August 11, 2007
Spires Residence
San Francisco, CA

Mark Spires, otherwise known as the Forge hero—and former Forte hero—named Anvil, has had a late night at work (his regular job, not his super-hero job), and finally pulls up to his home in San Francisco. He gets out, strolls up the walk, and heads into his house. Stepping though the foyer and into his living room, he’s met with a sight that freezes him in his steps and stops his breathing.

Lying on the floor are his wife (private eye Erin O’Day-Spires) and his grown daughter, Bree. Erin is obviously dead, with half of her skull caved in. Lying motionless next to her, covered in blood, is Bree. Crouching over the two women is a third woman, dressed in a brown unitard with yellow boots, gloves and trunks. Suddenly aware of Mark’s presence, this woman turns toward Mark.

Near catatonic in his shock, Mark can only stumble forward toward the scene. Pulling his eyes from his wife and daughter, he grabs the costumed woman by the shoulders, hard. Seeing how he doesn’t recognize her, the woman manages to gasp, “Mark, it’s me – Prime!” The long-time Forte ally, wife of Forte ally Johnny Quest, and friend to Mark and all the Forte family, is the teleporter named Trixie Clayton-Todd-Quest.

Finally able to speak, all Mark can ask her, looking down at Bree (the one of the two that still might be alive), is “Is she dead?” Prime quietly tells him yes. Suddenly, another woman enters the room behind them. Mark can barely register her for a moment, but recognizes her as his old Forte teammate and friend Chill—though she seems to be wearing a costume he doesn’t recognize. With none of this making any sense, and his mind going a million directions at once, he manages to croak out, to Chill, “Call 9-1-1.”

“I will,” she says to him. “Right after I kill you.”

She raises her arms toward him with a murderous sneer on her face, and Mark’s instincts somehow kick in. He ducks as he transforms into the metallic form of Anvil. Chiller’s (not the Chill he’s familiar with, it seems) icy blast at him goes wide and strikes Prime, freezing the heroine in a cocoon of ice. Anvil grabs Prime and bolts for the door. Chiller yells after him that he’s not getting away that easily and blasts again, missing him. He crashes through his front door and runs with all his great speed down the street. Chiller flies through the door behind him and gives chase, continuing to fire on him. He quickly tries a call on his team radio to the other members of the city’s hero team, Forge. He gets no response. He tries anyone in Forte. Again, his call is met with deafening silence. Chiller manages to hit him once with her blast, and he’s momentarily frozen, but quickly uses his great strength to shatter the ice and continue running. After much running and evasion, he manages to lose her. Finding a safe place, he breaks Prime out of her icy imprisonment. As she tries to recover, shivering on the ground next to him, Anvil gives his radio another desperate try.

Prime tells him, solemnly, that he’s not going to reach anyone. She also informs him that they have to get out of there - there are all sorts of people trying to kill him. Before he can ask his questions, she says, “And we’re leaving NOW.” She puts a hand on his shoulder, and in an instant the world turns inside out... and the pair disappear from the city by the Bay.

June 15, 2013
The Sphere
Somewhere between time

When everything snaps into view again, Anvil and Prime are standing on a catwalk in the center of a small, spherical room. The room is completely lined with technical equipment, some of which he recognizes, most of which he does not.

“Welcome to the Sphere,” says a voice behind them. They turn, to see an unhealthily-thin man with brown hair and a moustache, absently letting what looks like a Slinky go from one hand to the other.

“I... couldn’t save his family. They’re all dead.”

“Anvil. I’m sorry,” the man says, then pauses. “Anvil. It’s me. Johnny.” Uhh, wasn’t Johnny Quest a clean-shaven blond? What the heck is going on?

“Welcome to the year 2013 – or, more accurately, aside it. We have spent the past 25 years building this machine,” he gestures around them, “to ‘sidestep’ time, to give ourselves a fighting chance by establishing a base of operations where they can’t find us. Someone has... wiped out everyone, killed them all. Forte never came to be.”

He tells the shocked Anvil that he must journey through the timestream and assemble a squad of heroes to stop whoever is killing off all the members of Forte. Prime has already made several attempts – and failed. Anvil is the first one she successfully recovered.

Prime says that she can teleport through time, using the Sphere as a focus-point (since they’re now outside the normal timestream) – but it’s extraordinarily difficult and it takes her a few minutes more each time she tries it, to recover. She also says that the only reason she’s wearing her original costume was for recognition – which didn’t seem to work so well with Anvil. Johnny says that memories are constantly being rewritten as time shifts occur with each death – something the heroes have to stop.

Johnny says that Prime and Anvil must next get the polar bear before he ever becomes Tomarssuk. Prime nods, kisses Johnny quickly, and puts a hand on Anvil’s shoulder. The inside of the sphere suddenly wraps itself inside out.

The eerie warp reverses itself, and Prime and Anvil appear on a shallow cliff in the middle of the Alaskan wilds. Below them, Anvil can see a pack of polar bears meandering around together. One of them, he thinks with some degree of time-traveling awe, must (hopefully) be his former teammate and still-friend Tomarssuk…just at a time before they had met, before Tommy joined the world of men and Forte.

As Anvil ponders this, a shot rings out and echoes through the trees, and one of the polar bears falls over dead. As Anvil and Prime look around in shock and panic, another shot goes off, and another bear falls. Anvil spots the gunman, a costumed, mustached man up on a nearby hill with a rifle, and takes off after him at his full run speed. The shooter (Wild Fox…seemingly a version of Wild Dog, the hunter who had been tracking Tommy back during the time when Forte had just met the furry hero (see Forte #229) spots the human freight train coming at him and whips his rifle around, shooting Anvil. The shot actually blows Anvil back, but he lands on his feet. Wild Fox says he has no beef with Anvil, he’s just here to kill a polar bear, but Anvil definitely has a beef with THAT. Anvil charges him, slugging him as he runs past, sending the Aussie hunter flying back. Unfortunately, the man rolls to his feet, and is still conscious. He whips two guns off his back and grins, telling Anvil, “Fine, mate. I’m only getting paid for the bear, but I’ll kill you, too.” He fires at Anvil, barely missing as Anvil dodges, and suddenly a very angry polar bear (by the name of Tomarssuk!) comes running at him and rams right into him, sending Wild Fox flying back into the trees. The hunter struggles to his feet, very perturbed, and fires his guns at Tommy, just missing. Anvil rushes him, but the hunter manages to dodge. Tommy smacks him with a mammoth paw and sends him flying again. He rises in a rage, but Anvil is quickly on him, grabbing him and crushing the consciousness out of him. Anvil then notices that Tommy is charging at them, and his reflexes cause him to drop the gunman and get out of the way of the polar Mack truck coming at them. Tommy rams Wild Fox, sending him soaring off into the trees. Tommy leans down and angrily bites the gun in half that had killed his two friends.

