miss maggie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bossymarmalade) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thejusticelounge2013-02-05 06:51 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2013-02-05 06:51 pm
war grave
The Government of Canada has a solitary person in their employ whose only job description is to travel the world, personally inspecting the condition of war grave sites of Canadian servicemen buried abroad, and arranging for their repair or upkeep. In his time, Matthew Baker had found burial grounds in every condition: from occupation by squatters to weeds growing out of control, from moss obscuring the markers to filth or garbage being dumped, and from minor lack of maintenance to outright desecration.
In all the 22 years Mr. Baker had been working at this unique job, never once did he have to inspect a Canadian war grave site in The Netherlands. Such was their respect and honour of the WWII soldiers who emancipated their country from the Nazis, that even during the worst droughts, the grass grew green and flowers bloomed atop graves whose headstones bore the maple leaf.
The bolt hit the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery from out of a cloudless sky, and within minutes, these servicemen who died on Dutch soil now walked it again, their uniforms still recognizable. Even many of their regimental identifiers were legible. Hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers and airmen of every rank crawled up out of the ground, and began to move towards the main entry gate.
“Captain Marvel, Speedy” the Martian Manhunter commanded into his League communicator. “I need you two to get on the ground in the Netherlands. Get me a situation report quickly. I will be there to assist as soon as I can.”
J’onn remembered the scene in Virginia - the flames, the scorched tombstones, the broken graves. He wanted to avoid a repeat of that destruction if he could. And he had an idea.
“Create a perimeter, but only engage if necessary!” he said. “Protect any civilians you see. And take care of each other. Martian Manhunter out.”
Flying through walls in the Watchtower, J’onn quickly made his way to the League’s trophy room.
Captain Marvel rendezvoused with Mia at the graveyard and let out a low whistle once he took to the air to assess the situation. Reports of the numbers they were dealing with had been grossly underestimated; this graveyard was the final resting place for over 2,000 servicemen, and at least one quarter of them had already crawled up out of their graves. “Holy, Moley…” he breathed in dismay.
Not engaging them would be tricky, while still slowing them down and preventing them from escaping into the nearby city. ”Speedy, do what you can to pick off any that get close! I need a few moments…”
With that, Marvel dug out a deep trench with his hands, about ten yards inside the main gate. He moved in a blur of red and white, back and forth, dirt flying out and piling up on the gate-side of the wide ditch. When he was done, the barricade was about eight feet deep and six wide. It would keep most of them at bay, for a short while, buying J’onn as much time as possible.
Mia appeared to be holding her own, having climbed atop the high ridge of dirt for a better vantage point. As the animated corpses tried to jump the gap, or try to claw their way out of the pit, some occasionally came close to making it, only to be knocked back or pinned down by Mia’s arrows. She was doing the Arrow family proud.
“This is Captain Marvel,” he called into his communicator, “We have approximately five or six hundred corpses on our hands here at Groesbeek. We’re containing them for now, but more are emerging and the trench I dug is…well, filling up,” he wrinkled his nose in disgust. It was true, the bodies were now crawling over one another, making it higher up the ridge, and Captain Marvel wished he’d made the trench deeper and wider to begin with. “Hurry, J’onn, I think I’m going to have to engage them soon!”
In theory and in movies and on tv and stuff Zombies were awesome. Mia had seen like most zombie movies and The Walking Dead was one of her favorite shows. But in real life they weren’t so cool. Because… these were real people. They were War Vets, from Canada (who had never really done anything wrong to anybody) and they didn’t deserve to have their grave desecrated like this. It was actually kind of sad.
But she nodded her head when Captain Marvel told her to keep them back if any got close to getting out. “Alright.”
And with that she was off to make sure she had a better view of things, so to higher ground she went and knocked an arrow watching carefully and really hoping they didn’t like… escape or anything. She shot a few that got close to the edge hoping they couldn’t get up from that. They struggled some but otherwise seemed pinned down, thankfully.
She watched as the dead-ish people tried to crawl out of the trench Captain Marvel had made gripping her bow tightly waiting for some to poke their heads up and try and get out. She shot one back as it almost climbed all the way out and grimaced. “I don’t have enough arrows to make sure these guys don’t keep trying to climb out of there…” That was probably unneeded obvious information. But… it was also true.
The Martian Manhunter zetaed onto the scene carrying a few items just behind Speedy’s position on the earthen mound. “You are doing good Mia!” he shouted to her over the loud moans and screams of the undead. “Just keep it up for a little while longer!” J’onn set down a strange metal suitcase behind her. “When I give you the signal, you need to fire this at the target I tell you! No questions, understood?”
He looked over at Captain Marvel. “Bil- I am sorry. Captain Marvel!” J’onn corrected himself. “I need you to gather these undead soldiers in as tight a place as possible! I read the files. What you did in Kansas, creating a strong vortex – can you do it again? Only this time, can you do it on a much larger scale?”
