MV1 #833 April Year 4

Getting Back to Business: Part I

"New York, New York"

Manhattan, One month later…

The sun was beating down hard on the glistening silver armor of PFD-2. Its glare danced around it 10 foot body and it would have blinded the other two Dreadnaughts flying next to him if they were not robots. According to their readings, the three robots were flying through the New Jersey skies. All over the state kids were looking up in the sky thinking they were watching an air show. Without binoculars, any sky watcher could see three rectangular specks moving through a canvas of blue sky. The Dreadnaughts were too high for the naked eye and their non-detection systems prevented them from being caught on radar. They were not thinking that though, their programming had only one thing in mind, "DESTINATION: NEW YORK CITY".

The elevator doors opened and he walked out slowly. He turned right and walked towards a small reception area. There was a large "Taylor Foundation" sign behind a secretary’s semi circle desk. There was a sofa and loveseat surrounding a coffee table on the side. The secretary was talking on her headset phone when she saw the gentleman walking towards her.

"Uh, Anne, could you hold on a minute please? Good afternoon Mr. Taylor, how was your morning meeting?

"Fine, a little longer then I expected, but it went well, Clare", Dwayne Taylor responded.

"Great, Mary has your messages. Let me buzz you in." Clare reached below her desk and pressed a button.

"Thanks," Dwayne responded and he walked through a door on the right. He was dressed in a two button dark gray suit that was cut conservatively with a white shirt and silk blue tie. He walked down a short hallway until it opened up into a sea of desks mixed with a smattering of cubicles. The air was buzzing with office workers talking on the phone, the tapping of the keyboards and the buzz of money moving. Dwayne looked around and allowed himself a smile. Although he was the avenging superhero, Night Thrasher, Dwayne took great pride in seeing the Taylor Foundation flourishing. The Taylor Foundation was a legacy of his parents and he knew no matter what happened to him as Night Thrasher, that this piece of their lives would last longer then him.

"Dwayne, your messages."

"Huh!" Dwayne was jostled out of his thoughts as he looked straight as his secretary, Mary, "Thanks Mary. Has it been busy today?"

"No not really. It has been quiet here," Mary replied. She walked over to her desk and moved her hand below her desktop.

"Thank you, Mary," Dwayne was flipping through his messages as a door against the wall opened outwardly towards him. "Mary could you please hold all calls for the next hour unless it is an emergency?"

"Ok, Dwayne," Mary replied. Mary Miller was a slight black woman with thick glasses. She was in her mid-fifties and dressed like a grandmother. Dwayne has known her for most of his life. She had worked for his parents and always seemed to be around his life. When he took over the Taylor Foundation, it was unthinkable to have the top executive secretary to be none other then Mary.

Dwayne walked into his office and headed towards his desk. It was a corner office with windows facing Park Avenue and northern midtown Manhattan. There were pictures and newspaper clippings hanging on the east wall and when he sat at his desk, sunlight poured in from behind and from his right.

His computer was already on and he scanned his email. He sighed after a moment and turned to his desk. He opened a drawer on his left and took out a black tape recorder and a silver square device. He detached a wireless microphone from the recorder and attached it to the collar of his shirt.

The silver device was square and four inches long. It was about one and a half inches thick with a LCD screen and speaker-like device. Dwayne pressed a button on the side and the LCD screen flashed and began displaying a menu of options. He pressed the LCD screen and began accessing menus until the words, "Area Secure – Sound and Video Blocked".

He looked around him and began admiring the New York Midtown view. He stared out there for a couple of minutes, before he began talking into the mic.

"Journal Entry #10. Today has been pretty eventful. I had a meeting with Genetech today discussing their new projects and market perception. Ever since biotechs have gone out of favor with the market, Genetech has watched their share price plummet and investors are crying for blood. I have known Genetech for a number of years now and they have helped the Warriors and I on numerous occasions, so I have offered my help by joining its Board of Directors. Hopefully I can help them weather these tough financial times.

Note to self. Ever since Angela’s friend, Linda began counseling me and got me to start making these journal entries, I have felt a little bit more relaxed. In the past, I would sometimes feel overwhelmed by the weight of the world, but recently things have seemed a little, I don’t know, rosier. But I still miss Angela. Not only was she a founding member of the Warriors, but she became a good friend and without her, this new incarnation of the Warriors would never have happened. I understand why she couldn’t stay. There are too many memories of Vance here and being out in Colorado will do her a lot of good. Hopefully she can find some peace there to help deal with her grief.