He’s about to stalk Wild Fox and finish him off when Anvil speaks his name. Confused by this, Tommy turns and considers the metal man (whom he’s never seen) and the woman who’s just joined them. Anvil carefully, but quickly, explains that have something very important to do, something that has to do with the man with the guns, and that they need Tommy’s help. Calm now, with his curiosity raised, Tommy seems to accept this. Prime lays her hands gently on their shoulders, and in an instant the world warps again.

June 15, 2013
The Sphere
Somewhere between time

An instant later they find themselves back in the Sphere. In addition to Johnny there is another man... Ravi Singh, whose power, Johnny explains, helps cloak the Sphere from detection. Ravi looks deeply saddened, and Johnny whispers that whoever is behind this plot killed his daughter Mari some time back.

Tommy shifts his form into that of an Inuit man (what people used to call an Eskimo) and begins speaking in Russian. Johnny answers in Russian that perhaps he had best speak English for the benefit of the others.

Tommy asks what’s going on. Anvil explains that people with Wild Fox are doing bad things. Tommy says he’ll help if great evil is involved; he will follow the path of his father, who protects the world. Prime says she’s losing him – they have to go. Now.

So they do.

December 3, 1994
Chinatown
Los Angeles, CA

Anvil, Tommy and Prime appear deep in the heart of a darkened Chinatown. They’re in a shadow-strewn, narrow alley – all is still, and the windows are dark and shuttered. It appears to be in the middle of the night. Anvil asks Prime who they’re supposed to be there for. She says Lightsedge, and she seems concerned that he’s not there, as he’s supposed to be. Suddenly Lightsedge comes flying through a window’s glass and shatters the bamboo shutters. He’s quickly followed by a flying Chinese woman who’s encased in blue flame, which forms the head, tail and claws of a dragon around her. This is Blue Dragon, who’s fought the latter-day Forte team in the past (see “Forte 2000: The Storm”)…or at least a version of her, as this one is of Oriental descent and the original is a blonde. Tommy takes a whiff of her (from a distance) and senses magic.

Lightsedge manages to land okay and prepares to defend himself, wondering what’s going on. He just put on this costume of his for the first time about an hour and a half before, and already he has enemies? That’s enemies, plural, as another man in a gray and black suit with a sword appears out of the darkness, and he’s the one that kicked Lightsedge out the window. After a look over his shoulder, the Knight of Shadows spots the other heroes and says, “Dragon, we have company.” This being a surprise to Lightsedge as well… The Knight tells Anvil that they just came for Lightsedge. Anvil answers “So did we.” The Knight graciously offers to let them go, Anvil declines. Anvil tells the Knight that he isn’t getting paid enough for this, and the Knight seems a trifle confused (and perhaps offended), saying he’s not doing this for money. Anvil asks why, then? The Knight says that’s his own business, and he suddenly vanishes into the deep shadows, reappears behind Anvil, and takes a big swing at the hero with his sword, which Anvil manages to duck.

Blue Dragon gets back to the business at hand and tries to fry the still-confused Lightsedge, but he avoids her blast and sends her flying into a building with a big martial kick. The Knight of Shadows then appears in front of Lightsedge and nails him with the sword, sending Lightsedge flying. Anvil rushes up and gets the grab on the Knight, holding and squeezing him with his great strength. Tommy heads up and nails the held villain with a mighty paw swipe. But the Knight, still managing to be awake, disappears from Anvil’s grasp and reappears behind Tommy, nailing the big bear with a wicked sword swipe. Anvil swings at the villain and the Knight is unable to pull off a teleport in time. Anvil decks him, but he’s still awake. Tommy, recovering from his hit, nails him as well. Still, the swordsman won’t fall.

Blue Dragon is back up and is very angry. Lightsedge has recovered and taunts her, drawing her rage toward him and away from the others. She pulls an unexpected move and creates a fireball around his head, sucking all the oxygen away and leaving him choking. Seeing this, Tommy charges and swats her, sending her tumbling down the alley…unfortunately, right next to Prime. Lightsedge falls to the street. The Knight takes a swing at Anvil with his mysterious and deadly sword and hurts him quite a bit, sending him reeling. Blue Dragon gets up, sees Prime, and decides to go after her, but Tommy is on her again and swats her further away, taking a lot of the fight out of her.

The Knight nails Anvil again, injuring him more, and then leaps over to the fallen Lightsedge and puts his sword to the novice hero’s throat. He politely informs the others they’re going to back off and let him take Lightsedge. Lightsedge, however, is awake, and tells the Knight he should learn to not underestimate his opponents. Lightsedge kicks up with a brutal martial blow and sends the Knight flying, and the villain lands hard on the cement, barely moving. Blue Dragon angrily gets up and yells at Lightsedge to enjoy it, because it’s the last thing he’s ever going to do in this life. Groggy but angry, Anvil dusts himself off and pounds the Knight, putting him under, finally, for the duration. This sends Blue Dragon into a rage, and she blasts Anvil with the full measure of her mystic fire powers, sending him soaring. He manages to mostly land on his feet, but he’s barely conscious.

Prime and Tommy have gotten separated, and he uses his mystic mind link and enters her thoughts, telling her to come close to him so he can protect her (as she’s still weak from her temporal teleportations). But the mystic flames surrounding Blue Dragon unleash a dragon’s roar, and burn with a new intensity as she readies to incinerate the heroine (who also happens to be the heroes’ only hope of getting out of all this…). Dragon blasts, but Tommy sacrifices himself, leaping between the two women and into the path of the flame, and both her sheer power and his natural weakness toward flame are nearly the end of him. The blast nearly kills him, leaving him unconscious and badly burned, his white fur still crackling with blue flame. Lightsedge comes leaping in and martially whales on Dragon, taking her down once and for all.

