Power of Prime #1 - Story #1
September, 1998

"Prime: Week One"

Written by James Pedrick
Edited by Cyt
Created by Gerald Jones and Len Strazewski
Property of Malibu Comics

"Ah, Saturday." Kevin woke up with a sigh of relief. Sure, every Saturday was a good day, especially for a Junior Higher who wasn’t very fond of school. But this Saturday was different. This Saturday marked the end of a very long week for Kevin Green.

It all started when he had that dream. In it, he was naked in a dark, wet place. Creatures were surrounding him. Chanting one word: Prime.

Suddenly, some type of creature... monster attacked him, proclaiming he came to BE Kevin. Kevin awoke, confused and a bit shaken by the dream. But after he woke up, his chest began to ache. Little did he know that that dream and those chest pains [were] the beginning of Prime.
Before that day, Kevin Green was a normal thirteen year old boy in Canoga Park, California. But now Kevin would be like no one else on the face of the earth.

Kevin went to his school, JFK Junior High, as usual, with his best friend, Scott. But chest pains continued to plague him throughout the day.

He had planned on telling Kelly, a girl he had known and loved his entire life, of his feelings for her, at school that day. But, although they were friends, Kelly was popular and Kevin was... well, not. He had come close to telling her, however he was interupted when he saw Coach Meyers touch her... the wrong way! Kevin was furious. He could tell by the look on Kelly’s face that she did not want to be touched. If only he could teach Coach Meyers a lesson, Kevin thought. Suddenly the pains became worse. He bent over and grabbed his chest, but could not hold it any longer. His chest burst open and green goop and flesh pewed out, covering his entire body, forming the body of an normous super hero around his own. His height was a good seven and a half feet. His weight must have exceeded four hundred pounds. On his chest, was a huge stylized "P" logo. His costume was covered with gold and red, and topped off with a long red cape.

Kevin wasn’t sure what had happened to him. He attempted to jump forward, but found himself in flight instead, shooting out the school building and into the sky. He soon accelerated to incredible speeds, flying up, down and in every direction on the compass, through the welcoming skies, forgetting about what was around him, lost in the clouds. Unfortunately due to his inattention he crashed into an airplane. The plane fell toward to the ground, as Prime hovered in disbelief, momentarily. Finally gathering himself, he flew downward and saved the plane from crashing. Immediately, he was cheered by the crowd at the airport, though they did not realize, or simply forgot, that Prime was the one who caused the plane to crash.

Prime waved goodbye, as he flew back to his school... for revenge. Prime arrived at his school, where he made his way into the gym through the roof. He grabbed Coach Meyers and threatened him. Coach Meyers tried to fight back, but was not able to even hurt Prime. Prime seemed like he didn’t know his own strength, as he accidently broke the pervert’s arm. Prime left, telling Kelly never to be afraid. And, although fearful at the time, Kelly seemed at peace when thinking about Prime.

From there, Prime took down a crack house and then a militia group, but finally his stamina ran low. He tried to fly back home, but his body began to decompose, and he fell to the ground. The body of Prime melted away around him. Kevin was left alone, naked, in the cold dark. He was weakened. Being Prime took the energy out of him, but he managed to make his way home. There, his parents were worried sick. His mom, Martha, asked him where he had been, why he was naked and looked so weak, he insisted he did not know. Martha was worried. Kevin’s parents drove him to the Hospital. There, the doctors did tests and could not find anything wrong with him. They did however, ask to run more tests to see why he couldn’t remember what was wrong with him. But Kevin’s father, Russell, refused, even though Martha wanted to know what had happened to her son. Meanwhile, someone had their eye on Prime. A doctor by the name of Vincent Gross. Gross knew Prime was one of his creations from the ‘80's. While other creations of his had little or no control of their "ultra-bodies" Prime did. He had to find Prime and find out what the key was to making the perfect ultra. So, he sent out one of his failed experiments, Organism 8, in search of Prime.

The next day, Kevin went to school as usual. Everyone was gossiping about him and how he was found naked. At least the people who weren’t talking about Prime were.
Over and over, Kelly told her friends about how Prime looked at her and talked to her. Kevin could tell she was as infatuated with Prime as he was with her. He decided to do the only thing he could to get closer to her.

After school let out, Kevin transformed into Prime for the second time. He then found Kelly and offered her a ride. Frozen from the mixed emotions flowing through her body, she agreed and held out her hand. Taking it they flew up above the city. At first she was frightened but then she saw how peaceful it was and began to calm. She felt safe with Prime but she also felt as if she had already known him. She was attracted to him, and she could sense his attraction toward her. Prime was suddenly struck.