Speaking about the Warriors, ever since the Trans-Sabal mission, I made a team decision to slow down a little. Things were going a little too fast and the team was filling up with tension. I thought we all needed a little time to relax and catch up with our lives, so I cancelled our move to the West Coast, commissioned a new Crashpad and we took a vacation in Cancun. As team leader I think that was the single best thing I have ever done…besides forming the Warriors.

Now to the future. Next month is the grand opening of the new Crashpad, and everyone is excited. Not only can everyone move out of the temporary housing that I have placed them in, but I have made sure this Crashpad has even more superhero amenities then the old pad ever could dream of. Hopefully we can make it home like the old pad…," he paused.

He stood up from his chair and walked towards the window facing the west. He put his hand on the window, looked at the people walking below on the street. Tears began to well up in his eyes as he whispered, "I miss them".

Starbucks was packed that day, filled with NYU students bleary eyed from studying, office workers looking for that mid-afternoon caffeine high and aspiring writers with their laptops hunched over their screens and sipping their double mocha lattes. Every seat was taken in the house except for one in a dark corner, Jeff saw the empty seat and he rushed over with his mocha cappachino and textbook. As he got to the chair he froze momentarily and saw Sillouette Chord sitting in the other seat with her back to the wall. She was wearing a blue and gray baseball T-shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans, but Jeff could barely tell because the darkness seemed to emanate from her.

"Is this seat tak-ken," Jeff stuttered out shiverringly. For the middle of the spring, Jeff thought, this corner was pretty damn cold.

Silhouette looked up from the notepad she was writing on, gave Jeff a look that froze the blood in his veins that made any warmth in his body left in him leave and she hissed, "Yesss."

She watched the man scurry away and she concentrated on the notes she was taking. She had written a list of names that she was evaluating in her head. Maybe she should not have been so mean to that student. He was even kind of cute, but she needed the solitude now. She had work to do.

Sillouette stared at the yellow legal pad in front of her and at the list of name and checks: Bandit, Angie, Melina, Duc, Midnight’s Fire and Smiling Tiger. Underneath those names there were a bunch of names with question marks: Kymeara, Dagger, James, Dr. Strange and Namor. Finally at the bottom she had a list labeled "No" which included Dwayne, Hallie, Ultra-Girl, Robbie and Rich.

She knew she had to start getting help, but she did not know from where. She knew Dwayne would not approve, but she had to do something.

Before she could finish her thought, her Warriors communicator began to vibrate and as she looked on the screen, she smiled and felt relieved that some crisis had arrived to distract her from her thoughts.

The funeral procession was proceeding down the winding road slowly. Robbie Baldwin watched it go by and thought how the parade of black cars looked like a gigantic black snake creeping down the green hills.

"I wonder who died?," Robbie thought. He couldn’t see through the tinted windows, but he could feel the sadness in the air. The atmosphere of melancholy was almost palpable and Robbie could not figure out whether it was the funeral procession, the tombstones or the cemetery itself that caused it.

"Was he or she young or old? Married or single?" Robbie thought as he proceeded into the cemetery. He continued walking through the cemetery until he reached the top of a small hill. There was a tree on the top of the hill. It was only about ten feet high, but the way the branches arranged themselves and the sun was hitting it, the tree looked like a waiting sentry that guarded the two tombstones underneath its canopy.

Robbie walked up to one of the tombstones with his hands in his pockets. He looked at both tombstones and sighed.

"Hey, Elvin. Sorry I have not come by since the funeral, but things have been busy lately with the Warriors. We reformed the Warriors recently and you won’t believe me, but we had to fight the Hulk. I know you fought him once with Dwayne, (Writer’s Note: In the Night Thrasher Ongoing series) but we had more firepower and we barely contained the guy. Then we went back to Cambodia to stop the Leader, you know big green forehead guy, and those Folding Circle losers again. Don’t worry, this time we did not have to ‘borrow’ a Quinjet."

Robbie paused for a moment and he took out a tissue, which he used to dry his watery eyes. "God, Elvin I am sorry. I am so sorry. I killed you, Chris, Carlton. That is the real reason that I haven’t come sooner, Elvin. I am seeing someone right now that Angie recommended. Her name is Linda. She is pretty nice and she used to work with Angie up in Colorado. I know I know it is a far commute, but she has experience dealing with superheroes."