Anvil runs over and starts putting Tommy’s flames out. They all take a needed moment to recover and rest. Tommy is hurt but is soon awake, and can still go on, he says. Lightsedge thanks them all for obviously showing up to save him. Oddly, he doesn’t seem to know who any of them are…though they’ve never met him, he should still know them from the news, at least. They tell him they’ll have to explain as they go, but that he’ll need to come with them, as they’ll need his help. Having survived his first super-villain fight, the new hero Lightsedge agrees, and when Prime is rested enough and ready to teleport again, the foursome disappears and heads for the next destination.

March 23, 2007
Forte Museum
Seattle, WA

Dyna Girl groggily finds herself inside the back of a panel truck…or what remains of the back of it after she was punched through it. She picks herself up and angrily bursts out of the truck to find out who sucker-punched her while she was just minding her own business and walking across the lawn of the Forte Museum. She sees a woman costumed in purple and a huge man seemingly made of black rock – whose hands and head are steaming magma! (Black Cauldron—a version of Caldron (see "Forte 2000: The Storm")). Which one did it doesn’t matter—they’re both going down, but the woman known as Night Sabot just happens to be closer. Dyna takes a big punch at the villainess, but she grins evilly and vanishes in a flash of purple light as Black Cauldron menacingly begins to close on D.G. as well.

Up on the roof of the Museum, the very air suddenly warps and Prime, Anvil, Tommy and Lightsedge appear…just in time to see Night Sabot unleash a burst of power on Dyna Girl down below. Tommy asks Anvil which one to save. Anvil points at D.G. and says “Dyna Girl”. A German-accented voice behind them suddenly says, “Yes, thank you, we know that it’s Dyna Girl.” The heroes turn, and a figured stands there, his body seemingly moving/shifting at all times, dancing like a mist on the breeze. Tommy smells him, and detects no magic. The man, Nebel, calmly tells them that if they leave now, it will go much better for them. The heroes decline his offer. Nebel sighs, with an air of resignation, “Fine. Come on, now, let’s get this over with.” Anvil tells the nearby Lightsedge, quickly, to tell Dyna Girl to get up there with them, but Lightsedge misunderstands and yells instead for her to “Stay alive, we’re here to save you.” Okay, that’s a plan, too…

Confused at the voice she just heard, Dyna Girl (fully intending to stay alive) flies at Night Sabot, but the villainess teleports again, and she misses. But Black Cauldron is waiting, and unleashes a vicious blast of lava at her that sends her flying back and hurts quit a bit. She takes the moment of pause and jumps on her radio, trying to reach UNCLE. No answer. She tries her Forte teammates as well, but again, no answer. And oddly, though she knows she’s in Forte, she suddenly can’t recall who her teammates are…

Up on the roof, Nebel confidently prepares to take on the heroes. However, without fanfare, Anvil just steps over and quickly grabs him and puts him in a metallic squeeze, catching him off-guard. While he’s held fast and struggling uselessly, Tommy steps up and calmly tells him, “We do not have time to play with you,” and bonks him over the head with a mighty furry paw, knocking him cold. So much for the master race… Tommy runs and jumps down to the lawn below, sending a mental link to Prime and telling her to let him know if any other bad guys show up, and when she’s recovered enough to teleport them away again. Dyna Girl spots him but has no idea who he is, and is quite confused as to what a polar bear is doing in Seattle. But keeping her focus, she flies at great speed past Black Cauldron, nailing him with a massive punch as she does. But one does not take care of a living volcano so easily. He puts a hand to the ground, there is a sudden rumble beneath the earth, and a fissure of lava erupts from the ground beneath her! Dyna Girl falls to the ground, scorched and unconscious. In a flash of purple, Night Sabot appears in front of her limp body with that same evil grin, ready to finish the job. She lets loose with a blast, but Lightsedge suddenly flips in from nowhere, lands in front of Dyna Girl, and deflects the blast with his psionic sword. He tells Night Sabot, “That…did not impress me.” Black Cauldron suddenly bursts out of the ground next to Night Sabot and blasts at Lightsedge, but Lightsedge deflects that as well. He tells the villain that was even less impressive than her shot, and asks who the hell they are, anyway. Black Cauldron’s only answer (and an angry one) is “Will…crush…in…hands!”

Tommy sends a mental note to Prime, telling her that “sword man” is defending “downed girl” and that they could use Anvil down there. Prime relays the information to Anvil. Dropping Nebel’s unconscious form unceremoniously, Anvil tells Prime to stay up there where it’s safe, and he runs and leaps off the roof edge. He lands right between Night Sabot and Black Cauldron (who’s about to lay hands on Lightsedge) and nails them both, knocking them to the grass. Night Sabot starts to get up but Tommy leaps over and smacks her, knocking her out. He then starts licking Dyna Girl’s face to wake her up, which both works and annoys the hell out of her. Lightsedge lays a mighty martial blow on Black Cauldron while he’s still down, but Cauldron grabs him and slams him down on the grass. Lightsedge gets to his feet and he and Anvil both face off with the villain, and suddenly hear Dyna Girl’s angry voice yell “Move!”. They notice her standing behind them with the damaged truck raised above her head. Black Cauldron doesn’t seem to notice, but instead stretches both his rocky arms out at Anvil and Lightsedge. Anvil manages to duck the lava blast, but Lightsedge gets hit and goes flying back. Lucky for him, because a big truck is now swinging down toward Cauldron. Anvil leaps out of the way, and Tommy just goes desolid (yes, he can do that) as the truck loudly connects. Unfortunately, the villain suddenly stands and lifts the truck over him and yells, “No, like THIS!” and hurls it at Dyna Girl, who luckily leaps out the way just as it goes flying by her.

