Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2023 18:03:44 GMT
Fall, 1947
Ned Quest sat in the living room of stately Quest Manor after lunch. Krista was off at her job teaching Sixth Grade at the Lamont Gordon Elementary School, and Ned was trying to concentrate on today's Marble City Star Register. Ned had been having trouble sleeping at night and concentrating during the day recently; fortunately, since he had been injected with the alien medicine which gave him his enhanced powers, he didn’t really need a lot of sleep. So he spent most nights at his private observatory outside of Marble City, intent on using the most advanced telescope in the world today (his own invention!) to make the most detailed sky map of the Northern Hemisphere ever created. His concentration difficulties on other issues had begun affecting his day job, and shortly after the surrender of Japan, he’d resigned from his government position doing Top Secret electronic and radar-related research, development and invention - with the war now over, the need for a constant stream of new inventions and improvements was much less urgent. He now spent much of his time during the day as Dr. Lambda, often on assignments for the Alliance of Mystery Heroes.
The living room was the size of a small ballroom; one wall was mostly windows, surrounding a set of big, elaborate French doors which opened on the magnificent patio. One of the adjoining walls featured bookshelves flanking a marble fireplace; in the place of honor above the mantle of the fireplace was a stunning, almost life-sized portrait of… a Shakespearian witch?! The small plaque noted that it was Hecate, from the ‘Scottish Play’. The portrait was in honor of Ned’s wife Krista Tracy Quest, as well as the famed Shakespearian actress Fanny Hough.
Fanny had become famous for her portrayal of Hecate, the Queen of the Three Witches in MacBeth, during the 1890s, and after her retirement from the stage, her superb management of her assets helped her become rich. She’d interacted with Ned and Krista on the night Krista Tracy had portrayed Hecate in the Marble City Amateur Theater Company’s ‘Summer’s End Production’ of the Scottish play in 1943. That same night, well after the play ended, Ned had asked Krista to marry him. (see: The Adventure of the Scottish Play). So Hecate had earned her place of honor!
Ned noted in the sports section that the Marble City Maulers were playing the Red Sox in an afternoon double-header today. He’d met Ted Williams as both Ned and Dr. Lambda during the War, when Ted was a Marine Corp pilot… “I think I’ll go to the game; it will be great to watch Teddy play! Maybe I can get a chance to talk to him after the game,” he was thinking, when the wall of windows exploded!
The concussion knocked him down, and he used his momentum to roll behind a sofa. As he rolled, he caught a glimpse of a beam of intensely shimmering electric blue energy streaking into the room through the shattered window wall. As he listened to the deadly typhoon of shattered glass shredding his dignified, peaceful living room, he had an instant to hope that whatever that beam was, it wasn't one of Dr. Boom’s Blue Boom Beams!
An instant later, his worry changed to rage as the blue energy wrapped around the sofa, and hurled it directly at the portrait of Hecate. With a tremendous crash, the portrait was destroyed, and a big chunk of wall was knocked down - along with the bookshelves, momentarily filling the room again with the sound of plaster being smashed and glass shattering. Without the sofa blocking his vision, Ned a fiercely flaring blue white man-shaped aura, too bright to look at directly, floating into the devastated room through the shattered window wall.
Ned realized that the figure was bringing the light to bear on him and instantly dove aside, a second before an electric blue bolt of energy tore through the air above him. The attacker shifted his aim, and blasted again. The second bolt grazed the desperate hero. It affected him like electricity, throwing him across the room, and when he landed he was having violent spasms. If his opponent had wanted him dead, there was nothing he could do - but all he did was laugh at Ned's agony. Finally the spasms calmed down, and Ned began to struggle painfully to his feet. He was still twitching enough to make purposeful actions all-but-impossible, but he managed to move closer to the villain, who blasted a hole in the carpet just in front of him. Ned feebly jumped away, staggered towards a wall, and then fell again. Once again his attacker could have killed him, and once again he didn't; apparently, he wanted to gloat.
"So, Ned Quest, I swore the day we met to seek vengeance for your sabotage. My super powerful explosive could have changed the course of the War, but you turned the panel against me and they set spies on my tail and sent me to prison. But the man you see before you is no longer the feeble, hapless, pitiful prisoner Werner Hauser, reduced to seething with impotent rage. Behold, the vengeance of the mighty Bashlight!" Ned was stunned to recognize the villain’s name. He had met Hauser in the early years of the war, true, but he had not stolen the man’s invention, and had no idea that Hauser had ever been imprisoned. (See: The Return of Dr. Boom)
Bashlight’s aura expanded and tore through the ceiling above and the floor below - but the villain himself was motionless, floating majestically amidst the destruction he had created. Ned took advantage of the momentary distraction caused by the falling debris to slide painfully a few feet towards one of the (relatively) undamaged side walls. Though his nerves still jangled, and pain played throughout his body, and part of him was filled with rage, another, dispassionate part of his mind, shaped by the discipline required by science and trained by his mystery hero experience, worked at top speed.
