Superheroes – Once upon a Time in 1969 – Issue 20 – Five by Five

This story continues directly from the dramatic end of Issue 19.

Cover: The Quizzical Quintet– Stormson and Singularity in the air, Puppet Princess and her toy army in the center, with Puzzle Boy and Riddle Girl on each side.  “The Final Battle?!”  In the background is the zoo with various letters scattered about from broken signs.

Opening page: An aerial view of the two teams facing off in the zoo.  Our heroes at the center, Horizon and 808 in the air above their teammates.  Puzzle Boy and Riddle Girl stand next to the caged foxes, from one side, Puppet Princess and her army of toys, approach, Stormson and Singularity are in the air and cover the other sides.

Next page: Puzzle Boy and Riddle Girl step aside from the fox cages revealing “HELP US” written there where it cannot be seen by the other villains.  Our heroes pause and Shadowfist whispers over the communicators, “I’ll see what is going down with them.”

Stormson unleashes powerful and chilling winds laced with hail to buffet and disorient 808 and Horizon.

Singularity folds up and then re-emerges next to Roboto where it severs the connection between robot and jetpack.  Roboto strikes back and Singularity is held in place by Horizon‘s gravity powers long enough to be hit, its form rippling and deforming under the impact.

808 uses his control of light to enhance the sunlight and drive away Stormson‘s icy weather with some, but not complete, success.  As Puppet Princess‘ army of dolls and toys rush forward, Horizon gravity grabs a giant teddy bear from among them and uses it to sweep through the army tossing dolls, stuffed animals, and toys hither and yon.

Shadowfist dodges through the puppet carnage to leg-sweep Puppet Princess, who falls.  The toys try to counterattack but cannot catch the nimble martial artist.

Singularity, still quasi-solid, it hit by a Shock-Fang thrown by Vulpix.  Stormson drops down and tears the electrical charge off Singularity and casts it as lighting against Horizon who is forced to land, roughly.  Roboto grabs Stormson who shouts and struggles, calling down a rain of lightning bolts that scatter and explode several powerlines around the zoo.  808 causes giant hands of light to manifest and uses them to tie up the powerlines to keep both people and animals safe.

After several panels where he is putting a weapon together in the background, Puzzle Boy finally has it ready, an absurd-looking bubble gun!  Which he fires, launching large soap bubbles in an attempt to make our heroes, those who are on the ground, lose their footing.  It is not successful.

Shadowfist leaps over and disarms Puzzle Boy.  Riddle Girl attacks Shadowfist with a flurry of easily blocked blows and hisses, “We are not the threat here.”

Shadowfist replies, quietly, “If I hit you go down.”

Horizon grabs Roboto‘s jetpack and slaps it back on his robotic companion.  Roboto fires it up and slams into Stormson, tossing him into the hippo enclosure.  Stormson summons a cascade of lightning, bolts raining down around him.  (The hippos wisely take shelter.)

Singularity is upset by the lightning and tries to flee but something on its chest flares with occult power and it turns back.  Flying quickly, it dives into Horizon, cutting him off from his gravetic perceptions and the two uneasily exist in the same space.  Horizon struggles and manages to grab the thing on Singularity‘s chest, once wrenched free, it is revealed as a deep red stone carved with the astrological symbol for Virgo.  Free of the stone’s control, Singularity flees.

Shadowfist and Riddle Girl exchange blows and blocks, as they get close, Riddle Girl whispers, “Zodiac.”  This is followed by a (staged) finishing blow from Shadowfist puts Riddle Girl down.

The lightning keeps intensifying as Stormson pulls more and more energy down from the sky to prove his power in response 808 traps him in a dome of hard light which then becomes the target of the lightning strikes.  Vulpix positions herself with a mercy fang, 808 opens the dome just wide enough for Vulpix, with a helping nudge from Shadowfist‘s chi, it slides past the electrical field protecting Stormson.  As the topaz on Stormson‘s chest flares with occult fire, Horizon grabs it with focused gravity and tears it free and Stormson slumps back into unconsciousness.

Puppet Princess tries to flee but the stone she wears, built into her mask, forces her to turn back.  She is being puppeted and in turn, uses her powers to puppet Roboto.  She sends him careening toward Vulpix and Shadowfist who nimbly get out the way.  Horizon flies in and tackles Puppet Princess and tears the mask from her revealing a very young woman who immediately faints unconscious.

Puzzle Boy finally finishes putting together his bolo-launcher looks around and realizes that he is the last one standing, so promptly surrenders and is disarmed.

Just as our young heroes start to relax, a man composed of a starry sky leaps in, the constellation of Ares glowing and delivers a mighty kick to Horizon who tumbles away, discombobulated.  It is Zodiac! (Last seen in Issue 8.) Returned with full control of his powers.  “Never send children to do a man’s job!” he says.

808 summons a fist of light and, backed by Horizon, slams it into him.  While Zodiac is distracted, Shadowfist grabs Riddle Girl‘s staff (rolled into position by the “unconscious” Riddle Girl) and clocks Zodiac from behind.  The constellation of Leo glows and Zodiac gives a deafening roar, driving most of the heroes back.

However, Roboto‘s mechanical ears can be tuned to filter out sounds, so he rushes forward, propelled by the last of the fuel in his jet pack and he smashes into Zodiac tossing him almost into the hippo enclosure.  A bolo from Vulpix and bands of hard light from 808 wrap around Zodiac.  He struggles and rants, “I will not be defeated by you children again!”

Horizon pulls a bunch of the rubble into a ball and smashes it into Zodiac who vanishes like a popped balloon.  “What happened?” said Roboto.  “Where did he go?

Riddle Girl rolls to her feet.  “He is still in jail, well, one of him is.” She explains that Zodiac forced her and Puzzle Boy to lure the team into a fight with the intention of capturing them and using the control stones on them as his revenge.  The three powered members of the team were controlled by stones, her and Puzzle Boy by threats.  Horizon takes to the air to cool off.

The police arrive.  Doctor Unknown is contacted, the jail is informed and Zodiac is moved to an interior cell, where he cannot see the sky

Shadowfist finds Horizon and comforts him.  Horizon in a confused, rambling way opens up about how upset he is that Zodiac manipulated and mistreated everyone, “Power and a bald spot does not make you a man.”

[This ends the main part of the issue, an agendum about the Quizzical Quintet and their origins follow as I have time]

Next time, Issue 21.

Notes: Finally found the villains a group name!  It was a pretty intense session all around.

Images: Upper Dolls from PublicDomainPictures.net and is in the Public Domain. Lower Zodiac image by Kwamikagami, found on Wikimedia Commons and used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.