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Alexander Luthor suddenly awoke, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. He looked around himself in a panic and searched for his wife, Lois. She was right next to him, sound asleep. Memories of death and some kind of white wall of energy quickly fleeted from his waking mind more quickly than he could remember them. Lois was safe and sound, though. She was all that mattered -- she and their son... their son!
Alex jumped out of bed and raced toward the crib their newborn son had been kept in, but he was gone. And somehow he knew that Alexander Junior would not be found again even before he saw it for himself.
Luthor fell to his knees and began to weep.
Everything was wrong, so wrong.
Without waking his wife, Alexander Luthor went to his laboratory and
began conducting tests upon tests in a futile effort to discover what
had happened. He set aside his twelfth-level android project for now
and tried to figure out whether what he had dreamt was but a dream or a
reality. What he discovered after several hours shocked him to his
utter core.
The universe had changed.
It was true. The universe of Earth-3, including all of its planets and people, had somehow merged with a universe of antimatter. Normally he would not have been able to tell the difference, since matter and antimatter were essentially all relative to which side one was on, but he had instruments that were attuned to the parallel worlds of Earth-1 and Earth-2, and it appeared that they were still intact. Earth-3, however, now existed in a universe of antimatter.
Could this have been part of his dream? The vision of a white wall of antimatter, and the face of Superwoman vanishing behind within it, utterly consumed by it? And then -- oh God -- the vision of his own son. He and Lois had sent their only son away to safety on Earth-1.
He knew this was the truth, despite finding no reports of any kind on the news. Some kind of crisis had happened, which had caused Earth-3 to be absorbed into this antimatter universe. His son was gone, and yet somehow he knew that Alexander Luthor, Junior, was safe. He was not only safe, but was with... his mother?
Luthor shook his head and blamed the blurriness of his thoughts on lack of sleep. He was a man of science, and none of this could be proven. Still, he would worry about his son no longer.
"My men found them here, just lying unconscious," said the police commissioner of Metropolis, Tobias Whale. "They're being kept in a containment cell, but it looks like they still haven't woken up. Thought you might be able to help us with a better containment system until their trial dates come up."
"I can do that," said Luthor, stifling a yawn. It was early afternoon, and he hadn't slept at all. "Let's only hope the legal system doesn't muck this one up again."
For years, the Crime Syndicate of America had been safely imprisoned in the force-bubble in the nexus between dimensions. They had recently been freed, however, thanks to the efforts of a particularly clever lawyer. A criminal attorney in every sense of the word -- Cockburn, Luthor thought his name was, or similar -- had argued before the Supreme Court that such imprisonment constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and that the Syndicators had never had their day in court. Despite Alex Luthor's protests, the attorney's arguments convinced the court to free the Crime Syndicate from their extra-dimensional prison to await trial. Naturally, they had escaped conventional imprisonment several days ago. That they had all been found like this was either a great deal of good luck or a set-up. His instincts told him, however, that whatever had caused him and his wife to send their only son away in a dimension-traveling rocketship was likely the same thing that had left the Crime Syndicate in their present condition.
"Oh, well. Let's not knock a gift horse in the mouth," said Commissioner Whale, patting Luthor on the back.
Luthor began calculations on the possibilities of recreating the prison made for the Crime Syndicate by the JLA of Earth-1.
Drat, he thought as a warning beep began and a systems diagnostic told him what was wrong. It looked like whatever had happened to the Crime Syndicate had also done a number on his suit. The suit's power reserves are at an all-time low. I knew this day was too good to be true.
Luthor began working quickly. He would ensure that these criminals were back in their custom-made prison before they woke up. He wasn't ready to deal with them just yet in his present condition.
Back in his lab, Alexander Luthor watched his computer screen with concern. The red-bearded man was a genius, and he had become his world's sole superhero. Yet he now feared that those days were a thing of the past. A pretty woman entered. She was his wife, Lois Lane Luthor.
