Synopsis
| - His suspicions that police lieutenant Max Fisher might be
the sleeper agent assigned to him by the Manhunters
allayed, Blue Beetle is abruptly challenged by his former foe
Overthrow, his true Manhunter counterpart. After a brief
battle, however, the Beetle cuts the fight short to answer a
AI emergency call. In Tehran, Iran, meanwhile, Salima Baranizar, one of
the Oans' Chosen, ponders the implications of the immortal aliens' visitation, unaware that she is being shadowed by a secret agent whose report eventually finds its way into the
hands of the Justice League. Consulting a mullah, a wise man of her faith, Salima is told that the Guardian and the Zamaron, whom she believes to be messengers from Allah,
are actually agents of Satan, and when she refuses to recant
her blasphemous assertions, she is taken into custody. The
Justice League delegates Blue Beetle to fly to Iran and
protect Salima, bringing her back to America. Arriving in Tehran, Blue Beetle learns where Salima is being held, but before he can rescue her, he is attacked by
Catalyst, a costumed emissary of the ruthless industrialist
Klaus Cornelius. Cornelius has sent Catalyst to Iran to
recover a sample of a secret compound hidden at the
former site of the Tehran branch of Kord, Inc. by Jeremiah
Duncan. Catalyst battles the Beetle to a standstill with the
chemical powers that make him a "living pharmacopoeia",
until the Beetle manages to get away from him long enough
to reach Salima Baranizar's cell. Taking advantage of the distraction unintentionally
provided by Catalyst, Blue Beetle escapes the prison with
Salima. However, when she learns of his intention to take
her to America, which she has been taught is "the land of
Satan", she breaks away from him and begins proclaiming
the message of the Oans in the streets. Before the Beetle
can reach her, she is stoned to death as a blasphemer by a
crowd.
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