LSH: The Battle For The Universe
By Bruce Wayne
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of
it.
CHAPTER 6 - MOUNTAINTOP BATTLE
Re-entry came now as they slammed into the Earth's atmosphere.
The bottom of the LSH Mark III spacecraft began to glow cherry-red.
But the molybdenum-tantalum alloy skin of the ship could withstand any
air-friction temperature as they moved downward toward the towering
white-capped Himalayas. When aerodynamic control came back, at
mere supersonic speed, Sun Boy skillfully maneuvered the spacecraft
through cloud banks and mists in the mountain system to keep hidden
from watching eyes on Mount Everest.
A burst of rocket power and the ship righted itself vertically and
it continued to drop toward the surface, much as the very first moon-
lander fell to the surface of the moon almost a thousand years before.
The ship landed gently just below the rim of Everest's peak.
"Parka's, anyone?" asked Ferro Lad, pointing to the fur suits
stashed in ceiling receptacles. "It's cold outside, well below zero."
"I expect enough action," said Invisible Kid grimly, "to be plenty
warm." The others nodded.
"I have a miniature heater in my belt," explained Brainy.
"Sun Boy and Ferro Lad will stay here as planned," said Lyle
after they stepped out. "The other four of us will approach from four
directions. Okay, let's go."
With an unvoiced exchange of glances that said "Good luck,"
Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5 and Shrinking Violet spread out
a hundred yards apart and slowly advanced up toward the ramparts of
the peak. They all shivered in the icy winds, but as Leginnaires the teen-
agers were inured to hardships and discomforts that would incapcitate
other people.
Cautiously, they looked over the final ridge. The mighty magnet
machine came into sight first, towering high and surrounded by its eerie
nuclear-like glow. Then, as their sight came to eye level, they saw Tazz ...
facing them with a mocking smile as he swung his gaze to each of them.
He greeted them sneeringly, "Did you really think that you could
sneak up on me unawares? My ultramonitor saw your craft approach and
land. I presume you have come to play the same game the Masked One
did. The game of Save the Earth, which you will lose."
He waved at his monstrous machine.
"You won't wreck my ultramagnet, which is pulling the giant comet
into its proper collision course with Earth even as we speak."
Even from yards away, they could see his frosty eyes flash
defiantly.
"Four against one, but I can easily hold you off. Your science
pitted against mine is like an atom pitted against a star."
"We'll see about that," said Invisible Kid, gratingly, and then he
raised his voice to shout, "Get him!"
Colossal Boy had already assumed a giant height of 25 feet, and
he ran forward to pick up a huge boulder weighing at least a ton. Mighty
muscles propelled it straight at Tazz, who turned to face the oncoming
juggernaut without flinching.
Incredibly, striking the force-field aura in front of him, the hard
stone shattered into countless pieces.
"Yes, we know you're shielded from the front," came Lyle's voice
behind him. "But Colossal Boy's move was only to make you face that
way, while I --"
Having raced across the wind-swept rock as quick as he could,
Invisible Kid was already within reach. In one head-long plunge, he hurled
his body straight at Tazz's back, ready to send him off his feet with a knock-
out blow.
Klang!
Though Tazz had not turned, Invisible Kid met an invisible shield
and bounded back, nearly knocking out Lyle himself.
Slowly turning, Tazz said softly, "After the Green One taught me
that I was vulnerable from the rear, naturally I fixed up my force-field to
curve all around me. I am now invulnerable from all sides."
His hand went to his belt. "Now, let us see if you can survive my
repertory of weapon rays."
Lurid beams sprang forth -- purple, red, green, blue -- each
carrying a different form of destruction. But Tazz's attention had been
riveted on the Legion leader. He didn't see Brainiac 5 approach and
activate his force-field belt. Brainy had adjusted the protection-field
to extend toward Lyle as well. The Legion master mind's invention
deflected all of Tazz's rays. Lyle turned invisible and flew into the air
with the assistance of his Legion flight ring.
Tazz was, in his way, astonished when Invisible Kid
disappeared in front of his very eyes. "What manner of being is that?"
said Tazz, startled.
