Dr. Charles Warren Fong's look as he sat at the disciplinary hearing was impossible to describe. The son of Chinese immigrants, Fong had been renowned as a child prodigy, winning tremendous accolades for his pioneering research in the fields of optics and the study of light. Paying his own way through university, and then working his way up to a doctorate and coming back to Empire State University to take a teaching position, Dr. Fong was universally admired and respected by his peers for his quiet tenacity, determination and humility.
At least, that was what everyone thought.
Julia Winhill stood at the front of the room, addressing the disciplinary panel and the spectators that had come to witness the scandalous allegations she had raised against the man she accused.
"…and so, your honors, in summation: I have presented and explained the correspondence between Dr. Fong and the defendant, Dr. Edward Lansky; I have presented the e-mail correspondence between Dr. Lansky and Nature magazine, and have highlighted for you the similarities between Dr. Fong's original research notes and the formal papers presented by Dr. Lansky."
"These are the most compelling pieces of evidence in my testimony, and they all clearly indicate to me that Dr. Lansky was actively involved in plagiarizing Dr. Fong's research and passing it off as his own, in an attempt to take credit for it. He was preparing to patent the technology, and it was only through chance that I was able to hear of it from my friend and fellow witness Cyrus O'Donnell, which led me to meet with Dr. Fong and carry out my investigation."
"The defendant will rise," the panel chair ordered Dr. Lansky. The tall, well-built man stood, his thick, bushy brown hair framing a set of piercing, deadly blue eyes that stared daggers at Julia and Dr. Fong.
"The proof here is incontrovertible, Dr. Lansky. As such, this committee has no choice but to find you guilty of academic misconduct. What I cannot fathom, however, is why? You were your high school valedictorian; you have won two partial scholarships, three high school awards for your superior grades, and a certificate for superior teaching as voted by your students! What could possibly have motivated you to steal Dr. Fong's research?"
They had terminated Lansky's teaching position after that, and it was all he could do to find another job. Fortunately, one soon came up, working for Justin Hammer at Hammer Labs. Hammer was not known for his business ethics, and so he had had no qualms about keeping the optics research Lansky had stolen from Fong and used it as the basis for his company's synthetic diamond research. Lansky had been made head of the project, and he had been making considerable headway…until Sleepwalker and the woman who would become Spectra had crossed his path.
The project had been ruined, but Lansky had made considerable headway, most notably in being able to solidify the light…and have it respond to his mental commands. He could fashion knife blades, hands, drums, chairs, anything.
Lansky admired himself in the mirror as he considered the new high-tech suit he had created, bright gold and fashioned to resemble a sudden flash of light. A bit over-the-top, perhaps, but Lansky wanted to make a splash. If Hammer wanted to put him back to work on the diamond, he could live with that…
…but if Hammer added him to the ranks of the costumed criminals in his employ…
…or if he found employment with the likes of A.I.M….
He was the master of light; the possibilities were endless.
But first, there was the little matter of Miss Julia Winhill to tend to.
He grinned as he considered the sledgehammer he had fashioned out of pure light.
SLEEPWALKER #13
"LIGHT UP THE NIGHT"
Julia put away her lunchtime dishes before looking at her watch. Unless Rick had decided to bail on her-which wouldn't surprise her in the least-he would be coming any minute now. Gathering her books, she marched down the stairs to answer the doorbell Rick had just rung.
A twenty-one year old Journalism major, Julia had always been fascinated by politics and activism. Her father had been a long-time worker for the Democrats, and she herself was active in causes supporting everything from the homeless to Aboriginal and mutant rights. Her long black hair, trim figure, and lovely heart-shaped face would have led most people to believe that she was better suited to the dance classes of Alyssa and Gwen, but appearances were deceiving, as more than one debating opponent had found out to his cost.
She had invited Rick over to study for their English class, just as they would meet Peter or Cyrus for Chemistry or Engineering. The owners of her home let out the top floor of their house to tenants, one of which was Julia. Her roommates were gone for the weekend, and so she had the place to herself, along with Alyssa's dog Rambo, who she had asked Julia to dog-sit while she was in Albany for a dance competition.
When Julia opened the door, Rick looked surprisingly alert; he had even had a shave that morning! The cold morning didn't seem to bother him-all he wore was a fall jacket, turtleneck and jeans.
"I'm not late, am I?" Rick asked as he came in, petting Rambo as he did.
"No, no, of course not," Julia answered. "You seem pretty cheery this morning."
