Lena finds out her mother knows Kara's secret identity and has to face a deadly threat to half the state of California without her beloved friends and girlfriend at her side. However, Lena does not go into battle alone. Witness the team up of the bravest Green Lantern of them all with Firestorm, the bold Nuclear Man!
#
Warning!" the Esperanza Canyon Nuclear Power Plant automatic alert announced. "Plant security breached. Nuclear core compromised. Evacuate all personnel! Evacuate all personnel!"
Suddenly, a blast wave of green radiation shattered the concrete of one of the plant's cooling towers. While plant workers raced out from the facility, another blast opened a hole in the wall of the building that contained both the control room and the core. Moments later, six figures glided down from the sky through the hole and landed inside the building. Once inside, the invaders continued to fire blasts of nuclear energy from their hands as they forcefully infiltrated the power plant.
#
Lena Luthor was seated at her desk struggling to keep her mind on the stack of work in her overflowing in-basket. Man, she mused inwardly, I can't wait for Tamara Fox to come aboard as L-Corp's new Chief Operating Officer and help take some of this off of my hands! Fortunately, after Lena had interviewed the woman and found they were in-sync, Lena had practically promised Tamara the moon and the stars, along with a hefty seven figure salary with stock options and compensation to make Tamara whole for any losses she sustained in leaving behind her top-hat retirement fund at Wayne Enterprises. Fortunately for Lena, Tamara had accepted the offer and agreed to start at L-Corp in two weeks' time.
Then late last night, both Arisia and she had taken Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers under the cover of a new moon sky to Central City. They then left Kara's foster father in Dr. Snow's care once they had removed the tracking device Cadmus had placed in the man's bionic arm.
However, there was no rest for the wicked. Kara, along with Clark, Jesse, and Arisia had left early in the morning to assist the legendary Wonder Woman deal with a dangerous volcano on a small island located near Java. Supergirl and Superman would attempt to do what they could to keep the volcano from exploding as Krakatoa had back in the nineteenth century while the others evacuated everyone in the danger zone. So, Lena hoped things would stay quiet while Kara and the others were gone because she had no backup to speak of.
Lena really wasn't dealing well with Kara being away from her at that moment because they'd found out from Kara's foster father that Lillian had learned Kara's secret identity from Hank Henshaw. Knowing how much of an adorable self-sacrificing idiot Kara was, she just knew her girlfriend would be beating herself up right now for coming between Lena and her mother rather than keeping her full attention on her mission to settle down that active volcano.
Well then, she mused, she'd just have to make Kara understand in no uncertain terms that Lena would never let anything, especially her misguided step-mother, come between Lena and the love of her life. No. Lillian would have to either accept their relationship or get the hell out of their way!
Now, she rolled her eyes at her woolgathering and chided herself. Then she pulled her big girl pants up and committed to the daunting task of clearing out her bloody in-box right before Jess burst through her door.
"Ms. Luthor! You've got to see this!"
Jess didn't even wait for her response. The woman picked up the remote on Lena's desk and turned on the large flat screen.
The concerned-looking male news anchor on Catco's afternoon broadcast said, "We've just got word there's an incident at the Esperanza Canyon Nuclear Power Plant located about a hundred miles north of National City. A group that has not identified itself or claimed any ties to any known terrorist organization has infiltrated the central core. Our scientific advisers have told us the plant is, at best, an hour away from a total meltdown!"
Lena glanced at Jess, expecting to see an expression of fear on the woman's face. Instead, she found Jess regarding her with a look of great expectation. "With both Supergirl and Superman overseas, it's up to you, Ms. Luthor."
"What do you mean, it's up to me, Jess?"
"There's no time for this nonsense anymore, Ms. Luthor. You're the Green Lantern. I knew it was you once Kara Danvers told everyone about the Lantern's qualities in that article she wrote about you a few weeks ago. Everything she'd said described you to a 'T'. Ms. Danvers' article merely revealed the hero you've always been in my eyes."
Lena gave her assistant a watery smile as she raised her right hand, willed her ring to become visible and commanded the energy of the ring to change her clothing into the Cosmic Crusader's uniform.
Jess then crossed over to her and gave her a hug. "Go get 'em, Ms. Luthor. And don't you worry about a thing. Your secret is safe with me. I'll never tell a soul, you have my word on that!"
"Oh, Jess," she breathed, "I've never been concerned about your discretion, ever! Also, from now on, call me Lena and consider yourself a member of Team Lantern!"