'Another ham, just like most other maniacs with powers. Maybe I can use that to my advantage.' Even as Bashlight continued his tirade, a desperate plan was growing...
"Quest! What a blasphemous name for a charlatan like you; surely Rogue would be more appropriate. Well, Rogue, surely you remember the explosive formula you stole from me? The war could have been concluded years earlier, saving millions of lives, and my fame eternal!”
Ned shook his head and struggled to speak. "That’s a lie… your formula was too dangerous to use… It would have exploded in the heat of Africa and the South Pacific!"
"LIAR!" Bashlight roared, and loosed another blast. Ned tried to roll away from it, but it threw him against the wall, and he crashed back to the floor amidst the remains of the small table, lamp and several plants which had originally occupied this spot. "With my genius, it would have been simple to overcome such a minor flaw. But ever after your act of sabotage was I hounded and then falsely imprisoned!"
Ned gathered himself for a last desperate action. He levered himself to his elbows and tried to shout: "NO! I…"
"I WILL HEAR NO MORE OF YOUR LIES!" Him amplified voice actually shook the room, shattering whatever glass remained intact. "I WILL END THIS NOW!" He punctuated his words of doom by firing an energy blast into the ceiling above Ned. The debris smashed down, and the weakened floor under him gave way, and the rubble crashed down into the first level of the basement. Bashlight floated majestically to the new crater, and used rays from his weapon to methodically vaporize the pile of wood, plaster, concrete and stone which had buried the unfortunate Ned Quest.
As his rage abated, Bashlight stopped blasting energy bolts through the ragged hole in the floor. He floated, a foot off the devastated floor, and slowly spun in a complete circle, closely examining the ruins he'd made of the formerly dignified living room. As he calmed, his aura became less intense, until it was barely visible, revealing a tall thin man with short black hair and a Charlie Chaplin mustache. "I planned to destroy this entire estate, burn the buildings to the ground," he said slowly, softly. "But with Quest dead, it just doesn't seem as thrilling as I thought it would."
He turned back to the window wall, pointed his flashlight in the direction he was facing, and then moved in that direction, his body position lifting and gently rotating forward until he was horizontal and several feet off the floor. He floated casually towards through the shattered wall and when he reached the open sky, his body position rotated again, as he pointed the flashlight up and away.
Bashlight was brooding; he didn't even see the red and gray comet streaking across the sky until suddenly Dr. Lambda was standing on air in front of him. "Buddy, I don't know who you are, but you better not think you're just going to fly away after wrecking Quest Manor like that. Ned Quest has been my friend for a long time, and I'm going to put you away!"
Bashlight moved into a similar 'standing on air' position, and his ghostly aura once again flared to incandescence. "Dr. Lambda!" Bashlight greeted him brightly, no longer moody. "Any friend of Ned Quest's is an enemy of mine!" He held his weapon high and spoke, loudly and arrogantly. "My name is Bashlight, named for the awesome unstoppable weapon I developed in collaboration with Dr. Daytona."
"Looks like a cheap knockoff of my Stellar Scepter, if you ask me," Dr. Lambda replied. He wasn’t too worried – he’d run into super powered mystery villains who had ‘collaborated’ with Dr. Daytona (Big Ben, Atom Baum, and the Tin Tarantula among them) before and none of these Daytona-powered villains had been very dangerous…
"But I didn't ask you!" Bashlight replied, making a sweeping gesture with his weapon. A stream of brilliant blue-white energy blasted from the flashlight, growing into a giant hand, reaching for the hero. Before Dr. Lambda could dodge, the hand grasped his spherical force shield and began squeezing. "The Bashlight was created by a much greater genius than your own feeble weapon!"
Initially, Ned wasn't too worried. A sphere is structurally a very strong shape, and Ned's cosmic energy bubble had temporarily held back Major Power in Alliance of Mystery Heroes training exercises. He was stunned when the shield started to deform, like a glob of silly putty, squishing and oozing between the fingers of the giant electric blue fist. Still, his reflexes had been honed by his years as a 'mystery hero' and he flew between the encircling thumb and forefinger, just before they closed. 'Drops' of his energy bubble spurted away from the magical fist, and one of these spurts flowed over Dr. Lambda.
