JLA #2
Know Fear - Part Two
Frightful Touch
By
They are two-of-a-kind, unarguably brilliant, masters of the mind and human intent, defenders of the oft-challenged notion of Justice. They have fought the good fight, both privately and publicly, alone and aided. But their similarities end there, for each is decidedly his own man. One is a hunter of men, an alien statesman marooned on Earth long ago, during the last gasp of his homeland. The other is an urban legend, a whispered myth of justified wrath, the fierce hand of the law that forces a city rife with crime to jump at their shadows.
"The house is clean. No apparent signs of a struggle or forced entry. No outlandish upheaval in the lifestyle indicated in his bank accounts or employment records. He wasn't the type that went looking for trouble." Batman says, the dark edges of his cape gathered tightly around him. He observes J'onn closely, watching the Martian examine the crime scene. "Oracle's records indicate that this man has never set foot on a plane."
"Not surprising. Many humans harbor extreme emotional distress of heights and of the uncertainties of aeronautical travel. It would be remiss of us not to connect that reluctance with a subconscious fear, which may indicate his motivation in the airport incident." The Martian Manhunter replies, rolling random objects in his hands, and peering at its surfaces with his ruby eyes.
"Careful, J'onn. My tenuous association with the GCPD does not provide for disturbing crime scenes."
"Worry not, Batman. I have altered the physical structures of my hands such that all textured surfaces have been smoothed out, and my pores have been closed to avoid the secretion of chemicals that might taint the forensic properties of any evidence remaining at the scene. However, physical contact is required in order to extract any telemetric impressions from the objects."
"Well, feel free to pursue whatever metaphysical means you feel necessary, but I still think that if there's anything to be found, it will be quantified and logical." Batman replies, his hand sweeping the side of his cowl and lowering specialized lenses over his eyes. "Interesting. Someone's gone to a great length to kill our trail."
"What leads you to that extrapolation?"
"Three days this apartment has been uninhabited. Police traffic has been minor, mostly limited to Montoya and her partner. Floors are a hardwood composite coated in a typical household varnish, yet completely clear of dust and normal footprint residue, even when examined under black light spectragraphics. We're standing in a completely sterilized environment."
"Psionically, as well. Nothing has produced even the most minor semblance of postcognitive recognition, except for this one object." J'onn replies, raising a snowglobe up to eye level. "Intriguing. Do you recognize the building inside?"
"Yes, it's a replica of the Waynetech building." Batman says without a moment's hesitation. Churning the thought through his mind, he wonders where all this is leading. "What else do you see?"
"I thought you did not believe."
"I may not prescribe to the methodology, but I trust you implicitely, J'onn. Plus, any trail is better than a dead trail. Go ahead."
"We were expected, the both of us. Our adversary seeks to disarm you by removing your scientific reason, while simultaneously stripping the echoes of the past from this room, and thus, he left us only one message: Know Fear."
New York City. Times Square. The scene is utter panic, the frightened masses streaming through the streets in search of safe harbor, and finding nothing but walls of those that share their thoughts. Minutes earlier, a man decided to hold the busiest intersection on the east coast hostage with a homemade bomb, spouting madness about prison camps for immigrants. Now, chaos reigns supreme, the citizens and tourists seek somewhere to hide, and even the strongest may not survive.
It is within these moments that she considers the futility of her life's mission, questions what she has accomplished in the years since she first came to Man's World. She sees the the thoughtless violence and the selfish ignorance of the suffering in favor of self-preservation, and she wonders if there is yet hope for mankind. But is is also within these moments that she realizes that fight for peace begins with the hopeful heart, and if she, as Wonder Woman, has not the courage to dream, what hope is there for the rest of the world?
"Great Hera, be with me," she whispers, changing the arc of her flight and swooping down toward the ground. Reaching forward, she sweeps the child into her arms, lifting the young girl from the street. Hushing the girl's frightened sighs as she sets the child down upon safer ground, Diana says, "Rest now, child. The gods have smiled upon you today." With a smile, Diana lifts back into the sky, surveying the scene below and crying out over comm-link. "Lantern, I need you to develop a solution to this, quickly. We need some way to calm these people, and right now, Flash and I are resigned to ineffectual crowd control."
From afar, she can hear him sigh, the burden of expectation ringing blatantly his expulsion of breath. Within seconds, he comes back to her, saying, "I'll do what I can, Wonder Woman, but there's a lot of people down there, and I still can't believe this is all being caused by my landlord. It's really throwing my concentration. What if I make matters worse?"
"When you believe, others will follow. The League trusts you, Kyle. Do what needs to be done."
