September 24th

## A Moment of Decision

When the combined forces of the Contenders and their Australian comrades managed to defeat Mechanon's robotic strike force, they were left with a dilemma. There were more robots rampaging in the city which needed to be dealt with. But their mysterious source out to sea was still operative, meaning more waves of robotic attackers were likely; and the omnipresent sun-ring was still waiting to be dealt with as well. After a brief conference to discuss the most effective tactics, it was decided that the bulk of the team would go to the water to stop the robots at their source, while Gossamer used her powers to keep vulnerable civilians out of the robots' path as long as she could.

Before the team sprang into action, they asked Gossamer to try and call for more reinforcements. When she asked how she should direct the message, they told her to contact people who are willing to fight a world-ending threat and won't immediately die. She did so, but was immediately locked into mental connection with a much stronger mind, whom Mentat could sense was rifling through her memories with ease and callous disregard. When the connection broke, Gossamer immediately begged the Plutonian to flee, indicating that whomever had scanned her mind was someone powerful who absolutely hated the hero. The group speculated that this might be the supervillain Menton, one of the stronger psychic criminals known to the world and a former foe of the Plutonian, but had no proof nor any way to identify them; either way, the hero refused to leave.

The call had also summoned a more familiar face, though not a friendly one: Omega Girl. The heroine, who had ignored the prior call for aid due to the vagueness of the danger and the pressing situation in Chicago, abandoned that fight to come help stop the "world-ending threat." She was not pleased to see the Contenders, but put aside her grievances long enough to offer her aid.

## Gone Fishing

The group of heroes (now consisting of the Contenders, Omega Girl, the Plutonian, Powerbeam, Devil Gear, and the Alchemist) left to confront Mechanon. They spotted a large disk-shaped craft speeding through the waters of the bay; Omega Girl, utilizing the power of Neutronium's stolen ring, caught the craft in a gravity well and forced it to surface. The other heroes immediately descended to attack.

Initial attempts to destroy the robotic craft were hampered by its incredibly thick armor plates, which resisted most attempts to pierce or corrode them. Further, the craft defended itself by deploying newly-developed robotic drones and powerful tentacles tipped with potent energy weapons. The heroes struggled to make headway for a time, slowly wearing away the robots' armor. The Plutonian, who had initially held back in order to protect Omega Girl while she focused on holding the craft in her gravity well, entered the fray only to be weakened by Mechanon's specially developed anti-Plutonian weapons (created to deal with the original Plutonian, they were just as effective against this new version).

Mentat realized that the power of Terminus would affect the robots forcefields, and stripped away their protection from the draining blue radiation. This weakened them significantly, and at last the heroes began to make real progress as they struck down the automatons.

## Unwelcome Assistance

As the battle raged, a sudden clap of thunder heralded a new arrival on the battlefield: none other than Dr. Destroyer, legendary supervillain and one-time conqueror of Earth, had arrived to survey the scene. This terribly powerful villain had been unwittingly contacted by Gossamer's call for help, which had not distinguished between heroes and villains in her plea for assistance, and the supervillain knew that both Mechanon and the Plutonian, each one a hated foe from earlier years, was present.

Powerbeam, having been charged to his fullest level of power by the ongoing fight, unleashed his strongest attack on the Doctor but failed to scratch his impervious armor. Destroyer fired back idly, as if he were shooing away a fly, and his retaliatory attack immediately struck down the hero, causing him to fall unconscious on the surface of the ship.

The Plutonian attempted to strike Destroyer, but the villain evaded his attack and caught the boy in a powerful grip. Chiding him for his weakness and warning him not to confuse himself "with the *real* Plutonian," Destroyer flung the hero aside and tore out a chunk of his hair in the process. He then dropped a small device which phased through the hull of the ship and caused a massive chain reaction in the heart of the craft, crippling it. Satisfied, Dr. Destroyer took his leave, and none of the heroes dared try to stop him as he teleported away.

