Note: All the dialog in this chapter has been translated from the original Uuzian into the closest English equivalents.
Introduction to Regor and Uuz
On Earth 2 around 1900, James Flint, a famous British rocket scientist, his American wife Harley, and their baby son Ainsworth and his family established a temporary residence on the tiny volcanic island of Barrios in the South Atlantic Ocean. During his scientific education, James had been made the acquaintance of H. G. Wells, and Wells' visions inspired James to work on his greatest project, a rocket capable of traveling through space. Without interruptions in the solitude of Barrios, he finally finished his small prototype in 1901. Unfortunately for the distinguished family, the island's volcano erupted. There was enough room in the prototype for baby Ainsworth and Harley, but she refused to leave her husband. Flint set the controls for America, but for some reason, perhaps because of damage due to the eruption, the rocket instead headed for deep space.
In space, the tiny rocket encountered the Great Comet of 1901, which swept it ever further into space. Eventually, deep in Earth's Oort cloud, the Great Comet passed close to the (still undiscovered by Earth astronomy) small planet of Uuz, and the rocket drifted to a landing in a snowdrift. A childless couple, Rinni and Lynia Lamm, discovered the rocket, and adopted the child they found sleeping inside. They named him Winki, after Lynia's mother's maiden name. Somehow the combination of the deep cold of space and the influence of the comet had put baby Ainsworth into suspended animation.
In the lesser gravity of Uuz, Winki's Earth-born physique gave him remarkable powers. Even as a teenager, he had the strength of ten ordinary men of Uuz, and he grew even stronger as he matured to adulthood. His powerful legs allowed him to leap long distances, almost high enough to go into orbit, though he couldn't actually fly. And strangest of all, the most common building material on Uuz, glass, was transparent to his Terrestrial eyes, though it was opaque to natives of Uuz.
It was always winter on Uuz; a warm day outside might reach about 90 below zero Fahrenheit.. All Uuzian cities are totally enclosed, with air-lock style entrances around the perimeter. Uuzians are partially adapted to the cold, and normally set the indoor temperature is about 15 degrees Fahrenheit, but each Uuzian always carried a personal heater, and they rarely ventured outside. All farming was done indoors as well. Science had advanced to the level of color televisions (called televisors, on Uuz). Vehicles were heavily insulated, armored and tracked for travel in the deep snow and ice. Uuzian weapons were kind of like ray guns; they shot liquid water encased in a thin glass envelope, which would then freeze on contact. (Regor's human strength made him immune to the effects of these 'ice bullets').
Winki's parents raised him well, and he eventually decided to use his great powers to battle crime and aid his fellow Uuzians. His mother designed a costume for him, a red body, with green boots, cape and shorts. The boots, wrists and shoulders of the costume were trimmed with white fur. He adopted the name Regor, with green and yellow chest emblem and a distinctive signet ring, both in the shape of a stylized letter R (which coincidentally looks the same in Uuzenese and English).
He became a roving televisor interviewer in his Winki Lamm identity. Winki pretended to feel mentally superior to Regor, he 'used his head instead of his muscles' and described the hero as 'that lame brained mass of muscle'. He worked for Orbital Broadcasting Network for News Director Potophink Wilfur, and his co-worker, the beautiful and famous newscaster Loria Rode, sometimes suspected that Winki and Regor were one and the same.
An evil scientist named Bantor became Regor's arch nemesis. In 1949, early in their respective careers, Bantor developed a system of exercise and nutrition that allowed him and his gang to develop strength far beyond that of the normal Uuzian, though somewhat less than Regor's own. Bantor also developed water bullets, leaving ice bullets outside in the ultra-cold until they froze solid enough to penetrate even Regor's durable costume and skin, and polarized glasses that allowed his gang to see through glass like Regor did. Overmatched by a dozen very strong men with deadly weapons, Regor despaired that his career was over. He launched himself aimlessly into space in the very rocket which had brought him to Uuz. Perhaps the rocket had a homing instinct, because not long afterwards, Superman spotted it plunging towards a potentially disastrous collision with Earth.
After saving Regor and his ship, Superman took them to his Arctic Fortress, and Regor commented that Uuz never got as warm as the Arctic ice pack. In the Fortress, Superman put Regor on a rigorous training program, improving his strength and stamina until he was a match for any Terrestrial strong man.
