Capt. Dane Casey
Johnny Quest
Chief Doug Galisky
Kell
Thresher
Warren Tether
Dr. Jackal
Electro Man
Mist
Anvil
Vanguard
Bruise
Serenade
Lord Raze
RedRaven
Windsheer
#3
"City Under Siege, Part III: Battlefield Seattle"
Not quite sure where to start first, with the whole city of Seattle under attack by thousands of inhuman invaders, Tinker, Seahawk, Max and Rainier decide on the fly to take their craft, the Mariner, over to UNCLE headquarters. It sounded like Corporal Dane Casey was under attack, and since it’s closer to them than the center of this nightmare, they hit there first.
Flying low over the skyline, they come upon UNCLE HQ, with much of its roof caved in. Lucy starts the landing process on the street outside, and Seahawk tells her to pop the hatch. He and Max fly out and rush ahead into the damaged UNCLE building. No invaders or other threats inside. They do follow the sound of coughing, though, and pull a big piece of roof up to find Dane under it. He looks all right, but says Bruise is gone. Another villain—looked like RedRaven, a freelancer that fought the Enforcers once—came and busted him out. Dane suddenly jumps up and wonders where the others are. A quick search finds his two remaining agents—Agent Cassie Garland who normally handles the front desk, and Agent Jason Freis, a just-transferred rookie who arrived this morning right out of the academy—are mostly all right.
Tinker and Rainier make their way in, and Dane surveys the damage, and the situation. Max asks the others what they should do. They can’t just stand there…they have to go help people. The city needs them, and it looks like they’re the only heroes left in town. Tinker finds the TV, still on and missed by part of the roof that went down, and checks out the footage. Karrigon warriors are rounding up civilians and brutally attacking those who resist. The city’s in absolute chaos, and more of the warriors keep pouring through new dimensional portals. Things are starting to look more hopeless by the minute. One of the cameras goes back on Lord Raze and the scene with his mages on top of the building. Tinker taps the set, pointing at the crystal. That seems to be, she points out, their main power source. If they’re going to have a chance, taking that, or the mages, out has to happen first. The trick is going to be getting to it.
Radio calls start pouring in, and Dane’s trying to catch the important ones. The first one is Johnny Quest, owner and CEO of Questar. He wants to know the situation, and Dane explains that there are only three of them left at UNCLE…plus the four heroes. Johnny lets him know that Lord Raze didn’t seem to be lying about the field. Nothing is getting through. He just got a report that someone saw Captain Thunder of the Justice Squadron just hit the thing doing about mach 1. He’s still unconscious outside the barrier. And Johnny notes he knows teleporting won’t work, otherwise a teleporter he knows—who’s out of town this week—would have popped in already. He also lets Dane know that the dimensional door at Questar isn’t working now, either, so no chance in getting help from any alternate Earths.
Dimensional door, Rainier asks? Alternate Earths?!
Johnny says it looks like they’re all on their own. He says he’ll start working the problem and try to get back to Dane. He tells Dane if he’s got some heroes there, wish them good luck.
The next call drops right in, and it’s Police Chief Galisky, wondering what in God’s name is happening and what UNCLE’s doing about it. He wants to talk to the ranking agent. Dane looks around the room nervously, realizing that it’s him. He’s a corporal, he tells the heroes. Seahawk tells him no one’s going to be talking to anyone else from UNCLE anytime soon, so far now, he’s all they’ve got. So he’d better get used to the idea. Dane thinks, nods, and steels himself. Answering the radio call, he tells the chief his name, and lets him know that UNCLE emergency measures, as mandated for situations like these, are in effect. He says UNCLE HQ is compromised, but he’ll try to get down to police headquarters with his remaining agents. They’ll convene and coordinate there.
Taking a deep breath, he tells his two agents to hit the armory and gather up whatever they can carry. He’s going to go out and see if their transportation is still in one piece. Apparently, in the motor pool, there’s a real working flying car. It’s just kept a secret and is only there for emergencies. Guess this counts.
He asks the heroes what they’re going to do. The four heroes agree—they have to go after the leader, his mages, and that crystal. Maybe if they can free the Forte heroes, they’ll have a better chance. But the longer they wait around, the more Karrigon will pour in, and the city will certainly fall. Telling Dane to keep in contact, they rush back outside and into the Mariner.
