TheTemplar

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Dancing With Terror The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 2 Cast Fantastic-Man: Team Leader; World’s Greatest Hero; Brick with Flight and Density Alteration Powers Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master _______________ Act 1: "We Broke Up" Riv Allen (aka Tomorrow Boy) arrived at Paragon Hills High School on Thursday morning of Prom Week. The school was littered in banners, streamers and other decorations, all displaying the evening's theme, "We Could Be Heroes." Tomorrow Boy had far more pressing matters than Saturday's teenage hormone-fest on his plate, however. After careful analysis of the Destreum fragments he had salvaged after The Defender's battle against Dr. Destroyer's Wardroids (See Seas IV,) he had made some mile breakthroughs in the repairations of NRD-7, his robotic companion that he had brought with him from the future, who had somehow been seriously damaged while time traveling. He was so busy reading over his notes as he walked across the campus toward the main entrance that he nearly ran into his good friend Shawn Andrews, who jumped in front of him. "Dude!" Shawn exclaimed. "I got my dad's minivan for the prom! Up top!" He raised his hand awaiting a returned high five from Riv. "Huh? Oh.. right. Wait. The prom? We're going?" Riv asked as he shook his head clear of the various robotics theories he had been formulating. "Man... you're such a spaz sometimes. Yeah, me and you are taking the Farkas twins." Shawn was of course referring to Evelyn and Eleanor Farkas - the only girls on the Sciencenauts, Mathlympians, and the Debate Club. By far these two were the smartest girls in the school, and they had always been pretty nice to Riv and Shawn, even though the boys were two years younger than them. And, now that they were seniors and preparing to graduate, the Farkas twins had decided to present the boys with the greatest present an underclassman can hope for... prom invites. Shawn and Riv continued talking as they entered the school. "So, meet me at my place at six, we'll go pick up the girls, get some dinner and then head here." Shawn finished. "Cool." Riv replied, his head still clearly not entirely engaged in this conversation. "Weak.." someone said from their right. They turned to see Robbie Crane, the leader of the "goth kids". "Azrael," as Robbie had christened himself sat on the steps with his black-garbed, dyed-hair followers, chuckling at Riv and Shawn as they passed. "The prom... pfft. I'd expect that sort of pointless, yuppie dribble from you, Andrews. But you, Riv... I thought you were smart enough to be above all that hollow crap." After a brief exchange between Shawn and Robbie, the goth kids got up to leave, but not before a final warning from Robbie that the "spoiled brats of Paragon Hills would get what was coming to them this year." Unnerved by whatever Crane and his cohorts might have in mind, Tomorrow Boy and his friend proceeded down the hall. As they were about to turn to head to their first period class, Riv saw his dreamgirl, Vicki Atom, sobbing at her locker. Vicki, the famous martial artist of the quartet of sibling superheroes The Atom Family, was also the long time girlfriend of Brock Springfield, captain of the varsity football team. Riv sent Shawn ahead to class as he went to Vicki to see what was wrong. "We... broke up." she replied in between sobs as Riv asked what was wrong. "I just ... I just don't understand. How could he make such a selfish decision?" Tomorrow Boy's hopes were soaring, but he had to be sure. "How could who be so selfish?" Vicki looked shocked that Riv didn't know what she was talking about. "My idiot brother. Max. He's dissolved the team. Says it isn't worth it anymore." She hesitated. "What did you THINK I was talking about?" Without skipping a beat, though clearly dissapointed that she hadn't been talking about Brock, Tomorrow Boy quickly replied, "That Max had dissolved the team." "Maybe he's right. Maybe it isn't worth it. He's been under so much stress lately... from the media.. the public." Her face reddened with anger as she spoke. "You know who I blame? The Defenders. If it wasn't for them being all high and mighty, Max wouldn't have tried to push himself so hard and wouldn't be all burnt out. They'll probably throw a party when they find out. Those jerks will be glad that we're not in their way anymore... sharing their spotlight." "Well.. you know, Vicki.." Tomorrow Boy began stammering, not quite sure how to try to convince the girl of his dreams that his companions weren't trying to push the Atom Family out of the picture. The bell interrupted him. "Ugh.. I gotta blaze. Thanks for the talk Riv." Vicki slammed her locker shut and dashed off to class, leaving a slack-jawed Tomorrow Boy standing at her locker. The morning news had picked up the story as well, as Dr. Marianna Gutierrez (aka La Espijisma) heard on her radio as she drove herself home from the airport that morning after a long overnight flight. Instead of heading home, she headed for The Defenders interim headquarters at Stronghold, to see if the others had heard this as well. Additionally, the reporter also ran a story about Fort Paragon, the new state-of-the-art superbase that would serve as The Defenders headquarters once it was completed, and about a large donation that Omnitech International and its CEO Jack Kirby had made to help Paragon City's greatest heroes get back on their feet. Across town, in his office atop the Omnitech World Headquarters, Jack Kirby (Nighthawk) watched the news channel in between morning meetings. He gazed out his window toward the Fort Paragon construction site. Things were proceeding well, and would hopefully be completed soon. Meanwhile, at the Defenders interim base, Fantastic-Man had received news that his former sidekick Kyle, who had been transformed into the wicked cyborg Heinous by VIPER, had finally emerged from his coma (Seas IV) and was recovering well. Fantastic-Man and Kyle talked for a long, long time as Kyle gave Fantastic-Man as much information as he could remember about the VIPER organization. Professor Edward Colbert (aka Rampant Lion III) had been contacted by Cromwell, and met with the Defenders PRIMUS liaison, and accepted his offer of a position on the team to help The Defenders recover from the losses of The Tornado! and The Mac Bashtee (Seas IV Finale.) As he was leaving school that day, Tomorrow Boy walked brisquely past Crane and his goth-wannabe cronies. He tried to overhear their conversation.. and could've sworn he heard something about a deer, when a honking car horn interrupted them. Crane explained it was his older brother, Simon, climbed into the black car and drove away. Then, Tomorrow Boy was stopped by Mrs. Singh, his guidance counselor, who explained that several chaperones for the prom had backed out at the last minute, and that if Riv knew of any adults who would be willing to fill in, to let her know. _______________ Act II: Fear-For-All It took no small amount of convincing, but Tomorrow Boy was finally able to convince Paragon Hills High Alum Jack Kirby to agree to chaperone - the fact that Vicki's older sister, Tess Atom, whom the tabloids have romantically linked to Nighthawk, was also going to chaperone made this a much easier proposition. La Espijisma also agreed to help out, passing herself off as Riv's aunt. Warforge and Rampant Lion, who had just become a member of the team after his meeting with Cromwell, both agreed to not only help out, but to one-up eachother for the most stylish entrance at the event. Fantastic-Man, who was still with his recovering friend, couldn't be reached. Wanting to finish his talk with Vicki, Riv (as Tomorrow Boy this time) stopped by the Atom Family's base - the Atomic Tower. He found Chase, Vicki's younger, mentally-powered brother, boxing up a few things in the main entryway. He explained that Vicki wasn't home - that she and Tess were out shopping for prom stuff. He expressed his disappointment in Max's decision to break up the team, because he really liked making a difference and that he would miss the superhero life. After the two friends talked a bit more, Tomorrow Boy left to return home. Finally, the time arrived. Riv went to Shawn's house and from there to pick up Evelyn and Eleanor. Jack Kirby arrived, surrounded by papparazzi, and met with Mrs. Singh to find out where he was needed, and La Espijisma arrived shortly thereafter. The engines of the D-Jet roared overhead as Warforge jumped down amidst the cheers of the students. "I just called The Defenders and told them it was an emergency.." Riv explained to Mrs. Singh. "I didn't actually expect them to send anyone!" Not to be outdone by the flasy entrance of the Titanium Titan, Rampant Lion and his date for the evening arrived in a splendid horse-drawn carriage, wearing extravagant formal wear with a definitive Victorian flair. Several hours into the evening, Jack soon found himself surrounded by soccer moms all hanging on his every word and dying to dance with Paragon City's most eligible bachelor. Luckily he was saved by Tess Atom, who grabbed the billionare and led him out onto the dance floor. "You looked like you needed a rescue.." laughed Tess. "Thanks.." Jack replied smiling. Warforge, meanwhile, was using his special sensory abilities to see in the dark, confiscating several bottles of alcohol and breaking up various other extra-cirricular activities. Tomorrow Boy sat at a table with Shawn, Eleanor and Evelyn, watching Vicki Atom and her obnoxious quarterback boyfriend, Brock Springfield. After a world-record amount of hint dropping, Riv finally went out and danced with Eleanor, his eyes transfixed on Vicki the whole time. La Espijisma, meanwhile, left the dance hall to make her rounds through the school halls to make sure no students were in any off-limits areas. It was pretty clear to Riv that Vicki and Brock weren't getting along this evening. In the middle of the song, they split apart, visibly angry with eachother. Both were red faced and yelling at eachother, though Riv was too far away to hear what was being said. Brock turned around and stormed off, leaving Vicki all by herself in the middle of the dance floor. "If you're waiting for the opportune moment, mate.." Rampant Lion whispered as he and his date twirled past Riv and Eleanor, "...that was it." Riv excused himself from Eleanor, who went over to the refreshment table to talk to her sister and Shawn. He weaved through the mass of dancing couples to get to Vicki, tears rolling down her cheeks. He reached her right as the prom's live band, Five For Fighting, began to play "It's Not Easy To Be Me." "Vicki, I.." Riv began. He was interrupted as she fell into his arms, buring her face in his shoulder, sobbing. He held her there while all her friends danced around them, too wrapped up in eachother to even notice. La Espijisma heard what sounded like a girl, crying in the girls restroom on the 2nd floor. She stuck her head inside. "Hello? Are you alright?" The crying seemed to eminate from the last stall. La Espijisma knocked lightly on the door - and much to her surprise, it fell open to reveal an empty stall. The crying persisted. Now she couldn't tell where it was coming from. All the stalls were empty, but the crying got louder. A cold shiver ran down her spine as fear gripped her tightly, making it difficult to breathe. She turned for the door and ran from the bathroom. She tried her communicator device, but only got static. She had to make it to the roof. Riv and Vicki's first dance was interrupted by the shrill scream of another girl, that pierced the noise-filled air of the dance hall. As Jack, Tess, Riv, Vicki, Warforge and Rampant Lion all rushed to see what the problem was, they found a girl, pointing and screaming at a young boy in a tuxedo. There didn't appear to be anything wrong with him. Riv turned to Vicki... ...only to see her face melt away revealing a horrible, skull-like visage. Panic soon swept the auditorium as more and more screams of horror went up. People clambered over one another, trying to get to doors they could no longer find as fear and horror spread to everyone in the room. Realizing that something wasn't right, Nighthawk tried to contact Fantastic-Man. Fantastic-Man, meanwhile, was sitting at Kyle's side as Kyle laid out more and more valuable information about VIPER's agent designations and assignments. Suddenly, Nighthawk's voice cut in over the comm device. "I can't hear you, Nights!" Fantastic-Man replied. "You're breaking up." The signal grew more staticy on Nighthawk's end as well. "I... Hear... ights... Break...... Why?" The voice Nighthawk heard was no longer Fantastic-Man. "Why didn't you help me, Jack? Why couldn't you save me?" The blood ran cold through Jack Kirby's veins as he recognized the voice of his younger brother. A voice he hadn't heard in decades... not since the night that drove Jack Kirby to become Nighthawk. "Why did you let them kill me?" As Jack collapsed to his knees, explaining to the voice on his communicator that he's done all he could since that night to right the wrong, Cromwell burst into Kyle's recovery room. He explained to Fantastic-Man that a riot had erupted in Paragon Hills, and that he should get up there right away. As Fantastic-Man soared through the cool night sky, he could see the pillars of smoke rising into the air. "Fantastic-Man!" La Espijisma's voice broke in over his comm device. "There's something going on at the school! You'd better... AHHHHH!" Her scream ended the transmission as Fantastic-Man rocketed toward Paragon Hills High School. La Espijisma had made it to the roof, and had even managed to get a message out to Fantastic-Man, when all of the sudden, hands burst up out of the roof, dragging her down.. down.. down into the darkness. Fantastic-Man arrived at the school to find La Espijisma all streched out across the roof as Warforge, who was unaffected by the spreading fear, burst through the stairwell door. Fantastic-Man felt a slight shiver of fear run through his body, but it would take something much more powerful to daunt the World's Greatest Hero. The two helped La Espijisma regain her senses and then the three of them decided that they needed to find the cause of this fear epidemic. Whatever the cause was, it definitely seemed that the school was the center. Warforge had already ruled out any sort of gas or airborne toxin, but the three of them decided that the basement would be a good place to start looking. Meanwhile, back in the panic-filled dance hall, Nighthawk, Rampant Lion and Tomorrow Boy had managed to regain enough of their sanity to take action. While instructing Fantastic-Man, La Espijisma and Warforge to look for anything that might be emitting some sort of fear-inducing gas or for the horror-obsessed illusionist supervillain Freakshow, Nighthawk began ushering people through the gaping hole in the wall that Riv had blasted through with his telekenesis while he was freaking out. Tomorrow Boy slapped his Blitz Teleportation device on Vicki Atom, safely transporting the young woman to the parking lot outside. Rampant Lion, however, realized that he had heard of something like this happening back in his native England... a similar attack that seized London during WWII, propogated by the ancient spirit of fear, Samhain. But Samhain had never been known to leave the British Isles.. why would it be here? In the basement boiler room, the three Defenders soon found a clue - a deer carcass in the center of a pagan summoning ritual symbol. Near the scene, there was a young, black-haired boy, curled up on the floor, shivering. "What happened here?" Fantastic-Man asked. "I... I don't know," the visibly shaken Robbie Crane replied. "This wasn't supposed to happen! We.. we just wanted to ... spook those conformist rich jerks up there... just a few harmless ghosts.. Poultry-whatevers..." "Poltergeists?" Fantastic-Man replied. The young man nodded sullenly, "I don't even know what happened... I never saw anything... and then all of the sudden... it just... and... now... Smitty's..." As he trailed off, La Espijisma saw the body of another black garbed young man over in the corner by the sink. The glass from the mirror above the sink was laying in shattered shards all over the floor, and the young man - Smitty - had bled to death from what appeared to be self-induced wrist wounds, caused by the large, jagged piece of glass still clutched tightly in his hand. "One problem though.." Warforge cut in, scanning the ritual scene with his magic-sensors. "This is all wrong. Those symbols are just gibberish... and.. was this deer even alive when you brought it in?" "No.." Robbie replied, still shaking. "We pulled it off the side of the road... we couldn't kill a deer ourselves..." "Wouldn't have mattered..." Warforge replied. "Like I said... everything's wrong. Whatever is causing that..." he pointed upstairs, "...this isn't it." "Who told you how to do this?" Fantastic-Man asked, sensing that Robbie and his friends had no clue what they had gotten themselves into.. but that someone likely did. "My... my older brother. Simon." Robbie replied. "We should split up... keep an eye out for anything." Fantastic-Man suggested. "I'll take the top two floors. You two search down here and the first floor." He turned desolid, and flew up through the ceiling to the top floor and began searching. It didn't take too long for La Espijisma and Warforge to stumble upon the library. Inside, they found what had to be the cause. In the middle of the library, was another Celtic-style summoning circle, and in the middle of the circle was the fear-spirit Samhain that Rampant Lion had warned them all about. Samhain appeared to be relishing all the fear in the air - breathing it in as if it was air to him... growing more and more powerful as the fear he was creating spread over the city. Surrounding Samhain was a much more familiar sight to Warforge and La Espijisma - a quartet of red-robed DEMON Brethren. One's robes were trimmed with silver while the others were plain. "It's DEMON.." Warforge spoke into his communicator, alerting the others. "In the library.." No sooner had he finished the word then Samhain's head snapped toward him. Following the spirit's gaze, the Four DEMON brethren wheeled about as well. Samhain disappeared, only to reappear next to Warforge, raking at the Titanium Titan with his claws while the four DEMON brothers blasted magical energy from their wands at the two Defenders. Once the rest of the Defenders arrived, however, it quickly turned into a rout. Fantastic-Man and Warforge teamed up on Samhain, beating the semi-ethereal spirit into submission. Unable to maintain its presence there, the spirit faded into thin air and the feeling of fear and panic began to subside. La Espijisma and Rampant Lion had no trouble with the DEMON brothers. The Initiate, with the silver trim on his robes who had apparently been the leader, ran for the window and crashed through. He misjudged the height of his fall, however, and would've ended up with a few broken bones had some bushes outside not broken his fall. Still, it was enough to daze him until Nighthawk swooped down from above and captured him. Nighthawk removed the Initiate's cowl to reveal that it was in fact Simon Crane - Robbie's older brother, who had vowed revenge against Paragon Hills High for the ridicule he had endured in his years there as an outcast loner. Tomorrow Boy had created a device to help fight off the effects of Samhain's fear over a small area, to hopefully grant people enough of their senses back so that they could flee the area. Once the fear totally subsided, though, he rushed out into the parking lot, looking for Vicki. As he reached the middle of the lot, he found her... ...once again in the arms of Paragon Hills High quarterback Brock Springfield. Through his dejection, he realized that he had left his fear-suppression device in the middle of the gym. He ran back to retrieve it, only to discover it was gone. In the end, the police came and hauled off the four DEMON brothers. With his mystic sight, Warforge was able to confirm that no trace of Samhain remained in the area and that he had most likely been returned to wherever he was summoned from, and the students and staff of Paragon Hills High were once again thankful to the city's beloved heroes. GM NOTES: Good times.. another change of pace session. This one with a bit more atmosphere and mystery to it than the first. The feel didn't end up being quite what I was going for.. it wound up being much more tongue-in-cheek than the insanity/horror I had originally wanted... ended up being a BtVS episode instead, but hey, it was fun, and in the end that's what matters to me. Poor Tomorrow Boy. In all honesty though, Dr. Hercules, who plays Tomorrow Boy, has come up with a brilliant concept that I just can't post at this time since the rest of the players read this frequently as well. As soon as I can share it with them, I'll share it with the rest of you.

