. _ The Academy of Super-Heroes Universe Presents: _ ( ) CONCLAVE OF SUPER-VILLAINS ( ) =-+-= copyright 1998 by Tony Pi, Marc Singer and Dvandom =-+-= I #5 - 'DEEP ARMAGEDDON CONCLUSION: 'Fallout!' I ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [cover shows Tony Drake's full face underwater, mouth open and spewing a blinding stream of energy, with nuclear fire burning behind his eyes and out his nose. The energy melts through his faceplate. There is a look of utter terror on his face. The cover screams, 'BURN INSIDE-OUT!'] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- RECAP What's Happened Since Last Issue in the DEEP ARMAGEDDON crossover On December 30-31, in ASH #13, members of ASH with some help from STRAFE agents raced around the world to stop the bombs planted by the CSV as cover for their operations at Haven, sunken 20th Century city of supervillains. One of the bombs was returned to Labyrinthe by the efforts of an Anchor, and the rest were defused. However, the Conclave, an organization of Anchors, was slain by a second device planted in their bunker in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Caryatid's plans to kill Warden were foiled by the intervention of Peregryn of ASH and C.J. Brown and Jen Kleinvogel of STRAFE, who dispersed the Wergild and captured Caryatid in Warden #8. With most of the "first string" heroes distracted, the CSV was able to reach Haven before the hastily-assembled STRAFE/EUROPA strike team, leading to a fight atop the mechanical crab rig Triton had built to bring salvaged supertech to the surface. A hurricane created by Sultry helped tilt the odds in the CSV's favor as well. The heroes suffered some initial losses, and as STRAFE #5 closed, the invulnerable Tony Drake was about to suffer the explosion of a neutron bomb phased into his stomach by Burnout. ============================================================================ [December 31, 2023. Haven, somewhere in the Mediterranean. LOCATION CLASSIFIED PER DIRECTIVE OF THE EURASIAN UNION.] In an airlock filled with seawater, the miniaturized neutron bomb detonated inside the stomach of one human. If that man were not Tony Drake, agent of STRAFE, there would be no remains. Yet the magene granted Tony Drake a body invulnerable to harm: that fact saved him from a deadly fate. His body shook unbearably. The explosion ripped through his alimentary canal in both directions, and radiation spewed forth from all orifices, disintegrating everything in the way. The intensity of the blast mangled his diving suit and the nuclear fire and radiation superheated the water around him. With the force of the blast expelling all air from his lungs, there was no time to scream and no breath to scream with. Unfortunately, Tony Drake felt every stab of pain. Even though his eyes were closed, the light that filtered through was brighter than anything he had experienced before. The explosion scrambled his intestines, whipping them around like unheld fire hoses left to writhe, twisting and strangling his internal organs. Unbearable pain assaulted almost every nerve ending inside and outside his body simultaneously. Thankfully, he lost consciousness.... * * * * Jason Teller tapped furiously at the airlock controls, but the door wouldn't open and the monitor screen only showed static. "That does it," he said as he stepped back and drew his guns. "I'm shooting my way in." "Teller, please." Arc softly placed a hand on his wrist, forcing the gun down. "The controls got shorted by an electromagnetic pulse. That airlock is going to be radioactive." Teller stared at her, with even more contempt than he'd shown Burnout. "Tony might have lived through it," he said calmly. "And if he did, he's drowning now. Would you leave Ymir, or Rasputin, or the Dioscuri to die?" "If that door can stop a neutron bomb, your gun won't dent it," Arc replied. "Let me try." She raced back and forth along the catwalk, rapidly accruing kinetic energy. Then she returned to the airlock door and converted the energy to super-strength, pulling on it with enough force to shatter the safety locks. The door opened, spilling forth a cloud of steam and a torrent of water; both set off Geiger-counter alarms contained in their diving suits' sensory systems. Teller ignored them and plunged inside, wiping the steam from his faceplate. The walls were scarred and melted from streams of superheated water, and the Haven logo painted on them had been burned into slag. The outer airlock door had never opened; the neutron bomb went off first, frying its controls and paradoxically saving Tony from being blown out to sea. Tony lay on the floor, dripping wet, with horrible burns around his mouth, nose, and ears. Probably his ass, too, Teller thought; radiation must have been gushing out of him. But amazingly, those were the only wounds on Tony's