Organism 8 had found him. The creature attacked him, making Prime accidently let go of Kelly. Kelly was falling, while Organism 8 was holding on to Prime. Prime managed to break away from its grasp though and dove down to save Kelly. He dropped Kelly off, and proceeded to fight the creature. Kelly was hysterical, and immediately ran to her friend, Courtney’s, house. She explained everything to Courtney, who thought it strange that a grown man like Prime would like a 13-year old girl like Kelly. Once Kelly realized that, she felt the same way. She wasn’t sure how she felt then.

Meanwhile, Prime continued to battle Organism 8, until finally Organism 8 managed to swallow Prime into his body! Prime was taken to the sinister Doctor Gross! Doctor Gross strapped him to an electric chair, threatening to electrocute him each time Prime caused trouble. Gross explained Prime's origin to him. That he was created at Gross’s fertility lab. Prime tried not to believe him. Gross took a laser scalpel and attempted to take a sample from Prime, so he could analyze it. Prime fought and managed to break free. He grabbed Gross, but Duey, Gross’s assistant, surprised Prime. He transformed. He too was one of Gross’s creations, but he did not have the control over his body that Prime did, or his durability. The two began fighting while Doctor Gross stood back, sat down, and watched with excitement. In the course of the battle, they destroy the lab, and the electric chair is accidently activated. Doctor Gross is electrocuted and the facility is destroyed. Prime flies off, thinking the two are dead. Not knowing what to do from there, he looks at his surroundings and finds that he is close to the Pinnacle Pictures studio, where his hero/actor/ultra Hardcase films movies. He goes there to see if perhaps he can obtain some advice. Meanwhile, Duey and Doctor Gross survived he destruction of their lab, but Gross was severely wounded. Duey attends to Gross’s wounds, but their current situation and location is unknown. Back at Pinnacle Pictures, Prime arrives... right in the middle of Prototype’s shoot. Neither of the two have the smallest egos in the world, and Prime becomes involved in yet another brawl, which, once again destroys much property. The battle causes a large fire, which endangers the lives of everyone involved in the shooting and all of the property at the studio. Prime and Prototype put aside their differences to battle the fire. The two are saving people and putting out the fire, when, suddenly, Prime begins to melt. His body was beginning to decompose again. He quickly left the scene, with Prototype working alone. Prime flew back toward his home, making it all the way to the front yard, where he dropped. He was caught inside the goop which was Prime, when his father dragged him out. His father got Kevin some clothes and snuck him into the house. He told Kevin this was just a phase and that it would soon pass, but not to tell anyone about it, not even his mom. Russell, Kevin’s father, also called someone who [he believed]could help. He contacted Colonel Samuels, the man who was responsible for the situation.

The next day, Kevin acted as if nothing had happened. His mom was really concerned. She was getting suspicious and angry at her husband, thinking that he knew what the problem was, but was concealing the truth from her. Kevin went to school the next day. He wanted to talk to Kelly before homeroom. He told Kelly he knew something about Prime. Kelly was, of course, interested. Kevin planned on telling her the truth then, but suddenly a disturbance began down the street. People were screaming and yelling and running for cover! One yelled it was an ultra. Kelly, afraid that it was Prime, ran to see, wanting to calm him down if he was out of control. Kevin tried to stop her, knowing it couldn’t be Prime. But she didn’t listen.

The two raced around the corner, to find Maxi-Man causing havoc. But how? Maxi-Man was a cartoon characters! Kevin thought he was going crazy. Suddenly Maxi-Man grabbed Kelly. Kevin couldn’t let her be treated that way. He ran around the corner and transformed into Prime!

As Prime, he battled Maxi-Man, but had a hard time defeating him. All the while, Colonel Samuels, with Kevin’s father, had arrived. Samuels was just watching Prime, as he battled the living cartoon character. Russell wanted to help his son, but Colonel Samuels held him back with his troops. Eventually, Prime did defeat Maxi-Manh, who then disappeared. But Prime’s victory came at a cost. His body was now weakened, and he began melting once more. Kelly went over to try and help him, but was freaked to find him melting into a liquid! Samuels ordered his troops to take Kelly off of him, then ordered his troops to take Prime away. As quickly as he arrived, Samuels left, leaving Russell and Kelly behind. On their journey to an abandoned military base, Samuels had his men pump oxygen into Prime, keeping Kevin’s ultra-body from deteriorating.

