|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:32:16 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:38:42 GMT
The Return of Dr. Boom IntroductionA mysterious saboteur is blowing up Hollywood movie production companies. Can even Flux and Dr. Lambda avert disaster as they meet the menacing mystery of Dr. Boom?SettingLos Angeles, California : Midsummer, 1942
On the Road to… Los AngelesNed Quest, a very tall, muscular, dark haired scientist and inventor for the War Department, wasn't surprised when his boss called him into his office and introduced him to a Navy officer; it happened frequently these days. He was a little surprised when he was ordered to Los Angeles. The young officer did his best to make it sound like a polite request, but Ned knew otherwise.
“Dr. Quest, we'd like you to demonstrate your new radar system to Major General O’Neill, Commander of the West Coast office of the War Department, and a panel of War Department experts next week in Los Angeles. We've already made arrangements to ship your prototype radar to Los Angeles via rail, and here are your round-trip airplane tickets. If the panel decides to adopt your system, we'd like you to stay on a few extra days to help the Eastinghouse radar plant switch over production from the current system to yours.”
Ned wondered why they couldn't do the demonstration closer to Marble City, Md, where he lived and worked. The officer revealed that several other civilians, all currently based on the West Coast, would be demonstrating their inventions or improvements to the same panel, and that O’Neill's team was considered the top technical team in the War Department. So Mohammed would go to the mountain. Ned oversaw the process of securely packing his prototype onto a box car, and a couple of days later caught a train for the short ride from Marble City, Md. to Washington, DC. From there he caught a transcontinental flight to Los Angeles. The box car would be diverted to the military base where Ned would make his demonstration.On the Road to… HollywoodCitalalmina Olin got a short, very expensive long distance telephone call from her best friend growing up, Lynette Barri, who was now a budding Hollywood movie star.
“Mina, I'm so excited! I've signed for one of the lead roles in a new Saturday serial by Public Pictures Studio. I'd really love it if you could come to Hollywood and be my personal makeup artist during the filming. You know just how to make me look my best, and you'll get paid a lot, and get to live in style, and meet all the stars, and your name will be in the final credits!”
Mina was currently between jobs. She'd worked at her mother's salon for several years, and always figured she'd inherit the salon some day, but mum had decided to retire when the building burned down recently. Mina was just realizing that with her new powers, she had a lot more life options available than she'd thought a couple of months ago. With her enhanced speed of thought, she could read textbooks in minutes, so college was no longer such an intimidating prospect. But a short term high paying contract doing work she was good at and a chance to see her best friend again were great opportunities that she shouldn't pass up. She packed a grip and caught a train from Turquoise City, NM to Los Angeles, headed for the bright lights of Hollywood!
Next: The Crash of the Shrike |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:41:38 GMT
The Return of Dr. Boom The Crash of the Shrike
A single engine monoplane fighter sporting a single bomb dangling beneath the fuselage climbed slowly above Fort Echo Gulch, a small military proving grounds in a wide valley in the San Gabriel Mountains. The plane was struggling awkwardly through a sluggish upward spiral in a fight to gain altitude. The turns and maneuvers gradually became crisper, though the plane still had problems with the climb. Suddenly, ack ack shells began exploding near the plane but never hit it, releasing strange payloads - what appeared to be hundreds of bird silhouettes made of tin foil, which filled the sky and often obscured sight of the plane as they fluttered to the ground.
Finally, the struggling fighter turned and dove, beginning a strafing run along a dirt road leading out of the base farther into the mountains. Two lines of small puffs of dust rose from the dirt, and then pellets began pinging off of several armored vehicles parked to the side of the road.
There was a cluster of people and equipment well away from the area being targeted. Elevated well above the ground on a mechanical hydraulic column, a man sat in what appeared to be a dismounted cockpit of a small plane, similar to the fighter, the cockpit spinning as required to keep the plane in his sight. The base of the column was connected to a large trailer by a rat's next of cables and wires. Two groups of men clustered around nearby tables which each sported a radar scope, each connected to portable generators and spinning radar dishes mounted on the heavy trailers parked nearby.
Then the plane struggled out of its dive and released its single bomb, which flew unerringly towards a barn at the end of the road. Just before the bomb hit, a short, wide man, kneeling well away from the strafing, captured the plane in the site of his bazooka and fired. The rocket-propelled shell tore through the air, hit the fuselage of the plane just below the wing, and exploded violently. The wreckage tumbled through the air and crashed behind the barn, while the whistling bomb smashed accurately into the structure's raised stone foundation, crumpled, and fell harmlessly to the ground.
The men clustered around the tables, all in US military uniforms, cheered the explosion. The two civilians who had been controlling the radar systems, one a small, wide woman and the other, Dr. Ned Quest, rose and threaded their ways through the jungle of equipment and trailers, carefully avoiding the spiderweb of wires and cables, to the base of the now descending hydraulic column. They greeted a tall, sandy-haired man as he climbed out of the cockpit, and the three fell instantly into a a deep discussion of radio and radar theory.Panel DiscussionA few minutes later, the group gathered in a conference room to discuss the demonstration. The panel of military experts carefully evaluated the results of the demonstration, determining whether each invention or development might be a useful addition to the Arsenal of Democracy. Much of the discussion consisted of grilling the civilian presenters with technical questions and requests for ever more esoteric theoretical details.
A few minutes later, several MPs were removing the bazooka shooter, Werner Hauser, from the room as he screamed threats and curses, mostly in German. Hauser had been demonstrating his new explosive compound - which had totally demolished the small Curtis A-12 Shrike in an explosion somewhat more powerful than a similar amount of conventional explosive would have produced. Ned knew some chemistry, and after Hauser had reluctantly provided the formula for his explosive, Ned had asked about the stability of the compound at elevated temperatures. Hauser had angrily admitted that it became unstable in temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but he was working on it, damnit! Major General O’Neill had ruled against providing ammunition to the military that might explode on a hot day.
