"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.