Angel Flight Headquarters, better known as the Gate, was surrounded.

By reporters.

When the original Angel Flight built the multi-layer HQ, it was considered the epitome of superhero headquarters - a seven-story tower surrounded by spacious grounds, with computers and VTOL aircraft and chairs that shot heroines through an iris-style roof and even a submarine dock.

When the tower was severely damaged during the Saoshyant Invasion the heroines of Angel Flight decided on a more practical endeavor, more of a gathering place than a traditional hero headquarters. The result was a nice two-story building - three if you included the atrium - that blended in with the other buildings on Long Island.

It was indeed only the atrium, with it's sweeping lines up to a point three stories above the door, that served as any kind of signage at all.

Nevertheless, every television station in town - nine, if you counted those in New Jersey - had sent a news crew. Add to that the seven national networks, six foreign networks, thirteen newspapers, and two dozen electronic reporters and you had a small army, even before counting the dozens of merely curious or just plain nosy.

And then, of course, you had the police, SWAT. An UNCLE strike force was setting up.

UNCLE officially stood for United Network Command for Law Enforcement, an agency set up to deal with superpowered threats. In reality the agency found it was much more efficient to let the heroes have first crack at the problem in question. This either got the heroes out of the way quickly or, more often than not, solved the problem.

Either result was fine with UNCLE.

Thunderbolt streaked in and landed on the Angels' front lawn before most of them had registered her presence. She just stood there, taking in the situation.

She knew that Atom had returned home to Hawaii, of course, and last she heard Iris was visiting her to lend a hand with the damage those storms had caused last month. At least she wouldn't have to worry about those two. Strong as she was, Atom wasn't much in the defense department, and Iris refused to fight at all - a complete pacifist.

Strangely, Terri kind of admired her for that.

When she noticed the reporters surging forward to interview her, she casually held up her hand - and they obligingly halted.

"Don't come any closer, please," she said with a smile. "I don't know what I'm dealing with, yet."

She turned back toward the headquarters, and frowned slightly. There was no visible damage to the place, but she could smell the force field that surrounded the building; it smelled rather like after a thunderstorm, she noted dryly.

It would have been handy right now to have her father's X-ray vision.

She walked slowly toward the main building, until she bumped into the force field.

Thunderbolt crossed her arms. "Okay, Geist, I'm here. Shut off the field."

Immediately the scratchy voice could be heard all around her. "Welcome, Thunderbolt, to... your doom! Ha... ha ha ha."

"Hilarious," Thunderbolt rolled her eyes.

"I... have been waiting... for you, Thunderbolt.

"Waiting four years... for my revenge... on Angel Flight!"

Considering I'm only a reserve member... she sighed.

"Revenge. Revenge for what, may I ask?"

"For every time... you tights-clad... bimbos defeated my... plans, my dreams... for leaving me... to die in... that satellite crash!"

"Yes, well... sorry about that," Thunderbolt said evenly. "If I remember I was barely conscious at the time, having had to save the space shuttle from a death ray created by you, I believe."

"Begging will not... help you now."

Thunderbolt crinkled up her face. "Who's begging? I'm not begging."

"Ha! You think... you're so smart... don't you, you... spandex-suited slattern!

"This time you... won't have Vanguard... to help you... I know he's... on the West... Coast. Ha ha!"

Thunderbolt paused. "Oh, no - I guess I'll just have to turn around and go home.

"First," she sighed, "I wear less when I go bowling. Second, we've been getting along fine without Vanguard, thank you very much.

"Now, are you going to deactivate your force field?"

"Ha! Why should... I deactivate it?"

Thunderbolt raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I don't know... maybe something about welcoming me to my doom?"

The heroine enjoyed every moment of a delicious pause.

"Smart mouth heroine... there! Now you..."

In a flash Thunderbolt had blown past the doors and straight up through the foyer's ceiling. Just as she had suspected, there was Doktor Geist, floating in one of her spheres of "fantom energy".

"All right, Geist. Game over."

"You think you... are so smart..." Geist rasped. "How did you... avoid the stairs?"

"Oh, come on," the heroine said confidently. "You really think you're the first person to rig up a trap on the only stairway?"

Suddenly something heavy and wet slapped over her face!

"Mfffh!"

The heroine grabbed at the gooey substance, but to her shock as she pulled it away it flowed back around her face!

