Thunderstrike #8
Zero Hour
Note: This story is told 50/50 with half of the pages devoted to the Code: Blue story and the other half to the Thunderstrike b-plot. Each page flipping back and forth between the two events. For the sake of clear summarization I am telling both halves of the issue in one chunk
The Code: Blue Story
Captain Shelly Conklin and Marcus Stone of the NYPD have been called down to see a demonstration of a new robot police officer called the Zone Enforcement Response Option, or Officer ZERO for short. The robot is powerful enough to punch through brick walls and is armed with an array of weapons. It is run through a remote connection via a transmitter surgically implanted in the cerebral cortex of its creator, Thomas Rizzo. The robot is being pushed to be put on the Code: Blue team by city council. With councilors assuring Conklin and Stone that the robot would be a great addition to the team. They also learn that motivation behind the creation of Officer ZERO is that Thomas Rizzo’s brother was a cop who was killed in the line of duty and that the creation of a robotic police officer was an attempt to preserve lives. Although Code: Blue is still reeling after the loss of their teammate, Jock Jackson, they have no choice but to at least agree to a test run to see if Officer ZERO will be useful in the field.[1]
At that same moment, the rest of Code: Blue are out on the firing range. There, Mad Dog Rossitano is going all out on the target practice field. He is being observed by his teammates Rigger Ruiz, Fireworks Feldstein, and Mother Majowski. They have all been dealing with Jock’s death in their own way since the funeral. Mad Dog has been taking Jock’s death particularly hard. Mother tells the others that this is because a few years earlier Rossitano was on the vice squad. When a case went sour and cost the life of his partner, Mad Dog was investigated by Internal Affairs. Although Rossitano was cleared of all wrong doing it had an affect on the rest of his career. Mother fears that unless Mad Dog gets his personal demons back in check he might become a liability to them all.
Soon, Code: Blue is preparing to go on a test run with Officer ZERO. As they load up in a police van, Thomas Rizzo recognizes Mad Dog and says hello. After this friendly exchange, Rigger learns that Rossitano’s former partner was Rizzo’s brother. They soon arrive on a testing field out in the city. However, upon their arrival, Officer ZERO spots an actual crime in progress — an illegal arm’s deal going on out of the back of a van — and engages the criminals. When the gun runners open fire, the rest of Code: Blue duck for cover as Officer ZERO plods towards its targets unimpeded.
Monitoring things from the tactical van, Mother Majowski tries to get the robot back under control but it keeps overriding his commands. Rather than pulling back, Officer ZERO pulls out a grenade launcher from a compartment in its leg and fires on the building above the arms dealers. The resulting explosion causes a chunk of the building to fall on the crooks, crushing them all to death. Mad Dog gets really upset by this and confronts Officer ZERO. The robot then accuses Rossitano of being a dirty cop and strikes him so hard that it sends the cop flying. The robot then begins opening fire on the rest of Code: Blue. This leads to a panic in the tactical van as Mother Majowski accuses Rizzo of wanting to get revenge against Rossitano for the death of his brother. Thomas insists that this is not true and tries to make sense of why his creation is going rogue.
Officer ZERO then grabs Marcus Stone, allowing the veteran cop a chance to shoot the machine point blank in the face. While this allows Marcus to break free from its grip, the robot is still function and continues its attack. It’s by this time that Rizzo realizes that Officer ZERO must be influenced by some subconscious resentment being transmitted through his mental link with the robot. Since there is no way to shut down the link, Thomas realizes that the only way to stop ZERO is to kill himself. Rizzo grabs Majowski’s sidearm and shoots himself in the head before Mother can stop him. With Rizzo’s death, Officer ZERO shuts down and collapses to the ground.
Soon emergency crews arrive on the scene to clean things up and take the body away. Code: Blue is upset that the powers that be are going to sweep this disaster under the rug. When it comes down to who will inform the Rizzo family that they have lost another son, Mad Dog volunteers to be the one to undertake this heavy task. Marcus agrees to let him do so, but hopes that the rest of the Rizzo family can learn to forgive before being taken over by their own demons.