"What's wrong, dear?" asked Lois. She knew her husband drove himself too hard and went without sleep, food, or simple human comfort all too often in his quest to protect their world. For years, this world had been the home of super-beings called the Crime Syndicate -- all of whom possessed great power and malicious intent. No one could tame them. No law could restrict them. Finally, Luthor had taken a stand and, with the inspiration of two Supermen from alternate earths, he had invented the armor that enabled the noble scientist to win both the heart of Lois and safeguard their home. He had battled the Syndicators on his own, too, but now that they were back in a duplication of their JLA-created prison and the world-threatening Crisis had passed, he was torn. He wondered to himself whether he should he resume his heroic career or just be a lab man again and enjoy his marriage. How he marveled still that he had Lois! Years of quiet lonely work in the lab had made him resigned to life alone. He was wrong. How blessed was he that for one he had been wrong.
"Lois, the armor is powerless! Saving our world time and time again has drained it of all power. I lack a source for new energy, and I fear that -- even if I could fix it -- perhaps I should leave things as they are. I mean, our world is now free from superpowered action of good or ill intent. Let things take their natural course."
Lois kissed him. "Darling, I'll support you no matter what you do, but look at it this way: What will Lana Lang talk about on the TV news if you aren't out saving lives?"
Luthor smiled. "Let the loquacious Miss Lang stay quiet for a while. It would do us all good to have less sensational news. I wonder what this world would have been like had it had not all gone so wrong hundreds or thousands of years ago. It's like we've lived under a curse until now."
Lois smiled at her husband and held him in an embrace, trying to keep his mind off of the world's problems. Inwardly, her reporter's instincts could not have tugged her more strongly in the opposite direction. Something bad was going to happen. She felt it. Ever since she had been a girl and her father Sam had died when the United States invaded and conquered Vietnam, she had trusted her sense of what was right and wrong. Something was wrong here.
High above Earth's orbit in a huge green bubble sat some colorful figures. They were bored and had begun arguing, and life was going on as it had so often before. They were the Crime Syndicate, and they had been here before.
"I feel as if we are on the cusp of something big," declared Owlman pensively. "Something is going to happen to change our sad state."
"I hope that means you're going to get a breath mint!" said the laughing Johnny Quick. "Years in and out of this bubble with you has left me sick and tired of your foul breath!"
"Once more you demonstrate that your wit is unable to live up to your dubious nom du crime," sneered Owlman. "Why am I trying to carry on an intelligent conversation with intellectual buffoons?!"
Superwoman combed her long black hair and sighed. "What do you sense this time? I would jump at any change at this point. I almost miss the boredom and sickly sweet sentiment of Sanctuary Island at times."
Power Ring sneered, "Yeah! That's where I'd like to be imprisoned, if all those Amazon babes look like you."
Superwoman slapped him again and said, "You
really are
a swine. I suppose you think you appeal to me with your brash,
egotistical ways? I'd sooner mate with Owlman than you!"
Ultraman sat apart from the others brooding, and he ignored his peers.
He desperately wanted to be free from this prison. He had tried time
and again to smash free of this prison and earlier ones like it, yet
nothing had worked. Without outside help, they would die in this
bubble. He wondered if his brilliant father could have solved this
dilemma? No doubt Jur-LL could have worked out a solution, but then
Ultraman lacked his father's keen mind. He was strong, fast and tough,
but he lacked a super-brain. What was it that sap Superman had said?
"He lacks the intellect to use his powers correctly."
Well, his super-hearing had worked well enough for him to pick up that muttered phrase. He would have liked to prove that wimp wrong. But how could he when it might have been true? Back on Krypton, he had grown up under the shadow of a brilliant father, and he had never been able to please Jur-LL -- never! That had embittered him greatly. Even as the son of an infamous crime czar, he had never had the respect of his peers on that advanced world. Certainly, no one dared to bother the son of the LL House, but still he was seen as a failure by most.
However, that had not stopped the Science Council from convicting him of his father's crimes and exiling him into orbit around the planet for a duration of several years while under suspended animation. They had waited until his father had gone missing (there were rumors that he had been assassinated by one of the other crime families) and had taken that opportunity to exact the punishment reserved for Jur-LL upon his teenaged son Kel-LL, who -- along with other hired guns -- had done much of his father's dirty work. However, not long after Kel-LL had been sent away, a time-delayed planetary bomb invented by his father caused an imbalance in the planet's very core, causing it to explode. It had been a final parting gift left by Jur-LL and had been activated by the absence of both himself and his son from the planet surface.
