Our Story so far: The Doom Patrol has been split into two teams: one has been flung across reality, searching for a brick stolen from Danny the street.
The other was stranded in New Orleans, discovered what they believe to be the Golden Age Robot man in one of the Chief’s old storage units, fought some super villains and have now been drafted by Val Vostok (the one-time Negative Woman) to investigate strange happenings on Oolong Island…
The plane, a military transport, flew over the green-grey ocean, under a cloudless, blue sky.
Inside, an area designed to hold several dozen soldiers and equipment, now contained a half dozen, diverse individuals, scattered about, on the narrow, metal benches or curled up on the floor.
Rita Farr, Elastic Girl, sat, her head tipped back, feeling the vibration of the plane through her scalp and spine.
Kate Godwin sat huddled up in her denim jacket, nodding drowsily, next to Rita.
Across from them, the Patrol’s newest member, the bulky metal man, Robert Crane, another Robot man.
He sat, statue-still, keeping his electric eye, on the young, surly African-American slumped next to him.
Curled up on the floor, amongst a nest of blankets and empty knapsacks, was the alien cat-woman, Bast, sleeping heavily.
“I don’t like this,” Kate muttered, frowning.
“So you keep saying,” Rita murmured, absently.
“Don’t like flying,” Kate replied. “And not sure I like…whatever is going on here. Still think we should have stayed in New Orleans…”
“I…Rita… was never on the team at the same time as Val Vostok,” Elastic Girl explained, glancing towards the cockpit. “But, I think we can…maybe… trust her. If she’s still working for the government, she has contacts and resources that could help us find the others. We are running out of options.”
I know, I know,” Kate muttered. “I just worry that we might not be up to this…mission thingee she needs us for…aside, from Bast, none of us are scientists, not to mention having to keep an eye on those two.”
She looked over at the metal man and the grumpy super villain.
One was a mystery to the women: who was Robert Crane and where did he come from?
The other, Crowbar, had attacked them several times and it was only that his namesake weapon was stored securely in another part of the plane that kept him from trying again. He’d gotten scooped up with the others, when the government agents had assumed he was a member of the Doom Patrol.
“Not Val’s fault that she isn’t up to date on our membership roster,” Rita shrugged, causing her height to shoot up a couple inches. “I admit this isn’t ideal…believe me, I could have gone the rest of life without visiting Oolong Island again…”
She was interrupted from any further anxious reminiscing by Val Vostok emerging from the cockpit. The blonde woman, clad all in green, came and sat next to them.
“How’s everyone doing?” She asked, quietly, glancing about. She gave a faint smile at the sleeping cat woman.
“I don’t wanna be here,” Crowbar muttered sullenly.
“Yeah, it’s almost like breaking the law has consequences,” Kate said, sarcastically.
Crowbar’s scowl darkened and he started to sit up, only to have a heavy, steel hand land on his shoulder and push him back onto the bench.
“Unless you’re not tired of getting socked, I’d stay down,” Robot man advised.
“All right, everyone settle down,” Val added. “I know these are not ideal circumstances, but I have a situation that needs dealing with and the Doom Patrol isn’t the easiest group to get in touch with…”
“Then why not call the Justice League?” Kate asked. “Or what’s that government team you work for…Check-something…?”
“I’ve worked with several groups,” Val replied. “But, I’m currently not officially connected to any of them. S.T.A.R. Labs contacted me about helping with some security work and that lead to…well, this.”
“And ‘this’, is?” Rita asked.
“So, this isn’t the Suicide Squad…?” Crowbar muttered.
“I can still have you shot, if you cross me,” Val said, peering intently at the super villain.
She then turned back to the actual Doom Patrol members.
“It was mostly security consulting…, then this situation on Oolong Island happened, and I quickly realized, I was going to need help, and I thought my best bet was the Doom Patrol.”
“Is it me?” Kate asked. “The more she explains, the less I understand.”
“She is doing a very nice job of talking, while not actually telling us what’s going on,” Rita replied, before looking sternly at the lady spy. “We are misfits, not idiots. Just tell us.”
The two women locked gazes for several seconds, before Val sighed and nodded.
“It’s not that I’m choosing to be enigmatic,” She explained. “I just don’t know that much about the situation myself. You know about Oolong Island…”
“Yes,” Rita frowned, her arms stretching as she grew anxious.
“No,” said everyone else on the plane.”
“Just start from the friggin’ beginning!” Kate grumbled.
“Oolong Island began as a sanctuary…a think tank for the mad scientist community,” Val explained. “I think it was formed by Professor Ivo…might have been Killgrave…anyway, the government invaded the island and then turned it into more of a think tank/prison.”
“Niles must have loved that,” Kate muttered.
“He did,” Rita sighed. “He was chosen by the government to run the science side and the Patrol got dragged along to be…security…it didn’t go well…there were problems…”
“To say the least,” Val agreed with a grim smile. “After you left, S.T.A.R. Labs took over the research center and the government decided some of the more…difficult scientists needed to be relocated…and then, in the middle of all that, we lost communication with the Island and started getting some rather worrying energy readings.”
“Any of this crap make sense to anybody else?” Crowbar asked, looking around.
“Not really.” Robot man shrugged.
“I do,” Rita said, anxiously. “And it all sounds very bad. What happened?”
“That’s the problem,” Val said. “We don’t know. S.T.A.R sent in a maintenance team, thinking it was a tech problem and when we lost contact with them, the H.D.C. sent in a squad…same thing.”
“So, is somebody up to something?” Kate asked. “Or did some project just go off the rails…and what is the H.D.C.?”
“Human Defense Corps,” “Val said. “Special troops that deal with unusual problems…basically the guys you send in after the regular army and before you send in the Suicide Squad…and, we don’t know.”
“So, this is the Suicide Squad!” Crowbar grumbled. “Damnit…!”
“If everybody else got…zapped, why would you think we have any chance?” Kate asked.
“We think, and I admit this is nothing but guess work,” Val explained. “That whatever is going on, people with the meta-gene might have a…um…resistance to it. Also, dealing with the strange and unexplained, is the Doom Patrols specialty.”
“Uh-huh,” Kate muttered, unconvinced.
“Can I see your findings?” Bast asked, sitting up and stretching.
Val shrugged and handed over her computer tablet. The alien cat-woman sat, cross-legged on the floor, studying it intently.
“Okay, while we wait for our science advisor,” Kate said. “What now?”
“If you could find us, does that mean you know where the rest of the Patrol is?” Rita asked.
“No,” Val told her. “There were some rumors of an encounter with the Chinese Military”*
(See Doom Patrol #4)
“I was considering contacting the Teen Titans, because of Gar Logan or that other group of teens, Cliff mentored, and then we found you in New Orleans.”
She looked around at the motley crew assembled in the plane and shrugged.
“Yeah, we are pretty impressive, once you see us up close,” Kate said, dryly.
“We’ll be landing within the hour,” Val said, standing up. “Everyone get some rest.”
Crowbar slumped, either asleep or moping. The team’s newest Robot man returned to sitting statue still.
Rita shrank down to normal height, and followed after Val, joining her in the cockpit.
Kate, slid unto the floor, sitting with Bast.
“Anything?’ She asked.
“Maybe,” the cat-woman shrugged. “The island is a hodge podge of exotic energy…”
“I would imagine that happens, when you let a couple dozen mad scientists and super villains run wild,” Kate added. “Any guesses what we’re walking into? Be nice to not just add to the list of missing persons and have to be rescued by the Teen Titans.”
