by qazaq_2000
| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |
The crime spree had been unrelenting for weeks. Every few days another bank would find that its vault had been broken into from the side or from underneath, with all its cash and valuables gone. At each robbery scene a tunnel would lead from the burgled vault to the nearest sewer. Whoever did this could drill through solid reinforced concrete, and do it without making enough noise to set off the alarms. The police were baffled.
Becca, in her disguise as an ace investigative reporter, had been to the crime scenes. She had deduced that the only person capable of pulling offthese heists was Professor Martin Mole, whom Becca had interviewed before he had left the University. He had boasted of creating a new metal, one hundreds of times stronger than steel.
"So, Professor Mole must have found a use for this discovery," Becca said to herself, "and created a drill that could slice through rock as if it were butter. Well, as ordinary Becca I might not be able to do anything to stop him, but as BANNER, I'll be able to put his villainy to a quickened!"
As soon as the day was over, Becca rushed to her home, where she quickly transformed from her ordinary workday clothes into her form-fitting superheroine costume. In her stars-and-stripes outfit and red boots, Becca felt that merely the sight of her would be enough to bring the cowardly Prof Mole to heel.
"This should be quick," thought Becca. How wrong she would turn out to be.
Becca revved up her Banner cycle, a turbo-charged motorcycle, and sped off into the night. Her destination was a dilapidated warehouse in a desolate part of town where Prof Mole had his lab.
As Becca approached the empty, ramshackle district where she was sure her quarry was hiding out, she switched her cycle to special "silent mode" in order to sneak up on the villain.
Silently Becca crept up to the front door of the criminal lair. There were lights on the second floor of Mole's warehouse/lab, but otherwise the building was dark. Becca quietly entered the building and tiptoed in the dark up the stairs of the rotting building.
As she came to the second floor, she could look through an open doorway into a lit room. She could see the puny form of Mole, still wearing his white lab coat, working at a table.
"Time to put an end to this crime spree," thought Becca. Becca burst into the lab and confronted her adversary.
"Banner!" Mole exclaimed. "Oh, no, you'll ruin all my work!"
"That's right," Becca retorted, "because your 'work', as you call it, is nothing more than robbery. Will you come quietly or do I have to twist your arm?"
"Oh, no I won't let you hurt me..." snivelled Prof Mole, whose voice suddenly became more menacing, "...and neither will THEY!"
"They?..."mumbled Becca.
Suddenly, four large thugs dressed in black came out of the shadows and surround Becca.
"My super strength and super speed will take of your goons, Mole," Becca said angrily, as battle was joined.
The four goons rushed our superheroine but she was far too fast for them. One thug managed to grab Becca from behind and pin her arms down, while another goon rushed in to complete her capture. But one of Becca's high kicks sent the second thug reeling, while a judo flip bowled over the first. In minutes Becca had flattened all of Prof Mole's henchmen.
"Time's up, Professor," said BCE as she approached Mole slowly.
"I guess that's true in a way," said Mole. "Only, my dear Banner, time's up for YOU!"
Before Becca could react, Mole had drawn a dart gun from a pocket in his coat and had fired a tranquilizer dart which struck Becca in the arm. Immediately the superheroine began to feel faint, and stumbled forward only to collapse at Prof Mole's feet.
"Poor Banner," Prof Mole mocked our fallen heroine, "All that strength and speed come to no avail when a great mind like mine can surprise you."
Becca tried to pick herself up, but was too weak. "Wha...What are you... going to do ...with me?" she whispered groggily.
"You'll see soon enough," cackled Prof Mole as Becca passed out.
Turning to his henchmen, the criminal scientist said, "Get up off the floor, you useless minions. Make yourselves useful and take our pretty guest to the basement and tie her up, before she wakes up."
The thugs pick up the unconscious Becca and take her downstairs....
Slowly, Becca comes around. She gradually realizes that she is lying on her back, and that she is in a large, dimly lit room. She tries to move her arms and legs, but discovers to her horror that she has been tightly tied up. Her wrists are bound behind her back, with more rope wound round her waist to pin her arms close to her body. Becca lifts her head to look at her boots, only to see that she is tied at her ankles and above her knees. Then Becca realizes that she is on a kind of slide. Below her Becca can see molten wax bubbling in a huge vat to which she is kept from falling by a rope that is attached to her waist. Becca strains her neck to see where the other end of the rope goes....