While on Earth, Superman provided Regor with a supply of a virtually indestructible, bulletproof heat proof cloth for new uniforms, and the two men developed compressed air jets that could be mounted on Regor's belt that would allow him to fly in Uuz's low gravity.
The two heroes then returned to Uuz, and worked together to capture Bantor and his gang. Superman disguised himself as Regor to help Winki conceal his secret identity from Loria. Then Superman created a small sun for Uuz. Before he returned to Earth, Superman helped Regor build the super exercise equipment he needs to retain his Earth-built strength. The two have maintained a friendship ever since, mostly communicating by exchanging recorded radio messages.
Since this time, Regor married Loria Rode. It isn't known whether they have children or not.
Uuz was a very cold world. Over a light year from Sol, most of its heat came from the slowly cooling core of the planet. Uuzian scientists theorized that until recently (in geological terms) Uuz had been a moon of Jupiter, and the planet was heated by Sol, radiation from Jupiter, and the core was kept molten by tidal stresses. During this period, life had developed, but some great disaster had ripped Uuz from its ancient orbit and thrown it into the Oort cloud. Early religious art pictured the most powerful deity as a giant sphere that covered half the sky and watched over Uuz with a giant red eye, and the holy writings claimed that somehow Uuzians had angered their pantheon, who had punished them with a long night and everlasting winter.
The heavier elements were very rare on Uuz, which supported the Jupiter moon theory; Jupiter's intense gravity had pulled most of the heavy elements from nearby space when it was forming, leaving few for the smaller bodies that formed around it. Lighter silicate elements made up most of the surface, making glass the most readily available building material. Additionally, there wasn't much of the metallic potassium on Uuz. This lack had a big effect on Uuz history and government; whoever controlled a country's potassium supply basically controlled that country. Finally, the light from the distant sun was very dim, so Uuzian humanity adapted to use and see light outside the spectrum visible to Earth humans.
It is an open mystery of science how human life, so similar to that of humans on Earth, developed on Uuz. Since Winki discovered his earthly origins, he has speculated that the first humans on Uuz might have been a colony of a very early Terrestrial civilization on Earth, perhaps Lemuria. Presumably the event that ripped Uuz from the orbit of Jupiter was the Great War between Order and Chaos 100,000 years ago.
The Menace of Bantor
Note: All the dialog in this chapter has been translated from the original Uuzenese into the closest English equivalents.
"Look! Up in the sky!" a fearful shout went out on the streets of Nurchil City, the capital city of Aigan-Nica, the largest country on the planet Uuz. Everyone in earshot looked up and saw a glowing streak of red and yellow fire in the daytime sky, leaving behind a trail of smoke and a sonic boom. "It must be a meteor! I hope it burns out before it lands!" Those citizens who were superstitious muttered a quick good luck charm; unlike on Earth, a meteor sighting on Uuz was considered very bad luck, and this one would prove no exception. The thin atmosphere of the very small planet didn't offer much protection from meteors and most of them caused great damage. Fortunately, even here in the densest portion of the Oort cloud almost a light year from Sol, the Earth's sun, meteor encounters were much rarer than they were on Earth. The city's citizens breathed a collective sigh of relief and the alarms quieted as the object whizzed over the city and continued to the southwest.
"Loria, take your field crew and the Flying Studio and find out where that thing landed! I want you on the air with a report before any of the other stations!" Potophink Wilfur, the News Director of 'Orbital Broadcasting Network', one of the largest TeleVisor networks in Aigan-Nica, barked orders to his star newscaster, Loria Rode Lamm.
"I'm on it, Chief!" she shot back as she raced from his office. She met the crew in the rooftop hanger of the OBN building, and the Flying Studio was in the air within minutes. One of the newest crew members, a intern on a work-study program from Nurchil's biggest J-school hesitantly approached her. "Mrs. Lamm, do you think we'll see Regor? If we do, can you introduce me?"
At the mention of the mighty Protector of Uuz's name, Loria smiled*. She remembered the awe she'd felt the first time she'd seen the powerfully built blonde hero, over 25 Earth years ago, so handsome and imposing in his red uniform with green gloves, belt, shorts, chest emblem and cape. "Please call me Loria, Jevvy. I'm sure Regor will be there as soon as he can. When the danger's passed, I'll be glad to introduce you." She had eventually gotten over her own awestruck star worship; she'd been married to Regor, in his other identity of Winki Lamm, for almost 15 years now. "But I just saw him on the news stopping an avalanche in Sharnia" a neighboring country "so we'll probably get there before he does."
