Portland, Oregon, location unknown
December 24, 2008, 1:45 a.m.

London stood in the darkness. After hours of travel around the city behind a blindfold, he expected to stand face to face with Black Owl. Instead he found the woman that collected him gone. He faced a wall of faces, all shrouded in the dim light.

“I’m tired of games. Take me to the Owl.”

“No one sees him, unless we say you do.” The voices all answered at once, in perfect unison. The voices all spoke in a disturbing monotone. London assumed it must be artificial.

London charged forward and grabbed one of the men by the lapel. He hoisted him face to face only to find it wasn’t a man at all.

The dummy’s face was blank except for the speaker where the mouth should be. London threw the false body away in disgust. “Where is Black Owl?”

“Right here, friend.”

The lights blazed to life around him. London threw a hand up to block the sudden brilliance but the glare still blinded him monetarily. But he could see the masked visage of the Black Owl across the room.

“I’ve been looking for you for over a month, Doug. Since when have you become such a hard man to find? You been hanging out with Frost again?”

Black Owl reached up and pulled the cowl from his face. Doug Danville smiled as he walked over and clapped London on the back. “You always had a way of getting right to the point, Russ. I always respected that, even when you were just a kid. I have become more secretive because I’m beginning to think the government of this century can’t be trusted. You see, they have taken—”

“—Atoman prisoner. Yeah, I know.”

“What? How?”

“I found him. Or rather he found me. He’s secured underneath a hospital outside Tacoma. But it doesn’t matter where he is right now. Before we can do anything, we need to work on a plan to get him out of there.”

“You’re right. We can’t afford to mess this up,” Danville said. “You and I both know we will only get the one chance.”

“We’re going to need all the help we can get on this.” London pulled a small sheet of paper with a phone number on it from his pocket. He handed it to Owl. “That’s the number for Silver Streak in Riccapoor. We need the Coward and her in on this. I’m going to start looking up a few of our old friends.”

Doug nodded. “Looks like we’re partners on this one. You ever see yourself going up against the United States like this.”

London looked at Doug. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

Nothing else was said as they went back to work.

*****

Empire Mall, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
December 24, 2008, 2:42 p.m.

Tommy Preston knew that Chance would kill him if she found out he was here, but he didn’t have any other choice. He may not be able to find out why Golden Girl stole his powers, but he sure as hell could capture the bastard killing metahuman kids.

Chance’s tracking team now knew enough about Purge’s murderous path to predict his next attack would occur somewhere in the Dakotas. Tommy knew he hedged his bets by choosing Sioux Falls, but he also knew he could be a suitable target. He may not have any powers without the Heart of Gold, but he did still have an active metagene.

With only a few last minute shopping hours left, thousands of people literally filled the mall. The sheer anarchy of the situation made it the perfect site for a kidnapping. Tommy only needed to find away to make himself the victim.

Despite being eighteen, Tommy knew that his short height and babyface made him look years younger. He only hoped it would be enough to attract Purge.

He walked through the mall like any other person in search of the perfect gift. But he couldn’t seem to find any present for his fictional relative. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to attract any sign of the killer either.

He walked in to Hot Topic. The din of the people outside almost disappeared under the atonal sounds of what modern man called music. Tommy longed for the days of big bands on the radio every night.

“You’re not going to find anything here.” The speaker was a woman in her late twenties. Her hair was dyed jet black, the same color as the heavy eye liner around her eyes and her patent leather knee-high boots. A pair of hip-hugging jeans were tucked into the boots. A frilly red halter top completed the ensemble.

“You aren’t kidding there, sister.”

She laughed. “Why don’t you and I get out of this place?”

“Aren’t I a little young for you?” Tommy’s thoughts went to the killer’s profile. Everyone assumed Purge was a man, but what if he isn’t? Maybe he’s standing right in front of me.

“You’re only as young as you feel,” she said. “But if you don’t want to, no big.”

“I didn’t say that. The food court’s right around the corner. You want a pretzel or something?” He started towards the door and made sure she followed. “By the way, my name’s Tommy.”

They stepped out of the store and turned the corner towards the food court. Tommy could see the Auntie Anne’s pretzel store from there.

“My name’s Luna, and I don’t really want a pretzel.”

Tommy felt her hand touch his shoulder. He instantly spun around. His arm came up and forced her hand away from him. He lunged towards her, but stopped short in his tracks.

The mall was gone. He still stood inches away from Luna, but they now stood on a barren gray mass. Pock marks and craters littered the ashen ground at their feet. In the sky, a blue and white mass loomed large.

Tommy realized he looked directly towards the planet Earth.

“Welcome to the moon, Tommy. You and I have a lot to talk about. But time enough for that later.” She flicked her finger against her forehead.

“Hey!” Tommy’s indignation ended abruptly as his head filled with fog. He gave a bemused grin as the world vanished in to blissful rest.

*****

Buster’s safehouse, Miami, Florida
December 24, 2008, 6:42 p.m.

