|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:30:08 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade IntroductionWhen you deal with a genie be careful what you wish for!Setting
May 1, 1946, Headquarters of the Super Powers Division of the Department of War
Job Interview, Part 1
“Welcome to Super Powers Division Headquarters, Captain Catapult!” General Jonathan O’Neill greeted the new mystery hero in the Division’s well-appointed Washington office. Catapult was tall with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He wore a red hood and a red jerkin that left his arms and legs bare, with the letters CC emblazoned in black across his chest, as well as red ankle high boots and gloves, a blue cape, and a black belt. His civilian identity was Tom Manley, an ace for the Marine Corps who had retired at the end of World War II. His plans for today did not include revealing that civilian identity, quite yet. O’Neill wasn’t quite as tall, but was similar in build, with a square face and wide jaw, and short cropped gray hair.
“I’d like to introduce you to some members of the Alliance of Mystery Heroes: Major Power, Dr. Aeon, and Rain Bird, the current leader of the AMH.” Each hero stepped forward to shake hands - Major Power, a tall, trim black man, with gray hair and Fu Manchu beard, dressed in green and gray with a gray cape, Dr. Aeon, almost as tall, a slim woman with light blue skin, long red hair that began at her ears, her action outfit navy blue and white, and Rain Bird, a confident woman covered in feathers, with a pair of large wings
Tom Manley did his best to conceal his awe at being introduced to these almost-legendary heroes and shook hands enthusiastically. ‘After all, you received the Air Medal directly from President Truman,’ he reminded himself. Their own enthusiasm helped put him more at ease. These three seemed as interested in meeting him as he was them.
O’Neill continued: “As you all know, we are here to discuss Captain Catapult’s future relationship with the AMH. Let’s get the work out of the way, right away, shall we?” He led the group into a small conference room and they took comfortable chairs around the table. A private sat in the rear of the room near a pair of projectors, ready to show prepared slides or a movie if any of the meeting members called for visual aids.
Major Power briefly discussed the origin of the Alliance of Mystery Heroes1) and ran through the current active roster. There were a number of heroes with high public profiles, but some of the names were unfamiliar to Manley. Some heroes hadn’t received much coverage in the war front newsreels, and a couple others had joined the group only recently. ‘If they do invite me into the AMH, it’s good to know I won’t be the only rookie!’
Then, the 3 AMH members quickly recounted the public versions of their origins. Tom could sense that they were all highly edited, although readers here have access to the full stories:
Major Power received his mountain-range related suite of powers from an African deity
Rain Bird received her avian and weather control powers from a North American deity
Dr. Aeon was from another dimension where everyone had magical powers
Tom wasn’t yet ready to reveal the source of his own powers - if it became public knowledge that he got his powers from his belt, wouldn’t some enemy or other eventually try to steal the belt? This group didn’t press him for more details, but they were definitely interested in his mystery hero exploits so far.
“My powers came on gradually once I was discharged and back living in Chicago,” he told them. “I kept running into things that disturbed me about civilian life - street crime, black market activity, discrimination - and discovered that I just couldn’t sit back and watch that kind of stuff, so I started stepping up, sticking my nose in. I thought my first successes, like stopping a mugger with a knife, were due to my superior combat training, but then I got into a bar fight with a half a dozen tough guys, and one of them pulled a gun, and the bullets bounced off, and that’s when I started to seriously consider the mystery hero route. I spent some time figuring out what I can do, put on a costume, and began my career as Captain Catapult. I’ve been active a little over a month, long enough to get in the papers a couple of times, and apparently that brought me to the attention of General O’Neill’s team. And here I am!”
O’Neill’s team had put together a short newsreel of his exploits, which included busting a leftover group of Nazi saboteurs, cleaning up “Big Butch” Brawler’s gang, which had fingers in virtually every criminal activity in Chicago2), including murder, hijacking and gambling, and quickly defeating the only actual mystery villain he had faced, the Phantom Hornet, who controlled a robotic bee with a poisonous stinger that she kept in her belt buckle.
“In addition to his heroics,” O’Neill concluded, “Captain Catapult was an ace fighter pilot during the war and he has been awarded several high honors for his military service. In summary, ladies and gentlemen, the government recommends that the Alliance of Mystery Heroes consider Captain Catapult for membership.”
“Thanks, Jack! We’ve scheduled some tests of our own, but your recommendation carries a lot of weight,” Rain Bird replied. She turned to Catapult. “Captain, we’d like to return to AMH Headquarter to complete this meeting. We could fly on our own, but it would take me about 2 hours. Dr. Aeon can have us there in only a few seconds, if you’re interested in experiencing apportation. Some people find it disorienting.”
“It affects my power of absolute location,” Major Power spoke up defensively, even though Rain Bird hadn’t referred to him specifically. “Takes my mental map a few seconds to catch up.”
“Well, I’ve never traveled by apportation before. Might as well find out now,” Catapult replied. Major Power winced, but didn’t say anything more.
“We’ll see you later, General O’Neill. Thanks for the briefing! So, Doc, will you do the honors? Gather round, guys, next stop - AMH Headquarters - or actually, the beach nearby!” Rain Bird organized the transition.
“It may help if you close your eyes,” Dr. Aeon suggested, then began chanting, then swept her arm around in an arc that encompassed the other mystery heroes.
Gixoa nivvg ygsoh oijsz oipiv vuizj osoik raipg opnnq
Xuvalu!
And the heroes vanished.
Job Interview, Part 2Somewhere on the Delmarva Peninsula, on the beach
When Captain Catapult opened his eyes again, the group was on a boulder-strewn beach. It was cold and there was ice at the waterline, but the sun was shining brightly. Major Power carefully sat on a boulder and didn’t move for several seconds. Captain Catapult felt some minor disorientation when he opened his eyes on the changed scene, but it quickly passed.
“We’re here to test your powers, Captain,” Rain Bird continued talking as if there had been no transition at all. “Care to show off a bit?”
“From the tests I’ve done myself, I’m not in Major Power’s class, but I can do this…” Tom bent down, forced his hands into the frozen beach, and straightened, easily tearing free and lifting a boulder that probably weighed around 8 tons. He put it back down. “I’m impervious to temperatures as low as dry ice and as high as molten steel. I’ve withstood the impact of machine gun bullets and a dynamite explosion. When I was fighting the Phantom Hornet, I got knocked into one of the transformers at a power station - it stunned me for a few minutes, but as you can see, I’ve recovered. I’m not as fast as Flux, but…” there was a red blur moving down the beach. A hundred yards later, he piled a couple boulders together, and then he was back in another red blur “…my top running speed is about a hundred. And I can fly.”
“Let’s test that,” Rain Bird said with a smile. “Let’s play tag - the three of us will try to tag you and we’ll see how long you can dodge us.”
Manley was silent for a couple of seconds. “Three on one, you tag me, I lose? I’ve got a better idea - let’s make it a game where I have a chance to win, too. OK?”
Rain Bird looked at her teammates, and they both looked interested. “OK, what do you propose?”
“Let’s stick with tag - sort of. To be fair to everyone, top flight speed limited to speed of sound, so if you cause a sonic boom, there's a time out until you slow down. No other powers but flight are allowed during the game, and all players have to stay within visual range of all the others. And let’s keep it pretty high up so none of us crashes through a building by accident. Any mid-air touch counts as a tag, and if you are tagged you retire. I win if all 3 of you are retired, and of course you win if one of you tags me. How does that sound?” The other three were nodding. “One more thing - is the local airspace monitored by radar? We should let them know they shouldn’t call out an airstrike when they see a bunch of bogies in a dog fight.“
“The AMH facility includes a radar station. They’re aware that we’re going to run a training exercise - I’ll just give them a call to let them know we’re about to start.” Rain Bird placed a quick call with her AMH communicator. “Okie Dokie. Before we start - slip this into your cowl.” She handed Catapult a small AMH communicator. “It’s set to the team channel, in case any of us needs to talk.” She showed him how to use it. “Now, let’s get this show on the rho day oh!! We’ll give you a 10 second head start, Captain. Go!”
Next: Mystery Hero Dogfight |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:35:55 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade Mystery Hero DogfightCatapult was up and away, heading out over the ocean. A mile away, he turned to watch his three opponents lift into the air and head his way, in a close group. He waited for them to get a little closer, then zoomed at them at high speed. They scattered, and after he flashed between them, then pulled up and raced away, now back over land, they turned to follow.
Catapult, Major Power and Dr. Aeon were considerably faster than Rain Bird and she was soon left behind. But only a few seconds later, Tom curved his flight up and over and reversed directions again. By his own rules, he had to remain within visual contact distance with Rain Bird. Dr. Aeon and Major Power vectored to intercept him, and when they closed, he used some elementary dog fighting maneuvers to avoid them, while closely observing their own maneuvers. Several times one or the other got really close, but Catapult always seemed to have one more unexpected maneuver up his sleeve, and he managed to avoid every effort at a tag. The aerial theater for these exploits moved relatively slowly, allowing Rain Bird to catch up a bit with the other three.
Dr. Aeon was a fast but clumsy flier. She reminded Tom of some of the experimental German ‘super jets’ he’d faced late in the war, pushed through production without adequate testing, flown by green pilots who had been rushed through meager training. She/they might have been fast as heck in a straight line, but couldn’t maneuver well at high speed and they flew like buckets when they slowed down.
If Dr. Aeon was an experimental jet with a green pilot, Major Power was an FW 190 with a commercial pilot in the cockpit. A marginally superior flier, given the rules, but with no dog fighting experience to speak of.
