Issue Number Twenty-Five
"Just A Series Of Conversations"
Nathaniel Adam moved easily through the crowded, noisy bar and returned to the booth where Ralph Dibny waited for him eagerly. Ralph elongated his hands and seized the two pitchers of foaming beer from his friend and placed them on the table next to the three empty ones. Nate navigated the remaining few feet to the bench, steering around the mass of bodies with the experience of a man who has lived in major cities with a large population. It didn’t take long to learn how to move in jam-packed, crowded rooms when you’ve lived in cities like Washington D.C. and New York.
"I was doing just fine, Ralph" Nate complained, but he smiled to take the sting out of his admonishment as he took his seat across from his friend. "What time is it, anyway?"
"A little after four. Relax, Nate. We’re off duty and God knows, after the last few days we’ve had, we need it." Ralph poured beer for the both of them while Nate nodded in agreement. Truer words could not have been spoken. After the whirlwind recruitment of new members to bolster the thinned ranks of The Justice Squadron, the team had then been put to a nightmarish trial by combat where they had to fight Deimos, a Skartaran wizard who had used ancient Atlantean sorcery to steal the souls of every man, woman and child in Paris. Thanks to the aid of Jennifer Morgan, daughter of The Warlord and an exceptionally powerful sorceress in her own right, Deimos had been defeated and the souls of the people of Paris returned to their proper vessels.
But that had only begun the most aggravating part of any metahuman operation; the mopping up and the paperwork. Maxwell Lord and his new assistant, Shilo Norman had been in scant attendance lately as they had been in meetings with representatives of the Parisian government. Detailed reports had to be filled out by every member of the team, depositions had to be sworn to. And that was only the beginning. Max STILL had to fly to the States to file complete reports with The Department Of Extranormal Operations.
Nate sipped his beer and asked; "So are you going to the States with Max?"
"Nah! What for? Max loves that kind of stuff and in any case, that’s his job. He handles the administrative end while the Justice Squadron’s team leader handles the fieldwork. Which bring me to why I’ve asked you to join me in this afternoon’s festive pub-crawl. You ready to take over the team?"
Nate blinked in amazement. "So soon? I thought you were going to hang around for a few more months. Sue isn’t due until—"
Ralph waved a hand. "Hell, Nate, why put it off? I’ve going to have to turn over the team anyway, so why fight it? It’s been a ball being the Squadron’s ramrod, but you were brought into the fold to take over and we both know it and the rest of the team knows it, so why should we keep putting it off? When we get back to Squadron Central, we’ll tell Maxie he can hold the press conference tomorrow and make it legit."
"So you’ve made up you’re mind, then?"
Ralph nodded emphatically. "Damn straight. I’m getting ready to enter a new phase of my life, buddy. I’m gonna be a father." Ralph suddenly dropped his normally jovial, jokester manner and his long face sobered and there was a note of serious concern in his voice as he said; "And I’m gonna do this right. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but right now, I’m going to concentrate on my wife and our child and let the rest of you worry about saving the world for a while."
"Does this mean that The Elongated Man will be hanging up his stretchy union suit?" Nate laughed.
"Naw! Sue wouldn’t let me retire even if I wanted to."
"She’s a remarkable woman, Ralph."
"Don’t I know it! If she hadn’t been behind me 100% I don’t think I could’ve found the strength to hold the team together after that fight with The Extremists."
"But I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news, Ralph. I don’t want to take over the team. Not now, at any rate."
"This got to do with Bette?"
"You should have seen her face back in Washington when she found out that Sue was going to have a baby. I think that cinched it more than anything else as far as she was concerned. She wanted to get over here to see for herself first hand how you guys were handling it." Nate shrugged and drained his mug and reached for a pitcher to refill it. "We don’t know any other married superhero couples…they’re kinda an endangered species these days."
Ralph airily waved a hand. "Oh, there’s a few around…there’s a few…but look here, Nate…has Bette come right out and SAID that she wants a baby?"
"No…not in so many words…but you forget, I was married before. I can read the signs."
"I hear ya, buddy. Well, hell..you don’t wanna take over the team, you don’t haveta. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head…not that a gun would do any damage to you anyway, come to think of it."
"I don’t want to let you or Max down, Ralph."
