Titans of Justice Unlimited #27 – “Dragon-fire”
Written, Edited, & Maxi-Micros by: Power Guy


The Brownstone, Earth 2….

Lightspeed, the leader of the Society of Titans had assembled his team in order to greet a small fraction of the League of Titans from Earth 1, most of which, were new members to the team who had never been to this, or any other parallel world yet. The Society made small talk as they waited for their visitors until, finally, the teleport tube brimmed with light.

Seconds later as the League of Titans materialized, Lightspeed called out, “Finally! You’re late!” he said with a smile.





The Huntress, being a member of both the Society and the League, stepped out of the tube, leading her teammates and said, “Sorry, there’s been one crisis after another on Earth 1, lately.”





“Did something major happen since the ordeal with the Legion of Doom?” asked Starman, very concerned.





Green Lantern Daniel Jordan, knowing that most of his other teammates were emotional wrecks after recent events, spoke up and explained the recent death of Poison Ivy along with Ares’ manipulations of the Wonder Woman Family. Champion, who stood near the Christian pastor, breathed deeply as her anger towards Ares still fumed intensely.





“You should have called us in,” offered Lightspeed. “We would have been glad to help, especially with how quiet things have been here on Earth 2.”

“Thank you. We’ll keep that in mind for the future,” replied Green Lantern. “Today is about introducing you all to our new members and giving them a chance to check out an alternate world.” Within minutes, Green Lantern and the Huntress introduced the Society of Titans to Champion, Apotheosis, and Storm Surge, and then reintroduced them to the recently revived son of Barry Allen aka Eric Ralph Allen, the current Flash of Earth 1.

Lightspeed raced over to the Flash and extended his hand, “Eric, it’s great to have you back!”

“I owe my new lease on life to the White Lantern,” explained the fastest man alive on Earth 1. “I plan on putting it to good use.” He then stepped towards a nearby window and glanced out of it, surmising, “I see that Earth 2 hasn’t changed much while I was gone.”

“I swear sometimes that my earth moves slower than yours,” joked the grandson of Jay Garrick. “So, have you started reading comic books again since your rebirth? Still a big SilverAgeFan?”

“You know me too well, old friend,” smiled the Flash.

Apotheosis, who had been silent up until now, finally piped up, “From what I heard, superheroes surfaced on this earth before any of the others so why is our earth called Earth 1 and this one called Earth 2?”

Lightspeed smirked and revealed, “Because out earth is twice as awesome as your is! Actually, it’s because Eric’s dad beat my grandpa in a race by a fraction of a second, years ago!”

“You know, if you’re feeling brave, you and I could always do a rematch?” challenged the Flash.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” countered Lightspeed. “My grandpa was much older than your dad when they raced so your dad had the advantage of youth on his side but I’d say that you and I are roughly the same age.”

“Just show me where the starting point is and you can eat my dust all the way to the finish line!” the Flash said, his competitive nature getting the best of him.

But before the two speedsters could face off, the Trouble Alert went off. The Jade Sentinel, grandson of Alan Scott, intercepted the transmission and soon relayed to the group of heroes that the grandson of the Dragon King, known as Wyvern, had been spotted attacking San Francisco. The Jade Sentinel looked at Constellation and asked, “Should we see if Corporal Marvel can come and assist us? Wyvern was one of his main adversaries when he fought crime on this earth as Stellar.”





“No,” declined the star-spangled teen. “Freddie has finals this week at school so he’s most likely studying plus I’m the current legacy of Stargirl so it’s my duty to confront Wyvern.”

Power Guy quickly stood up and said, “But Sherry, Wyvern is almost as strong as Fury or myself.”





“I never said that I had to go alone but it’s my job to be there when Wyvern goes down,” advised the wearer of the Cosmic Converter Belt. “Lightspeed, with your permission, I’d like to head to San Francisco with a small team to take on Wyvern.”

“Of course, Sherry.”

“You have any or all of the Leaguers here at your disposal as well,” offered Green Lantern.

“Great!” smiled Constellation as she announced her taskforce to be comprised of “Power Guy, Blue Dolphin, the Flash, and Apotheosis.”

