Strange Bedfellows

The lower East side of SHC was considered by most respectable human beings to be one of the nastiest places in the city.  Populated mainly by an uneducated and underserved segment of the population, it was often a good hiding place for those seeking to skirt the law.  Unfortunately, many of the good, blue collared folk who lived there and made the city work on a daily basis were relegated to inexpensive housing and harsh conditions. 

 

SHCPD often visited the area, but few times by choice.  In a city where armed thugs and super-powered wannabes often faced the police head on and even the SWAT team was outgunned on occasion, it was not a place for the timid.  Although several superheroes claimed certain sections of the area as their own protectorates, few could maintain order for long.  The 5th Precinct team was often in the area hunting down drug and arms dealers that threatened the stability of their own sections of the city, but rarely did other teams venture here for long.  In fact, Raizo Hattori had actually set up a small apartment in the area as a staging point for extended stakeouts. 

 

Be that as it may, this area’s streets were often filled with refuse and occasionally broken down vehicles dotted the corners.  Sometimes, the refuse was human in nature.  Not everyone on the streets, however, was there by choice.  In the dim light of one alleyway as the cover of night crept over the city, three old men crowded around a burning barrel.  A broken wooden chair and a stack of old newspaper were ablaze and they were warming their hands on the fire that came out.  Two were junkies and one was a banker, Frank Bartell, who had just recently lost everything in a business deal gone wrong with Cin-E-Corp.  It didn’t matter all that much.  Here, they were all brothers wishing for warmth in the cold evening hours, knowing it was likely to only get colder at night.

 

They didn’t have long to wait.  They were all startled as the sound of gunfire broke out around the corner from them.  In truth, gunfire itself was a sound to which they had long been jaded living in this area of SHC.  The person holding the guns was the one that startled them.

 

Rounding the corner was a beautiful woman, slender and dark.  She was wearing a dark overcoat and two sleek Uzis were spitting fire as she shot at something out of sight.  As she did, two other figures bolted past her, flying just above the ground down the alleyway.  It was all the bums could do to fall out of the way in time.  Frank hit his head against the red brick of the building immediately behind him.  One of the figures, a glowing man with sparks of green energy erupting all over his body, stopped and extended a hand to Frank. 

 

“Sorry.  Let me help you up.”  His voice was ethereal.  His eyes blazed with an unearthly light.

 

Frank extended his hand.  The glowing man helped him back to his feet.  “You’d better get out of here with your friends now.”

 

“QUAN!”  The lady in the trench coat was bolting past him, “MOVE!”

 

The three continued down the hallway out of sight.  A blast of ice shot past his ear, sending him back down to the ground.  Another followed as a super powered being blasted by them.  He reached up to find his ear numb, frostbitten.

 

The three men hid in an alcove as four superheroes landed on the ground at the alley’s entrance.  They bore the symbols of the GODS league.  One of them, a tall burley man with eyes burning of some cosmic energy, turned to Frank.  He seemed to examine him for just a moment.  As he did, Frank cowered back in the corner and averted his eyes.  The man radiated power and it was apparent to him now why the superhero league was named as it was. 

 

He spoke, but not to Frank, “Aggressor, take Rapture, follow them and don’t lose them!  Umbra, get these civilians out of here.”  More mighty superheroes flew and ran past him.

 

The man identified as Aggressor was a burly brute, huge even by superhero standards.  He reached up to his chest and pulled away a small Postmodern Pugilist ribbon, dropping its tattered pieces to the ground.  “I’ll have to get a new AIDS awareness ribbon now.  My bo’ is gonna be pissed!  I’ll get them back for ya’ Stalker.”  He ran down the alleyway, the ground shaking with each mighty blow of his feet.

 

Frank opened his eyes and looked up.  Even more heroes appeared.  There were dozens.  The sky overhead lit up as one super-powered being after another flew by.  This wasn’t a random battle.  He was a Vietnam veteran and he knew a manhunt when he saw one.  Whomever that nice person was that first helped him up, he prayed for him.

