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#4
JUN 11 |
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“Second Wave”
Freddy Freeman and Brittany Silver stopped in the dorm hallway. “What is it?” Brittany asked.
“Looks like somebody’s moving in to 230,” Freddy said as he gestured toward the open door. “That room’s been empty all semester.”
“Somebody must have been late getting here,” she said. The two continued down the hall as Bethany resumed telling Freddy about a new diner he had to try.
The new student raised his head at the voices outside his door. He didn’t know who the guy across the hall was, but he’d have to watch himself. He turned and surveyed the room. Everything looked set up, but now he needed some company.
The young man was now calling himself Chris Freeland, but he was better known by another name. The young man smiled and said one word. “Eternity.”
Sigmund Freud appeared, ready to begin tutoring Kid Eternity on psychology.
Ryan Choi fought back a yawn. He’d still been avoiding his dorm room and had been grabbing sleep wherever (and whenever) he could. Still, he’d been determined to always make his appointments in Dr. Palmer’s physics lab.
A moment later, the thing he feared most happened. “Am I keeping you up, Mr. Choi?” Ray Palmer asked in a stern voice. As Ryan’s drowsy brain stammered for an explanation, Ray stopped and looked at Ryan’s face, noting the bags under Ryan’s eyes. “Come into my office for a moment,” he said.
Ray led Ryan into his office and closed the door behind them. Ray motioned for Ryan to sit down and then sat down on his desk. “Ryan, is something wrong?” Ray asked. “You look like you haven’t slept for days.”
“I’m okay, Dr. Palmer,” Ryan lied. “Just haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
Ray nodded and Ryan knew that the professor wasn’t fooled. “Right,” Ray said. He paused a moment. “Why don’t you head back to your room and grab some sleep?” he asked. “A laboratory isn’t exactly the best place to be if you’re as fatigued as you are.”
“I’m fine,” Ryan insisted. “Besides, I’m almost finished with an experiment in there.”
“Which needs time to work,” Ray said. He thought another moment. “That experiment will need to run at least half an hour. Go ahead and lay down on that couch. Set your cell alarm for twenty-five minutes and get some sleep. Or I fail you.” Palmer added the last with a smile.
“Yes, sir,” Ryan said. Ray nodded and left the office, closing the door behind him.
Dwarfstar smiled. He sat at a scarred wooden table. He lifted his new weapon and inspected it. He raised it and aimed at the far wall. His smile grew wider as his finger touched the trigger. Soon his vengeance would be complete.
Freddy sighed as he closed the door of his room. He hadn’t thought he’d ever be able to get away from Bethany. Finally he’d had to use the excuse of his leg starting to hurt to escape.
He plopped into a chair in front of his desk and leaned his crutch against the desk. He looked around and realized just how empty the room was.
“Where’s Ryan?” he asked as he realized that Ryan’s possessions hadn’t been touched in days. He toyed with the idea of calling Bethany to see if she had any ideas, but decided it would be a bad idea. “She’s a little too clingy right now,” he decided.
Freddy returned to his feet and started inspecting the room to see if his roommate may have left any clues behind that could reveal his whereabouts.
Bethany Silver was walking down a sidewalk when her cell phone rang. She answered the phone and heard the voice again.
“Stop calling me!” she yelled as she slammed the phone shut. She ran into a nearby building and locked herself in the ladies’ room. She sat down on the toilet and buried her face in her hands as her shoulders began shaking for the force of her tears.
Freddy hovered over the campus. He’d changed back to CM3 and was trying to see if he could spot any sign of Ryan. The wisdom of Solomon told him that something must have happened, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.
Ray Palmer checked on Ryan’s experiment and smiled. Although he tried to put on a tough exterior, he was proud of the young man who was becoming his star student. He jotted down a quick note on a clipboard he was carrying.
Suddenly Ray realized he was not alone.
He turned and saw a man in a white costume with a blue cowl who was smiling widely. “Hello, Dr. Palmer,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Ray shifted his grip on the clipboard. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Your death,” Dwarfstar said as he produced an exotic-looking firearm.
