Firestorm struggles with a crowd driven to frenzy by the Pied Piper's music. Firestorm subdues the Pied Piper and he is taken to jail. Lorraine Reilly explains how her father obtained the pipes. In jail, the Pied Piper transforms into a mystical satyr. Ronnie and Cliff Carmichael square off again. Firestorm battles on an ocean freighter for control of the pipes.
Firestorm826's Panel-by-Panel Story Summary (Spoiler Alert)
A mob of zombie-like people has been stirred into frenzy by the powerfully hypnotic music of the Pied Piper. Firestorm, stunned by a sonic blast, has fallen into the clutching arms of the masses. Professor Stein yells to Ronnie to not let the people overpower Firestorm. Ronnie asks for ideas on how to stop them.
Above, on the moonlit rooftop of Senator Walter Reilly’s townhouse, the Pied Piper works his art on the Pipes of Pan. Having just stolen the Pipes from Senator Reilly, the Pied Piper rejoices in his unprecedented power. He is compelled to continue playing. Firestorm restrains himself as best he can to avoid injuring the helpless but combative people. Worried that he will have to resort to violence to escape, Ronnie sees an option that just might work. He struggles and frees his left arm from the grip of the crowd. His sleeve has been tattered by their clawing hands. With a restructuring blast directed at a nearby fire hydrant, Firestorm instantly creates a fire hose. The forceful spray from the nozzle disperses the crowd just enough for Firestorm to free himself. Grabbing the nozzle, he flies upward and aims the full hydraulic force of the hose stream at the Pied Piper. Knocked off balance, the Pied Piper falls with a yelp from the rooftop through the glass ceiling of a greenhouse below. Ronnie remarks that subduing the Pied Piper was easy, and Stein cautions him that maybe it was just too easy. Ronnie offers the opinion that not every costumed crook is as tough as Killer Frost. Pronouncing the Pied Piper as a wimp, Ronnie suddenly realizes the real purpose of his trip here – Lorraine Reilly.
Flying through the house, Firestorm locates an injured Lorraine lying on the floor. Asking if she is ok, Lorraine responds by saying she was just dazed and she asks about the Pied Piper. Firestorm tells her that the “loser” Pied Piper is history. Lorraine, with her thoughts now clearing from the haze of the Pied Piper’s music, realizes that it is Firestorm who has come to her rescue. She grabs him in a hug, calls him “beautiful”, and kisses him on the lips. Stein, who is not distracted like Ronnie is by Lorraine’s kiss, warns Ronnie that they are not alone. Looking aside, Ronnie sees a grumbling Senator Reilly. The Senator is still stuck in the carpet roll animated by the Pied Piper, and he looks none-too-amused by the amorous display of his daughter and the flame-headed superhero. Quick as a whip, Firestorm dissolves the carpet with an atomic burst. Freed, the Senator is quite unhappy that his priceless 18th century Carpithistan carpet has been ruined by Firestorm.
Realizing that her father will not be good company at the moment, Lorraine proceeds to lead Firestorm away. As they walk through the house, they come across Jeeves, the Senator’s butler who is recovering from the after-effects of the Pied Piper’s music. Ronnie makes a pun reminiscent of Peter Piper and his Pickled Peppers, which brings an unamused guffaw from Stein. Firestorm and Lorraine walk into the greenhouse. Lorraine explains that the Pipes of Pan were bought by her father from Mr. Pandrakos, who is due to sail for Greece from New York Harbor later today on a ship called the Hermes. Firestorm compliments Lorraine’s sexy eyes. Above them is the glass ceiling broken by the Pied Piper’s fall. On the edge of the opening lie the Pipes of Pan. The Pipes glow and glitter in the moonlight…and then fade away completely! In the street at the same instant, the massed crowd returns to coherence. Confused, they have no memory at all of what happened to them during the time they were affected by the Pied Piper’s music. The experience leaves them with a subconscious and uneasy feeling as they quietly disperse.
An hour later at Stein’s apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens, Ronnie and Stein are sipping coffee. Having initiated the Firestorm transformation while in the Bradley High School locker room, Ronnie needed to stop here to avoid having to walk home naked. Stein graciously let Ronnie borrow some clothes. Ronnie mentions the frequent interruptions of Stein’s career by the activities of Firestorm. Ronnie goes on to describe using the Firestorm persona to go see Lorraine, primarily because Ronnie was upset about the current state of his relationship with Doreen Day. Stein thoughtfully reminds Ronnie that he can always try to talk to Doreen if she won’t talk to him, and hands Ronnie the telephone.