"Let me solve that puzzle for you, my dear," Becca hears Prof Mole gloat. "The other end of the rope is encased in a block of ice, which has been melting for about an hour now, and probably has about a half hour to go before it can no longer support your weight ."
"You fiend," says Becca, "when I get out of this I'll have you sent away for decades ."
Becca begins to test the ropes which bind her to this trap. With her super strength, freeing herself should take moments. But she is powerless to extricate herself from her bonds.
Prof Mole laughs evilly. "Having some trouble? Those ,my dear Banner, are not ordinary ropes, but have been reinforced with strands of my revolutionary metal, which I am naming Molium, by the way. I had these designed in case you decided to interfere ."
"You'll never get away with this. There's still time for you to use your invention for the good of all !"Becca exclaims.
Prof Mole ascends the ladder to the slide to which Becca is tied. "I'd love to discuss this with you more, but I have a busy night of personal enrichment ahead of me."
And with that he takes out two scarves ,scrunches one up into a ball, and stuffs it in Becca' smouth. The other he uses to cleave gag our captive superheroine.
"Well, that's about all the time I have. In about 30 minutes I'll send the boys down to make sure you've become a life-sized human candle!"
Becca tries to cry out but the gag stifles her voice. She twists helplessly in her bonds.
Time ticks away....is there no way out?
When we last left Becca, she had been captured by the surprisingly villainous Professor Martin Mole. The evil professor had left her tied up on a slide over a vat of boiling wax. Becca, as the superheroine Banner, was held from molten doom by a rope whose end was frozen in a melting block of ice. Becca struggled against her bonds, but to no avail. A tight cleave gag prevented Becca from crying for help, even if anyone other than Prof Mole's goons could have heard her. Meanwhile, the ice block kept melting. Was there no escape from this dire peril?
"I've got to find a way out," thought Becca. "but the ropes are too strong; I can't roll off the slide, since I'll just fall into the vat. Oh, it's nouse... Wait! Maybe there's one chance! The slide levels out a little bit at the end. When the rope releases and I start sliding down, I'll use my super speed and strength to jump clear of the vat! Even with my legs tied, I can still do that. Sure glad I'm dressed as Banner - I wouldn't be able to pull this offen cumbered in work clothes..."
With a sickening lurch the rope holding our heroine is released from the melting ice block. Becca pulls her knees up to her chest, then just before she is about to be thrown into the molten wax, she kicks down hard and pushes herself into the air, and clears the far side of the vat. Becca, still bound hand and foot, rolls onto the floor.
"Not a bad dismount, if I say so myself!" thinks Becca. "Now to find a way out of these Molium-reinforced ropes before the professor's thugs find me!"
Becca hobbles over to a table not far from where she landed. On the table are some items --- a knife, some salt and pepper, a plate bearing the remnants of a sandwich -- from a meal that one of Prof Mole's goons must have had while Becca was knocked out. Becca turns her back to the table and twists around to pick up the knife. She tries to cut through the ropes that bind her hands but the knife metal bends uselessly against the Molium-reinforced bonds. Becca groans through her gag - how will she ever get out of this?
To add to her dismay, Becca hears noises coming from gloom at the top of the stairs. The professor's thugs are on their way! Becca furiously strains at the ropes, only to unbalance herself and tumble back on to the dingy floor of her prison.
As Becca writhes helplessly in her bonds, she can hear a voice distinctly from the top of the stairs: "I wouldn't feel so proud to have done in as gallant a heroine as Banner... Ow! Don't push me! It must look gruesome down there. You weren't so brave before you had her tied up. Ouch! OK, OK, I'll look!"
Suddenly the top of the stairs is lit up as the door to Prof Mole's lab opens. Becca sees a short figure in a lab coat thrust through the door way before the door is shut. Who could this be? It couldn't be the professor! The figure descends the stairs muttering to himself. When he reaches the bottom of the stairs Becca can plainly see that it is neither Mole nor one of his thugs.
Becca tries to scream through her gag to get the unknown man's attention. The figure in the lab coat notices Becca's pleadings and gasps "Oh, my!" before rushing over to her. He is young - clearly in his 20s, short and thin with wild curly hair.
