JULY 2002 - #38

Armageddon Now by Paul Hahn

Young Justice had been attacked by the Imperials in their own home, and one of their teammates, Jolt, had been captured. The team retaliated. They broke into three teams: Phoenix and Superboy, along with the Super-Cycle were to lead the attack head on. Impulse, Arrowette, and Rebel brought the fight to the base's core. Nightwing and Empress went in search of their missing teammate.

All three groups met resistance, but not nearly as much as they expected. The team had no idea that the base they had attacked was merely an outpost, one whose sole purpose was to test out the Armageddon Man, a being of unlimited power created by Arnim Zola.

"Did you feel that?" Arrowette asked as she hesitated firing off another arrow.

"Feel what?" Impulse asked.

"The ground shook," she continued. "Pretty hard . . . "

Rebel pointed upwards.

"Huh?" Arrowette asked, looking up. Dark clouds had gathered, almost out of nowhere. Lighting began to appear, followed by the crack of thunder. "What's going on . . . ?"

"I dunno," Impulse said. "But the Imperial Troopers look pretty scared . . . some of 'em are running away!"

"An auto-destruct program?" Arrowette asked. "Are they that concerned about us?"

Rebel just shrugged.

"Whoa," Phoenix said, stopping suddenly.

"What is it?" Superboy asked.

"I'm getting some weird psychic feedback," she said. "Something big is going on . . . "

"I'm inclined to agree," Superboy said. "The wind picked up big time, and look at the sky . . . "

"The Imperials are retreating!"

"Then I'd say something is definitely up . . . come on!"hr>Elsewhere again.

Nightwing and Empress stood in the room closest to ground zero, as the Armageddon man began to awaken. He stood now, in the center of the room, standing six-feet tall. But he was starting to grow . . .

"What is this, Zola?" Nightwing asked.

"My greatest success ever," he grinned. "A purely unstoppable force designed to bring the world to it's knees . . . within the next half-hour he will grow to be four stories tall . . . he will cause tornadoes in Los Angeles, fifty foot waves in San Francisco, Earthquakes in Palm Springs, and lighting that will cause forest fires throughout the pacific northwest. Given enough time, he could take out the entire world's defenses."

"You're insane!" Empress exclaimed. "Such raw power . . . how could you hope to control it?"

"Truth be told, I can't control him," Zola continued. "All I can do is unleash him . . . and box him back up in a dormant state."

"Well, you've had your test," Nightwing said. "Put him back."

"No," Zola grinned. "This is a statement. But I tell you what . . . I shall call him down as soon as you and your team leave . . . and hand over Wonder Girl."

"Well, that's gonna be a problem," Chuck frowned. "We're not leaving . . . and Wonder Girl's dead."

"Dead?" Zola asked. "Silly boy . . . Wonder Girl's not dead. She can't be. She's a being of ionic energy. And what should everyone know about energy? It cannot be created, nor destroyed . . . only transferred from lower to higher levels. Wonder Girl is alive . . . she's just . . . transferred."

Nightwing's eyes went wide. It made perfect sense. Energy cannot be destroyed. "Cassie's . . . alive?"

"But I suppose you cannot turn her over, then," Zola frowned. "Oh well . . . eleven out of twelve will do for now. This test will last until Young Justice is dead. Then the Imperial Forces will plan for a tactical strike against Washington!"

"Not a chance!" Empress exclaimed. She teleported behind Zola and smashed her bo-staff into his back.

Zola stumbled forward, but sent an electric shock back at her.

Nightwing threw a batarang, smashing the view-screen on Zola's chest. "Call him down, now . . . and hand over Hallie!"

"No," Zola said once more. He pressed a button on his arm. "Let's speed things up a bit . . . "

Suddenly, Armageddon Man began to grow taller. In a matter of seconds, he burst through the ceiling, smashing the building to pieces. Nightwing dove and got himself and Empress clear of falling debris. But the blue-skinned man crackled with energy. His voice howled, like the sound of a thousand winds.

"Whoa," Empress said.

"And now, I'll leave you alone," Zola said, "while I attend to my Jolt!"

The mansion used to stand for power. The Inner Circle was a group of mutants whose goal was to rule the world. It had a team of young mutants, the Hellions, an army-in-training. They thought they were unstoppable.

Then, they got stopped.

In their few confrontations with Young Justice, they were shocked to meet their matches. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Sebastian Shaw, the Black King and head of the Inner Circle went to visit other chapters of the club for many reasons, but one of which was a way to defeat Young Justice. That was over a month ago.

After he left, the White Queen and the Hellions went toe-to-toe with the Marauders while searching for a robot called Cerebro. The Hellions were massacred. Emma Frost, the Queen, was in a coma. She only recently awoke, discovering that her powers had mutated, and that was what had saved her. Her skin could be covered with a diamond-hard sheath with but a thought. It was interesting to her. However, Emma was troubled.

The Hellions were students in her care. They were dead. And when she finally returned to her mansion home with the club, she learned that Sebastian Shaw had all but disappeared off the face of the world.

I don't like it, she thought. First, Contessa and Klarion quit and disappear. Firebird leaves us with Young Justice, and Jason Wyngarde's mind is apparently destroyed . . . and he then disappears. Then we learn that Sunspot and Tessa were both spies, and they disappear. Doctor Doom joins, then quits shortly after. And now Shaw has disappeared. I tried contacting other branches of the Club . . . London ignored me . . . there was no answer from Hong Kong or San Francisco . . . but Montreal . . . something was strange there.

"Attend me," she said. A manservant was instantly by her side. "Prep one of the club's military transport jets. Prepare it to host a full crew and passengers, with a scheduled trip to Montreal."

"Yes, m'lady," the servant nodded. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Frost continued. "Tell my driver to bring my limo about. I need to pay a visit . . . to Young Justice."

