Firestorm rankles the feathers of an ungrateful Learjet pilot. Ronnie and Doreen meet Doreen's sister, Summer, when she comes home to New York from treatment in Arizona. Summer's therapist, Dr. Jivan Shi, returns to New York with Summer. Doreen wakes in the night and wants to talk to Summer. She finds Summer's bedroom empty! The Hyena attacks at Eastside Hospital, where Firestorm and the Hyena also battle. The Hyena flees into the night. Ronnie and Doreen meet at the Day residence. Summer arrives exhausted and goes inside with her family. Seconds later, the Hyena attacks Ronnie!
Firestorm826's Panel-by-Panel Story Summary (Spoiler Alert)
Midnight. The Arizona desert. A rabbit cautiously sniffs around. Suddenly…terror! A large animal form lashes out of the shadows at the defenseless rabbit. Hunger. Food. The large animal is silhouetted against the bright gleaming desert moon. It starts to laugh. Louder and louder it laughs, as saliva drips from its’ dangerous teeth. Hyena!
It is afternoon over the sky of New York City. Firestorm flies amidst the concrete jungle. Having just fused into their shared persona, Professor Martin Stein asks Ronnie what the rush is this time. Ronnie replies that he had to get over to Queens quickly, having promised to meet his girl Doreen Day at Kennedy Airport. Doreen’s sister Summer is coming home from Arizona today. Stein recalls that Summer Day is the girl who became the Hyena. Ronnie voices his hope that that is ancient history. Stein shares that hope, as what happened to Summer Day was a tragedy that does not bear repeating. On a brighter side, Stein takes note that Ronnie and Doreen have apparently mended their relationship. Ronnie wishes the Professor would loosen up, reminding him that the fight with Cliff Carmichael really taught him a lesson. Ronnie feels that Doreen was right, he’d been acting like a yutz. Letting Cliff push him into a fight and then losing was the end of that behavior, and Ronnie vows to stay cool from now on no matter…what?!!
His eyes wide open in surprise, Firestorm yells in shock and is forced to take evasive action in the sky. A small private jet attempting to land is plummeting out of control and spinning wildly! With just seconds until impact, an atomic restructuring burst hits the falling jet. A loud “Fzammo!” rings out and the plane is miraculously changed into a hot air balloon. Now floating safely and softly in the air, the plane’s pilots are amazed they have survived after their engines cut out. At a loss to explain how they came to be in a balloon, it descends to the ground and comes to rest and Firestorm lands next to it. He jokingly tells the survivors “No applause please, just throw money.” One of the pilots climbs out of the basket and asks if Firestorm did this, gesturing at the balloon. Ungrateful to his rescuer, the man says that Firestorm has just turned a $300,000 Learjet into a cheap balloon. The man says he’ll sue! Ronnie replies that for just six cents he’d cram the balloon down the man’s kazoo to the point that he’d be burping bubbles for a week. Stein prudently reminds Ronnie of his vow about staying cool. Firestorm transforms the balloon back into the jet, and Ronnie is quick to tell the man he hopes the wings fall off.
Shortly after, Martin Stein walks to a bus stop after he and Ronnie transform back into their individual personas. Stein feels that he and Ronnie make quite a pair these days. Taking his seat on the bus, Stein opens the morning newspaper to read a story that concerns him. Making his dismissal from Concordance Research official, he reads a story about the company not renewing his contract. He ponders…what will he do now?
Elsewhere at the sprawling Kennedy International Airport terminal, Ronnie walks into the arrival area. His thoughts are lost in the typical familiar concerns of teenagers. Ronnie has to get his hands on some money. His part-time job at the Bun ‘n’ Bun just isn’t enough. Every date for a burger and a movie with Doreen costs him two days pay. Walking past Ronnie, a shapely young lady catches his eye. As he admires her and the clothes she seems to have painted on, he is startled to hear an irritated “Ahem!” from next to him. Doreen! Ronnie says he was just looking for her, and she observantly says she’s not three feet tall like where Ronnie had just been looking. Ronnie nervously hugs her and she asks if he was going to kiss her hello. Admitting that he was about to, Ronnie is distracted by the scowl on Doreen’s dad’s face standing next to them. Shaking hands with Ronnie and introducing himself as Bert Day, he mentions that his other daughter Summer has been sick. He tells Ronnie that the family doesn’t like to talk about it. A voice from behind them worries that Bert Day is breaking poor Ronnie’s hand. The group turns to see Summer Day. Doreen runs to hug her, telling Summer they have missed her. The two sisters happily share a homecoming hug.
