Marvel 2000 Proudly Presents...

# 8- "Resevoir Wrecking Crew"
Written by Anthony Crute

An Oak Tree…

Leonard Samson stretched out his muscles as he sat up. He had just woken after a few hours of a restless sleep where a branch met the trunk of the tree. His hair was dripping wet as were his clothes from the morning dew deposited whilst he slept.

He had been forced to climb the tree last night. He estimated he’d managed to travel about two miles as the late afternoon turned into the early evening and then finally the night. A journey length which would normally take him a minute or two in one huge leap had so far taken him several hours.

He would have continued going throughout the night if not for the fact he discovered that because of his current small stature he was not best built for night time. His human eyes were now tiny and could not take in enough light in the darkness to give him any sort of vision.

When the darkness began to make it so that he couldn’t see or navigate properly and he ended up clinging to a drain grate as he missed a jump he had decided that it was best to call it a night.

The tree seemed like the best place to bed down for the night because of it’s relative safety thanks to it’s height. This kept him safe from any predators who decided to make him a snack on the ground.

A sudden sound filled his ears. It sounded like nothing he had ever heard in his life, a loud squealing growl, what made it even stranger was it was in stereo.

Samson turned where he stood. A large grey furry beast was clinging to the trunk as it stretched away from him. A second was crouching on an adjacent branch. The two were stretched out to their full length with their large pincer like teeth bared.

The two squirrels were around 8 inches tall. That in itself is not too big but baring in mind that Doc Samson himself was only an inch tall at this time due to the Pym particles in his system this was like him being faced down by two double or triple sized bears.

Samson suddenly added to his mental thought about bears as one of the squirrels hurled itself through the air past him and landed perfectly on the branch behind him. These two were bears with Spider-Man like speed.

The chittering above him in the tree let him know exactly what was going on. These two were obviously a mating pair and they thought the green haired Doc was in some way threatening their young.

“Easy guys!” Samson held up his hands to the pair which were now surrounding him. He quickly remembered a camping trip in his teens where a squirrel took a chunk out of his finger. He didn’t fancy seeing what their teeth could do to him at his current size.

The two creatures showed no sign of communication as they launched at him at the same time. Leonard to his credit reacted on instinct as much as they did. He launched skywards up to the next branch a foot or two above his head.

The squirrels seemed to meet on the branch and both launched upwards. The attacked had just got even closer to their offspring and now things were going to get serious.

One of the squirrels raced across the bottom of the branch while the other bounced into the trunk and then directly at him. He broke into a sprint along the length of the wood away from the diving rodent.

The second exploded around the edge of the branch and launched at him teeth bared. Samson thrust his foot out into the rodent’s stomach and rocked to his back using the momentum to toss the Squirrel over his head towards it’s mate.

It’s mate rolled and landed on the branch while the squirrel Samson tossed scrabbled to latch onto the branch. The speed of the animal meant it was ready to launch back into an attack seconds later.

The two launched towards Samson. Leonard widened his stance and prepared to meet the bear like tree rats head on in a match of strength. The two leapt in the air as they neared him.

Samson caught the two, one with each arm so their mid sections were pressed over his shoulders. He gripped their scruff’s as gently as he could and hurled them backwards. The two bounced along the length of the branch and again found themselves scrabbling at the bark of the tree for purchase.

They again found it in no time and bounced along the branch towards him again with no less spring in their step and no less determination than the first time. Samson sighed and turned to run.

The second he saw the squirrels bounce and then come back at him he realised something. He was locked into the mindset of an inch tall superhero. He saw these two big bruisers and decided to stand his ground…they were squirrels. He had nothing to prove to them or himself, he would get no joy from beating a squirrel even if it was 7 or 8 times his size.

Samson bounced gently on his right foot performing a little leap and landing on it again. His left foot when it hit the tree pushed him away with an even larger leap. The squirrels were still giving chase as he planted both feet near the end of the branch and bent his knees.

The branch bent gently from the force of Samson’s landing and then snapped back. It was at that moment the gamma powered Lilliputian powered his legs out and catapulted himself into the air.

The squirrels skidded to a halt and clung to the branch as it wobbled.

The green haired missile hurtled up through the air and out of the garden which the tree resided. He was hurtling over the street when he suddenly thought that he had no real plan for landing. The height of the tree in comparison to himself was as if he had tossed himself from a sky scraper.

