Atomic Robo

Origin

In 1923, Nikola Tesla's career is in its twilight until he unveils a robot with automatic intelligence - Atomic Robo.

Creation

Atomic Robo was created by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener.

Character Evolution

Atomic Robo was granted full American citizenship in return for his participation in a top secret military operation in 1938. Atomic Robo went on to found Tesladyne: a think tank dedicated to exploring the fringes of weirdness, from vampires to super intelligent dinosaurs. Atomic Robo and his so-called Action Scientists of Tesladyne became the go-to defense force against the unexplained. He really hates Doctor Dinosaur (real name H'ssssk) who insists that he is a super smart velociraptor from the future. He claims that everything we mammals know about raptors is all lies and evil public relations ploys. He has tried at least two times to defeat Atomic Robo, each time resorting to trickery and high explosives to escape.

Major Story Arcs

Atomic Robo Vol 1

Atomic Robo opens with the Nazis up to all kinds of evil shenanigans and still trying to stay out of the war the U.S. Government turns to Atomic Robo and Tesla Industries to step in and led a helping hand. Dangling the carrot of capturing Baron Heinrich Von Helsingard a mutual pain the posterior the pot is sweetened by offering Atomic Robo the one thing that Tesla can’t give him: full status as a human being with the full rights as an American Citizen.

Having been offered the ultimate pay off Atomic Robo invades a secluded mountain fortress believed to be Helsingards secret base of evil things to arrest him on behalf of the League of Nations. Declaring Helsingard an enemy of all mankind Atomic reads the list of crimes (some that he has no idea what they are for they are so evil and heinous) Robo is then forced to work his way through a group of nazi foot soldiers who are instant on trying to stop him, even if they have to dog pile on the Robo.

While this is taking place deep in the depths of the fortress Helsingard is having the mysterious Vril organ implanted into his body to grant him god like powers to further his claim as a member of the master race. Upon his eventual appearance on the field of battle in typical villain fashion he proclaims that he can’t be defeated due to the Vril organ, resulting in Atomic Robo blasting him with a lighting gun right in said organ.

We next encounter Atomic Robo in modern day giving an interview about his life and what the hardest part has been. Through flash backs we get two tales which in the end tie together giving yet a deeper look at the human side of Atomic Robo. Things start to take off with the report of giant marauding monster ants moving towards a major American city from the desert. Tasked with stopping this threat Atomic Robo and crew launch into action with Atomic Robo obviously fazed by a letter he receives just before departing. With the contents of the letter weighing on his mind Robo leaps into the fray plummeting from a helicopter to smash one of the giant ants in the head with his Robo mass. Finding that only pure smash mouth tactics will stop the giant mutant ants as fire arms have no effect Robo resorts to smashing them, with Buicks. It is at this point that Robo drops some knowledge on his team declaring:

“Automobiles have been the best melee weapons to use against giant monsters sine the 50’s. It’s a science fact.”

When he runs out of cars he resorts to postal service drop boxes. Mixed in with the monster smashing are flash backs to the skies over 1940’s china as Atomic Robo is engaged in a dog fight with Japanese pilot. After a few tense moments Robo finally has had enough and rips his canopy from the plane so he can stand up and just shoot the enemy pilot down with his side arm and then proceeds to crash his own plane into the ground. We are then introduced to Charlie Simmons a friend and comrade of Robo’s. Through the telling of this side story we learn that the letter that arrived just before Robo left to smash things with cars was from Charlie’s granddaughter. It informed Robo that Charlie had lost his battle with cancer and had passed away. The final page of this story is Robo’s response letter expressing his deep sadness at learning of Charlie’s passing. In the end the hardest part of Robo’s life is that he is 83 years old and does a great Jack Benny, but no one gets it.

The violence through science keeps on kicking arse and taking names as Atomic Robo and crew are summoned to Egypt to deal with a 5000 year old pyramid that suddenly started moving on its own. Wanting to not blow the pyramid up which seemed their only option the Egyptian government reaches out to Robo to stop the Pyramid before it harms any innocent people. It is during this story that we get a formal introduction to Atomic Robo team member Jenkins (he did show up in issue two but it is in issue three that he starts to shine) who aside from Robo is the number two kicker of evil behinds on Team Robo (and might even give Atomic Robo a run for his money).