J’onn put his hand on Marvel’s shoulder and looked his teammate in his eyes. “Zauriel told me that these things are not what they appear to be! He said that there are evil spirits inhabiting these bodies! If I can draw them out, I can hold them with this!” The Martian reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out a Haboolm Ksinaalgat, a ‘soulcatcher’, on lend from Madame Xanadu. “But I will need them all as close together as possible!”
J’onn looked at both of his teammates. “This is a long shot and we will only get one chance at it” he said. “But this is no gamble. We are the Justice League. We are the best at what we do. We can not fail!”
After returning the direct gazes of both, J’onn J’onzz took to the sky holding the soul catcher in his hand. “Remember Mia! When I give you the signal, do not hesitate!” The Martian flew off in a flash, shouting back to his teammates, “Now Go!”
When asked if he could repeat the vortex trick he used on Etrigan, Marvel beamed a grin back at J’onn and gave him a salute, “Can do, Sir! I can run circles around those zombies!” He practically glowed with enthusiasm and team spirit when Martian Manhunter laid his hand on Marvel’s shoulder.
“I won’t let you down,” he nodded solemnly.
On J’onn’s cue, the Captain darted off in a big arc, making a wide circle around the possessed corpses, herding them closer to the centre. He had to be careful, touching any of them at these speeds would mutilate the body, likely turning the leathery, dessicated flesh of a limb into so much dust with the impact. The wind he was generating pushed them into a tight and tighter group, and as he shrank the circle he picked up speed.
Towards the end, he was having trouble compressing them any more. The edges of the trench were no long visible, filled with the dead, the only thing stopping them from simply walking up the dirt ridge was them being buffeted back by the wind caused by Marvel’s cutting through the air so quickly.
He had to focus, watch his footing; Cap had to leap the width of the trench, rum along the side of the embankment, leap across the trench from the opposite side, and run a tight arc around the back of the fallen servicemen all at top speed without a misstep or a stumble. It was far easier to think his message hard enough for J’onn to pick it up than it was to pull out his communicator and operate it without looking away from where he was going. “J’onn…J’ONN!! I can’t squish them any tighter! This is the best it will get!”
“Then it is time!” J’onn said as he flew over the vortex and centered himself above it. It was difficult for the Martian Manhunter to hold his position in the middle of Captain Marvel’s powerful storm, and he hoped he would not have to hold for long.
In all the 22 years Mr. Baker had been working at this unique job, never once did he have to inspect a Canadian war grave site in The Netherlands. Such was their respect and honour of the WWII soldiers who emancipated their country from the Nazis, that even during the worst droughts, the grass grew green and flowers bloomed atop graves whose headstones bore the maple leaf.
The bolt hit the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery from out of a cloudless sky, and within minutes, these servicemen who died on Dutch soil now walked it again, their uniforms still recognizable. Even many of their regimental identifiers were legible. Hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers and airmen of every rank crawled up out of the ground, and began to move towards the main entry gate.
“Captain Marvel, Speedy” the Martian Manhunter commanded into his League communicator. “I need you two to get on the ground in the Netherlands. Get me a situation report quickly. I will be there to assist as soon as I can.”
J’onn remembered the scene in Virginia - the flames, the scorched tombstones, the broken graves. He wanted to avoid a repeat of that destruction if he could. And he had an idea.
“Create a perimeter, but only engage if necessary!” he said. “Protect any civilians you see. And take care of each other. Martian Manhunter out.”
Flying through walls in the Watchtower, J’onn quickly made his way to the League’s trophy room.
Captain Marvel rendezvoused with Mia at the graveyard and let out a low whistle once he took to the air to assess the situation. Reports of the numbers they were dealing with had been grossly underestimated; this graveyard was the final resting place for over 2,000 servicemen, and at least one quarter of them had already crawled up out of their graves. “Holy, Moley…” he breathed in dismay.
Not engaging them would be tricky, while still slowing them down and preventing them from escaping into the nearby city. ”Speedy, do what you can to pick off any that get close! I need a few moments…”
With that, Marvel dug out a deep trench with his hands, about ten yards inside the main gate. He moved in a blur of red and white, back and forth, dirt flying out and piling up on the gate-side of the wide ditch. When he was done, the barricade was about eight feet deep and six wide. It would keep most of them at bay, for a short while, buying J’onn as much time as possible.
Mia appeared to be holding her own, having climbed atop the high ridge of dirt for a better vantage point. As the animated corpses tried to jump the gap, or try to claw their way out of the pit, some occasionally came close to making it, only to be knocked back or pinned down by Mia’s arrows. She was doing the Arrow family proud.
“This is Captain Marvel,” he called into his communicator, “We have approximately five or six hundred corpses on our hands here at Groesbeek. We’re containing them for now, but more are emerging and the trench I dug is…well, filling up,” he wrinkled his nose in disgust. It was true, the bodies were now crawling over one another, making it higher up the ridge, and Captain Marvel wished he’d made the trench deeper and wider to begin with. “Hurry, J’onn, I think I’m going to have to engage them soon!”
