Donal was out a side door of the hanger in an instant, he picked out a good observation point, and was away instantly. He moved surprisingly gracefully for a man his size, using the wreckage on the grounds for concealment, and rushing unexpectedly across open spaces. He drew some fire, but managed to reach concealment in time, each time.

At his chosen destination, he stopped, took a few calming breaths, and concentrated. With a small sigh of displaced air, he vanished, to be replaced by the 4 'chauns’ (his pet name for the 4 smaller versions of himself). At the same time his mind and perceptions and the Donal overmind was momentarily overwhelmed by 4 sets of sensory impressions of the chaotic world around him.

Each of the chauns was an independent being, with Donal's personality and memories, but they were all in mental contact with each other. And somewhere in that mental network, a fifth mind emerged, which Donal called the 'overmind'. Not exactly a part of any of the chauns, the overmind was always aware of what each chaun was experiencing - and could 'merge' instantly with any one of them if the situation required it. The overmind usually integrated the sensory information coming from the four into a big picture, and usually coordinated their actions. It had taken a lot of practice for the overmind to learn to operate without a body - and to be able to understand and analyze 4 different sets of sensory data independently.

1 of the chauns put on the belt, and then that one and 2 others faded into the landscape while the 4th remained at the observation point Donal had selected.

This was the chauns' bread and butter. Their small size and superior agility, combined with Donal's years of training, allowed them to be virtually undetectable in any terrain with even the slightest trace of cover. On chaotic terrain such as this, with piles of wreckage, craters, fires, and dust and smoke drifting everywhere, the chauns were at their best. It almost seemed unfair to the aliens. Even if they had infrared sensors, the chauns were using the various fires and hot spots to break their trail.

Passing between the alien guards to get a look into the pit was somewhat more difficult, but they had that covered as well. One of the chauns, hiding behind a burning pile of wreckage, tossed some items through the air, towards the nearest aliens. Their reaction was faster than a human, and they managed to blast two of them in the air with their rifles, causing them to explode, while the other two bundles actually hit the aliens and exploded as well. Improvised grenades, bundles of nails and blasting caps wrapped in tape. They didn't do anywhere near the damage Donal had hoped for, but their main value was as a distraction, and the other two chauns were past the scrimmage line and over the edge of the pit without being seen.

There were some kind of alien digging machines, smashing away at the exposed bedrock, with other machines scooping up the shattered rock and carting it away. Already they had blasted their way another 10 feet down into the bedrock. That was enough information for the overmind; he ordered the chauns to withdraw.

Back in the hanger, they were ready. Several ibeams, one end slightly elevated, lay on the floor, pointing at the saucer outside, the saucer end elevated on a cross beam, creating troughs - or missile launchers! In the down end of each lay a welder's tank of compressed air, and a load and launch team stood near each beam, equipped with a sledgehammer and another tank. The bulldozers were arrayed near the giant hanger door, with many men crouched down behind them. Each man carried several bags, and there was a welder with a hastily altered acetylene torch riding just behind the blade of each dozer.

Zack watched the second hand on his watch sweep towards the chosen time; he hoped he wasn't leading these brave men to their deaths. There had been some sporadic weapon fire from the things lining the rim of the pit. Zack hoped those shots had all missed - whatever those things were shooting at, they were on Zack's side! They had been ready here in the hanger a lot sooner than he had estimated. Donal had given them some ideas for other improvised weapons, but Zack had estimated that they didn't have time for anything but the simplest. He hoped he wouldn't regret it. Anyway, what they had now would sure surprise those aliens, who didn't seem to be expecting any kind of coordinated counter-attack! He hoped he and his men would be able to get some revenge, and that at least some of them would live through the coming attack...

3... 2... 1... "GO, GO, GO!!" he screamed through a bullhorn. The valves were knocked from 4 tanks of highly compressed gas, and they blasted along the tracks the crew had set up for them, then tore through the thin sheet metal walls of the building. 4 more 'missiles' were quickly 'loaded' and fired, and then the crews headed for the back of the building and the shelter of some road graders and steam rollers, as the aliens were now firing back, and the walls of the building started to tatter.

The dozers roared through the big hanger door, smashing it open just in time to see the first air tank 'missiles' tumble, bounce and roll through the line of alien guards and then smack into the side of the ship. The heavy bottles did more damage to the guards than the ship, and then Zack and his men were surging forward, close behind the dozers. Shots from the alien guards and the guns on the saucer fired into the massive blades, perhaps adding some dents and scars to the steel surfaces but otherwise with only very minor effect.

As the 'heavy armor' rumbled closer to the line of aliens, the welders let loose with long tongues of flame, using their modified torches as makeshift flamethrowers. They only lasted a few seconds each, but it was a fearsome sight, a wall of massive steel blades approaching inexorably behind intermittent bursts of flame. The dozer operators jumped and the dozers continued, pushing a mass of struggling aliens into the pit. The men who were carrying bags threw them into the lines of aliens, and each bag exploded - they were filled with nails or screws packed around a timed digging charge, and literally dozens of the alien things were torn to shreds by the explosions and the improvised shrapnel.

The 'things' turned out to be mechanical, though the construction workers weren't in a position to care right now; with their 'armor' gone they were now scrambling to find cover. Then there was a series of explosions from the far side of the saucer - several of the other workers had managed to find jet fuel tankers, and tied down the steering and the gas pedal so these trucks had accelerated into the saucer. The alien defenses had momentarily been distracted by the frontal assault, and now they paid, as the trucks exploded violently against the skin of the ship. Great gouts of hot, greasy fire consumed half the saucer as the jet fuel burned briefly. The explosions gashed holes and inflicted other damage to the far side of the saucer, and suddenly the aliens turned their attention from battle to escape.

One of the chauns in the pit was cut off from retreating by flaming debris falling over the side. Instantly, he scrambled through the door that had just stopped disgorging digging machines, quickly finding cover among the remaining machines still inside the landing stem. The outside door slid shut, and all the digging machines, inside and out, immediately stopped moving.

The chaun scrambled up a ladder into the ship proper. The inside of the ship resembled the inside of a submarine, narrow corridors, lots of bulkheads and armored doors opening off each side of the corridors. The chaun found an auxiliary control room and slipped inside. The room looked incomplete: the panels on the sides of the equipment cabinets weren't closed tightly, the cabinets themselves were strapped to the floor rather than being built-in or even bolted down, there was a rat's nest of cables, some of them taped together to keep them out of the way, rather than running them under the floor or through the wall. It was fairly easy to find a hiding place.

A low frequency rumble started, coming from deep inside the saucer, then quickly climbed through the octaves, until it became a high frequency whine that seemed to drill through listeners' ears and tear directly into the brain, accompanied by a frantic hammering, something like piston slap. Anyone who heard it could easily tell that something was drastically wrong with the saucer's engines! The whine shifted ever higher in frequency, and finally, thankfully, became inaudible, and the frantic thumping steadied into something like a whir, and the ship lifted, and wobbled, and slid horizontally first one way and then another, smashing into the sides of the pit and doing still more damage to its hull. Lucky the other chaun had made it out of the pit, as a virtual avalanche of shattered rock thundered down as the ship smashed into the walls.

The chaun inside the saucer was stunned - Donal had never figured that the ship would simply cut and run when under attack! The chauns had never been more than 100 yards apart and Donal had never stayed in his multiple forms more than a few minutes before - and they had no idea what would happen next!

There was a cheer from some of the men, who were pointing at the sky, and a flight of Air Force F 104 Starfighters roared past South Mountain towards the airport. 4 jets thundered overhead, too low to go supersonic in safety, and then broke left and right, circling to come back for a second pass. The men on the ground realized the second pass would probably be a missile run, so they scurried for whatever cover they could find! The pilot of the saucer suddenly seemed to get the whole thing under control, and it lifted rapidly about a thousand feet, and then shot off to the east, faster then the jets could follow. The damage was apparent - for a short time, it trailed smoke, and the flight was somewhat erratic, but even with the major damage that Donal and his men had inflicted, it was easily faster than the F-104s that had been scrambled to respond to its attack.

All of the mechanical aliens stopped moving and dropped to the ground, and then suddenly flared into white hot flames. A few seconds later there was nothing left of the invading robots except bubbling rock or tarmac wherever there had been a robot.

The chauns quickly made their way together - and they did something they had never done before, as 3 chauns merged into one being. A man who looked much like Donal Regan - only a few inches shorter and 60 pounds lighter. They had driven off the aliens - but at what cost to Donal?

Meanwhile, in New York...

Lily Lovelace had never been happier in her life. She had recently married her longtime boyfriend Martin Martine, and life seemed to get better every day. Her acting career was taking off - tonight was opening night for her first lead in a big Broadway play, her confidence in herself seemed to grow every day, Martin's new business was starting to take off big time, and to top it off, by simply saying her magic word, she could magically change into her secret identity of Kali, an avatar of the Hindu Goddess of Creation and death, possessing the Power of Shazam, the most powerful woman in the world!

She knew she was beautiful as Lily, but she absolutely loved the powerful and exotic form of Kali - 6 foot 8 inches tall, with four arms, the long mane of blood red hair contrasting with her coal black skin, yellow flame glowing from her eyes. And Kali's attire was at least as stunning - she wore a dress of fine links of real gold, cinched at her waist by a belt of silver, a flawless diamond the size of her hand inset into the clasp. Her sandals and the circlet that kept her hair back from her face were both made of braided platinum. She wielded the Power of Shazam in the cause of right, and the best thing of all was that she could share her heroic life with her husband, for Martin Martine was the alter-ego of Shiva!

Lily knew that just as Kali was longed after by millions of men around the world, Shiva was drooled over by as many women, despite, or perhaps because of, his exotic, almost bizarre appearance. Not quite seven feet tall, with light blue skin and four arms, muscled like a weightlifter, he had a third eye in the middle of his forehead, and a shock of red hair which stood straight up almost like a fire blazing around his head. He wore a chain mail tunic and armlets of gold. A perfect mate and match for Kali! Let them drool! There wasn't another woman on the planet with a chance at her man!

She burst out laughing, drawing startled glances from the other diners, and an affectionate smile from Martin.

Martin was also feeling good. His new business didn't give him much time to get out and join Lily for lunch, but Opening Day for her first lead role on Broadway was a special occasion.

Over the years, Martin had discovered that his heroic responsibilities as Shiva made it impossible for him to follow someone else's schedule in his civilian identity. This had caused him a lot of grief - coaches wouldn't keep him on an athletic team because he was unreliable, and despite his quick intelligence, he did poorly in school because he was always missing classes. In college, he had realized that he wouldn't be able to hold down a 'regular' job after he graduated, so he'd decided to go into business for himself as an independent financial auditor. He'd had to start small, but his growing reputation for excellent service had finally landed a client from the Fortune 1000. Three or four others had recently made inquiries, and it appeared that Martine Financial Audit Service might have to start turning away clients soon.

So the loving couple had decided to celebrate today, meeting for lunch in the famed Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Martin poured the champagne and they raised their glasses in a toast. Before he could speak, the patio darkened. Everyone looked up, and the screaming began! A giant flying saucer had blocked the sun, and was descending slowly on Central Park. Suddenly the patio was chaos, as everyone was screaming and running.

Reflexes honed by years in the hero business had Martin and Lily on their feet instantly, and they were able to escape the press of panicked diners fighting desperately to get off the patio and run towards the dubious safety of the buildings surrounding Central Park. Almost instantly, they were left behind by that panicked exodus, as they had expected, and together they said their magic words…

"BVSSGG" in a mellow baritone. came Martin's word, calling on the powers of Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Svargapati, Garuda and Ganesha. "Rakasha!" in Lily's sultry voice, granted her the same powers as Martin, though the gods she called on were a mystery to the pair. Their magical transformations were as different as their words - a mist of gently glowing blue raindrops rose from the floor, wafted past Martin, and he vanished, to be replaced by Shiva - and a hot red flame blasted from the floor with a deafening roar, engulfing Lily, then vanished, leaving her wrapped in oily black smoke that cleared to reveal Kali - and the two heroes flashed into the sky!

The giant saucer, almost as big as Yankee Stadium, continued to settle slowly towards Central Park.

"There are people still in the park! We have to help!" Shiva roared, and the two heroes vanished, leaving behind twin sonic booms.

With speed of Garuda, Shiva crisscrossed the landing zone, carrying people to safety. When he realized that Kali wasn't with him, he pressed his powers even more, and the bewildered citizens who had been seconds ago been enjoying the beautiful day in the park were astonished to see literally hundreds of images of Shiva - as he moved from one place to another before his image could fade from the eyes of the watchers. If there was an obstruction in his way, he didn't waste the time to go around it, anything more than a few inches high was stripped away, as if Shiva was building a putting green for a giant.

Even at his most amazing speed, he had been sure that by himself he wouldn't have time to finish evacuating the innocent bystanders from the landing zone, but he finished easily. Puzzled he turned his attention skyward, and realized that Kali's back was pressed against the bottom of the giant ship, her arms and legs splayed outwards, straining to slow its descent - and succeeding! He was almost stunned by this incredible feat - he hadn't even considered trying this himself! It seemed, though, that she had reached the end of her strength. When she saw that the area was clear, she relaxed somewhat. The aliens chose that moment to increase their downward thrust, and the giant ship slammed to Earth, smashing Kali underneath like the giant golfer's foot smashing a bug!

The earth trembled like a force 4 earthquake, and Shiva could hear people screaming and windows shattering. He hoped that none of the nearby buildings would collapse, but the civilian emergency responders were going to have to earn their pay without his help right now. Kali might be dead! He flew at the hull of the ship at terrible velocity, planning (if he had a plan) to tear it to shreds. So fantastic was his speed that when he bounced from the hull, the ship slid sideways a few feet, tearing a giant trough in the ground and producing more shock waves. Shiva was stunned unconscious as he was thrown up and away, and when he finally recovered, he found himself laying on the bottom of the harbor.

The Wisdom of Brahman had been at work while he was senseless, and he realized that being smashed into the ground couldn't hurt her, regardless of what was doing the smashing. She couldn't be flattened against even the hardest bedrock, the rock would shatter or compress or flow and she would be forced into the opening that was create, like a golf ball would be forced into the softer soil of the putting green if the giant golfer had stepped on it. She had probably been stunned, as he had been, but she likely had already dug her way free and was engaging the saucer at this very instant. He flashed skywards, such was the speed of his going, the he left behind a Shiva-sized tube of vacuum extending from the harbor bottom to the surface. He was back in Central Park before the waters could fill that tube.

He hadn't been gone long, he estimated. Kali was pounding on the saucer with little effect - no, as he got closer, he realized she was pounding on an invisible barrier about a hand's span above the hull of the saucer - a nigh-indestructible force field! She was trying to find out just how 'nigh' it was… He angled his flight to join her.

Abruptly he was engulfed in something… it was pitch black, and fluid, like pudding or gel - or maybe thick tar. It impeded his movements and slowed him down, but it was too viscous for him to shatter it, and he couldn't grab it to tear it, it just oozed out of his grip. He drove downwards with all his power, hoping to splatter it against the ground below, and he felt the results as he slammed into the force field that was holding this goo around him. Good, here was something he _could_ attack. He set to work finding out just how indestructible this field was.

And had no luck at all. The gel interfered and slowed his every punch and kick to the point of being ineffective, and he couldn't grab the force field and tear it. He flailed about uselessly for almost a minute (a really long time to someone with the Speed of Garuda) and then settled down to think. With the Strength of Siva and the Speed of Garuda neutralized, he was going to have to rely on one of his most underutilized powers, the Wisdom of Brahman, to escape this trap.

Kali figured the best way to help the people in the park was to keep the giant saucer from landing, so she rocketed up under it, slowed, put her shoulder to it, and lifted… or tried to lift. It continued downwards, not even slowing. She realized she wasn't even touching the hull - though it didn't matter, the force field she was pushing against was definitely solid. She rolled around until the field was resting on her back, and then lifted again. The strain was incredible, so she pushed her powers ever harder, and she saw that she was having some effect. The aliens had been using their intertialess lifters to slow the ship's descent - now they shut the engines off entirely, and Kali was actually carrying the entire weight of the ship on her shoulders!

It was now just a matter of will - could she lift this tremendous weight? The calculating portion of her mind told her 'no' which just made her even more stubborn. She watched the ground and as she strained, she realized that she was succeeding! Their descent was slowing. This encouraged her, and she strained ever harder - and she was encouraged even more as the ground below her started to slowly recede. She had done it, she was lifting this massive saucer! Straining her powers to the max, and then reaching deeper, drawing on a supply of will power and mental strength she had never before suspected existed. And always, the calculating portion of her mind was warning her that something was wrong. She was Kali, World's Most Majestic Woman - but even her powers had limits. Limits she'd fully tested before - how could she suddenly be this much more powerful?

Shiva was finished evacuating the landing zone, finally, and she relaxed just the smallest bit. He would be here to help her soon, and together they would toss this alien back where it came from. Inside, however, the aliens changed tactics. They restarted the drive motor at high power, this time pushing towards the Earth - and Kali, caught off guard, was driven into the ground with the equivalent of a small planet smashing down on her. She was knocked into unconsciousness when she was instantly driven through 40 feet of rock and soil, smashing into the underlying bedrock, with the saucer's mass crushing down on her.

And yet, as Shiva had surmised, her invulnerability was proof against even this abuse. Her magical recuperative ability helped her regain consciousness in seconds. She almost panicked - she'd never before realized she had a touch of claustrophobia. But what human before her had ever had a better reason for claustrophobia? Probably none, she reassured herself.

The bedrock around her had actually melted due to the energy of her impact, then cooled off again quickly, and she was lying in a skin-tight form-fitted abscess in the bedrock. She strained, and brought her arms down to her waist, shattering the stone around her. Then, forcing her upper arms back up above her head, she brought them together into a point. She used her lower arms to drive handgrips into the cooled magma around her, and twisted, to start her body spinning, and then, combining her powers of strength, speed and flight, she drove forward, spinning ever faster, like an invulnerable human drill bit. A minute later, she judged she had gone far enough, and she angled upwards, and then she was FREE!

She roared into the air, and arced back around, and slammed into the saucer - and bounced off of the nigh-impregnable force field. As she backed away to get a running start, she noticed that a portion of the hull had changed color - and then a large black bubble shot from the that hull section and engulfed her.

"Hey! Not FAIR!" she screamed, and then quickly closed her mouth as the black goo around her started to creep inside. 'They can't shoot things without a gun!'

She struggled, to no avail. The glop stuck to her, and hampered her every motion. She couldn't smash it, or tear it, or even get away from it. She couldn't see or hear anything. Her claustrophobia started to come back, and now she could barely think, such was her growing panic.

Still, somewhere in her mind was the calculating part. There was one thing she hadn't tried yet - something she'd never dared try before, though she'd considered it many times.

"Rakasha!" Am incredibly powerful magical flame roared up from the ground below. The force field surrounding the goo vanished instantly, the advanced technology that created it overwhelmed by the powerful, primitive magic in the flame. The goo burned instantly - and then Kali was wreathed in oily black smoke, and then she was gone, replaced by Lily Lovelace.

Who realized she was several hundred feet in the air, and falling! "Rakasha!" and the process repeated. replacing Lily with Kali - a Kali with newfound knowledge. She halted her fall and looked at the saucer - and the hull section closest to her was changing color. She moved instantly, and when she stopped she watched a black globe shoot out of the surface, almost faster than she could see, right through the place she'd just been. It vanished spontaneously, and then another section of hull began changing color.

"Fool me once, shame on you…" she thought smugly to herself.

Now that she knew the warning signs, she could easily avoid this weapon. She decided she was going to break through the force field, so she moved in close and started pounding. She had to dodge several times, but she always came back to that some spot, and continued pounding. It might have been her imagination, but she thought she could feel that spot becoming softer…

She saw the hull change color again, but this time, not under her. She turned to warn her partner but it was too late, he was now caught in one of the gooey globes!

Kali thought that perhaps, working together, she and Shiva would be able to smash the globe and defeat the goo, but she would need to communicate with him to coordinate their efforts. It would be easier to burn him out of this globe, and then show him how to avoid this trap. She positioned herself above the globe encasing Shiva and said her magic word:

"Rakasha" Once again, the magic fire blasted up from the earth, vaporizing the globe and the goo inside, and turning Kali back to Lily. The aliens inside were now ready for this trick, and a tractor beam snatched Lily from the air and a much smaller vessel rocketed skyward. abandoning the giant saucer and dragging Lily after it. The speed of their flight was so great that Lily blacked out almost instantly, and the tractor beam dragged her aboard.

