JSA/SPECTRE: Portal To Evil
By Bruce Wayne
DISCLAIMER: Most of the characters portrayed in this story are copyright by DC Comics, an AOL/Time/Warner company. They are used without permission for entertainment without profit by the author.
Dedicated and written for Melissa.
In the year 1961, very few people knew that Jim Corrigan, hard-fisted detective with the Gateway City Police Department, was, in reality, the earthbound Spectre, whose mission was to rid the world of evil.
The Spectre came into being when Corrigan was murdered by gangsters in New York City. When his soul proceeded to its final resting place, a voice told him that he still had things to do back on Earth. He was returned to the mortal planet -- but as a very changed entity. His body was shared with a ghostly-pale spirit who wore a green cloak.
The spirit frequently emerged from Corrigan's body to combat evil in all its forms. And this is his story ...
It was late one afternoon that Detective Corrigan had stopped by the office of Gateway City Police Chief Robert Fredrickson. Corrigan was going to remind the chief that he was about to leave for a long-delayed vacation. Just as he opened the door to the chief's office, the phone rang on Fredrickson's desk.
Corrigan watched as the chief's face changed colors and expressions in a matter of moments.
The dispatcher on the other end of the phone line was informing Fredrickson, "We have reports of several huge monsters attacking the downtown area of the city!"
Unsure if he had heard correctly, the chief exlaimed, "What?!"
Fredrickson looked up to Corrigan and told him what was being reported.
Wanting to get a look at what may had been happening, Corrigan suggested, "Quick, chief! Let's go to the roof."
The two senior law enforcement officers rushed to the stairs that led to the roof of police headquarters. Quickly ascending the stairs, Corrigan and Fredrickson reached the roof. Cold air touched their skin and the sound of destruction immediately reached their ears.
Quickly moving to the edge of the roof that overlooked the southern portion of the financial district of the West Coast city, the officers saw two incredibly large beings with inhuman features.
Corrigan shouted, "It's true! Look!"
One of the monsters literally pushed over the top floors of brick apartment building.
"Incredible!" shouted Fredrickson.
The monsters appeared to be about sixty feet tall. Their faces -- somewhat resembling a dog with large, fanged teeth -- had a nose similar to that of a pig. They had a large, pointed ears. Along with the normal two eyes, there was a third eye that was located in the middle of their foreheads.
Each being had two long arms with claws. The lower portion of their bodies was covered with huge amounts of hair.
They looked like walking nightmares from hell.
Corrigan watched as another building was easily tipped over by one of the massive beings. He could see that there were other monsters waging destruction in the city in the near distance.
Suddenly, one of the creatures must had spotted the chief and Corrigan on the roof of the headquarters building and quickly approached. As the monster came closer, Fredrickson grabbed hold of a large pipe on the roof of the building.
Unable to quite reach the two men on the roof, the inhuman being began to suck its breath -- trying to pull in Corrigan and Fredrickson in order to grab them.
Holding on to the pipe for dear life, the chief shouted, "It's trying to draw us in!"
"Hold tight," was all Corrigan was able to say as he held his ground against the vacuum-like breath of the monster.
Without holding on to anything, Corrigan could feel himself being slowly pulled closer to the creature. Fredrickson lost sight of his detective. It was at this point that the chief failed to see Jim's figure fade into nothingness.
Fredrickson tried to turn his head in all directions in an attempt to spot Corrigan. He was startled that the detective was apparently gone.
"JIM! JIM! Where are you?" the chief yelled out. "That monster! He must have swallowed Jim!"
Jim Corrigan was indeed gone, but not in the terrible way that Chief Fredrickson had imagined.
Corrigan was now invisible. His presence had been replaced with that of the ghostly avenger known as The Spectre.
From the roof of police headquarters, The Spectre leaped toward the monsters. Though he appeared to be invisible to the naked eye, two of the monsters immediately reacted to the hero's presence. They started to move toward him.
The Spectre thought to himself, "They seem to see me despite my invisibility. Either they have highly developed senses or are not of this material world."
As The Spectre floated in mid-air between the two creatures, green rays were projected from the third eye located in the middle of their foreheads. The rays struck The Spectre and he amazingly became weak and was unable to move.
The green cloaked hero fell to the ground like a lead balloon. Though the fall couldn't harm a being who was already dead, The Spectre was immobile on the street.
He tried to get up but his limbs were very slow to react.
As the Spectre continued to try to move, the sound of massive drum was heard throughout the city. The huge creatures paused at the booming noise and lifted their heads to listen intently as though to a weird command.
Just as mysteriously as they had appeared, the monsters began to move toward the sound of the drum noise. They seemed to be in a trance, oblivious to everything -- and everyone -- that was around them.
As the creatures began marching to where they had to go, The Spectre's strength and power began to return. The Spectre could see the monsters in the distance as they marched down the street.
"If I could only move!" he said to himself in a frustrated tone.
With the departure of the dreaded beasts, the inhabitants of the city began running out into the streets in terror, unaware that they were trampling on the invisible Spectre.
It was several minutes until Gateway City's ghostly avenger felt his power return to normal. As soon as he could, he took off in pursuit the hideous creatures that created havoc in the city.
As he neared the end of the trail that he was following, his tremendous senses that had been enhanced by a higher power could feel that his quarry had entered, "The museum!" The Spectre thought to himself. "They've entered the musuem."
The Spectre was quickly approaching the Art Museum of Gateway City. Somehow, he could sense, the monsters had gone inside.
Wanting to waste no time, The Spectre passed through the wall of the museum like the ghostly phantom that he was.
Inside, an unsuspecting female patron to the museum was more that startled when the frightening sight of The Spectre began to emerge through the wall in front of her.
The woman screamed.
The Spectre attempted to calm the woman. "You've nothing to be frightened of, woman."
But the effort was to no avail as the woman promptly fainted to the floor of the museum.
The walls of the large room were filled with several paintings of various sizes. Looking around, The Spectre saw artwork that had been painted by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Couture, and Camille Corot.