In theory and in movies and on tv and stuff Zombies were awesome. Mia had seen like most zombie movies and The Walking Dead was one of her favorite shows. But in real life they weren’t so cool. Because… these were real people. They were War Vets, from Canada (who had never really done anything wrong to anybody) and they didn’t deserve to have their grave desecrated like this. It was actually kind of sad.
But she nodded her head when Captain Marvel told her to keep them back if any got close to getting out. “Alright.”
And with that she was off to make sure she had a better view of things, so to higher ground she went and knocked an arrow watching carefully and really hoping they didn’t like… escape or anything. She shot a few that got close to the edge hoping they couldn’t get up from that. They struggled some but otherwise seemed pinned down, thankfully.
She watched as the dead-ish people tried to crawl out of the trench Captain Marvel had made gripping her bow tightly waiting for some to poke their heads up and try and get out. She shot one back as it almost climbed all the way out and grimaced. “I don’t have enough arrows to make sure these guys don’t keep trying to climb out of there…” That was probably unneeded obvious information. But… it was also true.
The Martian Manhunter zetaed onto the scene carrying a few items just behind Speedy’s position on the earthen mound. “You are doing good Mia!” he shouted to her over the loud moans and screams of the undead. “Just keep it up for a little while longer!” J’onn set down a strange metal suitcase behind her. “When I give you the signal, you need to fire this at the target I tell you! No questions, understood?”
He looked over at Captain Marvel. “Bil- I am sorry. Captain Marvel!” J’onn corrected himself. “I need you to gather these undead soldiers in as tight a place as possible! I read the files. What you did in Kansas, creating a strong vortex – can you do it again? Only this time, can you do it on a much larger scale?”
J’onn put his hand on Marvel’s shoulder and looked his teammate in his eyes. “Zauriel told me that these things are not what they appear to be! He said that there are evil spirits inhabiting these bodies! If I can draw them out, I can hold them with this!” The Martian reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out a Haboolm Ksinaalgat, a ‘soulcatcher’, on lend from Madame Xanadu. “But I will need them all as close together as possible!”
J’onn looked at both of his teammates. “This is a long shot and we will only get one chance at it” he said. “But this is no gamble. We are the Justice League. We are the best at what we do. We can not fail!”
After returning the direct gazes of both, J’onn J’onzz took to the sky holding the soul catcher in his hand. “Remember Mia! When I give you the signal, do not hesitate!” The Martian flew off in a flash, shouting back to his teammates, “Now Go!”
When asked if he could repeat the vortex trick he used on Etrigan, Marvel beamed a grin back at J’onn and gave him a salute, “Can do, Sir! I can run circles around those zombies!” He practically glowed with enthusiasm and team spirit when Martian Manhunter laid his hand on Marvel’s shoulder.
“I won’t let you down,” he nodded solemnly.
On J’onn’s cue, the Captain darted off in a big arc, making a wide circle around the possessed corpses, herding them closer to the centre. He had to be careful, touching any of them at these speeds would mutilate the body, likely turning the leathery, dessicated flesh of a limb into so much dust with the impact. The wind he was generating pushed them into a tight and tighter group, and as he shrank the circle he picked up speed.
Towards the end, he was having trouble compressing them any more. The edges of the trench were no long visible, filled with the dead, the only thing stopping them from simply walking up the dirt ridge was them being buffeted back by the wind caused by Marvel’s cutting through the air so quickly.
He had to focus, watch his footing; Cap had to leap the width of the trench, rum along the side of the embankment, leap across the trench from the opposite side, and run a tight arc around the back of the fallen servicemen all at top speed without a misstep or a stumble. It was far easier to think his message hard enough for J’onn to pick it up than it was to pull out his communicator and operate it without looking away from where he was going. “J’onn…J’ONN!! I can’t squish them any tighter! This is the best it will get!”
“Then it is time!” J’onn said as he flew over the vortex and centered himself above it. It was difficult for the Martian Manhunter to hold his position in the middle of Captain Marvel’s powerful storm, and he hoped he would not have to hold for long.
[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<speedy!>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]
The Government of Canada has a solitary person in their employ whose only job description is to travel the world, personally inspecting the condition of war grave sites of Canadian servicemen buried abroad, and arranging for their repair or upkeep. In his time, Matthew Baker had found burial grounds in every condition: from occupation by squatters to weeds growing out of control, from moss obscuring the markers to filth or garbage being dumped, and from minor lack of maintenance to outright desecration.
In all the 22 years Mr. Baker had been working at this unique job, never once did he have to inspect a Canadian war grave site in The Netherlands. Such was their respect and honour of the WWII soldiers who emancipated their country from the Nazis, that even during the worst droughts, the grass grew green and flowers bloomed atop graves whose headstones bore the maple leaf.
The bolt hit the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery from out of a cloudless sky, and within minutes, these servicemen who died on Dutch soil now walked it again, their uniforms still recognizable. Even many of their regimental identifiers were legible. Hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers and airmen of every rank crawled up out of the ground, and began to move towards the main entry gate.