Ronnie, looking on, feels a sense of weirdness seeing Summer again. He is reminded of how many times Summer almost killed him as the Hyena, a beast so mean she made Killer Frost look like a scared cheerleader! Ronnie thinks it’s lucky that he and Summer are still alive. His nuclear powers could not be used on the living tissues of the Hyena, forcing him to choose survival over strategy in his fights with her. He remembers the shock of learning that Summer was the Hyena after reading her diary. While serving in Africa in the Peace Corps, Summer was attacked by some kind of were-hyena. Repressed anger within her mixed in with the were-hyena attack, and turned her into a wild would-be killer. She had to admit the anger to herself, which helped her get a handle on it and work towards a cure. (See Flash 301 – 304). As Ronnie wonders how you cure a monster, Doreen breaks his thought to say that Summer has brought someone she wants them to meet. Summer then introduces her therapist, Dr. Jivan Shi. Praising Summer as a courageous young woman to her family, Dr. Shi explains that he shared the flight with Summer to also return home to New York to continue his residency at Eastside Hospital. Dr. Shi was the Chief of Psychiatry at a New Delhi hospital in his home country of India, but in the United States he has had to start over as a lowly intern. He hopes Summer will come to him for therapy if she needs it, which Summer hopes she does not.
A house sits quietly. Night. Sleep. The form of Doreen lies peacefully in bed. Dreams. Doreen awakens, startled and yelling “Summer, no!” Shaking off the nightmare as her thoughts clearing, Doreen breathes a sigh of relief. She hasn’t had that dream in months. Doreen, clad in a pretty satin negligee, gets up and walks down the hall to her sister’s bedroom. Opening the door, she calls to Summer and asks if she is asleep. Doreen says that they haven’t had a chance to talk much with the rush of getting home and unpacked, and she thought the two sisters could just hang out like they used to. She calls again. But Summer does not answer. Doreen gasps as she sees Summer’s empty bed. A cold wind blows through the curtains of Summer’s open bedroom window.
A tapping noise. Ronnie Raymond lies in bed, dreaming of basketball. Tap, tap, tap…Ronnie wakes up. Doreen has been tapping at his window to get his attention. Sleepily, it takes Ronnie a minute to realize what is going on. As he becomes awake, he sees Doreen and tells her to meet him at the back door. Sitting together in the kitchen over a fresh pot of hot coffee, Doreen tells Ronnie that she is an absolute wreck. She’s worried that her parents will freak if she were to tell them Summer was gone at 2:00 am. Ronnie suggests that maybe she just went out to see friends. Doreen reveals that Summer never had friends, and that her father didn’t like to see her dating and kept her busy. Tearfully, Doreen tells Ronnie he knows what she thinks has happened. Ronnie tells her not to cry and offers to look for Summer. Doreen is relieved, but worries that Summer is on strong medication and might just be walking around somewhere in a daze. Ronnie reassures her and heads out. The instant the door closes behind him, Ronnie launches into a sprint and concentrates. A dozen miles away sits Martin Stein, quietly watching television at home. Abruptly, Stein disappears! Two fuse into one. The result: Firestorm! The Nuclear Man appears in the sky, a full moon hanging in the sky in the distance. Stein inquires, and Ronnie tells him they have business to attend to.
Night. Hunger. Rage. Peering from the shadows, the Hyena cackles softly, claws gleaming in the night. The beast runs across a courtyard of the Eastside Hospital, a private medical care center where the uninsured public need not apply. Eastside takes pride in its’ atmosphere of quiet confidence, where emergency services are limited and almost every night is uneventful. But this night will be different.
The Hyena springs from the darkness, attacking a man who was walking outside. Running in the front lobby door, the Hyena charges with teeth bared. A man in the doorway yells out in fright and recoils. Inside a patient thinks he’s having a flashback and a nurse flees as the Hyena throws the man at the doorway across the room to land against a doctor. The staff looks on in shock at the bestial form approaching them. Someone yells to call the police as the Hyena steps ever closer.
Flying above the city, Stein tells Ronnie that he might be leaping to conclusions about Summer since, according to her doctors she has been cured. Stein wonders why Ronnie would suspect that she has become the Hyena again and why she might have gone to Eastside Hospital. Ronnie tells him that doctors can be wrong. He says the hospital is just a guess, but he remembers Doreen saying that Summer didn’t have any friends. Since Summer has problems with her parents, the only person left for her to turn to that Ronnie can think of is Dr. Shi. Firestorm arrives at Eastside Hospital. People are running in panic out of the front lobby door, and one of them says that the Hyena has got the Chief Resident and is going to kill him!
Firestorm lowers his atomic density and phases through a wall. Appearing inside, he finds the maniacally laughing Hyena holding the limp form of a doctor by the shirt collar. He asks Summer if she wants to talk about it. The Hyena drops the doctor, laughs loudly, and springs directly at Firestorm! Stein warns Ronnie to back off and get distance between them, fearing that the Hyena will get a grip and finish them. The Hyena grabs Firestorm in its’ powerful claws. Ronnie feels that something is different, that the Hyena has become worse than before! With a grip around Firestorm’s throat, the Hyena laughs. Ronnie thinks that she’s trying to kill him.