 

A frighteningly beautiful female with wicked looking wings reached down her hand towards him.  The smile on her face let him know that she was one of the good guys.  “I’m Umbra.  Let me get you somewhere safe.”  That was the second time tonight someone had done that.  She escorted all three of them to a shelter some blocks away.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Obsidian-X planted her back against the wall of the hotel, breathing heavily.  The alleyway was dark and puddles of viscous fluid ran down its length, runoff no doubt from the streets and dumpsters.  She air had a dank stench.

 

Dark Phoenix and Quantum Elemental landed on the ground beside her.  “You ready Obsidian?”

 

“You know, I don’t really like this all that much.  I prefer a stand-up fight to all of this running.”  She spit the words out.  It was evident she wasn’t happy that they had been ambushed and the beating she had given to Vexator didn’t really help cheer her up any.

 

Dark Phoenix turned to Quan, “Me too.”

 

Quan knew what he meant but this couldn’t be helped.  They had to come for several reasons, not the least of which was to further the assault on HOI.  There was no other option. 

 

Personally, there was a more pressing reason.  Ever since the problems in Hawaii, there had been massive fallout.  The GODS teams were shaken to the core.  Something big was happening and he wasn’t so sure that it was over yet.  At any rate, his friends had stood up for him and were suffering for it.

 

Captain Atom had removed his team from the league entirely, renaming it Extreme Justice.  It was fitting in a way.  He had the desire to prove Phoenix and Quan innocent and was facing resistance from within the league.  For some, it was easier to label the two as traitors and preserve the integrity of the league.  There was a certain logic go it.  If his innocence was proven despite all of the evidence to the contrary, including extensive news footage, it would raise questions nobody wanted to answer.  Who did the deed?  Why?  Were governments involved?  How deep was the conspiracy?

 

Frankly, war could break out.  Whether he was guilty or not, he was guilty.  Catch 22.  At any rate, Atom had attempted to contact him through the Akkadian Knights’ communication system.  Quan got the message and was to meet him here tonight.  The problem was that he was expected and when he arrived there was a trap set for them.  Apparently the GODS leadership had intercepted the communication and had its own message to deliver.  Nearly the entire GODS league and a whole SHCPD SWAT team were present and were currently hunting the three of them down.  This wasn’t going to be pretty if they stayed much longer.

 

He did find something that was out of the ordinary in the short time he was there.  Atom had left a letter for him in a small pocket dimension in the apartment in which they were going to meet.  They were two of a very small population of heroes that could see such things and it was unlikely any of the other GODS would have noticed.  Apparently, the whole ordeal in Hawaii had gone South in a very bad way.  Atom had stood up for Phoenix and was burned badly by the GODS leadership.  He offered to take Reverent Knights to find the truth, and the request was denied. 

 

The team voted and decided to do it anyway.  They went rogue.  Relabeling themselves Extreme Justice so as not to further implicate GODS, they had been attempting to find out the truth.  It was a dangerous gamble.  Right now, they even had SHCPD looking for them, assuming they had some other connection to the disaster in Hawaii. 

 

Tonight, they would be at a hotel on the other side of SHC waiting for him.  They wouldn’t be there much longer.

 

“To answer your question, yea, I’m ready.  Stalker’s ability to inhibit my teleports only extends so far…”  Obsidian put her still hot Uzis back in their holsters.

 

Quan turned to Obsidian, “Take us to Atom.  There’s no point fighting a battle we cannot win.”

 

Obsidian knew he was right, as much as she hated to admit it.  The three of them were more than a match for most of the league, however, she knew some of the big guns were enough to tip the balance in the GODS favor and she had no desire to end up in some Federal lockdown.  Like it or not, the GODS were one of the strongest and oldest leagues in the city and it would take a lot more than the three of them to take them down. 

 

She closed her eyes and moments later the three heroes disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Atom stood on the top of the building in plain clothes.  He had the ability to absorb his metal exo-shell and few heroes outside his own team could identify him that way.  Draconaire stood beside him, equally disguised in plain sight. 

