Stalag Earth

[overcame_fear]

Even Hal has to admit, things aren't going well.

It didn't look good from the start, but when Superman went down, captured in one of the aliens' first maneuvers, the Justice League knew they were in for a fight.

Then the reports started pouring in: the Metal Men, Johnny Quick, Doctor Midnight, a roll call of Earth's heroes, captured and detained in high security facilities going up all over the planet.

So when Hal found himself getting hurled right through the giant, iconic globe at the top of the Daily Planet, it just seemed like one more sign of how bad things were going. Not that they really needed another one by then.

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[raptorcanaria]

Dinah feels like she's been screaming so loud and so constantly for so long that her lungs and throat will never be the same.

They're in Metropolis - just the five of them, no Superman - fighting five giant aliens just like when they first met, but this time it's all five of them together, and the five aliens are just five among a worldwide invasion of seven thousand.

Just the five of them. Since yesterday all they've been doing is fighting and they've not made a dent in the onslaught.


Hal and J'Onn are above their heads, while she stands surrounded by diamond, mud and fire giants. When she pauses for breath, a red blur rushes in from her left, off her feet just as an eye beam almost turns her into a fire creature.

"Sorry," Barry says. "I know you don't like it when I swoop in to save you."

"That's..." Dinah swears she's breathless because of her lung exhaustion. "That's OK. I'm shot. god, how long have we been fighting these things for?"

"Non-stop? Almost twenty four hours..."

He stops, head tilting upwards. "Uh oh."

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

GL's been so into the battle that he doesn't even realize something's wrong until the Ring suddenly fades out. And as Hal begins to plummet toward the ground far below, he suddenly realizes what all those warnings he'd been ignoring from the Ring had been about.

"J'Onn, I'm falling! A little help?"

With the speed of thought, J'Onn fields his request and reaches out to:

"Flash! I cannot pull away in time to catch Lantern! I pulled an image from his mind--something invisible in a locker in California--the only thing that save him! Retrieve it!"

Flash is already moving, but: "Invisible? How will I know what I'm looking for?"

J'Onn promises to guide him as Flash moves into overdrive.

Meanwhile, Snapper, watching Hal from the nearby roof of a building, is in full panic. "GL! Oh my god! Oh my god!"

But Aquaman puts a hand on his shoulder and almost smiles. "Stay relaxed. He is."

And amazingly enough, GL isn't flailing or yelling. In fact, he's stretched out just like a skydiver, as if any moment he expects--.

Flash returns, running so fast off an upturned piece of rubble that he rockets up in a wide arc through the air, at the top of which he hands something over to GL, who accepts it with a grin. "Took you long enough."

"I had to go by touch--," Flash replies, but Lantern is already calling out the Oath as he falls the rest of the way--but, no, the Ring suddenly flashes again, and GL swoops triumphantly back into the sky! Just in time to save Aquaman and Snapper when one of the giants shatters that rooftop they had just been standing on.

"Got you! That was close!"

Aquaman shakes his head. "There is no more 'close'--not in this city. We have to face the truth."

"We've lost Metropolis."

[raptorcanaria]

"No," Dinah cries, breathless from the effort of so much screaming, but also from despair at Arthur's words. "The people. We have to stay and help the..."

"Canary," Barry interrupts, "he's right. The aliens are moving westward, and fast."

Nnot only is he the leader, but she has to admit, he's absolutely right. And that's how it goes - the Justice League driven back from one population centre to the next, watching city after city fall to the Appelaxians, each one of them fighting harder than they ever have before. But they've been going so long, that exhaustion has to set in, even for the Justice League.

It's in Midway City that it happens - surrounded by the burning city, up against another platoon of giant clay giants, Dinah looks up to see the Flash take a heavy hit to the side and collapses to the ground, and she breaks the cardinal rule of masked heroics.

"Barry!"

She's at his side faster than even he can run, and kneeling at his side, more scared for him than she had been when Hal was falling from the sky.

"I'm - alright. Just - winded. What - would the JSA have done?"

"Against this?" Dinah shakes her head. "I have no idea. I'm - I'm lost."

But the end of that last word is lost. She has no idea where it came from, whether it was him or her, or the desperateness of the situation or the not being able to think about anything, but the very next thing Dinah knows, shes leaning down ad he's stretching up, and their mouths are locked in a kiss more tender than she remembers ayone kissing her before.

A second later they're staring at each other in surprise.

Another flash-blur of a second later and they're on their feet, Flash shouting orders at the team.

