Young Justice Season 2

[HAIRCUT]

This has been the project of the last few weeks. There is much to-do in the Capeshit world about how bad things are, how poorly characters are treated, how certain properties are done dirty by a disintegration ray aimed haphazardly at the property. This is purely creative writing, purely an exercise in putting my money where my mouth is on the Capeshit question. I think that Young Justice was served incredibly poorly by its second season and those after, so here is something different, something that I think flies a little closer to some of the ideas that the first season had, and does some things I think are just more interesting than what was done. I have done my darndest to find things about season 2 that I would keep and re-use, and they are there for those with eyes to see.

Please be aware, this is what I would proposition as the “First Half” of the season, the “Second Half” is in progress, and will be of equal or greater length.

The Team has undergone all the happenings of Season 1, none of the tie-in comics or any events of Season 2 have happened, very few if any of them will happen. This is a ground up rewrite and restructuring.

• The roster of the Team as it stands in S2 E1:

  • Aqualad

  • Robin

  • Kid Flash

  • Superboy

  • Artemis

  • Miss Martian

  • Zatanna

  • Rocket
    All these characters were present for the last Episode of Season 1, and are part of the Team “Full Time”.

• 5 Months have passed since New Years. May 1, 20-XX is the date of the first episode. Lex Luthor looks up at a bright white object in the night sky from his Metropolis Office Skyscraper Penthouse. Lex affirms with Bruno Mannheim that the rocket is ready for launch. He dismisses Bruno’s hologram and speaks again, this time affirming with Ras Al Ghul that Sportsmaster is being tracked, and will be finally dealt with for his failure and treachery.

• the Team are in the main room of the Mountain by Batman. Miss Martian debuts her new form, paper white skin with longer hair. this is a statement of self confidence in her white martian nature and her nature as a mature(ing) female. The various members of the Team are shown entering in their school uniforms or outfits (Miss Martian and Superboy at Happy Harbor High, Artemis from Gotham Academy, Wally from Central City High)

  1. Batman briefs the mission: The nation of Bialya has industrialized an advanced space program in the last month with seemingly no detectable increase in state-manufactured satellites or infrastructure, furthermore the League has picked up odd extraterrestrial radiation emanating from the launch site. The team is to go forward, recon the launch site and report their findings.

  2. At the Launch site, Cheshire and Mannheim are in talks with Queen Bee herself, who leaves via helicopter as the team approaches the site closer. The Team is busted when a perimeter alarm drone spots them, and starts firing lasers that actually seem to hurt superboy. superboy recognizes the technology on the drone as the same stuff Intergang was peddling last year in his encounter with them.

  3. Hacking into the rockets telemetry robin figures out that the rocket technology was stolen from Wayne Technologies Branch, which to his knowledge has never sold anything to Bialya.

  4. Talking as they fight, Jade pulls Artemis away and tells her she is pregnant and that the father is Red Arrow, and that he is avoiding her. Artemis tells her that even KF has been unable to contact him since New Years.

  5. the satellite launches after Robin downloads some monitoring software into it, Mannheim escapes via Boom Tube.

  6. later in the cave, Batman and Robin comb back through hidden transfers of proprietary technologies from Wayne Tech during the 16 hour absence from New Years and discover that there was only one recipient for all the designs: LexCorp. This presumably, was what Batman was busy with during his 16 hours- the rest of the League’s time however, remains unaccounted for.

  7. Lex Luthor is on TV for the UN, LexCorp is partnering with the developing nations group of the UN to further advance the Bialyan space program with the goal of putting a Lunar Base in functioning status by the end of the year. The team minus Superboy/MM watches and speculates from the lounge in the Mountain.

  8. Superboy has returned to CADMUS and Genome-City, Guardian informs him that there has been yet another change in leadership since the discovery of the underground city, CADMUS is for now under an intermediary directorship of CADMUS scientists. The Genomes are not being treated poorly per se, but their menial slavery is not something any of them will accept long term, as is voiced by DubbleX. The CADMUS scientists, though sympathetic, see the Genomes are proprietary technology that cannot be allowed to just roam free for competitors or evildoers to capture and experiment with, in that case Project Kr and MATCH would be only the beginning of an unimaginable future arms race. Superboy, frustrated but understanding of both sides, pledges to figure it out. Superboy demands that the CADMUS council do no more business with Lex Luthor if he is to help. Superboy shows M’gann Genome City, bringing the two closer together, according to M’gann, Genomes and Martians are actually quite alike.

• Kid Flash leaves Artemis’ apartment in Gotham City after a dinner with her and her mom, and after kissing Artemis good-bye, announces he will be running home rather than zeta-tubing -for the exercise. KF starts to run, but rather than head straight west for Central City, he diverts back into Gotham where he will meet up with Robin, Aqualad, and Red Arrow.

  1. Just as KF leaves and Artemis’ mom goes to bed, Cheshire/Jade enters the apartment through the window, and asks Artemis to accompany her finding Red Arrow- she thinks he is in Gotham tonight

  2. The two teams meet up by accident while both chasing Red Arrow into a Gotham slum where he intends to detonate a penetrator bomb in order to access what he thinks is another underground facility housing CADMUS cloning technology or something parallel to it. The combined teams manage to talk him down, Cheshire covers his escape at the last moment, disappearing with him in a cloud of smoke.

  3. KF and Artemis have a resulting blowout fight- Red Arrow and Cheshire do as well. Artemis declares she is taking some time off “from everything”, angry at Robin and Aqualad as well for not telling the Team.

• At Gotham Academy the following day, Artemis is miserable. Classes are boring, the people are stifling, obnoxious, rich, all things she isn’t. Her lone friends are Barbara Gordon and Zatanna Zatara. She will not hang out with Dick Grayson, who is trying unusually hard to be nice to her.

  1. Artemis is hanging out with them between classes until Zatanna leaves to hang out with Dick Grayson (Who both are aware is Robin at this point). This upsets Artemis, though she masks it with sarcasm. To cheer her up Barbara suggests they skip class and go get some food. Artemis looks over at Zatanna hanging out with Dick, and is down.

  2. Artemis and Barbara go to a diner a few blocks from the school to gossip, Artemis talks about how she is having trouble with her boyfriend who “Doesn’t go to Gotham Academy” and Barbara talks about how stifling her Chief of Police father is. Of course the diner ends up being held up by gangbangers of no certain stripe. Trapped between Barbara who does not know that she is a superhero, and her obligation to act, Artemis almost makes a move before The Huntress comes crashing through the window, dispatching the goons in style. There is a moment where Artemis and Huntress lock eyes and something like recognition passes, but the moment is lost as Huntress tells her to call 911 and stop skipping school.

  3. Barbara cannot stop babbling about how cool Huntress is as they walk back to school before a police cruiser pulls up next to them, and Detective Bullock offers them a ride, saying if they buy him a donut he won’t tell Barbara’s dad she was skipping class.

The Teams next mission is to continue on the trail of Intergang, which seems to be making inroads with different villains world wide now that they have confirmed their presence in Bialya.

• The Team have a battle with Bane on Santa Prisca again as he receives a shipment of weapons from Intergang whose ship the Team follows in on the Bio-Ship. During the battle and exchange, Bruno Mannheim clumsily attempts to double cross Bane, causing Bane to take the “Ninos” side once again, this time against Intergang, brutalizing Bruno Mannheim- causing Intergang to flee through a Boomtube. Bane escapes apprehension as well, but gives Artemis specifically a tip: Bane’s connections tell him that Sportsmaster is in deep shit. He has played his hand with the League of Assassins poorly in the fallout of The Light’s defeat last year. Artemis is exasperated that Bane seems to know her secret identity. Kid Flash points out that it really isnt that secret she uses her name as her hero name as well and has fairly publicly betrayed her father. This does not earn him any favor with her.

  1. Back at the cave, Artemis has enlisted the disappointed silence of Zatanna, Rocket, and M’gann as well, and so the trio of Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash watch in ignominious silence as the girls go out together for a night in Happy Harbor.

• KF, Robin, and Aqualad are left to their own devices in the cave, KF wonders what Red Arrow is doing right about now…

  1. Red Arrow is in a screaming match with Cheshire, who is starting to show her pregnancy in an apartment in Gotham. Cheshire tells him that he needs “professional help” which lights a lightbulb in his head, something Green Arrow told him about in passing years ago.

  2. Red Arrow calls Robin, who is playing Video Games in the Mountain, and asks him for a strange favor… he needs an employee ID for the Gotham Zoo.

  3. Red Arrow is at the Gotham Zoo, at the exhibit of a very particular Monkey. Arrow speaks to the monkey as though it can understand him, saying he got this location from Robin. The monkey stops at this and pulls a pipe and deerstalker hat from behind a rock. Detective Chimp introduces himself, and inquires about the case.

• Simultaneously:

  1. Artemis returns home after the night out to find her mother distraught over a letter. Her father, Sportsmaster, sent an encrypted message over an old communications channel they used in their Villain days with a single message: They are out to get me, Run Here. There is some further encryption on the location attached to the message.

  2. Reluctantly, Artemis goes to Robin at the Mountain and (this is the first time she is speaking to him in some time) asks him to break the devices security for her. Robin says he will do so, and after examining the device, says he needs Kid Flash’s help for the actual inputs as it would be impossible otherwise without connecting it to a larger computer which he doesn’t want to do because of the threat that its malware or something similar. Artemis is resistant to involving Kid Flash, but acquiesces when Robin stonewalls her.

  3. The device projects a map and a message, a safehouse in Hub City, and a message: Come Alone. Artemis, Kid Flash, Robin, and Zatanna suit up to investigate.

  4. The safehouse is secreted behind a false wall in an apartment building, Artemis is very on edge, jumping at every shadow. It is a room replete with weapons, gear, and sports memorabilia. It is apparent no one has been here in some time. As they are investigating, Zatanna falls off comms- Bronze Tiger appears in the doorway. A long, brutal battle occurs- BT uniformly puts the heroes to shame, tripping Kid Flash and calling him slow, only being put out by a lucky hit from Kid Flash at top speed. Zatanna compels Bronze Tiger to reveal what his purpose here was: To find and kill Sportsmaster on the order of Talia Al Ghul, the new Demon’s Head. This only comes after some struggle on Zatanna’s part, she remarks he is particularly mentally resilient, even to magic.

  5. Batman once again gathers the team, and scolds them, saying that by now they should be aware how real a threat the League of Assassins is, and that putting themselves on the radar of an organization like that, is simply unwise. Artemis’ mother will be protected by the League, who should have been the first people she went to when this happened. In the meantime:

  6. The Team is being sent to another rocket launch, this one is blatantly illegal, and it is the Team’s job to stop it, and to examine the rocket and determine the purpose of the satellite it is carrying. The rocket is being launched from the Gulf of Oman, Somali Pirate territory the League assumes Intergang will be protecting.

• The Team arrive at sea, the Bio-Ship goes into boat-mode and uncloaks as they approach. Aqualad and Miss Martian are the go-ahead party and scout from below. As they get closer, they notice the weaponry of the attendant pirates on guard is abnormal, it appears to be the sort of chest cannons carried by Intergang (Apokolipton weaponry).

  1. The Team prepares to launch their assault, but just as they do, a boom tube opens on the tanker carrying the rocket, and out steps 5 strange looking women. They are greeted by Bruno Mannheim, still mostly in a cast from his encounter with Bane, the 6 proceed to walk to the rocket and put something on it, which sends red energy up the structure of the rocket. The Team attacks at this moment. The battle between the Team and Female Furies goes poorly for the Team, Kid Flash is frequently slower than the Female Furies who mock him, remarking that he wouldn’t last a day in “the terror fields”. Superboy is pinned to the rocket as it takes off by Lashina, at which point the Female Furies make their exit through a boom tube. M’gann interrogates Bruno Mannheim harshly in his mind, tearing away to find out the intended purpose of the rocket even as Robin and Rocket fly the bio-ship into space chasing Superboy.

  2. During M’ganns interrogation of Mannheim, she encounters a terrible psychic presence, unlike anything she has encountered before, a bottomless mental presence which tortures her and casts her out of Mannheim’s mind even as it kills him, draining his body of all color and life. she herself narrowly escapes mental death at the hands of the entity which consumed Mannheim.

  3. Superboy makes it all the way into Orbit, the Bio-Ship flying barrel to barrel with the rocket as Rocket attempts to use her powers to extract him before the stage he is attached to separates. They manage to pull him off just in time, and watch as the satellite deploys- but its not just one satellite, this satellite is in a ring of many many many satellites.

  4. In specialized high atmosphere pressure suits, Examining the satellites, Robin notes that the circuitry and welding is very strange, looks like something closer to heat vision than any sort of approved aerospace industry standard welding. Batman calls for their return to the Mountain.

  5. Batman has the Team in the mountain again, the brief is that this massive ring of satellites has been in place for months. This, is likely what the majority of the Justice League was engaged in doing during their time under Vandal Savage’s control. Every Leaguer was used in some capacity in the creation and deploying of these satellites, and it is how they have stayed undetected and off the League’s radar for so long. The League is not able to simply down them either, as Bialya as a sovereign nation is taking credit for all of them as of an hour ago. While the League explores legal options for explaining the impossible, the Team must again act as an intelligence gathering organism. An associate of the League working in a business capacity is travelling abroad in China, Mr. Maxwell Lord. Lord is attempting to lobby some foreign interests in favor of encouraging an inquest into the “Bialyan satellites”, and he must be protected from what Batman assesses will be the League of Assassins or Intergang sent to kill him.

