Once he was an average high school kid. He excelled in sports, and his grades were average, but then a strange and wonderful occurrence happened. In a freak accident, his very atomic structure was merged with that of a scientist, and the two joined to become Firestorm, The Nuclear Man!

Those days of a shared existence are forever over, but now College student Ronnie Raymond carries on the tradition he started with Dr. Martin Stein , as he fights the good fight, and struggles with maintaining his grades as well as knocking the villain of the week back into the last one! He has the power of atomic manipulation, can fly through space and can fire nuclear blasts capable of leveling a city block! But he still can't get to class on time!

The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man! #3

"While my world screams!"

A "Cold Armageddon" crossover!

By Ralph Angelo

What has gone before: An alien Armada has circled the earth from above, effectively cutting the planet off. Then, they began their true mission, as millions of warriors from all across the galaxy descended to Earth, to kill every living thing in sight! Earths defenders have come to her aid, but the odds are more then overwhelming, they are frighteningly staggering against the planets survival! In NY, Firestorm, along with Captain Atom , Mister Miracle and Superboy were working alongside the military forces to clear the enemy out of the city. They were doing fine, until HE showed up!

Firestorm kneels on one knee, as he struggles to remain awake, nearby lies. the unconscious -or worse- form of Captain Atom. And facing the nuclear man, with his blue-black hands sparking deadly energy, is "Tengraaart, the mighty"! The most powerful warrior of the Gordaniun race. The decimated Manhattan skyline fills the background as Firestorm struggles to rise from the position where Tengraaart sent. him sprawling*

*See last issue

"Do not get up little Earther, Tengraaart will simply smash you down again."

The behemoth approaches Firestorm, raising his hands above his head as he walks, clenching his fists and preparing the death blow that will crush Firestorm to paste!

"Not if I don't give you the chance ugly!"

Firestorm flies skywards suddenly, out of Tengraaart's reach, as he turns the street beneath the huge Gordanuins feet to quicksand, with one powerful matter altering blast, effectively anchoring him in place!

"There we go," Chides Firestorm, "Right where you belong. Now how about you tell me where the rest of my friends are?"

Then , surprisingly, Tengraaart merely...laughs.

"This is supposed to intimidate me boy? This? "

He gestures at the miring substance around him, and continues laughing.

"HA! I wonder why no race has subjugated your pathetic people before, if this is the best you can do."

And then, Tengraaart rises out of the Quicksand, flying into the air, to speed towards Firestorm! But...

"Gods of the great mound! I fly THROUGH you????"

The immaterial Firestorm now has his turn to laugh!

"You're kidding right Teny? You attack me and you have no idea what I can do? Your loss big guy."

Firestorm punctuates his words with an explosive blast from both hands that knocks the surprised, and now enraged Gordaniun to the ground like a sack of potatoes !

Ba-KOW!

"AAARrrrr..." Growls Tengraaart as he quickly stands to fire sparking energy form his hands, to cartwheel Firestorm helplessly through the sky!

Fra-KOOM!

Ronnie Raymond rights himself in mid-air, as he shakes out the cobwebs seeking to permanently cloud his mind, but Tengraaart doesn't wait, he attacks again!

Ba-BOOM!

His powerful punch tosses Firestorm back yet again

"Now little man, you die!" Howls Tengraaart.

"I do not think so you freakin' gorilla!" answers Firestorm, as he turns the air around Tengraaart to burning napalm, frying him in mid air!

"UUNNN!" Shouts the Gordaniun, as Firestorm hammers at him with his powerful nuclear blasts, smashing him back in mid air!

"Fall you freakin' monster, FALL!"

"N-n-never boy! I will feast on your bones!"

"Man, are YOU ever gross!"

Again Firestorm smashes the monstrous Gordaniun back, sending him careening through a car ! The powerful warrior fights back, struggling to his feet, as the creature hoists a truck above his head and hurls it at Firestorm!

"Gettin' a little desperate now aren't ya big fella?"

Firestorm turns the truck to water vapor, as he flies through it, but...

Pa-KOOM!

Tengraaart flies through the mist from the other side, a powerful right cross knocks Firestorm from the sky, painfully!

