Titans of Justice Unlimited Vol. 2 #20 – “When Hunters Become The Hunted”
Written, Edited, & Maxi-micros by: Power Guy


An old abandoned circus funhouse on the outskirts of Gotham City…

The criminally insane son of the Joker and Harley Quinn was pacing back and forth within his hideout, cursing like a madman. “IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! D_mn that Legion of Doom! I swear when I get my hands on them, I’ll chain all of their hands behind their backs, force them to gargle my Joker-venom, and pluck their eyeballs out one at a time!!!!” Punchline was furious over the fact that the Legion of Doom had killed Knightvision and Batgirl instead of him.





One of his henchmen tried to calm him down by reminding him, “There’s still the Huntress, boss.”

“Chonley, you’re such a good sport for reminding me of that,” he said as he wrapped his arm around his lackey and promptly dug the joy-buzzer attached to his hand into Chonley’s neck, instantly electrocuting him to death. “IDIOT!!! I was supposed to be able to kill ALL THREE of them!!!” he shouted at Chonley’s charred husk. Just then, Punchline heard a noise coming from above, seemingly from the rafters. He looked up, in hopes that it was the Huntress. If he could kill her today, that would bring him some amount of joy, at least. “Is there a bat in my belfry?” he howled as he pulled out a gun and began firing shots at where he had heard the noise.

The mystery person leapt from the rafters above, dodging the bullets, revealing herself to be Kitty Kat. “Put your gun down, Punchline. We need to talk business!” she said as she landed gracefully on the ground.





“How can you expect me to think about business at a time like this?” he asked as he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped a non-existent tear from his eye. “Knightvision is dead and I wasn’t the one who killed him!”

“How did you find out already?” asked the self-proclaimed legacy of the Catwoman.

“Oh, that d_mnable Legion of Doom has been gloating about it all over the super-villain intranet,” huffed the crazy clown. “Everything I’ve been working for all of these years – GONE – JUST – LIKE – THAT!” He then grabbed Kitty Kat by the sides of her face and looked her directly in the eyes and asked, “Do you see the way I look? It’s not from chemicals like dear old dad. My father was abusive towards my mother. I watched him knock her around like a punching bag on a regular basis. Finally, one day I stood up to him and told him to stop. He stopped abusing my mother, alright. Instead, he pinned me down on the ground, and put a jackknife in my mouth and asked me why I didn’t smile any more. I was so frightened that I didn’t answer him. He then told me that he was going to remedy the situation and, well, you can see the results,” he said as he traced his right pointer finger around his overly extended mouth. I later had my skin bleached as pale as I could get it. I armed myself with the most torture-some gadgets I could find and built up a criminal empire, the likes of which Gotham had never seen before all in an attempt to one-up my parents and take out Batman and Robin’s children and now, it was all for NOTHING!!!!” he screamed as he shook Kitty Kat back and forth.

Kitty Kat instantly responded by slashing the madman’s arm with her claws, cutting him deeply. “Hands off clown. I won’t be the Harley to your Joker!”

“ACKKK!!!” moaned Punchline as he looked at the cat-burglar viciously.

“Now settle down and I’ll tell you about my plan to make sure those butchers in the Legion of Doom get what’s coming to them.”

“Why would you want to team up with me?” demanded the insane psychopath. “It’s no secret that you loved Knightvision where as I wanted him dead.”

“Still, the Legion took away both of our dreams when they killed him, didn’t they?”

“Hmm…..you do have a point, little kitten. Go on…”

“Since the Legion formed, no other group of villains has lasted long,” began Kitty Kat. “They’ve either been taken out by the Legion themselves or the Legion tipped off the Titans of Justice on where to find them. After everything that went down with Knightvision, there was a schism within the Legion – a civil war of sorts, with the team divided in half. What if you and I put together a team of people like ourselves, who hate the Legion for one reason or another or folks who would just like to see them off the playing field?”

“I like what you’re suggesting, my pretty kitty.”

“The Cheetah and Lance Luthor were the brains behind the operation that took out Knightvision,” revealed Kitty Kat. “Once we have the entire Legion captured, I get the Cheetah, you can have Luthor and we each get to kill them however we’d like. Deal?” teased Kitty Kat, a bit seductively.

“Oh, I’m more than ready to sign in blood!” squeeled Punchline as he pulled out a pen from his pocket and slashed it into the wound Kitty Kat had previously caused, causing it to start bleeding again, with blood spurting out all over the table in front of him.

***

Halfway across town…

The Huntress had just foiled a jewelry store robbery by Marsha Queen of Diamonds. The police had just arrived and were in the midst of taking them into custody when she noticed the Bat-signal lighting up the Gotham sky. Without hesitation, she took off for police headquarters. After arriving on the rooftop, she was surprised to find, “Sonic Boom, Apotheosis, what are you doing here?”





“We’re concerned about you, Huntress,” began the modern Black Canary. “You haven’t been answering our calls.”





“I may be new to the team but even I can tell that you haven’t been yourself since Knightvision and Batgirl passed away,” offered Apotheosis.

“I’ve just been extra busy keeping the city safe,” explained the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. “With the news of Knightvision and Batgirl’s demise spreading through the underworld like wildfire, they criminals have been out in full-force ever since.”

“Why didn’t you ask us for help?” questioned Sonic Boom. “You know we would have been here in a heartbeat.”

“I like being busy,” replied the Huntress, dryly.

