Posted on June 8, 2024July 1, 2024The Elixir of Youth (continued . . .) Narrod, are you all right ? You’re lucky to be alive, I can tell you ! My sight failed me, and my reactions were too slow at that corner ! I’m finished ! I shall never get into a race-auto again ! Once he held every speed record on Elekton ! Well, old age gets us all in the end ! A lifetime of record-breaking had made Narrod a planet-wide celebrity and a millionaire. But he went back to his luxurious villa in black despair. My life is finished. I may still live on for years . . . . . . If you can call it living ! Why not end it all now ? A visitor requesting to see you, Master. His name is Mallo. Not the Mallo, who won the Vorg wrestling crown at the Imperial Games ? Show him in, Zapp. My, how I envy you, my boy. Do you know I won the Vorg wrestling crown three times when I was your age ! What wouldn’t I give to be young again ! You can be young again, Narrod ! Youth lies within this phial and it can be yours ! . . . . . . For a million thullars !—Cash ! This installment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 647 on 8 June 1974.
Posted on August 12, 2022February 4, 2024The Fiendish Experiment (continued . . .) The apparatus fell silent. Zerros tremblingly approached the transparent container. Where Vella had lain was now only . . . water ! Lieutenant Vella . . . can you hear me ? Of course I can, fool ! Decant me on to the floor, as planned ! The crooked scientist did as he was bidden. Are you . . . all right ? Never felt better in my life ! A savage nurdot—one of Elekton’s more unpleasant vermin—was tethered at the far end of the makeshift laboratory. Heh ! Heh ! The stream of water snaked, deliberately, towards the animal. The nurdot’s fanged jaws descended to gulp at the water. In that instant—it happened ! And then . . . I am now . . . Returning . . . To normal ! Beaming with triumph, Vella enthused to his accomplice. The whole thing is evil . . . diabolical ! Rubbish ! It is the greatest money-spinning idea of the century ! From now on, I can change myself to an equal volume of water at will. Electrically-charged water which—as you saw with the nurdot—can kill at a touch. . . . I am the perfect murder-weapon and I can turn myself into profit— firstly, by eliminating the man who menaces my whole way of life ! In my water-state, I can move against the force of gravity in any direction I will. I can remain undetected and unsuspected . . . The following day, a private aircraft descended upon the well-kept lawn of a stately villa overlooking Trigan City. Welcome home, Master. I trust that you have had a successful business trip ? Shut your mealy mouth, Slakka ! You know very well that my business has been the business of eliminating my rivals in big-time crime. This was the leader of the most powerful criminal organisation in the Trigan Empire. Later, bathed and perfumed, he relaxed by his luxury pool. Er . . . touching on the matter of Lieutenant Vella, master, who owes you a thousand thullars in gambling debts, plus another thousand for some hairbrained scientific scheme . . . The big-time crook condemned Vella to death—all unaware that a trickle of water was snaking towards his bare feet. Vella is a fool. Furthermore, he has begun to bore me . . . . . . have him eliminated ! Heh ! Heh ! The next instant . . . The water ! . . . It’s surrounding me ! . . . It’s going to destroy me . . . The way it just destroyed my master ! This installment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 552 on 12 August 1972.
Posted on January 1, 2022February 15, 2022The Prisoner of Zerss (continued . . .) This installment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 520 on 1 January 1972.