invulnerable frame -- and the suit's sensors were picking up a slight pulse. "YES!" Teller pumped his fists and jumped up, nearly hitting his head on the airlock ceiling. "Teller," Arc said, "Get out of there! The suit's shielding won't protect you for long!" "In a second." He tilted Tony's head and pumped his chest, hoping to push any water out of his lungs. But all the water had evaporated; only a little bile rose to Tony's mouth. "Damn, shouldn't have done that." The steam was making Teller sweat and he could barely see out of his faceplate again. "Okay, I'm coming out." When he stepped back into Haven, Arc hosed him down with a radiation-damping foam hose which had popped out of the walls in response to the increased radiation. "I've contacted the _Mitterand_," she said. "They say your Tesla Branch people are coming down in a minisub to save him. They offered to pick us up, too..." "Screw that." Teller cocked his guns. "I owe Burnout a meal." * * * * Rebus held the harpoon over Dan 'Grind' Tracey's face, ready to kill the field leader of STRAFE. But before he could deliver the final blow, Grind shouted through his helmet's tiny speakers, trying to buy time. "Wait! Your puzzle's flawed. Why kill Anchors? Why kill your own kind?" "Au contraire," gloated Rebus, unable to resist a chance to prove himself superior to Grind. "It was always about gods. Did you know that some Anchors worshipped deities during the Godmarket? When 'Apocalypse Then' happened, magene freaks were chosen but Anchors were not. Because we were unworthy of Paradise, and the Barrier denies us their mercy." He giggled again, and had to stabilize his footing on the rig. Something was wrong but he wasn't sure what. Thoughts of hieroglyphics flashed in Grind's head. Symbols. Rebus. Of course. "You worship the Egyptian pantheon!" He was starting to think clearly again. "So you target Anchors for extermination, to destroy the Barrier so your gods could return to Earth to accept you?" "Deshtroy it? You think too linearly. You dishappoint me." That's it, keep him talking, thought Grind. Giddiness, lack of coordination, the slurring of words: all these symptoms pointed to the rapture of the deep. Rebus was feeling the effects of nitrogen narcosis. It was like Rebus drank a dozen martinis on an empty stomach and didn't know it. But how, with level of current technology? Surely Rebus was breathing a heliox mixture? "You don't want their forgiveness, then? What do you..of course. I underestimated your ambition." He caught sight of something which explained why Rebus would be suffering from the rapture of the deep. That's it, keep him distracted. Don't let him see what's coming. Rebus would have to be taken out fast, because the farther up they go, the faster the rapture fades. "You want to _become_ the Barrier." "Very good! So there'sh an ounce of shmarts left t'you." "You're mad!" said Grind. "By embodying the Barrier you think you'd be greater than the gods. You'd become the gatekeeper to our universe. You want to increase your own Anchor effect by killing other Anchors. That'd only work if the Anchor Effect is finite and if the Barrier is distributed on the shoulders of the Anchors! Are you blinded by your own conceit?" Rebus laughed. "Tell me: does it count as genocide if you murder every other member of your own race to become a god?" asked Rebus. He raised harpoon with one hand, ready to deliver the final blow. Then Triton slugged Rebus with the Light Brigade's laser cannon, using his powersuit's full strength. The blow knocked Rebus off Grind and off the rig. Satisfied, Triton carefully put the cannon back on the pile and re-activated his power trident. "Like I *said*, Nose is *mine*." * * * * Peryton dived towards Ymir and Castor antlers first, swooping in for the kill. Ymir stood up on the iceberg and aimed his hand at Peryton. The frost could not affect Peryton through his fur, but how about his antlers? The antlers should be a living part of the monster, the Scandinavian recalled. He gestured and encased Peryton's right antler in a heavy block of ice, unbalancing him. Peryton uttered a cry of surprise and tried to correct his descent path, but could not stop himself in time. He crashed into the upper part of the iceberg, breaking off his right antler. Peryton howled. Ymir did not know if the creature cried out in pain or from bruised vanity. Ymir shook Castor. "Pull yourself together! Is Pollux still alive?!" Castor was in a state of shock. "W-w-we are not joined. I cannot h-hear my brother's mind," he whispered. Ymir swore. "Look, Cas. Pol may be gone but we still need you. Can you scan for hostages?" "M-m-more than halved...our..." Castor's voice caught in his throat. "M-m-my powers are fading." That descent was too fast, and Castor felt sick to his stomach. He just wanted to curl up and fade into unconsciousness... but