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 8 - ICE MENACE
It was night when a red spacecraft rocketed southward, reeling off
thousands of miles and continuing past the southern tip of South America
over the vast watery wastes at the bottom of the world. Only one hour later,
night gave way to day as they passed into the months-long polar daytime.
Ramparts of glistening ice rose on the horizon, spreading to the right
and left as far as the eye could see. The White Continent ... Icebox of the
World ... Frozen Hell ... it had been called many things in the past by hard-
bitten explorers.
An enormous ice cap covered the land. Uninhabited for countless
ages, Antarctica in the 30th century still only had a population of a few
thouand permanent residents in scientific outposts.
"Metropolis has a population density of 758 people per square
mile," commented Saturn Girl, "while Antarctica has 1,200 square miles
per person. How are we ever going to find one small being, Tazz, in that
immensity?"
At the pilot controls, Ultra Boy angled the Legion Mark III space-
craft down. Ultra Boy was Jo Nah from the planet Rimbor. Rimbor was a
place where energy beasts gathered, and many Rimborian youths would
take a spacecraft out to play among them. When Jo did this once, he ended
up being swallowed by an Ultra-Energy Beast. This was fortunate for Jo,
since rather than kill him, he absorbed some of its energy. He soon learned
that he was able to focus the ultra-energy on certain parts of his body,
giving him super-strength or speed when its in his muscles, penetra-vision
or flash vision when it's in his eyes, and an invulnerable force-field when
it's in his skin. But he can only use one power at a time. For example, if
he's using his super strength, he is vulnerable.
His uniform was one of the more colorful ones in the Legion.
A bright red tunic top with a green symbol on his chest, a wide yellow
belt around his waist and dark blue trunks with green tights on his legs.
His boots were black with red on top.
"A good question," the brown-haired Ultra Boy admitted to Saturn
Girl. "However, we can quickly search in all directions from the air with
help from our Flight Rings, of course. So, that's why I'm landing us in the
center of the continent."
"That's about the coldest spot, too," said Tenzil Kem of Bismoll,
who was otherwise known by the unusual code-name of Matter-Eater Lad.
Tenzil shivered as he drew on a Parka over his mostly green with yellow
and black top. He wore yellow tights on his legs with green boots.
"For us," he continued, "this is going to be Shiverville."
Matter-Eater Lad had the power to eat just about anything in all forms.
Tenzil's power is common to all natives of his home planet Bismoll. ME Lad
was a favorite among his Legion teammates because of his engaging
personality, good sense of humor, and underrated unarmed combat skills.
"Keep talking and you won't freeze," said Saturn Girl soothingly.
"I estimate the hot air you produce in one hour could heat a city."
"Don't bug me, Blondie," retorted Matter-Eater Lad.
With a roar of the braking rockets at the nose, the spaceship landed
smoothly in a snowfield. A few minutes later, the five Legionnaires, Saturn
Girl, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Element Lad and Bouncing Boy,
disembarked and stepped out into the icy blast.
Bouncing Boy said, "Before we came out here, I looked at the
thermometer in the ship and it said only forty-seven degrees below zero.
A comparatively balmy day for the Antarctic."
"Anybody who calls that balmy is balmy," said ME Lad. "Let's not
just stand here and freeze by inches. Let's get going."
Bouncing Boy smiled as he shivered in his parka. Bouncing Boy's
real name was Chuck Taine and he had the ability to inflate his body and
bounce like a ball. Chuck gained his power when he accidently drank a
scientist's super-plastic fluid. Under the parka, he wore his dark blue tunic
with a stiff white collar and white band around his arms and around his
waist. His pants were black.
As agreed on before, the Legionnaires took off high into the
frigid air with their Flight Rings.
"Keep your eyes peeled in all directions," said Ultra Boy. "If the
Infrared Beamer, whatever it is, is anywhere near the size of the ultra-
magnet on Mounter Everest, we ought to spot it miles away."
But they saw nothing, though they swung in ever-widening circles
that gradually covered large areas in the interior of the ice-locked continent.
"As bare as a cupboard," Bouncing Boy grunted between cold blue
lips.
