Secret Weapons

After he becomes the present-day Geomancer, the eyes and ears of the Earth, Geoff McHenry discovers that he needs help in his personal mission to safeguard the Earth. Gifted with the misfortune to find trouble but also the sense to summon help for his cause, Geoff recruits Edward T. Sedgewick and Amanda McKee, two Harbingers tired of being manipulated by the Harbinger Foundation, to combat the evils that threaten the world as humanity’s Secret Weapons. 
After the fall of the Weaponeer Organization, Colin King arranges for British Intelligence to find three battle suits of amazing power in the hope that they will put them to use against Webnet. Together, Sonar, Para-Man, Tank, and Mach serve Queen and Country as the Secret Weapons.
==Allies==
===Allies I===
Back in 1992 shortly after Solar abandoned Fred Bender in Death Valley, Fred had a vision of Master Darque riding a snake through the desert. Convinced that Darque would grant him the power to kill Solar, Fred reached the highway determined to find him again. A year later, Fred arrived at Darque’s manor the same night that Darque made contact with a powerful demon that he planned to free from its prison. Meeting with Darque, Bender threatened to expose his underground railroad of stolen corpses unless he granted him the power he desired. Willing to pay the price Darque asked of him, Bender underwent a ritual that infused every cell in his body with the forces of the Darque power, a feat that transformed him into Dr. Eclipse.
Meanwhile, Edward T. Sedgewick and his girlfriend Amanda McKee arrived in NYC, where they planned to make a life for themselves away from the Harbinger Foundation. Just then, they came across Geoff McHenry, who was using his rapport with the Earth to win at Three–Card Monty. Leaving with his gains unaware that two hoods were following him, Geoff suddenly succumbed to a scream from the Earth warning him of Darque and Eclipse. After Edward and Amanda saved him from the hoods, Geoff called Solar to warn him.
In Cupertino, at the home of Gayle Nordheim and Phil Seleski, Bender entered the house under the guise of Phil to trick Gayle, who was on the phone with Geoff. Seeing through Bender’s ruse Gayle ran away, but he followed her. Just then, Solar arrived and Eclipse transported the two of them to Death Valley, where using his newfound abilities he swiftly defeated Solar and literally eclipsed him by swallowing him whole.
Three hours later, Geoff explained the situation to Gilad, who, in light of Solar’s disappearance, urged him to find allies to help them in the upcoming conflict. Following Gilad’s directions, Geoff recruited Bloodshot and X–O Manowar, the latter of whom he had to con into joining them. Back in New Orleans, while Shadowman discovered Darque’s underground corpse railroad, Darque communed with the demon and told it that once Eclipse had destroyed its enemies, he would become a doorway for the demon to escape its prison.
===Allies II===
In a small town in Venezuela, Bender discovered that his transformation had robbed him of his physical sensations and that he was more dead than alive. Lashing out, he destroyed the town and absorbed the necromantic energy kept in the Darque pool within it. Enraged, Bender left to get even with Darque.
Three days later in New Orleans, the Secret Weapons split into two teams; Bloodshot, Gilad, and Geoff left to deal with Darque, while X–O Manowar, Stronghold, and Livewire went to stop Dr. Eclipse from draining the pools of Darque power that had congealed around the world. Meanwhile, as Darque asked the demon its name to set it free, he sensed Shadowman’s presence in the bayou and sent his army of zombies to deal with him.
Following Eclipse’s trail to Somalia, Stronghold and Livewire were appalled to discover that he had razed an entire community to drain its Darque pool. While Livewire lent Stronghold a reassuring shoulder, Eclipse and X–O Manowar engaged in battle. During the melee, Stronghold dismissed the idea of absorbing Eclipse as the last time he did that he killed a man, so instead he absorbed the mass from a nearby bolder to fight him. Meanwhile, Gilad’s team arrived in the bayou and helped Shadowman fend off Darque’s zombies.
Sensing his enemies’ approach, Darque summoned Eclipse through a vortex that pulled him, Aric, Livewire, and Stronghold into his parlor. Weakened, Stronghold and Livewire could only watch as Darque restrained Eclipse within a dimensional gate. Calling the demon, Darque urged it to tell him its name, but then the demon revealed that Solar still lived as Gilad, Bloodshot, Shadowman, and Geoff broke into the parlor. Despite his qualms, Stronghold grabbed Eclipse’s ankle and absorbed him, releasing Solar.
While X–O Manowar took Stronghold to a hospital with Shadowman and Livewire, the others searched the parlor for Darque, who unbeknownst to them was in the demon’s prison, a cincture wormhole.
==Race Against Time==
Upon entering his apartment, Gilad discovered that someone had shut the power off. Hearing the trigger of a gun, Gilad assumed that Bloodshot was standing behind him, but when he turned instead he saw a trio of Speedshots that demanded that he go with them. Jumping out the window, Gilad led his would–be kidnappers on a chase across the building rooftops, and though he gave them as good as he got, in the end they shot him with too many tranquilizer darts and he collapsed on the ground. Sensing Gilad’s predicament, Geoff headed to the Park Slope section of Brooklyn to ask Stronghold and Livewire to help him rescue Gilad.
At Musashi Labs, Yoshi Iwatsu informed his father, Hideyoshi Iwatsu, of their continued failure to replicate Angelo Mortalli’s transformation into Bloodshot, a development that dissatisfied the elder Iwatsu, who had no qualm in expressing his displeasure with his son, who he knew desired his death to take his empire from him.
Using the unique rapport that Geomancers had with Gilad to locate him at the Thirty–Fourth Street Heliport, Geoff sent Stronghold and Livewire to rescue him, but try as they may they could not stop the Speedshots from leaving in a helicopter with him. Returning to their apartment, Stronghold and Livewire told Geoff of their failure, which upset him so much that he lashed out and accused them of being incompetent. Grabbing the phone, Geoff called Aram to ask for his help, but instead he found Archer, who offered to rescue Gilad. Back at Musashi Labs, Hideyoshi had a heart attack while watching a subject undergo the Bloodshot process.
Following Gilad’s trail to Colorado, Archer attempted to rescue him, but the Speedshots were too many and too strong for him to handle alone. Down but not out, Archer managed to destroy the Speedshot’s plane by shooting an arrow into the fuel tank before they went onboard. Meanwhile on a plane headed to Los Angeles, Geoff apologized to Stronghold and Livewire for his outburst, and said that Gilad was too important for the future of the Earth, a claim that prodded Livewire to offer to help Geoff in any way they could.
Forced to find alternate transportation, the Speedshots booked passage on a train headed to LA. Chasing them on his bike, Archer caught up to the train and dispatched the Speedshots, finally rescuing Gilad. Arriving at the train station, Geoff listened to the whispers of the Earth and learned that Archer and Gilad were in Aram’s Hollywood mansion. Following them there, Geoff, Stronghold, and Livewire joined Aram and Archer. 
Back at Musashi Labs, Yoshi informed his father of Gilad’s escape and of his intent to maintain the honor and dignity of his empire after his death, but seeing through his deceit Hideyoshi cursed him. Picking up the phone, Yoshi called Project Rising Spirit to have them prepare his father to undergo the Bloodshot Procedure.
==Mass Hysteria==
Back in 1991, moments after Solar vanished into the phone line and transported himself to Harada’s plane, Dr. Laing, a deranged foundation psychiatrist who relied on tranquilizers to maintain his sanity, walked into the meeting room spewing irrational fears about Solar’s existence. Acting paranoid, Laing walked into the morgue in the foundation’s sanitarium, where, obsessed with destroying Solar, he sliced a dead Harbinger’s brain and then incised his own head to attach the severed piece into his own brain.
Two years later, Laing, who had taken to calling the Harbinger brain Albert, followed Eddie on his first date with Katharina, a waitress at the Café where Amanda worked, as part of his scheme to expose the Harbinger’s existence to the media. Using Eddie’s credulity against him, Laing poured a mickey into his drink that robbed him of his control over his ability to absorb mass. While leaving the restaurant, Eddie absorbed his jacket, then while getting into his car he absorbed the door as well. Fearing that he would absorb Kat, Eddie abruptly left to find help, but just then he absorbed his car too. Desperate, Eddie returned to Amanda’s apartment, where his rampant powers made him absorb the whole front of the building. While Eddie frantically ran into Central Park to hide, Laing called the New York Post to report the incident and expose Edward.
After inadvertently saving a woman from a group of muggers whom he scared with his size, Eddie jumped into the East River at Geoff’s behest to stay away from people to hide. Certain that Edward was no longer a threat to anyone or anything, Geoff called Solar, the only person he knew could help him. Finding Edward by the Long Island coast, Solar reckoned that he had grown 20 stories tall and weighed millions of tons. Inferring that the only thing that stopped Eddie from exploding and taking half the Eastern Seaboard with him was his mind, Solar reached out to him to keep him calmed while he absorbed the excess energy into his body and, like a transducer, sent it out into space as well as cleansed his system of Laing’s mickey.
Watching from the sidelines, Laing was certain that his ruse to expose the Harbingers to the public worked, but in the days that followed he discovered that the media dismissed Eddie’s rampage as a publicity stunt for a movie. Incensed, Laing lashed out at Albert and tossed him into the gutter, leaving to enact another plan.
==Ninjak==
Breaking into the Kennedy Space Center, Ninjak decoded a secret code inputted in a computer terminal by a undercover Webnet operative. Just then, the security guards discovered Ninjak’s break in and chased him to the roof, where he strapped on a jet pack that he used to make his getaway.
