8 Justice League the Corps

Huntress slowed the motorcycle down. The Star Sapphire Corps lifted into the air. There were easily over fifty women, all armed with a violet power ring, or as in Carol's case the star sapphire itself. The worst part was Huntress recognized Fire, Ice, Galatea, Ivy, Talia, and Wonder Girl. She thought she'd spotted Owlwoman as well but she was without her goggles so it was hard to make a precise identification. The others were all aliens, except maybe for that blonde that gave them the stink eye.

Huntress and Catwoman dismounted. Catwoman pointed towards the heart of the plaza, "The Marvel men are down."

Huntress nodded towards a winged heap, "So's Hawkgirl. You check on the Marvels. I'll see about Shayera."

"Aren't Mary Marvel and Green Lantern supposed to be here too?" Catwoman sought clarification.

"Yeah, but they're not out here. They're probably inside," Huntress guessed.

"I don't like the look of this," Catwoman admitted, "These are some of our best people."

"Look, just check on them," Huntress grew irritable. She didn't need to be told how bad it was. She could see how bad it was. John and Mary's absence only made the possibilities worse.

She finally got Selina off and running when she approached Shayera's still form. Huntress knew she had to be careful. Shayera was a fighter and she'd been knocked out during combat. She was going to wake up fast and hard, looking for a fight. The trick was to give her as little to work with as possible.

Huntress kicked at the Thanagarians legs, "Hey! Get up!"

After a few tries at this, she realized it wasn't a happening deal. She edge closer and tapped Shayera's rib cage with her boot. Again, she cajoled the other woman to wake up. Sighing, she knelt down on one knee and poked Shayera in the ribs with her finger.

"You'd better not be playing possum," Huntress growled.

Seeing no other recourse, she rolled Shayera onto her back. There was some concern as to how this would affect her wings but at this point, Huntress just wanted to see if she was still alive. She slapped Shayera across the face.

"Hey!" she shouted.

Shayera threw a punch as she bolted upright. Huntress fought her instincts and merely deflected the blow. Shayera looked very much like a bird killed with a pellet gun and it plucked at Huntress's heartstrings…not that she would ever admit that.

"Ease off, Pocahontas," Huntress remarked, "I'm a friend."

Shayera blinked a few times as she gathered her wits. Last thing she remembered was getting mashed by Star Sapphire…Carol Ferris…whatever the hell she was calling herself today. Realization suddenly struck her and its stabbing coldness sucked her breath away.

"John!" she blurted. "Where is he?"

"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me," Huntress admitted.

"He's inside," Shayera remembered, "We have to get to him."

"All right, follow me," Huntress rose to her feet.

Shayera shot her a hot tempered glare. Huntress rolled her eyes, "I'm just saying you might need a moment to pull yourself together."

Shayera got to her feet. She tried to hide the dizzy spell that nearly overwhelmed her. Huntress snorted.

"Oh yeah, you're at the top of your game," she said derisively.

Shayera hefted her mace, "Just stay out of my way."

"Yez, Boss." Huntress flippantly remarked. She turned and called to Catwoman, "Selina! Stay with the boys. Shayera and I are going to check out the UN."

Huntress couldn't here Catwoman's reply but she bet it was a doozy. Shayera was already storming off into the building. Huntress tried to keep up. She may be wounded, shorter, and a creature of flight but damn she could walk fast.

They followed the general path of destruction and found themselves led to the General Assembly. Medical staffers and delegates were looking over John and Mary. Shayera knew it was pointless in Mary's case but her heart froze as she saw the EMT's working on John.

She clipped the mace to her belt and pushed her way through the crowd. John was awake and sitting up, answering questions. She broke through the bodies and came down onto her knees and fiercely hugged him. It seemed as though she wouldn't let him go and John began to chuckle.

"It's okay, Shay. They let me live. At the end, they didn't have to but they did," he confided.

"Let's get you to your feet," Shayera suggested. She stood and held out a hand for him. He took it and her stronger than human muscles helped pull him up.

Huntress showed up at last, "Fine, leave me why don't you?"

"If you can't keep up, maybe you shouldn't be in this game," Shayera shot back, "Or are you only good at spying on people in their bedrooms?"

Huntress blanched and Shayera adopted a cold smile, "Yes, I know about the monitor womb and your little hobby. More to the point, Sue and J'onn know about it as well. How long did you think you could keep it a secret anyway?"

"Like you didn't keep it a secret?" Huntress retorted.

Shayera was ready to unleash a harsh retort when John distracted her, "Where's Carol and the Sapphires?"

"I have no idea. They flew away before I came to," she confessed.

"They knocked you out?" he asked worriedly.

"She looked like a dead parakeet," Huntress laughed.

Shayera was ready to use her mace to cave Huntress's skull in. John suddenly asked the Italian the question on his mind, "Where did they go?"

