Blackhawk Island

[overcame_fear]

It's been a long, hard fight, but the heroes of Earth have rallied against the alien invasion, and step-by-hardfought-step, they've been liberating their home.

Hal, for one, has really had enough of yellow eyebeams.

But there's no time for that now. The Justice League is needed out at Blackhawk Island, and that's exactly where they're going.

Comments

[raptorcanaria]

Bathed in the green of Hal's ring, Dinah won't say she isn't glad for the respite. She's lost track of how many straight hours she's been fighting, but every muscle in her body is reminding her that it's been too long. Still, it would be nice if this respite had come from victory, rather than Snapper calling into their communicators that they were in even worse trouble than a full-on large scale invasion.

She'll take small victories, however. Like seeing the entire Justice Society waiting for them on the island. Her mother's broken arm is in a sling, and Charlie's broken goggles have left him completely blind, but they're OK. And Fate, of course, is working hard at keeping the captured aliens contained.

"Answer me this," her Mom is saying as they arrive, "even if we do manage to capture all the aliens, what will we do with them?"

[overcame_fear]

A damn good question, Hal thinks when he hears her say it. It's been in the back of his mind for a while now. How could it not be, considering he's a Green Lantern, and spends so much of his time arresting alien felons? But even Oa doesn't usually have as many perps to deal with at once as Earth's heroes are coping with now.

But Snapper's news is even worse than what he expected. Bad enough to have this Vandal Savage causing trouble, but that he would have a weapon that could do as much damage to the Justice League as the aliens....

"That's all we need," Aquaman says, echoing Hal's thoughts. "A loose cannon gunning for us."

[raptorcanaria]

And of all people Vandal Savage. He used to fight the Justice Society, and he's showing no sign of tiring. J'Onn suggests, wisely, that it'd be best to find him before he finds them. But...

"Too late. Was someone mentioning a weapon."

The flash in which Savage appears is bright and white, just two feet above the ground, leveling a giant silver gun at them. There's no time to be worried, though, because immediately Hal has him in green chains.

"Did you really think we'd let you get this close without taking you down?"

"No," Savage remarks. "Which is wh I took precautions."

As he speaks, his face morphs, seems to melt, and Dinah gasps, out of pure surprise.

"Clayface?"

Didn't they take him down last month? Prisons these days.

[overcame_fear]

Savage's voice continues to speak. "Much to his discomfort, yes. Call it a bold new experiment in neural implants. I've seized the poor brute's mind, allowing me remote control over his shapes and his senses."

Savage goes on to describe his 'gift' to them, the Appellaxian weapon, which he describes as a broadcast device keyed to their own brainwaves, and which Savage has modified and amplified so that, when turned on, it will "turn their minds into gravel."

[raptorcanaria]

"And kill us, too, in the process," Arthur suggests.

"Guaranteed," Dinah agrees, shortly. "Savage would never pass up an opportunity like that. This is absolutely a trick." She hopes this doesn't need saying; never take a gift from Vandal Savage.

J'Onn, meanwhile, is inspecting the gun with Snapper. "I don't think so. It..."

Whatever he has to say, is interrupting by a cry from above them. Uncle Kent - Dr. Fate - buckles in the air under the effort of trying to keep the aliens contained.

"Fate!" Dinah cries out, at the exact same moment as her mother.

[overcame_fear]

"He's fading!" Flash calls out. "Shore up the barricades!"

"I'm on it," Hal replies, but he can't complain when a backup squad forms behind him and Fate of Sargon, Dr. Occult, Zatara, and....whoa, the Spectre. Not Hal's usual crowd, that's for sure.

But even with all the chaos around him, he can't miss J'Onn's explanation of the weapon as everything Savage claimed it to be. "It is, however," the Martian adds, "genocide in a box. Can we truly consider using it?"

"How can you not?" Vandal gloats, and Hal has to grit his teeth as Savage lays it on thick. "How much longer can you hold your own against them?"

As long as it takes, Hal thinks, You--uh oh.

[raptorcanaria]

"Oh my god," Dinah says, watching from the ground. "They're losing it!"

KRA-KOOM!!

In front of her, the aliens pour out into the sky above the island, and the fliers and magic users are hurtled back, no longer reinforcing a prison but back fighting invaders.

They've been fighting so long.