"Ha!" Gleefully bellows Tengraaart, "You are no match for the might of the greatest Gordaniun warrior of all! Now I finish you!"

His fists spark, as he stretches out his hands to engulf Firestorm in energy, to disintegrate him alive!

"G-gotta get up." Thinks Firestorm, "Otherwise he's got me, b-but I can't move! Those hands are sparkin' like crazy, and they're gettin' closer! Waitaminute! Sparkin'? What am I stupid?"

He aims his hands one last time at the powerhouse who's slowly approaching him, and mutters a prayer as he suddenly encases his foe in a solid cube of pure Duranium! And then, a nano-second later, a powerful explosion from within the cube rocks the very ground for blocks around!

BA-Da-Da-Kra-KOOOOOWWW!

"Finally! " He collapses to the ground, and the world swims in his view, as he mercifully passes out.

Seemingly an eternity later...

A hand shakes the unconscious heroes shoulder, as his vision swims back into focus..

"Wake up Hero." A familiar voice beckons him back to the world of the waking, as his vision clears.

"Captain Atom" Firestorm smiles. "Man, Am I glad to see you. For a minute I thought you were that pug ugly punk again."

Captain Atom shakes his head, as he offers a hand to help Firestorm up from the ground. Grasping the offered hand, Firestorm rises, shakily.

"Where is he ?" Asks Captain Atom.

Firestorm points his hand over towards the large cube.

"Right there."

"What did you do to him?"

"I Filled that cube with the most explosive gasses I could create. I don't even know what they were, but I thought big powerful boom, and as soon as his sparking hands hit it, ka-POW!, Out cold! At least I hope that is."

"Well I haven't even heard a peep from that thing. We'll let the military take the whole cube to a safe holding area."

"Yeah, I guess so. Where's our friends?"

"I don't know, we'll have to keep searching I guess."

Then a voice from behind them spins both around.

"You two won't have to look far."

Behind them stand Mister Miracle and Superboy, as well as Etrigan the Demon, the tiny powerhouse known as the Atom, and the mystery man called the Creeper!

"Where'd you come from?" Asks Firestorm, "And what's this, the Freak Patrol?"

The Demon leaps through the air, to land silently at Firestorms side, then, in one rapid movement, he presses his face up to Firestorms, nose to nose, his hot breath fills Firestorms own face.

"Ask not where help has come, for in this game, any is better then none!"

"Whoa yellow skin, back off." Firestorm steps back, making fists as he stares at the frightening apparition before him.

"Bah, of sterner stuff you must be, if you seek to save this world with me!"

"Okay,"Captain Atom begins, "Enough. We'll take any help we can get Demon, even if it is from a hellion like yourself."

"Things are not what they seem silver man. The Etrigan you've known has been a sham!"

"Well I for one am glad to have any aid we can get in this fight." Speaks the diminutive Ray Palmer, the Atom, "And we have a powerful assemblage right here. So I think it's time we took this battle right to them, in their faces!"

The Creeper laughs hideously, in agreement. As Superboy looks at the others and shudders involuntarily. "I don't know which of these guys is worse. The Demon, or the man who acts like one."

"It doesn't matter S B , " Speaks Mister Miracle , "Any port in a storm m'man."

Superboy nods affirmatively at Shilo Norman, the new Mister Miracle, as overhead several Branx fighters fly in pursuit of two F-14's , strafing the sky with fiery death .

"I See somebody else who needs our help." Says Superboy, as he leaps skywards, after the retreating aircraft.

"Yes," Agrees Captain Atom, as he rockets upwards alongside Firestorm and Superboy "Lets finish this off fast, I have a feeling we're needed up there." He gestures towards the moon, which fills the evening sky above their heads, "And I don't want to waste any more time then necessary mopping up here."

Firestorm nods in agreement, as his mind wanders off to a young woman, Firehawk, who is even now on that small planetoid. Dead or alive, he doesn't know, but he intends to find out, and there'll be hell to pay if she's the former, he swears it!

Next: Go to Superman #12 next week to find our heroes! Then, the Cold Armageddon Special, where our bigger then big special will wrap up!

Next Issue: To many Firestorms!

Nuclear Fallout

C/O CptMarvell@aol.com