Disclaimer: This is a cross between JLA (Season 5) and Rorscharch’s Blot’s Make A Wish Story.
Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. Henchgirl, The Professor, and other such objects are Rorscharch’s creation. DC Comics own the Justice League and associated characters/plot devices. The lack of plot, however, can be attributed to me.
The Horseman Black
Having found vacant quarters for Harry the previous night, Kara
excused herself after informing him of her own quarters’
location. Harry then set out to make himself comfortable in
his new environment, including transfiguring the bed, conjuring some
extra furniture, and retrieving certain necessities from his trunk.
Satisfied with his new room, Harry decided to rest for a few hours.
Rising again early the next morning, the wizard did his normal
morning ritual before seeking out the helpful blonde girl and
breakfast, though not necessarily in that order. However, due
to a slight navigational error, Harry found himself visiting the
off-duty Supergirl after all.
Knocking on her door, Harry heard some rustling before the sound
of steps approached the door.
“Who is it?” a sleepy voice demanded crossly.
“You mean you don’t remember me?” Harry
cheerfully called through the door.
“Oh, Rao,” she moaned, “you’re a morning
person, too?”
“Yep!” Harry chorused. “So, watcha doin?”
“What time is it?” she asked groggily.
Checking his watch, Harry informed her that it was 7:45 a.m.
This information elicited several interesting epithets, a few of
which Harry hurried to write down – he wasn’t entirely
sure if some of them were even physically possible, even allowing
for magic. He’d have to ask Tonks someday.
‘On second thought,’ he decided, ‘perhaps
I should have someone else ask her.’ Shaking his
head as if to throw away images of raging metamorphamagi, Harry
asked, “Is there something wrong?”
“I’m late!” she shouted, and he heard the sound
of drawers being thrown open. “I’ve got a
convention to visit this morning and I’m late!”
“Okay, I’ll let you get ready. Bye, Kara!”
Harry called. He received no reply as the sounds of the room’s
shower started. Deciding that he wasn’t going to have a
repeat of yesterday, Harry retrieved his wand from his back pocket
and used the modified compass charm ‘Point Me Cafeteria’.
Allowing the metal rod to swing around on his palm, Harry began
to follow the indicator in search of sustenance. On the way,
he happened to cross paths with Superman, who greeted him and
inquired as to what he was doing.
“Oh, I’m trying to find the cafeteria,” Harry
answered helpfully. “You know, you people should invest
in some signs or maps… something!”
The colorful man nodded at him and gave him the quickest route to
his culinary destination.
“Thanks, mate,” Harry waved and continued on his way.
The costumed alter ego of Clark Kent smoothly navigated through
the morning crowd in the Watchtower. He had planned to
confront Kara regarding her youthful rebellion the previous evening,
but Lois had signaled that she was in trouble. When he showed
up at her apartment, however, the only perpetrators were a can of
whipped cream and a length of silk rope. He didn’t
realize that the violet-eyed reporter even had such a kinky side,
especially when she… never mind. Anyway, the Man of
Steel was unable to meet with his ‘cousin’ before this
morning.
Turning a corner, he nearly collided with one of the people
occupying his thoughts.
“Good morning, Mr. Black,” he greeted levelly.
Seeing the Punisher-clad figure holding a metallic rod in the palm
of his hand, he couldn’t restrain himself from asking, “What
exactly are you doing with that… thing, if you don’t
mind my asking?”
Strangely enough, the man apparently was somehow using it to
locate the cafeteria. The Kryptonian had never had a problem
moving about the station, but he supposed that this very…
unique individual had a point. Nodding in agreement, Clark
gave the newest league member the fastest route back to the mess
hall before setting off after Kara again. Finally reaching her
apartment, Clark rapped on the steel door.
“I’m almost done!” Kara shouted.
Finishing the last of her hygienic duties at superhuman speed, Kara
threw on her uniform and literally flew to the door. “Well,
Mr. Black, you certainly are-” the girl said coyly as she
opened the door to find her cousin on the other side. “CLARK?
What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“Never mind me,” he answered. “What we
should be discussing is you, and why you were expecting your little
gambling friend at the door.”
Rolling her eyes at the overprotective routine, she slid past him
and shut her door. “If you must know,” she said
patiently, “he just left a few minutes ago when I started
getting ready.”
Not giving any thought as to how her innocent comment was causing
the Man of Steel’s fists to subtlety clench, she continued,
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a convention
in Japan I need to be getting to.”
“Yeah,” he said as mental images of the evil Mr.
Black corrupting his innocent cousin filled his mind. “I’ve
got some business to take care of myself.”
“Well, good luck with that,” she called out her
shoulder as she hurried off. “See ya later!”
“Bye,” Clark responded distractedly as dark thoughts
began to percolate through his consciousness. He suddenly felt
like having some breakfast.
Thankfully, Harry found the mess hall without incident and held
the door for Diana, who was leaving. After she performed some
sort of energetic wave involving lots of pointing, she gave Harry a
bright smile before quickly walking away. Adding this to his
list of things to have explained someday, Harry entered the dining
hall and proceeded to gather an appetizing selection from the
self-serve food bar.
Sadly, there seemed to be no coffee this morning, either.
He saw the warming pads for the glass containers; he even smelled
the evidence of their earlier presence. However, he couldn’t
ascertain the marvelous elixir’s fate. Sighing heavily,
he resigned himself to some sort of fruit juice and absconded with
an out of the way table.
Towards the end of his meal, he was joined by the Green Lantern,
who announced his presence with a warm, “You’re going to
be partnered with me today, Rookie.”
“Good morning to you, too,” Harry said through what
was supposedly a biscuit. Personally, Harry thought that they
were mistaken, but when in Rome…
Ignoring Harry’s rejoinder, he continued his monologue.
“Let’s pack it up. I want to introduce you to the
groundside Metro tower before our shift starts. Let’s
go.”
Sighing to himself, Harry proceeded to stuff the rest of his
plate’s contents into his mouth before draining his glass.
Swallowing hard, he cleared his mouth and cast a couple of charms to
clean the dining implements. Leaving the like-new breakfast
trappings on the table, Harry jumped to his feet. Gesturing to
the closest exit, Harry grandiosely offered, “After you.”
The pair followed the well-traveled path to the teleporters, and
the senior Leaguer arranged for two one-way trips to the planet side
installation.
Just as they were dematerializing, Harry could have sworn that he
saw Superman come storming into the chamber.
‘Ah well,’ he decided. ‘It was
probably my imagination.’
True to his word, the Green Lantern was able to just finish a
detailed tour of the Metro Tower before a League-level threat was
announced. As clichéd as it sounded, they received word
that a giant mutant turtle was terrorizing the downtown area of
Tokyo, Japan. Acting quickly, Green Lantern rounded up
Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore) and S.T.R.I.P.E. (her stepfather, Pat
Dugan) for reinforcements and the four took a long-distance Javelin
to assist. Quickly hitting supersonic speeds, the
spaceflight-capable jet swiftly carried the group to the other side
of the globe, where they easily located the source of the
disturbance.