The Spectre could feel that he was on the right track of the monsters but he could not pinpoint exactly what it was that he was feeling. He looked closely at each piece of art in the room.
"I see nothing here but harmless pictures," he thought to himself. "I'd better leave before the woman revives and faints again."
With disappointment, The Spectre reluctantly left the museum, vowing to somehow find out where the monsters had fled to.
***
It was sometime later that the hysterical woman was taken away by an ambulance from the art musuem.
All the while, she was babbling breathlessly, "A ... a horrible man! He had no color. Wore a green cloak ... He ... he walked through the wall!"
The amublance attendant tried to calm her. "Of course, he did, ma'am."
He turned to the driver and said in a low voice, "Hurry up, Roger. She's stark raving mad."
***
At police headquarters, Chief Fredrickson was holding a meeting with his senior staff. They were discussing the situation regarding the mysterious monsters and what to do to stop them.
"These monsters have got to be tracked down -- slaughtered!" the chief told the other three men in the room. "They've killed my best detective, Jim Corrigan! I can't let them do that to me."
The other men looked at one another, unsure of what to do.
Fredrickson got up from behind his large desk and continued to explain what the impact of the situation meant to him. "This a great blow to me. Corrigan was the best detective the force ever had."
Suddenly, from a side office door, the very man the chief was eulogizing walked in. Fredrickson had his back to the door and did not see Detective Jim Corrigan. "Careful, Chief! You'll turn my head with such flattery."
Fredrickson whirled around to face the familiar voice. "You! ALIVE! But how ...?"
Corrigan shook the chief's hand and explained, "When I saw what those monsters were trying to do, I dashed into the street to do something about it."
The chief growled, "And ...?"
"I failed," Corrigan simply admitted.
Now getting over his shock that Corrigan was still alive, Fredrickson's normally brusque demeanor returned. "You stupid numbskull! I want results!"
"Okay!" Corrigan replied in an exasperated voice. "Okay -- I'll try my best."
Jim Corrigan left the chief's office to get to work and finding out more about the horrific creatures that caused havoc in Gateway City.
***
There wasn't very many to clues to work on and the investigation for the next few hours went slow. Later that same evening, Jim Corrigan paused at the door of his girlfriend Clarice Winston's home.
Ringing the doorbell, Corrigan waited for someone to answer the door. It was only a few moments when Clarice's uncle opened the door and faced the detective.
"Is Clarice in ...?" Jim asked.
"No!" said the uncle. "She's not at home."
The man then quickly closed the door in Corrigan's face.
The police detective found the uncle's behavior odd and many thoughts began to run through his mind. "I'm sure I heard Clarice's voice," Corrigan thought to himself. "What is this? Doesn't she want to see me?"
With his suspicions raised, Corrigan walked to a side window to peer in. He hoped he might be able to spot Clarice in the living room of the upscale home.
Corrigan froze in his tracks at the sight he saw through the window. Inside the living room, he saw five people -- one of them Clarice. But what startled him was that two men in the room were armed with guns.
One man, an older man in his 50s, was poking a gun into the back of the uncle who had answered the door.
The apparent intruder said to the uncle, "Good thing that you didn't give us away."
Another armed man was pointing a gun a Clarice Winston's father and demanded, "Are you going to tell me where you keep the Ja-Set Ruby hidden?"
Clarice's father was defiant and said in a level voice, "I'll tell you nothing."
Outside and away from the window, Jim Corrigan secreted himself in a dark, secluded area and snapped his fingers. The Spectre immediately materialized beside him.
"Your turn to take over," Jim said.
The grim ghost replied to his alter ego, "I will with a vengeance!"
Back inside the house, the criminals were beginning to threaten the occupants. One of the villians spotted a fireplace poker and slid it out of its upright holder. He weighed it in his right hand for a moment, making sure he got a good grip on the black metal rod.
In a harsh tone, the criminal said to Clarice's father, "So ya won't talk, eh? You better -- or I'll fix that tongue of yours for good."
The man stood in a protective manner in front of his daughter, who was obviously quite frightened. "You wouldn't!" he replied in a defiant manner.
The other criminal, who was pointing a gun at the father, growled, "Oh, he WOULD ..!"
But as the thug with the fireplace poker approached the elder Winston, the metal rod turned to ... "Ice?!!" he cried out.
Immediately the would-be weapon began to melt into a puddle onto the floor to the astonishment of the home invader.
The thug became enraged, thinking that Winston had somehow switched the poker or something. The man attacked Winston and soon had his hands around his neck, choking Clarice's father into a kneeling position on the floor.
Suddenly, a a large shadow darkened the room. The two criminals' attention now turned to this dark presence.
The choker yelled out to his companion, "Look! It's ... it's ..."
The man armed with the gun said, "I think it's that Spectre guy I've heard about! Oh, those eyes ... those terrible eyes!"
Like an apparition that appeared from nowhere, The Spectre slowly moved toward the two attackers.
The men pointed their guns at the ghostly avenger and opened fire. "Get him! Shoot him full of holes!" one of the men said.
Shot after shot rang out. Each bullet passed through The Spectre harmlessly. The ghostly crimefighter continued approaching the two thugs while saying, "Keep firing. Continue to waste your bullets, evildoers."
Seeing that their bullets were having no effect on The Spectre, one of the criminals suddenly turned toward Clarice and shouted, "Maybe our bullets won't hurt YOU, but that doesn't go for the girl!!"
"DON'T!!" Clarice screamed in horror.
The man pulled the trigger and fired a shot at the girl.
Unworried, The Spectre began to move with lightning speed. "Catching that bullet will be a cinch," the hero said aloud.
But at that very moment -- terror began to stalk the streets of Gateway City once again as the marauding monsters returned to perpetrate their nightmare of destruction.
The creatures began tearing and clawing at more buildings. Citizens in the immediate area started to panic and attempted to escape from the monsters.
The amazing powers of the grim ghost made him instantly aware of the situation that was occuring elsewhere in the city. Thinking to himself, The Spectre tried to decide. "What do I do? Catch that bullet ... or go after those monsters before it's too late?"