As they take off and fly toward the financial district, Lucy points to the video monitor and says the first order of business is going to be getting through that force field that’s protecting the mages and the crystal. To do that, it looks like they’re going to have to go through this Lord Raze first, and there’s no way of knowing if he’s as tough as he looks until they actually meet him. Hopefully they can find a way to get around him. And then there are still the villains out there somewhere…
And with that thought, the Mariner starts to buck, and Lucy fights to keep control. Max spots a floating figure nearby. It’s the villain Windsheer, and true to his name, he’s whipping up some nasty winds around them. Lucy turns and dives, going down low, trying to avoid him. But he flies after them, and the winds are knocking them around badly. Seahawk pops the top, and tells Max to follow him. He and Max will try to take out Windsheer and meet up with Tinker and Rainier.
He and Max fly out and toward Windsheer. But as they approach, a red streak comes from nowhere as another villain flies into Seahawk, sending him tumbling toward the city below. Max, meanwhile, gets hit with a sonic blast and starts to fall as well.
Lucy tries to keep control of the Mariner, but Windsheer is keeping up his assault. Finally a massive blast throws the craft into a dive. They’re headed right for Witherill’s department store. Lucy manages to get the nose up and keep them from a straight dive into it, but they still slam into the side of the building and crash to a stop inside.
Tinker and Rainier seem to be okay, as does the Mariner. But it’s half-buried and won’t be able to fly out of there. Their ride is gone. Rainier has to force the hatch open for them, and they climb out quickly, praying that no one was in the store. Looking around, they’re grateful to see the store appears deserted…and it’s probably going to be that way for a long time, since it’s all but destroyed.
Lucy hears a voice saying, “Heeeere, Tinker Tinker Tinker. Come out, come out, come OOOuut.”
It’s Serenade, and she’s in the store. And she seems to have found out Lucy’s hero name from someone, probably Bruise (wherever he may be). Lucy tells Rainier to get out of there and get to the objective. If she stalls Serenade, that’s one less villain that can slow him down. He probably has the best chance of any of them take care of things there. He doesn’t want to leave her there alone with that crazy, murderous woman, but she insists, telling him she’ll catch up. The city and maybe the whole world are counting on him. He thanks her for not putting on too much pressure or anything, and tells her to be careful. Rainier heads out a hole in the wall near ladies lingerie. Lucy grabs her bag of tricks and runs deeper into the store, knocking a few things over on purpose to make some noise.
Seahawk straightens out and hits his jets just before he crashes through a building roof. But the minute he’s stopped, he’s hit again with another powerful fly-by. He tumbles across the roof and teeters on unconsciousness for a moment. Looking up, he says RedRaven, a scary-looking winged man garbed in crimson, circling overhead. He yells to Seahawk that people who don’t have wings shouldn’t try to fly. Angry, Seahawk jets up after him, and an aerial fight begins. RedRaven is superhumanly strong and fast. It’s not an easy fight. Seahawk notices, in the middle of it, a news copter—from KCPQ, or “Q13”, the local Fox affiliate—is nearby and catching the action.
Max, too, saves himself from a bad fall, only to find himself pummeled by a huge wind and thrown through the windows of an office building. Windsheer follows him in, coming in on a gust, and says he’s heard of Max, the new golden boy in town. He brags, though, that he’s fought the Paragons, Captain Comet, and Thunderbolt, so a wannabe rookie like Max doesn’t worry him too much. He suggests Max just give up, since he’s on the losing end of this fight anyway, since the Karrigon are going to be running things from now on. Disagreeing with that, Max throws a filing cabinet at him. Windsheer easily whisks it aside with a wind. Max starts throwing more things, one after the other—computers, chairs, a desk. Windsheer catches them all, being creative by juggling them. Busy watching his own mid-air juggling act, he asks if that’s all Max has got—and then gets a fist from Max in the face.
Rainier is running down the street, wondering how his life managed to end up like this. He’s trying to figure out the fastest route to the block he’s looking for when he hears, too late, someone yelling happily above him. Bruise lands on him, feet-first, sending him through a UPS truck. Rainier gets up quickly, and Bruise stands there in the street, waiting, almost trembling in anticipation. He’s asking if Rainier’s looking for a rematch. Actually, Rainier explains, he really has somewhere else to be, so asks if Bruise might take a rain check? Bruise isn’t going for that, but Rainier had to ask. Bruise is in his way, and time’s quickly running out, so Rainier knows he has no choice. Their fight begins.
