"New Enemies, old friends" tales of the Atomik Punk, part 3

The 5^th Column was on the move. Independence Port seemed to reverberate with their incessant propaganda of world domination. Like hybrid cockroaches, the 5^th Column seemed to thrive in the chaotic aftermath of the Rikti war. To the Atomik Punk they were just another insect waiting to be squashed. Massacre9 had described their activities in detail weeks before his disappearance. The Mek Men and Hover Bots created by the former Nazi scientist Vandal were on Massacre’s hit list of priority targets. The 5^th Column was arrogant even by other villain’s standards and the Atomik Punk set his sights on their disruption. He made his presence know by dropping in on secret meetings and sending members to the hospital. Soon the 5^th Column was concentrating their efforts to destroy the Punk. Ambushes were common and nighttime meetings were heavily guarded. With Massacre9 missing the Atomik Punk needed to recruit some new friends to the cause.

It didn’t take much persuasion to get the magical fire blaster D’ Monique and the mysterious MartaSpahn in on the action. They like many of the Heroes of Paragon had their share of run-ins with the Column. Through the teams network of city contacts they were able to stay on top of the Columns activities. Nighttime raids and street rallies were crushed and a drop in recruitment was reported by the Paragon Times. After several weeks the 5^th Column’s major bases in Paragon City had been compromised and the Column was forced to regroup. Regrouping was something the 5^th Column was good at. They had perfected it for over 60 years and with it came revenge.

The first wave of attacks came on the morning of September 19^th 2004. Atomik Punk was in Talos Island when he was ambushed by a group of Mek Men, Valkyries, and Nacht Elite and about a dozen Raserei Elite soldiers. Civilians caught in the crossfire ran for their lives when the explosions started and the Atomik Punk began smashing metal and bone. He would make them pay. In minutes it was all over. Smoking scrap metal and robot debris littered the once quiet street and all the Elite soldiers were dead or wounded. The Punk quickly contacted D’ Monique and warned her of this latest scale of ambush. No sooner had she hung up the phone when a dozen Steel Valkyrie hovered into sight on her roof top penthouse in Founders Falls. As the rockets smashed and detonated through the French doors, MartaSpahn swooped across the room and shielded the couple from the explosion. The Penthouse was destroyed and from the wreckage a crackling sphere of electricity emerged as Elite soldiers circled the debris and the Valkyries prepared for another volley. MartaSpahn extended is arms and released electricity jolting and stunning the would be assassins. Fire and Brimstone erupted from D’Monique’s hands melting circuits, wires, metal and skin. The Valkyries combusted and dropped to the ground and the Elite soldiers were dead.

With more attacks probable, the group decided to regroup themselves in Talos and make plans for even more raids. It was obvious the Column was lashing out like a wounded animal and they needed to press the advantage and not give them anymore time. With the help of the hero Bastion, the group formed a task force bent on the Columns destruction. Task Force Titanium included some new muscle. The infernal Ms. Hellfire, a Gypsy orphan raised by demons in search of her former slave master here on earth and the mighty Merozan, a super strength tanker who was a tremendous anchor for the team. With Merozan around, the task force would be unstoppable! The location of several 5^th Column bases was given to the team and over the next 24 hours Task Force Titanium reeked havoc with the Columns supply lines, bases of operation and super soldier programs. Finally when the last base was infiltrated deep in Independence port it was all over and Vandal was killed. The Column was shattered into smaller disorganized bands and in the next few months a darker threat was looming dubbed “the Council”.

"New Enemies old friends" tales of the Atomik Punk, part 2

Atomik Punk had never been to Paragon City. Everyone had heard of the place after the Rikti attacks in 2002 but he had never actually set foot in it. The statues of the fallen heroes made him pause in recognition to those who died. He recognized many of them, they were there with him back in ’96 with the fall of Optimum and many were his friends. The city now was filled with heroes who like him had answered the call and come to Paragon. Most were still wet behind the ears, trying out new powers with mixed results but he admired their courage. Small time hoods and gang members were congregating everywhere. Many of them ran at his approach. Smart. He hadn’t been out of the game that long. Most of the city’s civilians seemed to recognize him, as did most of the heroes he met. They were all glad to see him and wanted to know if they could team up with him at some later date. The first few days in Paragon were just to get himself settled and to find a few more of his old friends.

