Halo was flying through the caverns in her light form. In the darkest part of the tunnels she came across a creature that looked like a cross between a Kimono Dragon and an alligator, only bigger. Halo made the mistake of hesitating, curious about this strange looking beast lurking all alone in the dark.
The creature opened its mouth and suddenly, she felt herself being pulled toward it. She didn't understand how this suction could be affecting her in her Light-form. She wasn't solid, only energy. How could it be sucking her in?
She tried to fight, but she was pulled closer and closer to the great, gaping, fanged maw of the monster.
Namorita and Elasti-Girl reached a brighter area of the tunnels. There seemed to be some natural phosphorescence in the rocks. Elasti-Girl was relieved that she didn't have to rely on the Atlantean's radar any longer. Things were tense between them, and she didn't want to be too dependent on her amphibian partner. They crept along, not saying a word to each other. At this point, she would have welcomed some of Cliff and Larry's annoying banter.
They heard a shuffling sound. They tensed for an attack. Suddenly, a foot tall creature appeared. It looked like a half baboon, half fox. It stared at the two women.
"Hello," Rita said. "Can you understand me? We don't want to hurt you. We . . . "
The little animal opened its mouth and emitted a piercing, high-pitched, banshee wail. The two women were shocked by the incredible sound. Especially Namorita, who had very acute hearing. She covered her pointed ears, hoping to drown out the sound, but it didn't work. She dropped to her knees in agony.
Karnak led Mr. Terrific to the makeshift throne room of the Mole Man. Peaking into the large room, they saw the green clad man listening in on a little device. Mr. Terrific figured that it was some sort of audio surveillance apparatus.
"Is that the Mole Man?" Terrific asked.
"That's him!" Karnak said. "Whatever you're going to do, be careful."
Mr. Terrific nodded and entered the throne room. Between his nano-tech eyes and the light emitted by his T-spheres, he could see perfectly in the normally pitch-dark room. The Mole Man sensed Mr. Terrific's arrival with his radar sense. He turned and pointed at the intruder to his realm.
"Get that man!" he ordered his servants.
The little, pale beings charged Mr. Terrific with spears. Terrific didn't want to fight them, but was given no choice. With an amazing display of Martial Arts prowess, he managed to hold off the 20-or-so little soldiers. He tried not to hurt them too badly.
The Mole man could see that this tactic was not working. "Enough!" he shouted.
His minions backed off. The Mole Man gestured, and one of his little slaves let out a whine. The cry summoned a large creature. It popped out of a trap door, looking like a giant crustacean.
"You won't find this one so easy to dispatch!" the Mole Man said.
"Wait!" Mr. Terrific said. "I didn't come here to fight you! I just want to talk!"
"We have nothing to discuss!" the Mole Man said. "You are an invader and invaders must be crushed!"
The giant crustacean lumbered toward Mister Terrific, who gave a code to his T-spheres. They suddenly lit up with shining light. The creature, which lived its life in the darkness, was stunned by the unaccustomed light. It retreated a few feet. The Mole Man snarled and ordered the beast to return to its pit.
"I don't want to hurt any of the indigenous beings of these caverns," Mr. Terrific said. "I came to negotiate with you. I am not your enemy!"
"Anyone who comes to this island is an enemy!" the Mole Man said. "Because if you live to escape, you threaten contamination! You will reveal the secret of my world and soon I'll have hundreds, maybe thousands of intruders coming here! And I know what the people of the outside world are like. When they are in great numbers, they are destroyers! I will not let them destroy my world! Therefore, I cannot allow you to leave! The only answer is your death!"
"I hope we can be reasonable about this," Terrific said. "I know how you come to be here. I have sympathy for your plight. Believe me, I understand you. But murder is not the answer."
"How could you understand?" the Mole Man asked. "Look at you! A big, strapping, handsome man. How the women must love you! You have the kind of physique that most men would love to have. How could you understand what it means to be a freak, an outcast?"
"It's hard to explain, but I do understand you," Terrific said. "And I think my friends and I can help you. You can learn to be happy the way you are. You don't have to hide, or subjugate these little people to make yourself feel more alive!"
