Siberia, Russia

Siberia, a vast region of Russia, making up more than fifty per cent of the country's territory. Due to its proximity to the Arctic Circle, Siberia has experienced harsh climates, with several areas covered with permafrost. The temperature is capable of dropping below -90 Degrees Fahrenheit. The long winters ensure that much of the coastal waters, rivers and lakes are frozen over.

The last thing the world would have ever expected was a tidal wave to strike Siberia. Yet, that is indeed what happened on this day. With the polar ice caps beginning to melt, the newly formed water rushed across the Siberia landscape. The onslaught of the sea washed over the lands, taking whole farming communities with it, washing them and the people away as if they were as meaningless as ants.

The torrents continued across Siberia, moving southwards until they reached the populated cities. The streets flooded and cars were drowned in the tides. People ran screaming for their lives, seeking refuge in buildings, praying they could keep the water out.

From the Justice League Watchtower, the Martian Manhunter monitored the crisis as it unfolded. He sent out signals to all members of the JLA, both active and reserve, alerting them to the latest among a string of catastrophes that had been ravaging the planet.

He felt useless in his position. He wanted to go down there to help his teammates, but someone needed to coordinate the rescue and relief efforts. And with his telepathic abilities, he was the best choice to remain behind and organize a strategy, while passing on what relevant information he discovered about the source of the crisis to Superman.

J’onn’s thoughts lingered on Krypton’s last scion. Ever since he told Superman that there was a strange anomaly in the arctic north, he hadn’t received any news from the Man of Steel. For a moment, J’onn wondered if something could have happened to him up there.

There were many heroes on Earth that J’onn admired, but there were very precious few he held in the same high regard as he did with Superman. Unlike the Batman or himself, Kal-El never allowed the weight of the tragedies he had seen undermine his faith in humanity, never scarred him the way it had scarred others. Some would call it naïveté, but J’onn called it courage.

If there was any among them who could hope to stop this, it was Superman.

Arctic North

"Soon, a new Eden shall rise. The age of man has come to an end."

Ra’s al Ghul sneered when he spoke those words. An ecological terrorist and the founder of the League of Assassins, Ra’s al Ghul had lived for centuries through the life-sustaining properties of the Lazarus Pit. His intelligence and cunning was nearly unmatched by any on the planet. He wished to end the suffering of the planet, and he was willing to sacrifice every human being on the face of the planet to do so.

"You’re insane," said Superman. He levitated above the frozen ground, his arms crossed over his chest, across the red and yellow shield that was his birthright.

"No Hero, insanity is what mankind has been doing to the Earth," said Ra’s al Ghul. He rested on his cane and his bodyguard, the Asian warrior of the Ubu clan, stood behind him. "Smog, oil drilling, global warming, ozone-depleting chemicals—these are insanity. Man was given one planet, a perfect paradise for him to respect. And he has done nothing but try to destroy it. He has ruthlessly gutted the resources from it, leaving almost nothing left, while creating chemicals and product which serve only to harm it. My cause is simple—a return to harmony. Is it insanity to seek justice for that which has been unjustly exploited?"

"No, but orchestrating the deaths of billions of people is," said Superman. "The people of Earth have their flaws, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to die."

"And what have you done to change these events?" asked Ra’s al Ghul. "How have you prevented the systematic destruction of this planet? You defend the people of Earth, but you turn a blind eye to the needs of Earth itself. You, Kryptonian, are a hypocrite."

"I lead by example."

"Example means nothing to these people. They need to be punished for their sins."

"That’s not for either of us to judge," said Superman. "Or anyone for that matter."

"You’re too late, Hero," said Ra’s al Ghul. "Their judgment has come. The Floronic Man has already seen to that. The planet has thrown off the shackles of fear her jailers have placed upon her and now she is out for vengeance. It is too late for you to stop this. Not even the Man of Steel can fight the planet itself."

The rumblings of the earth grew in their intensity. The ground seemed to open up beneath the feet of Ra’s al Ghul and Ubu and they slowly sunk beneath its depths.

"Judgment is at hand, Hero!" he cried out over the roar of the seismic tremors. "The Earth is ready to wash away the plague of man from her! And no one can stop it!"

