Content copyright . DC Infinity. All rights reserved.
ANIMAL MAN #19
By Ed Ainsworth
The jet was silent. Its occupants filled with trepidation. Less than an hour after they had taken flight, news reports began to flood in. Instances of devastation from their destination, people were dying and they had reacted too late to prevent it.
It was something that Buddy was taking personally and everyone on his carefully selected team was silently aware of it. Their own connections to the planet were slowly alerting them of the incident that was running riot in
"Any more news?" Rex Mason, the hero known as Metamorpho asked.
Silence continued to permeate the Jet's passenger bay and cockpit. Silence that let Rex know that there was more news and none of it was good. He sighed. Reports that had come in during their flight alerted Rex to that feeling he'd been hiding in the pit of his stomach. The Orb of Ra was back in circulation again and it was being used for no good. He had no idea who was behind its use this time. He assumed it wasn't his ex-father in law, but there was no way he could completely rule the mogul out. He flinched slightly as the white haired woman next to him took his hand.
Lady Quarks costume was new; it bore a remarkable resemblance to her old costume, but the addition of an almost militant look. Heavy duty boots adorned her feet, and a long, but light material white jacket completed the look. It almost didn't seem to match, but Rex thought the white accentuated her face, so she kept it.
He looked to the other members in the Jet. Animal Man sat in silence at the cockpit, while Rita Farr, the Elasti-Girl, flew the jet. Opposite him sat Zauriel, whose wings fluttered in annoyance.
“Buddy,” Rita began, looking up from the controls to the leader and pilot of the jet. “Are you okay?”
Buddy grunted and said nothing. He just wanted to get to where they needed to go. Everything was going wrong in his world. Geo-Force was currently hospitalized. It appeared as though areas of his internal organs had been petrified. The Doctors, or rather Doctor Mid-nite, surmised that it was self inflicted. Something had caused him so much pain he’d tried to stem it by transforming himself into rock.
Tefe Holland, the plant and flesh elemental of the planet, was currently locked up and out of the way because of his mistakenly trusting her on a mission in
As the jet began to loose altitude, inching ever closer to its destination in
"What's going on?" Buddy asked quickly, leaning forwards in his seat, to get a better view out the window, "Something's happening below."
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
"How many do you count?" the Elemental Woman asked, casting her glance back to the female Metamorpho. She ran a hand through her short, white hair while maintaining eye-contact with the mistress of elements.
"I count less than I can feel out there," she replied, looking over her shoulder at the combined might of her Anti-Metamorpho group.
"Why couldn't they just let me stay dead..." she whispered, as a hand touched her shoulder gently.
"That's a big question," the Nordic voice of the Doctor known as Animal Vegetable Mineral Man spoke. He smiled, as his body began to shift, transforming itself into a mixture of diamond, Poison Ivy and a Porcupine.
"Remind me again why we have this monstrosity with us?" the other Doctor and only other Male of the group asked, his Mineral form glinting in the sunlight.
"Because Richard…"
"Doctor Faulkner," he replied, sternly.
"RICHARD. We are the only things that can kill these monsters," she replied, gesturing her hand across the group assembled, including the recoiling form of Professor Shoshana Lewis. She wasn't combat ready, but the woman who had taken to calling herself Metamorpha knew that her "toys" were vat grown Chemo and the radioactive flying ray. Both entities which had started their lives as enemies of the Metal Men, now bred to respond only to the voice of the Professor. They were bred to clean up chemical spills, and the fallout of the original Chemo in Bludhaven. In fact, the Doctor, who was once a very short term lover of Doctor William Magnus practically owned a sample or a vat grown example of every "almost biological" entity the Metal Men had ever fought against.
"So. We’re going to kill these things?" the Professor asked, looking to her two creations. She thought of them more as Children than engines of destruction. Metamorpha nodded slowly, as the huge group of monsters headed towards them.
"I don't know if it's selected by the wielder of the Orb or something else, but most of these things are damn near mindless. I don't know if he's approaching it from the view of an army of what, but I'd consider these to be drones. Cannon Fodder."
"That doesn't really make me feel any better," the Professor responded, as she took a few steps back.
