Wonder Woman was leading the captive slave girls to safety. They were ready and willing to help her fight, but the Amazon clearly needed no help. She easily handed each guard she came across. The Women were ecstatic with joy at their impending freedom.
One of the few remaining guards had an alien weapon. He crept up on the group of women sneakily and prepared to shoot the distracted Amazon in the back. He never got the chance. The wall fell in on him. Through the hole in the wall stepped Thundra. "Do you need any help?" the Femizon asked.
"I have things in hand," Wonder Woman said. "What about the spider?"
Thundra held up a snapped-off spider leg. "Its been exterminated!"
Meanwhile, back in the harem . . .
The Lady Sif was still there, standing alone. She was still under the influence of the Diode Ray. Since no one had thought to order her to escape with them, she had no choice but to stand where she was. She wanted desperately to flee, but her body still wouldn't obey her brain's commands. Despite the fact that the room was unlocked and unguarded, she was still as much a prisoner as before.
She heard someone running in the hall. She saw the sheik pass the door. He was undoubtedly running from Wonder Woman and heading to a pre-planned escape. As he passed the door, he noticed Sif. He stopped and entered the room.
Nay, not him again, she thought. Not now, while I'm still helpless!
"I can use you!" he said to her. "You'll bring a good price. It'll cut my losses. Come with me."
"I obey," she said, hating those words.
The Sheik dragged her down the hall and out a secret entrance. Sif found herself outside. Where is this mortal swine taking me? she wondered.
They reached the Sheik's expensive car. By Odin, if he manages to escape with me as his prisoner, how will anyone ever find me?
"Get in the car!" the Sheik ordered.
"I obey," she said, climbing into the car.
The sheik got behind the wheel and peeled off at top speed. He looked at his captive goddess. "I have many places to hide. Places deep in the desert. No one will find us."
Curse you, mortal! Sif thought. I wish I couldst control my body. I would break thy neck. But, to my shame, I am powerless!
Meanwhile, back at the sheik's former HQ, the Blood Spider Society had been defeated. Wonder Woman and Thundra were victorious. The women cheered their freedom. Wonder Woman looked around, counting heads. "Is everyone here?"
"Everyone except that tall, obsequious wench!" Fee said.
Wonder Woman looked around. "Where could she be?"
Sif seethed with anger as she sat with unwilling passivity next to her captor. The car sped through the desert, heading for another hideout. They didn't make it.
One of the alien saucers of the Ursool hovered over the sheik's car. Using a tractor-beam, it lifted the car up and carried the two occupants off. The sheik was scared and confused. Sif was getting angrier and angrier at her inability to act.
Soon, the sheik and Sif found themselves in the mother flying saucer HQ of the Ursool.
"What . . . what can I do for you, sirs?" the Sheik asked.
"You've failed!" one of them said. "Despite our help, your organization has fallen apart. We can no longer count on you to get us the cleaning supplies we want."
"We don't like failure!" another said. "You've let us down!"
They aimed a weapon at the Sheik.
"No, please, wait!" he cried. "Give me another chance! I can . . . "
"Shut up, Earthman!" One of them said, as they fired the weapon.
The sheik was instantly incinerated. Sif would have applauded, if she could. She wondered what they would do with her now. She was still affected by the Ultra-Diode Ray.
"What about the girl?" one alien asked. "She seems to still be under the influence of our ray."
"She's a sturdy female," the other said. "Let's take her. She'll make good breeding stock for the Kree."
Breeding stock! the goddess thought, appalled and a little scared, These creatures are taking me off into space. Thor will never find me! By Odin, I am lost!
The aliens activated their mother ship. Their Earth contact lost, they abandon their scheme. The ship took off into space, and Sif was taken along with them.
Back at the Godwheel planet:
Thor and Orion lay stunned. Hercules and Captain Marvel were trying their best to buy time, fighting off the rooks. They weren't doing well. And it was only a matter of time before the Gamers heard the commotion and entered the fray themselves. When that happened, all would be lost!
Beta Ray Bill stood alone. He needed to destroy the antenna. He couldn't get too close, but his laser sword was a woefully inadequate weapon to throw, unlike Thor's hammer.
