By Derrick Ferguson

Issue Number Twenty-Two

"All Undead Wizards Are NOT Alike!"

Doctor Light unleashed a barrage of glowing yellow spheres about the size of a normal human fist that circled around Deimos like a hoard of gnats and then, as one, struck him, bursting with stunning, explosive force. The miniature explosions disoriented Deimos, giving Captain Atom time to get to his feet. He extended a fist and quantum energies crackled and smashed into Deimos, pushing him back against the wall of The Louvre where he was held in a blazing corona of power. Captain Atom smiled grimly as he poured on the power.

Plastique left Maya where she lay and she wound up like Nolan Ryan pitching a World Series fastball and hurled a crackling, explosive sphere of energy that hit Deimos in the chest and exploded, bringing down a twelve foot section of the museum wall, burying Deimos under flaming, smoking rubble.

"Could everybody just HOLD IT with the KaBooms, awreddy?!" The Elongated Man shouted. "Could we please NOT destroy the most famous museum in the world while trying to subdue the bad guy?"

"Seems to me like he needed to be put down fairly quickly!" Plastique snapped, bending down to see to her husband who had slumped to one knee. "Are you all right, love?"

Captain Atom nodded, patted Plastique's comforting hand. "He just caught me by surprise, that's all..knocked the wind out of me. That won't happen again."

Elongated Man jerked an eight-foot long thumb at the rubble. "Amazing Man, Fox, get over there and make sure he's really down for the count. Beetle, can you..."

"Way ahead of you, boss." Blue Beetle had picked up Maya and took her inside his Bug. In the rear of the marvelous flying lab were a series of bunk beds that pulled out and down. The Blue Beetle did so and placed the girl on it, covering her with a blanket.

"You just stay here and rest up, Chandi. We're here now and everything's going to be okay."

Maya looked up at Beetle with mournfully large eyes that would have tickled Beetle's fancy to no end if Maya had been ten years older. She sobbed; "It's all my fault, Ted...I was the one who let him out! If anyone gets hurt because of me..."

"Don't take so much on yourself, Chandi. Let's worry about stopping him first and then placing blame later, okay?' Impulsively, he bent down to kiss her forehead. "I've gotta get back. You rest up."

Outside, Amazing Man was digging through the rubble; his strength and endurance greatly enhanced by him having taken on the characteristics of concrete. A living statue, he hefted huge slabs of rubble and tossed them aside as easily as if they were slices of bread.

A hand covered in blackest obsidian thrust upwards from the rubble and seized Amazing Man by the left ankle and twisted. Amazing Man cursed wildly in surprise as he went tumbling away from Deimos, who thrust himself upwards into the air, outlined in a greenish aura of mystic energy, the jewel on his chest blazing with hellish crimson fire.

"Oh, I shall SO enjoy feasting on the souls here....I can feel such POWER flowing through all of you...if I had only known of the existence of this world I would have taken slaves here to use to conquer Skartaris..."

Crimson Fox cart wheeled, leaped and tumbled through the air, her feet taking Deimos full in the face, knocking him out of the air and back down to the ground. She landed on top of Deimos, hissing, "There is nothing here today for you but defeat, demon!" She raked her claws back and forth over his exposed face, but his skin seemed to be as tough as Captain Atom's silver skin for all the effect her blows were having.

"Fox, get clear!" Elongated Man shouted and stretched his arms down and wrapped them around Deimos, wrapping him up from shoulder to knee. "Will, get in there and hit him!"

Amazing Man obliged, his right fist crashing into the jaw of the reborn wizard with enough impact to have torn the head off a normal man.

Deimos shouted words in a language that was nearly 10,000 years old and a surge of mystical energy blazed from the ruby and Elongated Man yelled in pain, as his arms were torn free from Deimos. Crimson Fox, Plastique, Blue Beetle were thrown backwards by the mystic energy wave. Only Captain Atom, Amazing Man and Doctor Light were able to keep their feet.

"Man, I hit him good!" Amazing Man yelled, throwing a hand over his face to block a scrap of metal.

"No you didn't, Captain Atom replied. "You pissed him off is what you did. Ralph! I suggest we pull back while we figure out our next move!"

"Agreed! Pull back, everybody and regroup at the Bug!"

