#9 - "The Mechanon Gambit"

Spectrum flew over the small airport. The fog was growing thicker by the moment, obscuring the airfield faster than what seemed normally possible. His quiet dinner with Whitney Parks had been rudely interrupted by some costumed maniac who had created a large explosion. Ditching Whitney, Jim had changed into Spectrum and went to investigate.

"I have no idea who this clown is," Spectrum thought to himself. The villain was standing up in a jeep shouting demands into a megaphone.

"This is the great Pulsar!", the villain screamed into the bullhorn. "Unless my demands are met, I'll blow up gas tanks all over the airport!"

The strange fog was beginning to fill the area from where Pulsar was shouting his demands. Spectrum slowed down and hovered overhead, wondering just what to do.

"Can't say that I've heard of the 'Great Pulsar'," he mused to himself. "Still, I doubt he's one of the good guys. Guess I'll just take him out."

But, before Spectrum could act, Pulsar had sat down in the jeep and sped away. The man at the wheel drove the vehicle down the access road and deeper into the fog. He would be lost from sight in seconds.

"On second thought," Spectrum continued, "I'll just follow the big mouth and see what the heck is going on."

Spectrum accelerated and easily kept pace with the speeding jeep. The vehicle turned onto another access road and eventually emerged on one of the runways. Several other vehicles were already present. Spectrum continued to silently follow until the jeep came to a stop. Then he hovered in place several dozen feet overhead, lost in the obscuring fog.

Two semis were in the area. One was parked sideways on the tarmac, its trailer doors wide open. The second semi was off the runway and backed up to a small pond next to the landing strip. Several figures could be seen at the rear of this tractor-trailer, but the fog obscured any further details. Lastly, a small dump truck with an attached generator was parked perpendicular to the first semi.

The generator was running and the sound of jackhammers filled the air. Several men were at work digging up the runway itself!

"This is really, really weird," Spectrum thought to himself. All of the sudden, a new sound reached Spectrum's ears. It was something like a 'whoosh'. He looked around, but could not spot the source of this noise through all the fog. With all the noise generated by the digging equipment, it may have only been his imagination.

Back on the ground, the costumed man got out of the jeep and moved towards the ever-expanding hole in the runway. The workers moved off and the villain pointed his hands downward. Blasts of some form of energy leaped from his hands and further widened the hole in a spectacular display.

Spectrum continued to hover overhead, still not quite sure just what was going on or who was involved. "Guess I should do something, especially if I'm going to try this hero gig. Okay, think of something clever to say and find out what's going on."

Moving to a position over the hole, Spectrum moved closer to the ground and spoke out loud startling all present. "You boys got a permit to dig here?" Inwardly, Spectrum groaned at just how unclever his statement had been.

Pulsar stopped firing into the hole and regarded the figure hovering overhead. "I don't have time for this," Pulsar shouted, seemingly at no one in particular. "Waste'm boys!"

Several of the men began to pull out weapons and prepared to use them. "You heard da boss, waste'm!"

"Yeah, no wimp in tights is gonna stop us!"

"Going to all this trouble for me?," Spectrum taunted. "You really shouldn't have. Say, this looks like one of those Kodak moments. Say 'sleaze'!" Jim concentrated and filled the immediate area with an extremely bright light.

"My eyes!", was just one of the things that came from Pulsar's thugs. All of the men were temporarily blinded, but their boss just became more annoyed.

"You don't know who you're messing with!", Pulsar shouted again while gesturing skywards. "I'm the great and all-powerful Pulsar!" As if to prove his point, Pulsar fired his energy blast at the hovering Spectrum. The blast caught Spectrum in the chest and sent him reeling back through the sky. The energy seemed to be a combination of light and heat. It did little to harm the light-based mutant, however.

Spectrum regained control of his flight and circled back towards the villain. "Geez, now we've gone from just being great to being great and all-powerful. I better put him down fast before he starts to run out of adjectives. For being 'all powerful', that was pretty wimpy attack if you ask me!"

