Issue 1: "The Beginning, Pt. 1"

Prologue

A long time ago; S.T.A.R. Labs.

Dr. Niles Caulder leaped from the spot on which he had just stood, as it erupted in gunfire. He hit the floor on his right shoulder with a sickening crack! His right arm now useless, he propped himself up into a sitting position with his left. Dr. Caulder pulled out his sidearm and scanned the wreckage surrounding him. S.T.A.R. Labs burned and fell all around him; the Brotherhood of Evil had set it off like an M-80.

It had been an all too normal day when Niles had arrived at work. He had gone straight to his office with a coffee mug in one hand and some documents under his other arm. Sitting down he went right back to work on his newest project, the Infinity Projector. The assignment had come directly from the Chief of Staff in the R&D department. The Infinity Projector was based on the concept of a perpetual energy source. Niles had decided that solar energy would be the best possibility for a perpetual provider of energy. Now, on this all too normal day he was about finished with this very project. The specs were all written out and his reports completed, he was ready to begin beta testing this revolutionary invention. This all too normal day would be a milestone for Niles Caulder, the crusader of free energy.

Unfortunately, this day would also become a very different milestone to Niles. As he had begun to check and recheck his final specs, a noise had erupted from down the hall. Explosions and gunfire rattled away and screams filled the air. Niles had immediately taken out his automatically issued .22 caliber pistol and stuffed the designs into his lab coat. Running down the hallway towards the fray he soon realized that his .22 would not be a great deal of help. Amid the ruin of the entrance hall stood a man with a machine gun, a woman with arms thirty feet long, and a brain on a pedestal. A terrorist wearing a gas mask had opened fire on him when he dove out of the way breaking his right arm in several places.

Dr. Caulder finishing his sweep of the room aimed the gun at the terrorist and began to fire wildly. Two of the six shots hit the man in the chest, but he didn’t even acknowledge the damage. The gun had not even drawn blood. The Kevlar vest had merely absorbed the shots.

Niles stared in shock when an arm curled around the wrist that held his gun. The elongated arm pulled tight crushing the bones and muscles inside into pulp. Niles screamed and attempted to pull away, failing miserably. A French woman’s head on top of a very long neck appeared in front of his face. “’Ello, Monsieur Caulder, you would not happen to be ‘urting my dear friend Monsieur Immortus, now would you?”

Niles glared up at the woman attempting to hold his tears back, he was not sure if he was succeeding. “He’s named after a singer?”

The arm that had wrapped itself around his wrist flung him across the room into a wall. Plaster settled over Nile’s body as he began to cough up blood. The woman’s head appeared once more. “It is quite an original name. Please try not to insult his feelings. Oui?”

Niles felt the warm blood dribbling down his chin like a child’s spit up. “You can go to HELL!”

His body was set in flight once again across the entire room. When he tumbled from the wall to the floor this time, some pieces of the wall came with him smashing into his ribs and legs. He stared in terror as bits of bone jutted from his muscular body. The woman’s head appeared once more, her short black hair slightly astray from when she had first spoken to him. “Do you have any more smart aleck lines American!?!”

Niles couldn’t bear the pain, he resolved to give up. “No.”

The woman smiled. “Excellent, now if you will allow me to introduce myself, I am Madame Rouge. My two partners are Monsieur Immortus and ze’ Brain. We call ourselves ze’ Brotherhood of Evil and have come here to take your magnifique device.”

Spots of darkness blinked in and out in front of Nile’s vision. “Why?”

“Why? To live up to our namesake of course! Now if you would kindly tell me where the plans for this device are we could end this little massacre.”

“You promise?”

“Why, of course.”

“They’re in my coat pocket.” Niles felt a fire burning inside of himself; he had never hated one person so much. The person he hated was not Madame Rouge, but Niles Caulder. He saw himself as a coward now.

One of Madame Rouge’s arms swished through Nile’s coat until stumbling upon the folder. She smiled and pulled them out. “Here we are. It was nice doing bizness with you Monsieur.” She shook his left hand in such a wild fashion that his elbow bent 90 degrees in the direction it wasn’t supposed to. Nile’s screamed again and Rouge cackled with glee, her neck slinking back to her body. Her crimson lipstick shone in the fire engulfing the building.

The three members of the Brotherhood of Evil stood by one another until a black portal appeared behind them. A man with a golden neck brace stuck his head out and shouted for them to come in. Madame Rouge dove through with the Brain wrapped in one of her arms. Monsieur Immortus set one foot inside the portal before turning around and pointing his automatic rifle at Niles and letting off several rounds. Immortus turned away and stooped through the portal and then they all disappeared.

Niles peered down at his body and began to scream. “My legs! My legs! I can’t feel my legs!!!!!”

S.T.A.R. Labs burned around him.

1993, Zandia

Cliff turned in his seat to face the back of the plane. “So what’s your deal again, Mentok?”

The man he was facing readjusted his golden helmet, with its two protruding antennae. “It’s Mento, rust bucket. I’m here because I am an old friend of Dr. Caulder and he felt that my abilities might be beneficial to this team.”

“Uh, yeah. But what are your ‘abilities’?”