A solution to the question came upon The Spectre. With a wave of his hand, everything in the room -- including the streaking bullet -- froze into immobility. Nothing in the room was able to move.
Springing away, the Man of Darkness sprinted at terrific speed to the dramatic scene that was taking place in the central part of Gateway City.
"The monsters!" The Spectre said to himself. "Closing in on the massed police."
What the Grim Ghost saw was four of the huge monsters moving toward a large number of riot police in the middle of the street.
The Spectre observed, "My friends will be wiped out unless ..."
With the immense power at his disposal, The Spectre materialized a protective screen between the police and the oncoming monsters. As two of the creatures bounced off the force field, The Spectre said, "There that ought to hold them."
The monsters couldn't get through the protective barrier and neither could the police. Police officers also began to bounce off the screen.
"We can't get through!" yelled one policeman.
One senior officer rushed to Chief Fredrickson to report what was happening.
"The Spectre's to blame! He cut us off from the monsters!" the senior officer said.
An angry Fredrickson replied, "I knew it! He's in with them."
As The Spectre streaked toward them, the monsters released the rays from their third eyes at the avenger. But this time, The Spectre was ready and he tensed his body for the onslaught of the rays.
The rays hit The Spectre on the chest with little to no effect.
The Spectre said to two of the creatures, "Your rays are glancing off. Now to give you a taste of real opposition."
The Grim Ghost grabbed one of the monsters by a leg and began to twirl him around and around. Suddenly, The Spectre released the unfortunate creature and it whizzed up into the sky off into the depths of space.
The Spectre approached another of the monsters and threw a left-handed punch. As his fist made contact, the creature disintegrated into numerous pieces as though it had been made out of glass.
Terrorized by the unexpected resistance, the final monster turned and fled the area with The Spectre in pursuit.
Thinking to himself, The Man of Darkness remarked, "Now to track him to his lair."
The Spectre chased the monster for several city blocks until it became obvious where the dangerous creature was heading.
"He's entering that same museum," The Spectre said to himself.
The monster broke through the front door of the museum. The dark avenger of Gateway City merely phased through the wall like a ghostly apparition.
Once inside the art museum, The Spectre looked in vain for a sign of his prey. But the monster seemingly disappeared.
"Lost him again," the Grim Ghost remarked to himself.
Now moving slowly, The Spectre started to inspect each of the paintings in the room.
The Man of Darkness thought to himself, "That's odd. A faint haze about this picture. Hmmm. It was drawn centuries ago. By whom? No one knows."
The painting was merely a drawn large cloud in the sky.
Looking intently at the painting for several seconds, The Spectre suddenly came to a realization. "The Clouds!" he said. "I could swear they've rearranged themselves slightly. But ..."
A voice from behind shouted to the dark avenger, "Hey! It's past closing time! You've got to leave!"
The Spectre was being confronted by an unarmed security guard in uniform.
The Grim Ghost turned slowly to face the guard.
"I'm not leaving yet, mortal." he said to the man.
"Oh! A tough baby, eh?" the guard said not knowing who he was facing. "Then I'll have to throw you out!"
The man moved toward The Spectre and when he touched the oddly garbed hero, he received the shock of his life.
"YIII-III! ELECTRICTY!!!" The guard screamed in pain.
"Let that be a lesson to you, mortal," The Spectre said in a deep voice.
The guard dropped to the floor in anguish from the electrical shock. He was still conscious as he watched The Spectre shrink in size and was astonished as the Man of Darkness actually flew into the picture!
The guard got to his knees and put his hands to his head in fright. What he had just witness was even more astonishing than the electrical shock he had received.
"VANISHED!" the man said. "He VANISHED into the PICTURE!"
Within the picture, The Spectre found himself surrounded by stormy clouds. His feet were on hard ground. It was a matter of moments before there was a small break in the fog and the Grim Ghost could see directly ahead.
"The figures of the marching monsters," The Spectre remarked to himself.
About 300 yards ahead of him, the dark avenging crimefighter saw four of the creatures moving toward an unknown destination to the beat of a drum.
As the great booming of a drum increased, The Spectre streaked into the sky ahead of the monsters that he had been following until he found himself suspended above a strange, futuristic, metallic city of monsters ruled by a MAN!
The long-haired and long-bearded man was dressed in the clothes of a sorcerer. His face was evil with fiery eyes. Unbeknownst to The Spectre, this man -- the embodiment of evil -- was the younger version of Mordru, the Merciless.
Born in the 20th century, Mordru was a member of the Council of Wizards on his world. After discovering means of stealing magical power from all members of the council and wresting control of the planet, he made himself master of his world. In the years that followed his spells and spacefleet of agents conquered most of the worlds on the outer perimeter of his world's galaxy. Mordru's ultimate goal was to be ruler of the universe.
Mordru possessed ultimate mystic power. He could control forces great enough to move worlds, blacken suns, even annihilate galaxies. In other words, an evil adversary worthy to challenge The Spectre.
From a balcony, the Man of Darkness, could see the evil sorcerer beginning to address his large army of nightmarish creatures.
In a loud, thunderous voice, Mordru said to the monsters, "Our emissaries have returned from their destructive mission to Earth! They tell of a race of puny, ordinary humans who live in a world of abundance! Of all you do not possess!"
Looking over the crowd of inhuman creatures, Mordru continued his speech: "Do you hear me, my army of worthy souls? Earth is a world possessing all of which you lack! A world of substance -- of reality! A cursed fate decreed that you were supposedly never to be born with other than this nightmarish existance!"
The sorcer raised his hands over his head and his voice grew louder, "I tell you, Earth is now within our reach! But first we must mercilessly crush the humans who populate the world we covet! Then alone will you be able to break the bonds of the twisted imagination of the prehistoric artist who visualized you!"
Mordru then pointed to the crowd, "ON -- On to the destruction of HUMANITY, I say!"
The Spectre had heard enough and decided to make his presence known. The Spectre floated onto the balcony across from the evil Mordru.
"Your mad plan will not be allowed to succeed, evil one," The Man of Darkness announced to Mordru.