As Anvil lands a big punch on Cauldron, Tommy tries a mental call to Prime and gets no answer. He quickly jumps up on the roof and finds no trace of her. Below, Lightsedge is up and tells Cauldron that he might want to consider running away now. Cauldron laughs a deep hearty laugh that literally shakes the ground, and says, “What... from... you?” “No,” Dyna Girl says, “From me!” as she soars up and nails him with a devastating punch that staggers the rocky monolith. Anvil winds up with a big punch and finishes the job, and the villain falls. Not taking any chances (and still pissed off), Dyna Girl jumps on him and proceeds to beat the living magma out of him, and Cauldron’s not getting up any time soon.

When she’s done, Dyna Girl asks Anvil 1) who that hell that jackass is and 2) who the hell are THEY, anyway? Anvil explains as best he can, but is interrupted by a mental call from Tommy telling him that Prime is gone. They all move up to the roof, where Tommy points out that she just disappeared, leaving no trail for him to follow. Anvil asks Dyna if she recognizes Nebel, but she doesn’t. She flies up and takes a look around for Prime (who Tommy describes as a woman in brown and yellow who does not blend well), but sees nothing. But Prime suddenly reappears in the midst of them, and a very confused-looking Dr. Jackal appears with her. He seems to have come from somewhere in the mid-90s, where he was being attacked by two villains before Prime pulled him out, and doesn’t seem to recognize any of them. Before he can ask any questions, though, and as Dyna Girl flies down and joins them, the haggard-looking Prime says “Just…one more”, and suddenly teleports them all away.

October 13, 1993
Neuschwanstein Castle
State of Bavaria
Germany

The group appears high atop a tower on an old castle, overlooking a valley surrounded by a dense forest. Vanguard is down below (a name only Anvil seems to know), and is being chased and attacked by a figure in sort of a reverse-Vanguard costume…one with a blue mask instead of Vanguard’s red one. A flying woman who looks like a lot like Dyna Girl (but with a sexier costume) appears and tries to head off Vanguard’s escape. Jackal loudly asks the heroes who the $#@& they all are and what the $#@& is going on? Hearing his swearing, the two villains stop and look up, puzzled. Noticing this, Dr. Jackal looks down and yells “What the $#@& are you looking at?!”

Prime, exhausted, says Vanguard’s in the red mask, and Anvil quickly yells to everyone to attack the one in the blue mask. Jackal asks who the $#@& the guy in the red mask is and what the $#@$’s wrong with the one in the blue mask? Tommy, having turned into a human form—an Inuit construction worker—tells him that they’re with the evil people who killed his (Tommy’s) people, and that they must be stopped, and the red mask one needs to be saved. Jackal asks why he’s talking to one of the $#@& Village People?

The one in the blue mask unleashes a black beam from his eyes, and blasts Vanguard badly and sends him flying, which wakes everyone up and gets them into the fight. As Dyna Girl is flying toward her opposite number, the girl cries “Electra ZAP!” and tries to blast Vanguard with lightning, who (thankfully) ducks. Dyna Girl pauses and asks ”Did you just say ‘Electra Zap’? What the hell planet is this?”. The two confused women stare at each other, and then Anvil comes running up at high speed and tries to freight-train the villainess. But she yells “Electra FIELD!” at the last moment and puts up a glowing force field that counters his strike. She then yells at the approaching man in the blue mask and asks “Kromatis, what the heck’s going on here?” (Kromatis? Whom Forte knows as the leader of FORCE Command, the Eurocentric terrorists that are Vanguard’s arch-enemy? Yep.) Dyna Girl goes flying at her, but her doppelganger evades the strike. “Hey,” Electra Girl says, “You’re a knockoff of me!” Dyna Girl says, “No, you’re the bargain basement version of me, sister,” and Electra Girl answers, cattily, “Come HERE and say that!” The two Girls square off.

Before Kromatis can reach them, Dr. Jackal comes leaping down out of nowhere and lands on him very, very hard, nearly driving him into the ground. The villain is still conscious. Dr. Jackal stands up and says to the blue-faced villain, “Hey, where are your two buddies? I caught your show in Vegas,” and punches him, hard. Kromatis then lets loose with a massive energy blast, but the Doc is still standing.

Vanguard, back up now, blasts Electra Girl, but she doesn’t seem fazed by it, and asks him dismissively, “Why don’t you just give up and die, already? Sheesh!” She unleashes a lightning bolt at Anvil and sends him flying at Vanguard, but Tommy leaps in front of Vanguard, taking the blow, and he and Anvil go flying back. Anvil gets right back on his feet and goes running at Electra Girl, and is about to punch her when an enraged Dyna Girl swings down with an uprooted tree, smashing both Electra Girl and Anvil into the dirt.

Jack is still battling with Kromatis, and Lightsedge is running over to help. Jack delivers another giant punch, but the very tough villain survives it, and asks who they all are – so he can burn their names on their tombstones! He tells them nothing is going to stop him from killing Vanguard. He blasts at Jack again, but misses, and suddenly he’s hit from a blast from Vanguard across the way. Back over there, Electra Girl gets up from under the tree, dusts herself off, and tells Dyna Girl that that wasn’t really a good idea. She gestures, and a lightning bolt blasts Dyna Girl hard and sends her crashing into the forest, where she falls limp and unmoving. Jack punches Kromatis and sends him flying, but the villain jumps up and tries to blast both Jack and Lightsedge, and narrowly misses both of them. Vanguard then lights up Kromatis with another blast, which really enrages the villain. Tommy, meanwhile, tries to ram Electra Girl for what she did to Dyna Girl, but manages to miss her and damage the fallen tree instead. Electra Girl is about to respond, but suddenly remembers who their real target is, and she goes after Vanguard instead, blasting at him (with an “Electra ZAP!”), but Vanguard deftly evades the shot.

