It was a clear, brightly illuminated midday night.
That isn't too unusual above the Artic Circle where Dr. Tor Hershman, a longtime
employee of Astro-Artic Enterprises, was enjoying a cup of rooibos tea while viewing the most fantastically brilliant display of aurora-borealis that he, during his 34 years of northern employment,
had ever viewed.
Tor put down his empty cup, said adieu to his fellow midday graveyard-shift worker, and headed-out to
Snow-Buggy-XB7
for his last nightly check of the radio antennas,
for you see...
Tor was about to retire and this was his last run.
Even though he'd been witness to thousands of northern light shows none could begin to match the intensely spectacular colors of this eve's display.
Of course, Tor, though amazed by the lights, had to make sure that the antennas were not being affected, too drastically, by this incredible discharge of solar radiation. Just as the snow-buggy approached Byrd's Hill, a white light appeared on the eastern horizon.
A shooting-star, most likely, which seemed to have Tor in its sights.
The illuminated missile flew directly above the vehicle's roof and seemed to impact just west of Byrd's Hill.
Tor radioed in that he was going to proceed, on foot, and investigate.
Upon finding the object he quickly realized that this visitor was no stranger...
no.....it was returning home, to Earth.
The lettering, CCCP, was enough to let Tor, and anyone of similar years, know that this machine was from the old Soviet Union.
Perhaps a forgotten, or Top-Secret, satellite?
As Tor approached the still hot, though cooled considerably by the artic chill, spaceship...he noticed a blue glow which seemed to be increasing.
Could the satellite be nuclear powered?
The azure discharge said - YES!
Now, if this were an atomic reaction going critical there was no time to escape, Tor calculated.
There was only one thing to do, take action!
Tor always carried his
wrecking-bar with his standard work-belt.
He knew that the reaction could be stopped by simply moving the components, if they had not yet fussed, apart.
As Tor inserted his massive tool within the shining interior the night sky seemed to burst further into chromatic convulsions.
He applied all of his strength.
Just as the hues from sky and ground seemed to unite in unimaginable resonance...a vortex appeared to form about the iron-bar and man which splendiferously swirled and pulsated as if it were a tornado made of every firework every launched on Independence Day. Suddenly.....all power appeared to congeal upon the wrecking-bar and Tor.
All went dark.
Tor awoke, seven days later, at the general hospital in Juneau.
Astro-Artic Enterprise's VP of Human Relations was there and after the doctors finished said to Tor,
"Some guys will do anything to get an extra week's pay."
They laughed as people with a business bond oft times do but.....Tor, through "Fine as frog's hair," according to the head of oncology, had this strange felling.
He knew that he must return to the scene of the "Event."
Six weeks later, Tor arrived back at the frozen outpost for, so he said, a visit,
however...that evening.....he
made the trek, via his old buddy's snowmobile, back to the site which had now been enclosed thanks to a, most impressive,
Homeland Security fence.
As Tor sat there,
snowmobile purring...
his body began to tingle.
Suddenly, from underneath a snowbank there burst forth an intense blue light that flew toward Tor.
"Not again!" Tor thought and instinctively raised his hands to protect himself.
Pow!
Something hit...no,
not "Hit"
but rather joined or incorporated with Tor's hand and entire being.
As he opened his eyes,
Tor beheld in his hand the wrecking-bar...shining as brightly as the aurora and satellite on that eventful night.
The manmade radioactive forces had somehow melded with the magnetically focused solar-power
and had merged with the nearest deposits of iron which happened to be the wrecking-bar and Tor's blood.
The satellite was made entirely of aluminum alloys and that area, of the northern lands, is most iron poor so bar and man were the only discharge areas.
Tor soon discovered that his wrecking-bar now had fantastic powers that he could control with his mind;
this he kept totally to himself.
The bar could impart the capacity to negate or increase the Earth's magnetic-field...hence - it gave one the ability to fly.
It could also generate a powerful electrical discharge - in other words - make controlled lightning.
Soon Tor discovered that even without his transformed tool he was also capable of generating these powers though at a much decreased level.
The bar could also to sent flying from and, after much practice, recalled by Tor.
Deciding to use these newly found capacities to battle for freedom...Tor,
soon joined by his trusty companions,
became know as........
