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JSA
Times Past, 1941
Thunder at Sunsetby HarveyKent
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 1
"Tune in next week for another thrilling adventure of the Lone Ranger! Brought to you by--"
The announcer's voice clicked off as the young nurse switched off the radio. "Dinner-time, everyone! Time to head for the dining room. Anyone need any assistance?"
The elderly men and women struggled to rise from their chairs and hobble to the dining room of the Harbor Vista Home for the Aged. Some leaned on canes or walkers; one or two rolled along in wheelchairs. A very few walked with no assistance at all, carrying themselves with nearly as much strength and confidence as they must have possessed in younger days. The young nurse approached one of these with a smile; a silver-haired man with a faraway look in his eyes.
"It's good to have you back with us, Mr. Tane," she said warmly. "You gave us quite a fright, you know!"
"Sorry about that, Jane," Mr. Tane said. "It was never my intention to put anyone to trouble."
Jane giggled. "You make it sound like your heart attack was your own fault! Silly, Mr. Tane!"
"Yes, I suppose it is," Tane said, as he made his way to the dining room.
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 2
At dinner, Tane sat between two men a few years younger than his own eighty years. Unlike Tane, these men were avid followers of the news. They derived great pleasure from complaining about the way the world was run nowadays, and how much better it was before such things as radio, the motor-car, and electricity.
"Did you see what those youngsters in the circus costumes are up to now, Tane?" Jameson, one of them, asked.
"Do you mean the Justice Association, or whatever they call themselves?" Tane asked. "No, I hadn't heard."
"Society. Justice Society," Jameson corrected. "Says in the papers they busted up a foreign spy ring. What drivel!"
"Then you believe the story is false?"
"Sure it's false!" Arturo, the other, commented. "A spy ring, operating here in the good old U.S.A., like we were one of those uppity European countries or something. Ridiculous!"
"And the outfits those Justice Society whippersnappers run around in," Jameson snorted. "Bunch of fancy-boys, if you ask me."
"One of 'em even has the audacity to call himself Johnny Thunder," Arturo added. "The nerve! I'll bet you the young folks of today don't even remember who the real Johnny Thunder was!"
"I saw him, once," Jameson said. "I wasn't more'n fourteen. My pappy took all us young'uns to the county fair in Mesa City. Some owlhoots tried to rob it, and Johnny Thunder stopped 'em all cold in their tracks. Now that was a true hero!"
"I wonder whatever happened to him?" Arturo wondered. "Just sorta dropped outta sight around '90 or '91, didn't he?"
"Johnny Thunder is dead," Tane said, concentrating on his Salisbury steak. "May he rest in peace."
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 3
"Speakin' of Mesa City," Arturo said, "there was a story in the paper about it. You see it, Jameson?"
"I did," Jameson acknowledged. "Say, Tane, ain't you from around there?"
"Around there," Tane agreed. "What was the story?"
"Oh, seems some old mine out there is being reopened after fifty years," Arturo said. "Part of the defense effort, they said. Dunno why we're makin' such a hoop-te-doodle about defense. No way in Hell the U.S. will ever get in this--"
"What mine?" Tane asked, suddenly animated. The urgency in his voice made Arturo start.
"Why, I dunno," Arturo said. "I didn't pay that much attention. Funny name. Wall-key, Walky-mama, something like that?"
"Walakima?" Tane asked, in a horrified voice. His old eyes were wide open.
"Yeah, I think that was it," Arturo said. "Tane, you all right? I haven't seen you this excited since... dang, I never seen you this excited."
But Tane wasn't listening. He pushed his chair away from the table, stood up, and strode purposely out of the dining room.
"Mr. Tane!" Jane, the nurse, called after him. "You're going to miss dessert! We -- we have rice pudding tonight!"
But John Tane had more than rice pudding on his mind.
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 4
"What are you doing, Green Lantern?" Hawkman asked as he entered the Justice Society meeting room. Green Lantern, the newly elected chairman of the Justice Society of America, was looking at a group of photographs spread out on the table before him.
"Just doing some background reading on some of the new mystery-men who've popped up recently," Green Lantern said. "It's amazing how many there are, now. When I got started, less than a year ago, there were hardly any."