"You don't honestly have a choice at this point. Fight or die." Metamorpha said, readying herself for the Fifty Strong throng of Metamorpho’s charging towards her.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
“Clever, isn’t it?” the leader of the Metamorpho’s said to the imprisoned Mr. 104.
John Dubrovny sat in silence in the cage with the disheveled looking Matter Master. He scowled in anger at the semi-constructed man before him.
“Swivel,” John spat. The Metamorpho laughed and sat down on the chair that was set before the pair.
“You know why you’re here, don’t you?” he began, crossing his legs and looking over his shoulder to the huge burning pit behind him. John couldn’t quite work out where they were. His unconscious state had meant he hadn’t been aware of their traveling, but he knew wherever they were it smelt of dust and heat.
“I don’t even know where here is,” the Matter Master said, rubbing his balding temples gingerly. The bruises were beginning to show.
“
“Some generosity, we’re in a damned cage.” John snarled and looked over at the pathetic site of Matter Master, before snapping back to the Metamorpho. “You’re sub-human.”
“I AM MORE THAN HUMAN!” the Metamorpho screamed, steam and visible chemicals dripping from his mouth and spattering against the floor. He paused and touched his lip gently. “Forgive.”
The Metamorpho gave a mischievous grin and leaned back in his chair.
“…don’t even know who you are…” the Matter Master muttered.
“Who I was is irrelevant. Who I am NOW is much more important. You can call me Flux now, or master. Or something to that effect. Anyway, the point here really is to show you what’s going to happen to you. You’re both forefathers to a new World!”
Flux got to his feet and brushed his naked, but composite body down.
“Mentachem is something new to me, and to the Orb. I’ve tried bathing the orb in it, as well as trying to absorb it into myself and…well, you’ll be surprised to know that I can’t.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Mr. 104 said, with a smile on his face, “You’re not a proper sponge are you?”
The Metamorpho leaned forwards, anger cracking his albino face.
“HA! You’re not! I know a bit about Metamorpho. He got his power from that…Orb, you got there. He got it from there but he wasn’t born with it. He doesn’t understand how to use it, or to use the periodic table to his advantage. Neither do you.”
“You’re quite correct,” Flux said, with a scowl, “I am unable to command the power of Mentachem. What a fool,” he bowed his head for a moment, before unlocking the cage quickly, his actions full of manic anger.
“You think I didn’t plan for this, you pathetic little pissant?” Flux dragged the chair which Dubrovny was lashed to towards the pit. “That’s Mentachem in there. I know you can feel it, it reacts to you and that…aging retard over there.”
“I can’t make it work, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be part of my plans and you can’t be part of making them,” he screeched the chair across the ground and tipped it over the edge of the pit, holding Dubrovny in place with a hand around his throat.
“You want the power of the periodic table in your hands, Mr. One-Oh.Four” his voice dripped with venom and bitter anger, “then you can have it!”
“THIS IS WHAT WE’RE DOING!” Flux let go of the former super villain. He toppled through the air for a few feet before the chair exploded into splinters against the hot, hard ground. He looked around him, expecting to be coated in Mentachem, but in fact, finding that huge vats of the stuff were being dribbled into molds. Metamorphos stood watching him, dumbfounded by his appearance in their forge.
“Enjoy your time down there, Dubrovny!” Flux called, as two huge arms grabbed hold of Mr. 104 and lifted him into the air.
“Let GO of me!” He yelled, attempting to call on his powers, but finding himself unable to go anything other than wriggle in the huge creatures grip. It grinned with metallic teeth as a second Metamorpho stepped forwards, ramming a shard of shining crystal in Johns stomach.
“Ever play the accordion, John?” Flux called, as the Metamorpho holding him pulled both of his arms in opposite direction. Expecting to rip, John found himself surprised when he had more than double vision. He was seeing everything 208 times.
“What have you…done?” Johns voice spoke, in a hundred different tones.
“Why…I’ve cascaded you, dear John,” Flux said, crossing his arms and leaning over the side of the pit slightly. “I’ve turned you into a periodic table, on which we can refer.”
Flux grinned leaping down into the pit and landing next to the various forms of John, which were being slowly moved and attached to the huge pit walls.