Pulsar was now surrounded by a field of glowing yellow energy. Occasionally, blue sparks would fly off from the energy field.

"I am the greatest supervillain of them all!", Pulsar bragged loudly. Spectrum hit Pulsar with a blast of light of his own. However, it didn't seem to bother the boastful villain. The blast played about the colorful energy aura and dissipated.

Unexpectedly, laser fire suddenly filled the area. Both Pulsar and Spectrum turned to see that a new force had entered the scene. About a dozen men in yellow and green body suits had arrived. Most were on the ground while a couple were in the air held aloft by jetpacks. Some had rifles, the other handguns.

"VIPER?!", Pulsar screamed in frustration, as most of the incoming fire seemed to be directed towards him. His men, those who could now see, fled with the arrival of this new threat.

"Oh great", Spectrum muttered. "I wish I had spent the couple of bucks to get the program for this one. Can't tell the players without one..."

Pulsar turned his full attention towards the new arrivals. "You crummy snakes are not going to ruin my plans! Why do you guys always pick on me? What's the deal with that? It's like you guys take turns picking on me out of jealousy! Yeah, that's it! You clowns don't want me to be top dog! Well, I'll show you who's the biggest and baddest around here!" To prove his point, Pulsar blasted one of the Air Calvary out of the sky.

Off in the distance, one of the approaching snakes dropped to one knee and fired his portable cannon. The discharge caught Pulsar squarely and dropped him to the ground, his glowing force field faded from sight.

"So much for the greatest supervillain of all," Spectrum thought. "Wonder what these guys are doing here? And what they are after?"

Laser fire struck Spectrum in the back, sending him forward several yards. Being a light based attack, it also had little effect on the colorful mutant. Turning, more of the yellow and green agents were approaching the scene. "Capture everyone here!!", a voice commanded somewhere off in the fog. "Secure the entire area!" The Team Leaders shouted out their understanding of the orders.

"Sorry, but I don't think so." Using the fog to his advantage, Spectrum rose higher up into the air. The men in the jet packs didn't seem very fast, Jim felt he could out fly them if it came down to that. As he rose into the air, he noticed that there was now a light at the bottom of the hole that Pulsar and his goons had been digging. "Now what's this?"

Spectrum tried to avoid the flying snakes and get a better look at the hole. That ended up being a mistake as one of the heavily armed ground agents connected! The attack hurt Spectrum a bit, in spite of his force field.

"That does it! No one is gonna use me for target practice!" Spectrum dove back towards the ground, leaving the closing Air Cavalry far behind. A squad of VIPER agents had encircled Pulsar, but Spectrum ignored them. Let them deal with the blustering criminal. He closed in on a ground support agent and fired his light blast at almost point blank range. "Let's see how you guys like it!"

The blast connected with the slow moving agent, but didn't seem to bother him at all. "So much for that idea," Spectrum groaned.

Pulsar had regained his senses and blasted another VIPER agent into dreamland. "I ain't afraid of you punks! Bring it on! It will take an army to stop the most superlative master criminal of our age!" The VIPER agents laughed and fired a multitude of attacks at Pulsar, but none brought the villain down. "Stop that laughing!"

"Okay, if I can't blast them, maybe a more direct approach is in order," Spectrum rationalized. Making sure that his personal force field was active, he dive-bombed the same VIPER agent he had just blasted. The agent fired as Spectrum approached, but was not even close to hitting his fast moving target. The agent realized too late that he was about to be rammed!

Spectrum crashed headlong into the VIPER agent and both went sprawling to the ground. The agent didn't stir. Spectrum pulled himself up to a sitting position with great effort. "Mental note: never, ever do that again. I just about knocked myself out!"