As he struggled to regain control of his flight, an irrelevant thought crossed his mind. 'Now I know how an empty tube of toothpaste feels!' Another train of thought was analyzing the attack and calculating his next move. 'My shield either shatters, or it holds... I've never seen it stretched or squished before!'
"My turn!" Dr. Lambda crowed as he launched an attack of his own. A beam of pale orange energy, so powerful as to be almost solid, blasted at Bashlight's own electric-colored force field. Instead of slamming into him with the force of a speeding locomotive, though, the beam of energy was reflected harmlessly into an explosion of colored beams of light and for a second, looking at Bashlight was like looking at a prism.
"The vaunted Major Power might have half a chance against the power that I wield, " Bashlight's voice was unnaturally loud, somehow boosted by the flaring aura surrounding him, his voice a low rumble like the growl of a hunting cat. "He’s next, and once he’s gone, none of you feeble mystery heroes will be able to oppose me!"
He gestured again, and the Bashlight blasted out a stream of small energy 'bullets' like a magical machine gun. Ned instantly created a coppery badge-shaped shield, an oversize version of that used by the Guardian. As each incandescent blue bullet struck the shield, chips were blasted away, as if a mundane bullet had struck concrete, not at all what Ned had expected. Still, he reacted instantly and ordered the Stellar Scepter to dive, counting on his gravity control power for a quick escape. A half dozen Bashlight bullets was enough to weaken and then shatter the shield, but by that time Ned was well out of the stream of the following bullets. Bashlight's arm moved to follow the falling hero, but by this time, Ned was getting tired of this fight.
Dr. Lambda was achy and sore from the battering he'd undergone earlier in his living room, and still enraged about the destruction of the portrait of Krista/Hecate. 'I hope an old trick will be my best trick!' he thought with grim amusement as he focused gravity strongly, directly under the floating villain. Suddenly, Bashlight’s weight jumped to many tons, and he started plummeting towards the ground as his great weight surprised him and overwhelmed his flying energies.
*How did Ned escape from being killed earlier, and become Dr. Lambada? Ned hated to waste anything, especially things he built himself. He often built new, improved versions of his Stellar Scepter, and he always kept the older ones around as spares. 'Just in case', the spares were scattered throughout stately Quest Manor, disguised as wall decorations, or a model rocket on display in a trophy case in the den, or even as a table lamp. Ned had cleverly managed to get Bashlight to blast him against the wall of his living room near the remains of a table that had supported one of the concealed Stellar Scepters, this one disguised as the base of a lamp. ("If it was so darn clever, why am I half dead?" he might have asked!). He used this Stellar Scepter to protect himself, when Bashlight had brought the wall down on him., and escape through the basement, with a quick stop in his Sanctum to change to Dr. Lambda.
But Bashlight was endangered only for an instant. Well before he smashed to Earth, his fall slowed, stopped, and then he floated lightly back upwards. "A feeble attempt at best. The awesome Bashlight can better your sorry Stellar Scepter in EVERY way!"
As he zoomed towards his weary foe, he gave a slight flick of his wrist, and the Bashlight was surrounded by an energy construct like broadsword, and an energy dagger that also resembled chipped stone appeared in his other hand. He thrust the sword forward, hoping to run Ned through when the two collided.
'Time for my last trick,' Dr. Lambda thought regretfully. 'I hope the Scepter can handle the overload!' Theoretically, the Stellar Scepter could absorb ALL the energy in a small volume of space, and plunge that volume to almost absolute zero freezing the water vapor in the air, and even the gasses that made up the air, into a solid block, which should hold Bashlight until Ned could summon help from the Alliance of Mystery Heroes. 'That's the theory, alright. But the theory doesn't address the dangers!' The danger to someone encased in the block of ice, and the even more immediate danger of destroying the Stellar Scepter. 'This is the ‘new, improved’ version; time to see how successful it is! And, I've seen people, including me, live through being encased in ice by Chilli and Echo.’ (see Mayhem in Monument Park). ‘Plus, Bashlight’s aura's protected him from everything else I've tried.' He pointed the Stellar Scepter, thought it a command...
Instantly, a sphere surrounding Bashlight turned black, the awful, limitless, light denying absolute black of deep space, but only for an instant, and then the blackness flickered, and in its place was a shining sphere of ice, smooth as if polished. Incredibly cold, ultra-hard ice that should hold just about anything Ned could conceive until help arrived. The blackness had vanished because the advanced Stellar Scepter was instantly vaporized by the incredible surge of absorbed energy. Both Ned and the globe of ice fell towards the ground.
Ned's right hand was badly burned, even through his insulated glove. And then he crashed heavily to the ground, where he was knocked into unconsciousness, so he was unable to see Bashlight's own crash landing.
