Soylent Green Home for Orphaned Boys
Sydney, Australia
It was the middle of the night when a blue mist made of pure energy flowed through the window, heading toward a bed where the body underneath was covered by a blanket. As the mist came closer, it took a human form as it got ready to re-inhabit the body underneath. As it got closer, the astral form of Jay Young realized something was wrong.
It was then that Harm jumped up from under the covers. “Hello, Jay.”
“Who are you?” asked the astral form. “Where's my body!?”
“Your body is far, far away,” said Harm with a smirk as he approached the young man's out of body soul. “You shouldn't leave such important things just lying around, Jay. You never know what trouble it'll get you into.”
“Just tell me where my body is,” Jay told him, “before I have to hurt you.”
As he got ready to punch Harm, the villain held up a remote control. “Wouldn't do that if I were you. I push this button and your body will suffer from what I can only call indescribable torment. You know, fingernails pulled out with rusty pliers, tongue cut out of your mouth, skin flayed off a piece at a time…all the fun stuff. And what you feel now will pale in comparison to what you'll feel once you're in your meatsuit again.”
“What do you want?” asked Jay as he stepped back.
“A favor,” said Harm as he headed to the window. He tossed a piece of paper onto Jay's bed. “Your body is here. You want it, come and get it.”
Harm jumped out of the window as Jay picked up the piece of paper, telling him where to go. Days later, Jay's weakening astral form arrived at Titans Tower, where he headed to the basement, seeing his body laying on a cot. He rushed forward, ignoring the markings on the walls and ceiling as he jumped back into his body. As he did, the door slammed shut, sealing the young man in.
Harm opened the slit on the door, looking inside. “Now, about that favor...”
|
#3
SEP 12 |
 |
“Darkness Rising” Part Three
Today
Red X was in his room, having removed his mask and top half of his costume as he looked into the mirror. His shoulder length brown hair was hanging into his eyes as he brushed it out of the way. His torso was covered in scars from the many surgeries he'd been subjected to during the time he'd spent in the underground facility to make him a government weapon.
“What the hell am I doing here?” the young man asked himself. Harm and Ravager had freed him from the lab, but why he willingly went with them is something he couldn't figure out. Red X could have escaped the lab anytime he wanted, but deep down knew he no longer had a place in the world above. He was starting to be content with his new life, so why join up with Harm? That's when he started thinking that maybe it wasn't his choice after all...
“Why have you summoned me here, Billy?” asked the Spectre as she hovered above Titans Tower, where she had been summoned by a ritual Harm had performed. “Unless you wish to atone for all the evil and devastation you have caused.”
“Yeah, right, like I'd ever do that,” Harm smirked as he looked up at his sister. She was wearing a long green cloak over her face as a dark green mist floated around her. “I just wanted to have a little family reunion.”
“Enough games, Billy,” the Spectre told him. “I've sensed your evil plans for quite some time, including your kidnapping of that young man over there, as well as half of your team. I've known that you were going to summon me eventually for our final confrontation, one that you will now lose.”
“Yeah, about that,” Harm said as he lit a flare. “Did your Spectre-sense tell you that I was going to do this?”
Harm tossed the lit flare to the ground, igniting a trail of fire underneath the Spectre, who looked unimpressed. “Do you honestly think that I'm scared of a little–”
As she floated closer, the Spectre screamed in pain as she realized she now trapped in a circle of holy fire.
Harm laughed as he walked closer to her. “You what the best part about being friends with demons from Hell is? They have all kinds on dirt on how to trap unholy bitches like you in holy fire.”
“Why are you helping me?” asked Wonder Girl as Red X cut her chains, which had been infused with dark magic to keep her contained. “Aren't you Harm's flunkie?”
“Not by choice,” Red X told her. “He's got some of kind verbal mind control thing going on. It's like I can't resist his voice whenever he talks to me. I have a feeling it's the same with Ravager. Harm's been calling the shots this entire time, using us to pull off his plan.”
“And what exactly is his plan?” asked Wonder Girl as she stood up after having been freed. She grabbed her magic lariat from the table.
“I don't know, but I have a feeling that psycho Kid Karnevil does,” Red X said as he headed for the door. “I don't think Harm ever had to influence him. That evil little bastard's probably been willingly going along with Harm this whole time.”
