RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Vanguard no. 18: "Sic transit gloria mundi"

Quantos nodded. "Right. Explanations are due... although you understand they will be sketchy for most. we can't let you return to your past with too much knowledge of your future."

The squirrel fled around Quantos head. "Affirmative. Knowledge of future times potentially lead to disaster!" Three scientists looked at each other, nodding in awe.

Quantos looked paternally at the squirrel, and then continued. As his tale began to unfold, the lights in the place dimmed, and three dimensional images appeared and began to unfold behind the doctor.

"Many generations ago, the planet Earth surface was destroyed during the so called Metahumans wars. It was when the fabled island of Man Adam sank in the Ocean, and the Rotten Man set the world surface ablaze with the Nook-liar Fire. Obviously they are all legends, and probably it is just how simpler minds explained the warming up of the atmosphere that lead to the total desertification of our mother planet."

Edulcore growled. The name Rotten Man was easy to decipher.

"Pardon me?" asked politely Quantos.

"Nothing. Please, continue..." hissed Euro.

"Well, the legend says it has been Vanguard to save the human kind, relocating here on the Moon their Kingdom. Please, follow me" said Quantos, leading the group toward a closed door.

"Our kingdom?" whispered, inquisitive, Brianna in the hear of Grissom. The British simply shrugged.

Quantos whistled, and the door opened like a iris shutter. For the umpteenth time since their departure with the boat earlier that morning, the jaws of the Vanguardian dropped at unison. On the other side of the shutter, there was a whole island, with a volcano, many towns, fields and orchards, surrounded by a narrow circle of water. Above, an enormous glass dome separated the island from the void of space.

"Lady and gentlemen, our community: The Lost" said Quantos, waving one arm in an ample gesture, like a magician on stage.

"The Lost. Meaning La Perdita" explained Grissom.

Brianna darted herself in air. From the backpack of Euro, two enormous mechanical wings sprouted out, and he, too, jumped from the small balcony overlooking the island, where the Vanguardians and Quantos were located.

"It's fantastic! I was dying of claustrophobia" said Brianna.

"Yeah, me too!" said Euro, smiling, hovering a few metres above the balcony.

Grissom turned to face Quantos. "And then?"

"Documentation is scarce. At some point, from here we started to colonise the Solar System. One of the first planet to be settled was Mars, and then the Asteroids Belt. But as the surface of the island was progressively occupied by the growing population, a legendary king of our past, Sean Montague of the Black Wing, decided to terraform Venus, and transfer there all the remnants of the wildlife of The Lost.
This, too, is probably a legend, as the luscious forests of Venus are too rich in biological diversity to believe it was terraformed just generations ago. But, whatever the origins of that planet are, Venus is today a sanctuary for wilderness in all the Solar System."

Ed and Brianna had returned to the balcony, and they were both perching on the parapet.

Quantos continued: "Well, to make it short, our Queen was leading an expedition on Venus to take provisions of the First Element, that is in supply shortage here, and is essential to our surviving. Once there, she has been captured by the Warlord of Mars, Hunter Kann. He never posed a threat for The Lost, as our Army of One has always been too powerful for him. But now, he is blocking our supply of First Element, and is keeping captive our Queen on the surface of the planet, forcing us to surrender."

Rama frowned. "To surrender? Why don't you attack them? If you were able to defend yourself here, why not bring the war on Venus?"

Quantos eyes opened wide. "What? Oh, no sir. We... we can't leave the safe artificial atmosphere of controlled environment. Going in the wild... I can't think of it, it's too... it give me chills. And to think our Queen has been taken from the ship and brought there... oh, it's too sad."

"So" began Grissom, "what do you want from us... is to defeat that tyrant and let the Queen free?"

Quantos nodded. "Yes. And let the Queen bringing life back to Moon!".

Grissom looked at Bree, then at Phil, at Rama, Bruteforce and Euro. "We are six, doctor. Six and a tin squirrel. I don't see how we could overthrow an interplanetary armada."

Quantos opened his arms. "But you... you once saved the whole Earth life. You started the colonisation of the stars. Yoou MUST save us."

"Do you think we should do it?" Brianna asked.

"To be honest with you... I don't know," Grissom answered, and extended a comforting hand to her shoulder.

Brianna smiled. "You very rarely don't know when it comes to these situations..."

"Wrong. I never bloody know what I'm doing. I just rarely admit it," Grissom answered, and Brianna laughed, the way that really only Grissom could make her.

The two were standing in the corner of the room in which the members of Vanguard now resided. Quantos had provided them with a lounge, of sorts, in which the team could talk over the mission they'd been presented with. And, hopefully, come to a decision as to whether they'd take it.

Brianna and Grissom were in the corner. Ed, Phil, Rama Avatar, and Bruteforce sat scattered across a long couch. And in the middle of the room, Robo Squirrel hovered at torso height. The four men behind him were discussing the mission in all its detail, but it was the two in the corner that held the squirrel's attention. One of his eyes was protruding from his head, and was bent at a ninety degree angle. Robo Squirrel was facing away from Brianna and Grissom, at a blank wall. But his eye was trained on them.

"Is this even our business? Should we be getting involved?" Brianna asked.

Grissom just shrugged.

"I thought there were very clear rules about time travel. Don't mess about with stuff that isn't your business. Nothing but trouble will come of it..." Brianna said, somewhat nervously.

"That may only count with messing about in the past, love," Grissom replied.

"Danny managed to do it," Brianna answered, and a mournful look suddenly crossed her face.

She looked down, and there was a moment of silence between the two. Grissom placed his hand in hers.

"We all miss him, Bree," Grissom said.

"I'll go if you go," Brianna suddenly said, looking back up into Grissom's eyes.

"I know you will."

A voice from behind Robo Squirrel suddenly grabbed the robot's attention.

"That's not very suttle, you know."

Robo Squirrel spun around seven times with a whirring noise, coming to a stop facing the source of the voice. Phil had appeared behind him.

"That eye thing. If you're going to eavesdrop on someone's conversation, do it discreetly," Phil said.

"Robo Squirrel was scanning the perimeter!" Robo Squirrel asserted, in his high pitched robo-voice. He slowly robo-retracted his robo-extended eye.

"We're in a lounge room! Scanning for what? Mice?"

"...space mice."

"Yeah, well, those two deserve some privacy."

"Robo Squirrel does not understand," He said, slowly rotating in the air to face back towards Grissom and Bree.

"Understand what?"

"What is this thing humans call... love?"

The main cloister door of the lounge began slowly sliding open, even as the quasi-metal suraface of the floor trembled slightly...

"LOve iS a MANy splENDored thing..."

Phil and RoboSquirrel whirled around at the sudden sound....a voice, like crackling static. Rolling with wide sweeps of timbre and bass, the words came uneven, proudly dominating with one syllable, falling quickly into a meek whisper the next....and back again. All the while, a wheeze of what sounded like millions of hydraulics pumped and hissed with every inflection of movement.

"...it KNoWS neither WASTE nOr liMITAtion..."

Everyone turned, their eyes widening with the sheer size of the creature entering the room. Wide, taloned claws, the size of a small car, met the floor with brief sparks on every step. Two hunched, hind legs held a body that rose thirty-seven-feet into the air. Arms, small in comparison, sat on each side the torso, hiding seventeen field-offensive weapons in the forearms. Smoke continuously drizzled lightly from its subdued snout, while balls of green holographic-micro-sensors rotated and orbited in occular cavities as eyes.

"EEP!" RoboSquirrel squeeked, hovering like a gnat in front of this massive dinosaur-like monstrosity.

"...IT is nevEr jealous, noR selFIsh..."

Doctor Quantos came walking around from the other side of the creature, flanked by a few fellow scientists.

"So sorry to interrupt your deliberation, but, he insisted on meeting his ancestor..." the scientist exlained with a small smile.

The creature stared down at the tiny RoboSquirrel. Armor-plates making up its face quickly repositioned to express a curious fondness for the small squirrel.

"HeLLo great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great- great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather..."

"EEP!" RoboSquirrel repeated.

"This.... is RoboSquirrel: Model XXV...." Quantos exclaimed proudly.

"You've gotta be kidding me. . ." Brute Force's eyes widened as the Vanguards took in the massive girth of the Robo Squirrel Model XXV.

"EEEEEPPPP!!!!" The diminutive robot squeaked as it flew behind Banshee and Grissom.

"Robo Squirrel does not understand the answer!" it exclaimed, peaking out from behind one of Bri's wings.

"Ach, get this bleedin' robot offa me!" She said, moving from in front of him to beside Grissom.

"Robo Squirrel wants to know what love is!" The tiny robot continued on, it's propeller tail keeping it aloft.

"I really don't think this is the time. . .Phil Smith answered as he examined the weapons systems of the enormous XXV model.

"Robo Squirrel wants you to show him!" It continued, attempting to alight on Rama Avatar's shoulder. The east indian stepped aside smoothly and effortlessly, as the Squirrel plopped down on the back of the couch in front of him.

BF rubbed his chin his fingers. "Hmm." He looked at Quantos and raised his right eyebrow. Quantos gulped expectantly. Here it comes. . . he thought to himself.

"You mean to tell me," BF began, walking over to the scientist, "that this goldurn flying metal rat has a legacy," he continued on, wrapping an arm around Quantos and pulling him aside, "and I . . .don't?" He looked directly in Quantos' face as the last word came out of his mouth, as the scientist attempted to move out of his grasp.

"Ah, well, you see, it's. . .perhaps it's better if I just show you. . ." Quantos turned a dial on the wall, as two section slid open and huge holo projector emerged, sending an image to the far wall as clear as day.

BF's jaw dropped as an image of himself in full costume appeared with a stylised logo followed by a deep, bass voice: "BRUTE FORCE IN. . .LAST BLOODSTAIN PART TWELVE!!!!! THIS TIME IT'S REALLY, REALLY, PERSONAL!!!! WE MEAN IT!!! HONEST!!!"

BF's jaw dropped as he became mesmerized by the images flashing in front of him. The doors opened again and he was mobbed by several female fans wearing BF shirts and waving around photos and clamoring for his attention.

Grissom Montag smiled and began to make a comment when he looked over and saw Bri's stern expression. ". . .buncha hooers. . ." she said under her breath.

"Wot, luv?" he asked, chuckling a bit. "Find it funny, do ye?" She looked at him, arms crossed.


"Please, we really don't have time for all of this. . .the mission. . ." Quantos pleaded with the group, attempting to get things back on track.

"Yes, the mission, but first it would be better to eat something, sir" said politely Rama Avatar. "Our time, it one P.M., and some of us had no breakfast this morning."

Quantos nodded. "Ah, yes, sure... I'll call a McDonald" he said, typing some numbers over a sort of communicator he had tied to his wrist.

Euro grunted. "I don't eat junk food" he spitted from behind his closed teeth.

"Call... a McDonald?"asked Phil Smith.

Quantos had not the time to explain, as a strange robot, running over three small wheels, entered the room. "McDonal to your services" said the parallelepiped shaped robot, from the happy face painted near the top. "What can I serve you?"

All the Vanguardians stared at the thing, silently. Just Grissom said: "A cheeseburger, please", leaning back over his armchair.

"Aren't you amazed, Griss?" asked Phil.

"Actually not. I have decided to be not amazed by anything that will happen today." he said, biting the sandwich.

One minute later, all the Vanguardians were eating. Brianna was looking with disgust at Euro eating a McChicken, while Rama after a long discussion with the robot had finally an all vegetarian meal.

At one point, Phil Smith exploded into an unrestrainable burst of laughter. "Look... look at this written notice" he said, pointing to a small line engraved at the bottom of one side of the robot.

BF kneeled down, and read: "McDonald robot trademark and property of Odoroso Cicciotto inc."

Phil Smith stopped finally to laugh. "Your descendant owns McDonald, Ed! How funny!"

Edulcore Cicciotto took the last bite of his sandwich furiously, and then shook his head. This brave new world was not really his kind of place.

Robo Squirrel Model XXV stood towering over its tiny ancestor, each studying the other in minute detail. Robo Squirrel model I downloaded and processed the huge advancements in technology; at least the ones that he could begin to comprehend. Robo Squirrel Model XXV looked down in awe. He knew all of Robo Squirrel Model I's technical specifications. He knew each previous model inside and out. But to actually see the technology, here, working... if robots could actually feel emotions, he would be feeling humbled. But they can't feel emotions. So everyone else was just left to wonder why the two robots were staring at each other instead of doing things that robots should do, like complex equations, or building cars, or cleaning the place like Rosie did on The Jetsons.

Quantos spoke up. "I don't mean to rush you, but I was wondering if you had come to a decision regarding whether you will accept the mission..."

"Yes. Of course we will," Phil Smith replied.

"...you don't wish to discuss it further among your colleagues...?"

Phil shot a glance around the room. "If anyone disagreed, I'd know."

Melbourne, Australia. The present day.

Danny Hearn was spending his afternoon clearing dishes from tables at a busy restaurant and then washing them as quickly as he could. It wasn't quite as exciting as the superhero lifestyle, but it made him just enough cash to cover his rent and bills.

He was hurrying past the stove when he caught his wrist on a boiling pot. He yelled out in pain, but nobody there seemed to notice.

Looking down, he noticed a rather nasty looking burn on the flesh of his wrist. He concentrated.

He wasn't sure he could do this after he lost contact with Hal. It definitely wasn't easy. But if he concentrated hard enough...

The flesh on his wrist began to heal over, using a lizard's regenerative properties. He flexed his wrist, and winced. The pain always took longer to go away than the visible wound.

He tried something else he'd been concentrating on. There was a chemical produced by a certain fish that was known to act as a painkiller. He introduced a little bit of it into his system, and it rapidly took care of the pain.

He sighed in relief, and continued with his tasks.

Euro gave a look to Phil, frowning deeply.

Phil replied: "I can tell you agree even if I can't read your mind, Ed. Or I am wrong?"

Ed relaxed, leaning back on his seat. "No, you are not wrong, Phil". And, to Quantos: "Where's the ship to Venus?"

Thunderbird. The Sandcrawler. Banshee. The Unidentified Man. Rama Avatar. Brute Force. RoboSquirrel.

The seven Vanguardians neared the soft-dock chamber of the awaiting interstellar ship. The stars covered their surroundings, as space grew into infinity on every side of the transluscent walls. They walked quietly, only their footsteps and various hissing noises from coolant pumps rising and falling within hearing. Much like the astronauts in the The Right Stuff, they marched forward, steady, and probably in slow motion for dramatic effect.

Even RoboSquirrel had that 'get tough' expression across his robotically-rodent features.

Grissom and Phil strode almost in-step, next to each other. The telepath had been quiet since arriving in this future. As if something was on his mind. As if something were.....

....wrong....

Grissom glanced at him sideways. He could tell something was on his mind. Something was eating at his concentration. Smith was usually spry and wide-eyed at first glance...as if he were always absorbing volumes of invisible information all at once. But, this time.....ever since they arrived here....ever since they found that bizarre hallway into space/time.....ever since they first entered the cave system under the new island....

He was quiet.

