February Year 5

Children of the Atom: Mutants alone in a world with no mentors, no resources, and no barriers but prejudice.

Previously: After freeing the captive telepaths/empaths, the kids, along with Cynic, left the Oasis taking one former captives, Free Thinker. In there they defeated Brother Sun and left him to the justice of his former followers and colleagues.

Somewhere...

Ted Cleary and Mark Hayes are holding hands and walking down a road. Ted smiles, and so does Mark. Mark crouches and grabs a daisy from the lateral, and puts it to rest above Ted's right ear. Ted's happiness grin enlarges. They stop walking and Ted turns around, embraces Mark and kisses him strongly on the mouth.

"I love you, Mark Hayes." Ted says.

"I don't." Mark replies, his smirk gone.

"Huh?"

"I don't. I love... her!" And Mark points to Greta "Still" Maugham, who is standing on the other side of the road. The brunette is dressed with a basic black dress, and her lips have a blood red lipstick tone. He can't notice her skin tone; she is a mutant and all mutants appear green to him; but he just knows it's tanned. Her neck... Ted notices that her neck draws even more attention to her cleavage than expected.

"Bye, Ted!" says Mark, and he starts to walk away.

Ted tries to speak, but absolutely nothing comes out of his mouth save for a squeak only Mark can't hear. Mark grabs Greta and kisses her furiously, as Mark removes the flower over his ear. It rots incredibly fast and starts to melt.

Everything starts melt and Ted starts to realize it's a dream. It is no longer Greta he is kissing now, but one of the lesbian girls he met at the costume party that helped them disguise their sexuality in front of their friends. It can only be a dream. He repeats it over and over and over... but it just... doesn't... he just doesn't stop... kissing Greta again... why won't it... STOP!!!

And now, back to the All-Too-Real World...

"Is it any good, Dready Dearie?" A pale young woman asks her companion. He moves his neck to the left and then to the right, up and down, his eyes closed. His long hair, full of the dreadlocks that gave him his nickname, is immobile.

"Oh, yes! Yes they are, Eufy!" That nickname... well, I'll have to tell you more about why her nickname is "Eufy" soon... Fact is his voice comes low a few octaves more than what I consider "excessively low". His thick lips and eyebrows have nothing to contrast with on his face.

"Honey..." The woman caresses Greta's head and neck as she speaks. "What is it that you see? Anything, like, big?"

"Ah think dis one likes dat one, darlin'." Dreadlocks says pointing towards the unconscious body of Mark Hayes. Upon hearing this Euphoria (that's her nickname) releases Still and kneels beside Mark Hayes. She touches his brow, which starts to frown.

"Lesee what ya got to gimme pleasure, hon." Euphoria says while Still, Noctivagant, Format, Purple Haze, and Free Thinker stay unconscious, waiting unwillingly for their turn in the hands of the duo.

Mark Hayes' idea of Eden...

Mark steps into a room and finds everything he wants. There's a computer, a big screen TV, a stereo sound system, a blow dryer, a bookshelf, a microwave oven and a bed.

On the bed, Ted Cleary.

Well, the face is most certainly Ted's, but the musculature, the height, the skin... the man on the bed is actually Jean-Claude Van Damme, talking and acting like Ted Cleary.

Mark leans over him, and they start to make out. I will spare you of the details, but I do have to say that in the real world Euphoria was quite pleased with the batch of energy that the pleasure fed her. After some time, though, things started to change. "Ted Van Damme" started to get thinner, smaller, younger, and soon... female.

Mark continued to make out with and fondle her, but for some reason he was sweating more than he should. He caressed her, and something felt strange. He would open his eyes and the sight of her pouting lips would give him an undesired adrenaline rushed.

"What is this?!" A yell is heard in the room. "I thought you liked me!"

Standing in front of him is Ted Cleary. The real Ted Cleary. Mark and the woman (Greta?) are kneeling and hugging on the bed. He tries to free himself, but he can't.

"It's not what you think..." He utters, sensing the ridiculous of what he is saying. Of course it is exactly what he is thinking. He is cheating on him and with a girl -- it hurts enormously on Ted.

"Oh, Mark..." Ted looks away, disapprovingly. Ted Cleary turns away and slams the door. The sound is enormous. Everything is there and the woman looks at him with a "Who was that?" look. She starts to fondle him again, but he is cold and distant. "The man I love..." is not the answer he manages to say. It remains stuck in his throat. The furniture starts to melt away, but his stare is empty, focused on the door and beyond it.

Finally, the woman herself disappears, leaving Mark Hayes alone. All alone. The door starts to open again, and his eyes are bright again.

"Ted! You're back! I thought you... I... you were..."

But the hand is of an older man, hairier. He recognizes it. He remembers it pointing to a door, not unlike the one being opened. Panicking, Mark starts to realize whose it is.

"Not you... no..."

