Issue #12: "Hell, Fire and Brimstone" Pt. 2

Martin Stein knew he was dreaming.

He had a pins-and-needle-type feeling behind his eyes; the environment he was walking in had a thick-liquidity feel that made it seem like he was moving in slow motion. Martin couldn't shake an otherworldly feeling all around him.

Martin looked to the horizon and rising in the east, in place of the Sun, was the planet Apokolips, with its fire pits illuminating the sky in place of the sun. Martin walked towards the planet, against a crowd that ran away hysterically from the home of Darkseid, leaving just two people behind.

A raven-haired woman stood against the backdrop of the hellish planet wearing a white sundress that flapped in the wind, wrapping around her voluptuous form. Her skin was tanned as if she spent the better part of her days sunbathing on the Mediterranean. Her hands rested on the handles of a wheelchair that housed an elderly man. He had long white hair, exhibiting male pattern baldness, and a long Rip-Van-Winkle-like beard. He wore old and disheveled clothes and a sliver of drool dripped from the edge of his lips. His arms were folded against his chest and he trembled slightly in his chair as he motioned with his finger for the woman to bend down. He whispered something in her ear that made her shed a tear. She wiped it away and started to walk towards Martin.

Martin met her halfway and they embraced. Martin ran his fingers through her hair, before cupping her face and kissing her. Smells of lavender, lilac and evergreen filled his nostrils while she pressed her cooling body against him and her lips harder against his lips. After a few seconds, she reluctantly pulled her lips away from his and Martin could see that the once-brown Mediterranean complexion was now turning pale and grey.

“With everything we've given you and the resources at your disposal,” she said handing him an amulet, “you are still not prepared. For that I'm sorry, Martin Stein.”

“Prepared for what?” Martin asked. He looked at the amulet he was now holding, and the unusual design carved into it. It had a circle with an upside-down cross in the middle that did not extend past the perimeter. Attached to the perimeter were two extensions made of three circles and pointing downward.

“If there was only time, we could have given you what you’re missing,” she said as she began to decay into the wind.

“What's that?” Martin asked as he felt her wither away in his arms.

“Knowledge,” she said with a whisper as she disintegrated. Martin looked back at the old man who was now bathed in a radiant blue light, before he disappeared.

Martin looked down at the amulet and saw it glow with a similar blue light. He looked up and now, standing where the old man had been, was a hooded figure, dressed in purple with his back to Martin. The figure turned around. He had a demonic elfish-like appearance with chalk-white skin and long pointed ears. Half of his face was covered in a circular purplish mark. He grinned at Martin, showing rows of sharp angular teeth.

“No, not you,” Martin said, recognizing the demon.

“Oh yes, Martin Stein,” the Prince of Darkness said with the grin still on his face. “And by the way, you can wake up now...”

...

Martin Stein shot his eyes open and sat up with a gasp that reverberated throughout the tube he was confined in. Staring back at him, through the clear substance, was a pair of solid black eyes that belonged to Morgan Edge. He stared at Martin as half of his face began to turn purple.

“You... you’re… Eclipso?” Martin asked.

“I've been known by many things over the course of many millennia, Martin Stein,” Morgan Edge said as he walked away from the tube that held Martin. “But now, I'd prefer to be known as a servant of god.”

“How did you survive? I saw you...”

“I find that some things are best left a mystery,” Morgan said as he turned to face his captive. “What's not a mystery is what is about to happen to you, which is the same fate that has befallen every single host of the Firestorm Matrix since we started our little game of cosmic tag. Only now, my true purpose has been revealed after lifetimes of planet-hopping muddling it.”

Martin looked around the room and immediately recognized his nuclear reactor design and saw it was designed to release nuclear discharge into his tube and into another one at the other end of the room. “What's going on here?”

“I am sure you are familiar with Henry Hewitt. He redesigned your nuclear reactor in an attempt to recreate the accident that created your powers. His intention was to make an army of Firestorms to help him rule the world. Of course, he had no idea of the true nature of your powers, so a few adjustments were needed, and your former associate Danton Black was more than willing to help us out.”

