The Campbell Chronicles Part Two
Chapter 13
30 Minutes Earlier:
Amanda Waller strode through the streets of Metropolis, dodging around people as they went about their daily lives. Laughter and mundane conversations intruded in her thoughts as horns honked and engines revved.
Suddenly, Joseph appeared beside her, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans, Amanda, please don't do this.
Amanda glanced at him, barely moving her mouth as she spoke. Despite her attempts at subtlety, nearby people gave her odd looks.
"I've come too far and sacrificed too much to turn back now." She stopped before a long rectangular pool set into a marble base. A Golden flame sat on a circular base in the center of the pool.
Her target was on the other side of the pool, the Hall of Justice.
It was a large rectangular building, with an arch in its center. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped around the building on either side of the arch.
"I know you don't like the fact that the heroes operate outside the law," Joseph began as they approached the Hall of Justice, "but you've seen how corrupt the government is, can you honestly say the good they've accomplished doesn't outweigh the lawbreaking?"
Amanda glanced at him, as she walked up the marble stairs leading to the arch, "And what happens when they betray us?"
Joseph shook his head, "You cannot secretly act against someone, and then be surprised when they fight back."
Amanda pushed open the tall glass doors in the center of the arch, her lips twisting into a frown, but a hint of tenderness in her brown eyes, "You always were an idealist, but unfortunately, idealism doesn't get things done."
Amanda's black shoes echoed on the marble floor as she moved past the various pathways introducing the public to the heroes of the Justice League.
Raising a hand, Amanda flexed her fingers while looking down at herself. She was dressed in a black pantsuit with a red blouse. A silver chain-like bracelet dangled off her left wrist.
A smirk curled her dark red lips, she always did consider these kinds of clothes her power suits.
Joseph glanced around at all of the people, "Don't tell me you're going to attack with all these people around."
"Some collateral damage may be necessary, but that's not the image I want to portray at the moment."
Walking over to a fire alarm, Amanda shattered its plastic casing with a single punch. Wrapping her pointer and middle finger around the bar inside, she pulled it down.
Blue lights and alarms began to blare.
Voices arose as people began charging towards the exit, their footsteps sounding like a horde of Panicked animals.
Within minutes, the building was empty, and Amanda moved back to the center of the room.
"You do know that it is against the law to pull the fire alarm when there's not an emergency, right?"
Cyborg a.k.a. Victor Stone emerged from a hallway at the far end of the room.
Amanda shrugged as she eyed her opponent, "I didn't know how else to get your attention."
Victor Stone was six and a half feet tall, with a body made almost completely of metal. Only the left half of his face, and the fingers of his right hand, revealed his previously dark skin. Close-cropped black hair grew from the left side of his head and his right eye glowed as he stared at Amanda.
"And why would someone with a history of working for the Shadow portion of the government want my attention?"
Amanda began walking forward, "That's easy, you have something I need." In the blink of an eye, she vanished.
A targeting retina appeared in Victor's right eye. While his human eye could not see her, his mechanical eye caught her blurred outline as she closed the distance between them in a zigzag pattern.
In the next blink of his human eye, she was before him, her hand reaching towards his chest.
Victor's left hand lashed out, clamping around her wrist as his electronic eye scanned her body.
"What happened to you?"
"That's none of your concern," flexing her fingers, orange tentacles that radiated an otherworldly heat flew from her hand and slammed into his chest.
Victor cried out as the tentacles melted through his body reaching towards his core.
Steam rose from the metal as he brought his right arm around, his fingers folding back to form a cylindrical cannon. Thin tubes running along the side lit up as blue energy flared at the end of the barrel.
Amanda jerked at her arm trying to free herself from Victor's grasp as he aimed at her chest.
Suddenly, Joseph appeared behind him, his blue-white form glowing as he looked at Victor with sorrowful eyes, "I'm sorry, but when we married I took a vow to protect her from harm, and though I couldn't stop her from making the deal she did, I can protect her from this."
With a sigh, the spirit stepped into Victor's body.
Victor stiffened as an Azure glow surrounded his human tissue before sinking into his left eye. The light in his cannon died as his right arm transformed into its previous form.
Joseph's voice came from Victor's mouth as the human-machine hybrid twitched, fighting against Joseph's control, "Do what you going to do, just leave him alive."
Taking a moment to rub her left wrist, Amanda placed her right hand on Victor's chest. At her touch the mechanics that made up his body liquefied and began flowing into her skin. She closed her eyes as silver circuit-like patterns began to spread across her body.
In less than a minute, Victor Stone fell to the floor, large chunks of his body missing, revealing the metal innards that lay beneath.
Joseph emerged from his form and glanced at Amanda, "We need to go, he was able to send out a distress signal, help is on the way."
A smile spread across Amanda's face, "Perfect."
–XX –
Barry Allen a.k.a. the Flash shot towards the Hall of Justice, yellow bolts of electricity dancing around his red spandex suit. Entering the main hallway, Barry froze, his blue eyes widening as he caught sight of Victor lying on the floor, his metal skeleton exposed as bits of blood and purple liquid mingled together in a large pool on the floor.
"Victor!"
Barry shot forward, time slowing down as he approached.
A foot away from Victor, metal cable shot from the walls. Dodging around one, he used another one as a foothold to jump over a third. Landing on a knee beside Victor, Barry hesitated on what to do.
His first instinct was to pick him up and get him somewhere so he could get help, but in his current condition, he was afraid to touch him lest he make his condition worse.
