"Psi-force, now you die!!"  The youthful figure looms above the group of teenagers. He is Michael Proudhawk, sometimes called the Psi-hawk.  He is a paranormal, like the people below him, with the ability to use the powers of the ones around him. He means to use that selfsame power against his dark nemesis.

"Well, if you feel that way, Psi-hawk, old son," says Gene Proudhawk, his wings rustling in the harsh winds of New York.  "Then, the second Psi-hawk will have to dissuade you, eh?"

The high-flying Gene-Hawk soars into the sky, between the tall skyscrapers of the city, and gives the Native American-born hero a jab to the jaw. He can hear the cracking of the jaw and his opponent's eyes blazing with anger, rage, and rightful fury.  In retalliation, Michael gets ahold of Gene's wings and using his super human strength, begins to tear them into tiny pieces. 

The Psi-forcer falls to the street below, dead!                 

"Murderer!!" Twin prism beams lance out from the outstretched hands of Travis Juarez. The beam strikes Michael like a knife to an opened heart. Travis Juarez-- the paranormal called Red Prism-- cannot believe how easily his enemy shakes off his blow, like someone might if you pinch their arm.               

"Now, boyo, enough is enough! If you think that your power could even scratch me, well, let's see how my power hurts your precious team mate!"

For the whole time that the male members of the team have been fighting for dear life, Kathy Ling has been adoring Michael's inhuman beauty. Even though she professes to love her team mates, she is ever so susceptible to other people's handsomeness. She has formed a crush on him. That is the last thing she will ever think or feel.               

A shout, growing in intensity and duration every minute, soars through the air like a thing alive. Turning into a psychic scream, the invisible beam hits young Kathy Ling like a battering ram and char-broils her skin. Her heart and lungs stop to function almost immediately.  She drops to the ground, dead!

"Kathy! My God! Kathy!" Wayne Tucker rushes to his young sweetheart's side, holding her corpse close to his much-alive body. A tear, or two, begin to slither down his stern face. He hasn't cried for many years, he almost forget  how. Now, he remembers.

---

That last scream wakes up Gene Proudhawk from the darkest... and most frightening... of dreams. He is at the headquarters of the National Security Council. He gets up, covered with drenched sweat, and looks out the window to the mountains. Hours later, at breakfast time, he lets out all they didn't say earlier.  Stephanie Harrington, being the best cook that she can be, serves pancakes, scrambled eggs, and toast.  

A plate of pancakes is placed in front of Kathy Ling. It smells good and when she finally starts to eat it, it tastes better.  After taking a few bites, she looks up at the smiling face of Stephanie Harrington. "Now, you just eat this up. If we plan to start to training you to defend yourself, you're gonna need a hearty breakfast."

"'Training'?" A snicker of confusement comes across Kathy's face.    

"Sure, darlin'," says Gene.  "How in the world do you  expect t' fight if you don' know how to fight well?!"

Several hours later, after lunch, in their make-shift training room, Charly Beck and Travis Juarez, in uniform, stand at one side of the room, while in the center, Kathy Ling waits for her orders. She knows that she will not be happy when she receives them but she holds herself together nonetheless.  

"Okay, the exercise's simple, Kathy," explains Charly in a very commanding tone. "All that you'll to do is try to keep us from taggin' ya. If you touch us first, we're out but if we touch you first, you're dead, got it?" 

A soft nod of the head confirms Charly that her answer is yes. And let the games begin! To gain altitude and some more room, Kathy soars to the air, covering her lithe form with a shield of telekinetic force.  Then, she creates a ball of TK energy and hurls it at Travis Juarez.

Travis backflips to avoid the collision and lands at the far steel wall. The only way to touch her, he thinks, is to show her what paranormal power really means. With a slight sound, the boy creates a force field around himself and hurls himself in the air toward Ms. Ling.     

'Whoa,' she whispers to herself. 'Can't let him touch me, have to hit it with everything I've got.' Both hands in the form of a gun, Kathy shoots a bolt of TK energy that staggers him and he falls to the ground below.   

'Well, it looks like Charly will have to play the game,' he thinks. 'Because until my ring repairs itself, I won't be able to create any more red prism power.'   

"Kawa bongwa, bratface!"  Cutting the air like a scythe, Charly lets loose with a single friction blast that could rock worlds. But instead, it temporarily leaves young Kathy disoriented, unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes.    

To try to stay in control of her motor reflexes, Kathy spins round and round until her flight maneuvers are up to perfection. She then starts to fly backwards, not looking where she is going. "Hah! That should teach you to  mess with me, Charly."   

"I think not, dude-ette!"  

Kathy quickly turns around and sees nothing but a huge, monstrous wall. Not being able to stop, she crash-bangs into it and faster than the eye can follow, slides down the wall.

She finally slams on the steel floor  below.  

Charly swiftly alights right next to her. "I'm sorry that I have to do this, doll-face, but it's my job."

Before Charly can make a truly powerful fist, Kathy jabs her opponent in the chin, sending her reeling backwards... ever backwards... until she collapses on the  floor.     

"Well, kiddies, it looks like I won this little  contest!"  

While in the Observatory Tower, Gene Proudhawk grows with painful disgust. "Pathetic, totally pathetic! She took them down like a pro!"  

"Gene, please calm down," says Jenny Swensen, placing her hand on his shoulder.  "You have to realize that Travis and Charly have been pretty much inactive ever since they joined. And, also, Kathy has been trained with the best in the Medusa Web. She is really almost a pro herself!" 

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But, it really gets to me how easily they were taken down."  