“This sucks!”

Steel Fist slammed a hand in to the dinner table. The table buckled where he struck it. Cracks rippled from the point of impact. Hyper and Nightmare recoiled from the attack on the eating surface.

“I mean it really sucks,” Steel Fist continued. “We’ve been in Miami for a month now and I can’t even go outside to catch some waves! This is the biggest waste of time ever!” “We’re lucky to be alive,” Nightmare said. “You can’t expect Buster to just up and find away to get this Dominique chick off our back, can you?”

Steel Fist’s hand tightened again. Nightmare and Hyper reflexively backed away from the table. “I’m not in to all this sitting around crap. If she wants a fight, I say we bring it to her.”

“It’s not that easy,” Hyper said. “We have to have a plan. These people have the ability to snatch us out of our homes without us even knowing about it. You think they don’t have the defenses to stand up against six inexperienced metahumans?”

“You always have to take Nighty-Nightmare’s side, don’t you?” Steel Fist stomped towards the living room. “I’m tired of all this crap!”

Red entered the dining area just as Fist moved to exit. “Hey, darling. Where you going in such a huff?”

“Leave me alone!” Fist stormed off as Red turned to Nightmare and Hyper. “I hate to see that man go, but I do love to watch him leave!”

Hyper blushed as Nightmare shook his head.

“He’s right though,” Nightmare said. “We can only wait here so long. We have lives and we deserve to get what semblance of them we can back. We may need to get ready for it, but we also need action soon. I, for one, don’t want to spend another Christmas a thousand miles from home hiding for fear of my life.”

The two women said nothing, only nodded.

Outside the safehouse, a man dressed in camouflage dungarees watched the conversation from the dense vegetation that surrounded the house. He smiled as his enhanced hearing picked up every one of the children’s words.

Soon, kids. Soon you will get more action than you ever thought possible.

*****

Robert Morgan’s penthouse apartment, Boston, Massachusetts
December 24, 2008, 11:01 p.m.

Isobel rested fitfully in Robert’s bed. Not for the first time, she was alone. Lash sat in his office, as he did so many nights, doing who knew what. She couldn’t do much other than sit up anymore; the baby was too close to coming. So she sat in the bed and read a copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

The baby moved and kicked and guaranteed she wouldn’t get any sleep tonight. The distraction of the kicking continuously brought her mind back to Lash and his distance of late. After her brief perusal of his office a month before, he decided to move his office work to the penthouse. But the romance, the connection between them, remained strained at best.

Now I’m stuck on Christmas Eve wondering whether I should even stay with the father of my child. She shook her head at the thought. Back when they first met, sex had been a wild and dangerous escapade. Protection wasn’t readily available, even illegal in some states. And pregnancy meant one of two things for an up-and-coming young woman: the end of her career followed by a hasty marriage or a back alley abortion. I could set out on my own now. Raise the child without him.

She put the book down beside her in the bed. She rested a hand on her belly and wished the baby would be calm. I can’t leave him now. I have to have him around just to take care of myself. And I need his insurance. Medical expenses were measured in numbers I never saw an amount close to back in the forties. Even with the stipend from ACTION, I couldn’t hope to meet the bills. And I’m sure as hell not going back to them to have my baby poked and prodded.

She longed for an easy answer. Being Lightning Girl seemed easy compared to this. I have no idea how to get through this, let alone be a mom.

The baby shifted again and this time she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. The sudden urge to use the bathroom followed a moment later. She started to climb out of the bed when the liquid gushed down the inside of her thighs.

My water just broke!

“Lash! It’s time!”

The worries about their relationship faded from her thoughts. For the next few hours, she would be quite busy enough without them.

*****

Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, Washington
December 25, 2008, 4:49 a.m.

“Are you there, Mary?”

Mary lee stirred in her bed. She realized that she wasn’t dreaming. She opened her eyes, but saw no one. “Mary, can you hear me?”

“Hello? Is someone there?”

“Mary, it’s Atoman. I’ve been trying to reach out to you for days.”

“Where are you?”

“I have no time to explain. Only know that I’m nearby and held against my will. I need you to leave, now.”

Mary sat upright. “What?”

“They will come for you in just a few hours if you don’t. Someone in the government knows about your powers and doesn’t want them exposed to the world. They plan on taking you hostage just as they have done me.”

“How do you know this? What do I do?”

Atoman’s voice grew fainter in her head. “I can’t keep up this communication much longer. Go and find London. He can help you. But get out of here and find him. It’s our only hope.”

“Okay.” Mary couldn’t quite believe her own words. She climbed out of the hospital bed and retrieved a t-shirt and skirt from the closet. She wasted no time in donning the clothes.

With the early hours of the holiday, the hospital ran on a skeleton crew. She slipped out of her ward without seeing another human being. After that, she was just any other little old lady on her way through the halls.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she walked outside. She was cold, alone, and sixty years older than she wanted to be. But the chance to be truly free made her feel alive. She took a deep breath and started out in to the city.