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In a plush penthouse, a blond man with a beard shook his head in disbelief. "Far freakin' out! They got them all? A superpowered goon like Ultraman, Superwoman -- a babe who can benchpress a Chevy, a schemer like Owlman, and even that reject from the sci-fi cinema?" he said as he paced his luxurious home.
"Calm down, Oliver. You weren't there. There was nothing I could do," said the red-and-black-costumed Microbe.
"Palmer, you couldn't get lucky with a Barbie doll. Nobody expects you to be worth anything in a fight," snapped the dark-clad man called Sundown.
A man with a snaking elongated neck chugged a liquid beverage and shrugged. "Hey, it's like when I was with the mob. If we can't get along together, we'll be easy pickings for the cops... or the super-cops in this case," said Rubberneck.
Oliver Queen, the ace archer called Deadeye, rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah -- we all know about your glory days as part of the Kennedy mob. You and the godfather were tight... yadda, yadda, yadda... The question is -- how can we find our partners in the Crime Syndicate now that this Monster Society of Good captured them all? It's not like they're in the phone book."
Sundown said, "What could we do if we did find them? That society of freaks is plenty powerful. We aren't that strong. Even if you called in your junkie ward or that punk kid Raven that Owlman hangs with, we'd be fodder against those do-gooders."
Deadeye said, "Okay, just be glad I let you losers crash here at my place. Don't push me. I'm no one-man charity. The Monster Society can rot as far as I'm concerned. Maybe our old pals should do the same."
Microbe said, "You'd be in the street if you hadn't embezzled your fortune from others."
"You can't talk to him like that. He's worth all of you combined!" shrieked a brassy blonde who emerged from a bedroom wearing a very brief teddy.
"Easy, sexy bird. Your man has the situation under control," said Deadeye as she sat on his lap.
"Well, anyone who messes with Deadeye has to answer to the Silk Canary," she said.
Microbe said, "The Silk Canary? She was the Plucked Canary during her days as a stripper."
"Exotic dancer!" shrieked the angry woman as she jumped up, placing both hands on her hips in defiance. "Listen, Ken Doll -- I have a real black belt. I know more about fighting than all of you. I can kill with my bare hands. I have killed more than one pig before!" she shouted.
Sundown began, "You can do more with your bare--"
"Hold it!" Rubberneck interrupted. "Dana can fight -- we all know that. She's okay. Now lay off her and help us figure out a plan for our future."
Microbe eyed the pouting woman and smiled. "You know, with a little lab work, I could turn her into a real super-threat. I know you can dance, but how's your singing, Legs?"
Dana Lance smiled confidently. "I'm a real pro."
The next few days passed swiftly as Microbe experimented on the woman, and finally they emerged from his lab with smug expressions.
She now wore a black wig and a brief pink costume with fishnet hosiery. "I'm the Silk Canary for real. Microbe altered my voicebox. I can create sonic waves like an amplified songbird -- I call it my canary cry!" she squealed.
She raised her head and opened her mouth. A piercing wave of sound erupted through the room, leaving the other thugs staring in amazement.
"Good going, babe!" said Deadeye as he grabbed his lover. He nodded at the criminal scientist and said, "You did good, Microbe."
Sundown said, "Very well, we have a new member. Still, what about our missing allies?"
"We carry on without 'em! We can do quite well on our own. We don't need them. They may have been the founders of our criminal group, but old blood must make way for the new," said Microbe with a sly grin.
Rubberneck said, "Well, with old Luthor dead, you may have a point. His Society of Super-Heroes is useless without his keen mind running things, and we can avoid Dr. Atlanta's Monster Society of Good by sticking to profitable but low-profile jobs."
Deadeye grinned. "Sure. I only do my thing with the bow from a desire to get some kicks. I'm already loaded."
He frowned a moment and added, "Weird how Alexander
Luthor just got melted to dust like that. He was fighting a chick named
Lady Shrike when a ray just destroyed them both right before the eyes
of our Crime Syndicate pals. They barely got to celebrate before their
own defeat by Sivana's group of heroes. Life sure is funny."
While the other criminals of the Crime Syndicate pondered the bowman's words, Alexander Luthor himself was also engaged in deep thought. The brilliant scientist and hero was still very much alive, although he was a prisoner. He gazed out of a cell window, watching two moons in an alien sky.