"Oh, Banner, I'm so glad you survived!" he whispers. He kneels down and removes Becca's gag.
"Who are you?" Becca asks.
"My name is Daniel DeLoy, and I am Professor Mole's assistant. Or, I should say was. Now I am his servant. He's gone mad! You've got to get out of here!"
"Can you get me out of these ropes?" asks Becca.
"Yes. You can't tear this stuff, but I can undo the knot. Hold still, this may take a minute."
Becca patiently lets Daniel untie her hands, then she removes the rest of her bonds. "Now to even the score with those thugs."
"No, you have to help me now - this is one of the few times in weeks that I have not been under surveillance, forced to help that maniac professor in his mad experiments. I have to leave here. I know all about Prof Mole's crazy plans - you need me! Please you have to help."
Becca agrees. "All right, I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to bring those goons to justice."
Daniel is relieved. "There is a secret door from this room to the street, but it's locked. With your strength you should be able to open it. It's over by that far wall, just step on what looks like a loose brick; that will show the exit."
Becca strides over to the wall and notices a brick on the floor right next to the wal. With one of her booted feet she pushes down on the brick, which yields to her step. Immediately the whole wall slides back to reveal a padlocked door. Becca uses her super strength to bend the lock - eventually the lock breaks open. Becca and her new ally Daniel escape into the night, to face more adventures....
Becca, as the superheroine Banner, took Daniel DeLoy, the unwilling assistant to evil Professor Mole, to police headquarters. There they met Inspector Drake, in charge of police efforts to stem Mole's crime spree.
"Great work, Banner," Inspector Drake said, somewhat pompously, "this is the first big break in this case. Now we will protect Mr DeLoy here from Professor Mole's revenge. It is Mr DeLoy, correct?"
"Yes," said Daniel, "I was working on my PhD in Chemistry with Professor Mole, but hadn't finished my work before he left. He discovered this new metal -Molium, he's calling it - and he started to go off the rails. He started to become very secretive. When he left the University I really had no choice but to follow, otherwise I would have to start all my research from scratch. But he's gone mad with delusions of power, and I although I don't know what his ultimate aim is, I know it's a lot bigger than just robbing banks and retiring in style."
"Well, we're lucky to have Banner here on our side," said Drake bombastically. "What's your next step, Banner?"
"I think Daniel can start some research here to find if there's any way to weaken Molium. I can personally attest to its strength, Inspector. Meanwhile, I have a feeling that we won't need a next step - Mole's megalomania won't be able to handle my having outsmarted him tonight. He'll contact us!"
"Be careful Banner," Daniel warned. "He'll be sure to set a trap for you!"
"I'm sure, too," replied Becca confidently, "but I underestimated him once. I won't do that again. When we meet again, I'll be ready!"
Inspector Drake asked, "Any way my department can help?"
"You can keep Daniel out of sight: he's our most valuable asset in predicting Mole's moves and defeating him. Other than that, sorry Inspector, but you know I work alone."
Becca was soon proved right. Two days later, at noon,a pizza delivery man walked up to police headquarters. The station clerk said "Hey, no one ordered pizza for lunch! You must have made a mistake."
The delivery man said, "The pizza ain't for the police station. It's for someone called Banner!"
Immediately upon hearing the superheroine's name, a dozen police converged on the hapless delivery man, pushed him roughly against the wall, and frisked him.
"Hey, hey, HEY!" exclaimed the ruffled delivery man. "What's with the NFL tackling drill? "
"Who do you work for?" demanded one of the police.
"Who dya think? Domini's Pizza!"
"Who sent you here with this delivery for Banner? "asked another, Lieutenant Jones.
"A freaky-looking guy in a lab coat put a message in a pizza box an' asked me to take it to the police station, ask fer Banner. Who is this Banner, anyway ?"
"I am Banner," said Becca, emerging from the elevator at the back of the station main hall and walking confidently to the front desk. The pizza delivery man took in the shapely superheroine, resplendent in her revealing stars-and-stripes costume and sexy red boots.
"Whoa ,sorry I didn't know ya, but I can see why the guy was so eager to get in touch wit' ya. He looks strange, lady, an' he's shorter dan ya, but you might want to go out wit' him, coz I'll tell ya, he's a great tipper."
