by Libbylawrence
Despite being surrounded by alien troops, the members of the Green Lantern Corps and the Rehab Squad were not overpowered, as they soon demonstrated with swift actions.
The three Green Lanterns flashed their power rings immediately. Arisia created a huge cage that closed in on several of the alien troopers like a vise, keeping them tightly pinned while unharmed. Katma Tui created a huge, ram-shaped energy construct to knock others off their feet. The Silver Swan, Deadshot, and Signalman took advantage of the chaos to fight the aliens in their own unique ways.
John Stewart kept his friends and allies shielded from harm as he thought of how best to free the United Kingdom. As an architect, he could understand most structures with little more a glance, and he knew enough about science from his experiences as a Green Lantern to recognize the infamous shrinking ray when he saw it.
As the others fought on, giving him the time and space he needed, John activated it using the instructions that Harbinger had transmitted to him via their com-link, ensuring that the proper coordinates were entered correctly. Under the pressure of the moment, even a Green Lantern could make mistakes. After checking and double-checking, John shook his head and said, “Well, here goes nothing.”
Flipping the switch that he knew would restore the entire landmass, he watched the bottle explode and its contents vanish as the entire United Kingdom returned to its original location, expanded once more to its normal size.
Whew! thought John as he verified the results through a monitor screen trained on the Earth below. All right! I sure am glad I didn’t end up dropping it on France or something!
The Green Lantern was about to leave and return to his friends, when he had second thoughts. Impulsively, he enveloped the device with his energy bubble, then took it with him as his allies continued to cause destruction throughout the ship and fought its alien crew.
Deadshot picked off aliens one by one with his ruthless skill as a sniper, while others were blinded by the strobing pulses generated by the Signalman.
“Signs of a change, baby!” laughed the villain.
The Silver Swan, meanwhile, used her great strength to topple a cannon, even as her allure attracted and froze others into inaction. She blew a kiss to the creatures, then raced off-ship with the others, where they could all see for themselves that they had saved the British Isles and all of its inhabitants.
After forming a huge gun with their power rings, the Green Lanterns let Deadshot aim and fire it. He hit the massive ship exactly as desired, and the alien craft was soon engulfed in blue fire.
“I’d like to see Luke Skywalker do better than that,” said Deadshot.
***
Soon, at the Washington, D.C. facility of the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency, John Stewart and the others delivered the shrinking ray to Captain Comet himself.
“It’s based on Brainiac’s, all right,” said Adam Blake after a cursory examination. “I guess the Alien Alliance must have copied it or stole it, since he’s not been spotted among the invading fleet.”
At that moment, a rumble shook the building. The Rehab Squad and the Green Lanterns rushed outside, where from a distance they spotted Lesla-Lar battling a hulking monster with spiky, protruding bone-spurs across its body. Even she, with all her Kryptonian might, was staggered by its sheer power.
“I’d better help Lesla,” said Captain Comet, and ran out.
The aliens watched gleefully from their ship above as their creation beat the pretty blonde called Lesla-Lar down into the street. She refused to give up, however, and continued to try to slow down this monster that the Dominators had called Doomsday.
Can’t let Doomsday get to the civilians, even if I have to die to stop him! she vowed. It’s what I — what Supergirl would do! Lesla tried flying up with him for miles and then dropping him, but the impact only shattered a couple of bone spurs, which merely formed new jagged masses that cut even her powerful Kryptonian body. She fell beneath his latest punch and rolled aside, stunned.
Now Captain Comet charged the monster. Slamming into him with all his might, he managed to rock the monster backward, but could not hurt him. This isn’t going to be easy, he thought, falling to a left hook from the creature, then ducking a second cutting slice. As he continued to fight, he was disheartened to find that his attack barely slowed the beast at all, and nothing he did seemed to hurt him. Comet then tried a new tactic and blasted the beast mentally, only to find that, for all intents and purposes, Doomsday was mindless — just a destructive organism bent on murder and chaos.
With another punch, Comet was knocked through a wall. He rose and shook his head as the Green Lanterns ganged up on the beast. Their sheer combined power was amazing, but ultimately ineffective against Doomsday, who shrugged off their every blast and burst their every cage.
“He’s practically unbeatable!” cried John Stewart.
I wish Hal was here, thought Katma Tui.
