MV1 #2 AUGUST Year 4

Last issue: After getting out of rehab, Jimi "Purple Haze" Powell was going to a new city to build a new life, but was kicked off the bus when he lost control over his powers. Stuck in the middle of the road, he got in the middle of a fight between two young mutants (Burn and Seeker) and a right-wing extremist (Major Virtue) who left after defeated.

"So, what's the name of that guy you said was gonna get you a job? Maybe I know him."

"Sebastian. Sebastian Sommerset."

"Never heard of him."

"..."

Jimi Powell rubs his hands against his eyes. He had spent most of the evening getting to know Mark Hayes, the man with whom he was speaking now. He grabs the cup of java and drinks a bit. It is awful, Mark can't make a decent coffee.

"Is it as you like it?"

"Yeah..."

Still a bit sleepy, but the coffee will take care of that soon. Jimi takes a bite out of a ham and cheese sandwich and then looks at Mark. He is one or two years older than him, taller, stronger and has better hair. A rub against his chin reminds him Mark also shaves better. And Mark is also a mutant.

"Slept well?"

"Like a rock. Do ya have a phone book or somethin'?"

"No, not really, but I don't think it's gonna take much searching to find this Sebastian guy. This town is small, y'know."

"You don't know him... what's the name of this town again?"

"Clarksville, like in that song."

"Which song?"

"Never mind."

"It's Sebastian's town, alright. I remember now. Hd made the song joke, too. Oh, how far from NY are we, anyway?"

"A few dozen miles."

"Do you have to do anything today? I have to find a place to stay..."

"You can stay with me for now. I was looking for a guy to share this place with anyway."

" I will find a place to stay later then. But then I really have to get myself that job. Don't even say anything about no need to share the rent..."

"I wasn't gonna do it."

"... Yeah, well... maybe go back to school, I dunno. So, if you aren't doing anything today, could you show me around?"

"Sure. I work freelance, you know, so there's no prob."

A new sip of coffee and Jimi thinks 'God, this is horrible'.

Two men stand on a rooftop.

"That the target."

"That?! Why did they hire us if it's just that?"

"Because we are cheap, don't you remember that, eh? We're just starting with this, so we gotta be cheap, eh?"

"But..."

"Relax, Jim. Easy money is what we need right now, eh?"

Answering the question on your mind, dear reader, no, he is not Canadian. He just says "eh" a lot.

Ted Cleary gets his cell phone, turns it on and dials to Mark "Burn" Hayes.

"Hayes here."

"Mark, Ted here."

"Noticed by the voice. What's up?"

"Nothing with me, really. English Lit is the next class..."

"Ms. Drebinsky?"

"Yeah... well, just called to see if he had found out or you had told him already about..."

"No, not yet. Oh, I found a roommate. He's gonna be staying at my place, Ted. "

"Then we really ought to tell him..."

"Yeah, but this is not the way nor the time to do it. Gotta go, now."

"Who was that? What is this?"

"Ted called me. What is what?"

"This thing in your hand."

"A cell phone, of course."

Jimi looks at him, kinda ashamed. He has never seen a cell phone in his life. Incredible, isn't it? There seems to be at least one active cell phone in every movie theater and restaurant in the continent, but Jimi had never seen one or heard of it. In the old neighborhood, having a regular phone line was already a luxury. A cell phone... heh, that was unheard of between his acquaintances.

But he doesn't want Mark to know that. He'd feel stupid. So he just nods and leans back against the car of the old car. Sommerset is a building contractor, he's gonna hire him to do some manual job. Something that doesn't require a high school diploma or anything like that. He is gonna work there, hard work, and then maybe start a life. Meet some new friends, maybe go back to study some day...

And we interrupt the normal characterization and subplot day you were witnessing to present you with what is happening in the office of Sommerset's Building Contractor.

Actually, TO the offices of Sommerset's.