"You feel it to....don't you?" Grissom asked.

Phil jerked his eyes towards him, a look of utter guilt washing over him.

"What....what am I feeling, Griss?" he asked, his voice hushed. He paused, squinting his eyes, as if trying to focus. "What....why do I feel like this?"

"You tell me....what do you feel?"

Smith paused, glancing up at the dock-tube, as it seemed to continue to go on.....forever....

"...like I've done something....something bad.....something wrong...." he insisted. "....like my mind is trying.....trying to tell me something that I should be listening to...."

Montag stared at him, then looked back down the docking ramp.

"What is it I'm feeling?" Smith asked again.

"Maybe....confusion?" Montag replied with a sigh. "Maybe....disorientation?"

"What?" Phil asked, blinking a bit.

Why couldn't he focus?

Ed, who had been walking ahead of them, stopped in his tracks, turning to the two men.

"Confusion?" he asked, almost haunted by the word. "You feel it, too?"

"Yes..." Phil nodded, also stopping.

"As do I..." Rama spoke up.

In fact, everyone halted, turning to look at each other.

"...like we're not thinking straight?" Brianna asked.

"Hey, you're talking outside The Force's area of ex-treme-teeze!" Bruteforce said, cocking an eyebrow, and starting to flex his muscles.

"BF..." Montag shook his head. "....we're serious..."

"Oh...well..." BF replied, his expression growing solemn. "...I mean, I have a headache....does that count?"

Montag thought on this a moment, finally looking up at Bruteforce.

"Tell me....what do you remember before you hooked up with us here?"

BF frowned with a shrug.

"I don't know....I headed to the bar....see if I could pick up some bucks-for-hire..." he replied. "...then....here I am..."

"So....did you?" Montag asked.

"Did I what?" BF frowned again.

"Get hired." Grissom stated flatly.

Bruteforce began nodding, his eyes looking away.

"Oh, yeah...yeah...I....I..." he began, his words falling off, as confusion covered his face. ".....wait....did I?"

Everyone looked around at each other.

"RoboSquirrel does not comprehend line of questioning."

Grissom looked over at the floating robot.

"You...weird metal thing...." he pointed at the Squirrel. "...you have memory chips, don't you?"

"RoboSquirrel contains neuro-faults that collect records of seventeen-thousand sensory catalogs simultaneously for storage."

"Okay...." Grissom shrugged. "....and how many of these 'sensory catalogues' are recording right now?"

RoboSquirrel hummed and purred, as its brain worked out the answer.

"One."

Rama looked over at the creature, staring at it.

"Explain the fault in your sensors." he said.

RoboSquirrel whirled and purred a bit more.

"RoboSquirrel is uncertain." it responded. "Deviation of sensory norms begin at unknown chronological point."

"Last location before sensors fell out?"

"Location: island north of La Perdita."

"Something is....wrong..." Ed stated with a sigh.

"Yeah..." Montag nodded, looking down the hall again. "...maybe because we've been walking down this hallway for about an hour-and-a-half?"

Everyone went silent, as the realization dawned upon them. They looked back and forth, up and down the hallway. Able to see both ends. Why was it taking them so long to get down it?

Phil's head jerked, as reality seemed to flicker a bit. Everyone became pensive, headaches settling on them as well...

"...what's happening...?" Bri asked, fragments of light beginning to dance along the glass.

"You mean....what's not happening..." Montag replied. "As in......reality...."

Bri turned to answer, when Rama suddenly jerked his view straight up, pointing with an alarming manner....

"By the GODS!!" he exclaimed.

Everyone jerked their attention to the starfield outside the transluscent docking tube. There....rolling through space like a mammoth mountain range gone beserk....a giant meteor headed straight for the moon....

"Vanguardians!" the voice of Quantos yelled from down the hallway. "We are in danger! We need your help!"

Ed looked down the docking tube, but no one was there.

"No..." he said.

Everyone looked at him questioningly.

"....no....you do not need our help..." Ciccioto continued. "....why should you?"

He and Rama made eye contact. Then, a familiar understanding of two warriors gave birth to them unsheathing their weapons....

"..aaaigh..." Phil grunted, clutching his head.

The two warriors turned, and, with unified swings, tore through the transluscent metal-polyglass.

And that's when nothing really happened.

They were in space. Surrounded by stars. And, nothing was happening. Even as they continued to hack away the walls, there was no loss of pressure or atmosphere. No torrents of wind, or loss of oxygen.

Space simply spread out before them....

{{{{{{It's danger, you see}}}}}}

...the voice came from all over....

{{{{{{Danger that binds you}}}}}}

Bri's eyes widened, as an enormous rabbit bounded across the starry night before her.

"...my name is Dakota Nutmeg..." it's squeaky voice emanated. "...would you like some green tea, while I hump your leg?..."

{{{{{{Danger that gives you purpose}}}}}}}

"What's....going....on?!!" Rama yelled, clamping his ears, as a high-pitched squeel began to cut through the strange silence.

{{{{{{Without danger, you cannot be together}}}}}}}

"...reality...crumbling..." Grissom gasped, as the madness began to set in to everyone's senses.

Bruteforce clamped his ears like the rest, turning to see the meteor getting closer and closer....

it is made of cocaine a zombified husk of one of his female fans stated, floating before his eyes.

He wanted to scream in horror, but, couldn't get the sound to come.

Cum' ere' an' giv'us some Machiavellian Pimpluv deary an 18th century British prostitute exclaimed to Grissom, her face covered in the boils of the plague.

Montag winced at the sight, a small snake hissing as it curled her shoulders.

{{{{{And I was so hoping that this danger would be enough}}}}}}

The voice....the voice....Ed knew the voice. It finally dawned upon him. Finally settling into understanding.

He rared back his head...opened his mouth....

"Arrgh!!" Phil cried out in pain.

....and screamed one name....

"MMMMEEEERRRRLLLLIIIIIIINNNNN!!!!!"

Blood-thunder and weeping-light.

Tacks of scorn and slaps of humidity.

Bitter cold daggers of breathless abandon..

And, the Vanguardians.....................................

..........................................................woke up.

Grissom's eyes snapped open with a sudden gasp, the sting of damp grains of sand biting into his face.

He struggled with the wall he was against. It was a moment before he realized that the wall was, in fact, the ground.

Pushing himself up, he could hear the rest of the crew, grunting and straining next to him. A dim light held them all, surrounded by metallic walls, and rocky crevaces.

"...wha..." Bri asked, taking a sitting position, looking around.

Ed struggled as well, finally turning over onto his back. He felt a small stinging sensation against his temple. Reaching up, he could feel a small node digging into his temple.

"What the hell..." he murmured, jerking at it. It came out with a pinch, a small bit of blood on the end.

"Is everyone okay?" Rama asked, the first to find his feet.

"Phil's unconscious..." Montag replied, checking the crumpled telepath.

"The squirrel isn't moving..." BruteForce said, looking at the inert metallic creature on the ground.

"Get those things out of their heads." Ed stated, Rama pulling him to his feet.

"...are you....well?"

Everyone jerked at the voice behind them, Rama and Ed pulling their weapons instinctively.

"I...I mean you no harm..." the figure said standing behind them.

He was covered in the tattered remains of a red shirt, and blue jeans. A thick head of black hair and beard sat bushled over his features, hiding much of his face.

And, a set of light purple eyes washed over them...

"Who are you?" Ed frowned. "What's happening?"

The man thought for a moment, finally shaking his head.

"I'm afraid....that I cannot help you with either question..." he finally replied in a submissive voice. "...I found you....like this..."

Ed looked around, as the man tried to explain, realizing that they were back in the cave system on the island.

"...you were all....asleep..." he continued. "...I attempted to pull the metal device from his head..."

He pointed at Phil.

"...I felt certain that this could not be something you volunteered for...."

{{{{Greetings you bastards}}}}}} the voice of Jack Merlin broke over the room, as everyone turned to see a small screen light up, with the man's glaring face dominant.

"...Merlin...." Ed snarled.

{{{{{If you are seeing this recording, then it is a good and bad thing. The good is that you were, indeed, stupid enough to walk into my trap. I mean....come on....a metal room in the bowels of the island? With a button that says 'Open'? You walked into it like amatuers.}}}}}}

Grissom folded his arms, grimacing at the image of the face before them.

{{{{{{It is, however, bad if you are seeing this, as that means that my little neuro-darts must have failed to keep you in your eternal suspension.}}}}}} Merlin shrugged, leaning back in what looks like a chair. {{{{{{Well, that's how it goes with technology. Just look at the Nibru.}}}}}}

BruteForce looked back and forth at everyone's stunned stare. He and the stranger wondering who the man on the screen was....

{{{{{{{I suppose you want to know why I am telling you all of this.}}}}}}

...the figure leaned in close to the screen, a smile coming across his face....

...and Edulcore became uneasy...

{{{{{{Simple. I want you to know who it was that attacked you. I want you to know that it was me. I was the one who did this to you. I was the one that so brazenly made the first move. I wanted you to know it, even as I know that you cannot do a thing about it in return....}}}}}}}

Ed ignored him, looking around. Something was unsettling him. Explaining his actions? This was not Merlin's style at all....

....or was it?

{{{{{{{{{......trapped on that pitiful island. I knew you would try and venture out somehow. I was ready. You see? There is no escape. The world is watching you, dogs. The world wants you to step over the line....they want you to come after me....}}}}}}

Ed's eyes lit up....a sudden realization coming over him....

{{{{{{......and I want you to come after me too......}}}}}}}

...he was trying to keep them here....

"GET OUT OF HERE!! NOW!!!" Ed roared, grabbing the stranger, and jerking him towards the doorway.

The Vanguardians....although caught unaware....immediately snapped to attention, vaulting for the door.

"BF!! THE DOOR!!" Ed yelled, Grissom running behind him with Phil over his shoulder.

BruteForce's lip curled up, and slammed his size-seventeen into the metal doorway, blowing it off its' metallic hinges and gears.

Everyone ran through the cave, Merlin's voice following with an echo of pure malice...

{{{{{{Come get me Vanguard!! I dare you!!}}}}}}

The team cleared the cave opening, a sudden explosion blowing them further out, and across the beach.

The island shook briefly, as plumes of dust and dirt rolled from the entrance, each of the Vanguardians hitting the ground hard.

They all lay there briefly, catching their breath.

"Is everyone okay?" Rama asked.

"I'm...here..." Brianna nodded, sitting up.

"The BFster is fine...." BruteForce sounded off. He looked down in his enormous cupped hands, to see the still-inert RoboSquirrel. "...the rodent is in one piece...."

"...my god...." Grissom sighed.

"What?" Bri asked.

He looked at her.

"Merlin was that close this time...." he said, squeezing his fingers together.

"....but, we're okay...." she replied.

"And that's going to be his fatal mistake!" Ed barked with rage....

The Vanguards looked around as the hums of several turnbine engines surrounded them in the air. "What's going on?" BF asked, shrugging off his jacket and taking a defensive stance.

"They're here?" Banshee asked, gripping Montag's arm tightly. "Oh yeah. . ." He answered, as several ships came into sight, landing on all sides of the team.

"Who?" Rama Avatar asked, flashing Caliburn.

"Strikeforce." Ed answered through clutched teeth.

Eleven were the ships landed around the small group of Vanguardians. All looking alike, and all sporting the SF4 logo on the sides.

The heroes instinctively got closer, back to back, protecting the still senseless Phil Smith. The Robo Squirrel, inert, was still in the hands of Brute Force. Rama raised Caliburn, Ed gripped the Thundermace, Brianna aimed her crossbow, while in Grissom's hands materialised two guns.

Euro was shaking his head. "This is wrong... we are still on la Perdita territory... even Merlin can't justify this to the world!"

Grissom spitted the cigarette, grinning. "And why he should? No one will ever tell the world this. The Vanguardians got lost in the explosion of a cave. Full stop, new line."

The dust raised by the landing settled, revealing an enormous monitor sprouting from the back of one of the airship. There was some static for an instant, and then the full figure of Jack Merlin appeared, wearing a black Armani suit, jewelled cane in one hand and long, white hairs over the shoulders, sitting on a leathered armchair and smiling at them.

"My dear Vanguardians, welcome to your doom. I can hear your protests... we have not stepped out of La Perdita, we went by the rules... sadly, it's ME that doesn't follow rules.
I devised that little trick... having the UN ordering you to not leave the island... just to buy time. My Strikeforce 2 was destroyed in Manhattan... how pity... so I created a Strikeforce 3 of wanna be superheroes just to please the world. But secretly, I was building a new Strikeforce... the powerful one I ever assembled... created with the sole purpose of hunting... and capture you!"

The Vanguardians were looking around themselves, but from the ship no sign were coming.

Merlin continued: "I saw how you Vanguardians defeated my first Strikeforce in Mandelovia... how you fought like warrior in Antarctic... how you beat the cadets along the transdimensional MBL... I learned the hard way that only who know you best can have a chance to defeat you... so I choose the ones that went so near to killing you..."

The image of Merlin in the monitor pointed the tip of the cane to the camera, a little on the right, and the five ships on that side began to buzz. The backs of the ships got open, and out of it came pedestals. Standing over there, five beings appeared.

The first one was clad in an ancient, purple coat, and sported long white hairs and a long, white beard. It seemed old as time itself. Ed gulped seeing his face.

The image of Merlin spoke again "The first one is the great mage, Aurochs. Necromancer supreme, the gates of Hell opens at his will, and any kind of demon he can evoke."

On the pedestal of the second ship there was a tall and young man, with black curly hairs. This one was recognised not only by Euro, but by Brianna as well.

"Johnny Omicron, multibillionaire and man of adventure. Vanguard put him out of business- killing him in the process- two years ago. since then, he had returned, with a great thirst of vengeance. He can fly with his own jetpack, and has a new and improved adamantium sword."

On the third and fourth pedestals stood two enormous and muscular being, white skinned and with strange masks.

"The Scorpion Brothers. You fought them two time, in Mandelivia and then in the Castle of Crossed Destiny. And they also nearly killed Cicciotto in Thunder City, if not for Rypta Gud'n and his MBL. Maybe this will be the right time, eh, guys?"

A thundering roar came from the two figures.

On the fifth and last pedestal there was a oddly shaped robotic being, a mix of hi tech and organically shaped metallic parts.

"The T5 robot. You destroyed his swarm at the South Pole, and he is not happy with that!"

The robot shape-shifted into the form of a deadly, gigantic mantis, with razor shaped claws and fangs.

Merlin leaned back in the chair. "As I was saying, the have fought and nearly defeat you... they do know you very well and. so, who can have a better chance to defeat you?
Well, I gave me an answer to that question... there are people that can have even more chance than your worst enemy... your own friends!"

The ships on the left buzzed. The backs opened and, again, five people came out.

And the Vanguardians' jaws, like I wrote so many time in this story, dropped at unison.

