Issue #5, Nov. Yr. 1

---

Long, Long ago in a place not too far away, there were a group of
people bounded together to share in their pain, in hopes of bettering
their lives and humanity in general. They were the Doom Patrol.
Brought together by Niles "Chief" Caulder, they lived, they fought,
they loved, and they died. And they came back, time and time again.
Same people, different people - the faces changed except one,

Clifford Steele aka Robotman.

---

FDC presents "How it will be"
by Gary Dreslinski

"Remember Leesburg*!" the cry went up as the citizens of yet another town went into the streets to prepare to die defending their homes, their way of life. Alien invasions came and went - almost on a .
monthly basis it seemed, at least from the national news. But this was different The aliens who came before wanted to take over - they wanted subjects, they wanted slaves. This time they just wanted to wipe every single human off the face of the planet.**

(* You DID read Supergirl #5 right?) (** Check out Cold Armageddon for more details as to why)

The Khundian attack fleet that hovered above, waiting for the go signal didn't care for whys and wherefores. They didn't care that these people had built their lives - their homes - their families, in the community. All they cared about is making sure every last one of them was dead by the time they moved on to the next target. It was all systematic, going up and down the coasts, then into the interiors of the land masses, wiping out every sign of life big or small that they came across. This was a mere bump in the road - barely worth the trouble. But one did not get ahead without paying attention to details.

The Commander didn't like waiting. He just wanted to get on with it so that he could rejoin the main fleet. He wanted to help crush the planet's meddlesome metahumans...especially the one they called
Superman. But Mongul had taken care of that one* (* Do I *really* need to tell you where look?) It was a shame really to devote an attack unit of 6 fully capable light cruisers to sweep missions, but he could only hope that the High Commander knew what he was doing. After all - it wasn't like he could expect any sizeable resistance ...

A minute later the Commander's cruiser was burning wreckage.

"For Leesburg!" Went up the cry again, but this time from just one man. His name was Cliff Steele: Man of Adventure, but today, he was a man of Earth.

---

Four Days Before in the Middle of Nowhere, GA

Cliff examined the flora as he picked his way through the woods. It was too blasted hot. But then again, it was almost always hot in this sort of place, that was kind of the point. If conditions weren't just right , it couldn't be done. At least that was what Alec - correction, HIS Alec Holland had told him. Now all he needed was to follow through. He took out his knife and pricked his finger, letting the blood drip off onto the plant life. Then he stood back , waiting, watching.

15 minutes later it started to form.

Within a half hour the form was complete.

It took an hour to form the brain and the higher learning capability that would be needed. Cliff knew that it would take several more days to get the creature up to speed, but in the end it would all be worth it. Kudzu was worth the wait.

---

Now

Khundian shock troops opened fire on the populace from behind makeshift barricades, providing cover-fire for the rescue operation on their commanders ship. No one expected to find anything or anyone worth salvaging, but it was the principle of the matter. The Khundian rescue operation suddenly found itself out in the open with no support. They turned to see the firing line go down beneath a wave of thick heavy vines. The vines engulfed them, then reached out toward the rescue operation. They open fire, but the vines part and the blasts hit only air. They tried to run, but the Kudzu sprouted up all around them, blocking out all other life, and eventually taking theirs.

---

Three Days Before at Stonehenge

It was a place of power. Kent had taught him that, in the days before he had been completely consumed by the entity known as Fate. Kent Nelson had also taught him a few other things. Such as what it *means* to be a place of power. Cliff removed his amulet. He wished that he had his backpack, but there hadn't been time to grab it before going out after Leah. He could have done it so much easier with something from there, had far more to work with. But beggers certainly couldn't be choosers. He sat down and got to work, or rather to mediating.

When the seventh hour came, he was ready. He held up the amulet and started the chant. By the time he finished, it had appeared. Cliff looked it over, it was man shaped, but clearly not of mankind. It was a complete blank slate, no features unless nothing could be called a feature. It rose to it's feet. His feet, Cliff arbitrarily decided. Although it might not hurt the team's image to have at least one
woman. From what he'd read of this Earth's history, that seemed to be the way the Justice League and their ilk worked. He filed that away for further reference. For now at least it would be a man.
The man raised his head, he formed a mouth. Not a big one, but enough for him to use.

"I am Zone" he declared.

Cliff nodded. Things were coming together.

