Justice League of America - Batman: The Stone King (28 page)

He stared at Batman, transfixed with horror. Electric bolts of cobalt blue sparked around his face, and his flashing eyes rolled back in his head.

For a second, the giant seemed to recover. The huge eyes opened again, their gaze zeroing in on the dangling vigilante, drinking in every detail. The horned ears. The cape with its scalloped edges. The bat-symbol on his chest.

The Stone King trembled with fear. His mouth opened in a scream of terror, a deafening shriek that was heard all around the world. He hurled Batman away from him, the way one might brush off a scorpion, in fear and disgust.

The cape ripped from Batman's shoulders, and the pain he had held at bay for so long overwhelmed him.

Everything faded to black.

The Stone King threw back his head, extending his arms out and up, as if trying to regain control of himself and his tremendous powers. But the damage was done. His careful buildup of power had gone awry. The energies he was controlling had slipped their leash.

Lightning bolts seared out of nowhere, raining down on the Stone King himself. They impacted explosively, crackling streaks running like water down his body to disappear into the pyramid.

Fountains of lava erupted at the monstrous figure's feet, spattering his legs, bubbling up over his ankles.

Beams of energy sizzled out of nowhere, beating a grim tattoo against the Stone King's shuddering body.

Something had to give.

When the Stone King hurled Batman from him, the Flash saw his teammate spin away through the air.

Forcing himself to forget his own pain, the molecules of the Flash's body began to vibrate. He slipped off the line that held him to the Stone King's shaking, shuddering body. Vibrating at the same frequency as the air itself, he was able to race along it like a road.

The pain in his side was intense, but he forced himself on. It was a full mile from the pyramid before he managed to overtake the hurtling body and scoop it to safety in his arms.

Seconds later, the Flash landed on the small treed ridge on the riverbank where he had left Green Lantern. Now, Batman lay unconscious beside the Emerald Warrior. The Flash crouched down and ripped the Utility Belt from Batman's waist, searching through its pouches for something that might help.

As he held a small vial of smelling salts under Batman's nose, trying to revive him, the Flash glanced up.

On the summit of the pyramid, the Stone King was now falling victim to the very forces he had released and tried to control.

The body of the behemoth filled with cobalt-blue light, pulsing to twice its already massive size. Streams of white energy spiraled from the Stone King's eyes, exploding savagely in the air around his head. Lightning bolts streaked from out of nowhere, blasting against his body.

Desperately, the Stone King turned this way and that, trying to avoid the energies building up inside him. He writhed and shuddered, silhouetted against a sky that was swirling with every color in the rainbow.

Abruptly, his efforts ceased, as if he had accepted the futility of further resistance. The powers that he had awakened were ready to claim their own.

The Stone King's whole body began to pulse, expanding and contracting in rhythm with his heartbeat. He swayed back and forth for several seconds, blood and sparks gushing in fountains from every orifice. His fingers clawed blindly at the air.

Then, as a final bombardment of lightning bolts burned into it, the body began to disintegrate. Blood and limbs and organs seemed to unravel, as if some unseen hand was pulling them. They spiraled away wildly, spinning with a life of their own, before they faded into a blood-mottled mist that dispersed on the night breeze.

The lightning ceased and the seething skies returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

The silence that followed was louder than any cry of triumph.

"Were . . . were we in time?"

Batman's eyes flickered open. The pain in his shoulder throbbed as if he were being struck by a hammer, and his voice was hoarse and cracked. Every muscle in his battered body begged for relief.

But he was alive. He would recover.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Manhunter, and the Flash were grouped around him.

"We were," Superman informed him. "Wonder Woman and I churned up the planet's core. And whatever you did to the Stone King, it worked. Look–"

Batman was still lying on the grass of the ridge, propped up against the smooth trunk of a century-old beech tree. He breathed carefully, deliberately, trying to ease the pressure on his aching limbs, as his eyes followed Superman's pointing finger.

