Post by C_Miller on Dec 6, 2011 18:51:19 GMT -5
Ultimate Justice Society of America #3
Legacy Pt. 3
“New costume?” Jack Knight asked with a half-smile as Jessie Garrick exited the locker room wearing a short-sleeved red spandex top with a symbol that was shaped similar to a wingspan and neon yellow running shorts
Her cheeks reddened and she looked down at the floor with an embarrassed smile on her face. “Kinda. I’ve been holding on to this costume for a while… even when I was calling myself Kid Flash, I never felt worthy. It was time to reflect that.”
“Jess…”
Her eyes darted up to meet his sympathetic stare. “Don’t, Jack. I can’t explain it to you, but I need to feel this way… it’s all I can do.”
Jack reluctantly nodded as he leaned in and lightly kissed her temple. Soon after, Wesley Dodds’ son, Sanderson Hawkins walked in with his father, Jay, Rex and Ryan in close pursuit. Wes turned to the pair of young costumed heroes and gazed at them intently. “Starman, Flash…”
“Swift.”
Wes’s piercing stare wavered for a second. “Excuse me?”
Jessie looked at the ground again in a defeated manner. “I’m not calling myself The Flash anymore, sir… there’s another one…”
Wes curtly nodded. For such an anti-military man such as himself, his entire demeanor was based on authority and the power relationship. “Where’s Wildcat?”
“Right here, Sleepy.” The group turned and saw Yolanda Montez in her skin-tight black leather costume, complete with a cowl with cat ears. Jack couldn’t help but notice that the zipper that ran down the front was far from zipped all the way up as she stood in the door way making a sultry pose with her right arm high above her head.
With a bit of red reflecting Wes’ anger at the nickname coloring his face, he turned to address the group. “I hope all of you know just how important it is to return back her safely with Rick. The legacy must not die.”
Sanderson nodded curtly, in a way that Jack noted looked an awful lot like his father while he noticed that Jessie simply looked unsure of herself as she had every time he had seen her since Barry’s funeral. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yolanda flash him an exasperated look topped off with an over exaggerated eye roll. “Okay, guys, let’s roll out.” Jack ordered in a decidedly friendly tone as he lightly placed his hand on the small of Jessie’s back to lead her towards the hanger.
Wes held his hand up. “I’m sorry, Starman, I’ve selected Sand to lead this mission. His military experience in the Middle East makes him the ideal candidate. And I can trust him.”
Just a year ago, Jack would have knocked him on his ass, but Jack had changed over the last year since he had taken over as Starman, after his father’s death. “Fine, whatever.”
Wesley nodded again, which was starting to make Jack’s sink crawl. It was as if he was judging the person it was directed at every time. “If there are no more questions, I suggest you leave as soon as possible. Time is off the essence.” Jack wondered if that was a quip directed at the fact that they were going after Hourman’s son.
Sand was the first to make his way towards the hanger with Yolanda closely following him. “Man, is he always like this?”
“Wouldn’t know. He put me up for adoption when I was born… met him few days ago.” He spoke with the same hushed intensity that she was just greeted with by the original Sandman.
Yolanda pessimistically chortled. “Must run in the family.”
With that, Starman and Swift walked cautiously towards the 30 year old jet that until yesterday had be collecting dust in the hanger. “How in the hell was my Dad able to hide this from us?” He whispered to her.
“You were probably just too stupid to notice.” Jack gave her a quick look and smiled widely, only to feel a slight twinge of guilt and he instantly pictured Courtney’s bloody body in his head.
He sighed. “It wouldn’t be the first time he kept something secret…”
As they walked up the ramp and took their seats, she laid her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t do this to yourself, Jack. I know what it’s like. You’ve made your peace, you have to let go.”
He nodded, but was caught off guard and jumped as the jet engines fired up. “I hope you remembered to pack an extra pair of underwear.” Yolanda winked from her seat across the aisle from Jessie and Jack.
“Yolanda…”
She instantly cringed out of reflex. “I despise that name… I’d rather have you call me Wildcat.”
Jack was about to inquire further, but the group all were pushed backwards against their seats and the jet took off and headed southeast towards Syria.
Jay and Rex stood in the hanger and watched wistfully as the jet took off and disappeared into the crisp blue October sky. “What kind of game are you playing, Wes? Don’t you remember the last time we were all together?”
