Written by Bob Gansler

A  Title

1958. Communists, aliens, terrorists. As the nation faced these many dangers, President Eisenhower brought together the greatest heroes of the day as the Avengers. Together, they protect America from the threats of this world and of others.

Cast of Characters

Previously

Marvel Boy (Bob Grayson)  An Earthman armed with the skills and science of the Eternals of Uranus.  Gorilla-Man (Ken Hale)  A man cursed to to live in the form of a powerful gorilla. 3-D Man (Hal & Chuck Chandler)  When Hal dons a special pair of glasses, his brother Chuck emerges as the triple-power 3-D Man. Venus  Olympian goddess of love  Captain America ('Steve Rogers')  A man so devoted to original star-spangled patriot that he became him. Bucky (Jack Monroe)  A fiercely patriotic boy endowed with the Super-Soldier Formula. Cold Warrior (Will Sinkowitz)  A brilliant scientist who designed a suit that grants him the power to generate cold.

On Moreau Island, the Avengers defeated the Soviet super team, Red Star Brigade, and then the Gargoyle's creation, Supreme Soviet.

At the congressional office of California Representative Jack, Hal Chandler was hard at work. He was going over some appropriations language from a Senate version of a new scientific research bill proposed by Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, and he needed to get a report on it to the Congressman by the end of the week. Hopefully, no Avengers business would intrude that would force him to leave his desk and summon his brother, the 3-D Man.

Since the Avengers last mission to Moreau Island^*, things had been relatively quiet for America’s foremost heroes. Hal had kept in touch with his teammates via Interplanetary Cosmic Radio. Gorilla-Man had traveled back to Africa to hook up with Jann and Lorna - "getting back to nature" as Gorilla-Man had called it. Venus was dealing with some petty occult menaces that she felt confident handling solo. Captain America and Bucky were on some special assignment for Director Hoover. The Cold Warrior was back in his laboratory. Marvel Boy and the Human Robot were at the Avengers' headquarters under Heath Airfield testing the strange powers that Marvel Boy’s wristbands exhibited in the confrontation with the Supreme Soviet.

"Yep, I got a lot of work to do on this bill," Hal thought. He sharpened his pencil and continued studying the bill – the National Aeronautics and Space Bill. He looked out the window into the star-filled sky. "If this bill passes, we'll be out there, in outer space. I just have to protect the Congressman from the Skrulls. I haven't had to save him lately from those stinky green aliens." He paused for a moment. "I wonder which star they come from?"

Meanwhile, in a seedier part of town, three shadowy figures were gathered around a battered cardtable. The table sat in a dusty corner of an abandoned warehouse, the stereotypical abode of the ne’er-do-well. This trio had anything but good intentions on their minds.

"The time to strike is now," the first said. "The American government is getting very close to passing the National Aeronautics and Space Bill. If they do pass the legislation, it will make our task virtually impossible."

"You overstate the obvious and exaggerate the potential crisis, Alexm," the second figure said. "We had expected the Americans to the be first Earthmen into space, but the Soviets beat them to that with their pitiful Sputnik satellite. Now some Americans want to gear up this country to surpass the Soviets. However, we can derail this effort quite easily."

"Jessn is correct," the third added. "The driving force behind this legislation is the Congressman Jack Simon. If we can eliminate his support for the bill, I can almost guarantee it will fail."

"However, how are we to eliminate him, Neilg?" Alexm asked. "Our specialty is espionage and intelligence. Assassination is not one of our talents."

"Are we not soldiers of the Empire," Neilg retorted. "True our arms are relatively slight." He motioned towards the three futuristic ray-guns that rested on the table. "However, measures are already underway."

"That is correct," Jessn said. "With these identities we have taken, we can convince the humans to do our work for us." An errant beam of moonlight shone through the cracked window glass to reveal the forms of the three speakers as toughened gangsters. "And in case these measures do not meet with success, I have already dispatched a request for a contingent of warriors. They have already been dispatched and they should be arriving tomorrow morning."

