Showcase: The Force of July
The Crime Champions
by Libbylawrence
Part 1
At the bottom of the ocean rested a large complex full of high-tech equipment. The original owner was rotting away in prison, and the new owner had made so many improvements to the secret lair that he considered it his in any case. The Black Manta stalked the halls of the base called Styx and enjoyed the feeling of power he got when his mere appearance sent henchmen scurrying. He wore his customary black costume with the imposing helmet. Red lens gleamed as he scanned the base and saw all was to his satisfaction.
He stopped by the medical facility and watched silently as his crew worked to revive a portly bald man. Vulko is getting better; excellent. Soon he will be as good as new, and his secrets shall be ours for the taking, he mused as he saw Aquaman’s mentor stir slightly.
“Mera!” moaned Vulko.
“Mera can’t help you, old man!” said Black Manta. “She’ll be welcome here to entertain my crew, though, after I conquer her husband’s home and make him suffer even more than he did when I killed his whelp!”
He turned to the head of the medical team and said, “Don’t let your efforts to restore him slow in any manner. He must be cured in order to be of more use to me than as a mere hostage.”
“Aye, sir!” said the doctor.
Manta approached the main hall and smiled beneath his mask as a figure slipped out of the shadows. He did not move or turn around, but he calmly said, “Good morning, Sands.”
Carl Sands, the Shadow Thief, frowned and caressed his beard. “Morning or night makes no difference here below the ocean. Can’t say I like it,” he replied.
Black Manta laughed a harsh, barking laugh. “Come now, don’t tell me the Shadow Thief fears the dark?”
Shadow Thief grimaced and said, “It takes some getting used to, this living beneath the waves. The serum X I stole may have given me the ability to breathe and survive underwater, but I don’t have to enjoy the sensation.”
Black Manta said, “Be calm. Soon we’ll have the rest of our little squad. In fact, I see our crew have retrieved the next addition. See the sub arriving?”
He indicated the docking of a small sub. Minutes later the uniformed crewmen appeared and carried a stunned woman between their outstretched arms.
“Got her as ordered, sir!” said one crewman.
“Fine. She is no worse for wear, I take it?” said Black Manta.
“No sir, she’s in fine form, I’d say!” replied the man as he gazed down on the lovely blonde.
Part 2
The blonde woman awoke to find herself chained in a small cell. She was wearing a gold bikini and found herself well guarded.
“Please, who are you? Why have you brought me here?” she said.
The uniformed henchman said, “I don’t know nothin’. I just get paid to see that you don’t go nowheres!”
Dale Conroy struggled in her chains, but they were too strong. She settled down and realized all she could do was wait. Answers would surely come soon if she just waited.
She sighed and waited. It was really all she could do.
Part 3
Rachel Green smiled as she worked in her mother’s garden behind the small English cottage in which she lived. She had a green thumb; in fact, as the super powered Mayflower, she had used her rapport with growing plant life for causes both good and ill. She had been born with her power to control and stimulate plants because her father had been Jason Woodrue, the villainous Floronic Man. He had battled the Atom and other heroes, and Rachel had inherited some of his bizarre power. Rachel had never met him until as an adult she was abducted by him and used as a seedling to grow the enigmatic plant woman called Blossom. She still shuddered at the footage her friends had shown her of her time as Blossom. She had retained no memory of housing the pale blonde nudist. She had no desire to recall it either!
She had formerly served as a member of the Force of July under the leadership of B. Eric Blairman, and she had later served under Captain Comet on his rehab squad. While Comet had been a good man and a friend, Blairman had misled his team, and Rachel had not been eager to ever rejoin her old Force of July teammates.
She wiped a bit of dirt from her face and dusted off the white shorts and white tank top she wore. “Cor! The day’s half shot. I lose m’self out here in the garden every time I come out,” she said.
“Mayflower, we can fill your days with more productive activities. Your country needs you!” said a stentorian voice.
She saw the broad shouldered form of Major Victory and gasped. “Will! I’m glad you’re OK. Captain Comet said you and the team had been manipulated by an Arabian businessman who wanted to engineer a war so his armament company would prosper,” she said.
Victory frowned. “We were naive then; now we serve a real American. His name is Abraham Lincoln Carlisle, and he is the new director of the American Security Agency. He’s putting the Force back together, and we want you with us!”
“The Force is with you?” she joked sheepishly.
Victory frowned even more. “No, I’m alone. Will you join us?”
