“For a while, I was without direction, hopeless, but then I met a young mystic who filled me in on the true nature of the Multiverse.”
“K’Dessa,” Donna guessed correctly.
Ray nodded. “She spoke of fifty-two completely different Earths, each of them unique, yet still similar in some ways to my own. So I made it my business to learn how to slip between the universes on a quantum level and started searching for a place that might be able to bring me some peace of mind. But most of what I found was even worse than the world I came from....”
He shuddered at the memory of some of the bizarre Earths he had encountered in his travels. A world of Gothic horrors where Batman was a vampire who preyed upon the blood of the wicked. A world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, thanks to a patriotic Russian version of Superman. Worlds of Crime Societies and Extremists, where unstoppable super-villains robbed and murdered at will. A postapocalyptic Earth, devastated by a nuclear war. A world where the Nazis won World War II...
" ’ “I’d almost given up,” he admitted, “when I found this world. So much like mine, yet blissfully untainted by many of the tragedies that had darkened my own Earth. I couldn’t resist seeking myself out, hoping that, perhaps, the sight of another Ray Palmer, living out a more idyllic existence, would somehow bring me comfort. But things didn’t turn out the way I planned...
His memory flashed back to that fateful day two years ago.
Only two inches high, the Atom spies on his twin as the other Ray tinkers with complicated scientific apparatus in the basement of his comfortable home in Ivy Town. As nearly as he can tell, this world’s Ray had also discovered the existence of the Multiverse and is even now preparing to test a portal designed to access alternate realities. Hiding upon a cluttered tool shelf the Atom holds his breath as Ray-51 activates the device.
But the eager scientist had obviously miscalculated. The portal explodes in a burst of cosmic energy that instantly incinerates its inventor. Aghast, the Atom watches himself die!
The notion of taking the other Ray’s place does not
amammtswm in
occur to the stunned hero immediately, but, once he overcomes his initial shock at his counterpart’s abrupt demise, the idea steadily takes over his mind. After all, the Justice League is busy waging its final battles against the forces of evil. Perhaps this Earth still needs an Atom?
What really convinces him, however, is the note he finds scribbled on the other Ray’s calendar: BLIND DATE WITH JEAN L. DINNER. 7:30.
“He wasn’t really your Ray yet,” he explained to Jean, who stared at him in bewilderment. He lifted his gaze from the floor. “I wasn’t deceiving you, not really. It was like I had a second chance to make things perfect between us. We could be happy again, for good this time... fl His voice trailed off as she turned away from him, unable to cope. Confused sobs racked her slender body. Does she believe me, he agonized, or does she think I’ve tost my mind? He reached out for her tentatively. “Jean? I’m still the man you fell in love with....”
“What the hell?” Ralph’s nose wiggled indignantly. “I’ve had enough of this bull!” Fists clenched, he glared at Donna and her companions. “I don’t know what sort of game you’re playing here, but... !”
“I’m so sorry,” Donna replied, a guilty expression on her face. She appeared genuinely troubled by the turmoil she had caused. “But I’m afraid it’s all true.”
Barry scratched his head. “Parallel Earths, separated by some sort of vibrational barriers?” The scientist in him sounded intrigued by the theory. “I suppose it’s possible. .. *
“It is more than possible, Barry Allen,” the Monitor stated firmly. Jean and the guests shrank away instinctively from the imposing armored figure. “Everything spoken of tonight is reality. And Ray Palmer is the very reason we are here.”
“I don’t understand,” Ray said. “How did you find me?” “One of my brethren inadvertently revealed your location,” the Monitor explained, “when he tried to convince me that you were ‘living a life of no consequence.’ Nix
Uotan could not have known that for a fact unless you were dwelling in the very universe he was charged to monitor.” A scowl rendered the Monitor’s saturnine countenance even more forbidding. “Clearly, he had a personal stake in obstructing our quest.”
Ray had no idea who “Nix Uotan” was, but that hardly mattered now. “I don’t understand. Why did you have to track me down anyway?” Moist eyes implored the intraders. His voice cracked. “Why couldn’t you people just leave me alone?”
