GROUNDED

By James McKenna

The Battle

The electric monster growled. His voice resounded like a million discordant power lines, the sound waves a simple half step off in their frequencies, causing a wavering, fearsome tremolo which echoed throughout the streets. Millions watched with their eyes affixed to the screen. The footage was broadcast live. Many feared for their lives, wondering if they should evacuate their homes. Then hope came.

“I want to know where this monster came from people! Diamond and Cross, you stand the best chance at hurting it. Challenger, you hop around and keep folks safe. Dania, you’re with me, we’re going to find out where it came from and how best to stop it,” Thin Man reached out with an elastic hand, gripped Dania by the wrist and teleported away with her. Eyes continued to watch. A flash of blue and yellow erupted across the screen as the Blue Diamond leapt to action. Flesh turned to gleaming, impervious, azure stone.

“Okay, Cross, you have communicators and such in your helmet, right? Can you use that to find out anything about this monster?” Morrow, the Blue Diamond took charge.

“I can access some V-Battalion satellites, they should have all available information there is on this…creature,” Valentina replied.

“Do it, I’ll hold him off. Challenger, sorry but you’re on crowd control,” Morrow ordered. Bill Warring, the Challenger, nodded in assent and bounded off.

Blue Diamond punched Zzzax in the face repeatedly and viciously. The monster’s form phased in and out, becoming tangible one moment, and ephemeral the next. In a moment of clarity, Zzzax grabbed Morrow by the face and pitched him like a maligned baseball into the side of the nearest building. Blue Diamond came out the other side. Several seconds later, a shiny humanoid object could be seen descending from the sky. Morrow leapt from the building and came down like a hammer on Zzzax.

Daily Bugle

“The newspaper building!?” Dania was incredulous.

“Honestly…I couldn’t think of anywhere better. Their business is the news, they should have some idea what’s been going on. Plus, back in my day, a friend of mine, Mark Todd used to work at the Times. With their network of reporters and investigators, we’d get word and information from them earlier than we could on official channels half the time,” Thin Man was defensive.

The pair walked through the front door, several reporters and photographers rushed in and out in their haste to accomplish whatever assignments had been given them.

The receptionist looked up and grabbed her phone at the sight of the brightly dressed duo.

“Uh…Mr. Robertson, I think you have some visitors.”

The Battle

The car Blue Diamond had flung at the monster served as a momentary distraction, it struck Zzzax in the midsection, and the monster snarled, his electric voice resounding cruelly. The viewers at home cheered.

Blue Diamond charged at the monster and the two went flying. They landed and Morrow gave Zzzax a vicious uppercut while the monster was still off balance and it went flying. Diamond leapt into the air, trying to follow the errant trajectory. Zzzax hit ground near Empire State University, crashing into a construction site, thoroughly deconstructing everything. He landed near the electrical hook ups, unwittingly pulling out cables and grasping at the electrical wires. The power had not been turned on yet, he found no sustenance, but his meddling had an unintended effect, he unintentionally shunted some of his electricity into the system, and without the correct breakers in place, he caused an overload. The ESU grid went red, and a small biochemistry lab in the corner of the campus found itself ablaze.

Blue Diamond landed, grabbed a two-by-four and broke it across what would be Zzzax’s face. The monster grabbed Diamond and tossed him back in the direction they’d come and leapt after him, in mimicry of Morrow’s motions just seconds before.

“Diamond, I’ve got some info now. This thing’s called Zzzax, high-level energy being, fought the Hulk a few times. Reports say it’s usually very tough and very big. It must be pretty weak right now since it’s only my size, guess we’re lucky. It’s a mass of psionic, somewhat intelligent electromagnetic energy. He can absorb energy…including bio-electricity—meaning he can manipulate and shut down any neural synapses. Means we should be careful.”

“Yes, I suppose some caution would be wise. My diamond form is solid, not sure how it works, but I’m guessing little or no bio-electric activity going on, or he would have sucked it out of me already. Any clue how to beat it?”