“That doesn't make any sense. You want to make more Firestorms, but I’m already Firestorm.”

“Martin, please, I don’t want an army of Firestorms. This tube you’re in has been redesigned to hold the Firestorm Matrix. When we turn on this machine, we expect it to kill you.”



Ronnie sat down with Lorraine Reilly in the common room of his dorm-suite as he listened to her story. She told him of the Omega Committee, a clandestine organization setting themselves up to be the ruling class in the event that another Crisis left the world in a post-apocalyptic state. He heard about their infatuation with his transmutation powers and their attempts to blackmail Lorraine’s father, New York Senator Walter Reilly, to join their group. Lorraine then told him about how they had kidnapped her after her father’s refusal to join their group and used her as the guinea pig in their first experiment to recreate the powers of Firestorm, turning her into Firehawk. She also told him how the Omega Committee was responsible for the prison break that not only freed Danton Black, but also released the Hyena from confinement.

Ronnie couldn’t help but feel guilty. Lorraine and Doreen had been two of his closest friends and they both had had their lives irrevocably altered by the existence of Firestorm. He was even starting to worry about Jefferson. Ronnie could tell he was starting to get addicted to the rush of riding shotgun as Firestorm and being a hero. When Ronnie told him he was going to stop being Firestorm, Jefferson seemed devastated, despite the fact he could end up charbroiled like the unfortunate officer who had first merged with Ronnie. Ronnie could accept bad things happening to him and the professor. That was their responsibility. But it wasn’t supposed to spill over on to the people they cared about.

“So, how do these people know that Ronnie and the professor are Firestorm?” Ronnie’s roommate Jefferson Jackson asked, unable to keep his promise to stay in his room and listen to his iPod.

“I don’t know,” Lorraine answered.

“So, how do you know?” Jefferson asked.

“Excuse me, what’s your interest in this?” Lorraine asked. She had been annoyed at Jefferson’s presence, but didn’t openly object because of Ronnie’s approval.

“I’m the Firestorm fill-in for the professor,” Jefferson said. “Plus, I think Ronnie has a right to know…”

“Look, Jeff, that’s not important,” Ronnie interrupted. “We need to find the professor and stop these people before anyone else becomes part of their experiment.” Ronnie stood still, with his eyes glowing a bright orange and his brow furrowed in concentration.

“Still can’t get a connection with the professor?” Lorraine asked.

“Nothing… Something has to be blocking out connection through the Firestorm Matrix,” Ronnie explained as he paced back and forth. “Even when I’m merged with someone else, I can still feel his consciousness. The only other time I wasn’t able to, was when Firestorm was under the influence of necrolite.”^*

“Necrolite?” Lorraine asked. “I guess it’s not a coincidence that the Omega Committee have managed to acquire most of the world’s necrolite since the Justice League/Starro crisis.”

“I thought the professor destroyed all of the necrolite on Earth,” Ronnie said. “And how would they even know how necrolite effects us in that way.”

“What if they used that necro-stuff to get the information out of the professor?” Jefferson suggested.

“It doesn’t work on him, that’s why Eclipso targeted me initially,” Ronnie answered. “Because I’m the ‘driver’.”

“Who else knows about the necrolite?” Lorraine asked.

“Besides me and the professor? Bruce Gordon,” Ronnie answered. “But considering where he is, I doubt he would be able to share any info.”

“You know, playing detective is fun, but maybe just going out and finding the professor would be a lot better,” Jefferson said. “I mean, they can’t have fun stuff planned for him and the longer we wait around, the more likely the professor won’t be with us any longer.

“He’s right, Lorraine. We are wasting time. We need to find out where they took the Professor.”

“That’s a problem. The Omega Committee has labs and hideouts all over the world, but their main bases are in Detroit, Moscow, here in New York and in Arlington, Virginia,” Lorraine said.

“So we’re probably going to have to split up. We should take the nearest locations first,” Ronnie said.