Ned was sure he had seen Anne Cavanaugh, the short, middle-aged woman who was demonstrating a radar system competing with his own. Her jet black hair and striking beauty and complexion were a combination he was sure he couldn't forget. But after she spoke, he was equally sure he could never have met her before - he would have remembered her high squeaky voice and her heavy, almost incomprehensible South Sea accent. Her improvements to existing radar systems were deemed a modest success, as the observers had actually been able to see both the shape and relative size of the small fighter on her radar screen, rather than just a dot, but the range was short and the detection capabilities had been overwhelmed by the aluminum foil chaff. Her radar screen had turned an almost solid white as soon as the silhouettes had filled the sky, and it had become impossible to locate the plane in that cloud of white.
“Dr. Quest's radar doesn't have the same resolution for details as your system, Miss Cavanaugh,” O’Neill told her politely. “But his system's range is much greater, and was able to filter out the false signals produced by the chaff. Perhaps you could work with Dr. Quest and see if you can add finer resolution to his equipment?”
Cavanaugh wasn't as loud or rude as Hauser had been, but she wasn't pleased with the suggestion that she work with Ned. When O’Neill announced that the War Department was going to adopt Ned's new radar for immediate implementation by the US military, she asked him to arrange her immediate return to Los Angeles, and she didn't even stick around to see to the disposition of her own prototype.
Charles Beauchamp was also middle-aged, a few inches over 6 feet, with thinning sandy red hair and apparently in exceptional physical condition. O’Neill and the rest of the panel were very excited about his radio remote control system for airplanes, though they also noted some shortcomings. The apparatus was so heavy and bulky that the small plane had been barely able to fly, it was limited to line of sight control, and it had taken Beauchamp some time to become adept at flying a plane by watching it, rather than looking out from inside the cockpit. “Go back and work out the kinks, Charles. When you're ready, don't bother to wait for our next trial - please contact me directly!” General O’Neill encouraged him enthusiastically.
The military members of the panel went back to their normal jobs, while an aide to O’Neill worked out the scheduling between Ned and the experts at the Eastinghouse facility. Then a luxuriously appointed staff car returned Ned Quest and Charles Beauchamp to Los Angeles. Just outside the city, the driver pulled the car off the road and into a small copse of trees, explaining to the men that he had just received radio notification of an air raid alert in the city. Their military escorts refused to let them out of the car, so they had an extra hour for conversation. They enjoyed a detailed discussion of electromagnetic theory during the forced pause and the rest of the ride, and when they parted, both men were eager to get back to their inventions and apply new knowledge and insights gained from the conversation.
Next: Welcome to the Production Crew |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:43:59 GMT
The Return of Dr. Boom Welcome to the Production CrewThat same morning… No filming was scheduled for today, as most of the day was devoted to meetings, introducing the cast and crew, discussing the shooting schedule, logistics and seemingly endless details. Mina hung around with Lyn, and they caught up on news and gossip. The two were physically a lot different, Lyn much taller and curvy, with porcelain skin and long, wavy brown hair, while Mina was short and wiry, with very short, coal black hair.
“So most of the boys we know have signed up by now.” Mina told her friend, a little sadly. They both knew some of those boys probably wouldn't come back from the war. “Terry is running for City Council, a big jump from Student Body President! But she definitely has a body! And Nelly's finally getting some modeling work. We all figured she'd be here in Hollywood already.” Lyn smirked at that; she and Nelly had been rivals all through high school. “The Blue Broncos beat the Wildcats in our Homecoming game. And the Roadrunners beat Wyeleagh!” Their high school football team was the East Corona Blue Broncos, while the Roadrunners were the football team for Turquoise City State College. It was great that both schools beat their hated rivals!
“Every guy you meet in Hollywood will claim to know some famous director or other, and he'll introduce you if you're really nice to him tonight, and then he won't even remember your name tomorrow,” Lynette countered. “Gretta Farlee goes through men like chewing gum and brags about it. Her studio pays a fortune to the gossip mags to keep quiet so all America will see her as 'the girl next door'. Well, maybe if you grew up living next door to Nelly? And definitely stay away from Bart Elbert! He likes to get women drunk and then pregnant, and then he throws them away,” This wasn't really a threat for Mina; her super-fast metabolism made it hard for her to even get tipsy. “And Baron Glynn, the lead for this picture, is a totally jackass. He's not even here yet!”
There was a commotion at the door. “Well, speak of the Devil, and who shows up?”
Swarthy, handsome, but vaguely sinister lead actor Baron Glynn walked on stage, surrounded by a fawning posse. He was carrying a rolled up copy of the script, stabbing the air with it as if it were a dagger and yelling at everyone around him. “This script is garbage! It makes my character sound like an idiot. That bimbo Barri gets better lines than I do!” Glynn was playing the lead, the brilliant wallflower police scientist Cary Crabgrass, who gets transformed into the dashing superhero The Rush, while beautiful curvy brunette Lynette Barri played his lab assistant, Cassie Sassafrass, who could barely stand Crabgrass but would quickly become The Rush's love interest.
“Of course I get better lines than he does because I know how to deliver them better than he does,” Lyn fumed. “He's had the damned script for a month, but I'll bet he didn't start reading it until 10 minutes ago. That's assuming he can read, of course.” She turned and stomped into the studio canteen.
Mina followed her, and tried to lighten her mood. “Thanks for getting me hired on, Lyn! It is incredibly exciting working here in Hollywood! I saw Carole Lombardi on the street yesterday! She and Anne Cavanaugh and Tom Mix used to be our favorites!” She frowned at the memory of Tom Mix, gone too soon, and quickly moved on. “Remember how I wanted to be Anne and you wanted to be Carole when we were growing up? It's like you got your wish!” Then she frowned again. “I wonder why we never see Anne in the talkies?”
“She's from Tahiti, you know?” Mina nodded; of course she knew everything about her idol. “I've met her, and talked to her, and she's got such a strong accent it's hard to even understand her, so nobody will cast her in a speaking role - and she's not interested in bit parts any more. It's too bad, to be famous like that and then fall into obscurity.” She frowned as well - for two girls on the rise, falling out of fame wasn't something they wanted to think about. “I'm not nearly as famous as Carole Lombardi, not yet anyway, but this serial should be really popular, and help me get some really good roles - if I can stand working with Glynn that long!”
