"Hey guys! Totally stoked for the 'mish right? I know I am... No, no that's stupid… Ahem, greetings fellow Justice League members, fellow defenders of justice all. I'm honored to- No, that's worse… Ok, hello comrades, ready to dispense some justice?... That just might work, yeah…" Booster Gold, the greatest hero you've never heard of, monologued to himself in the bathroom mirror. He was dressed in an obnoxiously shiny gold and navy blue suit with a prominent star across his chest. His equally golden hair was chiseled to perfection with about a pound of gel and hairspray applied. He kept his overly-white smile wide, thinking he was alone. But that smile immediately disappeared when he heard the toilet flushing in the stall beside him.
"I think she'll say yes," a sarcastic voice followed by a round of snorting echoed from the stall, before it opened up and outstepped a Green Lantern, still adjusting his crotch. Not the Green Lantern, just a Green Lantern. His green uniform was more of a biker jacket than a super-suit, his face was lanky and boorish, and his ginger bowl cut wasn't doing him any favors.
Booster swiftly spun away from his reflection and leaned back against the sink while Guy Gardener waltzed over to wash his hands. "I-um, didn't know anyone else was here…"
"I had to take a mean shit before the JLI mission," Guy shared. "Bunch'a terrorist decide to take over an embassy on chili day at the cafe. Can you believe it?"
"The Justice League International…" Booster said with awe. "Any chance you and the guys could reconsider my rejected application?"
"In your dreams, Goldilocks," Guy said, using Booster's sleeve to dry his hands. "Have fun on the D-List pal. Heard you got a mission cleaning up Big Blue's table scraps. Good luck. Y'er sure gonna need it. Heheheh…" The nasally Lantern chuckled as he left the bathroom. Booster, head hung low, followed him out into the hall. There, waiting for Guy, was another costumed hero. He was clad in a bright blue suit and cowl with big bug-eyed yellow goggles. Across his chest was the outline of a beetle, since he was none other than the Blue Beetle.
"Guy, there you are," Beetle said, checking his watch as the two emerged from the bathroom. "Rest of the team is already in the Bug."
"Then you better hurry up and get with 'em," Guy said, slapping Beetle on the shoulder as he passed by. "Cuz my ring's a helluva lot faster than that flying hunk of junk you've got. Heheh." With that, Guy used his bright green, energy emitting ring to phase through the wall of the station and out into open space.
"Jeez that guy's an asshole," Booster said, sheepishly kicking his foot beside Beetle.
"Tell me about it," Beetle responded. "Try working with him." He then turned to Booter. "Gold, right?" he asked, holding out his hand. "You sent in a JLI application a few months ago, right? I remember reading your profile. Quite impressive if I do say so myself."
"Gee thanks," Booster said, shaking his hand, though still he was disheartened. "I guess your vote didn't pull much weight then."
"Heh, it never does," Beetle admitted. "It was close though. Get a few more League auxiliary missions under your belt and try again. We'll reconsider, even Guy."
"Thanks man," Booster said, patting Beetle on the shoulder. "Shit, I've gotta run. Got one of those auxiliary missions right now."
"Well… Good luck then!" Beetle shouted to him as Booster darted back down the hall towards the hanger bay.
Booster, starting in a jog down the Watchtower halls, chuckled to himself. "Luck? Booster Gold doesn't need luck! Right, Skeets?"
"Statistically, there is no such thing as luck, sir." A robotic voice buzzed. And soon, from out of Booster's back armor emerged a small golden drone that hovered beside him.
"Guess you're right, Skeets," Booster said as they reached a dead end. "With this 25th-Century tech, we make our own luck." He then pressed his League identification card to a control panel and soon a blast door slid open in front of him. Through the industrial doorway, he entered into a vast docking bay lined with sleek space shuttles and bustling with mechanics and heroes alike. Booster made his way across to Javelin Dock 3, where he and his team had been assigned to meet by Martian Manhunter.