Lyle knew that his turning invisible would distract Tazz. Out of
the corner of his eye, he had seen Colossal Boy lumbering toward the
giant magnet. He had distracted Tazz from turning and noticing.
Reaching the machine, Colossal Boy put his great arms around
one of the steel-truss support legs and heaved mightily. Could he topple
the gigantic contraption? Metal groaned as Gim grunted, straining every
massive muscle.
Tazz heard, and whirled. "Colossal Fool!" shouted Tazz, "My
dis-beam will turn you into a puff of nothingless."
He touched a button on his belt and ray sprang forth,
disintergrating rock close to Colossal Boy.
"My next shot," Tazz warned, "will get you ... Yeow!"
The last was a pained yell as something jabbed into his eye before
he pressed the dis-beam button. Something tiny flew before his face,
buzzing angrily.
"Some Earthly insect," he muttered. Then his eyes opened wide.
"But it seems to have human form!" he gasped.
"Meet Shrinking Violet,"shrilled a thin voice. "A member of the
Legion of Super-Heroes. I have the ability, as you can see, of shrinking
to insect size."
"But my force-field," said Tazz in a puzzled tone. "How did you
get past it?"
"Simple," buzzed the tiny girl. "I suspected that it's only a half-
shell, stretching down to the ground. But where the ground is uneven,
there are small crevices under the edge of the shield. I slipped through
one."
She had been hovering before his face. Now she swooped down,
calling back, "I stopped you from shooting your dis-beam at Big Gim.
And now to keep you too busy to oppose the other Legionnaires ..."
A series of howls came from the alien, and he began doing a
wild dance as Violet struck him again and again in vital spots on his
body, especially to the eyes.
Seeing this, Invisible Kid reappeared and yelled: Dirk! Ferro!
Violet is entertaining Tazz. This is our chance to wreck his ultramagnet.
Come on."
Sun Boy and Ferro Lad came charging, grinning at the cavorting
figure of Tazz, trapped with the tiny girl jabbing him inside his own
protective energy shell. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 joined them, and
they raced up to where Colossal Boy was still heaving away but unable
to overturn the huge machine.
"Tazz has only a flat shield above it," said Brainiac 5, pointing to
where another meteor, drawn down by the magnet, banged off the force-
field there. "He has no complete shell around it, as with himself. That
means we can wreck the unshielded machine from down here."
Ferro Lad with his power on, which gave him super-strength,
went to another one of the steel-truss support legs opposite of Gim and
began heaving as well.
Sun Boy started doing his part when he joyfully said, "Watch what
a heat blast can do." He held out his arms in front of him and a fiery ray of
super-charged heat was released from his hands and struck directly into
the heart of the machine. The supermagnet exploded violently, shattering
wires and causing short-circuit sparks.
Unable to help directly in the destruction, Brainiac 5 pointed out
key sections of the machine for Sun Boy to aim for.
"Keep heaving, guys," Invisible Kid called out to Ferro Lad and
Colossal Boy. "The whole structure is weakening fast."
With one last Herculean effort, the teen-mountain lifted one
support leg clear of the ground. Then Ferro Lad did the same with
the one he was working on. Then, as Sun Boy burned through a
connecting cable, Colossal Boy yanked the entire leg away.
"Timber!" yelled Invisible Kid, and they all scurried back, as
the towering machine began to sway and slowly topple. It crashed full
length with a resounding thud that shook the whole mountain. Electric
discharges flashed through the wreckage.
"I guess our little party is over," sang out Violet, flying down
under the edge of Tazz's force-shell. "Thanks for the dance," she giggled.
Rejoining the other Legionnaires, she said, "Good work, boys. No more
supermagnetic force is pulling that giant comet toward Earth."
"No, but it doesn't matter ... now," snarled Tazz, approaching and
rubbing the bumps Shrinking Violet had raised on his face. "I neglected to
inform you that my ultramagnet needed only ten more minutes of operation
since you arrived, to pull the comet into an unalterable collision course
with Earth, at top speed."
He grinned devilishy. "And our battle took eleven minutes before
you wrecked it. In other words, Legionnaires, you failed to stop the
approaching Earth doom."