Before Mina could reply, something caught her attention. She stopped and listened intently. Faintly, she could make out the screaming of a siren. Before she could comment, another joined in, and then a much louder one, closer.
“I'm going to go see what that's all about!” she told her friend.
They could also hear yelling coming from the studio. “Sounds like the director wants to talk to the cast. I guess I'll see you later.” Lyn headed back out of the canteen and the two parted company.The Revolutionary Model T Ford BombMina pushed open the rear door of the canteen, and vanished before it swung shut, replaced by a turquoise blue and yellow blur racing toward the sirens. Flux passed a police car tearing through the streets to the south, so she headed in that direction. As well as the usual police and fire sirens, she recognized Air Raid sirens; one of this morning's meetings had been specifically concerned with the threat of an Axis attack on Los Angeles. City residents were still on high alert after the February 'Battle of Los Angeles', and already she could see Civilian Defense volunteers on the streets, directing citizens toward emergency shelters. Cars were pulling off to the sides of streets, leaving the centers clear for emergency vehicles as drivers then headed for the nearest shelters. She scanned the skies as she ran, but saw nothing other than clouds.
Ahead was a walled compound; above the wide open gate was a sign that proclaimed this to be the home of “Columbus Pictures”. She could see smoke rising from somewhere inside the compound, but before she reached the gate, she saw something moving in a side street and came to an abrupt halt.
Rolling down the middle of the side street was… a giant bomb!? The Turquois Tornado zoomed in circles around it. The vehicle was absurd; it looked like a humorous entry in a parade, except for the prior explosion which suggested that this thing was a serious danger. Someone had removed the cab from a Model T Ford, and replaced the entire passenger compartment with a cartoon bomb - a shiny black sphere as tall as Flux was, with a rope dangling from a projection on the top, and the rope was burning! There was a camera, similar to the movie cameras she'd seen this morning, mounted on the hood, and where the trunk had been, a metal box with a miniature wire radio dish mounted on top. She raced up and grabbed the rope, gave a super speed yank, and it broke off. The T-Bomb obstinately kept rolling forward, occasionally changing directions in slow motion to avoid a car that had been abandoned in the middle of the deserted street.
For an instant, Flux was stymied. She had to assume it was still going to explode - what would happen If she was close by, could she outrun the blast? But she had to stop it even if it meant being caught in an explosion - but how could she stop a car? She thought fast - maybe the old style Model T wheels with wooden spokes offered a solution? Could she somehow jam the spokes or even break them?
She'd passed several stores on the way here. The giant local Sears seemed like the best bet. At sight-blurring super-speed, she vibrated through the door and raced through the store to the Hardware section. Near the back she found a bin with some lengths of pipe. She picked up two 6“ sections of 1.5 inch steel pipe, the longest and heaviest she could carry easily, and raced back to the studio, dropping the pipes in the intersection. In 'Flux Time' she raced around the nearest streets, occasionally dropping out of super speed near a person, warning them of another explosion and making sure they ran in the opposite direction. When she'd scoured a couple of blocks this way, she returned to the intersection and got ready to stop the T-Bomb.
She watched the vehicle move slowly into the intersection, then turn toward the studio. She increased her perception speed to max, and with her enhanced reflexes it was easy to slip one pipe through the spokes of each rear wheel. She then raced through the buildings and streets nearby, one more time, to make sure the Civil Defense volunteers were clear of the potential blast. The wheels spun the pipes up into the chassis, they jammed, several wooden spokes on each wheel were shattered, the engine stalled, the real wheels collapsed, and the T-bomb slid to a tilted halt. It sat there, silent and unmoving for seconds, and Flux continued to scour the streets during those seconds. She was starting to consider whether this bomb might have been a dud, or been somehow disarmed when the car was wrecked, when it exploded!
During the last 40 minutes of subjective 'Flux Time', she'd been thinking about explosions. Her powers allowed her to slice through air at almost 500 mph, and vibrate her body so that she could pass through solid matter at that same speed. And she was invulnerable to the most extreme heat she'd been able to seek out since she'd received her powers. So she thought she could probably face an explosion safely… maybe.
She later found out that near an explosion, the blast wave of air could be moving at more than twice the speed of sound, and the air pressure could go up to as much as 10 atmospheres. Even as insubstantial as she was, when the blast wave hit her, if felt like doing a belly flop from a 30 feet high tower - it DID pass through her, but it stung like heck, and she was sure her entire frontside was going to be covered in bruises until her enhanced metabolism could heal her. She forced herself back into super speed motion, looking for anyone who might not have been able to get away, and was pleased to note that while the explosion had blasted a hole 3 feet deep into the street, the walls of the buildings nearby managed to remain standing, although all the windows for at least 3 blocks were shattered.
The next 3 hours were grueling, aiding the emergency responders. She helped put out fires, dig through rubble, give first aid to the wounded, and finally, repeated her story to police and military officers, as well as Civilian Defense agents, all of whom were now on the scene.
“The second explosion was caused by a car with a bomb mounted on it,” Flux reported, for about the 12th time. Now that she was still, the people around her could see her costume, a turquoise skin tight body suit, with yellow flames engulfing her right side, and a black domino mask.
“It was definitely under remote control; I watched it change directions before it exploded. And no, there were no markings on it, no Rising Sun flags and no swastikas.” And finally, she'd had enough. “Look, guys, there's no more I can tell you. I'll be in Hollywood for a while, so maybe I'll run into you again. See ya!” She vanished, leaving behind a fading blue blur, and raced back to the Public Pictures Studio lot. “Wouldn't do for Mina Olin to get fired on her first day on the job!”
She needn't have worried; the teams had spent a couple of hours in shelters and the afternoon's work had been postponed. By now, they'd heard some secondhand accounts of events at the rival studio, and most of the cast and crew was somber - they all had friends working at Columbus Pictures, and some weren't sure yet if their friends had survived. Only the producer, director, and Glynn seemed cheerful. Columbus serials were the biggest competitor to those produced here, and the serial currently in production at Columbus, Captain Democracy and PFC vs. the Atomic Mole Men from Mars, was widely expected to be the most thrilling action adventure picture every filmed. If Columbus Pictures was unable to complete the production, The Rush vs. The Deadly Menace of Dr. Boom and the Minions of Devastation wouldn't have any serious box office competition and should turn out to be a smash hit!
