Crisis on Infinite Earths

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Crisis on Infinite Earths Page 6

by Marv Wolfman


  There was no fighting it. She surrendered to its power and now belonged to its master. He would use her to finish his work. But first, Harbinger needed to bring Arion to the satellite. She needed to merge with the others. Then she would blithely smile as the Monitor explained the oncoming crisis to his new warriors. She would stay at his side as he dispatched them across the multiverse.

  No one would ever know of her quiet treachery.

  But once the warriors went off on their missions, once the Monitor was alone with her, only then, in a single, swift and surprising stroke, would Harbinger kill the man she loved.

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  From a great distance, the master watched Harbinger take Arion's hand. An instant later they were gone.

  The end of the multiverse was drawing closer.

  Fourteen

  Iwas no longer in Gotham City but I wasn't sent to Earth-3, either. Ping. And. Pong. I was on the Monitor's satellite, in a narrow, curving corridor that took me to its circular hub, the intersection for more than a dozen other similar passageways. I heard a familiar voice, but because of the curved chamber it could have come from God knows anywhere. I listened as Cyborg, of the Teen Titans spoke, and I ran in the direction of his voice. Wally had introduced me to Vic Stone about a year ago, just after the Titans formed.

  The man had a ready laugh which surprised me, considering how he became a half-man, half-robot super-hero. My "origin " merely knocked me unconscious for about ten minutes. His body had been nearly completely destroyed in a terrible accident. Only the armor his father built for him kept him alive.

  I also heard Jon Stewart, the new Green Lantern. I didn't know him well, but because of my friendship with Hal, I'd always hoped we'd become friends. But now, being dead and all, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen.

  I quickly recognized Solovar's voice. I had visited Gorilla City to seek his counsel more than a dozen times. He was an ape, but he was also one of my closest friends.

  I knew to some the very idea of a talking monkey was humorous, if not impossible to believe. But Solovar was nothing to laugh at. I found his city, lost in the African mountains and hidden from sight by holographic distractions, when I was summoned there years before to help him stop Grodd, a renegade gorilla. Their advanced civilization startled me but I was further humbled when I realized its apes, looking not unlike their Crisis on Infinite Earths

  61

  savage cousins, were at least two steps beyond humans on the evolutionary scale.

  We humans believed we were the supreme intelligence on this planet, but, as usual, we were wrong. Perhaps, if homosapiens ever learned to control its anger toward our fellow man, we could evolve as they had. But in our need to be right, in our desire to be the most powerful, our endless wars have prevented us from reaching that potential. With the exception of Grodd, the apes of Gorilla City had been devoting their lives to peaceful pursuits while we humans were still hunting mastodons with pointed sticks.

  I saw a wall ahead of me. Dead end. I circled back and tried corridor number eight. The voices grew louder again.

  Harbinger was successful and had brought the heroes here to the satellite. I needed to find a way to speak to them as I did with Batman, to let them know what I had seen.

  It turned out eight was golden. I found myself in the Monitor's huge telecommunications chamber.

  They were here, the heroes, my friends, and I recognized many of them, but not all. Some must have come from eras or Earths with which I was not familiar.

  But based on the ones I did know, well, stick a star on the Monitor's chest; this was not a bad selection.

  "Anyone have any idea what this is about?" Superman-2 asked as he scanned the satellite with his X-Ray vision. "Where's the Monitor? Why isn't he here?"

  "Don't give a damn about him." Dr. Polaris growled. "Never would've come if I knew you idiots were going to be here." I wasn't surprised when I saw some of our enemies since the Monitor had told Lyla he needed them as well as the heroes. Well, I thought, this is going to prove interesting.

  Psimon was a matter-former, able to alter atoms and molecules with his mind. He barely looked human; his skull had been removed and his pulsing brain was clearly visible through a translucent cover. Psimon had fought the Teen Titans several times and Wally told me he came with a built-in sneer and an oversized ego that, unfortunately, was backed up with terrible power. It was likely that he'd help us save the Earth—it was his world, too—but I also wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line he changed sides. Psimon was about power, not loyalty. 62

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  Dr. Polaris controlled magnetism and was one of Green Lantern's more dangerous enemies. He was the embodiment of one of those things I never could understand about so many of our foes: if he had thought about it, he could have made more money selling his services than he ever was able to steal as a criminal.

