Issue 3: "Out of Time, Part Three"

“Multi-Man!” hissed Morgan. “We should have known that you could be the only one responsible for this!”

“Guilty as charged my friend.” Pramble mocked. “Only me. No one else has the vast intellect and hatred that I have, which is needed to pull off such a grand display of revenge!”

“Revenge? Just what have you been doing here for the past thirty years?!” Haley questioned.

“Questions. Questions. Questions. Should I stand here like so many other villains before me and monologue about my master plan? Wouldn’t it be so much more simpler to just kill you now! Quickly! Without giving you the chance to strike back and defeat me in gay triumph!” Pramble said, enjoying the sound of his own echoing voice.

“But….Where would the fun be in that? So, I suppose I must play my part in this tragic Universal Comedy and dramatically stand up here and tell you of the many times I have killed you in time-spanning adventures, set up by yours truly, purely for my own enjoyment!” Duncan Pramble pauses for effect. “How many times can any one man repeatedly be beaten by a group of men calling themselves ‘’Challengers of the Unknown’?”

Multi-Man leans forward and grips the iron railing of the balcony. His teeth clenching and a vein appears running along the top of his forehead.

“Why not just call yourselves the ”Astronauts of Intrigue”?! I mean come on! You don’t walk away from an airplane crash and say “Hey! Let’s start saving the world because we’re living on ‘Borrowed Time’! You don’t devote your life to stopping Bad Guys like the Volcano Man .You don’t fight Aliens and Dinosaurs and you especially don’t beat…me!!” Pramble bit down as he said the last part of his speech. He had raised his clenched fists up in defiance.

“Get on with it Pramble!” Ryan said as the Challs stood in stunned silence before the obviously mad man.

Multi-Man flinched at Ryans words. He was used to having a captive audience that hung on his every word.

“Here’s the Readers Digest version boys, try to keep up.” Pramble started. “ Thirty years ago while you fellows were off in the future rescuing Rip Hunter, Time Master, I awakened from my newest coma caused by yet another humiliating defeat by you guys, to discover that my newest power was Super-Intelligence. Not just Super-Intelligence mind you but Super, Mega, Supremo Intelligence! As in, no one smarter in the entire History of Mankind. I quickly extracted myself from the particular institution and set to work on my new Master Plan. Only this time I knew that it would work. I gathered a small group of the most intelligent people of the world and started creating things. Computers, Satellites, Cell Phones everything! You name it, we created it! It made me a very rich man, and then I could get started on my revenge. I waited for you to make your return to us lowly mortals from the future and when you did I gassed Haley’s lab. You pop in and you go to sleep. By this time the Mud Monster and June Robbins, God rest her soul, had already departed, but I didn’t care, I only wanted you four.”

June had bit her lip at the mention of her mom in such a hateful tone. She could tell that Pramble hated these men beyond any realistic sense. His twisted vision of the World made her tremble at the thought that such evil existed in her life.

“I used Hunter’s Time-Sphere technology to create my own Time Traveling machine. While my techs worked on the equipment, you four slept like a bunch of babies inside those comfortably designed Glass tubes.” Pramble continued.” After all the humiliating defeats that I had been through with you I couldn’t just simply kill you, I had to feel the joy of killing you over and over and over! And I did! Now here is the good part. I would send you guys back in Time, I would set you up in some kind of outlandish setting that was impossible for you to get out of!”

“Pramble! You sick sonuva – “ Ryan had pulled his gun out and was ready to blast a hole through Multi-Man’s face when Ace stopped him.

“Hold on Red. Let him finish…” Morgan said intrigued by the Villains story.

”I’m almost finished Ryan. Hold on a second and then you can kill me!” Pramble said sarcastically.” So here I was killing you over and over. I estimate over the years that I killed you Boys a few Thousand times or so. Give or take a Hundred. At first it was pure Panacea! But after a while it became monotonous. It became too easy. I was killing you guys three or four times a day! “

“How Pramble?” Haley interrupted. “ How could you have killed us as you claim, but yet here we are, standing before alive and well?”

“That is truly the best part of this whole ordeal!” Pramble said with a smile. “As you all know, my power is the ability to come back from the dead and each time I am resurrected I have a new Super-Power. I simple infused a small sample of my DNA into each of you thus after an ample time of soaking in the old test tubes over there you come out as good as new, ready to be killed all over again!”

Rocky looked down at his left arm and noticed a faint scar from a wound that he never remembers having.

“Where does Metamorpho fit into all of this?” June said while holding the small glass capsule.


“Oh him. Nowhere really. Young Rainie here came to me for help to cure her after she heard of my great scientific genius.” Pramble lovingly draped his arm around the white-faced girl. “ We met and fell in lust and Rex there came to spoil my fun. End of story. I hit him with a Molecular De-Stabilizer and he has been pudding ever since.”

“We’ve heard enough Pramble! This sick, twisted game of yours is over!” Morgan had also drawn his weapons and was advancing towards the balcony with all four Challengers following.” This ends now! No more games and no more speeches!”

“Ace Morgan you simple minded fool! You didn’t give me time to explain how I acquired the power of Super Charisma or how I’m going to be the next President of the United States.” Duncan Pramble clasped his hands before him against his chest “ Oh well. Let’s do this one more time and then it’s back into the tubes for you! Metal Men, kill them.”

As Pramble commanded, four strangely colored machine cabinets and control panels began to blur and take on a humanoid shape. Quicker than the challengers could react they were surrounded by four distinctively colored robots, three males and one obviously shaped female, the Metal Men!

“Your lucky it worked or you would have looked real stupid.” Rocky whispered to Red as he leaned over the recovering Prof.

“Alright Pramble as I said before, your games over! We’re through jumping through hoops for you!” Ace Morgan said with grim determination.

“Alas the mighty have fallen. What will the classic Villain do now?” Multi-Man said mockingly. “ I know! What about plan ‘B’?”

“What are you trying to pull, Pramble?” Rocky said while helping Haley to his feet.

“Have you noticed the floor you have been standing on this entire time? It’s a huge Time Platform. How else did you think I was able to transport your entire team at once?” Pramble said while raising his hand up to the Challengers’ view. He was holding a triggering device of some kind, which he slowly thumbed to life.

With a sudden realization Morgan yelled even as June had walked over to join the rest of the Team.

“Get back! It’s a trap!” He screamed as light began to bend around the small group of Death Cheaters.

Machinery whined as the air charged with ear splitting energy and the lights dimmed due to the sudden drain of electricity.

“You see Challengers, once again I win!” Pramble said with a sickly grin. “ I always win!”

The Four Challengers, Swamp Thing and the Metamorpho holding June Robbins the Second along with the Metal Men Platinum and the deactivated Mercury twisted into a blurring swirl of bodies as the Machine fully activated and ripped the fabric of Time apart. In an explosion of light, the Challengers and company disappeared, leaving the Platform once again empty.

“Score one for the Home Team!” Pramble smirked as he pulled the lithe body of Element Girl against him. “ And the crowd goes wild!”