InsaneJournal

Katana’s blade clangs off the swords of two attacking mummified knights before slicing through them both with quick precision. Manhunter, in full werewolf mode, scampers past him as she continues tracking a scent through the halls that will lead Shadowpact to the exit portal that will safely take them to the surface. Blue Lady trails behind at the rear of the group as she drags a heavy ball she is chained to along with her, demanding incessantly that Z or Ibis undo the binding spell restraining her abilities.

There is not enough to for them to stop and accomplish that, though.

This was meant to be a jailbreak for a friend of Z’s, namely Jonas Faust, who possessed a piece of information they needed about the whereabouts of a demon cult. To the surprise of absolutely no one except for maybe Ibis, friend is a very strained description for anyone who knows Z. Jonas panicked at the sight of his supposed rescue party and ditched out on them at the first opportunity, leaving them in hot water with the population a mysterious sky castle preparing for war against other mysterious sky castles.

It is Jonas’ scent that Manhunter now follows, because as Z claims, Jonas at least has a very respectable flight instinct.

Blue Lady’s constant demands to be freed so she can create a portal of her own to get them out of there do begin to wear down Z’s common sense, though. Just as he is about to relent and see if he can unbind her on the quick, the floating fortress shakes like it was just hit by an earthquake. That is an odd thing for a structure nowhere near the ground.

Z peers out a window to see that Shazam has just arrived in the courtyard, presumably here on business related to whatever war is being prepared for. This causes Z to immediately abandon any intent to unbind Blue Lady and run ahead down the hall, showing off his own respectable flight instinct as he informs everyone behind him that there is even less time now.

Shazam is not known for his discreet handling of situations, and this floating fortress may not stay floating for very much longer.

For the third time lately, Jericho has been intercepted by a new metacriminal in town while trying to hit a major operation belonging to the Markovian mafia, and it has slowed any progress he was making against them to a screeching halt. This time it is a cyborg calling himself Clockwork.

Jericho has to try to telekinetically buffer his body against the impact of smashing through several of the ceramic legs holding up a large sign. It’s enough to keep his ribs from shattering along with them.

The trajectory sends Jericho over a buildings edge, but he gets his bearings in time to slow his descent and avoid putting a dent in the roof of the car he lands on. This is meaningless to the car’s owner, though. Jericho has to quickly launch himself aside before Clockwork comes smashing downward, thoroughly crushing the car.

Being more machine than man and of very sturdy construction, Clockwork stands up well against Jericho’s telekinesis, and the fight goes on for a whilelonger. But then, it ends similarly to the previous two encounters. Clockwork makes his escape when the police begin arriving in force.

The Freedom Fighters’ fight against a giant, three-headed snake is brought to an end by Riptide, formerly Manta Ray but recently repackaged with a new identity and a silver and green costume, throwing a train car into the last remaining head.

This change in identity was surprisingly prompted by Riptide without explanation and after a great deal of indecisiveness over a new name that both he and the team’s public image consultants could agree on. And as far as public debuts go, this one has turned out pretty well.

“Yeah, Snapper! Turtle power!” calls out Firebrand, favoring his own suggestion for Riptide’s new identity.

“He’s not a turtle. ...He’s Pufferfish,” speaks Phantom Lady, using another joke name suggestion.

Even Haunted Tank has to chime in with her chipper synthesized voice. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t go with Dolphin. They’re schway!”

“FUCK! ALL OF YOU!” shouts Snapper Turtle/Pufferfish/Dolphin/Riptide loud enough that the nearby cameras clearly pick it up.

Two public image consultants at Fort Scott quit their jobs on the spot.

After being thoroughly occupied by a crisis with a new Mist capable of simultaneously possessing a third of the city’s population, Charlie Rayner has resumed his search for the homeless superhero who has helped him and the people of the city on more than one occasion over the summer.

It’s an investigation that has caused him to learn a lot about the homeless situation in Opal City, leading to a list of charities and local political positions that Starman may soon be endorsing. But for now, the matter at hand has him checking various pawn shops where the homeless will commonly come to score some desperate cash cards.

Charlie’s search gets completely turned on its head at a seedy place cruelly named Memory’s Pawn. It is a depressing store filled with items with such overt sentimental value that only the most desperate would sell them. The shop owner has nothing to say about seeing the man he is looking for, which either means the owner really can’t recall or doesn’t care to even try. The latter is sadly the most likely. It turns out Charlie doesn’t need him, though. He instead finds something he did not even realize he has been looking for.

Charlie stares into a glass covered container of jewelry at what is clearly a Legion flight ring.

In what has become a regularly occuring sound in this specific apartment, metal clashes against metal as the wounded birds of prey do battle inside. Two wheelchairs vie for position to enter a kitchen where only one can fit at a time. The occupant of one has a deep craving for a popsicle while the other craves beer, and neither is willing to wait their turn.

It is a struggle that has happened time and time again for as long as time itself.

Or at least it feels that way in the shared apartment of Siena Harper and Tay Lance.

Wheelchairs bash against one another side by side. Hands are smacked away from wheel handles. But the conflict ends with a crossbow bolt jammed into the spokes of a wheel and a triumphant wheeeeeee as Tay Lance cruises into the kitchen for her popsicle.

