Chapter 24
Superboy kept swinging around darting in and getting kicks on
his slower and less agile opponents. The woman managed to clip
him twice, and the big man's kick got his leg. Then something
began to happen. First something hit the woman in the back and
drove her away, then, the man in the side, then the woman in the
stomach. The next time it came in it hit the big man in the head,
but with an incredible effort he caught it! For the first time
Superboy could see it was a battle ax! It hauled the big man
away, dazed. Superboy went into the attack. Without her companion
to back her up the woman wasn't very effective. For every blow
she got in Superboy got in three and they soon took their toll.
Finally with three vicious blows to the head Superboy knocked the
woman senseless. He wondered what to do with her when he felt
something touch his hand. He looked down to find a pair of
handcuffs and shackles connected by a heavy cable. He quickly
attached these to the woman. He noticed there was also a towing
cable of some length and wondered why. As soon as the shackles
were attached he found out. A green light began to shine from
them and, the handcuffs. There was a small piece of kryptonite
made into each restraint, just enough to weaken but not do the
bound person a great deal of harm.
Superboy looked for the second adversary and found him floating
off a ways similarly bound. He wondered what to do with them then
caught sight of the space ship. He quickly hauled them to it,
threw them inside, and took off after Krypto and those he was
fighting. They soon had more than they could handle. The dog was
bad enough, the boy with him was more than anyone could handle!
After several minutes of relentless pounding the two backed off,
spread their arms and legs, and remained motionless. "You
know, boy," Superboy remarked, "I think they've had
enough! I think we're too much for them!"
The dog gave a happy woof and looked away. It shot off and a few
moments later returned with two pairs of the binders in his
mouth. "Ah!" Superboy praised, "Good dog! I don't
know where these came from, but they're sure handy!"
He quickly bound their two adversaries and took them to the ship.
They found Supergirl floating there, her own two adversaries
securely bound. She, too had been hitting and running her quarry
when she noticed they began to be attacked. Something whizzed in,
whacked them, and whizzed away several times as they punched and
kicked each other. Finally one of the women sped off after the
object, and a few minutes later Supergirl heard horrendous blows
being exchanged! As with Superboy with only one adversary to deal
with with her superior fighting skills quickly proved to be too
much for her opponent and as was with Superboy when her opponent
was helpless the binders appeared.
When she had the first one secure she tried to look around but
realized her telescopic vision wasn't working. Something was
blocking it! But after a few minutes searching she found her foe
neatly bound and muttering "I'll kill that bitch! I'll kill
that bitch! I'll kill that bitch!"
Supergirl took her in tow and saw something moving away from her.
She could just make out the woman's form before it disappeared.
"I've got a feeling," Supergirl remarked, "if you
ever ran into who that was again you'd probably get worse than
what you got this time!"
Like Superboy she figured the best place to put the prisoners was
the ship, and met him there. "Six down," Supergirl
remarked. "I wonder how the others are doing? Should we go
after them?"
"No," Superboy answered, "I think we'd better stay
here and guard the ship in case some of them decide to flee the
battle and try to escape."
"Good thinking!" Supergirl agreed.
Superman and Luthor continued to play against their attackers.
They constantly swung around on each other, coming up on the ones
that were attacking them, and punching them. This seemed to go on
forever until whenever one of their adversaries tried to swing
out wide to attack from the side he would get pounced on! Some
unseen foe would be all over him! Again and again Superman tried
to see who it was but neither his telescopic vision or his x ray
vision was working! Something was blocking them! Twice he caught
a glimpse of something on the edge of his sight, something that
had wings, but he could not see it clearly.
Finally one of the adversaries didn't come back and a little
while after that a second one failed to return. The two remaining
backed off. One was the leader. "Something's gone
wrong!" he told his companions. "There's more of them
than there's supposed to be! They've lured us into an ambush!
We've got to flee! Summon the others!"
The man touched something on his belt and Superman felt pulses.
The two men headed off to the ship. When they got there they
found it guarded. Darklight appeared, his two adversaries in tow.
The two Kryptonian criminals found themeselves boxed in. Suddenly
something started beeping in Luthor's suit.
"My propulsion system's shutting down!" Luthor
announced. "I've got to land!!"
"I'll see you safely down," Superman remarked.
"There's plenty here to handle these two!"
"No," Darklight put in, "I'll see him to safety.
He tossed Superman two more sets of the shackles. Superman
nodded, pointed his finger at the criminal's leader, and waved it
towards him. The man sunk his head in despair and came forward
allowing Superman to manacle him. Then they put the criminals in
the spaceship and waited.
"Father," Superboy asked, "I'm curious! How can we
hear the blows we exchange in space where there's no atmosphere
to carry the percussion?"
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