Rachel said, “I’m not too keen on being back in action. I mean, life here is dead borin’ and all, but I don’t want to serve any bloomin’ politician.”
Victory said, “One final mission for old time’s sake.”
Rachel sighed. “‘K, OK. I’ll get me knickers.”
Part 4
Thus it was that Mayflower soon found herself dressed in her traditional costume. She met her old partners with some affection and some reserve. Major Victory (Will Vickers) was a handsome blond man with super strength that came from his star spangled costume. His young partner Sparkler was a teen with pyro-kinetic powers and a decided passion for blowing things up. The taciturn Silent Majority wore his dark glasses and remained quiet. Mayflower rather liked Gabby the most. He could create duplicates of himself at will. He literally was a one-man gang. Next to him sat a pretty blonde woman in a short pink dress and heels. She was new to the team and unknown to Mayflower. Her name was American Dreamer, and she had the power to create potent fantasies in her victims. They would lose themselves in her bliss. Lady Liberty was the gorgeous Frenchwoman who could generate energy blasts. She dressed as the living embodiment of the Statue of Liberty, complete with torch and crown. The last new member they’d recruited, Minute Man, had deserted and thus could not be found for this case.
Behind a plush desk sat Abraham Lincoln Carlisle, former Presidential candidate and new director of the A.S.A. He rubbed his palms together and said, “My friends, I am rejoicing within to see so many fine Americans rallying to our cause. We are needed as always to secure American liberty. I need you, my Force of America, to protect this young lady. We have reason to believe she will be the target of a vicious attack from our nation’s foes. Her name is Stacy Macklin, and you may recall her as one of America’s first female astronauts.”
Major Victory said, “Don’t worry, sir. You can count on us!”
Mayflower hoped she knew what she was getting into this time.
Part 5
Meanwhile, at Ivy Town University a pretty teen found herself facing rejection.
“I’m sorry, Miss,” shrugged a pretty work study student at the Science Lab reception desk. “Dr. Palmer is not on campus today. His work often takes him in unexpected directions.”
The pretty brunette girl was around fifteen, and she wore her auburn hair long and straight. She looked tired and more than a bit frustrated.
“Do you know when he’ll be back? I’ve tried his home as well,” she snapped.
The student behind the desk said, “I don’t know. Do you want to leave a message?”
“No. I’ll keep looking,” she said and hurried out. She wore faded jeans and a pink sweater, and both showed signs of wear and age. He was my last hope. If I can’t locate him, then what am I gonna do? she thought.
She glanced down and saw a trail of ants crossing the sandy edges of a construction zone. “Hmmmm! Maybe I can get his attention in my own way!” she smiled.
Part 6
Black Manta knew that some things were best done personally. Thus he entered a dirty little shop outside Georgetown and pushed aside the hanging beads that decorated one door. He sniffed and frowned as incense reached his nose. He was dressed in a costly black suit, and out of costume he looked every bit the successful man of the world he knew himself to be. He was certainly out of place in this shop of oddities.
A girl with deathly pale skin and heavy mascara leaned over the counter. “Yeah?” she said.
He said, “With this kind of sparkling customer service I little wonder that the shop is empty of business.”
She stared at him and said, “Huh?”
“I need to speak to the owner. He is in the back office I take it?”
“Yeah,” said the girl vacantly.
Black Manta pushed by her and opened the door to reveal a tired man who pored through dusty tomes and scowled in anger as Black Manta interrupted his study.
“You dare?” he shouted.
Black Manta nodded. “And I dare much more as well. I dare to offer you the chance to shake off past defeats and bitterness. I offer you a chance to get revenge upon your old foes. I invite you to become a champion. Are you willing to take a chance, or is Zond just a name forgotten and scorned for good reason?”
Zond glowered at him beneath shaggy brows. “Oh, I accept your offer. It best be worthy of my time, or I’ll ignite your very heart to ashes!” he said coldly.
“I think we have a deal,” smiled Black Manta.
Part 7
Jean Loring Palmer Hoben was a gifted lawyer; she owed her success to a sterling work ethic. Thus, even though it was after six, she continued to work in her law office in Ivy Town.
She sighed. “Ray’s gone with Adam. Looks like I either finish this brief or go home to cold leftovers.”
A buzzing sound caught her ear. She glanced up to see a bug flying near her ear. She waved it away and pushed back her long raven locks of hair.