*See Superman #58, May, 1949 for more details on Regor, Loria and Uuz.
A few minutes later, Loria began a live broadcast. The camera zoomed in on her tense face. "This is Loria Lamm of Orbital Telenews, live, reporting on the mysterious object that recently passed over Nurchil City." Her voice was strained; she sounded panicky. "From our Flying Studio, we were able to locate the site where the unidentified object crashed to the ground in the densely wooded Kevan Forest Preserve, just outside of the small city of Quond."
20 years ago, there had been very little vegetation left on Uuz. The planet was gradually growing colder and colder as its molten core cooled, and soon (in geological terms), Uuz would have been uninhabitable. But Superman of Earth had visited Uuz on a mission to help Regor re-establish his heroic career, and he had built an artificial sun for the tiny planet. Now vegetation was almost overwhelming the planet, and the Uuzians struggled to keep it contained in designated locations such as the Kevan Forest Preserve.
The scene shifted to a shot a cloud of white steam and smoke rising from a thickly wooded forest, taken from overhead. "When we landed, we found…" the scene shifted again to show " a giant rocket." Loria's voice dropped to a whisper. "There's a door in the side; it's opening now." The audience could see a long tube, much taller than the trees around it, pointed at the top, standing on 3 fins. Steam and smoke rose from the charred ground around the base of the rocket. A panel in the side slid upwards, and a ramp extended from the side of the rocket over the charred ground. Just as the camera picked up movement within the vessel, a bright orange ray of some kind flashed out. The scene tumbled as if the camera had been dropped; when the picture steadied again, the audience could hear Loria swearing.
"Frozen Hells of Uuz!" she gasped in terror. "Giant machine men!"
Several vaguely humanoid metallic things climbed from the giant rocket. They were taller than the tallest trees around them, with cylindrical metal bodies, long spindly metallic arms and legs and two-pronged claws for hands. Their heads were spherical, the top half some kind of glittering crystal, the bottom half metallic. Eerily, they seemed to make no noise, other than the crashing and tearing sounds they made as they tore up the nearby trees and trampled the thick underbrush.
"They're heading towards Quond, and destroying everything in their path!" Rays of orange energy blasted from the crystals on the monsters' heads, disintegrating everything in their paths. "Somebody has to get a signal to Regor! " The scene shifted again, showing Loria and her crew scrambling into the Flying Studio. "We'll follow them and keep broadcasting. By all the Gods of Uuz, people of Quond, get to your meteor shelters!"
The scene shifted again, showing the monstrous machine men burn a path through the woodlands. Loria kept up a running commentary.
In the nearby city, the mayor of Quond declared a state of emergency, and throughout the town, disaster alarms sounded. The years of scheduled meteor disaster drills paid off as all the citizens rushed to their designated public storm shelters. By the time the edge of town could be seen in Loria's televisor broadcast, the entire population was safely hidden in the deeply buried meteor shelters.
In a small hyperflier racing towards Aigan-Nica at emergency top speed, the Uuzian superhero known as Regor smiled grimly as an artificial gem on his signet ring began flashing. He touched the gem, and a three dimensional figure Prime Minister Huond of Aigan-Nica, a handsome woman with iron-gray hair, appeared in the air, seemingly standing on his control panel. Lines of worry distorted her strong features. "I'm on my way!" he promised in a calm, powerful voice.
A televisor on the hyperflier's control board was tuned to Loria's broadcast, and it showed the monsters swarming into the now-deserted town of Quond like a swarm of locusts. "The strength of these mechanical giants is awesome! Can even Regor match their power?" Loria was asking fearfully as they tossed vehicles around like toys. "They seem to be hunting for something!" Indeed, they were tearing open buildings, bending down and inspecting the ruins closely. Eventually, they all clustered around a single location; Loria recognized the sign. "Why, that's one of the potassium distribution facilities! They're looking for potassium! There must be a shortage of potassium shortage on their planet, too, and they've come to Uuz to take ours!"