"I'll keep it in mind," muttered Becca sarcastically.
Aloud, she told the police, "I think you should release this man - he is no criminal and he clearly knows nothing."
"Hey, what are you implying lady?" said the pizza delivery man before being ushered out the door.
The police had examined the box and had determined that it was so light that it couldn't contain a booby trap. They opened the box; inside there was a single sheet of paper. Becca read the message. All it said was "The old skating rink - midnight - tonight - come alone."
Lieutenant Jones said, "We'll set up our SWAT teams all around the rink and catch this mole-man. We can take it from here, Banner."
"No," insisted Becca, "this is no ordinary criminal. He clearly has devices and weapons not yet developed by mainstream science. You'd be unable to catch him. But my super speed and super strength just might. I should go, and go alone...."
The old rink had been closed for renovation a month ago. Its windows had been boarded up, and the street that led up to it was empty at midnight. Closed up, empty and dark, the arena had retained none of the atmosphere that attracted many families to it for a fun afternoon out. In the midnight gloom the rink looked like a brooding fortress, one whose silence was ominous Becca entered the arena, quietly and deliberately, the heels of her boots making soft clicking sounds as she walked toward the ice rink itself. There our heroine was surprised to find that there was still ice on the rink, and it looked like it had been freshly smoothed out.
Suddenly she heard an all-too-familiar voice taunting her from across the rink. "Ah, Banner, you are as lovely as at our first encounter. Want to go skating?" cackled Professor Mole from the opposite side of the rink. "Look, I've got my skates on. Perhaps with your super speed you might be able to catch up with me even in your plain old boots."
Becca looked to each side of the rink. There was no direct path around the rink short enough for her, even with her super speed, to run quickly enough before Mole could escape. "
Ah, don't want to play? Afraid the ice is a trap? Of course it's a trap! The point is, my dear Banner, whether you will ever get a better chance to catch me before I complete my master plan? And who knows, maybe my trap isn't well thought out. Maybe I haven't made a complete enough study of your superpowers. Maybe I'm not so smart after all! Maybe!"
Becca realized she had to take the chance. She stepped onto the ice and began to glide in her boots gracefully, but deliberately, toward the evil Professor. Mole didn't move, but continued to cackle from the far side of the rink.
When she reached halfway, suddenly out of the shadows came Mole's four goons, on skates, each wielding a lasso. They skated around Becca, whose super speed was of no use on the ice. Our heroine fought bravely, but could not get close to any of the thugs to use her super strength to fight them fairly. The thugs threw their lassos around our beleaguered heroine. Becca used her natural agility to dodge the thugs' snares until one finally looped over her, passing over her shoulders, arms and waist. Becca tried to jump out of the lasso but the thug pulled the on the rope while the loop was around Becca's ankles.
Our brave heroine was caught! She fell onto the ice as the goons closed in to tie her up. The thugs pushed Becca onto her stomach, quickly tied her hands tightly behind her back, then wrapped some more rope around the superheroine's upper arms to further immobilize their captive.
When the goons flipped her onto her back, Becca saw the unpleasant, laughing face of Prof Mole leering over his helpless prisoner.
"No, maybe I AM so smart after all! Any last words before I gag you, my pretty adversary?"
"Just one question," Becca bravely retorted. " Why do all villains cheat?"
"You know, I think life is just more fun that way. But we don't have time for philosophy, Banner. It's time to dispose of you!"
"Do your worst," said Becca defiantly.
"As you wish," Prof Mole snickered as he stuffed a scarf past the captured heroine's lips, then sealed them with a wide piece of silver duct tape.
The thugs brought the bound and gagged Becca to the side of the rink, took off their skates, then untied Becca's ankles and lifted her to her feet. They led their captive down a corridor, through a side door to a covered loading dock, where a van was waiting. Becca struggled but could not resist the thugs with her arms so tightly bound. They bundled Becca into the van, retied her legs, and sped off into the night.
In about 10 minutes the van stopped at another desolate location in an alley. A manhole was open in the alley. Mole and three of his henchmen again untied Becca's legs and forced her down the manhole and into a steam tunnel. Becca could hear the manhole cover replaced and the van driven off by the fourth goon.