Which never happened… well above the ground, the ice sphere vaporized explosively, and underneath was a miniature star, shining a brilliant lightning blue color! Ned was half blinded, and the heat was searing, even a hundred feet way through his insulated costume. The star winked out, and Bashlight floated to the ground, erratically, almost like a falling leaf, the blue-white aura barely visible. He landed not far from the stunned Dr. Lambda and taunted him weakly as he stood above his stunned form: "Guess that PROVES who has the ‘cheap knockoff’! America, beware of… Bashlight". Then, Bashlight's aura was dimmed almost to invisibility, shapeless now and barely more than an outline. The Bashlight's glow was now a dull, faint bluish-gray. The victorious villain wearily regarded the unconscious figure before him, a faint smile whispered across his lips, and he turned away. A shaky gesture from the Bashlight and he slowly floated into the air and flew away.
Ned awakened in a private room in Marble City Central Hospital. Kris was there, and he was under the care of Dr. Ridley Jones and Nurse Smith, two of the few people who knew his secret identity. Krista’s face was streaked as she gave him a careful hug, and then Dr. Jones gave him the bad news… and the good news. “Your back was seriously damaged, and even your enhanced healing factor couldn’t handle it immediately. The good news is, from your prior medical history, I estimate that you should be walking again in about a week, and make a complete recovery within 2 weeks. Your right hand was severely burned, but it should be as good as new by this time tomorrow.”
Ned had instantly noted that his body was numb below the waist, but in his anxiety over the numbness, he hadn’t noticed until Ridley mentioned it that almost his entire right hand stung like the dickens – except for his ring finger. For now he focused on Ridley’s statement that he would presumably be out of action for at least 2 weeks… “When people see that Ned Quest is sidelined, and Dr. Lambda disappears at the same time, they’ll put two and two together,” he noted.
“As your doctor – I strongly advise that you not attempt to assume your secret identity until I clear you with a complete physical. There is a very real possibility that you might do damage to your spinal cord that even YOUR body can’t heal. I would forbid you, actually, except I know how you respond to your doctor’s orders! But as your friend, I really hope you will take my advice. You aren’t the kind of guy who would be happy spending your life in a wheelchair!”
Ned didn’t quite promise, but he agreed that he would be extremely cautious during his recovery. It was what Ridley had expected – he’d been Ned’s friend and doctor for a long time, since even before Ned had gained his powers, and he knew how stubborn his friend could be.
After Ridley left, Kris moved a chair closer to the bed, and Ned knew instantly that they were in for a long conversation! “Your secret is safe, for now, dear,” she started off. “After Dr. Jones assured me you were not in danger but wouldn't wake up for a couple of hours yet, I put on your costume – with some suitable padding, of course – and flew a couple of patrols over the city, making sure I zoomed lower whenever I saw a crowd, showing off so they would be reassured that Dr. Lambda is still on the job! But I can’t do it for 2 weeks – sooner or later, something will pop up that requires the REAL Dr. Lambda – and I don’t have your experience, or your physical powers, to do the job – or the desire. I’m retired and I want to stay retired!”
She paused for a second, then plunged ahead with her real concern. “And I think it’s time for YOU to retire too, mister!” Ned could hardly believe it! “I was frantic with worry over you and I never want to go through that kind of fear again. And our house is destroyed! We both pay too high a price, and I don’t want to pay it any longer!”
“Kris, I’m kind of overwhelmed right now… ever since I got my powers, I’ve thought of myself as unstoppable, and to be injured so seriously has totally wrecked the way I see myself – and, I admit, as Dr. Lambda. But I just can’t think straight enough right now to make a decision of that magnitude, right now. I promise I’ll consider it; this is really shaking me to the core. But I have to weigh it against the good I can do in the world, and I’ll need time. Can we discuss it again in a week? I promise, Lambda’s honor, that I’ll consider it!” He had just made up the ‘Lambda’s honor’ thing – but as best he knew, neither he or Kris had ever violated a private promise between the two of them. "And if we both decide for me to retire, I'd like to announce it to the world in person - after I'm healthy again, so everyone will remember me at my best! Is that OK?”
She grudgingly agreed – “But I will hold you to it!
“One other thing," he added, "Next time you come to visit, can you bring an AMH communicator? I need to talk to Sandy. Somebody needs to stop Dr. Daytona. We’ve never considered him or his minions much more than a minor menace before, but Bashlight was the most powerful one yet. And I think he’s using stolen Lambda technology. It’s time for the AMH to take him seriously – and take him out of the game. And until Dr. Lambda officially retires, I need to find some way to cover for him.” He had an idea about that, though he had to talk to a couple of other mystery heroes to make it work. He had to hope that they might have some free time over the next two weeks.
