TGI Presents: CLASSIC CHAMPIONS! (THE GRAND FINALE!)

[AslanC]

Well I read it all and I have to say sounds like you guys are having a * of a time!

Well done

[Dragonfly]

I can't wait to read this all, but I just wanted to say the intro post got my attention big time!

Not only because I am running a Bronze Age (1984) campaign myself, but also because Champions Universe and the V&V universes had huge influence on my original campaign and revisiting it now has been an awesome experience. I can't wait to see someone else doing a similar sort of thing

Cheers!

Hi AslanC!

Thanks for your interest! I'd just noticed your campaign soon after posting my own stuff. I'd be interested in knowing more about your Bronze Age campaign and, if that promise of an eventual Play-by-Email post still holds - I'd love to join in eventually.

Let me know what you think after you've read everything. I may have some requests for advice on where to go next!

Best,

Dragonfly

[Dragonfly]

Hey Dragonfly, I have a couple questions if you don't mind,

-These sessions are from modules correct and if so which ones? I didn't have the early ones, I mostly just have the majority of 4th Edition stuff.

-And, are you going to be going up through the 4th adventures eventually? I'd seriously considered running a converted Day of the Destroyer and a couple others.

-UB

Hey UB!

These are sort of from modules. Specifically, I started the campaign with the 3rd Edition version of VIPER's Nest. This was a series of three modules starring everybody's favorite super-terrorism organization - VIPER. The scenarios were a bank robbery, Tanghal Tower, Battle in Christopher Park and a raid on a VIPER's Nest. So far, I've only gotten to the first two. We are probably about to run the Christopher Park scenario next.

It's taking a long time because I've also decided to turn as many villain origins into modules as possible. Ogre and Mechanon, for instance, had their stories woven into the fabric of the campaign in the first module, for example. In this sense I'm trying to recreate something akin to Spectacular Spider-Man where you get to meet many of the villains before they become villains. Read through the NPC names with an eye towards the original source material (1st-4th edition) and you'll find many a villain or major NPC.

As for Day of the Destroyer - that was meant to be the season two climax. At this rate, however, it'll take us awhile to get there.

BTW, the big surprise for me in this game has been Arrowhead. He's a chump in the source material, and always has been, but I decided to play up his mob connections and his personality. Thus far he has been the most effective villain against the team! I modeled his personality after Chaz Palmenteri's character in Bullets Over Broadway, and it seems to have worked.

Best,

Dragonfly

[Dragonfly]

Well I read it all and I have to say sounds like you guys are having a * of a time!

Well done

Heheheh... Thanks, Aslan. It's been a trip. I'll post some follow-up questions (and requests for advice) during the week as I prep for GMing on Saturday.

Best,

Dragonfly

[Dragonfly]

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been gone for a couple of weeks. School has been busy. I finally finished writing up our last session. This is the first session that was run using BASH! UE. It is also the first session without Nighshift, as the player was out that night. It's a mini-adventure that sort of takes place in-between the events of Issue #6, so I'm editing THAT post to reflect that fact.

Enjoy!

Best,

Dragonfly

[Dragonfly]

ISSUE #7

Sparrow Hawk, Rampart, Troyus, and Apex received a radio communication from Crusader just moments after debriefing the assault on the Sea Drake at UNTIL HQ. Crusader related that he had followed Arrowhead after the night's events, tracking him to a brownstone in a rundown section of the city. He could see strange lights emanating from a top-floor window in the brownstone. Before he could explain further, however, Crusader was cut off by a surprise attack and knocked unconscious.


Sparrow Hawk was able to trace the location of Crusader's still-active communicator, and the heroes rushed to the rescue. Landing on the rooftop where Crusader had made his report, the heroes saw the strange lights emanating from the brownstone in question. Sparrow Hawk glided across the street to the brownstone's window and tried to peer in. Although the drapes were drawn, she could just barely make out Crusader, tied to a chair and guarded by men with guns. From a slightly different angle, she could also see a strange device sporting Tesla coils and other high tech accouterments.

Troyus and Apex decided to break into the brownstone via the rooftop entrance. Flying down a flight of stairs, they came face-to-face with Arrowhead. The villain tried his usual brand of diplomacy, trying to convince the heroes that there was some sort of misunderstanding and that they were all actually on the same side, but with a friend in trouble the heroes weren't having it. Troyus blew past Arrowhead, while Apex engaged the criminal in combat.

Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk attempted to disrupt the proceedings in the apartment by firing her grapple at the strange machine. Her hope was to damage it or pull it through the window, but blast doors on the windows snapped shut the moment the grapple struck its target. Rampart, now in giant form, charged across the street, grabbed the cable, and pulled it through. The heroes could hear a crash from within, but the cable snapped. Rampart then dug his hand into the side of the building and pulled out the wall, exposing the interior of the apartment. A balding, bespectacled, lab-coat wearing, elderly man yelled, "Get them you fools! They've destroyed my machine!" At his feet, in the wreckage of the machine, lay a man with charcoal grey skin and a black suit. He was coughing, up smoke and seemed in a great deal of pain. "Pomegranate!" he screamed between coughs, "What have you done to me!" Sparrow Hawk and Rampart recognized his voice as that of "Ricky" - Arrowhead's partner in crime. At that point Troyus burst through the interior door, and the battle was joined.

Troyus engaged the thugs. Sparrow Hawk directed Rampart to help Apex and then moved to cut Crusader free. "That's three times you save my life, Pretty Bird," said the hero. "Maybe I'm getting to old for this." Sparrow Hawk's eyes narrowed, but the moment was interrupted as more thugs spilled into the room. The heroes made short work of the opposition, captured Dr. Pythias Pomegranate, and tried to contain Ricky, who was still writhing in agony. To make matters worse, he was starting to lose cohesion and turn into smoke.

Meanwhile, the fight between Apex and Arrowhead spilled out into the city street. Apex caught Arrowhead in a telekinetic hold, but the villain attacked him with his psionic blasts. Apex then smashed Arrowhead into a parked car, but the crafty criminal managed to grab the vehicle and fling it at the hero - catching the him by surprise. Apex dropped Arrowhead, and the two squared off. Shrugging off Apex's TK Wave, Arrowhead charged at the hero, but had to change course as Rampart arrived on the scene. Dodging one of the giant's blows, Arrowhead charged at Rampart as if to attack, but instead leaped onto and over the hero, landing feet first onto a manhole cover and punching through into the sewers below. Apex and Rampart tried to give chase, but Arrowhead managed to outmaneuver them and escaped.

Rampart and Apex then rejoined the heroes at the brownstone. Apex used his telekinetic powers to gather up the writhing, screaming, smoke that Ricky had turned into. Dr. Pythias Pomegranate claimed that he had been kidnapped by the Spumoni family and forced to bestow his enforcers with superpowers, but the heroes saw through his lies. They called UNTIL for back-up, and Martinez sent Sgt. Evelyn Knight to pick up the criminals in a hover transport.
As the heroes disbanded for the night, Crusader approached Rampart about Sparrow Hawk. He shared that he worried about "Pretty Bird's" intensity. He also asked about her age, her motivations, and her disposition towards him. Rampart laughed and wished him luck if he tried to start a relationship with her.

Before going home, Troyus swung by the Roberts home. He was surprised and alarmed to find his adopted father, Tor Hallam, perusing some items in Joe's study. The elder Hallam asked if Troyus had learned his lesson. Troyus, he explained, was meant to uplift mankind. He was an instrument for greatness - a champion of order in a chaotic world. VIPER's activities, he continued, were only an extreme version of modern moralities that valorized greed, competition, mindless power, and chaos. Such values enabled rule by the mediocre at best. Indeed, the chaotic tendencies of modernity had empowered many who were racially and mentally inferior to the aristocracies of old. Only a return to such an aristocracy could save humanity. Tor Hallam was convinced that with the proper tutelage Troyus could lead humanity to a new golden age. It therefore sickened him to see his adopted son mingle with racial degenerates like Joe Roberts, his mutant grandaughter, and the rest of those so-called superheroes. Besides, the old man pointed out, it was Troyus' decision to reject his destiny and socialize with such inferiors that resulted in their current predicament. Needless to say, Troyus rejected Tor Hallam's words, warning his adopted father to leave the Roberts home or else. Tor Hallam agreed to do so, but promised that they would meet again soon.

