Featuring Sentinel

Primaid, Controller, Mad Thinker and various minions had taken over the reactor and had placed the capsule inside. She had taken over a veritable army of scientists and technicians to help her on a project. But this came first! Primaid was nearly giddy in anticipation. "He's baking," she said, chuckling.

"How did you know about this creature anyway?" the Controller asked.

"I used to study his father," Primaid said. "I got interested in him many decades ago. I arranged a fight between he and a radioactive mortal. This same mortal caused the late Phantom Lady to die giving birth to this poor, unfortunate creature. Using my mental powers, boosted by a few Martian Machines, I was able to continue to read Daddy's mind even from Mars, at least for a little while. I knew about his son and the power the boy had and where he buried the child. I have planned to use this child against his father for a long time. That was why I waited so long to put my invasion plans into operation. To let the boy grow! You see, the Cobalt Man only failed because he was a normal human and needed oxygen. This nuclear child has no such needs. He subsists totally upon radiation. He can surely defeat both the Sentinel, and a certain Martian traitor I've had in my sights for a while . . . The Martian Manhunter!"

Just then, the thirteen JLA members arrived, accompanied by the Sentinel. J'Onn J'Onzz recognized a fellow Martian, even in her human guise. "You're the one who's mind I touched earlier."

"Indeed," she said. "Hello J'Onn J'Onzz. I am Primaid, of the Martian attack unit Hyper Clan!"

"Where is he?" the Sentinel bellowed, furious. "Where's my son!"

Suddenly, a crash came from inside the reactor. Pieces of the capsule shattered all over. And then something burst through the thick walls of the reactor. It was a 10 foot humanoid being, glowing a bright golden glow. It wailed a loud wail . . . The wail of a newborn child. It was also a wail of an angry child.

"Son?" the Sentinel whispered.

"Don't get too close!" Giant-Man yelled. "It's contaminated with nuclear radiation!"

"N . . . N . . . Nuke . . . " the childlike Goliath said. "Nuke-low? Nuklo!"

"I think it just picked out a name," Icon said.

Nuklo wandered forward, not sure where he was going or what he should do. "Nuklo," he kept repeating. "Nuklo!"

Just then, another Nuklo stepped out of the reactor. "Nuklo," it said. "Nuklo." Sentinel watched them, seeing his worst fears realized.

A third Nuklo emerged, and then a forth. More came. A dozen. Fifteen. "Nuklo," they all said.

"We have to keep them restrained!" Cap shouted. "Thor, do something about the reactor before the radiation leak effects anyone! Iron Man, you help him! J'Onn, Flash, Diana, you three come with me! We're going after the boss lady and the Controller! Batman, you take the Wasp, Mantis and Giant Man and stop all those guys over there! The rest of you contain the Nuklo's!"

The team dispersed, to their assignments. J'Onn flew straight for Primaid. They faced each other. Primaid assumed her frightening white Martian form.

"You are insane!" he said to her.

"Am I?" she asked. "Because I am doing what is best for our race? Because I am trying to find a home for our Martian race? Our planetary neighbor, the Earth, will be a perfect place to live!"

The two Martians locked up in battle. They exchanged blows, and then they went into a series of shape-shifting duels, turning into all sorts of deadly creatures.

"You fight like what you really are," she said, mockingly. "A green Martian philosopher. Not a soldier, like we of the White Martian race. We will be the saviors of our people by conquering this planet. I need only eliminate you Justice League of Avengers, and the way will be clear! My Nuklo will do that for me! Once the Controller places the control discs on him, he and his duplicates will destroy all of you. And then all the other Earth heroes will fall in short order and we will dominate this planet. I have planned this for decades! It will not fail!"

"You will not succeed!" J'Onn said. "The humans know our weakness! Fire! They will use it against you!"

"They will not!" Primaid said. "Why do you think I've gathered all these scientists to serve me? Why would I enslave such a being as the Mad Thinker? I am having them design a device that will de-oxidize the atmosphere . . . "

"Which will prevent fire from igniting!" J'Onn said, still fighting. "I must admit, that is deviously clever!"