<lj-cut text="do not go softly">
“Captain Marvel, Speedy” the Martian Manhunter commanded into his League communicator. “I need you two to get on the ground in the Netherlands. Get me a situation report quickly. I will be there to assist as soon as I can.”
J’onn remembered the scene in Virginia - the flames, the scorched tombstones, the broken graves. He wanted to avoid a repeat of that destruction if he could. And he had an idea.
“Create a perimeter, but only engage if necessary!” he said. “Protect any civilians you see. And take care of each other. Martian Manhunter out.”
Flying through walls in the Watchtower, J’onn quickly made his way to the League’s trophy room.
Captain Marvel rendezvoused with Mia at the graveyard and let out a low whistle once he took to the air to assess the situation. Reports of the numbers they were dealing with had been grossly underestimated; this graveyard was the final resting place for over 2,000 servicemen, and at least one quarter of them had already crawled up out of their graves. “Holy, Moley…” he breathed in dismay.
Not engaging them would be tricky, while still slowing them down and preventing them from escaping into the nearby city. ”Speedy, do what you can to pick off any that get close! I need a few moments…”
With that, Marvel dug out a deep trench with his hands, about ten yards inside the main gate. He moved in a blur of red and white, back and forth, dirt flying out and piling up on the gate-side of the wide ditch. When he was done, the barricade was about eight feet deep and six wide. It would keep most of them at bay, for a short while, buying J’onn as much time as possible.
Mia appeared to be holding her own, having climbed atop the high ridge of dirt for a better vantage point. As the animated corpses tried to jump the gap, or try to claw their way out of the pit, some occasionally came close to making it, only to be knocked back or pinned down by Mia’s arrows. She was doing the Arrow family proud.
“This is Captain Marvel,” he called into his communicator, “We have approximately five or six hundred corpses on our hands here at Groesbeek. We’re containing them for now, but more are emerging and the trench I dug is…well, filling up,” he wrinkled his nose in disgust. It was true, the bodies were now crawling over one another, making it higher up the ridge, and Captain Marvel wished he’d made the trench deeper and wider to begin with. “Hurry, J’onn, I think I’m going to have to engage them soon!”
In theory and in movies and on tv and stuff Zombies were awesome. Mia had seen like most zombie movies and The Walking Dead was one of her favorite shows. But in real life they weren’t so cool. Because… these were real people. They were War Vets, from Canada (who had never really done anything wrong to anybody) and they didn’t deserve to have their grave desecrated like this. It was actually kind of sad.
But she nodded her head when Captain Marvel told her to keep them back if any got close to getting out. “Alright.”
And with that she was off to make sure she had a better view of things, so to higher ground she went and knocked an arrow watching carefully and really hoping they didn’t like… escape or anything. She shot a few that got close to the edge hoping they couldn’t get up from that. They struggled some but otherwise seemed pinned down, thankfully.
She watched as the dead-ish people tried to crawl out of the trench Captain Marvel had made gripping her bow tightly waiting for some to poke their heads up and try and get out. She shot one back as it almost climbed all the way out and grimaced. “I don’t have enough arrows to make sure these guys don’t keep trying to climb out of there…” That was probably unneeded obvious information. But… it was also true.
The Martian Manhunter zetaed onto the scene carrying a few items just behind Speedy’s position on the earthen mound. “You are doing good Mia!” he shouted to her over the loud moans and screams of the undead. “Just keep it up for a little while longer!” J’onn set down a strange metal suitcase behind her. “When I give you the signal, you need to fire this at the target I tell you! No questions, understood?”
He looked over at Captain Marvel. “Bil- I am sorry. Captain Marvel!” J’onn corrected himself. “I need you to gather these undead soldiers in as tight a place as possible! I read the files. What you did in Kansas, creating a strong vortex – can you do it again? Only this time, can you do it on a much larger scale?”
J’onn put his hand on Marvel’s shoulder and looked his teammate in his eyes. “Zauriel told me that these things are not what they appear to be! He said that there are evil spirits inhabiting these bodies! If I can draw them out, I can hold them with this!” The Martian reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out a Haboolm Ksinaalgat, a ‘soulcatcher’, on lend from Madame Xanadu. “But I will need them all as close together as possible!”
J’onn looked at both of his teammates. “This is a long shot and we will only get one chance at it” he said. “But this is no gamble. We are the Justice League. We are the best at what we do. We can not fail!”
After returning the direct gazes of both, J’onn J’onzz took to the sky holding the soul catcher in his hand. “Remember Mia! When I give you the signal, do not hesitate!” The Martian flew off in a flash, shouting back to his teammates, “Now Go!”
When asked if he could repeat the vortex trick he used on Etrigan, Marvel beamed a grin back at J’onn and gave him a salute, “Can do, Sir! I can run circles around those zombies!” He practically glowed with enthusiasm and team spirit when Martian Manhunter laid his hand on Marvel’s shoulder.
