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Post by dans on Jul 21, 2017 23:29:52 GMT
Where: Earth 2, North America, Forbidden Gorge, Montana (an isolated valley deep in the Rocky Mountains, a 4-day hike from the nearest safe place to land a helicopter) When: Late September, 1987 Who: A Black Canyon College Archaeological Team
"The Weather Radio says a really bad late fall storm is blowing our way, dropping down from Canada. We've got to head back to the pickup site; if we get snowed in here, we could be trapped until spring," warned Dawn Douglass, one of the two women in the 6 person archaeological team, as they gathered for dinner one night.
"Agreed. We're leaving tomorrow as soon as it's light enough to see," replied Kevin Callahan, the expedition's leader. "I hate to go home with almost nothing to show for the trip, but I'd hate it worse being stranded here for the whole winter. Even if we could stand the cold, we've got food for less than a month and 'the whole winter' here could mean until mid-April, at least! Besides, it isn't our fault that whoever planned this expedition picked such a stupid dig site!"
"Can't we stay just one more day?" whined the 40-something Carmela Valdez, the expedition's oldest member by a decade. "We're just about to find something big I can feel it in my bones!"
"Sure that's not arthritis, Carm? You say that every day." "Geez, Valdez, we don't wanna be the second Donner Expedition!" "We won't miss you if you decide to stay, Carmy." "You really think we're going to find the tunnel to Pellucidar _here_?"
Carmela wasn't very popular; not only was she the oldest, but she had the most seniority and most experience, and felt that she should be the expedition leader, and she let her unhappiness color everything she did. She had been something of a maverick when she was younger, and she had once published a paper linking myths from a dozen different Northwestern Native American tribes with the legendary subterranean world of Pellucidar. This had wrecked her reputation as a serious archaeologist, and the blot on her record would seemingly hound her forever.
"Enough!" snapped Callahan. "Carm, we're leaving tomorrow AM. There's no indication that there have ever been any inhabitants here in Forbidden Gorge. There's nothing to find here."
Dawn had named the remote valley when they had first arrived; the name was appropriate. It had taken a determined effort to reach the valley in the first place, hiking, climbing, rappelling, through an ever higher series of passes. None of the members of the expedition could understand why this particular almost-unreachable valley had been chosen as their target. Surely native tribes would have easily found more hospitable campsites which were also easier to access!
Callahan continued, "Anyone trying to set up a camp here would starve during their first winter." The valley was incredibly fecund, practically choked with luxurious vegetation during the wet fall season, but the largest animal they'd seen in two weeks was a squirrel.
Carmela continued to argue, but it quickly became clear that she was outvoted, and she grudgingly agreed. Everyone set to work packing for the trip back to the pickup site, and then fell into an exhausted sleep.
*****
The team was camped in a shallow cave. Carmela and Dawn shared a tent, and when Dawn awakened to answer nature's call, she saw that Carmela's sleeping bag was empty. When she didn't encounter her tent mate on her short trip, she was a little concerned. A concern that erupted into dread when she heard a scream, a scream that quickly faded in volume, coming from deeper in the cave.
She quickly awakened the rest of the party and they explored frantically, examining the walls, floor and even ceiling of the cave more closely than they had before. In a branch that they previously had dismissed as just another dead end, the found an adit that they hadn't noticed before, an opening that even when they were searching carefully, they almost missed.
'Almost like somebody deliberately hid it,' Dawn mused. 'But there's no indication that this cave isn't totally natural, no sign of tools, or even any straight lines.'
They would probably have missed it this time as well, except for scuff marks in the dust on the cave's floor that led into a seemingly dead end corner where the adit was concealed behind an outcrop from one of the walls.
They moved cautiously into the newly discovered passage. None of the group was experienced in cave exploration; they usually dealt with ruins in forests or on plains. They came to several splits in the passage, and at each junction, they discovered cunning marks worked into the walls that indicated the correct way back to the entrance. If you were lost in this cave, and could find even one of these marks, and you knew how to read them, you could be sure of finding your way out.
"Never knew she was a caver," Callahan remarked, examining one of the marks. "I wonder how she made these?"
"I'm really doubtful that Carmela had anything to do with them," one of the other team members responded. "She's never been the type to mark a trail - she just picks a direction and keeps going that way."
"You're right. These signs have been here a long time," Callahan replied in wonderment after a closer examination. "The were created with tools, and they're covered with dust except where Valdez wiped them clean."
"You don't suppose we've found 'the way in'?" Dawn whispered, almost in awe. As Carmela's tent mate, she'd heard more about her teammates scorned theories than she cared to remember. "Maybe she's been right all along?"
"It's balderdash!" snorted Barry Bennington, the expedition's second. Nobody could figure out why Bennington had become an archaeologist - if something was outside of his own personal existence, he usually dismissed it immediately as impossible. "An underground civilization? I'll bet you think the moon's made of green cheese, too!"
"Geez, Benz, you can be such a jerk sometimes," Dawn snapped right back. "Is it any wilder than an underwater civilization? Atlantis is well documented. Or don't you believe in Atlantis, either?"
"Can it, the two of you!" Callahan ordered. "We have to find Carmela, soon - remember, we're leaving tomorrow. It would be nice to get some sleep tonight."
'Unless something terrible has happened to her,' Dawn thought apprehensively. She didn't need to voice her concern; she could see the worry on her teammates' faces.
Without the scuff marks, if might have taken years to search the half dozen side tunnels they passed. There was no evident pattern in the direction Valdez had taken when she had a choice, no 'left fork, then right fork, repeat' or 'always take the right fork' plan. After a half hour of cautious exploring, Callahan was considering whether to abandon the search when Roy Romain, who was currently in the lead, told his colleagues to stop. His voice echoed weirdly in the chamber in front of him. He moved cautiously forward a few feet.
"Be careful. There's a big pit about 10 feet in front of you. And there's a lot of debris on the ground - it would be easy to trip on something or just slip and fall in." As his teammates moved slowly forward, the nearby area of the chamber became inadequately illuminated by their flashlights.
"A giant bubble inside a mountain!" someone whispered. "Our flashlights don't even show the other side..."
"What they do show," Dawn spoke dryly, "is that this pit is immense, and very deep!" The light from her flashlight faded more than a hundred feet below them.
Someone else picked up a stone and tossed it, and they were silent, waiting for the landing thud. After several seconds, they heard nothing.
"Maybe this IS an entrance to Pellucidar, after all," Dawn mused, real awe now tingeing her voice. Even Bennington didn't argue this time.
"Uh, boss..." Romain said sadly, "I don't think we're going to find Carmela. I think she fell." He aimed his light at a spot just over the lip of the pit, illuminating a small crater of gray rock, easily distinguished from the blackened rock of the rest of the pit wall. Small crystals sparkled in the tiny crater. He moved the light to illuminate a similar crater, about 20 feet directly below the first. "Looks like she drove pitons there and there, and the rock must be rotten."
While they didn't enter caves often, the members of the team had to be experienced climbers to have reached this remote location. Roy already had a hammer in his hands and quickly set his own piton just past the rim. "It feels strong enough when you pull it straight out," he reported, "but it's brittle to transverse forces." He smacked the side of the pin with his hammer, and shards of rock palled away, creating a new crater that was virtually identical to the others he had discovered. "She's always been a fast climber - but very careless, letting somebody else worry about where to set the pins. Looks like it finally caught up with her. That rock would hold as long as it was under constant pressure - but if she slipped and jerked on the rope, craackaabam! and she's gone." He cringed under the withering glare of a few of his mates. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to be funny..."
"We can't just leave without at least looking for her," Callahan said reluctantly. "If we can find some good places to set our own pins, I want Dawn and Roy..." the expedition's two best climbers, "to drop down about a hundred feet and see if there's any sign of her. We have to figure that if she fell farther than that, she's dead."
Even from a hundred feet down, their flashlights didn't show the bottom of the pit. It was more than 300' deep, and there weren't any ledges that Carmela might have landed on. Reluctantly they gave up the search. They were all growing dangerously fatigued, and Callahan didn't want to lose any more team members to mistakes.
"Sorry, fellas, it looks like Valdez was stupid - and sometimes the penalty for stupidity is death." They filed back to their camp in a very somber mood.
*****
Carmela started screaming when her second piton ripped free, and she screamed for what seemed like forever, and when she had to stop screaming, she was still falling. She would have screamed again, but the air rushing by her head at a hundred-plus miles an hour made it almost impossible to just breath. 'How much longer can I possibly fall? Will I be able to see or sense the bottom somehow before I hit?' she wondered. Her thoughts filled with cusses: 'g@##@^^|\| it all, I can't stand this - I want to @#$!&^'n hit and get it over with!'
Except, with that thought, she noticed that somehow, 'It's getting easier to breath!' The air rushing past her had slowed down enough for her to notice. 'It's almost like falling through 'thin' water - somehow the air is partially buoying me up', and the effect grew stronger, and she fell more slowly the deeper she went! She couldn't believe it - either she was having hallucinations because of her terror, or she must already have hit - and this was some kind of dying dream. Without any effort on her part, her body changed orientation, and she was drifting downward feet first. And then, suddenly she was surrounded by dim light which continued growing stronger as she continued to fall. She hadn't seen the light approaching beneath - it had appeared suddenly as if she'd fallen through some kind of intangible barrier that blocked light coming up from below.
She was maybe a hundred feet from the floor of the pit and still slowing. Except she wasn't falling through a vast stony pit any longer. She was falling through a circular shaft with perfectly smooth walls, and the floor below her was covered in white tiles!
The last few yards drifted by with agonizing slowness - she was beginning to get impatient, to feel as if she would never reach bottom. And then she had an instant of renewed terror. 'I hope that whatever is slowing me down doesn't throw me back up!' But she needn't have worried; as soon as her feet touched down, the strange force receded and she collapsed to the tile, shaking in reaction. She later thought she must have passed out for a while; when she finally recovered her composure and tried to move, she was cold and stiff.
The white-tiled floor around her was bare, and the wall of the shaft was featureless, except for a single corridor leading away from the room she was in. Not too far in, this wide corridor was totally blocked with rubble from a cave in. Partially buried in the rubble set into one of the walls was something that looked like a toll booth - or maybe a guard shack. Cautiously picking her way through the rubble, she leaned her head in through the window. The shack had been occupied at the time of the collapse - inside was a blackened skeleton, draped in rotting cloth, buried from feet to waist in rubble.
`The skull and rib cage are very oddly shaped,' she observed, surprised at how calm she was. "Whoever, that was, he wasn't quite human.' The skeleton was stretched out with its arm stretched past its head. `Wonder what he was reaching for?' When she followed the line of his arm, lying in the thick dust just a few inches out of reach was a foot-long scepter that gleamed as if it were made of burnished copper!
***~~~***
Spring 1988
Early on a spring morning, a big, green, grimy, beat up 1973 Chrysler Newport sedan with New Jersey plates puffed clouds of blue smoke as it clanked slowly down a dusty dirt road through a scraggly woods outside of the small town of Zena Eston, PA, a suburb of Civic City. The driver was a big, square-jawed man with brown eyes and mahogany hair, wearing a slightly threadbare, poorly tailored, out-of-fashion business suit. He stopped a couple of times to read the faded ink on a creased page of yellowing paper, swearing profusely as he compared what he read to a wrinkled map in a 10 year old Rand-McNally road atlas. `Guess I really lost the cops when I started taking the back roads in this two-bit hick state!' he thought with satisfaction. `Pretty soon, we'll see if my ol' fart granpa was fulla crap.'
His eyes lit up as he came around a corner and saw a dilapidated house, a largish Cape Cod with two dormers on the front and a chimney on the left end. It had clearly been a long time since the house had been occupied, there was a 25' high maple seemingly growing out from under the front of the house, which also had vines covering a large part of the walls. The outer door on the small porch was open and the porch was filled with drifted leaves, and the gray paint was peeling, but the windows were intact.
The car pulled up in front of the house, and the driver got out, carrying a pistol in one hand and a Geiger counter in the other. The clicking of the Geiger counter sped up until it was a constant cackle as he swept the wand around and ended pointing at the house "This must be the place," he said with rising excitement. "Maybe that old fart wasn't just spinning another one of his f*&^%n' fairy tales. I'll be damned!"
He examined the gauge on the Geiger counter closely. The needle hovered in the green safe zone, though closer to the orange warning zone than he liked. 'Good thing I bought this thing,' the man thought to himself. 'Don't want my kids to have green fur and six arms!' Not that he really cared a whit about his theoretical kids right now; he was on the verge of achieving power beyond his wildest dreams! 'And with great power,' he reminded himself, 'comes great opportunity!'
He cleared the leaves away from the front door, muttering in distaste as he dug into the slimy mulch below the dry top layer. "Don't worry, Rock," he groused to himself. "After today, you won't never need to get your hands dirty again." Finally, he was able to stand in front of the inner door, but it didn't open easily. He pushed with his shoulder, and when that didn't work, he took 2 steps back, then dropped his shoulder and lurched forward. The old wood groaned and the hinges ripped out of the rotted frame, and he staggered into the room, barely able to retain his balance.
As soon as he could change directions, he reeled frantically from the room in terror, half-retching, his eyes watering and his skin itching! Something had died in that room, a long time ago, and the stench was worse than anything he'd ever smelled! He had to escape! He stumbled away, reached the car, and slid down the side to sit with his back to the door until his sickness and nausea passed.
'Geez, Rock, ya coward, runnin' like a baby from a SMELL?' he mentally asked, heavy on the scorn and sarcasm. His mental voice sounded a lot like his grandfather. 'What's next, bein' terrified by little old ladies?'
"Yeah, well, I ain't goin' back inta that awful smell!" he argued with himself, retching again at just the memory.
'Break the windows, ya maroon, and let the wind do its job!' His granpa had been a very practical man.
"Yeah, so practical he spent half his life in the can, and had ta leech off his daughter when he got out!" Rock remembered, scolding his memory. "Never did figure out why she named me after such a loser, ya feeble old coot!"
He got the tire iron from the trunk, and, holding a rag over his face, ran up to the windows, shattered them, and ran away, holding his breath as best he could. When he was finished, he sat on the ground next to his car and panted to recover his breath, than tossed some stones through the dormer windows as well.
'I'll give it 4 hours,' he decided. He moved the car until it was upwind of the ancient cottage, climbed in the back, and tried to take a nap.
*****
He didn't sleep well; he was too anxious about what he hoped to find in the cottage. After 2 hours, he decided to brave the smell, and headed back into the cottage, holding his handkerchief over his nose. Everything inside was buried in a thick layer of dust.
'Almost 40 years worth of dust, I'll bet! Nobody's been in here since den!' he shouted with mental satisfaction. `I was afraid somebody else mighta cleaned out da joint!' Other than a thick coat of dust, the inside of the house was very similar to the way his elderly, half-demented grandfather had described it to him, many times, when he was growing up. Except... well:
The interior of the house was divided into one very big room and a small efficiency apartment. Dominating the far side of the big room was something that looked like a cross between a cannon and a telescope, mounted beneath a large square panel in the underside of the roof. According to his grandfather, that panel could be moved, allowing the device viewing access to the heavens above. The rest of the room was filled with scientific apparatus, which to his modern eyes looked antique. A bench with a sink was covered with bottles and flasks. A quarter of the room was filled with what must have been a primitive computer, with a giant panel half covered with switches, dials and guages, with giant reels of magnetic tape dominating the other half.
Except... the carriage under the cannon telescope had collapsed, and the small end had landed on a desk - and the whole thing was now bent like a banana. The bottles and flasks had mold spilling out of them, and a very strange looking plant with red leaves was growing out of the drain of a sink. The front panel of the computer was rusty, and one of the reels had broken loose, spewing magnetic tape as it had rolled.
There were chaotic piles of other stuff: a partially completed jumble of wires, condensers and vacuum tubes, some welding equipment, microscopes, smaller hand-held telescopes, small glass display cases holding incomprehensible instruments, and a low stage against the far wall. The stage had once been shielded behind a large window, like the front window of a jewelry store, but it had been shattered sometime in the past. A bulky wooden cabinet, with a circular screen just over a foot in diameter over a complex control panel with several knobs, sat against another wall, close to the computer. The dust-covered sofa, easy chair and coffee table arrayed in front of it suggested that this was probably a primitive TV set rather than the radar set the round screen suggested. 'Geez, I can't imagine watchin' "The Earls of Peril County" on that thing! Wonder if they even had color back then?'
Rock had hoped to be able to use or repair some of the equipment in this room, particularly the big telescope, but he hadn't expected to find everything in such ruin. He was starting to despair when he noticed a black mound on the floor. It looked like the body of a small man, thinly covered with dust.
"If you're who I hope you are, buddy, you've just saved me a hell of a lot of trouble," Rock said with a half-smile. "It would take another genius like you just to fix this stuff up, and even I know I ain't no genius. You don't mind if I help myself to your things, do you? After all, _you_ sure aren't gonna be using them again!" He wasn't so cheery after he had examined the body more closely.
The pile wasn't really a body, it was a mound of ashes, as if the man had been consumed by an incredibly hot fire. Where he had skin left, it was blackened and cracked, where bone showed through it was charred and broken. His clothes had been totally consumed; they must have flared like the head of a match. Strangely enough, there were no burn marks on the floor or surrounding furniture. The body rested in a sort of `crater' in the dust as if it had been dropped onto the ocean of dust that covered the floor not too long ago but there were no other marks in the dust to indicate how it had gotten there.
By now, Rock was swearing again! "F*@#in' useless old bastard! Nuthin' I can use in the house, and everting you was carryin or wearin burnt to a crisp!" he shouted at that top of his voice. "I shoulda known that G@%%&?|d loser of a granpa would screw me around again!" He hauled off and kicked the mound in the area of the rib cage, staggering like a drunk when there was almost no resistance. But something small and solid bounced off the far wall something that shined with a brilliant red glow!
