Chapter 28

Batman, Superwoman, Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter all had been led forward by the Kree guards to face the Supreme Intelligence. The Kree guards looked very pleased with their position and the fact all seemed to be lost.

"Enjoy your last few breaths while you can," the guard said.

"It's not over yet," Claire said.

"Yes, we're not going to get a fair trial,' Shayera said. "Surely, even you've figured that one out?"

Claire did, but she wanted to be optimistic.

"But, regardless of the outcome, we'll get one step closer," Batman said.

"Yes, I can sense...power and mental manipulation," J'onn said. "The closer we draw to it, the more the Kree's minds become one. It rules them over."

"Justice League, welcome."

The droning voice of the Supreme Intelligence echoed throughout the room. The members of the League Six all waited for the other shoe to drop. None of them felt particularly welcome at this point and potentially for a very good reason. A chill erupted through their bodies.

"You have been charged with heinous war crimes. We will show and demonstrate the evidence, and then each of you will be allowed to give your statements. I will weigh the value and then render judgment. Is that clear?"

All of the League members nodded. The Kree guard closest to them smiled.

"Merely a formality," the Kree said his guard.

Claire supposed she had been a bit too comfortable with the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Something which the Kree obviously did not hold near and dear to their hearts, as Claire did to hers. Something most certainly was not right, and Claire's heart stammered another couple of beats forward.

"Prepare your statements and I will begin your sentencing."

The wording sounded very bad. Extremely bad as well.

A brutal three way fight took place. The Terror Twins swatted in the air as Bumblebee blasted them hard with several impact shots. She stung them.

The massive Mammoth rushed Wondergirl. Wondergirl dodged Mammoth. Oh, he was strong, but so was she. And she was not completely smart all together. Cassie jumped over the top of Mammoth's head and brought the point of the elbow down onto the man's skull.

A brief battle between Shimmer and Robin ended with Robin snapping Shimmer back and sending her crashing into the side of the vehicle. Right before, Grail grabbed her and threw her off to the side.

Grail tangled with Wondergirl and brought her down with a couple of punches. Wondergirl realized this won was not the mindless bruiser that Mammoth was. Grail grabbed Wondergirl and hurled her into the side of the vehicle and punched her.

A tank rolled in and the various members of the Kasnian military turned up. Icicle abandoned his attempts to freeze Impulse in her tracks.

Blue Beetle blasted at Grail who did a duck and roll. The battle took place as Blue Beetle made an honest attempt to get to Grail.

'Focus on those troops coming over,' scarab suggested. 'They have a high end arsenal weapon. I would suggest something which packs much more of a punch.'

The photon cannon blasted the tank and caused it to explode in the countryside. The troops escaped, just barely with their life. They had to deal with the ground troops.

Arsenal and Ronin both had the same idea and rapid fire shot arrows at them. The two archers abandoned every fight.

"ATTACK!' Kitten yelled. "Defend us from the Patriarchy!"

An army of moth creatures descended upon the military. For about three seconds, until one of them threw a grenade in the air which vaporized the moth creatures where they hovered. Kitten gave a loud scream until Bumblebee knocked her face first onto the ground.

"You have issues," Bumblebee said.

The White Canary arrived to back up the team. She feared something like this would happen, although a Counter-Team was more dangerous. Out of the corner of her eye, Sara caught sight of Impulse running circles around the area and she planted her feet firmly against the back of the head of Grail. Grail came up and caught her in mid run but Impulse vibrated through the ground.

A Canary Cry cut a path to the train car. Sara stepped inside. Her intelligence said that General Miroslav Rusev, was running this operation. Sure enough, the good general and a few of his good men waited for her. Sara wiped them out quickly with a Canary Cry.

For a brief second, Sara caught sight of Amanda Spence. The woman who they thought perished at Cadmus Labs. She would have to make a note to tell Harry about this.

Suddenly, before Sara could follow Spence down the train, a pair of feet struck Sara in the ribs. The Taskmaster stood up over Sara.

"Playtime's over." Taskmaster said.

Sara rose up and withdrew her staff. The two fighters circled each other. Taskmaster blocked the pivoting swing and struck Sara with all of his might. She dodged another attack. White Canary and Taskmaster went hand to hand, with Sara fully aware of the Taskmaster's ability to learn from his enemy's moves, so she would wrap it up.

"You look like you could use some fresh air."

It took some doing and some careful reconstruction. Harry, Carol, Karen, and Jessica saw the proof. The proof that several Kree figures met with Vandal Savage and Klarion and they had a discussion. And the results of the discussion caused the Kree to drop the barriers and bring in the mind controlled members of the Justice League.

"I can't believe the Kree would do this," Karen said. "This is a new low, even for them."

"But, this is proof that this was a set up," Carol said. "And proof that the League was brought here and mind controlled by Savage and Klarion. We can bring this to the attention of the right people and get the League off."

"I just hope we're not too late."

"Oh, trust me, you're much too late."

Harry whipped around. Several members of the Kree guards arrived and one might get the impression they were not too happy to see any humans hanging around their outpost.

"So, it's the traitor," one of the Kree said.

"Ronan, you have a very interesting interpretation of traitor," Carol said. "For someone who the Kree tried to use and brain wash for their own purposes."

"We have evidence that….."

Ronan withdrew a large hammer and swung it in Harry's direction. Harry dodged it, and jumped up into the air to strike Ronan and bring him down. The other Kree, who did not have any inclination to talk now, fired.

"Four more to be brought to the Supreme Intelligence," Ronan said. "Maybe this would be probable cause to destroy the Earth of the rest of the Galaxy."

Jessica created a large wrecking ball with her green ring and bowled the Kree over. They should have known that the Kree would not listen to reason. After all, if they collaborated with Savage and Klarion on a plan, they might not be inclined to let this evidence get out of there.

