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

"I . . . love . . . you . . . too . . . Jenny."

Peter Glaston had thought he was finished when the Stone King struck back.

For what seemed like an aeon he had experienced nothing, not even the cognizance of his own thoughts. There was no pain, no regrets, no flashback memories of his all-too-brief life. No heaven, no hell.

Just nothing.

And then, after an eternity of darkness, he thought he heard Jenny's voice.

"I . . . love you, Peter."

It was as if a dam had burst in his mind. He remembered everything: the first time he saw Jenny, hurrying across the campus lawn, late for a class. He remembered asking her for a date, silently cursing his tongue-tied shyness. The elation he'd felt when she said "yes." Their first kiss, long and sweet and tender, on a warm summer night.

Peter had never been in love before. He embraced the emotion the way he embraced Jenny herself–as if he never wanted to let go.

Her brief affair with Professor Mills had shocked him to his core, hurt him in a way he'd never experienced before. It was soon over, but the damage was done. Jenny said she was sorry; Peter said he forgave her. But there was a shadow between them that hadn't existed before, and the more they avoided discussing the issue, the deeper the shadow became.

From somewhere, the scattered remnants of Peter's personality found the strength to reemerge. He wasn't fighting for himself anymore. He was fighting for the woman he loved.

This was his body. The Stone King had no right to it, no right to steal his life, no right to part him from the only girl he had ever loved.

So he fought back as hard as he could, and tasted victory as his lips parted to say:

"I love you, too, Jenny."

When the Stone King first diverted his attention to Jenny and Cassandra, both Batman and Manhunter had felt the power that held them wane slightly.

He's preoccupied again. Manhunter flashed the message.

His mind still reeling from the Stone King's mental assault, Batman struggled to gather his thoughts. I think I know how he's holding the others captive, but it's going to take your psionic powers to free them.

The key was electromagnetism. Batman was certain of it He recalled a scientific journal he'd once scanned, one of the hundreds of items he committed to memory every month.

Volunteers had lain on a gurney, which was rotated at different speeds within a potent electromagnetic field. A surprising number of them, well over eighty percent, had reported undergoing almost exactly the same experience: they hallucinated that they'd been abducted by aliens.

Not just any aliens. There were no postexperiment reports of cosmic octopi with dozens of wriggling tentacles, no little green men with funny ray guns demanding, "Take me to your leader." Every volunteer claimed to have met with the same race, the ones known as "the grays," small beings with disproportionately large heads and black, almond-shaped eyes.

And not just ordinary hallucinations, either: the experimentees claimed the experience was real, as real to them as their everyday lives.

For Batman, the important revelation was that finely tuned EM fields could interact with the subtle fields produced by electrochemical activity in the brain. If it could be done with ordinary humans, it could be done with super heroes.

Now, as the Stone King stood transfixed, his mind overwhelmed by the intensity of Peter Glaston's emotion, his power over Batman and Manhunter decreased.

On my count. Batman thought. Three, two, one . . . go!

A snarl rose deep in J'onn J'onzz's throat. The anger aroused by that succession of hellish visions poured out of him. He flexed his arms, bringing all of his fantastic extraterrestrial strength to bear on the rock that held him.

It gave with a loud crack, and his arms pulled suddenly free.

Batman gestured toward their teammates. I think the Stone King's using electromagnetism to hold them.

I'll let them know what's going on, J'onn told him. Green Lantern first. He'll be able to will his ring to alter the EM patterns in his brain.

Manhunter converted his thoughts into a pulse, explanation nested within explanation like a set of carved Russian dolls. He sent the pulse hurtling directly into Green Lantern's mind.

There was no response.

Again, J'onn sent the thought, shrinking it to the tiniest quantum of information he could manage. Was that a flicker? A neuron in Lantern's mind firing briefly?

Desperately, he sent the thought a third time, already beginning to feel the strain. Unless it was with the voluntary cooperation of the recipient, telepathy on this scale could be debilitating to him.

For the briefest of moments, nothing. Then Green Lantern's eyes opened, blinking in the cavern's flickering light.

J'onn's thought package had told him everything, from the possession of Peter Glaston to the present situation in the burial chamber. Shrugging off the memory of the agony that had consumed him for so long, Green Lantern grinned and gave a thumbs-up sign to his relieved rescuers.

Thanks, guys! That creep was really giving me a hard time!

Lantern's eyes narrowed in concentration, and a thin, intense beam of emerald energy lanced from his ring. Silently, it sliced into the granite that was solidified around the Flash and Wonder Woman. In a silent puff of thick green smoke, the rock dissipated.

Free now, the duo lay unmoving next to Superman on the chamber floor. The emerald beam briefly reached out to touch their foreheads, subtly negating the electromagnetic waves that held them in thrall.

Consciousness returned at once.

Peter Glaston wasn't so lucky.

Even as Jenny watched, her vision misted by tears, Peter's voice tailed away and died. The recognition in his eyes faded abruptly, to be replaced by a look that begged for help.

"Peter!" Forgetting her horror, Jenny gave a sob and started forward, but Cassandra's arm tightened around her waist and held her back.

There was nothing they could do as the Stone King regained