"Even you need to breathe, baby," snickered Omniflex as she oozed over and around the heroine.

The flexible criminal let herself flow over Thunderbolt like a thick river of molasses; no matter how the heroine tried to move her arms or clawed at her with her hands, she simply slipped through her fingers.

"Heh heh heh," chuckled Omniflex as the heroine gasped for air. "It'll all be over soon, honey."

Thunderbolt staggered forward and dropped to her knees, desperately trying to pull Omniflex's flexible body off of her face.

"Yes. Suffocate her!" Geist's raspy voice called out.

Thunderbolt's arms fell to her sides, and she fell forward onto the floor and lay still.

"Aww, is poor girl going night-night?" Omniflex sneered.

Suddenly Thunderbolt slammed her head into the floor as hard as she could - wham wham wham!

"...uhh... "

Unable to withstand such a beating, Omniflex flowed off of Thunderbolt's head and reconstituted herself. She had just barely flowed into her orange and white costume when Thunderbolt unleashed a wicked punch to her stomach!

With a low moan, the villainess crumpled.

Gasping, Thunderbolt rose to her feet.

"I can take a beating, honey - and you can't."

Megan Kent looked around - so far, so good - it didn't look like anyone was guarding the old submarine access.

What in the world they even had a submarine access for was beyond her.

She crept carefully along the dock, for it was pitch black, and she really didn't want to go in the water again. Her jumpsuit was all one piece, from her neck to her fingers and toes, and while it had shed the water fairly quickly she was still damp and uncomfortable.

Of course, she had gained a little weight, especially around the rear, having the children and all.

And cupcakes, she sighed. And big dinners.

When this was over, she vowed, she was going to go on a diet.

She should be far enough in that her powers wouldn't attract undue attention. She concentrated... and her entire body shifted to black. Not grey, not charcoal. Black.

There were glowing bands of energy where the cuffs of boots and gloves would be, and a matching 'V' of energy across her shoulders. Her eyes and mouth glowed with power, and a thin, semi-circle symbol - an Eclipse - shone on her chest.

"Wow," she breathed. She had forgotten what true power felt like; it had been so long since she had given it up for Chris and the kids.

Chris - oh, how she wished he were with her now.

She screwed up her face. He may not be here, but his sister was counting on her.

Eclipse zoomed up to the cellar doors - and through them.

She was in Angel Flight's garage - and shocked to find that the lights were on!

She quickly zipped behind a van and stuck her head out to assess the situation.

Ohh, this wasn't good, she thought. The garage was supposed to be closed down... only Vanguard had even been in the place in the past several years, and the Angels let him go down here just to get him out of their hair for awhile.

Then who -

She froze.

A man with techbelts on his waist, his hips, slung over his shoulder... a reddish mask...

She pulled back slowly.

Oh my God - Gadget Jack!

He was walking around, casually pulling the tarps off old pieces of Angel Flight tech and, often, whistling admiringly.

"Co-o-ol," he whispered, stroking the seat of a skycycle. "Hard to believe this stuff's ten years old..."

Eclipse knew she'd only get one shot. She had to make it good.

As Gadget Jack circled the skycycle to examine something on one of the towering shelves, Eclipse took special aim and pumped all that she had into a terrific blast!

Which missed.

"Ha!" he exclaimed, pulling a grenade from one of his weapons belts and clicking on it's activator. "You think you can get ol' Gadget Jack that way? Fact of the matter is - "

He never got to finish his brag, because the tower of technology that he had been looking at, collapsed on top of him.

Then, the grenade went off.

Eclipse winced. Ouch.

She paused and looked around - no one else. Gadget Jack had been down here alone.

Nervously, she floated up toward the stairway... she knew the doors were heavy and soundproofed, but somehow that didn't calm her much.

She flew through the door, thanking God the Angels' anti-desolidification fields were turned off. After all, they only covered the doors, they did cost a fortune to run, and were mildly unreliable.

Eclipse paused on the other side of the door.

All that was true, but Encantida normally kept a low-level spell running that guarded the entire complex, walls and all. Eclipse hadn't felt a thing, which meant 'Cantida was unconscious.

Or worse.

She shivered just a little at the thought, as she carefully floated past the gym and the tastefully-decorated den. She looked in the kitchen and the dining room as well.

Eclipse sighed inwardly. It was a cinch that they weren't being held in the bedroom. That left the lab. It was always the lab.

