Each punch was like thunder clapping in the middle of the street. People nearby were covering their ears and wincing as even they felt the force of the blows.The new Blackrock lay stunned, buried in his shallow crater after the Skull had smashed him into the pavement. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the ringing in his ears. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be on my side?"
Floating above the kid, Joe's contempt-filled gaze came across, even through the purple and blue flames. "Guess again, Sport."
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In a sudden burst of rage, the new Blackrock roared in anger and lunged out of his hole, rocketing into Joe's surprised face. Aw crap. I should'a taken another pill.
The crowd of shoppers stop, frozen in a state of fear. Scarecrow calmly walks through the crowd and heads towards a fountain. He leaps onto the edge staring over the crowd.
"A bomb had just detonated in this city, and what do you people do? Continue with your mundane lives shopping for worthless items. Something is missing from your lives. You may be sad over these events maybe even mad but there is something missing from the equation, fear. You must remember fear and we will help you. We will help this entire city."
"Boss, the bombs are all in place. How much money are we askin'...." Scarecrow threw his radio to the ground. He took out a detonator and held it into the air.
"Remember the hospital Joker? What do you think sets them off? What do you think sets them all off?" Scarecrow pushes the button.
"Soon clouds of toxin will slip through the major parts of Gotham. Let it begin...." Gas start to come out of the doll that walked in.
"lEt ThE reIgN oF TErRoR beGIn!"
They stand around me, smiling. Well, I assume the ugly one is smiling. "So, when did it happen?"
"When we joined forces?"
"No. When did you completely lose your minds?"
Amon's face changes color with fury as he takes a step towards me. Major Force just chuckles and puts an arm out to stop Amon. Fatality looks at me angrily, and the ugly one...just looks ugly.
"About a month after our last fight," MF says.
"I finally escaped from that damned Earth prison. Major Force was sent to capture me."
"And he did."
"No. When I heard why she was in prison, I figured she could help me kill Rayner."
"And I convinced him to help me destroy all the Lanterns, saving Rayner and Stewart for last. Driving them mad with failure."
"And I liked the way she thinks."
"Lovely. But I didn't ask-"
"Meeting Amon was just good fortune."
"Enough of this!"
"No, let him know who his new teammates are."
"Teammates?"
"Amon is the head of a crime syndicate. He hired Arkillo as an enforcer because he was actually able to escape from, and kill, a dozen Lanterns. All without any powers."
"Impressive. But I don't really care-"
"Amon had brought Arkillo to Earth to kill Hal Jordan and take the ring that rightfully should have been his."
"Which gave us the idea. We don't need Jordan's ring. It wouldn't be as effective as, say-"
"My ring."
Fatality extends her hand and opens her palm. And sitting in it is my ring. "You are going to help us duplicate this, and together, we'll bring the Corps down."
"And what if I won't, or can't, duplicate my ring?"
"Then we will travel to Qward. And the weaponers will make us rings. Arkillo will ensure it."
"That's my name, don't wear it out."![]()
In a few seconds, I'm skimming over the water on the bay in San Francisco. Titans Tower looms in the distance as I zip onto dry land and into the Tower, the fridge is the first thing I find.
"Ohh! What have we here? A half empty box of Pizza? Score!"
I take a big peice and speed through the rooms, looking to see if anyone's still here.
"Hello? Anyone here? It's everyone's favorite pubescent speedster with a heart of gold."
I zip into one room, Cassie's sitting on the edge of the bed in her room. I take a bite out the pizza and smile.
"Hey, Cass. What's...."
That's when I notice someone else in the room....someone I haven't seen for awhile. The pizza falls out my mouth as I cough in surprise.
"Ka-Kara?"
"That's my name, don't wear it out."
Not really bothering to say hi, Kara turned her attention back to Cassie.
"...so yeah. My excuse worked, I did get back into Stanford. Makes me wonder how Clark does it though..."
Cassie leaned over and whispered into Kara's ear.
"There's someone here who's happier to see you then me..."
"Oh, I know. But I'm gonna make him sweat."
Cassie just giggled. Just then Kara heard a voice in her ear.
"This is Oracle. I'm transmitting on a frequency that only Kryptonian's can hear right now. Supergirl, if you're listening, we need your assistance in Gotham to clean up a fear toxin mess. Thank you."
"Well, Cassie... *Bart* I have an errand to run. I'll be back." She made her voice sound cold as she said Bart's name, just to let him know that he'd have to win her back.
Supergirl said:Kara took off, through the open rooftop, and minutes later was in Gotham. She saw the gas swirling through the streets, she knew she had her work cut out for her. She swooped down and as she flew through the streets, she inhaled deeply, her superstrong lungs able to compress the gas and allow her to breathe even more of it in. As she did that, even more of the gas just mysteriously dissipated. With lungs full of fear toxin, she flew upwards out of the atmosphere and exhaled the noxious fumes into space. Then she had a pain spike behind her eyeballs, as the fear gas started to have its effect. Her feelings and fears of isolation jumped at her and as the images and sounds of Krypton and Argo exploding filled her head, she lost consciousness, and began to fall, back towards Titans Tower and San Francisco Bay.
"Sir, you shouldn't be in here."