The Legionnaires looked at each other, dismayed. Tazz had held
the trump card after all.
But just why are you here to destroy Earth?" queried Invisible Kid.
"Yes," said Ferro Lad. "You boasted to me that you were Tazz, the
Invader, and spoke of many worlds that fell to you. Why are you switching
from invading to destruction of Earth?"
"You may as well hear my story, since you can't stop me anyway,"
answered Tazz, his frosty eyes mocking them. I am from your future, some
one thousand years from now. Call it your 40th century. My home world,
in that future time, was in the solar system of the star you call Vega. First,
as a mastermind of warfare, I conquered my own planet and people. Then,
building a space warfleet, I swept out and took over all of our solar system.
But even that did not satisfy me."
He waved an arm dramatically, as if to include the universe.
"I organized an inter-galactic fleet of warships and drove out among
the nearby stars. World after world fell before me and became part of my
grand cosmic empire. At each planet it was ... how you say? Ah, veni, vidi,
vici."
"I came, I saw, I conquered," murmured Brainiac 5 for the benefit
of the others.
"Correct, Green One," Tazz said. He continued his story, "In time,
spreading out from my corner of the Milky Way, I ruled half the galaxy --
a total of ten thousand inhabited worlds."
"Ten thousand worlds?" murmured Invisible Kid in awe. It was on
a scale so vast the human mind could hardly comprehend it.
"I was still young," replied Tazz, "and my ambition was no less than
conquest of the entire galaxy with its twenty thousand inhabited planets --
but something blocked my plans."
"Aha! spoke up Sun Boy. "Let me guess, you ran into a world
tougher than yours, with a warfleet you couldn't defeat, eh?"
"Yes!" spat out Tazz, his face darkening. "This other world had
a technology superior to my own. They had superscience weapons that
decimated my fleet, crushed my power, and smashed my hard-won
empire."
"That world," whispered Brainiac 5, suddenly drawing in his breath
... "was it called -- Earth?"
The others startled, in blinding insight.
To be continued ...
By Bruce Wayne
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of
it.
CHAPTER 6 - MOUNTAINTOP BATTLE
Re-entry came now as they slammed into the Earth's atmosphere.
The bottom of the LSH Mark III spacecraft began to glow cherry-red.
But the molybdenum-tantalum alloy skin of the ship could withstand any
air-friction temperature as they moved downward toward the towering
white-capped Himalayas. When aerodynamic control came back, at
mere supersonic speed, Sun Boy skillfully maneuvered the spacecraft
through cloud banks and mists in the mountain system to keep hidden
from watching eyes on Mount Everest.
A burst of rocket power and the ship righted itself vertically and
it continued to drop toward the surface, much as the very first moon-
lander fell to the surface of the moon almost a thousand years before.
The ship landed gently just below the rim of Everest's peak.
"Parka's, anyone?" asked Ferro Lad, pointing to the fur suits
stashed in ceiling receptacles. "It's cold outside, well below zero."
"I expect enough action," said Invisible Kid grimly, "to be plenty
warm." The others nodded.
"I have a miniature heater in my belt," explained Brainy.
"Sun Boy and Ferro Lad will stay here as planned," said Lyle
after they stepped out. "The other four of us will approach from four
directions. Okay, let's go."
With an unvoiced exchange of glances that said "Good luck,"
Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5 and Shrinking Violet spread out
a hundred yards apart and slowly advanced up toward the ramparts of
the peak. They all shivered in the icy winds, but as Leginnaires the teen-
agers were inured to hardships and discomforts that would incapcitate
other people.
Cautiously, they looked over the final ridge. The mighty magnet
machine came into sight first, towering high and surrounded by its eerie
nuclear-like glow. Then, as their sight came to eye level, they saw Tazz ...
facing them with a mocking smile as he swung his gaze to each of them.
He greeted them sneeringly, "Did you really think that you could
sneak up on me unawares? My ultramonitor saw your craft approach and
land. I presume you have come to play the same game the Masked One
did. The game of Save the Earth, which you will lose."
