10 Justice League Night Falls
Todd changed into his Obsidian costume. Throughout his teen years, he'd been plagued by dreams of a girl his own age. Which was strange to Todd because he normally dreamt of the men he was sexually attracted to. His dreams were so compelling, that after he graduated and was thrown out of the Rice home, he travelled to find this elusive creature.
It turned out Jennie had done the same. Jennie-Lynn Hayden met him in the middle and Todd discovered the twin sister he never knew he had. And like him, she had a strange, inexplicable power. While he could merge with or control shadows, she turned green and had power over a green elemental force.
Stories of Superman and Batman had inspired them so they adopted costumed identities of their own. Together they became Obsidian and Jade. A band of young heroes called Infinity Inc. recruited them. The common thread among the Infinitors was a connection to the Justice Society of America. Most of them were the actual children of JSA members.
That was where they met Atom Smasher and the original Star Spangled Kid. Only the Kid now wanted to be called Skyman. Among the members was a shady character called Mr. Bones. Solomon Grundy killed Skyman using Mr. Bones' cyanide touch and the group fell apart.
Jennie lost her powers around that time but she remained forever green skinned. Atom Smasher joined the newly expanded Justice League Unlimited and recommended Obsidian for membership as well. Mr. Bones disappeared only to become Director Bones of the DEO.
Obsidian shoved all such thoughts aside as he exited his motel room. Another guest happened to be in the hallway and he exclaimed, "Whoa! What are you supposed to be?"
"Your worst nightmare," Obsidian said in a chilly voice.
"Weren't you in the Justice League?" the other guest railed on.
"Not. Any. More," Obsidian grated.
"Did they toss you out or something?" the guest blindly inquired, "What do you have to do to get tossed out of the Justice League."
'This," Obsidian said coldly.
The faint shadows in the hallway came to life and reached out for the annoying guest. He screamed as they enveloped him. They penetrated him and entered his heart, soul, and mind. The shadows withdrew from his flesh but clung to his clothing. His eyes were the purest ebon black. He wore a malicious smile.
Obsidian's answering smile was a cruel one to match; "Now you understand. Wait here for my instructions. Soon there will be more like you. Thousands more. And together we will crush the spirit of Detroit."
The shadow infused man merely nodded and did as he was told. As Obsidian exited the building to get in his car, the man simply stood still and waited. And waited…
Obsidian drove to James Rice's seedy little flat. Shirley had left him long ago and Todd's adoptive brother Jeremy had escaped James' brutal tyranny as well. While Jeremy had shared in the beatings, James had reserved his special "attention" for Todd. Somehow the molestation was forgivable if it wasn't committed on a blood relative.
Atom Smasher had once asked Obsidian if it hadn't been as bad just because he was a homosexual. Obsidian refrained from crushing Atom Smasher's windpipe and angrily told him that sexual abuse was still abusive no matter the sexual orientation of the victim. Al had wisely understood the gaffe he had made and wisely fell all over himself apologizing.
Jennie was the only one that knew how bad it had been for Todd. It had ended when Todd got old enough to literally fight back and hurt James in kind. But the beatings had intensified when Todd could fight back. He'd pulled a few stints in Juvie because James had pressed charges.
Obsidian knew his family tree was twisted enough to earn a bestselling novel. He and Jennie were the children of Alan Scott and Rose Canton. Alan Scott was, of course, the original Green Lantern from the 1940s-50s. He'd spent the years between 1954 and 1987 in the shadow realm dimension Ragnarok ruled by the fire demon Surtur. The shadow energies had kept Alan young and perpetually healed and perpetually restoring the members of the JSA during the thirty year battle.
Obsidian's powers stemmed from that long term exposure to the shadow realms' energies. Jennie derived her gifts from Alan's exposure to his power ring. It tapped into a green elemental fire source that worked very much the same way as an Oan ring harnessing the emotional spectrum of Will. It least in function. Its power source was extremely different.
Since the power came from a manifestation of the Earth itself, he only had limited range outside of Earth's boundaries. Alan could achieve orbit, but anything beyond that and he was cut off from his fount of power. Decades of wielding the ring had infused Alan with a degree of its essence and hence Jennie had been born wielding the same power.
The ring had a strange weakness however. That was to wood. Something about wood being alive made the ring's power ineffective against it. Unfortunately for Alan, dead wood was also included in that array of weaknesses.
Jennie stayed in touch with Alan. Todd did not. He wanted nothing to do with Alan.