Re: I need you advice? Assistance, Help? How are your players spending their XP, QM? If the players want more investigations in game, but the characters lack the skills for it, then I would look at the possibility of letting them learn investigation skills in game and then buying the skills w/ XP. There should just be some initial venturing into the investigative field by one or two characters - maybe they happen upon a clue but have no idea what it means, and as they try to figure it out, they learn a few investigative techniques that will help them in the future, too. Or they could spend some time with Detective Soandso from the local PD, learning how to work a crime scene, etc. Basically, though, if it's something that your players really want to delve more in to, and if it's something that YOU want to do, I would try to create a way to work it into your game.

Nothing to the character itself - I just cut off the clix base and the clear "flight" part of the base and glued him onto a standard small circular base. The figure itself is totally unmodified.

Re: Hooligan_X and Proditor Present: Quick question, suppose one character in a team require no modding whatsoever (for instance, oh, say using "Human Torch" as-is for "Feuermacher.") Does that disqualify the entire team, or is it best to just photograph the team w/out that fig?

If I can get my hands on a good enough camera to take a decent picture of some of the clix mods I've made, I'll go in on the "Best Hero Universe Team," "Best Original Team" and "Best Hero Universe Solo" contests.

Re: Firewing vs. Gravitar? Nice aliteration! True, I didn't set all the stage elements on the table, and certainly don't expect anyone to read my mind. And, she did eventually escape by flying straight up for a few phases and then levelled off once the last flash wore off. But what I don't get is, had I done that the second she was flashed the first time, the fight would've lasted about 3 phases... if that. How is that any fun for the players? Plus, what's more effective in giving players the idea that this is a seriously dangerous villain? Having her run (or, in this case) fly for the hills everytime she gets hit by medium-power attack at best because she can't defend against it, or having her sit right there in the middle of everyone while the 90 STR brick hits her with everything he's got and she doesn't even flinch? Additionally, 3 of the 7 heroes would've had the abillity to fly after her. Which means the others would've been stuck around the table twiddling their thumbs, which also doesn't seem like very much fun to me. I don't think trying to make the game fun for the players constitutes piss poor play or a lack of planning... all nice aliterations aside. ...nor do I see what any of this has to do with how she would mop the floor with Firewing.

Re: Firewing vs. Gravitar? I DID mention she was flashed, right? Flying around with a 120" velocity in the middle of downtown when you cant see the 50+ story skyscraper directly in front of you doesn't exactly strike me as a "veteran maneuver." Also, after her initial attack (which was to pin everyone down with the AoE TK, which she had to break off once half the team broke out so that she could deal with them) the heroes did a pretty good job of spreading out, making it practically impossible for her to target more than 1-2 of them at a time... even if she could have seen them. Plus, the flash was a 4d6 Sight/ Hearing group "flashbang" style attack. The most she was ever flashed for was 4 segments at a time, so it's not like she was barriered up for whole turns at a time.

Re: Firewing vs. Gravitar? Yeah, when I rolled her out against The Defenders, the lack of Flash Defense and Mental Defense stuck out like a sore thumb, and the heroes really capitalized on these weaknesses. She was forced to spend several phases while flashed and unable to see her opponents just cocooned up inside her Force Wall taking recoveries to get back the STUN she was losing to mental attacks. Unfortunately, Ariax Thone as written possesses no abilities to exploit either of these weaknesses. Even though most of his abilities are Vs. ED and Gravitar is muc much weaker vs. Energy attacks than Physical ones, I think Gravitar still wins head to head.

Re: Firewing vs. Gravitar? Yeah, mad love to Firewing and all, but when push comes to shove, advantage: Gravitar. It'd be a heckuva slobberknocker though. Might be a fun one for The Defenders to try to break up.... ...hmmmm....

Re: How would you use Gravitar? In a somewhat last ditch effort to revive this interesting thread from the nosedive it has entered.... (great nosedive, though. Seriously. Phenominal work. ) The only appearance of Gravitar so far in The Defenders campaign was for mindless violence. The Defenders had just gone up against Dr. Destroyer, DEMON & VIPER, and had enjoyed stellar success - at least against the last two. The adventures had been very plot heavy and I wanted to give their minds a break with some brainless combat. So, during the award ceremony where the city recognized their recent great deeds, Gravitar attacked them, mostly to prove that she is more powerful than them. For 7 against 1, she did pretty darn well. And she got away, too, which is saying something. I do have far more grandiose future plans for her... but unfortunately I can't really get into that at this juncture.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Defenders will return (just in time for Halloween) in... Season V, Issue 2: "Dancing with Terror!"