"Vanguardians, have the pleasure to meet:
Kristogar Velo, master tactician and gifted with an unbreakable will. Armed with laser gauntlets and flying devices, he knows all of your weakest point.
The Golden Naecken, one of the original five revolutionaries, in his last, and deadliest incarnation, with the powers of stars at his hands.
Larry Lance, the untouchable man, the one that can push his hand into your body and tore out your heart.
Jackie Munroe, the Ameristar, with her new Athena armour, with dozens of new weapons and gadgets.
And finally the powerful of you all: Tobias Christopher, the fastest man alive.
They have come to finally clear the name of Vanguard, washing its name into your blood!

"It's... it's impossible!" whispered Brianna.

"Like all since this morning, luv" responded Grissom.

Ed gave a look at the senseless form of Phil, and then raised his mace.

He hammered it over the ground with all of his force. The sky instantly was covered by clouds, rain began pouring down in torrents, and the lighting stroke.

"Move your ass, Vanguardians" shouted the Thunderbird.

And the battle began.

"So...ummm... Phil?" Brianna growled, the dark clouds overhead beginning to pour. "Now, would be a good time to wake up...."

Even as Phil and RoboSquirrel remained unconscious, the overwhelming odds of nine adversaries began to circle the Vanguardians. They were all silent, slowly encroaching.

"...something's not right..." Grissom mumbled, pistols held high, tracking their methodical movements.

"You've been saying that all day." Rama replied, Caliburne up in a defensive stance. "It hasn't helped us yet."

"Enough talk...." Ed interjected, the heavy rain beginning to drench everyone present. "....prepare yourselves.....they will probably strike as one...."

Lightning suddenly ripped across the sky, Brianna looking up nervously.

"You didn't exactly make it a comfortable arena for us flyers, you know..."

"...a little water, Bri...."

"Try a little lighting...." Bri countered with a cocked eyebrow.

"Why haven't they attacked yet?" Brute Force asked, back to the others, as well.

"What is going on?" the ragged stranger standing next to him asked. "Who are these people?"

"Old enemies....old friends...." Ed replied, watching with unexpressed anxiety.

Why weren't they attacking?

Grissom's eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. One of his pistols disappeared, as he stretched his hand out towards Larry Lance.

"Lawrence?" he asked pleasantly. "How are things?"

And with twinkle in his eye, Grissom flexed his teleportative abilities.

Suddenly, 'LLance' spasmed, and a chunk of circuitry appeared in Montag's palm....

"...thought so..." he smirked.

And, with that, his other pistol diappeared, as he threw he arms out.

One by one, they began to fall. 'Kristogar Velo'. 'Jackie Munroe'. Sparks flew, and the husks of simulacrums collapsed against the muddy ground.

'Gold Naecken'. All some form of advanced, elaborate......

"...androids..." Ed breathed with an almost sigh of relief.

Grissom smiled, as everyone began to relax. Montag ripped circuitry from 'Tobias Christopher', turning towards Aurochs next...

And nothing happened.

The dark mage smiled.

"What's the psychological threat....." he asked, raising his hands. "...and what's real?"

A sudden wave of disoreintation hit the Vanguardians. Montag was thrown from his feet hard, as Ed barked "GO!"....he and Brianna shooting into the sky.

"Oh shit..." Brute Force gasped. "...they're real?"

The stranger....the only one not tossed by Aurochs first wave of attack....stood there, briefly confused. It was merely an act of instinct that had brought his hands up into a defensive manner.

A defensive stance...that was beginning to reflect Aurochs' sorcery back at him....

Grissom, teeth gritted as he tried to sit up, saw the actual members of this Strikeforce-4 vault into action. He threw his arm up towards the lumbering T5 robot, ripping chunks of his innards straight out.

"Hit them hard!!" Rama yelled, running headling at one of the Scorpion Brothers, Caliburne coming around for an attack.

Aurochs. Johnny Omicron. The Scorpion Brothers. The T5 robot.

Strikeforce-4. The real enemies.

The battle had truly begun....

BF picked up the still inert form of Robo Squirrel and tossed it up and down in his hands. ". . .batter up. . ." he said, taking aim at the larger of the Scorpion Brothers.

Robo Squirrel flew through the air, spinning end over end, until finally connected with the bigger Scorpion's head with a KLAAANNGG!!!!! The Scorpion was knocked off of his perch and down to the beach.

Lifting himself from the sands, he brushed his face off with a snarl, his tail whipping violently.

Lightning flashed, illuminating BF's form as he stood in front of him. "Strike one, buddy." BF cracked his knuckles.

The Scorpion charged at him, and BF sidestepped his claws and wrapped his arms around the Scorpion's neck. The Scorpion bucked and turned, trying to toss the Vanguardian off, but BF held tightly, applying more pressure to his neck.

BF struggled to gain some footing as he attempted to pull back further on the Scorpion's neck.

The rain poured down as the other Vanguardians and Strikeforcers engaged in battle. . .

Grissom strained against the T5 robot as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. The endeavour was ultimately futile, however, as whatever ordinances Grissom managed to teleport away from the android, the alien tech managed to adapt, absorbing metallic substances and circuitry from the ship he stood. Metallic laughter chirped from the android's mantis like form, oddly forboding to Grissom.

"Damn..." Grissom muttered, 'porting his guns back into his hands. "Damn thing managed to get some upgrades..."

As Grissom fired off several shots, he caught a glimpse of another battle out of the corner of his eye. Brianna was flying high above, dodging blaster bolts from the technological gauntlet of Johnny Omicron. He was chasing her so quickly that there was no room for the Banshee to let loose her wail. She was completely on the aerial defensive... and Grissom didn't like the look of it.

Thinking quickly, Grissom 'ported away his guns and replaced them with a hand grenade from his pack. In another flash of a moment, the grenade had vanished, leaving only the pin in Grissom's hand. Three seconds later, a large explosion erupted from the heart of the T5 robot's innards.

Almost immediately, however, the robot began adapting, his sinews knitting with one of the large cannons aboard the ship. He was already rebuilding... but Grissom had other concerns.

"Bri!" he called. The love of his life looked down. In the moment their eyes met and unspoken words were exchanged. They had a plan.

Swooping down low to the ground, Banshee whizzed by Grissom who made himself ready by 'porting a set of earplugs directly into his ears. As Johnny Omicron whizzed by, the Sandcrawler leapt onto his back, wrapping an arm tightly around the entreprenuer's neck.

Immediately, Omicron's attention was diverted from Banshee as his hands reached up to his neck in an attempt to shake Grissom off. At that moment, Banshee turned mid-air, facing Omicron, her crossbow in hand. As Omicron flew by, she let loose her wail just a Grissom 'ported Johnny's helmut from his head.

No longer insulated from the high level of sonics, Omicron let out a shriek, covering his ears. As a result, he lost all concentration, his rocket boots sending him careening toward the ground.

At the last possible minute, Grissom leapt off of the man's back with a triple aomersault, landing perfectly on his feet. Brianna landed directly beside him, spreading her wings as she landed.

"He's grounded, hon," she said, smiling as she smacked Grissom on the ass.

"Sure thing, luv," Grissom said, grabbing her by the waist and giving her a long, deep kiss. He batted his eyebrows at her as Omicron slowly stood up. "I'll take it from here. You go help Rama out with that Blue guy, alright?"

"You got it," Banshee said, winking. "Take care of yourself, Montag," she said, taking flight.

"You too, luv," he responded as she flew off. "You too."

Grissom stood ready as Johnny Omicron finally rose to his feet. His rocket boots fizzled, broken. Omicron wouldn't be taking flight again during this fight.

"Grissom Montag," he snarled, unsheathing his new adamantium sword. "World's greatest thief. They say you're an expert gunslinger... but how are you with a blade, I wonder?"

"Care to find out?" Grissom asked as a twelve-inch custom-made hunting knife appeared in his hand. "Let's dance, Johnny..."

"Aha ha ha ah!" A big laugh erupted from the image of Merlin, still on the monitor.

Euro turned, to look at the wicked expression of his enemies through the curtain of pouring water. The Italian frowned... and then, looking at the sky, hammered again the mace over the ground, letting one, two, three lighting to strike across the sky.

"Ah ah ah ah" Merlin was laughing hysterically from the crisp image on the monitor.

A grin appeared over Euro's face. he branded the mace and opened his wings, when the face of Merlin enlarged over the monitor. "Is this fair?" the long white haired man asked. "Eight Vanguardians versus five Strikeforcers is your kind of equity?"

Now only the eyes of Merlin, of a piercing cold steel-grey, surmounted by frowning white eyebrows, where in full close up. "Let's take things back to even, Vanguardians!"

In the middle of the beach there was a glow, and three figure appeared out of nowhere, teleported from Merlin's secret base.

"Vanguardians, meet: X-Acute, gunslinger and infallible marksman; the Leviathan, the reptilian giant; and Jia, the meta-spider from Aisling. All of them eagerly awaiting this moment... the moment of their final revenge over Vanguard!"

On the seventeenth floor of an office building in northern California, two men under the employ of the United Nations were staring at their computer screens, devoid of ideas.

"Shit," One of them said.

"I know," The other said, agreeing.

To keep a narrative flow going, the first is named Declan and the second is named... um... Declan 2.

The ding of the elevator in the hallway outside their office caught their attention.

"Shit!" Declan reiterated. The door to their office swung open.

"Sir!" Declan 2 said, jumping up from his seat. Their boss, a Jacob Rogers, had walked in. Declan 2 pushed his wheeled office chair a few feet in Rogers' direction, offering his boss a place to sit. Rogers looked at the chair and remained standing.

"...Snickers?" Declan said, offering the man a half eaten chocolate bar.

"Dickhead. Other dickhead. Why haven't I heard anything from this office about the La Perditan situation this afternoon? A report was due fifteen minutes ago," Rogers said, standing before them with his arms crossed. Declan 2 slowly pulled his chair back and sat back down.

"Um..."

"...we have a problem."

Rogers sank his forehead into the thumb and forefinger of his left hand.

"You two have one very specific and very simple job. Monitoring the La Perditan based members of Vanguard International," Rogers said, then sighed.

"Yes, well... we... we know what our job is..." Declan replied.

"And yet..." Rogers began.

"And yet we screwed it up?"

"You screwed it up."

"Well, see, we had the signal up until about half an hour ago..." Declan 2 said, spinning around in his chair to face his computer monitor.

"And then you lost it," Rogers said. "We have spent quite a significant amount of money creating the device. The device should be quite capable of monitoring the Vanguardians, both with or without their knowledge. And, if need be, combat and control any one of them."

"Yes, the squirrel..." Declan answered.

"The squirrel. The squirrel should be able to feed you a constant signal. We should know the whereabouts of Vanguard's employees at any given moment."

"Yes, we should," Declan 2 said. Declan nodded for emphasis.

"So where are they now?" Rogers asked.

Declan consulted his computer screen. He tapped his forehead a few times, then checked the second computer in front of Declan 2.

"We don't-"

"You don't know!"

There was a pause.

"...that is correct," Declan 2 said.

"There was a spike of electrical acitivity just before we lost the signal, and then nothing... like something attacked and overrided his circuitry," Declan explained.

"'His'?" Rogers said, raising his eyebrows.

"...its..." Declan said, correcting himself and lowering his head.

"He shouldn't be vulnerable to that sort of attack..." Rogers said, thinking out loud and not looking for a response from either of his employees. "At least, not from someone without a whole lot of tech and a whole lot of money at their disposal..." Something then clicked in Rogers' head.

"Shit," He said. "Merlin..."

"Pardon?" Declan 2 asked.

"Never mind. What's the Hearn situation?"

Declan 2 grabbed a printed piece of paper from his desk and began explaining to his boss. "Hearn is still in Melbourne, but it seems he's there without the knowledge of the rest of Vanguard. In fact, they don't even know he left the island. He's living there, actually. In Melbourne. In an apartment. He works as a waiter and is not actively pursuing any sort of vigilante activity."

Declan butted in at this point. "Should we send an extraction team down there? We did tell them that if any of them tried to leave the island they'd leave themselves open to arrest..."

"No," Rogers said, and held up his hand. "Something doesn't seem right here. A self styled superhero ditches his teammates, gets a waiting job on the other side of the world and moves into a shitty apartment? No, he's got something up his sleeve. I want to know what it is before we send men in after him. Keep monitoring him."

"Right."

"And the squirrel, sir?" Declan asked.

"Fix it," Rogers said, and stormed out of the room, leaving Declan and Declan 2 alone in their office.

"You know how to fix him?" Declan 2 asked.

"Nope. You?"

"Nope. Want to leave it for the nightshift guys?"

"Yup."

The two were about to get up and play foozball in the breakroom when the computers beeped loudly.

"Whoa!"

"Squirrel's back online!"

"How?"

"Looks like he's under attack. He's reverted to self defense mode."

On the sand of a La Perditan beach, Robo Squirrel beeped once, loudly. His tail whirred into action.

"...Hostile threat detected... self defense mode activated..."

Robo Squirrel shot into the air. His cute little silver squirrel paws retracted and opened, revealing two huge guns. His jaw lowered and readied the attack with dozens of steel walnuts. A flame thrower came out of his haunches for some reason that doesn't really make a huge amount of sense.

And then that little flying shiny squirrel thing went fucking crazy, man.

Random citizens of La Perdita gazed across the wide, blue bay, sunlight drenched with a pleasurable evening. They stared with curious abandon at the dark plume that held the immediate horizon, blanketing all sight. Some even gossiped at how strange the weather had begun acting lately, pointing at the localized storm holding steady, far across the crystal waters, near one of the sister inlets of their fair nation-state.

Over a thousand miles up, a few officially non-existant satellites fired thrusters, spinning the arch of their trajected orbit. Other satellites, each a bit more legal...mostly for governmental weather tracking....followed suite. Even more satellites...defense-based mechanisms...altered their own courses to make room for the new paths.

And, caught in an eeriy shuffle, the gleaming orbs danced across the wide orbit of the planet, readjusting accordingly, as a number took position....holding strategically over a small portion of the Caribbeans.

Watching....studying....curiously trying to peek behind the dark curtains that had spontaneously formed from nowhere...

Far down...behind the curtain....on the surface of mother-earth, bass peeled in massive waves of crushing thunder, echoing the fragmented tendrils of lighting mapping the thick, abnormal cloud cover. Two winged figures danced in strobe elegance to the flares of light, blankets of wind and rain breaking with their bodies, like diamond sheathes.

Locking interconnecting rods of steel, Banshee tucked her wings tight, diving with the downpour. The razor-edge of a mid-spear leading her path, her eyes remained narrow, and focused. And, as she neared the ground, her wings suddenly swung wide, catching a breaking gust of thermal release from the formerly-sweltering earth. Her teeth gritted with the g-force, as sparks danced past her vision. Her path swooping straight back up, she glanced behind her to see pieces of the T5 attack-droid falling from her ascent.

She suddenly curved hard-left, dry-white bolts of plasma firing past her into the air. She cut, and curled, dodging the bolts with a calculated grace. Below, the T5 continued repairs on its right turret, the left attempting to track her improbable flight through the photo-pop-skies.

