CHAPTER 36: WRATH
-Watchtower-
All the crew and heroes that were on duty at the time were just going about their business as usual. Most of the heroes were off duty and just relaxing, talking or something else to pass the time. At least they were until the alarm went off. "All League members report to the launch bays, I repeat all League members report to the launch bays!" J'onn's voice called out through the announcement system.
Immediately all the heroes started to rush off to the bays that were currently on the station. All of the heroes jumped into the massive cavernous launch bay as all the Javelins were being prepped and ready. Each ship was filled with four heroes and then launched. In the control room J'onn was overlooking it from the control room, "Everyone there is a hostile alien force on the way, we need all Javelins up in orbit now and put into standard holding pattern."
He looked over at the rest of the bridge crew, "Start having teams on the surface pulled up immediately. We'll need all members up here for this."
The main chief in charge of the operations this shift nodded, "Yes sir, but sir…Uh…we're not picking up anything on sensors are you sure we're being invaded?"
The green Martian looked at the man and for a moment he felt that the normal passive face held a hint of annoyance that was kind of scary. It was a quick change and for a moment he thought he had just imagined it. "You don't have to worry about that," He told him as his eyes glowed for a moment.
"Yes…I don't have to worry about it," The operator said in a strange voice as he went back to duty. J'onn gave a small smile, it was easy to manipulate the minds of the workers on the station. He was surprised they never had them put mental shields on any of them. So far he had used his influence to start herding groups into more secure areas as Diana then sealed those areas off. They had slowly been taking over the station piece by piece.
First thing they had done was to bring up their Superman in his double's clothing of course as he had taken steps to reroute the other one's communicator. The plan was simple as they slowly started to take over the station while Green Lantern and Hawkgirl stayed guard over the other Wonder Woman, they would stage this phony invasion. The Javelins thanks to the simplicity of the controls up here and telepathically taking control of a few key personnel had reprogrammed them to eventually fly into the sun when he gave the command code.
They would take out all the heroes and then use this canon on the station to bring this world under their control, eventually making an army that they would bring to their own world to take it back. Then they would be in charge of two Earths. Then on the teleportation pad across from him stood one of the last teams. He saw Diana's little sister as he learned through the memories of the one he took and of when his saw the images of her and that boy.
With Wonder Girl were Vixen, Long Shadow and Green Arrow as he stepped forward, "Hey what's going on? All we heard was something about an emergency?"
"Yes we are facing a hostile alien force and need everyone to report to the launch bays." The alien told them all seeing their surprised reactions. As soon as they stepped off the pad another teleport happened and Flash stood there.
"Hey, we being invaded again?" He asked with a smile trying to down play it a bit to help ease his own nervousness and anyone else about this, "Man did someone tell the entire universe to start invading Earth or did the Thanagarians put a giant 'kick me' sigh on our planet that no one told me about?"
For a moment J'onn was taken with the moment of seeing him again, even if not the one they knew. He looked, sounded and acted exactly like the Wally they had lost. It was both delighting and heartbreaking. Looking at him brought back all the good memories of them all together and then the ones of his death at the hands of Luthor. He quickly pulled out of his memories as one more person showed up, and he was a bit more surprised to see Spider-Man there.
He looked around a moment, "Is this a bad time cause I got bad news?"
"Actually can this wait?" J'onn asked him, "we're in the middle of a crisis and where is Supergirl? She's not answering her communicator."
"She turned it off," Peter explained, "But trust me this is important! I found out-" But he never got to
finishing as J'onn looked at him sharply.
"We don't have time for his I need you all to report to the launch bay…Now!" He shouted out and they all were surprised by this.
"Uh…yeah come on guys," Flash said as she lead them away although they all were wondering what was going on. "Geez I think the big guy needs a vacation or something."
"Something is not right he seems strange," Donna told as they walked the corridors she also looked around and felt it was a bit empty around here more then usual.
"You got that right," Green Arrow hadn't like how J'onn acted.