Upon approaching this moving pyramid from the sky a giant death ray protruding from the top of the Pyramid shoots team Robo down resulting in his team members wanting to know why they only get shot down when Robo is flying. With his mood not improved by this one bit Atomic Robo scales the Pyramid as the giant death ray appears to offer the only opening that would let Robo sneak inside without blowing a giant hole in it. Once inside he discovers that the entire pyramid is a giant steam driven tank whose run program has taken thousands of years to kick in. Even better Robo deduces that it can be brought to a stop by blasting the giant control crystal in the heart of the machine. Of course this seems like a good idea until it blows up and launches Atomic Robo from the top of the Pyramid like a giant volcano sending him crashing into the dessert. As Robo lays unconscious the story moves to a flashback of 1974 as we find Robo and Carl Sagan in Death Valley. At stake is the future of exploration of Mars as the Russians have failed to explore the red planet twice and NASA is standing on the brink of embarrassment and pending doom if their Viking mission fails. The only viable solution is Atomic Robo who is offered a free trip to Mars to ensure that the survey mission does not fail. Shortly into his flight to Mars the first of many snags pops up as he was only provided 5 magazines to keep himself company on the two year mission. It turns out that out of spite Stephen Hawkins provided a fake psych profile stating that he could go into a stand-by mode. It is not made clear what sparked this animosity between the two but as Atomic Robo waits on the surface of the moon for a year before he can return he leaves a parting gift for all to see on the surface of the moon. Having left a large rock sculpture depicting in clear righting that “Stephen Hawking is a bastard” written on the Mars surface.

Snapping back to consciousness Robo finds that he has been dragged back aboard his ground transport and is currently running form the Egyptian military who is shooting near them but not at them (as pointed out by the Egyptian President) as they are now wanted for destroying a valued historical and cultural monument. Due to this unfortunate accident Robo offers to wave his companies fee and will even throw in the next emergency for free, which leads to a giant monster erupting for the dessert moments later (The monster that pops up from the pyramid story is shot in the face with a bazooka by Jenkins in the back up story for issue #2 of Dogs of War and falls down and goes boom).

Things shift to the Apennine Mountains of Italy in 2005 as a village with no name and that shows on no map registered an anomaly on the HelsingG.U.A.R.D warning system. Atomic Robo and his team are dispatched to explore and decommission the base and take care of any items of evil that Helsingard left behind. Up to this point he has with various teams taken down at least four such bases to date and warns his team to keep their eyes opens for trouble. When asked how these missions go and if they are nothing but boring Robo flashes back to a base in 1985 when Atomic Robo and what is obviously members of G.I. Joe (Robo is dressed as Chuckles) taking on a killer robot in a hidden base in France. As Robo and his current team explores the base in Italy they find a room with old tanks and robots some dating back to 1888 and Robo again flashes back to an encounter with one of Helsingard’s robots in 1953 which was sent to attack Tesladyne Industries. His team then stumbles investigates another room with menacing machines and one of Robo’s team members accidently activates Helsingard’s Cyborg robot army. Gunfire and scientific violence ensue as Atomic Robo and his team is forced to blast their way out of the death trap they stepped into.

The final issue of Volume one brings us the show down between Atomic Robo and the Cyborg remains of Helsingard (a brain in a jar basically as Robo points out). Having captured Atomic Robo’s team Helsingard and Robo engage in action scientist fisticuffs to the point of Helsingard getting the upper hand monetarily due to his Cyborg minions ganging up in Atomic Robo handing him a beat down until out of know where Jenkins shows up and bum rushes Helsingard from behind. Getting him off balance long enough to plant remote detonators on him Jenkins is able to destroy Helsingard’s arms allowing Robo to get back on his feet and beat him within inches of defeat. As Robo is about to destroy Helsingard’s brain the head unit releases from the body and attempts to escape on a mini flying robotic platform only to smash into a wall as it tries to dodge Atomic Robo’s gunfire. Unknown to Robo and crew in a remote base in the Icelandic highlands upon the destruction of this brain an automated process is triggered where a reserve brain is inserted into the next Cyborg and Helsingard presumably will live again.

