.|. COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED ---X------------------------------------------------------------------------- '|` PRESENTS DVANDOM | -. -. -. | ________| ____ \ ,___ \ ____ \ ________| | .' \ | | / ` | | | | | | | / ___| | | | | ` / | | __| | | < | __| | | | ,--- \ \ | | | \ | | \ ` | | | / | \ / | ___| _______-' ___| ____\ -______-' ____________| #59 - "M.E.C.H.A.-lekka-hai" copyright 1996 by Dave Van Domelen ============================================================================= [cover shows Team M.E.C.H.A. bursting through the page in a homage to Giant-Sized X-Men #1 as Dvandom Force members are in the shadowy background a la the original X-Men of that cover. Cover copy proclaims "Here at last!"] ============================================================================= "That's the last of them!" Lightwave shouted over the howling wind as his plasma cannon blew the huge fly-like RoboMAC to pieces, pieces which were instantly sucked into the ravening maw of the open spacebridge. "Right...." With the battle over, Sigma relinquished his awareness to the individuals who made up his gestalt mind. They would be better-suited to handle the tasks of demolition and escape individually. Likewise, Lightwave split back into his component parts, Heatwave and Moonlight. Mike took a moment to come back to full consciousness, then remembered where he was and what he was doing there. "Phobos!" he called over the comlink, "place the detonator so we can blow this place! Moonlight, Heatwave...you guys had better get clear now. Thanks for everything...maybe we'll meet again someday." "Right," Moonlight agreed. "Heat, you ready?" Heatwave nodded. "Goodbye, everyone! I hope you find what you're looking for and get home safely!" She shrank and folded back up into a six-foot cube, which Moonlight retrieved and placed inside his chest cockpit compartment. "Bye, guys! We'll never forget you!" Summer transmitted. Other team members joined in wishing the two MACs well, then Moonlight transformed into a sleek starfighter and took off into the sky, leaving a sonic boom behind as he raced away. Within a few moments, he had disappeared over the horizon. "Okay!" Mike said. "Is everything rea..." Suddenly, the wind stopped. Bahamode Sigma swayed back slightly as it stopped having to compensate for the pressure. "Did they turn off th' spaycebridge?" Pinto Sally asked worriedly. She knew that without it, her cousins might very well be stranded...as would she. Trapped in a world not her own, cut off from her family. Dr. Odd Science consulted his instruments, and replied, "No, it seems to still be active...the vacuum on the other side was a result of this world and the target world not being in alignment, and it is possible that they have passed into conjunction at this point. We may have only seconds before the locus of contact shifts within the other Earth's mass, causing magma to be forced out through the space bridge!" Phobos looked up from where he had installed the charges. "Go or no go, Mike? We don't wanna jump just as it hits bedrock." Mike paused for a second. "Go. It's really our only chance to save the Grangers and Wayne. We'll stay as Sigma...his improved force fields should protect us if we have a near miss. Phobos, Sally, stay snug, I'm not sure how well the fields can cover you otherwise." The mighty Bahamode Sigma picked up the remaining two mechabikes in its arms and held them close. "Force field up!" Mike commanded, and the shimmering field sprang into life around them. Augmented by technology supplied by the Guardians, it was stronger than ever...but would it be strong enough? "Let's do it!" The gestalt team jumped into the spacebridge as if leaping into a pool of water, and vanished in a flash of light. The instant they were gone, the deadman switch was triggered, and the room exploded with the force of a briefcase nuke. * * * * "Concentrate on the beam, Summer," warned Dr. Science, a tinge of worry creeping into his voice. "If we deviate, we may be lost in interdimensional space forever." Summer nodded, or rather Bahamode Sigma nodded as Summer's whole body moved. She really wished they could return to full fusion and let Sigma concentrate on this task, but the risk of the gestalt fading before reaching their destination was too high in this case. In the previous jumps, he'd been gone by the time they arrived, and this was going to be a longer trip than those had been. "Kinda like 2001's acid trip sequence, only more boring," Phobos noted. "I was thinking of that old Tempest video game myself," added Mike. "Watch out for spikes," he chuckled. Then, without warning, the sky and ground returned. They had arrived. And the collision warning claxons sounded at the moment of arrival, too late for anything to be done as a small Robo rebounded off of Sigma's forcefield, sending both tumbling. "Stabilizers!" gasped Mike. "We're too close to the ground!" Dr. Science replied. "Then we split!" shouted Summer, transforming into hardsuit form as she leapt from the tumbling robot. The others