THE CURSE OF CYTORRAK
Guest Starring: THE JUGGERNAUT
The Alternate Adventures of Power Pack
Power Pack #32a

Prologue
It was windy and cold in Manhattan that mid March afternoon. The sky was monotone pewter, and the evening twilight was streaked by intermittent snow flakes that melted as soon as they touched the dingy sidewalks. The sigh/swoosh of the Metro Transit District's super conductor brakes made ripples in a large puddle at the corner of Central Park West and 71st Street in front of a storm drain clogged with old newspapers, discarded trash and general detritus.

"Wheeee!" Katie Power shouted at the top of her volume as she jumped off the last step of the maglev bus and into the inches deep puddle of brackish water, sending a huge fountain of the stuff into the air and away from her. Jack had taught her that! A passing pedestrian, who was not so lucky, caught the full brunt of Katie's splash wave. He shot the kindergartner a dirty look and then snarled something incomprehensible to Katie's mother, Margaret Power, who had by now caught up with her free wheeling daughter and clamped her hand in a tight, parental grip.

"Nooooohh Mmmooommmmmmyyyyyyy!" Katie whined, tugging at her hand. "That's too tight!"

Margaret Power's head hurt. The headache which had been only a mild annoyance earlier in the afternoon, compounded by some kind of mutant hay fever, was now a full-blown migraine. Julie had already volunteered to fix supper for the Power brood; and all Margaret wanted now was an hour or so in a hot bubble bath and then to crawl into bed.

Julie Power took Katie's other hand. "Nice going, Godzilla!" she whispered to her baby sister.

"But ---"

"If you're going to stomp in puddles, you should at least watch out for other people," Julie said in her Official Big Sister tone of voice. It didn't work very well with Jack, being only occasionally effective -- but with Katie it was still 100 effective in restraining her rambunctious little sister.

"We'll have to stop at the 7-11 Quickie-mart," Margaret said as they walked the half block to 12 West 71st Street. "What are you going to make for supper Julie?"

"We haven't had our quota of junk food yet this week, mom," Julie said laughing. "I'm going to make us Junk Food a la Julie."

"Hamburgers and French fries," Margaret sighed.

"And COKE-a-cola!" Katie added enthusiastically.

The trio pushed open the main doors to the Rampart Apartments and welcomed the blast of warm air that greeted them. Across the wide expanse of the building's lobby was the 7-11 market, which even though its prices were higher than supermarket prices, had been a lifesaver before. Margaret again thanked the Fates that it was here. After an hour and a half of Julie and Katie's ballet lessons at the Julliard, Margaret doubted that she would survive a trip to a supermarket. It was Friday, and that meant that the 7-11 was crowded with people shopping for the weekend and cashing paychecks, but it was still much faster than a trip to AP.

"Why don't you go upstairs, Mom. You look worn out."

"Thanks, Julie," Margaret grinned weakly, "that's very kind, but I want to make sure you don't go overboard on the junk food. No Chocolate Sugar Bombs cereal."

"Aww, Mom! That was JACK..." Julie started to protest until she saw her mother's wide grin.

"Gotcha!" Margaret laughed, pointing an index finger at her fifth grade daughter.

The three Power women had just started their shopping when there was the unmistakable roar of a shotgun blast and a loud guttural voice yelled: "Dis be a stick up! Ebbrybody on de flow!"

BOO-YAHH! another shotgun blast ripped through the store, destroying a display of canned goods.

"NOW!"

Silence fell over the store and only the shrill ringing of the burglar alarm could be heard.

"Gimme dat money!" One of the hooded holdup me growled, towering over the teenage girl at the check out stand. He leveled the shotgun at the girl's chest --- wicket promise glinting in his dark eyes.

"My God," Margaret thought "She's just a baby -- only a few years older than Alex.."

Katie and Julie had hit the floor along with everyone else; and Julie had rolled over behind a stack of 50-pound dog food bags, dragging Katie after her.

"Julie? Katie?" Margaret's voice was tinged with the first hint of panic.

"We're Okay, Mom."

"Shut UP!" one of the holdup men roared and nervously chambered another round into the shotgun's breech.

"Costume on!" Julie whispered and nudged Katie. "I'll cloud up the store for you - you try and fly full speed at that display rack those two goons are standing in front of. If we knock it over on them, they may be startled enough so that Mr. Copellini can do something."

"Okay," Katie whispered, her Kymellian costume flickering into solid reality around her skinny body.