"Fascinating! This primitive world is like something out of Burroughs. It combines barbaric splendor with bizarre creatures and alien science. I would give my right arm to be free and to have the time to study their culture, but with my family and friends wondering about my very existence and possibly thinking me dead, I must get back to earth."
He was bald with a red beard. He wore a red and blue suit of armor, although most of his weaponry was powerless now. He had used many of his resources in the Games.
"I never thought I'd end up fighting for survival in blood sports like some gladiator from an old film," he said.
The sultry redhead who shared his cell snorted in contempt. "I didn't exactly expect to go from corrupt ex-cop to captive warrior woman, either," she said as she reclined in one corner.
She had flowing red hair and wore a bikini top of gold with red and green tights and red slippers. However, the most remarkable feature of the alien woman's attire was the harness that held her wings. She was a former member of the Wingmen, the police force of the world called Thanagar. She had been a crooked cop, and when her crimes were exposed, she had fled that world for Earth. Her journey had brought her to the Crime Syndicate, and she had toyed with the villain called Power Ring until a sudden battle with the heroic Luthor had resulted in the odd couple being transported from Earth to their current prison.
"I wonder if we would have been better off dead. We both thought that energy beam that hit us when we were fighting was a death ray. However, instead of killing us, it brought us far across space to this vile dump," she said. Her name was Shayera, and she called herself Lady Shrike.
She gazed at Luthor and shook her head. He was so moral and so rigidly noble. He reminded her of her former colleagues in the police force on Thanagar. The Wingmen had been famous for their valor and their rectitude. However, Shayera had turned bad. She and her partner Katar had betrayed the code of their world's legal system. Then Katar had betrayed her as well, and she now felt that old rush of hate as she recalled the handsome ex-cop. Katar, wherever you are, may you be eaten by a tigracat, she thought. Or better still, may I find you and rend you with my bare hands.
She said, "I know those losers in the Crime Syndicate won't bother to try to rescue me, so I hope your own allies care more for you than mine do for me."
Luthor sighed. "I am lucky to be loved, and I have good friends. Still, the odds that they will find us or even realize that we're not dead aren't good. My sister is precognitive, and she saw the events of my death. I mean... she had a vision in which I died. I fear she must think that the ray that brought us here actually killed us. That would make her vision correct."
A rumbling sound came closer as a burly guard opened their door. He wore spiked armor and carried a glowing blue staff. Past experience had taught the two prisoners not to risk getting touched with the neural disrupter. Escape was not an option while their captor carried such a potent weapon.
"Prepare yourselves. It is once more time for your combat. You will fight anew in the Great Games arena for the amusement of our master," he announced.
Shayera said, "I'd like to get my hands on this master. I would teach him not to enslave a woman like me."
Luthor said, "I have noticed your world's ruler watching us from his throne in the arena. He strikes me as being an alien to your world. He moves slightly differently from the other natives of this planet. He isn't a native, is he?"
The guard glanced left and right and then shrugged. "He is, in truth, from your world. He came here by accident, and he used his skills to conquer this planet. It was easy, since our world had known only peace for eons. We had lost the arts of war until he came and forced us to serve him. He overwhelmed us all. He modified our science and used previously benign devices to hurt and kill. He governs us with an iron fist. He is more the tyrant of Rann than the hero. Still, we live, and thus we obey him."
He led the couple out into a huge arena where a crowd had gathered to watch the ritual of battle and blood. A blond man in red and white sat above the rest. He lounged on a throne, and he gazed down at his subjects with a look of cold calculation. He was clearly cruel and violent by nature.
"You have a keen eye, Earthling. Our master is also from Earth. His name is Alec Strange," continued the guard as he shoved them out and a gate closed behind them.
Luthor frowned as he tried to imagine just how one Earthman could dominate an entire world so easily. "He must be a dangerous man. We know he certainly makes effective use of his resources. We had no more arrived here via that teleportation ray than we were detected and arrested by his guards. Alec Strange? That name was in the news once. I think he was a felon convicted of stealing certain priceless archeological treasures. He was a man with no values and no sense of honor. He would enjoy seeing others fight and die for sport."
Shayera said, "I have no interest in his origin. I want to be free. I will be free now." She spun around and kicked Luthor to the ground. She connected with two more kicks and tackled him as he fell. "I will kill you now! I will end your life, and then -- by right of victory -- I will be freed!"
She clawed at his face as he tried to block her attack. The crowd roared with pleasure. They had expected to see the pair fight a captive monster as they had before, but this turn of events excited them as well.
