by Libbylawrence
The two men made their way through the overgrown backyard, heading toward a secluded field below the hill where the old Payton house sat. Suddenly, Warlock stopped in his tracks as he spotted a sleek aircraft resting incongruously in the middle of the field.
“Is that your plane? How did you land it there?” Warlock asked, savoring every detail of the outside world after his many years of confinement.
“It is a remarkable craft,” replied Zoro. “It was designed by my pilot, Warbird, who trained under Captain Midnight and Spy Smasher. There is nothing Warbird doesn’t know about flying any kind of craft. Why, I’d say that beauty could easily travel beyond our solar system! Midnight certainly helped Warbird equip it for such travels. Thus far, I have confined my own adventuring to this world, though.”
“Warbird?” Warlock inquired. “Your pilot must be an incredibly skilled and capable pilot to deserve such a name! Wasn’t that the name of a war hero as well?”
Zoro nodded. “Colonel Tom Sharp was the grandfather of the current Warbird, who is as skilled and tough as the original War Bird.” (*) He gestured to the side of the advanced craft, which slid open to reveal a slender figure.
[(*) Editor’s note: See The War Bird, Slam-Bang Comics #1 (March, 1940).]
A petite blonde woman emerged from the plane. She wore a bright pink sundress beneath a dainty white sweater, matched with low-heeled Mary Janes, and carried a wrench in one hand.
“This is my faithful pilot, Priscilla ‘Warbird’ Sharp,” Zoro introduced. “She and I have seen some amazing sights around this wonderful globe of ours!”
The blonde woman smiled demurely and switched the wrench to her other hand, then extended her right hand. “Nice to meet you — Mr. Warlock, is it?” she asked in a shy yet interested manner.
“Just Warlock will be fine,” he replied, shaking her hand. “I’m pleased to meet you as well, Miss Sharp!”
“Prissy prefers to be called Warbird!” Zoro interjected with a shrug.
Warbird nodded and said, “Right. Shall we prepare for departure?”
Before Zoro could answer, all three were alerted to a strange sight. Several strange figures, having emerged from a wooded area just beyond the field, now approached the plane while making abnormal sounds. Each figure was clearly humanoid, but their features were marked with decay, and skeletal fragments protruded in a disturbing manner.
“The Undead! I haven’t fought any of those things in well over eight years!” Zoro exclaimed.
Warbird almost giggled as she shoved the wrench into a pocket and reached within the plane to produce a compact but oddly shaped gun. “Oh, good!” she squealed. “I can test the vibro-gun on them!”
When Warlock shot her a puzzled look, Warbird frowned and explained, “What? You know how focused vibrational force can kill a normal human? Well, I don’t have to worry about that with supernatural beings!”
Feeling suitably chastened, Warlock nodded as if to placate the odd young woman, then gazed at the monsters. This must be Andrea’s work! he realized. She must have sensed the breaking of the curse! With a grim smile, he said, “I’ve been looking forward to something like this for a long, long time!”
Zoro glanced at his friend with approval. He’s bouncing back from his ordeal, he thought. I would hate to be this Andrea when he finally meets her!
As the animated corpses closed in on the trio, Zoro deftly extended a small cane into a sword. He swung it around a few times, reminding Warlock of how skilled his friend was with a sword. “I suppose my blade won’t do a lot of good against the bones, so I’d better make do by using the flat to simply smash the things!” he said, almost apologetically.
Running forward, Zoro brought the blade down across the skull of the nearest corpse. A few swift strikes left the thing in ruins at his feet. “I want to say something like, ‘They don’t make the Undead like they used to,’ but that would be a bit obnoxious!” Zoro quipped as he dodged a clutching corpse and spun around to smash it into fragments of bone.
Warbird aimed carefully and fired her gun at one corpse after another. True to her hopes, the vibro-gun shattered the creatures with ease. She smiled broadly, displaying a mix of girlish delight and the confident swagger of a proven warrior.
Warlock approached the battle, his eyes fixed on the Undead. What a very strange creature! he thought. I suppose she had a rather peculiar family life! A frown crossed his face as he noticed the nearest corpse swerve slowly away from him.
That’s odd! he mused. They aren’t attacking me. They seem to be focused entirely on the others! Does Andrea want to keep me alive for some warped reason? Noticing dozens of additional undead creatures ponderously making their way toward the plane, he knew he had to end this.
