Story: "Hostile Takeover Part One: Taking Stock" (22 Pages)

Credits:

Kurt Busiek (plot, script)
Tom Grummett (pencils)
Prentis Rollins & Al Vey (inks)
Comicraft (letters)
Rob Ro and Bleyaert (colors, color separations)
Peter Tomasi (edits)

Feature Characters:

Skyrocket
Bork
Manhunter IV (in issue #15 between pages)
Witchfire
Striker Z
Sapphire (in flashbacks between issue #14 and #17)
Firestorm II (in flashbacks following issue #14 and preceding JLA #78; quits the team)

Guest Stars:

Baron Winters
Merlin II (both last in Night Force Vol. 2 #12)
General Jeb Stuart (also in flashbacks between issue #13 and framing story; also in flashback to 1943)
General J.E.B. Stuart
Skylark (first fully named; both also in flashback in between issue Anarky Vol. 2 #7 and framing story; both also in flashback to 1943)
Cpl. Slim Stryker
Cpl. Arch Asher, and Pvt. Rick Rawlins of the Haunted Tank Crew (all three in flashback to 1943)

Supporting Characters: Garrison Slate (also in flashback in between issue #14 and framing story; starts working with the Power Company)
Silver Shannon (also in flashback in between issue #12 and framing story)
Margo (also in flashback in between issue #10 and framing story)
Lt. Jennifer Stuart (also in flashback in between issue #14 and framing story)

Villains:

Ariadne (in flashbacks, last in JLA #61/2; next in flashback in #17)

Synopsis:

Following their defeat of Dr. Polaris, the Power Company is hot stuff in San Fransisco. S.T.A.R. founder Garrison Slate agrees on acting as their interim administrator for as long as Josiah is inhospitalized. However, the team members are not as focused right now. Firestorm quits the Company, while Witchfire takes a leave of absence to learn some truths about herself. When she encounters the mysterious Baron Winters, she is shocked to hear from him that she is a homunculus (an artificial being).
Lieutenant Jennifer Stuart sits by the hospital bed of her grandfather Jeb, who was injured during the Polaris situation. Jeb, on the other hand, feels his soul reach the spirit world, and learns by the ghost of his namesake General J.E.B. Stuart that he is to become the spiritual guide of Jennifer, as the General was to Jeb.
Doctor Cyber's henchwoman Ariadne contacts the company and asks them help her to found out what happened to Cyber in JLA #61. Bork gets furious when he realizes that the other Company members consider helping a criminal. Not wanting to risk his parole, he quits the team. The rest of them (sans Witchfire) accompany Ariadne to a cave by the Marin Bluffs and find a big crystal (sounds familiar?). Too late, they realize that Ariadne has led them straight into a trap.
And Garrison Slate, who just got business running again, wonders where all the team members have disappeared...