Negative Man screamed. It was agony as the radioactive energy inside him was ripped from his very being. He felt like his insides were being scraped out with a scythe. He looked out through the slits in the bandages that covered his face. He looked with weary eyes, and he saw the beam of energy coming from the top of the metallic cross he was bound to. An energy beam powered by the radiation of his body. He knew what the beam was being used for but he was helpless to stop it.
Dr. Doom smiled under his metal mask. Everything was going perfectly. The cross-like device was drawing the energy from the Negative Man flawlessly. The beam that would bring him his dream of conquest was firing, strong and steady, out to the proper spot at sea.
"Soon!" he whispered to himself. "Very soon! The beam will empower Godzilla within the hour and the beast will rise! And I will become master of the world!"
Inside their invisible cell, made up of accelerated molecules, Rita Farr the Elasti-Girl and FBI Special Agent Wanda Mason watched the beam shoot out to the ocean and disappear under the waves.
"I wonder how long it will take for the radiation in that ray to awaken Godzilla," Agent Mason mused.
"I don't know," Rita said. "I only wish I could do something. I see one of my friends - Larry - in pain. And another friend, Namorita, is under siege at this very moment!"
Namorita backed away. She knew she couldn't win this fight. Not in her weakened condition. There was no way she could defeat both Mallah, the simian assassin; and her old ally, Robotman.
She didn't know whether Cliff Steele, the Robotman, was being controlled or if he had turned traitor, but either way, it did not matter. He was dangerous and he was trying to kill her. And with Mallah at his side, he could do it.
Namorita hated Mallah. He had killed her good friend John Savage, the Sea Devil. She wanted him dead! But right now, she would settle for just getting out of this mess alive. She continued to back away. She approached the beach. She debated making a run for the water. Once in the sea, she could possibly be a match for both men.
"Don't run away, little Atlantean tulip," Mallah said, "We have business! Did you not want to kill me?"
"Very much!" she hissed. "I swear that I will one day see your corpse at my feet!"
"Then come ahead and do battle, as a proud Atlantean should!" Mallah taunted. "Don't run like a coward! Of course, what else should I expect from a woman?"
Namorita fumed in rage. She wanted to attack! But should she?
Everyone's attention was drawn by the sound of a jet-pack. They looked up and saw a red-garbed man flying toward them. He carried some sort of pistol. It looked like something out of Flash Gordon.
"Who . . . ?" Mallah began, as he raised his machine gun.
The man in the red outfit and jet-pack fired his ray gun at Mallah. He beat Mallah to the draw. Mallah jerked convulsively as the energy of the ray filled his body. Mallah fell, unconscious.
Robotman stretched out his extendible robot hand and grabbed the newcomer by the foot. The mechanical hand squeezed his foot like a vice. The man winced. Robotman retracted his hand and reeled the man in like a fishing rod. The man fired his ray gun at Robotman. Robotman staggered, stunned, but he did not fall. He retracted his hand, and stood, looking around, confused.
"Where in the heck am I?" he yelled. "Wait-a-sec! This is the Island, ain't it? The Island where Mike died! Doom's island! How'd I get here?" He saw Namorita standing close by. "Hey, Nita, girl. What's the story?"
"You don't know?" she queried.
The man in red landed. "Maybe I can help clear things up. My name is Adam Strange."
On yet another part of Doom's island, a portal opened. A portal into time/space. A dimensional doorway. Out from it, stepped a humanoid figure. A man. A strong man. He had left Earth unwillingly some time ago. And now he was back. And he was looking for his enemy!
"I was born here, on this planet," Adam Strange said. "But I live on another world. A planet called Rann."
"Rann?" Namorita repeated, "I've heard of it. My cousin, Namor the Sub-Mariner, went there long ago with a group called the Justice Society. He told me the story."
"The Justice Society have become sacred names on Rann," Adam Strange said. "Your cousin is one of our legendary heroes! That was why Rannian culture became fascinated with the Earth. They created the Visualizer to observe it. They've been watching ever since."
"Assumin' all this crap is true," Robotman said. "Can ya explain how in the holy heck I got here?"
"Dr. Doom has been controlling you," Adam Strange said. "Ever since he ambushed you here on this island six months ago."
"Huh?" Robotman said. "I don't remember that."
"You don't?" Namorita said, startled. "I was here with you. I was almost killed."
Robotman stood befuddled.
"Doom erased your memory of it," Strange said. "Have you noticed any . . . gaps in you memory?"
Robotman didn't want to admit it to a stranger, but he had. Several times, he had blacked out. He had lost several hours of time on no less than four occasions. Five, counting the present situation.
"Your silence tells me that you have," Strange said. "Dr. Doom has been using you. He had you capture Rita Farr. She is here on this island, a prisoner!"