The Angels' laboratories hadn't really been used much in the past several years. Even the first group to call themselves Angel Flight had really only added them because, well, that's what super-teams do! Every few months or so, it would come in handy, but for the most part the doors remained closed.

The doors were off the hinges.

Eclipse crept up and peered inside, heart racing.

Inside she saw three familiar forms, all hanging limply amidst wicked-looking tech. Encantida, the Mexican magician (actually, she was from Albuquerque), Telestar, the armless telekinetic, and Chill, the queen of cold... all unconscious, their bodies bearing bruises and their costumes torn and tattered.

"Oh, my God!" breathed Eclipse.

She flew to Chill's side and ripped the gas mask off of her icy blue skin. Eclipse hurriedly began to tear at the strips of cloth on the unconscious girl's arm -

And then she became aware of someone behind her.

She slowly turned to face a woman with platinum blonde hair, her eyes hidden by red goggles. She wore a red leotard with matching boots and gloves, and pinkish-red tights.

The old-fashioned costume was hardly threatening, yet terror filled Eclipse anyway.

"Photon," she breathed, and slowly started backing away. She knew that Photon's body long ago had become solid light - and against pure light she was in very, very big trouble.

"I thought we had missed somebody," Photon stated casually, blasting Eclipse with a beam of white light.

"Uungh!" the heroine cried as she tumbled over some tech.

"Though I dearly would love to have your predecessors trussed up to torture," she said, whipping off another bolt just as Eclipse got to her feet.

"Whoogh!" Eclipse slammed into the wall.

God, how f-fast was she? the heroine thought, shaking her head to clear it.

"There is something pleasant about putting you 'next-generation' heroines in your place."

Eclipse dodged, to no avail. Boom! She flew across the room and bounced twice.

"Ohh-hhh," she moaned as another bolt blistered her back.

"Under our boot."

The heroine struggled to raise her head. What was she thinking... she, trying to... take on Photon?

"Don't feel too bad - I've handled your big sisters before. You are hardly in their league."

Photon stood over her, smiling cruelly. She casually raised a hand to finish this.

"Or in mine. Sweet dreams."

Suddenly her outstretched arm and upper body were encased in clear, smooth ice!

"What the - "

Eclipse's eyes snapped wide - if she ever was going to hit Photon it was now! She rolled to a sitting position and thrust out her hand!

Instantly a night-black blast erupted from her fingers, striking Photon squarely! And she followed that with a second blast, also hitting her foe!

Screaming in rage, Photon's hands exploded, blowing the ice to fragments!

"You dare?" she seethed, her hands glowing white with power. "You dare?"

With her fists aglow like the sun, she brought her hands back dramatically above her head, and swung them down to deliver a killing blast -

But she was... moving... in... slow-w-w-w... mo-tion...

The heroine's panic gave way to raw determination.

Eclipse's body flashed, momentarily blanketing the room in darkness, as she blasted Photon squarely in the chest - once, twice, three times with everything she had!

Photon crashed through a table and lay still.

Eclipse shuddered, then her powers turned off. She collapsed to her knees, breathing hard.

"That's... new," she huffed. "Slowing her... down."

Still hanging, entangled in technology, was a woman in blue, with stylized icicles hanging from her shoulders.

"N-nice to see... you too," Chill smiled.

Cyberscream turned her skinny body to bring her arms around to a defensive posture. The huge, hulking cybernetic suit that she wore responded.

"I've upgraded this body since we last met, Thunderbolt," she sneered, her voice flattened by the vocal moderator built into the suit. "I am quite capable of punching your lights out all by myself."

Thunderbolt groggily shook her head and struggled to her feet.

Geez, she wasn't kidding.

And she wasn't by herself.

Wham! The Atomic Axe struck her in the chest, sending her sprawling. The Axe didn't penetrate her skin - or even her costume - but did it hurt!

"Haw! Did you see that?" its silver-clad wielder crowed. "She's hurt!"

"Thennnn letssss finishhhh herrrr," spoke a tall, gangly woman whose face was hidden in the shadows of her cloak. "Foreverrrr."

T-bolt grunted as dark tendrils swirled around her. M-magic... figures... they'd need magic to down 'Cantida.

"Battleaxe... Darkmage... and Cyberscream..." Thunderbolt grunted. "You've brought... cough...an all-star team..."