Jack leaps on Kromatis and takes him down to the ground, but the villain (still managing to withstand all this damage), is focused on what appears to be the center of all his hatred—Vanguard. He jumps to his feet and starts running toward Vanguard. Vanguard, meanwhile, blasts Electra Girl with his full power. She flies backward but acrobatically flips in the air and lands on her feet, not seeming fazed at all. Cocky and mocking, she says to Vanguard, “You guys just don’t get it, do you?” Vanguard gets her talking, and she reveals that she’s invulnerable to energy attacks. “Thanks,” Anvil says, as he comes up on the distracted villainess and rams into her at a full run. She goes flying into a tree, dazed. Tommy then jumps on her and smacks her as well. Dyna Girl, now awake, comes storming up as the villainess stands and slugs her very hard, sending her flying again. But she recovers, staying in the air, and realizes she’s getting overwhelmed and has a job to do. She blasts at Vanguard, shouting “Electra-a-a-a BLAM!”, and hits him. Vanguard flies back a bit, up against the castle wall, but lands on his feet, having survived her “blam” okay.

Kromatis, meanwhile, is still running toward Vanguard, and stops to aim and take his nemesis out. As he does, Jackal leaps down behind him and throws a colossal punch, clobbering him and sending him flying toward Vanguard. Jack calls “Heads up”, and Vanguard simply sidesteps as Kromatis smacks into the wall beside him and slides down it, out cold.

Lightsedge is trying to take on, and take down, Electra Girl, and as she’s focused on him, she doesn’t seem to notice Anvil come leaping through the air at her. He connects hard, and the two of them slam into the wall. Electra Girl, too, is out for the count.

While the others try to explain things to Vanguard, Dyna Girl flies up atop the castle and gets Prime and brings her down (Prime looks worse for wear after each temporal teleport, and is starting to look pretty bad). Prime tells them this is what they needed to do, to save and recover Vanguard. Now the strike team is assembled. And now they have a job to do. They have questions, but she says that many of their questions are about to be answered. Pulling her strength together, she teleports them all en masse, and they disappear from the castle.

June 15, 2013
The Sphere
Somewhere between time

Prime returns the team to the Sphere once more, but this time, something’s definitely different—different with all of the heroes, that is. They all have their memories back. And they all seem to have their modern, 2007 memories back, too, regardless of what time period they came from. Thankfully, they all now recognize each other. And they all realize the full weight of what they’ve been told. Someone has killed everyone else in Forte. These six are the last of the famed hero team still alive. And the last hope.

Johnny Quest patiently explains once more that someone else has been travelling through time – to kill the members of Forte before they could become heroes. It is a race that, frankly, the Quest team is losing – out of all the heroes in Forte, the only ones they could rescue are the heroes in front of them now. All the rest... are dead.

As he is explaining that the farther back they travel, the more time has changed, and the more trouble it is for his wife, Prime, to teleport accurately, an unnaturally-thin black man comes up from below – Maxwell Ravenscroft!

Max has been spending the last 25 years working to fix a mistake that his former self – a former self – made. Edison and Planck had a theory that held that time itself didn’t actually exist – it was simply an illusion, a convenient way humans had of organizing otherwise unfathomable concepts. This seemed almost impossible to prove or use, except for someone at least as smart as Albert Einstein or Max Planck. Sayyyy, Ravenscroft.

That Maxwell Ravenscroft ceased to be, and this Max ended up significantly worse for wear. With Johnny Quest, Prime, and Ravi and Mari Singh, he has spent well over two decades gathering equipment, researching spells of protection, and readying for this day – the final battle. He does apologize for any trouble he – or rather, a form of he—might have caused.

What Johnny, Ravi, Prime and Max have determined is that, three hours before Forte’s first meeting at the McKinley observatory, their adversary will appear and kill the original four heroes of Forte while still in their secret IDs. If the assembled heroes can stop him, the timestream will right itself, and everything will go forward as normal – with the exception that those heroes who journeyed to that point in time and space will remember everything as if it had really happened.

Because to them, it had.

If they failed... well, that would be that. Time would flow forward without Forte, and the team and their families and their legacies would be gone forever. This was their only chance – there is no one else left to make a second attempt should they fail.

While Johnny is still talking, Prime begins taking off her costume. As she rolls it down her body the heroes can see that underneath, her skin is a milky black, with stars glowing seemingly in three dimensions. The starfield appears to be seen through a dirty sheet of plastic, it is faded, though still the stars change almost constantly. Her body appears to be dissolving at the edges.

“This is why it was so important that one of the rescued be Vanguard,” Prime explains. “I need your unique energies to overcome the barriers that have arisen - or been placed, it doesn’t matter which – due to the many deaths and the universe’s attempts to remain on course. What I need you to do is open your visor and unleash your power into my body. I shall use that energy to remain on course and ensure that you all arrive safely.”

But, Vanguard wants to know, won’t that... harm her? She just smiles wanly at Johnny.

Now, the heroes know what they face (just not WHO yet), and what they have to do. They all agree to it, to put their lives on the line, one last time, to save their friends and family, and to save the timeline. Dyna Girl tells Johnny that if this works, and if it brings her father back, then she owes him, big time. He says that all he really wants is a cheeseburger (he’s been in this thing a while…). Grinning, Dyna Girl tells him, “Deal”. Jack addresses his teammates as they stand together.

“Okay,” he says, solemnly. “Everyone here who’s faced universal Armageddon before and kicked its ass, raise your hand.”

Each of the Forte heroes, in turn, raises a hand.

“Okay,” he nods, seriously. “Let’s do THAT again.” He tells everyone to follow his lead when they get there, as he was the one of their group actually THERE at the McKinley Observatory on November 4th, 1987. He explains the layout as best he can, and explains that, if they’re going in three hours before the event of Phantashia’s arrival—the thing that brought Forte together—that he (the 1987 Jack Parker) would still be at his cubicle at the Seattle Star, waiting to drive over to the campus and do the little human interest story he was assigned to do (a convention of osteopathic physicians. WHICH humans were supposed to be interested, again?), the kind of thing they gave out to new reporters like he was then. John Clayton, as Phantasm, was probably already staked out in, or on his way to, nearby Beggar’s Canyon, waiting for the drug dealers to arrive to make their deal so he could jump them (and end up stealing their briefcase full of money, which would end up buying the warehouse that became the first (poor excuse for a) Forte base). A student named Jackie Carter probably wasn’t in the observatory yet, but three hours later she would be there looking through the telescope when an inter-dimensional accident would cause her and Phantashia to switch places between their very different worlds. The only thing he doesn’t know for sure is where Sydney Todd—The Mist—would be then, but hopefully none of that would matter if they found and took out whoever was behind this first.

