Buster’s safehouse, Miami, Florida
January 3, 2009, 2:14 a.m.

The front door of the house exploded inward. The foyer burned as a lone figure strode in to the house. He wore brown and black spandex on his legs, torso, and shoulders, but his arms and hairy chest were bare. He wore an advanced helmet over close-cropped hair. Red light poured from the targeting scope over his right eye.

Tracer looked around the smoky room. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

On the second story, Nightmare shot out of his sleep at the sound of the explosion. He stumbled from the bed. The door flew open and a blur flashed across the room. Hyper stopped just a few inches in front of him.

“AJ, what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. But I think we’re under attack.”

Sphinx stepped in to the room. “An astute observation, Nightmare. Now what are we going to do about it?”

“’We’ve waited long enough. It’s time we fight.”

Bare-chested and shoeless, he walked in to the hallway. Steel Fist ran past him and dove down the stairs.

“I’m going to kill this bitch ass!”

“Less than eloquent,” Sphinx said. “But I think our friend Fist has the right idea. Shall we?”

Sphinx and Hyper flanked him as Nightmare followed Steel Fist to the stairs. They stepped in to chaos.

Rattlesnake hurled bolts of glowing green energy towards the stranger. But the bursts of energy seemed to dissipate before ever reaching Tracer. He raised some kind of high tech rifle and blasted her with it.

Steel Fist struck Tracer with blow after blow. They seemed to stagger him, but like Rattlesnake’s blasts, they seemed to do little damage. After the tenth or eleventh strike, Tracer grabbed Steel Fist with his free hand. He caught Fist by the wrist, pivoted his hips, and threw Steel Fist up and over him. Steel Fist crashed to the floor in a heap.

Tracer turned his attention towards Nightmare. He raised the twin barrels of the blaster towards them.

“It’s now or never!”

As the words left his body, Nightmare’s body shifted. His arms and legs disappeared in to his body as his skin grew gray and scaly. His spine and bone structure vanished as he turned in to a massive blob of pseudo-liquid.

Tracer’s blast of energy passed harmlessly through Nightmare. He splashed down on to the floor at the base of the stairs. Hyper ran past him as he started to reform from a puddle. Sphinx leapt down from his perch on the stairs and waited for him to recover.

“What the hell is going on?”

Sphinx turned to look at the Woman in Red at the top of the stairs. The distraction was all the time Tracer needed. His rifle came up and pelted Sphinx with twin blasts to the chest. Sphinx dropped to the floor, eyes wide and unmoving.

Nightmare’s reformed mouth screamed, “No!”

His form swelled. His arms and legs reformed as they grew more massive. Long claws formed out of the tip of each finger as spikes and horns replaced his hairline.

“Red, pour all your power boost in to Nightmare now!”

Buster’s voice barely registered to Nightmare. His body continued to swell first to two than to three times his normal size. Massive fangs grew in his swelling mouth even as the claws on his hands lengthened to over a foot.

Tracer raised his weapon but Nightmare swiped it from his hand. Nightmare stalked towards Tracer. His voice came out as little more than a growl.

“You hurt my friends.”

Two massive fists lifted Tracer by each hand. The claws dug in to the hunter’s sides as Nightmare lifted him in to the air.

“You’re going to pay, boy. I will make you suffer if you don’t put me down.”

“Shut up!”

Nightmare drove the hard ridges of his forehead in to Tracer’s skull. He heard a sharp crack. Tracer slumped in his arms. Nightmare dropped the hunter and stepped back in shock.

His massive form faded back to human as he realized he nearly killed a man. Tracer still barely breathed on the floor in front of him.

Nightmare felt his own strength fade. He looked up at Red. She also showed signs of fatigue. Her power surge left them both drained. Thankfully, Buster’s gambit worked. He doubted he could bring himself to fight for a second longer.

Buster clapped at the top of the stairs. “Excellent work, kids. You did me proud today. Let’s make sure the others are all right. Then we will—”

Buster’s voice cut off at the sight of the sword’s tip protruding just below his breastbone. A lick of fire burned across the blade.

“Manowar?”

The attacker withdrew the blade. Buster tumbled down the stairs. He hit multiple times on the tumble down before he landed in a heap next to Sphinx.

This Manowar wore a crimson and navy bodysuit. His mask covered his entire face but for a strong chin. A black eagle pattern sat on his chest. He held out his flaming sword towards Nightmare.

“Stand down or face my wrath!”

Nightmare struggled to transform, but it took all his strength just to stay on his feet. He could barely lift his arms, let alone summon the will for a transformation.

“Red, I need another boost. He—”

A blast of flame struck Red. She cried out in pain before she stumbled and fell.

“Damn you! Damn you!”

Nightmare ignored the exhaustion. He summoned the will to move. His body shifted in to a massive serpent. His neck flared out like a cobra. He reared his head back and spit venom towards Manowar.