The next day in New York, Edward met with his father to ask him for a loan to pay for the damages he caused to Amanda’s building to no avail. Expressing his disappointment in him, Eddie’s dad told him that he was on his own and had to fend for himself. Returning to his apartment, Edward found Geoff sitting by his computer studying the same code that Ninjak decoded before, which he deciphered to say that it was a secret order to hijack a heavy arms shipment headed for Toyo Harada’s latest outpost in Estonia. With Gilad unavailable to investigate, Geoff convinced Edward and Amanda to go with him to Estonia.
15 hours later, a group of Webnet agents led by Scratch successfully hijacked the arms shipment. Looking to make a profit, Scratch decided to sell the armaments to the highest bidder instead of delivering it to Webnet, a decision that put him at odds with one of his cohorts until Scratch killed the truck’s drivers, which brought him back in line. Boarding the truck, Scratch and the others droved away, unaware that Ninjak was following them on his motorcycle. Catching up to the truck, Ninjak faced Scratch’s followers, when then Stronghold, Amanda, and Geoff arrived and joined the fray. Unfortunately, the Secret Weapons made things worse as they inadvertently fell victim to Ninjak’s knock out gas and Scratch’s drugged shurikens, which rendered them unconscious. Threatening to kill Stronghold and Livewire, Scratch forced Ninjak to surrender.
A short time later, Scratch took the Secret Weapons and Ninjak to a fortress overlooking the ocean where, while Geoff, Stronghold, and Livewire laid captive in a cell with electrified bars, he challenged Ninjak to a fight to the death in an arena. Donning the mask of Tentoki, the demon for which their sect takes its name, Scratch felt empowered, but he nevertheless fell to Ninjak’s master skills. While Ninjak ran from Scratch’s followers, the Secret Weapons broke free and went to find the stolen weapons. Finding the truck, Geoff warned the others that Ninjak had rigged a bomb and they all jumped in the water, barely escaping the blast.
The next day, Webnet terminated their agent at the Kennedy Space Center by detonating an explosive in his console.
==The Horror Below==
===The Horror Below – Part I===
In 1320 AD, Gilad followed Sahbel the Geomancer to Transylvania to kill Baron Drakuul, a demon with a thirst for blood and a penchant for sleeping all day and rising at night. Pursued by Drakuul’s men, Gilad and Sahbel entered the demon’s castle shortly after dusk, arriving to late to kill the baron in his sleep. Risen from his crypt, Drakuul shot Sahbel and Gilad with arrows from his crossbow. Pushing the Geomancer aside, Gilad engaged Drakuul in a sword fight. Loosing his weapon during the melee, Gilad took the arrow from his chest and stabbed Drakuul with it. Fallen to his knees, the baron was helpless to stop Gilad from beheading him.
After learning that Lieutenant Thomas Morgan was in charge of an investigation the media had dubbed “the Vampire Murders” due to the lack of blood on the victims, Geoff offered to help solve the case. Holding a locket found on the latest victim, Geoff sensed an intense impression that showed him the woman’s killers corralling her in the park and drained her blood. Overwhelmed, Geoff kneeled over and said that the killers were inhuman monsters. Hesitant to send his officers to look for two vampires with no proof, Morgan suggested that they check the site of the latest murder so Geoff could learn more from it, while at Geoff’s behest, they recruited Stronghold and Livewire to help. Though she was hesitant to go as she had a date, Amanda agreed to help after Stronghold urged her to think of the victims and they people they could save from the killers.
20 minutes later, at the condemned warehouse on West Nineteenth Street where the police found the latest victim, the whispers led Geoff and the others down to the old path train tunnel at the Nineteenth Street station, where they found a hidden colony of Spider Aliens. Hiding in a tunnel overlooking the colony, Geoff and the others witnessed as a Spider Alien garbed in Baron Drakuul’s armor slayed the two killers they were hunting as punishment for their breaking their sacred law not to prey on humans other than homeless people.
Discovered, Geoff told the aliens that he knew who they were because Solar told him about them. Terrified of the Destroyer, the aliens panicked and tried to kill Geoff and the others so they would not reveal their survival to him. Though surrounded, the Secret Weapons escaped due to Stronghold weakening the tunnel to bury the aliens chasing them. Nonetheless, the aliens still captured them while Stronghold laid beneath the rubble.
===The Horror Below – Part II===
On the British Colony of Massachusetts, amid the Salem Witch trials, as Nathaniel Prudence sentenced Annabella Hawthorn to burn at the stake for being a witch, a Spider Alien space ship suddenly appeared in the sky and pulled Nathaniel onboard using its tractor beam before it departed for space.
Breaking free from the rubble, Stronghold went to find Geoff and the others, who the aliens had taken deeper into the tunnels to a pit filled with bodies. Before the aliens could eat them, Gilad, who got a message Geoff left him, luckily arrived in time to rescue them. Once free from their bonds, the Secret Weapons went to find Stronghold, who had found the aliens’ human containment pods in a cavern defended by Nathaniel Prudence, who the aliens had turned into a cybernetically–enhanced guardian. Meanwhile, a hundred miles upstate, Turok and Aric followed a trail of Spider Alien blood to the caverns beneath the city not far from where Geoff and the others were. On the verge of kneeling over due to the pain that the alien technology running through the veins of the ground like a virus had caused the Earth, Geoff sensed that Stronghold was in danger.
Despite Stronghold’s assertions to the contrary, Nathaniel accused him of being in league with Satan and attacked him in the name of the lord, when then Turok and X–O Manowar broke through the wall and joined the fray, while behind them the Secret Weapons engaged the aliens. Thinking that Aric was Satan in an X–O Manowar, Nathaniel let go of Stronghold and went after the Visigoth, who pushed him against the pods away from the others. Feeling worthless, and believing that his ability to talk to things could not help the fight, Geoff broke off from the others and found the aliens’ computers, which was calling to him.
Once the others dispatched the aliens, Geoff showed them a display of the alien’s vast underground colony and the source of feelings of pain felt by the Earth he found on the computer. Though Aric was prepared to slaughter the lot of them, Gilad’s priority was to see to Geoff’s safety and that the others received medical care. Promising to contact Solar, Gilad took the others away, while Aric and Turok went after the aliens.
===The Hunt===
In the hours before Aric and Turok joined the Secret Weapons in the caverns beneath New York, the two of them spent the morning camping in the woods around Aric’s compound to drink and talk about the turns their lives had taken since the last time they saw each other. Noting that he saw Randy Cartier packing her things, Turok said that he thought that things between her and Aric were going well. Telling Turok that Randy was simply moving back to her house, Aric was at a loss for words when Turok told him that it seemed to him like he and Randy had become more than friends. Meanwhile inside, as Randy said that she was eager to return home and felt like she had imposed herself on Aric, Paul remarked that he found that highly unlikely given who she was, but before he could elaborate, Ken Clarkson rushed inside looking for Aric and interrupted them.
Back in the woods, Turok gave Aric an Azze–Kloth, a satchel for him to place an object of personal value to help him stay focused while mediating on the part of himself shared by all things, a gift that bound them in spirit. Sometime later while on a hike, Turok found a severed arm covered in Spider Alien blood at the mouth of a cavern, so Aric summoned the X–O so they could follow a trail of alien blood into the cave. Meanwhile in the compound’s basement, Randy told Paul that she wished she had told him about the Manowar Class Armor much sooner than she did, and that despite what happened she was glad she got the chance to make peace with her past. Returning upstairs, Randy found Ken trying to evict Christoff, Scrumptious, and Zoli from the kitchen. Assuring Ken that he knew who they were, Randy took them to play eight–ball with her and Paul.
Following the trail to a Spider Alien colony beneath New York, Aric and Turok found themselves surrounded by an overwhelming number of aliens. Worried that the armor would not perform well in close quarters, Aric blew a hole on a wall that opened into a cavern where the Secret Weapons were fighting Nathaniel Prudence, a cyborg who reminded Aric of Rexo. Accusing Aric of being Satan in a manowar, Nathaniel went after the Visigoth, who pushed him against the alien’s human containment pods in the cavern away from the others.
Acting sluggish, the armor failed to follow Aric’s command to fire the ion cannons, which opened a window for Nathaniel to push Aric off him. Colliding with a pod, Aric discovered its contents, a find that enraged him. Mustering all his will, Aric pushed the armor into releasing a massive ion blast that hit Nathaniel and gave Aric the opportunity to shatter his cybernetic limbs from his body. Slamming Nathaniel against the pods, Aric opened a tube containing Spider Alien blood that he used to drown Nathaniel. Believing he was victorious, Aric walked away to join the others, unaware that behind him Nathaniel’s remaining limbs were twitching.
Joining the others as Geoff showed them a computer display of the alien’s underground colony, as well as the source of feelings of pain felt by the Earth, Aric was ready to slaughter the spiders, but Gilad, whose priority was to see to Geoff’s safety and that the others received medical care, decided to take them to away. Vowing to contact Solar, Gilad left Aric and Turok to their hunt. Confiding in Turok that the armor was slow in responding to his command, Aric shared his feeling that the previous battle had been no more than a skirmish.
Meanwhile, in a Spider Alien den several miles from Aric’s home, Marc Anthony, a genetically–modified Spider Alien, informed his superior, Aristedes, an equally–modified kinsman, that the humans had breached their tunnels and would soon find them and their queen. Unaware that Aric was with the invaders, Aristedes, who seemed to know about the Good Skin’s illness, ordered Marc Anthony to send troops to Aric’s residence to fetch the primitive for him and kill any humans that stood in their way of their goal.
===Carnage!===
In an underground tunnel system somewhere in Ulster county, X–O Manowar and Turok battled the second batch of Spider Alien warriors they had encountered since Gilad took off with Geoff and the others. Learning from the Good Skin that one of the tunnels ran beneath his house, Aric and Turok returned there at once.
