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Beneath the Capitol Building in Arnoldtown, D.C., rested an enormous complex full of equipment. Uniformed staffers followed orders and performed their duties with the emotionless efficiency of a hive full of drones.
However, their master was male and most assuredly full of emotion and energy. He watched his slaves with a feeling of satisfaction. From this secret base, he could monitor the daily activities of dozens of world leaders; President Ferraro, Prime Minister McCartney, and other notables were all under his close and keen scrutiny. He effortlessly took in all he saw and just as easily gave orders to his pawns to both anticipate and, in some cases, promote the agendas of these oblivious world leaders.
He also watched as Superwoman derailed a train out of spite. On another screen he saw Alexander Luthor, the heroic champion of justice, laboring within his supposedly secret Fortress of Science. A leer crossed the watcher's handsome face as he watched Luthor's sister change clothes. It was easy for a man of his talents to run the world; however, at times, wild cards like the Crime Syndicate or Luthor's Secret Society of Super-Heroes threatened his clockwork precision. It was also, in truth, a bit boring to have everything come so easily to him. Thus, after years of being a puppet master behind the scenes of world events, the brilliant mastermind was ready to engage in some more physical pursuits.
"Alert the Brethren. I believe it is time we made our first appearance on the public stage and brought the curtain down on the Syndicate and Luthor's little coterie posthaste," he said.
Yes, it was time he stepped out of shadows and
claimed his world.
In a desert compound in the Southwest United States, a handsome man smiled as he looked over his property and saw his people at work. Since Jim Jones had founded his Mars Gate Commune, he had attracted dozens of confused wealthy people with his combination of mind-reading anticipation of what they wanted to hear -- which also allowed him to access their potential usefulness to him -- and his alien philosophy. Oh, he didn't believe a word of the religions of his planet. Still, he used his skills to lull the naive into his service.
As Jim Jones -- a form of his Martian name, J'imm J'onzz -- the former Martian warlord and terrorist had made himself wealthy and powerful. It was necessary for him to have a power base separate from his role as the Crime Syndicate's Martian Murderer. His shape-changing skills enabled him to become the seemingly benign Jim Jones and use his alien lore to attract followers.
He grinned coldly as a pretty young woman approached slowly. He scanned her mind routinely. He saw a need for a father figure, the loss of an older man from her young life; he saw hunger, and he was eager to take advantage of the beauty.
"My child, what is your name and your need?" he said suavely. She stared intently up at him with piercing dark eyes.
"I am Arani. I need a place where I can belong. All my life in India, and here as well, I have been alone and different. Help me belong!" she pleaded.
J'imm nodded. "Of course I shall. The ways of my mentors from the Red Planet are open to all!" he said -- again routinely. As they strolled across his huge complex, Mars Gate, she began to smile.
"I would offer my all to you!" she said.
He reached out his hand. "And I am humbled."
She said, "Not yet, but you will be." She smiled as a burst of flame shot from her hand and encircled him.
He screamed and returned to his normal white Martian form -- alien and powerful.
She laughed, "I know all about you, alien trash! I also have your worst fear at my very command!" He elongated to escape her ring of fire and reeled backward as her other hand blocked his path with jutting ice blasts. "Call me Centrigrade," she cooed as she skillfully sent fire rolling into him.
He fell stunned and a victim to both psychic fear of flame and the real energy she had unleashed. "How? I read her mind!" he groaned.
"And as one of the Brethren, I am immune to your
petty mental probes," she laughed as she kicked his fallen form.
Owlman and Raven watched from atop a skyscraper in Gotham City as Big Jim Gordon's mob rushed out of the museum with a glass case.
"Owlman, there they go," said the young punk called Raven.
"Indeed, they do. Now, tell me -- what is it that we shall do?" said the scowling man in gray.
Raven smiled coldly. The man who murdered his father, Boss Zucco, was his worst enemy. He secretly hated Owlman with a passion. Yet he also knew that he could never kill the fatal man until he had learned all he had to teach. Thus, he acted the role of the dutiful pupil and sidekick and said, "We wait and follow them to their base, then we rob the robbers."
