The Silver Age #4

By Derrick Ferguson

"The Final Challenge"

"My God, what has he done to himself now?" June Robbins murmured in a quiet sort of detached panic. She was afraid, yes, but it was strange sort of fear because it seemed to be happening to someone else, as if her fear was being transmitted to her from an outside source and there was a part of her that knew she was afraid, but also able to examine that fear with a trained scientific curiosity. And that fear was making her feel more alive than she ever had. THIS was what she lived for. THIS was why she had fought so hard to win a place with the four remarkable men who stood at her side as their most dangerous enemy regarded them.

Years ago, Duncan Pramble had stumbled on the alchemical secret of ‘liquid light’, which when ingested, gave him super abilities. It also bestowed upon him a hideous form of immortality since in order for Duncan Pramble to gain a new super power; it was necessary for him to die first. He was then reborn and free to exploit his new powers.

Duncan Pramble stalked toward The Challengers on ten insectile legs that clicked and clattered with chitinous sounds. His segmented torso raised upwards a good fourteen feet into the air. A wicked hot grin stretched across his sickly, greenish-yellow face as two rows of five eyes on either side of his head blinked rapidly, focusing on his enemies. Multi-Man was what Pramble had named himself, but right now, Hellish Monster would have been a better name for him.

"Like it? As you well know, I have no idea what kind of abilities or shape I will have upon my rebirth." Multi-Man’s voice was a harsh rasp like a rusty nail being dragged across old scrap metal. "I daresay that Kra was simply hoping that I would be in a sufficiently dangerous enough form to slow you down until he took off in the Freedom’s Light."

Ace spoke urgently, hoping to reason with Multi-Man, "Pramble, that thing’s powered with a hyper drive. You’re smart enough to know what will happen if a hyper drive is activated within the Earth’s gravitational field."

"Indeed I do. Which is why I’m going to deactivate it."

The Challengers swapped puzzled, yet relived looks. "That’s just fine, Pramble," Ace replied carefully. "Then afterwards we can see about restoring you to your human form."

Multi-Man smiled again, displaying rows upon rows of nasty, sharp teeth that overlapped like the scales of a fish. "My dear man, what makes you think I want to return to human form?"

"Ace, somethin’ tells me that Pramble isn’t exactly lookin’ out for our best interests here." Rocky warned.

Multi-Man turned his head on its long neck to regard Rocky. "For someone who is generally considered to be the ‘dumb’ Challenger, you have always demonstrated an uncanny ability to comprehend the true nature of a situation before your partners."

"It’s called common sense, Pramble. Try usin’ yours."

"You said you’d shut down the hyper drive, Pramble!" Ace yelled.

"And I shall. Right after I suck the marrow out of your bones!" Multi-Man extended his four arms and reached down to seize Ace in one claw and Red in the other.

"Ace! Red!" Rocky rolled out of the way of a clutching hand and reached to his belt for a mini-grenade. If he could hit Multi-Man just right….

June was shocked to feel Prof tugging her away from the fight. She jerked her arm free. "What the hell do you think you’re doing? We can’t leave them!"

"Dammit, June, it’s up to us to shut down that hyper drive! Ace, Red and Rocky can handle Pramble and we’re the only two here with the scientific knowledge who can do it!"

June didn’t argue. When Prof was right, he was right and unfortunately, he was right most of the time. She ran alongside Prof as they made for the space station. "And if Pramble kills Ace, Rocky and Red while we’re saving the world?"

Prof’s voice was cold and distant as he answered; "Then we make sure than Pramble regrets the day he decided to make The Challengers Of The Unknown his enemies."

Rocky flipped the mini-grenade under Multi-Man and leaped upwards, grabbing one of Multi-Man’s arms and displaying remarkable agility for such a big man, swinging upwards to strike the man-monster’s torso with both booted feet. The mini-grenade detonated with a WHOOMP! and Multi-Man screamed in pain and dropped Ace and Red. Multi-Man beat at the flames that danced along his chitinous outer shell.

The three Challengers regrouped and Red asked, "What’s the play, boss?"

