The Protectors

“Trouble Starts with Titan” by Martin Maenza

A large framed individual in an oversized trench coat and large brimmed hat waved at the approaching vehicle. As the yellow cab pulled past and then over to the curb, the figure made sure that the coat collar was up and the brim of the hat was pulled down enough to hide most of his face. He then trod over to the vehicle and pulled open the backseat door.

The cabbie, a man in his mid-forties wearing Yankees baseball cap to cover his rapidly receding hairline, hadn’t looked up from the console; he was busy resetting the meter to calculate the upcoming fare. “Where to, Mac?” he asked in his thick Brooklyn accent.

“NYU campus,” the large figure said in a gruff voice as he took position in back and closed the door. The backend of the cab bounced a bit on its shocks as the weight settled in the back of the vehicle.

This the driver noticed! Whoa! he thought to himself. Got a big’un here! He kept his observation to himself though; no point in offending the customer.

The cabbie put the vehicle into drive and pulled out into the street. “NYU campus, huh?” he repeated the destination. It was a method he used to help him confirm what he had heard and to avoid any issues later on in the ride. “So, you one of those edumacational types?”

“Something like that,” the figure in the back grunted, again keeping his features hidden and in shadow.

The driver kept his eyes focused on the road as he drove. “Figured you was a smart-type,” he said. “After all, you’d rather take a cab than risk the walk. And these neighborhoods can be pretty rough, let me tell you. You never know what you’ll run across in them. Sometimes I’ll just drive right on by if I think the person trying to flag me down is questionable, know what I mean? Can’t be too careful some days.”

Beneath the shadows of the coat and hat, a slight jagged tooth smile flashed briefly. Indeed, the figure thought.

***

Bobby Cardelli ran down the sidewalk, his heart pounding in beat to his quick, heavy footfalls on the pavement. Gotta hide! he thought to himself as he felt the shortness of breath in his chest underneath his cheap suit. I’m dead if they catch me!

He ducked down an alleyway in hopes of possibly doubling around and back unseen.

His hopes were quickly dashed when he reached the end and found a ten foot high chain-link fence strung tightly between the two tenement buildings. “Damn it!” he cursed as he slapped the fence. The metal snickered back at him as it vibrated.

For a second he thought of doubling-back the way he had just come, but a shadow crossed the end of the alleyway and its owner turned in to block that path.

“You’re making this difficult, Bobby,” a male voice said. “Why don’t we just stop with the games and talk like grown men?”

Bobby’s eyes grew wide with panic. I talk and I’m good as dead! he thought.

Instead, he turned back to the fence and began to claw at it with his hands and feet. It was difficult to find foot holes, especially with his size ten loafers, but he still managed to scramble up the barrier with some effort and despite the pain of the cold metal pressing against his palms. It was right about then he was cursing himself for always cutting gym class to go smoke behind the school.

Still, he started to feel some relief as the top of the fence was within reach.

That’s when an angelic figure all dressed in white with dark flowing ebony hair firmly perched on the top of the fence line. “Going somewhere?” she asked with a smirk.

“Aaaaaah!” Bobby was spooked and forgot where he was. His hands released from the fence and he fell backwards.

A pile of trash bags, discarded on the ground because the nearby dumpster was full, were enough to break his fall. But, too, his fall broke the overstuffed bags. Garbage shot out from plastic bags, some of it spewing forth onto his brown suit.

“He’s lucky there weren’t bottles in those bags,” a muscular African-American male dressed from shoulders down in green, form-fitting spandex said. “Ain’t that right, Night Owl?”

From the top of the fence line, the masked heroine smiled at her partner in crime-fighting. “You’re right there, User,” she said. “It would be a shame if he ended up putting himself in the hospital, all to avoid a little conversation.”

Bobby realized he was surrounded. “I…I…I ain’t got nothing to say,” he stuttered as he scrambled to his feet. “Certainly not to you’se two.” He reached into his jacket, wrestling to find the gun he kept in his breast pocket, found it and pulled it out. “Now, I’m walking out of here…”

User swatted the gun out of hand with a swift, closed fist. “You ain’t walking anywhere,” the hero said, “at least, not until we talk about the numbers you’re running for Jake Dunbar.”

“I ain’t no stool pigeon,” Bobby said as he backed up. Again, the fence blocked his escape.