Situated before an energy-shielded hangar door into space was a Javelin space shuttle prepped for their mission to Almerac. Three heroes stood there waiting for him. First was General Glory who looked like an American Flag came to life and was ready to kick some Commie ass. His massive arms were crossed and the squared jaw that protruded out of his blue mask was in a perpetual grimace. Next to him, her back against the Javalin's hull was Crimson Fox. However, despite the name, she looked more like a maroon cobra with her large, snake-like hood and cape. Then there was the android Red Tornado standing like a statue beside them. He held a blank expression on his robotic red face which Booster found most disturbing.
Hoping for a warm welcome and a chance to relay his bathroom-rehearsed lines, Booster was instead stilted by their three cold gazes. Steadily approaching them, already at a loss for words, Booster was only able to manage a weak "Hi guys—"
"You're late Golden Boy. Missed the briefing," Crimson Fox immediately interrupted him in her stern, yet alluring, French accent.
"She's right," General Glory added, his voice like overly-prideful gravel. "And I hate repeating myself."
"No matter," Red Tornado chimed in with a monotone, yet at the same time, quite cheery disposition. "I can simply relay my memory recording of the meeting to Booster Gold now."
"No!" both General Glory and Crimson Fox snapped simultaneously.
"If I could have it my way, I'd leave him," General Glory grimaced. "But I'm not at liberty to do so."
"Well, I uh, appreciate your honesty, colonel," Booster said, trying to save at least a bit of face.
"That's General to you, buster," Glory barked, pointing a fat finger at Booster.
"Sure, yeah, of course. And it's actually, Booster," Booster corrected, causing the General's fury to boil.
"Why you—" the General began, biting back his anger beneath gritted teeth.
"The two of you, shut up and get on the ship," Crimson Fox interrupted before strutting up the boarding ramp of the Javelin.
"Lift-off is in T-minus five minutes," Red Tornado added before following her up into the ship.
General Glory eased off of Booster and tugged on his eagle-crested armored tunic. With a dissatisfied grunt, he too entered the ship. Booster let out a half-relieved, half-sorrowful sigh and turned to peer out into the vacuum of space in which they were bound for. He nearly fell into a trance looking out into the sea of a hundred stars, but the sound of the Javelin's boarding ramp retreating snapped him back to reality. With a gulp, Booster scrambled into the ship just as the ramp sealed shut behind him. It was going to be an interesting ride, at the very least.
"Aaaand…" Conner said, peaking around the corner that led into Javelin Dock 3. He watched as the four D-Listers piled into the spacecraft and prepared for take-off. The dual jet engines fired up and the wings elongated. Then, with a repulsor blast that shook the entire hangar, the Javelin shot off into the void of space. "Now."
Superboy, with Wonder Girl in tow, crept around the corner into the hangar bay proper. Then, making a mockery of their attempt at stealth, lumbered in the hulking Bizarro. Nonetheless, the three managed to avoid the notice of the hangar's skeleton crew. Only recently had the Watchtower grown in size and operation to warrant around-the-clock personnel. Despite Batman's intensive vetting process, the staff didn't quite work as smoothly as intended yet. Most of the employees had dispersed from the docking bay, heading to other parts of the hangar to prepare heroes for other missions. That left Conner, Cassie, and Bizarro free to approach a vacant Javelin that was sitting beside the one that had just taken off.
Reaching the open ramp of the ship, Conner ushered the other two inside. Despite agreeing to the plan, the youthful excitement of breaking the rules was already beginning to fade from Cassie's psyche. In its place, a sense of worry and dread was beginning to set in. Then she remembered what kind of trouble her mentor, Diana, and Superman might be in right now and did her best to pull herself back together. She nodded up at Conner before taking one finger of Bizarro's meaty hand and leading him inside the ship. Conner nearly lost his footing on the ramp when Bizarro stepped inside, his weight offsetting the vessel. When the coast appeared to be clear, Conner followed them inside and closed the ramp and blast door behind him.
"Wow. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be," Cassie said, marveling at the walls of blinking control panels as she entered into the four-seat cockpit.
