The monster had escaped and was heading toward New York City. Its victims were strewn about the highway, injured or dead, some trapped in burning vehicles. The devastation was appalling!
A half-mile away, another victim, as yet unseen, lay dying with less than thirty seconds to live. Larry Trainer - a.k.a. Negative-Man - was prostrate on the dirt of the wide field, counting the remaining moments of his life. He had released his counterpart from his body, to stop the strange monster. The Negative-Man failed and was destroyed. Larry knew that he could not survive more than 90 seconds without the Negative-Man returning to his rapidly weakening body. Since the Negative-Man had been destroyed by the creature he fought, there was obviously no way it could return to Larry in time. He was about to die!
20 seconds, he thought. 20 seconds to live!
Nearby, out of the same once-hidden service tunnel that Larry himself had come up out of, his fellow Doom Patrol members arrived on the scene.
Mister Terrific, Elasti-Girl, Namorita, Robotman, Halo . . . his friends.
Mr. Terrific was distracted by the plume of smoke coming from the highway. Something bad had happened. There were probably casualties. Namorita saw something close by.
"Look!" Namorita said, pointing at Larry. Her sharp Atlantean eyes spotted the unmoving form of Larry Trainer in the grass. Her eyes missed very little.
The rest of the team surrounded Larry. He was semi-coherent, but he seemed to recognize the Doom Patrol. Mister Terrific immediately registered the signs. Larry was rapidly weakening due to separation from the Negative-Man.
"Where is your counterpart?" Terrific asked. "Where is your Negative form?"
"D . . . Destroyed!" Larry said, weakly. "He's gone. I'm going to die in about ten seconds."
"No! I won't let you!" Halo said, desperately. "You will not die!"
Halo transmuted herself into her lightform, and then into a beam of light. She entered Larry's body through the eye, like a laser. Larry's body jerked and went into spasms . . . and then it was filled!
Larry suddenly felt a warm fullness welling up inside him. A light filled the deep darkness that permeated his radioactive body. A bright energy illuminated the void inside him. He was no longer a black hole of bitter emptiness. He hadn't realized how empty his soul was, until it was filled! The feeling was glorious!
Under his bandages, Larry smiled, content for the first time in a very long time. He felt connected to someone. Until now, he couldn't remember what that was like. Until now.
Mister Terrific took note of the fact that the ten seconds had passed and Larry was still breathing. In fact, he was breathing better than he had been moments earlier. Whatever Halo had done, it was working. Terrific knew it was only a temporary fix, but it was better than anything that he had come up with himself.
"I have to help Larry," he said. "Rita, take the others and go to the highway. See what's happening. Help any innocents caught in the chaos. And keep in touch. I want to know what's happening!"
"You got it, boss man," Rita said, and gestured to Robotman and Namorita to follow her.
After they rushed off, Mister Terrific leaned over and whispered in Larry's ear. "Larry. Halo. I don't know if you can hear me, but I've got something that I think may help you. I'll have to leave you for a minute but I'll be back. I promise!"
Terrific rushed back to the Savage Estate, bent on retrieving the one piece of equipment he owned that could possibly save Larry Trainer.
Across the field . . .
Elasti-Girl, Robotman, and Namorita arrived at the highway. Rita was taken aback by the senseless slaughter of so many innocents.
"We've got some live ones in there," Rita said. "Get them clear of the burning vehicles. We don't want the cars to explode near them. Be gentle. They may have broken bones."
"Good as done, Rita gal," Robotman said.
Namorita didn't like taking orders from Elasti-Girl but Mr. Terrific had put her in charge and now was not the time for being obstinate. The Atlantean Princess would play along . . . for now!
Meanwhile, back at the service tunnel entrance . . .
Larry lay on the ground in a blissful sleep. He was possessed by a warm energy and a sense of togetherness that he had never imagined existed. The hole inside him had been filled by a being composed of light and love and warmth. Halo was doing more than keeping him alive. She was teaching him what living was really about.