 

As they looked out over the busy city some 12 stories below, a mild puff of air announced the presence of Jumper.  Cap turned to see him collapse on the roof and immediately helped him back to his feet.  Panting, he gave his report.

 

“The damn Paladins are all over my regular jump points.*  I think I lost them for now.”

 

“Did you see them?”  Atom was anxious for the answer.

 

“Yes, but the area was crawling with GODS.  By the time I got there they had sprung a trap on them.  The last I saw of them they were fighting their way through The Fallen on their way to an alley.”

 

Atom chuckled.  “I’ve heard reports that they are being helped by Turbo right now.  Although I may not like their tactics, they sure have the ability to squeeze out of tight situations.  They’ll be here.”

 

“I thought I saw Obsidian-X with them.  I may be wrong.”

 

Draconaire put his shoulder under Jumper’s arm and helped the exhausted hero limp downstairs. 

 

He wasn’t alone long before another voice called out to him, this one far older and wiser.  “You know, if they truly are with Turbo, there’s only so much of that I’ll tolerate.”

 

The Traveler had been with the team for a while now.  Atom was used to his mysterious comings and goings.  He was able to slip effortlessly through the time stream and keeping up with him was a handful, but he was always there in a pinch.  He was there now.

 

“True or not, our friends are innocent and we need to find a way to prove it.  Someone coordinated that attack.  Our contacts in the Chinese government said that Shu was given that assignment only a week before the conference after the scheduled representative suffered ‘a mysterious aneurism’.”  Something didn’t add up.  That much was obvious. 

 

“You know, the responsible parties are probably people we know.  Who else could arrange to hit GODS that way?”

Who indeed?  Atom had to wonder.  The evidence was leading back to SHC, but who would want to tear the GODS apart and turn the league in on itself?  Why target GODS at all? 

 

As the two continued to talk, the mystery seemed to grow without resolution.  The door to the rooftop burst open and Atomix dashed out towards them.  “We need you both down below!”

 

Atom, Darconaire and Atomix stepped into the penthouse suite of the hotel which they had rented for the evening.  Sitting in the foyer was a sight for sore eyes.  It took them seconds to cross the threshold and exchange greetings with Phoenix and Quantum Elemental.  After Obsidian was introduced, the team sat down.  There were so many questions.

 

The first 10 minutes were spent explaining what had happened from each hero’s perspective in Hawaii.  It cleared up a lot for Atom, but didn’t do much to explain who had caused the issue to begin with. 

 

Just when it seemed that they were back to square one, Obsidian interjected, “Well, if you want to know who was responsible, I can help you with that…”

 

The conversation in the room died.  Everyone was fixated on her.  “We were monitoring the situation long before the conference began, but it’s gonna come with a price…”

 

Dark Phoenix chuckled.  He should have seen that coming.  Turbo all the way.  Quan had a different reaction, “You knew what was going to happen and you didn’t do anything to stop it!”  His ire was rising quickly.  “People died!”

 

“And if I had done something, would you goodie-two-shoes have done anything about it?”  Her eyebrow raised and the tone of her voice was a little condescending.  Her point was taken quickly though.  GODS and Turbo have been rivals from almost the beginning and it was highly unlikely that her warning would have been heeded.

 

Quan, who had risen to his feet, sank back down in the high-back chair he was in.  She was right.  “So who did it?  Who ordered the hit?”

 

“Ah ah ah…”  She raised her pointer finger and waggled it back and forth.  “Not before we talk terms…”

 

Atom leaned forward, “We’re listening…”

 

The offer was simple.  It was actually very palatable to the assembled heroes.  It was elegant.  It was dangerous.

 

There was no secret that Turbo and the Horsemen of the Illuminati had been long rivals.  The fact was that few in the city were unfamiliar with the aggressive and sometimes brutal tactics of HOI.  Atom’s own team had had repeated engagements with them.  To join Turbo in a joint attack to take down their SHC base of operations was easy to accept as terms for information. 