"Remember Ultra-Girl, Elvin? The blond you thought was cute in California? Well she was going to join the team, but because we decided to stay in New York, she decided she would stay in LA. I can’t blame her though. She has a great gig in LA and you won’t believe this, Elvin, she even has her own clothing line!" Robbie took out another tissue and blew his nose.

"The team is doing pretty well now. We have got some new members too; Proudstar, you remember him? He used to be Warpath from X-Force; Sorceress, she is a Dragon’s Breath worshipper or something like that; Bengal, the former assassin that Dwayne says is reformed now; and Jolt. She is pretty cool and she so wants to be a superhero so badly. If there was an encyclopedia on superheroes, she would be the one who wrote it." Robbie paused for a moment and took a small statuette and a plastic flower out.

"Elvin, I took your belt buckle from your Rage costume and I am wearing it on my costume now. I thought you might like that. You always watched over me when we were on the New Warriors together and I never got to say thank you."

Robbie took the statuette in his hand and placed it on the base of the right tombstone and the plastic flower on the left tombstone.

"I hope you like the flower, Ms. Campbell I promise to bring you real ones next time. I hope you and Elvin are happy wherever you are," Robbie said while choking back tears.

"Elvin, I brought you back something from Cambodia. It’s just something that I grabbed in the wreckage of the Dragon’s Breath. I know you thought Cambodia was cool the first time we were there, so I picked this up from the wreckage of our last battle. Melina said it was a piece of mural dedicated to some jungle spirits of protection. I thought he would keep you company when I wasn’t around."

"Well…" Robbie was about to continue when a paging noise emitted from his belt. He reached into his pocket and took out a Warriors badge.

"Duty calls, Elvin. I’ll come back next week to visit, I promise."

The classroom door opened up quickly as the students began filing out. Their conversations reverberated in the hallway as they walked to the staircase. Melina was in the front of a crowd engrossed in conversation with a male classmate.

"Did you like today’s class, Jim?" She asked in a thick Vietnamese accent.

"A little boring. I also worked two shift yesterday and slept very little," Tim replied in a slight Greek accent. He was dressed in a navy blue polo and a pair of light stone washed jeans.

"I am so sorry. Did you sleep in class?" Melina haltingly said. She was wearing jeans as well with a light lavender v-neck pullover. Both pieces fit well on her and accentuated her small frame. Tim had trouble keeping his eyes off of her in class.

"A little, I think about five to ten minutes. Melina, could I borrow your notes?" he asked.

"Yes, you can." Melina replied and she began taking her notebook out of her bag. She had enrolled in this English class a couple of weeks ago and she was surprised how quickly she was learning English. Although her accent was pretty thick, she was glad that she did not have to rely on her translation spell.

They had made it to the bottom of the staircase and were standing at the entrance of the Chinatown Community Center. There was a table set up in the front with pamphlets and registration information on top. Two high school looking students were sitting in folding chairs were shouting in English and Chinese trying to get people to register to vote. A young bald Asian man was perusing the materials.

"I think there is a Xerox machine nearby, maybe we can grab a drink-", he was cut off in mid-sentence.

"Duc! What are you doing here?!", Melina shouted in Vietnamese as she gave the bald man a hug. He emptied the contents of a brown paper bag into his hands and showed it to her.

"Sweetbuns, cool!" She grabbed one hungrily and began munching. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to be at the church?"

Duc shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the buns.

"You’re so sweet," Melina replied and she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Both their pagers began to ring immediately and they both looked down to check them.

"Waverly next to Broadway. At least it is close by." Melina said to Duc. She then turned to Tim and reverted back to English.

"Tim, I need to go. Can I give you notes later?"

"Sure, Melina. Anytime", Jim replied as evenly as he could.

Melina managed a wave as her and Duc ran down Mott Street to get on to Canal.

"All clear", Evgeni said in Russian into his walkie talkie.

"All clear here. Proceed", the walkie talkie squawked back.

"1040. Marco, let’s go." Evgeni opened the door into the NYU lobby and a tall bald man walked out. He was dressed in a gray conservative suit and moved with the poise of a coiled spring. A young man followed right behind him. He had sharp chiseled features with short brunette hair and he looked around nervously. Evgeni followed right behind checking out the lobby with his tinted sunglasses.