Tag against either of them alone would have been no contest, the game over in minutes. Put them together - why, that could be dangerous!
Captain Catapult suddenly changed direction and raced toward the much slower Rain Bird. Both his other foes rushed to protect their more vulnerable teammate, but the Captain actually wasn’t interested in her. He swerved left, directly across the flight path of Dr. Aeon. Major Power, who was closing in from his right, swerved as well. But Dr. Aeon couldn’t turn fast enough, and then Major Power saw the danger and did everything he could to avoid his teammate, and it wasn’t enough, and they crashed together. Fortunately, Dr. Aeon’s targoth leather fighting armor was magically warded to protect her from physical damage, making her almost as resistant to injury as either Catapult or Major Power. Both mystery heroes felt the collision, but neither was disabled. Chagrined at their clumsiness, they pulled apart and turned their attention back to Captain Catapult, who was hovering nearby.
‘Dangerous for them!’ Tom crowed to himself. He activated his communicator. “Rain Bird, the rules we agreed to are: “Any mid-air touch counts as a tag, and if you are tagged you retire.” By the rules, Major Power and Dr. Aeon are retired after mid-air touching.”
“Hey! You need to tag us, and you haven’t touched either one of us!” Major Power yelled into his own radio. He and Dr. Aeon both stopped and hovered nearby, waiting for Rain Bird to agree and the game to continue.
“We agreed to his rules,” Rain Bird sounded amused. “You guys are out for the duration.”
“Regardless, that was a sneaky trick!” Major Power was still indignant.
“Look, you’re stronger than I am, Dr. Aeon can do impossible feats of magic, and Rain Bird can shoot lightning. When you’re outgunned, you do what you need to do to level the playing field - or tilt it your own way! I made the game into a dogfight - and in a dogfight, if you crash into one of the other planes, regardless of if he's on your side or the other, you're out of the fight.”
“Well, don’t you celebrate too soon, buster - the fight ain’t over yet!” Rain Bird warned him. “He’s right, you two - he tricked us fair and square. You guys sit the rest of this out - I’ll take care of it.”
“I hope you guys don’t mind me hanging around to watch - I’m awful interested in seeing any other dirty tricks he’s got up his sleeve,” Major Power didn’t sound angry any longer. “Good luck, boss!”
“I, too, will observe,” Dr. Aeon agreed. “As we have just confirmed, I acknowledge being a neophyte at aerial combat.”
Tom suddenly realized that he couldn’t see Rain Bird. He instantly rocketed forward at his top acceleration, then turned back to see her flash through his former airspace less than a half second after he’d moved.
“Good one, boss! That was close. Go get him!” Major Power approved enthusiastically. “A highly appropriate tactic,” Dr. Aeon added her agreement.
“I can see this is going to be fun!” Captain Catapult spun and launched himself directly at Rain Bird. She flared her wings, and came to a virtual stop, and he flashed by in front of her, twisting wildly to avoid her tag. She leaned forward into a dive, using powerful sweeps of her wings to add speed. A few missed tags later, and the Captain had a good idea of his opponent’s capabilities.
There was more to her ability to fly than just her wings, but her wings made her extremely maneuverable at low speeds. She could turn on a silver dollar, compared to his manhole cover. She didn’t have his years of experience in aerial combat, but she exhibited some kind of built-in radar and reflexes way faster than human. She managed to dodge him effectively for several minutes, and almost caught him twice in that same time.
“You’ve played air tag before,” he accused her after she tried to fool him into believing she’d been tumbling out of control. “But I’ve seen that trick before.”
“Guilty as charged! The last couple of years, Thunderbird and I have gone camping in the Rockies with Dr. and Lady Lambda, and we play air tag for hours!” She sounded a little winded - unlike the others, flying for her involved considerable physical exertion.
“I thought Lady Lambda retired?” he asked with interest.
“She retired from crusading, but not from flying!” Rain Bird laughed. “Who could EVER give this up?”
The game continued for another few minutes, but Captain Catapult was clearly the superior dog fighter. Finally, Rain Bird zigged when she should have zagged, and Tom reached out and tagged her foot - and yelped in surprise from a powerful electric shock!
“HEY! What was that? We agreed to no other powers!” He wasn’t really hurt, but very surprised.
“The game was over when you tagged me, and the ‘no other powers’ rule was part of the game.” She laughed again. “Just wanted you to know that the Alliance of Mystery Heroes can be pretty tricky too, big fella.“ Seeing that he was all right, she turned her attention to other things. “There’s pizza in the main meeting room if you guys are interested?”An Offer, AcceptedThe meeting ended with an offer from Rain Bird. “So, Captain Catapult, as the current Chair of the Alliance of Mystery Heroes, I am proud to offer you probationary membership in the Alliance of Mystery Heroes. If you accept, your probationary period will start immediately, pursuant to the rules we have already discussed. In 2 weeks time, if both parties are still in agreement on your membership, we’ll hold a press conference and proudly announce the most recent member of the AMH!” The heroes and members of the support staff all applauded enthusiastically.
Tom was exceptionally proud of the results. Not that he’d ever expected anything different - he was sure that both the government and the AMH had already decided to offer him membership before they even invited him here, but still… the Alliance of Mystery Heroes had asked HIM to join the most distinguished mystery hero team in the world!
The membership committee was exceptionally proud that one of America’s greatest living war heroes had accepted their membership offer. “He put his life on the line daily, without special powers,” Rain Bird praised their prospective member, when they were alone. “Other than courage, skill and integrity,” Major Power objected mildly. “We are fortunate to add another so doughty to our roster,” Dr. Aeon concluded.
Next: A Favor |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:39:20 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade A FavorDr. Aeon was a bit surprised when Captain Catapult approached her after the meeting. “Doctor, I’d like to ask you a favor.”
“What may I do for you?” she replied. “I’ll try to aid, if I can.”
He spoke a little hesitantly. “I’d like to make a real impact in Chicago over the next 2 weeks. A sort of introduction to the the good people in Chicago, so they know who I am and that I’m on their side. And remind the bad guys that I’ll be around going forward. Does that sound silly?”
“Not at all. I released my thesis a couple of weeks before I was awarded my ThD, when I was still unknown to most of the academic world. I knew there would be a major uproar about giving a ThD to an almost powerless manerexic, and I wanted them to judge my work on its merits, not my condition.”
He didn’t recognize the word, but he could tell by the way she said it that being a manerexic wasn’t a good thing in her home dimension. She sure wasn’t powerless here on Earth, though, as she was widely considered to be one of the most powerful mages in the world. But she didn’t pause to let him ask.
“So I’ll be pleased to help, if I can. What did you have in mind?”
“I’d like to really set back crime in Chicago. For the next two weeks, I wish I could somehow see criminal events in the future, so I can get there and stop them and capture the criminals.” It sounded kind of silly to actually say out loud.
“Usually, such a wish involves a genie.” She smiled, and snapped her fingers. Her appearance changed instantly. She was now sitting cross-legged on a small white cloud, floating about 4’ off the floor, and she was wearing a colorful harem outfit, with her hair in a knot and pony tail sprouting from her bald head.
She laughed at his astonishment. “I’ve often wondered if I’m really the first visitor to your Earth from my home - the resemblance of my kind of human to a traditional genie seems more than coincidental.” Her tone became more serious, though she remained a genie. “Beware, Captain Catapult, of what you ask. There are many cautionary tales of those who deal with genies. In most of these tales, the petitioner is unhappy with the results of his wishes…”
“Your teammates wouldn’t trust you if you were really a genie - I think…” Tom replied nervously. What did he really know about this woman, a bald, blue skinned alien from another dimension, which ran on the rules of magic?
She laughed. “It would be an appropriate appearance for Halloween, don't you think?” She snapped her fingers again, and the more familiar Dr. Aeon was back. “I’m just warning you in advance, Captain, that _any_ spell that deals with the future, no matter how carefully crafted, may have unexpected consequences. We will craft yours most carefully, of course, and everything will probably be fine.”
“We? You want me to help? When do we start?!” Tom’s interest was certainly piqued at the thought of designing a magic spell! He’d been a machinist before the war
A quick apportation spell transported the two of them to Dr. Aeon’s mystical sanctum, Neverwhon Tower. The two worked together for hours, defining the scope and objectives of the spell, identifying risks and developing contingency plans. Tom was surprised at the parallels involved between converting a sloppy, hand drawn sketch to high precision design specifications and converting a wish to a spell.
“My magic is shaped by intent and focused by will,” Dr. Aeon explained. “I must understand exactly what a spell should do before I cast it, or there WILL be unexpected consequences.” Finally, Tom had contributed all he could; what remained required Dr. Aeon’s specialized training and aptitudes to translate their plan into spoken form in the language of ancient Atlantis, then select the appropriate material components, and finally develop the required ritual and gestures. She sent him home via apportation, and arranged with him to return the next day in the early afternoon.