Robotman exploded with rage. "That damn, metal headed, stuck-up, vicious . . . !"
"Calm down!" Adam Strange said. "My laser shorted out the microchip that was in your brain. You're free now."
"Thanks!" Robotman said. "Now I can take that trumped up little dictator and . . . "
"No you can't!" Adam strange insisted.
"Why the hell not?" Robotman asked.
"Because I came here to see that Dr. Doom succeeded," Adam Strange said. "You must let him raise Godzilla!"
Doom had very few henchmen on the island. He mostly relied on his Doom-Bots for security. Four men he did have were agents from the Latverian embassy in the United States. These were the same men who Doom had assigned to follow Agent Mason. Now, they were patrolling the Island. They were bored.
"How long have we been here?" one of them said in his native language.
"Forever," another one answered, also in a Germanic dialect.
"I wish something would happen," the third man said.
"Me too," the fourth added.
Just then, they heard something moving in the brush.
"What was that?" one of them asked.
A silhouette became visible for a moment as it raced through the bushes, but then concealed itself in the greenery again. The four men shot their machine guns at it.
"Did we get it?"
"I don't know."
They began to search the bushes. They split up, looking for a body on the ground. But the person they were looking for was not a corpse. He was still alive and fighting. He popped out of the brush and grabbed one of the men. He disabled the man quickly and without a sound. He quickly crept up on a second man and knocked him unconscious with a nerve-chop. Moments later, a third man fell at the hands of the mystery attacker.
The final man looked around. He didn't see his comrades. He called out to them. No answer. He started to panic. He took out a cell phone to call Dr. Doom. He didn't get to complete the call. A large man leaped at him, tackling him, and knocking the phone from the Latverian's grasp. He saw the face of his attacker.
"You!" he gasped.
That was the last thing he said before a fist rammed into his face.
The mystery man left the four of them tied up and proceeded on his way. He was looking for his enemy. He came across some of Doom's proximity motion detectors and infra-red scanners. He walked right past them. They were, for some reason, unable to detect his presence. He continued on his quest.
Robotman was arguing with Adam Strange.
"What are ya talkin' about?" Robotman asked. "We ain't lettin' Doom do nuthin'!"
"You have to," Adam Strange. "It's imperative that Godzilla live."
"You're nuts!" Robotman said. "And we ain't buying it! Are we, Nita?"
Nita didn't answer. Both Robotman and Adam Strange looked to see why she hadn't responded. Her attention was fixed on something else. Namorita walked up to the unconscious form of Mallah. "I swore that I would see his corpse at my feet," she said. "Now, I will keep my word."
Adam Strange and Robotman stood back. Adam Strange didn't like what she was doing, but he understood about blood-oaths from his time on Rann. Robotman didn't like it either, but he was so furious at Doom for using him, that he was not feeling merciful to any of Doom's hired guns. They were willing to allow Namorita her revenge.
But someone else was not. Just as Namorita was reaching down to grab the neck that she planned to snap, an authoritative voice shouted, "Stop!"
Everyone looked to see where the voice had come from. Robotman and Namorita couldn't believe their eyes.
"Am I seein' things?" Robotman asked, amazed.
Namorita gasped at the newcomer. "Is it really you?" she breathlessly asked.
The new arrival smiled.
Doom was closely monitoring the controls on the device that absorbed Negative Man's power and emitted the radiation ray. Doom fought to contain his excitement. Only minutes from now, and Godzilla would rise, bringing Doom his long time dream of domination! Along with the army of supervillains he had gathered months earlier, nothing could stop him.
"Excellent!" he said. "The age of Doom is coming closer by the second. My destiny is at hand!"
Rita and Agent Mason watched with helpless fury as Doom inched closer to success.
Suddenly, Doom was struck by something. He fell to the ground. He couldn't understand why his proximity detectors didn't alert him. Who could have gotten passed them? Who else was on this island? Who would have the impertinence to attack his royal person?
Doom looked to see who his attacker was. When he saw the identity of the new arrival, he was taken aback. Even the brilliant mind of Dr. Doom was shocked by what he saw.
"This cannot be!" Doom shouted. "It cannot be you!"
"I'm afraid it is," the newcomer said. "Hello, Victor. I've come a long way for you!"
Rita Farr almost passed out from the shock of what she was seeing. "It's . . . him!"
Agent Mason looked at the new man. His description fit the man she had heard about. But it couldn't be him. Could it? "Is that . . . ?"
"Yes!" Rita shouted. "It's Michael!"
It was Mr. Terrific!
Next issue: He's back! Mr. Terrific has returned. How did he survive the destruction of Planet-X? Why does Adam Strange want Doom to succeed? A new enemy arrives to complicate things. And guess who rises from the depths! All this and more, next month, in Doom Patrol #10.