"Considering possible additions to the JSA?" Hawkman asked, looking over Green Lantern's shoulder at the photographs. He recognized a few: Starman, Johnny Quick, Dr. Mid-Nite, Plastic Man. Others were unfamiliar to him.
"You never know," Green Lantern said. "If this European war escalates to include America, we'll need all the help we can get."
"I like this guy's costume," Hawkman said, tapping a photograph with his finger. "The medieval motif and all. Who is he?"
"Calls himself the Shining Knight," Green Lantern said. "Rumored to be an actual Arthurian knight, revived after 1500 years in suspended animation."
"Do you believe that?"
"A year ago, I would have said no. Now, after several months of hobnobbing with a sorcerer, a ghost, and -- pardon me -- a reincarnated Egyptian prince, I'm slower to dismiss the idea."
Hawkman chuckled. "Point taken. Anyway, you said you had a favor to ask me, before the regular meeting began. What is it?"
"Well, basically I want you to chair the meeting in my absence. My engineering firm is sending me down to Arizona, as a consultant on the job of reopening an old copper mine. They're putting me on a train tonight. With my ring I could be there in minutes, but I don't want to arouse suspicion. I was hoping to just put in a token appearance tonight, then turn the meeting over to you. Okay with you?"
"Sure, Alan, sure," Hawkman said. "I'll be glad to. Arizona, you say?"
"Uh huh. Some old copper mine that caved in about fifty years ago, hasn't been worked since. With the defense effort, copper is needed. It's going to be reopened next week."
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 5
"Mr. Renwick?" Alan Scott said, approaching the tall man carrying a clipboard and a box of dynamite caps. "I'm Alan Scott."
"Scott! We were expecting you. Glad to have you aboard!" Renwick stuck out a hand that was out of proportion to the rest of his body. As large as Renwick was, his hand was even larger; it would barely have fit in a quart pail. Alan shook it firmly. "Maybe you can help me iron out some of the problems we've been having!"
"Problems?" Alan asked. "What problems?"
"Sabotage, from the looks of things," Renwick said. "Three nights ago, someone stole all our dynamite sticks. We found 'em the next morning, chopped into bits and thrown in the creek not far from here. Night before last, someone cut the fuel lines on our big earth-movers. And last night, someone poured sugar in the gas tanks of all our trucks."
Alan was astonished. "Haven't you posted guards?"
"Sure. Just one, after the first attack. He was clubbed from behind. We put three men on guard last night, but they all got bushwhacked, too. Whoever's doing this is mighty good at it."
"Someone doesn't want Walakima Copper Mine reopened," Alan mused.
"I got that impression, too," Renwick said, wryly. "I'm thinking it's foreign spies, like the ring those Justice Society boys busted up last month. I mean, who else?"
"Don't rule out any possibilities," Alan suggested. "Could be a rival copper magnate, trying to keep his own prices high by eliminating any competition."
"No offense, Mr. Scott, but that sounds like a 'Green Hornet' plot."
Alan chuckled. "So did the foreign spy ring you mentioned. Don't be too quick to dismiss anything, Mr. Renwick."
"Point taken. Anyway, their efforts have been in vain. We're blasting the mine open this afternoon. Got some fresh dynamite from Flagstaff and it hasn't been out of our sight since it arrived. Come hell or high water, Walakima Copper Mine is reopening today."
Not far away, a pair of aged ears heard Renwick's voice. A pair of steel-blue eyes narrowed in concentration. This must not happen!
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 6
"Got everything set?" Renwick's mighty voice bellowed.
"All set, chief!" Renwick's foreman called. "Dynamite all placed, caps all wired. All down to this little plunger here." The foreman indicated the dynamite plunger at his feet. "When I push this bar down, the tons of rock and dirt plugging up the mine entrance will all go boom!"
"Okay, let's quit talking about it and do it," Renwick said. "Places, everyone! Fire in the hole! Everyone get to cover! On three, Luczek! One -- two--"
Suddenly a gunshot rang out. Luczek, the man on the dynamite plunger, jumped back with a yelp as the handle of the plunger snapped in two, splintered by a perfectly-placed bullet.
"Somebody find that sniper!" Renwick bellowed. "What is this, a sewing circle? Get moving! Cover this area! I don't want a mouse to get out of here without my knowing about it! Move!"
