Dr Dread
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Post by Dr Dread on May 30, 2006 20:25:24 GMT -5
Secret Society of Super Villains
Book 2: Issue 1
"CAPTAINS CATACLYSMIC "
Written by David Peattie
Edited by DrDread
Prologue
A CHANGING OF THE GUARD It was still early Spring, and the man calling himself Captain Comet was frustrated. Born Adam Blake, in the early 1950's, he was a mutant, with superhuman powers that most human beings won't have for another 100,000 years or more. These powers were the result of his mother's having become pregnant with him just as an intensely radioactive comet passed dangerously close to the Earth. How such a thing managed to bypass every other woman who conceived during that time frame, remains a mystery. But upon reaching adulthood, Adam chose to use his powers to help mankind, as a super-hero…and taking the name Capt. Comet seemed appropriate, given the circumstances of his origin. After a while, though, he became restless with life on Earth, and opted instead to explore the cosmos themselves. Using a spacecraft of his own design, he had spent over twenty years doing just that. More recently, though, he had found occasion to come back to the world of his birth. While engrossed in his exploration of space, he had come across the mortally wounded body of a man named Gretti, who had been the Green Lantern for Space Sector 2828; the Green Lantern Corps being one of the primary police agencies of the galaxy, following the mandates of the Guardians of the Universe on the planet Oa. Gretti, in his final moments of life, had been able to tell Capt. Comet that his killer had been Sinestro, a former GLC member from the planet Korugar who had gone renegade, and that after fatally wounding his former fellow Corpsman, he had received a subspace message that sent him towards the planet Earth. Vowing to avenge Gretti's callous death, Adam Blake had gone home. Upon his arrival, he had learned that Sinestro was hooking up with a group of costumed villains on Earth called the Secret Society of Super-Villains; he infiltrated the team to learn more about them and pretended not to realize that they were evil. He learned, too, that the group had been organized and funded by the despotic Darkseid, ruler of the far-distant world called Apokolips…and when the team's leader, Manhunter, had fomented a rebellion against him, Comet had worked alongside the other villains to chase Darkseid away from the Earth. The culmination of this battle had been explosive, and Manhunter himself was believed to have died in the process. Since then, Comet had returned to his original plan: to capture Sinestro and see him pay for Gretti's death. He also amended the idea to include the capture of the other Secret Society of Super-Villains members, vowing that he would not rest until he had put them all behind bars where they belonged. In this, he had enlisted the aid of a group of the Earths's mightiest heroes, the Justice League of America, and with the help of one JLA member…Hawkman…Sinestro had been successfully brought to justice. Now, though, the task of finding the other SSOSV members remained. They had all apparently gone into hiding, and the lack of any word about them was the cause of the growing frustration Capt. Comet was feeling. Fortunately for him, the stalemate was about to break. Unfortunately for him, it would not mean the end of his difficulties. |
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Dr Dread
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Post by Dr Dread on May 30, 2006 20:27:57 GMT -5
It was T-minus five minutes in the countdown of the strangest space-flight in history.
As security cameras watched silently, three odd-looking astronauts made their way determinedly down the catwalk to an experimental new craft called the Space Boomerang. The vehicle had been designed like the curved weapon devised by the Aborigine tribes of Australia to give it greater manueverability in space and to take better advantage of the whims of gravity…or so its designer had told the technical experts he'd hired to build it. In reality, the Space Boomerang was simply the latest monument to the ego of the villain who'd dreamed it up: George "Digger" Harkness.
Manning the Space Boomerang with its creator, Capt. Boomerang, were Captain Stingaree and Captain Cold.
Captain Cold was really Leonard Snart, a man hailing from Central City, Ohio. Originally a penny-ante hoodlum, he had once stolen an experimental freeze-gun from a nearby military base; studying it, he had unlocked the secrets of cryogenics, and created an arsenal of weapons based on ice and chilly temperatures. In his new super-villain guise, he had become one of the earliest and most implacable enemies of Central City's native hero, the Scarlet Speedster known as the Flash.
Capt. Boomerang…Harkness…was, like his namesake, also from Australia. Fleeing the country to avoid facing murder charges, Harkness had parlayed his skill with boomerangs into a job as "company mascot" for the Wiggins Toy Company, which had just created a boomerang craze in the United States. Being the inventive type, Harkness had found ways to create gimmicky boomerangs to help him rob, and upon landing in Central City, he too had found a new lifelong adversary in the Flash.