He swore as he was coming down towards the light grey of the suburban road. He had been having a bad 24 hours. First he had a visit with Purple Man which could have went better, next he was involved in a prison break at an inch in height and then he had to go up against the super villainess Titania before having to let both her and her husband go.

The second his left leg hit the floor he knew his day today was going to be no better. The momentum tossed him sideways causing him to land on his shoulder and then continue rolling. He gritted his teeth as he bounced like a tennis ball across the length of the road.

He came to a stop in a leaf filled gutter. The mud in it splashed across his face.

He sighed as he climbed to his feet and hauled himself up to the curb. He ran his hand across his face and then down the front of his shirt as he cleaned the mud off. He looked at his damn and now filthy red T-shirt which he had been wearing under his shirt the previous day as ever. “Unstable molecules or not this is going to stain,” he shook his head and then set off walking, he was not in the mood but sitting there on the street wouldn’t help him and knowing his current luck a dog would come along and be the end of him.

“At least the others must be looking for me now, it’s been a whole night they must know about the Pym prison.”

The office…

Louise AKA The Blonde Phantom sat behind her desk. The radio was on quietly in the background as she listened for any news. Her cell phone and pager both sat on the table in front of her waiting for a call from Roger Aubery AKA The Great Destroyer.

When Louise had returned home the previous night she turned on the television to find the news of the escape at the Pym Prison. Missing were one Titania and one Leonard Samson.

She had immediately went through his rolodex and personal planner and contacted the A-list of heroes she thought could help. The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, The West Coast Avengers, The Heroes for Hire and She-Hulk to name but a few and The V-Battalion from her own speed dial on the chance that they could help in someway.

The heroes all agreed that they would try their hardest to find her boss and their friend but much like the police had informed her there was very little they could do until Titania or The Absorbing Man were spotted somewhere.

Leonard Samson was an inch tall and lost somewhere in one of the biggest countries in the world. Chances are they weren’t going to find him much like in most superhero cases it was up to the hero to find the help himself.

“He’ll be fine I’m sure.” Stacey Dolan paced the office in front of Louise’s desk. Stacey Dolan was a police officer in a special meta human division of the NYPD. She was also currently Doctor Leonard Samson’s partner…’in the biblical sense’ as often teased Louise with a look of fake shock on her face. She had managed to trick Stacey on the first mocking as the police officer couldn’t help but think that the woman from WWII would be rather conservative barely thinking of what kind of woman would wear a mask and a cocktail dress to fight crime in the 40’s.

“I’m sure he will be too,” Louise was more laid back about the whole affair than Dolan was. Louise had been through this kind of thing a hundred times or more in her years as a ‘superhero’ she was well aware of the fact that it was extremely rare for a superhero, especially one with actual superpowers to wind up not coming back from a mission.

Dolan couldn’t help but worry, she would usually give off a nonchalant and cool exterior as befit her character but the truth was she really liked Samson and he was probably the one male friend she had slept with since college who she didn’t hate and resent on some level. The thing which added to her fear was she had seen a different side of superpowers than most superheroes. She had found so many mutants dead, tracked down and arrested so many powered villains she knew things went wrong all the time.

“Isn’t there anything you can do?” Dolan turned to glare at Arlette on the other side of the room. The woman, or girl as Dolan so often called her was sitting there at her own desk playing some computer game or another. The two women did not get along and neither made a secret of it.

Dolan saw Arlette as crude, care free and self centred. Arlette saw Dolan as a stick in the mud ball buster who didn’t know how to have fun. Neither could see why Samson bothered to keep the other around.

Louise could see clear as day what Samson saw in them and in truth it was the same thing he saw in all of them. They were someone who was challenging to him but also his equal on various levels whether it be intelligence, wit, morals or simply love for life and fire inside. It was this fire which the two women across the room from her shared and it’s why the two grated on each other so much.

“If I knew where he was I could teleport to him and bring him straight back but until then there is nothing I can do…you’re the detective, you find him.”

“Do you even care that we don’t know where he is…in the state he is.”

“Even at the height he is, he could probably take out half of the super villains in the city…he could probably talk them into submission.” Arlette shrugged, she always took a rather care free approach to things. Dolan glared at her. “Tell you what I’ll go look for him. I’m sure he mentioned wanting to see that new Mark Whalberg movie. I’ll go to the cinemas and see if he’s there…I’ll leave my cell on should you find him first.” Arlette shot Dolan a smile before vanishing before her eyes.

“If I shot her would you tell people she came at me first?” Dolan asked as she turned to Louise. The Blonde Phantom simply smiled and chuckled gently.

