Chapter Eleven

At that moment the 100-foot Mandark spotted Dexter and broke out into a broad smile.

"Ah hem - Fee Fi Foe Fum, I smell the blood of a puny scientist a-come!"

"The cliché that walks like man," Kevin sarcastically chided, "how about something more original?"

"Actually my dear," Tanya bantered, "I'm surprised you haven't once said Krunk Krush!"

"I could, but I prefer to come up with my own battle-cry."

"Alright then, how about Hulk Smash?"

"Hey, that sounds just great to me - Hulk Smash - starting with you, Dexter!

Mandark began pushing forward - turning the building into a pile of rubble. Not waiting for orders, Diana swiftly scooped up Dexter into her arms and ran in the direction of the laboratory. The rest of the Amazons followed suit, covering their retreat, but carefully refrained from opening fire on the Green Giant coming at them with a hateful grimace of rage and evil.

"You - get down on the ground," ordered Kevin in the manner of a police officer, "face down, now - hands out where I can see them!"

Tanya glanced at him with a perplexed expression of - What, are you insane? - to which he flashed her a roguish smile - No, I'm not - I have a plan, trust me. By contrast, Mandark was dumbfounded - rather then intimated by his august size the both of them were staring him down.

"You can't be serious - wait, you are serious! And how do you propose to stop me?"

"Well, it's like this tall, dark and mistaken . . . you have to ask yourself one question and being as large as you are, it's the most important question of all, you brute."

"And, that is?"

"Do you feel lucky?"

So saying, Kevin leapt upward, his trajectory aimed straight at the towering green brute of a man. In fact, he wondered if he had overdone it and would overshoot his target, but no - his Super-empowered instincts were correct. So surprised by the shear unexpectedness of it all, Mandark simply stood there as Kevin delivered a roundhouse blow to his face. Stunned - mentally and physically - the Green Giant staggered drunkenly backwards, crushing anything that happened to be in the path of his huge feet.

Not waiting for orders, Tanya charged him. Dazed now, as he was attempting to get his bearing back again, she reached the closest part of his anatomy - his oversized feet. With both of her fists, she brought them down with a double slam-dunk onto his left foot. The resulting sound of her fists was like that of a muffled jackhammer - the bones shattered and the flesh exploded underneath. Shocked out of his lethargy, Mandark screamed out in a deep bellow of agonizing pain and heated outrage that echoed for miles around.

"By the Goddess, he's tougher then I thought - must hit him harder."

While Tanya was inflicting her share of damage, Kevin had landed back on the ground.

"Dammit, I only dented him - not knocked him out cold. Next time, I'm going to take off his head . . . assuming I get the chance."

Tanya struck him again, this time in the right ankle. If what he felt before was terrible - Tanya's renewed punishment was horrible. Unable to stay on either of his damaged feet, Mandark began to fall over - his huge body landing onto an undamaged section of the research complex. The ground shook and a cloud of gray dust arose in his wake - the structures were flattened into rubble as if an enormous earthquake had struck the area. Now that they had a wounded and angry Green Giant on their hands and heedless of the personal danger, Tanya moved in for the kill.

However, just as she closed in Mandark struck back - hard.

With the back of his massive hand he swatted Tanya away - a solid smack that sent her tumbling through the air, a flight that only ended when her Super Amazonian form crashed into the side of a building. In a puff of dust the concrete and reinforced steel crushed underneath her as if it was made of beach sand. Reenergized and fast regenerating, Mandark began to sit up, slowly pushing his body back into the vertical - his green eyes boring straight into the other.

"That bitch, I'm not done with her - but you, I'm going to squash the life out of you."

Impulsively, Kevin was charging at him - determined to make an end of Mandark, once and for all. Unfortunately, the towering Green Giant had the same idea and was just a tad quicker by slamming his foot down unto him. Not satisfied with merely squashing his tiny foe, he sadistically ground his foot over him as if he was putting out a cigarette butt with his shoe.

Preoccupied with one, Mandark just caught a glimpse of Tanya - seemingly recovered and ready to do battle again. Thinking he would pull the same trick twice and rid himself of these meddlesome pests, he brought down his foot again. However, this time Tanya was the quicker and dodged his gigantic blow by leaping upward. In reflex Mandark moved to protect his face, but he should have, however, covered something far lower down on his body - the traditional area used by females to pacify incorrigible males bent on having their way with them.

"AGGGGGGGGGUUUHHHHFF FFFFFFF!"

White-hot blinding agony radiated outward from his manhood as she, figuratively speaking, kneed him in the nuts with brutal disregard. All thought, all focus turned inward as Mandark involuntarily sucked air - caring for nothing and no one but his own self-absorbed self.

Temporarily neutralized, Tanya then turned her attention elsewhere. Just reaching Kevin as he dug himself out of the ground, spiting sand and grit from his mouth, but grateful to see her.

"I though I almost lost you," she said, almost in tears - hugging him.

"Oh, I'm too tough to kill, I'll only Die Hard."

