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Superman lowers his head as he scans the ocean below. He searches for any survivors, but sees none. The JLA (consisting of himself, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, and Green Lantern) holds a solemn vigil on Wonder Woman's invisible plane that dances in the wind just above the rolling waves. Superman raises his downcast face and speaks, "I can't seem to detect anything out of the ordinary, just crushed bodies of the slain and the rubble that was once Atlantis." "We've wasted too much time here. We have to track Firestorm. He caused this disaster and it is up to us to stop him," adds Batman as he places a hand on Superman's shoulder. "We have to move on... People are depending on us." Superman nods in agreement. "Batman's right. We have a job to do and it is about time we did it." He turns from the ocean. "We're not helping anyone by dwelling on the events here. We'd better return to the Watchtower. From there, we can track Firestorm and try to figure out what's going on." Superman wonders what could make Firestorm do what he did. "Any word from the Watchtower, J'Onn?" Martian Manhunter shakes his head. His voice is somber. "Nothing. I'm receiving no telepathic signals from anyone on the Moon. I fear..." His voice falters. "I fear the worst." "It's a coordinated attack against us." Batman clenches his fists as he grits his teeth. "Atlantis was nothing but a diversion. While we were here, someone or something has attacked the Watchtower! If that's the case then war has been declared against us. " The Flash can't believe what is happening. "Time to call in everyone who was ever a member. I think we may need the extra help with this." "If we can trust them..." whispers Batman. Superman looks at him but says nothing. Batman knows that seeing Firestorm down there has shaken his faith in the 'good guys'. He doesn't know what is worse... Firestorm going rogue or Superman losing his faith. Green Lantern looks out towards the apparently peaceful ocean. He knows what must be done. "You guys head back to rally the troops. I'll investigate Atlantis for any clues. If this is war, then we'll be better off if we know what we're dealing with." Superman nods. "J'Onn will be in constant telepathic communication, Kyle. Be careful down there." Kyle takes one last look at his teammates before he flies into the ocean. He only hopes he knows what he is doing. The Flash watches Green Lantern disappear into the waves. "Good luck, Kyle." Flash takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Goodbye Arthur. We'll... I'll miss you." Wonder Woman's invisible plane soars into the sky as the JLA return home, fearing what they will find.
An eight foot tall, twisted version of Hawkwoman stands over the burnt corpse of John Henry Irons (a.k.a. Steel). She inspects her handiwork with her blank white eyes. She lowers a smoking Thanagarian blaster as she turns to watch Elongated Man work at the computer systems. "Have you assimilated their computer network yet?" The warped, demonic version of the Elongated Man ignores Hawkwoman and continues to stretch his hands into the computer's I/O ports. "Assimilation is proceeding as planned. Soon the whole world shall feel the warm embrace of PARAMORPHO!" Strange glowing protoplasmic tentacles begin to crawl from an open portal towards the fresh corpses of Plastic Man and Steel. They wind and wrap their way around the bodies until suddenly, and forcefully, they surge into the victims' mouths. The corpses writhe and convulse as they are literally absorbed by the strange chemical protomass... from the inside out. Once the process is finished, the once dead bodies rise in their new glory... they are twisted mockeries of their former heroic selves standing just under eight feet tall. The reanimated Steel walks towards Plastic Man. "Allow me to do that. After all, I did originally design it... when I was living." The coldness of Steel's assessment goes unnoticed by his current undead company. He accesses the computer and quickly assimilates the information contained within. His voice vibrates with an inhuman frequency. "The JLA are returning home. We shall prepare a fitting surprise for them. Activate the recovered JLA statellite. Prepare our legions to welcome the heroes."