"I’m still not convinced about this," Alexm argued. "It seems that you two have been scheming while I have been recruiting the humans. What do you plan to do with the American congressman once we have him? Kill him?"

"No," Jessn chuckled with an evil tone. "We shall subject him to the most painful interrogation techniques in the Empire. We shall uncover every iota of information that the man possesses. Then you …" Jessn pointed at Alexm. "You shall take his place and undermine all further attempts by this government to get into space."

Alexm nodded in agreement with Jessn and Neilg. "The plan is sound. I’ll go outside and get our unsuspecting human dupes." He rose from the table. While Jessn and Neilg continued conferring, Alexm returned a few minutes later with a group of lowlife gangsters. Each of the hardened men had served time in prison for their past misdeeds, but prison had done nothing to rehabilitate them.

Neilg addressed the men now gathered in the dusty room. He collected himself for a moment, taking care to use the correct syntax and grammar that would appeal to these habitual criminals. "Now look here, boys. We gots ourselves a problem. The Feds are looking to cut into our action, and we can’t let that happen, can we?"

"No way, boss", "Stinkin’ politicians", and "Whassamatta wit’ dem?" were the responses from the men.

"They’re working on some newfangled bill up on the Hill that’s gonna interfere with our … business interests," Neilg continued. "We gotta put a stop to that, right?"

"How many of them fatcats do we gotta ice?" one of the men blurted out.

"We ain’t gonna ice none of them," Neilg replied. "We just gotta nab one of them – Congressman Simon from California. He’s the ringleader, so we gotta remove him, but not permanent-like."

This statement was a distinct disappointment to some of the men. Killing a federal politician would do wonders for their reputation in the underworld. Neilg motioned for the men to stop their murmuring.

"Now neither me or Alex or Jess can take part in this operation on account of the Congressman’s gots himself a bodyguard who can ID us," Neilg explained. "The 3-D Man has been hanging around Simon every time we’ve tried to nab him before."

"The 3-D Man? He’s one of them new Avengers, ain’t he?" somebody shouted out.

"Yeah, he’s one of dem superheroes." Neilg could tell that the men were somewhat dubious about going up against 3-D Man. "Now look, you ain’t got nothing to worry about. We got a couple of heaters that’ll help you in case 3-D Man gets in the way." He motioned to Alexm and Jessn who handed to him the raygun-like pistols that were on the table. Neilg took one of the weapons and pointed it at the far wall. "Get a load of what this heater can do!" He discharged the pistol, and a powerful ray punched a hole through the wall.

"Dat’s some heater you got there!" the men exclaimed.

Neilg handed the three rayguns to the men. "We only got these three, so the rest of you’re gonna have to use your own pieces. You oughta be able to handle the kidnapping of Simon and beat off 3-D Man if he happens on the scene."

"If 3-D Man pops in, do we gotta take him alive, too?" came the question.

"No," Neilg grinned. "If the 3-D Man takes you on, put him down – permanently. Ten grand bonus for the one who ices 3-D Man."

Enthusiastic chatter rumbled through the crowd. Each of the men was hoping that he would be the one to take out 3-D Man. Neilg quieted them down and gave them some details about the Congressman’s typical schedule. They would the attempt later tonight when the Congressman left his office for the night.

After the men had departed, Neilg once again sat down with his compatriots. He sat back in his chair. "Now we wait. By midnight, Congressman Simon should be in our hands and the American efforts to get into space will be derailed."

"I certainly hope you are correct," Alexm said. He rubbed his chin with exasperation. "How I hate these faces? Can we drop these ugly disguises now?"

Jessn smiled. "I think we can do that safely now. These pink forms are hideous." His body began to shift and shimmer, as did those of Neilg and Jessn. When their bodies settled on new forms, their true forms, they stood revealed as what they truly were – Skrulls!

