In the early 1960's a hazardous blaze began devouring miles of precious earth beneath Centralia, a town in the Pennsylvania coal region. Coal mines were not its only prey. Homes, pets, miners, they were all lost in Centralia's hell on earth, and finally it threatened her children.
Enter Kyle McKnight, Centralia's champion. Sooty
boots and a fire proof flak jacket were his armor as chief
of the fire department. McKnight played his role in the
destiny of Centralia, saving the children with sturdy arms
and robust legs. But Centralia's smoky knight was born
human, despite his super human courage, and conspiracy
bore down. Agent Lucas Swain took orders from a
mysterious figure in Washington DC. His mission was
simple. "Keep the fire burning. Chief McKnight and
Doctor Greenstreet must take the fall.
Greenstreet, a young crack shot of a scientist designed
Freon suits capable of withstanding the searing
700-degree temperatures at the heart of the coal fires.
The suits would do more than anyone bargained for,
Swain and McKnight donned the suits and entered the
throat of the ravenous earth, ready to set explosives and
cut off the fire's oxygen supply. Tina McKnight watched
from a distance, without the locket she made her
husband swear to bring back.
McKnight and Swain discovered the origin of the coal
fire, a giant unexplainable orb of pulsating energy. Agent
Swain used the moment of confusion to try and rid
himself of McKnight, McKnight could only defend
himself, and watched in horror as Swain fell into the orb,
surely a goner. Swain's sabotage left McKnight with a
blitzing Freon suit on overload and pounds of explosives
about to go off. McKnight knew death was near. By
hell's fire or ice, he was going to die. In a desperate final
attempt to save his hometown, he threw the explosives
into the orb and...
BAAAABBBBOOOOOOMMMM !!!
Doc Greenstreet seemed McKnight's only friend, but
was powerless against the arcane Senator Tempest and a
corrupt fragment of government that Tempest forced
down Centralia's throat. No efforts were made. No search team was deployed.
Reports were filed and Greenstreet reamains the Patsy thirty years running. the fires still burn.
Corruption still burns. McKnight and Swain are still lost, presumed dead.
But then a cry is heard, the distantly familiar cry for help that any fireman would
recognize. An ember glows in the earth's ash, and a figure ignites the darkness.
Carbon Knight.