"Yes, Thunderbolt, I..." Doktor Geist said mockingly as her force bubble swirled around her. "Have. Any one... of us are... more than a... match for you..."

Shraccckkktt! From the force bubble a beam erupted, striking the heroine squarely and sending her groaning to her knees.

"But together, we... are your finish!... Ha ha ha!"

Before Thunderbolt could answer, Cyberscream thundered forward and clopped her head, sending the young woman crashing through a computer bank.

"Oh-h-h..." T-bolt slumped, an ugly bruise welling up on her cheek.

"Oh, yes - Gadget... Jack and Photon... are here too... Perhaps I should... summon them. They... would certainly enjoy... seeing your finish."

"Don't bother."

Doktor Geist, Battleaxe, Darkmage, and Cyberscream all turned as one.

Chill stood in the doorway, icy mists swirling around her hands. Encantida floated inches above the ground, a vision in crimson and white, red globes of light flashing between her fingers. Telestar flew beside her, her violet eyes aglow with telekinetic power. And behind them, eyes wide, was Eclipse.

All were battered, bruised... and angry.

"Angel Flight! But... how did you..."

Thunderbolt smiled weakly. She had begun to fear her sister-in-law had been captured as well. Her little talk out front had drawn the villains' attention after all.

"One chance," Encantida said, raising her hands. "Geef. Op."

"The hell we will!" whooped Battleaxe, her armor generating the Atomic Axe in her outstretched hand. "Mine is the power-r-r-r!"

Darkmage swooped toward Chill, her hands tracing obscure yet powerful patterns in the air. Doktor Geist turned toward Telestar.

And Cyberscream suddenly turned and pulverized Thunderbolt.

She grinned inside her suit as she withdrew her enormous fist - the superheroine was knocked out cold.

"One down," she sneered, turning toward Eclipse. "And two coming up!"

Chill threw up an ice shield - which Darkmage promptly shattered.

Darkmage brought her hands around and fired a blast of magical energy at Chill - who promptly threw up another ice shield, which also shattered.

"Hmm-m," was the magician's only response.

Battleaxe's silver armor gleamed as she swung her Atomic Axe at Encantida.

The Mexican woman calmly crossed her wrists in front of her; her golden bracers seemed to glow. The Axe stopped about a foot from her crossed hands, and though Battleaxe tried as she might she couldn't bring the axe any closer.

"You can't hold me forever, witch!"

The raven-haired beauty smiled.

"I don' need to."

Frasssh! Chill turned and froze the metal-clad warrior solid!

"Huhhhh?" was all Darkmage got out before Telestar nailed her with a telekinetic blast, slamming her against the wall and stunning her as well.

"Laura!" Cyberscream shouted. She charged forward and swung at Encantida!

The magician tried to throw up a defensive spell, but Cyberscream's enormous fist crashed into her, putting out her lights. She slammed into a row of computers and lay still.

Doktor Geist gave a sinister giggle and prepared to fire at Telestar - but Eclipse shot forward and blasted Geist's force bubble with both hands!

And much to everyone's surprise, but especially Geist's, the force of the blast knocked her force bubble upside down and to the side, like a billiard ball!

"Vas is dos?"

Telestar slammed a telekinetic bolt into Darkmage's body, again slamming her against the wall! This time, Darkmage crumpled and stayed down.

As Doktor Geist tried to right her force bubble, Eclipse blasted again - sending it careening off the floor and bouncing off the wall!

"Oogh! You can't... ugh! Wha- oof!"

Cyberscream looked at Chill, then lit after Telestar - who wisely turned and bolted. Anyone who could go toe-to-toe with Thunderbolt - !

"You've nowhere to go, sweetie," Cyberscream said calmly, swiping her bulky fist through the air and clobbering Telestar upside the head.

Telestar flipped head over heels and crashed down on a worktable, out like a light.

Chill desperately poured ice over Cyberscream's legs!

"Ohh, you're next, icicle-tits," the menace growled metallically, smashing the ice with its fists.

"Ohh, boy..."

Chill started to back away, bringing both her hands up to generate an ice wall.

She knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Heads up!" yelled Eclipse...

And the Doktor's ball bounced right in front of Cyberscream's downward-swinging fists.

Whooom!

"Uuhhgggh..." Geist said, letting her force bubble disintegrate.

"Doc! Sorry!"

Cyberscream turned menacingly toward Chill and Telestar.

"Your little game is at an end, ladies."

