This is technically a sort of final-chapter plus epilogue. I'm happy to be able to mark this story as complete but… who knows, maybe one day in the future my brain will churn out something further for me to add. I'd like that.
Standard disclaimers apply. Concrit is not discouraged (give as much as you wish) but any errors, unless major, are now likely to stay that way until the day comes when I decide to rewrite the thing, as, knowing me, it well might. A list of homage and gacks comes at the end of the fic.
In-ze.
Black Canary starts things off by screaming. As loud as she can, right at the Manhunter's face. She goes down first. Gets up. Goes down again.
Harley Quinn is next, with that freaky-ass gun of hers, shooting like the mad thing she is. Oliver is… somewhere, but Supergirl can't see him: he's hidden (not well enough) up in the shadows and arrows are flying left right and centre, with too great an accuracy to be Jimmy's. Vixen is giving the cry of an animal Kara can't even identify but whatever it is, it's big and heavy and ploughs into Wonder Woman like a tank. Not that that stops her.
They won't be stopped, and Supergirl…
Supergirl throws her whole body into it and hopes her cousin won't kill her. She has no doubts about what he'll do to the others. If they're caught.
They won't be caught. She won't allow it, not while she can still draw a breath.
Quinn, Oslen.
He hasn't hit a target, yet. Not that he'd honestly expected to. Things are happening so quickly—
'Psst!'
He's not sure where Harley came from. She grabs him by the next and pulls him out of the corridor he's running down in an attempt to help Virgil.
'What? H-Harle—'
'Don't talk, stupid! They'll find us if you talk, be quiet!'
She doesn't explain anything much, just shoves a warm bundle into his hands and starts rooting around in cupboards and closets, ignoring the burst of whatever-the-hell-that-was flying past the window.
'Where did I put it…? Stupid, stupid, stupid Superjerks… If my puddin' were here…' She stops digging, drags something out and shoves that into his hands too. It's a red and green pacifier with a smile on the back. 'There! Now he doesn't have to be sad when he's away from his mommy!'
Jimmy looks at her expectantly. Downstairs he can hear screams and cries and something small exploding. 'Well?' Harley shrieks. 'What're ya still doing here? Run, you idiot!'
And then Jimmy finally realises what she wants. 'But Quinn, I--'
'Don't be a stupid superjerk, Oslen!' Harley practically screams at him, her eyes wide behind the domino mask. 'Go, leave, get out now… please, before the superfreaks get here and take him?'
That last part almost seems like a question. A plea. 'I…'
'Please, they can't have my baby they can't. You have to look after him for me, 'cause everyone else here would just treat him awful, even Supergirl! Just because he's my puddin's!'
He wants to tell Harley she's wrong. That it's all going to be okay, and Supergirl would never treat anyone badly, but… he knows that Harley isn't stupid and that's not really why she's asking. Jimmy's the only one who can get away from this. Jimmy's the only one who…
'You're not a superhero, you're not, you don't have to be, and you can take my baby away! Superman likes you, he might…' She rips the domino mask from his eyes. Which hurts, a little but not as much as the look on her face does. 'He… he might let you go.'
She's staring at the small bundle in his arms, tears making lines on her cheeks. And maybe it's that which convinces him, because Jimmy clutches the softly mewling bundle a little tighter in his arms and heads directly for the first escape.
Whitmore.
She had been doing okay with all this. Until the staff broke, that is.
Superman is weak against magic so really, she had no freaking idea how it happened. One minute she could feel the familiar pounding pressure tickling like stardust (exactly like it) in her fingertips. Then the power and energy rush out, as if they're being sucked away with a vacuum. It takes her minutes to realise that Green Lantern was involved with that.
By the time she noticed, it was too late. And S.T.R.I.P.E tried to fix it, they all did, but nobody knew enough about magic to be sure. So her connection was severed, just like that, along with all her powers.
And god, she misses S.T.R.I.P.E right now. She misses having that huge shoulder to ride on and the smile only she could see through the armour plating. She hates not being to complaint to him about things that don't matter. She misses her powers. Stars and Stripes, she misses…
She misses so much.
And now she's here. Fighting the Justice Lords, in some rundown estate on the edge of Gotham. No powers, no mask, no nothing. She's fairly sure the Manhunter already knows who she is and…
And that was Black Canary she just saw getting thrown through a wall.
They are so dead.
'Go easy on her, she's just a kid.'
Just a kid, huh? Right. But the broken remains of the staff tremble in her fingertips and… she doesn't even know why she brought it out. It's not like it works anymore. Still, she thought she'd feel better holding it, even splintered and broken as it is.
She can't help but shake. Because she's scared and for god's sakes he just broke the freaking Staff!
