Justice League:
Infestation
Scene: The Watchtower. The room is dimly lit. Gambit and Rogue are making out on the chair in front of the monitor. Green Lantern enters the room and turns on the lights.
Green Lantern:
Jeeze!
He covers his eyes.
Little warning?
Gambit and Rogue stand up embarrassed.
Rogue:
Uh… sorry ‘bout that GL. This is Gambit. Gambit, GL.
Gambit crosses the room to Green Lantern.
Gambit:
The Green Lantern?
He shakes his hand.
I must say it’s truly an honor! You’ve done so much for the world, Monsieur.
Kyle smiles.
Though you’re not what I expected.
Green Lantern:
Come again?
Gambit:
Maybe it’s just de contrast on my TV, but you look… well…
Green Lantern:
His smile fading:
You’re thinking of John Stewart.
Gambit:
Ah… Well it’s still good meetin’ ya.
Green Lantern:
Coldly:
Likewise.
Gambit:
Kisses Rogue:
I’d best be off, Chere. Catch you later.
Rogue puts a few keystrokes into the computer and the teleporter reads “General Access: Xavier Institute.”
Rogue:
Later, Sugah.
He blows her a kiss as he teleports away. GL rolls his eyes.
Rogue:
Sorry ‘bout the PDA, Kyle.
Green Lantern:
No, it’s cool. I understand your zeal to use the new power dampener. You’re just lucky I wasn’t Batman. He’d have flipped his cowl if he caught lover-boy here in the Watchtower.
Rogue:
Don’t I know it.
She sighs.
I’ve never been so happy, Kyle. I’m on cloud nine.
Green Lantern:
Wish I could join you…
Rogue:
Oh come now, a good lookin’ guy like yourself, power ring, a whole universe to explore and you tell me you’re comin’ up short?
Green Lantern:
I’ve been busy. It’s tough to get by as a freelance artist. I’m trying to get my teaching certificate but super villains keep getting in the way. You know how it is.
Suddenly the room starts changing.
Rogue:
What the?!
Green Lantern:
Relax. It’s the Guardians. They must be briefing me on something. For some reason you’re getting caught up in the psychic projection.
The main room at Oa appears and a council of Guardians surrounds them.
Rogue:
Points to her head:
Probably the traces of your psyche I’ve got floatin’ around up here.
Guardian 1:
Greetings Green Lantern of Sector 2814.
Green Lantern:
What’s up?
Guardian 2:
Moments ago a transmission was sent from the interstellar maximum security penitentiary orbiting the third moon of Randark 3 of the Kree subsystem. They complained of some kind of incursion and a power disruption before they were cut off. You are to meet Katma Tui and one of the new recruits there immediately to investigate.
Green Lantern:
I’m on it.
Guardian 3:
Feel free to bring your friend Wonder Woman.
Rogue:
Uh, I ain’t…
The psychic hologram fades and the Watchtower returns to normal.
Green Lantern:
Starts to fly out:
You comin’, Wondy?
Rogue:
Flips off her power dampener and flies after him muttering as she goes:
Lousy little blue sons of…
Scene: Rogue and Green Lantern are approaching the Penitentiary in space.
Rogue:
So this is some kinda prison for intergalactic villains, like Sinestro and Star Sapphire?
Green Lantern:
Yeah, and anyone the Lanterns and other interstellar authority figures deem dangerous enough to cause trouble on an interplanetary scale.
Rogue:
But someone like Luthor or Doom could never come here, right?
Green Lantern:
If they did something bad enough they could. If it helps, Carnage is here.
They land on the space station. Katma Tui is talking to a guard. Everything seems normal.
Katma Tui:
You don’t send distress signals like that and then forget to retract them! Do you have any idea how busy the Corps is?!
Guard:
It’s like I said, we only just now got power back. It was a technical thing.
Katma Tui:
The distress call that was filtered through Oa spoke of some kind of uprising.
Guard:
Shakes his head:
No, no, no. The boys in the com room took the power fluctuation as some kind of digital precursor to an internal assault, they thought there was going to be an escape then they lost contact before they could clear it up.