“Don’t worry. A hundred and four seems like a relatively small amount doesn’t it? We’ll make sure we get you up to at least three hundred.” The White faced grinned at John, as a black hand gripped his chin tightly.
“Make the Mentachem obey me and I’ll put you back together, Humpty. Disobey and I’ll make sure that a hundred and four men feel the same amount of pain.”
“Why?” John asked weakly.
“John, John, Johnny. When the heroes turn up, and they will with little brilliant Rex Mason in tow, I’m going to need my ideas to come to life,” he threw his arms up in the air, to give the impression of casting the ideas out like a net, “So, my periodic knights, clad in Mentachem armor are going to need to WORK.”
“…Why though…Why are you doing any of this?”
Flux stopped and paused, scratching his chin.
“I didn’t tell you? Did I tell you.” Flux stopped and looked at one of the Metamorpho, slaving around the huge forge before him, attempting to hammer Mentachem into a malleable and workable state. “Did I tell him?”
He grinned for a moment, waving off the vacant stare of the Metamorpho workman.
“They’re all brain dead anyway. Why do I want to do this? BECAUSE, Dear Johnny John John-boy, I want to melt the world and turn it back to the way it was in the beginning. I want to make it the chemical soup it once was and frolic about in it!”
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
“She’s down! Elemental Woman is hurt!” Shoshana yelled, pulling herself back as far as she could from the front lines. She was a scientist, not a warrior. She didn’t even belong there. The Radioactive Ray and Chemo that she grew, and cared for as though they were her own, fought valiantly against the morphing mess of humanoids before the small group. She knew that they wouldn’t last long. The ray was already flagging and Chemo was leaking vital fluids from his left foot.
“NO!” she screamed, as a Metamorpho, in a suicide attack, shot up the gap in the Chemo’s armor and expanded its body to become metallic. Immediately the form of the Chemo shattered, raining radioactive elements into the sand.
“Damnit. I don’t want this…” tears rolled down her cheeks, as the sand behind her back to rustle. She quickly twisted around to face her attacker, only to find it was a colorful group of heroes.
“We’re sorry for your loss, Doctor Lewis,” Buddy said offering her a curt nod, as the rest of the group shot forwards to join the drastically flagging ranks of Metamorpha’s little group.
“Why are you here, Doctor?” Buddy asked, grabbing her by the shoulders, “Who brought you here to do this?”
Shoshana broke down, pushing herself into Buddy shoulders, watching as he Ray was dragged into the ground. It screamed as it was torn apart and melted, the Metamorpho’s pushing the line of heroes back another few steps.
“The woman one. She…S-She wanted my children…” Shoshana bawled, as Buddy pulled her close and began to direct her back towards the Jet.
“We’ll get you aboard and out of the way, Doctor Lewis. I’m so sorry this has happened to you,” he looked up and swallowed. Why did he come on this mission? Had he just led everyone he’d brought with him to their deaths?
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
“Urania? I thought you were dead?” Rex admitted, as his metallic hammer hand crushed one of their attackers heads underneath its weight.
“I was. Something…or someone, brought me back,” she responded, a jet of acid spurting from her liquefying hands. “You look good, Rex.”
“He does, doesn’t he?” Tashana stood inbetween the pair, spraying the area with blasts of energy, before she was knocked off her feet and into the sand with a projectile fist. She hit the ground hard, her ribs cracking underneath the force.
“TASH!” Rex shouted, leaving the front lines. The Element Girl tutted to herself, as Zauriel stepped in to fill the breach created by the loss of yet more heroes.
“God will save us, Blackwell.”
“Get bent, Angel. I just want to die again.”
“Then why do you fight?” Zauriel asked, swinging his flaming sword into the increasing number of creatures before him.
“I…I can’t answer that,” she admitted, glancing over her shoulder at Rex being swatted away by Lady Quark, who desperately attempted to clamber to her feet.
“Ah. The heart,” Zauriel voiced. Urania shot him an evil look, as she crushed a Metamorpho between her hands, now morphed into a vice.
“Nothing to do with that,” she scolded.
“Everything to do with that,” Zauriel retorted, as a molten fist collided with his jaw. The Angel was taken off his feet and into the sand, just as Lady Quark and Metamorpho rejoined the battle.