"Yes," she beamed, "you will and so will I - together in bed."

Their reunion was short lived - they could see that Mandark was recovering fast, if but still massaging the source of his aching discomfort.

"You've both got guts, I'll give you that - but I'm going to finish you two off anyway!"

"Oh my, it looks like it's all or nothing now."

"Yes, and in the famous words of The Thing: 'It's clobber'n time!'"

The two of them moved to engage him - utterly determined to stop the oversized bully.

**********

Meanwhile, Dexter, Diana and her Amazonian sisters had reached the room housing the Event Horizon machine - the place was in shambles and a bloody one at that, too. With his new found powers of increasing strength and gigantic size, Mandark had smashed, crushed or ripped apart anyone who got into his way. It was hard not to be moved to pity by the sight, but there was nothing they could for them now, other then to see to it that the rampaging Mandark was stopped, if possible, forever. At first glance, Dexter despaired that he could anything about it now - then upon a closer inspect he was greatly relieved to discover that the mission control room and its related operations consoles were still functional.

Apparently, Mandark had not destroyed the Doorway - perhaps intending to use it at a later day to conquer otherworlds after he had successfully subjugated this one. It was a tactical mistake and one Dexter would now make him regret until his dying day, hopefully that being sooner rather then later. At the same time Diana had ordered her squad of Amazons to clear the area of debris and prepare themselves as best a defensive position that they could manage under the circumstances. Dexter had known, of course, that this group of exceptionally tall and femuscularly built women were incredibly strong - and in a few cases, such as with Diana, were far stronger then any man of comparable size. Not only was it a wonder to see them moving and/or lifting heavy objects with unbelievable ease, but it was terribly distracting to him, too.

Finally, only with a focused determination did he turn his attention back to the goal at hand - preparing the operational settings on the control room console. As he did so, his thoughts returned to the glaring oversight left by Mandark that would prove to be his undoing.

"I would have destroyed it," Dexter commented - a tad louder than he had intended.

"Excuse me?" asked Diana - standing in the access entranceway.

She was acting as his second in command, but mostly when she could, she looked at him in awe as he worked - something he tried not to notice, but couldn't help it. She had so many of the features he fantasized about in his ideal dream partner. However, from the moment he saw her, he was drawn to her in a way that was beyond the intellectual or physical attractions that men and women were suppose to have for one another. He couldn't help but feel a metaphysical sense of déjà vu about her, as if he had known her before somewhere - like they were soul mates.

"I was thinking about Mandark - even in school he was consumed by jealousy of my supergenius - now his foul nature and lust for power has been exponentially amplified into outright megalomania by his transformation into a 100-foot Green Giant. A most dangerous combination that our world would never survive should we fail in our endeavors here."

"Indeed, that is true - but what's to prevent him from returning back to Earth?"

"The world he came from was destroyed - so that's out of the question, the same it true of sending him to another planet. I won't endanger other sentients, not even to save this world - instead, should he by some fantastic miracle survive the crushing gravitational vortex, he'll be sent to a pocket dimension that I recently discovered - The Negative Ghost Zone. There will be no reprieve from place - especially, if the machine implodes, thus closing the doorway, forever."

"A most clever stratagem - he will either die outright or be imprisoned for all time."

She took his hand in her much larger one while he sat there in front of the console. He wanted to pull away from her but he couldn't - and more importantly, didn't want to.

"For a very long time Dexter I've wanted to met you. And please forgive me for being so bold in asking the question, but what is holding you back from visiting our island nation?"

"You can't be Queen Hippolyta - or are you?"

"No, I'm her daughter and the Princess of Themiscyra. Since I was a teenage I've long admired you from afar. My mother knew of my abiding interest in you and approved my exploring the possibility of a union between us. When your sister Deirdre visited our nation for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot she only added to my great fascination about you. In my friendship with her, I explained that you had refused all of our formal overtures. It was she who was responsible for our first meeting on IRT and much to her secret delight we became the best of friends . . . and have only grown to love you all the more, albeit at a distance in cyberspace."

Dexter was both stunned and delighted by her revelation - that she, his beloved Amazon_Diana was here and now acting as his personal protector only made infinite sense.

"And I will admit," he blushed, "I have been love with you, too - have been for a long time, it's just that I couldn't bring myself to say that in chat."

"I know," she beamed, "but I could read between the lines as we conversed.

After a moment's pause of silent communion between them, she continued.

"Now that we've confessed our mutual feelings for one another are you still so hesitant to journeying to my homeland?"

At this, he pulled slowly away from the gentle grip of the towering dark haired Amazon.

"No and yes - the truth is, supergenius or not, I'm ashamed of my inconsequential physical appearance as a man. I've always wanted to be like my sister - tall and athletically strong. I didn't think you would find me attractive . . . any of you. And now, I find myself so used, my secret desires used against me to help super-empower my greatest foe . . ."

Diana squatted down on her knees and lovingly hugged him in reassurance.