As Volume one draws to a close we get one of the more important back up stories as we are shown how Atomic Robo and Jenkins meet as Robo saves Jenkins from the Vampire dimension as he is the only surviving human in that dimension.

Vol 2 Dogs of War

Allied forces are invading France to push Hitler and his forces back to Germany but before this can happen Atomic Robo must air drop behind enemy lines and take out the new German super weapon. The Laufpanzer a mechanized armor which serves basically as a walking tank and a whole battle group has been diverted Sicily to stop the allies. As Allied troops land on the beaches Atomic Robo cuts his way through Nazi’s to their staging area where the Laufpanzer are stationed. Only to be donkey punched from behind by one of the Luafpanzers after a grenade stuns him.

Using his smarts Robo is able to by himself just enough time to escape even if only for a moment. Knowing he is out gunned Robo resorts to the only means of defense he has left; finding a bigger club and smashing the Laufpanzer into submission. While he tangles with this first Laufpanzer others have made their way to the beaches and are engaging the Allied troops. One unit of soldiers is saved at the last minute as Atomic Robo having beaten the snot out of the first Laufpanzer (never leave a perfectly good cannon laying around or someone one will use it to beat you up) crashes into this second Laufpanzer with a armored car he “borrowed” from the Nazi’s driving them both over an embankment to the beach below. This momentary victory seems lost when the Laufpanzer kicks Atomic Robo and the remains of the car into the sky and cuts loose with rocket fire causing it seems Robo and the car to explode. Still the Allies fight on and as it seems they are all about to become bacon as the Laufpanzer rains rockets and bullets in all directions Atomic Robo arrives riding on the back of a small armored vehicle which opens up on the Laufpanzer allowing Robo to eventually yank the driver from the cockpit. Alongside this unit (and small tank) Atomic Robo engages more of the Luafpanzers driving them from the field of battle saving American lives and helping gain a foothold in enemy territory. He and his new unit are then tasked with hunting down the 7 Laufpanzer armors that escaped.

Atomic Robo and his team are successful in their mission and we next find Robo sneaking onboard a secret Nazi train carrying two high ranking Nazi scientist. While Robo is working his way onto the train a mysterious female is also working her way onto the train from the opposite direction. Things become even more complicated after Robo (who having borrowed a uniform from a guard he tossed off the train) and the mystery lady both smash into the dining car at the same time. Mistaking Robo for a Nazi soldier (he is wearing a uniform after all) the mystery woman opens fire and only naturally Robo fires right back. Both are then caught off guard to find out this was all a trap set by the two Nazis sitting at the table one being Skorzeny who Robo has been after since first encountering him with the Luafpanzers. Having sprung their trap on Atomic Robo and the mystery lady who is called the Sparrow by their Nazi captors Skorzeny and his Vanadis his female evil Nazi cohort order them both killed. Which proves easy to say and harder to do as Robo and Sparrow tear into their would be captors and seeing that this is only a roads to ruin Skorzeny and Vanadis flee to the back of the train while Robo and the Sparrow make short work of the remaining soldiers. Their sights are then set on catching up with their fleeing pray but the pair are first side tracked by two genetically enhanced Brute soldiers (both of whom Robo shoots in the face and only makes them mad) but are able to ditch and continue their pursuit of their original targets. They catch up to them at the back of the train attempting to escape in a small jet fighter plane. Knowing he needs to buy a few seconds more Skorzeny takes aim at Robo and Sparrow with a high tech side arm. Ever the Robo of action Atomic Robo leaps in front of Sparrow to shield her from the blast. Which turns out to be just what Skorzeny wanted as the blast immobilizes Atomic Robo allowing Skorzeny and Vanadis to make their escape, and to add even more treachery to the mix they destroy the bridge the train is approaching with rockets, leaving Atomic Robo (who is still frozen) and Sparrow to their doom.

