Dazzler 39: Warrens Angels

Pages 1-2: Dazzler

The opening panel is a shot of an LA bar bursting to the gills with people (not terribly difficult since it’s not a huge bar), all watching the stage, where Alison Blaire stands singing. It’s a bar we’ve seen many times before, as Alison has been performing old standards and torch songs with piano accompaniment there as evening entertainment for six months. We’ve never seen it this crowded, however. Not the bar, or the stage, which in addition to Alison and Julia Walker on the piano there’s now a bassist and drummer working on a reduced kit that looks just a little ridiculous given his oversized frame* At the bar we see the owner very happy with having his relatively cheap and under contract for another week singer having packed the house.

[*BR: this is Beefer, Dazz’s drummer since issue 10. He’s memorable because he’s both fat and always hungry. Hysterical!]

‘’Wise at last My eyes at last Are cutting you down to your size at last Bewitched, bothered and bewildered no more

Burned a lot But learned a lot And now you are broke, though you earned a lot Bewitched, bothered and bewildered no more

Couldn't eat Was dyspeptic Life was so hard to bear; Now my heart's antiseptic Since you moved out of there

Romance-Finis Your chance-finis Those ants that invaded my pants-finis Bewitched, bothered and bewildered no more.’’

There’s a decent array of applause when she finishes, but Alison can feel Beefer’s eyes boring into the back of her head trying to tell her to forget the owner’s preferred playlist and pick up the tempo, since much of the crowd is here because of her recent, successful and definitely more rocking concert a few days back.

Alison thinks, ‘‘Jeeze Beefer, remember who's paying the bills. It's not what *I* want to be playing today either’‘, but pushes her irritation aside and grabs the mike:

"Are you ready to dance?!!!"

As the crowd reacts, she turns to the band: "They're loosening up, so we'll take it uptempo. Give me *Respect* on three -- the Franklin version, not the Redding, OK?"

And on a loud three-count, launches into a smokin' version of the Motown standard..

‘’*What you want, baby, I got it What you need? You know I got it All I'm askin' is for a little respect when you get home*’’

As she sings, she scans the crowd to see whether anyone she recognizes has shown up tonight.

Near a brunette kid who's been to every other concert for the past two weeks, Dazzler sees a familiar looking redhead, not dancing, just standing off to the side and watching the crowd. And the stage. She's wearing green leggings and jacket, and a gold-colored shirt, making the resemblance (if it's not just identity) even more striking.

‘‘Why does that girl look familiar? I don't remember seeing her at a show...and I'm not too sure I like the way she's watching this one.’‘

The roar from the crowd as she rounds out the song washes those concerns out of her head. The evening continues with an alternation between Great American Songbook standards and Motown classics recently bought back into the radio consciousness by the antics of a pair of late-night comedians. Glancing at her band Alison can easily see the comfort differences between her pianist and drummer in these two styles, but for now it threads the needle with her boss - who wouldn't know an Elvis Costello tune if it bit him on the head - and her audience. For Alison the chance to perform live to an appreciative crowd, even is such a cramped venue, is more than enough and she pours her heart and soul into the performance.

The club owner recently changed the marquee to include the name Dazzler alongside Alison Blare, so she can let her emotions leak out as light as she gets into the rocking parts of the set, the lightshow being part of Dazzler's trademark. The audience is transfixed by the display, and when she closes out on _No Moon at All_ and drops the lightshow at the same moment the houselights go down the crowd stands silent for a minute and then erupts.

Later, after the show, Julia corners her "How did you do that? I know this place isn't rigged for a lightshow?"

"I have some gear. It's really nothing special..."

Beefer steps in, "Don't let her modesty fool you - a friend of Alison rigged up some micro-transducers that she's always used for the lightshow. Heck, get a dozen wings and a beer or two into me and I'll tell you about the time a mad technician kidnapped her and our agent to try to find out how they worked...."

"And that story is far more interesting than me explaining how the things work. Hey Beefer, that reminds me -- did you see anyone you recognized at tonight's show?"

"No one usual. Why, have we picked up another super-villain mystery stalker?" Beefer asks. "I swear, playing with you gets really dangerous."

‘‘But you know that already, don't you, Julia?.’‘ dazz thinks

"And on that note," Julia says, "I'm heading home. Arnold is probably waiting up." She tosses her bag over her shoulder and leaves with a tense wave.

Beefer waits until he's sure she's gone and then says "She's nice Dazz, but she's holding you back. This whole gig, it's a step sideways at best. I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll and that lady, she's not the bride."

"I owe her, Beef." Alison's mouth sets in a determined line. "When things were really bad last year, she helped keep me focused. And in a way, she's making her own comeback, too."

She shakes her head and looks up with a grin: "Besides, this is all part of my cunning plan. I'm building a fan base here that will go anywhere to hear me sing, and they'll be the perfect audience to help me develop my own songs. I'm tired of doing nothing but covers and the cheesy pop promoters think should come out of a girl's mouth. If Suzanne Vega and Natalie Merchant can write their own material and find an audience who loves it, there's no reason I can't do it too."

Beefer looks dubious, "Are you sure...? Dazz, I'm a session drummer, and I'm pretty good at it. I thought maybe I'd latched on to the big time when we started playing together because you're really damn good, but you keep stalling. You had all that opening publicity, the singer with the super-hero groupies, and then vanished for weeks. Harry pushes and prods and gets you the opening spot on Bruce Harris tour here on the coast and you blow the freakin’ doors off until the soon to be has been drops us for showing him up and then you... fade out again, scrape out some work, refuse to hit the West Coast then when the iron is hot and Harry has to start over from scratch. He finally scores us another big gig, you blow the doors off and then disappear for what, eight months? while your single climbs the charts, tops out at #12 and drops."

"So Harry sets you up with Millie, and they push and prod and get you a decent rock venue here in LA and you, as usual blow the freakin doors off and now, as usual, are fading into singing standard and Motown to people who are coming to hear you rock." He looks sympathetic, "I know why - you prioritized your family, your super-hero friends" he's got a sotto conspiratorial tone here, as he knows it's not just her friends that are super-human, "and you had good reason. You’re a good person, your family was in trouble, you needed to help. But you have to start prioritizing the music. Most people don't ever get a bite at the apple, Dazz. You just had you're third and you're still trying to figure out if you like apple.*"

"Me, I can get session drumming work here, or in New York, make rent, no problem; I can beat skins with you for as long as you help me make rent, and a few months past that. But the rest of the band? They're back in New York, taking care of kids, paying mortgages. As a friend I'm asking you to think about what you want to do, whether you want to do the family thing or the music thing or the" he mimes what she figures is firing some sort of energy blast, "thing. Because if you want to do the music thing, it's got to come first."

[*ED: this musically biased recap of the last 38 issues of Dazzler brought to you by Exposition International!]

Alison frowns. "I get your point, but I think there are a lot more options for success now. A blistering rise up the charts and a fight to stay on top used to be the only game in town, but all the new indie labels give us the option of growing an audience more organically. It'll be slower, sure -- but it'll also be a lot more flexible. Y'know how both Aukerman and Graffin took breaks to finish their degrees the last couple of years? They're both recording new albums now, and people are still flocking to their shows. *That's* the kind of audience I want to build. Because this thing," (miming the energy blasting back at Beefer) "simply isn't going to go away."

Beefer grabs his coat, and says "I'd offer to walk you home, but we all know you can kick the ass of anyone who tries to mug you whereas my fight utility is limited at best. See you for tomorrow night's set?"

"Sure thing. Sleep well!"

Pages 3-5: Dazzler, Ariel & Phoenix

"Wait -- is that car following me?" Glancing back she can see that the mysterious redhead from the club is in the limo.

"It's that girl from the club -- the one that was watching me instead of the show. Oh god, another agent? Can't these people take a hint?"

"I'm still a few blocks from home -- and it's too quiet to blind them. I'll have to run for it. I've got my skates, and there's a one-way street coming up..."

(In the panel, we see Alison reach inside her purse...)

The limo, with his perfectly functioning muffler producing next to no noise, starts up pull up closer to her and the window slides down with ominous silence….

And Alison throws her skates onto the ground, jumps onto them and takes off down the next street -- going the wrong way down the one-way avenue.

Rachel slips from the car, and moves through the alley in Alison's trail, staying out of sight as only an expert can, and using discreet bursts of flight to help her keep up.

Kitty also leaves the car, in a normal fashion, and vanishes into an alley paralleling the street Alison took - to take immaterial flight where it's less likely to be noticed, and trying to get ahead of Alison.

We see a frame dominated by a forward view of Alison skating down the street toward the next intersection (with speed lines showing the reader that she's really truckin'): (thought balloon) "I think she's still following me. I'll give her something to chase..."