---

Now

Cliff tapped his hand-link. Sure it was hi-tech, or as someone had said "sci fi", (whatever the hell that was. He wasn't sure, but he somehow thought that President Ellison wouldn't approve of it. Just
something about the name.) but the bottom line was that it worked. He could coordinate the attack on several fronts and still be able to get into the attack himself. "Zone" he said, as he blasted another Khundian," Update."

"Yes sir" the hollow voice replied. Zone still hadn't decided on what tone to use, so he kept it flat. It was annoying, but practical. Much like Zone himself. "Malaysian authorities have the situation in hand
with a couple of home-growns. Sri Lanka fell before we could get there. We're looking into scenarios on retrieval. Will download them into JLA mainframe. Have deposited package to Australia…"

Cliff smiled as he listened to the remainder of the report. The package had been delivered to Australia. He chuckled in between blasts. That was where the Thanagarians were in force. They had NO idea what was about to hit them. The irony was sweet.

---

Elsewhere

"We're keeping an eye on the situation. It was not unexpected, but it seems that things are working out even more in our favor than we could have hoped." The Men in Mauve nodded as one. Nothing was outside of their realm of influence, but some things needed to be handled delicately. This was one of them. They had taken great pains to cut off the old Cliff Steele from everyone he did not truly need. Help was for later, or special circumstances. Tim Hunter had been necessary, thus he was allowed. Gar Logan was not, so he wasn't. Contact with the outside world was something to be controlled, manipulated toward the proper goal. When it was time, he would be allowed to return from Hell with whatever he was supposed to have. But not before.

The new Cliff on the other hand was allowed full access to everyone. It was just as important that he be in the right place at the allotted hour. His attempts to reach the outside world were received each and every time. When he called the JLA, they had been on a conference call. It was mysteriously disconnected just in time for Cliff's call to come through. Which was just in time for Cliff to offer his team's services. Nothing was by accident. In fact, there was no such thing as an accident. The Men in Mauve would not allow such a thing. Each and every part had to be right, otherwise the universe was doomed…

---

Deep in Arkham Asylum, a man dressed completely in mauve settled back to watch and wait. When the time came, he would act. But now was not the time.

---

On board Mongul's flagship, several men dressed completely in mauve observed in silence. They heard every word and reported it all. It was a trifle matter. But it never hurt to be in place should the need arise. At points they practiced moving Mongul's brain in and out of his thick yellow skull. If the need arose it would be that easy. Or maybe moving the fleet into some region of space that no one had ever seen before. Or causing it to cease to exist entirely. These were all options. But they would not be needed. Everything was going according to plan. As usual.

---

Two Days Ago in a side show

There weren't many of them left, even in Europe. But Cliff counted himself lucky that he had been able to find one of the few. Doubly lucky in fact. It was in fact a woman, which was just as good for the team's image as it was rare to find the trait in one. He looked her over and negotiated a price with her "manager". It wouldn't do just to steal her. She had to be acquired through legitimate means, that was part of the conditions. She wasn't much to look at, nor very intelligent. But he knew that it would all change once the spell had done its job.

He set things up and got right to work. He didn't have much time, he could feel it in the air, something big was about to happen. Something that he would need each and every person he could make or lay his hands on for. Maybe it was an attack from space, maybe it was just a big natural disaster. Maybe it was an attack by a natural disaster from space (those were the worst!), whatever it was, it needed to be dealt with, and the Doom Patrol needed to be there to help. Lives were dependant on it. His own not the least.

She came out of the cocoon like a butterfly. With her long legs, and her body, she looked like a model. Knowing what he did - Cliff wasn't sure *what* she was a model of, but he knew at least that no one else would ever suspect until it was far too late…

---

Now - Australia

The Thangarian shock troops vultured the city, coming lower and lower with each pass. Causing more panic, and more destruction with each swoop. They sent in round after round of sweep throughs, groups of four warriors flying just feet above the ground. More to further the panic than anything else. Although it allowed them to use their battle maces, up close and personal, which suited them just fine.

The sortie was about to pull up when their wing man reported unusual readings just ahead. They pulled up just in time to miss the rift in space that was pulled open right in front of them. The most beautiful woman, human or otherwise, that they had ever seen walked out. She was wearing a tight black mini dress and a come hither smile.

