VELOCITY

A Justice League Fan-Fiction by neomage

(DISCLAIMER: Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and all characters therein are owned by DC Comics and the Warner Bros. animation studios.)

Chapter 01

Central City, 11:45 a.m.

The sun shone high in the sky over the tops of Central City's skyscrapers on this, a beautiful Saturday morning. Vehicles were busily rushing along the thoroughfares. Pedestrians were walking on the sidewalk, either as solitary figures or in groups of twos or threes; those in groups were laughing and chattering away.

"Girl, did you get the chance to see that hot new guy moving into our building yesterday?"

"Mommy, can we get a hot dog?"

"Geez, I can't believe you bet all your allowance on those lousy cars at the derby!"

A police cruiser drove up to one of the many stores open on the sidewalk. This one was an open-window pastry shop, bearing a sign on its front that boasted of the shop's delicious cakes, bagels, and sandwiches. "Hey, Larry!" the cop at the wheel called out in a gruff but nonetheless friendly tone. "Got a couple of hungry patrons out here, that you do!"

The shop's proprietor, a bulky man with a jolly face, grinned at the officer. "Sure thing, guys. I've got quite a deal on beef subs today—wanna come in and see?"

"Don't mind if I do, that's for sure!" the officer's smooth-voiced partner replied eagerly. "C'mon, Chyre, let's check 'em out, eh?"

"Well, we've got another ten minutes before we have to get back on our shift. Why not?" Chyre agreed.

So saying, the two cops exited the cruiser and headed for the door of the shop. "Can't wait to see what these subs look like," the smooth officer remarked as they entered.

"Well, wait'll you taste 'em, Morillo," answered Larry. "These subs have so much flavor, once you bite into one of 'em it'll be like one big explosion!"

KA-CHOOM!

All at once a massive shockwave burst through the doorway, sending Larry and the two cops flying to the ground even as debris and shrapnel flew inward with powerful intensity! "Whoa! I didn't mean literally!" Larry cried.

"Everybody okay?" Chyre demanded, standing up and rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah…but our car isn't…" Morillo pointed outside. And sure enough, what used to be their cruiser was now nothing but a burning pile of scrap!

"My God…we could've still been inside…" Chyre swallowed visibly.

Now the three men went to the blown-open door and looked around in bewilderment—and saw terrified citizens running for cover. Most of them were, apparently, trying to escape from something further up the street. "What on earth's goin' on today?" Larry asked, truly scared.

"Stay put, Larry! We'll deal with this!" Morillo commanded, even as he and his partner ran from the pastry shop.

Both officers, steering clear of the burning debris, ran into the middle of the street—and stopped cold. "Oh, man…not HIM…" Chyre groaned.

Hovering several feet above street level was a huge purple sphere with a glass top…and visible inside that glass section was a man in a purple costume, wearing a white and purple helmet that partially masked the top half of his face. "Good day, officers!" he hailed the cops through a loudspeaker. "It's such a fine day out today, I thought I'd take my newly-finished Think Tank out for a test run! And so far it works wonders, I dare say."

Chyre immediately pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Dispatch, this is Officer Chyre, badge number 402781! Requesting backup at the City Center—the Thinker's on the loose, and he's got some kind of new weapon on him!"

"Roger that, Officer Chyre," the dispatcher's voice came over the other end. "Backup's on its way."

Morillo, meanwhile, had drawn his gun and was now shooting at the Think Tank's glass panel—but as he fired shot after shot, the bullets seemed to inexplicably ricochet off the glass instead of breaking it! Meanwhile, Thinker was watching the cop's efforts and laughing. "You're not going to be able to get through my Think Tank like that!" he boasted. "Or perhaps you've never heard of bulletproof glass?"

"Oh, yeah? Well, let's just see how bulletproof that thing really is!" Chyre shouted at him as he drew his own sidearm and blasted at the villain. But, as before, the bullets merely bounced off the Think Tank.

"How very amusing you are, pitting primal brawn against the result of my superior intellect," Thinker said scornfully. "Now—allow me to show you what the Think Tank's really capable of!"