“Not a pigeon, eh?” User asked. “Maybe I should let my lady there take you for a little flight. We might see if you can grow a pair of wings or something.”

“It is a nice day for flying,” Night Owl pointed out as she glided effortlessly down and stood next her teammate. “And the view here is so much better than LA. No smog to cause you to gag. You can fly, can’t you, Bobby?” She took a step forward and prepared to grab him by the arm.

“You two are crazy!” Bobby exclaimed as he jerked his arm back suddenly. “Steel Claw will crush me like roach if I so much as open my mouth!”

“Yeah?” User said, getting visibly angry. “You afraid of Steel Claw?” He stepped back, touched the nearby dumpster and concentrated. Suddenly, his whole body – his skin, his costume, everything – took on a metallic hue. “Well maybe you’ll be afraid of me now! I got two steel fists and a pair of steel feet I can shove…!”

“User!” Night Owl said firmly. “Though I am sure he’s familiar with them, I think we can convince Mr. Cardelli here to talk without you resorting to mob coercion techniques.” She glanced back at the man. “Right, Mr. Cardelli?”

Bobby glanced back and forth between the pair. He knew he was definitely between a rock and a hard place.

A few minutes later, the two heroes were escorting the man down to the local police station to make a statement. “Hey, Owl,” User said to the woman. “Remind me while Bobby is singing to the cops that I have to make a phone call.”

“Who to?” she asked.

“Gotta tell Mystifier we can’t make it to help with the kid,” User said. “I’m thinking we might have some more work to do cleaning up the streets today.”

***

A brown haired ten year old boy looked around the study with a little anxiousness.

A young man in his twenties, dressed in dark blue robes with a long flowing red cape, noticed this and said, “Don’t be afraid, Matthew.” He pulled aside a curtain on the far wall and revealed a portion of the wall that appeared to be made of glass.

“What is that, Alan?” asked the lad.

“This is the Crystal of Katorrn,” Mystifier explained. “Think of it as a magical doorway to other realms.” He gestured with his hands and the crystal went from a cool, clear color to one of a warm, blue glow. “After the past few weeks around here, I have concluded that it will be much easier to train you in another dimension – one where we don’t have to worry about you breaking anything.”

“Sorry about that,” the boy apologized, recalling a vase his wings had knocked over a few days ago when he was practicing his transformations to and fro.

“It’s fine,” Mystifier said. He held out his hand. “Come, let’s get to work.”

Matthew Bradley took his hand and the two stepped through the portal.

The two now stood on a flat plateau, high atop a mountain. All about them swirled clouds that blew in the breeze. “Now what?” the boy asked curiously.

“Now,” Mystifier said as he released the boy’s hand and slowly began to rise in the air thanks to his magical cape, “we play a little game. Let’s see if you can catch me.” And, with a smile, he took off into the air.

“Wait!” Matthew cried out. But his costumed friend had already taken off. “No fair. I wasn’t ready!” The boy closed his eyes and concentrated.

Suddenly, his form began to shimmer and grow. His arms and legs became large limbs, attached to an equally large body covered in green scales. His neck extended and his face transformed into a snout. From his back end sprouted a long tail and from his back a pair of large wings.

Matthew Bradley was now in his dragon form that the group had helped him dub ‘Flamethrower’.

“Here I come!” he growled as he leapt off the plateau and took flight. The young dragon swooped and glided amongst the clouds. It felt good to be able to fly again. He had not been able to feel this free since he came to Earth with his friend many weeks before. But, he could not enjoy the feeling. He had a task.

His eyes narrowly focused and he soon found a trace of Mystifier. Upon spying the man in the distance, he pumped his wings hard and fast in order to get closer.

Mystifier saw the creature closing the gap. “Good,” he said. “Now, let’s test that speed.” Propelled by the magic in his cape, the hero took off once more but soon found the dragon was more than up to the challenge. After a few moments, a dark shadow overtook him seconds before the dragon barreled past him. The updraft was enough to send Mystifier tumbling to balance in the air. “Whoa! That was good, Matthew!”

The dragon cut back around quickly. “Thanks,” he said as he circled around.

“Next lesson,” the sorcerer said. In his hand a ball of mystical energy formed. He hurled it at the dragon like one would a baseball.

When the ball reached the beast’s snout, it exploded in a slight sparking burst. “Hey!” the creature recoiled. “What’s that for?”