We see a close up of Alison’s face as she engages in furious concentration, “Just have to…not…lose my balance. Haven’t…tried this in…a long time… and I’m using the…energy from…the club…”

And in the next frame, we see Alison split in two, as she creates a hologram copy of herself. The hologram keeps skating forward into the intersection, while the real Alison ducks to one side to hide in a doorway -- which is when she runs smack into (through?) Kitty.

“AAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!“

"You?", cries Alison, "No! ...You're dead!"

And without significantly slowing, she leaps up, caroms off the wall of the doorway with her skates, and speeds off in the opposite direction -- down the street parallel to the one where the limo was following her, back in the direction of the club.

"Eep!" says Kitty, considerably surprised by Alison's sudden change of direction.

On that side street there is a car containing at least a quartet of late night college student partiers, their muffler broken and their radio banging with a deep base to the frustration of everyone on the street except one beautiful blonde mutant.

Alison's course is arrested as the redhead trips her, the impact luckily gentle. "Why are you running from us? We're friendly!"

Alison's face is pure snarl. "That's what they always say, right before they throw a bag over your head and lock you in a basement."

And she gathers in the deep thrumming base and throws it at Rachel's face as a Dazzling burst of light.

The flare bursts forth from her hands - variegated pulses of color and strobes of light overwhelming the redhead's senses and undermining her very consciousness. She is, in short, dazzled.

Once the girl drops, the light still coruscating around her head, Alison takes off down the street on her skates to the cheers and whistles of the semi-inebriated college students.

‘‘What is going on? How can Ariel be here? Warren said they all died fighting the Brood. Could he have been wrong?’‘

Kitty has decided to put on her mask, and now catches up and paces Alison pretty easily, not having to dodge cars or pedestrians. "You've really been out of touch, Alison! I'm definitely not dead."

Alison keeps skating. "Prove it."

"Remember the brunch in the city with Ororo and Jessica? When I wanted a mimosa and the crazy albino in the hat kidnapped me?"

Alison skids to a stop, her eyes wide.

"It really is you! ... Kitty, Warren told me you all died fighting the Brood two years ago -- why hasn't anyone let me know you were OK?"

Her cheeks flush red with embarrassment as she realizes how much she's overreacted. "And I think I just stunned your friend."

"I didn't know he'd told you that!" Kitty protests, stopping when Alison does. "And don't you watch the news?! Or are we just an East Coast thing?"

Just then a shadow of wings falls across them, "I'm afraid that's my fault."

Stan Lee presents the Shining Superstar in: Warren’s Angels Credits Box: Written by Diane "Dazzler" Kelly Penciled by Myles "Nightcrawler" Corcoran Inked by Lisa "Colossus" Padol Colored by Kris "Ariel" Keegan Lettered by Joshua "Phoenix" Kronengold Edited by Brian Rogers Rachel Rogers, Editor in Chief

Pages 6-7: Everyone

The next page is the interior of a fancy French restaurant, which at 3 in the morning is populated only by our heroes and a busboy who is dropping off some divine appetizers.

“<Thanks Ramon, and thank Anatoli for me – these are way more than I expected when I asked if you could scrounge up something>” Warren says in Spanish.

“De Nada, Mr. Worthington,” the young man nods, smiling, knowing the busboy cred he’ll get from the story of having served the flamboyant millionaire and his three gorgeous dates in an otherwise empty restaurant.

“So anyway,” Warren says when Ramon has backed away, “Things were a bit chaotic last time I saw you Alison* and I forgot to mention that the reports of their death were premature. Sorry for the confusion.”

[*Ed: Warren was too busy taking a bullet for Alison back in issue 27!]

"I ought to be mad at you, Warren." Alison says, with a mock glare, "But I'm really just glad that Kitty's OK." She laughs. "But really, why the cloak-and-dagger middle-of-the-night-contact shtick? Haven't any of you heard of the telephone?"

"It wasn't supposed to be cloak and dagger in the first place," the red-haired woman says. "We were planning on meeting you after your show, and arranging an informal meeting. But when you booked, we weren't sure what was going on.

"No hard feelings, by the way--I knew to pull my punches; you didn't."

"I'm glad. I don't need any more people nursing grudges against me in this town." Alison smiles at Warren and Kitty. "So, which one of you is going to introduce us?"

"Oops," Warren says, "Alison, this is Rachel Summers, the latest Phoenix. She's been with the team for about 6 months now, having come from an... interesting place."

Alison nods. "It's very nice to meet you, Rachel. Well, it looks like you've got your informal meeting -- what did you want to ask me?"

"It's very nice to meet you as well, Alison," Rachel says, "as to what we're asking--we've got a job offer for you, of sorts. We've been working on a campaign to change the perception of mutants in general -- give people a chance to see us as the neighbors and friends we are, not just the terrorists and superheroes they see in the news. As part of that, we've set up a prime time dramatic mystery show with mutant characters in key roles. None of the main actors will be known mutants--though I could see inviting known, law-abiding mutants into guest roles in the second season, if it has a second season. But something like this will likely draw fire, and not just words, so it would be good to have some closeted mutants among the cast, just in case.

"So the question is, Alison Blaire--are you interested in starring in your own show?"

(We see Alison from behind, with a clear view of Warren, Kitty, and Rachel's faces around the table)

"You probably already know -- in this town you need to talk to my agent about the details before anything's settled."

(And our viewpoint swings around to Alison's grinning face, where tiny sparks of light seem to be dancing around her hair.)

"But yes... yes! I'm very interested!"

Kitty smiles at Alison's enthusiasm. "We weren't planning to tell your agent the ulterior motive - unless you want us to," she says. The appearance of the comic panels turns into a couple of storyboard-style sketches as she goes on, showing the various characters she talks about. "The idea is for a kind of noir-ish show, with a private detective investigating various things. The role we have in mind for you is his sometimes-girlfriend, who's a torch singer at the bar he uses as an office, and has a bit of limited precognition. The writers will be working in other mutants as background and bit characters, but yours will be the main mutant character, as far was they've gotten with their plotting."

"I'm kind of looking forward to seeing it," she adds, in a panel that again shows her, and Alison listening.

"That does sound interesting." Alison says, "Are you planning to play the mystery angle for suspense, or are you trying to mix in romantic comedy -- like in Remington Steele or that new Moonlighting show?"

"We don’t have the same luxuries Moonlighting has in terms of budget," Warren laughs, "But it's much more a drama than a comedy, but depending on the chemistry you have with the male lead we might bring more romance into it. Your part will only have screen time for about one-third of each episode - the opening sequence in the nightclub and time at the start in the second or third act where either her precognition provides a critical clue or where talking or listening to her helps the lead clarify what he needs to do to crack the case. We will need someone to do the show's theme and provide a musical interlude every week. And that's why we thought of you."

"All right, it's not a starring role, exactly," Rachel says, smiling, "But it's a good role, and showcases your strengths--those that aren't too hot for television, anyway."

Alison nods. "Fair enough. You know I'm interested, at least in theory. The role does play to my strengths. But I'll want to read the first couple of scripts before anything's final, and you *do* need to go through my agent for the official negotiations -- she'll be pissed if she can't earn her 15%. And the "unofficial" part of the job? You know I always step up to protect my friends. If someone tries to target the set, I'll certainly do my best to stop it."

Suddenly, she looks grim. "But if protecting the cast is the unofficial part of the contract, I want to add an unofficial clause of my own. I want you to help me find my sister."

Kitty sits up straight, looking concerned. "What? Details, please."

Alison looks toward the faint noise of cooking at the back of the empty restaurant. "Is there somewhere a little more private where we can talk about it?"

Pages 8-9 Everyone

The next page opens with an establishing shot of the LA Skyscraper that was the Champions HQ, with Angel's word balloon coming from inside it saying "really, the residence floor is the only safe one to be on..."*

[ED: to find out why, consult Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider Man #18!]

The next panel shows everyone in what was the Champions break room that has been refurnished into an extended living space with a lovely view of the city. Warren goes on, "I'm never going to unload this white elephant, so I converted this floor into my apartments while I'm in LA. Which generally keeps me out of LA these days."

“Now that we're alone, Alison," Warren finishes, looking concerned, "What happened to Lois?"

"That's the problem," says Alison, "I don't know. I haven't heard from her for five months."

(The next few panels pair Alison's voiceover with flashback images recapping the Alison/Lois backstory:)

"We'd been fighting about her father after we moved out here -- he's a top-rank jerk who tries to takes advantage of everyone he meets, and I didn't want to have anything to do with him. But she really wanted him to be, well, her dad. We were barely speaking by October."