Rick paused for a moment.
"Well, why wouldn't I be?" he asked with a trace of irony in his voice. In truth, he wasn't sure how he felt, since he and Sleepwalker had returned from the Mindscape after defeating Cobweb. Sleepwalker would have been torn apart if Rick hadn't been there to snap him out of his senses.
"You've just seemed so…distant lately," Julia said as they ascended the steps back to the upper floor.
"Well, I've had a lot on my mind. You know how things can be, when you get overloaded with too much to think about," Rick answered.
"What do you mean?" Julia asked in surprise.
"I mean," Rick replied, "that it's just nice to sit and talk sometimes, isn't it? When you've got something you need to say, then sometimes you need to say it." He took a deep breath.
"…Are you feeling alright?" Julia asked.
"Yeah…why wouldn't I be?" Rick answered. "I'm staring to feel like I should be asking you the same question."
"Come on, Rick," Julia said, slightly flustered. "It's just that there seems like something's…ever since a month ago, I mean."
Rick's eyes flared for a moment.
"What are you-" he started, before taking a deep breath. "I…I'm sorry, Julia. Stress…exams…life, you know how it is."
Julia nodded slowly, realizing that Rick wouldn't look her in the eye.
"You see, Gatsby was always wearing a mask," Rick explained to Julia. "He kept so much inside…his love for Daisy, the source of his wealth, all the things like that. He was trapped, you know? Working so hard to keep up appearances, not able to tell anyone the truth…and it was tearing him up inside."
"I suppose…" Julia said, although she wasn't sure whether to accept Rick's explanation. "So that's what got him shot and killed?"
"Not exactly," Rick said. "He was trying to protect Daisy, the people he cared about…and he made the ultimate sacrifice. Sure, he was a bootlegger, but he was still a good person in the end. If anything kept him going, it was his love for Daisy. Hell, you can see it in the likes of Batman comics too. What keeps Bruce Wayne going in the comics? Why does he soldier on, in spite of all the suffering he sees, everything he has to go through trying to balance his two lives, why doesn't he give up?"
"I…go ahead. Enlighten me," she said.
There was no sarcasm or irony in either of their voices now.
"Because he knows better than that…he knows what the really important things are in this world, and he knows that there are other people with much bigger problems. That's what makes him a real hero-the refusal to give up, and keep going because he knows it's the right thing to do," Rick answered.
"Hell, look at Spider-Man, and everything the Daily Bugle throws at him. And yet he's still out there, fighting psychopaths like the Scorpion and Doctor Octopus. You're involved with mutant rights-you've seen anti-mutant racism first-hand. How do you think the X-Men feel, if they have to put up with that kind of shit every day and still stick their necks out for ingrates like us?"
Julia merely stared at Rick in amazement.
"Rick…" she started.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"…Never mind. I think I understand," Julia started.
Dr. Lansky was fully dressed in his gold-and-yellow costume, streaking through the air like a beam of light. He laughed out loud as he streaked towards Julia's residence, having used Justin Hammer's computer networks to hack into the Empire State University archives to find out where she lived.
No one, but no one, exposed the master of light!
Julia and Rick heard a horrible crashing, tearing sound, as if someone was tearing the roof right off the house. Alarmed, they dashed out of the living room and back into the hallway.
It was a man…or what looked like a man. He was dressed in a gold costume, the torso appearing to have a radiant burst of light on the chest. He radiated golden, glowing light from his wrist-bands, light that had been fashioned into a pair of giant hands…hands which had torn a massive hole in the back of the house!
"What the hell are you?!?" Julia asked in amazement.
"Who am I, my dear girl," the man corrected him. "And you may call me…Lightmaster."
"What do you want?" Rick demanded.
"Oh, nothing much…just your little girlfriend to die a very slow, very agonizing death," Lightmaster said smoothly. Lightmaster strode down the hall way, dispelling the giant hands he had generated.
"The hell you will, you son of a bitch!" Rick shouted angrily, charging at Lightmaster, who almost casually radiated a smaller hand of light from one of his wrist devices, grabbing Rick by the arm and dragging him forward, before viciously throwing him down the stairs as Julia screamed.
Rick fell to the foot of the stairs and crashed heavily, dizziness setting in as he let blackness overtake him.