The director could see that there wouldn't be much life from his actors today, so sent the team home. “But you better come ready for hard work tomorrow, 'cause we're gonna make up for missing a day.” He turned to Glynnn. “You damn well better know your lines tomorrow, or you're fired!” Glynnn didn't reply, merely “harumphed”, turned and stomped out. The rest of the crew filed out, their moods subdued.
The “Hollywood Home Tour” Mina had scheduled for tonight was canceled. She and Lyn had a quiet dinner together, followed by a theater that showed silent films. They watched an old favorite, The Pirates of Tahiti, which starred the ill-fated Tom Mix as pirate captain Silvertooth Dubinion, Carole Lombardi as his bloodthirsty mate 'One-eyed Kate' Kiernan, and Annie Cavanaugh as the Tahitian princess Pipiri with whom Silvertooth fell in love.
“The first time we watched this movie is when I decided I wanted to be an actress,” Lyn recalled fondly. “If I recall, you insisted that you were going to be a pirate.”
“It looks like you're getting your wish,” Mina replied cheerfully. “I've changed my mind about being a pirate, though. I think I want to go to TC State and get started on a degree in archaeology, once this movie is done.”Flying Bombs and the BombmobileThe next day, Ned was delivered early to the Eastinghouse factory where he eagerly dived into work with the factory's top radio engineers. They discussed the theory and the differences between Ned's system and the standard radars they were already building, and then moved on to the schematics, and finally to production planning. Ned had used Eastinghouse's most advance radar as the basis for his innovations, so many components, such as the power supply, returning signal amplifier, display and antenna didn't need any rework at all. The Eastinghouse production specialists were certain that they could switch over the assembly process easily. They expected they could have the first production model ready for testing in as little as two day and were already discussing potential refinements to Ned's own innovations.
They were eager to get started without the imported expert looking over their shoulders, which left Ned free for the remainder of the day. Free to change into Dr. Lambda's costume, red trimmed in gray with a copper-colored half helmet and stubby Stellar Scepter, and get a high level tour of Los Angeles.
He aimed the Scepter to the sky, thought a command, and took to the air. Around 3 stories up, he heard an explosion miles away, the sound amplified by his helmet. He turned and saw a cloud of smoke and dust rising near a mountain ridge to the north of the city.
He commanded his helmet visor to zoom in, and was stunned to see that an explosion had just destroyed part of the big Hollywoodland sign on the mountainside. Lambda instantly aimed his Stellar Scepter in that direction and took off at his best speed. By now, air raid sirens were blaring again throughout the city. He realized that the Scepter was intercepting some unusual radio signals, and ahead of him he could see a very small propeller-driven airplane, perhaps 6' long with similar wingspan, half a mile from the sign. As he raced towards the sign, he noted the direction of the unusual signals, then turned his full attention to the plane.
As he closed, the Scepter detected other unusual radio signals, and then the plane began to change course. 'Evasive action, radar, remote control - best guess, the second in a pair of remote controlled flying bombs,' he thought grimly. 'I can apologize later if I'm wrong!' A faintly glowing beam lanced out from the Scepter and speared the plane, which was then wrapped in a tight ball. He waved the Scepter up, and the ball was tossed high in the air. About a quarter mile up, Dr. Lambda's guess was confirmed as the small plane blew up in a massive explosion. The explosion shattered the force ball holding it, and feedback through the Stellar Scepter slammed into the mystery hero, who was jolted powerfully, like taking a punch from Major Power! He lost his concentration and was suddenly falling; he twisted frantically until he could point the Scepter UP and commanded it to LIFT!
He didn't look down; he didn't want to know. Instead, as soon as his head cleared, he started scanning the sky for new threats, while starting to fly in the direction of the mysterious signals - which had not surprisingly gone silent after the explosion. South and a little east, a couple of miles - the La Brea Tar Pits… and in a nearby parking lot, a much larger version of the TBomb he'd read about in the papers this morning! This bowling ball bomb was maybe 16' in diameter, sitting on the chassis of a small truck, once again with a burning “fuse”. On top was mounted a radar dish and a sophisticated radio antenna.
'That must be the source of the remote control signals I detected,' Dr. Lambda thought grimly to himself. 'Here's were I wrap this up!' He dove at the device - and then something struck him from below and shattered against his force field, and then another and another. He pulled out of his dive and hovered to see what was shooting at him, and a couple more projectiles struck and shattered, and then the pelting stopped - and below him he saw a turquoise blue-costumed woman with a rock in her hand. He recognized her from the description in the morning paper. 'It's Flux, that high speed mystery girl from New Mexico. Why is she attacking me?'
When she saw that he was hovering, she dropped the stone she was holding and made a 'come here' gesture. Dr Lambda scanned the sky one more time, made a mental note to add radar capabilities to his helmet as soon as he could, and dropped cautiously to the ground. Extra cautiously, because he still wasn't good with landings and didn't want to embarrass himself in front of another mystery hero, but this time he landed gently and without stumbling.
Next: Historic Meeting |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:47:03 GMT
The Return of Dr. Boom Historic Meeting“YoureDoctorLambdaright?ImFluxanditsatrap!” Lambda heard high-pitched squeal and could barely make out separate words. “BoyIsurehopeIdonthavetokeepthrowingstonestokeepyourattention!”
“Apparently you talk as fast as the newsies say you move, young lady,” he spoke loudly. “Please slow down so I can understand you!”
“SorryImstillgettingusedtobeingtheworld'sfastesthumanandwhenImexciteditistoughtoslowdown!” A short, high pitched chirp. She took several long, deep breaths, though even to Dr. Lambda's enhanced reflexes, she appeared to be rapidly hyperventilating. “OnceI turnon myspeed, I still haveto concentrate toturn it off again.” Her words became slower and more understandable through the sentence, and at the end, her speech was back to normal. Her normal voice was a little lower pitched than he expected from her size, and to his East Coast ears she had an unusual accent, a touch of Spanish mixed with something he'd never heard before.