The pyramid looked as if it had been hit by a bomb. It was little more than a disordered heap of stones, blackened and burned by the incredible energies the Stone King had released. Magma still oozed slowly from several craters, fiery red turning to gray as it ran down the jumbled stones, cooling and hardening.

Otherwise, there was nothing to mark the titanic battle they had all taken part in.

"Green Lantern?" Batman murmured.

The Emerald Warrior stepped forward into Batman's view. His eyes were still a little glazed, and he held one hand to his face, nursing his badly swollen jaw.

"Well, dude, you saved the world." Green Lantern's eyes twinkled behind his mask, until he winced at the pain in his mouth. "And all it cost me was a sock on the jaw!" He looked down at Batman with mock seriousness. "Let me guess, was it something I said?"

"Explanations can wait," Superman insisted. "The Stone King may be beaten, but we still need to deal with the chaos he created!"

Without another word, the Man of Steel soared into the air and powered away at maximum speed. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter followed at once, while the Flash raced off into the distance.

Batman took a final look at the collapsed pyramid, then reached for his communicator to call Alfred.

Cassandra had taken Jenny Ayles to the empath's own apartment, driving through the empty Gotham streets. The partygoers had dispersed when the Stone King spoke, scattering panic-stricken for their homes.

If this really was to
be
the end, they wanted to be with those they loved.

The women sat together on the sofa in Cassandra's living room, holding each other for comfort as they counted down the minutes to midnight.

Seconds before the Stone King's deadline was due to expire, a terrible, unearthly scream echoed around the city. A blinding flash lit up the night sky, brighter than a thousand moons, pouring through the apartment windows, throwing everything inside into stark relief.

Then it disappeared, leaving Cassandra and Jenny blinking at its intensity. There followed a long, deep silence.

"Wh-what was that?" Jenny whispered at last, her voice fearful.

Cassandra didn't answer at once. Her eyes were closed as she allowed her mind to roam free. She felt suddenly lighter, as if a vast burden had been lifted from her shoulders. For the first time since Raymond Marcus came to see her, Cassandra felt like her normal self.

"I think the Stone King is . . . dead," she said slowly, hardly daring to hope she was right. "I can't feel any trace of his presence."

"And Peter?" Jenny asked sharply. "What's happened to Peter?"

But Jenny already knew the answer. She'd known since she saw the light die in Peter's eyes, back at the pyramid, as the Stone King regained its mastery over him. Peter Glaston had made the ultimate sacrifice. He had given his life, for love.

Jenny's eyes filled with tears, and sobs shook her body as she cried for everything she'd lost.

The Earth had escaped destruction, but a high price had been paid. Millions of people had been killed, and millions more injured.

During the following two weeks, the world witnessed a frenzy of super hero activity unmatched in history, as the Justice League and its many allies strove to make good the massive destruction caused by the Stone King.

As soon as Superman managed to restore power to Gotham, Oracle used her expertise to set up a computerized databank of all reported disaster areas. Responding to computer analysis of every location, she was able to assign teams or individual heroes as the different situations required.

Green Lantern's will was tested to the limit, as he used his power ring to rebuild shattered cities in a dozen different countries. Earthquakes had struck hardest in Central and South America, destroying large expanses of land and creating millions of human refugees. The ring brought in countless tons of food and uncontaminated water before its bearer turned to the task of rebuilding what the Stone King had smashed.

Aquaman, King of the Seas, despatched legions of dolphins to assist people who'd been shipwrecked or swept out to sea when tsunamis struck the islands of Japan and Indonesia. Oracle sent the Flash, whose speed enabled him to run on water as if it were dry land, to assist. Later, the Scarlet Speedster would use friction generated by moving his hands at superspeed to seal the holes and cracks in scores of ancient temples.

Using Justice League technology, Plastic Man and the Atom teleported from city to city. The former's flexibility, coupled with the latter's ability to change his size, made them ideal for rescuing survivors trapped underground.

Wonder Woman used her vast powers to tunnel deep into the planet's mantle, where she labored tirelessly for days on end to repair destabilized seismic fault lines.

