In the meantime, Rip and Happy, unaware of Sally’s presence aboard, pilot their craft to the sector indicated by Commander North. Zolkin’s Ray Detector Device soon reveals that they have flown within range of a powerful but unknown electromagnetic force.
At this moment, a bolt from Gore’s device scores a direct hit on the Sky Ranger craft. Helpless, their ship out of control, Rip. Happy and Sally fall to their dooms below.
Chapter 2
Descending Doom
Searching for the hideout of the notorious Doctor Gore, Rip Storm and Happy Gibson find evidence of an electromagnetic ray in operation, when…
A bolt from Gore’s device scores a direct hit on the Sky Ranger craft. Helpless, their ship out of control, Rip, Happy and (unknown to them) Sally plunge earthward, the fuel tanks aflame. But at the last moment Rip, struggling with the controls, lands the ship safely in the lee of a ridge and out of sight of Gore’s remote television viewing device. Shaken, Rip and Happy succeed in extinguishing the blare before it gets out of control.
Meanwhile, at the laboratory, Vontz and Vera congratulate Gore on his genius and pledge their country’s continued aid. After their departure, The Destroyer, mysterious hooded leader of The Society for the Destruction of the World, enters with Lobo, Gore’s mindless henchman. It is revealed that the Destroying Ray is merely a front for Gore’s true work. He is developing a device which he calls the Mind-Freezing Ray which blots out the good in human beings, making them completely evil. Victims of this ray are subject to the will of Dr. Gore, and it is his intention to amass an army against the forces of justice and sanity.
Meantime, at the fallen rocket ship, Rip and Happy contact Sky Ranger Headquarters and inform North of the near disaster. Instructed to return to headquarters, they head toward the highway, unaware that Sally is lying unconscious in the cargo hold of their ship.
Gore, meanwhile, after The Destroyer’s departure, has sent a party of henchmen to recover the bodies of the Sky Rangers. Finding Sally alone, the henchmen blindfold her and return with her to Gore’s laboratory.
Upon reaching the highway, Rip and Happy are given a lift by a passing truck loaded with electronic equipment intended for Gore. Recognizing the nature of the apparatus, Rip and Happy overpower the driver and force him to reveal that his destination is the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture in a nearby city. Unable to extract any further information, the Rangers turn the driver over to the Highway Police and proceed into town.
In the meantime, Dr. Gore has confronted Sally Blair in his secret hideaway. Telling her that she is valuable to him as bait, he outlines a plan to set a trap for the Sky Rangers that very night. At Gore’s instruction, Lobo and the henchmen take Sally to a warehouse in the city. Gore then sends a radio message on a Sky Ranger frequency telling of Sally’s whereabouts.
At the museum, meanwhile, Rip and Happy question J. Lyman Raucher, curator, who denies any knowledge of Dr. Gore or the machinery intended for the museum. Rip and Happy, dissatisfied, leave for Sky Ranger Headquarters.
Upon arrival, the rangers learn from Daisy Bates of Gore’s radio message and hurry away to rescue Sally at once.
At the warehouse, the Rangers find Sally on the top floor, bound to a chair. As they release her. Gore’s voice booms out from concealed speakers, informing them that their fate is sealed. Even now, the Destroying Ray is trained on the warehouse. There is no escape.
With the very walls around them beginning to glow and melt, the Rangers and Sally race to the elevator. As the car descends, the beam of the ray penetrates the shaft, severing the cable. The car plummets down the shaft with its doomed occupants as the warehouse collapses into white-hot ruins.
Chapter 3
Robot Deathtrap
Attempting to rescue Sally from the clutches of Dr. Gore, Kip and Happy walk into a trap at the old warehouse, and…
As the Destroying Ray melts the warehouse walls, Rip, Happy and Sally plummet down the elevator shaft when the ray’s beam severs the elevator cable.
Fortunately, safety springs at the bottom of the shaft cushion the fall of the elevator car. Moreover, the trio is now below street level and they are spared the full force of the ray as it destroys the building above them. Shaken but unhurt, the three crawl free of the ruins and proceed to Sky Ranger Headquarters.
Meanwhile, gloating over his apparent victory, Dr. Gore has informed Vontz and Vera that the Destroying Ray is now almost ready to be turned over to them. Upon completion of the doctor’s call, the agents discuss the true nature of their mission — to steal the completed ray from Gore and execute him with it. They are not aware that the doctor plans to double-cross them.
At his laboratory, Gore and The Destroyer decide that only Leon Zolkin stands in the way of their plans. Gore instructs Lobo to bring Ray Webb to a conference that evening, to which Vera von Hendrich, mysteriously, has also been invited.
In the meantime, at Sky Ranger Headquarters Commander North has devised a plan to infiltrate Gore’s mob. Sally agrees to have her paper release a story reporting the death of the trio in the warehouse disaster, thereby lulling Gore into a sense of false security. Rip and Happy, in disguise, will then join Gore’s mob and attempt to locate his hidden lair. This plan is not revealed to the Sky Ranger staff, since North is now convinced, because of Gore’s apparent knowledge of Ranger movements, that there is a spy at his headquarters.
Sally informs them that while Gore’s prisoner she overheard a henchman mention a rendezvous at the Wun Lo Asiatic Import Corporation, and Rip and Happy determine to seek the gang there.
That evening, at his secret lair, Gore meets with Vera, and it is revealed that she is, in reality, a counteragent working with the doctor against the foreign power represented by Vontz. She informs him of the nature of Vontz’s planned double cross, and Gore resolves to deal with him at the proper time. For the moment, the doctor, convinced that the scientist’s genius can be useful to him, is determined to capture Zolkin alive. Upon Webb’s arrival, Gore outlines his plan…
Sally, meanwhile, has contacted Daisy, and they have proceeded to the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture. The girls are suspicious of the curator and suspect that somehow he is in league with Gore.
At this moment, Rip and Happy arrive at the Wun Lo offices with a set of dummy Sky Ranger blueprints provided by Zolkin. They wish to sell these plans directly to Dr. Gore and refuse to deal with subordinates. Wun leaves them in an outer room, contacts The Destroyer by radio, and is instructed to bring the two to his secret headquarters.
Sally and Daisy, in the meantime, have arrived at the museum and are attempting to force the lock on Curator Raucher’s private office, unaware that an electronic death trap awaits anyone entering the room.
By now Rip and Happy, still in disguise have met The Destroyer who, after agreeing to transport them to Gore, informs a henchman that these men are spies. He orders that they be killed at once. The disguised rangers are taken by car to the outskirts of town.
At the museum at that very moment, Sally and Daisy succeed in forcing the lock on Raucher’s office and enter, unaware of their danger. Instantly, a rain of electrical fire begins falling from the ceiling, cutting off their escape. They watch helpless as the death-fall sweeps toward them.
In the speeding car, meanwhile, a henchman holding Rip and Happy at gunpoint informs them their ruse has failed. Making a sudden lunge, Rip grapples for the gun, and in the struggle Happy and his adversary are thrown clear of the careening vehicle as, uncontrolled, the auto hurtles madly toward a power generating station. Still bearing the battling Rip and the remaining henchman, the vehicle smashes through a fence and directly into the certain doom of a million-volt high-tension terminal, which explodes in a shower of sparks around the plummeting death car.