(no subject)

[lexcorp-media.livejournal.com]

(The screen shows CNN anchor Thomas Roberts on the screen.  The time of day at this moment is 11:06 AM per the rolling clock at the bottom of the screen.)

"...reports state that this new virus, being called "Degeneration Y" by some accounts, has hit over 50 different cities and towns across America, with no apparent pattern or reason to date.   The only thing that can be confirmed is that only children and young teenagers are being affected by the virus - there have been virtually no reports of anyone over the age of 16 being affected.  Doctors feel that there's a possibility that the onset of certain stages of puberty can make victims immune to the effects, although no scentific evidence exists at this moment.

"Millions of children are currently filling hospitals to overflowing, and reports of some early deaths as a result of the disease are...

(He pauses, looks offscreen for a moment, then continues)

"Excuse me, there's some late breaking news.   In a brief statement to press, the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has stated that representatives of the Justice League, who due to security reasons shall remain nameless, contacted the UN less than 30 minutes ago to request an audience with the UN General Assembly at around 5 PM tonight.  Annan would only state that the address was of major importance and dealt directly with the current crisis, and that the source of the request has been verified as genuine.   We will, of course, have coverage of that meeting, should it occur.

"With us now is Surgeon General of the United States..."

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_man_of_steel_/]

Superman was getting ready to head to the Watchtower when he watched this on the news. Seconds later, he was active.

"Oracle, this is Superman. I need an immediate patch to the current founders of the group. Please acknowledge."

[oracle-watching.livejournal.com]

"Acknowledged, Superman. Patch established."

[reducing-ray.livejournal.com]

"Damn it!" Ray's working feverously, trying to trace back Light's signal. It's useless.

Still, he keeps working. He thinks of Jean, and the dagger sitting in his trans-spacial storage unit.

And he breaks out in a cold sweat.

[midnite-md.livejournal.com]

Dr. Pieter Cross is a man of God. A man of medicine.

He has never before in his life wanted to kill another human being.

Until this very moment.

[green-shield.livejournal.com]

"Son of a goddamn bitch!" She's been listening through the Brownstone's system, staring down her HIV labwork. Tears start stinging her eyes. The problem with a photographic memory...The images never fade and the pain just doesn't go away.

And if Light took a stroll through the Batman's mind and he had Bird boss for...

"Shield to Mid-Nite. I'm checking with the Outsiders team then hauling ass where you are." No, he's not really getting a choice on this one.

[oracle-watching.livejournal.com]

Not our daughter.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

They haven't slept for well over 36 hours. In the nursery, Dick holds Mary in his arms. She's burning up. She hasn't stopped crying for hours. Nothing they're doing is helping, and now --

Dick Grayson has faced death so many times in his life. He doesn't fear it for himself. But for those he loves, and now, with their daughter's life in the balance... he's terrified beyond measure.

And he's equally terrified of what he might do for her sake.

[fleet-feet.livejournal.com]

Everywhere in the world he can be, he is. Providing ambulance service for every child who needs it.

He thinks of his own twins, murdered in utero.

He thinks of Barry Allen, reconsidering his stance on what they've done.

He doesn't think about his own tears.

[jsaboss.livejournal.com]

"Dear God," says Michael, staring in disbelief at what they're hearing, but they don't have time to waste on horror.

"That's our timetable, people" he says over the frequency the science specialists have been collaborating over.

A few minutes ago, they were sweating having to beat this thing within days. Now, they realistically down to have hours.

[theotherlantern.livejournal.com]

Motherfucker!

He speaks through the ring to the rest of the Green Lanterns, which he's also set on the task of trying to track this transmission.

[elfinlantern.livejournal.com]

Arisia's mental voice is tight.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"No! X'hal, get out of my--I'll kill him. Hear me, X'hal, and mark me well--I pledge his death--I'll tear his body to pieces with my own hands--no, don't tell me that! I will see him dead!"

[katavatar.livejournal.com]

"SEVEN HELLS!"

His fists clench, and his teeth grind.

"Light dies for this, Shayera. Any claim to mercy is forfeit."

[hawk-shay.livejournal.com]

Shayera is quiet, watching the broadcast.

She doesn't notice her hand closing around the paperweight, doesn't realize what she's doing until she's already hurled the paperweight across the room, doesn't even register her actions until the paperweight smashes into the wall with a loud, satisfying crack.

Yeah, there's not going to be any mercy here.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_black_canary_/]

Lian. Allanah. Cerdian. Jonathan. Mary.

None of them are going to die.

Light, your fight is with us. Not the kids.

