Once he was an average high school kid. He excelled in sports, and his grades were average, but then a strange and wonderful occurrence 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! #4

Two many Firestorms!

By Ralph Angelo

Firestorm watches, as construction workers, along with everyday people slowly pitch in to rebuild the city around him. Would that he could wave his hands and remake everything as it were. But that would be to easy. As if these people haven't suffered enough. When Firestorm tried that stunt last month, on a Bagel shop/ apartment building he knew so well, or so he thought, the results were just slightly less then disastrous. The building was half destroyed. Well, when he was finished, the plumbing shot out flames, and the door knobs were wired for electricity . The entire place had to be razed.

His powers just don't work that way. Simple stuff, or stuff he has an exact memory of (Such as the Kent family farm house in Superman #6) he can duplicate, or repair. But as soon as it gets complicated, well that's when it hits the fan.

So, instead of Firestorm running from city to city recreating entire metropolises the world over, he's doing damage control in his own town. Manhattan, the big apple.Firestorm the hero is tired from the past two months. Ronnie Raymond, the man inside is exhausted beyond words.

But life has slowly regained a semblance of normalcy for Ronnie. His spring classes at Empire state University have started almost on schedule amazingly. And Young Raymond has even started up a new friendship with Lorraine Riley , the young woman known as Firehawk. Once they were closer then mere friends, Raymond hopes that will be the case once more.

The world is slowly but surely returning to its former state. If only it remains that way. Not much chance of that Ronnie...

High above the north pole, a flaming Comet-like figure cleaves the atmosphere with reckless abandon! It's heat comes from deep within, instead of merely burning up as it enters the dense , oxygen based atmosphere. Like a flaming missile of doom, the figure shatters the tranquility of the calm ice packed wasteland, sending steam, and heat, and waves a hundred feet into the air as he dives beneath its now superheated surface! Instantly he flies back upwards, this time out of control, as a tongue of flame slashes through his burning form!

An instant later a beautiful woman rises from the icy sea on a superheated geyser of fire! Her name is Corona! And she is the current fire elemental! She is also the mother of Aquamans child, but none of that matters to the berserk former Firestorm.

"You DARE to attack me former elemental? You are no longer one of the chosen! Begone, and be happy you still contain your powers. There is no longer a place for you here on Earth!" She roars in a voice of fire!

The steam and flame slowly die down around his shimmering form, as red flames dance about him, with slashes of white and yellow flame as well. "I dare usurper. I've returned, and no one may take my birthright from me, not you, not the Earth guardians. No one."

"You have no birthright!" She screams in anger, unleashing a torrent of flame at floating figure, who grasps it in his out stretched hand, wraps it around his own internal fires, then returns it a hundred fold more powerful, to shatter the flaming womans defenses easily.. She drops to the waters surface, instantly setting it to steam.

He flies over to her form, hovering above her, only then does he speak again.

"Perhaps I have no birthright woman, but I am the victor here. Tell them all I have returned, and mother Earth cries out to me in agony. Tell them Firestorm is back!"

And with that, the former Professor Martin Stein arcs away into the dusking sky, towards New York City, and another he must deal with. Another traitor. One he once thought of as a brother. Now a Judas is more appropriate, the former fire elemental thinks.

In a classroom in New York City, Ronnie Raymond struggles with trying to understand a complex mathematical equation in his advanced algebra class.

"This sucks." Thinks Raymond. "I can fly from here to the Sun in less then an hour, but I can't figure out this damn problem."

As his head is bent down to the paper on the desk before him, his mind wrapped around the problem, his Professor approaches. She's an elderly woman, with shoulder length grey hair, and a gaunt physique. "Problems Mr Raymond?"

Ronnie raises his head up and smiles "No Professor Jacobs, nothing I can't solve, given time, I guess."

She smiles at him, then taps him lightly on the arm. "Persevere Mr. Raymond, the answer is within your grasp. You have the knowledge, it's just a matter of you putting it to use."

"Thanks Professor. I was never a wiz at Math, I guess this is something I just have to work through."

"Well if you have any questions, Mr Raymond, feel free to ask. I'm here to help you, and to teach you."

The woman walks away, towards the front of the class, as Ronnie continues to focus his thoughts on the problems before him.

Next to Ronnie, and beyond his peripheral vision, a pretty blonde girl watches Ronnie intently out of the corner of her eye. Jennie Graf's been watching Ronnie since they started the class together. She just wishes he would notice her.

Suddenly Ronnie collapses upon his desk, clutching his head painfully! As a voice rips through his psyche, a very familiar voice

"He's nearby, I can feel his thoughts, his mind! I am coming for you betrayer! Can you hear me? I am coming for you! Soon you, and this foul world will die in fire! This planet will be razed so that it may live again, and mankinds foul taint will be removed, so that another breed, one that will not destroy this fair world may raise it's head."

"Pro-professor?" mumbles Raymond through grit teeth.

"Ronald?"Misunderstanding, thinking Ronnie is calling for her, Professor Jacobs reacts after seeing his pained look , and hearing his agonized words. She walks towards his desk, when suddenly, all hell breaks loose!

