Chapter 28: Thunder and Brimstone

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"Houston, we have a problem."

I stared at the monitor screen. How could this have happened? How could Luthor have gotten control of the Thunderbolt? I had planned so carefully to avoid this very thing.

"B," Barbara's voice was suddenly excited. "Look at Jakeem."

I tore my glance away from the Thunderbolt and looked at Jakeem. Or rather the hat that seemed to be lifting itself off of his head.

Gypsy.

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I stood next to Gypsy and watched the Thunderbolt as she lifted the hat carefully from Jakeem's head. Her illusion appeared to be holding but I was sure that, if his interest were sufficiently aroused, the Thunderbolt could see through it. For now, though, his attention was on Luthor and Luthor's attention was on the control panel in front of him.

"Jakeem," Gypsy whispered, "wake up. Wake up and call off the Thunderbolt."

I glanced back at them. Gypsy had the Mad Hatter's hat off Jakeem, but still he lolled back in his seat, his eyes unfocused.

Jakeem," whispered Gypsy again, her whisper a little louder, her voice a little higher. She dropped the hat and shook his shoulder instead. Nothing.

I turned my back on the Thunderbolt. If we could not rouse Jakeem, it did not matter whether the illusion held or not. I grabbed both his shoulders and shook him sharply. "Jakeem," I hissed in his ear. Nothing.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Gypsy, a note of panic in her voice.

I steadied Jakeem's head with one hand and peeled back an eyelid with the other. "Drugged."

"Of course," Luthor answered behind me. We both turned around. Luthor smiled gloatingly. The Thunderbolt looked distraught.

"You think I didn't anticipate this little ploy? I drugged him as soon as he had ordered the Thunderbolt to obey me. You've wasted your time, not that you ever had a chance of stopping me. Now, I need to get the other mind control devices working again and you two are a distraction. So," he turned to the Thunderbolt, "kill them."

"No!" cried Gypsy, straightening and staring at the Thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt screamed.

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"My God," Barbara whispered as we watched the Thunderbolt grab his head and scream, "I never dreamed she had such power. Did you?"

"Yes. But she can't hold him for long. Oracle I need to talk to them."

"Gypsy doesn't have a communicator; I wasn't sure she could sneak it through White House security. Although after this display ..." the Thunderbolt was still screaming, "... Diana has one, however. Give me a second ... okay, you're connected."

"Wonder Woman, can you hear me?"

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Luthor stared for a moment at the screaming Thunderbolt, then turned angry eyes on Gypsy and raised his hand, palm outward. I stepped between them and brought up my arms. The energy bolt ricocheted off my crossed bracelets, knocking me backwards and blasting a hole in the ceiling. I bounced off the wall, hard, momentarily dazed by the power of the blow. I stretched out my arms along the wall, propping myself up. My hand brushed against Jakeem's shoulder.

I heard Luthor shout at the Thunderbolt, "Quit yelling and kill them! You're supposed to be this all-powerful being and you're afraid of a simple illusion?" He turned back towards Gypsy and raised his hand again. I dumped Jakeem off the stool and threw it at Luthor. He twitched his arm and blew it to pieces, but I dodged under the blast.

"Wonder Woman, can you hear me?" The sound of Bruce's voice gave wings to my heart, but the timing couldn't be worse.

"Not now," I grated as I slammed my fist up into Luthor's chest, sending him back into his control panel.

"It's important. Toss your communicator to Gypsy, now!"

"She's bus...." The screaming stopped. I turned involuntarily to look at the Thunderbolt. He looked much larger than before and the pink energy crackled and pulsed all around him. He looked ... upset.

"Do it! Oracle will distract the Thunderbolt."

"Me?" squeaked Barbara's voice in my ear. "How?"

"Improvise!"

I ripped the plug out of my ear and tossed it. "Gypsy! Catch!"

Gypsy, who had been staring up in fright at the Thunderbolt, started and grabbed the communicator out of the air. Then I turned back to Luthor. He was pulling himself out of the shattered remains of the control panel. So much for his mind control devices. I leapt forward and slammed him back into the wall behind.