Beta Ray Bill looked down at Thor's hammer, which lay at his feet. To his surprise, words appeared on it.
The inscription said: Whomsoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall posses the power of Thor!
Bill reached down and grabbed the hammer . . . and suddenly there was an explosion of light and lightning.
Bill found himself changed. He now wore a costume like Thor's now, even a winged Helmet. He felt different, more powerful. More godlike!
"Bill, are you all right?" Captain Marvel shouted.
"I've never been better!" he said. "And call me . . . Beta Ray Thor!"
The Ursool ship sped through the Milky Way, en route to their homeworld. On board, Sif slumped in a corner, despondent and powerless. The Ursool ship went into hyperspace, to cut time off the trip. When they emerged back into normal space, they were off course. They didn't realize that they were close to the Godwheel.
"Where are we?" one of the Ursool asked. "This isn't our system!"
A voice rang out in the ship. But it didn't come over the communications array. It was telepathic.
"WE ARE THE GREAT GAMERS! WE HAVE ALTERED YOUR COURSE. ONE OF YOUR RACE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF GAMER KAMAKORA ON EARTH. BE PREPARED TO ANSWER FOR THIS CRIME!"
Sif was surprised. She had been with Kamokora when he died. She wished she could say so.
"I don't like this!" one of the aliens said. "Arm weapon's systems. Prepare to jump to hyper-space!"
"YOU ARE DISOBEDIENT AND COWARDLY. NO FURTHER DEBATE IS NECESSARY IN REGARDS TO YOUR DISPOSAL. YOU HAVE FORCED US INTO SUMMERY JUDGEMENT. YOU WILL BE TERMINATED!"
The panicky aliens tried to escape, but a fireball from the Godwheel tracked the ship. They tried evasive actions, but the fireball caught them. The Ursool ship was destroyed . . . with Sif aboard!
Beta Ray Thor swung his new hammer. "I strike, in the name of my people!"
He threw the hammer with a force that was on par with Thor himself. It struck the already damaged antenna of the Cosmic Core. The antenna finally snapped off, cutting off the furnace from the energy of the Godwheel.
Thor and Orion sat up. Thor was amazed to see Beta Ray Bill carrying his hammer.
"Odin's blood!" he said, shocked. "You carry Mjolnir!"
"We'll discuss it later, friend!" Beta Ray Thor said. "For the moment, this is yours."
Bill handed the Hammer back to Thor. Once he released it, there was another flash of lightning and Beta Ray Thor reverted to Beta Ray Bill.
"Mother Box says that the planet will soon be destroyed by the unleashed energy of the Godwheel!" Orion said. "We must depart!"
They immediately began their escape. They grabbed Captain Marvel and Hercules, and headed back off into space!
The Rooks tried to warn their masters of the impending disaster, but the preoccupied, imperious Gamers were annoyed at the interruption and ordered the Rooks to go away. The Rook's obeyed. The Gamers continued, unable to conceive of anything that could threaten them.
Captain Marvel took a short detour before escaping. He found the White Queen.
"Your highness," he said to her. "The planet is going to be destroyed! You must escape!"
"Destroyed?" she repeated. At first she was disbelieving, but then some special sense told her it was true. "I believe you. I am surprised that such little beings could do it."
"You have to get away!"
She paused. "No, I don't think so. If this is how I am fated to end, then let it be so. Perhaps we have been too heartless in our quest for balance. Perhaps the day of the Godwheel is passed. Whatever happens, I will remain."
"But . . . "
"You have little time, human," she said. "Go, quickly!"
Captain Marvel nodded sadly, and followed his partners into space. The Queen looked sad. She had little time to process the information that an era was ending . . . Her era. The era of the Godwheel! Still, there was one more thing she could do.
Sif thought she was dead when the ship exploded. She was confused to find herself floating in space, unharmed. She heard a voice in her head.