"And then she just...vanished. Her father thinks she went back home to New York, but unlike him, I actually talk to my mom so I know Lois isn't there."

"'Warren, I'm afraid she may have done something drastic. She was really scared about getting charged in the New York case, and wasn't at all happy about being a mutant."

Warren frowns, "Well, it might be a bit presumptuous, but I think you can consider the resource of both the X-Men and the Defenders at your disposal. At least the parts of it in this room. Lois' father at least knows me after the last time I was in LA, so I can get in to talk to him about what happened. I can also get a detective agency on retainer to check into it. I think my contributions will be minimal compared to the ladies however."

He looks over at Rachel and Kitty to see what they could recommend.

"I think we can do as well as a detective," Kitty says. "Was she living with her father, Alison, or somewhere else?"

"She was living with Mr. Brown until she disappeared," says Alison. "He says she left a note explaining that she missed Mom, but then she never showed up at my mother's place in New York. So I pulled in some favors to poke around, but all we found out as that Lois isn't using her credit cards. Oh, and Brown did some remodeling right after she disappeared, but that might just be a coincidence. If someone tried to kidnap Lois, her powers would leave a lot more damage behind than some scuffed paint or broken furniture -- even though she hates her powers, I can't think she wouldn't try to defend herself, . Flicker thought that maybe someone paid Lila Cheney to teleport her away, but if that were true you'd think there'd be a ransom demand or something!"

"Possibly," Rachel says, "we don't know why she was taken. Maybe it was for a reason other than ransom. But it's the remodeling that interests me; I'm guessing there's more than meets the eye there. Warren, do you want to visit Brown? I can play your assistant--and see whatever he wants to hide."

"That ought to get us in the door," Warren agrees. "I'll also get a detective agency on retainer to track down Lois' credit and job history, see if she's popped her head up. Might as well have them look for this Lila Cheney girl too."

"Kitty, do you have any techno wonders that will point out where she is?"

"I have a device that detects mutants," Kitty says slowly, "but I don't look forward to having to visit every mutant in LA to see if it's her. Assuming she *is* in LA. But if I could get a reading on the effects of her powers, that should help narrow it down."

"Might as well try it in that remodeled room, if you think there could be something there." says Alison. "But we can't exactly walk through the front door. Nick Brown doesn't appreciate me or my opinions very much."

Kitty grins. "Who needs doors?"

Page 10: Phoenix and Angel

Warren's limo pulls up to the Brown Estate as Warren hangs up his car phone. "Thanks, Sam, I appreciate it." He turns to Phoenix, "Drat, no hits on Lois credit cards or any other ways we can easily track her. I didn't expect it, but it was worth a shot."

The pair get out of the limo in front of the mansion, "I called in advance so Brown's expecting us, but he does a lot of business at this estate -- he thinks it's more impressive than his office -- so being here this early isn't a surprise to him."

As the pair walk towards the door Nick Brown, world famous record producer, strides out into the porch looking tan, rested and very Californian, likely having just finished either an early morning tennis game or set of laps designed to keep him trim enough to look competitive in this appearance conscious town.

"Mr. Worthington, pleasure to have you around the place under better circumstances!"* He says, extending his hand to Warren for a firm handshake.

[*ED: Last time Warren was here he got shot saving Brown from his traitorous major domo, and the group was then attacked by Rogue, trashing a couple of Brown's custom cars.]

"And this is?"

Warren returns the handshake, "Make it Warren, please. Pleasure to be back. This is Ms. Summers. She's handling Warren Industries expansion into entertainment opportunities. Thanks for making the time for me."

"Call me Rachel," Rachel says, "It's very good to meet you." Rachel extends her hand for a handshake of her own.

The pair head into the mansion, heading down a long corridor with windows that overlook the immaculately manicured lawn. We see the three figures on the far left of the panel, obviously having traversed the corridor, and their word balloons trail behind them across the page, drawing the reader’s eye across framed album covers of Brown's artists until at the far end we just see Ariel and Dazzler slipping into the corridor.

"Glad to have company," Brown says, "and I admit I'm intrigued. I thought you had given up on The Big Orange after the Champions folded."

"Not exactly - I had overextended a bit, I'll admit, but I've had plenty of time to reevaluate what Warren Industries can bring to the city."

"And the decision is?"

"Two things - We’re setting up a small TV production studio and we're opening up a sound studio with a focus on electronic effects."

"TV Production? Warren, are you sure? Rumors are that more and more of that is going in house to the big three."

"In the short term, yes, but there's lots of air time to fill on more and more cable channels, and reruns won't fit the bill."

"Quick and dirty hour fillers? Well, there are millions of unpublished scripts in this town you can buy for a song."

"Exactly. But what I want to talk to you about is the sound production studio."

Running under this Rachel can feel Brown's thoughts evaluating what Warren is saying and treating the TV part with polite interest. There's no thoughts about the security that Rachel has spotted, but one flitting thought of He is friends with _her_, so a little caution is warranted.

In the next panel they're inside a sound studio that's been refitted as an office room - there's a decent sized table, a small bar, comfortable chairs and a grand piano being the only indication of its original use. Well, that and the large dark window to the control room that covers the interior wall. The door closes behind them and they're effectively isolated.

"Well, that I might be able to help you with," Brown says, heading over to the bar "Care for a mimosa? Or just the juice?"

"Mimosa would be great, thanks," Warren says, settling himself at the piano and hammering out a few bars of "My Little One" from _High Society_. "Anyway, through my other business ventures I managed to acquire Billy Bitzers'* equipment, which has proven a goldmine. It's not great for voices, but for other sounds it's gold."

"Juice, please, if you don't mind," Rachel says.

[*Ed AKA the Techmaster, who menaced Alison for months prior to Issue 12 when he fled the US.]

"Heeey, I remember Bitzer. That's quite a find."

"Exactly. So once I decided to head out here I figured I'd keep it quiet and go with someone I've met before."

This kicked up a reminiscences from Brown about how Warren was here last time. Is that a dig? Is he trying to feel me out about _her_?

Warren, he thought something about you being friends with "her" a few times. Any idea who "she" is? Dazzler, maybe?

"Warren has been talking up your facilities," Rachel says, "I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to be convinced."

Probably. He and Alison didn't exactly part on good terms. Let me poke that and see what you get.

"Oh, ho, so you're the one I have to sell to!" Brown smiles, "Well let me assure you that our facilities are the best in the city, which makes them the best in the world. You don't get to manage the sorts of artists I manage without feeding their egos with top notch equipment and technicians."

Warren smiles, "I'm too soft a sell, I admit. Rachel's here to keep me in check. I was wondering if we could do a late lunch today at your studio so she, we can get the tour. Is that too short notice?"

"Not at all. Love to."

"Great. Maybe you can being Lois along, make a foursome of it."

Brown smiles outwardly, saying "Alas, Lois is out of town. I know she'd have loved to see you again."

Inwardly his mind is whirring, dammit, maybe he is here for _her_. Well forget it. If Lois wants some distance from her domineering half-sister I'm not going to be the one to give the game away. Alison's little game of 'missing persons' and clumsy PIs has escalated, but since Lois calls me once a week I know she's fine, whatever that uppity blonde has to say.

"Too bad," Rachel says, "I'm sure that Miss London and I have a lot in common. Still, no time like the present; if you're free, Mr. Brown?"

Page 11: Dazzler and Ariel

[BR: OK, so quick question – what is Alison wearing? It’s been a long time since the white leotard and blue face paint made an appearance, and it’s so much her signature that’ it’s not exactly a disguise. Is she going in street clothes? Or is she pulling some Joan Jett black leather and grey cotton thing? Likewise, I am assuming Kitty’s in costume, but Kris please set me straight.]

[DK: No arena-rock stage clothes for this -- Alison is sporting snug blue jeans, layered grey and black t-shirts, topped with a leather jacket.]

Ariel and Alison are some distance away, keeping an eye on the Brown estate with Ariel’s enhanced binoculars. She can make out that Mr. Brown has serious security contingent on the grounds (a difference from the last time Alison was there if this wants to be discussed) that the women will have to avoid to get where they want to be. Alison knows the layout of the inside well enough to know where they need to be, assuming their assessment is right and Lois powers had something to do with the room remodeling.

Ariel sees Warren and Rachel enter the building, keeping Brown occupied according to plan.

"I don't know what's going over there." Alison whispers, "there's way more guards than I've ever seen on the estate. It's as if he's actually scared of something."

"Or has a guilty conscience," Ariel murmurs in reply.

We see, in a series of small panels, Ariel's view of a various security guards through the binoculars, with her counting: "One ... two ... six... seven. This could be tricky ... let me watch them for a bit, get their pattern."

