Slaughter Swamp is one of the most inhospitable tracts of marshland in the United States. Long stretches of muddy ground, that in an instant turn into wet sink holes. Gnarled, skeletal trees stretch up crooked branches to create a canopy that let in little sunlight.

The very look of the swamp makes it all too clear why it has generated so many local legends of supernatural evil and creatures lurking within its depths.

Mixed in with the sounds of local wildlife was the faint hum of machinery, as the JSA hovercraft skims across the surface of the swamp. Its round shape, reminding Wildcat of a hot tub. A upholstered bench ran around the inner wall with the control console in the center. Wildcat sighed and scratched his shoulder as he watched the bleak scenery roll by.

“Any sign of her?” he asked.

“Nothing yet, “ Hawkman replied, as he pilots the craft . “I told her not to go out of sight. We need to stick together. Grundy is a powerhouse and facing him on his home turf will just make it rougher. What is with Power Girl lately. She’s always been headstrong...”

“I dunno,” Wildcat shrugged. “ Something’s bugging her and it’s making her edgy. She grumbles about not sleeping too good, but I think it’s more than that. We can worry about PG after we deal with this. She’s tough enough to handle it if it does turn out to be Grundy.”

“You sound skeptical.” Hawkman said, scanning the surrounding wilderness.

“Yeah, well, we’ve been flying around for... what?....  an hour and not so much as an oversized footprint. This place has a creepy rep and there’s a new story bout it every five minutes, but I’m starting to think this trip’s a bust. Nothing’s gonna happen.”

Suddenly, the trees off to the left shook and there was a sound like thunder. Birds flew off and tree limbs were scattered like confetti as Power Girl came barreling through. From her loose-limbed posture, it was obvious to her team mates that she hadn’t been propelled by her own power.

“I’ve got her!” Hawkman shouted, leaping into the air. “Take the controls!’

“What!?” Wildcat exclaimed, leaping to his feet and grabbing the control yoke. “ You want me to drive this thing?! Yikes!”

The hover craft wobbled and Wildcat managed to avoid, just barely, hitting a tree.

Hawkman swooped and managed to get underneath Power Girl before she collided with anymore trees.

Hawkman tumbled through the air for several feet , before regaining control and swooping upwards, the limp form of Power girl in his arms.

“Come on, Karen,” he said in concern. “you’re tougher than this. Grundy’s never been able to take you out like this before...”

“Not... not Grundy,” she muttered, groggily. “ Not...”

“I don’t like the way this is going,” Hawkman muttered, flying to catch up with the hovercraft. In the distance he could hear more trees breaking and a guttural voice yelling. The part that worried him was it was coming closer.

Wildcat got the hovercraft under control, so Hawkman could make a landing. He laid Power Girl down on the bench and gathered up the weapons he’d brought.

“Ummm... you look to be loaded for bear,” Wildcat asked, after several minutes. “Mind telling me what the hell is going on here?”

“No idea, but Power Girl said it wasn’t Grundy, and whatever it is was able to take her out of the game and it’s coming straight for us.”

“We’re in it pretty deep, ain’t we?” Wildcat muttered, adjusting the controls, so the hovercraft settled in for a landing on a flat, grassy hummock of land. 

“Yes, I think so,.”

“Well, let’s go see what the fuss is all about,” Wildcat said, cracking his knuckles.

Hawkman shook his head at his team mate, strapped a mace to his belt and grabbed hold of a spear. He then flew up in an effort to get above the trees and catch a glimpse of their foe. He saw a blur of color and then lost sight of it and decided to rejoin his teammates.

“You ain’t gonna believe this,” Wildcat told him. 

The trees splinted and a hulking form flew out. It landed with an audible thud in front of the two heroes. Wearing a costume similar to Superman’s, except  duller colored and showing signs of wear. Instead of an ‘S’ chest emblem it had a crooked ‘B’.

“Bizarro?!” Hawkman exclaimed.

