Issue
Synopsis:
Issue
#40:
While
on his nightly patrol, Spectre hears the all too familiar sound of an
alarm in the distance. Spectre
quickly leaps into action, preparing himself for battle.
Instead of seeing a band of bad guys robbing a jewelry store or a
group of thugs braking into a bank, he spies a lone woman standing alone
in a parking lot. Spectre
instantly notices that she is holding some kind of hand siren - the
alarm that he was responding to. As Spectre approaches the woman, he
uses his telepathy to ask her what's going on.
The woman calmly turns off the siren, pulls out her earplugs, and
introduces herself as Ms. Locke. She
informs Spectre that she needs a hero and Spectre begins to notice an
odd smell. He asks the Ms.
Locke about the smell, and she exclaims that it's her.
Quickly changing the subject, Ms. Locke tells him that she was
attacked by a small group of people who claimed she was a mutant.
She tells Spectre of how she escaped, and how the people believed
she was a mutant due to the odd smell that surrounds her.
Spectre asks if she's ever noticed the smell having any effects
on anyone. She looks him straight in the eye and informs him that it
makes people pass out. Spectre falls unconscious...
Spectre awakens in darkness.
As he tries to grasp his surroundings, he hears a voice booming
to him through the darkness. The
voice starts rambling about the importance of entertainment and games
throughout man's history and ends the speech of how the voice was hired
to kill Spectre and how his powers are useless here.
Before Spectre can respond to his last statement, something hits
him in the back and he finds himself speeding through a gigantic pinball
machine in an odd transparent ball.
Each time the ball hits a bumper, and electrical shock
electrifies Spectre, causing him a great deal of pain.
Spectre yells at the voice, and demands to know who he's facing,
the voice announces himself as Arcade, and informs Spectre that he has
arrived in Murderworld. Spectre begins to belittle Arcade's assassination style which
infuriates Arcade and causes him to lose the game of pinball, spiraling
Spectre into the dark pit at the bottom of the gigantic machine.
The ball splits in two, causing Spectre to fall a very short
distance directly into a chair. Before Spectre can even begin to look at his surroundings, he
realizes that the straps are moving of their own accord and strapping
him into the chair.
Lights
turn on, blinding Spectre and as his eyes adjust, he hears the music and
realizes he's on some kind of odd game show.
Spectre sees a stereotypical game show host as well as two other
"contestants" to his left. The
host announces that they will have one question each, and they'll be
playing for keeps. The host
walks over to Spectre and asks him who hired Arcade to kill him. The first "contestant", a businessman who is well
bound and apparently not knowing what is truly going on, blurts out with
"His parents." A
buzzer sounds and the host yells out "Wrong!"
As he yells a blade comes out of the wall behind the man and
swings from left to right, decapitating the man.
The second "contestant", a woman, screams at the site
of this and Spectre is physically taken aback.
The host looks at he cardboard cutout audience and makes a
comment about a close shave. He
turns back to Spectre and tells Spectre he has 30 seconds to answer.
Spectre guesses Frostbite. "Wrong!"
Spectre watches in horror as the blade whips forward and
decapitates the lady beside him. The
host shoots another quip at the lifeless audience and a laugh track
sounds. Turning back to
Spectre, he gives him a final chance.
Spectre, truly stumped, verbally stumbles and says
"Uh.." The host
shouts "Wrong!" Spectre
manages to duck forward just as the blade whizzes past him, cutting his
back slightly. The host
angrily runs at Spectre and Spectre, in return, falls to his back and
hoists his feet up and under the host in an attempt to monkey flip him.
Unfortunately, Spectre realizes that he's a robot... a HEAVY
robot, and Spectre is pinned beneath him.
Spectre manages to break free of the straps, which were damaged
by the swinging blade, and push the robo-host off of him.
Spectre notices the door that was behind him and runs through it,
closing it behind him.
Spectre finds himself in a dank, dark room. He calls out to Arcade, but there is no response. Spectre decides to explore the walls for a light switch. He finally feels a chain cord hanging from the ceiling and pulls it. Suddenly, several hundred pounds of fish land on top of him, almost crushing him. Arcade laughs as the lights come on and as Spectre makes his way to the top of the avalanche of fish, he notices that the room is actually a long hallway. Spectre makes his way to the top of the pile of fish, wading through the sea of fish, slipping and falling along the way. Arcades laughs only boom louder at the sight of this hero sliding through fish as if he were a circus clown. Finally, Spectre makes it to the end of the hall and through the door to another hallway; this one filled with mirrors. The mirrors are all different shapes and sizes, and some of them seem to have reflections of different people and places. Spectre stops at a mirror that has a reflection of a girl drowning in it. He kicks the mirror and breaks it, revealing nothing but wall behind the mirror. Confused, he calls out to Arcade to tell him what's going on. Arcade explains with great pride that this is a gallery of his victims, and points out the mirror that Spectre's dying image will be trapped into. Spectre sees himself in the mirror and only sees his true reflection. Suddenly the mirror shatters and a vacuum of air tries to suck Spectre into the void where the mirror once was. He manages to avoid the vacuum and rushes down the hall to the door at the end. Arcade continues to banter with him as he heads down the hallway, but is suddenly cut off in mid sentence. Spectre thinks this is very odd, but continues towards the door regardless.
As
Spectre opens the door, sunlight beams through and Spectre sees what
seems to be the outside of a large courthouse.
He quickly notices the press and crowd waiting for him, but they
seem frozen in time. Spectre
investigates them to discover they all seem to be robots; inactive ones
at that. As he looks
around, feeling the wind and the sun, Spectre notices a tear forming out
of the air itself. As it
continues, Spectre realizes that the tear is actually a tear in some
sort of wall and that the imagery beyond the wall must be some sort of
illusion. A man in a dark
outfit emerges from the hole in the wall and reveals himself as
Darkwell. Darkwell assures
Spectre that they are on the same side and the two blast a hole through
the ceiling of the room and ascend through it.
The pair discover Ms. Locke and a man Darkwell identifies as Mr.
Chambers unconscious. They
leave the henchmen and head into Murderworld's control room.
There they spot Arcade unconscious on the floor with a new
costumed man looming over him. This
new hero introduces himself as Matrix.
Matrix explains that he and Darkwell were trying to catch Arcade,
and that they had used Darkwell as the bait.
Spectre exchanges some basic information with the heroic pair and
how to get in touch with each other, in case they ever need to team up
in the future...