Freedom Plaza was the general headquarters for of the Freedom Phalanx. It had been since the Fifth Column had destroyed the team's original headquarters, a brownstone on Main. Rebuilding was underway, but most of the team preferred the new building. At any given time, however, most of the team was out, fighting crime or living lives. Only a few of the old-timers lived at Freedom Plaza.
One of them was Dr. Science. Dr Science had been around the Phalanx for a decade, longer than Iron Eagle, but only just. After he had saved the world from the Rikti, and been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour and the Nobel Peace Prize, he had proved too famous to function as a hero anymore. But he could still plan, and design, better than almost any human alive. He ran the laboratory for the Freedom Phalanx. He was so good, the Dawn Patrol, and even the Midnight Squad, often dropped by to borrow it.
"Hey, Eagle. What's this? Babysitting?" he said, as Iron Eagle and the kids came into the lab. However, he soon stopped joking when he heard about the gem. He whipped out a bunch of scanners, and began going over it.
"This thing is putting out tachyon particles, a lot of them," he said when he was finished. "Near as I can tell, the gem itself is a ruby. It's current colour can only be the result, I assume, of some chemical or physical stress undergone by the gem; this would also explain the chronal radiation. This thing is nothing known to science, gang."
Red Beth was about to give him an earful, but then Dr. Science went to the door, and yelled "Owl-Man! We found something!"
Even Fridge had heard about Owl-Man. He'd turned up at the UN, just a few months ago, while Captain Death had held it hostage. Afterwards, he'd claimed to be the herald of Athena, dedicated to truth and order. They'd signed him on at Freedom Plaza, because he could do magic-based lab work almost as well as Dr. Science did the regular kind.
He came in, nodded to everyone, and picked up the gem. "I sense conflict," he said. "Conflict and anger. And desperation. Why those emotions?"
He held it for a bit longer, keeping absolutely still. The gem began to glow. Suddenly, he yelped, like he'd been hit. He fell over, but the glowing gem stayed where it was. It began slowly moving towards the door, but it began picking up speed. "Follow that!" barked Iron Eagle, and the Remedial Class responded. "Not you," he said to Solenoid, "we may need you here."
As the Remedials followed the gem out of the building, Dr. Science caught up with them. "I've got to take readings!"
Whatever he saw, it wasn't good. "This thing keeps going faster! And the faster it goes, the more tachyons it puts out, and it keeps speeding up!" He did some calculations. "If it keeps going at it's current rate, then it'll reach critical mass somewhere around Western Europe, and take most of Western Europe with it!"
Meanwhile, Iron Eagle had got Solenoid to do CPR on Owl-Man, because he didn't know how. The result was instantaneous – he sat bolt upright, and whispered "I've found them."
Just then, the radio crackled. It was Dr. Science asking Iron Eagle to come out and open fire on the gem. When Owl-Man nodded, Iron Eagle ran out of the room, prepped the engines as he ran, shot a hole in the wall, and jumped out it. He could easily see the gem: it gave off an eerie glow as it went down the road towards the eastern docks, going as fast as a runner. Praying he was doing the right thing, he targeted the gem, and fired a rocket at it.