Issue #4: "For Every Action..." Pt. 4

This isn’t the kind of turn of events that I expected tonight, Ronnie thought as he fell to his knees and clutched his ears in reaction to the high-pitched noise that rang in his head. You do a favor for a friend, go to a frat party to be his wingman, start having a good time with a smokin’ hot redhead that has you seriously considering the cons of monogamy and, right when you’re about to make a decision on that moral dilemma, a super-powered psycho starts a ruckus.

“Ronald, we don’t have a lot of time…” a voice inside Ronnie’s head said over the noise. Ronnie looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man clad in black with lime-green circuitry laced symmetrically throughout his costume. The man threw the lifeless body of the frat boy he had just killed to the side and took a step forward, before a glass liquor bottle hit him in the head and knocked him back.

Ronnie looked back to where the bottle was thrown from and saw the redhead he had been dancing with throwing another bottle at Danton Black, finding its mark again on his head. She grabbed Ronnie’s arm and pulled him towards the back exit. As they made their way out of the fraternity house, Ronnie could see that she was moving her lips, trying to communicate with him, but he was unable to hear anything with the high pitched feedback ringing in his ears. As enough distance was gained between himself and Danton, he was able to hear what she was saying.

“Ronnie, what’s the deal with that …” She was interrupted by the sudden reemergence of the feedback and Danton Black coming around the corner of the house, grabbing her throat and throwing her against the house, knocking her out.

“She’s very pretty, Ronald,” Danton’s voice boomed in Ronnie’s head over the feedback . “Unfortunately, you won’t be getting any tonight. While I don’t like being a party crasher , I really want full access to the Matrix and that starts by killing you.” Danton’s hands began to glow orange as he picked Ronnie up by the throat. “Kill the head and the body will follow…”

Ronnie felt Danton lose his grip around his throat and fall to the ground. He took a moment to regain his breath and saw that his roommate, Jefferson Jackson, had tackled Danton. Jefferson straddled Danton, rearing his fist to punch him, but Danton quickly countered with a punch to the jaw that knocked him down.

Ronnie ran towards Danton who was getting up. An orange cloud emitted from Ronnie’s body and enveloped him. Out of it flew his flamed-haired, costumed form, throwing a punch that knocked Danton back a couple of feet.

“Are you okay?” Ronnie asked Jefferson as he helped him up.

“Ronnie, is that you?” Jefferson asked. “You’re Flame-Head?”

“We gotta get out of here,” Ronnie said as he grabbed Jefferson. He flew to the unconscious redhead and flew both of them down Walnut Avenue, where the Hudson University Library was. After setting them down, Ronnie looked at Jefferson and said, “Call the police.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to contact the Teen Titans, or the Justice League, or someone superpowered?”

“Just call someone,” Ronnie said as he flew back towards the Rho Alpha Theta house. He scanned the crowd fleeing the scene and saw no sign of Danton Black anywhere.

“Professor, are you in there somewhere?” Ronnie asked, tapping his hand against his head.

“Yes, Ronald, I’m here,” Professor Stein replied mentally.

“Where’s your friend?”

“I don’t know, I can’t get a good read on his thoughts; they are too jumbled and divided,” the professor replied

Ronnie was about to circle the premise when his eyes turned from a bright orange to black with an orange iris in each eye. This allowed Ronnie to see through the building. “Professor, what’s the deal with this?”

“I don’t know, Ronald, it seems like you unlocked some latent ability.”

“Professor, I think I know why you can’t read his thoughts.” Ronnie saw that the house was full of people, despite seeing most of the party escape earlier. Suddenly, dozens of Danton duplicates crashed through windows and doors. Others jumped off balconies, fire escapes and the rooftop of the fraternity house, landing on Ronnie’s hovering body. They slammed him down on the street while more duplicates piled on top.