The creature raised it’s pasty white face and brushed black, unruly hair out of its eyes.

“Me not know wing man,” He grunted, smacking his fist against his palm. “If wing man friends with blond girl, then wing man going on Bizarro’s worst friends list.”

“It hurts my head listening to this guy,” Wildcat said. “Should I be calling in the cavalry?”

“No, I think we can handle this,” Hawkman said. “Bizarro isn’t a bad guy, just a bit... odd. The real worry is that Grundy shows up too.”

“Bizarro head hurt,” Bizarro grumbled, leaning against a tree. 

“Okay, Bizarro,” Hawkman said, landing nearby. “ If you want to get some rest, I’m sure we can find a better spot for you. No need to fight...”

Unfortunately, Power Girl chose that moment to wake up and leapt out of the hovercraft. 

“Damnit!” Wildcat exclaimed, as Power girl’s leap caused the hovercraft to wobble. “I’ve got him!” Power girl shouted, fists out as she zoomed right for Bizarro. She drove both fists into the imperfect duplicates’ solar plexus and then followed up with a right hook to his chalk white jaw.

“Karen, NO!” Hawkman shouted, grabbing her arm. “I had him calmed down! There was no need to... !”

A massive white fist swung up, catching Power girl in the stomach and sending her stumbling back into the swamp. 

Hawkman found himself alone and facing a very angry looking Bizarro.

“Um... if we could.... I ... oh, never mind,” He muttered, before snatching up the mace that hung at his belt and bringing it crashing down on Bizarro’s head. It shattered into a million pieces, but  seemed to stagger the pasty creature.

Hawkman then grabbed his spear and  spun it, so the point was pointing away from Bizarro and swung it like a quarter staff. The first blow caught him in the temple, the next just below his chin. Then Hawkman swung it full force, catching Bizarro behind the knees and sending him tumbling backwards, off the little hummock and into the murky water.

“Okay,” he muttered, catching his breath. “That was too easy. We need to get out of here. Get some backup or something...?”

The ground suddenly shook, sending waves of muddy water rippling across the length of Slaughter Swamp.

“I should have gone with Jay and Alan,” Hawkman muttered, seconds before Bizarro erupted out of the water.

Meanwhile, in a mad scientists’ lair, hidden beneath a warehouse in Hub City, Green Lantern and the Flash were looking over the rubble left after from the attack on T.O. Morrow and the Red Tornado.*

*(last issue-Trav)

Green Lantern projected a ray, from his ring, over various pieces of equipment. The Flash raced around the room, gathering up every piece of paperwork he could find and then reading over them at super speed.

“Anything?” Green Lantern asked.

“Lots of diagrams and the occasional grocery list.” Flash replied, not looking up. “Most of this is out of my area of expertise, though. What’ve you got, Alan?”

“Enough to make me worry,” Green Lantern replied. “There’s so many different kinds of energy running through this jury-rigged system, I’m amazed the whole building hasn’t gone up in a puff of smoke. Some of this wiring could overload if you looked at it hard and is channeling enough energy to melt diamond. Lots of chronal energy traces...!”

“Well, we knew the attackers were using some kind of time energy,” Flash shrugged.

“No, this is from the equipment. Whatever Morrow was working on used it too.” Green Lantern muttered, turning off his ring’s beam and walking over to his team mate. “You know we’re being watched, right?”

“I was wondering when you were going to notice,” Flash replied. “You’re getting rusty. How do want to handle this?”

“It’s been a crazy day or two, let’s just go with the direct approach,” Green Lantern said, quickly turning and shooting a beam into the far corner of the lab. A figure leapt out of the shadows, did a shoulder roll and came up in a defensive stance. Both older heroes stopped in surprise as they recognized the intruder’s costume.

“What the...?” Flash exclaimed.

“It can’t be!” Green Lantern added, firing a second beam. “Mr. Terrific?!”

