by: Jim Caswell and Ken Hallaron

An ensemble of heroes looked into the dark, open vortex in the Sleeve, the headquarters and home of the Las Vegas hero team, The Aces. Gathered by an Earth-spanning threat from a darkness dimension, the group of heroes standing together was a mixture of some of the most powerful teams on the planet: Energy Woman and Super Patriot of the American Rangers; Longbow, Osprey and Whirlwind of the Champions of Justice; Emerald Knight and Torpedo of the Defenders; Sentinel and Mirage of Eclipse; Micron and British Intelligence of the Gateway Guardians; Diamant of Force d'Orleans; Bulleteer of Rebel Yell; and Stalwart, White Mask, Jack of Diamonds and Jackie of the Aces.

While some of the heroes were concerned that the open portal could be a trap set by the darkness assassins who had attacked former Aces, others were itching for a fight and ready to go on the offensive. The matter was decided when laser blasts were heard from the other side of the portal, followed by screaming. The heroes traveled through the portal to find themselves at an underground military base. The first site they saw was the six decapitated men dressed in black lying on the floor, with a seventh in the process of being cut down by group of genetic half-breeds in military gear as his darkness tentacles flailed at his killers. The scorch marks on the walls showed evidence of extensive fire damage a short time period before.

As the heroes deployed, they found themselves facing off against four platoons of superhuman soldiers: three half-human, half alien crossbreeds (half-lizards like Lizz, blue-skinned aquatics and purple-skinned humanoids capable of projecting lightning from their hands) and a group of automaton shape-shifters. Leading this mini-army was a man instantly recognizable by the more technically knowledgeable heroes as Derek Morris, a computer guru who had mysteriously disappeared a few months before. As the platoons turn their attention to the newcomers, it quickly became clear that the heroes were not only outnumbered but also outgunned by the electric-discharging Martog squad, the super might of the enhanced Trin soldiers, the blasters carried by the Zui's and the versatility of the shape-shifters. Making an executive decision, Mirage slipped back into the time-stream to get reinforcements.

A short time before, the heroes that had chosen to go to Houston to investigate the destroyed fish-packing plant arrived to find Eclipers Stronghold, Blurr and Bounceback turning the scene over to local authorities and paramedics. Mirage appeared, explaining that the heroes were needed more elsewhere. While Pyre of the Gateway Guardians; Ion Storm, Stonghold, Blurr, Bounceback and Demolition of Project Eclipse; Hailstorm, Prism, Privateer, Sea Bolt and Shield of the American Rangers; N'tx'n and Charcoal of the Champions; Bouncer and Dynamo of the D.C. Defenders; Bengal, and Rage of Rebel Yell; and the Hero and Bass Line all agreed to go along, Solaris insisted on staying behind to aide the injured people while Eidolon, Darkling and Vindicator II were set on pursuing the darkness wielder who had caused the damage. In exchange, however, Eidolon opened a portal of his own to the island, grabbing Pulsar of the New Pendragons; Critical Velocity, Felix Katz, Masked Marvel and Phoenix Fire of the American Rangers; Riptide and Powerball of the Champions of Justice; Shockwave and Firefly of Firepower; Maelstrom and Power Gun of Rebel Yell to aide in the battle.

Mirage took the additional thirty heroes back to the battle, arriving a heartbeat after he had left. While the numbers originally looked to be in the heroes favor, things evened up quickly as men in Algolian-replica armor decloaked and joined the fray. While heroes like Longbow, Osprey and Diamant took on the Lizard-men, Emerald Knight, N'tx'n and Hailstorm did their best to block both attacks and vision. Sentinel, White Mask and Super Patriot led a squad to face the Trins while Energy Woman and other energy-projectors exchanged blasts with the Martogs. Micron, Bouncer and Rage began trying to dismantle the Goalie soldiers, with Rage taking a cue from Whirlwind to try damaging the armor, only to discover that these suits didn't blow up when damaged like their alien counterparts did.

The first knockout of the fight came when Power Gun tried to shoot a Goalie, only to have his gun blown up in his face by the return fire. Jackie also found herself in a loosing position until Jack got Powerball to teleport her away to safety. Longbow quickly started running low on his trick arrowheads, but soon found it more useful to simply remove the weapons from the Zui soldiers' hands. After several minutes of battle, during which Sentinel's and Energy Woman's squads traded opponents to maximize their foes' relative vulnerabilities, the heroes earned a decisive advantage when the speedsters finished dismantling the drones and the other soldiers began falling under the combined might. Soon, the Goalie suits began spontaneously-combusting while Morris attempted to surrender, only to fall over into a helpless state of unconsciousness.

As the heroes began to examine the situation in which they had found themselves, several discoveries were made: The Goalie armor contained human remains and had not exploded, but was destroyed from an outside source. As was discovered by the Las Vegas CSI team, the Lizard men were actually half-breed crosses between humans and Izuifinairid, and while the other two races were obviously cross-bred as well, it was pointed out by the Star Knight N'tx'n that the special abilities they had shown were not typical of their race, but of two paranormal members of their respective races located on Earth: Pup-Lar, the Power Pirate of the Malevolent Seven, and Jaso Rwoke of I.O.G.W.P. While the underground base was a former military installation located in the desert outside Las Vegas, it had been decommissioned a decade before and considered abandoned by all official branches of the government.

Lastly, the missing members of the Aces' team were found in the brig of the base. Migraine and his grandmother seemed no worse for wear, save having gone through some ambiguous tests and blood-work by an unknown scientist who had escaped during the initial fire, which had come through previously open darkness portals. Dr. Coloski, however, had apparently been subjected to extensive mental and psychological experimentation, reverting him back to his pre-hero persona with no recollection of his time with the Aces.

Upon returning to The Sleeve, the gathered heroes received a debriefing about what had occurred at the other locations and disbanded to return home. Dr. Coloski was turned over to the Champions of Justice for examination while Migraine made the decision to return to St. Louis with Micron, Pyre and British Intelligence to retire from superheroing and take care of his grandmother full time for as long as she needed him.

© Copyright 2005 - James Caswell, Kenneth Hallaron