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 15 - TRAPS OF DEATH
The amplified voice of Tazz suddenly boomed from the apex.
"Attention! I constantly underestimate you Legionnaires. I did not
think you would ever locate my undersea hideout in the first place, nor that
if you did find it, you would cleverly invade it through my own automatic
hatchway. So much is to your credit."
Then his voice changed, ominous with threat.
"But now you will find yourselves facing the Legionnaire dooms,
picking you off one by one. Come after me ... if you dare."
"We dare," was Invisible Kid's answer at the bottom of his catwalk
stairway. It was almost a whisper. When he saw that Sun Boy and Ferro Lad
had gained their catwalks, he waved a signal and all four began racing up the
winding stairways that hung suspended from the ceiling of the dome.
They didn't dare try flying in the dome with its many crossbeams
and guy wires, affording them too little maneuvering room. It was about
as tough as a Legion Flight Ring obstacle course. But they didn't want to
take the chance of Tazz hitting them with one of his many rays.
Being the most agile of the four, Invisible Kid went up the fastest,
keeping a wary eye on the globular chamber at the dome's apex. He jerked
back with hair-trigger reflexes as a blast-beam knifed down past his ear.
Brainiac 5 caught up with him and turned on his protective force-field.
Tazz's aim was handicapped, however, Brainy knew. He did not dare
aim too close to the stairway itself, or disintegrating metal would bring about
collapse. And he could not afford to weaken any part of his bracing system,
for the macro-pressured water outside would then crush the dome as flat as
a pancake in horrendous seconds.
Lyle made it harder for Tazz -- he turned invisible.
Tazz would have to try to pick them off with sideswiping shots from
strategic angles. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 took care to keep some portion
of the metal catwalk-stairs between himself and the apex chamber.
But why had Tazz been so confident they would meet Legionnaire
dooms?
Booby traps!
As the thought sprang into Lyle's mind, he tensed, slowing their
upward race. Now all his senses taunted to keen alertness. "Brainy, watch
out for booby traps," he warned.
Brainiac 5, in turn, alerted Sun Boy and Ferro Lad, via their
comm-link.
The short hairs on the back of Invisible Kid's neck bristled in
instinctive warning. Something did not look right ahead. What was it?
Then he noticed the slightly dull sheen of one step ahead of him, whereas
the rest were shiny polished metal.
Aha! One false step on that false step -- Lyle could not avoid
the play of words in his thoughts -- and Brainy and him would be goners
in some unknown way. "Hold it, Brainy," he said. Invisible Kid wanted to
set the trap off to make Tazz think it had worked, thus putting him off
guard.
Brainiac 5 saw Lyle become visible once again and point to the
false stair. Brainy immediately knew what it was supposed to be. He
extended his force-field to surround the both of them and motioned
for Invisible Kid to walk ahead. When they touched the bogus step, it
exploded with just enough force to kill them, yet not enough to damage
the stairway itself.
At the loud report, Sun Boy and Ferro Lad glanced that way across
the dome through the latticed structure of the triple stairways. Lyle reported
to them through the comm-link: "Watch out for booby traps, guys."
Ferro Lad tensed and turned on his power that made him
invulnerable. He wondered what lay ahead for him. Tazz would be too
clever to repeat booby traps, knowing that one sprung would tip off the
presence of the others. He looked closely at everything as he moved ahead.
Then he saw it, a large, poised mallet fastened to the railing, which
could easily brain someone. If you weren't looking for it, you could've easily
missed it. He looked at the steps. One seemed duller than the others. He bent
down and pressed the stair with his hand, and the giant club descended
viciously -- on empty air. It went right over Ferro Lad's head. Ferro Lad
continued on.
Sun Boy, climbing the third stairway, peered ahead warily, looking
for the unknown. Nothing seemed amiss. About to step ahead, a high-
pitched voice shrilled in his ear: "Stop, Dirk! That step ahead is triggered
with death."
Sun Boy looked at it more closely. He then aimed a blast of his
heat to the one stair that looked duller the others. A moment later, a dozen
long recessed needles sprang upward, their points tinted blue with poison.
They would have pierced upward through Dirk's boots into his feet.