“Probably better than you do, Rex. When’s the last time you took a hit of Miraclo?” Rex stood there with a blank look on his face and chose not to answer, but look away instead.
Wes shook his head in disappointment and began to ruffle through his trench coat until he pulled out a book that looked as if it were made on one of Gutenberg’s original printing presses. “An old friend gave me this.”
He handed it to Jay and he began to curiously flip through the stiff yellowed pages, taking in the foreign text and odd pictures. “I… I can’t read this language. Who gave it to you?”
Wes smiled smugly. “The Spectre.” Both sets of eyes shot towards his arrogant Cheshire grin.
Before they could press him further, he took the book from Jay and flipped to a two-page spread that only had pictures on it. The scene was a collection of glyphs in the middle of a crudely drawn desert scene. It was nighttime, but there was a large star in the sky adjacent a bolt of lightning that lit up the sky. On the ground, playing in the sand was a small black cat and next to it was a gravestone with a golden shield and a quiver of arrows, leaning against it. On top of the gravestone sat an hourglass, tipping over. What was most disturbing was a hand shooting up from the ground in front of the grave.
“Wes… what is this?”
“Legacy.”
***
Dr. Charles McNider put on his deep red-lensed glasses as he switched over to the standard fluorescent overhead lights from the darkroom safe lights and took a seat at the computer on the far side of the room. “Dr. McNider, is there anything I can do to help?” Charlie asked with her typical, small voice filled with innocence.
“You can get some sleep. You’ve been holding vigil for your friends for the past eight hours, I think I can handle it.” Dr. McNider didn’t look up once from his work, which would normally make one come off a cold, but he exuded warmth and made everyone around him feel at ease.
She began to pace around the room a bit and then settled on him again. “I heard Starman say you were blind, is that true?”
“In the literal sense.” After realizing that she wasn’t going to accept that answer, he sighed and continued. “I was a medic in the Iraq War and my company was attacked one night. Long story short, I took a flash grenade in the face, which blinded me. One day I realized that could see in the dark.”
Charlie stood there with her mouth agape, hanging on Dr. McNider’s every word. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Words of wisdom from a teleporter.” He turned around to her in his swivel chair with a wide smile on his face as he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Now, why don’t we see what we can do about getting you a bed?”
She nodded and the pair walked out of Dr. McNider’s office and when they reached the recovery room where Courtney and Stephanie were, they saw the man in black that had assaulted them earlier. “Evening, Dr. Mid-Nite.”
Charles glared at him through his glasses. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name.”
“How’ve you been?” Degaton asked with a maniacal poison in his voice.
“Do I know you?”
Degaton shook his head. “Not yet.”
Nearly before Degaton could finish his final statement, Charles reached for his pocket where he pulled out a black, marble sized object out of his pocket and threw it at the floor where smoke immediately shot from it and filled the room. “Charlie, run!” was all she could hear before she heard before she heard the colliding of fists.
It had been a while since he had been in a fight, but from what he could tell, it was just like riding a bike. That was until Degaton’s fist collided with his glasses, knocking them off. He quickly assessed the damage to his eye before he jumped away from the other man.
Just then, his eye caught the sight of a device on Degaton’s belt that was flashing. It didn’t look like anything he had seen in his life before, not that he was especially well versed in meta technology. However, before he could examine it further all of the darkness left the room and he was blinded. “Not so tough now, eh, Mid-Nite?”
Charles felt a foot collide with his stomach, which caused him to double over in pain and before he could get back, Degaton folded his fists together and brought them down hard onto Dr. McNider’s back. Once he was on the ground, writhing in pain, Degaton continuously struck his face with the heel of his black combat boot. When it was certain that Charles wasn’t getting up, Degaton knelt down and got in his face.
“Now, you’re going to let me finish what I started. You can’t fight the future, Dr. Mid-Nite.” He laughed as he got up and gave McNider a final kick while turning towards Courtney’s bed.
Dr. McNider coughed and spat up a bit of blood. “Not on your life.” With that he flicked his right wrist and a scalpel shot out from under his lab coat towards Degaton and it hit right in the middle of the device.
“NO! THAT WAS…” He spun around and charged towards the mangled Doctor, but before he could reach him, Charlotte jumped on top of him and they teleported away.
McNider could no longer hear charging so he reached in his pocket to grab another blackout bomb and throw it at the floor. He couldn’t see Degaton anywhere, but at the same time he couldn’t see the girl either. With an intense sense of worry, he picked his glasses up off the floor and put them on.