His return blow nearly took my head off and knocked me sideways. I went partly through the hole in the wall and partly through the wall itself and landed in the corridor beyond. I wiped a trickle of blood from my cheek. I looked at Luthor and started chanting.

"Change, change, o form of man..."

Luthor, who had been raising his hand to fire another energy bolt, stopped, curious in spite of himself.

"... Rise, the Demon Etrigan!"

Luthor crooked an eyebrow. "Devil Worship, Wonder Woman? I would never have guessed it of you. I would say it makes think better of you; but the truth is, I have always ...."

Paying no attention to Luthor, I glanced beyond him into the room. It was a gamble: I did not know if the incantation would work while Jason Blood was unconscious, or whether Etrigan could shake off the effect of the blow that had felled Blood. What I saw caused me to grin in triumph. Luthor paused at the sight of my smile.

Behind him, a bulky yellow figure growled:

"Tell me mortal, if you know,

Who it was did lay me low?"

"He did!" I shouted and dodged as a gout of flame enveloped Luthor. He cried out in agony. No merely physical armor could protect against demon-fire.

"You look like a man I'd normally like,

But you find me much too full of spite."

With that he knocked Luthor through the hole and half way down the corridor.

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Gypsy stood, holding the communicator plug in her hand and looking as if she had no idea what to do with it.

"Put it in your ear," I yelled, hoping she could hear me. In the background, I could hear Oracle's voice over the public address system, echoing in the room with Gypsy.

"Johnny Thunderbolt!" Her voice resonated, throbbing with power, and Gypsy jerked out of her stupor and put the communicator plug in her ear.

In the background, Oracle continued, "You are a prince of the 5th Dimension! In fact," her voice got more normal, "you are two princes! And the spirit of a superhero! How can you let Luthor boss you around like that? He's not the seventh son of a seventh son. You're breaking your own rules!"

I focused on Gypsy, filtering out the Thunderbolt's response. "Gypsy, you need to get through to Jakeem, tell him to call off the Thunderbolt."

"But he's drugged. He can't hear me!"

"You have to reach his mind with your power."

"I'm not a telepath, Batman. I just do illusions."

"Do you remember when we first met? You knew I was an orphan, even though Aquaman and J'onn would never have told you. And when we fought Despero, remember? You knew exactly what sort of illusion to throw at him, even though he was an alien and you knew nothing at all about him. You always know what illusion to use on someone, because you pull it out of their mind. You are a telepath, Gypsy and you have to use that ability now or we're all dead and Luthor wins."

"But... but, I don't know how!"

"Create an illusion; one where Jakeem is conscious and can hear you."

"I'll, I'll try."

She closed her eyes and I bit back further arguments. Now, I heard Barbara talking once more.

"Yes, but is the authority transitive?"

"Transi... what?"

"You have to obey him, but can he pass that authority on to another? And for how long? You know Luthor intends to boss you around for the rest of eternity. How is that different from obeying someone other than Jakeem in the first place? Either way, it seems to me you're breaking the rules you set for yourself."

"I don't know... I'll have to check." Suddenly a huge pink volume appeared in the Thunderbolt's hands, labeled 'Genie Law'. He started thumbing through it.

"Jon...ee."

The Thunderbolt dropped the tome and zipped across the room and stood over the sprawled body of Jakeem Williams. Jakeem's eyes were unfocused but his mouth no longer looked quite so slack.

"Jakeem! Jakeem, I don't know what to do. You got to tell me what to do."

"Doan ... 'bey ... 'im."

"What? Don't obey him? Is that what you said? Don't obey Luthor?"

But Jakeem's mouth had gone slack again and his eyes rolled back into his head. The pink phosphorescent pen that was the Thunderbolt's home fell from his limp fingers.