They swung on a straightaway. On their communication devices,
the Legionnaires heard Ultra boy say, "I have a hunch that Tazz may be
operating along the coast instead of the interior." Upon reaching the shore-
line of sheer icy cliffs towering a mile high in places, the five teenagers swung
to follow the edge bordering the cold seas. They passed high over several
scientific outposts, immediately recognizable by their quonset huts or low
metal barracks.
After skirting Antarctica's rim for hundreds of miles, Ultra Boy
turned sympathetically toward his teammates, most of their skin was
frosted, with tiny icicles hanging from the hoods over their eyes. The cold
didn't bother him because he had his invulnerability turned on.
He talked to his teammates over the Legion communicator: "The
cold is not bothering me, but you guys are exposed to the frigid winds.
Want to land and build a fire to warm up?"
"N-no, I f-f-feel gr-great," lied Saturn Girl through chattering
teeth. "Some of the members s-say I'm c-c-cold-blooded anyway so
th-this is my n-natural element. Let-let's keep g-going, Jo. I'm t-t-t-tough."
Occasionally they passed a penguin flock, strutting comically. At
times skua gulls flapped passed. No other animal was seen, for even
Arctic fox and polar bear would succumb in this bitter land where
temperatures could at times plunge to 130 degrees below zero. Where
bare, windswept mountain peaks rose above the monotonous whiteness,
straggling green lichens and mosses grew, and a few hardy insects were
known to survive on that food.
Looking down, Matter-Eater Lad suddenly saw a strange thing.
"Hey, guys, look! Tractor tread marks, but look how big!"
The dark-haired Bouncing Boy gave a long low whistle as he
squinted. "The tracks are a hundred feet wide. What kind of icemobile
could be that big?"
They saw the answer soon enough, following the trail over the
horizon. There moving along in strange silence was a tractor-tread "tank"
as big as a warehouse. On top was a mast surmounted by a huge search-
light -- from which shone forth no light at all. Yet beyond at the coast,
the ice cliffs were melting into a Niagara of water that cascaded boilingly
down to the Antarctic sea.
Saturn Girl flipped open another communication device and
activated a Telstar satellite and called the Legion clubhouse. "Lu? We
located the Infrared Beamer. We'll try to sabotage it. I'll call back and
let you know if we succeeded."
"Infrared rays are heat-beams, of course," said Element Lad.
"Tazz is using that gizmo to melt the edges of the ice cap, but why? If
he wipes out a few scientific camps on the way, how would that be an
Earth-doom gimmick?"
"One way to find out is to land," said Saturn Girl, swooping
down. "And I mean on the machine itself," she added.
Imra had seen the plastic bubble "pilot's room" at the front end
of the Cyclopean tank. Within it sat Tazz himself, manipulating a complex
electronic control board. He seemed too preoccupied to notice the
five flying figures that landed feet-first nearby on the hull.
"Let's take a quick potshot at him right off," muttered Matter-Eater
Lad."
"Right," agreed Ultra Boy. "Maybe we can surprise him and blast
him before he knows what happened." Jo let loose with his flash vision,
that was similar to Superboy's heat vision. The flash rays from Ultra Boy's
eyes reached the plastic bubble, creating a pyrotechnical display that hurt
the other Legionnaires eyes. But when the smoke cleared, nothing had
changed.
"Not even a scratch on his plastic bubble," cursed Matter-Eater
Lad. "Not an atom knocked off."
And now Tazz was staring out at them with a mocking leer. His
amplified voice came from a speaker above the bubble.
"Hello!" I expected Legionnaires here sooner or later. To satisfy
your natural curisoity, this Infrared Beamer was constructed on my home
planet by my cohorts, using 40th century science technology, then it was
tele-transported across the time barrier in the wink of an eye to 30th
century Earth."
"What is your aim with this thing?" demanded Ultra Boy. "Why
melt ice here? Or are you going to make ice cubes for a dinosaur-sized
cocktail? If this is a menace to Earth, I don't get it."
"Then harken, anthropoid throwback," returned Tazz bitingly. "To
some Antarctic statistics, the south-polar ice cap holds ninety percent of
the frozen water on Earth, a total of eleven million cubic miles. If all that
were melted to flood into the swollen oceans of Earth, it would raise the
general water level six hundred feet."
