Play to Win Part Two

Trapped in a burning building while confronting Padre of the Renegades, Vegas thought he was going to die when he is suddenly finds himself on Mopac Expressway. He watches as vehicles swerve out of the way to avoid hitting him. One of the vehicles is a truck and it swerves into the path on an car coming the opposite way that is being driven by his ex-girlfriend, Meg Lantry. This causes Vegas to wake up, he realizes this was another vision and he is still trapped in the burning building. The building had exploded, but miraculiously, the falling debris ended up forming a tunnel that Vegas can use to escape. There he finds Seargent Harlan Stone — a Texas Ranger nicknamed Tombstone — who has been horribly burned by the fire and pinned under debris. He tells Vegas to ignore his burns as they still have to find Padre, the leader of the Renegades — a gang of super-powered outlaws that Vegas wants revenge on for killing his sister. However, Vegas refuses to comply, and Tombstone suddenly dies. Figuring this is the last of the Texas Ranger, Vegas relieves him of his gun and continues his hunt for the Renegades.

Vegas tries calling his ex-girlfriend but only gets her voicemail. Suspecting that his vision was true, he finds Meg in the hospital in serious but stable condition. When she confirms that she was hit by a truck on the Mopac Expressway, Vegas feels disorientated and tells her that he needs to get out and get some air. He goes to a nearby diner where the server gives him a cup of coffee on the house since he looks like he needs it. Deciding to see if he’s right about these powers that he suddenly has, Vegas asks one of the patrons to flip a coin and he bets he can call how its going to land. When asked if he is going to call heads or tails, Vegas says the quarter will land on its side. Sure enough, the coin ends up landing in between the grooves in the floor. As a result of this stroke of luck, the server suddenly drops the coffee pot, the first time she did this in her fourteen years of working at the diner. Vegas suddenly realizes that his powers grant him some kind of luck, however his lucky has to be transfered from somebody else, resulting in them having bad luck. This is just like his sister said it would happen and his mind drifts back….

Jane had taken her brother to see the probability generator that she was working she. He is also introduced to Doctor Heisenberg, the man who is behind the invention of this machine. Heisenberg is pleased to meet Vegas and compliments his sister for her intelligence and guesses that she is the older sibling. Heisenberg is right, even though they are twins, Jane was born two minutes earlier than Vegas. Heisenberg is surprised that Jane never mentioned this, and she explains that she never brought up her brother when she started working on the project because he was serving time in prison. Vegas admits that he made a mistake and hopes that he can turn his life around. Jane gets upset, complaining about how her brother always manages to overshadow her somehow. Their argument is inerrupted when Rose Red — Vegas’s girlfriend at the time — and reveals that Vegas has come to betray his sister. That’s when the rest of the Renegades enter the room. Vegas explains that his teammate, the Suicide King, wants a demonstration of the probability machine. When Doctor Heisenberg tries to explain that it is too unstable to be operated, the Six-Gun Kid pulled his guns. In the ensuing carnage, there was an explosion and Vegas remembers being struck by some kind of energy.

…. Vegas’ recollection is quickly ended when Padre manages to sneak up behind him and put a gun to his head. He tells Vegas that he was sent after him again by the Suciide King who wants to know how Vegas managed to survive the explosing warehouse. However when he cocks his gun, Vegas considers using his luck powers against the gun, but decides to surrender when he thinks of how his powers could lead to someone else getting hurt like Meg was. Vegas is then pistole whipped into unconciousness. When he wakes up he finds himself handcuffed in the back seat of a squadcar being driven by the Padre. He has driven them out to an oil patch and decides that Vegas needs to burn and lights the interior of the car on fire. As the the flames begin to spread, the Padre reveals that the Renegades lied to him and that his sister is still alive and that Suicide King plans on using her knowledge back at their hideout in Tierra Muerta. This gives Vegas a renenwed will to live and using his luck powers he reaches between the cussions of the back seat and miraculiously pulls out the keys to his handcuffs. As a result, back at the diner, the owner is shocked when she disables her car alarm and her car suddenly explodes.