Once Ariel has a sense for the timing she takes Dazzler's hand and the two flit from cover to cover, moving in dizzying bursts of speed. [BR: I would love to do one of the X-Men artist triptychs here, but were in a different book so there's a different penceller. One who, you may have notices, uses larger panels as we try to power through this story.]

There's one panel of the two women shot from above hovering inside a tree while one of the guards is standing underneath them. Both can see he's outfitted with some serious firepower, but Kitty doesn't spot anything really high tech. The second to last panel is a shot where Dazzler is stepping through the wall into the Brown estate where the panel is split by the wall, showing Ariel and 80% of Dazzler on one side and Dazz's shin and high heeled foot [she needs the heels to attach to her skates, if need be] outside it just as a guard come around the corner, staring down incredulously at this apparition. In the next panel we see him continuing to stare at the wall as the women move on, shake his head and keep moving.

Once inside Kitty can see they were lucky on their point of entry, even if it is opposite where they ultimately want to be - the house is festooned with light-activated motion sensors that will trigger if their shadow falls across them. Kitty might be slender enough make it through the whole house staying inside the walls, but Alison's figure is an entirely different matter.

"Okay, now *that's* paranoia," she whispers to Alison. Frowning, she tries to identify a safe path around the sensors - maybe up near the ceiling?

Alison squints her eyes. "Maybe…." she whispers. "Let me try something. If nothing goes off, we should be able to walk through. If it does, I guess we hide in the ceiling..."

Gathering in some of the ambient noise from the house, she points beams of infrared light from her hands toward each half of a detector.

[DK: I'm assuming that since they see the detectors, but not the beams, that they use a wavelength that's invisible to human eyes. IR is the usual suspect. Of course, the artist is drawing this as a pair of deep red beams, science be damned.]

[BR: We sneer at actual science! But given the cheesy nature of the Dazzler artist the beams are actually pink with the same dotted lined that were once used to designate that the Invisible Girl was in fact, invisible.]

The pair move past the detector without an alarm, and are able to repeat the procedure with three others that they find as they work their way through the house. The eventually reach the room in question. Unfortunately that room has one of the guards in it, who is fiddling with his radio trying to get it to work.

The two women float silently for a minute, with Ariel yanking them back inside the wall as he turns around. A few seconds later they stick their heads back out and find the fellow gone, having moved onto another room in the house. They are alone in the room for at least a few moments.

Glancing around the room quickly it's not evident that the room had been redone, but there are subtle clues having to do with the fading of the wallpaper and carpet wear. Almost of the furniture matches Alison's memory of the last time she was here is gone - only an antique curio cabinet and a large mirror remain.

"Watch the door," Ariel murmurs. "Can you prep an illusion that the room's still empty?"

Alison nods, and begins to build a hologram of "the view from the door."

The problem is that it's very quiet in the house; instead she builds the concept in her head, trying to remember what she's done the last times she tried this feat, so that she can turn it on in a burst as needed. If it works it will last no more than a few seconds, but that might be enough.

Ariel pulls out a techno-object and turns it on, peering at the small screen and fiddling with the controls. After a moment she starts moving slowly through the room. *Need to find the strongest residue ...* she thinks to herself.

"Try the mirror," Alison whispers. "Used to be next to the loveseat Lois liked to read in."

Ariel nods and swings the scanner over the mirror and gets a faint uptick in the energy signature, but the mirror is metal and glass - from what she knows of Lois' powers they're based on an organic disruption. The residue would likely last longer on something both sturdy and organic, but from the looks of it all of the wallpaper and likely even the sheetrock were replaced. But if they replaced the sheetrock does that mean that she burned holes in the walls?

In which case, she thinks, there might be some residual damage to the wooden studs inside the walls ... she moves closer to the wall and folds her legs up so she can drift closer to the floor (without sticking her legs through it and accidentally startling anyone below this level).

Inside the wall, illuminated by her device, Ariel can see several of the studs have been charred and blackened in things that look suspiciously like handprints or glancing blows from fists. There's a nice clear pinging from the sensor, meaning she only needs a few seconds to calibrate the device to get everything she needs.

That's when Alison hears someone approaching from the hallway….

Instantly, Alison absorbs the sounds from the sensor and gets to work.

"I just….need….a…..few….seconds…"

The women hear the guard stop, stand there for a moment and move on, but they can't see him through the hologram. On panel is laid out so we see both sides of this as the guard stops, glances in, checks the headphones on his Walkman - shaking the machine to see if it’s broken since the sound stopped. He moves on after a second and, once it's out of Dazzler's immediate range, the music kicks back on.

Alison feels flushed, her heart pounding from the precise exertion of her abilities.

After a couple more seconds Ariel finishes her scan, giving her all the data she needs to update cerebro to target Just Lois' mutant signature.

Ariel quietly lets out the breath she was holding.

"Do you have it?" Alison whispers. "I'm not sure I could do that again right away."

Ariel nods and moves over next to her, extending a hand so they can exit the building the way they came.

Page 12: Dazzler, Ariel, Angel and Phoenix

Their recon successful the team is back together, contemplating the competing evidence that Lois definitely had a power flare/fight up that destroyed a room of Mr. Brown’s house and Mr. Brown’s mental confirmation that he’d received repeated, reassuring phone calls from Lois.

The panel shows Alison hunched in a chair, fists clenched in front of her.

"It doesn't make any sense!" Alison hissed through her teeth. "That room was completely trashed!"

Rachel is lying down on one of the beds in the hotel room the group has retreated to to plan their next move. "Brown seems genuine in believing that your sister left under her own power, though, or at least isn't a captive," she says, "and those phone calls certainly mean something. That destruction--was there anything there that Lois couldn't have done herself?"

Alison shakes her head in frustration. "Plenty. A bunch of the tables and chairs were ripped to shreds, and Lois can't do *that* with her bare hands." She rummages in her bag and tosses a set of photographs on the bed.

"Just look!"

Ariel, who has been sitting sideways across an armchair fiddling with her analysis, says, "The phone calls could be anything from someone pretending to be Lois, to Lois pretending everything's all right to protect her father. Did you pick up whether the calls were on a particular day or time? I'd like to get Doug to try to get into those phone records and see where they're coming from."

Warren nods, "Yeah, that should work. Kitty, feel free to use the systems from here."

Alison adds, "Another thing bothers me about all the new security -- if he's thinks Lois is calling him, what does he think happened in that room? Could he think *I* did that?"

"A very good idea," Rachel says, "look at Tuesday and Friday, 10AM. That's when the calls are happening. And as far as Brown--I'm afraid that as far as he's concerned, you're the evil stepdaughter."

"Last time you were there you dropped an invulnerable flying woman who had just crumpled his car with her bare hands. And the fact that he had us meet in a soundproof room is another piece of evidence." Angel smiles, "I think he's afraid of you, Ali."

Page 13-14: Dazzler, Ariel, Angel and Phoenix

This is a double page spread that's a shot looking down on downtown LA. Scattered amongst the buildings are panels showing our heroes - in street clothes at first - walking the streets doing reconnaissance of the block in question. Since LA is barely a real place to being with I won't be doing my exhaustive research on the neighborhoods to support this. The quartet are at this point being led by Kitty, who has her mini-cerebro contained in a hollowed out book so that it won't attract too much notice. In the initial panels the readings are faint.

"So if Lois is near here this should pick her up?" Angel asks to remind the reader what's going on....

"Yup," Kitty says, peering at the mini-Cerebro.

[BR: after a little chatter the group turns a corner, Kitty fiddles with something and the machine comes up with a much stronger, confused reading. Once Kitty has a chance to sort it out it clearly shows Lois, but her signature is being masked by 6 other overlapping mutant patterns.]

"And who are they?" Alison asks. "Roommates? Her captors? Or other prisoners?"

"Give me a little more time with these signatures ..." Kitty mutters, instructing the machine to separate the signatures and give her what details it can.

Kitty modifies the instructions to the scanner to dig deeper into the data. Lois she's certain of, but there are six other mutants in her immediate vicinity. They are under street level. At least one of them is _over_ her - sharing roughly the same space but physically closer to the surface by about 10 feet. She keeps fiddingly, trying to get more detail, and one of them clarifies enough to register as a known mutant - Axe, a mercenary who worked for the Hellfire Club in events involving the New Mutants. Axe's mutant power level, per the records, is very low but never completely quantified.

"I've identified another one - a low-level Hellfire Club guy," Kitty reports. "Not a good sign."

Rachel keeps her shields solid (too many times burnt to be blindsided around 6 unknown mutants) and opens a small airlock to look around and detect what she can from the six mutants.