Mystifier smiled. “What the matter, Matthew? Can’t take a little heat?”

“Heat?” the dragon remarked. “You call that heat? I can show you heat!” The creature sucked in a large amount of air and then propelled it back out along with a belching stream of flame that the air had fueled in his lungs. Like the nickname he was given, this dragon was a true flamethrower in every sense of the word.

Mystifier tossed up a magical barrier between them. “That wouldn’t boil my morning tea,” the sorcerer teased. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

“Watch me!” The dragon inhaled more deeply and let fly another blast.

The flames washed over the magical barrier. The sorcerer quickly had to expand it for fear of being hit by the tremendous fire. “Good, good,” he coaxed his student on. “Keep it up!”

The exchange continued for another few moments before Mystifier called an end to it. “That was great, Matthew,” he said. “You can stop now.”

“That was fun,” the dragon said as he caught his breath.

“Training is work,” the sorcerer reminded him. “You have great abilities, and you must learn how to use them.”

“Why?” the youth asked.

“Because,” Mystifier said, “you need always to be prepared. You never know where the next threat will come from…”

***

In a small coffee shop in midtown Manhattan, a quartet of friends sat on a break from their activities. One was a male in his mid-twenties with curly blonde hair; he sat with his arm about a beautiful red-haired woman about the same age. Across the way sat a woman in her twenties with long, straight brown hair. And, on the other end of the table was a brown haired teenaged young man.

“So,” Scott Ballard, the blonde, said, “what’s next on the agenda?”

“Rita wanted to show me some items in Bloomingdales,” Amanda Kelly, the brunette, replied.

“I think someone might be aping some of my designs,” Rita Mason, the red-head, explained. “I wanted to go check them out in person to be sure.”

“Ugh - clothes shopping,” groaned Tommy Johnson, the teen. “I was hoping for something a bit more fun.”

“The kid’s right, honey,” Scott said. “As much as I like watching your purse for you, I think maybe we two will pass on that.”

Rita noted the sarcasm in her boyfriend’s voice but let it slide. “Oh really? And what would you two rather do instead?”

Tommy glanced at Scott. “Up for hitting an arcade?”

The blonde smiled. “I think I can be persuaded.”

A few blocks away, a yellow cab pulled up to the curb. “NYU campus,” the cabbie said cheerfully. He glanced at the meter. “That’s be nineteen fifty, Mac.”

The man in the trench coat in the back of the cab pulled out a twenty and tossed it into the front. “Here,” he said gruffly.

The cabbie grabbed the bill and frowned. “What, no tip?”

“Oh, a tip?” the man in the back said with a jagged smile. “Here.”

A pair of hairy arms reached up between each side of the headrest and two large hands grabbed the cabby’s head. One covered his mouth while the other grabbed the top of the man’s skull and twisted. The driver struggled for a second, trying to breathe, before his neck snapped with a sickening twist.

“Your tip is: people do not like it when you use words you cannot properly pronounce,” the hulking figure in the back said.  “Call it a pet-peeve of we educated types.” As he pulled his arms into the back, he snatched the twenty and put it back in his pocket.

Noticing a bit of blood on his hands, he wiped them clean on the fabric of the seat next to him. Then, he popped open the back door and climbed out, adjusting his hat as he did to insure he was still mostly covered.

Time to show those fools who the true genius is! Titan the ape-man thought as he hurriedly headed towards the campus.

***

Below a small mountain range in upstate New York, a clandestine scientific complex sat unnoticed - yet hardly idle. Large machinery and hundreds of laborers worked around the clock to complete a project that has been in development for quite some time. The lead scientists on the project tick-off their checklist as they walk beneath their behemoth creation of circuitry and steel.

“How is the testing on the magnetic disk attachment coming?” asked the blonde haired American named Dr. Zander.

“Completed,” the Japanese man named Dr. Fujama replied. “It will function at full capacity without any undue strain on the power reserves.”

“Und der rocket fist ist ready to go as vell,” the heavily German accented Dr. Heinlin added.

“Good,” Zander replied. “And how is the structural integrity of the body armor?”

“It is good,” the Russian Dr. Kostok said. “Beyond our expectations.”

“Excellent,” Zander said. “Then our first model is soon ready for a test mission. We’ll have the crews begin switching over to our second construct as soon as possible.”

