---

Dave Landers and his girlfriend Stephanie Harrington walked from the local supermarket at the end of their weekly shopping trip on their way home to their apartment complex in SoHo. This was the same apartment that they shared with the rest of the paranormals that ran away from the Clinic for Paranormal Research years ago. It was only in the last few months that David revealed the love that he had for Stephie and after her ex-husband was diagnosed with the AIDS virus, she returned his feelings for him rather than spurn his love.

They didn’t have a lot of money because they only had minimum wage jobs in the city so this was a special occasion to spend time together. Randy O’Brien, trapped inside one of his antibodies, was babysitting Stephie’s children, Ben, Emily, and Jill.

When they reached their apartment, Dave used his keys to open the door. He got a nasty surprise when he walked inside with the packages. Standing to center left to his position was Jack Magniconte and his wife Darlene. They were clad in their Kickers uniforms. Since Jack was the only one on the team cursed with paranormality, they needed these bullet proof vests for protection. It also identified them as one cohesive unit.

“What are you doing here, Jack?’ Dave asked, snidely.

Setting down her packages as soon as he set down his, she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, a movement to hold him back. “Don’t be mad, David. He had called me a couple minutes before we left and he said that he needed to talk to us. I know how you feel about him, especially after that incident when we were on the run from the Clinic, when Ben had called him to protect me, and when you were in the same boot camp as Jack—you need to learn to trust him and his Kickers…”

During her monologue, Dave had both of his fists clenched but when she had finished, he unclenched them, as a peace maker. “I have little patience for you and your talks, Jack. I left the Army and I have no interest in joining Kickers, so this better be good.”

Jack stepped forward. “I don’t want you to join Kickers, but there is one other organization that I think you, your girlfriend, and your friends should become involved with. The person that approached me was one John Tensen, a former member of the Justice Department, who works for the National Security Council. With the end of the War, there has been interest in working more closely with paranormals. They have before but this is urgent. I have already agreed to join them. It would beneficial to you and your friends to join us. You can still live here in New York. You will only be called for missions when needed.”

“By the smile on Stephie’s face, I can see that my friends are all in agreement. You can keep in touch, Jack.”

---

Agent Derek Shiningstar walked through the hallway of the hospital until he reached the appropriated room. The man in the bed is Michael Proudhawk, cousin of rogue government agent Emmett Proudhawk. Once he tried to destroy the Psi-force children. Now, he may have gotten a second chance.

“Do you have it?’ Michael asked, days ago coming out of his coma. “Do you have the medallion that once belonged to Emmett.

‘Yes, I do,” Agent Shiningstar said. “Emmett needed it to focus his psi power. The ability to push people.”

“Give it to me now!” Michael also had the ability to push people like Emmett did, but his power was weakened by his coma. The medallion helped him focus and it strengthened his resolve. “Mindwolf killed Emmett and when the children summoned Psi-hawk, the totality and psi-essence of Emmett and their powers, they killed Mindwolf. I plan to do the same to them. You have told me that it has been years since I was out. This is the perfect time for me to exact my revenge. What the children don’t know is that their Psi-hawk is really the totality and essence of each member of the Proudhawk family, not just Emmett. All Emmett was able to do was to push people, a simple conjuring trick. There is another. A younger cousin, Gene Proudhawk, who can manifest the Psi-hawk. I must get him before the children.”

“What are you saying, that you are the originator of the Psi-hawk manifestation?”

“I’ll show you.” Michael raised his hand, which started to glow, and shimmering in the air between him and Derek appeared the Psi-hawk. “Derek, you gave me an assignment decades ago. I failed you once. I will not fail you again.” The Psi-hawk projected forth a telekinetic psi-bubble around Michael and flew with him out of Betheseda Hospital.

---

Captain Manhattan stood within an alleyway in Harlem, half wishing that Chrome would come back to him. He had his beliefs and they didn’t quite coincide with hers. He took off his mask and let it rest behind his head. For a while there, he was beginning to fall in love with Chrome. He secretly knew that she loved him back. But he believed strongly that paranormals shouldn’t coexist with the normal humans. Humans were meant to be saved, not to be heroes. They had no powers. It was a difficult choice to make, he was sure, but he had made it years before.

Now, he was angry enough to fight some hoodlums in Harlem. He was ready to—

Manhattan heard some scuffling in the entrance to the alley and saw two costumed figures entering it. He recognized them because they both wore similar outfits to his own. It was Captain Brooklyn and Captain Bronx.

Captain Manhattan pulled his mask over his face. And said to them, “I may not be the best company right now. The Cure destroyed the only woman I loved. She must be a living wreck now.”

“Actually, she couldn’t be better,” Brooklyn said. “The metal skin, ‘Chrome’ just wasn’t her. You have to understand that, Cap. You really should talk to her. Tell her how you really feel, not just the bullshit you lay on her all the time. As the Judge says, there must be … justice.”

“Is that why you two are here, to gloat?”

“No, in the time that you don’t have Chrome, we would like to be your partners in your war on crime.”

“What’s going to happen to Chrome—I mean, Jenny?”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself? She’s at the NSC. But you may have competition.”

“From who?” he whispered.

“A former auto mechanic named Ken Connell. He has powers and is not bigoted about being human. Everyone of us were human before July, 1986. You should think of that sometime.”

A forceshield appeared below his feet and Captain Manhattan soared over the city into the distance, to greater Harlem to his next drug bust.

---

Epilogue

At the Proudhawk reservation, Miriam Morse, Angela Tensen, and Victor Pasko exited their jeep and walked onto the scene. It was late evening, and everyone was going inside their tee pees, falling fast asleep. Emily Proudhawk, grandmother of Emmett Proudhawk, the tribal shaman, heard their footsteps and exited her tent to approach them.

”What do you want here, strangers?” she asked, gesturing with her hands for them to halt.

“We know that you are harboring criminals here, Emmett’s Psi-force children. We came to offer them a proposition,” Miriam explained gently.

“As far as I know, they do not want to be a part of any government covert organization,” Emily said. “And my son and I will protect them for as long as you will want to apprehend them.”

“Who is your son?’ Viotor asked.

“Eugene Proudhawk. He is Emmett’s younger brother. And when I die, he will be tribal shaman in my place.”

“Do we have a file on him?’ Angela asked. “All we know, ma’am, is that Michael has awoken from his coma and wants revenge on Psi-force.”

“How do you know all this?” Emily inquired.

“Before the War, a reporter named Andrew Chaser wrote a tell-all book about Emmett called Power For the Preying. Here’s a copy. We would like to talk to Gene and see if what this reporter has revealed is really the truth.”

“Come with me.”

Emily Proudhawk led the three NSC operatives to Gene’s tent. He wasn’t asleep. He had been eavesdropping on their whole conversation. He knew this would happen one of these days. He had been in hiding for so many years, ever since Emmett and Derek first joined the CIA together and since Emmett died at the hands of Mindwolf.

Miriam Morse explained to Gene what was going down. She said who she was, that there was a book about the Proudhawks and the Psi-force children, and the coming of the evil Psi-hawk.

“We have to know where Psi-force is?” Miriam asked.

“I’ll take you to them.”

And then, Eugene Proudhawk knew that his destiny was calling. A destiny that was apart of his grandmother of him being a shaman. He would have to leave the reservation and enter the outside world.

---