Once the women had released each other, Lena's ring flared with green energy. Then she turned toward the sliding glass door that led out to her balcony, took flight, phased through the glass, and shot into the sky like a bat-out-of-hell.
#
Esperanza Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
1317 Local Time
In the sky near the stricken power plant, a man blessed with an athlete's powerful build floated in the air and stared at the facility with an excited expression on his face.
"You ought to strap yourself in tight, Professor Stein…'cause the heat is ON!" he announced and paused as if he could truly hear the fanfare of the trumpets blaring in his ears.
In his mind's eye, Ronnie Raymond, university senior and the physical part of the multiplex duo who'd formed the world's first nuclear powered hero, 'Firestorm', could see the disembodied head of his mentor and advisor, Dr. Martin Stein, the celebrated Nobel-prize physicist, when he ceased hovering and streaked toward the power plant with flames streaming from the top of his head and both feet. "The heat is what?!"
"The heat is ON! You know, it's our new superhero catchphrase. Pretty cool, huh?"
"What's not cool, Ronald, is this power plant. By my calculations, it's well on its way to a total meltdown."
"Then it's up to Firestorm to save the day because the heat is ON!" When he saw the professor roll the eyes on the man's disembodied head in his mind, he grinned and apologized. "Sorry, Prof. I just love saying that!"
"I see that Batman was right about you. You do talk to yourself…a lot. It's good to finally meet you, Firestorm."
He heard the smoky and sexy woman's voice over his shoulder and slightly above him. Then he chanced a glance in that direction and the man with the motor mouth nearly lost all ability to speak a single word.
She was an emerald-clad angel descended from the heavens above. Despite her mask, he was drawn to her delicate features, her tantalizing ruby red lips, her beautiful brunette hair with highlights of mahogany, and her body of dangerous curves packed in that skin-tight uniform.
"Dear God, Ronald, that woman is gorgeous!"
Ronnie winced at the professor's exclamation. "Prof…that just sounds SO wrong coming from an old dude!"
He sensed Stein's annoyance with him through their link. "I'm not so old I can't appreciate the charms of a lovely woman, young man."
Ronnie shivered inwardly and decided to simply drop the matter while he spoke to the woman. "Green Lantern?!"
She nodded. "Let me tell you about my powers so we can go in there and be on the same page. My ring works through my willpower. I manipulate its energy to form objects or project energy blasts limited only by my imagination."
"Really?! That sounds kind of like how my powers work. I manipulate matter and energy on the subatomic level. I can transform one element into another and manipulate the molecules of non-biological matter into any shape or form I choose. Also, if you don't mind, please tell Batman I'm not some kind of kook. To become the Nuclear Man, an accident fused me with a brilliant scientist, turning us into the world's first nuclear-powered superhero. We share minds, so to speak, and he advises me during our adventures."
"Intriguing," she said with a curl of her lips that had enthralled both men. "I'd love to discuss your situation further after we deal with the infiltrators. Before we go inside like gangbusters, though, I'd like to take a more…stealthy approach. I can phase through solid objects like walls. I can help you do the same if you'd like."
"Cool!" he exclaimed. "I can modify my molecular structure to do the same!"
She grinned. "Nice! Shall we go then?" she asked and the two heroes streaked toward the main building.
Moments after phasing through one of the walls, they floated cautiously down several corridors until they encountered two men dressed in cumbersome radiation suits running toward them. Suddenly one of the men stumbled and fell right in the path of an approaching cloud of steam that glowed a sickly green color.
"Careful, Ronald!" Stein yelled. "That's radioactive steam!"
The Green Lantern wasted no time and used her ring to form a pair of giant hands that reached out, grabbed the men and placed them safely behind the two heroes.
Meanwhile, Ronnie shook his flaming head and said to Stein, "No, it was radioactive steam." Then he reached out both hands, the physical manifestation of his transformative power which appeared to an outside observer as huge atoms with their protons and electrons orbiting nuclei centered on each hand, and emitted twin beams into the steam, changing it into a harmless mist. "Now it's pine scented air freshener. Hmm…woodsy…with a hint of lavender. Soothing!"
One of the men then shouted, "They're in the nuclear core. Said they're going to blow everything sky high!"
"Can you tell us anything about these infiltrators?" Green Lantern asked the men.
The man shook his head. "All I know is they're freaks…monsters! Get out of here! Get out!" he screamed then turned, grabbed his companion and raced for the exit.