Owlman smiled coldly. "Well said, lad. Now to do exactly that."
He reached for the belt line that would enable him to swing off the towering structure but frowned as his keen eyes noticed the movement of someone in the shadows. He gestured furtively to his ward, who nodded.
At once, Raven ducked as Owlman hurled a razor-sharp projectile through the air to slice through the old, worn masonry above the shadowy form.
As bricks cascaded down to bury the groaning man in the one-piece red costume, Owlman laughed. "Ah, my old foe, the Bouncing Man, just learned the definition of a fitting term -- rebound!" he sneered. He crossed the roof to lift the stunned hero's arm. "Dead -- good. Idiot!" he said.
He pondered the Bouncing Man's very existence. It seemed as if since Alex Luthor had gathered a few do-gooders together that other weak-minded dolts had taken to costumes as well. All of them sought to bring in the dreaded Crime Syndicate, and none had ever come close. Bouncing Man had made three attempts to trap Owlman with his inane rubber-suited stunts. They would have amused him -- Dr. Thomas Wayne -- had he not been irritated by the foolish man's presumption.
Raven cackled as he rolled the body off the roof after considerable effort in clearing away the rubble.
Owlman suppressed a grin. "What are you doing, lad?" he asked, though he already knew the likely reply.
"Just want to see if his body bounces when he hits the ground," said a smiling Raven.
Before Owlman could reply, he saw a newcomer. "Not another one of these dolts," he hissed.
The newcomer wore gold and black. He flipped agilely through the air and landed softly in front of Owlman. He thrust forward with a jabbing punch that connected even as Owlman used his cloak to deflect some of the force. Owlman twisted as the silent man kicked him in the head and elbowed Raven's startled form aside with precise but violent force.
Owlman cursed. "You're very good. You even copied a few moves I thought were known only to me and one woman I left for dead."
The man in gold and black said nothing. He merely ducked Owlman's attack and caught him in a crushing embrace.
He released him as Owlman opened a pellet of noxious gas. He fell hard, and Owlman sneered, "Good -- but not good enough."
He turned to Raven but fell flat as his foe suddenly rose from the roof with a combination of nerve jabs. He was carried off as a battered Raven watched in dismay.
"Good but not good enough? That's what I was thinking
about you," whispered the Brethren member called Exclesior.
Superwoman was in a bad mood. That in and of itself was neither unusual nor surprising. Princess Diana had been infamous for her rages and violence, both on her Sanctuary Isle home and since she had departed from that domain of peace and love. Now, the Amazon Princess charged through the lush campus of Holliday College near Georgetown and tossed back her head in laughter. She was amused at the chaos her rampage had created. She gripped a statue honoring the founder -- a fat woman with heavy curls -- and shattered it to dust. Screams greeted her rampage, and she scornfully called after the fleeing women.
"Bah -- you simpering maids are not worthy of my ire. You are as puny and powerless before me as your spineless males," she said.
She lifted a car and spun it across the campus, only to curse herself as she realized again how unsatisfied she was. No matter how much power she had or how many times she exercised it for pure sport or malice, she gained little in the way of fulfillment. She recalled her childhood on Sanctuary Isle. Her sisters had urged her to embrace their path of love and truth, but she had looked down on such virtues as being beneath her. She was a royal. She was born to command. She still felt a sense of loss and fury when she recalled how her title had been stripped from her by a disapproving mother.
Now she turned to see a man with blond hair and a blue uniform rushing toward her -- a campus security guard. For the merest moment, he had reminded her of someone else from her past. She listened as he cried, "Stop -- I'll shoot if I have to!"
She smirked coldly and noticed his shaking hands. "Oh, you'll have to -- I can assure you of that, little man," she purred.
She jumped forward and crushed his gun around his hand. She slapped him down and then coldly crushed him beneath another hastily grabbed car. "You look like somebody I hate. Too bad for you," she said bitterly.