He had seen a newspaper article a week before with a black and white picture of a dark figure swooping down from a rooftop taking out a dozen or so surprised crooks. He laughed because he knew it was Massacre or should he say “Massacre9” as he was called these days, still deadly in whatever version. The Punk remembered first seeing the Chicago Tribune article back in ’84 with the headline “Gangland Massacre” which gave him his unforgettable and not so heroic name. If Massacre was here he needed to find him and get an update on the city's criminal network.

Several contacts and missions later he found him. Massacre was slashing and blasting his way through a group of Skulls in the Kings Row district. The 2 hadn’t seen each other in over 8 years and it was good to have someone you trusted watch your back in a new and dangerous city. Massacre had set up shop in an abandoned industrial warehouse on the power island of Tera Volta. Massacre brought the Punk up to speed on the city’s nefarious characters, criminals, contacts and villains. And then Massacre started to describe the infestation of robots created by the Clockwork King. The duo created the super group “The Anti-Robot League” on the spot and decided to stem the tide of this scum first. The Punk took up residence in Talos Island in a rented upper floor of an office complex and began their campaign of crushing any and all robot resistance. Within weeks the grip of the Clockwork King was smashed to pieces. New friends were recruited to the fight including the unyielding “Martaspahn” and the combustible “D’Monique”. The electrifying “FatherMaelstrom”, the clawed “Hellshadow” the always wired “Splice” and the Strange “Dr. Demoriel”, another friend and veteran of the robot wars.

Crime was still running rampant in Paragon City. It seemed as if just as the call to arms had been made to earth’s heroes, another call had been made to those of illegal profession. Paragon like any other city had its everyday citizens trying to make a living and feed their families but the large scale of crime in Paragon made it tough. Eventually the group had to concentrate on bigger fish and let some of the newer heroes deal with some of the lesser threats. It was not an easy thing to do, to practically ignore a cry for help while on an important mission for a city hall official. Choices were made and consequences taken as is the way of all existence. Things were beginning to change in Paragon City. With so much crime and limited resources the Anti-Robot league soon found itself down to just the 2 founding members. Commitments to other city contacts and crossover missions with other groups meant that fewer of the group members were left available to tackle some of the tougher villains and threats. Massacre sank deeper and deeper into his world of solo hunting and collecting machine parts for who knows what secret night time experiments deep in the bowels of Tera Volta. Other members moved on to other cities or filled the ranks of emerging super groups in need of their particular talents. When the Atomik Punk was asked to join the Champions of Paragon in December of 2004 he wanted to convince Massacre to join as well. On his way to the secret lab's entrance late one night the Punk saw a column of black smoke coming from the warehouse. The grounds were filled with 40 or 50 Sky Raiders and Freakshow members attacking the warehouse. The Punk jumped into action and soon had them fleeing but the warehouse continued to burn out of control. The explosion that ripped through the remains of the warehouse and the surrounding grounds was felt a mile away. Able to super leap at the last moment the Punk escaped the shockwave and noxious fireball. When it was all over, nothing was left of the warehouse or any signs of its former inhabitant. Whether or not Massacre was incinerated by the blast or why the Sky raiders were intent on blowing up the building will remain a mystery. In the meantime the Atomik Punk would keep an eye out for a darkly clad flying maniac called Massacre9.

"New Enemies, old friends" tales of the Atomik Punk, part 1

In 1984 while doing unauthorized radiation experiments on himself, 23 year old junior scientist and lab technician at Chicago’s Fermilab, Mark Jacobs transforms himself into the “Hot tempered” invulnerable, super strength tanker the Atomik Punk! Teaming up with his super powered girl friend “Thrash”; the Punk begins a 3-month crime spree of destruction stretching from Chicago to New York. Urged to turn himself in by family and friends, the Punk serves 9 months of a 1-year sentence. In February of 1985 the Atomik Punk along with team leader and super tough metallic tanker Hastalloy-X, the lone maniac called “Massacre”, the cosmic “Singularity”, the Fiery “Conflagration” and the mysterious “Mimic” form Chicago’s first super group, The Mid-west Guardians.

On the groups first big mission investigating a series of recent large scale industrial thefts on Chicago’s south side, the Guardians encounter the supervillian group called “Venom” for the first time. In a warehouse battle Conflagration is mortally wounded, crushed by a giant power transformer and Venom escapes.

