Titans of Justice Unlimited Vol. 2 11 – “Eye of the Beholder Part 2”
Written & edited by: Power Guy
Maxi-micros by: Power Guy


The Titans of Justice Satellite – Vanishing Point…

Totem and Power Lad had just finished a training session in which the two had sparred with Totem winning the clash.

“I would have won if the lights weren’t in my eyes,” grumbled a disappointed Power Lad.





“You would have won if you had followed some of the Huntress’ training and thought out your moves and mine, before you acted,” pointed out Totem, trying to give her teammate something to ponder.

“I’ve got super-strength, heat-vision, and I can fly!” shouted Power Lad. “What do I need fancy fighting skills for?”

“Well, considering that I’m nowhere near as strong as you are, but I still took you down should say something to you,” added the caramel-skinned model.

Before Power Lad could come back with another witty response, Dark Arrow, Trickshot, and Buffalo Brave came rushing into the room. Dark Arrow hollered out, “Totem, Power Lad, Champion needs us in Gateway City. Wonder Girl’s in BIG trouble!”





***

A short while later on the rooftop of Champion and Wonder Girl’s apartment building…

“They must have taken off while I was passed out,” Champion said, explaining what had transpired before her Titans of Justice teammates had arrived.





“I’m going to rip Ares’ #*%@!$+ head off!” Power Lad screamed as his eyes lit up with his heat-vision.

Champion stood firmly in front of the feisty young hero and said firmly, “I am well aware of your concern for Drusilla but if you want to help save her, you can’t go off into this battle half-cocked. If you let your emotions dictate your actions, you could put yourself……..and Drusilla in even more danger than what’s already present.”

“Hmph….” Power Lad mumbled as he crossed his arms and began thinking about what Champion had said.

“This tracking device I brought along will home in on Wonder Girl’s signal device,” Totem said, moving forward with their task. “From the looks of things, she’s half-way across the city at the moment.”

“Those of you who can’t fly can come with me in my Invisible Jet,” offered Champion as the team began to depart.

In the midst of the journey aboard Champion’s plane, Buffalo Brave turned to Dark Arrow and asks, “Excuse me, my friend but I’m curious as to why you wear such a small mask over your face? I would think that if you are going to try and conceal your identity, you would cover more than your eyes?”





“Because he thinks he’s God’s gift to women everywhere,” joked Trickshot.





“Hey, pal, not all of us are comfortable wearing a furry, horned mitten on our heads,” Dark Arrow replied, jokingly. “Actually, I get warm easily so the small mask keeps me much cooler than a complete cowl or a hood like my dad wore for a while.”

“Point well taken,” acknowledged the son of Apache Chief.

Totem then interrupted her comrades’ conversation, “She’s down there! In the fairgrounds!” she said, pointing towards a large Ferris wheel.

Champion turned to Dark Arrow and asked, “Can you and the others handle the situation for a short time? I have to go back to my apartment and retrieve something I forgot.”

“Consider it done,” knodded Dark Arrow as he, Trickshot, and Bufflo Brave began climbing down the Invisible Jet’s rope ladder to join Totem and Power Lad. “But what are you going to get?”

“The one thing that may be Wonder Girl’s only hope!” answered the daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.

In the middle of the amusement park, Wonder Girl, as the new Silver Swan, was reaping havoc all around her. Her sonic cry had upset several animals who were thrown into a frenzy.

Just then, Dark Arrow noticed a rampaging elephant coming towards he and his friends. The emerald archer and Trickshot each fired off a net arrow that became imbedded in two poles within the beast’s path. As the net expanded in front of the elephant, it snapped before the animal’s immense strength causing the son of Green Arrow and Black Canary to turn to his Native American teammate and say, “Uhh….your turn?”

With that, Buffalo Brave shouted out, “INUCKCHUCK!!!” and grew to fifty feet tall, soon scooping up the rampaging beast and putting it within a caged area nearby and urged the angry animal, “Calm yourself, mighty one. We will set today’s events right before sunset.”

“Phew….for a minute there, I thought I was going to be road kill,” smiled the archer.

As a crowd of frantic people raced by the Titans of Justice, Totem and Power Lad flew up to their distressed teammate and Totem asked, “Wonder Girl! Snap out of it! This isn’t you!”

The visitor from the Universe of Evil wore a sinister look on her face that her teammates had never seen before, “Oh, Totem, but it is! Lord Ares has given me the power to make all of my dreams become a reality!”





Power Lad grabbed onto his crush’s biceps and shook her back and forth gently, “You don’t know what you’re saying, Wonder-buns! You’d never cause this kind of destruction if you weren’t under Ares’ control!”

“You really think so, Power Lad?” teased the Silver Swan in a vicious tone as she pulled one of her arms free and grabbed her suitor by the throat. “None of you know ANYTHING about my life in the Universe of Evil before I met you. Before my sister crippled and disfigured me, she and I would place bets on how many men’s lives we could ruin in a day. There were times when I did such delightful things as destroying a family’s house in the middle of a blizzard, permanently blinding an airplane pilot, and ripping off a man’s arms and beating him to death with them! The only reason I became the way you knew me is because my sister grew jealous of me, stole my magic lasso when I was in my non-powered form, and then attacked me, leaving me the ugly, handicapped girl that Green Lantern and Sonic Boom found a few years ago! But now thanks to Ares, I’m all better and I plan to pick up exactly where I left off!” Then, without warning, she fired off another sonic scream, the force of which sent Power Lad and Totem crashing into the ground.

“Holy cripes, her scream is as bad as Didi’s,” Dark Arrow thought to himself as he drew another arrow from his quiver and shot it at the flying avatar of war. The arrow exploded in mid-air, knocking it’s target out of the sky.