‘‘All right, knock knock, who's there’‘, she thinks, ‘‘Got to be careful to detect any telepaths before they see me, though--and make sure I'm ready to close my shields up if I sense an attack. I am -not- going to get blindsided this time’‘

Rachel projects her senses down there and discovers a wall of angry psychic noise. It has the same feel as the technological screens that guarded Cheyanne Mountain, but not as strong. Her best guess is that this isn't so much to prevent a really concentrated attempt but more to prevent the people in the area from being found in a casual scan.

With a further push she can confirm that Lois is down there, and that there are at least twice as many minds as there are mutants. Otherwise the screen is just too much of a barrier. With concentration and fatigue she thinks she can get a conversation started with Lois.

"Lois London? Are you all right?"

"What? Who is this? Alison! You have to warn my sister!"

"She's here--this is Phoenix, the new one. We're here to rescue you. What's going on?"

"There's some sort of group down here, government, mercenary, I don’t know, capturing and holding..." she pauses here, unwilling to make an admission. "Mutants. Mutants who have committed crimes. They've got me, and some girl who they have wired up to keep her sleeping, and a woman with green skin. I think there are some men on another level. They’ve been picking us up for months."

"I did get one to talk about Alison, but they said she was too dangerous, they were waiting for the right moment, when the shipment arrived."

Meanwhile, Phoenix says, her eyes still closed "I've got her."

A wide-eyed Alison gasps -- "You've got her?! Is she all right? How can we help her?

"I...think she's fine. Not alone. They're...some kind of anti-mutant vigilantes, I think; I can only touch...her."

Warren gives Alison a reassuring smile. "We'll get her out. Sad to say, but the X-Men have a lot of experience with this sort of thing."

He pulls out the most advanced portable phone money can buy* and places a call. "Effie? It's Warren. I need to employ you guys to do a check on a block downtown - pull the recent building permits, activity, civil surveys, the whole nine yards. Uh huh. Uh huh. I'm looking at more property downtown and I want to make sure I'm not buying another nightmare. Fast track it please. Yes, I know what Sam will charge. Thanks."

[*It's 1985. Go ahead, laugh.]

"OK, if someone built a mini prison down there Sam will find some record of it, get us some framework on what we're dealing with."

"May I borrow that?" Kitty asks Warren. Her end of her call goes, "Doug? Me again. Can you skim the chatter for the LA area for stuff about anti-mutant vigilantism? Or variations on that theme? Yeah, unless it is government black ops. Yeah I know. Send me whatever you get. Aren't I always careful? Okay, except for that ... fine, fine, just make a note that I'm changing my name to Katherine Careful, okay? Okay. Love you!"

She hands the phone back to Warren with a smile. "I've got to get myself one of these!"

"Doing this right is going to take some time, isn't it?" Alison asks Warren. "Rachel, please tell Lois to hang tight -- we *are* coming for her."

Warren nods, "We could try to wing it - Kitty could get Lois out in seconds... if they can't sense her coming and if there aren't force fields and if they don't have some other defenses. And if Lois or anyone else's life were in immediate danger we’d risk it. They they've been holding Lois for months. If they were going to kill her they would have done it by now."

"I've led enough super-teams to know that your plan will collapse within 5 minutes of hitting the enemy, but their plans collapse too and whatever happens in those 5 minutes determines how you played that initial hand."

"Yeah," Kitty seconds, "and I really don't want to be in the middle of another disaster. Actual or public-relations."

"Speaking of which," she says, "if it's private vigilantes ... does anybody think regular law enforcement would help?"

"Much as I'd love to take the high road here," says Alison, "since five other mutants with unknown abilities are in there, I'm not sure it'd be too safe for the police."

"I've cut the connection; I couldn't keep it up for long," Rachel says, "But she knows we're coming. "No, we can't involve the police; these people didn't just grab people for the 'crime' of being mutants--they targeted mutants who had also committed crimes. Maybe it helps them sleep at night. But if we get the police involved, it could easily spiral out of control, since the victims are criminals as well as their kidnappers.”

Rachel continues, “And I'm frankly not sure how much time we have. Apparently, the reason they haven't targeted Alison is that they're waiting for something -- 'the shipment'. If it's something that will let them take on someone as dangerous as Dazzler, we definitely want to attack before it shows up.

Warren nods. "Ok. We move tonight."'

Page 15: Dazzler, Ariel, Angel and Phoenix

Everyone is back at Champions HQ, where Warren has laid out the structural plans for the building block, recent changes, sewer connections and so on. These have been marked up in places to indicate things of interest. Doug’s face, meanwhile, is on one of the computer screens.

“Sam pulled all of the relevant documents and then I had my architect in LA look everything over. This building here,” he points to one spot, “had to construct a deeper than normal sub-basement originally to account for wind shear. It went more or less unused until someone started renting it about 12 months ago. Normally that would be someone in the building looking for archival or server space, but that doesn’t fit here, and that’s where Kitty’s scans put Lois.”

He stops to pull over another sheet, “If I’m reading these notes right, these are LA Sewer, Gas and Electric changes. There was a ‘break’ in the line for all three registered 9 months ago. It was listed as minor quake repairs but again, that doesn’t fit. I think we’re looking at a bribe for some city employee to reroute services into this space for this facility. My guess is that there’s an entrance down there as well.”

He hands Kitty some papers, “here’s the change in power draw since that went in.”

Doug chimes in, “I hit the usenet and BBS scenes and did find something. Up to a few weeks back there was some sort of underground fighting competition in LA, something for people who want even more extreme than Unlimited Class Wrestling*. It included a bunch of super-humans. Really bloody stuff; criminal and transient. But it folded because all of its top players, including Axe, had gone missing. But there’s no sign of them elsewhere on the coast and no arrest records for them. I’m guessing those make up a lot of your other prisoners.”

[*Ed: that’s the Marvel Universe people with super-powers fighting competition that’s semi-legit. You may remember that Una, Unus the untouchable’s daughter, was angling for a spot at UCW when Mystique recruited her.]

"Seems to me that they'll all be pretty pissed-off, if someone lets them out." Alison adds. "Do you think we could work with that?"

"No," Kitty says. "We don't want rioting or murder. We'll either have to extract the prisoners quickly first, or get the people in charge secured and out of the way before we let them out ... speaking of which, how many of those fighters have outstanding arrest warrants around here?"

"Around LA? I don't know. Axe had some outstanding that got scrubbed, then he earned some more - looks like the Hellfire Club cut him loose. Some woman named Ivitch has a warrant for resisting arrest and fleeing police." Doug shrugs, "That's what I can find."

"We don't know whether all of the people they're holding are *actually* guilty of anything." Alison adds. "Lois thinks that's true, but we don't know for sure. Whoever-they-are could just be shopping for powers they think are useful, and picking mutants who are isolated -- who aren't part of a team that can protect them."

Alison leans back, crossing her arms. "After all, it sounds like they're planning to collect me, and I 'm not exactly Public Enemy Number One. But I'll be happy to show them that Lois isn't alone." She flashes a wry smile. "I may be angry, Kitty, but I really didn't have murder in mind. Just a little property damage."

Kitty smiles back, reassured.

"True," Rachel says, leaning against a support pole, with her arms streched above her. "We shouldn't assume we know why they're kidnapping mutants, but it's clearly not for society's best interest, targeting criminals or not. Regardless, we want to keep 'free all the prisoners' as a feather in our bow, but not our primary one; given the nature of the prisoners, freeing all of them means we lose control of the situation. Freeing just the ones likely to be helpful, on the other hand--well, any that we can trust to follow our playbook will be assets, not, hopefully, random forces of destruction.”

"But we need to block out our playbook. If we don't want to trust that they won't be ready for Kitty, we'll want either a stealthy entry or a deceptive one -- or both."

Alison frowns. "That lower entrance might be the best point of entry, if we can figure out how to get to it."

"They don't seem to have the power for force fields," Kitty says, "but what I'd want to do is take a quick look to confirm that. And I'd be happier if we knew how many opponents we've got. I'd guess at least five, but guessing is the wrong way to go about this ..."

"If they do have a force field, you could be in trouble," Rachel says, "But I think I can detect a force field if we're close enough. Maybe even make a hole. Unless we have more info, I think we'll need to improvise after that--if we've seen enough of their costumes and appearance, we might be able to improvise a disguise once we're in if we need one, but we can hardly plan for that."

"Ariel, would you be able to shut down the psi-blocker without setting off any alarms once you find it?" Warren asks. "That would help Phoenix a mental recon. Once we have that capability everything becomes a lot easier."

Ariel nods.