As for Captain Stingaree, his real name was Karl Courtney, and his normal stomping grounds were Gotham City, New Jersey. The youngest of four brothers, Karl was the black sheep of the family, preferring a life of crime to the more respectable professions of his siblings. Always fascinated by old pirate lore, he had developed his own modern-day version of it for his criminal career, which had recently been stopped by Gotham's night-time protector, the Batman.
The three villains settled into their seats, and Boomerang swiftly completed the pre-flight checklist and began the countdown.
5…4…3…2…1…ignition…blast-off!
Thus was launched the career of a new team of super-villains, three of the most dangerous costumed criminals ever: the Captains Cataclysmic.
What was out there, to tempt such desperadoes? At first glance, perhaps, nothing; nothing but…
Space. The final frontier. And, if it follows the path of previous "frontiers", fly-in hamburger stands will soon surround the world's first permanent space station, which even then was hanging like a silvery donut in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. For months, the station…called Space Lab…had remained alone in silent orbit; until now, when crime invaded the starry wilderness.
The Space Boomerang slowly, gracefully, circled the Space Lab structure; then, at the base of one of the wheel's spokes, it fired its braking rockets and docked.
Inside, the last thing Captain James Carone and his three-man crew expected was company…so one can imagine their surprise when the airlock door opened and three armed bandits in space-suits entered.
"Greetings, bloke," Capt. Boomerang announced cheerily. "You're being space-jacked!"
Carone, who had dark hair, was the first to react. "What..?", he cried.
Almost simultaneously, his red-headed crewman, Lieutenant Sean Willkins, voiced his own surprise. "How did you…?" A third man, the blonde-haired Lieutenant Brad Shanower, stayed silent.
As the three intruders advanced, Shanower realized that fast action was needed.
"Ask questions after we take them prisoner!", he ordered, vaulting over a workbench to land in front of Capt. Stingaree.
"That's much more easily said…than done!", Stingaree told him, emphasizing his point with a stunning blow to Shanower's temple with his right fist, which also held his cutlass.
As Shanower was going down, Willkins had already been felled by a heavy boomerang, and Carone was finding the lower half of his body now encased in a block of ice.
"Freezing me…!", the hapless astronaut reported, to no one in particular.
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Dr Dread
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Post by Dr Dread on May 30, 2006 20:29:51 GMT -5
Before anyone feels the need to point out that the fourth member of the crew is still unaccounted for, rest assured that he hasn't been forgotten, and that his whereabouts during all of this will be addressed soon enough. For now, though, the scene must needs shift to a privately-owned space station in orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth…the Justice
League satellite. On monitor duty was Hawkman, and sharing his vigil was a new-found friend…late of the Secret Society of Super-Villains: Captain Comet.
"With all the Society members scattered after Darkseid was killed," Comet was saying, referring to the clash with the lord of Apokolips that had ended less than twenty-four hours before, "I figure this is the best place to get a line on their whereabouts!"
Hawkman nodded his assent; then, his body tensed in alarm, as his attention was caught by a sudden vision of trouble from one of the monitors.
"I don't know if it's anyone you are after," the Winged Wonder told his ally, "but Space Lab has just been invaded...by three super-villains!"
Without another word, Comet made his way to the nearest airlock and exited the satellite, heading towards the besieged space station.
"With my mental powers," he thought, "I can pull an air-bubble along and travel in space without a suit…and move as fast as the speedster called the Flash!"
Instants later, yet miles away, Comet approached Space Lab and saw the Space Boomerang docked to it.
"A giant boomerang!", he thought grimly. "Looks like I've located at least one of my former compatriots!"
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Dr Dread
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Post by Dr Dread on May 30, 2006 20:31:25 GMT -5
Inside, the three villains had tied up their subdued opponents and doffed their own spacesuits. While Cold and Boomerang watched over them, Stingaree re-entered the room with a fourth one in tow: the strawberry-blonde haired helmsman, Frank Packard.
Shoving the man into the room ahead of him, Stingaree boasted, "Ahoy, me hearties! I found this scurvy lad sending an SOS!"