The buzzing increased, and she frowned as the bug hovered in front of her face and emitted a sonic shriek that caused the lady lawyer to cover her ears and fall to her knees in pain.
She grabbed a lamp and hurled it at the artificial insect which dodged the projectile and drew closer until Jean had passed out on the carpet.
Then the brunette teen who had been seeking Ray Palmer — Jean’s lover and the former Atom — climbed inside the window and bent over the stunned woman.
“Cool! You know who needs Palmer? I’ll take care of myself.” She calmly stripped Jean of her costly designer suit and helped herself to her purse.
Now, dressed in style and carrying more money than she had seen in a long time, Melanie Larvae exited along with the sonic bee she had made from her late father’s scraps.
A criminal career was born.
Part 8
Back at Styx Black Manta smiled and assembled his new allies. The Shadow Thief and Zond eyed each other suspiciously.
“Manta, I thought our next recruit was to be a bit more attractive!” said Carl Sands.
“Bah! I could turn you into the ebon regions for all eternity; then we’d see you truly live up to your dubious nom du crime!” said Zond.
Black Manta said, “Enough, gentlemen. In order to secure our female allies we need Zond’s help, and he is of help to us. I’ve given him an assignment. He is nearly finished with it too.”
Zond smiled beneath his greasy black curls. “I have located him, and my mystical might has secured him. He is a bit disoriented, but that is to be expected when you consider from whence He came!” said the wizard.
Shadow Thief frowned. “What is this nonsense? Did this skid row Faust bring in another member?”
Black Manta said, “Indeed he did. One from far away. He will enrich our ranks greatly.”
“Bring him in!” he snapped to a henchman.
The door opened, and in swaggered a dusty clad cowboy. His face was unshaven, and his weapons seemed drawn from a long lost era of Western adventures.
“I reckon I better intree-duce myself. Ah’m Terra-Man!” he drawled.
Shadow Thief gasped, “But he’s dead. We all know that. He betrayed you and others to help the Green Arrow!”
Black Manta said, “I’m not going to hold that against him.”
Terra Man grinned. “You’re all right!”
Shadow Thief said, “He was dead! Are you saying this Zond brought back a dead man?”
Zond grinned wickedly. “I could… but I did not. Black Manta sports with you!”
Black Manta nodded. “My apologies, Sands. This is not the Terra-Man who betrayed our cause and died as The Futurian — may he rot wherever he is — this is his counterpart from a magical realm. They once teamed up to fight Superman. They lost, but we can use this Terra-Man. He has not reformed in any sense of the word.”
Terra-Man grinned. “Now tell me who you want plugged, mister, and I’ll reserve ‘em a place on Boot Hill!”
Part 9
A startled Stacy Macklin found herself bait in a dangerous game when the two rival super groups converged upon the pretty woman’s home. She gasped as first the Crime Champions broke in from the rear, then the Force of July rushed to meet them!
“I knew a careful surveillance would pay off! We’ve got them!” said a smug Major Victory.
Lady Liberty nodded. “Your leadership was as true as ever, Major!”
Mayflower frowned as she rode a rising stalk that shot skyward at her command. “This lot looks a bunch of right proper kooks!” she mused as she spotted the swaggering Terra-Man, the greasy and robed Zond, and the silently menacing Black Manta. She missed Shadow Thief as he made his way through the darker parts of the house.
Stacy gasped and cried, “What do you people want? I gave up my Lady Lunar identity long ago!”
Black Manta said, “We intend to rectify that error of judgment.”
Major Victory stood defiantly in the center of the room. “Miss Macklin, take shelter. This could get rough!” he commanded.
Terra-Man scowled and produced a gun. “Reckon it maht at that, pard.”
Major Victory smiled calmly. “I believe I’m too much man for your six shooter to stop!”
Terra-Man fired, and the gun’s energy blasted forward to slam the unprepared Victory into Lady Liberty. “This here beauty don’t fire bullets!” sneered Terra-Man.
Black Manta fired his red eye beams and sent a overhead beam crashing down on them. “Gloat later,” he snapped.
Stacy screamed as she fled deeper into her home. She found herself being smothered from behind as Shadow Thief reached out from the wall to grab her tightly. She struggled and fell still as her air was cut off.
Sands caressed her eagerly and slipped back to their craft. “Business can be a pleasure at times,” he smirked.
Silent Majority had duplicated himself, and his five doubles charged forward to tackle Zond. They gasped and fell into one another as the wily illusionist stepped out of what had been empty space.
