All of a sudden, Ray Palmer was the most famous man in the city. He attended banquets, stopped a minor crime here and there, and even starred in a commercial on TV for dish soap- Cleaning your kitchen, down to the last Atom! He was a regular superstar, and to top it all off crime was at an all time low, thanks to his fight with Dwarfstar three months ago.
On one particular morning, a package had arrived in the mail for him, coming from the local tailor- a nice man named Mr. Bixby. As Ray sat down and opened the package, he unfolded a long, skintight suit with magnificent cyan and mahogany coloring. Knowing it was considered lame to a good ninety percent of everyone who wasn't eighty years old, he was about to throw away the cloth, before he thought about how it would've seemed rude to the nice old man who sowed his clothes together for free.
Walking down the hallway in his flamboyant new suit, he took a deep breath in before he opened the squeaking doors to his apartment to meet the daily crowd of reporters, who had never seen the suit before- and lucky enough, they roared in appreciation for the local hero, as he signed a couple autographs and answered the easier questions that wouldn't put him in the tabloids- not like they didn't anyway. The week before, he had read something about him robbing banks- however, most didn't believe it.
As he shrunk down, he grabbed a dust particle and kicked it with his foot, then jumped on. This was his new means of transportation, and he was beginning to be quite good at it, riding the dust around town like one would a skateboard- if, of course, skateboards could fly.
Whistling as he went, he flew toward the local science laboratory, called Atom Science Facilities- a place that had been built just for him, and to replace the old one- and as he got to the door he started to grow again, walking in at a leisurely pace. He greeted other scientists as he went, passing by a large bronze statue of him fighting Dwarfstar, and entered his office- where he found the infamous reporter, Jean Loring.
"Nice suit." She commented sarcastically, leaning back in her chair with her legs crossed. "Didn't know the eighties were still trendy." She sat across from his desk, which was littered with scientific equipment.
"It was from a friend." Ray said, sitting down in his usual seat. "And I don't remember allowing reporters to interview me." He raised a brow to her, as he started typing on his computer.
"Well, I'm very persuasive. And- as I think you'll take a liking to- small people get around much easier." She looked at her freshly manicured nails, as she pulled out a notepad. "So, whats your take on crime in Ivy?"
"What is there to talk about? There's hardly any crime here- probly the friendliest city in the world." He snorted, turning to her and putting his feet up on his desk.
"Hm. Anything about Professor Planck?" Jean said hopefully, wanting to pry as much knowledge as possible from him as she could.
"Him? Eh. I already tried to look for him, but there's no leads as to who or where he is. All I have to do is wait and see." He shrugged, not worrying too much about the mystery figure.
"I see." Jean looked at her notepad almost in disgust. "What's your take on Chronos?" She asked him next, looking up at him and moving a strand of hair from her face.
"Who?" He said, shrugging as he had never heard of the name.
Jean sighed in frustration. "You know, for a guy who is in all the magazines, you sure don't take the time to read any." Then, she leaned over and typed into his computer furiously, sitting back down as the Internet did its thing. Sitting up, Ray clicked on the video link that showed up first, and watched.
The video was from a black-and-white security camera in a national bank. At first, all was normal, but it all changed in a split second. The large, steel door had been destroyed, the money emptied from the vault, and spray-paint on the wall, simply saying one word- CHRONOS. However, one of the o's in the name was made of some device, and it beeped continuously for three seconds before it exploded, and the video stopped.
"This was in London." She said, as the video ended. Ray was hard at thinking of all the ways this could've been done- broken security camera? Speedsters? He had no clues, whatsoever. He knew the name Chronos from mythology, but was shady on the details. Ray then realized Jean was staring at him eagerly, and he went back to his usual self.
"Not my problem. I'm Ivy City- not London, England. But I'll tell ya what- I need to get to work here, so if you want to continue this interview, I'm available tonight at dinner." Ray said, pointing to his business cards.
"I know your number, Palmer. Reporter, remember?" Jean said, as she grabbed her purse and camera and swiftly left the room.
Sighing, Ray turned to his computer and rewatched the video- Chronos. Great- another Internet sensation, right after the last- Doctor Light. What did these creeps want?
Turning away, Ray started to work. Lately, his work was boring, as he was just testing his powers, but he had made some interesting developments. For example, now that he realized his atoms were him- he could control them and make them different shapes and sizes, having full control over them to the last atom.