Suddenly, as the Think Tank hovered higher above the street, its glass top seemed to glow bright white—then a massive transparent beam shot out from the glass, swiftly tearing up the roadway! Realizing what was bound to happen, Chyre and Morillo ran for cover as the beam narrowly missed them, ripping up the sidewalk in the process!

"THAT is the power of the Think Tank!" Thinker laughed triumphantly. "It absorbs the psionic energy of my Thinking Cap…" and here he pointed for emphasis to his helmet, revealing that there were several small cables connected to the sides. "…and amplifies its destructive power a hundredfold. Against the might of my mind powers, you haven't a chance!"

The two cops looked up at the Think Tank in frustration. "Man, where's that backup already?" Chyre asked, exasperated.

Suddenly, from around a corner two massive police vans and several cruisers swerved into view. "Well, took them long enough," Morillo sighed.

The back doors for the vans burst open, and several SWAT-armored officers poured out into several places along the damaged street. Many of them were armed with shotguns, rifles and submachine guns, and two had rocket launchers on their shoulders. Meanwhile, more officers were pouring from the cruisers and readying their side-arms. "Men, prepare to fire on my mark!" the SWAT leader shouted.

Thinker shook his head slightly as he watched the cops aiming their weapons at him. Smirking, he moved all the fingers of both hands in a come-on gesture. "You can try."

"FIRE!" the SWAT leader yelled. And immediately all the officers let loose with a barrage of bullets at the Think Tank, some of them quickly emptying their magazines and reloading seemingly in the blink of an eye. The two SWAT cops wielding the rocket launchers carefully positioned themselves against two separate cruisers, while the other officers near them immediately moved elsewhere without letting up on their own firing. Then a moment later, both officers pulled their respective triggers—and two massive rockets blasted upwards toward the Think Tank, slamming into it and exploding on contact!

The explosion of both rockets swiftly created a dense cloud of smoke. "Cease fire! Cease fire!" the SWAT leader cried, and all the officers soon stopped and lowered their weapons slightly. The two cops with the rocket launchers leaned against their cruisers, as they and their fellow policemen peered into the smoke.

Standing to one side throughout all of this, Officers Chyre and Morillo were also looking into the smoke. "Did they…get him?" Morillo asked hopefully.

But almost as the words left his lips—the Think Tank burst from the smoke, completely unscathed! And…surrounding it was what appeared to be a force field of sorts. "My, that was quite a lot of fun, making me shield myself like that," Thinker addressed the cops. "Now…let's see you try to shield against THIS!"

With that, the Think Tank's glass top began to glow again—

—but suddenly a large, transparent green baseball bat slammed into the top of the Tank, bringing it down to the ground with a CRASH! The impact was so great, the Tank created a huge crater in the street where it had been brought down, and momentarily caused nearby vehicles to jump off the ground! "What! Who dares—!" Thinker yelled out, now clearly bewildered and agitated.

Astonished at what had just happened, all the cops looked up…and were transfixed. "Would you look at that…" Morillo breathed.

Up there in the sky, but now floating down to the ground, was a figure dressed in green and black with emerald energy surrounding his body, and alongside him was a woman in a black-and-white costume, with white light energy coursing around her. "Hope we're not too late to help," the first newcomer apologized.

"No, no, you're just in time," the SWAT leader answered. "Thanks for that assist just now."

Suddenly there was a loud chuckle—coming from the Think Tank. "Heh…Green Lantern and Dr. Light," Thinker addressed the two newcomers through the loudspeaker. "This is going to be rather interesting now…my superior brain against the might of two of the Justice League."

"Better give up while you're ahead!" a loud voice shouted out—and then, a few seconds later, a red blur swooshed up to where Green Lantern and Dr. Light were standing, immediately taking the form of a man in a crimson costume with yellow lightning highlights here and there. "Get it? A-head?"

"Flash…save the corny jokes for AFTER he's apprehended, why don't you?" Lantern asked in a disapproving tone.

"Ah, the Flash is here, too, is he?" Thinker asked, a smile evident in his tone now. "You know, for a little while I was starting to wonder if you and your ridiculous puns were going to show up to face me."

Flash smirked. "Well, sorry to have kept you waiting for nothing, Thinker," he announced. "Because now that you've been grounded, you're not gonna get the pleasure of taking me on."