With a wave of his hand, the slightly startled Mordru ordered a black cloud of doom to strike at The Spectre, encircling him in its stifling folds.
"Fool!" yelled Mordru. "How can you hope to oppose Black Magic beyond all your understanding?"
Though it looked like The Spectre was only surrounded by a cloud of black smoke. The smoke felt as if it were solid and was tightening its vice-like grip on the ghostly avenger.
The forces inside the smoke were tightening around The Spectre. But then -- suddenly -- a faint golden glow began to penetrate the screening darkness. Mordru looked on in amazement.
With astounding swiftness, the forces of darkness began to shrink to reveal The Spectre surrounded by a protective glow of pure light.
The grim ghost stared at Mordru. "You forget, sorcerer, that good is more powerful than evil. I am a testament to that. Your reign of terror ends now."
Mordru moved swiftly to edge of the balcony and called out to his army of creatures, "Come up! Charge him! Remove this being from my presence!"
Within moments, The Spectre was engulfed by the rush of maddened monsters. He was surrounded as they began to reach for him with their huge claws.
The Spectre never moved. His hands were at his sides and with an intense look of concentration on his face, the monsters melted into a torrent of oily fluid.
"The evil monsters shall perish," The ghostly avenger said to Mordru.
Seeing that The Spectre was a formidable foe, Mordru began to flee toward the portal that led back to Earth in a desperate effort to escape.
As he fled, Mordru thought to himself, "Once I pass the portal, nothing can stop me! The world will be mine."
Knowing that The Spectre was pursuing him, Mordru began to conjure some glowing globes of energy that were intended to confuse the Man of Darkness. Mordru knew that he only needed a few moments to make good of his escape.
Seeing what the evil Mordru was attempting to do, The Spectre shrank himself in size and dived through the glowing balls of energy. The grim ghost knew he had to quickly overtake Mordru before he reached the portal.
In the art museum, the security guard was watching what was happening in the other world through the picture that was hanging on the wall. What he was witnessing was enough to make his hair stand on end once again.
Babbling to himself, the man said while staring at the incredible scene that was being played out before him, "The cloaked guy and some other guy are fighting it out in that picture! I'm going raving mad!"
The Spectre had caught up to Mordru and the two powerful beings were now locked in a wrestling match of good versus evil.
With his hands on the evil sorcerer's shoulders, The Spectre observed, "You're as vaporous as smoke and as slippery as an eel."
"PERISH! BLAST YOU!" Mordru yelled back.
As the rage of Mordru increased, so did his size and strength. The two mighty titans grew to huge proportions in the strange dark world. Mordru had his hands around the neck of The Spectre and intended to choke the life out of the hero.
"You shall cease to exist!" Mordru screamed with anger.
Suddenly the world the two mystical combatants were on began to shake. The world shook because the art museum security guard had taken it upon himself to do something about what was happening. He began to take the picture off the wall.
"The Picture! ... A horrible thing --- I've got to destroy it ---!" The guard said.
Tearing free from the grip of Mordru, The Spectre leapt from the picture portal and back into the human world of Earth.
"YOU?!" the security guard exclaimed.
Before the eyes of the astonished man, The Spectre grew back to his normal size and immediately hit the picture that was still in the man's hands with a blast of energy that set the painting on fire. The security guard dropped the picture in horror and started running from the room.
"Help ... Help!" the man screamed.
With the portal to evil destroyed and Mordru apparently trapped in that world, The Spectre turned his attention back to his other dilemma.
Racing with all speed at his disposal, the dark avenger reminded himself, "There's still the matter of Clarice's life to attend to."
Knowing that his immobilization spell was just about to wear off, the Spectre knew that the bullet that was fired at Clarice was speeding toward its deadly mission.
The shot was heard and Clarice screamed.
Moving like the phantom that he was, The Spectre passed through the wall of the Winston home and saw the dangerous scene before him with a bullet streaking toward the love of Jim Corrigan.
The Spectre was able to control all material things and directed the bullet to retrace its path back through the air, back into the barrel of the gun that was held by the criminal. The gun exploded on the thug's hand.
"Owww! What happened?!" the would-be assailant yelled.
"Look!" his co-hort pointed to The Spectre.
The two criminals began to run from the room.
Clarice called out, "Spectre!"
The Man of Darkness turned to the woman, making sure that she was unharmed. This gave the two criminals precious moments to attempt their escape from the home.
Knowing that he would easily be able to capture to two thugs, The Spectre moved silently through a side door and willed himself to grow nearly forty- feet tall in size.
The dark avenger spotted the two men running down the street away from the Winston home.
With a mighty breath, the Spectre caught his prey. The two men were swept off their feet and began twirling in the air helplessly.
"Help! We're caught in a tornado!" one of men screamed.
The two criminals felt themselves sailing through the air apparently on their way to an unknown destination. The trip ended as they flew into and slid onto the polished floor of a nearby police station.
The officers in the lobby were startled by sudden appearance of the two criminals who were well-known and wanted by the authorities.
One officer remarked, "Well, look what the wind blew in! It's Alan "Fingers" Trainer and George "Redhead" Redmond. We've been looking for you boys!"
Now knowing that the two dangerous criminals were in the hands of the law, The Spectre returned to the Winston home and freed the victims. Without saying a word, Gateway City's Man of Darkness then left through the front door with the Winston's following him.
He zoomed off into the air in the shape of a fiery comet that left the blazing word "FAREWELL" in the sky.
"Look!" Clarice Winston's uncle exclaimed in excitement. "He's written a message in the sky in letters of flame!"
***
It wasn't long before Jim Corrigan returned to police headquarters and the office of Chief Fredrickson. Fredrickson hung up the telephone just as Corrigan entered the room.
"So here you are, Corrigan!" the chief yelled. "Get going!! Some excitement at the art museum. It's rumored The Spectre is involved!"
Corrigan smiled and quickly turned around to leave. He said over his shoulder to Fredrickson, "Yeah! What I wouldn't give to meet this Spectre face to face!"