Shilo Norman picked the lock of Gardinel's second floor office in nine seconds flat. He grinned, pleased at his own skill. But then again, he hadn't been lax during his years of college. He'd had a few adventures of his own while studying at Russell Anderson University. The door swung open and Shilo stepped inside, swiftly and silently closing the door.

Gardinel's office was pretty sparse. A modernistic metal desk stood in front of the large rectangular picture window. Two computers of pretty sophisticated and definitely alien construction sat in a corner. Shilo frowned slightly. The technology, while alien was somehow familiar. He'd definitely seen it before. The bare floor was done in a checkerboard pattern of black and red marble squares and the walls were decorated with large oil landscapes of various countrysides.

Shilo took a step forward and that was when the trouble started.

<Unauthorized entry detected. Identify yourself>

The sharp female voice seemed to come from right behind Shilo's ear, but nobody was there. The air was filled with a humming sound as if unseen devices were powering up and Shilo had the uncomfortable feeling that that was exactly what was taking place.

"Uh...I'm Shilo Norman...Mr. Lord's assistant...and you are?"

<Identify yourself with the proper access phrase>

"Klaatu barada nikto?"

<That is NOT the proper access phrase>

The doors and windows were covered by a golden metal that incredibly seemed to flow right out of the walls and cover them in seconds and at the same time, the portraits slid into hidden slots in the wall to reveal a number of slim metal rods that began blasting away with beams of bluish energy.

Shilo tumbled, rolled, leaped up in the air, tucked his body into a tight ball and somersaulted the length of the room and landed behind the desk. He placed his legs underneath the desk and shoved, tipping it over to crash on its side, sending papers, pens and drawers flying. The desk was heavy enough to block the beams while Shilo thought of his next move. He grabbed one of the desk drawers and using the metal drawer as a shield, blocked the beams as he ran to one of the computers and snatched it up one handed. Even though he was thin as a broom handle, Shilo had always had a surprising amount of upper body strength and he worked out regularly.

He flung the computer right into one of the open squares in the wall that the blaster rods extended from and the computer exploded with an impressive amount of sparks and black, sooty smoke. It caused a chain reaction in the linking circuitry that caused the other blaster rods to abruptly stop firing and withdraw back into their proper places in the walls.

Shilo dropped the desk drawer. Those blaster rods would have surely taken out a normal burglar, but Mister Miracle himself had trained Shilo and while Shilo was nowhere near the level of skill of the greatest escape artist alive today, he was no newbie at surviving death traps. Shilo brushed his hands together and headed for the door. Time to figure out a way to get past the golden metal seal and report back to Oberon that Gardinel's office had tried to kill him.

A clanking noise stopped the young man in his tracks. He turned and his brown eyes widened in surprise.

Gardinel's desk had grown joined metal legs and arms that had fearsome serrated pincers on the ends that looked awfully sharp and dangerous. A bulbous metal head with one glaring red eye popped out of the top of the desk and that same wickedly sharp female voice said; <You are hostile. You will be detained>

Shilo backed away, snatching up a chair he held in front of him as the desk scrabbled forward in a crab-like manner, the pincers clashing together. "You ain't detainin' nobody here! Back off!" Shilo swung the chair, striking one of the pincers. The other one streaked out and snatched the chair out of Shilo's grasp and with one swift close of the pincers, cut the chair into kindling.

"Wonder if it's too late for me to put in an application with The Titans?" Shilo muttered as he and the desk circled each other warily like sumo wrestlers. "Bet THEIR office furniture don't attack the staff...."

Deimos had surprisingly chosen not to press his attack and instead had returned to the interior of The Louvre. The entire museum was now covered in a shimmering greenish aura that threw a pale, sickly light over everything in the vicinity. The police had managed to push back the hoards of onlookers some ten blocks back with the help of military troops that had quickly been mobilized to help with the situation.

Elongated Man was inside The Bug, talking to Maxwell Lord on a video link. Max was most certainly not a happy camper.

"Ralph, you've gotta tell me something. I've got the French President on the line and he says that we're allowing one of France's treasures to be desecrated! What's the situation there?"

"Beetle and Captain Atom are going through every database they can find to get information on this Deimos guy, but they've had no luck so far. We need to find out more information about who he is and what this Skartaris place he comes from before we go back and attack. He's no pushover, Max, whoever he is. He held his own against all of us without breaking a sweat."