The authorities were already on hand, as well as the scientific
crew who accidentally mutated the turtle in the first place.
With their input, a plan was quickly formulated and launched.
S.T.R.I.P.E. and Harry were to arrange the equipment necessary to
reverse the mutation on an abandoned trash barge while Star Girl and
Green Lantern got the civilians out of the way and herded the
monster towards the trap.
Unfortunately, no plan goes exactly as intended. In this
case, Stargirl got impatient and attempted to use her staff to drag
the creature the remaining distance to the just-completed trap.
Despite a yelled warning from her mecha father, the turtle –
amazingly – blasted the girl out of the sky and onto a
collision course with a building. Throwing his custom wand
out, Harry Summoned the girl, thereby arresting her fall. The
mechanical parent quickly took flight and intercepted his daughter
before she could travel the entire distance to the barge, allowing
Harry to turn his attention to the main reason they were there.
In the confusion, the creature somehow managed to take flight.
Between Harry and GL, they managed to wrestle the turtle away from
the city itself and out to sea. Just as the turtle moved into
position, Harry was preparing to Apparate away when a pair of
slender arms slid under his own and he found himself suddenly
floating above the turtle with a verifiable female body embracing
him from behind.
“Need a lift?” Kara’s voice asked teasingly
from behind his head.
“Nice to see you, too,” Harry answered in the same
tone. Pointing the metallic wand at the turtle’s
gigantic shell, he repeatedly cast banishing charms at the creature
until it literally ‘hit the deck’. S.T.R.I.P.E.
then triggered the trap via remote, thereby reducing the animal to
its former proportions and saving the city. Seeing that the
crisis was over, the group rejoined and headed back to the
mainland. Yet again disavowing Moody’s warning, Harry
proceeded to stow his virtually indestructible wand in his back
pocket. He had initially considered changing his clothes back
to his normal black robes, but he finally decided to keep the
shirt/pant/duster ensemble from the previous evening.
The fact that Kara said she liked the Punisher look was
completely irrelevant.
Harry heard and felt a giggle from his current means of transport
before Supergirl asked, “So, is that a wand in your pocket or
are you just happy to see me?”
Harry stifled a groan and shook his head. “You’re
enjoying this far too much.”
“Hey,” she protested teasingly, “I’m just
finding it hard to believe that you can’t fly, too.”
“And what makes you think that I can’t?” he
asked with a smirk.
She raised one blond eyebrow. “You’re not
flying on your own right now,” she pointed out to the amused
wizard.
Harry just shrugged – as much as his current position would
allow. “Maybe I like it where I am?”
“And maybe I’ll just drop you in the Pacific?”
the blonde-haired girl shot back.
“Could you two please stop?” Courtney demanded
crossly.
“What?” the other two teenagers asked in unison.
‘Creepy,’ John observed to himself as the
group came back down to Terra Firma.
“Arigato, everyone,” Kara called out to the cheering
civilians. “Thank you. Arigato.”
Harry heard the other blonde girl’s sarcastic comments from
her position several feet behind them. “Arigato!
Arigato!” Stargirl mocked. “How’d she
get here, anyway?”
“Problems amongst the ranks?” Harry asked softly,
just loud enough for the meta human at his back to pick up.
“She’s had a chip on her shoulder when it came to me
since the first day we met,” Kara grumbled. “I
just ignore her.”
As the girl let him go, Harry just barely avoided being trampled
by a mob of her prepubescent fans. Taking the opportunity to
get out of the line of fire, Harry slinked over to the other three
leaguers.
“What’s with all the wannabes?” he heard
Courtney ask.
The robotic S.T.R.I.P.E. thumbed over his broad metallic
shoulder. “Probably here for the convention,” her
stepfather answered.
“Convention?” she repeated disbelievingly.
Green Lantern finished making his post-op sweep of the area just
in time to overhear the girl’s last comments. Fixing her
with a green gaze, John Stewart pointed a finger and said, “When
we get back to the Metro tower, you and I are going to have a long
talk about grandstanding.”
“Tell that to her!” the younger blond protested.
“The little show-off stole my thunder!”
Unfortunately for the blonde crime fighter, one of the miniature
Supergirl fanatics managed to hear her as well. Said half-pint
proceeded to run over to the group and kick Stargirl in the shin.
“Don’t talk about Supergirl!” the young fan
said in broken English. “Supergirl can melt you with her
eyes!”
“Big whoop!” Courtney retaliated. “My
step dad here is a Mecha.”
The kid turned around and disregarded the waving robot.
“Mechas are so last year!” she said loftily as
she flounced back to rejoin the fan girl pack.
“She’s very big in Japan,” Green Lantern said
smugly.
The star-spangled teenager just crossed her arms and glowered
slightly.
“I don’t get it!” Kara said later as she was
piloting under GL’s instruction. “Why can’t
we just fly straight home?”
“Over the north pole is the straightest route,
Rookie” her tutor informed her tiredly. The Argosian
stuck her tongue out in retaliation.
In the back of the compartment, Courtney rolled her eyes at the
blatant show of favoritism. “She’s always ‘blah
blah blah, my cousin!’” she complained under her
breath. ‘Blah blah blah blah, my cousin’.
Like we don’t know who she means! Check me out –
I’m Supergirl!”
Harry spoke up from his reclined window seat. “You
know,” he calmly informed the apparently envious girl, “the
whole publicity thing is highly overrated. You’re never
left alone; everything you say and do is monitored and judged,
before being twisted around and used against you. You can’t
go out and do anything in the public eye without disguising yourself
beforehand. And then my personal favorite; all of your friends
and family catch the flak from the people who feel somehow slighted
by you – merely because they’re your friends and
family. Personally, I prefer anonymity; it’s lower
maintenance.”
“Speaking from experience, I take it?” she asked
bitingly.
Harry just gave a small mischievous smile before closing his eyes
again. “You don’t think that my parents
named me ‘Mr. Black’, do you?”
“If you ask me,” Pat offered, “the only thing
that matters is that we all pulled through.”
“Shut up, Pat!” she argued. “It wasn’t
World War III; it was a giant turtle!”
“Yeah!” Harry chuckled. “I’m gonna
have to remember this one. I mean, I’ve seen giant
chickens, giant ships, giant squids, giant three-headed dogs, giant
snakes – heck, even giant people! But I’ve never
before encountered a giant turtle.”
Her stepfather leaned closer to her. “If I was you, I
wouldn’t talk behind someone’s back when they got super
hearing.”
Harry held up two fingers without even opening his eyes.
“Another good point from the talking toaster.”
The cockpit was silent after that for the next several minutes
before the occupants were disturbed once more. This new
interruption took the form of an electrical discharge, which
surrounded the plane and fried the electronic flight controls.