“I won’t let you down,” he nodded solemnly.
On J’onn’s cue, the Captain darted off in a big arc, making a wide circle around the possessed corpses, herding them closer to the centre. He had to be careful, touching any of them at these speeds would mutilate the body, likely turning the leathery, dessicated flesh of a limb into so much dust with the impact. The wind he was generating pushed them into a tight and tighter group, and as he shrank the circle he picked up speed.
Towards the end, he was having trouble compressing them any more. The edges of the trench were no long visible, filled with the dead, the only thing stopping them from simply walking up the dirt ridge was them being buffeted back by the wind caused by Marvel’s cutting through the air so quickly.
He had to focus, watch his footing; Cap had to leap the width of the trench, rum along the side of the embankment, leap across the trench from the opposite side, and run a tight arc around the back of the fallen servicemen all at top speed without a misstep or a stumble. It was far easier to think his message hard enough for J’onn to pick it up than it was to pull out his communicator and operate it without looking away from where he was going. “J’onn…J’ONN!! I can’t squish them any tighter! This is the best it will get!”
“Then it is time!” J’onn said as he flew over the vortex and centered himself above it. It was difficult for the Martian Manhunter to hold his position in the middle of Captain Marvel’s powerful storm, and he hoped he would not have to hold for long.
<Speedy!> he shouted telepathically, <Open the case and be ready!> J’onn held aloft the soul catcher and shouted the words to the spell over the whirlwind. Then he placed the the piece of carved ursine bone on his forehead and absorbed it into his body just as it began to emit a bright white light. When became a part of him, the Martian himself began to emit the white light of the soul catcher.
On the ground the undead, pinned in by Marvel, all looked up at once. The light called to them, forced their attention upwards. Some tried to escape their snare, but the wind was too strong. Their resistance was futile. At first only one body went limp as a glowing red orb left it, rushing upwards to the Martian. It was soon joined by another, and another still. Finally whole groups of the undead were dropping and sending their red light up to J’onn. <Do not stop Billy!> J’onn commanded Captain Marvel telepathically. <You must not let any escape or they will spread their plague! Do not stop running under any circumstance!>
As each glowing orb rocketed to him, it was absorbed into the Martian’s body. One by one, the evil spirits reanimating the honored dead were becoming a part of J’onn J’onzz and the bodies below dropped to the hallowed ground able to return to their eternal and deserved rest.
The Martian Manhunter’s pure white light was shading pink, then red, then crimson. J’onn’s eyes took on a darkness and his skin went from green to maroon. The orbs continued to become a part of him and he absorbed each and every one of until his eyes were pools of blackness and his body was a shade of scarlet.
He telepathically sent explicit instructions to Oliver’s ward on the mound of dirt, then risked one last farewell to the streaking Captain. <Thank you Billy. You did good work here. I will always hold you in the highest regard. I will always treasure our friendship.>
“NOW MIA!” J’onn screamed above the vortex. ”DO IT NOW!”
Mia stood back on her slightly out of the way piece of higher ground and glanced down at the box that J’onn had sat next to her. She kept to her arrows though, while Captain Marvel created a vortex to make sure that none of the zombies, or whatever they were got out.
She lowered her bow and watched as he, and Martian Manhunter both did their part and then nodded her head when J’onn told her to open the box. The blonde tossed her bow to the ground because she didn’t exactly have time to neatly place it or something and grabbed the mysterious Ghost Busters box up. Well, she didn’t know what it was going to do but it seemed like it was going to be a Ghost Busters thing.
J’onn would suck out all the ghosts or whatever was possessing the corpses and then transfer it to the box. Easy.
As she opened the box she watched as J’onn changed colors and all the ghosts, or whatever they were she was just calling them ghosts for lack of a better word, were sucked up into whatever he had. She put her finger on the button to get ready when he gave her the order, but jerked her hand away when he told her exactly what she was supposed to do.
“You have got to be kidding me!” She didn’t think he’d be able to hear her or see the look on her face, but it was not a happy one. Why couldn’t he just throw the orb thingy into the Phantom Zone? Why did she have to be the one responsible for sending someone there, again by the way. She had once before used a Phantom Zone arrow that Roy had stolen from the Fortress of Solitude then gave to her, against Superboy Prime. But that was different! He was evil and he broke out like a second later.
She jumped when J’onn shouted at her to press the button. Her head whipped towards him and her hand balled into a fist as she debated what she should do. But… what would happen if she didn’t do what he asked her to do? Probably nothing good. “Fuck!” she shouted and slammed her hand down on the white button almost falling backwards with the force of it, as the box opened and started sucking the evil spirits that were now residing in J’onn, along with their new host body, up into it.
When it was over Mia threw the box onto the ground and took a giant step away from it holding her hands up, like she had just been caught touching something she shouldn’t have been. Oh shit. Oh god… What was supposed to happen now? She glanced up towards Captain Marvel and stepped towards the box again picking it up so he didn’t come down and grab it or something before she could… stop him?
