bits and scattering microminiature components underneath.
“My robot bug’s remote controls—wrecked!” cried Karzz.
“Right,” sang back the Wasp. “You can’t set off the destruction button now. Ant-Man is safe.”
Karzz the android—himself guided by remote controls and a monitor into which the real Karzz was staring, elsewhere on earth—seized an ordinary fly-swatter from a hook on the wall. “I’ll swat you myself….”
Swinging the swatter, Karzz suddenly turned and stopped abruptly, seeing the giant man towering before him. “Ant-Man…back in Goliath form!”
“Yes, and my anger is as big as I am.” Suddenly his arms went around Karzz, force-field and all. “After all,” rumbled Goliath, “even with that invisible shield, it’s only ten feet around.”
Yanking the Karzz android and his energy bubble off the floor, Goliath hurled them straight at the Vulcan Machine with titanic force, aiming for electronic devices within its heart.
A gigantic spark leaped forth, piercing the energy bubble and electrocuting the android into a blackened mass. It could hardly be called a corpse, since it had never been truly alive.
“Get out of the cave, Wasp!” roared Goliath now. As she ran into a side passage through which they had entered before, Goliath strode to where two limestone columns in the middle of the big cavern extended from floor to roof.
By some freak of geological processes, through eons of time, two giant stalagmites from the floor and two stalactites from the ceiling had met and merged.
Crooking an elbow around each of these natural pillars, Goliath strained mightily, knotting every muscle in his massive body. Stone creaked and groaned.
Suddenly, like a cannon shot, both limestone pillars snapped. A ceiling weakened by ages of seeping waters now began to collapse, as Goliath had surmised would happen.
With a resounding roar louder than a hundred thunderclaps, the entire cavern collapsed inward. Untold tons of rock crashed down on the Vulcan Machine, flattening it into a hissing, smoking ruin. Nothing man-made, or alien-made, could withstand that crushing force. Nor anything alive….
“Wasp,” Karzz spoke calmly at his unknown retreat far away, tuning his monitor screen to her. “Goliath didn’t accomplish anything. When the robot bug chased you away from my control board, I immediately pressed the final push button, sending the ultrasonic broadcast of trigger waves down into the world’s crust. Such sonic vibrations, as you know, follow rock strata everywhere. Thus, the destruction of my Vulcan Machine now was a futile gesture.”
Karzz’s voice rang triumphantly. “In nine days, along with earth dooms one and two, volcanic catastrophe number three will also happen, right on schedule.”
His frosty eyes stared straight at the Wasp now, and there was a curl on his lips. “But I think the end of the world, for you, has already happened—Goliath, of course, could never come out of the wrecked cavern alive.”
“You’re right,” murmured the Wasp. “Absolutely right, Karzz.”
She smiled and lifted up her palm, on which stood a tiny form. “But the Ant-Man could! No matter how many broken stones fell and piled up, there was plenty of space between then for an insect-sized man to huddle in safety, and then crawl out to freedom.”
Karzz cursed eloquently, as he watched the Ant-Man shoot up and assume his human form, alongside the Wasp.
“But I’m glad,” he said then, with a malicious grin. “It means that you will be around to die with the rest of the human race, nine days from now, when the world comes to an end. Now… aloha.”
His floating image faded away, as a last harsh laugh rippled mockingly through the air.
“That’s true,” whispered the Wasp. “We won against the Karzz android, but lost to Karzz himself.”
“Well, at least one thing we know,” muttered Henry Pym, “is that the real Karzz, who was neither at Antarctica, nor here in the South
“My robot bug’s remote controls—wrecked!” cried Karzz.
“Right,” sang back the Wasp. “You can’t set off the destruction button now. Ant-Man is safe.”
Karzz the android—himself guided by remote controls and a monitor into which the real Karzz was staring, elsewhere on earth—seized an ordinary fly-swatter from a hook on the wall. “I’ll swat you myself….”
Swinging the swatter, Karzz suddenly turned and stopped abruptly, seeing the giant man towering before him. “Ant-Man…back in Goliath form!”
“Yes, and my anger is as big as I am.” Suddenly his arms went around Karzz, force-field and all. “After all,” rumbled Goliath, “even with that invisible shield, it’s only ten feet around.”
Yanking the Karzz android and his energy bubble off the floor, Goliath hurled them straight at the Vulcan Machine with titanic force, aiming for electronic devices within its heart.
A gigantic spark leaped forth, piercing the energy bubble and electrocuting the android into a blackened mass. It could hardly be called a corpse, since it had never been truly alive.
“Get out of the cave, Wasp!” roared Goliath now. As she ran into a side passage through which they had entered before, Goliath strode to where two limestone columns in the middle of the big cavern extended from floor to roof.
By some freak of geological processes, through eons of time, two giant stalagmites from the floor and two stalactites from the ceiling had met and merged.
Crooking an elbow around each of these natural pillars, Goliath strained mightily, knotting every muscle in his massive body. Stone creaked and groaned.
Suddenly, like a cannon shot, both limestone pillars snapped. A ceiling weakened by ages of seeping waters now began to collapse, as Goliath had surmised would happen.
With a resounding roar louder than a hundred thunderclaps, the entire cavern collapsed inward. Untold tons of rock crashed down on the Vulcan Machine, flattening it into a hissing, smoking ruin. Nothing man-made, or alien-made, could withstand that crushing force. Nor anything alive….
“Wasp,” Karzz spoke calmly at his unknown retreat far away, tuning his monitor screen to her. “Goliath didn’t accomplish anything. When the robot bug chased you away from my control board, I immediately pressed the final push button, sending the ultrasonic broadcast of trigger waves down into the world’s crust. Such sonic vibrations, as you know, follow rock strata everywhere. Thus, the destruction of my Vulcan Machine now was a futile gesture.”
Karzz’s voice rang triumphantly. “In nine days, along with earth dooms one and two, volcanic catastrophe number three will also happen, right on schedule.”
His frosty eyes stared straight at the Wasp now, and there was a curl on his lips. “But I think the end of the world, for you, has already happened—Goliath, of course, could never come out of the wrecked cavern alive.”
“You’re right,” murmured the Wasp. “Absolutely right, Karzz.”
She smiled and lifted up her palm, on which stood a tiny form. “But the Ant-Man could! No matter how many broken stones fell and piled up, there was plenty of space between then for an insect-sized man to huddle in safety, and then crawl out to freedom.”
Karzz cursed eloquently, as he watched the Ant-Man shoot up and assume his human form, alongside the Wasp.
“But I’m glad,” he said then, with a malicious grin. “It means that you will be around to die with the rest of the human race, nine days from now, when the world comes to an end. Now… aloha.”
His floating image faded away, as a last harsh laugh rippled mockingly through the air.
“That’s true,” whispered the Wasp. “We won against the Karzz android, but lost to Karzz himself.”
“Well, at least one thing we know,” muttered Henry Pym, “is that the real Karzz, who was neither at Antarctica, nor here in the South
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