He said, “You see me where I am not. Is that not the height of the illusionist’s craft?”
Mayflower said, “I can make you easy to find, mate!” She made a gesture, and spores erupted from her plant to fill the air with pollen.
Zond began to choke and sneeze as his eyes watered painfully. “Fetching — achoo! — wench, but I will sttill — achoo! — kill her!” he gasped.
Lady Liberty crawled out from the rubble Major Victory’s body had shielded her from. She waved her torch and sent a blazing bolt toward Zond. His robes ignited, and he cursed desperately as he tried to smother them while dealing with Mayflower.
Black Manta found himself in their path. He fired again, and Lady Liberty spun her torch baton style to block the energy blast.
“Your move, m’sieur,” she said.
Part 10
Black Manta ignored her banter and said, “Objective secured. Retreat!” He turned and hurried off as she pursued him.
Terra-Man had been dodging the blazing pyro-kinetics of the laughing Sparkler, who flew wildly around the room. “I guess this is your last stand, cowboy!” he crowed.
Terra-Man replied, “Yep.” He hurled a lasso that snaked out toward Sparkler, who stopped short and let it sail in front of his laughing face. Terra-Man clicked his gloves, and the lasso shifted in midair to snare the boy and send gas into his face. He fell down hard, and Terra-Man smirked at that. “Never could stand uppity young’uns!”
Zond was down as Mayflower and Silent Majority closed in on the beleaguered wizard.
“Nice dress!” laughed Mayflower as she sent tendrils snaking around Zond’s robed form.
Silent Majority said, “Not your color.” He battered the wizard with unison from three sides.
Then, as Black Manta exited the house, he ran directly into the pink clad American Dreamer.
She batted her eyes and cooed, “Look at me! I can make your wildest fantasies a reality!”
He stared into her blue eyes from beneath his metallic lens helmet and casually blasted her to a flaming pulp. “So can I!” he said as he stepped over her fallen form.
Terra-Man retrieved Zond and rushed out, leaving the Force to tend to their injured ally.
“She’s dead!” gasped Lady Liberty.
“I can’t believe he killed her so casually!” said a grim Major Victory.
Mayflower wept softly for the woman she barely knew. They must be stopped, even if I have to call in some real heroes, she mused.
Part 11
Back at Styx, Black Manta wasted no time. He strapped Stacy Macklin down and used the device the Shadow Thief had used upon Rogers to bathe her in an odd glow. She moved restlessly and then arose with a gleam in her eyes.
“You have restored me. I feel the moon’s sweet call,” she said in a trance-like state.
Black Manta nodded. “Indeed I have, Lady Lunar. We need your services and in return will increase your power greatly. I seek to conquer an undersea realm; the Serum X I gave you earlier will allow you to breathe and function beneath the sea. Your special gifts will enable you to control tides to great effect down here.”
Lady Lunar smiled after a quick change. She now had long blonde hair and wore a green and orange costume.
“I agree. If you seek to conquer one of the cities of lost Atlantis, then I’ll gladly aid you. They’ve avoided the worship of the Moon for far too long and should feel my wrath,” she said.
“And mine!” said Manta.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Thief stepped off the wall of the changing room Lunar had just exited and smiled coldly. “She’s magnificent!” he gloated.
Black Manta entered and said, “If you’re quite… satisfied, then I need you to prepare for a retrieval. I need the woman we spoke of earlier. Take some help with you and get her from her prison.”
The Shadow Thief nodded. “I shall. Don’t you think Zond has proven his inability to play in our league? I mean, he was almost defeated by those witless governmental lackeys!”
Black Manta said, “He is needed for our assault on Poseidonis. Must I go through it all again? One: I used Quakemaster and Jackhammer to occupy Aquaman long enough for you to secure Serum X, which allows air breathers to survive below, while I abducted Vulko. Two: Vulko told me of a secret of lost Atlantis. Three: I mean to refine my power by learning how Aqua Queen controlled aquatic life forms; thus we kidnapped her. Four: I used the excess remnants of the energy that made Rogers the Moon Man to restore Stacy Macklin to her Lady Lunar persona to aid us. Five: You’ll locate our final allies, and then we conquer Poseidonis. Think of it: we live in Styx. We freely plunder the underwater water. Aquaman is used to battling me and Fisherman, and the Ocean Master and the others, but how can he prepare for a war with surface villains like yourself, Lady Lunar, and Terra Man II? He will be bested easily, and who else could stop us? There are no other underwater heroes. Aqualad is nothing to me.”
