Post by C_Miller on Dec 8, 2011 16:12:25 GMT -5
Ultimate Justice Society of America #4
Legacy Pt. 4
Dr. Charles McNider and Spoiler busted through the doors of the Justice Society Headquarters in the subbasement of the late Ted Knight’s estate called Camelot with Courtney Whitmore and Stephanie Brown on stretchers. “Anybody in here?” Charles called out to not response. “Hello?” He called again and in the blink of an eye Jay Garrick, the former Flash appeared before him.
“Dr. McNider, it’s a pleasure to see you again. How are they?” Jay asked calmly as he shook his hand and then began to aid him in rolling the stretchers to the infirmary.
McNider shook his head emphatically. “It’ll be touch and go for a while, but they should pull through. Has anyone alerted their parents yet?"
Jay shrugged. “We can’t find anything on the Spoiler. We’ve let Oracle know, but we can’t get in contact with Courtney’s parents. We’ve left a message with her step-brother, but apparently they left for vacation or something.”
The reached the infirmary and set both of the girls up to machines then McNider went to work checking their vitals and other readings. Suddenly, Rex Tyler came running into the room with a frantic look on his face. “It’s been two hours since the scheduled status report.”
Jay’s trademarked warm face fell for a second as he took in the news. “Try and contact them, if that fails… I don’t know… we’ll think of something.”
While the two former JSA members didn’t try to hide their voices, Dr. McNider couldn’t help but feel he was eavesdropping. “Professor Garrick, I think I might have an idea.”
When Charles was certain that the girls were finally stable in their new environment, he went with the group to the main command center where Proton was still hard at work on trying to locate the former members of the JSA. “Ryan, this is Dr. Charles McNider, he has something that you might find useful.”
Charles nodded and stepped forward. “Before I left the hospital, I checked the security tapes and it would appear that the person you’re calling Degaton entered through a personal teleportation system, which I destroyed.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out the teleportation device, which was punctured by a scalpel in their fight.
Ryan’s eyes grew wide. “This is a KnightCorp design, but we’re years away from something this sophisticated…”
“Can you decipher it?” Rex asked with an apprehensive worry in his voice.
Ryan turned it around several times in his hand to examine it closer, even though it wasn’t functioning. He paused for a second and began to nod. “Something like this would leave a residue… an echo if you will.” He stopped and smiled. “I can find them with this.”
He spun around in his swivel chair and pulled his laptop out from his travel bag and began typing furiously. “Wait, Ryan, how can you find them with this? It’s broken, right?”
“Going off the premise that there is only one of these in existence, which I can tell you there is, I should be able to trace these teleports to one central location or at least an area that appears more frequently. That is, unless he’s working alone and is entirely nomadic and these cases are entirely unrelated.” Ryan spoke at a million miles a second as he typed data points feverishly into his computer. Soon, he was done and with a bit of apprehension, he hit the enter key.
Almost immediately the computer beeped and a map read-out appeared on the screen. Ryan threw his hands up in the air with a wide smile on his face and shouted, “Seong-gong!” He began to look around the map with his finger acting as a pointer. “There’s a lot of activity in Opal City, obviously… Buffalo, NY, Gotham City, Metropolis, London, England… there!”
The enter group crowded around the computer screen and looked at the large pink dot that Ryan had his finger over. “Kahndaq” Rex mouthed right as he stormed towards the locker room, to which Jay was in hot pursuit.
When Jay arrived at the locker room, Rex already had his shirt off and was working on his pants with his old costume around his neck. “I’ve gained a few pounds, but this should fit.”
“Rex, what are you doing?”
He didn’t stop to look up. “I’m going after my boy, Jay.”
Jay walked over to Rex and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Are you sure about this? Do you remember the last time you took Miraclo?” Rex hesitated, but that nodded. “We’re not going to let them die, but we need to be smart about this.”
“Look, Jay. I don’t have a good relationship with Rick…”
Jay nodded. “I wish I could say mine was better with Jessica, but we barely speak any more.”
“Then you should understand that I can’t put any of this up to risk… I need to put this in my own hands.” Rex said emphatically as he zipped up his black leather armor that went over his yellow spandex coveralls.
Jay tried to think of a counter argument, but he couldn’t. “I understand… But I’m coming with you.” He held out his hand and Rex shook it. Rex nodded and threw over his cloak and situated the mask. Jay tapped into the Speed Force and quickly put on his costume, complete with mercury helmet. “It’s been a while since I’ve worn this.”