"Oh, but I beg to disagree where that is concerned, my swift little friend," Thinker answered. "For you and your comrades have just made a very grave error in underestimating me…a testament to the inferiority of your minds compared to my genius!"

Suddenly, to the heroes' surprise, the Think Tank began to levitate from the crater! "Oh, no, you don't!" Lantern held up his fist, revealing his ring—and from that ring he fired a blast of green energy that swiftly formed into a gigantic hand, catching the Tank before it could go any further!

But Thinker just chuckled. "Fool."

All at once the Tank's glass top glowed yet again—and fired a massive psionic blast at the three heroes! "Watch out!" Flash cried as he swiftly rushed to one side at super-speed. Immediately Dr. Light raised her hands—and a massive light shone out from her fingertips, forming into a shield just as the Think Tank's beam crashed down on her and Lantern! In the meantime Lantern himself, having been momentarily distracted by the Tank's sudden assault, now redirected his ring's energy to further power Dr. Light's shield.

"Ha! You think your puny shield can stand up to ME?" Thinker demanded. And with that he sent an even more forceful blast at the two defending heroes; and this time it was so strong it actually broke right through the shield, knocking both Lantern and Dr. Light several feet backwards!

Flash, meanwhile, was taking in the scene from a short distance away. "Oh, man, this sucks…Hey, G.L.! Light! You guys okay?" he called out to them as he swiftly shot over to where they'd been blasted.

"Ugh…" Dr. Light shook her head to clear it. "This man, Thinker…he is one of your enemies, is he not? How can we stop him?"

"Hmmm…if he wasn't using this plaything of his, I could tell you," Flash admitted. "But this is the first time I've seen him use something that actually increases his power like this! And on top of that, it's flying—and I can't fly!"

"But we can!" Lantern reminded him, standing up. "What if we could boost you up to him—could you do something then?"

"Maybe…" Flash narrowed his eyes.

"Well, figure it out quickly—he's coming!" Dr. Light said urgently.

Indeed, the Think Tank was firing another transparent beam down on the trio in an attack from above! Immediately Flash raced off to one side while Lantern and Dr. Light took to the sky, narrowly avoiding the beam as it smashed into the curb, sending gravel flying everywhere! "Hmph, missed," Thinker noted with some disappointment. "Oh, well, I'll get you three yet."

"Not if we get you first!" Lantern answered, flying around the Tank and firing several laser blasts at it from his ring in the process. Dr. Light followed suit, firing bursts of light from her hands at the Tank. But in response to this counter-assault, Thinker merely activated the Tank's force field again, repelling the two heroes' respective attacks.

"Try all you like, heroes; but absolutely nothing can penetrate my force field!" Thinker bragged.

"Oh, yeah, Thinker?" Flash called out to him from the ground below. "Well, how about this: This little toy of yours is just your way of making up for being the failure you really are!"

"Failure? What're you talking about, Flash? I am the greatest intellectual genius among Central City's Rogues!" Thinker scoffed.

"Oh, really? Well, if that's true…" Flash disdainfully rubbed his nose with his thumb. "…then why were you such a lousy lawyer back in the day?"

That seemed to get Thinker's attention. "WHAT?" he shouted.

"Oh, come on, dude, everybody knows it's true," Flash continued. "You used to be the most useless attorney alive! In fact, you were so bad they videotaped your cases and sold the tape as 'What Not to Do in Law: A Tutorial for Real Attorneys'!"

Now Thinker was livid. "Y-you shut up! I'm going to silence that flapping mouth of yours once and for all!" he roared.

The Think Tank's glass top shone again, and a huge psionic beam, larger than before, shot down at the ground towards Flash. The speedster immediately ran off, the beam continuing up the street after him in hot pursuit. "Stand still so I can blast you to pieces, runt!" Thinker screamed out.

Lantern and Dr. Light, meanwhile, had momentarily stopped blasting at the Think Tank to stare in astonishment at Flash as he insulted the villain. "My word…Flash really got him worked up," Dr. Light remarked.

Lantern shot a look at the Think Tank as it hovered off after Flash. "And that's not all he did—he just gave us a clue how we can beat this guy!" he replied. "Come on!"

