ATOMICA: Let Freedom Ring (Part 4)

LET FREEDOM RING: PART 4

A pair of figures stood silhouetted against the deepening gloom of nightfall over the blasted crater of the National Mall. Scant yards away, the endless sounds of firefights between slavers and Supermutants for possession of the Lincoln Memorial echoed through the devastation.

Atomica muttered to her suit. “Magnify and enhance.” Her night vision kicked in, showing her that most of the bullets being slung back and forth were not intended to kill, only to suppress. The Slavers knew the Supermutants would act as an a living fence and unwilling watchdogs as they established their base of power. The Supermutants were intelligent enough to not want to damage the structure.

“Its like an armed truce.” Liberator was alternately eating an apple and applying fast-acting fabric dyes to modify his armour's appearance. “Almost done here.”

Atomica smiled. “If I'm estimating right, there's room for several dozen freed slaves to recuperate in the underground part of the memorial.”

Liberator stood, knowing the memorial's own high intensity powered lights rendered him invisible to the slavers and Supermutants alike in the now fully-dark night sky. “You ready to do this thing?”

Atomica paused to admire the change that had come over Hamlin. “You're doing your ancestor proud.”

Liberator pointed to the Memorial. “The Great Emancipator once said that a friend is one who has the same enemies as you have. In this case, however, I think even he would make an exception.”



Atomica nodded, and sized up the situation. “Care for a game of tag?”

Liberator smiled “Lincoln also said, 'If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it.. Give him a chance.” The smile became a grin. “Or in this case, a woman. I hear tell, Miss Atomica, you deal with Supermutants very well.” He leapt off the rooftop, sprinting for the Memorial.

Atomica laughed as she bounded after him. “No head starts!” As the crested the battlements, her canon erupted in azure light, taking the head of a Supermutant Master clean off.

Liberator fired with nearly Superhuman speed, Slavers falling with each action of the lever. “That still only counts as one!”

Atomica detonated several grenade bouquets as Supermutant patrols rushed under then to close distance. Liberator called out above the machine gun fire. “Showoff!”

Liberator reached the center of the Memorial as Atomica dropped down from the roof. They stood reading the plaque on the great statue together. Liberator spoke first. “With malice toward none, with charity for all. Fitting words for a new beginning.” He gazed up at the statue. “That man once said: I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.” Nodding solemnly, Liberator removed Lincoln's hat and placed it over his heart. “In your honor, Sir, I will again make this a proud place.”

A shot pierced the solemn silence. Blood erupted from Liberator's scalp as the bullet creased it. Had he not chosen to bow his head, it would have ended up exiting between his eyes. A voice dripping in sarcasm and disdain chuckled. “I believe the line here is “Sic Semper Tyrannus”.

Atomica whirled, finding herself face to face with Leroy Walker. Behind him, a score or more of fresh, heavily armed slavers leveled their weapons at her and the now-unconscious Hannibal Hamlin. Walker sneered. “I remember as a kid, stories of freaks in circus costumes. Mutants, cyborgs, experimental gizmos that never did anyone any good. Anarchy.” He visibly shook with rage. “It was Anarchy, DO YOU HEAR ME?!?! ANARCHY!!!”

Atomica sized up the odds. Her suit informed her that it would not withstand the assembled firepower of the Slaver army from Paradise Falls that had arrived to relieve the small party that had been holding it.

Walker calmed himself, miming pushing down from shoulder height on an invisible surface at chest height. As he squashed his rage, he took three deep breaths in his nose, blowing them out forcefully from his mouth. “Eulogy Jones brought order. Eulogy Jones returned the rule of law.”

He gestured out over the expanse of the Mall. “Democracy did this! When you let the people vote, this is what happens!” He ratcheted back the bolt on his rifle. “Superheroes? Really? Unsanctioned vigilantes spreading disorder? Not on my watch!”

Atomica quietly subvocalized the command to overload her weapon. If she was going to die here, it would be on her terms, striking a blow for freedom.

Walker cleared his throat. “Atomica. By the power invested in me by force of arms and the rule of Order, I sentence you to death. May the Governed heed the lesson of your ignoble end.”

Atomica's weapon chimed once. She moved. Leaping up, kicking off the statue of Abraham Lincoln, she felt the heat blistering her arm as her weapon fired wide spreads of lethal energy. For every Slaver that fell, three more returned fire.

WARNING. SUIT INTEGRITY FAILING.

Rolling into a ball as she landed, Atomica managed to find a moment's cover behind a pillar.

POWER DEPELETED. SHUTTING DOWN.

“Crap.”

The lights failed as the Slavers advanced. Atomica caught the glimpse of a shapely female form on the open skylight area. Framed by the moon, her shadow cast down onto the floor. The slavers changed focus.

Flash. A bright light from high powered ammo leaving its chamber caught an older woman, her face hidden in the shadows of a fedora.

Flash. Flowing trenchcoat, bare midriff.

Flash. Flash. Flash.

Each bullet killed a Slaver.

When it was quiet, the mysterious stranger paused. The lights snapped back on. Atomica could see that her face was not obscured; in fact, she seemed to have none. On her chest, a silver lithium atom encircling a stylized roman numeral.



The faceless mask somehow conveyed a smile. A whisper carried on the breeze. “Allison.”

A heartbeat pause. ATOM-1 leapt up to the roof, and vanished into the night.

Groggily, Atomica crawled over to Hamlin. She found a stimpack in his jacket pocket. It did the trick. He sat up, rubbing his head and groaning. Atomica frowned. “This would be a good time to put those things up in a museum and go back to being Hannibal Hamlin. The world is violent enough without painting a target on yourself and asking for trouble.”

Putting his hat back on with grace and regal pride, Liberator stood, albeit a bit unsteadily. “Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” He reached down to help her up.

Atomica grasped his forearm as she did hers. “Alright then. Lets get this place fixed up. There's a lot of company coming.”

The two heroes began the earnest work of cleaning up the new Home of the Free.