Post by Admin on Mar 27, 2024 20:47:10 GMT
The Photomortic Effect
Part 1
It was a cold, blustery day in San Diego in late 1942. Dr. Drake Gordon, secretly the heroic rookie mystery man Dr. Diamond, and Elena Garcia, his assistant (and incidentally the step daughter of the mad scientist Alfonso Borcia, Dr. Diamond's greatest foe) raced across town in her 1940 Pontiac Torpedo convertible to a secret meeting with Colonel 'Bull' Corrigan and Rear Admiral 'Hammerhead' Dupres, commanders of Fort Rosecrans and Naval Base San Diego respectively. The lieutenant who had 'invited' Gordon to the meeting had explained that they wanted Dr. Gordon to investigate the causes of the epidemic of a mysterious wasting sickness that was affecting the San Diego defense industry. Drake suspected that, for some reason he didn't know yet, they actually wanted Dr. Diamond on the job, not just Dr. Gordon.
Not that everyone knew that Dr. Gordon and Dr. Diamond were the same person, and he didn't mind that they knew at high levels of government and the military, but he was starting to see the advantages of keeping his heroic identity secret from the general public. Well, that was a problem for the future. Right now...
"Some of the local defense factories have been hit with an epidemic," Corrigan began. "It only affects workers in these plants, never anyone they come in contact with outside the plants. The initial symptoms are extreme tiredness, overall weakness, and pain throughout the body. Eventually those affected have trouble remaining awake. Some have fallen into a coma and a few of those have died. Nobody has been able to determine the cause, but a quarter of the workforce in some factories are sick, more than a dozen workers are currently hospitalized, and healthy workers at the affected factories are starting to refuse to come to work... and it's spreading. The War Department would like Dr. Gordon to investigate."
Dupres continued. "Military Intelligence believes that this is the work of an Axis saboteur ring, based in San Diego, but so far, no one has been able to find any clues to help us locate the saboteurs. And medical experts are unable to identify any potential vectors carrying the disease - no germs, no particularly unsanitary conditions in the factories, and no common factors, other than that all the victims work in factories doing defense-related work. And it doesn't strike everyone in a particular factory at the same time. When their workers started punching out sick, some of the first factories affected transferred healthy workers to cover for the absent workers - and within a couple of days, those healthy workers became sick as well. But other workers in the same factories remain totally unaffected."
Drake and Elena asked some questions. The officials had initially resisted allowing Elena to take part in the investigation because of her father (step-father, as Drake had pointed out repeated), but Gordon had insisted vehemently. Now, they were impressed with her astute questions and scientific background. (Well, she had grown up with a scientists for a step-father, after all, and he hadn't always been mad...) Dr. Gordon realized he had been correct - the War Department wanted Dr. Diamond on this case!
***
***
"So, what's the plan?" Elena asked. "They sure didn't give us much to go on!" The two were hurrying back out to the car.
"Let's start at Scripps Mercy," he replied. "And then let's visit Consolidated Aircraft - they're the latest place to be hit by this plague." Elena sped off toward the hospital.
***
***
At the hospital, they learned some interesting things. The earliest symptom of this mysterious plague were increased fatigue, which eventually reached the point where victims could no longer remain awake, and growing pain in every area of the body. Those that had died had actually starved to death, as the had been alone when they finally lapsed into unconsciousness, and had been unable to feed themselves. Those currently in comas were being fed intravenously and seemed to be recovering. All the doctors agreed that there were no detectable vectors, and the disease did not seem to be contagious. None of the patients had anything different to add, although they all confirmed that they didn't remember any recent changes in their work environments. The disease seemed to be gender-agnostic - just over a third of those affected were women, which closely matched the current gender demographics of the workforce. It DID seem to affect older workers more than younger, though most of the doctors felt that wasn't significant, as it also closely matched the current age demographics of the current workforce.
***
"Any ideas?" Blake asked Elena as they sped toward Consolidated Aircraft.
