Dan Garrett knew he was in trouble as Light closed on him with slime quaking in anticipation. He considered that he might have been a bit rash to try to take the frog maker with his back up locked out of the fight. He examined the problem as he jumped out of the way of a giant moldy hand.

Light was stronger than him, almost as fast, and could go all night along. His Vitamin X-2 was due to wear off in a few minutes. The mystery man couldn't keep up this dodging for long. The only way they could win was if Mr. Justice was to join the fight. That meant the thing keeping him out had to go.

The Beetle ducked under a whiplash of tentacles trying to extract his head from his neck, then rolled the other direction. He ducked several more of the vicious, viscous attacks as he worked his way to the door. All this was a matter of seconds.

Mr. Justice looked for something to throw. The battle was moving faster than he expected, but the Beetle appeared unable to get close to his assailant. Something had to be done to help his new comrade even if he couldn't physically enter the room himself. He saw a heavy lamp and hefted it.

It just might do the trick.

The Beetle jumped into the air to avoid a sideswipe, Mr. Justice threw the lamp at the same time. The appliance sailed over the barring seal. It shattered into pieces from the back hand of a shapeshifting mass. That bit of protecting gave the blue clad vigilante a chance to bring both hands down against the seal. He crashed through the floor in a blaze of lightning.

Mr. Justice smiled.

The astral avenger surged across the unprotected threshold, arcane energy warping the air as he reached for Suvok Light with both hands. The master of ectoplasm sent a wave of slime at his enemy. One touch would cause the ghost to become part of him, fuel for his mystical converter. The crusader splashed against the covering, and disappeared inside it.

"I have you now!," Light exclaimed. "You thought you were going to stop my efforts. Instead you are going to help them come to fruition."

Light's gelid sheath started sweating drops of itself. Butter in a frying pan was the best description for the movement. He raised his hand. Slimy ropes fell away to reveal the pink flesh underneath.

Light tried to reverse the effect, tried to keep his body wrapped in the infernal substance. It was the end result of years of research. It would make him the king of the city. He would never give up his dream so close to its realization.

Nothing would stop the march of monsters through the streets so the apocalypse would take the shape he wanted. His power was stronger than any ghost, anything living or dead.

Light tried to isolate this unexpected problem. He needed to gain control of his power, and the only way to do that was to expel any part of Mr. Justice from the ectoplasm armor. That looked like his only chance.

A small piece of slime crystalized into a pearl of pea green. It dropped to the floor and rolled to the wall. Inside a face pushed against the imprisoning shell. Light smiled.

"That fixed you," he said with relish.

The Blue Beetle frowned at the sudden reversal. Light's armor whipped back over his exposed body before the mystery man could take advantage. He didn't have an idea what to do, but he could at least try to free Mr. Justice from his prison.

Garrett grabbed the small green pearl in his hand as he dove under a slimy lance trying to stab him in the chest. He squeezed the shell with his fantastic strength, hoping to break his colleague free. The ectoplasm covered his gloved hand, dripped from his fingers.

"I've enjoyed this chance meeting," said Light. "Now is the time for it to end to my satisfaction."

A green fist stretched from the ghastly covering on the mastermind. It was aimed at the Beetle's face. The vigilante brought his own covered hand up to block out of reflex more than any hope of stopping the oncoming liquid blast. When the two ectoplasm bodies met, they linked together as the trapped specter exerted his own influence on the supernatural substance.

"What have you done?," Light screamed at the top of his voice, trying to pull his appendage back from the joining.

"I think we're taking you down, snot man," said Garrett, smiling as he wrenched his arm back. The linked ectoplasm stretched, pulling at both men as it tried to snap back like a rubber band as they held it like a tug-of-war rope between them.

"I won't allow it!," shouted Light. "I won't allow you misfits to interfere in my plans anymore."

The Beetle kept pulling, feeling the last of his vitamin enhanced strength fading as he grabbed on the room's door frame to keep the pressure on. Light's covering was dripping again, exposing the side of his face and neck to the collar of his shirt. Under their dual onslaught, he was losing the battle. Garret waited for his chance.

Light reached into his reserves of willpower and expelled Mr. Justice again. Once that pest was gone, he could gain control of his power again. A flake dropped from the strange rope between him and the Beetle. He could feel his control return to full power. He felt a sharp pain in his face as the goo snapped back. He realized that he had been shot when he saw the smoking pistol in the mystery man's hand.

Light stumbled back, his ectoplasm running wild as the seriousness of the wound took over. Green tentacles smashed at, through some of, the walls. The mastermind crashed through a hole in the floor, and fell. That part of the house collapsed on top of him seconds later.

"It looks like that's the end of this," said the Blue Beetle as Mr. Justice emerged from the dead glop on the floor.

Suvok Light found that he was pinned under the wreckage of the house. The hole in his cheek and the back of his head bled profusely as he tried to think of a way out of this mess he was in. All of his plans had been ruined by those meddlers.

Light stripped out of his shirt and pressed it to his wounds as a makeshift bandage. Head wounds bled like water through a sieve. He left the rest of his clothes, and shoes, where they lay as he made up a plan on the spot.

Light squeezed through the jumble of wood, plaster, wiring and other remains of his house until he was free. Holding the bandage to his head hampered him, but he crawled free and rolled into the dark shadows next to a basement wall. He paused to catch his breath, listening for anyone looking for his body.

Luckily the ectoplasm was everywhere. That would cover his tracks as well as make it look like his body had exploded when he died. He hoped it would pass any investigation. He needed time to regroup and restart his plan.

Light heard nothing, and hoped the two mystery men thought he was dead and gone. He carefully got to his feet, guided himself to a hole in the wall with one hand out for balance, and stepped outside. He dimly recognized a small stand of trees he could use for cover until he was sure the coast was clear. Then the next step would be to find a doctor and try to close those two holes in his head.

Light waited until he saw the two heroes leaving before he left the stand of trees and walked around to the street. His powers were gone for the moment so he couldn't compel obedience from another person. He would have to rely on charity.

Finally a pedestrian noticed the wounded man and called a cop for help. He was bundled to a hospital in the back of a van the policeman commandeered from passing traffic. Light gave a false name, and a story about being robbed. He expected his opponents to show up to take him away as the doctor worked on his broken skull. The mastermind made a call to an assistant from his business interests and had him pay the doctor for the treatment.

Suvok Light started making arrangements to begin his quest anew. He also had to calculate the cost of his revenge into his plans. He would rise from this and destroy those two meddlers.