Titans of Justice / Darkest Hour #4 - “Darkness Falls”
Written & edited by: Power Guy
Creative consulting provided by: Darth_Ennis & GreenLantern
Art by: Darth_Ennis
Maxi-Micros by: Power Guy


A dark cave deep within the Andes Mountains...

“I read you, Olympia. Go ahead,” Nucleus said, speaking into his communicator.





“How are things there?” asked the princess of the Amazons.





“Could be better but not too bad,” answered the super-genius. “Elongated Lad and I had to walk quite a ways as the teleporter couldn’t get us very close to these mountains thanks to all the interference from the rocks in the area.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” commented Olympia. “I hate to trouble you even further but we’ve got multiple issues to deal with.”

“What’s going on?” asked the co-leader of Titans West.

“Well for starters, Power Guy, Bat-Girl, Gold Bug, and Teen Marvel of the Squadron of Justice have been turned into vampires with Teen Marvel being our first casualty,” began the younger sister of Wonder Woman. “Then we have several Titans missing.”

“Who’s among the missing?” Nucleus asked curiously.

Donna Troy-Rayner wasted no time in answering her teammate, “Jem, Stellar, Sargona, Diamond Jack, and Starman.”

“Oh, this is not good,” Nucleus said, taking everything in.

“As of now, it’s you, Knightvision, and myself running both teams,” advised the founding member of the Teen Titans.

“We’ll work this out,” promised the successor of the second Atom. “Elongated Lad and I are almost to the part of the cave where the gas is. I’ll report back after we’re able to contain some of it to use as an antidote for the vampire transformations.”

“Sounds good, Jason. Stay safe. Olympia out.”

Nucleus and Elongated Lad continued on with their journey through the dark and eerie cave, lit only by their flashlights.

“Boy, is it creepy in here or what?” asked Elongated Lad, trying to look in every direction at once in order to notice any oncoming threats.





“It’s just a cave, Rick. About the most you’ll have to worry about down here is some bugs and a few bats,” assured Nucleus.

“And, a vampire!” came a voice, seemingly out of nowhere.

Both Nucleus and Elongated Lad jerked around and shined their flashlights in the direction from where the voice came from.

“You! You’re Lord Andrew Benett also known as I...Vampire!” called out Nucleus.

“Also known as your killer!” shouted the creature of the night as he lunged for the size-changing Titan.

***

Coast City...

“It’s time,” announced the Mocker to his comrade.

“Yes, I can feel all of the death in the air,” commented Black Hand. “Thanks to the living dead, the scales have been tipped in our favor. LET IT BEGIN THEN!!!” he shouted as pure blackness spewed forth from his dead hand. This began a chain-reaction which affected several people around the globe.





***

Markovia...

As the Outsiders pressed on against the vampiric horde in front of them, Halo noticed something strange. Her teammate Blackout was emitting a huge cloud of her darkness energy in all directions. “Blackout, what the heck are you doing?”





There was no answer. The daughter of Nightshade seemed as though she was in a coma-like state.





***

Opal City...

The new, female Shade had broken free from her prison and stood atop of the building, her darkness cane pointing upward as she too filled the air with total darkness.





***

New York City...

Todd Rice, the retired hero known as Obsidian had donned his costume that had laid in storage for nearly two decades and flew atop of the Empire State Building. There he perched himself and released his shadow energy across the Eastern seaboard, not even remotely aware of his actions.





***

St. Roch...

Long-time Hawkman enemy Carl Sands known to the world at large as the Shadow Thief was going berserk. Although, not fully conscious, the former member of the Injustice Gang was pumping out more blackness energy than he ever had before, completely smothering the five hundred mile radius around him.





Others around the world who had darkness generating abilities that were not purely scientific like Phantom Lady, followed suit against their will and soon the entire world was cloaked in a cloud of darkness.

***

Back in Coast City, Black Hand and the Mocker were overjoyed.

“We’ve done it! The entire earth is pitch-black!” howled Black Hand in sick delight. “The darkness combined with all of the deaths at the hands of the vampires have placed the earth in prime condition for our plan!”

“And now I shall finish our task!” advised the Mocker who was now wearing Stellar’s Cosmic Converter Belt. He looked up at the giant Black Lantern power battery before him. The battery was still fractured from the final battle during the Blackest Night but that was not of concern to him. “Thanks to this belt, I was able to trap the various different colored lights of the spectrum. Green, blue, violet, they’re all in here and when you combine them all,...”

“You get black!” Black Hand said, finishing his partner’s sentence.

The belt quickly lighted up as the energies inside it began to flow through the Mocker’s body. He then shot the energy directly into the Black Lantern power battery. Within seconds, the battery began to heal itself and no more cracks or chips were visible.

“You’re doing it! Keep it up!” cheered on Black Hand, eager for the main event to begin.

The Mocker pressed on and finally after several minutes, the fruits of his and Black Hand’s labors started becoming apparent. A dark form began crawling from within the battery. As he began to exit, the light erupting from the Mocker lit up the being’s form. It was Nekron, the entity of death and darkness!

“I am risen! You have done well, my servants!” Nekron said in his cold, stale voice. “Now, let us finish what we started the first time around!!!”





TO BE CONTINUED!