what would his brother say? Castor sighed. "B-but I will try my best. For Pol." Castor fought to sit up. Reaching out with his diminished psionic powers, Castor explored the airship with his mind. "Labyrinthe. Sultry. Conflicto. And a child. No others." "Stay awake," whispered Ymir. He looked up to the zeppelin, now only fifty feet above sea level. He had to get up there. There was a child to be saved from these monsters. He took Castor's harpoon gun from him. They had expected trouble getting onto the airship, so the harpoon guns were fitted with line and reel. Before firing, he did his best to coat a corner of the gondola with a thick layer of ice, so his harpoon would find a grip and not bounce off steel. When the harpoon took hold, he strengthened the ice around it, and reeled himself skyward. * * * * --You killed them, you bitch!-- Lana shouted to Mr. Strings inside her head. --What makes you so cold-hearted?-- ++That's exactly who I am. A cold-blooded killer.++ Burnout entered the virus lab through the wall and checked the clock. It was one minute past the detonation time and there wasn't even a tremor, so either the bomb was defused or it did not kill Drake. Mr. Strings shrugged with Lana's shoulders. There were other ways to kill them. She called up the list of experimental bacteria and viruses on Bacterio-Mage's database: mutated anthrax, bubonic plague, and dozens that she did not recognize. She located the list of magically enhanced organisms. ++Perfect.++ --What do you plan to do with all these viruses?-- ++It would have been smarter to have raided the virus lab before setting off the bomb. Triton's trap could work without the virus, if he bluffs well, but that's a moot point now. There are only a few samples that we need.++ Mr. Strings took three vials and placed them safely inside a sturdy case. The rest she gathered together and brought into the dome outside. She flew up to the top of the dome with the rocket-powered boots in the armor and phased through. However, she purposefully did not phase the unneeded samples with her, and they tumbled down into the miniature city. ++I was hoping Haven would have been destroyed. But that cocktail of deadly viruses should make them think twice about further salvage operations, for now.++ * * * * Arc and Teller descended into Haven proper and walked through its retro- futuristic cityscape. They entered doorways capped by golden friezes depicting modern-day gods of Radio, Atomic Power, and Microchip; they ducked around janitor robots, still polishing windows with their sleek chrome arms; they passed under curved skyways bearing magnetic cars that had hovered in the same traffic jam for twenty-five years. But up close, the metropolis lost some of its luster. It wasn't as big as it seemed; Haven was only stadium-sized, so its designer, a twentieth- century technophile named Doc Droid, had built all the buildings to scale. What had seemed to be great skyscrapers were really only three- or four-story buildings with lots of tiny Deco filigrees. Walking between them, Teller and Arc felt like giants...which was perhaps the effect all those foiled villains had wanted. The buildings were damaged, too, from the city's sinking in 1998 and the explosions which had caused it. Domes had cracked wide open and columns had toppled across streets. One building was fronted by a four-story cut-glass tribute to Technology, which had completely shattered. Teller figured was a testiment to Droid's design, and twenty-five years' work by his maintenance robots, that the city still stood at all. Yet this utopia only held relics from the tyrants of the past. "So where do you think they went?" Teller asked. "Hard to say. Any one of these buildings could hold an arsenal..." "They all do," said the mocking voice of Labyrinthe, echoing off the steel towers. "But they're really quite boring." "S'okay," Teller said, "we're looking for you anyway. Care to come out and play?" "Love to," the mage answered, "but not with you." Teller snapped his head around to look at Arc again. Their eyes met for a second...suddenly she was turned at a right angle, then down the street, then turned again, then behind him...Labyrinthe was rearranging the street plan, placing the whole city into the two feet that had separated them. Teller was in front of some kind of police station now. And the door slid open, disgorging a dozen boxy cobalt blue robots carrying honest-to-God rayguns. Labyrinthe now stood before Arc. "" he said, "" "" She threw a punch, and the air in front of her shattered... it had been the mirrored wall around Skulldigger's apartments. Labyrinthe's reflections disappeared from the shards. "Hey, I can hear you!" Teller's voice echoed around them; they could also hear gunshots and a strange laserish noise. "Quit talking in French!" "" Arc said. Labyrinthe