The figure dodging the emerald beams did indeed resemble their deceased team mate. The red mask covered his entire head, leaving just his eyes visible. The waist length green jacket had the trademarked ‘Fair Play’ phrase running down the sleeves instead of on the front. He wore red gloves and pants with green boots. The oddest addition was the three tennis ball sized metal spheres that hovered around him.

“Um... I know this looks bad...,” the new comer started.

“What? skulking around a crime scene dressed like a dead friend of ours?” Green Lantern interrupted. “You’re a perceptive young man.”

“Look, maybe we should...?” Flash said.

“No, we shouldn’t,” Green Lantern said. “I’m tired and not feeling any urge to be tactful.”

He shot a beam from his ring that ended in a giant hand. It reached for Mr. Terrific.

“Oh man,” he muttered, ducking down beneath a energy hand. He quickly scooped up a double handful of sawdust from the floor and, straightening up, flung it up and into the green energy beam. The hand and the beam began to break up and flicker.

“Damn!” Green Lantern snapped.

“Settle down,” Flash said. “I’ll get him.”

He raced across the room, as a blur and reached out to grab the intruder. Mr. terrific stood statue still, until the last minute and just before the Flash grabbed him, he dodged the speedsters’s hands and then gave him two quick blows. One just below his right arm, the other a chop to the side of his neck. The Flash stumbled, and Mr. Terrific pushed with just enough pressure to send the older hero to the floor. Once Flash was flat on his back, the new hero leaned in close.

“Can we end this before I get hurt?” he asked. “ I really am not the bad guy here and can only hold my own with you two for about another fifteen seconds before you’re cleaning my clock.”

“Um...that sounds fair,” Flash said, looking around at the position he was in with a bit of stunned amazement. “Alan! Hold off. We’ve got a truce.”

Green Lantern shrugged and the over-sized emerald mace that was about to come crashing down on Mr. Terrific faded away.

“So, convince us,” Flash said, as the other man let him go and they both got to their feet. 

“You can start by explaining who you are and what right you think you have to be wearing that outfit.” Green Lantern snapped.

“Okay, Alan, first thing is, you need to settle down,” Flash said, zooming across the room and giving his team mate a squeeze on the arm. “ I’m not any happier than you are about this, but let’s give him a chance to explain before we pass judgment.”

“Fine. I’m willing to compromise. You tell us who you are and you won’t find yourself crushed under a giant green anvil. Fair enough?”

“Um...that sounds reasonable...,” Mr. Terrific said. “ I’m not Terry Sloan’s long lost love child or anything like that...so, I guess I don’t have much claim to being a ‘legacy’, and maybe I should have made some effort to contact you guys, but once I had Ned’s blessing...why are you guys looking at me like that? What’d I say?”

“Terry and Ned Sloan?” Flash muttered. “I’m convinced he’s on the level.”

“If he knows them by name,” Green Lantern shrugged. “I guess we can trust him, for now.”

“So, go on, son,” Flash said.

“Um...okay.”  Mr. Terrific said. “ My...I guess you’d call it a ‘secret origin’ is that, like Terry Sloan, I am a ‘child protégé’, I was attending Hub University at the ripe old age of fourteen, when I met Ned Sloan.”

“That’s right, “ Flash said, “The Sloan house is practically on campus, I remember working out of there when Mr. Terrific...the other...Well, Terry and I tackled a case together.”

“Well, Ned and I meet and... sort of adopted each other,” Mr. Terrific continued. “Eventually,  he saw that, like his brother, I needed something to give me some purpose and...here I am.”

“How did you go from being mentored by Ned Sloan to a mad scientist’s lair?” Green Lantern asked.

“Well, I had a couple cases...small things, around the college mostly, and then I noticed the pattern in the missing scientists, which lead me...you’re looking at me again...what did I say?”

“Scientists?”Green Lantern muttered. “Plural?”

“Oh boy,” Flash added, tilting back his helmet to scratch at his forehead.

