Session 19+ : Between All-Star Comics #8 and #9

[Adminenkainen]

For session 19 we barely had a quorum, with Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, and Johnny Thunder being the only heroes in attendance. That's not to say we didn't have guest stars, though...

We rejoined the heroes soon after returning to the states after their Egypt adventure. It was the week of November 9-15, 1941. Everyone began on separate activities.

Johnny Thunder was eager to engage in more Justice Society business, which was a recruitment drive The Atom had proposed before the Egypt adventure. The mystery surrounding the international vigilante Daredevil was intriguing, and he was supposedly in the NYC area now. Johnny did his research on recent sightings and patrolled them, but turned up no leads on the reclusive hero. But Johnny couldn't spend all his time searching anyway. He was behind in his classes now and needed his girlfriend Elizabeth to help him study.

The Hawkman started his Sunday patrolling with Hawkwoman. They began their morning over Central Park, and found a crowd of nudists relaxing in the park! Hawkwoman went for the police while Hawkman threatened these self-described "naturalists" if they didn't put their clothes back on. These naturalists seemed strangely calm about Hawkman's threats, and even tried to grab him and take his armor and wings from him! It was only when Hawkman pulled a gun on them that they backed off and did what he told them to. They left, and Hawkman never did find out who they were or what that was about. On Monday, he took a break from patrolling to check in on his henchman Greg, who had been left in charge of feeding his pet hawks in Hawk Valley. Greg was eager for more work to do (and to get paid).

The Flash started his week checking on Jennings, the scientist who's space-radio had attracted the Spider-Men of Mars. The scientist wasn't home, but Flash left a message/warning, saying that he would be keeping an eye on Jennings. The Flash did some patrolling too. He found a suspicious man trailing a woman for hours, but upon cautious investigation found out the man was PI instead of jumping to conclusions.

The Green Lantern started the week communing with the magic flame of his lantern. He wanted to craft a magic healing item and the flame had ideas for him. If he bought a certain, rare wood, and carved it in a certain way, he might be able to craft a Rod of Healing. His magical research was going to be time-consuming, though, so GL, as Alan Scott, went in to work to tell his boss (Mr. Wallace) that he needed to quit Apex Broadcasting. But Wallace had a different idea for Alan -- he wanted to give Alan a promotion to management! Alan had to think long and hard about it, but decided to scale back his hours to part-time.

It was on Tuesday that everything changed -- or rather, people began to change. Thousands of people in NYC were waking up to find they had been transformed into someone else entirely, with no memory of their past life. The U.S. Public Health Service set up an emergency lab, surrounded by national guardsmen and state police. These four members of the JSA met there and spent the morning learning data as it came in. People were transforming by the thousands. It was not affecting the young, it seemed to be disproportionately affecting big strong men, and it turned everyone into weaker, more timid people. It was affecting people who came into the city from outside, it was affecting people later in the day who were wide awake (and were observed changing "werewolf"-like). Johnny looked at the data and made the observation that it seemed to be affecting people disproportionately more in midtown. Green Lantern confirmed that the effect was not magical in nature.

At noon, Sivana made his radio demands. He said more people would be transformed if he wasn't made king of the world.

That afternoon, Johnny Thunder and Green Lantern succumbed to the transformation. Neither remembered being superheroes! Since Johnny was already weak and timid, he was practically enfeebled after his transformation.

The Flash and Hawkman knew they needed more help. They used their secret radio frequency to contact the others. Only The Hourman and Dr. Fate heard and came. Everyone else had possibly already succumbed to the transformation! Hourman was happy to pool his chemical knowledge with the Public Health Service. The only progress they made was guessing that the outbreak was spreading through water contamination. The reservoirs were put under guard. By that night, about 50,000 New Yorkers had been transformed, but the numbers were leveling off. The city was under quarantine.

On Wednesday, Chicago reported an outbreak! In this case it was only a few thousand, and the numbers never jumped as high because they were warned right away not to drink the water.