Capt. Cold laughed, finding the man's initiative somehow comical. "Maybe he's expecting the Coast Guard to rescue him!"
It was at that moment that the hero born centuries out of his time burst through an outside window, trusting his mental powers to keep the station's air from escaping until he could subdue the villains and make more permanent repairs. The dramatic entrance had been necessary to catch the evildoers off guard.
"Not the Coast Guard, Captain Cold," Comet told him. "but a rescue just the same!"
"Who in the Seven Seas are you?", Stingaree asked as he stared in disbelief.
"That is our old buddy, Captain Comet," Cold replied as he drew his cold-gun, "who I'll put on ice!"
Squeezing the trigger, Snart's weapon almost instantly transformed the water in the air molecules just ahead of the flying hero into a block of ice. But if he hoped it would stop, or even slow, Capt. Comet down, he was due for a disappointment.
"Sorry, Cold," Comet said, as he burst through the ice-wall with nearly no effort, "I'm stronger than your overgrown ice cube…and you're the one who's out cold!" The hero then matched deed to word, knocking the frosty felon out with one punch.
Turning to the others, Comet watched as Harkness tossed a razor-sharp boomerang at him. He seemed utterly unconcerned as it arced through the air on a direct course for his face; then, as if by magic, the razor-rang slowed and began to drop, finally falling to the floor just inches short of the hero's features.
"Sorry, Captain," Comet smirked. "It's got to hit me, first!"
"How'd he do that?", Boomerang asked in shock. Apparently the man had forgotten that his adversary had telekinetic powers, and had simply used them to halt the razor-rang in mid-flight.
"Who cares?", Stingaree barked in response. "We're outclassed, Boomerang…and we need a ticket out of here…this one!"
With that, he grabbed Capt. Carone, whose lower body was still encased in the block of ice Capt. Cold had sheathed it in. Placing the sharp blade of his cutlass at the nape of the astronaut's neck, the modern-day pirate issued his ultimatum to Comet.
"One step, Captain," he gritted, "and NASA will have one less astronaut!" Then, addressing his now-recovering partner, "Wake up, Cold, and let's sail out of here!"
As Comet watched helplessly, Boomerang helped Cold to his feet, and the three super-villains…still holding Carone hostage…backed away towards the airlock and their waiting spacecraft.
"This battle ends in a draw, Captain!", Stingaree declared. "You've rescued the Space Lab, but we've got her commander! Till next time…smooth sailing!"
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Dr Dread
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Post by Dr Dread on May 30, 2006 20:33:15 GMT -5
As long as they had their hostage, Comet didn't dare make a move to stop them. He seethed inside as they closed the airlock door behind them and took off moments later.
It was an enraged Captain Comet who freed the other astronauts from the ice-prisons Captain Cold had fashioned for them, and helped them repair the window he'd broken as he came in…for he was fully aware that he had failed.
And some hours later, as he returned to Earth, his mood hadn't changed much.
"Green Lantern was right!", he told himself glumly. "I do need the help of the Justice Leaguers to face the Super-Villains! Couldn't even face Hawkman…had to radio a report to him!"
Landing in an alley in the Society's last known stomping grounds, the city of San Francisco, California, Comet sent a telepathic command from his brain, causing the molecules of his costume to change to modern day civilian attire.
"One thing's for sure…I need a re-education about Earth…", he mused, "and one way to start is to change into a man of the present! This outfit seems to be more acceptable than the 1950's suit I wore last time out…"
As Adam Blake emerged from the alley, he saw an elderly African-American woman pause, uncertainly, at the corner of the nearby intersection.
"Hmm," he reflected, "Some things haven't changed! That woman appears to need assistance crossing the street…assistance I can provide!"
He walked briskly up behind her and offered his hand. "Allow me, madam…"
Startled, the woman turned on him with unexpected fury. "Get away from me, you pervert!", she cried as she swung her handbag in an arc and whacked him in the face. "I won't let you mug me!"
"What? Ouch!", Comet responded, more stunned than hurt. He stumbled away from her and retreated, fearing to anger the woman any more and thus aggravate the situation any further.
"And if I ever see you near me again," the lady shrieked, "I'll call a cop!"
As Blake shame-facedly made his way up the street, he didn't really notice the stunningly attractive brunette in a red halter and matching shorts and shoes leaning against the stoop of a nearby apartment building…even when she spoke to him.