"Well…that sounded ominous," she noted.
"Maybe so, but I have to say my curiosity is piqued. Let's go meet these so-called freaks face to face. Before we do that, though, are you protected from the radiation levels in this place?"
She nodded. "The ring can protect me from the radiation emitted by the hottest star even if I was floating near its surface."
"That works for me! Let's go!"
Soon, they found their way inside the section of the building where the control room stood sentinel over the nuclear core stored underneath a pool of heavy water. That's when they came upon a very strange sight.
They saw what appeared to be an adult male with a fedora on his head use a nuclear blast to enlarge a refrigerator from model-size to full-size in a matter of seconds while what appeared to be an adult female dressed in a pink dress that reminded them of something the television mothers on Ozzie & Harriet or Leave It to Beaver had worn occasionally, was hanging a clock on the wall that looked like something that would be right at home in a sixties' tract house. Meanwhile, what appeared to be a teen-aged boy and girl were moving a pair of arm chairs with the faux leather upholstered look and aluminum legs. They placed the chairs inside a comfortable seating arrangement with a matching couch alongside a shag rug while what appeared to be a young boy and his dog used their own nuclear rays to enlarge a coffee table and an old-style color TV from toy-size to full-size right before the heroes' very eyes.
Then the adult male finally noticed their presence and he stared at them from his seat on the couch, his form cloaked in the shadows. "Well…howdy doody, Green Lady, youngster!"
"Welcome to our happy home!" the adult female exclaimed. Even though her greeting was friendly, her glowing green eyes and smile rattled Ronnie.
"Um…thank you for your warm welcome," the Green Lantern said, the confusion in her voice plain as day to Firestorm.
He was just as confused as she. The domestic scene facing them was totally unexpected considering the frightened claims of the fleeing guys in the radiation suits. "Who are you folks exactly?" he asked.
The man stood up and said, "You can call me Dad." Then he placed his left arm around the woman's shoulder and drew her close to his side in such a tender and loving way, even Ronnie was moved. "And this gorgeous gal right here is Mom! Quite the looker, huh?"
"Oh you!" the woman gently chastised the man but Ronnie could tell she'd appreciated the man's complete devotion to her. "He's terrible!" Then she shot a look toward the teens and said, "These are the twins, Biff and Sis."
"Wow," the young man whispered loudly. "It's the Green Lantern! Man you're even hotter in person than you are on TV!"
Both Ronnie and Professor Stein couldn't agree more with the young man when the boy's twin sister moved close to her father, wrapped her thin arms around Dad's disturbingly buff right forearm and cooed, "Do you know who he is? He's Firestorm the Nuclear Man! I've seen him on TV, too. He's dreamy!"
"Gotcha!"
A surprised Firestorm glanced down to find that both the little boy and his dog had snuck up on him and had a hold of each leg.
"And that's Brat and Dog," Mom said.
"Dear God," Green Lantern murmured lowly. "Look at the dog's back!"
He did as his comrade had directed then gawked at the area on the canine's back where a patch of the dog's fur was missing, revealing a metallic exoskeleton similar to the Terminator's in those old movies made by the former governor of California.
After the kid and the dog had released him, they returned to their family's place in front of the couch. Then the adult male announced, "Together, we're the Nuclear Family!"
Still shaken by the dog's appearance, apparently both the Lantern and he had been thrown a little off their game because they didn't seem to realize how very wrong their current situation was. "Okay, that's nice and all, but you folks can't be here. The core is very unstable and unless the Lantern and I can repair it, we're talking maximum wipe-out!"
"Firestorm is right, Mom, isn't it?" Green Lantern directed her question to the other woman. "I'm certain you don't want to jeopardize your family's safety."
"Oh, we're in no danger here, Green Lady, but I appreciate your concern for my kids and us," Mom said while the six family members stepped out from the shadows into the light where the Lantern and Firestorm could see some of the artificial skin had been ripped away to reveal glimpses of the exoskeletons of their skulls.
In that moment, Ronnie felt another presence had joined the multiplex he shared with Professor Stein. "Firestorm, it's me, Green Lantern. I used my ring to link our minds so we can talk without risking the chance those…things can overhear us. However, something's wrong! I can't move!"
"Green Lantern," Stein said, "I believe your consciousness has been absorbed into our multiplex and it's unable to control your body because it's no longer…well…there. I think if Ronald separates our bodies, the conversion will release your consciousness, as well. Meanwhile, while you're here, you both need to listen to me. These androids are very dangerous!"