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Drive Me CRAZY The Defenders Season V, Issue 1 Cast: Fantastic-Man: Team Leader, Flying Brick w/ Density Control Powers Nighthawk: The Dark Defender. Martial-Artist/ Gadgeteer Mega-bajillionaire La Espijisma: Team doctor/ Metamorph w/ Power Mimicry abilities Tomorrow-Boy: Teenage ubergenius gadgeteer from the future Warforge: Supertough mystical construct crafted in Vulcan's Forge. "He's just a metal man." And proudly introducing... Rampant Lion III: Flashy, legacy super martial artist/ archer from the British Isles who can pass up neither a damsel in distress nor a photo op. _______________ Act 1: 6 months later... "This is Tabitha Rosenthal-Ferrar reporting live from the Sedgwick County courthouse, where the Super Trial of the Century should have been taking place as we speak. The mystic superhero known as The Mac Bashtee, shown here along with the rest of the Defenders fighting an enormous creature that emerged from The Pit in Paragon City last summer, is the only prisoner to have ever escaped from the superhuman detention facility Stronghold. The charge? Attempted murder. Details surrounding the Mac Bashtee's escape are sketchy at best, and after his speculated return to his home dimension following The Defenders most recent victory in Japan, which resulted in the capture of John Black, also known as The Black Paladin, and Pamela Duquesne, called Talisman, each shown here fighting The Defenders in a suburban neighborhood in 2004, we may never know how the powerful mystic escaped. Sources close to the team have confirmed that The Mac Bashtee entered the medical wing of the super prison, carrying a poisonous fluid that he planned to administer intravenously to the recently captured supervillain Zorran the Artificer, whom you may recall terrorized guests and diners at the Paragon Ritz Hotel before breaking into Omnitech World Headquarters. One of the people at the Ritz Hotel that night was Dr. Daniella Jackson, a research archaeologist at Omnitech" Dr. Jackson: "I saw the Mac Bashtee that night... the night the hotel was attacked. He was... amazing. He saved hundreds of lives, including mine. He is NOT a murderer. This HAS to be a mistake." Reporter: "We also caught up with local business mogul Judas Geddon, whose multi-million dollar office building was attacked by VIPER earlier this year - an attack that he says could've ended far more tragically had The Mac Bashtee and The Defenders not intervened." Geddon: "I owe much of the continued success of Geddon Industries to The Defenders. I find it hard to believe that The Mac Bashtee would do this out of cold blood or vengeance. I'm sure whatever reason he intended to kill this magician for was a justifiable one." Reporter: "Geddon's sentiments have even been echoed as far up as Capitol Hill. In a surprising display of non-traditional Left Wing views, historically moderate Democratic Senator Arthur Bolton of New York also spoke out on behalf of the superheroes." Bolton: "This world would've been enslaved, conquered or outright destroyed a dozen times over by now if not for The Defenders and The Mac Bashtee. Though I would not, under normal circumstances, support corporal punishment, I for one refuse to point a finger of condemnation at ANYONE who has given so much for mankind." Reporter: "Not everyone in DC agrees with Senator Bolton, however. Republican Albert Haganstone of Pennsylvania had the following comments." Haganstone: "These so called heroes are a menace! They swoop in their bright costumes and save the day just in time, with powers ten times that of any army on the planet, and we just assume they'll always use these powers to protect us? They say they fight to uphold the law, but they can't hold up what they place themselves above! What's to stop them from declaring their own law?" Reporter: "The Defenders world-famous leader, Fantastic-Man had the following to say in his press conference held earlier today." Fantastic-Man: "I know a lot of you expect me to come out with a strong opinion on one side of this. But fellow citizens, I'm just as confused and frustrated as you. I abhor . . . ABHOR what what was attempted. I also can't simply forget the many times he saved our civilization and planet from conquest and destruction . . . more times than you'll ever know. I wish . . . I hope . . . No, I'm finished discussing this." Reporter: "A distraught Fantastic-Man then left the press conference and refused to answer any further questions. The Defenders aren't the only team feeling the shift in the public's climate in the wake of The Mac Bashtee incident. I sat down with Max Atom of The Atom Family recently." Atom: "I don't know, Tabitha. It's getting so frustrating! We go out there night after night, not knowing if all four of us are going to come back, and we get blasted by talk show hosts, talked down to by congressmen, and alienated in our public lives. I just don't know if its worth it anymore..." Reporter: "Not all seems to be doom and gloom in the metahuman community. A new superhero team calling themselves NextForce, seen here following a successful but violent raid on a new VIPER nest that was operating right here in Paragon City, are waging a spectacular one-team war on VIPER, without the official support of the US Government or PRIMUS, which The Defenders have enjoyed for the better part of the last year and a half, following the dissolution of their former parent organization, META. As this situation develops, however, the public eye continues to be focused in on the world's most popular superteam, The Defenders. Whether this is the end of The Defenders as we know it, we'll have to wait and see. We'll continue to cover this story as it develops. Reporting live from Sedgwick County courthouse, I'm Tabitha Rosenthal-Ferrar, Channel 4 news." Dr. Marianna Gutierrez, a surgeon at St. Mark's Hospital in Paragon City, clicked off the television in the on-call room. It had been a long six months since she, as the shapeshifting superhero La Espijisma, and the rest of her teammates, The Defenders, had thwarted the unspeakable evil of the Night Dragon, stopping his plan to return to Earth, and in the process, rescuing their friend The Tornado!. But.. the cost of victory had been high. Distraught over everything that the Dragon had done through him, The Tornado! left the team, hoping to find peace and quiet out of the public eye, and maybe, someday, forgiveness. Furthermore, Headless Cross, the team's headquarters for the entire three years since The Defenders were formed, had been destroyed. Construction of the new base, tentatively named Fort Paragon, was well underway, but the project was running into budgetary restraints at seemingly every turn. Normally, the phenominally wealthy Jack Kirby, CEO of Omnitech by day and Nighthawk by night, would be able to handle any additional finances above and beyond what was covered by the taxpayers, but no one had seen or heard from Nighthawk since The Defenders returned from Japan. Finally, his mission completed, The Mac Bashtee had left the team, returning to his home world Avalon. The four remaining Defenders - Fantastic-Man, La Espijisma, Tomorrow Boy and Warforge, had all enjoyed a long reprieve from any serious criminal activity. However, in the wake of The Mac Bashtee incident and the leaking of the story of his escape from Stronghold to the press, the general public's view of The Defenders and all superteams in general had apparently shifted, and a vocal minority was calling for the end of the metahuman crimefighting era. Fantastic-Man had seemingly been on damage control 24/7 ever since the story broke, trying valiantly to uphold the good name of the world's superheroes while at the same time overseeing construction of the new base as well as assisting in Cromwell's investigation into how the story of The Mac Bashtee's capture and subsequent release got out. Things weren't going all that well, to say the least, as was evidenced by the apparent strain the Earth's Greatest Superhero was under during that morning's press conference. Nighthawk's mysterious absence certainly wasn't helping matters any. Fantastic-Man soared through the air as fast as he could, hoping to burn off some of the frustration he was feeling. He thought about his grandpa and wondered if Amazing-Man had ever had to go through anything like this in his day. He wished Frank Sr. was still around. Maybe he'd have some words of wisdom. But, Amazing-Man had left not long after the Defenders' return from Japan. Fantastic-Man's cousin, Fred, had come down from Cleveland to pick Frank Sr. up and take him back home. The two had thankfully put Frank Sr.'s actions behind them, and Fantastic-Man looked forward to what he hoped would be a long future with a family he never knew he had. Warforge patrolled the streets of Paragon City that morning, walking amongst the people he felt compelled to protect, regardless of the recent troubles that had surrounded The Defenders. As he past the 1st Bank of Kansas downtown location, however, he noticed five masked men inside, waving guns at the terrified civilians inside. He radioed the other Defenders and decided that he could probably handle the situation. He was, of course, correct. The five robbers, armed with handguns and all brandishing a jack of spades card tattooed on their shoulders weren't prepared for Superhero involvement. Warforge had no trouble apprehending the five criminals and waited for the police to arrive while enjoying the accolades of those who had been trapped inside the bank. As Dr. Gutierrez finished closing up a gall bladder patient, the Defenders Communicator device concealed in her ear beeped, alerting her that the Trouble Alert alarm had been triggered. Confident that the rest of the staff could finish cleaning up the patient and returning him to his room, she left hastily and headed out to the parking lot. "Defenders Congregate!" Fantastic-Man called to his teammates via the communicators. "Alarm triggered at the Lovecraft Asylum. I'll meet you all there." Riv Allen, a.k.a Tomorrow Boy had been waiting by Vicki Atom's locker for what seemed like forever. Finally, the beautiful younger sister of the famous super-siblings came up to him. Though the two ran in dramatically different circles, they had been friends for sometime, despite the urgings of their respective colleagues ("He's a total nerd." "She's a stuck up preppy brat."... you get the idea.) Riv had finally made up his mind that he was going to tell Vicki his secret. She'd understand. She might even actually be.... fingers crossed... impressed! "What's up, Riv?" Vicki asked as she put away her algebra book. "Well.. uh... Vicki... there's something I've.. been... wanting to tell you... about.." Riv never saw the large hand that smacked him upside the back of his head. "Hey Dweeb," laughed Brock Springfield, starting quarterback and captain of the Paragon Hills High School Football team... and boyfriend of Vicki Atom. "Oh. Hi... Brock." Tomorrow Boy replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Brock... come on." Vicki protested. "Heh... sure thing babe. Wouldn't want you landing one of those flying kicks on me before the big game Friday night." Vicki smiled, "Why would I do that when I could just get my big brother to step on you?" "We still on for Moose's party after the game?" Brock asked. "Yes," Vicki replied, giving Brock a kiss on the cheek. "Right. Gotta blaze. Later dweeb!" Brock spun around and headed into the bathroom. "Oh.. Riv!" Vicki exclaimed as though she had forgotten Tomorrow Boy was still standing there. "What did you want to tell me?" "Well.. you see.. I'm.." Riv was cut off by the blaring bell that signaled the start of second period. "Oh.. jeez. Sorry Riv. I gotta go or I'll never make it to chemistry on time. We'll catch up later, okay!" And before Tomorrow Boy could reply, Vicki was racing down the hall. Frustrated, Tomorrow Boy sulked as he entered the bathroom. As Brock reached toward the flush handle on the urinal he was standing in front of, Tomorrow Boy, the only other person in the bathroom, telekinetically broke the pipes above, soaking Brock in water. "Oooh... Tough break, champ!" Tomorrow Boy couldn't help but snicker at the sopping wet quarterback. He backed out into the hallway and was headed toward the Advanced Calculus course that he was practically helping teach when he received the call from Fantastic-Man. A quick trip to the roof later and Tomorrow Boy was streaking across the skies of Paragon City on his hoverdisc. _______________ Act II: The Defenders arrived at the Lovecraft Asylum shortly before 9 AM that morning. The director and security staff met them there and escorted them downstairs to the solitary confinement wing. "What's the problem?" Fantastic-Man asked. "It's Black Harlequin," the warden replied. "I'm afraid he's escaped." They stopped in front of the sadistic criminal clown's cell. On the otherside of the thick plexiglass wall, they saw Black Harlequin, lying in bed. "Umm... looks like you caught him," said Tomorrow Boy. The Warden pulled back the Harlequin mask off the body laying in bed, revealing a man with a slit throat. "This is one of our custodial staff. Harlequin apparently escaped disguised as him." After recounting the facts of the night and further investigation of the area, The Defenders determined that Harlequin had to have escaped sometime between three and four AM that morning. They had returned to the Warden's office to discuss what their next steps would need to be to bring Harlequin back in, when an orderly burst in. "Sir! Turn on the TV!" "What channel?" the Warden replied. "All of them!" The television screen crackled to life to reveal a black and green harlequin mask symbol - the symbol of the Black Harlequin. "Woo hooo hoo hooooo! GOOOOOOOD MORNING PARAGON CITY!!! WOOO hooo hooo haa ha ha ha ha!" Black Harlequin laughed insanely as he appeared on screen. "Did you miss me, folks?! I know I missed you... all this time, locked away in that teeny tiny little cell at Lovecrap. Well I'm a free bird now... and I've perched on the 7th street bridge!" The camera panned back to a wider angle, revealing that Black Harlequin was seated on top of one of the support beams spanning the longest bridge in Paragon City that crossed over the Arkansas River, which had been widened during the building of Paragon City to allow for more commercial river traffic. Down at the bridge level, several street-gang looking thugs, all marked by Jack of Spades tattoos on their shoulders, were attaching what appeared to be enormous sticks of dynamite labelled "TNT" in enormous letters on the sides to the support beams. "Unless you all want to see how I blow this coup... along with all these lovely gridlocked Paragonians... you'd better hope that The Defuncters are watching this. Tick tock, kiddies! Woo hooo hooaahh ha ha ha ha!!!" After using the remote call feature that Tomorrow Boy had implemented in the D-Jet, the four Defenders were soon streaking through the sky toward the 7th street bridge. They arrived minutes later, set the jet to hover, and sprang into action. "Give it up, Harlequin!" Shouted Fantastic-Man as The Defenders squared up to the cackling madman in the middle of the bridge. "Well looky here! It's Fanspastic-Man and his pals! You know, FM... I've been thinking. We've been doing this for years now.. and you beat me EVERY SINGLE TIME! Well I finally figured it out! You've got a SIDEKICK!" Black Harlequin pointed his jester's cane toward Tomorrow Boy. "It's NOT fair! So... in order to tip the scales... allow me to introduce.... MY sidekick!" Two of the gang members opened up one of the strange, colorfully wrapped packages they had brought with them, and a 3 foot tall man wearing a green and white jester's motely with a red harlequin masked with oversized jingling bells on the tassels sprung out, performing a myriad of acrobatic flips and twists through the air before landing, his mouth twisting into an evil grin directed at Tomorrow Boy. "Pretenders... Meet TOM FOOLERY! A SIDEKICK with the emphasis on the KICK!" Tom Foolery launched into the air toward Tomorrow Boy, landing a powerful flying kick on the young hero, knocking him over backward. "And YOU!" Black Harlequin continued, this time pointing at Warforge. "How come Fantastic-Man gets such a BIG COOL ROBOT?! No Fair! I want a big robot too!" He grinned. "So I made THIS!" He pulled a large remote control device with a red button out of his coat pocked and pressed the button. In response, an 80-foot tall boxy silver robot reminiscent of a 1950's era child's toy rose up out of the river and began wading toward the bridge. All the while the One-Eyed Jacks gangmembers continued attaching the bombs to the bridge. "Get those bombs!" yelled Fantastic-Man as he soared up into the air. "I'll take care of the robot." La Espijisma punched one of the gang members, knocking them over the side of the bridge into the river below as Tomorrow Boy regained his footing and kept dodging the relentless acrobatic kicks and punches from Tom Foolery. The Robot opened up on