Flying between the spikes safely, Shrinking Violet then swung
up past Sun Boy's face. "That was close."
"Thanks, Vi," Sun Boy managed to say, wiping his brow. "You
realize, now, that you had the privilege of saving my life," he said banteringly,
regaining his composure.
"Oh, lucky, lucky me!" buzzed Violet. "But I condemmed myself to
hearing your cracks for weeks and years ahead, unlucky me."
"Why do you admire my witticisms so much, Violet? I must say
something right all the time." Sun Boy grinned, then raced upward again.
Now all four Legionnaires -- Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Ferro Lad,
and Sun Boy -- met at the top landing and converged on Tazz's globular
chamber. "Hsst," said Lyle, crouching beside the door. "You rush in first,
Ferro Lad. Then Sun Boy can blind him with bright light. Then Ferro you
pick up Tazz, force-shield and all, and toss him around the room.
Invisible Kid nodded his head for the signal and Ferro Lad burst
through the door without opening it. Andrew went to one side of the room
and covered his eyes. Sun Boy sprang in. Tazz turned in amazement. "But
my booby traps ... the signal lights said they went off!"
"So we're ghosts," was Sun Boy's answer and he let loose with an
intense glow of brilliant light that blinded Tazz. Ferro Lad rushed over and
with his super-strength picked Tazz along with his force-shield up and threw
him into a wall. The jolt was so great and unexpected that Tazz's hand
accidently hit the control button for his force-field and turned it off.
Brainy and Invisible Kid entered the room next and the Legion's
top scientist could immediately see that Tazz was now unprotected.
Still blinded, Tazz had no idea he was now vulnerable. Brainy
yelled to Ferro Lad, "Grab him! He's unprotected!"
Though he still couldn't see, Tazz leaped up like a madman, leaned
his shoulder back and closed a big switch on the wall. A whining drone like
the sound of bagpipes filled the air, and suddenly Ferro Lad stopped in mid-
stride.
Sun Boy, who was preparing to blast Tazz with heat in alarm, froze
with his arm half-cocked. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 also stood frozen
as if petrified.
"My best booby trap," leered Tazz triumphantly. His sight now
coming back, allowing him to point at the projector extending from the
wall and radiating the skirling beams. "I know you can hear me, though
you are immobilized. This is my time-stopping ray. Briefly, that ray stops
time for any object or person it strikes. Since time is not ticking for you,
you cannot make your follow-up move of the next second -- which never
comes."
He waved at a monitor screen that showed the magnified flying form
of Shrinking Violet darting into the doorway. Violet was skirting around the
time-ray. Tazz turned a dial.
"A simple adjustment and the time-ray hits her too."
Violet froze in mid-air.
"The tiny female caught in the timeless trap," Tazz gloated. "But
where is the Colossal Oaf?"
Colossal Boy's mighty ten-foot form came crashing through the
side wall, out of range of the time-ray. Picking up a huge chunk of cement,
Gim hurled it at the time-ray projector, smashing it to bits.
The frozen figures came alive and continued where they had left
off. Ferro Lad jumped on Tazz and flung him against the wall. Seeing
Andrew had things under control, the rest of the Legionnaires relaxed.
"It looks as if one throw into the wall by Ferro Lad knocked him
out cold," crowed Sun Boy -- too soon.
For the sagging figure opened its eyes and spoke to them. "You
forget my human form is only a disguise for ..." His finger jabbed a belt-
button and they watched in revulsion as they saw the transformation that
only Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 had witnessed before on Mount Everest.
"... for my true form."
The hideous monster with purple-blotched skin, green lips, blue
hair, and fiery red eyes stood before them on his hooved feet, looking like
a nightmare that had somehow become reality.
"I can stand breathing your poisonous oxygenated air for a few
minutes," the ghastly creature mouthed. "And in this form we have one
elusive attribute, that of turning into intangible amorphous material."
With that, the monster turned milky in color and formed a cloud of
smoke that streamed out the door. Colossal Boy futilely tried to seize it, but
he grasped nothing solid.
