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

"Just us five?" Superman queried. "What about Aquaman? Plastic Man? Zauriel?"

The JLA had around two dozen members and affiliates, but at any one time more than half of them were likely to be involved in their own personal crimefighting endeavors. However, that wasn't why Batman hadn't called them in.

"Each of us seated here was involved in something last night," Gotham's Dark Knight answered. "I had Oracle program everything I knew into her computers. There's a ninety-eight percent chance–virtual certainty–that all of last night's activities were connected."

Once, Oracle had been plain Barbara Gordon, niece of the Gotham City police commissioner. Inspired by Batman, she adopted the guise of Batgirl to fight crime. But the Joker, on one of his psychotic sprees, had put an end to that, leaving Barbara crippled. Now wheelchair-bound, she could no longer physically battle against criminals. Instead, she had turned herself into a high-tech wizard, and her high-powered bank of sophisticated supercomputers lay at the heart of the League's abilities.

Fed by a network of orbiting satellites, Oracle's system specialized in trawling through trillions of bits of seemingly random information, searching for underlying patterns and connections. Patterns that would have remained unseen by any individual showed up with startling clarity when exposed to her lightning-fast number crunching.

A monitor screen stood at each occupied place around the table. At Batman's signal, they flared into life, streams of data running down their green-glowing screens.

"Appearance of a mysterious blue light. Three of us faced a human foe who was apparently possessed, while Wonder Woman dealt with a pack of reanimated corpses." Batman enumerated the points of similarity as they lit up on-screen. "Murder and destruction for no obvious reason. All encounters took place within a very limited time frame. Temporary engagement with a super hero, leading to the defeat and disappearance of the foe. Further inexplicable blue lights . . ."

"Your point is made, Batman," the Flash put in, "Can we cut to the bottom line? Has Oracle fingered any particular villain for this?"

"It sounds like one of our more powerful enemies,"

Wonder Woman mused. "Dr. Destiny, maybe? The strange manifestations fit with his power to induce dreams and nightmares."

"Or Brainiac?" Superman suggested. "He certainly has the mental powers to produce last night's effects."

Almost imperceptibly, Batman shook his head. "Not according to the computers. While individual events might point to particular supervillains, the overall pattern does not support that hypothesis."

"I'm sorry, but then, what hypothesis does it support?" Superman asked, slightly exasperated.

In reply, Batman nodded toward his own monitor, where the computer bank's conclusions were scrolling down the screen: Unknown enemy. Unknown power source. Unknown motivation, though testing is indicated.

"Testing?" Green Lantern frowned. "Testing what, exactly?"

"Us." Batman's tone seemed to drop even lower than normal. "Whatever our foe was, it targeted the five of us. Not precisely, of course, but every one of its manifestations occurred within a one-mile radius of our presence, as if they were designed to draw us out, engage us in conflict."

"Only to be defeated and disappear?" Superman was skeptical. "Not much of a test."

"That depends on what it wanted to learn," Batman continued, no trace of emotion in his voice. Although Batman had tremendous respect for Superman, it was tempered with caution. Unlike every other member of the League, Batman had no superpowers of any kind. Everything he knew, every skill he possessed, had been won through hard work and determination. It made him extremely wary when dealing with beings whose phenomenal powers were a gift, like Green Lantern, or a confluence of nature, like Superman.

But Batman had no hesitation in calling on their powers whenever it was necessary.

He turned to Green Lantern. "If all of last night's attacks were made by one central source, Oracle has been unable to locate it. Perhaps your ring might achieve more success?"

Under his mask, Green Lantern's eyes twinkled. Less than a year ago he had been an unknown, struggling artist. Now, he routinely rubbed shoulders with the greatest heroes on the planet. And his abilities were just as integral to the team's functioning as anyone else's.

Lantern rose to his feet, for a moment swaying under the Watchtower's artificial gravity, which was slightly less than that on Earth. He walked across to the huge electronic map of the planet that dominated one entire wall of the penthouse, and pointed his ring at it. The rest of the world disappeared in a twinkling of electronic lights, to be replaced by an expanded map of the United States.

A needle-thin beam of emerald light lanced from the ring, pointing in turn to each of the heroes' base cities: Gotham City, Metropolis, Keystone City, Boston, New York. A fine tracery of green appeared around each location, expanding and contracting as tendrils shot out seeking to establish connections.

Green Lantern shook his head in wonder, still awed by the power ring's abilities.

The others watched in silence as green lines quickly formed, joined up, split apart, and vanished again. Less than a minute later, a single image was frozen on the map. Lines joined each city to the others, with one finer line–barely noticeable compared with the others–leading back to a single location.

"According to the ring, we have our source." Lantern had turned his back on the map to face the others around the table. "Just outside Gotham City."

"Yes," Batman said emphatically. "It's the last place the five of us gathered together. Remember Gotham Dam?" He paused for a moment, ensuring that he had their attention. "If Lantern's ring is right–"

"And I've never known it to be wrong!" Green Lantern interrupted, grinning.

"The source of all last night's misfortunes is here," Batman finished, "in the stepped pyramid uncovered by the dam burst."

Dark clouds scudded across the night sky, blocking out the moon's light.

It was well after midnight, but the lights of the surveying teams working on the remains of the Gotham Dam still burned. The dam had provided water for most of western Gotham, and the electricity generated by its giant turbines brought heat and light to