Superman flew towards Ra’s al Ghul and Ubu, but the ground closed over them moments before he could reach it. It must have been the Floronic Man’s doing. His x-ray vision peered through the ground, but he could find no sight of them, as if they had completely vanished.

"We’ll see about that, al Ghul."

He flew off to the distance and once he was away from the Arctic Circle, he could hear the thoughts of the Martian Manhunter in his head once more.

"You went offline."

"It must have been the disturbance, my friend. Ra’s al Ghul and the Floronic Man are behind this. They’ve convinced the Earth to rebel against mankind."

"But that’s impossible."

"Apparently not. None of us have any way of communicating with the Earth directly, but I know someone who can—Alex Holland."

"The Swamp Thing."

"The problem is I have no idea how to reach him."

"There is one man who knows."

London, England

The lyrics of the Clash echoed in my memory as I smoked a fag and watched my city ravaged by earthquakes and floods. I stood atop my apartment building, thinking about the current state of affairs.

The panorama of the city is wrong.
In fact, the city seems to be gone.
Burning rubber and smoke in my eyes.
There’s a flat burning junkheap
For twenty square miles.
They took it into the nuclear mine.
Judging by this, they left nothing behind.
Down in the bunkers in the crust of the earth,
Now crouch the wealthy and the noble of birth.

Bloody good song. And appropriate at a time like this. Part of me felt a bit guilty for not trying to do my part and help out here. But they’ve got these Justice League tossers flying about in their pervert suits, so what more could I really do? If this was the apocalypse, I was ready to face it.

Not much I really can do, I suppose. They’ve got the power to juggle planets. I’ve got the power to fuck shit up and ruin my mates. The fag got down too low and I was smoking the filter. I spit it onto the ground and reached into my trench coat for a pack of Silk Cuts.

Christ, I could use a drink, but I’d hazard a guess the pub wasn’t serving at the moment. Instead, I’d have to settle for a smoke. I lifted the Zippo towards the cig, but a sudden gust of wind blew past and extinguished the flame from my light.

"Bollocks."

I struck the flint wheel, but just got a spark. "Oh for fuc—"

"Language, Mr. Constantine."

My ear perked up at the mention of my name. I slowly turned. "Listen mate, it’s my right to curse whenever and wherever I wa—"

The sentence died in my throat when I saw just who it was who stood behind me. Or should I say hovered. Sure, I knew who he was—find me one person on the planet who didn’t. Seen him on the tele quite a few times. Never actually seen ‘im in person, though. To say we didn’t run in the same circles was understatin’ things just a bit. Granted, it wasn’t the first time I’d been around his kind, but it wasn’t something I made a habit of. They stayed clear of my world and I stayed clear of theirs. Seemed like a good arrangement to me.

"You look bigger on the tele. Don’t suppose this is about that time I jaywalked last week." That’s it, Constantine. Show him attitude. Show him that his big Boy Scout routine doesn’t impress him. Meanwhile, try not to shit your knickers if he looks at you wrong.

"I need your help."

That was unexpected. You’d never expect him to come to me of all people for help. I successfully got the Zippo working and lit the fag. I tried not to look at him in the eye, but I could feel those blue orbs of his lookin’ straight at me. Bit unnerving to say the least.

"What’s that?" I asked.

"The Swamp Thing. From what I understand, you know where I can find him."

S.T.A.R. Labs; Metropolis

"This is bad..."

Emil Hamilton removed his glasses and blinked a few times before putting them back on. I leaned on the back of the chair he sat in, looking over his shoulder at the monitor in front of him with Jimmy standing next to me. There was a map of the world on the screen, with the areas affected by the strange activity colored red and the rest of the landmasses colored green. North and South America, Europe and Africa were all red, with it quickly spreading over to Asia. The northern part of Russia had already been affected.

"What could happen next?" I asked.

"I wish I had an answer for you, Lois, but I don't," said Emil. "This is spreading like a wildfire across the globe. It won't be long now before it circles back around."

"Circles back?" I said. "Are you saying we could experience more catastrophes?"

"The possibility is highly likely, but nothing is certain," he said. "This is completely unprecedented, so we have no way of knowing for sure what's going on here."

{ "We may have discovered a solution." }

The digital voice belonged to the Martian Manhunter, coming through S.T.A.R.'s communication systems. His bald, green head appeared on a nearby monitor and I moved right over to it and took the seat in front of it.

