|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Adventure Comics - Times Past
Green Arrow & J'Onn J'Onzz
The Devil You Knowby HarveyKent
Chapter 1
"Zowie! Finished!" Snapper Carr cried, as he tapped out the last few characters on the computer keyboard. "The ever-lovin' Justice League's battle with that far-out femme fatale, the Queen Bee, has been entered into the computerized files!" As he hit the Enter key, Snapper theatrically shook out his hands. "Cray-zee! I know these computerized case files make it super-simple for the members to search for data they need on past cases, to help 'em solve future cases, but man! It sure is murder bein' the groovy guy who has to enter all the data!"
"And don't think we don't appreciate it, Snapper," a friendly voice came from the doorway of the Justice League's communications room.
"Huh? Yee-oww!" Snapper cried, leaping out of his chair. "Swingin' satellites, I thought I was alone in here! You're gonna scare a guy out of ten years' growth!"
"Sorry, Snap," Green Arrow said, strolling into the room. J'Onn J'Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, walked in behind the archer, a smile on his green face.
"Keen! The Ace Archer and the Martian Manhunter! What's up, guys? Somebody call an emergency meeting?"
"Nothing like that, Snapper," J'Onn said. "Green Arrow and I just finished a case together, and we stopped by headquarters to record it in the files."
"I doubt the Capsule Master will ever be seen again," Green Arrow said, "but you never know."
"Far flippin' out!" Snapper said, his fingers snapping with his excitement. "You two green guys doing the Superman-Batman thing, becoming a team on your own?"
Green Arrow chuckled. "Not quite, Snap, we just--"
"Calling the Justice League!" A woman's urgent voice came through the JLA communicator, interrupting the archer. "Calling the Justice League! Urgent!"
"Cowabunga!" Snapper cried. "A distress call comin' thru our ever-lovin' communicator!"
"But who is it?" J'Onn asked. "I don't recognize the voice!"
"Calling the Justice League!" the woman's voice continued. "This is a matter of life and death! Please, respond!"
His mouth a grim line, Green Arrow snatched up the microphone. "Green Arrow of the Justice League responding."
Chapter 2
A moment's hesitation, then the woman's voice again. "This is Kalpyrna, on the planet Dryanna," the voice said. "We need the Justice League's help!"
"Dryanna?" Snapper asked. "Wasn't that the planet that star-hopper Carthan was from? The one who kidnapped you last year, G.A.?"
The archer waved Snapper to silence. "What is the nature of your emergency?" he asked. "How can we help?"
"I have no time to explain!" Kalpyrna protested. "If I am found at this communicator, I will be executed instantly! I have only seconds. I must bring you to Dryanna!"
"Bring us to Dryanna?" J'Onn repeated. "But how? We have no ship--"
"Go outside your headquarters and stand one hundred yards from the entrance," Kalpyrna instructed. "Hurry, please! I have only a few moments!"
Green Arrow shot a glance at J'Onn. The Martian nodded simply; Green Arrow returned the nod. "Acknowledged, Kalpyrna. We'll be there!"
"Thank you!" Kalpyrna cried. "Kalpyrna signing off!"
"The Justice League signing off," Green Arrow responded.
"Wailin' wombats, G.A., you're not really gonna go to Dryanna?" Snapper asked. "Like, what if it's a trapperoo?"
"What if it's not?" Green Arrow asked. "If someone really needs our help, we can't take the chance."
"Besides, I think we can handle any trap," J'Onn said. "We have so far, you know."
"True so true, J'Onny Magoo," Snapper agreed, fingers snapping madly.
"Come on; she said she had a small window of time!" Green Arrow cried, sprinting for the entrance to the Justice League's cavern headquarters. He raced outside, just in time to see J'Onn phasing through the cavern wall. Involuntarily, Green Arrow shuddered. It still made him uneasy to see the Martian do that.
"A hundred yards, Kalpyrna said," J'Onn said, taking his stance in the indicated spot. "I wonder How--"
All of a sudden, a crimson beam of light stabbed down out of the sky. It washed over Green Arrow and J'Onn J'Onzz, bathing them in its brilliance. Slowly, like the image on a television screen that has been turned off, the two champions began to fade from sight. When they were gone completely, the crimson beam vanished.