Immediately the two flew off after the Tank, flying in low and approaching from behind even as up ahead Flash was still dodging the beams directed at him by the angry Thinker. "Okay…look at this thing," Lantern directed Dr. Light's attention to the Tank. "Notice anything different about it?"

Dr. Light looked at the Tank—and came to a realization. "Its shield…it's gone!"

"Yes!" Lantern nodded. "Which means that this weapon can only use Thinker's mind power to attack OR defend—it can't do both at the same time! So as long as the shield isn't in use, we can still stop it!"

"Then what are we waiting on? Let's put this tip that Flash has given us to good use!" Dr. Light's hands immediately shone with intense energy—and then she blasted a cannon-like burst of light at the Think Tank's underside!

The attack slammed into the Tank, causing the Thinker himself to be rocked about violently inside. "Urgh!" he grunted as he was slammed to and fro from the impact. "Why, you little…you won't bring down the Think Tank, even with its force field inactive!" he shouted at the two heroes. "Even the glass here was able to repel bullets—what makes you think your energy blasts will make a difference?"

"Hey, chrome-dome! Don't tell me you've forgotten about me already?" a familiar voice shouted.

Thinker immediately turned, in time to see Flash running back up the street toward him. "Argh…more insults, Flash?" he asked angrily, again firing his Tank's beam at the speedster.

"Ha!" Flash kept on running, this time in a sort of zigzag formation as he dodged the beam. "Say, how many lawyers does it take to be a total never-was? Answer: one—and that's you!"

"GRAAARGH!" Thinker howled as the Think Tank's glass top charged up again to fire the beam—but suddenly two giant beams, one of green light and one of white light, slammed into the top of the Tank, grounding it once again with a solid WHAM as it hit the pavement and made another crater!

"Guys! Gimme a boost, quick!" Flash exclaimed, now running up to the Tank.

Dr. Light complied, shooting a beam of light toward the ground that immediately transformed into a sort of walkway Flash could run on. The speedster swiftly ran up the walkway of light, presently jumping onto the Tank's glass top, putting him directly above Thinker's head in the process. "Hey, Thinker! Watch this!" he cried as he pressed his palms to the glass, both arms from the elbow down suddenly beginning to vibrate rapidly.

Dazed from the sudden rapid and forceful drop to the ground, Thinker heard Flash's voice and looked up, in time to see the speedster's hands vibrating against the glass. "What the—what're you doing?" he exclaimed in surprise.

Then all of a sudden—CHA-BOOM! The whole glass top exploded in a burst of sharp shrapnel that flew in all directions! Even Dr. Light and Lantern, in the process of floating back to the ground, had to quickly shield themselves against flying glass! "My word!" Dr. Light exclaimed.

"Man, I hate when he uses that trick of his…" Lantern muttered.

The duo currently landed and beheld the volume of dust and smoke that the explosion had incurred. "Flash? Are you okay?" Dr. Light called out.

"Hey, man, if you're alive after what you just did, say something!" Lantern hollered.

By this time the police squad, which had kept a good distance back during the battle, came up to the scene, Morillo and Chyre among them. "Uh, you guys…is everything okay…?" Morillo asked the heroes warily.

Without replying, Lantern worriedly flew directly over the Think Tank, still enveloped in combined smoke and dust. "C'mon, Flash, talk to me!" he cried.

Then—a sudden gust of wind blew upwards from the Tank, clearing away the obscuring smoke. And…right there they could all see that the Tank's glass top had been completely blasted away, and steam and smoke were now rising up from the inside. And there, inside the Tank itself, holding an unconscious Thinker by the front of his vest with one hand and spinning the other in a circular motion at super-speed to clear the smoke, was Flash. "Hey, guys," he greeted them cheerfully.

----------

12:20 p.m., moments later

In what seemed like very little time at all, a lot more police had converged on the scene and placed police barriers around the site of the battle, to keep out all passersby that were congregating there. A police van with a containment cell in the back was open and waiting for the captive Thinker to be placed inside. The criminal was now securely handcuffed and sans helmet, revealing his real face—a middle-aged, bald-headed man with a scowl fixed on his mouth. Some distance away, his confiscated Thinking Cap was being placed into a metal box by the police.

