Blue Light Productions presents
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|BLiP| | |~~~~~ / / \ \ | | | | \/ | / / \ \ \ | /
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|#13 | | |~~~~~ | ___ | | | | | | | /\ ~| \ \ / / | |
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[Fan.Boy and Dreck are clasped together while the LNHQ
collapses around them.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fan.Boy sat in the cold and shivered. He had tried all sorts of escape
plans, but he was still stuck in the same vault as last issue. Jumping.
Stilts. Using the material from his own dead body (which he found really
repulsive). All failed.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" That was it. Scream. Very useful.
"Are you down there?"
A voice! Saved! "Yes. Can you help?" Fan.Boy called back.
Fan.Boy's heart skipped a beat when he saw Dreck's head appear
in the hole in the ceiling. "Dreck!"
Dreck looked at him, puzzled. "You have said my name many times,
but I do not know yours."
Fan.Boy grinned. "Call me Barry. Can you help me out?"
Dreck disappeared for a moment, and Fan.Boy's heart skipped
another beat, this one of fear, before Dreck reappeared. He was holding
something in his hand.
"Will this help?" he asked, holding out the bullwhip that they
had used before to get in and out.
"Certainly, just-" Without waiting, Dreck dropped the bullwhip,
then stepped back. As Fan.Boy blinked in surprise, a small ball of blue
light zipped in through the hole and buzzed down to where Fan.Boy was
standing. It rapidly expanded, and assumed the form of Dreck.
"-tie it up there," Fan.Boy finished lamely.
Dreck looked at Fan.Boy. "Did you want me down here to help?"
"Well, I was hoping that you'd stay up there..." He broke off as
he saw tears well up in Dreck's eyes.
"I just wanted to help," Dreck said. "You asked me to bring you
the whip, and I.. I.." He started sobbing.
Barry moved quickly, and hugged Dreck to him. "No, it's all
right. We'll get out. You can fly back up again."
Dreck didn't seem to hear. "I can't find my masters, but I'm not
allowed to be free. I do not know what to do. I cannot be free, but I
cannot find those who control me. What am I to do?"
Barry broke the embrace and held Dreck's head in his hands.
"You are allowed to be yourself. No-one should control anyone, and
certainly not you. Your masters are dead. You. Are. Free."
"It is impossible," Dreck insisted. "It is not allowed."
"It *is* allowed."
Dreck looked at Barry, his face pleading to accept what Barry
was saying, but not letting himself. Barry became very aware of how
close their faces were, and how beautiful Dreck was. The curve of his
cheeks. The redness of his lips...
Dreck broke away, startled by something. "Can you hear that?"
Fan.Boy suppressed a look of disappointment. Distantly he heard
something. A faint rumbling. His feet started tingling, and he looked
down to see tiny pieces of rubble dancing all over the floor.
"Earthquake!" Fan.Boy yelled.
"No!" Dreck called out. "Something's coming!"
Fan.Boy ran over and picked up the whip, and looked around for
something to use it on.
One of the walls collapsed as a huge tidal wave of water crashed
through it.
"RUN!" cried Fan.Boy.
[Seeing Dreck momentarily stunned, Fan.Boy grabbed his hand and
pulled.]
Together they ran to the far wall, but were unable to see
anywhere else to run to.
Fan.Boy looked up and saw a useful beam overhead. Uncoiling the
whip, he flicked it up and the end wrapped around the beam. He
straightened his fedora and took a jump towards the water.
He swung up on the whip, and then back down and past a startled
Dreck to crash into the wall beside them.
It shook and little pieces broke off. Large cracks appeared all
over the wall.
Fan.Boy unwrapped the whip, and grabbed Dreck. "Hold on!"
Splash page: Darkness is shattered by a waterfall crashing
through a wall. Surfing on the water, on a large piece of the wall, are
Fan.Boy and Dreck, mouths open in screams.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"
The water crashed onto the bottom of the cavern below, and
Fan.Boy and Dreck plunged into it, still on the rock. Due to its large
size, the rock got enough water force underneath it to stay afloat,
carrying its passengers onwards.