In the months following the death of Conflagration, the Guardians answer many questions by city hall officials and a possible disbanding of the group is threatened. Eventually the Guardians are given a second chance and begin recruiting new members. Atomik Punks girlfriend and mind control powered Thrash, The Giant stone avatar of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca “Man Monolith”, the four person in one “Fourway”, the brooding and deadly blaster the “Tarlord” the unassuming “Unexpected” and the fiercely clawed female scrapper “the Hellion”. The new group line up works together very well and within 6 months the Guardians have established themselves as a group to be reckoned with. Super villains begin to fear the unparalled “no holds barred” fighting style of the Guardians and Chicago enjoys a drop in crime, a boom in tourism and economical growth. In January of 1987 the Atomik Punk is on the cover of Time magazine with his trademark green Mohawk, black leather jacket, jeans and combat boots with the caption “Is this the face of the new Superhero?”

The newfound fame, love and recognition were short lived. The Guardians had always been in hot water with some city officials who had to clean up after the mess caused by such infamous battles as “Bloodbath at Neiman Marcus” and “Carnival of Death” but finally internal politics at city hall came to a boiling point and the Guardians were all given an order to “cease any and all activities” in the city of Chicago. A new more “family friendly” Guardians are recruited to give the city a more polished look. The new Guardians included such ineffectual heroes as “Green thumb” the “Blue Biker”(a hero with no super powers except for a super powered bicycle)“Muscle Beach” “Perky” “Miss Miracle” “Star Trooper” “Misty Love” “Lady Blue” and Massacre in disguise wearing a bright yellow suit with a big yellow mask as “Mister Smiley face”. It didn’t take long for the word to spread through super villain society that the Guardians were out of business and the city was ripe for picking. Less than 48 hours after the NEW Guardians were introduced in a press conference at city hall the technologically evil super villain group called “TRIAD “ blew back into the windy city. Triad was headed by one of the Mid-West Guardians worst arch villains, the extra dimensional evil genius called “Nemesis”. It was only by the efforts of the disguised Massacre that TRIAD was defeated and Nemesis sent back through his time portal. The battle however leaves several of the new Guardians dead and city hall doing damage control once again.

On June 1^st 1987 the Mid West Guardians are re-instated to full active duty with the condition to have more respect for public and private property. Things were looking bright again for the members of the Guardians and everything was back to business in the city of Chicago. Over the next 4 years the Guardians protected the city and did they’re best to keep the promise they made to the city officials. Many battles were won and some lost but the Guardians reputation grew. With the 1990’s came a slump in the economy and city hall was forced to cut the Guardians roster in half. Massacre simply disappeared, the Hellion retired, Tarlord moved to Detroit, Thrash stayed in Chicago as did Hastalloy and the remaining members of the team and the Atomik Punk moved to Los Angeles.

The Punk appeared on several TV shows and did some public service announcements for the city as a part time member of the super group “the Lost Angels”. The Punk however was keeping a secret from everyone. Since 1989 the Punk had noticed a decline in his super strength and was worried about the revenge that would be extracted by his enemies. No longer able to lift in excess of 100 tons the Punk still was stronger than most heroes but he was worried about just how far his strength was going to drop. Experiments failed and his strength was still dwindling.

The Robot wars began simultaneously on October 28^th 1993 in Chicago and in New York. The global technologies Super Corporation called “Optimum” had unwittingly given birth to a new breed of intelligent robot bent on the destruction of all humans and only the earths super heroes stood in the way. The Robot wars lasted until 1996 when finally Optimum was destroyed. Thousands of innocent lives were taken and hundreds of heroes were killed during the 3-year war. The Atomik Punk reunited for a time with his old teammates to save the city he loved and even Massacre reappeared to help destroy Optimum. New alliances were made and new heroes born from the ashes. A prelude of things to come in another city named Paragon. For the next 7 years the Atomik Punk spent much of his time trying to recapture his draining super strength and impervious physique. Thrash, his former girlfriend helped him with his struggle and old colleges and friends were on hand to lend support. The Punks condition slowly worsened until finally he was barley able to move out of bed. The experiments continued and when it looked as if things were hopeless his strength began to grow.

News of the Rikti attack on Paragon city in 2002 was tough to take for all of earth’s heroes and the Atomik Punk was no exception. More heroes lives were lost, some old friends from the Robot wars and the Atomik Punk was helpless to come to they’re aid. Massacre was killed several times in battle and brought back to life again by the suit of alien technology just as before in the wars against Optimum. When the Rikti were finally defeated and a call for more heroes was put out to fill the ranks, the Atomik Punk heeded the call and putting his personal struggle, fears and ego aside stepped in to take his place as once again defender of a great city. “Nobody rules these streets at night but me! The Atomik Punk!”