-- Finis --
By Bruce Wayne
DISCLAIMER: Most of the characters portrayed in this story are copyright by DC Comics, an AOL/Time/Warner company. They are used without permission for entertainment without profit by the author.
Dedicated and written for Melissa.
In the year 1961, very few people knew that Jim Corrigan, hard-fisted detective with the Gateway City Police Department, was, in reality, the earthbound Spectre, whose mission was to rid the world of evil.
The Spectre came into being when Corrigan was murdered by gangsters in New York City. When his soul proceeded to its final resting place, a voice told him that he still had things to do back on Earth. He was returned to the mortal planet -- but as a very changed entity. His body was shared with a ghostly-pale spirit who wore a green cloak.
The spirit frequently emerged from Corrigan's body to combat evil in all its forms. And this is his story ...
It was late one afternoon that Detective Corrigan had stopped by the office of Gateway City Police Chief Robert Fredrickson. Corrigan was going to remind the chief that he was about to leave for a long-delayed vacation. Just as he opened the door to the chief's office, the phone rang on Fredrickson's desk.
Corrigan watched as the chief's face changed colors and expressions in a matter of moments.
The dispatcher on the other end of the phone line was informing Fredrickson, "We have reports of several huge monsters attacking the downtown area of the city!"
Unsure if he had heard correctly, the chief exlaimed, "What?!"
Fredrickson looked up to Corrigan and told him what was being reported.
Wanting to get a look at what may had been happening, Corrigan suggested, "Quick, chief! Let's go to the roof."
The two senior law enforcement officers rushed to the stairs that led to the roof of police headquarters. Quickly ascending the stairs, Corrigan and Fredrickson reached the roof. Cold air touched their skin and the sound of destruction immediately reached their ears.
Quickly moving to the edge of the roof that overlooked the southern portion of the financial district of the West Coast city, the officers saw two incredibly large beings with inhuman features.
Corrigan shouted, "It's true! Look!"
One of the monsters literally pushed over the top floors of brick apartment building.
"Incredible!" shouted Fredrickson.
The monsters appeared to be about sixty feet tall. Their faces -- somewhat resembling a dog with large, fanged teeth -- had a nose similar to that of a pig. They had a large, pointed ears. Along with the normal two eyes, there was a third eye that was located in the middle of their foreheads.
Each being had two long arms with claws. The lower portion of their bodies was covered with huge amounts of hair.
They looked like walking nightmares from hell.
Corrigan watched as another building was easily tipped over by one of the massive beings. He could see that there were other monsters waging destruction in the city in the near distance.
Suddenly, one of the creatures must had spotted the chief and Corrigan on the roof of the headquarters building and quickly approached. As the monster came closer, Fredrickson grabbed hold of a large pipe on the roof of the building.
Unable to quite reach the two men on the roof, the inhuman being began to suck its breath -- trying to pull in Corrigan and Fredrickson in order to grab them.
Holding on to the pipe for dear life, the chief shouted, "It's trying to draw us in!"
"Hold tight," was all Corrigan was able to say as he held his ground against the vacuum-like breath of the monster.
Without holding on to anything, Corrigan could feel himself being slowly pulled closer to the creature. Fredrickson lost sight of his detective. It was at this point that the chief failed to see Jim's figure fade into nothingness.
Fredrickson tried to turn his head in all directions in an attempt to spot Corrigan. He was startled that the detective was apparently gone.
"JIM! JIM! Where are you?" the chief yelled out. "That monster! He must have swallowed Jim!"
Jim Corrigan was indeed gone, but not in the terrible way that Chief Fredrickson had imagined.
Corrigan was now invisible. His presence had been replaced with that of the ghostly avenger known as The Spectre.
From the roof of police headquarters, The Spectre leaped toward the monsters. Though he appeared to be invisible to the naked eye, two of the monsters immediately reacted to the hero's presence. They started to move toward him.
The Spectre thought to himself, "They seem to see me despite my invisibility. Either they have highly developed senses or are not of this material world."
As The Spectre floated in mid-air between the two creatures, green rays were projected from the third eye located in the middle of their foreheads. The rays struck The Spectre and he amazingly became weak and was unable to move.
The green cloaked hero fell to the ground like a lead balloon. Though the fall couldn't harm a being who was already dead, The Spectre was immobile on the street.
He tried to get up but his limbs were very slow to react.
As the Spectre continued to try to move, the sound of massive drum was heard throughout the city. The huge creatures paused at the booming noise and lifted their heads to listen intently as though to a weird command.
Just as mysteriously as they had appeared, the monsters began to move toward the sound of the drum noise. They seemed to be in a trance, oblivious to everything -- and everyone -- that was around them.
As the creatures began marching to where they had to go, The Spectre's strength and power began to return. The Spectre could see the monsters in the distance as they marched down the street.
"If I could only move!" he said to himself in a frustrated tone.
With the departure of the dreaded beasts, the inhabitants of the city began running out into the streets in terror, unaware that they were trampling on the invisible Spectre.
It was several minutes until Gateway City's ghostly avenger felt his power return to normal. As soon as he could, he took off in pursuit the hideous creatures that created havoc in the city.
As he neared the end of the trail that he was following, his tremendous senses that had been enhanced by a higher power could feel that his quarry had entered, "The museum!" The Spectre thought to himself. "They've entered the musuem."
The Spectre was quickly approaching the Art Museum of Gateway City. Somehow, he could sense, the monsters had gone inside.
Wanting to waste no time, The Spectre passed through the wall of the museum like the ghostly phantom that he was.
Inside, an unsuspecting female patron to the museum was more that startled when the frightening sight of The Spectre began to emerge through the wall in front of her.
The woman screamed.
The Spectre attempted to calm the woman. "You've nothing to be frightened of, woman."
But the effort was to no avail as the woman promptly fainted to the floor of the museum.
The walls of the large room were filled with several paintings of various sizes. Looking around, The Spectre saw artwork that had been painted by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Couture, and Camille Corot.
