Stephen Sharpe was working late in his office at the American Dream when suddenly, he felt the temperature of the air go down by drastically, but all he did was roll his eyes.
"You know Jordan, if you want to keep our cover, then maybe you should avoid using your powers to make an entrance." Stephen said as his boss entered the room.
"I'll keep that in mind Stephen." Jordan said.
"What are you doing here anyways? I thought that you were still busy traveling the world." Stephen said.
"A complication came up. One I will explain downstairs. Summon the others. This is an issue that requires all of our attention." Jordan said and Stephen nodded as they opened up the secret passage to the tunnels below and headed down.
"Well, this is a sight for sore eyes. When was the last time we did this?" Larry Crock, aka Sportsmaster, asked as he and his wife Paula White, also called Tigress, entered the lair to find the rest of the Injustice Society gathered there.
"Not long enough. Though I'm hoping that with Jordan back, maybe I'll have a football coach that makes it to the end of the season." Anya Bowin, the new Fiddler, said coldly, since she'd always thought lowly of those two.
"It's not our fault that those coaches you hired were idiots." Paula said.
"Enough. The whole point of establishing ourselves in Blue Valley was to avoid raising suspicion. But if you keep killing off coaches, eventually someone will catch on." Henry said, since he had the same view of his teammates that Anya did.
"Jordan, perhaps you can tell us why you called this meeting before someone kills the other." William Zarick, aka the Wizard, said.
"The reason I have returned earlier than anticipated is because the timetable for our plans have been accelerated." Jordan said.
"Why? There was nothing wrong with our current time table." Stephen asked.
"That was before Dr. Ito and I discovered a problem that could threaten our plans." Henry said.
"What problem?" Larry asked.
"Starman's staff has become active. My instruments detected its energy signature." Dr. Ito said.
"So what? Even if that's true, it's not like the staff poses a threat to us." William said.
"As usual, you're short sighted. The staff only awakens if it's found a worthy bearer. That means that there's a new Starman out there. And that is problematic." Henry said.
"So what? Even if that's true, it's not like they know where we are." Paula said.
"That's the other problem. The energy signature of the staff was detected here in Blue Valley. It's here which means so is the new Starman." Dr. Ito said they all immediately understood the repercussions of what he was saying.
"So, how should we proceed?" William asked.
"I say we kill him." Larry said.
"And if we knew where exactly he, if it even is a he, was, we would. But unfortunately, the staff's energy readings are not strong enough for me to track, nor do they appear long enough or consistently for me to track either. All we know is that whoever it is that is possession of the staff is here in Blue Valley, which puts Project New America at risk." Jordan said.
"So what should we do? We can't exactly go door to door and kill everyone in the house until we find the staff. That draws too much attention." Anya said.
"Which is why Sportsmaster and Tigress are grounded." Jordan said.
"Excuse me?" Larry asked as he and Paula looked outraged.
"This operation calls for subtlety, not brute force. That is why I am putting Brainwave in charge of this. He is the most logical choice, since he can scan the minds of the people of this town without them knowing." Jordan said.
"What about the rest of us?" William asked.
"The rest of you will focus your attention on getting Dr. Ito what he needs for his machine. I want all of you to pull your gear out of storage. Larry, Paula, you two will be allowed to be a part of that operation, but I want to make something very clear. If you two end up deviating at all in any way, and I mean any casualties that are not absolutely necessary, then your roles will go from hunters to prey. And I promise you will not like who is hunting you." Jordan said.
"Understood." Larry said, though it was clear that he and his wife were not thrilled about this.
Yolanda Montez was surprised when she came downstairs the next morning to find the Whitmore Dugan family waiting for her, all of them very happy to see her. Or well most of them. Courtney's younger brother Mike looked indifferent to seeing her.
"Hey Yolanda, how did you sleep last night?" Barbara asked.
"Pretty well. Better than I have in a while." Yolanda said.
"Did you make the list I asked you to?" Barbara asked.
"Yeah, I left it on the desk in the guest room." Yolanda said.
"It's not the guest room anymore Yolanda. It's your room." Barbara said.
"Right sorry, it will take some time for me to get used to that." Yolanda said and Barbara nodded.
