Maggia and Mad Science Part 4
 

 

It took a moment for Thomas Halloway to register what he was looking at - not the barrel of the pistol, he recognized that quite easily - but the golden face on the other end of *his* gun.

After a tense moment, the man in the golden mask looked past the Halloway, at the man on fire, before speaking. "That's the Human Torch." The Torch, hand still on the door handle, responded. "Are you a detective, too?" The man in the golden mask laughed, looking back to the Angel, and lowered his gun. "So you're not with them, I take it."

"I guess he is." The Angel spoke, lowering his old gun and glancing back towards the Torch, before continuing, nodding towards the third man to join today's events. "Torch, Laughing Mask. Laughing Mask, Human Torch."

"And the papers call you 'the Angel'." The Torch wrapped up the introductions, and the Mask spoke again. "We all here about the kidnappings?" The Angel nodded, the Torch spoke up with a simple "Yeah, let's go." Then he shoved the partially-open door open the rest of the way.

The room on the other side of the door surprised all three of them - though it seemed oddly familiar to the Torch. Lined along the walls were glass tubes, containing men and women suspended in some kind of liquid. The victims of the disappearances, it seemed obvious.

From the back of the small group, the Laughing Mask spoke first. "Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this."

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Up ahead, Mike Russo limped on - the distractions having given him enough time to make it deeper into the hidden underground facility. And how glad he was for the distractions - the bullet hole in his leg kept him from moving very fast, and he was losing more blood than he was comfortable with, leaving a red trail behind him.

Russo stumbled into the main laboratory, finding the Doctor he had come to warn was already making his preparations to escape. "Doctor, they're coming." He turned towards the doors, gesturing, to let the mad scientist know that the mystery men were right behind him. "We have to get out of---" Then he heard a 'FWUMP', and felt a sting in his back. Turning back towards the man in charge, Mike Russo looked at him in confusion. "What did you do?"

"Science often requires sacrifices, Mr. Russo."

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The Torch and the Masked Men slowed their chase, though didn't stop, as they investigated the tanks - many, if not all, of the victims appeared to be alive, and they'd have to make sure they stayed that way. The Angel, then, stopped at a control panel. "You two go on ahead, I'm going to see about shutting this down." 

Jim Hammond briefly wondered if this was the Angel's area of expertise - but it certainly wasn't his, and if he had to pick, he'd choose him over the cackling madman at least. So the Torch agreed, looking towards the Mask, then nodding towards the doors on the other end. "Let's go."

With this latest distraction handled, the two men quickly moved to catch up to escaping gangster, shoving the doors open to find the man and the mad doctor he'd run to. The gangster was doubled over in pain - something was wrong with him, it was clear - and the doctor greeted the two men. "Welcome! I'm afraid I can't stay, but I've made sure to leave you some entertainment."

The Doctor reminded Jim of a movie he'd seen - Dracula. The man was pale enough that, in different lighting, he may have been pure white. And even in an entirely different situation, he'd be hard-pressed to think of him as anything but sinister.

The doctor shoved Mike Russo towards the two men, though Russo stumbled and collapsed over himself. "What did you do?" The Laughing Mask's question went ignored, despite guns drawn on the villain who was turning to escape. The Torch shot himself towards the Mad Doctor, who slammed his fist into a button on a panel on the wall as he fled - a large steel shudder coming down behind him, cutting off the Torch's chase. The distraction would be short-lived, Jim thought, as he shot flame from both hands, working to melt through the shutter.

"Torch!" The Laughing Mask called from behind. "Gonna need you to take a look at this!" Jim turned to see what the fuss was about, and saw the man in the gold mask stepping back away from the criminal on the ground - who was now convulsing on the floor. The sounds coming from the man - cracking, snapping - brought to mind twigs breaking, and even from his spot further away from the scene, Torch was sure he could see the man's limbs stretching in ways that should have seemed impossible.

The shutter would have to wait, he supposed.