PROLOGUE
Sacramento, California

In the capital city of Sacramento, a relatively new hero named Rumble, possessed of powers of earth and stone, is home (in his true identity as construction worker Ted Moesby) on a Sunday morning. He graduated from the Legend Factory a while back, so is licensed to use his powers, and has been doing a little heroing around town, not quite sure what he’s going to do with this new hero life that’s been thrust upon him thanks to an industrial accident.

He gets a call from someone he met a little while ago, a young woman calling herself River Cat. She’s been operating in Sac for some time. She has the power to breathe underwater, and is a little bit stronger and tougher, but really has no other powers. She patrols the Sacramento River and the Delta in a boat of hers, and mainly stops drug activity and other crime on the waters using a few gadgets, some martial prowess, and a lot of attitude. Today, she’s dealing with something down at a crime scene at the river, something she thinks he ought to be involved in. Having not much else to do, Rumble heads down to meet her.

When he arrives, he bumps into someone else he knows…a mysterious cyber-elf by the name of Torin Gearshine. The two of them attended the Legend Factory together for the eight-week training and certification program, and, both operating in Sacramento, they’ve continued to work together and keep in touch. Torin caught wind of all the activity and headed down. This activity seems to involve a lot of police boats, police cars, ambulances and such…and a rather grisly sight of burned bodies being pulled from the river.

They spot River Cat, and she pulls her boat over to them and hails them. She explains that, a couple of hours earlier, a riverboat exploded. It sank right near where they are (where all the police boats are) and all aboard are presumed dead. She mentions that some questioning told her that a speedboat was seen racing away just after the explosion. She also mentions that she’s been down to the wreck, and she found something that seemed a little out of place. She opens a bag and pulls out a robot head and plops it down in front of them. She does not, she points out, do robots. She messes with drug dealers and smugglers and drunk frat boys. This is probably more in their league.

Torin, tech-guy that he is, immediately starts dismantling the head and checking it out, finding that it’s a very advanced (but not otherworldly or futuristic) design. As he’s doing so, and Rumble and River Cat are chatting, she tells Rumble to hold on and puts and finger to her ear. She mentions that she dropped a bug on the cop in charge just so she can listen in on what’s going on. She says there seems to be one person missing, based on the guest list on this boat. There was an event happening on the boat, a breakfast/conference of new age-types who were getting a talk from a well-known (in that circle, at least) crystalogist named Gary Todd. He seems to be the only body not found. His body could have been carried further down the river, but considering the speed boat leaving the scene, there’s a chance he’s still alive. And if so, did he leave of his own free will, or was he taken?

Working with the tech built into his own body (including his on-board computer), Torin manages to find out a signal was being sent just as the robot expired, and he’s able to narrow it down to a several-block radius in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Rumble suggests they leave they leave the police to their work and go start looking for the mystery speedboat, so they take off in River Cat’s boat (the “Riverkitty”) and do so. Soon they find an abandoned boat. They also find footprints (which Rumble is careful not to crush with his oversized form), and they definitely appear to be robot footprints. Two sets, and drag marks between them. Appears it’s a kidnapping after all. They tracks lead to a road, and some tire tracks. With his auto mechanic experience, Rumble is able to tell it’s a van of some sort (probably an Econoline). While he suggests to Torin that he see if he can find out a way to use the robot signal from the head to track other such robots, River Cat calls the cops on the radio and tells them it’s a kidnapping – and apparently, by robots. The lead detective groans and says it’s time to call D.E.E.P. (the Department of Escalated Enforcement and Protection, the federal agency that handles crimes (the super kind) that normal law enforcement aren’t equipped to), so he does. D.E.E.P. has a small office in Sacramento without much in the way of resources, but they’ll need to be on the scene.

After some work, Torin is able to work up a way to track a signal on one of the other (non-headless) robots, and the signal seems to be moving very fast. Too fast for road travel, so it appears they’re flying. And it also appears they’re headed for Arizona. Rumble and Torin decide it looks like they’ll need to take a little trip to Phoenix if they’re going to find and rescue this crystalogist…and find out what robots want with him. They get back to the crime scene and find a couple of D.E.E.P. investigators there (the head of D.E.E.P. Sacramento, Major Karen Hill, and Commander Mike Fleming, one of the branch’s two investigative agents), and ask about getting some transport to Phoenix – one of D.E.E.P.’s duties is to provide support for heroes, as both Torin and Rumble know from their Legend Factory training, but neither of them have had reason to call on this until now. D.E.E.P. Sacramento has one jet, kept at the Sacramento Executive Airport, and it’s at the hero’s disposal today if they need it. So, with a phone call, the jet is readied, and the two local heroes get a lift to the airport, and take off for Arizona.