The explosion of the planet Krypton had sent his space capsule out of orbit and through a warp in space that led to the solar system of the planet Earth. His capsule crashed on Earth, and Kel-LL woke up from suspended animation. A radioactive fragment from the exploded planet Krypton, which he later dubbed kryptonite, unexpectedly granted him tremendous strength. Other samples of kryptonite had landed upon Earth in succeeding months and years, and he quickly found that exposure to each piece of kryptonite granted him further powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.
As Ultraman, Kel-LL began to make himself a tyrant who ruled with an iron fist and a cold heart alongside other super-powered criminals who banded together with him as the Crime Syndicate of America. That is, he had done so until he was defeated along with his teammates by the heroes of two other alternate Earths. Things were never again the same. He had only been freed briefly since then and had been returned to captivity on several occasions by different heroes, such as the Supermen, the JLA, and Alexander Luthor. Perhaps most galling of all had been his defeat at the hands of that sniveling scientist so like his father in intellect. He would kill Luthor yet.
He sighed as he heard his partners begin their same old routine. "Yes, I do sense we shall be free soon," said Owlman.
As the Crime Syndicate passed their lonely days and nights in the bubble and awaited the food that teleported into their prison regularly, thanks to Luthor's kindness, Alexander Luthor himself could not rest. He was deeply troubled, and things only grew worse when he received a visitor late one evening. She was blonde and lovely. The young Lena Luthor, his much-younger sister, was usually a welcome sight. However, her wild eyes and desperate look this evening gave the brilliant man reason to pause.
"Lena, honey, what's wrong? More nightmares?" he asked as he ushered her inside and greeted her with a hug. Rain began to beat down outside, and he smiled as Lois rushed in, dressed in her robe and carrying a tray of snacks.
"Lena, sit down and eat and tell us what brings my favorite sister-in-law out on such a night," said Lois Luthor.
Lena smiled and collected her thoughts. Lois was a rock of stability, and Alex had practically raised Lena since their folks had died years before in an accident. If Alex couldn't smooth over this new worry, then no one could.
"Alex, I have been having the visions again," sobbed the pretty blonde. "I know you feel they're just dreams, but they seem so real, so vivid! The last one was... horrible!"
Alex cupped her face in his hand. "Lena, just tell me slowly, and I'll try to make things right."
Lena gulped and said, "I saw them! They were back! They took over the world again -- it was just awful. Alex, I believe it will happen. The Crime Syndicate will get loose and take over the world again!"
Lois shivered at the idea that the fiends who had almost killed Alex would be free once more to destroy and kill.
Alex said, "Lena, I've built sensors around their cell. If they ever get close to being free again, the sensors will warn me, and I'll reinforce the cell. I promise!"
"No, Alex," said Lena. "I didn't make myself clear. The Crime Syndicate was loose again, but it was and yet wasn't them who took over the world. That's why the vision was so frightening! How could there be more like them?"
Alex said nothing. His little sister was perhaps psychic or had mental powers that could be sensitive to the world around her, but could she be right? Could there be new villains somehow worse than the monsters of the Crime Syndicate?
He heard an alarm and jumped up to check the source of the warning alert. "Great Scott!" he cried as he read the computer screen. "There is something going down in D.C.! President Hart has been killed!"
"Alex, go!" said Lois as Lena watched him tearfully. "Be careful, though!"
He slipped on his armor and flew off at top speed for the nation's capitol of Arnoldtown, D.C., named for the first president of the United States of America, Benedict Arnold. The flight was rapid, yet not as smooth as usual. He was low on energy sources, and the armor was nowhere near the levels they had been at when he'd first constructed the suit. He'd just have to make do with what he had.
I can't believe it -- the White House invaded, President Gary Hart dead, the military routed! His mind raced as he monitored news bulletins with his helmet radio.
He soon drew near a scene of flames and panic. The White House was a battlefield, and he shuddered as his lens picked up the sight of a few flying figures around the breached building. "It's them again!" he said with worry. "The alarm at their cell never went off."
