“Adam?” Gold spoke into the receiver. “Strange? Are you receiving me? We’ve got trouble down here. Some kind of strange tigers are about to attack.”
The receiver crackled alive. “Tigrabars,” Adam Strange said, “don’t go near them, Gold. You’ve got to get—*uhhff*—out of there. I’m sorry, I brought you to Rann. I thought it’d be safer than—*skhsss*—out here with me. Guess I was wrong. Over.”
“Strange?” Gold asked, “is everything okay? What’s going on?”
“Gold! Do something!” Tina said.
Tigrabar in its natural habitat
“H-h-hurry, Gold! The tigers—tigrabars—are attacking!” Tin said, while still holding I.Q.’s wrists behind him.
“Unhand me!” Ocean Master demanded of Lead, “and I can deal with them!”
One of the tigrabars leapt at Captain Boomerang and Tina, its curved horn glinting in the early morning Rannian sunlight. Tina shrieked and Captain Boomerang shrieked in unison. “Do something!” they both shouted in unison.
Another tigrabar circled Mercury and Abra Kadabra. “Let go of me!” Kadabra shouted. Mercury uncoiled his hands from around Kadabra’s neck.
“Do your best, magic man,” Mercury said.
Kadabra waved his hands in the air and conjured a spell. The ball of blue-green magic zapped the tigrabar in the face, causing it shake its head and roar ferocioiusly. It swatted at its jaw with its massive front paw and appeared to be momentarily stunned.
And then, it got really, really angry.
It leapt in the air with all the agility of a gazelle. Only Gold was fast enough to stretch over and cover both Mercury and Kadabra. The tigrabar’s claws dug into Gold’s back, and he flattened himself out and let the claws harmlessly bend his body, but not puncture it. In the commotion, however, he had dropped the League receiver.
“Tina!” he shouted, “get the signaling device!”
“I don’t see it!” she shouted back.
“I’ve g-g-g-ot it!” Tin said, holding the signaling device up in the air, waving his arms. This, of course, had the effect on the tigrabars that waving a red cloth in front of a bull had. All five of the tigrabars gave chase to Tin, who ran shrieking in circles around everybody.
Now that all the tigrabars were focused on Tin, Gold let go of Mercury and Abra Kadabra. He turned and ran after Tin. “Push the button!” he said to Tin.
“Wh-wh-wh-which one?”
“The only one!”
Tin pushed the button as he ran. The pack of tigrabars ran after him.
“H-h-help!” Tin said.
Adam Strange’s voice crackled over the receiver, “Who’s this?”
Tin tripped, dropped the receiver, and rolled up into a ball. Mercury swooped by and scooped up the receiver. “This is Mercury!” he said, “get us outta here now, Strange!”
“Mercury? Say again?” Adam Strange asked.
Gold stretched over and swiped the receiver out of Mercury’s hands. “This is Gold! We can’t hold them back anymore! Besides, it sounds like you need our help!”
“All—*shkk*—ight, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Initiating Zeta Beam transfer. Over.”
The air glowed with shimmering golden light, the grass faded underneath, and the evil tigrabars were nothing but a shimmering cloud of orange and black atoms.
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