Twenty-four hours had passed. Agent Wanda Mason had promised Rita Farr - Elasti-Girl - that she would wait 48 hours before she reported to her superiors. Rita believed that she cold stop the imminent resurrection of Godzilla by finding Doc Savage's Oxygen Destroyer. She had gone to look for it. That was 24 hours ago. Time was running out.
Agent Mason was wishing that she hadn't made the promise to wait. After all, a lot can happen in 24 hours. Still, a promise is a promise. And so, with time to kill, she returned to the manor of Doc Savage to check on the condition of Princess Namorita.
H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot let her in. "Good afternoon, Agent Mason."
"Hello H.E.R.B.I.E.," she said. "I just came to check on Namorita. How is she?"
"Her condition is unchanged," rhe robot replied. "But I have an expert here checking on the equipment."
"Lockhart?" she asked.
"No, but perhaps you would be interested in meeting him?"
Agent Mason was led to the lab. There, she saw a large, metallic figure working on Namorita's life support machine. It looked a robot. A large, rust colored robot. But she knew better. "Cliff Steele," she whispered. "The Robotman!"
Robotman turned. "Who the heck are you?" he asked.
H.E.R.B.I.E floated in. "Mr. Steele, allow me to introduce you to Special Agent Wanda Mason of the FBI."
"Oh, right," Robotman said. "Rita told me ‘bout ya. Said you been askin' ‘bout the Doom Patrol."
"Yes, I have," she responded. "It's a pleasure to met you, Mr. Steele. I've heard quite a lot about you."
"I bet ya have," Robotman said. "You been askin' enough questions."
"I'm interested in all the members of the Doom Patrol."
"There ain't no Doom Patrol, sister. It don't exist. Not no more."
"So I'm told," Agent Mason said. "But I'm gathering information. I'm trying to piece together a puzzle. I don't suppose you'd be willing to buck the trend and tell me about the last battle of the Doom Patrol. The day Mr. Terrific died."
"Nope."
"I didn't think so."
"Lemme tell ya something, lady," Robotman said. "Mike Holt was my best bud. He was like a brother to me. If I could tell the whole freaking world about what he did that last day, I'd go on TV and tell everything. But I can't! We all made a promise, and Cliff Steele don't never break a promise."
"Because of Godzilla?"
"Yeah," he said. "Rita told ya all about that. We can't let nobody know where the big G is or what kind of condition he's in. There's too many ambitious guys out there."
"Can you give me any details at all?"
"Not really, babe," he said. "If I tell ya how Doc Doom tried to wake up the Godzilla, it'll give other people ideas."
"You're all very determined not to let out any information that might lead to the resurrection of Godzilla."
"Leme tell ya something, honey," Robotman said. "I don't scare easy. In fact, there ain't much in this world that spooks me. I'll walk into the Legion of Doom's house and spit in their eye. If I could spit, that is. But Godzilla . . . That big lizard scares me. I don't wanna mess wit' it."
Agent Mason got a chill. Was this Godzilla really as terrifying and unstoppable as they made it out to be? Maybe they were doing the right thing by not talking. Still, if Doom is able to resurrect the beast, doesn't the world need to know all it can?
"Okay, I've been through this argument enough times," she said. "So let's save time and go in the back door. Tell me about the beginning."
"Seems like a heckuva long time ago," Robotman said. "Back when all this super stuff was Greek ta me. I was just a mechanic. I worked for Ford Motors for a while but I got bored and so I spent some time on a NASCAR pit crew. I was really in demand. And then I got me a call from none other than Doc Savage hisself. That was when I first met Mike. Mike and the Doc was trying ta make themselves a prototype of the Terrifi-car, but they didn't have enough time ta design an engine for it, so they hired me ta design somethin' cool for ‘em. Me and Mikey hit it off and became best buds. I thought that the life of a super-dude was so cool that I started followin' him on his missions. I became sort of a sidekick."
"What about the day you became Robotman?" Mason asked. "I believe it was the same day that Rita Farr became Elasti-Girl."