They moved out of the lobby quickly and entered a large courtyard. NYU buildings flanked the entire courtyard, except for the north side, which descended onto the street sidewalk. There was a lone limo on the street and the party moved quickly towards it.

Suddenly a truck came barreling through the street and ran straight into the side of the limo. Ten terrorists leaped out of the back of the truck armed with submachine guns. Two more vans pulled up and a half dozen terrorists ran out guns a blazing.

"Get down", Evgeni shouted as he shoved Marco on the ground. The other agent quick drew a pistol and the gunshots started.

"Look at this", Hallie said as she put on the pink wig on her head. "What do you think, Jimmy?"

"The pink definitely suits you Hallie", James Proudstar replied. "I think you can lock up the market on pink haired Asian superheroes." James was staring at the aisles of body lotion products in front of him. He saw a jar labeled "Liquid Bodysuit", picked it up and began to read the label.

"Hallie, do you think Dwayne would have a problem if the Warriors became the official spokesman of ‘Liquid Bodysuits’?" He asked.

"Yeah and Dwayne will grow cornrows and start jive talking," Hallie snickered back. Hallie Takahama loved this store. Rickies was a New York drug store chain and Jimmy and her were at the Broadway store right on the border of Soho and the Village. Rickies was not your ordinary drug store though. Due to the increase of drug superstores, smaller stores were forced to close down or innovate. Rickies had decided to stock their shelves with exotic products like wigs, body paints and exotic lotions in addition to toothpaste and soap which appealed to the Downtown Manhattan crowd.

"Sometimes he even reminds me of my old boss, all angst and bundled anger," James replied. He was still smiling and reading the label for the liquid latex bodysuit. James was wearing a navy blue collerless pullover with a pair of light blue jeans and he looked huge compared to Hallie’s lithe frame.

"I think I am going to get this," Hallie said as she took the wig off her head and began to walk to the front of the store. James put the jar back on the shelf and followed her to the register.

"Don’t have class today, Jimmy?," Hallie asked as she got her money.

"Nope, I have one tomorrow and that is it for the week," he replied. Three young women walked by the register.

"That’s cool. I am glad that Dwayne got me a private tutor. I couldn’t handle being in a classroom right now…"

"I hear what you are saying, Hallie, but it is nice to hang around normal people for a change. No energy rays, killer robots, villains from the future, you know, stuff like that. I know you have only been at it for a little while, but if you don’t step back from the whole life, you can forget why and whom you are doing it for. That was the problem with X-Force. We lead a very insular life. There was no interaction with ‘normal’ people; you were always worried that your boyfriend was an alien or shapechanging spy sent from the future. We were always fighting for something-bigger then us, always fighting and fighting. I think the pressure got to some of us… I know it got to me." James said.

The register gave a receipt and a bag to Hallie and she replied to James, "That’s ok Jimmy, you’re with us now. A new start with a new team." They walked out of Rickies and onto the sidewalk.

"It’s a new day!" Hallie spread her arms and started to spin on the street, "We got a new start Jimbo. I’ve got a new chance and no one is going to take that away from me."

James stopped and began to laugh then loud firecracker noises started.

"Gunshots! Did you hear that Hallie?" James said.

"No. Not all of us have your ears, Jimmy. Which way?" Hallie replied.

"That way. Sounds like it came from a couple of blocks a way. Wait! There it is again." James began running south diagonally across the street cutting through traffic.

"Hey wait up Jimmy," Hallie shouted as she sprinted after him. Proudstar and Jolt moved quickly through the streets. Onlookers only saw a slow blur as the teen superheroes sped by. They ran along Broadway through the NYU students, homeboys, shoppers and tourists and made a sharp left turn on Waverly Street.

"Over there," Proudstar pointed toward the block where a crowd of helmeted gunman in red and black were pinning down some people in the center. There were about two dozen terrorists in the courtyard armed with submachine guns and spread out almost in a semi-circle. Behind them were two vans and a limo with a truck sticking out of its side.

"I got the ones in the van and you save the ones in the center, Jimmy. That the new costume?" Jolt asked. She was dressed in her old Thunderbolts costume, a black jumpsuit with a red and yellow thunderbolt going vertically across her body.

"Yep, I wanted a more refined look. Jolt, don’t forget when we got the union suits, codenames." Proudstar was dressed in a tight black spandex-like pullover with matching black pants. His waist was adorned with a dark brown utility belt and a belt buckle adorned with feather images.