"Oh my dearest," she said - looking upward into his face, "to me you tower over all of us in your great intellect and you don't realize how I feel like in comparison to you. Yes, my people do value physical prowess, but far and away we greatly prize high intelligence and great bravery, especially in the face of impossible odds. You my dear Dexter do have that special combination. I've seen it with my own eyes in how you took command of the situation - your directing our two Super Friends to buy us the time that we need or how I and my Warrioress have followed your instructions in preparing this laboratory for dealing with the Evil Green Giant."

Gazing back, he was filled with wonder for this woman - her words were honest and true, but most importantly were coming from her loving heart.

"Now, as for your long held aspirations, this I understand, with all my soul I do. You'll probably be surprised to learn I was not always as I am now - yes, my Dexter its true. Although exceptionally tall, I had to work long and hard at reshaping my rake-thin body into the superior physique that I now possess. Therefore, if you are willing, it would be my greatest pleasure to help you achieve whatever might be your heart's desire in masculine strength and bodily size."

**********

"Nice play by my Green Giant," crowed Rowena - with an evil smile, "punching Lady Tanya, the One-Woman Army Corps deep into the ground. Oops, he just nailed Lord Kevin the One-Man Army Corps coming to her the rescue - that's certainly going to leave a mark. I have to admit, you know how to grow 'em - but you don't know how to fold 'em."

"On the contrary," calmly replied Giselle, "they were only playing Horatius at the Bridge - either of them on their own could have killed your Green Giant, but wasn't required of them. Instead, by his own hand Dexter is going to personally do away with Mandark."

"I doubt it," Rowena snorted in disdain, "Dexter doesn't have the guts for self-sacrifice."

**********

"No," exclaimed Diana, "you must not be place in harm's way, ever!"

"It can't be helped, the Event Horizon device can only be triggered manually."

"Then I'll be the one to do it."

"Its not you that he's after."

Suddenly, the outer wall of the laboratory burst wide open with explosive force and amidst the dust and rubble was a massive green figure pushing his way into the room. By the looks of him, bloody, bruised and battered it seemed impossible that Mandark could still be functioning, and yet he was - seemingly larger then ever and twice as menacing.

"Got to say Dexter, those two superbeings of yours put up a damned good fight, but in the end my overall supersize won the day."

"You killed them?" Dexter said - stunned.

"Nope, they're out of the way for the moment - just long enough for me to deal with you before I finish them off, for good."

Steadily he moved towards Dexter - a grim expression of malevolence and near carnal-like satisfaction painted on his green face. Using their weapons to the best possible effect the Amazons opened fire on him - a few even lobbing fragmentation and concussion grenades at his oncoming emerald massiveness, all to no avail. Annoyed by their resistance, he sluggishly lashed out at them, but they easily dodged his huge hands or the staggering-shuffle of his large feet. His body was exhausted and it showed - only deep-seated rage unspent powered him now.

"You must go, my Princess!"

"Never my love, if we are to die then let it be together."

She quickly bent over and kissed him hard on the lips, to which he returned the affection in full measure. Then as one they dashed towards the Doorway of the Event Horizon device.

**********

By Zed - no! They plan to sacrifice themselves to save the rest."

"It's just as I've said, the power of love will overcome anything, even hateful revenge."

**********

With reckless abandon, the lumbering Mandark pursued them up to the edge of the Doorway of the Event Horizon device. With Diana guarding his backside Dexter reached manual control panel - his finger hovering over the activation switch, ready to flip it on. Glancing towards the ruptured wall, he saw Kevin and Tanya, both looking like they had been run over by an armored tank column. Diana shouted out to the rest of the Amazons to clear the area - at once, no questions. Nevertheless, they continued to fire away at the monstrous Green Giant even as they retreated and made good on their escape. The huge form of Mandark was closing in - but Dexter held his ground, refusing to push the button too soon. Seconds passed and sweat was soaking his clothing as the foul behemoth began to reach out to take them both.

"Not day - your green ass is mine!"

The switch flipped on - then he felt Diana smoothly grabbing hold of him tightly. She said something, but he couldn't make it out - the noise from black hole drive was drowning out her words. Her free arm shot out, determinedly - as if about to punch someone. Only now did he understand the true purpose behind her outré set of metallic armbands. Seamlessly springing out from the smooth surface was arms of a crossbow and out shot a bolt with a golden cord attached. It impacted deep into the far wall on the other side of the room. Before he knew it he felt a jerk and was sailing across the room with Diana as though a magic lasso had snatched them.

"Nooooooooooo!" shouted Mandark - trying to grab at them - a deed done in vain.

By then he was gripped by the gravitic field of the black hole - the force of it was dragging his massive body into its dark vortex of warped time and space. Try as he might to fight it, any resistance was useless. Within seconds he was pulled in, feet first, then his torso and finally, his head was crushed and flushed out of their universe. Just as he vanished from sight the structure of the Doorway began to melt or flow into the opening, the mass of it shrinking in size until the very last elemental essence of it disappeared in a brief flash of light.