Shortly before sunrise, she retired to a mystically-warded section of her tower-top garden, which projected into another dimension, and under the moon and stars of that other dimension, she carefully cast the meticulously-prepared spell on a simple sphere of crystalline quartz:
Dsozw iphvo jugej pyyxn iqqoi pnqij
Izkhp oixgs ovidn gsigg soens yavkl oipnq
Izkgs poigo zivvd synoo izkso ipnqi
Gsunj pengi vjivv nhygs vyaki zkjv oipnq
Jiqgi uzjig iqavg
XUVALU
And then she took an exhausted nap for several hours, before casting the spell to return Captain Catapult to Neverwhon. She handed him the sphere and repeated some instructions. “You may activate this scrying crystal no more than once every 8 hours over the next 14 days. Using the rubrics we developed, the scene in the crystal will show you the worst of the qualified criminal activities taking place within the city limits of Chicago during that 8 hour period.” Tom didn’t want to be overwhelmed with scenes of every instance of j-walking, carnal activity out of wedlock, back-alley crap games, loitering on a corner, or other barely criminal events which were always happening, so they had spent much effort defining what should ‘qualify as a crime’ for the purposes of this spell.
Tom looked into the crystal, but it remained dark. “The crystal will only work when invoked within the Chicago city limits, and for you alone,” she reminded him. “You must return home to begin your quest.” Another apportation spell returned him home, and he was ready to begin Captain Catapult’s Crusade!
The Future is NowSeveral hours later, in Tom Manley’s study, Captain Catapult stared deeply into the faintly glowing cloudy interior of the crystal for a few seconds, then spoke the Atlantean activation word:
Xuvalu!
Instantly the interior of the crystal glowed more brightly, and then started flickering. To a normal human, it would have been no more than a blur, but Manley’s enhanced reaction time let him see that the crystal was showing almost instant views of different places in Chicago, as if he were watching a movie with a different scene on each frame of the film. He later realized that the spell must be flickering through each crime scene in the city in the next 8 hours, comparing each scene with the ‘qualified crime’ criteria he and Dr. Aeon had developed. But in less than 2 seconds, and around 50 different scenes, the view stabilized, and Tom was looking at a crowded bar.
Just as the view ‘tuned in’, a vicious brawl erupted. Two tables abruptly overturned as the dozen or so big, tough looking men seated around them surged to their feet and crashed together. Some patrons headed for the door, while others jumped up to join in the fight. Within seconds, men were falling to the floor, bloody from stab wounds, and the first shots were being fired.
Tom concentrated as Dr. Aeon had taught him, and the view moved out to the street, allowing him to identify the location, an old warehouse near the waterfront that had been converted to a bar that catered to longshoremen and the crews of the freighters currently in the docks. He could be there in less than 3 minutes! And he was…
As he flashed down from the sky at top speed, he realized that the street was quiet.
‘Why, that fight hasn’t even started yet. Dr. Aeon was right - dealing with the future is not going to be straightforward.’ He was going to bust in anyway - that fight could start at any second - but… ‘There are probably people in there who won’t be too happy to see Captain Catapult. If I just bust in, that might be just the spark that starts the fight I’m here to prevent. Wonder how much time I have? I wish I’d looked for a clock!’ Despite all the hours he and Dr. Aeon had spent designing this spell, they’d missed this factor entirely!
He’d left the house at just after 1 AM. By law, this place was supposed to close at 2, although in this neighborhood, who knew? But then he remembered today’s date, and that triggered an idea, an approach that might work today only, Nov. 7, 1945.
Still feeling apprehensive, Captain Catapult pushed open the door and walked in to the bar, feeling like the opening line of a joke. Someone saw him, and quickly nudged his buddy, and more turned to see what they were looking at, and within a second everyone was staring at him, many with their mouths open, and the room was dead silent.
“And I haven’t even told a bad joke yet,” the Captain spoke loudly, with a forced chuckle. “I was on my way home when it hit me, today is exactly 6 months since the day the Germans surrendered. Would you guys mind if I stood a round of shots to celebrate?”
For a few seconds, there was dead silence. Then a buzz started. At one of the tables that would have been overturned if the fight actually started, only one of the 6 crew members of the Polish cargo freighter Generał Bem spoke English, but after he finished translating, the whole table broke into cheers.
Several men farthest from Captain Catapult left their seats and sidled towards one of the doors, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Most of the rest watched warily, not sure exactly whether this unusual event was something to be alarmed about.
Catapult reached the bar and pulled a pair of twenty dollar bills from his belt. “Set ‘em all up with shots, buddy, your best whiskey, not the bar brand!” loudly enough so everyone could hear, and now there were actually a few cheers. The bemused bartender opened a cabinet behind the bar, and whisked out two bottles, then pulled out a rack of shot glasses. Tom started pouring. “I see 43 of us - got enough glasses? If you’ll set up the rest, I’ll wait tables.” He picked up a tray of shots and floated toward the farthest table, where he set a glass in front of each patron.
One man reached for his glass, but stopped at a word from Captain Catapult. “Won’t take another minute before we’re all set up, guys. Hold your horses, and let's all toast together!”
By now, the bartender was pouring measured shots into beer glasses. As he delivered the next tray, Tom joked “Sorry they’re not all shot glasses, but hey, it’s all whiskey!”
When there was a glass in front of every person, including the bar staff, Captain Catapult raised his own glass high. “Gentlemen, I fervently wish and pray that never again in our lives will we see another war!”
Everyone else grabbed their own glasses, and two bottles of the bar’s best whiskey was consumed in less than 2 seconds. There was a chorus of replies, including ‘Amen!’, ‘No more war!’, ‘Prosit’, ‘Hear, hear!’ and a number of cheers, followed by sounds of satisfaction.
Tom handed the bartender another twenty. “Next round’s on me, too, guys, but I gotta run - if I don’t get home before 2, I’ll be sleeping in the barn for the next week!” There were some chuckles at that and then he was gone.Time Out“That didn’t work out as I expected,” Tom moodily described the bar scene to his wife Connie at breakfast the next day. “I’m trying to get Captain Catapult on the front page for the next 10 days, so the good guys will know I’m on their side, and the bad guys will start thinking about going somewhere else and what do I get? Nothing…”
“You said that in your crystal, you saw people getting stabbed and shot?” He nodded.
”Well, then, you prevented serious injuries, at the very least. And isn’t that what you want to do, protect people?” He nodded again. “You did that. It’s a lot easier to recover from a wound that never happens. So stop grousing and read your paper!”
He picked up the section she’d placed in front of him, the local news, and unfolded it… and yelped in surprise. “Captain Catapult Celebrates 6 Month Anniversary of German Surrender” was the headline on one of the 2 column local human interest stories. “You did that on purpose!” he almost barked at her; she just laughed. He read the article. “A crime reporter for the Herald Sun just happened to be drinking at that place last night, and he wrote it up!”
“I think it’s good publicity for Captain Catapult, don’t you?” Connie chuckled at him. “Shows off your human side, and lets people know that the same things that matter to them, matter to you.”
Tom felt a lot happier than when he’d first sat down. “So what’s on the schedule today? Any charters or deliveries?” Tom and Connie were the proud owners of Chicago Charters and Couriers, also known as C Cubed or C3, with a small fleet of 3 government surplus planes available for charter or rapid delivery of freight.
“We’re scheduled to deliver a small fortune in radium to the hospital in Smallton, Indiana. It was your flight, but you may not want to be going out for town for a while, so I scheduled it for Kirk instead.” Kirk Morris had flown bombers in Europe, so the delivery was in good hands. “We should look over the upcoming schedule - don’t want anyone getting suspicious by pulling you off too many jobs.”
“Thanks, hon! Say, my 8 hours is almost up - gotta go see the future again!”
Next: Radium Raid |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:42:19 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade Radium RaidThis time, Tom tried to make sense out of the flickering scenes. If he could recognize some of them in the very brief instant they flashed by, maybe he could bust up more than one crime this time…
It was difficult - he wasn’t quite fast enough to recognize any of those flickering scenes, except… and then it was gone, and the flickering stopped to show the lobby of a bank he didn’t recognize being robbed by 4 men wearing long coats over business suits, 3 carrying pistols and the other a Tommy gun.
At 3:07, two men walked into the bank and got in line, and then a minute or so later, two other men, similarly attired, walked in. Just inside the door, these two stopped and pulled out guns. The one with the Tommy gun yelled and waved his gun, and everyone in the bank turned to look at him. One of the men in line took a hostage, a young woman in a long red coat, and put a gun to her head while the other man in line pushed his way to the window and pointed a gun at the teller while handing him a bag. There was some frantic activity while various tellers emptied their cash drawers into bags supplied by the crooks, but everyone in the bank apparently decided that their bank loosing money was less bad than a young mom being shot or being shot themselves, and a few minutes later, the thieves raced out of the bank.
Tom’s point of view followed them as they swarmed into a beat up 1941 Ford 4 door sedan that was blocking a fire hydrant in front of the bank door. He was about to draw back his viewpoint to find the bank’s name and address, but…
“DAMNATION! That’s MY HANGER!” his subconscious had finally focused on the flickering scene that had caught his attention earlier. “MY PLANE - and Kirk Morris! That guy with the gun is trying to steal the radium shipment!” A motorcycle courier had apparently just handed the radium to Kirk, who was about to climb into the cabin of C Cubed’s Piper L-4 Grasshopper when they’d been approached by a gunman - it was hard to deduce more details from a single frozen scene he’d looked at for only around .02 seconds.
He put down the crystal and flashed out of his study at the best speed he could attain without wrecking his house. It took him just under four minutes to reach the hanger. He carefully entered through a side door rather than flashing in through the big open hanger door, just in case there was a trigger happy crook aiming a gun at Kirk right now. And he discovered that once again he was early. His mechanic was still doing the pre-flight check on the Grasshopper, and his cautious entry had kept the man from noticing him. That was good - he could make sure this particular robbery was cut off early, before there was any chance of someone getting hurt.
