Full Story:

"Welcome back to 'Vincent Diaz Live.' Tonight we have two very special guests with us in the sudio...Federal Prosecutor and Lead Attorney on the upcoming Firestorm murder trial, Ms. Kate Spencer...and famous, some say infamous Defense Attorney to the stars, Mr. Leslie Carter. Thank you both for being here tonight." States Vincent Diaz, host of a talk show on the GNN channel. Both Kate and Leslie give their thanks for letting them on the show. Vincent starts by asking Leslie why he isn't involved in the Firestorm trial. Leslie answers, "As much as I'd like to help the defense, I simply cannot take every case that presents itself. Being a good Attorney also entails knowing what you can bring to each client's aid..." "...the subtext of that statement being: 'and what each client can bring to you.'" Kate says as she interrupts. Leslie states that he doesn't like what she is implying, in which Kate responds, stating that she doesn't like what he does. Kate goes on saying, "Let's be honest here, shall we? Carl Sands has no apparent means of paying for his own defense, and the last time you did pro bono work for a defendant was...? Help me out here, Les. Oh, that's right. You never do pro bono work. That new Italian villa doesn't pay for itself, does it?" "Still bitter about my Copperhead victory, are you, Kate?" Leslie retorts bitterly. Kate returns with a small smile on her face, "What's to be bitter about? He's dead."

Vincent states that it's now time to take some phone calls. The first caller asks Kate if she thinks "that the Shadow Thief will attempt to plead out before trial or turn State's evidence on other villains to avoid the death penalty?" Kate begins to tell the caller, that she can't get into specifics about the prosecution's plan, however Carl Sands has many connections in the supervillain community, so she would be interested in hearing what information he would have to offer. While Kate is stating this, the Calculator is watching the broadcast and states, "Yeah, Carl... So would a lot of us." The Calculator thinks about Kate being a cold individual, which 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.' He continues thinking that Kate would crack Carl open like a walnut. As he is watching the broadcast, he is going over the list of 'Independent Contractors', to find who needs the work the most. "Aha. We have a winner!" he states.

Public Defender Joshua Logan walks down a dark hall surrounded but guards. One of the guards hands him some goggles, telling him to put them on, as they open the door to a brightly lit room. "Hello, Mr. Sands." Joshua states to Carl in his safety cell. "W--who are you?! What do you want?!" Carl Sands asks. Joshua introduces himself to Carl as his Public Defender assigned to represent him. "Why even bother with this farce? They have no use for me now!" Carl states. Joshua doesn't understand what he means and states, "Pardon?" "Don't play with me! They took it from me! It calls me! We need each other! It will die without me!" Carl states franticly. Joshua asks one of the guards what is he talking about. "His shadow leotard. He misses it." the guard answers. Joshua asks where is it currently, and the guard states someplace safe as we see it inside another lit up container similar to Carl's.

With the show over, Kate takes of the microphone and hands it to one of the stagehands, which informs her that she has a call on line five. Kate tells him that she only does "on-air" calls, when he tells her, "He said it was urgent and to tell you, uh, lemme see, oh yeah: "Sassafrass always spelt on the beanbag chair." "What line did you say it was?" Kate responds. The stagehand states again line five. "Who is this? How the hell did you know my cat's name?" Kate says into the phone. "'Cuz I took you to the pound to pick him out, Katie. Is that any way to talk to your Daddy?" the man says on the other end. Kate then has a flashback to her childhood seeing he mother getting hit by her father, then hiding under a table watching him kill her with a knife and getting taken away by police. "My 'Daddy' is long dead, creep--and California has hardcore anti-stalking laws!" Kate says into the phone right before slamming down the receiver.

At a Bus station a man asks a hooded man if he has a light for his cigarette. As the hooded man turns around his mask falls off revealing Shrapnel, he then states "Ooops. I hate this damn mask." The man asks what are you and Shrapnel answers, "Somethin' you shouldn'ta seen, sorry. Shrapnel then fires a piece of himself through the man's stomach.

The next morning, Kate and Damon are going over the Shadow Thief's case. While Damon is going over what they have for the case, Kate thinks about the call she received the night before. 'It couldn't be him, could it? I mean, he was sentenced to life in prison. By all rights, he should've been shanked in the showers years ago.. ..guess this proves bad parenting is genetic, too. Oh, Ramsey, you deserve so much better.' Kate ponders while looking at a picture of Ramsey. "Kate? Hello? Can I have an answer, please?" Damon says breaking Kate's concentration. Kate asks about what and Damon says, "The witnesses. Y'know, this case we're working on? How in the world are we going to find these guys?" Kate then turns and sticks her head out the door and yells "Get me Johnson in here! NOW!"