“Kara, easy on the controls!” Lantern barked.
“I’m not doing anything!” she protested.
The jet continued to plummet despite their combined efforts before
being suspiciously pulled down a gaping hole in the icy ground.
The plane continued to tumbled down the dark earthy shaft before
finally exiting onto a grassy area adjacent to a forest.
Gathering their wits, the quintet extracted their selves from the
wreckage. Finding themselves in an unknown area, both the
heroines attempted to contact the orbiting Watchtower at the same
instant, resulting in another confrontation which Kara finally won.
Unfortunately, her efforts proved in vain as no connection could be
made.
“Nothing,” she reported glumly. Green Lantern
then reported that his ring indicated their position as still being
at the North Pole.
“Maybe somebody’s North Pole,” Pat
retorted in his robotic voice. The group followed his finger
to an overhead red sun.
“So, where the heck are we?” Kara asked finally.
“I can only guess that we’re way, way underground,”
the former Marine theorized.
“And the exit would be…?” she questioned.
Her question was bracketed by several loud growls. Startled,
the leaguers looked up to find themselves surrounded by a group of
strange two-legged reptiles, which were saddled like horses.
Upon these bizarre mounts were – what appeared to be –
Snake men.
“Through them!” Green Lantern answered drolly.
“Not a problem!” Kara seconded as she sprinted
ahead. As Lantern shielded the rest of the group from the
mass, Supergirl engaged one of the lone riders. Circling
around, she punched the creature as hard as she could – which
had no effect aside from damaging her hand. Shaking off the
shock, she dove to the ground and rolled away as the creature reared
and attacked her former position.
“You guys, my powers aren’t working!” she
yelled worriedly.
“Ah…” Stargirl called in mock sympathy.
“I’m serious!” Kara protested. “I’m
at half-strength, maybe less!”
“Not now!” Harry barked at the smiling staff-wielder
before he Apparated in front of Kara and stunned both the reptiles –
rider and transport.
“Thanks!” Kara said gratefully as Harry offered her
his hand.
He pulled her quickly back to her feet before returning his
attention to the fight. “Hey, I owed you one for the
flight earlier anyway,” he replied easily.
The rest of the league broke off and faced the creatures
one-on-one, and finally defeated the first wave. Just as the
ground troops were defeated, Kara announced the arrival of several
airborne threats with a censured, “Oh, dang!”
Harry looked up to see a half-dozen more of the snakemen mounted
on some breed of pterodactyl. Harry withdrew his wand grimly
before putting some of his weather magic to good use, sending a
potent windstorm to blow the second wave off course. As the
flying threats recovered, Harry started summoning a storm cloud
replete with lighting as backup.
Silently casting a sonorus on his throat, Harry addressed the
reptiles in Parseltongue. “We mean you no harm, but
if you continue, you will be destroyed!” He
emphasized his threat with several loud discharges of lightning.
The wizard wasn’t quite sure whether the humanoid riders took
him seriously, but their mounts certainly did; the winged reptiles
did an immediate about-face and flew away as fast as they possibly
could.
The others approached him wide-eyed as Harry casually dispersed
his impromptu thunderstorm. “What the heck was that?!”
Green Lantern demanded.
“Humanoid snakes?” Harry offered with a shrug.
The dark-skinned senior Lantern had to stifle a sigh at the other
man’s obtuseness. “I was referring to how you got
rid of them.”
“Oh,” Harry said comprehendingly, “I told them
that we weren’t here to hurt them, but that I’d be
having fried snake meat for dinner if they didn’t skedaddle.”
At the looks of disbelief, Harry admitted, “It loses a bit in
translation.”
“Right,” Lantern finally said, choosing not to pursue
the impending headache.
Breaking the moment of silence, Pat scanned the immediate
vicinity for further threats. “Yep, that’s the
last of ‘em,” he reported. A second later, “Oh,
wait!”
A loud growl echoed from behind Kara. Harry wheeled around
to see a large T-rex approach the weakened girl from behind.
Wand still in hand, Harry reacted with the first spell that came to
mind.
The angry red glare of an overcharged Reductor curse made contact
with the predator a mere second later. On the positive side of
things, the sole remaining threat was taken care of. On the
other hand, the group was now covered in pulverized dinosaur
innards.
“Oops,” Harry said quietly. “Sorry about
that.”
Wiping a persistent glob off his face, Lantern just stared at him
and answered, “Smooth move, hot shot.”
Harry just smiled weakly and quickly cleaned the mess off the
others before vanishing the excrement off his own clothing. “I
might’ve used a wee bit too much power on that last one.”
“I think that’s a safe assumption!” Courtney
complained.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Kara defended him
heatedly.
“You’re a wizard!” a male voice called out.
The group looked beyond the dinosaur’s remains to see a
strangely dressed man. He wore an iron helmet with white wings
on either side and was otherwise unclothed save for boots and a
loincloth.
Taking the initiative, Harry responded levelly, “Guilty as
charged. Who are you?”
“Travis Morgan, warlord of Shambala,” the man
responded. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Harry just groaned. “Here we go again,” he
muttered.
“What?” Kara asked confusedly.
Harry sighed and replied, “We’re about to be
conscripted to fight on the behalf of some impoverished, downtrodden
village/town/nation against one or more power-hungry, maniacal,
would-be dictators. What else?”
“It’s a real pain being right all the time!”
Harry complained a couple hours later. As he predicted, the
so-called barbarian led the Justice League to Scarteras, one of the
last remaining villages free of the tyranny of the evil wizard
Deemos.
As they later discovered, Travis was the leader of the resistance
and it was his witch daughter, Jennifer, who used magic to bring
their plane down to the hidden valley. The two Morgans
proceeded to inform them that Deemos used to be a minor nuisance,
but recently had discovered energy weapons and was now set on
conquering the world.
“Ah yes, the old take-over-the-world ploy,” Harry
muttered.
“Our world must have champions,” Jennifer said
unapologetically by way of explanation. “I cannot stand
against his power; we hope that you can.”
Harry just glared in reply.
“What my friend means to say is that we’ll do
everything we can to help,” Kara interjected.
“That goes without saying,” Harry said carefully,
“but there are certain… courtesies that we magicians
follow. Dragging us here and conscripting our aid is a severe
breach of etiquette,” he explained sharply. “Wizards
have waged war for far less.”
“What would you have done, if you were in my place?”
the scantily clad witch retorted sharply.
Harry fixed her with another sharp glare and hissed, “Listen,
Poppet; I’ve been in your place, and I solved my own
problems! However, if I needed help, I would have just asked
for it instead of twisting someone’s arm until they agreed!”
She kept her defiant act for a few moments longer before caving.
Dropping her head, she muttered, “I’m sorry. I
didn’t know what else to do, and I suddenly received this
vision that a metal bird in the world above carried our salvation.”