He swore to himself when he realized he’d lost his chance to learn more about the bank, as he’d put down the crystal and it only worked once every eight hours. ‘Good thing I’ve got hours to figure out just what bank it is. Next time I probably ought to use the crystal outside, too. Connie wouldn’t be happy if I’d gone out through a window!’ Then he turned his full attention to this situation - a distracted combat pilot didn’t survive many missions!
There were always a lot of people hanging around this airport, and he had not seen enough detail to identify the hold-up man in his .02 second flash of the scene earlier. ‘If I hang around outside, I’ll scare him away, but then he’ll be free to rob someone else, some other time. I need to catch him - and keep Kirk and the courier safe! Well, I boasted to the AMH about my speed, here’s my chance to prove it!’
He floated up into the forest of girders supporting the roof, where he could lurk unobserved. It wasn’t long before Kirk arrived and started giving the Grasshoper his own quick pre-flight inspection. Tom approved - he always took the same time to inspect any plane he was about to fly, and thought such caution might be one reason the two of them had survived so many dangerous missions.
A little latter, the courier roared through the hanger door in a motorcycle with the bag containing the radium strapped to the seat of the sidecar. As Kirk climbed out of the Grasshopper to greet the courier, a man ran through the open door in their direction - and smashed into Captain Catapult, who suddenly dropped in front of him and took his gun away almost before the man could blink.
It took about an hour to get through the police interview afterward. Tom was used to debriefings after a mission, so this wasn't a big deal. He was interviewed by Officer Spinelli, who he found out was also an ex-Marine, though he'd only been deployed a few months when Japan surrendered. The radium thief turned out to be a pilot, who'd planned to escape in the Grasshopper after he'd shot both Kirk and the courier.Not Quite as Planned‘Now to find the bank!’ Tom filled a bag with civilian clothes, headed for the East side, and floated over the streets close to Lake Michigan. It wasn’t too difficult to locate a bank a whole block wide with a fire hydrant out front. He dropped into an empty alley, donned civilian clothes and checked it out to be sure the inside matched his vision, and checked the wall clock against his own watch. On a dangerous mission, timing could be critical! Sure that he had the right place, he flew back to the airport, while considering the upcoming robbery.
‘Five crooks working together, one with a Tommy gun, suggests that these guys are part of a larger mob. Can’t be Butch Brawler’s mob, though!’ Tom thought with a touch of satisfaction. ‘How should I do this? The crystal showed no violence, so maybe I just wait on the roof until they come out, and then swoop down on them?’ That thought made him uneasy. ‘I can’t just let them rob a bank when I can stop it. What if something goes wrong and I could have prevented it?’ When he got back to the airport a little before noon, he had a plan.
And with the plan in place, he had three hours left to kill. In the Marines, he’d seen pilots spend their pre-takeoff hours worrying themselves sick about an upcoming mission, so he’d developed a routine for those times - he’d take an alarm clock and tool kit and go work on a damaged plane - there were always some of them around! He unmasked and got back to work on his pet project - a wrecked P51 Mustang he’d bought for salvage, the same model he’d flown most often in Europe. He was working on the lathe, creating a high tolerance fitting that he couldn’t buy commercially, when his alarm clock startled him back to awareness of the outside world and his upcoming mission. A few seconds later, Captain Catapult took to the air again.
He landed in an alley near the bank, pushed back his hood, pulled on a pair of trousers, a long overcoat with a high collar, and a Stetson hat, then loitered on the sidewalk until the first 2 robbers came by. He followed them to the teller lines, looking for the woman in the red coat… and she wasn’t there! He was trying to decide what to do when things heated up.
The other 2 men came through the door and pulled machine guns out from under their coats. One of them started yelling. The guy nearest Tom grabbed a woman and stuck his pistol into the back of her head, and she screamed, jerked her head to the side, and stomped hard on his foot. His pistol shot smashed into the wall clock, and he fell to the floor screaming about a broken foot. Tom leaped at the other nearby robber and knocked him down, stomped on his wrist, and raced across the room as fast as he could move while avoiding people. One guy fired a burst at at him, which tore up his coat and almost knocked him down. Along with stinging like crazy!!!
Tom forced his way forward through the gush of bullets, knocked the barrel of the gun toward the ceiling, and relatively gently punched the shooter in the solar plexus. The bad guy stumbled backward, dropped his gun when he hit the marble wall, and slumped to the floor. His partner was still turning to try and target Captain Catapult when the hero raced up to him and flicked him in the chin with a finger, knocking him backward and unconscious. He took an instant to doff his tattered coat and pull up his cowl.
Captain Catapult turned back to the lobby and discovered that the bank guards now had guns pulled on the two crooks who had been in line. One was sobbing about a broken foot and the other a shattered wrist, and neither was dangerous at the moment. The machine gunners were both stunned at least, neither one moving. The robbery was most certainly over. Catapult raced out the door, just as the Ford pulled away from the curb.
He flew down the street a hundred yards at the best clip he could attain, then swung around and flew back again, equally as fast, only 3 feet above the street. He smashed into the grill of the oncoming getaway car with his left shoulder, driving it back into the fan and exploding the radiator. The driver was bounced forward into the steering wheel and the whole pile shuddered to a stop.
‘Now THAT hurt!’ Tom swore mildly. He forced himself to his feet and tested his left arm. It hurt like hell and he had trouble raising it, but he didn’t think anything was broken. ‘And what would I do if something WAS broken? Not sure any doctor could operate on me, or even set a splint. I sure hope I heal a lot faster than I used to! Say, I wonder what would happen if I took off my belt right now?’ He didn’t know if damage to Captain Catapult carried over to Tom Manley, but right now didn’t seem to be the right time to find out!
The next hour was becoming increasingly and unfortunately familiar to Captain Catapult, as he told his story several times, the last time to Tony Spinelli, who cut off further interview attempts by other cops. One good thing about it, at the end of that hour, he felt much better. Tony told him the bad guys hadn’t fared quite as well as he was doing. Four of them ended up in the hospital, with injuries ranging from simple concussion to multiple fractures, but all were expected to recover.
The Captain was pretty sure that his hat and the high collar on his coat had kept his face partially hidden, and there had been nobody in the bank that he recognized, so his identity was probably safe. As he was leaving, he passed near the woman who had refused to be a hostage, still talking to another cop. She seemed to be about equally as thrilled as he was about the police questioning. Apparently she wasn’t behaving the way the cop expected from a woman who’d just been in distress.
“What, you want I should have fainted? I built B29 bomber engines for at the Dodge Chicago plant for 3 years during the war, buster, and horsing those engines around takes muscle! No slimy pansy-ass thug with a pistol is gonna treat me like a helpless bimbo. And no cops, either, by the way. They taught us self-defense to use against German saboteurs and bundists. Do you think I’m just going to forget that and go back to being a timid wallflower just because the war’s over? Women came a long way during that war, buster, and a lot of us plan to keep going a lot farther!”
He stepped in. “I might have flown escort for bombers using your engines, ma’am. Thank you for your service!” The cop looked relieved. “And thanks for your quick action when he grabbed you - it startled them long enough for me to take action!” He looked at the cop. “”We’ve both told our stories over and over - are we through?
Tony chose that moment to join the conversation. “Yes, you’re free to go. Thanks for helping us out here today!” The other cop looked a little uncomfortable, but didn't object.
Next: Connie Invents… |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:45:05 GMT
Connie Invents…After dinner, he had another chat with Connie. “It was the same four guys from the vision, but it was going wrong as soon as they walked in. No woman in red. Two machine guns instead of one. So far, nothing the crystal has shown me has happened the way it was supposed to.” He sounded morose.
Connie loved puzzles. “You weren’t in any of the crystal visions, right?” Tom shook his head. “So it seems like the crystal shows you what would have happened if Captain Catapult didn’t intervene.”
“Well, sort of maybe. But I can’t figure out how my being in the bank prevented the woman in the red coat from being there too. Or made that guy bring an extra Tommy gun.”
“Well…” she spoke slowly. “So, maybe something like this: the woman in the red coat was supposed to land at the airport this morning, but the plane had to land somewhere else when police activity shut it down for an hour after you busted the radium thief, and her important appointment had to be rescheduled, so she never made it to the bank…”
“Could be something like that…” he agreed grudgingly. “We’ll probably never know.”
“Well, you could ask your genie friend, but no, we probably never will,” she agreed. “But you need to be extra careful with your expectations when you use the crystal again. Every time you use it, you are changing the future even more, and what the crystal shows you might be more and more different from what you actually encounter.” Something else occurred to her. “You should probably pay more attention to the main scene, too. If you’d known more about what those crooks did before they entered the bank, you might have been able to stop them outside.”
“Yes, ma’aam!” He gave her a snappy salute and a big smile. “If you’ll excuse me, ma’am, I have a pressing appointment.” The crystal would be working again by now. “Outside, where I can’t wreck the house if I need to hurry, and secluded, so I can put in some extra study time - if there seems to be time!”
“I’ll sure be glad after that crystal stops working,” she sighed as he left.
…Chaos TheoryWhat you see below is what _would_ have happened if Captain Catapult was unable to see the future, followed by the 'same' event that actually did happen after he used his crystal ball...
Damon Lambert’s crew finally got the Inland Seas Shipping Company freighter Great Lakes Queen unloaded and he headed for home. He figured he’d stop for a drink, but as he approached the Warehouse, he saw men streaming out of the bar and heard shots being fired. Shaken, he hurried home and quietly slipped into bed. His wife Angine came partially awake, murmured peacefully at him, then rolled over and went back to sleep.