The emerald glow erupts against the sky, changing the world from blue to green, until suddenly, the light coalesces into individual beacons against the night sky. Glancing around, Diana recognizes the many religious symbols - the Holy Cross, the Star of David, the statue of Buddha, the Shinto gateway, the Ankh, the pentagram - and she smiles. Slowly, the crowd begins to disperse, individuals progressing toward the signs of their faith, leaving a few stragglers in the midst of the frey.
"It's all I could think of on short notice," Lantern replies, shrugging as sweat streaming down his face as he concentrates on maintaining the separate projections of his ring. "Personally, I almost went with the golden arches, but didn't want to get in trouble for trademark infringement."
"What you have done is brilliant, Kyle. Faith is synonymous with protection, offering hope for those who falter with weak heart. How sad that there are those who have nothing to believe in," Diana says, turning her attention to the streak of crimson that rockets between the remainder of the people. "Wallace, I will tend to the masses if you wouldn't mind fetching the explosive..."
The Flash turns his path in between electronic impulses, racing toward the man responsible for inciting the riot. Before the man can blink, Wally lifts the bomb from the man's handing, cradling it gently and concentrating on maintaining his vibratory frequency so that he doesn't set off the bomb by mistake as he races away. Sliding to a slow halt in the Explosives Intervention workshop of the NYPD, Wally calls back to his teammates, "Hey Princess, chalk up a victory for the J-team. I'm going to deactivate this bomb and meet up with you shortly. Nice job, green jeans."
She finds the man fuming, noticing the absense of his weapon. As she approaches, he rushes her, and she stops him with a quick thrust of her palm, sending him backward to the ground. Her scowl is enough to keep him seated upon the pavement. Unclipping the lasso from her belt harness and offering him a chance to grip its coil, Diana calmly says, "There is nothing to fear. Come, see the truth."
"The majority of Gotham's public records were lost during the No Man's Land, no thanks to Bane and the underhanded work he pulled for Luthor by destroying the City Records office. Needless to say, after Nightwing's resecuring of Blackgate Prison, most of the prisoners there became ghosts in the system, lost without a trace. Including the infamous Dr. Crane," She thinks across the telepathic bond, still trying to reconcile her feelings concerning mind-to-mind communication, but comfortable in the fact that she has yet to stand among the giants. "Unfortunately, our prime suspect was last seen as part of the general population of Blackgate. Sorry, guys."
"You've done your best Barbara. We can ask for nothing more." J'onn replies, attempting to lend some moral support to his teammate. "And yet something still troubles me. We assume that, due to the nature of the attacks and their codependence upon the victim's fears, that the man known as Scarecrow is somehow involved in the attack. However, what we have not examined is the transference of the agent. Crane's criminal record does not lend itself to interstate travel."
"Well, Scarecrow is a chemist, and given access to the right materials, it's conceivable that he could create something that could interact with the victim's biochemical make-up, something that could be passed from victim to victim. Perhaps by pheremone..." Batman says, verbally running through the possibilities.
"....which brings us to suspect number two. Poison Ivy, also with current whereabouts unknown." Oracle interjects, sighing loudly from across Gotham. "However, we have one female victim, which makes Ivy's involvement seem unlikely since pheremones exact an effect on the sexual drive of the opposite gender, and I think we can safely say that the two would not work together in any venture."
J'onn thinks on this for a moment, trying to categorize those he knows to be involved in bichemical engineering practices, and then ponders aloud, "What of the possibility that we are facing an unknown party, perhaps with the categorical knowledge of our abilities and the desire to stray our viewpoints on this matter. Someone with acute knowledge on our tactics as well as our enemies. Prometheus comes to mind, but he is currently in a vegetative state after Batman's progressive disciplinary measures. Luthor and Ra's Al Ghul also seem to be possibilities, although remote."
"Luthor's attentions are absorbed in the political arena, with notions unknown, outside the leverage he gained by rebuilding Gotham. Ra's is quiet, notably, since his attempt to release a virus in Gotham. My sources place him in the Middle East," Batman adds, turning back to the window. "I'm going to scour the streets and see if there's any underlying talk. I'll reach you if I hear anything."
J'onn's morphogenic structure begins to alter and change, shifting from the green skin of his native form to the duster and wrinkled clothes of his alter-persona, John Jones. "Oracle, I'll maintain contact with you at all times. In the meantime, if you could peruse the files and locate any references to biological contaminent research by government forces. I have a feeling our adversary may have the inside track on a number of situations."