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Post by dans on Jul 21, 2017 23:32:08 GMT
Ted Knight was regretting the unexpected consequences of a decision he'd made earlier this morning. Who would have thought that attending a funeral of an old acquaintance would be so painful? Earlier this week, Ted had come across a familiar name in the Obituary section of the Opal City Star Register. This wasn't unusual. Ted was now in his mid-70s, and the paper frequently ran obituaries about his contemporaries. He'd dated Harmony Davis a few times in early 1933, while he was a junior at Harvard and she a sophomore at Radcliffe, but she had never returned to school the next year, and he'd never heard from her again. In her obituary, he discovered that Harmony had 'attended Radcliffe' (with no mention of a degree). She'd married to a man named Henry Valdez in August, 1933. They'd had a daughter, Carmela, in 1947, and Henry had died in an automobile accident that same year. Harmony had reclaimed her maiden name, never remarried, and spent most of the rest of her life in Clliffland, OH. She'd moved to Opal City in 1979. Her only other relative, daughter Carmela, had passed away not long ago. For some reason, this obituary had made Ted despondent. 'Retarded aging isn't entirely a blessing,' he'd thought to himself sadly. 'So many of my old friends are dying of old age while I expect to live another 50 or 60 years.' He'd decided then that he would attend her funeral, inconspicuously. 'I wonder why she moved to Opal City?' Maybe he could introduce himself to any of Harmony's friends who attended and find out more about her. He always felt obscurely guilty when a long-time friend died of old age while he still looked fifty and felt forty, as if he was somehow cheating; showing his respect just seemed to be the right thing to do. As it turned out, it would have been better if he'd stayed away. Though he hadn't intruded, or tried to join the friends and family of the deceased, after the service, a woman had walked up to him deliberately. "You're Ted Knight, aren't you?" she barked at him. Without waiting for his reply, she continued, in a cold, bitter voice: "She hated you, more than anything in her life. I can't BELIEVE you came to her funeral!" She’d spit at his feet, then turned and stormed away. ***~~~*** "Nervous about your big moment, Molly?" Alan Scott teased his wife. They were on their way to breakfast in the Ocean City Hotel, Casino and Convention Center in Ocean City, New Jersey. Molly was dressed formally, with a long, pale green floor-length satin gown, and Alan had on a charcoal gray suit. "Are you talking about playing chamber music for the Platinum Sponsor Breakfast or the Welcome Speech afterward?" she answered his question with a question of her own. She was carrying a very expensive Neapolitan mandolin. "You know I always love to play, but whoever heard of a mandolin ensemble at breakfast?" "Well, you're the outgoing President of the Mandolin Society of America couldn't you have vetoed the idea?" he laughed with her. "Anyway, you told me that without the Platinum Sponsors, the whole convention would have been impossible so I think we're worth it." Of course, Gotham Broadcasting Corporation was one of the Platinum Sponsors. But Molly couldn't attend the Sponsor Breakfast and play in the ensemble at the same time, so they were splitting the duties. "I'm just glad there's time scheduled for me to eat my own breakfast and change my clothes before I have to give the Welcome Speech," she replied with a chuckle. "I think I'd be a little overdressed on the podium otherwise." The Scotts were attending the 2nd Annual National Convention of Mandolinists. Molly had been instrumental in setting up the first two conventions, but she'd had enough of being President. "And then I can go back to being just Molly Scott, private citizen!" she sighed in relief. "Well, actually, not until this evening I'm scheduled to teach a seminar in advanced Classical Pick Technique; then I'm a free woman again. And what are you doing this afternoon, Mr. Scott?" "Going back to shop class, my dear," he responded with a smile. "I'm signed up for the 'Build a Mandolin' session. Good thing Alan Scott is not allergic to wood like the Green Lantern, eh?" They reached the private dining room. Molly went to sit with the ensemble, and Alan went off to schmooze with the other big donors. ***~~~*** Nearby, in the Sapphire Sun Casino, Convention Center, and Hotel in Ocean City, the National Association of Jewelers was having their own national convention. The Sapphire Sun was specially designed to safely host conferences with exceptionally valuable displays. The convention center was built like a fortress, supplied with formidable security forces, boasted cutting edge surveillance technology, and included a number of rooms below ground level that were supposedly proof against a direct hit from an atomic bomb. The convention organizers proudly boasted that the valuables on display were 'safer than the gold in Fort Knox!' and the convention center's anti-theft record for all kinds of `high value' conferences in the 5 years since it was built was spotless. Preston Prendergast, a private dealer in small ancient artifacts, was welcoming a potential buyer. They were in one of the armored, ultra-secure underground rooms, the size of a competition swimming pool, filled with tables covered with jewelry, unset gems, ancient coins, statuettes, wands, carvings, weapons, helmets and shields, scrolls and parchments, books, musical instruments, tools, and other antiques. A handful of big, tough-looking security guards stood throughout the room, all armed with tasers. "So you represent Mrs. Pennington-Smythe of Shaker Heights, eh, Mr. Castle? I've done business with her many times. What happened to Mr. Fentiman, her previous buyer?" Prendergast asked diffidently. Mrs. Pennington-Smythe was an eccentric collector of antiquities with eclectic tastes - but Prendergast prided himself on having an eclectic selection to satisfy his pickiest customers. "Fentiman made some bad buys, and P-Smythe wasn't happy. You won't be seein' him again, least not working for the old dame." Prendergast winced at the familiar use of his old acquaintance's last name, but his expression quickly dropped back into his practiced smile now slightly strained. "That's a shame. I've known Mr. Fentiman," he emphasized the prior buyer's formal name, "for years and he always made exquisite selections." "Musta gone senile, then, the wacky old coot," Castle sneered. Prendergast made a tiny motion, telling his guards to be alert for anything suspicious. He couldn't imagine Mrs. Pennington-Smythe hiring a... a... a thug like this. Yet, the man had the correct credentials, credentials that were guaranteed to be impossible to obtain illegitimately. "Let me show you some weapons - I have recently obtained the jeweled Dagger of Acre, surrendered by Saladin to Richard the Lionheart to seal the Treaty of Ramla in 1192 to end the Third Crusade. I believe it would be a superb addition to Mrs. Pennington-Smythe's collection. "Sorry, shorty, I'm looking for somethin' for myself first, and I perfer jewelry!" Taken aback by Castle's rudeness, Prendergast started to voice his dismay prior to dismissing this lout and registering a complaint with Mrs. Pennington-Smythe and the conference committee, when he was dazzled by a flash of brilliant red light. The nearest of the hyper vigilante security guards instantly fired his taser, as Castle swung his fist towards an armor glass case holding, literally, an Emperor's ransom in gems and jewelry. An inch from Castle's chest, the taser wires smashed into something, and a red aura flared into visibility surrounding him. The armor glass shattered explosively as Castle struck it, as if it were plate glass hit with a sledgehammer. The taser discharged against the red aura, adding an electric blue flare. Several other taser shots hit Castle an instant later, adding their own flares of lightning-like blue, and the room flickered dizzyingly. A ragged red flame blasted from Castle's fist and expanded into a rough globe, surrounding the exhibit with the shattered case. Castle continued to ignore Prendergast and the guards as the ragged sphere contracted into the shape of a valise. The exhibit table was untouched, but the jewelry was gone. By now, the guards had abandoned their useless tasers, and were closing in on the red-glowing figure of Castle, some of them pulling out truncheons and others donning brass knuckles. "Shoulda learned better already, boys," Castle chuckled. Another bolt of flame flared from Castle's fist, and it zoomed through the room, twisting and darting like a balloon jetting air, slamming into the jaws of each of the guards, knocking them all down. Prendergast was shouting into a walkie-talkie when Castle took one step towards him, raised his left hand, and flicked his finger into the dealer's chin. Prendergast's head snapped backwards, and he took two staggering steps backwards until he collapsed on one of the other exhibits. Gas started billowing into the room from a half dozen concealed nozzles, and the guards who were struggling to get back to their feet collapsed unconscious. Doors with bars like those on jail cells slid into place covering the two entrances to the room. A loud siren was blaring... Castle walked calmly through the chaos in the display room, the valise floating obediently behind him, attached to his red aura by a leash that looked like red lightning. Ignoring everything but the exhibits, he used his red flame to scoop up still more jewelry displays and dump them into the valise, which grew noticeably with each feeding. When he was satisfied that he had everything he wanted, he headed for the door. He gripped a bar with one hand and easily pulled the barred door out of the wall, casually tossing it aside. He raised one foot and kicked at the heavy, locked steel door, and it flew from its frame as if there had been an explosion behind it. "Glad I wasn't standin' in the way of that!," he laughed. Immediately a hail of bullets gushed through the open door-frame, from handguns, rifles and machine guns Castle walked casually through the door as if he were taking a stroll on a cool summer evening. His aura was sparkling, flashing intensely whenever a bullet struck it, and dimming to become almost invisible immediately afterward. The guards who were closest to the blazing red apparition stopped firing as they were hit by bullets ricocheting from the aura, and the rest stopped shooting as they saw their comrades falling, wounded or worse, and the villain ignoring their fire. Castle walked to the elevator shaft and casually tore the closed door open. He raised his arm above his head, and a blast of red flame shot up the shaft. There was the sound of a massive explosion, and then Castle lifted slowly into the air, floated up the shaft and the Sapphire Sun's perfect security record was shattered. ***** In a ballroom at the Ocean City Hotel, Alan Scott and about 20 other would-be musical instrument makers were paying strict attention to their instructor. "We won't be making the 'bells' today, as I call the sound chamber." She held up a large, bowl-shaped object that they recognized as the back of the sound board. "It takes several days of warping wood strips in boiling water, gluing them together, and then sanding them to build a good one." She indicated a table covered with similar 'bells', though every one of them was a little different from each of the others. "We'll watch a video of one being created, and then you can choose one of these for your first instrument." At that moment, there came the sound of a tremendous explosion, not too far away, and within seconds, they started to hear the wail of sirens from emergency responders. As everyone rushed to the windows to see what was going on, Alan lagged behind. He made sure no one was watching him and cupped his hand to hide the glowing green television, the size of a transistor radio, which materialized there. 'It looks like a red flame in human form. This looks like a job for Green Lantern!' he thought, as his Power Ring TV showed the roof of the Sapphire Sun exploding, and the red humanoid take to the sky. 'I need to get away, fast.' He was already heading out the door of the classroom. A few steps down the hall, he paused, looked up and down the halls, and when he saw no one, he slipped into the men's room, already reaching up to unbutton his shirt. A couple of seconds later, the mighty red and green clad figure of Green Lantern phased through the window, then zoomed into the sky at jet speed! GL exerted his will to urge even more speed from the ring. He overtook and passed the other form in seconds. Spectators on the ground were awed at the site of twin comets, one red and the other green, racing across the sky, their glowing trails merging like Christmas ribbons as they faded. GL passed high above the red flier, then dropped in front of him. The jewel thief pulled up short to avoid a collision with the majestic figure who now stood on air in front of him with his arms crossed. "Who do you think YOU are?" Green Lantern's voice, amplified by his ring for dramatic effect, boomed like thunder. GL could see that the other was a human, surrounded by a red aura that resembled flames. The other hardly seemed awed by the hero. "I ain't decided yet. I'm thinking, Red Flare, Scarlet Flame or Crimson Blaze, Whatta you think?" "How about the Red-faced Bust? And you won't have to worry about another name when I'm done with you they'll give you a number instead," Green Lantern quipped confidently. "Why don't you give up now, and come along quietly?" "Pretty confident, aren't you?" Castle sneered. "My grandfather kicked ass on the first Green Lantern back in forty-nine just like I'm gonna kick your ass today!" GL was a little startled. "I'm the first Green Lantern." "Do you think anyone believes that?" Castle asked mockingly. "Everybody knew Green Lantern was getting old, and suddenly he's young again and we're supposed to think you're both the same guy? I'm not that stupid!" Meanwhile, GL had been thinking. He'd fought so many unmemorable villains through the years that he'd forgotten most of them. "Think what you will, Red Rider, nobody 'kicked my ass' in 49, and you sure aren't going to do it today," he said calmly. "Wrong on both counts, stupid!!" Castle pointed his right fist at Green Lantern, and a jagged red bolt of energy blasted from the big ring he was wearing. As quickly as he'd moved, GL was quicker: a round green shield appeared in the air before him. The bolt hit the shield, and, unbelievably, the shield shattered! Green Lantern wasn't injured, but the force of impact knocked him off balance, and he tumbled backward through the sky. He gritted his teeth and regained his concentration, then flew back to his opponent, who was now standing still in the sky, his legs spread as wide as his shoulders, with his arms crossed, still surrounded by the jagged red glow. "I remember a gangster who got his hands on a red power ring, back in forty-nine named Rocky Castle," GL said loudly as he approached. "But he sure didn't beat me. He was down for the count when a mad scientist named Professor Egri intervened. Anyway," his Power Ring flared, launching a giant green fist at his opponent, "let's see how YOU handle a little Power Ring action." "Just like the old fart said," Castle laughed, as a giant punching bag intercepted the blow. The green fist vanished, and the punching bag hardly moved. "Well, we got that outta the way. Let's try somethin' diffrent." A jagged red shape resembling a Tommy Gun appeared in his hands, and he pulled the trigger, hosing a stream of glowing red bullets across the sky. A green cinder block wall appeared between the two flying foes and the bullets spangled off the bricks but blasted away first green chips, and then green chunks, as the wall was chewed into two. The wall changed into a big green pillow, and the red bullets quickly tore it apart. Green feathers filled the air like a bizarre blizzard. Green Lantern was practically dumbfounded! 'His red power seems to be greater than my green beam!' he thought in amazement as his mind whirled, trying to remember more about that long-past 1949 encounter. Meanwhile, though disconcerted, GL wasn't wasting time, moving fast while his red-wrapped opponent's sight was obscured by the flying feathers. After the feathers dissipated, Castle realized that the Green Guardian was no longer in front of him. Still standing easily on air, he rotated in place, just in time to see a length of heavy metal pipe, wielded like a baseball bat by a pair of green hands, swinging towards his midsection. His shield flared as the pipe struck, vaporizing almost 10 feet of pipe, but the blow knocked him off of his balance, and now it was Castle tumbling through the air. GL chased after him, and whacked him again with the remaining length of pipe, and most of the rest of the pipe vanished. Castle was knocked higher into the air, and Green Lantern sped off in pursuit. "ARRGHH!" Castle gave a violent shout of hatred and anger, and a blob of red energy tore away from his aura and raced towards the red and green clad caped hero. Castle then ordered his ring to flee. He didn't see his impromptu aerial torpedo explode on contact with Green Lantern's own aura. Only the Emerald Guardian's years of experience and iron will let him remain conscious long enough to order his ring to bear him gently to the ground. He awakened several hours later in a hospital bed. ***~~~*** Ted Knight sat in the living room of lonely, stately Knight Manor after breakfast, and brooded as he tried to read today's Opal City Star Register. The living room was the size of a small ballroom; one wall was mostly windows, surrounding a set of big, elaborate French doors which opened on the magnificent patio. The adjoining walls were lined with shelves filled with books and tchotchkes, interspersed with low tables supporting mood lamps and handsome plants. The opposite wall was covered with photographs and portraits. In the center of the picture wall, in the place of honor, was a stunning, almost life-sized portrait of Doris Lee Knight, Ted's wife, which had been painted shortly before she had passed away in the early 70s. On the walls around her were family pictures with Ted, Jack and David, and pictures of the couples' parents, grandparents, and other relatives. 'Including people who had lived here a hundred years ago, and are long dead.' Ted thought morosely. 'Will I still be living here, a hundred years hence? Will my pictures still hang on that wall?' "What strange lives some of us 40s heroes and our friends lead," he sadly mused aloud. "I wonder if any of the others consider their extended lifespans as a tragedy rather than a boon? Watching people who were our contemporaries die of old age, as we go on, and on..." He sighed. Ted hadn't been so introspective when he was younger. The world was too exciting back then - science, discovery and invention were his shiny new toys, his inherited wealth had allowed him to choose his amusements, there was the excitement of being Starman and the satisfaction of making a difference in the world, and he even got a thrill out of concealing his double identity from the people around him, almost as if he were getting away with something illicit. "I need another perspective on this," he decided "Not from one of my fellow JSA members, who are in the same boat as I am, learning as we go. Not some non-human being with godlike powers, like Fate or the Spectre. Certainly not an immortal sociopath like Vandal Savage." Reluctantly, Ted got up from the sofa and went to his desk. He opened the middle drawer, manipulated a virtually invisible puzzle lock, and slid open a small compartment inset into the desktop above the drawer. A few business cards fell into his hand. 'Always wondered why I kept his card, but I never thought I'd use it,' he was thinking, when the wall of windows exploded! The concussion knocked him down, and he used his momentum to roll behind a sofa. As he rolled, he caught a glimpse of a ball of intensely shimmering reddish-goldish energy streaking into the room through the shattered window wall. As he listened to the deadly typhoon of shattered glass shredding his dignified, peaceful living room, he had an instant to hope that whatever that energy ball was, it wasn't some kind of explosive missile! An instant later, his worry changed to rage as the coppery energy washed across the sofa, lifted it, and hurled it directly at the portrait of Doris on the picture wall. With a tremendous crash, the portrait was destroyed, and a big chunk of wall was knocked down - along with most of the other pictures, momentarily filling the room again with the sound of plaster being smashed and glass shattering. Without the sofa blocking his vision, Ted saw a woman, surrounded by a bubble of the coppery energy, standing in the center of the devastated room. He launched to his feet and stormed at the invader, any thought of danger overwhelmed by the destruction of the precious portrait of his beloved wife. His roar of anger was barely coherent, and can't be repeated here, but he used language he'd never used before, wishing the intruder and all her ancestors and descendants to hell, suggesting a canine background and unwed non-human parents, disgusting personal habits, and unappealing physical attributes. The woman he was charging was wrapped in crackling coppery energy, which held her floating a few inches off the floor and made it difficult to see her facial features. What he could make out easily was her weapon. A gleaming rod which, except for its coppery color, could have easily been mistaken for some iteration of his own Cosmic Rod. Ted recognized the beginning of a familiar gesture and instantly dove aside, a second before a lightning bolt of red energy tore through the air above him. She shifted her aim, and blasted again. The second bolt grazed the desperate hero. It affected him like electricity, throwing him across the room, and when he landed he was having violent spasms. If his opponent had wanted him dead, there was nothing he could do - but all she did was laugh at Ted's agony. Finally the spasms calmed down, and Ted began to struggle painfully to his feet. He was still twitching enough to make purposeful actions all-but-impossible, but he managed to move closer to her. She blasted a hole in the carpet just in front of him, and he feebly jumped away, staggering towards a wall, then falling again. Once again she could have killed him, and once again she didn't; apparently she wanted to gloat. "So, Ted Knight, I swore to my mother to seek vengeance for the pain and suffering you caused her. As pitiful Carmela Valdez, I could do little but seethe with helpless rage, but I am no longer simply Carmela Valdez. Behold, mighty Pellucidar!" Her aura expanded and tore through the ceiling above and the floor below - but Pellucidar herself was motionless, floating majestically amidst the destruction she had created. Ted took advantage of the momentary distraction caused by the falling debris to slide painfully a few feet towards one of the (relatively) undamaged side walls. Though his nerves still jangled, and pain played throughout his body, and part of him was filled with rage, another, dispassionate part of his mind, shaped by the discipline required by science and trained by almost fifty years of super heroics, worked at top speed. 