appeared behind her. "" She tried to hit him again, but the street kept expanding between them. "" "" Labyrinthe paced in a simple square which took them over a skyway, through a hydroponic garden, and into a gilded ballroom staffed with robot manservants in tuxedo collars. Labyrinthe gracefully plucked a champagne glass off a serving tray and led them into Haven's central plaza, where gigantic statues appeared to hold up the central tower. "" He sniffed the champagne like a true connoisseur. And then he dashed the glass to the ground. "" he said bitterly. "" Labyrinthe stepped closer, no longer warping space between them. "" "Arc, is he hitting on you?" More gunshots and robotic moaning noises. "'Cause I don't speak a word of French, but it sounds like he's hitting on you!" "" Labyrinthe said. "" They were interrupted by a piercing klaxon. Red lights flashed in the Van de Graaf globes mounted atop some of the buildings, and a giant video screen crackled to life on the central tower. The face which appeared on it made Teller's spine freeze in its familiarity. Take off the wicked scar running down the left side of the man's face and add a generation's worth of age and it could be the Professor, back at the Academy. The original Solar Max. Which made this man Challenger, the evil alternate-dimensional counterpart of Solar Max, leader of the original Conclave of Super-Villains and nominal ruler of Haven. "Attention all Haven residents. We are under attack by..." The recording paused and jumped. "...viral invasion. All residents are advised to evacuate at once. Also," he added with a touch of anger, "if Bacterio- Mage is not already dead, be sure to detain him. Repeat..." "" Labyrinthe cursed. He politely told Arc, "" Labyrinthe vanished, taking all of his spatial warps with him. Arc stood next to Teller again, and perhaps had been the whole time, although Teller was now surrounded by slain robots. They ran for the nearest airlock. "How was your date with Maurice Chevalier?" Teller groused. "Better than my date with Annie Oakley." They scurried up a ladder. "I wonder how the United World is going to salvage Haven now?" Teller nodded. A grim, unpleasant smile spread across his face as he considered the warning that continued to repeat over the screens. "They're not." * * * * Back onboard the airship, Conflicto awoke in a medbay bed without his armor on. "Ow. That. Hurt. What happened?" "Drake 'tased' you. Then I had to get you out before the neutron bomb went off." Labyrinthe then explained in graphic detail what Burnout had done. "She stuck it in his gut just like that?!" said Conflicto after hearing the story. "No gluugin way! That Burnout's one twisted kit!" Sultry's voice spoke over the shipwide intercom. "The Crab will break the surface shortly. Cargo bay doors are open. It's time, people." Conflicto dragged himself off the bed and dressed himself in his new yellow costume, complete with red and blue arrows that clashed. "If it's not one thing it's another. Eugene this, Eugene that. Wish I had myself a butler...." Arriving at the cargo bay, Labyrinthe stepped inside first...and slipped. He fell down hard and hit his head, unused to the armor that he still wore. "I didn't do that!" said Conflicto defensively. He took a closer look. There was translucent ice everywhere: covering the floor, the ceiling, and the walls. "I'll take credit!" shouted Ymir. He waved and trapped Labyrinthe in a cocoon of ice where he fell. "Your turn." Conflicto quickly adjusted the friction coefficient of the ice covering the floor so that he would only slide when he wanted to. He dodged the waves of cold that Ymir threw at him, then cancelled the friction on the bottom of Ymir's feet. Ymir slipped. "Damn!" shouted Ymir, as loudly as he could. He could not get up because he could not get a grip on anything. "KIAAAAAAH!" shouted Conflicto as he slid feet first towards Ymir to kick him through the open cargo bay doors. What he didn't count on were the precarious icicles that Ymir had planted all over the ceiling. The noise Conflicto made was loud enough to dislodge a whole series of icicles, and they fell all about Conflicto like shrapnel. Conflicto was so startled by the falling ice that when he struck Ymir he had no time to increase his own frictional coefficient. Both of them fell through the opening in the floor.... * * * * The crab rig broke the surface of the tempest-tossed sea and slowly rose towards the airship twenty meters above with its rocket blasters. The cargo bay doors on the bottom of the gondola were wide open, waiting. On top of the heap of weapons, Triton battled Grind. "That was highly unethical, sabotaging your own teammate. Switched his air supply to nitrox, did you?" asked Grind as he dodged Triton's glowing power trident. It would be deadly to let that trident even prick him. "I saved