Ronnie, feeling the increasing pressure of duplicates piling on, used his ability to lower his body density, becoming intangible and falling through the pavement. He flew back through the pavement behind the pile of Dantons and hovered above them. He then returned his body to its normal density and used his matter-altering powers to melt the asphalt of the street, which he molded into a cube, creating a cell for the duplicate Dantons. “Ronald, their air supply will surely run out rapidly,” the professor said.

“Sorry, Professor, I didn’t exactly have time to think about their well-being with them trying to flatten me…” Ronnie was interrupted as many hands began to punch their way out of the hardened asphalt. “It looks like that’s a moot point anyway.”

Ronnie turned around and saw another duplicate jump at him. Ronnie grabbed the duplicate by the circuitry on his torso, then spun around and threw him into a parked car, ripping the circuitry off of the costume. Before the duplicate hit the car, he vanished into the air.

“Ronald, take a look at that circuitry,” the professor said. Ronnie’s eyes began to darken again as he looked at it at a molecular level. “Why would Danton make a suit designed to feed his body electricity and maintain an elevated level of…”

The Professor’s thoughts were interrupted as the Dantons finally broke free from their prison and swarmed out of the cube like ants out of an ant hill. Ronnie flew down, turning the ripped circuitry in his hands into a replica of a Thanagarian mace and flew into the swarm swinging and connecting with the chest of one duplicate, shattering the circuitry and making the rest cry out in pain. Soon thereafter, the duplicate disappeared.

“I think we found out his weakness,” Ronnie said as he began swinging at other duplicates, hitting them in the chest. One after another, the number of duplicates began to dwindle. “I wonder if Hawkman has this much fun bashing bad guys. I think I’m going to have to thank Doreen for making me read those stupid profiles of the Justice Society.”

“Ronald, I don’t think this is something you should be taking in jest.”

“You’re right,” Ronnie said as he saw more duplicates running out of the Rho Alpha Theta house, “it’s time to end this.” Ronnie threw the mace at the duplicate leading the charge, causing all of them to feel a collective moment of pain as they halted their advance for a moment. In that split-second, Ronald pointed both fists towards the oncoming horde and blasted them with the orange cloud of his matter-altering energy. Upon contact, Ronnie’s body began to convulse violently. He screamed as he fell to the ground. After losing partial control of his motor functions, Ronnie struggled to pick himself up. “What was that about, Professor?”

“Bio-electrical feedback,” the professor answered. “It’s possible it happens if you attempt to alter organic matter.”

“That would’ve been nice to know,” Ronnie said as he finally managed to pick himself up. He looked up and saw that the number of the duplicates that remained had doubled and begun to get into position ready to mount another attack.

“This is not good,” Ronnie commented.

“No, it is not,” Professor Stein replied.

“Ronald, concentrate on the circuitry,” Martin Stein said, after Ronnie had turned a tree into a plow and made his way through the crowd of Dantons. “Concentrate on them and transmute them into air. Separating the Dantons from their energy source seems to cause them to disappear.”

Ronnie did as the Professor said and row after row of duplicates began to disappear, but, as fast as Ronnie could get rid of them, more popped up in their place. “Professor, this is useless. We need to stop this at the source.”

Ronnie flew upward, avoiding the grasp of the duplicates, and towards the fraternity house. He used his new vision power to scan the house and, on the first floor, he saw someone grabbing what looked like a fluorescent light. In addition, that someone had higher bio-electrical levels than the other duplicates. Ronnie crashed through the wall of the house and rocketed towards Danton, plowing his way through the numerous duplicates that were in the way, planting both of his fists in Danton’s back, crashing through another wall. As they emerged outside, Danton’s glowing hand grabbed Ronnie, causing bio-electrical feedback to flow into his body, causing both of them to crash into the ground.

“Well, seems like my strength in numbers strategy hasn’t worked very well,” Danton said, as he picked himself up while his remaining duplicates formed a circle around Ronnie, repeating everything Danton said. “I figured I’d have a couple of duplicates beat the crap out of you and kill you and the Matrix would just merge with the portion that’s inside me.”