The gargantuan Leviathan sprung past the T5's grounding cables, a throaty growl sneaking past his clenched fangs. He hissed, swiping at the other aerial figure. A sudden steel-heeled boot to the forehead staggered him back a few steps, as Ed bounced from the kick-landing, coming to a solid footing on the ground. The Leviathan immediately launched at the winged-founder, his enlongated jaw meeting a spiked mace dead-center.

Thunderbird let the swing follow-through, spinning on his heels into a duck, as the momentarily blind creature raked his talons over Ed's head. Spinning into a crouched position, Ciccioto snarled as he sprung, swinging the mace like a bat...straight into the lizard's chest.

The resultant impact cracked in a deafening thunderous explosion of sound....the sheer force of the soundwaves knocking the Leviathan off his feet.

Ed stood only for a second, shaking his head briefly, trying to blink the ringing out of his ears. Then, leapt into the fray again....

The wave of thunder had jostled Grissom and Johnny only momentarily, their quick hand-to-hand resuming with an unbridled ease. The wavering light levels, and slickness of rain, held their pure fighting styles at bay with only the slightest loss in impacts. Grissom slapped two quick-kicks from his face, taking care to flat-hand the metal-lined rim of Omicron's boots. Montag also leveled each footstep, knowing he could never allow straight blade-to-blade contact, as the unbreakable sword would slice clean through his twelve-inch-gutter given the right pressure.

Sparks and grunts met each attack and defense, the thief's eyes alive with excitement and pure adrenaline. The weapons were no test of his mettle. He knew that. Omicron knew that. Montag could teleport his adversaries' impressive blade away with the simplest of gestures.

This wasn't survival for Montag. This was a game. His kind of game. The hard-to-win, and easy-to-die game. The kill-or-be-killed. Absolutely, the only way he would have it....

To the naked eye, curtains of water split and crashed by themselves. Halving in the air, the rain seemed to produce minor and brief tunnels of nothing, marking the passing of the blue Scorpion brother.

The fast one.

To the naked eye, he wasn't there. And, although the soggy conditions and adversarial weather held him from his ultimate speed, his was still almost invisible in presence.

But, to the non-naked eye....to an electronic tracking center.....he was merely another target. A target that RoboSquirrel tracked with logical ease.

Flame spit and curled at a three-hundred-sixty-degree hoop around the mini-war-machine, holding the speedster at bay. Walnut-sized seeker warheads, each holding grenade-level explosive capabilities, swarmed circling, constantly tracking the ever-eluding runner. Like a swarm of deadly insects, they flew in packs of eighty, giving the speedster more to worry about than just the licking flames protecting the squirrel from attack.

RoboSquirrel spun constantly, death blooming from his body at an absurd rate.....

Brute Force stood as a hard testament to his name, repeatedly ramming the red Scorpion brother's face into the side of one of the docked ships. The ringing metal played as a back-up beat to the thunder emanating from the skies, and the island itself. Rippling muscles glistening in the downpour, BF's eyes bore a wide, shocked expression, as veins of fury consumed his neck, and forehead. The Scorpion brother....

...the tough one....

....would genuinely attempt to out-manuever his steely grip, shuffling against the brutal spanking his cranium was recieving. But, as with Brianna's once-groomed hair in this torrent, his valiant efforts were in utter vain.

That is, until his long, snaky scorpion-tail began to twitch, and coil around Phillip's rock-hard form....

Meanwhile, quite a ways from the main turmoil, the soaking stranger that had quite suddenly appeared this day, stood facing one of the most powerful sorcerers the planet had ever known.

They were not moving. Merely, they stood there in the rain, sizing each other up in ways that mankind simply wouldn't be able to adequately describe....or understand.

"...is it....you?" Aurochs asked, an amused grin coming over his lips.

The stranger stared back at him, a feeling a familiarity coming over him.

"Do I....know you...?" he asked, his voice genuine, but lined with a hardness that surprised even himself.

Aurochs cocked an eyebrow of confusion.

"...the east Andes....1867..." he simply stated. "....don't tell me you don't remember me...."

The stranger studied him, shaking his head, as if trying to dismiss some strange flash of memory.

"...I...I..." was all he could say.

"What are you doing here?" Aurochs demanded, his eyes narrowing. "With these people?"

The stranger looked up at him, an honest expression of confusion taking hold.

"...I don't know..." he simply replied.

Aurochs nodded, taking this into consideration.

"Very well...." he sighed. "...I have no time for games, then...."

And with that, he threw his hands out, a dark wave of fire following....

Brianna was worried when the T5 stopped following her. The gun turret simply looked for another target. Why would it do that?

"Hello, darling."

Brianna, still flapping in midair, looked down. Jia, the tyranical meta-spider of Aisling prison, crawled from the opposite side of a giant rock.

"Mornin' Jia. Had fun in the EPS prison?"

Jia only grinned. "I've found a new boss now. And he's a lot more fun than your brother. Now, I'm going to clip your little wings, and then find that Mason-snack your team stole away from me."

Brianna backed away. Please don't let her figure out what sword Rama has. "Come and get, you eight-legged hussy!"

Jia crouched on all eight legs before jumping in the air. Brianna knew that this would be easy to dodge. She flew left. Which is exactly what Jia expected. The Chinese spider shot out her webbing. It caught Brianna by the ankle.

"Oomph!"

Both the Bird and the Spider fell on the ground. Jia's eight legs spread out the force of the fall, while Brianna crashed into the brush. "What's the matter, Banshee? Not use to being grounded?"

Brianna tried tugging the webbing. It didn't work. She looked up at Jia. They don't call me Banshee for nothing... And with that, Brianna belted out a perfect B flat in an inhuman octave, right at Jia. The same 'wail' that shattered buildings and cripplied guards.

Jia only grinned and tapped her ear. It was plugged. Brianna stopped shouting. "Oh, Saint Patrick..."

Wham. Jia approached the pinned Brianna and delt the girl a hard blow to the check. "You think Merlin would let me fight unarmed?"

Brianna's foot was stil restained, so she could do little as Jia picked her up by the neck and pulled her up. Both of their bodies were soaked from the rain. Brianna's brown-red hair was sticking to her face, and Jia's was pulled back behind her ears. The Bird's clothing was sticking to her body, while the Spider's black corset remained waterproof. It was the perfect example of the huntress in her prime preparing to deal her weak pray the death-blow. "Tell me, where is Templar? I can smell him, but I can't see him..."

"Jia...I -- ack -- can't breathe."

Jia's almond eyes shone brightly as she hissed. "That's the idea, darling, that's the idea..."

Caliburn flashed, reflecting one of the many lightings striking at once, and one of the multiple legs of the T5 robot fell, making the robot loosing its balance. Rama Avator didn't waste time, and jumped over the back of the robot.

While a new leg was grown again, the East Indian warrior raised the legendary sword, ready to hit the metallic monster.

A circular wall of fire enclosed the jeans wearing bearded man. Aurochs, much to his nature, took the chance to pronounce a spell of invisibility, clouding himself from the sight of the Vanguardians.

Edulcore, having temporary sent the Leviathan to lay on the ground, dived to ward the still senseless form of Phil. "Phil! Smith! Wake up! We need you!" he shouted, slapping the face of the Unidentified.

The young secret agent opened his eyes, looking at Euro who was knelling over him.

The black dressed man frowned, and touched his temples. "What an headache..." he whispered, and suddenly raised his gun holding right hand, shooting madly from above Euro's shoulder.

Euro turned, to see the X-Acute doing a triple somersault to avoid Phil's bullet, landing in a patch of dense vegetation just yards away. Euro stood up, mace in hand, ready to run there.

"No! He's mine!" yelled Phil. "Look there. Bri needs your help, Ed!"

The ample, mechanical bat like wings of Ed flapped, as he catapulted himself toward the Vanguardette. She was in the hands of Jia, gripped around Btrianna's neck. From the opposite side of Euro, the scaled skinned Leviathan was converging toward the female Vanguardian.

Passing by, Ed threw his Durendal sword precisely, and the hilt of the sword landed perfectly into Brianna's hand. "Help yourself, Bri!" shouted the Italian, ending head down over the ample thorax of the reptilian monster.

The Leviathan was minimally shaken by the hit. Flapping the Da Vinci's bat wings, Euro stood at mid air in front of Knell's clone. The beast fiercely waved his claws toward the Thunderbird, to no avail. The winged warrior was too mobile for the behemoth, so the meta-beast roared frustrated.

Euro smiled, and hammered his mace.

"Stand back, team!" Phil yelled, full of confidence and gusto. He ran a few steps forward, stepped on Ed's back and leaped into the air, jumping higher than any man could or that logic dictates would be necessary.

At the peak of his jump, he did seventeen flips. His coat looked awesome. Then he whipped a pistol out from his belt and levelled it at Leviathan, firing a round at the scaled behemoth. With his other hand and an entirely separate pistol, he fired a round behind him, at the T5 robot.

The bullets missed T5 completely. Leviathan continued grappling with Thunderbird, barely noticing the bullet that had bounced off his thick hide.

Phil struck the ground running, then span around a few times and...um... did something else. He fired a few rounds at the blur that was the blue Scorpion brother, confident that they would find their mark.

They passed right by him. One of them hit Robo Squirrel.

"Ow! Shit!" The squirrel said, regardless of the fact that he couldn't feel pain.

Phil grinned at what he thought was a direct hit, then ran right by several of his teammates who were, apparently, just standing around waiting for him to do this shit.

He springboarded from Jia's back, saying several nasty words to her as he did so. He hoped he could attack her emotionally by calling her a trollop. It didn't really bother her, but he couldn't tell that.

He travelled through the air and span as he did so, pointing his guns out behind him at the Red Scorpion. As he fired them, a hand grabbed his leg and pulled him to the ground.

"Ah... X-Acute. It's down to you and me," Phil said, facing his attacker.

X-Acute punched him in the face. Phil fell down.

"Ow! Crap!" Phil yelled.

Brianna held on tightly to the sword in her hand. She swung it towards Jia's face, but the spider's arms were blocking Brianna's right limb, so all she could do is swing the blade meekly.

Jia found this all amusing. "Really, sparrow, running out of tricks?"

"If -- ack -- if you kill me -- ack -- how will you find your other prey?"

"Yes," said Jia. "I was wondering about that. But look! I can see all the members of Vanguard. There's young Smith with X-acute, looking rather down. Leviathen is entertaining Ciccioto -- oh, it's Tuesday, so what name does he go by now? Mr. Montag seems quite preoccupied -- don't worry, I'll make a meal out of him one day too. I'm sure that metallic rodent will be hard to tackle, but I'll see him in my netting soon enough." Jia grinned. "So that leaves the other gentlemen...and I recognize his sword." Jia looked into Brianna's jaded eyes. "And judging by the fear in your face, I found out right..."

Brianna's trick worked. Jia had not noticed Brianna switch the sword to her other hand. Now she had more room to attack. The sword swung sideways, slicing into the corset and smacking a rib. Jia screeched as some blood began oozing from the wound.

"Vile whelp!" she shouted, dropping Brianna into the mud. "I can't believe you caught me monolouging!"

Brianna only needed a moment. She darted forward, keeping low to the ground. The webbing was still attached to her ankle, while Jia remained tied to her fellow meta-animal. Brianna ducked under the root of a giant tree and soared upwards, trying to gain as much force as possible. Jia, not expecting the tug from her own webbing, tripped and was dragged to the root, where it pinned her abdomen under the massive tree. Brianna, still not done, looped aroung a tree trunk before tying the webbing to a branch. She used the sword to free her ankle.

Jia only snarled and tried to tug herself loose. "Now who's pinned?" Jia's front legs dug deep into the mud. "I'll be off helping Rama. Maybe he'll show you his sword in a little while."

Montag gritted his teeth as he lunged backward, barely evading Omicron's blade. He could hear the blade sing as it sliced through the air without hitting its intended target.

Montag knew John Wilkes, just as Wilkes knew Montag. The two had never met... but that didn't mean either was incapable of reading. Grissom had read John Wilkes' (a.k.a. Johnny Omicron's) dossier from the Vanguard Files shortly after having joined the team, while Wilkes (as well as the rest of the Strikeforce) had obviously been given plenty of time to read up on the members of Vanguard International.

And, since Grissom knew Omicron so well, he knew that the two of them were about as evenly matched as they could get.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Wilkes' voice rang out over the din of the battle. He lunged with his shoulder out and head down as he talked. "I'm no mind reader... but I am absolutely certain you are thinking of how evenly matched we are..."

"Oh, yeah?" Grissom countered, leaping into a somersault over the man's head, landing perfectly on his feet, facing the former Project Omicron leader. "And how do you figure?"

"Because I was thinking the same thing," he said with a smile. "You and I are cut from the same cloth, Montag!" As he spoke, the entrepreneur sliced the air with his blade, advancing toward Montag as he spoke.

"Y'sure 'bout that?" Montag asked, turning his hunting knife slowly in his hand as he slowly backed his way against a small dirt cliff.

"Quite," Omicron's eyes flashed as he spoke. "The only difference between you and me?"

Lashing out with sudden fury, Wilkes swung his blade at Montag who had little other choice but to counter with a block from his own knife...

...which Omicron was easily able to lop in two.

"You've gone soft," the Strikeforcer finished, holding his blade straight out at Montag.

"Bloody 'ell," Montag groaned, looking down at his knife. "You know how much a custom blade like that costs?"

"You can afford it," Wilkes said, pressing the tip of his blade to Montag's throat. "Or you could at least. If I weren't going to kill you."

Grissom closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he felt the cold, sharp prick of Wilkes' blade scraping ever so carefully across his Adam's apple. Omicron smiled, his armor gleaming in the light of the battle raging all around.

"Any last words, Sandcrawler?" he sneered, spitting out the last word with disdain and disgust.

"Yeah," Montag said, holding his head high. "Bye-bye."

A slight beep sounded from an object in Montag's right hand. Omicron's attention was immediately diverted to the source of the sound. That's when he realized that Grissom Montag was holding a gauntlet he'd teleported from Omicron's armor... and had just pressed the self-destruct button.

"You idiot!" Johnny screamed, his eyes widening. "You'll kill us both!"

Immediately, he took off in a sprint across the beach towards the spot where Rama and Banshee fought off the ever-mutating T5 robot. Grissom smiled as the man ran, tossing the gauntlet up into the air...

...only to have it magically reappear on Omicron's wrist. The beeping continued as the man looked down, shrieking, desperately pawing at it with his good hand.

"No! It can't end like this! It can't --"

An explosion rocked the T5 droid, sending pieces of the metallic creature all over the beach where the Vanguardians and Strikeforcers made war. Rocked by the explosion, Rama Avatar and Brianna Finula slowly rose from the ground, a bit battered, but none the worse for wear.

Bri coughed as she pulled herself up. She stopped, however, as she noticed a pair of familiar boots. Looking up, she was met with the scarred yet smiling face of...

"Grissom," she said with severity, "warn a girl next time you pull something like that!"

Offering her a hand, Grissom helped the bird lady to her feet, running his hand through her red hair. "And ruin all the fun?" he said with a wink.

"What happened to Omicron?" Banshee said, looking around.