 

The Traveler was so excited that the offer had not even been fully made before he was working to assemble the Assassin’s Alliance members available to help out.  Dark Phoenix got a chuckle out of that one.  A|A and Turbo working together.  What next, would pigs fly?  He checked out the window just to make sure.

 

A fleeting thought occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, Obsidian had used this situation to her advantage to garner more allies for the assault, but he shrugged it off.  It was a lot of work for her and Turbo just to get a handful of teams to join up.  There would have to be something else about it…

 

Atom stood up.  His alien exo-shell materialized all over his body and a nimbus of bright blue energy engulfed his form.

 

“You’ve got a deal.  Extreme Justice stands ready.”  Everyone in the room agreed.

 

***********************************************************************

 

The warehouse was unassuming.  Atom and Obsidian watched it from a safe distance about a mile away, floating in the air above SHC.  The building itself was well lit, showing little sign of age.  It was labeled a storage facility for a semi-conductor plant.  Atom was sure that it would have been a glue factory but was half jesting when he said it.

 

“You know, I can sense a massive outpouring of energy from that place.  It’s a lot more than it seems.”  Atom was studying it intently.

 

Obsidian nodded.  “Can you handle this?”

 

Atom turned to Obsidian.  A thin smile crossed his lips. 

 

“Have faith.”

 

“I hope you’re right.  A lot of people could die if you aren't.”   Obsidian-X disappeared, teleporting away.  She had another job to do.

 

Turning back to face the structure, Atom started to review the final plan.  This would be tricky.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Quan closed his eyes and re-opened them.  The world flashed to a brilliant green as he viewed the Quantum flow between all living things.  Amazingly, when he did this, everything lit up.  Even rocks often had living microorganisms on them and the air was filled with life.  He looked around the sewer and found something, however, that had no life.  In this state, it showed up as a thin, brilliant black line.  Crossing the hallway at various heights were streams of anti-matter. 

 

Quan knew all too well that the power required to create such things would be phenomenal.  Touching one would result in the destruction of the matter involved, even if it included a living thing.  He took his hand off Atomix.  “I don’t suggest you go that way just yet.”

 

Atomix, sensing something was amiss, reached down and put her hand in the acrid fluid at her feet.  Allowing the slightest amount of energy to flow into the water, she created a good sum of steam in moments.  Although the stench was nearly unbearable, Quan’s vision became visible to all as the lines of anti-matter began to vaporize the steam hitting it.  As it did, small sparks shot off of it in random directions. 

 

“Stray proton streams.  It must be anti-matter.  I don’t advise touching it.”  Nobody wanted to argue Fallen Knight’s wisdom. He wasn’t often wrong about technical issues.  The beams criss-crossed the hallway and made travel down the tunnel treacherous at the least.  They were practically invisible to everyone on the team, a fantastic defense measure.

 

Atomix stretched out her hand and felt the air, caressing it slowly as if she was strumming a harp.  After a moment, she shook her head.  “I can feel the absence of energy but I can’t touch it.  This is nothing like anything I’ve ever felt.  I don’t think I can safely manipulate it.”  It was an excellent trap.

 

“I think I see where I come in now…”  Jumper stepped to the front of the team.  He extended his hands and focused his energies on the airspace around the tunnel.  The earth below them began to tremble.  A frightened sewer rat ran between Atomix’ feet.  With all the steam, it was hard to see that Jumper was sweating.

 

The air around them shimmered once, then in a puff of black smoke, Jumper and a giant section of the tunnel simply vanished.  Electrical sparks on the walls showered out of the conduit that fed energy to anti-matter generators in the wall.  Well, they were in the wall, but they had been taken by Jumper as well, along with something that looked like a security system.

 

Moments later, jumper reappeared in the hallway, a confident smile on his face.  Everyone just stared at him.  “What?  I thought the technology would be useful so it’s on the Akkadian moon base…” 

 

Atomix slapped him on the back and chuckled as the team moved down the hallway.

