TWENTY-FIVE

Maximizer’s fists hammered down on Johnny Bubblegum. The hero caught the fists with his hands, straining against the villain’s power. Invulnergirl could see he was having a hard time and thought about how she could help him. But if the superstrength of Johnny wasn’t enough, how could she, with no superstrength or any offensive powers of her own do anything?

She decided she could distract the villain, though. She whistled on her fingers to get his attention. “Hey, dark, tall and ugly. Why don’t you try your luck with me? You’re mad at me, right?”

Maximizer glanced at her just for a moment, enough for Johnny to push his fists up. Then he hit Maximizer with a roundhouse punch in the face. Invulnergirl winced at the sound of Maximizer’s nose cracking.

“Thanks for the distraction,” Johnny said and started to rain down a volley of superspeed punches on Maximizer.

“You’re welcome,” Invulnergirl said.

Maximizer went slack, his face resting on the floor.

“Well, that’s taken care of. Now you said there were more bad guys in here, right?”

“Yeah, but shouldn’t we try to do something to prevent Maximizer from just regaining consciousness and attacking again?” Invulnergirl asked the pink clad hero.

“No time. I used up a lot of my bubblegum on my mission with The Heroic Alliance and didn’t have the time to make a new batch. I need to take care of the other villains before the one in my mouth runs out of flavor. Hopefully someone from The Heroic Alliance will be on his way to pick up the baddies I defeated.”

“Plural, huh? Cocky,” a snarky voice sounded.

Invulnergirl watched Speed Metal step into the room, accompanied by Queen Neanderthal. She wasn’t looking forward to face them again. She’d had a hard enough time fighting them the first time, and then she had some element of surprise on her side. Of course, now she had Johnny Bubblegum.

Queen Neanderthal cracked her knuckles. “I’m looking forward to smashing your pretty face to a pulp, girl.”

“Go ahead and try,” Invulnergirl said. Some of the bravado was fake. She still felt uneasy, relying on her invulneraiblty.

Queen Neanderthal’s fist smashed right into Invulnergirl’s face. The impact mad her step back, but didn’t hurt her in the slightest. That seemed to annoy Queen Neanderthal. Grunting she started to pepper her with punches.

Meanwhile, Invulnergirl saw Speed Metal come at Johnny Bubblegum with his superspeed. His fists had morphed into metal blades. Soon there was nothing visible but two blurs as Johnny and the villain fought using their incredible speed.

“Why won’t you go down?” Queen Neanderthal said, full of anger. She then decided to change her approach and picked Invulnergirl up.

The teen heroine was surprised at how easily the villainess was able to lift her. She got thrown into the air, against the wall. That of course, did again nothing to hurt her. But although the villainess would not be able to hurt her, Invulnergirl wondered how she was going to beat her.

“Ha! I’ll become a legend!” Speed Metal said, excited. What Invulnergirl saw shocked her.

Johnny Bubblegum was lying lifeless on the floor. His costume was torn, cuts littered his arms and face. Had Speed Metal done what so many other villains were unable to do and defeated the Pink Champion? She couldn’t believe it. Had his bubblegum indeed lost its flavor, and therefore its power?

She ran to Johnny, kneeling next to him. He was still breathing, thank god. But his wounds looked pretty bad. She had to get him some help. But how would she do that with the two supervillains ready to do to her what had been done to Johnny?