Issue # 9

After a long band rehearsal, Tom Clayborn turned on the TV just in time to catch special news coverage of how Troyus prevented a VIPER transport from ramming into the Chrysler Building. Realizing that he missed something important, he activated his communicator and contacted his fellow team members. Sparrow Hawk responded, caught him up on the night’s events, and informed him that they would all be meeting at UNTIL HQ to discuss how to assault the VIPER HQ that Fleetfoot seemed to have pinpointed. Tom agreed to join them and, after promising his band that he would be back for their set at that night’s performance, transformed into Rampart (“Rock On!”) before heading off to meet the others.

Troyus and Joe Roberts were reunited at UNTIL HQ. The old man thanked Troyus and the other heroes for rescuing him, but expressed great concern that Vanessa (his wife) and Sophie (his granddaughter) were still in VIPER’s hands. Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk revealed to everyone present that Crusader was actually a VIPER agent and that their security was compromised. She then changed the frequencies on all the team communicators to prevent Crusader from spying on them. That out of the way, the heroes sat down to discuss their next move. It was agreed that they would all descend on the Mercer Building, where Fleetfoot had been led by his Geiger counter, find the entrance to the VIPER’s Nest, and strike quickly. A large contingent of UNTIL agents would be nearby, waiting for the heroes to call for back-up.

Their plan proved difficult to execute. Upon arriving at the Mercer Building, the heroes had a hard time finding an obvious entrance to the VIPER base. Shortly thereafter they discovered cameras observing their every move. Entering the top floor of offices, Rampart finally noticed signage designating one of the office suites as occupied by Carelli Construction. Remembering that the Carelli family was the crime family backed by VIPER, they entered their offices to search for a hidden entrance. They managed to avoid a sleeping gas attack, found a hidden elevator, called for UNTIL back-up, and proceeded to descend into what they knew would be an ambush.

Rampart blocked the elevator entrance and took the full brunt of eight energy bazookas wielded by a two squads of “brickbuster” VIPER agents. One shot in particular struck his face, blowing off a significant chunk of his stony armor, but Rampart stepped into the hall, absorbed part of the concrete floor, grew to 10’ in height, and bowled over four VIPER agents with a single sweep or his arm. Left with an opening, Fleetfoot darted past his giant ally and dispatched the other “brickbuster” agents on his way to engaging the other 36 agents that stood in the hallway to the right of the first wave. Standing among the “brickbuster” agents was Brick, VIPER’s own rocky super-powered operative, who moved to meet his heroic counterpart in hand-to-hand combat. One punch from his opponent, and the significantly weakened Rampart knew he was in trouble.

Seeing that Fleetfoot was handling the VIPER squads to the right of the battle between Brick and Rampart, Sparrow Hawk chose to engage the 36 agents occupying the hall directly behind the battling titans. Throwing a smoke grenade into the corridor, she activated her infrared lenses and leapt into their midst as Troyus moved to back-up Fleetfoot, eye-beams blasting.

A flurry of kicks and punches later, Sparrow Hawk stood over a pile of unconscious VIPER agents. Then she heard a braggart’s voice barking commands at the VIPER agents that stood beyond the smoke cloud created by her grenade. “C’mon, ya ninnies! What’re you waiting for!? Open fire and blast the birdie!” The remaining VIPER agents obeyed, but Sparrow Hawk dodged all of their attacks barring one that nicked her shoulder armor. “You guys suck!” exclaimed the man shouting orders. “Let Pulsar show you how it’s done!” With that the villain cut loose with a powerful blast. Still shrouded by the smoke cloud, Sparrow Hawk narrowly evaded Pulsar’s attack, which continued down the hall and melted the wall next to Rampart.

Weakened from taking an energy bazooka to the face and a powerful body blow from Brick, Rampart had gone into defensive mode, parrying Brick’s blows as he absorbed even more of the concrete floor to reconstitute the weakened sections of his rocky frame. Alerted by Pulsar’s blast, he glanced down the hall, faintly seeing the glow of Pulsar’s force field through the dissipating smoke cloud created by Sparrow Hawk. Grabbing Brick, he hefted the villain over his head and chucked him at Pulsar. Pulsar and Brick landed in a heap, as Sparrow Hawk stepped out of the smoke towards them, cracking her knuckles as if she’d just delivered a powerful punch and directing a menacing, “You’re next,” to the VIPER agents remaining in that hall. Her intimidation attempt was successful, and the agents broke into a full retreat.