"We have to hold our ground! We can't fight the aliens on our own! We've got to track down help and - " he pauses so briefly you'd have to be an expert on Flash's ow fast thinking to notice the change in direction "...and I know how! Everyone - follow me!"

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

"We need J'Onn's files!" Flash calls back to them as he runs ahead. "We were furious at him for creating them--but they're going to be our salvation!"

"Wait!" Hal objects, "We said we wouldn't--."

"I know--but what choice do we have now?"

Days before the Justice League had gone through those files. Removing their own, and putting the rest back in safe storage until each one could be turned over to its rightful owner, the hero him or herself. But to their horror, that 'safe storage' had been anything but. The crates are scattered, broken apart, and the files--.

"They're gone," J'Onn says softly. "They're all gone."

Hal shakes his head. "That explains why we've been fighting this fight alone. Carr raided the files."

"Excepting us," Flash says. "He now has a full dossier on every hero in the land--and he's used it to ambush them all."

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah's head fills with names.

Wildcat. "Batman?" she says, Starman, "Superman?" Doctor Mid-Nite "They've been captured?"

...Mom?

"Or worse," says Barry, apparently not noticing. "After all, why wouldn't the Appellaxians just exterminate them...

"...Arthur?"

Aquaman is crouching by the rived running through the cave, looking pensive.

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

"They're alive," he says after a moment.

"What?" Flash asks.

"I got a message from the fish. The aliens have set up a holding pen on an Atlantic island. Most likely for the others. I can get us there."

But Flash is cautious. "The aliens got the drop on everyone not only because they knew their strengths and weaknesses, but because they had the element of surprise. That's what we need... And here's how we get it."

It's a good plan--what the rest of the team hears it of anyway. Because before he can finish, they're under attack!

"Stow it!" GL shouts. "Company's here!"

Hal almost gets into the air, but he's quickly brought down again by a strange alien substance of yellow constrictors that wrap themselves around him. "This fight is over before it begins, Ringed One!"

[raptorcanaria]

Green Lantern's body is quickly encased in the yellow bonds, while a cage of fire traps the Martian Manhunter. The aliens brough bonds designed especially to trap every single one of them, and neutralise their individual powers.

One of the giants leans down to a gagged Canary. "We will not kill you. We wish first to know how your powers and spirit function. That we will discover only by examining you live, under the scalpel."

On the flight back to the aliens' base, Dinah - aside from worrying about her Mom - uses all her will power not to laugh.

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

Behind the high-security walls of Blackhawk Island, crowds of heroes stand subdued and silent. Except, of course, for Green Arrow, who is neither. But even he has to pause when alien giants appear overhead, each one bearing a captured member of the Justice League.

"Accept your fate, 'Justice Leaguers,' one of the aliens mocks. "There will be no escape! We know your weaknesses. If you dare delude yourself into thinking you have any chance of deliverance, we will squeeze it out of you."

And with that the bonds tighten fast around GL.

[raptorcanaria]

As the bonds tighten, Green Lantern begins to scream.

And scream.

And SCREAM.

Completely undetered by anything yellow, a sonic scream echoes out his lips, and burns a hole in the clay giant ahead of him.

Dinah has to admit, it was fun being the cocky flyboy for a while.

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

'Aquaman' vibrates at high speed out of his bonds, while 'J'Onn' has no trouble slipping away from his cage of fire.

"You thought you knew us, eh?"

"Think again!"

Sure enough, the Justice League pulled a switch, and no one is enjoying it more than Green Arrow, who watches it all with an enormous grin.

"Nice disguise work," says a very Flash-like 'Aquaman.' "I have got to get me a ring like that."

"One of a kind, friend," GL replies, as a great green block smacks down the giant behind him. "One of a kind!"

And with a bright green flash, Lantern shatters the alien contraption around Superman.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah tries not to make too big of a deal about the fact that she seeks ou, and finds, her mother in the crowd. In costume, it's a little like looking into a mirror these days, except the older Black Canary has her arm in a sling and a 'go get 'em Junior' expression that her daughter's just not used to seeing.

She goes with it, though.

"Weapons!" Flash is saying. "Where are your weapons?"

"In the North Building!" replies Green Arrow, pointing. "They said they took them to - study the...m."

But already there's been a red blur and bows, arrows, star rods and magic rubies are returned to their owners. Flash is already giving more orders.

"J'Onn! Canary! Aquaman! Hold the line! Starman! Superman! Dr. Fate! Aim your powers at the Stalag Wall and let fly!

"The aliens may have taken the world, but we're taking it back!"

- and that's how Dinah finds herself one of the leaders of all the heroes in the world.