Fan.Boy and Dreck clung on for dear life, battling the forces
trying to knock them from their perch and into the deadly waters rushing
underneath them.
Dreck glowed, enabling them to see themselves hurtling through
the darkness. They looked over the sides, but blackness bordered the
waters, and blackness was the sky.
Straining his eyes, Fan.Boy thought he could make out something
bright ahead. As they were pushed forwards, the brightness became the
outline of a door.
"It's the door to of the Peril Room!" Fan.Boy cried over the
noise. "When we go through it, all this will disappear!"
"And?"
"And you'd better get off before we go crashing into the wall on
the other side! Get off now! I'll be all right!"
[Fan.Boy stared in panic as the influence of his own stunning
powers stopped Dreck from saving himself.
"No," he moaned to himself. "Come on."]
Dreck shook his head. "What do you want me to do?"
"Get away from here! Turn into a ball of light and fly!"
Dreck's body glowed brighter, then shrunk into the small blue
ball of light. It flew around Fan.Boy's head for a few moments before
disappearing into the blackness.
With Dreck's body light gone, the light through the door became
that much brighter. And that much closer.
Screaming, Fan.Boy fell through the Peril Room door, sailed on
nothingness as the Peril Room created wall and water disappeared from
underneath him, then crumpled as he hit the opposite wall.
_-~-_
Fan.Boy woke up lying on something moderately comfortable. A dark blur
hung above him, and he jumped slightly in surprise causing the figure to
move back. It grew into the recognisable features of the Ultimate Ninja.
"What did you find?" he asked abruptly.
"Wha?" asked Fan.Boy fuzzily.
"In the Peril Room. What did you find? Did you find the source
of whatever is causing our trouble?"
"I found something," said Fan.Boy cagey. "Or rather, someone."
He quickly recounted his events in #12.
"Do you want me to go back in?" he asked fearfully.
The ninja cast his eyes at Fan.Boy distractedly. "No, no. I
don't think so. The jungle's disappeared and nothing's replaced it."
"You mean it's back to normal?"
"No, it's still corrupted. There's nothing in there, as I said,"
said the ninja. "Absolutely nothing. No room, no anything."
Fan.Boy sat up, to see where he was. The answer was back in his
room. The ceiling was covered with posters made from the covers of
_Constellation_ and _Dvandom Force_. It was very hard to miss.
"What's the plan?"
"You stay here for now. We don't need you any more. Just stay
out of the way while we deal with it." Still distracted, the ninja took
his leave.
Fan.Boy swung his legs off the bed. No way was he staying here.
As he walked towards the door, it swung shut. He stopped, surprised. It
didn't normally do that sort of thing.
Normally, it would stay open until he passed through it, and
then, normally, continue to stay open until he bothered to close it.
Perhaps the Ultimate Ninja pulled it closed, Fan.Boy thought.
That was it.
The Ultimate Ninja had also locked the door as well, in that
case, as Fan.Boy couldn't budge it. Strange. He didn't hear it lock.
He fetched a spare key from a nearby drawer, and put the key in
the door. As he touched it, the door swung open again.
What the hell was going on?
He walked out, and the building lurched to one side, sending him
crashing into the far wall. Earthquake, that was it.
The building lurched to the other side, and Fan.Boy reeled to
the other wall like he was in a _Star Trek_ episode.
"Stop that!" he shouted to the world in general, and it did.
Fan.Boy shook his head, unable to fathom what cosmic influence
had occurred that time.
That was when the sirens went off.
Fan.Boy ran for the stairs, not noticing that no-one else was
about. When he reached the stairwell, he heard a commotion from two
floors down. He raced down two steps at a time.
When he reached the second floor, he pulled the stairwell door
open onto a disaster.