"Don’t worry about that. You don’t want the job, fine. We’ll find somebody else on the team to stick with the job. Got anybody in mind?"
"No..but let’s have another couple of pitchers of beer while we discuss the matter…"
Maxwell Lord strode down the third floor hallway, followed closely by his new assistant, Shilo Norman. Both men were running late for a meeting and in fact, Shilo had just found Max in his quarters, stretched out on a couch, still in his clothes, snoring loud enough to rattle window glass. Shilo had quickly awakened Max with a towel soaked in cold water.
"A man can’t even grab a lousy nap in peace anymore," Max grumbled, straightening his tie. Shilo was amazed at how Max had pulled himself from a dishelved appearance to stunning dapperness in ten seconds flat. "Do you know I’m functioning on only three hours of sleep in the past four days?"
"I know, Mr. Lord, I know…I’ve only gotten two hours of sleep myself…but that’s okay. I don’t like to sleep anyway."
"Shilo, call me Max when we’re alone, okay? Just because I’m your boss doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. In public I expect a certain decorum to be observed but when it’s just us or we’re with the other team members, you don’t have to be so formal."
Shilo grinned. "Anything you say, Max. I also have—" Shilo stopped as they reached the elevator. The doors noiselessly slid open and Oberon jauntily diddy-bopped out into the hallway between Max and Shilo, whistling Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood. His burly arms were filled with bottles of Moet champagne and he was dressed in a baby blue terrycloth robe and fuzzy bunny slippers. Max and Shilo traded brief, amazed looks before turning to look at the dwarf as he casually made his way down the hall and knocked on the door to Constance D’Aramis’s room.
They heard Constance’s voice, thick with sensuality and lusty desire; "Enter, mon cherie…"
Oberon turned and winked at Max and Shilo before entering. The door firmly shut behind him and they heard Oberon double lock it.
Shilo shook his head in stunned amazement. "One of these days I’ve got to figure out HOW he does it."
Max clapped the younger man on the shoulder. "Oberon’s quite a man, Shilo. Women don’t look at his height. They look at the size of his heart and soul and when it comes to those qualities, Oberon stands taller than anybody I’ve ever known. C’mon, we’ve got a meeting to go to."
They took the elevator down to the first floor and made their way to Max’s almost opulent first floor office where two remarkable men waited with Gardinel, who was his usual impassive self, his face as blank and unemotional as a block of marble.
One of the men was dressed in a dark green double-breasted business suit. An oval red jewel twinkled at the collar of his black shirt. He sported a neatly trimmed goatee and his eyes possessed a curious hypnotic quality.
"Sorry I’m late, Doctor Mist. You’ve met Gardinel, I trust? And this is my new assistant, Shilo Norman."
Dr. Mist shook hands with Shilo, speaking in a surprisingly light and mellow voice. "A pleasure, Mr. Norman. You’re an associate of Mister Miracle’s, I believe?"
Shilo nodded. "I trained under him for a couple of years. I’m working for Mr. Lord now."
"And this is The Olympian."
Shilo had never before seen the premier metahuman hero of Greece and he was amazed at the physical size of the man. He was a veritable oak of a man, standing nearly seven feet tall, garbed in a breastplate of leather and leggings of the same material with knee-high boots of wrapped metal. His arms were bare, except for wide golden wristbands that were studded with rough-cut jewels that glittered and sparkled in the bright sunlight from the huge picture windows. Those arms were impressively banded with thick slabs of muscle and as thick around as Shilo’s waist. A golden helmet with two massive ram’s horns that curled around masked the upper half of his bearded face and up and as a cape he wore a ram’s skin. Shilo had read his file and knew that The Olympian claimed that the cape was actually the legendary Golden Fleece itself. How he had came into possession of it and exactly how it bestowed superhuman powers to him was unknown but it made him an extremely formidable force to be reckoned with indeed. Although it had never been put to the test, it was said that The Olympian was possibly on the same level of sheer power as Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Superman. Just looking at him and feeling the aura of strength emanating from The Olympian, Shilo could easily believe it.
"Shall we get down to business, then?" Dr. Mist said. "I appreciate that you’re just as busy as we are and I know that you’ve got to fly to America tomorrow."