The Spectre could feel that he was on the right track of the monsters but he could not pinpoint exactly what it was that he was feeling. He looked closely at each piece of art in the room.
"I see nothing here but harmless pictures," he thought to himself. "I'd better leave before the woman revives and faints again."
With disappointment, The Spectre reluctantly left the museum, vowing to somehow find out where the monsters had fled to.
***
It was sometime later that the hysterical woman was taken away by an ambulance from the art musuem.
All the while, she was babbling breathlessly, "A ... a horrible man! He had no color. Wore a green cloak ... He ... he walked through the wall!"
The amublance attendant tried to calm her. "Of course, he did, ma'am."
He turned to the driver and said in a low voice, "Hurry up, Roger. She's stark raving mad."
***
At police headquarters, Chief Fredrickson was holding a meeting with his senior staff. They were discussing the situation regarding the mysterious monsters and what to do to stop them.
"These monsters have got to be tracked down -- slaughtered!" the chief told the other three men in the room. "They've killed my best detective, Jim Corrigan! I can't let them do that to me."
The other men looked at one another, unsure of what to do.
Fredrickson got up from behind his large desk and continued to explain what the impact of the situation meant to him. "This a great blow to me. Corrigan was the best detective the force ever had."
Suddenly, from a side office door, the very man the chief was eulogizing walked in. Fredrickson had his back to the door and did not see Detective Jim Corrigan. "Careful, Chief! You'll turn my head with such flattery."
Fredrickson whirled around to face the familiar voice. "You! ALIVE! But how ...?"
Corrigan shook the chief's hand and explained, "When I saw what those monsters were trying to do, I dashed into the street to do something about it."
The chief growled, "And ...?"
"I failed," Corrigan simply admitted.
Now getting over his shock that Corrigan was still alive, Fredrickson's normally brusque demeanor returned. "You stupid numbskull! I want results!"
"Okay!" Corrigan replied in an exasperated voice. "Okay -- I'll try my best."
Jim Corrigan left the chief's office to get to work and finding out more about the horrific creatures that caused havoc in Gateway City.
***
There wasn't very many to clues to work on and the investigation for the next few hours went slow. Later that same evening, Jim Corrigan paused at the door of his girlfriend Clarice Winston's home.
Ringing the doorbell, Corrigan waited for someone to answer the door. It was only a few moments when Clarice's uncle opened the door and faced the detective.
"Is Clarice in ...?" Jim asked.
"No!" said the uncle. "She's not at home."
The man then quickly closed the door in Corrigan's face.
The police detective found the uncle's behavior odd and many thoughts began to run through his mind. "I'm sure I heard Clarice's voice," Corrigan thought to himself. "What is this? Doesn't she want to see me?"
With his suspicions raised, Corrigan walked to a side window to peer in. He hoped he might be able to spot Clarice in the living room of the upscale home.
Corrigan froze in his tracks at the sight he saw through the window. Inside the living room, he saw five people -- one of them Clarice. But what startled him was that two men in the room were armed with guns.
One man, an older man in his 50s, was poking a gun into the back of the uncle who had answered the door.
The apparent intruder said to the uncle, "Good thing that you didn't give us away."
Another armed man was pointing a gun a Clarice Winston's father and demanded, "Are you going to tell me where you keep the Ja-Set Ruby hidden?"
Clarice's father was defiant and said in a level voice, "I'll tell you nothing."
Outside and away from the window, Jim Corrigan secreted himself in a dark, secluded area and snapped his fingers. The Spectre immediately materialized beside him.
"Your turn to take over," Jim said.
The grim ghost replied to his alter ego, "I will with a vengeance!"
Back inside the house, the criminals were beginning to threaten the occupants. One of the villians spotted a fireplace poker and slid it out of its upright holder. He weighed it in his right hand for a moment, making sure he got a good grip on the black metal rod.
In a harsh tone, the criminal said to Clarice's father, "So ya won't talk, eh? You better -- or I'll fix that tongue of yours for good."
The man stood in a protective manner in front of his daughter, who was obviously quite frightened. "You wouldn't!" he replied in a defiant manner.
The other criminal, who was pointing a gun at the father, growled, "Oh, he WOULD ..!"
But as the thug with the fireplace poker approached the elder Winston, the metal rod turned to ... "Ice?!!" he cried out.
Immediately the would-be weapon began to melt into a puddle onto the floor to the astonishment of the home invader.
The thug became enraged, thinking that Winston had somehow switched the poker or something. The man attacked Winston and soon had his hands around his neck, choking Clarice's father into a kneeling position on the floor.
Suddenly, a a large shadow darkened the room. The two criminals' attention now turned to this dark presence.
The choker yelled out to his companion, "Look! It's ... it's ..."
The man armed with the gun said, "I think it's that Spectre guy I've heard about! Oh, those eyes ... those terrible eyes!"
Like an apparition that appeared from nowhere, The Spectre slowly moved toward the two attackers.
The men pointed their guns at the ghostly avenger and opened fire. "Get him! Shoot him full of holes!" one of the men said.
Shot after shot rang out. Each bullet passed through The Spectre harmlessly. The ghostly crimefighter continued approaching the two thugs while saying, "Keep firing. Continue to waste your bullets, evildoers."
Seeing that their bullets were having no effect on The Spectre, one of the criminals suddenly turned toward Clarice and shouted, "Maybe our bullets won't hurt YOU, but that doesn't go for the girl!!"
"DON'T!!" Clarice screamed in horror.
The man pulled the trigger and fired a shot at the girl.
Unworried, The Spectre began to move with lightning speed. "Catching that bullet will be a cinch," the hero said aloud.
But at that very moment -- terror began to stalk the streets of Gateway City once again as the marauding monsters returned to perpetrate their nightmare of destruction.
The creatures began tearing and clawing at more buildings. Citizens in the immediate area started to panic and attempted to escape from the monsters.
The amazing powers of the grim ghost made him instantly aware of the situation that was occuring elsewhere in the city. Thinking to himself, The Spectre tried to decide. "What do I do? Catch that bullet ... or go after those monsters before it's too late?"