"Hit him hard and fast. Rocky, you go in low while Red and I-" Ace broke off and silently pointed. Multi-Man was digging into the floor, his freakishly long arms a blur as he rapidly dug a tunnel and his long body slid into it with an ease that was both elegant and frightening.

The three men ran over to the perfectly round hole and looked down into the depths. "Son of a bitch!" Rocky breathed. He dropped to one knee and howled into the hole; "PINOCCHIO!"

Only echoes answered him. He looked up at his teammates. "Where the hell do you think he went?"

"Wherever he went, he didn’t go far, you can bet the rent on that." Red replied grimly. "I vote we check on Prof and June then go on a bug hunt."

Ace nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me." He led the way as the broke into a quick jog towards the space station. "Just keep alert."

They climbed up the hatch and made their way to the command center where June and Prof were feverishly racing from one illuminated control board to the other. The boards were lit up like pinball machines, which prompted Red to ask; "We’re in a whole lotta trouble, aren’t we?"

Prof elbowed the redheaded daredevil out of his way as he raced over to the main computer center and began yanking panels off. "If I told you exactly HOW much trouble we’re in, you may just decide to drop dead and get it over with."

"One of you want to explain what’s going on?" Ace demanded.

"Kra rigged the main computer so that the hyper drive CAN’T be deactivated. The navigational computer is working on plotting a course to Kra’s homeworld and once it does that, the hyper drive will be activated and then we can all forget about buying beachfront property."

"How long do we have?" Ace asked.

"About 37 minutes," June answered, her fingers flying over two separate keyboards.

"See, the problem with you eggheads is that you don’t think of the simplest solution first," Rocky said. "I don’t care how complicated the thing is, it’s still got an off switch, right?"

"Yes, but Kra has bypassed the entire deactivation sequence!" Prof said over his shoulder as he traced circuitry with a gloved finger.

"Waitaminnit, the Rockhead’s got something besides cooties for once," Red said excitedly. "Just shut down the space station’s power core!"

June and Prof looked at each other sheepishly. "Y’know, Prof, that just MIGHT work," June admitted.

Prof waved a hand. "Go ahead, then. I’ll go look for Dora and the others."

"Hold on a sec, Prof…" Ace said. "June, you going to be okay shutting this thing down?"

"I’ll stay with her, Ace," Rocky said.

"I don’t need a babysitter, Rocky," June protested.

"If Duncan Pramble comes outta the ground, you’re gonna wish you had The National Guard, Juney," Rocky stated with certainty. "I’m stayin’. End o’ discussion."

Ace, Red and Prof left Rocky and June to squabble while they began their search for the crew of Freedom’s Light. Ace noticed Prof’s expression and said, "Something wrong, Prof?"

Prof was shaking his head. "Shutting down the power core…why didn’t I think of that right off? The simplest answer was staring me right in my face!"

"Hey, we’re all a little rattled by what’s been happening, Prof," Red said. "We can’t expect you to have the answers all the time."

"Red’s right, Prof. and you’ve been worrying about your friend Dora…that’s a lot of pressure for anybody…"

"But not for us. One of us gets distracted or loses his edge and that could cause other people to…" Prof’s voice trailed off. "What the hell?"

The three men stopped in their tracks as silent, misshapen forms emerged from the shadows. Men and women who had been horribly altered. Mechanical implants had transformed them into unthinking soulless cyborgs and they approached the three Challengers slowly, their emotionless faces slack and cold.

"Sheesh," Red muttered. "Patrick Stewart ain’t never around when you really need him…"

Drabny pushed himself to a sitting position and shook his head to clear it. Prof’s punch had hurt. A lot. And Drabny wasn’t a fighter. He much preferred doing his fighting with his brains, as any civilized man should. He sniffed the air. The smoke from wood, chemical and electrical fires were in the air. He’d been unconscious through the battle between The Challengers and their enemies. Drabny wondered briefly who had won. Probably those disgustingly resourceful Challengers since if Kra had taken off in the refurbished Freedom’s Light, he’d never had woken up in the first place.