Fantastic-Man with a volley of electrical blasts from it's arm cannons. "SHOCKING!" Black Harlequin gasped, cringing in feigned horror, though the blasts missed their mark. Fantastic-Man, however, did not miss. He flew directly into... and subsequently out of the robot. In a shower of sparks and smoke, the giant robot fell over backward into the water below. "NO FAIR!" Black Harlequin protested, stomping his feet as Warforge knocked two more gang members over the side of the bridge. Two more abandoned their bomb and scrambled to retrieve another one of the brightly colored packages, and pulled out what appeared to be a large bazooka. They aimed at the Titanium Titan, and fired... ...launching an enormous punching glove on the end of an extendable arm, connecting squarely on Warforge and sending the metal man flailing over the bridge railing, down toward the water below. After defeating the giant toy robot in one hit, Fantastic-Man wheeled around in time to see Warforge falling toward the river. He sped toward him as fast as he could to try and catch his friend before he splashed down. "Ah ah ah..." taunted Black Harlequin. "You break MY toys... My toys break YOU!" He reached into his jacket pocket again and pulled out a small toy helicopter. It flew toward Fantastic-Man, firing miniature stinging laser bursts at the World's Greatest Hero. "Ow! OW! Knock it OFF!" Fantastic-Man swatted at the helicopter as he caught Warforge out of the air and flew him back up to the bridge. Tomorrow Boy, meanwhile had finally gotten the upper hand over Tom Foolery, blasting the diminuitive jester with a burst of telekinetic energy. Foolery rolled under one of the many cars, still stranded on the bridge. With only one gang member left, still attaching one of the bombs, Black Harlequin jumped into the action, squirting La Espijismal with a stream of acid from his lapel flower. He laughed maniacally as the acid burned the superheroine as he looked around and realized that the numbers advantage he had enjoyed was no more.. and that with the disappearance of Tom Foolery amongst the traffic, it was now four against one. "NOT FAIR! NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT..." Black Harlequin suddenly turned his head to the side, pressing his hand against his ear. "Ahh... " he beamed. "EXCELLENT!" He whipped off his jacket, revealing the Rickety Rocket Jetpack he wore underneath. "Well, gents... lady.. It's been a real GAS getting back together again... but it's time for me to split. Enjoy cleaning up the mess!" As he fired up his jet pack, rocketing up into the air belching a trail of thick, black smoke behind him, the two bombs that were succesfully armed began to beep. La Espijisma managed to get one dislodged from the bridge and threw it over the edge into the water as Warforge attempted to delicately remove the other... ..and failed. The package exploded... ...in a shower of streamers and confetti. Fantastic-Man, meanwhile, determined to not let Black Harlequin get away had soared up and into the D-Jet. He took off, following Harlequin's smoke trail over the city. The clown was fast, but the D-Jet was faster. Fantastic-Man opened one of the loading bay doors, performed a nice bit of aerial maneuvering, and scooped Black Harlequin inside. After setting the autopilot, Fantastic-Man ventured down to the loading bay that he had caught Black Harlequin in. He carefully entered the bay and looked around. He found the Rickety Rocket laying in one corner behind some boxes, and heard the slight shuffle behind him as Harlequin took a swing with his jester's cane, which passed right through Fantastic-Man's desolidified form. Black Harlequin chuckled nervously. "Heh... not... fair?" Black Harlequin awoke in one of the cells on board the D-Jet with a splitting headache. Fantastic-Man piloted back toward the bridge while monitoring the police chatter. The rest of the Defenders, meanwhile, were helping the police manage the scene on the 7th street bridge when a call came over one of the officer's radios. "Unit 4773 respond, traffic accident on 835 at 5th street. 4 cars.. multiple injuries." As if in response, the scanner suddenly burst with more and more accident reports rolling in.. all over the city. "What's going on?" Said Fantastic-Man over the comm channel to the other Defenders. "I thought the WISURD auto-drive system managed all the traffic." Black Harlequin's maniacal laughter echoed off the steel hull of the D-Jet. "Aha.. a ha ha ha... A HAA HA HA HA... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHH!!!!" (first session ended here) _______________ Act III "What'd you do, clown?" growled Fantastic-Man as the D-Jet came to a hover over the 7th street bridge so the others could board. The overjoyed Black Harlequin responded by singing, "The Wheels on the cars go round-and-round, boom-boom-crash, crash-bang-boom. The cars on the road go crash-boom-burn! Allll Around the Town!!" The singing continued as the others boarded. "What now?" asked La Espijisma. "We'd better get on damage control right away... and clown boy has definitely done something to the WISURD system." Fantastic-Man replied as Black Harlequin's singing ramped up toward his big finale. "Excuse me a moment.." said Fantastic-Man as he got up and walked to the rear of the aircraft where the holding cells were. "ALLLLLLLL A-ROUUUUUND THE... *ooof*" "Right then," Fantastic-Man continued. "La Espijisma, you and Warforge get on the ground... do what you can to help clear accidents, treat injuries.. whatever you can do. I'll fly TB over to the Transit Authority office so he can figure out what's wrong with the WISURD (Auto drive system developed by Wahltech Enterprises - the same company that made the super electromagnet that VIPER stole in Seas. IV - it's the Wahltech Integrated Systemic Urban Relay Drive. All cars normally driven inside Paragon City are required to have a permanent control chip installed, which WISURD uses to control the vehicles on all major streets and highways. Guest chips are available on entry to the city and are required by law. Traffic accidents and traffic related fatalities are down nearly 90% since the program was implemented.) The D-Jet streaked away as Warforge and La Espijisma began aiding the police. Once at the PTA, Fantastic-Man stayed on board the D-Jet to keep an eye on Black Harlequin while Tomorrow Boy went inside to check the WISURD system. After explaining the situation to the building receptionist, he went down the elevator to the control room and opened the door. "Hey... F-Bomb?" "Yeah, TB." "I think I know what's wrong with the WISURD.... it's gone." All the servers and computers in the WISURD control room were gone. The room itself was totally empty save for a large orange and green package in the middle of the room with a pair of PTA technicians taped together on top of it. The two men were sweating profusely and mumbling unintelligibly under their duct tape mouth restraints. A quick scan with his X-ray goggles confirmed that there was a bomb inside the package with a pressure-sensitive plate under the lid. Any attempt to move the technicians would detonate the device. "Don't worry fellas... I gotcha," said Tomorrow Boy as he removed one of his many devices - a blink teleporter that he uses to make himself harder to target in combat. He attached it to the bomb set it to teleport and telekinetically yanked the technicians off the bomb. As it began to explode, the package vanished, exploding in the inter-dimensional nether region that it was set to teleport to. The grateful technicians explained that four armed men disguised as city employees had come in and knocked them out and stolen everything. One of the techs gave his pocket PC to Tomorrow Boy and explained that he could use it to track traffic activity, even though it wouldn't actually control the WISURD system remotely. On board the D-Jet, Black Harlequin had regained conciousness and started humming.. but not the same song he was singing earlier. It was the Paragon State University Fight song. "TB.." Fantastic-Man called over the comm. "Give me a status update." Tomorrow Boy glanced at the palm unit and noticed that all the traffic in the Southwest corner of I-835 was rapidly accelerating.. from 60 mph to 90... to 100... to 125 miles per hour near Paragon State University as Fantastic-Man recognized the song Black Harlequin was humming. Both heroes shouted into their comms in unison, "We need to get to PSU!!" Warforge and La Espijisma, meanwhile, had helped clear up several accidents and were en route to rendezvous with Fantastic-Man and Tomorrow Boy at PSU when La Espijisma saw a semi truck loaded with flammable oxygen cannisters fly off the highway, over an embankment, and crash into the St. Mary's Orphanage. She radioed the others and charged into the blazing building, helping the nuns and students out. Warforge arrived shortly thereafter, dragged the burning truck away from the building and opened one of the fire hydrants on the corner, using his enormous hands to channel the water toward the fire. Several seconds later, La Espijisma emerged from the blazing building with several students and teachers. "That's the last of them..." she panted. "HELP ME!!!" Cried a voice from the top floor window as a little girl with curly blonde hair looked out. "I can't... " La Espijisma gasped fearfully to Warforge. "I'll never make it to her in time!" "I ca..." Warforge replied as an engine roared down the street toward him from behind. The Titanium Titan jumped out of the way as the sleek, black car sped past him. The roof slid opened, a grappling cable shot out and Nighthawk flew into the air, swinging past the window, catching the little girl and wrapping her in his cape and swinging her safely down to the corner on the other side of the street as the corner of the orphanage where she had been exploded in a burst of flame. Meanwhile, at Paragon State University, newly hired Archaeology professor Dr. Edward Colbert was concluding his early afternoon lecture. "Therefore we see that in the classic Arthurian tale, it was in fact Sir Galahad that..." the professor's smooth, british accented voice was cutoff by the squealing of tires and the horrendous crashes from the highway not far from his classroom's open window. He turned to his TA. "John... do go ahead and finish up here, won't you?" Dr. Colbert walked brisquely down the hall to his office. Once he was sure no one was around, he opened a large, antique-looking armoire and began to change. A quartet of One-Eyed Jacks stood on a hill at the end of campus near the freeway, each holding a large RC Car controller, laughing and jumping around, punching at eachother as one would crash the real car that he was controlling into one of his fellows'. Suddenly, a trio of arrows whizzed over their heads, sticking firmly into the ground in front of them. "What's all this madness, then?!" The thugs spun around stunned to see a man wearing a blue costume with a shield coat-of-arms emblazoned on the front. On the shield was a lion raised on his hind legs, his paws out forward as if attacking. The man wore a light blue mask that covered the top of his head, eyes and nose, and held a large longbow in his hands. "You just invited yourself to the wrong party, pal..." one of the thugs began, and was cut off by the roar of the D-Jets engines as Fantastic-Man and Tomorrow Boy arrived. Once all four criminals were apprehended, the masked man introduced himself as The Rampant Lion to Fantastic-Man, whom he of course recognized from something he called "The Tellie." Tomorrow Boy, meanwhile, began analysing the remote controls the thugs had been playing with. Inside, they possessed microchips and computer technology not normally found in an RC remote. The manufacturer on the outside was Arbco. Back at the orphanage, the fire department had arrived on the scene and were busy battling the raging inferno while La Espijisma ensured that the little girl, the truck driver, and all the other evacuees were getting the medical treatment they needed. Warforge clunked over to Nighthawk. "How did you..." "Where are the others?" Nighthawk cut the Metal Man off. "Uhh.. the University, I think. Some other problem down there," Warforge replied. "I've contacted the police commissioner," Nighthawk continued. "His force is getting all access points onto WISURD controlled roads closed off. There should be a grid maintenance access hub near here. Take care of the fire. I'll be right back." Tomorrow Boy worked quickly, reconfiguring the data being received through the pocket PC the PTA tech had given him with the signal being emitted by the remotes they had recovered from the One-Eyed Jacks. According to his readings, there were so many signalling points, it almost appeared as though the signal hijacking the WISURD control chips in the cars was eminating from all over Paragon City. Nighthawk arrived at the access terminal as his communicator beeped - an incoming call on his secured line to the police commissioner's office. "Go ahead, Commissioner," the Dark Defender answered in his gravel-toned voice. "Nights.... you might want to hear this. Go ahead, sir." A third voice spoke on the line, "Alright... uhh... my name is Phil. Phil DePalmo. I own a few arcades in the malls around town. Anyway, I was watchin' the news just now, and I saw that orphanage fire. Listen, I don't know if there's anything to this, but right before that happened, I was watchin' a couple of kids playing this new street racing game that I just got in today... and one of them ran a semi off the road into an orphanage, too. Seemed kinda wierd to me, but..." "Who manufactured the game?" Nights interjected gruffly. "That's the wierd thing. According to the console, it's Arbco, but.." The arcade owners reply was cut short as Nighthawk flipped comm channels to broadcast to the whole team. "Everyone. Meet me 714 Fisher.. in the East Bottoms, at the Arbco Toy and Game company warehouse." "Hey, yeah..." Tomorrow Boy replied. "That's who made the controls these goons were using. What is Arbco, anyway?" "It's a toy making company that's been out of business for two-and-a-half years." Nighthawk replied as he and La Espijisma jumped into his car and sped away. The Defenders met up at the old Arbco plant. La Espijisma and Tomorrow Boy entered disguised to look like Black Harlequin and a One-Eyed Jacks thug, as Fantastic-Man secured Black Harlequin in one of the D-Jet's holding cells while Nighthawk, Warforge and Rampant Lion, who had insisted on coming along to help stop Harlequin's men, took up positions around the building. The tables were turned on La Espijisma and Tomorrow Boy, however, when they got inside and discovered that the video surveillance equipment the 4 thugs inside had been watching had picked them up getting off of the D-Jet along with the others. As the rest of the Defenders burst into the warehouse to quickly apprehend the gangmembers and disable the WISURD control system, which was up and running inside, eight of the crates inside the warehouse burst open, revealing a human-sized version of the gigantic toy robot Black Harlequin had unleashed on them at the bridge. The battle lasted nearly a full thirty seconds before all the robots were destroyed, the thugs either KO'ed or otherwise incapacitated, and Tomorrow Boy had successfully returned the WISURD operating system to normal. "Wait a minute..." said La Espijisma. "Where's the little squirt?" She dashed back outside to the D-Jet followed by Fantastic-Man, only to discover that someone had burned through the floor of the D-Jet with a powerful acid and had released Black Harlequin... and now both were long gone. Despite Harlequin's escape, The Defenders were rightfully satisifed that the long day's events were finally set back in order, all the One-Eyed Jacks gang members were rounded up and taken downtown for processing while the WISURD system was returned safe and sound to the Paragon Transit Authority (along with some additional security countermeasures put in place by Tomorrow Boy.) This crazy day was over. _______________ GM Notes If you haven't used Black Harlequin in your campaign yet (unless you're running a total homebrew campaign and have no interest in using published characters) I recommend doing so as soon as superhumanly possible. He rocks. He could be my new favorite villain. I thought the players did a great job during the second session of keeping up the atmosphere as they frantically scoured the city trying to clear accident after accident while at the same time trying to track down Harlequin. In all honesty, I hadn't planned on him being captured after the first fight, but it just worked out that way, which to me, made it even better. They had caught the bad guy, but his scheme was fully capable of carrying on without him. The normal street thugs also presented a unique challenge as several senior members of the group are really getting up there now in the power levels. Taking down a normal without turning them into a fine red mist at that point is really quite an art. I think it was a great start to the new season.