Potassium deficiency in humans leads to a breakdown of mental processes, and the element is very rare on Uuz, though scientists predicted that potassium would exist in abundance on planets closer to the sun. Long ago, a specialized government-controlled industry had grown up around potassium. All organic waste was gathered by the potassium collection unions and delivered to a central processing location, where the potassium was recovered and purified, then shipped in carefully controlled quantities to the distribution centers in each city and town. Government control of the potassium trade was strict and tightly regulated. If these aliens stole a significant amount of Aigan-Nica's potassium supply, it wouldn't be long before most of the people in the nation became ill. Shortly afterwards, the nation would fall to some other. It was a classic example of Uuzian military history, nations which lost control of their potassium supply were always easily conquered by their neighbors.
"Now some of the robots are returning to their spaceship, while the others are continuing to ravage Quond, looking for the other potassium distribution stations. I urge the residents of Quond to remain safely in their shelters until the last invaders have left!" The camera followed a couple of robots back into the forest, and then the picture cut off in a burst of static.
'There's something fishy about this whole thing,' Regor thought to himself. 'Loria's broadcast is showing these giants wrecking downtown Quond, but the signal is still coming from the Kevan Preserve.' He aimed the flier's long distance camera at the forest, and quickly located the Flying Studio, still grounded in the forest. As he reached the landing site, he quickly set the hyperflier's autopilot to circle the area and then ejected. Blasting the compressed air jets on his belt at top speed, he raced to the ground and was stunned to see that Loria and her cameraman were taking pictures of a miniature city that was still being ransacked by tiny toy robots.
"Cold Starswarms Above! Are you crazy, Loria?" Regor yelled at his wife. "The whole country is panicking because of this hoax of yours!"
"Perhaps I can explain," came a suave voice, and a tall, solidly built red-headed man stepped out from behind a tree. "I've captured Miss Rode's broadcasting team, and I've told her they will die unless she broadcasts exactly as I've instructed her."
"Bantor! I should have known you'd be behind this!" Regor exclaimed angrily at his long-time arch nemesis. Bantor had long coveted Loria, and he refused to acknowledge her marriage to Winki Lamm.
"Yes, only I have the scientific genius to launch a fake meteor across the sky, to build such a convincing mockup of a space ship, and such realistic toy robots!" the criminal mastermind laughed.
"I'm sorry, Regor!" Loria sobbed. "Bantor had a trap set for us when we came to look for the 'meteor'. He captured us and made me show this whole thing." As she spoke, Loria's crew stepped out of the woods, followed by a half dozen armed men pointing guns at them.
"But why toys?" Regor was puzzled. "Surely a man of your evil genius could build real robots."
"Your accursed vigilance continues to interfere with my plans. Robots require rare and valuable materials. If I gathered everything required to create dozens of giant robots, surely you'd notice." Bantor snarled. "So I've developed a foolproof plan that only requires one giant mechanical alien. And your assistance, of course." He bowed mockingly as he spoke, and laughed as a giant robot, identical to the toys but for size, stepped out of the woods. A door opened on its chest and a man climbed out. "You're going to fight my robot and lose, and Miss Rode is going to broadcast the whole thing!" He brayed his amusement: "Bwaa haa haa ha!"
"You're out of your mind, Bantor!" Regor barked at his foe.
"You think so, hero? Vanch, blast one of them!" Bantor ordered loudly. Before Regor could move, one of the henchmen fired and a crew member screamed and collapsed as an ice bullet tore through his leg. Jevvy screamed as well, and bent over the man, trying to staunch his wound. "Bwaa haa haa ha!" Bantor laughed again at the unfortunate man as he writhed on the ground in pain. "Keep screaming, fool, it will only make the next broadcast more realistic!" He turned back to Regor.
"Don't mock me again, Regor. The next shot won't hit a leg," the criminal mastermind threatened with a sneer. He climbed into the robot suit. "You'd better make it look like a damn good fight, but you better lose, or else the rest of them will lose their lives!"
All across Aigan-Nica, televisors tuned to OBN suddenly came back to life. "We're back at the monsters' rocket, and Regor's just arrived! He'll show these aliens!" Loria was yelling hopefully as Regor landed near the rocket, in front of a single giant robot.
Regor leaped forward and smashed into the robot like a runaway meteor, but it barely moved. He swung a mighty punch at its head, but the monster caught his arm and spun, then threw him away. The hero knocked down several trees, then slowly climbed to his feet and charged again. They traded punches, but the giant mechanical alien was hardly affected, while Regor was continually rocked backwards. Finally, staggering around in a daze, he dropped his guard and the robot slammed home an immensely powerful punch that lifted Regor high into the air. He flopped bonelessly as he helplessly shot backwards, then smashed to the ground, motionless. The audience saw the giant robot pick up Regor's seemingly lifeless body and toss him into the rocket, followed by Loria and the rest of the video crew. The giant then turned to the camera and spoke, in stilted Uuzenese that improved the longer it talked..