"Prof," Ronnie asked his mentor. "What are you saying? Do you mean they're robots like that Data guy from STNG?"
Suddenly, Mom gasped as if she'd been slapped in the face. Then she dropped the drinking glass that she'd held in her hand, causing it to shatter on the concrete floor.
A completely disgusted-looking Brat then growled, "He said the 'R' word, Mom. Very naughty!"
Apparently, a flustered Mom decided to use the situation as a teaching moment. "Young man, we prefer you use the term 'Automated Americans,' if you please!"
"Show some sensitivity, dude," Biff counseled.
An annoyed Dad now turned to his daughter and said, "I think our young friend here needs a lesson in manners."
"Yes, Dad."
In the meantime, inside Ronnie's head, a concerned Green Lantern muttered, "Oh, I absolutely do not like the sound of that."
Stein agreed with her. "Ronald, I think you should listen to Lena."
The unknown name served to distract the young hero's attention away from the approaching Sis. "Lena? Who in the heck is Lena, Prof?"
Stein sighed heavily inside Ronnie's head. "Ronald, the Green Lantern is Lena Luthor, the CEO of L-Corp. Ms. Luthor, I'm Professor Martin Stein and we're inside the bright mind, even though he goes out of his way to hide it, of one of my physics students at my university, Ronald Raymond. I just want to assure you that you have nothing to fear from us, Ms. Luthor. Ronald has integrity second to none and I am a man of honor. We both swear your secret identity is safe with us."
She smiled. "Well, considering that my personal assistant has known my secret for weeks without my being aware of the fact, maybe I need to stop teasing Supergirl about her supposedly lame disguise."
By then the teen-aged girl stood before Ronnie and drawled "Sweet dreams," right before her eyes and mouth opened wide and emitted a blast wave with enough force to send Firestorm flying out through the roof.
#
"Lena…Ronald…rise and shine."
"I always shine," a groggy Ronnie complained as he pushed his aching body up from the floor before he offered a helping hand to a recently-returned to consciousness Green Lantern.
As she shook her head to clear the cobwebs, she glanced at their surroundings and noticed both that they weren't inside the power plant and her mind had apparently returned to her body. "Hold on a minute! Where in the hell is the reactor room?"
"We're not there at the moment, Lena. We're inside a memory of mine," Stein explained, his full body present in this place, too. "We don't just share a body in the multiplex; we also share combined mental images."
Ronnie noticed they were in a bunker with two military men in uniforms he didn't recognize along with a bald man in a white lab coat who looked freakishly like Patrick Stewart as the actor had appeared in the X-Men movies. "Prof, who are these people and why don't they see us?" he asked as he waved a hand in front of the bald guy's eyes.
"They can't see or hear us, Ronald, because this is merely a memory. We're at a nuclear bomb test conducted back in 1979 by Eric Shaner for Israel on a deserted South Atlantic island. The Israelis were dead set on developing a nuclear arsenal to protect themselves from their hostile Arab neighbors and Shaner wanted to persuade their leaders to turn away from that course of action. He created the Nuclear Family to show the leaders the effect of their weapons on ordinary people."
The next thing the trio saw was Shaner detonating the weapon while the androids appeared to be enjoying a typical family barbecue. As the blast wave engulfed the unsuspecting androids, Stein ominously said, "Only he built the androids too well."
Instead of being vaporized in the blast, the Nuclear Family had survived it with only minor damage to their outer artificial epidermi.
"That's…that's unbelievable," Lena stammered. "How could they survive the blast?"
"The bomb wasn't a thermonuclear warhead, Ms. Luthor. It was a neutron warhead. The Israelis couldn't use a fusion or fission bomb because if they detonated those weapons against one of their neighbors, the fallout would affect their nation, as well. Neutron bombs, though, are designed to not be that destructive to vehicles or buildings. However, the neutron radiation would kill all the people, leave most of the buildings intact and do it all without resulting in any significant fallout."
Both Lena and Ronnie grimaced and gave Stein looks filled with disappointment. "You were at this test because you worked on projects like it, am I right, Prof?"