The Green Lantern teamed up with Superman, Power Girl, and Captain Marvel to battle with the Kree and things were going to be fierce.

Impulse made her way to the train car. She disabled security and prepared to open up the prison card. Only to feel something drop her to her knees.

'M'comm,' she groaned.

'My name is Ma'alefa'ak!' he growled.

'Do you realize how on the nose that name is, given that….'

'SILENCE!'

Impulse found herself dropped down to the ground and shaking like mad. She never had a headache. The pressure M'comm put on her brain made it difficult to control her powers and she would vibrate to the center of the Earth.

"Stick with the mission."

Ronin appeared and M'comm pulled back. Impulse bled from the nose and shivered on the ground. She would have to recover.

"They're coming."

Arsenal, Robin, and Bumblebee made it onto the train. M'comm turned around and his eyes glowed.

"No!"

Arsenal refused to let anyone into her mind after all she had been through.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

The sheer rage forced M'comm back. The crystal, stuck into his mind, flared up and caused a stabbing mail. Arsenal turned her arm and fired a hot ball of fire. The Martian showed real fear for the first time and he had to dodge the fireball. A second explosive attack sent M'comm firing out.

Bumblebee and Robin rubbed the sides of their heads. They appreciated how gentle M'gann was compared to the battering ram M'comm delivered when trying to access their minds.

Ronin fired at Arsenal and one of the arrows clipped her on the side of the cybernetic arm. It caused an explosion to rock her back.

Arsenal fired an arrow at Ronin and the two ricoheted off of each other. The two archers circled each other, evenly matched throughout the fight.

The mask ripped off and Arsenal paused. She saw this mysterious archer was a girl, almost as young as she was when she had been kidnapped by Luthor and of Asian descent. Ronin took care of her momentary pause to fire an arrow which caused the train car to be filled with smoke.

"Let's see what's so important," Bumblebee said.

The prison train car opened and Bumblebee, Robin, and Arsenal all had been so distracted by Aresia, the rogue Amazon, being revealed in a stasis chamber in the prison car, they did not know that Nora slipped off into the night.

The battle continued with Taskmaster blocking all of White Canary's moves. Every time, Sara thought she had a counter to him, Taskmaster countered that counter and grabbed her around the head before forcing her down onto the ground. Taskmaster just smiled and pinned Sara's own staff underneath her chin while clasping a hand to her mouth.

"The material in this glove will stifle your little Canary cry," Taskmaster said. "I have to say, I'm very disappointed. I went against the original Black Canary and the new one and you my dear Canary, are just a pale copy."

Sara elbowed her way free. Taskmaster swung the staff and dropped her down onto the ground. He was about ready to finish things off.

Suddenly a blurred figure circled around Taskmaster and got the drop on him. The series of impressive punches rocked Taskmaster and sent him down to the ground. She stomped onto the back of his head and put the Taskmaster's lights out.

Impulse appeared and offered Sara's a hand to help her up.

"I had him," Sara murmured.

"I know," Impulse said. "But, I was too quick for him to see."

And suddenly, Taskmaster scurried away. Not knocked out as Impulse would have liked. But, he would be back and they had far bigger problems.

"Aresia is on the train."

"Aresia?" Sara asked. "You mean the Amazon? The one that created the virus which wiped out half of men and prevented any men from being born in the past several years. That Aresia?"

"Yeah her, but she's not working with the Kasnians or anything, she's...she's a prisoner," Aresia said.

"Spence," Sara muttered. "She wants the virus. And she can engineer it to wipe out anything she wants. Harry mentioned how she hated aliens, thanks to her work at Cadmus. And she could wipe out anyone who is not completely human."

"Yes, and it will have serious effects!" Impulse yelled. "We have to get Aresia out of here and someplace safe. We can't let the Light or Spence get her."

"Relax, kid, we're on it," Sara said. "Alright team, listen up, this is a rescue mission now."

Ronan refused to break. Despite Superman matching him move from move. His hammer had been dropped to the ground and The Man of Steel pummeled Ronan with several punches.

"I will stand here proud and will not fold."

Harry snapped Ronan's legs out from underneath him with a violent attack. The Kree accuser fell to the ground, parlayzed. The other Kree feel the same way. Captain Marvel, Power Girl, and Green Lantern stood over them and waited for it to happen. Ronan's eyes flew into the direction of the hero in front of them.

"Kill me, just like the rest of the League did to the colonists who lived here," Ronan said.

"On a planet which you conquered and wiped out in the first place," Carol said.

Ronan ignored her. Harry walked over and pulled one of the crystals out.

"What I have in store for you, is a fate worse than death for you," Harry said. "I'm going to make you face the true villains in this. Not the Justice League, but the Kree themselves."

"You dare blame us, as the victims?"

"You're not victims."

Coldly, Harry pressed the crystal onto Ronan's head and a searing pain erupted from the Kree's head. Ronan saw everything, every moment. Those two men from Earth meeting with the Kree, with Kasius and then the shields coming down so the Justice League could come in and relentlessly destroy their people. Each Kree murder occured because the doors had been opened.

"No," Ronan yelled.

The crystal played the images for all of the Krees and forced them all to bare witnesses. It was like suffering a death by a thousand cuts.

"See what you've done."

"I had...nothing to do with this," Ronan said. "This was not authorized by anyone. This was a rogue operation. The League...are not the guilty party."

Harry could tell it pained Ronan to say this. The truth hurt many.

"Those who did so, will suffer," Ronan said.

"Which means, you're taking us to the Supreme Intelligence for a chat," Carol said.

"If you insist," Ronan said. "Come with us, traitor."

Ronan regained his bearings and rose to his feet. Despite having the evidence, Harry had a dark and disturbing feeling they were not completely out of the woods.