Later that night, he had taken his suit out for a spin on the town- stopping a small mugging here, finding another Atom fan there. Surprising to him, people liked the costume. "There's Ivy City for ya- stuck in the eighties when it comes to fashion..." He muttered to himself as he flew round on his dust particle.
Finally, Ray had turned to go home by around ten o'clock when he suddenly remembered his 'date' with Jean Loring! Pulling out his phone- which he silenced- he saw five missed calls from her, and slapped his forehead as he had allowed his hero business to get in the way of his public appearance. However, he couldn't simply called her back now, as when he got back to his apartment the door was smashed open. Growing another foot taller, he walked in, prepared for any intruders- however, the house seemed empty.
"Hello, Ray." A familiar voice said from behind him, as Ray whipped around to face none other than his good old Uncle Pratt. He was sipping a glass of wine, and sitting on Ray's kitchen table. "Sorry I didn't wait till you were here."
"Sir? I mean, Uncle?" Ray questioned, taking his mask off and looking at him, not believing it. "I thought you were dead..." That was half-true: as Ray hadn't found his Uncle at his house, he had automatically assumed he was dead.
"Me? Dead? Please, Ray. You're a scientist now, what logic does that contain?" Al Pratt said bitterly.
Ray took a seat across from Al, looking at him carefully. "I'm a hero now." He said lamely, not knowing what to say to his Uncle.
"I KNOW!" Al yelled, standing up from his chair and breaking the glass of wine he once held, making Ray jump back. "You're the most famous person to be in Ivy City since the President took a stroll by." He said, sitting back down with a sigh. "That could've been me. Where you're at now. But instead you had to just go and figure out the flaw in my plan..." He grumbled, and Ray raised a brow.
"Wait... You... You knew?" Ray said, surprised. "You knew that... this would happen to me?" He stuttered, not believing what he heard.
"Of course I knew! I was going to be you. I could've been the Atom! I could have strolled right in and taken the Mayor's seat, and they couldn't do a thing about it- heck, I could have taken over Washington! After all, I could have become as small as an Atom if I wanted to. Heh." His uncle snapped, cracking his knuckles distastefully.
Ray didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe his Uncle to be someone who would've become an American dictator- he refused to believe it. Sitting there without a word, Ray looked down.
"Then that assassin failed to kill you- worst thousand dollars I ever spent on a shrinking belt-" His uncle continued, before Ray stopped him.
"Wait, you- you're Professor Planck..." Ray said in disbelief. "Why? Why would you want to kill me?" He insisted.
"Jesus christ, for someone related to me you sure are slow." He sighed, standing to leave. "I want to be the Atom. Not the shrinker who kisses babies- the new leader of the USA." Al said with a sneer, then left the apartment.
Still sitting there, Ray thought of all the questions he still had, before he broke down. Holding his head in his hands, he felt tears fall as the one person he trusted more than anything now had betrayed him.
The next day, Ray went through his usual day- get up, sift through his mail- mostly fan mail, save another letter from some lame company called STAR Labs that wanted him to work for him- go to work, and then be the Atom. Save that this time, he went out to the ruins of his old science lab- the one he and his Uncle had shared- only to find that it suddenly wasn't abandoned. As he walked toward the lab, he came across a sign by the old door- an old picture of he and his uncle, save for a large bowie knife protruding from his half of the picture- Dwarfstar's bowie knife.
Hearing voices inside, Ray was inclined to go in. However, he knew he couldn't face Dwarfstar again, if it was even him in there. Turning, he started to run off- he'd deal with Professor Planck later- right now, he had to make up for a date with a reporter.
_______________________________________
"As you can see, the Atom isn't just a threat to me- he's a threat to you as well as many other so-called villains." Professor Planck said to his client.
"Please. To consider Ray Palmer a threat would be to consider a second to be a small measurement of time." A voice said from across the table. "After all, for the likes of I, seconds can be as long as years." Chronos smiled at Planck, as they shook hands.
The two started to plan, but suddenly they heard a song ring out- a smash hit on the records, played through a cell phone. Turning, the two eyed a woman who had managed to sneak into their secretive meeting.
Jean Loring cracked a grin to them both, before turning to start to run- however in the next instant she found Chronos to be right in front of her. He snatched the phone from her to see who it was from- and as he ignored her trying to get it back, he looked at the brightly lit name of the caller- Ray Palmer. "So, Planck... Seems we have the Atom's number one fan." He turned back to Jean as he grabbed her wrist.
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