it as a back-up, in case Rebus wanted to hog the glory. Now, let's settle an old debt!" Triton jabbed at Grind, but hesitated whenever he came too close to hitting the pile of weapons that they stood on. "Oh, by the way...if my lifesigns even *waver*, our three hostages... yes, your beloved Kleinvogel, Peregryn, and Sea Jay, get it?...will be electrocuted. Life insurance, just in case you thought this would be a fair fight," Triton added. "You're a terrible bluff," said Grind, uncertain. Grind realized he was playing a dangerous game: he had to make Triton angry enough to do stupid things, but not so angry that he became totally unpredictable. The way Triton carefully replaced the laser cannon on the pile, and the care he took to avoid damaging the weapons, gave him an idea. "Afraid of setting off something even you can't handle?" taunted Grind. "Here, let me help you lighten the load!" He kicked at the pile beneath Triton's feet, causing Radner to stumble and send several pieces of weaponry tumbling into the dark seawater. "NOOOOO! NOT THE CLONE PODS! OH, GOD, YOU MADE ME LOSE THE ASTRO- SPEAR!" screamed Triton, looking down and trying to figure out which weapons he just lost. "WAS THAT THE CRISIS WAND? PLEASE TELL ME THAT WASN'T *THE* CRISIS WAND! OKAY, NOW YOU'RE REALLY GOING TO PAY, TRACEY!" "Poor Derek, he's losing his toys," mocked Grind. Even through the rough winds, Dan could hear noise from above. It was the scream of Conflicto as he fell through the air, plummeting towards the sea. * * * * At first Castor had hoped that it was Pollux surfacing, but even with his powers so diminished he could tell that it was Rasputin. Despite his own injuries, Castor struggled to get Rasputin onto the iceberg when he spotted him surfacing. The Russian was badly hurt, but refused to faint. "" said Rasputin weakly. "" replied Castor, biting back tears. "" Castor touched Rasputin and communicated his idea by thought. "" said Rasputin. He took Castor's hand and they both focused. * * * * Ymir did not fall as Conflicto did, but swung from the line he had not yet detached from his waist. He climbed back up and into the cargo bay again, using improvised handholds and footholds in the ice. He hurried past Labyrinthe and into the rest of the ship. Death wasn't on Conflicto's mind as he fell. Skydiving was a thrill; falling without a parachute was just a more dangerous type of thrill. He loved the adrenalin rush but had enough self-control to realize that he didn't want to die. So, the question always on his mind was how he going to get out of this one, so he could do it again? His mind jumped back to what Labby had said: imagine; affect liquids. He was about to smash into the sea, but what if he could change the consistency of the sea water below? And that was why Conflicto bounced back up, hollering and whooping: the first thing he had imagined was the sea becoming jello. * * * * On the bridge, Sultry examined the size of her storm. She had spared Khadam by gently warping the shape of the hurricane; it would be wise, Rebus said, to keep Khadam their allies. The hurricane stopped short of Rome. "Pity," said Sultry. "I suppose I shall have to make my impression on Rome another way." She smiled. "Maybe I will honor Nero with my next masterpiece." There was a cough behind her. Sultry turned from the viewscreen to see Burnout return. She had already changed out of her armor and into a white jumpsuit. "It must be easy for you to get in and out of your armor," said Sultry. "Well, it was a pleasure to babysit for you, Lana." She handed the baby to her. "How did it go down there?" Lana just smiled and winked. Then she walked off the bridge holding her child. Sultry turned back to the screen, and noticed that one of the crab rig's cameras captured her ally in the Conflicto armor flying out of the sea. It did not register immediately, but half a minute later she realized that Burnout was disguised *as* Conflicto! "Damn Rebus and his games!" She stormed out of her seat, and raced down the corridor looking for the fake Burnout. * * * * "Is he gonna live, Doc?" asked Jason Teller over the commlink. Just in case Tony Drake was radioactive, he and Arc remained within the airlock of the Tesla Branch minisub, where the seawater would absorb any further radiation. "Cross your fingers," replied Dr. Cortes, who was dressed in a radiation suit. Her specialty was supertech, not parabiology or medicine, so it was out of her league. However, modern technology had one advantage, which was long-distance diagnosis. "I'm patching us through to EUROPA's Parabiology Branch in Rome. What's the diagnosis, Dr. Nardini?" She adjusted the sensor web and fed the readings through the satellite uplink. An image flashed onto the viewscreen. "Holy Mother of God...Mr. Drake is a very lucky man. A very lucky man. Unconscious but will