Superboy's black t-shirt had been stabbed through so many times that it was in tatters and barely hanging off of him, with most of what was left of it sitting in pieces on the floor. His body, however, was completely unharmed from all the attempts Kid Karnevil was making to hurt him. Next to the pieces of tattered shirt on the floor were several bent knives, numbering in the dozens.
Kid Karnevil ran forward, stabbing Superboy again, getting the exact same result the psychotic Titan looked at the bent blade in his hand. “I'm running out knives.”
“You're running out of sanity,” said Superboy as he sat there, bored as he watched the last pieces of his t-shirt fall to the ground. “That was my favorite shirt.”
“Maybe Harm's got something stronger to use,” Kid Karnevil said. “What's the name of that stuff that weakens you? Krypta-Kraft macaroni & cheese?”
“Barry Manilow music?” asked Superboy sarcastically.
“I think I saw that in Red X's room,” said Kid Karnevil with a grin. “I'll go get it.”
As he turned, Kid Karnevil was met with Wonder Girl's hand around his throat. Lifting him off the ground, she tossed him gently through a wall before breaking Superboy's chains. As he stood up, Wonder Girl's eyes immediately fell upon his bare chest.
“How'd you get free?” asked Superboy as he looked as Red X, before seeing Wonder Girl staring at him. “Hello, my eyes are up here!”
“Red X,” Wonder Girl replied as she snapped out of her trance. Before even she realized what was going on, she was catching Superboy before he could fly towards the person who'd beaten him earlier. “Relax, he's on our side. And we have to stop Harm before he does whatever it is he's going to do.”
“And how do we stop him if we don't know what he's doing?” asked Superboy as they heard a groaning coming from the hole in the wall. As Kid Karnevil stood up, a golden lariot quickly wrapped around his body.
“We go to the one person that Harm would tell,” Wonder Girl smirked as she tightened the lasso.
“You think you can get me to tell the truth?” asked Karnevil with a laugh.
“It's not that kind of lasso, honey,” smirked Wonder Girl as lightning started flowing through it.
“Sorry to trap you like a wild animal, sis,” said Harm as he paced back and forth in front of the Spectre, “but I had to make sure you stuck around for the main event. Couldn't just have you dropping in, then taking off before the party really began.”
“Your plans are doomed to fail, Billy,” said the Spectre as her eyes started to glow a bright white.
“It's HARM!” Harm shouted at her. “Billy died the night our dad put six bullets into my head. Of course, by that point you were running around with your little friends in Young Justice. Speaking of which, I have two of them downstairs. Thinking about adding two more members to the team once I'm done with you.”
Harm walked over to Jay, who was still trapped inside his own circle. “I found Jay here in an Austrailian orphanage after a few of my demon friends clued me into someone with his...unique powers. Did you know that Jay has the power to astral project into a solid soul form?”
“I am aware of a lot things,” the Spectre told him angrily.
“Well, I'll bet you didn't know he can also do the opposite, as well,” Harm smirked as he looked at her. “Of course, it takes massive amounts of blood from tainted souls to pull it off, and even then he can probably only do it once without it draining his own life force and killing him. But young Jay here has the ability to PULL souls out of people.”
“You're insane,” the Spectre told him. “You honestly don't think that–”
“I do,” Harm told her with a vicious smile. “Jay's going to pull your pretty little soul right out of the Spectre's essence, leaving it wide open for the taking. And guess who gets first crack at it?”
“He's resisting!” shouted Wonder Girl as she tried to coerce the truth out of Kid Karnevil with her lightning lasso. She was barely using its power, just giving it enough to get their enemy to talk. “Tell us Harm's plan!”
“Forget it, blondie!” shouted Kid Karnevil, who received more pain the more he resisted the lasso's will. “I'm not telling you anything!”
“He's too psychotic for your lasso to work,” Red X realized. “We'll just have to confront Harm ourselves. But first I'll have to find a way around Harm's mind control.”
Superboy punched Kid Karnevil, lightly enough to just merely knock him out as the group headed for the roof. It was then that Ravager appeared with her sword, ready to attack.
“Going somewhere?” asked Ravager with a smirk.
“It's not too late for you to stop this madness,” the Spectre said as she floated inside the circle. “I can help you, Billy. I can help you overcome this evil inside of you.”
“I am not Billy!” Harm shouted at her. “I'm not even your brother! We were never blood related!”