"You guys may be right," Spider-Man told them, "I didn't notice it at first but my spider-sense was going off there and it spiked when he shouted at us."
Donna, Flash and Green Arrow looked surprised at Spider-Man they knew about that power and what set it off. Long Shadow looked confused between them all, "Uh…Excuse me but…Spider-sense?"
"Oh right you're still new," Flash grinned at him, "See Spidey here has this danger sense that goes off when he's in danger and only danger."
Long Shadow then caught on, "So if that went off with J'onn who normally is one of the most calming and peaceful man I've even met…"
"Then something is going on," Green Arrow finished for him thinking about all of this. Something just didn't feel right at all about this. It was nagging him ever since they got up here that something was off and it wasn't leaving him alone.
"It gets worse," Peter said as they walked on, "I found out who made the Cyber-Spider gear…It was Doc Ock." At that both Flash and Donna stopped cold. Donna had used his training programs a few times that had that villain from his home reality in it and Flash had heard a few stories as well.
"But…How?" Flash asked him, the League had never been able to figure out just how Peter ended up in this reality.
"When I find him I'll be sure to ask him," Peter said to them although his voice had a slight edge to it.
Just then through Spider-Man's and Batman's communicator came Batman's voice, "Flash, Spider-Man we have a problem."
"Great what's one more?" Peter sighed, "It's going to be one of those days I just know it…Man I should have listened to that voice in my head to just stay in bed."
"Yeah I got that too," Flash nodded even he knew this was going to be one of those days too, "So what's up Bats? Cause at the moment we may or may not be facing an alien invasion, J'onn is acting strange and one of Spidey's enemies from his home universe is here apparently. So unless you got something that can equal that I'd like to see you try," He grinned.
"The Justice Lords are here,"
Peter looked at Flash, "You just had to give him that opening didn't you?" Peter told him.
-Batcave, a few minutes earlier-
Bruce had listened to the entire story and he was right, he didn't like this at all. He saw a copy of the prison break footage and he had to admit he never expected this to happen. He had figured Peter had been a fluke at best but now seeing yet another person from that world involved forced him to rethink that. This meant there had to be some way to and from that other world and Doc Ock seemed to have the ability to travel between worlds a very troubling piece of knowledge.
If he could do that then there was no telling who or what else he could take with him from any world.
"I better contact the League about this, they need to be warned," Bruce went to his linkup with the Watchtower but then noticed that an alert went on.
"What's that?" The other Supergirl asked seeing a lot of red flashing images.
Bruce narrowed his eyes, since he had the Watchtower built he had placed in certain secret programs to help him keep tabs on things from the Batcave. He had never thought to tell the others this since this was one of the precautions he took just in case something went wrong. And given his experience things always went wrong at some point.
"The Watchtower is on high alert but I can't find a reason for it," Batman told them as he scanned in the data on the screen.
"It's them, it has to be," The other Batman spoke up. It was too much of a coincidence that this would happen after a few days of the League coming here. Besides from what he had guessed from hearing about what was happening in this world, it was obvious they had already neutralized at least two of the original team.
"Great, so now what?" Supergirl asked them.
"This is strange," Batman said looking at the communications logs, there was an abnormality in there. "Superman's communicator has been blocked by the Tower."
"Can you fix it?" Kara asked him, "Maybe if they turned his off then it's the real one."
"Makes sense," The Justice Lord Batman nodded. They would want to isolate the others and cutting him off from the Tower and the others would be the perfect way to get him alone without any help from the others.
Meanwhile this Batman was rerouting the communications to the Batcomputer and also trying to hide it from the station's log. It wasn't easy but it wasn't difficult either since he didn't want anyone to notice. There was no telling who he could trust of the original members at the moment. Then he finally got Superman's communicator working, "Superman, we got serious trouble."
"Batman? I've been trying to get in touch with the Tower for the past fifteen minutes, I thought it was broken." Came the voice on the computer. For a moment Kara tensed up hearing that voice again. She knew that it wasn't her Clark but that voice still effected her. Kara knew that she would have to face the other versions of the Lords here. Even being with two Batmen was hard enough and she wasn't looking forward to seeing the others.