With their targets escaping and doom right around the bend Sparrow is left with an immobile Atomic Robo and two very angry Brutes to contend with. Mistaking Robo’s immobility for him having a stoic moment it is not until one of the Brutes sucker punches Robo that she realizes that something is horribly wrong. However this sucker punch seems to do the trick as Robo comes back on line and with some wise cracks and fancy shooting he grabs Sparrow and jumps to safety just before the train crashes over the destroyed bridge. Rather annoyed with each other they team up long enough to track Skorzeny and Vanadis down to a mountain fortress (what is it with the Nazi’s and mountain fortresses). Knowing they have to stop the Nazi’s at any cost they raid the fortress with Robo leading the charge using a large tree as a battering ram to bust his way through the front door and all is going well until he runs into a larger more heavily armored brute soldier named Ludwig. Having decided to switch targets before raiding the fortress Atomic Robo is left to fend off Ludwig and somehow capture Vanadis while Sparrow searches for Skorzeny.

It is during this raid that Atomic Robo learns that Helsingard is not dead but has in fact transferred his consciousness to a Cyborg body which houses one of his many replacement brains. Learning that Helsingard is still alive does nothing to improve Atomic Robo’s disposition, nor does the Robo handling he is getting at the hands of Ludwig.

We also learn that the original Sparrow was the brother of the current Sparrow who had died at the hands of Vanadis and her brute soldiers after refusing to join them. The details of his death are told to Sparrow after Skorzeny gets the drop on her shooting her in the back and leaving her for dead. Little does he know that her jacket is bullet proof and having lost track of the Sparrow Skorzeny races to the rescue of Vanadis whom Atomic Robo has been able to get at gunpoint, except that at the very same moment Skorzeny gets Atomic Robo in his sights with another energy gun only to be himself held at gunpoint by the Sparrow and a good guy bad guy standoff ensues. Snatching victory from certain defeat Skorzeny uses a distraction caused by Vanadis to shoot Robo and smack Sparrow in the face with his gun allowing him and Vanadis to escape. With only seconds to spare Atomic Robo and Sparrow flee the fortress leap through a hole in the wall just before it explodes landing in some nearby trees vowing never to work together again. Their targets are presumed to have died in the explosion and the last of the Luafpanzers is destroyed as well along with any of the research on the creation of the Brute soldier.

Robo soon learns that presumed dead and actually dead dead are two different things as shortly after on his next mission to destroy an experimental V-5 electric cannon he and his team are ambushed by a Skorzeny and his new shock troops. Much to his annoyance Atomic Robo is gain shot by Skorzeny with an energy weapon and wakes to find himself restrained and attached to a Nazi weather cannon. Even more annoying for Atomic Robo is learning that the allies where allowed to learn of the weapons project to draw him into a trap so that they could use him to power the weapon. In typical Skorzeny fashion as he gloats over the captured Atomic Robo and mocks him with his impending doom he fails to account for all of Robo’s team as one loan commando infiltrates the compound and fights his way to Robo’s location, and then shoots the weather cannon (with Robo still in it) with a bazooka. Robo the ever sturdy and dependable soldier that he is survives this while the cannon doesn’t and is soon freed from the remains of the machine only to find that while he was unconscious they removed his legs. Using rope to tie Atomic Robo to his back the commando and his now high tech aggravated backpack make their way to the rook of the compound shooting and punching anything that gets in their way and with luck they stumble upon a small Nazi helicopter preparing to take off with a large crate. As a gun fight breaks out the crate is overturned and as it breaks open Atomic Robo’s legs fall from them having been packaged up in the crate for shipment to the Eagles Nest where they were to be a trophy.