 

10 minutes later, the team arrived at the “back door” of the HOI complex.  It extended much farther underground than anyone suspected.  It would have to in order to have a energy plant large enough to power the anti-matter beams they just passed and everything else in the base.

 

The end of the tunnel was dank.  A few grates in the ceiling dripped something nasty and the team was not especially eager to go through them.  Looking up, they couldn’t see a thing.  In front of them was an old steel door.  Although it was wet and corroded, the corrosion was recent and the door itself looked solid, maybe made of stainless steel.  Dark Heart put his hand over the door, but stopped short of touching the knob.  “It’s electrified…”

 

“Then leave this one to me.  Everyone get out of the water.”  Those heroes that could floated upwards, carrying those few that could not with them.  Atomix stepped up and touched the door.  It was indeed electrified, and standing in the water the teravolts that shot through her system dispersed quickly down the tunnel in the water.  This door was meant as a deathtrap.  It was a good thing she was immune to electrical discharges.  Once the energy dissipated, she called over Lady Fire.

 

The door was, of course, dead bolted from the inside.  Explosions were too loud.  This would require finesse.  Lady Fire put her hand on the red hot door and allowed it to start to heat up even further.  Within moments the door around her hand started to glow as the heat in the metal increased.  The molecules started to vibrate faster and faster as she forced more and more energy into it, and the steel started to melt.  Before long, her hand passed through the molten metal and she pulled something heavy on the other side of the door. 

 

The door swung open.

 

The team stepped out onto a platform on the side of a gigantic, cylindrical chamber.  It extended upwards a good 50’ before ending in a steel ceiling.  A stairwell circling the chamber went from their platform upwards to a hatch embedded in the roof.  It was shut tight.

 

Looking down through the grate and over the railing, the team saw the stairwell extend downwards, spiraling around the vast chamber into the darkness below.  Quan spoke, “I see a massive power source down there.  I suspect that Obsidian was right.  It appears that the Horsies have themselves a fusion reactor…”

 

The team started the long journey down the shaft.

 

***********************************************************************

 

At the bottom of the shaft, the spiral stairwell opened into a large chamber.  The walls were lined with computer terminals and mainframes.  In one corner could be seen an old teleportation tube.  It looked Zingonian in nature.

 

Off to another corner was a disused sick bay.  The thick layer of dust implied it had little practical use to the HOI team, at least not at this base of operations.

 

The team found what it was looking for on the back wall of the room.  A large steel and Plexiglas door led to a small hallway.  On the other side was the fusion reactor.  Cylindrical in nature, it wasn’t much bigger than a regular sized mobile home, but it had gigantic power lines leading off from it.  The room it was in was bare and, except for the door’s window, it was apparently made of concrete and steel. 

 

The Traveler started for the door when a deep, rumbling voice could be heard coming from the stairwell.

 

“So… it looks like we have company!”

 

Turning to see who it was, the team had little time to react before they were hit by Raging bull, The Develop and Miss Conception.  The three senior HOI members ripped into the Extreme Justice team with savage intent. 

 

Raging Bull was a massive creature.  It wouldn’t quite be accurate to call him a man anymore.  His mutation was so severe that he quite literally resembled a bull.  Two massive horns rivaling Texas Longhorns protruded from his thick skull and his chest was the size of an air conditioning unit.  The Develop radiated raw power.  It poured from her pours and warped the heat made it difficult to see through the air around her as light waves were refracted here and there.  Miss Conception was a smaller figure and dressed in a sinister robe.   

 

While The Develop was shooting plasma beams at them, Miss Conception was summoning skeletal and demonic minions to the fray.  Raging Bull preferred a more direct approach and tore into the team with claws extended and a sadistic grin on his face.  The initial assault scattered the team around the large room. 

 

Ozone erected a fast kinetic barrier that was just as quickly disrupted as The Develop broke through it with a Relic Storm.  The blast sent him into a bank of computers, sending sparks everywhere.  The lights in the room started to flicker.