  6. Batman has Miss Martian remain behind. He says the League believes her about Mannheim dying due to some other cause then her telepathy, but she needs to be careful when interrogating criminals. Villains do not get the death penalty from the Justice League. Ever. Outside, Superboy listens.

• In Hong Kong, the Team is having a good time. Mr. Lord is a gracious host and very interested in the Team and how they operate, he gives them all his business card. MLI, Max Lord International, a transnational good-will law firm and industrial hedge fund. Max Lord seems to know about the Genomorphs at CADMUS, to Superboy’s suspicion.

  1. The Team and Mr. Lord are soon attacked by members of the League of Assassins, ninjas who move in strange unison, led by the assassin Shrike. On the backfoot at first, the Team is beaten back, the action is frenetic as even Superboy is bounced multiple times by Shrike. Miss Martian, attempting to pierce the mind of a ninja, discovers they have a low level primitive telepathic link! Shrike spars with Robin, cutting him several times with his arm blades as he watches Artemis fight ninjas before jumping in himself, remarking that he knows the spawn of Sportsmaster when he sees it, confirming rumors around the water fountain he had heard about her betrayal. He fires a bullet that apparently kills Maxwell Lord as he attempts to climb out of a window, and grabs Artemis, ready to kill her, his blade is on her throat as he gloats about killing Lord- time stands still, Kid Flash, pushed to the brink, has accessed the higher echelon of his powers- this, is how the Flash feels- time and space dilate and become relative, Kid Flash punches Shrike out, sending him careening out of the window into the bay below in a Superboy esque haymaker. The Maxwell Lord that was shot is revealed to have been Miss Martian in disguise, who though lightly wounded, is okay. Maxwell Lord, coming out from behind a couch, thanks them for a job well done, especially Aqualad for that quick thinking bait and switch coordination, and proposes a fancy dinner once they are back in Metropolis in the morning. Kid Flash is eager to agree, saying he has never felt so hungry in his life. Artemis looks on in subtle awe at Kid Flash who now vibrates and sweats static electricity while enthusing about his powers.

• Simultaneously:

  1. Red Arrow returns to the zoo in the dead of night, carrying a bundle under his arm. Approaching the monkey exhibit slowly, he tosses the bundle over the glass. Detective Chimp scuttles out and examines what is a bag of bananas and tobacco. He signals his approval, and tells Red Arrow that tonight they need to go out on the town. He has been stewing on Red Arrow’s case, and he needs the help of some of his associates in the wider Detective World. Red Arrow insists he doesn’t want Batman to be involved, to which Detective Chimp harumphs, and says that while Batman may be a high profile detective, there are many other ones with equal skill in his eyes and there is no need for him. Red Arrow jumps back out of the zoo across rooftops with a monkey in a deerstalker clinging to his back, waving a banana.

• After:

  1. The Team is all dressed up for a night with Maxwell Lord, Artemis is being helped into a dress by Black Canary who is surprised, and says that a year ago, Artemis might have resisted this sort of thing with more vigor, but now that she is with Wally… Artemis denies nothing but keep stereotypically stoic about things between her and Wally besides saying he has really been testing her patience lately. Black Canary responds with wisdom about the many escapades of Oliver Queen.

  2. Wally, in another room, is having difficulties getting dressed for a different reason, he has found that he can vibrate through solid objects without bleeding from his nose now, but can’t seem to control the timing just right, falling out of his clothes over and over again. The Flash has to help him calm his molecules in order to get dressed, Kid Flash is of course the last one, and nearly makes the whole team late to the dinner.

  3. The dinner is exceedingly nice, Lord puts on a very good show. He pitches to the Team that in a few years he hopes to be doing more formal business with the Justice League, he imagines it could be very profitable if it tried. The Team indicates that being a hero is a non-profit endeavor, and Lord insists that isn’t really what he meant. Lord gets Superboy alone, and starts talking more about Genomes and is curious to learn about them. Superboy blows him off, but Lord says he knows Luthor knows about them too, and that Luthor previously had intimate access to CADMUS. He says he could be the Genomes only shot at freedom, or whatever it is they actually want. Superboy says he will consider it, and shows that he still has Lord’s business card.

  4. Robin and Zatanna, Rocket and Aqualad, Superboy and M’gann, all dance. Miss Martian and Superboy dance, Superboy is bad at it and hates it.

  5. Wally and Artemis dance as well, but he keeps vibrating and causing static electricity outbursts shocking them both a bunch of times. Eventually Wally finds himself out on the balcony with Robin moping about his situation. He confides in Robin that he has been waiting to get this fast and get a girlfriend his whole life, and now that he’s fast its just causing him problems with Artemis who is inside, her hair very frizzy while a cooing Zatanna attempts to magically smooth it.

[HAIRCUT]

• The Team is summoned to the Watchtower in space, an exciting occasion for all, as not many of them had been up there since the climactic events of New Years. Superman and Batman talk them on to a special reconnaissance mission. Lex Luthor, as they know, has been championing a Lunar Base’s construction in recent months. What they do not know, is that Luthor’s moon base already exists, at least, parts of it do. Radiation matching the emissions from the rocket launch sites has been detected after the League expanded their search into near Earth space to capture all the satellites in their data.

  1. This mission is high stakes. If there are human operators aboard the station, any error could cause a casualty, same goes for members of the team. However, the League had been alerted to the presence of the Lunar base by recent energy signatures radiating from a large crater on the border of the dark side of the moon. These energy signatures match what radiated from the launch pads when the team battled the female warriors that came out of the boom tube. The energy readings have become more frequent, to the point the League assesses the materials for the base were entirely built using this technology and that there is consistent shipments arriving and leaving every day. The Team is to investigate, record, and recon the site. If the League wanted it blown up- they’d send the Green Lanterns. Or at least Guy Gardner.

  2. The Bio-ship is specially prepared to fly to the Moon, Kid Flash speculates about how his powers will even work in low gravity. Artemis packs a crossbow instead of her regular bow, everyone is in the pressure suits from the satellite recon.

  3. The Bio-Ship is cloaked and landed on the far side of the crater, the Team make their way slowly across the crater, dodging security drones like the ones from Bialya along the way. They manage to slip inside a large industrial hangar airlock entrance, and down a slanted industrial cargo lift.

  4. At the bottom, 10 levels down, a massive chamber with something similar to a Zeta-Tube set up is staffed by dozens of crew. Among them, is Lex Luthor in his purple and green power suit. He waves down his men and tells them to bring out their bargaining chip.

  5. A group of men wheel out the pod of Project MATCH. On the tech-dais, a Boom Tube opens, and a disfigured man in a cloak flanked by the female warriors they had encountered at the launch steps out. Lex greets the man as Desaad, and the women as the Female Furies. He informs Desaad that Intergang is under new leadership. Desaad says that Mannheim was an unessential part of the operation, and that it is no doubt in better hands with Luthors direct guidance and material support. Luthor agrees, and says that he has brought his bargaining chip, Project Match, a full Kryptonian. Desaad comments that it is artificial, but Kryptonian nonetheless.

  6. Superboy is mentally screaming that they need to get out there and stop this, but M’gann and the Team stop him, they are too far away from Justice League support, and any damage they do not only risks their lives, but the lives of Lex’s crew. Desaad mentally pulls a huge hover-lift of red-lit technology through the portal, crates and crates of weapons and father boxes. Luthor’s men unhand Project Match to the Female Furies. Luthor orders the men to start sorting the goods, and thanks Desaad for a deal well done, Desaad is only too happy to oblige. At this point M’gann is nearly knocked down by the mental weight of the doom which she felt in Bruno Mannheim’s mind as it flashes in the room. Desaad bows low, and says that his master is calling him back to his other duties. The Apokoliptons leave, and the Team makes their way back out of the base. Aboard the bio-ship, they discuss what it is they saw, and prepare to make their report to the League.

  7. Superboy is not talking to anyone. M’gann tries to talk to him via telepathy and he angrily (mentally) yells at her to get out of his head. She wouldn’t understand. She isn’t a genome, no matter how close Martians might be. They willingly sent basically Superboy’s deranged cousin into the hands of whatever evil is on the other side of that portal.

Simultaneously:

• Back on Earth, Detective Chimp and Red Arrow are in Starr City’s Chinatown, deep in its alleys. Chimp leads Red Arrow down alley after alley before stopping at a door, and knocking in a particular sequence and doing a monkey squeal. The door opens to reveal a parlor style basement.

  1. Inside are sitting The Question, The Elongated Man, and Slam Bradley, who all are introduced by Detective Chimp. Chimp lays down his briefcase for them and illustrates the facts of the case as he sees them.

  2. Elongated Man says there is a high likelihood that the “real” Roy Harper is dead, and long disposed of.

  3. The Question asks Red Arrow what he intends to do when they find the real Roy Harper. Red Arrow doesn’t really have an answer for that. Question roughly turns Red Arrow out, telling him to think on that question- and in the meantime, take a shower- he smells like a zoo. They will be in contact with him when they have a lead.

  4. Red Arrow sinks to his knees in the alley, and breaks his bow on the wall in anger. Jade approaches him from the shadows, and tells him its time for him to come home for a while- she is visibly pregnant.

• Batman brings in the Team aboard the Watchtower to brief them on the plan to deal with the Moon Base. The League is sending in their “Heavy Hitters”. The rest of them have the day off, some Justice League power will be allocated to monitoring the fight, but Batman is confident the League can handle it with some assistance from the Team.
  In the meantime:

  1. Rocket wants to go on a date with Kaldur, Canary helps her out and says she does not need them to help her monitor the situation before Aqualad can even deflect, Tornado is very available and Green Arrow is coming with Chinese food for her. Kaldur acquiesces and quickly realizes he cannot think of an idea he thinks is sufficient for their date. He goes to Wally for help who suggests he let it hang loose and gives him a flyer for a science fair in Happy Harbor. Perhaps predictably, the science fair is boring, and the couple ends up in a bowling alley they agree is much more fun. Rocket says that Kaldur should trust his gut more.

  2. Disappointed that he is once again not being called up to fight with the League, Wally coordinates with Jay Garrick over the phone to do some speed training. Artemis suggests they hang out and spend some time together, but Wally is deaf to innuendo (ironically) and a little stiff with her, totally absorbed in the possibilities of his newfound powers. He vanishes off to Central City.

  3. Rebuffed, Artemis elects to hang with Zatanna, who she invites to Gotham. Artemis and Zatanna go to the mall and talk. Artemis confides in Zatanna, admitting mixed feelings about the possibility her father is dead, or being hunted by the League of Assassins. And that she feels that she and Wally are physically growing apart as his powers develop. Walking out of the mall at dark, they are witness to a classic Gotham PD police chase which ends in the Cop car being wrecked and a box truck of Mafia goons and their merchandise being stranded in the parking lot. Huntress shows up and takes the fight off of their hands. They chat briefly, Huntress mentions she knows of them through Black Canary who she is good friends with through their mutual mentor Ted Grant, the Wildcat. Huntress admires Artemis’ style but advises her that bows are very Starr-City. A real Gotham gal carries a crossbow. Zatanna and Artemis agree that they will ask Black Canary about Wildcat.

  4. Returning to Mount Justice, Zatanna and Artemis check in with Black Canary who is overseeing the assault on the Moon Base, which seems to be going well for the Justice League. They ask her about Wildcat, which amuses her, Canary promises to put them in contact for training. She warns them both that Wildcat is a cranky old fart with high expectations and higher standards and Huntress is a firebrand with a tendency for violence but a good heart. Both accept the deal.

  5. Meanwhile in the Batcave: Robin is on the Batcomputer. He is indexing information about Maxwell Lord, looking into his history and company(s). Lord is an all around Industrialist. Lord Law International, Lord Technologies, and Lord Manufacturing are companies threaded together very similarly to the Wayne Industries model. He is a foreigner, a South African, and an up and coming man in the UN as an international industrialist. But there is something further that even the Batcaves passive cyber-intrusion software cant immediately crack. Robin packs it up as Alfred comes down the stairs with snacks.

Simultaneously:

• The moonbase assault: The League, to include Captain Atom, Superman, Icon, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern John Stewart, as well as Team members Superboy and Miss Martian go on the assault against the Moon base. Superman and Superboy go deep into the base and encounter what Superman recognizes as Lexcorps bots based off of the Superman-Robots design helping to load material through a boom tube, which closes after a huge monster jumps through, knocks them both down while proclaiming itself to be named KALIBAK, and then jumps back through as the boom tube closes. The moon base assault is thereby concluded.

  1. In the aftermath Superman goes on TV with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to explain to the UN the circumstance of their actions on the moon, the UN Security council has already been briefed on this matter and the Justice League accepts the UN has nominated a member to take possession of the lunar base and use it for better means than Bialya who is now officially censored and sanctioned by the UN, joining Khandaq as two nations now excluded from everyday proceedings for “State Sanctioned Super Villainry and Attempted Crimes Against Humanity” The UN Secretary General announces that the first bid for the Lunar Base from Lex Corp industries of the United States of America has been denied in favor of Lord Incorporated of South Africa. Max Lord smiles big and shakes the hands of the UN SecGen, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern and gives a short speech about how the Lunar base is going to be put to good use and that the next time he appears before the international body he will have not only a plan but results for them. This is received to thunderous applause. Luthor scowls from the audience.