"See that crater?" Grissom said, pointing at the spot where Omicron had detonated. Banshee's eyes widened as Grissom spoke on. "He said I'd gone soft. Guess I showed him a thing or two about softness..."

"Not to ruin what may potentially be a romantic and heroic moment," Rama Avatar shouted, Caliburn clutched in his hand, "but the metallic beast rises again!"

Looking up, Grissom and Brianna beheld as pieces of circuitry, metal, and even some pieces of Omicron's armor were knitted together to make a new T5 robot.

"What's the matter?" Grissom said, looking over at the Indian. "You haven't taken his down yet?"

Avatar shot his teammate a look before turning back to the alien machinery and charging with a scream of defiance.

Grissom pulled Brianna close and kissed her again. The two stared into each others eyes for just a moment... before a small laser blast flew right in between their gaze.

"Oh no, he didn't!" Brianna shouted, pulling out her crossbow and taking off into the sky.

Grissom smiled as two guns 'ported into his hands. "Right behind ya, luv!" he shouted, running into the fray.

The Leviathan advanced toward the Thunderbird, each step sending shock-waves over the sandy beach, transformed into a muddy arena by the rain pouring down in torrents.

The monster roared. The man stood, his Thundermace raised above his head, ready to be hammered over the ground. Outside cool as ice, inside Euro was repeating to himself, like a mantra: "Please please please let a lighting fall over the lizard please please please."

As the mace began its fall toward the ground, at an incredible faster speed the tail of the beast whipped at Euro, hitting him at full force. His body was sent half a kilometre away.

Knell's clone laughed madly at how easily he defeated his adversary. He, like the others, was perfectly aware of the powers of the Vanguardians. And knew perfectly that since his return to La Perdita, the Italian has lost all of his powers. Stripped of his wings, now he had to rely over mechanical ones. And his strength was gone from much, much longer.

So it was the lizard's jaw, this time, to drop, when he saw the hated Italian flying at full force toward him, branding the mace like a ram.

The collision was powerful, as the impact of the mace called on lighting from the sky, that fell down hitting the beast. The Leviathan screamed in pain, but nothing more. He was still standing, towering over the Thunderbird half lying on the sand. Protected by the coat of Oddr Arrow-Tip, the magical garment of a past incarnation of the Eternal Champion as a Viking hero, the Vanguardians was protected by whatever harm, unless he would withdraw. But he was not in the mood to experiment if that was true, and so he rolled away just a moment before the gigantic foot squashed the ground.

Running or flying away would have made him totally invulnerable at the powerful claws of the monster. Remaining there, to exchange blows for blows, would have tired him to death. Edulcore gritted his teeth, as there was no way out.

It was then that the memories assailed his mind. The memories of all the time he had to fight dragons under the face of so many different knights, heroes, and saints. All the times he raised a spear, a sword, an axe... and before that, a wooden club... toward some scaled monster... always looking for the same point... the soft spot under the throat where the scales are absent to allow the neck to bent down.

The wings stretched out of the backpack, and flapped. The mace was put over the ground, and Durendal taken from the point where Bri had left her.

Euro smiled, and fled.

The beast was arriving, running at a velocity seemingly impossible for a best of that size. Luckily, a mindless clone, fighting blindly like the one in La Perdita, like when they were in the pit of the EPS. Luckily, not the vicious mind he found just months before in the Castle of Crossed Destinies. Luckily, not the Knell he knew.

Euro swung, hovering in front of the beast face. The Lizard giant stopped, waving his claws at the meta, like a guy happily catching an annoying mosquitos.

The impact pushed Euro toward the ground. while falling, he simply protruded his arm outside, toward the monster. In the hand was Durendal.

The sword cut across the soft throat, leaving a deep mark, soon a crimson fountain.

Euro hit the sand hard, but, although shaken, was quickly on his feet. The beast fell just metres away, and the sand was so damp even a single grain wasn't raised.

All of a sudden, a former though returned to the Italian meta. His eyes went to the monitor, where Merlin was inciting his warriors. The doubt was still there.

He took again the mace and again hammered it on the ground. More lighting shook the sky.

"Enough with this rain, Ed!" shouted from far Brianna. "I am sick of being soaked!"

But the Italian didn't ear her. His eyes were fixed over the monitor and the image of Merlin, crisp and clear under that magnetic chaos.

Blue Scorpion sped past, kicking up mud and water in his wake. Rama Avatar simply stood his ground, his sword outstretched in front of him. His eyes closed, he meditated, sensing for not where his opponent was, but where he would be.

He tilted Caliburn to the left, deflecting a strike. Then to the right, stopping another. Deftly, he continued blocking Blue Scorpion's attacks, the speedster growing frustrated.

His brother, meanwhile, had his own battle.

Red Scorpion's tailed lifted BF off of the ground, raising him high into the air. BF didn't like that. Red Scorpion didn't much care what BF liked and proceeded to slam him into the side of the Strikeforce ship.

As the Scorpion brother proceeded to pound the holy hell out of BF, BF started to get. . .angry. He looked up and held his arms out against the ship, pushing back against the Scorpion's power. His veins bulged as he gritted his teeth and held off against Red Scorpion's attack.

BF's suit began to rip as his muscles expanded in size. "Grrrgaaghhhhhhh!!!" He screamed in inarticulate fury, as his adrenaline began to flowing through his body and his rage started to take over.

BF doubled in size before Red Scorpion's eyes, as he reached around with one arm and yanked loose the Scorpion's tail.

Red Scorpion screamed out in pain, blood flowing from his severed appendage as BF turned to faced him. BF ran forth, saliva spilling out of his mouth, the ground quaking as he hurled Red Scorpion's tail at the villain.

Red Scorpion ducked and the tail flew into a T5 drone, knocking it's head off. Red Scorpion and BF traded blows, the powerful metahumans rocking each other like a pair of those toy robots.

Red Scorpion ducked a punch that knocked a Strikeforce carrier twenty feet down the beach, as the waters pounded the surf, the storm continuing. The Scorpion stepped back, and concentrated. His hands began extending and his fingers started growing together. Soon, he held out two powerful claws in front of BF.

BF didn't notice as he caught up with him and proceeded pounding him into the sand again. Pummeling his foe in a fit of pure rage, BF didn't let up until Red Scorpion had been beaten into a gooey pulp, literally beaten into the ground.

As BF's rage and anger began to subside, he shrank back down to his normal size and began to come out of his berserker state.

Looking around at himself and foe, sitting in a large Scorpion Brother shaped hole in the ground, BF was in awe. "Whoah." He said to himself.

"All right, down there, mate?" Grissom Montag asked, looking into the hole as rain continued pouring down. "Uhm,. . .yeah. . ." BF answered, taking Montag's hand as the Sandcrawler lifted him up.

"Have you seen my jacket anywhere? It's kinda cold with all this wind and rain that Thunderbird kicked uUUUULLLLPPP!!!" BF promptly slipped in some mud and fell on his backside as Griss, Bri, and Ed laughed.

"Har har har." BF said, picking himself up.

It was at that point that the shadow of T5 fell across the group again. . .

The Blue Scorpion hissed in frustration and defiance as Rama Avatar continued to parry any and all attacks with the blade of his sword. The former Mason's reflexes were fast enough as to almost border on the precognitive, and the scorpion brother didn't like it.

Blue Scorpion used his impressive speed to spin around where he stood and attack Rama with his outstretched tail as Rama thrust his sword out to where Blue Scorpion's neck was a moment ago.

What the Scorpion didn't anticipate was his tail being grabbed and yanked sideways before it could strike Rama. Twisting his head around, he noticed Robo Squirrel speeding right past him.

The Scorpion screamed and lunged at his new opponent. Robo Squirrel ducked under his arms and flew away, his tiny little propellor tail pushing him as fast as he could go.

Blue Scorpion dove across the sand at the squirrel, trying to land a fist across the squirrel's tiny silver haunches. Robo Squirrel's sensors alerted him to the attack from behind, and he ducked and swerved to avoid it.

The Blue Scorpion followed, Robo Squirrel unable to shake his superfast attacker.

The Scorpion was gaining ever so slightly, throwing his arms out to catch the little squirrel...

...when Robo Squirrel suddenly veered upwards, way out of the Blue Scorpion's grasp. And the Scorpion was left standing in the sand, exactly where Robo Squirrel had led him.

Right in front of Rama Avatar.

Rama drove his sword deep into the Blue Scorpion's neck, and withdrew it as the huge speedster fell to the ground.

As the rest of the Vanguardians began cleaning up against their opponents, the purple-hued eyes of the dishelved stranger squinted briefly against the licks of white flame that encircled him. It wasn't so much from fear, or apprehension, as it seemed to be from.....irritation.

With a single barefooted leap, he shot straight into the air, landing on the other side of the ring of fire. He stood there, scanning around him, the flames dissipating quickly.

Now you see me.... the voice of Aurochs whispered on the wind. ...now you don't.

The stranger's expression became one of equal disdain, taking a few steps forward and stopping.

"...I do not need to see you..." he stated evenly, looking down at the muddy beach. "...when I can see your footprints..."

Two quick fingers shot out, catching a space in the air with a snap. A sudden scream penetrated the area, as Aurochs immediately flashed back into view.

He clutched his face in agony, blood pouring through his clenched fingers.

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!!!" he roared, staggering back in massive waves of mind numbing pain. "I SWEAR IT!!"

And, with a flash of smoke and light, Aurochs was gone.

The stranger cocked a single eyebrow, looking down at the small, soft eyeball resting in his palm. Then, with a simple grunt, simply tossed the piece of the mage over his shoulder, making his way down the beach towards the remaining chaos...

Phil dove to the left and rolled once to dodge another flurry of shots laid down by X-Acute with startling precision. He was behind, way behind. The gunslinger was holding the cards, taking shots at his own leisure, and Phil was frantically trying to stay out of the way. There was a particular urgency to this fight, and Phil wasn't about to let on what it was to his teammates, but he hoped to hell he could stay ahead of X-Acute long enough to come up with something.

Another bullet barely missed Phil - and punched through the folds of his coat. It was fairly obvious now - the telepath's psionic shield should have deflected that round with ease. Nothing. Whatever had happened to him when he lost consciousness must have disabled Phil's psionic shield.

His only defenses now were speed, agility, and the sheer will to survive this.

"A little help?" the telepath muttered under his breath as he tumbled to the right to dodge another round. Nothing doing. The huge T5 robot had the team's undivided attention, and thus far, Phil was the only one who had yet to dispatch his original adversary.

X-Acute was maybe forty feet away now. His shots closed that distance in milliseconds. Fortunately, although his shield appeared to be out of commission for the time being, Phil retained his superhuman reflexes and still had enough telekinetic control to move himself around fairly rapidly. But what would have been his most important remaining advantage - uncanny kinesthetic awareness - just happened to be X-Acute's strongest suit. The gunslinger seemed to flip and dodge effortlessly, and more importantly, retained the upper hand in this fight.

A short distance away, Bruteforce eyed the approaching T5.

"I'm assuming you've tackled something like this before," he murmured to no one in particular.

The Thunderbird just nodded and clenched his mace tightly, taking a step toward the robot.

Brianna turned and noticed the ongoing battle behind them. "Griss..." she breathed.

The mercenary turned. A frown creased his face. "Damn."

"Shouldn't we help him?" the pretty winged girl asked.

Grissom nodded in the direction of the lumbering T5. "I think we 'ave more pressin' concerns at the moment, love," he pointed out sardonically.

Ed leapt into the air and charged at the robot. He dodged a swinging appendage effortlessly and zeroed in on the mechanical monster, brandishing Durendal with intent to kill.

"Go 'elp 'im," Grissom suggested. "We'll want you both in the air, if only to create a diversion." He turned. "I'll go see what I can do for Philsy over there."

"Be careful," Brianna advised the Brit. "I don't want to see you get yourself killed out here."

Grissom winked. "Nothin' to worry about, love. You forget with whom you're dealin'!"

Phil dove behind a boulder to evade a hail of bullets from the now amused X-Acute.

"Is that all you got?" the gunslinger taunted. "Are you just going to keep running away from me?"

Behind them, there was a resounding thunderclap as Durendal connected with the T5. It distracted X-Acute long enough for Phil to unleash a burst from one of his MP5s. Alerted by the chatter of the submachine gun, X-Acute vaulted into the air, the bullets missing him cleanly.

Rama Avatar stepped forward as Ed circled around for another assault. "Interesting," he observed as he examined the T5 carefully.

Ed's flight path was interrupted by one of the T5's wildly-swinging legs. It caught the winged metahuman at the midsection and hurled him backward and to the ground. The robot stabbed at the downed Italian with another leg - only to have Rama bury his sword in the metallic appendage. Wounded and enraged, the T5 sprang forward, but Rama simply hacked at it again, landing another vicious blow.

Phil was running out of options. If he stood any chance of stopping X-Acute, he had to take the fight to the gunslinger. He emerged from behind the boulder and dashed toward X-Acute, opening up with both MP5s. The gunslinger sidestepped and fired two shots. Each connected with gunmetal and knocked one of the MP5s from one of Phil's hands. Startled and weaponless, Phil threw himself to the ground and rolled out of the way of a string of shots - the last of which grazed his left shoulder. Phil gasped in pain, but he could tell the injury wasn't serious. Still, it had been a long time since he had actually been hit by a bullet - so long, in fact, that he wouldn't have remembered it at all.

X-Acute charged forward, victory within his grasp. Phil looked for somewhere to go but found no cover within reach.

Brianna let out a piercing sonic cry that temporarily overloaded the T5's sonic receptors. Bewildered, the robot swung a leg in the girl's direction but missed - and Rama seized the opportunity to strike again. Wounded yet again by the same blade, T5 staggered back and pulled that leg behind itself.

Where Bruteforce promptly wrenched it off.

Infuriated, the robot spun around, looking for the source of this new threat, but lost its balance and nearly toppled.

"We have him now!" the Thunderbird cried.

Phil was on his knees, his back to X-Acute, clutching his shoulder. He couldn't see the gunslinger, but his imprint on the telepathic landscape was just as visible to Phil, even facing the other way.

It looked like Smith was out of options.

"It looks like you're out of options," Phil heard X-Acute say confidently.

<<<Not just yet, mate>>> a voice in Phil's head called as a chrome-plated revolver materialized on the ground in front of him.

Phil's right hand drifted subtly over the gun and clutched it.

"You should've tried to negotiate before we... Shit!!!" X-Acute's voice cut off abruptly as he was struck in the back with the flat of a hurled sword. The gunslinger spun around to see Rama approaching him. Observing the Indian carried no other visible weapons, X-Acute spun back around and opened fire on Phil.

The telepath leapt straight up into the air, spun around in mid-leap, peered down at the upside-down gunslinger, and fired two shots with Grissom's revolver. The two shots struck X-Acute solidly in both shoulders, crippling both arms and spinning the man around before dropping him to the ground.

Arriving behind the fallen gunslinger, Rama nonchalantly retrieved his sword, nodded to the still-airborne Phil, turned, and charged back toward the flailing T5.