He went over to check on Courtney, but before he reached the hospital bed, he heard a slight pop in the corner of the room. He turned around and saw Charlotte standing in the corner, dripping wet. “What happened? Are you okay?”
She nodded profusely. “I teleported him… about twenty miles out to sea…” Dr. McNider quickly grabbed a towel from a shelf that was near the bed and wrapped Charlotte up in it.
“Quick thinking… that device that was on his belt, I think it may have been a transporter or some sort. I don’t think that we’ll have to worry about him for a while.” He looked over at the two girls who were fast asleep with a steady IV drip. “However, I don’t want to risk anything. We need to get them to JSA Headquarters… can you get us there?”
Charlie gave him a slight smile under her mask and nodded.
***
The children of the Justice Society of America sat in a near total, uncomfortable silence for the entire duration of the flight the only things that broke up the silence were a few whispers from Jack or Jessie to each other, which were usually followed by a rude comment from Yolanda. Roughly two hours and fifteen minutes into the flight, Sand got up at the front of jet and addressed the rag tag team. “Okay, we can’t afford to make any mistakes here… we don’t know what we’re going to be up against.”
Jack looked over at Yolanda who gave an exaggerated eye roll. “Why did I agree to this?” she asked herself under her breath.
“Because even someone who tries to be a tough girl like you needs a place to belong.” Jack told her as he began to assemble his cosmic rod and turn it into the cosmic staff.
She shot Jack a hard glare in response. “You think you know me. I don’t remember asking you.”
Sand shook his head and continued. “Starman, I’m going to need you to take Wildcat with you. The rest of us can get down without landing.”
“C’mon, Sandy. Doesn’t a cat always land on her feet?” She asked with a sultry tone in her voice.
Jessie quickly shot her hand up. “I think we should test that theory.”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“Cut the chatter. We need to be focused.” With that Sand retook his seat as Jessie caught sight of a city from the window by her seat.
Sand pointed to a Western looking apartment building near what looked to be the town center. “That’s the building Ryan told us to start at.” Once the team got a closer look, they saw that it was being ransacked by a large mob of people. “Damn… okay, let’s go.”
Sand walked over to the controls and made the jet decrease in altitude before he moved to the door and opened it up. He positioned himself in the hatchway and without giving it a second thought; he jumped out and got into a diving position. In shock, Starman, Swift, and Wildcat ran towards the hatch and saw the finality of the decent. When he hit the ground, the sand around him rippled as if he was jumping into water and he disappeared.
“Nice trick… Okay, Wildcat, you ready?” She nodded and Jack positioned himself on the gravity rod. He grabbed her tightly around the waist, which got him a little bit excited, something he didn’t want to admit.
She flashed him a sultry smile. “Don’t get any ideas, Romeo.” Starman shook his head and jumped out of the hatch. Swift watched them float off towards the building before she took off down the ramp and shot her out towards the building, to which she was able to grab a ledge on the room.
A few moments later, Starman and Wildcat joined her and Jack powered down his cosmic staff to conserve the power to get them both onto the jet later. It wasn’t used to carrying two people. “Did anyone see where Sand went?” Jessie asked curiously.
Suddenly, a dust devil sprouted out from the brink on the ledge of the building and after a few seconds it stopped spinning and started to form the shape of a man. When it was finished, Sand stood before them. “Good, you all made it. I was able to patrol the building… he’s on the 5th floor.”
***
Rick Tyler fancied himself as a smart man. He wasn’t thirty yet and he was already a millionaire. Granted, most of that money came from con jobs. It started out as a hobby born out of boredom like getting free refills in old coffee cups or something else that was just as trivial. But then as he got older, his cons got bigger and bigger and now he was trying to sell non-existent arms to the Syrian military. Let’s just say that didn’t endear him too well to the rebels.
“Look, General Rajiha, you’re a smart guy, so I don’t have to tell you how much you need this. You can have a whole new barrage of tanks by Monday morning. Every member of your military will be able to issued a rocket launcher. And those are just the specialties.” This was a speech he had given a hundred times, but each time there was a new thrill involved.
He picked up his scotch glass from the glass table in front of him and took the last sip. “Darling, would you be able to refill my glass? And get anything General Rajiha needs.” A scantily dressed woman of Arab decent strolled over with the bottle of scotch and poured it into Rick’s glass.