“I can use telekinesis and telepathy thanks to my helmet. Are you satiated now?”

Cliff’s body creaked as he turned around, facing forward again. “Some nerve on that guy, acting like he’s better than all of us.”

Larry Trainor kept his eyes facing forward and his hands on the controls. “Give him a break. He obviously doesn’t want to be here.”

“Don’t mean he has to take it out on us. I try to start some conversation and he gets to actin’ like a schoolgirl.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll be where Dr. Caulder said the Brotherhood was hiding in a few minutes. We need to work as a team.”

Robotman yawned. “Well I guess you’re right. I still don’t get why we’re doing this. We just going to beat up some losers in drag?”

Negative Man adjusted the bandages on his face. “A group called the Brotherhood of Evil stole something very dangerous from Dr. Caulder and he feared they would use it for… well, evil. We all know Dr. Caulder somehow and so he called on us to stop them.”

“Speakin’ of, how do you know the Doc?”

“I was a test pilot in the Air Force. About three years back I was making a run with the prototype X-2020. I was going through the mesosphere when the engine… went out.”

“Whaddaya mean ‘went out’?”

“The back of the plane fell away. It was a safety measure; the engine had gone into a meltdown. It exploded a few seconds after it fell away. The next thing I remember was waking up in S.T.A.R. Labs all bandaged up and Dr. Caulder was standing above me. The explosion had separated my negative form from my body. So now I can move outside my own body in this bio-electric form for brief periods. If I leave it too long, I suffocate.”

“Well that sucks. I was quite an athlete ‘til my accident. Kinda same thing as what happened to you. When I wake up, I’m in some robot body. My girlfriend wouldn’t even look at me.”

“Oh…”

Robotman looked out at the sky again. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Way I figure, I’m damn near immortal now.”

“That’s a positive outlook. How much do you know about Miss Farr back there?”

Robotman chuckled. “I seen how you’ve been eyein’ her. Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

“Well, I…”

Robotman turned around again. “Excuse me Rita, what’s your deal? Why you here exactly?”

Rita Farr gave Robotman one of her patented Hollywood smiles. “When I was filming in Africa, I inhaled some fumes from a volcano. I passed out and was awakened by Dr. Caulder. The fumes had changed my anatomy so that I can now grow and shrink my form as I like.”

Robotman turned back to Negative Man. “See that wasn’t so hard.”

“We’ll discuss relationships later, we’re here.” Negative Man stood and began walking to the back of the plane.

Robotman jumped up and ran after him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! Don’t you have to park?”

“It’ll stay at cruising altitude and return to S.T.A.R.; this thing can land itself. Now everybody needs to get their chutes on we’re going down.”

Mento assumed the room was so dark because the Brain didn’t have eyes. “Come out, come out wherever you are! The rest of your friends are done, so you might as well give up.”

The black room became red and Mento fell to his knees. Fool, you think that I rely on them!?!? They are the hired help, no more. Now bow and die before your master!

Mento regained his strength and surged to his feet. NO!!! I will never bow to anyone ever again! If you want to see my master, then look at me!

The room remained black and the two men didn’t move, but the battle fought within was much fiercer than the one that had occurred outside. Colors flashed through each combatant’s spectrum, burning and crashing into their skulls. They poked and prodded at one another trying to find a weakness within one another’s brains. The battle was fiercely fought and defended on each side with no end in sight.

Mento felt a small, furry piece of fate brush against his leg. Mento brought back his attack and set his mental defenses for the coming onslaught. He dove to the ground as an intense black swept over him. He shot his hand out to grab the ape. “Got you, you little bastard! AGH!!!”

Mento fell forward onto his elbows sweat pouring off his face down onto the floor. “Stop Brain or I’ll kill the monkey!”

Then it was over, the onslaught receded and the cold dark of the room returned. No. Please not Mallah. Anything…

“How do I disarm you? If you lie I’ll know and I’ll kill the monkey.”

I understand. Please don’t hurt him.

“They’re dead you know.”

“Oh ye’ of little faith, look elsewhere.”

“They could not have survived the transportation.”

“They’re in the nether zone right now.”

“They cannot survive there.”

“They will.”

“You cannot interfere.”

“You have my word Un’jura.”

Present Day; S.T.A.R. Labs

Dr. Niles Caulder peered out the window of his lab at the bright morning sky, stroking his beard. It was the first day of summer and it was as perfect as could be imagined. All of the flowers had bloomed and blue birds flew through the sky, singing their merry song. He wished that he could go on a walk through nature, but he hadn’t used his legs since the “incident”.

Then it all stopped. Not just the singing of the birds, but everything. The color outside of his window was gone and was filled with a void. The void may have been unbelievable, but what followed next was made his jaw drop; something that had not happened in a long time. They came back, after 12 years his D.O.O.M. Patrol returned. They all just dropped out of the void hitting the ground thirty feet below, hard. Then the void lost its form, the darkness inside of it flowed out, spreading like the fog in some B horror movie. But the graphics in real life are always so much better. The mist took form. The title of a very old book came to the front of Dr. Caulder’s mind. “Here be monsters!”