“I’ll head to Arlington. That’s where they took me,” Lorraine said as a blue light surrounded her and she transformed into Firehawk.

“So where’s their lab in New York?” Ronnie asked.

“I don’t know. You might want to try the Hewitt Industries branch in Manhattan.”

“Can’t you have some of your super-secret spy friends help us out?” Jefferson asked.

“I’m kinda off the grid for this one,” Firehawk said. “What about the Justice League?”

“I quit earlier today,” Ronnie said. “And before you ask, I gave back my communicator, so I have no way of talking to them unless I head down to the Hall.” Ronnie looked at Jefferson and an orange cloud surrounded them and burst outward in a flash of blinding light, merging them into Firestorm.

“Here, take this,” Firehawk handed him an earpiece. “So we can keep in communication.”

“Let’s go,” Firestorm said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”


^* Firestorm was under the influence of necrolite back in the DC2 Challenge series.



“Dr. Black, are we ready to proceed?” Morgan Edge asked, entering the control room. He walked to the window and looked into the lab and saw that Martin Stein had become unconscious.

“Yes, just making the final adjustments. We should be ready shortly,” Danton Black said, adjusting dials on his console while coordinating his duplicates in the lab.

“Will the container hold up? Are we in any danger of radiation leaks?” Morgan asked.

“No, but Mr. Hewitt wanted…”

“Look, don’t worry about him,” Morgan interrupted. “As long as we are in no danger, start the sequence. Martin Stein needs to die.”

“Fine,” Danton said. He started the sequence and the machine began to power up. “I wanted to make sure that everything was set up properly for afterwards, when we attempt to infuse the Firestorm Matrix into me.”

Morgan ignored Danton as he watched the cylinder that housed Martin fill up with nuclear energy. Before it reached Martin, an orange cloud surrounded the Nobel Prize winner and began to mix with the entering energy, absorbing it and soon filling up the entire cylinder.

“Is that it?” Danton asked as he joined Morgan at the window.

“Yes it is,” Morgan answered. He put his hand on Danton’s shoulder. “Danton Black, be assured that your name and the work you’ve done here will be celebrated in the new world that’s about to be created once our Master comes back and reclaims his throne as ruler of all reality.”

“I’ll go and make the preparations for transfer,” Danton said.

“There’s no need to.”

“Wh-” Danton began to say. He stiffened up and saw two large spots of blood growing on his chest, through the fabric of his uniform. Behind him, the Enforcer began to materialize as her cloaking device deactivated. She pulled her hand out of his back and retracted the two blood-soaked spikes into the orange gauntlet of her armor.

“I regret to inform you, Dr. Black, that your services are no longer needed,” Morgan said while watching Danton’s lifeless corpse fall to the ground.



Martin Stein was dreaming again.

He was standing in an empty field staring into a wall of fire that was making its way towards him. The wall was dynamic, flaring in all directions and rolling over itself as it moved forward. It was also talking, but Martin couldn’t make out what the wall was saying. It was speaking with a thousand different voices simultaneously. Martin closed his eyes and began to concentrate on what those voices were saying.

“What are they telling you?” Martin heard a voice in his ear, over the ones coming from the wall.

“They are telling me stories,” Martin answered. “Action, adventure, romance, comedies… the lives of men and women, of good and evil, of life and death… they all end the same way… in death…”

Martin opened his eyes, which were now surrounded by a bright orange hue. A tear began to roll down his face as he continued, “Despite all of the power… the power of the gods… every host of the Firestorm Matrix… and their worlds… die in violence and chaos…”

“Death is a natural part of the life cycle, Martin Stein,” the voice said. Martin turned to its source and found it was coming from a sparkling white and black speckled ball that began to orbit him. “Death will come to your world eventually, just as it had to the three preceding it. Death will even come knocking on the door of gods. You must move past the fear you are feeling.”