Tinker is sneaking through Witherill’s, trying to keep Serenade occupied, but at the same time try not to get caught and killed. She quietly slips on some high-tech footwear she designed—frictionless anti-grav shoes. They’re not that anti-grav, just enough to give a buffer of a couple of inches between her soles and the floor, so they work kind of like skates. She first got the idea when she was a kid, watching Star Wars and seeing Luke’s landspeeder.
She gets a chance to use them fast, too, because a sonic blast destroys most of the aisle next to her. She skates off down another aisle, ducking low, moving deeper into the store. Serenade starts calling out to her, taunting her, telling her she owes her big time for the thing with the ants, and that it’s going to cost her dearly. Lucy hides and moves, waiting for Serenade to come by and then sneaking back the other way. Every once in a while she’ll throw something a couple of aisles over, and Serenade will unleash on that aisle. She knows she’s buying Rainier time, but she also knows she won’t be able to keep this up forever. She’ll have to figure out what her next move is.
Seahawk and RedRaven are tearing up the skies, fighting it out and racing around. Seahawk’s flying skills are put to the test like never before as he tries to evade the villain. He knows Raven’s not going to let him get near his destination, so he has to take the guy out to move on. Easier said than done. RedRaven catches Seahawk’s ankle during a turn and swings him around, throwing him through the side of a building. RedRaven follows him in to finish up. But he gets smacked by Max instead, who’s fighting in the same building, and gets hurled back out over the street. Seahawk stands, and Max says, “Let’s switch! Take my guy!” Max jumps out the window after RedRaven. “Your guy?” Seahawk asks, then turns around just as Windsheer comes flying into the room. Seahawk quickly gets in the game and decks the already angry villain. Looks like Max had already broken his nose, so Seahawk hitting it again really hurts.
Rainier and Bruise are knocking each other all over downtown. Bruise is having a great time, too. Rainier’s holding his own, but definitely realizes this guy’s been fighting a lot longer than he has. Rainier’s pretty sure he’s stronger than Bruise, but skill makes a difference. They slug it out some more, and a news crew has moved in (news crews are racing all over the city trying to outscoop each other). Great, Rainier thinks. Now he can get his butt kicked on live television.
Serenade feels she’s getting close, and is hungry for some payback. She steps through the sporting goods section, and hears what sounds like a spray. It is a spray…it’s Tinker, behind a rack of skiing equipment, spraying Serenade’s calf. The villain suddenly gets a wicked Charlie horse…thanks to Lucy’s Cramp Spray. Lucy skates off quickly. Serenade starts to run after her, but limps to a fall. She lets loose a vocal onslaught instead, taking out more of the store, but Lucy slips away. Serenade starts to fly, but even flying is hard with a wicked cramp doubling you over. She lands to nurse it and screams out a lot of bad words at Tinker.
Suddenly Tinker’s voice can be heard over the store sound system. She’s tapped in remotely. She tells Serenade she doesn’t want to hurt her, and she doesn’t want to fight. She tells her she’s making a big mistake working with the Karrigon, that she knows all about them, and that they’re going to enslave every human once they’re in control, including her. It’s not too late, she offers, to change her mind, even if it’s just for self-interest instead of heroic reasons. Serenade speaks back, using her powers to project her voice all over the store, and says humanity’s never done anything but screw her over her whole life, so why should she care what happens to them? Let them be slaves. The Karrigon are going to pay her handsomely and she’ll be free and immune from their rule, no matter what Tinker thinks. It’s payback time for every bad thing that’s ever happened to her. And she’s not about to let Lucy screw it up for her.
The problem with Serenade’s voice coming from everywhere at once is that Lucy can’t tell where the villain really is. She finds out quickly. Skating around a corner, she’s face to face with Serenade, who hauls off and hits her with a baseball bat. Lucy stumbles and falls through a rack of clothes, afraid her arm might be broken. Serenade says a quick death by sonics would be too merciful. She wants to tender her up a little first. Limping after Lucy, Serenade swings that bat down like an ax. Lucy barely dodges, scurrying back to try and create some distance. Avoiding another blow, she uses the same spray on her attacker again, this time aiming it at her ribs, quickly giving Serenade a terrible side stitch. Screaming more in anger than pain, she tries to swing the bat again, but doubles over, unable to. The momentary pause lets Lucy get to her feet and start skating off.
She’s speed-skating on air now, racing down a long aisle the length of the store. Serenade is flying after her, though she’s in obvious agony trying it and can’t do it very well. She’s letting loose with all her sonic might. Lucy’s hands are over her ears as she tries to dodge and weave as displays and parts of the floor and support beams shatter.