The Silver Swan’s mesmeric song failed to affect him as well, as Doomsday swung one arm and sent Helena Alexandros flying into a stunned pile. Captain Comet watched as Lesla-Lar, getting her second wind, again battled the monster with true courage as foolish crowds began to form, cheering her on.
“Get those people back!” Comet shouted.
Arisia erected barriers to safely shove the crowds back to a safe distance. “Sorry, folks! Move along, nothing to see here!”
Soon, Lesla-Lar landed a hard blow that did topple Doomsday, but the creature got back up again. It seemed that nothing could stop the beast.
That was when Captain Comet’s keen mind finally found the answer. Running back into the MHRA facility, he quickly emerged with the shrinking ray based on the one invented by Brainiac. Activating the ray, he struck Doomsday directly with a beam that shot out to shrink the monster to microscopic size. The battered and bruised leader of the Rehab Squad finally sighed in relief. While every physical attack had been doomed to fail, he had finally beaten the alien killing machine with science.
Hopefully that alien monster won’t end up menacing some subatomic world, he thought.
***
The Rehab Squad team of the Golden Glider, Mayflower, Silent Majority, Plastique, and the Pied Piper were being held captive in an Alien Alliance prison ship, along with several other companions who were alien prisoners of many species.
One of them was a very odd one who spoke English and looked like nothing so much as a rag doll. His features seemed stitched on, and his limber body also added to the overall impression that he was a thing of cloth and stuffing given life by some mystical means. “I am Brother Power,” the figure said woefully.
“How long have you been here?” asked Golden Glider.
“Oh, I’m not too sure about that,” he replied. “Time passes differently here in space. When I was on Earth, I remember that a man named Nixon was President, though that may no longer be the case. You folks are from Earth, aren’t you?”
“That’s right,” replied the Pied Piper. “You’ve been captive for a long time.”
“True. But I’ve been doing T.M. and trying not to get bummed out,” he said cheerfully, referring to the fact that he had been turned on to transcendental meditation in San Francisco in the late 1960s when as an ordinary clothes dummy he had first been brought to life through some improbable cosmic event. (*) “Life sure has been strange ever since I got shot into space in a rocket back in 1968.” (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “A Thing Is Born,” Brother Power the Geek #1 (September-October, 1968) and “A Visit from the Dead,” Brother Power the Geek #2 (November-December, 1968).]
Nearby, Plastique shattered her chains with an energy blast, surprising them all. “What? Did you think I needed my disks to create the explosions? I am the energy source, not them!” She smiled, as if this moment in the spotlight was all too wonderful for her.
Both amused and annoyed, Golden Glider let her skillfully break the other chains, and soon all the freed aliens rushed out en masse to attack the jailers.
The limber Brother Power made an effective ally, though he seemed to be unnaturally pacifistic. The Piper quickly formed a bond with him, and they talked of rock and roll as they made their way free.
Golden Glider skated up to a group of alien troops, dazzling all of them by how fast and agilely she dodged them. “Too slow, boys,” she sneered. “Why, I’ll be you couldn’t even catch Dorothy Hammel!”
Watching as the Pied Piper subdued the others with his hypnotic music, Mayflower shouted, “While he plays, they’re helpless. Lock ’em up where they kept us!”
Soon, the beautiful young woman in the Pilgrim outfit smiled as she saw on a scanner screen that the United Kingdom had been restored to its rightful place. “Oh, me mum is back, thank goodness!” She hugged the taciturn Silent Majority, and even he smiled slightly at the unexpected sign of affection.
An orange-skinned beauty with white-blonde hair seemed to be in charge of the newly freed alien captives. “They call me Stealth,” she said, introducing herself. “So, who do I have to make out with to get a ride down to Earth?” she asked saucily, crossing her legs.
Not another one! thought Golden Glider, while Plastique rolled her eyes. Before the alien beauty could get any takers, Glider told her, “We’ll be glad to take you with us, hon.”
Soon the team, accompanied by Brother Power and Stealth, located a small spacecraft to take them back to Earth, while the rest of the freed alien prisoners took over the larger prison ship, overjoyed at being freed by the Rehab Squad.
