Abominator Moonbase, March 1979

Joe stepped back from the controls of the Interdimensional Travel Plate (IDTP) and checked around the room for everyone else.

In a room filled with madness, he had superheroes and villains to fall back on—though in this case the question of which was which depended on whether journalists from the USA or USSR wrote the story.

Russian Victory lay on the ground. His bulbous powered armor reminded Joe of the Michelin Man if the Michelin Man were painted red, had a yellow hammer and sickle on his chest, and wasn’t made of tires but instead spherical metal sections.

Larry leaned forward to give him a hand up. Russian Victory took it and Larry pulled him to his feet.

Larry wouldn’t have been able to do it if he weren’t in costume as the Rhino. The Rhino suit (this version) was grey, bulky, and had a stylized Rhino on the chest.

The Rhino suit and Russian Victory’s powered armor could have been siblings except for the colors. Even if Larry’s suit wasn’t as round, they were both broad-shouldered and bulky. Joe had his suspicions about the reason, and today, he was finally in a position to find out.

Speaking in Spanish-accented Russian, the fourth member of their impromptu group stepped toward Russian Victory asking, “Are you alright?”

Joe waited for the answer, hoping that the language switch didn’t mean that they were going to fight again.

Russian Victory nodded, replying in the same language, “I’m alive, Alexis.”

“Alexis” wore blue powered armor with the Cuban flag on his right shoulder and “M-26-7” written against a black and red flag. Joe had a feeling it had something to do with the Cuban revolution, but he didn’t know it off the top of his head.

He wasn’t going to try to remember it either. He had enough to do translating the Russian in his head without giving away that he understood it.

Alexis said, “Good. We’re not going to go back to fighting them, are we?”

“Nyet,” Russian Victory let go of Larry’s armored hand, “they’re good men.”

Then Russian Victory switched to English. His accent had only a hint of Russian and more than a hint that whoever taught him spoke British English, “My thanks to both of you. Had you not intervened, we might have died.”

Alexis nodded his blue helmet, adding, “I’m sorry that we attacked you earlier. We were told that you were here to collect this treasure trove of alien technology. We had orders to attack you on sight.”

“Dammit,” Larry glanced back at Joe, “we don’t want any of it. We came up because we wanted to warn you.”

“That’s right,” Joe said, “We can’t tell you everything, but we can tell you this. Abominator technology is made to create madness and destroy civilizations.”

Alexis’ helmet obscured most of his face, but Joe could see a frown, “That does not make sense. They use this technology every day. Are they attacking themselves with madness?”

Joe decided he had to give them more than he’d intended, “You can see where we are. It’s a lab. They’ve collected technology from other races, some of them much older. One of the universe’s very early races decided that it didn’t want any competition and seeded the galaxy with trapped technology. Sometimes the trap is obvious. Sometimes it’s subtle.”

Russian Victory pointed to the man they’d captured, a man more than eight feet tall and capable of walking on the surface of the Moon wearing metal skirt and no shirt. The man lay on the IDTP, a black and silver circular platform, the purple glow of his skin reflecting off the metal.

Russian Victor asked, “Where does he come from? Is he one of their projects?”

Joe stepped back up to the controls of the IDTP and translated the Abominator symbols to the degree he could, “It’s difficult to say, but it seems to be the future. After the year 2000, but before 2050. The Abominators’ writing is confusing and I don’t read it very well. The control system registers him as an Abominator, but also as a servant. There’s something I’m not understanding. He can’t be both.”

From the distance, something exploded. It wasn’t close. Still, Joe felt it in his feet and heard the boom through the Rocket suit. It didn’t end with the boom. A series of crashes followed. Without being there, he couldn’t know, but he could imagine rooms in the base collapsing.

Larry turned toward the noise, “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not natural.”

Alexis shook his helmet, “I think it must be our people. They were in another portion of the base. I think they were attacked.”

Joe wanted to ask more details, but he couldn’t. The Xiniti communicator he’d installed in his helmet had begun to beep for his attention. The Soviets must have triggered something.

Those fools.