"We should examine the work areas where workers were affected and unaffected and try to determine what is different about them," she replied thoughtfully. "It sounds like other people have done that already, so we should be looking for things we think most people might not notice."
He was a tiny bit disconcerted. 'How can I impress her with my brilliance when she's just as damn brilliant?' He instantly dismissed the thought as unworthy - he'd hired her FOR her brilliance, after all! In the bio-medicine field, specifically - but it kept spilling over to other areas!
***
 | Consolidated Aircraft, among other models of planes, built flying boats and long range bombers, both considered critical to the war effort. Their workforce was among the most patriotic and justifiably proud. The unknown disease had struck hard in many of the assembly areas. Assembly for different units was usually done in different rooms. The Plant Manager gave them a tour of the entire factory, focusing on the assembly areas hit hardest by the mysterious illness. "All along the walls of the building. None of the interior offices or work areas has been affected," Elena noted. "Agreed," Dr. Gordon nodded. "In addition, the rooms along the south wall seem harder struck than those along the north wall." They were making it a game, to see who was the most observant - and then Elena scored the winning touchdown! |
They were stunned at the difference in the next room - it was jam packed with busy workers! "Something about this room," the Plant Manager noted. "We've moved as much work from different assembly lines as we can into this room, but you can see - we're already out of room. We can move some of the other lines to the interior offices, but over half our capacity will still be shut down. And a lot of our employees are refusing to come to work even if we think their work areas are 'safe'." He stopped, then continued with a snarl of anger. "There are people trying convince our workers to stay out of the plant - telling them they are all going to take sick and maybe die! We run a couple of them off the property just yesterday, in fact."
He didn't tell his visitors what had actually happened- he had personally warned some jerks against harassing his workers as they arrived at work yesterday morning, and when they hadn't moved, he and a couple of other workers had beat the agitators unconscious, then carried them to the edge of the company property and thrown them onto the city sidewalk, where the police had arrested them. People who actively worked against the war effort weren't very popular right now - nobody who'd seen the incident had even attempted to intervene on behalf of the agitators.
Elena opened the door in the wall to one of the adjoining 'sick' rooms, which elicited an immediate outcry of anger from the workers in the room. "We're here on an official Federal investigation of this mysterious disease which has been striking down your friends and fellow employees," Dr. Gordon spoke up. "We'll be done in 2 minutes. You should leave the room if you're worried." He stared pointedly at the Plant Manager, who nodded.
"Everyone take 10," he announced reluctantly. "We'll be out of here by then, and I promise, when you get back, that door will be locked from now on!" There wasn't quite a stampede for the door - the exodus was a little bit more orderly than that. "I hope the all come back!" he spoke harshly to Elena. "We've had more than enough trouble keeping them on the job without a stunt like that!"
"It we don't figure out what's causing this, a lot more than just this bunch won't be coming back to work," Drake replied imperturbably. He turned to his assistant. "So, Elena, what have you noticed?"
"Both of you, look into the other room and then turn your head back to this room. Do it three or four times in a hurry, and tell me if you notice anything different!"
They did. Drake wasn't sure enough to say anything, but the Plant Manager did. "The light in this room..." (the one where people had been working) "...is brighter than the light in that one!" (the 'sick' room).
Both rooms had banks of windows on the walls, and brilliant sun was streaming through both. Both rooms had similar fluorescent electrical lighting as well. The difference was subtle - but once it was pointed out, even Dr. Gordon could see it. He strode to the wall switches and switched off the electrical lighting in both rooms - and now the difference in the sunlight was much more noticeable.
"There's something different in the windows!" Drake exclaimed. "It seems unlikely - but it's the first clue! Can you get a maintenance guy in here? I'd like to take one pane from each window for analysis!"
The maintenance guy didn't want to work in the 'sick' room, so he let Drake use his tool kit to take one pane out of that room's windows, while the guy removed a pane from the 'working' room. "Is there anything different about the windows in this room?" Gordon asked.