The five Legionnaires gasped in unison.
"This would drown seventy-five percent of Earth's major seaports
under a new sea level," Tazz recited, "and would flood inland for a
thousand miles in many non-mountainous areas. The dry-land area
of Earth would be reduced to only the highlands and mountain chains,
about one-tenth of the present land area."
Tazz grinned mirthlessly at them. "Needless to say, at least half
the human race would drown, and the rest would starve, with all farm-
lands sunken underwater."
Saturn Girl controlled her shuddering nerves. "All well and good,
but it will take you a hundred years to melt all the ice down by circling
the Antarctic coast time after time."
"True," agreed the villianous invader from the future. "But under-
neath this Infrared Beamer is a projector radiating a 'heat current' -- I
can explain it in no simpler terms -- that is pouring all through the ice and
building up its charge. When it reaches its peak, enough heat will be
stored to melt the entire ice cap, releasing trillions of gallons of newly
formed water into the ocean system of Earth."
"That would also create a gigantic tidal wave," gasped Bouncing
Boy.
"Precisely," gloated Tazz. "I've thought of everything."
"Except one thing," barked Saturn Girl. "That five Legionnaires will
wreck your giant water-wagon, one way or another ... starting now!"
"You will never have the chance," Tazz came back coldly, "for you
will be wiped out ... now!"
"Get behind me," yelled Ultra Boy tensely to his teammates. "I'm
sure that I'm impervious to any of his ray-forces."
"Except one, Red And Green One," Tazz said confidently. "The
dis-ray will take care of you." And touching his belt buttons, Tazz shot
forth the same ray he did on Mount Everest.
Ultra Boy did not retreat, with the other Legionnaires huddled
behind him. He took the full brunt of the droning ray -- and nothing
happened.
"You'll notice," said Jo Nah evenly, "that I am invulnerable."
"Indeed," came Tazz's microphonic voice in grudging admiration.
"Well, no matter. If I cannot destroy you, neither can you bother me within
my impentrable Infrared Beamer machine."
"We'll see about that, you overconfident creep," scoffed Element
Lad. E-Lad as he was sometimes known, was Jan Arrah from the planet
Trom. He ripped off his parka to expose his pink-and-white costime with
a large black letter "E" on his chest. The blond-haired 16-year-old told
Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad, "Throw some snowballs at the
bubble. I'll turn them into energized radioactive fluoric acid that can eat
through glass or stone."
The snowballs landed on top of the machine with a wet thud, and
Element Lad held out his arms and changed the H2O in the snow into a
large stain of acid. A bubbling hiss arose, but as the moments passed the
fumes danced away impotently.
"All it did was clean the dirt off the metal," said Jan, shaking his
head.
"What kind of superalloy is that?" growled Saturn Girl, stunned.
"But we've got to get inside and sabotage that machine. I'll try to reach
his mind and stop him!"
Saturn Girl concentrated, attempting to reach into the alien's mind
and order him to stop and surrender. A moment later, a terrifed look came
upon Imra's face. A look of total disbelief and shock. "There's nothing there!
I don't feel or read anything from his mind! How is that possible?"
Ultra Boy's face also fell, while a string of curses came from his
lips. His fury was not lightened by the mocking, amplified voice of Tazz
from his plastic bubble: "Why waste your impressive powers,
Legionnaires?" My machine is coated with a layer of neutronium, a
metal made of densely packed neutrons and ten times harder than
mere diamond. It won't even be invented for another seven hundred
years," he laughed. "You are back in the Stone Age compared to me.
You Legionnaires are pitiful."
"That clown from the outer cosmos doesn't know it," rasped
Matter-Eater Lad, "but his deadliest weapons are those cornball cliches.
If people heard enough of them, the human race would commit mass
suicide."
"My turn," said Ultra Boy, flying away from the mightly machine.
"See that glacier ahead? Tazz is going to skirt close to one side of it ...
and I've got ideas. You guys stay here, this is a one-man job."
Ultra Boy soared high above the gigantic glacier, beside which
even Tazz's great machine was a tiny mite.