She hears a terrible wrenching sound and can’t help but look back, and sees to roof starting to collapse. She can see Serenade’s face through the disaster, still enraged, focused on Lucy, even as parts of the ceiling come down and pummel her to the floor. Instinctively, Lucy races that way to try and help her, but then the rest of the roof falls and buries Serenade, and Lucy has to skate for her life in the other direction. Choking on dust, she finds an opening to the outside and gasps in air. She knows there’s nothing she can do for Serenade now.
Seahawk is hanging on to one of his harpoon lines, dangling and flailing horizontally as Windsheer’s winds thrash him. The end of the line is stuck into the building, the one where Windsheer’s standing, holding his bloody nose with one hand and conjuring wind vengefully with the other. If Seahawk’s line doesn’t hold, he knows he’s going right through the building across the way. A virtual hurricane is hammering him.
He manages to get his other arm up and around, slowly, and aims it at Windsheer. He fires his other line and it wraps itself around the startled Windsheer’s feet. Seahawk then releases his first lane, and lets the wind take him. Windsheer’s legs are taken right out from under him, and he’s dragged out after Seahawk. As Seahawk hoped, Windsheer stops creating the wind, but not fast enough. Freed from it, Seahawk fires his jets and flies straight up, just before impacting the other building. Windsheer isn’t so lucky, and his momentum carries him right into the side, where he impacts with a loud crunch. He dangles by his feet at the end of Seahawk’s line, not waking up anytime this week.
Max and RedRaven are fighting from rooftop to rooftop, and if one were keeping score, it would likely be a tie. Max has taken some shots, but has been dishing them out, too. He’s starting to tire, but so, he can tell, is RedRaven. And Max isn’t going to be the one to fold. Too many people are counting on him. The city he calls home is counting on him.
Losing ground, RedRaven takes a dive off the roof on soars toward the street. Max is right after him, jumping on his back. There’s some mid-air wrestling, and RedRaven throws Max off with a flip. Max bounces off the side of a building and crashing through a newsstand. Shaken, he crawls into the street, trying to get his wind back and ignore the pain.
He hears them before he sees them. Karrigon warriors are coming, a couple of battalions of them. They just happened to choose this street to come down. Lucky him. And they spot him, too. With a hearty battle cry, they start to charge him.
He’s about to take back off into the air when he notices them all stop. Knowing he’s not that impressive a sight, he looks behind him.
Another army has come around the corner and is coming down the street behind him. This one, though, is an army of Seattle police and firemen.
Police are out front in riot gear, shields at the ready. A couple of fire trucks are behind them, with firemen manning the hoses on top. Max even sees some civilians in the crowd, like a group of construction workers carrying 2x4’s. They’re organized, and they’re coming into downtown to take on the enemy and rescue civilians.
Seattle is fighting back.
He looks closer at one of the fire trucks, and sees Dane Casey up there, alternating between talking into a radio and yelling things to the officers and firemen around him. The corporal is calling the shots.
Max has just a moment to be impressed before the Karrigon troops charge. Right in the middle of things, he flies up and back and lands on the fire truck next to Dane. Dane tells the firemen around him to wait…wait…wait… Then calls out the command, and they let loose with the water cannons, scattering Karrigon. Those that get through clash with the riot police up front. Batons fly, shots are fired, tear gas is launched, and it’s a war zone. Dane asks what’s happening, and Max tells him they’ve all split up but are trying to reach the leader. Dane tells him to go do it, though Max clearly wants to stay and fight with them. Dane says they’ll do what they can on the street, but they’re counting on the heroes. Max promises the heroes won’t let them down.
Reluctantly, Max takes back to the air, debating whether to go back and try to find the others or try to take out the objective himself. He doesn’t have long to think about it, because here comes RedRaven again. He soars by and sucker punches Max. Now Max has had enough. He chases Raven. They lock in combat again. But Max gets the upper hand, dodging and counter-punching, recharged by what he’s seen in the men down below. Every time RedRaven tries to break away, Max is on him again. Max lands punch after punch. RedRaven starts to look dazed. Max takes advantage. The fight ends on a rooftop, with a final punch from Max that knocks RedRaven out. The villain collapses. Under normal circumstances, Max would be carting the unconscious criminal off to UNCLE, but that’s not going to work today. Left with no time and no choice, Max flies off, leaving RedRaven behind. He needs to find the others.
