by Libbylawrence
At the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency, Captain Comet glanced up from the Belle Reve inmate files he was studying as the pretty Mayflower entered his office.
“Hello, luv!” the young woman said in her charming British accent. In her Pilgrim outfit, the pretty girl looked quite young, in her early twenties at most.
“Hello, yourself!” Adam Blake said with a smile. “What can I do for you, Rachel?”
Rachel Green smiled uncomfortably as she broached the subject she’d come there for. “Well, I’d like to go on leave. This whole alien invasion has left me missin’ me mum back in England, especially after the shrinking crisis.” She was referring to the temporary shrinking of the British Isles by the Alien Alliance before the heroes restored it to its proper size and location, then sent the defeated invaders packing. (*) “May I go visit her and see if all’s well?”
[(*) Editor’s note: See Captain Comet’s Rehab Squad: Strange Visitors.]
“Sure thing,” Adam replied. “You’ve already proven your desire to reform is real. And based on these files–” He indicated the folders on his desk. “–you don’t have any prison time left to serve. We’re glad to have you on the team, though, especially with Multiplex, Deadshot, the Hooded Hangman, and Killer Moth all either AWOL, unreliable, or dead.”
“What about Silent M?” she asked.
“He’s gone again — but with my permission,” replied Captain Comet, referring to Mayflower’s friend Silent Majority; they had both been members of the Force of July. (*) “He was needed elsewhere, anyway. It turns out another government agency wants to make use of his abilities to replicate himself.”
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Land Where Our Fathers Died,” Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1 (1984).]
“Oh? I hope he’ll be back,” said Rachel.
“Tell you what,” said Captain Comet. “I’ll grant you that leave of absence and even lend you a Sky Skimmer if you need a ride. In fact, why not take Debbi with you? I’m sure she’d love to return to her heiress jet-setting days for a little while.”
“The Cheetah? Sure, we’d have a ball in the U.K.! Thanks ever so much!” She kissed him on the cheek.
“Well, well, well!” said Lisa Snart, slinking into the room just then.
“Uh… Rachel was just thanking me for giving her leave,” explained a blushing Comet.
“I’d like to ‘thank you’ for a few things, too,” cooed Golden Glider seductively.
“Yes. Well, later… maybe,” he said boyishly.
Valor watched from down the hall, her super-vision picking up the scene accidentally. Got to learn to not scan so randomly, mused the gorgeous blonde in the purple minidress.
“Leslie!” called Dr. Karin Grace, looking youthful and radiant while clad in her new Goldstar outfit. (*) “How about taking me to test out my power suit? Flag is always demanding that I give it up.”
[(*) Editor’s note: See Captain Comet’s Rehab Squad: The Return of Supergirl, Chapter 1: Crisis Revisited.]
Lesla-Lar, known to the Rehab Squad by her adopted Earth name of Leslie Larson, smiled and nodded her head. “Sounds like fun! Let’s fly,” she said, looking like her double, the late Supergirl, now more than ever.
***
Debbie Darnell was annoyed with herself for having let things get to this point. The truth was that she’d lost all of her money; she was flat-out broke. The fortune that she’d once made through unscrupulous means, which she’d been living on ever since, had been lost in a swindle after she’d trusted the wrong man. Alistair had seduced her, promised her the world for a sizeable investment, then disappeared with her money. Now she was out of resources.
The pretty raven-haired woman paced wearily. Unable to keep up with the monthly payments, she had to break the lease on her beautiful apartment in Fisherman’s Wharf and was forced to move everything out into storage while she looked for a more affordable place to live. She’d likely have to leave San Francisco as well, if she wasn’t able to change her circumstances soon. She hated to grovel to any of her wealthy old boyfriends, but she would do so if it came to that. What she really wanted to do, though, was track down that hustler and take back her money, with interest, but for all she knew, Alistair wasn’t even his real name.
“Feeling hatred?” whispered a seductive woman from the shadows. “Feeling used and discarded by men? Have you a need for wealth and power all your own?”
“Who?” cried the well-dressed Debbie, and turned to see a blonde wearing an outfit of filmy pink material standing behind her.
“I am the source of your renewal,” she said alluringly. “Take my hand, and I’ll give you back your power — the power. You know you want it.”
Debbie frowned, wondering if this strange woman was really talking about what she thought she was talking about. She turned back to catch a glimpse of the men loading everything from her apartment into a moving truck, and realized she had nothing but a few paltry belongings to lose.
“I… accept,” she said slowly, and took the blonde’s well-manicured hand, whose pink polished nails glistened in the light.
“Excellent,” said the witch. “Then I awaken the latent power of the Star Sapphire!”
In a pink and purple flash, the beautiful Remoni-Notra of Pandina, who used the aliases of Debbie Darnell and Camille Fortier while on Earth, was transformed into the second Star Sapphire, complete with a gemstone that looked identical to her original, for the first time since the Justice League of America had not only brought an end to her brief career, but also stranded her on this world. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Attend or Die,” Secret Society of Super-Villains #1 (June, 1976), “Captains Cataclysmic,” Secret Society of Super-Villains #6 (March-April, 1977), and “The Last Great Switcheroo,” Justice League of America #168 (July, 1979).]