Katma Tui:
So you had a total power failure, but didn’t lose any prisoners?!
Guard:
It’s like I said, the holding cells all have individual backup generators. Those are good for a week after a power outage.
Katma Tui:
You never said that!
Guard:
Shrugs:
I meant to. Anything else?
Katma Tui:
Very irritated:
That’s fine for now, thanks!
Turns to Kyle.
You get all that?
Green Lantern:
Don’t tell me we just flew halfway across the galaxy for nothing.
Katma Tui:
Looks that way. It was all some kind of glorified power flux. I’ve got some things to take care of but I want you and the recruit to stick around and make sure they get it figured out.
Green Lantern:
No prob, Kat. Where is he?
Katma Tui:
She’s over there.
Points towards Jade, she’s speaking with another guard across the deck.
Don’t bore yourselves to death out here.
She takes off.
Rogue:
To Katma as she disappears into space:
Hi, I’m Rogue.
Jade flies over to them.
Jade:
You must be Rayner. I’m Jade.
Green Lantern:
Call me Kyle. This is Rogue, she’s--
Rogue:
His platonic teammate.
She shakes her hand.
Jade:
O…kay.
Rogue:
Listen, something about all this doesn’t measure up. Call it intuition. I’m gunna go find out who’s in charge here. Why don’t you two have a look around and get to know each other?
She clicks, winks, and points at Kyle, then flies off. He blushes.
Jade:
What a total waste of a mission, huh? So Katma tells me you’re from Earth. My father was human.
Green Lantern:
Really? Where was he from?
They walk off.
Scene: The Warden’s office. Rogue enters an attendant running up behind her.
Attendant:
Sorry, Warden, I couldn’t stop her.
Warden:
That’s all right. I’ll take care of it.
The Attendant leaves.
Rogue:
So you folks had a power flux, that right?
Warden:
Who are you and why are you wasting my time?
Rogue:
Ever hear of the Justice League?
Warden:
Yes, but… oh wait, I know you now… Shouldn’t you have some kind of energy mace?
Rogue:
Aw for cryin’ out loud--
Catching herself:
It uh… it kept shocking my leg. But I have other ways to get my point across. Trust me.
Warden:
We don’t have anything to hide. We appreciate you and the Green Lanterns’ quick response but to put it bluntly: You can go now. We don’t need you and you’re getting in our way.
Rogue:
I just checked out your generator. If the power just now came back on you’d think there’d be some tech boys down there checkin’ it out. Nobody seems that concerned it might happen again.
Warden:
We’ve got it under control. Please Leave.
Points to the door.
Rogue:
I think I’ll take in a few more sights first. You got a problem with that, take it up with my pals on the Lantern Corps.
The Warden sneers as she exits.
Cuts to the holding cells. Kyle and Jade are touring them. Jade examines the base of one of them.
Jade:
All these backup generators are operational. The story seems to check out.
Something catches Kyle’s eye. He flies over to Carnage’s holding cell. Cletus Kassidy is inside grinning at him. He points to the ring on Kyle’s finger and smiles. Jade joins him.
Jade:
Friend of yours?
Green Lantern:
No.
Kassidy surrounds himself in symbiote and lashes out at the force field angrily. Jade is startled, Kyle doesn’t flinch.
Jade:
He’s a feisty one.
Green Lantern:
His symbiote took control of me. Body and mind. I thought bringing him here was adequate punishment for the damage he did with my ring. Now that I see him again… I’m starting to think it wasn’t enough.
Jade:
You’re a dark guy, Kyle.
Green Lantern:
No… I’m not, really. It’s just… it’s a dark life.
Jade:
Reaching for his hand:
Our lives are only what we make them. If all you feel when you look at that creature is vengeance, then his influence has never left you.
Green Lantern:
You’re right…
He looks again at Carnage, not as hard this time. Carnage grins and continues to stare lustfully at Kyle‘s ring.
Still… We should stick around a little longer. I’d hate for a random fluke to even come close to letting one of these guys out.