They were confused as they circled around for another look. Her smile broadened and she pulled them from the sky using a giant hand of light. The hand tightened around them as it pulled them down to her level.

"Who's in command here?" she demanded.

The Thangarians hesitated for a moment, then nodded to the flight commander.

"I want you to send a message to your unit commander. Open a channel for me."

The Thangarian shook his head. At first she thought that the translators worked working, but then she understood he was just being stubborn.

She clicked on her link, "Zone - upload local Thangarian channels onto this frequencies. I want FULL visual."

"You got it."

Within seconds, a view screen popped open from the flight commanders pack. The captives jumped when it came to life. "Trade secret" she offered.

"Unit Commander" she said in a cool, measured tone, "You have 5 minutes to begin full recall of your units from this area."

The Unit Commander was a bit startled, but managed a laugh anyway. She looked up from the screen, it was to be expected. She noticed that another wave was already on it's way. She'd have to make her point quickly or things to turn ugly.

The model like woman reached over to the rear guard and held his head between her hands.

"Unit Commander, I repeat…You have 4 minutes to begin full recall of your troops."

"Who are you? You are hardly in any position to make demands!"

She smiled, bent down and bit off, her teeth cutting right through his helm, flesh and bone in one chomp. the head of the Thangarian The head rolled onto the ground. She wiped the blood away from her lips, as she motioned for the others to stop screaming, "They call me The Geek - and to me, you're just another bunch of birds…"

---

Now - Washington DC

Outside was chaos, aliens of every type coming out of the sky fighting just about every time of meta-human who bothered to care about seeing the next day. Cameron had thought that she had even seen Agent Liberty out there in the fray, but things were too confusing for her to be all that clear. And besides, the reception on the TV wasn't very good. The battle raged outside her windows, but Cameron Chase sat hunched over a file that had mysteriously appeared on her desk that morning.
It was about a group calling themselves the Cult of Niles Caulder. She remembered their name coming up in the investigation of that Doom Patrol member, Dorothy whatsherface … she didn't really remember and it really didn't matter. What she *did* remember however is that for some reason that case completely vanished from the screen. Everyone had just stopped working on it - hell, had stopped caring about it,

Until now. Why now?

"Why now indeed Agent Chase?"

She turned quickly to see the DEO Director* standing in her doorway, his exposed skull positively gleaming. (*Astute readers of DC's Chase series will remember that he used to be a member of Infinity Inc.)

"I suppose you've got a theory 'Bones'?"

He smiled and took a long drag off his cigarette. "As a matter of fact I do…" She shuffled papers to show her irritation at his dramatic pause.
Finally she decided to break the silence herself, "I don't suppose you'd care to share it with the rest of the class?"

"Obviously someone didn't want us looking too deeply into this at the time. Obviously they do now. The questions are: Who and Why."

"Beats the hell out of me."

"Me too - until that is I got a look at the copy of that file that they left on MY desk."

"You too?"

The Director nodded, "I'm still not sure who sent this to us, or why they didn't want us looking into this before…but this is definitely something we've had experience with."

"Then I wasn't just imagining things?"

"Nope. The so-called 'Cult of Niles Caulder' is far older than they're letting on - and more dangerous if they still have some of those toys lying around."

"There's something more though isn't there?"

He took another drag and held it, looking for the excuse to hold it in. Finally though, even he had to let it out. "They've got someone else on board as well working as hatchet man. I've no idea how they got him, or where they even found him, but they've got him."

"Who is it???"

"You sure you want to know?"

Chase nodded reluctantly, suddenly unsure of herself.
When the Director told her - she put her head in her hands and cried.
She cried for a good 15 minutes while the Director excused himself and returned to review the files in his office, study the reports, anything not to be there when the crying stopped. When it did - she opened her desk drawer and removed two items, a picture of her father and her spare gun. If that thing was truly out there again, she was going to need it.

---

Now
"Zone - get us ahead of them. They're on the run, but we've got to finish this bunch off before they hit anyone else."

"Affirmative."

"Two cruisers headed northwest at high velocity, activate Blue Snake!"

---

1 Day Ago - In Cliff's living room

The easiest of them all to call forth, but the most dangerous in many ways. One wrong move could easily kill him. Cliff knew it, even before Alan Scott had told him about his first encounter with one of the creatures. It had been one of the semi aware ones that had nearly killed him, forcing his retirement from the hero biz. They were elementals, pure and simple. Forces of nature as well as of man. Even Firestorm stayed away from them, and he was a fire elemental! It was worth a try at least.