"Here goes," he muttered. Once again he used his flash vision on
the glistening glacier. Giant cracks appeared at the top and spread fanwise
down the sides. Awesomely, in majestic slow motion, the colossal chunk
of ice split with a thunderclap, collapsing into a landslide of pieces bigger
than houses.
Countless megatons of the crystalline debris crushed down
squarely on top of the Infrared Beamer as it churned past until it was
buried from sight.
Circling in the air, Ultra Boy held his breath and listened. Not a
sound came from under the ice heap. "I think you hit the jackpot," came
Matter-Eater Lad's thin shout from the distance. "You put Tazz on ice --
for good!"
RrrrRRRR ...
The silence was broken by the sound of tractor treads grinding
powerfully. Ice chunks were hurled aside as the 40th century tank came
crawling out from under the broken glacier.
"I -- I don't believe it," gasped Bouncing Boy, in devastating
disappointment. "Not even a dent or a scratch."
A derisive chuckle, amplified into stentorian volume, came
rolling from the machine. "Was there something in my way?"
But now the villian's voice turned ugly. "I see I'll have to eliminate
you five. You annoy me, like mosquitoes."
The huge machine suddenly wheeled around and headed
straight for a small figure standing unprotected in the snowfield.
The huge searchlight on top of the tank turned and aimed for ...
"Tenzil!" screeched Element Lad in horror.
"Great balls o' fire!" choked Matter-Eater Lad, rooted to the
spot as the searchlight was aimed right at him. "Tazz is going to try to
cook my goose!"
ME Lad broke from his paralysis of fear and began running,
futiley. Flying away wouldn't had helped because the Infrared beam
would still probably get him. Tenzil looked for a place to go, anywhere.
But there was nowhere to hide, no cover.
Like a comet, Ultra Boy was streaking down from the sky,
piling all the speed he could muster. But he had a longer way to go
than the heat-beam from the machine, to reach Matter-Eater Lad.
Death flew alongside Ultra Boy. Which of them would reach
Tenzil first?
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 8 - ICE MENACE
It was night when a red spacecraft rocketed southward, reeling off
thousands of miles and continuing past the southern tip of South America
over the vast watery wastes at the bottom of the world. Only one hour later,
night gave way to day as they passed into the months-long polar daytime.
Ramparts of glistening ice rose on the horizon, spreading to the right
and left as far as the eye could see. The White Continent ... Icebox of the
World ... Frozen Hell ... it had been called many things in the past by hard-
bitten explorers.
An enormous ice cap covered the land. Uninhabited for countless
ages, Antarctica in the 30th century still only had a population of a few
thouand permanent residents in scientific outposts.
"Metropolis has a population density of 758 people per square
mile," commented Saturn Girl, "while Antarctica has 1,200 square miles
per person. How are we ever going to find one small being, Tazz, in that
immensity?"
At the pilot controls, Ultra Boy angled the Legion Mark III space-
craft down. Ultra Boy was Jo Nah from the planet Rimbor. Rimbor was a
place where energy beasts gathered, and many Rimborian youths would
take a spacecraft out to play among them. When Jo did this once, he ended
up being swallowed by an Ultra-Energy Beast. This was fortunate for Jo,
since rather than kill him, he absorbed some of its energy. He soon learned
that he was able to focus the ultra-energy on certain parts of his body,
giving him super-strength or speed when its in his muscles, penetra-vision
or flash vision when it's in his eyes, and an invulnerable force-field when
it's in his skin. But he can only use one power at a time. For example, if
he's using his super strength, he is vulnerable.
His uniform was one of the more colorful ones in the Legion.
A bright red tunic top with a green symbol on his chest, a wide yellow
belt around his waist and dark blue trunks with green tights on his legs.
His boots were black with red on top.
"A good question," the brown-haired Ultra Boy admitted to Saturn
Girl. "However, we can quickly search in all directions from the air with
help from our Flight Rings, of course. So, that's why I'm landing us in the
center of the continent."
"That's about the coldest spot, too," said Tenzil Kem of Bismoll,
who was otherwise known by the unusual code-name of Matter-Eater Lad.