"We have defeated… your greatest hero. You are… helpless against us. I will send an… emissary to your capital city and you will give us all your… potassium, or we will destroy the rest of your world as we have destroyed this town! You have one hour." The screen blanked.
The inside of the phony rocket ship was a virtually featureless cylinder, except for a televisor set with a very large screen. A camera inside the robot body showed Bantor's twisted face as he mocked his captors. "I realize you can break out of this shell, Regor. Please listen to me before you do so; your companions' lives depend on it." There was a bright flash of light and suddenly the hull was transparent - to Regor, at least. "I just vaporized a coat of paint over the glass hull, so you can see through it, though of course, your companions cannot." The eyes of native Uuzians perceived a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum than human eyes, and they were unable to see through common glass, which was a very common building material on the small planet. "Unless…" he mocked "they have polarized glasses, such as I provide my men. Unfortunate for them that I didn't leave any aboard. Please note the very thin wires embedded into the hull. If any of these wires are broken, a powerful bomb on the outside of the hull will explode. You might survive, but Miss Rode and her friends will not be so lucky."
Regor could see the network of wires, criss-crossing the hull like the lines on a sheet of giant graph paper. There was no way he could put even a fist-sized hole through the hull without breaking at least a dozen of the delicate wires.
"Vanch, arm the bomb." His henchman was standing near a complex device, about 10 feet from the ship. The wires covering the hull twisted together into a pair of cables which connected to the machine. He ceremonially threw a large knife-style switch, and a Regor saw a digital display start counting down.
"Don't worry, hero, I don't want to kill you, or your friends, just humiliate you. When the countdown reaches zero, 12 hours from now, power to the bomb will disconnected and you will be free. By that time, we will have collected all the potassium in Nurchil City and be hidden where you will NEVER find us. BWAA HAA HAA HA!" An amplifier in the robot suit made his laugh painfully loud, even inside the rocket-shaped shell. "But don't worry, I'll make sure you have enough potassium - FOR A PRICE!! BWAA HAA HAA HA!"
In Nurchil City, Prime Minister Huond was banging a gavel on a table in a large meeting room, trying to bring order to a chaotic meeting of representatives of both the national government of Aigan-Nica and the Nurchil city government. People outside were banging on the door, demanding that all available potassium be turned over to the aliens immediately so they would go away and not harm anyone. The mayor of Nurchil City was demanding immediate assistance in evacuating the city, while the military was advocating an instant attack on the advancing alien emissary and an atomic strike on the alien's grounded rocket. Emissaries of other governments were promising military assistance, but none of they were volunteering their own potassium supplies. Huond's own advisors were trying to drag her out of the room so they could get her to the airport, where the Aigan-Nican version of Air Force One was fueled and waiting. No one paid any attention to her in the din and hubbub.
Until she pulled her pistol and shot out one of the windows. The room was instantly silent; before the chatter could begin again, Huond's commanding voice rang out. "Major Irwyk! You and your team please direct our guests to their seats at the table, and insure that they remain silent until the meeting has been called to order." A large man in the dark blue uniform of the Prime Minister's personal Security team, gave a series of sharp orders, and in a few minutes, everyone was quietly seated at the very large table - or had been 'escorted' from the room.
Prime Minister Huond spoke forcefully for several minutes. There was very little discussion; she had a plan and she'd seemingly covered every detail. Quickly and with almost no dissent, the various government representatives dispersed to execute the details. Irwyk and most of his detail headed for the potassium processing facility, the Minister of the Military started giving orders to set up a line of defense at the city's edge in case anything went wrong with the exchange, and the Mayor of Nurchil City was arranging the evacuation. The offers from the foreign governments had been put on hold
The OBN feed was once again back on the air. A shaky female voice viewers had never heard before was providing commentary as the camera shot showed the robot approaching the outskirts of Nurchil City. Armored vehicles and armed men lined the road the robot was following, but were under strict orders not to fire. There seemed to be little hope that military weapons would succeed when Regor had failed. Civilians streamed out of the city, in vehicles and on foot. Sharnia and Morrica, another neighboring country, had put their nuclear defenses on high alert.