"You look like a spoiled girl in need of a beatin', sister!" said a black man as he flew toward her on a stream of energy blasts that lifted him aloft as he blasted away at the ground.
Superwoman smirked again. "Oh? And who are you to dare challenge me?"
He said, "Storm is my name, Legs. And if you weren't such a witch, I'd be hearing you call it out again and again."
She reached for a bench and bent it into a ball of metal. She hurled it forward with a grunt. He concentrated, causing his energy blasts to melt it, and he stepped forward. "C'mon, Mama, we can dance this dance all night, but I got things to do, and they surely don't include you," he said in a deliberately taunting manner.
She grew angry. "Insolent dog! Luthor never dared demean me with such brazen words!" she cried.
Storm laughed, "Luthor? Luthor? He wouldn't last a day in my neighborhood."
He gestured, and Superwoman gasped as his energies swept her off her feet and slammed her through a wall. She shook off brick and struggled upward, only to receive another blast. She disappeared beneath the rubble, and as she erupted skyward in fury, her foe darted aside and gripped her around the hips.
He planted his lips against hers, and she glowed briefly before passing out at his feet. "See, honey, my energy can be internalized, too -- but you learned that the hard way," he said.
"Ironic, my resorting to artificial street jive on a
campus so like the ones I attended while studying to be a physician,"
he laughed. "A brother does what the Brethren want, though," he said as
he dragged Superwoman away.
Ultraman's encounter with the Brethren occurred outside the tiny community of Smallville, Kansas. He had formed an attraction to the rural town and the elderly Kent family who dwelled there during a period of amnesia. Even now, after regaining his sense of self, he felt something akin to affection for the farm family who had sheltered him. They had no idea Cal was Ultraman, nor did they know him as Clark Kent -- the big city newscaster he had been for a time. They only thought of him as the strong, taciturn man who enjoyed their company and returned to visit them from time to time. Hours before, he had been sitting across from Jon Kent. The slight old man had watched him with an intent but warm scrutiny until he had said, "What's wrong?"
Jonathan Kent had smiled gently and replied, "Something's botherin' you. I can tell you're thinking about someone. Is it your old man? Or a woman?"
Cal had shrugged. "You got me figured out. I was recalling my own father. He was cold, critical, and so smug. He thought he was so big. No one could touch him... but he was wrong."
Jonathan said, "Son, you have this bitterness toward him. He's gone now. Let it go."
Cal frowned. "He's gone, but I still hear his big words and see his scowling face. Nothing I ever did was good enough for him."
Jonathan knew Cal harbored some secret. He spoke of his late father as if he had somehow been responsible for his demise. The old farmer knew not to pry too much too soon. "I reckon not many of us ever get a father and son moment where the parent says he respects the son as a man in his own right. It's what we all crave, but not what happens very often in life."
Cal nodded. "Yeah. Maybe you're right. I hate the old man, but it would have been different if he'd ever shown that he thought I was worth something."
He departed and -- as Ultraman -- flew across the Kansas wheat fields. The farmer is more like the kind of father I should have had. Funny that some Earthling could be so wise, and my own brilliant crimelord father on Krypton never had a clue as to what I was feeling, he thought.
"How wise for a brutal barbarian in need of a sound thrashing," said a taunting voice in his mind.
"Huh? J'onzz? You stay out of my head -- I've warned ya," he muttered as he thought of his Martian ally.
"I'm not the alien vermin, alien vermin! I'm a natural born Earthling. And I'm going to demonstrate just how superior a man I am," echoed the voice as a painful blast of mental force struck Ultraman's brain.
He crashed and formed a huge trench in the earth before roaring in anger and rising up again. "Face me like a man -- I dare you!" he shouted as he staggered with vertigo from the mental attack.
"Oh, I will -- but not like a mere man. More like homo superior -- mutant man. I am one who was born with something more than the common lot of humanity. That gift enabled me to run this world in shadow and secret, but now something -- call it boredom -- leads me out to openly display my inherent greatness," said the man, who landed nearby.