Then he saw it all clearly. Those costumed figures were attacking the military and had already invaded and conquered the White House. A red-and-blue-costumed flyer with black hair and handsome features tossed a tank into the Capitol pool with a harsh laugh. He turned to face Luthor, causing Alex to gasp.
The face was more handsome than that of the evil Ultraman. The costume had no red U emblem. Instead, it boasted a blazing red H.
"You're not Ultraman!" he said. Lena was
right.
We've been invaded by an all-new team of villains!
Luthor's foe laughed. "You must be what passes for a superhero on this
pathetic world! I'm Hypernion! I'll be your killer!" He fired a blast
of heat vision at Luthor, and the armor's shields barely deflected it.
Hypernion then slammed his hands together, and a shock wave rocketed
across the air to threaten Luthor's flight stability.
Obviously, this brute has the power of Ultraman, and more wit besides, thought Luthor as he tried to defend himself. But where did he come from? Krypton was destroyed by Ultraman's father!
"I will stop you!" said Alexander. "I'll bring you to justice for what you did to President Hart!" His hands pulsed with energy as he fired stellar bolts into Hypernion.
The hulking man flinched, so Luthor deducted that he could be hurt. Then a choking pressure caught Luthor from behind, and huge green pinchers closed in around him. "Power Ring?" he muttered as he fought for air.
The blonde woman in the short green-and-black outfit laughed. "That's what my weapon is, but I'm called Green Gladiatrix! I guess you're bright enough to see where the name comes from." She started to giggle.
Luthor tried to generate enough power to break free and did so, but now he was tired. The armor was beginning to feel heavy, which meant something was damaged within its systems. "Who are you?" he said as he dodged her next barrage of green spears.
"They work with me, handsome!" said a sultry voice as a rope snared his leg and slammed him to the ground with stunning force.
He moaned as he gazed up at a leggy, black-haired beauty in a red, white, and blue outfit with an eagle on her brief top. "You're the Superwoman of the group!"
She laughed with a purr to her voice. "I'm royalty! Atalanta -- the Amazon Princess!" She then stomped down on him, and he felt the metal armor crack.
A red-and-gold blur raced up to drain all the air away from his area. He activated his limited supply as the armor's visor closed. "Too slow, old dude. I'm Speedfreak!" sneered a young punk who moved with alarming rapidity.
From the White House itself laughed a commanding figure in the shadows. He wore black and gray and was known as Darknight. "Hail to the new chief!" he hissed coldly.
Luthor knew when he was beaten. He activated his teleport control, and -- as his armor lost all power -- he found himself back in the lab. He struggled to his feet as the heavy armor weighed him down.
"Lois! Lena! I need help!" he called.
They rushed inside to support him. "Alex!" screamed Lois. "What did they do to you?"
Alexander frowned determinedly. "They made me mad! No one can threaten Alexander Luthor's home and get away with it!"
"How can you stop them?" said Lois. "The radio called them invincible!"
"I can't alone, but I know where I can get
some
help!" he said grimly.
In the days that followed the taking of Arnoldtown, D.C., the military met with one crushing defeat after another at the hands of the superpowered terrorists who had made the White House their new base. Fighter planes zoomed into view over the rubble, only to be shattered by Green Gladiatrix's lethal ring as she giggled maliciously. The tanks were overturned with ease by Amazon Princess, who disdainfully sneered at the male soldiers, representatives of what she considered the weaker sex. Hypernion was a one-man army as he crushed entire squadrons with no regard for life. Speedfreak was seemingly everywhere as he terrorized California and carried off starlet Michelle Piper for some amorous action of his own. All the mayhem was coldly guided by their leader, the enigmatic Darknight, who seemed to lack superpowers, but was feared and respected by his superpowered partners.
"People of America!" said Darknight, broadcasting live to the world. "We are the new leaders of your nation. We are the Lawless League, and we will destroy anyone who opposes us. Accept that, and you will live longer!"
"I've felt their power, and he's not bluffing. We've got to stop him, but first things first!" declared Alexander Luthor as he led his family down several steps to a waiting craft below.