live. The detonation triggered every neuron in his body. Most of the repair will be internal. Have to straighten out his intestines, you should see how the explosion whipped it around inside. Need to fix his epiglottis and pyloric valves. New E. coli for his stomach so he can eat again." Dr. Cortes passed a geiger counter over Drake. "The neutrons haven't affected him at all. He must be invulnerable on an atomic level." The geiger counter began to go crazy when it passed over his hair and fingernails. "We'll need to give you a manicure, Mr. Drake. And shave all body hair." "His invulnerability extends only to that which he considers a living part of him. Only his hair and his nails would have been affected by radiation," explained Dr. Nardini. "Recommend you get him to a hospital facility, pronto." "How much time do we have?" asked Teller. "The faster we take out Sultry and her storm, the faster we can get him out of here," said Arc. "You're right." Teller switched to another secure frequency. "Dan! Tony's hurt and we need to get him to a hospital. What's your status? Dan? Dan!" There was no reply. "We'd better get to the surface, fast!" * * * * Using the rocket boosters, Burnout flew out of the sea towards the crab rig. Unseen by the combatants above, she phased inside the vehicle and placed a single vial of virus inside a prepared receptacle. She then ghosted upwards. "It's done," she informed Triton, who was scrambling to catch the weapons that Grind was kicking off the rig. "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!" shouted Triton. He subvocalized a command, and the crab rig held its current altitude instead of climbing up higher. "You may be wondering why we used a rig instead of having Labyrinthe transport all the weapons directly to our headquarters." Grind found what he wanted - a weapon he could use. He pointed the sonic drill at Triton. "That *was* quite stupid." Triton laughed. "We're leaving. If you do not disarm the device hidden within this crab rig within two minutes, it will release an airborne virus, to be dispersed by the hurricane's winds. Just the beginning of a global armageddon, I assure you. I think I'll leave you to ponder *which* virus it is. If you try to blow it out of the sky or otherwise tamper with it, it will disrupt the magnetic containment field and release just enough antimatter to facilitate your death. Which it will do anyways when the crab runs out of energy, as an added bonus. How's THAT for a classic deathtrap? NOW, LABYRINTHE!" Nothing happened. "Burnout, check on our good friend, please?" Grind still had the sonic drill aimed at Triton, ready to pierce his heart. "DON'T EVEN THINK IT," warned Triton. "Remember your friends?" Grind didn't pull the trigger. He couldn't tell if Triton was bluffing. "Of course, while we wait for Labyrinthe, I'll take a few last jabs at YOU!" * * * * ==I have Carl!== thought Ymir, cradling the baby and racing through the corridors. ==Now I just need a way off the ship!== +-Maybe parachute?-+ suggested Castor. After linking Ymir's sight to Rasputin's, even telepathy was getting to be too much for him. Their deception was enough to fool Sultry, however. Behind him, Sultry shouted. "Come back here, you bloody bastard! No one makes a fool out of me and gets away with it!" Ymir didn't know which way to turn. He would be cornered by Labyrinthe if he went back to the cargo bay, but his only other option was to run blindly in a maze of rooms. He paused to freeze a door to the frame, but he knew that wouldn't hold Sultry long. He decided to risk facing Labyrinthe. Sultry ran into Ymir's barrier, but with a sneer she raised the ambient temperature in the area to melt the ice. Labyrinthe was still in his cocoon, but Ymir could see that Burnout was flying up towards him from the rig. He was trapped. Ymir ran towards the back of the cargo bay, looking for a way out, when Labyrinthe startled him by appearing directly in front of him. He was about to freeze Labyrinthe, when the man spoke. "" A spacewarp enveloped Ymir and baby Carl, and they reappeared on the deck of the _Mitterand_. Burnout entered the cargo bay. "We're ready, Labyrinthe. Spring the trap." Sultry raced in. "Where is he?" Then she saw Burnout. "Damn! Their illusionist tricked me! They have Carl!" "Damn! I can't trust you with even a simple task!" fumed Burnout. But inwardly, Lana smiled from her corner of the mind: her boy was safe with allies now! She now had a glimmer of hope that she will have the strength to fight off Mr. String's mind control. * * * * By the time he reached sea level, Rebus had recovered from his nitrogen narcosis. However, he could only watch the crab ascend. Unlike the others, he could not use the rockets in his boots to reach Skyhaven, since that required using supertech in direct contact with him. He swore, then swam towards