Halo, inside him, was more familiar with feelings of closeness than Larry was. However, she had never been so bonded and so connected with anyone than this. Like Larry, she enjoyed the linking of body and soul that they were experiencing. They knew each other now in a way that two people could ordinarily never know each other. More intimate than any intimacy they had ever conceived of. For this brief time, they were one!
Mister Terrific returned with an armful of equipment and a mini solar generator strapped to his back. The devices were part of equipment that he was using to study the Negative Zone. They had the ability to absorb and store certain types of sub-atomic energy. Particularly negative energy.
Terrific set up the equipment and quickly readjusted it. Hooking it up to the storage battery, he activated the device. It hummed with power as invisible rays soaked up a unique type of ambient energy in the air. He hoped he could retrieve and recollect the energy that used to be the Negative-Man.
The tactic succeeded! A humanoid form materialized in the air above Larry. The dark silhouette that was the Negative-Man returned from the ether, renewed and revitalized. The shadow duplicate looked down at its counter part and dived down, reentering Larry's body.
At that moment, Halo was ejected, thrust out forcibly. Negative-Man evicted her from his dark refuge inside Larry Trainer. Negative-Man was at home again in Larry's body and Halo was pushed out.
Halo reconstituted herself. Dizzy and disoriented, she almost passed out. Mr. Terrific caught her. He shook her to help her focus.
"Are you all right, Halo?" he asked.
"Uh, yes," she muttered. "I'll be well in a moment. Don't worry about me. Check on Larry."
As for Larry Trainer himself, he jerked again when the switch was made from the bright loving essence of Halo to the dark but familiar coldness of the Negative-Man. He didn't feel that usual relief when the Negative-Man returned to his body. This time, he felt like he had lost something. The bond with Halo had been broken. Or had it?
Larry opened his eyes and saw Mister Terrific kneeling over him, looking very worried.
"Don't look so emotional," Larry whispered. "Your supposed to be the dispassionate scientist, right?"
Terrific grinned. "I can see that you're perfectly all right."
"Where's Halo?"
The pretty young Inhuman was sitting nearby on the grass, overcoming the dizziness that almost made her pass out. She was recovering quickly and heard Larry ask for her.
"I'm here," she said.
Larry looked over at her. Their eyes met and they shared a unique recognition, a familiarity bordering on oneness. He felt an amazing sense of gratitude. She was just glad that he was all right.
"Thanks," he said.
She smiled brightly. "It was wonderful."
"Yeah. It was."
Mister Terrific didn't know what they were talking about but he sensed that it was something personal that he shouldn't involve himself in. "Halo, look after Larry. I'm going to check on the others."
"I'll take care of him," she said.
"She already has," Larry added.
Terrific nodded and rushed off to join the other three. Halo sat next to Larry.
"It was glorious," she said, stroking his shoulder tenderly.
"Halo," he said, nervously forcing out his words. "I . . . I love you."
Halo put a finger to his lips. "Hush. Words are no good now."
She lay down on him and kissed him through his bandages. "We are one," she said. And then there was silence.
Not far away . . .
Mr. Terrific reached the highway. He quickly took stock of the sickening situation. So many dead. What had happened here? He wished he'd had time to question Larry about it.
Rita saw him arrive. "Is Larry . . . ?"
"He seems to be okay," Terrific said. "Halo saved him."
Mr. Terrific joined Rita and the others in helping the victims of the highway disaster. He was a physician trained by the most respected surgeon in history, Dr. Clark Savage. He administered first aid to the wounded. Soon the police and ambulances came. Terrific supervised the relief effort until everyone who was salvageable was taken away to the hospital and the dead were cleared from the scene.
"Do you have any idea what happened here?" a cop asked Mr. Terrific.
"No, not yet," he said. "But I know someone who probably does!"
Mr. Terrific, Elasti-Girl, Robotman and Namorita left the scene to go and see what Larry knew.