“Couple possibilities,” Bast said, not looking up from the tablet’s screen. “There’s this odd cascade wave that seems to blanket the island, then there’s this other one…its sending alpha-chromium energy out, but that seems to be the side effect of this pulse, which is almost like… quantum-cerebral energy or…something is being beamed away from the island…like a…uh…?”
“A signal?” Robot man prompted.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Kate muttered.
In the cockpit, Val settled into the navigator’s station, behind the pilot.
Rita, folded out an extra seat and watched her work for several minutes.
“So, which part is bothering you?” Rita asked.
“What?” Val asked, keeping focused on her workstation.
“Is it that we’re not the team you were hoping to get? Were you hoping for Cliff and Niles? I know I make people uncomfortable…part of why I’ve stayed with the Patrol, rather than go public. Or were you thinking if the Patrol is all back, that maybe…Josh…?”
“No.” Val snapped, glancing up at the shape-shifting Starlet. “That’s… uncalled for! You…you don’t know…”
“You’re right, that wasn’t fair,” Rita nodded, without any softening of her expression. “But, I need to know where we stand. Sad as we look, we are the Doom Patrol…well, not Crowbar and technically, that isn’t our Robot man, but that’s my team back there and they are counting on me. We aren’t cannon fodder or a placeholder until you can get some ‘real super heroes’ to answer your calls!”
Val turned and looked at Rita intently for several heartbeats.
“We were never on the team at the same time,” Val said, in a quiet, halting voice. “So, I’d only know you from what I’ve heard, how people talked about you…’mean bitch’ was never a phrase used.”
“Well, there’s some debate over if I’m really, actually Rita or not,” Elastic Girl shrugged, causing her height to shift with the result that she bumped her head against the cockpit ceiling. “And after abandoning Cliff and the others for years, you’ll forgive me for being skeptical that you have only the best interests of the Doom Patrol at heart.”
The two women studied each other with sullen hostility.
“I hate to interrupt,” The pilot said, without looking up from the controls. “But we are going to be touching down in about twenty minutes and are receiving no signals or responses from the island.”
Both women turned and peered over at the instruments and through the front windshield.
Below was a vast stretch of blue ocean with a small dot of brown that was their destination.
“No one’s responding?” Val asked, all business.
“Nope. All the signals are just the automated systems.”
Val frowned and glanced over at Rita, who merely nodded in reply to a silent question.
“Bring us down,” Val said, moving to the co-pilot’s seat. “We’re going to have to do this by sight.”
Rita brought her height back to normal, then rejoined her friends.
“Still no idea what we are walking into?” Robot man asked.
Rita just shook her head, while adjusting her seatbelt and encouraged the others to do the same.
Kate gently shook Bast to get her attention away from the tablet and helped her up.
Fifteen, anxious minutes later the plane was on the ground and the Doom Patrol was disembarking.
They could see the shapes of buildings beyond the trees. The sun glinted off the windows and metal work, making the distant compound shine.
Kate and Rita took the lead. Bast stood behind them, using the alien technology in her jewelry and bangles to scan the area.
Crowbar hung back and Robot man stayed near the reluctant new addition to the team.
“Shame it’s so creepy,” Kate said. “Nice place otherwise.”
Rita nodded.
“Not sure how much help I’ll be,” Bast said, absently studying her ornate bracelet. “This entire island is blanketed with exotic energy traces…it’s quite amazing, while equally frustrating.”
“So, what are we looking for?” Kate asked. “What stands out in a place where everything is weird?”
Oh…wait…!” Bast said, toying with her single earring. The cat-woman glanced at her bracelet, then down towards the beach.
“Find something?” Robot man asked, joining them.
“Energy spike,” Bast said. “Very strange…?”
“So unfair,” Kate muttered. “A trip to a beautiful tropical island and it’s the dumping ground for every mad scientist on the planet.”
“I did miss the beach,” Rita nodded, looking around wistfully. “But the constant plots and explosions really wore thin. Let’s just head for the main compound.”
She shot up to fifty feet tall and strode down the sandy, makeshift runway.
“Hey! Wait!” Kate shouted. “She can’t be doing that!”
“Where’s she going?” Val asked, emerging from the plane.
“Isn’t she the one that knows her way around here?” Robot man asked. “I can catch up to her…!”
And then he was gone, running down the beach at a steady 55 miles per hour.
“Yes,” Val grumbled. “We need to catch up to….damnit! Where’s he going? Some things never change with this team!”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Kate suggested, helpfully. “I’ve watched enough horror movies to know splitting up never goes well.”
“If you need somebody to stay and guard the plane…?” Crowbar suggested.
“Shut up and come on,” Val snapped, trudging down the beach, followed by the trio. “Rita was right, that we need to get to the main compound…last messages from the security team placed the trouble in one of the labs there.”
The others were only half listening: Bast kept consulting the sensors in her jewelry and Kate kept looking back to make sure Crowbar was still with them.
The young super-villain just kept glancing around anxiously, torn between wanting to get away from the women, but unsure if there was any safe escape route from the island. He didn’t feel reassured that his best chance of surviving or getting free relied on this weird group of women.
He scowled and trudged along.
Down the beach, then along a thin, gravel path through the foliage, the quartet got their first glimpse of the island’s main compound.
It was an odd mix of college campus, Frank Loyd Wright architecture and industrial complex.
“Wow…that’s…something,” Kate said, looking around. “Did they just grab a bunch of random buildings…?”
Bast was walking around, consulting her jewelry, trying to pinpoint the energy signals’ direction.
“So, shouldn’t there be people?” Crowbar asked, his curiosity overriding his surliness for a moment.
“Yes, there should be,” Val replied, anxiously, one hand resting on her holstered gun. “Even with the transfers and budget cuts, Oolong had over a hundred people working here.”
“And where’s the giant girl?” Crowbar added.
“Okay, no more questions,” Kate said. “I’m freaked out enough without you giving me new things to worry about!”
“Signal seems stronger over…there,” Bast said, pointing to the main building.
“Hey! There’s some people!” Crowbar added, gesturing with his namesake weapon, towards a little park. He then jogged away from the women.
Not entirely trusting Crowbar, Val ran after him, sliding her pistol out of its holster.
Kate started to join them, glanced back, saw Bast was too intent on her jewelry, and so the super powered barista decided chase after Val.
Two people were there, a security guard and a woman in a lab coat, lying asleep on the grass.
“What the hell…?” Crowbar muttered, poking the guard, cautiously, with his crowbar. “They don’t look hurt?”
“No, not a mark on them,” Val muttered, holstering her gun and kneeling down. She quickly examined both. “Vital signs seem normal…they are just sleeping…?”
“Weird,” Kate frowned, scratching her forehead. “What caused it? I don’t feel sleepy.”
“Me neither,” Crowbar added, looking around anxiously. “Is it a gas?”
“No,” Val said, still kneeling and studying the fallen island staffers. “Bast said something about a…uh…signal…an energy pulse or wave…”
“There’s more sleeping guys over there!” Crowbar said, spotting a couple more guards, slumped against the side of a building.
He and Kate moved to investigate, not noticing Val rubbing her eyes and starting to sway, putting a hand down to steady herself.
“What is that…music…?” She asked, in a weary murmur, as she slowly sank to the ground.
“Okay, let’s just assume everybody is asleep,” Kate said, puzzled. “So, we skip the part where we check every one and move on to the part where we figure out how…or why…?”
“Big science place, like this,” Crowbar muttered thoughtfully. “Lots worth stealing…y’know, just a thought… knock everybody out, makes the job easier.”