At the Legend Factory, another class of would-be heroes is graduating and joining the super community. A ceremony is underway on the school’s grounds, with students (and their teacher, the famed hero Banner (America’s first hero) who runs the program) up on a stage set up on the main lawn, and guests, press and heroes sitting in rows of chairs in audience.

This a particularly special occasion for the members of Phoenix’s recently-established hero team, APEX, as their newest member, Mechanna, is among the graduates. Magistrate (current acting team leader), Atlas, and Mercury are there (While Talon is back at the base on monitor duty, as it was recently decided that one of them, except in cases of emergency, always should be (see APEX #13))…as is Mechanna’s “father”, Professor Dandus McFarland (formerly of the University of Edinburg in Scotland, now an employee of Arizona Technologies (AZtech) in Phoenix), and her sponsor, AZtech CEO Eris Garner. Having lived her whole life, secretly, on the grounds of the University, Mechanna was spirited away by her father’s choice when elements within the British government got too close, and he feared that they would take his other-dimensional adopted daughter away and experiment on her and make her both lab rat and prisoner. His old friend Eris arranged to have them flown to the States, and offered Dandus a job, and it was decided the best way to keep Mechanna safe was to make her existence as public as possible. They agreed the best course was to make her a member of the just-established APEX team, a place where she could best learn to use her amazing abilities and benefit the world (see APEX #6). But to be a hero in the U.S., one most go through the proper certification and be licensed, so, after an inadvertent adventure with APEX in South America (see APEX #’s 8 and 9), and a trip with them to the funeral of the murdered Vindicator, StarStrike (a murder solved by APEX), Mechanna was left with Banner and began her official hero schooling. Eight weeks later, her training is now complete.

After a speech by the head of D.E.E.P., Gabriel Dawson, Banner gives a speech of his own, a speech about heroism and all its responsibilities, and his pride in this latest class, who already proved their heroic nature when they rushed to the site of a chemical fire, only a couple of weeks into their training, and saved many lives, at great risk to their own (see APEX #13). He’s sure this kind of selfless bravery will be shown by all of them, again and again, during their heroic careers to come. With his speech ended, the presentation of diplomas ensues, with licenses going to middle-aged fire-fighter-turned-hero Prometheus, young hotshot flame-wielder Inferno, intangible heroine Slide, odd and awkward but well-meaning water-controller H20, and, of course, Mechanna. Cameras flash and the crowd cheers as she receives her reward for all her efforts, and her now-official teammates cheer loudest of all.

At the reception after the ceremony, her father hugs her and cries, telling her how proud he is of her. A few interviews are done with attending media, and then it’s time for Mechanna to say good-bye to her classmates…people now much closer to her than the teammates she’s about to leave with. With hugs and tears she parts with her roommate—and best friend—Slide, and the two promise to keep in touch regularly (including a call as soon as both of them get home). Prometheus, one of her two father figures during this training, wishes her the best, and assures her she’s ready for whatever’s ahead for her. Inferno, still cocky but a much better and more tolerable human being than he was when they first met, congratulates her on having a team to go to, and is confident that any day now, he’ll be calling to tell her that a team has picked up his contract, too (he’s sure the Vindicators are probably just waiting until the reception is over to call him). H2O says his farewell, ready now to head off to L.A. to use his new-found fame to fulfill his dream of starting up a pool cleaning business for the rich and famous. The graduates finally all go their separate ways, and while Mechanna’s father will fly back with Eris in the AZtech private jet, Mechanna heads to the airport, where APEX’s own jet—the Phoenix—is waiting, along with APEX pilot Nita Tores. She and her teammates fly off and head west.