She turned to the General who held his hand up and shook his head. “Nothing for me, Thank you.” He turned back to Rick and looked him right in the eye. “What’s in it for you, my friend?”
“I’ll need 1.5 million dollars up front.” Rajiha took in a quick breath.
“That’s… that’s a lot of money.”
Rick smiled. “I need insurance, General. I’m in a very dangerous line of work and the only way I can continue to help people such as yourself, I need money. Money equals protection.”
General Rajiha nodded slowly, as not to show all of his cards in one fell swoop. “I’ll have to get in touch with President Assad, but I believe we have a deal.” They were about to shake hands, but just as their fingers were touching, Starman, Swift, Sand and Wildcat charged into the room. “What the devil is going on here? Tyler?” The General yelled as he pulled a gun out of his suit. He pointed it towards the superheroes, but Starman shot it out of his hand with a blast from the cosmic staff.
With that, General Rajiha quickly dashed out of another door on the far side of the room. “Jessie?” was the first word out of Rick’s mouth. He ran up to her and gave her a passionate kiss hello. “What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Tyler, we have reason to believe you’re in grave danger. We need to get you out of here.” Sand maintained his matter-of-fact style without fault.
Rick looked at him with a suspicious look on his face. “Who the hell are you?”
“He’s Sandman’s son.” Starman interjected before Sand could answer.
“Wait. Sandman had a son? Poor kid.”
Sand shook his head, but Jessie answered before he could. “Put him up for adoption for his own protection. He always was paranoid…”
Rick smiled and nodded in agreement. He looked over at Wildcat and gave her quick elevator eyes. “Who are you?”
“Yolanda Montez, but you can call me Rose.” His eyes lingered for a second on Wildcat for another second, but the doors on the far wall busted open and a large group of people with guns came in.
A girl with a more feral look carrying a bow and arrow entered the room and went to the front of the group. “Who are you? Identify yourself!” Sand demanded from his spot in the room. In response, in one swift, fluid motion, she knocked her bow, and shot it towards Rick, but Jessie was able to catch it. But while she was catching that one, the woman shot another one and hit Wildcat in the shoulder.
“Surrender now. You are now under the control of Vandal Savage.”
To Be Continued
Legacy Pt. 3
“New costume?” Jack Knight asked with a half-smile as Jessie Garrick exited the locker room wearing a short-sleeved red spandex top with a symbol that was shaped similar to a wingspan and neon yellow running shorts
Her cheeks reddened and she looked down at the floor with an embarrassed smile on her face. “Kinda. I’ve been holding on to this costume for a while… even when I was calling myself Kid Flash, I never felt worthy. It was time to reflect that.”
“Jess…”
Her eyes darted up to meet his sympathetic stare. “Don’t, Jack. I can’t explain it to you, but I need to feel this way… it’s all I can do.”
Jack reluctantly nodded as he leaned in and lightly kissed her temple. Soon after, Wesley Dodds’ son, Sanderson Hawkins walked in with his father, Jay, Rex and Ryan in close pursuit. Wes turned to the pair of young costumed heroes and gazed at them intently. “Starman, Flash…”
“Swift.”
Wes’s piercing stare wavered for a second. “Excuse me?”
Jessie looked at the ground again in a defeated manner. “I’m not calling myself The Flash anymore, sir… there’s another one…”
Wes curtly nodded. For such an anti-military man such as himself, his entire demeanor was based on authority and the power relationship. “Where’s Wildcat?”
“Right here, Sleepy.” The group turned and saw Yolanda Montez in her skin-tight black leather costume, complete with a cowl with cat ears. Jack couldn’t help but notice that the zipper that ran down the front was far from zipped all the way up as she stood in the door way making a sultry pose with her right arm high above her head.
With a bit of red reflecting Wes’ anger at the nickname coloring his face, he turned to address the group. “I hope all of you know just how important it is to return back her safely with Rick. The legacy must not die.”
Sanderson nodded curtly, in a way that Jack noted looked an awful lot like his father while he noticed that Jessie simply looked unsure of herself as she had every time he had seen her since Barry’s funeral. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yolanda flash him an exasperated look topped off with an over exaggerated eye roll. “Okay, guys, let’s roll out.” Jack ordered in a decidedly friendly tone as he lightly placed his hand on the small of Jessie’s back to lead her towards the hanger.
