And Men Shall Call Him--Storm Shadow!

Storm Shadow silently stalks into the throne room, keeping to the shadows, his mighty compound bow raised and loaded, to send swift death into the hearts of his foes. But hark! In the throne room, ears hear his silent steps, the ears of a drooling abomination with the mind of a child and the power of a god--HAPPYMAN! "Oh man!" he says. "Why did you have to wake me up? I was just getting to the best part of the dream. I was drinking beer and getting a massage from naked Jessica Alba while I burned down the White House... And you ruined it! Now die!" Happyman, rising from the thick depths of hangover-induced slumber, awakes and blasphemously slithers to confront the mighty ninja! Scarcely has he awakened when he is overcome by the unstoppable rage of the kill trance! "Kill everyone!" A terrible and hollow voice speaks--the voice of the devil!

For a moment, Storm Shadow is filled with fear, but he does not let it overcome him, for he is ninja! He fires his arrows into the heart of the hellish god-beast--THUKK THUKK THUKK!--but it does not flinch. Its head whirling with wierd energies, it spits out fireballs at him. FRZAPP! FRZAPP! FRZAPP! His agile ninja body pushed to its limits, Storm Shadow dodges the fireballs-- but he is on the verge of fear, for he knows that what he is facing is something more than mortal! It lunges for him, like a grotesque parody of the serpent which served as symbol of the organization that Storm Shadow has in the past served, but Storm Shadow is prepared, entangling its oozing neck in the grip of his nunchakus! But the thing from the pit is not deterred, it simply spits out naked balls of flaming hate--FRZAPP! FRZAPP! FRZAPP!--and Storm Shadow, only barely extricating himself from certain death, wonders whether his end is at last at hand...

Then, amid the blaze of flaming tapestries, a small warty thing bearing Fresca walks into the room. "Er, my lord, has the ninja you requested arrived--oh," it says. Happyman swivels its unholy face around, looking at the little creature. "What the Hell are you talking about! I'm in the middle of killing someone here. I--oh, yeah, right." His pit-black eyes fill with dim comprehension as he looks upon the face of Storm Shadow. "Oh, yeah right. Sorry, man. What's a little flaming death between friends?" He then devoured the nunchakus that encircled his neck.

"You have destroyed my weapon!" says Storm Shadow, his voice as sharp as cold steel. "Know that my patience has its limits, devil-thing!"

"Oh, yeah, right. Here, have another one." The eerie man-beast pulls a nunchaku out of midair. It has garish day-glo patterns painted on its handles. "So aren't you gonna ask about why I need a ninja?"

The mighty ninja eyes the day-glo nunchakus with disgust. "What do you want?" he asks.

"I want the Gamma Gong of Kanjar Ro, which is kept in the headquarters of the Justice League! If you pull this off, I will give you, like, all kinds of cool stuff. If not, well, I haven't killed anything in hours and I'm feeling antsy!" The vile monster chuckles blasphemously in the dark. "What are you doing here, anyway? What would you possibly have to gain from me?"

"My reasons are my own, pit fiend," says Storm Shadow coolly. "But I do not understand. How do you expect a ninja, even one of the greatest ninja in the multiverse, to defeat a man who can shatter mountains with his breath?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," says Happyman. "I'll distract them." Emitting a loud cry of madness, the monster grabs a chunk of reality itself in its jaws--CHKURKNGL! On the other side of the demon-drool-covered hole, Storm Shadow sees a mighty hallways built of gleaming metal and strange technology such as the sometime minion of Corbra has never even imagined in his wildest dreams--the Watchtower of the Justice League! And for a moment, even Storm Shadow is awed...

1. Storm Shadow sneaks into the Watchtower. Meanwhile, Happyman appears in the DCU and challenges the Justice League to a breadancing contest in space.

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