Re: The villain Holocaust As "B" level master villains go, he's probably the best there is in the published CU. Personality wise, I've always thought of him as being very Magnetoesque. Maybe it's the "mutant power" thing. Maybe it's the fact that he wears red and purple. I dunno. If Dr. Destroyer is the CU equivalent (roughly) of Dr. Doom, then Holocaust has to be Mags. Tactics-wise, as has been stated, fly around and blast away. He's got enough versatility in his blast options to give any character type fits - from speedsters and MA's all the way down to Bricks. And, don't forget the TK. If he's outnumbered, set his Absorption pool to take whatever kind of punishment your heroes most commonly dish out, and set it to absorb to STUN, CON, or Defense to make him increasingly tougher as the fight draws on (the Black Diamond Principle, if you will.) If he's got the advantage, absorb to his offensive capabilities and go for the quick finish (unless you want your players to win... which is a silly notion. ) And that trick about the power main is straight up nasssssty! I love it.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Ok... FINALLY done with the Season IV finale! Since I had originally planned for the Season V opener to be a one-session adventure that got streched into two by a late start and OOC silliness, I will combine the last session and tommorrow nights session into one entry. The Defenders Will Return in... Season V, Issue 1: Drive Me CRAZY!

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Jeez, folks. Sorry for the horrendous delay here. I'm going to try like heck to at least get this session finished up this afternoon - might even be able to scratch the surface on last session, too. And that'd be nice to have in the bag before we play this Saturday.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! There we go. Sorry 'bout that. I must've copy/ pasted the cast list from a previous session in which Finny Mac was "doing time."

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Storn... I've said it before and I'll say it again. Without your visuals, The Defenders would be just a rag tag bunch of guys in spandex. Your art makes them heroes. Incredible. At least no VISUAL hiccups will occur as we transition from Mac Bashtee to the Rampant Lion.. ..now if only the in-game transition can be so smooth!