"Far freakin' out!" Snapper cried.
Chapter 3
J'Onn and Green Arrow had no sensation of travel. When the crimson beam stabbed down, all they could see was brilliant red light. When the light turned off, they could see again, instantly. And they saw they were no longer outside JLA headquarters. They were in some kind of laboratory, full of super-sophisticated scientific equipment.
"What?" a female voice gasped. They looked and saw a beautiful young woman with long chestnut-colored hair, garbed in the bizarre accouterments the JLA champions remembered Carthan having worn. "Only two of you? W-where are the other Justice Leaguers? Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman?"
"I'm afraid we were the only two at the headquarters when we received your call," J'Onn said. "Oh, no!" Kalpyrna cried. "This is hopeless! Only two, to free an enslaved world?"
"Kalpyrna," Green Arrow said, "we may only be two, but we are Justice Leaguers. I promise you, we will do everything in our power to help."
Kalpyrna softened, hearing the confidence in the archer's voice. "If only you can!" she gasped. "Oh, you will, won't you? You will free us?"
"We will try," J'Onn said. "What has happened? When Carthan left us, he had gone to wrest the throne of Dryanna from the warlord Xandor. Did he fail? Or has Xandor returned to power?"
Kalpyrna laughed, mirthlessly. "He succeeded!" she declared. "That is why I dared to contact you with the forbidden intergalactic communicator, why I risked the experimental tachyon transport beam to bring you here!"
"I don't understand," Green Arrow said.
"It is very simple," Kalpyrna said. "Carthan sits on the throne of Dryanna--- and he is a worse tyrant than Xandor ever was! It is he I have brought you to dethrone, his oppression I beg you to free my world from!"
Chapter 4
Green Arrow and J'Onn J'Onzz stared at each other a moment, then back at the young woman before them. "Carthan?" J'Onn asked. "He's become a despot?"
"I can't believe that!" Green Arrow declared. "He-- he seemed honorable, heroic!"
"Did he?" Kalpyrna snapped. "He kidnapped you, placed you in a cage with bars of lethal radiation! He knowingly unleashed menaces that could have destroyed your planet!"
"But he knew the Justice League would stop those threats," J'Onn pointed out.
"Did he?" Kalpyrna demanded. "How could he know that? He knew you would try, but how could he know you would succeed? Would you have risked such destruction, for your own ends?"
J'Onn opened his mouth, then closed it again. He had no reply for that.
"I believe you have a saying on your planet," Kalpyrna continued. "Forgive me if I don't get it precisely correct, but isn't it, 'Power corrupts, and total power corrupts totally'?"
"Something like that," Green Arrow frowned, remembering what his comrade and friend Green Lantern had told him about a former Green Lantern named Sinestro.
"What do you want us to do?" J'Onn asked. "How can we help you dethrone Carthan?"
"Carthan is building a super-weapon," Kalpyrna explained. "A weapon so terrible, he will be able to smash planets from a distance, with but the touch of a button! If he is allowed to complete this weapon, he will be unstoppable!"
"Then he can't be allowed to complete it," Green Arrow declared. "Tell us how to stop him!"
"The weapon is being assembled in three separate factories," Kalpyrna explained. "You must destroy those factories, wipe them out completely! Leave no stone standing on stone! That is the only way!"
"What of the workers in these factories?" J'Onn asked.
"The factories are completely automated," Kalpyrna said. "You need not worry about loss of life. But the factories are guarded by powerful defensive devices! You will have to overcome these to destroy the factories!"
"We shall," J'Onn promised.
Kalpyrna gave the two champions from other worlds maps of the locations of the three factories. She watched them leave, J'Onn flying in Dryanna's atmosphere, Green Arrow soaring on a borrowed sky-sled. As the heroes left, the beautiful woman hung her head in shame. "Forgive me," she whispered, a single tear trickling down her cheek.