"Well, sorta," the guy said slowly after a second's thought. "About a month ago, some big political mucky-mucks from DC was scheduled to come through the place on a tour. It's a pretty old building, put up during the Great War, and the bosses decided the place needed to be spiffed up a bit. So they hired a cleaning crew. And when they was power washing, they broke some a the windows in this room - claimed they was using a new machine, more powerful than the one they was used to. They got used to it pretty fast, though... no problems with the rest'a the windows. So we hadda get these ones all replaced. The company big wigs was plenty mad about the added expense, let me tell you!?" He spat in a corner. "Serves 'em right, though, hiring some bumblers rather than countin' on us that works for 'em all along!"
***
"OK, we're off to Forger Glass to have these analyzed," Dr. Gordon told the Plant Manager a few minutes later (A. H. Forger Glass Manufacturing Company, a long time San Diego firm). He and Elena climbed into the Torpedo and sped away. A man who had overheard their departing comments hurried off to an empty office and placed a phone call.
"They were only here for an hour, boss, and already that Gordon guy's onto the glass thing! That guy could be dynamite to us!" His English was good, but he had an unusual accent
The man at the other end of the phone was very average looking. He spoke English well, but also with an accent - a similar accent, in fact, to the man on the other end of the phone. He turned to the men around him.
"Stop this Dr. Gordon before he can reach Forger... and kill him!" 5 men rushed for the door.
The Photomortic Effect
Part 2
They never made it to Forger Glass. As they got out of the Torpedo in the Forger parking lot, 5 men jumped on them. One grabbed Elena from behind, wrapped his arm around her neck, and stuck a pistol in her back. "Don't move or say nothing', sister, or I'll plug ya!" he ordered. Two jumped on Dr. Gordon. The obviously didn't know he was Dr. Diamond - and that he was wearing his Black Diamond on a pendant under his shirt! The man in front of him slugged him in the jaw, the one behind him tried to pin his arms. He barely felt the blow, easily pulled an arm free, and slugged back. His assailant was knocked backward off his feet and slammed into the side of a parked car, then slumped to the ground.
There was a male shout of pain and a gunshot fired; Diamond spun around to see that Elena had slammed the heel of her high-heeled shoe into the top of the foot of her own assailant, then jerked aside, and his bullet had ripped her jacket but missed her. He collapsed in pain, screaming about a broken foot. Then the assailant behind Gordon slammed a tire iron into the back of his head, and he staggered back a few steps into the street - and was struck by a speeding dump truck. The driver had hit the gas when he heard the gunshot and was unable to swerve in time! With a sickening "WHACK!" Dr. Gordon was launched through the air into a storefront window. The window shattered as he hit, and he vanished inside. The three bad guys still able to move converged on Elena - one of them whacked her in the head with a pistol, and she was knocked unconscious. The dump truck's tires were squealing as it screeched to a halt and the driver started to climb out.
"Gordon's dead. Nobody could live through gettin' clubbed like than, and then getting hit by a truck, and then gettin' cut up by going through a window like that!" the one with the tire iron shouted. "By the time the cops get her, he'll be white as if he'd been bit by a vampire!"
"Whatta we do with the skirt?" the one who had whacked 'the skirt' asked.
"The boss didn't say nothin' about her," the third answered. "We'll take her back to Acme with us and let him decide!" The three able bad guys got their two companions and Elena into their own car and zoomed away.
Meanwhile, the truck driver moved like a sleepwalker toward shattered storefront window. He apparently dreaded what he would find... but needed to discover what had happened to the man he'd struck. He was stunned when a man stepped through the window. A tall, powerfully built figure of a man. The figure of Dr. Diamond! Wearing a costume and yellow cape that left most of his body bare, with a large, black gem at the clasp of the cape, short dark hair over a narrow face with a thin Errol Flynn mustache.
"Who are you? Where's the guy I hit? What happened to him?" the frantic, befuddled truck driver screamed.
