Silent Jury
Issue #21
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter 25
The Rematch
Doctor Warlock and his team of villains, swoop down upon the stunned Silent Jury. Before Robert and the team can react to the offensive, they find themselves locked in battle. The Myth lands on the ground and heads right for the One, with the Foreman right behind him. The One quickly rises from the ground and readies himself for their charge. Despite his size and weight, he is quite agile on his feet. The Myth raises his enormous blue club over his head and charges right at him. The Foreman has his hammer raised as well, in almost the exact same pose as The Myth. As The Myth comes in to smash him with the club, the One goes from the defensive to the offensive and dives forward, propelling himself into the air with his powerful legs. This maneuver completely surprises The Myth as he has no time to react. The One plows into him with the force of his momentum and the weight of his all metal body. This knocks him backwards, pushing him into The Foreman, who is knocked to the ground and crushed under the weight of the two massive bodies.
Robert flies up towards Doctor Warlock. But, before he can get there, the Miner shoots an energy beam, hitting him square in the back. The impact sends him flying off course and into a bunch of trees, slamming through the branches. His momentum is slowed by the branches, but not enough to stop him from slamming into the trunk of a tree.
The Blink looks at the Abstract Artist and starts laughing. "You have gotta be kidding, you Joker wannabe." The Abstract Artist draws a box around him. Once he finishes the box, he flips off the Blink, pissing him off. "This is gonna be easy." he says as he runs at him at blinding speed. In a blink of the eye, he is upon the Abstract Artist but instead of knocking him out, he slams right into an invisible wall. The impact knocks him onto his back. He is stunned from the impact, but remains conscious. While he lays on his back, trying to recover from slamming into a wall, the Abstract Artist draws a large baseball bat with his glowing gloves and heads over to pummel him with it.
Vanessa and Connie both land in front of the Duellist and the Mob. The Duellist looks at Connie and says "I have a score to settle with you." She then swings her glowing blue sword around, trying to intimidate her. A trail of blue light follows the sword, which would be very pretty if it wasn't so deadly. Vanessa and Connie look at each other and nod their heads in agreement. The Duellist is unsure what it means, but she quickly finds out as they both fire at her at the same time with their hand blasters. Trying to block it, she swings her sword wildly, but cannot stop both attacks. The sword is able to deflect the upper attack from Vanessa, but she is hit in the legs by Connie's lower attack, which knocks her down. Before she can recover, Vanessa sends another blast at her, this time knocking her out.
Not wanting to be the next victim, the Mob yells out "The Mob Rules!" Almost instantly, he goes from one man to fifty. The girls turn to see what the yelling is about and are greeted by an army of Mobs. They all in turn yell it again, "The Mob Rules!" The group of men has now doubled to one hundred men and they all charge in unison at the two women, overtaking them in a flood of bodies. Before they can do anything, they find two hundred hands pummeling them or holding them down. It only takes moments for them to be swept up in the human wave.
Doctor Warlock floats in the air, watching the battle as it unfolds. He smiles as his team has the upper hand. Part of him wants to end it immediately, but he is enjoying it and wants to see what his team can do. So far he is impressed, especially considering they had no real training and it wasn't that long ago that they were just a bunch of average people.
The One rises to his feet, looking down at The Myth and the Foreman, both of whom are knocked out. With his back turned, he is hit by a blast from the Miner. It stings, but it does not knock him over. He slowly turns to see the Miner looking at him and preparing to blast him again. He glares at him and starts to charge towards him. The Miner blasts him with everything he has, which slows him down, but does not stop him. He keeps pushing forward towards the Miner, fighting against his blast. The One struggles with every step, but he keeps inching closer. With great effort, he gets within five feet of the Miner. He pushes with everything he has to try and reach him, stretching out his hands to try and grab him. But before he can reach him, he is smashed over the head by The Myth's club. The blow knocks him to his knees. As he struggles to rise back to his feet, he is hit with another powerful blow from The Myth. This one smashes him into the ground, knocking him unconscious.