Kara thought she heard Harry mutter something about the
universe’s spittoon before he sighed audibly and replied,
“Alright. Now that we’re all here, tell us what
we’re facing. What are this… Deano’s
powers? What forces does he lead? What type of magical
foci can he wield? Give us a little something to work with, at
least!”
The picture they painted for Harry was that of an overambitious
but underachieving Death Eater – nothing much to worry about.
However, Travis also mentioned something about a great magic stone
that warranted a closer look, seeing as how it was important enough
to have monks guarding it. Morgan also reported that Deemos
wanted it – badly.
Deciding unanimously that that was their next stop, the company
headed to the monastery at the center of the village. Once
they descended into the building’s lower levels, they came
upon its last guardian – Travis’s friend and fellow king
McKeiss of Keiro – who had personal knowledge of the stone. He
claimed that he had fallen to the Black Death and was told to set
his affairs in order. However, when the monks placed his
fading body next to the rock, his illness was cured – though
at a price. Apparently, exposure to the stone’s rays
cost him his right forearm in exchange for his life.
Turning to face the locked doors, McKeiss signaled the attendants
to reveal the artifact. The monks removed the restraints and
slowly cranked the doors open to reveal their precious glowing green
stone.
Kryptonite.
Seeing the jade radiation negatively affecting Kara, Harry
quickly cast an appropriate shield over the fallen girl with Lantern
bolstering his efforts a millisecond later. Meanwhile,
S.T.R.I.P.E. hurriedly resealed the vault to remove the danger to
his teammate.
Finally dropping her smug act, Courtney earnestly asked if Kara
was okay as Harry picked the girl up and threw her arm around his
shoulders as his arm wrapped around her waist to support her.
“Y-yeah…” the Argosian answered shakily, “but
I’ve never seen a piece of Kryptonite so big before! If
this place wasn’t messing with my powers… I’d be
dead already!”
“And you’re allergic to the stuff, I take it?”
Harry asked.
“It’s a piece of her home system,” Lantern
answered. “Both she and Superman are vulnerable to it.”
“Ah,” Harry said in comprehension. “Green
Achilles’ heel. Got ya.”
As Lantern gave Kara a look-over with his ring, a growl announced
the arrival of a battered black panther. Said feline limped up
to Travis before slowly reverting to the equally battered form of a
woman.
“Shakira!” Travis shouted worriedly before embracing
the woman.
She pulled back enough to look at the man in the eye.
“Deemos is here,” she said worriedly. “It’s
the end.”
“Not yet, it isn’t!” Harry disagreed.
Seeing that Lantern finished his scan, Harry passed Kara to him
before Disapparating. He reappeared upon the monastery’s
parapet to take in the situation. Much to the wizard’s
surprise, Jennifer was already there, anxiously observing the
situation.
Seeing the vast army besieging the village, Harry slipped into
the detached mindset that the Shangri La monks had taught him.
Feeling all nonessential thoughts fade into the background of his
mind, Harry retrieved his Black family sword from its hiding place
within his voluminous coat. Drawing the enchanted blade, Harry
noticed the girl shiver as it began drawing on the nearby ambient
energy. As the others poured out of the stone building’s
main gate, Harry caught a flurry of motion in the enemy’s
ranks. The rows of reptilian infantry and cavalry parted,
allowing a sole rider to pass to the vanguard.
“Deemos!” the girl at his side growled.
“He’s mine!” Harry said coldly. The blade
began to emit a faint green glow, and the air surrounding the wizard
began to chill. At that moment, the two forces engaged.
As the humans stayed clustered near their palisades, the League
members moved to the vanguard and began tackling the tougher
opponents. Leaving the witch to target the mobile gun
batteries, Harry Apparated to the ground and went to engage the evil
wizard Deemos. In the small portion of his mind that was
keeping a running tally, Harry noticed that this wizard seemed to
resemble the post-resurrected Voldemort; they were even dressed
similarly!
Finding his mark, Harry began to exchange both spells and sword
blows with the pale-faced man. When possible, Harry would send
a stray spell to assist his teammates. One such occasion was
when he wandered near Green Lantern’s fight with a white and
black clad woman with some banshee-like power. The
dark-skinned man used his ring to gag the woman, but his
concentration was broken as he was knocked off-balance by an energy
weapon discharge. Before the woman could use her power against
him, Harry had conjured a new mouth restraint, this one charmed to
be irremovable. A second spell stunned the woman, removing her
from the fight.
With a salute to Lantern, Harry reengaged Deemos, who was slowly
making his way towards the monastery. In the confusion,
however, the magician’s forces had catapulted some sort of
mobile gun platform against the building’s main wall.
The weapon then blew a hole into the unprotected interior large
enough for Deemos and a couple of attendants to ride through easily.
Seeing as how apparition wasn’t advisable in the unfamiliar
structure, Harry sent a silent thanks to his friends at Black Ink
for their modified motorcycle. Drawing on its psychic
connection to a certain pooka, Harry called forth its resident
spirit stallion whom Henchgirl had lovingly nicknamed ‘Mortis’.
Harry felt that calling a ghost horse ‘Death’ was a
little redundant, but the animal seemed to like it and refused to
answer to anything else.
“Mortis!” Harry spoke urgently. “I need
you!” In answer to his plea, the translucent horse
appeared before him. Quickly mounting the animal, Harry took
off in pursuit. With Harry’s mind filled with vital
thoughts of stopping the other wizard’s advance, the sword of
Major Black took unilateral action and twisted into the familiar
shape of a scythe. Not noticing the reconfiguration, Harry
willed his coat back to the more encompassing robe before activating
its invisibility function, a tactic that Mortis mimicked before he
followed the other equines into the dark building.
Stargirl, having dispatched the remaining airborne threats, also
saw the wizard’s blatant entrance into the underground
passageway. Much to her shock, she also saw the mysterious Mr.
Black – who she had written off as inconsequential –
seemingly morph from able-bodied swordsman to her mental picture of
the Angel of Death, the Grim Reaper himself, and charge after the
enemy on a pale horse.
Shaking off her shock, the girl flew the distance to the main
gate and headed in the direction of the subterranean vault in hopes
of cutting off the reptilian magician. Her plan was halfway
successful. She actually managed to arrive at the same time as
the opposing wizard. Unfortunately for her, Harry was nowhere
in sight.
Deciding against waiting for backup, the girl disposed of the two
flunkies before attacking Deemos himself. “You need a
new plan!” she taunted as she pressed her opponent against the
wooden doors of the vault itself.
“My magic is strongest, girl!” the wizard boasted
before blasting Stargirl to her knees.
Regaining her footing, however, Courtney targeted the
technological armbands the wizard was using against her and
destroyed them. “Your breath is strongest, dude!
That’s about it!” Regrettably, she failed to
remain mindful of her surroundings and the wizard’s supplier
of modern weaponry snuck up on her. The cyborg Metallo grabbed
her staff in both hands and pulled back, strangling the girl between
her own weapon and his metal skeleton.
