Countdown (3 page)

“What about all that commotion I heard when you called?” Lois Lane asked. The
Planet
's star reporter leaned against a filing cabinet by the door, sipping a cup of coffee. She had graciously offered to provide Jimmy with some moral support when he filled Perry in on his fruitless trip to Arkham. “What was
that
all about?”

“Oh, that,” Jimmy mumbled. He wasn’t sure what part of yesterday’s close call bothered him the most: the fact that Killer Croc had almost eaten him, or how he had
stretched
out of the way just in time.
Probably that last part,
he decided, reluctant to divulge all the weirdo details to either Lois or Perry. He didn’t want them to think that he had snapped under the pressure and hallucinated the whole thing. “Nothing ... nothing important.”

“Can we stay on point here?” Perry said impatiently. “I’ve still got a paper to put out, and we need a new angle on—” A sudden boom from outside the building cut short his tirade. The deafening blast rattled the window behind him. “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” he exclaimed. The cigar tumbled from his lips.
“Now
what?”

'' All three journalists raced to the window, which offered a spectacular view of downtown Metropolis. Only seconds ago it had been a clear fall day, but now ominous black clouds obscured the sun. Bright golden flashes lit up the roiling clouds from inside. For a moment, Jimmy thought that maybe it was just a freak thunderstorm, but then coruscating bolts of shimmering yellow energy blasted down from the sky, wreaking havoc on the city below. A destructive beam tore through an elevated billboard for Sundollar Coffee, setting it ablaze, while another ray blasted apart a rooftop water tower. Gallons of spilled water instantly evaporated into steam, adding to the turbulent atmosphere. More beams lanced through the air, barely missing vulnerable skyscrapers and clock towers. Thunderous booms accompanied the devastating fireworks.

“Olsen!” Perry shouted. He stomped out the fallen stogie while still keeping his gaze glued to the fearsome spectacle outside. “Get down there with your camera!” Jimmy was already out the door. Eschewing the elevators, he raced down the stairs to the first floor, thirty-seven stories below, and dashed across the lobby to the sidewalk outside, where he encountered a scene of utter pandemo-eaiiMTiaw n

nium. Frightened citizens ran for shelter, looking back over their shoulders at the lethal pyrotechnics overhead. Their panicked cries were all but drowned out by the cacophonous din. Drivers abandoned their vehicles midtraffic as they joined the stampede on the sidewalks. Jimmy backed up against the Daily Planet Building’s granite fagade in order to avoid being trampled. He was anxious to capture the chaos on film, but first he took a moment to activate his signal-watch.
Superman probably already knows about this emergency,
he figured,
but it can’t hurt to alert him just in case.

Raising his digital camera to his right eye, he snapped off some quick reaction shots. Most everyone around him seemed to be running for safety, but he was startled to see a shell-shocked family of three standing frozen in terror right in the middle of the sidewalk. Baseball caps, disposable cameras, and souvenir T-shirts marked them unmistakably as tourists, new to the Big Apricot. A white-faced mother clutched a pigtailed toddler to her chest, while her husband stared aghast at the tumult all around them. Unlike the seasoned natives of the city, who knew what to do when Metropolis was under attack, as happened twice a week or so, the clueless trio looked like they didn’t know which way to turn. They were practically asking to be collateral damage.

“Hey!” Jimmy shouted at the family, concerned for their safety. “You can’t just stand there!”

Sure enough, a sizzling bolt of energy slammed into the skyscraper behind them. The southwest comer of the roof exploded, blasting a heavy stone gargoyle into pieces. Shattered rubble rained down from the blasted cornice, plunging straight toward the defenseless family, who were only seconds away from being pulped. Letting go of his camera, Jimmy instinctively ran to their rescue even though he knew it was already too late to save them.

Or was it?

To his amazement, he put on a sudden burst of speed that instantly ate up the distance between him and the en-
29 unit! cox

dangered tourists. He grabbed on to them with both arms and whisked them down the sidewalk only a second before the plummeting debris crashed into the pavement behind him. Shards of broken masonry exploded into the air, leaving deep fissures in the sidewalk, but Jimmy had already carried the potential fatalities safely clear of the flying shrapnel. Over half a block from the smoking wreckage, Jimmy slowed to a stop and let go of the unscathed tourists, who looked dazed and confused by both their brush with death and their unexpected rescue.

