(1) A couple of days after the Specticled Caiman joined Force d'Orleans, Jackie got a call for assistance at the Force Mansion requesting that the team investigate a disturbance at Audubon Park. While Bodé and his Strikeforce officers would normally investigate it themselves, they were busy with a prisoner escort to the state penitentiary. When the team arrived at the park, they found Titaneron tearing up the playground, chucking the swingset at the heroes before running for the woods. Suspecting a trap, the heroes hesitated, choosing to approach stealthily and from different angles rather than charging in after him. This proved to be a benefit as the quickly learned that their suspicions were accurate. It was indeed a trap set by the not-so-jolly green giant along with five other mercenaries. As Diamant worked his way down through the treetops, he played hide-and-go-seek with Black Widow. Ham Mulligan, who had circled around to the other side of the preserve, was creeping in until a reaction between Chains chains and Magneta's magnetics had a noisy interaction. Spectacled Caiman and Black Volt were entering from the side when they found Titanetron waiting for them at the entrance with Veneno and Stretchon.

Diamant started the fight after his communicator's vibrations drew Black Widow's attention. Using his new image-casting gem in combination with the invisibility gem to create a duplicate of himself, he drew an attack from Widow. Ham was thinking along the same lines when he drew the attention of Magneta and Chains, drawing a magnetic field that encased him and deflected Chains very metallic attack. The fight drew the attention of the three mercs and two heroes in the front, who began working their way back. Caiman was in the right place to catch Diamant, who was found by Widow and knocked out. Volt, who was at the back of the pack, was joined by White Mask and coached to use his electricity to zap the very conductive Titaneron. Unfortunately, this drew the attention of Veneno, who put the boy in a bare hug and started poisoning him. White Mask responded by putting the large, orange man in a sleeper hold until he fell unconscious from a lack of oxygen and the barrage of voltage.

Meanwhile, Ham tried to do a jumping move through on Chains only to miss and find himself in the same vicinity as Diamant and their newest member. The spiderwoman tried to entangle the trio with another web, but Ham ripped through it with a casual shrug. Caiman took to the trees to confront Widow, but found that she had been joined by Magneta. Between the two of them and the newly arriving Stretchon, he quickly found himself falling back to the ground. Diamant switched over to triage work when Ham also got hit, but White Mask and Black Volt arrived on the scene and started working on evening things up. Ham blasted Black Widow out of the area, Chains left when he got tired of Magneta's powers messing with his attacks, and Stretchon tapped out under the pressures of Mask's hold. Magneta was blasted in trying to flee, leaving the heroes with four of the mercenaries in custody.

Realizing that this was a set-up, Diamant calls Jackie back to learn that an attack against the First National Bank was taking place at the same time. With Force d'Orleans tied up in the park, Bodé left the prisoner escort to investigate. It was then that they realized the escort was for Pappa Boulet and that both occurrences were probably the distraction to break him out. Splitting into two groups, Ham and Black Volt left to catch up with the transport while Diamant, Caiman and White Mask went to check on Bodé.

When the trio arrived at the bank, they found the Strikeforce Captain unconscious on the steps. Once being awakened, he told them that his power armor had been drained of energy by the mercenary Leecher while Harvestman and Decibelle looked on. Having their suspicions confirmed, they checked in with Ham and Volt, who had arrived to find the escort decimated and Boulet long gone. Significant damage pointed toward a person who had cold powers, at least two different types of blade-wielders, someone with enhanced strength and another with vibrational energies. Realizing that Boulet was now on the run and probably wouldn't return to his mansion, but that someone needed to check and make sure. Sending Caiman, Volt and Mask back to recover from the fight, Diamant and Ham headed for the compound.

When they arrived, they circled around to the back of the grounds, which linked up with the beginnings of the bayou. Realizing that something was different, the duo discovered that the dog pin was emptied, pointing to Boulet taking his dogs with him. When a couple of guards came by on their patrol, Ham used his mental abilities to scan their minds, learning that Pappa wasn't around, but that Momma and two of their adopted children were home. The compound was on lockdown and was expecting unwanted visitors; an expectation that was confirmed by the two immense headaches that accompanied the mind probe. Having learned what they came for, Diamant and Ham left.