"If you want to know about Skartaris, ask Maya!" Doctor Light snapped. "She had been going to the museum for days and she claimed that the urn that Deimos thing came out of was talking to her!"

"Take care of business, Ralph...I'll handle things on this end." Max broke the connection and Elongated Man followed Doctor Light to the rear of The Bug where Maya was sitting on the edge of the bunk, drinking orange juice given to her by a concerned Crimson Fox.

"How about it, Maya? The Doc here says that you're just about the closest thing we have to an expert on Skartaris. Who's this Deimos and where's Skartaris?"

Outside, Amazing Man and Plastique were keeping an eye on The Louvre. Not that there was much to watch. The green aura was still there and Deimos had not shown himself. Plastique was anxiously throwing glances from The Bug to The Louvre. "We should NOT just be standing here! We should be inside, dragging that miscreant out of there!"

Amazing Man had changed back to human form and he was standing calmly, arms folded across his chest. "Boss man said he wanted more info on this cat before we went charging in there." He shrugged brawny shoulders. "Can't say as how I blame him. Always a good idea to know your enemy."

"I didn't join this team to stand around-" Plastique stopped as a frightening number of thick energy beams burst from the green aura surrounded The Louvre to streak upwards into the air, quickly forming a lattice network that thickened and solidified.

"What the hell is he doing in there?" Plastique wondered out loud.

Deimos sat cross-legged in mid-air, his head bowed, chanting in guttural, low tones. His entire body was throbbing with arcane, ancient energies that were being drawn from the thousands and thousands of souls that had been imprisoned in the Urn Of Infinite Souls along with him. But Deimos had studied the most forbidden and grisly of the wizardly arts as well as the highly advanced science of ancient Atlantis and he had slowly but forcefully bent the mystic power of The Urn of Infinite Souls to his unmatchable will and leeched the power of the souls encased within to augment his own sorcerous might.

But that power was fading fast. The brief but furious battle with those gaudily garbed beings who had demonstrated such fantastic powers had taken a toll and forced him to expend his power faster than he planned. The fastest way for Deimos to recharge his flagging power was to leech the energy of living human souls. And he needed to do it quickly.

The walls of The Louvre seemed to throb in unison with his chanting, as his voice grew deeper, louder, as he wove his spell...

"Got it!" Blue Beetle yelled in triumph, holding up a printout. "Just like Maya said, this Skartaris supposedly is a prehistoric land inside the earth, but more recent studies have shown that its actually another dimension that can be reached by going through a portal located near The North Pole."

"Great. Just great." Elongated Man was walking up and down the length of The Bug, his nose twitching wildly. "I don't suppose there's any authorities on ancient Skartaran wizards we could ask for help on this, is there?"

"Hey! HEY!" Amazing Man's voice boomed from outside. "You guys better get out here and see this!"

The Justice Squadron joined their teammates and looked up into the once blue sky. It was gone. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but dead black sky. Not the black of night but the cold blackness at the bottom of a grave.

Captain Atom took to the air. "I'm going to do some recon, Ralph, find out what the hell that is up there!"

"Doc, go with him. Maybe you can figure out what that is if you get closer."

But Doctor Light was already speeding after Captain Atom, outlined in an aura of yellow light energy.

"And what are we going to do?" Plastique demanded. "We've already let this go too far!"

"We're going in there after him right after Cap and The Doc get back from their recon," Elongated Man confirmed. "Beetle, if there's anything inside your Bug that can help us, now's the time to pull it out."

"We're up against magic, Ralph. And while I've always had the theory that magic was just another way of tapping into the same fundamental universal forces that science does, I wouldn't begin to know how to come up with a scientific means of stopping a wizard. Except for walking right up to him and busting him one across the jaw. The direct method DOES seem to work best with those guys."

Captain Atom and Doctor Light returned from their recon, landing next to their teammates. "It isn't good, Ralph," The Captain reported grimly. "From higher up we could see that the entire city of Paris seems to be encased in a dome of energy. My quantum blasts couldn't get through it and neither could Doctor Light’s laser intensity light beams. We couldn't see out and we couldn't get out."

"Deimos has effectively sealed us off from any and all help we might expect from the outside," Doctor Light confirmed. "And I for one think it’s about time that we went on in there and ended this!"