Shiva found himself suddenly free of the goo. He turned his attention back to the saucer, and saw it shrinking, like a beach ball with a hole in it. The force field was gone, and a quick examination did find the hole - the saucer was indeed a giant balloon, supported by the force field, hiding something smaller inside - and whatever it was, was gone now. There was a mist trail through the air, heading straight up - a phenomenon that Shiva recognized. When he moved at hyper velocity, he carved a hold through the air, and when the air behind him crashed together to fill that hole, mist was formed. Of course, he wasn't thinking about that, he was rocketing skyward at his highest hyper velocity, leaving a much smaller parallel mist trail behind him. In femptoseconds, he had reached the edge of space, 30 miles up, and was forced to admit that he had lost the trail. Why couldn't he have received the super acute vision of Garuda along with Speed?

It must have been a trap all along - a trap to capture at least one of the two World's Most Magnificent Heroes. And it had succeeded… Shiva wanted to scream, or break something, or tear wildly across the world, searching for his mate - but the Wisdom of Brahman once again kicked in, and he realized he needed to be looking for more information and help - and he had a pretty good idea who might be able to help him…

For several years, Shiva had been aware of the presence of another powerful being on Earth, with powers approximating his own or Kali's, but who chose to keep his* own presence a secret. This being routinely protected the entire planet unlike Shiva and Kali, who mostly protected North America and to a lesser extent, the Western hemisphere. Not that they hadn't battled global enemies when the occasion called for it, but they usually had their hands full closer to home. Still, this unknown had accomplished many heroic tasks in the Western hemisphere, always in secret, and Shiva and Kali were often given credit for these good works.

*Remember, in 1961, a person of unknown name and gender was referred to as 'he'. Shiva had no ideas, or preconceptions, concerning the gender of this unknown.

Shiva wanted to find this mysterious protector and ask for assistance. He tried to put the Wisdom of Brahman to work, making deductions from the various clues he'd picked up over his 7 year career as Shiva - but an idea popped into his mind which might save him hours - 'Shazam!'

His old school was still there, looking much the worse for wear. Shiva and Kali received a lot of reward money, and donated it to charity - Shiva made a mental note to make sure this place was the beneficiary of his next donation! He wondered why he'd never been back here since he graduated… it was almost as if there was something in his mind that steered his thoughts away from this place. Well; he would consider it later, right now he had business.

He used the Speed of Garuda to move unnoticed through the halls, glad that it wasn't between classes right now. The basement door was locked, but the lock didn't slow him down - he would replace it as soon as his current business was wrapped up. He landed near the fateful brick wall he remembered so well from that day 7 years ago, and gently explored the wall with his fingertips. Last time, he hadn't been paying attention, but this time, he realized that 'this' particular piece of brick - around eye-high to his teenage alter-ego at the time - was a little wobbly. He pressed a little harder and there came a curious sensation he remembered distinctly - he was falling, and sliding down a chute of some kind, even though he wasn't moving.

It suddenly became dark, and then light again, and he was standing on a subway platform. There was a black train waiting for him, covered in silver symbols - 5 pointed stars, stylized sunbursts, crescent moons and other mystical symbols. The door slid aside and Shiva entered. The train made a slight whoosh, but there was no feeling of motion, though through the window, Shiva could see a smooth wall sliding past them at high velocity - but before he could estimate the train's speed, it was already slowing to a halt. Through the entrance hall with the statues of the 7 Deadly Enemies of Man, and into Shazam's sanctum. He hadn't been here since 1953, but nothing had changed during that interval. Except he, himself.

A large cavern, seemingly natural. Across the room, a throne made of white stone, with an unlit brazier and torch next to it. With confidence he hadn't had the first time he was here, he crossed the room and picked up the torch. It was a magical torch, and it flared into flame automatically. He touched it to the brazier, and suddenly there was flame - even though there was no fuel to burn! Out of nowhere, an ethereal figure appeared, sitting in the throne: a large man a long white hair and beard appeared. Shiva recognized his mentor.

"Shiva, my son! It is wonderful to see you." He seemed about to say more, but Shiva interrupted.

"My wife has been kidnapped by aliens. I seek assistance. Do you know of a mighty hero who protects the world, but remains hidden?"

"Yes, there is another who wields the Power of Shazam in the cause of right. His name is Master Man. I created him as what they call these days a 'fail safe'." He was about to go on, but Shiva interrupted.

"Can you tell me the story some other time? I need his help right now!"

Shazam sighed. "Yes, my most impatient son. Speak my name!"

"Shazam!" The magic lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and Shiva was gone…

A San Francisco Threat!

It was indeed art that makes life for the thousands of art patrons visiting the 6th annual Haight Ashbury Art Festival in Golden Gate Park in 1960. the festival goers were enjoying the beauty of San Francisco's weather, the charm and uniqueness of nearby neighborhood, The Haight, and the quality of the arts and crafts presented by the over 400 exhibitors.. It was a combination of Coney Island, a family picnic, carnival funhouse, art museum, hobby house, 5 & 10 cent store jewelry department, band festival and auction, all shaken together. Add The Haight's growing reputation as the center of the counterculture in American society, and the Festival was a must-see destination for tourists and locals alike. You have to see it to understand it, the full atmosphere is almost beyond description.

Wandering through the Festival, a visitor could see open air ballet, fashion shows, folk singers, sidewalk cafes, temporary open air shops and boutiques, free concerts, dancing, and carnival games, without seeing half of what was available. Or, the visitor could take a seat at one of the cafes and just watch people go by. One of the most striking things you would have noticed is how few unhappy faces there were. This was truly a Festival enjoyed by everyone!

Alex Silverstone was one of the people who was really enjoying the festival. The Silverstone Art Gallery 'Annex', one of the hundreds of booths set up inside Kezar Stadium, was doing a brisk business, and inventory was just about all sold. There was another load in the back of her truck, a beat-up 53 Studebaker 3R5 pickup which she had painted in the style that would soon be called 'psychedelic'.

"Tammi, I need you to watch the booth until I get the rest of the stuff from the truck" she told her friend Tammi Page.

Tammi was a stunningly beautiful girl, 24, though she looked way younger, perhaps 5'2", and today she was dressed like a pixie, all in sparkling silver: leotard and tights, with a tiny skirt, ballet slippers, long brunet hair in braids, with almost transparent silver wings and a tiara to top it off. You could easily imagine her leaping into the air and flying away… She was apparently Alex's favorite model - many of the pictures and sculptures she'd sold today were clearly representations of Tammi. Tammi had a brilliant smile, and people who hung with her often said she was so pretty they heard very faint music in her presence. But she wasn't smiling now; instead, she was pouting.

"It's time for Bryce to do a set. I promised him I'd be there - and you promised me I could go as soon as we sold out!" She looked like she was about to stomp her foot. Bryce was their next door neighbor, he sang and played guitar, and he and several of his friends and fellow musicians had set up a booth as a sort of open-air coffee house - and they were taking turns playing.

"I happen to know Bryce is scheduled for another set at 5. You can go to that one. And I haven't 'sold out' yet." Tammi was about to continue the argument, so Alex put a little snap into her voice. "Watch the booth!" Tammi sighed, massively, letting the whole world know just how put-upon she was, but she didn't say anything else.

Alex hurried to the truck, and quickly loaded 2 trunks onto her pushcart. They looked heavy, but Alex handled them easily. She was around 5' 10" tall, with short-cropped red hair, and striking looks, though she was more often described as 'handsome' than 'pretty' She quickly pushed the cart back to the Annex. And found Tammi in an argument with an older man who was standing next to a push cart filled with books.

A quick glance showed Alex that there were at least 6 different titles, all mentioning aliens and invasions, and they all bore the logo of the same vanity publisher. An author named Eric Damien had spent a lot of money self-publishing his books, apparently attempting to warn humanity about an impending alien invasion. Alex guessed that this man was Damien himself.

"You can't stand outside our booth and peddle your stupid books!" Tammi was furious, her pale skin now flushed pink. "You are scaring our customers away!"

Alex could see why. The old man had long greasy black hair, tied back in a ponytail (which emphasized his receding hairline) and sported a bushy Garibaldi-style full beard. His clothes were old, many times mended, not too neatly, and mismatched, as if he had rescued them from someone's trash. His voice was a high tenor, and when he was excited, he sometimes squeaked. And he was squeaking now. And he didn't smell too clean.

"You must be one of the aliens, determined to stop me from revealing the truth! But I know everything about your plans - it's all in my books! You can't stop me!" He was shouting, and people nearby were moving away. Alex needed to stop this confrontation, now.

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Damien?" she asked him sweetly, interrupting his tirade. She must have guessed right about his name.

"Our country is being invaded by aliens, even as we speak! I must warn everyone, you must all listen to me and prepare!" He shouted at the top of his voice. "Even now, they have begun their attack!"

At that very instant, Alex could hear people start screaming about something in the sky. She looked upwards, and there was something hovering over the stadium - a flying saucer! A hatch was opening in the bottom of the saucer, and things were falling out.

"You SEE!" screamed Damien. "All you fools ignored me, and now you will pay for your stupidity!"

"Tammi, warn everyone to leave the stadium. Make sure they know that you and I are here, and we'll handle the saucer!" Alex snapped out a command. Instantly, a very loud voice was announcing:

"Attention! This is Miss Music! This is NOT a part of the Festival. Please quickly but safely leave the stadium. Palette and I will deal with the saucer. Please be courteous to those around you and assist anyone who may need it."

The voice continued to repeat the message, and suddenly, everyone in the stadium was rushing towards the exits.

The theme from The Twilight Zone was playing softly as Alex focused her eyes on the falling objects and exerted her powers, and suddenly she seemed to be only a few feet away from them. They seemed to be flares, and as they fell swiftly, straight down, the saucer followed more slowly. It seemed as if the aliens were giving the people below time to move away from the landing zone. The saucer had been hovering; as soon as it started to drop, the orderly exodus from the stadium became a mad rush, as terrified festival-goers suddenly panicked, even after the reassurance from the city's greatest heroines, and fought to escape through the stadium exits, screaming and struggling.

The eerie background music changed to the opening theme from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still". Alex turned to her partner and suggested "I think we ought to get into costume"

Alex and Tammi ducked behind a partition in the booth and for just a few seconds, the background music played a few bars of 'The Stripper' while the two women quickly changed into their heroic costumes. Then, Alex and Tammi were gone, and Palette and Miss Music were on the case! Damien had gotten an eyeful, and for a few seconds, he even stopped ranting about the aliens. The three watched the ship land, accompanied by Also Sprach Zarathustra, with the climax timed to the landing of the ship.

During the whole time, Damien was muttering. "Everything I wrote is true! Why, even their ship is exactly as I depicted it in my books! And now, the are coming for me, so I can't reveal their invasion plans to the world." When the ship landed, he turned to Miss Music and pleaded "Everything is in my books! They may take me, but I've put all their plans in my books! Don't let them take over the world!"

The ship was about 40 feet from them, and a ramp extended outwards. 3 alien beings marched down the ramp, and the background music changed to The Ride of the Valkyries.

"Would you stop that?!?!" Palette snapped at her partner, and for the moment the background music stopped. In silence, the two groups examined each other.

The aliens were humanoid, with features similar to humans, except they were very short - none was quite as tall as Miss Music, they were gray, and they were very skinny. And their heads were much bigger in proportion than human heads. And they all carried pistols. Very BIG pistols.

"They must be men - the smaller the guy, the bigger the gun he carries!" Palette chortled at her own joke, Miss Music wasn't amused.

"Crap! 'Space Monsters with Ray Guns!' We haven't got a chance!"

"I'll bet they're saying 'Crap, it's Palette and Miss Music. We haven't got a chance!'"

"C'mon, Alex, didn't you see that movie? The two beautiful girl extras get killed and dissected by the aliens in the opening scene!" Tammi was cracking wise to try to conceal her fear - but it wasn't working. "And why do you get to be first? M comes before P!"

"Look, Tam, they've got eyes and ears, so our powers will work against them, just fine. And we're not the extras - we're the stars!" Palette assured her partner, wishing she felt as confident as she was trying to sound. How could her power of casting illusions on solid surfaces help fight aliens? She knew a few tricks, hopefully they would pay off now! "Besides, they haven't made any hostile moves yet - maybe they're friendly."

"They're here to kill me!" Damien insisted, his shrill voice cracking with fear. "They know I know all their invasion plans and they have to stop me from revealing them to the world!"

So far, neither side had moved. Then, before the humans could dodge, all 3 aliens pointed their pistols and fired. Pale gray beams reached out from the guns, and when they touched the human figures, they vanished instantly.

"I guess they are hostile!" Miss Music used her power to project the whisper directly into Palette's ear, sure that no one could overhear. The three humans had not ever been standing directly in front of the aliens; Palette had projected an image of them onto one of the walls of the Silverstone booth. Palette nodded and held up a single finger, which the two had defined as the signal for a particular attack.

The aliens appeared to be startled; somehow they realized that they hadn't actually disintegrated the three humans. Suddenly, the stadium was filled with the sound of the 1812 Overture, not from the start, just the few seconds before the cannon first fired, accompanied by some words… very softly,

'this is the breakfast food that's shot from guns'

BOOM!

Miss Music exerted her powers to the utmost, strengthened by fear and adrenalin to a degree she had never before attained, to amplify the sound of the cannon shot as much as she possibly could, and the epicenter of the incredibly loud explosion was in the middle of the small triangle formed by the three aliens.

KABOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miss Music had never put quite so much power into her projected sounds before, and even she was stunned by the results. The aliens were knocked through the air, as if there had been a real explosion. One staggered backwards and slammed into the side of the saucer, and slid to the ground, stunned. Another was knocked backwards and tripped, and fell hard, and rolled around on the ground, dropping his over-sized pistol as he clapped his hands to his ears - much too late to prevent damage! The third managed to roll into the door of the ship, and somehow retained his pistol. He fired wildly, not a short burst like before, but he squeezed and held the trigger and swept the gray beam across everything he could see.

Palette was still using her illusion powers to hide the trio, but the randomly swinging beam was moving too fast to escape, and it touched both Damien and Miss Music, and they vanished instantly. Palette's powers weren't much good for attacking, but rage consumed her and she charged the saucer, running as hard as she could and screaming bloody murder. The door to the saucer closed just before she reached it, and she couldn't stop - or maybe didn't even want to. She crashed with a sickening thud and slid down the side of the spaceship, unconscious. The saucer rose into the air, its mission accomplished, leaving behind two wounded aliens and a devastated heroine.

The Hall of the Mountain King

Shiva vanished from Shazam's Sanctum and re-appeared… where, exactly?

The first thing he noticed was a tremendous battle going on. There were literally hundreds of human-sized robots in a large group, like a swarm of bees, virtually crushing those in front of them in an attempt to reach the combat at the center of the mass. From the center, Shiva could see flashing rays, flames and smoke, and pieces of robots flying through the air, accompanied by explosions, shrieking, tearing noises, and other incredibly loud, chaotic sounds, so incredibly loud that it hurt his invulnerable ears. He noticed that the robots nearest the center were actually climbing over piles of dismembered robot bodies, and a swarm of flying robots were circling, blasting rays, dropping bombs, and firing sonic attacks at whatever was at the center of the crater of destroyed robots. He had a good idea that's where he would find Master Man!

At high speed he flew to the center, smashing a few robots himself, and as he got closer, the Wonder of the World flew up out of the deep crater of destroyed robots to attack the fliers. As he flew, he was battered by all manner of beams - lasers and heat rays, tractor beams and things Shiva had no name for, and projectiles exploded as they struck him, and Shiva could hear sonic weapons being fired as well. Several fliers attacked him physically, some with fists and kicks, others with talons. How could any single being survive such a deadly battery of destruction as was being rained on Master Man? And yet, battle robots were being torn to shreds, some at the hands of Master Man and some by the very weapons of their fellows. But even as Shiva watched, he could see that Master Man's movements were slowing, and the battering was starting to take a toll.

Shiva tore apart several of the flying robots to reach the side of the struggling hero. He was struck by how small this man was, and how skinny - barely bigger than Martin himself had been, when he received his powers 7 years ago. Much closer to the size of Captain Marvel Jr. than Captain Marvel…

He burst into Master Man's range of vision, and was stunned when the embattled Wonder of the World wasn't pleased to see him.

"Shiva! Who invited you?" MM shifted his body angle slightly, and a laser reflected off his chest and blasted one of the robotic flock, causing it to explode, which knocked 3 other fliers from the air.

"Shazam sent me. He thought you might help me…" a very large projectile exploded against Shiva's chest, which knocked him into a sonic beam, and the combination momentarily stunned him - and he fell towards the swarming robots on the ground.

Master Man slapped aside the arm of the nearest robot, and the heat ray it fired melted a sonic projector on its fellow, unbalancing it so that it wobbled into the path of the next projectile flying towards Shiva. MM flashed downwards and caught Shiva by an arm, and whirled him around at high speed, smashing the nearby robots with his invulnerable body.

"In case it escaped your notice" Master Man started sarcastically "I'm sort of busy right now - and I don't have time to be continually rescuing some novice!" He released Shiva, and as the 4-armed hero flew through the air, at super speed, smashing battle robots as he tumbled through the air. MM yelled after him. "Watch and learn, youngster!" He turned back to the fight.

Shiva quickly recovered, and he hovered as he decided what to do. Master Man was clearly on the point of exhaustion, but Shiva had never been treated so rudely before except by villains, and he decided he'd let the other stew in his own juices for a while, and then come to the rescue.

To his surprise, he actually did learn something. The total power of all the robots clearly greatly surpassed that of Master Man, and yet, even as close to exhaustion as the other hero seemed, he was destroying hundreds of the robotic war machines. He rarely exerted his powers directly, only tearing the robots apart by hand and foot when they managed to close with him. Instead, he used their own powers against them - much as Shiva had already observed. He would draw the fire of several robots encircling him, and then flash away at super speed, and they would blast each other. He often grabbed one robot and used it as a shield from the attacks of its fellows, destroying that robot in the process. Some attacks, such as lasers and other light-speed beams, rays and bolts, he couldn't dodge - so he contorted his body so they bounced off and hit other robots. He would let a force beam push him towards a group of his foes, adding his own power to the push, or add his speed to the pull of a tractor beam, smashing into a group of robots and scattering them with explosive force.

Still, no being, even with invulnerability granted by the Power of Shazam, could exist in the middle of that incredible battle and not be hurt. Even the glancing blows delivered a payload of agony, and as he tired and slowed, more and more often he was unable to avoid direct hits. One laser, one heat ray, one projectile, he barely noticed. A dozen, he could shrug off like rain. But literally hundreds and hundreds of hits were taking their toll His costume was torn and tattered and there were bruises on his exposed skin - and he was moving like he had at least one broken rib…

As far as Shiva could see, there were still as many active robots as there had been when he arrived - and the number of disabled robots was probably 3 or 4 times more than that. Where were they coming from? He looked around, really looked, for the first time since he'd arrived, and was stunned at what he saw.

He seemed to be on a plain that extended into gloominess in every direction around him, but he was sure he could see for at least a mile in any direction, including straight up, but he didn't think he was outside. The plain itself was polished granite, as if carved from living rock and polished to the smoothness of a mirror. The plain was covered with objects, statues, vehicles, animals, seemingly at random and then suddenly the Wisdom of Brahman found an analogy - he was in an immense museum!

Everywhere he looked there were hundreds of 'exhibits' apparently grouped in loose collections. Far to his left, he could see a collection of ocean-going ships, including one he recognized as the Lusitania, plus sailing ships of several vintages, and in the area around him, there were statues and models of giant animals - at least, he thought they were models. The T-Rex looked so real that Shiva was almost preparing for a battle - but it wasn't moving. There were other dinosaurs around, including several he didn't recognize, shading into giant mammals (he recognized a woolly mammoth and a giant sloth) shading into giant water-going creatures (a whale, a whale shark, and over there, that had to be Nessie!). Far to his right, he saw a whole fleet of airplanes, biplanes, a Ford Tri-Motor, a Flying Fortress, and many others, mostly only one of each model. As far as he could see, in every direction, there was stuff!