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Night of the Dragon (Pt. 2) The Defenders Season IV, Issue 14 Cast Fantastic-Man: Team leader/ Flight Brick w/ Density Alteration powers Nighthawk: Martial Artists/ Gadgeteer/ Detective/ Mega-Bajillionaire The Mac Bashtee: Divine Celtic being with Nature Mystic powers Tomorrow Boy: Teenage Gadgeteer/ Telekenetic from the future (in absentia) La Espijisma: Metamorph with Power Mimicry abilities Warforge: Big mystic-style construct brick. "He's just a metal man." The Tornado!: Fastest Man On Earth Frank Miller, Sr. (Amazing Man): WWII era superhero, grandfather of Fantastic-Man Whisper: Former GF of Nighthawk, Daughter of the leader of the Night Dragon Ninja Clan _______________ Act I: The dust and rubble finally cleared long after the ringing finally stopped in Nighthawk's ears. Slowly, the Dark Defender willed himself back up to his feet. On the ground beneath him was the unconcious form of Frank Miller, Sr.. the grandfather of Fantastic-Man... The man who had just confessed to being responsible for The Earth's Greatest Hero's recent superpower losses. Frantically, Nighthawk began digging through what remained of the Headless Cross. His lab, which had been thankfully reinforced with Questionite floors, ceilings and walls, along with Tomorrow Boy's, seemed to be the only areas of Headless Cross that the explosion hadn't completely destroyed. Some of the detention facility, which had also been reinforced, also remained. Everything else was lost... buried under a pile of rubble and dust. After five minutes of searching that seemed like an hour, Nighthawk found her. Whisper. The ninja was somehow still alive, and a quick whiff of smelling salts brought her back around. "Did you get it?" Nighthawk asked nervously once he was sure she was alright. Whisper nodded, holding up a blue/black stone clutched tightly in her hand. Meanwhile, on the other side of Paragon City, The Mac Bashtee burst through the sealed door of the cooling rod chamber at the Paragon Nuclear Power Plant. Fantastic-Man lay there on the floor, barely clinging to life. The Mac Bashtee lifted him up off the ground and soared back toward the Defenders' base. The Mac Bashtee's healing magic brought Fantastic-Man back to health, and the Defenders' leader saw the devastation that was all that was left of their base... and Nighthawk and Whisper off to the side with his grandfather. One look in the older man's eyes told Frank Jr. all he needed to know about his grandfather's guilt. "Why?" he asked plainly. "Because I'm a foolish old man, Frank..." Amazing-Man began, his voice quivering in shame and regret. "I'm old... and I was afraid of dying. I lied to you, son. I didn't start regaining my powers until I got here. I was stealing yours with this." He held up the rock fragment that Whisper had saved from the blast. "It's Anti-Michellium." Fantastic-Man immediately recognized the glow of the rock as the same as the glow from the other film cannister that had been left on his shipping dock the night he obtained his powers. "I'm sorry, Frank..." he continued. "I'll understand if you can't forgive me." He reached out his hand, offering the Anti-Michellium stone to Fantastic-Man. "I never meant for it to go this far... and I never wanted to hurt you." Fantastic-Man stopped him. "Grandpa... if you need my powers to live... then take them. Take every last bit of it if that's what you need... but before you do, know this. This world is in more danger now than it's ever seen, and it's going to need it's heroes.. now more than ever." Frank Miller, Sr. looked intently at the stone, and then back at his grandson. "You're right, Frank," he said. He pushed the stone up against Fantastic-Man, who instantly felt the Michellium molecules in his own body reacting to the Anti-Michellium, causing him to feel... better. A familiar strength returned to his arms and legs as Amazing-Man began to look older and older. Finally, too weak to stand, Amazing-Man's hand dropped to his side as the Anti-Michellium stone rolled to the ground, and the older hero collapsed forward... ...into the powerful arms of the Earth's Greatest Hero. "Give 'em hell, kid..." Amazing-Man wheezed, smiling. After sending Amazing-Man off to the hospital, Fantastic-Man, Nighthawk, Mac Bashtee and Whisper went to the Paragon USAF base to meet up with La Espijisma, Tomorrow Boy and Warforge, who had just landed there after Nighthawk used the base computer to auto-pilot the D-Jet back to Earth. Tomorrow Boy and La Espijisma elected to stay there and repair the D-Jet, as they would need it soon more likely than not. Fantastic-Man, Warforge and The Mac Bashtee returned to the Headless Cross site to see if anything there could be salvaged. Nighthawk and Whisper returned to Kirby Manor to search for clues that Park might've left behind about how he managed to free himself from the Dragon, or about the Keepers of Light, the ancient order that Whisper stole the Egg of Shugoshin from that eventually led to Tornado! acquiring the powers of the Dragon (Defenders Season III.) In Park's room, Nighthawk and Whisper's search for answers came up nearly blank, until Nighthawk found Park's appointment book, which had included a visit to 1313 Moonlight Dr. a few years ago... shortly after Park was blinded by Albatross. Nighthawk radioed Fantastic-Man, who had completed the search of the Headless Cross site, and Tomorrow Boy, who had just completed repairs to the D-Jet, "Meet me at Dr. Arcane's." Mr. Fong answered the door once more at Dr. Arcane's residence. "Oh good!" he exclaimed. "You brought all your friends with you this time. Please... Come in." Once the Defenders were all seated, he brought out the familar silver tea service and began pouring cups for everyone. Nighthawk grimaced. "Mr. Fong.. we really must speak with Dr. Arcane at once. I'm afraid it's crucial," Fantastic-Man began. "I apologize.. Fantastic-Man.. but Dr. Arcane is... unavailable. Please... drink your tea." the old man suggested. Fantastic-Man glanced at Nighthawk, who gave him a cautionary look. "Well... alright." Fantastic-Man tipped the cup and sipped the warm herbal tea. In addition to instantly feeling totally refreshed, he began to see things... ...a dark, round stone room with a pair of crystalline eggs on a pedestal in the center of the room, with a dozen torches blazing on the walls. The vision of this room flew away as though he was soaring at full-speed backwards out of the room, through a long, dark hallway, another room with large pillars on either side, and out onto a snow-covered mountaintop where stood a magnificent monastery... ..and somehow, Fantastic-Man knew exactly where this monastery was. _______________ Act II: Hours later, as the D-Jet was streaking across the ocean towards Tibet, where the Himalayan Monastery of the Keepers of the Light stood. Ahead, the horizon was dark.. but it was too early in the day for nightfall to loom ahead of them. "The Darkness is not natural..." Mac Bashtee told them. Soon, the Darkness was all around them, and only Warforge's mystical ability to perceive through any sort of darkness kept them on track. News reports poured over the radio of the darkness eminating from a small island North of Japan, and expanding like a brushfire. It already covered the Eastern Hemisphere.. and within hours, all of Earth would be trapped behind the shadow. Finally, the D-Jet landed on a small outcropping of snow-covered rock high in the Himalayas, next to the monastery Fantastic-Man had seen in his vision. Once inside, the Defenders found themselves in a large, stone room. Torches flickered to life all around them revealing four large, stone pillars on either side of the room, a thick, woven carpet with intricate designs sewn into it on the floor, and a stone pedestal in the middle holding 3 different sized jugs with an inscription carved around the pedestal's top that said, "Only the keenest mind can foil the schemes of evil. Prove yourself." Upon closer examination, the door at the end of the hall was locked tight, and a small circular shelf jutted out from the wall on either side of the door. The shelves moved down when pressed, Fantastic-Man discovered, but no clicking or grinding of gears could be heard. Upon further examination, Mac Bashtee and Nighthawk discovered that the jugs each had a different roman numeral on them: V on the smallest VIII on the middle sized and XII on the largest, which was also full of water. After several minutes, the two Defenders figured out how to get six liters of water in each of the twelve and eight liter jugs, and set one on each of the shelves by the door, which slowly creaked open. Ahead was a long, narrow hallway, with another inscription above the door reading, "A spirit of fear can only be bent to serve evil. Only a spirit of courage can triumph. Prove Yourself." Nighthawk was the first to enter the hallway, diving to the side of the hall to avoid the enourmous spiked pendulum that swung down from the ceiling toward him. Mac Bashtee joined Nighthawk as the two pressed forward, dodging jets of flame, spiked pitfalls, circular blades and collapsing walls. Finally, Mac Bashtee made it to the end of the hall, where a floor-mounted lever awaited him. He pulled the lever backward, opening the door ahead and resetting all the traps in the hall behind him. The rest of the Defenders passed quickly through the hall as the door at the end began to shut. Once safely on the other side, the Defenders found another door, with one more inscription: "Those who cannot defeat those who cannot defeat the Darkness, cannot defeat the Darkness. Prove Yourself." This door led into a circular stone room, with a dozen torches lining the walls of the room. At the back, stood a pedestal with two crystalline eggs upon it. In the center of the room, there stood a man, wearing a black gi. He motioned them to enter, and the door slid shut behind them. "You have done well, Defenders," the ninja addressed them. "You have learned much... almost as much as I have learned from you." A shadow of memory flickered through Nighthawk's mind. Memory of a time and place when he served Master Shinjin in the Night Dragon Ninja Clan.. of a night when the clan was attacked by the Mist Viper Clan, their most hated rivals, and of a young ninja whom he thought had killed his beloved (at the time) fiancee... Whisper. A young Mist Viper Ninja named... "Ryu Hyubasa? (No... not THAT Ryu Hyubasa for all you Tecmo fans in the hizzie)" the Dark Defender asked as the ninja's voice grew more and more familiar. "I had hoped you would remember me, Jack Kirby," Ryu allowed a slight smile to play across his face as he stepped forward out of the obscuring shadows of the room. "You saved my life those many years ago. You.. a Night Dragon.. showed mercy to a Mist Viper. You did not kill me though you had both opportunity and motive. Such things went against everything we had been taught of your clan and your way. I left the Mist Viper clan shortly thereafter... it was then that I found the Keepers of the Light." "We would fight this darkness," Fantastic-Man interjected. "Of course you would... why else would you be here?" Ryu continued. "But you cannot fight The Dragon without one of these..." he gestured to the crystalline eggs standing on the table in the rear of the room. "And you cannot have one of those unless you prove yourself worthy. Already you have been found worthy in mind and spirit... and now the test of body awaits you. You must decide for yourselves whether one of you will face me in single combat, or if three of you will face me and the other two keepers." "Who are the other keepers?" Nighthawk asked. "A fair question," Ryu responded. In response a puff of blueish smoke erupted from the ground behind the ninja and to his left, revealing a familiar man in his early fifties, wearing red and blue robes with a magical aura glowing all about him... Dr. Arcane. Followed by a glow of white light behind Ryu and to his right that grew larger and larger into a ten-foot high portal, through which stepped a centaur clad in shining battle armor carrying a stout longspear... Chiron... their trainer. "So... one on one then?" Tomorrow Boy quipped. After much deliberation, it was decided that indeed Nighthawk would challenge Ryu in single combat. Almost immediately, Nighthawk's blackout bombs encased nearly the entire chamber in darkness. As his companions struggled to watch on, Nighthawk and Ryu battled it out, punching, kicking, dodging and blocking until finally, Nighthawk's patience paid off. Ryu left his side unprotected for a brief second, giving the Dark Defender time to land a powerful flying kick that sent the ninja sprawling to the ground. "Enough!" Ryu called out. "I yield. You may take the egg." "How do we defeat the dragon... without killing the host?" Fantastic-Man asked, convinced that somehow Tornado! still lived and could be saved. "You must first stop the ritual that the dragon is leading... the ritual that is bathing the Earth in this darkness." Dr. Arcane answered. "A sacrifice must be made for the ritual to be completed. If you can stop this, then you will have at least delayed the Dragon's plans." "Then what?" Nighthawk asked anxiously, also hoping to save his friend. "How did you get it out of Park before the egg was stolen by Whisper?" "The host... Park.. had to willfully reject the Dragon and all his powers," Chiron explained. "Once he had forced the dragon out of him, Dr. Arcane was able to ensnare the dragon's intangible form in the Egg of Shugoshin by using the words of power." Dr. Arcane nodded and added, "Only one able of shaping the magical forces of the Earth herself can wield the Egg and the Words of Power correctly." His stare lingered on the Mac Bashtee. "So we have to convince Tornado! to force this thing out of his head, and then we trap it in that thing?" Warforge asked. "No." Ryu answered. "It will not be so simple. For the Dragon to create enough Darkness to cover the entire world, some measure of his power must have already returned.. probably due to the ritual. You will have to weaken him.. and then subdue him." "Can we make sure he doesn't escape again?" Asked the Mac Bashtee. "There is a way.. yes. But the price is high." Dr. Arcane answered. "The Keepers of the Light will maintain our vigil over the captured Dragon as our order has for centuries. We will fulfill our oath to keep the forces of evil from finding and releasing the Dragon... but as you have seen, there is no guarantee we will succeed. The will of the Dragon is strong.. and undistracted he can call all manner of evil to his aid... even while trapped in the Egg, just as he did with the Night Dragon Clan." "However.." Chiron continued. "If a brave and powerful soul travels into the egg with the dragon... dooming himself to fight the dragon ceaselessly... for all eternity... then the Dragon will not be able to call others to him... and will never escape." The Defenders looked around at eachother, the weight of Chiron's words weighing upon them. "We'll do what we have to do." Nighthawk replied grimly, picking up one of the last two Eggs and tucking it under his cloak. Ryu nodded his unspoken understanding. "Return to us with the egg once you have succeeded." Dr. Arcane said as the Defenders turned toward the door. "In this ... you must not fail. We could not defeat the Dragon when our turn came. You are the Earth's Last Defenders." _______________ Act III: The D-Jet rocketed Eastward toward the small island North of Japan where Ichibon's Fortress stood, guided only by Warforge's (literally) gods-given ability to perceive through any manner of darkness. As they crossed the Sea of Japan, however, the darkness began to fade, until they emerged as if through a cloud, passing into what looked like the eye of a hurricane. Around them, clouds of darkness blustered and billowed, pouring upward into the sky from what was left of the roof of a nearly decimated stone castle ahead of them. On the remains of the roof... or more accurately, the top floor of Ichibon's castle, as the roof had clearly been obliterated leaving the top floor under open sky, The Defenders saw Tornado!, Ichiban, Black Paladin and Talisman, all gathered around an altar on a dais, their hands aloft, the darkness materialing above them and rocketing into the atmosphere like a fountain of evil. Between them, on the altar, lay a slender, blonde female. "Oh no..." gasped Fantastic-Man. "It's Noelle." "You guys just Don't know when to QUIT!" The Tornado!'s sinister but familiar voice echoed through the air all around them as a tendril of darkness shot out of the clouds, striking the D-Jet, nearly knocking it into a flat spin. Nighthawk stabilized the aircraft and dove toward the castle, dodging more and more dark tentacles, eminating from the clouds like dozens of attacking octopi. As Black Paladin, Talisman and Ichiban continued to chant, the sorcerer Ichiban drew a wicked, curved dagger from his belt and raised it over his head, preparing to drive it through the heart of Tornado!'s girlfriend, Noelle Peterson. "GO!" yelled Nighthawk, punching the release button that opened the D-Jet bay loading door. Without hesitation, Fantastic-Man burst out of the D-Jet, streaking through the darkened sky toward the castle. The dagger began to fall. Fantastic-Man pushed himself forward, flying faster than he ever had. The dagger was less than a foot away from Noelle's chest. "Faster, damn it..." Fantastic-Man urged himself on. "Faster..." The dagger was mere centimeters away from Noelle.... but before it hit her, it hit the forehead of the Earth's Greatest Hero, shattering into hundreds of thousands of shards as Fantastic-Man barreled full speed into the unsuspecting chest of Ichiban. The impact knocked the sorcerer through the air, into the standing stone wall of his castle behind him. He fell limply to the ground... broken and unconcious. "Villainous Dog!" yelled Black Paladin. "Thou shalt PAY for thy transgression... and thou shalt pay DEARLY!" He hefted Crusher of Hope, his menacingly powerful mace up into the air, swinging at Fantastic-Man. The swing was errant, however, giving Fantastic-Man opportunity to strike again as the rest of the Defenders made their way out of the D-Jet toward the battle atop Ichiban's Fortress. Black Paladin smashed into one of the support columns jutting up into the night sky like fangs as the ceiling they had once supported had been blown off of the fortress. The punch from Fantastic-Man had been powerful, and the force from the heavily armored man's impact sent deep cracks all throughout the pillar's base. The rest of the Defenders continued to fly down from the D-Jet to the castle, and were attacked by the tendrils of darkness controlled by The Tornado! as well as blasts of magic from Talisman. The villainous wizardess was too focused on attacking the other Defenders, and failed to notice the angered Fantastic-Man, who knocked her out cold with a single blow. "I don't think he's going to save any for the rest of us..." remarked Warforge as the other five Defenders landed atop the ruined fortress, staring down their one-time comrade, Tornado! "Don't worry, Metal Man..." The Tornado! leered. "There's plenty of me to go around." With blinding speed that The Defenders had never known Tornado! to posess, the black-clad superspeedster attacked, and before they could blink, Whisper, Tomorrow Boy, Nighthawk and The Mac Bashtee were reeling. Fantastic-Man tried to join the fray but found the recovered Black Paladin in his path once more. As Warforge struggled to keep The Tornado! busy, La Espijisma managed to pull Noelle off the altar and get her to a safe place. Black Paladin hurled his mace at Fantastic-Man, barely missing the Earth's Greatest Hero and burying his mace in the side of the support pillar on the other side of the battlefield. He then calmly and coldly drew Eater of Shadows, his wicked broadsword, from its sheath. "Come! Let us finish this!" It would clearly be several minutes before Black Paladin awoke at the bottom of the enormous crater left in the stone floor after Fantastic-Man had soared into the air only to come crashing back down upon him. Meanwhile, the rest of the Defenders weren't faring as well. As Warforge went down, Nighthawk and The Mac Bashtee managed to recover. While Tornado! focused his new powers of Darkness on the Mac Bashtee, Nighthawk used his own powers of darkness, littering the battlefield with his blackout bombs, hoping to gain some advantage over the lightning-fast Tornado! Across the battlefield, La Espijisma had managed to revive Noelle, but the two were cut off from the others by the wall of darkness covering the combatants. Fantastic-Man tried to reach Tornado!, convinced that his friend was still alive and concious in there.. somewhere.. but to no avail. An incredibly powerful punch from the Dark Tornado! sent the Earth's greatest hero sprawling to the ground, and the sinister speedster turned his attention back to Mac Bashtee and Nighthawk. "Fantastic-Man?" Noelle cried out above the howling winds and bursts of lightning as the Mac Bashtee attacked. "Where are you?" "Over here.." Fantastic-Man called out in the darkness as he pulled himself to his feet. "I can't see you!" Noelle replied again. "Follow the sound of my voice!" Seconds later, a swirling, pinkish/ purple light appeared in front of Fantastic-Man, growing larger and larger as Noelle's unreliable metahuman powers - the ability to create teleportation portals capable of spanning any dimension - manifested in front of him. "Go! Quickly! I don't know how long I can hold this open! You're the only one who can save Graham!" Noelle cried, obviously taxed by her struggle to control her powers. Fantastic-Man stepped through the portal. He emerged on a dark, two lane road, winding down a hill toward a small town nestled on the banks of a wide river. Ahead was a sign on the side of the road, covered by a thick branch. Fantastic-Man pushed the branch aside and read, "Ft. Madison, Iowa... population 14,500... that's where Tornado!'s from..." The earth's greatest hero lifted his eyes to the skies above and realized that it was not dark because it was night. It was dark because all that he could see above him was The Dragon - hanging in the sky like a cloud of impenetrable darkness. Occasional images flashed through the darkness as The Dragon fought The Defenders back on Earth. Fantastic-Man lifted off the ground and flew over the quiet, empty streets of the town toward the river.. the Mississippi river. A small two-man boat sat out on the water, and two men could be seen inside. One was clearly Graham Greene... The Tornado!. The other looked just like the Defender's superspeedster.. only maybe ten years older... in his mid thirties. Graham saw Fantastic-Man as he approached the boat and waved him down. "Hey! Fantastic-Man! I'm glad you're here! I want you to meet my dad!" Fantastic-Man's face paled and he nearly grew ill as he realized what The Dragon had done. The Tornado!'s father... Graham Green, Sr. had been a high-ranking CIA official who had been missing ever since the White Event in 1985. The Dragon was using this image... the last memory Graham Jr. had of his father.. to keep the young superhero imprisoned in his own mind... which was where Noelle had sent Fantastic-Man. "Graham..." Fantastic-Man began. "All of this... everything around you... none of it's real." "Of course it is, son." Graham, Sr. interrupted. "He's just trying to confuse you." Graham nodded to his father and then turned back to Fantastic-Man. "Why are you doing that?" the young man asked his friend. "Graham.. listen to me. This ISN'T happening... it's the Dragon. Two years ago... when you snatched that egg away from Whisper. You interrupted something.. and the Dragon went into you instead of her. It's using this to keep you from fighting him off while he destroys us!" "Son... your friend is obviously tired. Why don't you ask him to go take a rest and come back later?" Graham Sr. interjected again, glaring at Fantastic-Man. "Yeah, Frank... you don't seem all that well. You're kinda paranoid... you been around Nights too much? Anyway, we're kinda in the middle of something here, so why don't you... HEY!" Fantastic-Man snatched the fishing rod from The Tornado!'s hand and threw it into the river. "That's okay, son.. I've got a spare." Graham Sr. sneered at Fantastic-Man as another rod appeared next to The Tornado! "You're the best, Dad!" Tornado! smiled... only to watch Fantastic-Man throw this rod again into the river. After three more, Tornado! finally jumped to his feet. "Dude! Knock it off!" "Graham!" Fantastic-Man said firmly, grabbing the young man's shoulders. "Why don't you ask your Dad why he brought so many fishing poles for only two people?!" The Tornado! stood motionless for several seconds, then turned to his scowling father. "....Dad?" "You've overssssstayed your WELCOME!" hissed Graham Sr as the skin of his face began to melt away, revealing a hideous, floating skull with red-glowing eyes. "DIEEEEE!" The apparition streaked toward Fantastic-Man... ...only to meet with the Earth's Mightiest Fist in mid-air, pulverizing the skull into a fine powder. The skies overhead rumbled as The Dragon scrambled to fight both the Defenders and regain his control over Tornado!. "Fantastic-Man? What the...." Tornado! staggered, rubbing his head as he looked around him, as if for the first time. "...why are we in Iowa?" "No time for that, Graham..." Fantastic-Man replied, bursting with joy that his friend was back. "The Dragon... it's... we're.. inside you...Listen. You have to fight it. Now. You're the only one who can." "Fantastic-Man!" Noelle's shrill cry pierced the dark night sky from the portal. "I can't hold it much longer! You have to get out of there!" Fantastic-Man soared into the air. "Now, Tornado! Fight! For Noelle! For all of us! FIGHT!" Graham Greene looked down at his trembling hands for a moment as he remembered everything that had happened for the last two years. Everything the Dragon had done to him inside his own mind... and everything the Dragon had done while disguised as Tornado! The Tornado! snapped his head up toward the sky, a fierce glare in is young, green eyes. "Hey! HEY! Yeah, I'm talkin' to YOU, pal!" The menacing face of The Dragon emerged from the darkness, staring down the young superhero as bursts and bolts of pure energy began to crackle around The Tornado! Fantastic-Man soared backward toward the portal, watching as the illusionairy town under him began to crumble away. The Dragon's powerful roar filled the air as The Tornado's body began bristling with light, transforming into a being of pure energy (this happened before in an alt. dimension in seas. 1, for those continuity buffs out there..) The Tornado! raised his hand toward The Dragon, silencing the beast immediately. It blinked in amazement as it realized what was happening. The Tornado! was in charge here now. With a coy smile, The Tornado! cocked his head, taunting the muted Dragon. "Check-out time, motherf..." The rest of The Tornado!'s words were lost to Fantastic-Man in the deafening explosion as The Tornado!, moving at what may have well been the speed of light, shot through the air, obliterrating the boat and sending a concussive shockwave of force in all directions over the surface of the water, and piercing the eye of the Dragon. The beast howled in pain as The Tornado! shot through the back of it's head, and then re-entered, only to come back out it's other eye, continuing to weave in and out of the Dragon's head at immeasurable speed like a hypersonic sewing needle. Fantastic-Man took one last look back as he reached the collapsing portal. The Tornado was moving so fast now it almost looked like there were a dozen of him... and then hundreds. The town began to disappear, and the rubble sucked up into the air by a massive vortex.. a swirling whirlwind of unbridled power being generated by The Tornado!'s unrelenting attacks. An F6. Fantastic-Man re-emerged on the other side of the portal just as it collapsed behind him. Noelle slumped to the floor, exhausted. Fantastic-Man wheeled around to see Dark Tornado!, writhing in pain as the Darkness poured out of him like water. Finally, as the Darkness massed into an amorphous blob of impenetrable night, The Tornado!, once again in his familiar green supersuit, collapsed to the ground, unconcious. "Foolsssss!" The Darkness hissed. "I... WILL... NOT... BE... DEFEATED!" The darkness coalesced into the shape of an enormous five-headed dragon, breathing horrible darkfire and striking at The Defenders. Once Fantastic-Man had ensured that The Tornado! was safe, he turned toward his companions. Warforge, holding the Shield of the Black Paladin, who tossed Eater of Shadows to Fantastic-Man, ..and Tomorrow Boy, controlling Crusher of Hope with his Telekenesis, who raised Black Paladin's mace up into the air. "Wanna bet?" Against the Earth's Greatest Superheroes, armed with the magically enchanted weapons of the Black Paladin, The Dragon stood no chance in this incorporeal, incomplete form. In a matter of time, it collapsed once more into the amorphous shadow, and could no longer resist the Words of Power, chanted by The Mac Bashtee, holding aloft the Egg of Shugoshin. The Dragon was defeated. Banished once more into its eternal prison. _______________ Epilogue: The Defenders returned the egg with the captured Dragon to the Keepers of Light for safekeeping. The Mac Bashtee, whose mission had been to save the Earth from this dark threat, decided to return to the halls of his fathers, high atop Mount Olympus, in the sacred realm of Avalon. Black Paladin (whose weapons were swallowed up into the egg along with the dragon thanks to some quick thinking by Fantastic-Man and Warforge,) Talisman, Ichiban, and, much to her surprise, Whisper, were all taken by UNTIL, and it was discovered that Black Paladin was in fact John Black, professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Paragon State University (who had actually helped the Defenders on a previous mission when an evil artifact of his had been stolen by a group called "the Nocturnals: - see Season II.) Finally, after ensuring that all was tied up, The Defenders returned to Paragon City. Fantastic-Man awoke the next morning to find a letter on the table of his suite at the Ritz Paragon. " Frank, You saved me. I can't thank you enough for that. Seriously. I never would've made it out of there without your help. That's what makes this so hard. I remember everything. Everything the Dragon did as me. All those people it killed. I just can't stay around with all that. I hope you understand. I'm gone. I know I'll see you all again, though. Your friend, -Graham." Fantastic-Man closed his eyes, understanding why his young friend had to do this... to find peace.. and hopefully, some day, atonement. He opened his eyes to the shock and awe of the final line. "PS - Try to explain this to Noelle as best you can. I don't think she'll understand very easily."