The fight proved more challenging for Troyus and Fleetfoot, who faced five squads of VIPER agents in the adjoining corridor. Lacking proper cover, even Fleetfoot found it difficult to evade the well-coordinated weapons fire of 36 VIPER agents, and their powerful weapons managed to penetrate Troyus’ force field and stun him momentarily. Shaking it off, however, the two heroes poured it on and were able to defeat the agents just as Rampart hurled Brick at Pulsar.

Getting up from Rampart’s attack, Brick and Pulsar faced off against the combined might of Troyus, Sparrow Hawk, Rampart, and Fleetfoot. In his arrogance, Pulsar ordered them to surrender, but once Sparrow Hawk insulted his masculinity, the fight was on. Sparrow Hawk entangled Pulsar with a mini-bola from her utility belt, and the braggart spent most of the fight making threats and trying to burn off the restraints. Brick proved more difficult to defeat. Fleetfoot hurt his hand pounding away at Brick’s stony hide. Figuring that his skills were better suited to scouting, the speedster ran off in the direction of the retreating VIPER agents, leaving Brick to the others. Brick put up a good fight, but the heroes proved too much for him. After taking a series of energy blasts, martial strikes, and rocky fists, one final uppercut from Rampart sent Brick flying through the wall of lockers to his left and into the VIPER base’s two story gymnasium. Landing in a heap of barbells and dumbbells, Brick was down for the count. Only then was Pulsar able to blast his way out of Sparrow Hawk’s mini-bola, but before he could do anything he was cut down by a hail of blaster fire. Turning their attention towards the elevators, the heroes were greeted by Captain Jensen and a squad of UNTIL agents.

Just then, Fleetfoot contacted the heroes via their communicators. The base, he reported, was three levels deep, with a control center on the bottom floor. Also on the bottom floor was a monorail, which was being used to evacuate all VIPER personnel, along with the Vanessa and Sophia Roberts. Captain Jensen guessed that VIPER had probably activated the base’s self-destruct system and ordered his men to evacuate the building. Sparrow Hawk asked Fleetfoot, Troyus and Rampart to pursue the monorail, while she and Captain Jensen made their way to the command center to attempt to deactivate the self-destruct mechanism. Upon entering the chamber, Sparrow Hawk was horrified to find that the countdown was already at ten seconds. She rushed to the controls, but it was too late. The bomb exploded with her at ground zero.

After his fight with Sparrow Hawk at the Statue of Liberty, Crusader tracked down his old ally, Starburst. Just recovered from his wounds at Tanghal Tower, Starburst was hesitant to pursue the case any further. Fearing that he was getting too old for the superhero game, he’d been considering retirement for the better part of a year. Crusader, however, convinced him to finish off this case before hanging up the cape. Together they monitored UNTIL HQ and followed the agents and the heroes to the Mercer Building. They watched as the heroes went in, but they held back, given Crusader’s earlier tussle with Sparrow Hawk. Once Captain Jensen mobilized his troops, however, Crusader and Starburst followed them into the building. Staying out of sight, they made their way through the base and arrived in the control center just as the bomb went off. Thinking quickly, Starburst shielded everyone in the room with a force field, barely absorbing the effects of the blast. His endurance was then strained nearly beyond his capabilities, as the Mercer Building collapsed onto his energy bubble. “Now I only owe you one,” said Crusader to Sparrow Hawk, with a wry smile.

Sensing the shockwave of the explosion down the monorail tunnel, Fleetfoot contacted Sparrow Hawk via communicator and reported the situation to the others. Rampart and Troyus head back towards the Mercer Building, while Fleetfoot kept up with the monorail. Pushing his limits, Rampart used his powers to absorb a portion of the wreckage and grew to tremendous heights. He then lifted the debris off of Starburst’s energy bubble. Moments later, Captain Jensen received a communiqué from UNTIL Sergeant Victoria Knight. Major Juan Martinez had been shot and was in critical condition. Apparently, agent Moliere had not been the double agent. Instead, he’d been framed by the actual double agent, Sgt. Henry Wadsworth, who was also the assassin known as Death Commando. With most of UNTIL’s forces at the Mercer Building, Death Commando moved to steal the kelvarite that was still being held at UNTIL HQ. Martinez confronted him, but the older man was wounded in the fight and Death Commando was successful in his mission. Martinez, however, managed to tag the villain’s hover cycle with a tracer before falling unconscious, so Sgt. Knight still had hopes of catching up to the traitorous Wadsworth.