"I am Dr. Diamond. It was I that you hit. As you can see, I am uninjured!" Diamond spoke calmly. "Do you know what happened to the men who attacked me and my companion?"
"But... but... the truck... the window... you..."
"I have magical powers," Diamond spoke quietly. "You have probably read about me in the papers - and thought it was all made up. It's not!" He looked around. "The men that attacked me and shoved me into the street in front of you... they must have kidnapped the girl I was with. We're not going to let them get away with that, are we?" He spoke more forcibly now, trying to break through the man's daze.
And it worked. The driver was instantly furious at the men who had tried to use him and his truck for murder! "They said the were going to take her to the boss at Acme!" he practically yelled, then he ran down. "Whatever that means... sorry, that's all I heard..."
By now there was a crowd around them. "This man needs a doctor!" Dr. Diamond told the growing crowd. "See that he is taken care of!" He turned and leaped, soaring above the crowd, and came down next to Elena's car, 40' away, leaving a small crater where he'd landed. "OOFF! That's harder than it looks!" he exclaimed as he climbed into the Torpedo and zoomed away - the wrong way!
But he had a plan. He had no idea what Acme was, or where it might be - but if it was somewhere in San Diego, it might be listed in the Yellow Pages. He pulled to the curb and went into a shop: "Kip Russell Chemist" and headed for the phone booth. There were two companies in Phoenix named Acme: Acme Sporting Goods and Acme Maintenance Contractors. "There's something strange about the windows at the plane factory... and Acme Maintenance Contractor? Advertising window washing as one of their specialties? Seems like too much of a coincidence. I think I'll pay a call on Acme Maintenance..." He noted the address and returned to the car, oblivious to the excited chatter coming from the crowd at the soda counter. San Diego was a bit more relaxed about half naked men running around than they might be in a lot of other cities in the US - but it WAS winter, after all!
***
About 20 minutes after Elena was abducted, Dr. Diamond slammed open the door of the Acme Maintenance Contractors and stomped inside. What he saw was a neat office with a nicely turned out blonde receptionist at a deck. She was more than a bit flustered, but determined to be professional. "Can I help you, sireeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!" Her practiced speech turned into a full fledged scream as the floor under Dr. Diamond swung down and he fell into a pit and vanished from sight! And then the trap door swung shut again.
Diamond could still hear her screaming, even as the trap door above him slammed shut, and then he hit the bottom and found himself in a pit in the bedrock below the Acme office. He crashed to the floor and then got quickly to his feet, unharmed by the fall, which he guessed was maybe 20 feet. 'It shouldn't take long to.... smash... my....." and then he was unconscious. He had just been about to notice the cloud of fine gray mist at the bottom of the pit but by then it was too late to hold his breath....
When he awakened, Dr Diamond was firmly strapped to a chair, and he felt absolutely awful! The next thing he noticed was that a bright light was shining on him, so bright he couldn't look directly at it, and then he twisted his head around as much as possible and got more details. He was in a room with steel walls, floor and ceiling, and the door was closed. He, Elena, and the receptionist were all strapped in chairs, facing one of the corners. Recessed into the ceiling and walls in that corner high in front of him was a very bright light, maybe the size of a signal lamp from a civilian cabin cruiser. There was a lot of moaning in the room, he realized it was coming from him, and with an effort, he forced himself to silence. The light reached everywhere in the room, except for the shadows made by the three prisoners.
A mocking voice came from behind him. He twisted, but couldn't see the speaker until the man moved to the corner. It was a man, wearing a uniform that said "Acme Maintenance" along with a hood and gloves. "So, you are the famous Dr. Diamond, eh? Vastly overrated, I would say - I trapped you as easily as a cat traps a mouse. And I will dispose of you even more easily!"
Dr. Diamond was feeling fatigued, too tired to even respond. Instead, all he could do was sit there and listen to the man boast. He noted the speaker's unusual accent, but his mind wasn't working well enough to place it.