A street in the suburbs…

Samson landed on the other side of the white picket fence letting the small Jack Russell slam into it it’s jaws snapping behind him. He exhaled sharply and glared at little ‘Charlie’ as his tags identified and set off in a dash at his top speed once again.

He sprinted along the sidewalk and then bounced in a set of jumps to the corner of the street. A taxi cab whizzed past him at the edge of the curb and honked outside of a house it came to rest at.

Leonard weighed up the chances for a few seconds. He decided almost instantly that jumping the taxi would have no worse an effect on his attempted journey than simply trying to progress at his current rate.

The figure of a suited man carrying a brief case was heading down the path from the house towards the cab.

Samson launched into sprint along the sidewalk. The cab door opened and the man began to climb inside. Samson leaped and soared through the air, he’d had more experiences jumping onto and off of moving objects and people in the past day than he had done in his entire superhero career.

He slammed hard into the side of the man’s briefcase as he shifted it while he sat down before closing the door. The slamming of the taxi door manage to hide Samson’s thud.

He glanced up at the man over the edge of his monogrammed (D.G.) Briefcase but thankfully he showed no interest in anything other than his palm pilot even going so far to basically ignore the pleasantries the taxi driver offered him. Samson briefly wondered how someone could go through a day in such a way, he was a people person, that was why he chose his career so he could interact with people on the deepest level he could. It was either a psychologist or rabbi.

He pushed the thoughts from his mind and settled it into a rut of thinking about his fight with Titania. He could have brought them in, he scolded himself for making several mistakes. The other voice in his head chimed it. One was superhero Doc Samson telling him how he should have taken her down, she was an escaped criminal and gotten her out of Absorbing Man’s way. The second was Doctor Leonard Samson who was scolding him for fighting her in the first place rather than trying to solely talk to her, did his violence lead to her state of mind where she rejected his attempted help? Coming out of a fight and mistrust are not the best frames of mind to accept help after all.

He sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he essentially failed in both of his jobs on that little mission. It was not something he enjoyed contemplating too much.

The taxi ride took 20 minutes and throughout the entire ride Leonard bounced through his mind the different approaches or tangents he could have taken at each point. He also was filing away mentally every one of Titania’s responses trying to dissect it for their next session. He would help her and her husband if he had to hunt her down himself and strap her down for therapy.

The taxi stopped. Samson gripped onto Mr D.G.’s case as he alighted the car. He was inside the bank in which he pulled up in front of before Samson managed to figure out where he was in the city.

He dropped down from the case in the lobby and dashed to the side of the room hoping no one saw him. There were no chase attempts or screams of surprise so he guessed he was successful. It was helped in part by the early time of the morning where there were currently about 15 bank patrons and a small number of staff rather than the hundreds who would descend on the place in the next hour or so.

He pressed himself against the wall and made sure he was slightly hidden by a near by pot plant before he figured out where he was.

A sudden scream made him freeze wondering if he’d been spotted. He glanced up in the direction of the sound to find a middle aged woman being held up around four feet in the air by a very tall man. He was dressed in a long overcoat which barely covered his spandex covered chest. The metal helmet and plate across his face made him even less inconspicuous. He jumped forward shedding his coat and grabbed a woman who was in front of him in the queue.

Samson recognised the man and his two companions instantly as three quarters of The Wrecking Crew…lacking their name sake The Wrecker. Thunderball stepped forward his giant wrecking ball in hand. “I would like everyone’s attention please,” he said rather politely and eloquently. Samson often forgot how intelligent this super thug was. “This is a robbery, if everyone would please remain calm then no one will be hurt and we’ll be out of your hair with this hostage in minutes. She will of course be released unharmed when we are at a safe distance…Piledriver get the safe.”

The woman in Bulldozer’s arms screamed at the top of her lungs. The large man seemed startled and shook her violently. This just made her scream more “SHUT UP!” he commanded but with little effect.

Samson on any other day would have leapt into the fight to try and rescue the woman and stop the robbery but truth be told this wasn’t any other day. He was an inch tall and had already found out what happened when he got involved with super villains at this size.

He had gotten too cocky in his own prowess and got involved last time when the sensible thing was to leave Titania and Absorbing Man too it. The current sensible thing was to make sure no one was hurt by letting the Crew just commit their crime.

“HELP ME! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!” the woman screamed as she stretched out her arms to the rest of the bank patrons and it’s employees.