“My, what a pretty girl!” Deemos mocked. “But
then, they’re always pretty when I begin…”
“Deemos!” Travis Morgan challenged as he brandished
his sword. “You and me, pal!”
Deemos smiled wickedly. “Morgan!” he greeted.
“I was hoping to kill you today.” The two rulers
faced off, rapidly chasing each other around the chamber and out a
side passage.
In the meantime, Stargirl was fighting to free herself from
Metallo’s grasp. While she put forth a valiant effort,
his mechanical strength was too much for her and he sent her
careening into a block wall and, ultimately, unconsciousness.
Smiling darkly in triumph, Metallo threw the girl’s staff away
contemptuously before casually making his way towards the
Kryptonite’s resting place.
Just before he could open it, however, another arrival made her
presence known. Kara, having followed Courtney’s path on
foot, stood boldly in the doorway to the atrium as she announced,
“Touch it and you’re tinfoil!”
Metallo grinned before opening a compartment in his chest,
revealing a glowing jade stone within his torso. Stalking
towards the girl, the villain boasted, “At this distance, my
Kryptonite power cell would bring your cousin to his knees!”
“I’m immune to Kryptonite, Metalmouth!” the
blonde lied. “Give up!”
In response, the cyborg shot an energy beam from his power cell,
causing Kara to duck and roll. However, she neatly shot back
to her feet and brandished Stargirl’s staff. Sensing
weakness, Metallo smugly demanded, “If you’re immune,
love, then why do you need that staff?”
Receiving no answer, the cyborg charged. Swinging down with
all her remaining strength, Kara managed to embed the golden staff
in the robot’s shoulder. However, the combined
proximities of the jade power cell and the large meteorite deposit
were taking their toll on the girl’s health; her frenzied
effort sent her to her knees.
Harry rode in on this scene. Quickly seeing the poor
condition of his two teammates, he growled in fury and dismounted.
Immediately noting the cyborg’s glowing chest cavity and its
effect on Kara, Harry ground out, “They shall not die this
day!” Rapidly summoning the girls, Harry laid them
across Mortis’s strong back and ordered the horse to take them
to safety.
Turning his attention to the sole remaining occupant, Harry’s
mood became – if possible – even grimmer. In the
few moments’ break, Metallo had recovered from Kara’s
attack enough to jettison the mangled arm and face off against this
newest threat.
“And who the hell are you?” he demanded.
Harry grinned maliciously and John Corben, Metallo’s
remaining human side, inexplicably felt fear for the first time in a
long while.
“I’m a messenger,” Harry bit out frigidly as he
slowly advanced on the damaged robot. Brandishing his scythe,
the wizard added, “and I’m here to tell you that your
time is over.”
Lunging forward, Harry swung the implement of death and noted
with satisfaction as his opponent’s other arm was severed.
Another completed swipe of the blade and the two remaining
appendages joined the arms on the floor. Straddling the
incumbent trunk, Harry reached down and wrapped his hand around the
chunk of Kryptonite. He felt a tingle quickly spread up his
arm and throughout his body. As quick as it appeared, however,
the sensation vanished and Harry easily pulled the stone from its
mooring. Holding the polished meteorite in front of the
still-active torso, Harry made a fist and destroyed the offending
article. Walking over his fallen foe, Harry pointed his scythe
at the vault itself and quickly warded it against entry.
Satisfied that this portion of the fight was resolved, Harry
briskly strode past the demolished villain towards the sound of a
scuffle, grabbing Stargirl’s staff as he passed. He
located the conflict a few moments later on the spiraled steps
ascending to the surface. The ‘barbarian’ Morgan
and the wizard Deemos were clashing swords at a furious pace as the
two combatants gradually ascended the steps.
As Harry made his way to them, the wizard successfully disarmed
Morgan with a feint and sent the man to his knees in a one-two
combination. As the evil magician raised his sword in both
hands to deliver the final stroke, Harry Apparated to the space
between the two and caught the downward stroke on his scythe.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to just
walk off from a fight?” Harry demanded. “I’m
not done with you yet.”
“You are proving quite the nuisance!” Deemos
admitted. “Perhaps you’ll tell me your name before
I kill you!” He pulled his sword back before launching a
two-handed offense, which Harry had no problems deflecting with the
twin poles he held.
“It’s Mr. Black,” Harry answered the man
levelly, “and I doubt you could kill me in any event.”
As his opponent launched another powerful overhead strike, Harry
swung his own weapon, catching the man in both forearms with the
wickedly sharp blade.
Studiously avoiding the yells of pain from the cowering and
amputated sorcerer, Harry pointed both staff and scythe at the other
man’s throat and demanded, “Do you yield?”
As Harry took a step forward, his foe began backpedaling in a
panic. Before Harry could react, the man had backed right off
the landing, sending his screaming body to its demise against the
unforgiving rock floor stories below.
Leaning over the edge, Harry gave a whistle. “Rough
first step,” he summarized to himself before offering Morgan a
hand up.
“You did it!” he exclaimed with relief. “You
destroyed Deemos!”
“We’re not quite done yet,” Harry disagreed.
Placing a hand on the man’s bare shoulder, he Apparated the
pair of them back outside. Striding towards one of the
remaining pockets of resistance, Harry missed the man’s
incredulous, fearful, and finally awed look as the ‘barbarian’
finally noticed Harry’s grim appearance.
With his assistance, the humans defeated the remaining hostile
forces and forced them to surrender. As the villagers cheered,
the two older league members flew to Harry’s location.
“You did good, Black,” Lantern praised. Looking
around, he asked, “Where’s Kara?”
“And Courtney,” the Mecha added.
“Both are safe,” Harry assured them. Raising
his right thumb and index finger to his mouth, Harry whistled
shrilly and was answered almost immediately by a loud whinny.
Moments later, the three men spotted a transparent horse stride down
out of the sky bearing his two female passengers, both of whom
appeared to be regaining consciousness.
“What in blazes is that?” Lantern demanded.
“That would be my… friend,” Harry answered.
“His name is Mortis.”
“Mortis?” the other man echoed, recalling the word
from his Latin studies years prior. “Your horse is named
‘Death’?”
Harry just looked away and replied, “If it’s all the
same to you, I’d prefer to not discuss it.”
“Fair enough,” he allowed, although his mind
continued to pore over several new pieces of information.
Chief among them was that this ‘Mr. Black’ had a ghost
horse named Death, was wearing a concealing black cloak, and carried
a gleaming scythe. He was coming to only one conclusion, and
the experienced Lantern guardian was not sure that he liked it.
As the pooka landed, Harry stowed his scythe away before helping
the two girls back onto their feet and returning Courtney’s
staff.
Taking advantage of Harry’s stability, Kara held onto his
arm as the other girl found similar support with her father.
“Wait a minute!” Kara suddenly blurted. “Where’s
Metallo?”
“Metallo?” Lantern and S.T.R.I.P.E. echoed.