Cliff flipped on the light switch to the living room, then the bedroom, the bathroom, the hallway, until every light was lit - then he turned on every little toy and gadget in the house. Whatever that other him was, it certainly wasn't thrifty. He seemed to have very little in the way of useful tools in the house, but plenty of annoying little gadgets. For once they would be of use.

He waited until everything was running and then called began the summoning spell. His protective circle was made out of a rubber mat, but he knew that if the thing wanted him, he was as good as dead. He could see it's light running down the length of the cords, reminding him of that scene in IT when the creature was coming down the tunnels. Good book, but the movie had left him underwhelmed. Not even Lenny Bruce's adult Richie had been able to save it, although Lenny had certainly given it the ol' college try. Finally it oozed out of the outlet, pure energy. It streaked across the floor and stopped in front of the pentagram.

"Why have I been summoned?"

"I seek a boon."

"At what price?"

"The usual."

The energy crackled and extended itself upward until it finally formed
into a humanoid shape.

"Name your boon."

"I seek your aid in a task I must perform."

"Name your boon" it repeated.

Cliff gave the boon a name, one that was instantly understood. The energy being nodded and transformed its outer shell into a semi solid substance. "I shall be Blue Snake. I shall follow you for now. Later I shall collect."

Cliff nodded, "As it should be."

---

Now

In Moscow, Blue Snake struck out across the sky like lightning, hitting with the force of God. The cruisers that got in it's way crumpled into ash. The aliens that got in his way simply ceased to be. One second he was there, the next he heard the hollow word, "Activate" and found himself being hurled against a retreating force somewhere else. This time he chose not to collide with the vessels, but consume them. He fed off their ships energy, he fed off their struggling for breathe, from their screams, finally he fed off the transfer of energy that was their deaths. That being done, he again heard the word "Activate" and found himself somewhere different, fighting a different type of alien. These ones flew and tried throwing objects that looked like lightning bolts at him. He laughed as he showed them what lightning truly felt like…

---

The Day Of

Cliff looked over his team before they left for their first battle. Kudzu, Zone, The Geek and Blue Snake. Not exactly the New Titans, but more of what people expected out of the Doom Patrol - freaks with incredible powers playing super hero. That is what they wanted - that was what he was going to give them. In spades. It wouldn't be until later that they'd realize what had happened. But by then it would be too late.

"Let's go!" he said, as he gave Zone the first set of coordinates. They had a war to fight, on too many fronts to possibly hold, a war too big to possibly win. They had to hold what they could and hope there was something left of the planet when they were done.

---

NEXT ISSUE: The Battle For Earth Continues both here and in other Cold Armageddon cross-over books! Plus: That other Cliff Steele (remember him?) and Leah face off against Amos Fortune in the middle of Hell. In other words, just a normal day…

---

*Doom Sayers*

We've got letters! Ok - well it's more like comments posted on the
Faux Dc list - but hey at least they're out there spreading the word!
What are YOU doing?? Huh!!! Just sitting there in front of your
computer all day wearing fuzzy bunny slippers and eating those Ding
Dongs…um wait, you're actually reading this, so I should probably be
nice to you…um, good people and all that. Keep up the good work.
(NOTE: a funny thing happened on the way to this issue coming out.
Since it is part of the crossover, it had to be reviewed when Ralph
Angelo's schedule allowed. Which means that most of this letter page
is outdated, BUT I'll make corrections as I reread it! NO honesty is
to be directed as Ralph on this either, he honestly did it as fast as
he could! Good natured jibes, that's a different story<g>)

I just finished reading DP 1-4. *Very* nice; I'm looking forward to
more. It's especially good to see Cliff back in action, and to see
someone get some use out of Tim Hunter. The story itself was nearly
flawless, filled with the weird I've come to expect from DP, without
trying to ape Grant Morrison's (or, worse, Rachel Pollack's) style. I
do have a couple small problems, tho, specifically in the HTML.I
realize you're trying to get the lines to "line up" nicely, but is it
possible to do that w/o all the <BR> tags? It leads to broken up lines
at my (fairly normal, I thought) font size. This isn't an
earth-shattering problem, but it gets amazingly annoying after the
first few issues.-Rick, waiting impatiently for DP #5...