With their escape (and Robo’s legs) firmly in their grasp everything goes downhill fast as Skorzeny appears out of nowhere latching onto the helicopters landing gears and attaches an anti-tank sticky bomb to it. As the added weight drags the small helicopter down low over the water Skorzeny drops to safety leaving Atomic Robo to scramble to pull the bomb off the bottom of helicopter, forgetting to hold onto more than just the bomb (which comes loose) Atomic Robo falls into the water below as it goes off. At the same time a remote detonation is set off completely destroying the compound and ruining any ones day that was left behind. Hours later a battered Atomic Robo drags himself onto the nearby English shore where the commando is waiting for him with his legs, and as Robo with only one good hand drags himself to his legs he finally learns that his new friends name is James Milligan, but the yanks call him Scottie.

In the final back up story of Dogs of War we find Atomic Robo face to face with Skorzeny in Madrid Spain in 1974. A withering husk of his former self Skorzeny attempts to goad Atomic Robo into killing him by revealing he was the man who killed Nikola Tesla. That if Atomic Robo had stayed out of the war that Tesla and his work would never have become a target and they only targeted him because the needed his work to be able to stop Atomic Robo in the field. Robo is not without his own surprises as he reveals that he knows that Skorzeny is dying a painful death from cancer. That he wanted to Robo here to kill him to so that he could die a soldier death and not a painful one alone in agony in a hospital bed. Atomic Robo leaves Skorzeny alone with his anguish and turns his back on his long time nemesis letting his punishment fit his crimes.

Vol 3 Shadow From Beyond Time

Beginning in New York City in April of 1926 and Atomic Robo is deep in his studies of Physics when he is interrupted by a pounding at the door. What he finds upon answering are two gentlemen one of which mistakes him for some sort of pigmy in ceremonial armor (this would be Howard who continues to go on his misassumption that Robo is a backwater house servant until Charles the other person of interest corrects him). Bursting into Tesla’s lab the two man demand to speak with Tesla immediately as the end of the world is upon them and only Tesla and his interments at Wardenclyffe can save them. Much to the strangers dismay they learn that Tesla is on a speaking tour and will not be back for three weeks and that Wardenclyffe had been torn down years ago. Clearly distraught at learning this Charles lays the impending destruction of the world at the feet of Nikola Tesla and boldly claims it is his fault that they are in this predicament. Feeling that this is all entirely plausible Atomic Robo before offering further assistance learns that these two strangers are Charles Fort and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. While Lovecraft breaks down into a rambling mass of instability for a moment (one such ramble points to the fact that he wrote stories to prepare mankind for this) Charles fills Robo in on some things that Tesla has kept under wraps (including a list of cohorts that including Master Wong and Houdini) asking Robo if Tesla had ever mentioned Tunguska to him. Flashing back to a conversation between Robo and Tesla hard at work in the lab Tesla ask Robo that if two gentlemen fitting the description of Charles and Howard are to ever show up and mention the word Tunguska that he is to shoot them.

Not mentioning this to Howard and Charles Robo allows Charles a few moments to explain the meaning of Tunguska and learns that in 1908 Charles, Howard and Tesla repelled and alien invasion over the skies of the Tunguska River in Siberia. That they kept it secret to avoid the public panic and paranoia that would have developed if the world learned the truth, each suffering in their own way to keep the truth secret. Charles destroyed he research for the ten years prior, Tesla who had turned his Telefunken Wireless Station into a massive ray cannon could no longer let it stand (hence the destruction of Wardenclyffe) and poor Howard who was but a teen suffered a mental break down and for a time, both from what he witnessed and from the compelling need to bring closure to his father’s work which led to his death. For a time it was believed that Howard was just consumed by madness and Charles had taken responsibility for keeping Howard from going over the edge

Robo learns from Charles that on that day back in 1908 assumptions where made and in a haste to save the planet Tesla made a mistake in his calculations. What they did not know at the time was that the creature they fought existed across time, that it does not obey the rules of linear time. The method they used to destroy the monster used Tesla’s tower to fire a ray at it which warped space for a moment. The result of this would be a massive explosive force which could turn a city to ashes in an instant. Charles goes on to further explain that because his notes had been destroyed it took him another 20 years to figure out their mistake. That the creature from 1908 exists simultaneously across time and was may not even be fully in their universe and that the entire time it was in the body of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and they must kill him to stop it here and now. Revealing this tidbit of information a tad bit to late as the creature begins to manifest itself and take over the body of Lovecraft Atomic Robo knows that fighting it in the lab will do no good so he does the only logical thing. He punches it/Lovecraft right through the roof of the lab.

