Justice League of America - Batman: The Stone King by Alan Grant (best english novels to read .txt) 📗

Anneka felt another frisson of fear. Gazing up at the rends in the dam, she could almost feel the relentless pressure of countless tons of water that was fighting to escape its confinement.

She switched her mike back on. "From above," she began, "the debris that the torrents are tearing free looked small and insignificant. From this vantage point, however, we can see chunks of concrete the size of cars! I'm no engineer, but I really don't see any way the dam can hold much longer."

Somewhere above them the water tore a new hole in the dam face, sending out a gusher that reached almost to the hovering chopper before it fell away. Lumps of concrete and infill clattered off the fuselage.

"Goin' up," Chuck Gaines mouthed, pointing upward with one forefinger. Twenty-five years as a pilot had thrown him into a whole host of dangerous situations, from blizzards to ice storms to rescues at sea. A bursting dam was a new one for him–and not one he chose to stay close to for too long. The helicopter started to rise.

Fifty feet above, a section of dam the size of an SUV erupted under the force of the water behind. A fountain of broiling, muddy water shot out with all the power of a huge geyser. Almost instantly, the chopper was assailed by cascading water and concrete blocks. It pitched wildly from side to side as Chuck Gaines struggled for control, throwing Anneka and Les violently around the interior.

The cameraman's head hit an area of unpadded air-frame, and he blanked out immediately. Anneka screamed, clinging onto her safety strap so tightly her knuckles were white.

"I can't hold her!" Chuck cried out, his voice barely audible over the chaos of the water. "Hang on! I'll try–"

He never finished the sentence. A rain of concrete chunks thudded into them from above. The windshield shattered, and there was a loud metallic shriek as one of the rotors snapped under the bombardment. The chopper pitched forward and started to plunge toward the growing maelstrom below.

Buffeted by the water pouring in, hardly able to breathe, Anneka Marram struggled in vain to undo the catch on the chopper door. The acrid smell of shorting electrical wiring stung her nostrils. Silently, she kissed her big break farewell. A hundred million people might well see her on the evening news that night, but it would be as a statistic on a long list of fatalities.

Abruptly, her panic ebbed away, and a strange sense of calm suffused her. Almost matter-of-factly, she contemplated her impending death.

But what, she wondered, was that red and blue blur streaking through the air?

Powering through the skies at more than a hundred miles an hour, Superman saw a flash as the setting sun reflected off the helicopter's fuselage. Instantly, his telescopic vision zoomed in on the plunging craft, revealing the three people inside.

Shifting the direction of his flight, he increased his speed until he was bulleting down toward the foot of the dam face. A two-hundred-pound concrete block struck him on the back, the debris splintering as it ricocheted off his near-invulnerable body.

At the last second Superman checked his forward motion, angling his body upward so he was directly under the tumbling helicopter. Ignoring the water and rubble that poured down around him, he reached up with both hands and braced himself to take the doomed chopper's weight.

Superman has the helicopter. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, watched from the riverbank as he relayed the telepathic message directly to the minds of the other Justice League members who were present. Telepathy was part of his Martian birthright, and now Manhunter used his amazing mental ability to coordinate and keep the team in touch while in action. He's carrying it to safety now.

The Justice League–the elite team of the Earth's mightiest super heroes–had been formed with the protection of the planet in mind. They sprang into action like a well-oiled machine whenever any disaster or superhuman villain was too much for one hero to handle alone.

Six of them had been in the Watchtower, their lunar headquarters, when the crisis broke. A message from the mysterious Oracle, who ran their vast computer network from her HQ in Gotham City, had filled their monitor screens. They hadn't needed Batman, Gotham's grim guardian, to urge them to teleport to the scene at once.

Now, perched atop a rocky crag overlooking the entire dam front, silhouetted against the September sky like some twilight demon, Batman took control.

He didn't particularly like using the telepathic link Manhunter established between the team members. A lifelong loner, Batman preferred to act with only one voice in his head: his own. But even he had to admit that the facility often came in useful.

Complete collapse could come at any second. Green Lantern, use your power ring to keep the dam standing. The thoughts blasted from Batman's mind with the speed and accuracy of bullets. Manhunter, get those people on the dam edge to safety. Flash, go down the valley. Use your superspeed and warn everyone you can.

Flash and Manhunter didn't pause to speak. One took to the air, the other started running, and both veered away to accomplish their tasks.

Protected by the force field generated by his power ring, Green Lantern hovered before the dam. With every second that passed, more of the concrete was disintegrating, allowing a deluge of water to escape. Lantern's right arm extended, the ring on his middle finger suddenly flaring bright green as he focused his willpower through it.

Instantaneously, a thin green beam emanated from the center of the ring, widening dramatically as it traveled toward the collapsing dam. It grew until it covered the entire dam face, shutting off the water spouts, holding back the collapsing concrete like a wall of shimmering, impenetrable green energy.

Green Lantern smiled wryly to himself. The ring had been the gift of an alien, the very last Guardian of the Universe. Kyle Rayner had never wanted to