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Wildcat
Lost Heroes
LOST HEROES: Part 1
In the basement of the JSA Brownstone, in Gotham City, a lone figure stood at a control console, staring morosely at its monitor screen.
"Blast this contraption. I wonder if it was damaged, somehow by the merging of the worlds during the Crisis. Let me try another recalibration of the phase shifter coils." His fingers moved carefully over the controls, and a low hum came from the base of a large, box-like chamber on the other side of the console.
"Okay, now to run a scan to see if it makes contact with a transmatter device on any of the other Earths." Again, deft hands manipulated controls, and again, the result was the same.
"Shouldn't you leave adjustments to the transmatter to Ted Knight, or Alan Scott?" The new voice startled the frustrated hero at the controls. "No slight intended, Wildcat, but such devices usually aren't your field of expertise."
"I wish you wouldn't sneak up like that, Doc!" Wildcat sat down in a chair next to the console. "I may have the body of a thirty-year old, again, but sometimes I think my ticker is still ready for social security."
"My apologies, my friend. I'm afraid the dimensional barriers are still closed to us. The Spectre and myself have yet to pierce the veil, other than to get a message across to our comrades on Earth-1. We do not even know for sure if there are other worlds besides our two that survived the Crisis."
"I know, but I thought I'd try again just in case. And I got to thinking about the old days, before we had the transmatter. Back then, it always seemed like the barrier was easiest to cross in the summertime. It's still a few months away, but it may be worth a try."
"Not a bad idea. I wonder if Alexander Luthor has considered that. It may be worth pursuing." Doctor Fate's helmet tilted slightly to one side for a moment, and Ted Grant, alias Wildcat, wondered if the JSA's resident mystic was somehow contacting the youth who was developing himself to take the place of the omniscient Monitor. He wondered no more when Fate continued: "Young Luthor sends his thanks for the idea. As I thought, he had not enough experience with multiversal matters to know about the seasonal effects. He will let us know if he has any success."
"Wow. Nice to know a mook like me can still have a bright idea once in a while." Wildcat stood up and started for the stairway leading up. "I know you don't usually go for it, but I could stand some coffee."
"Actually," Doctor Fate said, reaching up to lift the golden helmet from his head, "I wouldn't mind a cup of coffee myself, Ted." Kent Nelson, the man behind the magic smiled, and followed.
LOST HEROES: Part 2
Sitting in the main meeting room of the JSA headquarters, Ted Grant and Kent Nelson sat with coffee and cheesecake.
"Mmmm, remind me to thank Al when I see him. Mary still makes the best cheesecake around." Ted finished the last forkfull of cake.
"No argument here, but don't ever tell Inza I said that." Kent pushed the plate away, and looked directly at his companion. "You know, Ted, you've seemed to be more anxious than most of us about the transmatter. How come?"
Ted looked away. "Oh, not really. I just had the thought as Irina and I were talking the other night. I've been filling her in on as much as I could about the last 35 years."
"Oh. And I thought it might have something to do with Barbara."
"Barbara? What Barbara?" The man known to the world as both a former heavyweight boxing champ and as the hero Wildcat made a futile attempt to claim no knowledge of what Doctor Fate was talking about, but quickly realized the futility of it. "All right, yes. I wanted to check on Barbara, see if she was all right. And now, I want to tell her about my marriage to Irina."
"Won't this hurt her?"
"Look, Kent, I don't know how you know about Barbara, but you can't know much or you would know that we are friends. Never lovers, or anything like that. She's one of the few people I ever told about Irina and Jake."
"How odd, that you never told any of us about your son, but you told this woman on another world."
"Not really. If I had told you guys, there would have been a lot of fuss, and more hurt than there was. When the FBI decided that Jake wasn't likely to be found, we decided that it was for the best that we part ways. After all, all of us had hung up our masks by then, and that creep, the Wasp, was the type who we figured would kill him just to spite me. Now I find out he adopted Jake into his crime family, and the poor kid got himself killed because he just wasn't crooked enough."
Kent stood, walked behind Ted, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I suppose it was for the best, old friend." For a few minutes, the meeting room was silent.
"Now, about Barbara. You remember back when we first built the transmatter?"
Sitting again, Kent nodded. "Yes, it was about 15 years ago."
