Thanks for reviewing. Hope you don't think this lame when I say who these guys are. By the way, one of these mystery people's names has three different versions, for this story I will be using the one that fits most in the story. (You'll understand later!)
"So what do you think did that? Is it human blood?" Flash asked walking over to Batman. "Bats?" He touched his shoulder, causing Batman to jerk his head up. "Sorry."
"I don't know Flash. I don't believe it's human, but I'm just waiting for the last of the results."
"Okay." He turned and walked out of the lab (Don't know if they have one in the watch tower, but they do now!). He couldn't shake the shivers running up and down his spine, something was very wrong; he just had to figure out what.
Walking across to the kitchen he heard raised voices. He stopped and thought better of going into the kitchen now, although he was seen as a bit of a goof, he had learnt to stay away from John ever since Hawk Girl had left. He rubbed his shoulder involuntary. He still remembered when John first lost his temper. He turned away from the door and went up to his room.
"I think I deserve to know what's going on!" John yelled.
"John you are not getting involved in this. You've been distant from us, you need time to sort yourself out." Superman tried to explain.
"I'm fine." He watched superman's face. "Honest!" he added at the uncertain look on Clark's face.
"Okay." Superman sighed. The green Lantern nodded and walked down to the lab to see about the results. "You still avoiding him?" he turned to watch Flash who had whizzed by into the kitchen.
"I finally figured out when to leave things be." He half joked while stacking up some sandwiches.
"How bad was it?" Superman leant against the doorway.
"Black bruise for five days, its green now." He muttered then zipped off before Clark could say anything.
"Superman?" he sighed again and answered Diana's call.
"Yes Diana?"
"We have a new problem. I don't know if it's connected."
"Where are you?"
"Out skirts of California. Near the farming community."
"Right I'm on my way."
"Bring Batman as well, he may want to examine this."
"Okay..." An eavesdropper cut off Clark.
"I'm coming too. I don't want to get information second hand again."
"Are you sure John?" Diana asked.
"Yes!" he half yelled.
"Alright! Just be here quick!" she cut off.
After a few minutes debate they decided that J'ohn would take up the rest of the experiments and Flash would watch the monitors for a while. They both flew down with batman in his new space bat mobile.
"So it's animal then? Well that's a relief, but still...why send such a message?" John said as he flew beside Superman.
"A warning I guess." He mused, more to himself.
The three of them reached Earth and followed Diana's directions to the small town near the farms. They eventually found her, but no needed to ask why they were here.
"What on Earth did this?" The Green Lantern asked staring in horror and revulsion at the shop in front of him.
Batman walked in to the store hoping to high heaven that he wouldn't throw up. He collected some samples together and quickly strolled outside.
"Is there anything else like this?" he asked Diana, but a woman to her side stepped up.
"Yes there is. My friend said the field nearby was just like this." Batman nodded his thanks and moved off to the field she had pointed to. They had just gotten to the outskirt of the town when they stopped.
"Do you think it's a disease?" Superman asked.
"Possibly. If so then it's rather new." Batman answered as he walked into the nearby fields. He stepped up to the first row of crops and touched some branches. They seemed to wither further.
"Great first a store containing rotten food and now withered crops. I assume they were fine a while ago?" John said looking from Diana to Superman and then to Batman. "Think someone sprayed the field?" He asked hoping that this wasn't an outbreak.
"No!" Batman answered simply. "There's no residue, normally there would be some sort of left over on the soil of plant. And why leave the other field in tact?" He bent down and collected some soil in a vial and then collected some of the withered leaves.
"The soil's been watered, it might be in with the water." John suggested.
"How human!" Everyone looked up and all jaws dropped. A hooded figure sat upon a horse. It was the horse that startled them, standing a good ten foot in mid-air above them. It looked at them with sunken eyes and sagging skin; it looked like it had been starved. The hood looked down at it's horse and nodded. "This is Hambre. It means Hunger in Spanish." The figure chuckled at Diana's revulsion.
"What are you?" John said, raising his hand and allowing his ring to glow threateningly. The figure laughed even more and waved a tanned hand over the field next to them. Everyone watched, shocked, as the plants withered before them. The figure snorted a laugh and charged off on the flying horse to the town.
The others were about to follow when they noticed three other horses joining the first, each with a hooded person on their backs.
"I think we may need help with this." Superman said.
"We can handle them." John growled, wanting to fight.
"No I think there's something more behind this. I think there strong, we need back up, Flash would be hard to catch and so would J'ohn. I say we call them and wait until they get here." John frustratingly sighed and clenched his fist.
"Fine!" he said through gritted teeth. He watched the four people fly to the centre of the town and hover, waiting for them.
"What are they doing?" The red cloaked one asked.
"Calling the others." The tall brown one on Hambre said.
"So we wait for the fast one?" The blue cloaked one asked.
"Yes. You three distract them, I'll collect the prize." The leader said.
"Then?" The other three asked simultaneously.
"Then if they aren't weakened by grief then we kill them too."
"And then..."
"We fly out..."
"And we do what we do best..."
"We reap our harvest!" The three chorused together.
I hope someone has figured out who these guys are...please tell me if they're lame. I don't want a bad rep. For stories...always wanted to try writing from this angle!!
Please review if you like, don't bother if you can't come up with Constructive Criticism.