Samson swore. No matter how sensible he was trying to be. His psychologist head which was decoding his own state of mind slipped away completely as his superhero mindset took control and he prepared to launch into a rescue attempt.

Samson darted across the floor. His size again letting him reach speeds that he couldn’t have if he had not been affected by the Pym particles.

Thunderball was staring across the foyer of the bank towards Piledriver who was already busy smashing through the bank vault door but it was so far holding up quite well under his powerful blows.

Bulldozer was equally distracted by the hostage who was screaming and thrashing in his arms. He was beginning to think he had grabbed the wrong person, this was the distraction Samson was counting on.

The tiny green haired dynamo tossed himself into the air and stretched his arms above his head like a club. His tiny mass came down across the back of Bulldozer as he drove his powerful hands forward across the back of the villain.

The throb of pain spread through Samson’s hands as he began to drop to the floor. He rolled quickly out of the way of Bulldozer’s foot as the villain took a step back and turned his head. He was now directly below him and so was just out of the behemoth’s sight.

He shook his hands to try and dispel the pain. Bulldozer seemed to shrug off the impact as if he was unsure he even felt anything.

Samson quickly noted mentally that he obviously wasn’t strong enough to injure or even slightly hurt these super powered individuals. He briefly wished this bank robbery was being committed by someone without heightened strength. He was sure given a normal human physiology even given his current height he could take them down or at least slow them up. These bruisers however seemed to be a bigger problem.

He stared upwards for a second and waited for Bulldozer’s head to turn away. He shot a quick glance to the still distracted Thunderball before leaping up onto the hard metal shin pads of Bulldozer. “If your brawn isn’t going to work, time to use your brain!”

He edged his way around the metal shins to the back of his knee before launching upwards to the large metal belt which he wore around his waist. Samson slung to it tightly before hauling himself up and jumping to the villain’s shoulders which as ever with this particular villain was covered in a large metal plate. This was particularly helpful as it stopped any chance of him even noticing Samson’s weight.

Samson pressed himself hard against the metal collar of the neck and kept his eyes fixed on Thunderball. If he got a glimpse at Samson on Bulldozer’s back then the jig would be completely up.

Doc began to run through what he knew of the Wrecking Crew in his mind. Three villains who came into contact with Thor villain The Wrecker Aka Dirk Garthwaite who shared his Asgardian power with them making them The Wrecking Crew. They were serial criminal jobbers who had went up against every superhero Samson could name at one point or another. Their win loss record was tilted well towards the later but they were still extremely dangerous. The sheer amount of fights and their longevity in the business showed that.

Bulldozer was Henry Camp. He was an Ex-military man, he was most definitely not the sharpest spoon in the draw. His IQ was around 89 Samson remembered this from some notes he had previously made when he was supposed to council the four last time they were in prison…they escaped. He was on the lower end of normal intelligence. He had somehow however managed to rise to the role of master sergeant in the military. This was of course before his dishonourably discharge for some classified reason, he turned to crime and through this he met the other members of The Crew.

“I wish I’d grabbed someone else,” Samson lowered his voice as best he could as he balanced behind Bulldozer’s ear. He was aware it was a terrible impression of the brawny man. He shook his head and put his hand to it when he realised what he was doing. He had no idea why he thought this would work.

“Whiney bitch,” Bulldozer shook the woman again trying to silence her. “I wonder if it’s too late to switch.”

Samson took his hand from his head and stared momentarily in some disbelief as soon as he started he did not think this would work but it apparently was being successful. “Why the hell do I have to hold the hostage anyway,” continued the tiny green haired goliath.

“Thunderball, can Piledriver and me switch?” Bulldozer turned to their current leader.

The large black superhero gave his comrade a withering glare. “Just do your job,” he ordered Bulldozer.

“Who decided he was boss?” added Samson quickly. He cringed with every sentence he spoke, the voice and the inflection of his voice was just too painfully bad for him to endure. He was very careful about how he was speaking and what he was saying.

He was trying to lead Bulldozer somewhere, he didn’t want to suggest anything just ask questions…leading questions true but still questions. If he were to suggest action he worried even Bulldozer would figure out something wasn’t right with the whole situation.

“We did,” Bulldozer mumbled to himself. “When Wrecker left and we went to see The Power Broker to get some powers.”

Samson nodded as he took in the information. He now understood how these three had their powers back and he possibly had an inroads for a plan which may work, it however relied on his current technique working on the other two members. He also briefly noted that Bulldozer had just answered his ‘own’ question verbally. This made him more hopeful about his plan.