"Lady Shrike -- stop it! You and I should be allies. We both have a common goal. We want to be free!" shouted Luthor. He managed to generate a mild shock from his gloves before the wild Thanagarian woman released him and staggered backward.
He saw Alec Strange laughing from above. The man was
cocky and ruthless, and Luthor wondered again how he could free himself
and possibly this world from the tyrant of Rann.
The answer came from above as a terrible roar filled the air. The stadium rocked as a torrential wind blasted across the area.
Lady Shrike gasped as her wings were nearly torn from her back. "Curse those winds! It is those winds that prevent me from flying out of here. I can't rise above the arena because those infernal winds would rip me apart," she said.
Luthor said, "The weather here is fascinating, to say the least. Those winds are more powerful than any storm ever seen on Earth." They also seem to stay in constant effect in this world's upper atmosphere. Space travel is obviously impossible. I surmise that Strange came here by the same means we were brought here. He teleported here from Earth."
Shayera said, "Would you just shut up? I'd sooner be slave girl to this Strange than listen to your endless speculations."
As the winds ceased for a time, the two prisoners saw a gate rise, and a scaly green dinosaur emerged from a cavern to face them.
"Lady Shrike, our real foe is here. Help me, or we'll both die," commanded Alex Luthor.
The fiery redhead snarled but obeyed his command. He was a natural leader. She flew low and distracted the slower beast while Luthor slipped around to the side and drove a hastily grabbed metal rod under its scaly protective covering. He knew where to strike, since he had faced such a creature before in these bloody Games.
He grunted as the beast turned and threatened to rip the metal rod out of his grasp. He staggered forward and slipped. The creature rose up above him and loomed over his fallen form for a second, until Shayera slammed into it from above and sent it reeling over. It landed with a crash that drove the rod through its chest.
She forced the rod deeper, and it finally died as she planted one slippered foot on its head. "Victory is mine! Hear me, people of Rann -- no one defeats Shayera of Thanagar!" she cried.
Luthor stood up and said, "My thanks. That was close, indeed. Why did you help me?"
She said, "I decided you're right. Until we escape this nightmare, we need one another."
They looked up to the stands, where Alec Strange
watched with a look of amusement. They had survived one more day on the
barbaric world
of Rann. How many more could they last?
Back in their cell, Alexander Luthor and Shayera ate bowls of watery gruel. Then Luthor frowned as he heard a new sound.
"My armor is damaged. Still, I think the sensors just detected an energy influx not unlike the one that brought us here. We may finally learn why we were brought here."
Lady Shrike had watched for only a split second as a faint energy nimbus surrounded Luthor before she jumped up and wrapped her arms around him, and they were both teleported out of the cell.
They found themselves in a tiny laboratory, where they faced a strange little being with pink skin and insectoid eyes.
"Praise Trya -- it worked! You are free!" he cackled.
Luthor said, "You obviously brought us here from Earth. You also freed us from the cells. Who are you, and why did you do either action?"
He said, "I am your humble servant, Ranjar Ro. I did bring you here, but it was not my device that brought you to Rann. Rather, it was the work of the evil Sardarth."
Shayera gazed at the small alien and smirked. "Just who is Sardarth? Give me answers, or I'll swat you like the bug you resemble!"
Luthor placed a hand on her bare shoulder, but she shrugged it away.
"Sardarth was Rann's greatest scientist. His brilliant work ushered in a golden age. We knew peace, and we devoted our lives to reflection and meditation, until one day Sardarth's beloved daughter Alanna died of a fever. He went mad with grief. He decided to destroy Rann. He used the brilliance that once benefited our world to create a death ray. He decided to test it first by aiming it not at Rann's core but at another world -- your world. His decision was purely random," explained Ranjar Ro.
"The ray didn't destroy the Earth. Instead, it brought Alec Strange here by mistake. It had changed its function in some manner. The dimension of Qward has many odd nuances!" said Ranjar Ro.
Luthor said, "Of course! That ray that brought him here was meant to destroy the world. Something in the transmission from space into our dimensional plane altered the ray from a destructive weapon to a teleportation ray."
Shayera sat down and crossed her legs. She said, "We were brought here by chance. Typical of how my life has gone since..." She stopped, leaving her thoughts unspoken.
Luthor said, "You said Alec took over Rann. What of Sardarth? Did he resist him? Does that ray device still exist?"