"Don't get shook up, handsome," she said breezily. "She's not your type, anyway!"
Since Blake showed no signs of slowing down, or even that he'd heard her, the woman stepped away from her post and reached out to clutch his arm.
"I, on the other hand, am!", she assured him.
Now that she had his attention, Adam responded with a startled, "Hunh?"
Smiling as she let go his arm and beckoned him to follow her, the foxy lady asked, "Whatsamatter, good looking…never been picked up before?"
"Picked up..?", Adam echoed dumbly, following her up the stairs to the apartment building's door.
"The name's Debbie!", his companion advised him. "What'd your mother name you?"
"Blake," he blurted out. "Uh, Adam Blake!"
"Well, Adam," she said seductively, "How's about coming up to my place for some coffee…and a bite of an apple?"
The door closed behind them, and Blake…still somewhat overwhelmed…followed his new friend to her apartment, remarking to himself that things had changed indeed since he'd last set foot on his native world.
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Dr Dread
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Post by Dr Dread on May 30, 2006 20:36:04 GMT -5
While Adam Blake had his lunch, the action switched over to the Pacific Ocean itself, and the world's largest passenger ship, the S.S. Sunset, as it continued its world tour.
The passengers on this voyage are the rich and overwhelmingly rich…and they like to show it. In olden days, a ship like this would be a prime target for pirates…and from the look of it, things haven't changed.
As passengers and crew on the left-hand side of the ship looked out to sea in wonderment, they saw a sight that seemed like some garish and chilling specter from the distant past: a double-masted, multi-sailed schooner flying the Jolly Roger…and headed right for them. There was even a cannon on the main deck, which fired a warning shot across the Sunset's bow.
The cutthroat craft came up a few yards alongside the Sunset, and witnesses saw the outlandishly costumed figures of Captains Boomerang, Stingaree and Cold grinning at them as if they hadn't a care in the world.
"Ahoy, there!", Stingaree called out to the crew. "Stand by for boarding!"
"A bit of ice will keep them from trying to get away," Capt. Cold noted, as his cold-gun froze the water surrounding the ocean liner.
Once this was done, Capt. Boomerang hurled a grappling-rang with silken line attached to it; it found its grip on the deck railing and held fast. The Australian rogue then jumped over the side and began climbing the rope.
"And I'll head the boarding party!", he told his comrades jauntily.
"You can be a physical fitness bug if you want, Boomy!", Cold replied. "Stingaree and I'll walk up my icy gangplank!"
So saying, Cold modified the setting on his cold-gun and used it to create a sheath of ice between the Sunset and their own craft, which lasted long enough for the frosty felon and the Gotham pirate to saunter across boldly.
Stingaree leapt from the ice bridge onto the deck of the Sunset first. "All right, ye landlubbers," he crowed, "let's have all yer gold doubloons and pieces of eight!"
Bringing up the rear, Capt. Cold grinned, "Got to hand it to you, Captain…you've certainly made our busting you out of jail worthwhile!"
As confusion reigned on the main deck, one crewman…Ship's Purser Burl Smith…managed to slip away. And moments later, in the captain's quarters, he blurted out a breathless warning: "Captain Nolan…we've been boarded…by pirates!"
"Pirates?", Nolan echoed, incredulously. He bolted past Purser Smith to investigate.
Seconds later, on deck, he got first-hand confirmation of his crewman's report.
"You men!", he called out to the villains. "I'm the captain of this ship…"
Upon hearing this, Capt. Cold quickly fired a burst from his cold-gun at Nolan's feet.
"…and I demand you…", he faltered, as his footing slipped out from under him, "give yourselves…uuupppp!" He finished this while sliding down from the icy spot on the deck to the still-in-place ice ramp that led back to the pirate vessel, knocking himself unconscious when he landed.
"Perfect, Cold," Stingaree gloated. "He slid down your ice-ramp to our ship!" This was apparently for the benefit of anyone who hadn't been watching the event take place.
Clutching a green gunny sack full of wallets and jewelry from the wealthy passengers, Stingaree motioned to his comrades, who preceded him towards the ice ramp.
"We've got what we came for," the pilfering pirate asserted. "let's lam out of here!"
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