A woman in a black and red costume suddenly leaped onto the scene from out of the fog. "Spinnerette!" Spectrum had recognized the heroine from his research a few days ago. She was a member of the Guardians, the premier Los Angeles hero group. "The more, the merrier," Spectrum thought, admiring the attractive figure. Spinnerette was not much more than five feet tall, but her body was lithe with well-toned muscles. Her costume was a black body suit with scarlet red boots, gloves, full mask and v-neck. A large spider design, also in scarlet, rested on her left hip, the arachnid's legs reaching across her chest, around her back, and down her leg. Small webbing appeared underneath her arms.

Neither Pulsar nor the VIPER agents were very pleased by Spinnerette's sudden entrance. "If Spinnerette is here, then the rest of the Guardians can't be far behind," Pulsar reasoned. "Obviously they feel it takes a whole superteam to battle the greatest supervillain on the planet!" Meanwhile, Pulsar blasted away another VIPER Agent.

"Actually," Spinnerette countered, while taking stock of the situation, "I just happened to be following VIPER. The Guardians usually don't even bother with small fry like you."

Several of the VIPER Agents directed their fire and curses towards Spinnerette. These newly arrived agents wore special armor and bore heavier weapons. One agent took aim on Spinnerette and fired. The nimble heroine easily avoided the attack and the blast connected with Pulsar's jeep. The vehicle went up in a fire cloud, sending VIPER agents running for cover.

"You don't honestly think you guys have a chance of hitting this little lady spider, do you? Your Minotaur Armor may make you pretty tough, but you're still not in my league!" Spinnerette returned the favor by firing webbing from her wrists. The armored agent was quickly wrapped up in spider webbing.

"These VIPER wimps might not be able to connect," Pulsar shouted at Spinnerette, "but prepare to feel my awesome power! I'll teach you to take me lightly!" Pulsar fired a beam of energy at the scarlet and black garbed heroine.

"Thanks for warning me, big mouth," Spinnerette answered and nimbly dodged the incoming blast. She landed for only a moment and sprung at the closest VIPER agent, connecting with a sharp kick to the head. The agent collapsed to the ground, unconscious from the force of the blow.

Spectrum, meanwhile, was airborne once more. He had been admiring Spinnerette in action. The heroine reminded him of a small dynamo as she leaped about the field of battle, laying out VIPER Agents in her path. "Now that I've caught my breath, it's time to show what I can do!"

Jim flew towards one of the heavily armored VIPER agents and unleashed his energy upon the slow-moving opponent. The Minotaur armor was unable to fully shield the agent from the blast and he staggered back. "Aw, come on, fall down already," Spectrum said as he continued to unleash his energy at the VIPER agent. Another two blasts connected and Spectrum's target finally complied. "Alright! Score another for the good guys!"

Seeing the remnants of the two regular VIPER squads closing in on him, Pulsar blasted another VIPER agent, but then was hit himself by the concentrated blaster fire. Pulsar was driven backwards and to his knees. "Lousy snakes! You'll never defeat me!" The worse part of Pulsar's ravings was that he truly believed it.

"Looks like we got about four squads at least here," Spinnerette stated. "What are you guys so interested in, anyway?" Spinnerette kicked another agent, moving amongst the squad converging on Pulsar. The agent she hit was unable to respond as her blow sent him to dreamland. Turning to Spectrum, Spinnerette asked, "Hey, who are you supposed to be?"

"Um, Hi," Spectrum responded uneasily. He had been dreading this part, but knew it was going to come eventually. Jim had considered changing his name, but nothing struck his fancy. "You can call me Spectrum, Spinnerette." Spectrum moved in closer and a burst of light shot out of his entire body. The armor of the agent protected his sight from the blinding glare.

"Yer just leavin' me a big target, Mr. Superhero," the agent responded. Flexing his armor-enhanced muscles, the agent swung wildly at the light-wielding hero, but was too slow to connect. Spectrum flew over the clumsy attack. He wandered right into a spray of blaster fire however, as a sharp pain hit him square in the back. Spectrum's forcefield protected him from most of the force, but it still sent him hurtling through the air a short distance.

"Spectrum, huh?", Spinnerette said. "You don't have anything to do with that guy in Terror, Inc, do you?" Pulsar fired another blast at Spinnerette. She lazily avoided the wild attack.