The sphere floated in front of Martin and rotated, showing him its other side, which had a drawing carved in its surface… similar to the one he saw on the amulet. The carving glowed a radiant shade of blue and pulsated as the sphere spoke, “You are unique, Martin Stein, and that uniqueness is why you are bonded with the Firestorm Matrix. Look back into it and find it. Once you have that knowledge, you will have what you need.”

Martin looked back into the oncoming wall. He could now feel the heat on his skin and smell his hair start to singe. He looked in deep, examining the lives of the previous bearers of the Matrix, finding what made their stories unique and comparing them to his. His skin started to bubble as the wall was almost on top of him, filling the air with his burning flesh when he finally came to the truth. He thought of the raven-haired woman and the old man she was pushing around in a wheelchair. He remembered her kiss and the electricity he felt from it. He remembered the amulet she gave him… an amulet he was now holding in his hand… and which had the same carving on it that the sphere had on its surface and that was now pulsating with the same shade of blue.

Martin looked at the sphere before the wall of fire totally consumed him. His eyes now glowed the same bright blue hue as the carving on the sphere’s surface and the amulet.

“I know,” Martin said as the fire engulfed him.

“Yes, you now do,” the sphere replied.

“Are you sure Multiplex won’t be giving us any trouble,” Enforcer said following Morgan Edge back to the lab. “What if he has duplicates out there?”

“Clarissa, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with that particular side effect of the Firestorm Matrix,” Morgan said. “That was the original because it had almost a diamond’s amount of necrolite in it and even if there were duplicates, they should be dying off soon.”

“I hope so,” Enforcer said and walked up to the cylinder that now contained the Firestorm Matrix.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Morgan asked while his eyes turned black and a purple blemish began to crawl across half of his face.

“Yes, it is,” Enforcer answered turning towards Morgan. “I still have a hard time believing that everything you’ve told me has come true.”

“Do not lose faith in our mission now, Clarissa Clemens,” the voice of Eclipso said through Morgan Edge’s mouth. “Your efforts and sacrifice will be rewarded by our Master once he re-enters this realm of existence. He will ascend you into godhood and you will be feared in the world to come.”

“So what’s next? What’s our next course of…” Clarissa started to ask, but was interrupted as the cylinder began to crack.

“Did you make sure that the special organic compound was used to make the cylinder?” Eclipso asked as the cracks started to climb up the cylinder.

“Yeah,” Enforcer said as the glass broke. She took cover behind one of the nearby consoles, raised her hand and charged up the lasers in her gauntlet.

“Perfect,” Eclipso said, watching the Firestorm Matrix collapse and begin to take a human shape. “Clarissa, I need you to head back to Arlington and begin phase two. Mr Hewitt is there and is awaiting your arrival.”

“But what about that?” Enforcer questioned as she pointed to the Matrix as it began to form fingers and define its muscular structure.

“I’ll deal with it. Just get out of here,” Eclipso said. He walked up to the new being as it formed its eyes and began to look over itself. Once it finished giving itself a look over, it looked into the eyes of Eclipso and everything in the room began to spontaneously combust.

“I know,” the creature said soon after forming a mouth for itself. “I know what I am and my purpose. I am the master of fire and matter. I am a guardian of Anti-Life. I am an Elemental.”



“Firestorm!” Firehawk screamed as the nuclear man's body jerked violently and began to fall down to the New York pavement below.

“Ronnie,” Jefferson screamed in Ronnie's head. “Ronnie, snap out of it.”

Every molecule in Firestorm’s body felt as though it was being ripped apart and pulled back together. He hadn't felt this much pain since the day he was transformed into Firestorm. It made it difficult to keep the concentration necessary to maintain flight and Jefferson's screaming didn't make matters any easier.

The pain passed over Ronnie and he gained his vision back in time to pull up, avoiding crashing into the pavement. Leaving a trail of fire behind him, he flew up and over the adjacent buildings before sputtering and crashing on a rooftop.

“God, Ronnie, are you okay?” Firehawk asked as she landed on the roof next to him.

“Yeah, what was that?” Jefferson asked mentally.