At noon, Sivana broadcast over all radio signals. He was impatient to become king of the world -- literally demanding a crown -- and left the clue "40 by 70" for finding him. The Flash reasoned that these were coordinates, but they were too vague to be of any use. Mayor LaGuardia said that he would be prepared to turn over the city to Sivana if no one could reverse this. Governor Lehman declared a state of emergency.

On Thursday, a smaller outbreak occurred in Philadelphia. Los Angeles was forewarned not to drink their water. At noon, Sivana broadcast again. This time, Sivana included more exact coordinates by two decimal places, but that still wasn't enough to pinpoint him. Luckily, the JSA was ready this time -- they had radio equipment set up around the city -- including on the Empire State Building -- to triangulate Sivana's signal. They found him -- in Central Park! The four heroes converged on the park and searched it from one end to the other until The Flash got lucky and spotted armed men on the roof of Belvedere Castle.

The heroes jumped or flew up to the roof and engaged four gunmen. The gunmen were terrible shots (like stormtroopers!) and went down quickly. The next thing that happened, though, was that three giant (10' long) turtles climbed out of Turtle Pond behind the castle and started scaring bystanders. The heroes were torn on whether to leave the castle and engage them -- when Captain Marvel flew in. Marvel had deduced Sivana's location and was game to take on the turtles and leave Sivana to them ("I've fought him plenty of times already").

A gun turret popped out of the roof in front of the roof access door, but before it could shoot, Dr. Fate grabbed it and broke it to pieces. The door was electrified, but only delivered a mild shock to Hawkman. Hawkman shot off the lock and they were able to push the door in.

Inside was the office of Sivana, full of radio equipment, and guarded by a big man with brass knuckles and a creepy midget with a knife. Sivana was hoping for Marvel and asked if the heroes would just go away. Nothing doing. Dr. Fate paralyzed the big man right away and Hourman tackled Sivana, just as he was putting on a rocket pack. The midget chased Flash around. Sivana pressed a stud on the pack and it turned into a sort of catapult, ejecting Sivana from Hourman's grip and into the fireplace -- where Sivana disappeared. Hawkman and Flash dove into the fireplace and also disappeared. Hourman tackled the creeper midget, pinned him, and tied him up with his pants.

Sivana, Hawkman, Hourman, and Dr. Fate had been teleported into a small private room. Sivana scrambled into a crawlspace and tried to wriggle away from them. Hawkman threatened to shoot him, but Flash just dragged him out.

Sivana was captured (the humiliation of being captured by someone other than Captain Marvel!), and the room the crawlspace led to was a storage room. It had shelves full of beakers marked "dope" and "anti-dope". Captain Marvel joined them, coming down from upstairs (this was in the basement) after finishing off a robot the heroes had missed on the ground floor. Between the lot of them, they figured out that the "anti-dope" was an antidote for Sivana's transformation "dope". Captain Marvel was asked if he wanted to join the Justice Society. He said he would ponder it with the "wisdom of Solomon" and get back to them.

The person who used to be Green Lantern offered to be the first to test the anti-dope -- and it restored him to Green Lantern at once! Johnny was restored. Hourman went to work helping the government scientists replicate the anti-dope so there would be enough to send to the other cities. In the days to come, everyone was restored to normal.

Also, in the days that followed, The Flash ran into a mother who wanted her two sons saved from a kid gang. The kid gang were enamored with a hoodlum named Slugger. The Flash demolished Slugger and delivered a stirring, redemptive speech that turned the kids on the path of righteousness.

Hawkman joined the recruitment drive project and looked for Superman. Though Superman was already an honorary member, Hawkman wanted him to step up his participation. As Carter Hall, he tried to use Clark Kent to locate Superman. Lois Lane was a problem, but they finally got her to leave long enough to talk in private. Later, Superman contacted Hawkman by radio and told him he was still not interested in being a full member if he could not fully commit more time to the society.