Our brave heroine wondered what fiendish plan Mole had in store for her She didn't have long to wait, for soon she saw that the passageway she was walking down led to the underground portion of the rail lines that went into Central Station.
When they arrived at the train tunnel Professor Mole hissed into our heroine's ear. "I think a fitting end for you should be as a helpless damsel in distress. The great Banner, trapped in the oldest peril of them all!"
Becca merely glared at her captor. The evil professor's goons forced Becca to lie down on the tracks, tied her legs together at her knees and ankles, then tied her bound legs and her neck to the tracks. Becca immediately began to struggle futilely against her bonds.
Prof Mole laughed. "No somersaults for you this time my dear! Go ahead, try to escape from the Molium ropes. You already know it's hopeless. The next red-eye train will come into Central Station in about an hour - assuming you can take the schedules seriously these days. But just your luck, this one will be on time!"
Becca mmphhed incomprehensibly into her gag, her eyes blazing defiance at the dastardly professor.
Mole gloated, "I believe that this is traditionally the point at which my boys and I say goodbye, my dear Banner." And with that Mole and his goons retreated back into the steam tunnels, their diabolical laughter fading as they left Becca to writhe helplessly in her bonds.
"Mole was right," Becca thought. "I can't get free. I'm utterly powerless. How can I get out of this one?"
Indeed, is there no hope for our brave heroine? Will this peril prove to be her last? Will Prof Mole beable to complete his shadowy plans? We shall see....
The dastardly Professor Mole and his thugs had abandoned Becca, as Banner, to a dire fate. They had tied our intrepid heroine to the railroad tracks in an underground tunnel, in a fiendish replay of The Perils of Pauline.
Becca twisted furiously but helplessly in a futile effort to loosen the reinforced ropes that held her fast. She pulled with all her abundant strength against the bonds that held her wrists tightly behind her back. She strained at the ropes that wound around her ankles and her thighs. But all her attempts at freeing herself were useless, while precious minutes passed. Soon the train would bearriving!
"I just have to keep trying!" thought Becca. "If I don't get out of this, Metro City will be defenseless against that scientific maniac!"
But more time passed, and Becca - in her sleek stars-and-stripes halter-top and hot pants and red boots - was still tied up and gagged as tightly as when Mole had left her to her fate. Becca could feel the rails to which she was bound start to tremble, then could her the rumblings of the approaching train. There was no way out! Was this the end? Suddenly a figure emerged from the steam tunnel through which the villains had taken the captive Banner to the railroad tracks.
It was Daniel DeLoy,who had aided Banner in her last adventure. Daniel, former assistant to Professor Mole, rushed over to Becca and raced against time to untie our superheroine before the train crushed her. Becca could see the train's front lights! But Daniel quickly loosened theropes holding her to the tracks, and pulled Banner from the train's path seconds before it rolled over the section to which she had been tied. Both Daniel and Banner breathed a great sigh of relief.
Daniel removed our heroine's gag.
"Thanks!" Becca exclaimed. "Looks like I owe you again!"
Daniel smiled. "Friends help each other - and I owe you for getting me on the side of law and order again!" he said while he untied Becca's wrists and ankles.
"How on earth did you find me?"
"I followed you to the rink, and saw them throw you into the van. I was on foot, so couldn't keep up with their van, but I managed to throw a magnetic homing device on the van as it sped past me. This little device here..." - Daniel pulled a hand held screen outof his coat pocket - "allowed me to track you, and I guessed that when the van had stopped for a while they were unloading you. It took me a while to figure outwhere you had gone from there...Sorry."
"I've seldom been more happy to see anyone," said Becca. "Let's get back to Police HQ and figure out how we'll defeat Professor Mole!"
On the way back to Police HQ, Daniel told Becca what he had been able to figure out about Professor Mole's crime spree and his powerful new metal. "Before the professor went completely mad, when he would still share in his research with me, he had come very close to making what would later turn out to be this Molium of his. But all the early attempts to make such wonder metal - strong enough to cut diamonds, flexible enough to spin into unbreakable thread - always failed for the same reason. It would always weaken and rust when exposed to any strong light. Even ordinary daylight would turn his great new invention to rust; some versions even burst into flames then fell to dust! He must have found a way to strengthen Molium so that it could resist exposure to light."