Two men wearing black leather clothes and mask are ravaging it. One of them has a strange metallic glove while the other has a wristband. The glove, with the Caucasian one, has a strange green glow to it, while the wristband on the African-American one has a chain attached to it.

"Woo-hoo! Ball & Chain strike again!"

Wow, the supervillain rhymed. Well, James "Ball" Harkin there is not supervillain technically, he is actually a mercenary. Mercs are not obligatorily bad evil-doers... but, in this case, they are. So supervillain is what I call him... look, digressing again, just like in last issue. At least you are not missing a speech like Major Virtue's. All you missed was the metallic ball with a good half foot of radius that gives Jim his nickname coming back to his hand.

"It's here... does this mean we have to fight them? I'm not in the mood to fight another supervillain..."

He was sleepy. That was decaf, it had to be to taste that awful.

"If we don't, there is not a job for you to get."

"But there's a public here, Mark. If I do it my life is ruined..."

"Nobody knows you... but, if you say so..."

Jimi sighs in relief. Mark grins. Jimi worries. Mark opens the glove compartment. Jimi doesn't wanna see it. Mark gives something to him.

"Put this on and nobody will recognize you."

Halloween masks, covering fully their heads. Man, this is probably gonna be on the local newspaper...

"Let's go... Oh, Jimi, don't call me by my name, ok? Call me..."

"Burn."

"That'll do it."

They step out of the car, Jimi can't believe he has to do this.

"How much, Mr. Previn?"

"Just call me JP. So, Greta, is this all your aunt asked for?"

"Yep... You hear that noise?"

Greta Maugham turns her head and looks over her shoulder. Supervillains!

"Can I pick this up later, JP?"

"Take this, Ball-boy!"

A fireball goes right Ball's way and he dodges it. If Mark hadn't tried to be funny, they'd not lost the element of surprise...

"Purple Haze, take the guy with the chain there."

"The name's Chain. Come, brutha, I need some training."

Jimi gulps. This ought to wake him up... He starts to ooze a purple fog through his bare hands and looks at the 'brutha' in front of him. If he knew his true name, he'd say Timothy "Chain" Jackson should've stayed in the slammer the first time they sent him there. So he gathers some of the fog (for some reason, its hue is always less lively in the morning, he doesn't know why) and sends it flying in Chain's direction.

Chain's reaction (wait, let me first apologize for the pun), Chain's reaction is the most natural one. He starts to spin his chain as fast as he can. The part of the wristband that has it spins around its center and it moves fast enough to deflect the acid. Lucky Jimi, he is immune to the effects of it, else his skin would have been melted away. He absorbs it and yells:

"Ma... BURN, CARE TO SWITCH?"

He had to scream in that mess. Lots of people were screaming. The secretary running away, the children that were near, the housewives on their windows...

"NOW!"

Mar... I mean, Burn runs his way and yells something Jimi doesn't understand.

"What's yer name, kid?"

"Purple Haze."

"Good ta know."

After he shuts his mouth the ball comes real fast and trips Jimi. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid'.

He sees the ball back at Ball's hand and starts to secrete more of his purple haze. But he does that wondering 'Why bother?'... it's just smoke, acid smoke, yes, but just smoke, against a steel ball with. It's not solid steel (what? the villain has to be mobile, y'know? He's not gonna wander around with a solid steel ball if he's not super strong), but it's heavy enough to hurt. He sends the mist anyway and wonders if he is gonna have to scream those famous words ("Not in the face!") when defeated. But when he looks again, he sees that the ball stopped midair.

"Huh?" is the reaction both Jimi and James have.

"The name's Still, evil-doer!"

Great, more masked people. Well, at least her costume was nice for the eye, not a bad Halloween costume. And, hey, he liked that she was clad in spandex.

"It's not coming back! It's not coming back!"

"Sooooooooo..." Jimi says getting up, "I see we got a little a problem now, don't we?" He will have to work on his humor for it to get as acid as his brume. A very acid brume, by the way. Under Jimi's command it concentrates around the steel ball until it becomes a way hue and the ball... fades. There is a dust on the ground, but the wind is taking it.