Tommy asks who he should mind-link with, and Jack says to do so with him. If they need to split up into two groups, that way he can communicate with Tommy’s group if there’s any info (or 80’s knowledge…) they need to know. With all that said, the heroes ready themselves, and it’s time for Prime to take them there. Prime and Johnny embrace each other, then stare into each other’s eyes, nose to nose. “See you again, sometime,” Prime chokes, and Johnny replies “I’ll always love you. Always.”

Prime stands in the middle of the six, and nods to Vanguard. He slowly opens his visor, and as he feeds more and more energy into Prime’s body the black suddenly becomes bold and the stars begin to glow fiercely. “More.... more!”

Vanguard hesitates, then unleashes his most powerful blast. Prime throws back her head and screams – and time violently gets turned on its head!

November 4, 1987
University of Washington Campus
Seattle, Washington

The six arrive right in front of the observatory on the campus, surrounded by other buildings in the quad where they stand. The sun is nearly down, and it’s almost dark, which thankfully has student traffic in the area at a minimum – the last class ended hours ago. Jack has to pause for a moment as memories wash over him, and the others, all Forte heroes, realize the weight of when and where they are. This is where Forte began (see Forte #1). Or, will begin…in about three hours.

They also notice that Prime in nowhere to be seen. She got them through, but apparently didn’t make it herself. Was she lost in the timestream? Killed? They have no way of knowing, but they do know that now they have no way back, and no chance to try and rectify the situation should they lose. It’s literally do or die time. Losing is, on so many levels, not an option.

Not knowing who or what they’re looking for, but knowing that standing out in the open is probably a bad idea, the heroes decide to split into two teams, one made up of Lightsedge, Tommy and Dyna Girl, the other Dr. Jackal, Anvil and Vanguard. It seems like a logical split, as the former team had some experience working together out in Realm space (see “Forte Chronicles #1: Into the Realm”) and the latter were a trio that made up the whole of Forte for some time, so they’re definitely an experienced trio. Jack’s team heads behind a science building, to something of an alley between two buildings, and Tommy’s team checks around the observatory.

They don’t have long to wait. While Jack’s trio is trying to stick to the shadows, they stay close to the buildings. Suddenly the recessed doorway of the science building begins to shift, and quickly morphs into a mostly-human female form. Mostly, because she sports two sets of arms. The disturbingly Cincoflex-like villainess is named Hexx, and she seems to recognize Jack (and not in a good way). With no time for mysteries, Jack grabs the malleable maiden and slams her to the ground - but her hands become her feet, and her legs merge to become her head, and she flows back into a standing form. (Ee-eew!) She stretches her hands into very sharp tips and stabs Jack, managing to hurt him quite a bit. Anvil grabs her and gives the spidery lady a squeeze of his own, but this doesn’t seem to hurt her much. She flows out of his grasp, her legs once more forming her head and her second set of arms change to her legs. Vanguard, meanwhile, projects an invisible force wall behind her in preparation, and calls out some old code words to his teammates…”The fence is up” to Anvil, and “stand your ground” to Jack.

The other team has problems of their own. A ghostly figure with a costume like Phantasm’s, only with colors inverted, floats through the wall of the observatory, and with a terrifying voice (and an obvious mental power) strikes Dyna and Tommy (Tommy is currently in the form of a human teen, as he was trying to fit in on campus) motionless with fear. Revenant then orders Dyna Girl to attack the young man, and, unable to resist the mental control, she goes after Tommy. Tommy manages to evade her, and quickly turns into his bear form and tries to attack the floating Revenant, but misses. Lightsedge, who was still around the corner with the big “fear attack” happened, is unaffected and charges in and attempts martial combat on the nimble phantom. Dyna Girl, meanwhile, goes flying off around the area, looking for the “teen” she’s supposed to pulverize, since she didn’t see him turn into a bear and, apparently, Revenant’s mental control is a bit too literal.

Vanguard suddenly realizes there’s someone big and obnoxious behind him…it’s a villain calling himself “The Doctor”, who appears to be a big and brawny brawler like Dr. Jackal, but…shaved. But Vanguard focuses on the task at hand, and keeps his wall up as Anvil throws Hexx at it. She’s still in the fight, but momentarily on the ground, so Vanguard drops his wall and blasts her. As he does, he’s shot himself, by an energy beam from above that seemed to come from nowhere. Jack takes this chance to get up and stomp hard on Hexx, but she seems to handle the stomping just fine, flowing out from under his feet with a wicked, crazed look on her face.

Tommy and Lightsedge are still sparring with Revenant. Revenant holds up a hand, however, and eerily speaks the words “mind destruction” toward Tommy. Tommy, attacked right in his own brain, grabs at his head with his paws and howls, falling over. Revenant tries the same thing with Lightsedge, who feels it too, but his mental defenses are much stronger due to his ongoing meditations. Fighting through it, Lightsedge surprises Revenant with a brutal martial blow and knocks him cold.

Vanguard puts his force wall back up, but is shot in the back by the same seemingly invisible person above. He’s thrown into his own wall but manages to keep it up. Anvil sees this and grabs Hexx and throws her into it, and she falls at Jack’s feet again. Doing likewise, Jack grabs her and slams her into the Vanwall, too, with enough force to put her all the way through it. It comes apart and she goes tumbling, this time not getting up. Vanguard spins and takes a shot at the approaching Doctor, but misses, and then is shot by the unknown attacker once more. Neither Jack nor Anvil can see the attacker. Jack suddenly stands still, though, and closes his eyes, and starts scenting the air, going into something of a zen trance. With his supernatural scent, he’s able to get a bead on her (and find out it’s a her). With his eyes still closed, he suddenly leaps at her, flying into the invisible villainess and sending them both smashing through the side of a science building’s fourth floor! D’Spell turns visible and moans, nearly knocked unconscious. Another blow finishes the faux-Phantashia.

Anvil and Vanguard, meanwhile, set to taking on the Doctor (the shaved one…).