In all the confusion, no one noticed Alan Scott slip away behind a tree. In a shimmer of emerald light, his working clothes changed to the fighting uniform of the Green Lantern. Silently, the Lantern used his ring to find the trail of cordite, invisible to the naked eye, left by the bullet. He tracked that to its source. The gunman had fled, but the power ring trailed his heat-signature to a nearby creek. The signal vanished in the creek. Lantern was momentarily puzzled, until he noticed a small reed sticking out of the water. He smiled to himself. The gunman was clever!
With a mental command, Green Lantern created a power-energy hand that scooped into the creek and came up with a man. To the Lantern's surprise, the man was old. His hair was white as snow. There was a look of grim determination on the man's face as he stared into the Green Lantern's eyes; no fear, no remorse, nothing but a firm sense of purpose.
"Who are you?" Green Lantern asked, too taken aback by the man's age and obvious determination to indulge in his usual banter.
"I am Johnny Thunder," the old man said. "And Walakima Mine must not reopen!"
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 7
"Johnny Thunder?" Green Lantern repeated. "Nice try, Pops, but Johnny is a friend of mine, and you..." But then, Green Lantern remembered something. Stories his father had told him, in his youth in the Midwest. Stories of a mysterious gunfighter who kept the peace in a town called Mesa City. Mesa City? Wasn't that the town not far from here?
"You mean, you--" Lantern began.
"Figured it out, have you?" Thunder asked. "Yes, I'm the original Johnny Thunder! And I repeat, Walakima Mine must not reopen!"
Green Lantern gently set the man down on the creek bank, and landed there himself. "Suppose you tell me why," he said.
"There isn't time for that!" Thunder said angrily. "If those fools manage to fix that plunger--!"
"Sir, I believe you are who you say you are," Lantern said. "My ring determined that you're telling the truth, or at least that you think you are. But even so, I can't stop the men without a reason. As a fellow fighter for justice, I ask you to trust me and tell me why you don't want the mine reopened."
Johnny Thunder hesitated tensely, then let out a deep sigh. "All right. I suppose I have to tell you the story. It's a painful story to tell, though, and one I haven't told anyone since it happened, fifty years ago.
"I'd better begin at the beginning. My real name is John Tane. My father was sheriff of Mesa City, my mother the schoolteacher. My father wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but on her deathbed I promised my mother that I would teach children the ways of truth and justice, and fight crime by preventing them from becoming criminals. My father desperately wanted me to become a lawman like him, but I couldn't break my promise to my mother. The only way to honor both parents was to become two people. And so I adopted the guise of Johnny Thunder."
"For years I taught the children of Mesa City as John Tane, and helped my father as Johnny Thunder. No one, not even my father, knew of my dual identity. Then I met Jeanne Walker, a photographer who came to Mesa City. I also met Madame .44, a masked female bandit. It turned out that Jeanne and Madame .44 were one and the same, and the 'bandit' pose was a blind to let her get close to, and apprehend, the man who killed her father. With my help, she did. She and I were married, and were happy.
"Our happiness was short-lived. A few years after we were married, and had a couple of kids, my father corralled a vicious killer by the name of Lucius Bender. He had the nickname of Hell-Bender, 'cause of his brutality, and 'cause of the reputation he had as a Devil worshipper. Rumor was he'd consorted with the conjure-men of New Orleans; learned their dark ways. Nobody believed it, of course. My father arrested him for armed robbery and murder, and he was hanged. That should have been the last we heard of him. But it wasn't, not by a long way."
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 9
"Not long after that, my father started to change. Subtle at first, but soon it was clear that he'd gone right out of his mind. Finally, he shot the mayor of Mesa City dead in the middle of church, and announced that he was taking over the town. I didn't understand what had happened to him, but it became my sad duty to bring my father in. I chased him to an old barn and cornered him there, and when we were alone I learned the truth. From my father's lips, though it wasn't him speaking to me. It was Lucius Bender.
"Bender told me that he'd learned the art of transmigration from the conjure-men in New Orleans. That meant that his spirit could leave his body and take over another body, make it his own. And once he'd done that, the only way to force his spirit out of the body he'd taken over was that body's death.
"I stood there with my guns drawn, pointed at the body of my father. But Bender laughed at me with my father's mouth. I couldn't shoot him down, and Bender knew it. He drew his own gun and aimed at me. A shot cracked out, but not from his gun nor mine. Jeanne had put on her old Madame .44 outfit and followed me, and she shot my father before Bender could pull the trigger.