Warren points down to the maps, where there are some scribbled comments. "Based on past experience, I'd put it here... pretty close to where they hacked in the lines, but not near the likely entrance. If we head down there, Ariel slips in and shuts it off then Phoenix can scan the area. After that, I think we give them exactly what they're afraid of - an irate Dazzler melting her way in to rescue her sister."

"See this," he points to another spot in the underground maps not far from the entrance, "This is a flow control station where the water running through central LA gets routed. Do you know what those things are?"

He looks up at Alison. "They're LOUD."

Alison's grin is toothy and wide. "One scary worst nightmare, as ordered. And if they turn on their anti-Dazzler equipment, you guys will be there to stop them. So, we have plan for getting in, and a bit of a plan for freeing Lois and the others. But how will we get out once we're done? Do we tie everyone up with a warning and walk out the front door? Or can we nail them in the courts for kidnapping?"

"Well, that depends, doesn't it?" Rachel asks, "But based on what we know now? We're going to want the option of nailing them to the wall."

"I can handle a little freeform jazz in a plan," Alison answers. She turns to Warren. "Pick me up after my gig tonight -- there's a coffeeshop a couple of blocks away where I can meet you."

Kitty and Rachel look at her, clearly surprised.

"What?" she retorts. "If they're planning to 'collect' me, they're probably keeping an eye on my shows. If I don't perform, they'll think something's up."

"So, the show must go on."

Page 16-20: Dazzler, Ariel, Angel and Phoenix

We pick up with the crew in the bowels of LA, near the entrance. It's clear that Warren is a little uncomfortable I the confined space, but he's managing. Rachel and Kitty's initial recon produced a dew concealed viewing devices that they were quickly able to circumvent as they approached. There's no possibility of listening devices as the pounding roar of the water would drown out anything. It's bordering on painful but Alison's presence and her natural ability to absorb and therefore reduce the ambient noise keeps everyone from needing earplugs. She also makes it possible for them to talk - the spillover of the psi-jammer isn't enough to give Phoenix any pain unless she tries to push against it, but that should stop being an issue in a few moments.

Angel holds out his hand to Ariel, "Shall we go?" and prepares to step through the wall with her to locate the psi jammer and then Lois.

[For extra visual fun, there's a string of smaller panels running down the outside edges of these pages flashing back to Alison at her show earlier that night. Diane, feel free to pick the song in question to be the soundtrack for this little fracas.]

[DK: I've gone back and forth between a few choices, but keep coming back to "Think"… And I just heard something even better on the radio today. Why had I never heard "It's Your Thing" by the Isley Brothers before now is a mystery…]

"You bet," Ariel says firmly, but to herself she's thinking,

Here's hoping nothing gets blown up this time ... The pair pass silently through the wall into a much, much quieter space, where the roar of the water is replaced with the hum of machinery. Ariel had guessed properly and led them in via a passage that would not short out any computers and reveal their presence. She lets go of Angel and he drops silently to the ground, helping her scout out the area.

The pair see two tech/guards in the room, one looking at his computer screen, the other checking the readouts on what Ariel surmises is the psi-dampener. The one at the screen sees them in the reflection and turns, reaching for something - the alarm? his pistol? - well out of either mutant's arms reach, when Angels wing flashes out and strikes the man hard on the wrist. There's a muffled snap, likely a hairline fracture, and before the man can yell in pain the other wing catches him on the side of the head, sending him down into a heap.

The other tech glances up to see this, and then is turning towards the intruders. Ariel's reaction is almost as prosaically physical as Angel's: a quick zip forward, a drop back into corporeality, and a measured blow to the side of the hapless guard's head with her baton. In the next frame, the two guards are tied together on their chairs, and the two intruders are poised to move out into the hallway.

Outside Rachel feels the psi-jammer drop, freeing her up telepathically. This is the sign to move forward with the next stage of the plan.

Rachel expands her conciousness past the barriers, locating anyone who is paying attention to their entrance.

She can feel Lois and the six other captured mutants along with 18 conscious guards of various sorts. There is someone doing a monitoring of their preferred entrance via a closed circuit camera - that person is jumping from scene to scene to track multiple sites and managed to miss Kitty and Warren's fracas while it happened, and by the time he got back to it the guards were propped up into innocuous positions and the mutants were out of sight. With that she can rest assured that once Alison takes the door down they will have the desired distractive company in short order.

[In addition she can confirm that the troops are armed with conventional, if high caliber, weapons. Nothing Phoenix can't block with her shields at 'visible' levels, but Alison's glowing should cover for that so that Phoenix can stay secret. She catches a couple of stay thoughts about the rerouted shipment from NORAD, which can't be good. Still, nothing worth disrupting the plan over....]

"We're in the clear," Rachel says, "and I can handle whatever they throw at us. Hit it."

Showtime!

We next see a series of three panels, all of which show Rachel and Alison from behind as they face the door of the facility. In the first, the rushing water is overlaid with wavery sound effect tags that show how loud it is. In the second, the darkened space falls silent as Alison absorbs all of the ambient din; in the third, everything is thrown into sharp shadows as a wide, bright red laser erupts from Alison's hands and blasts the door.

No point in even conserving power by slicing around the outside of the door, Dazzler brings her fury to bear on the center of it, melting the entire metal edifice in a few seconds. As predicted that catches the attention of everyone inside and the inevitable claxons start going off. Just as the door is melted enough for Dazzler to step through there are two guards there with automatic rifles who open fire on the mutant. Since she's glowing like a small star their aim isn't perfect, but Alison is relieved to find out that Phoenix' predictions of her force fields powers hold true and the bullets that do hit careen off harmlessly.

"It's the Blair Girl! And She's MAD!" One of the guards yells into his comm device "Initiate Dazzler Protocol! Quick!"

Let's make this a little less complicated, thinks Alison.

The beams from her hands narrow and turn a deeper red as they play over the guns, making them too hot for the guards to hold.

The red light quickly brings the gunmetal grey up to the red orange of a branding iron and both men toss their guns away in surprise. After that they run.

Rachel takes out the cameras first, crushing them to take them out in the surest, if least subtle way she can manage, then targets the gunmen with psi-bolts. Dazzler protocol? Let's find out a bit more about that, shall we?

One of them does not get terribly far before his knees buckle and he collapses under the stun bolt. This gives Phoenix a few seconds to rifle through his memories to discover that some sort of package arrived just 24 hours ago. There's a suit of power-armor of the Guardsman variety that the X-Men faced in the Thunderbird fiasco being retro-fitted to make use of it somehow, but this guy isn't high enough in their hierarchy to know how.

[BR: I am assuming by this point Dazzler is pursuing down the hallway - ideally walking portentously and leaving little melted footprints in the floor rather than flying through on her skates as she need to stay close enough to Phoenix to keep the TK shield running.

[DK: Sounds good to me. Melted footprints... heh.]

The escaping one turns a corner out of sight as Dazzler approaches. Rachel can sense the minds of several more approaching troops, now in SWAT level combat armor coated with reflective surfaces that they hope will be laser-ablative. They step around in combat formation and the last panel we see here is a facing shot of them opening fire at the viewer.

Back over at Ariel and Angel

"That would be the signal, then," Ariel whispers to Angel. "Security station first?"

"Just drop me off near the jail," Angel whispers back.

[KK: I have in mind an undiscussed-on-screen pass by Ariel through the key bits of technology, shorting them out and perhaps not being noticed by the guy watching the monitors. Ariel not being noticed, I mean. I expect he'll notice his monitors emitting sparks and smoke.]

[BR: Totally cool with that.]

"What The?!?!" The security chief yells. "We are eyes down! We repeat, eyes down! Every one go to helmet communication!"

Ariel sees him slap a fighter-pilot style helmet over his head, the goggles of which light up with a heads up display as he flips three switches on a box Ariel hasn't broken...yet.

Well, we can't have THAT, Ariel thinks, watching for an opportunity to zotz the box without giving up her still-covert status.

Upstairs we see Angel, having been dropped off of Ariel, flying through the central atrium of the two level jail. He is holding one security guard by the leg and flips him so that he rams into the second floor catwalk from the outside and flips down onto the floor, moaning and incapacitated.

Warren lands in front of Lois cell, finding her much more scared and thinner than the last time he saw her. She's wearing a full body jumpsuit with thick gloves that’s probably permanently on her to prevent her making skin contact "Lois, hey, you let your hair grow out. Looks good, but the prison jumpsuit look is so passé."

"Warren! You've got to get me out of here!" she yells, banging on the lexan wall that separates them.

"That's the plan," Angel smiles and slaps a small device over the cell's electronic lock.