"Pull the switch!" Savage yells through Clayface. "Think about what they have done and will do to you and your loved ones! For the mercy and the safety of Earth - pull the switch!"

"Is that what we have to do?" Dinah has never seen Barry so unsure about a decision. "We don't kill - "

"This isn't murder!" Arthur snaps back, even above the fighting there's no mistaking this shout for a mumble. "This is war! What choice do we have? We're all but beaten!"

Dinah balls her hands into fists in fury.

"Don't think that way! This is what Savage wants us to do! He wants us to scuttle our principles! He's won if he tempts us down to our level!"

But do they have a choice?

[overcame_fear]

"So we let Savage call our play," Hal frowns. "Just remember, if he does it once, he'll find a way to do it again."

"I'm not worried about, 'Again!' Flash retorts. "In about ten seconds, there's never going to *be* an 'again'!"

A strange purple light erupts from the weapon. While the others have been talking, J'Onn has picked it up, and with a cry of pain, he fires it at the Appellaxians!

[raptorcanaria]

"J'Onn!" Arthur cries in surprise, as they start towards him. "I can't believe he of all of us would..."

"He didn't!" Snapper stands firmly between them and J'Onn, his hands out to hold back the entire Justice League. "Stand back! Let he finish what he started!"

What he started?

While they were arguing, J'Onn was working on the gun. Changing it. And all the rest of them did is yell at each other.

[overcame_fear]

"He's using his telepathy to screen the broadcast so it's agonizing but not lethal," Snapper explains. "Except maybe to him if he can't hold out!"

"Then he's bought us a chance!" Hal shouts. "Spectre, spread the word! Tell the others to gather the remaining aliens here--now!"

Amazingly enough, the Spectre goes to do just that.

[raptorcanaria]

"Fate!" Dinah says, turning without thinking to give orders to her Uncle. "Scan the location of Appellax from an alien's mind. Help the magicians target a dimensional tunnel of some sort! Go!"

They have more time; they just need to send them home.

But the time they have is getting shorter by the second. J'Onn cries out in anguished pain, his head pulsing in large bubbles, like something is boiling under his scalp.

...she wishes she hadn't thought that.

"You can make it!" Barry is saying, but Arthur contradicts him.

"No he can't. Even with my limited telepathy, I can hear his mind breaking."

[overcame_fear]

"Then what do we do?" Flash asks.

"What we always do," Aquaman says, reaching out to J'Onn. "We work as a team."

The air begins to crackle as the magicians unleash enough mystical power to break open the sky itself. A bass roar fills the air as a great wind picks up, circling around the tunnel opening above them.

[raptorcanaria]

The wind knocks Dinah heavily in the side, and she stumbles on her heels, trying to keep standing. The aliens around them are all screaming, their hands on their heads with pain, but she has no eyes for anyone except J'Onn and his agony.

And Arthur.

He walks right up to the screaming Martian and puts his hands on his teammates shoulders. This time he doesn't raise his voice above his natural underwater inside-voice, but Dinah hears him.

"I'm here, J'Onn my friend. Open your mind to me."

[overcame_fear]

"Open your mind," he repeats, "To us."

Now Hal is there too, putting his hands on both Aquaman's and J'Onn's shoulders as his jaw clenches from pain.

But he doesn't let go.

[raptorcanaria]

Then Dinah gets it - she gets what they can do. J'Onn's the telepath, Arthur has something similar he uses to talk to fish, but Hal, Barry and she, they can all help to. They can lend their minds to take the strain off J'Onn.

She and Barry get it at the same time, and join in, hands on their friends' shoulders.

It's like being punched by Ted Grant in the back of the head.
And then it's like having her entire skull crushed in the hands of Gorilla Grodd.

A world full of agonising pain, and it's only the five of them stopping an entire race from dying from it.

There are tears streaming down her face.

"Is it working? God, tell me it's working!"

[overcame_fear]

"It...is," J'Onn gasps. "I can... see victories. Hold...steady."

And, in fact, all around them there are great roars of rage and shrieks of dismay coming from the Appellaxians as they clutch their heads, fall to the ground, and stumble around helplessly.

"NO! WE HAVE WON!! WE HAVE ALREADY WON!!"

But above them all, that great tunnel in the sky is starting to open, revealing a vast expanse of stars.