It was what was nearby that was the most stunning, however. On a dais was a giant metal ring, at least 2 stories tall. The open area in the center of the ring glowed a silvery blue, and was covered with ripples. And out of the ring, stepping through the glittering blue glow in a steady stream, poured more battle robots!

Well, Mr. Snooty Master Man was going to get some help, whether he wanted it or not. Shiva launched himself at the ring, diving down on top of it, and smashing it into many pieces. The blue glow vanished. Immediately, the last bunch of battle robots which had just appeared out of the ring turned and began attacking Shiva.

Master Man had seen the destruction of the ring and he was enraged! "That was the only one of its kind on the entire planet!" he screamed.

He grabbed two robots, one with either hand, and started whirling around at super speed, and then released the one at a time, and the flew through the air and shattered on Shiva's broad, invulnerable chest.

"I figured the only Master Man on Earth was more valuable than whatever that was" Shiva responded angrily. He extended all 4 arms, and flashed into super speed, and wove through the fliers, catching one, then another, until he was pushing several of them in front of him, pinned against him by his speed. He changed his direction slightly and yelled "Heads up!"

Master Man barely had time to brace himself before a freight train of robots smashed into his chest at high speed. But his invulnerability was up to the task, and the robots caught between the two titans were literally vaporized by the terrific heat of compression. Even with a second to brace himself, Master Man was knocked backwards, and he destroyed several more robots as he slammed into the ones behind him. He grabbed the nearest robot by a leg and slashed forward, swinging it like an axe at Shiva, who slammed to the floor, destroying ever more robots with his impact. Of course, the hapless robot that Master Man chose to use as an axe was shattered into molecular vapor on impact.

Shiva grabbed several robots and squished them with all 4 arms, using his super strength to compress them, and adding several more to the ultra dense cannonball he was creating. Finally he threw it with all his strength at Master Man, and it totally destroyed the several battle robots who were unfortunate enough to get in the way. The ball hit Master Man in the stomach, and he once again flew backwards, destroying more robots. He reached out and grabbed a robot, and threw it as hard as he could, and Shiva dodged - and then had to dodge again and yet again, and then he failed to dodge the next robot, which shattered against him.

Shiva turned around to look for more ammunition, and was stunned to realize that there weren't any more battle robots left intact. Master Man was looking for more weapons, as well, and he realized the same thing. The two heroes turned to each other, seemingly ready to continue their battle hand-to-hand - and then burst out laughing!

Master Man laughed heartily for a second or two, and then the heat of battle and his adrenaline deserted him, and his laugh turned to a painful cough, and he slumped to the ground. Shiva immediately stopped laughing, and he tried to rush towards his erstwhile foe and ally, but as he stepped forward, he realized his ankle was severely damaged, and he screamed in agony as he collapsed to the floor. In the heat of his anger, he hadn't realized the damage the robots' weapons had been doing to him, but now he felt every ray and shell, beam, and bolt. Shiva had felt pain before, but never bruises or broken bones. He screamed again when he tried to get back to his feet, then summoned the courage of Svargapati, and crawled over to the unmoving form of Master Man.

He was relieved to realize that the Wonder of the World was still breathing, and Master Man awakened as Shiva tried to draw him into a sitting position. The slight hero smiled wanly,

"Not bad for a… novice…"

Shiva had reached the end of his resources. He tried to smile back, ignoring the pain for the moment.

"You did pretty well.. too… runt…"

His body twitched as tortured muscles spasmed, and he twisted from pain, and then passed out, his back supported against the back of the now-unconscious Master Man.

Some time later, he was awakened by the weak voice of Master Man, calling to him.

"Shiva! Wake up!" Actually it wasn't the almost inaudible voice that woke him, it was the painful coughing spasm that followed. There wasn't anything he could do to help, though.

"I'm here…" he barely whispered.

Master Man pulled all his courage and remaining willpower together and spoke. "There's a trick… I saw… Marvels use. May work for… you." He gasped as a new spasm struck him, and then continued. "Say your word…"

Without knowing why, Shiva complied. It was all he could do to barely whisper

"bvssgg"

but it is a magic word, and just whispering it was enough to trigger the transformation.

A mist of gently glowing blue raindrops rose from the floor and washed over Shiva, and when the mist cleared, there sat Martin Martine, as healthy as he had ever been.

"That's some trick!" he started to thank the other hero, but Master Man wasn't finished.

"Say it… again!"

"Hey, I'm healthy now. I'll find some way to help you as Martin."

"Say your word!" Master Man commanded, and this time his anger at Martin for not doing as he was told added strength to the command. Reasoning that he could always change back again, Martin once again said the word:

"BVSSGG"

this time with much more strength - and not a little fear that he would be returning to the agony he had just escaped.

Once again the gently glowing blue mist rained from the ground, and Martin was transformed back to Shiva - and he was no longer injured! He turned to Master Man.

"Why don't you say your word?" he demanded. "Shazam told me he gave you your powers."

"Not… like you…" the wounded hero gasped. "No… magic word… maybe Shazam… can help if… I live long…enough."

Shiva was thinking fast, pushing the Wisdom of Brahman to its limits. The magic in the up falling blue rain was a gift from Shazam, and it had cured him - and Master Man also got his powers from Shazam. Maybe the blue rain could help Master Man, too? He hovered over the sorely wounded hero, making sure that if this didn't work, Martin would miss him when he fell from the air, and once again spoke his word.

"BVSSGG"

and once again the blue mist rained upwards from the ground, this time washing over Master Man. And, as Shiva had hoped, magically curing him!

Relieved to have escaped the terrible pain, the two mighty heroes stood face to face - and Master Man stuck out his hand. "Thanks for the help in vanquishing those aliens. I was wrong about you! You said you needed help too - what can I do for you?"

After shaking hands, Shiva told him the whole story about the alien attack on New York, and the capture of Kali.

A Cool Night in Pittsburgh

A church bell tolled midnight as a sleek open-topped ebon-colored car purred its way up 40th street and across the Allegheny River out of Pittsburgh. Once across the river, the car turned right on to the Blue Belt and sped away, quickly covering the distance to the small town of Millvale. As the name implied, the suburban town was home to a number of steel mills. Towering smokestacks belched forth clouds of black smoke and gouts of sparks that glittered along with the stars in the cloudless sky. The sports car wound its way between massive buildings where the night shifts continued to melt ore and produce the steel that was the lifeblood of the Pittsburgh of 1960. Veering down a road running alongside the river, his destination soon came into view. It stood out very clearly in the darkness, the neon paddlewheel visible from three blocks away. The Steamboat Club stood at the far end of a packed parking lot, He pulled in and drove up to the front door, exiting the car and leaving the engine running.

Inside the club, Monique Montague stood at the hostess desk, ready to greet any new arrivals. She saw the car pull up through the glass doors, and motioned one of the parking attendants to go and park the car. As the young man started out the door, the driver of the car held up one hand and shook his head. "Don't worry about it, son. I don't plan to stay long."

As he stepped inside, Monique was surprised, and pleased, by his appearance. He was a Negro, of above average height, standing perhaps an inch over six feet, and his body was slim, yet obviously athletic. He wore a dark gray overcoat over a burnt-orange suit, a matching tie draped down the front of his pewter-colored shirt. A dark, wide-brimmed hat with a similarly rust-colored band wasn't enough to hide the most unusual part of his wardrobe, however: the dark gray domino mask on his face.

Before she could react to his entry, Gregor and Stan stepped in front of the man. "Dunno what kind of funny business you're trying to pull here, mister, but you ain't going inside," said Stan.

"He's right. We don't allow no wannabe heroes in here." Gregor, a dark-haired, brooding giant of a man stood head and shoulders above the dark-skinned masked man. He reached to grab the shorter man's arm to escort him out, only to have his arm knocked to the side by a sweeping forearm block.

"Oh, so we got us a wise guy, eh?" said Stan, stepping up to flank the masked stranger. His move was cut short by a side kick to the stomach. He fell back into a sitting position on the floor.

Gregor took a half-step back, crouching down into a fighting stance. "Okay, little man. Let's see what you've got."

The masked man stepped forward and to his right, then quickly stepped back and came forward again, this time to the left. The feint caught the big Russian off-guard, and the masked man moved in under his guard, striking the bigger man with a karate chop to the ribs followed by an extended-knuckle punch to Gregor's thigh. Neither blow was hard enough to do any real harm, but the big man reached for his leg as the muscles spasmed. Doing so, he brought his head down lower. A fist smashed upward into his jaw, snapping his head back. This was followed by a knee driving up into his groin, then that same knee smashed into Gregor's face. He dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Monique stepped around her desk. "Well, now that you've gotten your exercise, sir, allow me to welcome you to the Steamboat Club. I hope there is no confusion, sir, but the Mardi Gras Masked Ball was last week. But I'll be happy to take your mask if you wish to enjoy the evening's entertainment."

"The mask stays," said the man, speaking in a rich-timbered baritone that filled the room without seeming loud.

"I see," said Monique, snapping her fingers and waving a pair of red-jacketed bus boys to move the unconscious bouncers out of the lobby. "I'm afraid management has a rather strict policy regarding our customers: we prefer to see their faces."

"Does that include the ones here for the gambling?" asks the masked man, looking her up and down. He smiled, appreciative of the expanses of coffee-toned skin revealed by her long, tight-fitting gown.

She moved closer, laying a hand on his arm and allowing a significant portion of her body to rub up against his. "You obviously have us confused with some of the, mmm, less sophisticated establishments along the river. Perhaps, if you'd like, I can show you around the Steamboat, and let you get," she paused a second, her eyes cast downward. "Better acquainted?"

"Tempting as your offer sounds, Miss-"

"Monique. And your name?"

"You can call me Oxide. And I'm afraid I'm here strictly for business." He reached inside his trench coat and pulled out a five by seven photograph. "Has he been in tonight?"

Monique looked at the picture and let out a light, tinkling laugh. "Him? Oh forget it, baby, he's much too pale to make it in the door here."

"Sure he is," said Oxide, putting the photo away and slipping a hand around her waist. "Like that would matter. Lou Misenti has his hands into every gambling operation in the Three Rivers region. If he's not coming in here to check things personally, I want to know who is."

Monique pulled closer, feeling the heat of his body against her own. She looked up into his hazel eyes. "I know everyone who comes in here, but information has its price." She slipped her arms up under his, placing her hands on his shoulders and drawing him down to her. Her voice was a whisper in his ear. "So, what are you offering?"

His fingers played along the edges of her dress, where it fell to her waist in the back. "I've got plenty to offer, darlin', but not tonight." He eased himself out of her caress and moved gracefully toward the door. "Some other time, perhaps."

Monique ran her hands down the slides of her dress, smoothing it out. "Come back some night without the mask and the guns, and I'll show you the best the Steamboat has to offer."

He raised a fingertip to the brim of his hat. "Oh, I'm sure I've seen the best already," he said as he slipped out the door. 'Too bad the police can't do a frisking like that', he thought, somewhat bemused.

He vaulted into the car, slipping down into the seat of the modified Jaguar XKD racer. As he drove off, he toggled a switch on the radio under the center panel.

"You there, Dennis?" he asked.

A voice came back over the radio. "Colt? I was starting to wonder if you were going to make it out of there in one piece."

"The two bouncers went down like bowling pins. I thought the Russian goon was supposed to be tough?"

"That's what they told me. I don't get out much these days." his partner responded bitterly. He didn't often let his confinement to a wheelchair affect him. He quickly continued, before Colt had a chance to become uncomfortable. "Any luck?"

"Don't doubt I could've gotten lucky with the hostess. She lied about Misenti, but she might still give me a lead. That is, if Bruno's gadget works."

"Bruno's gadgets always work, Colt." Several miles away, in his estate in the hills of Duquesne Heights, Dennis David smiled. With the prices he paid, he thought, Bruno's gadgets had better work. "You think she knows anything?"

"If she knows half of what she claims, she knows who's making the pick-ups for Misente, and probably how much they are. But I don't know what that's got to do with this operation you heard about for tonight." Oxide flipped another switch, and a smaller radio came to life. The sound of a phone dialing came out of the speaker. Oxide started counting the pulses.

"Lou, it's Monique. Someone just came around looking for you."

"It's working, Dennis." "It" was a button-sized microphone and transmitter that he'd slipped into her dress.

"You'll take care of it? All right then." He heard Monique hang up the phone, then she let out a sigh. "Too bad, he might have been fun." Colt made a mental note to go back to the Steamboat some time when he wasn't on business.

"Satisfied?" asked Dennis over the radio link.

"That it works? Yeah. Local phone number, 732-9932, see if you can get anything from the phone company." Oxide glanced in one of the rear-view mirrors and saw two pairs of headlights swinging in from side streets to fall in behind him. "Hmm, looks like Lou is a fast worker."

"Trouble?"

"Nothing I can't handle," said Oxide with a smile. "Call Zeke, tell him I'll try to drop this garbage off at his place."

"Will do," said Dennis as Oxide turned his focus to his driving.

Oxide gunned the engine as he drove back toward the city. In a flat out chase, he had no doubt the Jaguar was faster than anything Misenti's men were likely to be driving. However, he wanted to lure these two down to the precinct house where Zeke, aka Police Detective Lance Pautzke, was working. That meant driving the twisting city streets, and watching out for pedestrians and other drivers. He had no illusions that the two drivers on his tail shared his worries about innocent bystanders. He stayed on the Blue Belt as it merged with Union Street, keeping well ahead of his pursuers while making sure they didn't lose sight of him. At 16th street, he skidded into the intersection, the car turning to face south, then he gunned the engine. The sleek black car leapt forward like the jungle cat for which it was named. By the time he reached the end of the bridge over the Allegheny, he spotted the first pair of headlights turning the corner to follow him, followed by a second.

"Zeke's got men at the Grant Street station, wants to know how long till you get there," asked Dennis over the radio as the Jaguar turned right on to Penn Avenue.

Oxide glanced at a signpost as he passed. "I'm passing 14th on Penn, I'll cut over at 11th to Grant, and it's about three-quarters of a mile from there. Two minutes, unless some fool gets in the way."

"Colt, watch those tracks by the train station, those back shocks are a little wonky." Oxide smiled at the lilting voice coming over the radio. He could picture Mel, in her grease-stained coverall, long hair carefully tied back in a braid, leaning over the desk to speak into the microphone.

"Don't worry, Mel, I know what your baby is capable of."

"That's what worries me, you bloody Moor."

Up ahead, Oxide could see the back side of the train station. The tracks crossed Penn Avenue on this side of the station, and 11th Street was on the other side. He saw a car start to pull out ahead of him from the station parking lot. "Damned idiot!" he swore as he stomped on the brake and swung the wheel to the right. The back end of the car swung to the right, and he cranked the wheel to the left as he hit the gas again, taking off across a parking lot. There was a twenty-foot wide grass-covered embank leading upward from the edge of the parking lot and the railroad tracks, and another embankment leading down into the back lot of the train station. "Hey, Mel, got a question for you," he said as he floored the accelerator.

"I'm afraid to ask…"

"How are the front shocks?" The Jag was traveling just under 80 mph when he reached the edge of the pavement. The smooth street tires slipped a bit on the grass, but sheer momentum kept the car moving through the weeds. At the top of the embankment, the car left the ground.

"Did you-? Are you-? Oh, bloody hell, please tell me you didn't just jump the tracks!" screamed Mel.

The car came down just past the grass on the opposite side of the tracks, the back end of the car dropping down to strike the pavement and send up a shower of sparks. "As you wish, I won't tell you. And to answer my own question, the front shocks are just fine."

Oxide hit the gas again, steering the car out of the parking lot and on to Grant Avenue. The back end was riding lower than usual, and the car was sluggish in the turn. He quickly calculated how much chocolate it was going to take to buy his way off Mel's spit list. Looking in the mirrors once more, he saw that one of the cars, which he recognized as a 1958 Corvette, had duplicated his jump, while the older Cadillac stayed on the road and was just turning on to Grant. "Don't know what your guys have been telling you, Dennis, but Misenti's hired himself some good drivers."

Grant Avenue was deserted, so Colt floored the gas pedal and streaked through intersections and down to where he knew the police station stood. The Cadillac and the Corvette were racing after him, side-by-side.

"Aww, come on, you're not going to catch me in a phalanx like that," said Oxide as he swerved to the left and toggled a switch on an obviously hand-made panel next to the steering column. There was an audible thump as a small explosive charge opened a compartment under the back end of the car, and several dozen spiked balls were released on to the road. He smiled as he saw the Cadillac slow down and fall in behind the Corvette just as he passed the police station. He saw a half-dozen uniformed officers coming out the front door as he hit the brakes and swung the steering wheel around. As the car turned 180 degrees in the intersection, he reached under his coat and pulled out one of two guns from his under-shoulder holster. Pressing a lever with his thumb as he drew, parts of the gun glowed a dim orange. He thumbed a dial, counting the clicks, then he aimed and fired at the Corvette's front end. From a hundred feet away, he heard the grinding of the car's brakes as the brake pads and rotors blossomed with rust. The brakes locked up, bringing the car to an abrupt stop right in front of the gathered policemen. The Cadillac, unable to stop as quickly, plowed into the back of the Corvette. The fiberglass body of the ‘Vette disintegrated to dust around two dismayed hoods.

Oxide tucked the pistol back into its holster as he gunned the engine and sped back up Grant Avenue, past the totaled cars and the officers trying to pull the drivers from the wreckage. Spotting Detective Pautzke, Oxide touched a finger to the brim of his hat as he sped by.

"Colt! You there? I've got an address to go with that phone number." Dennis' voice crackled over the radio.

"Yeah, I'm here, rich kid. What've you got?"

"Address is 8843 Wharton St. Matches up with the rumors I heard about something going down tonight."

Oxide swung the car around a corner and started heading toward the Tenth Street Bridge. As the car sped up, he noticed that the rumbling he'd felt from the back after his jump disappeared. Then he realized that the road noise had disappeared completely, and he felt no resistance as he pressed down on the gas pedal. Stunned, he looked out and realized the car was rising above the surrounding buildings. He looked up, and he could vaguely see a circular shape in the sky above him. The car headed toward a darker rectangle set in the circle, and he realized it was an opening. He reached under his coat and pulled the oddly-shaped pistol he had used moments before, slipping it into a compartment up under the dashboard. Flying saucers didn't come along every day, and he figured the oxidizing pistol from which he'd taken his nickname was the most likely reason for this flying saucer to be interested in him.

Moments later, the car was sitting in a large bay, surrounded by robotic creatures pointing what appeared to be weapons at him. As he slowly got out of the car, he pulled the other pistol, a standard 1911 pistol, and laid it on the ground next to him, and waited to see what would happen next.

Do You Believe In Majique

Saint Louis, MO— Valerie Coppersmith kept one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the radio knob of her cherry-red and white '59 Corvette convertible. The wind tugged on her long, black hair, a trait that, along with her darker complexion, had many of her friends comparing her to the female half of an up-and-coming musical duo, as she headed northwest on Natural Bridge Road. Music began to blare from speakers, so she spun the knob until she found another news broadcast.

"…ncisco, Phoenix, and New York City report encounters with what appears to be alien spacecraft. In all instances, the aliens have been repelled after facing either the military or costumed individuals. Officials are telling us that military bases all across the nation are on high alert."

"Hold on a second. We've got some breaking news coming in."

A pause.

"It appears that one of the spaceships has been spotted in the skies over St. Louis. We have been told that the 131st Tactical Fighter Wing of the Missouri Air National Guard has managed to get a few jets into the air."

Valerie looked up and spotted the aforementioned craft. "Looks like the oh-so-rich and even-more-generous Mrs. Riverdayle is going to have to wait for her fortune. It looks like the thing is head for Lambert Field."

A few blocks later, Valerie made a turn and was heading north on Florissant Road. Vehicles were streaming towards her, away from the airport, and it wasn't until she turned west onto Airport Road that she saw why. The police had set up a roadblock barring admittance to the airfield.

She hit the brakes and slid to a stop several yards from the police cars. One of the officers approached her vehicle, urging her to turn around and go to a safer location.

"If this really is an invasion," Valerie asked, "where can I go that is safe?"

The officer looked down at the girl in the multi-colored, multi- layered skirt and white peasant blouse for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, Miss. You are going to have to turn around."