"Yeah," he said, with a sad tone in his modulated, mechanical voice. "Not a good day for yours truly."
Eight months earlier . . .
Cliff Steele was helping his pal Michael Holt, a.k.a. Mr. Terrific, fight a robot that was tearing up the research facility. Mr. Terrific had just used a laser, combined with a frequency modulator, to blow a small hole in the attacking robot. Then he baited the robot out of the room. Cliff made sure that the innocent bystander, Rita Farr, was all right, then he followed Mr. Terrific to see what else he could do to help.
Terrific was leading the automaton down the stairs and Cliff got the idea that he was trying to get the thing outside. Cliff wasn't sure what for, but he knew better than to ask at this point. Cliff just wanted to help. As the robot was going down the stairs, it hesitated. Oh boy, Cliff thought. If robo-dope doesn't follow him down, his plan could be in the crapper. I better do sumthin'
Cliff came up behind the robot and leaped at it, giving it a drop-kick, trying to knock it down the stairs.
Mr. Terrific's eye's widened in alarm. "Cliff, No! Get away from it!"
But it was too late. Not only did Cliff fail to knock the robot down the steps, but he also fell himself, hurting his leg. The robot struck him. Cliff crumbled onto the steps, half-conscious. Then the robot ejected a metal ball, no bigger than a Ping-Pong ball. It dropped down next to Cliff. The robot turned and moved away from Cliff, as the little metal ball beeped. 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
"Nooo!!" Mr. Terrific screamed.
The ball exploded in a rather formidable blast. It tore through Cliff's body. To make things worse, the stairs collapsed and buried Cliff's ruined body, causing more damage. Mr. Terrific's heart froze! Was Cliff alive? Had his friend payed the price for his loyalty?
Terrific kept his head. He led the robot outside to use the Terrifi-car to drain the robot's power. Then he returned and dug out Cliff. He knew immediately that the damage was too severe. Cliff's body was beyond saving.
The Present
Robotman stood, staring, half day-dreaming. "I don't remember nuthin' after the bomb went off. The next thing I remember is waking up and seeing Mikey and old Doc Savage looking down at me. They looked real sad. But sumthin' else was screwy, too. My eyes were working funny. Things didn't look right. I held up my hands . . . And I almost screamed. My hands were mechanical. I sat up and saw my reflection. I was a robot. A robot man. And I didn't like it. Turns out that my brain was the only thing they could salvage from the mess that was me. So they took it out and stuck it into this prototype robot they was building. They changed some stuff around so that the robot worked life a big old life-support system for my gray matter. I was made as a hornet for a long time, and I physically attacked Mike at one time.
"But y'know, as time goes by, ya adjust. Ya see things different. Ya learn. I know they meant well, and it was a heck of a lot better then being in a useless body, hooked to a bunch'a machines, in a hospital. And I gotta say, I got ta like bein' a super-hero. So me and Mike became friends again. We went back ta bein' partners, but this time, I was able ta pitch in more. I got all these powers now. I got super-strength, expandable arms, and a few other little tricks too. I was a real partner now, not a sidekick. Mr. Terrific and Robotman, the coolest team in town. And soon, we was recruited by Doc Savage to join the Doom Patrol."
"That was after he found out that Dr. Doom was planning to kill him," Agent Mason said.
"Yup."
"After he sent the Lethal Legion to research Godzilla in the south Pacific."
"Uh huh."
"Then he recruited Elasti-Girl, Namorita and Negative Man. You became the Doom Patrol and captured the Lethal Legion, mostly due to a trick by Mr. Terrific. And then you all went to the South Pacific to follow up a lead on what Doom was doing out there."
"You got it."
"And then what happened?" Agent Mason asked.
"Can't tell ya," Robotman answered. "Wish I could."
"I keep hitting that brick wall," Agent Mason muttered.
"Life ain't easy, honey."
In a library in New York, an agent of an alien race was doing research. He seemed to be perfectly human. Blond hair, blue eyes, tall, fit, handsome, and disarmingly charming. He even dressed like the average man. No one would know that there was anything unusual about him. No one would guess that he just came here from an alien world.