(2) A few months had passed with little going on locally beside the occasional crime and gang activity (on the national scale, however, President Mahn had been removed from office by the CoJ). During this time, Black Volt was offered a place at the Radio Ranch, which serves as a school for parahuman youngers to learn how to control their powers and become super heroes.

Francois was expecting a visit from his uncle and Tazi for a quarterly update and visit. Ham was down in the cafeteria working before being sent to Pastor Kyle's church to deliver a food donation for the soup kitchen. And Caiman and Jackie were at the mansion, talking about Jackie's concerns about getting hurt while trying to help. Their conversation was interrupted, however, by a call from Maurice Bodé, now a private detective after being released from Strikeforce for Boulet's escape. He tells the team (put through communicators by Jackie) that his P.I. partner had gone out on his own to investigate a report about a motorcycle gang squatting on the edge of the bayou. Only after he left did Bodé get a report that the Evicted Demonz had once again broken out of Alister Institute and were last seen headed toward Louisiana. With that, the team traveled in groups to the address provided by Bodé.

Ham and White Mask were the first to arrive, with the younger partner telling the pastor about the reoccurring nightmare's he occasionally had about the Evicted Demonz; how he was a white dude and was fighting them. Upon their arrival, they discovered a young boy named Nick in the vicinity, playing with his pet turtle, Vindicator. As the rest of the team arrived, Ham convinced the boy to head home and let them deal with the "mean guys in the broken down house." Learning that Caiman and Jackie had approached from the bayou and could see both into the lair and Bodé's partner strung up over the water like gator-bait, Ham ran at super speed to join them in the water. Diamant took up position over the house while Fantasia, White Mask and Stalwart prepared for a frontal assault when the distraction came. The distraction was given by Diamant, in his invisible state, untied the captive, dropping him into water, where Jackie was waiting to swim away with him while Ham and Caiman gave the bikers the show they were waiting for: man vs lizard.

With the bikers properly distracted, the team leapt into battle. Fantasia, WM and Stalwart took out the guards out front while Diamant, Caiman and Ham went in the back. As the front yard trio broke in the door, four more humanoids came out of a back room. The fight escalated, with people pairing up for combat, including Ham facing off against Overkill, Caiman pulling the hydrophobic Lynx back into the bayou, Stalwart versus Squirrel, White Mask and Fantasia taking on the two Claws (who shifted into copies of Fantasia and Pallequin) and Diamant evading Hell Rider's attacks. The fights stayed evenly matched, with no one gaining the higher ground, for some time, sparking Jackie to check in and, failing to get a response, calling the CoJ for backup support. Turbo, Ampere, Colonel Victory and Electra answered the call and arrived on the scene just in time for Force d'Orleans to start turning the tide. Diamant and Fantasia started the turn by knocking out the faux-dragon. Then Lynx finally broke loose of Caiman's grasp and went running into the bayou screaming. Squirrel tried to make a run for it as fog, but was stopped by Victory's powerful lungs and Fantasia's fiery breath. Fantasia and Diamant do another one-two combo on the second Claw, knocking him out as well. Victory then went outside to lend a hand, taking down Overkill with Ham after the biker one-punched Caiman (who was immediately evacuated by Turbo), while Ampere, Electra and White Mask finishes off Hell Rider.

When the dust finally settles, Ham takes off after Lynx while the other heroes start clean-up. He finds him up a tree, almost in a vegetative state. He calls for help and White Mask, Ampere and Diamant go to his location as Strikeforce arrived on the scene. Once the trio managed to get the cat-man out of the tree, Colonel Victory was called in to question him on the location of the missing members of the Demonz. Lynx was cooperative until he made the mistake of mentioning the innocents that were hurt in their travels, which angered Victory enough to smack him, at which point the interview was over. Lynx was taken to Strikeforce, Victory and Electra went off in search of the traveling Demonz and the rest returned to Maison d'Force. There they found Megaman, who was giving Caiman a once-over from the battle, and Turbo.

(3) That night, in Las Vegas, Jack Diamond was finishing up a good night at the tables when he got a "come-hither" look from an attractive brunette named Scarlett Hart. She wanted Jack to come work for her company - Hart Poker Challenge - as their face-man and, by all of the flirting she was doing, Scarlett's personal plaything. When he didn't jump at the offer, Scarlett tried to use her psychotropic touch to convince him, but hadn't expected his will to be so strong and his luck to be so abundant. Breaking her hold on him, Jack excused himself, claiming to be feeling sick from Fugu.