“I stopped that remote control bomb yesterday and it looked just like that thing,' she pointed at the truck bomb in front of the, “except not as big. I think this is a trap and that thingwill explodeifyougettooclosetoit.” She was getting excited again.
Dr. Lambda had been about to ignore her and rush in. He expected to find the person who had been remotely controlling the plane in this vehicle, based on the antenna on the roof, but her agitation made him think twice. Ned had been in the staff car yesterday when the TBombs had been exploding, and the driver and escort, both military non-coms, had refused to let either Ned or Charles Beauchamp out of the car until it was confirmed on their radio that the danger was over. So he had never seen the TBomb. But the explosion of that small flying bomb had been much more powerful than he'd expected. If the much bigger 'bomb' in front of them was filled with that same explosive, it would probably not only kill him but devastate several square blocks nearby. It couldn't hurt to be careful.
Earlier this year when he'd met Major Power for the first time, the two heroes had tested the limits of their powers. The lifting power they could apply was about equal. With his own muscle power, Major Power had labored to lift an M6 tank, which weighed around 55 tons, and the Stellar Scepter had barely matched that feat. Dr. Lambda sat down, ordered the Scepter to set up a force cylinder around the truck bomb, open at the top, and then lifted - and compared to lifting a tank, it was easy! The reaction time of the remote controller was fairly slow. When Dr. Lambda's energy construct was about a quarter mile up, the Scepter recorded a burst of radio energy and then the truck bomb exploded. Dr. Lambda had channeled as much power as possible into reinforcing his cylinder and this extra power had the desired effect - most of the blast of the massive explosion was channeled upward toward the sky.
Years later, some people who had been on the ground would compare the noise they heard to a nearby sonic boom - some eardrums ruptured, a lot of windows shattered, people knocked to the ground - but nothing catastrophic. Dr. Lambda's containment field lasted less than 2 seconds, and the feedback through the Stellar Scepter knocked him unconscious. Hot debris rained down from the sky; Flux shifted into 'Flux time' and criss-crossed the area where stuff was falling, knocking aside small pieces and moving some startled observers a few paces if necessary to avoid the larger falling junk.
Dr. Lambda was already recovering; he sat up and put his head down on his knees as Flux raced up to him after making sure the nearby civilians were safe. “Whatsupdoc?” she squealed as she halted nearby. “OhnoImsorry Ibetyou hearthat all the time.” Her squeal slowed down into normal speech.
Dr. Lambda raised his head. “Sorry, I must have a bit of a concussion - my ears are ringing and I can't hear you.” He closed his eyes for several seconds. “That's better. I get well pretty fast these days. Thanks for the warning earlier - if I hadn't been prepared for that explosion, it probably would have killed me!” He rose slowly to his feet, then turned, looking almost directly northeast and then southwest.”Somewhere along that line is the transmitter that I think sent the signal to that thing to blow up. Want to help me find it?”
Copycat Villain“A couple miles through the city to the ocean, or a couple miles to the mountains,” Flux mused as she looked along the line Dr. Lambda indicated. “I pick the city. Dr. Boom isn't the type of mad scientist to choose a cave in the mountains.”
“Hold on a minute - who's Dr. Boom?” Dr. Lambda asked. “And how do you know this is the work of Dr. Boom?”
“Dr. Boom is one of the main villains in Terrific Two Comics,” she replied seriously. “He fights the Rush or Susie Whirlwind almost every issue, and sometimes in both stories in the same issue. And, he's the major villain in the movie Public Pictures is working on right now. CmonIllshowyou!”
She was off like a bullet; Dr. Lambda leaped into the air and pointed the Scepter. If he hadn't been flying, he would have had difficult keeping up with her, even though she was hardly running in a straight line, detouring around a lot of buildings, but she occasionally vanished into the side of a building and then appeared almost instantly out the far wall of that same building. In only minutes, they'd reached the Public Pictures Studio, now empty as everyone had made their ways to various air raid shelters for the second day in a row. Flux raced up to a big storage building, through the wall, and unlocked the door from the inside. Dr. Lambda was stunned at what the building contained!
Near a big sliding door were several wheeled vehicles - a couple of TBombs and a much bigger Truck Bomb, all of which appeared to be duplicates of the ones which had exploded in the past two days. On the floor nearby was a fleet of flying bombs, again appearing identical to the one which had blasted Dr. Lambda earlier. He instantly wrapped himself and Flux in a powerful force shield. “We should get back! If they explode, we'd never survive!”
“ThesearepropsforthemovieImworkingon,” Flux squealed. “Theyareallusedinthemovieby Dr.BoommortalenemyoftheRush!” Dr. Lambda could barely understand her, she was so excited. “Thesearejustpropsbuttheylookjustliketherealthings.”
Flux made a visible effort to calm down, then pointed out doors into the hollow spherical cabs on the TBombs. “No remote control; there will be a driver hidden inside these when they're used for filming. And the planes are mostly balsa wood, they throw them in front of the cameras to film the flying scenes.”
Dr. Lambda carefully used the Stellar Scepter to electromagnetically probe the props. A very weak electromagnetic pulse confirmed that the fuselages of the planes were indeed wood and not metal, so he picked one up gingerly with force field pincers. It was definitely not heavy enough to contain explosives, electronics, or even any metal. And the spherical 'bomb' shells mounted on the vehicles appeared to be mostly empty, rather than filled with remote controls. The two mystery heroes finally relaxed when they decided that they really were looking at simple movie props.
Flux vanished, and then was back again, with several rolls of paper and a couple of comic books. She unrolled some blueprints of the replica vehicles. “These look just like the stuff Dr. Boom uses in the Terrific Two Comics - any reader will recognize them instantly. But the props for the movie aren't dangerous. Dr. Boom drives the Boommobile, the big one, in every issue. He used the TBombs when he fought Susie Whirlwind in issue #3 of Titanic Two Comics, and then when he fought the Rush in issue #5, he used used the Flying Bombs.” She flipped through the two comics as she named them, showing Dr. Lambda the various scenes.