"Agreed." Elongated Man nodded. "Let's go show our guest how we take of business in THIS dimension."

Shilo slipped off his suit jacket and ran for the far wall, leaped and shoved off the wall with one thrust of his legs. He twirled through the air, spinning head over heels, to land on the top of the desk, covering the one eye with his jacket, tying it securely around the desk-robot's head. Then he kicked off, somersaulting backwards to land on his feet while the desk-robot scuttled around the room, trying to get the tightly tied jacket off its head. Shilo grabbed up another chair. A HEAVIER chair this time and brought it smashing down on the desk-robot's head. One joined arm whipped outwards, sending him flying.

Shilo twisted in mid-air, bouncing off the walls and ceiling as if he were made of rubber and landed on the floor, rolling under the desk. With one surge of adrenaline-fueled strength, he lifted up the desk-robot and threw it at the door, where it crashed through the golden metal seal, taking out a large hunk of wall along with the door. The desk-robot lay on its side, struggling to get to its feet.

"What in the HELL is going on here?!" Maxwell Lord yelled. He stood in the corridor, his eyes wide in unbelief as Gardinel and Oberon appeared at the other end of the hallway. "The entire city of Paris has been cut off from the outside world, the team's gone in after some wizard who's already managed to fight them to a draw and my so-called new assistant is destroying a brand-new headquarters that cost a DOZEN fortunes!"

Shilo swaggered out of the office, straightening his tie. "On the other hand, I know who Gardinel is. Or at least where he comes from."

Gardinel had knelt next to the robot-desk and touched it slightly in several places. The arms, legs and head withdrew and it was just a desk now. A battered and dented desk, yes. But still a desk. He stood up and looked with some measure of respect at the young man.

"Look, Max, you wanna get mad at somebody, get mad at me." Oberon sat, pushing himself between the grinning Shilo and Max, who looked as if he were about to explode. "I told Shilo to break into Gardinel's office to get a line on him an' I wouldn't'a had to if you and he wasn't so dodgy 'bout who he is!"

"My God, Oberon! After all we've been through, you couldn't have trusted me? Just a little?"

Oberon's voice was sad as he answered; "Its because of all we've been through that I had to ask Shilo to do it, Max. You've had some dark days in your past. I wanted to be sure that you were YOU before I left Shilo here...hell, before I walked away and left eight of the most powerful beings on the planet in your care. I HAD to make sure that Gardinel wasn't controlling you somehow."

"Oh, for the luvva...Gardinel, you and I have a deal. You're not required to tell them anything!"

Gardinel shook his head. "I'd better, Mr. Lord. In any case, I couldn't hide it from Oberon for long. He, more than anybody else would put it together."

"Put WHAT together?" Oberon demanded.

Shilo jerked a thumb at the glowering Gardinel. "That he's from APOKOLIPS."

Captain Atom took the point along with Amazing Man, who had transformed himself into silver. Blue Beetle had come up with that idea. Even though he claimed that it was common knowledge that silver was a good weapon against evil magic, Elongated Man privately thought that Beetle had gotten that 'common knowledge' from a steady diet of late-night vampire and werewolf movies. Still, any advantage they could come up with...

Doctor Light and Maya were on the left and right flank respectively. Even though the team was leery of letting Maya get too close to Deimos, she insisted that she was going to join in any attack and pull her weight. And she WAS the only one among them that had the remotest idea of what Deimos was. Crimson Fox was following close behind the girl. Ralph had pulled The Fox to the side and cautioned her to watch Maya carefully and if she showed any signs of mind control, The Fox was to incapacitate her at once. Plastique, Blue Beetle and Elongated Man were right behind Captain Atom and Amazing Man.

The inside of The Louvre now looked like some ancient cathedral or subterranean tomb. The walls were of cracked and pitted stone, covered with dripping moss and tangled, fleshy growths. Deimos was deep in the Atlantean wing, standing before the cracked pieces of The Urn which were rising into the air, sparkling and twirling as they came together, chip by chip, bit by shattered bit.

"What's he doing?" Amazing Man wondered out loud. "Why's he putting that thing back together?"

"I don't know and we're not gonna give him time to show us. Hit 'em!" Elongated Man ordered.

