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#4

By Tony Thornley & Ed Ainsworth

 

“ Savage Castle ahead, Rick.” Brainwave said, looking almost confused as his lips moved. He much preferred talking with his mind these days, moving his mouth was almost a chore. He let out a filtered sigh as his sentence finished, and directed his energies back to scouring the area of unusual mental patterns.

Next to Brainwave sat Power Girl. The anger and hatred for Savage literally fumed from her, if Brainwave wasn't already telepathic, he'd have known Karen was angry from the way her forehead knitted together. She was strangely attractive, almost vulnerable when she was angry, a quality that Brainwave took a great deal of interest in, specifically when Karen displayed it.

Behind him sat Rick and the new Firebrand. They'd been growing closer together since she joined the team. Rick was sitting with his hand over the top of hers; they were both leaned towards each other, speaking in silence almost. Their tones are hushed; romances within super-teams rarely worked, but they could learn from Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle: marriage and love can sometimes work within the team environment.

“Castle Savage? Isn't this a bit…beyond me, Rick?” Firebrand questioned quietly.

“Beyond you?” He asked rhetorically. “You're part of the JSA now, Firebrand. You're part of something that has no limitations, and no upper levels. You're on the team with a Five Dimensional Entity, and a man made out of Green Energy.”

“But I don't have anywhere near the power they do, or even you do, Rick. I'm still learning about my powers.” She looked down at her hands, which faintly glowed in the dim light.

Rick tilted her head up to look at him, by nestling his finger and thumb under her chin.

“We both carry legacies. I know how hard it is to carry a legacy when you let it control your actions. My father was a superhero who supposedly inspired Superman and the JLA with the rest of the JSA. A man who gave up his life to fight the same battle again and again for eternity with Extant, a man who set up a company through me, battled against an addiction I could never handle, and created a host of time traveling Androids. How could I ever compare to him, even fractionally?”

“..But, you…Rick…” Firebrand started, her eyes swelling.

“Wait, I'm not finished.” He said softly, holding a finger to her lips.

“I have an addictive personality, that's why I fell for the addiction to Miraclo, but it also means that I'd never give up on this lifestyle. Once I stopped comparing myself to my father, life was a lot easier to deal with. Someone once said “What man ever truly knows his father?””

“But what does that mean to me, Rick?”

“It means you'll find your place, and you won't be stuck in the legacy of the two Firebrands who were part of the All-Star Squadron, or the Firebrand who most recently popped up. You'll make your own legacy, and instead of living in someone's shadow, you'll cast your own.”

She smiled gently at him, and slid her fingertips between his.

Shade sat in silence, his hands resting on the cane in front of him. He need not say anything; it had been a long time since he had felt the need to talk for the sake of talking. Silence was a good friend of his and he reveled in the opportunity to partake in some.

“Rick, sorry to break up the foreplay in the back there, but I'm picking up a Checkmate vessel. Or something that resembles it. And Thunderbolt is traveling outside.”

“At least we know where Shade and Hawkgirl are now. Take us down, Brainwave.”

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“As joyous an occasion as it was discussing old themes and stories with you remnants of societies past, I'm afraid the new JSA has arrived and I simply must prepare myself to face them. Adieu.”

The hologram of Savage dissipated leaving the older JSA team sitting in silence, Carter virtually vibrating with Rage, whilst Ted looked mildly amused with himself.

“Well Done, Ted. You succeeded in annoying him sufficiently so that he won't even tell us his plan,” Carter barked.

“Well, if I can't sucker punch him, I might as well give him something, right?” Ted replied.

“He won't even tell us where Kendra is, you idiot. She could be dead for all I know.”

“Surely, you'd know though, right? ‘Cause you and her got that reincarnation thing goin' for ya?”

“My dear fellows now is not the time for wittering and bickering. Now is the time for some…action, yes?” A disembodied voice filed the dungeon, the shadows morphing and twisting, revealing where Shade stood, leaning on his cane, and top hat in his other hand, taking a deep bow.

“Friends, Romans, Country-Men! Lend me your ears! Ah, nobody commands respect and audience more than Julius Caesar, No? And Look, Hawkman. I brought a friend.”

Kendra's mace clattered on the ground, as the Shadows erupted with her first and only wing beat. She hurtled through the air and into the arms of her one true love, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground. For the first time in a long while, Carter smiled and kissed his love.

“'Bout time you got here, Kendra. Dunno why you brought him though.” Ted leveled a finger at the Shade, and narrowed his eyes, only to have his view obscured by the shadows lowering Alan Scott's wooden cage, and tearing it to pieces, leaving the emaciated, dehydrated and hurting Alan on the floor.

“Alan!” Pieter Cross, alias, Dr Mid-Nite charged across the room and placed his fingertips against Alan's neck.

“Damnit. I can't help him; he's not even human anymore. He's just pure willpower. Alan? Alan can you hear me?”

Mr. Terrific steps off the wall and out of his silence, kneeling next to Alan and whispering into his ear. Green Lantern's eyes snapped open, Green energy blaring out across the room, filling it with an iridescent green glow, enough to make Shade recoil.

“Get the others to safety, Shade. I have business to attend too.” Alan rose to his feet, as the Castle shook violently.

“What was that?” asked Terrific.

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The Suicide Squad had entered the building, shortly followed by the JSA. Atom Smasher shared a look with Hourman, as they sped to their separate destinations. The Suicide Squad were to take the Atomic Bomb; the JSA to rescue the other members and remove Savage from the playing field.