“That’s helpful,” Kate said, studying him cynically. “Because on top of everything else, I need another reminder not to trust you.”
“Just trying to figure this out.” Crowbar muttered.
“Look, let’s just go check…Val…oh damnit!”
Kate glanced around, spotted her fallen companion and ran back.
“Val, hey, you okay?” She asked, kneeling down and trying to help the government agent sit up.
Val Vostok slumped, boneless in her arms.
“Can’t you…hear it…?” Val mumbled, thickly. “Who…what…?”
Kate sighed and lowered Val to the grass.
“Where’d the cat lady go?” Crowbar asked, rejoining her.
“What…!” Kate exclaimed, getting quickly to her feet and looking around anxiously. “Bast? Where’d she go?”
Unnoticed by her teammates, Bast, still fascinated by the strange energy readings had not halted to investigate the sleepers, but rather kept walking into the large lobby of the main research building.
Studying intently the sensors in her bangles, she walked past the receptionist desk, the half dozen sleepers scattered about and several monitors embedded in the white walls flashing that there was a level three security alert occurring.
Down a wide hallway, her bare feet making rasping noises on the grey carpeting, Bast walked.
At a T-junction, Robot man came staggering into view, nearly barreling into the alien scientist.
“Robert!” Bast exclaimed, attempting to catch him, failing and landing on her knees under the weight of his heavy, steel body. They sank to the floor. “Are you okay? Where’s Rita?”
“Got…separated,” He muttered, in a tinny rasp. “Dizzy. Thought my metal body would…would…uh… block…signal, but…it’s in my mind, like a…an enormous choir…can…you…hear it…?”
Bast shook her head, concerned for her new teammate but hoping to hear some useful snippet of information. Robot man continued to mutter, becoming incoherent to the point Bast thought he was no longer speaking English.
She let go of the metal man, let him finish his fall to the floor and crouched near his sleeping body, studying it with puzzled intensity.
Bast waved a hand over the metal face, then frowning thoughtfully, passed it over his broad chest. She then stood up and studied her surroundings. She picked a hallway and went down it.
Several minutes after the alien scientist had disappeared around a corner, Kate and Crossbar entered the foyer. They soon raced over to the fallen Robot man.
“Oh come on…!” Kate exclaimed. “This is…uh…what the hell?”
“What do we do?” Crowbar asked.
“How the hell should I know?” Kate snapped back. “I’m in the Doom Patrol! We never know what’s going on! We just get weird crap thrown at us! I’m a barista! I’m not one of the science guys! I just help out when a monster or something shows up…!”
Much to both their surprise, a monster came bursting through the wall, scattering waiting room chairs, old magazines and a potted fern, as it shambled wildly towards them.
It was human-shaped, but stood ten-foot-tall and resembled a large, sentient melted candle. It flailed about, either in anger or pain, knocking into any furniture as it stomped wetly towards the duo.
Crowbar swung his weapon. It began to glow. He slashed downwards, as though he held a sword and a jagged bolt of white energy shot out.
The creature staggered backwards, colliding with a wall and then stumbling over an oblong coffee table.
“Wait!” Kate commanded. “It acts like its hurt…looks like it’s melting…let me try something!”
She ran forward, one hand held out.
As her hand began to glow purple, Kate pressed it against the gooey creature. Her power to coagulate things took effect, and the creature seemed to grow smaller, solider: shifting and morphing into a familiar solid form…
“Rita…?” Kate exclaimed, catching her dazed teammate before she hit the carpet. “What…?”
“Wait..?” Crowbar said, halting in mild-strike. “The monster was the giant girl…?”
“Rita, can you hear me?” Kate asked, throwing one of Rita’s arms over her shoulder and steering the woozy Elastic girl over to a nearby couch. “Please, stay awake! I need someone to help me figure this out!”
“Kate…? What? Where’d Robert go?” Rita muttered, sleepily.
“Robot man’s asleep…everyone is asleep. I can’t find Bast…and I’m starting to freak out a little…”
“Can’t you hear it?” Rita asked, leaning her head against Kate’s shoulder. “They’re singing…I…feel it…vibrating through my whole body, like a tuning fork…!”
“Okay, okay, I’ve got you,” Kate said, soothingly. She touched Rita’s bare arm, her hand glowing purple again, hoping she could keep her teammate solid long enough to figure all this out. “Just stay awake and keep talking, Rita! We need your help!”
“This signal thing aint putting her to sleep,” Crowbar mused thoughtfully. “But it’s still messing with her. How come you and I are okay?”
“So, we’re okay,” Kate muttered, looking up from the drowsy, size-shifting actress to her reluctant new teammate.
Thinking, that her choices were figuring this out or crying and she was determined not to cry in front of the super-villain “What do a transgender barista and a thug with a magic crowbar have in common?”
“It’s not magic,” He replied, in a surly tone. “Everybody thinks they’re so damned funny! My body channels energy. I need something to channel it through to release it and when I ran with the Detroit gangs, this was something handy to carry ‘round.”
He gave the crowbar a slight heft and made it glow and crackle with energy.
“Maybe that’s it?” Kate said. “If it’s not magic then the thing we have in common is the…what did they call it…the Meta-gene!”
“What?”
“Meta-gene, it’s the extra…thing, in our DNA that gives us super powers.” Kate explained, her forehead furrowing as she tried to strike a balance between stabilizing Rita and figuring things out without a science type to help. “Niles went on about it, since he didn’t believe my story about getting my powers by having sex with Negative man…”
“Wait…what…?” Crowbar asked.
“Long story,” Kate replied, absently. “But, it would explain why this signal thing isn’t reaching our brains.”
She tapped her temple for emphasis.
“We have something extra up here, and that’s blocking the signal!”
“What about Robot man and her?” Crowbar asked.
“Robert’s just a regular brain in a robot body and Rita is…complicated” Kate replied. “So, maybe, we can do this…”
“Do what?” Crowbar exclaimed. “I don’t understand a damn thing you just said!”
“Okay, I admit, it’s not exactly a ‘plan’, more a ‘notion’…okay, here’s how it goes: you can channel energy, so maybe you can use your…uh…crowbar, to trace the signal…we find the source, then figure out what the hell is going on here, hopefully, find Bast, and then we fix this and go home!”
“Yeah, why not?” Crowbar shrugged.
He held up his weapon up and closed his eyes in concentration. The crowbar began to glow a blue-ish-white. His arm moved slowly, pointing to one of the side corridors.
“That way,” He said, opening his eyes and pointing with his crowbar. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Okay, Rita, how you doing, hon?” Kate said, gently propping the groggy Elastic Girl up. “We need to get moving. Can you help?”
“Wanna help,” Rita nodded, struggling to sit up. Her arms extended wobbly, until her gloved hands hit the floor.
“How about instead of growing, you get smaller?” Kate suggested. “Might be easier to help you get around.”
Rita nodded, took a deep breath and slowly, like a balloon with a slow leak, shrank, until she was the size of an action figure. Kate, gently scooped up her tiny teammate, tucked Rita in the front pocket of her denim jacket and ran to catch up with Crowbar.
“Anything?” She asked.
“We’re going the right way,” Crowbar shrugged. “Energy feels…weird…can’t tell what kind it is or what it’s doing…”
The trio kept moving, following the corridor to a stairwell and then taking the stairs down a couple flights.
“How big is this place?” Crowbar muttered.
They took a side door, which opened up into an amphitheater of a room.
“What the hell…?” Crowbar breathed, looking around.