Professor… Ronnie thought as he noticed the mace he created earlier on the ground near him.. What do we do know?

“We need to take the original out,” Professor Stein replied. “If we take him out, we can effectively cause the rest to be rendered brainless.”

“How do we know which one is the original?” Ronnie asked. “They are all the same and talking.”

“The hands, Ronald, look at the hands,” Martin told Ronnie, who looked at the hands of his nemeses and saw that the glowing of their hands had varying intensities.

“The one with the most intense glowing…” Ronnie began

“… is the original,” Martin finished.

“It’s really pathetic, that destiny would bestow upon you the power of a god. I wish Martin had the ability to remember it,” the Dantons said as they circled their prey. “It’s really like giving someone the keys to a Benz only to drive to the corner and back.”

“Neither of you deserve it, especially you, Martin,” the Dantons repeated as they collapsed their circle around Ronnie. “I’m finally going to give you what’s been coming to you and get you back for what you did to me.”

“From what I’ve heard, you brought all of that on yourself,” Ronnie said as he scanned the circling Dantons, looking for the one with the most concentrated glow around his hands.

“I deserved more for the work I put into that power plant. I deserved more money, more recognition and a piece of that Nobel Prize. All I was doing was taking back my work and selling it to more gracious people that appreciated me.”

“That’s not true, Ronald,” Professor Stein said.

“And now, you’ve been bestowed the powers of a god, the power to create and destroy, and once I kill you and join your parts of the Matrix with mine, I’ll have the power to rule this world, and I’ll start by killing everyone you ever cared about.”

The Dantons rushed Ronnie, who rolled to his side and grabbed the mace. He flew up into the air and looked down, seeing that all of the Dantons were reaching for him. He spotted the one with the most intense glow around his hands and threw the mace at his chest.

Danton Black let out a howl of pain as he grimaced in pain and clutched his chest, which all of the duplicates mimicked. Ronnie flew down as fast as he could with his fist extended and connected with a punch to Danton’s face, knocking him out. The duplicates fell unconscious and littered Walnut Avenue like leaves in the fall.

“Professor, what should we do about these duplicates?” Ronnie asked.

“Maybe stripping them of their power source will make them disappear like they do when they’re conscious,” the professor suggested. Ronnie concentrated his matter-altering powers on the circuitry like he had done earlier in the evening and turned them into air. As the Professor theorized, the duplicates promptly vanished.

Ronnie grabbed the mace and walked towards Danton. “Professor, do you know what the atomic composition of titanium is?”

“Of course, Ronald.” Martin relayed all of the necessary information Ronnie needed to transform the mace into a titanium band that circled Danton’s chest and pinned the villain’s arms to his sides.

“That was amazing,” a female voice from behind Ronnie said. He turned and saw the redhead that he had been dancing with earlier that evening jogging towards him, jotting down notes on the back of a flyer. “Hi, I’m Louise Lincoln from the Daily Hudson. Would you like to make a statement?”

She works for the paper, how did I not notice that? Ronnie thought. “‘Um… I don’t think I do…”

“Ronald, who is this girl? She’s very pretty.”

“Not now, Professor.”

“Um… do you always talk to yourself or do you have some kind of hidden communicator?” Louise asked. “Who’s the professor? Is he your partner? “

“Umm…” Ronnie mumbled, trying to think of something to say.

“I kept hearing that guy say the name Martin; is that your name? Are you an alien like Superman? Do you plan on joining a group like the Teen Titans?”

“I gotta go,” Ronnie stammered as he flew off into the night.

“Wait,” Louise screamed after him. “What’s your superhero name?”

“Make one up, I don’t care,” Ronnie yelled before he disappeared into the New York night.

“Flame-Head?” Louise thought as she tapped the pen on the paper . A front page from the New York Times blew against her leg. She grabbed it and looked at the headline from earlier in the day: NEW YORK’S NEWEST HERO ENTERS A FIRESTORM TO SAVE A FAMILY.

“Firestorm… I like the sound of that.”