Chapter 5
As they soared above the roof of the laboratory where they had materialized in Dryanna, J'Onn and Green Arrow flew alongside one another.
"All right, the three factories are located in places called Moloko Valley, the Desert of Madness, and the Plain of the Eternal Fires," Green Arrow said, consulting his copy of the map. "I'd better take that last one, sounds like it would be dangerous to you, J'Onn."
"I know," the Martian champion agreed. "I'll take the Desert of Madness. Then we'll rendezvous at Moloko Valley and take that one out together."
"Agreed. Good luck!" Green Arrow called, veering his sky-sled to the east.
"To us both!" J'Onn called, banking to the west.
In minutes, J'Onn's flight brought him over the desert marked on the map. He saw the low gray cube of the factory building plainly.
"Not much effort taken to hide the factory," J'Onn mused. "I suppose Carthan is sure of his power!" J'Onn streaked down to the desert, landing next to the building. Or so he thought.
"What?" he cried, staring at the empty space. "The building was here; and now it's gone! I couldn't have miscalculated my landing that much--- could I?" J'Onn turned, looking for the building. He saw it behind him. "There it is! Now then..." The green-skinned hero flew across the burning desert to the building and watched it vanish before his eyes.
"What is going on here?" J'Onn asked. He stood in the middle of the desert, feeling the winds whipping the sands about his legs, looking around for the factory building. He saw it appear to the east, then vanish again. It appeared again to the north, then vanished.
"I see why this is called the Desert of Madness!" J'Onn cried. The wind kicked up suddenly, and J'Onn put a hand to his eyes to shield them from the sand. When the wind died back down, he lowered his hand, but noticed something glittering in his palm.
"Ah, I see!" J'Onn said. "This sand is actually tiny crystals, not silicon grains like on Earth! It acts like millions of tiny mirrors, casting reflections of objects that shift as the wind blows the sand! Again, no wonder this is called the Desert of Madness!" J'Onn closed his eyes, and let his Martian telepathic brain send out its signals. There were no human minds in the factory for him to touch, but there was another way to use his mental powers. He sent out probing signals, like the sonar of a bat, until he could "sense" where the building was. Keeping his eyes closed, he flew in that direction until he was struck by a powerful bolt of energy.
Chapter 6
Green Arrow expertly banked the sky-sled over the landscape of Dryanna. "Good thing I took those snowmobile lessons that winter in Aspen," the wealthy crime fighter mused. "This thing isn't at all dissimilar to a snowmobile, in terms of control!" Following the map, Green Arrow soon came upon a low, flat plain of blackened, scorched earth. Geysers of fire leapt high into the sky from vent holes in the seared crust.
"Kind of like the geysers in Yellowstone Park, back on Earth," Green Arrow said, bringing his sky-sled in for a landing. "Except these are flammable gas, containing some chemical that ignites in the atmosphere, like phosphorous!"
Green Arrow got out of the sled about a hundred yards from the low stone building that housed the weapon factory. Got to be careful, Green Arrow thought, as he crept close to the building. Kalpyrna wasn't able to tell us what sort of protective devices guard these factories; no one who's tried to sabotage them has ever returned to tell of it! Got to be constantly on my guard!
The ace archer approached the building cautiously, constantly zigzagging and darting among the flame-geysers, hoping to avoid being spotted by the detection systems. Soon, he was within ten yards of the building, and he dared hope he had escaped detection. Then a brilliant flash of white light blinded him momentarily. He dropped to the ground, keeping low, while his sight returned. When his vision cleared, Green Arrow looked up at the factory building, a building which was now about twelve times larger than it had been before.
"Either that factory's lent new meaning to the term 'high-rise'," Green Arrow joked, to keep his own calm, "or I'm in big trouble!"
Chapter 7
J'Onn tumbled along the crystal sands of the desert, landing like a damaged aircraft. His ribs ached from the energy-blast, but he was not seriously hurt.