“STOP PRATTLING AND GET YOUR FINGER OUT!” the crystalline form of Richard Fulkner screamed, his morphed mineral fists colliding with everything in site. Behind him raged the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral-Man, the size of a Dinosaur, with a swinging spiked tail covered in poisonous thorns and gripping Ivy suckers, his diamond hooves leaking chemicals that began to melt the various Metamorpho that accosted him.
“This isn’t going well,” Rex said, falling back a few steps to help Zauriel to his feet.
“This is not going well. You are right in that assessment, Rex Mason,” Zauriel gripped the hilt of his burning sword tightly, and stepped forwards again, his wings fluttering.
“Where is Baker?” Zauriel asked a hint of irritation and anger in his voice. Rex noticed it immediately. Something was going on with the pair of them.
“Never mind that. Rita’s coming down,” Rex said, awe and fear running over his face.
Elasti-Woman, over 60 feet tall dropped forwards, landing heavily in the sand on her knees. The impact knocked everyone off their feet, laying waste to the entire battlefield. She twisted slightly, throwing her hands out to try and steady herself before the tiny creatures that clung to her, punching, drilling and spilling themselves onto her had their desired effect and knocked her completely unconscious.
She fell forwards, hitting the sand once again and knocking the battlefield over for a second time.
“This is really, really bad,” Metamorpha said, as more and more Metamorpho began to appear, bursting through the sand and making their way towards the assembled group. The army of morphic men and woman grew from fifty into the upper reaches of two hundred in a matter of moments.
“There’s no way we can beat of them,” Larsen said, transforming his fist into a ball of fire, jettisoning flaming spores towards the oncoming creatures.
“What’s that?” the Morphic forces that stood before them stopped in their tracks, parking like an ocean. Amongst their ranks a smaller group, fifty strong, marched forwards. Their bodies were clad in glistening, almost moving metal, which flittered and filtered light across their surfaces with as though they were a shinning mirage.
“What the hell are they?” Rex asked, as Buddy came tearing along the sand to join the rest of his group.
“Nice of you to make it,” Rex said with a nod and a tiny smile.
“Got caught up on Skype with the kids. You wouldn’t believe what Cliff was doing…”
“Your humor has no place in this situation, Bernhard,” Quark spat. Buddy winced as Rex put a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re in trouble now…”
“WE ARE THE KNIGHTS OF THE PERIODIC TABLE!” came the call from the metal clad warriors.
“..and you dance whenever you’re able, right?” Buddy replied nervously. Rex elbowed him in the side.
“SURRENDER YOURSELVES NOW AND YOU WILL NOT SUFFER.”
The group looking towards Buddy for leadership, he was the leader of the Justice League of Environments or whatever clever name he’d come up with.
“This is not an attractive prospect,” Buddy replied, looking across to the rest of his group.
“THANKS FOR THE OFFER, BUT WE’RE GOING TO DECLINE,” he called back, the heroes around him taking a momentary respite. Buddy glanced over to where Rita had fallen. She was nowhere to be seen.
“Rex…where’d Rita go?”
The white face of Metamorpho snapped around to look at where his team-mate had dropped.
“I don’t know…she was there a moment ago.”
“YOU CHOOSE NOT TO SURRENDER, THEN YOU CHOOSE DEATH!” The final response from the Knights resounded across the expanse.
“Sorry guys…” Buddy said, rubbing his face gently, “I didn’t think the surrender and die option was especially attractive…”
“Well, we’re not going to beat them, Animal Man. At least we’ll try,” Urania replied a tiny smile on her face as she locked eyes with Rex.
“You don’t have to beat them.”
Bursts of transformative atomic energy tore through the ground before the group. Floating above them, their hands and eyes focused on the now reanimated Metamorpho army. Firestorm, the combination of Traci 13 and Martin Stein, Fire Elemental, hung in the air. Around him, hanging against his hips like a Trinity of atomic gods, floated Perun and Firehawk.
“Try not to worry to much now, Animal Man…The Firestorms are here.”
Next Issue: The Firestorms! The Knights! Metal Men! Animal Man! Mentachem! The Finale of the Metamorpho War concludes!