Damon Lambert’s crew finally got the Great Lakes Queen unloaded and he headed for home. He figured he’d stop for a drink. The Warehouse was peaceful, and inside there was a party - a man in a red mystery hero costume was buying shots for the bar. Damon stayed longer than he had planned, and when he got home his wife Angine met him at the door, angry, until he told his whole story.
Angine Lambert woke up bright and early, got Billy off to school, and completed her household chores before noon. She met some friends for lunch, did some shopping, and then went to the bank to deposit Damon’s most recent check.
Angine Lambert dragged herself out of bed to get Billy off to school, then went back for a nap. When she woke up, she called off her lunch date, did her household chores in the afternoon and put off the outside errands until tomorrow.
Hugo Hubbard, Cargo Master of the Great Lakes Queen, and a few other members of the crew, got into an argument that turned violent at the Warehouse bar. Hugo was stabbed and taken to the hospital, where he passed away.
Awakening about noon after a late and pleasant night with several free rounds at at the Waterfront Bar, Hugo Hubbard kept a planned meeting with a member of Rotgut Talloway’s mob, exchanging a copy of the Great Lake Queen’s cargo manifest and the local delivery schedule for the Inland Seas Shipping Company for a fistful of cash.
| Charlie Cale took off in the stolen Grasshopper. One of the bullets he'd shot at the pilot and courier had torn through the plane's fuselage and damaged a control cable, and after he'd been in the air for a few minutes, the cable had snapped, he'd lost control, and crashed to earth in the high tension step down station that provided power for Chicago University. The plane smashed through a transformer which unleashed tremendous current through the plane. The radium container melted and Charlie could feel the combination of radiation and high current pulsating through him, until he succumbed to unconsciousness. He awakened undamaged a few minutes later, and quickly discovered that the accident had given him electric super powers, similar to those of his favorite comic book hero Blue Bolt. He decided to use his powers to become a mystery villain, and the next day he began his career as Blue Volt. |  |
Charlie Cale was arrested a few minutes after Captain Catapult arrived at the airport and foiled the radium robbery, and spent the next several days in jail. He was wanted on several major charges unrelated to the current theft charge, and eventually received an extended jail sentence.
Earl Garvey was running across the University of Chicago campus, attempting to elude a pair of policemen chasing him, when a plane crashed just off campus. The police abandoned the chase and raced to the scene of the crash, and Earl got away clean with the receipts from the store he'd just robbed.
| Earl Garvey raced onto the University of Chicago campus, and ran into a big stone building, ignoring a number of warning signs posted around it. He scurried down a flight of stairs, and then another, and ran down a narrow hall way, pushed through a heavy set of doors, ignoring the flashing lights that indicated that the particle accelerator was active. The magnetic accelerator field picked him up and slammed him against the corridor wall, and Earl could feel the combination of radiation and intense magnetism pulsating through him, until he succumbed to unconsciousness. He awakened undamaged a few minutes later, and quickly discovered that the accident had given him magnetic super powers, similar to those of his favorite comic book hero Magno. He decided to use his powers to become a mystery villain, and the next day he began his career as Magnetman. |  |
Jackie McBoogle, a.k.a. Jackie Mack, slept until one PM. He got dressed and cleaned and oiled his piece, then headed to the meeting place. He and the other four guys headed out to pull the bank job their mob had been planning for weeks.
Jackie Mack was awakened around 9 AM by police sirens racing past his small apartment near the airport. He considered this to be an ill omen, so he decided to carry his pistol and a Tommy gun on today’s planned bank job.
“Rotgut' Talloway inherited leadership of the biggest mob in Chicago when Al Capone was sent to prison. He learned from Capone's mistakes, and generally maintained a lower profile, letting other, less powerful mob leaders such as Big Butch get the headlines. This strategy proved very successful through the end of 1945.
Rotgut Talloway was extremely upset that this new, so-called “Mystery Hero”, Captain Catapult, had been targeting his operations the last few days - the radium theft, the bank job and the furrier heist. He put out the word that he'd pay a half million dollars to the man who brought him Catapult's body.
And now, back to a more linear view of the story!
Next: Two for One
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:55:13 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade Two for OneSix men were robbing a jewelry store. It was pitch black inside; they were using electric hand torches with cloths covering the lenses to find their way around. Two teams of two each were using glass cutters to open the display cases and suction cups to keep the cut glass pieces from falling and shattering; the other two were scooping everything in the display cases into satchels. It was fast and efficient, and clearly well-planned and thoroughly practiced.
Captain Catapult followed the action backward through time, and watched the team arrive nearby in a panel truck, tracked them to the rear of the store where one of the men cut off electrical power to the place, watched again as they quickly cleaned out the place, and then followed them back to their truck. He even got the plate. They never went near the front of the store, so he never saw the name, but he got the name of the side street where they parked. It was downtown in the luxury retail area of the city - ‘where the rich folk shop’, a street that ran ‘behind’ the expensive stores, giving access to the loading docks in the rear.
They never passed near a clock, so he had no definite time line. It was 8 pm right now, and the crystal only looked 8 hours into the future, so this event happened before 4 am tomorrow. There was no other traffic on the streets while he watched, which probably placed it somewhere around 2 to 3 am, he guessed.
He decided not to take any chances this time - he’d stake out their parking spot starting at midnight, and catch the bad guys when they parked the truck. They couldn’t be arrested for a robbery they hadn’t committed yet, but after watching them in action, he had no doubt that they were already on someone’s wanted list and the police would find something to charge them with.
By 1 am, Tom was already extremely bored and getting jumpy every time he saw headlights. But no panel truck… then a Mack semi trailer with the Inland Seas Shipping logo lumbered down the street and pulled up at the loading dock for a furrier next to the jeweler. Tom hadn’t seen this delivery in the crystal, so the jewelry robbery must be scheduled to take place after the big truck was unloaded and had pulled away. But the panel truck he was looking for was now pulling up next to the delivery truck, and a couple guys with guns got out and approached the semi, and Captain Catapult leaped into action!
Once again, it was over pretty quick - even 6 guys with guns were no match for a man who was invulnerable to any damage they could produce, stronger than all of them put together, and faster, too. And then there was the inevitable, seemingly interminable interview with the police, and once again Tony Spinelli showed up.
“Geez Louise, Tony, don't you ever sleep? What are you doing here?” Catapult asked his new friend.
“I could ask the same of you, hero!” Tony replied with a tired smile. “Actually, I figure now that Chicago has its own mystery hero, it won't be long until the CPD needs a liaison with the Alliance of Mystery Heroes, and I'd like to be that guy.” They talked for a while longer, about the rise of mystery heroes and villains, and even about the robbery tonight.
And finally, Tom could go home to bed, feeling good because he’d prevented 2 different robberies tonight - the furrier and the jeweler!
But he was increasingly concerned about using his magic oracle - the robbery the crystal had predicted had not only never happened, it seemed that given the circumstances, it never could have happened last night - it seemed very unlikely that the same truck that was used to heist the semi full of furs would then return to the same location and rob the jewelry store next door. The divergence between his visions of the future, and the actual reality when the future arrived, was getting wider.Where has the Future Gone?Captain Catapult had never seen or heard anything about an electric-powered mystery villain wearing a light blue outfit with a brilliant navy blue BV (which readers already know stands for Blue Volt) emblazoned over a white lightning bolt on his chest. Blue Volt jumped out of an alley in front of an armored car which had stopped at a red light, and a bolt from his hand exploded the hood of the vehicle. Blue Volt raced around to the back and another bolt blew open the back doors, which were marked with red crosses. The new mystery villain grabbed a courier bag marked ‘Radium’ from the back of the vehicle, hopped onto an electric motorcycle, and raced away. A couple of miles later, he stopped in front of an expensive liquor store and blew out the front window with a bolt, then knocked out everyone in the store with some less powerful bolts. He scooped up some bottles of expensive bourbon and rum, sneered at the wine racks and then blasted them gratuitously, and sped away on his bike. Electrical blasts from his hand disabled any cars that tried to pursue him, and he raced away unimpeded.
The crystal gave Captain Catapult about a 20 minute window on the mystery villain’s projected activity for the day - so he couldn’t see where Blue Volt came from or what he did after he outraced his pursuit. But Catapult had been able to determine the time and location of the new radium theft, so he just showed up at that corner and waited. The time came, the armored car stopped at the light, the light changed, and the car proceeded peacefully to its destination, a nearby hospital. Captain Catapult zoomed upward but saw no trace of the villain. He raced to the liquor store but again, Blue Volt was a no show.
During the the following hour, while he patrolled the area from the air, Tom did some serious thinking about Dr. Aeon’s warnings and his experiences with the crystal. Finally, he came to a decision. ‘I’ve had enough misfires. I was doing pretty well on my own before I got the thing; I’m going to go back to doing it the old way - dealing with the future when I get to that future - at my own rate!’
As he headed south toward home, he could see a dot in the air far ahead. As he approached, he was soon able to make out the figure of a man, standing motionless on air, directly in his path. A little closer, and he could make out a costume, brilliant red over navy blue, with a white emblem on the chest and a long yellow cape fluttering majestically behind him, even though there was no breeze to speak of today. Readers will recognize Magnetman, though Tom doesn’t yet know his name. Magnetman raised his left arm in Catapult’s direction, squeezed his fist shut, and then began making violent shaking motions with that arm.
