by Libbylawrence
“Leave my mum alone!” cried Mayflower as she and the Cheetah moved in front of the older woman to protect her from the menacing super-villain.
“Never fear, my darling bud,” said the Floronic Man, whose real name was Jason Woodrue. “I only dropped in to see how you were doing after twenty-some years. I never knew you existed until — well, would you believe I heard it through the grapevine? Your mother was a conquest of a young man still finding himself while posing as a human after being banished from his own dimension.” (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Master of the Plant World,” The Atom #1 (July, 1962).]
“I never knew ‘e was such a creature until years later, when I ‘eard ‘is name on the American news,” explained Ida Green. “I felt it best just to tell you ‘e was a ne’er-do-well.”
“Now, now, I may be unique, but I prefer super-villain to ne’er-do-well, and I may do well yet, just wait and see,” he said madly. Turning to Rachel, he said, “I want you to spend some quality time with the old man now, my pretty little seedling.”
“Just buzz off!” said Mayflower. “I don’t need no blinkin’ father/daughter outin’ after twenty years!”
“You’re in touch with the Green!” cooed Woodrue. “I sense it. That cute little costume means you have some powers, too. Daddy’s little bud.” At that moment, thick, growing vines came in through the open windows to ensnare the women.
The Cheetah savagely clawed through several of them until Rachel began to moan in pain.
“Stop it, Deb!” she cried. “You’re hurting me as well as him!”
“In fact, pussycat, you’re hurting Rachel more,” said the Floronic Man, “since she’s more in tune to the local foliage than I am.”
“Well, then, I’ll just have to hurt you!” the Cheetah cried, leaping up and over the tangling vines even as they moved. The agile feline woman hit the Floronic Man, tearing at him with her claws.
“Now, dear Deborah, is that any greeting for a fellow Secret Society of Super-Villains alumni? (*) I’ll have to chastise you,” Woodrue said. At that moment, a spore appeared and burst open. The dust enveloped Debbi, who coughed and soon rolled to the floor, unconscious.
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Targets on Two Worlds,” Justice League of America #195 (October, 1981).]
“Leave her be!” said Mayflower. “I’ll go with you, if you’ll just leave them alone!”
“Good!” said Floronic Man. “‘Cause Daddy’s ride is here!”
The purple hue of the Star Sapphire’s gem could be seen as the mysterious villainess who bore the same name as Carol Ferris’ alter-ego flew into the room. “Ready, Jason?” asked the alien Remoni-Notra, who had been a founding member of the original Secret Society of Super-Villains.
“Oh, yes — and before I forget to make proper introductions, this is my little girl,” he cooed as Mayflower reluctantly accompanied the villains, who flew off.
The Cheetah got up slowly and painfully, then helped Ida Green to untangle herself. “Don’t worry about Rachel. We’ll get her back,” she declared.
***
Starstriker stared at the blonde Enchantress, who wore the same skimpy lavender outfit with a filmy pink cape as she had worn when she’d been one of the Forgotten Villains. (*) She had also donned the Fadeaway Man’s magic Cloak of Cagliostro atop her outfit.
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Triad of Terror,” DC Comics Presents #77 (January, 1985) and “The Triad,” DC Comics Presents #78 (February, 1985).]
“We now have the services of the Floronic Man,” she said imperiously. “You and the others need to liberate the scientist as we discussed. My plans are moving well along, and the time of the Conjunction is rapidly approaching. How is the amnesiac redhead we plucked from that other realm?”
Starstriker smiled. “I stripped her of her colorful armor and gave her a new costume. She is completely unaware of her true past, and that bodes well. As a villain, she’ll be easier to deal with. No past battles or heroics linger on in her memories.”
“Are there others like her?” asked the Enchantress.
“Possibly. But do we really need more?”
“I always demand more!” she cried. “Learn that and live!”
***
Lyla, known in costume as Harbinger, smiled as she settled in over the computer screen. She loved her new job at the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency. By drawing on her files from the Monitor’s records of heroes and villains, and updating them by her own techniques, she had recently discovered a certain pattern.
A hero named Argus from Central City and the team’s own Starman had each developed powers within days of one another that had been caused by rays from space. (*) She wondered if she could track down other empowered beings from that same time frame and possibly discover the source of the gifts.
[(*) Editor’s note: See Showcase: The Crimson Fox: Working Girl, Chapter 1: Argus and Mr. Action and Captain Comet’s Rehab Squad: Suicide Mission, Chapter 1: The Cardialink.]
She swirled around in her swivel chair as an alarm beeped. Quickly discovering the cause, she pushed a communications button and said, “Captain Comet, break-out attempt at State Prison! Need help!”
“Right!” Adam Blake replied, heading out of his office. “On my way, Lyla. Get Glider and the rest to join me, please.”
Lyla summoned Lisa Snart from her beauty rest and watched as the lovely Dolphin and Will Payton rushed by. Good luck, she thought.
***
Captain Comet and his Rehab Squad arrived at the State Prison in a Sky Skimmer just in time to encounter the fleeing felons. “Starman, take the left flank, while I head right,” ordered Adam, flying to the right. Will Payton nodded and streaked off to the left as ordered. They closed in on the costumed felons as sirens blared and guards shouted.
“Comet, I’ve long awaited this rematch,” said Starstriker, rubbing his beard eagerly as he hovered in midair.