Tenzil shivered as he drew on a Parka over his mostly green with yellow
and black top. He wore yellow tights on his legs with green boots.
"For us," he continued, "this is going to be Shiverville."
Matter-Eater Lad had the power to eat just about anything in all forms.
Tenzil's power is common to all natives of his home planet Bismoll. ME Lad
was a favorite among his Legion teammates because of his engaging
personality, good sense of humor, and underrated unarmed combat skills.
"Keep talking and you won't freeze," said Saturn Girl soothingly.
"I estimate the hot air you produce in one hour could heat a city."
"Don't bug me, Blondie," retorted Matter-Eater Lad.
With a roar of the braking rockets at the nose, the spaceship landed
smoothly in a snowfield. A few minutes later, the five Legionnaires, Saturn
Girl, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Element Lad and Bouncing Boy,
disembarked and stepped out into the icy blast.
Bouncing Boy said, "Before we came out here, I looked at the
thermometer in the ship and it said only forty-seven degrees below zero.
A comparatively balmy day for the Antarctic."
"Anybody who calls that balmy is balmy," said ME Lad. "Let's not
just stand here and freeze by inches. Let's get going."
Bouncing Boy smiled as he shivered in his parka. Bouncing Boy's
real name was Chuck Taine and he had the ability to inflate his body and
bounce like a ball. Chuck gained his power when he accidently drank a
scientist's super-plastic fluid. Under the parka, he wore his dark blue tunic
with a stiff white collar and white band around his arms and around his
waist. His pants were black.
As agreed on before, the Legionnaires took off high into the
frigid air with their Flight Rings.
"Keep your eyes peeled in all directions," said Ultra Boy. "If the
Infrared Beamer, whatever it is, is anywhere near the size of the ultra-
magnet on Mounter Everest, we ought to spot it miles away."
But they saw nothing, though they swung in ever-widening circles
that gradually covered large areas in the interior of the ice-locked continent.
"As bare as a cupboard," Bouncing Boy grunted between cold blue
lips.
They swung on a straightaway. On their communication devices,
the Legionnaires heard Ultra boy say, "I have a hunch that Tazz may be
operating along the coast instead of the interior." Upon reaching the shore-
line of sheer icy cliffs towering a mile high in places, the five teenagers swung
to follow the edge bordering the cold seas. They passed high over several
scientific outposts, immediately recognizable by their quonset huts or low
metal barracks.
After skirting Antarctica's rim for hundreds of miles, Ultra Boy
turned sympathetically toward his teammates, most of their skin was
frosted, with tiny icicles hanging from the hoods over their eyes. The cold
didn't bother him because he had his invulnerability turned on.
He talked to his teammates over the Legion communicator: "The
cold is not bothering me, but you guys are exposed to the frigid winds.
Want to land and build a fire to warm up?"
"N-no, I f-f-feel gr-great," lied Saturn Girl through chattering
teeth. "Some of the members s-say I'm c-c-cold-blooded anyway so
th-this is my n-natural element. Let-let's keep g-going, Jo. I'm t-t-t-tough."
Occasionally they passed a penguin flock, strutting comically. At
times skua gulls flapped passed. No other animal was seen, for even
Arctic fox and polar bear would succumb in this bitter land where
temperatures could at times plunge to 130 degrees below zero. Where
bare, windswept mountain peaks rose above the monotonous whiteness,
straggling green lichens and mosses grew, and a few hardy insects were
known to survive on that food.
Looking down, Matter-Eater Lad suddenly saw a strange thing.
"Hey, guys, look! Tractor tread marks, but look how big!"
The dark-haired Bouncing Boy gave a long low whistle as he
squinted. "The tracks are a hundred feet wide. What kind of icemobile
could be that big?"
They saw the answer soon enough, following the trail over the
horizon. There moving along in strange silence was a tractor-tread "tank"
as big as a warehouse. On top was a mast surmounted by a huge search-
light -- from which shone forth no light at all. Yet beyond at the coast,
the ice cliffs were melting into a Niagara of water that cascaded boilingly
down to the Antarctic sea.