  2. Superboy, resting and watching the UN address by Max Lord on the TV in the Mountain receives a phone call from a woman who identifies herself as Max Lord’s secretary looking to set up a meeting between him, the CADMUS directorate, Dubblex, and Max Lord.

  3. Superboy attends the meeting in Genome City where Max presents his plan for the Genomes. Semi-Autonomy on the moon. If the Genomes will work under supervision to restore the Lunar base, Max will allow them “extra room in the budget” for their own facilities. Because Lord Technologies and Manufacturing controls the facility, and because its on the dark side of the Moon, they will have complete privacy. Dubblex is unsure, the CADMUS scientists are against it, and it seems up to Superboy to decide. The meeting takes a break and Max talks to Superboy, explaining that he understands that Superboy doesn’t fully trust him- but he isn’t Lex Luthor. He is trying to give the Genomes the best shot they will probably ever get at their own life and their own world, it is always going to be peripheral to the world of man but at least this way they can operate without being bothered. Superboy agrees, and explains to Dubblex, who trusts him and says the Genomes are for it if Superboy is for it. Max Lord explains to the CADMUS scientists they can try and stop the Genomes if they wish, but Lord Technologies would absolutely love to make an investment into CADMUS which would only be possible if the directors would allow this one permissive condition for him. And so it is decided the Genomes are going to the moon.

• Robin is stuck at a Wayne Industries Gala, meeting and greeting the cities finest for the umpteenth time, until Batman comes in comms over his ear, telling to get to the cave, and suit up. Robin does a small celebration, and slips away from the party through the grandfather clock and into the Bat Cave. He is alone down there, Batman over comms tells him he is still held up at the party for at least 30 minutes, but this can’t wait. There’s a break in at the Crock’s building in lower Gotham, and there hasn’t been any communication from Artemis. Robin gets on his bike and speeds out, dialing Kid Flash on the way, asking him if he has heard from Artemis. Kid Flash tells Robin not to tell anyone but Artemis is at his place in Central City tonight. He asks if there’s any reason to worry, Robin says not yet, and guns the bike forward.

  1. At Artemis’ building, Robin encounters the Crock’s door blown off its hinges. Inside, Paula Crock fends off an attacker in her wheelchair using kitchen knives, two female ninjas have already met her wrath, but the third appears far more resilient. As Robin enters she looks over at him, and remarks it would have been wiser to send the Bat himself. Robin and Paula do poorly against the assassin, and just before Robin is heel kicked into unconsciousness, he sees Paula Crock felled by a sai thrust.

  2. Robin awakens in a dark warehouse, something he remarks he is unfortunately familiar with. Before him stands the female assassin. She directly asks him if the Justice League is harboring or protecting Sportsmaster. Robin scoffs at that, saying the League’s only form of protecting villains is behind 20 foot thick walls at Belle Revve. The woman says she thought as much. Robin asks what she did with Paula Crock, the woman simply responds that she is dead, but that Robin should not blame himself, she had it a long time coming, and Sportsmaster hastened its happening. She holds up the device that Artemis had that led them to Sportsmaster’s hide site and says she tracked it, waiting for it to settle before going after it, assuming Sportsmaster had finally gone home to extract whatever he could from his family. She monologues about Sportsmaster trying to coup a small faction inside the League of Assassins in the wake of the apparent failure of the Light, only to be ousted and chased from the Nanda Parbat. Robin cackles at this, which the woman is confused by, until the long shadow of the Bat falls over her. Robin springs free of his bonds as The Batman drops in, he and the woman engage in an intense martial arts duel during which he rips off her mask, and recognizes her as Lady Shiva. Shiva manages to escape into the night with the use of smoke bombs and a helicopter. Robin asks Batman about Paula, he says Kid Flash and Artemis got there before he did, Paula is in intensive care at the moment. Batman is stoic, and watches Robin hurry off.

  3. Robin arrives to the ICU and finds Wally outside the room. Wally simply shakes his head. Paula lasted long enough to see Artemis before she expired. Robin blames himself, and while breaking down in the hallway is taken into a room away from the hallway by Batman who tells him that this sort of emotion has a place and it isnt in a public hallway. Robin is shocked at Batman’s apparent lack of emotion in the face of what is going on, and gets emotional again explaining that this person was not only innocent but working to improve their lives and having a rough go of it- just to be cut down by random murderers. This is everything he joined Batman to explicitly stop from happening. This is what happened to both of them. Batman agrees, but tells Robin that he isn’t going to get anything done crying in the bathroom. Robin shakes it off, nods, and heads back to the team, visibly shaken more by Batman than by the situation.

  4. Aqualad talks to the Team as a whole, and voices what most of them are already thinking, the League is not going to act against the League of Shadows fast enough and that they will protect their own. They owe Artemis this. Something has to be done, and quickly. As usual, Aqualad submits it to a vote, all vote in favor of retaliating against the League of Shadows. Just as the vote ends, the voice of The Batman cuts through the thick air from the shadows, saying that the “Justice League” isn’t going to take the murder of an innocent woman lightly. Batman stoops down to Artemis and tells her that there is no apology from him or anyone else that can excuse or undo the lapse in judgement in protection that led to her mothers death, so he isn’t offering one. Instead, he is going to give them a shot at her mothers assassin. Batman’s personal contacts within the League of Assassins have confirmed that Lady Shiva is already on another mission for the League of Assassins across the country. Batman is sending the Team there while he coordinates the Justice League response against the higher echelons of the League of Assassins leadership which he assures them will be immediate and effective. He asks if there are any questions, Kid Flash asks what they are waiting for. Robin takes Batman aside and asks if it is really wise to be sending Artemis after her mother’s killer. Batman tells him that if she can follow orders and do the right thing, then she won’t have a problem. If she can’t thats what the team is there for. She would try and go either way.

• The Team is en route to Coast City California, where a derelict CADMUS site is apparently being infiltrated by a League of Assassins strike team for unknown reasons. They are to infiltrate and interdict against the assassins, apprehend Lady Shiva, and discover the reason she was out there. The mood on the bio-ship is tense, to say the least.

  1. Robin talks with Kid Flash in the back, saying that Artemis needs time to grieve, not be thrust into a vengeance mission. Kid Flash agrees, and says he will keep an eye on her.

  2. The facility is, or appears to be, an old aircraft hangar in the desert outside the city. Kid Flash is dispatched to scout the area first. He reports nothing of note, and the Team moves in, Zatanna, Superboy, and M’gann remain on the bio-ship on overwatch.

  3. As the team creep in, they discover an underground access in the hangar and descend. The broken bodies of ninjas, including one impaled on a hockey stick are found along the way. Artemis affirms the thought that this is likely where Sportsmaster has sequestered himself. Continuing underground, they find yet more ninja, and are ambushed by more heavily armored ninja, each using javelins or hockey sticks or other sports weapons. Robin and Kid Flash quip about Sportsmaster making his own gang, but something about them tugs at Artemis’ nerves. Once the group of them are dispatched they move on toward the sound of yet more fighting. Below, in a giant laboratory chamber, Shiva fights singlehandedly against four Sportsmaster goons and Sportsmaster himself. She is holding her own but the assault is obviously pushing her hard. Artemis immediately fires her first shot at Shiva, who deflects it with her hand. Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash fight against Shiva and the Sportsmaster goons, with Artemis largely ignoring the Sportsmaster goons and focusing on Shiva. Robin calls in backup from the surface, only to find communications not working this far underground. The fight continues as Aqualad manages to use lightning water powers to down Lady Shiva, putting Sportsmaster and the Team in a mexican standoff over Lady Shiva.

  4. Artemis has her bow trained on Shiva, motionless and silent. Aqualad is actively trying to talk her down as he is battling a Sportsmaster goon. Robin and Kid Flash are also battling Sportsmaster goons, Kid Flash’s quips and confidence in Artemis rapidly failing as she does not respond or move from her strung position. Trying to act ahead of something bad happening, Robin throws smoke pellets at Shiva and Artemis.

  5. In the dense fog no one can see Artemis loose her arrow at Shiva- nor see Kid Flash intercept it by catching it and swiftly throwing it at a sportmaster goon. Kid Flash gives Artemis a disappointed look before taking off again at super-speed back into the foggy fray. Artemis reaches back for her quiver for another arrow only to find her entire quiver gone as well. She reaches into her hip pocket and pulls out a folding crossbow, point it at Lady Shiva with tears streaming down her face. Shiva for her part is totally ambivalent, staring at her. A

  6. As the fight goes on in the fog around Artemis, a face, that of her father, unmasked tells her to get her ass in gear and help him kill Shiva.

  7. Robins boot connects with his face sending him across the room into the fog. Curiously, he immediately resurfaces from the fog from another direction, knocking Robin aside and repeating his ask. The fog clears as Kid Flash speeds by and the terrible truth comes to light. No less than six Sportsmasters are standing unmasked.

  8. Sportsmaster has cloned himself, at least five times, and that is who they have been fighting. Artemis drops her crossbow and doubles over to vomit, unable to hold back whatever internal pressure has been mounting this whole time, just as the door to the chamber is rocked from its hinges and Superboy, Rocket, Zatanna, and M’gann make their way in, the heavy hitters have arrived and the fight is quickly ended between magic, super strength, and telekinesis.

  9. The fight has ended. On the surface outside the hangar in the dark desert the Team hands off the Sportsmasters and Lady Shiva to Green Lantern (he was in the neighborhood), who congratulates them on a job well done. Robin backbriefs Batman over comms on the extensive use of CADMUS tech Sportsmaster had done by scientists he had captured and disposed of, commenting that they cannot be sure that in fact they got all the “Sportsmasters” that could be out there. Batman asks about Artemis. Robin says she passed the test. Batman nods, and cuts the comms.

  10. Aqualad begins to instruct the Team to start moving back to the bio-ship, but even as he does Kid Flash and Artemis disappear, and reappear (through Kid Flash’s speed) on a rooftop in nearby Coast City overlooking the ocean and the stars. Artemis is immediately furious, furious that Kid Flash stopped her arrow, furious that he just kidnapped her, furious that her mom is dead and that her dad has in all likelihood escaped capture yet again this time on even more absurd terms than ever before. Kid Flash lets her get all her feelings out before telling her that he is sorry, but that in the face of all that he would never let her become a killer. There is no universe where he doesn’t catch that arrow. He explains that as his powers have been evolving his perspective has been too, he sees time differently, literally and figuratively his perspective is shifting and he feels himself growing up. With that evolution, he has not known how to communicate and hasn’t given her a chance at all to lean on him. He tells her he doesn’t have to remind her that her mother would never want her death paid back in blood. Artemis is still frustrated, still incredibly sad, still unsure. Kid Flash suggests they get donuts and think things over before returning to Happy Harbor on the other side of the country.

• Red Arrow sits on a couch in Gotham City, a baseball game is on the TV. In the background Jade makes something in the kitchen. The two banter, and things seem generally at ease between the two. Red Arrow is significantly more put together, shaved, since we last saw him with the Guild of Detection. As Red Arrow and Jade putz about in the apartment, Red Arrow’s phone rings on the table. A british monkey voice asks if he is in any place to talk. Red Arrow steps into the bathroom to take the call. Detective Chimp informs Arrow that the Justice League has just recently uncovered a secondary cloning operation under the sole control of Sportsmaster, which has affirmed several suspicions the Guild of Detection had been harboring in his case. The Guild advises he wait just a while longer while they follow some leads. Red Arrow tries to argue but is cut off by the call ending. He returns to the living room and relatively quiet domesticity before there is a knock at the door. Jade opens it to find a teary-eyed Artemis, and Wally.

  1. Artemis informs Jade their mother is dead and Sportsmaster recaptured. Jade swears vengeance and a few other things before she is calmed down by Red Arrow enough that the door can be closed. Wally informs Roy that Artemis is being given some mandatory time off, but he can’t stay for long. The Team is on standby currently working a mission of their own. Roy shoves Wally into the bathroom and demands he tell him everything he knows about CADMUS having more cloning sites. Wally is curious as to how he is even aware of that as their mission literally just wrapped, Roy gets it out of him before Artemis walks in on them somewhat compromisingly in the bathroom, making a joke about them being boyfriends in secret just using her and her sister to cover it up. There is an uneasy chuckle before they separate, and Roy insists they stay for dinner, maybe longer.

  2. Later that night, Roy and Wally are on the roof. Wally is frustrated that Roy is still pursuing “the real Roy Harper”, when he is the only one he or Robin or Aqualad has ever known, the only one that has ever been his friend. Roy doesn’t care, and lashes out, shoving Wally against the side of the roof entrance and threatening him again. Wally gains unnatural composure, and informs Roy that “the only reason he is touching him right now-” he changes into his Kid Flash costume without any discernable movement- “is because Wally is letting him.” Wally says he is wound too tight, and needs to figure himself out, Wally will be here as often and as long as he possibly can be. At that moment his communicator goes off. Roy dismisses him, saying the exception to the rule has presented itself. Wally tells him to take care of Artemis before disappearing.

