The Gathering of Young Heroes

Ezekiel blinked. Did he hear him right? What is the composition of my skin?

"My what!?" he exclaimed as the man who was recently revealed to be Bedrock asked him the question again. He was so dazzled by the red light emitting from the creepy jogger's hand that he could not process what the mustached man was implying.

"Dammit kid! Your skin!" shouted the man. "One of your powers gives you metallic skin, do you know its composition!?"

Bedrock continued to study the doctor's movements. He could tell by that creepy smile that the next attack was going to be of a wider radius meaning no more narrow misses. The lump in the man's throat fled to the back of his larynx as he asked the kid once again.

"Come on kid. Think really hard. What is your metallic skin made out of."

I don't know! Ezekiel thought as he stared down at his metal clad hands. He had never shown a doctor his ability before, nor had he asked his teachers to identify what element or compound they though his skin resembled. Then an idea struck him! In this form he was able to punch through solid steel wall with hardly any effort. But would this be enough?

"Well it's stronger than steel if that helps." he replied to Bedrock.

Bedrock smiled inwardly again.

"Perfect!" he exclaimed as the the light emanating from the Doctor began to darken. So strong was power being radiated from the man in the jogger gear, that tiny pebbles began to rise in the air due to attractive forces of the Doctor's body being greater than the force due to gravity acting on those pebbles.

Bedrock straightened himself as he nudged slightly closer to the kid and began to stretch his right arm over to him, until it was firmly clamped on Ezekiel's shoulder.

"Listen to me carefully kid. You follow my instructions with accuracy and I swear to you we might just make it out of this mess yet." Then without another word, Bedrock leans in and whispers the details of his plan to the kid.

Ezekiel listened to every word. Was the mustached man insane? There was no way he could survive another one of the doctor's energy blasts. Then again, his chances for coming up with something else were slim to none.

"I got it." replied the Jones boy as he readied himself for the task at hand.

Then once again, Bedrock's powers activated. The wind died and the electrical cackle coming from the jogger stopped. A seagull above in the sky stood frozen its wings not moving. The leaves falling from the trees were trapped in mid flight. But perhaps the most amazing feature of this phenomenon was the absence of colors from the surrounding area and the utter coldness Ezekiel felt from standing now. So this is what Bedrock sees when he activates his powers for a brief second.

But of course, this was how Bedrock's power worked! Ezekiel thought. He recalled a discussion about this situation in a modern physics course he took at Fordham. When asked whether or not it was theoretically possible to stop time, the professor simply responded only under the conditions of absolute zero would time cease to exist. Thus, Bedrock's power must be to remove the thermal energy of a given radius thus sapping away all forms of energy except for some tiny minute fraction of light that enabled them to see in black and white. Ezekiel shook his head, amazed by his thinking. Uncle Pete was right, I should've continued my education he thought to himself.

Sweat dripped down the mustached man's face. But his concentration did not waiver. It could not, it had to hold for the plan. Bedrock clutched his chest, he always hated the consequences of his power. For every use, his heart would slow until it would eventually stop if he froze time too much.

But I won't die this day he thought to himself.

"Enough sight-seeing kid! Remember the plan! Grab the Doctor and don't let go!" Bedrock fell to one knee as the strain was becoming more than he could bear. But he had to hold on until the boy could get the Doctor.

Upon hearing Bedrock's words, Ezekiel nodded. Then, hurrying as fast as he can, he rushed behind the time frozen jogger, and grabbed his outstretched arm by the hand first and then wrapped his other arm around the jogger's torso.

Suddenly, time sped up once more as the stationary objects began to fill with life and energy again.

"Gotcha smiley!" Ezekiel whispered into the Doctor's ear. Doctor's smile quickly withdrew as he observed the boy grabbing him with all his strength. Immediately, Ezekiel felt this strange power pulsing through him. Although the sensation wasn't painful it felt as if a cold shiver was running through all his body in a single instant.

The mustached man smiled. The kid had done what he was told without any hesitation. Now all that was left was to finish the Doctor off.

The Doctor's expression still showed great annoyance with this tactic as he snarled by tricked so easily like this. Then his face twitch once again as his smile came back.

"Did you really think such cheap antics could stop a being made of pure energy, agent Bedrock? I must say the Agency certainly is slipping in the intellect department these days. No matter, time to die boy." Upon finishing his statement, the man in the jogger apparel proceed to glow red slightly and then:


[size=200]SHHHZZZKKK![/size]

The force of the energy being unleashed by the jogger knocked the mustached man onto his back as dust and tiny bits of a jogger suit flew every which way. But as the dust settled, there stood Ezekiel still firmly clutching the jogger.

"What!? But why!? NO! Of course! the boy is practically a living conductor! I've been tricked! NOOOOOO!" screamed the jogger as his figure suddenly began to fade and become transparent.

The mustached man rose to his feet and pulled out his PDA once again and proceeded to read aloud: "Doctor Double X, a class 4 villain. Known for his abilities of producing a energy doppelganger with vast powers and skills. Caution should be exercised when approaching this subject." Bedrock looked down at the still diminishing body of the jogger as he placed his PDA back into his pocket.

"Nice new abilities Doc, but I'm afraid you won't be getting away this time because unfortunately you need an electrical energy source to create your dupe. And this is Central Park and I know exactly where you are." Without another word, Bedrock points over to the bench, where a hobo cover in newspapers was sleeping. Suddenly, the man leapt from his newspapers and began to run for the nearest exit. At about halfway, he was tacked by one heavily armed person while two others pointed strange looking guns at the Doctor.

"Ahhh... Just like the Canadian Mounties," stated Bedrock as he placed his slightly charred sunglasses over his eyes. "we always get our man."

As the dupe looked up to the mustached man tower over, he could only stare with his vacant eyes before completely dissipating. The plan to use the boy as a conductor worked perfectly, forcing the electrically composed doppelganger to make a connection via the boy into the ground there by forcing him to cancel out his electrical body. As the electron's fly into the ground they essentially are unable to flow as well hence they begin to dissipate into the ground. Thereby getting rid of the real threat the dupe, leaving the non power Doctor to become apprehended.

Bedrock looked over at the boy who was now powering down as he looked at his hands. Perhaps the kid does have some potential he thought to himself as he activate his radio once again.

"I need a transport for two, a neutralizer containment field for the doctor, make sure he can't access any electrical power sources. Oh and tell Charlie will be coming early to the meeting. Hope he doesn't mind." Switching off the radio, Bedrock walks over to the boy and gives him a slap on the shoulder.

"You did alright kid! Not bad for a rookie like yourself. What do you say I treat you to some dinner. Don't worry about your Aunt and Uncle, you can call them on the way. What do you say?"

Ezekiel blinked twice at the mustached man. So many thoughts were swimming through his head. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He wanted to ask the man so many questions. What is the Agency? What the hell is a class 4 villain? What the hell happened to guy he was just holding? Are you mutant too?

Finally, after a moment to clear his thoughts he stared hard at the man known as Bedrock.

"You buying?" Ezekiel asked. The mustached man simply smiled and nodded. "Then dinner sounds great, Mr. uhhh??"

"Bedrock is fine kid." uttered the mustached man, as he shook Ezekiel's left hand firmly. "I can tell its going to be a pleasure working with you... Metal spike was it?"

Ezekiel smiled and nodded, as both men walked towards the nearest exit of the park where a strange black cab stood waiting for them.


[Metalspyke earns 1 free FASERIP stat point from this endeavor]

[size=200]~FIN[/size]