Once he was cleared by the Nugget's medical station, he returned to his room at the Starchylde and began to get ready for a 5 AM patrol. But just as he was getting ready, a call came in from the front desk, stating that a man named Redmond Hart was there to see him. Once on the phone with him, Jack learned that Redmond was there to follow up on Scarlett (his sister)'s offer. Jack blew him off and hung up on him, calling back downstairs moments after to learn that the outraged man was tearing up the lobby. Using his Playing Card Platform, Jack flew down to the lobby in time to see a security officer flying through the plate glass window. When he confronted Redmond, he found the man had telekinetic powers and began tossing Jack around. The battle moved outside and onto the roof of the casino next door - The Olympic Mahns - before Jack was knocked down hard enough for Redmond to escape.

After asking the CSI's that arrived on the scene to take a blood sample, Jack returned to his room to rest for a couple of hours before being woken up by Brady, who was checking on his teammate to see how he was doing. The duo then went to the CSI offices to get the blood report, meeting the undersheriff and deputy chief. The deputy told him that Scarlett had just been there and met with the undersheriff, convincing him that their diplomatic immunity from Antigua should be honored and the matter should be dropped. This aggravated Jack, who said he was going to go get lawyers and take the case to the state department. The deputy chief, understanding his frustration, agreed to take the case to the state department herself if Jack could stop them from leaving Las Vegas. Migraine went with the deputy as Jack headed for the airport.

While arguing with the FAA investigator on the phone and looking for a parking spot for the Air-imus, Jack almost drives into the limo taking the Harts to the airport. As the driver flees, Jack warns the siblings to stay in the car. They verbally spar until the police are heard in the distance, leading Scarlett to declare that, if they're going to be treated like super villains, they may as well be super villains as the Ace and Queen of Hearts. Redmond then picks up the limo they are in and throws it at Jack. Using his jump-jets, he avoids being hit and lands on top of the car. Redmond dropping the car threw Jack into a flip landing while Scarlett popped open the roof and shooting at Jack with a Tazer, to no effect. Jack's exploding dice in through the hole, however, knocks the female Hart unconscious and stuns Redmond, though not enough to keep him from blasting with one more telekinetic blast. Stunned himself, Jack took a breath to gather his wits while Redmond lashed out again and missed. This gave Jack a chance to activate his eye patch laser, knocking Redmond unconscious. As Jack drops to his knees in exhaustion, the police arrive and take the Harts into custody and help him back to the casino before his date later with the CSI receptionist.

(4) A week after the battle with the Evicted Demonz, Stalwart had returned to Las Vegas and Drebin was in route to Chattanooga with Tazi. Jackie called in the rest of the gang with a request from Stephanie Hayden from Red Jacket Firearms to come up to Baton Rouge. While gathering to head out, Ham and Jackie had a moment of confusion over unexpected physical contact, but the two quickly straighten it out and gain a bit of understanding about each other. Taking the Air-imus, they picked up White Mask and the Spectacled Caiman and left for Baton Rouge. Upon arriving at Red Jacket, they were greeted by an off-duty camera crew who ushered them inside to Captain Fornier and Ms. Hayden, who explained that she called them out because of a pair of women who brought in a Pierce .80 to try and get it fitted for a suppressor. Kyle explained that the weapon had a wicked recoil that would rip the arm off anyone who couldn't bench press anything below a half ton. Between that and the attempted break-in the night before, it made the group believe they were dealing with a pair of superhuman women, leading Jackie to make the connection to the S.L.U.T.s. She explained who the terrorist organization was and recapped the Aces experience with them. Bianca calls some contacts to see if any new strip clubs had opened, finding the location and the heroes head out.

Doing a fly-over before landing, Ham used his X-ray utravision to peek inside the bordello, seeing that, while the place was under construction, the SLUTs were home alone. Once they landed, it was clear that Jackie was starting to suffer under the strain of being in another dangerous situation against the SLUTs and feeling her vulnerability. Promising to recommend that she see the new Las Vegas Strikeforce Bureau Chief when they're done, Fornier recommends that Jackie stay behind as the rest of them go in through the door for a frontal assault. As the police captain knocked on the door, the group prepared for battle.