He waved at his monstrous machine.
"You won't wreck my ultramagnet, which is pulling the giant comet
into its proper collision course with Earth even as we speak."
Even from yards away, they could see his frosty eyes flash
defiantly.
"Four against one, but I can easily hold you off. Your science
pitted against mine is like an atom pitted against a star."
"We'll see about that," said Invisible Kid, gratingly, and then he
raised his voice to shout, "Get him!"
Colossal Boy had already assumed a giant height of 25 feet, and
he ran forward to pick up a huge boulder weighing at least a ton. Mighty
muscles propelled it straight at Tazz, who turned to face the oncoming
juggernaut without flinching.
Incredibly, striking the force-field aura in front of him, the hard
stone shattered into countless pieces.
"Yes, we know you're shielded from the front," came Lyle's voice
behind him. "But Colossal Boy's move was only to make you face that
way, while I --"
Having raced across the wind-swept rock as quick as he could,
Invisible Kid was already within reach. In one head-long plunge, he hurled
his body straight at Tazz's back, ready to send him off his feet with a knock-
out blow.
Klang!
Though Tazz had not turned, Invisible Kid met an invisible shield
and bounded back, nearly knocking out Lyle himself.
Slowly turning, Tazz said softly, "After the Green One taught me
that I was vulnerable from the rear, naturally I fixed up my force-field to
curve all around me. I am now invulnerable from all sides."
His hand went to his belt. "Now, let us see if you can survive my
repertory of weapon rays."
Lurid beams sprang forth -- purple, red, green, blue -- each
carrying a different form of destruction. But Tazz's attention had been
riveted on the Legion leader. He didn't see Brainiac 5 approach and
activate his force-field belt. Brainy had adjusted the protection-field
to extend toward Lyle as well. The Legion master mind's invention
deflected all of Tazz's rays. Lyle turned invisible and flew into the air
with the assistance of his Legion flight ring.
Tazz was, in his way, astonished when Invisible Kid
disappeared in front of his very eyes. "What manner of being is that?"
said Tazz, startled.
Lyle knew that his turning invisible would distract Tazz. Out of
the corner of his eye, he had seen Colossal Boy lumbering toward the
giant magnet. He had distracted Tazz from turning and noticing.
Reaching the machine, Colossal Boy put his great arms around
one of the steel-truss support legs and heaved mightily. Could he topple
the gigantic contraption? Metal groaned as Gim grunted, straining every
massive muscle.
Tazz heard, and whirled. "Colossal Fool!" shouted Tazz, "My
dis-beam will turn you into a puff of nothingless."
He touched a button on his belt and ray sprang forth,
disintergrating rock close to Colossal Boy.
"My next shot," Tazz warned, "will get you ... Yeow!"
The last was a pained yell as something jabbed into his eye before
he pressed the dis-beam button. Something tiny flew before his face,
buzzing angrily.
"Some Earthly insect," he muttered. Then his eyes opened wide.
"But it seems to have human form!" he gasped.
"Meet Shrinking Violet,"shrilled a thin voice. "A member of the
Legion of Super-Heroes. I have the ability, as you can see, of shrinking
to insect size."
"But my force-field," said Tazz in a puzzled tone. "How did you
get past it?"
"Simple," buzzed the tiny girl. "I suspected that it's only a half-
shell, stretching down to the ground. But where the ground is uneven,
there are small crevices under the edge of the shield. I slipped through
one."
She had been hovering before his face. Now she swooped down,
calling back, "I stopped you from shooting your dis-beam at Big Gim.
And now to keep you too busy to oppose the other Legionnaires ..."
A series of howls came from the alien, and he began doing a
wild dance as Violet struck him again and again in vital spots on his
body, especially to the eyes.
Seeing this, Invisible Kid reappeared and yelled: Dirk! Ferro!
Violet is entertaining Tazz. This is our chance to wreck his ultramagnet.
Come on."
Sun Boy and Ferro Lad came charging, grinning at the cavorting
figure of Tazz, trapped with the tiny girl jabbing him inside his own
protective energy shell. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 joined them, and
they raced up to where Colossal Boy was still heaving away but unable
to overturn the huge machine.