"We are so outmatched," Nightwing said as Empress teleported the two of them outside the building and several yards away from it.

"Any suggestions?" she asked.

"What is that?" Superboy asked as he and Phoenix landed beside them. Impulse, Arrowette and Rebel soon joined in.

"He's called the Armageddon Man," Chuck said. "Zola created him . . . supposedly extremely powerful . . . unstoppable."

"Suggestions?" Arrowette asked.

"Funny, that's what she asked," Nightwing said, motioning to Empress.

"Why don't we try the direct approach?" Superboy asked. He flashed his shield forward and flew right at the giant man's chest. He impacted, but was just knocked back from the hit. Stupid, Kon . . . stupid! You're not strong enough to try this stuff anymore . . .

"Well, so much for the direct approach," Arrowette said, pulling out a flame arrow.

"Hold on," Nightwing frowned. "Empress, Impulse . . . find Hallie. Zola's gonna try and bolt away with her . . . we can't let that happen. Everyone else . . . let's try to bring this guy down!"

"That could be easier said than done," Superboy said, shaking off his blow. "He didn't even notice me . . . "

"Maybe I can try something?" Phoenix asked. "Try to soothe his mind?"

"Worth a try," Chuck shrugged. "But be careful . . . you're still a novice with the telepathy . . . "

Linda nodded as the flame bird appeared around her and she began to lift into the air. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"I hope this works," Nightwing frowned. "I don't have any other ideas . . . "

Arnim Zola smiled as a person-sized metal tube was loaded onto a personal transport by Imperial soldiers.

"Hold it right there, Zola!" Empress exclaimed as she appeared in a puff of smoke. "You're not taking Jolt anywhere!"

"I see I did not hurt you enough to teach you a lesson in our previous encounter," Zola frowned.

"You talk a mean talk, but can you walk the walk?"

"I can't believe people actually say that . . . "

"And I can't believe I was able to distract you long enough for Impulse to take out all your guards and free Hallie."

"Eh?" Zola spun around quickly, and saw Impulse and Jolt standing behind him.

"Sucker," Impulse smirked.

"@%*$er!" Jolt exclaimed as she hit Zola with an incredibly strong electric punch. "Leave me alone!"

"Very well," Zola frowned. "I'll have to pick you up when I pick up Wonder Girl . . . after my Armageddon Man has killed you all."

A bolt of lightning suddenly smashed into the building's top, ripping the roof off and setting the place ablaze with fire.

"I hope you rot in hell!" Jolt exclaimed.

With that, Empress teleported out and Bart sped off with Hallie in his arms.

"Bart," she said. "You . . . you saved me!"

"Yeah," he replied.

"You . . . you do care!" she exclaimed. She kissed him on the lips.

Bart stopped suddenly. " . . . Hallie . . . ? What . . . ?"

"Never mind," she blushed. "Come on . . . let's get back to the others."

"So she can make him relax . . . but we need a permanent solution," Nightwing frowned.

"We got her," Empress said as she reappeared. Impulse ran over soon after with Jolt.

"Oh no," Jolt said. "Don't hurt him!"

"You know him?" Superboy asked.

"No, not personally," she said. "But I remember him . . . I remember Zola torturing him, like he did me . . . he's just an innocent kid!"

"Well . . . any ideas?" Cissie asked.

"Let me talk to him," she frowned.

"I don't think he's much interested in listening," Superboy frowned.

"Maybe Linda could connect their minds?" Chuck asked. "So she could speak directly to his mind?"

"Linda?" Kon asked.

"I'll try . . . " she said. Linda stretched her powers further than she had before, and established a mind-link between Hallie and their blue-skinned foe.

No one knew what was said between the two. The thoughts were private. But they went on, for what seemed like hours . . . though were only moments. The whole team stood, tensed and unsure for what would happen . . . and then, suddenly:

"We should leave," Jolt said.

"What happened?" Chuck asked.

"I talked to him . . . and he's gonna do the right thing," she said. "But we need to leave . . . now . . . "

Nightwing put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. The Super Cycle flew right over. "Let's go, team!"

The group jumped aboard the cycle and it quickly began to fly away.

"What's going on?" Superboy asked. "Hallie?"

The storm began to center on the Imperial Forces camp, with small tornadoes and bolts of lightning touching down.

"He knows what he's doing is wrong," Hallie explained. "But he can't control his power. So he's going to do the only thing he can . . . focus his powers on himself and the camp . . . destroy the Imperials influence here . . . and bring himself down."

"He's gonna kill himself?" Bart asked.

"No," Chuck said. "At his core, he's got energy . . . he can't die. None of Zola's creations can . . . "

Superboy looked at Chuck curiously. "What are you saying . . . ?"

"I'm not sure," he frowned. "But when we get back home, I think I'll try and find out . . . "

As the Super Cycle sped away, the team could see the storm grow in intensity, tearing apart the small part of the mountains, bringing an end to the threat posed by the Armageddon Man.

"The damage is intense," Empress frowned. "And we don't even own the place . . . we're borrowing it!"

"We can rebuild," Chuck said.

"There's someone down there . . . " Arrowette said. "White limo . . . a woman, standing out in front of it?"

"I'll take us down," Nightwing said. The cycle landed gently across from the limo. "Emma Frost!?"

"Hello, Young Justice," the White Queen said. "I sincerely hope that you've fired your decorator."

"What do you want, Frost?" Superboy asked angrily, stepping in front of Linda.

Frost couldn't help but let a smirk cross her face at Superboy's reaction to her. Then she sighed. "Believe it or not, and as terrible as this is for me to say, Young Justice . . . I . . . require your help."

"Our help?" Nightwing asked.

"Yes," Frost continued. "I need you to help me find Sebastian Shaw."