By the next day, UNTIL’s crews managed to salvage the Sea Drake’s mini-sub. Inside they found a high-tech crate with radioactivity symbols displayed on the sides. Early the next morning, Juan Martinez summoned Sparrow Hawk, Nightshift, Apex, Troyus, Rampart and Crusader for another debriefing. The crate, he explained, contained large quantities of Kevalrite – a meteoric substance known to bestow superpowers on those exposed to its radioactive emissions. The substance was extremely rare on Earth, and its effects were usually unpredictable. In fact, the only time that Martinez had come into contact with Kevalrite in the amounts contained on the Sea Drake was in the 1960s, when a joint UNTIL / US force took down the island fortress of mad scientist and international criminal mastermind, Dr. Lirby Koo. Koo had not been seen for years, but the contents of the crate made him wonder if the old villain was in some way involved with VIPER. Martinez also reported that the machine used by Dr. Pomegranate employed a highly unstable synthetic Kevalrite of the doctor's design. The Spumonis, it seems, were attempting to fight off a VIPER-backed Careli offensive by creating a superpowered force of their own. Left with many questions, the heroes at least began their day with the knowledge that VIPER had finally suffered a major defeat at their hands.

[Dragonfly]

Hey gang!

I know I haven't been around, but again - I'm a teacher and these last few weeks of school are KILLER! Can't wait for the summer! We haven't done any more Classic Champions sessions, but I hope to rectify that soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd share character sheets for some of the PCs. These are probably not final. Sparrow-Hawk is way more expensive than the others because these are Champions conversions, and HERO gives so much more of a point break for gadgets etc. I'll probably make this a 35 pt. campaign, and let the others enjoy the fruits of the extra hero points, but I'm still considering giving the others more points to spend. We'll see.

Nightshift
http://www.scribd.com/full/31090856?acc ... z0h1pgna7d

Rampart
http://www.scribd.com/full/31090857?acc ... b94d9f0cil

Sparrow Hawk
http://www.scribd.com/full/31090858?acc ... ncssxg36ma

Troyus
http://www.scribd.com/full/31090859?acc ... c2pq9dig41

Also, I'd love to ask for some advice. For those of you who have read the campaign posts, you'll know that Troyus recently had his sort of surrogate family kidnapped by VIPER. VIPER is hoping to use them as leverage against the heroes. VIPER wants two things right now: 1) the heroes backing off, and 2) the kevalrite that the heroes took from the Sea Drake. Does anybody have any advice on how VIPER might play their hand here? Whatever they do should be four-color genre appropriate, of course. I need to do this in a way that counts. I don't want to kill the hostages outright. They are a 65 year-old man, his 45 year-old wife, and their 6 year-old grandaughter, who happens to be a low-level mutant with "lizard" powers. Nevertheless, I need to make sure that the threat is credible - that there WILL be a consequence if the heroes blatantly and clumsily defy VIPER's demands. (I'm okay with them doing it cunningly and cleverly). I also want this to have something of a comic book flair. VIPER can fail here. I just don't want it to be too easy.

I anxiously await any feedback you may want to offer. In the meantime, enjoy the characters!

Best,

Dragonfly

[Lindharin]

I commented in the other thread, but one thing you could do is make it a 30 pt campaign, which is slightly less drastic for the others, and have Sparrow Hawk take some setback points to make up the difference.

Regarding the kidnap situation... A few ideas come to mind. Here's the first, let us know what elements appeal or don't appeal, and I'm sure we can collectively come up with better ideas that will fit what you are looking for.

So, VIPER has two goals, one simple and immediate (a trade of hostages for the kevalrite), and one longer term and more nebulous ("leave us alone, heroes!").

The first can be somewhat straight-forward. They contact the hero and propose a trade. Do it someplace dramatic, so for this example I'll use the Statue of Liberty (at night after hours, of course). You want it to seem fairly simple, so the heroes don't feel the need to get really sneaky. Let them have the impression it might be possible to rescue the hostages and still capture the bad guys or at least re-take the kevalrite. However, you need them to really bring the kevalrite so it needs to be clear that VIPER wants to see it before the hostages will be delivered. While they are confirming it is present and real, you can probably keep the heroes in line by having the hostages be in clear danger, but you want it to be a situation that the heroes could possibly rescue them from if worse comes to worst (like in a cage dangling from the torch, with a remote control that will make them fall if the heroes misbehave).