A phone rings in the Day house. Doreen’s mother answers and calls Doreen to the phone, reminding her not to tie up the phone all night. Doreen suggests that her mother get Doreen her own phone. She answers to hear Ronnie’s voice on the line. He tells her he misses her, and she says she misses him as well. He apologizes for the recent friction between them. He says he really cares about her and would never do anything to hurt her. Ronnie asks to if they can get together. Doreen agrees, and says she will see him sometime tomorrow. Ronnie hangs up the phone, quite pleased with the conversation. Stein yanks him back to reality by praising his handling of the talk with Doreen, but then asking what Ronnie plans to do about Lorraine. Slapping his forehead, Ronnie again asks for help. Stein declines, and tells Ronnie he’s on his own this time.
At the Men’s Detention Center in downtown Manhattan, a guard sits reading a comic book near the jail cells. He is startled to hear a scream from the hallway leading to the holding cells. The cells have only one occupant, the Pied Piper. Confused because the Pied Piper has been unconscious since being brought to the jail, the guard grabs a flashlight and goes to investigate. Looking into the cell, he finds a terror-stricken Pied Piper in tattered clothes begging for help. The Pied Piper has undergone some type of mutation. His legs are no longer human – they are animal legs!
At a sidewalk newspaper stand, Martin Stein chats with the clerk about the upcoming Mets and Phillies game as he buys the morning paper. He goes to a nearby office building that is the home of Concordance Research. Stein walks to the elevator and is met by his co-worker Harry Carew who jogs up in his running outfit. Stein apologizes to Carew for running out on their dinner meeting last night. As they chat, Quentin Quale walks into the elevator. Quale is Stein’s project manager at Concordance. He pointedly remarks that he’s glad to see Stein in the office for a change. Stein begins to apologize, and Quale warns him that his contract is up for review in three months. Quale suggests Stein will be out of a job if his performance doesn’t improve. As Quale walks away, Stein worries to Carew about missing staff meetings and report deadlines. Carew reassures him, calling Quale a jerk.
The two head into their respective offices located across the hall from each other. Carew thinks to himself about misjudging Stein. Up until recently, he thought of Stein only as a rival research competitor. He now sees him as a decent man, and has feelings of regret about stealing a tape recording from Stein’s office desk drawer. Holding the tape in his hand, he decides to confess and return the tape to Stein. He walks across the hall and is shocked to discover Stein’s office is empty. Carew picks up a newspaper left on Stein’s desk. It’s huge, bold headline announces the “Strange Case of the Pied Piper.”
At Bradley High, students settle in to their seats for a summer school class. The teacher reminds them they are there for one of two reasons: they have to be there, or they have chosen to be there. As the class is directed to turn to Chapter One in the Biology textbook, Ronnie smiles at Doreen who is seated next to him. He tells her that his only problem in Biology is talking her into a date, which brings a smiling warning from her for him to hush. Nearby, Ronnie’s arch-rival Cliff Carmichael overhears and is upset that Ronnie and Doreen appear to be back together again. Pulling out a straw, Cliff launches a spitball at Ronnie seated in front of him. The spitball hits and startles Ronnie, whose yelp catches the teacher’s attention. The teacher demands an explanation from Ronnie, who sheepishly offers that he was coughing. Unhappy with the excuse, the teacher sends Ronnie out into the hallway. Ronnie, dejected that he’s been kicked out of summer school on the first day of class, wonders if he should have ratted out Cliff. Atomic particles suddenly begin to appear before Ronnie’s eyes. Surprised at the Professor’s unexpected start of the Firestorm transformation, Ronnie disappears in a flash.
In the sky over Manhattan, Firestorm flies upwards. Ronnie quickly complains about Stein’s timing, saying skipping away from a class punishment could get him expelled. He worries that his father’s friendship with Principal Hapgood wouldn’t be enough to help if that were to happen. Stein informs Ronnie that the transformation had an important purpose, and explains that something fantastic has happened to the Pied Piper. They fly to the Manhattan Men’s Detention Center where the Pied Piper is being held. Lowering his density, Firestorm passes through a wall and appears in the jail’s infirmary. Startled by Firestorm, a nurse yells for guards. Tightly restrained on a hospital bed lies the Pied Piper, begging for the staff to let Firestorm stay and help. The Pied Piper reveals that he is being somehow turned from a human into a satyr by the Pipes of Pan. Firestorm recalls that the Pipes have mysteriously vanished and asks the Pied Piper to explain.