The alien man chittered softly and said, "Sardarth died at the hands of Alec Strange. I was Sardarth's aide before his madness. I decided that I could duplicate such a ray beam and use it to summon help from your world. Since Strange was so capable here, I wagered that only another Earthman could defeat him. Truly, I knew you could do so, since I monitored your deeds before acting. You are your world's greatest hero. I beg you to save our planet from your fellow Earthman. Free us from the tyrant of Rann!"
Lady Shrike kicked over her chair and said, "Are you insane? Use your ray beam to send us home, or I'll break you apart!" She shook the smaller alien until Luthor separated them.
"No, Shayera! I won't leave until I have freed this world from Alec Strange, and I won't let Ranjar send you home, either. You'll fight by my side until I choose to let you leave," he said.
She sputtered in rage. "Curse you all! Had I the means to do so, I would see you all die a thousand deaths! I have no choice, since this little fiend is the only one who knows how to work his device. I can't risk a mistake. I could scatter my atoms across the known universe without his skill."
Ranjar Ro spread his pink hands and said, "That is
so, great lady. You will either liberate us or remain a slave."
"Heh-heh-heh! We have succeeded wonderfully! While Rubberneck, Microbe, and other members of the vile band of killers known as the Crime Syndicate are still at large, we have dealt with the more powerful members in a swift and sure strike for justice," he announced.
A beautiful woman with silvery white skin and a filmy dress smiled adoringly at the little bald man. "We owe all our success to you! If not for you, we'd either all be dead, or we'd all be shunned by society as freaks and misfits," said Frost Queen.
Next to the icy Crystal Frost, a lovely blonde girl shivered and nodded in agreement. "You healed me of the injuries I sustained at Owlman's hands. You helped me learn to temper my bestial transformations. I owe my very life as Summer Day and my heroic career as She-Wolf to you," she said.
A huge, chalk-white hulk named Hiram Goldman grinned in pleasure. "Goldman agrees! Atlanta is friend to Goldman!" he said with childlike glee as his massive hands pounded the reinforced table and threatened to shatter it like glass.
The humanoid shark called Great White smiled broadly and said, "Easy, my friend. You wouldn't celebrate our victory by reducing our headquarters to rubble."
Goldman frowned and said, "I am sorry. Great White is always right!"
A tall and powerful woman in a leopard-print bikini ran a hand through her red hair and bellowed with laughter. "You can't teach our big pal table manners, Sharkie. He's no more of a dainty diner than I am," said the former gorilla that had been mutated and transformed into the warrior woman called Gargantua.
A dark-haired man in a white lab coat drank a cola and listened intently. Simon Ecks, also known as Triple-X, was an odd contrast to his inhuman-looking allies. He looked like a mild-mannered scientist, and that was exactly what he was, except for the fact that he could generate three ghostly energy wraiths at will. "I wonder if we could have triumphed over Ultraman, Superwoman, Power Ring, and the rest had we been more domesticated types? I think not," he said thoughtfully.
Dr. Atlanta said, "Ultraman and his gang are not our problem any longer. I fear they are beyond our power to reform or rehabilitate, so it is safer for the world that they remain in Suspendium sleep on the moon, where I left them all after you bested them."
Goldman frowned. "Superwoman was pretty! Goldman wants a pretty plaything like her."
Summer Day leaned closer and allowed the giant golem
to stroke her hair as she whispered, "We all love you, Hiram. Never
forget that."
As the odd group of champions enjoyed their victory celebration, elsewhere their foes went into action. A STAR Labs in Detroit was the site of the Crime Syndicate's attack as Deadeye fired explosive arrows into the government lab, and his partners tore into the security staff with pleasure and malice.
The pink-clad Silk Canary high-kicked a guard in the face and rolled across the floor to send others tumbling. She jumped and opened her mouth in a devastating canary cry that stunned the others.
She dusted herself off and smiled at Deadeye as he swung down from above on an arrowline. "Nice moves, huh, doll?" she said.
The evil archer grinned and slapped her on the bottom. "As always! Now where are our pals?" he said.
Rubberneck suddenly emerged from a thin pipe and said, "I just deactivated the communications system. We've shut down this treasure trove of weapons, and, sadly, we have no audience."
Deadeye stroked his beard and said, "Yeah, I know, you plastic ham -- you want the attention that security cameras would have given you. Too bad. It's just smarter that we do this without drawing down the Monster Society creeps. We need the weapons the eggheads who work here create."