the iceberg where Peryton was. He needed a lift. When he got close enough, Peryton slugged him. Hard. Rebus's helmet shattered, revealing a very surprised and very unconscious Lorenzo Archangeli behind the mask. Rebus collapsed. Peryton realized his mistake when he came into contact with Rebus: the illusion of Ymir overlaying Rebus was dispelled. Peryton tried to fly, but everywhere he looked he got vertigo. He was stranded on a very high pinnacle of rock. He knew it must be an illusion, but an illusion was still paralyzing. He sat back down Rasputin chuckled, nearly choking on his own blood. Two down. * * * * Labyrinthe focused on the weapons and his teammates. He found he could not get a lock on Peryton, because he was too close to Rebus. They would have to fend for themselves; Peryton should have transported Rebus as per the original plan. With a twist, he pulled the rest of his errant teammates away, along with the prizes they'd risked life and limb to obtain. Conflicto was snatched from his bouncing, and Triton from the rig, reuniting the five CSVers on the bridge. "Damn," said Triton. "Almost had him. Well, he'll go, one way or another." He cackled. "Boy, did I bluff him good or what! Take us out of here, Sultry!" Sultry snarled but complied. "Wasn't my fault," she muttered to herself. * * * * There was one advantage to Labyrinthe teleporting all the weapons away; Dan didn't have to search through them to locate the bomb. He pried open a service panel and found it immediately. The design was ingenious: a viral cannister connected to a timer which was part of the circuit for the magnetic containment unit for a small quantity of antimatter. Any disruption to the crab rig's electrical systems would turn off the magnetic field and release the antimatter... and the crab was running out of power anyway. Dan wiped off his faceplate, trying to see through Sultry's driving rain. Maybe he could defuse it, given time and resources, but he had neither. Meaning either the virus or the explosion...or worse, a radioactive virus...would be unleashed on Europe and Africa. "Congratulations, Radner," Dan whispered, "you've won this game." So he decided not to play. Dan found the crab rig's navigational controls and overrode Triton's security locks, making sure not to disrupt the rig's power systems. "Dan!" Teller's voice cut in over the radio channel again. "We're almost at the surface! Dan, answer me!" "Still a little busy, Teller." His fingers raced across the rain-slick keyboard. Mentally, he kept a perfect countdown on the virus release: 120 seconds and falling.... "If you want to chip in, the CSV are getting away. But some of the Haven salvage should be in the water under me. The Astro- Spear, for one...that's more or less hollow, so it should be near the surface." "What about Jen and C.J.?" asked Teller. "They're not on board," Ymir cut in on the team channel. "Castor confirmed it." "Then we're on it." The radio cut off, removing the distraction. Above him, Skyhaven was slowly ascending again and turning eastward. Dan would have loved to take them out, but public safety demanded he try something else. Sixty seconds and counting.... * * * * Teller looked at Arc. "Are we ready?" She raised an eyebrow and stared sourly at him. "I still say this is all some pathetic ploy on your part." They stood face to face in the minisub airlock, their arms wrapped around each other. Arc punched the emergency evacuation button, blowing the airlock door off its hinges. Their diving suits instantly adjusted for the pressure change, but the deep-sea water contained in the airlock did not; the change shot them out of the sub and toward the surface. Then Arc absorbed the kinetic energy, just as Teller had planned, slowing them down. They broke the surface and poked their heads up into the middle of a hurricane. "Where did he say that spear was?" Teller could only make out a flying crab, and an iceberg holding some wounded men and a stag with wings. "I have no idea!" Dan stood atop the crab rig, briefly silhouetted by a flash of lightning. "Right under me!" He dove off the crab; seconds later, it turned and dove into the water. Skyhaven was receding into the storm as Dan swam towards them, carrying a silver shaft bristling with controls and exotic designs. While the power cells had long since lost their charge, the Astro-Spear's collapsinum casing made it an indestructible...and deadly...projectile. Arc grabbed it and dragged herself onto Ymir's iceberg. She braced herself and drew back War Star's Astro-Spear. Teller placed his hand over hers. "For good luck," he said. Arc threw the spear, discharging all her stored strength. Teller guided the spear, using the telekinetic power that normally guided his bullets. The spear wobbled unsteadily for a moment, then found its proper course and lanced into the underside