In nearby Virginia, the Moore family was enjoying a quiet drive through the beautiful landscape. Harris Moore was behind the wheel, driving the 1957 Ford Thunderbird. In the passenger seat was his lovely wife Helen, her brown hair protected from the cool wind by a kerchief. Their children, Frank and Lori Beth, were in the backseat playing Hangman on a pad of paper. It was an idyllic scene.

"I’m so glad that we decided to take this family vacation, Frank," Helen announced. "We hardly ever get much time to spend as a family back in Central City, what with your late nights at the plant and all of Frank’s extracurriculars."

"I am, too, honey," Harris replied. His job and … other duties had come at the expense of quality time with his family. For him, this vacation was for Harris Moore only. "I have to say that Frank’s going to grow up into something special. With his sharp Sherlock Holmes-like mind, he could be a crack detective."

"I’m going to play football, Dad," Frank shouted forward as he solved the word that Lori Beth had chosen. "I want to bust heads, not bust crime."

"You still have time to decide, son," Harris chuckled and focused his attention once again on the road. It was an immensely enjoyable vacation so far. Harris hoped that would last.

It was nearing the end of the day, literally, when Congressman Simon finally decided to head home for the night. Hal Chandler was still busy at the desk, apparently still poring over the appropriations language. Simon donned his hat as he approached Hal’s desk. "You don’t have to stay in the office all night just because I do, son."

Hal’s head popped up quickly. He had been sleeping, although the darkness and his glasses had hidden the fact that his eyes were closed. "Well, er, it’s no problem, sir. I’m just trying to pull my own weight at the office."

"You don’t have to worry about that, son," Simon chuckled. "You already get twice as much done as any other staffer in this office."

Hal blushed. "Well, thank you, sir. That’s very kind of you to say."

"I’m the one who’s thanking you, Hal." Simon draped his jacket over his shoulder. "Can I give you a ride back to your apartment?"

"Actually, I was going to walk home, sir," Hal replied.

"Walk? With your, er, condition? Nonsense, lad. This city can be a dangerous place, and I’m not just talking about the Republicans. Pack your things and let’s get going. I want to give Mrs. Simon a call back in California, but even with the time difference, it’s almost past her bedtime."

"All right, sir." Hal hurried to collect his things and stuff them in his bag. He wished that he had not fallen asleep. If he had not, he could have left earlier and then been able to keep an eye on the Congressman. Now, traveling in the car with him, it would be easier to keep that eye on him. However, it could be more difficult to safely summon 3-D Man if trouble arose. Still, it had been a few weeks since the Skrulls had made their last attempt at Simon, though the Congressman was completely oblivious to the fact that he was a target. Perhaps those green-skinned aliens had finally given up in their efforts, Hal hoped.

Coming out of the parking lot, Congressman Simon turned the car east towards Hal’s apartment building. They had only gone one block when they were suddenly passed by another car. The other vehicle then angled itself into their lane, forcing Simon to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision.

"What in Sam Hill?!?" Simon shouted. "What kind of maniac is driving that car?" He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned towards Hal. "You stay here, son. I’m going to give this fellow a piece of my mind."

"OK, sure, sir," Hal said sheepishly. Once Simon had gotten out of the car, he reached for his special glasses hidden in the inside lining of his jacket. "This doesn’t feel right. Better bring 3-D Man in to check it out." He slipped on the glasses and concentrated on the red and green image on each of the lenses, and then he promptly passed out.

"Now, Hal?" Simon turned back to see that the young aide was slumped over. "Hmm, asleep. The boy is working too hard." He proceeded towards the car that stood diagonally across the lane in front of him. "Now see here," Simon exclaimed. "I’m a United States Congressman. What’s the meaning of this?"

A half-dozen men emptied out of the car, brandishing their weapons. One of them, who was carrying a Skrull pistol, spoke up. "We know who you are, Simon. You’re coming with us." The Congressman took a step back.