  Killer Frost's name defined her ice-wielding abilities. I'd seen her in action twice, and she was nuttier than a bowl of pistachios. But she was standing there all smiles and gooey eyes, her arm tightly around Firestorm. Every few seconds she'd nuzzle him or give him a quick kiss as she rubbed close. As beautiful as she was, he was clearly uncomfortable. I couldn't blame him. Rule number three: never date anyone crazier than you. The Psycho Pirate stood behind her. His Medusa mask let him control emotions, forcing his targets to do whatever he commanded. He kept staring at her and I finally understood her altered demeanor. The other criminals were dangerous, perhaps even insane, but I was more worried about the Pirate. He was the one I saw in the speed force, debris all around him as he held my empty costume. Did he kill me? And why was Wally with him?

  I ran to Superman-2, older than the Superman of my Earth, and not nearly as powerful. But to all us relative newbies, he was the one who'd seen and done it all.

  I grabbed his arms and struggled to concentrate. I wanted to appear in front of him, if only for a second. But my hands went through his and his eyes were fixed far beyond mine, looking for the Monitor. I shouted to him. "Dammit. Hear me. See me." He didn't and he couldn't.

  Just then, a solid wall of blackness moved into the satellite. The dark mass shimmered then separated into a multitude of individual segments. The Monitor's satellite was being attacked by an army of shadows. Fifteen

  They moved too quickly to count.

  Cyborg ran at them, ramming his sonic blaster onto the end of his robotic arm. "It's a trap." He fired a piercing blast of white sound into the shadows. His mouth dropped when he saw it had no effect on them.

  The shadows slid down from the ceiling and seeped up through the floor and walls. Nothing was stopping them.

  I rushed them, knowing anything I did would be fruitless, but how could the Flash, of all people, stand still?

  I ran through three of them without even a tingle to indicate contact. Why the hell was I here? To see my friends fail? To watch my world and my universe die?

  There had to be more to it than that. I had to believe if the Monitor, or the speed force voices, had the power to keep me here, there was a reason. I'm used to running fast. But now I had to remember patience. I needed to figure out my purpose, then, when I understood it, and could do something about it, I needed to be ready to pounce.

  Pouncing was good. It's what I did best.

  But I stood back and watched the others and tried not to feel as useless as I knew I was.

  The new Green Lantern was already in action. "Let's see what my power ring can do." I wasn't hopeful but I admired his determination. His ring glowed and a green beam of light flashed from it, forming into a long sharp spike that slashed at the nearest shadow like Norman Bates'

  knife through that flimsy shower curtain. But it went through the shadow as if it wasn't there. Janet Leigh should have been so lucky. 64 Marv Wolfman

  I wondered why, if the heroes couldn't touch the shadows, how could the shadows hurt them?

  The damn thing must'v
e read my mind.

  The shadow whirled, its arm—if that's what its appendage could be called—slammed Lantern, and knocked him across the room, into the far wall. Jon's ring flashed again, and created a thick cushion for him to fall into. It still had to hurt.

  "Everyone out of my way." Superman dove at five of the shadows clustered in a group. He attacked with his heat vision but the beams passed harmlessly through them.

  "They're shifting between being corporeal and intangible," Superman shouted.

  He punched one, his fist connecting with air, not flesh. It twisted itself, driving its fist into the Kryptonian's jaw. Superman tumbled back, righted himself in mid-air, then kicked off the far wall and cannoned at it again. Superman was unstoppable.

  "Keep hitting," he shouted. "We have to connect with them while they're solid."

  Too late. The shadow had already turned ethereal again. When Superman fails you know you're in trouble.

