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#1
DEC 11 |
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“The New Homestead”
Scott Free breathed deeply as he stepped onto his new front porch. “It’s great out here!” he said as he reveled in the sun beaming down on his face. “I love California! It’s so much different than being out in New York with the JLI. And the people are so friendly!” He waved at a kid who was riding by on a bicycle. The kid responded by shooting Scott the finger.
“That’s wonderful, Scott,” his wife, Barda, replied, “but I think you might want to open the door.”
Scott turned to see that Barda had an enormous pile of boxes balanced in one hand. Scott smiled and opened the door for her. “You don’t have the good china in there, do you?” he asked. “I always get worried it’ll fall.”
Barda gave Scott a peck on the cheek, lowered the boxes and walked inside. Scott followed.
Next door a pair of eyes was peering out from the venetian blinds. “They’re here,” the woman said to her husband.
The blond-haired man smiled as he got up from the kitchen table. “Then let’s go say hello.”
“Do you think we should take the kids?” the woman asked.
The man thought a moment and shrugged. “They’re busy with homework. We’ll just go over quickly and say hi.” Seeing the worried look on his wife’s face the man smiled and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s going to be fine, Ellen.”
“I hope so,” she murmured as they walked out.
Scott and Barda were putting dishes away in the kitchen when they heard a knock at the door. “Probably the neighbors,” Scott said as he lowered to the ground. He pulled off his aero-discs and set them on the counter before leading Barda into the living room. He opened the door and smiled.
“Welcome wagon!” the neighbors said.
“It’s great to see you,” Scott said as he pumped the man’s hand. “Barda, you remember Buddy Baker a.k.a. Animal Man from the European branch of the JLI while we were in New York.”
“Of course,” Barda said as she clasped his hand. She looked at Ellen. “You must be Ellen.”
Ellen smiled as she raised a casserole dish. “It’s good to meet you,” she said. “I thought you might be hungry, so I made a vegetarian meatloaf.”
“Come on in,” Scott invited. As they entered, Scott paused a moment. “Where are your kids?” he asked.
Buddy pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “Getting their homework knocked out,” he replied.
Barda carried the casserole into the kitchen. “Of course you’ll stay for dinner,” she said.
“Um, she knows we’re vegetarians, right?” Buddy whispered to Scott.
“Yeah,” Scott said, “besides, she’s just going to stick a spoon into your meatloaf. So as long as you didn’t put any meat in there it’ll be okay.”
Ellen put a smile on her face and headed into the kitchen. “Can I help with anything?”
True to form, Barda had jabbed a spoon into the meatloaf and had four plates on the table. “I’ve got this, but you can go ahead and call the guys. I believe we’re about ready.”
After dinner, Buddy and Ellen had returned home. Barda folded her arms as she studied Scott, who was fighting with their new computer. “I can’t believe this,” she observed. “All of the advanced technology we had on New Genesis and you’re having problems with a home computer?”
“It’s not my fault!” Scott protested. “It’s hard getting used to this new version of the Starrware operating system. Nothing makes sense!”
“Maybe you could use your Mother Box to program it,” Barda said.
Scott turned around to face her. “I’ve already tried it. I’m about ready to try and contact Metron to see if he can make any sense out of this.”
Barda smirked. “You know he wouldn’t help you. He’d just make some deep statement about how he’s always searching for knowledge.”
Scott chuckled. “Maybe I should call Oberon,” he said.
“How’s he doing, anyway?” Barda asked. “Is he still working with Max Lord?”
“Yeah,” Scott said. “I don’t think that Max’s work on rebuilding the JLI is going really well.”
The phone rang at the vacant office that was presently serving as the JLI’s New York embassy. “Yo!” Cluemaster said.
“Answer the phone right!” Oberon yelled from his desk. Big Sir sat across the room playing with a bottle cap while Multi-Man cried in a corner. Shilo Norman, in his Mister Miracle costume, was starting to look for a way out.
“I mean…thank you for calling the Justice League International,” Cluemaster said. “Uh-huh. Sure.” Cluemaster turned around. “Call for you!”
