"Stopping a War" tales of the Atomik Punk, part 7

4 months had passed since the reappearance of Massacre, and a lot of things had changed. The Champions of Paragon had a new HQ in Peregrine Island,located near the Arena in Mera Heights about half a block NE of the Nelson Borough. The new building had a Helipad and large antennae on the roof. Most of the base however was underground and special teleportation devices were used to gain access around Paragon City. Massacre had a new lab deep in Crey’s Foley past Corman Manufacturing in Tangle Town. The place was a dangerous ghost town with groups of Crey, Nemesis and Rikti patrolling the streets and rooftops. The Atomik Punk moved from his rented office space to the Norfolk Building, an old brick high rise in Talos Island over looking a large park near the green line dubbed “the mound” for it’s huge dirt mound in the center. It had a large brick ledge next to the Punks window entrance, perfect for quick access to the city. Dr. Demoriel still lived in Talos as well. His entrance to his lair was hidden away off the rocky shoreline just west of the green line in an old abandoned mine entrance.

For a time a few of the old Guardians paid the Punk a visit. The Tarlord came over from Detroit for a few weeks and even Hastalloy-X and Thrash came into town from Chicago. They were on hand one night in Independence Port when Luska, the giant Octopus surfaced and attacked the port city. With the efforts of about 50 of Paragon’s finest, she was forced back down to the dark waters.

From a contact in Founders Falls the Atomik Punk got wind that the Freakshow were attacking the offices of the web-zine “Hypertypes” in Talos Island. The website followed the activities of the city’s many heroes. The Atomik Punk, Outlander, Pathogen B and Inoculum X were called in to stop the raid. The offices were trashed when they got there and the Freaks were holding several of the reporters hostage. Mike Schwartzwald, the owner was already dead on arrival. Atomik Punk and crew soon had the Freaks in custody and when the smoke cleared they were able to go through some of Schwartzwald’s records. It seems Schwartzwald was investigating the Freaks activities and Drek, one of the Freak Leaders, didn’t like it. Several of Schwartzwald’s leads had come from a Lieutenant in one of the factions called Zik-Zak and a war was brewing over control of Paragon City. Several days later the war was in full scale and the C.O.P came in to stop the Freaks from tearing Paragon inside out in their power struggle. In the end, Drek took control and the war was over. Distrust and questions of loyalty would remain in the Freak organization however, but for the time being, Drek had them under control and the citizens were relatively safe.