The pair walked out to the command center in full costume. “Wes… Rex and I are heading to Kahndaq, bring back our kids.” Wes raised his hand in protest. “Nope, not happening. You can’t talk us down.”
Ryan Choi stood up. He was still wearing his costume from the rescue of Courtney last night. “I doubt there’s much I can accomplish here any more, especially if we can take out the source of the problem. I’ll come along.”
“I will too… it’s been a while since I’ve done the superhero gig, but you may need a doctor.” Dr. McNider said from his spot at the side of the room. “I’ll need to head home and get my old costume though.”
Jay shook his head. “What about Courtney and the other girl?”
“My daughter’s in medical school… and her boyfriend’s a doctor. They’re both here and can stand watch.” Rex offered up and McNider nodded in approval.
Just then they heard a voice come into the room from the entrance way to the main house. “I want to help.” The group turned and saw a soaking wet young woman who was roughly in her mid-20s with dark hair tied up in a loose pony tail who wore a towel around her waist and a pea green bikini top stroll into the control room with an older woman in tow.
“Delilah…” the woman whined with a hint of begging in her tone.
The girl simply ignored her. “Back in L.A. I used to do some superhero stuff… my ex invented this belt that lets you walk through walls and turn invisible… I held onto it after he cheated on me…”
The woman shook her head emphatically. “The police foiled a bank robbery while the criminals were distracted by your… assets.”
Delilah put her hands on her hips and glared at the older woman. “Please, mother. I had to get into their getaway car… they wouldn’t have gotten distracted otherwise. She turned to her Uncle Rex and flashed him a warm smile. “I can help.”
“Rex, are you really going to take this seriously?” Rex sister, Delilah’s mother asked him with a look of suspicion and disbelief on her face.
Rex hesitated, but slowly nodded. “I’m sorry Jordyn, but, we’re not entirely sure what we’re up against… someone who walk through walls could be indefinitely helpful.” He looked over at Jay who was nodding, trying not to seem like he was taking sides.
Delilah let out a squeal and jumped up to hug her uncle around the neck, kissing him on the cheek before pulling away. “Good thing I packed my costume.” She exclaimed as she walked with a skip in her step towards her bedroom. Jordyn Tyler gave him the look of death and stormed off.
“Okay, McNider, get your costume. We leave in exactly one hour.”
***
Jack Knight woke up in a daze and had no sense of equilibrium. It didn’t help that when he opened his eyes, there was total and complete darkness with only a small bit of light coming from the far side of the room. It looked like it was an armored door with a small barred window on it. Frantically, he began to feel around in the dark and ended up touching a soft hand.
“Jess?” He heard a quick intake of breath and a series of coughs.
“Jack? I’m here.”
“Oh my God, thank you.” He pulled her into a tight embrace. “Where are we? What’s going on?”
Jessie shook her head, which Jack felt as she moved against him. “I don’t know… last thing I remember… we were attacked… that woman mentioned something about Vandal Savage… whatever that means and then I woke up… wait… was Wildcat shot by an arrow?”
“I think so… Yolanda! You here?!” Jack called out in the darkness, but no there was no response. However, soon after, he heard a groan and some shifting on the ground near them.
There was a cough and then a voice began to speak. “Do you think you could keep that down, brother? I have the worst headache ever… Have I been drinking?”
“Rick!” exclaimed Jessie as she moved over towards him to help him up.
Soon after Jack found Sand in the darkness, who appeared to be the most beat him as he could barely form a coherent sentence. Jessie was in the corner helping Rick when Jack walked over to the two of them. “Jess… you can vibrate through walls, right?”
“Umm… yeah?” She asked with a questioning tone.
Jack shook his head in the darkness. “Do you think you could vibrate through that door and find away to get us out?” She didn’t respond, but he heard her get up and move her feet into a running position. He then heard the sound of her take off, which was soon followed by a loud bang in the general direction of the door. “What happened!?”
“I… I don’t know… I can’t phase…” She tried again to similar results. “This has never happened before… wait…” Jessie reached down the front of her shirt and she pulled something out that made a rattling sound. “Back during my mission with Oracle and the Spoilers, I grabbed a bottle of Miraclo and I remembered to bring it when we came to get Rick.”
She tossed it in Rick’s general direction, but he kicked it back towards her. “Believe me, Jess, the last thing I want is to become Hourman II.”
“I’m inclined to agree. Not necessarily with the sentiment, but we don’t want to play that card yet… if only we could get Sand up and ready. His power could prove invaluable… there’s probably a reason he’s drugged.” Jack felt right at home taking charge. He had been a bandleader for nearly half his life before he took up his father’s cosmic rod and became Starman.