“I know...” Firestorm said, “I know where the professor is… He’s at Concordance.”



Eclipso raised his hands and fired two dark energy blasts at the Elemental, who became transparent and let them pass harmlessly through. The Elemental responded by making a circle of fire with his hands. In the middle was the design that had been in his dreams. He pushed the fire towards Eclipso, who could not dodge it and screamed as the fire washed over him.

“Impressive, but ultimately futile,” Eclispo said as his body smoldered. “There is still much you need to realize, Professor.”

“I…” the Elemental stammered, but could not talk as he fell to one knee.

“I have been granted vision by the divine.” Eclipso began walking towards the Elemental. “I foresaw this… Why else would I enact such a plan that would awaken your true power? Because that was my purpose, and now it’s only a matter of time before I find the others empowered by Anti-Life and bring about the return of my Master and the death of this world.”

“I will…” the Elemental struggled to find the words.

“But the one thing I realized when I was given vision, was not to take for granted the minor details and that’s why you are struggling to control yourself,” Eclispo smiled. “You took for granted the circumstances that caused your birth as Firestorm and much like your friend Ronnie without you is a light with no battery, you without him are a ship with no captain.”

“No,” the Elemental screamed as it grabbed Eclispo and threw him across the room. The creature, with the wave of its hand, surrounded a wall of the lab with an orange cloud and melted a hole in it. The Elemental flew through it and continued to melt the walls of the building until he was able to reach the street.

“Freeze,” a NYPD officer said through a bullhorn as dozens of his fellow officers greeted the Elemental with guns raised.



“Firestorm, look outside of the Concordance building.” Firehawk pointed downward.

“What’s that thing?” Jefferson asked Ronnie mentally. “That isn’t…”

“It’s the professor,” Firestorm screamed as he swooped down to the street where he saw a mass exodus of police officers clutching melted weapons. A wall of fire materialized in front of the Concordance building and began to move forward, melting everything in its path.

“How’d your boy get like that?” Jefferson asked while Firestorm ionized the air around the fire to create rain to put it out.

“I’m about to go and ask him,” Ronnie replied as he flew towards the Elemental. “Professor?”

The Elemental took one glance at Firestorm and shot a blast of fire from his hand that sent the nuclear man flying into a nearby automobile. Firehawk stayed above the Elemental, firing energy blasts at the being. It countered by blowing the top off of a fire hydrant below the heroine, transmuting the gushing water into diamond and extending it all the way up, hitting Firehawk in the jaw.

Firestorm came to his senses in time to transmute a car below into a giant overstuffed pillow to cushion Firehawk’s fall. Before Ronnie could turn back, the Elemental flew at him, slamming him into the ground. The Elemental began to choke him and an orange glow began to surround both of them.

“Ronnie, what’s happening?” Jefferson asked as his voice began to fade.

“I don’t know. Hold on, Jeff,” Ronnie said frantically, knowing that Jefferson’s voice fading was a precursor to him burning out. Firestorm felt around on the ground frantically before finding a piece of debris he transmuted into a lead pipe. He struck the Elemental in the head with it, but it had little effect as the Elemental melted it on impact. Firestorm tried to lower his density to gain transparency, but it was canceled out by the Elemental.

“Ronnie… I don’t feel so great…” Jefferson’s voice was now a whisper.

“Jeff!” Ronnie screamed as he struggled with the Elemental’s grip and was beginning to lose consciousness, when the grip from the Elemental vanished. Firestorm saw that Firehawk was shooting energy blasts at the Elemental who became transparent to let them pass through. It allowed Firestorm to fly upward. The Elemental became solid again and shot fire blasts at Firehawk, leaving him open to an assault from above as Firestorm poured everything he had into the nuclear blast. The blast sent the Elemental through the ground, deep into New York’s underground infrastructure.

Firestorm flew back down and once his feet touched the ground, he powered down, separating Ronnie and Jefferson. Ronnie moved towards his friend, who was lying face down on the sidewalk unconscious. He rolled Jefferson over and saw that his left arm and leg were badly burned. He checked for a pulse and was relieved to find one.