"What is it?" asked Lois Lane Luthor.
"I call it the Mighty Mole," he said. "It's our escape vehicle. I can't fight these fiends while you three are in danger from them. It's only a matter of time before they come for me!"
"Alex," said Lena Luthor, "where will this thing take us that could be safe from the powers they have?"
Alexander smiled. "To the secret base I've already built for the purpose of opposing the Crime Syndicate, should they ever arise again. I call it the Fortress of Science!"
The Mole soon carried them through the center of the Earth to emerge in a spacious chamber full of equipment. "Look at this place! It's amazing!" cried Lena as she ran around the huge, brightly lit fortress.
"I tried to plan for any emergency, so I have full weaponry, supplies, communications, and lab equipment within my Fortress of Science. Here below the Earth, even those monsters can't find us, or so I hope. Ultraman is not a thinker, but this Hypernion and Darknight seem much smarter."
Lena glanced at the equipment. "What does all this do?"
Alexander said, "I hope it will stop the Lawless League. It was meant to fight the Syndicate, of course."
Lena frowned. "My dream about some group like them has come true, but at least the originals are still imprisoned."
"Lena, about them, I fear..."
"Alex, I don't like that look on your face," said a concerned Lois. "You're not seriously considering...?"
Alexander Luthor replied with a rare sharpness, "I have no choice! To survive and defeat the Lawless League, I must free the Crime Syndicate and enlist their help!"
Luthor had listened to and argued with his family for hours before they retired for the night. He gazed down on the sleeping forms of Lois and Lena. He could not imagine life without them, and he definitely could not allow the world to be destroyed and brought down to chaos by the Lawless League. He worked feverishly to come up with some way to stop them, but all he could come back to was the need to ally with the Syndicate.
He paced the floor and turned to see Lois waiting for him silently. "Alex, come to bed. We're behind you all the way. If you feel the right thing to do is to free the Syndicate, then of course it must be the right thing for us all. We believe in you. Lena just fears them so because of the accident."
Alexander nodded. "Power Ring once blew up a road, and my parents died in the ensuing car wreck. He didn't know them. He didn't care about them. It was a merely a random use of his power to him, and they were caught in it. Poor elderly folks, and Lena was the only survivor. No wonder she hates the Syndicate so much. I raised her after that and came to fight them eventually, though I wonder if I would ever have done that without the inspiration of the two Supermen and you!"
"Take Ultraman alone," said Lois. "How can you reason with or trust that inhuman brute?"
"I think if I use my own sense of honor as a bargaining device, they will come around," replied Luthor. "I'll say that they can't rule without defeating these newcomers, and that if they help me, I'll reward them!"
Lois remained quiet. The only thing Alex could offer them was either his life or his pledge to not oppose them. Either way, he would lose greatly, as would her world. She held her husband as the machinery chimed and whirled around them in the vast chamber below the earth's surface.
In the far corner of the Fortress of Science stood a robotic humanoid figure. It was not finished, but when it reached completion, the Brainiac would have a major influence on them all.
Alexander Luthor stood in front of an electronic device and hit the switch. Instantly, his image was projected to the space in front of the prison bubble that held the Crime Syndicate. Ultraman jumped up, as did his peers.
"Luthor! Come here to gloat, old man?" sneered Owlman.
Power Ring said, "I'd teach him to gloat if I could just get my hands around his throat!"
"Hold it!" said Superwoman. "He obviously wants something!"
Luthor spoke from below, and his holographic image broadcast his words. "Please do hear me out. That world down there is in trouble. A group called the Lawless League has conquered America and currently stands to take over the whole planet! I cannot stop them by myself. If I release you from your prison, would you pledge to help me defeat them? Afterward, I give you my word that I will not try to return you to this bubble!"
Ultraman frowned. "You're not stupid! You know we'll just take the planet over again ourselves if given half a chance!"
"I know you'll try, but your reign was never as brutal as that of this League!" replied Luthor. "I also feel that -- because they are counterparts to the Justice League who beat you all before -- you would relish going up against them. For, you see, I believe they are warped doubles of those heroes, come from some other dimension!"