Microbe sailed in as he adjusted his body mass and landed on Silk Canary's shoulder. "I have breached the automated defenses. The wonders of science await us," said the tiny fiend.
Sundown climbed over a railing and shoved a battered guard to the floor. "I had little exercise taking out those bums. A bit of my instant darkness left them blind and helpless."
Microbe said, "Excellent. Now help me dismantle the ion cannon. It shall be a fine addition to our headquarters."
"Not so fast, you little worm!" yelled a commanding voice from above.
Deadeye raised his bow, only to lower it again in shock. "I can't believe my twenty-twenty peepers!" he gasped.
Microbe said, "It can't be!"
Rubberneck gasped as well. "Talk about a double-cross." He pointed to where the colorful forms of the other members of the Crime Syndicate stood above them in defiance and apparently in opposition.
Ultraman stood firm with his hands folded across his broad chest, while Superwoman posed with hands on each hip. Owlman crouched in the shadows with a smile on his face, while the cocky pair of Johnny Quick and Power Ring flanked him on each side. The hulking Martian Murderer flexed his powerful arms as he appeared from thin air.
"We're taking you down. You punks need to learn the errors of your ways," said Quick.
Deadeye rolled aside and released three shafts at blinding speed. "Did you ask for arrows?" he shouted.
Before the arrows could do any damage, Ultraman had crushed them with his super-strength. "Sorry, Queen, but we've turned over a new leaf. We've seen the light, and we're on the side of law and order now," he bellowed.
Quick moved at super-speed and wrapped Rubberneck around a column before he could even react. A dozen well-placed blows in seconds left the agile Rubberman breathless and helpless.
Superwoman had jumped down to slap Silk Canary across the room with one mighty blow. "Hmmph! What a tacky costume -- cheap and degrading!" she said with a snort of disdain as she stood over the outmatched Dana Lance.
Deadeye scowled and said, "That's my woman -- nobody hurts her!" Before he could attack the Amazon, he was disarmed and knocked flat by the silently striking Owlman.
Owlman clutched the beaten bowman's shirt and grinned over his fallen form. "You never really were anything but a pale copy of me with a bow," he hissed.
Sundown said, "I don't know what made you guys turn all Boy Scout, but I'm getting out of here now." He created a field of night around the room and darted right past the still form of the Martian Murderer. Huh! I figured old Jones would take me apart, thought Sundown. He can move like greased lightning when he wants to.
Microbe followed him and said, "The darkness seemed to render them all inactive for a moment."
Before he could respond, Sundown was knocked cold by a battering ram of green energy as Power Ring recovered and used his magic ring to create the weapon. "Going somewhere? I think not," he said with a scowl.
Microbe tried to shrink into the microverse in order to escape the mad scene, but even he was too slow when faced with the speed of thought.
The Martian Murderer's powerful probing mind prevented the scientist from using his size and weight controls, and he was snatched up by the alien powerhouse. "I fear you're headed for prison unless you also change course and fight the good fight," he said.
Owlman smiled at Ultraman. "Well done, eh, old chum? We've captured our misguided peers, and now all we need do is show them the light."
Ultraman nodded resolutely. "I need to do the same to my cousin, Ultragirl."
Power Ring said, "I hope we can make a real difference. We have so much to make up for."
Quick said, "I can't bring back the folks I've killed, but maybe -- with every good deed I do -- I can balance the scales a bit more."
Microbe glanced helplessly at the former criminals and shook his head in shock. Their eyes glow with a white light. Just what happened to them? he wondered.
Superwoman smiled and fluffed her hair. "Illumino says we can all redeem ourselves in time.
He brought us this far, and he should know."
In a doorless tower in Salem, a man watched it all through a crystal ball. He wore an inhumanly carved helmet with cruel features scarred into the helm. He was known as Dr. Chaos, and he was an ally to the evil Crime Syndicate when they needed his help.
He turned to a man who remained in the shadows and
said, "I am glad you brought this situation to my attention. I thought
Illumino to be nothing more than the stuff of childish myth. It appears
he is real and has used his
foul white light to alter my peers into
servants of the law."
The man in the shadows nodded. "It is so. He is an old foe of mine. His actions may tip the balance of good and evil on this planet, and thus his actions inspired me to walk forth once more and seek your aid. I can do much, but even I am but a Dark Stranger alone and never resting."