He was handsome and imposing, but he wore no colorful costume. He wore a costly designer suit like some governmental leader or head of a company. The brown-haired man smiled and sidestepped the attack while bringing both fists down on his charging foe's broad back.
"So easy. Sad, really. How like a caveman to react with mindless violence when faced with a man of the future," he said.
He gripped Ultraman's chin, and his eyes flashed with power. "You will never lift your hands against me again. It is unthinkable. You simply cannot attack me. Does that little brain of yours understand my directive?" he commanded.
Ultraman stood dazed and nodded.
"Excellent. Join me and my Brethren of Mutants as we conquer your little band of renegades once and for all," said the man.
He adjusted his suit and flecked away a bit of lint.
"Note to self: I must see about inventing a fabric that resists dirt
more effectively. Perhaps I'll have a few minutes extra after ridding
earth of the Crime Syndicate and Luthor's misfits," he said.
In Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, the other members of the Crime Syndicate gathered in Microbe's lab. The six-inch-tall man was a gifted scientist, and he held his own with the group by sheer intellect. He looked across the room toward the two he knew the best. Power Ring, a slender man with a widow's peak amidst balding hair, was powerful, reckless, and seemingly without fear or wisdom.
His crony, Charlie Drake -- also known as Johnny Quick -- was a dangerous man with a stolen power of super-speed. He was a lecher with an eye for the ladies and little time for planning or using his brain over his agility and lethal speed. He said, "Look, Ken Doll, we know the drill. Beakbrain, Muscles, Marvin, and Babydoll have been missing for days. You want us to search for them."
Microbe smiled. "Indeed I would, although I'd prefer to see their reactions to your nicknames."
Power Ring nodded. "Yeah, Diana's gonna kill Speedy here, one of this days."
A gangly blond man grinned and said, "Hey, he's got a point. She is hot! Right, Deadeye?" Rubberneck glanced left and right as if seeking approval. He was an attention-starved man who wanted nothing more than peer approval and public infamy.
The bowman called Deadeye nodded. "If you go for that type."
Microbe cleared his throat. "I have learned they all met with violent attacks. If someone is seeking out Syndicate members, then we could all be in peril."
"You know, if I was smaller than the typical Rita Farr dress-up doll, I'd be a bit of a coward, too," sneered Owlman as he stepped out of the shadows.
"Owlman! We thought you were in trouble," said Deadeye.
"Your concern is truly touching. Still, it is a bit misplaced," said the man in the dark cape.
Superwoman stepped inside and said, "True, for we are better than we have ever been before. You are the ones in danger."
She smiled coldly and, with one right hook, dropped the startled Power Ring to the floor. "His energy shield was useless against my unexpected attack," she said, rubbing her hands together.
Johnny Quick rocketed forward, only to gasp as the huge form of the Martian Murderer appeared from thin air to strike him down. Ultraman swooped down and attacked his allies as well.
Owlman had already knocked Microbe cold with a pellet of gas, and Ultraman's mighty power had slapped both Rubberneck and Deadeye to the ground. They looked toward their master as the leader of the Brethren entered in their wake.
"Well done for humans. Your mental reconditioning was
flawless. I almost hate to kill you all, but then again you are the
old, and progress is so cruel to those left behind genetically," he
said, smiling.
The defeated Crime Syndicate members awoke to find themselves imprisoned within their own headquarters, the Eyrie of Evil. Storm, Excelsior, Centrigrade, and their leader watched with smug looks on their faces while the four mentally dominated Syndicators stood silently.
Storm, the black man with the keen mind beneath the verbal facade of the street thug, said, "You did it! I can't believe we took down the whole group."
His leader nodded. "I always knew we would emerge victorious. We are a better race. The mutants shall always triumph over lesser beings."
Centigrade kissed him passionately. "Oh, Adam -- you thrill me when you talk in such a manner."