"This is Jevvy Valas reporting in place of Loria Lamm. After defeating our mighty hero, Regor, beating him viciously and perhaps battering him to death, the alien robots are forcing me to continue this broadcast. A single giant mechanical monster is approaching the outskirts of Nurchil City to collect the entire country's supply of potassium. If the potassium is not delivered, the aliens will destroy the city. If the potassium IS delivered, our country may fall to an enemy invasion. But with our most powerful defender, Regor, defeated so easily by just a single alien, what other choice do we have?"
Bantor brought his robot to a standstill and stood patiently, seemingly uncaring that hundreds of a nation's most powerful weapons were pointed at him. Even though he was an enemy, Jevvy had to admire his conviction in his plan and his deception. A security squad delivered a sealed container to the giant mechanical man. Bantor caused the robot to pick it up, open it, look inside. Sensitive instruments measured the exact dimensions of the container, the volume of the precious potassium it contained, and the total weight. Calculations showed that the weight and volume of the precious metal matched to very close tolerances the amount that Bantor had estimated to be on hand; it appeared that he had what he wanted.
"You have done well, humans!" the robot congratulated its foes in a loud, stilted voice. "You shall be spared." Then it turned and walked away. Not far away, Bantor's men prepped a concealed hyperflier for immediate launch. After switching off the external PA system, Bantor roared in laughter. "BWAA HAA HAA HA! I LOVE it when a plan comes together! Very soon now, I'll be the most powerful man in Aigan-Nica. After that, the world is mine! BWAA HAA HAA HAA!
Back in the rocket, Regor was trying to figure out a way to escape without setting off the explosive. With his human physique, he could easily shatter the glass hull, and if he wrapped his head and hands with his cape, his almost indestructible costume would probably protect him enough that he would live through the explosion that would follow, although he would undoubtedly be injured. But there was no way he would put his wife's life, and the lives of her crew, at risk. Unless he could think of some way to shut off the bomb's power without shattering the hull, Bantor would get away with this crime and become the most powerful man in Aigan-Nica.
His flier was still circling the area and he could control the autopilot by manipulating a concealed control on his signet ring, but he couldn't think of anything the flier could do that would be safe. But then inspiration struck! Unfortunately, it was only half of a solution.
He quickly explained the situation to his companions. "The artificial gems on my signet ring are much harder than glass. I can use one of them to cut small holes in the hull without cutting any of the trip wires. But I don't see how that will help us."
Loria was closely examining the inside of the rocket. When she looked at the televisor, her eyes lit up and she laughed gleefully. "I do!" she announced triumphantly. "It's time to go fishing!" She explained her idea and they got to work. Of course, Regor did much of the work.
First, he carefully broke the televisor set's aluminum rabbit ear antennas off at the base, and then used his strength to join them together end to end. The resulting rod wasn't quite long enough. Next, Regor carefully broke open the chassis of the televisor. He pulled out a transformer and set some of the crew to unwinding the secondary wire while he used one of his artificial gems to cut the aluminum chassis into narrow strips, then cut a strip off the end of his cape. He used the aluminum strips to extend and reinforce the antenna rod, and then finally he used his strength and super speed to tightly wrap the joints of the rod with the transformer wire. Now it was long enough to reach the knife switch, and Regor could safely cut a hole large enough to fit it through.
Meanwhile, Loria had teased loose some threads from the torn edge of the cloth strip, and she and the crew had been able to unravel it, giving them an extremely strong thread, easily long enough for their needs. Regor secretly winked at Loria. She had tailoring Regor's costume herself, using special equipment Regor had designed to work with the almost invulnerable fabric he had developed, and she was making good use of that secret knowledge now.
After that, it was easy. Shortly, Regor dropped a loop of thread over the handle of the knife switch and pulled it taut. The crew stood behind him, partially shielded by his powerful body and wrapped as well as they could in the remains of his cape. If this didn't work, that would give them some protection, but it proved unnecessary. Regor pulled, the thread held, the switch lifted, and power to the bomb was interrupted. Seconds later, Regor smashed through the wall, raced to his hyperflier and rocketed off to Nurchil City.
Unfortunately, Loria and the crew couldn't follow him; Bantor's thugs had taken the Flying Studio. And the televisor in the phony rocket didn't work any longer. "Frozen Hells of Uuz!" Loria vehemently voiced the feelings of the crew. "The biggest scoop of our careers, and we're not even going to be able to watch it!"