Battered by Bashlight
Surprise Attack
Ned Quest sat in the living room of stately Quest Manor after lunch. Krista was off at her job teaching Sixth Grade at the Lamont Gordon Elementary School, and Ned was trying to concentrate on today's Marble City Star Register. Ned had been having trouble sleeping at night and concentrating during the day recently; fortunately, since he had been injected with the alien medicine which gave him his enhanced powers, he didn’t really need a lot of sleep. So he spent most nights at his private observatory outside of Marble City, intent on using the most advanced telescope in the world today (his own invention!) to make the most detailed sky map of the Northern Hemisphere ever created. His concentration difficulties on other issues had begun affecting his day job, and shortly after the surrender of Japan, he’d resigned from his government position doing Top Secret electronic and radar-related research, development and invention - with the war now over, the need for a constant stream of new inventions and improvements was much less urgent. He now spent much of his time during the day as Dr. Lambda, often on assignments for the Alliance of Mystery Heroes.
The living room was the size of a small ballroom; one wall was mostly windows, surrounding a set of big, elaborate French doors which opened on the magnificent patio. One of the adjoining walls featured bookshelves flanking a marble fireplace; in the place of honor above the mantle of the fireplace was a stunning, almost life-sized portrait of… a Shakespearian witch?! The small plaque noted that it was Hecate, from the ‘Scottish Play’. The portrait was in honor of Ned’s wife Krista Tracy Quest, as well as the famed Shakespearian actress Fanny Hough.
Fanny had become famous for her portrayal of Hecate, the Queen of the Three Witches in MacBeth, during the 1890s, and after her retirement from the stage, her superb management of her assets helped her become rich. She’d interacted with Ned and Krista on the night Krista Tracy had portrayed Hecate in the Marble City Amateur Theater Company’s ‘Summer’s End Production’ of the Scottish play in 1943. That same night, well after the play ended, Ned had asked Krista to marry him. (see: The Adventure of the Scottish Play). So Hecate had earned her place of honor!
Ned noted in the sports section that the Marble City Maulers were playing the Red Sox in an afternoon double-header today. He’d met Ted Williams as both Ned and Dr. Lambda during the War, when Ted was a Marine Corp pilot… “I think I’ll go to the game; it will be great to watch Teddy play! Maybe I can get a chance to talk to him after the game,” he was thinking, when the wall of windows exploded!
The concussion knocked him down, and he used his momentum to roll behind a sofa. As he rolled, he caught a glimpse of a beam of intensely shimmering electric blue energy streaking into the room through the shattered window wall. As he listened to the deadly typhoon of shattered glass shredding his dignified, peaceful living room, he had an instant to hope that whatever that beam was, it wasn't one of Dr. Boom’s Blue Boom Beams!
An instant later, his worry changed to rage as the blue energy wrapped around the sofa, and hurled it directly at the portrait of Hecate. With a tremendous crash, the portrait was destroyed, and a big chunk of wall was knocked down - along with the bookshelves, momentarily filling the room again with the sound of plaster being smashed and glass shattering. Without the sofa blocking his vision, Ned a fiercely flaring blue white man-shaped aura, too bright to look at directly, floating into the devastated room through the shattered window wall.
| He launched to his feet and stormed at the invader, any thought of danger overwhelmed by the destruction of the precious portrait. His roar of anger was barely coherent, and can't be repeated here, but he used language he'd never used before, wishing the intruder and all his ancestors and descendants to hell, suggesting a canine background and unwed non-human parents, disgusting personal habits, and unappealing physical attributes. The man he was charging was wrapped in crackling blue-white energy, which held him floating a few inches off the floor and made it impossible to see his facial features. What he could barely make out was the attacker’s unusual weapon, which might have been humorous in other circumstance. He was holding something that resembled a Flash Gordon ray gun, but with a sphere instead of a nozzle at the end! |  |
"So, Ned Quest, I swore the day we met to seek vengeance for your sabotage. My super powerful explosive could have changed the course of the War, but you turned the panel against me and they set spies on my tail and sent me to prison. But the man you see before you is no longer the feeble, hapless, pitiful prisoner Werner Hauser, reduced to seething with impotent rage. Behold, the vengeance of the mighty Bashlight!" Ned was stunned to recognize the villain’s name. He had met Hauser in the early years of the war, true, but he had not stolen the man’s invention, and had no idea that Hauser had ever been imprisoned. (See: The Return of Dr. Boom)
Bashlight’s aura expanded and tore through the ceiling above and the floor below - but the villain himself was motionless, floating majestically amidst the destruction he had created. Ned took advantage of the momentary distraction caused by the falling debris to slide painfully a few feet towards one of the (relatively) undamaged side walls. Though his nerves still jangled, and pain played throughout his body, and part of him was filled with rage, another, dispassionate part of his mind, shaped by the discipline required by science and trained by his mystery hero experience, worked at top speed.