"Why are you so worried about that guy?" Pulsar was rather put off that the object of his ire had the audacity to carry on a conversation with someone else as they fought! "You should be worried about me!! I'm the baddest of the bad, the greatest of the great! The King of Crime!!"

"The only thing of yours that worries me is your breath." Spinnerette cartwheeled over to the orange garbed villain and punched him with a vicious right cross to the jaw. Pulsar landed nearly ten feet away and didn't stir. "That seemed to finally shut him up."

"Thank goodness, he was struggling to find more adjectives to describe himself with. As for your previous question, I don't recall ever meeting anyone from Terror, Inc.," Spectrum answered back. "I wouldn't be caught dead in that awful costume of his. So in other words, nope, that wasn't me."

"Good, then I won't have to hurt you."

As Spectrum flew back towards Spinnerette and the remaining VIPER agents, he saw some new light flashes coming from the hole Pulsar had made in the runway. "I wonder what's going on down there?"

Moving closer, Spectrum could see a burst of bluish energy flash down in the hole and a small explosion rang out. "Can you take care of the rest of these bozos, Spinnerette?"

"I think I can manage by my lonesome," Spinnerette said, as she knocked another VIPER agent out.

Spectrum flew down into the hole. Lights could be seen coming from some sort of chamber below. Just as he was about to get a view of the room, a crushing blow was landed on the side of Spectrum's head. He collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut and hit the chamber's wall hard.

As his vision cleared from the unexpected ambush, Spectrum shook his head and rubbed his face. He turned to see an armored figure towering over him.

"Get up, you yahoo," the armored man said. "I want to smash your head in again." The suit was silver-gray with two large red eyes set in the flat-topped helmet. The suit's gauntlets, belt and joint plates were gold-colored.

"Eat this instead!", Spectrum responded, unleashing a powerful wave of energy into the armored opponent. Armadillo was thrown across the room and collided with the far wall with a resounding clang.

Looking around finally, Spectrum could see what looked like some sort of lab. Parts of it were damaged or smashed outright. A pile of debris that looked like it might be a robot of some shape lay on the floor a short distance away. Another robotic body, this one notable for its lack of a head, lay on a table at the far side of the chamber. "I guess this is what all the fuss must be about."

"Got that right, light bulb," Armadillo said. "An' nuthin' is gonna stop me from gettin' parts from Mechanon's armor!" Armadillo unleashed a beam of energy from his gauntlets, but it bounced harmlessly off Spectrum's forcefield.

"Hey, you can have it, as far as I'm concerned," Spectrum answered. Spectrum was still recovering from the drawn out battle and flew out of the underground lab to regain his breath. He emerged just in time to see a VIPER agent, literally, erupt in a horrible explosion. "Holy cow!"

Spinnerette had made short work of most of the remaining VIPER agents. She turned to see the cause of the violent explosion, just as her spider-sense went wild. "Uh, oh," she said simply. "We seem to have trouble."

"None may transgress against my new order!" Mechanon strided onto the scene with a cold self-confidence that only the all-powerful android could possess. "I shall obliterate all who have violated my Reconstruction Base!"

"Obliterate this, chrome dome!" Spinnerette covered the seven foot tall humanoid robot with webbing, engulfing his struggling form completely. As Mechanon attempted to free himself, Spinnerette cocooned the unconscious Pulsar as well.

"What is that?!", Spectrum asked incredulously.

"Oh, nothing much," Spinnerette said, nonchalantly. "Only the most powerful villain this side of the Atlantic. Plus he wants to rid the world of all organic life." Mechanon flexed his powerful mechanized muscles and finally ripped the webbing asunder.

"Hey, I'm organic."

"That was my point," Spinnerette answered.

Thinking quickly and not willing to take on the armored juggernaut, Spectrum addressed the megalomaniacal robot, "Mechanon, your lab is being robbed right now. Some guy in armor is down there stealing your stuff!"