"I AM QUEEN ARIELLA OF THE GREAT GAMERS. I SEE IN YOUR MIND THAT YOU SHOWED SYMPATHY TO KAMOKORA AT THE MOMENT OF HIS DEATH. HE WAS A GOOD SOLDIER AND I THANK YOU FOR MAKING HIS FINAL MOMENTS BETTER. IN RETURN, I HAVE SAVED YOUR LIFE, AND ARRANGED FOR YOU TO BE RESCUED. I ALSO FREE YOU FROM THE INFLUENCE OF THE WEAPON THAT HAS MADE YOU A VICTIM. YOU ARE FREE. I WISH I COULD HAVE GOTTEN TO KNOW YOU. I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN TO KNOW MORE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE GALAXY, BUT I SPENT MY LIFE IN THE GAME. THAT IS MY REGRET. NOW, I DIE AND THE Godwheel DIES WITH ME. LIVE WELL, LITTLE GODDESS. I ENVY YOU."
The voice stopped. Sif had never met this Ariella but she felt a pang of sadness at her passing. She wondered what Ariella meant about sending someone to rescue her.
Not far away, Adam Strange had also received a voice in his head, telling him that a friend of Thor's was in danger. He was suspicious, but since he was hovering in space with nothing else to do but wait for the others to return, he checked it out.
He found Sif floating in space. He rescued her.
"I thank thee, mortal," she said. "You have the thanks of the goddess Sif."
"Another god?" Adam Strange said. "Why am I not surprised?"
Thor and his companions flew at top speed away from the planet. Tooth'nasher and Tooth'grinder pulled the chariot, containing Hercules and Beta-Ray Bill, as fast as they could fly. Captain Marvel and Orion kept pace with Thor.
"Faster!" Thor yelled. "The planet will soon explode!"
Meanwhile, the planet was in its death-throes. The indescribable energy of the Godwheel bathed the planet in heat, gravity and kinetic energy. Without the Cosmic Core to absorb this power, the Godwheel started to crush Chequerian, just as the planet had crushed so many other worlds. Ironically, the Godwheel was powered by all those dead worlds. A Billion dead souls from lost planets got their final revenge as the out-of-control energy of the Godwheel destroyed Chequeria!
The Carrion Pawns were still on their hunt. They finally spotted Scuttlebutt in the distance. They charged the ship, eager for the kill. Balder stood ready to defend it. Scuttlebutt activated its laser weapons.
"Whether I live or die, I do so as a warrior!" Balder said.
Suddenly, to his amazement, the Carrion Pawns all faded into nothingness.
"By Odin?" Balder whispered. "What transpires here?"
From a relatively safe distance, Thor, Orion and the others watched the planet Chequeria die.
"Tis over." Thor said.
"I feel a little sad," Captain Marvel said. "Not all the Chequerians were bad. I'm sorry we had to kill the white cavalry, too."
"They made their choice!" Orion said. "They lived as gamers, and so they died as gamers. Many a dead race is now avenged!"
"I, too, feel a sorrow in my heavy heart," Thor said. "But it had to be done. Come, my friends. I see the ship of Adam Strange in the distance. Let us tell him the news, and he will convey us to pick up Brave Balder and then take us back home."
Soon, on board the ship . . .
Thor was surprised to see Sif aboard. "My lady!" he cried.
"Beloved!"
"What doth thou here?"
Sif was too embarrassed to tell the story. "Another time, my prince. Just crush me in thine arms!"
Bill sat, relieved that the threat to his race was over. He enjoyed having the power of Thor, however briefly. "After you retrieve Balder, I will set out to find a home for the children of my race."
"Mayhap my father, the omnipotent Odin canst help thee," Thor said. "He has great knowledge and perhaps a world can be found that thy people can call home."
"I would greatly appreciate that, my good friend," Bill said.
"I, too, am eager to see the Golden Realm again," Sif said.
"I wonder what effect the destruction of the Godwheel will have on the universe?" Captain Marvel asked. "We've just lost our cosmic balance!"
"Nature abhors a vacuum," Adam Strange said. "The universe will find a new balance. This isn't the end of everything. It's just the beginning of something new."
"'Twas a great adventure, eh, Orion?" Hercules asked.
"Indeed it was," Orion said. "A worthy challenge for the gods!"
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I just want to go home!" Captain Marvel said.
"Aye," Thor said. "Adam Strange, take us home!"
The ship ferried the tired heroes home from their greatest adventure.