“Wait a minute...?”Mr. Terrific said. “You guys didn’t know Morrow is one of about a half dozen missing scientists? How did you end up here, then? Morrow’s been keeping pretty quiet. Took me some doing to track him down.”

“I think this whole thing is bigger than we suspected,” Flash said. “We need to pool our resources, talk to the Red Tornado and see if we can’t sort through all this. I think, Mr. Terrific, that you should come with us.”

“Um...wow,” he muttered. “My first team up and it’s the JSA...think I may geek out a little bit.”

“We’re used to it,” Green Lantern said, shooting an energy beam at the remains of a telephone. “Let me get in touch with the local police, so they can seal this place off and then we can head to the Peresphere.”

“Why don’t you take our new friend and I’ll stick around here,” Flash suggested. “I can work with the police, as well as sift though the debris.”

“At the risk of completely destroying my reputation, as a cool, calculating crime fighter,” Mr. Terrific asked. “Does this mean I get to ride in a one of those energy bubbles?”

“I think I’m starting to like him.” Green Lantern said.

Meanwhile, back in the swamp, things weren’t going any better. Even though he was expecting it, the first blow sent Hawkman reeling backwards and he lost his grip on his spear. He registered the splash, and that he was in trouble, then as another pasty white fist came flying towards his head, instinct kicked in.

He flew up, grabbed Bizarro’s wrist and yanked. Once the man-monster was off balance and stumbling past him, Hawkman grabbed the edge of his cape and pulled it up and over Bizarro’s head. He wrapped it tight as he could, while avoiding Bizarro’s flailing fists. He then flew over to where Wildcat was pulling Power girl back up into the hovercraft.

“How is she?”

“Barely conscious and her nose may be broken.” Wildcat replied. “We need the cavalry.”

“I’m on it.” Hawkman said, pulling a cellphone out of one of his belt pouches.  “I’ve got a plan. Can you keep him busy for a couple minutes?”

“You kidding me?”

“Fraid so.”

“Yeah, sure,” Wildcat shrugged, standing up and cracking his knuckles. “Always wondered if I could throw a punch that’d take down Superman. This’ll be my practice round.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Hawkman said, hitting the call button.

“I think we are way past ‘stupid’, pal.” Wildcat said, leaping out of the hovercraft and wading towards the raging creature. “Just make it quick.”

When, he got up to the little bump of land, Bizarro was still struggling to pull his cape away from his face. Wildcat gave him a couple of solid punches to the gut, that had no more effect than to have a couple grunts added to the creature’s enraged snarling.

“Okay, gonna be tough,” Wildcat muttered, taking up a fighter’s stance and hopping from one foot to the other. “but, you can do this, Ted, you are the champ. Let’s go!”

Lunging forward, Wildcat drove his fist into Bizarro’s over-sized chin. There was a sound, like a hammer hitting a concrete block and Bizarro’s head shot back and he rocked on his heels. Ignoring the fact that he most likely just broke every bone in his hand, Wildcat followed up with a one-two combo to Bizarro’s abdomen and then for good measure, lunged forward, driving his shoulder into the imperfect duplicate’s solar plexus. Bizarro staggered backwards and toppled into the water once more.

“Whatta you know!” Wildcat exclaimed, nursing his injured hand. “Maybe you ain’t so tough, Frankenstein.”

“Gaaaarrrggghh!” Bizarro roared, leaping out of the water and tearing his cape to shreds, to fear his head. He floated a dozen feet in the air, glaring down at the hero.

“Okay, I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong,” Wildcat muttered.

Wildcat managed to dodge the first attack, but Bizarro landed so powerfully, that the ground shook, and by the time Wildcat had regained his balance there was no way he could dodge the fist flying towards his body. He turned his body, so it only caught him a glancing blow to his right side, but it had been a glancing blow moving at roughly mach two and Wildcat added cracked ribs to his list of injuries.