Running out, they saw the smoke-villian pouring down through the
dome without need of steps, then into the water-hatchway and into its own
deep-sea vehicle parked next to that of the Legionnaires. Evidently changing
inside to solid form, and back to human-like Tazz, his amplified voice came
to them as they all raced down the stairway.
"You have won a minor skirmish," he snarled, "driving me away from
my dome. But you will never capture me when I vanish somewhere in your
vast outside world, lost when I mingle among billions of people."
The Legionnaires dashed up just as the inner door closed. On the
other side, they knew, the sea hatch was filling with water as the outer hatch
opened to let in the sea. Then Tazz could speed away in his deep-sea boat,
with a long head-start on them before the hatchway could be put through its
cycle again.
Panting, Lyle called for a quick conference.
"Let's size up the situation. Even though we didn't nab Tazz, what
advantages did we gain? For one thing, we got control of this undersea hide-
out of his. Will he have to come back for any reason?"
"I think so," said Brainiac 5. "Up in his control room, I noticed
another ray device that I think may be his time teleportation machine --
his only way of returning to the future. If I'm right, he'll have to come back
for that sooner or later -- or die when the world ends."
"Good!" cried Invisible Kid. "Then we'll leave one guard here.
Let's see ... how about Colossal Boy? He's equal to ten other men."
"Okay," agreed the giant teen. "Just let that creep try to sneak back
in and get past me."
"The rest of us back in the deep-sea craft," waved Lyle, as the inner
door opened again, drained of water. Soon after going through the egress
process, they sped out through the outer hatch.
Brainiac 5 turned on the long-range sensor, reading off measure-
ments from its return signals. "Just as I thought," he muttered. "Tazz has a
super-speed boat and is already surfacing."
Invisible Kid looked around slowly, haggardly. "That means to find
him we'll have to search the world."
"Every city, town and hamlet? gasped Violet. "Among billions and
billions of people?"
"Talk about a needle lost in a haystack," said Sun Boy bleakly --
"this is like trying to find one grain of sand lost on a beach. It's hopeless."
"Not the way we're going to do it," spoke up Brainy. "We're
going to hunt him with sensors. I'll show you what I mean back at the
clubhouse."
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 15 - TRAPS OF DEATH
The amplified voice of Tazz suddenly boomed from the apex.
"Attention! I constantly underestimate you Legionnaires. I did not
think you would ever locate my undersea hideout in the first place, nor that
if you did find it, you would cleverly invade it through my own automatic
hatchway. So much is to your credit."
Then his voice changed, ominous with threat.
"But now you will find yourselves facing the Legionnaire dooms,
picking you off one by one. Come after me ... if you dare."
"We dare," was Invisible Kid's answer at the bottom of his catwalk
stairway. It was almost a whisper. When he saw that Sun Boy and Ferro Lad
had gained their catwalks, he waved a signal and all four began racing up the
winding stairways that hung suspended from the ceiling of the dome.
They didn't dare try flying in the dome with its many crossbeams
and guy wires, affording them too little maneuvering room. It was about
as tough as a Legion Flight Ring obstacle course. But they didn't want to
take the chance of Tazz hitting them with one of his many rays.
Being the most agile of the four, Invisible Kid went up the fastest,
keeping a wary eye on the globular chamber at the dome's apex. He jerked
back with hair-trigger reflexes as a blast-beam knifed down past his ear.
Brainiac 5 caught up with him and turned on his protective force-field.
Tazz's aim was handicapped, however, Brainy knew. He did not dare
aim too close to the stairway itself, or disintegrating metal would bring about
collapse. And he could not afford to weaken any part of his bracing system,
for the macro-pressured water outside would then crush the dome as flat as
a pancake in horrendous seconds.
Lyle made it harder for Tazz -- he turned invisible.
Tazz would have to try to pick them off with sideswiping shots from
strategic angles. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 took care to keep some portion
of the metal catwalk-stairs between himself and the apex chamber.
But why had Tazz been so confident they would meet Legionnaire
dooms?
Booby traps!
As the thought sprang into Lyle's mind, he tensed, slowing their
upward race. Now all his senses taunted to keen alertness. "Brainy, watch
out for booby traps," he warned.
Brainiac 5, in turn, alerted Sun Boy and Ferro Lad, via their
comm-link.