I ignore the nurse as I stand next to Dinah's bed. "Dinah...Dinah, if you can hear me, I really need you to wake up. Just open your eyes and let me no you're going to be ok. The city's in trouble, but I can't leave you like this. Not again."
Alarms start going off in the hallways, and yellow lights flash. Medical personnel start running around, shouting orders. I stop one of the nurses. "What's happening?"
"Emergency lock-down. Something's going on outside and the automated systems kicked in. We're on generators and recycled air."
"What hospital has that kind of protection?"
"A Gotham hospital used to this sort of thing, with special emergency funding from Wayne Enterprises."
"Well, I'll have to thank Mr. Wayne next time I see him." I turn back to Dinah. The threat just became real. People out there are getting hurt, and if it wasn't for these emergency procedures, Dinah could be one of them.
"I've got to go out there and help everyone." I put my hand on hers. "But I'll be here when you need me." With a last pat of her hand, I dash off to the front of the hospital.
"Wait, you can't go out there!"
"I have to," I say to the doctor that tries to stop me.
"You can't. It's some kind of gas attack."
There's a red blur and I'm standing there in an emergency fire mask with an oxygen tank strapped to my back. "Uh, ok. But you can't get out. The doors are sealed. And if you break the seal, the gas will..."
"Don't worry about that." I walk up to the door, and right through it. Not knowing what I'll find outside...
The Joker observed the chaos around him, unphased by the Fear Gas itself - Scarecrow had already learned the hard way that it had no effect on him - but amused by the effects it was having on everyone else. Nothing like carnage to bring a smile to a man's face...
"This is splendid, Scary. But - and I never thought I'd hear myself of all people saying this - what's the point? Unleashing this gas on the city...are you going to take advantage of this situation you've created, or is the widespread terror an end in of itself?"
[BLACKOUT]"Hmm. Your best bet is the Library. I figure they would have a book on the Flash....I hope it's cool if I leave you two alone, I'm gonna patrol around the cites and check out what's happening in the world...."[/BLACKOUT]
With that, I dissapear from Jenni and Wally in a blur, heading West towards the Pacific....
"A point? My dear Joker this is it. The largest experiment I have ever conducted, it's a work of art." The doors of the mall burst open. Men in gas mask holding machine guns come in, hired help.
"Sir, we have all the supplies that you have requested."
"I will be taking advantage of this situation but that is my little secret. If this is a bore for you are free to leave." His men started to bring more and more scarecrow costumes.
"Dress all these people up and let's get out of here"
"Ah....this isn't boring at all. Quite hilarious, actually! If I had time, I'd stick around and enjoy the party a little longer, but I've got places to go, people to kill. I need to take a backseat for now, get some affairs in order. Feel free to take centre-stage, Scarecrow. You too, Face. HA HA! Do you see what I did there?"
The Joker extended his hand.
"Always a pleasure, Dr. Crane."
He gave his fellow criminal genius a conspiratory wink.
"No hand-buzzer today, I assure you..."
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"Wow...That was pretty cold, Bart."
I shrug my shoulders.
"Well, I deserve it. I kinda hurt her when I broke it off."
"Pssh. That's an understatement if I ever heard one."
"Don't remind me..the last thing we need is a PO'd Kryptonian..."
It's been a few minutes since Kara left, that's when the Tower's alarms go off.
Warning! Titan ID # 2385 "Supergirl" falling towards Tower, Estimated time of arrival 30 seconds.
"Uh oh."
"Let's go."
Cassie and I rush out the Tower, she flys up just in time to catch Kara. I look on as she floats in the air with Kara in her arms.
"C'mon, let's get her to the medical bay."
Tim's Titans communicator blazed and blared loudly, looking at the display red letters flashed up spelling out Emergency, Tim's blood ran cold and his finger intsintively jammed the call button.
"Titans this is Robin, My communicators gone nuts, is everything ok in there guys?
he sped toward the bank to avvert the robbery but all the while his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of the worst case situation.
As Ollie tackled him, Roy resorted to the methods that Dinah had taught him. A black belt in Judo, she had taught him to always allow your opponent's momentum to work against him. As Ollie dived, Roy rolled backward, forcing the older man onto his back with Roy's knees in his sides, and Roy's bow across his neck.![]()
Damn, stupid old man. Should've thought he would have know to do that. Hell, I taught him that.
"Good one, kid. You win this one. We need to move onto something else. With the way you been acting all uppity, I think I need to knock you down a couple pegs."
That's about the time I throw my elbow into Roy's nose and spin around, tackling him.
"Let's see if your hand to hand combat is worth a damn."
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I press my communicator and call him back.
"Tim, it's Bart. Cassie and I got it under control. Kara's goning to be okay, Kid Flash out."
I flick off the comm-link as Cassie takes Kara inside the tower and down stairs to the medical bay.
"Lay her on the slab."
Cassie places her on the table while I rig up the equipment to run a diagnostic on her.
"How do you set this thing on Kryptonian?."
"....Move."
Cassie brushes me aside and presses a few buttons, the machine's scanner starts to work and scan Kara.
"There, it's not that hard."
Even though we're both worried about Kara...I...can't...resist.
"That's what she said."