“And vhat veaponry do you have in mind for that one?” Heinlin asked.

Zander smiled. “Funny you should say ‘mind’.” He handed the clipboard off to one of his associates and proceeded out of the main assembly chamber. After turning down a few corridors, he reached a group of labs at one of the ends of the facility. As he burst into the door he asked, “So, how is it coming, Dr. Williams?”

The brown haired man in the lab coat nearly jumped. “Oh, Dr. Zander,” he said. “You startled me.”

“So I see,” Zander said. “Have you made any progress with turning that research into a practical application?”

Ted Williams straightened a number of thick volumes on the desk. “The research of doctors Page and Spencer is very thorough,” he said. “They were clearly on to something with their studies in the areas of the human mind. They theorized that the untapped 90% of the human brain could potentially be harnessed into a truly powerful force.”

“I’ve read the studies, Williams,” Zander said. “I don’t need a Reader’s Digest summary. I brought you into the M.I.S.T. project to see if you could turn those theories into a usable system for our project.”

“I believe so, sir,” Williams said. “Though it could take some time…”

Zander clasped his arm about the man’s shoulder and squeezed firmly. “Then, by all means, devote your every waking hour on it until you have some results. There will be plenty of time for taking a vacation after the work is done and the world has had a taste of our power base!”

***

From her hotel room overlooking the golden sands of the Caribbean beach, a tall blonde haired woman, dressed in a white T-shirt and green shorts, was nearing the end of her phone conversation. “Flight 210 is correct, Mom,” she said. “I’ll be flying directly to Boston first. That way I can spend a few days with the family before heading back to New York.”

Diana Kane paused as she listened to her mother on the other end of the line. Then, she said, “don’t worry about that. My editor has a few pieces he wants me to polish for next month’s magazine. I can fit it in between the visit, no problem at all. I’ll have plenty of time.”

There was a bit of a pause and then she said, “No, there’s nothing wrong.” Liar, she chastised herself silently. “I thought you’d be happy to see me is all. You keep asking me when I’m coming home for a visit. So, now I am.”

There was another pause and then she said, “I love you too. See you later tonight.” Then she hung up the receiver of the phone.

Diana glanced out the window and sighed. The sun was just hitting its midday peak. This vacation has been nice, she thought to herself. And though I’d love to stay longer I can’t.

She walked over to the closet and pulled out her suitcase, placing it on the bed. After unzipping it, she opened the cover and began to pack her clothes into it.

Fact is I can only run away from things for so long. It is pretty much time to face the truth – which is I have to go back to a normal life.

She half-laughed to herself.

Normal? Right! I haven’t had a ‘normal’ life since college, since I had gotten the special abilities that allowed me to be Amazon. That melancholy feeling started to come over her. She shook her head to drive it way.

No, I’m just going to have to figure out what I’m going to do now besides my job at the magazine. Maybe get a pet or a steady boyfriend. Or just work more hours and finally get one of the senior editor positions. I have put a lot of things on hold, due to my other responsibilities.

Diana stopped packing for a second and glanced longingly out at the ocean.

One thing is for sure though. No matter what I do, I know I’ve got good friends who are there for me.

***

Scott Ballard stood with his arms crossed, staring at the small screen mounted on top of the arcade unit that his friend was playing. A frown cross his face as the cartoon image of knight leapt out of the way before a burst of flames almost fried him. “This isn’t a video game,” he said.

“Sure it is,” Tommy Johnson said without taking his eyes off the screen or his hands off of the control stick.

“It’s a cartoon.”

“Dragon’s Lair is not a cartoon. It is an interactive laser disk game – a wave of the future.”

“Hmmmph,” Scott grumbled. “It sure looks like a cartoon to me.”

“You’re just not used to it,” Tommy retorted. “It’s not those old vector graphics the older games have.”

“Hey,” Scott said, “don’t knock the old school games. Give me some Tempest or Galaxian any time over this. Heck, I’d even settle for some Donkey…”

It was at that exact moment someone burst into the front door of the arcade, screaming at the top his lungs. “At the campus! An ape is on the loose causing havoc!”

“…Kong…?” Scott completed his thought. He reached out and grabbed his friend’s shoulder. “Tommy, did you hear that?”

“What?” Tommy exclaimed, startled enough to look up from the game. Dirk Daring then got crushed between the falling rocks. “Oh man! I just lost a life!”