"They flew off towards downtown when Catwoman and I arrived," Huntress shared.

John mulled it over and reached a decision, "Shayera, I want you to stay here and oversee the mop up."

"You've got to be kidding," Shayera said flatly, "What makes you think…?"

He interrupted her, "I'm giving you an order. I don't have to think about it."

Shayera unloaded a right cross on his jaw. He staggered to his right and spit out blood, "What the hell?"

"Damn you, John! We're partners! I'm not one of your tin soldiers you can order about. I signed on for us which means we're in this together," Shayera was seething.

John struggled to reply but she beat him to it and when she spoke, her voice was very still and very cold, "This is because of the baby, isn't it?"

Huntress's ears perked up.

"Shayera, this…" he struggled for words.

"This is because we lost the baby," her voice was very low and held a very dangerous edge to it.

"I don't…" John stumbled over the words.

"You don't what, John? You don't trust me? Is that it? Or maybe the infamous, 'I don't blame you?' Was that a lie?" Shayera demanded.

"Don't you think we'd better discuss this in private?" John asked, the entire room was riveted and the UN translators were transcribing the exchange for their ambassadors.

"I don't give a damn!" Shayera yelled, "Did you lie to me? Do you blame me for what happened?"

"No!" John asserted, "I don't blame you. I've never blamed you and I won't blame you. It was accident, one that we both learned from. Remember our deal? When you get pregnant, I take time off alongside you so that we can protect the baby."

"Will you blame me for that as well?" Shayera demanded.

"How can I blame you when it'll be fifty percent because of me?" he asked.

"Humph!" Shayera snapped.

"Look, I just felt a little out of control and I didn't want you getting hurt. Carol said some things that made me realize how much I loved you and I don't want to see you get hurt," John confessed.

"I'm a Thanagarian, John. I stick around for the fights, all of them. Don't you think I don't feel the same way about you? We're partners, dammit. Where you go, I go. Who else is going to watch your back the way I will?" Shayera argued.

John was thoroughly humbled, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't try to control you."

"Damn straight!" Shayera and the Huntress said as one.

Shayera cast an appraising eye Huntress's way and for once, it was one of approval.

"You will never control me, John. I will literally break you if you try. And it won't just be your body that I tear to shreds. Got it?" Shayera queried him.

"I got it," John promised.

"Now, is anyone going to help poor Mary?" Shayera wanted to know.


Katma barely blocked the force beam emitting from Sinestro's ring. It wasn't even a construct. It was a sheer blast of power. Besides her personal field she was cowering behind a wall-like construct. The wall was eroding away and she could feel the blast chipping away at her personal field. Suddenly, her ring started flashing.

Focusing all of her will into a single shot, she hit Sinestro in the chest with a battering ram. He ended his assault to tend to his bruised ribs and Katma caught her breath.

"Sinestro, we have to…" she began.

He cut her off with his typically superior manner, "Well played Tui, but I sense you don't have enough left in you for another. I shall now…" he strutted before she cut him off.

"They're here, you idiot!" Katma yelled.

"Who's here?" Sinestro was caught unawares.

"Dear Sinestro, why are you here?" Carol asked from her position behind him.

"Corpsmen halt!" Sinestro commanded.

The Yellow and Green Lanterns broke off their engagements. Kara took one more shot at Arkillo's ribs. He doubled over and shook a fist at her as she floated on over to Kyle's side.

"Carol," Sinestro said formally.

Carol smiled, "You can do better than that. We're still teammates, after all."

"Are we?" Sinestro asked, "Star Sapphire was a member of the Legion of Doom. Carol Ferris wanted nothing to do with them and you are Carol Ferris once again, are you not?"

Carol pursed her lips, "I see your point. What brings you to Earth? I'd heard you were limiting your own involvement with the Legion."

"I'm here because of you," he declared, "You steal the minds of my Corpsmen. I was able to restore them but the damage was done. Their hearts have been irrevocably altered. I cannot allow this, Carol. In repayment to debts long standing, I am willing to let you slide by in exchange for promises that you will no longer 'convert' my Corpsmen. Of course, your Star Sapphire Corps will have to disband and surrender their rings."

Carol laughed, "And why is that?"

"Your women are a menace. They disrupt the natural order," Sinestro determined.

"Why do you fear love?" Carol asked.

"I fear nothing!" Sinestro spat, "I master my fear and it obeys me. Your so-called love is an abomination. It rejects mastery."

"So, like the wielders of Will, the masters of Fear also seek to control love but unlike Will, whose sole aim is control, Fear is motivated by a rejection of what Love could be and its power over the heart," Carol summarized.

"I am not motivated by fear!" Sinestro insisted.

"Tell me about you lost love," Carol urged.

"What?" Sinestro was seriously rattled.