With Charles and lighting guns in tow Robo chases down the Lovecraft monster across the city of New York resulting in a fair amount of collateral property damage. We also learn that Tesla was so advanced that he constructed and installed a radiophone in his automobile and as Robo has a rather brief conversation with Tesla the Lovecraft monster gets the drop on him and begins giving the car a thrashing. Doing his best to convince Tesla that the noise in the background is not a party (as Robo is not allowed to have people over or have parties when Tesla is away) Robo and Charles begin to bicker about how best to deal with this problem. Robo comes to one conclusion that has served him and Tesla well over the years: everything explodes. This his mind made up Robo ignores his own warnings about lighting gun safety and cranks the power packs well past 5 (the do not turn them this high setting) and after removing Charles from the car crashes it and the overloaded power packs into the Lovecraft monster resulting in a large and messy explosion.

Shifting to New York City in 1957 Atomic Robo and his team of action scientist embark for Cloverdale Oregon where something has fallen from the sky and crashed in the local countryside. Believing it is a booster from Sputnik Robo convinces his team it is important to get there and get there fast because if it is a booster from Sputnik it will give them a clue just how advanced the Russians (this is during the cold war era and as Robo points out American military strategy at this time is to steer the world towards nuclear annihilation and all this based on complete ignorance). So the plan is to get in and get out before the Army knows what has happened but just in case it does turn out to be Martians they will bring the guns, they are action scientist after all.

Arriving to find the down completely vacant with no trace of a clue as to where everyone went Robo and his team continue onto the crash point (after leaving a note and money to cover the gas they purchase) to find abandoned army vehicles. Even stranger they discover that the area near the crash site is warmer than it should be for December in Oregon and that the houses near it are devoid of snow. What they find is a small rock laying in the impact zone, a rock with eyes that groans Robo’s name. Robo knowing nothing good will come of this does the only thing he can and declares that they all have to run.

Running for their lives Robo and his team hide in the nearest house not knowing what else to do and making it up as they go along Robo finally mentions to his team that he forgot to mention that there is a monster from outside of their universe that wants to eat the earth as a snack. After catching his team up on how Tesla stopped it in 1908 and how Robo again stopped it in 1926 the team decides their best course of action is to get the guns and shoot it into submission. Before they can put their plan into action the team hears a strange noise from the upper floor of the house they are hiding in. Through committee they decide that someone should go check and that someone is Robo (even though he points out there is only one of them in the world and that they are replaceable).

Things go horribly down his from this point as Robo is ambushed by a female that has been remade in the monsters image. His team (all in favor of shooting it) flees the house with Robo right behind them knowing that to save her and the rest of the town they need to first get to their car and before they can do that one of their own gets a makeover. As they escape from the house team member Slim goes into a momentary dais then horribly transforms into a monster. As the rest of the team has a mini freak out Robo urges them to get to the car where the big science guns are. The key part of the plan at this point is run followed by run fasters and as the townsfolk emerge from the nearby woods it becomes drive away forever.

As Robo and his team attempt to put distance between themselves and the monster (and its minions) Robo and his team are halted by the real creature himself who mumbles that Robo must die. Having learned from past encounters the creature this time emerges as a being that could fly to avoid confronting Robo on the ground. Even more annoying for Robo it outsmarted him momentarily by intersecting and manifesting itself in the entire town’s populace to prevent Robo from just shooting it. What id didn’t count in was Robo spending the last 30 years studying higher dimensional math just to combat it. Which this witty banter laid out Robo tears open one of the monsters tentacles and vanishes inside.