"We’ll see about that!" a voice boomed. Everyone turned to see the red and green form of the 3-D Man leaping over Simon’s car.

"The 3-D Man!" the gangsters yelled in unison. "Get him!"

3-D Man crashed headfirst into the gangsters, bowling a number of them over. He was up again almost instantly, swinging triple-powered punches at any crook that came close to him.

"Get back in the car, and get yourself and Hal out of here!" 3-D Man shouted back towards the Congressman.

Simon hesitated for a few moments and then scampered back towards the car. His thoughts were so frantic that he did not dwell on how 3-D Man knew that Hal Chandler was in the car.

"Gun him down!" the gangsters yelled at each other, but they actually were afraid to shoot each other in the effort. 3-D Man realized this and made sure that he kept close to all of them as he ducked, dodged, and delivered bone-crushing punches.

The gangsters with the Skrull pistols were more than eager to blast 3-D Man with the weapons, but they had too much loyalty to their comrades to risk burning a hole through one of them. Meanwhile, Simon had restarted his car and shifted it into reverse. The tires squealed as he backed the car up and then turned the wheel hard to point the car away from the battle.

"Hey, Simon’s getting away!" one the gangsters howled.

"No, he ain’t!" came the reply from one of the Skrull-pistol-toting criminals. He fired repeatedly as Simon tried to drive away. The blasts melted sizable holes in the body of the car.

3-D Man turned for a moment to see the effect that the energy beams had on Simon’s car. "Holy moley! I’ve seen that before! So this is a Skrull plot." He lashed out and knocked the Skrull pistol from the gangster’s hand with a karate shop to the forearm. The gangsters’ attention was focused once again on him. "Now the Congressman’ll get away!" he boasted while he continued to struggle with them.

"Dat’s what you think, 3-D," a gangster responded with a hearty laugh. His words were followed by two consecutive sounds of tires screeching. Another car full of gangsters cut off Simon. The vehicle had been waiting a few blocks behind, but now it entered the fray.

"Nuts!" 3-D Man muttered. Though he was connecting with punch after punch, these fellows were a tough bunch. They kept on getting up for more punishment. Simon’s car was stalled two blocks down the street. 3-D Man could not make it down there without making himself a helpless target to these gunsels. "If they can shoot as well as they fight, I’d be Swiss cheese before I got there. Seems they want the Congressman alive, though."

A gangster jumped on 3-D Man’s back, but the Human Triple Threat shrugged him off and sent him bouncing into his comrades. However, he still could not put them down for the count. "There’s just too many of them," he thought. He could see that the other gangsters were now stuffing Simon and the comatose Hal into their car. "Darn it, they got ‘em, and they’re going to take them who knows where."

Quickly ducking, 3-D Man caused two gangsters who were rushing at him from either side to crash into each other. Then an idea struck him. "Who knows where? I’ll know where!" He hated to do it, but this was one fight he was going to run away from. He clobbered another gangster with an elbow to the head, and then triple-powered jumped over their car. Reaching under the car, he lifted it and sent it tumbling towards the criminals. They opened fire on the car, riddling it with bullets and energy blasts.

3-D Man took advantage of their preoccupation with the car and raced away as fast as his triple-speed could carry him. "Gotta contact the rest of the Avengers and hope they get to wherever they’re taking Simon soon!"

Within the hour, a contingent of the Avengers had replied to 3-D Man’s call over Interplanetary Cosmic Radio and gathered at the Washington Monument. Marvel Boy and Human Robot had flown from Long Island in the newly refurbished Silver Bullet, while Venus came across town from her solo mission.

"Where’s the rest of the gang," 3-D Man asked impatiently. He could feel the time ticking away. Every moment was precious now. Already he had to waste time getting back to and then breaking into Hal’s apartment in order to use the ICR.

"No word about Cap and Bucky," Marvel Boy replied. "I tried talking with Director Hoover, but all he would say was that they couldn’t be pulled away. He also said that Cold Warrior was unavailable."