The Shadow Thief smiled. “I see. It does make sense. Above the waves we’d be in constant peril from the Titans, the JLA, and Hawkman, among others; below them we should soon be invincible.”
Black Manta said, “That is how I planned it from the start.”
Part 12
By the time Jean Loring woke up feeling cold, angry, and more than a bit humiliated, Melanie Larvan had pawned her jewelry, bought a bus ticket and was planning a bright future. She sighed as she sank back against the bus seat and recalled her past.
She had been raised by her widower father, Bertram Larvan, and his mother until first her grandmother died and then her father met a sudden end during the Crisis. Melanie had grieved and been placed in a foster home. She had hated life there and had formed a novel idea.
“Dad’s most persistent foe was the Atom: Ray Palmer. His secrets are all commonly known, thanks to the book by Brawler. Dad said the Atom was brilliant and a man of honor. Sappy that way. I figured I could meet him and just maybe he’d take me in. I mean, the guy’s a do-gooder. Why not?” she had pondered before running away from the foster home.
Her father had left his old lab intact, and Melanie had helped herself to all his gear. As the Bug-Eyed Bandit he had designed a number of remarkable artificial insects for various purposes. She had taken a few and hoped to make use of them. First she had hoped to meet Palmer and become a ward or sidekick or something. That had proven difficult, and she had been hungry and tired. She had robbed his snooty wife and used the money to pay for a way out of the college town.
I’ll be a costumed criminal too, like Dad. Why bother with the picket fence life? she mused.
Part 13
Mayflower had placed a quick call to her friend Captain Comet, who replied with equal dispatch.
“Rachel,” he said, “if they abducted Stacy following the attack on Rogers, it’s pretty certain that Carlisle was right about their interest revolving around the power each possessed during their respective Moon Man and Lady Lunar roles. With that in mind, I’ve built a device to register that specific level of radiation. It’s somewhat akin to Kryptonite according to my files. Both villains could weaken Superman.”
“Thanks, Adam! I thought I’d hung up me costume for good, but I want to bring in the rotters who killed Dreamer,” she said.
Comet replied, “I’m sorry about that. I know losing any teammate, even one you did not know very well, can be painful.”
Now Rachel smiled as Joanie Swift arrived to deliver the device and explain its use. The lively blonde could move so fast that doorstep delivery from across the nation was simple.
“Rachel, I know Adam offered to help you. Are you sure you don’t want us to join you?” asked Joanie.
Rachel smiled. “I want to try to do this with the Force, seeing as Dreamer was one of us.” She activated the tracker and smiled as it began to show movement.
“Hmmm. Someone’s giving off that radiation, and he or she is close to a pal of mine. Maybe I’d better rethink my plan!” she said.
She referred to Debbie Domaine, the former Cheetah, who had served with her on Comet’s team and now lived in Georgetown near the Federal Prison in DC, which was the current scene in which the detection device indicated the radiation was present.
She picked up the phone and made a rapid call. “Debbie? Rach. I need a favor,” she began.
Part 14
Debbie Domaine had been an heiress with a passion for the environment and wildlife. Her zeal for these causes had led her to devote considerable time and money to crusading sometimes illegally for their preservation. She had been abducted by the madman called Kobra; he had brainwashed her into becoming the Cheetah! She had responded to his mental manipulation to such an extreme that she had become a homicidal felon with little regard for human life. Her hatred had been focused on Wonder Woman.
Time, therapy and the loss of the original Wonder Woman had calmed Debbie’s rage, and she then sought to use her feline gifts to make amends for her criminal past. She had earned a pardon and gained self-respect and a sense of healing she had never known before. She had been living quietly in Georgetown since departing when Comet resigned from his position over disagreements in method and purpose for the governmental rehab team.
She responded to her friend’s call eagerly. “The Federal Prison is the scene in which the radiation is detected. They’re planning to break someone out. Maybe I can stop them!” she had mused.
Now clad in her Cheetah costume, Debbie prowled toward the high walls of the prison and cleared them in a few agile flips. She easily slipped past security and crawled across the shafts between the buildings until she perched above shadowy figures.
Lady Lunar glowed as she waited with Terra-Man and the Shadow Thief. “We break in and distract the guards while Sands snatches the woman,” she said.