The room was bare concrete with some pipes running along the ceiling. A few crates were stacked in a corner.
In the center of the basement room, there were a dozen monkeys, of various sizes and species.
They were all sitting on the concrete floor, cross legged, like they were attending some kind of meditation seminar.
Their hands rested in their laps, their eyes were closed and there was a vibration coming off them, like an amplified hum.
“What a time for Mallah not to be here,” Kate muttered under her breath.
In the center of the circle was a metal ring and from it projected a pillar of white energy, veined with brilliant blue. It shot up and through the ceiling.
“What the &$#@! is going on here!” Crowbar exclaimed. “I am really getting sick of this!”
His Crowbar began to glow orange brightly.
“Settle down,” Kate said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I know this looks crazy, but, I’ve seen weirder…we can figure this out.”
“Seriously? Look at this! Tell me what any of this means!” He snapped.
“Give me a sec!” Kate retorted. “I’m not Batman! Okay, this whole island is a lab…and labs experiment on animals, so…something was done to these monkeys and…”
“And their mental energies were exponentially increased and they are now draining the mental energy of the other primates…uh, the humans, on the island to generate that pillar of energy,” Bast finished, coming up behind them. Her tone was that of a college lecturer.
Still, tense and anxious as he was, Crowbar spun as though she was an attacker.
Bast was startled out of her analysis.
“Kate?” She said. “You’re here! Where’s Robert? He went to investigate some…”
“He fell asleep like everyone else,” Kate interrupted “Rita is all groggy. We aren’t and I think it might be cause we both have the meta-gene…”
“That makes sense,” Bast nodded.
“It does?” Kate asked, wide-eyed.
“I believe what has occurred, is that these primates had some form of psychotropic chemicals tested upon them…or possibly a cerebral scanner of some kind. It triggered something in their brains and this…collective they’ve formed is attempting to send or receive some kind of signal…”
“To who…?” Crowbar asked, anxiously. “They going to bring space monkeys here? We going all ‘Planet of the Apes’…?”
“No,” A new voice replied. “We are answering!”
The trio turned, then looked down.
A chimp, its hair flecked with silver stood before them, a faint smile on its wrinkled face.
They heard its voice, serene and learned, but the chimp’s lips never moved, except when the smile deepened.
“We have been awakened,” It explained, in a tone, like it was speaking to children. “They gave us…this.”
It tapped its temple and nodded.
“They wished us to call out.”
It waved its arm upwards. Kate and Bast looked up, realizing it meant, not the ceiling, but the sky above.
“They were attempting to create psychic transmitters,” Bast breathed. “and then use them for contacting other worlds…other beings…!”
“Kinda sounds like they did,” Kate muttered, anxiously. “And somebody answered them…?”
The chimp nodded, smiling contentedly.
“So, to answer, they needed everybody on the islands’ brain power?” Crowbar said, looking around in anxious confusion.
The chimp nodded, then turned and returned to join the circle. Its task completed.
“So, what the %^&$! happens now?” Crowbar exclaimed. “We just gonna let them do it?”
“I don’t think they’re asking,” Kate muttered in reply. “Are they…?”
“No,” Bast said, with a shake of her head. ‘I think they’ve already got an answer. I think when they realized they couldn’t use us as batteries, they decided there should be witnesses.”
The hum intensified, as did the brightness of the pillar of energy, until the Doom patrol had to step back and hold up their hands to shade their eyes.
Arcs of twitching energy, like tentacles protruded from the pillar, gently brushing against each monkey.
Crowbars’ weapon began to glow brightly, as did all of Basts’ jewelry.
There was a surge, like the eruption of a volcano and the light burst momentarily blinded the witnesses.
As they blinked their sight back, the Doom Patrol saw that they were alone in the room. Rita had woken up, and regaining her normal size had torn Kate’s jacket pocket and was now sitting on the concrete floor, looking around dazed.
“Huh…?” Kate muttered, looking around, unsure how to react. Feeling she had been witness to something significant, but quite baffled as to what.
“What the %$#!…?” Crowbar grumbled, stomping away and sitting down on one of the nearby crates.
“So, what’d I miss?” Rita asked, looking up at her teammates. “Feels like I’m trying to remember a dream.”
“Your scientists experiment with the primates worked,” Bast explained. “Just not in the way they anticipated.”
“So, who were they talking to?” Kate asked. “Where did they go…why did they go…?”
The alien cat woman merely shrugged. Her expression was wistful.
Kate put an arm around Basts’ bare, furry shoulder and gave her what she hoped was a comforting squeeze.
“I guess we’d better go find Val,” Rita said, getting to her feet. “She’s going to want answers…shame we don’t have any.”
“She’s not going to be happy,” Kate nodded.
She wasn’t.
But Val was also too busy reorganizing after everyone woke up, and Bast was more than willing to talk to the science staff.
No one was sure what they found more disconcerting: the information they were given and its implications, or that it was being delivered by a half-naked cat woman from another planet.
Kate wandered off, found the cafeteria, and after an hour spent making coffee for the confused population of Oolong Island, felt a bit more relaxed and went searching for her teammates.
She found Rita, sitting on the beach. She had grown to ten feet tall, so she could dip her bare toes in the surf without having to get up and move closer.
“You okay?” Kate asked, kicking off her shoes and joining her teammate on the sand.
“Am I ever…?” Rita replied absently.
“Shame that such a pretty place could bum you out so badly.” Kate frowned, watching the ocean.
“Well, Val and I seem to set each other off,” Rita muttered. “And, while I do love this beach…”
She jerked a thumb over shoulder at the science complex behind them.
“This was where I learned I’m not actually Rita Farr,” She explained. “And we were constantly dealing with the government using us as weapons and treating us like idiots…and it wasn’t Niles at his best, either…very few happy memories. Sorry I’m not helping much.”
“Don’t be,” Kate said, reaching up to pat Rita’s shoulder. “Val has got it under control. She’s offered both Bast and Crowbar jobs. Bast turned her down, Crowbar may agree, just to get away from us.”
“Where’s Robert?”
“He went for a walk,” Kate explained. “He seemed pretty shook about being put to sleep and then the staff started looking at him like a new toy…I take it he’s coming with us?”
“If he wants to,” Rita shrugged. “Be nice to have a Robot man back on the team…if we ever find the rest of the Doom Patrol.”
“We’re getting there,” Kate said. “We’ve got an alien goddess, an island full of scientists and a shadowy government agency helping and you know Larry and the guys are looking.”
She paused, waiting for a response. Playing responsible adult and morale booster was starting to weigh her down. Kate had never thought of herself as having much talent for either. She was a capable barista and part time super hero. Losing her coffee shop and being forced into being a full-time member of the team was taking its toll.
“Well, if we are going to get stuck anywhere,” She said, glancing around. “I’ve lived worse places then a tropical island while we…is that a taxi cab?”
An old fashioned, black taxi cab rolled to a stop, and a grizzled, middle-aged cabbie got out.
“You ladies call a cab?” He asked.
“Hack O’ Hara…!!” Kate exclaimed, climbing so quickly she stumbled and had to brace herself against her over-sized teammate, before she jogged over and hugged the cabbie. “What…?”
“What?” He replied, a smile creasing his rough features. “You didn’t think we’d have the whole street looking for you?”
“I’ll go get Bast and Robert,” Rita said, smiling as she shot up to twenty feet and jogged over to the research compound.
“Take your time,” Hack O’ Hara said. Meter’s running.”