“So some bad guy is copying Dr. Boom's comic book and movie weapons for real,” Dr. Lambda was fascinated by the comics in particular.
“That's why I don't think we'll find him in the mountains. The original Dr. Boom never leaves the city,” she replied. “Of course, we're talking about somebody who seems to be as wacky as a loon, so who knows?”
“Whoever it is must be a genius,” Dr. Lambda started, then stopped, stunned by a thought. “I just met 3 genius inventors yesterday. And they invented high explosives, remote control and radar! I wonder if one of them was Dr. Boom? Or maybe Dr. Boom stole our inventions?!” His voice raised to almost a shout. “We have to tell the War Department about this!”
“It might be somebody working on the movie, too, though. If we take time to talk to anyone, especially the War Department, it will be hours before they let us go again!” Flux objected. “I think we should go hunt for this phony Dr. Boom ourselves first, and once we catch him, then we can take him to the War Department or whatever. KeepupIfyoucan!” She raced away back the way they had come.
'I sure hope this is the right choice!' he thought as he took to the air to follow her. In a couple of minutes, they were back at the Tar Pit parking lot.
'SoDocusethatmagicwandtotrackdownthebadguy!“ Flux squealed.
Lambda had been thinking about that the whole flight. Dr. Boom had to be using some very sophisticated heavy duty radio/TV equipment for remote control and radar. Even it were turned off, there was likely to be a constant direct current flow through the heaters of the vacuum tubes to minimize warm-up time. This constant, low level current flow should produce an unusual EM 'hum' that the Scepter might be able to identify. It should definitely be distinct from the 60 cycle hum of appliances, tools and the like.
“Would you like a ride?” he asked his companion. A pale blue beam shot from the Stellar Scepter and formed a chair. Flux took a seat.
“Yeah, it's not really polite to vibrate through people's houses. What can I do to help?” she asked.
“Point out anything you see that's unusual,” he replied, and they took to the air. They flew slowly from the Tar Pits towards the sea to the southwest, zigging and zagging in case Dr. Lambda's original bearing were off a bit. They hesitated over several buildings as the Stellar Scepter picked up a signal similar to what Dr. Lambda was expecting, but much less powerful. Flu noted the locations; they could come back if they didn't find anything more likely. And then, a small signal got more powerful. Not nearly what he'd expected - and then the Scepter was struck by a powerful radio signal that Lambda identified as radar, coming from the same location as the hum. They were over an area that used to support a lot of small manufacturing operations, many of which were now shuttered because of various war-related reasons, such as dwindling workforce, diversion of resources and rationing.
“This is likely to be IT!” he warned her. “Much stronger than any of the other sources!” He circled and then pointed at a building with shuttered doors and boarded up windows. “That's the place.” He dropped to the ground. “Don't get into too much trouble before I get there!”Rocket TagShe didn't even bother to respond, just vanished, and he took back to the air. As soon as he was above the height of the rooftops around him, the Scepter again picked up the same powerful radar signals. He spun in place and saw a small plane approaching him. He didn't have time to fully catalogue the differences between this one and the earlier flying bombs, as this one was at least twice as fast as those had been. He aimed the Scepter upwards accelerated with all its power. The small plane instantly changed course and began rocketing skyward.
He was holding his lead; he took a couple of instants to analyze what he'd seen. 'Much fatter than the previous ones, no propeller and leaving an exhaust trail - must be rocket propelled. Big bulge at the front, it must have extra explosives packed in. Must be from issue 7 or 8?'
The rocket plane followed him unerringly, but he realized it couldn't overtake him. A couple of miles up he slowed until it got in range of the Scepter, then reached out to capture it. At just that same instant, the jet or rocket or whatever must have run out of fuel, and the exhaust trail died, and gravity began its work. Before the Scepter could actually touch it, the flying bomb exploded! Lambda had learned his lesson earlier, the tendril he'd reached out was tiny, and it snapped instantly, preventing the feedback that had hurt him before. He was wrapped in the most powerful shell the Scepter could create and he ordered back his full acceleration, away from the small fireball the explosion produced. Once again he was strongly battered, but he retained consciousness.
'Maybe even issue 10?' he dove toward the ground as fast as was safe and blasted the few remaining shards to smithereens with the Scepter. 'That explosion could have sunk a battleship!' He raced back to help his new partner.
Next: Finally - Dr. Boom |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:49:12 GMT
The Return of Dr. Boom Finally - Dr. BoomFlux raced toward the small factory. When she arrived, she blurred intangibly through the front wall into a large, mostly empty room. The floor was mostly covered with dust, over scars where heavy items had been dragged out not too long ago. Near one wall was a control console next to a small electrical generator. The console looked like a prop from Saturday serial starring a mad scientist: two cathode ray screens flanked by knobs, dials and switches, next to a small diesel generator. Flux recognized one of the screens as a radar display; the other showed a black and white view of Dr. Lambda being overtaken by whatever was carrying the camera.
And sitting in front of that cluttered control panel was a figure that must be… Dr. Boom!
There was no doubt that it was indeed Dr. Boom, short and solid wearing a costume with a bowling ball with sputtering fuse as a helmet, a dull gray-yellow tunic over chain mail with a mushroom cloud on the chest. The costume was drawn directly from the pages of Terrific Two Comics and it was visually identical to the one the stunt double was wearing in the Public Pictures Studios filming going on right now across town. Presumably this version's built-in weapons weren't just special effects.
Dr. Boom was rising from the chair as Flux vibrated through the wall, solidified, and zoomed across the room. There was something invisible in the room between them. It felt like running into a strong sheet of something flexible - the closer she came to to her foe, the harder it was to continue moving forward. A few inches away, she was forced to a straining halt - and then the elastic powerfully snapped back, throwing her into the generator. A cable broke, and the full current was momentarily dumped into her body. She fell forward onto the floor and was barely able to lift her head to watch as Dr. Boom laughed at her. Then wheels slid out the bottom of Boom's armored boots, and the villain rolled at high speed toward a door - which slid open and instantly snapped shut again, leaving Flux alone with the now unpowered control panel.