Smith landed beside the wounded X-Acute, who lay there gasping for breath. His injuries weren't life-threatening, but it made little difference, as the defenseless gunslinger glared up at the still-armed telepath.

"Go ahead," X-Acute sneered. "Finish the job. You earned it."

Phil leveled the revolver at X-Acute's head - and frowned, peering curiously at the man. Behind him, the T5 began to stagger about as the Vanguardians kept hacking at it.

"What are you waiting for?" the gunslinger growled.

Phil looked at the wounded man on the ground. He saw a desperate killer who had taken countless lives. He saw one of the most amazingly talented fighters in the world. He saw a vicious mercenary. He saw an ordinary man trying to use his talents to make a living.

He saw what Dirk Bell might have been if he hadn't found the MBL.

He saw what Phil Smith might have been if he hadn't gone to La Perdita.

"You gonna finish this or not?" X-Acute demanded.

"Yeah," Phil said softly. "I am."

And with that, he clubbed X-Acute over the head with the butt of the revolver. The gunslinger went limp as he slipped out of consciousness.

"Couldn't do it, could you?"

Phil turned to see Grissom walk up behind him. "No." He turned. "But I suppose I owe you... again."

"I've put it on your tab," the mercenary quipped. "I see you got grazed there," he observed, pointing to the telepath's shoulder.

"I'll get over it," Phil replied, still lost in thought. "Thanks for bailing me out," he said as he handed Grissom his revolver and went to retrieve his guns.

"I think we'd better 'ead back over there," Grissom suggested, "and 'elp the others finish off that robot."

"Sounds like a plan."

The barefooted stranger stepped passed the bleeding, unconscious body of X-Acute. He didn't even notice the man, eyes fixed on the spectacle before him. Brianna suddenly zoomed past him, straight over his head, swooping in for another pass at the massive creature known as T5.

Thirty-feet away, tentacles whisked through the rain trying to locate the contstantly moving targets of the Vanguardians. Bri swept in, diving for a screaming strafe. A sudden sheet of hypersonics washed over ground-zero, sparks flying from the mechanical monstrosity.

Bullets freckled its frame in a glittering orange, Smith's recovered MP5's keeping the rebuilding nanotech quite busy. Montag stood off to the side, his arms moving fast and furious. As if climbing a horizontal mountain, his hands moved end-over-end, each palm finding another chunk of electronics and metal in each grasp. His teeth gritting from the exertion, Grissom was trying to literally take the thing apart with his bare hands.....trying to break it down faster than it could rebuild itself.

Rama ran cover for the thief, slicing any and every tentacle that arched too close. The gleaming blade of ancient Caliburne in his grip, he effortlessly countered every strike with precision and grace.

The stranger watched Rama, fixated on him with a sense of awe. Avatar's expression was solid and composed, moving in a single-step dance. Fluid form, and slight of wrist, the weapon would twist and flow through the air in a calculated sway. Then, once a tentacle reached too far, would instantly strike in clean sweeps, like a cobra striking its prey....returning to the relaxed sway without missing a beat.

"...Gaius Apuleis..." the stranger mumbled, seemingly recognizing something familiar about Rama.

On the exact opposite side of the creature, Ben Phillips and Edulcore Cicciotto worked their own special blends of magic and mayhem.

Brute Force clenched a massively thick tentacle with both hands, heaving with a strained expression. And, slowly but surely, he ripped it completely out. Swinging it up over his head, Ed folded smoothly under the swing, coming in for a quick and direct clap of mace-thunder, cutting a deep swath into the belly of the beast. Following his turn, and dive, Phillips slammed the fractured tentacle deeper into the gash, a fountain of sparks flying from the exploding circuitry.

Phil glanced to his right, swinging a gun around at the approaching stranger. He paused, the two making eye contact. He hadn't been conscious long enough to have even acknowledged his presence until now. Quick tele-sweeps gave up the last half-hour of the man's life.

He scanned through his immediate memories like flipping pages in a cheap novel. He got far enough back to see the man trying to pull the neural-transmitter from his temple, to realize that he wasn't a threat.

"You!" Smith yelled out at the stranger, spinning back to T5 for another shot. "Get the hell out of here, or get into the game!"

The stranger's upper lip curled a bit with seeming indignance, and nodded once. He began running forward, a tentacle spinning to meet his path. It coiled quickly around his wait, even as he immediately countered by gripping it with both outstretched hands. He lunged back hard, pulling the metal coil momentarily taught. Then, with a quick kick-up, snapped his barefoot straight through the metal. The damaged appendage recoiled, even as the stranger...still holding the metal around him...began spinning around and around in place.

The tentacle swung out further and further, as he gained speed, Brianna quickly doing a sonic fly-by. The dishelved man suddenly released the tentacle, the thick metal coil colliding with the machine in heap of sparks and smoke.

Another tentacle shot out, catching Phil by the ankle, with another following at the stranger.

Smith leveled the MP5 down point-blank at the metal, the resulting fire sawing it in half. The stranger rammed a ridgid palm straight into the underside of the new tentacle, ripping a small hole in the coil. He quickly jerked his hand back with a grimace of pain, the metal having cut his hand up.

Bullets whizzed by his head, pushing the tentacle back, Smith running up behind him.

"Careful..." he stated, glancing at the man's hand.

"I...will be fine..." he replied with a nod.

"By the way, who are you?" he asked, opening fire again.

"I do not know." the man shrugged.

Phil cocked an eye at him, a small smile forming.

"...join the club..." he mumbled.

"Raaargh!!" Ed roared out in fury, ramming the mace through another portion of the adapting creature. Lightning flashed with the strike, peels of thunder following. "THIS IS GOING NOWHERE!"

"YOU HAVE A BETTER IDEA?" Phil yelled back from the other side, guns blazing.

Without warning, a small, metallic creature known only as RoboSquirrel whizzed by, heading straight towards the heart of the beast.

"Assistance has arrived."

"Somebody get that damn thing off the battlefield!" Grissom yelled.

"Speak for youself." Rama countered.

RoboSquirrel dove in, weapons blazing. His path veered to and fro, as he ducked and avoided wildly lashing tentacles. He flew right up to the center hub of the creature, brandishing a small buzzsaw blade.

Sparks began to fly, as RoboSquirrel started sawing into the belly of the creature. Suddenly, a single tentacle snared him in its grasp, quickly retracting, pulling the metallic squirrel down into its form....

...to absorb it like any other technology.

"ROBOSQUIRREL!!" Brute Force yelled with sheer dramatics.

He paused, looking at the rest of the Vanguardians, who kind of stared at him funny.

"...what...not so much?" he shrugged.

Something that sounded like a mechanical laughter emanated from within the T5 robot as he absorbed the metallic rodent that had been pestering Vanguard for some time now. RoboSquirrel was now a part of the T5...

"You bastard!" BruteForce cried, running to the robot and hammering away at its fuselage, denting it considerably. As he pounded, one of the T5's tentacles reached down, pulling the fighter from beside him and lifting him into the air. Phillips strained against the tentacle, pulling against it as it lifted him high into the air.

Grissom closed his eyes, straining as beads of sweat began to roll down his face. His teeth gritted in fierce concentration as he attempted to teleport the RoboSquirrel from inside the T5's bowels. He was afraid of 'porting out random bits of circuitry, for fear of damaging the little guy.

Euro continued his assault, to no avail, swinging his mace wildly and colliding with the T5's 'head'. A large chunk of metal flew off with a thunder peal, but the alien tech immediately began to rebuild itself, making the Thunderbird's attack almost moot.

The mysterious stranger stood on the beach, his purple-hued eyes flashing against the lightning emanating from Cicciotto's mace. Almost as if by some strange force of will all his own, the tentacles seemed to avoid him. In response, however, he stood still, staring intently at his injured hand, as if trying to heal it with his eyes.

From the air, Brianna streaked past in a blur, grabbing handfuls of wiring as she passed. She wasn't sure what, if anything, it would accomplish, but she was hoping it would do something. She was out of ammunition for her crossbow, leaving her and her sonic cry to fight off this mechanical monstrosity that lay before Vanguard International.

As she flew by, a mammoth robotic tentacle managed to wrap around her ankle. She continued to fly, but the grip was too great and the woman faltered, just slightly. However, she soon regained her composure and, doubling back toward the android, diving underneath it. Dodging other tentacles as they came toward her, she flew out the other side of the T5's underbelly, where Rama Avatar waited for her, slicing through the tentacle that ensnared her foot.

"Thanks, Rama," she said, smiling.

The Indian merely nodded, accepting her gratitude, before leaping back into the fray.

As Banshee took to the skies, Rama batted at the menacing tentacles of the T5 android almost effortlessly. His focus was great and concentration impeccable. As Caliburn dug deep within the T5 robot, Avatar almost let out a hearty laugh, but caught himself before it slipped out.

Phil Smith, on the other hand, was getting no enjoyment out of this. He fired off a few rounds from his MP5, but realized it was all in vain. To truly go on the offensive, he'd have to start using his posthuman abilities.

Extending his hand, he rocketed into the sky, his mind pushing his body against the ground and raising him into the sky. There, from his perch above the ground, the Unidentified Man began to rip apart the T5 android piece by piece. And, in typical fashion for the robot, he began to reassembled almost immediately the pieces into himself.

"Damn!" Phil thought. "This isn't working!" As he thought on, a giant tentacle came up behind him, swatting the secret agent from his perch, wrecking his concentration.

As the Unidentified Man plummeted, the strong arms of Edulcore Cicciotto were there to catch him. The Thunderbird flew on mechanical wings, setting Phil Smith on the ground.

"Thanks," Phil said, nodding at Ed.

Cicciotto nodded. "Any bright ideas?" he asked.

"I'm working on it," Phil said, running towards the robot. "Cover me!"

Ducking under the T5, Phil reached up, yanking a damaged piece of metal from the robot before it could heal up. Phil looked at a heap of circuitry, reaching his hand in. He began crossing wires, ripping out chips, anything that might shut this creature down.

As he did so, however, sheets of metal began to latch on around him, closing him within the robotic structure. Like RoboSquirrel, he too was being assimilated into the T5's components.

Foreign element detected, Phil heard the massive robot's tinny voice reply. Scanning...

Phil suddenly got the worst migraine of his life. It felt as though something was ripping apart his spine. Like...

...like the T5 robot had spotted the circuits and metal that caused his own powers and was attempting to assimilate them into itself.

Phil screamed as the pull on his brain got harder and harder to fight. The pain shot all through his body, almost paralyzing in its intensity.

Outside the robot, Vanguard fought on as valiantly as possible... until a small, round piece of metal was hurled from the massive 'droid, hitting Grissom on the head with minimal intensity.

"Ow!" he said, holding his hand to his head. "Sonnuva...!"

And, as that happened, the T5 robot just stopped. The tentacles stopped flailing. Ben Phillips dropped to the ground with a heavy THUD as he was released from the tentacle that held him above the ground.

"...the hell?" Phillips said, looking up at the stalled mechanical beast. The mysterious stranger reached down to help the large man to his feet.

"What has happened?" Rama said, walking up to Grissom as Euro and Bri landed just behind him.

"Hell if I know," the thief responded, looking on in confusion.

A loud clatter was heard as the metal bottom dropped out of the T5 'bot to reveal Phil Smith, holding his head in his hands. Rising slowly, he turned to the other members of Vanguard who looked at him, puzzled.

"Don't look at me," he said, shrugging. "It was trying to suck all the circuitry out of my head..."

Suddenly, Vanguard tensed as they heard a familiar, yet deceptively menacing voice emanating from the T5. "Fear not, Vanguard. RoboSquirrel has neutralized the hostile element."

BruteForce's face lit up with sheer surprise. "ROBOSQUIRREL!" he yelled excitedly. "Where are you?"

"I am here," T5 responded with RoboSquirrel's voice. "It would appear that the T5 had never assimilated sentient technology before and, as such, was not prepared for the repercussions of such an action."

Vanguard merely looked on, dumbfounded, as a hole was blasted out of the side of the T5. On the other side, soaring out (with the chorus of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" playing on its ear-speakers) was RoboSquirrel. BruteForce jumped up and down, clapping his hands as RoboSquirrel flew up to him.

"The T5 element has been isolated into the acorn that was ejected exactly 37.4 seconds ago," he said as matter-of-factly as a mechanical squirrel can.

"Y'mean this one?" Grissom asked, pointing to the thing that had hit him on the head just moments ago.

"Affirmative."

Montag's thick boot heel collided with the acorn, breaking the thing into tiny pieces. "So..." he said, looking up, "we done?"

"Not yet," Ed said, his eyes narrowing. "Where's Merlin?"

Danny lay on the crappy mattress in his crappy apartment and sighed. He had no TV and very few possessions, and so was quite often left bored.

And with nothing to occupy his mind, he was miserable.

Rachel, the woman he once claimed to love, died by his hand. Then Danny got up and poured himself another coffee.

Danny slashed a claw across the throat of Werevamp Max, then drank the coffee down in one gulp.

Victoria Xiang's stomach was warm and soft around his claws. She fell dying to the floor, and the coffee cup rolled out of his hand and crashed on the kitchen tiles.

Danny's legs gave way beneath him and he collapsed to the floor, against the wooden kitchen cabinet. He sobbed once, loudly, and sank his head into his hands.

It was then that he remembered something. Not long ago, when he had burned himself at work. He'd used an organic painkiller generated by his own powers. He concentrated for a moment, and did it again. The painkiller flooded into his system, and he let out a relieved moan.

He slowly stretched out across the kitchen floor.

Doctor Henry Quantos strolled down a corridor of the Glover Memorial Hospital, softly humming a tune to himself. He had just returned from a visit with Rose and little Amara, and they were both doing fine after the birth. As a director at the now-extinct scientific research and development firm, Malvan-X Inc, in Mandelovia for 15 years, Quantos had not had many opportunities to use his medical doctorate for anything other than the occasional sprained ankle when the official company doctor was not available. He certainly had not had any opportunities to deliver any new lives into the world until he came here, to La Perdita. Cicciotto's child had been just the most recent and rewarding of a number of births he had delivered over the past year since he established his medical clinic. Euro's family was growing larger all the time.

He idly wondered if he would ever live to have another child himself someday, one who shared his name, before putting it out of his mind. He was 64, pushing retirement age, and it wasn't likely he would become involved with any woman young enough to have a child by him.

Quantos chuckled to himself at this thought as he arrived at the double-glass doors in the lobby of the hospital. Glancing up he saw that the gentle Caribbean night was beginning, and everything looked peaceful outside.

He pushed both doors open with uncharacteristic fervour...

...and stopped in his tracks.

He had seen a peaceful sunset through the glass doors, but now that they were open, a completely new vision was set before his eyes:

The sky was stormy, clouds swirling in impossible formations as flashes of electrical light illuminated them from within. The air was positively charged with ionized energy, sending a chill down his spine. The exotic environment was only the least of the strangeness, however, as he looked down.

He stood on the edge of a precipice, his heels planted on the metal doorframe the only part of his body keeping him physically inside the hospital. He yelped suddenly and pushed himself back with the open doors, collapsing on the lobby ground painfully.

