Issue # 7

Sparrow Hawk, Rampart, Troyus, and Apex received a radio communication from Crusader just moments after debriefing the assault on the Sea Drake at UNTIL HQ. Crusader related that he had followed Arrowhead after the night's events, tracking him to a brownstone in a rundown section of the city. He could see strange lights emanating from a top-floor window in the brownstone. Before he could explain further, however, Crusader was cut off by a surprise attack and knocked unconscious.

Sparrow Hawk was able to trace the location of Crusader's still-active communicator, and the heroes rushed to the rescue. Landing on the rooftop where Crusader had made his report, the heroes saw the strange lights emanating from the brownstone in question. Sparrow Hawk glided across the street to the brownstone's window and tried to peer in. Although the drapes were drawn, she could just barely make out Crusader, tied to a chair and guarded by men with guns. From a slightly different angle, she could also see a strange device sporting Tesla coils and other high tech accouterments.

Troyus and Apex decided to break into the brownstone via the rooftop entrance. Flying down a flight of stairs, they came face-to-face with Arrowhead. The villain tried his usual brand of diplomacy, trying to convince the heroes that there was some sort of misunderstanding and that they were all actually on the same side, but with a friend in trouble the heroes weren't having it. Troyus blew past Arrowhead, while Apex engaged the criminal in combat.

Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk attempted to disrupt the proceedings in the apartment by firing her grapple at the strange machine. Her hope was to damage it or pull it through the window, but blast doors on the windows snapped shut the moment the grapple struck its target. Rampart, now in giant form, charged across the street, grabbed the cable, and pulled it through. The heroes could hear a crash from within, but the cable snapped. Rampart then dug his hand into the side of the building and pulled out the wall, exposing the interior of the apartment. A balding, bespectacled, lab-coat wearing, elderly man yelled, "Get them you fools! They've destroyed my machine!" At his feet, in the wreckage of the machine, lay a man with charcoal grey skin and a black suit. He was coughing, up smoke and seemed in a great deal of pain. "Pomegranate!" he screamed between coughs, "What have you done to me!" Sparrow Hawk and Rampart recognized his voice as that of "Ricky" - Arrowhead's partner in crime. At that point Troyus burst through the interior door, and the battle was joined.

Troyus engaged the thugs. Sparrow Hawk directed Rampart to help Apex and then moved to cut Crusader free. "That's three times you save my life, Pretty Bird," said the hero. "Maybe I'm getting to old for this." Sparrow Hawk's eyes narrowed, but the moment was interrupted as more thugs spilled into the room. The heroes made short work of the opposition, captured Dr. Pythias Pomegranate, and tried to contain Ricky, who was still writhing in agony. To make matters worse, he was starting to lose cohesion and turn into smoke.

Meanwhile, the fight between Apex and Arrowhead spilled out into the city street. Apex caught Arrowhead in a telekinetic hold, but the villain attacked him with his psionic blasts. Apex then smashed Arrowhead into a parked car, but the crafty criminal managed to grab the vehicle and fling it at the hero - catching the him by surprise. Apex dropped Arrowhead, and the two squared off. Shrugging off Apex's TK Wave, Arrowhead charged at the hero, but had to change course as Rampart arrived on the scene. Dodging one of the giant's blows, Arrowhead charged at Rampart as if to attack, but instead leaped onto and over the hero, landing feet first onto a manhole cover and punching through into the sewers below. Apex and Rampart tried to give chase, but Arrowhead managed to outmaneuver them and escaped.

Rampart and Apex then rejoined the heroes at the brownstone. Apex used his telekinetic powers to gather up the writhing, screaming, smoke that Ricky had turned into. Dr. Pythias Pomegranate claimed that he had been kidnapped by the Spumoni family and forced to bestow his enforcers with superpowers, but the heroes saw through his lies. They called UNTIL for back-up, and Martinez sent Sgt. Evelyn Knight to pick up the criminals in a hover transport.

As the heroes disbanded for the night, Crusader approached Rampart about Sparrow Hawk. He shared that he worried about "Pretty Bird's" intensity. He also asked about her age, her motivations, and her disposition towards him. Rampart laughed and wished him luck if he tried to start a relationship with her.

Before going home, Troyus swung by the Roberts home. He was surprised and alarmed to find his adopted father, Tor Hallam, perusing some items in Joe's study. The elder Hallam asked if Troyus had learned his lesson. Troyus, he explained, was meant to uplift mankind. He was an instrument for greatness - a champion of order in a chaotic world. VIPER's activities, he continued, were only an extreme version of modern moralities that valorized greed, competition, mindless power, and chaos. Such values enabled rule by the mediocre at best. Indeed, the chaotic tendencies of modernity had empowered many who were racially and mentally inferior to the aristocracies of old. Only a return to such an aristocracy could save humanity. Tor Hallam was convinced that with the proper tutelage Troyus could lead humanity to a new golden age. It therefore sickened him to see his adopted son mingle with racial degenerates like Joe Roberts, his mutant grandaughter, and the rest of those so-called superheroes. Besides, the old man pointed out, it was Troyus' decision to reject his destiny and socialize with such inferiors that resulted in their current predicament. Needless to say, Troyus rejected Tor Hallam's words, warning his adopted father to leave the Roberts home or else. Tor Hallam agreed to do so, but promised that they would meet again soon.

By the next day, UNTIL’s crews managed to salvage the Sea Drake’s mini-sub. Inside they found a high-tech crate with radioactivity symbols displayed on the sides. Early the next morning, Juan Martinez summoned Sparrow Hawk, Nightshift, Apex, Troyus, Rampart and Crusader for another debriefing. The crate, he explained, contained large quantities of Kevalrite – a meteoric substance known to bestow superpowers on those exposed to its radioactive emissions. The substance was extremely rare on Earth, and its effects were usually unpredictable. In fact, the only time that Martinez had come into contact with Kevalrite in the amounts contained on the Sea Drake was in the 1960s, when a joint UNTIL / US force took down the island fortress of mad scientist and international criminal mastermind, Dr. Lirby Koo. Koo had not been seen for years, but the contents of the crate made him wonder if the old villain was in some way involved with VIPER. Martinez also reported that the machine used by Dr. Pomegranate employed a highly unstable synthetic Kevalrite of the doctor's design. The Spumonis, it seems, were attempting to fight off a VIPER-backed Careli offensive by creating a superpowered force of their own. Left with many questions, the heroes at least began their day with the knowledge that VIPER had finally suffered a major defeat at their hands.