Amazing Man charged forward like a NFL linebacker and smashed into Deimos, who had heard Amazing Man only at the last minute, so engrossed was he in his sorceries. The wizard flew backwards to crash into a pillar, which withstood the impact. The wizard dropped heavily to the ground.

Maybe Beetle DID have something with this cockamamie silver idea! Amazing Man thought triumphantly, pressing his attack, battering Deimos with his silver fists. Deimos extended a hand and muttered some words under his breath and incredibly, a rocky hand burst forth from the ground to seize Amazing Man and hold him firm. Deimos tightened his fist and the rocky hand began to squeeze the silver form held fast in its grasp.

"NO!" Maya fired a flaming arrow that exploded upon impact, destroying the rocky hand and freeing Amazing Man. Maya formed another flaming arrow and launched it at Deimos. He held up a hand and caught the arrow. He held it up for inspection, highly intrigued.

"Your abilities are so varied and powerful...it will be good to have such power at my disposal."

"Listen, what say you just go on back to Skartaris and we'll call it even, okay?" Elongated Man asked. "We realize that this isn't your world. Maybe you were just disoriented and confused when you came out of that jar..."

"Urn. It was an urn I came out of. And I'm not disoriented or confused. And I WILL return to Skartaris, but not until after I have reconstructed the Urn of Infinite Souls and added to it."

"That means us, I suppose?"

"You and as many other souls that inhabit this city. It is called The Urn Of Infinite Souls for a reason, you know. Once it has been reconstructed, nothing can stop me from taking as many souls as I like to add to my power. And THEN I shall go back to Skartaris for a reckoning against my most hated foes."

Plastique had heard enough. She unleashed a double-handed explosive burst right at the pieces of the urn, which floated in air, scattering them around the room. Crimson Fox bounded into the attack, slashing at Deimos, who backhanded her easily. She crumpled to the ground, half unconscious. The Justice Squadron surged forward as one, bent on finishing this once and for all-

The ground erupted in a firestorm of raging, gibbering souls. Souls that had once been imprisoned in The Urn Of Infinite Souls but now served Deimos. They formed a defensive wall around their master, who stood with his arms raised high, laughing wildly. The souls were screaming their outrage at being forced to serve Deimos, but they could do nothing. The swirled around The Justice Squadron, battering them, their high-pitched screams knifing into their brains.

Elongated Man wrapped arms around Doctor Light, Blue Beetle and Plastique and dragged them from the Atlantean Hall, followed by Captain Atom, who was pounding quantum energy bolts into the damned souls as fast as he could, but for every one that was disintegrated by a bolt, three more burst from the ground and attacked. Amazing Man had thrown Maya and Crimson Fox over each shoulder and was racing from the Atlantean Hall.

"Damn!" Captain Atom snarled. "I hate running!"

"What choice we got?" Amazing Man demanded. "We don't have a spell-slinger on our side. Why didn't Max hire Harry Potter during his recruitment drive?"

The team made their way back outside where Elongated Man unwrapped his arms from his friends and pulled them back into their normal shape. He massaged his biceps. What wouldn't he give for an ice-cold Gingold right about now...

His JS communicator bleeped for attention. He tapped the back of his left glove and spoke into the micro-circuitry woven into it. "Max, I hope you're calling to tell me that Doctor Fate decided to make a house call, because that's who we're going to need to put this joker down."

Max's voice was hopeful as he answered; "No, not Doctor Fate, but somebody your bad guy is scared plenty of. Come on back to Squadron Central and I'll explain."

"You want us to go WHERE and get WHO?" Doctor Light demanded.

They were in Max's office back at Squadron Central. The entire building was ringed by hoards of people who were demanding that the Justice Squadron save Paris and save Paris right NOW. They were being held safely back perimeter force fields, but Max was acutely aware that it didn't look good for the team to be holed up in their headquarters while a deranged undead wizard was holding the city hostage, but it couldn't be helped.

"It's very simple. The one person Deimos is afraid of and the ONLY person who can take him on in one-on-one sorcerous fight is Jennifer Morgan."

"And who is this Jennifer Morgan?"

Gardinel answered that question. "She is the greatest and most powerful practitioner of the mystic arts in Skartaris. She has fought Deimos before and defeated him before. If she were here she would step on him as if he were an insect."

