Showcase #39

THE DEATHLESS DOOM!

Colonel Henry Casper has contacted the Metal Men to find chemist Ramsey Norton who recently disappeared from his lab. As soon as they set their Rocket Disc on the roof of his lab building, a mammoth hand reaches through the ceiling and grabs Will Magnus and Platinum. Magnus orders the remaining robots to get Casper to safety at a nearby construction site and the duo are dragged inside.  Platinum refuses to user her abilities to escape and abandon Magnus and they soon discover that the hand is Norton's—he has grown to several times his original size. As he lay dying, he explains how he accidentally created the entity Chemo while trying to find a cure for all disease. Chemo was originally an inert plastic vessel that stored all of his failed experiments: chemicals were poured into the mold until it was full and the container spewed chemicals onto Ramsey and started growing. It only escaped moments prior to the team's arrival and Ramsey dies as soon as he finishes his tale.  The team reunites on the adjacent scaffolding, only to have Chemo appear and attack them. Platinum forms a bridge for them to run away but she doesn't have time to save herself. or Lead. They fly away in their Rocket Disc and loop around after Chemo melts a hole into the ground. Iron transforms into a crane and Magnus retrieves the inert bodies of their colleagues.  Back at Magnus Labs, he attempts to restore them and the other heroes go back to stop Chemo: Mercury insists on working alone and Gold, Iron, and Tin team up. Chemo is wreaking havoc in the city—melting train tracks, police cars, and all manner of infrastructure in a seemingly mindless spree. It quickly melts Mercury into globs and melts Tin when he tries to form a large can to contain it. Gold and Iron attack and Chemo's coating causes them to tarnish and rust respectively.  Magnus has only been able to revive Platinum but the duo return to the battle field to find Chemo cutting the top off a skyscraper. They push him off with their Rocket Disc only to have that rapidly melt as well. They lead the chemical monstrosity into a hole that has been burned into the ground, where it is captured among two competing natural gas jets, trapping it motionless. Tina brings them back to the surface where they gather up the bits of their friends and Magnus takes them back to the lab for reconstruction.