"Burn! Burn!"

"WHAT?"

The fireballs aren't working well, and even trying to heat up the chain or the wristband wasn't working. He still couldn't make fire appear so away from him, let alone heat without fire. Good thing he knows how to escape well, but he was getting tired of running.

Thus, when Mark sees the new contender in the brawl and how Ball is bowing after the kick Jimi gave him, he decides that it's time to switch again...

"Come to papa, Chain man."

Still looks at him, wondering if she is ever gonna start talking like her and doing that sort of thing. And she wonders also 'Why the hell are they with those masks? Have they lost the sense of ridiculous?' If she only had a mirror, she wouldn't think that. Her costume is way more discreet than zombie masks (Did I mention they are zombie masks? No? Well, they are.), but I wouldn't, and I bet you wouldn't, dear reader, say that a person wearing a dark red spandex piece that covers most of her body to be in position to judge other people's masks.

Especially if she's wearing it in a public place other than a gym. And her mask, have I told you about her mask? Oh, I don't even know how come she had that ski mask in the bag if she wan't going to...

Anyway (I really gotta stop digressing...), Still stops the chains movement and Jimi tells her:

"So, now, stop his body's movement."

"Can't stop two things at the same time, man. And it's kinda tiring to..."

"NOW you tell me this stuff?" he says turning his head to her, something you must know is not a good idea at a fight. As a penalty for behaving against the rules in the Superhero Handbook, the supervillain punches him in the kidney. (Pay attention to the rulebook, always.)

"Still, fight him." he says wondering both if she has another name and if the hurt is ever gonna go away.

"I don't know how to..."

And with that said a fireball comes from the background and explodes on Chain's back. He howls with pain and falls on the ground, a burn on his back much like the one Jimi left on Major Virtue last issue.

"Guess we're even now, right?"

"Right. The other?"

"Police is already on its way. Sorry it took me so late, I had to call them..."

Still looks at the duo, holding her laugh (those masks...) and points out to them that they gotta scram. Answering questions to the police is not something they ought to do...

"Why?"

"Look at this place! They are going to arrest her for property damage or something."

"But we didn't do..."

"Burn, she's right, man. Let's get out NOW!"

The police arrives shortly after they leave, and arrests the duo. Without their weapons and their consciousness, they are no threat at all.

The youngest of the foursome united to stand for the American way of life (eat at McDonald's) listens carefully to the telling of the adventurous threesome's tale. He did not participate the fray (he was in school, remember?), but already Ted "Seeker" Cleary is repentant of that. He wouldn't be much good in a fight, but it would've been nice to watch.

"So, you really were wearing that stupid mask you got for last Halloween. Man, I thought you had dumped that."

"How could I?, considering I was wearing that when...Well, as I said, when I saw that my fireballs were doing no good against the devious knave I masterly planned a route to victory: I ordered Jimi here to switch opponents and..."

"First, you didn't order anyone anything. I said we should switch. Second, keep it down about the fireballs, ok?"

"Right, right, if you say so. Anyway..."

After the long and somewhat fantastic telling of what you just read and so I won't repeat myself repeat myself, Mark says something, something that might just change their lives.

"Y'know, maybe we ought to look for some more like us. I mean, Ted can find mutants. We can work well in a fight if we have to, but we don't have to. It's nice, I only notice now, to have others like us to talk to and all. I'm pretty sure there are others out there who feel that way. Really, which of us haven't felt lonely before because of this damned powers we have?"

The silence that follows this question is an affirmative more powerful than any other expression could be.

"Greta, you have been silent all night. What do you think?"

"I think... well, I wouldn't be able to join you here. I live in NY,you know."

"And I've already looked for other mutants our age in Clarksville, Mark. Really, I don't think..."

"But why only Clarksville? New York is a short car trip away I take, like, twice a month. Besides, there are other towns... Think about it."