of Skyhaven. Right into the engines. First there was one small explosion, then another, then a cluster of explosions along the airship's belly. The STRAFErs and EUROPAns on the iceberg ducked from falling debris. Then, with one final explosion, the airship and the hurricane around it both disappeared. The agents slowly picked themselves up. Teller let his hand linger on Arc's while Rasputin simply turned to Dan and rasped, "What about the bomb?" * * * * The warning stopped repeating, and Challenger's face jumped slightly as the automated systems switched to another pre-recorded message. He was livid with anger now, his scar flaring redly, cutting into his close-cropped brown beard. But there was no one to see his anger...the streets were empty except for a few maintenance drones hauling away destroyed security robots. "This is your final warning. This intrusion will *not* be tolerated," the recording boomed. "Be you heroes or thieves, you will face the wrath of Haven! Haven, home to conquerors! Haven, city of tomorr..." Speeding through the water, the crab rig crashed into the dome. The collision instantly disrupted the magnetic bottle, releasing the antimatter and triggering the explosion. For a millisecond, there was a bright white light.... * * * * The shockwave burst out of the water as a giant bubble, one that set the iceberg rocking. The seawater had absorbed all the radiation, while the viruses were destroyed in the explosion. The battle was over. ============================================================================= EPILOGUE NEW YEAR'S DAY, 2024 Peryton and Rebus were sedated in the _Mitterand_'s brig. Rasputin, Castor, and Tony lay in the medical bay as the ship raced toward the nearest hospital in Malta. The rest of STRAFE and EUROPA stood on deck, amid the bits of equipment they'd hauled out of the water. Ymir and Arc played with the baby, but Dan Tracey simply sat on a crate, spinning a bent rectangle of metal over and over in his hands. Teller bolted out of the radio room, beaming. "Good news, Grind! Howard just reported in...he, Jen, and C.J. are alive! We won!" Dan showed the faintest smile. "I'm glad they made it," he said. "I wish we all had." He glanced at the casket, draped with the Eurasian Union flag, which held Pollux. "The CSV didn't die in that explosion," Dan said. "They killed one of our own, five of them got away, and they have a cache of stolen weapons. We didn't win." Teller tried to remain cheerful as Arc walked up and slid an arm around his waist. He looked at the battered metal rectangle. "What's that?" The STRAFE leader held it up. It was a license plate that read TRITON. He'd found it on Ymir's iceberg, amid the debris. Dan Tracey nodded grimly. "A reminder. For next time." * * * * Skyhaven limped through the air towards the nation of Khadam, its bottom totally destroyed by the explosions. Labyrinthe had saved them all just in time, although half of the weapons they salvaged were destroyed in the disaster. Triton was pitching a fit, but consoled himself with his grand prize: Strafe's armor. Burnout still wouldn't talk to Sultry and vice versa. Conflicto was tinkering with droid parts, figuring out how to piece the parts together. "So we lost two members, and their loss, of course, is regrettable." Triton smiled inwardly. Rebus was cramping his style. It was time *he* became the leader. He was in no hurry to rescue Rebus, but there was no need to tell the others that. There were the Ankh Killer and Mr. Strings left to deal with, but at least he could now act as the de facto leader of the team instead of being just a figurehead. "We suffered some heavy damage, but nothing we can't recover from. We will rescue our colleagues. And we are in the best place to rebuild, regroup, and recruit. "Welcome to the greatest cesspool of criminal scum on the planet. Welcome to goddam Khadam." THE END NEXT ISSUE: The Conclave of Super-Villains make their mark on Khadam! IN WARDEN #9: Celebrate the New Year with the paragangs and their greatest enemy, as 2023 goes out with a bang! IN ASH #14: The Academy of Super-Heroes recovers from the events of DEEP ARMAGEDDON, and Peregryn has a hard decision to make. IN STRAFE #6: Time to bury the dead, mourn their passing, and move on.... ============================================================================ Editor's Note: Well, so ends the first big ASH-Universe crossover. It's not totally over, there's still some threads to wrap up in individual books, but the body of the thing is complete. Whew. Having a crossover where three of the four writers are working on thesis research can slow things down a bit, but Marc and Tony wrapped up their projects just in time to get this out in 1998. Let's give them all a hand, yes? Oh, and Conflicto says he wants a RACCie, or he'll increase the friction in your hard drive.