Once, she landed on the ground, Buffalo Brave scooped her up with his gigantic hands and held her tightly. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Wonder Girl,” he urged.

As the Silver Swan began struggling she demanded, “Let me go you oversized head-hunter! SCREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

Her sonic scream hit Buffalo Brave’s ears like hammer, forcing him to release her and cover his ears.

Totem flew up behind her best friend and put her hand over the out-of-control girl’s mouth while using her other hand to restrain her arms by utilizing the strength of gorilla. “Please, Dru…..we’re trying to help you!”

Power Lad flew up in front of the renegade Amazon and pleaded, “You’re all confused, Wonder-chic. Just settle down and let us get some help.”

By flexing her enhanced muscles, the Silver Swan burst free from Totem’s grip, grabbed her by the collar and threw her into Power Lad, leaving the two of them bedazzled. “You losers can’t stop me! Ares and I will ransack this planet until there’s nothing left but corpses!”

“I hope Champion gets back soon,” Dark Arrow said as Totem and Power Lad smashed into the ground in front of him. “We’re getting nowhere fast.”

A voice suddenly came from behind the ace archer, “Perhaps I can be of some help?” suggested the same man who was on the scene in Las Vegas during the Titans’ recent fight with Big Bamba.

Dark Arrow turned around and saw the purple-garbed man and asked, “Who the heck are you?”

“I prefer to be called Apotheosis.”

“No offense pal but this is no place for amateurs. We’ve got a dangerous situation on our hands here.”

Buffalo Brave put his hand on Dark Arrow’s shoulder and purposed, “You just said we are making little progress. Let’s hear this man out.”

“Alright…..alright,” agreed the brother of Sonic Boom. “What do you think you can do to help us, Apotheosis?”

“I’m a power-leach, similar to the Parasite,” explained the mystery man. “If I’m able to steal some of that girl’s power, perhaps you and your friends can finally restrain her? The only thing is, you’ll need to temporarily neutralize her sonic scream long enough for me to concentrate in order to leach off her powers.”

“Hmph…..that’s going to be an issue,” pointed out Dark Arrow.

Buffalo Brave then piped up, “I know of something that could work, my friend.”

“Aww…..no,” huffed Dark Arrow, knowing exactly what his friend was thinking.

“Your Sonic Bellow should be able to match her scream, at least for a few moments,” explained the Indian warrior.

“You know how much I hate using that so called power of mine,” griped the battling bowman. “But it looks like I don’t have much of a choice,” he said as he looked up to see the Silver Swan fly in front of a large Ferris-wheel. She let loose another sonic attack and destroyed the support-beams that were holding the circular construct up, causing it to topple over.

“Oh no!” cried out Dark Arrow in horror. To his relief, the Invisible Jet returned to the scene with Champion making a hasty exit only to catch the falling amusement park ride and slowly lower it to the ground, in an area where it wouldn’t be in the way. She quickly joined her teammates and asked, “I’ve got Drusilla’s Lasso of Deception and from the looks of things, I haven’t arrived a moment too soon.”

“That’s an understatement,” snapped Power Lad. “She’s totally lost it. I hate Ares for what he’s done to her!”

“We’ll put a stop to this. I promise you that,” vowed Champion.

“I’m not sure what you plan on doing with Drusilla’s lasso but let me tell you what we have planned so far,” advised Dark Arrow.

A minute and half later, the small team of the Titans of Justice began putting their agenda into action. They found the Silver Swan on the other side of the park, ready to let loose another sonic attack. Dark Arrow scurried close to her and when she let loose her sonic scream, he followed suit with his sonic bellow. The two colliding sonic attacks cancelled each other out allowing Apotheosis to do his thing.

The strange new-comer began concentrating as hard as he could, soon drawing the renegade Amazon’s power into his body, “Ugh…….she’s magic-based. I hate syphoning magic. Hurts like hell….” Within seconds, Drusilla became weaker and her sonic scream all but died out which gave Champion the opening she needed. She flew up to her young sidekick, grabbed her right arm and placed the Lasso of Deception in her right hand and began using Drusilla’s arm to twirl the lasso above the teenage girl’s head. The visitor from the Universe of Evil screamed, “Release me, you harpy!” But within a few seconds, the Silver Swan persona was gone and the Wonder Girl persona was in her place. The transformation after having her powers absorbed was too much for the young girl to bear and she collapsed into a deep slumber into Champion’s waiting arms.

“What exactly did you do to her?” demanded Power Lad, extremely concerned.

“I used her lasso to transform her back into Wonder Girl,” answered Champion. “As long as she’s in this form, Ares’ magic won’t be able to affect her.”

“So you’ve put a band-aid on the situation until we can figure out how to undo Ares’ spell,” concluded Totem.

“It’s the best that could be done at the moment,” Champion replied, glumly. “Maybe Sargona, Dr. Fate, or Ibis can help her.”

A short while later after the Titans had done some clean up in the area, Dark Arrow approached Apotheosis and whispered, “Thanks for your help with Wonder Girl. We owe you one. Is there anything we can do for an up and coming hero such as yourself?”

“As a matter of a fact, there is but why are you whispering?” revealed the purple-clad man.

Dark Arrow softly replied, “Using my sonic bellow puts such a strain on my vocal cords that I’ll be near-mute for a few days. Anyways, what’s your price?”

“I’d like to become a member of the Titans of Justice.”

“I’m not sure you know what you’re asking here, bud,” began Dark Arrow. “Today was rough but compared to some of our other missions, it was a cake-walk. Someone as new as yourself may not be ready for some of the things we encounter. We do big Justice League-like cases.”

“You do Justice League-like cases, huh?” repeated Apotheosis. “Then I’m right up your alley. My father was their nemesis known as Paragon…”


THE END!