"My father fell, but Jeanne let out the most evil laugh I'd ever heard. Bender had taken possession of her body."
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 10
"Jeanne was stronger than my father was; she was able to fight Bender's possession for brief spells. But she knew she wouldn't be able to do it forever. She knew Bender had her, body and soul, and she would never be my Jeanne again. In one final act of will, she was able to run into the Walakima Mine. I knew what she was doing, and I knew what I had to do. It tore my heart out to do it, but I set off a cave-in with dynamite. I sealed my wife up alive inside the mine, and the evil spirit of Hell-Bender with her."
Green Lantern watched the old man's body sag as he told the story. He could tell that every word was ripping the man's heart out as he was forced to relive the terrible events of that night.
"That was in 1891," Thunder said. "I couldn't stay in Mesa City any longer after that; too many memories. I took the kids and headed east. Our daughter died two years later in a blizzard. Our boy, Chuck, lived to be a young man. Got his head blown off in what they call the Great War. Guess I snapped after that. My last link to my Jeanne was gone. I didn't want to live, but I didn't have it in me to end my own life. I withdrew into myself, became a walking dead man. Until I heard they were reopening Walakima Mine.
"Do you see now why you have to stop them, Lantern?" Thunder asked urgently. "Why it's impossible to let that horror loose again?"
"Sir," Lantern began, haltingly, "it's been fifty years. There's no way that still..."
Just then, the two men heard a loud noise. An explosion. Their heads snapped around in the direction of the sound.
"Dear God," Thunder whispered, "they've done it! They've reopened the mine! They've set Bender free!"
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 11
Instantly, Green Lantern took to the air. He soared like a green rocket in the direction of the explosion. "Wait for me!" he heard the old man call behind him, but neither did he turn nor slow.
Seconds later, Green Lantern arrived at the mine. He saw the men gathered around the now-opened mouth of the old mine, gaping in awed fascination at something inside the mine.
"What is it?" Green Lantern demanded urgently of the men. "What's in there?"
The men did not answer. Green Lantern rose above their heads and peered into the mine. He could not believe what he saw there. A young woman with long blonde hair, dressed in a snow-white Western riding outfit. Her eyes were wide with madness and her mouth gaped in an evil laugh. This had to be Jeanne Walker Tane, Madame .44, apparently as young as the night her husband sealed her into the mine.
The men stood staring at the laughing woman. Finally, one of them dared to take a step forward. The madwoman's gaze flicked to the man, and then her hand shot out like a striking cobra. A bolt of blood-red light launched from her fingertips and struck the man. With an inhuman scream, he vanished in a puff of blood-colored smoke.
Green Lantern started. Thunder hadn't said anything about Bender being able to do that!
"I am free again!" the woman shrieked. "Free to walk the earth, to feel the wind and sun on my skin! Free after time immemorial! I do not know how long I was shut away from the world, but I am free again! I have not been idle during my imprisonment; I have studied, concentrated, practiced the rites the conjure-men of New Orleans taught me, until I mastered them greater than my teachers ever did! And now I am free to use my power! The world shall tremble before the power of Hell-Bender!"
A brilliant emerald light washed over the startled woman. She looked up and saw the costumed champion hovering above her.
"You have to go through me first, Bender," Green Lantern said with determination.
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 12
Bender smiled with Jeanne Walker Tane's lips. "A pleasure," he/she said, and threw a bolt of eldritch energy at Green Lantern. The emerald gladiator whipped up a power-ring shield just in time. The bolt struck the shield with tremendous force; cracks formed on the shield's surface. Green Lantern was astonished. Nothing had ever struck his power-ring energy with that result! His ring was powered by magic; perhaps Hell-Bender's magic affected it more than scientific weapons did. He would see if it worked both ways. With a thought he imprisoned Bender in a six-sided cube of green energy. Bender laughed and sent a blast of magic energy exploding from his stolen body in all directions, bursting the sides of the cube wide open.
This is going to be a tough fight, Green Lantern thought to himself. For the first time since I got this ring, I'm not sure if I'll be able to defeat my opponent! But it won't be for lack of trying!
