When Green Meets Grey: Part Sixteen

The Girl in Grey came to slowly and painfully, the room taking a couple of turns as she opened her eyes. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it. The room just took another few sickening turns, until the Girl in Grey closed her eyes again.

"You are awake..." a deep and booming voice addressed her. "Why are you here?"

"I came to stop you," the Girl in Grey sighed, feeling dreadfully weak. She could sense that she was hanging by her hands from the ceiling. And that was not good.

"And now you are my prisoner..." the voice chuckled. "And your friend is dead."

That hit her hard. Somehow she'd assumed the Green Man couldn't possibly be dead, despite that hand grenade. Maybe she'd just bought the old story that the Green Man could not be killed. But now he was no more. And she'd never really known who he was. Never known anything about him, except that she loved him (and that he was a good kisser, too, but that didn't really count now). She felt a lump rise in her throat.

"Blown to pieces," another voice replied, laughing. "Only a few scarps of green cloth and bits of bone."

"Stop it!" the Girl in Grey opened her eyes, anger blazing in her heart. "You killed a hero, and if I get free..."

"You'll make me pay?" the deep voice was that of the man who had been on the throne. Now dressed in less formal, but still grand robes, this man was clearly Pharaoh, the master-mind of the operation. "I know, little girl. And that's why I'm going to kill you." An unpleasant smile spread over his face.

"Without telling me your evil plan for world domination?" the Girl in Grey sighed. "You know, the super-villain's union 'll be mad."

"Which is why I'll have to tell you," the Egyptian-themed super-villian shook his head. "But I shall break the by-law relating to my locking you in a cell which you can escape from, or at least trying to put you to death in a needlessly complicated way from which you can escape. I'll just have you shot."

"Nice," the Girl in Grey smiled. "So, what do the deranged dishwashers and violent vacums have to do with your plan?"

"Everything!" the Villian laughed, "tell me, wench, what does every home possess?"

"A door," she smiled sweetly.

"A vacum cleaner!" the villain snarled.

"Mine might," the Girl in Grey replied, "but I can't find it right now. I think my sister's buried it under a pile of rubbish. But I get your point. These things are going to kill lots of people."

"Unless the Governments of the world pay me a great deal of money, " the Villain chuckled.

"So extortion is your game," the Girl in Grey shook her head.

"You might almost say my business," Pharaoh grinned.

"I can't," the Girl in Grey pointed out. "That's a line from a James Bond film. It's probably copyright or something."

"Anyhow," the villain motioned to his goons, "now you know. Goons, kill her."

Two shots were fired, and the Girl in Grey closed her eyes, wincing in expectation of the pain. When she didn't die, the opened her eyes again. The two men who had meant to slay her lay dead at Pharaoh's feet, neat holes in the middle of their foreheads.

"You miscalculated, Pharaoh," a familiar voice came from behind the Girl in Grey.

"Green Man!" the two figures spoke at once, as the Green Man stepped into the room, still holding his guns. His coat was perfectly neat, leading the Girl in Grey to conclude that he'd changed at some point.

"I saw you die!" Pharaoh shouted, starting forward. "You can't be!"

A shot from the Green Man's revolver shattered the villain's wrist.

"Believe it." The Green Man's voice was brutal, as his next shot severed the cords that bound the Girl in Grey to the ceiling. "Your base's reactor is timed to blow in ten minutes, and my friend and I are getting out of here. You can come too if you want to face justice."

The way that the villain muched on his cyanide capsule suggested that he didn't fancy that option. The alarm sounded, and soon the two crimefighters were battling their way past legions of guards. Once it became obvious that the pyramid was doomed, however, the guards turned and fled. Outside, as the night fell, the Bedouin were waiting outside to take the remaining bad guys into custody, as the Pyramid dissolved into a pillar of fire.


The Girl in Gry followed the Green Man back to the hypersonic jet, full of unanswered questions.

"Say," she asked him, as they took off, "what exactly did happen when that Grenade fell?"

"I jumped clear," the Green Man explained, "onto a convenient ledge. The remains they found were a length of coat fabric I keep for such occasions, and parts of one of their own men. Any other questions?"

"Just one," the Girl in Grey chuckled.

"Yes, my dear?" the Green Man set a course for London.

"Could you kiss me again?"

Next Time: The Secret Order of Doom!