As Firestorm zoomed within sight of the fracas, pistol fire erupted from the street. Eight policemen had opened fire on two men, who were not cooperating with the authorities by dying. In fact, the two men run forward and tear a police car nearly in two, forcing the officers to run for cover.
“I should have taken that bet,” Stein unhelpfully states.
The two men lift the rear end of the cruiser off the ground and throw it at a second cop car. With a reverberating sound like a wire stretched tight and struck with a pipe, Firestorm transforms the entire airborne mass into dozens of large beach balls. Police and criminals stare as Firestorm floats down between them.
“Ronald, those men...they are my former assistant, Danton Black,” Stein stammered in surprise.
“Are they twins,” Firestorm asks aloud.
“No siblings,” Stein answered,
“Don’t you know what this means, Ronald? We were caught in the explosion at Hudson, and became Firestorm. Crystal was there, and became Killer Frost. Danton was also caught in that blast, and he is exhibiting powers. Something in the blast or the reactor caused these wild mutation!”“And at least two other bad guys were also caught in the blast,” Firestorm mutters, “Thanks for all the good news.”
“Are you speaking to me,” the Dantons shout, baring their teeth like growling dogs.’
“I said I can’t let you squish those police officers,” Firestorm said loudly, “It ruins the uniforms.”
“Smart-mouthed punk,” the Dantons sneer, “You obviously don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
Danton hefts a concrete parking stop and heaves it at Firestorm, while Danton throws a tire from one of the wrecked autos. Firestorm easily dodges the missiles.
“You can’t just get out of the way,” Stein yells silently as the thrown items crash into a storefront and onto the sidewalk respectively.
The twins throw missile after missile: a security gate from a storefront, the railing from a staircase, a car bumper, a Kawasaki motorcycle. Firestorm counters each item by turning them into balloons filled with helium, styrofoam, water, and even creating an air filled bag for the cycle to land on so it remained undamaged. Then Firestorm lost his focus.
“Maybe two heads aren’t better...” Firestorm began, and then the small, heavy police car battery crashes into his shoulder.
Dazed, Firestorm drops to the street below, and the Dantons charge.
“It worked,” they laugh, “While he concentrated on the larger projectiles, we slipped in something smaller!”
As Firestorm stands, they fall upon him, punching him with uncanny precision. To Firestorm, it was like being hit by two loaded sandbags. Reflexively, Firestorm nailed the Dantons with a direct nuclear blast. Spikes of searing pain rip from his fingertips to his skull, his teeth grinding together in agony.
“It seems I absorb other forms of energy, as well,” Danton(s) say gleefully, “You’ve only made me stronger!”
Another twin punch drives Firestorm to his hands and knees, and the duo pummel the hero, each fist like a rock falling from the sky.
“They are going to kill us if we don’t do something,” Martin barks.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Firestorm says out loud, lowering his atomic density.
He sinks down into the street even as Danton’s next attacks pass through his body. Firestorm drifts down and to the South, then moves upward, finding himself in the rear section of a nearby shop.
“Give me a moment,” Firestorm asks, “I need to catch my breath.”
As he stands there, trying to block the pain of their injuries, he and Stein suddenly realize that they can feel the damage to their body on a cellular level, as well as how the body should feel undamaged.
“Professor, do you think...” Firestorm begins.
“Try it, my boy,” Stein answers in thought,
“We can alter our form to some extent.” Ron concentrates, and began altering their cellular structure to match its normal state. While he couldn’t fix all of the damage, within sixty seconds, he had healed himself a great deal.
“Ready for round 2,” he smiled, “and I have a plan.”
Firestorm flew out through the wall. The scene had not changed much, with the Dantons a block down the street still assaulting the police. From the sound of it, there was a large amount of reinforcements coming.
Firestorm soars over the Dantons heads and blasted the ground between them, separating them. With another nuclear burst, he entraps them both in stone cages.
“You think this will keep me,” they shout, “I’m too strong.”
With that, they punch and pound their way out, after which Firestorm locks them into steel, man-sized bird cages.
The twins slowly rip their way out of their new prisons, and Firestorm shuts them inside hard plastic boxes. As the Dantons forced their way out of that, the police blocking traffic down each end of the street begin to snicker. Firestorm notes that the Dantons are starting to sweat.
As they exited the boxes, Firestorm wraps them in bright yellow duct tape emblazoned with ‘Do not cross.’
“What game are you playing,” the Dantons snarl, tearing their way out of the new bindings.
Each distinctive ‘rrriiiipp’ of the duct tape brought laughter from the police and now bystanders at the doors of some of the shops. Finally, the duo free themselves, but they were both panting, and sweat drips from their faces.
“Need energy,” they whisper.
As they took a step towards the nearest source of energy, Firestorm sealed them in one last containment, a simple cube of thick, steel bars.
The Dantons pull, punch, and kick at the bars, but they no longer have the strength to escape. They drop to their knees, and then merge, and only one Danton Black remains.
“You...planned this, didn’t you,” Black panted.
“Yup,” Firestorm nods, landing next to the cage as police swarm in.
“Of course,” Danton smirks, “that assumes that there were only two of me.” With a pop and whoosh of air rushing in to a suddenly empty space, Danton Black was gone.
****