Just then they heard someone walk by and something stuck through the bars on the door. Then it opened fire and hit Jessie in the neck, causing her to fall backwards. “Jess!” While they went to check on her, the door flung open and they threw someone else into the cell.
As he was tossing her in, she latched onto his face with her fingernails and gave him a nice long scratch. “ARHG! FUCK YOU, YOU BITCH!”
The woman laughed. “Ha! You couldn’t handle it.”
The guard kicked her in the stomach and stormed out to the cell, slamming the door behind him. Jack moved over to the woman on the floor and helped her up. “Yolanda is that you?”
“For the last time, it’s Rose and you bet.”
Jack wasn’t sure what was going on at this point. “But the arrow… you should be dead or at least not standing.”
She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. They gave me some water and it healed instantly… It was weird.”
“Did you see anything? Do you know where we are? Who’s keeping us?”
She and Jack moved over to their own corner of the jail cell and sat down. “We’re in a castle. A lot of the attendants looked to be Arab. I could be wrong. I was told that the only reason I’m alive is because Vandal Savage let me live. And then this man who I couldn’t see was screaming at the girl who shot me. It was all so strange… I wish I knew more.”
“You did enough. Thank you.” He gave her arm a light squeeze out of gratitude.
The group spent the next hour plotting their escape as Sand began to regain some type of coherence. After a while, they heard another person come down the dungeon hallway. A woman opened the door and held a crossbow up. “Anything funny and I fire… and yes, Kid Flash, I can hit you. I’m better than my idiot daughter… now; you’ve been requested to dine with Vandal Savage tonight. Get up!”
The group lazily followed and Jack gave Rose a light swat when it looked like she was going to resist. They followed her down a winding path of passageways and corridors that seemed nonsensical, but both Sand and Jack were trying to keep a survey for their potential escape.
“Jack… do you know who that is?” Jessie whispered softly into Jack’s ear from the back of the line.
Jack shook his head. “No, should I?”
“I think that’s Tigress… from the JSA. Paula Crock, I think. She defected at the end of Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon… I’ve seen pictures of her in my Dad’s photo albums.” She whispered with a hushed intensity.
A light bulb went off in Jack’s head. He wasn’t the fan of JSA history like Jessie was, but he definitely recognized her. ‘Does this have to do with what happened forty years ago?’ He thought to himself as they came to a large set of double doors and stopped.
The woman turned to face the group. “I expect all of you to be on your best behavior. And Garrick, if you try anything, I will kill one of your less powered friends. The only reason you aren’t drugged like Hawkins here is because Herr Savage has respect for your father.” Tigress walked over to her nonchalantly.
“And having a bottle of Miraclo between your breasts falls in the stupid territory.” Tigress smacked Jessie in the stomach with the brunt of her forearm and then when she doubled over, reached down her shirt and pulled out the Miraclo bottle. “Now follow me.”
***
Courtney Whitmore stirred awake and found herself in a strange room that she had never been in before. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, it was far too dry. Spotting a glass of water on the table next to her bed, she took a sip. “Wha… whe… where am I?” She asked to no one in particular.
“I think they called in Camelot. We’re in the headquarter of the JSA!” Said a female voice from directly to her right that could barely contain it’s excitement.
Courtney tried to turn her whole body a little bit, but it hurt too much, so she turned her head and saw another blonde girl in a hospital gown intensely concentrating on eating a bowl of blue Jell-O. “Who are you?”
“Stephanie Brown, back home they call me Spoiler, I saved you life. Pleased to meet you!” She rattled of extremely quickly and in an over-excited, bubbly tone.
Courtney looked at her strangely. “You’re a superhero?”
Stephanie slurped up a small piece of Jell-O that was lingering on her spoon. “Uh, kinda. Not an especially good one… every time I do the superhero gig, I end up in stitches or in the hospital… alas!”
“So, should you be telling me who you are?”
Stephanie glared at her through squinted eyes. “Probably not… touché.”
Just then, a woman with wavy brown hair tied back in a loose bun strolled into the room with a clipboard in hand and a pencil behind her ear. “Glad to see you’re awake, Courtney. I’m Erin Tyler; I’ll be taking care of you for the time being. Don’t mind your roommate, she’s on a heavy-dose of morphine at the moment. We didn’t want to give you such heavy painkillers while you’re out.”
Courtney took a pill that Erin gave her and washed it down with another sip from the glass of water on her bedside table. “What happened? Why am I here? Where’s Jack?”