Dr. Chaos said, "I cannot best him alone. My pride is not such to prevent me from admitting this."
The Dark Stranger stroked his black beard and said,
"That is why I am here.
Together we may free them from his power."
Back on Rann, Alexander Luthor, Lady Shrike, and Ranjar Ro labored endlessly to finish a weird device of Luthor's creation.
"This atmospheric manipulator will allow us to turn the tide and free Rann from the tyrant if my calculations are correct," Luthor said.
Ranjar Ro chattered and said, "You are wonderful! My own efforts were far from such a marvel. I could never have envisioned such a machine."
Lady Shrike shook her head wearily. She had been working as hard as the others, but she had little confidence in Luthor's mysterious claims. He is mad, she thought. He may have been able to match the Syndicate on Earth, but I fear the old man has snapped since our imprisonment here. She said aloud, "I need a break. I want to get a bit of air."
Luthor said, "Don't go far. Don't risk being seen by Strange's agents."
She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, master."
She slammed the door as she left, and Ranjar Ro whispered to Luthor, "Can we trust her? She's evil, and she is passionate."
Luthor stared at the door and said, "I think I can count on her."
As he continued to labor in the hidden lab, Luthor failed to see the shapely Thangarian raise a weapon from her hip and fire it into the air before returning to the lab below.
That flare I cobbled together was crude, but it should attract Strange and his troops, she thought. I'll turn Luthor and the bug man over to them, and perhaps Strange will at least allow me to use his own teleportation ray to get home. I can't play rebel with Luthor any longer. He can't defeat a man who took over an entire world on his own. "Alec Strange is more than a match for Alex Luthor, and Shayera plays to win," she vowed.
She entered the lab and returned to work as Ranjar Ro and Luthor nodded in greeting and adjusted the weird machine. But before too long, the sound of footsteps alerted them to the approach of newcomers.
"By Rann's twin moons -- the guards are here!" cried Ranjar Ro.
Luthor said, "We've been discovered -- no, we've been betrayed!"
As the door shattered and four guards entered along with the red-and-white-clad form of Alec Strange, tyrant of Rann, Luthor flipped a switch.
"That curious signal brought us here in time to prevent you from plotting against me," said Strange. "I care little about why you turned on each other, but I welcome the chance to punish you for your temerity in trying to oppose my will."
Lady Shrike said, "I alerted you. I want to help you in exchange for my freedom."
Strange said, "I'll make a deal with you later. Now, at last I have found Sardarth's little friend -- Ranjar Ro. You've been a thorn in my side for too long. You brought these aliens here in an effort to duplicate your old master's ray."
Ranjar Ro said, "No! Sardarth sought to kill and destroy but brought about a worse fate for Rann when his ray brought you here instead. I only sought to free Rann by using a ray to bring us a hero."
Strange was handsome and confident. He paced over to Luthor and said, "This old relic? I think you made a bad choice. Are you a hero, old man? Are you a champion?" he said in a mocking tone.
Luthor said, "That device I activated moments ago is
designed to absorb a precise type of energy. The energy it is set to
absorb is called zeta energy.
That is the type that your cells have
been saturated with since you first came here. I knew Lady Shrike would
betray us, and I even baited her into doing so by playing on her fierce
pride. She lured you here as I wanted her to do all along. I would say
you've been in proximity to the absorbing device long enough for it to
rob you of the energy that allowed you to stay here. You're heading
for earth, ex-tyrant of Rann!"
Alec Strange gasped in amazement as he faded from view. "I'll see you pay for this!" he cried as he was torn from Rann and taken back to Earth.
Lady Shrike said, "You? You set me up! I can't believe it!"
Luthor said, "Look at the bright side -- we've liberated Rann."
One of the guards said, "Alec Strange is gone, but we'll still kill you all!"
Luthor said, "That is unlikely. My machine was designed to do far more than drain zeta beams. As I told Lady Shrike all along, it was also made to manipulate the powerful storms of this world in such a way as to allow me to control the weather. Your fellow troopers just lost their base to a potent lightning discharge of my creation."
He gestured to Ranjar Ro, who said, "It is so! Put down your weapons, or he will use the power of Rann's violent atmosphere storms to destroy your whole squadron and this lab!"
Luthor said, "I will do so if I must. A world's freedom means more than a few lives."
Lady Shrike said, "You have more backbone than I ever knew!"
