With a word and a gesture he cast Stare of Icy Daggers - a simple spell, but deadly with the magical energy Oom could surge into his spells. I was all of a sudden on the defensive as he began a rapid barrage of spells against me. The Ibis-stick could counter them all, but I could not renew my own attacks under this pressure. I could see that the gestures Oom's spells required were causing his cracked fingers to break. In his madness, Oom was destroying himself!
"At last my defenses faltered. His Whirlwind of Blades had shredded my suit and cut into my flesh. I offered him then a bargain. 'Oom, wait! End this contest and spare me, and I shall give you the gem from my turban!'
"Oom laughed and said, 'So, you are not such a powerful wizard after all! I should slaughter you for what you've done to me, but I will take your gemstone as compensation and allow you to live.'
"I pulled the turban from my head and tossed it into space. It flew through the air until Oom snatched it with the remaining fingers on his right hand. 'Fool-' he said, just as he plucked the gemstone from the turban, but that was all he could say that I could hear. In that moment, he vanished from the earthly plain."
As Ibis paused from his narrative, the center of the smoke ring grew dim. Ibis turned to us and continued. "I could tell from his actions that Oom could no longer change from the enchanted stone form he must have long ago assumed. Had he persisted in his actions, with his cracks spreading, it might have been the death of him. In a way, I chose to be lenient. The spell of protection I had placed on the magic stone I wear would transport anyone who touched it to the mystic plane of Yzgartyl. This fate seemed particularly apropos for Oom because…well, I shall show you…"
Ibis gestured, and a new image appeared in the smoke ring. It showed Oom appearing in a strange place, filled with ancient ruins and a star-filled sky. Oom could not be heard, but was clearly cursing Ibis. Suddenly, something huge lumbered into view. Bronze scales covered its enormous serpentine body. It was some monstrous dragon! Everyone but Superman and Captain Marvel nearly jumped out of their chairs. The Flash did jump out of his chair. Scotty Thunder was afraid he might have wet himself.
The dragon picked up Oom in its scaly paw, turned him over to examine him, and then trod off through the ruins. The magical viewing screen followed the dragon to an open court, where the dragon set down Oom in a collection of statues. The dragon cast a spell of its own, and Oom moved no more.
When the image faded, and the smoke cleared, Ibis quietly sat down in his seat. Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Skyman spoke up. "Oh no," he said, "I have to follow THAT?"
There was chuckling in the room as the mood lightened. Hawkman offered cigars around the room as a waiter entered to offer chasers of brandy to the distinguished diners. "I think we have time for one more," Hawkman joked, "and you've had more time than anyone to remember a good story."
“I don't think mine can compete with half your stories," Skyman offered apologetically. "I'm just a pilot with some inventions. But I do have a story that you might find amusing. It involved a Case of Too Many Skymen…"
Everyone got comfortable and listened as Skyman began his tale. "My adventure as well happened in just the past few months, and it all started as an invitation to a costume party.
"The party was actually a reunion for my father's WWI squadron," Skyman continued, "but family or surviving family was invited to come. Making it a costume party was just this year's theme. I'd started attending
these reunions alone since I became the oldest male in the family. This year, I had the pleasure of inviting my girlfriend, Fawn, to come too. She was delighted with the idea. Wanted us to go as gypsies. I had a
better idea in mind, I told her. There would be a lot of people wearing their old aviator uniforms, but we would do them one better and both go as that 'new hero' Skyman.
"I'd had the idea since I first saw a Skyman costume for sale in costume shop. It looked so hokey and unlike my own that I figured if Fawn saw me in it, she would never be able to think of me as the real Skyman.
It actually took some doing to talk her into it, but once she agreed I figured my plan couldn't fail. I've seldom been more wrong.
"First of all, at a costume party for old pilots, nearly half of them wound up coming as either me or a Blackhawk. Fawn was a hit, though. No one else had brought their wives or girlfriends as Skywoman. In fact, she looked so good in my helmet and cape that I started thinking maybe we could be true partners someday.
"Maybe I was admiring Fawn too much, because something had entirely escaped my attention until it was mentioned to me in conversation. Ol' Douggie was re-telling an anecdote of my father and him from the old days
when his voice trailed away, and I noticed he was eyeing someone else at the party dressed as Skyman.