"We got major problem at the Tower how fast can you make it to The Cave?"
"I can be there in ten mintues."
"Good see you here," Batman then shut off the line as he thought for a moment. He looked through the transportation logs and found that over ninety percent of all heroes were on the station at the moment.
"What are you looking for?" His 'twin' asked him.
"Allies," Batman bluntly said to him, there were only a few people that he felt he could trust at the moment that were on the Tower. By the looks of the internal scanners most of the heroes were already in Javelins and launching. But then he found at least two people he knew he could trust and could use. He activated the communication gear as he patched in a direct line to the two active communicators.
"Flash, Spider-Man we have a problem," He said to them over the line. There was no Justice Lord Flash and Peter he knew was trust worthy.
"So what's up Bats? Cause at the moment we may or may not be facing an alien invasion, J'onn is acting strange and one of Spidey's enemies from his home universe is here apparently. So unless you got something that can equal that I'd like to see you try," Came Flash's humorous response over the line.
Bruce sighed internally, and wondered why Wally had to make a joke all the time. At least Peter could be serious when the time came for it but both of them he would need for this and anyone they could get as well, "The Justice Lords are here."
"You just had to give him that opening didn't you?" They heard Peter's voice over Flash's communicator.
"Look I can see part of what's going on from here," Batman told them and then brought up a secure part of the Watchtower. "I'm fooling the security system into thinking that the private teleportation room for the core League will be empty I want you all to gather there and wait for us."
Batman was glad he installed that secondary teleporter unit. It was much smaller then the main one and it wasn't on most of the blueprints. It had mainly been used when the League members wanted to transport privately without anyone knowing where like when Clark wanted to visit his parents. The information for that was kept in its own closed off computer system with heavy encryption. It was located near the main chambers that the core members used to plan out meetings and it was the area with it was off limits behind a heavy security system.
He just never hoped that he would use it as an alternate way up to the Tower but given their past it seemed like the right thing to do. He sat back and turned to face the other two, "As soon as Clark gets here we'll go up and explain everything to the others."
"What about the security on the station? I take it you have something planned." It wasn't a question from his double because in his position he would have done exactly the same thing.
This universes Batman nodded his head, "Yes I put in a virus while in the communications system after a certain amount of time all the security features will go offline so at least then they can't track us."
"Well that's good but what's the plan so far?" Kara asked them.
"We'll work that out with the others," Both Batman stated at the same time. Kara just rolled her eyes at that and hoped they didn't keep on doing that. It was a bit annoying and creepy.
-Peter and Kara's Apartment-
After talking to Cyber-Spider, Kara and Peter had left. Peter had gone up to the tower to report about this but Kara thought that he could handle it. At the moment she was just worried, Peter was very quiet about all of this. She knew that Doctor Octopus was one of his deadliest of enemies but there was another thing that worried her. If he had come here then maybe there was a way to send him back and if so would Peter go as well?
She knew this wasn't his home, maybe it might never fully be his home. It was true that when he got here he was in so much pain but he was better now. What if he chose to go back? She could end up loosing him forever. It was that thought that made her want to go off on her own to think, she tried calling Barbara in Gotham but all she got was the machine most likely out as Batgirl. So Kara decided that maybe a few hours of crime fighting in New York would help her out at least.
After foiling a few robberies, muggings and some idiot trying to be a human fly and climb up a building and nearly falling to his death. By the time she got back home she didn't feel much better as she walked across her room and sat on her bed grabbing her favorite stuffed animal. It was something she had won on her first fair in her life on Earth. Mainly a stuffed brown bear, as she looked on her dresser. There were a few pictures on there, one of her and the Kents, Lois, Clark, a few old friends from Kansas, Barbara and her, but what she really looked at was one of her and Peter.