“Mother of God,” the woman whispered in shock. She stared at the shattered stretch of sidewalk where she and her loved ones had been standing only moments before. It took her a minute to fully grasp what had just occurred. She hugged her daughter like she never wanted to let go while gazing thankfully at Jimmy. “You saved us!” "“Wow!” the husband exclaimed. He scratched his head in confusion as he contemplated the distance they had covered in a matter of seconds. He looked at Jimmy. “How’d you do it, buddy?”

Jimmy had no idea.
What’s happening to me?
he wondered.
Yesterday I was Plastic Man; today I’m the Flash?
He was at a loss to explain it. “Uh ...”

“It’s like those stories you hear,” the father theorized, “about old ladies gaining super-strength to lift a car off a baby!”

“Yeah, that must be it,” Jimmy agreed hurriedly, even though he didn’t buy that explanation for a second. This was way too weird for that. But before he could give the unsettling mystery any more thought, a high-pitched keening, almost like a scream, drew all eyes upward. The scream grew louder by the second—and seemed to be heading right for them. “That sound! Something else is falling... !” He barely got the words out of his mouth. The shrill keening gave way to an earth-shattering explosion as
something
slammed into the middle of Shuster Avenue with the force of a meteor strike. The impact felt like an earthquake,

eiSUSfBBiff! 21

almost knocking Jimmy off his feet. Abandoned cars and trucks were tossed into the air like Tonka Toys, their windshields blown out by the shock wave. The uprooted vehicles crashed down onto the shattered asphalt and each other. Clouds of dust and pulverized concrete billowed up from the crash site.

Holy cow!
Jimmy thought, his head ringing.
What
was
that?

Thankfully, he didn’t think that the unidentified falling object had landed on top of anyone. Plus, also on the bright side, the tremendous crash had kept the puzzled family from asking any more questions about how exactly he had saved them. Checking on the tourists, he was relieved to see them scurrying toward the lobby of the Planet Building. They’d be safer there than on the streets, even though the worst of the crisis seemed to have passed. Glancing ’upward, Jimmy saw the stormy black clouds dispersing. Sunlight and blue skies poked through the smoke from countless small fires throughout the city. As the ringing in his ears faded away, he realized that the thunderous booms had ceased as well. No more energy bolts stabbed down from the heavens. The sirens of racing emergency vehicles blared in the background. Whatever had transpired overhead, it appeared to be over.

Or so Jimmy hoped.

Holding a handkerchief over his mouth and nostrils to keep out the airborne dust and grit, he crept cautiously toward the lip of the enormous crater carved out by the
something’s
crash landing. The dust clouds began to settle, offering a clearer view of the devastation. As Jimmy made his way over the rubble, he had no idea what he expected to find at the bottom of the pit. A giant glowing meteorite? A crashed alien spacecraft? Bizarro? Here in Metropolis, anything was possible. Camera in hand, he peered over the edge of the precipice.

“Ohmigod.” His blue eyes widened in shock. “Lightray!”

The battered figure lying within the crater was one of

the New Gods, a race of vastly powerful alien beings who dwelt on the distant planet of New Genesis. Cosmic legend had it that when the primordial gods of antiquity perished in some bygone cataclysm, the universe gave birth to a new breed of gods who reigned from two eternally warring worlds, the heavenly New Genesis and the hellish Apoko-lips. Lightray, whom Jimmy had first met a few years ago, hailed from New Genesis. Eternally cheerful and optimistic, he had always struck Jimmy as the friendliest and least intimidating of the New Gods.

But what had happened to him now? Despite possessing literally godlike power and immortality, Lightray looked more dead than alive. He lay sprawled upon his back, the cracked debris beneath him fused to a glassy sheen by the heat of his arrival. His skintight white uniform, which was usually spotless from head to toe, was tom, shredded, and eVen scorched in places. The golden headdress that framed his once-handsome features was dented and barely holding together. One eye was swollen shut, and his lips were split and bleeding. His wavy red hair had been burnt and tom away in spots, exposing the raw scalp underneath. A formerly radiant smile now lacked several teeth. A leg was twisted at an unnatural angle. His breathing was ragged, and he seemed to lack the strength to even lift his head from the glazed concrete. He looked barely conscious.