'Another ham, just like most other maniacs with super powers. Maybe I can use that to my advantage.' Even as she continued her tirade, a desperate plan was growing... "Knight! What a blasphemous name for a charlatan like you; surely Rogue would be more appropriate. Well, Rogue, surely you remember my mother, Harmony Davis? A woman who surely loved you, a woman you promised to marry, then stole her virtue and discarded her like a piece of trash." Ted shook his head and struggled to speak. "Your mother lied to you. It was never like that!" "LIAR!" Pellucidar roared, and loosed another blast. Ted tried to roll away from it, but it threw him against the wall, and he crashed back to the floor amidst the remains of the small table, lamp and several plants which had originally occupied this spot. "Of course you say that NOW, man! Like all men, you gained her trust, abused her, and dropped her when you found another pretty toy to play with." Ted gathered himself for a last desperate action. He levered himself to his elbows and tried to shout: "NO! We never even..." "I WILL HEAR NO MORE OF YOUR LIES!" Her amplified voice actually shook the room, shattering whatever glass remained intact. "I WILL END THIS NOW!" She punctuated her words of doom by firing an energy blast into the ceiling above Ted. The debris smashed down, and the weakened floor under him gave way, and the rubble crashed down into the first level of the basement. Pellucidar floated majestically to the new crater, and used rays from her scepter to methodically vaporize the pile of wood, plaster, concrete and stone which had buried the unfortunate Ted Knight. ***** As her rage abated, Pellucidar stopped blasting energy bolts through the ragged hole in the floor. She floated, a foot off the devastated floor, and slowly spun in a complete circle, closely examining the ruins she'd made of the formerly dignified living room. As she calmed, her aura melted into an unusual shape, until it appeared that she was standing inside the coppery ghost of a giant sitting dog. It looked a lot like a shepherd, a little like a husky with shorter hair. With a little study, a cynologist would have recognized it as a coyote. "I planned to destroy this entire estate, burn the buildings to the ground," she said slowly, softly. "But with Knight dead, it just doesn't seem as thrilling as I thought it would." As she turned back to the window wall, the coyote shadow turned with her, rising to its feet. She pointed her scepter weapon in the direction she was facing, and then moved in that direction, her body position lifting and gently rotating forward until she was horizontal and several feet off the floor. She floated casually towards the shattered wall, and the coyote trotted casually to keep up with her, and then when she reached the open sky, her body position rotated again, as she pointed the scepter up and away. As she climbed, the coyote leaped skyward and quickly morphed into a ghostly giant bird of prey, perhaps an eagle. While Pellucidar was flying slowly, the raptor's wings moved majestically; as she accelerated, they swept back into a gliding position. Pellucidar was brooding; she gave no sign of either being in control of, or even aware of, the metamorphosis of her aura. She didn't even see the red and yellow comet streaking across the sky until suddenly the first Starman was standing on air in front of her. "Lady, I don't know who you are, but you better not think you're just going to fly away after wrecking Knight Manor like that. Ted Knight has been my friend for a long time, and I'm going to put you away!" Pellucidar moved into a similar 'standing on air' position, and her ghostly aura once again morphed, this time into a bear. "Starman!" Pellucidar greeted him brightly, no longer moody. "Any friend of Ted Knight's is an enemy of mine!" She held her weapon high. "My name is Pellucidar, and I carry the ancient and magical Flarequake, the Scepter of Fire and Earth." "Looks like a knockoff of my Cosmic Rod, if you ask me," Starman replied. "But I didn't ask you!" she replied, making a sweeping gesture with Flarequake. A stream of coppery energy leaped from the scepter, growing into a giant hand, reaching for the hero. Before he could dodge, the hand grasped his spherical force shield, and began squeezing. "Flarequake was created long before your own feeble weapon!" Initially, Ted wasn't too worried. A sphere is structurally a very strong shape, and Ted's cosmic energy bubble had temporarily held back Superman and Power Girl in Justice Society training exercises. He was stunned when the shield started to deform, like a glob of silly putty, squishing and oozing between the fingers of the giant coppery fist. Still, his reflexes had been honed by almost 50 years as a 'mystery man' and he flew between the encircling thumb and forefinger, just before they closed. 'Drops' of his energy bubble spurted away from the magical fist, and one of these spurts enclosed Starman. As he struggled to regain control of his flight, an irrelevant thought crossed his mind. 'Now I know how that little dab of Brylcreem felt, back in the 50's!' Another train of thought was analyzing the attack and calculating his next move. 'My shield either shatters, or it holds... I've never seen it stretched or squished before!' "My turn!" Starman crowed as he launched as attack of his own. A beam of golden energy, so powerful as to be almost solid, blasted at Pellucidar's own bear-shaped force field. Instead of slamming into her with the force of a speeding locomotive, though, the beam of energy was reflected harmlessly into an explosion of colored beams of light and for a second, looking at Pellucidar was like looking at a prism. "I was so hoping for one of the younger Stars," Pellucidar's aura turned into a giant hunting cat, her voice a low rumble like a cross between a growl and a purr. "I had big plans for someone younger than you, old man!" She gestured again, and Flarequake blasted out a stream of small energy 'bullets' like a magical machine gun. Ted instantly created a golden badge shaped shield, an oversize version of that used by the Guardian. As each magical bullet struck the shield, chips were blasted away, as if a mundane bullet had struck concrete, not at all what Ted had expected. Still, he reacted instantly and ordered the Cosmic Rod to dive, adding the Rod's power to that of gravity for a quick escape. A half dozen magic bullets was enough to weaken and then shatter the shield, but by that time Ted was well out of the stream of the following bullets. Pellucidar's arm moved to follow the falling hero, but by this time, Ted was getting tired of this fight. Starman was achy and sore from the battering she'd given him earlier in his living room, and still enraged about the destruction of the portrait of Doris. 'Guess I'm inspired by using a Gravity Rod earlier.'* I hope an old trick will be my best trick!' he thought with grim amusement as he focused gravity strongly, directly under the floating villainess. Suddenly, her weight jumped to many tons, and she started plummeting towards the ground as her great weight surprised her and overwhelmed her magical flying energies. ***** *Ted Knight hated to waste anything, especially things he built himself. Whenever he built a new version of his Cosmic Rod, or earlier his Gravity Rod, he had kept the older ones around as spares. 'Just in case', the spares were scattered throughout stately Knight Manor, disguised as wall decorations, or a model rocket on display in a trophy case in the den, or even as a table lamp as seen in Aquarius Redux: Calm Before the Storm, here: www.5earths.info/earth-2/showcase-e2-superstars-tp1969-3/Ted had cleverly managed to get Pellucidar to blast him against the wall of his living room near the remains of a table that had supported one of the concealed Gravity Rods, this one, disguised as the base of a lamp. ("If it was so darn clever, why am I half dead?" he might have asked!). He used this G-Rod to protect himself, and escape through the basement, when Pellucidar had brought the wall down on him. When he had changed to his Starman battle suit, he'd unconsciously holstered the Gravity Rod through force of habit. (Continuity Bug). ***** But only for an instant. Well before she smashed to Earth, her fall slowed, stopped, and then she floated lightly back upwards, her aura resembling a cloud or a puff of smoke. "Sorry, honey, but I guess you forgot the 'Scepter of Earth' part: Earth, gravity, Flarequake; you get the connection by now, I'm sure!" As she zoomed towards her weary foe, Pellucidar's aura morphed again back into the giant bird of prey, diving on its dinner. A slight flick of her wrist, and Flarequake was surrounded by an energy construct like a long wooden spear with a barbed head of chipped stone, and an energy dagger that also resembled chipped stone appeared in the other hand. She thrust the spear forward, hoping to run Ted through when the two collided. The image of the raptor changed attitude, with the head going up and the claws extending to rend its prey. 'Time for my last trick,' Starman thought regretfully. 'I hope the Rod can handle the overload!' Theoretically, the Cosmic Rod could absorb ALL the energy in a small volume of space, and plunge that volume to almost absolute zero freezing the water vapor in the air, and even the gasses that made up the air, into a solid block, which should hold Pellucidar until Ted could summon help from the Justice Society of America. 'That's the theory, alright. But the theory doesn't address the dangers!' The danger to someone encased in the block, and the danger of destroying the Cosmic Rod. 'Still, I've seen people, including me, live through being encased in ice by the Icicle. And, I've got the Gravity Rod as a spare.' He pulled the Gravity Rod he'd used earlier this evening from his holster, held it at ready in his left hand. 'Plus, her aura's protected her from everything else I've tried.' He pointed the Cosmic Rod, thought it a command... Instantly, a sphere surrounding Pellucidar turned black, the awful, limitless, light destroying black of deep space, but only for an instant, and then the blackness flickered, and in its place was a shining sphere of ice, smooth as if polished. Incredibly cold, ultra-hard ice that should hold just about anything Ted could conceive until help arrived. The blackness had vanished because the Cosmic Rod was instantly vaporized by the incredible surge of absorbed energy. Both Ted and the globe of ice fell towards the ground. Ted's right hand was badly burned, even through his insulated glove, and it was difficult for him to concentrate on giving mental orders to the Gravity Rod in his left. He managed to slow his fall so the landing wasn't fatal, but on top of his earlier injuries, he was stunned and only semiconscious to witness Pellucidar's own landing. Well above the ground, the ice sphere vaporized explosively, and underneath was a miniature star, shining a brilliant coppery color! Ted was half blinded, and the heat was searing, even a hundred feet way, through his insulated costume. The star winked out, and Pellucidar floated to the ground, erratically, almost like a falling leaf. She landed not far from the stunned Starman and taunted him as she stood above his stunned form: "Guess you forgot about the Fire part, too, honey!" was the last thing Ted heard before consciousness fled. Pellucidar's aura was dimmed almost to invisibility, shapeless now and barely larger than she was. Flarequake's glow was now a dull, brown color like a penny that's been in circulation for years. She wearily regarded the unconscious figure before her, a faint smile whispered across her lips, and she turned away. A shaky gesture from Flarequake, and the ground in front of her began to churn, dirt drawing together and reshaping. A large brown horse grew upwards from the churning earth, and Pellucidar awkwardly, painfully, mounted and rode away barebacked.
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Post by dans on Jul 21, 2017 23:33:26 GMT
Gotham City: The Justice Society of America brownstone headquarters. Later the same day. Starman limped painfully into the computer terminal room in Justice Society Headquarters. He had just seen Dr. McNider in the JSA's small, well-equipped medical clinic, and discovered that no matter how badly he felt, his injuries weren't life-threatening or even serious. With that out of the way, he was planning to do some research on Harmony Davis and her daughter, Carmela Valdez. In particular, he was hoping to figure out where Harmony's hatred had come from. He couldn't imagine what he might have done to incur her animosity but it had been over 50 years ago. Maybe it was something he'd wanted to forget. He didn't expect to find the reason in public records but maybe they would jog his memory. Green Lantern was already there, sitting at one of the terminals, concentrating intently on the images and documents scrolling slowly up his screen. He looked up as Ted came in. "I was just about to call you, Ted I need to talk to an expert on cosmic radiation!" Then he noticed how slowly and painfully Ted was moving. "Say, what happened to you? You look like a house fell on top of you!" "Not funny, Alan!" Ted snarled. "In fact, I did have a house fall on me or at least part of one. And it was my own damn house!" He looked over his friend. "You don't look so good yourself. Charles told me he'd just finished patching you up, too. Guess it hasn't been our day, so far, eh?" He checked out Green Lantern's monitor. "You're relaxing by reading a comic book on the JSA computer?" "You remember that comic book company that used to publish fictionalized adventures from our casebook, back in the 40s?" Alan asked. Ted nodded; everyone in the JSA had read those comics, often breaking out into a roar of laughter at some of the antics of their 4-color counterparts. "I had an encounter today with someone claiming to be a 'legacy villain - the grandson of a crook we defeated in 1949. And he was using a power ring!. If what he told me is true, that ring is powered by cosmic energy. I didn't fare so well so I'm boning up on everything I can find regarding that earlier encounter, because I'm sure as heck not going to lose the rematch!" "A cosmic power ring? That's the Egri case, right? I knew Egri, you know even worked with him for a short time right after the war before he vanished. I based my theory of cosmic radiation, and some of the principles I used to construct the Cosmic Rod, on some of his early ideas." Ted paused, as he remembered his old acquaintance. "But the theory he created using those same ideas was flawed. I thought that at the end of the case, he exploded, the ring and everything else he imbued with cosmic power was destroyed, and all his equipment was dismantled and disposed of?" "That's what we thought, too," Green Lantern replied. "I saw him explode. But we left the dismantling to the local authorities and it looks as if they never got around to it." He called up another document on the display. "There was some kind of jurisdictional dispute Egri's hideout was near the border of three different counties and after years of litigation, eventually the case was just forgotten. So the apparatus Egri used to charge that power ring, and the other things in 1949 have been sitting around since then, and anyone could have used it. We're just lucky nobody's done it before!" He called up the comic book again. "Funny, though the original ring didn't give me much trouble, but I had real problems today. Must be the new, improved model. But Castle didn't strike me as the kind of guy who could improve on anyone's invention. I wonder what happened?" Ted was very intrigued by this time. "I want to learn more about this. My research can wait. Send a summary to my screen, will you?" Below is the summary Ted read. If you want a more complete story, see All Star Comics #45, The Case of the Cosmic Criminals, published February 1949. **~~** The Case of the Cosmic Criminals In Spring, 1949, the robberies of the Rocky Castle gang were making headlines in Civic City, PA. until they ran into some unusual circumstances. The gang was making a getaway after stealing the payroll from a big chemical plant, roaring through the streets in a big green Ford sedan, pursued by a line of Civic City Police squad cars and officers on motorcycles. As on other, similar nights, the souped-up sedan and fearless driving of 'Ox' (as in 'strong as an...'), was leaving the pursuit behind. However, this night, the pursuit had managed to channel the getaway car toward a police roadblock. Unfortunately for the police, Rocky Castle, the gang's leader, was as reckless as his driver, and he ordered Ox to bust through the blockade. With officers diving out of the way, the Castle getaway car crashed through, but it slowed enough that one of the cops was able to shoot out a rear tire. Ox kept going, but when he turned off onto a dirt road into a wooded area, the damaged car left a distinctive track that made it easy for the pursuing cops to track the escaping crooks. But the trackers were stunned when they rounded a curve and the tracks ended! The getaway car had simply disappeared. That night, the news of the stunning disappearance made news up and down the East Coast. According to newscaster Alan (Green Lantern) Scott of station WXYZ in Gotham City: "The police of three counties combed the entire area without finding a trace of the car or the crooks. It's certainly the Mystery of the Year!" Intrigued by the mystery, Alan contacted the rest of the Justice Society, and the next day, 7 members of the famous heroic team took up the search. Green Lantern and Hawkman searched from the air, Wonder Woman and the Flash searched the target area at super speed, and The Atom, Black Canary and Dr. Mid-Nite followed more deliberately, looking for clues that their quicker teammates might have missed. As it was, the Flash made the first discovery of the evening. "Look, Wonder Woman! That cottage!" He pointed to a largish Cape Cod with two dormers on the front and a chimney on the left end, set in a copse of trees that partially concealed it. "The police reports said nothing about a house anywhere around here," she replied, curiosity evident in her voice. As the JSA approached the house, they heard a cry for help from within. Rushing inside they discovered that the house concealed a scientific laboratory and astronomical observatory, and the scientist who owned the place was tied to a chair. When they freed him, he introduced himself as Professor Egri and he immediately warned the heroes that they had to act quickly to capture the Rocky Castle gang and prevent a great disaster! Egri was an eccentric scientist who had retired from the scientific community years ago to develop his unconventional theory about Cosmic Radiation. Only a week ago, he'd achieved his greatest breakthrough a device similar to a telescope which collected cosmic radiation and could imbue objects placed into its collection tank with incredible cosmic power. So excited had Egri been when he'd made the discovery that he'd charged a strange collection of small objects: his college signet ring with a large ruby jewel, a matching stickpin, his watch, his dinner jacket and gloves, and a flashlight. He had no idea what effects the cosmic power would have on his chattels, but given the potential of the cosmic radiation, he was absolutely certain that those objects in the wrong hands could cause untold damage! And those objects were in the wrong hands now. Last night, the Rocky Castle gang had suddenly burst into Egri's cottage, stolen the cosmic powered objects, and vanished. The JSA MUST capture them and return the those objects to Egri before a disaster occurred. Fortunately, those objects only 'worked' when there was a nova visible in the sky, and the entire country was experiencing unusually dense cloud cover that evening. Leaving Black Canary to help the Professor to recover from his ordeal, the JSA went in search of the crooks. Green Lantern had a hunch that even though the objects were currently depowered by the cloud cover, they would still emit measurable amounts of cosmic radiation. So the JSA first stopped by the Civic City Science Center, where Dr. Roy Hinkley confirmed that reports from across the country showed that 4 areas were showing an increase in cosmic radiation. Naturally, the JSA broke up into 4 teams, and each team headed to one of the map locations. Hawkman and Wonder Woman headed for downtown Civic City, where they fought against Ox and Gun-shy. Ox was wearing Prof. Egri's stickpin, and Gun-shy was wearing Egri's watch. As they were robbing the ticket booth of a theater, the cloud cover broke. Ox discovered that the power of the stickpin allowed him to fly and cured his clumsiness. Gun-shy, who was deathly afraid of guns, found that the watch attracted, and then deflected bullets. They fought with the heroes, and the heroes won and then, when the heroes picked up the cosmic objects, something fantastic happened to them, something that left the villains ecstatic... Dr. Mid-Nite and the Atom used some kind of secret JSA transport to reach the Midwest in almost no time, never wondering how two small-time crooks had managed to travel about that same distance, over 1500 miles, in maybe 12 hours. The villains Peewee and Specs were robbing the safe at a carnival. Peewee, who was small and weak, was wearing Egir's gloves, and Specs, who wore coke bottle glasses, was carrying the flashlight. During their theft, the cloud cover broke. Peewee discovered that the gloves gave him super strength, similar to that of the Atom, and the flashlight Specs was using projected a black light (similar to the black light of the Phantom Lady). Even with their new powers, the villains were no match for the experience of the heroes but