"You wonder what's wrong, what it is that is killing you? Well, like all the others who have died in this very room before you, I'll tell you - and then you WILL slip into a coma. Most of the others seemed to squirm in pain even as they died - it seems to be a very painful death. You see, this small spotlight lens has been coated with a very special chemical preparation. The chemical bonds to the glass, and cannot be removed. And when any light is shined through that glass, and it falls on the skin of a human, it initiates what I call 'the photomortic effect'. 'Photo' from light, you see, and 'mort' from death. I think it's very droll!" He stopped and laughed, a very ugly sound.
"Your exposed body is now manufacturing fatigue poisons at an accelerated rate," the hooded man boasted. "I assume you are all aware of the effects?" He laughed again. "Soon these poisons will reach deadly levels, and you will fall into a coma. Continuous exposure will lead to death, usually in 4 to 6 hours. Intermittent exposure, such as that experienced by the factory workers, takes longer, and victims often recover - but the spreading 'epidemic' will cause panic among the workers and destroy the war industry in San Diego, and once I have proved the value of my discovery, the Axis will adopt it - and destroy the Allies! And make me rich as well - I have been promised the American throne for my part in destroying the United States!"
There was a pounding on the door, and a muffled voice. "Hey, boss, we gotta get moving - we got the General Motors job tonight!"
"Yes, you fool, I'm coming!" the hooded villain snarled. He then preformed a courtly bow to the women. "It is a shame to waste such beauty, and yet, when I rule, all women will compete for my favor!" He turned back to Dr. Diamond. "You are the first of American's so called 'heroic mystery men' to encounter my power - but you can die knowing you will not be the last!"
He pushed open the door and grandly walked out; they heard a heavy bar slam into place on the other side, sealing them in. And Dr. Diamond was too tired to try and break free!
Can this be the end of Dr. Diamond and the women? Check next month's issue of Whomp! Comics - the Comic with Moxie!
The Photomortic Effect
Part 3
"DOC!" Elena yelled. "Why don't you break free?! Your black diamond should protect you - it is supposed to keep you from getting tired!"
"I can feel... light... sucking power... from diamond..." he managed to gasp out around pants and moans. "Too tired..."
"It's hardly affecting me!" Elena objected. "I must be immune!"
"Clothes..." he gasped again.
"That must be it! I'm dressed for the weather, just my hands and face bare, and my hands are behind me in my shadow!" She twisted her head around, getting her face out of the light, and shook her head so the side of her neck was shielded by her long red hair. "That must be it! I can feel it getting weaker. We need to get you into shadow!" She turned her attention to the other person in the trap. "Hey, girl - what's you're name? Can you help me?"
"Name... Darien... sorry... very sick..." Elena could barely hear Darien; with her head twisted as far as possible, she could see that the blonde was wearing a short sleeve blouse and knee-length pencil skirt suitable to working inside - exposing her skin to the deadly photomortic rays striking them. She would have to do this herself!
"I'm going to try to knock my chair over and squirm my hands loose," she told the room, not sure if they others could still hear her, or even cared what she was doing. She set about squirming and rocking as much as possible from side to side. It was tough - her instincts told her to stop, she was going to fall over. She squashed her instincts and rocked harder... and success! Her chair toppled sideways.
"Lucky for us, they just tied us up, but not to the chairs!" she announced triumphantly. It took a LOT more squirming, and some yelps of pain when the photomortic rays struck her neck or face, but her adrenaline was fizzing now, and in a few painful minutes, she was able to squirm away from the chair, her arms sliding along the back until they reached the top, and she was freed. Well, not really - she was still bound at the ankles and her hands were tied behind her, but she wasn't stuck to the chair any more.
She bent far forward until she could slide her bound hands down under her rump, and after that, sliding them down past her feet was easy. With her hands still bound, but in front of her, she could untie the bonds on her ankles, and then stand up.