Suddenly, Barry caught something out of the corner of his eye. Grabbing Victor he rolled out of the way, Springing to his feet he slung the Cyborg across his back and prepared to run as a blue beam gouged a hole in the floor where he had been only a moment before.
Turning towards the door, he froze.
Amanda Waller stood before him, smoke rising from an outstretched hand.
"Hello Flash, I was hoping you would be the next to arrive."
"Amanda Waller, what are you doing here?"
"What I must do to protect the world from uncontrollable elements such as yourself."
"Good luck with that." Time slowed as Barry shot past Amanda. Just as he hit the doors, a portal appeared and he found himself running back into his previous position.
"What the?"
Victor coughed, spraying blood across Barry's shoulder, "She absorbed the majority of my tech, which includes my ability to make boom tubes."
Suddenly, Barrels emerged from the ceiling, red lights sweeping across the floor before settling on the Flash.
"Damn, I knew we shouldn't have put this kind of security in the Hall."
Suddenly a blue and red blur slammed into Amanda Waller, throwing her off her feet.
Superman hovered in the air, his arms wrapped around Amanda Waller.
"Superman! Watch out," Flash called, "she can…"
Before the Flash could continue, Amanda wrapped her legs around Superman and clapped her hands on either side of his head.
Superman cried out, his back arching as purple energy arced off his body flowing into Amanda.
Superman spun his body blurring into a cyclone as he tried to use the momentum of his movements to throw Amanda off.
A wave of force slammed into the two throwing them away from each other. Superman landed on the right side of the room, while Amanda landed on the left.
Before she even finished moving Amanda was back on her feet, her eyes glowing red. In a blur of black, she appeared before the Flash, her hand clamping around his neck. The Flash struggled to breathe as yellow bolts of power exploded from his body and flowed into Amanda.
His mind raced as he tried to think of a way out of his situation, he couldn't vibrate and hold onto Victor at the same time.
Amanda's eyes widened as the Flash phased through her grip. Spinning around, she found Martian Manhunter Laying the Flash and Victor beside an unconscious Superman.
"So, this is what you do once you gain the power to make the world a better place."
"Don't lecture me, green man, you have no idea what my true motives are."
John turned sideways while moving one foot forward, and Raising his fist, he thrust one forward. A telekinetic force slammed into Amanda throwing her backward. Twisting he brought a leg up and around. More force came in from the side slamming her to the ground.
Amanda stood to her feet her clothes rumpled and spittle dripping onto the floor. Red beams flew from her eyes as she glared at the Martian.
John turned intangible, the beams passing harmlessly through his ghostly form.
Rising from the floor behind Amanda, John reached the ghostly hand forward. The tips of his fingers just began to sink into her back, when Joseph Waller appeared.
"No," he screamed wind swirling around his body as he leaped and tackled John.
They hit the ground and John became solid as they rolled across the floor.
In an instant Amanda was by his side, flipping him into the air with her foot, she grabbed him by the throat.
John cried out as green electricity flowed into Amanda's body. For a moment, her features became long and narrow and her nose disappeared before her face shifted back to normal.
A flash of blue caught her attention, she turned just in time to catch a ball of condensed electricity in her chest. The ball exploded on impact, the force of the explosion sending her hurtling through the air to slam into the upper portion of the far wall.
"Hello Amanda," Nicholas stepped through the door of the Hall of Justice, one hand tucked into his pocket, the other outstretched steam rising from his skin. "I'll be honest, I had hoped you died."
Joseph appeared beside Amanda as she fell from the crater in the wall.
"You," Amanda, slurred, her gaze unfocused.
She climbed slowly to her feet, her eyes becoming clearer.
Nicholas curled the fingers of his left hand.
Martian man Hunter's body slid across the floor stopping at his feet.
Amanda screamed, red beams flying from her eyes.
Nicholas held up his left hand, and a pale blue energy dome appeared around him and the Martian.
Nicholas grunted as the force of Amanda's beams sent him skidding across the floor.
A slow smile spread across Amanda's face, "You can't stop me, I now have the powers of the most powerful members of the Justice League." She blurred forward.
Stopping before him she uppercut the dome protecting him. Nicholas's eyes widened as the force transferred to the dome and picked him up an inch off the floor before dropping him back down to his feet.
Pointing his right hand towards the ground, Nicholas twisted his wrist.
The ground beneath Amanda softened and twisted, pulling her down.
As Amanda sunk up to her waist, Nicholas reached out with his mind, using telekinesis to take manual control of the lasers lining the ceiling. As one they targeted Amanda, multiple red beams covering her upper body.
Together, they fired a concentrated beam at Amanda. She cried out as it impacted her skin, and burned the upper part of her suit away.
Revealing the Lacey purple bra beneath.
Smoke rose from her body as Amanda ground her teeth, despite her power, this battle was taking too long, soon reinforcements would arrive, and she was not quite ready to face them yet. She still had more to prepare before her ultimate goal came to fruition.
A circuit-like pattern spread through her eyes, meeting her pupils.
Joseph appeared outside Nicholas's dome, "please, she is my wife!"
Nicholas glared at him, "She's also a monster who has hurt the innocent and now endangers the world with her actions."
"She's just misguided and hurting!"
"And how do you plan to fix that!"
Before Joseph could answer, a white portal with a red interior opened beneath Amanda and she fell through, pulling him along with her
Nicholas held his dome for a moment longer before allowing it to drop. His gaze panned around, taking in each downed member of the Justice League. Sighing, he reached out with his mind, 'Eugene, I need you to come to the Hall of Justice for a pickup.'