The Evil Long Forgotten

Chapter 18

By Christopher W. Blaine

e-mail: All of the characters and situations contained in this story are ©2004 by DC Comics Inc. and are used without permission for non-profit, fan related entertainment purposes only. This original work of fiction is ©2004 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced in any manner, in part or as a whole, without the express permission of the author.

"That 'S' on your chest must stand for 'simpleton'" the Atoman laughed as another blast of Kryptonite energy sent the Man of Steel spinning. "I was trained for the sole purpose of defeating the Green Lantern, what hope do you, an unarmed buffoon, hope to have against me"

Superman clawed at the soil, feeling his life pour from his body with every second of exposure to the deadly radiation. He vainly tried to turn his head, to summon his heat vision and mount some sort of defense, but it would not happen. Instead his vision went white as he felt his limbs begin to numb. Wave after wave of power assaulted him, robbing him of his invulnerability and leaving him helpless as a child.

"Nooooooo" Troia screamed, landing next to the Atoman. Caught off guard, the armored villain stepped back and halted his attack on Superman. Troia reached out, cupped the Atoman's neck and shoved him back, forcing him to the ground.

"Donna" Blitzkrieg said, stepping forward. With surprising speed, especially considering her injuries, Troia released her hold on Atoman and flew at Blitzkrieg, landing a haymaker punch to his jaw. Under most circumstances a normal man would have been knocked cold, but his armor and enhanced strength saved him from such a fate. Regardless, he stumbled back, tried to catch himself and fell.

"You bastard! You damn bastard" she said, tears rolling down her face and splashing on the cool green grass. "Get up"

Atoman silently stood up, shaking off the surprise that had taken him down. "Woman! Turn and face your better" he ordered.

Slowly and deliberately Troia turned to face Atoman. "I suggest you shut up" she warned, holding up a finger. "It is not wise to piss off an Amazon."

"Still your vile tongue, whore" he spat in reply. "I do not take orders from a walking womb."

Troia started to march forward. "You are so going to hurt…" she began before screaming as two brilliant red rays of light burned into her back, setting her costume on fire.

"Forgive me, my love" Blitzkrieg pleaded as he stopped the attack.

Troia dropped to her knees and then fell forward onto her hands, the smell of burnt flesh in the air. The pain was so severe that she regurgitated her stomach contents and began to gag. "Stupid woman" the Atoman snickered, stepping forward with a fist glowing green. "She must die, cousin" he called to the Baron.

Blitzkrieg hesitated, looking from Troia to his cousin. Torn between his heart and his duty, his lover and his family, he froze. Atoman looked at him and sensed his weakness. "What did they do to you, cousin? What happened to the man I respected as a boy, the man who had dedicated himself to the Fatherland"

"Do not question my loyalty to Germany" Blitzkrieg snapped despite himself. "I fought the accursed Americans for Hitler and suffered greatly for it! Then I watched that madman tear down all that we had built because he was unfit to lead"

"How can you say that? How can you curse the name of our leader, of our Fuehrer? It was he that brought our nation up after the accursed betrayal at Versailles" Atoman kept his fist held above the neck of the fallen Troia. "Remember what it was like before him, back when the Jews controlled what little dignity our Fatherland had"

"You were not there to watch as your beloved Hitler, shaking and rattling like a frightened old man, sent boys…children…to face the Soviet forces. You were not there to watch as how the allies used our country as a proxy battlefield for their ideologies for decades" Blitzkrieg straightened as his fury fueled his pride. "I found a leader worth serving, a man who will create a world based upon the principles of selective breeding and racial purity."

"Who? Not your Arab friend, your Ra's al Ghul" Atoman began to laugh. "As if someone lower than a Jew could ever do anything besides beg in the street for pocket change! Listen to you! You talk of racial purity yet you serve a brown pig thing." His fist began to glow even more. "Obviously exposure to inferior women has had an adverse effect on you! I will free you, cousin, I will set you back on the course of National Socialism"

Before the Baron could do anything, the hand came down towards Troia's exposed neck. Just before impact, something whirled into and stuck in Atoman's hand. He screamed in rage more than pain and stepped back, pulling out a Batarang. His cousin whirled to see the Flash and Batman standing next to the fallen form of Superman. "Get him out of here; take him to the ocean and wash the Kryptonite off of him" Batman ordered the Scarlet Speedster.