 

A demon crawled out of a fissure opened in the ground by Miss Conception, no doubt from some nasty nether-world that Atomix had no intention of visiting.  She charged Miss Conception, but the beast got in her way.  Blasting it with a Hyperborean Beam, she hit it square in the chest.  With a cry of agony, it tore at her with a gigantic claw, knocking her to the side. 

 

Fallen Knight, Jumper and Raging Bull squared off.  His speed was phenomenal as he charged the two heroes.  The first blow sent Jumper flying as he tackled Fallen Knight.  Jumper hadn’t hit the floor before teleporting up in front of Raging Bull where he blasted him with a ball of dark matter.  Grabbing his collar, Jumper attempted to teleport him somewhere in deep space.  Raging Bull never gave him a chance and sent a bolt of electricity into Jumper, sending him convulsing to the floor.

 

The Traveler squared off with The Develop.  The two began to exchange blow after blow and the chamber began to shake horribly.  As they went on and on, Traveler began to weaken.  The Develop, however, seemed to be drawing energy from the conflict.  It was obvious he was using some form of Vampiric Attachment to draw power from Traveler as they continued to battle.  The outcome was becoming more certain by the moment.  Quantum Elemental attempted to aid his friend, but was pushed away by Traveler, “Destroy the generator!”

 

On the far side of the room, Jumper was lying on the floor dazed and Raging Bull was standing over the unconscious form of Fallen Knight.  He turned towards Ozone.  Four monstrous demons were engaging Lady Fire, Deep Impact and Atomix as they attempted to re-connect with the rest of the team.  Although they had worked together to defeat several of the beasts so far, it was obvious that they were pinned out of the real battle. 

 

Ozone and Traveler blocked The Develop from following Quan as he rushed towards the fusion reactor door.  They would have to buy him enough time…

 

***********************************************************************

 

Atom put his hand to his ear.  He had long ago learned to manipulate the energy wavelengths associated with radio frequencies and didn’t need to use the team communicators any longer. 

 

It was a go.  His job was simple.  He shot off towards the warehouse, seconds turning to miliseconds.  

 

For a being moving at the rate of speed he was, time almost seemed to slow down.  Although the air was clear, he could see small droplets of water as they passed by his head, suspended as they were in the air.  Apparently one of the small clouds overhead was letting off a mini-burst.  At his velocity, it was as if they were moving through a field of shiny points of light hanging suspended in the ether.

 

As he closed in on the base, the outer door burst into flames.  Although the explosion was obviously expanding, it was doing so very slowly.  What surprised Atom was the speed of the thing coming through the flaming apeture.  

 

Re Val shot out of the broken doorway straight at him.  Although he wasn’t quite as fast as Atom was, he was swift enough to come close enough for the distinction to not matter very much.  A ball of dark energy shot from his outstretched claw at Atom, catching him in the chest.

 

Re Val and Atom collided with such force that the shock waves were visible in the fine mist falling from the sky.  Unfortunately for Re Val, a one-on-one encounter with Atom, his team unable to help him, was an encounter few heroes overcome.  Atom was one of the best duelists in SHC and proved it as less than a second later Re Val when shooting off into the sky, leaving a flaming trail in his wake.

 

Cap didn’t hesitate and flew forward into the breach just before the shockwave hit the exterior of the warehouse, shattering several windows.  It was then he could feel it.  It was instantly tangible. 

 

The fusion core had gone critical.  They had moments left and he was ready.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Quan concentrated and phased effortlessly through the two reinforced blast doors leading into the reactor core.  The reactor itself was massive, easily three stories high, with dozens of pipes and tubes coming out of it at various points.  At its base was a miniature particle accelerator which provided the raw energy to start the fusion reactions.  The technology was amazing and he couldn’t help but stop and marvel for a moment.

 

A resounding THUD brought him back to reality.  Ozone had hit the wall hard cracked the 3 inch thick Plexiglas shielding the room beyond.  Raging Bull stood over him as he slumped to the floor.  As if in response, a field of energy descended from the ceiling like a cascade of water, creating a force barrier around the Fusion core.

 

Apparently HOI had chosen its guardians well.  They were powerful.  Raging Bull started pounding on the shield in an attempt to get inside. 