## Scuttled and Repurposed

With its reactor crippled and spewing harmful levels of radiation, the heroes quickly dispatched the remaining robots and were left with the dangerous wreck of Mechanon's vessel. Ultimately they decided to send it into space, where they realized that its armored construction and protective forcefields made it an ideal piece of cover with which to approach the sun-ring. They decided that the Contenders would go reexamine the ring, while the other heroes dealt with the remaining robots in Sydney.

Approaching the sun from behind this cover, the Contenders were able to get close enough to examine the structure first-hand. For the first time they confirmed their theory that the center of the ring held a portal, through which they could see alien stars that matched none of Mot's star-charts. They also observed that the ring was protected by not one but several redundant layers of force fields, each one providing total protection to the ring from both outside attack and the incredible heat of the sun's surface. Mentat attempted to disperse one using the power of the Endstone, but he was unable to disable it completely and the other layers compensated for the drain without issue.

Realizing that more information would be required, Mentat exited the Octobot and teleported to the ring's surface, bypassing the forcefields with the Endstone in order to see the structure in person.

## Final Approach

Mentat's examination showed him that the many barriers that supported one another were linked to something deep inside the ring's armored superstructure, which supported the entire lattice of forcefields like an inverted house of cards. Fighting approaching unconsciousness due to the incredible gravity at the sun's surface, he descended once again through the surface of the ring, disappearing from his teammates' sight.

Inside the ring he discovered the psychic presence of a malevolent entity, a primitive but powerful alien energy-being, which was held safely inside a final forcefield. This field protected the entity from coming into contact with the surface of our own universe, which was naturally hostile to its existence. This energy-being's psychic power was the key to the entire bizarre chain reaction which allowed the ring to function as a portal, spewing forth the harmful blue energy that so crippled the Earth.

Realizing he had only moments before the intense gravity made him lose consciousness, Mentat telepathically ordered his teammates to flee, not sure what would happen next. Then he called upon the Endstone one last time in order to disperse the delicate force-field inside the ring, exposing the energy-being to the deadly touch of our universe's native physical laws.

The ring's force-fields immediately began to collapse and the portal at its center winked out instantaneously. Without the force-fields the ring could no longer support itself on the sun's roiling plasma surface, and as a result, the Contenders saw the entire structure sink into the heart of the star to be swiftly annihilated in the 27 million-degree heart of Earth's star. The blue radiation that plagued humanity was cut off at its source, but at a heavy cost: unable to traverse the great distances before he lost consciousness, Mentat couldn't escape in time and was destroyed along with the ring. With heavy hearts, the Contenders flew the Octobot back to Earth in order to help assist with the world's recovery.

## Afterlife Afterthoughts

Mentat was killed by the incredible heat of the sun, along with the malevolent energy-being. This left his soul in the unique position of having died away from his home planet, which complicated the normally straightforward process of moving into the afterlife. Dying away from Earth meant that his soul would have to make its own way to its final destination, which gave him the freedom to veer off his natural path.

Mentat saw that there was a long but clearly-marked path for him, leading him to whatever eternal reward the deeds of his life had earned. He also saw that he could instead return to Earth and slip into the Blazing World, there to await resurrection like the Eid Prince had done. But instead he opted to veer away from both these destinations, making instead for Mars. In death, Mars was shining like a silver beacon to his spiritual senses, and he could more clearly detect the immeasurable, mysterious psychic presence that slept beneath its dusty surface. Unsure of what he would find but immensely curious, the ghost turned his back on Eternity and made instead for the red planet.

## Table Talk

"Okay, simmer down-"

"No, **you** simmer! I'm simmering *up!"*

"I'm just kidding, I mean I really enjoy this a lot, but..."

"... but go fuck myself?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"So, this has a bit of Mechanon in it right? Can we just dump him on another planet in the solar system?

Somewhere with no organic life? Where he would be happy?"-Brian

It is covered by a honeycomb grid of faint, barely visible, white forcefield. -Nick Jervis

Huh, I thought that was just the battle map. -Brian

We come to Mars, be like, "The fuck you doing?"- Joe Smith

See, everybody knows that rust never sleeps.-Nick Jervis

Rust-o-leum? More like Rust-MORE-eum. -Joe Smith