Rainier’s slugfest with Bruise has been quite epic. He finds he’s actually getting a little better, being exposed to fighting like this (not like he’s ever been a brawler in his life), but Bruise is still the pro. Bruise is taking a momentary breather, catching his breath but still smiling madly at Rainier. Rainier is busy picking himself up and climbing out of the van he ended up in. He tells Bruise this is wasting too much time. He has other places to be. Bruise tells him that’s the idea. They’re supposed to be keeping the heroes away, and they seem to be doing a fine job of it. Rainier tells him it has to stop. Bruise says he’ll be happy to make it stop—Rainier’s heart, that is. It looks like Bruise is ready for the next round.
Rainier’s eyes begin to burn with bright red flame. He repeats that this has to stop. Hungry for it, Bruise starts to charge him again.
Rainier raises his hands, which erupt with lava. Bruise is sprayed and covered in the stuff. Now he’s tough enough to where he’s not going to be scarred and it’s not going to kill him, but it obviously hurts like hell. He’s running around screaming. And he can’t seem to see, either. Just the balancer Rainier was looking for. He starts laying mighty blows on Bruise, knocking him all around. It takes a lot of them, but he finally takes the fighter down. Grabbing a falling lamppost, he wraps it around the villain and leaves him there.
Seahawk tells him nice work. He and Max have shown up. About the time they start asking if anyone’s seen Tinker, she comes skating up the street. She’d passed a TV shop, seen the footage of Rainier fighting, and recognized the intersection. They trade notes quickly, confirming that all the villains are out (at least the ones they know of). Unknown to them, the TV crew is still there, filming them from a distance.
They know it’s time to go, but a crowd of screaming civilians comes running around the corner. They’re being pursued by a large Karrigon force. The heroes can’t just take off the leave them. The citizens run toward them, and the heroes beckon them to keep coming, to keep running. They pass the heroes, and the heroes hold their ground, waiting for the Karrigon horde. Just before they arrive, Lucy whips out a small hose and fires it, and it sprays ball bearings all over the streets in front of them. Karrigon start slipping and falling like crazy. With that opening, Seahawk and Max fly into the crowd of them. Rainier runs in behind and starts taking care of business.
It’s a frantic battle, with the heroes outnumbered, but holding on, and keeping them away from civilians. But this is keeping the heroes away from their objective, and they know time is running out. Soon, for all their good intentions, the heroes are overwhelmed, and more and more Karrigon keep showing up. It looks like the heroes’ good intentions weren’t enough.
But everyone is distracted by an amazing sight. A water funnel of ungodly size rises up out of the waters nearby. Slowly, the monolithic thing heads toward the energy shield, and, with a bright flash of magical energy, pierces it and comes through. But instead of hitting the street and flooding, the spiraling funnel stops short—and from out of it pour an army of Cassians, dressed for battle. With Kell and Thresher in the lead.
Forgetting about the heroes when finally seeing the blood enemies they’ve waited for their whole lives, the Karrigon warriors charge, and a civil war breaks loose on the streets of Seattle. More funnels grow up and breach the shield in other parts of the city, and more Cassians arrive. Suddenly, there’s hope. A fighting chance.
Kell fights his way through some Karrigon, making quick work of them, and gets close to the heroes, who are doing their best to help. Seahawk tells him they’re going to go after Lord Raze and that crystal, as Tinker assumes that will take down the shield. Prince Kell says Tinker is right, and tells them to hurry to it, that the Cassians will keep their brothers busy. Tinker has to ask…why? The council had voted to leave the humans to their own fate. Kell says as prince regent, he has veto power. He used it. He looks at Rainier when he says this. Though he says he’s not fully convinced, mankind may prove worthy of their world yet. Rainier’s words made a difference with him. And having Thresher come into his life has taught him that there might be good in humanity after all.
The heroes leave the Cassians to it, taking to the air. They fly (Max with Tinker and Seahawk with Rainier again) low through the streets of Seattle, passing over scenes of battle. They see Seattle P.D. fighting side by side with Cassians. At one point they spot Agent Freis herding civilians to cover, firing his weapon at attackers.