Instead of being dangerously and painfully shaken, Captain Catapult seemed to be supremely unaffected by what apparently was supposed to be a deadly attack. He could barely make out that the air between them was faintly distorted, and then he realized that his belt buckle was tugging in whatever direction Magnetman gestured - and then he realized that even though the villain couldn’t possible realize it, he was in deadly danger. His belt gave him his powers,3) and if whatever was tugging at him tore the buckle from the belt, and the belt slipped off… well, he’d be a man who couldn’t fly without a parachute, falling to earth from a half mile in the air with no parachute!
‘And you thought ‘stone control’ was a minor power, because it only works when you’re touching a stone!’ he admonished himself. ‘Stones, stick to me!’ he commanded mentally, as fiercely as he’d ever given an order in battle. He had to hope that this minor power of his was strong enough to hold the stones if his belt buckle was torn away. ‘I should have thought of this before! Who would have thunk that a loose belt buckle might be a deadly problem to a powerful mystery hero? But how many ‘trivial” maintenance issues have killed pilots in dogfights?’ The rueful thought rushed incongruously through his mind. ‘Win the fight now, Tommy boy, and you can fix the belt later!’
While Captain Catapult was a bit preoccupied, Magnetman pointed his right arm down, clenched his hand, then lifted, and Tom heard an incredible screeching sound below him. Almost before he had a chance to see it coming, he was dodging a mass of twisted metal rocketing upward toward him at high speed from a junkyard below. He twisted away but still got painfully whacked by the makeshift missile. As he struggled to stop his tumble, the junk reversed directions and slammed down on him like a giant hammer, and drove him down to the ground in the middle of the junkyard, with stunning force.
Partially buried in hard earth with a ton of metal junk on top of him, Catapult couldn’t see what was happening nearby, but his new foe streaked to a landing not far from where the hero was grounded, gestured, and a junked small truck lifted slowly into the air, floated over the hero’s crash site, and commenced a slow pounding, as Magnetman waved his arm up and down. Each succeeding thump was a little slower, and the truck lifted a little less high, and after four thumps, he gave it up and dropped the truck on top of the rest of the junk covering Catapult.
For a few seconds, there was quiet and nothing moved. Then the pile rocked slightly, and started to lift, and there was a tearing noise as metal that had been driven into the ground was ripped free. The villain reached out his hands and pressed them down, and the rise of the pile slowed, and the truck was crushed between the incredible lifting force being exerted by Captain Catapult and the downward pressure created by Magnetman’s powers.
Captain Catapult was sore and battered. His resistance to injury had just been pushed beyond his limits, and he was sure some ribs were cracked, at least. He squirmed painfully around until his back was against the pile above him, and then started to straighten up. The weight of the pile of metal he was lifting was similar to the big rocks he’d lifted for his AMH tryouts the other day, and he got his feet under him, and then suddenly the weight seemed to double. He strained and increased his effort, and his feet were driven into the ground several inches, and the noise of metal being crushed assaulted his ears, and then whatever force had been opposing him simply collapsed, and he surged upright, and several tons of scrap metal was launched two stories into the air, to come crashing down elsewhere in the junkyard. For a moment, Tom was too exhausted from the effort and the pain to take any further action. He turned slowly, scanning the scene for his new foe.
Magnetman was unable to increase his power any further, and Captain Catapult’s relentless lifting was quickly causing incredible pain through some kind of psychic feedback, and he just stopped trying to hold down the pile. As the mass of metal flew through the air, he straightened up, floated up to about three feet above the ground, and assumed a heroic pose, feet spread and fists on hips. His cape began streaming out behind him, even though there was no wind.
Captain Catapult still wasn’t fully recovered when he spotted Magnetman, but the new mystery villain seemed to be satisfied for the moment trying to be the Admiral of the Swiss Navy. So Tom spoke up. “Tarnation and feathers, ain’t this just an Eagle Day? Somehow, I’m in the funnybooks - and you’re all dolled up as Magno, all ready for short-arm inspection!”
Magnetman probably missed most of this, but he realized Catapult might be mocking him and responded in a snarl. “This ain’t no funnbook wise guy. I’m Magnetman.” Tom took a deep breath; he was as recovered from his Herculean effort as he was going to get. “Da mug what’s gonna collect a million smackers oomph!”
Catapult’s shoulder slammed into Magnetman’s gut while the new mystery villain was still pontificating. He strained his flying power to the limit, and they smashed through the chain link fence surrounding the junkyard without even slowing down. This would have ended the fight gruesomely if Magnetman had been a normal human, but he was only stunned, and pounded weakly on Captain Catapult’s back for a few seconds. As he recovered, he began making attempts to slow the fight, or break free, and Catapult realized that he wouldn’t be able to hold the villain much longer.
He’d been almost home when Magnetman attacked, so he knew exactly where he as - and not far away was a place he thought would be much more suitable to him for a fight against a villain who presumably had magnetic powers - Thurston Quarry. Square miles of rocks, nobody around to endanger, not much metal…
By now, Magnetman was almost fully recovered. He exerted his magnetic powers to counter their flight, and he was able to force Captain Catapult to stop moving forward. They were directly over a section of the giant quarry that was a deep pit, the floor was covered with rocks blasted from from the walls, ranging from boulders as big as a fighter plane to gravel. Catapult was dismayed that there were men working below, operating a small fleet of digging machines, but it looked like this was where the fight would continue. It was better than the junkyard. He hoped the workers would run!
He suddenly switched his effort to a powerful dive earthward, and they slammed into the rocky floor before Magnetman could readjust. This knocked the fighters apart, but didn’t really hurt either of them. They struggled to their feet. Magnetman was still adjusting to his new environment - he’d expected to have a large supply of easy-to-manipulate ammunition nearby for this fight. He could sense, and see, the massive digging equipment nearby, but he wasn’t sure he could lift a bulldozer! He reached an open hand toward a small truck that was partially filled with gravel, closed it and made a lifting motion, and the truck rose slowly in the air. He swept his arm in an arc, trying to slam the truck into Captain Catapult, but he couldn’t move it fast enough. Catapult easily maneuvered past the flying truck and slammed into Magnetman, then floated nearby and started punching.
Magnetman was forced to drop the truck in order to defend himself, and for a few seconds, the two fought hand to hand, both of them standing almost motionless in the air. Before he’d become Magnetman, Earl Garvey had been considered by his peers as a tough street fighter, but Tom Manley was a Marine, only a few months out of World War II. If both men had been normal humans, Earl would have been overcome in seconds. He was pretty close to invulnerable, but he was getting the snot kicked out of him right through that invulnerability. He didn’t have the time to use his powers - every time his attention wavered even for an instant, Catapult hammered him over and over again, unmercifully. Finally from desperation, he reached a hand out toward the steam shovel, closed it and yanked as hard as he could.
The steam shovel was not noticeably affected, but Magnetman was yanked instantly away from Captain Catapult, and in another instant was almost a quarter mile away, barely managing to stop before he crashed into the heavy machine. With an instant of relative peace, he surveyed the area and noted two wheelbarrows. One hand stretched out toward each one, and clenched and lifted, and he found he could easily move either one, and he started sweeping them through the air toward his foe.
An instant later, Captain Catapult felt like a handball, as he was slammed against the wall of the pit. The other barrow slapped at him like a fly swatter but he managed to evade. His next few seconds his concentration was on evading the two metal ‘hands’ waving through the air around him, but then he dropped to the ground in a jumble of really large shards of stone that must have only recently been blasted free, temporarily at least blocking the sweeping attacks.
‘The new playground isn’t really what you were thinking of, eh, Tommy boy?’ He’d been thinking of a wide open, empty hole in the ground, with nothing Magnetman could use as weapons.. ‘Not nearly as bad for him as you were thinkin’ - but a lot better for you than you were thinking, too. It’s about time you put that ‘minor’ rock control power to work!’ He touched a stone about the size of a beer cooler. ‘GO!’ The stone was instantly moving at high speed directly at Magnetman. He writhed desperately, and slapped, and there was a resounding CLANG and the stone was slapped out of the air and down into the rocky floor of the pit, where it exploded into shards. ‘Just like a catapult!’ Tom exulted, and touched another boulder ‘BeGONE’ and away it flew. He swept his hands in an arc, touching rocks, stones and gravel, ‘SCAT!’.
Magnetman couldn’t knock that entire torrent of stuff aside. He dropped a wheelbarrow and reached out to a bulldozer and yanked, and jerked himself out of the way. Catapult didn’t give him time to counter-attack. Every time the villain moved, Captain Catapult changed his aim, and there was enough rubble around that he wasn’t in danger of running out of ammunition soon. But he didn’t plan to play tag like this the rest of the day, either. He raced to another location with fresh piles of stones and gravel. He launched an extra large boulder directly at the wheelbarrow ‘sweeper’ his foe was using, and the impact pretty much demolished the already battered tool - and there was some kind of feedback that rocked Magnetman almost as violently as a punch.
With another sweep of his arms, Catapult launched everything he could touch. But instead of firing it directly at Magnetman, he commanded it to fly in whatever direction he happened to be pointing when he touched it - which was every which way except directly at the villain. He saved that direction for himself, and he rocketed forward at the best acceleration he could produce.
There really wasn’t anywhere Magnetman could escape to. If he fled toward one of the heavy machines, he’d fly right into a stream of high powered stone shrapnel. He tried to fly straight up, but he couldn’t rise as fast as he could move horizontally - and Captain Catapult managed to clobber him. Both of Captain Catapult’s fists slammed simultaneously into Magnetman’s head and that was finally enough to end the fight. Even the villain’s virtual invulnerability wasn’t proof against Catapult’s similar invulnerability, and Magnetman was knocked out.