Captain marvel had done exactly as he had been ordered, to the letter. <Do not stop running under any circumstances!> The world around him was a blur, but he had to keep up this speed. If he slowed down, the wind would die down enough to let a corpse stumble into his path, which would have unfortunate circumstances.
The blurred world seemed to change colour, and shadows melted away as a bright white light burst through above him. It had to be J’onn. Whatever he had planned, it must be working. There were lights going upwards now: souls going into the Soulcatcher, he reasoned.
Parts of the group of soldiers seemed to be hunkering down, until he realized his eyes were tricking him; the bodies were falling down, or slumping over one another, as the demon souls were leaving them. “It’s working!” he cheered as the light turned a deeper red. He could sense the magic above him growing more and more powerful, and the majority of the soldiers around the perimeter had now fallen, unmoving. It allowed him an opportunity to risk a glance up to see J’onn, and give him a grin.
Something wasn’t right. The Martian wasn’t green anymore, he was deep red. His eyes…he looked to be himself demonic. The soulcatcher was nowhere to be seen; J’onn had become the soulcatcher. To his alarm, Captain Marvel realized all this time the demon souls had been entering J’onn, changing him in such frightful ways.
<Thank you Billy. You did good work here. I will always hold you in the highest regard. I will always treasure our friendship.>
Wait. Why such a sentiment of finality? What was going on? J’onn was talking in Billy’s mind, but he sounded like he was going to- J’onn, no!
He realized it only too late, and tried to skid to a stop, but the artificial tornado he had been powering kept spinning of its own accord. “NOW MIA!” J’onn screamed above the vortex. ”DO IT NOW!”
The girl hit the button, and doomed Martian Manhunter to his fate. Captain Marvel…no, Billy, he was Billy and he would remember the horror of this moment, watched as J’onn vanished, along with his lingering presence in Billy’s mind. He rushed toward Mia as she picked up the box, his mouth agape, and mirroring the look on her face. “What have we done?” he heard himself asking her.
Mia was saying something, but is was only half-registering in the boy’s adult ears. It was far too late to answer him now, but he did anyway. “I’ll treasure it too, J’onn, Always. I’m so sorry…”
In all the 22 years Mr. Baker had been working at this unique job, never once did he have to inspect a Canadian war grave site in The Netherlands. Such was their respect and honour of the WWII soldiers who emancipated their country from the Nazis, that even during the worst droughts, the grass grew green and flowers bloomed atop graves whose headstones bore the maple leaf.
The bolt hit the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery from out of a cloudless sky, and within minutes, these servicemen who died on Dutch soil now walked it again, their uniforms still recognizable. Even many of their regimental identifiers were legible. Hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers and airmen of every rank crawled up out of the ground, and began to move towards the main entry gate.
<lj-cut text="do not go softly">
“Captain Marvel, Speedy” the Martian Manhunter commanded into his League communicator. “I need you two to get on the ground in the Netherlands. Get me a situation report quickly. I will be there to assist as soon as I can.”
J’onn remembered the scene in Virginia - the flames, the scorched tombstones, the broken graves. He wanted to avoid a repeat of that destruction if he could. And he had an idea.
“Create a perimeter, but only engage if necessary!” he said. “Protect any civilians you see. And take care of each other. Martian Manhunter out.”
Flying through walls in the Watchtower, J’onn quickly made his way to the League’s trophy room.
Captain Marvel rendezvoused with Mia at the graveyard and let out a low whistle once he took to the air to assess the situation. Reports of the numbers they were dealing with had been grossly underestimated; this graveyard was the final resting place for over 2,000 servicemen, and at least one quarter of them had already crawled up out of their graves. “Holy, Moley…” he breathed in dismay.
Not engaging them would be tricky, while still slowing them down and preventing them from escaping into the nearby city. ”Speedy, do what you can to pick off any that get close! I need a few moments…”
With that, Marvel dug out a deep trench with his hands, about ten yards inside the main gate. He moved in a blur of red and white, back and forth, dirt flying out and piling up on the gate-side of the wide ditch. When he was done, the barricade was about eight feet deep and six wide. It would keep most of them at bay, for a short while, buying J’onn as much time as possible.
Mia appeared to be holding her own, having climbed atop the high ridge of dirt for a better vantage point. As the animated corpses tried to jump the gap, or try to claw their way out of the pit, some occasionally came close to making it, only to be knocked back or pinned down by Mia’s arrows. She was doing the Arrow family proud.
“This is Captain Marvel,” he called into his communicator, “We have approximately five or six hundred corpses on our hands here at Groesbeek. We’re containing them for now, but more are emerging and the trench I dug is…well, filling up,” he wrinkled his nose in disgust. It was true, the bodies were now crawling over one another, making it higher up the ridge, and Captain Marvel wished he’d made the trench deeper and wider to begin with. “Hurry, J’onn, I think I’m going to have to engage them soon!”