Back at Aric’s house, Randy, Paul, Christoff, and Scrumptious enjoyed a game of pool while Ken waited in a huff for Aric to return and Zoli went to get a beer. Hearing a scream coming from the kitchen, Randy and the others saw a Spider Alien eating Zoli while a group of his brethren broke into the house demanding Shanhara. Surrounded on all sides, Randy and Paul killed the aliens with a sword and a gun, when then Aric and Turok arrived and joined the fray. Forced to fight using only his sword due to the Good Skin no longer responding to his commands, Aric told Paul to take Randy out of there, but she refused to abandon him. Just then, the aliens shot Aric with neural disruptors that caused him and Shanhara great pain and knocked them out.
While keeping the others at bay, the aliens took a lifeless Aric to a house several miles away where Aristedes ordered them to take him to their nest, where their queen would feast on his juices. Moments later in the nest, Aristedes accused Aric of turning their race of predators into his prey. Mocking Aric, Aristedes said that when it became clear that Shanhara would become a threat to them they infected it with a silicon virus they poured in the water supply running into his house that weakened it enough for their most powerful weapon to kill it.
Watching from a ledge, Randy, Paul, and Turok opened fire on the aliens using their own weapons and freed Aric from the filaments holding him captive. Laying on the ground, Aric pleaded with Shanhara to answer his calls, but the Good Skin remained silent. Sitting inside an alien tank, Marc Anthony opened fire on Aric and the blast from his cannons shattered the Good Skin into smithereens, destroying Shanhara for good.
===Desolation===
Pouring himself a drink after dragging the aliens’ corpses to the basement for Aric to clear out after he came back, Ken sat down in the living room, when, suddenly, his arm exploded and he collapsed on the floor.
Several miles away, inside Aristedes’ lair deep beneath the Earth, Aric laid on the ground surrounded by Shanhara’s shattered pieces, falling in and out of consciousness. Opening fire on the aliens, Randy refused to let them take Aric away, but Paul stopped her from going to him. While Paul threw a Molotov cocktail at the alien tank to distract the aliens, Aristedes ordered his subordinates to take Aric to their queen. Telling Randy to stay behind, Paul left with Turok to get Aric back.
Awakening some time later, Aric found himself facing the alien queen, a giant arachnid. Spitting on her face, Aric enraged the queen, who slapped him. Just then, Turok and Paul came into the chamber, guns blazing. While Turok covered him, Paul went to get Aric, but the queen grabbed his legs and pulled him toward her. Grabbing the queen, Aric lifted her above his head and Turok killed her with one shot. While Turok, Aric, and Paul left, Aristedes and Marc Anthony fled, certain that with Shanhara dead nothing would stop the gathering. As Turok and Aric climbed the cliff face to reach the mouth of the tunnel, an alien grabbed Paul and bit him. Falling toward the alien, Aric killed him and then picked Paul up in his arms. Though Aric doubted that Paul would survive, he and Turok nevertheless carried him all the way back to his house.
Waking up, Ken discovered that his arm had fully healed just as Aric and the others walked through the door. While Ken and the others took Paul to the hospital, Aric stayed behind to mourn Shanhara. Hours later, Solar appeared in Aric’s den after receiving Gilad’s message. Telling Solar that he was too late, Aric said that unless he could fix Shanhara he should leave. Apologetic, Solar said that there was nothing he could do and offered Aric his condolences, but feeling insulted by Solar’s pity, Aric threw him out and trashed the den.
The next morning, Randy returned to Aric’s house and found him in his bedroom staring out the window into the distance. As Randy asked Aric if he was okay, he ignored her, so feeling that she had come at a bad time she walked away in a huff. Just then, Aric asked her how Paul was doing, and she told him that the doctors were unable to counter the effects of the alien’s poison, and that Paul’s legs were badly hurt. Cursing the aliens for destroying Shanhara, with which he could have healed Paul instantly, Aric lashed out.
Though Randy sympathized with him, Aric did not believe that she understood the loss he felt. Sick of people telling him to calm down, Aric decided to leave again, but saying that there were people there who cared about him, Randy stood in his way. When Aric tried to push her aside, Randy punched him across the face and pushed him against a vanity. Grabbing her hands, Aric noticed that Randy was in tears, so he took her in his arms, and, locked in an embrace, they made love for the first time.
Sometime later, Randy received a phone call from a doctor who told her that they had to amputate Paul’s legs.
===Seeds Of Hope===
Making his way through the underground tunnel system, Solar was appalled to find it covered by hundreds of alien corpses. Finding it strange that the aliens had left so many of their own behind, Solar surmised that they were in a hurry to leave. Feeling guilty that he arrived too late to help, Solar felt responsible for Shanhara’s destruction. Finding an injured alien, Solar asked him where he could find another Manowar class armor, but the alien told him that he had destroyed the only other armor in the quadrant months earlier. After granting the alien’s request that he end his life, Solar, certain that the aliens were planning something big and that without the X–O Manowar Aric was in danger, left for space to find the only other option at hand.
At Orb Industries’ medical center in Boston, Randy sat by Paul’s bed and apologized for what happened to him. Assuring her that it was not her fault, Paul told Randy that he knew what he was getting into. Speaking resignedly, Paul said that he would need to find another profession, as no one would hire a legless mercenary, while expressing her joy that he was alive, Randy said that she did not know what she would do without him. Asking Randy not to be melodramatic, Paul told her that he did not want her pity, when suddenly he keeled over in pain. Stopping Randy from going to get a nurse, Paul asked her to get him out of there.
Later that day, at Aric’s house, Turok found Aric sorting out his thoughts over his dependence on the Good Skin ever since he escaped the aliens’ vessel. Clutching the Azze–Kloth in his hand, Aric told Turok that he placed the armor’s control ring inside it. Calling the ring a reminder of his failures, Aric tied the Azze–Kloth around his neck and said that his obsession with the Spider Aliens’ destruction had cost too high a price, like Shanhara’s destruction, Christoff ‘s death, Zoli’s injuries, and Paul’s life. Reminding Aric that Paul was a brave and noble warrior without whom he and Randy would not have been able to rescue him, Turok urged him not to do Paul’s sacrifice a disservice and wallow in self–pity. Reminding Aric that the aliens were still out there, Turok told Aric that with Orb Industries at his disposal he had the power to do something about it. Shaking Aric’s hand, Turok bid Aric farewell and told him that if he needed him he knew where to find him. Sometime later, after Randy told Aric that Paul was dying from the alien’s poison, Aric ordered Ken to have Paul brought to the house so that he could spend his last moments there with them.
Elsewhere, Solar arrived on Saturn, where he had abandoned an alien inside an X–O Manowar years earlier. Aware that the armor was useless without the ring, which laid safely sealed away inside the armor on the dead alien’s finger, Solar was uncertain of how he would take it back to Earth, when then he saw an X-O Manowar Seed growing on the armor’s chest plate. Sensing Solar’s presence, the seed rose away from the armor into his hands. Grabbing the seed, Solar returned to Earth, confident that Aric would have himself a new armor after all.
Meanwhile, as Aric showed Paul to his new room, Paul wondered why Aric was being so nice to him since he barely knew him. Telling Paul that taking care of him was the least he could do after he risked his life saving him from the aliens, Aric confessed that he knew how much he meant for Randy, for whom he cared for very much. Aware of Paul’s background with the Canadian Secret Service, Aric offered to hire him as a consultant to work with Randy on getting a security system installed on the house once he got better. Assuring Paul that he was not offering him charity, Aric told him that he wanted his home’s security set up by people he could trust. Days later, Solar appeared in Aric’s bedroom with the X–O seed, with which he told him that he could grow a new armor. Warning Aric that the joining required the integration of a sentient life form with the seed, Solar told him that he needed a human host, unaware that Paul was outside the bedroom listening in on them.
The next morning, at Orb Industries, Ken urged Aric to deal with the armor’s loss and consider living a life of peace and quiet without it, but pondering the possibility that the aliens might attack them again, Aric knew that he needed the Good Skin back and that the seed was his only hope. That afternoon, Aric took the seed into the woods, where he sat by a tree and silently contemplated what to do while holding the ring in his hand. That night, as Aric returned home and told Randy that he had decided to use the seed, she asked him where he was going to find a human sacrifice, when just then Paul entered the den and volunteered to do it. Aware of his impending death, Paul viewed the joining with the armor as a chance to achieve immortality. Refusing to allow himself to become a helpless vegetable, Paul asked Randy to let him die with his self respect intact.
Though Randy objected, Aric accepted Paul’s sacrifice and swore to do his memory justice. Instructing Paul on what to do, Aric told him to make an incision on his chest and hold the seed against it, and within seconds, tendrils sprouted out of the seed and came out of every crevice, pour, and opening in Paul’s body. While Aric held Randy back, they witnessed as Paul became an X–O Manowar armor. Gazing silently at one another, Randy walked away while Aric reached into the armor’s chest plate and pulled out its control ring.
The next day, after seeing Randy off to Canada to attend Paul’s memorial service, Aric returned inside and donned the X–O Manowar for the first time, promising not to let Paul down and swearing that with this new Good Skin, Aric would rule!
==The Price==
A few days after they escaped the aliens’ colony, Amanda and Eddie searched the wreck of her apartment for her stuff, when suddenly Amanda’s landlady slapped her with a lawsuit for the damages to her property. Feeling responsible, Eddie promised to somehow get Amanda the money she needed. Meanwhile in London, Neville Alcott, Jillian Alcott, and Charles Sinclair discussed their inability to use electronic devices to find the Weaponeer’s vault because their use alerted Webnet. Holding a picture of Bloodshot, Neville said that he was in New York to find Geoff so that he could find the vault using his ability to speak with inanimate objects.
