The thunderclap reawoke Firestorm, as well. He forced himself not to move, to open his eyes just a bit and see what was going on around him.
T.O. Morrow sat his plump form in an office chair busily working on some kind of silver harness. To one side, a red human mannequin wearing bluish gloves, boots, tights, and a cape stood rigidly looking at nothing in particular. Firestorm remembered the red “man” hitting him earlier (Last Issue).
How much earlier, Firestorm wondered.
How long have I been here?>>
I don’t know,<< Martin Stein’s voice came to him. >>
I seem to have blacked out until just recently. I think Morrow drugged us.<<
Professor! Glad to see you could make it. I was awake earlier, and you weren’t. It was kind of scary. Now lets play dead and see what we can do to get out.Morrow worked feverishly on his newest project, a device that should simulate or trigger Firestorm’s transmutation power. He already realized he could never reverse engineer this, he was just happy it didn’t require some funky component or isotope he didn’t already have. He hummed a song (
“I Think We’re Alone Now”; Firestorm had a hard time not laughing) happily to himself. It was only when the alarm buzzer went off that Morrow looked up and gaped.
“You should not be able to do that,” he whispered.
Firestorm looked up and locked eyes with Morrow. The circular studs on Storm’s temples glowed, tiny nuclear bursts zipping around the devices like Electrons around an atom. The studs melted. “One thing about atomic restructuring powers,” Firestorm said, “they can do just about
anything !” Firestorm raised his arms and transformed the device that levitated him into a huge Care Bear, which fell to the floor.
“RED!” Morrow shouted. “Capture Firestorm!”
The crimson android, whose face looked somewhat like a red crash-test dummy, turned and lunged at Firestorm as Morrow explained, “This is my Remote Electronic Droid, R.E D. for short. He is the wonder that caught you before.” Firestorm began to fire a restructuring burst at the attacking robot.
>>
Ronald, NO! Remember Murdermek. This one is likely made of the same material.<<
Firestorm paused and took a right cross to the chin. It felt like being beaned by a Barry Bonds homer. Firestorm struck the android with a tiny little burst, trying to turn the robot’s pinky into taffy, and felt a twinge of feedback.
Good call, Professor, he thought.
With a
FZAMM!, he changed the floor beneath RED into a super tight, spring-loaded platform, then triggered the device. The platform launched RED violently into the ceiling, the impact pulverizing the platform and part of the ceiling. Firestorm followed through by wrapping the spring around the robot and changing it to solid steel, binding the machine. Firestorm transformed the pistol Morrow produced into a cloud of Helium.
Morrow coughed. In a high-pitched voice, Morrow squeaked, “What did you do?”
“That was funny on so many levels,” Firestorm said. “Helium. You know, I know your computers and equipment are not all made of your living material. You get to watch as I destroy every technological item in this room.” Morrow’s eyes popped open wide as Firestorm melted a computer and all connected components. Firestorm’s self-satisfied grin matched the one Morrow had worn earlier.
He didn’t account for RED’s strength, however. Though the android’s shell consisted of organic, lab-grown individual, it still possessed a steel endo-skeleton and mechanical strength designed to pound opponents into goo. Slowly but steadily, it bent the metal coil and freed itself. It lunged at the hero, fists clenched. Firestorm saw it coming at the last second and lowered his atomic density, so RED’s fist passed through him. The machine shot its second fist up as if to uppercut Firestorm, but the fist took on a blue aura before it connected. And it did connect, with the same energy Murdermek had used. Firestorm felt
something rip through him, something that left him trembling as if he had just upchucked violently. And he hadn’t fully recovered his strength yet, either. The punch left him solid, and RED pounded him with three brutal punches.
Then, with a concentrated stream of spinning, gale-force wind, RED flew across the room and into the outer wall. Tornado Champion landed between Firestorm and the robot.
“Take five,” Champion suggested. “How tough is this thing?”
“It was made to fight me,” Firestorm gasped. “It might not know what to do against you. It hits pretty hard, though.”
Champion smiled. “Not to shock you, but I’m not really human, either. I’m more like Tornado Tyrant’s cousin who chose to take on a human shape. I can take a lot of punishment. Just back me up when you are ready so we can move on to Typhoon and Tyrant.”
“Both?”
“Yes. They are fighting above Manhattan as we speak.”
As RED stood up, Champion flew across the room powered by his vortex and slammed the machine man into the wall again. As Champion recovered, Champion and RED flailed at each other in an absurd boxing match, but after about 45 seconds, the robot began to get the upper hand.
I have to think of something, Tornado Champion though.
If I can take this outside, I’ll have the advantage. Here, I just can’t do much damage. Then a strange idea crossed his brain.
I can never defeat the Tyrant because we are almost identical, but he is stronger than I am. What if I had a physical body? The Tornado Champion then made a fateful decision.
To the eyes of Firestorm and Morrow, the Tornado Champion disintegrated, exploding into a smallish whirlwind about ten foot tall. It surrounded RED, totally engulfed the machine, then the twister seemed to shrink as if the robot absorbed the vortex. RED stopped moving its extremities. It shook violently as if trembling.
“Champion!” Firestorm shouted.
“Do not fear, I know what I do,” the Champion’s disembodied voice boomed, “and I think it is working.”
That was when Morrow, taking advantage of Firestorm’s distraction, draped the harness over the hero’s shoulder and triggered the device. Power involuntarily exploded out of the Nuclear Man. Everything within twenty feet of him shattered or melted, and Morrow was thrown to the far side of the room into an equipment locker, a painful experience for a middle-aged, out-of-shape scientist. Howling in pain, Morrow seemed to disintegrate himself as Ronnie Raymond looked on.
I’m seeing double, Ron thought as he watched two Morrow’s vanish. He turned to Martin, who sat up next to the teenager, confusion written on his face. “Are you all right, Professor?” Ronald asked him.
“What’s going on, Ronald? Who is that red man?”
“Not a man, Martin,” Ron replied, “We’re in T.O. Morrow’s lab. He tried to kill us again.” Ron felt the contact phone now in his pocket. He looked at it, finding 17 messages left just today. He answered.
“Firestorm, where have you been?” the voice answered. “This is Adrian Chase. We saw you fall from the sky earlier. We’ve been wondering if you were gone.”
“Temporarily held against my will,” Ron stated.
“You... sound different,” Chase said.
“After recent events, I feel different. Don’t worry, Chase. I’m heading out to confront our living storms.”
“That’s what I’m calling about,” Chase explained. “There is someone else! Some lunatic is standing on the roof of STAR Labs threatening to finish Manhattan off for good, and police can’t get near him!”
***