New York City
The creature from the Negative Zone that called itself Blastarr the Living Bomb Burst, had arrived in Manhattan. After propelling itself via its own energy bursts, it set down near the Cloisters, a grand old church in the uptown area, just off the Hudson River.
After casually demolishing a portion of the Cloisters, Blastarr stomped in the direction of the tall buildings he spotted further downtown. He was a fearsome looking monster, large and bestial, with blue skin, a shaggy mane, fangs and pointed ears. He disdainfully destroyed much of the architecture that blocked his path and randomly incinerated people he passed. Others ran from him, desperately trying to evade his deadly blasts.
The police failed to slow his progress. He was bulletproof and his energy blasts wiped out the brave but futile forces that the NYPD set against him. He continued on his trek toward midtown Manhattan.
Inside the Savage estate
Mister Terrific had Larry laid out in the infirmary. His vital signs were normal, at least for a man with Radiation flowing through his body. He seemed to be in fine spirits, more so than usual, which Terrific chalked up to Halo's actions. Larry beamed at Halo who sat by his side, staring tenderly at him. Whatever had happened, something had changed for Larry, and possibly for Halo as well.
"Can you remember what happened?" Terrific asked him.
Larry forced himself to turn away from Halo and focus on the situation. "Yeah, I can remember it all. Some sort of monster came out of the service tunnel."
Larry continued with his story about the big, blue monster that spoke in a foreign tongue and fired energy bursts from his hands. It mercilessly killed innocents on the highway and seemed immune to Negative-Man's powers. It easily destroyed Negative-Man.
"It was facing toward the city last time I saw it," Larry added.
"That's the way the footprints were headed," Rita said. "But they disappeared at the highway."
"I noticed some sort of scorch marks at the edge of the highway," Terrific said. "At first I thought it was a result of flaming debris from one of the exploding cars. But some of the spots were turned to glass. That wouldn't happen with fiery debris. I assumed it had to be something connected with the source of the attack. Perhaps the creature was able to propel itself."
"I have no idea what kind of language it was speaking," Larry added.
"I wonder where it came from?" Terrific mused.
"I believe I may have a suggestion as to that," Namorita said. "I think perhaps it emerged from the Negative Zone."
Mr. Terrific was alarmed by the suggestion. "What makes you say that?"
Namorita described the half-seen vision spotted out of the corner of her eye when Mister Terrific opened the portal to the Negative Zone to trap the Molecule Man. She had rationalized that she had imagined it due to the tension of the situation, and that it was perhaps some sort of debris being thrown about by the suction of the Negative Zone. She dismissed it but the sight had been bothering her. Some instinct told her that something was wrong. She convinced herself that it was impossible for something to resist the pull of that incredible suction. In retrospect, she thought perhaps she should have said something.
Terrific nodded. He too wished she had said something, but what's done is done and at least she had admitted her mistake now. "So you believe that something was powerful enough to fight the vacuum forces of the open portal and come into our universe unnoticed amid the chaos of the Molecule Man battle."
"If you wish my honest opinion on the matter, than I would say yes," Namorita stated.
"That would explain why he came out of the service tunnels," Rita said. "The entrance to the tunnels isn't too far from the Negative Zone viewing room."
"It certainly don't sound like nuthin' from 'round these parts," Robotman said.
Mr. Terrific was upset by this. "If it did come from the Negative Zone, then we're at fault. Or at least, I am. By opening the Negative Zone portal, I may have unleashed a monster. It's my responsibility to stop it!"
"Ours, ya mean," Robotman insisted.
"Right," Rita said. "Your problems are our problems. The Doom Patrol sticks together."
"You have our loyalty," Namorita stated.
"And I want another crack at this big, ugly slimebag!" Larry snapped.
"I'd like to help, too," Halo said.
"Thanks everyone," Mr. Terrific said. "We just need to find -- "
HERBIE the robot floated in on his hover-jets. "Excuse me, Sirs and Madams. There is something on the news which I believe should be brought to your attention."
Next: What is it that HERBIE's seen on the news? Find out in part four!