The next day, Eddie walked into the First National Bank expecting to get a loan because his father was the bank’s chairman, but much to his dismay his father denied his request. Meanwhile that afternoon, Amanda’s boyfriend, Seth, broke up with her because she was too weird for him. Later that evening, when Eddie and Amanda returned to his apartment they found Katsumi Kabuto and Blast waiting for them. Offering to pay for the damages that Eddie caused during his rampage and to settle the lawsuit against Amanda, Katsumi asked them to return to the foundation to how learn to properly use their abilities. Though Eddie considered going back, Blast’s taunts enraged him and he lunged against him, pushing him into the street through a wall.
As a fight broke off between Eddie, Amanda, and the Eggbreakers, Gilad arrived, but much to Eddie and Amanda’s surprise he was there to convince them to return to the foundation as he was the one who contacted Katsumi to take them back. Refusing to have others tell her how to live her life, Amanda flew away. Finding Amanda atop the Statue of Liberty, Eddie convinced her to go back with him to the foundation, promising to make things better. Watching from afar, Gilad assured Geoff that they would be better off in the foundation, when just then Bloodshot arrived and recruited them on a mission to find the Weaponeer’s hidden vault.
===Search For The Vault===
Late one night in Battery Park, as Bloodshot told Gilad and Geoff of his need to use Geoff as a bloodhound to find the Weaponeer’s vault, snipers onboard a Webnet stealth helicopter opened fire on them. Running away, Gilad dispatched a group of Webnet goons coming out of a van just as Bloodshot saw a second van coming their way. Following Geoff to the subway, they ran inside the train as the doors closed, but then the Webnet agents cut the power and the train stopped. As the Webnet operatives boarded the train, Gilad, Geoff, and Bloodshot escaped through a grate into the sewer. Meanwhile, 100 feet below Heathrow Airport, in a shooting range within MI–5, Richard Grant arrogantly showed his superb marksmanship skills to Charles Sinclair.
Hours later, in the Lower East Side, as Gilad, Geoff, and Bloodshot left New York aboard a speed boat, Webnet operatives shot at them with a bazooka from a yacht and destroyed their transport. Jumping into the water before the missile hit, Bloodshot, Gilad, and Geoff swam to the yacht and dispatched the agents, then, using his ability to speak with machines Bloodshot jammed Webnet’s frequencies so they would not be able to locate them and commandeer control of the boat.
The next day in the Balkan mountains, Felina, a guide, led Gilad and the others to a cave that Geoff discerned was were the vault used to be before it was moved. While making their way down the mountain, Bloodshot heard the faint sound of an assailant taking out a Webnet sniper, but dismissed it. Twenty six hours later in Hong Kong, Geoff looked out at the city from the roof of a hotel and found the vault. Making their way south, Gilad saw two Webnet cars coming at them, so he led them into an outdoor market to end their pursue. While Gilad and Bloodshot dispatched the Webnet agents, Felina took Geoff to the other side of the market, but two agents found them. While Felina fought off an agent, the other one offered not to kill Geoff in exchange for his help finding the vault, but then, through means he refused to elaborate on, Geoff knocked out the agent.
Sometime later, on an island off the coast of the Philippines, Geoff took the others into an active volcano that he assured them was where they would find the vault. Finding the Weaponeer’s weapons cache in a massive cave, Geoff asked the security system to let them in, then he and the others found a specific crate that Neville was looking for. Just then, however, a group of Webnet agents came out of the shadows to take it from them.
Elsewhere, the Weaponeer wrote down an entry in his journal detailing his assistance to Neville’s men looking for his vault and his hope that Neville would put the weapons they found there to good use.
===Search And Destroy===
Though surrounded on all sides by the Webnet agents, Bloodshot and Gilad dispatched them and escaped. Carrying the three crates that Neville was looking for on their shoulders, Gilad, Geoff, and Bloodshot found a submarine in a dock within the volcano. Sensing the approach of more Webnet agents, Geoff said that they should stay and hold them off, but Gilad urged him to get inside the submarine and leave. Staying behind with a crate, Gilad dealt with the agents while Bloodshot took Geoff and the remaining crates away in the sub. As their submarine sped away from the island, Geoff saw two enemy vessels following them on the radar. During a firefight, the submarine hull breached and the vessel went down to the bottom of the ocean.
Back in the cave, Gilad engaged the Webnet agents in a fist fight, but they overpowered him and took the crate, which in reality was a bomb primed to blow up within seconds. Fighting his way through the agents, Gilad escaped the explosion and leapt off a ledge onto a rope ladder hanging from Felina’s chopper. As the chopper flew away, the island exploded behind it. Meanwhile, beneath the ocean, Bloodshot rammed the Webnet submarine with his own. As the hull cracked and the submarine filled with water, Bloodshot gave Geoff an aqua–lung and dragged him to the surface, where Sinclair was waiting for them aboard a boat.
That night in Bangkok, Gilad took Felina to dinner to repay her for saving his life, while back in London, Neville admired his new acquisitions, eagerly looking forward to begin Project: Secret Weapons.
==Project: Secret Weapons==
In a house somewhere in the woods of Cold Hill, Scotland in 1984, Joe Valez barely survived a bomb detonated by a group of Arab terrorists looking to assassinate a decoder under Joe’s charge. A week later in a hospital in Huston, Neville Alcott recruited Joe into his organization.
Beneath Heathrow Airport in London, England in 1994, Neville Alcott briefed Jillian, Charles, and Bloodshot on Webnet’s threat to disable every major countries’ space satellites unless they complied with their demands for money and information. Frustrated by Webnet’s continual evasion of his agents, Neville ordered the opening of Project: Secret Weapons. Over the next several minutes, Jillian delivered three fateful calls around the world to Carol Hatcher, Richard Grant, Andre DuBois, and Joe Valez. Meanwhile, two MI–5 agents found an uncharted island somewhere in the Mediterranean, but were soon captured by Mr. Dunne, a Webnet agent.
Back in Liverpool, Jillian took Charles to a training room where Richard – code–named Para–Man –, Carol – code–named Sonar –, Andre – code–named Mach –, and Joe – code–named Tank –, practiced their use of the three high–tech suits that Bloodshot retrieved from the Weaponeer’s vault. Walking into the room, Bloodshot engaged the Secret Weapons in an exercise while Jillian and Charles watched from an observation deck. After an extensive battle, Bloodshot ultimately defeated every member on the team. Just then, Neville entered the room and informed everyone gathered there about the two missing MI–5 agents in the Mediterranean.
Sometime later on Webnet’s island, Stedman, Mr. Dunne’s assistant, informed him that MI–5 had located the island. Tired of running and hiding, Mr. Dunne welcomed the opportunity to further demoralize Alcott’s organization. Meanwhile, out by the shore, the heads of the two drowned agents rose out of the water.
===Webnet Island===
Landing on Webnet’s island shortly after dusk, Bloodshot and the Secret Weapons made their way along the beach, when then Mach stumbled on the corpses of Neville’s agents. Suddenly, an explosive mine went off and a group of Webnet agents posing as island natives came out of the jungle and attacked them. Watching the fight on a monitor deep within his fortress, Mr. Dunne was certain that he possessed a weapon capable of destroying the Weaponeer’s suits in case his agents failed to stop the Secret Weapons. Guiding the others through the exploding mines, Bloodshot led the team away from the beach and deep into the jungle. Turning to face Richard, Carol was alarmed to see that he was sweating inside his suit, but he dismissed it as nothing. Following the team’s movements from a helicopter, Charles informed Neville that the island was in fact a vessel moving on a South–Eastern direction. Reminding Charles that while the agents were expendable but the suits were not, Neville told him to keep him alert of any trouble so he could send an air strike.
Back on the island, Bloodshot and the Secret Weapons engaged the Webnet agents right outside Dunne’s fortress. Splitting up, Bloodshot led Tank and Mach into the fortress while Para–Man and Sonar stayed behind to cover them. Moving ahead of the others while they dealt with more Webnet agents inside, Mach found Webnet’s satellite jamming array. Uncertain of what to do, Mach became distracted with doubt and failed to notice Stedman and Dunne walk inside the room until it was too late and they shot him with a paralyzing beam. Standing over the keeled Mach, Mr. Dunne ordered Stedman to kill him. Meanwhile, outside, Para–Man unexpectedly collapsed during a fight and died in Sonar’s arms. Enraged, Sonar lashed out with her sonic scream and killed all the Webnet agents in the area.
Inside the fortress, Mach managed to get back on his feet and avoid a second blast from Stedman’s rifle, when just then Bloodshot and the others walked into the room. Outside, as Charles walked up to a stunned Carol, more Webnet agents came out of the jungle and blew up his helicopter. In the minutes that it took Carol to snap out of her shock and dispatch the agents, Charles donned the Para–Man suit himself despite the lingering question of what killed Richard. Back inside, as Bloodshot ordered Tank to destroy the array, Dunne fire his energy beam at him to no avail. Dumbfounded, Dunne failed to realize that Tank was not wearing a suit until it was too late and Tank used his own weapon to the destroy the dish.
Escaping the fortress as it exploded as a result of a chain reaction caused by the destruction of the array, Bloodshot and the Secret Weapons made it out into the jungle, where Charles and Sonar were securing Richard’s body onto a second MI–5helicopter. Leaving at dawn, no one on the team said a word. Though the Secret Weapons’ first mission had been a success, it did not come without a price. Carol, who almost worshipped Richard, stared at Charles with disdain while tears ran down her cheeks.