Once the heroes are at the exchange, VIPER reveals the second half of their insurance policy: they've injected the hostages with a deadly but slow-acting poison (or something similar, nanotech virus, a mystic curse if they use magic, whatever). And only VIPER can provide the antidote...

As long as the heroes behave, enough antidote will be delivered daily/weekly/whatever to keep them alive (but perpetually hostages). But if the heroes try to pull any tricks at the exchange, or if they interfere in any VIPER operations in the future, then VIPER will stop delivering the antidote.

Maybe the next adventure then will focus on secretly searching for a cure without letting VIPER know what they are up to. And once they find it, they go after VIPER with a vengeance and take back the kevalrite (but not before a new supervillain menace has been created, of course!).

So, knowing your plans and your players, does any of that work? And what wouldn't work?

[AslanC]

Being what I would do is set it up so that the players get help from an ex-UNTIL agent who knows where the family is being held and will help them mount a rescue (Of course there is something in the base that He/She wants as well, but isn't telling).

Two things to do then is have the base be in total chaos when they get there because the 6 year old got really scared and her mutant lizard powers (here I am assuming) triggered hard and she has been crawling around the air vents attacking VIPER agents and putting the fear of God in them.

The other thing I would do is have the device the agent wants be a superweapon of some kind and the heroes realize he/she is actually a villain of some kind, or one in the making and there is no way they can let him/her have it so they have to stop him/her.

In the end having dependants/wards should be a disadvantage but not a debilitation.

That's my two cents on it and good luck sir

[Dragonfly]

PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE PLAYING IN MY CLASSIC CHAMPIONS CAMPAIGN!!

Hey fellas!

Thanks for the feedback! I think a combination of both ideas, peppered with a few specifics of my own, might be the way to go!

As you may know from the campaign updates:

UNTIL has a mole. The person that sabotaged the SAT vehicles transporting Ogre from UNTIL HQ, who is also the person responsible for knocking out UNTIL's computer systems on that same night, is still on the loose. That person happens to be Hank Wadsworth, the UNTIL Agent the heroes met in the first module. Wadsworth also happens to be a triple agent. He is infilrtating UNTIL for SAT but is also working for VIPER. Worse still, Wadsworth is ALSO Death Commando, the famous villain from Enemies II AND the person who brutally took out the UNTIL and FBI agents watching the Roberts' home on the night that VIPER kidnapped them.

Martinez suspects Wadsworth. Wadsworth was one of several recruits forced upon him by an increasingly belligerent U.S. Government. Martinez, therefore, has always suspected that Wadsworth has maintained a relationship with SAT and other U.S. government organizations. He didn't, however, imagine that Wadsworth would work for the snakes. Although he's looked into it since, security cameras show that Wadsworth was on-base at the time the computer's went down, which pretty much gives him an alibi for being Death Commando. Martinez doesn't place too much stock in that evidence, however, because so much data was corrupted as a result of the attack. He is indeed correct to be suspicious. The evidence was planted by a Serpentine Computer Spike introduced by Wadsworth 30 minutes before everything went down. That gave him enough time to get off base, help out with the Roberts abduction, and slip back into base without anybody being the wiser.

That's a long way for me to say that Wadsworth (a.k.a. Death Commando) might make the perfect "ex-UNTIL agent" who could help out the heroes with the hostages.

Why would he? Well, I could do a session where incriminating evidence is finally uncovered by Martinez's agents, which could result in Death Commando's capture. On the heals of this, the heroes could be presented with VIPER's hostage demands. The Statue of Liberty scenario could play itself out, but VIPER wouldn't be foolish enough to waste all of its hostages in one encounter. They could put Joe Roberts in the cage, leaving his wife and grandaughter captive in an undisclosed location. If the heroes try anything funny with Joe, they could always "off" the other two hostages.

That's where Death Commando can come in. An "arrangement" with him could lead the heroes to raid the location where VIPER is holding the other hostages. This could happen simultaneous with the Statue of Liberty scenario (if the heroes think to approach Death Commando early), or it could happen afterwards. In either case, the grandaughter could buy everybody a little time by going wild in the way that Alan suggests.

In the end, this should all result in the hostages being rescued, but the poison / antidote scenario will still be in play, which will not only give VIPER more tools to bargain with, but it should really up the ante with regards to the heroes being personally involved in VIPER's activities.

