Once he was an ordinary high school kid. He excelled in sports, and his grades were average, but then a strange and wonderful thing happened. In a freak accident, his very atomic structure was merged with that of a scientist, and the two joined to become Firestorm, The Nuclear Man!

Those days of a shared existence are forever over, but now College student Ronnie Raymond carries on the tradition he started with Dr. Martin Stein , as he fights the good fight, and struggles with maintaining his grades as well as knocking the villain of the week back into the last one! He has the power of atomic manipulation, can fly through space and can fire nuclear blasts capable of leveling a city block! But he still can't get to class on time!

The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Man

Firestorm #10

Scream and scream again, and again, and again...

Part III and the conclusion of the Scream Killer epic

By Ralph L. Angelo Jr

Plot by Ralph Angelo and Barry Reese

WARNING! If you did not read Hawk and Dove #7 before coming here, go do so NOW!

Firestorms jaw hangs slack in disbelief as he stares at the scene being played out before his awestruck eyes. A horrific titan, perhaps 200' tall stomps down on a building, crushing it like paper beneath its gargantuan foot, all the while emitting an ear splitting , mournful wail from its pale, featureless face, that shakes the very foundations of the buildings surrounding the nuclear hero and his friends.

"Now there's something you don't see every day." Firestorm says aloud to know one in particular, as he flies past its swiping hand.

"Firestorm! Do something! Shouts a female voice from off to his right."

Firestorm turns his head, and immediately snaps out of his momentary lapse . Floating in the air next to him is Dove, one half of the recently returned form the great beyond Superteam of Hawk and Dove. Hawk himself is down below , punching powerfully, but ineffectually at the behemoths ankle .

"Right, Dove, hold on." Firestorm answers as he streaks around the monsters head, to fire a powerful nuclear blast at the things back.

Shoom!

The shambling horror stumbles forwards a few steps, then spins surprisingly quickly for something its size and swats Firestorm from the air with one great paw!

Thwak!

"Unnngh" The young hero moans as he tumbles from the sky, to suddenly right himself.

Down below, the murderous evil known as the Scream Killer watches what he has orchestrated in abject glee. Tied beneath him is the naked and shaking form of Jennie Graf, Ronnie Raymonds (Firestorm) new love interest, the latest victim of this madmans search for chaos.

But in his own mind, the creature once known as Lincoln Mayhew merely sees himself as doing what he was always meant to. To him, it is not evil or deranged, this killing of young women and the sucking of their souls and lives dry to extend his own evil life. It is merely the way of chaos . Chaos is what he lives for, and always has.

Mayhew stares down at the horrified girl struggling hopelessly beneath his feet and smiles. Soon, the moment will be right, once the God he has brought down to the Earth kills these three interloping fools.

Dove flies past the brutish thing again and again, drawing its ire as she screams to Firestorm .

"Get up Firestorm, we need your power to stop this monster. C'mon !"

Below, the Nuclear man shakes his head, as something pinches his side. He reaches down and feels the dagger he had placed there earlier. The one he had taken from the spot he and Jennie were attacked at by the Scream Killer. "I can't believe all this. If the knife maker didn't inscribe his address and date of manufacture on this thing, I would never have known that the knife came from Atlanta, and recently. And I would have never known where to find Jennie. As it was, running into Hawk and Dove was pure luck. Hawks a hot head, but seems to cut through the garbage to get a job done, while Dove seems to be more of the thinker type, who'd rather talk their enemies down then fight them. Right now that's not helping much, but all Hawk is doing by pounding on that things ankle is annoying it. I have to help take this horror out, once and for all." He thinks silently.

"Dove", he shouts as he flies upwards , becoming intangible, allowing the monsters hand to pass through him easily, to fly to her side. "Can you get word to Hawk somehow?"

She stares at him in surprise "You mean telepathically? Yes, how'd you know? "

"I saw you two seemed to be carrying on a conversation earlier while we were flying across the city, without saying anything. Don't worry, I'm a JLAer . I'm used to this kind of thing, I've seen it before with J'onn. I need for you to get Hawks attention and tell him to be ready to take out the things legs as fast as possible when I give you the signal."