In theory and in movies and on tv and stuff Zombies were awesome. Mia had seen like most zombie movies and The Walking Dead was one of her favorite shows. But in real life they weren’t so cool. Because… these were real people. They were War Vets, from Canada (who had never really done anything wrong to anybody) and they didn’t deserve to have their grave desecrated like this. It was actually kind of sad.
But she nodded her head when Captain Marvel told her to keep them back if any got close to getting out. “Alright.”
And with that she was off to make sure she had a better view of things, so to higher ground she went and knocked an arrow watching carefully and really hoping they didn’t like… escape or anything. She shot a few that got close to the edge hoping they couldn’t get up from that. They struggled some but otherwise seemed pinned down, thankfully.
She watched as the dead-ish people tried to crawl out of the trench Captain Marvel had made gripping her bow tightly waiting for some to poke their heads up and try and get out. She shot one back as it almost climbed all the way out and grimaced. “I don’t have enough arrows to make sure these guys don’t keep trying to climb out of there…” That was probably unneeded obvious information. But… it was also true.
The Martian Manhunter zetaed onto the scene carrying a few items just behind Speedy’s position on the earthen mound. “You are doing good Mia!” he shouted to her over the loud moans and screams of the undead. “Just keep it up for a little while longer!” J’onn set down a strange metal suitcase behind her. “When I give you the signal, you need to fire this at the target I tell you! No questions, understood?”
He looked over at Captain Marvel. “Bil- I am sorry. Captain Marvel!” J’onn corrected himself. “I need you to gather these undead soldiers in as tight a place as possible! I read the files. What you did in Kansas, creating a strong vortex – can you do it again? Only this time, can you do it on a much larger scale?”
J’onn put his hand on Marvel’s shoulder and looked his teammate in his eyes. “Zauriel told me that these things are not what they appear to be! He said that there are evil spirits inhabiting these bodies! If I can draw them out, I can hold them with this!” The Martian reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out a Haboolm Ksinaalgat, a ‘soulcatcher’, on lend from Madame Xanadu. “But I will need them all as close together as possible!”
J’onn looked at both of his teammates. “This is a long shot and we will only get one chance at it” he said. “But this is no gamble. We are the Justice League. We are the best at what we do. We can not fail!”
After returning the direct gazes of both, J’onn J’onzz took to the sky holding the soul catcher in his hand. “Remember Mia! When I give you the signal, do not hesitate!” The Martian flew off in a flash, shouting back to his teammates, “Now Go!”
When asked if he could repeat the vortex trick he used on Etrigan, Marvel beamed a grin back at J’onn and gave him a salute, “Can do, Sir! I can run circles around those zombies!” He practically glowed with enthusiasm and team spirit when Martian Manhunter laid his hand on Marvel’s shoulder.
“I won’t let you down,” he nodded solemnly.
On J’onn’s cue, the Captain darted off in a big arc, making a wide circle around the possessed corpses, herding them closer to the centre. He had to be careful, touching any of them at these speeds would mutilate the body, likely turning the leathery, dessicated flesh of a limb into so much dust with the impact. The wind he was generating pushed them into a tight and tighter group, and as he shrank the circle he picked up speed.
Towards the end, he was having trouble compressing them any more. The edges of the trench were no long visible, filled with the dead, the only thing stopping them from simply walking up the dirt ridge was them being buffeted back by the wind caused by Marvel’s cutting through the air so quickly.
He had to focus, watch his footing; Cap had to leap the width of the trench, rum along the side of the embankment, leap across the trench from the opposite side, and run a tight arc around the back of the fallen servicemen all at top speed without a misstep or a stumble. It was far easier to think his message hard enough for J’onn to pick it up than it was to pull out his communicator and operate it without looking away from where he was going. “J’onn…J’ONN!! I can’t squish them any tighter! This is the best it will get!”
“Then it is time!” J’onn said as he flew over the vortex and centered himself above it. It was difficult for the Martian Manhunter to hold his position in the middle of Captain Marvel’s powerful storm, and he hoped he would not have to hold for long.
<Speedy!> he shouted telepathically, <Open the case and be ready!> J’onn held aloft the soul catcher and shouted the words to the spell over the whirlwind. Then he placed the the piece of carved ursine bone on his forehead and absorbed it into his body just as it began to emit a bright white light. When became a part of him, the Martian himself began to emit the white light of the soul catcher.
On the ground the undead, pinned in by Marvel, all looked up at once. The light called to them, forced their attention upwards. Some tried to escape their snare, but the wind was too strong. Their resistance was futile. At first only one body went limp as a glowing red orb left it, rushing upwards to the Martian. It was soon joined by another, and another still. Finally whole groups of the undead were dropping and sending their red light up to J’onn. <Do not stop Billy!> J’onn commanded Captain Marvel telepathically. <You must not let any escape or they will spread their plague! Do not stop running under any circumstance!>
As each glowing orb rocketed to him, it was absorbed into the Martian’s body. One by one, the evil spirits reanimating the honored dead were becoming a part of J’onn J’onzz and the bodies below dropped to the hallowed ground able to return to their eternal and deserved rest.