He landed a punch right between Bizarro’s eyes, that caused him to stumble back a step or two and buy Wildcat a few seconds to regroup. Every breath made the pain in his side sharper and he was pretty sure he’d be using up one of his mystically gifted nine lives before the fight was over, unless Hawkman’s plan happened within the next couple seconds.

Momentarily distracted, trying to remember if he was down to four or five lives, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge and next thing he knew, two arms, solid as telephone poles had him in a bear hug.

“Okay, fast as you can,” Hawkman said, into the phone. “We should be able to...Oh my god...Ted...!”

He dropped the phone, grabbed his sword and flew at Bizarro. Hawkman hit him with the flat of the blade and like the mace before it, the sword shattered on impact, but it was enough to get Bizarro to let go of Wildcat. The boxer turned mystery man crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath and struggling to raise himself back up.

Hawkman reached for his belt  and was now armed with an Egyptian dagger and the remaining half of his sword. He flew past Bizarro, lashing out with a booted foot as he flew by. He knew he couldn’t outfight the man-monster, but he might be able to out-fly him long enough for help to arrive.

The two swooped and raced through the swamp. Zooming upwards, and then diving down low. It was hard to maneuver through the foliage, but it tended to slow Bizarro down, as he wasn’t agile enough to avoid them and tended to plow through any trees that got in his path.

Quickly shooting upwards, Hawkman caused Bizarro to overshoot him, and then he was able to land a double fisted blow to the back of the creature’s neck. It felt a bit like trying to punch a marble column, but was enough to send Bizarro off course and into a collision with a pretty sturdy looking tree.

Hawkman swooped down, scooped up Wildcat and deposited him into the hovercraft.

“Ow,” Wildcat grunted, as he landed. “This your plan? Seems to be going swell so far.”

“We just need to keep him busy a few more minutes,” Hawkman replied, turning to wait for Bizarro to recover and attack again. The creature was currently venting his rage on a pair of thin, leafless trees, but Hawkman was sure he’d soon remember his original opponents.

“Come on, where are you?!”

“Right here!” Jessie Quick panted, skidding to a halt next to the hovercraft. As soon as she stopped moving at super speed, she began to sink into the muddy water. “Oh, no! These were new boots!”

“Jessie!” Hawkman snapped. “Did you bring it?

“What? Yes, of course.”

“Then, give it to me !”

“Take it, I’ll help Ted keep him busy,” Jessie said, tossing a cloth wrapped object at Hawkman and then racing off, with Wildcat in tow.

The first couple punches barely moved Bizarro, but they were enough to get his attention away from the others and focused on Wildcat.

“So, pasty,” he growled. “You want to fight? I’ll give you a fight!”

He launched himself at Bizarro and put all he could into an uppercut to the creature’s chalk white jaw. Bizarro swayed slightly, blinked a couple times and then glared at Wildcat, growling through clenched teeth at the hero.

“That got your attention, didn’t it, Frankenstein?” Wildcat muttered, weaving and bobbing in front of Bizarro. “You’re not so tough!”

He drove a fist straight into Bizarro’s solar plexus. Bizarro grunted and Wildcat winced.

A gust of wind staggered him and the next thing the older hero knew, a miniature whirlwind was surrounding Bizarro. Both combatants looked stunned and confused by the new arrival.

“Jay...?” Wildcat muttered.

“Try again,” Jessie Quick said, pausing just long enough for her team mate to get a glimpse of her, and then speeding back up. “Cartercalledmetohelphe’sgotsomeplanyoulookterriblebytheway!”

“Yeah, didn’t catch hardly any of that.” Wildcat replied. ‘Just be careful till Carter...”

“I’m here,” Hawkman said, landing next to Wildcat. “Out of the way, Jessie!”

She skidded to a halt, next to her team mates. They watched Bizarro sway dizzily and then glare at them.

“Hey, Bizarro!” Hawkman shouted, tossing a short, white rod, that appeared to be made of interlocking segments of carved ivory at him. “Catch!”

