Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

-Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight.


They struck at random points, throwing Molotov cocktails into shop windows, going on shooting sprees, and planting bombs at different points across New York City. Despite their small numbers, barely a hundred all told, they inflicted far more damage than would be expected. Reports came in to the police from across the city about the random violence and murder, which seemed to feed on itself as other criminals exploited the chaos, and the destruction caught fire while taking on a life of its own.

In a city that had seen the effects of alien invasions, supervillain riots, and attempts to destroy landmarks such as City Hall, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty, the people were always ready for the first sign of trouble. Some of them were eager to exploit it, particularly the legions of petty thugs and hoods who had infested New York for decades, and who remained despite the best efforts of the police and the superheroes to get rid of them.

With the attention of the heroes both superpowered and mundane spread thinly, the human slime saw the opportunity provided by the hundred rioters. Their actions continued to spread the destruction, and the chaos begun by the followers of the nightmarish Fever Pitch spread like a cancer, growing out of control despite the best efforts of the heroes to fight it.

The Inferno's first sparks had begun.


SLEEPWALKER #44

"HELTER SKELTER!"


Any thoughts Rick Sheridan might have had of trying to patch things up with Julia Winhill or Alyssa Conover were immediately dropped when he saw the horror on the news. Feeling a sudden wave of drowsiness, he recognized the signal. Nodding in determination, Rick took some sleeping pills before lying down on his bed and letting Sleepwalker knock him out so the alien could emerge.

It didn't take Sleepwalker long to find trouble. Less than two blocks away from Rick's apartment, the alien found two of Fever Pitch's original cultists screaming with glee as they fired their semi-automatic rifles around at random. Already several people, including the two police officers who had tried to stop them, were lying on the ground, bleeding and probably already dead.

"You are indeed courageous, attacking victims who cannot defend themselves!" Sleepwalker shouted, enraged and sickened by the cultists' actions. "Perhaps you would care to make an effort against someone who is capable of opposing you?"

Before the cultists could react, Sleepwalker focused his warp vision on the pavement the cultists were standing on, twisting it up so it wrapped around the two murderers and pinning them together, back to back. They tried to raise their guns, but their arms were firmly bound at their sides. Coming down to earth, the alien confiscated their weapons, before turning to address the cultists.

"Why are you committing these offenses?" Sleepwalker demanded.

"Because the world's gonna burn!" one of the cultists, a woman with greasy blond hair, laughed hysterically.

"Fever Pitch gonna get Inferno on your ass!" the other cultist, a man with several ugly-looking tattoos, added before spitting in Sleepwalker's face.

"Your murderous inclinations belie the true extent of your wretched character," an unimpressed Sleepwalker shot back. "You are but worthless pawns of an even more worthless individual in the maniacal Fever Pitch."

"You shut your goddamn mouth!" the man shouted back. "Fever Pitch is a visionary. A VISIONARY!"

"Indeed," Sleepwalker said wryly, raising an eyebrow. "Would you possess the capacity to enlighten me as to the Fever Pitch's current whereabouts, and the precise nature of his current undertakings?"

"When he blows the Oak Ridge power plant sky-high, it's all gonna burn!" the man laughed, his eyes flashing brightly, even as the woman laughed hysterically.

"I thank you for your kindly assistance," Sleepwalker said sardonically, as he turned to leave.

"No problem," the cultist replied. "Fever Pitch told us to tell you if any of us ran into you!"

That notion gave Sleepwalker pause, as he turned back.

Was Fever Pitch expecting Sleepwalker to come, setting a trap for him?

But if that was the case, why did Fever Pitch tell his followers to tell Sleepwalker, if they ran into him? Sleepwalker would have been able to see that it was a trap.

It was dangerous, but right now the alien didn't have any other leads, and didn't dare risk leaving Fever Pitch to run amuck at the Oak Ridge facility, if in fact that was where he was headed.

Nodding in determination, Sleepwalker took to the air. As he passed over the city on his way to Long Island, he saw the grim results of Fever Pitch's handiwork in the looting and riots caused by the murderer's crazed followers. Sleepwalker joined in the fight as much as he could, quickly capturing many of the criminals with his warp vision.