“That robot chap?” Harry confirmed. At the
girl’s nod, he announced, “Dismantled.”
“And Deemos?” Courtney inquired.
“Flattened,” Harry said with a shrug. “Very
sad,” he added insincerely.
“Well, where’s Silver Banshee?” Green Lantern
finally asked.
At finding her unaccounted for, Pat began scanning the
surrounding area. “There!” he announced, pointing
a good distance away.
Harry could just barely see the monochromatic woman struggling to
remove her gag as she slowly retreated into the distance.
Shaking his head, Harry jerked his head in the woman’s
direction and the patiently waiting spirit horse leaped into
motion. Within the span of a couple of seconds, the
translucent animal had seized the woman by the simple expedient of
biting down on her belt. Hoisting the strangely dressed female
into the air, Mortis the Pooka turned around and lazily trotted back
to the waiting group, coming to a halt in front of Harry.
“Good boy!” Harry praised the animal as it spat the
woman onto the ground. Stroking the horse’s snout, Harry
looked down at their latest captive whose eyes never wavered from
the creature who had… detained her.
The wizard in question shook a finger at her. “I
don’t believe that you have permission to leave,” he
pointed out before stunning her again. “Unconscious,”
he reported – unnecessarily – to GL. Mortis
whinnied in agreement and, if Harry wasn’t much mistaken,
snickered. Deciding not to pursue the topic, Harry brushed off
his robes before willing them back into his former attire.
Looking around, Harry took in the mostly superficial damage, as
well as the losses in personnel. “Well, did we miss
anybody?” Harry asked lightly.
“No, I think we’re good,” Travis replied as he
caught up to the group.
“Nice party,” Harry congratulated.
The white-haired man looked at Harry warily. “I’m
glad you could make it.”
“Hold the phone!” Lantern held a hand up.
“Where’s Corbin?” At Harry’s raised
eyebrow, he expounded, “Metallo?”
“Oh, right,” Harry acknowledged with a snap of his
fingers. “I left him down in the basement.”
“We’d better hurry,” he said to the group, “or
he might escape.”
Harry chuckled darkly. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry
too much about that…” he sing-songed.
“Oh, my…!” the ex-Marine breathed when the
group returned to the underground temple. “What happened
to him?”
Apparently, the cyborg had enough auxiliary power to remain
conscious. Lantern’s comment drew the… man’s
attention, causing the metallic head to focus on the new arrivals.
The robot’s eyes widened noticeably as they fell on Harry and
his accompanying stallion, and he began stammering. “The
Angel of Death! Keep away from me!”
Harry’s reply consisted of staring at the ceiling and
whistling.
“Right…” Lantern concluded sarcastically.
“John Corbin, alias Metallo. Fancy meeting you
here at the center of the Earth, muleing Kryptonite with Silver
Banshee. Tell me,” he ordered, “why do you want so
much? There’s enough Kryptonite in that tabernacle to
satisfy a hundred Superman haters!”
“There’s a scary thought,” Kara quipped dully
as Courtney wrapped her injured arm.
“You won’t get anything out of me!” Metallo
resisted.
Green Lantern smiled. “Maybe you’d prefer to
talk to him?” he asked while pointing over his shoulder at
Harry.
Holding his arms out with palms up, Harry conjured a fireball
above one upturned hand and used Oyuki’s gift to summon a
miniature ice storm above the other. Grinning dangerously,
Harry mused, “You know? I always wondered what happened
when you rapidly cooled superheated metal…”
“Alright!” the cyborg submitted. “I
joined forces with-” The rest of the android’s
information was cut off as an electrical discharge erupted from his
head, effectively destroying any information he might have had.
“Whoa, Nelly!” S.T.R.I.P.E. shouted as Metallo’s
pain-filled scream suddenly died out.
“Hey!” Harry pointed to the steaming mechanical
corpse. “You’re all my witnesses; I had nothing to
do with that!”
Lantern looked at the scattered robotic limbs suggestively but
withheld comment. “This isn’t Silver Banshee’s
work. Somebody else didn’t want Metallo to give them
up.”
“You’ll take that thing with you?” Morgan
asked.
“Definitely,” S.T.R.I.P.E. replied, “and the
great stone, too. GL’ll whip it into the sun.”
“Wait!” Kara interjected. “This is the
one place where Kryptonite can do some good!”
“That’s a fact,” Morgan agreed.
Stewart looked contemplative. “We don’t want
any of his friends coming back after it,” he finally stated,
“so the only way I’ll let the stone stay here is if we
seal the portal to Scarteras permanently.”
Harry suddenly latched onto an idea. “Would you
settle for no one living being able to locate the portal?” the
wizard asked.
“What are you saying?” the Green Lantern demanded.
“I can place a secrecy ward over the whole area,”
Harry informed them. “Even if every last lowlife on this
planet was standing at the rim, they wouldn’t see a thing.
Only the secret keeper can divulge the information, so your little
banshee couldn’t guide someone here even if she tried.”
Harry smiled. “And I can be awfully untalkative when
I set my mind to it.”
“Fine by me,” Morgan seconded the idea. “I’ve
got everything I need right here,” he confessed when his wife
and daughter descended the steps to stand behind him.
“Magic can really do such things?” Jennifer asked
earnestly.
Harry chuckled. “Oh, magic can do a lot more than
just that,” Harry told her. “It can do many
wonderful things,” he mentioned while recalling memories of
Hogwarts. “Its only real limits are those that you
yourself grant it.”
“I wish I could go with you and learn these things,”
she confessed, “but with all of the rebuilding… I am
needed here.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment before reaching into his pants’
pocket and withdrawing his shrunken trunk. Returning it to its
former size, Harry rifled through it until he found his objective
and palmed it. Pocketing the trunk, Harry tossed an extra
Zippo to the girl.
Turning it over in confusion, the young witch asked, “What
is this?”
“If you need to reach me, just spin that wheel with your
thumb and call my name,” Harry instructed. “It’s
a lot easier than summoning an airplane down a subterranean tunnel,”
he added with a stern glance.
As GL used his ring to gather Metallo’s remains, Harry
helped Kara to stand and then began leading Mortis back to the
surface.
“Wait!” the female mage called again. “I
don’t know your name. Who are you?”
“It’s ‘Black’!” Harry called over
his shoulder as he departed. “Just call me ‘Mr.
Black’!”
Reaching ground level, Harry jumped on Mortis’s back.
“Would ye be needing a ride, Milady?”
Kara rolled her eyes. “You’re crazy, you know
that?” she asked rhetorically as she took his hand and swung
up on the horse behind him.
“Certifiable,” Harry answered with a straight face.
“Come on, Mortis! We’ve got a ward to put up.”
As the transparent horse began ascending a trail of nothingness,
Harry began singing quite audibly, “A warding we will go!
A warding we will go! Hi ho, the dairy-oh! A warding we
will go!” The last thing any of the people on the ground
heard was a male voice asking, “What the bloody hell is a
‘dairy-oh’, anyway?”