When they arrived, Prime was still unconscious. Samuels had his men perform tests on Prime. They attached equipment to him, to record his thoughts, brain waves and muscle movements. They then put him [through] virtual reality training tests against dinosaurs and jets. Afterward, Prime confronted Samuels. At first he did not trust Samuels, but
Samuels convinced him he needed Prime for a special assignment.

Prime believed him, he was told to defeat a group of terrorists hiding at another abandoned military base. As he flew toward the Los Verdes Army Base, Jim Powers, one of Samuels’s soldiers, confronted Samuels. He knew there were no terrorists at Los Verdes, they were just peaceful protesters.

Samuels confessed. He had planted nuclear devices at the base. He sent Prime there, in hope he would set them off, thus seeing the full extent of Prime’s stamina and killing the protesters he so hated. Prime arrived, expecting to see terrorists with large guns, but instead found peaceful hippies with paintbrushes. Prime was confused. He didn’t know why, but Samuels had set him up.

Suddenly, one of the protesters noticed a timing device in the control room of the building. Someone had placed a nuclear bomb there! Prime grabbed everyone and took them a mile away from the building, but one of the protesters told him they weren’t far enough away. Prime had no other choice. He rushed into the building in search of
the nuclear devices. Once he found them, in a mind shaft below the base, he drove them deep into the ground, so [that] the earth would absorb the shock of the blast.

The bombs detonated. The blast didn’t seem to affect Prime as he blasted out of the ground and headed back toward Samuels... for revenge. But, as Prime continued his journey, he became weakened at a rapid rate and fell to the ground... right in front of the house of Kelly.

Kelly ran out to see if Prime was alright. She noticed his body was melting. As she moved closer, she saw a body inside... it was Kevin! She took him inside and wrapped him in a towel. She was actually relieved that Prime was really Kevin, and not an adult.
Everything seemed okay, until Samuels arrived. Samuels beat up Kelly’s mother and then took Kevin away.

Kelly went hysterical, it seemed everytime things were looking great, everything went to hell. They took Kevin away, attaching a collar to his neck, which gave Samuels control over when Kevin transformed to and from Prime.

Prime was at the full control of Samuels. Jim Powers contacted Russell about saving Kevin. He explained that Samuels had a plan to build a new ultra-army, and Prime was the key toward the next step. The two drove to Samuels’s headquarters. The sensors on the abandoned road toward Samuels’s hideout detected their presence. Samuels ordered Prime to capture the intruder. With no other choice, he did so.

Prime found the intruders, and was surprised to learn one of the intruders was his father. He explained the situation to his father. He wouldn’t be able to escape until he got rid of that collar forgot to mention the part about the collar electrocuting him if he tried to take it off, so they developed a plan.

Jim would sneak in, while Prime would bring Russell to Samuels. When Prime arrived with Russell, Samuels explained to Kevin his full origin. He said that Russell agreed to let an operation be done on Kevin while he was still in his mother’s womb. The operation changed Kevin’s genetic codes and turned him into Prime allowing him to survive. He went on to tell Kevin that it was Russell that told Samuels he was Prime. Prime was furious. He grabbed his own father and threw him to the ground. Russell was injured, both physically and emotionally, as Samuels had him taken away.

Meanwhile, Jim had found his way to the exact spot, where he could get a hold of Samuels. He came in through an air conditioning vent, pulling his gun on Samuels, forcing Samuels’s men put their weapons down. He then asked Samuels to give him the control for the collar around Kevin’s neck. Samuels did, but when Jim’s pom touched it, he was electrocuted and died. Samuels had the last laugh.

Prime was shocked. This was the first time he watched someone kill in cold blood. But the surprise soon turned to anger. Prime tore the collar off his neck, even though Samuels believed it would be impossible for him to do. He cornered Samuels. Samuels, out of fear of what Prime might do to him, and because he was not going to forfeit his overall goal, took a gun and committed suicide. Prime rescued his father and dropped him off at his house. Then, he went to Kelly to give her a kiss.

Indeed, a hectic week for a thirteen year old, but a bright future awaits him. Or does it? Find out, next week.

Speaking of letters, send us your comments on this issue!

NEW ISSUES!
PRIME: THE NEW ADVENTURES #4 and LIBERTY-LEGEND OF WORLD WAR II #5
Also go to Prime Website and Liberty Website for back issues!

Go to the Mantraverse Website for information and fan fiction on Mantra and the Ultraverse!