"Just one moment, please." Max turned to Gardinel. "Where’s Will? I wanted him here for this meeting as well."
"Right here, Max." The door opened and Will Everett, garbed in his green and gold Amazing Man costume entered. "Sorry I’m late. Small emergency I handled."
Max frowned slightly. "How come you didn’t let anybody know where you were going? Did you take backup?"
Amazing Man waved away Max’s worries. "Gasoline truck crashed an’ was on fire about nine blocks south of here. I ran down there an’ gave the firemen a hand puttin’ it out. Didn’t see no need to take backup an’ spreadin’ around a little good will helping out doesn’t hurt."
Max immediately dropped the matter and Amazing Man winked at Shilo, who grinned back. If there was one sure way to turn aside any complaints Max might have with sidestepping team regulations and procedural protocols, all you had to do was say that whatever had been done was for good publicity.
"So what’s all this ‘bout, anyway?" Amazing Man asked. "I’d like to take a shower and go catch up on The Sopranos."
"You know Dr. Mist and The Olympian, I’m sure."
Amazing Man sized up the two men. "Sure. Mist’s the head honcho of The Global Guardians and Olympian’s their main muscle." He nodded to both of them. "I’ve met ‘em before."
Max nodded and continued. "Dr. Mist has come to me with an unusual proposal, one that I think we ought to try. Back during the early days when The Justice League of America first formed, there was some friction between them and their forbearers, The Justice Society of America."
Amazing Man nodded. "I seem to remember readin’ ‘bout somethin’ like that. Didn’t Hawkman join the JLA as kinda an advisor to them?"
"Actually, Hawkman had the unique status of being official Justice Society Liaison to the Justice League. As such, he co-coordinated strategy and information flow between the two teams so that they were always aware of what they were working on, membership changes, data and information updates, that sort of thing." Max extended a hand to The Olympian. "Dr. Mist has proposed that The Olympian perform the same function, namely that he becomes The Global Guardian liaison to The Justice Squadron."
Amazing Man nodded. "So why am I here? You wanta trade me to The Global Guardians while Steve Reeves here takes my place?"
Dr. Mist spoke. "No, not at all, Mr. Everett. Actually, I’m going on a fact-finding trip to Africa and I was hoping that you would like to accompany me. There are reports of metahuman activity in several Eastern African countries and it is my intention to investigate these rumors myself. Undercover, so to speak. As a gesture of co-operation between our two teams, I suggested to Mr. Lord that perhaps you come along as a representative for The Justice Squadron."
Amazing Man looked intrigued. "Well, I’m flattered, gentlemen. I figured I was goin’ to spend most of my time punchin’ out the bad guys. Didn’t figure on coppin’ undercover assignments."
Max placed a hand on Amazing Man’s caped shoulder. "I told you that I want to do things differently with Justice Squadron, Will. I don’t want this team to be looked at as just a second-string Justice League. And I’ve given my word that The Squadron would actively work with and help train other European heroes. Now, if there ARE some new metahumans showing up in Africa, I think that we should extend the hand of friendship to them before the opposition does, right?"
Dr. Mist said; "And to be blunt about it, my friend, you can travel with me in that part of the world undercover much better than say, Blue Beetle and Captain Atom."
Amazing Man laughed easily. "Yeah, you got that right, man." He extended a hand to Dr. Mist. "What the hell? Sure, I’m in. If nothing else, I get to take a tour of Africa, right?"
Max rubbed his hands together vigorously. "I’m delighted we’ve worked that out to everybody’s satisfaction. Shilo, why don’t you take Olympian upstairs and show him his quarters? Maybe he’d like to relax."
"Later." The Olympian said in a low voice that rumbled like boulders grinding together. "I think I’ll take aerial tour of the city and familiarize myself with my new home." And before anybody could say a word, the big man had opened a window and was gone.
"Man doesn’t say much, do he?" Amazing Man asked Dr. Mist. The leader of The Global Guardians shrugged.
"He’s fiercely loyal to The Global Guardians and would have preferred that I had selected someone else for the liaison duties. But he’s always been a difficult team player and I feel that spending sometime with the diverse membership of The Justice Squadron will be good for him."
"Yeah, but givin’ up your main muscle…what if you guys have an emergency?"