"You do not belong here" the Baron said, well aware of al Ghul's warning to avoid confronting the Batman. The Caped Crusader was always an unknown quantity, his actions unpredictable.

Batman narrowed his eyes. "Surrender. Now."

Atoman threw down the Batarang, roared and launched himself towards the Batman. Blitzkrieg called out a warning, knowing full well from his briefings that no amount of super power was a guarantee of victory against Gotham City's Dark Knight. In fact, so mysterious, so unknown was the Batman that many countries were uncomfortable having him around. Germany was one such nation and despite the Justice League's United Nations clearances, they had specifically demanded that he remain outside their borders.

A foot before the Atoman was about to make contact with his fist, Batman put his foot out and caught the Nazi in the solar plexus. Even as the air rushed out of the Atoman's lungs, the Flash scooped up the moaning Superman. "Nothing better happen to Donna" he warned. He and Troia were former teammates and good friends.

"Just take care of your part" Batman told him as he applied a blow to the stooped over villain's neck. It was nowhere near as hard as what the Atoman wanted to deliver to Troia, but it was enough to send the stunned criminal to the ground hard. Batman then instinctively dropped down and performed a perfect side roll as Baron Blitzkrieg unleashed the fury of his eye beams.

"Insect" the Baron called to him, becoming more agitated as it became apparent that his plans were falling apart. Superman was now, no doubt, being cleansed of his contamination and would very soon begin to regain his strength, especially if the Flash were smart enough to whisk him to someplace sunny. Wonder Woman was down, but he understood that his personal feelings for Troia were compromising his mission. His loyalty to Ra's al Ghul was not swaying, but there was nothing in his orders that called for the murder of the Titan.

Now he was facing perhaps the greatest tactician that the side of "justice" had to offer; a man who had plans for dealing with any and all metahumans in existence.

Then there was his cousin, still full of the party rhetoric, still wanting to be the proud soldier for the cause. If they were not in the heat of battle, perhaps he would be able to shed some light on the fall of the Reich and the way the world worked in the 21st century. Unfortunately, he did not have that luxury.

Another Batarang whirled and struck him in the chest, putting a good-sized dent in it. The Baron moved closer to his whimpering cousin, setting up a barrage of covering fire with his eye beams. He could not keep it up for much longer; already he was getting a headache and the weakness in his legs was an indication he was taxing himself. Even with his restored youth he was not as powerful as all of the forces massed against him.

What was important now was to get his cousin to his master so that al Ghul himself could work on turning him to see the light. "Come, cousin" Blitzkrieg said as he watched Batman move quickly to Troia and then to Wonder Woman. "We must leave"

Atoman shook his head and spoke with great gasps. "No! I…can…still…fight…"

"The mission was to free you, not to fight" he told him as he helped him up. "Can you fly"

Atoman nodded and Blitzkrieg turned one final time to see Troia look straight at him. "I trusted you" she whispered.

A million replies flooded his mind; many of them filled with words of love that he knew would be wasted. Could someone fall in love so quickly? Did he really love her? How could he when she represented all that he stood against? Better to cut her off now, completely, before she rotted from emotional gangrene. "Because you were a gullible and lovesick child" he said, pushing his voice to indicate the hatred he did not truly feel. He saw the pain on her face increase a hundredfold and he was reminded of the day that he came to the realization that Adolf Hitler was a fool and that he had been a bigger fool for following him. "It is no wonder you cannot keep a man" he lied, adding injury to insult.

A third Batarang whirled into his peripheral view and sliced his cheek open in a large gash. He cried in pain and put a gauntleted hand to the wound. "I swear by all I hold dear one day I will crush you"

Wonder Woman began to stir at Batman's feet. "I get that response a lot" Batman replied coolly. "I believe you were told several times to surrender."