"Subjugate?" the Mole Man repeated, angrily. "Ah! You've been talking to Karnak, have you? That explains how you know so much about me. So, Karnak still lives, does he? Well, I'll attend to him at a later date. Right now, you and I have an engagement on the field of battle!"
The Mole Man grabbed a second staff off of a rack of identical staffs. He tossed it to Mr. Terrific. The Mole Man crouched, his battle-staff held defensively before him, as if he were preparing for an attack.
"You think you're so skillful?" the Mole Man asked. "You think you're a warrior? You are nothing to me! I've conquered everything around me through strength of will! And I stand ready now to defeat you! I challenge you to face me in a contest to the death!"
"Don't force me to do this!" Mr. Terrific said. "I don't want to hurt you!"
"You won't!" the Mole Man said. "You cannot best me in a staff combat. You will not walk out of this room! I guarantee it!"
"Mole Man, please, let's talk about . . . " Mr. Terrific started to say.
But it was pointless. The Mole Man attacked, swinging his staff with great skill. Mr. Terrific was forced to defend himself. The battle commenced!
There was silence among the dust and rubble. There was no sign of the two Doom Patrol members who were trapped in the cave-in. After minutes of inactivity, suddenly, Robotman burst up out of the rubble. He reached down and pulled out the unmoving form of Larry Trainer, the Negative Man.
Robotman had covered Larry up, protecting him from the falling rocks. He took the brunt of the avalanche. It took him several minutes to force his way out while simultaneously protecting Larry. Finally, he had succeeded.
He shook the limp form of his partner. "Come Larry, boy! Ya gotta be okay! Don't do this to me!"
Abruptly, Larry let out a weak mumble. "I didn't know you cared, you big lug."
"You'll do anything ta get attention, won't ya, Trainer?"
Halo was being sucked slowly into the maw of the reptilian creature. Her light-form was stretching out, as her lower half was dragged within inches of the beast. She tried to blast the creature with a laser blast. To her surprise, the laser curved, and instead of hitting the beast in the eye, the laser went down its throat. The beast purred with satisfaction as it swallowed the light beam.
It eats light! Halo realized. The thing subsists on light!
Halo immediately reverted to her humanoid form. The suction no longer affected her. She fell to the ground. The beast bellowed, as if it was disappointed. It paid no further attention to Halo. The young Inhuman crawled away, as quietly as possible. It didn't follow her.
Elasti-Girl was in pain from the sonic attack of the little creature, but not so badly as Namorita. The Atlantean Princess, with her acute hearing, was in extreme agony. Rita Farr, the Elasti-Girl, knew she had to do something quickly.
Growing to a height of fifteen feet, she stamped her foot down toward the little creature. The beast was startled. It stopped its sonic wail and hopped away.
Rita returned to her normal height and rushed to Namorita's side. "Are you okay, Rita?"
Namorita was still stunned. She allowed Rita to help her up. When she focused her thoughts, he realized that Elasti-Girl had saved her. She yanked herself away. "I'm fine!" she said, coldly. She was embarrassed at having to owe her life to Rita Farr. "Let's just look for Michael!"
"Fine," Rita said, with an annoyed sigh.
Mr. Terrific was battling the Mole Man. He was surprised at the skill and speed of his diminutive opponent. Karnak had trained him well. Also, his radar sense allowed him to detect a blow coming from any direction, which enabled him to parry it.
Since Mr. Terrific was so much taller, the Mole Man kept going for his legs. It became difficult for Terrific to defend himself from those low blows and still manage a successful counter attack. The Mole Man bounced around, wiry and agile. He managed to get a few blows passed Terrific's guard. He connected with Terrific on the back and on the left arm. He also smashed Terrific on the toes. The pain limited Terrific's mobility, giving him more of a disadvantage.
But Mr. Terrific was a man who always thought ahead. He had a strategy. He forced the Mole Man to jump around and move constantly. He expended a lot of effort, more so than Mr. Terrific who stood in one place and fought a defensive fight. Add to that the fact that Mr. Terrific was in better condition than the Mole Man was, and it was not surprising that the Mole Man tired out sooner than Mr. Terrific did.