“The Multiverse has need of you, Ray Palmer.” The Monitor strode across the living room toward the seated hero. He pointed a gloved finger at Ray. “You are destined to play a crucial role in events to come.”
Ray refused to accept this. “But that’s ridiculous! Why me?”
• Jason Todd shrugged. “Don’t ask me, dude. I’m just along for the ride.”
His crimson mask failed to conceal his cocky attitude, which Ray remembered from Jason’s days as Robin. “Jason?” Barry asked, belatedly recognizing the masked youth. He looked like he’d seen a ghost, and no wonder; on this world, it was the Joker’s brutal murder of Jason Todd that had ultimately inspired the Justice League to put away all the super-villains once and for all. A memorial to the martyred sidekick occupied a prime location in Gotham City’s ritzy Wayne Plaza. People still laid flowers in front of the statue on the anniversary of Robin’s death. “This is incredible!”
“I’m sorry,” Donna apologized again. “But the Monitor knows what he’s talking about. We’ve come a long way to find you, Ray.”
But I didn’t want to be found! Ray had always liked Donna Troy, but right now she and her unwanted cohorts seemed like harbingers of doom, pronouncing a death sentence on everything he had managed to build for himself on this wonderful new world. “I wish you hadn’t.”
“Your personal desires are irrelevant,” the Monitor declared. “You must come with us at once—or risk universal catastrophe!”
“No!” Ray lurched from his chair. “There are other heroes out there, fifty-two worlds’ worth! Find someone else for your goddamn crusade! I’m not going anywhere!” Donna tried to intervene. “I know this must come as a shock, Ray, but we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was important.” She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “K’Dessa herself spoke of a prophecy....”
“I don’t care!” He swatted her hand away. “I have a new life here, a new chance at happiness. I’m not giving that up!”
His friends came to his defense. Barry twisted a ring upon his finger and a hypercompressed red suit sprang from a hidden compartment in the ring. The lanky forensic scientist donned the unifonn in a split second. Metallic yellow lightning bolts accented the skintight red costume. “If you want Ray, you’ll have to go through the Flash!”
A look of profound annoyance darkened the Monitor’s face. Without warning, he fired a blast of energy from his gauntlet. Burning plasma instantly consumed the Flash, reducing him to a charred skeleton before the very eyes of his wife and friends. The blackened bones clattered onto the carpet. “Barry Allen,” the Monitor said coldly, “this time you die before the Crisis can take root.”
“B-Barry?” Iris Allen let out a heartrending scream. “BARRY!”
Oh my God! Ray thought. The Flash had just been murdered in the blink of an eye. He didn’t even see it coming!
“Stop it, Solomon!” Donna sounded equally horrified by the slaughter. She tackled the Monitor from behind, locking him in a bear hug. “Have you gone insane?”
“Do not deter me, Donna Troy!” There was a blinding flash as his personal force field expanded to break the heroine’s hold, flinging her backward into the Christmas tree. The plus-sized Douglas fir crashed down onto the
couch. Glass and crystal ornaments shattered noisily. Jason Todd scrambled to check on Donna, while Ralph and Sue hustled Iris away from the fight. Meanwhile, the Monitor calmly ignored the tumult. “If Ra
y Palmer refuses to abandon his counterfeit existence on this planet, then perhaps we must strip away its trappings!”
His volcanic red eyes zeroed in on Jean.
No! Ray thought. He leapt between the deadly alien and his wife. Not her!
Rebounding from Solomon’s counterattack, Donna charged at the Monitor. Broken glass and pine branches crunched beneath her silver boots. Solomon turned to face her. His right gauntlet glowed in warning. “I would have thought you would be more reasonable, Donna,” he said in a disappointed tone. “Surely you appreciate what is at stake here!”
• “Reason with this!” Donna snarled. Her super-strong fist collided with the Monitor’s jaw. He stumbled backward, bumping into the coffee table. The pitcher of eggnog toppled over, spilling its foaming contents over the table. Donna pressed her attack against the murderous alien. A second blow slammed into Solomon’s gut, denting his armor. “You didn’t have to kill anyone! We could have talked to him!”