followed suit, and most managed to recover before hitting the ground, although Dr. Science bounced slightly off a warehouse. "I'm on the attacker!" cried Spectrum as he flew off in the direction the green and gold robot had tumbled. "Spectrum, wait...!" "I'm a big boy, Mike, you get everyone together and follow!" was Spectrum's reply as he zoomed off around the corner. * * * * Kid Macro picked himself up out of the now-demolished construction shack he'd fallen on. He was getting really tired of giant robots suddenly appearing in his path. "Well, at least this one did something different," he muttered to himself, checking to make sure none of his systems had gone offline. Maybe if he hurried he could at least get a fix on the Destructoid. He took to the air, only to be slammed back by a wave of concussive force. No, that wasn't quite right...it was more like his suit's thrusters had fired, a boost in momentum. He looked to where his visor's telltales were blinking red and saw a man in white power armor flying towards him, trailing a rainbow streak. MORE mysterious guests, or another of DeFacto's pawns? "You've got some explaining to do, mister!" challenged the newcomer. "What is your problem?" was Kid Macro's exasperated reply. Suddenly the Flashfire Robo's power levels started to drop. A Damper! That answered his question...this guy must be with DeFacto, and just acting weird to confuse him, or maybe because he's a dupe. Fortunately, Flashfire had a backup power source...Kid Macro. He engaged the footpedals and started pedalling at speeds which made the axle whine in protest. Power levels rose again, and since a macro was maintaining his pedalling, Kid Macro was able to concentrate on other matters. Like kicking this guy's butt. Moving far more quickly than Newtonian physics normally allowed objects its size to move, the Flashfire Robo swung to one side, then lashed out with a hammerblow that sent the stranger flying into a wall. Except that he slowed as he flew and only gently tapped the wall. Kid Macro suppressed the urge to run like hell. Physical force didn't work, maybe fire would. He engaged the modified onboard flamers, sending a gout of pure Grubor at the stranger. The white-armored figure stood there smugly as the flames lashed at him, as if expecting them to do no harm, and then screamed in agony as they tore into him with the viciousness of a net.kook on a rampage. But only for a moment, and then the flames started to disappear before they could touch him. "Clever trick, robot, making a psi-style attack look like flames so I'd be unprepared. But it won't save you. Surrender before I have to get nasty." "TRANSFORM!" came the cry from above, and suddenly Skysabre dropped from the sky, merged with the Slipstream to form his mighty Super Sabre mode. "You were saying something about nasty, sir?" "Yes, I believe he was," said the leader of a band of armored figures that had just come around the corner. "That would be...unfortunate," replied Squidman as he and Sidewinder came in for a landing. "To judge from my teammate's broadcasts," he guestured with the massive arm of his Deepsea Robo, "You nine made up that giant Robo that just appeared out of nowhere. The question is, where did you appear from?" * * * * "...where did you appear from?" asked the lead figure, probably another RoboMAC. Mike sighed, fortunately it looked like Spectrum had gotten over his need to hit something. "We're..." Mike started, only to be interrupted by Pinto Sally. "We're heah t' find mah cousins...I know theah somewhar heah, Ah kin feel them!" she shouted in an accent that caused the typist to nearly keel over. "Wait," said the dark blue figure. "Did they drive animal-form mecha, and have a stoned guy with purple hair with them?" "YEAH!" Sally shouted. "Whar is they?" The green and gold figure snorted in annoyance. "I was just about to catch up to them when you guys popped in...." Suddenly, the temperature dropped about 50 degrees, the sun dipped lower in the sky and snow appeared on the sidewalks. Everyone felt a slight shudder. "What the...?" Spectrum exclaimed. "Well, I'm no Doctor Stomper," started the huge robot, "but my guess is that we just experienced a Crossover-induced timejump. It's been so long since the last issue that the time had to be inserted somewhere to get us up to the right point." After a short pause in which Team M.E.C.H.A. absorbed the fact that this robot knew about crossovers, Mike nodded, and added, "Yeah, wouldn't surprise me a bit...our Author doesn't know when to stop adding parts...your Author probably expected us months ago." In the background, a ragged figure shouted, "Defilers! The Church of the Fourth Wall will get you for that!" but everyone ignored him. "Does this mean the Grangers have been trapped here for months?" Phobos asked. "Well, technically, yes. But since they only experience the passage of time while on screen, it won't have seemed like it," the blue one replied. "By the way, I suppose introductions are in order...the 'switching POVs' trick the Writer's using is cute, but