as the heroes retrieved the cosmic items, the were stunned by something awful... The Flash raced to the Far West, not questioning how the gang member Slowpoke had managed to cross the entire country with Flashlike speed. Just before he arrived, Slowpoke had sneaked into the mansion of a millionaire, bonked him with a soda bottle, and run out with a million dollars in cash. He encountered some sheriffs, and as he was about to be captured, the nova peeked through a break in the clouds. Slowpoke discovered that Egri's cosmic powered dinner jacket gave him super speed. As the Flash gave chase, Slowpoke managed to pull away. Not wanting to be embarrassed, the Flash bore down and ran at his top speed, and finally overhauled the villain. But as he recovered the cosmic powered jacket, something terrible happened to him... Back on the East Coast, Green Lantern traced the gang leader, Rocky Castle himself, to the Washington, DC, waterfront, where the Ranee of Patomar was arriving for a goodwill visit with the Vice-President. She was wearing a priceless necklace, but her husband, the Rajah, had sent his personal bodyguards to protect her. Rocky tricked the guards, and stole the necklace. The guards recovered more quickly than Rocky had expected but a hole in the clouds let the light of the nova reach the villain's ring, and the ring started to glow! Rocky quickly discovered that he could control the power of his cosmic ring and direct it with his willpower. When Green Lantern arrived, they used their rings to fight to a standstill but Green Lantern proved his skill at fisticuffs was greater than that of the gang leader. He picked up Rocky's ring and suddenly... something happened that caused Rocky to change his plans! A short time later, Rocky and his gang gathered in Egri's lab. Rocky confronted the small Professor. "We're back, Pop, and there's some things you're going to clear up for us, see?" he growled. "Now, when Green Lantern grabbed that ring o'yours, the strangest thing happened. He began to fade away, and the next second, POP! He was gone!" The same thing had happened to the rest of the JSA heroes as well. Egri sneered at the villains. "Green Lantern and the rest of the Justice Society only SEEMED to disappear. Actually, they were transported here through the ether by Ultra-Cosmic Radiation!" Egri then showed the crooks that he had captured the JSA, used his cosmic mind control device to paralyze them, and sealed them into an evacuated glass display case! Rocky and the boys were thrilled, and Rocky wanted to team up his gang with the Professor, but instead, Egri revealed his real plan. He was going to kill them all and use his cosmic powers to rule the world! Before Rocky and his gang could react, Egri donned all six of his cosmic powered items at the same time. The gang was cowed by the cosmic power radiating from the small man and the items he was wearing! "You six morons have only been pawns in my Great Experiment!... I plotted every move you and the Justice Society have made in the last 24 hours!" Egri had made the gang's car vanish and then brought them to his lab, using the Ultra-Cosmic Radiation Instantaneous Transporter. When they thought they were stealing his items, they were actually acting under his mental direction through the Ultra-Cosmic Mind Controller. When they thought they were escaping, Egri he had actually used his Ultra-Cosmic Instantaneous Transport to send them to their diverse locations and used the Mind Controller device to muddle their minds so they never even wondered where they were or how they'd got there. As soon as he'd captured the JSA, Egri had recalled the gang, because he didn't want to have any witnesses running around to warn the authorities of his schemes. Rocky didn't believe the story, especially the part about Ultra-Cosmic Mind Control, and demanded to know why Egri hadn't also captured the Black Canary. "I didn't have to!..." he crowed. "When the Black Canary realized how PUNY were the powers of the JSA, and how great the scientific aims of my experiment, she switched over to my side! I trust her because through my experiment I have found out how to control human nature hers included." But he was wrong. When his attention left her, Black Canary knocked him down and freed the rest of the JSA, who made short work of the crooks. By then, Egri had recovered, and as the JSA moved to capture him, he turned the full force of all 6 Ultra-Cosmic items against the JSA! Once again, he'd miscalculated the cosmic force was too great for him to control. "Great Scott!" the Flash exclaimed. "He blew up disintegrated before our eyes!" "It's the end of Dr. Egri!" the Atom added. And then Green Lantern delivered his epitaph: "In the last analysis, Dr. Egri couldn't control either humans or the cosmic forces he'd conjured up. And it proves, fellow members..." he paused for theatrical effect, "that no one must be permitted to wield great power merely to satisfy his own greedy ambitions!" And Hawkman summed up "Right! For in the end it will inevitably strike back at him and destroy him!" ***~~~*** As they reviewed everything the computer had on the Egri case, the two heroes also discussed their own misadventures of the day. Green Lantern summed it up: "You were attacked by someone wielding what sounds like a magical version of your Cosmic Rod and your Cosmic Rod was initially ineffective against the magical energy of the 'Scepter of Fire and Earth', Flarequake. Similarly, I had an encounter with a villain wearing a power ring a power ring that might utilize cosmic energy and my ring has so far proved equally as ineffective against that cosmic power. Our course of action seems pretty clear to me either we swap our weapons once again*, or we find a way to swap opponents." *See "Danger from Above, here: www.5earths.info/earth-2/bravebold-e2-gl-starman1988/ "You know it was an interesting experience for me, using your Power Ring, and I know how difficult it is for you to even suggest anyone else use it," Ted replied slowly, trying to be diplomatic. "And it was a real honor, taking an oath in your place and controlling the ancient power. But... I much prefer using the Cosmic Rod. I'm not really comfortable with magic, so if you don't mind, I choose door number 2." "Yeah, me too," Green Lantern replied. "Thanks!" "Why don't you see if either of these two have been sighted again while I finish my own research?" Ted asked his friend, and they both went back to work. The Internet was just getting started back then, so Ted didn't have access to the torrents of data he would twenty years later. But the JSA computer already had terabytes of information in its memory banks, and access to computer records currently unavailable to the general public, such as newspaper morgues, government records, and college databases. Adding what he knew to what he found out, he provided Alan with this summary about Harmony and Carmela. ***** Harmony Davis came from a 'nouveau riche' family in St. Louis; her father had made his fortune during Prohibition. She was about 2 years younger than Ted, and had attended Radcliffe College. He'd met her in the fall of 1932 at a Harvard/Yale football game. Ted didn't remember anything serious between them, but apparently either Harmony had felt differently, or she'd had plans she'd never told him about, for he found a two line announcement of the engagement between one Mr. Theodore Henry Knight, 19, of New York City and Miss Harmony Taylor Davis, 17, of St. Louis in the society section of the Sunday, April 16, 1933 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with details of the wedding to come later. Stories from the business section of the Post Dispatch from around the same time revealed that Harmony's father had been sent to prison for his illegal activities during Prohibition, and the family had gone bankrupt. 'So she went home for Easter, found out her family was broke, and decided she was going to marry me,' Ted mused. 'It must have been a major strain on her remaining resources to get back to Cambridge after the break. No wonder she was livid when I told her I had accepted the Rhodes Scholarship and was leaving for Oxford as soon as I graduated.' She'd screamed in anger, thrown things, threatened him and eventually had been escorted off campus by the Harvard University police. He'd never seen her again, but he later learned from some of her acquaintances that she had never completed that semester at Radcliffe. From what he could figure out from Radcliffe's records, she'd never been granted a degree at Radcliffe. From her obituary, he learned that she'd married Wilfredo Valdez in 1933, Carmela had been born in 1947, and Wilfredo died later in that same year. He was stunned that the obituary said that that Carmela had died last fall! 'Sure looked pretty lively for a corpse earlier today!' A little more research shed a little light on that. She'd been reported dead, her body had never found, and she'd never been seen again by her colleagues at Black Canyon College while on an archaeological dig. She had been a tenured professor who published regularly but after she'd been ridiculed for her theory about an entrance to Pellucidar in the Northwest United States, she'd never again published anything even vaguely controversial. ***** "Rocky Castle's from Neward, NJ," Ted said, as he and Alan exchanged information and made their plans. "I'm going to head to Civic City first, to check out Egri's lab, and then see if maybe Castle headed home. If Egri's equipment is still functional, maybe I can figure out exactly how that ring works, and how to cancel its powers when I catch up with Castle." "I'm going to stop and see Carter and Shiera, then head for North Dakota and Black Canyon College. I want to talk to Valdez's colleagues," Green Lantern replied. "Maybe they can give me some clues as to where she found Flarequake, and from that I can learn more about its powers. Good luck!" "Same to you," Ted agreed as they took to the air. "I hope this doesn't take very long I need to get home and rebuild my house!" 'And try and salvage the portrait of Doris!' he added mentally. 'Ah ha! I knew I was forgetting something!' Green Lantern mentally smacked himself upside the head. 'Ring see if you can get a message to Johnny Thunder about Ted's house.' He knew how important that portrait was to his friend, and he figured that even if Johnny was his usual bumbling self, T-bolt would interpret his master's orders to achieve a satisfactory result.
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Post by dans on Jul 21, 2017 23:34:48 GMT
Pellucidar raced north from no-longer-so-stately Knight Manor astride her magical telluric steed, at a pace no mortal horse could match. As they burst into a clearing in the woods of Susquehanna National Park, the mystical charger was suddenly forced to make a supernatural leap across a unique crater and Pellucidar quickly brought it to a halt. Flarequake stored Earth and Fire magic, and allowed her to control that magic, but it had to be recharged when the stored magic was expended. Escaping from Starman's icy sphere had effectively exhausted the Scepter's store of fire magic, drastically curtailing her powers, and she needed to recharge it. This singular crater would provide an exemplary setting once she got rid of the tourists. Years ago, on this spot, a battle between the villainous super speedster known as the Rival and a gangster known only as Nails, who also had temporary super speed powers, had created this crater. The Rival had used his incredible speed to drill a shaft through the Earth's crust at this point, releasing an up welling of magma, and only the intervention of Captain Triumph had prevented the major catastrophe that would have occurred had a full-scale volcano erupted this close to Opal City*. As it was, what was left was a pit the size of a football field, perhaps 40 feet deep, with sheer rock walls and an almost tile-smooth rock floor. The National Park Service had installed drains to keep the caldera from becoming a pond; Susquehanna Park already had plenty of ponds, but there was no other 'natural' attraction like this crater in any other National Park anywhere in the country. *Lily De Luna, Investigative Reporter, www.5earths.info/earth-2/showcase-e2-lilydeluna-tp1949/The earth nearby rumbled, and several giant monsters, formed of boulders magically joined together into vague ape-like shapes, tore their way free of the ground. Dozens of tourists ran screaming into the surrounding woods in terror. The monsters didn't pursue, but instead took up sentry positions around the crater. Satisfied that she would have privacy for the time she would need, Pellucidar climbed down into the crater using one of the stairways the Park Service had constructed. Once she reached the rocky base of the caldera, stone hands erupted from the floor and walls and tore the wooden man-made structures to flinders. Pellucidar strode to the center and waved Flarequake, and a tiny vent was magically opened through the crust of the earth, once again allowing molten rock to escape the realm of magma deep beneath. The rocky hands piled the wood around the vent. As magma began to seep from the rent in the earth, Pellucidar pushed the pointed bottom end of Flarequake into the vent, where it was magically held upright, then quickly stepped away and watched the wood flare into a bonfire. She seated herself tailor-fashion, calmed her mind, and waited for the fire to burn out. Through her mystical connection to the Scepter, she could actually feel it drawing magical energy from the magma and the flames. ***** The jagged red energy valise filled with gems and jewelry in tow, Castle had flown off swiftly towards Neward, NJ. Where could he safely stash his loot? From a summer outing with his parents when he was still in grade school, he remembered that there were caves in the Watchung Mountains to the west of the city. Hovering high above the mountains, he'd ordered the ring to give him telescopic vision, and he'd examined the valleys in the range, searching for one that was uninhabited and which contained a small cave. After he landed, he'd discovered that the entrance was a little too small for him to enter easily; he'd channeled his ring's power into his aura, giving him super strength he used to quickly enlarge the opening. Once he'd secreted his loot, he concealed the entrance with the shattered rocks and vegetation he'd gathered from other nearby valleys, and then he'd continued his journey home. Once he was back in his old neighborhood, Rocky headed for his mother's costume store. He was a super villain now and he needed to look the part! She had just what he needed though she was going to have to do some dying and tailoring in a hurry; he had plans for this evening in Baltimore, and he wanted to look his best, if she could do the work in time! Though Rocky hated his mother and the feeling was mutual, he had to admit that her store was awesome! He was surrounded by dozens of mannequins dressed in colorful costumes. In the window, there was a big guy with long blond hair. He was dressed in a blue, form-fitting, sleeveless tunic with four silver discs sewn into the material. Yellow boots and a yellow belt along with a silvered winged helmet and flowing crimson cloak completed the costume. In the mannequin's hand, held as majestically as any kingly scepter, was a huge, hammer. This costume had always made Rocky uneasy it reminded him too much of Superman. In one corner, there was a mannequin in a purple skintight outfit and cowl, with striped blue and black shorts, a black leather gun belt with two big guns and a domino mask hanging from the belt. Along the back wall were outfits of purple and blue, green, red, and yellow, all of which included bows and quivers of arrows as accessories. Along one of the side walls were costumes for women. A black one-piece bathing suit with a black leather jacket, high heeled floppy-top black half boots and fishnet tights, a stylized magician's outfit like a blue suit jacket with blue hot pants, a yellow cummerbund, top hat, knee high black high heeled boots and fishnet tights, a one piece red bathing suit with a mask that framed the wearer's face, with a red cape and fishnet tights, a red mini dress with a stylized lightning bolt on the chest, white cape, yellow boots and fishnet tights and more. There was also a counter holding wig mannequins, which were displaying wigs in a wide variety of colors and styles. In the middle of the room was a big circular rack with even more costumes on hangers. But Rocky was most interested in the mannequins wearing Justice Society costumes along the 4th wall. His bent gray-haired mother was behind the counter, her back to the store. He slammed the door as he yelled at her. "Hey, you old witch, you're gonna be useful for once in your life!" She turned and shrieked. "Rocky, you bastard!" she snarled in anger. "You're violating the restraining order. I'm calling the cops!" She turned back to the phone, shrieked again, this time in terror as a red lightning bolt slammed into the phone and shattered it. Her shriek altered in tone as she was struck painfully by fragments of plastic and metal. "You ain't callin' nobody, ya old bag. I got sumtin I need from ya and if ya do it right, maybe today won't be the day I pay ya back for all the hell you put me true growin' up." More blasts of red lightning blasted holes in her counter, and in the wall behind her. She was cowering in fear when he was finished. "I'll do whatever you want... just don't hurt me!" "Good choice!" Rocky barked in satisfaction. "OK, here's what I want and I want it fast!" ***** As he flew to Pennsylvania, Ted was busy solving puzzles, talking to himself quietly. "A cloudy sky shouldn't stop cosmic power. Egri must have built in that weakness, in case Rocky and Bullwinkle and the gang ever tried to get uppity." One down, one to go. He had to solve some thorny integrals and unravel the tangles of a potential temporal paradox before he continued. "The JSA thought Egri was vaporized, but theory suggests that the massive cosmic energy impulse he released blasted him out of space-time and through the time-stream a few years into the future- and incidentally incinerated him." At least, his thoughts went _something_ like that - Ted is a genius and theoretical physics is his specialty; the mere mortals around him can't always follow his reasoning, even after he explains it in simple terms! He soon reached a now-familiar (to readers, anyway) Cape Code house in a copse of wood in a Civic City suburb. 'That pile of ashes on the floor must have been Egri,' Ted thought sadly. 'Castle didn't show much respect for his remains.' He utilized one of the Cosmic Rod's minor powers to analyze a small lump of congealed metal lying near the corpse; it contained iron, aluminum, copper, zinc, and just a trace of tungsten. "Must have been the flashlight," he explained to the air while he examined the decrepit instruments strung around the room. "It looks like all the cosmic objects Egri was carrying were vaporized. But there's no way Castle used this junk to make a new ring so he must be using the original; it must have survived the cosmic impulse. Lucky for us most of that stuff was destroyed - if Castle had super strength, super speed and all those other cosmic powers as well as a power ring, he might be unstoppable!" Ted had outlived yet another of his contemporaries, yet this time, he didn't feel guilt as he did when they died of old age. If his luck had been a little different, back in the 40s, he could easily be the one dying of old age, but he could never have died because he abused his power. He felt regret that Egri had wasted his genius, but the dead scientist had brought it on himself and Ted felt little sympathy for those whose violent actions backfired on them. He turned his attention back to the case at hand. The equipment in this lab shouldn't be destroyed; as old and decrepit as it was, it might hold secrets that he could decipher. He contacted Disaster, Inc., the JSA's 'cleanup team', to send a recovery team to box everything up and return it to a lab in JSA HQ. Then he took to the sky again, heading northeast for Neward, NJ, Castle's 'home turf'. `Would have been faster if I'd gone straight from Gotham to Neward,' Ted thought as he flew northeast from Civic City towards Gotham City. `Still, it's less than an extra hour, and it's worth it knowing that Castle didn't use Egri's gear to cook up another new cosmic weapon.' He ordered the Cosmic Rod to scan for anomalous sources of cosmic radiation, and had to do an abrupt about-face when it indicated a very powerful radiation source southwest of him. 'Probably in Baltimore,' he estimated from the intensity of the readings. 