“Is he okay?” Firehawk said as she landed next to Ronnie, powering down.

“He’s alive, but he needs a doctor,” Ronnie said as he stood up.

“We’ll get him to one right away, but we need to call in some backup,” Lorraine said. “We need to call in some heavy hitters…”

“I know what’s wrong,” Ronnie interrupted. “I couldn’t sense it before because I was merged with Jeff, but I sense what’s going on… the professor is overwhelmed. He’s lost in the minds that are recorded in the Matrix and can’t control what he’s doing.”

“Ronnie, you told me that Professor Stein has controlled Firestorm before,” Lorraine said.

“Yeah, but I was always there… I let him. To me, controlling Firestorm is as easy as breathing, but… it’s my role… just like he’s the power source for Firestorm…” Ronnie looked down at his friend, who was still unconscious. “It’s all my fault. After the Hyena thing, I pretty much just shut him out. If I hadn’t, maybe this could’ve been avoided…”

“Ronnie, I’m not going to stand here and tell you it’s your fault or that you failed to prevent this, but we need to contain that thing and we are clearly outmatched.”

“But I know what to do, Lorraine… I’m going to get the band back together. I have to merge with the professor.”

“Are you crazy, Ronnie?” Lorraine said. “What if you can’t control it, now we have to deal with an even more powerful being?”

“I will control it, it’s my job. Just like the Professor won’t burn out when I’m merged with him.” Ronnie stopped for a moment as the ground beneath him shook. “He’s back…. Lorraine, get Jefferson out of here, I can handle this.”

“Ronnie, wait,” Lorraine screamed.

Ronnie ignored her and turned around and saw the Elemental walking towards him. He walked towards it meeting him halfway and standing toe to toe with it. “Professor,” Ronnie said, “can you hear me? Do you recognize me?”

“Ronnie…” the Elemental said in a hoarse voice towering over Ronnie, “… help… me…” The Elemental grabbed Ronnie’s throat and picked him up to his eye level. Ronnie felt his skin burning under the Elemental’s touch, as an orange beam of light emanated from his eyes and connected to the Elemental’s. They both became surrounded by orange smoke and when the smoke dissipated, Firestorm stood where they had been.

“Professor…can you hear me?”

No response came.

“Professor?!” Ronnie screamed mentally, but there was still no answer. “Professor, please…” Ronnie’s thought was stopped by a tremendous amount of pain as he fell to his knees and grabbed his sides.

“Oh my god, Ronnie, you did it,” Firehawk said flying towards him. “Paramedics just arrived and they are looking after Jefferson….” she said as she landed near him.

“Lorraine, get away from me,” Firestorm said, turning away from her.

“Ronnie, what’s going on, what’s wrong?” she asked as she turned him around. Her expression of joy was short-lived as she saw blood running from Firestorm’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

“The energy, it’s too much…” Ronnie struggled to say. He grabbed the neckline of his costume and tore it down. He saw his chest start to crack, leaking out some orange light. “It’s too much for me to hold… I’M GONNA BLOW UP!”

“Ronnie, there’s gotta be something we can do,” Firehawk said.

“Yeah,” Firestorm replied. “Please tell my Dad, Jefferson and Doreen that I love them.”

Firestorm flew straight up into the New York sky.



Morgan Edge stumbled through the wreckage of the secret laboratory underneath Concordance Research. His head was still fuzzy from being knocked around by the Elemental earlier, but from what he saw and could feel, made him smile. He dropped to his knees and closed his eyes, which fluttered underneath the eyelids. He was receiving a vision.

“Master… I don’t understand…” Morgan said.

“I would suggest asking your Master for salvation instead of understanding,” a voice said.

Morgan opened his eyes and saw Multiplex in front of him. “Impossible. The original is dead.”

“Funny thing about that Morgan,” Muliplex said as me moved towards Morgan. “All of us copies share the same consciousness, so we can’t tell who’s original or a dupe. It’s all the same to us. Frankly, I feel my intelligence has been insulted if you didn’t think I wouldn’t have some kind of backup plan for a double cross.”

