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

But at last the Stone King had noticed the gnatlike super hero intruding on his territory. His hand swept up, gigantic fingers trying clumsily to pinion Batman. The super hero twisted away from them, and the Stone King's finger and thumb snapped shut on the remains of his tattered cape.

Five hundred miles down, Superman and Wonder Woman crashed through a thin shell of solidified sulfides and arrived at the earth's outer core. More than a thousand miles thick, it consisted mainly of a semi-solid mix of nickel and iron.

The temperature was more than two thousand degrees, and the pressure was almost incomprehensible. Despite their powers, neither super hero wanted to spend more time in these surroundings than was absolutely necessary.

Huge currents swirled and eddied in the magma. The kinetic energy they produced was siphoned off upward, to be metamorphosed by the pyramid into raw power for the Stone King.

Superman and Wonder Woman set their sights on what was perhaps the single most difficult task they'd ever faced: to slow these planetary tides, to disrupt their motion, even to reverse them if they could.

Together they plunged into the maelstrom and began to swim against the currents with as much speed as they could manage.

The Stone King yanked Batman violently upward, the giant hand dangling him by his cape until he was on a level with the creature's face.

The stench of its breath was like a charnel house. Batman kept his gaze averted for fear of being hypnotized, but he could literally feel the Stone King's power burn from its eyes as the creature scrutinized him at close quarters.

He could understand why it had once been worshiped as a god.

In the nickel-iron outer core, new currents churned, formed by the super heroes' motion.

Whirlpools swirled in the semimolten mass, cutting across the regular flow. Massive eddies and swirls churned up the metal magma, each one sending out its own concentric ripples.

Incredibly, the tides began to turn.

The Stone King felt the energy that was feeding him flicker and wane.

He lurched unsteadily and almost stumbled forward.

The monster's cavernous nostrils loomed beside Batman, and sudden hope flared from the depths of despair. This is my last chance!

Batman's left hand pulled the vial of fear gas from its pouch. He kicked back with both feet, then forward, the way an acrobat starts a trapeze swinging. The resulting pendulum motion was all he needed to bring him close enough.

Forget the pain . . . it's now or never!

His left hand extended to its full reach, and he hurled the vial of concentrated gas with all his strength. It shattered inside the nostril, on the sensitive lining inside what once–it seemed aeons ago– had been Peter Glaston's nose.

Nothing happened.

The sickness in the pit of Batman's stomach was a palpable thing. It's over! he thought with dreadful finality. For all of us. For everything.

Then the gas, absorbed into the Stone King's bloodstream, hit the monster's brain.

He stared at Batman, transfixed with horror. Electric bolts of cobalt blue sparked around his face, and his flashing eyes rolled back in his head.

For a second, the giant seemed to recover. The huge eyes opened again, their gaze zeroing in on the dangling vigilante, drinking in every detail. The horned ears. The cape with its scalloped edges. The bat-symbol on his chest.

The Stone King trembled with fear. His mouth opened in a scream of terror, a deafening shriek that was heard all around the world. He hurled Batman away from him, the way one might brush off a scorpion, in fear and disgust.

The cape ripped from Batman's shoulders, and the pain he had held at bay for so long overwhelmed him.

Everything faded to black.

The Stone King threw back his head, extending his arms out and up, as if trying to regain control of himself and his tremendous powers. But the damage was done. His careful buildup of power had gone awry. The energies he was controlling had slipped their leash.

Lightning bolts seared out of nowhere, raining down on the Stone King himself. They impacted explosively, crackling streaks running like water down his body to disappear into the pyramid.

Fountains of lava erupted at the monstrous figure's feet, spattering his legs, bubbling up over his ankles.

Beams of energy sizzled out of nowhere, beating a grim tattoo against the Stone King's shuddering body.

Something had to give.

When the Stone King hurled Batman from him, the Flash saw his teammate spin away through the air.

Forcing himself to forget his own pain, the molecules of the Flash's body began to vibrate. He slipped off the line that held him to the Stone King's shaking, shuddering body. Vibrating at the same frequency as the air itself, he was able to race along it like a road.

The pain in his side was intense, but he forced himself on. It was a full mile from the pyramid before he managed to overtake the hurtling body and scoop it to safety in his arms.

Seconds later, the Flash landed on the small treed ridge on the riverbank where he had left Green Lantern. Now, Batman lay unconscious beside the Emerald Warrior. The Flash crouched down and ripped the Utility Belt from Batman's waist, searching through its pouches for something that might help.

As he held a small vial of smelling salts under Batman's nose, trying to revive him, the Flash glanced up.

On the summit of the pyramid, the Stone King was now falling victim to the very forces he had released and tried to control.

The body of the behemoth filled with cobalt-blue light, pulsing to twice its already massive size. Streams of white energy spiraled from the Stone King's eyes, exploding savagely in the air around his head. Lightning bolts streaked from out of nowhere, blasting against his body.

Desperately, the Stone King turned this way and that, trying to avoid the energies building up inside him. He writhed and shuddered, silhouetted against a sky that was swirling with every color