Erin sighed with a sad look on her face. “Jack’s not here. David should be back soon, I’d rather have him explain it to you.”
“No. I want to know now.”
Erin closed her eyes and began. “Apparently someone’s been hunting former members of the JSA and their families…”
“But I don’t… I… I… never met my father…”
Erin slowly nodded. “It looks like the former Starman’s your father…”
***
The entered the Great Hall, which looked like it was out of Harry Potter. The room was decorated in a very stately manner with portraits and tapestries hanging on the walls. It was lit by a series of torches and candles lined the ornate table marble table that went down the center of the room. The chairs had designs on them, such as a dust devil, a star, a lightning bolt, an hourglass and an Egyptian glyph of a cat. Assuming that they were assigned seats, they sat down leaving the seat at the head of the table and the one directly to its right open. After they were all seated, Tigress took the seat to the right of the head of the table.
When the wine was poured, the door on the far side of the room opened up and a larger man who looked both brutish and stately at the same time, wearing an amalgamation of various military uniforms walked out at took his seat at the head of the table. “I bid you welcome. As you’ve probably surmised, I’m Vandal Savage. And we have a lot to talk about.”
“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t really care. You won’t get away with this.” Wildcat screamed to which Vandal Savage only replied to with a deep laugh.
He raised his glass and toasted her before taking a sip of his wine. “Quite the spitfire, aren’t you, Wildcat. I will tell you why you’re here... I believe that this is the start of a very important relationship.”
Vandal stood up and began to pace the room. “I’ve lived a very long time… a very long time. And I feel like out of anyone, I’m fit to discuss some of the constants of the world.” He strolled around the table and put his face right near Jessie’s. “Would you like to hear them?”
“Not especially.” Wildcat said under her breath.
Vandal Savage ignored her and continued. “No one is born great. You have to steal greatness.” He chuckled. “I know being the children of the America’s greatest heroes gives you all a sense of entitlement, but you know I’m right. Jack Knight, you’re a failed musician, you made the most of it, but you’re far from living your dream and you weren’t able to have any type of relationship with your father until he died.”
Jack closed his eyes as he winced. Jessie slowly moved her hand over to his and gave it a light squeeze. “Yolanda Rosa Montez… you’re no better than a two bit whore thinking that protecting the scum of the earth validates her other job and both your parents pretended you didn’t exist.”
She shot up at the accusation and fired off several insults in Spanish before Sand pulled her down. “Ah, Sandy Hawkins… your parents gave you up out of pure paranoia… when you got your powers, your foster family called you a freak… the only thing you wanted was to meet your birth parents so they could explain things… and they couldn’t, which killed you inside.”
Sand remained stoically calm and collected, but the rest of the group could tell it was eating him up. “Rick Tyler. You had the world on the string. Just as brilliant as your father, if not more so and perhaps double the drive. But you threw it all away in teenage rebellion… now you’re a con man who hates himself and fills his nights with drinking himself blind and loveless sex.”
Jessie heard his knuckles crack from under the table and quickly moved her other hand to his. “And of course, Jessie Garrick. The carrier of two Flash legacies, yet you’re nothing more than a failure. How’s Babs Gordon doing?”
Tears caught up with Jessie and they began to pour down from here eyes at an alarming speed. “You of all know that you’re not born great, but that doesn’t mean your birth doesn’t help… Look, I’ve seen it all, everything. I know what works and what doesn’t. I’m not proposing to keep you here against your will… I want to work out a partnership.”
“A partnership?” Jack repeated skeptically.
Vandal Savage nodded. “Yes. My greatest threat was always the Justice Society, which is why I’ve been killing your families, but the only way I can get rid of the line is to make them my allies.”
“You build your masterpiece society… and you want us to turn a blind eye?” Rick Tyler asked in a confused, yet confident tone.
Vandal smiled. “Precisely. You can have a good life here. All the food, drink, women, men, shelter, anything you could want… just stay out of my way…”
Just then the woman who they all recognized from Syria walked into the room. “Father, I have a message for you… we found the final legacy… he’s in Portland, Oregon.”
Vandal Savage backhanded her. “Idiot girl, do not interrupt me when I’m having dinner with guests.” She put her hand to her cheek and when she pulled away Jessie saw that she was bleeding profusely. “If you don’t know what to do when you get information like that, you have no business calling me father… now contact Degaton and deal with it.”
She left dutifully and he turned back to the sons and daughters of the Justice Society of America. “Well, that changes things… I regret to inform you that I only planned on five… so Paula, please have one executed at our discretion.”
