MY JSA - pt. 2

"'That's an awfully patriotic name for a forger, Adams.'

“'It would be, were I an American. But no, I am Dutch by birth. Only my parents were obsessed with America, even giving me this name before we came over. But I've always hated this place - this land of corruption and poverty. That's how I came into league with these fellows.  Oh sure, they're only in it for the money, but I have the loftier goal of destroying this forsaken land. This depression makes men desperate –- desperate enough to take my phony money and try to spend it -- anywhere! Delaware is just a testing ground. I intend to move my operations nationwide within the month!'

"'Very nice. Only you're forgetting two things. It's only a matter of time until others figure out that you're hiding your forging press in a diving bell --'

"'Bathysphere, actually. An amazing invention, though, I daresay I am probably the first to use it for crime. And the second thing?'

"'You still have the Shadow to deal with.'

"'And that is resolving itself quite nicely. My men haven't found you yet, which in a shop of this size only leaves one or two hiding places they haven't checked.  But I'm guessing I can narrow it down more than that.'

"And with that, doors swung open in the floor beneath me, plunging some crates and myself into the river.  Adams and his men gathered around the opening and fired their guns into the water."

The Shadow paused for dramatic effect. "Adams was no fool, and he knew that he had to move out of there fast after all that gunfire. He ordered some of his men to load the crates of supplies back into a truck outside, while the others helped him hoist the bathysphere back up to the surface so they could retrieve their small printing press.  They used a hook on a pole to find a length of chain hanging under the water and pulled it up to the wharf. Then they used a winch on the truck to pull the bathysphere up. As soon as Adams opened the hatch, I leapt out and decked him with a right cross! I had dived down and found the bathysphere upon hitting the water, and though I let a lot of the river in with me, I had suspected they would have a back-up air tank on board for emergencies. Now the forgers were off-guard from my surprise attack, and though my pistols were waterlogged, I made short work of them with a combination of karate and boxing. A few fled and scattered, including Washington Adams, who had recovered. I grabbed a pistol off the wharf, which one of the crooks had dropped and fired it over their heads to stop them. But at least one bullet hit a flagpole extending from the roof of the machine shop and snapped the pole in half. The broken half spun through the air on its way down, and impaled Adams. The flag fluttered down and covered him like a shroud. And that was the last of Washington Adams and his forgery ring."

The Shadow leaned back, satisfied with his tale. Scotty Thunder started to applaud before noticing that no one else was, and then stopped.  But everyone was smiling. Capt. Marvel was the first to speak.

"Thank you, Shadow. I think you've left us with quite a high standard to match. But I think Superman is up to it. Now, we'll let you get to your soup before it gets colder, but before our salads arrive I propose Superman continue."

"Seconded," called out Batman.

"Hmm, I suspect a conspiracy!" Superman joked. "I've been trying to decide what story to tell. I'd have to say my most exciting adventure was when the mad scientist, Luthor, raised a prehistoric island out of the Pacific Ocean in a scheme to flood North America. But, unfortunately, some of you already know that story and I hesitate to tell it twice! I can tell you about the trouble I had on my way home from that adventure, though.

"It was last year when the Pacific coast was being ravaged with floods because of a new island which was displacing water from the ocean. I went to investigate with...a lady friend of mine."

Several faces smirked around the table, distracted from Superman's tale only by the arrival of their salads.

"I can't tell this story without mentioning her, but I hesitate to call her by name in front of mixed company...."

As Superman trailed off, all eyes turned to Scotty Thunder, who was just sitting in with the Justice Society of America because he had stumbled upon their secret meeting.

"If you like," offered Ibis the Invincible, "I could cast a spell to make him forget any details you wish."

"Well, that would help."

"Hey!" Scotty said with ignored dismay.

"On our way," continued Superman, "a prehistoric pterodactyl attacked our plane and Lois suffered a concussion. I leapt down to the island with Lois, and found a mixture of giant animals and living dinosaurs. Everything, including the island, had been engineered by that mad scientist, Luthor. While I was fighting his dinosaurs, the U.S. Air Force started bombing the island. Luthor raised a dome over the island and submerged it, but I broke through the dome and swam away with Lois on my back. The last I saw, Luthor was being mauled by his own creations, and the island was flooding."

"That's what you had told me happened," said Batman, "but there was more?"

"I didn't make it back to shore quite so fast, no. Although I can swim at motorboat speed, I couldn't go full speed because I was afraid of loosing hold of Lois. It was awful, worrying about her head injury, but not being able to get her to land any faster. And then things really got worse when I saw a plane overhead, and I recognized it as Luthor's from the island! Something that looked like a bomb dropped from the plane, so I curled around Lois and dropped under the surface of the water with her--"

"Weren't you concerned about her drowning?" asked Dollman.

"Well, no...I kept air in her lungs by holding our mouths together...." Superman seemed to blush slightly.