The first thing he saw was a jumble of LNHers, all gathered
around a pile of rubble. He spied Ultimate Ninja, Ordinary Lady, Organic
Lass and Cheesecake-Eater Lad. Off to one side, Master Blaster held onto
Demon Boy, who was crying, and moaning "No, no."
"Wha.. What's going on?" Fan.Boy asked, but no-one heard him.
He moved closer to the rubble, and came into sight of what had
happened. Leviathan Lass lay under the brick work, skewered by a wooden
beam.
He could hear Cheesecake-Eater Lad murmuring softly. "Too weak.
The walls were too damn weak."
Fan.Boy just looked at the scene stupidly, until the Ultimate
Ninja looked up and saw him. He leapt up.
"Get out of here. Ordinary Lady, get him out of here. Master
Blaster, take Demon Boy back to his room. I'll send Organic Lass and
Special Bonding Boy up later. Cheesecake-Eater Lad, get a team here to
get Leviathan Lass out of there."
Fan.Boy heard no more as Ordinary Lady took his arm and gently
lead him away.
"How?" Fan.Boy said quietly, before clearing his throat. "How
did it happen?"
"The earthquake," Ordinary Lady explained, just as quietly.
"Brought the whole wall down onto her. She never stood a chance."
She took him downstairs, heading for the cafeteria. That's when
they found the other consequence of the earthquake.
The reception area was buried in the ceiling above. The entire
floor area above the reception, the weapons testing laboratory, had
collapsed, destroying the lobby.
Fan.Boy could just make out the bodies of the receptionists, all
broken and bloody.
"No, this can't be happening," said Fan.Boy disbelievingly.
Ordinary Lady pointed to a large object in the middle of the
mess, mostly covered. "It must have been that BIGGUN(tm) there. Finally
made a weapon too big to use," she said sadly. "Go into the cafeteria,
I'll join you later, after I report this."
Fan.Boy nodded dumbly, and walked into the cafeteria.
And stopped short when he saw Bill Jates.
"You!" Fan.Boy said, immediately enraged. "What did you do?"
"Me?" said the aged archaeologist. "Nothing. But what I control
did... ahh, that is another matter entirely."
"Are you responsible for this?" asked Fan.Boy, sitting down at
the table Dr. Jates already occupied, although on the other side.
Dr. Jates stared sedately into Fan.Boy's eyes. "You are so
mistrusting, and yet you cannot even see the events that drive you. When
we last met, I relieved you of a burden you were not ready for. The time
is not yet ready for its use. But this," he brought something out of his
pocket. "This, you are ready for."
He skidded the object across the table. Fan.Boy reflexively
grabbed before it fell off the edge.
In his hand was a large diamond. Its multifaceted body gleamed
in the yellow lights overhead. Fan.Boy could tell that this diamond was
worth a king's ransom.
"You will need to move freely," said Dr. Jates. "To this end, I
give you this. It will distract others from coming into conflict with
you."
New Look Lass entered at this point, and her eyes immediately
lighted on the glittering jewel. "Oh, my. That's gorgeous." She came
over to Fan.Boy's seat and ignored him completely, concentrating only on
what was in his hand.
Dr. Jates offered Fan.Boy a glass. "Shall we drink, Mr. Knewbee,
to our future partnership?"
Fan.Boy allowed Dr. Jates to pour him a drink. "We do not have a
partnership."
Dr. Jates's eyes twinkled. "Oh, my dear sir. We do. We merrily
do."
Fan.boy swigged the wine. "And what makes you so sure?"
Dr. Jates calmly pulled out a thin vial full of blue liquid.
"Because if you don't agree to us working together, you'll die from that
poison you just drank," he explained cheerfully.
Fan.Boy blanched. How could he have fallen for such a cliched
situation?
"Hey, New Look Lass." She gave him a distant "hmm?".
"I'll give you the diamond if you help me get the antidote."
That was when a large party of LNHers entered the cafeteria.
