The Medieval DC fan fiction group acknowledges that DC Comics owns The Atom, and all related characters and retains complete rights to these characters.  These characters and concepts are used without prior permission for no profit, but for a desire to look into alternate possibilities of these individuals in a medieval setting. This also acknowledges that the concepts and original characters introduced here are the intellectual property of the author.

Deric exits the temple and raises his hand to shade his light blue eyes as the early afternoon sun hits them with its rays.  He is a tall, muscular nineteen-year-old with long brown hair that almost reaches his shoulders.  Deric is well dressed for a low class person.  He is wearing a dark brown, leather vest and tanish leather pants.  His boots have just been polished to look black as charcoal.  His facial features make him look like he is in his mid-twenties, just to the ladies approval.  Ha!  He wishes.

He begins a short trek back to his town of Corinth.  It is not that far away, in fact, Deric can see the town from where he is.  Waitaminute...

Something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Deric sees smoke coming from the village and begins to run towards his home.  The faster he runs, the more terrified he becomes.  He is very worried for his family.  'I hope they're all right,' he thinks as reaches the town border.  The sight before him frightens him even more.

Many of the houses are on fire and the ones that aren't, have terrified people cowering in them.  People all over the place are running for about in a panic.  Deric wants to help them but he is still worried about his family.

"Hey!" yells Deric as he tries to get the attention of one of the people running by him.  "What's going on?!"

"Slave traders!" yells someone from a near-by house as he exits with his personal belonging.

"Oh no," says Deric under his breath as he runs for his house.  His mind runs as fast as he is with all the possibilities of what might've happened to his family.  Did they run for cover like all these people?  Are they dead?  Are they trapped in our house that might be ablaze of fire?

No.  They have to be alive.  They have to be.  Deric won't accept any other possibility.  Then he sees his house.  It is a wreck.  It is not on fire but it is almost completely destroyed with its ceiling caved in and its walls busted open.  The little furniture they had strewn about the lawn.

He calls for them.  "Mother?  Father?  Thalia?"

No answer.

"They're gone."  Deric turns to see his neighbor, Palmer.  He is an older man who is hobbling because it looks like his foot has just been shattered by some kind of blow.  He notices Deric looking at it.  "They jumped me as they were taking your family.  A slave trader named Flicker grabbed them, including little Thalia.  They went east."

"Thanks, Palmer."  Deric begins to run east.

"Where are you going?" yells Palmer.

"To get them back."

"Well good luck." says Palmer too low for Deric to hear, who is already out of the village after the slave trader.

Deric has been searching for hours.  He has become weary in his quest.  Thirsty, hungry, he should not have gone off so suddenly.  He sound have prepared.  What is he going to do when he finds them?  Ask for them to return his family?  That won't work.  He needs a weapon.  He needs some help.

What he gets is a lake.

It is the clearest lake he has ever seen.  And the only thing came to his mind was that he could finally put an end to the thirst that has been nagging him for what seems like forever.  He runs to the lake and puts his head straight into the water and begins taking large gulps. When he has had his fill, he lifts his head and takes a clearer look at the lake.

In the very center of the lake appears to be a sword.  It's not floating on the surface, however impossible that could be anyway, it seemed to be sticking straight up out of the water.  Its handle is perpendicular to the water.  Deric doesn't see any log that it could be sticking out of.  It seems to be magically sticking into the surface of the water like the fabled sword in the stone that King Arthur pulled.  Could this be an opportunity at a weapon to possibly use to get his family back.

"I want that sword."

Before Deric can think of a way to get the sword the ground beneath him begins to rumble.  Rumble so much, in fact, that Deric falls over and lands on his hind end.  His eyes open wide as three lumps in the ground sprout up and form into human-like figures.

"Out of the way, fleshling."

Rock trolls.  Vile, disgusting creatures.  They are composed of the ground you walk on and can appear anywhere.  They look like humans except all of their features are extremely distorted.  Their noses are long, their ears and really long and pointy, and their bodies are hunched over.  Mean creatures, they usually hold a grudge against any and all humans but they don't seem too interested in Deric at the moment.

"How we get that thing, Fargog?" says a brutish looking rock troll.