The Abstract Artist walks over with his glowing baseball bat and stands over the Blink. He raises it over his head and smiles. The Blink looks up and sees him with the bat and instantly zooms off at lightning fast speed. The bat swings to the ground and finds the target is gone. Before the Abstract Artist can figure out what happened, he is hit by a dozen super fast punches to the face, rendering him unconscious. The Blink stops for a moment to relish the victory, but knows that if he stays in one place too long, he will become a target.
With only the Blink left, the rest of the villains concentrate on taking him out. The Miner starts by shooting his rays at the Blink, but missing him due to his inhuman speed. The Foreman and the Myth swing their weapons back and forth in front of them, hoping to hit him if he comes anywhere near them. The Mob screams out once more "The Mob Rules!" which doubles his numbers to two hundred men. Using their immense numbers, they spread out in all directions. While they walk in every direction, they swing their arms wildly, trying to get lucky and hit the Blink. Knowing his chances are not good, the Blink decides to try and even the odds. He starts off by rushing over and grabbing the Miner by the head and turns it towards the Myth. Before he can stop his ray from firing, he hits the Myth right in the chest, knocking him back from the force. The Foreman sees this and rushes at him. But right as he swings at him, the Blink turns the Miner towards him and he instead hits him in the head with his hammer. This knocks out the Miner, who falls to the ground with his helmet smashed. But before the Blink can run off, he finds his feet are stuck to the ground. Little does he know that Doctor Warlock cast a hold person spell on him and he is literally stuck in place. The Myth gets back up and sees him standing there. The Foreman also gets over his shock of knocking out his teammate and turns to the Blink. He sees him struggling to move, but he is stuck in place. "Now it is payback time." the Foreman says as he raises his hammer to strike.
The Blink uses his hands to cover his head, waiting for the blow to come. He closes his eyes and prays for help. As the Foreman prepares to pound him, he is hit in the back by a blast, knocking him over and saving the Blink. The Blink hears the noise and looks up to see his adversary laying on the ground, with smoke coming out of his back. Out of the forest flies Robert, who zaps him as he emerges. The Myth turns to see the new challenge. But before he can engage, Doctor Warlock decides to end this battle. He closes his eyes and chants an ancient language. He then points his hands at the ground. Within seconds, a giant hand that is made of rock and dirt, emerges from the ground and grabs Robert. He is completely stunned by this and finds his arms are pinned to his side. For the first time, he is regretting not having his armor. Langston would be able to get him out of this. But this on board computer is no help.
As he struggles to free himself, Doctor Warlock lands on the ground and walks over to Robert. "When will you learn that magic trumps machinery every time?" He laughs as he looks at him, stuck in place by the behemoth hand of earth. He then walks over to the Blink and stops The Myth from smashing him. "A man that can run like lightning, too bad you chose the losing side. I could have used a person like you." The Blink struggles to reach him. Doctor Warlock just laughs as he turns his back on him and walks away. "Men, it is time to end this once and for all. Kill everyone of them. I want no survivors."
With his orders given, Doctor Warlock flies off to his new headquarters. With him gone, the Myth walks over to Robert and looks at him. "I'm gonna enjoy killing you." The Foreman looks at the Blink and says "Sorry to tell you, but your death will not be like you. It will not be fast. Instead, it will be long and painful." Both men laugh as the Mob joins them. He is back to one person as he says "Maybe I will have some fun with the ladies before I kill them." He looks down at them and smiles. "The boss didn't say we had to kill them immediately." He reaches down and takes off Vanessa's helmet. "It would be a waste to just kill such beautiful women." He then takes off Connie's helmet. "I really think I am going to enjoy this."
The Myth grabs Robert's head between his fingers and smiles. "I can snap your neck like a twig. How does it feel, knowing that no one can save you? That your life is going to end." He moves his head up and down, making it seem like he is nodding yes. But before he can end his life, he hears a voice behind him say. "Release him now or you will face my wrath." Everyone turns to see who just said that and they find Daniel floating in the air. "Looks like I came back just in time."
Silent Jury © 2006-2009 Tom Zjaba