"Give me a minute or two to fog up the place so that Mom won't be able to see what's going on - and the bad guys won't see you when you make your move."

"A-Okay," Katie said and made an 'oh' with her thumb and index finger as her older sister began to create a dense, smoke like fog. Katie launched herself and flew at the display rack, just as someone shouted:

"F I R E !" someone yelled.

"Hhhuuuhhh?" one of the holdup men turned around and let loose another salvo from his shotgun. The huge slugs passed through Julie's insubstantial body harmlessly and shattered a rack of wine coolers. Out of the corner of her eye, Julie caught the polychromatic streak that marked her little sister's passage as she orbited the store once to build up speed. Starstreak collided full force with the display rack which collapsed on to the two hold up men. Only because she was used to following the supersonic movements of her younger sister was Julie able to see Katie return to the safety of the stack of dog food sacks. By the time that Julie had finished resolidifing, the Police were there.

"That was quick thinking of you, Julie," Margaret said, taking both girls hand's firmly with her own.

Julie's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean. Mom?"

"Getting behind those bags of dog food. I'd bet they were every bit as good as sandbags!"

"Oh yeah," Julie said relieved, "that."

Katie winked at her older sister.

The secret was still safe.


CHAPTER ONE
Trouble on the Homefront
Julie Power had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she turned the key in the deadbolt lock of apartment #12D. There were loud, angry voices drifting out into the hallway, and this, just when Mom wasn't feeling well. The scene that faced the three Power women as they entered was 9-year-old Jack Power, hand on his hips, leaning forward slightly on the balls of his feet, his eyes blazing with electric blue rage. Half way across the living room, still holding a stack of books and CD-ROM disks for his CompuPal in his arms, 12-year-old Alex Power was also in a fighting posture, obviously boiling mad.

"Just what good are you anyway?" Jack was screaming. "You're always bragging about how much you know about programming ..."

"And what good are you?" Alex responded angrily. "You're so concerned about some hotshot sports jock's ERA, but you don't even know how to calculate it!"

"At least I know what an ERA is!" Jack snarled.

Suddenly a third voice, edged with adult displeasure sliced through the argument. It was not a loud voice, but it held just enough parental irritation to immediately command silence and attention.

"That's enough!" Margaret Power said. "I don't care what this argument is about. I don't care who started it ---I declare a two hour moratorium on further arguments, or discussion. I'm going to try and relax in a nice warm bubble bath and try to shed this killer headache before your father comes home. Anyone who I hear arguing WILL be grounded for thirty days."

Both Power boys glared at each other , but acknowledged the moratorium.

"All right," Margaret sighed. "Julie, will you please start supper?"

"Okay Mom," Julie said, "and I'll see if I can negotiate a peace treaty between the boys."

"That would be super," Margaret said, "as long as I don't have to hear them screaming at each other." She closed the door to the master bedroom.

"Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dumber..." Katie snickered.

Julie glared at her younger sister who was still high on adrenaline from the holdup adventure and longing to brag to Jack about it. Her 'Tweedle dumb' comment would only cause Jack to dig in and make any kind of settlement between her stubborn brothers nearly impossible. But Julie was determined to attempt it because she wanted this evening to be as pleasant as she could make it for her parents.

"So? What happened?" Asked Julie.

"I don't know," Alex said. "The little troll just went off on me when I came through the door."

"See what I mean?" exploded Jack. "You're so wrapped up with that GIRL," the nine-year-old made the last word sound like an expletive, "That you don't even remember that you promised to help our Cub Scout den program R2 for the science fair!"

"Wait a minute," Julie said, holding up both her hands, "This is getting us nowhere. I know you guys are mad at each other, but you've got to stop fighting!" Julie said, fixing her gaze first on Alex and then on Jack.

Grudgingly, both boys agreed.

"You go first, Jack," Julie said. Katie sat on the couch and curled her feet up under herself, catlike, her attention riveted on Jack.

Jack took a deep breathe and said: "Last week, Alex promised to come to my Cub Scout den meeting .We're working on our project for the Scout Science Fair ... it's a Heathkit R2-D2 robot. The problem is that the robot will only go forwards or backwards ... we must have made a mistake somewhere ... We want to reprogram it so that it will go around objects," Jack turned to scowl at Alex, "And Alex PROMISED to help!"

Julie turned to look questioningly at Alex.

"I had to go to the library today..."

"To be with Allison!" Jack spat.

"Yes, Allison is my study buddy for the paper we have to write. It's important!"