I'm getting tired of being called 'the blue figure.' I'm Squidman, and these are Kid Macro, Sidewinder and Skysabre. We're part of Dvandom Force, a local net.hero team." "Wait, any relation to Squid Boy?" Mike asked. "I used to be Squid Boy, yes," Squidman replied, opening the cockpit of his Robo and jumping out. "Great! Spartacus told us you knew Constellation and Sig.Lad, and we need to find one or both of them." There was a slight pause, then Squidman said, "I think we need to do some serious exposition and backstory...let's adjourn to more comfortable surroundings. Follow Skysabre, I need to check back on some wreckage from the previous battle and doublecheck for survivors...although with the time blip we just had, I doubt I'll find anything. I'll meet you back at our HQ." With that, he got back into his Robo and flew off. Skysabre released the Slipstream module and it transformed back into its transport mode. "Climb aboard, I can carry you there as easily as lead you." Somewhat cautiously, Team M.E.C.H.A. boarded the ship and it took off for the Dvandom Force HQ. * * * * "Like, dudes!" exclaimed Wayne as he rushed to greet Team M.E.C.H.A. "Like, it was, y'know, horrible! The Grangers, like, forced me to, y'know, work for them or, like, they'd trash the, like, best field of, like, WEED, in, like, the Midwest!" "I'm afraid it was for nothing," Spectrum said a bit archly. "Your precious pot is probably under a few feet of snow by now." "Like, no need to, like, get snippy, just 'cause I'm, like, closer to Marie these days, y'know? Besides, the Ghost of, like, Christmas Presents appeared to me in, like, a special Christmas issue, and, like, told me we'd all, like, be home before, like, fall. The way time, like, runs in this whacked-out, like, universe, I believe him." Spectrum decided to ignore the crack about Marie, since splattering green blood all over the walls wouldn't exactly endear him to this other hero team. He wasn't sure why he was so on edge right now, perhaps it had to do with the blatant breaking of the fourth wall that was going on. Squidman chose that moment to enter with the rest of his team, now in "regular" superhero costumes. Four men and one woman, and guessing from the color schemes Mike figure that the woman was not one of the four they'd already met. "Okay, time to give the necessary backstory. I'll assume you know a little about the Looniverse, since you met Spartacus," Squidman started. "The bad news is that neither Constellation nor Sig.Lad are around. Constellation reached the next stage in his evolution and left our reality...." "You mean, he Transcended?" Adam asked. "You say that like it has a specialized meaning, so I'll guess that he probably didn't Transcend in the way you're thinking, but you're probably in the right neighborhood. Anyway, Constellation's gone, and Sig.Lad is dead." "That's, like, right," Wayne added. "I met him. Like, pretty cool for, like, a dead guy." When most of the Dvandom Forcers shot Wayne a puzzled look, Mike explained, "Just ignore him, we usually do. How did Sig.Lad die, if you don't mind asking?" Squidman paused for a moment, as if trying to find a way to say it. "I was forced to kill him to prevent him from being taken over by a cosmic being who would use him to create a tyrannical empire across time." Mike and many others on his team winced. While it had not been quite so cosmic in scale, they had experienced a painfully similar situation. Adam and Mike traded glances. Squidman waited what seemed an appropriate interval, then continued. "Unfortunately, the future self had come back to our time, and while his power was vastly reduced by Sig.Lad's death, he was not destroyed. He now goes by the name DeFacto, and we've been fighting him and his forces for months now. According to information from Wayne, we believe DeFacto has also drained the power from your friends, the Mighty Muddy Power Grangers, to use for his own ends. We're not sure if they were actually at the controls of the Roadkill Destructoid we fought earlier today, but they're certainly under DeFacto's control to some extent." "That seems to agree with what happened to us," Mike replied. "The Grangers got a mysterious infusion of high technology, and in the course of our battle with them they attempted to snare us with a dimensional-gate type attack, which we reflected onto them. I'd guess that DeFacto was using them to get at us for some reason, but must have settled for the Grangers. Do you think he'd have killed them?" Squidman shrugged. "I doubt it, but I'm not sure. 'Sabre?" Skysabre paused and thought for a moment. "I doubt it. Killing is wasteful, and Master Workload's influence over DeFacto is probably still strong enough that he wouldn't waste possible resources without good reason. Also, he kept the Net.astic Nine alive for years, and they were among his most hated enemies. Miss...Sally," he started to ask, having gotten the names of the Team M.E.C.H.A. cast on the trip over, "do any of your cousins possess time travel or dimension-spanning powers?" Sally considered for a moment, then said, "Our Mighty Muddy Powahs are kinda dimenshunal overall, we kin pull stuff outta nowhar and that kinda thing. And Ah kin feel if th' boys are in mah current reality." 