Frustrated by the delay, the alien could only hope he would be able to reach Oak Ridge in time.


Ever since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the 1980s, most players in the nuclear industry had taken steps to minimize the possibility of a disaster, and governments were typically diligent in monitoring new reactors for potential safety and environmental infractions.

Unfortunately, there were always exceptions to the rule. Such was the case with the Oak Ridge Nuclear Power Plant, built and designed on the cheap by Utrecht Industries and kept open with generous bribes to the local government inspectors. The shielding and containment structure around the reactor core were dangerously inadequate, and if sufficient heat were applied it would be tragically easy for the core to go critical. To make matters worse, the reactor's radioactive components had much higher fissility than the fuel used in most power plants, which greatly increased the possibilities of an explosion if a meltdown occurred.

It had been so easy for Fever Pitch, incinerating the security guards as they tried to stop him and the power plant workers as they tried to flee. The monster laughed as he found himself surrounded by the charred skeletons of his victims, turned by his murderous flames into ghoulish mirror images of their killer. Looking at the TV one of the guards had been watching, Fever Pitch cackled as he saw the results of his handiwork. Every channel showed a different group of the victims he'd killed on his way to the power plant, when they weren't showing the widespread panic his minions had caused. The police were desperately on their way to stop him, but they'd never arrive in time.

The core of the reactor lay unguarded before Fever Pitch, and nothing remained to stop him from turning Long Island into Three Mile Island.

Wait! Fever Pitch heard the Inferno order him.

"Wait, what?" Fever Pitch demanded, mildly confused. "Why do I have to wait?"

You told your minions to tell the Sleepwalker where you were, the Inferno reminded him. Will you waste this opportunity to destroy your hated nemesis?

"Why did you tell me to have my followers tell Sleepwalker where I was headed?" Fever Pitch shook his head in bemusement. "I can destroy the reactor, start a meltdown, and leave now!"

And what of the fear? the Inferno demanded. The Sleepwalker thwarted the monstrosity called Psyko not once, but twice! You have seen his power, and the many enemies he has defeated. Do you not realize the glory, the fear, the misery you will cause when your victims see that you have destroyed one of their greatest champions?

Fever Pitch burst out laughing.

All around him, he saw fire and death.

It only made the situation all the more glorious.


Sleepwalker was sickened by the horrors he saw as he landed in the grounds of the Oak Ridge Nuclear Power Plant. Bubbled stone, half-melted steel and burned corpses greeted him everywhere, a sickening tableau of destruction and horror. In the distance, he saw the Fever Pitch laughing, even as his flames grew brighter and hotter. Turning around, the skeletal maniac saw Sleepwalker and immediately focused his flames into an intense wave of fire that began melting through the main part of the complex, bubbling stone and melting steel as if it were nothing.

A horrified Sleepwalker charged in towards Fever Pitch, but lost precious seconds as he was forced to dodge the exploding fireballs Fever Pitch tossed at him while burning his way ever closer to the reactor core. Focusing his warp vision on the ground, Sleepwalker sent a wave of concrete flying at Fever Pitch, but the monster simply took to the air and flew over the wave. Fever Pitch surrounded himself in flames and charged at Sleepwalker, leave a comet-like trail in his wake, but the alien quickly dodged the attack.

Sleepwalker tried to gather up some of the debris from the ground with his warp vision to hurl at Fever Pitch, but the skeletal monstrosity caught him dead on with a fireball that exploded in his face. Reeling from the blow, Sleepwalker screamed in pain as Fever Pitch caught him with two more fireballs. As Sleepwalker struggled to regain his bearings, Fever Pitch struck him with a flaming tackle, brutally driving the alien into the ground. As they grappled in the half-melted stone and slag, Fever Pitch radiated his fires again, covering Sleepwalker in flames.