The professor gazed shamefully down at the bunker's floor. "I'm afraid so, Ronald. However, after that test, I'd turned away from working on any more weapons of mass destruction, particularly after I'd learned the androids had escaped from the test site. Shaner had been quite careless about how he'd constructed and programmed them. It seems he'd stolen plans from the leading expert in artificial intelligence, Dr. Will Magnus. Magnus had invented the potentiaometer, the device that Magnus had employed to create the Metal Men, sentient robots with metahuman powers and distinct personalities. The device had allowed the Nuclear Family to absorb the neutron radiation which had given them their incredible powers of flight and the ability to emit radiation in various forms. Ever since that test, they've been at large."
"Okay then," Ronnie said, "we need to get out of here and deal with those 'bots."
"Well, I would agree except for the fact that our physical form was knocked unconscious and it's been out cold for at least the last half hour or so. Therefore, I deduce that both Lena and you are their prisoner."
#
Seconds later, Firestorm opened his eyes to find both Green Lantern and he were encased in carbon restraints that had completely imprisoned their arms and legs and were being lowered into the pool's heavy water. As he fruitlessly struggled inside the containment unit, he whined, "Geez, Prof! For once, can't you be wrong?!"
Once more the disembodied head in Ronnie's consciousness, Stein smirked. "Not a chance, Ronald."
Just then a beach ball struck Firestorm full in the face. "Ow!"
As Brat laughed at the imprisoned hero after kicking the ball at him, Dad, now dressed in a pair of conservative swimming trunks still, though, with his fedora on his head, addressed him. "Hey, Sparky! Nothing like a good old-fashioned pool party, am I right?"
"Dad," Firestorm asked the android, "why are you doing this? Don't you realize that hundreds of thousands of innocent people will get sick and die if this plant suffers a meltdown?"
A sad look appeared on the android's face then. "Well…it may get…a little toasty…for the folks outside, Sparky, but we just want a place where we can live in peace and be left alone."
"For years, we've been living on the run, looking over our shoulder for those bad military people who were trying to hunt us down," Mom said. She was dressed in a very flattering yellow one piece bathing suit that showed off her very attractive form. Stein, Ronnie and Lena all had to admit the woman was truly lovely despite the fact she was an android. "We squatted in hazardous waste dumps and fallout shelters, dreaming of finding a home for ourselves," the artificial woman lamented.
It was at that precise moment both the professor and Ronnie had realized that Lena Luthor had expressed her admiration for Mom's form the same as both men had!
Putting aside how very hot that tidbit of information was, Ronnie continued trying to persuade the androids to stop the core from melting down. "I'm really sorry about all of the hassles you've gone through, Mom, but if you do this, you'll be guilty of driving all of those innocent people from their homes, too. Is that what you want?"
"Of course not!" she admitted. "However, this is the only way my family can share the American dream. I'm sorry, Firestorm, but we're tired of running."
"So, just sit back and watch the fireworks!" Brat declared.
"There will be no fireworks! Not if I can help it," Firestorm snapped. However, when he tried to activate his fusion power, it simply shorted out.
"Prof," the young man gasped. "What's happening?"
"It seems," the professor's talking head explained along with producing a visual aid that showed Ronnie's body trapped inside the carbon encasement and the interaction the trap had established with the pool's fuel rods, "the androids have connected us to the main reactor. The more you struggle the more power the reactor absorbs from us. We can break free, though, if we somehow manage to supercharge the pool rods."
"I might be able to do it with my ring," Lena declared inside their link. In his mind's eye, Ronnie saw the determined woman reach out with her disembodied mind to activate the ring on her body's finger.
He watched as sweat dripped down her disembodied head's brow while she struggled mightily to do the impossible. Just as he was about to give up all hope, a glorious emerald beam of power shattered the casing around Lena's body and electrified the grate at the bottom of the pool, supercharging the fuel rods.
As the power flowed through his body, the Nuclear Man grinned and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Way to go, GL!" Then he initiated a controlled fission blast that blew his encasement apart, separated both him and the professor for a nanosecond, allowing Lena's consciousness to escape the multiplex and return to its body, and knocked all the androids away from the edge of the pool onto their asses. Then he re-initiated the fusion process to bring both the professor and himself back together in the form of Firestorm.
Now the androids faced two angry heroes, causing Biff to ask his father, "Dad, what should we do?"
"Well, I didn't want it to come to this but…spank them!"
"I don't think so, 'Dad!'" a very irate Green Lantern spat. "The only people here who need to be disciplined are you 'Automated Americans!'"
Then before Sis could even respond with one of her blast waves, the Lantern used her ring on several carbon dampening rods that had been placed in a corner of the large room and converted them into blinders, a gag, and a set of restraints. Then her ring's energy transported them over the teen-aged girl's mouth, eyes and hands, completely nullifying her power.