Soon they make it to their destination, landing on a rooftop across from Raze and the mages, at the center of the great beam. They don’t want to charge directly at them and risk them hurting the Forte heroes that are still trapped in the energy web, though now awake. Raze regards them smugly. He’s impressed they made it this far. The original plan was the kill or capture all the city’s heroes so they wouldn’t be a nuisance. But, he says, a nuisance is all these four are to him. They can’t stand in the way of thousands of years of destiny. And oh, he tells them, the Earth is about to get a taste of its own destiny. The spell the mages are conjuring is drawing upon the hidden dark magics beneath the Earth, and it’s about to unleash a global earthquake that should effectively level most of the planet—the planet outside of protected Seattle, of course. That should take most of the fight out humanity and make it ready for conquering.
Max tells him you can never take the fight out of humanity, and that his conquering days are over. Raze laughs at this “boy”, and tells him he hasn’t the mettle to back his words. Rainier, calmly and seriously, invites him to come over and find out. Smiling in a darkly evil way, Raze gives a battle cry. Magical energies alight around his hands, and he leaps across the distance between the buildings. He lands before them, and the fight is on.
He’s fast, he’s good, and he’s really, really strong. Seahawk is hammered to the roof with his first strike, and he blasts Rainier back with a mystical burst before Davis can try to help. He slugs it out with Max, and it’s obvious why he became ruler of this warrior people. He’s skilled, powerful, and frightening. As Max takes blows, Seahawk ties up one of Raze’s arms with a harpoon line, enough distraction to get him off Max and coming at Seahawk, which allows Rainier to charge in and land a massive blow.
With all this happening, Lucy knows what’s still the important thing. Backing up and taking a deep breath, wishing now she could fly like Seahawk and Max, she skates frantically past the battle and toward the edge of the roof, picking up speed. At the edge, she leaps, hurtling toward the other building.
Not quite.
She misses the building with her skates, coming short and hits the other rooftop with her upper body, managing somehow to hang on. Dangling many stories above the street below, she winces through the pain and tries to pull herself up. Eventually, she struggles up onto the roof. Thankfully, the mages, behind their shield, are too wrapped up in their chanting to do anything about her. Limping up, she takes in the surroundings, looking at the dome-like field around the mages, the beam, the web, trying to figure the best way to approach the problem.
The other three heroes, meanwhile, are taking turns attacking and being driven back. Raze turns all their attacks against them with his martial skill, and is hurting each of them a lot. Rainier tries his lava and Raze conjures up a quick shield that protects him. Max wants to use his “Max Effect”, the same ability he used to take out Bruise the first time, but he knows it takes everything out of him, and if it’s not enough to stop Raze, he’ll be out of the fight. And he knows he’s needed, because even with the three of them, they’re losing the fight against this guy.
Lucy wants to find a way to get the web down and release Dr. Jackal, Cincoflex, Nightsable and Electro Man, though they don’t look like they’re in much shape to be of much help. But the web is being cast by the protected mages, so they’re still the main target. She studies the dome around them. The beam isn’t cutting through it—there’s an opening up top for it. It’s mostly just big enough for the beam—a little extra space, not enough for a person to fit through. But maybe…
She reaches into her bag of goodies, and produces a metallic metal ball. Activating it, she gauges distance, and hopes that human and Karrigon physiology aren’t that different. She carefully lobs the sphere up. He aim is true, much to her relief. Her device falls into the dome and hits the roof floor between the mages. And it goes off.
Not with a bang. It quietly shoots gasses in several different directions. The mages don’t even notice at first. Then one of them starts to sneeze. Another does, too, then starts scratching. Another does the same until they’re all doing it, and all trying to keep up their chanting and concentration at the same time. But Lucy’s Allergy Bomb is making that almost impossible.
The dome around them starts to shimmer and falter a little. It’s working!
In a scene right out of a great kung fu movie, the battle with Raze rages on on the other rooftop. The standstill goes on, until Seahawk sneaks in a kick to just the right spot in Raze’s ribs. It’s enough to make him hesitate for just a moment, which is enough for Max to get in a good shot, sending him stumbling right into Rainier, who clocks the would-be conqueror of Earth big time. Raze flies across the rooftop, to the other side, and tumbles off.
The heroes are about to pursue him when Lucy starts yelling from across the way. She’s pointing at the faltering energy dome and calling for help. Max and Seahawk fly over, and Rainier leaps. She tells Rainier to give the dome all he has. He starts pounding on it. It shimmers under the force of his blows. The mages flinch, weakened—and still itching and sneezing. Rainier does give it all he has with a final two-handed slam, and the dome sputters out. Seahawk and Max immediately jump on the mages, knocking them all out. The crystal still floats there, and the shield over Seattle is still up.