Raising a golden staff that ended with a knob shaped like a small, intricately carved hand, he commanded loudly, “Crush them!” The staff suddenly glowed brightly, and a giant Golden Hand materialized from thin air. In the form of a fist, it began to shatter the Undead with superhuman force.
Zoro clapped Warlock on the back for his timely intervention. “Well done! This type of thing would have become tiresome after a while. I’d say you ended it at precisely the right moment! That kind of thing really can’t be taught!”
Surveying the scene with a studious gaze, Warlock said, “There is a cemetery beyond the woods. I suppose they were drawn from their natural rest and sent to stop us. Of course, I was battling vampires and other monsters back in the ’30s, so this was certainly no challenge… or was it ever really meant to be one?”
Warlock whispered some arcane words, and the field was suddenly devoid of the monsters. “I’ve returned them to their proper graves and sealed them,” he explained. “Their rest won’t be interrupted again!”
Zoro marveled at Warlock’s power. I’d rather forgotten how powerful a chap Warlock really is! he thought. Beneath that rather solemn demeanor lies the heart of a champion!
“Ironically enough,” continued Warlock, “we need to go to the cemetery itself, to where my family tomb sits. Within the Payton Mausoleum, we will find what I am seeking.”
They soon made their way out of the field and approached a gated cemetery, where an impressive structure dominated the windswept and now darkening skies.
“That’s where my ancestors are buried,” Warlock explained. “I used to go there to think when I was a boy.”
Warlock continued to speak softly, as if to himself. The Golden Hand reappeared and reached within the Payton Mausoleum, grasping a stone lion. It lifted the statue and began to pry up a stone, revealing an odd object concealed beneath it.
“This is the handle of the Lamp of the Gods,” Warlock explained. “When Andrea tried to steal it, I scattered the parts and let my magic hide them where I pleased! I also made sure no one but me could ever locate them again, no matter how powerful a spell they cast!”
Displaying a gleaming curved piece of metal, he said, “As you may recall, the Lamp was my greatest weapon. The wand could do wonders, as you just saw, but the Lamp could actually invoke the power of the Ancients!”
Zoro spoke up. “I seem to recall you used it during that Aztec case to conjure the Caduceus that once belonged to Hermes himself!”
Warlock smiled. “Exactly. I have been the guardian of the Lamp for years. I earned the right to its power by successfully completing a rather perilous quest across more than one dimension back in the mid-’30s!”
“I’d like to hear that story someday,” said Zoro. “It sounds like what they used to call a ripping yarn!” Noticing Warbird studying her gun with a pouting expression, he asked, “Why so glum, dear?”
“Oh, just a bit of a glitch,” replied the blonde. “I may need to rework some tiny details if I want the vibro-gun to be self-generating as far as energy goes. I suppose I’ll need to spend another long night in the workshop. There goes my sewing circle meeting!”
As she climbed into the plane, Zoro stopped Warlock and whispered, “Priscilla was raised by her grandfather. Her parents died when she was a baby. The original Warbird taught her everything he knew. He made her into a crack pilot and a capable fighter. Believe it or not, she can knock out a Teamster should she choose to do so. He even arranged for her to have some lessons from Captain Midnight and Spy Smasher. She’s a brilliant woman. She does lack social graces, though. She tries to overcompensate for being raised like a brawling boy by wearing deliberately feminine clothing and taking part in traditionally womanly activities like sewing and flower arranging. I think the world of her. You’ll come to love her too!”
“Where to?” yelled Warbird from the pilot’s chair as they boarded the plane.
“Would you believe Las Vegas?” said Warlock.
Zoro laughed. “I would both believe it and relish it!”
***
Warlock admired the way Warbird handled the plane as it soared through the skies toward Las Vegas.
“She is a gifted pilot,” he remarked. “I’m equally impressed with how the plane was able to take off from my field. I suppose Midnight or Spy Smasher helped with that feature. I seem to recall both of them had nearly futuristic crafts of their own!”
Warlock thought of Andrea once more. He had hated her for years, but he yet during all those long years of imprisonment, he had also dreamed of her. Memories of her silvery laugh, her silken touch, and her beautiful singing haunted him. He had longed to hold her and also burned with anger at what she had done to him.