Dyna Girl is flying behind the building Jack and D’Spell went through, and is finally able to shake Revenant’s control and come back to herself. She flies up to get a view of what’s going on, and she ends up being the first one to see the real power behind this plot they’re all wrapped up in, floating above the building and looking down on the heroes. Though she’s never met him, being too young, she recognizes the face—and the blood-red and black costume—immediately, from photos in the Forte files.

Frank Clayton.

Octave.

It’s enough to chill her heart and send panic rushing through her. The brother of Forte founding member Phantasm—and a Forte member himself for a time, going by the name Dash—who came back from a forced dimensional journey wrong and corrupted, who secretly was the mastermind behind Intercrime, the greatest and darkest threat Forte ever faced, one that resulted in the deaths of three of its heroes. He was revealed, in the end, as the villain Octave (see Forte #122), and soon revealed to merely be a puppet of the dark lord Tellezar, the demon that Phantashia later sacrificed her life to destroy (see Forte #200). Tellezar himself, at the final battle of Intercrime, enraged at Octave’s failure, cast a dark bolt of black energy at the traitorous hero that began aging him at incredible speed. Despite his betrayal, the Forte heroes saved his life with a youth elixir, but his mind was destroyed. For nearly seventeen years, he has remained in a vegetative state in a rest home in Maine. And now, somehow, he has returned. Not as Frank, not as Dash, but as the murderous Octave.

And the eight rings on his fingers, four of gold and four of silver, seem to be radiating power that strongly suggests that he’s come back far stronger than ever.

Dyna Girl screams out for Jack, yelling, “It’s Octave! It’s Frank!”, and she flies headlong at the villain as he turns in the air to meet her. She soars past him and throws a devastating punch, but he takes it and barely seems fazed. Vanguard and Anvil hear her words and look at each other, suddenly realizing the total weight of all this, but they have to take down the Doctor to get into it, so they take to that task with a vengeance. Lightsedge and Tommy, below, have heard this and looked up, and they, too, now know what they face. And know that a one-time member of Forte has apparently killed all of Forte but for them, and is now here to wipe the existence of Forte out forever.

Dyna stops and spins, turning back to face him, and Octave has vengeful and murderous words for them all. Forte was far more important than the heroes ever dreamed – not just for eliminating villainous threats, but for the lives they saved and, especially, the inspiration they provided. From children inspired not to bully their classmates to emulation by heroes like the Four Aces, Forte had affected thousands upon thousands of people. Over the years, each one of these small turning points added up, to change the world – not by pounding some villains silly, but by providing positive examples of the desire to do right.

Octave was out to change all that.

By killing off Forte and replacing them with his own villainous doppelgangers, the heroic ideal that Forte had provided would die as well. People would lose hope. Hero teams would never form. And once his Forte had crushed the sole remaining hero team, the Justice Squadron, the world would be under his heel. The world’s history would be his to rewrite as he wished. Best of all, with Forte as his enforcers, the name of Forte would be the most dreaded and reviled in the world.

Not letting his words deter her, and remembering that he’s just killed most of her friends and her father, Dyna unleashes her rage and does another shattering fly-by, one he seems to feel this time. Lightsedge and Tommy are down below, just waiting for him to get down low enough for them to do their part. Anvil and Vanguard, meanwhile, are pounding the resilient Doctor across the campus, slowly but methodically taking him down with their powers, skills, and years of teamwork.

Dyna tries another pass, but Octave has realized what a threat she is and dives below her flight path, letting her soar by. As she does, he spins around and blasts with a staggering beam of power from one of his rings. It strikes the latter-day Forte heroine and blasts her across the quad, where she hits a building and falls face-down to the grass, unmoving. Tasting victory, Octave rants more about his hatred for Forte, and how their legacy and their existence will end here and now, finally, and there will be no one to stop him this time.

Dr. Jackal smashes through the roof of the building he was in and lands on it, looking down at Octave. There’s a frightening edge of murder in the quiet rage behind the Forte founder’s eyes. Octave smiles evilly, looking up at him and telling him it’s good to see him again. Jack’s jaw quivers in anticipation as he remembers all that Octave wrought—the death of Synergy; of Shrike, one of Jack’s best friends, and the future-son of Phantasm; of Thresher; and the enabling of Lucifer D’Arque, who, during that time, kidnapped one of Jack’s own daughters from his wife, Knightsabre’s, womb and turned her into the insane and murderous Helliquin, who would later die trying to destroy Forte herself. An entire year of the Forte team on a vengeance quest to track down and end Intercrime, only to find one of their own behind it all. He tells Octave that the only thing that’s ending today is Jack’s mistake of not doing what should have been done in the first place. That mistake ends here and now, and once and for all.

Before Octave can gloat further, a blast from Vanguard skims past him. As he’s distracted by this and sees Vanguard and Anvil moving in, Jack bellows an inhuman howl and leaps at him. Octave whips around and dodges him, and Jack lands most of the way across the quad. Vanguard takes more shots at him, but Octave evades them all, and welcomes the heroes to their final stand. While Jack, so close to Dyna Girl, has to stop and make sure she’s still alive, Anvil takes a go at the mad villain and misses as well. Vanguard has some words for Octave as well, the only other hero here who was personally betrayed by him and felt the repercussions of his actions, and like Jack, tells him that he’s come back to nothing but his own defeat. Octave, seeming to be speaking and listening to his own rings, rants more about his final victory and starts cutting loose on them with his powerful rings. He’s fast, blazingly fast…and manages to keep most of their attacks at bay. Slowly, the heroes start to do some damage... but not enough.

Just when it looks like he’s getting the upper hand, Tommy does a mighty bear leap and bites hard into the villain’s leg, making him cry out in enraged agony. He blasts Tommy viciously to the ground, and gears up a final killing blast on the injured bear. But as he does, Lightsedge comes leaping in and, with gritted teeth, uses his sword to deflect the blast away. It goes into the side of a nearby building, exploding it and throwing debris and dust and smoke out across the quad. Before he can turn his wrath on Lightsedge, Vanguard blasts at him, and keeps him distracted with more words.

