Chapter 17 - 17 New Threat? New Ally? (1/2)

In the upper atmosphere of Earth, a large space station, bigger than anything else within Earth's orbit, floated soundlessly in the vacuum of space. Unknown to the majority of people on Earth, the ”Heroes” of today all sat on a Round Table, their gazes serious and their eyes stern.

Even the Team, consisting now over over a dozen members stood in the corners of the room waiting to be called upon. All of them excited to be called to this sacred space, but nervous about the topic of discussion that was being called upon.

All the major superheroes of the world sat at this Table. And none of them, even the easy going Flash had comedic expressions on their faces.

Batman's eyes darted around the room before nodding slightly.

”Thank you everyone for being here today. But lets get straight to the point”.

The Dark Knight pressed a buŧŧon on the table in front of him and a holographic projection of a small figure floating over the North Atlantic Ocean appeared in front of everyone, covered in a strange looking spiky armor and his right hand extended in a strange manner.

They watched as this figure gather in cosmic energies and congregate around his hand. The way the energy jutted out like spikes before crystallizing into a ten story tall sword and swinging upwards towards the stormy sky.

The contradictory beam of black light cut through the dark thunderstorm and revealed a perfect azure sky. Just watching the process gave all the humans in the room a sense of relief, but sent shivers up the spines of Superman and Martian Manhunter.

”The amount of energy behind that swing was equivalent to the amount of energy being produced in our sun. Theoretically speaking, this figure could destroy our entire planet if he so dėsɨrėd..... and we have absolutely no idea who this person is”.

Hal Jordan, the first human Green Lantern leaned back into his chair, his mask vanishing as a deep sigh left his lips.

”Do we even know if this thing is human? Could it be an alien?”.

The Flash nodded at the Green Lantern beside him and asked,

”He might even be from an alternate Earth. I haven't felt any breaches being opened from other dimensions, but I can ask around”.

Batman nodded.

”The Watchtower did detect something leave Gotham City at an extremely fast speed, breaking Mach 5 in just few minutes. This ”something” was also the thing that emitted that beam of black light”.

He gestured to Superman and Martian Manhunter, the former nodded while the latter spoke for the two of them.

”The beam consists of cosmic energies. The energy has yet to be identified, yet I do believe some people may call it exotic material, or perhaps dark matter. Nevertheless, even with the Kryptonian and Martian archives we cannot identity this energy. However we do know one thing about it....”.

Superman raised his hand, and every other member of the Justice League's eyes widened, and the younger generation; The Team, gasped at the Man of Steel's hand.

It was burnt, or blackened rather. The Kryptonian physique that many thought whose only weakness was Kryptonite, had been injured by this strange cosmic energy.

When Martian Manhunter raised his own hand, they also saw that it had been affected by this ”blackening”. It was as if the energy was poisonous or something.

”This energy only seems to affect those who are not human. Superman and myself are not human despite our humanoid appearance, and have been affected by this energy. It does not seem like it is harmful, but the two of us have have a strange urge to leave Earth after being affected”.

Hawkman, also known Katar Hol, looked at the pairs hands and wondered.

”So humans are not affected by this energy..... what about plants and animals? Are they affected in the same way?”.

Martian Manhunter nodded.

”This video was recorded by a whale that was patrolling the borders of Atlantis. Unfortunately, its entire body was effected by this energy”.

They all sent a glance at Aquaman whose facial expression was pained for a moment before glancing over to Mareena who was leaning on Supergirl's shoulder. Her face was also marked by a bereaved expression.

Batman looked at the other members of the Justice League, specifically those non-human members.