"Tell me about the pain of her loss and how you're afraid to love again for fear of another loss. You reject love because you feel it drove you to failure. You couldn't protect her because you loved her so why love at all?" she recited.

"You'd best not go there," Sinestro warned in a low voice.

"But you can feel it, can't you? When you protect the innocent, it's there. A vestige of love. A vestige of her. You carry it with you and it is the one thing, the only thing you think you fear. Yet there is one fear that is greater. That fear is of a life without love," Carol pronounced.

"Silence!" Sinestro screamed. As before with Katma, he unleashed a beam of pure force. No artistry or imagination, just raw emotion. Carol easily weathered its storm.

The other Sinestro Corpsmen took a cue from their leader and also attacked. Arkillo fired a battering ram into Galatea's stomach. The Argoan shrugged it off and nearly tore his head off with a right cross.

Karu-Sil manifested her beast constructs and Fatality responded with her armored swordsmen. The swordsman sliced one beast in half, followed by another. The third went down and Karu-Sil attacked. She used her ring to plow through the swordsman construct. She physically grappled with Fatality, baring her sharpened fangs.

Fatality drove a knee into Karu-Sil's stomach, a right across her jaw, and a wheel kick across her face. Karu-Sil crouched like a feral animal, growling, and snapping her jaws. Fatality adopted a ready stance just before the Corpsman attacked. She moved with the fluid grace of a dancer and the destructive precision of a martial artist. Karu-Sil soon limped back behind the line of Sinestro Corpsmen.

The others all created various constructs and the Sapphires responded. The Corpsmen were vastly outnumbered and their constructs failed. Soon it was all they could do to stay alive.


"Kat, what do we do?" Kilowog asked.

"We stay out of it," she answered, "This is a grudge match between Sinestro and the Star Sapphires. Hopefully they'll wipe each other out."

"It just looks as though the Sinestro Corps will be wiped out today," Tomar-Re commented.

"No great loss," Arkus opined.

"One thing that I don't like is that they've separated us from Kyle," Katma observed, "If they are here to collect him…"

"Leave it t'me," Kilowog volunteered.

He navigated the energy streaming back and forth between the Sapphires and the Corpsmen. He hoped whoever owned the apartment building serving as the backdrop to this fiasco had insurance. It was getting demolished. Suddenly a major structural support was blown away. The top seven floors of the apartment complex began to slide off.

"Kat!" Kilowog shouted and used his ring to catch a portion of the debris. All of the GLs besides Kyle joined in and they floated down towards the streets below, carrying the building with them. They could see people still inside some of the apartments. Katma could only pray they wouldn't do something stupid.


"Sisters, now!" Carol decreed.

The Sapphires combined their efforts and all of the Sinestro Corpsmen were knocked out of the sky. Carol had a fleeting concern over the fate of Murr and Slushh and whoever they might land upon. But she'd never have another opportunity like this.

"Kyle, come to me," she commanded.

"I don't think so," he retorted.

Carol smiled, "Reach inside and touch our bond. I'm in you and you're in me. Reach for it and embrace it and me. You hear that tiny voice? You see that violet light within your mind? Go towards it."

Kyle wavered and Kara looked at him, "Kyle?"

"Reach for it," Carol urged.

Kyle's eyes suddenly became violet and Kara recoiled. Turning on Carol, she asked, "What did you do to him?"

"I gave him his heart's desire," Carol laughed, "Can you say the same?"

Kara came at Carol, "Let him go!"

Carol swatted her aside with a bat construct. She turned to the assembled Sapphires, "To Zamaron!"

The Star Sapphire lifted into the sky. Carol took Kyle by the hand and led him to the stars, "Come, my darling. Our love will be complete."

Kara recovered and raced upwards as the Sapphires broke orbit. Kara held her breath as she exited the atmosphere. Carol looked to Kyle, "Dissuade her."

Kyle hesitated and Carol whispered into his ear, "Do it for me. For our love together."

Kyle stretched his ring hand back and shoved Kara back into the upper atmosphere with a hand construct. She attempted to persue once again but this time the hand became a fist with brass knuckles and hit her. She plummeted down into the lower atmosphere before she could halt her descent.

Using her vision powers, she witnessed the Sapphires using a spatial rift to transit further into the universe. She stopped where she was at and plaintively said, "Kyle?"

Katma and the others had dropped off the building fragment and now joined Kara. Katma placed a reassuring hand on the Argoan's shoulder.

"Whatever it was that she did to him, we'll undo it, and get him back," Katma promised.

Kara met her gaze with a fierce glare, "And I'm coming with you."

The Green Lantern smiled, "I think we can arrange for more than that."

Kara was puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"I'm thinking John would be right on this one. It's time to call in the Justice League," Katma decided.

"But where did they go?" Kara asked the obvious question.

Katma's smile was a cruel one, "Let's see if Sinestro knows."