Owlman smirked. "I believe you always thought of us as warped doubles of the JLA, too, did you not? Well, I suppose it was inevitable for you to come crawling to us. Our power is the only hope you have to stop their rampage."
"I would also like a chance to prove my prowess in battle once more," said Superwoman. "It has been too long since I made the fields run red with blood!"
Luthor said, "Give me your word to help me defeat them, and afterward we may settle our only differences as you like. I repeat that I won't try to put you back in this prison!"
Ultraman turned to Owlman, as did Johnny Quick, Power Ring, and Superwoman. The evil genius nodded. "I believe we have a bargain," said Owlman. "A truce until the Lawless League is brought down at our hands, and then... we settle old scores." The other members of the Crime Syndicate nodded in agreement.
Luthor pressed another control in his Fortress of Science, and the prison bubble vanished, setting free the worst villains this world had ever seen until the coming of the Lawless League.
Ultraman charged for Luthor's projected image and closed his fists on... nothing!
"What kinda stupid trick is this?" he yelled.
"The kind you obviously fell for," smirked Owlman.
Johnny Quick chimed in, "It was just a picture, Kel. Nothing but a picture!"
As Power Ring brought them back to the rubble and chaos of a world at war, he said, "So do we really kill this League or join up with them?"
Owlman smiled. "Good question. I suggest we meet them first and then form an opinion."
In the White House, the Lawless League relaxed after a long day of conquest and bloodshed. Each had his or her preferred method of unwinding.
Speedfreak's hyper hormones were raging as always, and the blond youth enjoyed romantic action with kidnapped starlets like Michelle Piper and Debbie Lockhart. The women had no chance against the super-fast speedster. He was simply too quick for them to see clearly before it was too late.
Hypernion brooded over the fact that he came from a doomed world, while this paltry world with no true science or art worthy of the name was allowed to live in its mundane stagnation. Being the last son of his alien world weighed heavily upon his mind.
Atalanta spent all her time in combat, as the Amazon Princess relished beating every hulking male she could force into her arena. She had converted the west wing of the White House into a gladiatorial-style arena where she had defeated countless males in her nightly battles.
Darknight alone attended to duty. He never seemed to rest. He merely studied the data taken from the computer banks he had altered. He studied the crime statistics with special zeal. He had a hatred for crime that drove him ceaselessly. True, he and his peers were the worst kind of outlaws, but he still had no use for lesser crooks, and he dedicated a good amount of his time and resources to hunting down certain most wanted felons and slaying them.
Gladiatrix merely amused herself with shallow pleasures like clothes, jewels, and stolen loot from fine stores across the world.
And then the Crime Syndicate came calling.
Alexander Luthor worked without rest to perfect his Brainiac robot. He knew that the Crime Syndicate would be forced into battle with the League because no two groups with such similar goals could long survive together without conflict. However, when they were finished, he would have to stop the winner to make his world safe once more. He had vowed not to send them back to that bubble, and he wouldn't do so, since he had always found it a bit inhumane. Still, he wouldn't let them run wild, either. That was where his robot would come into play.
The green-skinned andnoid looked like a man except for the weird skin coloration and the web of electronic wiring across his bald skull. "Imagine it, Lois!" said Luthor, beaming. "Brainiac, here, will be an artificial intellect with the capacity to learn and improve himself. A self-repairing android with illusions of grandeur, so to speak. He will think at a level far beyond any known computer. He will anticipate probabilities and form strategies appropriately. In short, he will be the perfect robotic aide to help me deal with the Syndicate and all the problems I must deal with regularly, such as recharging my armor."
Lois kissed him and said, "Alex, I think you're wonderful. What happens next?"
"Well, dear, I imagine they will meet, and the fight will begin," he said with a worried look on his face. "I hope it goes as expected."
"How could it go right?" said Lena. "How could a killer like Power Ring ever do the right thing? He killed our folks. He murdered them like a child swatting a fly! Alex, you've unleashed more monsters on a world beset by them already!"
Alexander started to stop the pretty blonde as she ran to her room in the Fortress, but Brainiac then hummed softly as his eyes gained an almost-human glow. Luthor turned from his sister to gaze upon his new son.