Struggling against the agony, Sleepwalker lashed out with his fist, catching Fever Pitch in the face and sending him flying. Filled with rage, Sleepwalker sent another wave of debris at Fever Pitch with his warp vision, pummeling the maniac before Sleepwalker reshaped the broken pieces of stone and steel into bindings that bound Fever Pitch to the ground. The alien charged in with a hammer he'd shaped with his warp beams out of some of the debris, but it was too late, as Fever Pitch easily burned his way through the debris and took to the air again. As Sleepwalker flew after him, Fever Pitch gleefully released another stream of fire down towards the reactor, laughing maniacally as he plummeted down after it, narrowing the distance his fire had to cover.

Sleepwalker's heart sank as he heard a truly deadly rumbling sound, realizing that Fever Pitch had already radiated enough heat for the reactor to go critical, and now he was only increasing the temperature. The alien had no idea how long he had before the reactor exploded, and even if he tried to cool it down Fever Pitch's interference would never let him succeed.

But could he possibly subdue Fever Pitch before the meltdown occurred?

The alien knew he was out of options. A part of him was sickened at the thought of what he was about to do, but a larger part knew that if he didn't act-and now-the results would be disastrous.

The very earth around Fever Pitch suddenly came to life, as not only the debris but the soil around it was agitated by Sleepwalker's warp beams. Suddenly engulfed in a flood of debris, Fever Pitch tried to burn his way free, but Sleepwalker shaped the rubble into large, vicious hammers and battering rams that pummeled Fever Pitch from every angle. As the monster staggered, Sleepwalker focused his warp vision into a narrow field and slammed Fever Pitch dead on with a massive wall of stone and fused metal, before warping it around to encase and crush the flaming psychopath. Fever Pitch's screams became increasingly muffled, as Sleepwalker warped yet another heavy battering ram and used it to pound and beat the sphere in which he'd trapped Fever Pitch, before finally sending it flying to crash some distance away.

To the alien's dismay, he saw that the core was now exposed, and already starting to glow furiously. Thinking frantically, he took to the air and looked around, finding what he was looking for in the plumbing of some of the plant's decontamination area, where individuals or even large groups could be decontaminated if necessary. Tearing into the ground beneath the decontamination facility with his warp beams, Sleepwalker ripped up the large pipes that provided the power plant with water, sending it gushing into the air.

Concentrating intently, Sleepwalker used his warp vision to redirect the water down to the ground in a concentrated flow, mixing it with the ground and creating a large pool of mud. Finally, Sleepwalker directed the large piled of mud onto the exposed core, drastically lowering the mud's temperature with his warp vision as he did so. Sleepwalker had initially considered dropping the ice and water directly on the core itself, but he had recalled what he'd seen in the memories of one of Rick's science classes, about how doing that could create a potentially disastrous steam explosion.

It was brutal, exhausting work, drawing the water from the power plant's plumbing, mixing it with the soil and turning it to mud, before freezing it and dumping it onto the core to cool it down. Sleepwalker's head pounded with the effort, as he felt a sickening wave of dizziness, but he merely gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep going.

To Sleepwalker's immense relief, the core did not explode, and the emergency crews arrived a few minutes later to take charge of the situation after Sleepwalker cleared away the frozen mud he had use to cool the core.

"May I inquire as to the reason your arrival was so profoundly delayed?" Sleepwalker asked one of the technicians as they worked to neutralize the core and began gathering up the bodies.

"That skeletal freak started a bunch of fires on all the roads leading here," the technician sighed. "We had everything we could handle keeping them from spreading before we could arrive."

Scowling angrily, Sleepwalker turned away to join the police in searching for Fever Pitch. He realized he may have killed the monster in burying it the way he did, which would have ordinarily been a major violation of his race's oaths, but Sleepwalker didn't feel at all guilty about it.

Had I not subdued Fever Pitch, he reminded himself, the results would have been catastrophic.

As it turned out, Sleepwalker had nothing to worry about. Chills ran down the alien's spine as he saw that the side of the prison had been blown open, and that Fever Pitch had already escaped.

Sleepwalker searched for hours, flying back and forth in a fruitless search for Fever Pitch until Rick woke up and pulled the alien back into his mind. Much to Sleepwalker's frustration, Fever Pitch had simply disappeared, leaving no death or damage in his wake.