'Another ham, just like most other maniacs with powers. Maybe I can use that to my advantage.' Even as Bashlight continued his tirade, a desperate plan was growing...
"Quest! What a blasphemous name for a charlatan like you; surely Rogue would be more appropriate. Well, Rogue, surely you remember the explosive formula you stole from me? The war could have been concluded years earlier, saving millions of lives, and my fame eternal!”
Ned shook his head and struggled to speak. "That’s a lie… your formula was too dangerous to use… It would have exploded in the heat of Africa and the South Pacific!"
"LIAR!" Bashlight roared, and loosed another blast. Ned tried to roll away from it, but it threw him against the wall, and he crashed back to the floor amidst the remains of the small table, lamp and several plants which had originally occupied this spot. "With my genius, it would have been simple to overcome such a minor flaw. But ever after your act of sabotage was I hounded and then falsely imprisoned!"
Ned gathered himself for a last desperate action. He levered himself to his elbows and tried to shout: "NO! I…"
"I WILL HEAR NO MORE OF YOUR LIES!" Him amplified voice actually shook the room, shattering whatever glass remained intact. "I WILL END THIS NOW!" He punctuated his words of doom by firing an energy blast into the ceiling above Ned. The debris smashed down, and the weakened floor under him gave way, and the rubble crashed down into the first level of the basement. Bashlight floated majestically to the new crater, and used rays from his weapon to methodically vaporize the pile of wood, plaster, concrete and stone which had buried the unfortunate Ned Quest.
Battle in the Sky
As his rage abated, Bashlight stopped blasting energy bolts through the ragged hole in the floor. He floated, a foot off the devastated floor, and slowly spun in a complete circle, closely examining the ruins he'd made of the formerly dignified living room. As he calmed, his aura became less intense, until it was barely visible, revealing a tall thin man with short black hair and a Charlie Chaplin mustache. "I planned to destroy this entire estate, burn the buildings to the ground," he said slowly, softly. "But with Quest dead, it just doesn't seem as thrilling as I thought it would."
He turned back to the window wall, pointed his flashlight in the direction he was facing, and then moved in that direction, his body position lifting and gently rotating forward until he was horizontal and several feet off the floor. He floated casually towards through the shattered wall and when he reached the open sky, his body position rotated again, as he pointed the flashlight up and away.
Bashlight was brooding; he didn't even see the red and gray comet streaking across the sky until suddenly Dr. Lambda was standing on air in front of him. "Buddy, I don't know who you are, but you better not think you're just going to fly away after wrecking Quest Manor like that. Ned Quest has been my friend for a long time, and I'm going to put you away!"
Bashlight moved into a similar 'standing on air' position, and his ghostly aura once again flared to incandescence. "Dr. Lambda!" Bashlight greeted him brightly, no longer moody. "Any friend of Ned Quest's is an enemy of mine!" He held his weapon high and spoke, loudly and arrogantly. "My name is Bashlight, named for the awesome unstoppable weapon I developed in collaboration with Dr. Daytona."
"Looks like a cheap knockoff of my Stellar Scepter, if you ask me," Dr. Lambda replied. He wasn’t too worried – he’d run into super powered mystery villains who had ‘collaborated’ with Dr. Daytona (Big Ben, Atom Baum, and the Tin Tarantula among them) before and none of these Daytona-powered villains had been very dangerous…
"But I didn't ask you!" Bashlight replied, making a sweeping gesture with his weapon. A stream of brilliant blue-white energy blasted from the flashlight, growing into a giant hand, reaching for the hero. Before Dr. Lambda could dodge, the hand grasped his spherical force shield and began squeezing. "The Bashlight was created by a much greater genius than your own feeble weapon!"
Initially, Ned wasn't too worried. A sphere is structurally a very strong shape, and Ned's cosmic energy bubble had temporarily held back Major Power in Alliance of Mystery Heroes training exercises. He was stunned when the shield started to deform, like a glob of silly putty, squishing and oozing between the fingers of the giant electric blue fist. Still, his reflexes had been honed by his years as a 'mystery hero' and he flew between the encircling thumb and forefinger, just before they closed. 'Drops' of his energy bubble spurted away from the magical fist, and one of these spurts flowed over Dr. Lambda.
As he struggled to regain control of his flight, an irrelevant thought crossed his mind. 'Now I know how an empty tube of toothpaste feels!' Another train of thought was analyzing the attack and calculating his next move. 'My shield either shatters, or it holds... I've never seen it stretched or squished before!'