"Geez, you hear what happened to Leviathan Lass?"
"You should see the lobby."
"Hey, get a look at the rock."
"Perhaps Fan.Boy's proposing to New Look Lass."
From the other doors, Jates's goons entered, toting machine
guns. They quickly opened fire on the unsuspecting LNHers.
In the mad panic that ensued, Fan.Boy was knocked form his seat,
as was Dr. Jates. Fan.Boy watched in horror as the bottle went skidding
across over the feet laden floor.
He dived for it, letting the diamond fall, but it was knocked
away by someone's foot just before he got to it.
New Look Lass dived for the diamond, but that was also knocked
away.
Fan.Boy crawled on his hands and knees, trying to keep up with
the skittering vial. He watched in dismay as it was tossed from one end
of the room to the other, all the while remaining outside his grasp.
The LNHers weren't faring much better. Under Dr. Jates
direction, the goons concentrated their fire, bringing down a group of
LNHers containing Pizza Girl, Bizarre Boy, Jailbait and Squeaky Clean.
Fan.Boy grabbed out for the vial, but Sister State-The-Obvious's
dead body caused him to duck out of the way, and making him miss his
chance.
New Look Lass was actually touching the diamond when she felt
someone grasp her chest. She looked to admonish the erstwhile groper,
and screamed when she saw it was the hand of a deceased Adamant
Authority-Of-Everything.
Dr. Jates looked on, amused, as LNHers ran here and there, all
trying to get out of the, and running into each other. Really, this was
nearly as much fun as the time with those kittens.
Fan.Boy and New Look Lass passed each other in opposite
directions.
"Antidote?" he asked.
"Diamond," she replied.
They crawled past each other on their separate missions.
One of the goons saw a perfect window of opportunity, and drew
aim on Fan.Boy's head. He was just about to squeeze the trigger when
Jates spotted his target.
"No, you fool!" Jates cried, and knocked the gun to one side,
jiggling the goon's finger and causing the gun to bark.
Master Roster Man went down under the deadly hail, smashing a
table, and spending the bucket of ice that was positioned on it flying.
The clear globes scattered over the floor, intersecting the path of the
diamond just as New Look Lass was about to put her fingers on it again.
"Nuts," she said, as the diamond buried itself under similar
glittering objects.
As the diamond disappeared from her sight, its hold over her
mind faltered, and she realised what the hell was really going on.
"Aaah!" she screamed, before twenty bullets simultaneously splattered
her body.
In a break in the now thinning crowd, Fan.Boy saw Dr. Jates step
outside and take something from his jacket. Something was going down,
and Fan.Boy had to get out.
He was standing beside the buffet table, which contained a
marvelous sculpture, made out of cheesecake. It was an excellent and
accurate rendition. Fan.Boy glanced at the card below it to see what it
was called. "A Cheesecake in cheesecake, by Cheesecake-Eater Lad."
Couldn't fault the artist for not following up on what he was good at.
Fan.Boy didn't it more than a moment's thought before he tipped
the entire structure to one side, and let it splat on the body-covered
floor.
He placed the overly large dish on its side on the floor, and
gave it a push. It rolled along, and Fan.Boy ran with it, letting the
bullets that were now aimed at him to bit into the plate's rim.
He made it to the door, and let the plate pass him while he took
one last look back.
Fan.Boy gave a gasp of horror as he saw one of the goons holding
the vial of antidote, and waggling it suggestively.
Time slowed as the goon opened his fingers, letting the fragile
glass fall towards the concrete surface below him.
In desperation, Fan.Boy grabbed the whip from his waist, and
flicked it out. The tip wrapped itself around the bottle when it was
halfway to destruction, and Fan.Boy gave the whip a triumphal jerk.
The bottle sailed through the air, and safely into Fan.Boy's
outstretched hand. He waved the vial back towards the goon, but quickly
vacated the doorway when he saw the goon bring his gun up.