“No. He was presumed dead, my files are incomplete. Keep at it, I’ll try and get in touch with Thin Man.”

Daily Bugle

“The Thin Man? And a…new Red Raven? Wow–this reminds me just how old I am, I caught some of the last Legion adventures as a boy in the 50s. I’ve seen a lot and… didn’t think I’d ever get star struck,” Robbie Robertson, despite his wrinkles and graying hair, was a child today.

“Thank you. I’m very much flattered and would love the chance to chat with you at a more convenient time, but at the moment, a giant electric monster is ripping apart our city. I’d like to stop him,” Thin Man replied, his tongue honeyed but sincere. Robertson felt embarrassed; he was a journalism veteran, but at this moment, he felt like a rookie, wet behind the ears all over again.

“Let me get one of the tech-nuts in here, I can’t handle that stuff, but I know we’ve got files on him. Cho! CHO!” Robertson finished up and yelled for the Bugle’s new tech intern. “This new intern we have, Amadeus Cho can help you out. Brilliant kid, seriously, you’ll see what I mean, hopefully…anyways; he should be able to get you whatever you need. CHO!”

“Yes, Mr. Robertson?” The young face of the skinny, disheveled Amadeus Cho peered in.

“These folks need help with an attack downto—”

“Zzzax? I’ve already got the files, including five ways to take him down. Although I could tweak them and have as many as twelve solutions put togeth–”

“Cho! Settle down. These people need your assistance,” Robertson stopped the young man mid-sentence. Amadeus Cho was addicted to knowledge and he loved it. Before Robbie stopped him, Cho had started to talk faster, his eyes went off into the distance, he seemed hyper, but with all the excess energy being channeled into his great mind. At Robertson’s behest, he settled down a bit, and retrieved the files, already scribbling notes and tactical avenues all over the papers.

Dania sneered.

Thin Man chuckled. “Ah, impetuous youth.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Robertson sighed.

Mid-Town; The Battle

“You sure this is going to work, kid?” Dania asked her voice dripping venom, not out of any pure malice, just from practice.

“Positive. I’m 17, who are you to call me kid, ma’am?” Amadeus Cho replied as he unwrapped and chomped down on a Snickers bar, sending miniscule bits of chocolate and peanut flying.

“Is this really the time for a snack? Is it naptime next?”

“Mmf,” he choked down the candy in his mouth. “What’s with you? Our age disparity’s three years at most. And yes, it is time for a snack. I use up more energy than California when I put my brain into overdrive—you know, when I think. Do you know what thinking is, ma’am?”

“I thought you were smart, kid. I wouldn’t think it’s a good idea to mouth off to the girl carrying you a coupe dozen stories above the ground.”

“Touché.”

*Hush, kid,* Thin Man’s voice crackled out, hijacking the speaker phone option on Amadeus’ cell phone.

“Whoa, what’re you doing?” the inquisitive Cho asked.

*I’m broadcasting from subspace, I overrode the signal to your phone to contact you.*

“Yeah, I can see how that would work, but how do you control the—”

“Shut up, kid. Dickson, why’d you make me bring him along?” the female Raven asked, exasperated, in part due to the trying nature of the past few days, but mostly from bickering with Amadeus Cho.

*I want his help with disposing of Zzzax, but for those uninitiated, a jaunt through subspace can induce some unpleasant side effects. Drop him off at the Tower and go help Elton.*

Dania huffed and complied. Amadeus chomped down once more on his Snickers.

The Battle

Zzzax, by chance, turned material just as Blue Diamond landed a particularly savage blow. The electric behemoth went airborne. The battle had stretched down the streets. Upturned pavement lay in the wake, small fires, busted hydrants; a day’s work for Damage Control.

Dania, having deposited Amadeus at their headquarters—Time’s Tower—now swooped down, hefting her spear. She powered it up, the head of the spear crackling with energy and hurled it into the monster. The monster howled, as the energies in the spear crackled inside its chest. Dania had set the spear to alternate energy signatures, the variable frequencies changing too often for the monster to be able to absorb easily.