"Sure Matrix guy. Next time don’t forget the Ray-Bans. Did you page the others?" Jolt asked as she leapt in the air and as she caught the lamppost and swung in the air.

"Very cute and yes I paged the others. By the way Jolt, nice wig!" Proudstar ran hard up the stairs onto the courtyard and spotted the target of the terrorists. Behind two large circular plant partitions was a tall kid crouched over a man in a suit who was obviously wounded. Another similar suited gentleman was in-between the two plant partitions. He had propped two benches in between the partitions and was returning gunfire with pistols in each hand. Proudstar leaped five feet forward and sprinted towards them. Gunfire trailed him and sent pieces of the courtyard flying around. The agent still standing watched Proudstar approaching and quickly pointed a gun at him and fired. Proudstar spun to his left dodging the bullets handily.

"Wait! Hold your fire. I’m here to rescue you. I’m with the New Warriors." Proudstar said quickly.

"Who? Are you an Avenger?" Evgeni asked.

"No, No, my name is Proudstar." Proudstar answered.

"Whatever. Can you help us? I think they are about to flank us."

"Got it." Proudstar said. He grabbed one of the benches quickly with his right hand.

Jimmy continued with his motion and spun on his feet throwing the bench like a discus behind him. The bench sailed through the air smashing into a handful of terrorists.

"Duck!" Marco shouted as the gunfire exploded from the other side. Six terrorists surrounded the partitions pinning the agent and Proudstar in crossfire.

"Back me up" Proudstar began pushing one of the partitions until it came loose. Evgeni exchanged fire with the terrorists and shot two of them as Proudstar shoved the partition into three of the terrorists. The last one got in front of Proudstar and emptied his clip straight into his chest. Everything turned quiet as the terrorist dropped the empty clip to the floor. The terrorist’s jaw dropped as he saw Proudstar still standing in front of him.

Proudstar was gritting his teeth and had a look of grim determination on his face.

"That hurt!" Proudstar said as he flicked a finger at the terrorist’s chin sending him into unconsciousness.

Proudstar heard his name being called, looked up and wondered when the reinforcements were coming in.

Jolt smirked as she leapt in the air. She had no where to put the Rickies shopping bag, but she loved the wig and very little time to hide it. She grabbed the lamppost, spun around a couple of times and launched herself in the air. She had spotted about a dozen terrorists in front of the limo and smiled as she came down landing on two of them. Both were knocked out cold as Jolt kicked their helmets of their heads.

"Mind if I drop by?" Jolt quipped. In her head she instantly groaned, she knew she had better material then that. She leaped to her right, flipped in the air and landed on her hands resting on the shoulders of a short terrorist.

"I hope you guys were trading in these guns," Jolt spun the short terrorist around and kicked her legs out in a split connecting with the jaws of two more terrorists, "you probably could get more use out of them."

Her feet dropped to the ground, pulled the short terrorist above her head, throwing him into a crowd of terrorists and quipping, "Thanks for the lift." She groaned in her head again. "I’ve got to come up with some better lines." Jolt thought in her head.

"Backup now!" one terrorist shouted into his helmet mic. The terrorist ran towards one of the vans and grabbed the handle.

"Where are you going? You can’t just shoot and run!" Jolt ran towards the van and leapt towards it feet first. She landed on the van’s side close to the side door, bent her knees and sprang out with her right leg extended which connected with the terrorist’s neck. She looked at the other van and saw a flash of darkness behind the front window. A cold shiver went down her spine and she looked away. "Great! She had to be the first one here." She shook her head and began to leap towards the next group of terrorists, when she heard her name being called out. She looked up, bit her lip and a plan formed in her head.

The two terrorists slammed the van door’s quickly and grimaced at their comrade get kicked in the neck by Jolt. "Ow!" the terrorist in the driver seat said as he made a face.

"Start the engines, let the Naughts play with them," the terrorist in the passenger seat said as the hairs on his neck stood up. A mist of darkness arose and filled the cabin of the van quickly. "What?" the driver sputtered out as he frantically tried to start the van. Both terrorists were blinded and a sense of dread overcame them.

"Tsk, tsk, naughty boys," Silhouette whispered in the darkness. "Do you know what happens to boys who are naughty?" Silhouette’s voice was as soft as silk, but felt as cold as an Antarctic wind. Sweat began to pour from the terrorist’s head. "Naughty boys need to be put to sleep." Silhouette came from behind and swiped her hands threw both of the terrorists necks. Their eyes rolled to the back of their heads as unconsciousness enveloped them.