The Martian Manhunter’s pure white light was shading pink, then red, then crimson. J’onn’s eyes took on a darkness and his skin went from green to maroon. The orbs continued to become a part of him and he absorbed each and every one of until his eyes were pools of blackness and his body was a shade of scarlet.
He telepathically sent explicit instructions to Oliver’s ward on the mound of dirt, then risked one last farewell to the streaking Captain. <Thank you Billy. You did good work here. I will always hold you in the highest regard. I will always treasure our friendship.>
“NOW MIA!” J’onn screamed above the vortex. ”DO IT NOW!”
Mia stood back on her slightly out of the way piece of higher ground and glanced down at the box that J’onn had sat next to her. She kept to her arrows though, while Captain Marvel created a vortex to make sure that none of the zombies, or whatever they were got out.
She lowered her bow and watched as he, and Martian Manhunter both did their part and then nodded her head when J’onn told her to open the box. The blonde tossed her bow to the ground because she didn’t exactly have time to neatly place it or something and grabbed the mysterious Ghost Busters box up. Well, she didn’t know what it was going to do but it seemed like it was going to be a Ghost Busters thing.
J’onn would suck out all the ghosts or whatever was possessing the corpses and then transfer it to the box. Easy.
As she opened the box she watched as J’onn changed colors and all the ghosts, or whatever they were she was just calling them ghosts for lack of a better word, were sucked up into whatever he had. She put her finger on the button to get ready when he gave her the order, but jerked her hand away when he told her exactly what she was supposed to do.
“You have got to be kidding me!” She didn’t think he’d be able to hear her or see the look on her face, but it was not a happy one. Why couldn’t he just throw the orb thingy into the Phantom Zone? Why did she have to be the one responsible for sending someone there, again by the way. She had once before used a Phantom Zone arrow that Roy had stolen from the Fortress of Solitude then gave to her, against Superboy Prime. But that was different! He was evil and he broke out like a second later.
She jumped when J’onn shouted at her to press the button. Her head whipped towards him and her hand balled into a fist as she debated what she should do. But… what would happen if she didn’t do what he asked her to do? Probably nothing good. “Fuck!” she shouted and slammed her hand down on the white button almost falling backwards with the force of it, as the box opened and started sucking the evil spirits that were now residing in J’onn, along with their new host body, up into it.
When it was over Mia threw the box onto the ground and took a giant step away from it holding her hands up, like she had just been caught touching something she shouldn’t have been. Oh shit. Oh god… What was supposed to happen now? She glanced up towards Captain Marvel and stepped towards the box again picking it up so he didn’t come down and grab it or something before she could… stop him?
Captain marvel had done exactly as he had been ordered, to the letter. <Do not stop running under any circumstances!> The world around him was a blur, but he had to keep up this speed. If he slowed down, the wind would die down enough to let a corpse stumble into his path, which would have unfortunate circumstances.
The blurred world seemed to change colour, and shadows melted away as a bright white light burst through above him. It had to be J’onn. Whatever he had planned, it must be working. There were lights going upwards now: souls going into the Soulcatcher, he reasoned.
Parts of the group of soldiers seemed to be hunkering down, until he realized his eyes were tricking him; the bodies were falling down, or slumping over one another, as the demon souls were leaving them. “It’s working!” he cheered as the light turned a deeper red. He could sense the magic above him growing more and more powerful, and the majority of the soldiers around the perimeter had now fallen, unmoving. It allowed him an opportunity to risk a glance up to see J’onn, and give him a grin.
Something wasn’t right. The Martian wasn’t green anymore, he was deep red. His eyes…he looked to be himself demonic. The soulcatcher was nowhere to be seen; J’onn had become the soulcatcher. To his alarm, Captain Marvel realized all this time the demon souls had been entering J’onn, changing him in such frightful ways.
<Thank you Billy. You did good work here. I will always hold you in the highest regard. I will always treasure our friendship.>
Wait. Why such a sentiment of finality? What was going on? J’onn was talking in Billy’s mind, but he sounded like he was going to- J’onn, no!
He realized it only too late, and tried to skid to a stop, but the artificial tornado he had been powering kept spinning of its own accord. “NOW MIA!” J’onn screamed above the vortex. ”DO IT NOW!”
The girl hit the button, and doomed Martian Manhunter to his fate. Captain Marvel…no, Billy, he was Billy and he would remember the horror of this moment, watched as J’onn vanished, along with his lingering presence in Billy’s mind. He rushed toward Mia as she picked up the box, his mouth agape, and mirroring the look on her face. “What have we done?” he heard himself asking her.
Mia was saying something, but is was only half-registering in the boy’s adult ears. It was far too late to answer him now, but he did anyway. “I’ll treasure it too, J’onn, Always. I’m so sorry…”