At that point, the teen-aged boy and Mom began to use their powers against Firestorm but not before he'd erected a force bubble that protected him from their onslaught. Then Dad joined in the fun by firing his energy at Firestorm while he instructed his wife, "Honey? While we're taking care of Sparky and the Green Lady, why don't you use your EMP blast on the control room console and blow the core?"
The artificial woman smiled at her husband and ceased firing on Firestorm. Then she sashayed over to Dad, lifted up on her tippy-toes and planted a kiss on her husband's cheek. "Okay, honey. Just watch me cook!"
"That's not going to happen, lady!" the Green Lantern vowed. "Anything you cook will only lead to heartburn for thousands of innocent people!" Then Lena created an elaborate energy construct that formed a restraint around Mom's waist that had bands that shackled both of the woman's hands above her head and her feet below.
"Good heavens!" Mom exclaimed while the unstable construct sent the android toppling down to the floor.
Meanwhile, Biff fired one of his thermal pulses at Ronnie and bragged, "My power makes my beams hotter than a nuclear reactor. In other words, the heat is ON!"
"Uh!" Now a wincing Firestorm addressed Stein, "God, it sounds so lame when he says it, am I right, Prof?" Not waiting for the professor's response, the hero opened a hole in his shield and stuck his left hand through it. Then he began to draw Biff's power into his own body. "Hey, dude! No need to fight your power when I can ABSORB it!"
As Biff fell to his knees, completely drained, Brat screamed, "You leave my brother alone!" Then he and Dog fired their own energy beams at Firestorm.
"You're next, small fry!" the Nuclear Man said. Then he opened another portal in his shield and used his right hand to drain both the kid and the mutt.
"That's just about enough of that, Sparky!" Dad declared as he rushed forward to attack Firestorm. However, before he could take two steps, he was forcefully met by a huge emerald energy construct fist that struck him so hard it sent him flying into a steel wall.
"Oh, and 'Dad,'" Lena drawled. "The name is Green Lantern!"
As the adult male android struggled to recover from Lena's mighty blow, Firestorm simply glared at the pool with nuclear fire streaming from his eyes and in the blink of an eye, a pair of giant arms and hands constructed of heavy water flowed from the pool to sweep up all six androids in a restraint that completely dampened their nuclear powers.
Then the Nuclear Man calmly paced toward his prisoners with his hands clasped behind his back. "You know, since your powers are so similar to mine, I kind of feel like we're all related. In that case, you know what I'm in the mood for? Group hug!"
Suddenly he embraced them and his body began to glow with all the awesome power at his command. Automatically, Green Lantern's ring raised a powerful force field around her to protect her from the fury of Firestorm.
Moments later, there was a huge flash. Then Firestorm stood there in the room, the super-sized atoms once again orbiting his hands, with only Lena left standing by his side.
"Did you destroy the androids?" she asked.
He glanced at her with a sheepish look. It was then she noticed he held a dish covered by a glass dome in his hands. "Nah, I didn't have the heart to do it. In the end, they were just looking for a place to call home. So, I gave them one. I simply shrunk them down to ant-size and created a house of their very own on a large piece of property where no one will ever find them."
She nodded in agreement with his decision then smiled at the young man. "Brave, bold…and compassionate. I'm impressed, Firestorm!"
"Thanks!"
"Ronnie, Professor Stein…Batman and I are building a team of superheroes to deal with threats that are too big for one of us to handle. Would you like to join us?"
"Wow! You mean work with Supergirl, Batman and you?! That would be awesome!" Then he turned to his mind's eye to address Stein. "What do you say, Prof?"
"Well, Ronald, what can I say but…the heat is ON."
Ronnie grinned and exclaimed, "Yeah! That's the spirit, Prof!"
#
This story is heavily inspired by Episode 3 of the animated series "Justice League - Action," The Nuclear Familybut it does depart from the episode in how it takes the topic of nuclear warfare more seriously than the episode along with how the final battle occurs between our heroes and the antagonists. The Nuclear Family was created by the greatBatmanandAquamanartist, Jim Aparo, and the writer Mike Barr for two issues in the comic bookBatman and the Outsiders. "The Brave and the Bold" is further homage to Mr. Aparo, who was, for quite a time, the lead artist on a title that early on became a Batman team-up book. Finally, Firestorm was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom.
Thanks for reading this story! Reviews or comments are welcomed!