He looked up some information that was vital to the survival of the world he came from. Information about the monster Godzilla, about the dictator Victor Von Doom, and about the wildcard in all this . . . the Doom Patrol! He needed to know about all of them if he was going to manipulate the situation and control things.
In the hospital, Doc Savage lay in a coma. Outside his room, FBI men assigned by Agent Mason to keep watch on him, stood armed and ready. Nurses talked about the rash of ship disappearances and reappearances that were happening in the south Pacific. The area was being called the ‘Devil's Triangle' of the new century. Meanwhile, the Feds chased away people who wanted to get a look at Doc Savage. They closed the door to the room and remained out in the hall.
Inside Doc Savage's room, the window slid open, and in climbed a gorilla. This was the simian assassin who was exiled from Gorilla City and made his living as a hired killer. This was Mallah, former member of the Lethal Legion.
He climbed in and stood over Savage's bed. "This is too easy. I get to kill a living legend, but I have to do it when you're old and comatose. This is no challenge. It's not worthy of my talents. Any fool could do this. Were it not for the money, I wouldn't bother with you, Doctor. But I have to make a living, don't I? Your old student Dr. Doom has paid me very well to see that you don't wake up from your coma, so I have to live up to my contract. Sorry we couldn't meet on the field of battle, but life is full of little disappointments, isn't it? Goodbye, Dr. Savage."
Mallah raised his knife, but before he could bring it down on Savage, he was alarmed by the sound of shattering glass. He turned to the window and saw a giant hand coming in. The colossal hand belonging to Rita Farr, the Elasti-Girl.
"Get the hell away from him, you monkey-faced bastard!" Rita yelled.
Mallah dived aside to avoid the hand that almost grabbed him. That hand could crush him if she got a grip on him. He bounced around the room with all the agility of an ape. He tried to make it to the door so he could loose himself in the hospital halls, but he ran right into the FBI men. They fired at him. He rolled and dodged, firing back at them. He hit one and wounded another.
‘Ha!" Mallah laughed, "This is what I live for!"
But he was so distracted by the Feds that Rita was able to grab hold of his leg. Mallah cringed in pain as the vice-grip squeezed his leg and lifted him. Rita dragged him out of the window. Outside, she dangled him upside down over the parking lot.
"Did you think I was going to let you do to one of the greatest heroes ever what you did to his nephew?" Rita asked. "You killed John Savage, but you won't get to enhance your reputation with Doc Savage's blood!"
"Maybe not today," Mallah said, "but patience is a specialty of us hired guns."
He fired his gun into Rita's hand.
"Oww!" she shouted, and dropped Mallah. She rubbed her stinging hand.
Mallah landed gracefully on his feet. "Another time, Madam," he said, as he leaped swiftly across the lot. Rita tried to swat him but he was too agile and quick. It reminded Rita of trying to swat a fly and always missing. She even tried to stomp on him, but missed again. She chased him across the street, but he leaped into an open manhole. Rita couldn't follow without reverting to normal size, but if she did that, she'd be no match for him. She had to let him go.
"Damn!" she muttered, and went back to the hospital to check on Doc Savage and the two wounded FBI men. The hospital staff was already on the job, treating the wounded Feds, and Savage had been unhurt by the battle. There was nothing else for Rita to do there except to arrange for better security. Mallah would be back, and Rita knew that she needed someone formidable to guard the Doc.
Wanda watched as Robotman adjusted the controls on Namorita's water tank. "Aren't you worried?" she asked.
"About Nita? She's tough, she'll pull through," Robotman said.
"About yourself, Mr. Steele."
"Why should I be?"
"Mr. Terrific is missing and presumed dead. Doc Savage and Princess Namorita are in critical condition. The Negative Man has been captured. You and Rita Farr are the next likely targets of Dr. Doom."
"This ain't the first time me and Doom are on opposite sides of nasty situation." Robotman said, "Me, Mike and the Doc have dealt with him before. If he tries ta kill me, it won't be anything new."
"You're a brave man, Mr. Steele."