Valerie's first instinct was to let the man know he was talking to someone important. After all, she was the one the police came to when they needed help. She was the one who had solved a half a dozen high profile kidnapping and missing persons cases that the police had given up on. Unfortunately, this was not the time. Her intuition told her that lives would soon be in danger, and some of her more unique talents might be of some help. She flashed the officer a smile and put her car into reverse. As she turned around, there was no mistaking the sound of an explosion coming from the airfield.

Valerie headed back east until she spotted the turn off for Hanley Road. She had only gone a half a mile when she found what she had been looking for, an old dirt road that wasn't listed on any of the maps. It had been years since she had been here; the last time was when she was a child.

Her family had just arrived in the area, immigrants from Eastern Europe. Her Romani grandparents had camped here for almost a month before developers ran them off. Her father grew up and got a job, met her mother, also a Romani immigrant, and had settled down. Her grandparents had moved in with the newlyweds, and, almost a year later, she was born. When she was old enough to remember, her father and grandfather had brought her out to show her where they used to live.

After driving for a couple minutes, Valerie pulled to the side of the gravel road. She started to put the top up, then decided against it. She feared that the white top might make the care more noticeable. Climbing out of the car, she headed for the field, and almost immediately stumbled into a ditch that hadn't been there years ago. There was something unusual sticking out through the clay on one side of the ditch, no doubt uncovered by the recent rain. Her intuition warned her not to ignore it.

She hated mud! Picking up a stick from the debris in the disk, she poked the object free. It was a wooden box - she immediately recognized it as Romani 'treasure chest', though it was rotted and starting to fall apart. She easily knocked the top off, and was startled to see a bag inside. Even from several feet away, she could feel the magic aura around the bag, magic that had apparently kept it totally clean even after years buried in the wet clay.

She picked up the bag and examined it. "Where in the world did you come from?" It was made of heavy, dark blue cloth, about the size of a coconut, covered with magical symbols , with leather drawstrings. "Very 'Rommish', a perfect addition to the image!" she thought triumphantly.

Valerie opened the bag and looked inside. It was empty, or, at least, it appeared to be. Reaching inside, she discovered that it was much deeper than it appeared to be. The fact that the thing was magical didn't really surprise her. She was no stranger to what those in the know referred to as "the Arts." She had a few mystical abilities herself. She could affect emotions, and had could manipulate mechanical objects at a fairly close range. She also had a collection of scrolls, but she had neither the time, nor the patience, to spend figuring them out. In all the time she had spent studying them, she had only figured out how to cast two spells. If she was going to deal with magic, this is how it should be done—with as much ease as possible.

"I don't know where you came from," she said, "but it would have been nice if you actually held something that could help me against the aliens. Something that could get me onto the airfield unseen would have been nice."

Valerie's eyes grew wide as she pulled her hand from the bag. Opening it up, she found a small ring that seemed a perfect fit for her pinky. She slid it on and felt her body begin to tingle. Leaning into the car, she looked into her rearview mirror. There was no reflection. She started to pull the ring off when she sensed that she should leave it on. A strong wave of intuition swept her: she was certain that if she removed the ring, its magic would be lost to her. She had other talismans of power that she wore, most of which appeared to be nothing more than costume jewelry that completed the "Rom" look she used when dealing with her clients, but none of them had ever given her this feeling.

"All right," she said to herself, "let's go see if we can't do something about those aliens."

As she started toward the airfield, she saw a plume of black smoke rising into the air. There was a second explosion, and a second plume. Even from here, she could hear the sirens going off.

Five minutes later, Valerie was crossing an open field that bordered one of the runways. She crossed the runway, her eyes constantly scanning the skies, searching for the spaceship. A growing rumble drew her attention to the south. Not the sound one would expect a spacecraft to make, then again, she hardly believed she would be hearing the musical whistling that accompanied those she had seen at the theater. She continued moving until she reached one of the airfield's gray, arch-shaped, hangers. She raced along the outside wall until she reached the other end. As she rounded the corner, she saw the spacecraft already touching down.

On the runway, two jets were burning out of control. Fortunately, she saw no signs of the pilots. Hopefully, they were already somewhere safe.

Valerie was about to cross the tarmac when the rumbling became deafening. She looked up and saw four of the 131st's F-84F Thunderstreaks soar overhead. In a heartbeat, they were a mile away and splitting up the formation. Each jet performed a banking maneuver that was as graceful as any ballerina, and was quickly reforming to make another pass over the airfield. She was halfway between the hanger and the spacecraft when the first of the fighters began a strafing run. She could hear what sounded like someone pounding on a bucket full of water as the bullets struck an invisible shield surrounding the ship.

One of the amulets she wore around her neck was supposed to offer her some protection from gunfire, but she wasn't certain if it would protect her from what was starting to rain down from the sky. Her mind began to race.

"How could they be so careless as to shoot when there are people still in the area?" she cried out, as she continued to run. She had only taken a couple of steps when she realized the pilots were firing because they didn't know she was there. "Time to become visible."

Valerie removed the ring from her pinky. It turned to ash and was crumble to nothing. That confirmed the wisdom she had shown in keeping it on.

Overhead, one of the pilots had seen her sudden appearance and was alerting the others. The group leader immediately contacted his home base and reported this new development.

"This isn't the first report of costumed individuals coming out of the woodwork to help repel the aliens," was the reply he received. "Save the taxpayers a few bucks, and see what she can do. The minute that thing takes to the air, however, you know what to do."

"Roger," the pilot acknowledged. Since everyone heard their new orders, they withdrew from the immediate area and allowed the newcomer to take her shot.

Valerie was thankful for the reprieve. "Now, if I could just figure out what the aliens are after."

Before she could formulate a plan, Valerie was surprised to see the air around one section of the spaceship shimmer and a panel slide open. That wasn't the only thing that surprised her. Two small creatures emerged. Their skin was dolphin-gray, and they had two large black eyes that set in shallow recesses in their oversized heads. Long, spider-like fingers wrapped around the handles of what could only be guns of some sort. They moved with purpose into a nearby hanger.

While they were inside, Valerie spotted a group of soldiers rushing towards her. She waved her arms to draw their attention. One of the men pointed back, and they started toward her.

Valerie realized that to reach her, they would have to pass by the opening of the hanger where the aliens were. She began to wave them off. Instead, she directed their attention towards the hanger. She held up two fingers to let them know how many aliens were inside. She also pointed her fingers at the soldiers like a gun to let them know the aliens' were armed. The soldiers nodded and took up position near the hanger's door.

Turning her attention back to the spaceship, Valerie decided there was nothing for her to do but get aboard and see what she could find. As she started toward the opening, the sound of gunfire erupted behind her. She glanced back in time to see one of the soldiers fall, a large hole burnt completely through him. The aliens were down an instant later. Valerie had to choke down the bile that rose in her throat. She knew there was nothing she could do for the soldier, but she could see if there was some way to prevent it from happening to anyone else.

Inside the ship, Valerie found herself facing an third alien. It, too, carried a gun and seemed just as surprised to see her, as she was to see it.

She reached for the gun in an attempt to push its barrel away from her. As she did so, arcane words seemed to fall from her lips of their own volition. The shadows that lined certain areas of the hallway reached out and grabbed the alien by the arms. There was a sickening thud when it slammed against the wall. Valerie knelt and picked up the gun; if she couldn't figure it out, then, perhaps the military might be able to.

Valerie encountered no more aliens as she passed through the corridors. She was just about to round a corner and start down an adjoining corridor when she felt the ship jerk. She knew there was only one explanation; the ship was taking off.

She was halfway down the corridor when the ship lurched violently to one side, throwing her off balance and in through on opening in the wall. The sounds that she could hear reverberating through the ship let her know that the "Thunderstreaks" were attacking with everything they had. She could only hope that the force field she had witnessed while she was outside did its job now that she was inside.

"Sounds like we're in a bit of a pickle."

Valerie looked up from where she had fallen the instant she heard the voice—a human voice.

A man was hanging from the wall. Shackles built into the bulkhead held him firmly in place. He was a handsome man by anyone's standards. Dark brown hair, or was it black, was tousled, a sign that he had put up a fight when he was captured. A build that could make any acrobat jealous, or any woman's heart skip a beat, was clothed in a skin-tight jumpsuit of an unknown red material. A mischievous grin seemed to highlight a boyish face.

Valerie thought for a second, and then began to recite the words to the only other spell she knew. There was an audible click as the shackles separated and began to recede into the wall. The man fell into her outstretched arms.

"I don't know what you are doing here, lady," the man said, "but your magic is just what the doctor ordered. I'm Red Rocket."

"Sure you are," Valerie replied, somewhat skeptical, " and you can call me…Majique."

"Sounds good to me."

Sleepless in Chicago

"Late at night, parked in a dark, lonely spot, nobody else around, full moon, just the two of us..." she murmured into her companion's ear, her husky voice barely above a whisper. "I could do with a little action about now!"

Todd Drake smiled at his wife agreeably. "Why not? It's your turn to go for food. How about burgers?"

Bonnie Marlow looked at him with pained incredulity. "I thought tonight was pizza night - and your turn!"

He pointed at the calendar hanging on the wall of the panel truck. "Definitely your turn" her name was written in big block letters on the square for today. "I thought maybe we could try that new burger chain, you know, '5 million sold', that place. They've got an all-night place just around the corner." He pulled out his wallet and handed her a buck as he placed his order: "Two cheeseburgers, chocolate shake, fries. Keep the change - or buy yourself an extra fries."

"Big Spender!" she snorted, as she reluctantly conceded. "I'm going. But just to be sure..." she picked up the pencil and wrote in his name on the next "order out" night. So far, the twice a week order out nights were the most interesting events during their 2 week stakeout of the University of Chicago Nuclear Physics building.

Bonnie quietly slipped out of their customized surveillance vehicle, a nondescript panel truck that masqueraded as a UC delivery van during the day. She knew he'd watch her go with the night-vision scope so she teased him with a little extra sway in her steps. He whistled silently in appreciation, what an assortment of assets she had, brains and beauty. Not for the first time, he marveled at how luck he was to be her husband, and then turned back to the instrument panel and once more reviewed the case...

A month ago, the DMT Agency had an unexpected visitor, Dr. Steven Perlman, President of the University of Chicago. Todd and Tomas knew Dr. Perlman from their undergraduate days, when he had been the Dean of the Atomic Physics Department (now known as the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering), but, other than at UC Alumni fund raisers, they had only rarely encountered him since they had both finished school. Unfortunately, it wasn't a social call. Nonetheless, they were pleased to see him.

"Mr. Thomas! Mr. Drake! How wonderful to see you again. Always nice to see successful UC alumni" Perlman grinned "though, I don't quite see how degrees in Nuclear Science contributed to your becoming the most successful Private Investigators in Chicago? And, by the way, thanks for your most recent donations to the Alumni Fund!"

Todd didn't tell him that their scientific training had been put to excellent use creating weapons, tools and battle armor for Red Rocket, Lady Victory and Tom Atomic; he just shrugged his shoulders.

"That lab accident really took some of the shine away from the Nuclear Sciences for both of us, Dr. Perlman." The accident that had almost killed Tomas, and, not coincidentally, had led to Tomas becoming Tom Atomic.

(For the whole story of this fateful accident, see "The New Adventures of Bulletboy" here:

http://the5earths.50megs.com/earth-s/timespast/esthrill1949-01.html. Dr. Continuity)

"Though being a detective is often a lot like being a researcher. Anyway, what can DMT do for you?"

"Well... I need some investigation done, of course - but I need it to be kept quiet as well..." He gave them the whole story.

Some of the researchers in the UC School of Nuclear Science and Engineering suspected that someone was stealing their work and leaking it to the Russians. Several recent papers and newly publicized discoveries in Russia have eerily similar to some of the work going on at UC, and the timing is extremely coincidental.

"We know that several people often his on the same discovery at the same time, since most top researchers are working from the same body of knowledge. But one of our researchers made a mistake in his calculations - nothing major or dangerous and certainly nothing obscure, he just multiplied wrong. Fortunately, we always do several weeks of further research on any results before we publish them, just to catch this kind of thing. But during that time, an unknown physicist in Russia published - and he made the identical math error. There are literally hundreds of mathematical expressions in that paper - it seems really unlikely that the Russian would make the identical mistake our guy made."

"Some of this apparently stolen research is classified. We need the investigation to be as quiet as possible. If the FBI, CIA or police get involved, the publicity would do terrible damage to the University - and we would stand to lose millions in Federal funding as well. We might have to close down the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department entirely!"

They had taken the case, of course - Dr. Perlman had been one of their staunchest supporters when Dr. Phillip Grenco, then President of UC, had tried to have them thrown out of school, and both men still felt as if they owed him a favor. Not that he let them pay it back, though, Dr. Perlman insisted on paying their standard rates.

Todd had been hired by the Department as a research assistant, and had taken the opportunity to bug the offices, labs and common areas in the Nuke building. Bonnie had been running background checks on everyone who might have access to the research, including the administrators, staff, researchers, assistants, school police, maintenance and secretarial staff, frequent visitors and correspondents with the researchers. Anything mailed through the university mail system had been surreptitiously monitored, and phones have been bugged. And every night they have been manning the stakeout.

So here they were, two weeks on the job and not a nibble. Well, actually, they had nibbled a lot, but they had no leads!

Todd was just starting to wish they'd agreed on pizza when the truck started to rattle and shake violently.. He knew an earthquake when he was in one! He quickly opened a locked compartment under the control panel and it wasn't Todd Drake who stepped out of the truck seconds later, but Red Rocket.

He didn't have a lot of experience with quakes, but from what he did know, this was a big one, like Magnitude 5 or maybe a little bigger. It seemed unlikely - He didn't think there were any fault lines near Chicago, but he wasn't the type to argue with reality. He was in the air and looking for people to help in only an instant.

There came a very loud 'SMASH' from not far away, and then the sound of a car's horn blaring, and then another "SMASH!' even louder than the first one, and the 'WHOOMPH!' of a lot of gasoline catching on fire. With the speed of a rocket, the hero arrived almost instantly at the scene, and he saw a car that had stopped in the middle of the street, and the car behind it had plowed into it. No, wait - the first car had crashed into some kind of invisible barrier. There was a lot of dust in the air, plus smoke from the fire, and Rocket could see that the dust was constrained in a long concave curve, but the air on the other side of that curve was clear - and he realized that the ground over there was still while the ground on this side was still shaking! Some kind of force field, no doubt.

The folks in the cars were his first worry. He blasted the wrecks with compressed carbon dioxide, temporarily smothering the flames. He then started using his disintegrator and his magnetic powers to carefully cut up the cars and safely pull them apart. He used up the remaining CO2 in his small tank to keep the returning flames away from the victims as he helped them from the car, and his automated compressor turned on. Hopefully the tank would be refilled before he needed it again.

He cautiously approached the invisible barrier, and attempted to cut thorough it, first with his plasma blaster and then with the more powerful short-range disintegrator, and when those failed, he launched some missiles at it. The plasma splashed, the disintegrator had no effect, and the missiles exploded harmlessly. He even tried to reach _through_ it with a magnetic beam, but it seemed to block magnetism - and radio as well, he couldn't raise anyone off campus. Bonnie must be on the other side, or Lady Victory would surely have responded to his call.

He took off and flew towards the center of campus, where he hoped to find the source of the force shield. Crowds of kids were streaming from the dorms, some of them in panic and some of them trying to help others. By now, there were a number of alarms going off as well, adding to the chaos. Todd remembered evacuation drills from when he lived in a UC dorm, and he hoped all these kids had paid attention. He turned his external speaker to full volume and broadcast a warning at full volume as he flew:

"Attention! The campus has been barricaded and there is no way off campus. Please make your way quickly to the nearest open area. Please make your way to the athletic fields and other open areas!" He set it to rebroadcast, and continued his rescue efforts.

The campus police dispatcher came on the radio and directed him to the Bartlett Dining Commons, where one of the crenellated towers had been unable to stand up to the quake, and had broken off and crashed to the ground, with the other tower now threatening a repeat performance. He arrived just in time, and blasted the falling tower with his plasma torch, totally vaporizing it before it could reach the ground. From here he could see the cause of all the current chaos.

A giant 'flying saucer' had settled on the Administration buildings in the Quadrangles, totally destroying them, and now hundreds of silvery forms were pouring from the alien vessel, then chasing after the panicked humans. The aliens actually floated a couple feet off the ground, which made them relatively immune to the quaking earth, unlike the humans they chased, who often could do little more than frantically crawl away.

The flying aliens targeted the fleeing people with unusual weapons which looked like oversized pistols, each with a hose extending from the base of the grip to a large bulb the alien was wearing like a backpack. When the pistol was fired, it drew an incredibly brilliant red line through the air, a line that seemed to pulse or writhe. When this narrow intense beam struck a human, it somehow wrapped that person, just for an instant, with a grid of seething red lines. Usually nothing further happened to the target, except perhaps being momentarily blinded, but occasionally the red grid would flash green, and then the alien would fire another beam, a larger gray one, and the green-wrapped target would simply vanish! This only increased the panic, and the aliens were able to float at will around campus, sizing up their victims with the strange flickering red light and then vaporizing those they selected, by whatever unknown criteria they were using.

Rocket was puzzled that the aliens would use weapons which left most of their enemies intact, but he pushed that puzzle to the back of his mind for now.

The aliens looked like the upper half of a human body, cut off at the waist, wrapped in chrome, and the movements of their limbs, while precise, were stiff and appeared to be mechanical. This was verified when one of the campus police shot one in the head; the head exploded, tearing open the body and exposing electronics and complex mechanisms.

Rocket tore into the alien robots like a fury! He couldn't use his plasma torch or his homing missiles; too many people around. So he flew at top speed through the crowd, and used his disintegrator like a dagger, stabbing it into the heads of some aliens, slicing their necks as he flew past others. He was approaching a group of them; he aimed his magnetic beam at them and magnetized their bodies and everything in them. With their arms smashed to their bodies, the robots were unable to fend off their fellows, and shortly there was a glob of robots stuck together. They were still able to fly, and they returned to their ship. Rocket managed to trap another group by enhancing gravity under them, and they were destroyed as they were smashed by the many-times magnified pull of the earth.

Several times, Rocket managed to escape the seething red beams of enemy fire, by moving quickly and unexpectedly, but the robots started to coordinate their actions and soon caught him in a virtual cage of flickering red lines. But either his red battle suit blocked their effects, or he didn't meet the criteria for vaporization, and the beams stayed red.

"Damned ineffective weapons!" he noted for the second time, as he disemboweled the closest robot with his disintegrator and turned towards another. And then, without warning, his powered systems all failed at once, and hundreds of still-active robots swarmed over him.

Red Rocket was a superior hand-to-hand combatant - a collegiate boxing champion and highly skilled master of the martial arts skills originally taught to him by Minuteman - but without his powered weapons, and his ability to fly, he had no chance against so many alien robots. They swarmed over him, and soon his defenses were overwhelmed and he was battered into unconsciousness.

Flying Saucer Blues

"So they've attacked St. Louis as well?" Red Rocket asked Majique? "Any idea what they were looking for? How'd you get free? Are there any other prisoners aboard?"

Majique didn't immediately respond to his questions. "How'd you know it was St. Louis?"

"I'm a detective." She'd already seen his face, so Todd figured it was futile to try to conceal his civilian identity. He was examining the room closely as he talked. "I've heard about some of the cases you've solved for the St. Louis PD. Pretty impressive, actually!"

Val flushed slightly at praise from a famous super hero. Todd moved to the door, listened closely, then continued his questions.

"How'd you escape?"

"I wasn't captured. I snuck onto the saucer to look around and it took off…" He shook his head slightly at that, but just asked another question.

"Did you see any aliens?"

"Soldiers killed 2 of them on the ground. I only saw one, and… I think I… I think I killed it" Val was not a violent person, and now that she had time to think about what had happened, reaction was starting to set in. She started shaking violently, and she felt as if she was going to throw up. Rocket touched her gently on her shoulder - she jerked away as if from an electric spark! He decided the best thing he could do would be to keep her busy.

He picked up the gun she had dropped. It was something like a pistol, and there was a volleyball-sized globe hanging from the grip by a short hose. It was identical to those used by the robots who had captured him, except for the hose and globe, the hose on the robots had extended over their shoulder into a backpack. Rocket was starting to wonder about these pistols. In Chicago they had been very ineffective weapons.