"Well yeah. What did you think we'd have to do?" Conner said, moving up through the vessel into the cockpit before settling down at the foremost controls. He gripped the two-handled yoke of the ship and nodded to himself with a sideways smirk.
"I don't know… Maybe knock out some guards and steal their uniforms or something? Just like in Star Wars!" Cassie exclaimed, taking a hesitant seat beside Conner in the co-pilot's seat. Meanwhile Bizarro towered behind both of them, staring curiously out the shielded window into the vastness of space before them.
"I haven't seen it," Conner replied bluntly while flipping a few switches that ignited the engines.
"You haven't seen Star Wars?! We gotta fix that," Cassie replied, eyeing her co-pilot's steering yoke like it was some kind of disgusting creature.
"Fine, I'll add it to the list. I'm only six years old, remember? The first four of which were spent in a lab," Conner playfully reminded her.
"Yes. And please. Don't remind me I'm dating a six-year-old," Cassie said, pulling her arms together, deciding not to help fly this thing.
"Dating?" Conner raised his brow, a devilish smirk arising on his prideful face.
"Just drive!" Cassie shouted at him, her face lighting up a bright red.
Bizarro giggled at the show the two young heroes were putting on for him.
"You got it, sweetheart," Conner said simply before. "Punch it, Biz!"
Cassie, with a baffled expression on her face, watched as Bizarro's meaty hand reached past her seat and pressed a button at the co-pilot's control panel. Suddenly, the ship jolted out of the hangar bay and blasted into open space. Cassie was thrown back in her seat and was unable to hold back a scream.
"Y-you mean to tell me that both of you already know how to fly this thing?" Cassie asked once she had regained control of her staggered breath.
"'Course we do. We were both created by Lex Luthor. A man who could rival Batman in terms of contingency plans. He stuffed our brains with all kinds of shit that might help us take the League down. Most of it is subconscious. But I knew once I laid eyes on this thing I could fly it. Biz felt the same, right buddy?" Conner said, his smile refusing to fade as they now skipped along through the stars, Earth growing further and further away in the rear view mirror.
"Kon-bro am wrong as always!" Bizarro said cheerfully, slipping into a bit of his trademark backwards speech.
"Well, weren't you two made for each other," Cassie commented, slumping down in her chair as she let the clones steer. "Literally!"
"Make yourself useful Wonder Girl and plot a course for Almerac," Conner said, his cool-guy tone starting to grate on Cassie a bit.
"Aye, aye captain," she said, rolling her eyes and leaning over to a thin blank computer screen. Below was a numbered keyboard in which she used to punch in the coordinates to the far-off star system. "Done."
"And done," Conner added, nodding back to Bizarro. Bizarro grunted in reply before grabbing hold of a large lever and shifting it forward. In response, the entire ship launched into lightspeed, leaving the solar system in a near instant before zipping across the stars towards Almerac.
"Almerac," Crimson Fox uttered from the co-pilot's seat as their Javelin emeged out of lightspeed. The craft hovered on the edge of the alien planet's atmosphere, below, Almerac's sky was dotted with the Krenan's crude black fleet.
After feeling the strangly soothing engine-hum of lightspeed suddenly cease, Booster Gold jolted awake from his space-nap. Beside him, General Glory rose from his seat to peer through the view port at the looming fleet. His stoney face grimiced beneath his star-spangled mask.
"According to my databanks…" Red Tornado chimed in from the pilot's seat. "Those ships are not Almeracian. In fact, I'm unable to trace their origins to any known space-fairing civilization."
"Uhhh the briefing didn't say anything about stopping an invasion force by ourselves…" Booster said, still a bit drowsy, but alert enough to register the massive threat posed before them. "Even Superman couldn't take them."
"Pft," General Glory scoffed, leaving the cockpit and making his way to the armory in the back of the Javelin. "Sure they were able to handle a Man of Steel, but wait until they get a taste of American steel." The grizzled patriot chuckled while picking up and loading an AK-47. Booster gulped, worried by how fragrantly the proud General flailed his gun around.