"My turn!" Dr. Lambda crowed as he launched an attack of his own. A beam of pale orange energy, so powerful as to be almost solid, blasted at Bashlight's own electric-colored force field. Instead of slamming into him with the force of a speeding locomotive, though, the beam of energy was reflected harmlessly into an explosion of colored beams of light and for a second, looking at Bashlight was like looking at a prism.
"The vaunted Major Power might have half a chance against the power that I wield, " Bashlight's voice was unnaturally loud, somehow boosted by the flaring aura surrounding him, his voice a low rumble like the growl of a hunting cat. "He’s next, and once he’s gone, none of you feeble mystery heroes will be able to oppose me!"
He gestured again, and the Bashlight blasted out a stream of small energy 'bullets' like a magical machine gun. Ned instantly created a coppery badge-shaped shield, an oversize version of that used by the Guardian. As each incandescent blue bullet struck the shield, chips were blasted away, as if a mundane bullet had struck concrete, not at all what Ned had expected. Still, he reacted instantly and ordered the Stellar Scepter to dive, counting on his gravity control power for a quick escape. A half dozen Bashlight bullets was enough to weaken and then shatter the shield, but by that time Ned was well out of the stream of the following bullets. Bashlight's arm moved to follow the falling hero, but by this time, Ned was getting tired of this fight.
Dr. Lambda was achy and sore from the battering he'd undergone earlier in his living room, and still enraged about the destruction of the portrait of Krista/Hecate. 'I hope an old trick will be my best trick!' he thought with grim amusement as he focused gravity strongly, directly under the floating villain. Suddenly, Bashlight’s weight jumped to many tons, and he started plummeting towards the ground as his great weight surprised him and overwhelmed his flying energies.
Quick Aside - Ned's Escape Plan
*How did Ned escape from being killed earlier, and become Dr. Lambada? Ned hated to waste anything, especially things he built himself. He often built new, improved versions of his Stellar Scepter, and he always kept the older ones around as spares. 'Just in case', the spares were scattered throughout stately Quest Manor, disguised as wall decorations, or a model rocket on display in a trophy case in the den, or even as a table lamp. Ned had cleverly managed to get Bashlight to blast him against the wall of his living room near the remains of a table that had supported one of the concealed Stellar Scepters, this one disguised as the base of a lamp. ("If it was so darn clever, why am I half dead?" he might have asked!). He used this Stellar Scepter to protect himself, when Bashlight had brought the wall down on him., and escape through the basement, with a quick stop in his Sanctum to change to Dr. Lambda.
*****
But Bashlight was endangered only for an instant. Well before he smashed to Earth, his fall slowed, stopped, and then he floated lightly back upwards. "A feeble attempt at best. The awesome Bashlight can better your sorry Stellar Scepter in EVERY way!"
As he zoomed towards his weary foe, he gave a slight flick of his wrist, and the Bashlight was surrounded by an energy construct like broadsword, and an energy dagger that also resembled chipped stone appeared in his other hand. He thrust the sword forward, hoping to run Ned through when the two collided.
'Time for my last trick,' Dr. Lambda thought regretfully. 'I hope the Scepter can handle the overload!' Theoretically, the Stellar Scepter could absorb ALL the energy in a small volume of space, and plunge that volume to almost absolute zero freezing the water vapor in the air, and even the gasses that made up the air, into a solid block, which should hold Bashlight until Ned could summon help from the Alliance of Mystery Heroes. 'That's the theory, alright. But the theory doesn't address the dangers!' The danger to someone encased in the block of ice, and the even more immediate danger of destroying the Stellar Scepter. 'This is the ‘new, improved’ version; time to see how successful it is! And, I've seen people, including me, live through being encased in ice by Chilli and Echo.’ (see Mayhem in Monument Park). ‘Plus, Bashlight’s aura's protected him from everything else I've tried.' He pointed the Stellar Scepter, thought it a command...
Instantly, a sphere surrounding Bashlight turned black, the awful, limitless, light denying absolute black of deep space, but only for an instant, and then the blackness flickered, and in its place was a shining sphere of ice, smooth as if polished. Incredibly cold, ultra-hard ice that should hold just about anything Ned could conceive until help arrived. The blackness had vanished because the advanced Stellar Scepter was instantly vaporized by the incredible surge of absorbed energy. Both Ned and the globe of ice fell towards the ground.
Ned's right hand was badly burned, even through his insulated glove. And then he crashed heavily to the ground, where he was knocked into unconsciousness, so he was unable to see Bashlight's own crash landing.