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Tonight.... The Defenders Season IV Finale Concludes with... Night of the Dragon (pt.2)

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Night of the Dragon (Pt. 1) The Defenders Season IV, Issue 13 Cast Fantastic-Man: Team leader/ Flight Brick w/ Density Alteration powers Nighthawk: Martial Artists/ Gadgeteer/ Detective/ Mega-Bajillionaire Tomorrow Boy: Teenage Gadgeteer/ Telekenetic from the future (in absentia) La Espijisma: Metamorph with Power Mimicry abilities Warforge: Big mystic-style construct brick. "He's just a metal man." The Tornado!: Fastest Man On Earth Frank Miller, Sr. (Amazing Man): WWII era superhero, grandfather of Fantastic-Man Cromwell: The Defenders' PRIMUS liaison Whisper: Former GF of Nighthawk, Daughter of the leader of the Night Dragon Ninja Clan _______________ Act I: As Fantastic-Man recovered in the sick bay at Headless Cross, Nighthawk sped across town, the badly injured Whisper sitting unconcious in his car. The others, with the exception of Tornado!, had all gathered at Fantastic-Man's side as the Defender's leader got up and around and seemed to be making good improvements. Nighthawk burst through the door carrying Whisper's body and he and La Espijisma loaded her into the tissue regeneration tank for healing. While they did this, Fantastic-Man attempted to use his unreliable density alteration powers and soon found himself falling through the floor into sub-basement 3, where the (fortunately) Questionite flooring stopped his fall. Satisfied that Whisper was relatively out of danger for the time being, Nighthawk decided it was time for some long overdue answers. "What's happening to him?" The Dark Defender demanded, turning toward Fantastic-Man's grandfather. "You said you lost your powers near the end of WWII and then mysteriously got them back not long ago. Why?" "I.. I don't know.." the older man stammered, obviously troubled by Nighthawk's temperment and line of questioning. "When did you lose your powers?" Nighthawk asked more forcefully. "The... the day the Allied forces were about to take Berlin. We were making preparations for the attack and then suddenly.. they were just.. gone. I figured I'd run out of Michelium in my system so we went to find Micheli, but he was nowhere to be found." "What caused it?" "I.. I don't know. Look.. he's my grandson. If there was ANYTHING I could do to help him.. I would." "Why did you show up here.... For years you had to have realized who Fantastic-Man was, and yet you stayed away. Why now?" Nighthawk asked. "I'm old.." Frank Sr. replied. "I... I wanted to see him before..." "Do you have any other grandchildren?" "Yes," Frank Sr. answered. "My son Steve and his wife Helen in Cleveland.. they have a son about Frank's age. Fred Miller. Why?" "Any... power problems?" "No..." Frank Sr. replied. "Fred doesn't have any superpowers... they're not heriditary. Frank got them from the michellium the same way I did." Nighthawk was getting frustrated by the lack of leads, but he still suspected that Frank Sr. was the key to this somehow. "You said your wife...your first wife... and her family... cast some sort of spell on you?" "Yes. Started to at any rate. I don't know what happened. Like I said.. I blacked out and woke up in the park a few days later. I decided to get the hell out of town and away from them.. that's when I joined the army. You think this has something to do with the spell?" "Maybe..." the Dark Defender pondered. "I need to get some answers from someone about some other things anyway..." he looked over at Whisper, floating unconcious in the regenerating fluids of the tank, "and I doubt I'll be able to get them from her anytime soon." Master Shinjin dead? The Night Dragon Clan gone? As impossible as it seemed, it probably meant only one thing... The Dragon had returned. "There's only one other person who can answer my questions." Nighthawk grimaced, remembering his previous visit to the residence of Dr. Arcane. "Only one?" Amazing-Man asked. "I think that depends on how much you care about my grandson." _______________ Act II: Nighthawk pulled up to the familiar brownstone house and rapped on the door. Mr. Fong answered once again, wearing his fine embroidered silk robes. Nighthawk pondered briefly whether there were actually feet touching the ground under those robes, but quickly turned to the business at hand. "I am sorry.. but.. Dr. Arcane.. is not here." Mr. Fong answered Nighthawk's question before the Dark Defender had even asked it. "Would you like to come in? Have some tea?" Nighthawk grimaced inwardly. "No. Thanks." He turned and strode back to his car as Mr. Fong closed the door to... wherever he was. Nighthawk knew what Amazing-Man was getting at when he said that who he could find to help Fantastic-Man depended on how much Nighthawk cared. He also knew what the consequences would be. Sometime later, Nighthawk's car passed the final security checkpoint on the approach to Stronghold. He walked through the enormous 8-feet thick Questionite gates and into the main structure. Security guards gave him a wide berth as he walked purposefully through the halls toward his target... ...the room where Mac Bashtee was being held. Three armed PRIMUS guards stood outside the room. After a little persuasion Nighthawk convinced the only guard who didn't run away to let him into the room despite Cromwell's orders that no one but Cromwell or Fantastic-Man be allowed in to see the prisoner. The guard, Joseph Evans, paced nervously outside the room that he was supposed to have been guarding. Cromwell would have his hide for this. It was supposed to have been his night off.. but he traded with Jonesy just to be a good guy. "Hmph.." he thought. "That's karma for you." The door creaked open as Nighthawk's black-gloved hand emerged, motioning Evans to enter the room. "Now..." Something about Nighthawk's tone made Evans not want to question him. He entered the room to see Nighthawk standing next to one of the Stronghold Medical Physicians. The doctor looked at Evans for a moment and then began to transform into a duplicate of the guard. "Have a seat." Nighthawk commanded the guard, motioning to the spot where The Mac Bashtee had been previously sitting. The guard complied with a heavy sigh. "I'll make sure Cromwell goes easy on you." Nighthawk assured the guard. "Yeah... you don't know Cromwell, then," Evans replied as the door closed shut behind the two Defenders. _______________ Act III: Nighthawk and Mac Bashtee (disguised as a scientist in order to not arouse any suspicions or upset anyone that he had been broken out of imprisonment) went to the medical bay of the Headless Cross upon their arrival there. He was able to immediately confirm that whatever was happening to Fantastic-Man and Amazing-Man was not of a mystical nature, but Whisper was another matter altogether. La Espijisma had determined that the ninja's wounds had been caused by some sort of blunt instrument with a lot of force behind it. "Black Paladin?" Nighthawk surmised, remembering that the supervillain had been spotted near Tokyo.. not far from the Night Dragon Ninja Clan headquarters. But why would Paladin attack the clan? Mac Bashtee tried to use his mind-probing spells to make contact with Whisper, but some powerful magical presence was blocking him out. He could not reach her here. "We need to get her to my grove," he whispered to Nighthawk after Fantastic-Man had left the room. "Whatever is doing this to her here won't be able to touch her there." "Uh.. guys?" Tomorrow-Boy's voice crackled over the comm as The Tornado! and Warforge ran toward the main entrance. "Did anyone order some police?" "How Many?" Nighthawk barked worriedly. "Umm... Not sure. All of them, I think." Tomorrow Boy replied as a squadron of Paragon City Police Officers marched in to the Headless Cross, led by the team's long-time police contact, Lt. Seamus, who immediately approached Fantastic-Man, who had come back to the room, and Nighthawk. "Fantastic-Man..." the senior officer addressed the Defenders' leader, "We've got a problem.. and we have some questions we need to ask him," he motioned toward Nighthawk. Fantastic-Man, who knew Nighthawk had been gone for a while and mysteriously returned with this stranger who seemed to know an awful lot about his situation replied, "...Go on." "I have here... a warrant... for Nighthawk's arrest." The Lt. replied. "On what charge?" Fantastic-Man asked as innumerable options based on his companion's often all-too-under-the-table methods came to mind... Breaking and Entering... Illegally accessing computer records... getting a little too rough with some punk who... "Murder one." Seamus replied grimly. "What? No. That's not possible. Who's the victim?" Fantastic-Man was dumbfounded. "A man named Park. Sun Park." "Park's DEAD?!" Asked Fantastic-Man, shocked. "How? Where? When?!" (Park was a friend-turned-enemy-turned-friend of Nighthawk's from his Night Dragon Ninja Clan days. The Defenders first met him when he was imbued with the darkness powers of the Night Dragon and allied with the group "Tiger Squad." After he was permanently blinded by a burst of pure sunlight courtesy of The Mac Bashtee, Shadow Dragon (as he was then called) gave up crime and sought to remove the dragon's powers from his body. He had succeeded somewhere in Tibet and had returned to Paragon City to live a peaceful life - see The Defenders seas. 1 & 3.) "We found him in an alley in the East Bottoms... with this in his back." Seamus replied as he held up a marked evidence bag, containing one of Nighthawk's Hawkblades, covered in blood. Nighthawk confirmed that it was the one he had noticed was missing when he reached for his throwing blades while fighting Zorran the Artificer. "You know this is bogus.." Fantastic-Man began to get angry. Sure, Nighthawk bent...well.. alright... broke the law when it was necessary to do so, but no way was he a murderer. "I'm inclined to agree.." Seamus replied. "But... I have my orders. I need to take him in for questioning." "What if he's remanded into my custody?" Fantastic-Man asked... thinking as quickly as he could. Seamus pondered it for a moment before answering. "Might be possible... probably a lot of red tape.. bureaucratic nonesense.. I'll get back and get started on that right away. You'd better keep an eye on him for now." He gave a knowing nod to Fantastic-Man. "I'll do that.." the superhero replied thankfully. As the police left, Fantastic-Man went to inform Cromwell what had happened. "Now's our chance..." The Mac Bashtee advised Nighthawk. "We can get to my grove, and then we can get some answers from her." The two carefully removed Whisper from the tank and Nighthawk held her as The Mac Bashtee cast the spell opening the portal to his Extra-dimensional Grove... and then they were gone. _______________ Act IV: Warforge spent the night in the monitor room as usual. It was a surprisingly quiet night after everything settled down. Not even so much as a speed limit violation on the police frequencies, and no breaking global news for once either. The storms ravaging Japan had lessened substantially in the last several hours, and the world seemed eerily peaceful. The Tornado! was the first out of bed that morning. He ran downstairs, blowing past the monitor room with a, "Hey... I'll run out and get the mail," to Warforge. "Uhh... Mail doesn't usually come this early," the metal man replied. "I don't think anyone grabbed it yesterday," the super speedy hero said as he zipped out the front door of the Headless Cross and out to the mailbox. Seconds later he was back inside. After spending a brief amount of time divvying up Tomorrow Boy's magazine subscriptions between themselves, Tornado! sped off to the kitchen to make his usual 24 egg omelet. The smell of eggs and bacon wafted through the vents into Fantastic-Man's new bedroom in Sub Basement 3. He had decided to stay down there as he couldn't fall through the Questionite floor there. He dragged himself upstairs, talked briefly with Warforge, and headed into the kitchen to try to strongarm Tornado! into making some breakfast for him, too. The kitchen was empty. Eggs were frying on the stove. The bacon was quickly blackening. Tornado! was nowhere to be seen. Scanning the room, Fantastic-Man discovered the mail that Tornado! had left sitting on the kitchen table, and an open box, some spilled packing peanuts, and a small, black spherical object. He examined the box first. It was addressed to The Defenders, but no address or postmark appeared on the box. He picked up the sphere, and as he gazed into it, a holographic image appeared inside. Black Paladin. "Hail and Well Met, Fantastic-Man," the holographic message began in Black Paladin's usual imperious tone. "Thou hast no doubt noticed that thy previous attempts to defeat me and my fair Talisman have been met with naught but failure! Through much toil and perseverance we have returned to this world... and we now hold something that is of great value to you!" The holographic image seemed to step to the side as the image of another appeared behind him. It was Noelle Peterson, the Defender's receptionist and girlfriend of The Tornado!. "If thou wishest to ever lay eyes upon this beautiful vixen while she doth yet draw breath, Fantastic-Man, then thou shalt cometh to the Paragon Nuclear Power Facility. Thou shalt cometh alone... or verily, yon innocent damsel wilt perish!" The hologram faded to black. Fantastic-Man realized that Tornado! had opened this himself, and had most certainly run off to the power plant to rescue his girlfriend. Alone. Unwilling to jeopardize the lives of Tornado! and Noelle by bringing the rest of the team, Fantastic-Man complied with Black Paladin's demands and set out for the Paragon Nuclear Power Plant by himself. Meanwhile, in the extra-dimensional grove of The Mac Bashtee, Whisper had regained conciousness and explained to Nighthawk and The Mac Bashtee that it was infact the malevolent entity known as The Dragon that had attacked the clan's base, had killed Master Shinjin along with most of the clan, and nearly Whisper too. The Dragon was probably also responsible for the death of Park, as well. All she remembered was a darkness that surrounded them faster than anything she had ever seen, and then the blinding pain, and then barely limping her way to one of the clan's stealth recon jets, and setting the autopilot. "We must fight it." The Mac Bashtee spoke when Whisper had finished. "I was sent back from Avalon for this very purpose." "Alright... so how do we fight something that wiped out a very powerful clan of ninjas all by itself?" Nighthawk asked. "I'm not sure..." The Mac Bashtee replied grimly, "but we can't do it from here." He cast the spell to reopen the portal that would lead the three back to Earth, only to find that it had been blocked by a dark and powerful presence - A presence Mac Bashtee immediately recognized as the darkness that had tried to attack him in his grove several months ago (see Mac Bashtee's In-between solo PBEM adventures.) They were trapped. Back on Earth, Fantastic-Man had arrived at the Nuclear plant. The front door was wide open and the security checkpoint at the entrance was vacant. He entered through the ajar door that led into the plant itself. Ahead, he saw another open door with the Radioactive Hazard symbol painted on it, and inside, at the far end of the room next to a large cooling rod tank, lay Tornado!. With no regard for his own safety, Fantastic-Man rushed into the room. He felt the change in his body as his weakness to radiation overtook him, stripping him of all his powers, unreliable as they might have become, and leaving him no stronger than a normal man. He dashed up next to the body of his friend and reached out to shake him... ...only to watch his hand pass through the illusionary image of the fallen speedster. The heavy door slammed shut behind him, and he heard the spinning of the large, vault-style lock... and then all became darkness. "All too easy..." a familar voice taunted the Earth's Greatest Hero as he grew weaker and weaker. "You were a powerful threat..." the voice hissed. "But with you out of the way... I should have no trouble doing away with the rest of your... Defenders." The Tornado! burst into the monitor room at Headless Cross, badly injured. "Warforge! Where are the others! We've got to rescue Fantastic-Man! It's the Dragon.. and Black Paladin.. and Talisman! They've got him trapped!" The Titanium Titan hit the alarm as The Tornado! sprinted off for the D-Jet. Shortly thereafter, The Tornado!, Warforge, Tomorrow-Boy and La Espijisma were in the air, rocketing toward the Paragon Nuclear Facility. The warning alarm indicated that one of the engines was malfunctioning. "T!, the number three engine is stalling, see what you can do." Tomorrow Boy said. "On it," The super speedy T! replied as he dashed back to the engine room. Suddenly, the cabin became pitch black, and deathly cold. Warforge's magically augmented sight penetrated the darkness, scanning for signs of trouble, when suddenly he felt a piercing pain in the back of his head, rendering him unable to see anything. As he thrashed about blindly, he heard the pained grunts and cries of his companions as something assaulted them in the darkness. Without warning, he felt himself floating up off the ground and up toward the ceiling. Seconds later, the darkness subsided. Warforge felt around his head and discovered that someone.. or something.. had jammed a large wrench through his head, knocking out his visual perceptors. Once the wrench was removed, it only took a few seconds for his visual abilties to come back online. Tomorrow Boy lay unconcious at the D-Jet control panel, La Espijisma was picking herself up off the ground, and outside, the Earth grew smaller and smaller as the D-Jet soared further and further out into the cold dark blackness of space. The smell of smoke caught La Espijisma's attention and she looked at the control panel... ..it was completely disassembled. Finally Tomorrow Boy regained conciousness. Unable to use the ship's onboard instruments, he pulled his own navigation device out and determined the D-Jet's heading. Straight toward the sun. After struggling against the darkness for hours, Mac Bashtee, Nighthawk and Whisper finally broke through to the portal leading them back to Earth. They arrived at the small garden behind the Headless Cross. "We'd better rally your friends," Whisper advised, looking around nervously. "Right..." Nighthawk replied as he tapped his earpiece. No response from Fantastic-Man... something was interfering with the signal. The sudden grunt of the Mac Bashtee was the only warning Nighthawk and Whisper ever received. They spun around to see the Mystic Defender slumped over on the ground. Nighthawk sprung back to his feet in a defensive stance and wheeled around to back up against Whisper, only to discover that she was gone. "Don't worry, Nights..." the familiar voice hissed. "I'll be sure to save some for your little girlfriend." The darkness began to gather and coalesce infront of the Dark Defender, taking the shape of a young man wearing an all-black costume, with a face Nighthawk never thought he'd see like this. "Surprise..." The Tornado! said with an evil grin. "How? Why?!" Nighthawk demanded as the events of the past few years passed through his mind.... and the visions that he had seen after drinking the tea from Dr. Arcane's became clearer... Tornado! had taken the egg containing the Dragon's essence away from Whisper when The Defenders first fought the Night Dragon Clan two years ago... Tornado! was the only person who had been in Nighthawk's Lab.. the night he came to ask the Dark Defender to train him.. he's the only one who could've stolen the Hawkblade that was used to kill Park... Tornado! had been the one who took the Dagger away from Noelle and then disappeared inside the cloud of Darkness along with Black Paladin when the Defenders had last fought them... The same cloud of darkness that set Talisman free when she was being transported by the police... A wicked sneer crossed The Tornado!'s face. "I always knew you'd figure it out... sooner or later. Thankfully you tought me how to take out each and every one of The Defenders first." Nighthawk grimaced as he recalled the training sessions the two had run together in the Danger Room... and the questions Tornado! had asked in the D-Jet on the way to Algeria about how Nighthawk would go about defeating someone like Fantastic-Man, or the Mac Bashtee if he had to. "That's right..." The Tornado! said as he assumed a martial stance... one that Nighthawk had taught him. "You made me into the perfect weapon to put an end to The Defenders... and that pathetic Ninja clan of yours.. worthless followers they were. And now you're the only one in my way.. and I know everything you're going to do. You can't imagine the power of this body.. the speed.. it's truly magnificent. But soon, I will no longer need it. My faithful sorcerer Ichiban and my other chosen minions will complete the spell that will allow me to break once and for all the bonds that Shugoshin placed upon me centuries ago.. I will walk the earth freely once more.. in all my horrible glory..." He raised his hands to attack. "But first... I have to make sure that YOU are no longer a problem.. Good bye, Jack Kirby!" The Tornado! hadn't even lunged forward yet when the shimmering blade of the katana slipped through his back and out the front of his chest. He looked down and stared at the blade, stunned. The blackness that covered his costume seemed to crawl into the wound and disappear, leaving the familiar green of The Tornado!'s costume. The young superhero stared at the blade more as he slumped to his knees, revealing Whisper standing behind him, poised to strike again. "...Nights?" The Tornado! said as his voice began to quiver and his body began to shake as his life left him. "Nights?..." he repeated. With a sudden urgency and a strength that most dying men could never summon up, the speedster grabbed Nighthawk's shoulders, stared directly into his eyes and said, "Noelle!" Suddenly... the darkness erupted back out of the wound, covering The Tornado!'s body in the black costume once again, and firing the katana back out from his body like a bullet from a gun. The hilt struck Whisper square in the chin, knocking her out cold. "This isn't over!" The Tornado! spat at Nighthawk, as in a burst of darkness, he was gone. Nighthawk revived Mac Bashtee and Whisper and the three rushed inside the Headless Cross. The alarm was blaring as Nighthawk rushed to the command console in the monitor room. Tornado! had apparently been keeping an eye on everything from here. Fantastic-Man lay dying in the reactor coolant chamber at Paragon Nuclear, and Warforge, Tomorrow-Boy and La Espijisma were rocketing toward the sun in the D-Jet. "I'll get Fantastic-Man," said the Mac Bashtee as he soared out of the Headless Cross to save The Defenders' leader. Nighthawk contacted the Defenders on board the D-Jet and confirmed they were unable to control the aircraft. "There's a remote access control there in the monitor room," Tomorrow-Boy said. "What is all the commotion?" said Frank Sr., as he rushed into the room. "Trouble Alert.. base threat indicated.." Nighthawk replied as he scanned all the monitors. The danger to Fantastic-Man and the others would not set off this alarm.. something had to be... "Oh my God.." The Dark Defender whispered as he saw it. The shell fragment that had been fired by VIPER's Jormungandr cannon months ago... and the blinking of the countdown on it's control panel. 15 seconds. "Whisper! Get him out of here!" Nighthawk barked. "What's going ON?!" Frank Sr. repeated "This whole place is going to blow!" Nighthawk replied as he pulled up the automatic controls for the D-Jet, hoping to change its course remotely... only to discover that his password wasn't working. "What?! No! WAIT!" Shouted Frank Sr. "In my room.. there's a ...a stone. A blue and black stone. We have to get it or else Frank will die!" Nighthawk didn't have time to congratulate himself for suspecting that Frank Sr. had something to do with Fantastic-Man's irregular powers or to kick himself for not checking the old man's room sooner. "I'll get it.. " said Whisper as she bolted up the stairs, Frank Sr. shouting his room number behind her. "Wait a minute..." thought Nighthawk as the countdown reached 10 seconds. Pulling up the keyboard, he typed in... N-O-E-L-L-E Password accepted. He altered the course of the D-Jet and with 5 seconds left, grabbed Frank Sr. and dashed out the front door of the Headless Cross. The explosion was visible from miles away as the Defender's headquarters erupted in a fiery ball of energy. TO BE CONTINUED..... _______________ GM Notes: I love it when a plan comes together. This wasn't actually where we ended the session... I think the players would've lynched me if I had stopped there. We actually went a bit further than this.. but because I think it makes a wonderfully dramatic stopping point, and because I have some more prep work to do before tonight's session and the conclusion of Season IV, I'm stopping here for now.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Next Issue... the Defenders Congregate Seas. IV Finale Begins! Night of the Dragon, Pt.1