Travis Morgan and his family were following the wizard’s
path with confusion evident on their faces. “Who is he?”
Travis demanded. “Because I know who he reminds me of,
and I also know that that’s impossible.”
“I honestly don’t know,” Lantern admitted.
“I’ve got two theories; one of them’s an immortal
– and probably insane – sorcerer. You really don’t
want to hear the other one.”
The Mecha was using its own sensors to probe the mysterious
ally. Hearing John’s and Travis’s discussion, Pat
Dugan found himself in full agreement.
“Revelations 6,” the S.T.R.I.P.E. unit vocalized
softly. “‘And behold, a pale horse, and he who sat
on it was Death, and Hell followed with him. Authority over
one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with
death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.’”
Jennifer, having grown up away from the rest of the world, was
unable to follow this conversation. “What are you
talking about?” she asked. “He seemed alright to
me, if just a little… unbalanced.”
Travis put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
“Princess,” he said seriously, “you went a little
overboard when you were summoning help. Your spell targeted
the Grim Reaper himself!”
That term, she did know. Her eyes
instinctively sought the offhanded gift that the stranger bestowed
upon her before departing, before seeking his location out of the
late afternoon sky.
Driving home the importance of the matter, her father added,
“Please be more careful next time. Of the many people
you shouldn’t tick off in life, the Guardian of the Dead is
pretty high up on the list.”
Once the five leaguers and their… cargo reached the
surface, Harry set to work on warding the portal. Thankful
that his ward book had included a detailed account of the Fidelius
charm, the wizard was easily able to both seal and hide the gaping
entrance – and by association, the subterranean civilization.
Harry added the final changes and felt the ward begin functioning.
“Done!” he announced.
“Done with what?” Lantern asked, breaking off his
conversation with the others. “Hey, wasn’t there
a… thing here?”
“Come again?” Harry asked smugly.
“The… place. I mean, we just went through the…
thingy!” he attempted to clarify.
“And where is this ‘thingy’?” Harry
pressed intently.
His mouth worked for a few moments without anything coming out.
When that failed, he questioned the rest of the team – without
success. “You know where it is!” the ex-Marine
finally burst out.
“Indeed I do!” the wizard admitted. Climbing
back on Mortis, he added, “And now, I’m the only one who
does.”
“How you feeling?” Courtney asked the other
blonde-haired woman as they prepared to depart. “Need a
lift?”
Kara smiled before launching herself into the air. “Nah,
I’m good!”
Harry nudged his ride and joined the two girls in the air.
“You know, it’s gonna take you forever to ride that
thing back to the Metro Tower,” Courtney pointed out
helpfully.
Harry grinned sharply. “Wanna bet?” he asked as
the Pooka twisted beneath him to become a stylish motorbike.
Revving the throttle, he challenged the two girls. “Catch
me if you can!” and gunned the machine, shooting forward at an
insane speed.
The two teenaged superheroines looked at one another before
taking off after the cackling wizard as fast as they could.
“Courtney!” Pat shouted. “You slow your
butt down!”
“Ugh!” Stargirl grunted. “My dad.”
“I know,” Kara commiserated. “Superman
tried to keep me on the farm; made me hide there for three years.”
“Big deal!” Courtney countered. “I’ve
still got a curfew. Enough cosmic energy to trash a city and I
can’t stay out past ten!”
Kara wasn’t swayed. “Three years! On a
farm! In Kansas!”
Traveling behind the trio at a more casual pace, John was
strategizing. “We’ll have J’onn probe
Banshee’s and what’s left of Metallo’s mind.
I want to know what he was going to say.”
“Something’s going on, ain’t it?”
S.T.R.I.P.E. realized.
The unspoken response unsettled both men, and the rest of the
trip was spent in contemplative silence.
After the group arrived back at
their on-planet headquarters, Lantern excused the rest of the team
for the rest of their shift. Kara had offered to show Harry
the exciting world of cinema on the way back, and the wizard took
her up on the offer. Overhearing the exchange during the
flight, Courtney essentially invited herself along, so the three
younger members took the unexpected break to review the multimedia
wonders of Kansas City.
As the mecha S.T.R.I.P.E. was
clanking his way from the room, he paused at a call from Lantern.
“Hey, Pat?”
Having an idea of what this was
about, Pat Dugan slid the door closed once more. “Yes,
John?”
“The inner council is
expecting a report on our new recruit’s abilities. Would
you provide whatever your suit recorded of the mission?”
Shifting his helmet to his other
hand, he looked at the African-American disbelievingly. “What
exactly is there to report?” he demanded. “We just
spent the last six hours in the company of the incarnation of Death
itself who, when he’s not behaving like a hyperactive
five-year-old, smites everyone that stands against him like an Old
Testament God and casually throws around more power than any team
of Leaguers could ever hope to match. There’s not a
whole lot a guy like me can add to a summary like that, my friend.”
“Still, I’m sure that
the others would appreciate reviewing whatever recordings you might
have,” John Stewart pressed.
“Oh, all right,” the
other man conceded. “I assume that you mean for us to go
now?”
The Green Lantern nodded.
“It’s probably for the best. Most of them should
be up on the Watchtower anyway.” At the other man’s
nod of approval, John activated his communicator to dispatch and the
two were teleported aboard the space station. Meeting up with
the impassive J’onn, John explained the situation and arranged
for a substitution with Mr. Terrific. The trio proceeded to
the secure conference room, where the remainder of the inner council
was amassed.
“John,” Clark said in
greeting. “We expected you some time ago. Was the
situation in Japan direr than we were led to believe?”
The Lantern shook his head.
“No, that situation was resolved rather quickly, what with
Pat, Courtney, Kara, and Black’s help. We did run into
another complication on the return trip, however.”
“And that involves Dugan’s
presence?” Batman deduced from his high-backed chair.
“Yes,” John confirmed.
He then gave his teammates a quick rundown of their second mission,
after which Pat displayed his suit’s recording of the entire
incident on the room’s video monitor.
The clip concluded with the group
flying off from the arctic, leaving the audience dumbfounded.
“That’s…
intense,” Flash understated.
“It proves nothing,”
Batman barked. “He could have used magic-” he
seemed to chew on the term uncomfortably “-to perform the
little illusions he needed to pull something like that off.”
“It wasn’t just a
costume change, Batman,” John disagreed. “I saw
the plants wither and die as he walked by and the animals were
skittish when he drew near.”
“Not to mention,” Pat
added, “that the immediate vicinity’s average
temperature dropped at least twenty degrees while the scythe was
engaged. Once he… reverted, for lack of a better term,
the ambient energy seemed to recover.”
“Plus the fact that he has a
ghost horse that can become solid if it chooses, or is ordered,”
John mentioned. “Creating a creature such as that goes
beyond any magic tricks I’ve seen.”
“It could still be a
deception,” the Dark Knight retained.