'So I guess I didn't go so far out of the way after all.' ***** Green Lantern's next stop was Hall Mansion. "Carter's reading Carmela's 'Pellucidar' paper now," Shiera told him as she showed him some tables in a large, controlled-environment workroom. Seemingly changing the subject, she continued: "We've been doing some work for the governments of the Central American countries, cataloging ancient artifacts stolen from that region by a smuggling ring that we busted last week, so they can be returned properly. " A third of the room was filled with packing crates, most of the rest of it with rows of tables. Two of the tables were set up as workstations, with brushes, bottles, cameras, small tools and computers. Most of the tables were covered with small artifacts, placed neatly and systematically, each sitting on a pile of typed pages. "The artifacts on these two tables," she pointed "all have to do with Fire and Earth deities and magic. Maybe your ring can detect some kind of characteristic `magical aura signatures' from them that you can use to track Pellucidar's Scepter of Fire and Earth?" "If there is ever a chance, I'd really like to examine that Scepter," Carter spoke up, waving a rolled-up scientific journal as he passed out of the room's airlock. "Should tell us a lot about the civilization and culture that produced it. Not surprising that an underground culture would have an interest in controlling Earth and Fire, eh?" He slammed the journal down on an empty table top. "There is nothing in any of Valdez's papers that isn't completely accurate, as far as I can determine. She merely mentioned that Burroughs' fictional milieu of Pellucidar incorporated aspects drawn from known, well-documented subterranean civilizations. No reason for anyone to suggest that was a ridiculous idea; there are at least a dozen known subterranean cultures in the Western Hemisphere alone." "A dozen?" Alan interrupted his friend, astonished and intrigued. "Name six!" he continued mischievously. Carter counted on his fingers. "Off the top of my head: Four from North America: Cinthianar, under Metropolis and Enterrados in Texas, both discovered by Superman, Abyssia not far from Gotham City and Murania under New Mexico. On the North American continental shelf, with the entrance deep underwater: Centropolis, discovered by Rip Carter and his young allies, the Boy Commandoes. And there's Mikishawm, near Chile in South America." He paused, looked a little sheepish. "Ah... sorry, could you forget Centropolis? Carter and the boys asked me to keep it a secret." Alan smiled and nodded. Returning to his original topic, Carter opened the journal to a page marked with a post-it. "This is the paper that caused her problems," he continued, anger deepening his voice. "It references several earlier papers by acknowledged experts in North American archaeology, and directly contradicted theories set forth by some of those same 'experts'. But she was too young, and didn't have the established reputation, to successfully challenge the 'giants' in the field. So they savaged her." "She stepped on the toes of some of the Good Old Boys," Shiera translated with a sneer. "So the rest of the Old Boys Network defended their own and trashed her. Now she thinks she has a chance to strike back." She continued, her tone changing to reflect sadness. "She feels like she's been crapped on, and her mother before her, for their entire lives, and now she's got the power to get payback. If she wasn't going about it violently, I'd say `Good for her!' because I know what it's like, trying to break into the 'Good Ole Boy' network." She glared at the two men. "But, she _did_ start by trying to murder Ted, and I don't approve. So now you have to bring her in, Alan." GL was glad she'd said `you' and not 'we'. He'd been worried that the Hawks would volunteer to help him capture Pellucidar, and he wanted to do this himself. "Well, you can't say us old dogs can't learn new tricks - we finally got the message, didn't we, Carter?" "Yeah, and she's been a fantastic teammate since then, reminding all us `Good Ole Boys' to keep our minds open," Carter hugged his beautiful wife. "Any insights on things I should look out for?" Alan asked his friends. They spent an hour or so discussing possible manifestations of Fire and Earth magic that Pellucidar might be able to command with Flarequake, then Alan ordered his ring to scan for the magical signatures of Fire and Earth. The ring almost immediately reported a strong match. "Looks like she's still in Opal City," Alan told his friends after considering the ring's report. "I'd best be going." A green aura formed around him, he phased through the wall, and left a green glowing contrail as he rocketed off to the southeast. ***~~~*** A figure, partially concealed by a sheath of almost blindingly brilliant red flames, flew into the First Bank of Neward, simply ignored everyone in the place, and floated to a stop in front of the vault. The guards fired a couple of rounds but gave up quickly - bullets only bounced dangerously off that pillar of 'flames'. The figure reached into the door, its hands crushing through the hardened steel like it was Styrofoam, and then shrugged, and the door tore free from the vault. A jagged, glowing line of red energy extended from the ghostly figure's right hand into the vault, where it expanded like a balloon being filled - then contracted again, and the pillar of red flame turned and flew out of the bank, pulling behind it a large red ball on the end of a string, like a giant tether ball. When the guards reached the vault, it was empty. A few seconds later, the same red flame-sheathed figure crashed through the roof of a nearby high school gymnasium. The aura of cool flames and expanded, and the two classes using the gym ran screaming for the doors as the basketball court was enclosed inside the red bubble. The tether ball dissolved, leaving a pile of money on the gym floor. Castle filled a small suitcase he was carrying with as many packets of thousand-dollar bills as he could squeeze in, stuffed a few more into his pockets, and then flew away, leaving behind tens of thousands of dollars. He wondered idly just how much the bank would actually recover? Now with enough cash for his immediate needs, he hurried to the bar where his former boss normally hung out during the day. (He hadn't resigned yet - but he was about to). He thinned his force field until it was invisible, but would still protect him from bullets, and sat down at the bar. "Hey, Frankie! Can you'se have someone tell Jersey that Castle's here?" You didn't just bust in on Jersey, and Rocky wanted a favor. "You knows you ain't due 'till T'ursday, Rocky,' the bartender's tone was disapproving. "Joisey's very p'tickular 'bout da schedule. G'wan, beat it!" Castle dropped a 2 inch thick packet of thousand dollar bills on the bar, pulled two out of the wrapper, handed them to the amazed bartender. "Forget the schedule, Frankie - I make my own schedule now. The rest'a this stack's for Jersey, and another like it, if he can help me set up a deal. Take the rest'a dis stack up witcha ta show him I'm not foolin' around." "Sure, Rocky, I'll be right back," said the bemused bartender. "Set yourself up if ya want while I'm gone!" Frankie swung open the gate in the bar, slipped past Castle, opened a second door, and hurried up the stairs to Jersey's second-floor office. Rocky poured a shot of the best Scotch the house had to offer - from Jersey's personal stash, not the crap that was served to customers, threw it back before Frankie returned. "He says ta come on up, Rocks!" "Take my drink outta that 2 thou I gave ya," Castle chuckled. "And keep the change!" The bottle and two shot glasses floated along behind him, attached by an almost invisible pink tether. ***** Castle stood before a bare desk, the size of a swimming pool. There were a couple of really hot dames sitting on the desk, and it was flanked by two of the largest men Rocky had ever seen. Seated behind the desk was a small, bald man with several scars on his face. His nose was flattened and his cauliflower ears showed evidence of an earlier career in the ring. The seated man had a deep voice which didn't match his appearance at all - and he was angry. "Rocco just told me dat somebody robbed da Bank of Neward, and you show up throwing thousand dollar bills around you tryin' to get me busted?! And whaddaya doin; knocking over a bank witout ya dinna tell me nuthin'." Castle cut him off - which never happened, and left Jersey ready to explode. "I don't work for you no more, Joisey. I work for myself now..." Jersey erupted: "Nobody leaves my gang, least while he's still livin'! Tiny, Jumbo, dis guy needs a lesson." Suddenly Castle was surrounded by an eerie red fire totally red flames that flickered and flared, but gave off no heat. Tiny and Jumbo stopped uncertainly. "You'se guys ain't never done me no dirt. So siddown and I won't clobber ya." The two giants looked at their boss. "You work for me, bozos, not for him!" They turned back to Castle, who hadn't moved. "Sorry, boys, I tried ta make nice." Twin red bolts flashed out from the red flames and slammed into the chins of the two enforcers with audible crunches. One was knocked completely off his feet, while the other staggered backward several steps. When he started forward again, a lasso of red energy formed around him and held him motionless. The girls had dropped behind the desk and were whimpering in fear, and Jersey had a gun in his hand a gun that looked almost as big as he did. Castle waved his hand negligently and a streamer of red energy leaped from his hand and knocked that gun away. Castle spoke again, casually, as if nothing had just happened. "I need to hire some men in Baltimore for a job I'm wanna do there tonight, Jersey, and I knows you got connections there and I don't." He threw two packets of thousands on the desk. "If you can call your pally down there and arrange for him and, say, 8 guys ta meet me at a place he chooses, da cash is yours. Tell `im I pay good, and I'll personally bust out anyone who gets caught." He stood up, still surrounded by the crimson flames, and leaned on the desk, then set down the bottle and shot glasses, poured, and pushed one across to Jersey. "You set me up, Jersey, I'll be back for ya, and ya won't like that but play square and I'll cut ya in on some future deals, and we'll both get rich." Jersey picked up his shot glass, swirled it at eye level for a second or two, then raised it in a toast. "Here's to gettin' rich!" Both men threw down their shots, and then got down to business. **** Castle landed several blocks from his mother's store, and once again thinned his aura to invisibility as he walked the rest of the distance. The closed sign was hung on the door, but that didn't stop him a tiny flare from his ring, and the deadbolt was vaporized. "I'm back, ya old bat! Ya better be done!" he announced loudly as he strode to the back room, where his mother sat at a sewing table. "Yeah, I'm done," she said sullenly, and indicated a set of clothes on hangers on a rack nearby. "You're gonna look like a real jerk-off, ya know, but don't blame me, it's what you wanted. Now take yer stuff and gettowda here." "Not so fast, Momsy! Gonna check the fit first, and it better be right!" He pulled his new costume from the rack and stepped into the changing room. When he stepped out, he was wearing a perfectly-tailored pale blue three piece suit, a tie with diagonal blue and black stripes, and a black bowler. Even his mother would have admitted that he looked dashing, except… He also had on a cape with a high collar. In outline it was similar to Green Lantern's cape. The inside of the cape was black, the black of a cloudless, moonless night sky, speckled with stars it was almost like the cape had been cut from the sky itself while the outside was red the same red as the cosmic energy released by his ring. It was anchored to two red disks mounted on the jacket, over his collarbones, joined with a red chain. Even through her fear and hatred, 'Momsy' could barely keep from laughing. Instead, she stood up and carefully inspected the fit. "Perfect. Now will you get the hell out of here?" "In a minute, witch. First, you ain't gonna say nuthin to no one about this, hear?" She nodded, but he wasn't satisfied. Once again, he was suddenly surrounded by bright red, heatless flames. "Just to be sure ya don't ferget..." He turned slowly in place, his right arm outstretched, and what looked like a stationary lightning bolt attached to his arm swept around the room, cutting through everything it touched - except the walls. Costumes were divided and mannequins were severed, and the remains fell to the floor. Castle laughed heartily, watching this destruction. "Dis coulda been da whole place," he sneered at his cowering mother. "Or you..." He threw a packet of thousands on the counter. "Dis oughta cover the costume - and the damage. Just remember - not a word." The living tower of flame seemed to stretch to the ceiling, and then Castle was gone like a rocket, smashing an almost perfectly circular hole through the ceiling, the contents of the attic, and the roof. High over Neward, Castle ordered his ring to: 'Take me to Baltimore!' - but nothing happened! 'I told it to take me home before, and that worked, why not now?' he thought in alarm. 'Ring, ya better not crap out on me now!' He was a half mile in the air, and almost panicked before he realized he wasn't falling. 'Maybe da ring just don't know where Baltimore is,' he realized in relief. Actually, Rocky had only a vague idea of Baltimore's location, himself. But he'd been to Baltimore before, on a road trip, and he knew that I-95 South ran through Neward, Civic City, Opal City and eventually into Baltimore. So he would simply follow the Interstate.
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Post by dans on Jul 21, 2017 23:36:15 GMT
A giant hanging sign covered most of the side of the tallest building in downtown Baltimore, the Poisson Building. The company which had made the sign advertised it as the World's Largest Hologram. Across the top, in very large letters, it reads:
"No Need for Analysis!"
The 4 story-tall picture on the hanging banner was of a young woman wearing elegant evening clothes, sitting on a chair at a gathering of some sort.
From one angle: In the background, a number of formally dressed couples are slow-dancing. The woman's neck, ears and fingers are bare, and she is sitting by herself, looking very forlorn.
From another angle: The young woman is wearing a stunning necklace with a flashing diamond pendant, with matching pendant earrings, and her fingers are covered with jeweled rings, and she is smiling radiantly. There is a crowd of men around her and in the background, a number of women in gowns standing with their arms crossed and murderous looks on their faces.
In even larger letters, across the bottom are the words:
"Fourier Transforms You!"
*****
This evening was the grand reopening of Fourier, Baltimore's largest jeweler and the 3rd largest in the Western Hemisphere. Marketing and Publicity had decided to make it THE social event in Baltimore this year, and invitations had gone out to the lights of local high society, plus anyone rich and/or famous anywhere who might have even the tiniest interest in attending. Tonight the scene outside the main entrance to the store, on the ground floor of the skyscraper displaying the banner, resembled Oscar night in Hollywood. Half a dozen spotlights probed the night skies. There was a crowd of hundreds in the street, and a handful of uniformed security guards kept the red carpet clear from curbside to the entrance. Limos pulled up and disgorged fashionably-dressed guests, each more stunningly attired than the one before, and they were mobbed by reporters and photographers as they swept elegantly down the carpet.
Inside, Fourier's cavernous main showroom had been transformed into a fashion revue, complete with stage. The models wore the most elegant fashions, and each of them was draped in Fourier jewelry. Patrons were seated in comfortable upholstered chairs, and scantily-clad hostesses circulated though the crowd serving drinks and other chemical mood enhancers. There were control panels built into the arm of each chair, designed to allow patrons to purchase the items of jewelry being worn by the models and even their fashions, if desired, directly from the seats. Fourier was hoping some bidding wars might develop.
Security was tight and everyone associated with the gala event was tense, especially after the news of the recent robbery at the convention of the National Association of Jewelers in Ocean City. But Fourier's security company, ShieldBright, had gone all out for this event, even hiring their own superhero. So the show went on.
***~~~***
Stretch O'Brien paced nervously around the hastily installed ShieldBright security control room in the Poisson Building. He was dressed in a skin-tight blue, legless, long sleeved leotard with black gloves, a black flat collar and black shorts, and he wore a pair of darkened goggles, reminiscent of those worn by Plasticman. There was a white circle on his chest sporting a stylized black lowercase 'e', symbolizing the heroic name the FBI had chosen for him: Mr. Elastic. His legs and feet were bare, showing off the fact that he had no separate toes. He was wearing his hair with wing-shaped crests protruding on either side of his head.
'I can't believe they talked me into wearing this ridiculous outfit!' he was thinking. The FBI had promised that if he did a good job here tonight his rap sheet would be sealed, and had hinted they might be interested in hiring his services for special assignments in the future. And he WAS making good money with the opportunity for big bonuses if he managed to capture any would-be-thieves. Maggie would be SO proud of him!
Watching Stretch pace was an event in itself an event that would unsettle anyone who had a queasy stomach. When he raised a leg to stride, his leg would stretch about 10 feet, and then come down, and when his foot was planted, his lead leg would shorten as the rear leg lengthened. When the rear foot finally came up off the floor, it would instantly snap back to its normal shape, and then he would swing it forward. When he turned, his leg would twist at the knee so his foot and shin were aimed in the old direction, while his thigh and body were aimed in the new direction. When he made a full 180 degree turn, watching his knee knot up like a twisted rubber band had made several of the ShieldBright security operatives sick to their stomachs. Now they all trained their concentration on their security monitors, trying to ignore him.
"Hey, Captain Rubberneck!" barked Monk Slade, the on-site Director of Security for ShieldBright. "Stop your pacing; you're distracting my guys!"
A single long stride, and 'snap', Stretch was standing next to the Director. "Yes, SIR!" he said enthusiastically. "It's Mr. Elastic, sir!" His right armed swung up in what was supposed to be a precise energetic salute; overenergetic, as it turned out, as his hand slapped into his forehead and flattened momentarily into a 5 fingered pancake.
"I didn't want you here tonight, Plia-Bill," Slade said loudly. His listening operatives snorted in amusement. "We don't need some stinking so-called 'super-hero' and a rookie, at that fouling up our operation here."
"Me, fouling YOU up?" Stretch asked incredulously. "Who didn't even have cameras on the roof until I pointed it out?"
When he had noticed all the press helicopters buzzing the Poisson Building, Stretch has used an old Plasticman trick, using his arms like the elastic bands of a slingshot, to launch his body into the air, where he had reshaped into the form of a giant bat. (He was gaining a higher appreciation of his father every day...). He'd managed to land on the roof of the supposedly empty and sealed building, and make his way all the way down to the second floor before ShieldBright operatives had discovered him.
"Didn't need 'em to catch you, did we, Elasti-man?" Slade sneered. "We got you, just like we woulda got anyone else who tried to get in that way."
"I doubt if any bad guys would walk down the middle of a corridor, singing," Stretch smirked back. He hadn't made any attempt to conceal himself, and he was pretty sure it was only his use of an elevator that had alerted ShieldBright to a potential invader.
Suddenly Slade was talking to a headless man as Stretch's neck stretched and his head was suddenly ear to ear with a guard monitoring a screen that showed the alley in back of the Fourier building. The man turned to see who was looking over his shoulder and screamed at the sight of a disembodied head.
"That's IT!" Slade shouted. "You're outta her, Plasmatic! I don't care who recommended you or how famous yer old man is."
"I'm SO gone I wasn't even here, jerk." Mr. Elastic stretched for the door and was out of the room in a single stride. He wasn't all that upset he'd seen movement in the alley. "You can watch me on the boob tube and in your case, I do mean BOOB!" he muttered, but he was already too far away for Slade to hear him. A leg stretched up, snapped his body along with it, and he was up a flight of stairs in a single giant stride. Another couple of seconds, and he stretched his neck through an open transom above one of the second floor windows overlooking the alley. He reconfigured his eyes, stretching them until they were the size of saucers, and suddenly the dark alley was as light as day. Two men, dressed in ShieldBright uniforms, flanked a back door. Stretch reshaped his ears into parabolic reflectors, and even from a hundred feet away, he could hear the men breathing.
One knocked on the door; it opened cautiously. "&*%%@#^ radio's stopped working!" the man in the alley said, holding up a walkie talkie.
"Not my problem!" the man inside the door stated. "Go around front and talk to..." He never finished the man with the radio reached in the door, grabbed and yanked, and a real operative came stumbling out the door and collapsed to the pavement when the radio man's partner hit him behind the ear with a sap.
The rest of Mr. Elastic's body squeezed through the transom, and he managed to launch himself toward the building across the alley. He was shaped like a ball by the time he hit, rebounded, and as he fell, he bounced between the two buildings gathering speed, then angled his last bounce to slam into the bad guy with the sap. Stretch drove him into the wall, bounced back across the alley, and bounced back again, this time catching the other bad guy in the back and knocking him through the open door. The Man of Plastic wrapped up his victim in one arm, while his second arm reached out to pick up the battered security agent, and his leg stretched out and wrapped up the second bad guy. "Baby needs new shoes," he crowed at the captured thugs. "And now she's got 'em!" He was so busy approving of his capture that he didn't notice when 6 other phony ShieldBright agents slipped out of the shadows and jumped him. He was whacked in the head with a couple more saps, and the ersatz operatives turned their attention to freeing their fellows. But Stretch hadn't been hurt by the blows and he started fighting back.
It was an unusual fight. Punches and even saps couldn't hurt Stretch, though they could make him stagger or lose his balance. For a few seconds, with 6 men attacking him, the Man of Plastic was driven backward until his back was to a wall. He was using his pliable arms to batter his attackers, but they were tough. When he hit the wall, he stretched higher, long and thin, and then curved his head down around behind the thugs, and then his body followed and suddenly the thugs were against the wall and Stretch was behind them. He threw his arm over one of them like a lasso, dropped another couple of loops, and yanked violently and the man spun around and fell to the ground when Stretch released him, too dizzy to stand up.
"You boys had better give up," Mr. Elastic suggested, as he wrapped one arm around another bandit, and hit him in the face with a fist the size of a beach ball. "Security and the Police will be here any second, and there's no way you can escape."
"Ha!" one of them laughed, as he pulled a gun. "We ain't scared a no fuzz! We'll be busted free in an hour and, we already been paid for this job!" He fired three shots, hitting Stretch in the chest. He instantly looked as if there were three spears sticking out of his back, and then his stretched body bounced back to normal, and three bullets plinked to the ground.
