If the focus of the last storyline was Vigilant, the focus this time is Thunderous, mightiest of the Next Level.

Thunderous (Mikhail Donner) and Flickerflame (Lafferty) in what's going to prove to be a very typical moment. Thunderous is sort of like a thug in the Sopranos...extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, but personally, a bit likable.  He's half-German, half-Russian, but was raised in Russia, born in 1888. 

Yes, he's towering over Lafferty.  He's six foot eight or thereabouts. 

The cop must have figured it was the booze talking, and of course he didn't understand the Russian insult.  

Luckily.

Luckily for the cop. Because, drunk or not...Thunderous is still the strongest and most powerful of the Next Level---and Lore's right-hand man, and the  Next Level's strongarm enforcer. 

I'm not sure offhand, how Gorgon of the Inhumans or Stompa of the Female Furies are supposed to do what they do---are only their feet super-strong?  I wanted to go a different tack...have Footfall's power to amplify sounds or vibrations produced by his body.

As for how he lost his tongue---look, would YOU want him talking?  It was almost self-defense---albeit a grisly one---wherever he was raised.

We'll see more of Footfall, but the next couple of pages will take us to a side-tangent, which is a set-up for the main opponent this story.

Thunderous is like a mob enforcer in the Sopranoes or the Godfather---in some ways a nice guy, a good friend to have, unless he's ordered to kill you. Then, with regret---he'll squash you like a bug. 

Those who read the team book my other webcomics character, Mindmistress appears in---THE CROSSOVERLORD---are aware that Flickerflame is mentioned as being at the great gathering here given by the being Mindmistress and others call "Ringo".  Yet reality-hopping isn't really Lafferty's style, and being summoned for a multiversal Crisis isn't his, either.  <p>

Which is what makes it fun. *Grin*<p>

Most of the story will be in Lafferty's home reality, which at least some designate REALITY: HYPERBOREA, but I wanted to have a few pages where  Lafferty is totally out of his depth, and only there because he couldn't resist cracking wise...even to a robot. And believe it or not, this ties directly into to a menace to at least one member of the Next Level---and by extension---all realities everywhere. Honest.

Flickerflame doesn't happen in the same reality as Mindmistress and some other webcomics---the Next Level is quite enough to cope with, and I don't want any potential allies to be able to give Lafferty a hand...but they still are set in the same ...multiverse.

Next: Lafferty comments on Ringo's name-dropping. Action-packed! *Grin//* again!

If you were kidnapped by a floating ball and then appeared on a platform floating in mid-air, facing a huge being that's basically a floating mask...would you REALLY accept it as real?  Half of the original CRISIS should have been spent convincing each hero that he hasn't finally gone crazy....

Ultra is from POINT GUARDIAN and used with the permission of Ultra's creator, Ben Carver. Flickerflame needed a fairly noble, old-fashioned hero-type for a straight man, and I've long been an admirer of Ben's traditional take on the super-hero, so retro as to be refreshing--- in these days when pathos and gore is the norm in most comics. There's something to be said for recapturing the original archtype of the superhero.  Ultra is perhaps a little tesiter than he is in his own comic, but I could see a reasonably noble hero taking an instant dislike to a sarcastic, self-serving antihero like Lafferty.

The floating mask-guy has been dubbed "Ringo" in THE CROSSOVERLORD and Flickerflame was named on this page. This is sort of an offshoot of CROSSOVERLORD, but Lafferty will soon be returning to his home reality.

And no, I couldn't resist Lafferty commenting on Mindmistress' name.  There are no plans for my two main characters to ever meet,  and I wanted to establish that the Next Level exists in a world where no other superhuman heroes could help Lafferty---but they exist in the same multiverse, as it were.

More on the Smiling Man's agent in Flickerflame's reality next time.

THIS is what Thunderous has to do with the plot. Of COURSE the Smiling Man is after THAT weapon---a virtual distintegrator, with the impact of an A-bomb?  The Next Level has some of the best weapons anywhere...in any reality.  Of COURSE the Smiling Man would want them. But he has an agent doing it FOR him, and it'll be that agent which Flickerflame will be dealing with....

Don't be fooled by his normal name.  Mr. Gerald will prove to be quite formidable....

Notice---he KILLED his own counterpart---killed HIMSELF in another reality---to take his place. 

Does that give you an idea how ruthless this guy IS? 

I think Lafferty's reaction is eminently sane.  He's hallucinating, because some things just DON'T happen.

Still...it's going to haunt him. He's going to get curious....

He's going to regret it. --Al

PS. We all remember Mr. Frost, right?  Flicker's reluctant ally who's also a crimelord.