Scott pulled him away from the game. “It’s just a quarter! We’ve got to find out what’s going on!”

“A quarter? That game goes for fifty cents a play…”

While most of the crowd in the arcade was rushing out the front door to see if they could glimpse what was going on across the street at the university, the two young men ducked out the back door unnoticed.

Inside the School of Science building, a gorilla that had just sloughed off an overcoat and hat stood before a group of surprised professors. “What is this?” one of the men exclaimed.

“You fools mocked my research,” the gorilla said in a guttural tone, “said that transference of the human brain was impossible! Well, I stand before you as living proof of my theories!”

“It talks! Ooooh…” one of the women cried out before fainting. One of her associates barely caught her as she fell back.

“What? Who?” asked another of the men.

“Ranesferd?” a third man asked curiously.

“Yes, Covington!” the ape replied. “I am Basil Ranesferd!”

“But your body…?”

“My human body, inevitably marching to death thanks to an incurable illness, was destroyed in a baptism of fire – right after my brain was successfully been transferred into the body of this ape named Titan! My superior brain power is now matched with the superior strength of this beast!” As a show of his abilities, Titan brought his two massive fists down hard onto the large conference room table. It smashed in two with simple ease and a loud crunching sound.

“Call security!” one of the men cried out.

“Call the National Guard!” another cried.

“No!” the ape-man exclaimed. He rose up on his back legs and gestured with his front arms threateningly.   “You will acknowledge my genius and admit you were wrong to revoke my tenure here!”

“You were a risk to the university!” Professor Covington countered quickly. “Your experiments and practices were done outside of the authorizations by this school’s board! You were cavalier and dangerous, bordering on destructive!”

“Dangerous? Destructive?” Titan growled. “You want to see dangerous and destructive?” The ape grabbed a broken portion of the table, hoisted the large half into the air with ease and swung it about. “I’ll show you dangerous and destructive!” He let the oaken projectile fly.

A number of professors hit the floor to duck as the table portion sailed over their heads, shattering through the third-floor windows with a loud crash. Glass rained down onto the sidewalk below and the table fragment hit the ground and shattered.

From the now open window, the sounds of police sirens could be heard in the distance and getting closer. “No…” the gorilla furrowed his brow.

“Security! Go get them!” one of the professors shouted.

Another younger man nodded and bolted for the door.

Titan saw him disappear out of the corner of his eye. “No! I won’t be stopped – not when I have gotten this far!” The ape glanced about the room, eyeing his still captive audience.

He grunted as he made a quick decision. “You!” he said as he grabbed one of the young women nearby. He pulled her into his arms with a powerful tugged. She screamed out in terror.

“Quiet!” he ordered as he bound across the room in a single leap, thanks to powerful leg muscles. “You will do as my hostage until I can take my leave! I cannot afford to be captured and put into prison!” And with that, he darted out the door and into the hall.

Just at the moment, outside the science building, a quartet of costumed heroes appeared on the scene. “What happened here?” the white garbed flying Rainbow asked as she surveyed the broken glass and shattered table.

“Could it be that gorilla everyone was screaming about?” the gold and green garbed Larynx wondered.

“I’ll check!” the red and blue costumed Ricochet said. In a flash, he zipped out and about the grounds, doing a quick survey of those students and staff members mulling about.

“It’s a good thing we were nearby,” Hydro Girl, dressed in purple and red, said.

“Definitely,” Rainbow said as she started to land near the others.

“We should split up and…” Larynx started to say.

“Look!” Hydro Girl pointed to the roof top. The others followed her purple gloved finger to see what she was referring to.

A massive figure hurried across the roof line at a quick pace. In its arms was a screaming blonde haired woman. When the figure approached the end of the roof, it didn’t slow. Then, it leapt into the air and landed on the edge of the next building’s roof. It continued to move undaunted.

“What was that?” Rainbow asked.

“Our ape in question! Come on!” Larynx took to the air with a sonic cry. Rainbow followed suit with Hydro Girl behind her on a self-made slide of ice.

Ricochet turned to see his friends taking off. “Later!” he winked at a young brown haired co-ed and went racing off after his teammates.

As the heroes closed the gap, their suspicions were confirmed. “It’s the ape alright!” Rainbow said.