To Be Concluded
Legacy Pt. 4
Dr. Charles McNider and Spoiler busted through the doors of the Justice Society Headquarters in the subbasement of the late Ted Knight’s estate called Camelot with Courtney Whitmore and Stephanie Brown on stretchers. “Anybody in here?” Charles called out to not response. “Hello?” He called again and in the blink of an eye Jay Garrick, the former Flash appeared before him.
“Dr. McNider, it’s a pleasure to see you again. How are they?” Jay asked calmly as he shook his hand and then began to aid him in rolling the stretchers to the infirmary.
McNider shook his head emphatically. “It’ll be touch and go for a while, but they should pull through. Has anyone alerted their parents yet?"
Jay shrugged. “We can’t find anything on the Spoiler. We’ve let Oracle know, but we can’t get in contact with Courtney’s parents. We’ve left a message with her step-brother, but apparently they left for vacation or something.”
The reached the infirmary and set both of the girls up to machines then McNider went to work checking their vitals and other readings. Suddenly, Rex Tyler came running into the room with a frantic look on his face. “It’s been two hours since the scheduled status report.”
Jay’s trademarked warm face fell for a second as he took in the news. “Try and contact them, if that fails… I don’t know… we’ll think of something.”
While the two former JSA members didn’t try to hide their voices, Dr. McNider couldn’t help but feel he was eavesdropping. “Professor Garrick, I think I might have an idea.”
When Charles was certain that the girls were finally stable in their new environment, he went with the group to the main command center where Proton was still hard at work on trying to locate the former members of the JSA. “Ryan, this is Dr. Charles McNider, he has something that you might find useful.”
Charles nodded and stepped forward. “Before I left the hospital, I checked the security tapes and it would appear that the person you’re calling Degaton entered through a personal teleportation system, which I destroyed.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out the teleportation device, which was punctured by a scalpel in their fight.
Ryan’s eyes grew wide. “This is a KnightCorp design, but we’re years away from something this sophisticated…”
“Can you decipher it?” Rex asked with an apprehensive worry in his voice.
Ryan turned it around several times in his hand to examine it closer, even though it wasn’t functioning. He paused for a second and began to nod. “Something like this would leave a residue… an echo if you will.” He stopped and smiled. “I can find them with this.”
He spun around in his swivel chair and pulled his laptop out from his travel bag and began typing furiously. “Wait, Ryan, how can you find them with this? It’s broken, right?”
“Going off the premise that there is only one of these in existence, which I can tell you there is, I should be able to trace these teleports to one central location or at least an area that appears more frequently. That is, unless he’s working alone and is entirely nomadic and these cases are entirely unrelated.” Ryan spoke at a million miles a second as he typed data points feverishly into his computer. Soon, he was done and with a bit of apprehension, he hit the enter key.
Almost immediately the computer beeped and a map read-out appeared on the screen. Ryan threw his hands up in the air with a wide smile on his face and shouted, “Seong-gong!” He began to look around the map with his finger acting as a pointer. “There’s a lot of activity in Opal City, obviously… Buffalo, NY, Gotham City, Metropolis, London, England… there!”
The enter group crowded around the computer screen and looked at the large pink dot that Ryan had his finger over. “Kahndaq” Rex mouthed right as he stormed towards the locker room, to which Jay was in hot pursuit.
When Jay arrived at the locker room, Rex already had his shirt off and was working on his pants with his old costume around his neck. “I’ve gained a few pounds, but this should fit.”
“Rex, what are you doing?”
He didn’t stop to look up. “I’m going after my boy, Jay.”
Jay walked over to Rex and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Are you sure about this? Do you remember the last time you took Miraclo?” Rex hesitated, but that nodded. “We’re not going to let them die, but we need to be smart about this.”
“Look, Jay. I don’t have a good relationship with Rick…”
Jay nodded. “I wish I could say mine was better with Jessica, but we barely speak any more.”
“Then you should understand that I can’t put any of this up to risk… I need to put this in my own hands.” Rex said emphatically as he zipped up his black leather armor that went over his yellow spandex coveralls.
Jay tried to think of a counter argument, but he couldn’t. “I understand… But I’m coming with you.” He held out his hand and Rex shook it. Rex nodded and threw over his cloak and situated the mask. Jay tapped into the Speed Force and quickly put on his costume, complete with mercury helmet. “It’s been a while since I’ve worn this.”
The pair walked out to the command center in full costume. “Wes… Rex and I are heading to Kahndaq, bring back our kids.” Wes raised his hand in protest. “Nope, not happening. You can’t talk us down.”