She'd told him their father was back in action with the newly restored Justice Society of America. Obsidian wanted to gag. The Infinitors had practically worshiped at the JSA's feet and all they got in return was disapproval.
Green Lantern now called himself Sentinel, Jennie informed Todd. He didn't want to confuse anyone between the original and the newly arrived Green Lantern Corps. Todd thought it a rare move for Alan. It displayed more wisdom than he wanted to give his father credit for.
Of course, Alan hadn't displayed much wisdom when it came to Todd and Jennie's mother, Obsidian bitterly thought. Alan had married Rose Canton shortly after returning to Earth. Being a man out of time, he'd gone to school to update all of his outdated knowledge. He'd met Rose on campus.
It had been a whirlwind romance. So whirlwind, in fact, Alan never realized that Rose was hiding a secret. It wasn't that she was a prize winning botanist. He knew that because she was a professor at the university he attended. No, it was that she was schizophrenic.
She was under treatment but as it got harder and harder to lie to Alan over where she's spent hours of her week, she abandoned treatment. Alan had shared tales of his exploits as Green lantern when he explained why he always wore the green ring that was never found apart from him.
Rose increasingly became delusional. Her delusions eventually manifested in a second personality named Thorn. Rose lost her post at the university but she never told Alan. She went out every morning and wandered the streets. She crafted elaborate tales of how her day went every evening.
Alan wasn't stupid. He knew something was wrong. But he wanted to believe in a happy ever after now that he was free of a hell dimension. So he didn't pursue the discrepancies in Rose's lies.
And then Rose found out she was pregnant. Thorn took over completely at that point and she disappeared. Alan spent thousands of dollars on private investigators trying to find her. He'd never known she was pregnant. Finally, one exceptionally gifted investigator tracked her down ten years later.
Alan assumed his guise as Green Lantern and flew to the given location. There he confronted Rose. Only it wasn't Rose that met him but rather it was Thorn. Knowing of his weakness against wood, she'd spent a decade crafting an elaborate trap with which to kill him. Sadly for all, the trap killed Thorn instead.
In her dying moments, Thorn relinquished control to Rose. Rose made a dying confession of Thorn's existence and of the birth of her children with Alan. He'd been too shocked to respond. With her last breath she informed him that she had given their children away.
Alan had a good paying job but it wasn't enough to cover all of the expenses he'd incur while searching for Todd and Jennie. If it hadn't been for the kindness of Wesley Dodd, Alan would've gone bankrupt several times over.
Wesley had been the Sandman on Earth all those years that the JSA had been locked away in Ragnarok. Wesley had received a vision, as usual, of the future and knew what fate had in store for the JSA. Dr. Fate had informed Wesley the Sandman was needed to establish order while the others were away. So the Sandman had not answered the JSA's summons for the first time in his career.
Wildcat had been killed during the battle with Surtur on Earth and had been reborn by the Nine Lives' Charm after the JSA pushed Surtur back to his home dimension. Ted Grant had assumed his friends had been killed until they returned to Earth decades later. Unlike Ted and Wesley, the JSA was actually younger then when they'd disappeared. Of course, Ted was now decades younger than Wesley.
Wesley Dodd had recently died and left his fortune to Sandy Hawkins, the boy Wesley had accidently turned into the silicate lifeform now known as Sand. Sand had overseen the construction of Wesley's dream: a Justice Society museum. It had also been his idea to actually reform the JSA.
Jennie had kept Todd up to date on all of these events. Obsidian could care less over most of them. The only recent update that had piqued his interest was the revelation that Rose Canton had born a younger daughter after divesting herself of Jennie and Todd.
The Force of July had sought Jennie out. Wanting to recruit her for a mission. Her location was known by and large because how effectively can a woman with green skin hide from the public? In that encounter Jennie met a woman code-named Mayflower. She was a Brit working for the United States government. She did so partially because her mother had been American. Her name had been Rose Canton.
Jennie's eyes must have bugged out of her head because Mayflower had warmly smiled before announcing it was nice to finally meet her older sister. Jennie had met with Mayflower several times in between Force of July missions. But one day, Mayflower had missed their meeting and there had never been another one ever since.
Mayflower had stayed coy about her given name. Citing national security concerns she said she couldn't give it. But, she's said it would make sense if Jennie knew Rose at all. Which of course, Jennie had never met the woman. Mayflower had mirthfully replied that Jennie would never know her name then.
Todd knew Jennie had poured over every detail of Rose's life with Alan afterwards. Alan had been circumspect upon learning Rose had another child out of wedlock. His wife really wasn't his wife at that point. She'd been Thorn and who knew what Thorn was fully capable of.
