Meanwhile, back where we'd left them....
"Luthor!" Superman shouts, feeling a wave of weakness, looking at a
bald man with a glowing green rock in one hand and a box with a red button
on it in another.
Luthor would say more, but he's suddenly concerned with all the lethal
hardware aimed at him (six shooters and.....bows and arrows?!).
"Drop them or I push this button!" the villain shouts, suddenly concerned.
Things were not going as planned, to say the least.
As an example, see what happens next.
"Drop them or I push it, and the explosion will kill...." he continues.
"Kill me?" a woman's voice says from behind him, "Won't the blast get
you as well?"
Luthor feels a chill go down his back, then glances back, worriedly
and sees the security guard (a woman, he'd found out in surprise), propped
up on the doorjab behind him.
Luthor had hit her over the head and put a vest full of dynamite on
her as part of his insurance for success in yet another insane plot to
take over the world. A world without Superman, his arch rival!! He'd found
himself in this world after an experiment had failed disasterously, and
figured the VLA was a perfect place to harness a mysterious energy source
he'd recently found. He'd harness these lines of force he'd discovered
and, with a few adjustments this VLA complex would become a weapon. A weapon
which could, at his whim, reach out and destroy entire cities with jut
a flip of a switch. Yet....there were these strange things that popping
out of nowhere.
Anyway, the plan was that if any police showed too soon, he'd used the
threat killing his hostages (there were several hostages inside) tied up
and handcuffed.
But this guard had picked her handcuffs.
Sue Carter, security guard, had been relieved by a new guard (a half
hour late), and had finally been able to get down to the business of studying
for her finals in college (the guard job was useful to make end meet where
the grants didn't....quiet.....cover), when she'd been jumped form behind
(she'd been too deep in thought trying to absorb yet another complex theorem
to hear Luthor sneaking up on her).
She'd been hoping to find the SOB who'd hit her (she'd had the strangest.....dreams?.....while
out, about bearded men and blue boxes), and had lucked out. If this guy
wanted to kill her, then he'd be taking himself out as well.<P.
And if he didn't kill her, she'd make sure that he'd never get a second
chance. She'd recovered her PR-24 and would break a few bones (his) if
he didn't give up then and there! Well, if she needed to break a few bones
she'd do it, but one could dream, right?.
She wasn't bloodthirsty by nature, but getting hit over the head had
put her in a real bad mood (already foul because her relief had been late).
Roland, seeing Luthor's thumb drifting a bit away from the button, reacted.
The activation device shatters and Luthor screams in surprise as Roland's
bullet hits it. A thrust to the stomach by Sue's "police baton" knocks
the wind out of the villain. He falls to the ground, and Sue takes his
arm and locks it painfully behind him as she uses her own handcuffs (allowed
by her Firm and her Guard licence) to cuff him.
"I've been....outdone by a fugitive from a Western and a rentacop?!"
the master criminal rages, only to be grabbed roughly by Roland.
"Be silent," Roland says simply.
Soon, things are taken care of. The chunk of kryptonite is taken care
of (disintegrated by Ama'lis). Superman recovers, and vows to make sure
Luthor sees justice. Elfin bows and arrows are willed back into their mysterious
storage realm (after being called forth by their Light Elf owners). Dragon
Synizn is able to heal Betty's mind, but finds that nothing can be done
for Stacy (it's like she had no prior memories before the train in New
York). That and one sleeping security guard is found!
Sue is besides herself in anger, and Roland isn't far behind. If this
guard had been doing his job, he'd have probably been able to stop Luthor
from taking hostages. Instead, he'd not only been late to work, he'd found
a quiet corner and gone to sleep....on the job.
"But I was only...." he protests.
"Shut UP!" Sue rages, "I'm going to make sure they fire you, you $%^&$%"
"You have forgotten the face of your father and should be sent West,"
Roland says softly, loathing in his voice.
"Uh, what he said," Sue says, right before calling the police.
Sue is thankful, but suggests that Astra and friends make themselves
scarce.
"Superman, Luthor, the FBI wonder twins, and that old guy from Nightstalker
will be hard enough to explain," she says, rolling her eyes, "They have
to probably stay, if what you say about the nature of this unplanned dimensional
hopping or whatever they did is true, then they can't get back to their
homes so they might as well stick around. You have a way back to this Mid-world
and seem to have a REALLY good reason to get going....."
"So we shall go," Astra says simply, making another door out of thin
air.
After a rather uneventful (if trying for all it's puns) trip through
Xanth, a healed and youthened Roland (along with a Susannah Dean who's
legs have been regenerated by a healing spring) step though to the Elven
Nation and find out about a special civil wedding in the works.
"Well, I am also the civil head of state as well as the had of
Aqualarian religion," Astra says, "That and there are a few others who
might want to be wed...."
Eddie and Susannah begin to bristle at that, then blink when they realize......
-
 "They're
talking about us," the raven haired female elf says, smiling.
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