At no point did it ever occur to either of them that one of them could have gone into the kitchen and retrieved both a popsicle and a beer.

Late after office hours, Caitlin Kent races through the halls of an IronCorps’ subsidiary’s headquarters with a crackling force field wall chasing right at her heels. This is the third and most aggressive attempt to kill her since she’s been in China investigating the subsidiary on behalf of Marcus Irons. At least she understands why now.

One of the researchers, Dr. Miles Taggert, has lost his mind. Rather literally. His project involved studying pieces of programming code salvaged from a piece of Brainiac’s technology -- not Querl Dox of the Justice League but the original Brainiac. His findings have not been what was hoped for.

Unable to use many of her Martian gifts due to the building’s surveillance, Caitlin is forced to make her way to Dr. Taggert the tough way. She crashes less than gracefully through a plexiglass wall into the central lab, finding him there. He has hooked himself up to so much machinery that it has had a terrible physical effect on him. His skin is now more of a blue color, and his eyes are vacant. His mind is a complete mess of error-ridden alien programming code that she can only bear to expose herself to for a few seconds.

That was still a second too long.

Disoriented on the floor, he is able to try to splice the same circuitry into her when the lab suddenly fills with lightning. It arcs carefully around Caitlin, sparing her what nothing else in the lab is spared. All of the circuitry fries including Dr. Taggert, who was sadly gone already anyway.

Amy Jones, personal assistant to Marcus Irons, is now standing in the lab with Caitlin. Her hand crackles with electricity, and her mind is as difficult to read as ever. She surveys how thorough the damage has been before casting her eyes over to Caitlin. “Thank you for promptly reporting your findings. We will cooperate with Chinese authorities to be sure the situation is now resolved.”

“Mr. Irons sends his regards. You are to feel free an extended stay in China and to place all charges on your expense account. Report to work next Monday. Be prepared for your meeting with Mr. Irons at 1:15 p.m.”

With that, Amy takes off in a burst of super speed.

”Turn to st--mmf!!” A wet towel tossed into Gorgon’s head by Lagoon Boy is all that prevents her from turning Racetrack into a statue for his stupid comment that the Outsiders need a fill-in hot chick while Huntress is on the bench. Realizing his mistake, Racetrack takes this opportunity to quickly relocate himself to another part of the team’s hidden hideout inside this network of caverns.

Gorgon angrily pulls the wet towel of her head and throws it to the floor. “Dikos! Ew!” Her snake hair hisses in his general direction.

“No more turning teammates to stone,” Lagoon Boy says from several meters away, where he is crouched at an opened crate he just noticed in their hideout.

“Schway! New stuff?” Racetrack suddenly has some blocks of plastic in his hands. “Whoa! Are these explosives? We’re getting sent to blow something up! ...I have no idea how these things are supposed to work. Is this the explodey stuff? How are we supposed to be able to use this?”

Lagoon Boy takes the material from Racetrack. “Demolition block charges. Must be assembled with blasting caps for detonation. Yes. These.” He grabs one from the crate and holds it up. “Explodey stuff packed with nonexplosive plasticizers so there’s no accidental... explodey. 9% non-explodey stuff. Blasting caps 100% explodey. These are M6 caps. Electric. Instantaneous explodey.”

Gorgon eyes Lagoon Boy rummaging through the box of military equipment like some nerdy expert on everything in there. “...You hang out with those soldiers too much, Dikos.

“Do not tell the Princess.”

Punching the mer-shark hard in the nose with her shield, Aquagirl swims off to the surface with the fifth Pearl of Aphrodite in her possession.

In her years as the errant goddess of love, Aphrodite did not exactly put a lot of thought into securing her own holdings. Being the current queen of the sea, sadly, does not allow her the same irresponsibility she previous enjoyed so, so much. She is now in a place of power and requires certain items of hers to sustain that, including her pearls. She could think of no better quest to draft her champion of love into.

Aquagirl breaks to the surface before the pearl’s former protector can catch up to her and boards the cruise ship of her matron god.

The love boat of Aphrodite has lost a bit of that feeling since Aquagirl arranged the coup that made Aphrodite the new queen of the sea. Ruling means work, and work means less partying with all hands on deck. The volleyball net is a thing of the past, as are more of the eye candy standing around on deck passing around drinks and looking pretty.

Aquagirl may be the champion of love now, but she is also a buzzkill.

After days of quarantine, Green Lantern’s dome finally comes down around the city of Evergreen. Lured in by a suspected alien attack, the Justice League was infected by the same alien contagion that was transforming people of the city and trapped there with them in an effort to prevent it from spreading.

The team has spent that time trying to keep the peace while Question worked on a cure with Brainiac 5 helping remotely from the Justice League Satellite. It has been a mix of contending with people’s panic and with people made uncontrollable by the virus.

It turned out the epidemic was not some attack but a leftover consequence from when the entire city was abducted decades ago by a mad Guardian of the Universe and exposed to other alien races. Some things carried over, and this was just a belated one.

With the cure having now been distributed, life can return to normal and the Justice League can return him.

Both Question and Brainiac 5 assure them the extra alien limbs and feather-like growths will fade in a few days.