It was those pictures you take in a photo booth, they had taken that from one of their first dates. Half was missing as Peter kept the other half. "What am I going to do huh?" She looked at her bear and asked, "I don't want to loose him but if he wanted to go home could I stop him?"
All she got of course was silence and she sighed and placed him gently back on her bed. It wasn't like she could talk to the girls at work about this, Donna might be a possibility. She just stood up and sighed thinking of making a snack or something. Kara didn't bother to sigh as she walked out of her room, she jumped the small railing and floated on down to the lower level and to the kitchen.
As soon as she hit the floor she heard something behind her and spun around. Her eyes widened at what she saw, "Well hello Supergirl or do you prefer Kara Kent?" Doc Ock was right there in their apartment sitting on a chair looking like he made himself at home. Kara wasn't sure what she was more shocked by, the fact that he was here in their home or that he knew who she was."
Doc Ock grinned at her expression, it wasn't hard both that other Superman and the fact that once he found out where Peter lived as soon as she moved in her name was now in the system as well and had been easy enough to gain.
"I was hoping for you or Parker to show up but I was hoping for you first since this would make it much more interesting."
Kara wasted no time and flew towards him gripping his brown coat and slamming him against the wall. Then several of his tentacles came out and wrapped around her arms and legs but she didn't budge, she felt their metallic surfaces trying to move her body but she fought it off, "Looks like I'm stronger then your limbs Doc," She smiled at him but when he only smiled in return that's when she started to look a bit worried, because he didn't look worried at all.
"Only for the moment my dear," he said to her and reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small metal box as soon as he opened it a familiar green glow appeared and Kara felt like the wind was knocked out of her in the familiar sensation of Kryptonite washed over her body. "Not so strong are you now?"
With that her body was picked up and slammed into the floor harder, normally she wouldn't have felt it but now it started to hurt. The arms let go as she weakly tried to get up, then one of the tentacles grabbed the back of her cape and lifted her up into the air. She tried to struggle but then one of the metal limbs slammed into her gut causing her to cry out in pain. Doc Ock hit her two more times there and Kara shut her eyes as she tried not to cry from the pain, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Then she felt the cold stinging blow to the side of her face as she was hit across the face. Her cape ripped from the force and she hit the small table in front of the couch by the TV as laid on its hard wooden surface feeling the draining of the radiation of the green rock and tasted blood in her mouth.
"You know you'd think that this Kryptonite would have been hard to find," Doc Ock smiled down at her gloating. "Imagine my surprise at how easy it was to get, I swear this stuff could be bought on E-Bay." He sat on the couch as one of the arms took the box as he sat bad looking at the weak hero.
One of the arms went to his face as he turned to face it, "No we're not killing her, at least not yet," Then another came on the other side looking like it was asking him a question, "Because she's the bait, now remember my children we use the Justice Lords to keep the League busy. Whether they succeed or not we don't care just as long as the League are too busy to help out. We use the girl to draw Mr. Parker out and use her to let him sacrifice himself for her."
Kara saw all of this and tried to get up no matter how weak and hurting she was, "You…Are a…Sick freak! He'll…Never do what you…Want," She spoke through gritted teeth.
"Perhaps on the first part but do you honestly think he can take losing anther person?" He asked her seriously, "You see I know him, I know how he thinks and he'll never allow another person he cares for to die."
"He'll…Stop you, he always did…" She had nearly gotten up but one of the arms slammed against her face causing her to fall onto her back her vision swimming and felt a ringing in her head from the blow.
"Perhaps, but trust me miss Kent this time I'm certain the outcome will be different," He got up and from the coat he pulled out a small video recorder it was a small one but he just needed it for what was to come as he stood over the blond hero. "Now then let's give Parker a nice little show shall we? I want to leave something behind that he'll enjoy and much more personal then just a simple note."
He took the camera in his human hands as he turned it on and shot her face, "Now then…Smile for the camera my dear it's show time."
NEXT UP CHAPTER 37: LEAGUE VERSUS LORD