"Three of them, are you sure!" Dwayne shouted in his helmet mic. "I can take one, can you handle the rest? Ok I am at the jump point! See you on the ground!"

"Dwayne, we’re here," Sprocket shouted from the cockpit. "Dwayne, we need to find a better way to travel. I can only cover up for us so many times!"

"I know, I’m working on it!" Dwayne shouted over the roar of the helicopter. He was dressed in his Night Thrasher armor, looking out the open hatch and holding on to the safety handles. "Thanks for the ride Sprocket!" Dwayne shouted as he jumped out.

"Crazy kid," Sprocket muttered under her breath as she began to turn the helicopter back.

"Get into the truck! There are too many!" One of the terrorists shouted as he got into the cab. A handful of terrorists ran towards the truck.

"Get in quick, I gonna close the door." One terrorist shouted. Four terrorists ran up the cab with their Uzis dangling behind the,.

"Agh!" two of the terrorists yelled in pain, as two knives stuck out of their calves.

"Pull them up." The other terrorists in the cab began to pull the two injured ones into the cab. Bengal ran up the street and leaped towards the open cab. He had a black and yellow striped mask, which contrasted against a black jumpsuit and moved efficiently and gracefully like his namesake.

"Get us out off here! We got a…" Bengal’s foot connected with the terrorist’s jaw before he could finish his sentence. There were six terrorists left in the cabin with very little room to maneuver.

Bengal whipped out two sai holstered in his back and threw them straight towards the front of the truck. The sais connected with the dashboard pinning the two terrorists’ sleeves to the dashboard. The driver’s hand and the truck’s wheel were pinned down to the dashboard.

"Damn!" The driver lost control of the wheel and the truck began to swerve on the street.

"Ugh!" grunted one of the terrorists as he hit his head against the truck wall. Bengal’s arms moved quickly as two more terrorists were knocked out. The truck started to head towards some parked cars in front of it on Broadway. The driver and its passenger were screaming as they tried to pull the sais out of the dashboard. Bengal looked back quickly, leaped out the back, hit the ground, grunted and rolled out on the street. The driver slammed the brake, the sai popped out of the dashboard and the truck slammed into the parked cars.

Bengal rose from the ground, looked behind him at the wreckage, checked to see if everyone was unconscious and started running back towards the melee.

"Move kid!" Proudstar shouted as he pushed Marco to the ground, using his massive frame to protect him. Tile and pavement exploded around them as three large robots rained energy blasts on the NYU courtyard.

"Jimmy, fastball special, extra spin!" Jolt screamed. She had just finished knocking out some more terrorists and began to ran towards Proudstar.

"What about the kid?" Jimmy shouted back.

"I got him covered," Melina said from across the street. She weaved her hands quickly muttered an incantation and a bubble shimmered around Marco.

"Star, hands now!" Jolt yelled as she leapt towards her with her hands out. Proudstar grabbed her hands and began to spin around. He twirled around a handful of times, released his hands and threw Jolt at the Dreadnaughts. She twirled herself through the air like a torpedo catching the robots off guard and slicing through one, cutting it in half at its torso. There was a mini explosion and bits and pieces rained over the courtyard.

"Yeah," Proudstar cheered. He was about to say something else, but one of the Dreadnaughts began to fire more blasts forcing Proudstar to dodge. The other robot turned, aimed his arms at Jolt, who had ricocheted high off a wall, and tracked Jolt’s movements in the air.

"Jolt, no!" Proudstar shouted. Proudstar watched in impending horror, but was astonished to see a blur of gray smash into the Dreadnaught and sending its blast into a wall. Jolt landed onto the ground with an astonished look on her face.

"Dwayne?" she looked quizzically.

Night Thrasher had wrapped his arms around the Dreadnaught. He was carrying a disc-like object in each hand. The Dreadnaught was trying to move to grab him, but the discs magnetized onto the Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught moved its arms trying to get his hands around Night Thrasher, but barely missed as Night Thrasher leapt to the ground.

"Zzzzzzzttttt!" the Dreadnaught began convulsing with its arms flailing. Smoke was leaking out of its joints and it was slowly spinning in the air. Jolt watched in amusement from the ground as the Dreadnaught continued to spasm.

"Thrash, what did you do to the Dreadnaught?" She asked.