Ray saw an opportunity to get Jean to safety. “Ralph! Sue!” he yelled at his friends, who still looked shellshocked by Barry’s fiery death. “Take care of Iris! Get the hell away from here!” He grabbed Jean by the arm and tugged her away from the demolished living room. “Hurry, Jean! Please!”
“What?” Traumatized blue eyes stared back over her shoulder at the furious conflict destroying their home. Solomon hurled Donna through a plate glass window. A freezing gust of wind invaded the house. Snow blew onto the carpet. Jason Todd snatched a broken plate from the floor and hurled it like a Batarang at the Monitor’s face. Unable to process it all, Jean hesitated in the hallway beyond the living room. “Where are you taking me?”
“Away!” He pulled harder on Jean’s arm as he hurried her toward the steps leading down to the basement. Part of him hated abandoning the others, but saving Jean had to be his first priority. I’m the reason she’s in danger, he thought guiltily. I can ’tfail her now. Not again!
They reached the bottom of the stairs. Fluorescent lights lit up the cluttered cellar where this world’s own Ray Palmer had died. Lab equipment occupied wooden shelves and workbenches. Insulated pipes and cables snaked across the ceiling. An oil furnace rumbled in the background. The hot water boiler gurgled in the comer. Fresh tile concealed the scorch marks left behind by the explosion two years ago. Ray prayed that history was not about to repeat itself.
He fiddled with the controls on his belt buckle. He had to calibrate this carefully to avoid trapping them between
* worlds. “Trust me,” he begged Jean. “We have to escape this reality!”
“Escape? This reality?!” Her voice skirted the edge of hysteria; this was obviously too much for her to take in all at once. She tore herself away from his grasp, her tearful blue eyes staring at him like she didn’t know who he was anymore, not that she ever really had. “Ray, listen to yourself! Don’t you realize how crazy this sounds?”
No crazier than a fanatical alien crashing our Christmas party and killing Barry, he thought. He stepped forward and gently took her in his arms. If only I had more time to prepare for this...! “It won’t happen again, Jean. I promise.”
She still didn’t understand. “What won’t happen? What do you mea—”
“Palmer!” An entire section of the ceiling disintegrated and the Monitor descended through the gap. He hovered above the floor of the basement, glowering down at the cornered humans like the Angel of Death. “This is journey’s end, Ray Palmer. You have nowhere left to run!” That’s what you think, Ray thought. He frantically adjusted the controls on his belt, but the minute he let go of
Jean, she bolted in panic away from the Monitor. “Wait, Jean! Come back!” His mouth went dry with fear. His heart pounded against his rib cage. “You won’t shrink with me if I’m not holding you!”
The Monitor turned his attention to Jean. “Is this insignificant female the reason you refuse to accompany us?” he asked Ray. Without waiting for an answer, he aimed his gauntlet at Jean, who was now cowering behind the bulky iron furnace. “Very well. In a moment, nothing more will bind you to this world.”
“Leave her alone, you monster!” He launched himself at Solomon, but the powerful being effortlessly knocked Ray aside. He crashed into boxes of unpacked lab equipment, piled high against a wall. An avalanche of heavy cardboard boxes tumbled onto him. Dazed, his head ringing, he shouted for help. “Donna! Jason! Somebody!”
'* As though in answer to his desperate cries, a shimmering column of light materialized between Solomon and his helpless target. Ray’s eyes widened in surprise as another Monitor emerged from the flickering transporter beam. Unlike Solomon, this alien was clean-shaven and wore his long black hair tied up in the back. He looked mad as hell.
“Hold, brother!” the newcomer commanded. “This woman is under my protection. You have inflicted enough damage on my world.”
Solomon reacted angrily to the other Monitor’s interference. “Stay out of this, Nix Uotan! You cannot hide Ray Palmer from me any longer!”
“What transpires on this Earth is none of your concern,” Uotan replied. “I was under no obligation to divulge the Atom’s whereabouts to you.” He glanced at the bruised figure beneath the boxes. His inhuman red eyes held a hint of sympathy. “If I chose to grant him refuge on my world, that was my prerogative.”