Johnny Thunder finally, definitely, cut all ties to his ex-girlfriend, Daisy Darling. Daisy left him, vowing vengeance. Johnny also gave up on Daredevil and looked into finding Captain America. He researched Captain America at the library with his daughter Peachy. He called for help on the JSA radio frequency, and was answered by The Spectre. The Spectre encouraged Johnny to try and locate Captain America through the FBI. They had to go to Washington, D.C. (by train) and The Spectre had to take the lead in intimidating their way in to see J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover revealed that Cap was in Wales on a mission...and that he would have another mission for the JSA soon.

Once outside, The Spectre asked Johnny if he wanted to go Wales. Johnny did, even though there was some risk involved in the teleportation. The spell worked, though, and Johnny found himself in Wales...

[Adminenkainen]

Before play really began, we resolved Johnny Thunder's encounter with Captain America with just a die roll. Johnny's luck was true to form, though -- he must have said something that offended Cap, because he wanted nothing to do with Johnny, or joining the Justice Society.

Session 20 was attended by Flash, Hawkman, Hourman, Green Lantern, and Johnny Thunder. And we started right off the bat with a surprise summons for the JSA from Mary James!

No one heard the original radio broadcast on WABC, but everyone heard about the unusual summons to Columbia University by word of mouth and arrived there the next day, on Nov. 16th. Mary told them how her boyfriend Al Pratt had been found -- dead -- and wearing the costume of The Atom. She took off his costume and hid it to protect his secrets, but wanted confirmation from his peers if The Atom had really been her boyfriend. Unfortunately, The Atom had always been protective of his true identity and none of them knew for sure! The Spectre (also present) had to contact a higher plane to divine the answer -- yes, The Atom and Al Pratt had been one and the same!

It was the cursed necklace The Atom picked up off a mummy in Egypt that killed him. But The Spectre said it was not too late to save him. He could open a portal to the Afterlife so the others could go see if Al's spirit was not too far along to be retrieved. The Spectre would have to stay behind to keep the gate open; all the Heroes present agreed to go (including Dr. Fate and Dr. Mid-Nite). When the portal opened, everyone saw a staircase that seemed to lead up into the clouds. Though it seemed to go on for miles and miles, it took them only one hour to climb to the top. There, the stairs ended at a veil of mist.

Hawkman flew through the mist first to test it and found it led to a desolate valley. The heroes all walked through the valley until they came to a warm, bubbling river (bubbling more like a spa than boiling water, Hourman found -- was this the River Styx?). A dozen shrouded figures stood on the shore of the river that cut across the valley, blocking their progress. The Flash raced around and checked everyone's faces through the shrouds before they realized they didn't know what Al looked like without his mask! Still, none of them matched Al's distinctive height.

While this was happening, an ugly boatman in really old clothes poled a gondola-like longboat up to the shore. The shrouded people climbed aboard, but the boatman didn't want to let the heroes on because they didn't wear the mark of his master, Death. He demanded a "sacrifice" from the heroes, though bribe is clearly what he meant. Luckily, by amazing chance, a lot of the heroes were still carrying around British gold sovereigns they had picked up on their England adventure. They sacrificed 15 coins and got a ride up the river.

Green Lantern made many quips to keep people's spirits light. Some flying monsters threatened the heroes as they sailed down the river, but lightning bolts and bullets either destroyed the monsters or sent them fleeing for their lives. Only Dr. Mid-Nite got bit.

They reached a beach where the shrouded people got off. Nearby, a short man dressed in white -- who was likely Al Pratt! -- was sitting and talking to what appeared to be an angel (it was later called a deva). A gruesome, burning giant stood between the heroes and Al and, while it allowed the shrouded people to pass, it attacked the heroes. The giant was very hard to hit, but The Flash generated a wind gust that extinguished its flames. Feeling naked, the giant backed off. When they talked to Al (it was Al), he was torn between leaving with them and staying, but opted in the end for coming home to help protect Mary from the cursed necklace that killed him (Hourman's idea). The deva agreed to let them leave with him so long as they agreed to go no further.