Ryan Choi stood up. He was still wearing his costume from the rescue of Courtney last night. “I doubt there’s much I can accomplish here any more, especially if we can take out the source of the problem. I’ll come along.”
“I will too… it’s been a while since I’ve done the superhero gig, but you may need a doctor.” Dr. McNider said from his spot at the side of the room. “I’ll need to head home and get my old costume though.”
Jay shook his head. “What about Courtney and the other girl?”
“My daughter’s in medical school… and her boyfriend’s a doctor. They’re both here and can stand watch.” Rex offered up and McNider nodded in approval.
Just then they heard a voice come into the room from the entrance way to the main house. “I want to help.” The group turned and saw a soaking wet young woman who was roughly in her mid-20s with dark hair tied up in a loose pony tail who wore a towel around her waist and a pea green bikini top stroll into the control room with an older woman in tow.
“Delilah…” the woman whined with a hint of begging in her tone.
The girl simply ignored her. “Back in L.A. I used to do some superhero stuff… my ex invented this belt that lets you walk through walls and turn invisible… I held onto it after he cheated on me…”
The woman shook her head emphatically. “The police foiled a bank robbery while the criminals were distracted by your… assets.”
Delilah put her hands on her hips and glared at the older woman. “Please, mother. I had to get into their getaway car… they wouldn’t have gotten distracted otherwise. She turned to her Uncle Rex and flashed him a warm smile. “I can help.”
“Rex, are you really going to take this seriously?” Rex sister, Delilah’s mother asked him with a look of suspicion and disbelief on her face.
Rex hesitated, but slowly nodded. “I’m sorry Jordyn, but, we’re not entirely sure what we’re up against… someone who walk through walls could be indefinitely helpful.” He looked over at Jay who was nodding, trying not to seem like he was taking sides.
Delilah let out a squeal and jumped up to hug her uncle around the neck, kissing him on the cheek before pulling away. “Good thing I packed my costume.” She exclaimed as she walked with a skip in her step towards her bedroom. Jordyn Tyler gave him the look of death and stormed off.
“Okay, McNider, get your costume. We leave in exactly one hour.”
***
Jack Knight woke up in a daze and had no sense of equilibrium. It didn’t help that when he opened his eyes, there was total and complete darkness with only a small bit of light coming from the far side of the room. It looked like it was an armored door with a small barred window on it. Frantically, he began to feel around in the dark and ended up touching a soft hand.
“Jess?” He heard a quick intake of breath and a series of coughs.
“Jack? I’m here.”
“Oh my God, thank you.” He pulled her into a tight embrace. “Where are we? What’s going on?”
Jessie shook her head, which Jack felt as she moved against him. “I don’t know… last thing I remember… we were attacked… that woman mentioned something about Vandal Savage… whatever that means and then I woke up… wait… was Wildcat shot by an arrow?”
“I think so… Yolanda! You here?!” Jack called out in the darkness, but no there was no response. However, soon after, he heard a groan and some shifting on the ground near them.
There was a cough and then a voice began to speak. “Do you think you could keep that down, brother? I have the worst headache ever… Have I been drinking?”
“Rick!” exclaimed Jessie as she moved over towards him to help him up.
Soon after Jack found Sand in the darkness, who appeared to be the most beat him as he could barely form a coherent sentence. Jessie was in the corner helping Rick when Jack walked over to the two of them. “Jess… you can vibrate through walls, right?”
“Umm… yeah?” She asked with a questioning tone.
Jack shook his head in the darkness. “Do you think you could vibrate through that door and find away to get us out?” She didn’t respond, but he heard her get up and move her feet into a running position. He then heard the sound of her take off, which was soon followed by a loud bang in the general direction of the door. “What happened!?”
“I… I don’t know… I can’t phase…” She tried again to similar results. “This has never happened before… wait…” Jessie reached down the front of her shirt and she pulled something out that made a rattling sound. “Back during my mission with Oracle and the Spoilers, I grabbed a bottle of Miraclo and I remembered to bring it when we came to get Rick.”
She tossed it in Rick’s general direction, but he kicked it back towards her. “Believe me, Jess, the last thing I want is to become Hourman II.”
“I’m inclined to agree. Not necessarily with the sentiment, but we don’t want to play that card yet… if only we could get Sand up and ready. His power could prove invaluable… there’s probably a reason he’s drugged.” Jack felt right at home taking charge. He had been a bandleader for nearly half his life before he took up his father’s cosmic rod and became Starman.