Nearby a guard overhears them, he clicks on his com.
Guard:
General, the Lanterns are going to be sticking around.
Cuts to the Warden’s office.
Warden:
We cannot afford this delay, the longer they stay the more likely they are to cause trouble. Take care of them, try to make it look like an accident.
The guard sneaks up to a large holding cell that contains an enormous monster that looks like a jellyfish with scorpion stingers on the ends of its tentacles. The guard enters a few keystrokes on the base of the creature’s cell and then runs. Jade and Kyle turn around to check out the commotion as the monster’s force field drops.
Green Lantern:
Get behind me!
Jade:
Flies up front and starts blasting the monster with a beam:
Why?
Green Lantern:
Good question.
Jade’s beams are absorbed by the Jellyfish creature, it sucks up the Lantern energy like a sponge and begins to swat at them with its tentacles.
That’s not good.
Jade:
Definitely not.
Cuts to another room in the prison. Numerous officials are seated around a table. Rogue presses herself up against the wall just outside the room and listens.
Warden:
…Our visitors are being dealt with as we speak. We must continue the prep work for their arrival. If we can hope to infiltrate the Randarkian Senate, we have to make this satellite our pure vein of entry. We’re going to have to scour the prison and make sure that none of its original staff remain. Some of the prisoners may have to be dealt with too, eventually.
A gun is placed up against Rogue’s head.
Guard:
Hands where I can see them, lady!
She hurls the guard through the wall and he crashes onto the table. The other guards and officials advance on her.
Cuts back to Jade and Kyle. The Jellyfish creature is bashing their force field.
Green Lantern:
We have to keep this thing from destroying any of the other holding cells, the last thing we want is more than one of these monsters to fight.
Jade:
This thing absorbs everything we throw at it, and it only makes it stronger.
Green Lantern:
That’s where we have to get inventive.
He creates a very detailed and intricate giant construct of a Lantern-shaped Syringe full of energy.
Let’s see just how much this guy can take.
He injects the monster with energy filling it to the point where it’s overloading.
Cuts back to Rogue, the entire assembly of guards and officials is swarming her, she’s swatting them away like flies. The Warden is the last one standing, he runs for the door. Rogue Zips over to him, grabs him by the throat and holds him up.
Rogue:
Last chance to give me some answers.
Warden:
You’re going to be very sorry you did this.
Rogue:
Suit yourself.
She bashes him up against the wall rendering him unconscious. He slumps over and slowly morphs back into his default form of a Skrull General.
Rogue:
A Skrull.
Cuts back to the Lanterns. The monster is ready to burst.
Green Lantern:
Jade, make a column around it.
She does so, and when the monster explodes the blast is directed up into space and away from the other holding cells.
Jade:
That was amazing. I’ve never seen a Lantern make something so detailed.
Green Lantern:
He creates a construct of artist’s clothing and accoutrements around him:
The universe is my canvas.
Jade spies the guard who unleashed the creature on them spying from behind one of the other holding cells. He starts to run. She creates a spring underneath him that launches him at their feet.
Green Lantern:
Now you’re getting it.
Jade lifts the guard with a giant hand construct:
Jade:
What’s going on here?!
Rogue:
Flying up to them:
Heads up folks. This place is infested!
Green Lantern:
With what?
Guard:
With us!
He morphs into a snake and slips out of Jade’s construct’s grasp then tries to attack Kyle. Kyle creates a construct of an Eagle that grabs the snake in its talons and runs it into the ground. It morphs back into a skrull. About seventy or so more guards and random staff members appear among the prison tubes all of them slowly morphing into skrulls.
Rogue:
They’re Skrulls. Shape changing aliens.
Green Lantern:
You don’t say?
Rogue:
They’ve taken over the whole place. Usin’ it as some sorta entry point to infiltrate the Randark Government.
The skrulls swarm the three of them, Jade and Kyle scoop up dozens of them with constructs while Rogue starts battering them, flying in various directions knocking them down like bowling pins.
Green Lantern:
We have to get this fight away from the holding cells!
Jade:
Get me some cover.