"You animal, you!" joked the Flash, and everyone had a good laugh -- including Superman.

"After a short while, it still seemed calm on the surface, so I dared to surface with her. A buoy -- not a bomb after all -- was floating by me. On the side of the buoy, a familiar image formed.

With its crooked nose and mop of orange-red hair, that face could only belong to one man.  

"‘I hesitated to send this down since you have such a habit of breaking my toys,' came Luthor's voice from the image.  ‘This toy I call the visual radio, but then you've seen this toy of mine before, haven't you?'

"‘And I know you can hear me as well as I can hear you,' I responded. ‘What do you want, Luthor? And didn't I see you gored to death by dinosaurs just a few minutes ago?'

"He laughed. ‘The power of misperception is mightier than a super man, I see,' he continued. ‘Had you spent more time examining my dinosaurs than bashing their brains in, you would have noticed that the triceratops has only grinding teeth, meaning they are herbivorous. They merely sniffed to see if I was a plant, and moved on. As for what I want, well, that is to win our latest duel, of course.'

"‘Don't you have some wet carpets to shake out?'

"‘Ah, you did give me quite a set back, didn't you? I'll admit it will be some time before I get all the water-damaged parts replaced, but my island of Pacifica will rise again. And you won't be around to stop me next time. It occurred to me after you left that you're more vulnerable right now than I've ever encountered you. All your vaunted strength does you little good without solid ground to push off from, and your lovely baggage isn't half as bullet-proof as  you.'

"‘You're a coward if you try to harm me through her,' I admonished.

"‘Tut, I didn't say I would. But I want you to understand just how out-matched you are. For all your amazing abilities, you are still a land-based creature.  But science -- science can be everywhere. I can strafe you with bombs from a mile overhead, or attack you with weapons by remote control from even greater distances.'

"‘But you won't, will you Luthor? Because you get a kick out of being there when someone gets hurt. It makes you feel more manly to be directly involved. What a twisted mind you've got to use such scientific genius just to be the biggest bully on the playground. Now, I'd love to stay and chat, but this woman needs help and I'm getting her to shore.'

"Luthor was visibly fuming, but his voice was calm and measured.  ‘This was no chat. It was a diversion while my pleisiosaurs reached you. Good bye, Superman.'

"And that was when I noticed something curl around my leg underwater and pull Lois and I down with it.  Luthor's prehistoric sea monsters pulled me underwater before I could do more than take a breath.  Luckily I can hold my breath for a very long time, but I knew Lois was in terrible danger and I had to end this fast. There were two dinosaurs circling me, and they were the ugliest things I've ever seen - like giants snakes that had swallowed sharks! They lashed out at me with their whip-like necks and snatched at me with jagged teeth. I beat them back with my one free fist, but my punches weren't packing their usual wallop underwater. After each blow, the pleisiosaur - as Luthor called them - and I would be repelled away from each other, and the other one would be on me before I could get Lois to the surface. Poor Lois - I did what I could to keep air in her lungs, but now I had hypothermia to worry about too! With her life in danger, so the next time one of the monsters lunged at me, I smacked its head hard enough to break bone its skull.  That one swam away, either stunned or dying. The second one I grabbed by the jaw and….Well, I'm glad none of you are squeamish men, because I had to crush its head to kill it. I've never had to take a life so cruelly before or since.

"Anyways…I dragged it with me to the surface and put Lois on its back. I got as much water out of her lungs as I could, and then dove back in the water behind…well, I guess you could say it was the strangest life raft of all time! The battle had taken us farther out to sea, so that I passed Luthor's buoy on the way back. His face appeared again on the screen, only this time he looked like he'd seen the proverbial ghost.

"'What does it take to kill you, Superman?' he shouted. Then he sighed as his composure returned. 'I was nice enough to give you the chance to go down fighting, and see how you repay –‘

“At that point I had shoved my fist through the screen. I got a bit of a jolt from the electricity, being in water and all, so I was glad not to be holding Lois anymore. I could see that Luthor wasn't through with me, though, because his plane was returning my way. I had a perfect view of its bomb bay doors as they swung open and released a present for me. I grabbed the broken buoy and threw it up into the air, connecting with the bomb long before it reached us. I got a pretty fireworks display to watch, and I had hoped to buy some more time to reach shore while Luthor's plane was turning around. Unfortunately, Luthor had another scientific breakthrough up his sleeve, because the plane began to hover in place and fly backwards to keep up with me!  He dropped two more bombs my way, and this time I had nothing to throw at them but Lois' raft. I scooped Lois back up and putt her on my back, but by then the bombs were low enough that I had to swing at them with the dead pleisiosaur like a baseball bat and hit those bombs as far away as I could.  My 'bat' took the brunt of the blast, so I'm afraid there was not much left to bring home and show off to paleontologists.  And I still had that plane to deal with.