[HAIRCUT]

• Back at Mount Justice, the Team minus Artemis is briefed on their next mission. Batman informs them Intergang has made an unusually forward play considering their recent loss, and the League is skeptical about how real it is.

  1. Intergang is now formally under the leadership of Lex Luthor and in the relatively small amount of time since the moon base assault has made huge leaps in controlling space in the criminal world. A sudden assault on the island of Santa Prisca by mercenary commando’s coincided with the dissolution of the Bialyan government and its absorption into neighboring Kandhaq as huge energy signatures identical to the ones now associated with “Desaad” came up in the Kandhaqi desert. The Justice League suspects the Light is showing its hand just a bit, cleaning up after itself and shrinking to its major players. Black Adam, Lex Luthor, Vandal Savage, this “Desaad” but still no sign of Klarion the Witch-Boy. The Teams mission tonight is to find out what is being moved in the Kandhaqi desert, as nearly the entire country is under some massive combination technology+magic electromagnetic disruption that stops any viewing by satellite.

  2. The Team goes into their stealth suits as they depart the Bio-Ship in Kandhaq to drop into the desert near the border in proximity to a tracked signature. They quickly realize that all comms back to the Watchtower are dead- they are on their own for this one.

  3. The Team discover huge war machines unlike anything they have ever seen are being moved from massive portals into underground bunkers by armies of Kahdaqi slaves whipped and lashes by a sort of flying alien soldier species they’ve never seen before (parademons). The Team watch as a slave falls and is nearly executed before Superboy jumps in to rock the alien a quarter mile into the sky. A fight is on.

  4. Superboy does huge damage to the war machine using precision strikes and jumping accurately through parts of the machine, end to end, while the team handles the aliens, the massive portal that is giving off the energy signatures begins to send more parademons through and the Team finds themselves overwhelmed except for Superboy who smashes them until the portal stops giving- at least for the moment. Aqualad and Robin reprimand Superboy reminding him not everyone here is built for this sort of fight not to mention its not their mission to be doing this. Superboy doesnt care, and then something else comes through the portal- KALIBAK as we recognize from the Moon Base.

  5. KALIBAK versus the Team is a brutal affair, he puts the hurt on everyone in a big way until Miss Martian can bring the Bio-Ship around under the cover of Superboys renewed assault. KALIBAK remarks that he appreciates that Superboy at least can put up a decent fight, and before the Bio-Ship can bring them up he imprisons Superboy in red lightning pain cubes and whips him through the portal, the dark presence that has haunted M’gann before scorches her mind and it is all Rocket can do to get the Bio-Ship back across the border before radioing the Watchtower for help. M’gann is devastated.

• Superboy is marched in Apokolipton electro-chains through a huge concourse on which dozens of the war machines they fought are idling, swarmed by a masses of parademon soldiers. He is pushed into a cell, little more than a hole in the ground with bars in the ceiling through which red light filters in- Red sunlight. Superboy grows weaker, his injuries now taking their toll on him. Superboy rolls over in his cell, wheezing with pain only to come face to face with himself or sort of himself at least. Project Match- apparently dead as a doornail as Superboy checks his pulse. Match is covered in punctures and laceration his veins bulging blue against his skin. A voice from above mocks him laughing. Granny Goodness introduces herself and indicates to Superboy that she hopes he is more mentally resilient than that one, who is only good as a training dummy for the Furies. Granny snaps her fingers and two parademons descend into the hole after removing the grate, clubbing Superboy down and hoisting him out along with Match. They are flown on a hovering platform alongside Granny who introduces him to Apokolips, and points into the distance to the training grounds for the Furies. Landing there a huge ball of light emanating a yellow sun energy brings Superboy back to his feet- and Match back to life. Match is zombie-like, a predator animal as he was before but now more wary, he moves like a stuck tiger more than a bull in a china shop.

  1. Granny impatiently demands they kill eachother, and fires a bolt of energy into the yellow orb that sets it aflame, the heat is oppressive but the energy to both Superboys is huge, and Match lunges at Superboy. Match fights like a wild animal, no artifice. Superboy is able to deflect some blows and deliver more complicated strikes.

  2. In the box above Granny preens, whispering to herself that she will fulfill Lord Darkseids wishes at last.

  3. Superboy grows tired and bloodied from Match beating on him wildly, and lands a haymaker on Match that sends him to the ground. Match wheezes, crawling away. Granny cackles and tells Superboy to finish it, and be rewarded. Granny monologues that she knows he is a weapon, unpolished and left to rust, But Granny can make him lethal, make him strong. Granny can make him the best killer in the universe. Time passes differently on Apokolips, soon those he left on Earth will be old and forget him. Granny is his life now. Superboy spits at her offer. Match drags himself to his feet and tackles Superboy and for the first time Match speaks, begging Superboy to kill him. If he does anything less than removing his head Granny will just bring him back for more torture. His language is rough and broken but Superboy gets the message and is horrified. He refuses again. A spear comes out of the red sky dissapating the yellow orb, impaling Match and Superboy who both gasp and collapse in the dirt. Granny’s smugness evaporates and she commands them to be taken to the rejuvenation chambers.

[HAIRCUT]

• Superboy is propped up in a massive chrome chamber replete with thousands of huge circuits. At Granny Goodness’ command, hundreds of yellow orbs come to life and begin to shock the body of Superboy, eliciting something close to a breath from his body, a parademon inserts a tube into his mouth and yellow liquid is pumped down his throat, which brings him to sputtering life. Granny looks on him as he rages in his new life, destroying the chamber and several parademons. She laughs, and commands that he be subdued and brought to his cell.

• Days pass, Superboy is dragged from his cell again. We can see some time has passed, his outfit is in tatters, he basically has hulk knee-pants on and thats it. He is dragged by Parademons out into the depowering Red Sun of Apokolips and thoroughly beaten before being stood up for Granny Goodness. Granny monologues to him about how he was born a weapon and became soft, here he will be reborn a weapon again and fulfill his purpose. The beating continues until he is thrown back into his hole-cell. Match’s even more damaged pseudo-corpse lies in the corner. Superboy talks to it, remarking about how he is going to get them both out of there, and how the Genomes will have a place for MATCH on the Moon.

  1. For days, Superboy is kept awake by Parademon guards, jabbed at the moment of unconsciousness, electrocuted, and forced to fight MATCH, killed and resurrected again and again. Superboy pins the shred of fabric displaying the crest of El from his shirt on the wall of the pit-cell, and looks at it day and night.

  2. As Superboy is falling asleep, there is a clattering against the bars of the cage, and Superboy prepares himself for another round of torture. A parademon falls through the grate, skewered by a gleaming sharp chrome blade. The grate is ripped off and a female hand reaches down through the hole. A feminine voice asks Superboy if he wants to rot- or to live. Superboy hoists himself out, with MATCH on his shoulder.

  3. The woman is dressed in strange garb, Apokolipton technicolor drab, and carries a belt of knives. She distresses at Superboy bringing the dead weight but he insists. She leads him down the dark stairwells of the place she describes as the grand prison of Apokolips where screaming thousands are held for the Dark Lord of Apokolips’ amusement. Superboy asks who the lord of Apokolips is- Granny Goodness, KALIBAK? The woman laughs and rebuts him saying neither of those two even show up in the shadow of Apokolips’ dark master, but it is unwise to speak his name on Apokolips lest you incur his attentions. Maybe if they make it off this planet she will tell him. The two duck in a huge drainage tunnel full of dull brown sludge, industrial runoff from the parademon pits she explains. She says the way is many miles yet through here. She uses a small device to act as a lamp, and the two advance into the darkness. She introduces herself as Lara, and tells him that if he wishes to escape certain death he must come with her. She speaks in a stiff almost Shakespearean tongue.

• Deep in the bowels of Apokolips, Superboy and the woman he calls Lara fight a battle against a massive cyborg sewer worm. Match is lashed to Superboy’s back C-3PO style. Lara and Superboy appear to work together well, and the worm is quickly defeated. The tunnel they are in shows a half dozen or more such worms, all defeated. Lara smugly remarks that if she had someone of his skill and strength a month ago she might have already left this world. Superboy looks almost as if he might blush, but asks her how much longer they had to travel, as it felt like they have been going for days already. She says not much farther, but the tunnels are not a direct path, so he has to be patient.

  1. Superboy and Lara sit together with Match’s body around a small fire in a dry spot in the sewer, eating some sort of mystery meat they have conjured. Superboy lays back, already half asleep, his sword across his chest. Lara lies down next to him, and grabs his hand. She tells him that Apokolips is fraught with danger and hellish torture as he has experienced but as long as they are together they can overcome it or any odds. Superboy stares into the ceiling in the dim light of the fire.

  2. Lara explains that she is a lowlie, a Hunger Dog, and that she was specifically informed of his coming by the slaves involved in the traffic through the Boom Tube he came through when a prisoner of KALIBAK. They know the symbol on his chest, the symbol of the Superman, of whom stories have reached even dark Apokolips.

• Lara wakes Superboy and informs him today they are going up to the surface, they are almost to their destination. In a section of the tunnel that slopes up towards the harsh light of Apokolips’ red sun, the two of them battle a group of parademon scavengers who crawl on the wall like bugs and jump out of the much in an ambush. After defeating them, Lara emerges into the light followed by Superboy.

  1. The blasted surface of Apokolips stretches before them, the ruins of a battle fought long ago are monolith and dwarf both characaters. Lara scavenges a rifle and a staff from wreckage nearby. Superboy takes the staff, and Lara retains the rifle.

  2. The red sun of Apokolips sets and night falls. Superboy and Lara sit around a fire under a huge ships wreckage. Lara intones that now they are above the surface it is far more likely that the Granny Goodness’ servants will be able to track them down, but they are closer than they have ever been to what she calls the “Great Port”. Superboy finds out through conversation that Lara does not remember her life before Apokolips, that if she was not born here then she might as well have been. She has always been a lowlie, a Hunger Dog, but she has not been broken by Apokolips’ dark master or any of his lesser servants. Her people work at the Great Port, and they will meet them there and take a ship to their freedom. The port is the great slave port of Apokolips, where the biomass of the universe is gathered by Darkseid’s fleets and sent home to serve as slaves in the Hellpits.

  3. In the following days, they march across the blasted desert until they are scanned and picked up by a triangle ship-craft, from which descend a party of Para-Demon soldiers. A quick battle ensues, Superboy finds himself struggling even more against the Parademons in the open Red Sun, and is saved by Lara several times. They are not able to finish off all the Parademons before one sends out some sort of call through his Father Box. Lara commandeers the craft, and the two set off at speed over the desert as more massive black triangle craft swoop from over the hills behind them. Visible on the craft, the Female Furies howl in the wind.

• Superboy and Lara are barely holding off the Female Furies and their Parademon escorts on the triangle craft. They are repeatedly boarded by Parademons, and then by Lashina of the Furies. The battle goes quickly awry as she bats an unpowered Superboy aside effortlessly and engages with Lara who can only hold her off well enough not to be killed. The crafts controls are damaged and they crash in the desert, which sends Lashina flying and at least temporarily saves their lives.

  1. Parademons swarm the crash site, the pursuing triangle craft rotate casting floodlights down in the desert on them.

  2. Trying to get himself to his feet in the smoking spray of the crafts parts, Superboy dimly sees Lashina recovering and making her way towards a downed Lara, and the pseudo-corpse of MATCH.

  3. As Superboy drags himself to his knees, he is knocked over again by the force of a Boom Tube opening nearby, out of which jumps KALIBAK. KALIBAK proclaims to Lashina that these whelps are his to destroy, as the male was his captive and the female he claims by right of his birth. Lashina gives him a sneering sword salute and turns away.

  4. As KALIBAK smiles wide, Lashina perched on her craft casts out a yellow orb onto the plain, which grows and grows quickly. Superboys wounds begin to close but even as he rises to his feet MATCH flies through the air, smashing into KALIBAK taking them both flying.

• The Team is surrounded on all sides by the wreckage of the war machine, and cowering slaves as the sky darkens, and lightning splits the clouds. Thunder rumbles across the dunes as Robin makes his way over to Aqualad, still recovering from the explosive closure of the portal. M’gann is writhing in pain on the ground, her body-form rippling as she struggles to maintain focus on her appearance. Robin and Aqualad rapidly plan to get the rest of the Team out of there, the mission is blown and they need to leave before something worse happens. Kid Flash volunteers to carry people out- Aqualad has him take M’gann first, he disappears with her in his arms.

  1. Zatanna looks to the sky as another crack of thunder sounds, and yells to Robin that they need to leave immediately.

  2. As another peal of thunder rolls through the dunes, Rocket puts up a bubble just in time to absorb a massive bolt of lightning that shoots down from the clouds, the energy of which splits the bubble temporarily.

  3. Black Adam descends from the sky on the Team. He sneers, and says that the children are far, far from home. Aqualad and Rocket do their best to hold off Black Adam as Robin radios Kid Flash to hurry back. Zatanna begins a spell against Black Adam he has to pause to counteract, which allows Aqualad and Rocket to team up and send him flying over a nearby dune.