"Electric Disrupter Discs, they are sort of like EMP pulses, but have a more localized effect on the target." Night Thrasher answered back as he got up from the ground. "Nice hair, Jolt."

"Don’t mind her, Thrashman, She is auditioning for the Spice Girls. Here is the last one," Proudstar threw a wrecked metallic carcass of the third Dreadnaught in between Night Thrasher and Jolt, "Melina helped me out and I was able to get my hands on it. Any other terrorists left?"

"Nope, Bengal and I got them all. ‘Thrash, we shook them up a little if you don’t mind," Silhouette walked over dragging a frightened terrorist on the ground, "I think this one is a head honcho."

"I’ll talk, I’ll talk, just keep me away from her." The terrorist yelled as he desperately tried to free himself from her grip. When this proved futile he rapidly made signs of the cross and looked up into the sky.

"Sil…", Night Thrasher began to say, but he felt something falling from above.

"What I’d miss?" Speedball asked as he bounced between Proudstar and Jolt. He was dressed in his blue and yellow outfit with kinetic bubbles swirling around him and his hair moving at its own will.

"Nothing much, just some tin-men and gun-happy terrorists. A lot of property damage, but luckily no casualties." Proudstar answered. He crouched down and began to examine the wreckage of the Dreadnaughts. "I had heard that these babies were being sold on the black market, but who would have thought that someone had the guts to use them in broad daylight."

"Looks more like scrap-men. Oh look the cops and the press. How does my hair look? Does it look as nice as yours?" Speedball asked Jolt.

"Very funny, Speedbump. Your hair looks great. You look just like those boys from N’Sync!" Jolt gently punched Speedball in the shoulder.

Sirens were blaring closer and closer and a squad of police cars and news vans pulled off of Broadway and blanketed the area quickly. The lead police car stopped about ten feet from the New Warriors. The driver’s side door opened and an Asian man got out. He was dressed in a brown raincoat that could have used a dry-cleaning or two and a wrinkled gray suit that fitted well. He was middle-aged, but moved with the dexterity of a man half his age. Two uniformed cops quickly flanked him and they approached the Warriors.

"Detective Robert Chen of the 9^th Precinct," Det. Chen flashed his badge, "I presume you are the New Warriors and that you are their leader Night Thrasher." Det. Chen asked Night Thrasher as he walked up to him.

"Yes, Detective." Night Thrasher responded.

"Then can you tell me what the hell is going on here?!" Det. Chen asked casually raising his voice.

"They were after me!" Marco shouted before Night Thrasher could answer. Marco and Evgeni approached the policeman, leaving the other bodyguard to the EMT workers, "These terrorists were trying to kidnap me, but my bodyguards and these superheroes stopped them."

"And who are you?" Detective Chen asked as he took out a notepad.

"Marco Vucemilovic."

"Waitaminute, is your father Dr. Igor Vucemilovic?" Detective Chen asked excitingly.

"Yes. Father is visiting me in New York this week."

"The Dr. Vucemilovic?" Night Thrasher asked.

"Yes. The Dr. Vucemilovic" Marco replied.

Speedball elbowed Jolt gently and whispered, "Who is this Dr. V. guy? And where is Bengal?"

"I have heard the name before, but I am not sure where and Bengal is keeping out of sight, because of the media. I don’t know if the public is ready for a reformed assassin to join the Warriors yet.

"Are you Warriors available for the next couple of days?" Det. Chen asked.

"I have a busy social calendar you know. I have a meeting with my agent, the studio…" Speedball began to say.

"What Speedbump here is saying, Detective, is that you can contact us anytime. Why do you ask?" Jolt interrupted.

"I will get to that in one moment," Det. Chen faced Marco again, "When was the last time you talked to your father?"

"This morning, why? What is going on?" Marco asked worriedly.

"What is wrong officer?" Evgeni asked with a slight Russian accent.

"Your father was kidnapped this morning."

"What! By the same ones who tried to nab me?"

"We think so. We are still getting more information and the FBI are sending a team over here right now."

"Excuse me officer, but why would you need us? Why can’t your department handle this alone?" Night Thrasher asked.

"That’s an easy question. Dr. Vucemilovic is currently one of the world’s most renowned experts on superhuman physiology."

"You mean…"

"In other words, Dr. Vucemilovic is one of the world’s experts on creating superheroes….and now the bad guys have him."

End of Part I