Obsidian reached James' door. He thought about knocking but that just didn't seem dramatic enough. So he kicked the flimsy door in.
James roused from his stupor long enough to register that he had an intruder. He reached down to the side of the recliner had grabbed a whiskey bottle. God knew he had enough to choose from.
Seeing this particular bottle still had a swallow left, James emptied it first, and then threw it. Obsidian neatly sidestepped it. The room was full of shadows, perfect for manipulating.
Arms reached out from all over the room and grasping hands clawed at James. He screamed as his personal nightmares came to life. Obsidian came to stand before him.
"Prepare to do a lot of that," Obsidian promised.
"Who…what are you?" James managed to gasp
"I'm the past come to haunt you," Obsidian warned.
The voice finally registered with James, "Todd? Is that you?"
Obsidian's smile was genuine, "I'm so glad you remember me. Because I promise you, I remember you."
"Maybe we could share a drink?" James pleaded.
"Oh, I think you've had more than enough for both of us," Obsidian scolded him, "What we're going to do is walk down memory lane. And when we do so, we're going to share the one thing that is between us: pain!"
It was then that James began to scream in earnest. The neighbors began to call the police. But a few moments later, they discovered that there was nothing that an average mortal could do to stem the tide.
"So what do you think?" John asked with an expansive gesture.
Shayera smirked. The pride in John's voice was telling. The house he had designed for them, and their future children, was completed. And she had to admit it was a masterstroke.
"Okay genius. I'll admit. It's pretty wonderful," Shayera confided.
"Wait until you see the inside," John shared.
Shayera had studied the plans and done walkabouts during construction. She was tired of the seeing. She wanted to move in and call it good.
John had sought property in Detroit. He'd lived there before and during his time with the original Justice League. While Shayera was away after the aborted Thanagarian invasion, he'd moved back to his birthplace of Harlem to be closer to Mari McCabe. He'd actually spent his teenage years in Detroit and had returned there after his hitch in the Marines. John had spent ten years in the Corps and then he'd signed on to another Corps. This time it was the Green Lantern Corps.
John wanted to raise a family now and he didn't want to do it in New York. With housing crash deeply affecting Detroit, the inner city and the suburbs had widely available properties at reasonable prices. John had actually bought two houses and torn them both down to make room for his design.
The new design took up one lot while the second had been fenced and landscaped into an expansive yard. The neighbors noticed who the newcomers were. Shayera's wings were sort of a dead giveaway wherever they went. Fortunately the days of people running Shayera out of towns with shotguns were long gone.
A few of the braver souls came out and joined John and Shayera on the sidewalk. The most gregarious, a fellow named Stan, grinned as he approached, "Looks like you're ready to move in."
"And we will," John assured him, "Any minute now."
Stan looked around, "I don't see a truck or a van or anything else."
Shayera checked her watch, "Wait for it…now!"
A massive blue flash filled the fenced in yard and Shayera grinned, "Right on time."
"Care to help?" John jested. Surprisingly several neighbors volunteered to pitch in and threw in an after-move-barbecue. Shayera and John exchanged a glance. This was what it was like to have a community.
The move took two hours. The furniture was all in place but now the boxes had to be unloaded still. John and Shayera's helpers drug them off for a grilled lunch and they returned much later than expected. Shayera looked at the boxes and waved her hand in a dismissive gesture.
"Pffft! Let's just worry about the essentials for now," she suggested.
"Why?" John wondered, "Got something better in mind?"
Noting the hopeful aspect in John's voice, she let him down easy; "Down boy. I want to take a flyby over the city. It's good to reconnoiter your territory before establishing regular patrols."
"Anyone ever tell you you're sexy when you go all military?" John teased.
She scavenged a loose pillow and threw it at him, "Hey, I was all over Midway City before joining the League."
"And I bet everyone was deathly afraid of Hawkgirl," John surmised.
"Of course," she grinned, "Just like you were when you first met me."
John gave her a skeptical look, "I don't remember it being that way."
"You almost peed your pants, Lantern," she accused.
"What I almost did was put you over my knee and spank you," John declared.
"Care to try it now?" Shayera challenged him.
John chuckled, "Maybe later."
"Kinky," Shayera laughed.
John rolled his eyes, "You've been hanging out with Selina Kyle."
"Who?" Shayera asked innocently.
"Just keep saying that," John urged.
"So? Ready for our first outing?" Shayera inquired.
"I'm a Green Lantern," John protested, "I don't patrol."
