#2 - "Knock, Knock, Who's There?"
Shadow Queen and Spectrum's conversations were rudely interrupted by a costumed collection of intruders. The leader of Thugmaster's Elite was a man known as the Dark Knight. He wore a dark blue body suit and mask with magenta boots, gloves and trim. A stylized chess piece knight was emblazoned on his chest. A number of metallic disks were strapped up each arm.
"Friends of yours?", Spectrum asked.
"Ex-friends, you might say." Shadow Queen stuck her tongue out at Dark Knight as she said this.
"You're not getting away from us that easily again, Shadow Queen." The Dark Knight pulled one of the disks from his arms and rolled it in his fingers as he spoke.
"You must be a really popular girl." Spectrum interjected.
"Popular ain't exactly the word I'd use, eh, Dash?" A man in a black body suit with a stylized black hole emblem on his chest and wearing a black mask spoke up. He mischievously elbowed his orange and green garbed teammate. "She's almost as fast as you!"
"Found yourself a new pigeon, didja Queenie?" A man in a garish costume joined in on the ribbing. Purple concentric diamonds, outlined in yellow, covered his white costume in a bizarre and haphazard pattern. While he spoke, he suddenly grew to nearly twelve feet in height.
"Do I look like a pigeon?" Spectrum was quite indignant. "For someone with such big eyes, you sure are blind."
"You look like some kind of circus reject to me." said a man in a huge armored battlesuit. It stood over 7 feet tall and looked like a walking tank. The helmet flared out like the head of a hammerhead shark.
"You said it, Hammerhead. And I thought Chaos has a funky costume." The Annihilator was the next to speak up. He wore a dark red costume with blue gloves, boots and trunks. A skull emblem adorned his belt and on his head was a red helmet with an amber faceplate.
"Ooh, the walking carpenter's tool made a funny." Spectrum retorted. "So, where does the Ginzu knife come out?"
"Too bad it doesn't look like he has any gadgets," Annihilator added. "I'd like an excuse to off the bugger."
"Who needs an excuse?" Black Hole shot in. " I say we waste these two and be done with 'em."
"Is that all you ever think of anymore, Blackie?" This speaker was a woman in a light blue bodysuit. The torso of her costume was dark blue, with a light blue triangular insert and flared at the shoulders. She wore a dark blue half cape, barely longer than her pale blond hair and dark blue ankle high boots, which flared back to points.
"So, sue me."
"Hey, now, no need to fight on my account," said the Shadow Queen. "There's no way I'm going back with you bunch of losers."
"Your funeral, toots." The Black Hole then brought his powers into play. His ability was that of teleportation; to move a person or object from one place to another. Black Hole pointed into the air over Shadow Queen and Spectrum's head. They looked up and saw a garbage truck hovering momentarily in the air, a black aura fading from the object as it fully materialized. Then it came crashing into and through the rooftop of the deserted building! "Pardon me while I put out the trash!"
Spectrum reacted quickly, grabbing Shadow Queen and rocketing out from under the deadly projectile. As Shadow Queen regained her bearings, she conjured up a tendril of darkness and sent it smashing Black Hole square in the face and catapulting off the side of the building. Meanwhile, Spectrum fired a dazzling blast at Annihilator.
"You know you can't run away from us forever, Shadow Queen," the Dark Knight said as he tossed one of his disks. It flew well wide of the pair.
"Boy, he sure has lousy aim." Spectrum commented.
"Watch out!" Shadow Queen didn't have time to explain, but she had seen Dark Knight's throwing disks in action many times when she was a member of Thugmaster's Elite. The Dark Knight would throw his disks seemingly far to the right or left of his target. Then just like the unique move of the knight in chess, they would suddenly take a ninety-degree turn and smash into the unsuspecting foe. This disk was electrified and delivered a nasty shock to both Spectrum and Shadow Queen as it connected Squarey with the pair. Spectrum crashed to the rooftop, taking Sque with him.
"Check! Titania, Basilisk! Take those two out now!" Dark Knight directed two more of the Elite forward. The first, a woman, wore a black, legless and armless suit with silver etching. The second of the pair was much more bizarre. Brother Basilisk had green, scaly skin. With his hunchback and shambling gait, he hardly appeared to ever have been human.
"Any more surprises from these two?" Spectrum asked Shadow Queen as the two separated from the pile they had landed in.
"Not from Titania. She's just strong. But BB is a different story." Shadow Queen causes the area around Brother Basilisk to suddenly go completely black, much as she did against Giganto. "He can turn people to stone, just by looking at them."
"Oh, just like the mythological critter. So who's his sister? Medusa?"
"You got a smart mouth, Stripes!" Titania swung at Spectrum wildly, but failed to connect.