==Chaos Effect Gamma==
===Lights Out===
Finding the Secret Weapons running an exercise outside Heathrow airport, Bloodshot stopped Mach’s high–jinks before he alerted airport security of their presence. Asking Bloodshot to let him run the team his way, Sinclair reminded him that he was the Secret Weapon’s leader, a de facto decision that Sonar, who Bloodshot could tell was bitter over what happened to the original Para–Man, did not agree to. Upset, Sinclair told Sonar that there were many things he did not agree with that he was stuck with, just like she was stuck with him. Just then, Jillian arrived to inform the team that they had clearance to enter the Tower of London to diffuse a hostage situation. Watching the Secret Weapons walk away, Bloodshot whispered to Jillian that for a new team they already had a lot going against them. Meanwhile in suburban London, the Immortal Enemy, empowered by the influx of necromantic energy, gained the ability to transfer his consciousness from Timmy, his latest incarnation, to the boy’s father without touching his new host or having to kill the child.
Beneath the Tarmac of Heathrow Airport, as Bloodshot made his way to the locker room to retrieve his bag, the lights suddenly went out and the lift he was in plummeted to the ground. Awakening an hour later unable to access his internal clock, read his metabolic system, or employ his enhanced strength, Bloodshot realized that his nanites shut down when the elevator did. Some miles away, the Immortal Enemy, drawn into town by the effects of chaos, wandered the empty streets, which reminded him of the days when he could kill an entire family and it would take the authorities weeks to find the bodies. Two hours later, the Immortal Enemy discovered that he was burning out his host’s body and needed to find another one, when then he ran into an acceptable subject.
Under Heathrow, Bloodshot, unsure of what was going on topside, retrieved a dead guard’s gun and made his way to a system of access tunnels Neville told him about once. Coming upon a fork in the road, Bloodshot, unable to access any of the data stored in the nanites, had to make an educated guess on what path to follow, one of which had been walled off years earlier. Above ground, not many miles away, Cheng followed the death energy that caused the chaos around him in his new body, leaving Lloyd’s corpse behind on the lawn. 
Reaching a dead end, Bloodshot turned back and found an exit that opened in a cemetery. Staring at Big Ben, Bloodshot noticed that there were no lights on in the city. Presuming that Para–Man had the sense to abort the mission, Bloodshot went to find the Secret Weapons. Sometime later, outside the Tower of London, Cheng attacked a sentry and two police officers, one of which shot him. Hitting Cheng on the back with the butt of his gun, Bloodshot stopped him from snapping a cop’s neck, when then, he recognized his distinctive eyes. Fighting Cheng hand to hand, Bloodshot accused him of being part of the craziness around them. Grabbing Bloodshot by the neck, Cheng, who was unable to take over his body, told him that he could make him watch while others died. Taking a switchblade out of a pouch, Bloodshot slashed Cheng’s face.
Certain that Cheng was connected to the night’s events, and feeling a different type energy coming off of him, Bloodshot chased him inside the tower. Feeling the same energy coming from the top of the tower, Bloodshot deduced that it was the center of all the chaos. Reaching the top of the tower, Cheng searched for the Silver Basin, a container of death energy that held the necromantic power he needed. Following the basin’s call to a hall in the wall, Cheng stepped through it, when then, Bloodshot jumped him and pushed him into the other room, where the Secret Weapons were fighting a man called Crona.
===Clothes Make The Man===
Standing outside the White Tower, Carol accused Sinclair of not deserving to wear his suit, then she said that Richard would not have had them stand there like fools during a hostage situation. Pointing at the guards, Sinclair told Carol that there were two of their own inside, and that they deserved every chance to rectify the situation themselves. Laying against a tree, Andre asked Joe what moved Carol, Richard’s death or the fact that Sinclair was wearing his Para–Man suit, which he himself was not sure he deserved. Assuring Andre that Sinclair, with whom he had worked before, could handle the suit, Joe said that Carol was another story. Fed up, Sinclair ordered Carol to fall in line, when then Tex, one of the burglars, opened fire on the guards. Telling the others to check their suits’ batteries, Para–Man ordered them to breach the tower.
Standing by a window at the top of the tower, Tex watched with delight as the guards scattered, when then a raven flew at him and he shot him. Recounting the legend of the ravens that guard the royal treasures in the tower, the burglars’ leader, a blonde woman, told them that the queen could sleep easy as they were too stupid to pull of a simple robbery. Telling the woman that there was time for them to retrieve the Silver Basil, Tex questioned why their boss wanted her to tag along and wondered what her part in the robbery was. Assuring Tex that he did not have to worry about her, the woman told him that he worry about the storm. Telling Tex that he would find out why she was there soon enough, the woman discreetly placed her hand on a knife.
Under the cover of a blanket of white noise generated by Sonar’s suit, the Secret Weapons broke into the tower, startling a sentry in the lower level. Advancing on the man from opposite sides, Tank and Mach told him to lower his weapon, when then the lights went out. Refusing to surrender, the man shot Tank, who snapped his neck. Upstairs, the woman killed all the burglars and filled the basin with their blood, which released a surge of energy. Kneeling down, the woman recited an incantation that called forth Crona, a spirit trapped within the basin that manifested beside her. Seeking nourishment, Crona sucked the woman’s soul.
Hearing a scream, Para–Man sent Mach to investigate, but soon as he took a step, Mach fell down and they all discovered that their suits no longer worked, but nevertheless, Para–Man ordered them to go up. Reaching the top of the tower, the Secret Weapons were astonished to find the badly decomposed corpses of the guards and the burglars. Enraged, Sonar accused Sinclair of being responsible for those people’s deaths, when then Crona ordered them to leave him to the power in the basin or suffer the same fate as the other mortals.
Angered, Mach lunged against Crona, who easily pushed him out of his way. Grabbing a scepter, Tank hit Crona across the jaw, but proving to be stronger than he was, Crona grabbed Tank’s neck and pushed him to the ground. Looming over Tank, Crona reached for his head to rip it off his shoulders, when then Sonar came running toward him with a sword. Promising to keep her alive long enough for her to see her own body rot, Crona shot Sonar with a blast from his hand, but then Para–Man tackled her to the ground before it connected. Standing over Para–Man and Sonar, Crona accused them of distracting him from tapping into the power within the basin, when just then, Bloodshot and the Immortal enemy came crashing through a wall.
Grabbing the side of the basin, the Immortal Enemy could feel it drawing the power from whatever was going on outside in great amounts, while Crona, sensing that he was not like the others, warned him not to test him. Deciding that they were out of their league, Para–Man ordered the others to retreat, but Bloodshot refused to let either Cheng or Crona have the basin. Telling Para–Man that whatever was going on outside powered Cheng, Bloodshot explained that it was the silver that was focusing it and ordered him to destroy it. Certain that his suit would protect him, Tank grabbed Mach and threw him against the basin, which shattered into a dozen pieces. Enraged, Crone lunged against Tank, when suddenly the ravens swoop down on the broken pieces of the basin and took them with them, taking Crona’s power as well. Grabbing an ax, Tank then beheaded Crona, who turned into energy and vanished.
Sometime later, while paramedics took Bloodshot out in a stretcher, Carol accused Sinclair of killing Richard and two guards had to drag her away.
===Heart’s Desire===
While on his way to Heathrow Airport, where Neville was expecting him to brief him on a mission to capture Janine Noir, who had escaped from MI–6, Colin King avoided an airplane that crashed within meters of his car. Feeling the blistering heat on his face and the stench of aviation fuel and smoke in the air, Colin wondered what brought the plane down, when then he heard the shrieking sound of a second plane crashing behind him and he realized that there was nothing natural about these disasters. Sometime later, Ninjak broke into MI–6 headquarters through the vent system. Informing Alcott that Heathrow was a disaster area, with planes dropping like lead balloons, Ninjak asked if anyone knew what was going on, so Sinclair told him that before everything died on them they registered a global power surge on the electromagnetic scale.
Deducing that Dr. Silk would be blind and more helpless than he had ever been before, Ninjak wanted to strike, when, suddenly, Mademoiselle Noir, empowered by the chaos effect, materialized in the middle of the room as an unearthly Goddess behind a carpet of red muzzle flash fired by puppets who were once MI–6’s finest. Falling to their knees, all the men in the room became Noir’s slaves, except for Ninjak, who despite his racing heart and lust for her, resisted her irresistible charms. Amazed by Ninjak’s resistance, Janine desired to know more about him. Taking Ninjak to a tropical island, Janine found him to be a man who had strength that made him a worthy lover. Savoring his immunity to her power, Noir found Colin to be everything she desired.
Confessing that when Darque made her what she was she lost the chance to love, Janine told Colin that she loathed the human cattle that fell at her feet, and that she longed for a partner who would love her, not her powers. In awe of her, Colin told Janine that in exchange of her taking him to face Dr. Silk so that he could finally end his struggle with him, he would be hers forever. Finding his heart’s desire to be a fair exchange for her own, Janine entered Colin’s mind and used his memory of Silk to take him to Dr. Silk.
Appearing in Webnet central in less than a blink of an eye, Ninjak engaged Silk’s security guards, when then Janine ended their lives with a snap of her fingers. Telling her to stay out of his business, Ninjak moved forward, but Janine ignored him and continued to interfere, until he threatened to rescind their deal unless she allowed him to finish things his way. Reaching the inner sanctum, Ninjak swiftly dispatched Fitzhugh, Silk’s bodyguard. Holding Silk at bay with the tip of his sword, Ninjak ignored his pleas for mercy and was ready to strike, but then he hesitated and pulled back. Realizing that his journey had been a mockery of everything he struggled for, Ninjak accused Janine of taking away the challenge and the prize of being hollow. Accusing Ninjak of being unbearably noble or pathetically squeamish, Janine used her spell on Silk to make him beg Ninjak to kill him, but turning his back on both of them, Ninjak told her to let him go and called their deal off.