"Ah just love it when we switch, Eufy darlin'! Makes da energies so... ah!"

"'Ere too, Dreadie, 'ere too..." Dreadlocks answered. "Listen, hon, do we still have any o' dat sleepin' thingie left?"

"Dat? Mmm Let me check..." Euphoria opens her purse and checks something I can't see because it's in her purse and answers "Think it's still gonna be 'nuff for another three or four days. We just get some o' their money and buy more later."

Lying around, the seven members of our cast have their eyes closed, and sleep deeply. Ted and Mark are sweating a lot, and a drop of blood is coming from their strongly bitten lips.

No, I didn't look right. Susannah is not sleeping deeply. Her brown hair is making a trail in the sandy surface they're flat on. She moves and twists to the sides. Euphoria and Dreadlocks hadn't noticed this, but as soon as they do... Oh Susannah! Don't cry for me, I come from Alabama with a banjo on my...

Uh... Forget that. Folk songs aren't in place here, and I'm not from Alabama.

Euphoria and Dreadlocks approach her and look at each other. They look at each other, silently, for a brief instant.

"Dis one has a vibe, doesn't she?" Dreadlocks asks.

"Ah can feel it... Do ya think she might be... like us? Ah don't think we ever met other people like us. There's the two of us, but we ain't dose mutants people talk about. Dey do those crazy flyin' stuff and throwin' trucks 'round. We just do dis mind shit, an' dat 'cuz we need it."

"Ah don't. Ah just like doin' dis." Dreadlocks replied with a sinister smirk, fathomed different Euphoria. "Ah don't need dis like I don't need ta know yer name."

"Ah know, ah know... You need it... different..."

"No, ah don't. Don't ya ever say dat again, Eufy. Never, ya listen?"

"Right, right!" The frightened Euphoria replied. "But... I don't know. Dis vibe we're pickin'... maybe she's like de two of us. Ah mean... Dose two are fags, dey got what was goin' their way... dis one..."

"You sayin' we shouldn't be doin't dis to her?" Dreadlocks said, pointing to Susannah -- or Free Thinker, if you've been wondering about her chosen codename. "What if she's like de two of us? She hangs 'round these dudes! Ah mean... a couple of fags, some rich kids and all dat. Why should we care?"

"Ah just..." Euphoria's answer was cut short by Dreadlocks when he held her right arm strong and said between his gritting teeth:

"Ya're not backin' out on me, are ya? Eh, Eufy? Ya not pullin' dat sort of shit on me, are ya? 'Cuz ah just hate when people go 'round doin' it. If ya ever did it to me... Ah dunno what Ah could do to ya... Ah just don't know!"

"Loo-ook... Ah ain't. Ah... we'll do it. Just let's do dis one quick, k?"

"Anything fer ya, hon! Anything!" Dreadlocks replied cheerfully, releasing the now-a-bit-bruised arm of Euphoria. "And dis time... dis time will even do it together!"

Dreadlocks kisses here, and they both hold Free Thinker's head. And as her greatest pleasure and her greatest fear start to form on her head, a tear rolls down Euphoria's cheek.

Free Thinker's worst fear and greatest desire... collided...

Susannah Caparelli opens her eyes and stretches her arms. Everything around her is incredibly unfamiliar and luxurious. She remembers a fast fight near a diner, a hand pressed against her mouth and then dizziness. After that, just tiresome efforts to do whatever it takes to do... something. She notices she is in a bed, and someone is beside her -- interesting how sexual all their dreams and fears are; Sigmund Freud's mother would be proud of him.

"Brad Pitt!" She yells startled. She rubs her eyes and opens them again, trying to be sure of herself. "Steve!" This time it's the high school's best football player (a fine piece of meat, really), that is there, but he is awake, unlike that Hollywood star.

"We're up! After last night I thought it'd take us months to get back to business." Steve said with a neutrality that made him sound cold, regardless of what he spoke.

'What could possibly have happened?!?" Free Thinker thought. She never liked this guy, even though she nurtured a secret... well, she had the hots for his body, but didn't much appreciate the fillings of his head. Being a telepath, she sometimes picked very unpleasant thoughts coming from him.

(There was this one time a week before she was kidnapped that he thought of using her and her best friend Lauren to ***, by getting a *** and ***ing it between their ***, and then ***ing the girls to a *** make them *** as he ***... really sick stuff, I guarantee.)

Still, how could she have ended up with him on a bed? And have gotten so much action all her body felt sore, but still as energetic as she never was? And where was Brad Pitt anyway? It is all so surreal, so grotesque, so much like a...

"Dream! I'm dreaming! I gotta wake up!"

She pinched herself strongly, and then banged her head against a wall.

"Are you ok?" Steve asked, still under the sheets.

"Go away! Now!" Susannah commanded.

"As you wish." And Steve got up and started to walk away towards the door.

"Wait! Stop!"

"As you wish."