"Tazz has only a flat shield above it," said Brainiac 5, pointing to
where another meteor, drawn down by the magnet, banged off the force-
field there. "He has no complete shell around it, as with himself. That
means we can wreck the unshielded machine from down here."
Ferro Lad with his power on, which gave him super-strength,
went to another one of the steel-truss support legs opposite of Gim and
began heaving as well.
Sun Boy started doing his part when he joyfully said, "Watch what
a heat blast can do." He held out his arms in front of him and a fiery ray of
super-charged heat was released from his hands and struck directly into
the heart of the machine. The supermagnet exploded violently, shattering
wires and causing short-circuit sparks.
Unable to help directly in the destruction, Brainiac 5 pointed out
key sections of the machine for Sun Boy to aim for.
"Keep heaving, guys," Invisible Kid called out to Ferro Lad and
Colossal Boy. "The whole structure is weakening fast."
With one last Herculean effort, the teen-mountain lifted one
support leg clear of the ground. Then Ferro Lad did the same with
the one he was working on. Then, as Sun Boy burned through a
connecting cable, Colossal Boy yanked the entire leg away.
"Timber!" yelled Invisible Kid, and they all scurried back, as
the towering machine began to sway and slowly topple. It crashed full
length with a resounding thud that shook the whole mountain. Electric
discharges flashed through the wreckage.
"I guess our little party is over," sang out Violet, flying down
under the edge of Tazz's force-shell. "Thanks for the dance," she giggled.
Rejoining the other Legionnaires, she said, "Good work, boys. No more
supermagnetic force is pulling that giant comet toward Earth."
"No, but it doesn't matter ... now," snarled Tazz, approaching and
rubbing the bumps Shrinking Violet had raised on his face. "I neglected to
inform you that my ultramagnet needed only ten more minutes of operation
since you arrived, to pull the comet into an unalterable collision course
with Earth, at top speed."
He grinned devilishy. "And our battle took eleven minutes before
you wrecked it. In other words, Legionnaires, you failed to stop the
approaching Earth doom."
The Legionnaires looked at each other, dismayed. Tazz had held
the trump card after all.
But just why are you here to destroy Earth?" queried Invisible Kid.
"Yes," said Ferro Lad. "You boasted to me that you were Tazz, the
Invader, and spoke of many worlds that fell to you. Why are you switching
from invading to destruction of Earth?"
"You may as well hear my story, since you can't stop me anyway,"
answered Tazz, his frosty eyes mocking them. I am from your future, some
one thousand years from now. Call it your 40th century. My home world,
in that future time, was in the solar system of the star you call Vega. First,
as a mastermind of warfare, I conquered my own planet and people. Then,
building a space warfleet, I swept out and took over all of our solar system.
But even that did not satisfy me."
He waved an arm dramatically, as if to include the universe.
"I organized an inter-galactic fleet of warships and drove out among
the nearby stars. World after world fell before me and became part of my
grand cosmic empire. At each planet it was ... how you say? Ah, veni, vidi,
vici."
"I came, I saw, I conquered," murmured Brainiac 5 for the benefit
of the others.
"Correct, Green One," Tazz said. He continued his story, "In time,
spreading out from my corner of the Milky Way, I ruled half the galaxy --
a total of ten thousand inhabited worlds."
"Ten thousand worlds?" murmured Invisible Kid in awe. It was on
a scale so vast the human mind could hardly comprehend it.
"I was still young," replied Tazz, "and my ambition was no less than
conquest of the entire galaxy with its twenty thousand inhabited planets --
but something blocked my plans."
"Aha! spoke up Sun Boy. "Let me guess, you ran into a world
tougher than yours, with a warfleet you couldn't defeat, eh?"
"Yes!" spat out Tazz, his face darkening. "This other world had
a technology superior to my own. They had superscience weapons that
decimated my fleet, crushed my power, and smashed my hard-won
empire."
"That world," whispered Brainiac 5, suddenly drawing in his breath
... "was it called -- Earth?"
The others startled, in blinding insight.
To be continued ...