The fire burned through the venom. Noxious gas assailed his nostrils, but Nightmare had little time for scents. The fire struck his frame. He felt like his entire body would burn to nothing.

He shifted back in to human form and collapsed on to the ground. The last thing he remembered was a blue boot dropping on the floor next to him. Manowar’s chuckle echoed through his skull as his consciousness faded.

*****

Monterey, California
January 11, 2009, 9:25 a.m.

It seemed to Mary that this new century left a bit to be desired from the last. It was bad enough that vulgar language seemed to follow her wherever she went and violence seemed almost common place. But the fact that no one seemed to care about simple virtues made her want to weep. She built her career on the virtues of fair play. Now it seemed not even the sports team’s had much need for it.

She focused her attention back on to the bus terminal. This would be her stop. What little money she could round up only got her this far. She hoped to reach her old haunts of Los Angeles, perhaps reach out to a few friends from the old days. Maybe they could help her locate Russ.

Instead she was in the town of Monterey, hours north of Hollywood. She had no home, no food, and no money. She was an eighty year old woman homeless and alone.

I’m a senile, old fool. I should have never left the hospital.

The bus came to a final stop. She stepped off the bus. Her hips ached from the long ride from Washington. She ignored the pain and focused on the task ahead. She needed to find somebody, anybody that might help her.

She didn’t expect to find him right outside the bus terminal in front of a garden supply store.

“John? John Aman?”

He turned and looked at her after hearing his name. He was clearly older than she remembered. His hair was gray, but he still had the same build and rugged good looks as he did when she first met him as Amazing Man.

“Yes. Do I know you?”

“I’m Mary Lee. We knew each other—”

“Mary? I heard that you were back, freed from some kind of prison, but I never thought to run in to you again.” His voice dropped to little more than a whisper. “How did you find me? I’ve been keeping a low profile here for decades.”

Mary shrugged. “I’ve always been lucky. At least since I first got my energetic powers; I always suspected they might be related. Either way, it seems to have worked in my favor today.”

“I suppose it did. What brings you to Monterey, other than me?”

She frowned. “It’s a long story, John. And I’m an old woman. Can we go somewhere and sit?”

“There’s a café down the way. We can go and have coffee if you would like.”

He pointed down the street. She turned to look at where he indicated. “Uh, well the thing is… I don’t really have any money right now.”

John smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s on me. Anything to help an old friend get back on her feet. Come on. You can fill me in over a cappuccino.”

After he escorted her to the shop and bought their drinks, Mary gave John all the details of the last few months of her life. He listened without even a momentary sign of distraction.

He took a slow sip of his coffee. He put it down in front of him and stared at it for several long seconds before he spoke. “So, you know where they took Atoman? Where he’s being held?”

“Not exactly. But I know the facility isn’t far from the hospital. It’s underground.”

“I don’t know where to find London, but I do know about Atoman’s abduction. I regret it, but I was involved.” He explained his alliance with American Crusader and his misgivings about the Crusader’s tactics.

“I couldn’t very well take on the American government on my own. I knew a battle with the Crusader would be foolish and needlessly destructive. So I just walked away like I did years ago. Came back here and went to work on my garden.”

“You didn’t do anything? Say anything? That’s not the Amazing Man I remember.”

“I am far from the man you remember. My ideology, everything I believed in back then—” He shook his head. “Let’s just say I lost my faith in human nature. I thought the Crusader’s quest would give me a chance to retake it. Instead I only feel more betrayed.”

She rested her hand on the back of his. She gave him the warmest smile she had left. “I think we’ve all been through a lot.”

“I suppose so.” He looked down at her hand on his. “Your touch, it reminds me. Do you remember that time back in forty-four?”

“That little chateau outside Paris? Come on now, a girl doesn’t kiss and tell, but she also never forgets a weekend like that. It was magical.”

John smiled. “It was different for me. I was just getting over the loss of Zona. I thought I would never find love again. That weekend, well, it made me feel like I could still be a man in the outside world. It was special for that. I owe you much for that.”

“Did you ever—?”

“Marry? For awhile, but not until the seventies. I retired shortly after we met. She died four years ago. Liver cancer.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss her, but it gets easier every day. I think I’m finally finding ways to move on with life.”

Mary nodded. “I’m sorry to come in and be such a burden on you. You say you live a slow life and I’m sure all this nonsense about freeing Atoman is another mess you don’t want a part in.”

John didn’t speak for several seconds. He looked Mary in the eyes. “Would you like to come home with me, Mary? Relive that night as well as our old bodies will let us?”

Mary blushed. “I’m an old woman now, John. I may have lost all those years, but my body reminds me of it every day.”