Ted Grant started telling the story of the mysterious "Barbara," an acquaintance of his on Earth-1. "Well, this was about 1969 or so, when the transmatter prototype was still being tested -- we didn't put the final version into use traveling from here to Earth-1 until '73 -- and my life was at a low point. I had begun to lose confidence in my crimefighting abilities, although the Spectre did help me out there about a year earlier. But boxing in exhibitions wasn't too smart, cause too many people were starting to wonder how I could be doing it at my age, and my chain of gyms had gone belly up; I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. And I had really gotten to wondering why some of us had counterparts on Earth-1, while others didn't."
"Yes, and I also remember a discussion while we were testing the transmatter, cautioning against casual travel between the universes." Ted's companion, Kent Nelson smiled as he recalled the warning, also remembering the smirk on Wildcat's face.
"Well, I never was much for being warned off easily. I had Alan teach me how to operate the gizmo, just in case we needed to jump across sometime when he and Starman were unavailable, you know? Then, when I knew I could take a couple weeks for the trip, I went across. Once I got there, I made my way to Gotham City."
"Why Gotham?"
"Kent, I wanted to find my counterpart, or find out about him at least. Since I was born in Gotham, I figured that would be the best place to look. My plan was to use the library for research."
Doctor Fate's alter-ego was puzzled. "Don't they ask for identification? You wouldn't exactly have a local driver's license."
Ted Grant chuckled. "Kent, you have to remember something. While you were having mystic duels with Wotan or some other demi-god, I was duking it out in the streets with the hustlers and players, the kind of guys who can get you a fake ID in about sixty minutes with the right amount of cash. It took me three hours to find one and have a driver's license, social security card, and Veteran's Administration card in the name of Henry Grant."
"Why not Ted? Oh, never mind, I understand. It wouldn't make sense to be searching for yourself."
"Right. So there I was; I found a room to rent, then I headed to the main library. I spent five days, searching birth records. I figured that since Superman and Batman came along about thirty years later on that Earth, my double would have been about the same. So I started working my way back from 1960, taking into account the time difference there seemed to be in those days between the Earths. On our world it was only 1969, but on Earth-1 it was already 1978..."
LOST HEROES: Part 4
Kent Nelson found himself fascinated by Ted Grant's description of his search for his Earth-1 counterpart.
"Did you find him by checking the birth records?"
"No luck. I got back to about 1955, and one of the librarians noticed my search. She asked me what I was looking for. I told her that I had a distant relative, who I had only heard of. She offered to try this new computerized search that they had just installed. That's how I finally found him."
"Was he younger than you expected?"
"No. He was born in 1950, thirty years after I was. But it wasn't the birth record that we found first."
"Oh? What was it?"
"It was the newspaper story, when he was found guilty in the murder of his mentor, Socker Smith."
"Wait a minute, Ted. That was the murder that led to you becoming Wildcat, wasn't it?"
"Right! But on Earth-1, Ted Grant went to prison for it, all the while maintaining his innocence. He escaped when the police were transporting him to the county jail, but he was recaptured the next day and was been a prisoner ever since." Ted got up, taking the coffee cups, plates and silverware to the kitchen. Kent followed him.
"But why didn't he fight back?" After depositing the dishes in the dishwasher, Ted led the way to the JSA's memorabilia room. Once there, he opened a cabinet and pulled out the contents of a folder.
"That's why." Ted placed the copy of All-American Comics from the spring of 1940 on the table. On the cover was a crudely drawn image of their teammate, Green Lantern. "This isn't the one, but it was this issue of the comic book that told some of Alan's adventures that inspired me to put on a costume. On Earth-1, there weren't many mystery-man comic books around at the time Ted was arrested."
"Such a small thing, and it made such a big difference." Kent marveled.
"I thought the same thing, buddy. So I decided to balance the scales a little. I set out to track down the guys who framed Ted Grant."
LOST HEROES: Part 5
"How did you plan to capture the men who framed your Earth-1 self, Wildcat?"
"The first thing was to track down Jack Flint and Jake Skinner. They were the ones who killed Socker Smith, at least they were on Earth-2. I figured they would be the ones to start with."
"How did you do that?" asked Kent Nelson. "The library, again?"
"Right. The librarian was a sharp cookie, though. After searching for Ted Grant all that time, here I show up with a couple more names. She asked me what was up." Ted Grant smiled, remembering the gleam in the young woman's eyes when she started realizing that he wasn't just looking for a long lost cousin.