It was just as well. Drabny hadn’t been too keen on seeing all life on the planet perish and had only been playing along with Kra, hoping for an opportunity to bollix up the works himself. Now, with a little luck and a lot of sneaking around, he could find a way off the island and make it to the mainland. From there, he could steal a car or hitchhike to one of his secret labs and—

The concrete floor a few feet from him cracked and buckled and a hideously familiar head burst upwards, clawed hands ripping an even wider exit for the rest of the long, insectile body that pushed into the open air. "Well, Drabny, old boy! Fancy running into you here!"

Drabny started shaking in horror as Multi-Man scrabbled free and stood over him, all four clawed hands rubbing together. "Pramble? Jeez…don’t you ever change into a handsome, good-looking guy?"

"Well..I once DID turn into a dead ringer for Hugh Grant…and promptly got arrested for picking up a hooker…but that’s another story. What are YOU doing, old boy?"

"Me? Uh…just hanging around. Doing nothing much."

"Oh. Then you won’t mind helping me destroy The Challengers, then."

"Well, the thing is, Kra already tried that today. And since I haven’t seen or heard from him, I’d have to take it as a given that The Challengers have yanked his plug."

Multi-Man chuckled, his awful face bending closer. "They have indeed, Drabny, old fish. They have indeed. Last time I saw Kra he was missing his old dome piece. I don’t Kra has much of a future a head of him if you get my drift." One of Multi-Man’s long arms shot out and seized the quivering Drabny by the neck. "But that’s enough of our mechanical friend. Let’s you and I have a meaningful dialog, dear, dear, Drabny."

Drabny felt as if his head was going to explode from within. Multi-Man’s grip was terrifying in its brutal strength. Drabny gasped, his face purpling and frantically signaled for Multi-Man to relax his grip. "Sorry about that," Multi-Man chuckled. "As the cliché goes, don’t know my own strength. Now, where were we…oh, yes! Destroying The Challengers! And you’re going to help me!"

"With all due respect, Pramble, don’t you think it would be more prudent to find a way off this island and marshal our forces and attack them at a later time?"

"And why should we do that when we’ve got them here, isolated from the rest of the world? If we escape off this island now, they’ll only be hunting us down mere days from now! If we kill them here and now, we can use the island’s power plants to blow up the facility and the authorities will assume that we have also died along with The Challengers!"

"Not much point in killing them unless we can brag about is there?" Drabny asked.

"You may do all the bragging you’d like, dear Drabny. As for myself, I would rather not have The Doom Patrol or The Seven Soldiers of Victory or The Justice League hunting me down. The Challengers ARE highly respected and have many friends in the so-called superhero community who would undoubtedly feel that it would be their sacred duty to bring the murderers of The Challengers to justice."

"Ah. You do make an excellent point. Okay. I’m in." Drabny rubbed his bruised, sore neck. Yet ANOTHER lunatic who instead of doing the smart thing and getting the hell as far away from Challenger Island as he possibly could, was going to go head to head with the guys who had put them on the stinking island in the first place. Drabny couldn’t understand how one person could be so stupid. Especially after having seen how easily The Challengers beat Kra…

…. come to think of it, Kra HAD been taken out of action pretty quickly, hadn’t he….

Multi-Man wrapped a long arm around Drabny’s shoulder and pulled him closer. "Now here’s my plan…"

"There…that’s done at last," June, sighed, stepping back from the console. "The power core is shut down. And with twelve minutes to go. Not even close."

"That’s just fine with me," Rocky grinned. "I done had enough close shaves as it is on this one. Not having to worry about the Earth getting’ skragged while we round up Pramble, Drabny and Multi-Woman is okay with me."

"That’s right," June frowned. "Where the hell DID Multi-Woman go, anyway?"

Rocky shrugged. "She was tearing up half the side of th’ mountain to get at Red and we haven’t seen her since then. Dunno what the runt did to get her so riled up at him but she was chasing him somethin’ fierce."

"We’d better go find the others and get this wrapped up…AFTER I get hold of Washington and tell them that we’ve got the situation under control."

Rocky nodded and unclipped his walkie-talkie from his belt and thumbed it into life. "Come in, Ace."

"Rocky! Get yourself out here right now!" Ace’s commanding voice boomed. "And bring June if she’s free!"