He unstoppered the bottle, and drank the contests in a hurried
swallow. He lent against the wall and took a calming breathe.
The charges that Dr. Jates had set into the cafeteria ceiling
now detonated.
Fan.Boy was thrown clear as the wall behind him exploded
outwards. He half stumbled, half crawled through brick dust, pulling
himself away from the explosion.
He lay on the floor, panting, and trying to gain some sense of
understanding, but failed.
Something flew into sight out of the corner of his eye, but
Fan.Boy was too weary to turn his head. With a flash, the always welcome
form of Dreck appeared.
"Barry," said Dreck, kneeling at Fan,Boy's side. "What happened
to you?"
"Jates is back," said Fan.Boy. "But I don't know how."
"Because I am like the proverbial bed penny, Mr. Knewbee," the
dreaded voice of Jates informed. "Except I am not so proverbial. Take
them."
The last was an order to his goons who grabbed Dreck and hauled
Fan.Boy up. Fan.Boy was trust against a wall, while Dreck was merely held.
"Now, Mr. Knewbee. Perhaps you would like to hear of some of my
plans before you so hurriedly reject my proposal again," Dr. Jates said,
a man of infinite patience. "I will build a huge empire, one which only
I can control. It's influence will not be physical, but it's effect
will be so sweeping, Alexander the Great himself would weep. One way or
another, you will help me. You can choose to do it of your own
violation, or I show you some of the other means of persuasion at my
disposal."
"You have a very vivid imagination," Fan.Boy said.
"You do not believe me, Mr. Knewbee? Oh, but you will. You most
certainly will."
Fan.Boy was held firmly while Dr. Jates took out a metal flask.
Very slowly, and with much deliberation, he unscrewed the lid, then
walked over to Fan.Boy.
The goon holding him grasped Fan.Boy's jaw, forcing it open. Dr.
Jates brought the flask up, and gently let some black fluid slip between
Fan.Boy's lips.
"Do not drink it, Barry!" Dreck cried. "Spit it out."
Fan.Boy started to choke when the goon released him, and he took
the opportunity to spit the foul fluid into the goon's face.
"Yeah!" cheered Dreck.
"Oh, too bad. You shall have to be punished," said Jates.
Fan.Boy was turned around, and the back of his outfit was torn
away. The goon took Fan.Boy's whip away, and lashed Fan.Boy's back with
it.
"Gnnn," cried Fan.Boy, through clenched lips.
"Leave him alone!" Dreck cried, letting a tendril of energy
strike the goon's back.
"Take care of him also," Jates ordered.
Dreck was also pushed against a wall. The goon guarding him
removed his belt, and brought it down painfully.
"No, let him go," cried out Fan.Boy, as another stroke hit his
back. "He's done nothing!"
Both grunted in pain as they received more lashes.
"Get away," Fan.Boy said to Dreck. "You can get away."
"I am not leaving you!" Dreck said back.
Fan.Boy could feel the tears well up, but squeezes his eyes
shut. That sort of thing would help neither of them now.
"Enough." Fan.Boy was forced back around, and his raw back
contacted the wall, making him arch in agony.
"We will try again." The goon opened Fan.Boy's mouth, and Jates
poured another measure in. This time the goon clamped Fan.Boy's mouth
shut, and held his nose. forcing Fan.Boy to swallow.
"Now, Mr. Knewbee, you are mine."
"Barry," whispered Dreck.
_-~-_
Fan.Boy's body spasmed as pain flooded his senses. The fluid racked his
body, and tore at his mind, screaming to be let in, screaming to get
Barry out.
His legs twitched, knocking over the comics books that had been
placed around him.
"Gaah!"
His back arched, pain from the whip and reactions from the drink
making his muscles contract and release in contortional proportions.
"Aaah!
His mind rebelled the control, but the influence hammered to be
let in, continually pounding, continually hitting.
"Gump."