"Did you tell him what the emergency was?" 3-D Man asked.

"No, because you didn’t mention it in your broadcast," Marvel Boy retorted.

"Oh, yeah that’s right," 3-D Man said sheepishly. "Hoover’s paranoid enough already. I don’t think that he’d be willing to have his ‘boys’ help against a threat that he probably wouldn’t accept exists."

"So what is the emergency?" Marvel Boy was becoming impatient. He wondered how agitated Gorilla-Man would be by this time. He had tried again on the trip to Washington to contact the man-beast, but apparently Gorilla-Man was not carrying his ICR with him wherever he was in Africa.

"The Skrulls nabbed Congressman Simon and my little brother," 3-D Man said hurriedly.

"The Skrulls?" Venus asked. "The aliens that were responsible for your creation?"

"Exactly." 3-D Man felt that his heartbeat was counting the seconds. Time was running out.

"How did they manage to surprise you and kidnap the Congressman?" The Human Robot inquired. "You had claimed that you were sensitive to their presence."

"I am, but they weren’t." 3-D Man sputtered. "I mean, they weren’t Skrulls, but a couple of them were packing pistols, Skrull-made energy blasters. They were just crooks who must be working for the Skrulls, though they probably don’t know it."

"Congressman Simon is in the hands of those ugly aliens? How horrible!" Venus commented.

"The Skrulls are a real threat," Marvel Boy declared. "We know of them on Uranus."

"Then aren’t we too late? Wouldn’t the Skrulls have harmed the poor congressman and Hal by now?" Venus felt sorrow for them.

"No, the gangsters were definitely trying to kidnap him. My guess is the Skrulls will want to impersonate him. Before they can do that, though, they need to find out what he has inside of his head. And if I know how stubborn the Congressman is, it’ll be a long while before they can get that information out of him." 3-D Man was confident about this, though he was unsure of what might befall his brother.

"This assumes that the Skrulls do not possess some advanced technology that would allow them to take information directly from Congressman Simon’s brain," the Human Robot noted dryly.

"Or that they’re telepathic, like me," Marvel Boy pointed out.

"We can only hope." 3-D Man shrugged.

"All right, we need to begin a search for the Skrull lair. Venus, you take the northeastern section of the city. HR, you’ll get …"

"Hold on a minute," 3-D Man interrupted. "We don’t need to do that. Why do you think I ran away from the fight? They have Hal. I’m linked to Hal. I can’t precisely pinpoint his location while they’re moving. But once they get to wherever it is they’re going, I can lock on to him. Then we can storm them."

"You should have dealt with them," Marvel Boy snapped back. "With my telepathy, I could have discovered the location of their lair from them."

"Excuse me," 3-D Man objected. "I couldn’t be sure that the first group knew where the second group might be taking them. Besides, I didn’t remember that telepathy was one of you many skills."

"You’d do well to remember it next time," Marvel Boy huffed.

"Boys, boys." Venus stepped between Marvel Boy and 3-D Man. "You two seem willing to take up the antagonism that 3-D Man and Gorilla-Man seem to share. Let’s not fight amongst ourselves. Let’s wait for 3-D Man to get a fix on the position and then we can go in for the rescue."

"Very well," Marvel Boy sighed. "This assumes that they don’t just dump Hal somewhere else."

The gangsters had brought the struggling Congressman Simon and the comatose Hal Chandler into the warehouse. They had to drag Simon towards the three disguised Skrull agents. The unconscious Hal presented no such struggle.

"Here you go, bosses. One US Congressman," one of the gangsters announced.

"Very good," Alexm replied. "Who is this unconscious boy?"

"One of the Congressman’s working stiffs. We didn’t know if you wanted to squeeze him for some information, too."

"Maybe," Jessn commented. "How’d the operation go down? Any trouble?"

"Yeah, the 3-D Man came bouncing in, but we held him off. We didn’t ice him, though."