Next issue: The Doom Patrol has all been reunited, so it’s time for a breather and some quality couple time.
The other was stranded in New Orleans, discovered what they believe to be the Golden Age Robot man in one of the Chief’s old storage units, fought some super villains and have now been drafted by Val Vostok (the one-time Negative Woman) to investigate strange happenings on Oolong Island…
The plane, a military transport, flew over the green-grey ocean, under a cloudless, blue sky.
Inside, an area designed to hold several dozen soldiers and equipment, now contained a half dozen, diverse individuals, scattered about, on the narrow, metal benches or curled up on the floor.
Rita Farr, Elastic Girl, sat, her head tipped back, feeling the vibration of the plane through her scalp and spine.
Kate Godwin sat huddled up in her denim jacket, nodding drowsily, next to Rita.
Across from them, the Patrol’s newest member, the bulky metal man, Robert Crane, another Robot man.
He sat, statue-still, keeping his electric eye, on the young, surly African-American slumped next to him.
Curled up on the floor, amongst a nest of blankets and empty knapsacks, was the alien cat-woman, Bast, sleeping heavily.
“I don’t like this,” Kate muttered, frowning.
“So you keep saying,” Rita murmured, absently.
“Don’t like flying,” Kate replied. “And not sure I like…whatever is going on here. Still think we should have stayed in New Orleans…”
“I…Rita… was never on the team at the same time as Val Vostok,” Elastic Girl explained, glancing towards the cockpit. “But, I think we can…maybe… trust her. If she’s still working for the government, she has contacts and resources that could help us find the others. We are running out of options.”
I know, I know,” Kate muttered. “I just worry that we might not be up to this…mission thingee she needs us for…aside, from Bast, none of us are scientists, not to mention having to keep an eye on those two.”
She looked over at the metal man and the grumpy super villain.
One was a mystery to the women: who was Robert Crane and where did he come from?
The other, Crowbar, had attacked them several times and it was only that his namesake weapon was stored securely in another part of the plane that kept him from trying again. He’d gotten scooped up with the others, when the government agents had assumed he was a member of the Doom Patrol.
“Not Val’s fault that she isn’t up to date on our membership roster,” Rita shrugged, causing her height to shoot up a couple inches. “I admit this isn’t ideal…believe me, I could have gone the rest of life without visiting Oolong Island again…”
She was interrupted from any further anxious reminiscing by Val Vostok emerging from the cockpit. The blonde woman, clad all in green, came and sat next to them.
“How’s everyone doing?” She asked, quietly, glancing about. She gave a faint smile at the sleeping cat woman.
“I don’t wanna be here,” Crowbar muttered sullenly.
“Yeah, it’s almost like breaking the law has consequences,” Kate said, sarcastically.
Crowbar’s scowl darkened and he started to sit up, only to have a heavy, steel hand land on his shoulder and push him back onto the bench.
“Unless you’re not tired of getting socked, I’d stay down,” Robot man advised.
“All right, everyone settle down,” Val added. “I know these are not ideal circumstances, but I have a situation that needs dealing with and the Doom Patrol isn’t the easiest group to get in touch with…”
“Then why not call the Justice League?” Kate asked. “Or what’s that government team you work for…Check-something…?”
“I’ve worked with several groups,” Val replied. “But, I’m currently not officially connected to any of them. S.T.A.R. Labs contacted me about helping with some security work and that lead to…well, this.”
“And ‘this’, is?” Rita asked.
“So, this isn’t the Suicide Squad…?” Crowbar muttered.
“I can still have you shot, if you cross me,” Val said, peering intently at the super villain.
She then turned back to the actual Doom Patrol members.
“It was mostly security consulting…, then this situation on Oolong Island happened, and I quickly realized, I was going to need help, and I thought my best bet was the Doom Patrol.”
“Is it me?” Kate asked. “The more she explains, the less I understand.”
“She is doing a very nice job of talking, while not actually telling us what’s going on,” Rita replied, before looking sternly at the lady spy. “We are misfits, not idiots. Just tell us.”
The two women locked gazes for several seconds, before Val sighed and nodded.
“It’s not that I’m choosing to be enigmatic,” She explained. “I just don’t know that much about the situation myself. You know about Oolong Island…”
“Yes,” Rita frowned, her arms stretching as she grew anxious.
“No,” said everyone else on the plane.”
“Just start from the friggin’ beginning!” Kate grumbled.
“Oolong Island began as a sanctuary…a think tank for the mad scientist community,” Val explained. “I think it was formed by Professor Ivo…might have been Killgrave…anyway, the government invaded the island and then turned it into more of a think tank/prison.”
“Niles must have loved that,” Kate muttered.
“He did,” Rita sighed. “He was chosen by the government to run the science side and the Patrol got dragged along to be…security…it didn’t go well…there were problems…”
“To say the least,” Val agreed with a grim smile. “After you left, S.T.A.R. Labs took over the research center and the government decided some of the more…difficult scientists needed to be relocated…and then, in the middle of all that, we lost communication with the Island and started getting some rather worrying energy readings.”
“Any of this crap make sense to anybody else?” Crowbar asked, looking around.
“Not really.” Robot man shrugged.
“I do,” Rita said, anxiously. “And it all sounds very bad. What happened?”
“That’s the problem,” Val said. “We don’t know. S.T.A.R sent in a maintenance team, thinking it was a tech problem and when we lost contact with them, the H.D.C. sent in a squad…same thing.”
“So, is somebody up to something?” Kate asked. “Or did some project just go off the rails…and what is the H.D.C.?”
“Human Defense Corps,” “Val said. “Special troops that deal with unusual problems…basically the guys you send in after the regular army and before you send in the Suicide Squad…and, we don’t know.”
“So, this is the Suicide Squad!” Crowbar grumbled. “Damnit…!”
“If everybody else got…zapped, why would you think we have any chance?” Kate asked.
“We think, and I admit this is nothing but guess work,” Val explained. “That whatever is going on, people with the meta-gene might have a…um…resistance to it. Also, dealing with the strange and unexplained, is the Doom Patrols specialty.”
“Uh-huh,” Kate muttered, unconvinced.
“Can I see your findings?” Bast asked, sitting up and stretching.
Val shrugged and handed over her computer tablet. The alien cat-woman sat, cross-legged on the floor, studying it intently.
“Okay, while we wait for our science advisor,” Kate said. “What now?”
“If you could find us, does that mean you know where the rest of the Patrol is?” Rita asked.
“No,” Val told her. “There were some rumors of an encounter with the Chinese Military”*
(See Doom Patrol #4)
“I was considering contacting the Teen Titans, because of Gar Logan or that other group of teens, Cliff mentored, and then we found you in New Orleans.”
She looked around at the motley crew assembled in the plane and shrugged.
“Yeah, we are pretty impressive, once you see us up close,” Kate said, dryly.
“We’ll be landing within the hour,” Val said, standing up. “Everyone get some rest.”
Crowbar slumped, either asleep or moping. The team’s newest Robot man returned to sitting statue still.
Rita shrank down to normal height, and followed after Val, joining her in the cockpit.
Kate, slid unto the floor, sitting with Bast.
“Anything?’ She asked.
“Maybe,” the cat-woman shrugged. “The island is a hodge podge of exotic energy…”
“I would imagine that happens, when you let a couple dozen mad scientists and super villains run wild,” Kate added. “Any guesses what we’re walking into? Be nice to not just add to the list of missing persons and have to be rescued by the Teen Titans.”
