by the_indestructible_man, underfahrenheit451, the_time_trust_2000
Just outside Los Angeles, antimatter world:
The heat boiled up over the road as the roar of engines was heard around the bend. With a squeal of rubber and steel, out flew the General Lee, bouncing back down to the road. Behind it came shooting out the Pre-Crisis Super-Dodge, followed by a fleet of LAPD squad cars. The fleet dodged and darted, following the two heroes' automobiles.
The Indestructible Man said over his CB radio, "Dammit! We'll never get to Law Shark's office if we get chased back and forth all across the county!"
Flintlock, over the CB radio, replied, "This is one hell of a ride! Think if we go off-road we can lose them?
Indestructible Man: "Not me, at least -- my muffler's practically scraping the pavement as it is. I go off-road into that scrub, and the car's dead before I can reach a mile."
Flintlock: "All right, then... let's split up -- I'll keep the law busy, you take out the Shark!"
Flintlock reached back and pulled the stuffed Garfield that Indestructible Man affixed there from his back window. Reeling about in a J-turn, he leaned out and lugged it at the lead cop car, watching as he drove backward, seeing the police car flip and fly off into the ditch. The other cars, seeing what Flintlock had done, followed the General Lee as it shot off the highway and into the forest.
Unchased, Indestructible Man shook his head, smiled, cranked the dial up on some Def Leppard, and went into overdrive toward the lights of Los Angeles, fast on the trail of Law Shark.
As Flintlock was speeding away, he heard a ring on his cell phone, and he answered. "Hello?"
Over the phone, the words were accompanied with echoes. "Flintlock? This is Tempus... I have momentarily broken out of Medussa Lass' control..."
Flintlock: "You sound like you're in a well."
Tempus: "You have to listen to me."
Flintlock: "Are you on the speaker phone?"
Tempus: "Yes, but..."
Flintlock: "You know I hate it when I have to talk to people over a speaker phone."
Tempus: "Yes, but..."
Flintlock: "Get off of it."
Tempus: "But, see..."
CLICK.
Flintlock: "The nerve of some people."
Flintlock noticed the squad cars behind him again. "Something doesn't seem right..." He reached for the knob on the radio and turned on some banjo get-away music. "Thats better. Now about these corrupt cops..."
He quicky reached into the back seat and grabbed a broom handle. He shoved it into the wheel to keep the cars straight. Then he grabbed his sawed-off shotgun, leaned out of the window, and started firing away. Since he knew from Indestructible Man's account that the cops were on the payroll of the Meta Syndicate of Order, he felt no qualms about doing any damage to their vehicles.
Time Trustee Tempus heard a click on the other side of the line of his cell phone, which he had hastily modified to transmit messages through into the antimatter world, but which also used a lot of power. Flintlock had hung up on him. HE HUNG UP! "That bastard! Let's see... who else can I call?"
BEEP!
"Damn! The battery just died... And now I can't remember what I had to say... Hey... what was I doing again?"
From the other room, Medusa Lass called out, "Tempy! Come and massage momma's feet, will you?"
Tempus: "Yes, dear..."
Meanwhile, the Indestructible Man reached Los Angeles, where he noticed something strange. There were no people in the streets. "Something's wrong..."
Driving slowly down Santa Monica Boulevard, the Indestructible Man looked high and low for any sign whatsoever of the millions of missing Angelinos. As he pulled around the corner off the exit, he saw a man standing in the middle of the road in a pinstripe suit, briefcase in one hand, smoldering rocket-propelled grenade in the other. He raised his gun as the Pre-Crisis Super-Dodge came to a halt.
Stranger: "Halt, Ultra-Conservative! I have a summons for you; you are to appear in municipal court to be convicted of grand treason."
"The name's Indestructible Man now, and the answer's no!" Slamming his booted foot on the pedal, Indestructible Man roared forward in his car, knocking apart the legal robot as it tried in vain to shoot through the invulnerable windshield.
He shot down the street, careening off trash cans and alley boxes as he noticed the quivering arrow on his dashboard indicating that the engine was overheating.
He pulled off the street into a lot as the car sputtered to a halt and got out. He reached into the trunk to pull out a long package, then locked the car and armed the security measure. As armor plating rolled into place over the automobile's every orifice, he unwrapped the package to reveal a glowing blade, a relic he liberated from a Berkeley comic-shop, a cosmic-scale weapon now refit to serve the world's sole remaining metahuman:
THE SWORD OF THE METAHERO!
Setting his baldric and scabbard across his chest, he sheathed the blade and started down the road on foot, toward the courthouse and the menace of Law Shark, to save Los Angeles and take the first step to liberating his world.