"Sorry, Doc!" She pushed his chair over, he was no longer moaning and made no other noises when it hit. "I hope this works!" Then an idea struck her. "If it doesn't, maybe the black diamond will work for me! I could be... Diamond Girl!" For a very brief instant, she considered changing her plans, but then realized if Plan A didn't work, she'd have plenty of time to try Plan B. She grabbed Dr. Diamond's cape, and draped it over the front of his body, shielding the mystical black diamond at the clasp from the deadly photomortic light. She then draped her body across his to provide additional shadows on the diamond.
Once out of the beam, the mystical powers of the gem surged powerfully back into action, sending a steady stream of magical energy into Doc Diamond's body. The magic instantly counteracted the fatigue poisons throughout his body, and then infused the hero with the super strength, vitality, and durability that were the gifts of the ancientl creator of the black diamond, Khonsu, the Egyptian God of the Moon.
"Move carefully, Doc!" Elena urged him as his eyes flickered open. "Don't let the diamond get exposed again!"
Diamond flexed his arms, bursting the bonds, then his legs, then reached up to hold his cape tightly over the gem. "Elena, please stand between me and the light," he requested, and she did. He stood carefully, and turned his back to the beam. "I can feel the magic of the gem fighting the effects of the beam wherever it touches my skin! I'm not sure which is stronger," he grunted, and Elena could hear the pain in his voice. "I've got to get us out of here before I'm overcome!"
He backed up to the wall opposite the steel door, lowered his shoulder and CHARGED, pushing off the wall for even more power and speed, and smashed the door with his shoulder. One of the brackets holding the beam that blocked the door tore free from the outer wall (which wasn't steel, unfortunately for the bad guys) and the door swung open and Dr. Diamond staggered into the hall outside. Elena ran after him, and as soon as she was out of the light spilling from the cell, he easily broke the bonds or her wrists. Then, holding his cape tightly to his chest, he zipped back into the cell and carried Darien and her chair back into the hall and freed her.
"Now for the bad guys!" Diamond announced after Darien had opened her eyes and struggled into a sitting position. "They mentioned General Motors. Do you know which plant they are after?" There were several General Motors plants spread across the region close to San Diego - they needed to get to the right one, right now!
"The one that makes tank parts," she replied weakly. "The address is on my desk." She pointed down the hall. "I've never seen inside that awful room before; they always kept it locked. I had no idea how evil they are!"
Dr. Diamond picked her up; they skirted the light coming from the cell and moved to the front office.
"Say, Doc," Elena said thoughtfully, "We really ought to destroy the photomortic light before we go... just so it doesn't hurt anyone else!"
"Good thinking, Girl Wonder!" he agreed, then picked up Elena's heavy Underwood Flagship typewriter and moved down the hall, while Darien found the page in her appointment book that showed today's 'Maintenance' job. Elena tried to call the police, but the phone line was dead. There was a crash and Diamond returned, nodding in satisfaction.
"That's the end of THAT photomortic weapon! OK, Elena, we can go now." He turned to Darien, who was still looking pale and shaky. "We'll drop you off somewhere they can help you!" He carried the sick receptionist to Elena's car. "We're going close by the Naval Training base at Liberty Station - we'll drop her off there and get hold of Admiral Hammerhead - and then head to the tank plant!"