 

Quan turned and focused his attention on the core.  He could feel the flow of energy as it moved in and out of the device.  He could feel the physical emanations of power as one atom after another collided inside the core, creating chain reactions that produced free electrons.  He could sense the machine sucking up the electrons in specialized tubes and funneling them into the powerful electrical lines that ran in all directions underground. 

 

He knew what to do.  Manipulating atoms around the core, he closed off the regulators one by one.  As he did, he could feel the free radicals begin to build in the core, pushing against the magnetic barriers covering the interior walls.  Power was building.

 

Behind him, he could sense the reactor core shields weakening.  He felt a disturbance in the fabric of reality and knew that Jumper was beginning to teleport the team out as best as he could.  He could sense the massive energies in the room behind him as his team bought him as much time as they could.

 

He knew it had only been seconds, but it had felt like an eternity.  The last regulator was closed off.  The massive buildup in the energy was going supercritical.  The barrier behind him collapsed. 

 

He hardly turned in time to see Raging Bull’s massive claw hit him in the head.  He went down to the floor. 

 

A millisecond later, the core exploded, taking everything with it.

 

***********************************************************************

 

The first wall of electromagnetic energy signifying that the core had been breached reached the surface.  That’s when the concussive blast wave hit.

 

It was powerful as only a fusion reactor could generate.  When a nuclear reactor melts down, the radiation seeps out as the cooling rods melt.  As deadly as it is, it doesn’t cause immediate damage.  A fusion reactor is something else entirely.

 

When the electro-magnetic barriers break down, all of the free energy floating in the chamber that would have otherwise have been harmlessly channeled away instead burst forth in a wave of force.  Given the size of this reactor, Atom estimated that the force of the explosion would be equivalent to that of an early atomic weapon.  He had no choice.  He had to stop it.  The shockwave would kill thousands in the surrounding area.  Why HOI had built such a device in the middle of a populated area was beyond him.

 

Atom opened himself up to the flow of energy and allowed himself to become a conduit for it, channeling the power to the Quantum Field.  He’d never absorbed so much raw power at one time and when the main blast hit him he reeled from the impact.  The fusion core had burst, sending massive amounts of energy in all directions, but because it was so far underground, the majority of it was funneled upwards through the main shaft nearly on top of the heroes.

 

The building around him buckled and broke.  The walls cracked and windows shattered as Captain Atom forced the power into himself.  The pain was incredible but he had no choice.  It was his life for thousands and he knew it.

 

He felt something snap.  His body had reached its limit.  Beams of power shot forth from his arms and legs.  He opened his mouth in a silent scream and a bolt of energy shot forth.  Wherever they touched, ground, wall and sky were torched.

 

From the hilltop nearby, Citizen put Corpsewake down and covered his eyes.  The explosion slowly faded, but the bright ball of energy that was Captain Atom remained.  It slowly descended to the rubble on the edge of a gigantic pit that was once the HOI headquarters and slowly faded.  As it settled on the ground, its light went out and he could just barely make out Atom lying on the broken stone, glass and metal. 

 

Ozone limped up beside him.  The rest of the Extreme Justice team lay on the ground behind him, badly beaten in their encounter with the senior HOI heavy hitters.  Turning to them, Citizen asked “Where’s the rest of your team?”

 

“Jumper went back for Quan right before the blast.  We haven’t seen them since.”  Ozone was obviously shaken by the encounter.

 

Obsidian-X descended on the smoldering ruins towards Atom.  He was lying on the ground, his metal shell burnt badly.  She attempted to catch a pulse, but there was no way to tell through that thick layer of armor he wore.  He twitched slightly and she took that to mean he was still alive. How he had managed to absorb all that energy was beyond her.  Phoenix was right.  He did what they expected.

 

She reached down and grabbed Atom by the arm, pulling him to his feet.  He was delirious and could hardly stand.  In as stern a voice as she could muster, she commanded "On your feet soldier!"  It seemed to do the trick and she could tell a noticable difference as he made more of an effort.