“Couple possibilities,” Bast said, not looking up from the tablet’s screen. “There’s this odd cascade wave that seems to blanket the island, then there’s this other one…its sending alpha-chromium energy out, but that seems to be the side effect of this pulse, which is almost like… quantum-cerebral energy or…something is being beamed away from the island…like a…uh…?”
“A signal?” Robot man prompted.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Kate muttered.
In the cockpit, Val settled into the navigator’s station, behind the pilot.
Rita, folded out an extra seat and watched her work for several minutes.
“So, which part is bothering you?” Rita asked.
“What?” Val asked, keeping focused on her workstation.
“Is it that we’re not the team you were hoping to get? Were you hoping for Cliff and Niles? I know I make people uncomfortable…part of why I’ve stayed with the Patrol, rather than go public. Or were you thinking if the Patrol is all back, that maybe…Josh…?”
“No.” Val snapped, glancing up at the shape-shifting Starlet. “That’s… uncalled for! You…you don’t know…”
“You’re right, that wasn’t fair,” Rita nodded, without any softening of her expression. “But, I need to know where we stand. Sad as we look, we are the Doom Patrol…well, not Crowbar and technically, that isn’t our Robot man, but that’s my team back there and they are counting on me. We aren’t cannon fodder or a placeholder until you can get some ‘real super heroes’ to answer your calls!”
Val turned and looked at Rita intently for several heartbeats.
“We were never on the team at the same time,” Val said, in a quiet, halting voice. “So, I’d only know you from what I’ve heard, how people talked about you…’mean bitch’ was never a phrase used.”
“Well, there’s some debate over if I’m really, actually Rita or not,” Elastic Girl shrugged, causing her height to shift with the result that she bumped her head against the cockpit ceiling. “And after abandoning Cliff and the others for years, you’ll forgive me for being skeptical that you have only the best interests of the Doom Patrol at heart.”
The two women studied each other with sullen hostility.
“I hate to interrupt,” The pilot said, without looking up from the controls. “But we are going to be touching down in about twenty minutes and are receiving no signals or responses from the island.”
Both women turned and peered over at the instruments and through the front windshield.
Below was a vast stretch of blue ocean with a small dot of brown that was their destination.
“No one’s responding?” Val asked, all business.
“Nope. All the signals are just the automated systems.”
Val frowned and glanced over at Rita, who merely nodded in reply to a silent question.
“Bring us down,” Val said, moving to the co-pilot’s seat. “We’re going to have to do this by sight.”
Rita brought her height back to normal, then rejoined her friends.
“Still no idea what we are walking into?” Robot man asked.
Rita just shook her head, while adjusting her seatbelt and encouraged the others to do the same.
Kate gently shook Bast to get her attention away from the tablet and helped her up.
Fifteen, anxious minutes later the plane was on the ground and the Doom Patrol was disembarking.
They could see the shapes of buildings beyond the trees. The sun glinted off the windows and metal work, making the distant compound shine.
Kate and Rita took the lead. Bast stood behind them, using the alien technology in her jewelry and bangles to scan the area.
Crowbar hung back and Robot man stayed near the reluctant new addition to the team.
“Shame it’s so creepy,” Kate said. “Nice place otherwise.”
Rita nodded.
“Not sure how much help I’ll be,” Bast said, absently studying her ornate bracelet. “This entire island is blanketed with exotic energy traces…it’s quite amazing, while equally frustrating.”
“So, what are we looking for?” Kate asked. “What stands out in a place where everything is weird?”
Oh…wait…!” Bast said, toying with her single earring. The cat-woman glanced at her bracelet, then down towards the beach.
“Find something?” Robot man asked, joining them.
“Energy spike,” Bast said. “Very strange…?”
“So unfair,” Kate muttered. “A trip to a beautiful tropical island and it’s the dumping ground for every mad scientist on the planet.”
“I did miss the beach,” Rita nodded, looking around wistfully. “But the constant plots and explosions really wore thin. Let’s just head for the main compound.”
She shot up to fifty feet tall and strode down the sandy, makeshift runway.
“Hey! Wait!” Kate shouted. “She can’t be doing that!”
“Where’s she going?” Val asked, emerging from the plane.
“Isn’t she the one that knows her way around here?” Robot man asked. “I can catch up to her…!”
And then he was gone, running down the beach at a steady 55 miles per hour.
“Yes,” Val grumbled. “We need to catch up to….damnit! Where’s he going? Some things never change with this team!”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Kate suggested, helpfully. “I’ve watched enough horror movies to know splitting up never goes well.”
“If you need somebody to stay and guard the plane…?” Crowbar suggested.
“Shut up and come on,” Val snapped, trudging down the beach, followed by the trio. “Rita was right, that we need to get to the main compound…last messages from the security team placed the trouble in one of the labs there.”
The others were only half listening: Bast kept consulting the sensors in her jewelry and Kate kept looking back to make sure Crowbar was still with them.
The young super-villain just kept glancing around anxiously, torn between wanting to get away from the women, but unsure if there was any safe escape route from the island. He didn’t feel reassured that his best chance of surviving or getting free relied on this weird group of women.
He scowled and trudged along.
Down the beach, then along a thin, gravel path through the foliage, the quartet got their first glimpse of the island’s main compound.
It was an odd mix of college campus, Frank Loyd Wright architecture and industrial complex.
“Wow…that’s…something,” Kate said, looking around. “Did they just grab a bunch of random buildings…?”
Bast was walking around, consulting her jewelry, trying to pinpoint the energy signals’ direction.
“So, shouldn’t there be people?” Crowbar asked, his curiosity overriding his surliness for a moment.
“Yes, there should be,” Val replied, anxiously, one hand resting on her holstered gun. “Even with the transfers and budget cuts, Oolong had over a hundred people working here.”
“And where’s the giant girl?” Crowbar added.
“Okay, no more questions,” Kate said. “I’m freaked out enough without you giving me new things to worry about!”
“Signal seems stronger over…there,” Bast said, pointing to the main building.
“Hey! There’s some people!” Crowbar added, gesturing with his namesake weapon, towards a little park. He then jogged away from the women.
Not entirely trusting Crowbar, Val ran after him, sliding her pistol out of its holster.
Kate started to join them, glanced back, saw Bast was too intent on her jewelry, and so the super powered barista decided chase after Val.
Two people were there, a security guard and a woman in a lab coat, lying asleep on the grass.
“What the hell…?” Crowbar muttered, poking the guard, cautiously, with his crowbar. “They don’t look hurt?”
“No, not a mark on them,” Val muttered, holstering her gun and kneeling down. She quickly examined both. “Vital signs seem normal…they are just sleeping…?”
“Weird,” Kate frowned, scratching her forehead. “What caused it? I don’t feel sleepy.”
“Me neither,” Crowbar added, looking around anxiously. “Is it a gas?”
“No,” Val said, still kneeling and studying the fallen island staffers. “Bast said something about a…uh…signal…an energy pulse or wave…”
“There’s more sleeping guys over there!” Crowbar said, spotting a couple more guards, slumped against the side of a building.
He and Kate moved to investigate, not noticing Val rubbing her eyes and starting to sway, putting a hand down to steady herself.
“What is that…music…?” She asked, in a weary murmur, as she slowly sank to the ground.
“Okay, let’s just assume everybody is asleep,” Kate said, puzzled. “So, we skip the part where we check every one and move on to the part where we figure out how…or why…?”
“Big science place, like this,” Crowbar muttered thoughtfully. “Lots worth stealing…y’know, just a thought… knock everybody out, makes the job easier.”