“Exactly. Only I don’t think nobody’s gonna be lookin’ for no living shadow man to begin with!” said Terra-Man.
The Cheetah frowned. So I’m in time. They’ve been waiting for the guards to change shifts; they knew that would be the peak moment to strike. Debbie shook out her auburn hair and considered. Question is, what am I going to do about it?
Part 15
The Cheetah decided to wait and stalk her prey for as long as possible. If Rach and her Force of July get here soon the odds will be even. I hope I can wait that long, she mused.
She watched as Zond materialized and startled his own allies.
“Don’t do that!” snarled the Shadow Thief.
Zond grinned. “You don’t enjoy it when someone else surprises you. You think that living shadow routine of yours makes you so frightful. Bah!”
Lady Lunar said, “Let’s free Nita Wilson and get back to the base; I have plans!”
She flew higher and concentrated, and the effects of her efforts became obvious as the guards began to fight each other furiously. “Moon madness! They are literally luna-tics now!” she laughed.
The Shadow Thief nodded. “Nice. Now, this Nita should be in cell block D, according to Manta.”
Zond said, “Allow me to handle these new arrivals!” He gestured, and the floor melted in front of the new shift of guards who had rushed forward to stop their brawling allies. They gasped and pulled back long enough for Terra-Man to stun them with a series of energy blasts.
He blew on the ends of his guns and grinned, “Missed nary a one!”
Zond said, “The melted floor illusion slowed them down so you could aim. Never forget that!”
Terra-Man replied, “I reckon I’m fast enough fer a city slicker like you!”
Lady Lunar melted through the walls and led them toward a row of cells, where women of various types rushed to their bars and begged for freedom.
The Shadow Thief laughed harshly. “Like a kid in a candy store, eh?”
Terra-Man grinned roguishly. “I like your style, hombre.”
Lady Lunar melted one cell and led out Nita Wilson. She was a bright redhead with a voluptuous form and a keen mind.
“Thanks! I recognize you. Shadow Thief isn’t it? You’re the big time!” she gushed.
He said, “Stick with me, and you’ll go far.”
Nita nodded and ran to join them.
Part 16
The Cheetah had checked on the guards; the ones shot by Terra-Man were just stunned. She used her agility to stun the fighting guards with quick moves, so they could not injury one another further. This won’t look good on those security cams. I hope I don’t end up on the wrong side of these walls! she mused.
She crouched low and snarled as her enemies looked up.
Zond rubbed at his greasy beard. “My, what a pretty kitty!” he said.
“The Cheetah! Aren’t you on the side of the angels now?” asked the Shadow Thief.
Debbie raised her red nails and said in a sultry purr, “No; I got bored. I want to be with a real man like you; it’s where the thrills are!”
The Shadow Thief grinned and said, “Come on; I’ll show you a good time!”
Zond eyed Debbie eagerly. “Perhaps I will.”
She followed them and hoped she had not placed herself in a deadly position. Getting them to take me to their base should be easy. My reputation for crime is greater than my image as a reformed ex-felon. Still, the way they keep eyeing me makes me feel like I’m the main course at some feast! she thought.
Nita said, “You broke my power disrupter!” The Shadow Thief had indeed extended his hand and shattered the restraint.
Lady Lunar had melted a sink in one cell at Nita’s request. Water poured out in a quick stream.
Nita smiled. “Let me teach my former cell mates the error of their ways. I was bullied by these common thugs all during my time here!” She gestured, and bluish sea serpents solidified out of the running water. They attacked the women in the nearest cells while she laughed coldly.
“Naiad — Mistress of Water — never forgets a foe or a friend!” sneered Nita.
They rushed out, and Debbie regretfully watched the snakes frighten the captive women. Can’t help them. It’s more important to join these rogues, she mused.
At that moment the Force of July swooped down along with Abraham Lincoln Carlisle; the wily politician had insisted on joining them. “I was in World War II and Korea. I can fight!” he had vowed. He felt American Dreamer’s death was his fault, and he wanted some type of revenge.
The Shadow Thief scowled. “Those losers again!”
Naiad jumped forward. “Allow me!” She sent a stream of water swirling towards Lady Liberty.
The torch bearer swung her torch upward and blasted it to steam. “Not so easy, no?” she taunted.
Naiad frowned. “I have more where that came from!”