"The Olympian isn’t leaving The Guardians. He’s still a member and if we need him, he’ll return to us."
"I like him." Gardinel said unexpectedly.
"You would," Max replied. "Okay, Shilo, issue a press release informing the media of The Olympian’s liaison status with us and the change in membership."
"What changes, Max?" Amazing Man wanted to know.
"Ralph and I talked it over and we’ve decided to bestow honorary memberships on Oberon and Jennifer Morgan in return for their assistance during the Deimos case. Which reminds me: where IS Jennifer? I haven’t seen her all day."
"I spoke to her earlier today, Mr. Lord." Gardinel answered in his moody voice. "She said something about going out with Miss Gupta…"
However, Chandi and Jennifer hadn’t made it out of the building yet due to the fact that they were standing in the second floor playroom arguing quite loudly with a furious Kimiyo Hoshi.
"Kimi, I think you’re being awfully selfish and mean!" Chandi said, looking up at the older woman. Kimiyo was standing toe to toe with the girl while Jennifer Morgan stood to one side, somewhat amused by the whole thing.
"Did you or did you not say that you were going to help me go clothes shopping for Imako and Yasu?"
"Well, sure…but Jennifer and I sort of made plans for today and—"
"You and Jennifer have had plans every day and every night since she arrived here on Earth and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you stick to one of the plans that WE made, now is it?"
Chandi threw out a hand to take in Jennifer. "Kimi, she doesn’t know anybody else besides us! And after everything she’s done to help us, I don’t think it’s too much to take her around and show her the sights and have a good time!"
"She can go out with Bette and Sue! Those two have formed their own little cadre as well the past couple of days! Sue was supposed to be helping me decorate my villa but like yourself, she’s much too busy with her new friend!"
Jennifer stepped forward and rested a hand on Kimi’s shoulder. "Are you feeling just the tiniest bit left out, Kimi?"
Kimiyo shrugged off her hand. "It’s not that at ALL, Miss Morgan! I expect when my friends make promises to me that they honor their commitments, that’s all! I don’t know how it is in that jungle world you come from, but—"
"Kimi, you’re just being totally silly and that’s all there is to it!" Chandi snapped. "And I don’t appreciate you trying to monopolize my time!"
"Me monopolize YOUR time?" Kimi yelped. "Who was it who left her children waiting at the airport for an hour because she was late picking them up because SOMEONE was hearing voices from some old Atlantean jug?"
"Urn," Jennifer corrected helpfully. "It was an Atlantean urn."
Kimi fixed her with a dangerous glare. "Stay out of this, you."
Jennifer sighed. "I will not stand by and watch two good friends jeopardize their friendship over a silly misunderstanding." The sorceress whispered words of power under her breath and drew a sign in the air that glowed silver for a brief second.
Kimi and Chandi stopped their quarrelling and their eyes closed. They appeared to be sleeping on their feet.
"Now, you will sleep for ten seconds and then awaken. And when you do, you have forgotten your silly argument and you will go ahead with whatever plans you’ve made today. Is that clear?"
"Clear," Kimi replied dreamily, a slight smile on her face.
"Righty ho," Chandi answered, her smile even wider and goofier.
Righty ho? Jennifer thought as she slipped out of the room and made her way to the staircase. She appreciated the time that Chandi had taken to be with her, but Jennifer also recognized the extremely strong bond that was between Kimi and Chandi and she wouldn’t for the world do anything to come between them. It had been a minor spell she’d used on them, one any reasonably competent first year sorcerer could perform and would have no lasting harmful effects.
Amazing Man was walking toward the elevator, unclipping his cape from his shoulders and he threw her a welcoming smile; "hey, there, Jenny. We were just wonderin’ where you’ve been hidin’ today."
Jennifer said; "Mostly resting and popping in and out. You look like you’ve seen some action today."
"Helped out puttin’ out a fire. Say, you look awfully dressed up. Where were you plannin’ on goin’?"
Indeed, Jennifer looked simply gorgeous in a black Donna Karan cashmere/spandex turtleneck dress that left her long, slim arms bare save for the numerous silver bracelets she wore on her left wrist. She twirled around lightly, holding her arms up. "You like?"