The Pied Piper begins to recount the story of the Pipes. He says that the Pipes he stole from Senator Reilly were in fact the legendary Pipes of Pan, the Satyr God of Greek mythology! The Pied Piper had searched years for them, and narrowed down their location just over a month ago. A source told the Pied Piper that the Pipes of Pan were in the possession of an antiques dealer named Nikos in Athens, Greece. The Pied Piper subsequently went to Athens and arrived at Nikos’ shop to ask about the Pipes. Nikos denies having any pipes, but does offer an authentic Greek lute instead. The Pied Piper made it clear that he did not believe Nikos, and Nikos became upset. Nikos orders the Pied Piper out of the shop, making a disparaging remark that conveys his stereotypical perception about American tourist attitudes and their belief that money can buy anything. The Pied Piper says he doesn’t think money can buy anything as sometimes other means of persuasion are needed to achieve his aims. Pulling out a small flute, the Pied Piper begins to play. The music agonizes Nikos, who begs the Pied Piper to stop with the promise that details of the Pipes of Pan will be revealed. The Pied Piper stops and Nikos tells of being offered the chance to buy the Pipes from a sailor named Pandrakos. The price was too high for Nikos and he declined to purchase it. Nikos then told Pandrakos that Senator Walter Reilly in the United States of America would be a collector with the financial means Pandrakos seeks. Nikos then explained to the Pied Piper that Pandrakos was due to leave for New York later that day aboard the Hermes. The Pied Piper ran off in pursuit.
In the jail hospital room, the Pied Piper tells of looking back at Nikos as he ran out of the shop. He momentarily thought Nikos’ feet looked like hooves, but dismissed it as some kind of trick of the light. He continues his story of his exploits in Athens, describing how he ran to the docks to see the Hermes had just weighed anchor and was sailing off into the Aegean Sea. He could see a man on deck playing a set of pipes, and thought the music was the most beautiful he had ever heard. From that point, the Pied Piper flew to New York to shadow the arriving Pandrakos, which led to the theft of the Pipes at Senator Reilly’s home. The Pied Piper describes feeling that the music of the Pipes had a drug-like effect on him, and brings the focus back to his waking up this morning with satyr legs. He begs for help.
The freighter Hermes plows through a stormy sea, waves splashing against its’ hull. Flying down from the dark clouds above, Firestorm is pleased to find the Hermes in just the area the Coast Guard advised it would be. Stein perceives something is wrong, noting that the decks of the vessel appear deserted, and warns that a soft, eerie and ghost-like music can be heard in the winds. Firestorm is still wearing earplugs from his encounter with the Pied Piper, and lands on the deck of the Hermes. Suddenly a screeching sonic blast explodes towards Firestorm, blasting him overboard and into the ocean. Diving downward, Firestorm moves below the ship. He lowers his molecular density and passes through the hull, emerging back on the ship’s deck to find an angry crew walking towards him, many of them bearing tools as weapons. Looking closely, Ronnie sees that the crew is no longer human…they are half-human satyrs! In the center of the group, a satyr plays the Pipes of Pan. Ronnie thinks this musician looks like Pandrakos, but Stein tells him to look more closely. Stein sees the reality, that Pandrakos is in fact the legendary Pan, the Satyr-God of ancient Greece! The mournful, lonely strains of his music momentarily distract Ronnie. The crew moves to attack as Stein yells a warning. The satyr crew swarms Firestorm.
Strange images form in Firestorm’s mind as he tries to fend off the crewmen. He sees Pan, the last of the ancient Greek gods, has somehow survived. A world that disbelieved the more noble gods has somehow allowed a god of lust to continue to exist. The sole remaining god Pan has created a means to solve his loneliness. By replicating hundreds of his Pipes and leaving them in the hands of unsuspecting people, Pan would cause anyone playing them and anyone hearing their music to transform into satyrs. Pan planned to make Senator Reilly his first victim, with the intent that the Senator would quickly infect the United States Congress by playing the pipes at the Capitol. Firestorm focuses a restructuring beam at the Pipes. They disappear, leaving Pan stunned for the briefest moment. With an evil grin and gleaming eyes, Pan regains his composure as the Pipes reappear in the air before him. Firestorm is shocked to see the Pipes have returned. Stein suggests that Pan’s godly powers are beyond Firestorm’s abilities. Ronnie, thinking quickly, uses atomic restructuring to create a small metal container that encases Pan and shelters the area from the powerful sound of the Pipes. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the deck of the Hermes shifts in the heavy seas. The metal box containing Pan tips and slides off the deck, splashing with a crash into the restless ocean. It plummets and disappears into the depths as Firestorm tries in vain to find it. Returning to the surface, Firestorm looks down on the deck of the Hermes to see the human forms of the crew returning, having been freed of the magical influence of the Pipes of Pan. Stein asks Ronnie how it felt to have thwarted a god. Ronnie speaks of how lonely Pan must have been, but that he would chose being a man over being a god anytime. With an atomic flash, Firestorm turns skyward towards home.
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