"No matter." Neilg would have preferred that the 3-D Man would have been destroyed, but netting the Congressman was success enough for the operation. "We’ll grill the Congressman and the kid now. You guys can go on home. Leave the heaters on the table."

The three gangsters who had been entrusted with the alien weapons dutifully left them on the table. The gangsters noisily filed out of the warehouse, leaving the three Skrull agents with Simon and Hal. The Congressman had been tied up to a metal folding chair while Hal had been dumped on the floor with his hands fastened behind his back.

"What is the meaning of this?" Simon demanded to know.

The three agents closed in on Simon. Their faces were only a few uncomfortable inches from his.

"We want to know everything about American space capability," Jessn began. "Then we’ll want to know everything about you."

Simon shook his head. "You’ll never get anything out of me. I served in the War, spent two years as a POW in Japan. You won’t get me to talk."

"Oh, no?" Alexm chuckled. "Not even with forms of torture that you can’t even begin to comprehend? Not even with forms you couldn’t begin to comprehend?" His body began to shift to resemble that of a reptilian Badoon while Neilg transformed into a troll-like creature.

Simon blinked his eyes a few times. He could not believe what he was seeing. "What the hell?" He blinked some more. "Did you drug me already?"

The three Skrull agents laughed. They certainly enjoyed the confusion that Simon was suffering.

Jessn transmuted into a slimy octopoid beast. His tentacles slowly moved across Simon’s body. "You will tell us everything you know!"

Suddenly a section of the north-facing wall came crumbling into the warehouse. When the dust and timber settled, the Human Robot was standing in the middle of the newly created opening. The Mechanical Marvel began kicking some of the wooden shards away to clear a path.

"Go, Avengers, Go!" the Human Robot’s tinny voice declared.

Marvel Boy, 3-D Man and Venus came rushing in. They quickly took size of the situation and noted that there the only inhabitants were three creatures and the kidnapping victims.

"Those things are the Skrulls!" 3-D Man shouted, sensing the Skrulls’ presence. "Be careful, they’re tricky when they change shapes!" Just then he could feel a pain in his head. He looked over and saw Hal’s body go into convulsions. He staggered for a moment.

Venus noted 3-D Man’s discomfort. "What’s wrong? Is it from sensing the Skrulls?"

"No, it’s not that." 3-D Man grimaced. "My time is up. It's been three hours since Hal summoned me. I could stay, but it could harm Hal. Already it’s affecting him." He pointed over to Hal’s convulsing body. "Sorry gang, but I have to vanish." Concentrating for a moment, the 3-D Man’s body split into two forms – one red and one green. Each body shrunk as it streamed towards Hal’s glasses.

"The Avengers!" Neilg blurted. "They’ve found us, but the hated 3-D Man has fled." He rushed to the table, followed closely by his comrades. They each grabbed a pistol and pointed it at the heroes. "You can’t stand up to Skrull technology." They each picked a target and fired.

Marvel Boy was not sure what type of energy the Skrull weaponry employed, but he was certain that his bands could absorb it. His tests conducted with the help of the Human Robot at Heath Airfield had shown that he could absorb every sort of energy flow they could devise. He thrust his arms forward and concentrated. The blast that Neilg had directed towards him harmlessly flowed into the jewels about his bands.

Venus looked on the weapons with disgust. Did every race in the universe exist with the lust of Mars in their hearts? Earth was just one world to which the message of love needed to be brought, but there were countless others that were in need as well. "It’s a good thing I’m an immortal. Bringing love to all worlds will take a long time," Venus thought as she tried to duct from the raybeam that Jessn fired. She was a tad too slow and the blast burned a significant mark on her Olympian skin.

The Human Robot marched defiantly towards Alexm. On the outside, it appeared that he was simply shrugging off the effects of the rayblast. On the inside, his circuits were taxed to the limit trying to offset the tremendous heat that the raybeam was imparting to his mechanical form. By his calculations, he would reach the Skrull before a point of heat overload was reached.