Excelsior said, "I could thrill you more. Remember, my mutant gift is being able to duplicate other folks' abilities at a higher level."
Adam said, "But not my own. You should recall I mentally conditioned you not to ever challenge me."
Excelsior shrugged. "I know, I know. Sorry, boss."
Adam laughed and clapped Storm on the back. "Look at them. Quick and Power Ring are beside themselves trying to figure out where they think they know me from," he chuckled.
Johnny Quick said, "I can still speak, even though your weird science robs me of my speed. You're that Captain Comet creep!"
Adam Blake said, "No, my benighted foe. I am his counterpart from this Earth, although I have never needed a colorful costume or nom du crime. I have used my mind-reading abilities and other mental gifts to control and guide every President since Stevenson. Thus I have never needed to publicly be a figure of reknown. Still, boredom led me to form my Brethren and subdue you rogues once and for all. Luthor will fall next."
Microbe struggled as his size-weight controls remained inert. He's good -- too good. Can't even shrink, he thought.
"No, you can't shrink, Mr. Raymond Palmer of Ivy Town. You can't do anything," said Blake as he read the scientist's mind.
Centrigade giggled and snuggled closer to Blake. "I suppose I should sent these pawns out to kill Luthor and his gang, but I wonder if perhaps I would not be better served to simply eliminate them all now," he said.
Storm caressed Superwoman. "I could see the wisdom in that, my brother."
Adam Blake nodded. "So be it. We shall take down the Secret Society and rid ourselves of the remaining Syndicate members Sundown and Chaos soon enough. Now for these poor primitives."
Rubberneck wondered where the missing Syndicate members were. Chaos spent much time away in some mystical realm, while Sundown was a loner at best. He thought of his ex-wife Sue. She was in some shelter for battered women. He didn't know where. Too bad. He'd liked to have slapped her around one final time.
Deadeye thought of his fortune. He had embezzled millions and only used his bow for thrills. He wished he could see his drug addict ward Roy one last time. They'd enjoyed many evenings of substance abuse together.
As Adam Blake walked toward the prisoners, a blinding flash of energy filled the cave.
"Mortal swine! You little realize how much you have angered me. The immortal Dr. Chaos shall sift you like chaff," said the mysterious Syndicator who appeared in magical fire.
Blake said, "That accursed helm shields him from my mental gifts. Syndicators, kill him!"
Ultraman charged his ally. "Sorry, Chaos -- I can't help myself!" He slammed into the wizard with superhuman speed, and they crashed through the cavern walls.
Superwoman darted forward to help subdue Chaos but received a shock as her vision failed her. "Sundown," she muttered.
She staggered blindly as her final partner emerged from the darkness. He and Chaos had arrived just in time to stop Adam Blake and the Brethren from killing their friends. The Martian Murderer elongated one arm to wrap it around Chaos as his body erupted into a flaming nimbus.
"I regret this, but it is necessary," said Chaos. He gestured, and a black glyph appeared to wrench Owlman, Ultraman, Superwoman, and the Martian from Blake's spell.
Owlman gasped, "What did you do to us? I felt as though my very soul was being torn asunder!"
Chaos said, "It nearly was. I could do no less to shake Blake's mastery of you."
Superwoman said, "I'll kill him!"
Blake frowned. "They are free. Chaos is shielding their minds as well. We'll need to do this the old-fashioned way." He darted forward and wrestled the furious Amazon to the ground, where they struggled.
"You male swine! I'll kill you for using me as your toy!" she screamed.
Adam Blake blasted her mentally and smiled as she fell still once more. "I can still defeat them, even if I cannot control them," he gloated.
Storm sent his potent energy blasts into the Martian as J'imm J'onzz flickered out of sight. "Don't need to see ya to fry ya," said Storm. He blasted out in all directions but gasped as Sundown used his ability to create blindness to place Storm's world in total night.
The wild energy blasts threatened to take down the cavern's roof, and Ultraman cursed as he reluctantly left the battle to protect his still-captive allies Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Microbe, and the rest. "Don't have time to nursemaid you losers," he said.
