April and Rick were both excited when their trip to one of the moons of planet Mongo had started.
"We're not getting anywhere close to Mongo," Dale told her kids who sat in the back of the spaceship, looking out of the windows. Even after accompaning her husband for many years on his expeditions, Dale too still found beauty in looking out of the window during their flights.
"But we can see it from the distance, right?" April asked, leaning forward. She had heard firsthand so much about the 10th planet, she really wanted to see it up close someday.
"Not today," her father said. "You can see it on the screen though. We're here... and that's the moon we're going to... and that little dot here far, far away is Mongo. And stop begging. I will not take you anywhere near there. It's dangerous. Ships approaching Mongo will most definitely get noticed and shot at. Everytime I've been there has been far from pleasant."
"I don't know what you want there," Rick said to his sister. "Getting shot at is nothing I want to experience. I know stopping Ming is important but there's nothing we can do about it now on our family trip."
"Well, if he's planning something, like an alien invasion, we should stop him," April insisted, even though she knew very well that her parents were serious when they said they would not get close to Mongo.
"Technically, it's not just aliens," Rick reminded her. "When Mongo was first discovered, prisoners from Earth were send there. Over time, the species of Mongo mixed with them. There are aliens on Mongo, but also humans, and a mixture of both. We don't know if Ming is fully alien - he just looks like it since he has green skin."
"But they all have powers of some kind," April replied. "That's not something an ordinary human would have. Although, I guess if some kind of dark sorcerer was banned to Mongo once - wasn't there some warlord in Ming's family tree?"
"There was," Dale agreed. "But nothing much is known whether he's from the same bloodline or not, even though the Royals of Mongo claim he is. Even though we've known about Mongo for a very long time now, there's still so much more to learn. The warlord trying to take over the whole universe resulted in an environmental desaster of great magnetude - half of planet Mongo is an icy desert now. That's why Ming wants to either take our rescources or take over Earth completely. Because if no solution is found, Mongo will be nothing but a dying planet."
"And unfortunately, Ming does not care about a peaceful solution," Flash said.
April noticed the dots on the screen getting bigger now. At the same time, however, the motors of the ship started to sound odd.
"What's going on, Dad?" Rick asked, noticing the looks his parents exchanged.
"There's something wrong with the engine," his father replied, looking worried. "We might need to do some repairs. I better prepare for a quick landing. The moon is right below us."
"Flash!" Dale exclaimed while hurriedly pressing buttons. "Look at the temperature - the engine will overheat soon!"
"Crap!" Flash said, grabbing the steering wheel hard. "Try send an emergency signal to the Space Center, Dale. I'll try to land us somewhere."
"Why not on the moon?" April asked, noticing that her father now had steered away from the moon and was flying as fast as he dared to go.
"Because if the ship explodes, we'll be exposed to Mongo Winter there - and if Dale can't get an emergency signal through, we'll be stranded there with no hope of rescue - and the temperatures there are worse than on Mongo, we would not survive very long without having a ship to shield us from the cold."
"I'm trying," Dale said. "But all functions are down..."
"And it's getting hot in here," Rick said, sounding terrified.
"Trying to reach Mongo as quick as possible," Flash said between gritted teeth. "At least there, we'll have contacts to help us."
"Flash, this isn't good...", his wife started.
"I know - but what choice do we have?"
"The ship's on fire!" Rick suddenly screamed. It was extremely hot now.
They only made it to Mongo thanks to Flash's exceptional flying skills. The ship hit the ground hard. Thankfully, the doors still opened.
"Out, everyone out!" Flash shouted, shoving Rick out of the door.
Everyone stumbled out in the snow. The freezing cold hit them hard after being stuck on the hot ship for some time. Flash and Dale dragged Rick and April along with them and finally pushed them down into the snow while behind them, their ship exploded.
"Where are you going?" Kshin asked, which annoyed LJ greatly. Moving to Central City with his father hadn't been a bad thing, really. LJ liked city life and he liked Mandrake, too. The house was awesome. His bedroom was huge and from his bedroom window, he could overlook the whole garden which was more like a fancy park than an ordinary garden. But Kshin, the little boy Mandrake was fostering, was just annoying. They were a few years apart in age and LJ wanted to do "cool stuff" instead of hanging around with a literal kid.
"Out," he replied.
"Can I come?" Kshin asked. "We could go eat icecream or see a movie..."
LJ doubted that the movies he liked to watch would be appropriate for Kshin. He did feel sorry - Mandrake lived away from town and without a car or some other form of transport one was stranded here. Still, maybe Kshin could invite some friends over instead of getting on LJ's nerves all the time.
"Not now, I'm meeting some people who will hopefully be in my classes once school starts," he replied. And we would certainly not showing up with a kid tagging along.
"I understand." Kshin sighed. "Well, have fun, LJ."
Kshin left and Lothar, coming down the stairs in that very moment, shook his head. "You know, just try to be nicer, son," he said. "Kshin is pretty lonely here and unlike you has no chance to get anywhere without somebody driving him. Why don't you play some video games with him when you come back?"
"Maybe," LJ replied. He didn't want to play kid games. But on the other hand, he didn't want to be rude to Mandrake's son either.
"Just put yourself in his shoes for a moment. That's all I ask," Lothar said.
"I'll think about it, Pops," LJ said bevor leaving the house.
Lothar went to find Mandrake who was reading the newspaper in the living room.
"Another alien attack," he said, when Lothar entered. "When will it end, my friend?"