The entry to the castle had been provided by Sand, whose massive silicate form had smashed through the outer defenses and collapsed an entire section of the wall. Hourman sped up the castle steps, closely followed by his team, fighting their way through Kobra soldiers, as laser blasts, photon bombs, knifes and bullets tore their way through the teams clothing and into their armor.

Hourman stopped, as Karen hit a wall dead on. She bounced off it and landed on Firebrand. “OW! Damnit, what was that?”

“It's Starheart energy, Power Girl. It's Alan.” Rick said calmly, as the Green Lantern burst through the rock and stone mortar of the castle, ascending towards Savages position.

“I don't think we're needed here, JSA. Let's help the Squad.”

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“Ah. Scott. I was wondering which of you would exact your revenge, honestly, I thought it would be Hawkman, you were always a powerful adversary but yo…ARGH!”

Savage was thrown off his feet, and pinned to the wall by Green Energy spike through his hands and feet.

“I'm tired of this shadow-play, Savage. There have always been rules, the bad guys play hard the good guys turn up and stop you. I'm so SICK of you, Savage. You and your SICK games.”

“Sick, Alan? SICK! I AM VANDAL SAVAGE, I AM THE IMMORTAL CAVEMAN! I INVENTED AND CONTROLLED THE WORLD FOR A MILLENIA!” With a sickening twist of flesh and of grim determination, Savage pulled his now torn and twisted hands from the wall, and landed on his haunches.

“You've gone wrong somewhere, Savage. You never quite got up to the level of civilization that we did, did you? You never managed to crawl up from the pits like the rest of us.”

“HOW DARE YOU! I AM SAVAGE!” He leapt from his position, grappling Alan around the waist and pulling him down onto the ground; his fingernails tore through Alan's face, drawing blood, and screams from Alan, as Savage pulled his hands together and brought a mighty haymaker down onto Alan's chest.

Ribs cracked, as an omni-directional Starheart burst pushed Savage off Alan and into a wall, leaving his suit torn, and his body bared.

“I taught Genghis Khan how to flay, I was Blackbeard the Pirate! In my time, I raped nations, I ate the flesh of those who defied me, I spread my seed and determination and hate and guile...”

“Shut up.”

The Starheart bolt knocked Savage through a stone wall, and into the next room. He hit the ground and rolled a little, pulling his body up into a more feral pose.

Savage growled, and Alan narrowed his eyes. “Enough, Savage. This is where it ends for you. For our feud.”

“It never ends, Scott. I am Savage, I have survived for eternity, and I will outlive you.”

“You are a tumor of society, and I am the surgeon, Savage.”

Alan let loose another blast from his hand, shaping it into a ram's head, which Savage gripped with uncanny speed at the horns, saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth, as his teeth clenched.

“Will Against Will, Scott. Will against Will.”

“You'll lose Savage, you may have kept yourself alive for all this time, but I…”

The Starheart rams head exploded with force, growing and pushing Savage through the wall once more, his Italian shoes torn to shreds as he tries to maintain his posture, holding the rams head horns.

“I AM WILL PERSONNIFIED!”

Savage is shot with the Rams head out of the side of the castle, Savage gripping loose stones with his fingernails, saliva at the corner of his mouth worked up into froth.

“No more, Savage. You're going away for a very long time.”

“No, I WILL NOT!” Savage leapt through the air, Alan letting off a series of bursts of energy, one ripping through Savages left leg blood whipping through the air in a helicoidal spray as Savage collides with Alan.

“I've waited years for this, Scott. To do this to one of you, but you, you I've hated for years, whilst the others saw me as a man, you always saw me as a Savage. Never to underestimate me because of how vicious I am. I was Blackbeard, Scott!”

Savage bared his teeth once again, the sheen had come off them, and the white paint that once coated them had worn off showing the oak dentures.

Savage bore down on Alan, biting into his flesh and pulling his head up viciously. Alan screamed in pain, and thrust his fist into Savage's face, throwing him up into the air by following his knuckles with an energy burst.

Blood seeped from his face and Alan writhed on the floor. His hand clasped over his eye. Carter and Kendra flew through the wall hole and landed next to him, Kendra immediately tending to him.

“Oh My God. Alan, Alan please, Lay still.”

“It hurts so much.”

Kendra placed her hands on top of Alan's and moved his hand to place it over the bleeding gash where his eye used to be.

“Try not to move. We disabled the bomb, Alan, and you defeated Savage but…”

Kendra looked over her shoulder as Carter pulled Savage from the ceiling.

“No more from you, Savage. You'll never hurt anyone again.”

Carter brought his mace down onto Savage's face, again and again, stopping only when Kendra grappled him around the waist.

“Carter! NO NO! This isn't our way, this isn't what Alan wants!”

“THIS ISN'T YOUR WAY, KENDRA, BUT IT'S ALWAYS BEEN MY WAY! ALWAYS! YOU DON'T ALLOW MAD DOGS TO SURVIVE, YOU PUT THEM DOWN!”

“Carter, please…” Kendra's eyes filled, she knew he was hurting and lashing out and dealing the only way he could, but she also knew that Carter and Alan always disagreed on this subject.

“Carter…” Alan reached his hand up to his friend. “I need to get back to the Brownstone…Please.”

Alan dropped onto his knees, blood seeping from his facial wound, unconscious.

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Next Issue: The Fallout! Spectre! And Shazam!