The last obstacle was the boatman, who wanted an even bigger sacrifice to take them back and hinted he wanted a magic item. Hourman recalled he had three invisible gems on his person and gave those to the boatman, who accepted them. Al and Mary were soon reunited. She was so glad to see he wasn't dead that she didn't even question how she could have been wrong about him being dead. The Spectre and Dr. Fate agreed to take the necklace back to Dr. Fate's tower and work on a way of destroying it. Everyone remembered their experience in the Afterlife, except for Al who could not remember speaking to the deva.

Time passed.

November 20, 1941. Thursday.

Johnny had his own adventure first, "Johnny's Messenger Service". It was his mother's idea to start a messaging service when Johnny needed a new job. Johnny did his homework and figured he could save start-up costs by having his girlfriend bring her friends together to make homemade signs for the business. But then, on contacting Hawkman via radio, Hawkman agreed to bankroll the initial advertising in return for a share of the profits. Within days, Johnny had Thunderbolt Messenging up and running. He had also bought his first car, and learned/was learning how to drive it!

One day, the following week, Johnny received a strange request to deliver an envelope. Three men invited him up to their office to give him the envelope and offered him a dollar to take it to Assistant DA Frost at his office. Johnny drove to the office and parked, but two men tried to stop him. One tripped over a dog before Johnny even spotted him, and the other tried to pick Johnny's pocket while he was helping up the first guy. It was when Johnny saw the first guy was armed that he tried to stop them with spells. The spells failed, though, and Johnny let them run off -- particularly sense the dog had found the envelope hanging out of his pocket now and was pulling it out with its teeth. Johnny ended a quick game of tug of war with a Hold Person spell on the dog (I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to the game mechanics side of the story).

Now, since Johnny had picked up the fallen man's gun earlier and was still holding it, two security guards emerged from the building and kept a real close eye on Johnny. Johnny was more interested in finding the dog's owner, though, and soon did -- it was Peachy Pet herself. The little rascal had skipped school, found a stray dog, named him Snuffles, and was bringing him home by this route. She had also ran inside One Hogan Place (this very building) to hide when she saw Johnny, and she overheard Frost in his office complaining about it taking so long to stop a messenger so that bribe money couldn't get to him. Johnny was determined to deliver that envelope, or at least see what Frost would say when he showed up with it. Frost denied expecting the money.

It might have ended there, except the three guys from the office showed up outside, thinking it had taken Johnny too long to deliver the envelope. When Johnny emerged, they tried to grab him. Johnny had the security guards following his every step catch one and, when the other two ran to a car to flee, Johnny trailed them back to their office to see what was really going on... (continued later on Facebook chat).

Nov. 28, 1941. Friday

Hourman had the next adventure. It started when Rex Tyler was at work and met a Bert Izzel in Mr. Bannerman's office. Mr. Izzel was showing off a new, smaller jet engine prototype he'd invented and was desperate to find a developer for. Rejected by Bannerman (despite the nice things Rex had to say about it), Izzel went out to his car -- and was assaulted by two dwarfs on a flying carpet! Rex called security, then changed to Hourman and raced out the building the back way so he could come around the parking lot from the front.

By the time Hourman got there, one of the dwarfs was gone, Izzel and his car were gone, and three security guards were in a standoff with the remaining dwarf on the carpet (the guards couldn't figure out how to get him down from there). Hourman crept up underneath the carpet and tried to yank it down out of the air, but wound up hanging underneath it. The dwarf tried to cast spells, but Hourman could still shake the carpet hard enough to disrupt his spells. When Hourman told the guards to start shooting, the dwarf hopped off and tried to get away on foot. But Hourman was faster and chased the dwarf down (the carpet was forgotten and left behind). Surrendering, the dwarf said his name was Dolf and he and his magician partner Glyn had kidnapped Bert Izzel for Lucky Atlas, to pay off their gambling debts to the man.

