Justice League of America - Batman: The Stone King by Alan Grant (best books to read for self development .TXT) 📕

It was a talent he could employ only for short periods. But it should be long enough.

J'onn soared a dozen feet into the air, turned on a dime, and sent himself crashing at speed into the lizardman Batman had been fighting.

The impact crushed the creature against the course's retaining wall, and the beast slumped like a sack of sand.

Batman had turned to run at Manhunter's foe, which hovered with uncertainty a few feet out from the side of the pyramid. A bat-line shot from the Dark Knight's hand, its grapple biting home around the lizardman's neck. Batman yanked hard on the line with both hands, pulling the surprised beast toward him.

As it loomed closer, it seemed to recover somewhat Its eyes glittered dangerously, and its maw opened to reveal jagged yellow teeth. Its drooling jaws opened wider–

And Batman tossed two percussion grenades down its throat.

The resulting explosion blew the creature apart.

Batman stood for a moment to recover his bream, and J'onn materialized beside him.

"I believe you lost this." J'onn held out his hand. Nestling in his upturned palm was the vial of fear gas Batman had dropped.

"Thanks." Batman took the vial and slipped it back into his Utility Belt. "My guess is the Stone King was distracted," he went on thoughtfully. "He was trying to save his energy, presumably because it's needed elsewhere. But something took his mind off the job."

J'onn gestured upward with his head, his craggy eyebrows looking more like a carapace under the moon's light.

Two stories above them, plasmoid light was flickering from the burial chamber.

"That's where we'll get our answers," the Martian said grimly.

Finally, Peter's strength gave out.

Soaked in perspiration, panting with effort, he let the flaming sword slip from his fingers. His rage and terror had exhausted themselves, and he felt a curious detachment from any emotion. He could hardly believe it had been so simple.

This being, this shaman of unimaginable power, had crumpled like paper under Peter's frenzied attack.

I guess I've got my body back. I'm in charge again.

He looked down at the bloody, torn remains of his possessor, and a sudden chill froze him to the spot.

The eyes in its disembodied head blinked open, and fixed Peter with a look so malign it might have been Medusa, the Gorgon who turned men to stone with her malevolent glare.

Pain stabbed in Peter's temple. Something warm was trickling down the side of his face. Curiously, he touched it with his finger. Blood. His blood.

His temples were throbbing now, the tempo quickening. He felt faint. He tried to marshal his thoughts, but everything was turning red.

Peter's scream lasted only for an instant, then his mind exploded.

CHAPTER 14

Preliminary Skirmish

Jenny Ayles sent the old Nissan bombing over Canyon Bridge, with the raging waters of the Gotham River a hundred feet below.

When the road forked, she branched right, taking them through deep pine forest for several miles. There were no other vehicles around, no roadside lights marking the position of farms and houses.

Jenny felt strangely detached, the way she often did when she was traveling. She'd left her own problems behind her. Their destination, and the problems she had to face there, still lay in the future, where she didn't have to worry about them. Yet.

Beside her, Cassandra traveled in silence. More than once, the empath asked herself if she was doing the right thing. Each time, her answer was the same: What alternative do I have?

A mile before they reached the site of the dam itself, Jenny turned the car off the paved highway. The Nissan bounced down an old farm track, Cassandra's self-examination all but forgotten as she struggled to avoid injuring herself on the passenger seat's broken springs.

"I don't understand," Jenny exclaimed as they rounded a corner that brought them in plain view of the riverbank. "The pyramid . . . it's not there!"

"Perhaps we've come to the wrong location," Cassandra suggested. "You're upset. It would be an easy mistake to make."

Jenny slowed the car to a walking pace and wound down her window. Clouds covered the moon, but there was enough light for her to know she was right. After all, she'd worked here every day for weeks.

"There's no mistake," Jenny insisted. "Look– there's the stand of cottonwood trees growing out of the riverbank. The dam's less than a mile upstream. This is where we used to park the university SUV."

She stopped the Nissan and switched off the engine.

Jenny felt a chill of foreboding as she opened the car door and slid out. This place had already taken from her the man she loved . . . and Robert Mills, a man she didn't love. But if there was a chance of getting Peter back, no matter how slim, she was willing to take it.

"Perhaps we just can't make it out in the darkness," Jenny told Cassandra, as she too got out of the car. "I'm going to walk up the path we used."

Cassandra's mind was working overtime. If they couldn't find the pyramid, they couldn't confront the monster. Peter Glaston wouldn't be freed. And the world would end.

Long grass whipped their ankles and bushes tugged at their clothing as they sidestepped the police barrier and made their way along the narrow path of flattened vegetation.

Jenny kept looking around her, shaking her head. How could something so big simply disappear?

There was a sudden rippling of the air around them, and both women came to an abrupt halt.

The stepped pyramid rose in front of them, its dark bulk limned against the moon that was now rising behind it. About halfway up the steep sides, intermittent flashes of strange light were being emitted.

"But . . ." Jenny said feebly. "How?"

Cassandra shook her head, at a loss for words.

In silence, they made their way to the foot of the pyramid. Terrified of what might await them, Jenny clutched Cassandra's arm and kept her eyes fixed straight ahead.

Batman and the Martian Manhunter crept quietly along the wide ledge of the fifth course.