A solution to the question came upon The Spectre. With a wave of his hand, everything in the room -- including the streaking bullet -- froze into immobility. Nothing in the room was able to move.
Springing away, the Man of Darkness sprinted at terrific speed to the dramatic scene that was taking place in the central part of Gateway City.
"The monsters!" The Spectre said to himself. "Closing in on the massed police."
What the Grim Ghost saw was four of the huge monsters moving toward a large number of riot police in the middle of the street.
The Spectre observed, "My friends will be wiped out unless ..."
With the immense power at his disposal, The Spectre materialized a protective screen between the police and the oncoming monsters. As two of the creatures bounced off the force field, The Spectre said, "There that ought to hold them."
The monsters couldn't get through the protective barrier and neither could the police. Police officers also began to bounce off the screen.
"We can't get through!" yelled one policeman.
One senior officer rushed to Chief Fredrickson to report what was happening.
"The Spectre's to blame! He cut us off from the monsters!" the senior officer said.
An angry Fredrickson replied, "I knew it! He's in with them."
As The Spectre streaked toward them, the monsters released the rays from their third eyes at the avenger. But this time, The Spectre was ready and he tensed his body for the onslaught of the rays.
The rays hit The Spectre on the chest with little to no effect.
The Spectre said to two of the creatures, "Your rays are glancing off. Now to give you a taste of real opposition."
The Grim Ghost grabbed one of the monsters by a leg and began to twirl him around and around. Suddenly, The Spectre released the unfortunate creature and it whizzed up into the sky off into the depths of space.
The Spectre approached another of the monsters and threw a left-handed punch. As his fist made contact, the creature disintegrated into numerous pieces as though it had been made out of glass.
Terrorized by the unexpected resistance, the final monster turned and fled the area with The Spectre in pursuit.
Thinking to himself, The Man of Darkness remarked, "Now to track him to his lair."
The Spectre chased the monster for several city blocks until it became obvious where the dangerous creature was heading.
"He's entering that same museum," The Spectre said to himself.
The monster broke through the front door of the museum. The dark avenger of Gateway City merely phased through the wall like a ghostly apparition.
Once inside the art museum, The Spectre looked in vain for a sign of his prey. But the monster seemingly disappeared.
"Lost him again," the Grim Ghost remarked to himself.
Now moving slowly, The Spectre started to inspect each of the paintings in the room.
The Man of Darkness thought to himself, "That's odd. A faint haze about this picture. Hmmm. It was drawn centuries ago. By whom? No one knows."
The painting was merely a drawn large cloud in the sky.
Looking intently at the painting for several seconds, The Spectre suddenly came to a realization. "The Clouds!" he said. "I could swear they've rearranged themselves slightly. But ..."
A voice from behind shouted to the dark avenger, "Hey! It's past closing time! You've got to leave!"
The Spectre was being confronted by an unarmed security guard in uniform.
The Grim Ghost turned slowly to face the guard.
"I'm not leaving yet, mortal." he said to the man.
"Oh! A tough baby, eh?" the guard said not knowing who he was facing. "Then I'll have to throw you out!"
The man moved toward The Spectre and when he touched the oddly garbed hero, he received the shock of his life.
"YIII-III! ELECTRICTY!!!" The guard screamed in pain.
"Let that be a lesson to you, mortal," The Spectre said in a deep voice.
The guard dropped to the floor in anguish from the electrical shock. He was still conscious as he watched The Spectre shrink in size and was astonished as the Man of Darkness actually flew into the picture!
The guard got to his knees and put his hands to his head in fright. What he had just witness was even more astonishing than the electrical shock he had received.
"VANISHED!" the man said. "He VANISHED into the PICTURE!"
Within the picture, The Spectre found himself surrounded by stormy clouds. His feet were on hard ground. It was a matter of moments before there was a small break in the fog and the Grim Ghost could see directly ahead.
"The figures of the marching monsters," The Spectre remarked to himself.
About 300 yards ahead of him, the dark avenging crimefighter saw four of the creatures moving toward an unknown destination to the beat of a drum.
As the great booming of a drum increased, The Spectre streaked into the sky ahead of the monsters that he had been following until he found himself suspended above a strange, futuristic, metallic city of monsters ruled by a MAN!
The long-haired and long-bearded man was dressed in the clothes of a sorcerer. His face was evil with fiery eyes. Unbeknownst to The Spectre, this man -- the embodiment of evil -- was the younger version of Mordru, the Merciless.
Born in the 20th century, Mordru was a member of the Council of Wizards on his world. After discovering means of stealing magical power from all members of the council and wresting control of the planet, he made himself master of his world. In the years that followed his spells and spacefleet of agents conquered most of the worlds on the outer perimeter of his world's galaxy. Mordru's ultimate goal was to be ruler of the universe.
Mordru possessed ultimate mystic power. He could control forces great enough to move worlds, blacken suns, even annihilate galaxies. In other words, an evil adversary worthy to challenge The Spectre.
From a balcony, the Man of Darkness, could see the evil sorcerer beginning to address his large army of nightmarish creatures.
In a loud, thunderous voice, Mordru said to the monsters, "Our emissaries have returned from their destructive mission to Earth! They tell of a race of puny, ordinary humans who live in a world of abundance! Of all you do not possess!"
Looking over the crowd of inhuman creatures, Mordru continued his speech: "Do you hear me, my army of worthy souls? Earth is a world possessing all of which you lack! A world of substance -- of reality! A cursed fate decreed that you were supposedly never to be born with other than this nightmarish existance!"
The sorcer raised his hands over his head and his voice grew louder, "I tell you, Earth is now within our reach! But first we must mercilessly crush the humans who populate the world we covet! Then alone will you be able to break the bonds of the twisted imagination of the prehistoric artist who visualized you!"
Mordru then pointed to the crowd, "ON -- On to the destruction of HUMANITY, I say!"
The Spectre had heard enough and decided to make his presence known. The Spectre floated onto the balcony across from the evil Mordru.
"Your mad plan will not be allowed to succeed, evil one," The Man of Darkness announced to Mordru.