"Not likely very soon, I think," Lothar replied.
"Did you find out anything more?" Mandrake inquired. "About Cathleen and her whereabouts, I mean."
"No," Lothar had to admit. "I tried, but I keep hitting dead ends. It's like she doesn't want to be found."
"Told you so, old friend."
"I'm not giving up," Lothar said. "She did use some aliases back in the day. If nothing comes up under her real name, I'll give those a try."
But somehow, he wasn't sure if this would work. Mandrake was right, if Cathleen wanted to stay hidden, she would stay hidden. However - apparently she wanted something...?
At the same time in Washington, Amy O'Connor shook her head when her little foster brother tried to grab the burning candle her foster mother bad placed on the living room table. Little Davy was the only one here who genuinely liked her and she returned the feeling.
"Don't do that, Davy," she gently scolded him. "A candle is not a toy. Let's play with something else instead, okay?"
"Did you do your homework? What about your chores?" Her foster father put his newspaper down and glared at her. "Life's not all play and fun, you know."
"I know," Amy quickly assured him. The man had a really bad temper which he took out on anyone that had the misfortune of being near him, including his wife and real kids. "I did my homework and helped with the cleaning and the dishes. It's all done."
"Can we play?" Davy begged.
"Well, you can wash my car then," the foster father said. "I have no patience for lazy children. Go make yourself useful, girl."
"I wanna play!" Davy screamed and tried to get Amy's attention by grabbing the candle - which tumbled over and fell.
"Davy, no!" Amy cried - and then stopped. Automatically, she had reached for the falling candle but she'd been too far away - and it should have fallen onto the carpet. Instead, it lingered in the air. She stared at her outstretched hand. Did she do that?
"Cool!" Davy whispered, clearly impressed.
Amy didn't find it very cool. She found it rather scary. With shaking hands, she grabbed the candle and put it back on the table, far away from Davy's little hands.
Next thing she knew, she was hit with the rolled up newspaper - in her face, hard. She stumbled backwards and Davy started to cry.
"Enough of your freakshow, girl," her foster father shouted. "I don't know what this was, but it was not normal! I told the foster agency that we would take a normal kid in, not an alien or any of this modern nonsense - we're on Earth and on Earth, people are not supposed to do... do this!"
"I'm sorry," she cried, scared and confused. She didn't know what was happening. "Please, I didn't try to do this - I don't understand either, I..."
"Enough of this!" her foster father shouted at her. "Go to your room and stay there until we've decided what to do with you!"
Quickly, Amy ran to her room. Laurel wasn't home, so she was on her own. Sie locked herself in - which she was forbidden to do, but she was too scared to care. With shaking hands, she grabbed her phone. But who could she call? She didn't have many friends at school and she wasn't close enough with anyone to tell them that she had stopped a candle from falling by... well, magic?
Taking a deep breath, she thought of her mother. If only she could call her. Maybe her mother had seen her do weird stuff when she was little and had dumped her because of it? Maybe that's why she had left...
Mandrake the Magician...
Rememering the name from her dream, Amy quickly typed it into a search engine. Some pictures came up from a dark-haired, blue-eyed man in this thirties with a mustache. He was a stage magician, which seemed an odd choice for a career. Nevertheless, she started clicking link after link. Not much was known of his magician. He was living in a huge mansion outside of Central City and seemed to be a rather private person. His shows were legendary. She was tempted to click on one of the videos but didn't want to use up all her phone data. Some articles said his powers were real - illusions and – telekinesis.
Looking down at her hands, Amy started wondering. Was what she just had done some form of telekinesis? And - she did look like her mother but he also had the same hair- and eyecolor. Which could be a coincidence, but still...
She lifted her hands, looked over at a book on Laurel's bed and tried to move it. It didn't move at all. She tried it again. And again. And again. And suddenly, it did move. Very little a first, but after a while and with more concentration, it started to float in the air.
"Wow," she whispered, moving the book from one end of the bed to the other and back again. "This is... kind of amazing..."
Or it would be, if she had some answers.
"But I'll get answers," she quietly said to herself and moved the book up as high as the ceiling.
Mandrake the Magician... who was he? Was she related to him? Well.. she was determined to find out!
Meanwhile, Garax quickly entered the throneroom. Ming was ordering some servants about but when he saw Garax entering in a hurry, he impatiently dismissed them all. They bowed down low and left quickly.
"What is it, Garax?" he demanded to know.
"Sir," Garax said, bowing in front of his mighty emperor. "Octon reported a spaceship from Earth has landed on Mongo."
His immediately had Ming's interest. "Do you know more?" he asked.
"Not yet, Mighty Ming," the Chief Commander of the ice robots admitted. "But our troops are on their way already. They will report as soon as they know more."
"Good," Ming replied, grinning wickedly while petting the head of his pet, Mungor. "Get them and bring them here and then report back to me. If it's someone unimportant, they can rot in the ice dungeons forever. And for everyone else, I'll have my new Inquisitor ready."
Note: I guess while in the show the ship malfunctions happened when the plot demanded it it has to be somewhat plausible in fiction... especially when taking a ship from the Space Center. Before someone takes one, I'd guess that they're all getting checked out first. Well... maybe they didn't check this one out since it was no regular schedule expedition. Maybe Flash's boss gave him a favor by allowing his most famous space pilot to take his family out for a few hours... who knows. I hope it works like that.
Note: I really dislike writing Ming for some reason...
