"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!”