The Fatal Fare

"**The Fatal Fare**" is the twenty-eighth episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

Superman is being held and tortured by Darkseid after having foiled his attempt to invade Earth, but Space Cabbie learns of this when he happens to give a ride to the villain and calls in the Justice League.

## Story

A fleet of spaceships travels through space. Onboard one of them, a screen shows the face of the god-like Darkseid who issues a command to his lieutenant, Desaad, telling him to open a 'Boom Tube' to begin the invasion of Earth. Kanto and a crew of parademons look on. They are being tracked, however, by Wonder Woman and Hawkman in Justice One. They despair that Darkseid's fleet is too far ahead to be stopped, but Superman, flying alongside, informs that he will intercept them and flies off. As the fleet is entering the Boom Tube, Superman smashes his way into the lead ship causing the parademons to be sucked out. Proceeding through the ship, he encounters Desaad at the 'Mother Box' used to control the Boom Tube and pushes him aside. Superman fiddles with the cube causing it to change in some way, which results in the fleet disappearing away to a different, unknown destination. Kanto paralyzes and captures him with a kryptonite ray.

Elsewhere in space, Space Cabbie is taking a break for a meal while he watches a commercial for the rival passenger service of Roxy Rocket. As he denigrates her, he receives a call for a cab and accelerates away. The destination, however, is soon shown to be Apokolips, the home planet of Darkseid. As Cabbie lands and waits there, Darkseid appears, gets into the cab and gives the destination as a moon of a particular planet. When Cabbie, familiar with the place, naively tries to dissuade his passenger from going there, Darkseid menacingly tells him to get going. At the destination moon, Darkseid pays and leaves, but Space Cabbie chases after him with the receipt. Searching about, he sees Darkseid's wrecked space fleet lying around and goes inside one of the ships to see Superman being contained and tortured by Desaad, watched by Darkseid. When the latter asks about the state of the Boom Tubes, Kanto replies that their whole system has been infected with a virus and only Superman will know the code to remove it.

Just then, Cabbie is discovered and has to flee back to his cab where he intends to inform the Justice League, but Darkseid stops him from driving away. The latter insists that he give his assassin, Kanto, a ride back to Apokolips. As Cabbie drives, Kanto asks for a detour to a planet that is obviously intended for disposing of his victims, but Cabbie bluffs him into going to another planet that sounds equally suitable. Once there, in a swampy, jungle area, they get out and Kanto pulls a gun on Space Cabbie, but the latter is grabbed by the local vegetation and seemingly hauled away to his doom. Then Kanto is also gripped by plant tendrils, but, when Cabbie is released, the vegetation reveals itself as Swamp Thing, and it becomes clear that they are on Earth. Wonder Woman and Hawkman appear and praise Cabbie for leaving his radio on so that they could follow him. While Wonder Woman takes Kanto to prison, Space Cabbie drives the other two superheroes back to where Superman is.

Superman is being tortured with a kryptonite force-field while being interrogated by Darkseid to reveal the code. Cabbie's vehicle then smashes through and into the spaceship, and, while Hawkman fights the parademons, Swamp Thing overwhems Darkseid with vegetation growth until Desaad starts to dry him out with a ray blast. But, finding a source of water, Swamp Thing grows huge and binds Desaad, then turns to help with the parademons. This allows Cabbie to help Superman by getting his droid Jack to hack into the torture machine and remove the kryptonite. As Darkseid breaks free of Swamp Thing's tendrils, the liberated Superman batters him to the ground and then beckons to the controlling Mother Box from which Atom then emerges, having been the source of its problem. With the Mother Box now working, Superman opens a Boom Tube and kicks Darkseid into it, sending him to a remote planet.

Later, as the Justice League round up Desaad and the parademons into Justice One, Superman offers Space Cabbie a ride, as his cab was damaged in the fight. Cabbie declines, saying that the droid will fix it but, after the League have left, finds that he is stranded. He is ignominiously forced to call on Roxy Rocket for a ride, but when she arrives, she says that she will also have to stop off at a remote planet to pick up a passenger called Darkseid much to Cabbie's horror.

## Notes

* Darkseid's Omega Effect is usually red and never misses its mark. In episode, his beams didn't chase after the target and were of a different color as opposed to later showings.