Green Lantern drifts with the ocean's current as he studies the once proud city of Poseidonis. He is protected from the ocean's crushing depths by his Oan power ring. He scans the surrounding underwater rubble, but all he detects is a residual trace of radiation among the many battered dead. 'Since the destruction was caused by Firestorm,' thinks Kyle, 'radiation wouldn't be out of the normal...' '...Or would it?' wonders Kyle. He suddenly detects an energy spike near a fallen tower. Kyle glides through the ocean depths towards his target. He commands his ring to move the tower to the side then peers at the exposed area. Green Lantern can't believe his eyes! It is the battered corpse of Aquaman! 'You might have been an arrogant s.o.b. sometimes, Aquaman,' thinks Kyle, 'but you never deserved this.' To Kyle's horror, the dead body of Aquaman stands up. He towers over the emerald frame of Kyle. With the help of his ring, Green Lantern's voice rings out through the water. "You okay, Aquaman? You don't look so good." The tall, malformed body of Aquaman smiles. "I've never felt better. Let me show you what I mean..." Aquaman suddenly fires his artificial hook/hand at Kyle's chest. Luckily for Kyle, his ring protects him from the attack. Kyle reacts quickly. He subdues Aquaman with a giant green lobster trap fired from his ring. "What's going on, Arthur? What's happen to you?" Aquaman looks on with his blank stare as he answers, "The same thing that will happen to you." Suddenly a strange glowing protoplasm begins to ooze from Aquaman's entrapped form. It slithers along Kyle's emerald energy beam towards the source, his ring. Green Lantern drops his emerald snare but it is too late. A writhing mass of tentacles erupt from the ruins and engulf Kyle. He struggles as he hears a voice talking... whispering to him... "Do not fret, Kyle Rayner. You cannot escape my grasp. I only wish to give you my gift of immortality." "Like what you did to Aquaman? No thanks, not interested." Green Lantern watches as the pulsating protoplasm tries to break past his protective emerald force field with no luck. "What are you?" "I was... I am many... Dr. Charles... Major Lutwidge... Dane Dorrence... Nicky Dalton... Chemo... Metamorpho..." The inhuman voice vibrates with what could be considered laughter - only if one uses the loosest definition of the word. "I was created by Dr. Charles and Major Lutwidge as a means to enact their revenge against you and the rest of the metahuman community. They created me as a hybrid biological-mechanical virus - an extension of the same process that created Chemo, but merged with DNA stolen from Metamorpho's grave. But, I was far more than they ever hoped for. They were so proud of their achivements... right up to the point where I absorbed them into my own consciousness... we became one as I converted their bodies into a more useful form." "Is that what you did to Firestorm?" "Yes. He was but the first to fall to my grasp. Others have joined him since. They were salvaging fragments of the old JLA satellite that fell into the ocean. I waited until they were close and I assimilated them. With each new mind that I absorb... I grow stronger. Soon the world shall become mine and I the world. You cannot escape the inevitable, Kyle Raynor. Soon we shall become one. Soon we shall be Paramorpho!" "I don't think so!" Kyle Rayner concentrates and he explodes from Paramorpho's grasp. He soars towards the surface... he knows he has to inform the JLA of his discovery. They have to know the real danger before it is too late for them all.