"Do we run?" Eclipse whispered.

"No," Chill answered. "We fight!"

With a snarl, she unleashed a huge stream of ice at Cyberscream's arms, freezing them solid!

Doktor Geist shook off her injury and withdrew a very wicked-looking gun from her shoulder holster. She drew a bead on Chill.

Eclipse blasted Cyberscream, knocking her over... right on top of Doktor Geist.

"Vas? Ohhh, crap..."

"Yeah, fight on, little girls! Your powers are no match for mine!"

"Alone, perhaps, but together?"

Encantida's melodious voice accompanied a razor-sharp blade of ruby red energy, curved and curled with a glowing white aura. The blade ripped through an arm of the Cyberscream suit, sending it crashing to the floor.

"Aaaaahhh! My... arm!"

The villainess whirled and grabbed Chill, crushing her in it's huge fist.

"Aaggk!"

"Chill!" screamed Eclipse.

Whoooom!

A purple bolt of telekinetic force tore into Cyberscream's side where the arm had been attached, sending the mechanized villainess tumbling to the floor!

"H-hit... her," Telestar gasped as she struggled to remain conscious after such a blast.

Chill rolled away from Cyberscream's loosened grip, and Eclipse covered her friend's escape with another two-handed blast!

Cyberscream lurched to her feet and whirled toward Eclipse and Chill as a huge cannon arose from its back.

Eclipse just stood there as the cannon began to glow. "Oh... my... "

She never finished her thought, for Encantida floated down between Cyberscream and the two heroines.

"Forget me?" she asked pleasantly, the bell sleeves of her white leotard blowing in an unearthly wind. Her eyes narrowed as she sang in Spanish - and the cannon exploded!

"Aaah!" Cyberscream yelled. "What - ?"

Encantida gestured, and the curved blade reappeared, putting a huge gash in the 'head'. Then, singing in a language no one on earth still used, she violently pushed her hands apart, and the tear in Cyberscream's shell ripped open!

"Aaagghh! You - you - !" Cyberscream brought her huge fist crashing down on the floor, knocking the Angels around like ten-pins.

"I'll be back!" she said, shaking her fist. "And I'll finish you all - eh?"

Someone was tapping on her armor?

She turned to see Thunderbolt, fist drawn back.

"Hi."

Booooom!

Thunderbolt plowed her fist right through Cyberscream's head!

A shower of sparks rained down as Cyberscream tumbled over.

Eclipse stared.

"It's okay - she rides in the middle of the suit," T-bolt smiled. "Little punk, actually."

"Aren't you... going to get her out?"

"In a minute," Thunderbolt sighed. "I'm still kind of woozy..."

"I hear you," Telestar said, floating over. "When I said I wanted a little time away from the kids - !"

"I theenk," Encantida said, wincing as she rubbed her jaw, "I am gohn to see the denteest again."

Chill rubbed her head. "God... our worst enemies... banded together."

"Kinda surprised they haven't tried it before," Thunderbolt said casually. "My arch-enemies first banded together back when I was still a teenager."

Encantida looked at the tatters of her costume - it would likely take her at least month to re-sew all the delicate, cryptic patterns with the mystic crimson thread. "Well, some of us were surprised. I had not heard of Darkmage for years."

Suddenly they all looked up as a cracking sound was heard.

With a sigh, Chill froze Battleaxe inside even more ice.

"You know, we might have lost this one if hadn't been for our secret weapon over here," remarked T-bolt.

"Yes, we owe you our lives," Encantida said.

"Here, here!" cried Telestar.

"You did real good, E!" smiled Chill, giving her a heartfelt hug. "Thanks."

"Anytime you wish to return..." said Encantida.

They all looked at Eclipse.

"Uh, I'll... think about it, okay?"

"Fair enough," T-bolt said. "Let's get these clowns into UNCLE's hands, then we can start talking about plugging whatever security hole they used... uh, T-star? Bethany?"

"Oh! S-sorry... I was just thinking... about the kids. I mean, being a mother... of five kids, is, you know..."

The other Angels looked uncomfortably at each other.

Finally, Chill spoke.

"It's okay, Bethany."

"Yes," Encantida added. "We understand."

Telestar looked at her teammates, her friends.

"Oh.

"Oh, no," she laughed. "Hey, I love my kids, but...five kids versus supervillains?"

She grinned.

"I'll take the villains any day of the week!"