Solomon clenched his fists. “But I have found him nonetheless!” Throwing out one arm, he blasted a hole in one wall. Plaster and masonry flew apart, exposing a charred patch of frozen earth beyond the walls of the basement. The explosion alarmed Jean, who let out a frightened shriek. The Monitor let the impact of his demonstration sink in before speaking again. “Surrender Ray Palmer to me now or I will reduce this placid Earth of yours to a wasteland!”
“Not so fast, pal!” A Bowie knife bounced off the back of Solomon’s skull. Jason Todd dropped down through the gap in the ceiling, followed immediately by Donna Troy. A split lip and bruised forehead testified to the severity of her clash with the berserk Monitor, but she looked ready for more. Jason drew an automatic pistol and took aim at Solomon’s head. “I’m supposed to be the trigger-happy one around here, remember?”
“Do not try my patience further!” Solomon barked at his traveling companions. “This is now between my onetime brother and me.” He advanced aggressively toward the other Monitor. “Well, Nix Uotan? Shall we resume our duel?”
“Gladly!” the other Monitor said. He extended a glowing palm before him. “You must pay for transgressing upon my domain!”
Crawling out from beneath the heap of boxes, Ray hastily assessed the situation. The Monitors faced off against each other, each powerful enough to reduce the entire neighborhood to rubble, if not all of Ivy Town, while Donna and Jason stood poised to join the conflict as well. Ray could only imagine the devastation in store, with Jean trapped at ground zero. This is all my fault, he realized. Barry’s gruesome death tore at his conscience. There’s only one thing left to do. ...
“Wait!” he shouted at Solomon. “I’ll go with you—-if you’ll leave this world alone!”
His offer caught the ruthless Monitor’s attention. He cocked his head in Ray’s direction. “You consent to join our crusade? You will fulfill your destiny?”
“Yes, you murderous bastard! Yes!” Ray clambered to his feet. He pleaded hoarsely with the looming alien.
“Take me back to my own Earth. Throw me into another cosmic Crisis. Just leave Jean and the rest of this world alone!”
Solomon nodded gravely. “These terms are acceptable to me.” He turned back toward the other Monitor. “So, Nix Uotan, are you still prepared to fight me for this mortal’s sake?”
“Perhaps that will not be necessary.” Lowering his guard, the second alien gazed sadly at Ray. Something about him made him seem more humane than his merciless kinsman. “My apologies, Ray Palmer. In light of your past sufferings, I was willing to overlook your presence here, even going so far as to conceal your location from my fellow Monitors, but my true duty i
s to this universe and its native inhabitants. I fear it is time you depart this realm ... for all time.”
' Ray felt his heart die a second time. Yet he stood up straight, stoically facing his fate. “I understand,” he said. “I don’t belong here. I never really did.”
“Ray! What are you saying?” Overcoming her fear, Jean stumbled out from behind the furnace. Her eyes were red from crying. Mascara streaked her cheeks. Soot smeared her purple sweater. “You can’t go with these ... creatures! You belong here ... with me!”
“I’m sorry, Jean.” He resisted the urge to go to her, knowing that if he held her in his arms again, he would never be able to let her go. “There’s no other way.” He smelled Barry’s scorched bones smoking upstairs and prayed that Iris and the others had gotten away safely. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if anyone else got hurt because of his deception. “I’ll never forget the time we had together.” He started to choke up, but somehow managed to get the words out. “You gave me back something I thought I’d lost forever.”
And now I’ve got to throw it all away again.
“Ray, no!” She started toward him, but the kinder, gentler Monitor grabbed on to her shoulders, restraining her. She struggled to get free, but could not break loose from the alien’s powerful grip. “Let go of me!” she wailed. “I want to go with him!”
‘That cannot be allowed,” Uotan said sorrowfully. “The immutable laws of the Multiverse have already been violated enough. You must remain on this Earth, where you belong, while these others must return to their own universe at once.”
“NO!” Jean shrieked. She writhed in the Monitor’s iron grasp, like a madwoman caught in a straitjacket. Loose black hair fell across her face. Crazed blue eyes implored Ray. Saliva sprayed from her lips. “Don’t do this to me, Ray! Don’t leave me! RAY!”
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