“Welcome to the new Secret Society of Super-Villains!” said her mystical mentor.
***
The False Face Society, the organization led by the Black Mask, had a monopoly of sorts on crime these days in the city of Bludhaven, which neighbored Gotham City. The Society’s mad but deadly boss planned well, and fatally punished those who failed to live up to his commands. Three thugs wearing masks of Rabbit, Dog, and Cow knew this all too well as they hurried out of the empty pawn shop with their loot.
“Hurry, Cow!” said Dog.
“Aw, shut it!” said Cow. “There’s no Bat in this city!”
“No, but the Bat is not the only nocturnal predator,” shouted a voice from above.
The three thugs looked up to see a costumed man in yellow and black. “Who in the–?!” asked Rabbit as he pulled out his gun.
In moments, gunfire bounced off the man’s folded cape, which then expanded outward to form wings. As the costumed figure flew down, he fired a stinger of energy that blasted the gunman’s hand, leaving it numb. “So sorry, chap,” said the gold-costumed man. “The swelling won’t go down for hours — and then it’ll really sting!”
The costumed man kicked Dog against a wall and slapped the gun out of Cow’s shaky hand. He ducked a punch from the hulking Cow, and, with the grace of an Olympian, dodged and kicked the brute in the face three times.
Before Cow even struck the ground, the gentleman crime-fighter had already turned and fired a projectile with the precision of a true marksman at the fleeing Rabbit. As Rabbit fell down hard with a small dart in his neck, the man in gold taunted, “Not the first time you’ve had to sleep something off, eh, my good man?”
“Who — who are ya?” pleaded Dog as the hero grabbed him and shook him severely.
The hero had already contacted the police using his mask radio, and a few officers ran up in response to the call. “These thugs are all yours, gentlemen, courtesy of the Golden Wasp!” said the man in gold and black, bowing with a flourish. He flew off to their cheers.
“About time Bludhaven got a hero,” said an admiring cop. “I bet the Golden Wasp could match the Batman, even!”
Oh, and I have, loyal officer of the peace, thought the new hero as he flew off.
Within a few minutes, the Golden Wasp rested from this night’s efforts in a swanky penthouse apartment. “Not a bad start to my heroic life, if I do say so myself.”
***
The man using the alias of Anton Lamont posed in front of a large mirror and adjusted an ornate cloak. “Ah, Anton, soon you’ll have Hawkman at your mercy, and as for his partner…?” he chuckled. “Well, she may be allowed to be my concubine.”
“Bit premature, don’t you think?” said a sneering voice from behind him. Lamont turned to see a muscular young man leaning against the wall, his arms folded. He had dark hair and a handsome face, and wore a tight-fitting golden yellow costume with red lines along the legs, and red gloves, boots, shorts, and collar.
“Who are you?” said the nervous Lamont, realizing that the man could only have entered the room through the open window.
“I’m the Super-Scavenger. I’m here to make you give up the cloak… or I could use my super-strength to make you Fadeaway Man forever,” he said menacingly.
Anton Lamont, the Fadeaway Man, tried to pull something deadly from the magical Cloak of Cagliostro, but the Super-Scavenger was too fast for the older man. (*) Ripping the cloak free, he tossed Lamont across the hotel room with one hand. “See ya, you old loser!” the Super-Scavenger yelled as he flew off with both the cloak and the career of the Fadeaway Man.
[(*) Editor’s note: See “True Heroes Never Die,” Detective Comics #479 (October, 1978).]
***
Debbi Domaine had been to England several times as a wealthy, spoiled teenager, but that was before her environmentalist streak, which she had taken up in college. Thus she marveled at the lush beauty of the foliage in the small English village that she and Rachel Green had just visited. “So where’s your mom — or should I say mum, love?” she asked.
Rachel smiled. “That’s right, tease the poor Brit lass! Mum lives in that house on the corner, the one with the big garden. As a little girl, I always played back there. Guess that’s part of why I love nature so.”
“As Mayflower, you do more than love it,” laughed Debbi. “You’re like a sexy Mother Nature.”
“Thanks so much! At least you didn’t call me Swamp Thing!” teased Rachel, laughing as well until she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Are you okay?” asked Debbi, noticing the change in her friend’s demeanor.
“Something’s wrong!” cried the pretty young girl. “It’s around Mum’s house — I can tell it from the plants — they’re agitated!” she said, running toward the house.
“A disturbance in the Force, so to speak,” remarked the Cheetah as she followed her friend.
They ran inside the unlocked door to see Rachel’s mother arguing with a monstrous man of foliage, whose bark and leafy coverage mimicked skin and hair. “Rachel!” cried her mother.
“So you’re Rachel! Welcome, my dear. Daddy’s home at last,” smiled the Floronic Man.