Morgan tried to get up, but two more Multiplex duplicates were quick to grab his arms and hold him in place. Instead of trying to get free, Morgan just laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Multiplex asked as the last duplicate grabbed Morgan by the lapels.

“Before you interrupted me, I had a vision,” Morgan said as his eyes turned black. “I saw that I will kill you.”

“Well, if you survive what I’m about to do to you,” Multiplex began, while his and the other duplicates’ hands began to glow bright orange, “you are more than welcome to try.” Multiplex used his power of fission to turn Morgan Edge into a bloody mess.



Ronnie thought about a lot of things as he ascended into the sky, where he knew at any moment, Firestorm would detonate and end his life. He thought how two days ago, he might have welcomed burning out in an explosion, than fading away, suffering with the advanced form of leukemia he was diagnosed with. But since he had decided to take time away from being a superhero and try and get well, it made him feel like he was getting robbed of doing something that he never found appealing at any point in his life… growing old.

He was also upset that he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to the people that he loved. He knew Lorraine would relay his message, but he wanted to see them again. He was really upset that he didn’t actually say goodbye to Lorraine. Ronnie really hoped that somehow during this final flight, that Professor Stein would materialize and figure a way out of this, or at the very least and most important, say goodbye to him.

“Well, Ronald… you’ve got your chance now.”

“Professor, is that really you? I’m not hallucinating this, right?”

“No, it’s really me, Ronald. We haven’t been Firestorm together for a while, so it took some time to re-establish our connections.”

“So that means we can now manage this explosion situation, right?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have any solutions to that conundrum, Ronald.”

“That bites,” Ronald said. “I thought about releasing the excess energy, kinda like we did to Killer Frost, but then I figured that releasing all of that nuclear energy in the air would be just as damaging as doing it on the ground.”

“Yes, drift patterns and all that,” Martin said.

“What about after we explode? What will happen to all of that energy?”

“The Firestorm Matrix will absorb it and use it to move on to the next host.”

“I guess that’s the best out of a bad situation,” Ronnie said, sounding defeated.

“Ronald, I want to tell you, that I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you when you needed help fighting the Hyena. My selfishness nearly got you killed and if you were killed, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

“I’m sorry too, Professor. I should’ve tried and talked to you about it instead of shutting you out. If I wasn’t so immature and a dumb-ass, we could’ve prevented this.”

“Well, at least our mistakes, as well as everything we did, will be recorded into the Matrix for the next host to learn from.”

“Yeah, at least our story will live on forever.”

“You could say that, Ronald,” the professor replied. “And I would like to say… it will be a privilege to share this story with you. I couldn’t imagine it any other way.”

“Same here, Professor… I was an only child so it has been nice to have a big brother for a while… even though you’re old enough to be my dad.”

“Well, in that case, I think it’s time you started to call me Martin.”

“Alright, Martin, as long as you call me Ronnie.”

“You got it, Ronnie.”

The New York sky was filled with a bright and radiant light, followed by the sound of an explosion.



Am I dead? Ronnie asked as he felt himself being carried and floating downward. He felt the air and it stung against his burnt skin. He could also smell the ocean. He opened his eyes and saw the skyline of New York City growing closer and below he saw the sea. He turned his head and saw a familiar red S.

“How…” Ronnie started to stammer.

“I don’t have any idea,” Superman said. “You should rest and conserve your strength.”

“The professor… Martin… is he okay?”

“Yeah, Ronnie, he’s fine,” Superman said. “Wonder Woman caught him.”

“Lucky bastard,” Ronnie said with a laugh and a wince. He managed to illicit a chuckle out of Superman as well.

“Ronnie… everything is going to be okay.”

Everything will be okay, Ronnie thought as he faded into unconsciousness. After all, Superman doesn’t lie.

The End!


If you wish to comment on this issue, please CLICK HERE to visit the letters page.