"Continuing the biography segment on the members of the Revolution, who have been so incredibly active today, I am here in front of K. Robeson Enterprises, which was started and is run by Mr. Scott Silver, one of the members of the Revolution," Darcy Jones said. "It's been described by various members of the news media as a halfway house for reforming criminals, although when we called to ask them about this several weeks ago, they laughed at that theory. We're not entirely sure whether this means that they aren't reformed criminals, or whether they just don't like the nomenclature.
    "As many people will recall, there were the problems earlier this year with the Sphinx showing up and making several daring thefts after taunting the police and sending riddles to the Revolution as to his activities. While he was finally apprehended by the Revolution and a visiting member of the Swordbearers, Privateer, at that time we learned that it was not the original Sphinx but rather his son. The original Sphinx as well as several other members of the 1930s to 50s villain establishment seem to have found some kind of gainful employment as information consultants here at K. Robeson Enterprises.
    "But as you can see, as with their headquarters on Revolution Island, even the K. Robeson building here was not spared from the assaults that the Wuxia made earlier today. The building itself looks as if it has been frozen and seriously destroyed, the front door was broken in, we are not entering the building proper due to fear of structural damage. But as you can see from the camera that we're playing through here, it looks as if everything in it is a total loss. We have to wonder exactly how much the Revolution has sacrificed today for their stalwart defense of the city.
    "And we're heading back to you in the studio."
    Back in the studio, Simon nodded. "We also have a report coming in right now—sorry Holly, before we can go any further in discussing the sacrifices the Revolution has made recently—we're going back to Chris Meyers in the field, who is traveling along with the SWAT team that is carrying the Wuxia to the outskirts of the city. Chris, how are things going so far?"
    "So far, things are quiet, but tense here. They've been taking a rather roundabout route, and I'm being very careful to not be showing any of the surrounding area lest there be any sort of attack made on us." The camera was focused quite tightly on him, omitting any identifying scenery around the truck. "But so far the SWAT team here seems to be in good spirits, albeit a little concerned. They are carrying around some extremely dangerous criminals with them. However, given the fact that they've all been battered into unconsciousness recently and there's no way that the free member of the Wuxia could possibly know where they're located, I don't think that anything could go wrong here."
    A light appeared in front of the truck.
    "There seems to be something going on—" He broke off with a yell and the camera fuzzed out for a moment. "No, wait, we're back, we just can't see anything. Keep the camera playing back and forth!" A seven-foot-tall glowing, ghostly figure drifted through the truck, passing through the camera. "Can you see anything?"
    "Kind of!"
    "All right, let's get out and see what's going on." The scene the camera was transmitting became a shuddery blur as the two newsmen scrambled away from the stopped vehicle and turned to see Yen Chu Hsia floating behind the truck. He placed a hand on the lock mechanism, which melted, and pried open the doors. "It looks as if there's some sort of breakout going on here," Chris whispered to the microphone.
    Another focused beam burned out most of the restraints on the other Wuxia. There was a rapid stutter of useless gunfire from the SWAT team before a brilliant flash of light blinded everyone in the vicinity.
    "Ha, I knew you would come and rescue us!"
    "Shut up, Wu Tung," Yen replied evenly. "I'm not here to rescue you. You don't matter." He burned out a particular set of restraints. "Liang Hsiang, come with me if you want to be free." He grabbed her wrist. He needed her; it was her powers that fed his through the wormhole link. The others....
    "No! You must—"
    "Shut up," he repeated to the group's erstwhile leader. "Come with me." They flew away.
    "Perhaps we can get loose...." With the security system shorted out, it would be a matter of a few minutes for the rest of them to free themselves.
    "It looks as if the SWAT team has been taken out and the Wuxia members are escaping," Chris reported. "We're falling back to a safer position."

    At the old TECH headquarters, the battle continued, unaware of this latest development. Silverblood lanced out with a pseudopod at Thunderbolt, who hurled himself out of the way just in time; earth fountained up where the silver robot's strike landed. It wasn't hitting as hard as it might have, since it just wanted to grab rather than flatten him. It paused then, shrinking into something closer to human size and shape. The head turned to look directly at the helicopter, which was shining that bright light on it.
    "Power...."
    "It seems as if Mr. Vincent has noticed us; we're waving to him," Arnold reported. "I'm Arnold 'Action' Chang, on the scene!"
    Thunderbolt found cover amid the rubble. Rue Morgue had disappeared, no doubt changing to a smaller form to sneak up on him.
    "Okay, this should maximize the interface!" Blitzkrieg announced. "Now, Silverblood—go to inert mode! I said go to inert mode!" The robot became mostly still, weaving slightly back and forth like a giant silver cobra. "Is that inert mode? I hope that's inert mode. Now I just have to insert this control module for permanent...." He approached the robot to insert the module, which was promptly sucked under the silver surface, along with his arm. Thunderbolt decided he wanted no part of this and stayed put as Silverblood sucked the last of the energy from Blitzkrieg's armor.
    The Vincent hologram appeared to stabilize significantly. Then it wavered again. "All right. Now that I've had enough power to stabilize my—" flicker "—systems, I should—" flicker. The Vincent face was slowly wiped away, replaced by Mind Lazer's.
    "Excellent. Well done, Blitz—" He glanced down at the smoking remains of the armor on the ground. "Ah. Shame about that."
    Crap, thought Thunderbolt. Who'd have thought Blitzkrieg could do something right. Just about then instincts honed by years in Europe's most dangerous zones of operation told him that someone was standing behind him, probably with something very heavy. He moved. The chunk of concrete crashed down where he had been with a thunderous noise.
    "You can't just make this simple, can you," Rue Morgue growled. "Roll over and die!"
    "It's unimportant now Rue Morgue; he's inconsequential," Mind Lazer/Silverblood said. "Come with me." It stretched out a limb toward the ape, who jumped onto it mid-transformation. Silverblood engaged his antigravity and flew upward, morphing into its standard broad-winged shape as it moved past the helicopter.
    "We're not entirely sure what's going on here, but it looks as if they're leaving," Chang said. "We're considering trying to follow them."
    "Don't follow us," Silverblood said in passing, accelerating away.

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