Along the way, Mechanna does her best to get to know these people again, whom she was with so briefly, but will now be such a major part of her life. Things are comfortable soon enough as she gets to tell all her stories about what happened during her schooling, and they get to fill her in on what’s been happening in Phoenix, and with the team, since she’s been gone. It’s been complicated, but mostly for non-APEX reasons. Atlas’s alter-ego, Robert Mason, had a lot of scandal to deal with that he’s brought to the company he works for, AZtech. He was, after all, at the scene of a murder—one involving helicopters and automatic weapons, no less—that directly involved someone’s attempt to blackmail him (see APEX #13). While Mason was, of course, a victim in all of it as well, Eris, his boss, has had to do a lot of PR damage control, and there have been lots and lots of questions from the police. Meanwhile, Magistrate’s more literal alter-ego, Dayton O’Brien, got wrapped up, while trying to help her roommate, in a big mess with dirty cops and drug dealers (also see APEX #13). She’s been involved in the trial of Officer Pete Webber, and his partner, and the dealers they partnered with in the sale of impounded heroin, as a star witness. So much for keeping a low profile – and she’s an AZtech employee, too, one now known to be working with APEX (though the public thinks she’s their AZtech rep, not realizing she really body-swaps with Magistrate). Mercury, meanwhile, has found herself with quite a lot of money in her life, thanks to the first half-million of her payment for her deal with Mythic Motors. Herself, she’s just been doing a lot of shopping…

With surprising speed (helps to have such a high-tech jet), they’re back across the country, and the VTOL jet hovers over the desert floor as the massive, hidden hanger doors swing upward. The Phoenix lowers into the hanger and the doors seal once more above them. The team exits and hops on the tram that carries them down the very long tunnel to the underground portion of the APEX base in downtown Phoenix. There to greet them are APEX house manager George Darby and team member Talon, both congratulatory to Mechanna. A trip upstairs shows that the dining room is decorated for a welcome home party, and after Mechanna goes and puts her things in her room (her new home), cake is served (including one made of various ores, just for Mechanna), refreshments are had, and the team gets a chance to talk a bit about the team, what their plans are now, and how (per Magistrate) they should consider getting a training session together as soon as possible in their virtual psionic training system, Mindscape, so they can start working Mechanna into their team tactics. Mechanna, while nervous, is less unsure about herself than she would have been a couple of months ago—she’s now a well-trained hero and has a head filled with knowledge of hero history, hero law, combat theory, physics, and many other things that she’s nervously curious to put into practice.

But the party is cut short when a call comes through on the D.E.E.P. radio line. Magistrate answers it, and finds that the call is coming from the Scottsdale airport, where D.E.E.P. Phoenix houses their aircraft. A couple of super-heroes from Sacramento are there, just getting off a D.E.E.P. jet, and want to talk with the local hero team. Rumble (with Torin putting him on speaker, since in his hero I.D., Rumble’s “ham hands” lack the fine manipulation to properly hold the receiver up to his ear) explains who he is, and advises that there’s been a kidnapping involving some robots, and the trail seems to end in Phoenix, and they felt they’d better let the local team know about it and get some assistance. Magistrate isn’t quite sure who these guys are, but luckily, Mechanna (who got the full eight weeks of Legend Factory training, unlike Magistrate’s two-week abridged version) knows all about them. APEX agrees to get in on this, and Magistrate requests Nita take APEX’s copter (the Sundance) over to the airport and pick them up and bring them back to the base.

When the California heroes land on the base roof (after the roof opens up to let the copter land in the top floor hanger), a very attractive woman is there to greet them, introducing herself as Dayton O’Brien, APEX’s tech consultant. She takes them (and the robot head) into the base and lets Torin get to work hooking it into the base computer to do some scanning.

Atlas, meanwhile, decides to fly over to the general area Torin mentioned and scout from the air. It’s an industrial area with lots of warehouses and self-storage units. After some listening with his armor’s advanced systems, he hears what sounds like a mechanical voice ranting at someone and telling him he’s going to talk. Just as he finds this, Torin tracks the signal right to that same specific warehouse. The rest of the heroes hop in the copter and head over to join Atlas.

They find that the warehouse has a “for lease” sign on it, and there’s a moving truck parked outside. All the windows (and the skylights) are blacked out, but Atlas can still hear the voice ranting inside. The plan is set. While the rest of the heroes position themselves at the doors (and after Torin finds the (very impressive) security system and disables it), Atlas gets on the roof in one corner of the building. When the time is right, he drops through the skylight. He finds the warehouse all but empty – excepting for six robots (with heads like the one Torin had) surrounding a man in his late twenties that’s tied to a chair. In front of them is an ornate box, resting on the floor, and in front of that, a big-screen TV (with a camera atop it). On the screen is what looks like a computer-animated robotic face, speaking to the man.