“I may have aged well, but I’m still just as old. I’m sorry if I’m being forward, but I find at my age I have little time for mating rituals. I promise to help you find Atoman as soon as I can book a flight back to Washington. So—”

“I’d love to, John.” She laughed. “Look at me. I’m as giddy as a school girl!”

John helped her from her seat. He leaned down and kissed her hand. “And just as pretty.”

*****

ACTION Research Facility, beneath Tacoma, Washington
January 19, 2009, 11:41 p.m.

His mistress’s words echoed through Mike O’Malley’s head. He knew exactly what needed to be done. He walked through the mystic portal she left for him in her Chateau and in to darkness.

He breathed a burst of flame on to his specially treated glove. It lit up like a torch. He could barely feel the heat of the flames. His fire resistant skin would protect him from any burns.

He walked to the end of the darkness and forced open the door of the supply closet. He stepped out in to a massive sprawling laboratory. The entire area spanned nearly an acre. Various outcroppings of machinery sprouted up throughout the room, most connected to work stations. All the work stations were empty except for a larger one on the other side of the room. A pair of fully armed and armored security guards raised their rifles towards him as he entered the room.

Fire-Eater paid them only the littlest of attention. He breathed a wave of flame across the floor. It engulfed both soldiers and instantly immolated them. Charred skeletons dropped to the ground only seconds later. He ran across the floor towards the large sphere suspended in the middle of the room.

He heard a technician’s voice rise up in alarm. He raised his head and spit three large fireballs at their work station. The fireballs hit the station and coated it like napalm. The metal and plastic melted easily and took the technicians with it. They died before they could even raise an alarm.

He took a deep breath and hurled another burst of flame straight up in to the closed sphere high above. It melted away the base of the sphere in a matter of seconds.

A second inner sphere dropped from the new aperture. About six and a half feet in diameter, the object matched the mistress’s specifications exactly. Though see-through, the shell of the sphere resisted his hottest flames. He knew it would resist even atomic level flames.

A viscous blue liquid filled the sphere. At its center, he could barely make out the red (turned crimson by the liquid) costume of Atoman. He rested his left hand on top of the sphere.

With his right hand, he drew a pair of runes in the air. He spoke three words in Latin. “Eo ire itum.”

The runes suddenly burned with white hot phosphorescence. A portal opened before him. He took a moment to remove the small package from the back of his belt and drop it to the floor. The portal rushed towards him and engulfed both Fire-Eater and the containment sphere.

The facility sat silent except for the slow, steady ticking of the package.

*****

Outside Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, Washington
January 20, 2009, 12:02 a.m.

“Where are they, Russ? You said they would be here. We can’t complete this mission without them.”

London glared at Black Owl. “They will be here. Give them time.”

Both men sat in the back of a black Ford Escape Hybrid. Madigan Medical Center sat just over two blocks away. But if the blueprints Owl uncovered were right, their target was directly beneath them.

“We don’t have time. If our sources are right, they only stay short staffed until two. After that our window closes, we’re out of luck. We need to move now.”

“Give them time! They will be here.”

“Who will be here?”

Just behind the van, Silver Streak let Coward drop down out of her grip. He stumbled to the ground and caught his footing.

“Let me just say that is not the best way to travel,” Coward said. “If you ever want our help again, I expect an airplane ticket.”

London opened the back door and gave Coward a hearty embrace. “Thanks for coming. We could use the help.”

London pointed back to the inside of the SUV. “We have what we think are the facility blueprints here. Come and take a look. We’ve only got about twenty minutes of prep time before our window starts to get in danger of closing.”

Coward hopped up in to the van. “All right, lay it on us.”

Black Owl glowered at the Riccapooran heroes, but said nothing. London helped Silver Streak up in to the van before Owl started the rundown.

“We’re gain entry through the sewers.” Black Owl indicated a small access point on the right of the map. “We’re only a few yards down from it. We should easily be able to use it to get inside and start the search for Atoman.”

He pointed at a large, lobby-like area n the center of the map. “We’re guessing he’s in here. Outside of what looks like a few offices, this is the main hub of the facility. It’s also the only place I think they could build a containment unit capable of holding Atoman.”

“We’re fighting government agents here,” Coward said. “You’re sure there is no other way to secure his release.”

Black Owl shook his head.

The ground quaked beneath their feet. Silver Streak stumbled forward straight in to London’s lap. Black Owl and Coward braced themselves against the SUV’s walls.

London placed Silver Streak in to one of the seats. He popped the back door open and jumped out on to the streets. Everything in sight rumbled. He could see fragments of stone crumble and fall off the outside of the hospital.

With a series of sharp pops, every manhole cover on the street suddenly shot in to the air. London jumped away from the gout of flames that shot from their planned entryway.

Alarms blared all around them.

London caught Black Owl’s eyes. He could sense the silent agreement from the elder hero. The facility was gone and their hopes of finding Atoman gone with it.