Saturn Girl flipped open another communication device and
activated a Telstar satellite and called the Legion clubhouse. "Lu? We
located the Infrared Beamer. We'll try to sabotage it. I'll call back and
let you know if we succeeded."
"Infrared rays are heat-beams, of course," said Element Lad.
"Tazz is using that gizmo to melt the edges of the ice cap, but why? If
he wipes out a few scientific camps on the way, how would that be an
Earth-doom gimmick?"
"One way to find out is to land," said Saturn Girl, swooping
down. "And I mean on the machine itself," she added.
Imra had seen the plastic bubble "pilot's room" at the front end
of the Cyclopean tank. Within it sat Tazz himself, manipulating a complex
electronic control board. He seemed too preoccupied to notice the
five flying figures that landed feet-first nearby on the hull.
"Let's take a quick potshot at him right off," muttered Matter-Eater
Lad."
"Right," agreed Ultra Boy. "Maybe we can surprise him and blast
him before he knows what happened." Jo let loose with his flash vision,
that was similar to Superboy's heat vision. The flash rays from Ultra Boy's
eyes reached the plastic bubble, creating a pyrotechnical display that hurt
the other Legionnaires eyes. But when the smoke cleared, nothing had
changed.
"Not even a scratch on his plastic bubble," cursed Matter-Eater
Lad. "Not an atom knocked off."
And now Tazz was staring out at them with a mocking leer. His
amplified voice came from a speaker above the bubble.
"Hello!" I expected Legionnaires here sooner or later. To satisfy
your natural curisoity, this Infrared Beamer was constructed on my home
planet by my cohorts, using 40th century science technology, then it was
tele-transported across the time barrier in the wink of an eye to 30th
century Earth."
"What is your aim with this thing?" demanded Ultra Boy. "Why
melt ice here? Or are you going to make ice cubes for a dinosaur-sized
cocktail? If this is a menace to Earth, I don't get it."
"Then harken, anthropoid throwback," returned Tazz bitingly. "To
some Antarctic statistics, the south-polar ice cap holds ninety percent of
the frozen water on Earth, a total of eleven million cubic miles. If all that
were melted to flood into the swollen oceans of Earth, it would raise the
general water level six hundred feet."
The five Legionnaires gasped in unison.
"This would drown seventy-five percent of Earth's major seaports
under a new sea level," Tazz recited, "and would flood inland for a
thousand miles in many non-mountainous areas. The dry-land area
of Earth would be reduced to only the highlands and mountain chains,
about one-tenth of the present land area."
Tazz grinned mirthlessly at them. "Needless to say, at least half
the human race would drown, and the rest would starve, with all farm-
lands sunken underwater."
Saturn Girl controlled her shuddering nerves. "All well and good,
but it will take you a hundred years to melt all the ice down by circling
the Antarctic coast time after time."
"True," agreed the villianous invader from the future. "But under-
neath this Infrared Beamer is a projector radiating a 'heat current' -- I
can explain it in no simpler terms -- that is pouring all through the ice and
building up its charge. When it reaches its peak, enough heat will be
stored to melt the entire ice cap, releasing trillions of gallons of newly
formed water into the ocean system of Earth."
"That would also create a gigantic tidal wave," gasped Bouncing
Boy.
"Precisely," gloated Tazz. "I've thought of everything."
"Except one thing," barked Saturn Girl. "That five Legionnaires will
wreck your giant water-wagon, one way or another ... starting now!"
"You will never have the chance," Tazz came back coldly, "for you
will be wiped out ... now!"
"Get behind me," yelled Ultra Boy tensely to his teammates. "I'm
sure that I'm impervious to any of his ray-forces."
"Except one, Red And Green One," Tazz said confidently. "The
dis-ray will take care of you." And touching his belt buttons, Tazz shot
forth the same ray he did on Mount Everest.
Ultra Boy did not retreat, with the other Legionnaires huddled
behind him. He took the full brunt of the droning ray -- and nothing
happened.
"You'll notice," said Jo Nah evenly, "that I am invulnerable."
"Indeed," came Tazz's microphonic voice in grudging admiration.