She doesn't have any powers now, she…
She doesn't have anything.
She tries to punch him all the same. Superman, that is. As hard as she can while he's reaching out to lift up Dinah and… Dinah doesn't move as she's lifted, and Courtney's fist… he doesn't even act as if he felt it. He probably didn't.
He won't listen to her when she screams at him.
Nobody listens anymore.
Hawkins.
Dying would be easy, really.
Or maybe not. Hell knows he's been in some scrapes before, but never anything quite like this.
The Lords have a way of making things difficult.
Harley goes down with a simple shriek almost the second she reappears from wherever the hell she vanished to, Hawk destroys everything that comes near him with a frightening kind of anger, and Virgil doesn't even know where Gear came from ('told him to get away from here, damn it!') but he's not going to complain about it. The arrows keep flying.
The energy building in his fingertips dies the second the Lantern slams into him.
And Supergirl goes down soon after. He isn't sure who hit her, exactly. Maybe one of the normal men with guns, maybe Green Lantern or maybe it doesn't really matter. She happens to fall to Static's left and their eyes meet hard across the concrete floor. He can hear Huntress quipping and swearing, but that's all he can hear part from the racket and the familiar buzz of static energy in his ears.
'This is what is necessary. We shall not allow the state to be compromised. We will not allow it. You must understand.'
God bless America, huh? When was the last time Virgil had ever heard anyone say something like that? It feels like years ago, back in Dakota, in some damn boring history class. God Bless America, Land of the Free.
He's not what you'd ever call a patriot but he liked where he lived and what he was and what it was (supposed to, used to) represent.
It wasn't anything like this.
Supergirl is bleeding from the nose, but still, she smiles at him and turns her eyes to the sky; to the tangle of electrical wiring that she'd been warning Harley not to touch earlier. Virgil feels her vision burning hot besides him.
And then he spreads his fingers upwards, and feels the static energy tremble, mixing in with heat and laser and electrical cabling.
'It's the only way.'
'Yeah. I know.
Somebody is screaming. 'No!' But Virgil knows what he has to do.
He's always known, really.
Yeah. He's always known. And if this might stop the Justice Lords...
God bless America.
No. God Bless Justice.
Oslen.
Jimmy runs, because Green Arrow told him to, and he's getting pretty good at taking orders. The others must be causing a distraction, back there, because there's no way anyone can run away from Superman and expect to get away with it.
Well, maybe there was one person who could have, once. But that person isn't here now, and Jimmy… Jimmy didn't know them too well, anyway.
Jimmy knows Kara, and Ollie and Dinah. He knows Helena, he knows Harley. He knows the baby in his arms and…
He knows they're back in that building, fighting.
And he's running away.
Because of Green Arrow. Always the voice of reason.
Somehow that doesn't make him feel any better.
Jason murmurs in his arms and Jimmy clutches him that little bit tighter and stops running when he reaches the interchange of the road heading out of Gotham.
That's when he hears the building explode.
He's not entirely sure what causes it, but the entire block just goes up behind him, and the shockwaves echo through the street in a way that makes Jason shriek in his arms. As Jimmy pauses, the Rebellion behind him shoots up in flames, like a tunnel of red taking over the sky. Someone is flying over the blaze but Jimmy can't make out who it is.
It's probably Superman. Heat vision, maybe. Or Hawkgirl with her mace. Or Static's…
Jimmy's not sure. If it was them it hasn't worked. Their last attempt to put an end to the Justice Lords. Jimmy's not sure what they were trying to do, but it hasn't worked.
Firing an arrow isn't like snapping a photograph, but the principles are the same. Practise, focus, take aim, fire.
Jimmy raises the camera to his eye and clicks the shutter.
Fin.
The phrase "To the people here, the Flash is a symbol, take that away they'll just give up, like something out of a bad movie" is a modified from the following phrase from The Flash television series from the 1990's: "To the people of Central City, the Flash is a symbol, take that away and they'll just give up."
The sentence "It's also common for him to get dizzy from blood loss before he's realised he's bleeding" is adapted from a statement made by The Flash: The Secret of Barry Allen.
I know little about Static Shock like, at all, so there is a tiny bit of guess work going on here. I did my research but the pointing out of any errors would be appreciated.
I first encountered the theory of Jason Todd as the Joker and Harley Quinn's son in a fanfiction by Merlin Missy. Her fanfics can be located here: http://missy. It's in there somewhere, trust me. Check them out if you can. In particular her R'verse.
"So her last words to him were childish, Barbara thinks", is gacked from the end of the book "Z for Zachariah", they are the last words of an apocalypse survivor to another before she leaves in search of others. "So my last words were childish". It's a frighteningly fantastic book. If you're into that stuff and get a chance, I suggest you pick it up.