Who could do this to him?
Jimmy wondered.
Darkseid? Doomsday?
His affable manner notwithstanding, Lightray was no pushover. Along with the superhuman strength and endurance of a New God, Lightray also possessed the unique ability to harness all the various frequencies of the light spectrum. Jimmy had seen Lightray repel squads of vicious Parademons with the blinding beams that had inspired his nom de guerre. He could be a tough customer when he had to be.
So how did he end up beaten to a pulp?

A familiar
whooshing
sound heralded the arrival of Superman. Jimmy’s best friend, and Earth’s greatest hero, descended from the sky. His bright red cape flared out behind him. His world-famous S-shield was emblazoned on the chest of his sky blue uniform.

“Sorry I’m late,” he apologized. “I was out near Vega when I got your—” He spotted the brutalized figure at the bottom of the crater. “Great Rao! Is that Lightray?”

Jimmy knew that Superman and Lightray had often fought side by side against Darkseid and his sinister minions. “We heard what sounded like a battle going on above the clouds and someone screaming. Then he fell out of the sky.” He watched helplessly as Superman touched down beside the wounded god. Kneeling, the Man of Steel confirmed that Lightray was still breathing. Jimmy figured he was probably using his X-ray vision to check for internal injuries too. “Superman, is he dying?”

“I’m not sure I even know what that means in the case of a New God, Jimmy, but whatever could do this to Lightray clearly isn’t to be trifled with.” Rising back onto his feet, Superman scanned the heavens with his super-vision. “I didn’t see anything unusual when I descended through the atmosphere, but I’d better take another look.” He launched himself into the air, raising a cloud of dust around the young reporter. “Stay here, Jimmy. Lightray knows you. Talk to him.”

Me?
Jimmy thought. He felt distinctly out of his league. “I don’t know what I could say that would make a god feel better,” he called down to Lightray, “but hang in there, buddy.” Not wanting to let his friends down, he scooted down the sloped walls of the crater until he reached Light-ray’s side. “Superman’s looking out for you, so you’re in good hands.... Hey!”

Without warning, Lightray reached up and grabbed Jimmy by the wrist. “In-infinite..he said weakly, coughing up blood. His blackened left eye, the one that wasn’t entirely swollen shut, stared urgently into Jimmy’s. He seemed desperate to communicate some vital message or warning. “Infinite ..

Jimmy tried to tug his arm free from Lightray’s grasp, but, even bruised and bleeding, the god’s strength far exceeded Jimmy’s own. “Can’t... get... loose ...” Jimmy grimaced in pain as Lightray’s fingers squeezed his captured wrist. “Let go.... You’re hurting me!”

But the mangled god had only one thing on his mind. “Infinite,” he wheezed once more. “Infinite .. .”

I don
7
understand,
Jimmy thought.
What are you trying to tell me ?

Lightray’s entire body started glowing, emitting a brilliant golden radiance that grew brighter and more intense by the second. The preternatural effulgence hurt Jimmy’s eyes, forcing him to shut them and look away. A sensation like static electricity caused all the hairs on his body to stand on end, and there was a peculiar buzzing in his ears. The glow lit up the entire crater and radiated outward like a mushroom cloud. Jimmy heard startled shouts and gasps from the street above. “Get back!” he hollered, afraid that some sort of dangerous chain reaction was in progress. Had Lightray lost control of his inner luminosity? What if this was just the beginning of a divine meltdown? The whole city could be in danger.

“What’s happening?” Jimmy pleaded. “Tell me how to stop this!”

Then, just as inexplicably as it had begun, the blinding glow faded away. The last of the discharged energy seeped into Jimmy’s bones. Lightray’s fingers went limp, releasing their iron grip on Jimmy’s wrist. The god’s arm dropped lifelessly onto the fused concrete. His ragged breathing fell silent.

“No,” Jimmy whispered.

He opened his eyes. Bright blue spots danced in his field of vision. He wiped the tears away from his watery eyes. Lightray’s real name popped into his mind.

Solis,
he recalled.
His name was Solis.

"Jimmy!” Superman suddenly landed in front of him. His own pupils looked dilated from the glare of seconds before, and he sounded alarmed. “That light was visible even from orbit! Are you all right?”