Which never happened… well above the ground, the ice sphere vaporized explosively, and underneath was a miniature star, shining a brilliant lightning blue color! Ned was half blinded, and the heat was searing, even a hundred feet way through his insulated costume. The star winked out, and Bashlight floated to the ground, erratically, almost like a falling leaf, the blue-white aura barely visible. He landed not far from the stunned Dr. Lambda and taunted him weakly as he stood above his stunned form: "Guess that PROVES who has the ‘cheap knockoff’! America, beware of… Bashlight". Then, Bashlight's aura was dimmed almost to invisibility, shapeless now and barely more than an outline. The Bashlight's glow was now a dull, faint bluish-gray. The victorious villain wearily regarded the unconscious figure before him, a faint smile whispered across his lips, and he turned away. A shaky gesture from the Bashlight and he slowly floated into the air and flew away.
A Stunning Request
Ned awakened in a private room in Marble City Central Hospital. Kris was there, and he was under the care of Dr. Ridley Jones and Nurse Smith, two of the few people who knew his secret identity. Krista’s face was streaked as she gave him a careful hug, and then Dr. Jones gave him the bad news… and the good news. “Your back was seriously damaged, and even your enhanced healing factor couldn’t handle it immediately. The good news is, from your prior medical history, I estimate that you should be walking again in about a week, and make a complete recovery within 2 weeks. Your right hand was severely burned, but it should be as good as new by this time tomorrow.”
Ned had instantly noted that his body was numb below the waist, but in his anxiety over the numbness, he hadn’t noticed until Ridley mentioned it that almost his entire right hand stung like the dickens – except for his ring finger. For now he focused on Ridley’s statement that he would presumably be out of action for at least 2 weeks… “When people see that Ned Quest is sidelined, and Dr. Lambda disappears at the same time, they’ll put two and two together,” he noted.
“As your doctor – I strongly advise that you not attempt to assume your secret identity until I clear you with a complete physical. There is a very real possibility that you might do damage to your spinal cord that even YOUR body can’t heal. I would forbid you, actually, except I know how you respond to your doctor’s orders! But as your friend, I really hope you will take my advice. You aren’t the kind of guy who would be happy spending your life in a wheelchair!”
Ned didn’t quite promise, but he agreed that he would be extremely cautious during his recovery. It was what Ridley had expected – he’d been Ned’s friend and doctor for a long time, since even before Ned had gained his powers, and he knew how stubborn his friend could be.
After Ridley left, Kris moved a chair closer to the bed, and Ned knew instantly that they were in for a long conversation! “Your secret is safe, for now, dear,” she started off. “After Dr. Jones assured me you were not in danger but wouldn't wake up for a couple of hours yet, I put on your costume – with some suitable padding, of course – and flew a couple of patrols over the city, making sure I zoomed lower whenever I saw a crowd, showing off so they would be reassured that Dr. Lambda is still on the job! But I can’t do it for 2 weeks – sooner or later, something will pop up that requires the REAL Dr. Lambda – and I don’t have your experience, or your physical powers, to do the job – or the desire. I’m retired and I want to stay retired!”
She paused for a second, then plunged ahead with her real concern. “And I think it’s time for YOU to retire too, mister!” Ned could hardly believe it! “I was frantic with worry over you and I never want to go through that kind of fear again. And our house is destroyed! We both pay too high a price, and I don’t want to pay it any longer!”
“Kris, I’m kind of overwhelmed right now… ever since I got my powers, I’ve thought of myself as unstoppable, and to be injured so seriously has totally wrecked the way I see myself – and, I admit, as Dr. Lambda. But I just can’t think straight enough right now to make a decision of that magnitude, right now. I promise I’ll consider it; this is really shaking me to the core. But I have to weigh it against the good I can do in the world, and I’ll need time. Can we discuss it again in a week? I promise, Lambda’s honor, that I’ll consider it!” He had just made up the ‘Lambda’s honor’ thing – but as best he knew, neither he or Kris had ever violated a private promise between the two of them. "And if we both decide for me to retire, I'd like to announce it to the world in person - after I'm healthy again, so everyone will remember me at my best! Is that OK?”
She grudgingly agreed – “But I will hold you to it!
“One other thing," he added, "Next time you come to visit, can you bring an AMH communicator? I need to talk to Sandy. Somebody needs to stop Dr. Daytona. We’ve never considered him or his minions much more than a minor menace before, but Bashlight was the most powerful one yet. And I think he’s using stolen Lambda technology. It’s time for the AMH to take him seriously – and take him out of the game. And until Dr. Lambda officially retires, I need to find some way to cover for him.” He had an idea about that, though he had to talk to a couple of other mystery heroes to make it work. He had to hope that they might have some free time over the next two weeks.