The Turquoise Tornado forced herself to her feet. Her nerves were jangling and her muscles trembling. She concentrated and accelerated her reactions as much as possible, then cautiously crossed the room again and followed her foe into the street. She pulled a ball bearing from a pouch in her belt and threw it, as hard as she could in her current condition. A single ball bearing moving at about a hundred miles an hour wasn't a threat to Dr. Boom, but it did stretch her force field a bit and capture her attention. She turned back to face the debilitated speedster.
“Ah, Flux… It's almost sad… that you traveled from… New Mexico… just to meet… your ultimate defeat… in Hollywood. I am Dr. Boom…, sprung straight from… the storied pages… of Terrific Two Comics…. Unfortunately for you… I didn't bring Susie Whirlwind with me… to save you!… You will have… the honor of being… the first feeble mystery hero… I defeat… in this new world!”
There was definitely an amplifier built into Boom's helmet; the speech was louder than human shouting. The words were hard to understand and the villain's speaking cadence was very slow and stilted - very much the opposite of the way Flux spoke when she was excited.
Spirals of Boom, Blue Bang Beams and the Ring Blast Ray!
“BOOM!” The villain's voice was amplified and weirdly distorted, but his actions were undeniable in their intent as he pointed at an abandoned car. His armored fist was surrounded by a nimbus of white energy, then the impossible became reality. The energy pulsed and began to coil like a viper preparing to strike. The coil grew until it was a foot wide spiral, and when it shot forward, it was as though a spring of power had been stretched to its limit before being released. When the lead end of the energy struck the automobile, the trailing end separated itself from Boom's gauntlet. As the spiral contracted, it began to flow over the car like white ink on a canvas. As more of the car became covered in energy, the intensity of the light increased until, when the final twist of the coil made contact, it exploded in a violent display. Metal shards peppered the surrounding buildings, breaking glass and digging grooves in their facades. The explosion wasn't quite as powerful as those produced by the remotely controlled explosive devices, but the maniacal Dr. Boom was preparing to launch another blast.
The process took about half a second in normal time; in her current best 'Flux time', to the Turquoise Tornado, that seemed about 2 seconds, enough time to duck around a corner for safety from the doomed car blast. She'd actually seen a movie of the Spiral of Boom before - or at least, the special effects version , in one of the Monday morning kickoff meetings for the serial. It had seemed incredibly hokey in the movie clip, but this real life example was very similar to the special effects - and it wasn't hokey at all, it was scary!
Boom had already launched her Spirals at two other targets, a fire hydrant and a street lamp. Flux was almost knocked down by the blast waves, but she was starting to recover somewhat from being electrocuted. When Boom launched her next attack, directly at the Turquoise Tornado, Flux moved away from where the gauntlet was aimed, and Dr. Boom turned to follow, breaking her connection with the destructive spiral of light, which continued to spin leisurely across the room, growing dimmer as it moved. Though both combatants were otherwise occupied by then, when it reached the wall of the building across the street, there was a disappointed sigh and a small curved crease was carved into the bricks as the fading light vanished entirely.
“After he made… his unsuccessful appearances… earlier today…, I was so hoping… your mighty partner… Dr. Lambda… would make a… feeble attempt to… try to interfere… with my plans… for destruction, but I suppose you… will do nicely… for a warm up. I… see that the… Spirals of Boom are too slow. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” She launched another sort of attack.
Three brilliant blue pulses of light, moving much faster than the Spirals had, exploded against the building behind Flux before she could dodge and dropped much of the wall toward her. The explosions were less powerful than the Spirals had created, but Boom could make them faster. With a tremendous effort Flux vibrated into intangibility, but she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to dodge another attack. She needed a short time to recover, but Dr. Boom was already making the gesture that would probably end this battle.
“Just like a movie, the cavalry comes over the hill!” Dr. Lambda used his own helmet amplifier to make sure Dr. Boom heard him and turned away from Flux. A blast from the Stellar Scepter, and Dr. Boom's aim was deflected into the ground. The nearby explosion made the villain wobble a bit, but Boom quickly turned and launched more blue bolts at Dr. Lambda. These bolts made a sizzling sound as they cut the air, but they simply fizzled out just before they reached him.
“CURSES! The electromagnetic properties… of your feeble… Stellar Scepter.. are interfering with my… Blue Boom Beams!”
Before Boom could make another move, Dr. Lambda blasted a force beam from the Stellar Scepter. It was powerful enough to toss Boom backward through the air, even through whatever had blocked Flux before. She did a strangely slow motion flip and then landed on her feet.
As she landed, she pointed both arms at her foe, fingers outstretched. “You've forgotten about… my… awesome impact absorbing… force field and… incredible gyro-stabilized… armor. Both hundreds of years… ahead of your time.” Boom shouted, then pointed both hands at the hero. “KABOOM! Try and stand up… to the Ring Blast Ray, you… you… you red-clad.. flying musclebound nincompoop!”
A bright blue spiral, this one no bigger around than a silver dollar, raced toward Dr. Lambda, who was now starting to react. The spiral slammed into Dr. Lambda's own force field and expired with a loud “Whoomph!” and the hero felt as if he'd been kicked by a mule the size of a steam shovel, and he was knocked backward into a building and halfway through the brick wall. As he struggled free, the Scepter intercepted a short, powerful radio burst, and he was battered by the amplified laughter of Dr. Boom.Two Minutes to… BOOM!“That signal activated… a timer on a powerful bomb… hidden nearby! In just under ninety… seconds, a quarter of Los Angeles will be destroyed!… Ta ta, so called… heroes!” Boom zipped away down the deserted street, the motorized wheels quickly driving the villain to highway speeds and beyond.
Both heroes spared less than an instant deciding what to do next. Flux was as recovered as she was likely to get before this new bomb exploded; she raced through the wall of the factory and started searching the building. Dr. Lambda concentrated on locating new electromagnetic signatures nearby, away from the factory building. About half a minute later, he'd concluded that there was nothing nearby that the Scepter could detect, and Flux blurred back out onto the street.