With the salty spray of the ocean water splattering him from all sides, he breathes a sigh of relief, basking in the enjoyment of his kingdom for the briefest of moments. It's a feeling he can little describe, but one that he would not trade for the world. Unfortunately, it's a sensation that can not be enjoyed for long, as he rides atop the back of the whale across the cresting waves of the Pacific Ocean. Narrowing his eyes and extending his line of sight, he spies his destination and says into his communicator, "Superman, our troubles lies ahead. Get those people our of my way while I deal with this. I don't need their boats polluting my waters anymore than they already have."
Then, Aquaman watches the water curtail around him, as a depression forms in the top of the waves, allowing a streak of red and blue to skim across the surface at a super-speed. Smiling slightly, the king of the oceans takes note of his teammate's entrance, then leans down to the whale, placing his hands upon the slick exterior and telepathically communicating a farewell to the creature before submersing himself into the salty water.
Ahead, the colors coalesce and take shape, revealing the statuesque form of the Man of Steel. Crossing his arms across his chest and hovering above the surface of the water, he looks down upon the gathering of fishermen, Coast Guard, and Greenpeace boats, and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to need you to move your motorcraft out of the general vicinity for a moment, so that my colleague can work. With his assistance, the situation should be over soon. As always we thank you for your efforts and concerns."
Beneath the surface, the light intensity diminishes, and Aquaman quickly adjusts to the darkened depths. He can see the fish rising from below, rocketing toward the surface at their quickest speeds. Extending the reaches of his aquatic empathic abilities, he suggests, "My friends, you're rushing to your deaths by climbing to the surface. Stop where you are! What scares you so?"
Above the water, Superman maintains a constant, recursive trajectory arc along the coastline, fighting to keep the sea creatures from stranding themselves on the land. Breathing in, he exhales a quick blast of air toward the shore, lifting a curve of sand up and then blasting it with his heat vision, causing the sand to curl into a glass shield against the shore. Speaking loudly into the comm unit, he says, "Arthur, I can't keep this up forever. Eventually, these creatures will start dying off sheerly because of the overcrowding up here."
Feeling quite exhausted, Aquaman retorts, "I have it under control Superman, but the strain is killing me telepathically. Something made them believe that their home was no longer safe, that the oceans were no longer safe, and their fear is hard to overcome. I think it might be something in the water, but I can't be sure. They sought escape by leaving the water. What has the power to control all this?"
Concentrating his vision into the microscopic, Superman nods, saying, "There is a contaminent in the water, but it looks to be wholly-organic. Plant based, judging by the visible cell walls. We'll take a sample back to the Watchtower for evaluation. Superman to Tower. Two for transport."
Beneath the cover of night, J'onn moves against the broken walls of the island prison, morphing the pigments in his skin to blend with the shadow-covered landscape. The rubble crunches beneath his feet as he climbs the embankment to the top of the outer wall and then flies over the top, setting down gently in the courtyard beyond.
Oracle had said that many of the criminals in Blackgate mysteriously disappeared following No Man's Land, and that left a number of uncertainties as to why they had disappeared, especially if Blackgate was still an effective prison after the earthquake that shook Gotham. J'onn rolls these thoughts around as he transitions himself into an intangible state and sinks into the floor, passing between the atoms of the cement and concentrating his vision until he finds an open chamber in the basements.
His mind drifts out psionically, searching for empathic impressions among the wreckage. He gathers impressions of a prison policed by criminals and outlaw vigilantes. A riot with Nightwing entangled in the middle. A number of the Batman's rogues gallery present, but mostly unable to escape. So how then did they move from their prison cell? Were they freed amidst the Joker's final assault on Gotham? No, not likely. Something else was at work here.
"Curious, I had expected the Bat." A voice calls from behind him, forcing J'onn to spin. A man speaks from the shadows, his face obscurred by night as he melts around the walls of the cell and addresses J'onn. "Oh well, I suppose one detective is as good as the next. However, I'm sure you didn't expect to find me, did you, Manhunter?"
"No, I must admit my surprise at finding you here, but the madness suits you well," J'onn replies, billowing the cape out behind him and preparing himself for battle.
"I left all the clues for him, allowed the Bat to track me appropriately from the incident in his city. But I had hoped to capture you with the others, unaware in your little fortress in the sky. But it matters little. I'll still have my fun. And you sir, you will know fear."
Next Issue: What's this about a trap in the WatchTower? What happenes when the paranoia events escalate? What history does J'onn share with his adversary, and just who is it? Stay tuned for the next piece of Know Fear, and be prepared as the JLA is thrown for a loop it may not recover from.