“That’s helpful,” Kate said, studying him cynically. “Because on top of everything else, I need another reminder not to trust you.”
“Just trying to figure this out.” Crowbar muttered.
“Look, let’s just go check…Val…oh damnit!”
Kate glanced around, spotted her fallen companion and ran back.
“Val, hey, you okay?” She asked, kneeling down and trying to help the government agent sit up.
Val Vostok slumped, boneless in her arms.
“Can’t you…hear it…?” Val mumbled, thickly. “Who…what…?”
Kate sighed and lowered Val to the grass.
“Where’d the cat lady go?” Crowbar asked, rejoining her.
“What…!” Kate exclaimed, getting quickly to her feet and looking around anxiously. “Bast? Where’d she go?”
Unnoticed by her teammates, Bast, still fascinated by the strange energy readings had not halted to investigate the sleepers, but rather kept walking into the large lobby of the main research building.
Studying intently the sensors in her bangles, she walked past the receptionist desk, the half dozen sleepers scattered about and several monitors embedded in the white walls flashing that there was a level three security alert occurring.
Down a wide hallway, her bare feet making rasping noises on the grey carpeting, Bast walked.
At a T-junction, Robot man came staggering into view, nearly barreling into the alien scientist.
“Robert!” Bast exclaimed, attempting to catch him, failing and landing on her knees under the weight of his heavy, steel body. They sank to the floor. “Are you okay? Where’s Rita?”
“Got…separated,” He muttered, in a tinny rasp. “Dizzy. Thought my metal body would…would…uh… block…signal, but…it’s in my mind, like a…an enormous choir…can…you…hear it…?”
Bast shook her head, concerned for her new teammate but hoping to hear some useful snippet of information. Robot man continued to mutter, becoming incoherent to the point Bast thought he was no longer speaking English.
She let go of the metal man, let him finish his fall to the floor and crouched near his sleeping body, studying it with puzzled intensity.
Bast waved a hand over the metal face, then frowning thoughtfully, passed it over his broad chest. She then stood up and studied her surroundings. She picked a hallway and went down it.
Several minutes after the alien scientist had disappeared around a corner, Kate and Crossbar entered the foyer. They soon raced over to the fallen Robot man.
“Oh come on…!” Kate exclaimed. “This is…uh…what the hell?”
“What do we do?” Crowbar asked.
“How the hell should I know?” Kate snapped back. “I’m in the Doom Patrol! We never know what’s going on! We just get weird crap thrown at us! I’m a barista! I’m not one of the science guys! I just help out when a monster or something shows up…!”
Much to both their surprise, a monster came bursting through the wall, scattering waiting room chairs, old magazines and a potted fern, as it shambled wildly towards them.
It was human-shaped, but stood ten-foot-tall and resembled a large, sentient melted candle. It flailed about, either in anger or pain, knocking into any furniture as it stomped wetly towards the duo.
Crowbar swung his weapon. It began to glow. He slashed downwards, as though he held a sword and a jagged bolt of white energy shot out.
The creature staggered backwards, colliding with a wall and then stumbling over an oblong coffee table.
“Wait!” Kate commanded. “It acts like its hurt…looks like it’s melting…let me try something!”
She ran forward, one hand held out.
As her hand began to glow purple, Kate pressed it against the gooey creature. Her power to coagulate things took effect, and the creature seemed to grow smaller, solider: shifting and morphing into a familiar solid form…
“Rita…?” Kate exclaimed, catching her dazed teammate before she hit the carpet. “What…?”
“Wait..?” Crowbar said, halting in mild-strike. “The monster was the giant girl…?”
“Rita, can you hear me?” Kate asked, throwing one of Rita’s arms over her shoulder and steering the woozy Elastic girl over to a nearby couch. “Please, stay awake! I need someone to help me figure this out!”
“Kate…? What? Where’d Robert go?” Rita muttered, sleepily.
“Robot man’s asleep…everyone is asleep. I can’t find Bast…and I’m starting to freak out a little…”
“Can’t you hear it?” Rita asked, leaning her head against Kate’s shoulder. “They’re singing…I…feel it…vibrating through my whole body, like a tuning fork…!”
“Okay, okay, I’ve got you,” Kate said, soothingly. She touched Rita’s bare arm, her hand glowing purple again, hoping she could keep her teammate solid long enough to figure all this out. “Just stay awake and keep talking, Rita! We need your help!”
“This signal thing aint putting her to sleep,” Crowbar mused thoughtfully. “But it’s still messing with her. How come you and I are okay?”
“So, we’re okay,” Kate muttered, looking up from the drowsy, size-shifting actress to her reluctant new teammate.
Thinking, that her choices were figuring this out or crying and she was determined not to cry in front of the super-villain “What do a transgender barista and a thug with a magic crowbar have in common?”
“It’s not magic,” He replied, in a surly tone. “Everybody thinks they’re so damned funny! My body channels energy. I need something to channel it through to release it and when I ran with the Detroit gangs, this was something handy to carry ‘round.”
He gave the crowbar a slight heft and made it glow and crackle with energy.
“Maybe that’s it?” Kate said. “If it’s not magic then the thing we have in common is the…what did they call it…the Meta-gene!”
“What?”
“Meta-gene, it’s the extra…thing, in our DNA that gives us super powers.” Kate explained, her forehead furrowing as she tried to strike a balance between stabilizing Rita and figuring things out without a science type to help. “Niles went on about it, since he didn’t believe my story about getting my powers by having sex with Negative man…”
“Wait…what…?” Crowbar asked.
“Long story,” Kate replied, absently. “But, it would explain why this signal thing isn’t reaching our brains.”
She tapped her temple for emphasis.
“We have something extra up here, and that’s blocking the signal!”
“What about Robot man and her?” Crowbar asked.
“Robert’s just a regular brain in a robot body and Rita is…complicated” Kate replied. “So, maybe, we can do this…”
“Do what?” Crowbar exclaimed. “I don’t understand a damn thing you just said!”
“Okay, I admit, it’s not exactly a ‘plan’, more a ‘notion’…okay, here’s how it goes: you can channel energy, so maybe you can use your…uh…crowbar, to trace the signal…we find the source, then figure out what the hell is going on here, hopefully, find Bast, and then we fix this and go home!”
“Yeah, why not?” Crowbar shrugged.
He held up his weapon up and closed his eyes in concentration. The crowbar began to glow a blue-ish-white. His arm moved slowly, pointing to one of the side corridors.
“That way,” He said, opening his eyes and pointing with his crowbar. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Okay, Rita, how you doing, hon?” Kate said, gently propping the groggy Elastic Girl up. “We need to get moving. Can you help?”
“Wanna help,” Rita nodded, struggling to sit up. Her arms extended wobbly, until her gloved hands hit the floor.
“How about instead of growing, you get smaller?” Kate suggested. “Might be easier to help you get around.”
Rita nodded, took a deep breath and slowly, like a balloon with a slow leak, shrank, until she was the size of an action figure. Kate, gently scooped up her tiny teammate, tucked Rita in the front pocket of her denim jacket and ran to catch up with Crowbar.
“Anything?” She asked.
“We’re going the right way,” Crowbar shrugged. “Energy feels…weird…can’t tell what kind it is or what it’s doing…”
The trio kept moving, following the corridor to a stairwell and then taking the stairs down a couple flights.
“How big is this place?” Crowbar muttered.
They took a side door, which opened up into an amphitheater of a room.
“What the hell…?” Crowbar breathed, looking around.