"At ease, Amercian," Crimson Fox cut in, while adjusting her comms system. "League mandate states we must attempt a diplomatic solution first." The General grumbled while Booster let out a hesitant sigh. "Tornado, bring us closer to the fleet. I'm patching in a radio signal now."
"Isn't it amazing how pretty much every alien species we interact with figured out the whole radiowaves thing?" Booster commented.
"Shut up." the General responded, clearly still more than a little pissed about not being able to go in guns-blazing like it was D-Day II or something.
"We are now within range, Crimson." Red Tornado said after easing the Javelin a few hundred feet above the city of Almaaria.
Crimson nodded and began patching in her transmission. "Attention. This is the Crimson Fox of the Justice League of Earth. We request peaceful entery onto the Almarian surface. I repeat: this is the Crimson Fox of the Just-"
Suddenly and without warning a white-hot pink lazer blast launched from the nearest Krenan battleship and completely and utterly abbliterated the cockpit of the Javelin. Crimson Fox and Red Tornado were immediately consumed by flame, while Booster Gold and General Glory were launched into the back of the ship from the recoil. Booster screamed, holding up his armored forearm to block the flames. Then, he felt his back slam up against the wall of the interior. When he looked back up, the nose of the ship was gone and they were plummeting towards the surface. He turned to his left to see Glory, devoid of panic, arming himself further as they began to enter freefall.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Booster cried, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks, fogging up his yellow visors.
"Perparing for touchdown behind enemy lines, boy!" the General shouted back, while slinging a parachute onto his back, along side his AK, a sniper rifle, and a dozen smaller side arms strapped to his belt. Then, he ripped open the escape hatch on the far wall before diving out into the Almeracian sky. Booster yelped with fear, realizing he was now the last person aboard a rapidly crashing vessel.
"Okay," he told himself with a breath. "Skeets, activate energy shield." Skeets replied with a monotone beep-boop and Booster's body was soon sealed in a thin golden energy shield. Then, shaking off the last of his jitters, he raced forward and dove out of the destroyed nose of the Javelin and into open air. Once outside, Booster managed a smirk while assuming a Superman-style flying pose. "Alright! The rest is nothing my Legion flight ring can't handle!" he said with confidence as he threw is golden-ringed hand out before him. However, he didn't feel the weight lift beneath him like it usually did when he entered flight. "Uhhh, Skeets? Analysis?"
"Oh, your Legion flight ring was damaged in the attack, sir. I thought you knew this."
"NO! That information would have been helpful before I lept out of a plane without a parachute!" the stress in Booster's voice returned in full force. Panicking, he looked down and saw land beneath him rapidly approaching. "All energy to shields! Now! We're gonna brute force this thing!" His command was heeded and his fient yellow energy coat became ten times brighter. Booster braced himself, having no idea if this would actually work. Then, impact.
Booster's body acted as a mini meteorite and cratered the entirety of a grassy hillside just outside Almaaria. To his own surprise, he was able to lift himself out of the dirt and rubble relatively unscathed. Although, the same couldn't be said about his suit. His overcharged shields were completely shattered and he lacked the energy to restore them or any other functions of his future tech. Even Skeets had gone silent. For all intents and purposes, he was no longer Booster Gold, but some powerless shlub from the 25th Century in a tacky costume.
Booster looked up to the sky, seeing the remains of their Javelin crash into the bay. Then, he was startled by the sound of something landing behind him. He turned to see General Glory detach from his parachute and dive into a perfectly executed roll down into Booster's crater. Without even acknowledging Booster, the General whipped out his AK and army crawled up to the lip of the crater. Confused, Booster approached the man who had gone full army-mode.
"Get down you idiot! Charlie's coming in hot," the General barked, grabbing Booster and yanking him down beneath the cover of the crater.
"Who the hell is Charlie?" Booster questioned, peaking his head up over the crater to spy a line of shadowy figures marching towards them through the smoke.
"The enemy…" Glory grimaced, cocking his rifle and placing his finger over the trigger. Then, with a valiant cry, he began unloading onto the incoming line.