More and more, she regrets not trying to kill Light when he visited her in that cell.

[mrpierce2u.livejournal.com]

The power flickers for a moment as the White House suffers a brief power surge. Jefferson Pierce slams his fist into his desk, sending sparks flying.

No. Time.

"Mary," he says to his assistant. "Get the president. We need to start diverting everything we have to hospitals. We're going to need them."

[plazmania.livejournal.com]

Luke. Luke's thirteen.

He's definitely hit puberty, but he's also definitely not all the way through it.

He's not joking, he's not laughing, he's not trying to alleviate tension.

He's bounding across Chicago to check on his son.

[straight-arrow.livejournal.com]

For once, Green Arrow is paying attention to his JLA communicator. He hears Light's message. His first thought is for Lian. But he knows she's as safe as she can be at Titans' Tower. His second thought is for Mia, but hopefully she's old enough to be immune. Hopefully.

His third thought?

"Not a mistake I'll make again."

[connor-hawke.livejournal.com]

A message, text only.

Gone to Tower.
Light will pay.

[delphic-child.livejournal.com]

Has evil an equal? To prey on the defenseless? Lilith's anger doesn't start off small and grow. It erupts at full magnitude.

With expert concentration, she reaches out her mind like never before.

To search.

To find.

[caleb-z.livejournal.com]

Caleb stares dumbly at his JSA communicator for a time. He’d just come from the hospital, hoping to siphon some of the magic away from the virus, and therefore cure a patient. Unfortunately, with the way it’s designed to adapt to tampering, he thought it best to not risk making a horrible situation catastrophic.

This could be an extinction event, it enough of the children die. The virus would be carried by the adults, and conferred to any replacement children. This is bad. Very, very bad. I wonder how long it will be before riots begin breaking out?

Standing in the cold November air, he tries to ignore all the sounds of sirens and horns from cars in panicked gridlock. Thoughts begin to cross his mind. The only other time he’d ever done this severely enough to cause meaningful harm, it was both inadvertent, and horrible beyond his own minds ability to wrap itself around, even nearly a decade and a half later. Under any other circumstances, he’d never even consider this. People’s lives could be on the line, and he’d adamantly refuse to even consider this…

Another ambulance speeds by, this one on the sidewalk across the street. It doesn’t have a choice – the roads are bumper to bumper with scared parents and their sick, dying children. Millions of them….

“You’ll never see a prison,” Caleb mumbles to himself. He shakes with anger at the horror around him as he considers what he could turn Light’s completely drained soul into. Perhaps a pen that can only write ‘I’m an asshole.’ That would be truly fitting, now wouldn’t it?

Should they capture him, and not kill him themselves, Caleb will certainly make the heroes the offer. He won’t act without their permission, but he will give them the option.

[sexy-huntress.livejournal.com]

She would be grading papers right now. She had to give that up when she went undercover with the Gotham mobs -- who would hire a Mob capo as a teacher? Instead, she is going over notes, updating herself on the conditions of the children she helped liberate from the ship a couple of weeks ago.

But she listens, and the rage that she barely contains beneath the surface is more than ready to come forth.

She will not sit at home this time. She will not be confined. She will hunt that bastard down and tear him apart with her bare hands.

"You goddamned coward," she spits, snapping the pen in her hand in half. She'll send them to their own personal hell. The hunter will become her prey.

[damage-girl.livejournal.com]

Light.

The same bastard that thought it'd be a good idea to rape as a weapon.
The same bastard that holds the reigns of the Monster Society.
The same bastard that saved Enchantress's ass, and robbed Merlynne of the proper revenge she was due.
The same bastard that, over a year ago, she had endorsed killing. Mid-Nite and Alan had warned her to be careful what she's willing to justify. Now he was attacking children. It doesn't make her feel any better to know now she was right.

She keeps her sword with her. JSA-- Sand-- anyone be damned, if she sees him, they'll be putting him in the ground in pieces. She'll take the maximum sentence and smile about it.

[12thlevelmind.livejournal.com]

He's been sitting motionless analyzing data mentally for nearly an hour now, trying to find some pattern - any pattern - to the viral shifts. But he's catalogued three hundred and fifty-one different shifts thus far, and every time he's close to defining a pattern, an additional shift appears - it's almost as if the disease is mocking him.

He doesn't have enough time. Weeks, he could maybe do it. Even four or five days, with luck. But he has maybe a day, two at most, before millions of children start dying.

He needs more time.

He needs more -

Wait.

He slams down on the "transmit" button of his communicator.

Oracle. I think I have an idea.