***
Of course, they knew nothing about it, but the hooded villain had made one more call before Acme Maintenance's sabotage crew had headed for the General Motors tank plant. "Yes, Leader Borcia - we have captured Dr. Diamond and he will die from the photomortic light shortly!" he boasted. "We will dispose of his body when we return!" After he'd hung up, the man at the other end of the call snarled in rage. "That FOOL! Dr. Diamond is too powerful to toy with! He should have just killed him and be done with it." He turned to a control board. "I suppose it is time to reveal to the world that no puny prison can hold Dr. Borcia. I'll send Najor as backup." He pulled a lever, and the floor in the room parted, and slowly, a giant mechanical man was lifted into the room from below. "Dr. Diamond is sure to remember Najor, the future conqueror of the world - stronger than any army!" |  Leader Borcia, the Mad Scientist |
 | Najor was about 15 feet tall, humanoid in general appearance, looking like a giant human mummy which had been wrapped in bandages made of some coppery-colored alloy, with metallic gray, streamlined plate armor of the chest and joints. It had a rudimentary face, with camera lenses for eyes and a grille for a mouth, and two antennae projecting from the top of its head like the horns of some demon. It moved almost silently, with every motion driven by the whir of powerful electric motors in the robot's body. A wall panel slid aside, and the robot strode through into the afternoon sunlight. "Even though my agent is a fool, I simply love it when a plan comes together!" Borcia stood leering as his robot moved quickly away, his head bent forward, rubbing his hand together at chest level in evil satisfaction! |
Well, readers, it seems like the smelly brown goop is about to hit the indoor wind machine, doesn't it? Will Dr. Diamond and Elena be able to prevent the sabotage at the General Motors tank plant? Will Doc be able to defeat Najor, the giant robot? You'll have to find out in the next exciting issue of Whomp! Comics, the Comic with Moxie! On sale at your favorite newsstand NEXT MONTH!
The Photomortic Effect
Part 4
In his lab, Borcia cackled in satisfaction as he watched Najor wreak havoc on the monitor of his telewave.As it trampled through the streets, terrified citizens ran for their lives. Telephone poles and small buildings crumpled like paper as the robot stalked through the city streets. Several squads of heavily armed MPs arrived from the various San Diego military bases, but gunfire, including machine gun fire, barely slowed it down. The monster cannot be halted! Several brave drivers tried to ram, but the robot pointed at each vehicle in turn, and a bolt of lightning blasted from one arm or the other, and the motors exploded! "If only my secret hidden laboratory was farther away from the General Motors factory," Borcia bemoaned his 'bad luck'. "Well, it doesn't matter. Nothing can stop him! After he has razed this factory, I'll send him to destroy all the others. And Dr. Diamond as well - I'm sure the hooded one's feeble efforts to destroy him have failed." He laughed his evil laugh. "Of course, I am wrecking the fool's carefully planned cowardly scheme to sabotage the San Diego defense industry - but Nalor will destroy it in a day instead of the months his plan would have taken! Bwa Hah Hah Hah! And then I, not the hooded one, will be rewarded as the new ruler of America!" |  |
Dr. Diamond and Elena had arrived at the General Motors plant a few minutes ago, before Najor was close enough to be noticed. The Acme Maintenance crew was already at work. They were doing more than simply power washing the plant's windows - there were people operating landscaping equipment, digging excavations to plant new bushes and shrubs, mowing, trimming, and moving freely through the plant and the grounds around it.
"After we shut down this operation, we should tell the military to check the grounds around the other factories served by Acme and make sure there are no bombs buried, or secret dictaphones recording top secret conversations," Dr. Diamond noted to Elena."With access like we can see, who knows what else they might have done?"
Then he raced towards the power washing crew. Although they were astounded to see him coming, one of the men immediately started giving orders. His voice was the voice of the hooded mastermind! His orders, though loud, were barely coherent."Shoot him! KILL HIM!" he screeched.
The power washer was turned in his direction and the pressure cranked up to maximum! He leaped high in the air, above the stream, and cane crashing down onto the machine, wrecking it with the force of his landing! "Who knows WHAT that gunk would do if it got on the diamond?!" A distant part of his mind made a note to self that he should find some way to protect his mystical gemstone in the future - but right now, he had a fight to win!
Initially, none of the crew started shooting him with their guns, as they worried about the other members of their crew. But Dr. Diamond was decimating them, often knocking down as many as three men with a single blow, and seemingly heedless of their own blows in return. It wasn't long before they started shooting, but their results were equally as ineffective. A group of men was bring another machine to bear - he recognized a heavy duty pesticide sprayer. He didn't think pesticide would affect him, but then he remembered the mist in the pit back as the Acme office... this was a sabotage crew, and they probably came equipped to fight and escape if their real mission was somehow uncovered. He heaved the power washer over his head and tossed it in their direction. His toss wasn't quite far enough - but it was perhaps more effective than a longer toss would have been, as the wrecked washer bounced and rolled an struck the group like an impromptu bowling ball. And then the rest of the saboteurs who still could were running!