There had been several studies conducted by superhuman scientists. One by Reed Richards with the assist of Doc Samson himself and one by Henry Pym on the effects of The Power Broker’s process to increase strength and longevity to see if it was of any benefit to the human race on whole. It seemed like a reasonable assumption.

The results however found side effects. In the first six months after the process was undertaken there was a significant increase in lethargy as participants were not equipped for the extra food intake and sleep needed for their stronger and larger bodies. There was also a decrease in IQ, not a major one but significant in the least. This was coupled with other psychological effects such as paranoia, minor hallucinations in some cases and most importantly increased aggression as the body is unable to deal with it’s new biochemistry. This of course balanced out eventually as the body and mind got used to it’s new operating systems.

“Is that fair? I bet he tricked me? I was a master sergeant I should take charge.” Samson was beginning to think that the Power Broker process was responsible for why this was working the way it was. Samson now had added confidence because he knew he could push the technique a little more and it seemed to work. He was able to now gently prompt and prod the ideas in Bulldozer’s mind but he was still very aware not to make too overt orders.

“I should, I should be in charge.” He exhaled annoyed. The woman in his arms had stopped struggling now and simply stared at him confused and slightly worried that the man with arms like tree trunks giving her a bear hug now appeared to be talking to himself.

“Who are you talking too over there?” Thunderball was on the other side of the bank lobby. He was giving the patrons of the bank long hard stares trying to weed out any ‘heroes’ who would make this business more difficult.

“He treats me like a kid” Samson added. “He thinks I’m dumb, they all do. They always do even my friends!”

“I’m not dumb and I’m not a kid!” Bulldozer turned sharply to Thunderball. The woman in his arms was deposited without much thought on the floor. She grunted loudly as she hit but then spent no time complaining and scurried towards the outer wall to huddle with some other hostages.

“What are you talking about Henry?”

Samson waited. A couple of more prods he could use jumped into his mind but he wanted to see how well this had worked and move onto the next stage. “I don’t want to hold the hostage anymore, I don’t want you ordering me around!”

Thunderball narrowed his eyes and furloughed his brow and exhaled sharply. It seemed his aggression was also easily aroused now. He bit his lip and breathed out more calmly. It seemed he was aware of the increased aggression and was calming himself. “Understandable, lets just play this one out like I planned and then we’ll discuss it when were out of here, ok?”

Bulldozer sized up his comrade briefly trying to see any subterfuge in his actions. “Okay,” he nodded. It seemed Samson’s plan had failed but he smiled gently to himself and leapt clear of the armour plated villain before he could turn his back to the watching Thunderball.

Bulldozer sloped across the room. His shoulders and head were hunched forward and his fists were tightened by his side. His lower lip was protruding slightly more than normal. He had all the body language of a sulking child or teenager. He had made up his own mind and built up some steam before being forcibly defused, something was said which he couldn’t get angry about but it wasn’t what he wanted. He didn’t want to compromise he wanted his own way, it would just make him more angry and Samson would just have to wait for the straw to break the camel’s back.

Samson’s office…

Louise and Dolan sat at on opposite sides of Louise’s desk. They had been waiting impatiently for any news on Samson.

This impatient waiting had given way a while ago to two adventurous women telling war stories of their various battles throughout their careers. Dolan had met only one person in social situations who could even challenge her stories for excitement and bizarreness and that was Doc Samson. In Louise she’d find another one.

“I edged myself along the length of the mast which was swinging from side to side across the width of the pirate ship. The Golden Agency were on the deck fighting off the pirates and the nazi’s while King Zulara’s skull dangled from the boom over the pot of boiling blood as the wizard was finishing his spell…”

The phone rang interrupting Louise. “Hello Doctor Leonard Samson’s office. How can I help you?...No sweetie nothing yet…well I could use a extrapolating spectrometer to trace Gamma radiation but I don’t know what one of those is dear…no I don’t think Leonard would like you skipping school do you? If he hasn’t gotten back by the end of the day by all means go ahead. Ok bye.”

Louise hung up and flashed a smile across to Dolan. “Amadeus,” she shrugged again. It was the fourth time Amadeus had rang in the past hour and a half to get some information or give some advice or opinion…none of which were useful to Louise.

“Where was I? Oh yes the sea serpent and the fighter planes…” Louise was cut off again by the ring of the phone but this time it was Stacy Dolan’s cell.