As planned, Atlas yells “Unibeam!” and flashes all the robots with his chest light, overpowering their optical sensors (and blinding the guy in the chair as well, who Atlas assumes is this Gary Todd guy). With that cue, the other heroes bust in. Torin immediately whips out one of his deadliest arrows (the ones he uses to break stuff, not attack people) and lets fly with his bow, putting an arrow through one’s neck. Rumble steamrolls his earthy self into the midst of them, busting one into pieces and seriously damaging the other. Mercury teleports in and tries her disruption power, but while it does a fine job on living beings, it doesn’t seem to harm robots. Magistrate blasts away at another. Following Magistrate’s order, Mechanna uses her telekinetic abilities to yank Mr. Todd and his chair out of harm’s way, and outside with her. Inside, Atlas joins the fray, and the heroes have their way with the blinded robots, eventually smashing them all to pieces – while, all through it, the flabbergasted face on the TV demands to know what’s happening, and “who dares?!” and such.

With the robots done, Torin disconnects the camera so the face on the set can’t see them, which frustrates and angers him even more. He demands to know who dares to challenge the will of Teklord (who?). Eventually Magistrate has Torin put the camera back on, and speaks with the ranting villain. Meanwhile, Atlas decides to trace where the broadcast is coming from, and it seems to be from a satellite. Taking the most direct route, Atlas flies straight up, goes into orbit, and finds the right satellite. Too bad, it seems to be a D.E.E.P. satellite (it says so right on the side…). Seems this Teklord is piggybacking his signal off the federal satellite, and, to his credit, seems to be doing so in an untraceable way.

Mechanna and Mercury get Gary untied, and his eyesight finally comes back. Blinking, he says, in a mellow kind of enthusiasm, “Oh, great! Super-heroes. Hey, thanks! That’s awesome.” He tells them he was kidnapped, and they let him know they’re aware of that, and ask if he knows why. Suddenly coming back to the moment, he excitedly tells them yes, and runs back inside. They follow.

Gary heads up to the box and tells the heroes that this Teklord grabbed him to force him to give up some knowledge about a certain crystal. This crystal, he says, right…

…here…

The box is empty.

The face of Teklord looks down and shows both shock and rage. “Wha…where the hell’s my crystal?!” he demands. Apparently, it’s gone. The robots hadn’t actually shown it to Gary, but Teklord sure seems to think it had been in there.

Magistrate tries to keep him talking so that they might be able to have another shot at tracking him, but seeing his gambit ended, he simply rages venomously at the heroes of APEX, telling them they’ll rue the day (“rue the day?”) that they crossed the great Teklord. Vengeance will be his! With that, his cuts his signal.

While Torin and Rumble seem to eyeball the big screen TV in a covetous kind of way, and while Atlas returns (radioing their D.E.E.P. liaison, Commander Kirk Sloan, and telling him about the satellite and filling him in on what’s happening), the heroes ask Gary what’s going on, and what this crystal is Teklord was talking about.
Gary explains that he’s a crystalogist, and explains (for those not hip to new agery) that crystals are items that work as conduits to other dimensions, places, beings and energies. People use them for all kinds of things, even to draw on such spiritual abilities as astral projection, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and the like. Certain crystals are attuned to different things, and some are very special. One in particular is quite legendary, and one that he learned about personally during his many travels around the world. He, himself, got to check out the ancient texts, written in Sanskrit and carried over the Himalayas from India into Tibet centuries ago. These texts talked about a particular crystal, one that he’s been looking for for years, whose name roughly translates to the “Heart of the Three Suns”. This crystal is supposed to be able to open up a portal to a distant world, one floating between three suns, and that opening the portal would bring a being known as the “Star Child” forth. It’s been speculated (since the text doesn’t get into detail) that this Star Child has great power and wisdom and will bring this knowledge to the Earth, heralding a new golden age of enlightenment for mankind. Why someone like Teklord and his robots would want anything to do with that is anyone’s guess. But he seemed to be more interested in the portal than the Child.

Teklord somehow got his hands on the long-lost crystal and brought it to Phoenix, and had his robots fly to Sacramento and kidnap Todd so Todd could tell him more about it, and about the ritual involved with making it work. The heroes ask about the ritual. It involves the placement of other crystals around the Heart, and also requires a huge influx of cosmic/spiritual energy. Okay, why Phoenix, the heroes wonder? Why would Teklord come here, and then go through all the trouble to bring Gary here? Gary’s wondered that himself, and is at a loss.