Bizarro clumsily snatched the rod out of the air and peered at it. The air around him began to simmer and flicker with sparks of multicolored light and before he could do more than grunt in surprise, the imperfect duplicate faded away.

“Weren’t we supposed to return that...magic wand...or whatever it is...to Nabu?” Jessie asked.*

*(Given to Hawkgirl and Green Lantern so they could travel through dimensions to track down the missing Thunderbolt- Trav)

“Yes, and if he needs it back bad enough, we’ll take care of it,” Hawkman explained. “But, we were running out of options and if we didn’t end this quickly, somebody was going to get hurt.”

“ ‘Going to’?” Wildcat muttered, wincing as he flexed his injured hands. The cloth around his hands was torn and the skin of his knuckles bloody.

“Well, worse than we were,” Hawkman said, rubbing at his shoulder.

“Ugghh...what happened?” Power girl said, sitting up in the hovercraft. There was a trickle of blood trailing from her nose and her face looked bruised.

“That’s what I’d like to know!” Hawkman snapped, turning towards her. “What part of ‘don’t rush in’ and ‘Try and talk to him’ did you not understand?”

“What?! That was Bizarro! We needed...” Power Girl replied sharply.

“We needed a plan that didn’t involve half of us being beaten senseless and requiring medical attention!”

“Um...guys...?” Wildcat started.”Let’s take it easy...”

“No, Ted,” Hawkman said. “When we can’t rely on a team mate, ‘taking it easy’ is going to get someone killed next time!”

“What!” Power girl shouted back. “ I just went toe to toe with Bizarro! You have no right to talk to me like I’m twelve!”

“Then act like an adult!” 

“I don’t need this!” Power girl snapped, floating upwards. She zoomed off into the air and was soon out of sight.

“This isn’t over,” Hawkman muttered.

“Hey, Carter, simmer down,” Wildcat said, laying his least injured hand on his team mates shoulder. “She needs some space. Kid’s got something bugging her.”

“Then she needs to deal with or we’ll...”

“Before this goes anywhere that people’ll regret, let’s take a breather.” Wildcat said. “You need to cool down as much as she does. I’ll talk to her...”

“You?” Both Hawkman and Jessie Quick replied, wide-eyed.

“What? Cause I’m good at hitting people, I can’t be sensitive or diplomatic?”

“Well, judging by the fifty years I’ve known you...”Hawkman started.

“Yeah, well, despite my gruff exterior I’m all kinds of sensitive and thoughtful. So, quit busting my chops bout it. Just... just, let me talk to her, before you talk to the others or do, okay?”

“Okay, but make it soon.” Hawkman nodded. “I don’t want this to blow up on us, but whatever problem Kara has is starting to effect her judgment and... and I’ll stop lecturing you. Good luck with it, Ted. Can you two get the hovercraft back to the Peresphire?”

“Yeah, sure,” Jessie said. “I’ll do it if you need to go.”

“Um...thanks,” Hawkman said, hesitantly. “Look, Ted, I don’t mean to...”

“Relax, this wasn’t an easy day for anyone. Go, talk to your wizard pal or your cute wife. Take a breather. We’ll deal with all this.”

“God, it’s really unsettling when you come across as the mature, reasonable one,” Hawkman smiled, as he flew off.

“Don’t get too used to it,” Wildcat muttered, then turned to Jessie. “So, you up to driving?”

“Sure. Least I could do, as I did  almost none of the hard work on this one,” She replied. “ What the heck was Bizarro doing in Slaughter Swamp anyway?”

“Um...I got no idea. We kinda got sidetracked by all that ‘not wanting to get the crap beat out of us’ stuff.” Wildcat shrugged, limping towards the hovercraft. “ After I get patched up, soak in a hot bath and talk reason to a girl that can bench press the Chrysler building then I’ll worry bout it. How’s that sound?”

“I’ll put it on ‘to do’ list,” Jessie replied. “Let’s get you home.”

Next Issue: We take a bit of a breather to start a three issue run of solo stories. Starting with the Flash!