[oracle-watching.livejournal.com]

"Make it an excellent one."

[zinda-blackhawk.livejournal.com]

"Dear Lord," Zinda breathes. To kill all the children... she can only compare this act to that of someone else who attempted genocide on a mass scale over fifty years ago.

She goes to clean her Colts with a steel resolve. That culprit escaped justice by taking his own life. This one will not be so lucky.

[itsastretch.livejournal.com]

He rushed home when things started, terrified. And at first, there was no sign of the flu. He rocked his little girl for a few hours, terrified of what might come, and knowing what millions of parents had to be feeling, while still trying to hold to some shred of hope himself.

He was almost drifting off himself, finally, when the first cough came. Shaken wide awake, he checked her temperature. He's been almost frantic ever since, interfering with any kind of reasoned analysis of the situation, as hard as he's tried.

When the announcement comes, he collapses into a chair, his sick little girl in his arms - there was no room at the hospital anywhere within reach.

"What have we done?"

[mrs-dibny.livejournal.com]

Maybe she misheard her husband. he hasn't seen that look in her eyes - that horrible defeat since Light's attack a decade ago - the start of the nightmare.

"The same thing we always do..." she murmurs shell shocked. "The best we think we can with what we got."

[gin-n-tectonic.livejournal.com]

He doesn't have any kids of his own, but he's on the phone with half a dozen ex-girlfriends who still have a bit of fondness for a beat-up con who's more often than not fondly remembered as "Uncle Booker."

Every time, he tells them the same thing.

Don't worry, Linda, the Justice League's on this fucker. We're gonna cure all the kids and save lives. It's what we do.

Paul Booker, being an ex-criminal, is a very good liar.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_man_of_steel_/]

"What...do...you...WANT!!!"

The last word comes at a volume that could shake the Chrysler building.

[dr-black-light.livejournal.com]

"What have I wanted for the last year plus? Vengeance."

"You've no doubt heard about the League's scheduled appearance before the UN in, oh, about 5 hours or so? You're going to make that meeting. You, the entire CURRENT league, and every last one of the nutsacks responsible for raping my mind. For your own count, that would be Carter Hall, Dinah Lance, Ollie Queen, Hal Jordan, Ray Palmer, Zatanna Zatara, and Wally West, representing his mentor. Those seven are MANDATORY. As is the Batman."

"Because they're going to tell the world everything. I imagine what your League went through when they found out about it. I bet you even had some sort of trial to discuss the matter? But when it was all said and done, you covered it up. No more. You are going to march in there and TELL...THE...WORLD not only what you did to me, but also what they did to the Batman to cover their precious little secret. The world will know what depths the League sank to in order to hide your crime from the world.

THEN you will unmask, reveal your identities, each and every one of you. You're probably an insurance salesman, cause I can;t think of anyone else who has a stick embedded that far up their ass like you do. And finally, you will disband the Justice League in the shame and humilation that you deserve, because after finding out that the League greenlighted mind control and brainwash techniques not only on criminals without due process of the law, but also did the same to their own teammates, they will never...trust...you...again. They will never trust heroes again.

And being able to do what you do? They shouldn't.

You will do this. You will all appear at the UN Building at 5 PM, ESPECIALLY those eight. Because if even ONE of you no-shows, at 5:01 PM, I release this virus GLOBALLY, and the genocide of an entire generation will be at your hands, simply to protect your dirty...little...secret."

[mari-mccabe.livejournal.com]

She doesn't have any children of her own, of course. Modelling and superheroing - that's what her life is about.

But at the moment, sheer anger is coursing through Mari Jiwe McCabe's lithe body.

Just a few hours ago, two child models were sent to the hospital. One of them was in a serious condition. The other - the most promising of the two - was no more.

She grits her teeth, listening to Light go on about his dirty little plan.

Mari is a woman who believes in second chances and redemption. But there is no redemption for a man like this, no second chances.

All she wants to do now is rob him of his manhood.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_man_of_steel_/]

Superman stands there silently, for a second.

At the moment, however, he needs to be who he is.

"Everyone, this is Superman. Wonder Woman, are you listening?"

Of COURSE she is.

[amazon-diana.livejournal.com]

"I am here." The diplomat is not present, the warrior is the one who speaks.

[oracle-watching.livejournal.com]

Take her away--no, no.

Let Light win.

Barbara Gordon Grayson inhales. Oracle exhales. She looks up at Selina. "You'll watch over her up there?"

[femme-du-chat.livejournal.com]

Watching over her with Alfred.... Watching over her in space...

God, she hates that damn teleporting thing.

"Yes."