"Your loss," she snorted, "Come on! Think of it as sightseeing."
"You're going to keep bugging me until I say 'yes', aren't you?" John wondered.
"Damn straight," she asserted.
"How can I say 'no' then" he asked rhetorically.
"Great!" Shayera enthused, "My armor and mace are sitting on the bed."
"Swept up in the master plan," John muttered.
Later they were flying over downtown Detroit. They'd soared over the suburban landscape and then through the auto factory regions. John caught Shayera's attention.
"The area we're entering is basically the slums," John warned.
"So maybe we'll see some action," Shayera replied hopefully.
John shook his head. A full morning of unpacking and Shayera wanted to relax by fighting crooks. His wife's priorities were beyond him at times. And he loved her because they were.
"John, look!" Shayera shouted.
He heard the squeal of ties and bending fenders as cars collided with one another. John looked forward and saw…he didn't know what he saw. A black mass hung over several neighborhoods. It also seemed to be slowly expanding.
People screamed in terror as they fled the encroaching darkness. Some came out of the black quagmire. They seemed to be terrified and as if they were fleeing for their lives. And then they emerged.
Figures wrapped in the same inexorable darkness pursued the fleeing masses. Those that they caught they dragged back lint the morass. Most did not go willingly or quietly.
"We have to do something," Shayera decided and banked to get closer to the dark periphery.
John landed between the last wave of fleeing people and their pursuers. He built a wall construct. It was a tiered creation with turrets and ramparts. Shayera soared by overhead.
He knew she was scouting out the perimeter to see how large of a problem this really was. Those afflicted by the darkness slunk back into its embrace. John had seen their eyes and shuddered. While those folks were unmistakably human, whatever was controlling them wasn't.
Shayera swooped by, "This way, Lantern!"
John followed her into the skies. She led him to high vantage point. He had trouble making out what was going on below.
"Can you encompass the entire affected area" Shayera wondered.
"Probably," John ventured, "I take it the other streets are similarly affected."
"Got it in one," Shayera said grimly, "There's no way of telling what's going on in the buildings this goop is swallowing."
"I'm afraid to guess," John admitted.
He created a wall around the swallowed blocks, "Now what?"
"Does this look remotely familiar to you?" Shayera wondered.
"Yeah, like the Shade or Obsidian created it," John realized.
"Either way it's bad news," Shayera replied.
"Obsidian is one of us," John countered.
"Not anymore," Shayera corrected him, "And after the incident at STAR Labs and his resignation, Waller opened up his medical file. Obsidian has major mental health issues. And Damon says he stopped taking his meds."
"Who's Damon?" John wondered.
"Damon Matthews. He's Obsidian's domestic partner," Shayera explained.
"I didn't even know he was gay," John admitted.
"No reason you should," Shayera consoled him, "The point is: Obsidian is off the medication reservation and according to his file that could contribute to serious complications."
Shayera hesitated before continuing, "Obsidian grew up in Detroit. His adoptive father was an auto worker. He physically and sexually abused Obsidian until he was old enough to fight back. And then he was thrown out of the home. James Rice still lives in Detroit."
"So you think this might be Obsidian after some revenge," John got it.
"Does this look like something the Shade would do?" Shayera countered, "Where's the fast buck in this? It's completely the wrong part of town for the Shade."
John was impressed. Shayera had been a career intelligence officer in the Thanagarian military. Those traits and habits stuck with her.
"I suppose you looked all of this up because we were moving here?" he mused.
"I like to know what I'm dealing with when I enter a new territory," Shayera said casually.
"As I understand it, we're supposed to hand off domestic events like this to the Justice Society now," John reminded her.
Shayera frowned, "That may prove to be problematic. Sentinel is Obsidian's father. And the only person he hates as much as James Rice is Sentinel."
"We still have to call it in, Shay," John insisted, "We can sort out the small stuff later."
"'We'?" she inquired.
"Hey, it's our town now," John grinned, "The JSA can try and beat us off with a stick."
Shayera shared his grin, "Good for you. I'll handle the call. You just try to contain that shadow. If it is Obsidian then that shadowy mass originates in something called the 'shadow realms'. And the only thing we know about those is that the Justice Society was trapped in them for thirty years battling a fire demon and his armies."
"Another reason to call them in," John said dryly.
"Like I said, I'm on it," Shayera stopped circling John and headed for the perimeter again, "Meanwhile I'm going to check out our status so I can keep Sentinel and the rest updated."
"Good call," John remarked. Now he just had to contain a twenty block radius. No problem. Right!