Saga of the Elementals - part 1
by SpiderJedi

Mentor raised his eyelids one final time from the projects on his desk. As he slumped over from sleep deprivation, he commed Microwave to come study the ancient tablet from his home planet that was found in the snow on Rakekniven in Antartica.

Microwave walked at his usual slow pace into the room and said "Query, why is unit designated Mentor succumbing to sleep?" Microwave shook Mentor awake and asked "Query, what information has unit Mentor gleaned from granite slab?" Mentor reached for the drink that seemed to repulse the human members of Freedom Force.

"I shall tell you as soon as finish off this amazing concoction called pink lemonade. It surprises me for my knowledge only states that earth lemons are of a bright yellow coloration"

Microwave replied "Substance composition: 25% lemon juice, 10% sugar and 15% percent color-changing chemicals. However, Unit allocated Microwave title believes that with genetic manipulation of crops, humans could one day create an actual pink lemon." Mentor finished off his drink and set it within the food simulator for a refill.

"Microwave, this is quite fascinating information. It is a prophecy from the future-seers of my people. In typical fashion they spoke in lilting conversation. It says 'When the lion casts silver light upon the purple star, the warriors of wind,rock,soul,sound,plant and machine shall vanquish evil in the land where buildings stand tall."'

Microwave listened with the steely determination and focus that only a robot can offer. "Query," Microwave said at last after digesting the data, "Would not the aforementioned purple star be Energy-X? Further Query: Is not Patriot City the land where buildings stand tall?"

"Yes Microwave, I have already theorized on this and it seems the most likely probability. Now the only things that as the humans say "bugs me" is what is the lion that casts silver light?"

Microwave stood standing correlating data from all sources in his vast knowledge. Finally Microwave stood up and stated "2:30 AM August 9th, 1963. Comet apelled Horvan's appeared for first and last time. Said appearance occurred during Leonid meteor shower, the brightest of such celestial events for the following 100 years.Fragments of comet fell to earth after said comet collided with asteroid belt"

As Mentor headed to bed he said "Six warriors to arise, I wonder when they will..." His attention was diverted to the earth calendar that Liberty Lad had given him as a joke. Using cut and paste, Nick had put female heads from Mentor's race upon human supermodel bodies. The date on the calendar was August 9th.1963. The time on his clock read 12:00 AM. Mentor paused momentarily, stared daggers at Microwave for not telling him and rushed to the Energy-X detection screen.

Jenny Mason, Merry's cousin, had called her friends over to her house for a late night/early morning party. The forecast called for clear skies so the meteor shower would be the most amazing thing they had ever seen. As Jenny carefully lined up enough snacks to feed a starving nation, her five friends appeared, one by one, each bearing more snacks.

Each one of her friends was in some way related to a member of Freedom Force. Joel Samson was the youngest brother to Order,the powerhouse half of the justice duo. Michael Stiles was Minuteman's nephew. Sienna Ramirez was El Diablo's younger sister while Ruby Miller was the Ant's youngest sister. Rob Taylor was Man-bot's cousin before Ted Taylor decided to stay at the celestial clock.

Jenny stood up and said "I call this meetings of the Eclipse club to..." at this point she looked over at Joel with goo-goo eyes and followed through in her joke "...Order."

They were the eclipse club because it was the first celestial event they had seen in their lives. These six kids were the only remnants of the school astronomy club after all the funding went towards the school baseball team.

Unknown to them, two canisters of Energy-X had landed in the old oak tree behind Jenny's house when Mentor was shot down.

Now a slight wind was blowing that thrust the canisters out of the tree and onto the brick patio of Jenny's house. The Eclipse Club would not be in the backyard for another two and a half hours.

As the party progressed, Minuteman,Order, El Diablo and the Ant walked into the house to make sure that it would be a supervised party. Minuteman called out "Michael, where are you?" a faint voice sounded from the glass-domed attic "Up here, Uncle Frank..." Minuteman bounded up the stairs to see what his nephew was up to and was greeted by a large video camera.

"Uncle Frank, I've triggered this camera to pan across the sky. As the meteor shower happens, this camera will catch the motion of every single meteor and make one still motion shot of everything. I'll enter it in the school photography contest."

Minuteman called the Ant upstairs to check out Michael's plan.

Ant looked up to Minuteman and said "Your nephew is almost as smart as Mentor when it comes to technology."

At that moment, female screams from downstairs alerted Ant and Minuteman to the fact that either the meteor shower had started early, or Order was showing off. It turned out to be the latter. All three girls were sitting on the sofa as Order hefted it over his head. From deep within, Law said "Don, the purpose for you coming here was to have someone mature watch the children. So put down the couch and let me out." Order did so and Law was soon standing in the middle of the room. She smiled at the girls as she heard something going in the kitchen.

There was El Diablo, dousing a slice of frozen pizza with his own brand of hot sauce, Diablo Caliente, and roasting it with his tongues of flame. Law came back into the room and said "Nothing major is going on within the kitchen. Diablo is just being himself."

At that moment, the alarm clock in the living room sounded and the kids went outside to watch the meteor shower. The two canisters of Energy-X were somehow drilled right into the ground so only the very peak of the canisters showed though the loam. The shower started and all the kids were dazzled beyond what they had expected. As if on cue, a light brighter and larger than the meteors blazed across the sky right above their heads. two small chunks from this source of light, which must have been enormous before burning up in the atmosphere, fell straight down in a plume of bright silver light. These explosive chunks smashed right into the canisters just five feet in front of the kids. The resultant purple and silver explosion was later reported being seen from the top of the Bunker Hill Plaza. At the sight of the purple explosion, all four chaperones rushed outside to see their family members writhing in agony.