The Thunderstrike B-Plot
Elsewhere in the city, Eric Masterson has learned his son Kevin has been kidnapped by his step-father, Bobby Steele. Arriving at the apartment Bobby shares with Eric’s ex-wife Marcy, he learns that the “kidnapping” didn’t go farther than Kevin’s room as Bobby has barricaded himself and Kevin inside.[2] Bobby has gotten it into his head that Eric is having an affair with Marcy and is trying to steal back his family. When Eric knocks at Kevin’s door to try and reason with Bobby, the professional football player warns Masterson to stay away or else he’ll have to do something drastic.
Bobby then turns to Kevin and assures him that he means the boy no harm. He just doesn’t like people like Eric Masterson much. He tells the boy about his own upbringing and how his father despised slackers and pushed Bobby to exercise and be the best football player on his team. He learned that you have to fight hard to get what you want out of life and he is not about to let a slacker like Masterson take anything away from him.
Kevin is smart enough to see that there is something bigger bugging his step-father and asks him to talk about it. After a moments silence, Bobby admits that things on the New York Smashers aren’t going so well for him. Although he has led the team to years long winning streaks, he has been in a slump over the last few years and now team management is thinking about dropping him from the team. This has deeply upset Steele because football is his entire life and he refuses to let anyone take that away from him.
Outside the bedroom, Eric is growing impatient and wants to break down the door and confront Bobby. This makes Marcy turn on him, bringing up the fact that he could never handle himself in a crisis. This rankles Eric who tells her that he isn’t the same man she married, nor the one he divorced. Seeing that he is getting nowhere with her or Bobby, Eric storms out of the apartment.
Inside the bedroom, Kevin keeps on encouraging Bobby to open up to him and tell him what’s wrong. That’s when Bobby makes a shocking revelation: He has been abusing steroids in order to try and regain his lost edge in the field. Kevin is sympathetic and says that the family can come together and help him through this rough period, including his father, Eric. Hearing Masterson’s name throws Bobby into another fit of rage and he lunges at his step-son.
Outside, Eric decides to intervene as Thunderstrike and ducks into an alley to change into his alter-ego. He then smashes his way into Kevin’s bedroom interrupting Bobby before he can hit Kevin. Furious to see Steele manhandling his son, Thunderstrike orders him to let the boy go. When confronted by a much stronger person, Bobby insists that he wasn’t going to hurt the boy and breaks down in tears and collapses to the floor. However, rather than being grateful for the save, Kevin is upset that Thunderstrike was resorting to threats to get the what he wants.
With the situation diffuse, both Marcy and Kevin’s nanny Susan Austin come into the room. Bobby comes clean about everything and agrees to get help but pleads with them not to get the cops involved or else he’ll get bumped from the team for sure. Marcy is also unhappy with Thunderstrike’s interference, particularly because of the damage done to her apartment. She tells the hero that he will be hearing from her lawyers soon enough. As she walks Kevin away, the boy denounces Thunderstrike as nothing more than a bully.
Recurring Characters
Thunderstrike, Code: Blue (Marcus Stone, Rigger Ruiz, Mad Dog Rossitano, Fireworks Feldstein, Mother Majowski), Shelly Conklin, Marcy Steele, Bobby Steele, Kevin Masterson, Susan Austin
Continuity Notes
Jock Jackson was killed in the line of duty last issue during Thunderstirke’s battle with Pandara.
Bobby has been AWOL since Thunderstirke #2 and kidnapped Kevin last issue. Bobby’s erratic behavior is for a few reasons: He was apparently brutally mugged recently. His performance on the Smashers has also been flagging leading to him to start abusing steroids to try and enhance his game. See Thunderstrike #5 and later this issue. His strange behavior is being used here as a red herring to lead readers into believing he might be Bloodaxe. However, as we’ll learn in Thunderstrike #22, Bloodaxe is actually Jackie Lukas.