Later, Hourman visited the Lucky Atlas Gym and wanted to look around. In the back room, he found Glyn hiding. But Lucky and four thugs had followed Hourman into the backroom and were ready for this confrontation. Glyn cast a spell and a large ape appeared. Between a seemingly unbeatable ape and the four thugs, Hourman was knocked out and captured. This might have been the end of Hourman, but he woke up later, tied to a chair, and was able to witness a falling out between bad guys. Glyn wanted to be paid for capturing Hourman, but Lucky considered this part of the Bert Izzel kidnapping and would extend Glyn no more credit. A fight broke out and all the bad guys defeated each other. Hourman still had enough Miraclo left in his system to break his bonds and found Izzel tied up in a closet.

Dec. 5, 1941. Friday

Jay Garrick and Joan Williams were dining out at the Club Cordiale to celebrate Joan's third week at her new job. Jay changed to The Flash to investigate a scream in the kitchen, but it turned out to be a dishwasher named Khaja celebrating because he had just read a letter stating that he was now a prince of India since the death of his uncle.

When the headwaiter, Herman, stormed off in a huff, Flash had a hunch this could mean trouble. He found Herman out back, venting out loud and planning some sort of mischief. The Flash confronted Herman and admonished him such that Herman vowed to stop thinking so selfishly. But, while Flash was distracted with this, four hoodlums in the restaurant were trying to con Khaja. Flash chased the hoodlums off and thought it was all over. But, while Jay and Joan when back to eating supper, and discussing putting up Khaja somewhere safe until he could leave for India (Joan's idea), Khaja went missing from the restaurant. (scene unresolved at this point; to be wrapped up in chat?)

That same night, Carter Hall and Shiera Saunders were driving out to Hawk Valley in Shiera's new convertible when a storm rolled in. Shiera's new upholstery was getting ruined; she wanted to drive back and ask the owners of a spooky old house they'd passed if they could put the car in their garage for the night. Carter instead pulled over and worked on the broken top for the convertible until he fixed it. But luckily for the plot, Carter had to use a restroom, so he drove them back to the house anyway.

An ugly dwarf greeted them at the door and, though he politely invited them in, made creepy comments about how good-looking they both were. He left them in the front room while the dwarf went to go find his "master". While they waited, Carter and Shiera heard some strange machine in the basement that made the lights flicker.

The master of the house was a handsome man named Armand Argot, who introduced the dwarf as Iago. Argot tried to offer Carter and Shiera a drink and a room for the night, but Carter wasn't buying into this. He did genuinely need the restroom though and, when he came out after using it, he found Shiera was gone. Armand claimed she had gone outside to check on the car.

Carter really wasn't buying this. He went through every room in the house to search for Shiera. She wasn't on the ground floor or upstairs. When he checked the basement, he found what looked like a mad scientist's lab, with Armond and Iago now down here ready to defend it with a whip and a gun respectively. Carter, as concerned as he'd been for Shiera, had taken no time to suit up as Hawkman, so he started out the fight with a serious disadvantage. The odds turned in his favor, though, when Carter was able to wrestle Iago to the ground and get the gun away from him. Carter won the battle, as he had so many, but shooting his way out of it.

With Armond and Iago out of the way, Carter was able to find the prisoners in another room downstairs -- five people who had been abducted after seeking shelter at this house and then subjected to Armond's insidious brain transfer machine. Shiera was not among them; she actually had gone outside to look for clues.

December 6, 1941. Saturday

By now, Alan Scott had spent three weeks working on crafting a Rod of Healing, but even with the green flame of his lantern mentoring him, he still had not mastered magic item creation.