Part 17
Naiad dodged the fire from Lady Liberty’s torch and sent her pretty French foe rolling around the ground in pain. As she thrashed back and forth, Naiad grinned evilly. “I made a swarm of ants out of water. She’s being eaten alive!” she laughed.
“Cold; I like that!” said the Shadow Thief as he swung at Silent Majority.
His foe duplicated himself, and as one they charged Shadow Thief. They all hurled pellets at him, and he gasped as a cloud of smoke enveloped him from all sides. “I knew he had to breathe even as a shadow!” said the taciturn Gabby.
Zond said, “Beware the demons of the abyss!” He made a gesture, and the illusion of several horrid monsters sprang up to block Mayflower’s path.
She screamed and ran back as her tendrils crawled across the floor under the monsters to snake up and crush Zond. The illusion vanished, and Mayflower said, “Not such a Doug Henning now, are ya?”
Sparkler flew toward Lady Lunar and laughed. “Look, legs, my show can keep your glow in check!” He sent a fiery explosion toward Stacy Macklin, who flew forward and gestured.
The roof then crashed down on the boy, and she said, “Gravitational control, you punk!”
Major Victory roared as he pummeled Terra-Man. “If that boy has been hurt, I’ll rip you apart!” he cried.
Part 18
Terra-Man fell as Major Victory pounded away at him with relentless fury. Lady Lunar then concentrated, and the Major stiffened and began to attack his own team. He slammed Silent Majority down, and the duplicates faded away. Meanwhile, Lady Liberty shrieked as Naiad’s assault left her helpless.
The Shadow Thief choked and staggered forward as the Cheetah reluctantly led him away. Got to get back to their base. I wish Rach was thinking clearly; she’d know that was the thing to do, mused the Cheetah.
Mayflower frowned and said, “Cheetah! What do you think you’re doin’?”
The Cheetah knew her idea was sound, so she said, “Stay back, Mayflower! This time I’m on the winning team!”
Rachel drew back. She hoped Deb was just play-acting, but she felt that this was the time to take them down. Why let them escape?
Carlisle fired a rifle at the villains. The pulse weapon fired a white light, and the Shadow Thief stiffened in the Cheetah’s arms. He’s out cold, thought the Cheetah as she kicked the gun out of the old man’s hands.
Major Victory fought to regain his senses as he lifted Sparkler out of the rubble. Zond, meanwhile, helped Terra-Man up as Naiad sent a blue hued bear toward Mayflower. Mayflower fell as the brute swiped her across the arm. Cheetah gasped; she was not going to let them murder her friend no matter what! Carlisle rushed forward, and she spun to claw him down by instinct. She recoiled and let the others gather around Zond.
“Take us back. Use your magic!” screamed Lady Lunar.
“Better yet, I’ll send them to limbo!” he cackled. He gestured at the Force of July, and the Cheetah made a desperate move.
She kicked the staggering Mayflower in the chin and watched her roll away. Then the Cheetah bounded back to her new team.
Zond’s magic flickered, and the other members of the Force of July vanished, leaving a stunned Mayflower still on the ground.
“You’re vicious! You nailed your little friend soundly,” said the Shadow Thief as they also retreated.
The Cheetah purred seductively. “She irks me. I’m not going back to her goody-goody life. Not while you’re around!” she laughed. “Where’d you send them anyway?” she asked.
“Who knows? Wherever my magic took them; I have no idea,” said Zond.
The Cheetah’s mind reeled. Great. I’m on my way to their base, but one wrong move could mean my death. I’ve attacked federal guards and the head of the A.S.A. I must seem like I’ve gone bad again. She remained silent as the Crime Champions returned to Styx.
Black Manta greeted them and frowned. “Cheetah! Why is she here? Surely she was not imprisoned there as well.”
The Cheetah said, “I was being confined there for violating my parole terms. I was still in costume when you attacked; I then broke free and joined your team. If you’ll have me!” she cooed.
“If you earn your keep; you’re on probation. Give her Serum X and prepare for the next stage,” said Black Manta. “Zond, in my office immediately,” he snapped.
***
Meanwhile, Rachel Green woke up and ran a hand through her long brown hair.
“Cor! Debbie had to be playing along with the rotters. Still, she clocked me. Plus, she nearly sliced Abraham open. I hope that looked worse than it was. Where’d Zond send them, anyway? She glanced down at the device Comet had given her, with which she had tracked Lady Lunar. “Broken in the fight. Now what do I do?” she said.