 

Sirens from SHCFD could be heard in the distance.  None of the surrounding buildings had been damaged.  The damage was contained.  Obsidian could see crowds of people forming several blocks away, wondering what had happened.

 

“I think it’s time we left… we have a reputation to maintain and doing goodie-two-shoes work would damage us to no end!” 

 

***********************************************************************

 

Jumper opened his eyes.  He was floating.  Looking around, he was in an endless sea of green mist.  He couldn’t see all that far, but could barely make out the limp form of a man nearby.

 

He tried to teleport, but it didn’t want to work.  He started moving his arms and legs and realized that he could move around if he attempted to “swim” towards the form.

As he got closer, he got a good look at him.  It was the form of a man.  He wasn’t particularly built, and wore a simple set of black slacks and white t-shirt.    As Jumper got close, he put his hand on the man’s shoulder and shook it.

 

“Hey bud, you ok?”

 

The man opened his eyes.  They glowed with a brilliant purple that seemed to radiate outwards.  Jumper at once knew he was looking at Quantum Elemental as he must have looked like before he became what he is today. 

 

Quan shook his head and his form changed.  It became a ghostly translucent shade of white and his earthly form faded away.

 

“Hey Jumper… welcome to my home.”

 

“What?”  Jumper was looking around.  Some home, he thought.

 

“We didn’t have time for you to teleport away.  I took us here to protect us.”

 

“Here?” 

 

“The Quantum Field.”  Quan spread his arms and the mist faded.  Solid earth appeared under Jumper’s feet and he stood up.  Looking around, he could see miles in every direction.  The land was barren and featureless.  No stars hung in the dark green sky.

 

“Come on Jumper.  Let’s go home.”

 

Jumper was all to ready to comply as Quan shifted them back home.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Three days after the HOI compound was destroyed, Obsidian-X and Dark Phoenix were sharing an all too rare moment to relax.  By no means romantic in nature, they enjoyed comparing notes and strategizing.  Sitting in a hot tub, the two raised up wine glasses and clicked them together.

 

“To the good times!”  Dark Phoenix did not have his armor on and was enjoying the whirlpool.  These were indeed the good times.

 

“To turbulence!”  Obsidian’s toast was always the same. 

 

“So, Phoenix, I’m truly impressed.  I have to know how you did it!”  Obsidian leaned back against the side of the pool.  She was truly interested in the whole story.  Phoenix smiled.

 

“What?”  His expression was coy.  He sipped on his wine again.

 

Obsidian took a sip of her own.  “Come on, you’re telling me that you managed to frame a celebrated hero for a crime he didn’t commit, rip the GODS apart, and help us destroy the HOI HQ all in one swift stroke?”

 

He smiled.  “You forgot that I nearly managed to send North Korea and South Korea to war.  Had their “beloved jerk” not died, it might have worked!”

 

Obsidian poured more drinks.  “Wherever did you find that beautiful little Chinese freak of nature?”  She leaned in.  This would be good.

 

“She was easy.  She was just in it for the money.  If the plan had worked for her, she would have killed Quan.  It was you that stepped in and ended that little charade.  In a strange way, I’m happy for that.  It gave me the ability to rip the Reverent Knights away from GODS and bring them with us to finish the HOI job.  Of course, the help I had on the GODS inside gave me the edge on that one.”  He paused, musing over the thought.

 

“Anyway, what brought you in Obsey?”

 

Obsidian looked at him incredulously.  Then she leaned back and laughed out loud.  “Our plans apparently collided.  I was monitoring the negotiations in the hopes that something high profile would happen.  I just wanted in on the action.  When I saw who the negotiator for the Chinese was, I saw an opportunity to step in and get a few new recruits.  I never dreamed it would be as big as you made it out to be.”

 

“One last thing I’ve got to know.  What will you ever do when they eventually find out?”

 

Phoenix put his glass down and slipped out into the center of the hot tub.  “That, my dear Obsidian, is a bridge best crossed at another time!”