"I am twelfth-level computer intellect and diagnostic system -- designated Brainiac," the android said. "How may I assist you?"
Alex cheered as Lois watched his creation come to life.
In the White House, a blond man paced nervously. "Say you! Say you!" he cried over and over. "Drat -- nothin'! This backwater world won't let me summon the old T-bolt magic, either! That other simp, Johnny Thunder of Earth 2, still has control over the Thunderbolt. It's no use."
He wore a green and gold uniform and was, in fact, the Earth 1 native called Johnny Thunder. He had a counterpart on Earth 2, and both could control a magical being called the Thunderbolt. However, only one could be the rightful master at a given time, and this evil Johnny was out of luck. He had been allowed to stay as a kind of mascot to the Lawless League, but they held him in contempt. He had no influence upon them, and that galled him, for he had in fact created them.
I don't get it, he thought, brooding to himself. In that T-bolt realm, I learned even my thoughts could work the old magic. So when I had the other loser Thunder gagged, his thoughts allowed him to summon enough T-bolt energy to shake off the gag and allow him to say the magic words! Then he beat me. I still could think, though. I used my own thoughts, and they went something like this: "Say, you know, if there was another Lawless League around, I'd be free of this dimension and those do-gooders of Earths 1 and 2!"
Well, sure enough, after I was taken out of the dimension, I was magically brought here. The heroes didn't even notice. They forgot about me, just like the last time I created a Lawless League. But this time, all my magic was gone! I had made one wish, and it was a done deal. This Lawless League was created, and I was put here with them on Earth-3, away from the heroes just like I wished. But they don't listen to me, so what good has it done me? He continued to fume inwardly.
Good question, Johnny.
Darknight frowned beneath his ebony cowl. He knew the computer didn't lie. Data was data. He checked his facts once more and then summoned his team into the Oval Office.
"Hey, Darknight, what's the deal? Iwasjusthavingfunwithsomefineladies," spouted the hyper Speedfreak.
Darknight held up one black-gloved hand. Speedfreak stopped talking immediately.
"We have a problem," whispered the cold-hearted man. "This world is not entirely free of superpowered beings after all. The Crime Syndicate I spoke of yesterday have broken free of their prison. They could be upon us any moment."
Green Gladiatrix pouted. "But, D.N., you said we were the only ones with special powers!"
"He was wrong," said Atalanta. "He's only human... not that you can tell from out here."
"I realized the Crime Syndicate existed, but I never thought they would break free," said Darknight.
"We can handle them easily," broke in Hypernion. "I suspect Luthor freed them. I've had no luck tracking his armor's transportational signal, either. I made it to his lab, but it was deserted. I did find family pictures, though -- a wife, a kid, and a blonde beauty. We may have to hunt them down and teach the only hero this world has ever known the error of his ways."
"That's our job!" hissed Owlman as he stepped out of the office's shadows.
The others, including the mysterious Darknight, were startled.
"Owlman!" said Hypernion. "I suppose you've come here from some dark lair to ask us to let you join the League?"
The agile, middle-aged man spoke in a low hiss. "Not so fast, my alien friend. I have come here to offer your team a chance to join the Crime Syndicate. We were here first, and we have the experience and power to run this world. Squatter's rights, you know." His hand dropped down to his belt as he spoke.
Darknight edged slowly around the corner of the desk. "Your team may only exist as our servants or as our victims," said the black-caped man. "Get him!"
Owlman's smoke pellet billowed out around him as he rolled backward and dodged the pouncing Darknight.
Speedfreak caught him by his cape and had started to pummel him, when Ultraman's fist closed around the youth's red-and-gold-gloved hands. "Keep your hands to yourself!" he commanded as he crushed down on the speedster. Gladiatrix fired a huge fist into him, and he fell beneath her blows.
Then Superwoman tackled her Amazon Princess counterpart, and the fight exploded through the building. "I'll teach you to pose as an Amazon Princess!" said Superwoman as she slapped Atalanta through the desk. "I'm the only Amazon Princess on this world!"
Superwoman wrapped her lasso around Atalanta's throat and began to choke the other Amazonian beauty. Atalanta coiled her legs up close to her chest, then extended them with a sudden force that slammed into Superwoman's stomach and sent her rolling across the carpet.