Without a word, Rocky ran for the hatch and climbed down the ladder, June right behind him. They reached the bottom of the ladder and leaped off, spying their teammates fighting against a hoard of uniformed men and women who had obviously had some cybernetic modifications done to them. Rocky said to June, "You like football, don’t you, Juney?"

June grinned back at him. "Love it! You hit the dozen on the left and I’ll hit the two dozen on the right!"

Rocky and June charged in like a pair of rampaging linebackers, smashing into the cyborgs, taking them completely by surprise, so furious and sudden was their attack. Ace, Red and Prof had their chance to break free and they all took advantage of the distraction to regroup.

"Anybody got any ideas how we handle this one?" Red wanted to know. "I mean, these guys ARE from the Freedom’s Light crew, right? What the hell happened to them?"

"It was Kra that happened to them!" Drabny yelled from across the spacious room. "Don’t try to fight them! I can help turn them back into human!"

It was Prof who raced over to where Drabny was and tackled him. Drabny hit the floor with Prof on top. "Where’s Dora, you stinking maggot? Did Kra do the same to her? Answer me!" Prof had his gloved hands around Drabny’s neck and was strangling him slowly. Somewhere in Drabny’s brain, his scientific, analytic side wondered briefly just what it was about him that made everybody want to strangle him. So far, everybody he’d encountered today had went right for his throat.

Ace was yanking Prof off the hapless scientist. "Easy, Prof! If you kill him, we won’t find out what Kra did to those people!"

"I should kill him!" Prof shouted, twisting free of Ace’s grasp. He glared at Drabny. "So help me, if you had a hand in doing anything to Dora…"

"We should move this discussion to a safer location, gentlemen!" June advised, pointing at the cyborgs that had recovered and were stalking relentlessly toward them.

Ace nodded. "Let’s move, then."

Once they had safely retired to the main monitoring room of the holding facility and had safely sealed the door behind them, The Challengers relaxed. The thirty or so monitors that were supposed to be displaying the specially designed cells and the grounds were only showing snow. Red immediately began going to work on the monitors.

"What are you up to?" June wanted to know.

"Tryin’ to get these monitors back online so we can know what’s going on around here. We’ve got to locate Multi-Man and Multi-Woman and it wouldn’t hurt to be able to keep tabs on those cyborgs as well." Red was unscrewing panels and wriggling his slim body into the electronic guts of a console.

"Good idea," Ace nodded with satisfaction. "Okay, Drabny, spill it. I want to know everything you know."

"Look, you’ve got to listen to me," Drabny said rapidly. "I really don’t know what Kra did to them. I can make a guess as to the technique he used but since I wasn’t there when he actually did the conversion—"

"You got exactly five seconds to tell us what good you are to us or I’m going to let Prof have you." Ace snapped, jerking a thumb at the lanky scientist who looked as if he were just waiting for the word to tear into Drabny.

"LISTEN to me! Pramble found me and started to rip me apart! The only reason he let me live was to help him bait you into a trap! He wants to kill all of you and blow up the island while he gets away!"

"And why should we believe you?"

"Because I know he’s going to kill me as well! Pramble and I have never been the best of friends, you know that! The only thing I want is to get off this island and away from the lot of you! I’ve been saying that every since Kra let us out but first he then Pramble are too stupid to listen!"

"Bingo!" Red yelped. He had gotten the monitors back online and one by one the snow on the screens were replaced by clear and sharp black and white images.

"Red, find out where Multi-Man is. While he’s running around free, none of us are safe," Ace ordered.

"Sure, sure…just let me try to find Multi-Woman too, okay?"

Prof was heading for the door. "The rest of you can do whatever you want! I’m going to find Dora!"

"We’re ALL going with you to find Dora, Prof!" Ace snapped. "Just hold it a minute, dammit!"

"No! Ever since we’ve landed on the island all I’ve done is put off looking for Dora while we fight one deranged lunatic after another! And I’m sick of it!"

"But what do we do with Drabny?’ June wanted to know.

Prof whirled around and laid Drabny out cold with a beautiful roundhouse.

"Ouch," Rocky said with no sympathy at all. "Drabny just ain’t been havin’ a good day at all. That’s the second time today Prof’s knocked him out. Didn’t pull your punch this time, didja, Prof?"

"No."