Suddenly, though, it comes to him. Of course! The Vortex! (The what?). He tells them there’s a well-known (to new agers, at least) energy vortex in Boynton Canyon in nearby Sedona, Arizona. It’s a popular retreat for spiritualists of all kinds trying to tap into the Earths energy. That’s only a couple of hours outside of Phoenix. If someone was looking for the juice to make the ritual work, that would likely be the place to do it.

Magistrate decides they should take the jet there and see if whoever has the crystal now might be there, but he’s reluctant to take Gary, a civilian, along. But, as Gary argues, he knows the most about the thing, and the ritual, and just has to be there. Magistrate decides they’ll take George Darby along (former MI-5 commando that he is) to stay in the jet with Gary and keep him out of trouble while they find out what’s happening. The heroes head back to base, back into their jet, and are off for Sedona!

The Phoenix lands (in stealth mode) near to Boynton Canyon, located in Sedona, a place that some consider to be the new age capital of America. As it does, a video call comes through from Kirk Sloan. D.E.E.P. has arrived at the scene, at the warehouse (a warehouse whose owner already knows has been broken into, since Mechanna, using her new computer skills, tracked the owner down during the trip and called him to advise him) and found some interesting video. They tapped into the local traffic (and other security) cams and found some footage from the day before. It shows the stolen truck, with its windows blacked out (certainly because it was being driven by robots), traveling down the street…and stopping when a car in front of it, with its hood up, blocked the way. As the truck waits, the camera shows a van pulling up behind…and agents in GAUNTLET (Global Annexation Utilizing Necromancy, Technology, Lethality, Elimination and Terror) uniforms jumping out and sneaking quickly into the back of the truck. They’re quickly out and back in their van and driving away, and the car is suddenly better and drives away. Doesn’t take a genius to realize that they stole the crystal. Appears they found out about Teklord having it and swiped it for purposes of their own.

Magistrate decides that Gary should stay in the copter with Nita and George until they figure out what’s up. As their usual stealthy member, Talon, as back at the base, Magistrate decides that Torin should sneak his way over to the canyon and find out what’s up. He gives both Torin and Rumble spare APEX radios from the copter. Torin sneaks his way down, and finds something going on in one area of the canyon floor, one surrounded by rock walls. In this clearing, the crystal can be seen on a stone pedestal in the center, with some kind of shimmering field around it. Roughly circling it, some distance away, are other such pedestals with other crystals. Standing within the circle are five GAUNTLET agents and one women in a uniform that appears to give her higher rank, and they seem to be getting the ritual together. He radios the others and lets them know, and Magistrate and the team move in. Magistrate tells Nita if things get ugly to get the Phoenix and its passengers as far away as possible.

They all get a peek over the side and pick their spots, and come up with a plan. Magistrate has Mechanna use her tunneling power (her body transforms into a techno-organic cylinder when she does this) to go under the clearing and head for the crystal in the middle. He uses the tracer in her radio to track her progress and let her know when she’s in just the right spot. Then it’s time to hit it. Torin lets fly with one of his arrows, and expertly lands it right in the middle of the agents, and a bright light explodes, blinding them all (and they assume the flash most have come from the crystal). Magistrate radios “Now!” to Mechanna, and she opens up the earth beneath the pedestal and uses her telekinetic powers to yank it, and the shield-enshrouded crystal, down into her tunnel. As she does, the other heroes pounce. Atlas flies in and clocks the leader, sending her flying, and Mercury teleports in and does her disruptive touch on another agent. Magistrate blasts another while Rumble lives up to his namesake and rumbles right into two more of them, taking them out. Mechanna, meanwhile, starts heading back down her tunnel with the swiped crystal, trying to get it as far away from the ruckus as possible.

Magistrate starts flying back toward the jet, while Atlas grabs the last standing (blinded) agent and flies him, straight up, quite a ways. The agent regains his sight and looks down in terror, gasping huge breaths, unable to speak. Atlas tells him to explain, right now, what’s going on. It takes the man a few moments to be able to get enough air in his lungs to speak, and then screams out, as though the words had been trapped within him and only now were able to explode out—

“DON’T MOVE THE CRYSTAAAAAL!!!”

Oops…

Right on cue, the other crystals all light up and get surround by their own fields, and walls of energy form between them. The shimming wall shoots straight up in the sky, traveling seemingly as far as the eye can see, and the whole circle is surrounded and enclosed. Torin is just outside the circle and gets blocked out. Rumble and Mercury as left as the only heroes on the ground inside it. As they watch, a portal roughly thirty feet high (and about that far off the ground, too) opens with a roar. Inside it, a barren, alien landscape can be seen, and horrific black creatures fly to and fro. Suddenly, a mammoth figure some four meters tall leaps out and lands on the Sedona ground. It’s horrific itself, black-skinned with what look like swirls of stars moving just beneath its epidermis. It has six mammoth arms, all ending in frightening-looking claws. Its eyes and wide mouth radiate pulsing white stellar energy. And its roar shakes the ground beneath their feet.

