Countdown by Unknown Author Read Free Book Online

outside penetrated the boarded-up windows, providing just enough illumination to see by. Jimmy stalled at the base of the stairs, but he had come too far to turn back now. If nothing else, he thought, maybe I can find out why I’m stretching and super-speeding sometimes.
    Those freaky incidents still baffled him. The first time it had happened, at Arkham, he'd thought that maybe he had just inhaled a dose of the Scarecrow’s fear gas or something, but that second incident, when he’d rescued those tourists at the speed of sound, had forced him to face the truth. For a few, fleeting moments, he had actually possessed superpowers, just like Plastic Man or the Flash.
    But why?
    Maybe the answer lay upstairs....
    Hoping that he wasn’t walking into some sort of nefarious trap, he cautiously headed up the stairs. The rickety steps creaked beneath his feet; Jimmy nervously recalled the Condemned notice. A moldy runner reeked of mildew. He grabbed on to the banister, which was slick and greasy to the touch. A cockroach scuttled across his hand.
    Gross!
    Making it to the second floor in one piece, Jimmy spotted a glimmer of candlelight coming from a room on the right. The flickering amber glow led him to an ajar wooden door that was barely hanging on to its rusty hinges. He pushed the door open all the way, and an overpowering stench, like raw sewage mixed with rotten eggs, assailed his senses. “God,” he blurted, gagging at the fetid odor, “it stinks in here, like ..
    “Sleez.” The room’s sole inhabitant identified himself. An obese alien with mottled green skin, a hairless dome, and pointed ears squatted on a badly stained mattress across from the door. Filthy brown rags clothed his corpulent frartie. X-rated centerfolds plastered the walls of the creature’s squalid lair, alongside cheesecake shots of scantily clad super heroines like Starfire, Isis, and Big Barda. “Former servant, aide, and counsel to Darkseid, now a doomed exile on this deplorable mudball you call home.” Piggish yellow eyes glinted in the candlelight as Sleez leered at his visitor. His slimy face glistened like mucus. “Have you missed me, Olsen?”
    “Definitely not.” Jimmy finally recognized the voice— and the smell. The loathsome creature before him had been banished from Apokolips because of his boundless depravity, which was really saying something; you had to be pretty perverted to be too vile for Darkseid to tolerate. “I thought you were dead.”
    “Alas, no,” Sleez chortled. “By sheer force of will alone I have survived in the hope of someday taking revenge on Darkseid.”
    “Your note said you had something to tell me about Lightray.” That this loathsome toad, who looked like Yo-da’s degenerate cousin, had cheated death while the noble New God had not struck Jimmy as cosmically unjust. “So just tell me what you know, and don’t try any of your skeezy mind-control games on me. I’m onto your tricks. I’ll signal Superman if you even look at me funny.”
    Sleez gave Jimmy an appraising look. “Grown some hair on your freckled chest, have you?” He nodded, his lecherous face assuming a more serious expression as he got down to business. “Listen closely, Olsen. Darkseid can finally be destroyed if you—” His eyes widened in alarm. A note of panic sounded in his voice. “Oh no! He’s here!”
    “Who?” Jimmy asked anxiously. A resounding boom shook the deserted brownstone to its foundations. A blinding yellow glow penetrated the exposed brickwork. The pinups on the wall burst into flame. Chunks of plaster rained down from the ceiling, which looked ready to cave in at any moment. A horrifying thought occurred to Jimmy 'ats a stony gray countenance surfaced from his memory. “Is it Darkseid?”
    Sleez threw up his pudgy hands to shield himself from the falling debris. “No ... there’s no time.” Oily perspiration ran down his face. “Run away. . .. DO IT NOW!” Jimmy waffled, uncertain what to do. How