Robotman shook his head. "Mike wuz the brave one. He wuz . . . Terrific. He saved all of us."
"Tell me about him," Agent Mason said. "He sounds like a remarkable man. How did he end up being Mr. Terrific?"
Robotman walked over to a computer that he had repaired since the explosion. Doc Savage's files had survived. He brought up a program. "Here ya go, honey. Read it yourself. Doc Savage tells it better than I ever could. I ain't too good with words."
Agent Mason sat at the computer and read the file that Doc Savage had made about Mr. Terrific.
File 10AA5/TERRIFICMIKE1
I'm making this file to record the singular gifts and the extraordinary life history that define a man I have come to know and respect more than anyone else. He's like the son I never had. This is the story of Michael Holt, better known as Mr. Terrific the 2nd.
The original Mr. Terrific was Terry Sloan, a resourceful and brilliant millionaire who fought crime in the forties and fifties. [See file on Sloan, Terry, Mr. Terrific the 1st] Sloan retired from the masked adventurer business in 1953 when the House Unamerican Activities Committee gave super heroes the choice between unmasking and retirement. Terry continued being an adventurer in his civilian identity. Much as I did, he traveled using his own name and no mask . . . Terry Sloan, adventurer.
His main nemesis continued to be Hunter Holt, also known as the Technician. Holt was a brilliant man who hired himself out to criminals who needed his technical knowledge. He went into business for himself after the Second World War. In the late 40's, he took the name Technician, and began his feud with Mr. Terrific that lasted long after Terry had given up his masked identity.
In the 60's, Hunter Holt found himself in a place where none of us wants to be. He was getting older and it was becoming clear to him that he just couldn't beat his arch rival Terry Sloan. He had spent most of the fortune he'd gotten through criminal means and so had lost the comfortable nest egg he'd built up for his old age, which was coming upon him quickly. And so there he was . . . his life's ambition thwarted, his fortune gone and his youth fading. He was depressed, defeated. But then his current girlfriend told him that she was pregnant. And suddenly Holt got an idea. An evil, ambitious idea. Holt decided that if he couldn't kill Sloan himself, he'd do it vicariously through the next generation. His son would kill Terry Sloan for him.
After the child was born, Hunter Holt took him to the Tech-Lair, which was the Technician's long time hideaway in the hills of South America. He built a special chamber and locked the boy, who he named Michael, inside. The chamber had heavier gravity, which would, over the course of years, increase the boy's strength, stamina and heart strength. Only purified air and water were allowed into the chamber. When Hunter Holt entered the chamber, he did so wearing an environmental suit. He fed young Michael an herb that was supposed to increase his immunity to germs and disease. He fed the boy only the healthiest of foods. And the foods where laced with a chemical that was a variation on the Super-Soldier formula that created Captain America.
As Michael aged, he was forced to go through a strict regimen of exercises to build up his body. Over the years, the combination of the effects of the chamber, the exercises and the super-soldier variant formula succeeded beyond the Technician's expectations. Michael grew to be perfect. Every inch of him, every organ, every molecule became physical perfection.
His father also wanted him to learn how to fight. He planned for his son to be a great assassin one day, and wanted him to be able to fight with anyone. And so Michael was given holographic opponents to train with. By the time he was 18, he had mastered six forms of the martial arts, as well as boxing.
But being strong and a skilled fighter was not enough for Hunter Holt. He wanted his son to be a genius, as he himself was. From the time Michael was a toddler, Hunter Holt made him study. He studied all the sciences, as well as mathematics and engineering. And he'd had some medical knowledge, too. By the time he was 21, he was an absolute genius, perhaps smarter than his father was.
The very last bit of alteration Hunter Holt did to Michael was to add nano-technology to his eyes. As sick as this is, it was also quite brilliant. The nano-bots in Michael's iris' could scan up to 100 yards and display digital read-outs that Michael could see.
And there was one side effect that Hunter Holt didn't expect. Somehow, the combine effects of the gravity chamber, purified air and water, the immunity herb, and the super soldier variant, all meshed to have a strange effect on Michael's body chemistry. It created some sort of invisible aura around his body that acts as a cloaking field to any mechanical device. He became a walking blind-spot to technology. He cannot be photographed or filmed. No sensor can detect him. He is basically invisible to any machine.