“Ifnditnthbsmnt!” she squealed. “Cmwthme!” Dr. Lambda could hardly understand her but her body language was clear. She raced back inside. He blew a hole through the wall and followed; she slowly (for Flux) led him to the basement stairs. In the basement was a large bowling-ball shaped bomb, there was a control panel on the front with a big clock face, numbered from 120 to 0, and the only hand, a second hand, was sweeping inexorably past 90 on its way to that 0.
“IwonderwhatwillhappenifIdo this?” Flux squealed, and pulled the electric cord, unplugging the device from the wall socket before Dr. Lambda could stop her. The countdown second hand… stopped!
Dr. Lambda wasn't satisfied. The basement had apparently once been a parking garage, with a ramp leading to the street. A pale orange beam shot from the Stellar Scepter and wrapped the giant bowling ball in a force field, then Lambda took to the air, blasting through the garage door and pulling the bomb along behind him. He was surprised at how light it was. If there hadn't been a potential deadline he would have investigated, but this was one time to act first!
At his best speed he was about 2 miles out over the ocean in less than a minute; he dove at the waves, accelerating the bomb toward the water, then pulled out and watched it splash - and bob back to the surface! Where a hatch opened in the top, and a sign popped out. The sign said “BOOM!”
And in four movie companies around Hollywood, hidden bombs went off, doing major property damage with almost no loss of life due to the ongoing air raid. Dr. Boom took advantage of the distraction the phony bomb caused for the heroes to escape. A several day manhunt failed to uncover any traces or clues - it looked like Dr. Boom had found a safe hiding place.
Next: War Department Briefing |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 0:51:24 GMT
The Return of Dr. Boom War Department BriefingWith the air raid sirens remaining silent for several days in a row, life quickly returned to war-time normal in Los Angeles and Hollywood. Every newsstand within 50 miles of Hollywood sold out of Terrific Two Comics, and the movie trade magazines were all predicting that the Dr. Boom movie (not 'the Rush movie', much to the annoyance of Baron Glynn, who quit in disgust) would be the top grossing serial of all time. A decision was made not to restore the bomb-demolished last 4 letters of the Hollywoodland sign.
Dr. Lambda and Flux had one last face-to-face briefing with General O'Neill in a secure War Department meeting room.
“I'm still furious that Dr. Boom tricked us,” Dr. Lambda stated flatly. “How could we let that villain get away!?”
“You couldn't ignore that last bomb threat,” O'Neill pointed out for at least the fifth time in the last 15 minutes.”If that had been a real bomb, at that size, filled with the powerful explosives Dr. Boom had already demonstrated, it would have destroyed a large area, including half a dozen air raid shelters. My analysts suggest that there would have been hundreds of deaths, at minimum.“
Flux chimed in, “I've been thinking about it over and over, and I don't see what else we could have done.” At the speed she thought, she must have replayed that final scenario thousands of times by now.
“Our chief suspects are Werner Hauser and Anne Cavanaugh,” O'Neill continued. “They both disappeared as soon as we returned them to Los Angeles Monday, and their friends and co-workers haven't seen them since. Both have motives - Hauser is a German sympathizer, who has begun openly attending Bund meetings, and Cavanaugh is bitter that no one will give her a speaking role; quite a comedown from being the world's most famous silent film actress for a dozen years. We're keeping an eye on a couple people associated with the comic book and the movie as well, but we don't expect that they are involved.”
O'Neill chuckled. “We've also cleared Ned Quest and Charles Beauchamp; not only are they each almost a foot taller than Dr. Boom, but my team has confirmed locations for both of them at exactly the same time that the two of you were fighting the villain.”
With that, O'Neill let them go. Eastinghouse had successfully switched production to the new radar, so in his Ned identity, Dr. Lambda had a ticket for a flight back to Maryland tomorrow. Flux would be hanging around Hollywood for a while. There was just one more thing the heroes needed to settle.Hollywood Park ShowdownTwo human figures stood at the start/finish line of the currently closed 1 mile horse racing track in Hollywood Park. The Park had been shut down for the duration and repurposed as a military equipment storage and staging area, but the track was (mostly) still clear. A small woman with short-cropped black hair, wearing a skin tight turquoise blue costume, the right side of which looked like it was partially engulfed in yellow flames, wearing a black domino mask, stood next to a much larger man in skintight red trimmed with gray, wearing a strange coppery half-helmet. Both were staring intently as the sweep second hand on an inexpensive alarm clock ticked towards the 12. The hand reached 12, the alarm jangled, and both figures vanished. Or more exactly, they turned into blurs followed by lengthening streaks of color, racing around the track. The blue blur was faster than the red blur, and less than 7 seconds later, the small woman was waiting on the finish line until the man crossed at about 13 seconds.
“I can fly much faster,” Dr. Lambda noted to Flux. “As long as I don't have to make tight turns. But even in a straight line, it still takes me about 10 seconds to go a mile. I'd still be a couple seconds behind your pace!” He sounded rueful - he'd already been certain he was going to lose, but he hadn't expected to be _that_ much slower! “You really are the world's fastest human.”
“FasterthanMajorPowertoo?Yousaidhesfasterthanyou!” Flux squealed the question in excitement.
“Slow down, Flux, the race is over!” Dr. Lambda laughed. “Yup - he's faster than I am, but not that much. So you are the fastest. You are MUCH faster than you appear in the newsreels.”
“I have to slow down just so they can even see my blur,” she laughed.
The race was conclusive. Flux was much faster, running, than Dr. Lambda was, either running or flying. And she could vibrate her body and pass through solids, an ability he considered proof of magic, because he could think of no valid scientific explanation. On the other hand, he was much stronger and had the Stellar Scepter, which allowed him to perform science-based feats that must seem magical to most people.
By now, Dr. Lambda had read every issues of Terrific Two Comics. “Except for color, the Rush's costume is almost identical to yours,” he commented. “I like your color choices much better.”
“Some people think I copied his costume, just like that new Dr. Boom is copying the villain in the comics. But I came first by almost a year! I hope we can work together again,” Flux stuck out her hand. “It was nice to meet another mystery hero.”
“If you are ever on the East Coast, look for me in Marble City, Maryland, and we can pop up to New York and drop in on Major Power!” he suggested.
“It's a deal!”
|
|
