Junior Year Winter Break

42. Meditation Exercise (12/89)
A snapshot story of Warped Warrior to lighten the mood. It involves his training at the monastery, which is coming along quite well, but he has obviously reached his "full up for now" phase. While on a meditation exercise that requires him climbing into the snow and ice around the mountain, he runs into Red Wolf, who is fleeing from the Soviet Union through the mountains (and you make be thinking "what are the odds of that?" but I'd have to say they're about one in one really). The two get into a very John Woo conversation/conflict, with a lot of circling and discussing motivations in between beating the crap out of one another. In the end, Jay manages to knock Red Wolf off a cliff into a snow bank. It's doubtful the impact killed him, so we can be sure he'll be back someday.

43. Heritage (12/90)
Talon is approached by Rachel (a cherubim), Emily (another angel trapped on Earth) and Dawn (a new angelic being) who have come to take her home. She has her full past revealed to her, and decides to stay until the next convergence in appromixately 175 years, despite the risks. The three leave for a month in Antarctica restoring old friendships and forging new ones until the end of the current convergence in a month.
    Meanwhile, Daniel discovers that Abigail can return to the building if she wishes, and bears a message from Fletcher from beyond the grave, apologizing to the rest of the team for not warning them of his plans.

44. Racing for the Finish Line I: Inside Lane (1/90)
Warped Warrior returns to the nearly empty building only to be met by special agent Landers of MEDUSA to inform them that Virginia Holly (remember her?) has been kidnapped along with a pair German and Israeli particle physicists by an international terrorist-for-hire code-named Pilgrim, currently under the employ of Baron Mind. Satellite photos show Pilgrim talking with Chris Dutton on an pacific island. No one at this point knows where Chris really is (it's assumed he's skiing). Simon and Skywalker return from trying to track down Menagerie and begin collating all of the information into the computers when Jay notices the striking resemblance between Silence and Devlin VelJohnson. This later leads to the discovery of Dr. Dutton's past, the link between Grave and Chris, Portal and Jen, and other interesting things, like the belief that Baron Mind is working on another time machine. The three begin to plot a raid on Mind's island, requesting the help of Particle, Wave and Machiavelli.

45. Racing for the Finish Line II: Outside Lane (1/90)
In her voyage of healing, Jennifer is again attacked by One-Eyed Jack, whose possessed body is coming to kill her. Warned by a precognitive vision, she flees, but is nearly killed. She is saved by the last minute through the interference of Hamptington and VelJohnson, who claim they have too much invested in Jen to let her die. This statement causes her to use her telepathic abilities on herself, checking the files of Baron Mind's memories, as well as her own recollections from her childhood, learning the connections between the Firstborn, Hamptington, VelJohnson, her father, her brother and herself. She quickly contacts Talon and Arclight, and three prepare a raid on Baron Mind's headquarters to rescue Portal, Jennifer's clone-sister.

46. Racing for the Finish Line III: Crossing the Rubicon (1/90)
Both sets of heroes attack the Firstborn's island simultaneously, providing distractions for one another. The attacks prove less than successful, and both teams are overwhelmed by the Firstborn, including Grave, Chris Dutton's clone-brother and possessed of life force manipulation.

47. Racing for the Finish Line IV: Photo Finish (1/90)
Just when things look bleak, reinforcements arrive in the form of Shriekback and Alchemy. The tides of battle change, but the heroes are unable to stop the Firstborn from escaping via their now functional time machine, the spatial problem handled by Portal's own teleportational abilities (though it means that the other Firstborn must leave their valuable servant behind...). The hostages are rescued, and Alchemy returns them to civilization. Section Eight and their associates are left with a particular problem: do they follow the Firstborn back in time and try and stop them from whatever they are doing? In the end, they answer yes, and the heroes prepare for a leap back twenty years into the past.

48. Second-World War I: Everybody's Happy When the Dead Come Home (1/90)
Section Eight (with Particle, Wave, Machiavelli and Portal) appear in the present day in a parallel world, having gone slightly awry. They find the world a drastically different place, the manipulations of the Firstborn having placed them in positions of near total power, with various members of Section Eight and the Society of Syrynx as their agents (explaining the massive testing Baron Mind performed on both teams). There is a brief altercation with the resistance fighters, who identify Section Eighters as members of the Government forces.

49. Second-World War II: Firstborn (1/90)
After meeting with the resistance leaders, who are some copies of old friends, others old enemies, some thought long dead, our heroes develop a plan: capture and replace the other thems with themselves, and use that to enter the Firstborn's base in Norad mountain. From there, Portal can teleport the rest of the resistance in, overwhelming them with a single attack (giving the additional firepower that the heroes provide). The ambush occurs, with Warped Warrior and Skywalker taking the places of Warp and Mindgame.

50. Second-World War III: Qualities of Life and Death (1/90) [double sized]
With Jason and Dan ensconced in the enemy forces, they make their way into Norad mountain while the rest of Section Eight and the resistance prepare for the attack. Once in position, Dan and Jay betray and demolish their team (Rhiannon, Silverfool, Prophet, Event Horizon (aka Dan Wilson)) before an alarm can be raised. Once the path is cleared, the invasion begins. It is bloody and brief, and the Firstborn are killed by the resistance in a complete and irrevocable fashion.
    Their job in the Second-Earth as complete as they can make it, our heroes return home. Portal elects to stay behind, to help undo the damage caused by her brothers. The rest return to a sunny, crisp clear winter day, the day before classes start for next semester.

| Top |