"Not thing, idiot," says a tall troll that might be the leader of the small band.  "Good sword.  We need get out there."

"Water bad though," says the third one, smaller than the two.

By this time, Deric has gone behind a nearby tree to observe the crazy events happening a few feet from him.

Suddenly the water begins to bubble with activity.  A form begins to pop out of the water just as the rock trolls appeared a moment ago. This figure is a very attractive woman made entirely of water.

"You ugly, ugly creatures.  How dare you scare away that sexy specimen of a human.  How rude to have his gorgeous reflection replaced by your filthy hides.  Now get out of here."  The lady of the lake splashes a large amount of water on the smaller rock troll, which the troll then dissolves when the water comes into contact with it.

"Um...let's go," says the taller rock troll.

Both of the remaining trolls shrink back into the ground they came from.  The lady from the lake smiles at Deric, whom is still watching from the tree.  Seeing too much already, Deric decides to vacate that strange scene and seek a weapon elsewhere.

Night crept upon Deric fast, and he had still not come any closer to locating the traveling slave traders and his family.  He required rest, although he was willing to forgo it as long as he could.  Which wouldn't be long.  He could tell that he was getting close to the village of Caryea, but he believed that he would be unable to make it that far.

So tired.  Must rest.  Can't make it any farther.

Deric is close to Thornax Mt. And he knew of a cave near where he was.  It was so tempting to just give up for the night and rest for the night.  The slavers would probably be sleeping too right?  Sure. Why not?  He can continue searching tomorrow.  That's what he will do. Deric heads for where he can remember the cave being.  It is so dark that he can only rely on memory but he is too tired to search for anything else.  Then he does come across the cave.  Joyous laughter comes from his mouth as he enters the cave.  Then, thirty feet from the entrance, Deric collapses out of pure exhaustion.

Morning came and gone.  It was afternoon when Deric awoke in the middle of a dank, unfamiliar cave.

"Where am I?" he asks.  This didn't seem like the cave he knew by Caryea.  He was unusually disoriented.  Something was oddly wrong about the situation.  That is when he noticed the piece of cloth in his right hand.  He has never seen it before.  It appears to be a cloth belt with a golden buckle that has an odd symbol on it, resembling an odd grouping of over-lapping ovals.  In his delirious state, he just shrugs his shoulders and puts on the belt.  Nothing seems odd about it.  It doesn't come to mind that it might have a curse or an enchantment on it.  It doesn't even cross his mind that he doesn't know where the belt came from.  He just puts it on.  No questions asked.  And then he pays a very high price for it.  The belt begins glowing and Deric feels a strange sensation take him over as the cave walls begin to grow in size.  It seems to be making everything around him grow to enormous proportions.

Waitaminute.  It isn't the surroundings that are growing.  It's Deric himself that is changing.  But he is shrinking.  He keeps shrinking and shrinking until he reaches a size smaller than a mouse.

"Hmmm...what am I going to do now?" asks Deric as he looks around the now gigantic cave.  The entrance that was once thirty feet, is now at least a mile away.  It is just another delay in this pathetic attempt to rescue his family.

Up on the roof of the cave, the sonar of a bat picks up a new morsel that is very available to be eaten.  It opens its eyes and prepares to swoop down and eat the little but.

END OF ISSUE 1

Next issue:  Deric must escape the cave and avoid the clutches of every hungry critter in that cave.  Oh yeah, and he still has to look for his family...almost forgot that plotline...oops.

Welcome to the first issue of Medieval DC: Atom #1.  The thought of a minuscule person with a sword, fighting medieval creatures was what gave me the idea of starting a medieval fan fiction group.  From the beginning, I wanted to write a series that explores someone with shrinking powers and how he uses them in a medieval setting.  So far, I'm planning on having many tiny inhabitants of this world in this series.  Oh yeah...and he needs to save his family.  Damn!  I keep forgetting that.  That's what I get for jumping on the bed.  *inside joke*

So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this issue.  If you want to e-mail me, which you are more than welcome to do *hint hint*  send it to the_only_ace@hotmail.com.  Oh, and please come up with a better name for the letter section of the issue...please...I'm begging you...stop the insanity.  Waitaminute.

-Lex