“This dragon dude better be a worthy challenge for me,” huffed Blue Dolphin as she closed the internet browser on her smart phone in which she was reading Perez Hilton’s website. “Oh, I just remembered, my grandparents are sponsoring a fundraiser in San Francisco this weekend. I guess I should go and make sure this guy goes down before he can cause any sort of trouble for them.”





As the team of heroes readied to depart, Starman turned to his newly acquired protégé and asked, “Constellation, is Wyvern really as powerful as PeeGee?”

“I think Power Guy was being a bit generous but Wyvern is a pretty tough cookie.”

“Well, you’ve been acing those training drills that I’ve been putting you through lately so regardless of how powerful he is, I’m sure you’ll have the situation under control in no time.”


***

Moments later in San Francisco Bay…

As the team of heroes approached the area in which Wyvern had been spotted, Apotheosis shouted out, “Holy smokes!” as he pointed forward.

The rest of the team then noticed that Wyvern had picked up a large barge, filled with people on it. Power Guy’s instincts took over as he mumbled, “I’ve got to…” but before the son of Power Girl and the original Star Spangled Kid could finish his sentence, the dragon-man threw the boat without care. With every ounce of speed at his disposal, Power Guy flew into the oncoming barge in hopes of saving those aboard. Swooping under the boat and using his super-strength, he was able to safely lower the boat down into the water. He quickly flew aboard and directed all of the passengers off to safety.

Meanwhile, Constellation flew in front of her adversary and announced, “Wyvern – show’s over!” as she spewed a stream of shooting stars from her finger-tips, blinding the dragon-man.

Still blinded, the enraged Wyvern began spewing flames from his mouth in order to keep his adversaries at bay.

His fire nearly singed Constellation’s left arm as she jerked out of the way, “Phew….I almost got barbequed!”

Racing over the water at the speed of sound, the Flash finally arrived on the scene. Whirling his arms in front of him, he created two mini cyclones that pushed Wyvern’s flames back at him. With his near impervious skin, the fire was little more than a tickling to him. As the dragon-man regained his sight, he flapped his immense wings which created a gust of wind strong enough to hurl the Flash into the air and send him crashing into the water behind him. Luckily, Blue Dolphin was nearby and she pulled him out of the water before any harm could be done.

“Thanks, miss,” replied the Scarlet Speedster.

“Lucky for you, I like your jawline,” Blue Dolphin said, dryly.

Meanwhile, Constellation was keeping her arch-nemesis busy with blasts from her Cosmic Converter Belt. “What business do you have here, creating all of this havoc?”

“Shut up and die, girl!” he roared as he breathed fire at the young heroine once more.





Power Guy, who had finished rescuing the people from the boat that Wyvern had endangered, flew in front of Constellation to shield her from the villain’s fire. Shockingly, it singed his skin, causing him great pain. “ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!”

“Get away from him!” ordered the former Girl of Two Thousand Gimmicks as she created an energy-glove around her right fist and punched Wyvern in the side of the head, stunning him. She immediately grabbed the Kryptonian powerhouse and flew him to safety. “Are you ok, PeeGee?”

“I will be,” answered Power Guy as he tried to shake off the pain. “His powers must be magic-based which means they affect me just as they would you or pretty much anyone else on the team.”

“Oh great. Looks like I won’t be of much help on this mission, after all,” grumbled Apotheosis as he came over to help check on the leader of the Titans of Justice.”

Power Guy looked up at their newest recruit and asked, “I thought you helped weaken Druscilla after Ares turned her into the Silver Swan?”

“Yes and no,” answered the son of Paragon. “My abilities have a tough time with magic. Basically, what I did with Wonder Girl was open the conduit to syphon her powers. The draw was enough to confuse her to the point that it gave Champion and the others the opening they needed to neutralize her. Perhaps in time, I’ll get better with magic but for now, it’s still pretty resistant to me but, while you’re healing up, do you mind if I take a drink of your powers?”

“As long as it helps put Wyvern down, be my guest,” replied the man also known as Vince Pemberton.