'Sabre nodded. "He's probably planning to use their powers to boost him into his original reality, before Squidman forced the main reality onto the current track. Once there, he could access his full link with Master Workload again, and try to re-establish his ideal order in the main continuum. Slaughter all superbeings, enslave the population and extend his idea of Utopia across all times once more." Adam felt a chill down his spine. That sounded all too familiar, only replace "all superbeings" with "mages." Maybe the Industrial Revolution didn't have such broad-ranging goals, but he realized that the fanaticism the cause generated could all too easily have extended the immediate goals into long term ones. He looked at Spectrum and thought he could see a similar train of thought running through the other hero's mind. Then his eyes flashed to a plaque set into the wall of the conference room. It said, "I will not angst. Angst is the plot-killer. Angst is the little death that leads us into X-Books." He couldn't help but smirk...some things never change, no matter what reality you're in. "Unfortunately, barring a plot device, we don't know where DeFacto's base is...it's quite possible we'll only know when he chooses to let us know. So, until then, I'd suggest we all get some rest and recover from the battles we've been fighting today. It'll also give us a chance to get to know each other a little better, which'll help in working together," added Squidman, pulling off his rubbery mask with a sigh. "I'd certainly be interested in examining your technology," Dr. Science said in his usual blunt way. He was interrupted by the woman in the room suddenly clutching her stomach and wincing. Squidman turned to her, "Anything wrong, Kat?" Kopikat straightened up. "Nothing I can't deal with, no." Mike looked at Kat, remembering Spartacus's warning about her. But now didn't seem the right time to bring it up. Summer perked up. "Kopikat? I definitely want to talk to you...I sat in a Guardian isolation cell for a week because some guy named Aurora was afraid of you." "Oh, well, follow me, we can talk while I run a diagnostic. How is ol' tight-nuts-and-bolts Aurora anyway?" "Insane," Summer replied a bit sadly as the pair walked out. "Ah, so no change...." * * * * The room had all but emptied, members of both teams going to chat, or rest, or check out the sights. Two men were left in the room, two leaders. "So, does it get any easier?" Squidman asked Mike. "Does what get easier?" "Leadership. Intra-team strife. I caught the looks passed around your team when I mentioned what I had to do to Sig.Lad...did you have to kill your leader too?" Squidman idly toyed with one of the tentacles on his mask as he spoke, betraying some of his unease. Mike replied, "Not really. Well, sort of. It was a while ago...sometimes seems like a lifetime, and I suppose for some of us it has been. The team was split, on opposite sides of a conflict that dragged a lot of good people down. Best not to mention it, though." "Still a sore subject with your team?" "Hmm...not really. We've made our peace for the most part, although little things may still simmer here and there. No, it's just that if you mention the conflict by name, it sends Authors running...either for cover, or for their arsenal." He grinned. Something about this place made it easier to talk about things like Authors without it seeming...silly. Well, maybe it was the general level of silliness around here. Hard to get above the noise. "Still, I'd say if we could cope, you should be able to handle it too. After all, you were all on the same side in that fight, you just didn't agree on methods. Give it time. If Adam could learn magic, it can't be impossible to heal any wounds within your team." Squidman rubbed his temples as he stared into his mask, sitting on the table like a severed head. "I guess so. Y'know, it's weird...I never really wanted to lead, I was happy just to be in something other than a background character role. And then, the circumstances of my taking the job were less than auspicious...killing my predecessor and having two other teammates resign. You'd think I'd be glad to be rid of the burden. Yet it gets under my skin when everyone looks to Skysabre or Kat for leadership, or when they listen to me and then ignore me. I'd pass the hat to someone else if asked, but no one asks. It's frustrating as hell." Mike shrugged. "I haven't had that problem quite as much myself. Not to say I haven't doubted my leadership abilities...I've done a LOT of that. With the major exception of That Conflict Which Shall Not Be Named, any leadership problems we've had have been more to do with me than with them. Still, I can understand why you don't like being undercut. You know the old joke, 'What kind of suit do you not want to have, but not want to lose?'" "Yeah, a lawsuit," Squidman