"Why?" asked Katie.

"Because I'm 12 now, old enough to vote -- and so is Allison, but we've got to get our Voting Certification first ... and this term paper is part of the process for our civics class," Alex said. "If we don't pass American Government, American History and Civics, we can't vote."

"So that's why you didn't go to Jack's Cub Scout meeting?" Julie asked.

"No," Alex admitted quietly, "the truth is, Jack's right, I forgot! You see Allison and I were REALLY ..."

Jack sat down on the couch next to Katie, a satisfied smile on his face. "Case closed!" he said.

"You were smooching, weren't you?" Katie teased.

Alex instantly turned bright red; his blush was made even brighter looking by his sun golden hair.

"Ah-hah!" Katie roared.

Julie, the Power family romantic, grinned at her older brother, while Jack looked on with disgust etched into his boyish features. He'd seen over the past few months how goofy Alex could get around Allison when they fought Dr. Doom last month. Alex had even let Allison learn of Power Pack's existence. But there had really been no choice that time, and Allison had done an excellent job of keeping Power Pack's existence secret.

"Jack," Alex began, "I'm sorry I forgot all about the Cub Scouts today; but I DID do some work on the problem." Alex began to rummage through the pile of books and Compu-pal CDs, finally holding up one. "This will get you guys started I think!" he said.

Julie sat down beside Jack and put her arm around her younger brother's shoulder. "Don't most of the kids in your den live right here in the building?"

"Yeah ... so?"

"Well, it seems to me that since this is Friday night, and there's no school tomorrow, you might be able to get together tonight and do this ... what'da'ya think?"

"Great!" Jack said. "I'll make some phone calls," and he headed for the phone.

"Thanks, Julie," Alex said. "I really mean that, I was really an idiot for forgetting about that scout meeting."

"Alex ..." Katie said impatiently pulling on her brother's arm, "Alex ...?"

The blonde 12-year-old reached down and scooped his almost 6-year-old sister up into his arms. "Okay, WHAT is so important?"

"Julie and I catched some crooks!" Katie bragged.

"Caught," Julie corrected her.

"Huh?" Alex said a little bewildered. Katie began to tell Alex about the attempted robbery and how it was foiled by the female half of Power Pack.


Meanwhile Margaret Power was relaxing in a tub full of hot water and scented bubble bath. It seemed that this was the first opportunity that she'd had to actually relax since things had started to get a little bit crazy around Thanksgiving of last year. First there had been the long hospital stay following an almost unbelievable attack by a renegade elf named 'Kurse' some how it didn't seem right, elves were supposed to be mythical creatures -- but since science had developed the trans-dimensional portal, there seemed to be more and more 'mythical' creatures showing up in the world. Then the earth shaking revelations about the Kymellians, Snarks and the Fantastic Four -- none of which were public knowledge, and so could not be talked about openly -- it was enough to make her head swim, no wonder she was more susceptible to stress headaches now.

Margaret allowed herself a few minutes daydream about herself, not as a professional artist, and mother of four preteen children, but as Rebecca Savage, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D. and defender of freedom. Margaret's fantasy alter ego was a multi-talented mutant. She could fly, form an inpenitraitable force field and throw hypervoltage lightning bolts at her nemesis, The Baroness, sister of the Red Skull. Rebecca was also an expert in infiltration and stealth. Many were the times that she had saved the day by just being unobserved and listening to Hydra's future plans. Ahhh -- that was the life ...

All too soon, Margaret was dragged away from her daydream and back to reality by worries about how she was ever going to catch up. That the sixty days in the hospital had put her way behind in her art chores ...Then the blasted CCD digitizes of the easel in her studio had blown out several chips during a particularly savage electrical storm last month. Fortunately her genius son, Alex, and his dad had been able to obtain some old 32-bit processors and BIOS chips which they had somehow managed to coax into emulating the easel's Intel 786dx 64-bit microprocessor. Actually for a hardwired nightmare of wires, capacitors, VLSIC chips and lord knew what else, it worked well enough, except for several dozen shades of red ochre that Margaret could not coax the easel into displaying. Luckily for the family's joint income, Jim had surprised her with a new 48x60 inch CCD high definition digitized easel and a 0.12mm light pen. He'd said it was an early anniversary gift ... ha, ha, Jim! she thought.

