be killed and whoever he's got on the outside will then know the thing went sour and the give the orders for the other detonations. Bombs will go off in the world capitals, there'll be World War III in no time. False-Face knows that. He knows he's got us behind the eight ball."

The face of the Flash looked ashen as he stood back, watching Batman. "Then how can you subvert him?"

"It takes longer to explain than to do it. Go see if Hourman found Catwoman -- let's check Terrific's handiwork." Batman studied his face in the mirror and picked up the black-and-white photograph of Selina Kyle's father. He looked like her father's identical twin. The features, the long thin nose, the high cheekbones, the majestic angles of the brow made him feel like someone he wasn't. It was an eerie feeling, and he wondered if False-Face often felt the same.

Batman stood up and looked at himself in the mirror once again. "Now get Catwoman," he whsipered.

The Gotham crime-buster looked away from the mirror and to the door. The President entered first, followed by Hourman. After a long moment Selina Kyle walked in. He watched her eyes as she stood and stared at him. He saw a vulnerable, wounded look flood her face, and her lips started to move. "Papa ..." she cried. She fell against Hourman.

"Papa," Batman repeated, looking back to the mirror. He saw the scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on the side of his neck. "False-Face," the World's Most Dangerous Man murmured.

***

Doctor Mid-Nite looked through his goggles. He could see fine in the darkness surrounding him. The Doctor intended to nab one of the Nazis and drag him away. He needed to keep one conscious so they could interview the man and find out if any more bombs were placed under the Capitol.

Less than a half-hour remained before Batman would march Mr Terrific into the House chambers and face the evil False-Face.

He moved ahead, listening of the slightest sound that would indicate something had betrayed his presence. And he listened to the Nazis too -- he needed one who spoke English well enough.

One of the men seemed to be the leader -- he talked more than any of them and no one interrupted him. As Doctor Mid-Nite inched closer, he could hear the man speaking. "The risk we undertake is nothing compared to Herr False- Face's danger and the risks he has undertaken to bring about this glorious hour for National Socialism. Even if we die, we shall be remembered, our songs shall be sung. We shall live in the hearts of persons of destiny forever."

The voice betrayed a slight German accent. The man spoke faultless if overly colorful English. He was perfect.

Doctor Mid-Nite edged left, working his way to the hazy line where the glow of the camping lamp met the darkness. The Nazi leader sat at the edge of the circle of light with his back to the darkness. The JSA's master of the dark counted ten other men sitting nearer the lamp's glow. It was so perfect, Doctor Mid-Nite thought. He could grab the Nazi leader, hurl himself and the Nazi into the shadow and then, if need be, hurl one of his blackout bombs to cover his escape.

But it would be better if he let the Green Lantern and the Atom take care of the ten other men. He knew if he didn't let the Atom take on the Nazis, he wouldn't hear the end of it for a week or so.

The Doctor knew he had to be able to listen to the Nazis' conversation up the very last instant.

He now began to crawl on his elbows and knees through the darkness. The Nazi's voice droned on. "Peoples of the world realize the benefits of truly superior leadership, this proverbial sword of Damocles that Herr False-Face will wield will become outmoded, unnecessary, superfluous in the truest sense. The obliteration of the Jews and the other inferior races --

Doctor Mid-Nite just shook his head at the rhetoric he was listening to. If not being a Nazi was some badge of inferiority, he thought, he wore the badge proudly.

He had ten yards to cover.

One of the other men was talking. "Herr Mueller, the greatness of Herr False-Face is undisputable, that is certain. But these bombs, all of them here in the underground. I do not feel cowardly to admit my fears."

Mueller edged forward into the light. "Damn," Doctor Mid-Nite cursed under his breath.

The Nazi leader answered. "The six bombs here and the ninety-one bombs remaining --" There were only ninety remaining, Doctor Mid-Nite realized, Mueller didn't know the bomb recaptured in Reddington. "These devices, planted as they are, represent a threat that cannot be countered." The three-man JSA task force had taken three bombs. If there were three with these remaining eleven Nazis, the building at least would be cleared.

Doctor Mid-Nite swallowed hard. He had to make his move. He leapt through the darkness like a jungle cat, running toward the Nazi leader, Mueller.

He could see the movement as Mueller started to turn. One of the Nazis raised a weapon and Doctor Mid-Nite saw a beam of green light strike the gun and the weapon flew from the man's hands. Green Lantern's power ring had saved the day, once again.

The other Nazis started reaching for the weapons. Doctor Mid-Nite threw his body forward, like a base runner reaching for home plate with the winning run. He felt the sudden impact against Mueller's body as he shoved the man forward, smothering him with his own body. As Mid-Nite tucked his head down, he saw a blur of motion in the air as the Atom jumped into the fray and started swinging and kicking at anyone who wasn't a law-abiding citizen.

Doctor Mid-Nite's chest and upper body covered the Nazis head, pinning it face down in the dirt. He rolled off the Nazi leader. He could see flashes from Green Lantern's power ring and men flying through the air. When they landed -- they landed hard on the ground.

Mueller started reaching for a pistol. Doctor Mid-Nite threw himself against Mueller. His right hand closed over Mueller's gun hand. The Doctor's left knee smashed up and forward. The Nazis lips sprang open in a scream, and vomit sprayed from his mouth as Mid-Nite broke Mueller's wrist and slammed the Nazi to the dirt floor.

Doctor Mid-Nite felt a hand on his shoulder and grabbed for it. It was the Atom. "We got 'em all, Doc!" the crimefighter said.

The Master of Darkness nodded. "They said there were six bombs under the Capitol -- see how many are here."

He then bent over and picked the Nazi up roughly. "Alright, you refugee from the past, you're going to answer some questions."

The Nazi's face was ashen, uncomprehending of what had just happened.

The Atom came back and shouted at the Nazi, "Start tellin' us everythin' ya know before I do a number on your head!"

Mueller looked at the Atom and spat at him.

The Atom punched the man in the face. As the Nazi fell to the ground, he landed on his already broken right wrist. The man screamed in pain and sprawled forward.

Green Lantern came over and informed Doctor Mid-Nite, "Two bombs here. One still missing."

Mid-Nite nodded and then grabbed their prisoner by the hair. "We don't have time to fool with you. Unless you enjoy pain, you will answer our questions."

The Atom shouted, "I'm gonna personally castrate one member of the superrace in ten seconds if ya don't lead us to the bomb!"

Doctor Mid-Nite watched as Mueller's eyes widened disdainfully. Doctor Mid- Nite pulled harder on the man's hair.

Mueller's face became distorted with pain, and the Atom rammed his foot into the man's testicles. The Nazi began to yell. "W-who are you?!"

"Never mind who we are," the Atom replied. "Where's the last bomb, ya Nazi clown?"

"I-it's ... it's a hundred yards farther down the tunnel. I-I'll tell you whatever you want to know -- just keep him ..." his eyes went to the Atom "... away from me!"

Doctor Mid-Nite looked at the Nazi. He would had loved to let the Atom have his way and end the love life of a Nazi superman. Instead he slapped the man across the bridge of the nose and let the Nazi's head slump back into the puddle of vomit on the dirt floor.

"Ah, why didna let me do that, Doc?!" the Atom exclaimed.

Doctor Mid-Nite was all business. "Tie him up and then get on the radio and let them know upstairs that the Capitol tunnels are clear."

It was seven minutes until six in the morning. The worst, he knew, was yet to come.

To be continued ...