'Shit! Shit! Shit! That's how we got here! I commanded him. My telepathy... SHIT!' Free Thinker's thoughts clarified the whole scenario. (In the real world, Dreadlocks smiled, her energies were unlike anything he had ever felt.)

Susannah got up and exited her room through the window. She was afraid of what could happen if she talked to her parents. As her body stepped through the window her clothes reformed around her body, fully dressing her for school.

"School!" She looked at the clock. She was late for school. She dashed there, nervous, and entered the hallway. She wasn't late, everybody was there, waiting for the bell to ring. Thing is, when she got there, she was buck naked again, except for a sign that read

Susannah blushed. Now, "blushed" is a weak term to define her being completely red and pink, but she technically just blushed.

"Go away!"

And they started to walk away.

"No! No! No! This can't be happening! This is just one big nightmare!!! It has to be!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, until finally she was alone, and all around her was void.

(In the real world, Dreadlocks and Euphoria screamed, and fell.)

"Who are you?" Susannah asked. Dreadlocks and Euphoria appeared in front of her, floating in the void as she was.

"I am your worst nightmare!" Dreadlocks cheesily replied. This still affected Free Thinker enough that she created a psychic armor around her.

"What the hell?!" The three said. None of them had ever been to the Astral Plane before. Free Thinker has never battled other telepaths, and Dreadlocks and Euphoria had never even met other mutants before.

They floated there, and Free Thinker started to come to her senses. These we the two that had knocked her and her new friends out. The things she had experienced were probably the result of their manipulations. She thought of leaping toward them, but before the idea of needing a floor to have impulse came to her she was already speeding towards Dreadlocks.

"You'll pay for this!" She yelled. Dreadlocks tried to protect himself, but his "armor" was little more than leather pants and vest. The impact of Free Thinker's body sends him hurtling towards a rock (the void isn't as void as it seemed before), and she then turns to Euphoria.

"No! Please, don't hurt me!" The young girl pleaded. "Ah didn't wanna... Ah just had to 'cuz..."

But it was useless. By now the conscience of having had her self violated, and tortured for whatever reasons these two had had already infuriated her. She reached Euphoria and punched her powerfully in the face. In the real world, they were completely knocked out as well.

Some time later, in the real world at last...

Jimi Powell was the first to wake up, being stronger. He saw the two strangers, and immediately realized they were not exactly friends. The fight was clearer in his mind, and it was with satisfaction that he noticed a slight bruise on the "brother"'s face. His doing.

He woke up Mark Hayes and Bruno Woolcot before the girls, and standing around the unconscious bodies of their torturers, after having been briefed by Susannah on what had occurred, tried to decide what to do with them.

"We should call the cops and split." Jimi Powell suggested.

"We should tie 'em put before." Mark pointed out.

"You'd just love that, now wouldn't ya?" Jimi replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?!?" Ted interfered, angry at the remark and the connotations it bore.

"Look, Mark here is right, they could get away." Amanda said, trying to calm the guys down. "We could do like Spiderman or Daredevil and leave a note to the police explaining that they..."

"We're not superheroes!" Still intervened.

"The cops don't know that." Amanda "Noctivagant" Shephard said.

"They will know, Mandy!" Still, being Amanda's friend for the longest time, could actually call her that without being slapped.

They argued some time, and finally decided to leave a note with the criminals, but one that didn't say they were superheroes, call the cops, but not stay around to be questioned about, and not to tie them up. They were already leaving, and planning to get together Friday afternoon, when Amanda stopped and said "I think I dropped my purse there." and went rushing back to Euphoria and Dreadlocks.

She got near them, and grabbed the note. Amanda looked around, certifying herself that the others weren't watching. She took a pen from the purse she had purposely left there and scribbled a signature on the note. A name for a group of superheroes she thought would be ideal. Something that sounded right and true, and that showed the world exactly what heroism is all about.

When the police arrived, they chuckled some, learning that the city was the home to the "Justice Society of the State of New York"...

Next issue: Let's spend a quieter time, passing the action only to the this time almost-not-shown Purple Haze... And tackle everybody's reactions to everything that's happened so far.

Author's Notes

Well, let me call this one issue a bit surreal. It was more me wanting to play around with these character's fears and desires (hence the villains), and to get to know our new cast member a bit better. If you think their feelings were too linked to sex, you are not a teenager. Or not these teens, which is good for you...

I can bet that there were readers wanting Amanda to write "Children of the Atom" on the paper, but I doubt she would choose that. "Children of the Atom" is not the team name, or how they would call themselves. The codenames are something for the heck of it, and they wear no costumes unless they just got out of a costume party... It just occurred me: I swiped Stan Lee for that one. Unintentionally, but I still did it! Oops! Well, at least it was from the best there is at what he does. Damn, swiped another phrase!

E-mail your comments, thoughts and constructive criticism to Francisco Araujo da Costa

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