"What?" I asked. "Did Superman find something?"

It was difficult for me to try and hide my feelings for Clark, especially when dealing with a situation this extreme. Over the years, my friendship with him as Superman had become public knowledge and I sometimes wondered if it would be enough for people to piece together, that my husband and Superman were the same person. But then I realized that the image of Superman in the minds of everyone was so much larger than life that they could never picture him living a normal life. Up until I found out Clark's secret, I thought the same thing myself.

{ "Ra's al Ghul has engineered these events with the help of the Floronic Man." }

"And Superman?" I asked. "Ra's al Ghul and the Floronic Man aren't enough of a threat to him, he should be able to stop them."

{ "It's not them, it's what they've done. They've convinced the entire planet to turn against mankind. Right now, Superman is trying to locate the one man who can possibly undo the damage caused by Woodrue and al Ghul." }

"Who?"

{ "Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing. Superman has found a way to contact him." }

"So this will all be over soon?" asked Jimmy.

{ "We can only hope." }

I sighed. I kept telling myself that Clark could handle this. It was all in a day's work for him. But this was different from anything he had ever faced before. Could he really stand up to this? How could Superman fight off the entire planet? Great, I was starting to worry. I hate worrying, it drives me insane. I couldn't just sit here, waiting for something to happen. I'm Lois Lane, for crying out loud—I'm not one to sit around and wait!

"Come on, Jimmy," I said.

"Where are we going?" asked Jimmy.

"I'm a reporter and there's an earth-shattering crisis going on," I said. "That means I should be covering it. Emil, you'll keep me posted with any new developments?"

"I will," said Emil. "Lois, be careful out there."

I smiled back at him. "Who, me? Careful's my middle name."

Louisiana

We made the trip from London to the swamps faster than I could finish a cigarette, or even half of one. Once he set me down, I got to work. Last time I came out here was so I could resurrect Holland's rotting corpse and place his consciousness in it for a spell. Big mess that was, involving his daughter and a prick named Sargon. Now I was at work trying to bring him back again.

I really hated this place, but the hero seemed to think we had a chance to stop this from happening. I told him it'd be a waste of time, there's no way he'd help. And if he was willing to, chances are he was too weak to accomplish anything. But you try telling someone like him to stand by as the planet tears itself apart. Not on his watch. Had to admire that kind of stupidity.

The swamp began to bubble. I back away and lit a Silk Cut. This whole area seemed completely unaffected by the events of the rest of the world. Guess the bastard still had some pull after all. Maybe Captain Hero over here was right about this, maybe this planet did stand a chance of survival. Stranger things have happened.

The moss and branches of the swamp began to gather together where the bubbles converged. A head slowly rose from the murky and muddy water, with branches for a skeleton structure, vines for muscles and sinew, and grass and marsh for skin with glowing, red eyes.

"Constantine," he said. "Why have...you summoned me? ...You and I...are done."

"Nice to see you too, sunshine," I said. I motioned to the hero. "I'll let him do the talking."

He stepped forward and looked up into the eyes of the Swamp Thing. Even though this plant monster towered over him, he still seemed somehow larger.

"Dr. Holland, I need your help."

"I...am not...Holland... I am...Swamp Thing."

"I don't have time for games," he said. "The Floronic Man has somehow convinced the planet to turn against humanity, and I want you to help me stop him."

"I am...aware of...recent events... But I cannot...stop them... My connection...to the Green...is weak at best... It calls out...for vengeance... Humanity must suffer... That is...its desire."

"Not good enough," he said. "I know you've fought Woodrue before. You can help me fight him again."

"This is...beyond Woodrue... Now you face...the planet itself... Not even Woodrue...can stop it."

"You can do something about this."

"I can do...nothing."

"You can connect me to the Green," he said. I coughed in response to this.

"Are you mad?" I asked.

"You can do that, can't you?" he asked the Swamp Thing. The elemental looked at him with a curious expression on his moss-covered face. There was something in this alien that intrigued him.

"You...are not from...this planet... Yet you still...fight for them?"

"I do."

"Die...for them?"

"In a heartbeat."

"Then...I shall grant...your request... I will bring you...to the Green."