  4. Kid Flash arrives and grabs Robin as the Team makes to retreat. One by one Kid Flash grabs members of the Team and exfiltrates them to the Bio-Ship while Rocket and Aqualad press themselves to their limit to hold off Black Adam.

  5. Black Adams assault is relentless, and it seems as though Aqualad and Rocket are not going to make it long enough for Kid Flash to return for them. Rocket desperately puts up a bubble around them both as Aqualad looks around and says to her that they did a good job, they got everyone out. As it seems Black Adam is about to close on them, a final blue-white lightning bolt cueing in his hand as he looks on them dourly, a titanic flat yellow lightning bolt streaks into the back of the bubble bursting it instantly, and before either Aqualad or Rocket can even finish flinching, they find themselves just off the ramp of the Bio-Ship in the soft sand of the desert.

  6. Kid Flash is off to the side, body smoking with heat and effort. This has taken an obvious toll. As the Team makes their way into the Bio-Ship, Robin helping Kid Flash onto the ramp while Rocket and Aqualad trail behind, thunder begins to roll in again. Black Adam is quickly upon them, but even as Aqualad squares up to meet fate head on- Rocket pushes him aside and taps a communicator ring on her Inertia Belt. Black Adam descends to the Team, mocking their short retreat and the fate of Superboy, until a flash of Black and Green smashes him into the Earth and on his stunned body stands Icon. Rocket, through split lips, reminds him that they are outside Kandhaqs borders and outside his communications jamming now. Icon tells the Team to go, and starts giving Black Adam what he’s worth in spectacular fashion, the two of them crashing away across the dunes.

• The Team is silent as they de-board the Bio-Ship into the Mountain. Artemis greets them with teary-eyes, she and Kid Flash hug, and she hugs M’gann as well, who is in total despair. The Team can do little for her. Batman waits in the wings, staring. Robin squeezes Zatanna’s hand and walks over to the Batman to make his report, the two exit via a dark passage. Rocket and Aqualad stand together as Aqualad marshalls the Team, Rocket helping to carry M’gann to her room as Aqualad helps Artemis start an IV for Kid Flash.

• M’gann stares into the ceiling of her dark room. She cannot sleep. The covers are awry, the fan is too loud her TV is blaring Hello Megan! and wont turn off so she crushes it with her mind on the stand and flings the fan into the ceiling. The room is finally silent. She closes her eyes again on the bed, only to be suddenly drawn tight to the mattress, a sudden drum beat banging in her head, utter terror as her physical mental body spirals down into an eternal black abyss, passing pits of fire and corpses as she falls. She suddenly comes to and the drum beat in her head transforms into knocking at her door as someone furiously beats on it. Answering the door it is only Artemis, who was woken up by the sound of her TV imploding on itself. Artemis tells M’gann she clearly needs to talk about Superboy, and that she can’t stuff it inside all alone. Artemis goes into her room, and M’gann begins with tears to express her guilt at Superboy disappearing and how they seemed not be as close as they were just weeks ago.

• Aqualad and Rocket sleep in the same bed. Rocket tells Aqualad he is doing a good job. Aqualad is doubtful, he just lost a man, no less a man who he helped rescue from imprisonment and who is still being taught how to be a man. Rocket remind Aqualad that without him no one would have escaped Black Adam that day, and that without his quick thinking it was pretty likely that there would have been early casualties. She says the Justice League is full of aliens and magicians and creatures and that if anyone can figure out how to get to wherever Superboy is- its them. And if they cant… she holds up Max Lords card… they know someone who probably can.

• In the Batcave Robin sits in the Batcomputers swivel chair, mask off, elbows on knees tired and looking at the floor. Batman stands, moving hologram elements around in the Batcomputers display. Robin talks about the mission, how he doesn’t understand why Superboy wouldnt just stick to the plan, why he couldnt just do what he was asked. Batman looks over at him and says Superman is the same way. Often to the same effect. For good or ill neither of them are able to let things lie for long. They have to get involved, they have to right the wrongs they see. But enough of that, the Justice League is working with the Green Lantern Corps and some of Icon’s contacts in deep space to get an idea of who “KALIBAK” is and how these teleportation tubes operate. Sooner than later they will know where Superboy was taken, and when they do, they are going to go get him. He promises Robin that. The Batman turns the holographic display to Robin. It shows VTOL craft emblazoned with LORD INC. on the side, a column of Genomes walking in. Batman tells Robin that the League has been very hands off with CADMUS and Superboy’s connections with the Genomes since his release, but Max Lord who has so far been a very helpful asset, refuses to communicate with the League about his new control of the Moonbase- and LORD INC’s new controlling interest in CADMUS.

• A lone monkey picks his butt while laying against a tree in the dark of night. A red arrow zips by his head, embedding itself in the tree. He starts, looking up. Detective Chimp says that was very rude, and if Roy wanted to talk all he had to do was ask. Red Arrow drops into the Monkey enclosure and tells Detective Chimp not to call him Roy. He wants news, he wants progress, he wants answers. What does the Monkey and his weird friends think happened to the real Roy Harper.

• Chimp straightens and pulls a deerstalker and a newspaper out from under a nearby rock. He hands Red Arrow the newspaper and taps the headline:

• LORD INC. BUYS OUT LEXCORP BIO-SCIENCE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIARY CADMUS

• Chimp tells Red Arrow that he must be very careful, but he should make a visit to Mr. Maxwell Lord. Red Arrow takes the Newspaper, and jumps away. Chimp watches him go, and announces to the air that “the dominoes continue to fall”. The Question steps out of the shadow behind the tree, and tells Chimp he will keep an eye on the boy, before slipping back into the shadows. Chimp munches his pipe nervously.

• Kid Flash is sitting across from Black Canary in her office. Canary asks him how he is feeling. He says good, his powers are bigger and better than ever, he and Artemis are figuring things out, but he can’t help but feel the gap in the Team. Superboy is still missing. Its been a week and they haven’t found him or seemingly made any real progress toward finding him.

• Aqualad sits across from Black Canary. He says he has found time to be with Rocket and to lead the Team in training, but he cannot ignore the lack of Superboy. His presence was larger than he could have realized. Wolf is depressed, he just sort of lazes around the Mountain. Sphere doesn’t do anything at all, and has been totally locked up since the day he was taken. Kaldur thinks it blames itself, as he does, and as he knows everyone blames themselves. Canary asks him about M’gann. How has she been taking it.

• M’gann is sitting in Black Canary’s office, small and sad in the chair across from Canary, who is sitting with her clipboard. Canary asks her again: Has she felt unable to control her powers since Superboy’s disappearance. M’gann looks up and says she is still having the nightmares, and the only time that Sphere moves is to be away from her. She is considering going back to Mars. She can feel the Team’s pity, and their compassion, but she doesn’t know what to do with it, or how to respond to it. Canary says the Team loves her, and will help her in whatever way she will accept their help. M’gann says she feels she might be beyond help. Canary reaches out to hold her hand, but a she touches her, M’gann begins to seize, her eyes roll up in her head and she keels over out of the chair. Canary yells for help as M’ganns consciousness fades.

• On Apokolips, Superboy picks up Lara and runs across the red-lit dunes of the planets evening, the farther away from the yellow orb he goes the weaker he gets, but he does his signature jump as hard as he can- mid air MATCH and KALIBAK pass over him, MATCH looks down at him as they lock eyes and MATCH roars continuing his attack on KALIBAK.

• Superboy stumbles and Lara catches herself on her feet as they land, she marvels at his sudden strength, he explains that it wasn’t for long now that they are far from the miniature yellow sun. She nods, and says he has done good work regardless. She points out over the dunes into the distance. A series of jagged black spires that ascend into the stratospheric night sky loom red and smoky in the distance. She says that is the great port, and where her people are, that is their best chance of leaving Apokolips.

• Under the cover of night, draped in the long hooded robes that Lara had, a bedraggled and exhausted Superboy and Lara arrive in a train of slaves and workers at the gates of the great city. Shuffling in line, they are hassled by some sort of mutant humanoid alien, and his mutant humanoid alien buddy. Mutant 1 bumps Superboy, who ignores him, he bumps again and says: “My friend doesn’t like you.” Superboy looks away. “I dont like you either” he continues. He is interrupted by a nearby beating starting. A thief has been tackled into the dust and is being hit with boards and pipes. Superboy can’t watch much longer and against Lara’s protestations he steps in front of the quivering thief and commands the crowd to stop. They sneer at him and jibe but do not continue the beating, an antagonizer is thrown aside by a huge chested man with a curly beard who points to Superboy and Lara and beckons them forward, Lara recognizes him as Jor-Dy.

• Jor-Dy takes Lara and Superboy through the line and the gate into the massive city. Throngs of thousands clamor for backbreaking burdens and drag war machines and slabs of stone by rope and chain. Those too weak to stand are trampled, those too weak to trample are cudgeled by Para-demons. They are ushered into a sort of yurt erected in a back alley, and Jor-Dy sits them down, leaving momentarily to retrieve “food”. Lara says she is sorry that MATCH is gone. Superboy says that if he’s lucky, he’ll get what he wanted. And if he isn’t that lucky, Superboy is coming back for him, and this entire planet.

• Lara says he is very brave, but such talk is just talk. Superboy says it isnt. She has heard talk of Superman- he knows Superman- he is related to Superman. This sends Lara to her feet in shock. She thinks he is messing with her but he insists he isn’t. He retrieves the scrap of his shirt with the S symbol on it from his tattered pocket and gives it to her. That, he says, is the symbol of Superman. That is what he wears back on his home planet. Lara turns to the wall, upon which is painted a stylized Eye, she describes it as the Eye of Rao, the lone God of their ancient culture passed down from her mother to her through all the time their people had been on Apokolips. She sits Superboy down and paints the Eye of Roa on his chest, telling him that this way he will not forget them should they become separated, or should she die. Superboy assures her neither of these things will happen, but she is insistent. Jor-Dy enters and is a little less histrionic, saying that if all this is true, it is even more essential that they get him off of Apokolips. He certainly has gifted timing. It is the labor of beleaguered generations that they even have a chance of leaving Apokolips, hundreds have died silent for this cause. Jor-Dy and Lara are the lone living descendants of the party of slaves that was brought from their planet hundreds of years ago. They have lost even its name to time and bitter years. But their people have always resisted, always looked for a way off-world, unlike the others, and for that they have been largely outcast even amongst Hunger Dogs, who eat eachother as they do the scraps and filth they are fed by their masters.

• Lara and Jor explain there is a grand auction soon. Equipment, slaves, warriors to be sold to a bidder who comes from afar, one of the few who entreat with the Dark Lord of Apokolips. If they can get into the auction, they can sneak aboard his ship, stow away, and be free of Apokolips- however cruel this new master might be, he cannot be half as evil as the Master of the Terror Fields, of the Hell Pits, of the Female Furies and the Para-Demon Legions. They still refuse to say the name of the Master of Apokolips at Superboy’s asking. Superboy agrees that the auction is likely their easiest way off-world, and agrees to join them in their effort.

• The Team is gathered around the medical bay outside a window. Inside, M’gann is levitating off of the medical bed, surrounded by a golden orb as Doctor Fate chants over her body, by his side is Martian Manhunter who is similarly holding up his hand. Aqualad asks Black Canary if she is going to recover. Canary says she truly doesn’t know, Fate and Manhunter are doing their best to find out what exactly even happened.

• Aqualad turns to the Team and ushers them out into the Hallway. What happened to Superboy, and now M’gann is seemingly from forces beyond their control, beyond their influence. But there is one man who is certainly on Earth who they know is connected. Lex Luthor. He was in contact with Desaad, and certainly was in contact with Black Adam, and probably even Sportsmaster. It is time the Team make some headway on this.

• At lunchtime the following day at Gotham Academy, Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, and Artemis Crock are eating out on the quad of the campus. They are having some innocent conversation when Dick looks over Artemis’ shoulder and face palms. Wally West is at the fence, doing his best to jump it, and failing miserably. His backpack and shirt are stuck on one of the spikes and he is unable to get a grip on the fence. Artemis, Barbara and Dick help him over it. He kisses Artemis on the cheek and opens his lunchbox, to reveal a diminished cheesecake, the rest of which he offers her as they sit back down at the table.

• Wally intones about their uh “Field Trip” to Metropolis and asks if they are “ready”. Barbara is confused, Gotham Academy doesn’t do many field trips to Metropolis this late in the semester. Dick face palms again and asks Barbara if she would go and get them both a snack tray, she happily obliges. Artemis snorts and says she doesn’t understand how Dick does it. He shrugs. The three get down to brass tacks. Tonight, LexCorp towers, they were going to get some information out of Lex himself. They had to be deliberate. Wally takes the bottom off his lunchbox to reveal a tablet that Aqualad and Rocket are on, impatiently waiting. Rocket says she kinda always wanted to be on a Lunchbox, just not really like this. Zatanna is for the moment tied up helping Doctor Fate contain Miss Martian back at the Mountain, so this op will just be them. Rocket will pilot the Bio-ship, they will drop onto the penthouse balcony of Luthors personal offices, get through the door by Robin’s hacking which he has assured them will be sufficient, and from there its just a little breaking and entering until they find the bald guy. Simple business.