Superman seemed to be everywhere at once. His super breath cooled and extinguished hundreds of raging fires. He used his strength to hold up sagging buildings, while his heat vision fused and sealed the damaged structures. And his X-ray vision found survivor after survivor who would otherwise have been missed.

Gotham City had escaped with relatively little damage, for which the battle-weary Batman was grateful. He devoted his time to helping Oracle, acting as anchorman for the unprecedented relief efforts she was
so
brilliantly coordinating.

Global recovery would be long and slow, and would take every ounce of aid the super heroes could give. But, in time, humanity would come to terms with its shock and grief.

It was almost three weeks after the catastrophe when the Justice League met up again in the Watchtower.

They teleported in from wherever they were in the world, replying to a summons broadcast by Green Lantern. The Emerald Warrior was already waiting, seated at the large, circular conference table in the operations room.

Wonder Woman and Superman arrived simultaneously, followed instants later by the Flash and J'onn J'onzz.

"What's the problem?" Superman demanded. "Not . . . the Stone King again?"

"No problem at all," Green Lantern assured them as they took their places around the table. He broke off as Batman appeared, then waited for the vigilante to seat himself before announcing, "I figure it's time I got my explanation. Or am I fated never to learn why you and Manhunter ganged up on me that night at the pyramid?"

"It's simple," Batman told him. "You were still hypnotized."

Green Lantern frowned. "But you and Manhunter freed us from the Stone King's influence," he protested. "I snapped out of it, just like the others."

"The others snapped out of it," Batman corrected him. "Not you. I quickly realized that. Although you seemed to be fine, you were in fact still under the spell of a deeper hypnosis."

"I was?" Green Lantern was skeptical. He looked to the other team members, hoping for corroboration.

Wonder Woman shrugged. "We're as much in the dark as you are," she said to Lantern.

The Emerald Warrior glanced back at Batman.

"Okay," he nodded, "lay it on me. How could you tell I was still under the Stone King's influence?"

J'onn J'onzz took up the story.

"Our first indication was the demonic figure you conjured up to carry Cassandra and Jenny Ayles to safety," the Martian began. "It was too out of character–as if it wasn't your will that was powering your ring. That demon was something the Stone King might produce."

"I think we all noticed that," Wonder Woman admitted. "But we merely accepted Lantern's explanation that he didn't have time to think of anything else."

"When Batman asked you to probe the energies with your ring," Manhunter continued, his gaze fixed on Green Lantern, "you claimed you had already done so. But you were imprisoned in the rock, not in control of your own thoughts. You couldn't have used the ring."

Puzzled, Lantern shook his head. "I guess not. But I had this overwhelming impression that I actually
had
used it."

"The final clue"–Batman took up the story again– "was when the Stone King created those bodyguards. He only made five, yet there were six of us present. He must have figured that he didn't need one for you. You were his ace in the hole, his secret weapon to use against us if all else failed."

"You could have been wrong about Lantern," the Flash pointed out. "I noticed these things, too, but it didn't occur to me that there was anything out of the ordinary."

He paused, then added wryly, "Guess that's why Batman's a detective, and I'm not."

"So the Stone King hit me with a double whammy?" Green Lantern shook his head in wonderment. "Incredible!"

"I couldn't tackle you on my own," Batman resumed. "I had to wait till J'onn figured it out, too, and used his telepathic power to negate your personal force field. With the threat you posed negated, we were free to attack."

"So where did the fear gas come from?" Flash wondered. "Or is that something you carry around as a matter of course?"

Batman told them how his early suspicions had led him to visit Scarecrow at Arkham Asylum. "The Stone King tried to use fear against me," the vigilante concluded. "I figured, if I ever got the chance I'd reverse roles. I almost used it when we were attacked after J'onn realized the secret of the pyramid's disappearance. In retrospect, it's a good thing I didn't"

"You mean"–A slow smile spread over Superman's face–"You made the Stone King afraid of–"