"Good going, Prof," Ace grumbled. "There’s no telling what Drabny could have told us about Pramble’s plans! I thought you were supposed to be the brains of this team?"

"I am."

"Well, when are you going to start acting like it instead of like a lovesick schoolboy?"

"I just about had it with you riding me, Morgan—"

"Save it, the both of you!" Red ordered. "I got Multi-Man!"

Red’s teammates crowded around the monitor he was pointing at. Multi-Man was in the main power room of Challenger Island. He was carrying a limp form that he carelessly dropped to the floor as he scuttled over to a bank of consoles and began examining them.

"Oh, God…that’s Dora," Prof whispered. "But how would Pramble know who she is?"

"How does that madman know anything?" Ace growled. "We’ve got to get down there fast before he does anything to make those power generators blow." Ace looked around at the grim faces of his fellow Challengers. "Multi-Man is too dangerous to leave this island. No matter what, we’ve got to stop him. At any cost."

Multi-Man had found a console that with a little work obligingly showed him schematics of Challenger Island. He found that located in the submarine pen were a pair of escape capsules that could hold five people each. At the touch of a button, they would eject their passengers a safe distance from Challenger Island. Multi-Man could only presume that they were for the islands technical staff to evacuate the prisoners in case of an emergency where conventional methods of transport was not feasible. Multi-Man was touched that his enemies would consider evacuating him and the others. It would appear that this would be his way off the island. He would disable the other capsule and leave The Challengers to die.

Dora Lockridge moaned and sat up, holding her aching head. Multi-Man turned and scrabbled over on his insectile legs and scooped the woman up. "Well, returned to the land of the living, have we?"

Dora looked at the hideous monster with a sort of bland, benign terror. There was only such much horror that one’s mind could take and then it began to numb itself to the shocks it was receiving. Dora pushed herself away from Multi-Man as he scuttled closer.

"Oh, don’t be that way, my dear. I assure you, I only want your company until The Challengers arrive. I’m particularly interested in why Kra didn’t turn you into a mindless cyborg drone?"

"I don’t know what you mean."

"Kra turned the crew of the Freedom’s Light into cyborgs. But he didn’t do the same to you. I’m very curious as to what he was saving you for. I’d strongly advise you to indulge me and satisfy my curiosity."

"Kra found out that Prof Haley is a old friend of mine…I think he wanted to keep me healthy and in one piece to use as a bargaining chip against Prof and the others."

"Ah, I see! Professor Haley being an old boyfriend, he would naturally be loath to see anything happen to you! Excellent! You can still come it useful since I have no doubt that The Challengers will be here quite shortly—"

No sooner had the words left his misshapen lips than Red Ryan dropped onto his back from a catwalk above where Red had silently crept. The one thing about Multi-Man that could always be counted on was his disgustingly huge ego, which always blinded him. Multi-Man roared and spun around and around in circles, trying to dislodge Red.

Red whipped off his leather jacket and wrapped it over Multi-Man’s eyes, momentarily blinding him while Prof dashed in to grab up Dora and yank her to her feet. "C’mon, Dora! Run! Run!"

Ace, June and Rocky charged Multi-Man as Red was flung off and Multi-Man ripped the jacket from his eyes. A sweep of his long arms sent The Challengers flying like discarded toys.

"Fools! You’d do well to lie down and accept your fate! THIS time there will be no last minute rescues or lucky breaks to tip the balance in your favor! This time, you’re going to die and die horribly!"

Prof suddenly ran within ten feet or so of Multi-Man and heaved something at him. It was a bottle that smashed on the side of Multi-Man’s head and the liquid inside splashed over his head, neck and shoulders. Multi-Man snarled and charged Prof.

Ace Morgan whipped out a flare pistol from under his jacket and fired a flare right at Multi-Man. The flare struck him and ignited the gasoline that had been in the bottle. Prof had drained the gas from storage tanks in the small workshop located in the holding facility and Ace had found the flare pistol and they had quickly come up with a plan and Red’s diversionary tactic had given The Challengers enough time to get Dora clear and to douse him with the gasoline.

Multi-Man was screaming in pain and rage as he beat at the flames covering his upper body. The Challengers withdrew to a safe distance and watched as Multi-Man pounded on himself, struggling to put the flames out.