The short hairs on the back of Invisible Kid's neck bristled in
instinctive warning. Something did not look right ahead. What was it?
Then he noticed the slightly dull sheen of one step ahead of him, whereas
the rest were shiny polished metal.
Aha! One false step on that false step -- Lyle could not avoid
the play of words in his thoughts -- and Brainy and him would be goners
in some unknown way. "Hold it, Brainy," he said. Invisible Kid wanted to
set the trap off to make Tazz think it had worked, thus putting him off
guard.
Brainiac 5 saw Lyle become visible once again and point to the
false stair. Brainy immediately knew what it was supposed to be. He
extended his force-field to surround the both of them and motioned
for Invisible Kid to walk ahead. When they touched the bogus step, it
exploded with just enough force to kill them, yet not enough to damage
the stairway itself.
At the loud report, Sun Boy and Ferro Lad glanced that way across
the dome through the latticed structure of the triple stairways. Lyle reported
to them through the comm-link: "Watch out for booby traps, guys."
Ferro Lad tensed and turned on his power that made him
invulnerable. He wondered what lay ahead for him. Tazz would be too
clever to repeat booby traps, knowing that one sprung would tip off the
presence of the others. He looked closely at everything as he moved ahead.
Then he saw it, a large, poised mallet fastened to the railing, which
could easily brain someone. If you weren't looking for it, you could've easily
missed it. He looked at the steps. One seemed duller than the others. He bent
down and pressed the stair with his hand, and the giant club descended
viciously -- on empty air. It went right over Ferro Lad's head. Ferro Lad
continued on.
Sun Boy, climbing the third stairway, peered ahead warily, looking
for the unknown. Nothing seemed amiss. About to step ahead, a high-
pitched voice shrilled in his ear: "Stop, Dirk! That step ahead is triggered
with death."
Sun Boy looked at it more closely. He then aimed a blast of his
heat to the one stair that looked duller the others. A moment later, a dozen
long recessed needles sprang upward, their points tinted blue with poison.
They would have pierced upward through Dirk's boots into his feet.
Flying between the spikes safely, Shrinking Violet then swung
up past Sun Boy's face. "That was close."
"Thanks, Vi," Sun Boy managed to say, wiping his brow. "You
realize, now, that you had the privilege of saving my life," he said banteringly,
regaining his composure.
"Oh, lucky, lucky me!" buzzed Violet. "But I condemmed myself to
hearing your cracks for weeks and years ahead, unlucky me."
"Why do you admire my witticisms so much, Violet? I must say
something right all the time." Sun Boy grinned, then raced upward again.
Now all four Legionnaires -- Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Ferro Lad,
and Sun Boy -- met at the top landing and converged on Tazz's globular
chamber. "Hsst," said Lyle, crouching beside the door. "You rush in first,
Ferro Lad. Then Sun Boy can blind him with bright light. Then Ferro you
pick up Tazz, force-shield and all, and toss him around the room.
Invisible Kid nodded his head for the signal and Ferro Lad burst
through the door without opening it. Andrew went to one side of the room
and covered his eyes. Sun Boy sprang in. Tazz turned in amazement. "But
my booby traps ... the signal lights said they went off!"
"So we're ghosts," was Sun Boy's answer and he let loose with an
intense glow of brilliant light that blinded Tazz. Ferro Lad rushed over and
with his super-strength picked Tazz along with his force-shield up and threw
him into a wall. The jolt was so great and unexpected that Tazz's hand
accidently hit the control button for his force-field and turned it off.
Brainy and Invisible Kid entered the room next and the Legion's
top scientist could immediately see that Tazz was now unprotected.
Still blinded, Tazz had no idea he was now vulnerable. Brainy
yelled to Ferro Lad, "Grab him! He's unprotected!"
Though he still couldn't see, Tazz leaped up like a madman, leaned
his shoulder back and closed a big switch on the wall. A whining drone like
the sound of bagpipes filled the air, and suddenly Ferro Lad stopped in mid-
stride.
Sun Boy, who was preparing to blast Tazz with heat in alarm, froze
with his arm half-cocked. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 also stood frozen
as if petrified.