Regor could run much faster than his compressed air jets could drive him through the air, so he landed secretly some distance away from the crowd at the edge of Nurchil City. Driving himself to his top speed, he raced to reach Jevvy before one of Bantor's thugs could harm her. Rather than picking her up at high speed, he stopped momentarily and wrapped her in his cape, than carried her to safety among the massed troops. Then he turned his attention to the giant robot.
"What chance does he have?" Jevvy heard one of the soldiers ask the man next to him, despair in his voice. "That thing almost killed him last time!"
"Boy, are YOU in for a surprise!" she laughed, as she focused her camera on the fight.
Regor leaped forward and smashed into the robot like a runaway meteor, knocking it sprawling on the ground. He let it stand, then swung a mighty punch at its head. The monster blocked, and Regor caught its arm, spun, then threw it away. The machine dug a deep furrow in the ground as it slid to a halt, then slowly climbed to his feet. Regor charged again. They traded punches, but the giant mechanical alien was too slow and never landed a blow, while Regor's slammed home strike after strike, continually rocking his opponent backwards. Finally, the robot was staggering around in a daze and he dropped its guard. Regor launched himself upwards and landed an immensely powerful punch to the head that lifted the mechanical man high into the air. It smashed to the ground, motionless.
Bantor's henchmen abandoned him like rats, and their hyperflier started to lift from concealment. Regor raced after it at top speed, got close and leaped. He smashed into the cabin in a single blow. "I suggest you land, NOW!" he thundered. The terrified pilot had little choice.
Epilogue: Bantor and his henchmen were sent to prison. Regor had little hope that Bantor would remain behind bars; in the past, he'd always proved that he could escape whenever he wanted to. Loria got the satisfaction of scooping her major rival newscaster, her husband Winki Lamm, and she and her crew all got big bonuses. Potophink Wilfur promised Jevvy Valas a roving newscaster job as soon as she graduated.
Winki and Loria were discussing the incident later. "It's never struck me before just how dependent our society is on potassium," Winki mused thoughtfully.
"See what you get for ignoring history?" Loria chided him. Winki was very smart, but he tended to ignore subjects that didn't interest him, focusing instead on current events, science, and super heroics. "Potassium is one of the major driving forces of government, you know."
"Yeah, but I always assumed the modern system of processing and distribution had the problem under control. I never realized how vulnerable the system is. You know" he paused for a second "I can do something about that! I've been planning to take the phony rocket and the giant robot to my Fortress as trophies; while I'm there, I'll use my detectors to see if I can find an asteroid somewhere that has a lot of potassium on it. Maybe Superman can help me."
"That's a great idea!" she agreed. "It's been a while since you talked with him, anyway!"
In his Fortress, a giant cavern he'd carved into the top of a mountain in an inhabitable region of Uuz, Regor's Solar System Scanner showed him a devastating surprise.
'Earth has vanished!' Regor was stunned. Earth was not only the home of his friend Superman, but the home of billions of human beings, the only other place in the Solar System where humans could live without life support. And, Regor was originally from Earth; his parents had accidentally rocketed him to Uuz to protect him from a disaster. 'Who knows what other disasters this could cause?' he pondered. 'The gravitational changes could have a domino effect throughout the system.' Regor was very sensitive to gravitational effects; the balance between Uuz and its tiny sun was delicate and any disturbance to that sun's orbit could plunge the tiny planet back into an endless ice age.
He played back the system recordings and found that Earth had vanished almost 2 Earth weeks ago! 'Maybe I ought to invent some kind of disaster signals for my scanners' he thought ruefully. 'There doesn't seem to be anything I can do for here. I'd better head in and see I can learn anything from there!'
He turned away from the console of his monitoring computer and looked over the souvenirs, machinery, instruments, trophies and vehicles scattered throughout the vast cavern. "I'll take the bigger rocket, and the space uniform with the built-in breathing apparatus," he decided. Compared to Superman, Regor's powers were limited. Since he had met Superman, however, he'd created a couple of costumes that simulated some of the other hero's powers, and that would be useful on this trip. He quickly decided what other equipment he should take, and got his own robots started on loading the rocket. He called Loria and let her know he'd be gone. She promised to make some excuse for Winki. And then he was away.
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