As the spacecraft descended to Earth, the group used the monitors within it to pick up news broadcasts proclaiming the near-total victory for the heroes of Earth, thanks in part to the help of Superman and the Justice League of America, who had joined the battle at the eleventh hour.
The media had even given Lesla-Lar the new heroic name of Valor. As she smiled for the cameras, the former villainess from Kandor truly felt as if she now belonged.
***
At the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency, after the various Rehab Squad teams had returned, Captain Comet was hard at work in the laboratory, trying to combat the equalization plague but to no avail. Nothing was working.
“It’s no use,” Adam Blake finally said. “I can’t find a cure for Pariah’s condition. All powers and equipment near him simply fail. It’s reaching a crisis state.”
The sad-eyed Pariah, overhearing these failed results through the speaker, vanished from his force-field cage shortly after, though no one noticed his absence at first when a new danger approached Earth.
An alien bomber was attempting to make a final effort to destroy Earth’s heroes by using a fusion weapon on New York City, where so many heroes lived. Every TV news station began reporting on the sudden appearance of the large craft over Manhattan, its appearance so threatening at a time when the invasion had thought to be over.
Before Captain Comet could mobilize his team, Harbinger ran in tearfully and said, “Pariah’s gone off to that ship! I think he’s going to try to disable it with the very plague the aliens infected him with!”
Golden Glider pulled at her arm, frowning. “You can’t stop him,” she insisted. “It’s the poor, guilt-ridden guy’s last chance to be a hero.”
The Cheetah nodded, understanding his motivation all too well. “That’s a feeling no one would want to lose.”
The result was spectacular. Using his ability to teleport himself to places of danger, Pariah had crashed into the ship and soon made his way to the core. Thanks to the equalization plague that the Dominators had instilled in him, he caused the fusion weapon to misfire, and the alien bomber ship was consumed.
With this last effort stopped, the armada of the Alien Alliance finally fled, defeated for good. Cheers erupted all over the world, and the names of Captain Comet and Valor were celebrated above all. As for Pariah, his body was never found. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: For the fate of Pariah, see Premiere: Pariah: All Access.]
***
After the events of the invasion, Harbinger was offered a job as the information source on heroes and villains for the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency and its Rehab Squad. The blonde readily accepted the job, happy to have a place to belong again. “After working for the Monitor, I do know my meta-humans,” Lyla said.
“You know more about the heroes and villains of several worlds than anybody,” agreed Captain Comet.
“I guess I do,” she answered with a radiant smile.
Brother Power and the Pied Piper headed off together, since the Piper had no jail-time left to serve. The fiery Stealth also left, eager to see the Earth before she found her way back into outer space. Silver Swan had been hurt during the fight with Doomsday and was being cared for at George Washington University Hospital, but she would eventually be ready to return to duty. Multiplex was still missing, having gone AWOL, while the crafty Deadshot had managed to slip away in the confusion as well.
Captain Comet had been mostly pleased by the Rehab Squad’s actions during the invasion, though he mourned the apparent death of Air Wave and the escape of the two wanted criminals. “That leaves Dolphin, Starman, Cheetah, Glider, and Mayflower, along with Valor, as Lesla-Lar’s been appropriately named,” he said. “Still a pretty impressive lineup.”
“I really feel at home here now,” Valor had happily announced to Dr. Karin Grace in the infirmary, while she recovered from her own wounds sustained while battling Doomsday. Indeed, Adam Blake’s brief mental scan had revealed that the lovely Kandorian was nearly free of her Supergirl fixation. As Comet also noted, Flag’s earlier suggestion to use a tracking device loaded with kryptonite had never been needed after all.
“I think the public acclaim she’s received in her own right helped her a lot,” suggested Dolphin, speaking with the core team a while later.
“I know she really pulled her weight during the conflict,” agreed Arisia, some time before she flew off with the other members of the Green Lantern Corps. She had already told Captain Comet and Rick Flag that she was returning to her own team. She’d loved the experiences and friendships she had found in the Rehab Squad, but the GLC would always be her true home.
“I guess things are finally settling down,” remarked Colonel Rick Flag, director of the MHRA.
Little did anyone know that Maxima, the alien princess, was still watching Captain Comet eagerly and admiringly as he made his every move. “He is truly exceptional! I will observe more, then claim him as my mate,” she declared.
Someday soon, she would be true to her word.
The End