  Two shadows pulled at Solovar. I saw the pain on his face as his fur burned at their touch. I ran, leaping at him, moving inside him. For an instant my anger gave substance to my ghostly body. I felt different, the way I had when Batman saw me.

  I existed again. For however long it might last, I was substantial and real.

  I forced my control over his massive arms and thrust them at the shadow.

  Solovar must have sensed me trying to take control. "They're inside me," he shouted. "Get them out." He struggled, trying to exorcise the unwanted presence, thinking it was the shadows, having no way of knowing it was me.

  But I wasn't letting go. I slammed his arms into them again. For an instant we merged. The connection lasted only a second, but that was long enough. The shadows felt me burning them. Turnabout and all that. It felt good.

  They screamed and pulled back, releasing Solovar. He fell to the ground unconscious, and I was thrown from him, no longer in control. Crisis on Infinite Earths

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  Once again I was a ghost.

  I tried to run into Firestorm, to take him over in the same way. His nuclear based powers were potentially the strongest of all the heroes present. Put me in control of that power and these shadows will be toast. But I fell through him, too, unable to touch or affect him. It was my anger and horror at what was being done to my friend that had let me become... real. I was still angry but I couldn't duplicate the intensity of that moment.

  Dawnstar, Blue Beetle, and Cyborg worked as a team. The Legionaire glided, wings pressed behind her, over the shadows. She attacked from above while Cyborg fired white sound at it. Blue Beetle, human and without power, kept a safe distance while blasting them with his more conventional weapons.

  Why had the Monitor brought him here, I wondered. Why didn't he bring the Superman from Earth-1 as well as his Earth-2 counterpart? Why this insane mix and match of abilities instead of recruiting only the most powerful?

  Whatever the Monitor's reasons, it didn't matter now. The heroes, and even some of our enemies, struggled with the shadows, but they couldn't slow them down, much less stop them.

  I saw one of the heroes I didn't know—I think someone called him Obsideon—begin to change form. He turned himself into a living shadow. All right! He was obviously not from Earth-1 or I would have at least heard of him —but shadow against shadow, way to go, man.

  He leaped at one of the shadows and toppled it.

  We finally had a way in.

  Obsideon hit it again, smashing the shadow against the wall. He kept hitting it and the shadow seemed to scream in pain. Three other shadows surrounded him. He shook wildly, spasming out of control. What were they doing to him?

  Superman-2 tried to pull the shadows away from Obsideon, but he still couldn't touch them.

  "Turn solid," he yelled. "Don't stay in shadow form." Suddenly, time seemed to slow to a mind-numbing crawl. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

  Everything: Superman, Obsideon, the shadows, the whole damn satellite, was frozen in one single moment, then another and another. Then, just like that, time stopped.

  Sixteen

  Asecond ago the Psycho Pirate was shaking with fear, but now his spittle hung still in mid-air.

  Cyborg's white sound blaster went silent.

  One of the shadows had its arm raised to plunge into Geo-Force's heart. Were time progressing normally it would kill him in the next instant. But time had stopped.

  Except the Pirate's spittle dripped microscopically downward. The shadows hand moved undetectably closer toward Geo-Force. Superman's fist imperceptibly moved closer to its target. Time hadn't stopped; it slowed down.

  I knew that was impossible. Time couldn't change.

  But I could.

  I panicked. My vision was normally so speeded up I had to concentrate to maintain a balanced rate of vibration. That was the only way the world appeared to me as if it were moving at normal speed. I had to regain control.

  I ran, circling the satellite a thousand times a nanosecond. On my six hundredth plus turn, I remembered Geo-Force. If time caught up to me I'd be too late to help him.

  On my eleven hundredth cycle, I grabbed him and moved his timeimmobilized body out of the shadow's path. It took almost another sixteen hundred jogs to release him, far away from the danger. Five nanoseconds had passed. Five thousand circuits. I was in my element and regaining control.

  I watched as Obsideon's body changed from shadow to flesh and blood. As soon as his leg solidified, I saw Superman yank him safely away from his tormentors.

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  The world was speeding up again.