And finally, Hunter Holt felt Michael was ready. On his 21st birthday, he was released. Hunter was old by this point, but he hoped he would live long enough to see his son kill his enemy. Since Michael had had no contact with any other living being other than Hunter himself, Hunter assumed that Michael would have unshakable loyalty to him. Also, Hunter had used a subliminal imagery program on Michael when he was asleep, which was meant to increase his obedience to his father.
But that was where the Technician made his one great mistake. He used a device based on the workings of Phineas T. Horton, the creator of the Human Torch and the Creature Commandos. Horton had used this device to teach his androids things before he activated them. Hunter Holt had altered this to work on humans. He programmed it to make his son obedient to him. But there was a glitch. Phineas Horton was afraid that someone might try to subvert his androids and so he put in a protective sub-routine that would erase any hostile or dangerous program and replace it with something that Horton considered more important . . . morality and compassion.
All those years that Hunter believed he was making Michael obedient to him, he was actually insuring that Michael had the perfect morality to go with is perfect body and mind. Hunter had outsmarted himself. He made Michael truly perfect. When the Technician tried to turn Michael into an assassin and make him kill Terry Sloan, Michael's mind rebelled. He turned against his father and refused to kill. He even tried to compel his father to stop his criminal activities by threatening to go to the police. Hunter was so furious that he tried to kill his son. He underestimated Michael's speed and Michael was able to escape with only minor injuries.
Michael had had access to literature, fact and fiction. He had read about me - Doc Savage - and knew I helped those in need. Michael managed to track me down. I fixed Michael's injuries and listened to the story of the Technician.
I contacted Terry Sloan to warn him of the Technician's treachery. Sloan had long since retired and had not heard from the technician in years. He decided, however, that this was an unfinished matter that he should deal with. So Terry Sloan put on the costume of Mr. Terrific one last time and went to deal with the Technician. No one knows the details of what really happened that day, but the end result was that the Tech-lair exploded, killing both the Technician and Mr. Terrific.
Michael felt terrible guilt over the death of this great hero, even though he had never met him. Michael wanted to make up for the misdeeds of his father and put the gifts he had been given to good use. He asked me to teach him all I knew about being a hero. I saw something in him, some greatness. I knew that he was destined to be a great hero. So I agreed to train him.
I not only taught him about combat and the adventurous side of what I do. I also trained him in science. He already knew quite a lot, but all modesty aside, I know some things that the Technician didn't. I taught Michael what I knew. Especially about medicine, which Michael was lacking in. He had all the gifts and desire he needed to be a great doctor. He learned fast.
Eventually, he started going out on adventures of his own. He made himself a costume dedicated to the man he had been brought up to kill, but who had instead inspired him to be a hero. He became the new Mr. Terrific.
Agent Mason moved away from the monitor. "That's quite a story."
"Mike was quite a guy," Robotman said.
Later that same day, at the hospital . . .
John Britton showed up at Doc Savage's room. Everyone stared at him. He was unusual in appearance. He appeared to be a robot. But like Cliff Steele, the appearance wasn't the fact. He was a man under the metal. Way back in the First World War, when he was with the British RAF, he was one of the legendary Air Aces. He had been known as the Iron Ace, because he wore a knight's armor. But later his body was damaged in a plane crash. Damaged beyond repair. It was Doc Savage who put his brain into a mechanical body. It was a much more primitive mechanoid form than Cliff Steele was given, but John Britton took the same name during World War Two . . . Robotman!
The original Robotman had heard about the new one and had often considered getting in touch with him, but he didn't know what he would say to the man who shared his name - and his curse. Besides, John Britton had long since given up trying to be a man, and instead focused on being the perfect robot. He could never be all man but maybe he could be all machine. Still, he owed a debt to Doc Savage. And even though machines shouldn't feel gratitude, it was logical for him to help the man who knew more about his operating systems than anyone else. He may need Savage in the future. And so when Elasti-Girl contacted him to let him know that Doc Savage needed protection, he agreed to help.