"Do you think that’ll kill him?" June asked.

"I don’t know," Ace said slowly. "I’m hoping it’ll incapacitate him long enough for us to get him—"

He was cut off as Multi-Woman burst right through a wall in a storm of masonry and wrecked metal. Her eyes lit up with glee as she spied her hated enemies. "At LAST! Oh, I will so enjoy smashing you all like the bugs you be! I will—" The giant android’s eyes were drawn to Multi-Man, who had beaten out the flames, but was lying on his side, horrible burned. The top half of his body was black and his breathing was wheezy and labored. The greenish chitin had split in nearly half a dozen places and fluids were oozing from the wounds.

Multi-Woman seemed to forget The Challengers as she walked over to where Multi-Man lay. "Duncan? What have they done to you, my love?"

"Burned…tried to burn me…to death…" Multi-Man voice was a hideous, barely audible garble.

"I will DESTROY them!"

"No…pick me up…get us out of here…hurry…"

Multi-Woman tenderly picked up Multi-Man and snarled at The Challengers, "This isn’t over, bugs. But you do get to live a little longer." She stalked from the chamber, her thooming footfalls growing more distant.

"What are we standing around here for?" June demanded. "Let’s get after her! We’ve gotta stop them!"

"And just exactly how do we do that, June?" Ace asked calmly. "We’ve got no weapons and by the time we improvised some, they’d be long gone anyway. And we’ve got to get in touch with Washington and get some doctors out here to treat those poor bastards Kra operated on. We’ve got Drabny and Kra and Volcano Man are destroyed. We’ll have to settle for that for today."

"And it ain’t like Pramble and his oversized sweetheart aren’t gonna come lookin’ for us once he gets healed up," Rocky observed.

"Red, why don’t you and Rocky follow Multi-Woman and see where they go?" Ace said. "Prof, June and I will contact Washington and let the know that the situation is under control."

June was grinning widely and she pointed over Ace’s shoulder. "I think you and I can handle that chore all by ourselves, Ace."

Ace turned around to see what she was pointing at and a slow grin began spreading over his face also. Prof and Dora were locked in a tightly passionate embrace and kissing each other as if they would never stop. Ace took June by the elbow and chuckled; "yeah, I do believe you’ve a point there, June…"

Rocky and Red followed the towering thirty-foot form of Multi-Woman at a safe and discreet distance. "We’re gonna lose ‘em, we hang back this far," Rocky grumbled. "We can get closer.."

"No we can’t." Red replied most definitely. "I’ve had enough of seeing that babe up close today. Tall as she is, we’re not gonna miss her."

The teammates watched as Multi-Woman reached the beach, walking right past the still smoldering remains of Volcano Man and walked into the pounding waves that crashed on the shore. She cradled Multi-Man in her arms as if he were a beloved baby as she continued walking into the ocean, obvious of the waves.

Rocky and Red stopped and watched as she continued walking, the water up to her waist, then her shoulders and finally there was nothing of her visible save her beehive hairdo, which stood up out of the water like some bizarre conning tower for another two or three minutes until that too was gone.

"You think she blew a fuse or somethin’?" Rocky asked Red. The younger man shrugged.

"I don’t think so. Look at it this way: she’s an android, right? So she doesn’t need to breathe. And Pramble will drown, but he’ll just come back to life anyway. Like you said, we’ll see them again. And probably a lot sooner than we would like…"

Ace, Rocky and Red looked up as June entered The Fox Gardens restaurant, one of Gotham City’s five star eating establishments. The past ten days had been a whirlwind of activity as the always tedious task of mopping up after an adventure had been taken care of. The Challengers had spent four days in Washington making their full and exhaustive reports to The Committee On Metahuman Activities. They had then spent another four or five days planning to extensive rebuilding and refitting of Challenger Island.

The layover in Gotham City was due to the fact that they were all preparing to go their separate ways for a time. With no pressing adventure looming, they had all agreed to take some time to pursue their individual interests.

June seated herself and smiled her thanks at Red, who poured her champagne. "Where’s Prof and Dora?"