"Only because second-string bozos like you give me so much material to work with. " Spectrum flew behind her as he taunted. She swung again, bringing both her fists down from over her head, but all she connected with was the rooftop. The force of the blow weakened the roof, causing the section she is standing on to collapse. Titania disappears from sight, cursing loudly as she falls.
"See what I mean!"
Nearby, Shadow Queen enters the Shadow Field and makes short work of Brother Basilisk. Able to see perfectly in the inky blackness, Sque sneaks up behind her confused opponent, enwraps him in a solid shadow and then commands them to pummel him until he is unconscious. The shadows fade to show Shadow Queen standing over his motionless form, hands on her hips.
"Am I good, or what? Sure you still want to mess with us, Knight?"
"You'llneverbeatusall,ShadowQueen.Wearetoomuchforyou." The Dash spoke almost as fast as he ran. He came rocketing toward her, his body a green and orange blur. Shadow Queen didn't have time to move out of the way, but at the last second a black wall leapt up right in front of her. The Dash crashed headlong into it. The force of the collision dissipated the Shadow Wall, but also knocked Dash senseless.
"You're too much alright," Shadow Queen said, with a hint of disdain in her voice.
"You'll pay for that, witch!" Lightwave shrunk to barely an inch in height. At this height, in combat, Shadow Queen was unable to keep track of her foe. A blast of energy hit Shadow Queen in the back. It wasn't enough to down her, but Dark Knight quickly followed up with his own attack. Another disk easily found its mark, erupting in a net that opened and engulfed its target. Shadow Queen struggled for a moment with the netting then simply melted down into the rooftop. The net collapsed on itself.
Meanwhile, Spectrum faced off with Hammerhead and Chaos. Spectrum fired a beam of energy at Hammerhead, but it failed to affect the armored villain.
"Was that supposed to tickle?" Hammerhead stood there with his arms folded. Nearby, Chaos suddenly shrunk to about three feet tall. He catapulted himself toward Spectrum, doing cartwheels and back flips. Spectrum shot higher into the air, as Chaos leapt by underneath him. Hammerhead tracked Spectrum with his plasma cannon. A horrendous shrieking sound tore through the air as a bolt of orange energy narrowly missed the brightly garbed mutant.
"Gee, that suit musta cost a fortune. Didja pay extra for all that feedback?" Spectrum looped in the air and blasted Chaos as he continued his wild cartwheels. Chaos collapsed in a pile.
"You still haveta deal with me, mutie!" Hammerhead fired his plasma cannon again, but again he was off target.
"How about dealing with me instead, Hammer?" Shadow Queen had used the shadows to flow right through the roof again. "You obviously can't hit the broadside of a barn!"
"I'll deal with you, ya broad!" Hammerhead turned and fired a barrage from his cannon, spreading it across that part of the roof. When the smoke had cleared, Hammerhead saw no one standing, not even his two teammates which he managed to cut down. Shadow Queen was not to be found however.
"Come back here and...!" Hammerhead was cut off in mid-sentence by the combined attacks of Spectrum and Shadow Queen. She had dematerialized and slipped back through the roof and re-appeared behind him, while Spectrum flew overhead unnoticed. After being toppled from the roof of the boarded up warehouse, Hammerhead crashed to the alley below and did not stir.
"Gee, I guess Hammerheads can't fly!"
"Actually, he can," Shadow Queen explained. "We'd better get outta here before they get up. We may not be so lucky the next time, sugar."
"Buncha' wimpy people. No wonder you quit 'em. But you have a good point, so let's make tracks."
The two flew off into the air again, Spectrum carrying the Shadow Queen, and landed some distance away.
"So how'd you end with a buncha losers like that?", Spectrum asked.
Shadow Queen took a few moments to adjust her wind blown hair. She looked away for a moment as if to consider the question. "Well, originally I was in the regular training classes of Thugmaster. I guess he saw something in me that he liked."
"No doubt," Spectrum answered. "Didn't you feel kinda silly working with a guy named Thugmaster?"
"You may have a point there, but Maurice was somewhat unimaginative when it came to names. When my powers first manifested themselves in his academy, he wanted to refer to me as the Shadow. How boring."
"And Shadow Girl would hardly be apropos."
"You got that right, Sugar," Shadow Queen said seductively. "You'll find that I'm all woman."
"I sincerely hope that's a promise."
"Could be a promise, some would say 'a threat'." Shadow Queen had a coy smile on her face. Spectrum was speechless. At least he thought better than to voice what he was thinking.
"You know, Bright Eyes, there was something weird about that fight," Shadow Queen stated.
"How so?"
"Well, I don't know. It's more of...." Suddenly, Shadow Queen was cut off in mid-sentence by a loud scream. As the duo turned to look, they saw a young woman in a dark blue and white costume coming straight at them. She was creating a slide of ice as she went, which propelled her along. Apparently oblivious to them, this new arrival was looking back over her shoulder, a terrified look on her face.