"Anyways, I'll be taking you and Courtney to school today to fill out the paperwork to change your emergency contact information." Barbara said and Yolanda and Courtney nodded.
"Sounds good." Courtney said.
"So what am I, chopped liver?" Mike asked.
"I'm taking you to school on my way to pick up a truck to get the rest of Yolanda's stuff from her mom's house before I go to my shop today." Pat said and Mike looked satisfied by that as Yolanda finally joined them at the table, though she had to stop herself from going to prepare her own breakfast like she'd had to do for the past few months, reminding herself that this was a family that actually liked having her around.
The rest of the day passed by relative quickly and Yolanda was relieved about that, since she was sure that in a small town like this, it wouldn't take long for the whole school to find out that she was staying with the Whitmore-Dugan family and she was certain that someone would end up giving her a hard time about it.
But thankfully, so far no one had. In fact, the only person who'd brought it up was Beth and that was because she was asking if she could help Yolanda fully unpack at the Dugans, which Yolanda had accepted.
However, she should've known that her luck would not last forever. In fact, as she, Courtney and Beth were waiting for Courtney's stepdad to come pick them up, they found themselves being confronted by none other than Cindy Burman.
"Well well well, I see the rumors are true." Cindy said.
"What do you want Cindy?" Courtney asked.
"Just to know how much this dyke here had to put out in order to get you to get your parents to take her in." Cindy said.
"Excuse me?" Yolanda asked, seriously offended by that accusation.
"Oh come on. There's no way the new girl would risk any chance of her ever leaving loser town unless she was getting something out of it and there's really only one thing you have to give." Cindy said.
"Excuse me, but I'd think that if anyone here would be engaging in that sort of thing it would be you." Courtney said, shocking Cindy with her comeback.
"Watch yourself Whitmore." Cindy said.
"Or what? Unlike most of the people in this school, I'm not afraid of you." Courtney said.
"You should be. You have no idea what I'm capable of." Cindy said.
"Really." Courtney said, only to have Cindy push her backwards with more force than she was expecting.
"What the hell?" Courtney asked.
"I told you to watch yourself." Cindy warned her.
"That was uncalled for Burman." Courtney said.
"Deal with it." Cindy said as she made it clear that she was just getting started.
"Back off Cindy." Yolanda said angrily.
"Oh, looks like screwing the new girl helped you grow a spine. Fine then, if you want to get involved, I'm more than happy to put you back in bed with a girl." Cindy said as she moved to punch Yolanda, but she was shocked when her fist met something sharp.
"What the hell?" Cindy asked as she pulled her hand back to see what it had made contact with, only to be shocked when she saw what was coming out of Yolanda's hands, but not as shocked as she was.
"I don't know." Yolanda said as she looked down at her hands in shock at strange, what she could only describe as claws protruding from them.
"This isn't over." Cindy said, since while she desperately wanted to reveal her own hand accessories, she did not want to deal with her father's reaction to those actions, especially since he'd likely be interested in this before walking away.
"Yolanda?" Beth asked as she helped Courtney up and they also looked at Yolanda in shock.
"What's happening to me?" Yolanda asked.
"I don't know. But we'll figure it out. Together." Courtney said, making a decision to tell Pat about this, since maybe he'd seen something like it during his days with the JSA.
And right on time, Pat's car pulled up to pick them up.
"Hey girls, is everything okay?" Pat asked, only to stop when he saw the claws shooting out of Yolanda's hands.
"No Pat, it's not. I was hoping you might be able to help." Courtney said and Pat nodded, since with Yolanda's new skill, it would be best to tell her the truth about everything, if only so that she would trust him to help her learn to control her new ability, even if she decided not to use it the way Courtney wanted to use the Cosmic Staff.
"How can he help?" Beth asked.
"She saw too?" Pat asked and Courtney nodded.
"She did." Courtney said.
"Come on. Get in my car now. I'll explain everything once we're at my shop." Pat said and while Yolanda and Beth were confused, they nodded as they got in the back seat of the car, though Yolanda had to be very careful since she didn't know what was causing these claws to appear, though she did hope that she could get rid of them. Somehow.
After Courtney got into the shotgun seat, Pat drove off towards his shop, hoping that Barb wouldn't kill him for this, since it was unavoidable.