Oberon shook his head and answered the phone. “This is Oberon,” he said. His face brightened in a smile as he recognized the voice on the other end. “Scotty!” he exclaimed. He listened a moment. “You know, just don’t worry about anything,” he finally said. “I’ll come out there and give you a hand. No, it’s no problem. Bye!”
Oberon hopped down from his chair and was smiling as he walked to the door. He stopped as a hand grabbed his collar. He turned and found himself picked up by Shilo, who had a panicked look on his face.
“If you leave me here, I will find you,” Shilo warned. “And when I find you, I will cut you.”
Oberon smiled wider. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I bought two plane tickets.”
Shilo smiled and put Oberon down before the two made their escape.
“How did it go?” Barda asked as Scott hung up the phone.
“Oberon said he’s on the way out here,” he said. “I’d say he’s probably bringing Shilo with him.” Scott held out a hand. “Pay up,” he said. “They made it over a week.”
Barda shook her head. “Not until we see if Shilo’s really with him.”
“All right,” Scott said with a smile as he stood. “I think Oberon’s right. This thing’s just going to drive me nuts if I keep fighting it.”
Later that night, a portal appeared in the darkened living room. Unbeknownst to Scott, his computer fumbling had sent a signal to Limbo and awakened the old Titans foe known as the Antithesis. The creature known as the Gargoyle stepped out and looked around. His mission was simple: locate a suitable site for the Antithesis to possess a supercomputer that he could use to release himself into this reality.
The Gargoyle moved silently through the living room and made his way to the front door. His wings bumped a vase which he quickly caught and quietly replaced on an end table. He carefully made his way to the door, unlocked and opened it.
His nostrils flared as alarms began blaring.
“Hey!” Gargoyle turned to see Scott standing at the top of the stairs in his pajamas. “Hold it right there!”
Gargoyle ran out the door. He glanced back to see that Scott was soaring toward him on his aero-discs while Barda simply ran.
Buddy Baker appeared at the door of his house next door rubbing his eyes. “Scott, what’s going on? Is it World War III?”
“Supervillain in my house!” Scott yelled as Buddy walked down the steps from his porch. His eyes widened when he saw the Gargoyle charging him. “Keep the kids inside, Ellen!” he called as he used a grasshopper’s ability to jump over the Gargoyle.
Buddy landed as Scott flew by. “So, who’ve we got?” he asked as he joined the chase.
“No idea,” Scott admitted. “I just woke up and he was going out my front door.”
“Did you clean out the basement?” Buddy asked. He ducked as energy blasts sizzled past.
“Halt!” Barda ordered as she fired her mega-rod. A blast lit a neighbor’s hedge on fire.
“Oh, great,” Buddy said. “That’s Mrs. Hoople. She hates us anyway.”
“Look on the bright side,” Scott said. “Maybe she’ll move.”
Buddy shook his head. “She’ll just complain about her property value dropping.” He turned to Barda. “Ready to end this?”
“Extremely,” she said.
Buddy grabbed her arm with one hand and Scott’s leg with the other. The speed of a cheetah enabled him to easily catch the Gargoyle. Once that was done, Barda’s strength and Buddy’s use of a rhino’s power quickly put the Gargoyle on the ground. One of Scott’s traps made sure he stayed down.
“Well, that’s that,” Scott said. He dusted his hands off. “Sorry about waking your kids up.”
“No problem,” Buddy said with a smile. “It was kind of fun, and at least this time the house didn’t get damaged.” His smile faded as he saw Ellen standing on the porch watching. “Now I’ve got to go calm the wife down.” He paused a moment and dropped his voice. “If we could keep the superhero fights to a minimum in the neighborhood that would be great. Ellen really doesn’t like seeing the kids in danger.”
“No problem,” Scott said as the police arrived and took the Gargoyle into custody. He put his arm around Barda as he hovered back to the house with her. “I think we’re going back to bed.” He and Barda walked in and locked the door.
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Next Issue: In Mister Miracle #2: What can possibly go wrong at a yard sale? Plenty when Barda and Scott are involved! Plus, the arrival of the houseguests who will never leave!
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