A giant glowing blob emerges from the ocean floor. It oozes from both the ruins and the dead of Atlantis. Paramorpho begins his journey towards North America. It is surrounded by a halo of the re-animated Atlantean dead (including the tragic King of Atlantis himself, Aquaman)... they are now extensions of Paramorpho. It knows that it will grow in strength once it absorbs and assimilates the United States... once that occurs then the world won't be far behind... Already Paramorpho's knowledge has grown since it absorbed the vast information from the Watchtower's computer systems. The remnant knowledge in the JLA's old satellite was but an appetizer compared to the Watchtower's computer banks. It is already extending its consciouness throughout the world's computer systems that are linked with the JLA's system. Paramorpho detaches a portion of itself... a twisted mockery of Green Lantern floats to the front of the undead halo. While Kyle interrogated Paramorpho, it was able to analyze Kyle's organic structure. Unlike the others Kyle survived the process, but Paramorpho was able to obtain a copy of him nonetheless. 'Nothing shall escape the grasp of Paramorpho!' gloats the inhuman monstrosity. Again Paramorpho vibrates as it 'laughs'. 'As Kyle would say... the world is its oyster.' Scene 1: Luthor Muses President Lex Luthor grimaced. Once, as a young man, he was the most powerful creature on the planet. Then came the alien, who brought with him an age of taint. Oh, how he hated the metahumans. He hated the arrogance and pompous ease with which they commanded the minds, the bodies, and the politics of his people and his world. He hated their power, which should have been his. President Lex Luthor grimaced. He was not a man that failed. And yet, he had no choice but to accept that the Prometheus Initiative had, to a degree, failed. "Prometheus was designed to duplicate the Earth's metahuman population. I knew that I could not directly oppose the Alpha class metahumans at this point, but if I could create augmented replicas of the lesser metahumans over a period of four to eight years, I would have an army large enough to destroy them. This planet would be mine. "Suffice it to say; things have not gone as planned. Charles' Prometheus construct has seemingly gained sentience; the JLA Watchtower's security tapes indicate that it has taken to calling itself "Paramorpho." It destroyed Atlantis. Where it was only to have eliminated and replicated a single metahuman every 2.5 months for the next four years, it has instead _directly assimilated_ almost a dozen, resurrected the Justice League satellite, and commandeered the JLA Watchtower. "In short, liege, this "Paramorpho" has more power than it should, power that threatens _me_, and that could benefit you. I presume that is why you are here." Luthor hid his loathing well. The "man" to whom he addressed his musings disgusted him. "YOUR PETTY, PLANETARY POLITICS ARE BENEATH ME, HUMAN. NEVERTHELESS, THIS PARAMORPHO EMPLOYS THE ANTI-LIFE EQUATION. HIS IS POWER BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. I WILL ELIMINATE THIS CREATURE AND CLAIM THE EQUATION. SUCH IS THE WILL OF DARKSEID."
Scene II: The Good Fight Superman stepped through oblivion and into the Fortress of Solitude. Five hours ago, the Justice League of America engaged their enemies. From STAR Labs, Batman, The Flash, J'onn J'onzz, Wonder Woman, and he teleported to the Moon. In the instant that they arrived, Superman caught a glimpse of the end; and then the Watchtower exploded. The end, he concluded, was when heroes like John became tainted by the malevolence that he saw; when the joy and the light disappeared from Plastic Man's face, replaced by inhuman hatred. It was the antimatter reactor. He detected the unique radiation signature as the Watchtower fell around him. If The Flash hadn't accelerated the team beyond the barrier of the Speed Force at the last moment, the JLA would have died. So instead, Superman had a superfluously lucid "conversation" with Barry Allen in the instant before they reappeared in a cave in Happy Harbor, Maine. Soon after, the attack began. Luthor went on the air to tell the American people that the threat facing them was a being called "Paramorpho," an alien being from deep space capable of enslaving superheroes that NASA had been tracking. None of it was true, of course, but there were more important things to do than deal with a lying politician. Paramorpho's attack came on two fronts, Paradise Island and the Eastern Seaboard. Diana and The Titans defended the latter, while the "Justice triumvirate," Young, Society, and what was left of the League, defended America. Three hours ago, the Happy Harbor cave was compromised. The Secret died. Only one place was safe while their enemies had the Satellite's teleporters at their disposal, so the heroes set up a makeshift headquarters / infirmary in the extra-dimensional Fortress. Accessible only through the almost equally impenetrable Batcave's teleporter, the Fortress was now littered with the wounded and dying. Knowing what Paramorpho did