Slowly, Michael and Jenny staggered upwards helping their friends up. Their clothes began changing at the same time as their bodies. Jenny was soon wearing a white and blue outfit bearing a combined insignia of a star and a red cross. Michael was in a gold and white outfit with the universal symbol for a gear for an insignia. Sienna's outfit was reminiscent of Alchemiss save that was sky blue with a rushing wind insignia. Ruby wore a mini-dress with a small flower on it.

The most stunning changes happened to Joel and Rob. Joel was phasing from solid to energy form. He held his arm out and a beam of pure sound energy flew out in a shockwave that smashed the picket fence into one million pieces. Rob's body became pure diamond and stood six feet tall.. Everyone was capable of seeing through him, yet it appeared nothing could hurt him save for water or wind. To prove this, Joel touched him with one hand and the sonic energy reflected high into the atmosphere. Minuteman voiced the opinion of everyone. 'Let's get them to Freedom Fortress,right now!"

Across town, yet another canister of Energy-X was found. The one who found this canister,whose name was Franklin Grimes, had searched for a year through the slums of Patriot City. And now it was finally his for the taking. He whipped a crowbar from his pack and jimmied the canister open. Slowly, he mutated into a hideous form. Half of his body became green scales while the other half glowed green with acid. As he stood there, a tail slowly grew from his rear end and his height slowly increased. The standard evil laugh came from his throat in the form of a low guttural growl and he said "This city will rue the day they laughed at me. Komodo is here to stay!"

At that moment a thug came from behind and tried to smack him with a Louisville Slugger. "Time to meet Mr. Bat" the thug cried. Komodo wheeled around and stared daggers at the thug. It appeared to be a staring contest for a little while until the thug gave in. As the Yankee wannabe dropped the bat, Komodo slid away into the shadows. The thug crawled in pain to the nearest phone booth and dialed the all purpose number for the vigilante superteam, 1-800-FREEDOM. As he slipped into unconsciousness, the thug managed to rattle off that he was beaten by the eyes of the lizard-man.

At the Freedom Fortress, Eve and Bullet were operating the phone lines for what might be the longest night ever. Bullet had only been working the lines for 15 minutes and was already bored out of his skull. Eve picked up the phone to answer the thug's call and only managed to hear "eyes of the lizard-man" followed by labored breathing and a faint thud which usually signified someone passing out. The mistress of the trees called on Man-o-war, Sea urchin and Liberty Lad to go see what had happened. The Freedom Flyer lifted off and headed for Justice Road.

Meanwhile, in another part of Freedom Fortress, six young kids were being examined by Mentor and Ant,who paid favoritism to his younger sister. While they stood there, Mentor kept muttering "These are the six legendary warriors? but they are just children..." Joel had finally gotten his sonic power under control, but just to be safe he had Law make him a pair of gloves out of gold to prevent the sound waves from disrupting any living thing.

Michael was relaxing under slight sedation until his skin turned coppery, not just in color but in texture. While he was resting, one of Mentor's computers acted up with a sudden glitch. Michael stood up suddenly, snapping the restraints that would have held Order down. He extended his hands to the computer as Mentor walked in. The computer instantly rebooted, and seemed to be running more efficiently. If people of Mentor's race could register shock, I'm sure Mentor would have muttered in disbelief.

Michael spun around on his heels, coming face to face with Mentor. "So, Doc, what's the prognosis?" Mentor, realizing that Michael wanting him to show some sign of humor simply stated, in as grim a voice as he could manage. "I'm afraid you and your friends only have forever to live, young man. I'm sorry." Minuteman was the one who registered shock and disbelief as he passed by the room. Big Blue had tried for months to get Mentor to make some kind of statement that would at least seem incongruous so others could laugh,and here was his nephew who managed to get mentor to laugh after having just met the alien mentalist.

Minuteman walked into the room with the other five kids in tow. "Michael, meet your friends with new names." Jenny had chosen Nova as her nom de plume for a star exploding gives the chance for a new star to be born. Ruby had chosen to go by the title Sunflower and Sienna became Sirocco. Then the boys came in the room and Joel shook hands with Michael saying, "Have we met? My name is Shockwave!"

Then Rob stood up and said he had picked a misnomer considering his current state but it was the best he could come up with at short notice. Sienna flicked him upside the head and told him to just spill it. Rob smiled at the monument dedicated to the memory of his cousin Man-bot and said "Obsidian" Expectantly, everyone stared at Michael waiting for him to pick a name.

Michael paced around,counting his blessings on one hand. "I can control magnetism, and talk to machines like Ant can talk to ants" Finally he turned around to the waiting eyes of his friends and his uncle and said "Call me Upgrade"

At the hospital, Man-o-war, Liberty Lad and Sea Urchin had called on a police sketch artist for when the thug woke up from his acid burn-induced sleep. The sketch artist came in the door just as the thug opened his eyes

In what seemed like delirium, he quickly rattled off details about the appearance of his attacker.

As the sketch artist finished drawing, an ugly half-human, half-reptilian form walked past the ground floor window. Everyone, even the thug stared as the thing meandered past on a mission.

Lieutenant James Colby, sketch artist, did a double take at the window and his own drawing.

Then drawing on the reserves of sanity he had before freaking out completely, slowly Lieutenant Colby asked the thug "Did your attacker look like that?" to which the thug weakly replied 'Yup, that's him" before collapsing back on the bed for fitful sleep.

Man-o-War and Liberty Lad looked at each other and said the exact same thing "We're going to need some back-up."

To be continued...