The new easel had allowed her to catch up on her work, and at precisely 2:31 p.m. that very afternoon she had finished and uploaded to ARTSYNET for Mort the last of the production illos for that new Tri-D ... STAR TROLLS or something like that. The old slimedevil actually had the gall - after she had finished 36 paintings in under sixty days, some of them twelve and fourteen hours long - to suggest a NEW project.

After sputtering incoherently for an instant, she had realized that her agent was teasing her, as if she were his baby sister! She had half jokingly told him that she'd be unavailable for new commissions for at least thirty days ... even though they BOTH knew she'd be back at her easel by Thursday at the very latest.

"Ahh, but that's THURSDAY," Margaret sighed "...for tonight..." She let herself sink lower into the soothing waters, almost up to her chin, and returned to the Adventures of Rebecca Savage.


"Okay," Jack said, hanging up the phone after having made several calls all over the apartment building. "We can get together for an hour at 7:30 tonight at Mrs. Lambert's; she's nice though, so I think we can get her to give us another half an hour, till nine o'clock, if we're really making any progress. This is Friday after all. Do you think we can do in that amount of time?"

"I think it'll be enough to get a good start, anyway," Alex said. "A lot will depend on R2 himself, on how much memory is left, we'll need at least 400 k-bytes."

The phone rang again.

"I'll get it," roared Katie, as she and Jack both made a dive in the direction of the phone. Jack being hampered by a coffee table in the way, was a split second behind Katie as she grabbed the phone out of its cradle and stuck out her tongue at Jack.

"Hello, Power residence ... DADDY!" Katie paused to listen for a minute and then nodded, "Okay Daddy, I'll tell them." Then she hung up the phone before anyone could stop her -- the act of ultimate power by a six-year-old.

"What'did'ya do THAT for?" Jask questioned a little irritated with his younger sister. "I wanted to talk to him before we go down stairs to Mrs. Lambert's."

"He's right down stairs," Katie gloated, "He wants us to help carry some stuff."

"What stuff?" Julie asked.

"Oh, just some chairs or something."

"Chairs?" Alex looked at Jack as they went out the door. Jack just shrugged.

Moments later the elevator doors opened in the lobby of the Rampart Apartments.

"Great!" Dr. Power said, "Just what I need, extra hands. Grab a chair kids." The 37-year-old Associate Professor of Physics at Columbia was surrounded by six high backed wooden chairs.

"Holy cow!" Jack muttered looking at the dayglow orange and bright lime green colored chairs, "What're these?"

"Your mom is gonna love 'em," their Dad predicted. "C'mon, let's get them upstairs."

"I would n't count on it," Jack said as he grabbed a green painted chair and headed for the elevator.

'I think she'll say 'ugh!' and throw them out," was Alex's comment.

"No, she won't," Dad said confidently, "Come on, grab a chair."

The elevator was a little crowded with five people and six chars, but within a minute or two they were back on the 12th floor. Katie ran on ahead to open the door, leaving Alex to struggle with two chairs nearly as large as he was.

Margaret Power was in the kitchen, putting the hamburgers on the grill.

"No, Mom," Julie said, abandoning her chair just inside the door. "I'll get dinner ready, you just come here and look at the gawdawful chairs dad found."

"What?" Margaret said puzzled as she went into the living room; then she caught sight of the chairs.

"Oh Jim, THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL, absolutely beautiful!"

"Beautiful," Jack muttered sarcastically under his breath, wondering what could have happened to his mother's eyesight.

"I knew you'd love them as soon as I saw them," the academic Power said. "Someone has dumped this horrible dayglow paint on them ..."

"Yes," Margaret agreed, "but look at the beautiful grain of the wood," gently caressing the old chair she continued her examination. "Someone has put a lot of time and effort into building them. They're assembled with wooden pegs, not nails or staples."

"Is that good?" asked Katie sitting on one of the orange chairs.

"Oh yes," Margaret said. "I know they look really ugly right now, but you just wait until they've been sanded down and had a coat of clear lacquer, these chairs might have been made over two hundred years ago..."

"Great, just what we need, antiques!" Jack said.

Jim Power playful grabbed his youngest son. "Yes, its JUST what we need." He began to tickle the little boy. Dr. Power was instantly mobbed by his other three children.

"C'mon, you guys," Dr. Power said standing up, Julie draped across one shoulder and Jack across the other. "Let's let Mom start planning what she wants to do with her new chairs." The mob scene moved on into the living room, with Katie securely fixed on Dr. Power's right foot and Alex tugging on his left arm. Julie started to return to the kitchen, but her mother shooed her away.

To be continued ...