First of all Rick - thank you for reading the book in the first place.
I was starting to wonder if I was writing for an audience of one.
Second, I'm glad that you've enjoyed the book for EXACTLY the reasons
I was hoping people would get into it. "the weird I've come to expect
from DP without trying to ape Grant Morrison's (or worse Rachel
Pollack's) style". I'm not Grant Morrison. I never will be Grant
Morrison. There's no reason I should try to pretend to be. Glad it
seems to be working. On the other hand I'm *also* not a certain tarot
card reader who probably should have never been given the book. But
that's a good thing I think.
Finally, on the issue of the <BR> lines, I freely admit I have no idea
how to solve this problem, or even why it's happening. A friend
suggested that it might be from my e-mail - since I send those issues
in as text instead of as an attachment. I'm going to try it the other
way this time, but if it doesn't work I'll have an immediate opening
for a "HTML fixer" on this book. Basically I'll send you the scripts
when I'm finished, you fix them and we get them off to the Ralph and
Clay. Any one interested can write me at clauderains@rocketmail.com .
(Update: Clay said that he would fix the problem.)

After all - if the only complaint Rick has about the book thus far is
HTML related, the sooner we fix it, the more Rick (and others) can
enjoy the book more.
From what I've seen, other letter columns identify the letter writers
from what they're known for, or what other titles they right. I'll say
right off that since I'm still fairly new to the game, I don't know
who Rick is or what he does, other than he seems like a nice guy. Rick
- let me know what you do and I'll be sure to make a note of it in the
next issue!

A guy named Sam the Poultry Slayer echoed Rick's online request that I
write issue 5 faster. Fast enough Sam?
I just found the HEROES site and was reading the credits. Sam handles
the reviews and from what I can tell usually knows what he's talking
about. (Unless of course he ends up bashing this book in a future
review, in which case he's a bitter old hack<g>.After all, we have to
have SOME priorities around here.)
(Update: Sam also works for MarvelX)

Barry Reese made a post about his favorite FDC series that included:
DOOM PATROL by Gary Dreslinski : What an odd series. It's not at all
what I was hoping for when I heard we were getting a DP series (I was
hoping for a return to the freaks as superheroes approach) but I'm
enjoying it nonetheless (esp. ish 4). Tim Hunter... Strange plans for
Cliff Steele... a new DP... Intersting stuff. I still wouldn't mind
seeing the team being a bit less Vertigo-ish, but I highly recommend
this series to anyone looking for interesting, and thoughtful, fanfic.

Thanks Barry! "Interesting, and thoughtful fanfic" …mind if I use that
as in a promo?
For those who don't know who Barry is or what he does…you must live
under a rock. Barry Reese has written everything - Barry Reese *will*
eventually write everything again.

There's also this little promo from the editors, which was the second
thing mentioned in the "News and Rumors" section for FDC in the latest
HEROES:

Also look for the all new Doom Patrols new series here on the FDC,
it's a great read by a talented newcomer named Gary Dreslinski!

I'm now officially a "talented newcomer". I'll be picking up my
talented newcomer business cards soon.

(Update: On the Avengers 2000 "press release" I was called one of the
hottest writers in fan fic by none other than Barry Reese. From
unknown, to talented newcomer, to one of the hottest writers in about
2 ½ months. Not bad!)

Enough about what people are saying…and on to what's going on. I'm
about 6 pages into the first issue of Shade and it's still looking
pretty good. If it works out as planned, this quarterly 4 issue mini
series is going to be fairly decent, if I have to say so myself.
(The first issue is done. It should be posted soon.)

My "top secret project" has been given the green light. It's called
"Power Ring". It's a one shot that's being placed into an issue of
Showcase. Look for it on the site soon!!!!

(It became it's own one-shot. Look for it in the One-shot area!)

I'm also talking with another company about a title. I doubt it's
going to amount to anything, but I'll keep you updated.

(Surprise! I actually worked out! The first issue of the New Mutants
from Vision should be posted soon on their site! Hot off that, I
proposed DP's spin-off series to Clay, got it accepted…proposed
Captain America to Barry over at Avengers 2000, got it accepted and am
currently working on a proposal for Marvel X.)

And, oh yeah, I start work on issue 6 this weekend! See you then!
(Make that this weekend!)