"Look out!" Spectrum yelled.
The woman on the ice slide turned to look, when Spectrum yelled, and was surprised to see two people in her path. Her eyes grew wide as she saw that she was unable to stop in time. Forming a sharp bank to the slide at the last moment, she managed to barely avoid the pair, but went crashing into a nearby building. The ice slide shattered upon impact, sending shards of ice flying everywhere.
"Boy, there are costumed types flying out of the woodwork today!" exclaimed Spectrum. "I hope she's okay."
Spectrum flew over to the staggered young woman. As he reached down to help her up, he saw that her costume was torn and dirty and blood flowed from her nose and mouth. The injuries had obviously not been caused by her recent crash, spectacular though it was.
"Oh my head..."
"Are you alright, Miss...?"
"I.... I'm Icicle." Suddenly her eyes grew wide behind her dark blue mask and her mouth dropped open again. She pulled free from Spectrum and backed away.
"I don't bite." Spectrum was trying to calm the frightened young woman, but she was obviously looking at something behind Spectrum. He turned quickly when he heard the massive crash announcing the arrival of a huge, greenish gray, four-armed monstrosity! "This is just not my day..."
All the other supers were frozen in place, awed by the powerful monster known as Grond. Suddenly, there was a small popping sound right in front of Grond. Standing before Grond was the Fox, a man with a fox's face on a human body. He wore a red suit with white gloves, boots belt and trim. The Fox had appeared facing away from Grond, but noticed the huge shadow towering over him. He turned hesitantly, afraid of what he would find, and found himself face to stomach with the greenish gray brute. Looking up the Fox could see that Grond was genuinely confused, his head cocked to the side like a massive puppy dog. In a moment, his lip curled and Grond rose his fist into the air.
The Fox didn't bother to wait for the crushing blow and with a lingering "Tally Ho!" popped back out as quickly as he had first appeared. Grond, for his part, hardly seemed to notice as his fists slammed into the pavement, gouging out a huge hole and sending everyone sprawling off their feet.
"Man, this just gets weirder and weirder, " Spectrum said. Then as if on cue, a hurtling figure leapt onto Grond's back. "It's Giganto!"
The two monsters exchanged a few blows, which started to cause massive amounts of damage in the immediate area. Spectrum turned to the two women and shouted over the din of battle.
"Run away!"
"You said it, Sugar."
Spectrum grabbed Icicle and Shadow Queen, one in each arm, and sped off down the street. Satisfied that he had traversed a suitable distance, he landed once more, breathing heavily.
"I am really out of shape."
"Do you think we are far enough away from them?" Icicle asked, fear in her voice. The sounds of the titanic battle could still be heard from far off.
"Far enough, for now, I should think," Shadow Queen added.
"Where are we anyway?"
"Los Angeles," Spectrum said. "Oh, Icicle, I'm Spectrum and this is Shadow Queen."
"Nice to meet you. Los Angeles? I thought I was still in Chicago at first. But then I saw so many buildings I didn't recognize, " Icicle explained.
"This is definitely LA."
"Then why did I see the World Trade Center not far back?", Icicle asked.
"Are you sure?"
"That's what I was going to say, Bright Eyes," Shadow Queen joined in. "I could have sworn I saw the Empire State building on the skyline when we left the Thuggies behind."
"But that's impossible!" Spectrum was not convinced.
"So's that...!" Icicle pointed off into the distance a short ways. Jutting up between a couple of large buildings, the supers could see the top of the Statue of Liberty.
"I see it, but I don't believe it."
"That's not the only weird part. Did you notice anything else strange during the fight?"
"Lady, my entire day has been strange."
"Well, that Grond thing has been chasing me for about three days. At first, I was just scared to death and running for my life. Then as it went on, I noticed that everything seemed to fade out beyond my immediate vicinity. No sounds, no people, no nothing."
"Well, now that you mention it, I haven't seen anybody outside of costumed types."
"That's right. While we sit here talking, all the background sounds of a city seem to be there, but if you concentrate on it, it's not really there. Where did everyone go? Where are we?"
"Look, who cares about all this nonsense?", Shadow Queen burst in. "This is boring. I'm outta here." With that, she disappeared in a huff.
"Geez, what a temperamental wench!", Spectrum stated at her departure.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to...", Icicle stammered.
"Don't take it personally. I just ran into her recently myself."
"I get the feeling she doesn't like me." Spectrum shrugged helplessly at Icicle's comment.
"Getting back to the problem at hand: Have you ever ran into this Grond before?", Spectrum asked.
"No. I only saw it on television before. But it scared the bee-jeebers out of me!"
"Well, so much for that theory...", Spectrum sighed.
"Look! There's two more of 'em!"
"Let's get'em!"
Spectrum and Icicle turned to face the sudden voices and saw six costumed people charging straight at them.