Booster rolled to the side and covered his ears as General Glory continued to rain fire into the misty horizon. Then, the gunfire stopped. Booster rolled back over and looked up to see the General being lifted off his feet. Booster's watery eyes widened as he began to fully comprehend the heinous creature that had General Glory in its iron grip. It was a seven-foot tall, barbarious cyborg beast. A mish-mash of metal, fur, and muscle. The ferocious creature was lifting Glory up by the neck like he was nothing. The General grunted and squirmed, but the purple in his face indicated that his life was quickly being squeezed out of him. Soon, more Krenans as Booster would soon come to know them, showed up along side the first one. They were swiftly making a perimeter around Booster's crater, their laser guns heating up. He had to move fast. Forgetting the General, Booster clambered to his feet and ran. He slipped his way down the muddy hillside crater as pink laser blast began to abliterate chunks of earth behind him.
"C-coward…" General Glory grumbled with his last breath before the lead Krenan tossed his lifeless body to the side and joined in the chase towards their next target: Booster Gold.
Luckily for Booster, the cybornectic beasts weren't particularly fast on their feet so he was able to get a decent breath ahead of them. However, when he glanced backwards to check on his persuers, his toe collided with a stray piece of metal which sent him tumbling forward.
"Oww!" Booster complained, grabbing his toe before getting up to take a look at what he'd tripped over. To his shock and surprise, it was none other that the Red Tornado! But the android appeared to be lodged neck-deep in rubble. Booster glanced up at the charging line of Krenans still a few yards away. He figured he'd at least try to help Tornado out, for his own sake, given he was fresh out of super-abilities himself.
"-zzzt-Boost-ter-ter zzt-Gold?" The Red Tornado's speech malfunctioned.
"It's alright, buddy. I gotcha," Booster said, taking a firm grasp of the android's skull. Then, with a strong tug, he ripped the head up out of the ground. Unfornturaly, rest of the body didn't follow, only a few sparking tubes and wires attached to his severed neck. "Uh oh." Booster said, but before he could go digging for more parts, the Krenans were on their door step. Tucking Red Tornado's head beneath his arm like a football, Booster turned to continue his escape.
But, as soon as he ran over another hill, he was met with yet another line of Krenans. Suddenly it all made sense why they were all moving so slow, they were preforming a flank. Booster was surrounded! "Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed, looking for a way out. He had the high ground, but it wouldn't be much use. He held the android head tight as the enemies moved in. Booster knelt, ready to meet his fate. Though he had enough courage to glance up and meet his first attacker eye-to-eye.
A single Krenan had emerged from the line with his plasma rifle in hand, ready to put Booster down as if he were a wounded dog. Booster watched the disgusting cyborg's row of sharpened teeth twist into a smile. Booster should have felt scared, instead he was angry. Angry that he failed League, failed Superman, failed everyone. He watched the muzzle of the alien gun heat up with pink energy.
Just when Booster thought it was over, the laser missed its mark. The Krenan growled as a tightly wound thread of golden rope around his wrist forced him to drop his gun. Booster and the rest of the Krenans looked up to the sky to see an imposing feminine figure silhouetted against the red moonlight. Then, between Booster and the line of Krenans landed noneother than Wonder Woman.
"Yahoo!" Booster exclaimed, unable to hold back his relief.
Diana paused, glancing over her shoulder and raising her brow as if to say, "seriously?" She then tightened her grip on her lasso, still attached to the Krenan's wrist, before yanking him around and using him as a wrecking ball against his fellow soldiers. Booster noticed Wonder Woman wince as she put too much weight on her injured leg. Booster wished he could help, but he just couldn't see how. It wasn't like she needed him though. At breakneck speed, she dashed into the line of Krenans and began to slice and dice their mechanical limbs with her sword. Before long, the small Krenan scouting party was reduced to nothing but mangled scraps.
Booster, still in awe, watched as the demigoddess returned to the top of the hill, her armor stained with blood and oil. She sheathed her blade and began to wound up her lasso. Stopping before Booster and Tornado, she looked down at the worse-for-wear duo and sighed. "Welcome to the war, gentlemen," she said, lending Booster a hand.