As he watched the double-doors close very slowly, he saw that there was a tiny stone path that seemed to rest on nothing but darkness below. This path twisted and turned, rising slowly upwards until it reached a hilly outcropping of rock, upon which sat a medieval-type stone castle lit from behind by the mosaic of lights in the sky behind it. As the doors came to a final close he could have sworn that the spires of that castle somehow beckoned to him, as if to come hither while there was still time, yet the scenes of normal La Perdita night-life could be seen through the glass window-doors.

He remained sitting on his ass, his hands splayed out behind him, propping him up, until an orderly walked up to him.

"Doctor Quantos?" Hernando said gently. "Doctor, are you all right?"

"No," said the good doctor. "I mean... I don't know. Maybe."

Hernando frowned at the older man and said, "Well, I'm just getting off work now, Doctor Quantos. Perhaps you would care to join me for a drink at Jake's?"

Quantos barely heard what the young orderly had said, still marvelling at the impossibility he had just seen.

Hernando waited a moment more for an answer, shrugged, and stepped over to the front door, reaching for the push-bars.

"N-no!" Quantos shouted. "Hernando, look out!"

But it was too late, and the door was wide open by the time Hernando stopped and looked behind him with an incredulous look at the old doctor. Everything outside was completely normal. Absolutely and completely normal. "Yes, doctor?"

Doctor Henry Quantos gulped and said, "N-never mind, Hernando."

"All right," said the orderly, muttering, "senile old lunatic" under his breath as he left the hospital.

***

On the little island nicknamed "Dawson Isle" some miles off the La Perdita coast, the battle had come to an end, yet the war for the Vanguardians seemed to have only just begun. They had been attacked by Jack Merlin, the man who had become their arch-enemy, and although the battle had the unintended effect of uniting the team in a way that it had not been since Danny Hearn's betrayal, it had spent a great deal of their energy. They needed all their stamina for the upcoming confrontation with Jack Merlin himself, as that infamous centenarian always had a few aces up his sleeve. He somehow turned his every defeat into another opportunity, rising again and again like a phoenix.

But enough of the mixed metaphors.

Rama Avatar felt absent, not quite himself, for at least as long as the team had left the island, maybe a little bit longer. He had reason for being distracted, however, which he had been mulling over in his mind for hours now. During all the battles he had been letting Caliburn do most of the work, setting himself on "auto-pilot" and simply going through the motions as his team expected he should.

Yet something had been nagging at him during the whole time.

He thought at first it was his personal protective reaction for Brianna as he guessed that the young woman had been seduced by that philanderer Montag (who was thus proven to be every bit the scoundrel that his ancestor was in the Swordsman's mind), a guess that had recently been all but confirmed, but as concerned as he felt inwardly about that situation, and as much as he knew he had to confront that Lothario once all this was over with, he knew that could not be what was provoking this peculiar reaction. No, it seemed somehow familiar. A scent, or a sound, something tactile, perhaps, yet most probably none of those things.

He felt the same way now as he had felt when the team was undergoing that apparent hallucination of the future brought on by Merlin. The same feeling had struck him then as it did now, and he was not at all convinced that Merlin had told them the truth. As improbable as that future vision seemed, it felt no less real than the battle he had just recently undergone. And therein lay the mystery.

His fellow Vanguardians (and the stragglers they had as usual picked up along the way) were too busy contemplating their next move. It was obvious: Jack Merlin had to be taken down now. Finally. Once and for all. All their enemies had to be slaughtered so that they could not, too, rise again to defeat them in the future.

Rama Avatar breathed deeply the acrid smell of metal and blood, the remnants of battle. He smelled something else on the wind as well, however, something unexpected which shocked him to his core. He followed the smell.

He felt somewhat light-headed and giddy as he came closer and closer to a writhing figure who was trying her best to free herself from her captivity without success. She was facing the other direction, but as he neared she stopped and slowly twisted her face to see him, her visage twisted with a horrible grin.

"My, my... Mister Templar, you have been working out, haven't you?" Jia said with a tone that seemed at once both a snarl and a laugh. "And the Caribbean sun has done wonders for your former Irish complexion," she snickered.

"Jia," Rama Avatar breathed, a rage slowly boiling up from inside of him.

"Ah, but there's more to it than that, isn't there?" Jia said with mock sympathy. "I do believe I've... hurt you, haven't I? Oh, my poor, poor man. Someone should have told you that my lovers never survive our nuptial bliss. Yet here you are before me, a new man. Tell me, Mister Templar, if that's what you still call yourself, what did it feel like to... die?"

Rama Avatar answered her taunts by raising his sword, the uncharacteristic rage boiling over suddenly as his voice seemed to revert to his former life: "What did it feel like? I'LL TEACH YOU HOW IT FEELS!" he bellowed as he brought his sword up in an arc to bring it down with as much force upon her neck as possible... until her next words stopped him.

"You're a daddy!" she shrieked accusingly, pausing as the Swordsman stopped the path of his sword, suddenly confused. "You wouldn't hurt the mother of your own child... would you?" she snarled with a cautiously triumphant tone. She could still survive, she thought, worm her way out of this situation to live another day.

"What...?" Rama breathed. He was in a state of shock, his mind conflating two situations at once. He had been a father once, at least as far as he could remember, and that had already been on his mind for other reasons. This new information confused him. "What did you say?"

"I thought that would catch your attention, lover," Jia said in a sultry voice. "He's beautiful, Mason, a perfect combination of mother and father, taking on the best qualities of both. Oh, he wasn't the only one -- he was born with eleven other brothers and sisters, each of which he devoured shortly after birth, as he was the strongest of them all. The worthiest. I call him Cryptis, in honor of his mysterious father."

Rama's face was steely. "You are a liar."

"A liar, am I? Are you so sure about that? Are you willing to bet your son's life on it? He may be the strongest of our spawn, swordsman, but he still needs a mother's love in his fragile infancy. I intend to raise him to be as strong as his father. You must meet him someday, husband. His soul is pure, free from all constraints of morality. He will finish the job I began." At this, she playfully licked her lips as she glanced at the side of Rama's stomach.

The Swordsman continued to stand as Jia stared at him, seeing what effect her words had on him. She had cut through to his very soul -- she could tell.

Rama opened his mouth finally and said, "I've given it some thought, and I realize I simply do not care to listen to you any longer."

Jia said, "But--"

"Goodbye."

At that, Rama Avatar struck the side of Jia's head with the flat of his sword, rendering her unconscious. He then proceeded to slice off each of Jia's arms and legs with his sword, which flashed green as it cauterized her wounds cleanly, turning her into a harmless amputee. "Mother of lies," he muttered under his breath.

Doctor Henry Quantos was back in his cozy little private clinic office once more, too shaken to do anything but lie on his leather couch. That was strange. That was very strange. Of course, strangeness was par for the course for La Perdita, or at least for anyone connected with Vanguard. He was not a member and had never been a member, but ever since he first met Danny Hearn so long ago that day in Mandelovia, his life had been full of strangeness. And if Vanguard had not been enough, he also had a boy magician for a son to contend with. He briefly wondered if Axel had anything to do with this but quickly put it out of his mind. The boy was no prankster and was certainly not capable of creating what he had seen. At least not yet.

It reminded him of something else he had seen, however. Not quite the same, but on two separate occasions he had been introduced to a similar apparition, a door leading to a place it should not and could not by any stretch of the imagination. It had been one of Doctor Quantos’s great unsolved mysteries, one of several which the aging scientist had locked away in the vault of his mind under the search term “not yet solved.”

He wondered if something was trying to tell him... something.

He continued to lie on his couch long after an urgent feeling that he should get up right away had begun. He felt that he should open up his office door, the one he had intentionally left open but which had slowly crept shut of its own accord. It was the only exit out of this room, with the exception of the windows, and he was no agile young man any longer. His only exit was the door. It seemed to mock him.

There are no other exits, old man. Only me.

It was all in his head, of course, but he was beginning to give way to paranoia. Was this all strangeness for strangeness’s sake, or did it have a purpose? Was it just a funny little interlude in life that had no bearing on anything else, or was it central to the story? Quantos knew none of these things. All he knew was that he could no longer put off opening that door and stepping through into whatever he would find there.

He stood up and walked hesitantly towards the door. There he stopped, and crouched down onto the floor, his old knees making popping sounds as if to remind him how incredibly long it has been since he last made a trip to the gym. His vision was not perfect, but it was fair, and he could see nothing but the carpet in the outer lobby through the crack underneath the door. There was that, yet why was he so sure that he would not see that outer lobby when he finally turned that handle?

“Just get it over with,” Henry Quantos muttered to himself. “The audience is waiting.”

He reached for the door, his body completely tense, and he slowly turned the handle, finally pulling the door inward.

Doctor Quantos relaxed somewhat as he realized he was not facing the horrible vision of the castle that had spooked him so earlier. No, instead he was presented with a much more familiar setting, yet one which seemed completely strange by its emptiness. He saw no lobby, of course, but a sprawling maze of booths, tables, and open floors, lit with gentle incandescent lights everywhere. Yet it remained mostly dark and mysterious. The strangest thing about it, except for its existence, of course, was that it was empty. Completely empty.

Or was it?

As Doctor Henry Quantos stepped over the threshold of the doorway, allowing regretfully the door behind him to close, he seemed to hear some kind of moaning. Something actually very familiar to him. And Doctor Henry Quantos stepped up his pace, following the sound. Now he knew what he had to do. He knew why he, of all people, had been chosen.

"Not yet," Ed said, his eyes narrowing. "Where's Merlin?"

Grissom looked at the sky crossed by lighting-bolts , and then at the face of Merlin looking at them from the monitor. "Rhetorical question, right, Ed? I was wondering why you wanted to keep us so wet during the fight, but now I see your reasoning."

Euro smiled with gritted teeth, and with a theatrical gesture threw the mace, who fled straight to the airship with the big monitor, breaking its outer shell.

The image on the monitor disappeared.

The Vanguardians moved at unison toward the ship, first running, then, as they were approaching, slowing down. They stopped just a few metres from the damaged ship.

Through the hole, just occasional sparkles of electricity from broken cables were visible, breaking the total darkness.

Then, a mad laugh was heard, coming from the deep inside of the ship.

All the Vanguardians raised their weapons. The moment each of them has waited for so long finally had arrived.

The storm had ceased. The clouds dissipated, a rainbow saluting the return of the tropical sand.

A bird began to sing, and then suddenly shut off, like being aware of the dramatic force of the moment.

Brianna, from under the wet, sticky long red hairs, glanced a Grissom, who glanced back and smiled at her.

The squirrel landed over the shoulder of Brute Force, whose muscles shuddered instinctively for just a moment.

Ed took Durendal from the sheath in the backpack, and balanced it with the two hands.

Rama specularly unsheathed his own Caliburn, branding it with just one hand, being it a short Roman gladius.

Phil frowned, raising the MP5s and aiming them toward the hole in the ship side. For a second he though how much reliable his gun were, opposed to his own powers, but put the though back, and looked straight at the hole.

The bearded stranger cocked his head, feeling the pathos of the moment, although he had no idea why that bunch of powered men were so thrilled by what, or who, they were expecting to see appearing from that broken ship.

There was a burst of wind coming from the sea, bringing the salty aroma of the Ocean, mixed with the heavy smell of algae drying under the sun.

A fly buzzed.

Then it was silence.

The breathing of the ones nearer become evident to each Vanguardian for an instant, and then it was forgotten, lost in the painful waiting.

Silence.

Then, the click of heels over the metallic floor of the ship broke the silence.

Every weapon in the hand of the Vanguardians, swords, crossbow, MP5s, handgun... was raised again and aimed straight at the hole.

Another step.

From the darkness inside the ship the Thundermace was thrown outside, in an ample arch, and landed precisely a few centimetres on the sand in front of the Vanguardians feet.

"I guess this is yours, Thunderchicken!" spoke loudly Merlin, still hiding in the darkness.

Another step, and the figure of Jack Merlin, son of Myrrdin and leader of the Strikeforce, appeared. Framed by the curled rim of the broken side of the airship, the Vanguardians saw the tall, imposing figure, the long white hairs moving in the wind coming from the sea, the wicked smile, the red ruby piercing eyes.

The deadly villain, the man who, alone, was able to cage the Vanguardians inside the narrow borders of La Perdita, was finally right in front of them.

"Finally we face again, Vangurdians. Too bad your skull faced friend, who dared to boot me outside your door, is not among you." Merlin shrugged. "Next time, its turn. Now yours!"

And saying that, he unsheathed a long, bronze gleaming sword from a big scabbard on his back.

The sword was very long, leaf shaped, with a network of pulsating red veins embracing the blade. And the hilt, with its phallic features, was unmistakable.

"Ladnikia!" yelled Euro, while Merlin waved her, in a complex sword-dance.

"Ladnikia is singing, kids. Soon she will drink your blood!" said Merlin, smiling sadly. And pointed the sword toward the heroes, menacingly.

"How lame, mate" said Grissom. A revolver appeared in his right hand, and fired.

Merlin, hit fully in the chest, fell to the ground. After an instant, a pool of blood enlarged from below his body.

All Vanguardians stood silently. Just Brianna wondered: "It ends like this? Really?"

Grissom coughed. "Not quite, my dear... if my guessing is right..."

Suddenly, reality around them faded away, like a bad dream, leaving the eight persons in the middle of nothing... or, better, of a limitless wooden floor, without any wall or ceiling to contain it. Around them, a vast grey nothingness.

On the floor, a seemingly dead body, of one that surely was not Merlin.

Grissom kneeled near the man, two of his three fingers pressing the throat, looking for a pulse.

"It's alive" beat him Phil. "But totally senseless. He needs medical care asap".

"But... who is him?" asked Brianna, looking at each of his teammates in turn. It was a young man,

No one seemed to hold an answer, until Phil exclaimed: "I know him! And you should too, Bree."

The girl frowned. "It seems familiar... now that you said so..."

"He was one of those youngsters that fought us one year ago, when we teamed up with that otherworldly MBL. The one with the rifle..." explained Phil.

Grissom's hands ran through the man's uniform with an ability that left some of the Vanguardians surprised. Easily, he found some documents. "Dominique LaSalle, Agent Hunter. Strikeforce UN clearance for most of the countries of the world" said the Brit, closing the documents, and beginning to seal the wound with the standard medical equipment found in the backpack of the man.

Phil looked around, in the vast emptiness. "I guess the standard questions would be: what happened? What is this place? And why we were fighting this man? It's obvious the explanation of Merlin were fakes, as everything before. And after."

"I think it's pretty obvious where we are. Not many of us have been there, but there is just a place where things are not what they seems, when crossing a door you find yourself in a completely different world, where something architectonically complex as a tesseract is lined with wooden floors and Victorian furniture. The cave is an entrance to the Castle of Crossed Destinies" said Grissom, lighting up a cigarette.

"The Castle of... what?" asked Brianna. The others were looking around, the squirrel strangely silent, the stranger visibly intertested, Euro with a strange expression, while eyeing the place closely.