Julia retreated to the end of the hallway, Lightmaster calmly following her until the stairs were well behind him. Rambo barked angrily and charged Lightmaster, but he simply radiated a cage of light, trapping the dog, who could only bark helplessly as Lightmaster advanced. Finally, he extended a thin line of light, shaped like a garrote, which snaked out and caught Julia by the neck, dragging her forward as she struggled uselessly.
"I've got you now, my pretty…and your little dog too," Lightmaster sniggered at his joke. "Now then…shall it be a chainsaw? An icepick? A sledgehammer?" he asked, as the light he generated shifted from one weapon to the next in turn. He grinned as he raised the hammer, Julia helplessly caught by the garrote…
Purplish warp beams suddenly passed over Lightmaster's shoulders, disrupting his light formations and releasing Julia, who staggered back and slumped against the wall.
"Take your friend and escape!" she heard as Lightmaster whirled around in amazement. Sleepwalker had come up the stairs in a flash, disrupting Lightmaster's light beams with his warp vision scant seconds before Julia would have been killed. As Lightmaster tried to react, caught off guard, Sleepwalker grabbed him by the arm and flung him down the hallway, before he crashed on the floor. Sleepwalker spun and quickly broke Rambo's cage with his warp beams, as Julia ran for dear life down the apartment stairs, the dog right behind her.
Julia noticed Rick unconscious at the bottom of the steps, and the front door wide open. Sleepwalker must have come in the front door…but how did he know to come here? Julia wondered. No time to think about it now-she picked Rick up by the shoulders, struggling to drag him out as Sleepwalker and Lightmaster faced off upstairs.
"You honestly think you can face me?" Lightmaster scoffed at Sleepwalker. "You don't know who you're dealing with!" A series of thorned tendrils and whips snaked out from Lightmaster's wrists and lashed at Sleepwalker, who was hard-pressed to dodge them in the narrow corridor until he warped a hole in the ceiling and flew up and out, before focusing his warp beams again and dropping part of the roof on Lightmaster, who quickly formed a dome shield of light to block the falling debris. He kept the dome up with one hand to block Sleepwalker from coming back down, and prepared to conjure a slide with the other to catch up with Julia.
Sleepwalker quickly warped a second hole in the ceiling before coming down into the hallway again, streaking across the room and tackling Lightmaster head-on before pushing him back down the hallway and out through the hole Lightmaster had ripped open and out into the backyard.
Lightmaster suddenly radiated a series of sharp spikes, cutting Sleepwalker and causing the alien to let him go, recoiling in pain as Lightmaster tore him a second time with a pair of scything blades. The guardian of the Mindscape was not about to give up, however, and focused his warp beams on one of the trees beneath Lightmaster, causing it to rise up and entangle him.
Lightmaster radiated blades of light from his boots, cutting through the vegetation, flying up just in time to receive a vicious punch to the face from Sleepwalker, who grabbed him by the arm and flung him towards the ground. Sleepwalker warped the earth, causing it to rise up and slam into the falling Lightmaster before engulfing him partway to try and trap him.
Sleepwalker hastened to try and harden the ground before Lightmaster could escape, but his foe freed himself with light-created shovels, sending the dirt flying and briefly blinding the alien hero before fashioning a massive spear to impale his foe. Sleepwalker just barely managed to dodge it, disrupting the light energy with his warp beams before Lightmaster charged in again, creating a series of scything blades with his light.
Sleepwalker dodged and ducked quickly, warping the earth and shrubbery to trip Lightmaster up and catch his blades before tearing a branch off a tree and shaping it into a club with his warp vision. He struck Lightmaster once, twice, three times, before the villain staggered away and flew into the air once again. He charged his energy briefly, preparing to unleash a massive blast of pure light and Sleepwalker.
Sleepwalker's timing was perfect as he blasted with his warp vision, disrupting Lightmaster's energy and blowing him back, sending the villain back to crash against the fence. The alien charged in, preparing to warp the fence into bindings for his foe.
Lightmaster had other ideas. The villain cursed, knowing that Julia was probably well on her way to escaping, and that the police were no doubt on their way. It wasn't supposed to be this way, he whined mentally as he cursed Sleepwalker.
"You'll pay for this, you lowly peon!" Lightmaster screamed at Sleepwalker. "You don't have any idea the kind of enemy you've made today!!" he screamed in a rage, radiating light to break free of the fence, before rising into the air, and firing one last blast at Sleepwalker to keep him back before he spun around and took off, blasting away in the light.
Sleepwalker began to set off in pursuit, until he realized that there was no way he could catch the villain. He realized that there were more important things to look after, like Rick and Julia.