“We have to be careful,” Hydro Girl cautioned, “and not hit the woman.”

Larynx turned to his teammate. “Ricochet, we need that woman out of harm’s way!”

The speedster nodded. “Gotcha!” He was off in a blur, racing along the ground to the far side of the building. Then, moving faster than gravity could affect him, Ricochet ran up the back side of the building. Just as their quarry reached the far side of the roof, the speedster appeared and rushed it.

“Surprise!” Ricochet quickly snatched the woman out of the ape’s arms and moved her across the roof and then down to the ground again.

What? Titan thought as he found his arms were no longer around his hostage.

Finding a nearby bench, Ricochet set the woman down carefully. “You’ll be safe here,” he told her.

“Wait!” the woman said, grabbing the hero’s arm.

“Yes?”

“First, thank you,” she said. “Second, there is something you need to know about that gorilla…”

By the time the speedster heard the woman out and raced back to the battle, Titan was already tearing apart portions of the roof and hurling it at the heroes. “Back off, cretins!” he growled.

“Guys, that ain’t no ordinary ape!” Ricochet said.

“No kidding, kid!” Larynx said he dodged a hunk of masonry.   Rainbow used her energy blasts to pulverize it into dust before it could do any damage by hitting someone or something. “He’s something straight out of Planet of the Apes!”

“No matter what he is we have to stop him,” Hydro Girl said. She hurled a blast of ice towards the creature, encasing his legs from the knees down in a block of ice. “We can’t let him escape.”

“Aaaargh!” Titan roared as he threw up his fists and brought them down hard on the ice. With two might blows, the hindrance cracked and shattered. “Go away or I will kill you all!”

“Save the threats, hairy,” Larynx said as he flew in with a sweeping attack. His sonic cry focused on the gorilla, sending a sonic blast through its ears. “We’ve heard it all before!”

“Stop that!” Titan growled in pain. He narrowed his eyes, focused on the cause of his anguish and leapt off of the roof. With a swift, powerful tackle, he knocked the sonic hero out of the sky. Both forms went crashing through the trees.

Larynx hit the ground hard. “Ooof!” he exclaimed. “He’s fast!”

“Where did he go?” Rainbow asked as she scanned the ground.

“There!” Hydro Girl said, spying the creature still in the trees – a branch having saved him from falling to the ground.

“I’ll get him!” Ricochet announced. He started to run for the tree but Titan was on the move. He began to leap and swing from branches, using his mighty ape-appendages to move across the tree-line. Ricochet had to double-back and alert his course a number of times. “Hey, hold still! No fair using the trees!”

Rainbow frowned. “He’s making a monkey out of us. We can’t have that!” She thrust out her hands, palms open, and let fire a multicolored blast that shattered the upper portion of one of the mighty oaks. The blast caught Titan too squarely, sending him flying.

“Nice!” Larynx said as he took to the air once more. “Didn’t know you had that kind of power in you, girl.”

Rainbow smiled at her accomplishment.

I didn’t either, Hydro Girl thought to herself.

“Come on, ladies!” Ricochet called as he raced after the fallen ape. “We have to make sure that ape stays down!” The speedster began to circle Titan, keeping out of his reach but creating a wall of air and a blur of himself from allowing the enemy to escape.

“That’s it, kid!” Larynx encouraged. “Keep him blocked and confused!” He maneuvered himself into the air above the action. “Then I’ll hit put him at ground-zero for a sonic bomb!” Opening his throat once more, the blonde hero let fire a concentrated blast of sound.

“Aaaaaaah!” Titan growled, clasping his hands to his ears. “Stop! Stop!”

“What’s that?” Larynx said with a smile as he put his hand to his ear. “I can’t hear you. I have a banana in my ear.” He chuckled at that old joke.

“Oh please,” Ricochet groaned.

Titan let out one more howl and then fell to the ground.

“Looks like you beat him,” Rainbow announced.

Larynx stopped his audible assault and landed on the ground. Ricochet ceased his running as well. “We did it,” the later said.

“Yes indeed,” Larynx said proudly as he stood over the fallen ape. He smiled as their two female teammates approached. “See ladies, we didn’t even need beauty to stop the beast.” He started to laugh.

Ricochet laughed too. “Now that one was good.”

“You think…” Larynx started to say.

It was right then Titan sprang from the ground, throwing both his mighty arms about the hero’s torso. “Let’s see how funny you can be after I crush you to death!” the gorilla growled.