Atoman lifted into the air, but the Baron hesitated for a moment. Batman pulled out a line gun and fired, a rope-ejecting out to encircle and trap Blitzkrieg. The Nazi closed his eyes and called on the mutant power that energized him and increased his strength even as he lumped into the sky. Batman held onto the rope and a dazed Wonder Woman half crawled, half tripped after him to assist.

Troia, on her knees, looked up and watched as the ropes snapped, causing Batman to fall forward. Wonder Woman tumbled onto the Caped Crusader and in the distance, the unique sound of European style sirens began to fill the air.

For her part, Troia tried to get up, but her pain was too great, both physically and emotionally. Instead she only watched as the two figures flew out of sight and deeper into her soul.

Steven was kept busy dealing with both army and police personnel as they rounded up the remaining terrorists and set about freeing the captives. A JLA heavy transport under the control of the Flash and Martian Manhunter was loading up with wounded to be taken to a US Army hospital at the nearest base.

Superman still had not returned; the Flash explained that he said he would need a few hours on the beach soaking up solar radiation to counter the effects of the Kryptonite assault he had suffered. Red Star had used his own government contacts to get a division of the Rocket Red Brigade to come help with the clean up of the Kryptonite laced dirt, which would then be loaded onto a spacecraft and shot towards the sun. Any fears of the debris falling into the hands of even more terrorists were hushed by Red Star's personal vow to see all containers of the material loaded onto the rocket.

"You should really leave, Bruce" Wonder Woman whispered as they stood next to a broken wall. "Steven warned us that the German government does not want you here."

"All the more reason maybe why I should be" was the quick response.

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and she saw his skin turn red for a slight moment. "Thank you for saving us; you put your life in grave danger."

"Is there another kind" he asked, not mentioning the show of affection. He looked over to where Troia was sitting as two paramedics applied bandages to her. "Is she going to be okay? I get the sense that there was a lot more going on here than a simple hero versus villain battle."

Wonder Woman said nothing for a moment. "Bruce, have you ever been in love"

"I try to avoid it when possible."

"I'm being serious."

He shrugged underneath the folds of his cape. "Our style of life does not leave much time for such things. Very few heroes can have a stable relationship; the cape is a jealous mistress."

"Clark does well and Lois is not even a metahuman" she pointed out.

"Lois Lane is not normal" he said without any further comment about her. "Look at Ray Palmer and his wife, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Nightwing and the next pretty thing in tights…"

"Is that a joke"

"I don't tell jokes when I'm in costume."

"But are we able to fall in love? Can people like us ever find that special someone" she asked, looking over at Steven. She knew that while he was intelligent, handsome and honest, you could not compare him to the other men in her life. She turned to look at Batman and suddenly saw him differently. There was an air of nobility about him that he tried to cover up, a strong sense of honor and loyalty so uncommon that she realized that she had stopped even looking for it in normal, mortal men.

"Yes, but it is difficult. Your sister has been through quite a bit, I gather; she will need you" he told her.

"The Batman is giving advice on turning to a trusted confidant? Mark it on the calendar."

"You shouldn't tell jokes in costume either" he said.

"Maybe I should take it off sometime…"

Batman's eyes narrowed and then he stated that it was actually time for him to go and that he needed the Flash to drop him off at the Batplane. Wonder Woman nodded, remembering how her sister had tried to teach her to lighten up, to have a little fun now and again.

Through this ordeal Wonder Woman had learned that she and Troia were different; their separate lives, though not of their own choosing, had made them into two distinct individuals. Yet there was a bond between them, something that could not be broken, but something she did not think could ever be fixed either.

But she was still going to try.

With quiet purpose, the Amazing Amazon walked over to her sister, who was now alone with her thoughts and her wounds. Troia looked up. "I screwed up big time" she whispered.

Without hesitation, Wonder Woman embraced her sister and pulled her close. Together they cried so that together they could heal.