  Another three nanoseconds passed. My brain stopped racing. My vision was adjusting.

  I was still running when the shadows turned on Superman to seek revenge for stealing Obsideon from them. Superman may no longer be the young man who saved Metropolis from innumerable disasters, but he was still the greatest hero his world ever knew. He pulled himself free and rocketed away from harm.

  I slowed down. The heroes were moving at nearly normal speeds. I had regained control.

  I stopped running when I noticed what our old foes were doing. Psimon altered the air around one of the shadows, turning it to chlorine to poison it. But the shadows didn't need to breathe. Dr. Polaris used his magnetic powers to wrench free some of the room's support beams. He aimed his steel missiles at a cluster of Shadows only to watch them disappear inside.

  Killer Frost froze the air around one of the shadows, attempting to seal it in ice. The shadow easily slipped through her trap. It swat her back and sent her sprawling across the chamber.

  The Monitor's heroes were failing.

  A shadow leaped at Superman-2 and forced its way into his mouth. "I need help," Superman rasped, hammering at it, but it pushed its way deeper inside him.

  The shadows attacked the other heroes as well. None of them remotely as strong as Superman. It would only take seconds before their skin began to burn, and less than a minute before most of them would be dead. As my eyes swept the room, I noticed one of the windows, it's cover irmly in place.

  I felt like an idiot.

  The window cover automatically closed when sensors detected the satellite was turned toward the sun. Without an atmosphere to filter the sun's light, it would burn through nearly anything.

  Light. Shadows withered in the light.

  I saw Superman begin to weaken. Even he could die. I ran to the wall and, forcing my anger to its extreme, pulled at the cover. I raged. My fist went through the metal a hundred times, but I knew I couldn't stop.

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  Marv Wolfman

  I kept hitting the wall. Faster and harder. I saw Superman collapse, his skin blistered.

  I felt the steel mash against my knuckles.

  I was solid.

  Only for a second.

  That was time enough for me.

  I pulled at the cover, ripping it off. Light streamed into the room. I ran to the next window to slide its cover off as well.

  As
I reached for that window I knew it was already too late. I was a ghost again.

  But light filled the room with a blazing intensity. Outside the satellite, in the distance, I saw a small star, its blinding nimbus burned through the shadows like a pitchfork of hellfire.

  The shadows screamed. The light, the pure, unfiltered starlight, was burning them.

  They fled, disappearing into light, vanishing to only God knows where. Maybe I should be ashamed for thinking it, but I hoped it was to hell. Superman and the others settled down.

  "What was that?" Geo-Force asked to no one in particular.

  "Thank God." Dr. Polaris was catching his breath, his eyes still wide and fearful as if he had seen true evil for the first time in his miserable life. Good for him. Maybe, when this was over, if it ever was, he'd change his tune.

  Cyborg was at Obsideon's side, helping him to his feet. "You okay, man?"

  "Been better." Obsideon smiled weakly as he took Cyborg's hand.

  "Same here. Yeah," Cyborg's left leg, what little of it could be seen between the steel bands bracing his still-human thigh, was bleeding. Firebrand kneeled at his side. "Don't scream. There's gonna be some pain." She ran her hand over his leg, cauterizing his wound. "There shouldn't be any infection." In her civilian identity, Danette Reilly was a nurse.

  "Good." The voice was soft but still broke through the confused murmur.

  "They won't be coming back. I'm sorry for the delay." They turned to see him enter the room.

  "But thank you all for coming."

  Blue Beetle, standing next to Firestorm and Killer Frost, pushed his way to the front. "Yeah, yeah, blah, blah." I had never met the Beetle before but Crisis on Infinite Earths

  69

  it was obvious patience wasn't his long suit. "Screw the thank yous, pal. Where exactly is here, and, even more important, who the hell are you?" he demanded.

  Monitor nodded. "Of course. Information and introductions before the assignments. Where are you? You're on my satellite, located in a dimension that exists between all others. And before you ask, no, that's not to prevent you from escaping."

 

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