For long minutes, Green Lantern and Hell-Bender traded blows, hurling magical energy at each other with little effect. The engineer and his work crew had fled, leaving one man watching the scene. A tear trickled down cheeks lined with age, as Johnny Thunder watched his young wife fight to the death, saw the insane look on her face. He burned with rage. Lucius Bender had stolen their happiness, destroyed their lives. He would make that devil pay!
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 13
"You are the mightiest sorcerer I have ever seen," Bender shrieked as bolts of energy flew from Jeanne Tane's fingertips. "Your power is as great as mine, perhaps greater! I shall not kill you after all; instead, I shall take your body, and it shall be my vessel of power!"
"Not today, you won't," the Lantern swore, turning his power-ring on the ground at Bender's feet. The dirt and stones flew up and surrounded Bender, trapping his borrowed body up to the neck. "I don't know why you couldn't blast your way out of that mine with your power, but if something about it resists your power, it will again be your prison!"
"Ah, excellent, my emerald warrior, excellent!" Bender laughed. "You've figured out that my earth-based magic is ineffectual against the earth itself. I sense that your magic has a similar, if more specific, weakness. But in one respect you're wrong: my host body no longer needs die to free me from it!" With that, the life drained out of Jeanne Walker Tane's face, and her head slumped forward. A look of horror came over Green Lantern's face, quickly replaced by one of madness.
"Ah, that is better!" an insane voice chuckled from Green Lantern's throat. "With my own sorcerous power added to that in this wondrous ring, none can stop me!"
"Do not be too sure of that, villain," an eerie voice sounded from above. Green Lantern's face turned up to the sky. A handful of colorful figures were descending from the sky toward him.
"Ah, the Justice Society of America!" Bender laughed. "Come one, come all, and die!"
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 14
"Doc, what's going on?" Johnny Thunder, the younger, asked his golden-helmeted comrade. "That's Green Lantern down there, but he looks so -- mad!"
"Our friend's body is possessed by an evil spirit, Johnny," Dr. Fate explained. "The spirit was freed from its prison by the reopening of the mine. The sudden surge of mystic energy was detected by my crystal ball, and thus I was alerted. That is why I gathered you and the others. But we are too late to prevent Green Lantern from falling victim to the spirit!"
"Yes, you are," Bender agreed. "And, as I share all knowledge possessed by my host body, I know who you all are! Doctor Fate, the Spectre, the Hawkman, Hourman, and Johnny Thunder. Once did I know another Johnny Thunder. I failed to kill that one; I shall not make that mistake again!"
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 15
Without another word, the battle began. Doctor Fate and the Spectre launched mystic assaults against Green Lantern's energy-shield. The air crackled with eldritch energy as the opposing magical forces clashed. Hourman and Hawkman tried a physical assault, but were turned back easily by the power ring.
The elderly Johnny Thunder crept into a firing position. He aimed his gun carefully at the possessed Green Lantern.
"Say, you old-timer!" a young voice at the lawman's elbow cried out. "What do you think you're doing?"
The silver head whirled around to stare into a young blond face. "Be quiet, you silly kid! I'm trying to draw a bead on Bender!"
"Bender? Mister, that's Green Lantern you're aiming at! And who are you, anyway?"
"I just happen to be Johnny Thunder, youngster!"
"Why, you old liar! I'm Johnny Thunder! T-bolt, tell him who I am!"
"Master John is right, sir," an eerie voice behind the elderly lawman said. The older Thunder whirled around to face a glowing pink man with lightning bolts coming out of his head.
"Tarnation!" Thunder exclaimed. "What the devil are you, anyway?"
"Say, you guys are wasting time jawin'!" the younger Thunder declared. "T-bolt, get in there and stop the Lantern!"
"I will try, if you wish, Master John," Thunderbolt said, "but I'm afraid Green Lantern could defeat me with barely a thought."
"Every little bit helps, T-bolt! Sic 'im!"
"Yes, Master John." The Thunderbolt vanished in a pink streak of lightning headed straight for the possessed Green Lantern.
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 16
Hell-Bender, in the body of Green Lantern, saw the pink lightning headed for him from the corner of his eye. He quickly created a green-energy lightning rod that captured the protesting Thunderbolt and held him fast.