Not far away, a powerful motor roared to life, followed by by the clanking of a heavy treaded vehicle... and the door of a large building like a small airplane hanger exploded outward and a tank rumbled out. The turret swung around and without slowing, the cannon belched and explosion and an instant later, the shell exploded against the chest of Najor! When the smoke cleared, the tank's engine roared even louder and the heavy vehicle sprang forward. Those who have never witnessed just how fast such a massive vehicle can move would have been astounded! It drove directly at Najor, who was apparently unharmed by the attack... no, one of his arms wasn't moving, but hanging limply by his side. He raised the other arm and a bolt of lightning blasted out, and the tank's motor exploded, and is slewed into a turn, except it broke free of the ground and rolled several times before it came to a halt.
Dr. Diamond raced forward at his top speed - which was faster than the fastest tank - and as he passed by the burning vegetation where the tank engine had exploded, he picked up a heavy log which was in flames - and then leaped, and smashed into the giant robot, chest to chest and wrapped his arms around the robot's torso and began to squeeze. He was not surprised with oil gushed from the robot's body, making it impossible to maintain his grip - but if a robot can be surprised, Najor certainly was when that bath of oil caught fire! Dr. Diamond pushed away, though the fire probably wouldn't hurt him.
The flow of oil stopped instantly, and the flames burned themselves out a second later. Najor was having trouble moving now - one of the legs appeared to no longer bend at the knee joint. But it still had a weapon left! A bolt of lighting slammed into Dr. Diamond's chest, and it threw him backward through the air for almost 60 feet, and he slammed into the cinder block wall of one of the buildings, which fortunately was evacuated by now, and he demolished a good section of the wall. He was lucky Najor was moving much more slowly now than originally, as he was somewhat stunned himself. The next bolt missed him, but brought down another 10 feet of wall, and he could hear the building start to collapse behind him.
He picked up half a cinder block and heaved it as hard as he could, and it shattered against Najor's chest and drove the robot back a step. It staggered, having problems retaining its balance with the damaged leg, giving Diamond time for two more 'fastbrick specials', which knocked it down. He charged forward again, not quite as fast as before, and the struggling robot rolled over and pushed up to hands and knees, he leaped, and landed on its back, and wrapped one arm around the head while he tore at the horn-like antennae with the other. He snapped them both off, and Najor simply stopped moving, as back at Borcia's lab, the telewave went blank.
***
The MPs and the angry plant workers had captured the saboteurs, and they hadn't been gentle. Some of them would require extensive hospitalization before they could be tried for war crimes - but they were all alive and expected to survive.
Dr. Diamond raced as fast as he could back along the path of destruction Najor had left, and only minutes after he'd overcome the giant robot, he reached Borcia's lab - which had been discretely disguised as an abandoned barn. He didn't enter, suspecting a trap, but stayed nearby, watching the building intently as he waited for military reinforcements. And it was lucky he did, shortly after he arrived, the building exploded and burned as if it was filled with some new and powerful accelerant. There was no trace of a body in the rubble after the fire was put out...
After he revealed the secret of the photomortic effect to the military, MI went through Acme's records to determine where they might have committed sabotage. Incidentally, they discovered that Darien was innocent - it was her first job out of high school and she had no knowledge that the company had been the front for a sabotage ring. It DID prove impossible to remove the photomortic coating from the window glass, so for the next several months, San Diego's 3 glass manufacturing companies did about 5 years worth of business each - and every factory put up drapery and window shades over the deadly windows until the glass they had backordered could be delivered.
Dr. Diamond's reputation and legend grew - and he quickly realized that he was going to have to establish a secret civilian identity... but that's a story for NEXT MONTH'S edition of Whomp! Comics - the Comics with Moxie!