"'Allan,' he asked me, 'who was that? I don't recognize some of these people from last year.'
"Well, truer words were never spoken. I excused myself and began circulating about the room more. Sure enough, I spotted a good half-dozen people - all dressed as me! -- who I couldn't recognize by their build or chins.
Not a one of them was old enough to have been from my father's generation. I noticed that they were giving each other secret signs - nods and gestures -- which seemed to be indicating that they were ready. I could have stopped things before they started if I'd been able to reach the exit and gone to my car. The Disintegrator had been in the trunk long enough that it would be only half-charged by then, but it would still even the
odds against these apparent crooks. I didn't get there. Fawn was looking for me, and intercepted me just yards from the exit. She wanted to talk to me about some of our mutual friends she'd run into.
"That's when the crooks made their move. All six of them drew concealed handguns and they began announcing loudly that this was a stick-up.
"Once the six crooks started moving through the crowd, all dressed like me in their Skyman costumes, I decided it was safe to move. In such a crowded room, they couldn't possibly see all their comrades at once, and so I was banking on being mistaken for one of their own. But first, I had to get Fawn safely out of the way. I grabbed her by the arm and started to move her with me, hoping she would catch on and not make a scene.
"Instead, Fawn leaned over and whispered to me, 'Good idea. Now we can find a phone and call the police.'
"And while that might have been a good idea, I had other intentions. We moved to a back room that had a phone. Fawn rushed to it. I looked at the room. It was storage area for the convention hall, with stacks of folded up tables and boxes stacked high all along the back half of the room. There was a high window that faced outdoors.
"'The phone's dead,' Fawn said, and I was not much surprised. I had another idea, but I was again banking on the crooks not having guards posted out back.
"'I'll help you climb up to that window,' I told her. She climbed up onto the boxes, and I helped hoist her up to the window. The window was stuck, but it was openable, so with a few painful elbow bashes, Fawn had opened it.
"She started to climb out when she stopped and said, 'I'll help you up too.'
"'No, there's no time for that. You run for help. I'll be fine.' She seemed hardly convinced, but saw the logic in it and climbed out. I heard no cries of alarm, and once I assumed she was out of sight, I lea
pt up, grabbed the windowsill, and pulled myself up for a quick look. It looked like Fawn had made good her escape. Finally, I could get to work.
"Moving back into the main room, I could see that the crooks had done a thorough job already of looting the guests. I moved in closer to see if my ruse could continue to work. It paid off, when
one of the crooks turned to me and asked, 'Did you find any loot in there?'
"'Naw, there's nothin' in there but junk,' I told him.
"'Then c'mon; we're done here!' he said. And sure enough, his companions started running for the exit with sacks full of wallets, purses, and jewelry. To complete my disguise, I grabbed a tablecloth, wrapped a bunch of snack trays into it, and ran after them.
"The convention center had been built near a small airport, and the crooks were running towards the nearest runway where a two-prop private plane was sitting.
"I followed the crooks as they got into their plane," Skyman continued, "eager to be in my element again. But, as the first crook boarded the plane, he cried out in alarm. Being last in line, tense moments passed before I got to see wh
at was going on. The lead crook was holding Dawn with her arms pinned behind her, while the other crooks argued about what to do with her. The poor girl must have spotted the plane when she went to look for help and found it suspicious, like a parked getaway car.
"'Let's ice her,' one of them said.
"'No!' I said, in a gruff voice. I also had to make sure Dawn didn't see me, as she might recognize the costume shop version of my real Skyman uniform. `I think I hear sirens. We have to take off now, so there's no time to get rid of her!'
"The cowardly crooks panicked at the suggestion that the police were already coming, and herded into the plane despite not hearing anything themselves. One of the crooks began tying her hands, and
another gagged her when she protested. I continued my suggestions from within their ranks. `Blindfold her too, so we can take off our helmets.' I hoped that the crooks weren't enjoying the bondage at poor Dawn's expense. I felt so sorry for her, but she was truly safest the way she was.
"Once they'd tossed her against the side of the cabin, two of the crooks took to the cockpit. Even before we were off the ground, some of the crooks had started bickering. `Easy loot, you said!' one of them accused another. `We'll cross the country, robbing whatever's in reach of the airports, and be in Canada before anyone connects the robberies. And we almost got caught on our first haul!'
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