Adam Brashear, The Blue Marvel took flight from Okinawa, Japan in a flash. It took him less than four minutes to travel the 1400 miles to the island where Chinese scientist Chen Lu, The Radioactive Man, was using atomic energy to create an army of Soviet and Vietnamese volunteers into super soldiers.

As he approached the island he noticed two small flashes from the ground—anti-air missiles. The time he spent saving the American intelligence agent from the island’s compound allowed Chen Lu and his men to prepare. It didn’t matter.

Before the missiles hit he had a chance to juke to the side, a move a halfback back at Cornell might have used. Adam was a fullback. With one arm forward and head down he simply allowed the missiles to hit. When Adam’s physiology changed during an anti-matter experiment gone wrong his body became effectively invincible. The missiles caused him no harm.

Before the smoke cleared from the explosion of the missiles he was on the ground at the edge of the camp near the jungle. Several dozen of the green-skinned Communist soldiers made a semi-circle around him. They were wearing radiation suits. He stood defiant, waiting for them to make the first move.

“Drop the weapons, you have no ability to harm me.” he commanded.

One of the soldiers raised his weapon— an energy of some type that appeared to be biomechanically connected—and fired. Adam moved a fraction of a second before the trigger was fully squeezed and a green blast of energy lashed out towards Adam’s former position. Behind where he had stood a grove of palms was vaporized.

Seeing that there wasn’t an immediate way to talk them down Adam took action. He called forth the energy from within him. He let it course through him like his own blood and breath from his core through his arms and to his hands. Power crackled around his fists and he released bolts of concussive force towards the soldiers at a lightning pace hitting each of them squarely in the head, knocking them unconscious. He was hopeful that they were strong enough to have survived it. Seventeen years prior as a Marine in Korea he never would have cared, but as The Blue Marvel there was little that posed mortal danger to him so he always took care to preserve any life.

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What a fool. Thought Chen Lu, The Radioactive Man, as he observed the hero in blue dismantling a few of his men. He may be powerful, but his little rescue operation allowed me to anticipate his return. Previously Chen Lu drained the fission reactor on the island of all of its energy bringing his powers to a zenith. Although it was dangerous, he knew he needed it. He remembers the propaganda reels that rolled when The Blue Marvel saved an American city and was rejected for it. He remembered how a colleague of his that worked with the Chinese propaganda bureau had stated that the Americans sometimes did things even the propaganda writers couldn’t make up. Who in their right mind would reject a hero with such power? But now he possessed enough power to level this whole island. He could prevail.

Before the Blue Marvel finished checking the men he took down Chen Lu called forth the power he was holding and with both fists together unleashed all the power he could at the American.

“DIE!!!!!”

The energy blast hit the American superhero, knocking him back into the jungle. Chen Lu immediately called forth as much energy as he had remaining and extended it around himself in a forcefield. He had barely erected the field before he felt the force of a flurry of blows as strong as locomotive crashes land on it. The concussions alone brought the hulking man to his knees. He locked into the eyes of the facemask the western hero wore. As he did this, he began using his trump card and starting emitting a hypnotic light from his eyes.

“So you take your anger out on me, Blue Marvel?”

The blows continued at a lightning pace from the American.

“I’m not the one you should be fighting. It is your own government you should seek vengeance on. They are the ones who rejected you. The ones who set up a system with no choice but for you to lose. You see it, don’t you?”

The blows slowed as Chen Lu continued.

“Were you not special they would never have had a need for you. You’re people have no opportunity in America. The give you no education, no job, they keep you in slums like the Nazis did others in Europe.”

Finally the blows stopped.

“You do see it don’t you?” He observed the man before him. Tensed. He was fighting it, but Chen Lu had once enthralled even the might of Thor! “I know you love your homeland. I too love mine. But as soon as they seen you, they feared you. They sent you on a suicide mission. We need not destroy America. Together we will bring them true equality! They will need you for more than muscle in their struggle.”

With this, the American known as The Blue Marvel relaxed. Chen Lu, out of power, relaxed his force field and concentrated on his hypnosis, staring at the eyepieces of the mask before him. He extended his hand onto the American’s shoulder.

“Let us work togeth—“

Black. That was all he seen for seconds he awoke in the air and was falling as the pain from the blow began to register. His vision came to and he seen The American almost materialize before him, giving him a double-fisted slam into his abdomen—driving him into the ground. Were he mere flesh the force would have left him as nothing but paste.

He found himself in a whole several feet deep. As he groggily pulled himself to his feet he seen the American standing over the whole. The Blue Marvel spoke:

“I have a Ph.D.”

Chen Lu was confused by the statement. “What? I..I don’t..”

“I said, ‘I have a Ph.D.’. Before the accident. I was just like anyone else, I earned scholarships, I worked hard. And even though people hated me and people sabatoged me at every turn, I still succeeded. America might not be perfect, or even good, really. But it’s my home and it is still a place where you are who you make yourself to be.”

Chen Lu, his strength failing, fell back onto his bottom “How did you resist? You were under?”

“No, I have never been, and will never be, anyone’s thrall, Comrade. But resisting your power was easy. I just kept my eyes closed. Now stay put while I dismantle your science project.”

With that, Chen Lu slipped from consciousness.