"Rather effective defense system," J'Onn mused. His powerful green fingers grasped a rock, lifted it from the desert floor, and threw it toward the factory. Another energy-bolt stabbed out from a hidden gun-turret and obliterated the missile. J'Onn nodded once. He picked up two rocks and hurled them from different directions at once. From two different spots, energy-bolts blasted the rocks into dust.
"Yes, a very effective defense system," J'Onn said. "But perhaps I can turn it to my own advantage!" The Martian champion knelt on the desert, and began rubbing his hands back and forth across the crystal sands, faster and faster.
Unless I'm very much mistaken, J'Onn thought, as he felt the crystal sands melting under the ever-increasing friction of his hands, those beams are some kind of coherent light, not unlike a laser. And if I'm right, well, this should help me deal with them! In minutes, J'Onn's rapidly-moving hands had melted and fused the crystal sands into a giant convex glass shield. Holding it firmly by the edges, J'Onn took to the sky and flew directly at the building.
Again a dazzling energy-bolt shot out; J'Onn tilted the glass shield, caught the bolt, and reflected it back at the building. There was a loud sound like a thunderclap, and the bolt tore a huge hole in the side of the building. Bolts shot out from two other hidden ports; J'Onn swiftly deflected them with his shield, rending more holes in the factory. In moments, the building was a burning mass of ruin.
"That takes care of one factory," J'Onn mused, satisfied. "Now to rendezvous with Green Arrow at Moloko Valley!"
Chapter 8
Green Arrow struggled to his feet, stared at a pebble that was now the size of a boulder to him. "Now I know how the Atom feels!" the brave archer joked, still trying to keep the horror of his situation at bay. But there was no escaping the enormity of it; the factory's defense system had reduced him to a few inches in height!
Suddenly, a geyser of flame spouted from a hole in the scorched ground not ten feet from the now-minuscule archer. The gust of heated wind created by the blast bowled the tiny hero over like a leaf, sent him tumbling head over foot across the terrain. So fast was his flight that he became disoriented, lost all sense of direction. When he finally came to a stop, he shook his head to clear the dizziness, and looked up. The factory appeared normal-sized again!
"Whew!" Green Arrow breathed a sigh of relief. "The shrink-ray's effects must last only as long as I'm in range! But how can I get close enough to do any damage? It'll even shrink my arrows as I fire them!"
The archer paced up and down a few paces, pondering the problem. Then, a solution struck him
"There's one thing the shrink-rays don't seem to affect," he mused. "The ground around it! But maybe the rays just don't go down that far; I'll have to check." Green Arrow picked up a chunk of dirt and hurled it with all his strength. It landed a couple of feet short of the factory wall but did not shrink.
"Pay dirt, you should excuse the pun!" Green Arrow exclaimed. The archer immediately set to work. He broke open the small storage-bulb of his water-jet arrow, and mixed the water with the strange Dryannite soil. Once he had a thick paste of the soil, he coated the heads of his three "blockbuster" exploding arrows with them. One by one he fired them from his bow; as they entered the shrink-ray's field the shafts were reduced to mere toothpicks but the explosive heads were protected by their coating of Dryannite mud. Carried by inertia, they struck the factory in three strategic spots, and exploded with great force, bringing down two of the factory's walls. An experimental arrow-shot confirmed that the explosions had disabled the shrink-ray; Green Arrow finished the job with a barrage of incendiary and acid arrows. In minutes the factory was in ruins.
"Scratch that weapons factory," Green Arrow said, satisfied. "Now to meet J'Onn at Moloko Valley!"
Chapter 9
"My lord Carthan!" a young man in official garb cried, racing into the throne room of the palace.
"What is it, Lanwil?" Carthan demanded. "Have our enemies attacked?"
"I- I do not know, my lord Carthan," Lanwil stammered. "But we have lost contact with two of our weapons factories!"
"Lost contact?" Carthan repeated. "How is that possible?"
"My lord, the only way it could happen would be..." Lanwil paused, fearful of voicing it. "...would be if the factories.. were destroyed."
"Destroyed!" Carthan roared. "My scientists assured me that the automated defenses were impregnable!"
"I am only reporting what the instruments show, my lord," Lanwil said, meekly.