Upset, Janine blasted Ninjak across the room with a wave of her hand and threatened to burn the flesh from his bones if he defied her any further, when just then, she noticed Fitzhugh wheeling Silk out of the room. Though she commanded him to return to her, Janine’s spell did not work on Fitzhugh, who took Silk away. Facing Ninjak, Janine demanded that he honor their deal. Asking Janine to reach into his mind, Colin told her that it was fitting that they should be together since they were kindred spirits destined to never find real love again. Showing her his memories of Michiko Okubo, Colin told Janine that her prize was as empty as his. Appalled, Janine accused Colin of buying her help with an empty promise. Her heart fluttering away, Janine released Ninjak, who through the vestige of their psychic bond, felt her hopelessness before she vanished.
Finding himself alone, Ninjak centered his thoughts and focused to drive aside the madness of that insane day. Though he threw away the change to kill Silk, Ninjak felt no regret, certain that Silk would soon die by his hand in a victory that he would earn. Hearing Webnet’s guards approaching, rallied, rearmed, and returned in force, Ninjak welcomed the challenge.
===Risen From The Dead===
Outside Heathrow airport, Gilad witnessed as an airplane crashed on the tarmac after its engines cut off as a result of the strange clouds gathered overhead. Wondering if anyone survived the crash, Gilad jumped over a fence and ran toward the airplane to help the survivors. Ripping a door off its hinges, Gilad walked inside the plane, while outside the paramedics and ambulances gathered around the crash. Kicking the emergency door aside, Gilad emerged from the wreck holding two children on his shoulders. Hearing the paramedics say that even their flashlights did not work, Gilad felt like he was back in the dark ages. Watching the paramedics take the passengers away, glad that theirs was the only plane on the glide path, Gilad wondered what would have caused the disaster, when just then, he felt a strange sensation that drew him elsewhere. Resigned to accept that the whole world seemed to have turned on its rear end in the last few hours, Gilad decided to play by the new rules and followed the strange calling wherever it might take him. Meanwhile, Malloch, empowered by the chaos effect, escaped his confinement within a cavern in a hillside near Heathrow
Sensing Gilad’s presence in a horse ranch where he was borrowing a mare, Malloch thanked the fates for delivering his old enemy into his hands. Retreating into the cavern, a resting place prepared by his followers, Malloch opened his lady Julia’s crypt and commanded her to rise so they might reign once again, but the death power that brought him back was not enough to rouse her from her slumber. Soon, Malloch found Gilad looking to take what he sought from him. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Geoff made his way to Gilad’s apartment looking to gather others who could help him against the chaos effect, when suddenly the pipes blew up and the stairwell filled with water that threatened to drown him.
While riding through a canyon, Gilad got the inexplicable feeling that Geoff was in trouble, when suddenly Malloch threw him off his horse. Lunging against Gilad, Malloch said that his death would awaken his lady, but Gilad hit him across the fate with a rifle and knocked him to the ground. Looming over Malloch, Gilad told him that he believed that he had died in a fire. Crawling away, Malloch said that the cursed silver coins wielded power beyond that ken that saved his body even as the fire took away his life, and that he had laid there ever since, interred alongside his coven, waiting for that night of death. Shooting the mountain to seal the entrance to the cave, Gilad told Malloch that he would have to dig his friends out. Crying out for Julia, Malloch used his power to barrage Gilad with a pile of rocks, but, standing his ground, Gilad shot him repeatedly. Taunting Malloch to pray to his dark Gods to keep his dusty bones together, Gilad shot him in the chest and said that that night was no different than the other times he defeated him and his damned priests.
Standing over Malloch’s remains, Gilad wondered what had brought him back. Taking a dagger from his bag, Gilad walked into Malloch’s resting chamber to finally bring peace to the lost souls that followed him and look again upon the face of the woman he stole from him. Back in Brooklyn, Geoff yelled for anyone to help him and asked the walls to tell him how to get out, when, suddenly, he vanished in a flash of light.
Reaching London’s East Side on his mare, Gilad felt Geoff calling him again, but he also felt that he was all right. Thinking that if anyone in the city would know what was going on it would be his brother, and that he would not be surprised if he had a hand in it, Gilad rode to Ivar’s apartment, where he found a letter addressed to Aram that said that Ivar had left in a time arc. Getting the feeling that the world was coming to an end, Gilad left Ivar’s apartment thinking that there was nothing he could do about it.
===Fossil Fuel===
Trapped in the flooded stairwell of Gilad’s building, Geoff McHenry could no longer feel the geo–lines of the Earth, when, suddenly, he vanished in a flash of light and reappeared in a cemetery in New Orleans where Sandria Darque told him that the world was full of Darque energy and that chaos was upon them. Taking Geoff by the hand, Sandria told him that there were others they needed to find before they traveled to Ladakh.
That evening, while Archer and Aram were stuck in Los Angeles traffic, an earthquake shattered the bridge they were on and sent all the cars down to the ground. While helping the other drivers, Archer got the feeling that Ladakh was calling him home, so he and Aram went to find a way to get there. As they sky darkened and the temperature fell, Archer said that it seemed like the end of the world, when then he and Aram came upon a mini mall under the protection of a man armed with two guns that was keeping the looters away. Stepping forth, Archer assured the man, Fred Ames of Ames music, that they were not looters. Shortly, a group of actual looters broke into the store, and while Archer and Aram attempted to dispatch them without bloodshed, one of them shot Aram in the chest and Fred, unaware of Aram’s immortality, killed him. Astonished to see Aram still standing, Fred gave him a boxed set of jazz recording as a thank you for his help.
Taking their leave, Archer and Aram followed a crack in the Earth that lead directly to Ladakh that took them to a petroleum field overran by dinosaurs. Igniting the oil around them to cook the dinosaurs, Archer and Aram took shelter in a ridge within the crevice. Just as the fire sucked the oxygen up, and it looked like the end was at hand, Sandria and Geoff appeared and took Aram and Archer with them to Ladakh. Telling them that the chasm would take them to the temple, Sandria left to search for the one who could end the chaos.
As Archer and the others neared the temple, a volley of arrows stopped them in their tracks. Showing himself, Chan ordered them to halt where they were, but then Archer told him that they were friends and had come to help. Aware of who Archer was, Chan gladly guided them to the temple. Reaching a high peak from where they could look at the temple in the distance, Archer knelt before it, grateful that he was able to see it again. Telling Archer and the others that a traveler had fallen out of the sky and not yet regained consciousness, Chan took them inside the temple in the hope that they might recognize him. Walking inside a room where the monks kept Ivar as comfortable as possible, Aram knelt beside his brother and grabbed his hand in his.
==Quitting Time==
In a forest somewhere in the United States, Tank and Mach discussed what happened to Sonar after their mission in London while running a training exercise with U.S. Marines. Simultaneously, in London, Carol awoke in a hospital room from what she could not decide was a nightmare or a delusion. Walking out of the room, Carol saw Sinclair talking with the doctor in the hallway and heard them say that what happened to her was neurological in origin. Approaching Sinclair in a state of delusion, Carol apologized for accusing him of killing Richard and told him that she wanted to leave the team to lead a normal life. Back in America, while Tank and Mach attacked a marine encampment, they received a call from Jillian calling them back to London.
At the hospital, while Carol packed her suitcase, Neville asked her not to leave, but, upset, she said that she had to get out while she still had her sanity. In tears, Carol said that she should have left after Richard died, and that his death, added to her problems, gave her no reason to continue there. Telling Carol that they had invested a lot of time and money in her training, Neville said that her leaving could have ramifications, but she nevertheless turned back and left to return to her career in tennis. Watching Carol go, Neville told Jillian that they would have to put a slight squeeze on her. While Carol turned her weapons in, Bloodshot asked her if there was anything he could do to make her reconsider, but addressing him insultingly, she said that she was choosing not to live in some violent fantasy world because she was a real person with real feelings and not some monster with machines in his blood controlling her every move.
The next day, John asked Neville what he supposed caused Carol to snap, and Neville told him that she probably could not handle the suit. Confessing that the suits had their limitations, Neville told Sinclair that there was a slight possibility of problems since the suits were not designed for their personnel and were too advanced for their techs to adjust. Accusing Neville of experimenting on the team, Sinclair walked away understanding why Carol was mad. Later that day, Jillian introduced Tank and Mach to Melody Abrilla, Sonar’s temporary replacement until Carol was persuaded to return. Briefing them on their next mission, Jillian showed the team photos of the three individuals for whom the suits were designed for, the Intended Weapons, and Dave Hoban, the man who designed the suits, whose knowledge of the technology could help them solve some of the bugs that had developed in the suits.
Meanwhile, Carol tried to buy an airplane ticket and discovered that Neville canceled her credit cards. Returning to her hotel, Carol learned that Neville had also frozen her checking account, taken her car and safety deposit box, and gotten her amateur status with the tennis association suspended.
Elsewhere, the Secret Weapons waited inside a ventilation duct in an apartment for the Intended Weapons to show up for a fake job that the intelligence department set up for them, but only one of them, Tonya, showed up. Sensing a trap, Tonya left, so acting rashly Melody tried to stop her, but she got the best of her and took her hostage. Threatening to kill Melody, Tonya had Redline take the suit’s batteries and they escaped, certain that the Secret Weapons would go looking for them. Returning to their headquarters, Hoban told Tonya and Redline that he did not think that their running into the suits was an accident, and what whoever had them was starting to realize the problems with his creator–owned technology. Facing Tonya and Redline, Hoban wondered why the Secret Weapons were still wearing the suits.