Wes held his hand up. “I’m sorry, Starman, I’ve selected Sand to lead this mission. His military experience in the Middle East makes him the ideal candidate. And I can trust him.”
Just a year ago, Jack would have knocked him on his ass, but Jack had changed over the last year since he had taken over as Starman, after his father’s death. “Fine, whatever.”
Wesley nodded again, which was starting to make Jack’s sink crawl. It was as if he was judging the person it was directed at every time. “If there are no more questions, I suggest you leave as soon as possible. Time is off the essence.” Jack wondered if that was a quip directed at the fact that they were going after Hourman’s son.
Sand was the first to make his way towards the hanger with Yolanda closely following him. “Man, is he always like this?”
“Wouldn’t know. He put me up for adoption when I was born… met him few days ago.” He spoke with the same hushed intensity that she was just greeted with by the original Sandman.
Yolanda pessimistically chortled. “Must run in the family.”
With that, Starman and Swift walked cautiously towards the 30 year old jet that until yesterday had be collecting dust in the hanger. “How in the hell was my Dad able to hide this from us?” He whispered to her.
“You were probably just too stupid to notice.” Jack gave her a quick look and smiled widely, only to feel a slight twinge of guilt and he instantly pictured Courtney’s bloody body in his head.
He sighed. “It wouldn’t be the first time he kept something secret…”
As they walked up the ramp and took their seats, she laid her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t do this to yourself, Jack. I know what it’s like. You’ve made your peace, you have to let go.”
He nodded, but was caught off guard and jumped as the jet engines fired up. “I hope you remembered to pack an extra pair of underwear.” Yolanda winked from her seat across the aisle from Jessie and Jack.
“Yolanda…”
She instantly cringed out of reflex. “I despise that name… I’d rather have you call me Wildcat.”
Jack was about to inquire further, but the group all were pushed backwards against their seats and the jet took off and headed southeast towards Syria.
Jay and Rex stood in the hanger and watched wistfully as the jet took off and disappeared into the crisp blue October sky. “What kind of game are you playing, Wes? Don’t you remember the last time we were all together?”
“Probably better than you do, Rex. When’s the last time you took a hit of Miraclo?” Rex stood there with a blank look on his face and chose not to answer, but look away instead.
Wes shook his head in disappointment and began to ruffle through his trench coat until he pulled out a book that looked as if it were made on one of Gutenberg’s original printing presses. “An old friend gave me this.”
He handed it to Jay and he began to curiously flip through the stiff yellowed pages, taking in the foreign text and odd pictures. “I… I can’t read this language. Who gave it to you?”
Wes smiled smugly. “The Spectre.” Both sets of eyes shot towards his arrogant Cheshire grin.
Before they could press him further, he took the book from Jay and flipped to a two-page spread that only had pictures on it. The scene was a collection of glyphs in the middle of a crudely drawn desert scene. It was nighttime, but there was a large star in the sky adjacent a bolt of lightning that lit up the sky. On the ground, playing in the sand was a small black cat and next to it was a gravestone with a golden shield and a quiver of arrows, leaning against it. On top of the gravestone sat an hourglass, tipping over. What was most disturbing was a hand shooting up from the ground in front of the grave.
“Wes… what is this?”
“Legacy.”
***
Dr. Charles McNider put on his deep red-lensed glasses as he switched over to the standard fluorescent overhead lights from the darkroom safe lights and took a seat at the computer on the far side of the room. “Dr. McNider, is there anything I can do to help?” Charlie asked with her typical, small voice filled with innocence.
“You can get some sleep. You’ve been holding vigil for your friends for the past eight hours, I think I can handle it.” Dr. McNider didn’t look up once from his work, which would normally make one come off a cold, but he exuded warmth and made everyone around him feel at ease.
She began to pace around the room a bit and then settled on him again. “I heard Starman say you were blind, is that true?”
“In the literal sense.” After realizing that she wasn’t going to accept that answer, he sighed and continued. “I was a medic in the Iraq War and my company was attacked one night. Long story short, I took a flash grenade in the face, which blinded me. One day I realized that could see in the dark.”
Charlie stood there with her mouth agape, hanging on Dr. McNider’s every word. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Words of wisdom from a teleporter.” He turned around to her in his swivel chair with a wide smile on his face as he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Now, why don’t we see what we can do about getting you a bed?”