BTW, here is a little campaign secret. The NPC Crusader, as you may have noticed, has kind of a creepy crush on Sparrow Hawk, who is about 10 years younger than he is. She has been resisting his flirtation, but she may be starting to return his affections. What neither of them know is that they share a connection already. Crusader became a superhero to get back at VIPER for brainwashing him back in the day and sending him off to murder somebody. Who did he murder? Sparrow Hawk's parents! He'll know that the moment the heroes decide to share their secret IDs, but she won't know it because the specific identity of the "VIPER agents" that killed her parents was never discovered. MUAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, and another thing. I kind of regret having Crusader and Starburst as NPC heroes in the city. Actually, Crusader is working out okay, but I've hardly kept Starburst up as a presence in the universe, so he's kind of a dangling thread. He was badly injured at Tanghal Tower, so I've been saying that he's probably been laying low due to his wounds, but the fact is that the heroes haven't seen hims since. I'm thinking of saying that he was actually followed and captured by VIPER after Tanghal Tower. That gives him a reason for not being around (which the heroes will start to worry about soon) AND it also gives me another opportunity for brainwashing or other sorts of villainy. What do you guys think? Is that overkill?

ONE LAST THING! This wasn't planned, but it's kind of weird. I've ended up with a perfect villain match-up for each of the PCs.
Rampart vs. Brick, Cheshire Cat vs. Nightshift, Pulsar vs. Troyus, AND Sparrow Hawk vs. Blue Jay. Blue Jay hasn't been revealed yet, but she is Lisa Avalon - the engineering student that has been trying to befriend Rebeca Glass, only to be rebuffed at every turn. She's been working on the wing-suit that will eventually give her her powers (as per her written origin), but VIPER has yet to approach her with their threats. I was hoping that Rebeca would get drawn into her origin story, but I guess not. It's set to happen in a session or two. Anyway, the only one to lack a perfect match-up is Apex.

Whew! You caught me in a blabbering moment. What do ya'll think?!

Best,

Dragonfly

[Lindharin]

I'm thinking of saying that he was actually followed and captured by VIPER after Tanghal Tower. That gives him a reason for not being around (which the heroes will start to worry about soon) AND it also gives me another opportunity for brainwashing or other sorts of villainy. What do you guys think? Is that overkill?

Sounds like fun to me! Are there any classic Champions villains that are at all similar to Starburst? Maybe you could combine them and have it turn out that Starburst gets corrupted (brainwashed, amnesia/reprogrammed, whatever) and ends up becoming classic villain X. If there aren't any appropriate existing classic characters, you could make a new one, give him a new name that plays on his old one (Dark Star, Black Star, Star Fall, etc.)

Or maybe Viper has plans to see what the power-granting Kevalrite would do to someone who already has powers. Maybe Starburst is used in that experiment, and his powers grow (or change to something entirely different), or he becomes a monster/behemoth ala the Hulk.

[AslanC]

Sounds good... can't wait to see how it plays out

[Dragonfly]

Sounds good... can't wait to see how it plays out

I can't wait either! Unfortunately, one of our players (Nightshift's player) is having a hard time making it these days for personal reasons. I'm thinking of writing him out, which would suck, but I may be left with no other options. In the meantime, I'm going to be posting some new character write-ups over on the character build thread.

Here's the link:
http://www.bashtalk.org/modules.php?nam ... =3102#3102

The first one up is Apex. More to follow soon.

Best,

Dragonfly

[Samuraidad]

Sounds like an excellent campaign w/ lots of cool twists. VIPER is always so much fun!

[Dragonfly]

Hey folks!

I haven't been posting for months now. I'm a teacher, and life is simply too busy during the semester to dedicate to my hobbies. I've never stopped lurking, however, and read the boards at least once a day - just to keep up. Anyway, I did manage to run one more session of my Classic Champions campaign, so here's the update. As it turns out, we'll probably finish this campaign arc in one more session that I'm hoping to run in three weeks.