I certainly could have given a therapist many a troubled session! he mused. If I had not had the spirit of El Carim to talk to during part of those years, I would have gone mad! Of course, good old faithful Hugin was always there for me too!
The raven perched on the back of his chair, watching everything with dark but all-seeing eyes.
“Why did you hide the Lamp in Las Vegas?” Zoro asked. “It was always a den of mobsters even back in the ’40s!”
“It appealed to my sense of humor to hide part of the Lamp of the Gods, an ancient talisman, within a truly modern and garish locale!” Warlock replied.
Warbird yelled back, “You’ll see when we get there! He told me to take us to the resort called Merlin’s Cave!”
Zoro shook his head in disbelief. “You didn’t? You didn’t hide part of the Lamp in a casino called Merlin’s Cave?”
“It had just been built, and you have to admit the irony is fitting!” Warlock replied with a wink.
They soon reached a huge compound dominated by flashing lights and large crowds of well-dressed pleasure seekers. The dome-like roof was designed to mimic the features of a craggy cavern, and Zoro smiled as he recognized the famous sign.
“I wonder who is performing tonight,” Zoro said. “After we retrieve the fragment of your lamp, we could catch a show! I always had a bit of a weakness for showgirls.”
“The sign says Princess Prism is in the Camelot Lounge until midnight,” Warbird noted.
Zoro sighed. “Oh, yes. She’s a leggy beauty, but I don’t really enjoy magic shows. No offense to you, of course!”
Warlock smiled. “Don’t worry. I gave up stage work before the war!”
As Warbird made some rapid adjustments, the ship landed slightly above a nearby flat skyscraper roof. “I put it on auto hover. Shall I cloak it just in case?” asked the petite blonde.
“Certainly,” Warlock said. “I doubt this will take long, unless…” His words trailed off as he spotted several ominous shapes swooping down from above. “Great Scott! I think those things are Harpies or a modern approximation!” he cried.
A dozen beautiful women wearing brightly colored pink feathered costumes swooped down at them from all sides. They were clearly showgirls, but they had been altered by magic, possessing the deadly talons and broad wings of mythological harpies.
Warbird quipped, “I’m supposed to be the only bird around here!” She glanced at the two men and softly added, “It’s a joke! You know Warbird…? Never mind!” She pulled an expanding pack out of her purse and carefully assumed a defensive stance.
“That was a charming attempt at humor, my dear,” Zoro remarked. “Clearly, you are making strides in the ‘jesting while in peril’ technique!”
“I have a feeling those poor women were transformed purely to be used as weapons against me,” Warlock said. “This is one more debt I owe Andrea!”
Zoro deftly sidestepped an attacking harpy and then connected with three swift blows that left the woman stunned at his feet. “I do hate to strike a woman!” he said. “I suppose I’m old-fashioned that way!” He ducked beneath a slashing talon and rolled acrobatically away from his foe.
Warbird dived forward at the nearest harpies and slapped two of the thin packs she was carrying on their chests. They shuddered and then collapsed in a heap. Tranq packs always work! thought the petite blonde as she prepared to continue her fight.
Warlock held back with a purpose. He wanted to see if their attackers would avoid him again, as the Undead had back at his house. He was correct in his assumption. Andrea either wants to kill only my friends and preserve me or she has some twisted plan for me, he mused. These pawns of hers are not directly attacking me!
“Contain them!” he yelled. The gleaming staff projected the huge Golden Hand, which enveloped nine of the altered women. They were pinned beneath its magical grasp, and their best efforts to kick or claw their way free failed.
Zoro was doing well in his own effort to stop the harpies. His incredible agility allowed him to evade their attacks while delivering precisely placed martial arts blows. Frowning, he noticed the flock of women regrouping for a renewed assault. “I was the one who foolishly asked for showgirls, wasn’t I?” he quipped.
Warbird was too busy to reply as she found herself surrounded by the harpies. She kicked out at one while elbowing another in the face. Grabbing one by its long hair, she flipped it over her shoulder. As a harpy raked across her torso with its talons, she slapped a tranquilizer pack on its face. It collapsed, and she dove to freedom.
I’m sure glad all my clothes are made out of synthoderm, Warbird thought. I knew it was great protection against temperature extremes, but I never expected to need it to shield me from feathered furies from Vegas!