With a wave of his hand, the slightly startled Mordru ordered a black cloud of doom to strike at The Spectre, encircling him in its stifling folds.
"Fool!" yelled Mordru. "How can you hope to oppose Black Magic beyond all your understanding?"
Though it looked like The Spectre was only surrounded by a cloud of black smoke. The smoke felt as if it were solid and was tightening its vice-like grip on the ghostly avenger.
The forces inside the smoke were tightening around The Spectre. But then -- suddenly -- a faint golden glow began to penetrate the screening darkness. Mordru looked on in amazement.
With astounding swiftness, the forces of darkness began to shrink to reveal The Spectre surrounded by a protective glow of pure light.
The grim ghost stared at Mordru. "You forget, sorcerer, that good is more powerful than evil. I am a testament to that. Your reign of terror ends now."
Mordru moved swiftly to edge of the balcony and called out to his army of creatures, "Come up! Charge him! Remove this being from my presence!"
Within moments, The Spectre was engulfed by the rush of maddened monsters. He was surrounded as they began to reach for him with their huge claws.
The Spectre never moved. His hands were at his sides and with an intense look of concentration on his face, the monsters melted into a torrent of oily fluid.
"The evil monsters shall perish," The ghostly avenger said to Mordru.
Seeing that The Spectre was a formidable foe, Mordru began to flee toward the portal that led back to Earth in a desperate effort to escape.
As he fled, Mordru thought to himself, "Once I pass the portal, nothing can stop me! The world will be mine."
Knowing that The Spectre was pursuing him, Mordru began to conjure some glowing globes of energy that were intended to confuse the Man of Darkness. Mordru knew that he only needed a few moments to make good of his escape.
Seeing what the evil Mordru was attempting to do, The Spectre shrank himself in size and dived through the glowing balls of energy. The grim ghost knew he had to quickly overtake Mordru before he reached the portal.
In the art museum, the security guard was watching what was happening in the other world through the picture that was hanging on the wall. What he was witnessing was enough to make his hair stand on end once again.
Babbling to himself, the man said while staring at the incredible scene that was being played out before him, "The cloaked guy and some other guy are fighting it out in that picture! I'm going raving mad!"
The Spectre had caught up to Mordru and the two powerful beings were now locked in a wrestling match of good versus evil.
With his hands on the evil sorcerer's shoulders, The Spectre observed, "You're as vaporous as smoke and as slippery as an eel."
"PERISH! BLAST YOU!" Mordru yelled back.
As the rage of Mordru increased, so did his size and strength. The two mighty titans grew to huge proportions in the strange dark world. Mordru had his hands around the neck of The Spectre and intended to choke the life out of the hero.
"You shall cease to exist!" Mordru screamed with anger.
Suddenly the world the two mystical combatants were on began to shake. The world shook because the art museum security guard had taken it upon himself to do something about what was happening. He began to take the picture off the wall.
"The Picture! ... A horrible thing --- I've got to destroy it ---!" The guard said.
Tearing free from the grip of Mordru, The Spectre leapt from the picture portal and back into the human world of Earth.
"YOU?!" the security guard exclaimed.
Before the eyes of the astonished man, The Spectre grew back to his normal size and immediately hit the picture that was still in the man's hands with a blast of energy that set the painting on fire. The security guard dropped the picture in horror and started running from the room.
"Help ... Help!" the man screamed.
With the portal to evil destroyed and Mordru apparently trapped in that world, The Spectre turned his attention back to his other dilemma.
Racing with all speed at his disposal, the dark avenger reminded himself, "There's still the matter of Clarice's life to attend to."
Knowing that his immobilization spell was just about to wear off, the Spectre knew that the bullet that was fired at Clarice was speeding toward its deadly mission.
The shot was heard and Clarice screamed.
Moving like the phantom that he was, The Spectre passed through the wall of the Winston home and saw the dangerous scene before him with a bullet streaking toward the love of Jim Corrigan.
The Spectre was able to control all material things and directed the bullet to retrace its path back through the air, back into the barrel of the gun that was held by the criminal. The gun exploded on the thug's hand.
"Owww! What happened?!" the would-be assailant yelled.
"Look!" his co-hort pointed to The Spectre.
The two criminals began to run from the room.
Clarice called out, "Spectre!"
The Man of Darkness turned to the woman, making sure that she was unharmed. This gave the two criminals precious moments to attempt their escape from the home.
Knowing that he would easily be able to capture to two thugs, The Spectre moved silently through a side door and willed himself to grow nearly forty- feet tall in size.
The dark avenger spotted the two men running down the street away from the Winston home.
With a mighty breath, the Spectre caught his prey. The two men were swept off their feet and began twirling in the air helplessly.
"Help! We're caught in a tornado!" one of men screamed.
The two criminals felt themselves sailing through the air apparently on their way to an unknown destination. The trip ended as they flew into and slid onto the polished floor of a nearby police station.
The officers in the lobby were startled by sudden appearance of the two criminals who were well-known and wanted by the authorities.
One officer remarked, "Well, look what the wind blew in! It's Alan "Fingers" Trainer and George "Redhead" Redmond. We've been looking for you boys!"
Now knowing that the two dangerous criminals were in the hands of the law, The Spectre returned to the Winston home and freed the victims. Without saying a word, Gateway City's Man of Darkness then left through the front door with the Winston's following him.
He zoomed off into the air in the shape of a fiery comet that left the blazing word "FAREWELL" in the sky.
"Look!" Clarice Winston's uncle exclaimed in excitement. "He's written a message in the sky in letters of flame!"
***
It wasn't long before Jim Corrigan returned to police headquarters and the office of Chief Fredrickson. Fredrickson hung up the telephone just as Corrigan entered the room.
"So here you are, Corrigan!" the chief yelled. "Get going!! Some excitement at the art museum. It's rumored The Spectre is involved!"
Corrigan smiled and quickly turned around to leave. He said over his shoulder to Fredrickson, "Yeah! What I wouldn't give to meet this Spectre face to face!"
-- Finis --