Carthan snorted. "Which factory remains?"
"Moloko Valley, my lord."
"If two factories have been destroyed," Carthan considered, "can the third be far behind? Summon Golbos; have him gather a company of his finest soldiers and meet me on the roof-port in ten dyrs! We leave for Moloko Valley!"
Carthan stormed out of the palace, headed for the armory.
Chapter 10
"Green Arrow!" J'Onn called out to his friend, as he flew through the skies above Moloko Valley. Green Arrow banked the sky-sled closer to his comrade's flying form. "How did you make out at the Plain?"
"Mission accomplished," Green Arrow reported. "And you, at the Desert?"
"The same," J'Onn said. "Now we've just the Valley factory to deal with."
"And there it is below," the hawk-eyed archer said, pointing at a rectangular building of blue-gray stone. "Shall we approach from different sides, or go in together?"
"I say together," J'Onn advised. "The better to handle the defense systems, whatever they are."
"Agreed," Green Arrow nodded. Together the Justice League champions headed for the ground. On foot they approached the factory.
"Let's keep on our guard," Green Arrow suggested. "We have no idea what form the defense systems will take."
"True," J'Onn said. "Our experiences with Dryannite science so far only tells us that anything is possible."
"Their scientists do seem to have wild imaginations, don't they?" Green Arrow agreed. Before J'Onn could comment on that, a brilliant burst of blue light flashed out from the factory. Both champions were temporarily blinded. J'Onn rubbed his knuckles against his closed eyes, trying to clear the sparks. When he opened his eyes, he gaped in shock at what he beheld: a man dressed in an avian-inspired costume, holding a deadly-looking weapon.
The Falcon! J'Onn gasped, recognizing his costumed adversary from Earth.
Chapter 11
Green Arrow shook his head, clearing the colored spots from before his eyes. He looked up, and immediately tensed into battle mode when he beheld a man in a bizarre green and blue costume. The Clock King! Green Arrow thought. Don't know what he's doing so far from Star City, but I'll ask him after I catch him! In a single fluid motion the archer drew an arrow, notched it to his bow, drew the string and fired. The arrow sailed over the Clock King's head, releasing a net of powerful nylon mesh which fell over the villain.
"A net-snare!" J'Onn mused, as the Falcon's weapon fired a projectile which burst into a net over his head. "Pretty tricky, but it won't hold me!" The green-skinned champion's Martian vision blazed forth, burning the nylon fibers to ashes. "And now for the Falcon!" Inhaling deeply, J'Onn aimed a blast of Martian breath at his avian adversary.
"The Clock King has improved his gimmicks!" Green Arrow acknowledged, watching the villain burn away the net with a laser-beam from his wristwatch. Then the clock-hands on the criminal's mask began spinning at an amazing rate, sending a burst of high-velocity wind directly at Green Arrow.
"My lord Carthan," Golbos said, peering into the long-range scanner on the control deck of their airship, "the saboteurs have arrived at the Moloko Valley factory. However, the hypno-ray has done its work, and they are fighting each other!"
"Excellent!" Carthan said, striding up to the device. "Let me see these saboteurs with my own eyes!" Carthan's glee turned to horror as he stared into the scanner. "What? What treachery is this? The Justice League of Earth? Here, on Dryanna? How can this be?"
Chapter 12
As Carthan watched J'Onn J'Onzz and Green Arrow battle, his bewilderment slowly turned to burning rage. "The Justice League!" he growled. "I thought them my friends! They helped me escape imprisonment on their backward planet; helped me triumph over the false ruler Xandor! And now they come to betray me! Well, I will not have it! Destroy them!"
Before his lieutenants could move to obey his command, the great general Golbos pointed out the view port of the ship. "My lord Carthan-- look!"
"What?" Carthan roared. "Who is that?" A second, smaller ship arced into view. From its gun-turrets, jagged bolts of translucent blue lightning stabbed down, washing over J'Onn and Green Arrow. The two champions cried out in shock as the bolts struck them, then looked at each other in surprise.