“Direct contact will helps the process become much more efficient,” revealed Apotheosis as he touched Power Guy’s shoulder.

Within seconds, Apotheosis felt like he had drank a 6-pack of Red Bull. “Wow! It’s ridiculous how much power you have!”

“Put it to good use, friend.”

With that, Apotheosis flew into Wyvern in the blink of an eye, hitting him with the force of a ballistic missile. He didn’t stop there, he kept punching the dragon-man over and over again, trying to close out the mission. As Wyvern stumbled backwards, Apotheosis screamed, “You burned my friend, monster! Now it’s your turn!” as the heat-vision shot forth from his eyes, scorching Wyvern.

The grandson of the Dragon King roared in pain and then retaliated with his fire but instead of aiming it at his attacker, he targeted a nearby construction site where the frame of a tall building had just been put in place. His flames caused the lower metal beams to melt, making the frame tip over towards a crowded sky-scraper.

Thinking fast, Apotheosis flew upward and caught the falling frame and lowered it safely to the ground. While concentrating on his task, he failed to notice that Wyvern was right on top of him. The dragon-man grabbed the back of his prey’s head and slammed him face first into the ground. He tore off a large chunk of the metal frame and used his fire to make it molten, creating a metallic cocoon around Apotheosis, neutralizing him for the moment.

Blue Dolphin then called out to the villain, “You know, wings, you’ve got THE worst breath I’ve ever smelled on a guy. Let’s do something about that so I can get home and watch Twilight, ok?” With her command over the water, a large wave rose up and shot forth into Wyvern’s face, drenching him.

The Flash then returned to the battle and began berating Wyvern with over a dozen punches a second until the dragon-man stomped his large left foot on the ground, causing the Flash to trip into Wyvern’s awaiting hand, only to be thrown a half-mile across the city.

Wyvern then flew in front of Blue Dolphin and announced, “You will pay for attacking me, girl!”

Then, out of nowhere, a female voice called out to him, “Get away from my granddaughter or you shall pay with your life!”

Wyvern turned his head to see Tsunami and Neptune Perkins standing a top of a water platform Tsunami had created. He smiled and replied, “Finally, you’re here, Miya.”

“If you know me, then you know what I can do, villain!” Tsunami declared as created a large hand made of water which scooped up Wyvern and dumped him in the nearby bay, where she and Neptune Perkins would have the advantage.





The two water-based heroes pummeled Wyvern relentlessly, trying to end the fight quickly. Wyvern’s eyes closed and his body soon went limp.

Neptune Perkins smiled at his lovely wife and said, “We’ve still got it after all of these years,” as he lifted Wyvern’s inert body over his shoulder and began carrying him out of the water.





Tsunami replied with “I am just glad we could…” but before she could finish her sentence, Wyvern’s eyes opened, he jerked himself off of Neptune Perkin’s back and grabbed the long-haired hero by the throat, squeezing tightly. “You should be ashamed of yourselves with how long you’ve been around. You should know when a foe is playing possum,” pointed out the dragon-man.

“Let him go!” shrieked Tsunami.

“You’re in no position to give orders, Miya,” reminded Wyvern. “If you want this whelp to stay alive, you’ll come with me.” Wyvern then noticed the small fraction of the Titans of Justice approaching. “The rest of you – stay back or I’ll pop his head off of his neck.”

As frustrated as Blue Dolphin and the others were, they knew Wyvern meant business.

“Are you coming Miya or would you rather see your husband’s blood splattered all over the ground?” asked Wyvern.

“Yes……for now….” Tsunami spat, angrily.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Wyvern stated. He then pulled some sort of communicator out of his belt and whispered into it, “Fausta – I have Tsunami. Open the portal to Earth X.”

With that, Wyvern, Neptune Perkins, and Tsunami entered the portal into parts unknown to the heroes.

“NO! It can’t end like this!” howled Blue Dolphin, as she began worrying for her grandparents’ safety.

Power Guy put his arm around the blue-skinned heroine and pulled her close to him tightly, “I’m sorry, Blue Dolphin. We’ll do everything in our power to get them back safely.”

TO BE CONTINUED!