Fan.Boy's body fell onto the bed, and breathed quietly. Fan.Boy
slowly sat up, letting the swirls of air in the room play over him.
His mouth widened in his familiar fannish way.
_-~-_
"Why are you doing this?" the six-year old Panta asked.
"Because it's fun," replied Dr. Bill Jates as he watched his
goons strap Panta into the cage.
The room they were in was more of a vault. The roof was high
above them, and their voices echoed eerily in the air. Also eerie were
the chants that filled the air, but no chorus visible to sing them.
Before them was an altar, a large affair made of baroque marble
and coated in mould. It was an idol of the kind not often seen in these
enlightened times. Its monstrous arms stretched out, and from inside the
hands descended heavy chains from which a thin metal cage depended.
It was this cage that the struggling Panta was put in.
The cage was connected, by many hidden pulleys, to a large
spoked wheel. By turning the wheel, the cage could be lifted and
dropped. Where it would drop to was evident. Underneath the main body of
the idol was a large pit, that continued until it reached hell. Or a
valid approximation. At the bottom of the pit could be seen a roaring
inferno, comparable to the most violent of volcanoes.
Standing by the controls were Jates's goon. Standing by the cage
were Jates's goon. Standing on the other side were more of Jates's
goons. And behind them was Dreck, imprisoned inside a sealed glass
chamber. It was lucky he didn't need to breathe, for the air would have
ran out long ago.
His eyes were fastened on one goon in particular.
"And so we come to the climax of this affair," Jates intoned.
"No more shall these weaklings interfere with my schemes. With this last
pitiful nothing gone, I shall be able to complete my takeover."
He turned to one side. "Would you care to do the honours, Mr.
Knewbee?"
Fan.Boy grinned again, and Dreck's heart sagged. Fan.Boy strode
forward, fully under the control of Jates's fluid.
He took over from the goon fixing Panta's straps. She looked up
to him with her young eyes, pleading. "Fan.Boy, don't do this. Not to
me. I'm too cute."
Fan.Boy looked at Panta, but didn't say anything. Then he
reached up to put her hand into the last strap.
"No," Panta moaned. She tried to strike out with her claws, but
her younger body wasn't up to the task. Taking one last hope, she spit
in Fan.Boy's face.
He stopped and stared into her eyes. Slowly, he closed the cage
around her, and Panta whimpered.
Fan.Boy moved away, and wiped the spit from his face.
The chanting slowly came together, concentrating on one word.
"Down. Down. Down. Down."
"And now," Jates called out. "We have the beginning of the end.
Take your place, Mr. Knewbee, and let the ceremony being."
Fan.Boy returned to his place in the line in front of Dreck, and
Jates signalled the other group to be winching. The cage slowly rose
with much clanking, and moved into position over the chasm.
It tipped over so Panta was facing down, and she started crying
gently as she saw her fate in front of her.
Dreck saw her distress, and knew he had to act.
The goons turned at the sound of shattering glass, and saw Dreck
coming towards them. "Barry," he called. "Come on, snap out of it."
He reached out for Barry, but Fan.Boy backhanded him. "Get away
from me, kid."
Dreck looked up, tears in his eyes. "Barry, I do not know what
they did to you, but I love you!" A bolt of energy flew from Dreck's
hand and slammed into Fan.Boy's chest.
The other goons moved forward to strike him, but Fan.Boy
straightened up. "Leave him. I'll take care of him," he said roughly,
then grabbed Dreck himself.
"Don't worry, Dreck," he whispered to the surprised energy
being. "I'll all right. You saved me."
The goons wondered what the whispering was for, but found out
when Dreck and Fan.Boy turned suddenly to smash the faces of the two
goons nearest them. Dreck's goon was flattened, but Fan.Boy's merely
took a step back in surprise.
Fan.Boy cursed, and Dreck took a moment out to slam a more
powerful energy bolt into the goon.
"Get over to the winch," Dreck said, letting more bolts protect
them and take more goons out. "I'll take care of these."
