to liberate the world of government. As Anarky, he attempts to create a device which will emit beams of light on frequencies which will trigger the human brain of all who see it. The people will then be "de-brainwashed" of all the social constraints which society has placed on the individual. Utilizing a makeshift teleportation device capable of summoning a boom tube, he begins a quest to capture the power sources the device will need: the madness of Etrigan the Demon, the evil of Darkseid, and the goodness of Batman. During the confrontation between Anarky and Batman, the device is damaged. Thus, when Machin activates it, it only affects himself. The vision that follows reveals what may have happened if he had succeeded, with nightmarish consequences. The conclusion of the story is that if society is to change, individuals must accept that change voluntarily. When Batman turns off the machine, Anarky awakens and promptly escapes, vowing to continue his mission, "until they all learn to choose for themselves". "Aberration!" Volume 2, issues #1–3 Taking place during the No Man's Land story arc, 16-year-old Lonnie Machin, a.k.a. Anarky, is chased from the ruins of Gotham City by Batman, who refuses to face Anarky in a turf war over the city. With financial independence and technical genius, Anarky invents his new ally, MAX, an artificially intelligent computer, and uses his teleportation device and wealth to reestablish a secret base below the Washington Monument. He then begins a war against supervillains and the United States Government, while simultaneously searching for his parents, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Cataclysm story arc. During research, Anarky mathematically predicts the eventual appearance of an "Aberration", an anomaly of physics that will destroy the planet, and steals a Green Lantern power ring to combat it. This draws the attention of Kyle Rayner, who attempts to regain the ring before teaming up with Anarky against the Aberration. Near the end, Anarky is nearly seduced by the power of the ring and tempted to keep it, but comes to the conclusion that "power corrupts" and opts to return it, only for the ring to be destroyed during the battle. As an epilogue, MAX uncovers evidence that the Machins adopted Lonnie as an infant, and that his real father is "a madman". The mystery of the alleged father's identity becomes a recurring subplot of the series until the final