In the meantime, enjoy Classic Champions: Issue #8

ISSUE #8

After a long day of debriefings at UNTIL HQ regarding the Sea Drake and Pomegranate affairs, the heroes were faced with a series of new challenges. For days, Tom Clayborn (A.K.A. Rampart) had neglected his commitment to his band, which was on the verge of performing a very important concert. He therefore told his teammates that he might be unreachable for the next couple of days, but that he would be in touch as soon as possible. Similarly, Alex Lamberton (A.K.A. Apex) received word that his estranged family was suffering through a crisis, the nature of which required his immediate attention. Keeping the nature of his troubles private, he announced to his allies that he had to leave town, but promised to return as soon as possible. With Nightshift still failing to answer his radio and Starburst still recovering from the injuries he suffered at Tanghal Tower, only Sparrow Hawk, Troyus, and Crusader remained to deal with VIPER.

Things heated up that night, when Troyus returned to his New York apartment to find Cheshire Cat waiting for him. The teleporting villain assured Troyus that his surrogate family was safe and sound. He also promised the hero that they would remain unharmed as long as Troyus cooperated with VIPER’s demands. Specifically, Troyus was to secure the shipment of kevalrite that VIPER lost in the Sea Drake affair and deliver it to the Statue of Liberty that evening. VIPER would aid Troyus in securing the kevalrite by shutting down UNTIL HQ’s main security systems, but the kevalrite was contained in a separate storage facility that was off the UNTIL mainframe and therefore out of reach of VIPER’s hackers. In addition, the kevalrite was being kept in a chamber that dampened superpowers, which is why Cheshire Cat couldn’t teleport into UNTIL HQ and secure the kevalrite himself. In exchange for Troyus’ help, VIPER would release one of their captives to the hero. Troyus demanded that they all be released, but Cheshire Cat only said, “We’ll see!” before teleporting away.

Troyus immediately informed Sparrow Hawk and Crusader about his conversation with Cheshire Cat, and they agreed to confer with Major Martinez to set a trap for VIPER. The heroes knew that VIPER would scan anything they delivered that evening, so they proposed using the synthetic kevalrite developed by Dr. Pomegranate as a decoy. Knowing that UNTIL had been infiltrated by VIPER, they assumed that their every move would be watched. Having UNTIL simply hand over the synthetic kevalrite, therefore, might seem suspicious. They therefore planned a staged assault of UNTIL HQ. This would involve Troyus storming into the base and taking the real kevalrite by force just after the security systems went haywire. Troyus would then switch out the real kevalrite for the synthetic one just before leaving the base. Martinez and a couple of his most trusted agents would handle this transfer. As for the meeting with VIPER, Sparrow Hawk suggested coating the top of the Statue of Liberty’s head with a radioactive dust that would stick to anything that touched it. That way they would have something to trace via geiger counter, even if Cheshire Cat teleported the kevalrite away. The problem, of course, is that Cheshire Cat could teleport rather long distances, making it nearly impossible to trace him effectively with their limited sensory equipment. To compensate for this, they decided to call in a favor in the form of Fleetfoot, the only remaining active member of the Minutemen who the heroes had saved months earlier. As a speedster, Fleetfoot might be able to crisscross the city with a geiger counter at superspeed, therefore covering a wide area in short order. Although hesitant to turn over any form of kevalrite, synthetic or not, Martinez agreed to the plan. He immediately began to make his own plans to discover the infiltrator in the midst of his organization. Meanwhile, the heroes called Fleetfoot, who enthusiastically agreed to lend his assistance.

After receiving approval, the heroes began to make preparations. Reasoning that a hidden VIPER base needed a vast power supply, she hacked into the computer systems that tracked the city’s power usage and set up a program that would monitor that data for any irregularities. She then decided to visit the Statue of Liberty in her normal identity as Rebeca Glass in order to stealth away and remain behind when the park closed. Upon reaching the observation deck, she noticed a man staring at her in surprise and horror. She turned to meet his gaze, and he turned from her and hurried away. Something about him seemed familiar, but she couldn’t immediately figure out where she’d seen him before. Then it came to her. Place the face behind a VIPER helmet, and it’s the agent who killed her parents a decade earlier. Place his face behind a blue and white mask, and it’s CRUSADER! Her heart pounding, she raced to catch up to him, but he was gone. Without saying a word to anyone, she returned to base to conduct some research. She then returned to assume her post at the Statue of Liberty and wait.