At that point, Fleetfoot reported that the subway had stopped and that its passengers were debarking. Sparrow Hawk asked UNTIL to triangulate on Fleetfoot’s signal, and they determined that he was near the docks, at a warehouse facility owned by the Carelli Moving Company. Captain Jensen offered to amass a force to strike the Carelli Moving Company, but Sparrow Hawk asked that he allow the heroes to get into position first. That way the UNTIL attack could provide a diversion as the heroes slipped into the base via the subway tunnel entrance.

Arriving on the scene, the heroes knocked out a few VIPER guards and toyed with the idea of sneaking in wearing their uniforms, but Troyus, who was worried about the Roberts family, had no stomach for such subtlety and brazenly flew into the base the moment the UNTIL attack began, forcing the heroes to battle their way to the control center. Punching his way through the control center wall, Rampart was immediately attacked by the supervillains Piledriver and Sledge. Beyond these two thuggish foes was a two tiered control room. On the lower level were a series of technicians. On the upper level, looking down from a catwalk, were Cheshire Cat and the Nest Leader. The former stood combat ready, the latter held a gun to Vanessa and Sophia Roberts. Standing behind Cheshire Cat was a slight, tan-skinned, Eurasian man, with smartly combed grey hair, wearing a simple tunic. He glanced impassively at the heroes, before turning his attention back to the control panel that he was manning.

Reacting with lightning speed, Fleetfoot ran up the wall and onto the catwalk, snatching the gun from the Nest Leader’s hand as he zipped past, only to be kicked off the catwalk by an expert kick delivered by Cheshire Cat. Crusader and Pulsar both attacked the teleporting martial artist, one by throwing his buckler and the other with his light blasts, but the rakish villain easily deflected their onslaught with his combat batons. Troyus and Sparrow Hawk moved to attack as well, but the Nest Leader grabbed Vanessa Roberts before they could do so, held a knife to her neck, and ordered everybody to stand down. After a tense couple of seconds, the room was filled with a horrifying shriek. Sophia, fully transmogrified into a monstrous lizard girl, leapt onto the nest leader, sinking her teeth into his knife hand, and knocking him off the catwalk. When that occurred, the tunic wearing Eurasian man turned to Cheshire Cat and said, “Cheshire. We’re done here.” Cheshire Cat then touched the old man on the shoulder and teleported away with him.

Rampart grew to full height and moved to attack Piledriver and Sledge, but they were in the mood to negotiate. “Hey, man,” Sledge began. “We don’t want any part of this! We were their guinea pigs, man! And you’ve got bigger things to worry about. Do you know who that was? His name was Dr. Lirby Koo, and he’s rigged this place to blow! But that’s not all, man. He’s using that stuff he took from you? That fake stuff? Well, he’s rigged THAT to blow, and he says it’ll turn everybody in the Big Apple into, into, into monsters! Like her!” With that, he pointed to Sophie Roberts, who the other heroes were busy trying to pull off of the Nest Leader, now revealed to be Mario Carelli, the eldest son of mob boss Antonio Carelli.

Swinging up to the catwalk, Sparrow Hawk found the synthetic Kevalrite taken by VIPER earlier that evening, sheathed in a force field and attached to a timing mechanism with 30 seconds left on the clock. She asked Fleetfoot and the other heroes to evacuate the base, and then turned towards the task before her. Realizing that the force field was keeping the radiation from the kelvarite contained and that Sparrow Hawk would have to drop it to defuse the bomb, Starburst stayed behind to shield her from its effects by extending his own skin tight force field to cover her as well. Rampart stayed behind as well, in case there was call for him to do something brash and heroic. Sparrow Hawk, however, managed to shut down the device with five seconds left on the clock.