to its victims, they had no choice but to cast the dead into the Phantom Zone, for fear of corrupted reanimation. "Master?" "Yes, Kelex?" "Green Lantern requests permission to transport." "What?! Batman reports engaging Green Lantern in New York!" "Bat-scans match all known physical, electromagnetic, psycho-electric, and gastronomic parameters on file for Kyle_Rayner_Green_Lantern. Down to that paperweight of a mask . . ." Superman at once grimaced and reveled in the possibility that Kyle was alive. That's the way it was supposed to be; superheroes weren't supposed to die . . . "Kelex, activate internal security systems, summon three of the Superman Robots to this location, and tell Batman that I need him." "Yes, sir." "And let Green Lantern aboard." Green Lantern materialized. Quickly, he explained his encounter in Atlantis. As he completed the story, Batman shimmered into existence with an eyebrow cocked. "Robots in your likeness? Nice touch. Hello Kyle." "Hey Batman." "I'm not surprised to see you. The "zombie Green Lantern" was the first to fall to us. Apparently less powerful than the other "tainted heroes," I deduced that it was not in fact you, but rather a techno-organic facsimile." Superman grinned, "You were on of those annoying smart kids in school, weren't you?" "I'd imagine you were too, Clark. The important thing is that we now know that Paramorpho has two distinct operations: the first and most common is the physical reprocessing and (what I presume to be) psychological imprinting of metahuman dead; the second is the creation of augmented techno-organic replicas of living metahumans. The two appear related, but the first operation is far in advance of the second in terms of technological sophistication." Superman injected, "Diana said 'the power of life and death . . .'" "Luthor says he comes from deep space. He's lying." "Of course he is, Superman. Based on my observations, it seems to resemble the reanimated Metamorpho that we recently encountered in our dealings with _ID_. I'd guess a genetically-engineered organic matrix bonded to Brainiac-13 technology." "Superman exploded, "Luthor!" "Still, knowing that, I have no idea how such an amalgamation is capable of resurrecting and controlling the dead." "Wait, there's another thing we now know: my power ring renders me immune to Paramorpho." "That's another mystery. I need to get back to Metropolis, Superman. I suggest you pay your friend the President a . . . " JLA Alert! This is the Manhunter on priority telepathic channel. All available forces converge on Metropolis now! Planetary level threat! Without another word, the three heroes stepped into the Fortress teleporter, through oblivion, and onto the earth.
Scene III: Recalled to Life Few people realized that Batman believed in God. Most that knew him thought that with all the tragedy and taint of his life, that he was a brutal cynic, a jaded atheist. But without god and his heaven, where would his parents go? Because of that belief, Batman often found moments like this difficult: in the middle of downtown Metropolis, before his very eyes, the god of Apokolips did battle with Paramorpho. "SURRENDER TO THE POWER OF DARKSEID, CREATURE. I WILL HAVE THE ANTI-LIFE EQUATION!" Paramorpho's undead legions attacked. The Elongated Man was erased from reality as the Omega Effect took hold. Confused heroes, unsure of what to do, fell to the ground as the deafening roar of a dozen Boom Tubes opening in the sky rocked the ground. Scores of Parademons fell from the sky. And in the midst of it all, a helicopter landed. Superman was the first to notice. Faster than a speeding bullet, he tore it apart to reach the man inside. "Luthor!! What have you done?!" The President did not need to shout, Superman could hear every word. "What I've tried to do for all these years, save the world from you." Luthor grinned, "Unfortunately, things did not go as planned." "For heaven's sake, the Anti-Life Equation! How did you get it?" "That is part of things that 'did not go as planned.'" "My city's dying around me, I want straight answers you . . ." "ENOUGH!", loud enough to drown out everything. All action ceased. The only sound was the crackling of fires as the city burned. Superman: "Oh, no . . ." Warrior: "Never thought he was mixed up in this . . ." Flash: "Not again . . ." Batman: "Hmph." "Hello again, my friends," said Hal. And with that, The Spectre returned to Earth.
Scene IV: Loose Ends On the other side of death, Thomas and Martha Wayne did indeed worry about their boy, a morose cavalcade of heroes held a collective breath, and a dead man and an angel approached a throne. "Deadman, I was wrong, we can find allies elsewhere." "Zauriel, who else can stop the spirit of God's Vengeance but the Saint of Killers? Remember to ask nicely . . ." Back on Earth, in the suburbs of the war zone Metropolis, a pastor's wife shuddered. "Norman, did you feel that?" "Feel what, Ellen?" "There were voices . . . woe, woe, Woe to the inhabitants of Earth?" "What?!" "Nothing, Norman. It was nothing."
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