A quick scan indicated to Iron Cross what Dania had done to Zzzax and Valentina let loose. Massive gauntlets powering up and spinning and she fired everything she had at the monster: lasers, plasma blasts, electric bolts, repulsors and even more conventional artillery. The various types of fires served to further aggravate Zzzax, keeping him off balance and howling.

Elton ran at the monster, slowing only momentarily to grab at a lamppost, tearing it from the concrete without noticing any impediment. Gripping it in hand like a bludgeon, he sent Zzzax to an uneven flight through the air, the beast landed a mile down the street, smashing through a building and onto a street corner. Iron Cross and Dania zipped to the scene in beelines while Elton jumped, with lamppost still in hand. Again, he came down on the beast, this time driving the lamppost through the monster’s chest.

Zzzax’s screams resounded like a dirge.

Time’s Tower

“So, what are we to do, Amadeus?”

“Well, he’s an electric monster right? He’s on a rampage, doesn’t really know what he’s doing. In fact, I’m not even sure we should call it a ‘he’. It’s just some big energy beast, then. How do you catch an animal?” the young man posed a question, not specifically to Thin Man, but more to the air itself even. His mouth was intimately tied to his thought process, as simply saying his ideas was, at present, the most effective way for him to oust said ideas from his brain. Once in the air, they might be plucked out or discarded, wholly dependant on the whims of adolescent Cho.

But Bruce Dickson was not unfamiliar with such a practice, and caught on immediately. Cage the beast. “Glass or rubber would be easiest to come by, I’m thinking.” Dickson could have done this by himself, but something about the boy had piqued his interest, the young man was a mastermind. Dickson would, if possible, see him excel.

“Yeah…yeah” repeated Amadeus as synapses in his brain started to fire at lightening speed. “Maybe a liquid glass gun; fast hardening. Basically coat Zzzax as quickly as possible, snap your fingers, and he should be calcified, or there about.”

“What shall we do afterwards with the static grotesquerie?”

“I don’t know. How big’s subspace? Shunt him there for a bit.”

Thin Man thought. “That could work.” He smiled beneath his mask with sanguine mirth.

The Battle

Zzzax continued to roar, his voice undulating in pitches, cacophonous and piercing, like back feed from a microphone too close to a speaker. Blue Diamond continued to drive the lamppost into the monster’s chest, though it did not seem as though he was about to triumph over the creature, it had somewhat paralyzed the electric beast, not allowing it to focus long enough to phase or shift away.

Then Morrow heard his teammate coming. The radio-interference buzzing sound of Thin Man’s teleportation rang through the air. On the side of the street, where he’d been deposited, Amadeus keeled over and threw up, unaccustomed to the jarring effects of subspace.

At Dickson’s mark, Iron Cross swooped down, speed and grace unguessed at by her bulk, and grasped Blue Diamond, using the armor’s great strength to heft away to frenzied hero. With hands and arms paper thin, but preternaturally strong, Thin Man brought the glass-gun to bear, readying it as Zzzax struggled to assert himself. Thin Man fired. The monster was coated in a semi-translucent liquid. The liquid hardened after a few seconds, covering the monster, insulating him in a glass and porcelain mixture. Dickson tossed the gun aside and took up a small device from his belt, he hit a couple buttons, a small staccato note of static resounded, and the now-disabled monster was imprisoned in subspace.

Outer Space

The stark grey ship cruised into the Sol system, making its way past Pluto, it alters its course to avoid the gravitational pull of Neptune and continues on, slowly, crawling through the dark vacuum to Sol-3, the native appellation: Earth.

“Yes, milord,” the words sound in stereo as spoken by two pairs of lips. Soon thereafter, two celestial shapes disembark from the ship, one borne on fantastic neon plasma wings. The other holds a staff of mystic metal with both ends alight in cosmic flame: The Firelord and the Airwalker make their way for Earth.