"Wait a minute , Firestorm, what about me?"

"You need to keep the monsters attention, while Hawk and I do our thing."

She concentrates a moment, and finally nods. "He says okay, give him the word when you're ready. He also says for you not to screw up."

"Oh ye of little confidence. " Firestorm quips as he lifts upwards towards the things face , again flying out of reach, and going intangible, as Dove now flits around its horrific and constantly howling head.

"Now Dove!" He shouts, as she relays the message to Hawk.

"Hawk !" Her mental prodding screams into his mind "Do it ! NOW!"

And then Firestorm acts, firing a blast of nuclear rage at the things chest, smashing it backwards with all his might, as Hawk rams the towering horrors legs out from under it in a powerful football-like tackle, backed by Hawks incredible super-human strength,

Ta-KROOOM!

The behemoth falls to the ground, as Firestorm quickly encases it in a rubber ball from head to toe, and still the thing continues to scream, sending horrible tremors through everything within a mile radius!

"This has gotta stop." He mumbles as he wraps its mouth in a huge rubber gag, finally dulling its roaring. Then he lands, immediately seeking out the Scream Killer and Jennie, who have both disappeared. "Where are they?" He shouts to Hawk, who is just now righting himself out from under the struggling beast, laying across the street, several buildings crushed beneath its girth.

Hawk looks around, quickly before answering. "They-they're gone! And so's Dove!"

Elsewhere... The thing that was once Lincoln Mayhew drags two female forms with him, one is the struggling and terrified, and still naked Jennie Graf, the other is the unconscious form of Dove, slung over his bony shoulder . "Yes, now I have two. Two to power my life, to extend my eternal flame. All because I serve chaos so well. This city will drip in blood when I am done with it, and only then will Keos know I was right. He will bow to me in whatever hell he now exists in."

He drags both women through dank , darkened tunnels, before dumping Dove from his shoulder , and dragging Jennie to a stop, before opening a doorway in the grime filled sewers and heaving both inside. Once there, he lights two old torches hanging in sconces on the wall. Jennies cowers in the corner, horrified. While Dove lies still and unmoving on the floor.

"It was most fortuitous that young Dove was felled by my chaos God when he was taken to the ground by the two heroes. Its flailing claws smacked her to the hard pavement below, where I dragged her hence with you, dear girl. Now you will both be sacrificed to the chaos gods, and I will live forever with her powerful life force flowing through my veins. Yours, young Jennie, will be but a desert now."

He leaves , slamming the door behind him, as Jennie sobs quietly, she looks at Doves unmoving form, and begins to pray.

Elsewhere... Two heroes scour the city, one flying the other leaping powerfully across the rooftops.

"You getting anything yet?" Firestorm shouts at Hawk, nervously.

"For the fourth time, kid, no. No psychic call from Dove, and no trail of chaos force. It's like they were sucked up by the earth, like they disappeared."

"Sucked up by the Earth?" Firestorm stops in mid air and hovers. "That's it."

Hawk stands below , looking at Firestorm incredulously "What are you talking about, 'Storm?"

"You got sewers in this town? " Firestorm asks

"Yeah, more in this old part of town, but we have 'em."

Firestorm drops to the ground, as Hawk follows him leaping from the rooftops above to land at his side powerfully. "You think maybe your powers being blocked by something? Maybe lead in the sewer pipes or something? "

"How do I know, 'Storm? I never had this happen before."

"Well lets play a hunch then, big man." Firestorm aims at the ground, blowing it open with a nuclear blast, then diving through the hole."C'mon Hawk, the hole's for you. I could've just phased through it."

Hawk jumps through, shaking his head as he drops down.

"You feel anything yet?" Firestorm asks him.

"No, this was a stupid move kid I th- Wait a minute. I feel something... C'mon 'Storm, this way!"

Hawk runs quickly through the dank sewer, while Firestorm flies above. "What have you got, Hawk?"

