Justice League: Apokolips Crisis

Issue #5 - A Spark to Light the Fuse

THEMYSCIRA

NOVEMBER 16TH, 20:42 EDT

...

"Alright, our first order of business should be discovering where that machine is..." Tim addressed the small group of heroes, gathered in order to attempt a daring mission to repair the course of history.

"This shouldn't be a problem..." Imra replied, activating a star-map with her wrist-mounted device. "This was where the Miracle Machine's origins were traced to..."

Greta shuffled next to Jon.

"What are we supposed to be looking at?" She asked.

"I have no idea..." he replied.

"What you're looking at is Oa..." yet another feminine voice spoke from behind the two pre-teens.

The four turned to face the source of the voice, and it turned out to be Big Barda. As it was getting late, Barda was no longer wearing her armor, having switched to her more casual attire, which consisted of a (very casual) red two-piece garment, a golden head-piece, black gauntlets and matching bands which wrapped around her biceps.

Imra covered Jon's eyes.

"Really?" He asked, crossing his arms in annoyance.

Barda ignored Imra's attempt to preserve Jon's innocence and walked right up to Imra's star-map.

"I remember that New Genesis had a mild conflict with the Green Lantern Corps a few years ago..." she explained. "And that is where their headquarters are located..."

"Oa?" Imra inquired as Jon removed her hand from his face. "I suppose it's possible... The Corps is all but gone in the 31st century, but I do remember one of our scientists call it a Will-based contraption..."

"So what brings you here, Barda?" Tim asked.

"It was impossible not to hear his little rampage earlier..." Barda said, referring to Jon. "I followed the sound to make sure it wasn't Darkseid's forces and I ended up overhearing them discussing the Miracle Machine. And if you are forming a party to go and use it, I'm coming too!"

"You don't have to..." Jon said. "It's already bad enough that I have these guys trying to fix my mistake, I don't want anyone else to..."

"You don't understand..." Barda interrupted him. "I..." she paused and huffed. "All this... what Darkseid did... I know it's awful for all of you... but for me? It's personal! And I wasn't asking, little boy..."

Jon raised his arms in an attempt to calm her down.

"Well, at least we have another problem solved..." Imra said. "We can use your Mother-Box to transport us to Oa..."

"That won't be possible, unfortunately..." Barda lamented.

"Why not?"

"Darkseid has Cyborg and Oracle monitoring any Boom-Tube activity..." Tim explained. "No Mother-Box is activated without him knowing. And this not only lets him know where someone is headed..."

"But also allows him to track the Boom-Tube's source..." Barda finished. "In other words, I can't use my Mother-Box without alerting Darkseid to our sanctuary..."

"Great..." Jon mumbled as he crossed his arms. "What about the Green Lantern? You've used his powers to bring us here, plus if we're going to his HQ..."

"Yeah, that won't work either..." Tim lamented. "Alan's not exactly a part of the Corps. It's complicated, so I won't get into it. But even if he was, he couldn't bring his lantern. So he has to use his powers very sparingly or else he'll run out of power completely. And to conserve energy, he made it so he can only transport people to and from anywhere on Earth, but not beyond..."