Shadow Justice

3: Who Stands Where

J'onn Jonzz stared intently at the computer on board the Justice League Headquarters satellite orbiting the Earth. He had pulled another all-nighter after the last Incident which occurred at approxmately 15:00 hours local Pacific Time in the United States and resulted in three more lives lost. He pressed several keys in quick succession to bring up the latest crime scene photographs Arrow had acquired.

Moments later, a series of photos filled the computer screen in front of him. One body was sprawled out on the ground, blank eyes staring at the sky. The young woman's lips were blue and an arm was bent at an awkward angle. She was the only one fully intact.

The other two bodies were literally ripped apart. Limbs were strewn across the taped off section of the park. Blood splatter painted the grass and nearby tree red. The face of one person, the male, appeared to have been chewed off by some sort of animal. The teeth marks and what was assumed to be claw marks had yet to be identified as belonging to any specific animal.

The humans were beginning to panic and the news media seemed intent on spreading the story of the serial killer or killers behind the massacres. According to Flash, the local expert in current American pop culture, the culprit was being referred to on the phenomenon called The Web as The Ghost. Several online users reported seeing apparitions in the vicinity of the event in question near the approximate time of death. But no matter what, no one had actually seen or heard the murders take place.

It was strange; very curious indeed. For all the time J'onn had been alive, he had never heard of such a singular occurrence. It intrigued him.

Batman was similarly disturbed by the Incidents and even Superman was looking into things. Both were worried the murderer or murderers would tire of their current location in Starling City and move elsewhere. Even though Gotham and Metropolis were on the Eastern Coast of America, the two Justice League members feared their cities' local baddies would attract this killer or vice versa.

Green Arrow had been absolutely livid when neither Batman nor Hawkgirl showed any initial interest in helping him clear "this vermin out of my city" as he so eloquently put it. There were perhaps a few more colorful words in there as well but J'onn preferred to only remember the actual message, not the individual words. Particularly the insults.

After the second Incident, Batman had begun subtlely investigating through his own channels. After the third Incident, Hawkgirl had begun to worry and began requesting a transfer to Starling City. After the fourth and current Incident, everyone, Superman included, were morbidly fascinated. But unfortunately, by now Green Arrow was justifiably furious and all but threatened them to steer clear of his city unless they planned on helping and not merely observing like some sick fans at a Justin Bieber concert. Again, the message was edited of any extraneous words.

J'onn had been monitoring Starling City since the first Incident involving the Web-dubbed Ghost. For that, Green Arrow had spared him the brunt of his fury. In return, the two League members had shared what information they had managed to gather on the culprit. The person or persons' identity was as of yet still unknown, but Green Arrow thought he was beginning to make some headway.

According to the police reports the hooded vigilante managed to get his hands on, all the people involved in each Incident had had disagreements the days prior. Some were minor such as name calling while one involved a former victim and her convicted rapist. This connection between former victims and their alleged offenders was tenuous at best and varied widely from Incident to Incident. But the results were always the same: one victim was generally untouched aside from being dead and the others involved were torn apart, sometimes beyond recognition to the point dental records had been required for identification.