"You got a heckuva fashion sense for a girl who’s been livin’ in a prehistoric jungle…"
"Oh, Constance picked out an entire wardrobe and accessories for me and had it shipped here from all over. But where are YOU going now?"
"To take a nice hot shower. Why? You wanna go somewhere and hang out?"
"Sure."
Amazing Man grinned and unsnapped his headpiece and yanked it off his head. "Well, give me a half-hour to make myself handsome and we’ll go see what kinda dance clubs they got in this town…."
Max finished dictating a letter into his computer and stifled a yawn. Shilo was sitting across from him jotting down notes on his laptop. "I think that’s enough for today, Shilo. I’ve GOT to get a good eight hours sleep before we leave for America tomorrow. Did Ted get The Bug repaired?"
Shilo powered down the laptop and closed it. "He said that it would take too long and cost too much. He said that he was going to pick up a brand new one from his company while you guys were in the States."
"Fine…fine..I…what in the blue blazes is that racket?"
The door of Max’s office was flung open and Nate Adam and Ralph Dibny came stumbling in, both of them quite plainly blotto. The noise Max had heard had been the two of them singing ‘Old Black Joe’ and not very well at that.
"What in the world…" Max stood up, half-smiling, half-smiling. "They’re DRUNK!"
"Drunk isn’t the word, boss," Shilo said, waving a hand in front of his nose. "They smell like they’ve been taking a bath in a brewery. I’d better get them upstairs and into a cold shower. If Sue and Bette catch ‘em like this…"
"Wait jus’ a minnit, shorty!" Ralph slurred and walked over to Max’s desk of rubber legs. Literally. Ralph’s legs were wobbling and wriggling all over the place as if trying to do some kind of crazy mambo on their own while everything above the waist remained upright. "Me an’ my buddy Nate gotsha words wit Maxie!"
Nate Adam, face flushed and eyes unfocused piped in with, "Thash right! We gots conditshions!"
Max shook his head. "I hate to think about how much they drank to get in this condition. Are they gonna be sick in the morning. What’s this all about, fellas?"
"I QUIT!" Ralph declared, flopping across Max’s desk and elongating a finger until it was about a millimeter from Max’s nose. "I hereby tender my reshignation as team leader of The Justice Shquadron!"
"I take it that this means that Captain Atom will be taking over as team leader, then?"
"I most shertainly will NOT." Nate stumbled over to the long low couch and dropped into it. "I am going to conshentrate on being a good hushband to my loving-" Nate let out with a tremendous belch. "-and shupportive wife. An’ nuttin’ you say is gonna shange my mind, Max."
"It’s fine with me, but have you boys thought of an alternate leader? I would hope that you didn’t spend the entire day getting smashed."
"We have." Nate waved a hand at Ralph. "Tell him, buddy."
But Ralph’s only reply was a rubbery snore. He had passed out on top of Max’s desk.
"Nate, he’s out. Will you—"
A rattling, drawn out rasp of a snore issued from Nate Adam’s throat. He had likewise slipped into a welcome sleep.
Shilo Norman stood with his hands on his hips. "So what do we do with ‘em?"
"We put them to bed, of course. But first…" Max grinned wickedly. "Go get a camera. No reason why we can’t take a few photos for posterity…might come in handy some day…"
Europinions:
My solo stint on this series has run its course with this issue. From here on out, it’s going to be co-written by the creator of Justice Squadron himself, Barry Reese. Not that he hasn’t been putting in his two cents all along. Barry has put his stamp of approval on everything I’ve done since taking over and his invaluable suggestions and ideas for plots and characterizations have helped me over some pretty big hurdles. I can’t thank Barry enough for allowing me a crack at this. Justice Squadron is the first series that I’ve ever taken over from another writer and it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be and hell, once I got into it, it was downright fun.
This issue was written primarily to provide a break between the intensity of the Deimos three-parter and the two-parter that’s coming up, which is pretty intense in its own right. I hope you enjoyed this somewhat lighter look at our heroes and before you become too bored with my ramblings, let’s go right to our old friend…
NEXT ISSUE: Barry Reese is back and he’s bringing none other than the greatest Green Lantern of all with him, HAL JORDAN! What is the reason that has brought Hal to Paris? And yes, we will learn who is going to be the NEW leader of The Justice Squadron!