Minutes before the appointed hour, Troyus, Sparrow Hawk and Fleetfoot were in place, but there was no sign of Crusader. As scheduled, UNTIL’s security systems went down, and Troyus made his move. His force field at maximum, Troyus was able to easily fly by the lighter armed guards that Martinez had placed in his path. He grabbed the kevalrite and flew out of the base, switching it with the synthetic kevalrite as planned. He then flew towards the Statue of Liberty. Seconds before getting there, Martinez radioed in, “We’ve discovered the infiltrator,” he reported. “It was Moliere. He’s dead.” Troyus’ heart sank. Moliere, the undercover UNTIL agent who had worked with him as a mechanic in Joe Robert’s shop, had been a great comfort to him in recent days. Pushing those thoughts from his mind, he focused on the mission at hand. Landing on top of the Statue of Liberty, he was instantly joined by Cheshire Cat. He smiled, inspected the container, and then scanned its contents. While he was doing this, Troyus noticed the flare of jet packs descending from the dark clouds above, as two VIPER air cavalry agents carried Joe Roberts roughly by his armpits towards the Statue of Liberty. “You’ve done well,” said Cheshire Cat. “Boys! Turn him over!” With that the VIPER agents dropped Joe Roberts, letting him drop towards the ground. Troyus dove after him, only to see Sparrow Hawk dive from the Lady Liberty’s crown to reach him first. Moments later, he noticed Crusader, jump boots blazing, rocketing towards the scene of the battle. Seeing that Joe was safe and that Cheshire Cat had taken the opportunity to teleport away with the synthetic kevalrite, Troyus launched after the VIPER agents, who were already speeding towards the cloud cover with their jet packs.

Sparrow Hawk carried Joe Roberts safely to the Statue of Liberty’s observation deck, only to be joined by Crusader seconds later. “Hey, Prettybird, let’s catch us some – umph!” Sparrow Hawk kicked him in the stomach. He reeled back, surprised and in pain. “What was that for?” he croaked.

“Don’t play games with me,” replied Sparrow Hawk. “You’re one of them, and you always have been. You killed Rebeca Glass’ parents ten years ago. Security tapes show that you were working for days at Glass Industries before Ogre broke out – before VIPER moved in. You betrayed us, and you’re going down.”

Joe Robert’s watched as the heroes battled it out, Sparrow Hawk striking in a barely controlled fury, and Crusader fighting defensively, trying to plead with her. He insisted that “the snakes” captured him a decade earlier. They tortured him and brainwashed him into serving as their operative. Yes, he’d killed for VIPER, but only once. He broke his conditioning as a consequence of that moment and escaped. Feeling guilty over the murder he committed, he donned the identity of Crusader and had been fighting VIPER ever since. Doing so was the only way he knew how to make amends. Crusader said all of this, but Sparrow Hawk wasn’t having it. “So that’s the way it’s going to be? Fine. But I won’t sit in jail while VIPER gets away with more murder. It doesn’t make sense. It isn’t justice. Goodbye, Prettybird. I wish it could have been different.” With that, he leapt off the observation deck and escaped using his glider wings. Deciding it best not to leave Joe Roberts alone, Sparrow Hawk decided to let him go.

Meanwhile, Troyus followed the VIPER agents to a VIPER troop transport hovering in the clouds above the Statue of Liberty. He downed the VIPER agents easily, and then gave chase as the plane rocketed away. His intention was to follow the vehicle to VIPER HQ, but the pilot seemed aware of this possibility. The troop transport opened fire on Troyus with its turrents, all of which were easily disabled by the young hero. Troyus smile of triumph turned to a wide-eyed expression of alarm when he realized the pilot’s last ditch plan to fly the transport into the Chrysler Building. Troyus dove towards the troop transport as the VIPER agents bailed out in jet packs. Flying up from underneath the craft, he strained his muscles and flew into it, trying to divert its course away from the skyscraper. Exerting himself beyond all known limits, Troyus blanked out from pain and exertion. He awoke minutes later, lying on the rooftop of a building several blocks away from the docks. Hearing the sounds of a city gone mad below him, he stood up and was gratified to see the back end of the troop transport sticking out of the Hudson River. Moments later, both he and Sparrow Hawk responded to a radio communiqué from Fleetfoot. “Guys?” he said. “It was touch and go there for a second, but I’m pretty sure I’ve found where Cheshire’s got to. With any luck, we’ve got ourselves a VIPER’s Nest!”

To be concluded...