Just then they heard someone walk by and something stuck through the bars on the door. Then it opened fire and hit Jessie in the neck, causing her to fall backwards. “Jess!” While they went to check on her, the door flung open and they threw someone else into the cell.
As he was tossing her in, she latched onto his face with her fingernails and gave him a nice long scratch. “ARHG! FUCK YOU, YOU BITCH!”
The woman laughed. “Ha! You couldn’t handle it.”
The guard kicked her in the stomach and stormed out to the cell, slamming the door behind him. Jack moved over to the woman on the floor and helped her up. “Yolanda is that you?”
“For the last time, it’s Rose and you bet.”
Jack wasn’t sure what was going on at this point. “But the arrow… you should be dead or at least not standing.”
She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. They gave me some water and it healed instantly… It was weird.”
“Did you see anything? Do you know where we are? Who’s keeping us?”
She and Jack moved over to their own corner of the jail cell and sat down. “We’re in a castle. A lot of the attendants looked to be Arab. I could be wrong. I was told that the only reason I’m alive is because Vandal Savage let me live. And then this man who I couldn’t see was screaming at the girl who shot me. It was all so strange… I wish I knew more.”
“You did enough. Thank you.” He gave her arm a light squeeze out of gratitude.
The group spent the next hour plotting their escape as Sand began to regain some type of coherence. After a while, they heard another person come down the dungeon hallway. A woman opened the door and held a crossbow up. “Anything funny and I fire… and yes, Kid Flash, I can hit you. I’m better than my idiot daughter… now; you’ve been requested to dine with Vandal Savage tonight. Get up!”
The group lazily followed and Jack gave Rose a light swat when it looked like she was going to resist. They followed her down a winding path of passageways and corridors that seemed nonsensical, but both Sand and Jack were trying to keep a survey for their potential escape.
“Jack… do you know who that is?” Jessie whispered softly into Jack’s ear from the back of the line.
Jack shook his head. “No, should I?”
“I think that’s Tigress… from the JSA. Paula Crock, I think. She defected at the end of Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon… I’ve seen pictures of her in my Dad’s photo albums.” She whispered with a hushed intensity.
A light bulb went off in Jack’s head. He wasn’t the fan of JSA history like Jessie was, but he definitely recognized her. ‘Does this have to do with what happened forty years ago?’ He thought to himself as they came to a large set of double doors and stopped.
The woman turned to face the group. “I expect all of you to be on your best behavior. And Garrick, if you try anything, I will kill one of your less powered friends. The only reason you aren’t drugged like Hawkins here is because Herr Savage has respect for your father.” Tigress walked over to her nonchalantly.
“And having a bottle of Miraclo between your breasts falls in the stupid territory.” Tigress smacked Jessie in the stomach with the brunt of her forearm and then when she doubled over, reached down her shirt and pulled out the Miraclo bottle. “Now follow me.”
***
Courtney Whitmore stirred awake and found herself in a strange room that she had never been in before. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, it was far too dry. Spotting a glass of water on the table next to her bed, she took a sip. “Wha… whe… where am I?” She asked to no one in particular.
“I think they called in Camelot. We’re in the headquarter of the JSA!” Said a female voice from directly to her right that could barely contain it’s excitement.
Courtney tried to turn her whole body a little bit, but it hurt too much, so she turned her head and saw another blonde girl in a hospital gown intensely concentrating on eating a bowl of blue Jell-O. “Who are you?”
“Stephanie Brown, back home they call me Spoiler, I saved you life. Pleased to meet you!” She rattled of extremely quickly and in an over-excited, bubbly tone.
Courtney looked at her strangely. “You’re a superhero?”
Stephanie slurped up a small piece of Jell-O that was lingering on her spoon. “Uh, kinda. Not an especially good one… every time I do the superhero gig, I end up in stitches or in the hospital… alas!”
“So, should you be telling me who you are?”
Stephanie glared at her through squinted eyes. “Probably not… touché.”
Just then, a woman with wavy brown hair tied back in a loose bun strolled into the room with a clipboard in hand and a pencil behind her ear. “Glad to see you’re awake, Courtney. I’m Erin Tyler; I’ll be taking care of you for the time being. Don’t mind your roommate, she’s on a heavy-dose of morphine at the moment. We didn’t want to give you such heavy painkillers while you’re out.”
Courtney took a pill that Erin gave her and washed it down with another sip from the glass of water on her bedside table. “What happened? Why am I here? Where’s Jack?”