He examined it closely, being careful never to point it at Majique. There was no obvious trigger. "Did you see any of them use one of these?" She shook her head. "We might have time to experiment later." Reluctantly, he carefully laid the pistol down on the floor - the scientist in him wanted to figure it out Right Now, but the heroic adventurer knew their were other priorities! He hated leaving it behind, but even smashing it could be dangerous - and it was too awkward to carry.

"So, they took my combat suit when they captured me. Can you use your powers to find it?" he wanted to know, getting back to the business at hand.

"They don't work that way… I can find people by sensing their emotions, but I'm not good at finding things…"

"How about a spell, like they one that freed me?" he interrupted.

"I don't know any finding spells" she shuddered again, thinking of how she had just used the only other spell she knew. And then stopped, as her intuition gave her a possibility. "Hold on - I may have something that can help." She pulled open the blue bag and reached inside.

'I could really use something to help us out, here!' she thought to the bag. 'Something to help the hero find his armor.' She closed her hand and there was a thin rod of some sort lying across her palm. Unlike the ring, whatever this was didn't come out easily - she had to strain both physically and psychically to pull it forth. It turned out to be a smooth black rod, about 8 inches long and the diameter of a pencil, with some kind of gem mounted on the end - a small magic wand! Her intuition told her it could help - and also, not to put it down!

She held it high overhead and gestured grandly "Wand, bring me Red Rocket's armor." Nothing happened. Angrily, she pulled it down and pointed it at Rocket, who immediately stepped aside. She turned slightly to adjust, and he moved again.

"Stand still!" she ordered him angrily, but he moved more quickly than she could follow, stepping in closer, pushing her arm aside, and slipping behind her. He reached around her with both arms, one arm clasping the wrist to prevent her from waving that wand around any further, the other clamping down over her mouth. She tried to bite him!

"Listen" he whispered in her ear. "I don't know you; no way am I going to let you use an unknown magic wand on me!" She started to retort, but all she could do was mumble. "OK, now watch the jewel!" he ordered. He forced her to turn through a wide arc. Partway through the turn, the gem started to glow, as they turned further it glowed more brightly and then started to dim again. "Understand?" She nodded. He let her go.

"Don't you ever touch me like that again!" she hissed sharply.

"Agreed" he replied easily. "Unless you point a potential weapon at me, again…" he was a little sharper.

She nodded, reluctantly. "How did you know how to make it work?" she asked.

"Didn't, actually. But I saw it start to glow when you were swinging it around, so I took a guess. I've had a little experience with magic."

It wasn't just an idle boast. He'd fought against Wizzo, perhaps the most powerful mage on the planet since Ibis had vanished. She'd studied the stories on those battles jealously - she coveted the many powerful magical artifacts Wizzo had used. A stunning realization came upon her… Through great luck, she was now closer than she had ever been before in her life to obtaining her secret desire!

'I've got to get Red Rocket to show me where those things are!' she thought to herself. 'Finally! A chance at the power I've always deserved!' Although first they had to get away from the aliens. Reluctantly she brought her thoughts back to the present.

The rod pointed through the one of the walls of the room - so they were going to have to use the corridors. "The door to outside is that way" Majique pointed to the left. "The corridor is narrow and there are a lot of closed doors on both sides. Also, there's a dead alien…"

"Did you see any cross-corridors going in the right direction?" he asked. She shook her head.

"OK, stay here for a second." Before she could ask why, he was out the door and moving to the left. An instant later he was back, carrying the alien.

"Hope he doesn't have any broken bones, or it coulda messed him up carrying him" he said and he gently laid the alien body on the floor.

"He's alive?" Majique was thrilled to hear she wasn't a killer - and a little apprehensive being around a living alien.

"He's breathing, at least" Rocket replied. "I don't want to carry him with us. Do you have anything we can use to tie him up?"

She thought for a second, then tucked the wand into the sash she used as a belt, relieved when it didn't vanish. "Turn your head!" she ordered him, then lifted her skirts and pulled a wicked looking dagger from a sheath on her leg. A couple of quick slashes, and she'd cut some long strips from the bottom of one of her petticoats. They quickly bound the alien.

"OK. Time to go exploring!"

Deep in the Heart of Everest

Master Man led Shiva several miles straight up, and Shiva was stunned to realize they were in a gigantic cone-shaped room, now approaching the point of the cone.

"Yes - we are in my Sanctum, a giant hall carved from the living heart of Mt. Everest" Master Man responded to his observation. "And this" he directed their flight through a short tunnel in one of the walls into a very interesting room - two walls completely covered with books, and the wall between them a giant TV screen "is where I monitor the world, so I can fly to the aid of those who need me. Though you and Kali haven't left me much to do recently!"

"So why the cold welcome down below?" Shiva wondered. "It sure looked to me like you were about to be overwhelmed by alien robots!. I never got beat up by another hero before." Not that there were any other heroes who could beat him up, except maybe Kali…

"Sorry." Master Man sounded sheepish, and Shiva knew the apology was real. "Shazam created me before Captain Marvel - then created the Big Red Cheese and family, and came to me and told me he wanted me to be his backup plan in case of problems with the Marvel Family. Sort of a low blow, you see? I was first and up until then, I'd had a pretty spectacular career. Why not make Captain Marvel as _my_ back up? But I accepted it. It was pretty tough for a while, mostly sitting around waiting for some disaster that the Marvel's couldn't handle alone. So I built the Sanctum and bided my time." He waved his arms, indicating the incredible cavern around them. "And then up popped the Lieutenants Marvel, and I coulda slept for the next few years and nobody knows the difference!"

Shiva was starting to see where this was going. So he spoke up "And then, suddenly, the Marvel Family vanished, a situation Shazam had seemingly created you for, but instead he made me and Kali!" Master Man seemed a little uneasy, but then he nodded. Shiva continued. "Yeah, no wonder you were peeved! But you know, I never asked for my powers!"

"Look, let's forget the whole thing for now" Master Man was definitely uneasy. "I kept busy, as you've seen" sweeping his arms to indicate the incredible museum within a mountain he had created. "We have an alien invasion to worry about. And we need to find Kali."

He touched some controls and a montage of scenes began flickering across the giant TV screen, faster than any normal human could follow. Together they watched several alien attacks, and saw several heroes get captured or carried off or vaporized while driving off those attacks. But none of Master Man's various spy devices was able to make out where the alien ships went when they flew away.

"Those aliens are pretty tough. I think we could use some help - and there are a bunch of heroes searching for their partners. Whey don't we contact them all and see if we can work together? Shiva asked.

"I'm not normally a 'work together' type of guy" Master Man was hesitant.

"You don't have to hide away inside a mountain just because Shazam told you you're his secret weapon!" Shiva insisted. "Now's a perfect time for you to go public!" Master Man looked indecisive. "Look, Shazam himself sent me here to get help."

The older hero made up his mind. "You're right. Let's get started!"

Two's Company, Three's a... Team Up!

Using Val's dagger, Rocket was able to pry the chains loose from the wall, gaining two vicious weapons in the process. He then convinced Majique to use her powers in a new fashion - instead of blocking out all the ambient psychic impressions of living, thinking beings looking for a single person much farther away, see if she could locate any other thinking beings nearby.

She concentrated and within only a few seconds reported:

"More people - but no more Bemmies" she used the popular term for movie aliens. "Same direction as your battle suit."

"There were several hundred robots in Chicago" he mentioned.

"If I could sense any robots, I would have said so" she was a little testy; she'd already told him her power sensed living things. He held both hands up in a shielding gesture and smiled.

"Let's get moving!"

They cautiously opened the door to the next room down the corridor, and inside there were two low tables, a lot of cabinets and workbenches, and a lot of unknown equipment. One of the tables was covered with a pile of clothes, and on the other was a motionless human - a black man wearing only underwear. The light in the room was an unusual blue color. As soon as she realized the man was breathing, Majique rushed into the room. Rocket grabbed her arm to stop her, but she twisted free. 'Good technique!' he thought fleetingly, as she got a step into the room and then collapsed to the floor

Some cautious experimentation proved to Todd that he didn't want to go into that room himself - he squatted by the door, leaned away from it, and stuck his hand into the room - and woke up lying on his back, having tumbled away from the danger, as planned. He couldn't enter, and she was too far for him to try to lasso her with his chains. He was going to have to go on alone.

The next room was a control room, with a window looking into the blue lighted room. On a table, in a jumble with some other stuff, was his battle suit. Before putting it on, he examined it closely - something had caused the power drain that had allowed him to be captured… and he found something. It looked like a flat artificial spider, squashed flat against the lower back of his costume, with legs outstretched and digging into the material, locking it in place.

'Must not be metallic or my force field would have kept it out' he murmured to himself as he carefully inspected the device. He stretched the upper half of the suit out on the floor and smashed the device with his chains, and then donned the boots and ground the remaining pieces to dust. The built in system diagnostics showed that his systems were back to normal. 'Have to watch out for more of those things' he warned himself as he finished suiting up.

He finished his inspection of the control room. The general appearance was of something hastily thrown together, not the shining perfection he expected from watching various science fiction films. He paid particular attention to the many cables and bundles of wires criss-crossing the floor behind the various cabinets of controls. He assumed the thickest cable would be carrying power, and his electromagnetic sensors confirmed the presence of a powerful E-M field around that cable. His disintegrator flashed - and both rooms went dark. Todd turned on his floodlight at very low power, and used the disintegrator to slice through the window. He could detect no power in the next room - and Majique was sitting up,

"Geez I have an awful headache!" she complained.

"Be glad you're live!" he replied. "Pay a little attention to Elvis next time: 'only fools rush in'!" As he was helping her to her feet, they heard a moan - the unknown captive started stirring. They rushed to his sides.

His eyes opened and his head snapped around - and then he moaned in pain and his hands moved to his head. "Spit, that hurts!" More slowly, he looked around again. "I guess it means I'm alive, though. You're Red Rocket, aren't you? Are you the rescue team?" He started to sit up, and Rocket and Majique helped him. "Thanks!" He was breathing deliberately, long deep breaths.

"Not exactly a rescue. We were captured too, so it's more like an escape team. Not feeling too well, eh?"

"Terrible headache!" he agreed. It seemed to be painful for him to talk, and he continued his deep breathing.

"I have a pretty bad headache too" Majique added to the conversation. "Must be some side effect of whatever knocked us out."

"It reminds me of sleep apnea" he told her. "Whatever knocked us out caused us to have problems breathing, and there was a buildup of carbon dioxide in our blood. Breath deep, and as soon as the CO2 gets flushed, you'll feel better." Majique looked dubious, while the unknown continued to breath deeply.

"Who are you, by the way?" the unknown asked Majique.

"Umm… you can call me Majique."

"Oh, that fortune teller from St. Louis" she bristled "who's solved so many 'impossible' cases for the St. Louis Police. Heard good things about you - nice to meet you. Never heard you were such a fox, though." Which mollified her somewhat.

"And just who are you?" she demanded.

"Hold on a second." He hopped off the table, swayed a little bit, and then regained his balance. He moved carefully to the table which was piled with clothing, and started pulling on an obviously expensive burnt orange business suit. "You can call me Oxide. I'm from Pittsburgh, just getting started in the mystery man game. Never expected to get caught up in a flying saucer, though." While he dressed, he told them the story of his capture, carefully not mentioning the oxidation pistol. Within only a few seconds he was dressed, and he slipped his 1911 pistol, which had been in the pile on the table, into one of the empty shoulder holsters.

"You look like you're feeling better" Rocket commented.

"Yeah. I'm about good as new." Neither man commented when Majique started drawing long slow breaths.

At that instant, the sound of the saucer's engines changed tone, and Red Rocket recognized the change. "We'd better get ready for action. We're landing."

In the Hands of the Enemy...

"I imagine they'll come looking for us after we land." Oxide suggested. "I'd sure like to be able to get some stuff from my car before that."

Another chance for Majique to strut her stuff, she thought. 'Wand, show us the way to Oxide's car!' she commanded mentally. The wand changed instantly into a fine gray dust. 'Phooey!' she thought, in her native tongue, as she reached for the bag at her waist (or perhaps some slightly more emphatic words) and then stopped abruptly as her magical intuition flared a strong warning of danger. She was rather flustered when Red Rocket turned towards her.

"Sorry - the items from the bag only work once, and the bag needs some time to recharge!" she was apologetic, and even her best attempt at self-control couldn't keep her cheeks from reddening with embarrassment. How inept a mage did _that_ make her sound? "I didn't expect to be captured by aliens today!" She stopped when she realized she was whining, then snarled "I'll make sure I'm carrying more powerful tools next time."

"It's this way" Rocket pointed at the bulkhead behind her. "I can detect the radios with my electromagnetic sensors." He turned one of the heavy tables on its side. "You guys should take cover while I use my disintegrator."

He crouched down near the bulkhead, started the disintegrator, and started tracing out a circle on the floor, a little larger than a manhole cover. The room was filled with flashing light and a wave of heat as the tough material of the floor resisted, but the incredibly intense heat released by the controlled fusion of hydrogen was more than any material could long withstand. In only a few seconds the circular section of the floor fell into the room below. Rocket quickly blasted the hot edge with super-cooled carbon dioxide, then dropped through into the dark room below, then helped Majique and Oxide down.

Before they could explore, there was an uncomfortable 'thump' which knocked them off their feet, and then the saucer's engine noise stopped. They had arrived… somewhere.

Lily Lovelace wasn't sure exactly when she returned to consciousness. Absolute darkness, total silence, absence of bodily sensations, all without self-awareness, gradually gave way to absolute darkness, total silence, absence of bodily sensations, with slowly growing self awareness… the change didn't seem to matter, Lily knew she existed and was satisfied… and then the satisfaction gradually evolved as well, and she started to realize something was missing… and then she slowly started to remember another way of living - and then suddenly. as of she had been struck by a lightning bolt, she remembered everything and she sat up with a scream and opened her eyes!

Except she didn't move and there was no noise. She was able to see, straight up, but she couldn't turn her head, and she realized that she couldn't move, but at least she could feel her body and now she could feel pain… she hurt everywhere, as if someone had worked her over with a rubber mallet, not hitting her hard enough to break anything, but not missing a spot… the affects of the violent acceleration the aliens had used to capture her, no doubt… and then she realized that she could move, a little, like wiggling her fingers and toes, and moving her eyes, but she was encased in a series of straps that held her firmly in place against a firm cushion. The straps made it difficult to breath deeply, but she had enough breath to speak her word - so she did…

But nothing happened, not even a mumble. She tried to speak, she tried to sing, nothing. She was still able to whistle, so it seemed as if her vocal cords were paralyzed… she tried using her whistle to form words, but she couldn't make the 'R' sound… She was well and truly trapped… She fought against her rising panic. Kali was not afraid of anything; she struggled to evoke the courage that was one of her powers in her heroic form… She wasn't totally successful - the panic was there, lurking in the back of her mind, but for the moment she could think, at least… but if the situation changed, even slightly, she knew it might leap on her like a hungry predator…

She found that by straining, she could actually roll her head slightly to either side, and she examined her trap. She was in a large room, and there were all sorts of what appeared to be alien instruments arrayed around whatever she was lying on. The image of alien abductions and human vivisections, so popular in movies and on TV, leaped into her mind, and for a few moments, Lily went away and a primitive wild animal struggled to escape from the bonds on the table… and Lily's mind only returned when her struggling body was totally exhausted.

Without the energy to continue struggling, Lily wearily examined as much of this room as she could see. She could barely see a couple other tables, at least one with another human strapped to it, also surrounded by alien instruments. Finally, she studied the bank of instruments surrounding her. A concave device like a radar dish, some mechanical arms with disturbingly human-like hands, some things that looked like flashlights mounted on other mechanical arms, and an array of what might be cameras - boxes the size of a deck of cards with a round tube sticking out of one end, hanging from the ceiling, the tubes all aimed at her. She hoped they were cameras, and not weapons or something even more sinister!

Off to her right she could see what appeared to be a giant TV screen, and it was showing a picture of herself! Every few seconds, the picture changed, and she could see herself from another angle. Then the picture would change again, and she soon realized that the next view was an x-ray, followed by a picture that seemed to show her body as if all her skin had been stripped away, and then other views that she could barely recognize. The apparatus around her was analyzing her as no human had ever been analyzed by human instruments, and details of her body were being shown on the TV. One view showed would could only be a schematic of her nervous system, and another showed what looked like a human shape made out of roaring flames. What could that possibly represent? Under other circumstances, Lily might have been fascinated, but she was currently alternating between terrified and humiliated…

Every few minutes, an alien being would walk through the room, making adjustments to the instruments, machines and controls. They were humanoid, short and spindly, with gray skin and heads much too large for their bodies, and they totally ignored the humans strapped to their tables. Apparently they didn't care if Lily was conscious or not - and so effective were her bonds that Lily wasn't surprised. She wanted to scream and swear at her captors, but the most she could do was flutter her eyelids. It was maddening. But, she realized, in her helpless condition, anger felt better than helplessness or despair. She focused her thoughts on the revenge she would take when she got free.

Then circumstances changed. A horde of robots descended on her. She recognized some as being like the New York City attackers, and there were at least 3 or 4 other models. They all moved silently, efficiently and relentlessly. She was unstrapped from the table, then, despite her struggles, strapped upright to a wall, as efficiently and inexorably as she had been strapped to the table, and another human female was brought into the room.

A very short brunette, the new prisoner couldn't have been even 5 feet tall, Her eyes were open, and Lily could see them darting this way and that, but the newcomer couldn't speak either, and soon she was strapped down in Lily's place. The views on the TV shifted to show vies of the body of the newcomer. After checking to be sure the straps were secure, the aliens left the room.

"Hello! Can you hear me?" a girl's voice whispered in Lily's ear - but there was nobody nearby. Who could it be?

Unexpected attack

"I'm a super hero" the voice whispered. "I'll have us free in a moment."

Lily didn't say anything, she realized her vocal cords seemed to be paralyzed. Who could this female super hero be? She must be invisible, She grunted, the only noise she could make.

"Good, I have super hearing, you know." Lily didn't know, but she grunted again. "Hold on, I'll be right with you!"

Suddenly there came several muffled bangs, and the bindings on the wrists and ankles of the tiny girl on the table exploded. She climbed stiffly to her feet and tottered to the wall.

"This may sting a little" the voice spoke in Lily's ear, but the girl's lips didn't move. The brackets holding her to the wall suddenly started to vibrate, and then they seemed to just fall apart. "Good, I'm getting better at it!" the voice said in satisfaction -but her lips still didn't move. "We had better hurry before someone notices we're free."

But it appeared to be too late - a strange wailing sound, probably an alarm, was blaring - and the people on the other tables throughout the room were suddenly moving. Lily pushed the smaller girl to the floor and fell on top of her, and a rock smashed into the wall where her head had been, just an instant before. A rock thrown by one of the throng of humans advancing their way!

To the rescue?

The room remained unlighted, so Red Rocket fired up the ol' 8 million candlepower spotlight, suitable throttled down, and they explored. Oxide recognized the room in which he had been captured, and sure enough, there was his beautiful black Jaguar, seemingly untouched. Oxide was relieved - he didn't even want to think of what it would take to get off Mel's spit list if the car had been destroyed! Val was impressed and more than a little jealous - her '59 Vette was the hottest car she could afford, but she had greater plans.

There were also a lot of unmoving robots cluttering the room, and the heroes girded for battle but relaxed cautiously when the robots continued to remain quiet.

"Let's get out of here before somebody turns them back on! The don't follow the First Law of Robotics!" Oxide urged, remembering the beating that had preceded his capture. Val was mystified by the reference but Rocket grinned - of course, a guy who wore a flying suit would read Asimov! "There's where I came in." he pointed at a wall that looked just like the others.

Rocket tried to cut out through the hull with his disintegrator, but it was much more resistant than the interior bulkheads had been. His sensors showed that it was reinforced by the same type of force field that had given him so much trouble back in Chicago. Oxide hopped into the car and reached up under the dashboard, then pointed a funny looking gun at the wall. A pale orange beam sprung out, but it reached the hull and nothing happened, presumably blocked by the same field. Rocket noted some very strange readings on his energy sensors before Oxide released the trigger.

"Say, guys - this looks like it might be the controls for the door!" Majique's intuition had led her to a panel set into the wall adjoining the one that was resisting the weapons of the two male heroes. "Wonder what will happen if I push…"

"NO! Wait!" Rocket yelled. "Don't! You might…" Oxide shouted at the same time, but it was too late…

"…this one?" and she did. The lights came on.