• The op goes off more or less as planned. The Team, clad in their stealth suits, rappel out of the Bio-ship down onto the balcony, Robin is able to get them in with ease, and there they are, crouched in Luthors office in the dark. Robin gives hand and arm signals, the Team moves quietly through the penthouse hallways. Kid Flash trails the rest, looking a little more out of place and nervous than the rest. As he creeps down the hall silently, he turns a corner and his face runs into a female butt. He snaps back and looks up, whispering “Artemis this really isnt the place” before the female turns around and Mercy Graves looks down at him with cold, red, robotic eyes. He gulps.

• Superboy, Lara, and Jor are robed and hooded walking along the top of a wall on the perimeter of a palace much like the one Superboy escaped so many days ago. Inside the Courtyard, hundreds of slaves and machines are being ordered and aligned, whipped and dragged into place. As the trio crouch against a dark pillar, a Para-Demon activates his Father-Box and bows as Desaad appears before the congregation. Desaad shoos the Para-Demon and looks up to the sky. Lara whispers to Superboy that the man there is Desaad the cleric to the Dark Lord, his personal advisor and administrator to the goings on of Apokolips, a more wicked soul is not to be found below the steps of the grand palace.

• As Lara explains, the sky itself begins to shake, and distort, and all of a sudden a massive yellow mechanical planetoid comes into close Orbit above the site. It is enormous, bristling with cannon-like spires and ringed by tiny fighter ships and drones. A light shines from a central point on the yellow planetoid, and on this beam of light descends a huge yellow man, clad in purple, grinning and striding as he makes his way down to the surface. He greets Desaad and Desaad greets him as “Mongul, The Greater”.

• Mongul surveys the scene, and takes in the array of weaponry and slaves. As he does, Superboy, Lara, and Jor-Dy shuffle into the backline of slaves. Mongul walks the ranks, slowly, peering into eyes and examining physiques. Mongul stops at the trio’s row. He asks Desaad if he has hidden the weak ones at the rear, and demands they fight to the death for his entertainment. Desaad is dismissive, and orders a circle to be formed.

• Aside from the trio there are about a dozen in their row. The Hunger Dogs immediately get into it. Lara and Superboy work together, Jor-Dy is big enough to hold his own. Superboy avoids lethal blows, batting aside weapons and dodging as best he can without his powers, still under Apokolips’ red sun. Mongul stands from his stoop and strides among the throng of battle with his huge mace, seemingly coming straight for Superboy. In stride and without care or concern he smashes Jor-Dy’s head with the mace, sending him into the dirt. Mongul stops before Superboy, who looks up at him. Mongul asks if he thinks he is better than this petty contest. He makes no killing blows, he deals no death on the planet of death. Before Superboy can speak, Mongul backhands him, sending him flying. Mongul says he reminds him of someone- someone he hates dearly. He backhands a standing Superboy again. Lara jumps between Superboy and Mongul. Mongul smiles cruelly and lifts his bloody fist above his head to strike down, and Superboys blood drips from his fist onto his face, under his nose. He stops. Sniffs. Licks. His eyes go wide, and then his cruel smile splits his face again. He turns to Desaad and says he will take the lot. Mongul walks away, laughing a booming laugh.

[HAIRCUT]

• Kid Flash dodges a laser blast as he scoots through the halls of the Penthouse, tapping his earpiece to alert the Team that their cover is blown, its now or never to find Luthor. The Team springs into action, kicking in doors and clearing room. Kid Flash runs into the Team in a hallway intersection, and pushes Aqualad aside just as a blast comes down the hallway from Mercy Graves. Artemis returns a few shots, but they are pinned down. Robin notices that Mercy’s blast removed a wall panel to what looks like an elevator. He plugs in his gauntlet and tells them to buy him some time. Artemis looses three arrows at a time and Aqualad whips the water out of an (empty) fishtank down the hallway as Robin cracks the elevator code, and the wall opens. The Team jumps into the darkness of the shaft as Mercy looks down over them. She radioes in, saying Luthor has unwanted guests on their way to the lab.

• The fall it turns out is really really far. Kid Flash successfully tries the arm tornadoes to slow them all down as they reach the bottom. The time is short for congratulations however as Robin opens the door just in time for the elevator to come crashing down behind them. They find themselves in a high tech lab, replete with all sorts of weapons and displays and Luthors green and purple battlesuit on central display. Robin and Kid Flash snicker at it, and the Team fans out, looking for whatever there is to look for.

• As they fan out, the lights in the lab kick on, and the voice of Lex Luthor echoes in the room. Lex beckons them to come out, apologizing for Mercy’s warm welcome. He is more than willing to talk with them if that is what they desire. Lex wanders his lab, examining things looking to see if they are disturbed. He is suddenly bola-roped to one of his weapon displays and Robin descends from above. The Team manifests from the shadows around him. Robin indicates it is time to talk. Lex sneers, somewhat nervously.

• Lex says any friends of his “son’s” are friends of his, whatever disagreements they might have had in the past are in the past. Kid Flash tells him not to call him that, but Robin cuts him off. Robin asks Luthor who Desaad is, and where exactly he is from. Luthor chuckles. He says he knows Desaad is an alien of some sort. The advisor to a powerful alien warlord in a far off galaxy whose attentions had apparently been on Earth for some time. Luthor explains that even the Justice League would be no obstacle to this warlord coming to Earth if he really wanted to, but apparently he doesn’t see a need. Luthor wants to keep it that way. Luthor keeps friendly relations between Earth and Desaads master, and the Earth remains uninvaded while Luthor reverse engineers the technology in Earths defense.

• Robin is somewhat incredulous. Luthor and by extension the Lights plan is that they are in fact helping to safeguard Earth by running alien weapons to mercenaries and organized crime. Luthor shrugs. Vigilantism is technically illegal, but apparently he is currently surrounded by “The Good Guys”. Robin asks about the other members of the Light, if Luthor is so forthcoming. Luthor says Vandal Savage is much less enthusiastic about relations with Desaad, and detests any involvement. He hasn’t seen him in months. Probably retreated to some dank eastern European laboratory. “The Light” is under Luthor’s control. Artemis steps forward and asks about the League of Assassins, and Sportsmaster. Luthor says he doesn’t keep a close eye on those things, that is Ras Al Ghul’s party and he is welcome to it. He is aware that Sportsmaster has been dabbling in CADMUS science he doesn’t understand, but that could be any CADMUS science, it could be long division, the man is an idiot.

• Luthor says he has been incredibly generous, very forthcoming, and asks if the Team will simply leave so that he can have his lab sealed and cleaned, he does after all have a permit for it and everything else. Its all perfectly legal. Aqualad doesn’t budge. He asks Luthor if he has completed reverse engineering the “Boxes” that the aliens carry. Luthor sighs and shakes his head. He nods over at a massive machine in the back of the room, and says if any of the Team had half a brain they might be able to understand the work he has been doing. But that is unlikely. Kid Flash looks over at it, and zips over, looking it all over. He zips back and coldly says it is a single-point gravitic particle accelerator, and it doesn’t work because Luthor can’t generate enough power. Luthor is impressed and says he is mostly right. But even so, if he can’t get it working- no one can. Short of leashing the sun…

• Kid Flash shakes his head and says he didn’t mean to give him any ideas. Alarms start to croon in the lab, and Mercy Graves enters with a cadre of LexCorp security. She stares at Kid Flash, snarling. KF puts his hands up in mock defense. Lex asks Mercy to please escort the teens out of the building, and off the premises. No cab will be necessary, he is sure they have their own ride.

• Mercy walks them curbside, marching Kid Flash by the arm. As she lets him go her iron grip tears his costume, pricking his skin and drawing blood. He whips his arm away and says he isn’t into Techno-babes, and the Team stands on the sidewalk in front of the building as the Bio-Ship descends. Artemis punches him in the arm and Kid Flash whines. They backbrief Rocket as they take off, back to Mount Justice.

• Luthor holds out his hand and Mercy drips a single drop of blood onto a plate which is sealed with another glass plate. Luthor slides it into a computer drawer and dismisses Mercy, looking up at his particle accelerator deep in thought.

• Superboy is dragged by two large Hunger Dogs over the yellow light bridge onto War World. He is brought directly to Mongul’s chambers, where he is shackled on a large board in the center of the room facing a throne. He is barely conscious after taking so many blows from Mongul, and passes out several times during this so it is shown in snippets. Mongul enters soon after he awakesin the throne control room. Mongul sits on the throne, one knee up, pondering Superboy.

• Mongul speaks, he says he knows Superboy is no mere Hunger Dog, no mere slave. He is a Kryptonian. Mongul could taste it- and he will never forget the taste of Kal-El’s blood. His is nearly the same. Mongul reckons they are family, perhaps… his son? Superboy denies it, but Mongul isn’t listening. He goes into a large sealed chest near his throne chair and produces a huge spear rod, tipped with green radiating crystal. He says it is pure Kryptonite, found after great tribulation amongst the asteroid field of Krypton itself after his defeat at the hands of Superman years ago. This is only a small sample, the purest and most radioactive crystal of his haul. It’s mere presence sends Superboy into sick convulsions. Mongul laughs a deep laugh, and says this is all the confirmation he needs. He puts the spear back in the chest and sits again on the throne. What to do with him. What to do. Perhaps he will entertain himself with the female who stood up for him. Superboy snarls at this and pulls uselessly at the restraints. Mongul says that Superboy is in fact in luck, no doubt he has not been home for some time, and now that his arsenal is complete with Desaads latest shipment, War World sets its course for Earth and for Superman.

• Mongul sends shocks streaming from his throne into Superboy’s crucified form, electrocuting him over and over, seemingly bored, but deriving some enjoyment from the torture.

• The Team stands around the hologram display of the planet in Mount Justice. Kid Flash is munching a chocolate bar and says Luthor is getting pretty close to a breakthrough in long distance teleportation technology, but he won’t ever have enough power to get it to work, it’d probably burn out the sun before it sent an apple a mile. Aqualad says the Team did good work, and they have discovered more pieces of the puzzle, but he feels no closer to an answer, no closer to finding Superboy or curing M’gann of whatever it is that ails her.

• Just as he finishes speaking, M’gann hobbles out of the hallway escorted by Martian Manhunter. The Team is very glad to see her. Rocket asks Manhunter if they were able to cure her but he shakes his head. It seems that whatever it was simply went as it came, of its own volition. Manhunter says he needs to seek serious counsel with the League, and asks the Team to take care of Miss Martian before stepping through the Zeta-Tube and teleporting away. Zatanna follows M’gann out, clearly tired and somewhat in disarray. She explains that there is some sort of magical effect to what was wrong with M’gann, but it was closer to the sorcery-tech the Light used last year than it was to any traditional magic she or Fate had ever encountered.

• Robin remarks that it is pretty likely that the Light’s plot from last year was a derivation on the theme of the tech they were buying from Desaad. Robin says he has spent hours trawling what the League pulls in from extraterrestrial communications traffic (yes, Kid Flash, the League does that) and says he can’t find any mention of Desaad. Whoever it is, whoever his master is, is either a ghost or lives so far away he is just unknown in Guardian space. Robin briefly explains the concept of Guardian space as it pertains to the Green Lantern Corps with the help of Rocket, who says it isn’t even from out as far as Icon is from or he would have recognized it. Stumped, the Team ponders until M’gann speaks up, very quietly. She says she knows who Desaads master is. She knows his name.

• The Team is amazed, how could she know? Who is it?

• M’gann looks very weak, and very small and scared, and says while she was comatose she was being tortured, and spoken to. Desaads master is all that is, he is the Tiger-Force at the Core of all things, the Master of Apokolips known only as DARKSEID.

• DARKSEID spoke to her in her dreams, or not to her, but generally spoke and she could hear. She heard and felt the crush of millions of lives extinguished and corralled, of churning fire in the depths of dead space, and over the million billion light years he called out and was heard first by Bruno Mannheim, then he latched onto her when she invaded his mind. DARKSEID is not gone, he has simply lost interest for now. M’gann collapses again. Aqualad tells Kid Flash to radio the League immediately so they can debrief.

• Aqualad is on the Watchtower, addressing the original Seven members of the League on M’ganns revelation. Green Lantern says whoever he is he doesn’t come up in the Guardian’s archives, but he has a few friends on Oa who might be willing to do him a favor and access some of the deeper vaults of knowledge. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman talk amongst themselves until Aqualad gets their attention and akss that if now that they can put a name to Superboy’s captor they will go after him. Superman is sympathetic, and says that if it was as easy as flying out into space, finding the guy and punching him he would have done it weeks ago. The League is looking with all the resources they have. They have to be patient and to believe that Superboy is out there trying to get back home as well.

• Max Lord sits in the American Embassy in Moscow, busily typing away at his desk. Someone opens the door, Max without looking up tells “Dmitri” he is almost through the first draft of the proposal and that the time is near for him to take a trip out to Brazil. Max looks up, and is greeted with the pointy tip of a red arrow.