The Mole Man got nervous as his energy waned. Then, Terrific renewed his attack. He'd been saving his strength for the right moment. Now, the Mole Man was on the defensive. Mr. Terrific pushed him to the limits of his skill. The Mole Man grunted as he tried to hold off the bigger man's attack. Without the advantage of speed, Mr. Terrific's strength became the dominant force in the battle.
Terrific pushed all his weight down on his staff, pressing it against the Mole Man's. The smaller, weaker Mole Man was driven to his knees. Terrific kicked him in the face. The Mole Man dropped his staff and fell to the floor, stunned.
Mr. Terrific had won. He stood over the fallen Mole Man. He put a foot on the Mole Man's chest to keep him pinned down. The weakened Mole Man looked up at the victorious Mr. Terrific.
"Are you going to kill me?" the Mole Man asked.
"I don't want to kill you, Mole Man," Terrific said. "I want to make you understand that not everyone means you harm." He offered a hand to the Mole Man. "Let me help you up."
The Mole Man was surprised, but allowed himself to be helped up by his foe.
"I'm not your enemy," Terrific said. "Not everyone wants to expose you. Aquaman didn't. And if you'd let some of the other people who came here live, they might have understood, too. Let me gather my partners here. I think talking to them would benefit you."
Mr. Terrific sent his T-spheres to search for his partners. Soon, he had found them all and the Doom Patrol was gathered in the Mole Man's throne room. At Mr. Terrific's urging, they talked to the Mole Man.
The Mole Man could see that these were not normal, attractive people. They had the same problems as he did. One was a man in a robot body. Another was a deformed man in bandages. The third was an exiled woman from under the seas. The fourth was a washed-up movie star, and the last was something called an "Inhuman".
They each talked to the Mole Man about their suffering, about what they've endured. They understood him, and tried to make him understand that this hostility was not necessary. The Mole Man listened and seemed to understand.
Karnak made an appearance. "Listen to them, my old friend. Kindness is a virtue unto itself. If not for my act of kindness in nursing you back to health, you'd be dead. If not for Michael's mercy, you'd have died in battle. You've been the recipient of mercy and not known it. Kindness is the strongest force on Earth. Try to understand it, and it will be a more powerful ally than any of your monsters!"
Halo was staring at the new arrival. It was a face from long ago. "Karnak!" she cried.
He looked at her, curious. "You know me, young lady?"
"It's Halo! I'm your cousin! I'm from Attilan!"
"Halo?" he repeated surprised. "Little Halo? I haven't seen you since you were a precocious little tot."
He hugged her affectionately. She smiled. "Hello, cousin Karnak," she said. "we haven't seen you since you went off on your spiritual quest. You've been gone so long. We didn't know if you were alive or not."
"As you can see, I'm alive and well, my dear," Karnak said.
"Wait-a-minute!" Robotman said. "You're an Inhuman?"
"I am."
"We keep running into you guys," Larry said.
"What about the Mole Man?" Rita said, bringing the focus back to him.
"You have nothing further to fear from me," the Mole Man said. "You've given me a lot to think about. You may go in peace."
"I will stay here as well," Karnak said, then he whispered to Terrific. "Just to make sure that his new philosophy of kindness remains intact."
Mr. Terrific nodded. "Good. Now, we must be going."
"I'll show you the path out from the force field," Karnak said.
"Namorita, we'll need to hitch a ride on a whale or something," Terrific said to the Atlantean Princess. "Without the jet, we're stuck for a way home."
"That is no difficulty," Namorita said. "I'll summon one. Big enough for six."
"We need to hurry," Terrific said. "We've spent too much time here. The Zeta beam will be returning Godzilla in a matter of days or even hours. We have to be ready to alter his landing point and exile him here to Monster Island. If not, he'll be loose on Earth again, and I don't know if we can stop him a second time!"
Next: The Doom Patrol is frantically preparing to stop Godzilla from returning to Japan and running amok. But the appearance of Ronan the Kree Accuser and his rival, the Super-Skrull complicate their best laid plans.