"…activate the robots!" Oxide finished, running down slightly when nothing much happened.

"Don't push any more buttons!" Red Rocket commanded, and headed for the control panel, but she was undeterred.

"Who died and made YOU the boss anyway? Remember who rescued who, here!" and she pressed another button.

'Who rescued whom' he corrected automatically, weakly. They watched the wall split and the two halves slide out of the way…

"See - it's no big deal!" she crowed. An energy blast bounced from the deck next to her, and then another splatted on Red Rocket's force field. The Jag roared out the door, already doing 40, and Rocket flew out after it, carrying Majique. Once outside, Oxide turned slightly to the right and hit the brakes hard. The car squealed around through about a 220 degree turn and stopped.

"Damn, I forgot about the rear springs." Oxide bitched to himself and he once again fired his pale orange beam, back through the open door. "Going away present for you buckets of bolts!" he gloated. The energy bolts stopped blasting through the door. Rocket dropped down beside the car.

"Neat - what was that?" he enquired. 'Got to add that beam to the suit!' he was thinking.

"Trade Secret!" Oxide quipped. "I could tell you, but I'd have to shoot you!" Meanwhile, as her two macho acquaintances were yukking it up, Majique was scoping out their situation.

The Frantic Four!

Donal awakened to pain and confusion - he felt as if he had been kicked in the head by a mule, following which he had rolled down several flights of marble stairs. And he quickly discovered that he was in the body of one of the chauns, but his mental link with the others was broken! His memory started to return - as the saucer had sped away from Phoenix, he had felt that link stretching and then it had snapped and the recoil had knocked him unconscious. He realized he was lucky to have awakened at all - none of the chauns had ever been this far away from the others before and separation such as this might just as easily have killed him…

Each of the chauns had Donal's personality, but they never bothered naming themselves, as they never thought of themselves as independent beings - they were all part of the whole, and even thought they could operate independently they were always under the control of the over mind. But that wasn't true now, and the isolated chaun decided to refer to himself as Don. Don Chaun sounded perfect to him, right then. He wondered briefly if he would retain his new-found independence after he rejoined the others, then decided that for the moment, it didn't matter. He had places to go and things to do - if he could figure out where he was, and what needed to be done!

The saucer he was in was quiet, but he could hear a commotion nearby. A lot of people screaming, and they sounded angry. He'd better check it out. Don moved cautiously out of his hiding place, and then to the door through which he'd entered the saucer. It stood open, and the clamor got louder. He couldn't see the howling crowd yet, but they were nearby. He headed off in that direction and then he heard another sound - a high powered automobile, roaring towards him at high speed! There was the squealing of tires, and a sleek black car slid around the curve of the saucer and then straightened out, heading directly for him, not 50' away!

Any human observer would have said that Don must have acted instinctively, so quickly did he move, but what actually happened was this:

The black car started sliding sideways, and Don watched it closely. There were two people in it, a black man with a domino mask driving, and a white woman with a red scarf in her hair, hanging on tightly and yelling her approval of the ride, barely audible over the roar of the engine and the squealing of the tortured tires. Flying above the car was a human figure dressed mostly in red and yellow, a figure anyone who had lived in Chicago recently would be familiar with - Red Rocket! As soon as he realized that the black car (it looked like something he'd seen in a documentary on the Grand Prix of Endurance at Le Mans) was going to drive right through the spot he was standing, Don started calculating his next move.

By now, the driver was standing on his brakes, but the Jag was not going to slow down very much in less than 50'. Still Don didn't move, and the car was close enough that he could read the manufacturer's name from the symbol on the front (a Jaguar, he should have known!) and then at the last possible microsecond, he jumped - not as high has he could have, either! He tilted his body somewhat and the car struck the soles of his feet - and he instantly jumped again, as hard as he could, pushing off from the hood

It didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped - the pressure on his legs was a little uneven, and he tumbled as he rose into the air - but he was a superbly trained tumbler, and quickly regained control. Seeing that the tiny person had somehow managed to get out of his way, Oxide hit the gas again. Just as Don reached the peak of his jump, Red Rocket caught him - as he'd intended.

"Where's the fire, Red Rocket?" he asked the startled hero. "Would ya be needin a hand, now?"

Below them they could hear Oxide swearing. "He left a dent the size of a softball in the hood! Mel is going to kill me!"

Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here!

'They must be brainwashed' Lily thought about the horde of people swarming towards them, screaming, throwing things, and waving improvised weapons. 'They probably don't want my autograph!'.

She jumped to her feet and pulled a large tray off a nearby lab bench, dumping the contents randomly. The top of the bench started to smoke as some of the glass bottles broke, spilling chemicals. Holding the tray in one hand as a shield against the things that were being thrown at them, she helped the smaller girl to her feet. She tried to summon the courage her powers gave her, and she started to realize the big difference between being fearless - which Kali was, given that she believed nothing could hurt her - and being courageous. Could she go on despite her fear? She had to!

The smoldering table suddenly burst into flames with almost the force of an explosion, knocking the two heroines backwards. They would have been badly burned if it hadn't been for the tray Lily was holding; as it was it burned her fingers and she had to let go. The other woman stared at the approaching mob with a look of determination on her face, and suddenly, Lily was stunned by an incredibly loud explosion - it sounded like cannon fire? The noise seemed to have been 'aimed' away from them somehow, though - the effect on the approaching mob was even more stunning, as many of them were literally knocked off their feet, and the surge of people was blunted as those further back tripped over the fallen in the front of the wave. There was a few seconds of relative silence - no, Lily could faintly here the 1812 Overture through the ringing in her ears - and then another super-amplified cannon blast, and then the two girls were running towards the door though which the aliens had wheeled the smaller woman on her gurney.

The door slid out of the way, and they rushed through into a short corridor, and the door at the other end slid open, and they kept running.

Lily was extremely frustrated that the best she could do was run! As Kali, she could easily have stood up to the entire wild crowd, or even just picked up her companion and flown away. She was almost helpless here, though, and she hated it!

Both women were startled when a red-clad flier flashed overhead and a beam of some kind struck the door through which they had just passed. Lily quickly recognized Red Rocket, who she had met a time or two in her Kali identity. The smaller woman took her arm and pointed, and she saw a black car speeding towards them at high speed.

"The cavalry, come to our rescue, just like in the movies!" she said in her ghostly voice..

"Sorry, no" Rocket had overheard as he landed nearby. "We're actually escaping…" Oxide slid the Jag to a screeching halt not 15 feet away.

"Oh! Well, so are we. Let's go!" said the voice of the tiny heroine.

It was too late. The door that Red Rocket had flash-welded closed burst open and the crowd of screaming people surged through it. "I think they are the bad guys!" the smaller woman's voice said.

A Slow Start...

Red Rocket had been coordinating the group's efforts with Oxide via his helmet radio, but as soon as the mob burst out of the large building, there was a incredibly powerful burst of static that practically deafened him. He instantly switched off his radio - and realized at the same instant that his radar was suddenly hurt his ears so that he turned off his radio, and he quickly realized that his radar was being jammed as well. At that exact moment, he was surrounded by a some kind of cloud that totally blocked his sight. And an instant later, something slammed into him and his armor stiffened to protect him. He thought that the cloud might be made up of thousands of illusionary insects, as he couldn't sweep them away, and the hurtling body that had slammed into him hadn't disrupted the cloud at all.. He couldn't fly upwards and out of this cloud, because he'd realized they were in a very large room, probably underground, and he didn't want to brain himself on the ceiling. So he dropped from his normal flying altitude of 60' to 20' and was able to see again.

And a woman rocketed upwards from the ground with both hands above her head, and slammed into him, spinning him upwards and out of control. As he pinwheeled upwards, he caught another glimpse of her and realized that she wasn't flying - her legs had extended to tremendous length, and were now contracting again, And then yet another body slammed into him, something that looked like a giant beach ball with arms, legs and a head, and then the ball plummeted downwards. bounced and slammed into him again on the rebound, almost too fast for him to follow, bouncing him high into the air and even more out of control. At least he was out of range of the next bounce by the human beach ball, though!

Another flying human smashed into him, though there was virtually no impact. This flier wrapped him in her arms, and suddenly they were plummeting downward, as Red Rocket's gravity flight controller was overwhelmed - this person suddenly weighed around 5 tons! Red Rocket flew by control of gravity, so he could adjust to this type of attack, but it would take a few seconds, seconds he didn't have enough of, and they smashed into the ground, Red Rocket underneath, before he finished resetting his gravity flight controller to compensate for the extra unexpected weight.

Oxide pressed a button on the dashboard, and a slim rod rose from the hood of the car, just in front of the driver's window, and the top inch or so of the rod pivoted to become horizontal, while a small panel slid back on the dash, revealing a small TV screen above a smaller control panel. Val heard a whirring noise behind them and turned to see a small panel in the trunk slide out of the way and some kind of small cannon on a round platform rose smoothly into view.

The screen lit up, and Colt moved a small joystick next to the screen until the screen showed the approaching mob. The tip of the antenna rod swiveled back and forth, and steadied, pointing at the crowd. He deftly maneuvered the joystick until a red circle on the center of the screen started flashing, and then he pressed a button the control panel. With a muffled 'whoomph' the cannon fired, and a fist-sized projectile swooshed up, and then dropped on the crowd, exploding with a puff of smoke which cleared to show a large net, spinning rapidly. Before they could get out of the way, the net fell on the mob, ensnaring a dozen or so and causing chaos as ever more of them tripped over their trapped fellows.

'I owe you guys dinner' he promised the absent Mel and Bruno. Many of the car's gadgets hadn't yet been tested in combat, but this one had worked like a champ. One of the people who hadn't been caught in the net stopped and pointed at the Jag, and it stalled immediately, and all the lights on the control panel went out. Oxide pointed his oxidation pistol at that man, carefully counted clicks on the selector dial, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened - somehow the man seemed to have stopped the electricity in the car and his pistol. He vaulted out of the car "Stay behind me, darlin'" he said over his shoulder to Majique. "This could get rough!"

"Are you out of your &*(&^% mind!?!?!" Val snarled at him, using language she would never use in front of a client. "I can take care of myself just fine, thank you!" She wasn't quite that sure, but _nobody_ treated her like some helpless damsel in distress! She grabbed the bag from her belt and spoke to it with quiet intensity "You better stop playing games, buddy, or I'll cut you up and use you to patch my blue jeans! I need something to help, RIGHT NOW!" She yanked the top open - she could feel it resisting, but her adrenaline was pumping. She reached inside and grabbed - and something slipped right into her hand. She pulled it out, ready to wield whatever mighty weapon her magic pouch had provided against the approaching enemy mob.

Only to find she was wielding a small spiral-topped notepad, such as she had often seen used by reporters, with the capital letters LL embellished on the front cover. Snarling in the Rom language, in words that might cause paper to burst into flames, she threw it from her and hopped from the Jag, paying no further attention as it fluttered to the ground. She hopped out of the car, and when her feet hit the ground they shot out from under her and she flopped hard on her tailbone. The air around her turned blue with Rommish curses…

Still Slow

The spot where she'd landed had been incredibly slippery - though it looked just like any other patch of stony ground around. She touched it - and it felt like any other patch of ground. She started climbing to her feet, and as soon as the sole of a boot touched the ground, it skidded out from under her and she plunked down again. She checked and the soles of her boots were as slippery as wet ice! The horde was getting closer, and some of them were waving swords and guns around. She had to do something!

Reluctantly, Majique reached up and undid one of her earrings. She always wore a number of magical items as part of her client-facing image, bangles and bracelets and rings and jewelry and the like, and she was pretty sure she knew what this one did. Her earrings were carved from hard, red wood, and they were very old and worn, with few distinct features, but they looked like they were probably supposed to be carvings of animals. Her great-grandmother had given her one of the carvings and Val had worked very hard to carve the other, and then make it look as old and worn as the original.

She weighed the token in her hand. If she used it, it would be destroyed, and she had nothing else like it. On the other hand, pretty much every magical artifact she had gathered was a singleton, and she wore them anyway because she might need them. She threw the worn earring as hard as she could, and when it landed there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke - and suddenly there was a pack of wolves there, as well. A howling pack of very large wolves, who snarled and charged the charging pack of snarling charging humans. The human wave halted in confusion and some of them turned and ran. Val made another attempt to get to her feet, and found that whatever had affected her boots was gone.

While the wolves stayed in a pack and closed on the humans in the lead, many of the humans streamed out to both sides and kept coming.

Lily and the small unknown girl reached the shelter of the Jag. For some reason, Lily felt drawn to peek at the seats. On the driver's seat, there were two glowing, pulsing bright white lights that grabbed her attention and wouldn't let go - and she realized that whatever was glowing was in the shape of two L's.

'It has to be a magical message to me, Lily Lovelace!' she thought. She grabbed the notebook and opened it, but it was empty. She thought quickly, then pulled the pencil out of the spring binding at the top and rapidly started writing.

Oxide had been horrified to see the humans being attacked by dire wolves, but he was suddenly too busy staying alive to worry about his potential enemies! Something was rolling towards him, too fast for him to dodge. He waited until the last possible instant and then jumped as high as he could, and whatever it was rolled by. He would have sworn it was a girl, curled up as tightly as she could into a ball, though it had been moving too fast for him to be sure.

"Gutter ball!" he uttered, or tried to, but his words came out jumbled and unrecognizable. He had barely come down when he was set upon by a woman in a karate gi, wearing a black belt. They traded blows for 2 seconds and he quickly realized that she wasn't anywhere near that good - and then the belt uncoiled and slammed him in the chin! She leaped forward and followed up with a kick to the chest, and he staggered backwards until he slammed into Jag and fell backwards across the hood. "You've got a tail!" he tried to voice his astonishment, but once again, his words were scrambled.

Don Chaun, who had been standing on the trunk of the Jag apparently waiting for the fight to come to him, leaped forward, used the hood as a springboard, and slammed into the karate girl. She managed to get her tail between them just before he hit, and it cushioned the blow somewhat, but she was still knocked backwards. A painfully bright light suddenly struck Don in the eyes, and he jerked backwards, crashing down on top of his ally - and the two of them stuck together as if they had just been glued!

"Sticky wicket, wot?" Oxide tried to quip - and was a little dismayed when whatever had been scrambling his words had stopped.

"Nay so cute, ye bloody big Sassenach!" Don snapped back.

Val was screaming in pain. Her remaining earring had just been torn violently from her ear by some unknown force, and her dagger had ripped our of her ankle sheath and gone flying as well.

Ah HA!

High above San Francisco, Shiva broke formation with Master Man. Flying halfway around the world was not nearly as fast or convenient as being instantly transported by Shazam, but it had been an interesting flight. Early on, Shiva had subtly tested the older hero by continually increasing his flight speed until he was straining, and flying faster than he ever had before, but Master Man kept up easily, apparently not even noticing Shiva's extra effort. The Wisdom of Brahman suggested that Shiva's larger size and increased air resistance, especially at such high speeds in the atmosphere, was probably the reason. Shiva reasoned that he was probably stronger than Master Man, though, again based on their relative sizes.

Shiva also had started to develop a couple of powers that Captain Marvel had never displayed. He was surprised to find that Master Man was working on the same kind of program - and thrilled to find a confidant with similar experiences to share. They discussed their methods and showed off their new abilities, and then it was time for Shiva to meet Palette, while Master Man flew on to Chicago to recruit Tom Atomic and Lady Victory to their cause.

Shiva landed in an alley in the Haight, and switched back to Martin Martine. Master Man's video monitoring screen had given him a good idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and he proceeded quickly to a very large house, surrounded by high hedges. The lawn inside the hedges was crowded with sculptures and statues, and the house, though probably dating back over 100 years, was well maintained and painted immaculately. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He tried the door and it was open. He was extremely uncomfortable just walking into a stranger's house, but it was a very unusual and urgent situation.

He found a woman sitting in the living room, reading a book. We've seen her before, Alex Silverstone, a.k.a. Palette, one of the resident superheroines of San Francisco. She looked awful. Her clothes were wrinkled and dirty and there were dark shadows under her eyes. She was slumped over a table, and there were crumbs and pizza crusts littering her lap and the table, and empty beer bottles scattered on the floor.

On one wall in her room, a single scene from a movie of some kind was playing over and over, though no projector was visible. Shiva realized in horror that he was somehow watching the aliens land in Golden Gate Park as Alex had seen it, from the moment the aliens appeared until the moment Miss Music was shot and disintegrated until the moment the alien saucer took off again. He looked away as Alex watched her partner change into her costume, then shuddered when the scene started to play again. Master Man had explained how Palette's powers seemed to work; part of her mind must be reliving the moment of her partner's death over and over again.

"Excuse me, I'm Shiva, the superhero from Fawcett City. You may have heard of me. I'm looking for help to fight the aliens who killed your partner."

"She's alive…" Alex said flatly. "Leave me alone." There was no emotion and no inflection in her voice; to Shiva it almost didn't sound human.

Shiva was stunned. He'd never been ignored before… and, she thought Miss Music was alive? "But… they disintegrated her. I just watched it."

"It's all in here" she picked up a book and threw it at him. "If you really want to help, stop bothering me and figure out where they took her." She never looked up from her reading.

The title of the book was 'Alien Invasion, Coming Right Up!'. With the Speed of Garuda Shiva finished reading the book in seconds. It took slightly longer for the Wisdom of Brahman to help him sort out the obvious untruths and embellishments. He was left with a series of unsupported claims made by the author:

An alien invasion craft had crashed in New Mexico in 1947, While most of the aliens died, the remaining few intended to complete the invasion plans. They used their superior technology to build a secret base underground in the desert, and started their fabrication machines turning out robot armies. Each fabricator machine created a different type of robot.

They'd captured some humans and experimented on them. They used a collection gun which fired a beam at a person, who then instantly was shrunk to very small size, and sucked up into the storage cell attached to the gun, then restored to normal size back at the base. They had discovered that some humans, who had been exposed to radiation over fairly long periods of time, could be 'encouraged' by the alien's technology to 'mutate' and develop super powers, but these super powers were virtually useless - one of the enhanced humans could freeze small volumes of water, about one ice cube worth at a time, for example. The enhancement process also interfered with the humans' mental capacity, allowing the aliens to brainwash them. Despite their limited super powers, these humans were being trained to make use of their powers in service of the aliens. Damien was one such experimental subject, who had escaped and tried frantically to warn the world. Once he got away from the alien machines, both his super power and the brainwashing had worn off.

The aliens had also developed technology which they hoped to use to 'copy' more powerful superpowers from existing heroes into their slave population. Damien had predicted that the aliens would soon begin a four-pronged invasion strategy:

collecting humans who had high exposure to radiation, to increase the size of their slave army; 'harvesting' existing heroes to try to use their technology to duplicate the heroes' powers into their slaves, recovery of various Atlantean artifacts which were had been buried all over North America since the fall of Atlantis; making use of a mysterious device called a Star Gate to bring in reinforcements from their home world.

Damien had no idea about the history of the Star Gate, who built it, how it got to Earth, or why it had never been used before, but Shiva had already experienced it in action. This plus the captures of Kali and Miss Music tended to support many of Damien's claims. The aliens Damien warned about were real, and the invasion he had predicted had started!

Here comes the cavalry!

A loud crashing sound, something metal smashing into something breakable, shattered Tomas Thomas's concentration, and he quickly looked up, to see Lady Victory's disk-shaped shield bouncing away from a now-headless granite statue. The shield then bounced once on the floor and into a corner, then rebounded away, rolling on its edge in a smooth arc. When it rolled over one of her feet, Lady V made a slight kicking motion, and the shield hopped up into the air. She didn't even seem to adjust her hand as she casually closed it on one of the carrying straps.

"I didn't know you could do that?!" he exclaimed. That was pretty impressive, especially for an unenhanced human being.

"I call it 'walking the dog'; picked it up from watching Jack play with his yo-yo" she snapped. "That and a nickel will get me a cup of coffee." Tomas knew she wasn't angry with him. At least, he hoped not!

"You're wrecking the place, you know…" he complained mildly. They were in a well-furnished interior room in the building that housed the DMT Detective Agency in Chicago, a place where the partners often retired to do the reading that is so often associated with being a detective.