Raze come soaring back over and lands among them, striking out in rage. Seahawk is thrown aside, as is Rainier. Max tries to engage him as Tinker grabs the crystal and starts to back up with it. Throwing Max to the side, Raze starts after her. Not knowing what else to do throws the crystal away, over his head. Raze spins. Max does a diving catch, one very familiar to him from his high school sports days, and hits the roof in a roll, holding the crystal. Raze charges him, and Max flings it straight up in the air. Raze looks up and is about to pursue it, when Seahawk’s harpoon fires, and the steel tip on it goes right through the crystal, breaking it into two pieces.
Raze cries out in fury as the two halves fall. All around, the reddened sky over Seattle starts to flicker in color. The halves fall on the roof near him. As he stares down at them, Rainier lands, one foot on each half, and smashes them to crystal shards.
The shield is gone. Raze looks up at Rainier, who smiles widely. Then Rainier knocks him right into next week. This punch sends him a couple of blocks, and he hits a rooftop hard. From the distance, the heroes can see him struggle to push himself up, then collapse.
The magical web also falls, and the Forte heroes collapse to that rooftop. Max and Tinker rush to them to see if they’re all right. Seahawk and Rainier, though, are distracted by the sight of Captain Thunder, Thunderbolt and Avatar (of the Paragons) rocketing by overhead. They can see other heroes, too, who’ve obviously been waiting outside the shield, flying in. Military gunships are racing, in, too.
The battle is not over. There are still thousands of Karrigon, but with an equal number of Cassians, along with Earth’s heroes (many more show up in time, as quick as they can get there. It’s a who’s who of super-herodom) and military, and the fact that their leader has been downed and captured, the tide quickly turns. The Justice Squadron’s Celerity is speeding through the city and disarming them at super-speed. Plus, UNCLE is sweeping through, leading a troupe of national guardsmen with them, and they seem to have very familiar-looking energy rifles—the same ones the heroes saw at Ares. Apparently, when the crisis started, Nick Ares contacted them and volunteered his stock of these new weapons for the re-taking of Seattle.
Eventually, things are wrapped up. The Karrigon are either captured or surrender, and are all gathered together in one place, under guard by the Cassians (and a whole bunch of heroes). With the Cassians having finished their spell, the great barrier is ready to go again, this time stronger than ever. The spell that opens a great portal back the Karrigon’s dimension is much simpler. A vast gateway open, and the Karrigon are marched through, the shackled Lord Raze with them. It’s agreed that this is the best way to handle them, to send them back where they came from and bar them from Earth again. What else is supposed to be done—put them all on trial, build prisons for them all? Crowds of Seattle citizens cheer as their would-be conquerors are banished in shame, and soon are gone forever.
Kell and the Cassians need to make a quick exit after this, hoping the heroes will go along with the supposition that they must have come from another dimension, too (and don’t just live below the sea nearby). Rainier assures them that’s how the story will go, and they can continue to live below in secret if they wish. But he tells them a lot of humans are very grateful for what they did, and it probably wouldn’t be such a bad thing if they considered coming out and joining the world openly. This new age of enlightenment for man that Rainier hopes for probably has room for an underwater nation in it. Kell doesn’t believe that will be happening anytime soon, and he still doesn’t trust the surface world. But maybe one day, depending on how mankind progresses.
Kell, Thresher and the Cassians all leave in dimensional portals, cheered by the people of Seattle, it’s police and fireman, and even its heroes.
And speaking of heroes…
After the whole mess is finally over, the Mayor Cuccia puts together a big ceremony to honor Seattle’s four newest heroes. The footage of their battles that day, and even the big finale with the destruction of the crystal, are shown all over television. By the time to ceremony happens, everyone has seen it time and again, and are crazy about them. A number of Forte heroes show for the ceremony, and they and the Mayor, police chief, UNCLE officers and local congressmen pay tribute to them, with thousands of screaming new fans in attendance.
Lucy asks Seahawk, in the middle of it, how it is that someone can accidentally become a super-hero?
Another hero is born from this affair, and that is Corporal Dane Casey. For his fast thinking and exceptional leadership under the worst of circumstances, he’s promoted right up to captain. His story is all over the press, the one man who took control and united a city’s defenses in its darkest hour. His two agents, Garland and Kreis, are commended as well for extraordinary bravery. And with Captain Casey’s knowledge of supers, his new promotion comes with a new job as well…serving as UNCLE Seattle’s new hero liaison.