"My best booby trap," leered Tazz triumphantly. His sight now
coming back, allowing him to point at the projector extending from the
wall and radiating the skirling beams. "I know you can hear me, though
you are immobilized. This is my time-stopping ray. Briefly, that ray stops
time for any object or person it strikes. Since time is not ticking for you,
you cannot make your follow-up move of the next second -- which never
comes."
He waved at a monitor screen that showed the magnified flying form
of Shrinking Violet darting into the doorway. Violet was skirting around the
time-ray. Tazz turned a dial.
"A simple adjustment and the time-ray hits her too."
Violet froze in mid-air.
"The tiny female caught in the timeless trap," Tazz gloated. "But
where is the Colossal Oaf?"
Colossal Boy's mighty ten-foot form came crashing through the
side wall, out of range of the time-ray. Picking up a huge chunk of cement,
Gim hurled it at the time-ray projector, smashing it to bits.
The frozen figures came alive and continued where they had left
off. Ferro Lad jumped on Tazz and flung him against the wall. Seeing
Andrew had things under control, the rest of the Legionnaires relaxed.
"It looks as if one throw into the wall by Ferro Lad knocked him
out cold," crowed Sun Boy -- too soon.
For the sagging figure opened its eyes and spoke to them. "You
forget my human form is only a disguise for ..." His finger jabbed a belt-
button and they watched in revulsion as they saw the transformation that
only Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 had witnessed before on Mount Everest.
"... for my true form."
The hideous monster with purple-blotched skin, green lips, blue
hair, and fiery red eyes stood before them on his hooved feet, looking like
a nightmare that had somehow become reality.
"I can stand breathing your poisonous oxygenated air for a few
minutes," the ghastly creature mouthed. "And in this form we have one
elusive attribute, that of turning into intangible amorphous material."
With that, the monster turned milky in color and formed a cloud of
smoke that streamed out the door. Colossal Boy futilely tried to seize it, but
he grasped nothing solid.
Running out, they saw the smoke-villian pouring down through the
dome without need of steps, then into the water-hatchway and into its own
deep-sea vehicle parked next to that of the Legionnaires. Evidently changing
inside to solid form, and back to human-like Tazz, his amplified voice came
to them as they all raced down the stairway.
"You have won a minor skirmish," he snarled, "driving me away from
my dome. But you will never capture me when I vanish somewhere in your
vast outside world, lost when I mingle among billions of people."
The Legionnaires dashed up just as the inner door closed. On the
other side, they knew, the sea hatch was filling with water as the outer hatch
opened to let in the sea. Then Tazz could speed away in his deep-sea boat,
with a long head-start on them before the hatchway could be put through its
cycle again.
Panting, Lyle called for a quick conference.
"Let's size up the situation. Even though we didn't nab Tazz, what
advantages did we gain? For one thing, we got control of this undersea hide-
out of his. Will he have to come back for any reason?"
"I think so," said Brainiac 5. "Up in his control room, I noticed
another ray device that I think may be his time teleportation machine --
his only way of returning to the future. If I'm right, he'll have to come back
for that sooner or later -- or die when the world ends."
"Good!" cried Invisible Kid. "Then we'll leave one guard here.
Let's see ... how about Colossal Boy? He's equal to ten other men."
"Okay," agreed the giant teen. "Just let that creep try to sneak back
in and get past me."
"The rest of us back in the deep-sea craft," waved Lyle, as the inner
door opened again, drained of water. Soon after going through the egress
process, they sped out through the outer hatch.
Brainiac 5 turned on the long-range sensor, reading off measure-
ments from its return signals. "Just as I thought," he muttered. "Tazz has a
super-speed boat and is already surfacing."
Invisible Kid looked around slowly, haggardly. "That means to find
him we'll have to search the world."
"Every city, town and hamlet? gasped Violet. "Among billions and
billions of people?"
"Talk about a needle lost in a haystack," said Sun Boy bleakly --
"this is like trying to find one grain of sand lost on a beach. It's hopeless."
"Not the way we're going to do it," spoke up Brainy. "We're
going to hunt him with sensors. I'll show you what I mean back at the
clubhouse."
To be continued ...