"Did you tell her?"
"Not all of it. I didn't tell her that I came from another universe. After all, I've never thought I'd look good in a straight jacket. But I told her that I thought Ted had been framed, and I was trying to track down the real killers."
"What was her reaction?" Kent asked.
"She dove right into it. That's when she introduced herself. Turns out that Barbara's daddy was a cop, so she offered to pass any information that we dug up along to him."
"Probably not what you planned on doing with it." While not a street-level crimefighter himself, the man also known as Doctor Fate could imagine Wildcat taking out the killers himself.
"You know me too well, Doc. We found out that they were both still in Gotham, though Skinner had been investigated a couple of times for fixing local matches. I went and paid them each a little visit that night. Or should I say, the next morning. Like, about four o'clock the next morning." The ex-heavyweight champ grinned. "When they found themselves in bed with a 240-pound cat on their chest, they got real talkative."
"I've seen you at work, Ted. I can believe it."
"By the next morning, they were both arrested, and thanks to Barbara, I got to be the one to break the news to Ted Grant that he was being released."
LOST HEROES: Part 6
"Kent, have you ever heard Red Robin tell what it was like meeting his Earth-1 counterpart?"
"Yes, as well as Superman. They both said it was one of the strangest things they've ever experienced."
"That's what I was expecting, too. There I was, in the Gotham State Penitentiary, and they brought in this man in an orange prison jumpsuit. Two guards, one on either side, and I think it was the first time I ever realized how big I really am. He towered over both of these burly guards. I had never noticed it before, but when I stood and faced him, we were eye-to-eye."
"What about the similarities? Did he notice?"
Ted Grant nodded. "Oh yes, and so did the guards. He asked who I was, and I told him that I was a distant relative. Then, when I told him about Flint and Skinner, I thought he was going to faint."
"Well, ten years in prison would tend to make one lose hope."
"It took a couple of weeks for everything to get cleared up, but when he got out, I was there to meet him. Like me, he didn't have any other family."
"Did you ever tell him who you really were?"
"The night he was released. I told him everything: Earth-2, Wildcat, everything. He took it pretty well."
"What became of him after that?"
"There was a lot of hoopla when he was released, what with him having been the champion and all. He actually won the title before the bout with Smith, and it was Smith's chance to win the crown back. So, promoters were in a rush to see if he was interested in boxing again. He was only 29, so it wasn't impossible."
"Was he in shape for it, though? After all, ten years is a long time." Kent observed.
"He kept in shape in prison, and boxed in matches in the prison, but he wasn't interested. Then he had the idea."
"Ted. You didn't!"
Ted Grant smiled. "I did. Or I should say, we did. We swapped places. He became Henry Grant, working for prisoner rights and death penalty defenses, sort of a jailhouse lawyer. And I stepped in his shoes as Ted Grant, returning heavyweight champ. I never won the title there, but I had a long run of matches and some exhibitions. And as Wildcat, I fought crime occasionally over the next three years, even teaming up with Batman a few times, and the Creeper once, too. Of course, I made a few short trips back to Earth-2 about four or five times. While three years passed on Earth-1, seven years went by here. However, I had something else to take care of, too."
LOST HEROES: Part 7
"Let me guess what you still had to take care of on Earth-1, Ted. Your friend Barbara?" asked Kent Nelson, a.k.a. Doctor Fate.
"Not really. Oh, we had become friends while I was investigating the framing of the Earth-1 Ted Grant. And she was the one I turned to for help."
"So what did you need to take care of?"
Wildcat looked at him as if the answer should have been obvious. "I got to thinking, if Ted Grant never became Wildcat on Earth-1, what about other members of the Justice Society? Are there more counterparts for our members than we realized?"
"Oh. I hadn't really thought of that." Kent sat quiet for a moment, pondering the possibilities. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet. "What did you find?"
"Well, I found out that laws requiring children be properly educated prevented you from accompanying your father to Egypt. When that world's Sven Nelson found the tomb of Nabu the Wise, his assistant was killed by a toxic gas, but Nelson survived and marked the site as dangerous. They still haven't found a safe way to excavate it. Young Kent grew up to be one of that world's pre-eminent archeologists."
Kent looked relieved. "What about the others?"
Ted Grant walked to a file cabinet in the JSA's memorabilia room. "Passcode: Alternatives," he spoke to the voice-keyed lock. He returned to the table with a thick folder, which he thumbed through.