And while he’s distracted, Jack comes soaring through the dust cloud, mouth wide in a primal scream, and puts every bit of his strength and hate, every memory of his now-fallen teammates, every thought of his now time-lost family, into the blow that follows. Jack flies through him, and with him, taking them both through the remains of the building across the way, through each wall and each room, out to the other side. Jack lands hard in the parking lot, with pieces of building raining down on him, and Octave continues on, soon hitting the cement and tumbling, limp arms and legs flailing. Octave comes to a stop, and stays there.

The other heroes approach. Dyna Girl is shaky, but back up. Jack stands and begins walking darkly toward Octave’s unconscious body.

But getting there becomes a problem. Things—trees, cars—start to appear and disappear. Whole buildings rise and then vanish. Suddenly, the Forte heroes themselves start disappearing, one by one. Jack disappears before he makes it to Octave. At last, only Anvil is left, and he sees Octave disappear, moments before the whole world goes white.

August 11, 2007
Spires Residence
San Francisco, CA

Mark Spires—Anvil—finds himself sitting behind the wheel of his car in his driveway. He’s come home from working late at his job—his regular job, not his super-hero job.

And he remembers everything.

For a moment he can’t move, and then he comes back to himself and gets quickly out of his car and hurries to the front door. He fumbles with his keys and drops them once before getting his front door open. The house is mostly dark, but the kitchen light is still on. He rushes in, and finds two bowls and two spoons in the sink. In the trashcan, he can see an empty ice cream container.

It seems to take him forever get down the hall, his flesh-and-blood legs suddenly seeming heavier than his metal ones. His hand shakes a little as he opens his bedroom door. Inside, he finds his wife, Erin, asleep in their bed, and he finally lets out the breath he'd been holding. The tension mostly lifts. But before he lets it go, he crosses the hall and opens the door to one of the spare bedrooms, the one they keep for Bree. He finds her, too, sleeping peacefully. She must have come over and stayed up too late, talking and laughing with Erin, waiting for him to show, and decided to, as she’s wont to do, crash in her “other” room instead of driving home to her apartment.

They’re alive. Like nothing ever happened.

He hears Dr. Jackal’s voice in his ear, over his radio.

“Tell me I’m not the only one who remembers,” Anvil’s old teammate says, quietly. One by one, Anvil, Lightsedge, Vanguard, Dyna Girl and Tomarssuk confirm via radio that he isn’t. They all remember. And they know they won. They saved Forte. And their friends. And their families. And probably the world. Again.

There’s a lot of silence. No one has many words, except to confirm that their lives and their loved ones seem intact. Vanguard speaks from one of his children’s rooms. Dyna Girl speaks as she floats outside her father’s bedroom window, watching him doze.

Jack suggests that maybe they ought to just talk about all this tomorrow. Anvil says that’s fine with him, and that he’s just going to go watch his wife and daughter sleep for a while.

Vanguard says, “Jack—“

“I got it, Robert,” Jack answers.

“I can—“ Vanguard tries to continue.

“Just be with your kids", Jack says. "I’ll call you tomorrow.”

The Forte heroes sign off.

And Anvil watches his wife and daughter sleep.

EPILOGUE ONE

Dr. Jackal finishes checking his wife and his two teenage daughters, kissing them all without waking them. Then he goes to the room of his adult daughter, Samantha—the Forte heroine called Nightsable. She’s still awake, as he’d figured, reading something on her computer. She looks up, confused. He tells her he needs a teleport.

Right.

Now.

August 11, 2007
Bath, Maine
Winship Green Nursing Center

They step through her teleportal into an empty hallway in the rest home. It’s late, and no one seems to be around, but they stay silent. Nightsable follows her father, still confused, as he approaches one of the rooms. He tells her to wait outside. She starts to ask questions, but he kisses her forehead to silence her and again tells her to wait.

He opens the door and steps into the dark. The lights from the hall and the streetlamps outside light the room just enough. A figure lays there on a simple bed, lays where a nurse had probably had to place him hours before.

Jack steps to the bed and looks down on the open, eternally staring eyes of Frank Clayton. There’s no sign that he’s done anything but stare like for the past seventeen years. Jack stands there and watches him for a while, then steps back and slowly sits on the chair across from the bed. He folds his hands under his chin and just watches. And considers. And wonders. Wonders what it all means. What has just happened this night. And wonders what the future holds.

And what they may have to do about it.

He stays there for a long, long time, watching Frank Clayton stare at seemingly nothing.

EPILOGUE TWO

August 12th, 2007
Bellevue, Washington
Questar Labs

Johnny Quest sits with his feet up on his desk, pondering something probably too unfathomable for most minds on Earth, staring at his computer screen and waiting for inspiration. So intent on his mathematics is he that it takes him a moment to register that someone has entered his office – Dyna Girl.

“Well, hey,” he smiles, looking up at her.

Dyna Girl grins, obviously hiding something behind her back. She stands in front of his desk, smiling.

“What?” he asks, perplexed.

With a flourish she takes a paper bag from behind her back and sets it on his desk before him. Looking at her oddly, he takes the back, opens in, and looks inside. Then he looks back up at her.

“A cheeseburger?” he asks, still baffled.

“Yep,” she says, still smiling and seeming proud of herself, and seeming something else he honestly can’t put his finger on.

“Okaaay,” he says, leaning back in his chair. “Precisely what did I do to deserve this?”

She simply smiles, and then walks around his desk slowly, leans down, and gives him a kiss on the cheek, which only manages to confuse him more.

“Ask me again another time,” she smiles

And she’s still smiling as she turns and walks out of his office, leaving Johnny Quest scratching his head. And still smiling as she walks down the hall and wipes the tear from her eye. And as she flies off to go have lunch with her Dad downtown.

She’s meeting him—the retired Forte hero called Electro Man—at the place where he works, a building in Seattle Center, near Key Arena and in view of the Space Needle. The building is called the Forte Museum, and her father is the curator.

It is a landmark that countless thousands of schoolchildren, tourists and fans have walked through. A place that educates them on, and pays honor to, the legacy of the Seattle hero team that, for twenty years now, has continued to protect, amaze and inspire the people of Washington, and the people of the world.

And if Dyna Girl has anything to say about it, she intends to see that Forte keeps right on doing it.

Forever.