"Wha-- J'Onn!" Green Arrow cried. "I was-- I mean-- I thought you were the Clock King!"
"And I thought you were my enemy, the Falcon," J'Onn said. "It seems this factory's defense system is some kind of hypnotic device!"
Green Arrow pointed to the sky. "We're under attack! That ship's coming in too close to be doing anything else!"
"I will handle the ship," J'Onn declared, taking to the skies. "You handle the factory!"
"Right," Green Arrow said, drawing an arrow.
"The green-skinned one is attacking!" Golbos cried.
"Ram him!" Carthan demanded. "Drive him into the ground!"
Golbos, without hesitation, moved to obey. J'Onn did not slow down; he rocketed up to meet the ship, grim determination writ on his face. Like two Terran drag-racers playing "chicken", hero and ship zoomed straight for one another. Golbos drove the ship down, down, knowing it would ram the flying hero and destroy him. With a grim smile, J'Onn turned immaterial, and passed through the ship. Golbos fought to turn the ship up in time, but it was no use. The belly of the ship smashed into the hard-packed soil of Moloko Valley, metal twisting with a rending shriek.
"Used up all my blockbuster arrows at the last factory," Green Arrow mused grimly, "but let's see what this one does at a strategic point!"
Calculating the architectural stress points of the factory, Green Arrow let his arrow fly at a lower corner of the building. The arrowhead was filled with a freezing chemical that rendered the stone as brittle as glass. Unable to support its own weight, an entire corner section of the building collapsed, opening up the factory like an eggshell. A barrage of electro-shock arrows then turned the interior of the automated factory into a sparking inferno.
Chapter 13
J'Onn ripped the hatch doors of the ship open like tinfoil. Green Arrow covered Carthan and his lieutenants with drawn arrows. "Come on out, nice and slow," Green Arrow ordered. One by one the Dryannites obeyed, with raised hands. Carthan was the last to exit.
The second ship, the one that had shocked J'Onn and Green Arrow out of their trance, landed nearby. The hatch opened, and a single form exited.
"You?" Carthan gasped in shock. "You betrayed me?"
"I'm sorry, my love," Kalpyrna said, "but I had no choice."
"'My love'?" Green Arrow repeated. "You mean, you and Carthan?"
"I was his betrothed," Kalpyrna explained. "But rule corrupted him. He would have dragged Dryanna into a war ten times more bloody than any ever waged by Xandor! He would stop at nothing less than conquering the entire galaxy! He had to be stopped!"
"You have stopped nothing!" Carthan snapped. "My men are still loyal to me! At the palace--"
"The palace is now held by those who love freedom," Kalpyrna declared. "I had tried to bring the entire Justice League here to dethrone you. When only these two showed up, I sent them to destroy your factories, knowing it would bring you and your soldiers out of the palace. This gave the freedom fighters, of whom I am the leader, ample opportunity to capture the palace."
Holy Cow! Green Arrow thought to himself. This girl's as crafty as Carthan himself! She duped us! Well, maybe that's the norm on Dryanna.
An hour later, Green Arrow and J'Onn J'Onzz stood in the laboratory where they had first materialized on Dryanna.
"My thanks to you both, Justice Leaguers," Kalpyrna said. "You have brought freedom to Dryanna. You will never be forgotten."
"Freedom is more easily won than it is held," J'Onn said, in the tones of one who knows. "See that you are always on your guard against tyranny rising again."
"We shall," Kalpyrna promised. "And now, with the warm thanks of all Dryannites, pleasant journey back to Earth."
Kalpyrna pulled the switch, and the brilliant red light enveloped J'Onn and Green Arrow again. When it faded, they were again outside JLA headquarters.
"That was certainly an adventure," Green Arrow said, as they walked back to the headquarters entrance.
"Indeed," J'Onn said. "And frankly, I've had enough of it for one day. I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal."
But as the two champions entered JLA headquarters, a bizarre sight met their eyes. Their companions, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Atom, watching over five captives: Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Atom!
"Back to normal?" Green Arrow sighed. "Around here, just what would that be?"