"It will take more than the likes of you to best the daughter of Hippolyta!" she said, rubbing her throat.
Superwoman grimaced. "Again I say that I alone have the right to a title you boast so freely!"
Ultraman smirked as he held the fleet Speedfreak in his mighty grip. In spite of the blond man's best efforts to vibrate free of the Kryptonian's arms, the pressure slowly bore down upon him.
"I need some help here!" he gasped.
Hypernion drove a fist into Power Ring's sharp chin and shoved by him to tackle Ultraman from behind. He wrapped one arm around his foe's throat and pulled with his own considerable power. "What's wrong?" said Hypernion. "Aren't you used to facing someone capable of matching you, you bullying thug?"
Ultraman shoved Speedfreak into the darting Gladiatrix and elbowed Hypernion in the face. He whirled to drive a second and then a third punch into the other Kryptonian before saying, "I may be a bullying thug, but I'm a bullying thug who's beating you senseless!"
Johnny Quick raced around the dazed Speedfreak and delivered a rapid series of jabs to his chin. "You punk! It takes more than a fancy name to run my race!" he said defiantly.
Power Ring had been wrestling with Gladiatrix until her concentration was broken by the impact with Speedfreak. She hesitated and quickly found herself bound from neck to heel by a crushing green cocoon. "Doll, you make a right pretty package all wrapped up like that! Maybe later I can unwrap you," he laughed.
Darknight tossed three sharp projectiles at Owlman's head and cursed as Owlman ducked beneath them and lashed out with a stunning side-kick. "I am a master of every known form of martial arts," declared Darknight. "I trained myself from childhood to become the very best the world has ever seen!"
Owlman sliced his ribs with a taloned glove and said as he stared at him with compelling eyes, "I have news for you. Your world hasn't seen the likes of me!"
The combat spilled out into the hallway as Ultraman tossed Hypernion through a solid oak door. "Glad I don't have to pay for that," he smirked.
He followed his enemy in flight down the long corridor where powerful men had often made history, but none had ever been quite as powerful as these two Kryptonians.
Back in the Oval Office, Atalanta deflected a tossed chair and smiled at Superwoman. "I see I touch a raw nerve whenever I boast of my proud Amazon heritage," she said with a purr to her voice. "Could you be less the daughter of Hippolyta than the black sheep of her litter?"
"Touch this!" roared Superwoman as she jumped across the entire room to land with both boots in the other woman's face.
Ultraman flew back inside the Oval Office from the hallway and surveyed the battle.
Power Ring was sitting on top of the imprisoned Gladiatrix and kissing her passionately, while Johnny Quick smirked from the sides. Speedfreak lay stunned.
The two Amazons had almost ended their combat, since Atalanta's efforts to rise to her feet were ended with a swift kick to the face by Superwoman's high-heeled golden boot. She pulled Atalanta upward by her long black hair and said, "Now tell me who is a true daughter of Hippolyta!"
Ultraman saw Darknight cornered and badly cut as he resisted Owlman's mental control with his last breath.
He walked up to his allies, and with astonishing speed and ruthless skill, he slammed his fists into the heads of Power Ring and Johnny Quick, then froze Superwoman to the floor with frigid breath.
He smiled as she gasped in outrage. "Have you lost your senses?" she demanded.
Hypernion then dropped down from above and clipped her into unconsciousness while dragging in a battered Ultraman.
Owlman fought fiercely and screamed, "You're not Ultraman!"
The blue-costumed form of the supposed Ultraman shimmered to change to a hulking green figure. "But I do come from another planet if that counts -- Mars!" said the figure known as the Martian Warlord.
Owlman quickly fell to his knees as Darknight pressed against his throat with precise skill and the Martian overcame his telepathic powers.
Hypernion smiled at his allies in the Lawless League. "I guess we forgot to tell them that, unlike their little social club, there are more than five of us!" The others laughed appreciatively.
"Do we kill them?" asked Speedfreak.
"I have a much more interesting idea!" said a grinning Atalanta as she kicked Superwoman's stunned body.