Starz opens the door to find the heroes waiting for her and responds by pulling a Pierce .57. The heroes start in on her until Star Spangled Stripper moved to get involved, drawing Ham to battle. The next to join the fight was Nascar Nellie, who accidently drove herself into a wall trying to get involved while Starz was finally knocked out. School Girl was next, picking to fight Caiman. Nellie was taken down by a well-placed tazer shot from Fornier. The last to join in was Pokerface, who threw razor-sharp playing cards at Ham and Fornier, and Stripez, who used her Spooge Gun to goop up the cop and the priest. Ham knocked out the male stripper, Caiman knocked out School Girl, Ham blew the balcony out from underneath Stripes and Pokerface ended up surrendering when she found herself alone and outnumbered. At that point, a crash was heard outside and, checking it out, found the Air-imus pinning an unconscious Dominatrix Barbie to the building.

Ham went inside to investigate the reinforced steel boxes that he couldn't see through earlier, only to find a member of the construction crew that had been horribly transformed into a monstrous creature. Realizing that helping the man was a bit out of Caiman's ability, he contacted Doctor Conan and asked that they work together to help the poor man.

(5) Invited to a fundraiser event to aid the victims of the monster attack in Japan, Jack of Diamonds was the only member of the Aces to agree to attend, in spite of his misgivings of being a face-man after the encounter with the Hart siblings. After meeting the representative of The Olympus Mahns Vegas (the casino sponsoring the event, which was trying to garner positive press after the Fall of Mahn), he is shown to his table, where he is introduced to Mark Adams and Teresa "Traci" Thompson. He also notices that an Asian woman in a green dress is staring at him, causing Jack to go talk to her. After a very rough start, he learns that she is China Malone, criminal profiler and the bureau chief of the newly established Las Vegas Strikeforce. Blaming himself for her being relocated from Florida, the division's reassignment from Carson City and the surgence of super-powered criminals in the city, he contemplates relocating to a new city or joining a better team. The arrival of Mark Adams complicates matters as he discusses how the CoJ are structured, leaving Jack not knowing what he wants anymore. The two men return to their table as Malone leaves, with Jack following soon after faking an emergency call. He returns to the Sleeve confused and retires for the night early.

(6) * The Golden Dragon Saga, Pt. 1 * Drebin was in route to Chattanooga with Tazi for the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Drebin Industries / TIN laboratory. While in flight, Tazi mentioned that she was homesick and wanted a transfer back to New Orleans. Drebin agreed that it would be nice to have her back and said he'd make it happen. As they were about to shake on it, Tazi got a weird feeling of something wrong; that she was approaching a place that something evil occurred.

After the plane had landed, the duo was working their way through the airport when they were intercepted by Dr. Eleanor Sonimbesea, otherwise known as the heroine and activist Druid. She wanted to ensure that the new building was acknowledging the environmental concerns. Inviting her to accompany them to the site, the trio traveled to the location. While Eleanor went to investigate the concerns, the foreman told Drebin about a recent extortion attempt by some local mobsters just as an SUV approached. The disturbing feeling that Tazi had been feeling was also getting stronger when Drebin asked her to go change in case there was trouble.

When the Kearns Brothers stepped out of their SUV with the mercenary Hardbody, they immediately took to trying to intimidate Drebin. What they weren't expecting was the rainstorm that appeared out of nowhere or the lightning bolt that blew the top off their vehicle. Drebin took the opportunity to dive into his limo and had just enough time to turn invisible before Talon of the Yama tore the roof off, surprised to find it empty. Fantasia stepped out to find that the bad feeling she was having was because of the tortured soul of the Golden Dragon that was bound to Wyrm's armor. She entered into a duel of flames with Wyrm and fisticuffs with Hardbody, with Druid blowing up gas tanks, making the earth move and using nature as her weapon. Hardbody was the first to fall thanks to the combined might of the three superheroes, with Talon following soon after, leaving the Wyrm to try (and fail) to make an escape. After knocking him unconscious, Fantasia began to speak with the dragon spirit, learning how he came to be in this horrible situation.