"It's Dove, and the Scream Killer, I have them both. They're this way, and hurry, she's worried, and scared. A couple of things she doesn't normally do." 'Hang on honey.' Hawk intones mentally 'I'm coming babe.'

Both men come to a fork in the tunnels.

"Which way, Hawk? "

"Uh, I'm not sure. Firestorm. I think to the left."

"This is ridiculous." Firestorm mutters as he grabs Hawk by the collar and flies them both down the left passage.

"HEY! What are you doing? Hawk shouts, surprised.

"What does it look like? We can't waste time, you know that too. There's two lives at stake here. We have to move."

Hawk says nothing else as he simply points down passage after passage. Until finally Hawk raises his hand and halts their flight. "Hold it 'Storm. They're behind this wall."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I can hear Sa-, I mean Dove's thoughts, she's scared and helpless, we have to get through here."

"No problemo." Is all Firestorm says as he dissolves the wall revealing Dove and Jennie chained to a wall, both stripped naked, as The Scream Killer, his horrible face revealed for all the world to see stands before Dove, in his hand is another of the ceremonial daggers that Firestorm had grabbed in New York , earlier.*

*See last issue

"You're disgusting, you slime." Firestorm shouts as he blasts the Scram Killer away easily, while Hawk leaps after the slimy horror.

Instantly, Firestorm creates clothes for the two women, and dissolves their chains. "Are you two okay?" He asks as Jennie slumps to the floor, and Dove stares angrily at the Scream Killer.

"I am," Dove replies, "Thanks for recreating my costume for me. She doesn't look to good." Dove points with her thumb at Jennie, before jumping into the fray at her husbands side.

Hawk pounds the Scream Killer into a corner "You slime! I'll kill you for what you did to Dove!"

Poom! Pow! Thoom!

Blow after high impact blow rain down on the horrific killer , but the frail looking monster merely kicks the powerful Hawk away. "You serve chaos! As do I! We should fight together, side by side, not against each other!"

"Go to hell you freak!" Hawk punctuates it with a roundhouse left, snapping the Scream Killers head back.

"You first!" the horrific being laughs gleefully as he grasps Hawk by the face with both hideous, bloodless hands, and begins sucking the very life force from the stunned hero.

"What?" Dove stands speechless, before she leaps to Hawks aid, tackling the Scream Killer away from the suddenly stunned Hawk. "How'd he do that?" She shouts at Hawk.

"I-I don't know. Must be the Chaos connection."

"AaaiiiEEE!" Screams the Scream Killer in agony, as Dove kicks him with a flying kick to the head.

"H-he's burning where you hit him!" Shouts Firestorm, as he helps Jenny to her feet. "Can you two handle this? I have to get her to medical help right away, I think she's in shock."

"Go Firestorm, we'll be alright." Dove yells back, as she punches the Scream Killer across the jaw, again leading to him burning where she hit him.

Firestorm dissolves the sewer above him and flies both himself and Jenny through the hole , Holding her tightly. Quickly he locates a cop near the creature he left trapped on the street. "Officer, I have to get her to a hospital, where do I go? What's the nearest one?"

"Three blocks to the west, you'll see it, it has a helipad on its roof. Land there, I'll tell 'em you're comin'. " The cop answers quickly as he lifts his radio to his mouth, even as Firestorm streaks away.

Down below, Dove strikes at the Scream Killer again and again, each blow driving him back as if her fists were ablaze! "B-back you witch! S-stay away!" Lincoln Mayhew hisses in pain.

Nearby, Hawk fights his way to his knees, and then his feet. "He drained me somehow." He thinks. "But Doves connection to Order must be having the opposite effect on him. But just because I can't touch him, doesn't mean I can't help Dove."

Hawk grabs the tunnel wall behind Dove and Mayhew and digs his super strong hands into the steel and concrete wall, and tears it down, on top of the villain, Shouting to Dove mentally "Dove, GO!"

Kroom!

She flies away instantly, as the tunnel wall collapses on top of the evil murderer.

"I think that got him." Hawk grunts to Dove , as he slumps back to the wall.

