The Brave and the Bold: Doctor Mid-Nite and the Guardian

Times Past, 1952

Shedding Some Light

by Libbylawrence

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT: Part 1

Garfield Lynns was one happy man. Considering that he was engaged in a duel with the police in front of one of the area’s larger banks while dressed in one of the silliest super-villain outfits of the era, things were going swell.

The Firefly, for such was Garfield’s nom du crime, held his loot in one green gloved hand and fired blasts of machine gun like light bursts from his special belt. The police cowered behind their squad car as the dangerous light bursts exploded around them. No costumed help was in sight. Yes, after suffering at the hands and punches of Batman and Robin during his first outing earlier that year, the Firefly was riding high.

Then Jim Harper showed up.

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT: Part 2

Jim Harper, alias the Guardian, was only visiting this part of the city when the action broke out. As a cop for over a decade now, he was almost attuned to trouble. He walked up to where the battle between the Firefly and the police was raging. Actually, the whole thing was pretty one-sided, since the police were helpless against his high-tech light based weapons. His vertigo ray had two of them on their knees.

Harper took a quick detour and returned in the blue and gold costume of the Guardian. As the official protector of New York’s Suicide Slum, he had been a well known and loved (or feared) mystery-man before he retired in 1947. However, by 1952, few outside of his neighborhood had heard of him, and it had been pure chance that he brought his costume along with him this day.

He charged in behind his gleaming gold shield. The Firefly’s gloating suddenly changed to dismay. “Not another one! Not now!” he cried.

Harper grinned and deflected a laser from his shield. As he closed in on the panic-stricken robber, the Firefly pushed yet another belt button. A huge blinding flash was emitted. The Guardian was blinded, but he kept on charging, and sure enough he soon brought down the screaming Firefly.

At the same time that the felon fell, a cop fired his gun. The shot hit the Firefly in the arm. He yelled again, which allowed the Guardian to deliver a strong right hook, although his eyes were still weak.

The Firefly fell down and held his arm. The pain was great enough to cause him to consider giving up; however, he remembered the taunts from the Riddler, the Gambler, and even Brimstone back in jail. “No!” he shouted, hitting his belt, and the Guardian was struck by three odd light bolts at once. He staggered back, and then passed out.

The delighted Firefly blinded the cops with a strobe and raced down an alley in search of medical help. Maybe the day would turn out OK, after all.

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT: Part 3

Myra Mason gasped as the Firefly burst in the office door of her employer and friend, Dr. Charles McNider, alias Dr. Mid-Nite. The pretty blonde nurse had seen far more than her share of costumed creeps, but she still hesitated. Was this one a good guy or a villain? The weird bug mask and purple and green suit looked rather silly.

He grabbed her and winced from the pain of his gunshot wound. “Fix this, girlie, or I’ll make you sorry!”

Myra pushed away as the other office door swung up to reveal the red and black costume of Dr. Mid-Nite. Myra suspected her amorous prospect Dr. McNider was really the masked JSAer. “Good thing I was visiting Charles,” said Mid-Nite.

Yeah, sure, thought the mousy but pretty Myra as she cried out, “Dr. Mid-Nite!” in the approved shocked manner she had perfected over the years.

“They’re around every corner of this town!” moaned a dejected Firefly.

“Just consider me your porch light!” quipped Dr. Mid-Nite as he passed a now-safely-backed-up Myra. Mid-Nite was smart. Very smart. The first thing he did with his rapidly moving body was to yank off the decorative but deadly light belt around Lynns’ hips. He tossed it behind him, and with an easy left cross he dropped the wilting Firefly to the office floor, where he remained unmoving.

“Didn’t even need this little beauty!” marveled Mid-Nite as he handled an odd device he called the Cryotuber.

At that moment, the hero showed a bit of overconfidence. The Firefly lashed out with a bolt from his left glove.

Dr. Mid-Nite was too quick. He dodged even as Myra ran forward. The bolt missed them both, but shattered the Cryotuber. The device which directly altered a foe’s nervous system shattered. Energy surged through Mid-Nite and a startled Myra as she touched him. Their nervous systems were flooded with powerful cryogenic energy. They collapsed, and Lynns crawled to his feet.

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT: Part 4

Before the Firefly could make his escape, the Guardian found him and ended his crime spree, such as it was, with several fast blows. “Tracked you down, you little pest!” he said.

He saw Dr. Mid-Nite and Myra huddled on the floor. “Oh no! Are you two hurt?” he asked as he bent over their prone bodies. Mid-Nite moaned and sat up slowly. Myra also followed suit soon after. The Guardian exchanged a few pleasantries and carted off the Firefly and his broken belt. Mid-Nite made his exit after assuring himself that Myra was unhurt.

Years after this 1952 event, when Myra and McNider showed few, if any, signs of aging even decades later, he assumed that it was the powerful energy of the Cryotuber on their nervous systems that had given them the same extra years of youth and vitality that his JSA pals had received on the Ian Karkull case that had happened just before he had joined the team.

That mystery solved a puzzle that the others had often wondered about. He had decided after this to abandon the Cryotuber, anyway, since as a doctor he had come to the conclusion that altering a crook’s nervous system was too radical a step for a man of healing. He’d just stick to his ever-faithful blackout bombs, and his capable fists as well.