Back at MI–6, while the Secret Weapons reprimanded Melody, Carol walked into Neville’s office offering to come back to the team long as he met a few nonnegotiable conditions.
==Intended Weapons==
While riding in a transport with the rest of the team and Jillian in an underground tunnel built by MI–6 that had access to just about anywhere in London, Carol mused over her inability to bond with her teammates and her guilt for accusing Sinclair of killing Richard. Wondering why she cared, Carol was content to know that once she performed one last mission for Neville he would reinstate her tennis career and return her life to her. A short distance away, while Hoban and the Intended Weapons tracked the Secret Weapons as they approached their location, they wondered why they were wearing the suits given the danger of using them. 
Reaching an abandoned station, the Secret Weapons split up to go look for Hogan and the Intended Weapons while Jillian waited for them. Taking John aside, Jillian urged him to get the others relied up and reminded him that the reason they were looking for Hogan was to get the suits fixed. Pushing Jillian off him, John walked away damming her father for not telling Carol that the suit she was wearing was driving her insane.
Reaching his position, Mach could barely move as the suit failed on him, when, suddenly, Redline ran over him on a motorcycle and said that no one but him could wear the suit without it failing. Meanwhile, as Sonar lost contact with Jillian, she found Hogan, who knocked her out with a countermeasure against the sonar suit and said that they were getting the suits with or without the SW’s consent. Nearby, as Para–Man and Tank found Hogan’s control center, the building blew up. Watching from a rooftop, the last Intended Weapon assured Tonya that the suits would survive the explosion. Below them, Doctor Himmel and Gigo, a behemoth working for Webnet, captured Jillian.
Elsewhere, Sonar raised the resonance of her suit to match the frequency of the ceiling, which collapsed on them. On a nearby street, Mach saw a plume of smoke coming out of the building and swore to make Redline for killing his friends. Though he had a broken leg, and Redline taunted him that using the suit would kill him, Mach chased Redline across London Bridge and tossed his bike to the building that housed the cogs that raised the bridge. Weakened by the strain, Mach laid in a puddle of water while Redline escape after hearing police sirens in the distance. A few blocks away, Sonar came out of the subway station and, seeing the burning building, tried to contact Jillian to request a medical team, but she did not answer. Thousands of miles away, the Webnet agents shaved Jillian’s head and stuck her inside a sensory deprivation tank.
==Hard Feelings==
Saved from the explosion by a force field, Para–Man and Tank walked out of the wreckage and met with Sonar, who was on a helicopter that landed beside them. As Para–Man and Tank climbed into the chopper, Sonar told them that Jillian was kidnapped while they were fighting the Intended Weapons, and that the retrieval unit found Mach alive, but unable to talk or move. Blaming himself, John told Carol that the suits were rejecting them and causing neurological damage, which was what caused her breakdown. Telling Carol that he knew about the problem, John said that he thought they could correct it before it got out of hand, but now that Jillian had been kidnapped, they had an even bigger problem. Back in London, Colin King refused to tell Neville where Webnet had taken Jillian out of concern that it would compromise years of his hard work. Upset, Neville warned Colin that he would get back at him for refusing to help him while Colin walked away.
In Rome, Dr. Himmel subjected Jillian Alcott to sensory deprivation in an effort to prove to Dr. Silk that her technique would help them recondition leaders of the world’s intelligence community for their own use and show him that her division deserved to be recognized.
In London, at MI–6’s medical center, as Carol asked John if there was any one else beside Hogan, who she abandoned in the subway station, who could prevent them from turning out like Mach, Neville suddenly told them that Colin King was the only other one who knew how to repair the suits. Asking for their forgiveness, and to understand that he was told that the chance of something going wrong with the suits was slight, Neville begged them to bring Jillian back to them. Sickened with Neville’s whining, Carol deferred to Sinclair. 
Sometime later in Canterbury, the home of Colin King, Sinclair asked Colin once again for his help, but he refused, calling their sacrifice a necessity for the greater good. Taking his leave, Sinclair walked away leaving Colin with the clear impression that he would return. Later, the Secret Weapons broke into Colin’s mansion and faced Ninjak in battle. During the battle, Sonar took Colin’s butler, Basil, hostage and told Ninjak that their suits were killing them and they needed his help. Telling Sonar that Jillian was in Rome, and that he could probably help them with the suit problem, Ninjak said that it would take time to repair the suits, and made the Secret Weapons chose between staying there and living, or saving Jillian and possibly dying.
Using a map Ninjak gave them, Tank, Sonar, and Para–Man found Dr. Himmel’s secret base in the sewers of London. Walking into the complex through a hole in the wall, the Secret Weapons found themselves captured in a room that was suddenly filling with water.
==When In Rome==
Trapped in a sealed room far beneath the streets of Rome, Para–Man used stun ram to hurl Tank against the door and break them free before they drowned. Taking out two Webnet guards, Sonar and Para–Man took their uniforms and went to look for Jillian while Tank posed as their prisoner. Elsewhere, Dr. Himmel tested her “Manchurian Candidate”–like technique on Mr. Lyfert of the EC monetary fund to turn him into a skilled killer, but ultimately the process failed and Lyfert shot himself. Discovered by three Webnet guards, the Secret Weapons took them out, but one of them activated the alarm. Ordering her men to get the transports ready to move Jillian and the others, Dr. Himmel ordered Gigo to find out who wanted to hurt her.
Fighting their way through Webnet’s armed forces, Para–Man sent Sonar to find Jillian while he and Tank kept the guards busy. Opening a door, Sonar was shocked to find Gigo standing on the other side. Pushing Sonar against a wall, Gigo grabbed her in his arms and squeezed her, breaking her ribs. Realizing that the cylinders on Gigo’s back were some kind of breathing apparatus given the way he was wheezing, Sonar found the frequency they vibrated at and destroyed them. Making her way through the complex, Sonar found Jillian inside a sensory deprivation tank. Releasing Jillian, Carol punched her in the face for recruiting her and the others to do their dirty work without telling them that the suits would cause them neurological damage. Just then, Dr. Himmel came out of the shadows and told Carol to leave Jillian with her and tell the others that she did not find her to punish her for what she and her father did to them. Though Jillian pleaded with her, Carol considered Himmel’s offer and let her take Jillian away, when then Tank and Para–Man broke through the wall and found them. Telling Carol that it was too bad that they could not reach an agreement, Himmel shot Para–Man but missed. Burning Himmel to a crisp with arc charge, Para–Man and the others stood over her corpse and Sonar nonchalantly wondered what agreement she was talking about.
Thinking that their mission was over, Tank made his way toward the exit, when the, Gigo knocked him out with one punch. Standing over Tank, Gigo said that he was mad and would kill them all.
==Bully==
Pushing Tank against a wall, Gigo demanded that the Secret Weapons give him Jillian back. Shooting Gigo with a massive arc charge, Para–Man sent him crashing through the walls into the other room, but doubting that even with his suit at full power he would do him any real damage, the ordered the others to make a hasty exit before he dug himself out. Certain that Gigo would dig himself out, Tank stayed behind to buy the others some time, and though he disagreed with him, Para–Man agreed to let Tank stay while he and the others left. Shortly, Gigo escaped and engaged Tank in battle, a scuffle that broke the floor and sent them to the sewers.
Elsewhere, the Secret Weapons and Jillian ran into Ninjak, who feeling obligated to help them out of their mess since he was partially responsible for getting them into it, had dispatched the guards. Leading them to an exit, Ninjak promised that once they got back to England they would solve the problems with their suits once and for all. Reaching an ancient Roman bath house, Ninjak told them that they could regroup there before changing and arranging their backup, but Para–Man refused to leave without Tank. Just then, Tank broke through a wall and collapsed on the ground before the others.
The next day in the cemetery, Neville thanked Colin for his help even after their disagreement, but calling it a full blown breakdown of trust, Colin told Neville that their informal relationship was tenuous and that he would be reconsidering their deal in the near future, but that in the meantime he needed some things, more precisely a person. Meanwhile, at the MI–6 medical center, while John and Carol visited Joe and Andre, John told Andre that he could go back to active duty, but reluctant to relive what happened with Redline, Andre was not too sure that he wanted to go back. Assuring Andre that Colin had rectified the problems with the suits, John told him that they were no longer ran the risk of neurological damage, but that it he wanted to stay on as Mach only he could make that decision.
Coming out into the hall, Carol came upon Jillian, who, upset, confronted her for trying to leave her in Rome. Fed–up with the problem between them, Carol told Jillian to meet her in the gym to settle things between them once and for all. Sometime later, on a boxing ring in MI–6’s training facility, Jillian and Carol had a sparring match and Carol knocked Jillian out, promising her that next time she and the others would were going to be more careful in what they believed from her and her father.
Elsewhere, Colin King recruited Andre for a job in New Orleans to keep Redline busy in case he showed up. Looking to take revenge for what Redline did to him, Andre agreed.
==Bayou Nights==
Breaking into a warehouse in the New Orleans waterfront used as a meeting area for a group of mobsters, Ninjak recovered a briefcase from one of them while Mach learned where to find Redline so he could take his revenge on him for almost killing him during their battle in London. Certain that his vendetta would cause Mach nothing but grief, Ninjak was reluctant to aid him so he walked away. 