The guards dropped their weapons as thunder boomed directly overhead. "We cannot fight our world's very weather," said one trooper.
Luthor said, "Ranjar Ro, you can handle the rest of the liberation. Your allies in the rebellion should be in place to capture the rest of the guards. I'd say you can soon turn Rann back into the paradise it was before a misguided scientist and a clever rogue from my world turned it into such a land of violence and death."
The little insect man said, "Indeed! As long as we may control the weather, no one can oppose us. We will hold elections once more, and my allies in hiding may reform our old science council. You have saved a world, my friend!"
Lady Shrike said, "You can't leave me here! Luthor, please -- take me with you!"
Luthor said, "You assumed correctly that Ranjar Ro was going to send me home. He and I are certain it can be done. We merely bluffed before in order to force you to help us. You deserve nothing from me, but in your way you helped us, so I will send you home as well."
Ranjar activated the transportation ray, and energy crackled around them. The little alien man failed to noticed how the mixture of the potent teleportation energies and the weather manipulation rays had created a slight surge in power. As Luthor and Lady Shrike vanished from Rann and Ranjar Ro shouted his appreciation and his pleasure in what they had done, a vaguely humanoid nimbus of energy followed them.
Luthor and Lady Shrike found themselves back on Earth, and the scientist said, "We are home! Now, I suggest you leave this world. You may be wanted on Thanagar for your past crimes, but I'm willing to allow you to leave here."
Lady Shrike said, "I will leave, but I will not forget how you used me. You have earned my hatred."
Luthor shrugged. "It isn't a burden that I'm unwilling to carry. No doubt Alec Strange hates me, too. He is somewhere on Earth now as well. I adjusted the precise controls enough to have him arrive far from here. I hope his ruthless ambition won't lead him to seek to gain revenge upon me or to return to Rann, but I fear anything is possible with such a man."
Lady Shrike flew off and left Luthor to walk across a large field.
"I can see a town below us. It will be good to be home again. Lois, Lena, and my unborn child will be happy to see me alive and well."
As Luthor crossed the field, he was followed by the
nimbus of faintly flickering energies that had followed him from Rann.
This odd being would pose a new challenge to him in days to come, but
that would be another tale.
Back in the Salem tower, Dr. Chaos and the Dark Stranger decided to act swiftly.
"We can best Illumino by turning your friends back to the evil rogues they were before his power made them good," explained the Dark Stranger. "He dwells upon the sunny side of the moon, and his white diamonds can make any being turn to the light. He found Owlman and the rest there when they were left on the moon by this Dr. Atlanta. He used his transforming power to illuminate their dark souls and force them to serve the cause of law and order. A concentrated burst of darkness will make them evil again. That is why Sundown was able to momentarily stun them with his own darkness casting gifts."
Dr. Chaos said, "And what of him? Can we defeat Illumino himself?"
The Dark Stranger shook his head. "No, curse him! He is a force of nature. I cannot rid the world of his power, nor can he destroy my own might. We must just balance one another. He will not leave his moon home. He acts only through pawns. If we free the Crime Syndicate, then he will merely wait in his base above and act again in some more subtle manner in a future time. Still, having regained such agents of evil will be a victory for us."
They used their dark magics to take them across the country to where the Crime Syndicate members had assembled at STAR Labs. The beaten villains had been bound by the illuminated members and were all in a tight circle.
Owlman said, "Look! Dr. Chaos is here, and he's brought a friend."
The man in black said, "I am not a friend. Say rather that I am a Stranger."
Power Ring flew closer as the two wizards chanted and energy surged out of their hands directly into Sundown's bound form. Darkness exploded across the room, and in seconds it was over.
Dr. Chaos said, "The Dark Stranger is gone. The sheer energy required to best Illimino robbed him of all material form. He will reform eventually. What of all of you?"
Ultraman said, "I'm myself again. You've freed us! Now let's go pound that do-gooder on the moon!"
Dr. Chaos said, "No! He is no threat to us if we avoid his base. Rather, let us regroup and prepare for the next time we face the Monster Society of Evil or Luthor's Secret Society of Super-Heroes, for he is alive and has already returned to Earth."
Owlman said, "I suggest we depart. We'll need time to adjust, and we have much to do."
Power Ring shook his head. "If he's alive, then I bet that witch Lady Shrike is, too. I'll wring her neck when next we meet."
They departed the ruins of STAR Labs, and the world
was darker was more.