("What's that, Lassie?")
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This weeks burning question: what happens when you accidentally transform a supervillain into a fifteen-foot giant being of very angry light?
For Dazzler, the answer is probably not quite as bad as she fears - Creel has bigger fish to fry and, after smashing Richards' sonic device, he takes off to net himself some Avengers. Alison tries to call the mansion to warn them, but she's so hysterical that Jarvis assumes she's a prank caller, a terrified young woman and a giggling boy being almost entirely indistinguishable, obviously.
Dazzler tries the Fantastic Four instead, but only the machine picks up. She decides to skate over to the Baxter Building, in the hope that they're just screening their calls.
Meanwhile, Angel (who has started referring to himself as "WWIII", which is just the right level of stupid cheesiness for him to think it's cool) is considering how to get out of the cul-de-sac his search for Alison's mother has led him down. His crush's grandmother wasn't any help; she confessed to secretly knowing Dazzler was a mutant (which is a nice touch), but basically points out what I'd already said: if she isn't going to give any clues to her daughter, she certainly won't help out some guy who happens to share the same genetic declension. WWIII isn't even sure if he wants to go any further, having finally cottoned on to the fact that there are real people with actual feelings involved here, and it might be best to not trample all over their pasts merely to increase his chances of copping a feel.
Back in the A plot, Alison has gotten to the Baxter Building, and takes advantage of a distracted security guard to sneak in. I was briefly pissed off at the idea that the guy in charge of guarding the FF could be so egregiously incompetent, but I suppose for the rogue's gallery we're talking about, a glorified doorman would be about as discouraging a roadblock as the tape across a race's finish line. Besides, if she hadn't been able to generate specific light frequencies she'd never have gotten in the lift, and if Reed hadn't already programmed her in as "friend", she'd be dead dozens of times over by the time she reaches the team's comms system, and starts casting around looking for someone to help.
Finding a console that's still warm, Dazzler presses the ON button, and finds herself connected to the Inhuman throne room. The moon-dwellers aren't particularly delighted by getting phone calls from random earthlings, but Alison makes her case with sufficient clarity that Black Bolt himself teleports to the Baxter Building to help take out Creel. Dazzler sees this as something of a mixed blessing, since the Inhuman ruler can't actually say anything to her, so she's got no idea what the plan is. More importantly, she's not sure he's understood her most important point: she wants nothing to do with Operation: Stop Giant Murdering Bastard.
Whatever his thinking actually is, all we can say is that he grabs Alison and flies her to the Absorbing Man's location, but leaves her a little way away whilst he attacks. The fight itself does not go well: Black Bolt's energy blasts just get absorbed, and attempts to punch Creel lead to "devastating light-feed-back", which is playing pretty fast and loose with the English language but, you know, welcome to comics. Eventually the Inhuman falls, forcing Dazzler to wade in lasers blazing to save him, which in turn are absorbed by Creel, making him still more powerful.
Help is on the way, though! The police have arrived with a camera crew, which means Angel has seen the battle on the news, and is en route to help (so is Ken, but I don't think it unfair to ask how lawyering up could help right now). For the moment, though, Blackathor and Alison are on their own. The Inhuman creates an energy shield to keep them safe from Creel's attacks whilst he attempts to outline his thinking,
Here's Alison's responses to Black Bolt's gestures: "You've got a plan?", "You need my help?", "Yes... I can create intensely powerful light." Where the fuck is she getting all this from? The last time I played charades it took people ten minutes to work out Wuthering Heights. It's lucky Dazzler guesses the precise nature of Black Bolt's power, or they'd be there all night.
(The Inhumans live on the fucking moon, by the way. They've developed weapons that could smash this planet into something you could fit in a Subaru. How the fuck has Black Bolt not got a Stephen Hawking's style electronic voice-box. Or, you know, a pen and paper.)
Dazzler quickly draws in all the power the Inhuman can direct at her (whilst spouting some fairly disturbing dialogue, it has to be said), and uses it to rise aloft and devastate Creel. The resulting power expenditure cuts short her brand new flying ability, but Angel arrives just in time to save from a twenty foot fall that she's convinced would have killed her. Ken arrives moments later, to make things incredible awkward, and Black Bolt catches the Lockjaw Express back home.
Two codas: at the Blaire residence, a psychiatrist is checking out Judge Carter, who keeps babbling incoherently about his wife's betrayal. Realising that events are coming to a head in any case, Carter's mother decides to phone Warren, in the hope that he can help. Meanwhile, Alison meets up with Vanessa, her new friend and fellow singer. Alison has just enough time to tell the story of her missing mother before Vanessa has to leave for a singing lesson. At the Upper West Side house of Barbara London, Vanessa finds an exceptional singing teacher, an impressive-looking piano, and something beyond comprehension lurking in the kitchen...
Clues
The story follows on directly from last issue, and continues into mid morning the following day.
Date
Saturday 2nd to Sunday 3rd of April, 1983.
X-Date
X+5Y+32 to X+5Y+33.
Contemporary Events
The City of Greenville, filled with crude oil, collides with a bridge in St Louis. Two barges sink, and a third bursts into flames before drifting downstream, damaging various other vessels.
Football player and manager Jimmy Bloomfield passes away, aged just 49.
Standout Line
"Yeah... that's it Black Bolt... fill me with power! Power! Cause that's what I need... to take care of business! Ohhhhh. I feel so good... So powerful... So powerful..."
To quote Koothrappali: "He must be doing this deliberately."
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