Next: Teamwork |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:57:04 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade TeamworkTom, like most fighter pilots, didn’t have a lot of experience taking prisoners. He either shot down his foes, or they escaped, and he moved on. But he realized he couldn’t just turn Magnetman over to the police. The villain’s powers would let him escape in no time! But he had allies, now, and one of the things they had discussed in his meetings a few days ago was a special prison for super powered mystery villains designed by the Volunteer and Jack O’Neill’s Super Powers Division.
It only took him a minute to reach the Alliance of Mystery Heroes communication officer on his marvelous AMH communicator (an invention of Dr. Lambda). “Good afternoon, Ensign Parker, this is Captain Catapult. I wonder if you can put me in touch with somebody who can help me with a prisoner who controls magnetism? And when we’re done with him, please ask Dr. Aeon if she’s got some time for a quick chat.” Parker took enough details to make sure he’d have the right team available to deal with Magnetman, then warned Tom to be ready for apportation. Tom closed his eyes, felt a tingle, and when he opened them again, he and the still unconscious Magnetman were now in an AMH armored holding cell, along with Dr. Aeon, Dr. Lambda. Major Power, and the Volunteer. Dr. Aeon winked at him mischievously; she held his crystal and was dressed in her genie outfit, though he was the only one who seemed to notice. He turned to talk to Major Power, and when he looked back, she was back to her normal heroic outfit.
Dr. Lambda put handcuffs on the unconscious Magnetman and turned on some massive electronic devices he’d pulled in on heavy carts. “As soon as I calibrate these, they should negate his powers, but I’ll keep an eye on him anyway while we talk.” The devices hummed loudly and Captain Catapult could feel his belt buckle vibrating, until Lambda made some adjustments and the loud hum dropped to an almost inaudible buzz and the vibrations stopped.
The debriefing with his teammates was as intense as any post-mission meeting he’d had in the military, and almost as tedious as the hours he’d recently spent with the police. His teammates pried out details that he hadn’t realized he’d noticed. Dr. Lambda offered a solution to the belt buckle issue: “Those cuffs are made of mu metal, which is pretty much unaffected by magnetism. I’ll get a machinist to make you a replacement buckle right away.” He made a quick call to the machine shop, and Tom had requested some raw stock at the same time, so he could do his own custom work after he got home. “We’ll have both for you when you’re ready to go - check with Ensign Parker.”
When he came back to consciousness, the temporarily powerless Magnetman revealed that the price on Tom’s head had been placed by Chicago’s most notorious mob boss, ‘Rotgut’ Tallow, and then Dr. Lambda and the Volunteer escorted the villain onto a transport for the Super Powers Division prison, in Pennsylvania not too far from Constitution City. Tom approached Dr. Aeon: “How about a soda in the canteen?”
A few minutes later, he’d told his story. Sunset was clearly amused, but her answer was serious. “What you’ve experienced is well-documented in the extensive research done by the Department of Trans-temporal Studies at Silversage University, Tom. Sometimes, the future shows a sensitive dependence to minor changes in initial conditions, as in this case, but in other cases, it almost seems as if there is some correctional force at work, pushing the future back into some predefined path after a significant temporal agitation. At the time I graduated, no one had yet discovered a way to quantify this, but it appeared as if a whole new field of research was being born.” She had been pretty excited about this new field and had hoped to be one of the pioneers, until her exile. “We have no way to predict your next experience. You might ‘tune in’ to some insulated event that is relatively ‘immune’ to the changes that have affected your prior visions - or you may encounter events that have no apparent relationship to what you observe in the crystal.”
He was amused. “So, whatever is going to happen in the future is what will happen when the future gets here? That’s no different than not having the crystal, is it?” He continued as she shook her head. “Well, relying on the crystal could have had deadly consequences, this last time. I was so preoccupied looking for Blue Volt that Magnetman got the drop on me. Seems to me I’d be safest just giving it back to you?”
“I can deactivate it, and you could keep it as a souvenir if you like,” she offered as an alternative. “I have many others like it.”
“Hmm… that would be great,” he replied slowly. “It IS a really beautiful crystal. If I make a beautiful mahogany stand for it, that would be a fantastic birthday present for my wife.”
She thought for a minute, then placed the orb on a napkin on the commissary table. She stood, made some subdued gestures and spoke quietly, speaking the last word more emphatically:
Jvyno gsonq ovvyl lagap onoou zmnqi
Xuvalu
She handed the crystal back to Tom. “It is now completely dormant. I hope your wife enjoys the present!”
“That’s great, thanks! Now if you could send me home, I have to look up a mob boss and have a quiet discussion about the million dollar price he put on my head.”
Next: Jilly’s - the Lowest Rung
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2020 15:59:31 GMT
Captain Catapult's Crusade Jilly’s - the Lowest RungJilly’s Pool Hall and Watering Joint wasn’t the classiest place in the neighborhood, but it was pretty popular, and a lot of folks on the periphery of one mob or another hung out there. Jilly was a pretty tough customer, he wasn’t afraid to use his guns, and he paid off the local cops to leave the place alone if it got a little noisy, so it wasn’t a good place to start something. It was a good place to do some low-level mob networking, though nobody called it that yet. But tonight broke the mold.
Captain Catapult pushed through the door and roughly shoved aside several people as he moved to the center of the room. Half the crowd didn’t know who he was, and nobody had any personal experience with him yet - and these weren’t the kind of folks who were overawed by a rep anyway. There was an immediate rumble of discontented voices, but Catapult spoke forcefully and his voice cut easily through the noise. “You bums probably don’t know it yet, but Rotgut Talloway’s put a million dollar bounty on my head. I’d like to talk to him about it, and I’m hoping one of you can tell me how to find him - or somebody who knows how to find him. Or you could try to split the reward, looks like 40 of you here, 25 grand apiece would be a good night’s work, huh?”
Somebody (not Jilly) shot him, and one of the other patrons fell to the floor, moaning. For a second, there was silence. The idea of bullets bouncing from heroes in real life was still relatively new, and many people still didn’t really believe it. “More of that crap’s gonna hurt you punks way worse than it hurts me!” he warned them. “Nothin you bums is carrying can even make me blink.”
A big guy slammed a pool cue down on Catapult’s head. It was a blow that always before had at least incapacitated, and often killed, the unfortunate target - but the cue shattered and the hero didn’t even wince. He turned so quickly it was hard to see him move, and his hand became a blur and the guy who had whacked him fell to the floor unconscious. “That won’t do it either. Anybody else?” The guys closest to him were trying to back away. A few tough guys were pushing through the crowd.
“Jump him!” somebody further back yelled, and then started pushing his way toward the back door. Several guys jumped on the man in red, and it took him a couple of seconds to peel them off and knock them out.
“I want to talk to the loudmouth,” Tom thundered to the crowd. “Either grab him and hold him or get out of the way.” A couple of guys apparently decided to get on Captain Catapult’s good side, as they grabbed the instigator, and the group of men formerly jammed between the hero and the bad guy sort of melted away. Tom grabbed the guy by the wrist. “The rest of you, clear out. Sunshine here and I are going to have a quiet chat.” The place was clear in seconds, except for Jilly.
“Don’t you bust up my place, flyboy, or I’ll come lookin’ for ya. And I don’t care if bullets bounce offa ya - you’ll pay somehow.”
“So far, you’re out one pool cue, by my count. And it’s not really my fault your customers are rowdy and stupid. But here’s 5 bucks; that ought to cover a new one. And call an ambulance for the guy that got shot, huh? I won’t be long, and I won’t touch nothin’ but maybe this punk here.” The punk’s eyes bugged when he heard that, and he tried harder than ever to pull loose, as Jilly slowly moved toward the door.
It didn’t take much persuasion to convince the punk to talk, in an eerily empty pool hall. “You won’t hurt me, you’re wonna dem pansy mystery heroes who don’t hurt nobody.” He was trying to convince himself.
“You never heard of me before, have you, mug?” Captain Catapult sneered at his captive. “That’s ‘cause I just got out of the Marines. What I did in the Marines was kill Nazis - and I killed me more than my fair share. Maybe you want to think again? I can break your neck as easy as this.” He picked up a thick glass beer mug in his left hand and squeezed - and the glass exploded, spraying fragments everywhere. The captive received a number of cuts from flying glass, but Captain Catapult was unharmed. “You _may_ know somebody strong enough to do that, though I doubt it. But you know he’d end up in the hospital and probably end up losing his hand.” He showed the guy his unmarked hand.
“Honest, Mr. Capital, I don’t know how to find Boss Talloway. He don’t care nothin’ ‘bout small time punks like me. But I sometimes get jobs from Hurricane Carney, the Boss’s right hand guy, and he usually hangs out af Floozy’s.” Fat Louie’s nightclub wasn’t really named Floozy’s, but pretty much nobody knew the real name of the place. “Just don’t tell him I sent ya - he’ll kill me!”