The room was bare concrete with some pipes running along the ceiling. A few crates were stacked in a corner.
In the center of the basement room, there were a dozen monkeys, of various sizes and species.
They were all sitting on the concrete floor, cross legged, like they were attending some kind of meditation seminar.
Their hands rested in their laps, their eyes were closed and there was a vibration coming off them, like an amplified hum.
“What a time for Mallah not to be here,” Kate muttered under her breath.
In the center of the circle was a metal ring and from it projected a pillar of white energy, veined with brilliant blue. It shot up and through the ceiling.
“What the &$#@! is going on here!” Crowbar exclaimed. “I am really getting sick of this!”
His Crowbar began to glow orange brightly.
“Settle down,” Kate said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I know this looks crazy, but, I’ve seen weirder…we can figure this out.”
“Seriously? Look at this! Tell me what any of this means!” He snapped.
“Give me a sec!” Kate retorted. “I’m not Batman! Okay, this whole island is a lab…and labs experiment on animals, so…something was done to these monkeys and…”
“And their mental energies were exponentially increased and they are now draining the mental energy of the other primates…uh, the humans, on the island to generate that pillar of energy,” Bast finished, coming up behind them. Her tone was that of a college lecturer.
Still, tense and anxious as he was, Crowbar spun as though she was an attacker.
Bast was startled out of her analysis.
“Kate?” She said. “You’re here! Where’s Robert? He went to investigate some…”
“He fell asleep like everyone else,” Kate interrupted “Rita is all groggy. We aren’t and I think it might be cause we both have the meta-gene…”
“That makes sense,” Bast nodded.
“It does?” Kate asked, wide-eyed.
“I believe what has occurred, is that these primates had some form of psychotropic chemicals tested upon them…or possibly a cerebral scanner of some kind. It triggered something in their brains and this…collective they’ve formed is attempting to send or receive some kind of signal…”
“To who…?” Crowbar asked, anxiously. “They going to bring space monkeys here? We going all ‘Planet of the Apes’…?”
“No,” A new voice replied. “We are answering!”
The trio turned, then looked down.
A chimp, its hair flecked with silver stood before them, a faint smile on its wrinkled face.
They heard its voice, serene and learned, but the chimp’s lips never moved, except when the smile deepened.
“We have been awakened,” It explained, in a tone, like it was speaking to children. “They gave us…this.”
It tapped its temple and nodded.
“They wished us to call out.”
It waved its arm upwards. Kate and Bast looked up, realizing it meant, not the ceiling, but the sky above.
“They were attempting to create psychic transmitters,” Bast breathed. “and then use them for contacting other worlds…other beings…!”
“Kinda sounds like they did,” Kate muttered, anxiously. “And somebody answered them…?”
The chimp nodded, smiling contentedly.
“So, to answer, they needed everybody on the islands’ brain power?” Crowbar said, looking around in anxious confusion.
The chimp nodded, then turned and returned to join the circle. Its task completed.
“So, what the %^&$! happens now?” Crowbar exclaimed. “We just gonna let them do it?”
“I don’t think they’re asking,” Kate muttered in reply. “Are they…?”
“No,” Bast said, with a shake of her head. ‘I think they’ve already got an answer. I think when they realized they couldn’t use us as batteries, they decided there should be witnesses.”
The hum intensified, as did the brightness of the pillar of energy, until the Doom patrol had to step back and hold up their hands to shade their eyes.
Arcs of twitching energy, like tentacles protruded from the pillar, gently brushing against each monkey.
Crowbars’ weapon began to glow brightly, as did all of Basts’ jewelry.
There was a surge, like the eruption of a volcano and the light burst momentarily blinded the witnesses.
As they blinked their sight back, the Doom Patrol saw that they were alone in the room. Rita had woken up, and regaining her normal size had torn Kate’s jacket pocket and was now sitting on the concrete floor, looking around dazed.
“Huh…?” Kate muttered, looking around, unsure how to react. Feeling she had been witness to something significant, but quite baffled as to what.
“What the %$#!…?” Crowbar grumbled, stomping away and sitting down on one of the nearby crates.
“So, what’d I miss?” Rita asked, looking up at her teammates. “Feels like I’m trying to remember a dream.”
“Your scientists experiment with the primates worked,” Bast explained. “Just not in the way they anticipated.”
“So, who were they talking to?” Kate asked. “Where did they go…why did they go…?”
The alien cat woman merely shrugged. Her expression was wistful.
Kate put an arm around Basts’ bare, furry shoulder and gave her what she hoped was a comforting squeeze.
“I guess we’d better go find Val,” Rita said, getting to her feet. “She’s going to want answers…shame we don’t have any.”
“She’s not going to be happy,” Kate nodded.
She wasn’t.
But Val was also too busy reorganizing after everyone woke up, and Bast was more than willing to talk to the science staff.
No one was sure what they found more disconcerting: the information they were given and its implications, or that it was being delivered by a half-naked cat woman from another planet.
Kate wandered off, found the cafeteria, and after an hour spent making coffee for the confused population of Oolong Island, felt a bit more relaxed and went searching for her teammates.
She found Rita, sitting on the beach. She had grown to ten feet tall, so she could dip her bare toes in the surf without having to get up and move closer.
“You okay?” Kate asked, kicking off her shoes and joining her teammate on the sand.
“Am I ever…?” Rita replied absently.
“Shame that such a pretty place could bum you out so badly.” Kate frowned, watching the ocean.
“Well, Val and I seem to set each other off,” Rita muttered. “And, while I do love this beach…”
She jerked a thumb over shoulder at the science complex behind them.
“This was where I learned I’m not actually Rita Farr,” She explained. “And we were constantly dealing with the government using us as weapons and treating us like idiots…and it wasn’t Niles at his best, either…very few happy memories. Sorry I’m not helping much.”
“Don’t be,” Kate said, reaching up to pat Rita’s shoulder. “Val has got it under control. She’s offered both Bast and Crowbar jobs. Bast turned her down, Crowbar may agree, just to get away from us.”
“Where’s Robert?”
“He went for a walk,” Kate explained. “He seemed pretty shook about being put to sleep and then the staff started looking at him like a new toy…I take it he’s coming with us?”
“If he wants to,” Rita shrugged. “Be nice to have a Robot man back on the team…if we ever find the rest of the Doom Patrol.”
“We’re getting there,” Kate said. “We’ve got an alien goddess, an island full of scientists and a shadowy government agency helping and you know Larry and the guys are looking.”
She paused, waiting for a response. Playing responsible adult and morale booster was starting to weigh her down. Kate had never thought of herself as having much talent for either. She was a capable barista and part time super hero. Losing her coffee shop and being forced into being a full-time member of the team was taking its toll.
“Well, if we are going to get stuck anywhere,” She said, glancing around. “I’ve lived worse places then a tropical island while we…is that a taxi cab?”
An old fashioned, black taxi cab rolled to a stop, and a grizzled, middle-aged cabbie got out.
“You ladies call a cab?” He asked.
“Hack O’ Hara…!!” Kate exclaimed, climbing so quickly she stumbled and had to brace herself against her over-sized teammate, before she jogged over and hugged the cabbie. “What…?”
“What?” He replied, a smile creasing his rough features. “You didn’t think we’d have the whole street looking for you?”
“I’ll go get Bast and Robert,” Rita said, smiling as she shot up to twenty feet and jogged over to the research compound.
“Take your time,” Hack O’ Hara said. Meter’s running.”
Next issue: The Doom Patrol has all been reunited, so it’s time for a breather and some quality couple time.