"In 1970, there was a news article on a train crash just outside of Gotham. All on the train were killed, including a young engineer from Gotham Broadcasting Company, named Alan Scott."
"That makes sense, Ted. After all, the Starheart was created by the Guardians of the Universe in that dimension, and sent here in an attempt to eliminate magic in that reality."
"I heard that story from Alan, too. I wondered if that was why we seem to have more magic-based heroes that Earth-1 does."
"Could be."
Ted pulled another copy of a news article from the file. "In 1968, a student named Jason Garrick was killed in a lab accident. One of the science professors there said that the chemicals involved could have odd effects on the human body, including increasing the metabolic rate far above normal."
"Fascinating. The same thing that happened to our Jay, but with different results."
LOST HEROES: Part 8
Ted Grant continued explaining the results of his search for the JSA's Earth-1 counterparts.
"Rex Tyler didn't make out any better than Jay or Alan. He was killed when he used himself as a guinea pig for a compound he developed. It did increase his strength and speed, but had severe effects on his nervous system, causing him great pain. He died from the stress on his body before the chemical could wear off. And then, we already know about the Earth-1 Jim Corrigan, who became the new host for the Spectre a while back, at least until the Crisis. Ditto for the Earth-1 Johnny Thunder, who, as you know, became a crook... we fought him a couple of years ago with the JLA."
"Surely, Ted, some of our counterparts must have fared better," said Kent Nelson.
"Oh, yes. I found an article in a 1972 Time Magazine about a college student named Al Pratt who had declined a position on the US Olympic basketball team. He had played amateur basketball, but never tried for the college team. He admitted that his height of six foot, seven inches, was the result of a growth hormone experiment when he was 15. I looked him up, and found that he was happily married to the former Mary James, and teaching at Calvin City College."
"I always felt that Al just needed a self-esteem boost, and he would have been fine."
"Charlie McNider turned out all right, too. When some mob goons tried to bomb his apartment, he was shoved out the door by a cop who caught wind of the plan. The poor cop was torn up pretty bad, and McNider got rewarded for saving the guy's life. Wes Dodds is a noted author and philosopher, living a reclusive life. And Ted Knight was a wealthy playboy who turned to acting, instead of astronomy. He did pretty well for himself, despite going gray an early age."
"How many others did you track down?"
"Just one, and that's an odd one. Barbara recognized the name on my list, though I wasn't sure I was going to track her down. Dinah Drake joined the Gotham Police Department in 1975. Barbara met her when she was a kid, before Lt. Drake transferred out to Seattle, Washington."
"You know, Ted, that Dinah became the Black Canary after she was rejected by the Gotham Police Academy. By the seventies, she would have made it in easily."
"Amazing, isn't it, Kent? How the small things made such a big difference in our lives."
"Wildcat, you're right. For many of us, it was only a small difference that made the difference between life and death, between a normal life and an extraordinary one." Kent Nelson had listened to Ted Grant's description of the Earth-1 counterparts of many JSA members.
"And then you have the ones like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, whose lives turned out almost the same on both worlds. You have to wonder how these things come about."
"Ted, you said you want to go back to Earth-1 to check up on your friend Barbara. Is she still in Gotham City?"
"She's back there now, as far as I know. She was gone for about three years Earth-1 time -- almost about the time we started getting active again. But she moved back a couple o' years ago."
"What about here on Earth-2? Have you ever checked to see if she had a counterpart here?" Kent smiled.
"No. I don't know that she'd have one. Her father is the police commissioner in Gotham. The only commissioner our Gotham has had with a daughter was Bruce Wayne, and we know his daughter -- Helena Wayne, our own Huntress!"
"True. I guess your Barbara wouldn't have a counterpart here then."
Elsewhere...
I almost gave up entirely after you were killed, Kara. It was really hard just to go on when you, one of our bravest, and one of my closest friends, died. Your courage showed me just how much more of a hero you were than I ever was.
In the last few weeks, however, I've proven to myself that I'm not only still capable of crime-fighting, but Gotham needs me as well. I'd like to think, Kara, that you somehow helped me along all this time. You were the wind beneath my wings.
And with that, Barbara Gordon, the chief librarion of Gotham City Public Library, reached into her closet and pulled out the ebony and midnight blue costume of her alter-ego. She was no longer a Batgirl, but a Batwoman...