Standing a little distance away, Flash, Green Lantern and Dr. Light surveyed the scene. "Guess you really had a reason to call him 'chrome-dome,' after all," Lantern chuckled, observing Thinker's bald head.

"Yeah," Flash laughed. Then, on a whim, he glanced over at Lantern's own head. "Say, G.L…."

"I swear, if you call me that, you'd better not fall asleep tonight," Lantern answered, dead serious as he glared at Flash.

"Well, never mind," Dr. Light said warmly. "Now the battle is over, the Thinker is captured and his invention wrecked, and Central City is saved."

"Yep!" Flash said cheerfully. "And now we can all kick back and relax a bit!"

"Excuse me, Flash! Over here!"

"Hmmm?" Turning, Flash saw several news crews standing behind the barricade. "Hey, could you excuse me, guys—I gotta look good for the news people!"

"Oh, brother," muttered Lantern, even as Flash zipped over to where the news teams stood. "C'mon, let's go after him before he starts shooting off his mouth all over TV."

"Is it really that bad?" Dr. Light asked, a little bemused.

"Trust me, Doc, you don't know him as well as I do; when it comes to TV interviews, he's like a kid in a candy store," Lantern told her.

Now Dr. Light chuckled. "Ah, I see…like Booster Gold, perhaps?"

Lantern barely managed to suppress an outburst of laughter. "Ah, no—nothing like that. At least Flash does have one thing Booster doesn't—more humility and control."

Meanwhile Flash was chatting away to the reporters. "No need to worry—we took down Thinker, he's going back to jail, and everybody gets to go home safely."

"Excuse me, Flash…" One of the reporters held out her microphone to him. "Linda Park, Channel 4 News. What if Thinker breaks out of prison and makes another dangerous invention again?" she queried. "What will you do then?"

"Well…about that…" Flash shrugged. "If he breaks out again—which I doubt he'll be doing anytime soon—then I'll be around to stop him! And, of course, the rest of the League will be there to assist me if I need the assistance!"

Looking behind Flash at that moment, the reporters noticed the other two League members walking up. "What about you guys—care to comment on the battle just now?" someone else addressed them.

"Well," Dr. Light stepped forward, "I think Flash may have already said what we would say. But I will add this: The important thing is that no innocent people were hurt during the fight, and now we can let the police handle the rest of this matter."

"Maybe you should've let the police deal with the situation themselves in the first place…"

They all looked up in one direction at the voice, and beheld a man stepping past the barrier toward them. "And you are…?" queried Lantern.

The newcomer had dark brown hair, walked with a cane, and bore a scowl on his face. Reaching into his coat, he flipped out a badge. "Hunter Zolomon, Meta-human Crimes Division for the city's police department," he introduced himself. "The recapture of the Thinker was strictly a police matter. We never called you Justice League guys to help—we would've been able to apprehend him without your assistance."

"That's not what it looked like to us," remarked Dr. Light.

"I don't care what it looked like to you," Officer Zolomon retorted. "The point is, you shouldn't have interfered. Next time, leave the crook-hunting to those people who actually wear the badges!"

"Listen here, you—" Dr. Light started, but then she felt Flash's hand on her shoulder. "Flash…?"

"Leave him be, Doc," Flash shook his head. "The man's just expressing his opinion, that's all. It's not a crime to do so."

Officer Zolomon scowled. He turned and hobbled away from them. "Guess he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, huh?" remarked Lantern.

"There are lots of people in law enforcement who feel the way he does, I guess," Flash replied. "In that case, he'll just make one more."

"Well, let's hope we don't see that one again anytime soon," Dr. Light grumbled disdainfully.

"Uh…hey, guys—while you're still here, how about I take you to see the museum that the city dedicated to me?" Flash asked, hoping to change the topic.

"Oh, yeah, that's right—you were telling me about that," Lantern replied. "Sure, let's go check it out!"

"I agree—I would love to see this museum, as well," agreed Dr. Light. And with that, Flash turned and raced away, and the other two flew after him.

Already heading back to her news van, Linda Park turned and watched as the three heroes took off. "So cool…"

CHAPTER 1 COMPLETE! CHAPTER 2 COMING UP!