At the JLA Headquarters on the Surface of the moon. "We should take a proactive stance. Smoke out these monsters before they harm our families again." Hawkman states before Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman and Batman. "In theory, I agree, Carter, but not all of them are killers. We can't simply take justice into our own hands..." Superman responds. Flash then states, "Not to play Devil's advocate, but isn't that exactly what we do?" Just then an alarm goes off. "Someone's activating the teleporter. I'm expecting someone from my embassy." Wonder Woman says as she looks at a panel. A man dressed in a business suit comes up the teleporter and Superman states, "He doesn't look very Themysciran." "Um, Hello, my name is Michael Johnson and, um, I work for the U.S. Federal Prosecutor's office in, um, Los Angeles and, um, I..." "Spit it out, son, our mind reader isn't here today." Superman says with a smile and Batman states that he is talking like the Riddler. Wonder Woman offer Michael a glass of water, and after some banter from Hawkman, he states, "Well, Superman of Metropolis, Hawkman of St. Roch, Batman of Gotham...in the case of the United States v. Carl Sands a.k.a. 'Shadow Thief,' you've been served." All of the Super-heroes have a shocked look on their faces, when Michael asks if someone could send him back, he needs to pick up lunch for his boss.

Later that night, Kate calls Peter to talk about Ramsey. "Really? Are you sure about this?" Peter asks. "Yeah, I'm sure. But I still want to see him." "Kate--" "I know what you're going to say, Peter. I know I have to prove myself to have him for overnight visits, but I want to be able to take him to lunch, read to him, just hang out with him every now and then, ok? I really need that, please?" Kate states as she interrupts Peter. Peter responds, "I--yeah. That's not a problem at all. Besides, Ramsey misses you, too. Hey, look at that, huh? We're actually having an adult conversation at a normal decibel level. Isn't that an omen of the apocalypse?" Ramsey asks if it was mom on the phone, and says that she better not be smoking. Peter asks if she heard that, as Kate is about to put a cigarette into her mouth. She puts it back into the pack and says that she heard him. Kate tells peter that she has to go, that she has a lot of work still to do in the Shadow Thief trial, when her window blows out. Kate goes over to the window to see what's going on and sees Shrapnel and a bunch of Police outside of the building. "C'mon, is that all you guys have for Shrapnel? You make the cops in Keystone look like gladiators!" Shrapnel says to the police as the fire at him. "Bah! This is gettin' boring! Which way to the Shadow Weasel?" states Shrapnel as he pulls his arm back together from attacking the police. "Hey, where'd my fingers go? I hope they ain't stuck in some cop's guts! I hate that!" asks Shrapnel. "Over here, tall, dark and rusty. You think these'll look good on my fridge?" Kate asks as she is dressed in her Manhunter outfit, holding her staff with three fingers attached but a magnet. Kate then tosses them back at Shrapnel, knocking him down. "You wanna play, huh? Let's play!!" Shrapnel says as he fired his other hand at Kate. One of the chunks cut some of her hair, and she thinks that now she will have to 'get a new hairstyle, lovely.' "Next, I'm gonna take yer eyes!" Shrapnel states as Kate aims her staff at him. Just then she aims it up at the power lines and grabs one of the wires, hoping that her insulation works in her suit. She puts the wire onto Shrapnel as he says, "Haw! Whatcha gonna do now? Blow me up?" Kate thinks 'Nope.' And aims her staff at Shrapnel and fires a blast, melting him down into a heap. Shrapnel says no fair meltin' me as the police run up yelling at them to hold it right there. Kate has a smirk on her face as she thinks, 'Got one. Defeated a bad guy without getting smacked through a wall. Nice.' Then turns and blows a hole into the ground and jumps into the sewer to get away from the police.

"Great. Now should we change his name to 'The Paperweight'?" Calculator asks as he watches Manhunter jump into the hole she just made. In the shadows, the rest of the main members of the Villains Society stand and watch, when who appears to be Lex Luther says, "He's needed elsewhere, so let us worry about Shrapnel. Just find someone else to deal with Sands." "With the money you're offering, I doubt we can even afford the Bug-Eyed Bandit." Calculator retorts. "Cute. Just make it happen." Says the person who looks like Deathstroke.





"Hey, sexy, it's Calculator. HA! No, you're too much woman for me....




So...




How fast can you get to L.A.?"




To be continued

Characters:

Kate Spencer/Manhunter (Federal Prosecutor)
Damon Matthews (Assistant Federal Prosecutor)
Peter Robinson
Ramsey Robinson

Vincent Diaz (T.V. Talk show host)
Defense Attorney Leslie Carter
Michael Johnson (Law Clerk)

JLA Members:

Hawkman
Flash
Wonder Woman
Superman
Batman

Calculator
Shrapnel
Villains Society (In shadows)

Issue summary written by: glguardian (Tad Dupre)