"The statue has always been awful. And you know we've been planning to tear out the walls and carpet." Tomas knew no such thing. They had discussed it once, months ago, and tabled the idea. Until now, he guessed. :"We shoulda been out of here hours ago, if you didn't have to stop and study! You've been tinkering with that alien stuff for hours." Tomas was indeed tinkering with some of the guns the alien invaders had been using. "Todd could be dead by now, or worse! For all we know…"

"You know we're waiting for reports on where to look, Bonnie. We can't just head out and search the whole world."

"I might be able to help…" said a third voice. The two heroes slipped into defensive postures as they turned to face the newcomer. All the doors were locked - nobody should have been able to get in here. And then relaxed again - both of them were familiar with Master Man.

"Why, it's the King of the Mountain!" Tomas quipped. He'd once thought he was the most powerful man on the planet. Master Man had knocked him out of the top spot, just by existing, and there was now something of a friendly rivalry between the two heroes. "We were just getting ready to leave."

"Red Rocket is held captive somewhere in the American Southwest" Master Man cut to the chase. "Several other heroes were captured as well. Shiva and I are putting together a team of the remaining heroes to attempt a rescue - and fight off the alien invasion."

"Do you know where in the Southwest?" Lady Victory asked anxiously.

"Somehow they are able to foul up my monitoring devices, so I'm not sure exactly. But I should be able to get us close enough so that Tom's gravity anomaly detector should work."

On the Road to Roswell....

Shiva insisted that Alex take a few hours and take care of herself, including a couple of hours of sleep, before they moved on to their next destination, Phoenix. Damien's books suggested that Miss Music would be kept alive so the aliens could replicate her powers in their army of mutated human slaves, and Palette wouldn't be of much help in a fight as she was. As soon as Shiva drew her attention to her physical condition, she was astounded by how awful she really felt. It was a measure of her condition that she didn't argue but followed his directions and immediately took a nap.

While she was asleep, Shiva headed to a nearby junkyard and did a little construction. He used his powers and materials recovered from several junked cars, to forge a streamlined capsule around two comfortable bucket seats. He could tow this with one hand and Alex and one other could ride in comfort, even at super speeds.

When he got back to find Alex still sleeping, Shiva changed back to Martin and did a little shopping, then started work in the kitchen. She awakened to the smell of a thick steak sizzling in the broiler, and the two of them quickly demolished the huge meal he had prepared. Alex pronounced herself back to normal, so she donned her costume, and they headed for Phoenix.

Donal Regan was in even worse shape than Alex had been. A quarter of his body mass was missing, along with some unknown part of his mind and life energies. He was weak, his balance was poor, his concentration shaky. From time to time, with no warning or clear cause, he would be overcome by something resembling an epileptic fit - his limbs would stop working, and he would begin shaking violently. This seemed to be his body adapting to its new conditions - he'd had 4 or 5 of these fits over the last day and they seemed to be getting less painful.

Fortunately, he'd been able to reach his car at the airport without anyone seeing him, and he'd made the 10 minute drive home safely. He had been in hiding ever since. He'd managed to contact Zack on the phone, and asked his foreman to keep people away from him for a few days, claiming the trauma of the invasion had caused him to have flashbacks to an earlier, grimmer era in his life. Zack understood - he still sometimes had similar flashbacks to some of his experiences in Korea. Zack put out the word that Donal was among those people missing after the alien attack.

'In a way, 'tis absolutely true!' Donal thought wryly to himself, picturing the missing chaun.

Donal was fighting through his illness, packing stuff and hauling it to his car, getting ready to drive to New Mexico, even in his current condition, when Shiva and Palette showed up. Shiva carefully opened the back door to Donal's house, breaking the lock as he did so. Donal recognized the 7' tall, 4 armed hero with the long flaming red hair, blue skin and an extra eye instantly. He dropped the suitcase he had been struggling to carry and sat down on top of it, exhausted.

"Ye'd best have a good reason, breakin' inta a man's house that way, hero or no!" He tried to project anger and energy, but he didn't have enough energy to spare, and it came out flat, almost as a whisper. "What's a big hot shot New York City hero like ye doin here, anyway?" Even his accent was mostly drowned in his fatigue and illness.

"We're looking for the aliens that have been attacking cities all over the US" Shiva replied. "Putting together a team of heroes to drive them away".

"Crap, Shiva - look at this guy. What are we doing here?" Palette wanted to know. "He couldn't last a round with Howdy Doody!"

Donal stared at her, but didn't have the strength to reply. "You didn't look much better this morning" Shiva reminded her, gently.

"Yeah, but what's wrong with him? How is he going to help us, anyway?"

His anger lent him strength. "Bollox! D'ye ken where they be hidin'?" he asked. "I do."

This tidbit piqued her interest. Shiva had indicated that he only had a vague idea where the aliens were, somewhere near Roswell, New Mexico. She hadn't looked forward to spending hours searching through the desert, even at super speed. Still, why should they believe him?

"How could you possibly know that?" she asked scornfully.

"Those bloody cafflers took away a wee piece o'me" he replied, already close to worn out again. "Ye'll have ta trust me, now."

"We should get moving before you get any worse" Shiva spoke up. "I think he'll start feeling better as we get closer." Palette looked unconvinced - but who would argue with Shiva? Shiva gently helped Donal into the carrier, and Palette got into the other seat, and they were gone.

Lily to the Rescue!

The attacking human group responded instantly to the threat of the dire wolves.

"Manos, Commander - stop them!" ordered the leader, a tall thin woman.

One of the men stepped forward. Medium height, medium weight, nothing distinctive other than his thick curly black hair and beard. And the crackling noises that were coming from near his hands, as they... changed. He raised one into the path of the lead wolf, and it snapped its jaws shut - and instantly let out a wail of pain, as some of its teeth were broken off. Then the man swung his other hand, now a granite gray color, down on the back of the wolf's head. Bones crunched, and the wolf collapsed to the ground, where it twitched feebly. The other man threw back his head and... literally... howled! The sounds were good enough to fool any human listener, and they seemed to be good enough for the remaining wolves, who came to a skidding halt, listened for a second, and then turned and ran!

The leader pointed at another member of her group. "Sticky, go help Massy hold down the red one" she pointed to where Red Rocket struggled to move, pinned to the Earth by a small woman who had her arms and legs locked around the hero. Struggle though he would, she remained motionless, and immovable. 'Sticky' rushed up to the downed hero and started squirting some kind of gooey gunk all over him - stuff that seemingly oozed from his skin!

"RFI, you take a rest" Deviser knew that using his radio and radar jamming powers tired him tremendously, and if reinforcements showed up for the other side, they might need him again. "Fuse, keep that car offline; we don't know what other kinds of weapons are in it." Fuse could stop the flow of electricity in limited areas.

"Legs, Kicker, Beach Ball, you take the guy in the trench coat!" A large woman kicked a small, round man very hard, and he shot away like a cannonball, and bounced off of Oxide's chest, almost before he could react. Each time the small man bounced, he seemed to gain energy. While Oxide was falling, another woman raised her leg from the ground, and it rapidly stretched and her foot clipped him on the chin, setting him to spinning as he fell. Meanwhile, moving like a world champion gymnast on a tumbling run, Don Chaun had launched himself at Deviser. A portly elderly gentleman, who looked like a college professor, stepped between them, and just before Don could impact his new target, he struck some kind of powerful repulsive force which threw him strongly backwards. "Like poles repel" chuckled the older man, who called himself 'Chick Magnet'.

Majique had given up trying to rise - every time she tried to move, the villain named Slick Rick turned one surface or another frictionless, and she would slip and fall again. She was frustrated and embarrassed - and extremely angry. She pointed her finger and repeated one of the two spells she actually knew - and he was battered by dozens of invisible fists. The spell drew power from her anger, and left her drained - but Slick Rick wouldn't be bothering anyone for a while!

Lily and the smaller woman raced past the battle to cover behind the Jag. Miss Music, the smaller heroine, turned back to the battle and prepared to assist. Though she could only directly create audible sounds, she had a trick for creating ultra-high frequency sounds. By simultaneously projecting several audible sounds with just the right difference in frequency, she was able to generate am ultrasonic beat frequency, and she could achieve various effects with this ultrasonic frequency, such as shattering metal handcuffs. Properly tuned, she could even knock a person out, though the tuning was different for each person.

Lily's attention, meanwhile, was grabbed by something. She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to look into the car - and her eye was immediately drawn to the reporter's notebook. "Why, those are my initials! And they are even in my handwriting!" For her signature, she had developed a distinctive style, and those two capital Ls were definitely in her style! Yet, she had never seen this notebook before. Why was it drawing her attention so strongly? She wasn't a damn reported, and she wasn't interested in writing anything down! She wanted to say her magic word and end this battle now!

And then she got it. She yanked the pencil out of the binding and wrote as fast as she could, then grabbed Miss Music by the arm.

The younger heroine shook her off, and pointed at the fight. Lily saw one of the enemy humans fall over. She shook Miss Magic again, harder this time, and thrust the notebook in front of her face.

"I need to be able to say 1 word! Help me say 'Rakasha'!"

Miss Music was busy but Lily was practically frantic. Tammi realized that it would be easier to do what Lily wanted and then she could get back to the fight. She used her powers to talk. "OK, on Three. One… Two… Three!" Lily mouthed her magic word, and Miss Music projected the word as if Lily had said it - and it worked!

A circle of greasy yellow flames burst from the ground beneath Lily's feet, enveloping her, and then the flames faded, leaving a cylinder of thick, greasy black smoke - and Kali exploded out of the smoke like someone had left a cannon shell in a fire! She didn't even glance at the battle, she already had a plan. She flew to the nearest saucer and started to rip it apart. She cut away part of the upper hull, and then tore lose anything that had been attached, until she had a giant wok. She then tossed it into the air, and moved at super speed throughout the battlefield, picking up the enemy combatants and piling them all in one place. She finished, and moved out of the way, and the giant wok came down over the piled-up enemy team. The edges dug deeply into the soil, and the bad guys were trapped!

Kali sat down heavily where she was and didn't move. Miss Music had used the diversion to blast Red Rocket clear of the sticky stuff that had been holding him down, and he approached the motionless heroine.

"Kali, I presume?" he said, ironically. Who else could it be? "Thanks for ending the fight!" She still didn't move. "What's the matter?"

She turned towards him. "I'm blind." She replied in a small, toneless voice. He was stunned to see two small, absolutely black balls where her eyes should have been. "She continued. "You should see about sealing the holes in the top of the cover I just made before they start getting out" and then she ran down.

Rocket flew to the scrapped saucer and used his gravity controller to pick up some scraps of sheet metal, flew them to the trap, and used his plasma torch to weld shut some of the holes. Kali had made them so that the air trapped inside the shell when it had crashed down was able to escape to try to prevent injury to the enemy humans. Even with the holes, the instant increase in air pressure had knocked most of them out.

When he got back, Majique was inspecting Kali's eyes. "No trace of magic" she reported.

Rocket used the vision magnification powers of his goggles, and his various sensors, to test for scientific causes. "It seems to be a local phenomenon, rather than a projection from somewhere else" her reported. "As far as I can tell, your eyeballs have been turned black. There isn't any detectable signal keeping them that way. I would say that the effect will wear off fairly soon - sooner, if we could get whoever did it to undo it."

"But we don't know who did it!" Majique protested.

"Someone in the trap!" Kali yelled. She punched a hold in the shell, and then yelled through it. "Whoever did this to me had better undo it!" and she banged on the shell with her fist, taking care not to break it. The noise outside was terrible; the heroes could hardly imagine what it was like inside the shell.

At that instant, a bullet glanced off the shell. Beam weapons started digging up the ground around the heroes, and falling shells began exploding nearby as well.

Don Chaun had climbed to the top of the shell to get a better idea of where they were. "Holy Spit!" He yelled back to his companions. "We're surrounded b'robots! And they dinna look friendly!

"Help is on the way!"

Somewhat surprisingly, the smallest hero took charge. Don Chaun had already known quite a bit about Kali and Red Rocket, and he had been closely observing the other heroes during the current battle.

"What else can yon car do besides firing missiles?" he asked Oxide.

"All the standard spy stuff - smoke screen, oil slick, ejection seat, concealed machine guns - whatever my team could put in it, it's got! One more missile, too." Oxide boasted proudly.

Don turned to Majique. "Think ye kin handle it?"

"You bet!" she answered enthusiastically. She had secretly been longing to drive that powerful Jag since the moment she saw it. She wouldn't trade her 'Vette for anything, but this car was in a class by itself!

Before Oxide could object, the chaun was giving orders. "Oxide, show her how ta release t'oil slick. Majique, cut 'em off!" He swept his arm in a half circle, indicating where she should drive. "Sorry, I diinn ken yer name!" he pointed at Miss Music "Kali can't see. We need you to guide 'er. Kali, just go where yon bonnie lass tells ye too.. Rocket and Oxide, wipe 'em out - and watch each other's backs!"

"There's way too many of them for us to fight 'em all off!" Red Rocket observed. "Maybe we should figure out some way to escape instead."

"Gotcha covered, lad! Help be on th'way!" He saw disbelieving faces around him. "Kinna explain right now. Trust me". Not that they had much choice, with what looked like thousands of robots swarming towards them.

"You'd better not wreck it!" Colt grumbled to Val as he pointed out the controls. "Mel and Bruno will kill me!" Val didn't respond, she just hopped into the car and stomped on the gas. The black Jag tore out, tires smoking and squealing, and Oxide winced, even though that was his favorite method of departure as well. 'I'd almost rather face these robots than Bruno - and especially Mel!' he thought ruefully.

Moving at high speed, Val swept along the face of the wave of attacking robots, and oil sprayed from the car into their path. She completed about a half circle between the hordes and her allies, and then the oil ran out. She spun the wheel and jammed on the brakes and slid to a halt facing back the way she came. Oxide was alternately horrified and impressed with her skill. She had added her own twist to the plan. She grabbed the joystick, aimed, and fired the last remaining missile, and the oil slick flashed into flames as the missile exploded.

Protected on their six by the roaring fire, the rest of the heroes turned their attention to the other robots. Miss Music watched the approaching hordes closely, and projected words directly into Kali's ears, and the big heroine smashed through the ranks of the enemy, blindly but not randomly, and to devastating effect. Red Rocket used his distance weapons, the plasma torch and a powerful microwave beamer that caused robots to stumble and fall. And Oxide swept the wave of oncoming robots with his oxidation gun, and the front rank slowed and faltered as their joints stopped working, and the robots pressing forward behind them knocked their stationary allies to the ground, making further advances difficult. Still the seemingly unlimited robot charge surged forward.

Oxide spared a look around, and realized that the Jag wasn't nearby any longer. Majique was heading at high speed for the largest building in this vast cavern.

To speed up the flight from Chicago to New Mexico, Tom Atomic convinced Lady Victory to use a modified gravity controller, built into a belt rather than a costume's helmet. She normally got along fine without the ability to fly, but she wanted to reach her captured husband as quickly as possible. And besides, there was no dignified way for one of her two companions to carry her for thousands of miles!

During the flight, Tomas was quick to bring Master Man up to date on recent improvements he had made to the abilities built into his costume. For a short time after the Marvel Family had been captured in Suspendium, Tomas had thought he was the strongest man on Earth (and had let it go to his head); ever since Master Man had revealed himself, Tomas kept making improvements to his powers that he could boast about whenever he encountered the older hero.

"Wrist-mounted TV transceiver I can use to communicate with my partners. Upgraded the comm gear in my helmet so I can tap into the phone system from wherever I happen to be; so people with my secret number can call me anytime, anywhere. Sometimes people in trouble can't get to a radio."

"Not bad" admitted the Marvel of the World. "There have been times when I…" Tomas interrupted, too excited to realize what he had just done.

"The latest is a position location device that will allow me to know exactly where I am, anywhere in the Solar System by referencing the sun and some of the nearby stars! So I'll be able to get home even if I get lost in space!"

"What about air and supplies?" Master Man asked dryly. Tomas reminded him of Shiva - both younger heroes were so competitive, boasting about their powers. "It could be a long trip home from 'anywhere'!"

Tomas's response was much quieter than his earlier boisterous tone. "Ummm… I'm working on those now."

Lady Victory winked at Master Man, though Tom Atomic couldn't see it. Even his best friends were sometimes overwhelmed by his enthusiasm.

Interlude: Synopsis:

The year is 1961, the place is Earth-S. 8 years ago, the World's Mightiest Heroes vanished, seemingly forever, caught in a trap set by Dr. Sivana designed to rid the world of heroes. Unfortunately for Sivana, he and his family, and a number of other villains, were caught in the same trap.

Some heroes, such as Lance O’Casey, Dan Dare, Carol Clews and Golden Arrow, escaped the Suspendium trap, and then vanished independently shortly afterwards. Others, such as Pvt. Pep (Radar) Pepper, continued to strive for truth, justice and freedom. And a new group of heroes arose as well. First among them, Shiva and Kali, two awesomely powerful beings granted their powers by Shazam, and then Tom Atomic, Red Rocket and Lady Victory. And 1960 saw the arrival of even more heroes. Some of those heroes appear in this story. Meanwhile, Master Man, who received his powers from Shazam even before Billy Batson, continued to secretly protect the world from his Mt. Everest sanctuary - hollowing out the mountain and building an incredible museum inside during his spare time.

In 1947, a flying saucer crashed in the desert near the town of Roswell, NM. Several of the aliens survived the crash, and undaunted by the disaster and the loss of most of their fellows and their supplies and munitions, they continued with their ambitious plan to invade Earth.

Using robotic labor, they excavated a large underground base in the desert. They then set their replicator machines to work building a robot army, meanwhile using their advanced technology to scan the planet for ancient technology, some alien (left behind by earlier visitors from their own and other planets) and human (for example, Atlantean). Their most valuable discovery was a working dimensional gate, located in Master Man's Mt. Everest sanctuary. At the same time, the replicators wore out, and without a specific element not found on Earth, could not be repaired or replicated themselves.

During this time, they continued to kidnap and experiment on humans. They discovered that a small percentage of humans could be… encouraged to develop minor super powers after exposure to radiation and certain alien mechanisms - and that the alien mechanisms also rendered the exposed humans vulnerable to alien mind control. Unfortunately these powers were random and weak, and generally faded in a short time without continued exposure to the alien machinery. The alien scientists continued working and developed a way to transfer powers from stronger super-beings into their human slaves.

The confluence of events (discovery of the operational dimensional gate, failure of their replicators, development of the power-transference process) the aliens decided to begin the invasion.

Their first order of business was to kidnap as many earth heroes as possible, so they could imbue their own brainwashed human army with greater powers, combining this mission with the excavation and/or recovery of advanced ancient technology. They managed to capture Kali (in her human form, Lily Lovelace), Miss Music and Red Rocket, while one of the Quadrachaun's chauns and Majique managed to slip aboard the alien flying saucers, and Oxide was captured inadvertently, along with his Oxidation Gun, an adaptation of Atlantean technology. Their efforts to recover buried Atlantean technology in Phoenix was thwarted (by Quadrachaun) and some alien technology being studied by NASA in St. Louis was thwarted by the National Guard.

While the saucer from the St. Louis fiasco was retreating to base, Majique managed to free Red Rocket and Oxide. When the saucer returned to base, they joined up with Don Chaun.

To prevent Lily and Miss Music from using their powers, the aliens paralyzed their vocal cords. They then tried to use their infernal devices to imbue members of their human slave army with Kali's powers. This effort failed, because in her Lily form, she has no extraordinary powers. They moved on to Miss Music - who was able to escape because her own power of sound production doesn't depend on her vocal cords.

The escaping women met up with the other invading heroes. Lily figured out how to use Miss Music's powers to change to Kali, and the heroes began destroying the aliens and their robot army. The slave human army, though their powers were much less potent than those of the heroes, gave them a lot of problems, mostly due to the leadership of Deviser, whose minor super power is strategic planning and tactical execution. Still, they were overpowered by Kali - but just as she trapped the humans under an improvised metallic dome, was stricken by blindness by one of the human slaves.

And then another wave of robots attacked!

After setting up the battle strategy, Don Chaun and Majique set out to find the aliens while Kali, Miss Music, Oxide and Red Rocket battle the robots. Miss Music is using her powers to give directions to the still-blinded Kali.