Magistrate lands with Gary at the canyon rim and asks him what the hell THAT is. Gary seems confused and starts muttering aloud.

“Star…child? Child…child…wait, Star KILLER. Star KILLER. Oh, man. Those words are really similar to each other in Sanskrit. Star KILLER. I’m sorry. That’s…wow, that’s…my bad.”

The fearsome Star Killer spots Rumble and Mercury and stretches out its arms, preparing, apparently (clearly, from its demeanor) to attack.

Gary notes to Magistrate that the thing seems to be drawing energy from the vortex beneath them…and slowly growing. It seems reasonable that it’s just going to keep on growing and, based on its name, might, you know…destroy the Earth or the solar system or something. Magistrate asks what they’re supposed to do, and how to seal that portal up. Regretfully, Gary has to admit that destroying the long-lost crystal is probably the only way to do that. But they would also have to make sure that the creature is back on the other side of before it closes, or…well, probably good-bye humanity.

Magistrate radios all this to the team as Rumble and Mercury steel themselves, and he tells Mechanna to get it the crystal BACK to the center. The crystal is still protected by its force field, which seems really tough. Rumble draws mass and power from the earth and rocks around him and grabs the creature with all his strength. But the massively powerful beast manages to break free from the hero’s hold. Mercury then tries her own power on it, and the beast feels it, but not enough, it seems. Atlas flies back down with the captured agent and drops him as far from the fight as the force walls will allow (which isn’t much) as Rumble starts pouring everything he has, and more, into battling the increasingly angry beast. Magistrate flies down Mechanna’s tunnel, as she reaches the end of it, beneath the fight, and flies up and joins in. Atlas jumps in the fray as well. They need to get the monster back up in front of the tunnel to get it through, but it’s incredibly heavy (and fighting them). Rumble, still pushing his abilities to their limits, manages to hurl the beast upward, and Atlas flies right into it as top speed, hoping to push it back through, even it if means going through with it. But he hits its mass like it’s a brick will, and all the creature does is fall back to the Earth.

Mechanna jumps out of her hole and takes in the scene, while, at the other end of the tunnel, Torin drops in and draws one of this lethal arrows and lets it fly, expertly targeting the faraway crystal. But his arrow doesn’t penetrate the field. Mechanna, meanwhile, makes use of her telekinetic gifts to lift the Star Killer back up in front of the portal. This time, Atlas lets loose with all his armor’s energies, and twin blasts explode from his hands. The onslaught does the trick, sending the monster back into the cosmic gate, back to its own world. But the portal is still open. The creature rises and roars its rage, and devastating cosmic beams blast from its eyes and strike Atlas, sending him soaring back to collide with the energy wall, and dropping him into an unmoving heap. The creature begins to charge at the gate once more.

Exhausted and near the end of his physical endurance, Rumble leaps down into the hole and puts everything he has left into smashing the crystal’s field. Beneath his tremendous mass and fury, the field collapses, and the crystal shatters into glimmering shards. Above, just as the Star Killer leaps for the open gate, and back to the world he plans to obliterate, the portal disappears in a flash that lights up the Arizona night. And then, just like that, it’s over. The canyon is once more dark and quiet, and the stars above shine peacefully down on the group of heroes that just saved the world.

After Atlas is revived and found to be no worse for wear, the group takes the jet back to the APEX base (after delivering the GAUNTLET agents to D.E.E.P.). They have time to relax and reflect on the day’s events as George prepares a fine dinner for them all. They congratulate Mechanna…just a couple of months ago she was a scared and unsure girl, a foreigner to their world in more ways than one, and now she’s more than proved that she’s ready for life with APEX. And they have many thanks, too, for their new friends from Sacramento, two fairly new heroes (though Torin has been around a WHOLE lot longer than any of them…) who helped them stop the destruction of all mankind. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

After a nice evening, Torin and Rumble (and their new big-screen TV) get a lift from Nita back to California, and APEX, now finally a whole team, prepares to face their first week together. The team Phoenix has waited so long for is now, finally, ready for whatever fate has ready for them next.