"So you're theorizing that even Molium could be defeated by a stronger, more concentrated light, like a laser, perhaps?" Becca speculated.
"Exactly."
"But powerful industrial lasers are big and bulky,"said Becca. "They're not the same thing as the little pencil lasers used to point at things on a board."
"Oh, but I don't think you'd need anything more powerful that one of those little discreet pencil sized lasers with one AAA battery if you wanted to cut through Molium. If the Professor built a Molium tank or something big, you'd need a big industrial laser to blow it up. But to knock out a small device or cut through a thin sheet of Molium all you'd need is a toy from the Sharpest Image catalog."
Daniel continued, "I don't think Mole has been able to build anything bigger than the drills he's been using to knock off those banks. It doesn't take a lot of electrical power to make Molium, but the ingredients are expensive. I think Mole has another hideout where he's trying to make a much larger amount of Molium than he has had money for so far. If he succeeds, he'll be unstoppable - Molium armor for his goon squad, invulnerable to police guns. Molium weapons to terrorize not just the city but the whole country. He has the money to pay every lowlife in the state to enter his service. Banner, Professor Mole won't stop at banks. We have to stop him."
"I will stop him," vowed Becca. "But you have to get back to Police headquarters. If something were to happen to me, you'd be the city's only hope!"
"All right, Banner, but be careful!"
The pair returned to police headquarters, where Becca left Daniel in the dependable care of Inspector Drake. There Daniel and Becca were able to deduce the most likely locations of Prof Mole's secret lair. When they finally met Inspector Drake, our brave superheroine saw a small pointing laser on Drake's desk.
"Can I borrow this, Inspector?" Becca asked.
"Sure, Banner, but why?"
"I've another rendezvous with Professor Mole."
Inspector Drake was too baffled to ask Becca how she intended to fight a diabolical arch-villain with a toy before our heroine was gone.
The next night Becca once again donned the sleek star-and-stripes costume of Metro City's sexy superheroine, Banner.
"This time, Professor, you willpay for all the havoc you've created," Becca pledged.
She tucked Drake's small pen laser unobtrusively in a small hip pocket in her striped shorts, went into her garage, and rode her Bannercycle into the night, and into adventure.
Daniel had, with the help of the police computers, picked out five likely locations for Professor Mole's hideout. The first two had proven to be empty, but Becca saw strange black-clad men by the door of the third location, an abandoned factory.
Our heroine hid her motorcycle around the corner of a nearby building and stealthily approached the two guards, silently walking down the next street over from Mole's hideout,then down the far cross street so that she could sneak up on the guards from behind.
Becca pressed herself against the wall around the corner from the two thugs at the door to Mole's lair. Then she suddenly whirled around the corner, totally surprising Mole's henchmen. The cowards, still recollecting the last time they faced Banner in a fair fight, tried to run away, but Becca, with her super speed, closed with them and quickly karate chopped the pair into unconsciousness.
"Now to finish Mole's plans once and for all," our courageous heroine thought to herself.
Becca carefully entered her adversary's hideout. She looked cautiously back and forth, taking each step deliberately in her sexy red boots. Soon she came to an open door and could spy on a large room, full of weird metal gadgets, an enormous vat, filled with what looked like molten metal, sunk into the floor, large industrial-sized implements that Becca thought must be used to make Molium. The ceiling was supported by several concrete pillars. Becca peered in from her concealed vantage point and could see an irate Prof Mole berate two of his hapless thugs.
"She got away, again! You idiots, how could that happen! How could Banner have escaped from the trap we had set last night! No matter, she's too late to stop our plans, for tonight we'll have enough Molium to bring civil authority in the whole city to its knees. No one can stop me now!"
Becca had had enough megalomania. She stepped into the room, defiantly placing her hands on her hips, and exclaimed, "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Professor. You can still surrender, and we can rehabilitate you!"
Mole sneered with his reedy, snivelling voice, "Surrender? Moi? No, I think my boys can handle you, now that I've hired more!"
Becca could hear heavy footsteps approaching from behind her. She ran into the room where she began to chop down the two thugs between her and the evil Professor.
But more goons rushed into the room. Now Becca faced eight hulking opponents. Becca's speed and strength devastated the goons one by one, but she could get no closer to Mole.