She concentrates and creates a layer of green floor between all of them and the real floor. She lifts it up past the cells. Rogue and Kyle slip out the holes made from the cells as Jade seals them up then rolls the whole sheet up like a giant carpet flinging all of the skrulls around and onto the loading dock on the other side of the compound. They’re all fairly roughed up as Rogue, Jade and Kyle descend ready to continue the fight in the safer location.
Green Lantern:
Ready for round two guys?
The Skrulls all pop up and rush them again, morphing their arms into weapons and morphing themselves into fierce beasts. The Lanterns still continue to make short work of them wiping whole groups of them out with large constructs, walls and force bubbles. Rogue also continues to tear through masses of them with super strength and speed.
Rogue:
You little freaks about ready to give up yet?
One of the generals gets back up.
Skrull General:
Actually we’re just stalling.
He points to the sky. A Skrull Warship is descending.
They’re going to finish you off.
The bottom of the ship opens up and the Super Skrull and Paibok the Power Skrull emerge.
Prepare to meet death at the hands of the Super Skrull and the Power Skrull.
Super Skrull grows a giant orange Thing hand and starts to flex his elastic body and bursts into flame, Paibok turns into organic steel and charges up his power blasts as he lowers himself on an Ice slide.
Rogue:
Why don’t I like where this is goin?
Paibok and Superskrull rush forward, Super Skrull stretches and darts about with his elastic body avoiding every energy blast from the Green Lanterns. Rogue charges his face and punches him but his elastic body rolls with the punch and forces her forward. He whacks her with a giant orange Thing hand and knocks her into a row of shuttles on the opposite side of the platform.
Meanwhile Paibok is blasting Kyle with his energy beams. Kyle protects himself with a shield construct but Paibok’s energy beams are gradually wearing away at his defenses.
Green Lantern:
His beams are eating through my shield!
Jade:
Hang on!
She produces a construct of a wrench and grabs Paibok with it. As she’s about to slam him into the ground she’s battered around by several invisible Force Fields.
Super Skrull:
There’s no hope, Terrans. I wield the abilities of your entire Fantastic Four, and any power I lack General Paibok more than makes up for.
Paibok gets back up and starts to pummel Kyle with Ice. Kyle unleashes a shockwave of GL energy breaking off the ice and knocking Paibok and Super Skrull back.
Green Lantern:
You’ll excuse me if I mock you!
He creates constructs of Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Thing, and the Human Torch, who start to battle Super Skrull, and then constructs of Iceman, Colossus, and Electro who begin to fight Paibok.
Jade flies up to him.
Jade:
Are you sure you can split your focus that much.
Green Lantern:
Shhh… concentrating…
Paibok starts pummeling the constructs and obliterating them with his power beams. He blasts Electro into non-existence and then traps Iceman in a shell of real ice, the construct within fading. Finally he starts to batter the Colossus.
Paibok:
Is this supposed to be challenging?!
He finally breaks Colossus, as it fades Rogue swoops in and nails him, he flies back into a fuel tank and it explodes. Meanwhile Super Skrull is compressing the constructs of the Fantastic Four with Invisible Force fields, he weakens them significantly and is taxing Kyle’s concentration. Finally he slams them into the ground and erupts into a Nova Flame, obliterating the constructs. When his flame dies down Jade traps him in a force bubble. He pushes against it with all his might, Kyle adds his strength to Jade’s.
Cuts back to Paibok who rushes out of the flames and attacks Rogue, they trade blows for a while then Paibok gets his hands on Rogue’s shoulders and shocks her with his power beams. She falls to the ground weakened.
Paibok:
You’re strong, woman. My beams usually mean instant death.
She struggles to get back up, but Paibok flash freezes her.
Cuts back to Super Skrull and the Green Lanterns. Super Skrull is still struggling to break free of their energy bubble.
Green Lantern:
He can’t hold off both of us!
Jade notices Paibok rushing at them on an ice slide charging up a beam.
Jade:
Look out!
She takes her concentration off of Super Skrull and puts up a shield blocking Paibok’s blasts, they’re knocked back and Super Skrull breaks free. He traps them in an invisible Force Field and pins them to the floor.