Vegas bails out of the vehicle and and when the Padre turns around and tries to run him over, Vegas quickly jumps onto the hood of the speeding car and runs harmlessly over the top of the burning vehicle. The Padre then crashes into a nearby oil derrick causing his vehicle to explode. Vegas then returns to the hospital to tell Meg that his sister is still alive and that he is going to save her, telling Meg that he’ll never see her again after this. As he leaves the hospital room, he is shocked to run into Harlan Stone, who is alive and well. Letting Vegas know that he is aware of his powers, Stone suggests that Vegas go after the rest of the Renegades legally, saying they all have bounties on his head, in fact, Vegas is entitled to the bounty on the Padre now that he is captured. Vegas agrees to become am authorized bounty hunter on a few conditions: That Harlan uses most of the bounty to pay for Meg’s hospital bills, reimburse the owner of the diner for her car, and to pay back to the people in Oregon who gave him free groceries and gas. However, he tells Stone that if he is going to be a bounty hunter for him, that he operates alone and warns the Seargent that if follows Vegas, all bets are off. Stone agrees, and gives Vegas a gun and tells him to get out of his sight before he changes his mind. Vegas then gets on his motorcycle and heads onto the highway, the first of many miles ahead.[1]

Recurring Charactres

Vegas, Renegades (Padre, Rose Red, Six-Gun Kid, Smith, Suicide King), Harlan Stone, Meg Lantry

Continuity Notes

1. Despite the open ending, this is the last Vegas story. As I write this (July 2020) the rest of the story has yet to be told. I suppose that this story wasn’t very popular as most of the characters featured in this volume of Amazing Fantasy were spun off into other books or were given their own titles.

Power Corrupted Part Two

The Microverse, Two Months Ago

Two aliens named Cinglet and Xennon have recovered a strange cryogenic pod they found on an alien world. Taking it aboard their ship, they are in the process of opening it to determine what’s in side. That’s when their robot informs them that it has translated the strange writing it found on the facility where they recovered the chamber and warns them that they had discovered a penal colony. That’s when another ship begins to fire upon them….

Brooklyn, New York - Now

A thief is fleeing from the scene of a crime and figures he’s going to make a clean gataway as the only person in his way is wheelchair bound Gabriel Vargas. However, Gabriel isn’t as helpless as he look and grabs the thief. Unfortunately, Gabriel is knocked out of his chair in the ensuing struggle and the thief manages to escape. A local shop owner named Luis sees Vargas on the ground and offers his aid. Not only does Gabriel tell him to not call him lieutenant anymore, he refuses any aid, wanting to get back into his chair on his own. Luis tells Gabriel that the thief only made off with a few dollars, nothing worth risking one’s life over. Vargas admits that he had been there and done that before. Luis tells Gabriel to stop thinking that way, reminding him that he was a hero for saving his men when his military Humvee hit that mine. However, Vargas doesn’t see himself as a hero since the driver was still killed in the blast and he blames himself for that. Luis reminds Gabriel that he is a hero and that everyone in the neighborhood thinks so and are glad he made it back alive. He then tells Gabriel not to expect pitty, telling him that he is better than that and of the two of them, Vargas is the only one who thinks he is useless.

Back at home, Gabriel thinks about what Luis said when he is suddenly visited by the Uni-Power. It tells him that in times of crisis it comes to those in need with the power of Captain Universe. When Gabriel asks if the Uni-Power can give him the ability to go after the men who put him in a wheelchair, it tells him that the power does not have the ability to change the past. It instead explains that it has come seeking aid, that something is weakneing the power it provides and needs a willing host to determine what is happening. When Gabirel asks why the Uni-Power hasn’t sought out someone who has full mobility, the entity explains that it senses that Vargas has boundless courage and unbridled determination. When Gabriel asks how it’s going to be able to complete the mission. The Uni-Power explains that it will bond to the various superheroes that exist on Earth and replicate their abilities and bring them back for Gabriel to use. The Uni-Power does not seek to recruit any of these heroes as they are needed on Earth.

Gabriel accepts the Uni-Power’s proposition especially since it promises the possibility of restoring his legs. When he asks which hero the Uni-Power will seek out first, it tells him that it will seek out the Hulk, someone whom the Uni-Power has prior history with.[1]

This story is continued in Hulk/Captain Universe #1….

Recurring Characters

Captain Universe, Cinglet, Xennon

Continuity Notes

1. The Uni-Power has, more accuratley, actually had more history with the Hulk’s alter-ego Bruce Banner as it bonded with Banner in Incredible Hulk Annual #10.