Mechanon raised his gauntleted hand towards Spectrum and then looked off towards the laboratory. He wanted very much to eradicate the remaining organics in the vicinity, but this insignificant organic may have a point. The Reconstruction Base was necessary, but couldn't be allowed to fall into enemy hands. Mechanon flew off to the hole and entered his base.

Spectrum landed near Spinnerette, as the two watched and waited. "So, do you come here often?", Spectrum quipped to the shorter ebony clad heroine next to him. He regretted it as soon as it left his lips.

"Did you think that up by yourself? It's kind of old. If you ask me my sign, I'll have kick you."

"Sorry, just trying to make conversation. I'm new at this."

"Stay out of Mechanon's way and you may become an old timer, some day."

"That's not very heroic," Spectrum countered.

"Neither is being squashed."

There was an explosion in the hidden lab and the ground rumbled slightly. The two heroes looked at each other for a moment, and then the first explosion was followed by a second, much stronger one. Fire erupted from the hole to Mechanon's lab, like a small volcano erupting right out of the runway.

Mechanon burst from the ground as the fiery explosion subsided. In one hand he held a duplicate of his own head. "Who is responsible for this transgression?", Mechanon demanded.

"It wasn't me!", Spectrum burst out.

Spectrum's response was enough to draw the machine's notice. Mechanon didn't care who was responsible. The back-up brain was safe now, but Mechanon's ire was not yet fulfilled. Beams of energy erupted from the fingertips of Mechanon's free hand, driving Spectrum away. "He did it! He did it!", Spectrum shouted, vainly pointing at the webbed Pulsar.

"No I didn't!", Pulsar screamed. He struggled to break Spinnerette's webbing to no avail. "They're the ones who broke into it! I was just trying to protect your stuff!"

"Gee, the King of Crime is now the King of Sucking Up," Spectrum shouted back as he put distance between himself and Mechanon.

"Free me," Pulsar continued, "And I'll help you smash these intruders!"

The large mechanoid turned and regarded the webbed up form laying on the runway. "Mechanon has no use for organics." The mechanical megalomaniacal raised his gauntlet and blasted the helpless Pulsar. The 'Greatest Villain of Them All' was freed from the webbing, but hurtled down the runway and ended up in a unmoving pile.

Turning to the other moving targets Mechanon's radar picked up, a pair of jet-like tubes sprouted from the robot's chest and fired a sticky, expanding paste at Spinnerette. She was unable to avoid the writhing, gooey mass and was soon tangled in the adhesive mess. "I don't believe this," she said as she struggled vainly to free herself. Spinnerette was accustomed to being the web weaver, not the trapped fly.

As Mechanon advanced on the struggling heroine, three bursts of energy slammed into his back. Mechanon barely noticed the attack. Nearly 200 yards away, one of Spinnerette's teammates, Lazerblast, swore under his breath. He had hit Mechanon squarely and the android hadn't even felt it. The hero sprinted towards the fight, making adjustments on his special laser rifle as he approached.

Mechanon approached Spinnerette and delivered a powerful blow with his fist. Unable to avoid the blow, Spinnerette was bludgeoned unconscious and landed some distance away, laying partially in the nearby pond.

"Leave her alone!", Spectrum shouted, flying in between the marauding robot and the unconscious Spinnerette. Now closer, Lazerblast fired again. His aim continued to be true, but the force of his weapon was insufficient to draw Mechanon's attention.

"You seal your doom, foolish one," Mechanon said simply. Spectrum attempted his most powerful attack, but was unable to summon the necessary energy. The unsuccessful attempt left him dangerously within Mechanon's reach and with a backhanded swat, the robot swept Spectrum from the air. The hero landed near Spinnerette and he too was unconscious.

Satisfied that no further resistance would be offered and that the offending organics has been taught a lesson, Mechanon flew into the air with his prize and quickly vanished from sight.