Super Skrull:
I may not be able to make fancy constructs with my invisible force fields, but they’re virtually unbreakable.
Kyle and Jade struggle to breech his force field, but are finding it extremely difficult.
Don’t bother. It’ll all be over soon.
He creates a tube that runs from his force field to his hand and it opens as he unleashes a wave of fire into it asphyxiating the two Green Lanterns.
Scene: Hour later. Kyle wakes up in some kind of lab restrained in a row of strange chairs with Rogue and Jade. There are wires and nodes fixed onto their heads and temples. Super Skrull, Paibok, and several other Skrull scientists are present. Jade and Kyle’s rings are across the room on a table.
Super Skrull:
Ah, awake at last.
Rogue:
Yep. Awake and refreshed. Can we go now?
Super Skrull:
You can go as soon as we’re done with you.
Jade:
These chairs, these wires. You’re going to mind wipe us.
Paibok:
Not exactly. More like reprogramming. People know where you are, if we slaughter you or even blank your memories they’ll be suspicious. You’re going to leave here believing everything is normal, we may even call you in for some post-hypnotic favors later on.
Kyle spies his ring, motions with his head to Jade and holds out his hand trying to summon it back onto his hand. Jade follows his example.
Rogue:
What did you slime balls do with the real staff?
Paibok:
There wasn’t time to properly dispose of them. They’re on board our cloaked slave trade ship, I imagine they’ll end up on War World or Apokolips. Somewhere where they’ll have no chance of being rediscovered.
Super Skrull:
You wont have to worry about them much longer, though. Fire up the machines.
The scientists begin to charge up the mind control devices.
You should consider yourselves lucky. Rather than a slow painful death you get to become tools of the Skrull empire.
Kyle and Jade’s eyes glow green and their rings fly off the table. They stops several feet from the table, tethered on some sort of laser-wires.
Oh please…
Grabs Kyle and Jade by their chins and grins into their faces:
We know all about that levitating ring trick.
He shoves their heads back into their chairs, their rings are pulled back onto the table.
Paibok:
There was a Skrull Lantern once you know.
Jade:
I’m sure the Guardians regretted it.
Paibok:
We wouldn’t know. We executed him for treason.
As the machines start to power up, Kyle tries again to summon his ring, it stops again, tethered by the laser.
Super Skrull:
You can keep trying that if you’d like.
Green Lantern:
I’d rather try something new.
Kyle’s eyes flare green and he activates the ring by remote across the room sending several large fists out of it which grab Paibok and Super Skrull and batter them around the lab smashing up the control panels. He projects a construct of a beehive from the ring and bee constructs swarm and infiltrate all the machinery shorting it out. Finally he creates a construct of a guillotine that severs the laser cords, Jade and Kyle’s rings fly across the lab and back onto their fingers, they burst free of their restraints and free Rogue as well. The three of them begin to trash the lab and take out the Skrulls. Super Skrull and Paibok immediately retaliate.
Cuts to outside where the prison cells are lined-up. There is a green explosion from the lab, Paibok and Super Skrull fly out among the restraint tubes, The GLs and Rogue follow them. Rogue takes Jade aside.
Rogue:
Kyle can hold these clowns off for a few minutes, you have to get me to that slave ship.
Jade scans space with her ring and finds the cloaked ship just beyond the artificial atmosphere.
Jade:
There it is. But I’m not leaving him alone against them.
Rogue:
So how do you expect me to--
She encases Rogue in GL energy and shoots her off towards the ship. Rogue shoots forward at light speed and crashes through the ship’s hull, as Jade’s energy pulls out it seals the hull behind it with a green laser. Rogue finds herself surrounded by armed Skrulls.
This ain’t your lucky day, green skins.
Cuts back to the prison. Kyle and Jade are hurling every construct they can at Super Skrull and Paibok. Kyle makes a Tyranosaurus construct that chomps down on Super Skrull and slurps him into its stomach. He erupts into fire and dissipates the construct. Jade and Paibok’s beams are deadlocked.