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Smash and GRAB The Defenders Season IV, Issue 13 Cast Fantastic-Man: Team leader/ Flight Brick w/ Density Alteration powers (in absentia) Nighthawk: Martial Artists/ Gadgeteer/ Detective/ Mega-Bajillionaire Tomorrow Boy: Teenage Gadgeteer/ Telekenetic from the future La Espijisma: Metamorph with Power Mimicry abilities Warforge: Big mystic-style construct brick. "He's just a metal man." The Tornado!: Fastest Man On Earth Frank Miller, Sr. (Amazing Man): WWII era superhero, grandfather of Fantastic-Man Cromwell: The Defenders' PRIMUS liaison _______________ Act I: The D-Jet crawled through American airspace on final approach to Paragon City and the Defender's base, The Headless Cross. Due to the extensive damage the team's jet had suffered when Tomorrow Boy created a miniature quantum tunnel to get them to Eurostar's secret Alpine base the day before, the D-Jet would need extensive repairs before being back to 100%, and even then it was doubtful that the jump drive would be functional again. Given the D-Jet's current state, the team decided that it would be best to bring Cromwell back to Paragon City with them, rather than attempt to land and take off again in DC. The take off from the UNTIL base where the initial repairs had been completed was rocky enough. Once back safely home, around 3:00 AM on a Monday, the team parted ways. The long weekend and lack of sleep had taken its toll on them all except Warforge. Nighthawk left to return to his palatial estate, Kirby Manor, on the Northern outskirts of Paragon City. La Espijisma elected to stay at the base and crash in her personal quarters there. Tornado!, still pretty banged up after Ultrasonique's sonic concussion bomb in the elevator at the abandoned COIL base decided to head down to the medical facility and take a nap in the regenerative chemical tank while his body healed. Tomorrow Boy, apparently still riding a Mountain Dew high from the flight home, decided he'd function better the next day if he just stayed up through the night than if he tried to sleep for 3 hours before going to school, so he resigned himself to the garage with the D-Jet and set about repairing the hobbled aircraft. Cromwell and Frank, Sr., both also exhausted from the long flight home, also retired to their respective guest rooms at the base for sleep. Fantastic-Man and Warforge, meanwhile, headed for the comm room. While Fantastic-Man checked in with Stronghold to get a status update on the Mac Bashtee situation, who was still being held in the facility waiting for The Defenders to come deal with the situation, Warforge began monitoring local police channels and pulled up the digitally recorded broadcast of the previous evening's local news. Predictably, the big story was about the team's actions in Europe, saving London and the entire continent of Europe from Fiacho's latest bid for power. The next story, however, proved far more interesting. A freak electrical storm had hit Tokyo, Japan, oddly producing magnetic fields so powerful, that it played havoc with electronic devices for miles around. But when the video of the storm was played, Warforge discovered that the storm was just a side effect of the real problem. He paused the video in just the right spot to reveal a small inter-dimensional portal opening in the low clouds above the city as two figures - a heavily armored man wielding a wicked-looking mace and a short-haired woman, glowing with magical energy - dropped through the portal to the Earth below. Without bothering to explain to Warforge who these two were, Fantastic-Man rushed off to get Cromwell. Fortunately, as Warforge had been reviewing the Defenders case files, no explaination was necessary. He knew it was Black Paladin and Talisman The two had not been seen since they vanished through a similar inter-dimensional portal months ago, after The Defenders narrowly averted the revival of Black Paladin's lover, Chantal (See The Defenders, Season III, "Shades of Black.") Once Cromwell, who was less than pleased at being pulled out of his bed so soon after getting in it, had viewed the video, he immediately contacted his agents and other allies in Japan, warning them of this new threat. The news broadcast continued with the sports update. The local NFL franchise, the Paragon City Paladins had fallen to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-0. Also, a football-sized diamond called "The Eye of Isis" was going to be on display at the Paragon Museum of Natural History for the next week. Once the news had ended, Fantastic-Man turned to leave, as a drop of sweat fell from his brow. "You alright?" Warforge asked. "Yeah... fine.... does it feel hot in here to you?" Fantastic-Man asked. "Oh.. Right. Metal man. Neverm..." The Defender's indestructible leader collapsed to the floor in a heap. Warforge slammed the alarm button. La Espijisma and Tomorrow Boy came running into the comm room. Warforge scooped up the fallen Fantastic-Man and carried him to the elevator with La Espijisma, to the medical bay in sub-basement 1. Once there, she managed to stabilize the Earth's Greatest Hero's vital signs, but could not revive him. Nighthawk, who had just reached the driveway of Kirby Manor when he receive the alarm notification, performed a quick u-turn and squealed his tires as he sped back toward Headless Cross. "Check his Micelium count.." The Dark Defender's gravel-toned voice barked over the comm. "He's down from the last time you checked," replied La Espijisma. Tomorrow Boy returned with Frank Sr. and La Espijisma set up a blood transfusion to attempt to pump some of Frank Sr's michellium rich blood into Fantastic-Man's body, but the transfusion wasn't successful. Tomorrow Boy immediately went to work on synthesizing Michellium in a desperate attempt to save Fantastic-Man. "First Black Paladin and Talisman... now Fantastic-Man.." cursed Cromwell. "I just don't see how this could get any worse..." As if in response, the Trouble Alert erupted in flashing lights and blaring sirens. "What's WRONG with you?" Warforge asked the Defender's former groundskeeper as he rushed off to respond to the alert. "What's going on over there?!" barked Nighthawk over the comm as he flew through the deserted streets of Paragon City. "Prison break," replied Warforge. "Paragon State Women's Penetentiary? No metas there. Just normals. Finally some good luck." "Who's the escapee?" Nighthawk demanded, unconvinced of the reversal in fortune. "Lisa.. Anderson." The Titanium Titan replied. "Who's Lisa Anderson?" Nighthawk pressed harder on the accelerator, causing his engine to roar as his car soared to speed in excess of 140 mph. "Bluejay." Meanwhile, back at Headless Cross, the synthetic Michellium that Tomorrow Boy had created was being attacked inside Fantastic-Man's body by his remaining Michellium particles. Seeing that the Michellium was acting like white blood cells attacking a disease, La Espijisma adminstered powerful immuno-suppressants, which did slow down the Michellium in Fantastic-Man's body, preventing it from attacking Tomorrow Boys synthetic supplement, but also crippling the team leader's immune system. She then ordered the med bay cleared, including Tornado!, who had to be pulled from his chemical bath (though fortunately was more or less healed by that time.) "You know..." said The Tornado! "I don't remember seeing Fantastic-Man use his powers to their fullest extent ever since we fought that giant demon back at the Pit. Maybe something mystical caused this." "Pfft.." replied the skeptical teenage supergenius, Tomorrow Boy, "A FAR more likely explanation is that somehow the trans-dimensional energies erupting from the portal had a volatile reaction with Fantastic-Man's biochemistry." The group stared blankly at Tomorrow Boy for a few moments. "If it IS mystical..." Warforge continued, "We should consult an expert." "Dr. Arcane wasn't available last time Fantastic-Man tried to contact him," replied The Tornado! "What about Mac Bashtee?" asked La Espijisma. "....Dr. Arcane wasn't available last time Fantastic-Man tried to contact him," The Tornado! repeated, hoping to steer the conversation away from their incarcerated colleague. "I'm not far from his place now," interjected Nighthawk, startling the others who had forgotten that the Dark Defender was also listening in on their conversation via comms. "I'll see what I can get out of him." _______________ Act II: Nighthawk arrived shortly thereafter at 1313 Moonlight Drive, a modest, non-descript, two-story brownstone, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. As the last time Nighthawk came here, no light shone from within the house. He approached the rich-colored oak door, and rapped three times using the ornate brass door knocker. The door creaked open slowly, revealing the withered face of Dr. Arcane's short, elderly Chinese butler, Mr. Fong. "Ah... Welcome." Mr. Fong greeted the Dark Defender. "Please.. come inside." Nighthawk stepped inside the spatious entryway which opened into an enormous, lavishly appointed living room - much larger than the exterior of the house would indicate to be possible. Then again, since when had Dr. Arcane ever been bound by the rules of possibility? Nighthawk suspected that even at this moment, he was no longer standing anywhere near the planet Earth. "Have a seat," Mr. Fong beckoned as he motioned to a highback chair with large, intricately designed cushions. "Would you like some tea?" "I need to see Dr. Arcane," Nighthawk replied. "It's urgent." "I am sorry," Mr. Fong apologized, "but Dr. Arcane is.. unavailable. Can I get you some tea?" Nighthawk stood. "It's an emergency. Where is he?" Mr. Fong smiled politely and replied, "I am sorry, but if I knew that, then he wouldn't be unavailable. Tea?" Nighthawk eyed the strange little man curiously as the butler turned toward the mantle and began to pour some steaming hot tea into a silver tea service cup. "No..thanks. If Dr. Arcane isn't here, I need to get moving." Mr. Fong turned around and held a steaming styrofoam cup full of tea out toward the Dark Defender. "To go?" Puzzled, Nighthawk looked over the shorter man's shoulder, confirming that there were now only 3 silver cups on the tea service tray where before there had been 4. Cautiously, he reached forward and took the cup away from Mr. Fong. "Thanks... I think." Nighthawk was back in the driver's seat of his car before he finally lifted the lid on his cup of tea to take a sip. He instantly felt more refreshed and well-rested than he had in days. "Good tea..." "Did you find anything out?" asked Warforge. "Not... exactly." The Dark Defender replied, still marveling over the envigorating properties of the hot herbal tea. "Wow...you mean somebody out-crypticed Nights?" taunted Tomorrow-Boy. "Warforge... you said something about a diamond on the news?" Nighthawk asked. "Right." The Titanium Titan replied. "The Eye of Isis at the Natural History Museum." "I'm heading there," Nighthawk continued. "With Bluejay out, that means all of GRAB is free. No way they could resist a target like that." "Yeah... it's pretty much a criminal bug zapper, " agreed The Tornado!. The museum parking lot was empty when Nighthawk arrived. After letting himself in, Nighthawk made his way to the main exhibit hall, where the enormous diamond was on display. He found a good, shadowed perch up in the rafters and waited. As he waited, he tried to focus his mind on what could be wrong with Fantastic-Man, and how he could help him. As his mind began to wander on Fantastic-Man, he remembered the first time he fought with The Defenders, when VIPER had attacked the Paragon City Police Station, he remembered when Fantastic-Man helped him apprehend a band of supercriminals calling themselves "The Nighthawk Kill Crew." He remembered when he, Fantastic-Man and The Tornado! held off an entire squadron of VIPER superhuman combat specialists. His thoughts then turned to the Tornado!, as more visions of the past rolled out before him. The night the young superhero came to Nighthawk's lab, frustrated at his inability to protect his girlfriend, and pounding his fist into the wall in anger and begging Nighthawk to train him. All the training simulations they had run together in the Danger Room, including the Nighthawk Protocols - his private simulation programs that Nighthawk would often run, pitting himself against the other Defenders. Teaching Tornado! how to diffuse explosives, investigate a crime scene, and even some martial arts. The air conditioner in the museum kicked on, snapping Nighthawk out of his trance. He was sure he had actually been seeing this images from the past. "That's the tea, no doubt..." he wondered. He tried focusing his thoughts on Dr. Arcane, in an attempt to psychically contact the supermage. He remembered when The Defenders first met Dr. Arcane, while fighting a mysterious tribe of supernatural beasts called The Nocturnals. He thought for sure they would lose The Tornado!'s girlfriend, Noelle, in that one. And the time she was taken by Black Paladin and Talisman to become the vessel for Chantal. Luckily that had been averted. Talisman had been captured before that... held prisoner at Headless Cross, and then freed while the police were transporting her to a more appropriate holding facility. A cloud of darkness came out of nowhere, enveloping Talisman and the police. When the cloud went away as swiftly and suddenly as it came, Talisman was gone, and the police were dead. It was after that that she joined up with Black Paladin. Fantastic-Man had been amazing in his fight against Black Paladin. That's right... Nighthawk was trying to focus on Fantastic-Man... and how to cure him. This was so much like the time that Fantastic-Man had been infected with COIL's Ophidian Plague. He started turning into a snake-man right before their eyes. Nighthawk had barely concocted an antigen in time to save him then. But how could this have happened? If it wasn't the fight against the demon from The Pit, then before that The Defenders had battled Terra King in Algeria... fighting over the Headdress of an ancient giant python named Xoruba. Before that, they had battled the supersorceress Carmen when she had tried to turn Warforge to her side after he appeared from The Pit, just a few days after Fantastic-Man's grandfather showed up. Before that, they had a harrowing battle with one of their greatest enemies to date, M'Bomba, who was now imprisoned inside a pocket dimension with the traitorous Crucible. If Tornado! hadn't been there to catch Nighthawk's thrown Hawkblade before it hit the dimensional cortex cube... It always seemed like Tornado! was there in just the nick of time to avert disaster.. like when he managed to snatch the dagger away from Noelle right before she unknowingly sacrificed herself to become the new body of the evil Chantal... or when he removed all the lug nuts from one of VIPER's getaway vehicles, preventing their escape... or when he prevented Whisper from releasing the Night Dragon by grabbing the crystal egg away from her... even when he caught a sniper bullet meant for La Espijisma in mid-air as they trecked through the indoor jungle of COIL's underground lair in Paragon City. Wait... Why couldn't Nighthawk focus his mind on Fantastic-Man? The click of a door opening beneath him brought Nighthawk's senses fully back to the large exhibit hall around him. He crouched low in the shadows above the hall, and tapped his Defenders alert signal as Black Diamond and Bluejay entered the museum. _______________ Act III: Bluejay adjusted one of the controls on her helmet and motioned for Black Diamond to stop. "Cat..." the supervillainess called out. In a puff of bluish-black smoke, the ever-smiling martial master of teleportation, Cheshire Cat, appeared next to Bluejay. "You rang?" "The target's right up there...mind the infrared tripwire beams." Cheshire Cat bowed grandeously, and then disappeared only to reappear next to the diamond. "Hello, pretty..." he cooed, his eyes widening as his hands got closer and closer to the invaluable gemstone. Then all became darkness. Nighthawk's blackout bomb exploded at Cheshire Cat's feet, enveloping him, Bluejay and Black Diamond in total darkness. Bluejay was the first to respond, soaring upward toward the ceiling out of the darkness cloud, scanning the room, and freezing in terror when she spotted the Dark Defender. "He's HERE!" she yelled to her companions. "Who?" asked Black Diamond as she ran back out of the darkness cloud. "NIGHTHAWK!" Bluejay responded. The blue crackles of light in the center of the hall merged into a large vortex as Tomorrow-Boy, La Espijisma, and Warforge emerged, thanks to Tomorrow Boy's amazing teleporting Blitz Device. Not a second later, The Tornado burst in at tremendous velocity through the front door. "Oh no!" squeaked a miniscule voice, as the 2-inch tall Hummingbird flittered around the newly-arrived heroes. "It's the Defenders... and there's a WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM!" "Yeah... wish we had thought of that!" shouted Cheshire Cat as he teleported back out of the darkness. "Oh wait..." sneered Black Diamond. "We DID!" Three more costumed supervillains appeared from the various hallways connected to the main exhibit hall. One, Icicle, a young woman with the ability to create and control ice, had been with GRAB when the Defenders last encountered them. The other two, the metamorphic ZigZag and a hispanic-looking man with a fiery glow about him named Bengala, were unknown to the heroes. "Tornado! Get the diamond!" Nighthawk yelled down from the rafters... ...and it was on. Tornado dashed into the darkness, running as fast as he could to cover every inch before he found the diamond. He grabbed it and dashed back out, headed for the exit, hoping that by triggering the alarms, the police would arrive soon. "Not so fast, slick!" shouted ZigZag, as he stretched his arm out across the width of the museum hall, directly in the speedy superhero's path. Tornado! clotheslined himself on the stretchy supervillain's outstreched arm, and then flew backward across the hall as the recoil from ZigZag's arm snapping back into place launched Tornado! into the air. He lost his grip on the diamond, and it too flew end over end into the air... ..into the waiting arms of Bengala, who had soared up into the air and swooped over to catch the precious gemstone. Icicle fired an errant blast of ice at Tomorrow Boy, hoping to encase the teenage supergenius in a block of ice, but instead froze one of the many statues lining the main exit from the hall, leaving her open to an attack from above that she never saw coming as Nighthawk swooped down, knocking the young woman out COLD (sorry... won't happen again...) Cheshire Cat, having no desire to get in Nighthawk's way again, teleported away from the Dark Defender and tried to kick La Espijisma, who had transformed into a copy of Warforge. The REAL Warforge, meanwhile, found himself on the receiving end of a massive bear hug from the super-strong Black Diamond. As the Titanium Titan struggled to break free from Black Diamond's grasp, The Tornado! had regained his footing and generated a massive vertical updraft by running around in circles, pinning Bengala against the ceiling, the diamond still in his grasp. Tomorrow Boy would've no doubt been glad to try to help get the diamond away from the fiery flyer had he not had his hands full.. so to speak... with the miniscule Hummingbird, who was flittering around his head, alternating attempts to take control of the young superhero's mind with stinging blasts of psionic energy. ZigZag knocked Tornado! out from underneath Bengala with a powerful punch from his massive spiky fist, sending the superspeedy hero sprawling across the floor. Bengala handed the diamond off to Bluejay who soared toward the skylight as he fired blinding bursts of fire at La Espijisma, who was fending off attacks from Cheshire Cat. GRAB's apparent advantage would be short-lived however. Tomorrow-Boy warped in his Sensory Overload Cannon, and in one burst left Black Diamond blinded and deafened. ZigZag wrapped his elastic body around La Espijisma, entangling the superheroine, but was soon amazed to find himself staring at..himself.. as La Espijisma had turned herself into a copy of ZigZag and used his own elastic body powers to squeeze through his entangle, then laid the stretchy supervillain out with a powerful punch of her own. Black Diamond had no sooner regained control of her senses than she found herself lifted up in the air by the telekinetic powers of Tomorrow Boy. Before she could break free, Warforge landed a devastating blow with his Hammerhand, sending the super-strong supercriminal crashing right through the front wall of the museum, finally sliding to a halt in the paved courtyard out front. Nighthawk swung after Bluejay, driving his feet into the flying felon's back. She smashed into the wall, losing the diamond in the process, which was caught in midair by the Dark Defender, who landed safely on one of the rafters as Bluejay fell to the floor below. It wasn't until Nighthawk felt the slight tugging at the diamond that he looked down and saw Hummingbird trying to pull it away from him. A squeaky, "Uh oh..." was the last sound heard as Nighthawk's gigantic, dark-gloved hand came crashing down upon the miniature supervillainess. As he crouched upon the rafter, the diamond in one hand, Hummingbird in the other, Nighthawk looked down in time to see Bluejay getting back up to her feet. Knowing that the somewhat off-balance criminal had more than just a mild infatuation with him, Nighthawk turned to the captured Hummingbird and said, "For the last time, NO I WILL NOT MAKE OUT WITH YOU!" Hummingbird looked at him questioningly before looking down to see Bluejay's rage boiling over. "What?! NO!! Wait!" Hummingbird's squeaky voice pleaded in vain. "YOU.. DIRTY.. LITTLE.. WHORE!!!" screamed the enraged Bluejay as she fired a powerful burst of energy from her wrist gauntlets, blasting Hummingbird out of Nighthawk's grasp and sending her tiny form reeling through the air, flattening her hard against the far wall of the museum. Hummingbird slid to the floor unconcious, and shortly thereafter reverted to full size. Taking a quick survey of the situation, Bengala and Icicle, who had finally just regained conciousness realized they were hopelessly outnumbered. "My dear," said Bengala in a rich Spanish accent, "I believe that the likelihood of payment for this job has been.. diminished." The two supervillains turned and ran, escaping through the other halls of the museum. Cheshire Cat, too, looked around and realized that GRAB's dreams of a successful heist had gone up in smoke. In the blink of an eye, he teleported out to where Black Diamond lay outside. "It's been real, boss..." he said as he crouched down beside her as she struggled to regain conciousness. "But uh... I quit. Good luck with the whole prison thing." "I can arrange for you two to have adjoining cells if you like.... citizen!" Confused and bewildered, Cheshire Cat wheeled around, only to see a pair of star-spangled fists headed straight for him. "AAAAAAAAAAAMAZING!" The Defenders watched in awe as Cheshire Cat slid to a stop, back inside the museum, and then looked out through the opening left by Black Diamond to see none other than Frank Miller, Sr., Fantastic-Man's retired superhero grandfather.. Amazing-Man. With a supreme effort, Black Diamond struggled to her feet. Looking around, ZigZag, Hummingbird and Cheshire Cat were down, and Bluejay was cornered by Nighthawk. "Forget it..." she gasped. "We surrender." The police and PRIMUS units arrived and loaded up the five captured supervillains. "Join GRAB you said," ZigZag complained as he was loaded onto the transport behind Black Diamond. "We'll make lots of money you said... Have a few Laughs you said.." "SHUT UP, HARVEY!" Shouted the furious Black Diamond as the transport door closed behind them. "So.. Amazing-Man," Tornado! addressed the elder superhero, gesturing to his WWII era costume. "You uh... you just always carry that thing around with you?" Amazing-Man chuckled heartily in a manner very reminiscent of his grandson. "You never know, son. You never know. I couldn't just stay there while you were out here without Frank. He wouldn't have wanted that. I'm sure he'll want to hear all about it when he wakes up." Amazing-Man flashed the familiar family smile one last time and then soared up into the air, headed back toward Headless Cross... ....and the narrowed, suspicious eyes of Nighthawk followed him the whole way. _______________ Epilogue After sleeping most of the day following the thwarted GRAB heist, Jack Kirby sat in the main parlor of his beautiful mansion, watching the late evening news while updating his personal files on his laptop. Suddenly, his proximity alarm went off. He rushed outside to see a one or two-man fighter jet falling through the skies toward his estate. With less than half a mile of air between his manor and the crashing jet, the pilot ejected, and a white parachute opened up above him. Luckily, the jet's angle crashed it into the woods behind Kirby Manor, sparing the 200 year old mansion, one of the few original buildings that survived the 1985 White Event that destroyed almost all of what was then Wichita. The pilot fell limply to the ground, the parachute falling down all around him. Jack rushed out to where the pilot lay and pulled the parachute off of... ..her? Jack remembered where he had seen a jet like this before... they were used by the operatives of the Night Dragon Ninja Clan... of whom Jack was once a member. The pilot was Whisper.. the daughter of the Clan's powerful leader, Master Shinjin and Jack Kirby's one-time love turned enemy after his defection from the clan. She was badly bloodied and bruised. Her left eye was nearly completely swollen shut, and her right arm was clearly broken. He lifted her up off the ground in his arms and she began to stir. After several painful coughs wracked her well-toned body, she opened her good eye and looked up into Jack's face. "Jack... Jack," she wheezed... her voice barely a whisper. "Master Shinjin.... is... dead." With these last words, her body went limp in Nighthawk's arms. _______________ GM Notes: In case it wasn't blaringly obvious, I wanted to stick in one fun little one shot session between the high tension and drama of the Eurostar sessions and the much anticipated finale of The Defenders: Season IV. GRAB is perfect for this sort of session, as their motivations and MO's lend themselves to much more lighthearted scenarios. The fact that Fantastic-Man's player missed this session allowed me to incapacitate his character without having to force the player to sit through the whole session with nothing going on or to play a different NPC (like Mac Bashtee's player had to do w/ The Tornado! while Mac Bashtee is being held at Stronghold.) It gets pretty serious from here on in, as there are still several MAJOR story hooks that really should be resolved before the epic showdown with the malevolent entity known as The Dragon, which the heroes have been preparing for for most of this season.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Shhhhh.... Don't tell anyone.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! *groan* I had spent most of my downtime today at work composing the session summary log for last Saturday's session, but when I clicked "submit" I got an html error and lost the whole thing. So, assuming I can summon up the wherewithal and fortitude to rewrite the whole thing again tomorrow, I will take another stab at it (and highlight/copy the whole thing, just in case.)

Re: Anatomy of a diorama Diorama looked great, K_B.