The Mariner is removed from the destroyed Witherill’s (with the help of a few supers) and is mostly undamaged. Warren Tether tells the foursome that it’s theirs to use, if they want to. If they plan to stick together and keep doing this, they can even have the Mariner base at their disposal if they need somewhere secret to work out of, as super-heroes often do.
The four heroes talk about this, the idea of “sticking together”. The press and the public have already made up their minds that this is a team. Max thinks it’s a great idea. Seahawk thinks they do seem to work pretty well together. Rainier feels that for the first time since being inhabited by Ta-co-bet, he was actually doing what he was supposed to be doing with the powers, protecting people. He thinks this is the right path for him. Lucy’s still not quite sure to make of all of it, but Seahawk is right about something he told her earlier—there are advantages to being a super, ways to make changes and right wrongs and help people that “normal people” just aren’t able to access. She might just try it for a while. Hey, if she survived this, whatever comes after is probably going to be a breeze, right?
Right?
And what exactly did happen? This is a topic they give a lot of thought to. Based on all the facts involved, as far-fetched as it sounds, the joint supposition goes something like this…
This Mr. Dusk is obviously magical, and must have come upon the Karrigon in his travels. He found that they wanted back on Earth. He could make that happen for them, being able to travel back and forth. He became their inside man, gathering the crystals and opening the gate for them. But why? What would he get from this?
Another question then, too, is why Ares management would be leaving the city limits. Rather suspicious that they got themselves outside the area where the shield was coming down and where the whole populace inside was to be enslaved. Did they have advance knowledge? It appears so. How? The only answer that makes sense is that Mr. Dusk works for Nick Ares.
Nick is obviously into all kinds of things, as the Special Projects room showed. Maybe he found out about the Karrigon and saw opportunity. But to what avail? Nick Ares is all about profit. How would this profit him? The only answer would be the weapons. If he were to start a war with an alien race and Earth, he could be providing high-tech energy weapons to every army on Earth. If the Karrigon were to lose the war, he’d win. If they won the war, he likely had himself a sweet deal set up with them for immunity. Or maybe he’d just leave the Earth all together and go to another dimension if things got too rough here.
It’s obvious that the Karrigon had advance knowledge of our culture, like how TV cameras work (Raze looking for one to talk into) and all about our super-heroes. And speaking of heroes, if they were planning to waltz in and take over Seattle, they had to make sure no pesky super-heroes were inside the barrier to fight them. Hence, the hiring of Sanction by their human partner (Ares or Dusk) to take heroes out or capture them for hostages. The active heroes (Seahawk and Max) could be tracked and attacked. Electro Man, though retired, is always at the museum, so he would be easy to find and capture. But for the other retired heroes, you’d need to draw them out and trap them. Hence the fake robbery. Oh, and you wouldn’t want UNCLE or the FBI around either, so why not give up the location of the Mandate base and give them something to do, something to get them out of the city at just the right time?
This was all planned between the Karrigon and some humans. But was it Nick Ares? It looks like it, but there’s no real proof. And would a man really start a war against his own world just to turn a profit? Based on Ares’ past business practices, not that far fetched. When it all went wrong, he salvaged the best of a bad situation, as always, and gave away weapons, making his company look good and getting the product out to be seen. He’ll probably still make a lot of money on the weapons. Not as much, but at this point he’s cutting his losses.
Whether it’s true or not, none of the four trust him, and they decide one of their first orders of business as a group will be to keep an eye on him. Lucy still believes he had her friend killed, and plans to make him eventually answer for that. She wishes they had caught Sanction, too, wishes he’d been one of the villains they faced inside the captive Seattle. He’s still out there, somewhere. And he’s not very fond of them, so maybe they’ll be seeing him again. Seahawk hopes so.
The heroes have a meeting with Dr. Jackal, Cincoflex, Electro Man, The Mist, Vanguard and Anvil. The meeting’s a gathering to thank them, first of all. The four of them saved not only the city, but the lives of some Forte members. Dr. Jackal and Mist can recall another group of four heroes that sort of fell together and decided to form a team. They think this four, based on events so far, has great things ahead of them.
The assembled Forte heroes tell them that it has been too long since there was an active team in Seattle. The city needs heroes. And Forte gives this foursome their blessing. So much so, in fact, that they think Seahawk, Tinker, Max and Rainier have proven themselves more than worthy of living up to the ideals and standards of the Forte name…so if they want to use it, the “old Forte” would be honored.
A new Forte for a new millennium?
It has possibilities…