As Dwarfstar aimed, Ray threw the clipboard at the assassin and rushed forward. He slammed into Dwarfstar and the shot blasted through the ceiling.
“Nice try,” Dwarfstar said as he hooked the weapon onto his belt. “Now it’s my turn.”
Ryan Choi sat up as he heard the ceiling collapse. He rushed to the door. “Dr. Palmer?” he asked. His eyes went wide as he saw Ray shrink and his body cover with the familiar blue and white costume of the Atom. Ryan fell back into the office, terrified and wondering if anyone at Ivy University was normal.
CM3 looked down as he saw students evacuating the science building. “Not again,” he said as he dropped and flew toward the site of the attack.
The Atom and Dwarfstar traded punches as they fought on top of a lab table. “Who are you?” Atom demanded.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Dwarfstar replied with a smirk. “All things in good time, Dr. Palmer. Patience is a virtue.”
A blow caught Ray in the temple and he staggered back as a glass beaker slammed onto the table, trapping Dwarfstar.
“Got you!” a proud Ryan Choi said.
“Get out of here, Ryan!” Atom ordered.
“No problem,” Choi said. “I’ve got him.”
Dwarfstar smirked again. “Pyrex won’t stop this!” He raised his weapon and fired at the Atom.
The blast passed through the glass of the beaker as Ray leaped aside. The beam flew past the Atom, passed through the corona of his size changing, and slammed into Ryan’s experiment, which detonated. The force of the blast threw Ryan back as Dwarfstar’s prison blew away from him.
Dwarfstar stepped toward the fallen Atom as a fire began to burn at Ryan’s lab station. “Time to die,” he said. He raised the weapon and pulled the trigger to no effect. He tried again and threw the weapon down. “Looks like today’s your lucky day, Professor,” he said, “but tomorrow might be mine.” Laughing, Dwarfstar shrank to nothingness.
Atom was preparing to give chase when he heard a groan. He ran to the edge of the table and saw Ryan sprawled on the floor. He jumped off the table and restored his normal size as he fell.
Ray was checking Ryan’s pulse as CM3 rushed into the room. “Holy moley!” he said. “What happened here?”
“Our killer tried again,” Ray said, “and it looks like Ryan got caught in the crossfire.” He turned Ryan over and positioned him to make him comfortable. “He looks okay and his pulse is strong. Still, I want you to fly him to the hospital to make sure he’s okay.”
Ray turned when CM3 didn’t respond. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
CM3 dropped to his knees beside Ray and pointed at Ryan’s pants, which were bunched at the ankles. “Something’s wrong with him,” CM3 said. “He’d told me how much he liked these pants because they were exactly the right length. He said it was hard for him to find pants that were without having to alter them.” CM3 looked at Ryan’s arms. He picked up his roommate’s right arm. “These sleeves are longer, too.”
Ray frowned as he noticed that Ryan’s shirt appeared to be longer than it had been earlier as well. “Get him into my office,” he finally said. “When he wakes up, we need to start running some tests.”
“What do you think it is?” CM3 asked as he effortlessly lifted Ryan and carried him to the office.
Ray didn’t answer, but his face bore a concerned frown.
Dwarfstar calmly made his way away from the evacuated science building. After escaping, he’d changed to civilian clothes and joined the confused mob on the campus.
He ran his hand through his long red hair and continued down the sidewalk. No sense in drawing attention to himself, not right now, anyway. Not until he was ready to strike again.
As he walked, he passed Bethany Silver. For some reason she shivered. Her phone lay at the bottom of her purse, safely turned off.
Bethany paused as she emerged from the crowd. She considered going to the dorm to find Ryan or Freddy, but decided instead on a different destination.
She made her way to the diner and sat down, still completely oblivious to the attack on the school. It would be dark before she left her stool and returned to the dorm.
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Next Issue: In CM3 #5: CM3 and the Atom have to work together to save Ryan’s life from the unexpected consequences of Dwarfstar’s attack. Plus: Bethany gets an unwelcome visitor…
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