"Ow ow ow ow OW! Those things are HOT!" the Stretchable Slugger $!^@#ed, then wrapped an arm around the shooter's legs and yanked. The thug fell heavily to the pavement. "Know what's good for you, you'll stay down!" Stretch ordered.
Just then a fusillade of shots smashed into the side of the building as the police and ShieldBright showed up. The thugs immediately dropped their weapons and surrendered. 'They sure gave up easily,' Stretch thought. Next he thought about the bonus for capturing bad guys. 'Crap, I'm gonna have to share it will all these ShieldBright guys!'. And then suddenly, 'Who's guarding the 'royal treasury'?'
His head slipped inside the open door, his body thinning as he stretched rapidly through the corridor to the backstage room where the models were outfitted with jewelry and other accessories before they strutted onto the stage. As he approached, he could hear screaming and gunfire. Then the door glowed red, and exploded into the hallway. A weirdly-garbed man, surrounded by a glowing red aura, flew into the hallway, and he was hauling a transparent red sphere which was filled with 'the royal treasury'.
Stretch concentrated, and pulled his body to the current location of his head. With a strange 'SPROING' sound, suddenly, in what had been an almost empty corridor, Mr. Elastic appeared as if by magic, facing the floating thief who of course was Rocky Castle. Stretch had been in similar situations before, though on the other side of the law, so he knew the minion of the law almost always said something like 'Going somewhere?' or 'Stop or I'll shoot' or 'Better surrender now or I'll be forced to get rough!' or some other insipid phrase. 'Stop, or I'll stretch!' didn't seem sufficiently intimidating, so, without speaking, he expanded his body to fill the corridor behind him. "No way you're going to get past me," he gloated. Somewhere deep in his mind, a part of him cringed - he'd just become another of the insipid good guys!
Castle immediately fired a force blast from his ring. It slammed into Mr. Elastic in the area of his chest, and it hurt like hell, and it pushed him backwards, stretching, stretching, until he felt as if he was going to be ripped apart, and then it finally, mercifully dissipated. His body whipped back into the cubical shape he'd used to block the corridor, and he used the momentum of the snap to fly forward toward Castle, compressing himself into the smallest, most tightly compressed ball as he could. 210 pounds of Stretch O'Brien, compressed into a sphere the size of a beach ball, slammed into Castle's red shield. Castle's shield recoiled, driving him back towards the shattered door, but Stretch bounced away as well.
As he reached the end of the corridor, Stretch reshaped his body into a spring, which compressed against the wall and then recoiled, driving him back toward Castle at high speed. But Castle was tired of this fight already. A red lightning bolt blasted from his ring, spread out, and wrapped around Stretch when he struck it. It enclosed him in a big sphere of red, which then shrank, compressing Stretch once again into beach ball size - but this time it wasn't voluntary. Castle blasted a hole in the floor and dropped the encapsulated Mr. Elastic into the basement, then rocketed down the corridor, hardly slowing down as he smashed through the wall and into the street. He then angled his flight upwards and flashed into the sky like a meteor in reverse.
***~~~***
Ted flew from Civic City toward Baltimore. He didn't really want to see his trashed mansion, so he flew several miles north of Opal City, unconsciously retracing Rocky Castle's flight following Interstate 95 South. Thus he passed fairly near Susquehanna National Park. Unfortunately, he was concentrating so much on tracking the cosmic energy emitted by Rocky's ring that he didn't notice when a geyser of flaring coppery energy erupted from the basalt-floored pit of the Susquehanna Lava Crater, swerved to follow him, and then faded from visibility.
It was less than 30 miles from Opal City to Baltimore, and it took Starman only a couple of minutes to cover that distance. If the cosmic radiation source he was tracking actually was Castle, Ted wasn't going to have any trouble tracking him; not only was he much closer now, but suddenly the emitted radiation had become more powerful - Castle was using the red cosmic energy for something more than travel right now.
An few seconds later, about a mile in front of him, Ted saw a streak of red flash into the heavens. He instantly commanded the Cosmic Rod to lock onto that glowing red power source. Now he could easily follow the new supervillain anywhere. He accelerated, climbing to match the villain, and when he had closed the distance to a few hundred yards, a glowing golden beam lanced out from the Cosmic Rod, stabbed through the air, and enveloped the red aura surrounding Castle. Ted attempted to yank his opponent to an instant stop, but it required more effort than he had expected. Instead of a jarring halt, Castle slowed and turned. His red aura pulsed, rapidly expanding, and the yellow energy cocoon projected by the Cosmic Rod shattered.
Ted pulled up sharply and the two men faced each other, each surrounded by a glowing aura, standing on air.
"That was almost impressive, Red Ringer - or is it Ring Ranger? Green Lantern told me that you seem a little confused about your identity."
"What he probably didn't tell you, old man, is that yesterday I whupped that pantywaist good, easy as breathin'. He's years younger than you, and everyone knows your Cosmic Stick is puny compared to his Power Ring." He stood up straighter, crossed his arms, raised his nose, and spoke in a haughty tone, amplified by the power of his ring. "I'm Castle, the Cosmic Man!"
***~~~***
Carmela sat close to the slowly bubbling spring of molten rock, protected from the tremendous heat by a dull brown aura, watching Flarequake bob gently in the viscous fluid. With senses she hadn't been aware of a few months ago, she could feel the Fire Magic flowing from the red-hot lava into the Scepter of Fire and Earth, fully charging her weapon's magical reservoir. 'I've got to make better use of Flarequake's Earth magic,' she thought ruefully. 'Earth reservoir just needs topping off but the Fire tank's running on empty - as usual!'
She tried to calm herself - she'd discovered that if she was emotionally agitated while Flareguake recharged, the quality of her magic would be affected later. 'Almost like filling a car with gas which has water in it,' she noted. But she'd never in her life been as agitated as she was now. "I KILLED Ted Knight!" she hollered almost at the top of her lungs, and winced as the walls of the Susquehanna Cooled Lava Caldera echoed her accusing tones back at her. "I never wanted to kill anyone! DAMN YOU, MOTHER!" Flarequake amplified her anguished wail and the pit around her seemed to shake. "I never meant to keep that promise; I only made it to shut you up!"
She'd known that Ted Knight had probably never wronged her mother. Harmony had been poorly named - she was like an exploding nova of discord, disrupting the lives of everyone she touched, and she told wicked stories about anyone who didn't bend to her every whim, though Ted Knight had been one of her favorite targets. She'd been ranting on her deathbed and Carmela's promise had calmed her - for a few minute, before she moved on to her next target. Carmela had never been more relieved in her life than when her mother slipped into her final coma - and no amount of privately berating herself had caused her to feel guilty about her relief.
How had it happened? How had she become a killer?
*****
As soon as she saw the gleaming coppery sceptre, Carmela felt a strong, almost overwhelming compulsion to pick it up. Her archaeological training warred against this compulsion - this chamber was evidence that she had been correct in her earlier paper, and if she were to disturb anything before a 'qualified' team could properly investigate and catalog this chamber, once again her professionalism would be trashed. So instead, she pulled a camera from her well-equipped back pack and began taking pictures. But she couldn't get the scepter out of her mind as she cautiously explored her new surroundings. She didn't realize how closely she was passing the destroyed outbuilding until she tripped on a piece of rubble and tumbled over the broken remains of a wall - and as her arms flew out to protect her from the fall, her right hand landed squarely on the scepter!
She was instantly surrounded by a film of gleaming energy, an aura that protected her from her fall. Though she hadn't really paid much attention to her environment, it was hot in this chamber, probably near 90 F, and the air was musty - but she noticed instantly that the temperature inside the aura was much more comfortable, and the air she was breathing was sweet and crisp, with an almost undetectable slight tinge of ozone. As she sat up, she thought she heard a noise across the chamber, and as she turned her head and stared intently at the wall, the wall seemed to rush toward her in an effect like a zoom lens on a camera! This effect startled her, and the wall instantly snapped back to normal.
Like virtually every person in American who'd grown up after World War II - and probably most of the kids in the world - Carmela was familiar with the concept of super powers. How many kids hadn't dreamed of finding an enchanted ring, mystical ruby, magical lasso, or mythical wings? It didn't seem impossible - heck, even the seemingly not-too-competent Johnny Thunder had magic of his own! She had actually become an archaeologist in the hope of locating some ancient magical artifact and gaining powers of her own., but she'd never actually expected it to happen!
'I want to FLY!' she tried to direct a mental command at the scepter, and suddenly she was zooming toward the ceiling! 'SLOW DOWN!' her mental command changed instantly, and now she was drifting, almost as slowly as she had drifted down through the pit, supported by the 'elevator magic' in the shaft. 'Maybe I should practice?' warred with 'If I can reach the surface before sunrise, I can catch up with my team!' with 'If anyone learns that I picked up this scepter from a virgin archaeological site, my career will be ruined!' with 'Now I have the power to get revenge on those stupid old men!' At that last thought, a bolt like copper lightning blasted from the scepter and exploded a jagged hole in the wall of the pit!
She realized that she'd stopped moving as her thoughts battled each other. She decided, turned her head up to the lighted dome above her, and thought 'UP!' while concentrating on a moderate speed. She happened to look down when she was about 30 feet up and had to fight off a shock of fear. She wasn't afraid of heights, but she'd never been floating 30 feet above a hard-tiled floor before, either. So she turned her head back towards the far distant sky, and thought about reaching the surface.
She had to concentrate harder as she rose further; by the time she passed through the magical light barrier she was barely moving. And suddenly, whatever magic was supporting her simply gave out, and she started to fall.
But the elevator magic was still working; once again she floated gently to the tile. This time, instead of being relieved, she was absolutely seething with rage. To have such power in her hands, only to have it stolen away... It seemed to symbolize so many other things in her life - being on the verge of something great, smelling success and starting to plan a new life, and having it snatched away from her. She THREW the scepter from her as hard as she could, flinging it towards the wall - but just before it left her hand, it launched something, something that looked like a pebble when it was close to her but which quickly grew to become a large, hurtling boulder! Carmela barely noticed that the scepter had flown less than a foot out of her hand, then had reversed itself, and smacked back into her palm just as the boulder, now bigger than Carmela, smashed into the wall, exploding into a deadly rain of sharp stone fragments. For an instant, it was like being in a car in a hail storm, hearing dozens of tiny cracks as the stone fragments bounced off the aura around her. 'Why, it's still there - but now its a dull brown!' she noted, stunned.
The hole in the wall gave her an idea, and she ran to the wall, then ordered the scepter to start carving her a handhold/foothold ladder. She was a dozen feet off the floor when a thought suddenly struck her: 'What if whatever magic is making these holes gives out halfway up, just like the flying magic?' She carefully climbed back down - she needed to work this out. She realized that even if the scepter didn't fail again, it was going to take hours to climb to the surface, and her team would be long gone. So she might as well relax and plan a bit. And, she was hungry.
She went back to the wrecked building and experimented with the scepter, ordering it to create a stone chair and a pedestal she could use as a table; these two furniture items rose smoothly up out of the floor, accompanied by some very strange noises. She rummaged through her pack, got out the miniature Sterno stove, mixed water and freeze-dried beef stew in a cup. As she lit the stove, she was overcome with an irresistible urge to stick the scepter into the flame, and shortly, she could understand why. The scepter apparently gave her new magical senses, and she could feel it being recharged with magic drawn from the flame! Her new senses told her that it was only a trickle compared to what the scepter could readily handle, but she also realized that a larger fire would produce a better source of magic. She thought hard while she let the scepter charge until she couldn't sense any further magic flow. There wasn't anything down here to burn and make a bigger fire, so she came up with a plan to reach the surface.
A short time later, Carmela lifted again into the air and started floating up the side of the shaft. She flew upward until she felt the Fire magic of the scepter start to falter, then stopped and ordered her magic weapon to open a niche in the side of the shaft where she could rest and light the miniature stove for another recharge. She hoped she wouldn't have to do this too often; she had only one spare can of Sterno, and no idea how long the rock-shifting powers of the scepter would last. On a hunch, she pressed the scepter to the rock at her feet - and was rewarded with the sensation of a very faint trickle of magic, different in quality from the Fire magic, flowing into the scepter - a trickle which stopped in only a minute. Now that she knew what to 'look for' she could sense two reservoirs of magic, for Fire magic and Earth magic, and she realized that the Earth magic reservoir was large and full while the Fire magic reservoir was equally large and virtually empty.
"No wonder the Fire magic was used up so fast compared to the Earth magic!" she spoke her realization aloud. 'The scepter was in direct contact with Earth, but it must be thousands of years since it was last charged in a fire." Well, she would remedy that, not too far into the future!
It took her hours to reach the surface, and the second can of Sterno was almost used up, but she made it. She raced through the cave , discovering that it was late afternoon, and her friends had broken camp. Even though she had expected it, she felt a flash of anger - and a bolt of energy from the Scepter flared out, obliterating the former campsite! Though she was shocked at her tool's reaction to her anger, she moved quickly to a shattered tree and used the last remaining fire energy in the scepter to set it aflame. Once again, she felt the satisfying feeling of Fire energy charging her Scepter, and this time, the influx of magic lasted much longer.
While she had rushed through the cave, she'd noticed a cache of gear - her team had taken only what they needed for the trek to the pickup location, and put the rest into the cave. She went back inside and discovered that they had left enough food for her to survive on for several months. Now that she knew the secret of charging her Scepter, she could fly out at any time, but the cache of food would allow her to explore the caverns below. She went back out into Forbidden Gorge and used the Scepter to help her gather a large pile of firewood - fallen trees and branches, all magically cut to a convenient length! Then, a globe of gleaming coppery energy enveloped the wood, and Carmela flew back into the cave. A similar tendril wrapped up the cache, and she floated back to the pit, then descended to the tiled chamber far below.
*****
Carmela had replenished her food and fuel supplies with periodic trips to the surface. Even with the valley packed with snow and ice, her Scepter, which she had decided to call Flarequake, made trapping and fishing easy - so easy that she felt guilty about slaughtering the poor beasts. Finally, even though she had made tremendous archaeological finds in the subterranean city she'd discovered beyond the cave-in, she decided it was time to return home. She built a huge bonfire and simply threw Flarequake into the fire. As she prepared her last meal underground, she continued to feed wood to the fire until she'd used up her entire supply. Some hours later, she carefully parted the ashes and recovered her magical scepter. Her new senses told her that even now, the Scepter of Fire and Earth wasn't fully recharged! She would have to try a blast furnace next.
It took her about half a day to fly the several hundred miles to the small college town of Black Canyon - she could have done it more quickly, but she didn't yet have the knack of navigating by landmarks. Finally, she recognized her neighborhood, and made an eager beeline swoop for her small house. Though Flarequake allowed her to take good care of herself, she couldn't wait to take a shower in her own shower, sleep in her own bed, and dress in some different clothes!
There was a For Sale sign in front of the house. She should have guessed, but now that she was back, she'd take care of that in a hurry! Then she noticed that the sign had a big, bold 'SOLD' sticker plastered prominently across it, and she began to worry. She flew to one of the windows - and the inside of the house was bare! "AAARRRGHHHHHHH!" she screamed an inarticulate snarl of rage, and flashed into the sky. A bolt of energy blasted from Flarequake, and the house literally exploded! Floating above the house, laughing manically, Carmela methodically swept beams of magical energy across the devastated house, disintegrating everything that was left. She even destroyed the cement foundations, leaving nothing behind but a muddy hole in the ground. Then, totally ignoring the crowd of angry, fearful, disbelieving spectators which had gathered, she rocketed away.
A few minutes later, Back Canyon Ceramics hosted an unexpected guest. Cloaked in her fiery copper aura, Carmela walked in the front door, and ignored everyone who ran from her or attempted to stop her as she made her way to their big coal-fired kiln. Protected by her magical aura, she simply walked into the roaring fire, and waited while Flarequake recharged. 'This is more like it!' she exulted. 'It’s like drinking from a fire hose!'
Without a home to return to, Carmela decided to return to her mother's home - where she arrived to find her mother very sick. Harmony guilted her daughter into attending her until she died, and screamed at her until she promised vengeance on Ted Knight.
Even though she had never planned to pursue Ted Knight, for some reason, she'd felt a flare of anger seeing him at Harmony's funeral. She'd thought it was just a flash of irritation - but her anger had continued to smolder, and had finally blazed up in a violent explosion - and we've already seen the results.
*****
"Smolder, flare, blaze, explode..." she said to herself in wonder. "All related to Fire!" Carmela had always had a fiery temper - the magic of Flarequake must have sensed this somehow, and mystically drawn her to the Scepter! "I will NOT become a slave to some ancient magic!" she screamed at the top of her voice. "Now that I know, I swear it will NEVER happen again. I am in control, not some long dead wizard!" She could feel her anger growing again, anger at being manipulated by some outside force, and not even recognizing it until now, an implacable outside force that had made her a murderer.
She determinedly clamped down on her temper, forcing her anger into a tiny corner of her mind, squeezing it into a mere glowing spark. She could actually feel the Fire magic resisting her, attempting to ignite that spark into rage, and she fought a silent battle inside her mind. She was relieved to realize that her will was actually much stronger than whatever drove the Fire magic, and she quickly regained control of her own emotions. "Now that I'm aware, you've lost your power over me!" she screamed again at the ancient power. With an effort of will, she calmed herself, and returned to meditating - even as she could sense that Flarequake's Fire magic reservoir was finally completely full, for the first time since she'd discovered the powerful Scepter of Fire and Earth.
She was close to returning to the peaceful state of mind she'd reached during other occasions when she'd recharged Flarequake when the Scepter's magic alerted her to the approach of a source of energy she recognized. Starman was nearby! She concentrated, and her aura helped her locate the hero, zooming through the sky at close to the speed of sound. She wasn't sure why, but she decided to follow him. Grabbing Flarequake, she closed the lava spring, then rose into the air, and when she thought that maybe she didn't want him to know she was following, the scepter made her invisible. She was concentrating on her flying, and for the moment was unaware of the subtle warmth of distant anger, deep in her mind.
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Post by dans on Jul 21, 2017 23:37:41 GMT
Stretch had passed out momentarily from being rolled into a small ball, but as soon as Castle's attention was turned to something else - blasting a hole through the walls and ceiling of the Fourier Hotel - the sphere trying to turn Stretch into a softball had vanished. His powers made him difficult to kill, and he realized he'd been unconscious for only a short time. As he sat up, he wasn't exactly surprised to see the King of Rock and Roll sitting on a laundry basket nearby.
"Hey, Stretch," Elvis greeted him heartily. "Man, you look bluer than my blue suede shoes.”