• Red Arrow sits on Max’s desk, Max is tied up in his chair. Red Arrow asks Max what his interest in CADMUS is. Max responds he invests in a lot of things, he finds that good investments are usually found in Lex Luthor’s wake, even if they are fixer-uppers at that point. Red Arrow slams an arrow into the desk, Not Good Enough. Max says that he has had the pleasure of working with “The Team” and actually did it mostly as a personal favor to Superboy, to help the Genomes. Arrow narrows his eyes and asks if Max is involved in any of the cloning operations that LexCorp was sponsoring for CADMUS. Max vehemently denies it, saying that his interest in CADMUS is applied sciences and biology, but in steroids and satellite communications- not cloning. He says if Red Arrow would let Max show him what he is working on, maybe he would believe him.

• Red Arrow follows Max across his office space and onto the balcony, where Max stops and looks up at the sky. Red Arrow draws his bow, saying if this is some sort of trick- Max shakes his head and says it’ll be any second now. And then- the two of them are suddenly floating up into the air as in zero gravity, up up up into a disk of light.

• Red Arrow shoots up as Max dusts himself off and gestures around the space. It appears to be some sort of ship, sort of rounded on the inside. Max says he is borrowing it from a friend of his for now, and introduces the pilot: Dmitri Pushkin, AKA, Rocket Red. Red Arrow says he knows him, hes a small time European hero. Rocket Red corrects him saying he is a small time Russian hero, and asks Max where they are off to. Max says he intends to show Red Arrow “The Island”, and so the ship takes off at great speed. Max comments he has actually been interested in meeting Red Arrow for some time, not many people on the side of the angels with a bone to pick with the Justice League after all.

• In Gotham City, Artemis sits in an empty apartment. A picture of her, her mom, and her sister sits on the kitchen counter. She appears lonely, and somewhat sad until a timer goes off in the kitchen, and she rushes to turn off the stove and take a boiling pot to the sink. She continues her task of making food until there is a knock at her door. Zatanna and Barbara Gordon are there, and enter, apparently excited to spend the night. The three get comfortable on the couch as Artemis puts on a movie, and Zatanna turns to Artemis to ask her about Wally, which she deflects by asking if she should invite Dick Grayson- both girls are immediately embarrassed and mortified and then shocked that the other would be embarrassed or mortified, and the conversation muffles somewhat as they get into the finer intricacies of girl talk.

• Shots ring out just outside Artemis’ window. Neither Artemis nor Barbara react as Zatanna bolts upright. She asks if they should look outside. Both girls say no, its Gotham, something bad is going down and doubtless someone good is on patrol looking to stop it. Tonight is girls night. Shots ring out again and Zatanna worries aloud again. Exasperated, Artemis marches over to the window, draws back the curtain, and is shocked to find the Huntress on her windowsill clutching an ugly gunshot wound.

• Ushering her inside the three girls make a hasty triage, Barbara proclaims she has been to about a hundred GCPD classes for this, and quickly manage to get the bullet out of her. Huntress does not faint, and bites a towel as they extract it. Barbara tells her she is lucky it must have been a ricochet. Huntress sits up and thanks them, saying it would have been really embarrassing to have to show up at the Batcave. Barbara is elated to hear there is such a thing as a 'Bat-Cave" while Artemis and Zatanna do their best to pretend like they have never heard that before, Artemis making angry eyes at Huntress. Artemis helps Huntress to the bathroom to “help clean the wound” and once inside tells Huntress that Barbara isn’t a hero and doesn’t know anything about the fact that she or Zatanna is- speaking of which- how did Huntress know where she lived.

• Huntress says she keeps an eye on the place for Black Canary, ever since Artemis’ mother died there is at least one pair of eyes at all hours of the day and night. Artemis tells Huntress to be more careful, and more careful about her secret identity. Huntress promises to keep quiet if Artemis will lend her a quiver of crossbow bolts. Begrudgingly, Artemis retrieves a quiver from underneath the bathroom sink “atta girl” and hands it over. Huntress attaches it to her belt, wraps her bandage a little tighter, and says she hasn’t forgotten about introducing her and Zatanna to Wildcat. The two make their way back out to the living room where Barbara is ecstatic, and Huntress says she has to go fight crime. She leaves, and the room is quiet. Barbara says she needs to come over to Artemis’ place more often.

• Rocket, Aqualad, and Icon are in the Mountain, looking at a display of the galaxy on the hologram table. Icon talks about how they are ingesting an incredible amount of data at the moment, mostly thanks to Red Tornado and Mister Terrific volunteering their services. Even so, they haven’t had any mentions so far that would trigger an alert.

• Suddenly, the table beeps red, and a display of the Earth comes up. Robin asks if he means an alert like that. Icon says No, this is something else. The table continues to beep red, swiveling the view of Earth out so that the moon is visible, and… something on the far side of the moon, a bit smaller but very spheroid.

• Kid Flash zips over and points at it, asking what the hell that is. Icon isn’t sure, but he is going to find out. He triggers a League-wide alert, and flies out through the cave’s garage entrance at super speed.

• Green Lantern comes up on the net next as the Team gathers member by member around the table, he announces that it is WAR WORLD- MONGUL is BACK. Superman comes up on the net next, saying this is a general emergency for the League. Black Canary comes running out of the hallway in the Mountain nearby and tells the Team to get in their gear and get ready for action. The Team splits as more Leaguers come up on the net reporting in their status.

• WAR WORLD slowly descends closer to the Watchtower. The Team watches the feed from Mount Justice. Superman, Green Lantern, Icon, Martian Manhunter, and Icon are there. Superman calls out to Mongul, saying if the war lord wants a round two he can get it up here, away from collateral damage. The War World seems to grind in response, and the voice of Mongul is broadcast through the airwaves. Mongul says the Kryptonian is as cocky as ever, but this time Mongul has a bargaining chip. He displays a huge feed- SUPERBOY. Alive and imprisoned aboard the planet-ship. Mongul laughs at Superman’s shock, the Team is racous in the Mountain, Mongul says the Kryptonian will not strike at War World or he will kill Superman’s son. Mongul will bide his time and prepare his weapons and his ultimatum. In the meantime, the Justice League is invited to draw up the terms of Earth’s total surrender.

• The Batman calls down to the Mountain. He says the Team has a task. Get on the War World, get Superboy, get out. The Justice League will provide cover. This is a no-fail mission, as he is sure they understand. Stealth is not an option. He asks if they are ready, they say they were born ready.

• The Team is aboard the Bio-Ship quickly, all clad in their pressurized space suits. M’gann takes it up through the atmosphere, Kid Flash asks if she is alright, she is looking a little green. Artemis punches him on the arm, but he says he meant it as a compliment. M’gann smiles, she feels just fine.

• The Bio-Ship calls in to the League that they are in position. Batman says to wait for their mark. Outside the Watchtower, Superman floats into space between the War World and the Watchtower accompanied by Icon, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Captain Marvel. Superman asks why Mongul won’t come out and talk, or maybe he’s scared? Aboard the Bioship, M’gann comments he kind of sounds like Superboy when he is being intentionally mean. The Bio-Ship slips invisible past a drone patrol and onto the surface of the War World, parallel parking sideways in a death-star-trench-esque situation on the machine surface of the spheroid. The Team move through the hull into the interior of The War World. M’gann casts her mind out far, searching and searching, she says she has found him, he is near the core. The Team takes off behind M’gann as she flies invisible along the wall.

• Mongul strides on the yellow light path out to meet Superman and his squad. Mongul diatribes, remarking that Kal-El feels so insecure he surrounds himself with his lessers, stooping as low as collecting a Green Lantern, guffawing. Hal comments it was perhaps a wise decision to not bring Guy aboard after all.

• The Team moves swiftly through the decks of the War World, arrows and batarangs, electricity and fast fists find mercenary warrior heads, necks, and knees as they travel until they are confronted by a huge door. M’gann tries to phase through it but finds a field rejecting her biology. Kid Flash steps up, vibrating, saying he is gonna have to speed way up to match the frequency of the doors field. Robin beckons the Team back as Kid Flash’s entire body quickly blurs, dust and wind pick up around him and the door begins to shine and pulse with multicolor light until there is a muted Fizzle and a huge discharge of static travels the length of the hallway shorting out everything in its path. Alarms immediately start to blare. Kid Flash looks back sheepishly.

• Max Lord sits in a jump seat in the craft across from Red Arrow, who looks tense and is staring into the wall above Max’s head. Max looks over to him and breaks the silence by asking what Red Arrow intends to do upon seeing the “Real Roy Harper”. Red Arrow does not answer. The ship begins its descent over the ocean, visible through the cockpit windshield is an oil platform.

• Max leads Red Arrow out of the craft and into a freight elevator on the oil platform. Red Arrow intones that it figures his real self would make his way this far out of the way. The freight elevator descends and opens into a massive laboratory. Dozens of labcoats are busy with calibrations of weapons and preparations of chambers and a triage center. Red Arrow asks who the triage is for, and Max says it isn’t triage as much as transformation, but that isn’t the point. Max signals one of his tech’s, and a large television is brought out, which flickers to life after some fiddling. Max waits patiently as the image of DubbleX crackles to life. In the background genomes work on constructing a wall. Max formally introduces DubbleX and Red Arrow, and DubbleX reports that all is well on the lunar base, construction goes on as planned and without disturbance. DubbleX addresses Red Arrow as “brother” which makes Red Arrow a little uncomfortable. Max thanks him and ends the call. Red Arrow starts to get antsy, asking Max what this is all about.

• Max turns to Red Arrow and tells him that he isn’t here to learn about CADMUS or if Max is doing something shady, he is here to find the Real Roy Harper. But he won’t. The Real Roy Harper was harvested for his genetic material and dumped into a landfill in Maryland a decade ago.

• Red Arrow stands shocked, mouth agape. He accuses Max of lying, that if Max has been sitting on this he is as bad as Luthor or any of the CADMUS directorate. Max whirls to face Red Arrow and puts a finger in his chest. Max informs Red Arrow that he has uplifted a race from slavery, poured a billion dollars into world peace, and another billion dollars into an insurance policy on the Justice League.

• Red Arrow asks what he means by “insurance policy”. Max turns away, waving dismissively, its not as if Red Arrow could possibly be interested in working with Max. Red Arrow pulls his bow to full draw, and says if Max has done anything to put the League in jeopardy…

• A titanium arm clamps down on Red Arrow’s shoulder, and the voice of Dmitri speaks calmly from behind him. Max introduces Dmitri Pushkin, Rocket Red- the “Small Time Russian”. Rocket Red is physically titanic in the armor, and chuckles at how taken aback Red Arrow is. Max explains that the Justice League is all well and good until Wonder Woman or Green Lantern bites it- or God forbid Superman. That, CADMUS fundamentally understood. Something has to be done to ensure the people of Earth will still be protected from threats that men with Bows and Arrows simply cannot combat. The monsters that step on the little guy. The Global Peace Agency is his stop-gap. A worldwide network of satellites managed by the most advanced artificial intelligence quantum computer ever created, gene therapy, weapons and medical technology on the bleeding edge. This is how humanity will sustain its future in a world without Superman. Max turns to Red Arrow, and says that not only is he a good guy, but he is offering a paycheck. Even if Red Arrow doesn’t want it- his former assassin wife and soon to be born child might appreciate it.

• Superboy is shocked into wakefulness by Mongul. The sneering yellow alien thumbs his forehead and says that he cannot see it, but Earth is within view. In a matter of hours, Superman will be dead, Earth will be aflame, and Mongul will have his vengeance so long wrought against the Kryptonian, and Superboy is the key. He will not dare move against Mongul as long as there is another Kryptonian at risk of death, his people are far too precious in number to waste their lives needlessly. In this time, Mongul will spin up the Core-Killer gun on the War World. He will light Earth’s atmosphere aflame and watch it burns before he kills him, and then Superman.

• Superboy spits at him and Mongul chuckles, such spirit, he must be Superman’s son after all. Another huge shock is delivered and Superboy blacks out.

• Superboy stirs to wakefulness as another shock graces his body, this one less severe than before. His eyes will barely open, he can barely see as light streams in from a nearby door. Something… someone walks toward him. A female, he can make out her figure, she is wearing a cloak or cape, long hair… He murmurs “Lara…?” before a familiar face comes into focus. Miss Martian uses her powers to tear the shackles out of place, and Superboy falls to the ground as Aqualad catches him, Rocket says they are very glad to see him but they gotta go!

• Aboard the light bridge, Mongul is still monologuing at Superman and friends, until a sudden wail emits from his belt. He looks up after silencing it. He is angry, he accuses Kal-El, saying he would never go behind his back in stealth when the life of a Kryptonian or billions of human lives is at stake. Superman remarks quizzically that Mongul never actually met Batman, so he wouldn’t understand. Mongul roars and turns to fly back to War World, but the four super-supers are on him.

• Rocket forms a shield around the Team as they sprint through the War World with Superboy in tow, barely conscious. They board the Bio-Ship and rocket off of War World just as its defenses come alive, millions of rounds of ammunition are expended into open space as it responds to the rage of its master, who is being tackled in flight below.

• Mongul is barely a match for the gang, slamming and slapping and electrocuting his way out of their grap until he is grabbed by a mechanical tendril of the War World and pulled aboard. Green Lantern makes a bullhorn and calls out, saying Mongul’s bargaining chip is gone, its time for him to give it up and go home. In response, the War World fires a massive beam past the four men, slicing the Watchtower in half, both sides descending into cascading explosions. Green Lantern retreats to secure the debris before it makes it way through the atmosphere, while Superman, Icon, and Captain Marvel fly at the War World. The mechanical planets gun are open to full bore and cannon and laser rounds take their toll against the three, who cannot get through the impenetrable hail of ammunition and must start chasing missiles which dislodge themselves from its surface towards the Earth.

