[Note: This scene is totally not based on a real life incident where my damn neighbors were shooting off fire crackers and bottle rockets for 4 *hours* after dark just before the 4th....]
"GAHHH!!", the old man snarled as he rolled over in bed and covered his head with his pillow. Those stupid guys who'd rented the house from him next door had somehow gotten a lot of money this past week...but instead of paying for the months of they owed they were blowing their money on parties...and since the day after tomorrow would be the 4th of July they were being even rowdier and noiser than usual.
After another minute or two of thrashing around he bolted out of bed, threw open his window, and yelled over to the next yard. "KEEP IT DOWN OVER THERE! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!"
A burly blonde man (Brian Calusky, secretly Piledriver of the Wrecking Crew) came up to the fence. "Hey old man!", he yelled back, waving his can of beer around, "it's the 4th! We got a right to party!"
"Just like I've got a right to call the cops!", the old man retorted. "Turn it down or else!"
The friendly inebriated gesture with the can turned into a one finger salute. "Screw you old timer! Ain'cha got no patriotism?!" He staggered back to his friends.
The former scientist slammed his window down. No patriotism? Why, he'd consulted on the Super Soldier project and worked on lots of other "weird science" bureaus during the war to unravel the workings of strange technology. He'd given decades of his life...a lot more than those partying louts next door could even think of doing...
**Or maybe not**, he suddenly thought, a grin coming to his lips. Over the years, he occasionally taken gadgets from work to tinker on at home...and over the years the US government had lost track of them in the shuffle of paperwork. As he ambled down to the barely used lab in his basement, he remembered a hypnosis generator that the Red Skull's scientists had made. It eventually ended up as being the basis for the Ringmaster of Crime's hypnotic hat...but in World War 2 the Skull had made a grenade like version that would turn decent American soldiers into Nazis. He'd gotten ahold of a few of them and reverse engineered them to foster American patriotism as a sort of antidote to the German version just in case Hitler had put them into widespread use.
Turning on the dim bulb over his workbench, he got to work. As he continued on his task, he incorporated other devices into this new version as well...not quite sure how it would work...but hey, if it didn't who'd miss a bunch of noisy construction workers?
Once he was finished, he snuck over into their garage and replaced one of their aerial shells with the device.
The next day those "construction workers" were back in the yard partying again. Elliot (Thunderball) came up to his leader and tried to reason with him...again. "Look Garth, all I'm saying is just tone it down a little. The cops are still looking for us after those bank robberies we pulled in Philly last week...what part of 'lying low' don't you get?"
The Wrecker snorted. "It was just one old man...all bark and no bite. If he hasn't called the cops by now he's not gonna..."
Bulldozer called out. "C'mon guys, it's dark now...an' I wanna shoot off some of the good stuff!"
Once the beer and brats had all been passed out, the Crew made themselves comfortable while Elliot started setting off their fireworks. He knew something was wrong when one of the shells wobbled crazily as it launched, showering the area in a strobe of red, white, and blue beams....then exploded to shower them all with glittering radioactive particles...
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