"Jakeem? I don't know what to do. You've got to tell me. Jakeem? JAKEEM!?!" The Thunderbolt's form seemed to expand to fill the room. Then, in a burst of pink light, he vanished. The pen glowed violently pink; then the glow subsided.

"Coward," I muttered. Still, having the Thunderbolt hide in his pen was far better than the situation of a few minutes ago.

"Batman," called Gypsy unsteadily, "Batman, I think we did it."

"Indeed." Luthor's voice shook us all from our dazed relief. He stood in the opening blasted in the wall, dragging an unconscious Diana behind him by her hair. I glanced at another monitor and saw Etrigan's smoking body in the corridor.

Luthor's blast caught Gypsy before she could hide herself, slamming her body against the wall. She collapsed.

"Give it up, Luthor!" Oracle's voice resounded through the room. "The other heroes have defeated your fake JLA, on national TV no less, and Lana Ross has been giving Congress chapter and verse on all your shady dealings since the day you entered the White House. She's more observant and knowledgeable than, I think, any of us gave her credit for. I don't think they needed the video from the surveillance cameras I've been sending them; that was just icing on the cake. You're finished. Don't make things worse for yourself."

Luthor started at this. "I'm still President," he began.

"Wrong," I interrupted, "Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, remember? You were found to be unable to discharge the office due to your wounds. Until you inform Congress otherwise, in writing, you're not President; Ross is."

Oracle continued, "And the only communication you're going to allowed with Congress is to answer the Articles of Impeachment that have been brought against you. Don't add to them by doing something stupid, Luthor."

"Stupid? STUPID!?!" He pulled Diana's unconscious body up in front of him with one hand and put the other palm against her temple. "I may be finished, but I'm not going down by myself. I know who masterminded this. Batman, you've got five minutes to get down here or I start killing them one at a time, beginning with Wonder Woman."

He pointed his palm at the surveillance camera. There was a flash of light and the monitor went dark. A moment later, the monitor in the corridor went dark as well.

I thought furiously. "O, this is what I need you to do."

She listened and said, "On it, B. You be careful."

Although she couldn't see it, I nodded. I stood up, wobbled for a moment, then stepped over to the doorway. I raised my hands and said, "Venificus Contego Genitus".

The magical barrier vanished. The grimoire had been right: it didn't take a sorcerer to undo the spell; anyone could, as long as you were inside the barrier.

On the other side of the doorway stood John Jones and a dozen heavily armed soldiers. He looked grim.

"Batman, huh? I should have known. You're too capable to be FBI."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Your computer friend was kind enough to allow us to share access to our own surveillance cameras. I saw the whole scene."

"Then you know that he'll start killing people if I don't get down there. One of them is President Ross."

Jones looked even grimmer. "So that's the real Lex Luthor down there? And the one we've been guarding in the hospital bed is the clone?"

"The doctors accepted the one in the hospital bed as Lex Luthor," I told him, choosing my words with care. "Until they inform you otherwise, we have to assume the one making the threats is the imposter."

Jones snorted. "I doubt they thought to check whether he was a clone," he snapped, but he looked a little happier. "All right, I have to help you, whether I like it or not. I can supply you with just about any weapon you want, except a batarang."

I shook my head.

"Well, what can I do for you?"

I told him. He looked puzzled.

"You think that will help?"

I didn't answer and he shrugged. "All right. Johnson, get him what he asked for. Meet us at the south elevator." A Secret Service woman nodded and disappeared.

Jones looked me over. "I doubt that you can make it there on your own in," he checked his watch, "four minutes, ten seconds. Andrews, carry him."

Before I could protest, a large black agent threw me over his shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"All right. Let's go."

Author's Note: I have been waiting to use that bit about Batman and Gypsy since they first met in JLA #250 (first series). I think the author, Gerry Conway, intended something like this, but JLA was cancelled less than a year later, and it was forgotten. The spirit of Johnny Thunder, the previous master of the Thunderbolt, merged with the Thunderbolt in the trade paperback, "Stealing Thunder". The bit about the 25th Amendment is true, in case you were wondering.