"Well, it's like this, Big El - I been a lot better, ya know?"
"Yeah, I do. You got beat worse than an Alabama mule with a stubborn streak at plowin' time. Hope you're planning to do better next time!"
"That's the thing, King," Stretch shot back, sounding a little depressed. "I think I've had enough of this job. Not sure they'll be a next time."
"Now listen, son. I know life's tough but I think it's great that you're tryin to turn an honest buck or two. I'm real proud of you for the way you're tryin to take good care of that hunka hunka burnin'love, Maggie, and the kid!"
"Really? YOU're proud of ME?" Stretch was incredulous. "As you just reported so accurately, I just got beat like an Alabama mule! I'm playin outta my league here!"
"Never figgured you for a quitter, son," the King sounded disappointed, "although I've been there myself."
"You?!" Stretch asked, stunned at the revelation.
"When my momma passed, I was ready to call it quits, but Colonel Tom, he set me straight, and that's what I'm gonna do for you. I'll bet if the two of us put our heads together, we can figure out a couple'a tricks that'll surprise that owlhoot! I got me a black belt, you know, and I picked up some dirty fightin tricks from some of the stuntmen in my movies. And you ain't no hound dog yourself, some of the things you learned from your pa, and palling around with the Jr. Injustice Gang. Always gonna be somebody stronger'n you, Stretcheroo, but that don't mean you gotta be a scared rabbit!"
Stretch smiled and stood up, took a single stride to be nearer his friend. "Whatta ya got in mind, Tiger Man?" he asked eagerly. The two talked quietly for a few minutes.
"It looks like you're itchin like a man on a fuzzy tree, Stretcheroo - I think you're ready. Go get 'em!" the King waved his hand at the rest of the world.
"On my way, boss. See you around. Don't be a stranger!" Stretch said over his shoulder, and he stretched through the hole in the ceiling, on his way to find Monk Slade.
*****
"O'Brien, I can't believe you dare come walking back in here!" Slade complained loudly as he walked back into the ShieldBright control room. "You did nothing to stop that super punk from stealing anything he wanted from the show - and then you let him get away!"
"Lissen, big mouth - if you remember, you'd just tossed me outta here, claiming you didn't need my help. Funny, nobody but me even tried to stop that red-flamin' freak. I slowed him down, while you did squat."
As they were arguing, Stretch's arm extended back towards the workstation with the monitor that now showed a heap of nude unconscious thugs, formerly dressed as security guards, now bound with their own hand cuffs. Without even looking, one of Mr. Elastic's fingers unerringly pressed the button that ejected the tape that had recorded his capture and binding of the guards. All of Slade's men had been staring fixedly at their monitors, pretending not to hear the argument, and no one had seen Stretch recover the tape.
On his way back to the control room, he had discovered that the men he'd knocked out were still unconscious, so he'd used their own handcuffs to secure them - he cuffed one arm of each man to a leg of another, cuffing the last man to the first one. Even if they came to, they weren't going anywhere in a hurry! Especially since he'd used a knife to cut off their clothes - just to make sure none of 'em was hiding a key. Then he'd made a quick phone call to his FBI contact - he'd caught these guys, and he was going to get the bonus!
"Speaking of the robber in red, any idea where he is now?" Stretch asked innocently.
"Didn't you see the hole he blasted out of the building? He's long gone, Rubbermaid and you'd better be gone too!"
Suddenly, the tech whose tape Stretch had swiped noticed a blinking red light on his console. Before he could say anything, the young man was on the move!
"Thanks, Dude!" Stretch yelled at the monitor technician as one leg elongated through the control room door, then snapped back into its normal configuration, yanking Stretch from the room at breathtaking speed. As he raced down the hall with giant strides, his arms snaked out and he snatched two fire extinguishers from the walls.
Outside he paused, thinking quickly. Elvis had made a great suggestion for just this situation, but how was he going to implement it? He wrapped the extinguishers up in his legs and used his arms to slingshot into the air. He quickly shaped his body into an airfoil, then grabbed an extinguisher in each hand, holding them against the underside of his 'wings', using his hands to help streamline the overall shape. He had to form bigger wings than normal to support the weight of the canisters - and even so, he wasn't going to be able to stay aloft as long as he normally did.
Reshaping his eyes for sharper distance vision, he quickly spotted his target about a mile away. The glowing red aura was unmistakable, though he was a little puzzled that his foe seemed to be returning to the Fourier - perhaps he'd decided he'd left too much loot behind on his first visit?
Carefully, Stretch pulled the pins on the fire extinguishers, and quickly reshaped his hands to form nozzles aimed behind him. The thrust produced by the two fire extinguishers discharging was a little uneven and he almost started to tumble before he got the hang of directing his CO2 rockets just right - and then he was zooming through the air, accelerating like a missile!
***~~~***
Stretch was moving faster than he'd ever flown before. In his mind, he could just barely make out a few words of an Elvis song: "Fools rush in...". He shook his head once and concentrated on his flying. He realized that he'd forgotten to put his goggles back on after he'd stretched his head earlier, and he was having trouble seeing his target, plus the weight of the fire extinguishers was starting to affect his flight. Since they were now empty, he swung his arms around and threw them at the flying figure. This disrupted his aerodynamic shape, and the added drag slowed him down abruptly. He didn't see the canisters bounce off the floating figure with no effect.
Before he started to fall, he shaped one of his hands into a giant fist, and slammed the energy shield in front of him with a tremendous punch. Now that he could see better, he was a little surprised; instead of the ragged red fireball, the flier was now surrounded in a transparent reddish-gold aura that had the shape of an eagle. His punch had jarred the flier to a halt, and Stretch had started falling. He reached out and wrapped his arm around the tail of the bird, then let his arm snap back to its normal length, yanking him once again toward his target at high speed, and he landed another giant punch before he realized that the aura he was holding onto was suddenly HOT!
The weren't too far from one of the downtown skyscrapers, so he stretched a single finger into a long thin line and wrapped it around a decorative carving on the building's wall. He started swinging on that 'thread' until he was zooming toward another building, then released his 'finger hold'. As he flew through the air, he twisted and hit the new building's wall with hands and feed. Extruding suction cups on the surfaces of his hands and feet, he stuck to the wall and then started climbing like a human spider!
As he clambered over the edge onto the roof, he looked up and saw a 12' high red bear facing him, one paw pointed in his direction. The bear was transparent, and standing on the roof inside the outline of the bear was a woman, one arm pointed in his direction, holding a staff in that hand. She looked pissed!
'Holy ship!' his thoughts raced as for an instant, time seemed to stand still. 'The color's wrong, the shape's wrong, and the other one was a freepin' guy! Looks like you're back in the crapper, Stretch.' He quickly spoke aloud. "Um... I sorta made a mist...YEEEOWW!" he finished, as she launched a bolt of energy squarely at his head.
He collapsed to the rooftop, still screaming, and the bolt passed above him. It didn't touch him, but it left behind a cloud of faintly glowing energy, like the streak behind a meteor, and he could feel his skin tingling as the mystic energy brushed him. His legs became springs, launching into the air above the roof, and as he was rising, his arm elongated and he grabbed an antenna on the roof behind her. He then contracted his arm, and was snapped at high speed to the antenna, passing over the roaring bear and temporarily out of sight of his opponent.
*****
Pellucidar had been thinking furiously as she tracked Starman's energy discharge. She had barely been able to match his speed, much less overtake him, and in the few minute flight between Opal City and Baltimore, she'd quickly realized that Flarequake had almost managed to use her anger to influence her actions yet again! As her anger faded, she allowed herself to become visible again, and then her magic told her that Starman had finally slowed and then abruptly stopped moving, above the skyscrapers in downtown Baltimore.
Ahead of her, she could see two glowing balls in the sky, one golden and the other blood red. As she concentrated, her vision zoomed in, and she could see Starman, surrounded by his golden aura, apparently confronting a man dressed in a blue suit, with a high collared red cloak and blue bowler, surrounded by a ball of transparent red flames. Suddenly a bolt of red energy blasted from the flaming aura and exploded against the golden aura. Carmela reduced her flight speed, not quite sure what to do.
Concentrating on the nascent fight between Starman and the Cosmic Man, Pellucidar never noticed the approach of the rocket-propelled Elastic Man until a giant human fist slammed into her, jolting her even through her protective aura. Once again, her anger flared, and then she was punched again. When she saw some weird, fleshy tentacles wrapped around her aura, she blasted a single thought at Flarequake: "HOT!!" Her attacker screamed and fell, while she glided to a landing on a nearby roof. When she landed, her aura morphed from the shape of a falcon to the shape of a large bear standing upright on its hind legs.
Only seconds after she set down, a fleshy tentacle flopped over the cornice at the edge of the roof, and then pulsed strangely, and the being (a man?) who had just attacked her swarmed onto the roof. Before he could attack again, she fired an energy bolt, meaning to paralyze him, but he managed to duck out of the way, then leaped high in the air in preparation for another attack.
Carmela's temper flared higher as her opponent flew over her head, coming to a landing behind her. 'How DARE that coward try to attack me from the rear!' her thoughts thundered in her head. She spun to face him, but somehow he had already managed to hide himself. Pellucidar swept her scepter in a broad flat arc, and a brilliant ray flared out, slashing through everything on the roof at waist height - the small structure at the top of the stairs, the housing for the elevator machinery, a couple of industrial-sized air conditioners, a flag pole, some antennas...
The beam itself was silent, but wherever it touched, there was chaos! It cut easily through the wooden stair top landing, and the top half crashed down. By then, the deadly ray was eating through the elevator machinery. The metal disintegrated with hisses and crackles, and alarms started blaring as the elevators started falling. One of the air conditioner compressors exploded, and then the other, and for a few instants, highly compressed Freon blasted into the air, producing weird whistling sounds. The tops of smaller things clattered to the rooftop as well.
Stretch was awed by the destructive power of his new opponent-by-mistake. 'Geez, Big E, I am SO out of my league here!' he spoke silently to his ghostly mentor. 'Lemmy show y'a a neat trick I just came up with, all on my own!'
He was hiding behind the remains of the elevator machinery - he stretched his left pinky , then reshaped the top segment, flattening it and stretching it until the pinky looked like a pink car antenna with a pink, handkerchief-sized flag attached. He cautiously raised his arm above his impromptu temporary battlement, shouting 'TRUCE! I surrender!"
Pellucidar didn't recognize the bizarre replica of a truce flag - for one thing, it wasn't white, for another, Flarequake was once again 'encouraging' her anger. She flicked a laser-like beam at it, and sliced through Stretch's pinky.
"YEEOWWW!!!!!!" Stretch yelled. "Oh boy, does that hurt!" (That's not really what he said, but this is a family magazine). "Guess it wasn't such a frippin neat trick after all!" He dropped back behind his shield and his hand returned to normal except that there was only the stub of his little finger. There wasn't even any blood. He grabbed the stub with his other hand and pulled, and when he stopped pulling, he had stretched the stump into a replacement finger. "Now I'M MAD!" he yelled. "If you ain't seen me when I'm mad, you ain't seen NUTHIN!"
He stretched his arms in two direction with his left hand, he picked up the ragged end of a vent pipe that Pellucidar had just blasted loose. With his right, he grabbed the base of an antenna tower that was between him and the glowing villain. His right arm snapped back to normal, and Stretch was yanked towards his opponent at high speed. She fired another blast at him, but he contorted his body to avoid it; then he flipped end for end, and as he whipped past Pellucidar, he whacked her with the pipe. The pipe bounced off her force field, but he saw her jolted backward an inch or so. His legs had changed to springs and he bounced from the retaining wall with a Sproing!, zooming past her even faster than before and he whacked her again, this time from behind with a little bit greater effect than his first strike.
Stretch did another unique flip turn, and his leg springs launched him off the remains of the elevator shaft even faster than before. But this time Pellucidar was ready for him. She stepped aside from his bullet-like flight and after he passed her, Flarequake flared. A sphere of energy flashed out and enveloped him around the waist, lifting him just enough that he cleared the retaining wall. The thin line of energy connecting the sphere to Pellucidar snapped taught, jerking Stretch to a halt, and then the sphere split, the halves hinging away from each other, curiously resembling a human fist opening. Pellucidar laughed sharply once, then turned to watch the confrontation between the man who wanted to be known as Castle, the Cosmic Man and Starman.
With no velocity and nothing to support him, Stretch's instinctive fear of falling latched onto him like a bear trap. No, tighter than that - Stretch had in fact easily escaped from a bear trap once. A heartbeat later, and he was flailing in panic as he plunged 11 stories into the man-made canyon of downtown Baltimore.
He was just starting to remember he could glide, and such a fall probably wouldn't hurt him anyway, when a giant green baseball glove materialized beneath him, almost gently breaking his fall.
"You didn't need to do that, you green grandstanding gorilla!" Stretch yelled as he looked to the sky. He flashed his middle finger, expanded to the size of a baseball bat. "I flippin' had it under control!"
"You're welcome, son," Green Lantern answered ironically. "Now, stay out of this!" The glove changed to a human hand, holding Stretch dangling beneath it by thumb forefinger holding his belt, like someone holding a mouse by the tail. He was quickly deposited on the roof of the next building.
Green Lantern landed on the trashed roof where Pellucidar was just preparing to leave. "You're pretty good against inanimate things that can't move and kids," he spoke quietly, swing his arm around to indicate the wreckage on the roof. "Let's just see how you do against a pro!"
***~~~***
"Filppin' super heroes - aways screwin' me over!" Stretch was furious. "I'll show him a thing or three!" As he started making preparations to launch himself back into the battle, he realized that the King was standing between him and his target. If he fired himself out of his current human slingshot configuration, he'd knock down his idol!
"Damnit, Tiger Man! Get outta the way, or I swear I'll knock you on your ass!" he threatened.
"Hey, calm down, son!" Elvis cautioned his protege. "Your real fight ain't with the lady or even the Green Goblin up there. You're gettin' paid to keep the diamonds and jewelry safe - and fightin' the wrong battles won't feed the baby!"
"It's too frippin' late for that, Big E! The glowing red guy's gotta be long gone by now," Stretch said dejectedly, as he returned his body to normal and approached his hero. "Whatta ya want me to do, just quit? That'd sure make you and Maggie proud, wouldn't it?"
"Best remember, son, you caught them other knocked out jailbirds by your lonesome - that don't sound like no quitter to me. You run off now, and Slade will get the bonus your bonus. Besides," Elvis continued, "who says the red guy's escaped?" He pointed to the south, and Stretch could see glowing balls of red and yellow, swooping through the sky, with yellow and red beams blasting between them, only a few blocks toward the waterfront.
Stretch once again elongated a finger, got an elastic hold on the next building to the south. "Gonna try somethin' new, Big E. Thanks for the pep talk!" He didn't notice, but the King had already vanished, a big smile on his face. Stretch leaped off the building and let his finger line swing him like a pendulum in the direction he wanted to go. "Geronimo!" his exultant shout echoed off the buildings around him. When he reached the top of his upswing, he repeated the trick with the forefinger of his other hand, getting a hold on the next building and releasing his hold on the prior building.
If the citizens of Baltimore could have seen above the glare of street level lights, and happened to look up in the next minute, they would have seen a strange sight - a man swinging rapidly from building to building many stories above North Calvert St. Some of them even heard the swinging figure; Stretch was beating his chest with his free hand, bellowing a roar that most adults would recognize instantly from the movies. "AHHH EEEOOOEEE AHHH EEEOOOEEE AHHH!!!!!!" Every jungle beast roaming loose around the city instantly headed for the waterfront (or would have, if there had been any...)
Unfortunately for Stretch's fun, he could see that the buildings ahead of him were smaller than the ones in the middle of town - he was going to have to give up his Tarzan schtic soon. So at the top of his next swing, he didn't shoot another finger-line to the smaller building; instead he snapped his finger back to him and formed once again into the shape of a glider. He was lucky to catch a thermal which helped him gain altitude while he was still over the city.
'Who's inside that yellow glow? If it's Corona, she'll probably need some help,' he wondered eagerly. 'But I remember her power as being more yellow; this one is almost golden.' His former Jr. Injustice Society teammate Savant (Henrietta King) had tried to make sure all the Jr. Injusticers had at least rudimentary knowledge of their potential foes. A short memory flashed through his mind:
<< "This is Corona," Henrietta said, switching to the next slide, which displayed 6 pictures of the blonde heroine in various poses and activities - flying, standing, projecting energy beams and creating energy constructs.
"WOW, is she HOT!" Stretch had whispered to his buddy Mitch (Bluestreak) Mercury.
In return, Mitch jabbed him with an elbow. "Don't let Maggie hear you say that!" he whispered back.
"It's OK, Mitch." Of course, Maggie had overheard. "She IS hot! Can't believe she took her heroic name from a beer, though - what a bimbo!"
Henrietta had called them back to order, and gave the a quick briefing on the Amber Avenger and her yellow power ring. "Seemingly not as powerful as Green Lantern, but nobody knows if her ring has any vulnerabilities."
She lost Stretch's attention when she switched to the next slide -- some dumb hero or other. >>
As he got closer, he realized that the pale yellow glow surrounded Starman, not Corona. Neither combatant saw or heard him as he approached. They were much higher than Stretch, but over the water there was a strong thermal updraft, so he started to bank and climb. He was just beginning to gain a little altitude when Castle dropped something - something brown and just about the size of a stuffed 55 gallon leaf bag.
The Prince of Putty banked and dived - he had a good idea what this falling object might be; he'd seen Castle dragging it behind him during their brief encounter at the Fourier, wrapped in a red aura. 'He musta forgot about it in the fight, and the power pulling it just shut off - just like he forgot about me when he was bustin' out of the Fourier!' Stretch thought triumphantly. 'I might get outta this smellin' like roses after all! Hope Starman can keep him busy long enough for me to get the loot back to the store. Not that I'm goin' back to help him out. Once I get paid for tonight, I'm through with this hero spit!'
He zoomed underneath the falling bag and enveloped it with his body when it struck him. He reshaped his form for maximum streamlining, dove to gain speed, and leveled off less than 20 feet above the water, flashing toward shore, and out of this story, at high speed.
***~~~***
Ted pulled up sharply and the two men faced each other, each surrounded by a glowing aura, standing on air.
"That was almost impressive, Red Ringer - or is it Ring Ranger? Green Lantern told me that you seem a little confused about your identity."
"What he probably didn't tell you, old man, is that yesterday I whupped that pantywaist good, easy as breathin'. He's years younger than you, and everyone knows your Cosmic Stick is puny compared to his Power Ring." He stood up straighter, crossed his arms, raised his nose, and spoke in a haughty tone, amplified by the power of his ring. "I'm Castle, the Cosmic Man!"