Ronnie focuses. There is a loud “Fzam!” of a powerful nuclear blast, and the Hyena’s grip is broken! The Hyena stumbles back, head tucked under a paw in defense. Ronnie also feels the impact of the nuclear blast, which causes a form feedback damage to him whenever he uses it on organic tissue. Regaining strength, the Hyena starts to cackle again and leaps at Firestorm! Saying he feels like a heel for striking her, Ronnie says that if there’s a choice between her and him, he chooses him. Firestorm’s left fist smacks hard across the jowls of the Hyena. Stein looks and asks if the Hyena seems bigger than before or if it’s just his imagination. He thinks she is larger and more vicious, speculating that Summer’s time away in Arizona has only reinforced her dark side. Ronnie, struggling with the ferocious Hyena, says he’s just worried about their lives! Giving it all the strength he can pull together, Firestorm pounds a right uppercut into the Hyena. The beast is thrown back by the strike, shattering a medical supply cabinet as Ronnie predicts they’ll be dead meat if that hit doesn’t stop her. An odd smell permeates the air from the spilled contents of the supply cabinet. Stein identifies it as ether. The Hyena, closer to the gas, looks dizzy and disoriented as she kneels to regain her balance. She springs up!
Pain. Confusion. Flight. A large window shatters as the Hyena leaps through it and flees, laughter echoing through the streets. City. Terror. Laughter. Hide. Firestorm flies in pursuit and turns towards an alleyway that the Hyena ran into. Entering the alley, he sees that the Hyena has vanished. Stein says there are just too many hiding places available. She could be anywhere. Dejected, Ronnie wonders how he’ll explain this to Doreen. Stein reminds him that Doreen doesn’t know he’s Firestorm and isn’t expecting miracles from Ronnie. Thinking of Bert Day, Ronnie says he’s not looking forward to telling him that Summer has turned into a monster again. Unseen as Firestorm passes a window, the Hyena watches him intently. Pain. Hatred.
Back in Manhattan’s upper West Side shortly after, Ronnie has broken the news about Summer to Doreen. They walk holding hands back to her house. A police car sits in front of the Day residence, and Doreen’s parents are in the driveway talking to the officer. Ronnie figures they must have noticed both Summer and Doreen were gone and called the cops. Ronnie worries that Bert will kill him for kidnapping Doreen, and she urges him to let her do the talking. As they approach, Doreen calls to her parents. Clad in their robes, Doreen’s parents run for her, greatly relieved that one daughter is home.
Ronnie frets that he’s dead. The police officer asks the parents if this is one of their missing daughters and who Ronnie is. Bert is very angry. He asks Ronnie why he is there and if he and Doreen had been together the whole time, and threatens to break him. Ronnie tries to explain that he knows the situation doesn’t look good but that he and Doreen weren’t up to anything. Doreen cuts him short, reminding him that she was going to do the explaining. She starts to say that she went to Ronnie’s house a few hours ago. Bert yells again and a voice from nearby says “Dad, stop shouting. It hurts when you shout.” The group turns to see Summer Day emerging from the night shadows, looking exhausted and holding a hand over her forehead. Greatly relieved, Summer’s mother welcomes her in their arms. Ronnie explains that he and Doreen were simply out looking for Summer. Reconsidering, Bert says that maybe he had been wrong to suspect Ronnie’s motives. Bert asks Summer where she has been, but she cannot remember. As the reunited Day family heads back into their home, Bert tells Ronnie that they’ll talk about things soon. Ronnie bids goodnight to the Days. Thinking the whole event bizarre, Ronnie wonders why Summer didn’t smell like ether after the Hyena had been covered in it. He has a bad feeling inside him, like something is telling him he and the Professor may have made a big mistake.
Darkness. Movement. Pain. Without warning, the Hyena suddenly appears behind Ronnie! Uttering a menacing laugh, she strikes a vicious claw across the back of his neck. Ronnie lies prone on the sidewalk, unconscious from the attack. The Hyena runs off into the shadows.
Morning rises over the apartment of Martin Stein. Inside, he and Ronnie sit talking. Ronnie awakened in a pool of blood. He could not picture trying to explain what happened to his father, so instead cleaned up as best he could and grabbed a taxi to Professor Stein’s place. He tells the Professor they have big problems: the Hyena they fought last night was not Summer Day. Stein gasps. Ronnie says the fact that Summer did not smell like ether confirms his suspicion. Stein, taking note of Ronnie’s injuries, suggests he go see a doctor. Ronnie asks how he would ever explain the scratch marks on his neck and how they certainly weren’t from an “enthusiastic girlfriend.” The doorbell rings and interrupts their conversation. Moving to the door, Ronnie says he had to leave for school anyway and asks if Stein needs to be getting ready for work. Stein replies that he’d been meaning to tell Ronnie about work. As the door opens, a woman stands with arms crossed and an unhappy expression. She suggests that Stein tell both of them about his work, and that a man shouldn’t keep secrets from his wife…or ex-wife. She says her lawyer would agree. Stein gasps “Good Lord…Clarissa!”
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