The Skrulls began to panic as they realized their weapons would not be nearly as effective as they hoped. They began to retreat from the Avengers’ advance.

"They should have supplied us with military-grade hardware," Alexm cried out as he continued to pointlessly pump energy into Marvel Boy’s bands. Finally their retreat led them to a solid wall. The three Avengers converged and Marvel Boy began absorbing the energy from all three Skrull weapons. The Human Robot picked up a table and hurled it at the three aliens. The legs of the table punctured the wooden wall, and the flat surface of the table pinned the Skrulls against the wall. Venus moved slightly to the side to avoid the direct line of Skrull fire. Closing in on the aliens, she reached over and touched their weapons. Instantly the pistols transformed into hand shovels.

"By Skrullos!" Alexm cursed. "What power is this?"

"The power of love," Venus replied. "Any weapon is transformed at the touch of Venus." Her eyes sparkled with brilliance.

The eyes of the Skrull agents were transfixed. They saw Venus now as the epitome of Skrull beauty. While they were dazed by her beauty, they could not think about transforming into some shape to escape their entrapment. The Human Robot reached over and discharged a mild electric shock from his battery into them. The Skrulls fell unconscious and reverted to their true forms.

Marvel Boy had untied Congressman Simon and had also roused Hal Chandler. He led them over towards the three downed Skrull agents. Simon looked with disbelief at the Skrulls.

"You have my thanks, Avengers," Simon said gratefully. "But are those things really aliens?"

"They are, sir," Marvel Boy replied. He put his arm around the Congressman’s shoulder. "Let’s get you out of here, sir. We’ll deal with the aliens." He called back to his comrades. "Load them onto the Silver Bullet outside. We’ll take them back to Heath Airfield where we can hold them in something that their shape-shifting won’t allow them to escape."

Outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, a cloaked Skrull military transport ship was passing through the orbit of the Soviet Sputnik satellite. As much as the pilot wanted to blast the annoying little metal craft, he knew that it would be against orders. He just wanted to put the ship down so they could deal with the situation that the agents in America had reported.

Suddenly, red warning lights began flashing all over his control board. He quickly determined the cause – a surge of cosmic radiation was affecting almost all systems. He tried to go to backup systems, but they were being affected. There was only one thing to do. He pressed the "EVACUATE" button.

Once he pressed it, the entire craft was filled with the sound of the evacuation siren. All of the soldiers went towards the two escape vehicles, one on the starboard side, one port side. The pilot stayed at the controls for as long as he could before he hurried towards the starboard escape craft. Once he was in, the two escape craft unlocked from the transport and fired their retro-rockets to slow their descent through the atmosphere.

The friction of the atmosphere began burning up the abandoned transport. Metal began to slag and vaporize. Finally the fuel cells succumbed to the hellish heat and detonated. The explosion rocked the escape pods, upsetting the automatic navigation systems. One of the pods continued on course to the destination in the Washington, DC, vicinity while the other headed for the opposite side of the globe.

At a northeastern Virginia motel, Harris Moore had gone back outside to make sure that the car was locked. As he fumbled with his keys, he noticed the uncommonly large shooting star that was streaking through the sky.

"That looks rather familiar," he thought. It looked like it was coming down not far from his location. "That didn’t look all that natural, I’d better check it out."

He called up to the second level room that the family had rented. "Honey!" When Helen popped her head out the door, Harris continued. "I’m going to go into town and get some breakfast for tomorrow."

"All right, hurry back." Helen replied.

Harris got in the car and drove about a mile away from the motel. Parking the car in the woods, he opened the trunk and took out a set of clothes hidden in the spare tire compartment. He slipped out of his clothes and into the red and gold costume. Fixing his crested mask in place, he was finally ready. He took off into the air, leaving behind him a lightning-like trail in the sky. "This looks like a job for the Comet!" he declared.

FLASHBACKWORDS