Fan.Boy left him to it. There was no way he could fight. (Except
in stories written by a certain Australian.)
He went around the back of the idol, and took off the whip that
had been returned to him. He flicked it out, and it wrapped around the
legs of he goons holding the lever open to let the wheel turn and the
cage fall.
Fan.Boy heaved, and the goon did a spectacular face plant into
the ground, knocking himself out. The lever went back to a neutral
position, and down in the rift the cage stopped, causing Panta to thump
into the cage front.
The other goon had left for Dreck's battle, so Fan.Boy was able
to get to the wheel and start winding it back up again. Panta watched in
fearful hope as the raging fire dropped away.
The cage rose above the lip of the pit, and Fan.Boy reached out
and moved the lever into a locked position.
He ran across to Panta. "I'm back," he told the scared catgirl.
"We're gonna get out of-"
A piece of wood interrupted him by whacking him of the back of
the head. He fell to one side, clutching his skull, and the goon who had
hit him returned to the lever and released it.
Panta watched in desperation as the cage lowered again.
Dreck finally managed to take care of the last goon opposing
him, and saw Fan.Boy's problem. He quickly changed back to energy form
and flew over to the lever. Returning back to normal, he fell onto the
goon, but was unable to rise again for a moment. He was almost tapped out.
Fan.Boy got back to his feet and returned to the winch and
wound it up again.
Panta just watched in confusion as she and the cage changed
direction yet again.
The goon Dreck collapsed on got to his feet, and pushed Fan.Boy
away, giving his head an extra whack. While Fan.Boy's ears rang, the
goon moved the lever to 'down' again.
Panta cried out as the fire drew nearer again.
Dreck was still unable to move, and so watched as Fan.Boy rose
dizzily and smashed the goon in the face. The goon barely registered it,
and grinned widely.
Fan.Boy hit him again, this time on the nose, but still with no
effect.
The cage descended and the fires rose.
Fan.Boy one-twoed the goon's stomach, but still nothing.
Fan.Boy tried a punch between the legs, but the goon was quicker. He
kicked out and caught Fan.Boy in the gut.
The fire bloomed and nearly reached the bars. Panta cringed from
the heat.
Fan.Boy clutched his stomach, but stayed on his feet. Roaring,
he smashed his head into the goon's torso. He finally moved. The goon
fell backwards, tripping up, and fell between two of the spokes.
The force of the wheel was such that the goon was carried over,
and slammed into the ground on the far side, stopping the wheel from
turning further.
Fan.Boy and Dreck cheered silently as they finally moved to wind
the wheel back up.
It seemed an eternity, but the cage finally cleared the pit.
Empty. They were too late.
"Noo," cried Fan.Boy, falling to his knees. He looked up at
Dreck, a tear running down his cheek. "Did you get him?" Fan.Boy asked.
"Did you get Jates?"
Dreck shook his head, then helped Fan.Boy up. Leaning on each
other, they made it over to the side of the cavern. Dreck helped Fan.Boy
lean against the wall, and waited for Fan.Boy to catch his breath.
"I will look for an exit," Dreck said, when Fan.Boy recovered.
"I think there is one over there." He pointed, then started moving away.
He got three steps before Fan.Boy's whip wrapped around his waist.
"Come here," Fan.Boy said, pulling him in.
Splash page: By the cavern wall, Fan.Boy in his tattered outfit,
and Dreck looking better, yet very tired, the final, poster-style image,
is Fan.Boy and Dreck locked together in a deep kiss.
"The HQ of Doom."
by Jamas Enright
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NEXT ISSUE: This arc has to end, 'cos I'm running out of movies, but:
what's in the box? will Dr. Bill Jates be back? and what of Dreck and
Fan.Boy?
All continued in _Fan.Boy #14_: The Fast Cascade.
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Credits:
All the characters are mine except for those that aren't.
Back to the Index.