"Three, Two, One..." and the cell door pops open. "Locksmithing courtesy of the Ariel Express. Now give me the skinny on who else is here, in case your sister needs more help...."

Cut back to the Dazzler and Phoenix part of the fight, where the four men with machine guns, including one high enough caliber to be belt-fed, are unloading on the narrow hallway where Dazzler is bright in her glory like a star. The wall of incoming lead has no effect on the blonde bombshell...

Alison, can you bring the roof down on them? It will be more effective than direct shots -- and I could use lot of dust in the air

Can't risk the roof, the jail's upstairs. But I don't think these walls are load bearing...

Alison theatrically flings her hands apart, splitting the hot light from her hands along her fingers. Dark red lasers drill into the walls on either side of the hallway. For a few seconds, nothing happens -- then concrete chunks spall off the walls as the metal rebar inside expands from the heat, and fall in fountains on the gunmen.

What in the world do they have on their heads? Dazzler thinks

The helmets? Probably because they're afraid you'll boil their pretty eyes. Speaking of which... Effortlessly holding onto the shield, Phoenix focuses, and the cloud of dust released from the wall coalesses around the gunmen and their weapons, blocking vision and delicate parts, while providing a very non-reflective surface

That should be plenty annoying. Of course, we still have to worry about whoever they have in power armor, but one group of thugs at a time, I say.

"Confirm helmet communication," Phoenix 'hears' one of them say as they pull themselves up from the rubble. "We've picked up a dust layer but nothing the helmet links can't triangulate around."

A panel shot from inside the guard's visor and heads up display as the guard stands up along with two of his comrades - one is still buried - shows Dazzler continue her inexorable approach. "Hold fire until you can't miss, men. She's got to be melting the bullets... Ready, aim..."

A side panel with a blue clad hand passing through a box in another room. "Skzzz-arch!"

"Aaah! Helmet coms are down, thermals are down!" The leader yells uselessly as their second line of communication goes down. "Hold fire and fall back! Fall back!"

Of course his men can't hear him, so the one carrying the belt fed weapon pulls the trigger. It fires once then jams and backfires from the grit and dust Phoenix has forces into its workings. The explosion as the belt goes up is deafening, and all we see on the panel is a BOOM!

Back upstairs in the jail, we see Angel again.

“Ariel”, Angel says through the encrypted link, “I’ve got most of the prisoners out of their cages – can you ferry them out of the line of fire and then come back for the clean-up?”

The shot shows him with Lois supporting a very groggy looking Lila Cheney*, a green skinned woman who resembles a Universal Movie Monster version of Frankenstein’s Monster (Ivitch), a spindly young man with a shock of white hair (Poltergeist) and a perfectly ordinary looking redheaded woman (Snaketongue). You can see on the second floor cages holding Axe and a man with a Satyr’s legs but a horse’s head (Rocker).

[* ED: who none of the protagonists have ever met, but who was identified off panel as a cohort of Belladonna’s in an earlier Dazzler arc; for those of you who don’t recognize the name she’s a teleporter who in original continuity was a rock star, intergalactic thief, owner of her own Dyson Sphere and occasionally Cannonball’s girlfriend; obviously I’m not doing a lot of that stuff. I’m also just giving names to the escaped prisoners so I can keep them straight.]

“Hey,” The green-skinned woman says, “I want to stay and take a piece out of these guys!”

“No, you really don’t” The white-haired boy says, “I’ve been in these situations before* and it’s best to run before the mutant-hunters get their bearings….”

[*Ed: Mickey Silk is referring events around Spicer-Woman #50]

The next panel shows Kitty keeping an eye on the guy in the control center, who is looking rather confounded by the fact that his primary, secondary and heck even tertiary comm systems have gone down.

The base commander yells out “No time to load it – just isolate her with it!” into his last remaining communications device, a small unit on his belt that probably only connects with one other system….

Ariel zips through the fraying base commander as he's preparing to exit the room, then out the door where she zotzes the electronic lock. This is shown in a first panel where she's halfway through the commander, reaching ahead of him for the lock, and a second where she's almost entirely through the door while he's pounding on it behind her.

Broken into three speech bubbles across the two panels: "On ... my ... way!"

The next panel is her appearing in the cell block, where Angel now has the Satyr/Centaur/whatever fellow out and is looking at Axe (who somehow still has his mohawk despite some time in captivity), who is yelling "C'mon fool! Let me outta here!"

"Warren," Lois says shakily, "A ghost just came through the floor...."

"Ariel's taxi service!" the 'ghost' says brightly. "Oh, hello, Axe. Those bars look good on you."

"Shaddup you little brat!" Axe yells, then looks back to Warren, "Man, you gotta let me out of here! These people are crazy - no warrants, no due process... I’m the victim here!"

Warren cocks an eyebrow, "Everyone's in a lawyer these days."

The look he gives Kitty clearly says 'still, he's not wrong' and waits for her decision.

"Well, luckily for you," Ariel tells Axe, "I like this setup even less than I like you. So go ahead, let him out." Note that she's definitely staying intangible, because she has a really low opinion of this guy's judgment.

Angel yanks the door open with a grin, "It was already unlocked. OK everyone, hold hands and dream of home."

Back down with Dazzler,

Bursting with the absorbed sound from the explosion, but temporarily unprotected by the loss of Phoenix’s force field Alison surveys the area – the air clear of dust but the signs of the explosion and her own powers visible in the shattered walls and scattered (but blessedly still breathing) bodies on the floor. The emergency lighting is on, flashing an alarm (since an audible alarm would be unwise when one is fearing transducing mutants), and she has a brief moment of peace.

That moment is shattered when the broken wall beside her bursts open and a green-and black armored figure erupts from it, grabbing her and lobbing her with superhuman strength the length of the hallway away from Phoenix before either woman has time to react.

Her trajectory should slam her into a wall, but the section of wall slides open, and then shut again, a concealed door of some sort, separating her from her companions.

[JK: Wow, that's...arbitrary. Unless the anti-dazzler figure has realized that Dazzler has backup, and is explicitly trying to separate her from it (which is possible)].

[BR: Wow that’s... the Gm realizing he doesn't have a lot of pages left in the issue. But more precisely it's the villain trying to get dazzler into the same place as the anti-dazzler weapon which they didn't have time to install in his armor. Anyone who correctly guesses what the anti-dazzler weapon is gets a shiny new karma point]

Instinctively, Alison twists sideways and curls into a ball such that her butt and right hip hit the floor of the hidden room first, followed by her right shoulder, in conjunction with a big sound balloon that says "THUD!"

The next panel is a closeup of Alison on the ground, thinking Have to make this look worse than it really is… She goes limp and lets out a low moan while examining her surroundings through slitted lids.

The panel is from her perspective with her head on the floor, so it looks like there are two people on the on the 'wall', dressed in the same gear as her first attackers rather than the LICTOR armor. She can't see their heads, as the panel cuts them off below shoulder height. One of the men is holding a small metallic box. The room is brightly lit with walls that are deep black; the floor is greyish just to make sure the room is identifiable as a room to the reader.

"You're a better singer than you are an actress, Miss Blair," the man with the box says. "I'm sure you have last words, but since we got this package from our Wakandan friends I'm afraid no one will hear them."

He opens the box and the room goes silent. Completely silent.

Back over with Phoenix, The figure in the modified Guardsman Armor (Phoenix being well familiar with their appearance after the events at NORAD) turns to face Phoenix, who is rapidly regaining her wits after the feedback of that explosion.

“The LICTOR armor lets me see, you, Mutie,” he says with an audible sneer. “And just in case you’re like that Micky Silk kid we got up there, let’s turn this on…”

And with that a short range, high power psi-scrambler blankets the immediate area, which does nothing to help Phoenix gather her wits. Seeing her clutch at her head, Lictor raises both palms towards her for a repulsor ray blast. “Awww… Poor mutie,” He says, “You thought you were winning…”

"Actually," Phoenix's psuedo-stealth vanishes as she reestablishes her TK shield at full power, the lightshow highlighting the last appearance of the black strapy ‘Bondage Gladiator’ fan service costume, with accompanying lightshow, "I'm pretty sure I still am." She swiftly flies out of the way as as he fires, and ends up...face planting into a wall, a very visible target for his next shot.

"Although I admit, I wasn't counting on the wall being on your side."

"Ha! Yeah, you're the future of the world..." Lictor chuckles while he takes careful aim and fires.

Even with that Phoenix nearly manages to roll out of the way of the attack, and the glancing blow sends her flying rather than pinning her to the wall as he had intended. Rachel can tell that if he had hit her dead on with both blasters he'd be able to take down her shields but for right now her shields are still up and running.