“Larynx!” Hydro Girl exclaimed.

The hero struggled in the ape’s arms, trying to find a way to slip free. But, the simian grasp was too strong for him to break.

Rainbow frowned. “I can’t get a good shot.” She started to move but Titan adjusted his position so that his captive remained a shield for him.

“…a little…help…” Larynx barely managed to groan in a low tone. He had hardly any air in his lungs, not nearly enough to summon up a sonic burst.

Hydro Girl frowned. “No one gets to man-handle my man except me!” She concentrated and caused a nearby fire hydrant to burst, sending a concentrated stream of water into the air. She quickly controlled the flow, turning it into a pressured assault right into Titan’s back.

“Eeeeew,” Ricochet said, holding his nose. “Wet fur! That’s gross.”

“Ric, quit the comedy and get something to hold him before he escapes!” Rainbow shouted.

The speedster was off in a shot, even before Hydro Girl announced, “He’s not going anywhere!” She concentrated again and turned the water spilling all over the ground into ice.

Titan felt the traction under his hind legs starting to give. “What’s this?” As he fumbled with his balance, he only began to slip a bit more. “Ice?” Instinctively, he released his grip on Larynx to try to balance on four appendages instead of two.

The blonde hero started to drop from his grasp, still a bit dazed from the lack of air.

Rainbow saw the opening and rocketed in to catch him and pull him to safety. “Gotcha!” she said.

“…thanks…” Larynx managed to groan.

“You!” Titan roared as he tried to manage to stay on his feet. “You’ll pay for this!” He used all four limbs and started to make some headway across the ice.

“Sorry, I don’t have my purse handy,” Rainbow said, “but perhaps this will do.” She focused her attention on the gorilla and concentrated.

Suddenly, Titan saw himself plunging over a cliff. “Whaaaat?” he snarled in confusion. Reaching up with his forearms, he tried to grab at plants jutting out of the sides of the cliff as he fell. But, much to his dismay, they passed right through them.

Titan felt his legs slip out from under him, and his head slammed down onto something hard.

As he blinked away the throbbing pain in his skull, his senses cleared and he realized he was flat on his back on the icy pavement. “Raarrrrh! You tricked me!” He tried to rise again.

Rainbow laughed. “Not too difficult to mess with your mind, hairy.”

“You’ll stop laughing when I rip your throat out!” Titan threatened.

Energy started to swell at Rainbow’s hands. “I’d like to see you try.”

Titan steadied himself on his rear legs and began to howl at the top of his lungs. He also pounded his chest, trying to intimidate the woman.

Suddenly, his eyes grew wide, his howl stopped suddenly, and then Titan fell face first onto the ground with a loud thud.

“What the…?” Rainbow asked.

Standing behind the fallen ape was the blue and red costumed Ricochet, a smile on his face and a small rifle in his hands.

“Ricochet, you shot him?” Hydro Girl asked.

“Yup,” the speedster said, “with a couple tranquilizer darts. When I took off to find something to contain him, I spied the animal control folks pulling up. I borrowed some of their equipment to put old monkey-man down for the count.”

“Good thinking,” Hydro Girl said. “That should keep him out until the authorities can properly imprison him. Then maybe they can find out just what is going on here, because clearly this is no ordinary gorilla.”

“I may be able to help you out a bit there,” a male voice called from behind them. The heroes turned to see a scholarly looking male approach. “My name is Nigel Covington, and I’m a professor here at the university.”

After hearing the professor’s explanation and insuring the authorities were able to cart the ape-man off, the four heroes prepared to take off.

“That poor creature,” Rainbow said wistfully.

“Ransferd?” Ricochet asked.

“No, the monkey,” she replied. “That’s another victim in all of this.”

“It sounds like they’ll remain that way,” Hydro Girl said, “joined by some demented experimentation.”

“You ladies heading back to what you were doing before?” Larynx inquired.

“Why?” Hydro Girl replied. “You want to join us?”

“I don’t know.”

“Talk about cruel and unusual punishment!” Ricochet added. “And you think Titan has it bad! Come on, Larynx, let’s go back to doing what we were doing before.”

The blonde hero smiled. “I don’t think so, kid. I’ve had enough games for the day.”

Hydro Girl and Rainbow laughed at this.