"Man, we can give it a chance, maybe, if you don't go too gung-ho with this. 'Sides, I just got that job at Sebastian's. They're rebuilding the office. But..."

"But?"

"Gotta go back to study." says the somewhat ashamed Jimi.

"You're gonna be attending my school?"

"Nope. Night school. I gotta work, y'know."

"But that is not excuse not to do it! So, we are doing it?"

The tought of 'I dunno, maybe we ought to give it a try' crosses the others minds, and he gets a few nods of agreement a second later.

"Super." Mark says somewhat sarcastically at his friends remarks "We're gonna need codenames, a team name, costumes, lots of stuff."

"No, we won't." Jimi looks at him funny.

"Yes, we will. And we will also need..."

And he goes on like this forever. He is sort of enthusiastic with this, you know? He spent his teen years alone, ostracized from "the guys". He was partially to blame, always retracted because of his difference. Only the move to Clarksville because of his new job helped him liberate himself a little.

Ted - "So, Greta, why do you call yourself 'Still'?"

Greta - "Because I can make things stand still, Ted. Actually, move very slowly."

Ted - "De-accelerate 'em or make 'em stand still?"

Greta - "Sort of. So I'm Still 'cause they stand still."

Ted - "Still, they don't stand really still."

Mark - "That ball of steel stood still."

Jimi - "It's still not funny, guys." Jimi was somewhat irritated because of the repetition of the word "still". Admit it, you think it was kinda tiring yourself.

"C'mon, Jimi, we're just joking here."

Greta Maugham looks at Mark Hayes talking and discover that, yes, her mother was right, something exciting could happen during this trip to Clarksville. She thinks of the costume inside her gym bag, and under the table, somebody's foot rubs against somebody else's...

Next issue: Family problems abound, but not the way you'd expect from a bunch like this. Or maybe just the way you would, considering a supervillain shows up, too.

Author's Ramblings

Welcome, welcome, to our second issue of Children of the Atom. First, let me say it's been great to work on these characters, and that I have to say it's getting better. If you are wondering, these villains are new. Premiere. First time, baby. And such will be most of the villainous foes for the first year, I guarantee... So, stay tuned. I mean, connected. Logged on. Reading. I dunno! Keep doing whatever it is you're doing... please?

Now, on to my reader response (some onlist reviews)...

From Shawn Connolly

CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #1

Any book with a character named Jimi with the codename Purple Haze gets kudos from me. :)

Francisco has a real interesting start here, though I have to admit I have no clue whatsoever where he's going with it. It'll be worth checking up on... oh yeah, it'll be worth it (more mutants! Yay! MV1X Branch, here we come! *grin*).

Thanks, Shawn! Shawn is talented writer of X-Men and X-Force in this very branch, as he is of Protect & Serve at the Marvel Knights Branch. About that branch, it's highly unlikely, seeing as MV1 mostly... likes little the X-titles. As for a clue of where I'm going, I think you got it from this issue...

From Sam Everett

CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #1 (Flamin' Francisco Araujo da Costa)

Ah, the series that would be NEW MUTANTS, except it isn't, and it shouldn't be. And judging by the first issue, it definitely won't be! The opening says it all: "...no mentors, no resources, and no barriers but training." We get quite a bit of action in this one, but more importantly, we get the kid name Jimi Powell. Here's just another normal guy trying to make it in the world, except he's got these strange powers! And he meets some less normal fellows who also have similarly strange powers! This has classic X-material written all over it. My only complaint would be that the first issue did not have a definite ending, but that may be a precursor for the rest of the series, so that may be a good thing. If I know Francisco, he's got definite plans for this baby, and I think it's gonna be worth checking out in the weeks and months to come.

*blush* Though Sam might've gotten the tagline wrong, he certainly got the character right. Jimi is regular, even though he had a not so regular past. As for plans, I have them aplenty. Oh, and let me not forget to say that Sam is the writer of Triathlon and of Black Panther.

See you aflame in thirty :)