“You can’t work yourself to death,” advised the son of Paragon. “You’ve got too much on your plate already.”

“I’ll be fine,” assured the daughter of the Dark Knight. “I always have been.”

“Nonsense!” countered Sonic Boom. “Effective immediately, Apotheosis will be operating out of Gotham to help you keep the thugs and riffraff under control.”

“I don’t need any help. I told you that I’m…”

Sonic Boom quickly interrupted her close friend, “It’s by Power Guy’s orders and it’s not all about you. Apotheosis could benefit from your experience just as much as you could benefit from some back-up right now.”

The son of Paragon then piped up again, “I’m eager to learn…”

“I just hope you can keep up,” the Huntress replied with a half-smile.

Just then, the three heroes were interrupted by a green light shining upon them which caused them to look upward only to see Green Lantern Daniel Jordan along with his best friend and the brother of Sonic Boom known as Dark Arrow descending upon then via a green power-bubble.

“What are you two doing here?” Sonic Boom asked, curiously.

The green sphere opened up and Dark Arrow called out to his sister, “Get in here, Boomer. We have urgent matters to discuss.”





As the Huntress and Apotheosis watched the trio of heroes depart, the daughter of the Dark Knight intercepted an emergency broadcast over the police radio. “Looks like you’re training begins now.”

About a half-hour later, the two heroes were hot on the trail of Poison Ivy. The bio-terrorist had used one of her plant creatures to demolish the framework for a building that had just started being constructed on the site of one of Gotham’s former forest preserves.

“Ha! This shall be the fate of anything that deprives the green of it’s sacred territory!” scoffed Poison Ivy as the structure of boards and beams came tumbling down.





“And your fate involves a straight-jacket and heavy dose of psych meds back at Arkham!” came the voice of the Huntress who had just arrived on the scene with Apotheosis.

“You!!!” screamed the bio-terrorist in annoyance as she gritted her teeth. She turned to her plant creature and ordered, “Destroy them, my sweet!”

The daughter of Batman and Catwoman turned to her new partner and instructed him, “I’ve got some darts that will take care of the creature. Think you can handle Ivy?”

“Consider it done,” acknowledged the son of Paragon.

As the Huntress prepared for her own battle, Apotheosis took off after Poison Ivy.

“d**n that Huntress,” cursed the woman also known as Pamela Isley. “Always siding with the humans over the green and she has the nerve to call herself a hero!” She quickly darted into a dark alley in hopes of setting a trap to ensure her escape.

Apotheosis was doing the best he could to keep up with her but the plant-themed villainess had quite a head start on him. As he made his way into the alley after her, he slowed down so that he could be more vigilant. “No lights down here. It’s really hard to see,” he thought to himself. “I hope I brought my flashlight,” he thought again as he reached into his belt-pouch.”

Just then, Poison Ivy grabbed the new hero and pulled him into her, planting a deep kiss on him, her poisonous lipstick graffiti-ing his mouth. “What a shame, we just met and now you’re going to die. It’s too bad because I bet that you’re kind of cute under your mask.”

A few minutes later, the Huntress arrived on the scene only to find Apotheosis standing over Poison Ivy’s seemingly lifeless body lying on the ground.

“Dear Lord, is she?” gasped the daughter of the Dark Knight.

“I didn’t have a choice,” defended Apotheosis. “She tried to kill me and the only way to save myself was to turn the tables on her.”

After about a minute of examining her long-time foe, the Huntress looked up and announced, “She’s gone.”

***

In the sky over the route from Gotham City to Star City…

“Alright, Robbie, Dan, what’s going on?” demanded Sonic Boom.

“I wish I knew,” replied Green Lantern, a bit frustrated.





“What’s going on is that you two are making a HUGE mistake and wasting precious time that you could be spending TOGETHER!” declared Dark Arrow.

“Look, Rob, this isn’t any of your business,” Sonic Boom stated, firmly.

“Well, it’s not like you’re making it your business to work things out with Danny. Yeah, I know things got muddy between the two of you and Sargona but she’s moved on with Power Guy now while you two just sit around twiddling your thumbs, waiting for the other to make the first move.”

“Dan said he needed time to himself,” pointed out the blonde bombshell.

“And when it comes to women, he’s about as shy as can be,” reminded Dark Arrow as he turned to Green Lantern. “Look Danny, I know you love my sister but she’s a beautiful women who’s not going to be single forever if you just keep getting cold feet. If you don’t make your move soon, you could lose her forever. Is that what you really want?”

“Robert, you’re making this VERY awkward,” insisted the son of Hal and Carol Jordan.

“Answer the question,” ordered the ace archer.

Green Lantern looked directly into Sonic Boom’s eyes and admitted, “It’s true, I did ask for time to sort things out after what happened with you, Sargona, and I but I’m past that but honestly, I’ve been too nervous to approach you because I thought you would reject me after what happened and for making you wait so long.”

“Really?” asked a shocked Di Di Queen. “I thought you had given up on us. I’ve loved you as long as I can remember but in the end, I want you to be happy, even if it’s not with me.”

“I can’t imagine being happy with anyone else at this point in my life,” smiled Green Lantern.

“Oh Dan!” cried out the modern-age Black Canary as she wrapped her arms around her renewed partner who embraced her back.

Green Lantern turned to his best friend and said, “Thanks, Rob. I don’t know what to say…”

“Hey, cupid isn’t the only matchmaker with a bow and arrow. Now drop me off at the park down below and you two enjoy the rest of your evening together.”


The End!