She flipped out her phone and pressed it to her head. “Dolan,” she answered simply. She waited for a second as the other person on the phone spoke and then glanced at her watch. “Yeah I’ll come right down.” She hung up the phone.

“The Wrecking Crew are holding up a bank. The Avengers are busy off fighting some scourge or something so it’s up to me and Code Blue.” Dolan stood up and grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair. “Call me if you hear anything.”

The Bank Vault…

Leonard Samson crouched around a corner. He glance to see Piledriver as he used his fists to pound onto the heavy metal of the vault door.

The door had been pounded by the villain into something which looked a lot like a garbage can lid Leonard used to use to bounce baseballs off in his youth. It was now state law that for insurance purposes the vault must hold out under a certain amount of physical pressure e.g. from superhuman punches for at least 3 minutes. This one had done so and was still holding to the key parts of the wall which kept it upright and kept Piledriver from the money on the other side. He wasn’t sure how much longer it would last.

Samson launched himself along the length of the corridor and leapt at the wall. He used the rebound from the wall to land on Piledriver’s shoulder. He timed the landing exactly so he hit just at the same time Piledriver’s blow landed and his muscles were tense so he wouldn’t feel the extra weight.

Piledriver laughed happily to himself as he punched the door again. To Samson at his current size and so close to the door it sounded like the entire world was coming to an end.

Brian Philip Calusky was known as Piledriver. He liked to think of himself as a good old country boy despite the fact he was born in New York City. His family moved to a farm in his youth. He had a job and an income for life but yet he entered into a life of crime. Samson had been over his file several times over the years but couldn’t find any concrete reason for this jump.

It was possible most certainly and is true that Brian himself had said it himself that he simply didn’t like that life. He didn’t want to be strapped to a farm for his entire life, he didn’t want that life and he was bored. His school grades meant he was never going to be a rocket scientist and so simply quit. He quit obeying the law and set off on his life of crime.

“Why do I get all the grunt work?” queried Samson in a voice which was a little closer to Pilerdriver’s than his awful impression of Bulldozer. The noise of the smashing door helped to cover it well, it was passable. The fact that he wasn’t as dumb as Dozer wouldn’t help but hopefully the Power Broker side effect would do some good.

Piledriver didn’t respond, he just smiled. He wasn’t as liable to speaking out loud as Bulldozer. He did however respond in his own mind. “I enjoy it,” Samson of course was not privy to his private thoughts. The smile on the villains face however gave him a hint as to what was going through his mind.

Samson was silent as the door buckled and one of it’s bolts ripped itself clear of the wall. “What would Dad think if he saw me now?” Samson tried.

Piledriver’s face twisted and he swung his fist forward harder than he had been. A second bolt crumpled and ripped away from the wall. Samson could only see the side of Piledriver’s face but it was easy enough to read. Extrapolating what was going on was more difficult. The two best chances were Brian was in some way angry at himself for letting his father down or he was angry at his parent.

The anger passed from his face and the lower half of his face twisted again. Piledriver missed a swing as he stopped for a second, the anger returned quickly and he unleashed another flurry of blows at the door.

Samson weighed the percentages, he was leaning towards the fact Brian was angry at himself rather than his father. “What have I done with my life?” He questioned to Piledriver.

Piledriver gritted his teeth and raised his hands above his head before slamming them down into the centre of the twisted metal of the door. It screamed and twisted again. Piledriver lifted his foot and booted the door right in the centre of it’s damage sending it spiralling into the bank vault.

The second it bounced down inside the vault a loud alarm began to blare. Piledriver let out an almost Hulk like roar as he bent low and grabbed the door. He spun on his heel and slammed it hard into the box and horn on the wall just behind him. The rubble from the wall hurtled down the corridor. The alarm turned to a whine and then stopped and Piledriver dropped the door.

The look of tension and anger on his face didn’t melt away with the cathartic smashing of something annoying. Samson watched his expression, his needling and the effects of the process seemed to be working in keeping him aggressive.

Samson briefly rethought his plan. He was making the three of them angry in an already volatile hostage situation. He had managed to get Bulldozer to drop the hostage so perhaps the best thing would be to just let the situation play out and the villains take the money and leave.

He made sure to keep concentrating on Piledriver while these thoughts raced through his head. The villain mumbled to himself as he walked around the room grabbing the metal cages full of notes and ripping the bars clear. He was mumbling women’s names. “Wendy from junior high, Sarah…the other Sarah too,” it seemed to be a list of women he had once dated or at least knew. “I could have had kids and be settled down by now, I could have…”

“THIS IS DETECTIVE STACY DOLAN!!! CODE BLUE HAS YOU SURROUNDED! COME OUT!”