Erin sighed with a sad look on her face. “Jack’s not here. David should be back soon, I’d rather have him explain it to you.”
“No. I want to know now.”
Erin closed her eyes and began. “Apparently someone’s been hunting former members of the JSA and their families…”
“But I don’t… I… I… never met my father…”
Erin slowly nodded. “It looks like the former Starman’s your father…”
***
The entered the Great Hall, which looked like it was out of Harry Potter. The room was decorated in a very stately manner with portraits and tapestries hanging on the walls. It was lit by a series of torches and candles lined the ornate table marble table that went down the center of the room. The chairs had designs on them, such as a dust devil, a star, a lightning bolt, an hourglass and an Egyptian glyph of a cat. Assuming that they were assigned seats, they sat down leaving the seat at the head of the table and the one directly to its right open. After they were all seated, Tigress took the seat to the right of the head of the table.
When the wine was poured, the door on the far side of the room opened up and a larger man who looked both brutish and stately at the same time, wearing an amalgamation of various military uniforms walked out at took his seat at the head of the table. “I bid you welcome. As you’ve probably surmised, I’m Vandal Savage. And we have a lot to talk about.”
“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t really care. You won’t get away with this.” Wildcat screamed to which Vandal Savage only replied to with a deep laugh.
He raised his glass and toasted her before taking a sip of his wine. “Quite the spitfire, aren’t you, Wildcat. I will tell you why you’re here... I believe that this is the start of a very important relationship.”
Vandal stood up and began to pace the room. “I’ve lived a very long time… a very long time. And I feel like out of anyone, I’m fit to discuss some of the constants of the world.” He strolled around the table and put his face right near Jessie’s. “Would you like to hear them?”
“Not especially.” Wildcat said under her breath.
Vandal Savage ignored her and continued. “No one is born great. You have to steal greatness.” He chuckled. “I know being the children of the America’s greatest heroes gives you all a sense of entitlement, but you know I’m right. Jack Knight, you’re a failed musician, you made the most of it, but you’re far from living your dream and you weren’t able to have any type of relationship with your father until he died.”
Jack closed his eyes as he winced. Jessie slowly moved her hand over to his and gave it a light squeeze. “Yolanda Rosa Montez… you’re no better than a two bit whore thinking that protecting the scum of the earth validates her other job and both your parents pretended you didn’t exist.”
She shot up at the accusation and fired off several insults in Spanish before Sand pulled her down. “Ah, Sandy Hawkins… your parents gave you up out of pure paranoia… when you got your powers, your foster family called you a freak… the only thing you wanted was to meet your birth parents so they could explain things… and they couldn’t, which killed you inside.”
Sand remained stoically calm and collected, but the rest of the group could tell it was eating him up. “Rick Tyler. You had the world on the string. Just as brilliant as your father, if not more so and perhaps double the drive. But you threw it all away in teenage rebellion… now you’re a con man who hates himself and fills his nights with drinking himself blind and loveless sex.”
Jessie heard his knuckles crack from under the table and quickly moved her other hand to his. “And of course, Jessie Garrick. The carrier of two Flash legacies, yet you’re nothing more than a failure. How’s Babs Gordon doing?”
Tears caught up with Jessie and they began to pour down from here eyes at an alarming speed. “You of all know that you’re not born great, but that doesn’t mean your birth doesn’t help… Look, I’ve seen it all, everything. I know what works and what doesn’t. I’m not proposing to keep you here against your will… I want to work out a partnership.”
“A partnership?” Jack repeated skeptically.
Vandal Savage nodded. “Yes. My greatest threat was always the Justice Society, which is why I’ve been killing your families, but the only way I can get rid of the line is to make them my allies.”
“You build your masterpiece society… and you want us to turn a blind eye?” Rick Tyler asked in a confused, yet confident tone.
Vandal smiled. “Precisely. You can have a good life here. All the food, drink, women, men, shelter, anything you could want… just stay out of my way…”
Just then the woman who they all recognized from Syria walked into the room. “Father, I have a message for you… we found the final legacy… he’s in Portland, Oregon.”
Vandal Savage backhanded her. “Idiot girl, do not interrupt me when I’m having dinner with guests.” She put her hand to her cheek and when she pulled away Jessie saw that she was bleeding profusely. “If you don’t know what to do when you get information like that, you have no business calling me father… now contact Degaton and deal with it.”
She left dutifully and he turned back to the sons and daughters of the Justice Society of America. “Well, that changes things… I regret to inform you that I only planned on five… so Paula, please have one executed at our discretion.”
To Be Concluded