Spectrum and Spinnerette came to some time later. A number of other costumed heroes had arrived on the scene by now, as well as a few news crews filming away at the destruction. The thick fog was rapidly disbursing.

"The Guardians, I presume?", Spectrum said wearily. His head was throbbing. All in all, he had taken quite a beating.

"We're certainly not the Girl Scouts," Sidewinder, a hero in an orange and black costume with a snake-like motif, quipped. The other assembled heroes, besides Lazerblast and Spinnerette, were the Hornet and Duplicator. Hornet was a man in green and yellow armor, Duplicator stood by in his light blue, gray, and white outfit.

"That's good, 'cause I certainly wouldn't buy any cookies from you," Spectrum bantered in response. He sat up and tried to shake the cobwebs off.

Hornet offered his hand and helped Spectrum to his feet. "You have my thanks," the leader of the Guardians said. "Taking on Mechanon took a lot of guts."

"Or stupidity," Spectrum replied.

"Probably a bit of both," Spinnerette added with a grin. "Thanks for the help."

"Hey, that's what heroes are for, webs. So what was going on here anyway?" In spite of everything that happened, Spectrum still wasn't quite sure just what had transpired. Or rather why it had happened.

"I have pieced together most of it," Hornet explained. "Mechanon is known for having extra bodies in various assembly labs located all over the world. He periodically makes transmissions to place his recorded memories into scattered computers, as protection against his possible defeat."

"That means even when you somehow manage to destroy Mechanon, he just keeps coming back," Duplicator stated.

"Talk about a perverted version of the Energizer Bunny," Sidewinder added.

"Apparently," the Hornet continued, "a teen-age ham operator somehow managed to intercept one of Mechanon's tight beam radio transmissions. Pulsar must have learned of it, and gotten the information from the boy. Obviously he concocted another ridiculous plan in an attempt to make himself look like a powerful villain."

"Lack of confidence does not seem to be his weakness," Spectrum observed.

"VIPER got involved since they regularly monitor the activities of villains who have gone turncoat," Spinnerette added. "They managed to assemble a fairly large force when it was discovered that not only Pulsar was involved, but also Armadillo and Shrinker, both independently."

"That must have been the armored guy I saw in the lab." The side of Spectrum's face was still tingling from being ambushed by the armored villain.

"Armadillo likely burst into the lab from another direction, probably underground," the Hornet continued. "While Shrinker doesn't appear to have made an appearance."

"I'm not so sure of that," Spinnerette interrupted. "With all this fog, she would be difficult to spot."

"In any case, Spectrum, you managed to wander into a bit of a mess."

"That's something of an understatement," Spectrum said in agreement. "Snakes, Armadillos, and ego-maniacs, oh my!" After a pause he added, "Oh, well, it's been a blast, but I should get going."

Spectrum took to the air and sped off as the Guardians gave their good-byes. "So those are the Guardians," he thought to himself. "Not a bad bunch of folks. The spider-lady was sure hot!"

The thoughts of the webslinger vanished as Spectrum spotted Whitney Parks wandering the airport. In all the excitement, Jim had forgotten about his companion. "She's probably looking for me, so I better make an appearance."

Landing close by, but obscured by the remaining patches of fog, Spectrum changed back into Jim Sculley and moved towards Whitney. "Whitney! Over here!"

"Jim!" Whitney turned and the two jogged closer. As they grew closer, Whitney appeared to be very alarmed. "My god, Jim... What happened to you!? Your face is all swollen!"

Jim hadn't noticed it earlier, but the right side of his face had been bloated by the evening's punishment. "Oh great," Jim thought to himself. "How am I going to explain this?"

"Well, it's like this Whitney," Jim explained. "I was trying to find out what was going on and tripped on something. Must have hit my face on something and, well, you can guess the rest."

"Mmmm hmm..." Whitney regarded Jim skeptically for a moment. He was hiding something, she thought. She could only guess at what it may be. "Anyway, we need to get you some ice for your face."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jim agreed. Whitney led Jim to the parking lot and her waiting vehicle.