Meanwhile, Shazam sent Shiva to Mt. Everest to seek assistance from Master Man. The two mighty heroes trashed a robot army which had managed to enter the Mt. Everest sanctuary through the dimensional portal. Shiva destroyed the dimension portal. Then the two heroes flew back to the states to find other allies.

Shiva recruited Palette in San Francisco (Miss Music's partner) and Quadrachaun in Phoenix (Donal Regan, weakened because he had never been separated from any of the chauns before. Master Man recruited Tom Atomic and Lady Victory in Chicago and the two teams headed towards Roswell.

When Donal got close enough to New Mexico to regain communication with Don Chaun, the two groups were able to make plans to join up and continue the fight together.

Now back to the story!

The Beginning of the Ending

"OK, then." Master Man summed up the plan. "My group" master Man, Red Rocket and Lady Victory "will join the group fighting the robots while you guys with Shiva" Shiva, Palette and Donal "will join Majique and Don Chaun and search for the aliens - and attempt to cut off the head of this invasion!"

The two teams had joined up in the sky over Roswell, the Shiva team guided by Donal's mental link with Don Chaun, and the Master Man team by Tom Atomic's gravitic anomaly tracker which had locked onto Red Rocket.

"Good luck, all! Let's go - NOW!" Lady Victory was anxious to get to her husband's side.

The two groups split up, and dove towards the ground at different points. Master Man and Shiva weren't even slowed down by the 30' thick rock ceilings over the giant, robot excavated cavern below.

"There!" Donal pointed to the speeding black car, headed towards a building, standing well away from anything else in this vast cavern. The closer he came to Don Chaun, the better he felt - though having one chaun separated and the rest merged still felt weird. Before the three heroes could reach the car, it screeched to a halt at the door of the building, and Majique and Don Chaun hopped out. When Shiva landed, Donal and Palette hopped from the carrier.

"Reinforcements, just like I promised!" Don Chaun announced the arriving heroes, glancing sideways to see if Majique was impressed. Instead, she seemed somewhat overawed to be in the presence of Shiva. Don didn't realize it, but Majique was sensing the powerful magical aura that surrounded the Shazam-powered hero.

"OK, let's check the place out!" Donal was annoyed. He had summonsed Don Chaun to rejoin, but the chaun had resisted - and then he had tried to split, but was unable to. Seemed like there were going to be two of him involved in this expedition - and he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

They smashed through a big double door, charging into the building.

THOOM!

Immediately behind them, a massive panel slid down over the door they had just burst through, and they were blocked from the outside. The door, and the walls of the room they were in, were made of some kind of dull black metal, with no walls. There was a corridor, walled in the same material, extending further into the building. And charging down that corridor towards them was… Captain Marvel?

None of the heroes had ever met Cap, but there was no mistaking the brilliant red skin-tight costume trimmed in gold, or the short white cape. Before the stunned heroes could move, Marvel altered course slightly and smashed into Shiva! The titanic collision produced a burst of noise that knocked the other heroes off their feet. By the time they had recovered, Marvel was pummeling Shiva - and Shiva was recovered enough to begin fighting back. The tremendous force of the blows of these two giants was producing stunning results in the small chamber - Majique, Palette, Donal and Don Chaun scrabbled to get out of the room in the corridor, as they were battered by the pressure waves that followed each super-powered punch.

"They must have brainwashed him!" Shiva yelled after his companions. "You go on, I can keep him busy!"

"!em rof hctam on er'uoY" the Big Red Cheese shouted - and Shiva understood. This wasn't the real Captain Marvel but his mirror-world duplicate, Niatpac Levram! Still, the duplicate had all the powers of the original - the same powers that Shiva possessed. He was in for the fight of his life!

As the other 4 heroes finally made it out of the entrance hall, another panel slammed down. They could still hear the fighting behind them, but they were no longer being battered by the air itself.

"We'd be better off if we were a little less conspicuous" Palette whispered. "I can make us match the walls so we'll be harder to see."

"I can do better" Majique sniffed. She finally had a chance to user her own powers, and she wasn't going to let someone else show her up. She chanted, and waved her hands. "Now we're invisible."

"I can still see you" Donal pointed out.

"It would be a pretty poor spell if we couldn't even see each other, wouldn't it?" she sniffed again."

'How do we know it worked, then?' Palette thought, but didn't say, as they continued on down the corridor. Don Chaun ran ahead of the others, giving Donal an advance view of what they were approaching. Don came to a big room, filled with equipment, where three of the alien beings sat in front of control panels. At least one was looking right at him as he slipped into the room, and there was no reaction that he could see. He quietly slipped across the room so he could see the controls in front of the aliens. One was watching a viewscreen which showed the battle between the robots and the heroes. The second's screen showed the human slaves, trying to get out of the dome in which Kali had trapped them, and the third showed the fight between Shiva and Niatpac Levram.

!elayor elttaB

Shiva was not faring well in his battle with Niatpac Levram. Growing up as Martin Martine, he had idolized Captain Marvel. So had every kid, of course (except his buddy Carter, who always wanted to be Bulletman), but Martin it had been more than just youthful hero worship. Every square inch of his bedroom had been plastered with posters of his hero. He wore a Captain Marvel watch, was never without his Captain Marvel decoder ring, and his most prized possession was a Captain Marvel giant kite - that Cap himself had autographed! He had often wondered if it had been his childhood devotion to Captain Marvel and his ideas that had convinced Shazam to select him as Cap's replacement. And now, here he was, going toe-to-toe with the World's Mightiest Mortal, his ultimate hero. He was so overawed that he was unable to put up a good fight.

And so Levram battered him, almost unopposed. A left to the stomach that doubled him forward, to impact an invulnerable knee, driven upwards with super strength, which straightened him up again, a roundhouse right that drove him backwards, until he smashed partway the wall. As Levram stalked towards him, un unstoppable behemoth, Shiva struggled to bring the Wisdom of Brahman to bear on this situation.

This wasn't the Captain Marvel he knew. Wizzo, the Wizard, had originally conjured Niatpac Levram forth from a 'dimension' on the other side of a mirror. The aliens had found some way to bring him here again. This wasn't Levram's world, and presumably the red-clad being knew this.

Shiva quickly turned his attention to himself. Despite the terrific battering he was taking, so far he hadn't actually been hurt. His own strength and invulnerability was serving him well. He was much bigger than Levram, and, he judged, somewhat stronger. And with 4 arms, he knew some hand-to-hand tricks he doubted Levram would anticipate. He just had to overcome his own reluctance to battle his hero.

He tore free of the wall with the Strength of Siva and dodged Levram's next punch, slipping past him with the Speed of Garuda. For the next couple of minutes, Shiva fought mostly defensively and conventionally, blocking Levram's attacks - convincing himself that yes, indeed, he as at least a match for the other-dimensional counterpart of Captain Marvel. He used all 4 arms, as he didn't want Levram to become suspicious that he was holding back, but beyond blocking most of Levram's blows, and throwing some unusual combinations (such as a double left uppercut, aimed at the solar plexus and the chin simultaneously) he didn't use some of the more esoteric techniques he'd developed in years of sparring with Tom Atomic and Kali.

With his confidence restored, Shiva decided to take control of the fight. He backed away and lowered his guard for an instant. Levram turned, and with the Deeps fo Yrucrem, launched another devastating right-handed haymaker at his chin. With his lower left arm, Shiva pushed the punch inward, and grabbed Levram's wrist with his lower right arm and pulled, then stepped past him and grabbed Levram's left shoulder with his upper left - and quickly spun the older hero around so Shiva was behind him. This allowed him to step in behind the surprised Niatpac Levram, and he quickly used all 4 arms to enwrap the smaller man.

"!ymene ruoy ton ma I dna ,dmoh ruoy ton si siht ,Levram Naitpac". The Wisdom of Brahman made it easy to speak the other's language. "!flewrouy eerf ot Nomolos fo Modsiw eht ese - lleps a rednu era uoY"

He had hoped this would end the fight quickly, but it didn't appear to work. "!Nomed ,em loof t'nac uoY" Levram tried to stomp down hard on Shiva's foot, but at that same instant, Shiva was arching his back, lifting Levram off the ground. What he was going to try now might be dangerous…

"GGSSVB!" he shouted - and a mist of gentle blue rain started to fall into the room, seemingly from the ceiling. With desperate speed, Shiva waved Niatpac Levram through the air, catching every drop of the mystical blue mist on the red-clad being's body. He had no idea if this would work - after all, the magical effects of his transformation had no effect on Kali, or vice versa - but the blue rain had affected Master Man. If Levram wasn't changed, the fight would go on, and Shiva had a few other tricks - but if Shiva was changed back to Martin, it could be the end of Shiva!

Fortunately there wasn't long to wait. Niatpac Levram shuddered in his grasp, and started to shrink, and Shiva quickly slapped a hand over his foe's mouth. Just in time, as the young adult he was now holding tried to say something.

Shiva used his lower left arm in a double arm bar, the upper right as a gag, and working with the other two, was able to tear off some of the metal from wall. He gently wrapped this around the lower face of his now powerless captive, and sealed it. Sure now that Niatpac Levram wouldn't be back quickly, he tore up some more of the wall and bound the younger man's hands.

".emoh ruoy ot rorrim a hguorht kcab uoy dnes ot yaw emos fnid ll'ew dna ,yltrohs uoy for kcab eb ll'I" he promised - and battered his way through the door that had sealed him off from the rest of his new team.

The End of the Ending, The Beginning of Something New

Don Chaun and his larger self, Donal, Palette and Majique watched the alien beings watching flickering scenes on their monitors. Some of the (not Palette) were amazed to see the 4 of them, still standing outside the sealed room where Shiva was battling Niatpac Levram - and then realized that this was a projection, created by Palette, who was starting to look a little strained as the wall where she was projecting the illusion was so far away. Don Chaun got her attention with a hand signal, pointed at the screen showing the illusions. He held up three fingers for all to see, then made a cutting motion with the other hand. The heroes moved into position, and the three fingers counted down… three… two… one… go!

On the display, the 4 illusory heroes disappeared, and the 3 aliens became agitated. Don gave the signal, and the real, invisible heroes attacked, becoming visible as Majique lost her concentration on the spell. Even at only 3 quarters of his original size, Donal was still much larger than the alien he attacked, and his charge knocked the alien from its chair. The small, scrawny being fell the floor and before it could move, Donal kicked for its head. An invisible force field protected the alien, and Donal's foot slammed into the field several inches from the grey body. The field stretched and spread out the force of impact; to Donal it felt as if he had just kicked a 60 pound sofa cushion, while the alien started rolling away. Donal rushed forward, picked up the field-encased alien, and ran as hard as he could for a wall. With the field to cushion the impact, it felt to him like a rugby collision, something he was quite familiar with. The field protected the alien as well, but it was frail and the sudden jarring stop bounced it around inside the force field like a pinball. The little being slumped unconscious.

The second alien was horrified when he monitor screen exploded with light so bright that he was instantly blinded. He staggered to his feet, and Don Chaun rushed in to batter him with punches and kicks. The alien was only a little taller than the chaun, and probably weighed a little less. It was a new experience for Don Chaun, fighting someone his own size, and he was quite enjoying it. Even though the force field around the alien protected him, between his blindness and the constant battering against his shield, he was unable to find his balance and he continued to stagger backwards. Palette slipped behind him and got down on her hands and knees, and he backed into her and fell over her.

Between the two of the, Don Chaun and Palette were able to roll the alien up against his chair, and using a coil of rope the chaun had been carrying since this morning in Phoenix, they bound him, force field and all, to the chair's support pillar. If the grey humanoid dropped the field, it would be able to work itself free, but surely they would notice before that.

Majique saw just enough of her teammates' battles to realize this alien was protected by something invisible, but they seemed pretty helpless otherwise. She smile nastily to herself; this was going to be fun! She unwrapped her sash from her waist and held it in her left hand, then pulled her dagger from the leg sheath attacked. The sash was weighted and she used it like a lash, keeping the alien off balance by cracking it as his face and arms, and then slashing with the dagger when he was open. She knew she couldn't hurt him, so she was using the opportunity for a little practice. Not much, however - she quickly realized that her teammates were watching her.

"So, I've kept him busy - why don't you tie him up?" she snapped at Donal.

"Boy, I don't ever want you mad at me!" he responded admiringly.

"I saw her first!" shouted Don Chaun, startling all of them. The two editions of Donal glared at each other for a moment, then broke out laughing sheepishly.

Val was privately a little stunned. She'd learned to fight to scare off the boys who thought that a Gypsy girl was automatically a tramp; she'd never figured being a knife fighter would make her more attractive to anyone. She looked at the two, identical except for size, with a new interest.

There was a loud explosion - a sonic boom, Palette realized, as Shiva appeared in the room, He took in the scene instantly, applied the Wisdom of Brahman, and instantly smashed the control panels into smithereens. The force fields surrounding the three aliens winked out of existence.

Master Man, Tom Atomic and Lady Victory flashed down from the ceiling of the giant, alien-excavated cavern outside of Roswell, NM, and landed in the group of heroes which was totally encircled by attacking alien robots.

"Good to see you guys!" Red Rocket greeted his partners and Master Man. "We don't have time for introductions, but we could sure use your help!"

"Master Man, Robot Fighter. That’s me!" quipped the Wonder of the World, as he flashed into action. Even though they were engaged in a battle, Tom Atomic made a mental note of the concept - he'd find some way to work it into his role playing game rules.

With two of the three most powerful beings in the world in this fight (even though Kali was still blinded) and Tom Atomic (who thought he was probably 4th on the list, though well below the top 3 in power level) the tide of battle soon changed. And then, the battle abruptly ended altogether when Shiva, in the control room, destroyed the communications devices that had been giving the robot army its orders!

The super powered humans in the dome Kali had created lost their powers, and their compulsion to attack the heroes, at the same time, as the machine that activated and controlled them stopped working. Kali's vision was restored.

The woman who had called herself Devisier was explaining: "The aliens have a machine that they can use to give super powers to some humans. It can either activate minor powers, when used alone, or duplicate powers, if it has a `template'. And it allows them to control the person with the powers. They kept trying it out on people they'd captured, hoping that one of us would have a major power that they could then duplicate, but none of us did. Finally, they decided to capture one or more of you super heroes and duplicate your powers."

"So you're not super any longer" a skeptical Oxide asked the captured humans.

They laughed. "We were hardly `super' to begin with." she replied "Making ice cubes, bouncing, making radio static - hardly what you think of as super powers."

Thinking of the trouble they'd had, Red Rocket replied ruefully, "You used them pretty effectively. Grounded me pretty well!"

"That was my power - getting the most effective use of everyone else's powers" Deviser explained.

"So, how many of there were you, anyway, and what were your powers? I only got here in time to fight the robots." Lady Victory was curious. Maybe her partner, Tom Atomic, could use these powers as part of his new role playing game, Super You! ™

The various no-longer-super beings introduced themselves and explained their ex-powers:

Deviser - tactical genius at coordinating a group of super powered beings
Damien - able to prophesize the aliens' future actions
Minimirage - can create a single, very small illusion (about the size of a quarter) and then make many copies of that small illusion, in a small volume of space (about the size of a VW Beetle
RFI - able to project static that interferes with AM radio and radar
Legs - a woman whose legs can grow to incredible length (but only her legs)
Kicker - a woman who has super strength in one leg only
Beach Ball - a boy who can bounce off of things, picking up kinetic energy as he bounces
Massy - a girl who can control her own weight, from virtually zero up through about 5 tons
Fuse - a man who can stop electric current in a limited area
Slick Rick - can create small frictionless patches on flat surfaces
Strike - can roll herself into a ball shape, and the roll at high speeds Jambalaya - can jumble the words spoken by others
Tamarin - is a very attractive girl with a prehensile tail
Ferrite - a man who can exert magnetic attraction on iron, steel and nickel, equivalent to his own strength
Cold Spot - a girl who can freeze small volumes of water almost instantly, about 1 ice cube's worth at a time
Manos - can convert his hands into stone
Moreau - a man who can speak to animals, in their own tongues
Sticky - can ooze glue from his pores
Chick Magnet - a handsome older man with graying temples and glasses, whose body can exert a force that pulls females towards him and pushes males away
Black Ball - she can create ping-pong ball sized spheres of total blackness

The more powerful heroes (Kali, Master Man, Tom Atomic and Red Rocket) were pretty amused by this list, but Oxide (who carried a gun that can alter the oxidation process), Miss Music (able to project her voice and recreate any sound she had ever heard) and Lady Victory (who carried an invulnerable shield) were pretty quiet - their powers were more akin to those on the list than to the powers of their super powered teammates!

In the control room, the other heroes, Shiva, Don Chaun and Donal, Majique and Palette were interrogating the aliens. It turned out that the aliens were clones with a shared consciousness, and they and their species had recently (in cosmic turns) had a run of terrible luck.

The radiation from their sun had slowly grown fatal to all life, as the X-ray portion of the spectrum had become gradually more intense.

Their first plan, to send a robotic spaceship to another planet carrying a Star Gate through which they could escape, had failed when the robot had landed near Atlantis, and the Star Gate had sunk beneath the ocean, where it would lay until Master Man had recovered it and stashed it in his Trophy Hall deep beneath Mt. Everest.

Their second plan, reducing most of the population to memories in a super computer, and then sending it to another planet in a second robotic spaceship, had gone awry as the robots and other mechanisms on the ship had started to fail, forcing the computer to restore one alien - who cloned itself and barely managed to keep the ship from being destroyed when it crashed on Earth. There had been 4 clones who shared a consciousness; one had been killed in St. Louis leaving only there 3.

The aliens had left robots on their home world, and those robots had been manufacturing ever since. The plan had been to find the Star Gate, which would give the aliens on Earth instant access to thousands of years of robotic output on the home planet, including an army of powerful robots specifically designed for battle. Unfortunately all these robots had materialized in Master Man's Trophy Hall.

The clones had used the damaged machinery on the ship after the crash to manufacture fighting robots to conqueror the Earth. But their machinery would only build robots based on pre-existing templates. The only templates they had were for labor robots (work in factories, gardening, forestry, mining, etc) so that had modified the templates. But the clones weren't military scientists.

And, of course, their plan to capture super heroes and replicate their powers in slaves had also failed.

The only good thing was that the memory bank containing all the other survivors of their species was still intact.

"Why didn't you just ask for help?" Shiva asked one of the clones.

"As we approached your planet, we observed that your species is always at war. The multi-part conflict you call World War I and World War II (as if the two episodes were somehow part of separate conflicts!), the Korean War, the Vietnam War. And you are a paranoid, militant species, as shown by the McCarthy era and the Cold War. We were sure you would have responded by destroying us - and as the last of our species, that was a risk we couldn't take."

"There's more than a little truth in what they say" said Oxide, sadly. "I've experienced some of that paranoid militancy myself". He thought of bad experiences he'd had with blatant discrimination throughout his life. "But not all humans are like that!"

"With our diminished resources and damaged ship we couldn't take any chances" the aliens insisted. Miss Music thought they might be a little bit insane, though she couldn't blame them after their terrible experiences. "All we really want is an empty world where we can settle - and restore our people!"

"I think I can help with that" Master Man had been thinking fast. "I can take your ship with me to my sanctum, where you can use my instruments or your own to find a suitable world. And then I'm sure Shazam can transport you there."

That was an offer even a bunch of insane aliens couldn't refuse!

The entire group of heroes was gathered to decide how to clean up the loose ends. There were several joyous reunions - Shiva and Kali, Lady Victory and Red Rocket, and Palette and Miss Music. Donal and Don Chaun managed to reunite. And Majique finally made the suggestion that the rest were thinking about.

"You know, we all of us work for the same thing on our own. But sometimes there are menaces that are too powerful for any one of us. None of us could have defeated this alien menace alone, but teamwork allowed us to prevail."

"Are you suggesting we should work together in the future?" Palette wanted to know.

"What a great idea!" Miss Music agreed enthusiastically. . "Why don't we band together - form a Club or Society of our own?"

"Hmm… A League'a Super Heroes…" Quadrachaun mused, thoughtfully. "Stronger together'n we'd ever be, separately.

"Our purpose will be to uphold Justice against whatever danger threatens it!" Oxide added, enthusiastically.

"It sounds good to me" said Master Man. "Plus it will be great to have some friends - it gets awfully lonely sitting up on Mr. Everest day and night!"

"I propose that we call ourselves…" Tom Atomic began, and then paused to build up the suspense "…the Super Squad!"