“Well, that would save me the job- but I wouldn’t worry TOO much. After I find him, Carney isn’t going to be in position to threaten anyone again for a long time.” He leaned closer. “Tell you what, though. I’m going to give you a chance and let you go. Maybe you can get outta town, or get a job - maybe join the Armed Services. But whatever you do, stay out of trouble with the law. Because if I ever run into you again on the wrong side of the law, your name won’t even come close to being mud.” He laughed at the astonished look on the man’s face. “I really am one of the good guys, you know?”Floozy’s - a Step UpFloozy’s was several big steps up the social ladder from Jilly’s. The men wore suits, the women evening dresses and jewelry, and there was always a floor show, usually alternating sets between some sultry, scantily-dressed torch singer and a stand-up comedian. It wasn’t the highest class joint in the Windy City - you wouldn’t find the absolute top of the top here, but you might encounter the Deputy Chief of the CPD, members of the Mayor’s Council, mob lieutenants, rising sports stars, agents, the almost rich or almost famous, looking at that next step, and others, some on the way up, and some hoping to stay up. Off the books deals of all kinds got done at Floozy’s. But not so much tonight.
A large man in a long trench coat and wide brimmed hat, pulled low and partially obscuring his face, stepped through the heavy doors of Fat Louie’s Piano Lounge. The pencil thin maitre-de, who had thinning hair and a pencil-thin mustache, gave him a practiced top to bottom scan, and noted the face mask hidden by the hat, and the red Robin Hood boots. He looked down his long, thin nose and sniffed. “Mack, Zach, if you will, please toss this bum out on the street.” Two large men got up from chairs on either side of the door.
“Hey, Jeeves, ain’t yer even gonna lissen’a what I’m sellin’?” Catapult asked, seemingly ignoring Mack and Zach, while deliberately using movie gangster cant. “Ya never know, it might be good for yer disposition - and you’se need it!.”
The maitre de could have sniffed a snooty response, but he considered responding to riff-raff to be well below his dignity. He turned away disdainfully, fully expecting that Mack and Zach would deal with this particular specimen of riff-raff with minimal disturbance.
Each of the bouncers grabbed an arm, and in a practiced move, they lifted, spun around and headed toward the door. Or at least that’s what they tried to do… Captain Catapult exerting his flying power ‘in reverse’ to oppose the two - and they could neither move him, or spin him around.
‘Another new trick that works even better than expected, eh, Tommy boy?’ Catapult thought to himself with a quick grin. ‘Another new weapon in the Arsenal of Democracy!’
Before the surprised bouncers could react, he broke their grips by swinging his arms forward, arced them up and over, and down behind the two men, ending with a hand in the back of each neck. He swept their heads together, almost gently so as not to seriously injure them. ‘Jeeves’ head snapped around at the loud ‘Crack’ and he watched in stunned horror as his two ultra-reliable pest removers slumped to the floor unconscious.
Captain Catapult grabbed the maitre-de before he could take any other action. “I’d like to be seated at Hurricane Carney’s table, please. Don’t announce me; I’d like to surprise the old windbag. Lead the way - and no funny business.” He squeezed the man’s shoulder gently to show he meant business, and the two walked into the lounge.
“I feel like the opening line in a joke again,” Catapult made casual conversation with his new friend, as they weaved among the tables on the crowded floor. “A mystery hero and an overdressed bum walk into a club… I wonder what the punch line will be?”
“Not long now, and you’re gonna be too dead to care,” the maitre de snarled. They’d reached a table near the stage.
Catapult leaned closer to his guide and whispered. “This guy better be Breezy Carney, or I’ll come looking for you when I’m done dealing with him.”
The maitre de whispered back, savage satisfaction in his tone. “It’s Carney OK. And NOBODY ‘deals with’ the Hurricane - but he’ll deal with you, for sure.”
Catapult let him go, pulled out the chair next to the mobster, and plopped down heavily. “Hey, Breezy Carney, you and I got stuff to talk about.”
“Beat it, punk. Looie don’t like blood in here - bad for business, you know - but I don’t much give a damn about his business. So you got 3 seconds to get your ass outta that chair and head for the door.”
“So you can shoot me in the back and collect a million bucks? I don’t think so, Sneezy.” Catapult waited as Carney pulled a pistol from his pocket. From Carney’s viewpoint, he became a blur of motion, but the hero was not moving at his top speed. He casually reached across the table and yanked the pistol from Carney’s hand. He was relatively careful and didn’t quite dislocate the mobster’s trigger finger.
To Carney, he’d started to smoothly pull his gun and then instantly his hand was in agaony, and he yelped loudly in pain, and suddenly, the music and conversation around them stopped, and everyone was staring at their table, and a number of people were starting to reach for their guns.
Catapult continued to move faster than a normal human could follow. He doffed his hat and coat, tapped Carney gently across the chin, and hefted the big guy over his shoulder. To the people around them, it looked like somebody had cut a few frames out of the movie film - one instant the two men had been starting a conversation, the next instant, one of the men had been replaced by some guy in a silly costume, with Carney slung over his shoulder like a bag of fertilizer.
“You folks may have heard of me, or not, by now,” the hero announced loudly. “My name is Captain Catapult. I’m one of those so called mystery heroes you’ve heard about, but maybe don’t believe in, quite yet. Carney’s boss, Rotgut Talloway, believes in me enough to offer a million dollar bounty on me. I’m about to show him, and you, why that’s a bad idea. If any of you ever get any similar ideas, or are thinking about trying to collect from Talloway, check out the papers tomorrow.”
Several patrons had pistols in hand by now. Catapult dropped his floppy sack onto the table and seemingly vanished, and for a second, the room was filled with a red mist and violent, twisting winds, and those with guns in hand felt some odd sensations, and then Catapult was back where he’d started, picking up Carney and talking, almost without interruption. “If you try to fire a pistol and the barrel is jammed, it will probably blow up in your hand and cause you serious damage, might even kill you. Something they taught us the first day in the Marines.”
Those holding pistols were already looking at the weapons that had just twisted so strangely in their hands, and were horrified to see that the barrels had been crushed, squeezed in globs like a handful of bread dough. Nobody was dumb enough to pull the trigger. Catapult walked leisurely out the door, totally unhindered either by the heavy man he was carrying or any of the patrons.Corsair Hotel - the Penthouse PlaceEverybody knew that Rotgut Talloway lived in the penthouse of the opulent Corsair Hotel, which was owned by a shadow corporation that was controlled by his mob. Captain Catapult hadn’t actually needed to terrorize mob underlings to find out that information, but he was also intent on sending a message. He floated through the front door of the Corsair and dropped Carney roughly next to the reception desk. “Please let your boss Ratshit know he should expect a guest shortly,” and he strode to the elevator bank. Some of the guests in the lobby were laughing at a guy in a silly costume, but the hotel employees were taking him seriously.
“Won’t do you any good, buddy. The elevators and doors won’t work for you. You better beat it, before you get hurt bad… or worse,” a big guy in a security officer’s uniform approached him, backed up by three other guards.
“Ol’ Ratshit doesn’t keep you very well informed, does he? You’re going to have to find a new boss after tonight, anyway, so you might as well look for someone who gives a damn about the people who work for him.” He turned to check the elevator indicators, which showed that all the elevators were stopped on the 5th floor. “Well, you guys warned me that wouldn’t work. Thanks!” He turned around, and was now facing a dozen gun barrels. “Unless you guys are bulletproof, I’d advise you not to shoot. I’ll just step outside and take the express route.” Guests were now running screaming towards any doors out of the lobby.
There is always _someone_ who will fire the first shot. And once the first shot is fired in a tense situation, it is usually followed by a lot more. The rebound from the first shot didn’t hit anyone, and Captain Catapult vanished before the second shot rang out. A half dozen bullets tore into the walls and elevator doors, and then the shooting died out as the shooters realized there was nobody left to shoot at. In another couple of instants, everyone with a visible weapon was unconscious, the powerful winds blowing through the lobby had stopped, the door had been smashed open from the inside, and a red and blue streak was rising outside through the night, illuminated by lights shining from room windows. Catapult was halfway to the roof when a series of explosions inside the penthouse rocked the building, and he quickly smashed through the biggest window in the penthouse to a scene of chaos inside.
Bombs had exploded in the elevator shafts and stairwells. They had been designed to keep anyone from below from storming the penthouse, but they were doing an equally good job of preventing the two dozen or so heavily armed mobsters who had been waiting to greet Captain Catapult from leaving. Some of the welcoming committee had been injured by flying debris, and others were just starting to take action to put out several small fires. Captain Catapult joined the firefighting efforts, and they were just getting the last one out when there were two more explosions, one from the master bedroom and one far below.
“That goddrarned rat bastard Rotgut got away and left us trapped up here to be captured or die!” one of the mobsters snarled. “I helped him set everything up, but I never thought he’d turn out to be a yellow-bellied traitor!”
Catapult did a quick inspection and discovered a secret elevator in the closet of the master bedroom, smashed beyond any possible use. He flew down to the front entrance, eventually grabbed a terrified employee who directed him to the basement, and found the lower entrance to that elevator, also mangled. A ramp led up to a garage door that opened to the street, and fresh rubber streaks indicated that a vehicle had recently peeled rubber out of the hotel. There were no cars nearby; in the dark, he wasn’t going to be able to spot a single anonymous vehicle on the city streets from the air. Rotgut Talloway, the toughest, meanest mobster in Chicago had abandoned his gang and run like a scared rabbit.
Top HeadlinesCaptain Catapult definitely got the results he’d been looking for, even if the magic crystal hadn’t panned out exactly as he’d planned. Every paper in Chicago led with the story of Chicago’s new mystery hero ridding the city of its most dangerous mobster, with coverage of all his other recent exploits as well.
A week later, the Alliance of Mystery Heroes held a press conference to announce that Captain Catapult was their latest member. His career was off to a solid start! |
|