The bank of windows shatter inwards, sending glass showering everywhere! The entire class scatters, as a flaming figure floats into the quickly emptying room.

"Leave now! All of you! He is mine, the betrayer is mine to deal with as I please!" Roars the fire elemental who was once Firestorm!

"Get out of my classroom you abomination!" Screams Professor Jacobs.

Flames bolt from the Fire-mentals eyes. To pin the old woman on either side, each bolt slamming through the blackboard behind her.

"Leave now, woman!" He yells again.

At the center of the room, forgotten by everyone, on the floor clutching his pounding head is Ronnie Raymond.

"He's insane." He thinks. "Something drove him totally nuts. I can feel his thoughts, my God. He means to kill everyone on Earth. To wipe the whole world clean in fire, and let creation start over from scratch."

Through grit teeth, and agony that feels like his very skull is about to split open, Ronnie Raymond stares at the Fire elemental before him threatening his math professor. "He's gonna kill her, she's frozen with fear, and he doesn't care! What the hell happened to him?"

"Leave her alone!" He shouts!

Without another thought for his own safety, and through a red haze of mind numbing agony, Ronnie hurls himself at the former Martin Stein, tackling him and sending them both hurtling out the third floor window!

"Ronald!" Screams Professor Jacobs, as both she and Jennie Graf run to the window!

But below them, they see no bodies shattered on the pavement, instead, they hear an explosive blast of energy, and a flash of light that momentarily blinds them, causing them to turn away. To bad, if they had kept watching, they would have seen Ronnie Raymond disappear in that blast of energy, and in his place stands a hero that is becoming more and more well known, and cherished in this city once again, Firestorm, the nuclear man!

"Okay Professor, lets talk this out. No one needs to get hurt here. C'mon. Settle down."

"Settle down Raymond? Settle down? I think not foul betrayer. There will be no settling down. There will be only death, boy. Your death to begin with, then everyone elses on this foolish world!"

He fires a wave of flame at Firestorm, smashing him backwards!

Fwwooosh!

"Arrgh!" Howls Raymond, as he quickly makes his form immaterial, to avoid most of the fire aimed at him.

"Enough Professor, if you won't stop this nonsense yourself, I'll have to do it for you!"

Firestorm creates seamless bands of steel that wrap themselves around the berserk Fire-mental.

"You think this will stop me , boy? NOTHING can stop me!"

He emphasizes his point by turning the bands of steel to molten debris. Melting them with heat that Firestorm can feel twenty feet away.

"Okay Martin, maybe I'm going to easy on you. I have no idea why you're acting like this, and at this point, I'm starting to not care. You better think about what you're planning to do here, because I'm going to do whatever it takes to stop you, do you understand me?"

"Yes boy," Smiles the fire-mental, "I do understand you, do you comprehend this?"

He fires a broad sweeping blast of flame, at the college building Ronnie had just been in, turning it instantly into an inferno!

"Nooooo!" Screams Firestorm, as he counters the attack, turning the atoms of the burning materials themselves to water, then he instantaneously turns the air to dense water around the building, it's like dropping a wave on top of the burning building, with a whoosh, the flames are extinguished !

But it's to late! As soon as Firestorm began to defend the burning building, The Fire-mental attacked!

Fwa-Koom!

Instantly, Firestorm is engulfed in flames by his one time friend . He drops to the ground painfully.

"Why Professor? Why are you doing this?"

"Because foul deceiver, mother earth has cried out to me from across the vastness of space. She cried in agony, and wanted me to cleanse the planets surface of the foul infestation of man."

"B-but you are a man. You've got to think about it Professor, Martin. Something's not right here. What you were feeling was from the alien armada's attack on Earth. From the Cold Armageddon war we just barely survived. It's not our fault this happened. "

"Liar! If man had not existed, mother earth would not have been put in jeopardy to begin with!.This must all change, man MUST be destroyed for mother Earths sake!"

Firestorm struggles to get to his feet, to fly into the air, but his head pounds painfully still, and now his body aches as well.

Even so, He leaps to the attack once more, as the world swirls to vertigo around him.

Sha-Kow!

His nuclear blast stuns the Fire-mental, smashing him back a hundred feet, but its' weak compared to what he can normally muster, and the Fire-mental knows this as well, for was he not once half of Firestorm himself?

"You are finished Raymond. You fought valiantly, but you were over matched from the beginning."

"Professor, please-" Begins Ronnie

"No more words!" Screams the insane burning Firestorm, as he flies into Ronnie lightning quick, to deliver a powerful punch that sends Raymond into the sleeping world. With a thud, Firestorm the nuclear man lands on the ground , hard. As nearby Firestorm the Elemental smiles devilishly!

The Fire-Mental scoops up the unconscious hero, and flies away, leaving a burning trail across the sky behind him...

Nearby, two women, one old, one young watch in horror, as they begin to dig through rubble, looking for a young man they'll never find. Because unbeknownst to both Professor Jacobs and Jennie Graf, that young man was just flown away by his former counterpart, now captor!

To be Continued!

Nuclear Fallout

C/O CptMarvell@aol.com