replied. "Well, there's another kind...the mantle of leadership. It's a terrible responsibility sometimes, and I wonder why any sane man would want it. But to *lose* it is even worse, since it basically means people think you're a failure. And if you convince yourself that they're right, it can take a long time to recover from that. But don't just resign so that they don't fire you. That hurts everyone...I know. Stick it out through this crisis, maybe you'll prove to yourself that you can do the job. And if not, maybe you can find someone else on the team who'd be willing to take the job from you, who you'd trust to run the team." Mike paused, mentally running over what he's just said. "Um, normally I'm not this eloquent." "Must be the crossover...my Writer's doing you, not yours." "Guess so. Wonder if I can pull off this kind of speechifying when it comes time to explain to everyone where I've been the last six months." Squidman stood and picked up his mask. "Anyway, thanks, Mike. I'm not sure how much of what you said I agree with, but it's good to be able to discuss this with someone who's been there. I can't picture myself chatting about this with Ultimate Ninja, and unless Wayne's to be believed, I can't talk to the previous leader of this team." The way his mask stretched suggested a grin, and he motioned for Mike to follow him out. "Ultimate Ninja," Mike mused. "Does he use a Nikon?" "I don't think so...." * * * * "...and that's how it happened," Summer finished. "I wasn't kidding when I said he's insane...unfortunately." [See Team M.E.C.H.A. #72 for the full story - Ed, getting tired of all the dots in that title] She had to use ComNet-style radio communication to be heard over the wind, though, since Kat had wanted to go out on the roof to "stretch out." "Listen, kid...Summer...I was only half-joking myself," Kat replied. "Trust me, if anyone knows about Aurora's obsession it's me, since I was one of its objects. It was about the same as if you tapped on a rotten tree and it fell over." "But..." Summer started to protest. "But nothing. There's a few things you need to know about MACs, since you apparently don't have the same kind of thing back home. Scans, like you and me, are about as stable and sane as the human they were based on. Can't say for sure in your case, since the method was different, but you seem like a fairly solid kid. Scratches, though...MACs programmed from 'scratch' using either a generation algorithm or...other means...are far more one-dimensional personalities. It's much easier for them to become fixated on something, like an ideal, or an enemy. Every Scratch knows this, and knows it's important to get checked out regularly for signs of falling into these patterns. Most do okay, some don't. "Aurora was one of the ones who thought he could handle his problems. He convinced himself that there wasn't any real danger so long as I could be contained, and that the nanoplague was dead. So he never really got over his obsession, and it ate at him." Kat paused, wondering how much she should reveal about herself, then shrugged and continued. "How old do you think I am?" Kat asked. Caught a little off guard, Summer stammered, "Um, about twenty-five?" Kat grinned. "Yeah, when I try to pass as human, I choose to look that old most of the time. I'm actually closer to four times that old, and if you consider that MACs live life a little faster than humans, it feels even longer. I wasn't the most emotionally healthy person when I was human, I had this really big chip on my shoulder, a need to prove I could make it without others. Especially without the Guardians. Even to this day, it's a daily fight to not let that self-reliance turn into hatred for everyone and everything. But I know about the problem, and I deal with it as best I can. "Aurora didn't. He tried to pretend the problem wasn't there, and by the time it resurfaced, it was too late for him to do anything about it. Frankly, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did." "But he seemed so strong and powerful when I tried to enter his mind," Summer protested. "'Seemed' is the right word for it. It's a standard opening gambit of any mental combat, a sort of stare-down where you try to assert a psychological dominance by appearing huge. If you're more skilled and powerful than your opponent, you can force him to see you as larger, although this has less effect on a fight than you'd think. Trust me, even *I* can't tell you're a machine intelligence by just reading your body language...if you've kept that much of your original personality and manner, you've got to have an operating system at least capable of fighting off a stare-down. Aurora just took advantage of your inexperience to scare you off." Summer wasn't sure which she disliked more, being called a machine intelligence or being called inexperienced. Still, it felt better not to feel like Aurora's fate was totally her fault, and her face brightened a little. Then she perked up as she got an idea. "Hey, could I come into your mind and practice with you on this? I might