The voice was blaring from outside but could be audibly heard in the bank vault. Piledriver turned sharply meaning Samson had to take a tighter hold of the man as he turned. He half growled and half screamed and yanked the bars from the cage he was holding with a little extra ‘umph’ than he intended.

He quickly the last of the cages in which money was stored but this time pulled the entire cage clear out of the wall. The three had went through this situation before and planned for it. He stepped into the cage and flipped the table up against one side of the bars. He then started to move around the cages grabbing the other tables filled with cash. The lined cage would work as a handy carrier for the money.

“Great, great, great! Throw away my life and now I have to handle the damn cops.” He gritted his teeth and slammed the table he held into the floor scattering it’s bills across the deck. He slammed it down again for good measure.

Samson tossed himself back as the money fluttered down around him covering him should Piledriver see him. Any thoughts he’d had of letting the three simply walk out had evaporated, two were already in fighting moods and now with the police outside if they tried to leave someone would get hurt.

They had two options, keep the hostages and buy time or walk out and take on the cops. Samson cursed Dolan for a second, he knew she was only doing her job but she came at the most inopportune time.

He could however still give his previous idea a shot of working, the added tension of the police presence might actually make the whole situation work even better.

He covered the ground as quickly as he could. He turned the last corner around the edge of the doorway to the main foyer and tossed himself into the air. He angled his body like a missile as he flew over the remainder of the glass partition.

Thunderball was standing in the middle of the room staring out at the police. Bulldozer was at the window staring out at the police. He listened to the conversation as he hurtled through the air.

“CALM DOWN!” ordered Thunderball.

“Don’t order me around!” Bulldozer snarled back. He turned angrily and then looked back out of the window. It seemed Samson’s effects were still working.

Samson grabbed hold of the metal chain which was still slung over Thunderball’s shoulder. The second he landed it shifted as the villain moved it to his hands causing the green haired mini hero to leap to his shoulder.

“Who the hell does he think he’s talking too?” Samson’s newest impression was the worst of all. The fact that Thunderball was by far one of the smartest thugs out there didn’t help. He was a physicist on par with the likes of Bruce Banner and Reed Richards. He was in fact often referred to as The black Bruce Banner.

This was a fact Samson was hoping to use. He got the nickname despite the fact that Bruce Banner’s work with gamma radiation led to a meltdown and the creation of the Hulk while his own was 100% successful and effective.
The company he worked for took his patents and essentially stole them from him. When he tried to steal it back he was caught and sent to prison. This is where he met the other members of The Wrecking crew…the rest of the events were well documented.

It was this which Doc was going to capitalise. He himself couldn’t even imagine what Thunderball AKA Dr Eliot Franklin has been through. Despite the fact that he was more ‘intelligent’ and successful but still lived in the shadow of Bruce Banner. He was by many many times more intelligent than the rest of The Wrecking crew yet found himself ‘stuck’ with the other three must have been frustrating not to mention the fact that he was reliant on one of them for any sort of power.

The intelligence however would work against Samson but he hoped the tension and effects of the process would be enough to pull the wool over his eyes.

Thunderball tilted his head. He had heard a voice which was similar to his but he like the others didn’t think it was his own thoughts. He was able however to think given the situation that maybe he was hearing things.

“Stop ignoring me and listen!” Bulldozer stomped across the room. “We should cut our losses and pull Piledriver out. We can get clear easier without the cash.”

“Follow the plan,” Samson tried the voice again. This time it was closer. The fact that Dozer was talking as well perhaps gave him a lapse in concentration for Samson to work in. He also thought perhaps that Thunderball may not have heard him and he was just strong in his own convictions.

“Just follow the damn plan!” He pressed his hand against bulldozer who was getting close to him and shoved him away slightly.

“I’m 1000% times smarter than him,” Samson was about to add another sentence but thought shorter burst might have more effect and be less noticeable amongst his own thoughts.

“Just do as I say ok! That’s all I ask. I’m the smart one remember, Wrecker ditched us and whose idea was it to get our powers back? Who planned all of this? I’m a genius for God’s sake you think the police bother me!” he raised his height slightly to cut a more imposing figure. “The only thing bothering me is you two goofing off!”

“How about we just get out of here then, let you handle them and go our separate ways.” Piledriver dropped the cage he was carrying on his shoulder roughly causing it to wobble and tip slightly until it came to rest at an angle on the wall. “I’m sick of all this crap!”