“Family isn't about blood, it's about people who care for each other,” the Spectre told him. “Even though you frightened me to no end with your behavior, I still cared for you. Even after you murdered me, I still had hope for you, brother.”
“I don't believe you!” Harm shouted. “All I ever was to you and our parents was just some orphaned brat forced into your lives! None of you ever cared for me!”
“You never opened yourself up to let our love in,” the Spectre replied as she stared down at him. “You weren't a burden; you were a part of the family that could have had something wonderful had you let us in. It's still not too late, Billy. Mom and Dad are still out there.”
“Your father's in prison on death row for killing me, and your mother's in a psycho ward, little hope of a family reunion now,” Harm told her as he faced Jay. “And once the sun sets and the moon is in position, I'll have your powers and become a god.”
“Jay,” Spectre said as her eyes fell upon the young man not too far away. “You don't have to go with Harm's plans. I can see into your soul, Jay, you want to do the right thing, despite everything that's happened to you. You still have good in you.”
“You can see everything?” asked Jay in a scared tone. Tears started falling from his eyes as he remembered what the Spectre was seeing.
“You need not fear me,” the Spectre told him. “I am not here to judge you, not today. You can still make things right by opposing this ridiculous plan.”
“She's lying to you, Jay,” Harm told him. “She's disgusted with you, and all that you've done. I know all about you, too. And I can make it all go away.”
“You...can?” asked Jay as he looked at Harm.
“Once I gain the Spectre's powers, I can rewrite everything,” Harm lied to him with an evil grin. “I can fix you, Jay. I can give you a loving home, with parents who actually wanted you. Anything you want, you can have as a reward for helping me.”
“Don't listen to him, Jay!” the Spectre warned him. “He's only using you for his own purposes. Don't give in!”
“Can you take away all the pain?” asked Jay as he looked at her. “Can you make it so I never went through all that suffering?”
“I cannot change the past, nor can he,” Spectre said as she motioned toward Harm. “I can, however, promise that the pain inside of you can be healed over time, if you choose to do the right thing today.”
“Lies,” said Harm as he looked into Jay's eyes. “The pain can never be healed as long you remember what has happened to you. You'll always carry the pain of your parents telling you they never loved you, Jay. Dropping you off at the orphanage and never looking back, the cruel abuse you suffered at the hands of the people there. That's why when you discovered your powers, and why you took every opportunity to use them to leave your body behind. I can fix you, Jay.”
“I just want to stop feeling pain,” Jay said in a whisper. “I want it to all go away.”
“Then do this one thing for me, and I'll take it all away,” Harm lied. “You'll never feel pain again, I promise.”
The sun started to set as the moon began to rise. Harm smiled as he looked at the quickly darkening sky before returning his attention to Jay.
“I'm sorry,” said Jay as he closed his eyes and held out his hand as the Spectre started feeling a pulling pain inside of her body.
Ravager stood in the doorway as Superboy, Wonder Girl and Red X were on their way to the roof to confront Harm. Ravager smirked as she eyed the shirtless Superboy's torso, whose view was interrupted by Wonder Girl once she realized what Ravager was looking at.
“Step aside, sister, we're going to stop Harm,” Wonder Girl told her, “even if we have to go through you.”
“I don't intend to stop you,” Ravager told her. “Even though I could put all three of you down before you could blink, I know what Harm's been doing to me and Red X, and I want the little bastard as much as you do. But if me and Red X set one foot onto that roof we'll fall under his power the second he opens his mouth.”
“That's why we put in earplugs,” said Red X as Ravager stopped him.
“If it were that simple, I'd have done it myself weeks ago,” Ravager replied. “He now has a psychic link to us that's been building since he started controlling us. Can't you feel it? I can almost see him on the roof now, pushing that kid into doing his bidding.”
“I wondered what those flashes were that I was seeing,” said Red X as he held his head. “Now that you mention it, I can see some chick dressed in green trapped up there. And she's in pain.”
“Then let's get up there and kick Harm's ass!” shouted Superboy as Ravager grabbed his arm before he could fly by.
“First you need to know what you're up against,” Ravager told him, “and you have to break his link to me and Red X before he calls us up to fight you. You do that and we can join you in kicking that smarmy little bastard back to hell where he belongs.”
“Then tell us what we have to do,” Wonder Girl said uneasily. She didn't trust Ravager, but right now she was the lesser of two evils. “How do we stop Harm once and for all?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To Be Continued...
Previous Issue | Next Issue