Shortly, in an illegal gambling house somewhere on the east side of the French Quarter, Redline discovered that someone had stolen his motorcycle. Following a rope left where he parked his bike and a trail of parts to an alley, Redline was stunned to find Mach standing in front of the motorcycle holding a sledgehammer. Enraged, Redline told Mach that he could compensate himself for the bike when he ripped the suit off his body, and agreeing that their fight was a long time coming, Mach challenged Redline to meet him the next night in a road house in the swamps and then he walked away, leaving Redline fuming with his bike.
Later that night at the hotel, Andre laid out his suit on his bed and thought how, unlike the last time, he and the suit were in tip top shape to face Redline and find out who deserved to wear it. Walking into the room, Colin King urged Andre to return to London with him and walk away from his vendetta, but Andre refused. Left with no other choice, Colin removed the battery from the suit and told Andre that if he insisted on going through with the battle, it would be as himself and not Mach. Hiding behind a face of false bravado, Andre told Colin that he was fully prepared to take on Redline without his help or the suit.
Twenty miles outside New Orleans, Redline found a trail of footprints leaving from the roadhouse and followed it to the bayou, where Mach used a piece of wood to knock him off his bike. During their scuffle, Mach, who fought Redline without his suit, tossed Redline on quicksand, and caught in the frame of the bike, sank to the bottom. Though Andre tried to help him, Redline, who compared their rivalry to two brothers and said that had they been brothers he would have told Andre that he was a hell of a guy and that he deserved to wear the suit, sank to the bottom and drowned.
==Rampage==
===Rampage – Part I===
Climbing down from a helicopter into North Korea, Bloodshot lead the Secret Weapons to a distribution hub confirmed to be wholesaling nuclear bomb components. Commandeering a truck, Para–Man drove it through the front gate while Bloodshot gunned down anything that moved. Meanwhile, at Musashi Labs in Osaka, Tanaka, having learned of Bloodshot’s attack on the Kyoto facility, ordered Nicolai, the facility’s manager, to pull his men while he took care of everything else. Walking into a heavily–protected room, Tanaka stood over a cryogenic tube that held Hideyoshi Iwatsu inside and told his father that he would be rejoining them soon.
In Korea, Bloodshot and the Secret Weapons discovered that the facility was empty, when suddenly the doors to the warehouse shut closed and the room filled with gas that knocked the Secret Weapons out while armed mercenaries shot Bloodshot with high–powered tranquilizers that knocked him out before he could metabolize them. Restrained in a device designed to send a random frequency charge that prevented him from using his ability to control machines, Bloodshot awoke in a room at Musashi Labs where Tanaka told him that he was going to complete the programming in his nanites to turn him into the perfect host for his father’s memories.
 
Elsewhere, the Secret Weapons broke out of a cell and went to find Bloodshot. Fighting their way through the security guards, the Secret Weapons reached the room where Tanaka was holding Bloodshot hostage. Breaking inside, Sonar let out a high frequency pitch that destroyed Hideyoshi’s cryogenic tank. Looming over Bloodshot, Tank asked him if he was okay, when suddenly Bloodshot punched him on the jaw and sent him reeling backwards. The programming in the nanites in his blood having been completed, an imposing Bloodshot, his body covered in sweat, stood over the frightened Secret Weapons.
===Rampage – Part II===
Somewhere in rural Japan, Bloodshot used his ability to control machines to take out Sonar and Mach, and though Tank wanted to face him one on one, confident that he could not stop him since his power was in him and not his suit, Para–Man held him back and Bloodshot escaped. Later, in a jet heading for England, Sinclair told the rest of the team that, from the stories Bloodshot had told him, he was acting like a rampaging killing machine like when he awoke from Project Rising Spirit. Wondering how they could stop him, John told the others that he knew of man capable of stopping Bloodshot, but that he doubted that Neville would agree to it.
Later, with Neville’s permission, Sinclair went to MI–6’s medical center where the individual he spoke of was prisoner. After signing documents and having the built–up of static electricity in his body discharged, Sinclair, ignorant of the extent of the inmate’s power, followed a nurse to a specially– built wing of the hospital constructed out of that lacked any technology and where the nurses only used 19th Century medicine to take care of their prisoner. There, he walked into a room where he offered Ax, the Harbinger with a score to settle with Bloodshot, amnesty for his help in bringing Bloodshot in, but swearing that when Bloodshot went down he would be the one to do it and not with Sinclair’s help, Ax refused and laughed at his face.
Later, the Secret Weapons followed a reported sighting to a lab not 20 minutes away from Heathrow, where they found Bloodshot garbed in a Speedshot uniform. With extreme prejudice, Bloodshot took out every members of Secret Weapons one on one until he and Para–Man where the last ones standing. Though injured, Para–Man, sufficiently enraged, stood up to Bloodshot ready to face him with the full power at his disposal
===Rampage – Part III===
Obeying the programming in his nanites, Bloodshot escaped through a hole on the wall blasted by Para–Man before he fell unconscious to continue his acquisition of the necessary means to complete his directives to destroy target sites and kill Neville Alcott. In Osaka, Tanaka learned that Bloodshot was following the new programming in his nanites, and was well on track to destroy all known British Intelligence facilities and methodically murder all division heads. Breaking into a paramilitary installation outside London, Bloodshot acquired hand held firearms and enough C4 explosive to complete his directives.
Hours later, Bloodshot broke into the home of Neville Alcott, but Ninjak stopped him from killing Neville. During the ensuing battle, Bloodshot knocked Ninjak out, and would have killed him had Neville not shot him with his berretta to distract him. Stopping Bloodshot from breaking Neville’s, Ninjak planted a tracking beacon on him before the Secret Weapons arrived and forced him to escape.
 
Following the beacon to a British Intelligence’s newest high–tech facility hidden below an urban setting near the docks of the Thames river, the Secret Weapons ambushed Bloodshot, who once again took them out with ease. Leaping between Bloodshot and the others, Ninjak showed him that he had diffused his bombs and begged him to go with him to the hospital where they could make him better. Just then, however, Bloodshot took out a C4 block and a detonator that he used to blow up the facility.
===Rampage – Part IV===
Falling through the floor following the explosion, the Secret Weapons and Ninjak found themselves in the sewer, where, frozen with panic, Tank, who was afraid of fire, could not move. Crawling out of the wreck, Bloodshot grabbed Ninjak and squeezed him in his arms to kill him. Surmounting his fear, Tank punched Bloodshot out and then escaped with Ninjak in his arms. Gathering with Mach and Sonar behind a wall of fire that separated them from Bloodshot, Ninjak got an idea to use his nanites against him.
Elsewhere, a doctor informed Neville Alcott that John Sinclair had gained the powers of the Para–Man suit independently from it, and that he did not need the suit to have the powers. Telling Neville and Jillian that when the others had problems with their suits Sinclair did not because his suit was not working, the doctor theorized that when the suit started to malfunction rather than adapt to Sinclair’s body, it adapted Sinclair to it. Excited, Neville ordered Sinclair to engage Bloodshot, certain that without the limitations of the suit, he could get close to him without his being able to shut his powers down.
Meanwhile, at the Mansion of Colin King near Canterbury, retrieved a sample of Bloodshot’s blood filled with uninfected nanites from the sword with which he skewered him when they first met to put his plan in motion. Elsewhere, in an abandoned tenement building, Bloodshot ingested trace minerals and protein drinks to help his nanites heal him from the damage he sustained in the explosion, unintentionally giving the infected nanites a stronger foothold in his system.
While Ax killed the nurse watching him in the hospital cell and went to find Bloodshot, back at MI–6 headquarters, Jillian introduced the Secret Weapons to the new Para–Man, John Sinclair, who showed up in a newly–designed suit similar to the Weaponeer’s enhancement suit ready to face Bloodshot once again.
===Rampage - The Conclusion===
While Bloodshot walked through a busy street in downtown London, a double decker bus ran him over. Enraged, Bloodshot jumped inside the bus and tossed the driver out the window, when just then, Para–Man arrived sporting a modified costume and attacked him. Sensing that Para–Man posed a threat, Bloodshot used his command over machines to endanger a lift filled with innocent people to distract John while he escaped.
In Canterbury, Colin located the high–order functions within Bloodshot’s nanites, which he believed he could use as antibodies to purge the Rampage programming that Tanaka infected him with. Looking at Bloodshot’s being laid out before him, Colin wrestled with the morality of improving him, and though he decided that doing so would make him no different than the people who did that to him in the first place, he decided that perhaps he would let Bloodshot keep his physical enhancements and boost his strength and agility a notch. Back at MI–6 headquarters, Ax used the digital phone lines in the building to listen in on a conversation between Jillian and the rest of the Secret Weapons. Learning that Neville was hiding in a safe house in old Glenborough lane, Ax, certain that Bloodshot would go there, decided to beat him to it.
Several hours later, outside the safe house, Ax, posing as a fast food delivery boy, killed the guard at the gate, while inside Bloodshot broke in through a window looking for Neville. Holding Bloodshot at bay with a gun powerful enough to blow a hole in his chest, Neville gave Bloodshot reason to question the level of threat that he posed to him. Just then, however, Ax arrived, and after disarming Neville, he used his technopathy to paralyze Bloodshot. Taunting Bloodshot, Ax hit him with Neville’s rifle, but then Bloodshot’s nanites re–adjusted to the outside interference and broke free of Ax’s control. Arriving on the scene, Ninjak refused to let Bloodshot kill Ax, who used his power to momentarily freeze Bloodshot in his tracks and give Ninjak the opportunity to inject him with the pure nanites he developed.
Holding a defensive stance, Ninjak questioned Bloodshot on the name of a movie he programmed into the nanites as a sign that they had successfully purged Iwatsu’s encoding. In a daze, Bloodshot answered Ninjak’s query correctly, which brought an end to his rampage.
Category: Secret Weapons
Category: Valiant Universe