Green Lantern:
This isn’t working, they have too much sheer force backing them up.
Jade:
Time to get inventive then.
Green Lantern:
You thinking what I’m thinking?
Jade:
Draw Super Skrull’s fire, I’ll distract Paibok.
Kyle flies past Super Skrull he gives chase and begins to blast him with nova fire. Meanwhile Paibok is trying to blast Jade with his power beams. The two Green Lanterns pull their fire towards each other and then in a flash Kyle and Jade both create constructs of funnels that pull the skrull’s attacks down tubes. Super Skrull’s fire is directed at Paibok and Paibok’s energy beams are directed at Super Skrull. They both collapse dazed.
Green Lantern:
That wont hold them for long.
Jade:
This will.
She lifts them both into empty holding cells and activates them, the energy tubes fill up trapping Super Skrull and Paibok like the other inmates. On the landing dock, numerous Skrulls are flooding out of the facility towards escape pods. Rogue lands the slave ship. It opens and the real officers and guards of the prison exit all freshly armed from the defeated Skrulls inside. Rogue is behind them. They hold up their guns to the Skrulls, Kyle and Jade descend ready to fight on the other side of the swarm of Skrulls. The Skrulls drop their weapons and surrender.
Scene: A few hours later. Kree Military officials are stationed and escorting the remaining Skrulls into prison ships. Rogue and Jade are talking as Kyle approaches them.
Green Lantern:
Everything’s back in order, one of the Kree’s Psi Operatives did a mental sweep of the area, all the Skrulls have been identified.
Jade:
Well I guess they can take it from here.
Green Lantern:
Yeah…
Rogue shoves Kyle forward towards, Jade.
Ah!
Rogue:
You two discuss whatever Green Lantern stuff you need to, I’ll just go take in the sights one more time before we leave. She flies off.
Jade:
She’s a strange one.
Green Lantern:
Yep.
Jade:
Well… Goodbye…
She starts to leave.
Green Lantern:
Hey, Jade, wait a second…
She stops.
I just wanted to thank you for all your help. You were fantastic today. Couldn’t have taken care of all this without you.
Jade:
Well, it was an honor to work with you too.
She descends next to him.
You know Katma never showed me all that fancy stuff, Mr. Artist. It’s pretty impressive.
Green Lantern:
She likes people to work their way up to it. I drove her nuts as a recruit.
Jade:
I’ll bet. We’ll have to do it again sometime.
Green Lantern:
Definitely. If you’re ever in 2814...
Jade kisses him on the cheek.
Jade:
I will be.
She flies off. Kyle grins and touches the spot she kissed.
Cuts to Rogue. She’s strolling through the criminals, she approaches Paibok and Super Skrull and blows them each a kiss, they each start shouting muffled cries and pounding on the force fields in futility. A commotion from nearby gets Rogue’s attention. She flies over.
Rogue:
What’s wrong?
Guard:
One of the prisoners is gone!
Rogue:
A Skrull unleashed one on the Lanterns, they had to destroy it out of self-defense.
Guard:
We knew about that one! This one is unaccounted for, the security log on its cell shows it was never opened. They’re checking the transpacial log, now.
He hit’s the button on his headphones:
What’s that? You’re kidding. Forget it then, he’s gone.
Green Lantern flies up and joins them.
During all the commotion the prisoner was teleported away. It wasn’t the Skrulls. The signal can be traced to Apokolips.
Green Lantern:
What?! Who?!
Guard:
Some killer from Earth and his symbiote.
Green Lantern:
Carnage…
Guard:
Forget it, even without Darkseid, they’re untouchable. Psychotic gods with unlimited reach.
He leaves.
Rogue:
We’ll get him, Kyle.
Green Lantern:
You can count on it. But it’s weird… I’m not even that concerned. I feel like a weight’s been lifted off me.
Rogue:
Nothin’ wrong with that, Sugah. Let’s save tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow. Care to join me on cloud nine?
Green Lantern:
Love to.
He encases them in a force field and starts to take them back home.
End.