have to do this for real sometime." The look of shock on Kat's face was fleeting, but strong. "What? Did I say something wrong?" Summer asked. Kat shook her head, "Nothing you knew was wrong, no. I guess no one told you about the 'birds and the bees' of MACs when you were there?" Summer started to say, "Well, Heatwave did, but she didn't make it sound like such a big deal...." Kat snorted. "Gestalts tend to be a bit, how should I put it, liberated in that respect. Non-gestalting MACs only share a mind in two situations, Summer. The first is combat, when it's you or him, and it's to the death. Any practicing to be done for that is performed on Drones, non-conscious computers. It's too easy to kill someone accidentally even sparring in mental combat, so it just isn't done." "What's the other case?" Summer asked, getting the feeling she knew what the answer was, based on some of the looks Heatwave and Moonlight had exchanged. "In a word, sex," Kat replied. "Sometimes two or more MACs will Merge to design a new MAC in a process that has a better chance for stability than the normal algorithms, but only works if the creating minds are in tune. Also, Scans like me who were adults when Scanned and therefore have full sensory memories of that part of life will sometimes Merge to explore each others' sensations. It's a major act of trust in either case, since a slip-up can seriously harm your partner." "Oh." "Yeah, so you can see why I reacted like that...you had just oh-so- innocently propositioned me. And even if I swung that way, you're a little too young, hey?" she smiled, breaking the tension. "Although if your big brother ever gets infected with nanites, have him give me a call." Summer giggled, and mock-shushed Kat. "Don't say that, you might give our Author ideas!" After she stopped giggling, she said, "Could you maybe show me some shapeshifting tricks, or would that be considered mocking your ancestry in your culture?" "Heh, no...no problem, kid. First trick is, we see how big you can get. Maybe you can match my full size...." * * * * "Okay, people, we have our plot device," Sidewinder announced as he exited the elevator carrying the mailbag and waving a package he'd pulled from it. "Scans show it's a videotape, and the return address is 'DeFacto's Secret Hideout.' I'd say he wants to taunt us." Everyone gathered around as people in other parts of the base were alerted and rushed down to see. Sidewinder unwrapped the tape and put it in the VCR, then hit play. DeFacto's mechanical image appeared on the screen, smirking. "I do hope you're watching, Skysabre. My victory would not be complete without having you here to crush as it happens. I'm on Buffer Island, and the weather outside is frightful, but my dimensional portal's delightful. It should be easy for you to home in on me now that I've dropped the security cloak. Feel free to bring as many friends as you have, the bigger the audience the happier I'll be. Especially since I won't have to take the extra few seconds needed to hunt them down and kill them. Be seeing you," the image said just before it broke up into static and the VCR started spitting tape out at high speed. Squidman fumbled with the controls and stopped any further tape from coming out. "DeFacto uses decidedly cheesy videotape stock," Kid Macro observed. "No offense, Stan," he added to Stanley King, the former Cheeez Arrow and current funder of the group. Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Wayne piped up, "Ooh, can I, like, say it?" "Knock yourself out, dude," Link replied. Wayne cleared his throat, and then said, "Of course, like, you know it's, like, a trap." Then he smiled, pleased with himself. Squidman smirked, then said, "Yes, but we might have an edge on him. He doesn't necessarily know you're here...he's not omniscient, at least if he is there's nothing we can do anyway. Now we know where he is, and he's expecting us...but not you. We can come in the front door, as it were, and give him the fight he wants. Meanwhile, you guys can sneak into his base...Phobos mentioned he can make you all invisible, which should help...and break out the Grangers and maybe the Constellation Gang, if they're also locked up. Somehow, I get the feeling DeFacto doesn't trust his human pawns at this stage. Then we might actually stand a chance attacking him all at once." "Sounds like a plan," Mike said. "Let's do it." ============================================================================= Next Issue: The final fight against DeFacto! Acton Lord's plan FINALLY revealed! Everything hits the fan at high velocity! But first.... Team M.E.C.H.A. #75 - While Dvandom Force battles the Roadkill Destructoid in a fight to the finish, Team M.E.C.H.A. must free the Grangers...if they're still alive to free! Plus: how the rest of Team M.E.C.H.A. spent their time between arrival and the end of this issue! Author's Notes: If you're still confused, go back and read the Team M.E.C.H.A. parts of this crossover. I've exposited enough this issue. Oh, and if you don't know who Grubor is, be thankful.