Finally two of the goons grabbed a net and threw it over our heroine. Enmeshed in the net, made of Molium strands, Becca was too encumbered to fight off the thugs. Soon they had wrapped her in the net. While the goons held her down, Mole took out a hankerchief and a bottle of chloroform, soaked the hankerchief, and held it over Becca's nose and mouth until thesuperheroine passed out.
"Bedtime for you, my battling beauty!" sneered Mole.
"What should we do with her, Boss, throw her in the molten Molium?" asked one of the extra-stupid thugs.
"No you twit! That would wreck the metal, and all our work would be for nought!" exclaimed the evilprofessor. "Take her over to that pillar and tie herup. I think Banner should see what the city has instore for it before we destroy her."
Becca slowly came to. She was standing up, still in the room where the thugs had captured her. She had been bound tightly to one of the pillars in the room, her wrists secured behind her back around the narrow pillar. She was bound to the pillar at her waist and ankles.
"Ah, back with us, my pretty! You have an annoying talent for escaping from me, my dear Banner, but tonight will be different!"
Becca winced as she tested her bonds. "You know," she said as she struggled against the ropes, "you've really developed a flair for the demented supercriminal dialog since we first met."
"And you have become exasperatingly sarcastic for an imperilled superheroine." Mole snarled.
"It must be due to the day job," Becca retorted.
"Enough!" railed the evil professor, who came up next to his prisoner and shook a bony finger at her. "Just for that I'd torture your secret identity out of you, if I weren't going to dispose of you anyway."
"I'm not afraid of you, Mole," said Becca, before the professor took out a white scarf and gagged our brave heroine.
"You will be," threatened Mole as he stepped away from his bound and gagged captive. "They will all fear me... the city, the country, the world! They'll all surrender to me, and you, my dear Banner, will serve as an example of what happens to those foolish enoughto defy me."
Mole turned his back to Becca to look at his vat of molten Molium. "Come here, boys. Help me pour the Molium into the casts I've made. Soon you'll have Molium body armor and weapons. Nothing will stop you boys!"
While Mole and his henchmen turned their attention to the Molium, Becca squirmed in her bonds, trying to reach the pen laser she was carrying. After much straining and twisting, she finally got the device out, but with her wrists tied behind her, she accidentally dropped the pen laser, which clicked on the hideout floor!
Oh no! For a moment Becca feared Mole had heard the pen laser drop, but he was too obsessed with his metallurgy. Becca slowly bent her knees and scrunched herself down until she could reach the instrument. She then straightened herself, and switched the laser on.
As soon as the beam hit the bonds immobilizing her wrists, the laser sliced the ropes as if they were gossamer. Becca's hands were soon free, and she pulled off the gag. Next our heroine cut through the ropes around her ankles.
As soon as she stepped away from the pillar, Mole noticed that she was moving. The professor and his goons wheeled around in surprise.
"Banner! But...but how?" exclaimed Mole. "Get her,boys!"
The goons rushed Becca. She high kicked the first of the thugs and grabbed the second by the shirt and hurled him into the air. The thug landed right in front of a startled Prof Mole and accidentally bumped into the evil scientist. The professor, unbalanced, reeled backward - and fell screaming into the vat of Molium.
Seeing their leader fall into a pool of molten metal, the thugs tried to run away, but Becca grabbed the same net used to snare her and threw it over the goons. With superspeed she wrapped rope around the netting, bundling all the thugs up into one parcel for the police. Becca then went over to the vat of liquid Molium. To her amazement, Mole was still alive!
"I'll get you out!" Becca shouted.
She found a long piece of metal and fished the Professor out of the vat. The scientist was barely alive, gasping for air, his bodycoated in cooling metal.
"Hold on, Professor! I'll call the ambulance. I won't let you die, even if you are an arch-criminal!"
Becca found a telephone and called the emergency medical team, then returned to Prof Mole's side. The scientist was shivering andcurled up in a ball.
"I'll get you for doing this to me..." croaked the evil professor.
Soon the ambulance and police arrived.
"I think we can save him," said the emergency team leader.
"Thanks for ending Mole's terrible scourge," said the police lieutenant as his men carted the thugs away.
Becca said to herself, "Well, it seems the police have this well in hand now. Perhaps Banner can relax until the next arch-villain shows up!"