“To what purpose?”
Diana asked. “It seemed that he was more interested in
not broadcasting his… lapse.”
When no answer was forthcoming,
Diana asked Pat if he had anything else to add. When he
indicated that he did not, Superman thanked him for his time and the
mecha left the room, leaving the original seven.
Turning to her Martian friend, the
Amazon asked, “You talked with him last night, J’onn.
Do you have any insights to offer?”
“I was able to glean very
little in the way of information,” he admitted. “Mr.
Black’s mental shields are formidable and he enforces them
actively. In my opinion, any attempts to invade his mind by
force will be immediately detected, sparking retaliation.”
“So you weren’t able to
pick up anything?” Shayera asked.
“I can tell you one thing I
sensed,” he added. At everyone’s interested
expression – well, except for Batman, who appeared as stoic as
ever -, he admitted, “He’s not human, or at least not
entirely human. I have not encountered his like before, of
that I am certain.”
Putting aside his own private
desire to… discuss a few matters of etiquette with the
mysterious man, Superman asked, “So, how do we approach this
situation?”
“Personally, I recommend a
severe reprimand, if not an even more serious punishment,”
Batman submitted.
“With what cause?”
Diana exclaimed shocked.
The cowled man looked even more
foreboding than usual. “The League does not propone the
use of lethal force. We have evidence that Black intentionally
allowed this ‘Deemos’ to fall to his own death –
assuming that Deemos fell without outside assistance -, and
virtually admitted to dismembering Metallo, contributing to a second
fatality.”
“Such is battle,” Diana
contradicted. “Sometimes, a warrior has no choice but to
use deadly force to serve the greater good – to preserve
life. From what I saw, he showed mercy where it could
be afforded. By all accounts, these people had no one to match
Deemo’s power. If Black had merely captured him and
turned him over to their custody, he would have most likely escaped
and destroyed them. Besides, their law permits the use of
lethal force, so he technically didn’t do anything wrong.
And let’s not forget that if Mr. Black truly is who we believe
him to be, he was on his best behavior the entire time. I know
of many old tales prevalent even in Man’s world that depict
him with a much worse disposition.”
“Not all of us are as eager
to discard civilized behavior, Princess,” he chided sharply.
“We Martians once felt the
same way,” J’onn confided, “and it ultimately
destroyed us. Are our actions when the far outsiders
threatened Earth very different from these? Our assault
resulted in an entire civilization’s demise. I, for one,
feel no guilt at the destruction of such volatile creatures. I
am, however, very interested in what prompted a visit from Death’s
avatar since we know that his mission is not to eliminate any of
us.”
Flash gave voice to the question
that several of the others had on their minds. “Why’d
you think that?”
J’onn regarded the scarlet
speedster calmly for a few moments before stating decisively, “We
are still alive.”
“He has a point,”
Shayera agreed. “So if it’s not us, then who did
he come for?”
“I cannot believe that you
are giving credence to such foolishness!” Batman rebuked the
six of them. “The whole notion is absurd! The Grim
Reaper is just a superstition to amuse lesser minds!”
“Maybe,” Clark weighed
in, “but then again, you would have said the same thing a few
years ago about extraterrestrials, amazons, teleportation, and
alternate realities.”
The Caped Crusader dipped his head
in acknowledgement of the fact but refrained from speaking.
“You must also take into
account your species’ past history,” J’onn
mentioned. “The reality of death has had a substantial
influence on the human psyche and the development of your
civilization as a whole. The personification of Death as a
living, sentient entity is a concept that has existed in all known
terrestrial societies since the beginnings of your recorded
history.”
“True,” Bruce allowed,
“but this Mr. Black is no animated skeleton.
Additionally, his weapon took the neutral form of a sword, not a
scythe.”
Diana made a small noise in her
throat to get everyone’s attention. “Actually,
that particular myth is almost exclusive to the United States.
In Greek culture, we call him Thanatos, the son of Lady Nyx –
Night – and twin of Hypnos – Sleep. In most of our accounts,
Thanatos was seen as a very powerful figure armed with a sword and
having a shaggy beard and a fierce face.” The Amazon
shrugged. “Maybe he shaved sometime over the centuries,
but everything else seems to fit.”
“And did this ‘Thanatos’
have any weaknesses that we can exploit?” Batman asked
intently.
She hesitated. “Well,
supposedly Thanatos could sometimes be outsmarted; Sisyphus is
reported as doing so twice. When it was time for Sisyphus to
die, he succeeded in chaining Thanatos up with his own shackles.
While Thanatos was chained, no mortals could die, but eventually
Ares released Thanatos and handed Sisyphus over to him. The
second time, Sisyphus tricked Thanatos by convincing Zeus to allow
him to return to his wife.”
Batman looked contemplative.
“Are there any other such cases?”
“No, beyond those two
occasions, I know of no mortal who ever stood against him and won,”
Diana said resolutely.
When the masked Bruce failed to
make a further objection, Clark returned his attention to the main
purpose of their discussion. “So, until we have evidence
to the contrary, we must assume that we’re playing host to
Death personified. With that in mind, how do we proceed?”
“Very… very…
carefully,” John Stewart said in all seriousness. “If
I remember my Sunday school lessons right, this is the guy that took
out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one pass when they stood against
the Israelites.”
“Yeah, I remember that, too,”
Flash seconded. “Not to mention when he killed the
firstborn son of every Egyptian family in the entire country
in a single night!” The hyperactive man thought for a
moment longer before asking, “hey, isn’t he the one from
Revelations who’s gonna kill off a quarter of the planet
in one go?”
“That’s the way I
remember it,” Lantern confirmed. Looking at Clark, he
confided, “I recommend that, unless we have to
intervene, we leave him alone. At least he doesn’t seem
to mind answering questions, so we can hopefully learn something
more concrete about why he is here. He’s actually a lot
more personable than I would have thought… except when he’s
got that scythe out.”
“Speaking of being
personable, where did he get off to? Did he return to the
Watchtower with you and Pat?” Clark asked.
The ex-Marine shook his head.
“Kara invited him along for a few movies, and Courtney tagged
along.”
The Man of Steel blinked before
appeared slightly sick. “You let Kara… my baby
cousin… go on a movie date with the Angel of Death?!”
he finished with a nervous shout. “And Pat’s
step-daughter as well?”
“It’s not like I could
do a whole lot to stop him,” John mentioned as he tapped his
power ring. “This thing has its limits, you know.”
Seeing that his friend was distinctly unrelieved, he added, “Hey,
he went to a great deal of trouble to save the pair of them earlier
this evening. I don’t think he has any plans of harming
them.”
John thought over what he had just
said. “In fact, the only real interest he seemed to have
in either of them was getting tips on tourist traps.”
The League was silent for a few moments as everyone digested his
last statement.
Batman summarized Lantern’s
report in his typical laconic manner a few moments later.
“So, you are telling us that
Death is taking a vacation?”