"Well, no matter. If I cannot destroy you, neither can you bother me within
my impentrable Infrared Beamer machine."
"We'll see about that, you overconfident creep," scoffed Element
Lad. E-Lad as he was sometimes known, was Jan Arrah from the planet
Trom. He ripped off his parka to expose his pink-and-white costime with
a large black letter "E" on his chest. The blond-haired 16-year-old told
Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad, "Throw some snowballs at the
bubble. I'll turn them into energized radioactive fluoric acid that can eat
through glass or stone."
The snowballs landed on top of the machine with a wet thud, and
Element Lad held out his arms and changed the H2O in the snow into a
large stain of acid. A bubbling hiss arose, but as the moments passed the
fumes danced away impotently.
"All it did was clean the dirt off the metal," said Jan, shaking his
head.
"What kind of superalloy is that?" growled Saturn Girl, stunned.
"But we've got to get inside and sabotage that machine. I'll try to reach
his mind and stop him!"
Saturn Girl concentrated, attempting to reach into the alien's mind
and order him to stop and surrender. A moment later, a terrifed look came
upon Imra's face. A look of total disbelief and shock. "There's nothing there!
I don't feel or read anything from his mind! How is that possible?"
Ultra Boy's face also fell, while a string of curses came from his
lips. His fury was not lightened by the mocking, amplified voice of Tazz
from his plastic bubble: "Why waste your impressive powers,
Legionnaires?" My machine is coated with a layer of neutronium, a
metal made of densely packed neutrons and ten times harder than
mere diamond. It won't even be invented for another seven hundred
years," he laughed. "You are back in the Stone Age compared to me.
You Legionnaires are pitiful."
"That clown from the outer cosmos doesn't know it," rasped
Matter-Eater Lad, "but his deadliest weapons are those cornball cliches.
If people heard enough of them, the human race would commit mass
suicide."
"My turn," said Ultra Boy, flying away from the mightly machine.
"See that glacier ahead? Tazz is going to skirt close to one side of it ...
and I've got ideas. You guys stay here, this is a one-man job."
Ultra Boy soared high above the gigantic glacier, beside which
even Tazz's great machine was a tiny mite.
"Here goes," he muttered. Once again he used his flash vision on
the glistening glacier. Giant cracks appeared at the top and spread fanwise
down the sides. Awesomely, in majestic slow motion, the colossal chunk
of ice split with a thunderclap, collapsing into a landslide of pieces bigger
than houses.
Countless megatons of the crystalline debris crushed down
squarely on top of the Infrared Beamer as it churned past until it was
buried from sight.
Circling in the air, Ultra Boy held his breath and listened. Not a
sound came from under the ice heap. "I think you hit the jackpot," came
Matter-Eater Lad's thin shout from the distance. "You put Tazz on ice --
for good!"
RrrrRRRR ...
The silence was broken by the sound of tractor treads grinding
powerfully. Ice chunks were hurled aside as the 40th century tank came
crawling out from under the broken glacier.
"I -- I don't believe it," gasped Bouncing Boy, in devastating
disappointment. "Not even a dent or a scratch."
A derisive chuckle, amplified into stentorian volume, came
rolling from the machine. "Was there something in my way?"
But now the villian's voice turned ugly. "I see I'll have to eliminate
you five. You annoy me, like mosquitoes."
The huge machine suddenly wheeled around and headed
straight for a small figure standing unprotected in the snowfield.
The huge searchlight on top of the tank turned and aimed for ...
"Tenzil!" screeched Element Lad in horror.
"Great balls o' fire!" choked Matter-Eater Lad, rooted to the
spot as the searchlight was aimed right at him. "Tazz is going to try to
cook my goose!"
ME Lad broke from his paralysis of fear and began running,
futiley. Flying away wouldn't had helped because the Infrared beam
would still probably get him. Tenzil looked for a place to go, anywhere.
But there was nowhere to hide, no cover.
Like a comet, Ultra Boy was streaking down from the sky,
piling all the speed he could muster. But he had a longer way to go
than the heat-beam from the machine, to reach Matter-Eater Lad.
Death flew alongside Ultra Boy. Which of them would reach
Tenzil first?
To be continued ...