Alan had become obsessed with magic, giving up his full-time job, and practically abandoning his relationship with Irene. But he still went out as Green Lantern every so often, and tonight he was summoned to a crime scene by Doiby Dickles, who contacted GL by radio. The scene was the roofers union in Brooklyn, Doiby's stomping grounds, and the dark humor was not lost on GL that the victim, one Gregory Nealy, appeared to have fallen off the roof. The Brooklyn cops thought it was suicide, because Gregory had been affected by a dragging union strike, but Doiby had a suspect in mind -- the union boss Christopher Henkle. Doiby had given Gregory his last ride to the union HQ earlier this evening and Gregory had been saying negative things about Christopher. In fact, the police were on their way to go to Christopher's house to talk to him now. GL stayed behind to investigate the seemingly-empty union office. His ring allowed him to slip through the wall of the locked building to investigate.

Suspecting a secret door in the basement, GL triggered a trap -- falling weighted ceiling tiles! Clobbered on the head soundly, GL was nearly overpowered by the six mobsters who emerged from the secret door to overbear him, but he beat them off with his magic staff. The leader did indeed turn out to be Henkle; he and his confederates were deliberately stalling the strike to seek bribes.

December 7, 1941. Sunday

Everyone expected this to be a slow day, so it was 10 am before Hawkman checked his radio and the JSA's secret frequency -- only to find the Spectre already on and desperate to tell someone the news -- Japan had just attacked Pearl Harbor! Hawkman broke protocol by personally calling the members he knew by real name -- The Atom, The Hourman, and Johnny Thunder. The Atom agreed to take over trying to contact the others so The Spectre could teleport there right away and help. Hawkman, Hourman, and Johnny would all take the next plane to Hawaii.

Flash heard about Pearl Harbor and started out at 2 pm. He raced as fast as he could, faster than he'd ever raced before (it hurt!), and made the trip in five hours. He wound up arriving about the same time as The Flame, Silver Streak, and Superman. The next group of JSA'ers arrived by plane at 4 pm. Green Lantern and Dr. Mid-Nite arrived last at 6 pm.

In addition, Uncle Sam had been there since that morning. Some obscure wizards, Yarko the Great and Ibis the Invincible, had arrived early and left early. Dr. Fate had showed up in the morning as well. Captain Marvel, Quicksilver, Steel Sterling, the Sub-Mariner, The Shadow, Spy Smasher, Johnny Quick, Skyman, Starman, Bulletman, Minuteman, Magno, Samson, and Captain America all showed up between 6 pm and midnight.

In the meantime, there had been plenty to do that needed the attention of superheroes. Hourman and Hawkman went on a diving expedition to recover wreckage from a battleship. Ford Island’s dispensary needed fresh water and electric power (Green Lantern succeeded in restoring the latter, though getting fresh water to the island was more problematic). Magic-Users used up all their healing spells on the injured and still had hundreds more in the temporary hospital. Trenches were dug. Debris was cleared from runways.

At midnight, the heroes all convened on the deck of the USS Tennessee to discuss the situation with Japan. Superman and the Spectre led the side that wanted strong retaliation against Japan. Captain Marvel and Hourman led the opposing side who questioned whether superheroes should take a leading role in charting the course for the rest of humanity. Uncle Sam often served as the referee between the two sides, though the arguing stayed amicable enough (only Sub-Mariner cast any aspersions on others). What was decided was that the Justice Society would be left in charge of representing the will of the superhuman community and the other heroes would just make their cases to them. Many issues were discussed with the JSA that night, one of the more important ones being who would patrol the undermanned West Coast. Hourman and Green Lantern both discussed moving out west.

Also resolved was the issue of expanding the Justice Society. Superman wanted to be more involved now. Captain Marvel, Starman, and Captain America all agreed to join. Captain America apologized to Johnny Thunder for being jealous in Wales, when Johnny was so much more effective at stopping the phantom hound they fought together (an untold tale).

In the end, it was decided to concentrate on defending the home front and wait to hear what the President would say and do next...