(7) * The Golden Dragon Saga, Pt. 2 * (Co-GMed by Kenn Hallaron - guest starring the Champions of Justice) When the Golden Dragon medallion was created, a mystical shockwave was felt across the globe. In addition to drawing the attention of heroes like Eidolon and Black Dragon (who contacted Morning Star for help in investigating), it also made evil magic users take notice and want the new dragon for themselves. So as Fantasia, Balatar and Druid contemplated what to do with the new medallion, portals began opening all around them. Lady Fortanchu was the first to arrive with Ice Dragon, her Snow Ninjas and Yeti in tow. Lady Fortanchu's obsession with the dragons became quite evident as she looked at Fantasia and the medallion she held, ordering Ice Dragon to retrieve it for her. Fantasia started to run while Balatar tried to stem the flow of villains, but she was quickly cut off by the arrival of Supremus and a platoon of his father's henchmen. Heroes also began to flow onto the scene, with Eidolon, Turbo, Music Man, Ampere, Morning Star and Black Dragon joining the fray. But Raziel had also sent his people to try to win the prize as well as yet another mystical portal deposited Light Mage, Demosthenes, Mazer, Flashblade, Vesuvius, and a squad of Viper agents onto the battlefield.

As the dragons fought each other, Supremus launched an attack at Morning Star, Balatar and Ampere worked to disable Lady Fortanchu, Music Man divided and conquered against the Yetis while their American cousins watched from the wooded edges, and Eidolon fought Light Mage and his boys. As the various factions' agents began battling one another, Flashblade made a play for the medallion, only to be grabbed and stashed in the Memphis Strikeforce holding cell by Turbo. Morning Star managed to make quick work of Supremus with a well-placed blow, but the super-mage was swallowed by another vortex before hitting the ground, reclaimed by his father. Before Morning Star could join the fray below, however, he was intercepted by the newly-arriving Thunder Twins. Eidolon, having encased Light Mage in a darkness globe and Demosthenes in the Bonds of Bogardan, he used Soul Blight to put the finishing blow on Lady Fortanchu, knocking her unconscious. Music Man finally gained the advantage over the Yeti as the Sasquatches came in to finish the job. Ice Dragon found his attention torn between trying to capture the medallion and the protection of his mistress, resorting to slitting the throat of one of the snow ninjas and throwing it at Fantasia, hoping to activate the dragon magic. Ampere attempted to destroy the dragon medallion, only to find it indestructible. Light Mage escaped his prison and teleported the medallion away from Fantasia, turning Ice Dragon's fury upon himself. With a slash of his claws, Ice Dragon gutted Light Mage, triggering the medallion and transforming him into the golden-skinned Sun Dragon. With his attention on the new gold dragon, Fantasia was able to strike Ice Dragon, knocking him unconscious.

As the newly-created dragon relented to the stresses of transformation, Professor Mobius and Banshee arrived with Dragon to learn what was going on. Sun Dragon and his cohorts were quickly reclaimed by their master, causing Eidolon to chase the teleport scent to try and find his eternal foe (a chase that led to misdirection and dead-ends to hide Raziel's true location). Balatar also made a strategic withdrawl from the scene when, after Fantasia described what led to the battle, Ampere made disparaging remarks about him for helping create the medallion in the first place. When Professor Mobius attempted to lay claim to the fallen Fortanchu, Turbo arrived with a resurrected Mo in tow, who laid claim to both his sister and Ice Dragon by right of blood. Dragon, realizing that there was nothing he could do now, handed a small leather pouch over to Banshee, instructing her to give it to "the smelly one" to dispose of, and then opened his own portal to return home. Seeing what was in the pouch, Turbo said he would take care of it, offered Black Dragon honorary membership in the CoJ, left to dispose of the bag and trail the Thunder Twins back to their base of operations. Mobius offered to aide Mo in returning to Tibet, which the new head of the Fortanchu clan accepted. The rest of the heroes helped in rounding up the Fortanchu, Kristoffer and Viper minions, leaving Fantasia to reunite with her team leader.

Making her way to town, Fantasia was joined once again by Balatar, who explained that he had fallen in league with another group of individuals and that he was working on creating magical communicators for them to use. Wanting to stay in touch with his fellow former Freax, he offered one to her, enchanting her wedding ring with the communications spell. He then departed, leaving her alone with her thoughts and travels.

(8)

© Copyright 2009, 2012 - James Caswell