"But she's in Skartaris last time anybody looked, right?" Amazing Man asked. "And how come you know so much about this Skartaris place alla sudden, G?"

"I've been there."

Every eye, except for Max and Oberon's swiveled to look at Gardinel.

"Well, it seems quite simple, then," Doctor Light, said. "Since you've been there and you seem to know who this Jennifer Morgan is, YOU can go get her and bring her back while we go back to do our job."

Gardinel was shaking his head. "I cannot. I've taken an oath to never set foot in Skartaris again. I can never go back. But I can send you there."

Maya immediately got to her feet. "I'll go."

Doctor Light gripped her by her elbow. "You don't know what you're saying, Chandi!"

"Yes, I do! I let Deimos out of that Urn! I've got to make this right and if that means going to Skartaris, then I'm going!"

"We'll ALL go!" Plastique said.

"No we all will NOT go." Elongated Man stated firmly. "We can’t leave Paris defenseless while we all rush off to Never-Never Land. Captain Atom, Amazing Man, Doctor Light and Crimson Fox will stay here in Paris to keep Deimos from putting that jug back together. The rest of us will go to Skartaris and find this Jennifer Morgan and ask her to help." Elongated Man looked at Gardinel. "What are the chances that she’ll turn us down?"

"Zero," Gardinel said with certainty. "Deimos is her most hated foe. Once you tell her that he is here, she will come."

"Wait one minute!" Plastique demanded. "Maybe the rest of you are used to dimension hopping, but I’m not. Once we get there, how do we get back?"

Gardinel answered her. "Jennifer Morgan’s powers are more than capable of returning you here. I will be able to send you to her vicinity. I believe I still have the co-ordinates in this." Gardinel reached inside his suit jacket and withdrew a square metal box that lay in his palm, softly humming with low musical tones. The entire surface of the box was covered with ornate, inlaid circuitry. Oberon swore softly.

"A Mother Box!"

"Yes. I can summon a Boom Tube that will take you to Skartaris. Once there, the rest is up to you."

"I’m still not so sure that you should stay here and I should go, Ralph," Captain Atom insisted. "You’re the team leader. You should—"

"And what kind of team leader would I be if I stayed behind and sent my friends into a strange and possible hostile situation? No, you and Max are more than capable of holding down the fort here while I round up this Jennifer Morgan with the others. If you want to do anything for me, keep an eye on Sue for me while I’m gone."

"Are you ready?" Gardinel asked.

Elongated Man turned to Blue Beetle, Plastique and Maya. "You guys ready to go see beautiful downtown Skartaris?"

"One second, please." Plastique ran over to her husband and kissed him passionately and then returned to stand by her teammates. "NOW I’m ready."

Elongated Man nodded at Gardinel, who stood facing a blank wall, holding his Mother Box in his right hand, which he stretched out, holding it slightly above his head. The Mother Box was emitting sharp, staccato pinging sounds that sounded almost like a code of some kind. The air quickly became charged with dancing black dots of energy and the wall swirled and curved as if it had suddenly been turned to rubber and was being twisted by a giant fist. Incredibly, a wind swirled in the closed room as if a storm had suddenly begun.

"You’re gonna wanna cover your ears!" Shilo yelled to be heard above the roaring of the wind. "There’s a reason it’s called a—"

BOOM!

A huge silver tube had appeared right out of the wall, energy crackling along its length. Gardinel shouted; "Hurry!"

With a jaunty wave, Blue Beetle followed Elongated Man, Maya and Plastique into The Boom Tube, which vibrated and that roaring wind started again.

BOOM!

The remaining Squadron members, along with Gardinel, Max, Oberon and Shilo, looked around at each other. Gardinel was softly speaking to his Mother Box, stroking it gently and the pinging was subsiding to a whisper.

Max turned to Captain Atom. "Well, I guess you’re taking charge a little bit sooner than expected."

"The only thing I’m taking charge of is making sure that Deimos doesn’t put that damn urn back together before my wife and the others get back with help." He turned toward the door, motioning for the others to follow. "Let’s go, people. The others have their job to do and we’ve got ours!"

NEXT ISSUE: Half the team goes Round Two against Deimos to stop him from restoring The Urn Of Infinite Souls while the other half searches for Jennifer Morgan, the only one capable of stopping him! And do we REALLY have to tell you who the special guest star will be?