"Indeed!" she said. "I already had them create a virus that infected the fire- powered super beings!"

"So that's what happened to Firebird!" J'Onn said, changing form for a new attack.

"All fiery heroes are incapacitated," she said. "The Human Torch and all the rest. And soon, fire will no longer exist on this planet. Then, we Martians will swoop in to take over, assisted by Nuklo, and you won't be here to stop us!"

Primaid splintered herself a swarm of bee-sized creatures, and pelted the Manhunter with a thousand stunning blows. The Manhunter turned intangible to escape the attack, but she did likewise and was thus able to touch him in his ethereal form. Her superior combat experience was proving J'Onn's undoing.

Nearby, at the command of the controller, the scientists and technicians attacked Batman, Giant Man, and Wasp. The trio of heroes needed to stop the men without hurting them. Batman tossed some gas pellets. The Wasp used light stun blasts. Mantis used gentle Judo tosses. Giant Man scooped a bunch of them up in his colossal arms.

Meanwhile, Thor stood before the hole in the reactor and used his hammer to absorb all the radiation coming from within. Thor strained to hold all the energy within his magic hammer.

"Thor, are you . . . ?" Iron Man began.

"Act quickly, friend Iron Man," Thor said, through gritted teeth. "I canst not hold such power long!"

"I'm on it!" He said, flying into the reactor, hoping that his armor would not be disrupted by the massive radiation present. He searched for something to repair the wall with. He found bits of lead and thick concrete. "That'll do!"

Iron Man used his repulser lasers to weld together a makeshift radiation shield.

As he and Thor worked to stop a disaster, others fought the monstrous Nuklo beings. Icon, Captain Marvel, and the Vision, all of whom were immune to radiation, tried to stop the creatures from advancing. Icon tried to grab one, but it was surprisingly strong, and threw him off. Captain Marvel tried to ram one from behind, but the Vision blocked his way.

"Do not do that," the Vision insisted. "These duplicates may not be stable. Too much physical force might cause them to explode!"

"Then how are we supposed to stop them?" Icon asked. "They're as strong as we are and we can't get rough with them."

"Maybe we can confuse them," Captain Marvel said, using the Wisdom of Solomon. "They are simple beings and perhaps easily befuddled."

Captain Marvel began to circle the Nuklo's with the speed of Mercury. He moved so fast, they could barely see him. They stopped, confused.

Several big, intimidating androids created by the Mad Thinker lumbered toward the heroes. Immediately, the Flash and the Sentinel took up the challenge and focused on stopping the mechanical monsters. As they did so, Captain America charged the Mad Thinker himself. The Thinker sat on a special chair with a sophisticated weapons system. Lasers and projectiles assailed Cap, who did his best to block them with his shield.

The Controller stood before Wonder Woman, remembering his defeat at her hands last time. "The result will be different this time, girl!"

"Many say so," Wonder Woman said. "And yet, it usually doesn't turn out so."

The Controller was confident. His natural super strength was multiplied geometrically by the combined mental energy of all his brilliant slaves. Their intelligence turned to power for him. Also, he wore an exo-skeleton that greatly enhanced his already incredible strength. The Controller had become a powerhouse of staggering force.

Wonder Woman struck him and was surprised that he stood up to the impact. He returned the blow, knocking her down. She looked up at him, amazed. He had, indeed, gotten much stronger.

"I told you!" the Controller said. "I am not the man you knew! My strength is nearly limitless now!"

"We'll see," the Amazon said. "I always rise to a challenge!"

The two incredibly powerful beings locked up, striking with impact that shook the whole area.

As they did so, a hundred yards away, the Nuklo's were being herded by Captain Marvel. They slowly backed away from the speeding red comet. Icon joined him, further intimidating the confused Nuklo's. They backed closer and closer together, until they huddled in a group. Marvel and Icon closed their loop, and the Nuklo's squeezed together until they were all back-to-back, Pressed against each other.

It turned out to be a mistake! The Nuklo's pushed together and then began to merge. They entered each other's bodies and started to grow and grow and grow.

"Holy moley!" Captain Marvel said, taken aback by what he was seeing.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched as Nuklo grew to nearly sixty feet tall. He glowed an intensely bright glow and shouted with an echoing voice. "Nuklo!"