Shifting to 1971 Atomic Robo talks Carl Sagan into helping him build instruments to study the creature this time before he blows it up. Sagan agrees after Robo explains that this creature has been a threat that first Tesla then himself has been battling since 1908. Not so much because he believes him that there exists a creature from outside of our universe bent on destroying everything but because the sheer audacity of Robo’s claims caught his interest. Four months later having used Charles work to predict when and where the creature would appear Robo (only lying to Sagan slightly to get him there) reveals to Sagan that what they are about to do depends on his theory about some untested scientific methods are the lynch pin of their plan. Calming Sagan’s nerves about the whole matter he promises to put Sagan’s name first on any scientific research that comes out of this experiment. As they begin their experiment Sagan points out that the machines are starting to spit out numbers that are just impossible of making any sense and despite the fact that Robo assures him that is how they know it is working Sagan declares that he has just gone insane upon seeing the monster blink into existence in the containment cell. Furthermore he states that he needs a stiff drink, enough of them in fact to “Paralyze a cow”.

Several drinks later a much calmer Sagan and Robo agree to go over the data in the morning and Robo settles in for a late night of reading (Temporal Mechanics Made Easy and Conan comics) and making sure the monster stays in his containment cell. It is while reading that the one flaw in their plan comes into play. They are in jungles of Peru, and while they have evacuated all the people, they did not plan on the insect life, which the creature uses to escape his containment cell by intersecting with the native insect life. Free of its cell the monster sets about chasing Robo (who has a phobia about bugs and is at this point running around the compound screaming very un heroic like) leaving a still slightly intoxicated Sagan free to monkey about with reconfiguring a lighting gun. Robo acting as bait buy Sagan the time he needs to repurpose the equipment into a gun that will force the bug swarm back into one solid “punchable” entity. Having lured the swarm back to Sagan Robo dives to safety as Sagan zaps the swarm forcing it back into one solid creature which the attempts to chomp down on Atomic Robo. Catching its closing jaws with his hands Robo is yanked inside the creature by a familiar looking arm and finds himself face to face with three other past/future versions of himself.

Tesladyne HQ February 2009

Two members of Atomic Robo’s staff have finally completed their project in the Exotic Physics department and are ready to show off their Quantum decomputer. Which Robo fingers right off the bat as being evil because only evil computers have tubes and pipes coming out of them and vents steam and even at one point flames. The computers function is to solve the problem of Quantum Gravity by taking all the solutions to the problem that are formed when apply special relativity to it, and reducing all that data down to a single statement. It is able to do this at the cost of three million dollars by increasing Planck’s constant turning the entire cpu into a wave of energy that represents every possible state of the cpu (past, present and future) and then collapsing it into the until that arrives at the correct answer (which takes place in a billionth of a second as the cost for running it for a full second would exceed the wealth of the human civilization) Robo agrees they can proceede with the experiment but that it is getting shut down the second something evil happens. Martin and Louis agree to this and start the machine unsure what to make of the numbers it is spitting out including infinity minus one.

Upon hearing this Robo becomes instantly alarmed and seconds later the monster appears form the machine causing Robo to grab a confused Martin and Louis and run from the lab. His only explanation for the creature appearing six years ahead of schedule is that the computer must have toyed with the fundamental laws of the universe and altered the schedule. Before Robo and his co can get out of the lab and lock it down the monster posses Louis who attempts to subdue Robo. As the creature starts to smash Telsadyne Industries and spread itself to the other employees Robo tosses aside the Louis creature and leaps into the monster where once inside he is greeted by his other alternate selves.

Each of the four Atomic Robo’s represents a different point in time in his life that he encountered the monster as this event is happening at all four times at once as the creature spans all time itself. Back in the here and now Martin has been left by Robo to slow the creature down and as Martin pep talks himself into action Jenkins swings from the ceiling gun blazing and takes matters into his own hand. Martin left with only the possessed Louis to deal with sets about beating his friend into a pulp. While back inside the monster Robo(s) are arguing with the 1926 version of himself and the whole argument boils down to that when your future self tells you to do something you do it. With that out of the way they set about converting the burned out lighting gun power packs from 1926 into a hyper-dimensional bomb to simultaneously destroy the creature across space and time. With the detonation of the bomb all four Robo’s are deposited back into their place in time and current Robo greeted by Jenkins makes short work of firing Martin and Louis.

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