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The Blurr arrived at the Justice Union headquarters within minutes. He was already searching the Panther’s lab as quickly as possible, fumbling through every drawer and cabinet he could find. He whisked to a cabinet beneath a sink and opened it.
“Hmmm, now where did he say it was locked up?” the Blurr asked himself.
Having an active mind, the Blurr was prone to forgetting details as fast as he could run across an entire state. After rushingly spreading throughout the entire area, the Blurr finally came to the whereabouts of the concoction. He stared at a cabinet in awe and remembrance. There was a sign posted on the front door reading, “Weaknesses of the Justice Union,” starkly in his face.
“Ah so here’s where the old cat hides his belongings,” the Blurr deduced. He tugged at the handle to the cabinet door, only to feel it pull back with the same force. It was locked.
“Locked eh?” he said to himself. “Piece o’ cake.”
The Blurr, in a fixedly fast motion, tugged at the non-moving handle with an insurmountable amount of speed. His plan worked, and the door flung wide open. The Blurr then realized the Panther was very serious about his work, and providing a safe environment for the Justice Union.
There were gadgets galore that could’ve taken down any one of the team members. In examination, Johnny took sight of an electric containment bulb for Electrolight, an anti-rage serum for the Bulk, and even a contraption specific for the Blurr himself.
“Hmmm,” he thought as he picked up the gadgetry.
Upon examination, it looked to be some sort of belt, with a clock fastened in the middle.
There were bunches of buttons throughout, and on the back was the label, “Time/Speed Decelerator.”
“I’ll just be taking this,” the Blurr said. He pushed other objects aside and finally found what he had come to discover. There was a small glass bottle in sight, which contained a reddish-brown powder inside of it.
“This must be it,” Johnny said, examining the label, “Special Blend of Cayenne Pepper, by Chef Panther.”
“Looks like the somber blue panther has a culinary side to him,” he jokingly chuckled.
Gathering the vial of pepper, then replacing all the other gadgetries, Johnny blurred out of the headquarters like a speeding bullet across the Buffalo plains.
Justice Union#1: Episode 4 - "Two's a Crowd"
Meanwhile, back on the east wing of the city, the Blue Panther was tirelessly trying to get his fellow members to safety. Using his grappling gun, the Panther latched onto a high building and swung himself toward where Eaglet Girl lay. Bashed and bruised, she was silently unconscious.
As red laser beams pierced the ground around him, the Panther swiftly held his arm around her and swung to a safe haven on top of a roof. After he rested her onto the platform, he turned around to see the emotionless Ultraman floating in his midst.
To avoid endangerment of Eaglet Girl, the Panther equipped his grappling gun once again and aimed it to the building across from where he resided. After snagging yet another part of concrete, the Panther quickly swung around Ultraman, and sent him a small gift of appreciation. Sifting through his utility belt as he swung like Tarzan, the Panther gathered three unused smoke bombs from one of the pockets.
As he crossed the crevice above the street, he thrust the explosives into the direction of Ultraman, which proceeded to strike his chest. Upon impact, the bombs burst into smoke as a thick gray cover enveloped the mindless superhero. Using this distracted time as an advantage, the Panther scaled the building he landed on, and planted his feet upon the rooftops, ready for more.
The billowing smoke that had clouded the elusive figure began to fade, and from yet another pocket, the Panther stealthily retrieved his panther discs for use. With two ready in hand, he waited for the dark clouds to shrink to nothingness. Soon, there Ultraman appeared seemingly unscathed, and staring with glaring eyes at the cunning Panther.
With one quick motion, the Panther let fly his razor sharp discs into the bodily form of the thoughtless drone, which led to an astonishingly profound discovery. Defending himself, Ultraman knocked the slicing circles with his bare hands. Two thoughts ran through the Panther’s mind while witnessing this. For one thing, he knew that Ultraman had known that even he could not deflect the adamantium alloy discs without receiving a badly produced paper cut at the very least. The second deduction had two distinct possibilities.
Either this imposter was not Ultraman at all, or he had forgotten all memory perceived before the moment he turned evil. The latter question was dismissed after the next events were blazed into the Panther’s eyes in quick succession. As the discs tore through Ultraman’s deflection, the slicing of his skin did not provide the normal effect of blood seeping through the punctured layers. Instead, blue sparks began to spew from the wound, and small red and blue wires could be seen detangling themselves. However the moment was brief, for within seconds, a solid, circular object had assaulted Ultraman’s very face, and sent him hurling into the western-most direction. To his right, the Panther saw the Patriotess, alive and kicking, hair ruffled, and geared for battle.
As the Patriotess commenced her battle against the grounded Ultraman, yet another guest arrived at the scene. It was the Blurr, running up the side of the building toward the Panther.