• As the Bio-Ship descends into Earths atmosphere, it is struck by several beams from War World, and M’gann announces they are going down hard. The Bio-Ship tumbles hard through the air and the Team is tossed around inside until something sticks to the exterior hard, and the ship levels out. M’gann looks out the window: The NewGeniSphere has arrived! It steers them to a slow descent in the waters of a vast ocean. As Superboy is loaded aboard, it encases him in a protective glass layering in the rear.

• Before they can take off, Artemis spots something in the distance over the water and tells the Team to get ready. A craft is skimming the water’s surface at hundreds of miles an hour. It looks like a sort of… bug. It stop just short of them, and spins to the side. A door opens and there stands Maxwell Lord. He Hails the the Team jovially and says if his guess is right, they just got a friend back, and Max thinks he will need to be in peak condition pretty soon. He points to the sky, where multicolor blasts are visible, cascading above the clouds. Max indicates for them to follow him, and jumps back inside the Bug, which takes off overtop the water with the Super Cycle in tow.

• The Super-Cycle follows the Bug to shores of an offshore Oil Rig, where the Bug sets down. Max ushers the team off the landing pad and inside, where none other than Red Arrow is waiting for them. Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Robin hug Red Arrow despite his protestations. Max has a team of doctors and a stretcher ready to take Superboy, who is quickly wheeled away, a doctor tells M’gann he will be fine but they need space to work.

• Max welcomes them to The headquarters of the GPA. The Global Peace Agency, as Red Arrow leads them over a gantry and over a titanic engineering bay, filled with mechanics, scientists, and other labcoated and wrenching types, all working on a plethora of equipment and projects.

• Center to the chamber is a massive computer. Max and Red Arrow explain that the GPA has been Max’s pet project ever since he got involved with the Justice League. Max likes the Justice League but he thinks that eventually they are going to bite off more than they can chew, and when they do, the GPA will be there to pick up the slack. This, Max brags, is just the Earth-side base. The real deal is up on the Moon, but its still a work in progress at the moment. Robin and Kid Flash look at his computer. Max says it is the next generation of the next generation of artificial intelligences, true quantum computing paired with a digitized brain. He hasn’t named it yet, he thinks it will come up with one on its own once its activated.

• Kid Flash says this is all well and good, and he is glad Max is taking care of Superboy, but why all of this now. War World is up there, the Justice League is in the fight. Max says that is true, which is why today is the first time the computer is going to come online. He mentions the Team no doubt remembers the couple hundred “Bialyan” satellites that they investigated. They do. Max says he managed to come by some technology that will allow him to commandeer those satellites and the nifty LexCorps targeting technology onboard them.

• Artemis says she still doesnt understand what this has to do with them. Max responds that he is giving them the opportunity of a liftetime, get in on the ground floor of the next Justice League. If they aren’t believers yet- they will be shortly, and its all thanks to Superboy.

[HAIRCUT]

• In another room, Superboy is wheeled into a clean room, he is powerwashed, giant magnification windows are oriented and he is blasted with yellow sunlight. As he begins to regain control of his body, a labcoat steps forward with a blue bodysuit. The labcoat explains it is custom printed for his body, its a solar suit, it will enhance his natural Kryptonian powers and keep him going for longer. It will also provide data on his body and help them track his vitals. Superboy is confused, why do they need to know whats going on with his body? The labcoat hands him an ipad with a video playing, Max Lord addressing him: Max explains that the day Superman dies is the day the world is in mortal danger, and as it stands its looking rough. What Superboy is looking at around him is Max’s greatest achievement: OMAC, the One Man Army Corps, capable of matching or exceeding Superman’s strength if the subject was of the correct biological makeup. Superboy happens to be the perfect candidate. The Solar Suit will provide him extended strength and stamina, the solar suit works like Luthor’s “shields” but are a far more impressive technology, by using real sunlight they will allow him flight and more super strength without causing him emotional distress. He won’t get laser vision but the gauntlets will allow him to discharge heat energy in blasts. Max on the ipad says that Superboy will be every bit Superman’s equal in the OMAC suit, but the super computer paired with the technology is what will make him even better. It will help him move, think, fight, and provide him options to interface with technology.

• Superboy asks what the catch is. Max says the catch is he is never going to want to go back. Luckily for him, the Global Peace Agency is hiring. Consider this run a freebie. Now, if he doesn’t mind, Mongul is in orbit, and shelling the planet. Superboy looks up at the array of scientists who are poised ready to equip him with all the gear and asks one thing: Can I put a symbol on it?

• M’gann reaches out with her mind to Superboy. It is a welcome presence to them both. M’gann asks how he is doing, he says good, and getting better. Max is offering him a one time deal on some powers that he is going to need. M’gann says the League is up in space, and working to defeat Mongul now. Superboy says the League might not be enough, Mongul planned this, he wants Superman, so he needs to get someone else. Besides, not everyone on the War World is there by choice, there are people to save, innocent and brave people. He tells M’gann they can talk later, he needs to get ready for this fight, and Superboy shuts M’gann out.

• M’gann looks somewhat upset, but reports to the Team that Superboy is okay, and tells Max that he is taking the deal. Max fist pumps and turns to high five Red Arrow, who does not move. Max recovers himself and says today is a good day. M’gann looks forlornly in the direction of the lab where Superboy is getting ready, everyone else’s eyes are glued to the monitor displaying live feed from the fight in space.

• The three big hitters are still very busy, and visibly tiring. Each has received numerous blows, there are now three Green Lanterns on debris duty throwing things back at the planetoid. Superman talks over comms with the Justice League to prepare for a fight on the ground, Mongul will follow him wherever he goes and he can bring him into whatever trap they can lay. Batman says it is already done, thirty miles into the California high desert theres a flat where the League is ready to receive. Superman nods, and motions Captain Marvel and Icon back toward Earth. War World lets out a victorious blaring of horns and advances closer to Earth surface, the Green Lanterns put up a huge shield to block incoming munitions as they retreat behind Superman.

• Superman lands tenderly on the flat in the desert, around him are a cadre of Leaguers including the Hawks, Green Arrow, Captain Atom, the Flash and Wonder Woman. From on high descends Mongul on a palanquin-craft, flanked by a boatload of his mercenaries, Thanagarians, Bolovaxians, and one on a craft of his own- Lobo trails Mongul, chuckling into a cigar.

• Superman tells Mongul he still has time to leave, and never to return. Mongul laughs, and brandishes his Kryptonite spear, sending his mercenaries forward into the fray.

• The Team is antsy to get into the fight themselves. They load up into the Super-Cycle, Max wishes them good hunting, and hands out his business card one more time, this one emblazoned with the GPA logo, saying he and his will be along soon as well and to save them some bad guys. The Team takes off at speed, the Super Cycle catapulting them forwarad at plaid so intense they have to duck in the seats to not fly out at Kid Flash’s gunning the throttle, he is not missing out on this team up.

• Superboy watches as the labcoats busily affix the gauntlets to his arms over the body-suit, and fit him with an ear piece and boots. Max walks into the chamber and asks how things are going, Superboy gestures at the busy scene around him and asks Max if he looks ready. Max says he looks Spectacular. He walks Superboy out onto the pad of the Oil Rig and says he’s never flown before, but he imagines- Superboy jumps as hard as he can, and to little surprise, does not come down.

• Max comes in over Superboy’s ear, telling him the computer is waking up and should be online by the time he makes it to the fight. In the meantime Max recommends he fly as close to the sun as he can. No wax wings here, it’ll charge the solar suit. Superboy shakily adjusts his altitude above the clouds and looks down on the Earth as he goes rocketing by. Max warns him of a passenger jet nearby and Superboy flies alongside, waving at the people looking out the window before diving down.

• The fight is intense even as the Team arrive. They spring immediately into action, Artemis rolls between Black Canary and Green Arrow to put an explosive arrow in the mouth of a Bolovaxian with a power axe, Miss Martian and Martian Manhunter take turns coming out of the ground to slam mercenaries into the dust, Kid Flash catches up with Flash who is on the outskirts of the fight catching stragglers. Lobo is currently sparring with Icon and Aquaman, Rocket and Aqualad join in to Lobo’s delight. Mongul and Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel are duking it out above the general fray. Mongul whips his Kryptonite spear in a dangerous arc, sending Captain Marvel careening into the air and flattening Wonder Woman in one swoop. Mongul manages several small punctures to Superman, who is keeping just out of range as best he can. Mongul raises his fist into the air and a battery of guns on the War World fire. Green Lanterns spring into action to block the broadsiding but can’t catch everything, rounds land amongst friend and foe indiscriminately, Mongul doesn’t seem to care. Superman tells Mongul he is insane, and this time he is going to a cell on Oa for good. Mongul laughs and rips a role in Superman with the Kryptonite spear, sending the Man of Steel down into the dust of the fray, immediately swallowed by ranks of mercenaries and heroes fighting.

• Mongul laughs, triumphal moment at hand until a blast knocks the spear out of his hand from behind. There hovers OMAC (Superboy). OMAC tells Mongul he is going to release the slaves of War World. Mongul licks his lips and tries to recall the girls name, Lara was it? OMAC flies at Mongul, enraged. The two begin their brutal duel.

• The battle between OMAC and Mongul dwarfs everything else going on around it. Dust, air, and bodies are parted in equal measure as the two go at it. Over comms, Superboy yells at Max for more power. Max tells his labcoats to crank the suits receptors, and warns Superboy he is going to burn very hot. OMAC tackles Mongul in a bear hug and burns him as the two careen to the ground, smashing through terrain features until Mongul breaks free. Mongul says he is going to put them all on pikes and parade them in a column wherever War World goes- he is cut off by Superman delivering an uppercut from below. Superman says he likes Superboy’s new look, and is glad to see him. Superman lingers on the massive Eye on Superboy’s chest but Mongul brings them back into the fight quickly as he lunges at Superman.

• OMAC and Superman beat Mongul through the terrain, up in the sky, until Mongul calls down another titanic barrage, part of which catches all three of them. Smoking, all in the same crater, OMAC rises to his feet first, seeing Mongul lunging with something Green in his hand onto Superman’s prone body. OMAC throws Mongul to the side, and sees that Superman has been stabbed several times by the tip of Monguls snapped Kryptonite spear. Superman mumbles, but it is drowned out in Superboy’s ears by the computer coming online. It asks for designation just as Superman mumbles “Brother…” and points a bloodied finger into Superboy’s chest “..Eye..” The computer accepts “BROTHER EYE” as its designation and tells Superboy to duck, he does and Mongul goes sailing over his head. BROTHER EYE tells OMAC it has 7 satellites with view of the battlefield, and asks for a priority. OMAC says triaging Superman, defeating MONGUL. OMAC reccomends setting Superman on a nearby rock in the sun, which he does. OMAC faces Mongul, hate deep in Mongul’s red eyes. Mongul laughs a cracked laugh and claims victory over Superman, raising the Kryptonite dagger above his head in a twisted salute to the Man of Steel.

• OMAC flies at Mongul, dodging blow after blow and delivering crippling knees and elbows, fists and kicks. Mongul quickly lies sputtering in the dust, thick with his blood. Mongul chuckles and says he could die here, happy, but he will not, he claps his hands together, and disappears in a flash of light. OMAC jumps for him but sails through and into the dirt. OMAC turns to look at the sky, War World is retreating even now in the sky. As he prepares to lift off, a piercing mental scream cuts through the din. M’gann is calling for him by name.

• Lobo has Miss Martian by some limb, the flaming end of an old gas flamethrower painting wild streaks in the area around. She is weak, fainting, until Lobo is lifted off his feet by a supersonic punch. Lobo is discombobulated, swinging wild haymakers OMAC dodges easily, delivering liver shots and pointed chops that send the alien mercenary to the ground in pain. Lobo crawls back towards his bike as OMAC turns to Miss Martian on the ground, picking her up and carrying her out of the fire. OMAC kneels with Miss Martian in his arms, who looks up at him and murmurs his name in gratitude “Conner…” but OMAC doesn’t hear her. His eyes are on the sky, he promises Lara that he is coming, that he will free her.

Please know there will likely be no epilogue- Season 3 will pick up just as Season 2 ends.

[Gon]

@HAIRCUT

Robin awakens in a dark warehouse, something he remarks he is unfortunately familiar with.

You… rat!

Somehow more racially inclusive than the original. I was really into Superboy going on a Burroughsian hell-quest I could picture it vividly. Much superior to his pink gaysex-crystal quest. Directly countersignaling guano with a chimp is classy. Some Spectacular references and team-ups all around. Superboy and Kid Flash should link up with Orion and Lightray next.

[HAIRCUT]

When you have true love for the medium you can do anything. I will say that when I began this I had your Gundam ZZ Beatsheet on hand as a formatting point of reference because it was clean and easy to read, but it quickly disintegrated into stream of consciousness bullet pointing, maybe Season 3 will be formatted better, but maybe not.