"The Castle of Crossed Destinies, luv. A sort of realities hub... basically a place with many door, from which you leave a reality to enter a completely different one. Poor Chance joined Vanguard right in that Castle... coming from an alternate dimension. Maybe the hologram of Vanguard we saw in that future... maybe it was the Vanguard that Kris lead in his universe... And who have we fought here? Most of them where villain we had found right in the Castle... and some of them we killed in there. The Scorpions, Aurochs, Knell... and the others were villains we killed or destroyed before, so that in our reality couldn't have been in the Strikeforce: the T5 robot, X Acute... Jia that is in the EPS prison." Grissom looked at the wounded Strikeforcer. "And him... maybe he was charged to control us, he followed us across the door... exactly like the squirrel has done... and what you too must have done..." said Grissom looking at the stranger "and then when he attacked us, he was altered by the Castle to represent his organisation... with even his boss."

Euro nodded. "Interesting theory. But now that you have opened my eyes, I have a different explanation. When I came to La Perdita the first time, that very first evening Grimm brought me and the other Vanguardians to Jake's Place... yes, where you works these days, BF".

The Italian took a pause, his eyes lost to a past that seemed remote to him.

"That night, me, Chance and Quantos... especially Quantos... experienced a strange thing. We saw things that were supposed not be there. Me and Kris saw a big tesseract like space. Quantos went to the bathroom, and ended up first in Paris, then in Tokio. Jake's explained it giving the blame to hypnotic byproduct of some metas there... but then, a strange little man, with a impossible name, gave us another version... we would have stumbled upon a thing... a fourth dimensional living being... called Metatithenai... a living dimensional hub" said Ed.

"And you believed him?" asked Phil, perplexed. The others were simply staring at him.

"Frankly, at the time, not. Not me, at least. But now, everything seems to fit. The Vanguardians in the hologram were exactly the ones that went to the bar that night... there was Turner, who had fled from the EPS along me... there were Baaghrupta and Uncle Otto... plus, if you think about it, what we experienced pointed always to a dame in distress... first the future Queen, then Brianna in the hand of Jia... I wonder if the Metatithenai was asking us to protect her... from this Strikeforcer."

Grissom frowned. "And you believe a thing like the one you just described would have been sitting here, when moving across space and time would have been so simple for it?"

Ed shook his head. "You' re right... but what if for a mysterious reason she was not able to move? She called upon us... the Vanguardians she met that night... that would explain the door so easily to open... and then, once we revealed to be not the same person she met, the robot attacked us... just to leave place to Jake's bar, and our friend BF, once the Metatithenai recognised us as the current Vanguardians. There was even a sort of welcoming sign at Jake!"

"But that sign it was really at Jake's!" protested BruteForce.

"Yes, sure" said Rama, taking from where Euro had left. "And that's why the Metatithenai send us there, just to take us out all of a sudden, transferring us to a different reality, where a Hunter character was hunting a Queen. But then, since we were taking so much time, he transferred us to another reality, much more similar our own, where she put us to confront the Strikeforce. Here everything was a lot less subtle, and the message evident: nothing is how it appears. First we were said that we have been victim of hallucinations, then we have old allies revealed as to be enemies, just to revert to robot. And again, we had a Hunter... a spider, a deadly critter... capturing our only female member... same situation of the previous reality. After we defeated the Hunter... the one that in our reality is our hunter supreme, Merlin... the truth was revealed, and we are here... inside the so called Metatithenai"

Grissom grimaced, shaking his head. "This doesn't explain why this metathing able to transport people from one dimension to another would be so helpless confronting a mere man".

Euro shrugged, and after having glanced at Rama, who shook his head, said: "I don't know. I haven't an answer for that..."

"But I do!" said a voice from behind.

They all turned, to see Doc Quantos appearing from a open door that surely was not there before.

"I know why you have been called here..."

Robo Squirrel buzzed and whirred for a solid fifty three seconds. A loud and shrill beep suddenly emanated from him.

"This... this does not compute!" The squirrel yelled.

Ed stood before Quantos, wondering why he was here and where they would be led.

"We have to escape from this Metithenai!" Ed yelled.

"Then you must find the wizard. But first... you must claim what is yours..." Quantos said. He gestured to Ed's left, where Merlin's great ship lay shattered and broken. Beneath the ship, obscured by the landing gear, lay the dead body of Jack Merlin. Or at least, the guy who was pretending to be Merlin. Or something. The lower half of the man's body poked out from beneath the ship, and Quantos leaned down to grab something from the man's waist.

"This is the ruby evil sword!" Quantos said, and held the phony Ladnikia aloft. It glowed red along its edges, gleaming where it caught the light. Quantos held it out to Ed, who took it carefully.

"You must follow the Yellow-Brick Path of Crossed Destinies..." Quantos said, gesturing behind him.

"Very well," Ed said. Robo Squirrel beeped behind him.

"Come on, Toto Squirrel. Let's go," Ed said. He marched off down the road, Toto Squirrel hovering behind him and keeping pace.

"Something about this place seems... off..." Ed said, as they passed a cornfield which was there for no real reason.

A faint sigh caught Toto Squirrel's attention. The robot spun around in the air to face the source of the noise, weapons raised. Ed followed suit, holding his ruby evil sword aloft.

They saw a man standing alone in the field, staring into the distance.

The man turned, to face the two travellers.

"Who are you?" Ed asked.

"I think my name is Phil..."

"What seems to be your trouble, Phil?"

"I've lost... my brain. My memories, my past, my mind... it's all gone..." Phil said softly, then turned away from them.

"Follow us! We are searching for a wizard who can return us home. I am certain a man as powerful as that could find your brain," Ed said. Phil smiled at this, and joined the two on the road.

Shortly after that, they came across a man who appeared to be stuck in place on the side of the road. He was muttering to them as they walked by.

The man was large and muscular looking, with a bright blue "BF" emblazoned across his chest.

"...help..." He muttered through clenched teeth.

"What happened to you?" Phil asked.

"...practicing... heroic poses..." Bruteforce said with some difficulty. "...costume... too tight..."

Ed stepped forward and sliced through Bruteforce's belt with his ruby evil sword. The costume loosened, and Bruteforce seemed to loosen up.

"GOD, that feels better," He said, stretching his back.

The four travellers walked along the road for a while, watching the scenery as it passed by.

"Yellow is an unusual colour for a road..." Bruteforce said.

"You think?" Phil replied.

"Do they find bricks that are yellow, or do they make the road, then paint it yellow?"

"I'm not sure..."

"Yellow is the colour of daffodils. Toto Squirrel is ninety seven percent certain that this is correct."

"Yes, thank you, Toto Squirrel..."

They slowed when they saw a figure appear on the road ahead of them. The figure seemed to notice them as well. But instead of curiously stopping, the way that these four did... the stranger yelped and dived into some nearby bushes.

"GAH! Who are you?" He said nervously as they parted the bushes and looked down at him.

"I'm Ed. This is Toto Squirrel. That's Phil. That's Bruteforce. And you are...?"

"R...Rama... Avatar..." The man said, stuttering.

"And what seems to be your trouble, Rama?" Ed asked.

"I don't have any... um... courage..."

Ed extended his hand. "Come with us. We are searching for a powerful wizard. He should be able to help you."

Rama nervously took Ed's hand and lifted himself from the bushes.

Then the wizard appeared on the road before them, because I can't be bothered writing more travelling stuff and it's just easier if he's there now instead of writing all that weird green castle stuff. And the monkeys and flowers... let's just assume Brianna was one of the monkeys and at some point she did something funny. Okay?

The wizard was a large man in a wide hat and a Hawaiin shirt. He looked less than impressive.

"Who are you?" Ed asked.

"I am Piper, the wizard of the path of the castle of crossed destinies!"

"Oh, okay, cool."

"Can you help us?" Phil asked. "I'm missing my brain..."

"Well, here's another one," Kit said, handing Phil a human brain in a plastic bag. "I'm sure it's just as good. And you! What is your problem?" He asked, turning to Rama.

"I need... c... courage..."

Piper reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of bourbon.

"Thank you, kind wizard!" Rama said, accepting the gift.

"And you, what is your problem?" Piper asked, turning to Bruteforce.

"I dunno. I'm just here 'cause I thought the squirrel was funny lookin'."

"You... you're not missing a heart...?"

Bruteforce shrugged. "I'm good."

Piper then turned to face Ed. "And you... what can I do for you?"

Ed sighed. "I need to get home..."

"Euro...Euro?"

And just like that, the Thunderbird woke up. It was like that moment when you're sleeping and you imagine yourself falling. There was a twitch of the leg muscles, and Euro found himself in new surroundings. He was in a hospital room, surrounded by his teammates. Phil was on the phone. "Yes...he just woke up. Come over whenever. See you later Rose." He hung up the phone.

"What...happened? Merida. Why is the place in black and white?"

Brianna spoke next. "A piece of T5's debris hit you. Don't you remember?"

"No..."

Bruteforce looked at the Italian. "When Robo Squirrel blew up the robot. It knocked you out."

"You were bleeding from the temple," said Brianna. "We took you off the beach and brought you to the hospital."

"No...we had just killed Merlin..." He looked at his teammates. "You were there......and you were there...and you were there...And there's no color in the room! Can't you all see it? Everything's in black and white!"

Grissom nudged his bird. "Think the piece of metal rattled his brain?"

Brianna elbowed Grissom back. "Hush, he was hit really hard..."

And then everyone woke up, and everything was back to where Euro's last post left it.

No, it wasn't.

Euro sat in his hospital bed with the large bandage wrapped around his head and the Vanguard members standing around him. "And you were there, Phil, and you, Grissom, and you, Brianna, and you, Brute Force, and you, Rama, and even Robo Squirrel! I'm telling you, it happened!"

"Err, I'm sure, it did, Ed. Perhaps you'd better rest now. You took a horrible blow, and we're all pretty tired after that fight. C'mon, guys, we should leave him to rest." Phil offered as the Vanguardians filed out of the hospital room in Glover Memorial.

The group headed out into the dim evening, the dark clouds having dissipated far off into the distance. Rama shouldered Ed, escorting him to a taxi where the two men left for the former Factory.

"Hey..." Grissom asked, looking over at the stranger. "...my name is Grissom."

The stranger, caught a bit off guard, nodded shaking hands with the thief.

"Just wanted to say thanks for help back there...." Montag continued. "....you have some nice moves."

"Thank you." the man nodded with a slight bow of the head.

"So...you have a name?"

"I must confess that I would expect to be able to answer that..." the stranger shrugged. "....however....I cannot..."

Montag nodded, frowing a bit.

"Yeah, we seem to get that alot." he added. "Listen, you need a ride somewhere?"

The man looked around them, trying to take in this new country around him.

"I have nowhere to go."

"You can come with us...." Brianna suggested, walking up. "....can't he Griss?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." the Vanguardian nodded. "You helped us out with all that chaos...least I can do is offer you a place to crash for the night."

"I do not wish to impose."

"None whatsoever, mate..." Grissom smiled. "...come on...let's head back to my pad...."

At that moment, a nice stretch limo pulled into the hospital driveway. Coming to a stop in front of the trio, they made their way in, setting off for a relaxing night....

A glitch in the Matrix. A hiccup in "reality" that made absolutely no sense... except it did. Kind of.

To recap:

Quote:

---

Grissom grimaced, shaking his head. "This doesn't explain why this metathing able to transport people from one dimension to another would be so helpless confronting a mere man".

Euro shrugged, and after having glanced at Rama, who shook his head, said: "I don't know. I haven't an answer for that..."

"But I do!" said a voice from behind.

They all turned, to see Doc Quantos appearing from a open door that surely was not there before.

"I know why you have been called here..."

---

"Doc?!" said Grissom, surprised but wary. "Are you real, or is this just another illusion?"

Quantos' eyebrows shot up. "Me? I'm as real as you, naturally. Though in a place like this I sometimes wonder whether any of us can really distinguish between reality and fiction.

"You said you knew why we had been called here," Rama said.

"I do," said Quantos. "Or at least I'm beginning to imagine why. I think you and your team were here... to protect... her... it, whatever I should call it. Hmmm... yes, 'her' makes about as much sense as anything."

"You're not making much sense, Doc," said Thunderbird.

Doctor Quantos laughed. "As I was saying, I can only guess at the reason you were here. The Metatithenai, the... symbiotic lifeform we are currently residing in... was, well... she was pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Banshee repeated.

"Yes, pregnant. Or whatever equivalent applies," said Doctor Quantos. He waved his hands all about him, looked around and said, "I had thought this was some kind of advanced technology, some kind of advanced virtual reality computer simulation, and I'm not completely convinced that it isn't that, but it also seems to be alive.

"And it's not alone. The Metatithenai is ancient but not the only one of its kind. If the Metatithenai is female in nature, then the Castle of Crossed Destinies, with its phallic spires jutting into the sky, is most definitely male."

"What are you saying, Doc?" asked Phil.

"It's why I, of all people, was chosen by the Metatithenai a couple of years back. She appeared before me on two separate occasions before now for some reason, but I didn't know why. Now I do. It was for this..."

Doctor Henry Quantos turned around, and where he had been standing there now grew a crib from out of nowhere.

"It looks like a human child, but that's just for our benefit," Quantos explained. "Isn't it beautiful?"

The child glowed with light, dimly at first, but became brighter and brighter until the light seemed to envelop the entire team.

And then the group found themselves in a large circular room, one with several doors, and a place for tables and chairs.

"What now?" Bruteforce sighed, his patience at an end. "More fun and games?"

"This is the reason we're here," Doctor Quantos said. "It wasn't simply to bring a new life into this world, as exotic as this lifeform may be, but because this lifeform, like the Castle of Crossed Destinies and the Metatithenai, serves a purpose. The Castle, this creature's father, is a nexus for shifting realities. The Metatithenai is an inn for wanderers who travel to distant lands merely by walking through a doorway. This child, this supposed building we're in, it's... he's... for us."

"Uh-huh..." Grissom prompted.

Doctor Quantos found himself unable to express himself well. The situation was just so far removed from his reality. "Don't you see?"

"Not... really..." Banshee began.

"This creature is not like another creature. Once it's born, it no longer needs a mother or father to raise it, but it does need a purpose. I somehow communicated with the Metatithenai, spoke with her... some kind of telepathy or something... but I expressed a need to her that we had, and it seems that our need matches the need of this new creature, this new Metatithenai, or whatever we choose to call it."

He paused for a moment, but no one was getting it.

"See, this place exists in no physical reality whatsoever. Unlike your physical homes and headquarters, this place cannot be attacked through conventional means. It can't even be reached by anyone but us, once the decision is made. Vanguard can meet here without fear of attack. Any one of us can travel from La Perdita to anywhere in the world, merely by stepping through a door. It's the perfect headquarters! You need never travel by air ever again."

"Ahhhh..." someone said.

"Makes sense," someone else said.

"I guess..."

"But I like to fly," Banshee muttered.

Doctor Quantos continued, "Here's how it works: All you need is a key, one that will only work for the person it is given to. With that key any door, any door-sized opening, becomes a portal into this room, and from this room you can access any place on this world or off of it."