Primaid smiled. It was true that she hadn't affixed a control disc to the creature, but it would still wreck massive havoc. And besides that, the JLA would try to stop it, and it would probably kill them all. So things would work out for her regardless.

Iron Man came out of the reactor, hesitated for a moment when he saw the giant Nuklo, but then his professionalism took over. "Thor, I've got a makeshift wall built! It should hold for a while! You're off the hook!"

"I must release this radiation elsewhere!" Thor grunted, struggling to control the massive power. Swinging his hammer, he took to the air and flew high above, to disperse the energy harmlessly. Iron Man watched him go and then turned his attention to Nuklo.

The Vision knew he should be focusing on Nuklo, but the presence of the Mad Thinker - his creator - distracted him. He saw Cap striving valiantly to overcome the Thinker's arsenal. A concussion grenade hit Cap's shield and the star-spangled hero fell, stunned senseless.

The Mad Thinker laughed an insane laugh, aimed a laser at the defenseless hero and fired! But the beam never reached its mark. The Vision, with computer precision, fired his own solar eye-beam and intercepted the Thinker's laser. The Mad Thinker turned to see who the new interloper was. He saw the Vision and smiled.

"Ah! There you are!" the Mad Thinker said. "Hello, son!"

"I am not your child," the Vision said. "I am a device. We have no familial relationship. My only interest in you is to apprehend you and place you in custody."

"Nonsense," the Mad Thinker said. "You have a much greater interest in me than that. There are questions you want to ask, and I am the only one who can answer them."

"My duty to the JLA comes first," the Vision said.

"Are you sure?" the Mad Thinker said. "Go on, son, ask me your questions. I'll answer them. Word of honor."

The Vision hesitated. He should just incapacitate the Mad Thinker. That was his duty. So why, he wondered, was he hesitating?

Several yards away, Wonder Woman proved that the Controller's boast was all bluster. She battered him with superior speed and skill. Despite his equal strength, the Amazon's final blow floored him. After he passed out, those he controlled were free of his mental domination. All the scientists were freed, as was the Mad Thinker. When the Thinker came to his senses and realized what had been done to him, he shattered his usual imperturbable demeanor and his face twisted into a mask of fury.

"They used me!" he screamed, with a crazy screech. "They subverted my mind! My magnificent mind! No one plays with my magnificent mind!"

The Vision was confused by this sudden outburst. The Mad Thinker activated a hidden transporter device. The started to fade from view. The Vision had less than a second to act, and had the swift-computer mind to do so. But he hesitated, and the Mad Thinker escaped.

The JLA members surrounded Nuklo, unsure of how to handle the beast. It had unlimited power and if they struck it too hard, it would explode. As they considered their options, the Sentinel, having finished off his android opponent flew to the front lines and faced Nuklo.

"I'm sorry, son," he said.

Sentinel focused all his power into one massive fireball of Starheart energy. He jetted forward and collided with his monstrous son. Everyone else had a moment of panic, thinking that the impact would trigger an explosion. But it didn't. The impact was not kinetic, but an energy force. The unique energy of the Starheart caused Nuklo's unstable body to reach critical mass. But instead of an explosion, an implosion occurred.

Nuklo screamed with agony, as he shrunk down to the size of a normal man. Nuklo's glow was almost totally extinguished, and he lay comatose. Sentinel lay close by, unmoving.

Primaid saw that her plans were coming apart. "I hate humans!" she hissed.

Leaving the stunned J'Onn J'Onzz on the ground, the turned herself invisible and flew at top speed back to her vessel, swearing silently that she and her colleges in the Hyper Clan would one day claim the Earth as their new home.

The JLA members surrounded the injured Sentinel. They were greatly concerned for him. He hadn't moved. "Is he going to be all right?" the Wasp asked.

"I think so," Giant Man said. "But we need to get him to a hospital.

As they rushed the unconscious Sentinel to a medical facility, the man beneath the mask, Alan Scott, dreamed of his son, and tears flowed from his half closed eyes. Once again, he had lost his son.