"Really?" Phoenix says, "Who says? The future of the world is ours, to ruin or improve. Fearing mutants is like fearing the unusually tall." Phoenix picks up a bunch of the debris lying around, and slams it into the armored figure.

The debris slams into Lictor, carrying him back down the corridor, through a wall, through the room past that wall and through another wall and outside of Phoenix' line of sight, messing up her ability to keep propelling him backward with this. As he recedes from her the pulsing of the psi-blocked diminishes and by the time he's out of sight her telepathic powers are unimpaired.

[BR: Now I want to have the page order reversed so the bottom part of the Ariel and Angel in the jail page has them vacating through the roof and therefore missing Lictor flying through and crashing into the wall. Or doing both sequences as a two page spread with Angel and Ariel in the middle third of each page...]

I'm fighting someone in Lictor armor and a psi-jammer Phoenix sends, briefly re-establishing the psi-link I can handle him. But I've been separated from Dazzler

The armored figure pulls himself out of the rubble and stares down at the rubble strewn passage he just created. One of the Epaulettes on his armor opens and a trio of missiles fly out and rocket back down the way he came. Phoenix barely has time to see them coming before they're on her. The center rocket explodes, but as a flash/bang rather than explosive attack. The effect breaks her concentration for a second, and training condenses her shields close to her body to strengthen them. The other two missiles aren’t explosives either, instead orbiting her trailing their steel filaments.

Before she can recover she's bound and the auto-recall in Lictor's armor yanks her towards him through the rubble strewn complex. By the time she gets her head together she's at Lictor's feet and back inside the range of the psi jammer.

[BR: specialized weapon rolled a yellow for the stunning attack, followed by an 01 for your resisting stun. Fortunately said stun was 1 round only. You're currently in Remarkable strength bonds, so it's a green roll for your incredible TK to break out. BTW, what costume is she wearing? I forgot....]

[JK: It's a green and gold Phoenix costume, isn't it? That she donned after making contact with her mother's zeitgeist at her grandparents' house?]

Phoenix attempts to break the band, sending the detritus at the Lictor. With a flare of telekinetic lightshow the bonds shatter, becoming a whirling cloud of edged steel flying at the armored figure.

"Aaaah!" Lictor yells as the cloud shreds the outer layer of his armor. Several of the smaller pieces have made it in through the eye and mouth holes of his face plate, and even if that doesn't incapacitate him it clearly freaks him out.

"Aaaaah!" the armor gives off a powerful magnetic pulse, disintegrating the metal cloud Phoenix had been using as a weapon. It also sends her tumbling across the room and through another wall, but doesn't actually damage her through her shield.

"OK, you'll pay for that," Lictor says, obviously not aware that he'll look rakishly charming with his new facial scars. Or not.

"Maybe," Phoenix shoots back, "But not from a bigot in cut-rate Iron Man armor." And she reaches in with her mind into the damaged armor's structure to undo catches, loosen and remove screws, disconnect power supplies, break or disconnect wires, etc.

Spang! Once Phoenix has a hold on the interior she's able to quickly cause enough damage for the armor's auto-eject function to kick in, and it promptly spits the guy inside onto the floor before collapsing in a smoking heap.

He hits the rubble strewn floor with an audible thump, his face covered in blood from cuts to his forehead and cheeks, and makes a mad desperate scramble for the door, firing wildly in Phoenix direction with the sidearm he had on his uniform inside the armor. He never even comes close.

‘‘NO. SLEEP.’‘ One psi-bolt later, he is (presumably) lying unconcious on the floor.

Back to the confined Dazzler….

"I'm only going to get one shot at this…better make it count."

And in a single fluid movement, she pulls her skates from her pocket, slaps them on her shoes, and leaps toward her captors in a rolling sprint.

Alison slams into the foremost of the two men, and she can see his mouth form an "oof" even if she can't hear it. The man is thrown off his feet and slams into his compatriot and both nearly go down. Alison takes the moment when they are off balance to pick up speed, loop around from another direction and wrench the unwounded man's helmet clean off his head.

That man pulls his gun and opens fire. The perfectly ordinary bullets chew up the wall behind Dazzler as she banks and weaves madly, eventually getting moments respite when her evasion places the man she staggered between her and the gunman. That staggered man pulls something off his belt which extends into a two foot baton. Alison smells ozone when the baton extends, so it's probably electrified....

Let's see if we can simplify this to one-on-one…. She flings a (trademark) Dazzle burst right at the gunman's exposed eyes.

The light flares through the room - obviously to the surprise of the goons who weren't aware of how much power Alison could store. The light overwhelms not just the gunman's otpic nerve but also his mind, leaving him, in short, Dazzled.

He collapses to the floor, unconscious. Fortunately for Alison he has fallen forward, on top of his gun.

The other goon glances down to see the gun is out of reach and decides to run forward, slashing at Dazzler with his Taser (which in comic book fashion is leaving a flare of electricity behind it). He's unable to close with the acrobatic singer, who times his charge and darts out of the way on her skates.

As she dodges, her thought balloon reads: Electric things need…wires!

The next panel sees Dazzler skating backwards ahead of the goon, pumping the rest of her stored energy into a narrow beam of infrared light aimed directly at the exposed end of the taser.

The laser slices through the taser exactly as Alison planned, causing it to short out in a spectacular, if silent, fashion.

He mouths a curse and tosses the sparking, hissing remains at Dazzler. She's not as lucky this time and it bangs into her leg, but while the electrical arc is painful it doesn't carry any other effects of a taser and she's able to quickly skate off the muscle spasm. By the time she does her assailant is making a run for the door.

Daz feels the shock up her arm as she glides past him on her skates and hammers his helmet with the one she's still carrying from the one she dazzled earlier. The fleeing fellow falls forward, face first, and doesn't get up.

Stopping by his inert form, Daz flips the goon onto his back and retrieves the box of vibranium, snapping it shut with a (now audible) *click.*

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

Page 21: Dazzler, Ariel, Angel & Phoenix

BR: I’m making some assumption here, such as with the bad guys defeated and all the prisoners out Ariel went back down to pull up Phoenix and Dazzler or at the very least went back down, in which case all of Angel’s communication is via telepathy.

“All I’m saying,” Angel is explaining to the women, “is that when I was filling Lois in on recent events the thin black haired girl cleared her head and vanished. She took everyone except Lois and Micky with her.”

[BR: Dazzler will of course recognize this as being the teleportation effect that Lila Cheney was doing for Belladonna in past issues of this mag.]

“Fortunately these two make the most sympathetic prisoners,” he continues, “for the police and media who are on their way to cover the busting of his kidnapping ring.”

"It's your call, Lois." Alison says. "You can press charges and probably put these jerks away for a really long time. I'd be willing to bet your dad would make sure there's a fantastic prosecutor on this case."

Lois looks, for the first time since Alison has met her, angry. "You're damn right Daddy's going to help me bury these jerks!" Kitty can't help but notice a very slight smolder on Lois' hands as she says this.

The next panel shows Alison looking shyly at the ground. "I also hope you'll come back to New York with me, at least for a while. And if you do, I hope you'll talk to Professor X. He might be able to help you refine your powers. These idiots," --she jerks her thumb toward the prison under their feet-- "only thought of you as a weapon. But what if you can target cancer cells? Or kill cholera in drinking water? That talent could help a lot of people."

Lois face loses some of its anger at this, "Oh Alison, I don't know. I barely got a few months with Daddy before this happened, and now I have to be here to make sure they can't hurt anyone else. But once that's done..." she looks down at her hand, "maybe.... I'm not as lucky as you, Alison. My power doesn't help people feel good. But maybe you're right.... Not until these jerks are serving time, though."

Alison's mouth quirks. "My power just let me melt through a 6-inch thick steel door. It's not that it can't be dangerous. I choose to use it to help people feel good. I'm betting that -- when you're ready-- you can make the same sort of choice."

Kitty speaks up: "Lois, make sure your dad and the lawyers know there's a political dimension to this case. The computer files show that they wanted to force mutants to be weapons ... which is such a spectacularly stupid idea that I'm not sure I trust it. But some of their stuff comes from Wakanda, and it seems that the non-Americans may have come from several countries. I'll know more when I've had more time, but 'national security' could get to be an issue. Your side needs to know that."

"Is that what they wanted?" Lois asks. "But that makes no sense!" She shakes her head, "Whatever, I guess. I'll make sure Daddy knows."

"You're right," Rachel says, "it doesn't make any sense. Not with just what we know now. These guys have to have someone backing them, or they'd never have been able to get their hands on any Vibranium."

Angel shakes his head as police cars approach, “Problems for another day. Right now everyone try to look responsible and sympathetic.”