Hourman and Hawkman lay on the ground, dazed by Lantern's attack. Doctor Fate and Spectre pressed hard, combining their mystic energies. Lantern poured the mystic might of his ring and Hell-Bender's own sorcerous power into his attack. The air was alive with light and color as the two mystic forces met and cancelled each other out. Lantern's face was strained with concentration; sweat trickled down his brow. Bit by bit, his energy was driving back that of Fate and Spectre.
Then a single gunshot rang out. John Tane, the once and former Johnny Thunder, had fired. Time had not dulled his aim; his bullet sped true, straight to the Green Lantern's temple. It bounced off his green force-field, but attracted his attention; unbidden, the Lantern's gaze flicked to the direction from whence the bullet had come. That was all that was needed for Fate and Spectre's attack to overwhelm him. In a brilliant flash of multi-colored light, the Lantern went down.
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 17
Doctor Fate was quick to press the advantage. He used his sorcery to command the trees of the area; their branches flew to him and surrounded the Lantern's body, molding themselves into a coffin-like box that imprisoned him from the neck down. Fate hovered before the helpless Lantern, arms crossed over his chest.
"You have been defeated, evil one," Fate intoned in his ghostly voice. "I command you now to leave the body of Green Lantern forevermore!"
"Oh, I shall, golden one," Lantern snarled, "but not in the way you'd like!" The rage on the Lantern's face died away, and his head slumped backward in unconsciousness. Fate remained as he was, motionless. The Spectre was the only one who had ears to hear a ghostly scream.
"What happened?" Hawkman, whom the Spectre had revived, asked.
"The evil spirit left Green Lantern's body and tried to possess mine," Doctor Fate explained. "But my body is already possessed by the spirit of Nabu, the Lord of Order. The evil ghost could not enter it, and was forced away."
"With no body to enter, the ghost has finally gone to the damnation it should have gone to fifty years ago," the Spectre concluded.
THUNDER AT SUNSET: Part 18
The two Johnny Thunders ran to join the JSA as Fate dissolved the wooden box holding Green Lantern prisoner.
"Johnny, who's this?" Hourman asked.
"That's also Johnny Thunder," Green Lantern said. "It's a long story."
"What, the old gunfighter?" Hourman asked, incredulously. "I thought he was dead!"
If Tane heard these words he made no acknowledgement. He ran to the pillar of earth holding Jeanne Walker Tane, threw himself on it, and sobbed.
"Ohhh... what happened?" a young voice Tane had heard in his dreams for half a century said groggily.
"Jeanne!" Tane gasped. "Jeanne, is it possible? You -- you're alive!"
"Indeed," Fate said, as Green Lantern freed Jeanne from the earth pillar. "Lucius Bender's spirit kept her alive and unaging the entire time they were trapped in the mine. Now that he has left her, she will age normally, as though the preceding fifty years never happened."
"Oh, Jeanne!" the old man sobbed with joy, clutching her hands. "Jeanne, I never dared dream I would see you again!"
"Johnny?" Jeanne asked, in confusion. "Johnny, what happened? You -- you're -- old!"
John Tane wept openly. "I know, Jeanne. It's been fifty years since Bender took you. We've lost all that time together. I'm an old man now, and I could die tomorrow. But we'll have whatever time is left me, together!"
"I think not," the Spectre intoned. "Lucius Bender stole the years of happiness you would otherwise have shared. Such transgressions must not be allowed, else justice itself is a hollow concept." The ghostly guardian turned to Doctor Fate. "Doctor, it is not within my power to work this spell unaided. Will you assist me?"
"With great eagerness," Fate said. Together the two mystic champions worked their spells. The old man was surrounded by a nimbus of light, which grew so bright that none could see him. And when it faded--
"Johnny!" Jeanne cried happily. "You're young again! As young as I remember you!"
"I am!" John Tane declared, looking down at his young, strong hands. "I feel the same as I did -- the day I met you! Oh, Jeanne!"
The rejuvenated Tane threw his arms around his wife and swung her around. The JSAers watched in happiness.
"That was a damn nice thing you guys did," Hawkman declared.
"The spell was a powerful one, requiring the greatest calculations and manipulations," Spectre said hollowly. "I doubt very much that we could ever do it again."
"Well, if it was a one-shot deal," Green Lantern said, "nice to know you made it count."
The Tanes, reunited at last, did not hear this exchange. They only had eyes and ears for each other.