She nodded and the pair walked out of Dr. McNider’s office and when they reached the recovery room where Courtney and Stephanie were, they saw the man in black that had assaulted them earlier. “Evening, Dr. Mid-Nite.”
Charles glared at him through his glasses. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name.”
“How’ve you been?” Degaton asked with a maniacal poison in his voice.
“Do I know you?”
Degaton shook his head. “Not yet.”
Nearly before Degaton could finish his final statement, Charles reached for his pocket where he pulled out a black, marble sized object out of his pocket and threw it at the floor where smoke immediately shot from it and filled the room. “Charlie, run!” was all she could hear before she heard before she heard the colliding of fists.
It had been a while since he had been in a fight, but from what he could tell, it was just like riding a bike. That was until Degaton’s fist collided with his glasses, knocking them off. He quickly assessed the damage to his eye before he jumped away from the other man.
Just then, his eye caught the sight of a device on Degaton’s belt that was flashing. It didn’t look like anything he had seen in his life before, not that he was especially well versed in meta technology. However, before he could examine it further all of the darkness left the room and he was blinded. “Not so tough now, eh, Mid-Nite?”
Charles felt a foot collide with his stomach, which caused him to double over in pain and before he could get back, Degaton folded his fists together and brought them down hard onto Dr. McNider’s back. Once he was on the ground, writhing in pain, Degaton continuously struck his face with the heel of his black combat boot. When it was certain that Charles wasn’t getting up, Degaton knelt down and got in his face.
“Now, you’re going to let me finish what I started. You can’t fight the future, Dr. Mid-Nite.” He laughed as he got up and gave McNider a final kick while turning towards Courtney’s bed.
Dr. McNider coughed and spat up a bit of blood. “Not on your life.” With that he flicked his right wrist and a scalpel shot out from under his lab coat towards Degaton and it hit right in the middle of the device.
“NO! THAT WAS…” He spun around and charged towards the mangled Doctor, but before he could reach him, Charlotte jumped on top of him and they teleported away.
McNider could no longer hear charging so he reached in his pocket to grab another blackout bomb and throw it at the floor. He couldn’t see Degaton anywhere, but at the same time he couldn’t see the girl either. With an intense sense of worry, he picked his glasses up off the floor and put them on.
He went over to check on Courtney, but before he reached the hospital bed, he heard a slight pop in the corner of the room. He turned around and saw Charlotte standing in the corner, dripping wet. “What happened? Are you okay?”
She nodded profusely. “I teleported him… about twenty miles out to sea…” Dr. McNider quickly grabbed a towel from a shelf that was near the bed and wrapped Charlotte up in it.
“Quick thinking… that device that was on his belt, I think it may have been a transporter or some sort. I don’t think that we’ll have to worry about him for a while.” He looked over at the two girls who were fast asleep with a steady IV drip. “However, I don’t want to risk anything. We need to get them to JSA Headquarters… can you get us there?”
Charlie gave him a slight smile under her mask and nodded.
***
The children of the Justice Society of America sat in a near total, uncomfortable silence for the entire duration of the flight the only things that broke up the silence were a few whispers from Jack or Jessie to each other, which were usually followed by a rude comment from Yolanda. Roughly two hours and fifteen minutes into the flight, Sand got up at the front of jet and addressed the rag tag team. “Okay, we can’t afford to make any mistakes here… we don’t know what we’re going to be up against.”
Jack looked over at Yolanda who gave an exaggerated eye roll. “Why did I agree to this?” she asked herself under her breath.
“Because even someone who tries to be a tough girl like you needs a place to belong.” Jack told her as he began to assemble his cosmic rod and turn it into the cosmic staff.
She shot Jack a hard glare in response. “You think you know me. I don’t remember asking you.”
Sand shook his head and continued. “Starman, I’m going to need you to take Wildcat with you. The rest of us can get down without landing.”
“C’mon, Sandy. Doesn’t a cat always land on her feet?” She asked with a sultry tone in her voice.
Jessie quickly shot her hand up. “I think we should test that theory.”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“Cut the chatter. We need to be focused.” With that Sand retook his seat as Jessie caught sight of a city from the window by her seat.
Sand pointed to a Western looking apartment building near what looked to be the town center. “That’s the building Ryan told us to start at.” Once the team got a closer look, they saw that it was being ransacked by a large mob of people. “Damn… okay, let’s go.”