"Are you alright?" She asks, touching his shoulder lightly.

"He weakened me, badly. He stole my power, somehow. Sucked the strength from me." He looks into the eyes of her featureless mask. "Are you okay? What did he do to you? Did he--"

"No." she cuts him off. He degraded me by stripping me and hanging me on the wall like a slab of beef, but that was it. He didn't touch me other wise."

Below the shattered wall, The Scream Killer struggles, and pulls himself up beneath the rubble. "They think they can stop me by merely dropping a wall on me? I'll just call more of chaos's agents to kill them both, even Hawk, that traitor to chaos!" Thinks the deranged madman.

He begins to continue the spell he had already in place, from earlier when he called the faceless horror above to Earth, again opening the rift to the chaos dimension. Only now it is directly in front of the two heroes, creating a sucking vortex that threatens to suck them both into the dread dimension!

Above, Firestorm flies back to the scene of the battle, as a bizarre light show suddenly appears from the hole he created."Oh my God! What's happening here now?" he shouts aloud as he dives back below the street.

The scene that greets him is from a nightmare itself! Hawk stands gripping a section of wall so tightly that he's gouging finger marks in it. In his other hand, he holds Doves arm, as she flails , half in the vortex, half out!

"Firestorm! HELP!" Shouts Hawk as he sees the Nuclear man.

"Hang On! " Firestorm answers, as he creates a steel band around each of their waists, locking the other end to the floor itself, tying them into very sewer wall!

Suddenly, Mayhew bursts free of where Hawk buried him screaming psychotically "NOOOO! I will not be defeated! You will ALL die!" He leaps at Firestorm, who suddenly glows momentarily, as he increases his density, before punching the ghoul with all his might!

Pa-KOOM!

"Go back to whatever hell you crawled out of, you disgusting , foul maniac!" Firestorm bellows, as he slams the ghastly, skeletal creature into the very vortex he himself had created!

"NOOOOO!!!!" Shouts Mayhew as he disappears in a spiral , falling seemingly forever into a bottomless, gaping maw, which suddenly closes up around him in a thunderous clap!

Thoom!

Above , in the street, the 200' creature suddenly disappears in a blast of brimstone and sulfur!

Bamf!

Down below, Firestorm helps the two heroes to their feet, dissolving the restraints he created to save them with.

"Are you two okay?" He asks, helping them both to their feet.

"Yes, we're better now, thanks." Dove answers.

"How's the girl?" Hawk asks.

"Physically, she seems okay, but mentally... I just don't know. She's scared, and hurting."

Dove and Hawk both stand awkward and speechless. Realizing that there's more to his connection with Jennie then Firestorm is saying.

Later... Ronnie Raymond enters the hospital room where Jennie Graf is resting. He knocks before answering, as an older couple sit by Jennies side turn to see him. Jennie smiles at his appearance.

"Ronnie." she smiles as she speaks his name, "You came, you're alright."*

*Ronnie got knocked out by the Scream Killer last issue. That was the last time she saw Ronnie.

"Yeah Jennie, I'm fine, but you're the one I'm worried about. Are-are you alright?"

"I've been better. But I think I just need some time to get better. Oh Ronnie, I'm sorry, these are my parents."

Ronnie shakes the Grafs hands.

"We're both pleased to meet you, Ron." Jennies father speaks as he takes Ronnies hand. "Jennie told us how you tried to stop this ... thing that attacked her. We appreciate that, we all do."

"That's okay , sir. I wouldn't let anything happen to Jennie, without trying to stop it."

"I appreciate that, son. So I'm sure you understand that Jennie's mother and I have decided to insist Jennie stay here in Atlanta for the time being. We'll be removing her from school for the rest of the semester, and maybe have her continue next semester here in Atlanta."

Ronnie Raymond says nothing. His hearing seems to grow to nothing more then a dull buzz as he suddenly feels his world grow a little bit smaller and lonelier around him .

Next: Dr Zero

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So what did you all think of the Scream Killer storyline? Let me know at Nuclear reactions, C/O [email protected]