And yet all the horror, the blood and violence caused by Fever Pitch and his minions, the result of the first outbreak of the Inferno, remained an ugly scar from New York to Long Island.


New York City seemed in low spirits over the next few days, as the damage done by Fever Pitch's cult was repaired. Unfortunately, the city's morale was slower to recover, as the grim news of the results of the attack continued to spread. Several people had been killed as a result of firebombings and shooting sprees, widespread looting had resulted as everyone from petty thieves to supervillains had taken advantage of the chaos, and New Yorkers were all expecting the next disaster of the month. After the supervillain riots led by the nightmarish Psyko, the attempted destruction of the United Nations headquarters by the Acolytes of Magneto, the Red Skull's efforts to hijack a number of SHIELD satellites to destroy not only New York but several other major cities, the Sinister Six's poisoning of New York's water supply and the Green Goblin's attempts to blow up New York City Hall, Fever Pitch's riots were only the latest in a long string of attacks on the city.

"If it's not one thing, it's another," Ben Urich muttered to Rick as they worked diligently in the city room of the Daily Bugle one afternoon, less than a week after the riots. "New York attracts trouble like a magnet. Even without some megalomaniac trying to destroy us every few months, we've still got one of the highest crime rates in the country, not to mention the most supervillains per capita. If it wasn't for the police and the superheroes, New York would have gone to hell a long time ago."

Ben slumped in his chair, briefly holding his head in his hands.

Finally, Rick put down the notes he was working on.

"…Are you alright?" he asked Ben, who didn't reply at first.

"I remember my first assignment as a cub reporter," Ben said absently, seeming to stare into space. "I was covering a home invasion and murder. Family of four. Oldest son joined the wrong gang. House was invaded. Son stabbed sixteen times with a butcher knife. Rest of the family all shot, execution-style, in the back of the head. Five-year old girl with a bullet in her brain. Sign of things to come."

"Oh my God…" Rick trailed off.

"Thirty years," Urich muttered, rubbing at his temples. "I've been covering this cesspool of a city for thirty goddamn years. The police try to change things. The government tries to change things. The public tries to change things. The superheroes try to change things. They never succeed."

"So…" Rick began.

"When people think of hell on earth, they think of places like Somalia, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan or Burma. What they don't realize is just how often the shit that happens over there can just as easily happen in their own backyard," Ben shook his head. "I've seen it happening for the last thirty years."

"So, how come-" Rick tried to interrupt.

"Because I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't," Ben replied more calmly, turning back to face Rick. "Because I can still find decent people in this city, who love it enough to fight for it. Cops, superheroes, politicians, ordinary citizens, anyone and everyone."

Ben Urich tried to keep up his voice calm and firm, but Rick could still detect a tremor in his voice. He recalled how Ben's nephew Phil had been brutally murdered by a hired assassin called the Constrictor, easily defeating the young superheroine Spider-Woman despite her best efforts to stop him.

Rick was about to say something else, but Ben got up and walked away. Nodding in determination, Rick set back to work with a renewed vigor.


Taking a break from rehearsing her routines, Alyssa had sat down to drink some water when she heard the knock at her apartment door. Getting up to answer it, she was surprised to see Rick. They hadn't been able to see each other for the last several days, owing to the preparations Alyssa had needed to make for the recital being put on by the dance studio employing her as a teacher for the summer.

"How's it going?" Rick asked her after she invited him in.

"Exhausting," Alyssa sighed in response. "My blisters are starting to get blisters."

"You want a foot rub?" Rick offered.

"More than life itself," Alyssa nodded gratefully, as she took off her pointe shoes. "How are things with you?"

"Really good," Rick smiled. "How about you?"

"I'm alright, I-oh God, that feels good," she said as Rick gently massaged her aching feet. "I'm just really tired, is all."

"Hey, the recital's going to go great," Rick assured Alyssa. "It'll be nice to relax after everything that's happened. People will be happy to see things getting back to normal."

"Yeah, I guess…" Alyssa hesitated.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked her.

"You know," she frowned, still hesitant and unsure.