"Thank you for coming," Rita said.
"I will endeavor to be of adequate service," the mechanoid man said in an unemotional voice, and just a trace of a British accent.
"Hopefully Mallah won't be back," Rita said, "but if he does, be careful. He's dangerous."
"I understand the situation," Britton replied.
Rita felt a chill at his monotone voice. "Fine then. I'll be going now."
The original Robotman made no reply. Rita left, hoping that she hadn't made a mistake. As for the man who once was John Britton, he merely stood still. He made no gestures or unnecessary movements. Gestures were for humans. And he was now just a machine. He need do nothing unless Mallah showed up. Until then, he would stand and wait. Wait with the patience of a machine.
Back at the mansion of Doc Savage . . .
Rita arrived at the mansion and H.E.R.B.I.E. showed her down to the lab where Robotman and Agent Mason were. "Hi, Cliff. Hello, agent. How's everything here?"
"Nothing cookin' here, Rita gal. What's knew at your end?" Robotman replied.
‘I just stopped Mallah from killing Doc Savage," Rita said.
The other two stared at her in surprise. "Is the Doc okay?" Cliff asked.
"He's fine," Rita said. "Unfortunately, the two FBI men didn't fare so well. One's wounded and the other . . . Sorry, Agent Mason, but he's dead."
Mason nodded sadly. Losing fellow agents was part of the business. "We'll need someone else to protect Dr. Savage."
"Don't worry. I've got it covered."
"Fine," Agent Mason replied. "So what happened in the arctic? Did you find the Oxygen Destroyer."
"I found some plans," Rita said. "I think Cliff can probably make more sense from them then I can."
Cliff was about to take the plans, but he stopped.
"What's wrong, Cliff?" Rita asked.
In the tank, Namorita suddenly started choking. Still unconscious, she coughed and gagged.
"There's something wrong with the tank!" Rita yelled. "Do something, Cliff! You know those systems. Help her!"
Cliff Steele - The second Robotman - slowly raised his arm. And then he quickly swung it around, striking Rita in the face. She yelped in pain and fell to the floor unconscious.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Agent Mason shouted in alarm.
Robotman swung at her next. She ducked, dived, rolled and bounced back to her feet. She fired her gun at the Robotman but it did no good. Robotman was bulletproof. Agent Mason gritted her teeth and tried to make her way to the stairway or the elevator. Robotman was too close to the stairs. She leaped for the elevator and pushed the button. She fired again, hitting Robotman in the optical sockets, which was the robot equivalent of eyes. Robotman stopped for a minute. His eye lense was cracked and he had to adjust to his newly impaired vision. That gave Mason a few seconds. She saw the elevator doors start to open. She ran for it, but then she stopped. There was someone inside.
The man wore some sort of armor, covered in a green cloak and hood. Agent mason knew immediately who it was.
"Dr. Doom!" she hissed.
Doom bowed slightly. "At your service, my dear." He raised his gauntlet and pointed a finger at her. A laser blast spit forward from his finger tip. The blast hit Agent Mason. She collapsed to the ground.
Dr. Doom looked around the room. Rita and Agent Mason were unmoving, and Namorita was choking, unconscious in the tank. Robotman stood frozen, like a statue. Doom picked up the plans for the Oxygen Destroyer. With a spark from his gauntlet, he burned the plans.
"And that, as they say, is that!" Doom said with a chuckle. "The so-called Doom Patrol is no longer an obstacle. The plans for the Oxygen Destroyer are gone. My path is free and clear. The time has come to summon the monstrous Godzilla. And soon after that, this wayward world shall belong to Doctor Doom!"
Next issue: The heroes have been defeated and Dr. Doom is free to summon Godzilla and take over the world. Can anyone stop him? Why has Robotman turned on Elasti-Girl? Also, the story of the last day of the Doom Patrol is finally revealed. What really happened to Mr. Terrific? Where was Doom during the last 6 months? Find out the answers next month in Doom Patrol #7!