Police and emergency sirens roared in the distance as Sleepwalker caught up to Julia, Rambo and Rick, who still lay out cold on the ground. She could only drag him so far when he outweighed her by sixty pounds.
"Are you both alright?" Sleepwalker asked her gently, as she cradled Rick's head in her lap, breathing heavily from shock.
"I…guess I am. I'm more worried about Rick. I think he's out cold."
Sleepwalker examined him briefly. Certainly Rick was dizzy, and fell easily into unconsciousness once Sleepwalker made his way out. Fortunately, he was not just asleep, or else he would have awoken when the noises of the fight broke out.
"He shall be alright," Sleepwalker reassured her. "Do you have any knowledge of why that miscreant would want to attack you?"
"No," Julia said sincerely, a little unnerved by the alien's presence. "I have no idea who he is, but…" she shook her head.
Then she stared directly at Sleepwalker, her dark eyes piercing his purple, multifaceted orbs.
"How did you know to come so quickly? It was barely a moment before Lightmaster attacked us!"
"I saw the villain passing through the sky before descending on your house," Sleepwalker lied. "I could tell that he intended to cause you harm, and so reacted immediately to come to your aid."
"You just happened to be passing through the neighborhood at the exact right time?" Julia asked incredulously.
Sleepwalker did not reply, instead looking intently at Rick, and then at Julia.
"I…must go," Sleepwalker said as the sirens got closer. "I have no doubt you and Rick shall be able to give a full and proper statement to the authorities."
"Wait!" Julia stopped him.
He looked back at her.
"Thank you," she said sincerely.
"I do nothing short of my duty," was all Sleepwalker replied, flying off as the police cars pulled up around Julia and Rick.
Julia looked at Sleepwalker's retreating form, before looking at Rick.
Oh God, Rick…she thought. Is this what…
She could not bring herself to finish the thought.
Rick slowly regained consciousness to find himself back on the couch at his apartment, Julia hovering over him.
"Where are…how did we…" he began groggily.
"The ambulance services brought you back here to rest when they saw you weren't seriously injured," Julia explained. "You're going to be okay, right?"
"Yeah," Rick muttered, struggling to a sitting position. "How about you? That Lightmaster guy trashed your residence."
"I know," Julia sighed. "There's no way the owners are going to let me come back after this. And my roommates are going to want to kill me when they get back," she said sadly. "I'll be lucky if I can get my stuff."
"Can you stay with Alyssa or Gwen?"
"Maybe. I don't know," she sighed. "I'd have to clear things with Gwen's father, that Captain Stacy guy, before I drop in unannounced. And Alyssa is living in the university residence, so that's a no-go."
"What about Cyrus, Kenny or Red?"
"Kenny lives in residence, too. Cyrus and Red share an apartment, and there's no way I can stay with them. Besides, Red and I would be bound to get into an argument sooner rather than later if I did that," Julia answered.
"Then stay with me," Rick answered. "Just until you figure out what to do. My landlord won't mind-he's a cool guy, an old friend of my dad. How do you think I got this apartment so cheap?"
"Rick, I…" Julia began.
"Don't worry about it," Rick grinned. "I'll call Red and Kenny and get them to help bring your stuff over. What about this Lightmaster guy? What did the police say?"
"They told me to keep my eyes open, but there wasn't much they could do to guard me round-the-clock; things are still pretty hairy across the city from that Spectra woman's riots last week. I guess this is what comes of my pressing the police to spend more time looking after the people in Hell's Kitchen," she smiled ruefully. "They suggested I try to hire the Heroes for Hire, or something like that. There's no way I can afford that, and neither can my parents."
"Not without our pitching in, at any rate," Rick smiled.
"Rick…why are you doing all this?" Julia asked slowly.
"Come on," he said. "You should be asking me why I wouldn't do all this for someone I care about," he said. "I know better than that."
Julia looked intently into Rick's eyes.
She could see him, she knew he was looking back at her.
Rick…I understand now, she realized. Whatever happens…I'll be there for you, even if I don't understand everything yet.
(Next Issue: A chance encounter during his nightly patrols leads Sleepwalker to make the acquaintance of Keemwazi leader Wyatt Wingfoot, who has come to New York to negotiate with the Roxxon Oil Company for development of his peoples' oil resources. But not is all as it seems, as Wingfoot is targeted by the mysterious assassin known as Hellrazor! All this and more in Sleepwalker #14: Two Roads, Two Spirits!)