Castle probably couldn't have said anything more likely to anger Ted if he'd planned it. Ted was feeling an unusual amount of angst about his age today and maybe a little jealous that Alan looked like a kid again. Since he'd swapped weapons with Alan, he'd come to realize that not only was the Cosmic Rod better suited for Ted's intellect and personality than the Power Ring, but that it had strengths that Green Lantern's vaunted weapon didn't, and he was tired of hearing that his own weapon was only second-rate. And finally, he'd lost a fight today with another youngster, recently watched his home get trashed, and witnessed the destruction of his most precious possession, the portrait of Doris, his long-dead wife.
"You're wrong, wrong and wrong, Castle," he gritted through clenched teeth. "Three strikes and you're out!" A golden beam of pure force, as dense and powerful as Ted could command blasted from the Cosmic Rod, smashing into the ragged red aura surrounding Castle, and he was slammed backwards. Ted was stunned when the Cosmic Man recovered; that was as powerful a blow as he'd ever struck! 'That should have put him out cold,' flashed through his mind with dismayed amazement, but then his analytical intellect cut in. 'Egri's technology wasn't advanced enough to withstand that kind of power on its own. There must be something more going on here.'
Castle quickly took advantage of Ted's slight pause and immediately launched his own attack. A red stream of flame blasted from his ring, like some kind of super-powered flamethrower, and exploded on contact with Starman's own golden aura. Giant red flames splashed in every direction, and this time Ted was driven backward. Twin spheres of golden energy appeared in the air to either side of Castle and slammed together against the villain's aura like two balls on a clicker toy, with no apparent effect, then bounced apart and started to swing together again.
Castle leaped forward and swung a roundhouse right. Ted got his own left hand up and managed to block, but the force of the block hurt like hell. He jabbed back with his right. For a few seconds, the two men exchanged blows. Castle strode forward aggressively, driving Ted backward. He didn't notice that Ted was circling so that he retreated towards the waterfront, getting the fight out over the harbor rather than downtown.
Ted fought awkwardly. In all his years as a hero, he had rarely tried to slug it out hand-to-hand with another flier. His super-powered aerial confrontations were usually more along the lines of a dogfight, or exchanges of energy blasts at a distance. And his Cosmic Rod in his left hand interfered with his punches and his blocks. On the other hand, Castle continued to push forward confidently, driving Ted back step-by-step as if he fought like this all the time. Ted changed his tactics he created a small, round energy shield, similar to the kind the Roman Gladiators had called a Cetratus, with the Cosmic Rod embedded in the shield. Now he could block most of the Cosmic Man's blows with the shield in his left hand, but it was still difficult to punch with his right. Castle continued to push forward. Ted couldn't believe he was having so much trouble with this amateur!
Castle was starting to get a little winded. If a street fight lasted this long, it would be time to take a step back and end it by blowing the other guy away with his pistol. He didn't think his pistol would help much right now, but he DID have his ring, and he suddenly realized how it could give him another added advantage.
As a kid, Castle's favorite hero had been the Human Bomb. He ordered his ring to increase his physical strength and speed, and 'energize' his hands. His new speed enabled him to easily evade Ted's block with his next punch, and there was an explosion when the aura around his fist touched the aura above Ted's stomach. The unexpected super-strength behind the blow, and the added power of the explosion, tossed Ted backward, tumbling out of control. Neither fighter noticed that at the exact instant his hands became energized, the red energy tether supporting Castle's bag of loot vanished, and neither saw it gathered up by Mr. Elastic.
By the time Ted was in control again, Castle was advancing rapidly, striding through the sky - and Ted realized why Castle was better at this aerial boxing match than Ted was - Castle wasn't flying! At least, not in the sense that Ted was flying. Castle's ring was providing him with some sort of invisible platform, and to Castle, he wasn't flying at all - he was standing and moving on solid surface, even though Ted was unable to see that surface.
"This is going to be almost too easy!" Ted smiled to himself. He dropped below Castle's mad rush, creating a golden 'rock' right where he'd been standing. The Cosmic Man tripped and took a tumble, ending up face down on his invisible platform, his arms and legs outstretched.
While Castle was getting to all fours, Ted was using the Cosmic Rod to scan through the electromagnetic spectrum, trying to find the wavelength range that allowed Castle to see his energy platform there was no way the villain could be that confident if he was walking on transparent air! The platform was opaque in the near infra-red (as Ted had expected), so he commanded the Cosmic Rod to cause his aura to 'blue-shift' one specific frequency of NIR, and now he could see the ghostly outline of Castle's support. Of course, he couldn't know for sure how Castle saw the platform, but if his ring made it appear opaque to the Cosmic Man's eyes, Ted thought he could have some fun with this!
He used the Cosmic Rod to change the appearance of his aura, so he looked like one of the adult ghosts in the Casper cartoons. Then he popped through the platform, waving his arms wildly and screaming "BOOOOO!!!!!!!!" followed by a tongue-wagging-in-coke-bottle sound like the Road Runner made when he stuck out his tongue at the Coyote. The Cosmic Rod amplified his noises, and lowered the pitch, so the air almost shook with the intensity of the bass sounds.
Castle screamed and jumped backwards, leveled his arm, and unleashed his most powerful blast yet. Ted barely dropped safely down under the blast. He quickly moved behind the Cosmic Man, who clearly couldn't see him under his platform. The ghost popped up again behind Castle, booing and screaming, and once again, Castle screamed and swept his arm around in terror, blasting away. Ted barely avoided the blast, and decided he'd had enough `fun'.
So he launched a golden globe which entrapped Castle. The surface of the globe turned flat black; Starman was trying a variation of the tactics he'd used against Pellucidar, suitably modified to stop the Cosmic Man without destroying his replacement Cosmic Rod. Instead of trying to absorb ALL the ambient energy around Castle, Ted focused only on the wavelengths that Castle used to see and the Cosmic Ring needed to function. Castle was wrapped in total darkness, and no cosmic radiation came through the globe for his ring to control. The Cosmic Man was helpless, in something like a sensory deprivation chamber.
After half a minute to let Castle realize his predicament, Ted began to shake the globe vigorously. After a minute of shaking, he used the Cosmic Rod to project his voice inside the sphere. "Not too bad for an `old man' with a `puny Cosmic Stick', eh, Castle?" He chuckled. "Tell you what I'll stop shaking you around like a baby's rattle when you take of your ring and drop it. Don't worry, I'll know when you do. Better not wait too long! I can do this for hours."
Ted continued to rattle the sphere until Castle couldn't stand it any longer. He removed his ring and dropped it; the ring passed freely through the energy comprising the globe, and Ted caught it, and slipped it into the Cosmic Rod holster on his hip.
***~~~***
(Green Lantern landed on the trashed roof where Pellucidar was just preparing to leave. "You're pretty good against inanimate things that can't move and kids," he spoke quietly, swinging his arm around to indicate the wreckage on the roof. "Let's just see how you do against a pro!")
It seemed to be the day for ring slingers to say stupid things. She had been dismissed like this by the `professionals' in her field, ridiculed by those who had never even met her because her well-reasoned and documented ideas were different than theirs. And here was another self-proclaimed `pro' - someone who had never met her, someone who had no idea what she could do, dissing her. Well, she hadn't had the power to fight back against the powers that be in archaeology, but she had the power to fight back today!
Perhaps fueled by her Scepter's insidious Fire Magic, Pellucidar's anger exploded - and Flarequake responded by releasing a beam of energy that blasted and battered Green Lantern's protective aura, knocking him backward, causing him to tumble out of control until he slammed into the remains of one of the air conditioners that was as large as a tractor trailer. His aura saved him from fatal injuries, but he was stunned and woozy as he slid to the roof. He called on his years of experience and managed to focus his fantastic will power on a single word: "UP!" and he blasted toward the stars like a rocket.
This move took Pellucidar by surprise, and by the time she'd launched herself skyward as well, Alan Scott had a chance to pull himself together.
"Good think Wildcat taught me to roll with the punch, and to cover up when I'm groggy," he said to no one in particular, concentrating on making the words come out right. "I've given her one free shot. I'm sure not going to give her another!"
He leaned backward, kept leaning, with his ring still driving him like a jet, and did a loop, orbiting through 270 degrees and ending up flying horizontally towards his foe. She wasn't used to aerial combat, and was stunned to see him change direction as quickly as he had. He flashed by her and the old `giant boxing glove' slammed into her - and it was now her turn to tumble.
Her aura turned into a giant bird, which spread its wings and regained control of the fight, and then her anger drove her after her foe once more. The two engaged in a curious combat - Green Lantern surrounded by a glowing green aura which flashed brightly when his enemy landed a blow or a beam, while Pellucidar's aura was constantly changing shapes, from one predatory animal to another, to a brute with a club, a warrior with a bow, an armored vehicle. The power of their weapons seemed to be almost evenly matched - the Green Flame of Life flaring from the Power Ring, and the coppery Fire Magic of Flarequake blasting back.
Green Lantern sensed that his weapon was more powerful, but her anger drove her to greater exertions, and his heart really wasn't into fighting this woman; if anything, he felt sympathy for her. He'd been run out of the business he loved by the Psycho Pirate, and he knew how it felt when everyone seemed to be against you. And he felt guilty - maybe she wouldn't have blasted him if he hadn't introduced himself with a wisecrack. Still, she wasn't showing any signs of relenting any time soon.
"Look, I'm sorry about that `pro' crack that started this," the Emerald Guardian spoke through a giant megaphone, while blocking her attacks but not launching any of his own. "We're not accomplishing much up here but battering one another. Why don't we call a truce?"
A coppery-red bolt of energy bounced from his shield in response.
"Listen!" he insisted, "if we keep this up, somebody else could get hurt. Right now, you're responsible for nothing but property damage. I'm sure the JSA would be willing to help put things back together."
He dodged a lightning bolt.
"I've talked to Carter and Shiera Hall, and they told me they'll publish their own paper, citing yours. If two world-renowned archaeologist used your paper as a source, no one would dare mock your work again.”
He saw her react to that; her body jerked, and she responded, roaring like a bear "LIAR! Why would they cite a murderer? I KILLED Ted Knight today. Why should I give a damn if I hurt anyone else?"
"Is that all you're worried about?" he sounded amused, as he used a giant green tennis racket to bat a ball of crackling reddish energy high into the sky. "You didn't kill Ted Knight. He's fine!"
"LIAR! How could you know that?" But for an instant, she stopped attacking.
A voice louder than either of the fighters thundered: "Because I'm Ted Knight!"
***~~~***
Ted flew between the two opponents and pulled back his hood. "Ted Knight, Ms. Valdez. You didn't kill me," he tried to grin, to show her it was OK, "but you did manage to batter me a bit." He was understating the damage he'd taken, but he'd taken a lot worse through the years.
Carmela was still stunned. Her mouth dropped open in a cliché of surprise, her arms dropped to her sides, and her head drooped momentarily. Her aura, which had been a giant bear ready to attack, shrank to a glistening sphere barely large enough to contain her. 'But... but... I killed you! I saw the ceiling collapse on you!" She straightened, but made no aggressive move - yet! Both heroes remained cautious.
"I'm sure you understand that I'm never far from my one of my Cosmic Rods?" Ted didn't think he needed to go into detail explaining that it had actually been an obsolete Gravity Rod. She was nodding thoughtfully, secretly a little jealous that he had more than one, as he continued. "You probably don't remember the fancy lamp on the side table where I ended up," she shook her head, "but I keep a number of my toys scattered around the place."
"But, but, I... I wrecked your house!" she stammered.
"Yeah, you did," he replied. "And you destroyed the painting of my wife!" he added sternly. "I'm pretty pissed abut that, too. But none of that is worth throwing your life away." He paused for a half second. "Especially since Shiera and Carter Hall are anxious to help you restore your reputation.'
"Uhhh - I don't mean to interrupt this fascinating reunion, but... you guys might be surprised the next time you see Ted's so-called 'house'," Green Lantern interrupted with a chuckle. "I can't speak for the painting, but I'm pretty sure there was nothing wrecked that Johnny Thunder’s magic genie T-bolt couldn't fix." Now, he paused for a half second. "Even with Johnny telling him what to do."
He turned to Pellucidar. "I'm really sorry - my thoughtless remark precipitated this whole dust-up. You'd think that after almost 50 years as Green Lantern I'd know better."
This caught Carmela's attention. "You're _really_ the original Green Lantern?" He nodded. "How did you stay so young?"
"Well, sometimes, there are _some_ benefits to being around magic all the time," he replied, while thinking: 'Whew! It looks like she's calmed down.'
"Tell you what - why don't we make a visit to the Justice Society headquarters and see what we can do to straighten out everything else? The JSA actually has some experience dealing with the aftereffects of property damage." 'We should,' he thought... 'We've wrecked a lot of stuff in our battles over the years, and we've never been sued,' "We can fly by Ted's house on the way and see what kind of interior decorator Johnny Thunder makes? I'll bet you'll be collaborating with the Halls by this time tomorrow."
"But... I know Starman's secret identity!" she protested suspiciously. "I can't believe you'd just let me go. Even if you trust me, I don't know if I can keep that kind of secret. I've always had a terrible temper, and when I lose my temper I don't have much control over what I say. And," she sighed, considered, decided it would be best to tell them before they discovered it the hard way: "something in Flarequake's magic seems to make my anger worse. It's like the magic is in control, not me, and the magic needs to be used - violently. Against things, if there are no people available."
"I can probably help you with that," Green Lantern assured her. "One of my friends discovered a way to use his Power Ring to protect his mind, so no outside force can ever control him. It works for me, too - and during our battle, my Ring analyzed the magic used by your Scepter, and there are a lot of similarities between your coppery energy and my green energy. I'll bet the Earth magic can protect you from the Fire magic."
"About the identity thing," Ted added, judiciously, "everyone knows the Hawks' secret, and they seem to be doing OK. I never expected to keep it a secret for so long anyway." He pulled his hood back up, and she was astonished to see his features blur slightly; the man in the hood was recognizably NOT Ted Knight. "Maybe people won't believe it, anyway."
"Maybe _I_ can do something about that," Carmela responded. "I know Flarequake can affect minds - maybe I can order it to erase your identity from my memory."
"I wouldn't recommend that," GL warned. "Messing around with your memory can have unexpected effects on your mind - and your life!" He was thinking of the shock he'd undergone when he met Jade and Obsidian - his children from a marriage he didn't even remember.
Carmela nodded, but didn't reply. It seemed clear to all three of them that she was going to ignore Alan's advice. There was a bit of uncomfortable silence, broken by Starman:
"Let's go see how badly Johnny managed to mess up my living room!"
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Post by dans on Aug 11, 2019 12:47:06 GMT
spambots are nothing if not persistent
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Post by dans on Aug 11, 2019 12:47:55 GMT
I do like that comment about "You actually stated it perfectly! " I think so too!
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Post by dans on Dec 20, 2020 12:37:47 GMT
Epilogue Ted (Starman) Knight was exhausted by the events of the day, and in a hurry to get home. But he was anxious and worried as well - what if the T-Bolt hadn't restored his mansion yet, or what if Johnny had bumbled the T-Bolt's commands and what he'd find was even worse than what he'd left behind, or worst yet, what if the portrait of Doris was ruined? 'It won't do to brood, Ted!' he told himself sternly. 'The T-Bolt has enough sense to do it right, even if Johnny does bungle the commands a bit, and if you need to, Dr. Fate can help too. Everything will be fine!' He didn't believe it, of course, and kept ordering the Cosmic Rod to fly faster and faster, until his mansion came into view. And then he came to almost a complete stop, practically unable to force himself to continue. 'What if it's still wrecked?' he couldn't help but fret. He swung around to approach from south - the main entrance faced south to get as much sun as possible. Pellucidar had exploded out of the living room, so that's where the damage had been worst. When he was close enough to see the main entrance, his heart leaped - from this distance, at least, there was no indication that there ever had been damage. With lighter heart, he put on a burst of speed, and within seconds, he was landing between the two-story Grecian columns on the front entrance, and rushing through the door - and his living room and everything in it, and most importantly, the magnificent portrait of his beautiful, now-deceased wife, Doris, was restored! Almost limp with exhausted relief, Ted made his way to his basement lab. He had one thing more to do before he went to bed. He set up the scanning electron microscope and elemental spectrometer and did a quick analysis of the Cosmic Ring. He was stunned at the level of technology that he discovered. The band and massive setting concealed some incredibly complicated, extremely miniaturized integrated circuits. Egri had been decades ahead of his time in silicon circuit technology! But most of it was apparently damaged, burned out by the desperate struggles of the Cosmic Man to escape the cosmic energy-draining sphere in which Ted had captured him. The red stone concealed an ingenious energy storage battery that Ted thought he could adapt to improve the power of his own Cosmic Rod, and an energy release mechanism. The battery was totally discharged. With the circuitry damaged and inert and the battery dead, Ted felt that it was safe for him to go to bed and leave further investigation for later. He DID have to get up early tomorrow. He needed to fly to New York tomorrow for the 10 AM opening ceremonies of the annual convention of the American Astronomical Society, where he was scheduled as a featured speaker for a presentation in the afternoon. He carried the ring with him to the bedroom, then opened Doris's jewelry box and pushed it into an empty slot in her ring organizer, and then quickly went to bed.
Ted overslept and had to push the Cosmic Rod to max to reach the conference while the opening ceremonies were still going on, then was deeply engrossed in the convention activities the rest of the day. He never once thought of the Cosmic Ring until after his presentation. Which had been a mistake - when he arrived home, it was gone! The house staff reported no unusual events that day, and no visitors. None of Ted's security technology monitoring the estate had recorded anything out of the ordinary - except the video camera in the hall outside the master bedroom which looked down the hall toward the bedroom door.
Starting several hours after Ted had left that morning, the light coming under the door changed color, fading gradually towards pink and then brightening, until the entire hallway was illuminated in a brilliant pink glow. About an hour after the glow started, it snapped instantly back to normal, and there were no further traces of anything unusual. Ted manually searched the bedroom - there was no indication that anyone had entered or left, no damage caused by whatever had removed the ring, no trace that the ring had ever existed. A scan with the Cosmic Rod was no more helpful - whatever had caused that pink glow had left no traces. What had happened? Had someone managed to retrieve the ring? Had it somehow been destroyed? Or did it just vanish on its own? Ted had a feeling that if the Cosmic Ring had not in fact been destroyed, he might encounter it again sometime in the future...
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Post by dans on Dec 20, 2020 12:38:13 GMT
I hope it is OK to add an Epilogue to this completed story...
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Post by johnreiter902 on Dec 20, 2020 13:19:48 GMT
This was a perfect edition to the story. I liked it.
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