"They just called," Ace held up his cell phone. "Said they were on the way and had a surprise for us. How does it look for the Freedom’s Light crew?"

June sipped some champagne before answering. "Well, it’s going to take a hell of lot of operations and after that, months and probably years of therapy, but they’re in the hands of some of the country’s best surgeons and cyberneticists and they think that eventually, they can all be restored to their full humanity."

"What’s going to happen to the Freedom’s Light? Is it going to be put back in space?" Rocky asked.

June shrugged. "That’s up to the brain boys. They’re having orgasms taking apart Kra’s modifications and Kra himself. That oughta keep ‘em happy for a while. So where are you boys off to?"

Red flourished his airline ticket. "I’m heading down to Mexico City to compete in the Del Oro Extreme. I’ll be down there for about two or three weeks. Anything jumps off, you guys know how to get in touch with me."

"I’m flying out to the West Coast with Ace," Rocky jerked his head at the pilot. "I’ve decided to take that movie role I was offered."

"Incredible…" June murmured. "Don’t they know you’ve never acted before?"

"Look, if they want to put $30 million in my pocket, who am I to argue with them?"

"What’s on the West Coast, Ace?" June wanted to know.

"After I drop the Rockhead off in La-La Land, I’m heading down to Coast City to Ferris Aircraft. We’re going to need a new cargo plane so I need to work out the details with Carol Ferris."

"Sounds like everybody’s got a full plate!" Prof said, walking into the private dining room with Dora Lockridge. She looked absolutely dazzling in a turquoise pantsuit. She looked nothing like the woman who had been terrorized and tortured by a maniacal robot ten days ago. Prof shook hands with his teammates all around while June and Dora hugged and kissed.

"What about you guys, Prof?" Red grinned. "You gonna take that diving trip to Australia that got interrupted?"

"Sure are," Prof grinned back, "But first, Dora and I have an announcement and we wanted you guys to be the first to hear. Show ‘em the rock, sweetheart."

Dora held up her left hand that had a new addition: an engagement ring and a rather good-sized stone it was.

Rocky whistled. "I’ll say one thing for you, Prof…you ain’t cheap…you’ll be payin’ on that thing when your grandkids are born."

June kicked him under the table. "Oaf! Honestly, you men!" She leaned over to hug Dora tightly. "Oh, I’m so happy for the both of you! Prof, when did you propose?"

"This morning. Dora didn’t even blink an eye. She said yes right away." Prof reached over to tightly squeeze Dora’s hand. "I guess that whole adventure on Challenger Island made me realize just how much I love Dora. And none of us are getting any younger."

"Does this mean you’ll be quitting the team, Prof?" Rocky asked worriedly. "The team wouldn’t be right without you, man."

"Who says I’m quitting?" Prof demanded.

"How do you know I won’t ask to JOIN the team?" Dora asked, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"Good for you, Dora! It’d be nice to have another female around to talk to!" June laughed. "Much as I love these guys, the testosterone can be awfully thick at times!"

"Let’s have a toast, shall we?" Ace said, signaling for the waiter to order another bottle of champagne.

Dora talked to June while they waited for the champagne and while her manner was that of any normal woman who had just been proposed to, inside her brain, a war raged.

A glowing red crystal, roughly the size of a walnut had been implanted right in the center of her brain and even as she spoke to June, laughing and already making wedding plans, that wasn’t the real Dora’s voice.

The real Dora’s personality raged and screamed at the alien intelligence inside the crystal that now controlled her body; I’ll KILL you, you son of a bitch! So help me, God, I’ll get free of this and destroy you!

The sardonic voice of Kra answered back inside her brain; I have no doubt you would make good on your threat, meat bag, but this control crystal prevents you from doing anything except what I wish you to do.

Dora’s voice snarled; what are you planning on doing to Prof and the others?

Nothing at the moment…it amuses me to watch and wait…but when the time is right, I will most certainly make myself known to The Challengers and it will give me great and good pleasure to use YOU as the instrument by which I will destroy them all…

And even as she smiled and accepted the toasts of The Challengers Of The Unknown for her continued happiness, Dora Lockridge could only scream wordlessly, a prisoner of her own mind and she knew that she would never again know a another happy day in this life.

THE END?