Sparrow Hawk, Rampart, and Starburst emerged from the VIPER Nest to find that the Carelli Moving Company had been secured by UNTIL. Captain Jensen’s forces had encountered Death Commando at the compound, and although the villain managed to escape, UNTIL did manage to secure the stolen kevalrite. UNTIL also had four supervillains in custody, including Brick, Pulsar, Piledriver, and Sledge, not to mention dozens of VIPER agents and Mario Carelli. Jensen, however, reported that Ogre had emerged from the complex during UNTIL’s assault. Knocking aside anything in his way, the monster leapt away from the scene, apparently angry and confused.

A very cooperative Sledge explained what he’d been able to piece together during his time with VIPER. As far as he could tell, Carelli was an ambitious man, eager to advance in the organization by successfully taking down UNTIL, all the while using VIPER’s influence to secure his family’s hold on NYC’s criminal underworld. Dr. Lirby Koo, however, was the real mastermind behind VIPER’s New York operations. Although not traditionally a VIPER operative, Dr. Koo had a personal vendetta against UNTIL (and Major Juan Martinez in particular) dating back to a 1967 raid on one of his secret installations that resulted in the death of his only son. In 1975 Dr. Koo offered his services to VIPER, UNTIL’s primary rival in the world, in hopes of using their resources to exact his revenge. Agreeing to develop VIPER’s Man-Mutation Project, he began making supervillains for the organization. Piledriver and Sledge were early attempts, Brick an intermediary effort, and Pulsar and Cheshire Cat were more recent, and therefore more stable, test cases. Initially, as far as Sledge could tell, Dr. Koo was content simply to allow VIPER to unleash his creations on UNTIL. Eventually, however, Dr. Koo discovered evidence of mind control technology, developed by a criminal scientist in the 1940s. Dr. Koo’s research led him to believe that blueprints of the mind control device were hidden by their creator in the foundation stone of Tanghal Tower as it was being built in the 1940s. He then began to develop a plan. Using the technology developed for the Man-Mutation project, he would secretly create a mutation bomb that would transform everybody in NYC into a super-powered being, like Pulsar and Cheshire Cat. He wouldn’t do this, however, until he could secure the plans for the mind control device and use them to build a second device that would give him control over his super-powered army. Unleashing such a force on UNTIL would bring him great satisfaction. He could then focus on bringing his creations to bare on the nation’s of the world. When things fell apart due to the heroes’ actions, Dr. Koo opted for a hastily conceived Plan B, which was to use the synthetic kevalrite to create a “dirty” bomb. Such a device would undoubtedly result in mass deaths, insanity, and random mutations, leaving the city in chaos and ruins. The heroes may have stopped the mad scientist’s plot, but they certainly earned the enmity of a dangerous foe.

As things were winding down, Crusader approached Sparrow Hawk. “Did I prove myself to you?” he asked?

“You’re still wanted for murder,” accused Sparrow Hawk.

“I was a young FBI agent, infiltrating VIPER,” explained Crusader. “They discovered this, captured me, tortured me, and brainwashed me. I broke the conditioning, but not before committing the most heinous crime of my life. I swore on that day that I would spend the rest of my life fighting VIPER and other scum like them. Every day I do that is a day of atonement for me. Every day I do that, there is just a little more justice in this world. I’ve tried to convince myself of this ever since, but maybe it’s time that I allowed somebody else to judge me. If you think the world is better off with me behind bars, I surrender myself to you.”

“Just get out of my sight,” replied Sparrow Hawk, turning her gaze away from Crusader. Without another word, Crusader disappeared into the shadows and left the scene.

As this conversation was taking place, Troyus was caring for Vanessa and Sophia. The five-year-old had reverted back to her human form, but seemed shaken by the night’s events. Captain Jensen suggested that they all return to UNTIL HQ where Joe Roberts was waiting for them. The heroes also received word that Major Martinez would survive his injuries. In good spirits, Fleetfoot congratulated everybody before excusing himself. Before leaving, however, he spoke to Troyus, warning him that the Roberts family would not be safe. They probably needed to go into some sort of witness protection program, and he promised to use his Minutemen contacts to get him in touch with people who could make the necessary arrangements. He did, however, warn that Sohpie’s mutation could be an issue, as the authorities might become overly curious about her nature. Promising not to do anything until Troyus could discuss options with the Roberts family, Fleetfoot zipped away home. Finally, Rampart rushed back to his band. Although he’d missed the first half of the concert, he got there in time to play their set. Whatever was in store for the heroes from this point on, Rampart was determined to “Rock On!”