In an instant, Johnny was standing in front of the Panther, arm outstretched with pepper in hand. The detective took a look at it himself.
“Took you long enough,” he accused the Blurr.
“Sorry, I got caught up in all those devices you built to take down your Justice Pals. What’s the deal with that time/speed decelerator-thing?” Young Johnny asked, rubbing his hand behind his head.
Bryce replied in his usual solemn tone, “Well, there needs to be a system of checks and balances for everyone,” he reasoned.
A worried look appeared on Johnny’s masked face. “Well, what if you decide to go renegade and turn on us with all those machines?” He wondered.
The Panther smirked a smirky smirk, and answered, “Well then, you’ll just have to watch your back…every minute of the day.”
Johnny was a bit taken aback by this remark, unsure of whether or not the Panther was joking or giving him a serious warning. With Bryce in his costumed form, you couldn’t be fully reassured.
“Alright,” the Blurr changed the subject. “How are we going about weakening Ultraman?” Johnny asked the veteran, waving the cayenne pepper in his hand.
“This isn’t going to work,” The Panther explained, grabbing the bottle of pepper, then tossing it aside over the roof. “Hey!” Johnny cried, rushing down the side of the building to safely snag the glass from certain doom. In a second, he dashed back towards the Panther.
“What’s the big idea?! What do you mean ‘it won’t work’!?” he yelled.
Panther resumed his solemn resonance. “He’s not even human…er…Mennonian, whatever planet he’s from,” he explained.
Johnny continued the interrogation, “How…do you know?” he asked him. “I sliced the top of his hands with my Panther discs. Somehow I don’t think blue sparks and wires is what makes up the anatomy of the Mennonian people,” the Panther explicated.
“So you’re saying, he’s a robot?” Johnny further inquired. “Or an android,” the Panther responded. “An automation that resembles a human, or in this case, a Mennonian, created from biological materials.”
Johnny looked at the Panther in perplexing confusion. “So someone’s got his DNA?” The Panther stroked his chin in deep thought.
“Possibly. We don’t exactly know what we’re dealing with here,” the Panther said.
“Well then if the clone’s got the same DNA, then it’s gotta have the same weakness!” The Blurr reasoned. But he was corrected.
“Not necessarily,” the Panther began. “In our bodies, the immune system is designed to attack harmful substances such as bacteria and viruses. With allergies, our bodies can attack substances that are completely harmless, like cayenne pepper, except for its spicy effects. If he was made with some type of robotic frame, then he has no immune system. Therefore, no allergies,” he clarified in an intelligent manner.
“Whoa-hoa, someone really knows their biology,” the Blurr complimented. “You could’ve taken my biology tests back in college for me.” At a sudden moment, the lecture was startlingly interrupted.
With a crash and bang, the two heroes’ attention shifted toward the left, where the Patriotess could be seen sailing unconscious through the air. Thinking rapidly, the Panther once again rushed to the rescue as he grasped his grappling gun and projected it into the air. He then heroically proceeded to grab the Patriotess’ ailing body and whisked it safely upon the roof where Eaglet Girl lay.
“We’ll never know if this stuff works if we don’t try it,” the Blurr rationalized, speaking of the pepper. The Blurr then zapped his way down to the street, and stood stoutly beneath the rampaging Ultraman.
Spotting this physical suicide, the Blue Panther cried out, “No, Johnny, don’t!” breaking his own Justice Honor code.
But the Blurr was too fast for him. Underneath Ultraman, the Blurr began whirling around in fastidious motion, stirring up a whirlwind. As the tornado grew in size, Johnny unleashed a powder of pepper throughout the powerful gust of wind, causing the cloud of pepper to rise toward the clone. As the current of air and dust enveloped him, Ultraman corroded the Blurr’s further efforts by spinning rapidly just as well. Within seconds, the robotic Mennonian created a much more powerful cyclone that devoured the Blurr’s, and him along with it. Giving out a loud cry, Johnny was tossed away like an old rag doll into the distance.
Preparing for battle, the Panther retrieved three more Panther discs from his utility belt, warily waiting for Ultraman’s next move. Slowly the imposter turned around and faced the Panther with leering, red eyes. In a surprise blast of red rays, a laser beam sped toward the Panther’s unprepared self. With eyes wide open, he braced himself for impact.
However, something had happened on which he did not count on. From the northeast came another blast of red rays, unmistakably similar to the ones aimed toward himself. Both beams dissipated as they collided into each other, and a small patch of smoke billowed into the air. Dropping his arms, and opening his eyes, the Panther glanced upward to see a familiar figure.
“Looks like the creators slacked off in creating this look-alike. I don’t look that old.”
With arms folded and in original yellow costume stood the real Ultraman, staring straight into the eyes of his fellow counterpart.
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