“Starstriker, I’ve long forgotten who you are,” replied Captain Comet as he was unexpectedly hit by a mental blast. Reeling for a moment, he quickly halted his trajectory and rocketed back toward him, managing to slam into the villain with little delay.
Slugging him in the chin, he said, “Give this up! If you have any pretense left of being a future man, then surrender and stop this madness, or I’ll create another mental block to prevent you from ever using your ill-gotten powers again!” (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Plight of the Human Comet,” DC Comics Presents #22 (June, 1980).]
The blond bearded man who called himself Starstriker grunted and said, “The same trick won’t work twice! I am the true future man, and my mistress demands your death!” But when he lashed out at Comet with both fists, the hero grabbed him around the waist, and the struggle continued.
On the ground, Dolphin squared off against a savage creature that was decidedly female but was all fur and claws and teeth. “Stop!” she cried. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
“Ah, but… my little mermaid, I want to eat you,” roared the creature called Hyena. She tackled Dolphin, who fell beneath the fur and fangs all too quickly.
In the air, Starman winced as an icy bolt exploded against his chest. “I am Killer Frost,” said the pale but beautiful woman below him.
“Feels like you need to get out in the sun more,” he joked.
The Golden Glider was nervous, hoping she wouldn’t have to face any of her former friends here, or even her brother’s friends. But she also didn’t want to let Captain Comet down. Skating on an icy ramp generated by her boots up to a purple-and-gold-costumed man, she said, “Well, well, what an astonishingly bad color scheme you have!”
The athletic figure leaped up to cling to the wall, then fired a dart at her rapidly spinning form. She dodged as it tore a hole in her short skirt, and as she tossed a sharp jewel at the man, she called out, “That’s coming out of your pocket!” The jewel exploded into a rainbow of colors, which blinded the vigilante-turned-villain called the Black Spider.
A timid-looking middle-aged man in a prison uniform with a thin mustache was being hurried out of the back while the fight raged on. The man who had liberated him was known as the Spook. “Breaking out of jails is easy for a master escape artist like myself,” he explained, and they vanished into the night.
Dolphin screamed as the hairy Hyena clawed at her and tried to sink her fangs into the pretty platinum blonde’s chest. Curling up her powerful swimmer’s legs, Dolphin kicked out, knocking Hyena backward into an energy blast aimed carefully by a worried Will Payton. The Hyena fell and moaned angrily.
Killer Frost suddenly shrouded Dolphin in a huge icy glacier. “Thaw out your girlfriend if you can, pretty boy!” she sneered. The Hyena scampered to join the white-gowned villainess as she fled.
Captain Comet wrestled Starstriker down and stunned him with a fast right hook. Looking around to check on his team, he smiled as he witnessed the Golden Glider kicking the Black Spider in the face.
With the grace of an Olympian, Lisa Snart smiled as if for a crowd and said, “Never did like spiders. Creepy pests.” The Black Spider tumbled away, but before he could manage to fight back, she spun around faster and faster, kicking him with every spin until he finally fell down and lay unconscious.
Captain Comet dropped Starstriker after staring intently at him and giving him a powerful mental blast. He then used his power to break Dolphin free, with Starman’s frantic help.
“Will she be okay?” asked Will.
“Y-yes,” chattered Dolphin, shivering. “I’ve been in the coldest ocean depths…” she explained slowly, “…but nothing chilled me… like that.”
While the heroes had been busy, Killer Frost and the Hyena had returned to pick up the dazed Starstriker before escaping into the darkness once again. The Black Spider, meanwhile, had been left behind and was trapped by the Rehab Squad.
***
The Cheetah had wasted no time in alerting Harbinger of Mayflower’s abduction and had immediately left England to head back to the United States.
Thankfully, Mayflower’s costume still had one of the tiny tracking devices that the clever Tom Tresser, alias Nemesis, had built for the Meta-Human Rehabilitation Agency. After he activated it remotely, the Rehab Squad would be able to track down their missing teammate.
Nemesis himself soon addressed the heroes upon the arrival of both the Cheetah and the rest of the Rehab Squad. “I can detect Mayflower’s location easily enough,” said the handsome blond inventor and crime-fighter. “She is in an abandoned prison down in L.A. That’s a bit ironic, don’t you think?”
Captain Comet nodded. “Let’s head out immediately,” he said. “Where’s Valor? We could use her right now.”
Lyla spoke up. “She and Dr. Grace went out earlier and haven’t been heard from since.”
Sidling up to Comet, the Golden Glider cooed, “You don’t need that super-blonde when I’m here for you.”
Dolphin frowned. “Do you think this Floronic Man will hurt Rachel?” she said.
Captain Comet grimly answered, “I know him. He is dangerous, and what’s worse, he is associated with a dangerous group I’d thought long since destroyed — the Secret Society of Super-Villains.”
***
The Floronic Man smiled like a wilted plant and said, “Mayflower, my tender blossom, Daddy wants to test your powers to use them for the betterment of his realm.”
As if in answer, Mayflower kicked him in the stomach and sent vines crawling around Star Sapphire’s legs.
A quick pulse of energy burned them off, leaving Mayflower in pain. Star Sapphire slapped her and said, “Try that again, little Ivy, and I’ll burn you to cinders.”
“No, no!” cried Jason Woodrue. “Don’t hurt my little girl!”
Mayflower sighed and looked around the huge chamber, searching for some means of escape.