Sand walked over to the controls and made the jet decrease in altitude before he moved to the door and opened it up. He positioned himself in the hatchway and without giving it a second thought; he jumped out and got into a diving position. In shock, Starman, Swift, and Wildcat ran towards the hatch and saw the finality of the decent. When he hit the ground, the sand around him rippled as if he was jumping into water and he disappeared.
“Nice trick… Okay, Wildcat, you ready?” She nodded and Jack positioned himself on the gravity rod. He grabbed her tightly around the waist, which got him a little bit excited, something he didn’t want to admit.
She flashed him a sultry smile. “Don’t get any ideas, Romeo.” Starman shook his head and jumped out of the hatch. Swift watched them float off towards the building before she took off down the ramp and shot her out towards the building, to which she was able to grab a ledge on the room.
A few moments later, Starman and Wildcat joined her and Jack powered down his cosmic staff to conserve the power to get them both onto the jet later. It wasn’t used to carrying two people. “Did anyone see where Sand went?” Jessie asked curiously.
Suddenly, a dust devil sprouted out from the brink on the ledge of the building and after a few seconds it stopped spinning and started to form the shape of a man. When it was finished, Sand stood before them. “Good, you all made it. I was able to patrol the building… he’s on the 5th floor.”
***
Rick Tyler fancied himself as a smart man. He wasn’t thirty yet and he was already a millionaire. Granted, most of that money came from con jobs. It started out as a hobby born out of boredom like getting free refills in old coffee cups or something else that was just as trivial. But then as he got older, his cons got bigger and bigger and now he was trying to sell non-existent arms to the Syrian military. Let’s just say that didn’t endear him too well to the rebels.
“Look, General Rajiha, you’re a smart guy, so I don’t have to tell you how much you need this. You can have a whole new barrage of tanks by Monday morning. Every member of your military will be able to issued a rocket launcher. And those are just the specialties.” This was a speech he had given a hundred times, but each time there was a new thrill involved.
He picked up his scotch glass from the glass table in front of him and took the last sip. “Darling, would you be able to refill my glass? And get anything General Rajiha needs.” A scantily dressed woman of Arab decent strolled over with the bottle of scotch and poured it into Rick’s glass.
She turned to the General who held his hand up and shook his head. “Nothing for me, Thank you.” He turned back to Rick and looked him right in the eye. “What’s in it for you, my friend?”
“I’ll need 1.5 million dollars up front.” Rajiha took in a quick breath.
“That’s… that’s a lot of money.”
Rick smiled. “I need insurance, General. I’m in a very dangerous line of work and the only way I can continue to help people such as yourself, I need money. Money equals protection.”
General Rajiha nodded slowly, as not to show all of his cards in one fell swoop. “I’ll have to get in touch with President Assad, but I believe we have a deal.” They were about to shake hands, but just as their fingers were touching, Starman, Swift, Sand and Wildcat charged into the room. “What the devil is going on here? Tyler?” The General yelled as he pulled a gun out of his suit. He pointed it towards the superheroes, but Starman shot it out of his hand with a blast from the cosmic staff.
With that, General Rajiha quickly dashed out of another door on the far side of the room. “Jessie?” was the first word out of Rick’s mouth. He ran up to her and gave her a passionate kiss hello. “What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Tyler, we have reason to believe you’re in grave danger. We need to get you out of here.” Sand maintained his matter-of-fact style without fault.
Rick looked at him with a suspicious look on his face. “Who the hell are you?”
“He’s Sandman’s son.” Starman interjected before Sand could answer.
“Wait. Sandman had a son? Poor kid.”
Sand shook his head, but Jessie answered before he could. “Put him up for adoption for his own protection. He always was paranoid…”
Rick smiled and nodded in agreement. He looked over at Wildcat and gave her quick elevator eyes. “Who are you?”
“Yolanda Montez, but you can call me Rose.” His eyes lingered for a second on Wildcat for another second, but the doors on the far wall busted open and a large group of people with guns came in.
A girl with a more feral look carrying a bow and arrow entered the room and went to the front of the group. “Who are you? Identify yourself!” Sand demanded from his spot in the room. In response, in one swift, fluid motion, she knocked her bow, and shot it towards Rick, but Jessie was able to catch it. But while she was catching that one, the woman shot another one and hit Wildcat in the shoulder.
“Surrender now. You are now under the control of Vandal Savage.”
To Be Continued