"Aly…" Rick began. "I know how you feel. I really appreciate it."

"You…what?" she asked, caught off guard.

"Remember how you wanted to call Sleepwalker out for everything that happened?" Rick started gently. "You were probably really angry and confused, right?"

"Yeah…" Alyssa said slowly.

"Well, that's how I felt when I first found out about it," Rick replied. "Scared, confused, not sure how to react. You probably kept reminding yourself of all the good Sleepwalker's done, right? Like the way he helped Julia?"

Alyssa blinked at him, a look of slight alarm on her face.

"How do you know?" she asked in surprise.

"Because it's the very same thing I went through," Rick said, taking her hand in his. "I was scared, I was confused, I wanted the Sleepwalker and everything to do with him to go away. But at the same time, I knew that would have been a bad thing-he saved Julia's life, he defeated Psyko, he did so much good, even preventing Fever Pitch from causing that nuclear meltdown. Once I got over the shock, I was just so confused I didn't know how to react."

Alyssa sat there for some minutes.

"So what did you do then?" she asked him.

"I was able to figure it out," he said gently, "because you were there for me. You, Cyrus, Kenny, everyone."

Alyssa still seemed uncertain.

"Look, what I'm trying to say is that what you're going through is normal. It'll get better. Like I said, I was able to get through it because you were there for me. And you'll be able to get through this because I'll be there for you," Rick smiled gently at her.

"Hey, you needed us-" Alyssa started to reply, before Rick silenced her by putting his finger on her lips.

"And right now you need me," he reminded her. "Things only happened this way because of how worried you were about me. That just shows how much you care. But now I'm worried about you-you don't need to keep fretting over this. I've made my peace with the Sleepwalker. And besides, we're still trying to find a way for him to return home-Sleepwalker's even got Reed Richards working on it!" he grinned.

Alyssa sat in silence for several minutes, before she finally sighed and smiled.

"I thought being the loving pillar of support was my job," she joked.

"Hey, who says we can't switch roles every now and again?" Rick grinned back.

They laughed before hugging.


"The heretic Sleepwalker stopped you from destroying the Oak Ridge reactor?" one of Fever Pitch's cultists asked his master as they gathered back at the country house that was their hideout. Almost two dozen of Fever Pitch's followers had escaped the authorities, and managed to give them the slip as they returned to the mansion.

"Quite so," Fever Pitch replied. "But we didn't fail, oh hell no. You want to know why?"

His followers listened attentively, leaning on his every word.

"Look at everything that happened in New York. All those people dead, all the damage we did, all the chaos we inspired in people. More than ever, New Yorkers live in fear, knowing that it's only a matter of time before they're attacked again. They're scared fucking sheep, cattle who know the Inferno's coming for them. And as word spreads of what happened, people will realize that it could happen to them, as well. They'll be afraid, they'll be more ready to fuck each other over just to stay alive, all the violence and horror feeds on itself," Fever Pitch rhapsodized.

"Just look at what's going to happen with Oak Ridge," he continued. "So I wasn't able to cause a meltdown. So what? Just look at the scandal that's going to erupt from this. Do you realize how much shit is going to hit the fan when word leaks out about how unsafe the plant was to begin with, and how Utrecht Industries kept bribing the bureaucrats to keep it open! There's going to be so much anger and fallout, it'll be a miracle if no one gets lynched over this! And people will realize just how easily they could have been killed by the meltdown. All that fear and anger…ha…ha ha ha…"

Fever Pitch burst out laughing once again, realizing just how far the Inferno had begun to spread. The sparks had been lit, the fires were ignited. Everything fed on itself, spiraling out of control.

Within Fever Pitch's mind, the Inferno laughed with him.

(Next Issue: As Rick and Alyssa begin to get their relationship back on track, they begin debating whether they should reveal Rick's secret to their family and friends. Sleepwalker, on the other hand, has more pressing problems as the Bookworm uses demonic magic to ressurect the murderous undead Dreadknight in an attempt to murder his most hated enemy! All this and more in Sleepwalker #45: Knight of the Living Dread!)