Owlman rolled under the energy beams to connect with a precise nerve punch that left Storm stunned. "Finesse beats raw power every time," smirked Owlman.
The returning Aien Assassin slammed both fists into the ground and sent Centrigrade reeling off her feet. "Oh, power has its uses, too," he said. Centrigrade's icy spear impaled him, but he reformed his amazingly protean body to attack her again. "Should have stuck to fire, little girl," he said.
She screamed and sent fire toward him, only to see Dr. Chaos shield his alien ally. She gasped and ran for cover as the Martian reached out his arms for her nubile form.
Meanwhile, Excelsior mimicked Ultraman's strength to knock him backward. "Anything you can do, I can do better," he said.
Ultraman cursed and said, "I won't believe that!" He fought forward and staggered beneath a rain of super strong blows. He gritted his teeth and fought onward as Excelsior's superior power yielded to Ultraman's near-mindless rage.
Adam Blake turned to face his foes. "You've defeated my Brethren, and thanks to the inhuman Chaos, you've robbed me of my most potent weapon. Still, I can always learn from this battle and take needed steps to prepare for our next fight," he said calmly.
Owlman smiled coldly. "Why do you think we'll let you live to fight this promised rematch?"
Ultraman shook free of the now-battered Excelsior to smile and say, "Yeah, smart guy -- this ends now!"
Blake helped Centrigrade and Storm to their feet as Excelsior staggered over. "I fail to see why you gloat prematurely. You haven't taken into account our fifth member," he said calmly.
The Martian Murderer shook his head. "I detect no fifth mind."
Owlman said, "Nor do I see any hidden figure."
Ultraman said, "He's bluffing!" He raised his fist and prepared to strike the cocky form of Adam Blake.
Microbe, who had been freed by Sundown, cried, "Be careful, Ultraman!"
Power Ring nodded. "Yeah, this guy is smart."
Ultraman smirked and swung with full force, only to nearly decapitate the Martian. "He's got me under some spell!" gasped Ultraman.
He drove back his allies with super-force and hurled himself directly into Dr. Chaos' mystical energy. The blast shook the cavern and allowed Blake and his team to vanish.
"He got away," muttered Owlman.
Quick sputtered, "How'd he take you over, Ultraman? I thought Doc had shielded us from his mental reconditioning."
Dr. Chaos rose to his feet. "I did, you lout! But Blake's hidden ally did something different. He bodily possessed the Kryptonian," he said.
Ultraman nodded. "It was like when I got ready to flatten Blake. Something entered my body and used me to hold you all back so he could escape."
Owlman nodded. "I admire his planning. He had his fifth member -- the one who can possess others -- enter their bodies as a wraith hidden within his own body all that time."
Deadeye nodded ruefully. "Got to hand it to him. That's ingenious."
Superwoman snorted disdainfully. "It was not the tactic of a true warrior."
Owlman grinned. "Still, I admire his thinking. Those mutants weren't half-bad."
Ultraman said, "Next time I'll be ready."
Beneath the Capitol, in their hidden lair, Adam Blake and his Brethren of Mutants recovered from their battle.
"That Ultraman was like some engine of raw destruction," sighed Excelsior.
Centrigrade whined, "And the Martian! He scared me to death, my love."
Storm said nothing as he nursed his sore neck.
Adam Blake gestured to the curly haired blond man who had emerged from within Blake's own body. "Joshua, here, saved the day. I knew having him stay within me would be a saving stroke someday. It was a good day for mutantkind when the government made your father a super-soldier and unwittingly led to your own birth with mutant gifts," he said.
The silent Joshua smiled and signed rapidly.
Blake laughed, "Yes, lad. We'll recruit more allies and regroup before our next battle. I have learned that even a man of the future can make mistakes, but the beauty of our situation is that we have all the time we need."
His laughter echoed beneath the center of government, while above, the United States government and President Geraldine Ferraro obeyed his every command.