“Shut up! We could be out of here in a minute just let me think!” Thunderball barked angrily. He jabbed his finger at Piledriver.

“I’ve had it! I’m taking charge now, I was a Master Sergeant. I’ve got experience with…”

“Shut up! Both of you! I quit, I’m not doing this crap anymore.” Piledriver moved and prepared to walk past the other two. He was going to simply walk outside and then make a break for it. His strength would help him, once he got a little distance he would be gone.

The wrecking ball of Thunderball shot across the room and slammed into the wall in front of Piledriver. Leonard took this chance to get clear of the three, his idea was working and he had a strong idea where this was going.

“You’re not going anywhere! Just let me think! I can’t think!” Samson looked behind him. Thunderball had his hands on his head. Despite the danger Samson couldn’t help but make a note for future study, the aggression and IQ lowering effects of the process seemed to be having more of an effect on the smartest of the three.

Piledriver was not one for mixing his words. He launched across the room and slammed into Thunderball. The two men spilled to the floor causing the room to shake, the hostages screamed loudly and then took their chance and some of them burst towards the door.

“HOLD FIRE!” Samson heard Dolan scream outside. On this signal the other hostages followed suit.

“Get off each other! NOW!” Dozer grabbed the two of them as they struggled against each other. They both seemed to turn at the same time and shoved Bulldozer away from them before turning back to one another with blows from their fists.

Bulldozer roared with anger and then launched at the other two with his head down as he usually did and hurled himself into the melee.

Samson pressed himself against the wall as he watched the three exchange blows. He might have normally tried to intervene in some way…this wasn’t a normal situation. He was more than happy to stand back and wait for what he knew was coming.

“Freeze!” The sounds of guns clicking filled the room as Code Blue and Stacy Dolan swept in with their weapons pointed. They amongst them held everything from handguns to shotguns and there were even a couple of sparking and glowing guns of the more hi-tech variety.

The Wrecking Crew continued to exchange blows, they only stopped when Dolan unleashed a shot in the air above her head.

A few minutes later…

Thunderball’s wrecking ball was being dragged from the scene by six officers. It had been photographed several times as the room was quickly swept but it seemed to be an ordinary super crime robbery.

Stacy Dolan stood in the centre of the room surveying the crime scene. She had seen the Crew bundled into the back of the armoured wagon with the superhuman restraints fixed firmly behind their backs. They were still arguing verbally as the van pulled away.

“You want to get off? I know your friend is still missing?” asked one of the uniformed officers of Code Blue. He was the leader of the team. “I can take over.”

Stacy nodded. She suddenly felt guilty, in the heat of the moment and focusing on the situation she’d completely forgotten about Leonard for the moment and now only remembered.

Her thoughts of guilt were suddenly brushed aside as a giant clod of dirt slapped across the side of her face. The chief of Code Blue and her were both quick of the draw and pointed their weapons at the potted plant which was against the wall.

They shot one another a glance and then crept forward slowly making sure to keep it covered with their weapons.

Dolan inhaled sharply and a wide smile spread across her dirt covered face as she saw the tiny green haired and red shirted figure balancing on the edge of the pot waving his arms above his head like a mad man.

She lowered herself down to one knee and lowered her gun. “Hey little man,” she smiled happily. “You had us all worried for a while…should have known you’d be off causing trouble. I do assume the three stooges were your doing?”

Her hand stretched out to the pot but Samson leapt straight over it and to her shoulder without any signs of effort. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” he hugged the bottom of her ear lobe.

“I’ll get straight on to the prison and get a batch of particles sent to the station, they shouldn’t be long by the time we get back there. I’ll take your statement when you’re bigger I doubt the machine could pick you up now.”

“Can we stop at a drive-thru on the way I’m starving,” Samson sat down and then rested up against Dolan’s neck as she walked out of the bank doors.

“I’m sure we could get you a little something to eat,” Dolan smiled. “I’m sure there’s a Borrowers sized McDonalds a couple of blocks away. A miniature Big Mac maybe?”

“Ha ha, ha ha,” Samson deadpanned laughing. “You’re not too big to put over my knee you know.”

“Promises promises, always promises.”

Next Time: Doc Samson is back to his normal size. He’s only missed a day of work and he’s got so much to do. Meetings, book deals and TV appearances. It’s a busy life being the worlds only superhero psychologist…but what if he wasn’t? Doc Samson Vs Doc Faustus!