"Gene, I..." 

Suddenly, completely without any warning whatsoever, Gene Proudhawk begins to see visions of the past mingled with those of the present along with some of the future.  Two hallucinagenic forms appear; Michael Proudhawk and Derek Shiningstar.  

"NO!! Not again! No!" 

"Gene, what--?!" Jenny tries to comfort what seems to be a psychic attack on her partner.   

"Yeah, Geney, she want's yer 'elp, why don'cha 'elp ha," The slurred tongue of the Psi-hawk frightens Gene all the more. "De’rek, use yer influence's on 'im, right?" 

There is a huge explosion that rocks the whole National Security Council Headquarters! The two villains, with Gene, fly safely to the ground below, while Jenny, who falls in the so-called training room, and the other three paranormals there ride on the rubble, safe from the effects of the explosion, outside where the others are.   

Jenny Swensen and Charly Beck both fell to unconsciousness, leaving Kathy Ling and Travis Juarez observing one Gene Proudhawk hurling punches at unseen foes. Travis tackles Gene, to find out what's going on and to stop him from fighting  hallucinations.   

"Gene, stop! What are you doing?" 

"Don't you see them. It's the Psi-force-- well, only two of them--and they're the ones that's been haunting my dreams!"    

"'Dreams!' What dreams?"  

In Gene's mind's eye, the two antagonists disappear, leaving nothing but their dust and ashes. They are gone and he looks totally ridiculous.    

"Travis, I'm sorry-- it's hard to explain, but I'll try. Y'see, it all started about a month after the original Psi-hawk died in Washington, DC on national television--"  

"Yo, guys, forget about that," Kathy interrupts, trying to look after the two asleep people at the same time. "Look at that!"  

The three of them stare skyward for but a brief moment, just then, and see the most spectacular sight in all creation. What they view is a gigantic jet, smoke and flames flying wildly from its engine thrusters as it tries to land a mere few feet in front of them. And from its hatch that swings open, both paranormal and human stand proudly on the lawns of NSC HQ. They are the combined members of Kickers, Inc, DP7, and Psi-force.  

Gene Proudhawk steps forward, like it is a great honor, looking for one specific person and when he finds him, his face lights up like a million candles at once.

"Jack! Yer alive!!"  

Gene Cassidy lifts up Jack Magniconte like he weighed nothing, thinking that all his current problems can all go to heck since his old friend is here. Damn, he's happy.    

"Gene, please, calm down, please!"   

"Oh, Jack, I'm just so happy to see you. By the way, what are you doing by this neck of the woods?"

"David, should I tell him?"  

A nod from the leader of this little band of paranormal heroes confirms his answer.   

"Well, if you realy, really want to know... recently, I, along with the rest of the paranormals, have been having visions of our resident villains and after I checked everyone out, my original hypothesis was correct. Something evil involving them is happening and we decided to take a break from fighting and check it out."  

"Yeah, well, I've been having the same kind of visions. I think this is some kind of master plan brought about by one of our older enemies to take revenge."  

"I also support this idea. I first thought of Dreamscape but after her two most recent defeats, I don't think she would try again!"  

"Yeah, well, let's all see what's left of the National Security Council and discuss  this."  

They are all in agreement. Minutes later, DP7 and the trainees at the Council, with Stephanie Harrington nursing Jenny and Charly back to health, discover the true devastation of the explosion. Debris and rubble is  everywhere, the scene is terrible. 

"Who could have done such a horror of a thing?" questions the tongue of Antibody.

"Which base villain would have responsibility for this?" 

"I don't know, Rand-man, but we all aim to find out!" Dave Landers is the natural leader, and as such, he wonders to his fullest why this happened and who did it.

A few feet distant, Jack Magniconte holds a photograph of the five Kickers, Darlene Magniconte close to his side.  

"Who could have the nerve--- the inhuman gall--- to do this? It is unimaginable!"  

"I know not who did this, but I can promise you this, they shall pay with their very lives!"   

A voice is heard from above and the body it belongs to sits proudly, maybe even triumphantly, on top the rubble.  "Well, well, well, Jack dude! If you don't know who did  this, mebbe this'll solve that l'il problem-o for ya!"  

The man is Emmett Proudhawk and in a flash of blinding light, fires his push power at the football star. Slammed by the impact, he falls against a mixture of metal and cement.

"Jack!! What have you done, villain!!"  Darlene leaps into the air, to tackle her foe who has hurt her lover. With one punch, he downs her. She falls to the ground, exhausted, right next to Jack, who is only stunned also.    

"Psi-force, defend!"   

At his command, the other paranormals form a circle around him. Thunder crackles in the afternoon sky, the wind buffeting beyond measure. Its howling getting louder by the minute. Then, their forms wave back and forth, to and fro.

---

"Psi-force, now you die!!"          

And as he awakens so suddenly, Gene Proudhawk also woke up his partner, Jenny Swensen. Concerned, she approaches Gene, leaning on him.

"Gene... what's th' matter? You gave me quite a fright there."     

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, Jenny, it's just that... well, this'll sound a l'il silly, but I had a nightmare." Slowly, he brings himself to say it. "It was a dream of when I first met the Psi-force, an' I killed every last one o' 'em. It was terribly frightening!"

"Oh, Gene, that sounds horrible. C'mon, lean on me...  it'll help, trust me."      

And they do. Sometimes embracing, other times kissing, depends on what they feel like doing.      

Next moment, the security alarm screams at its loudest. This scares the twin lovers near to death. They both bolt up, looking every which way to find out what's going on.        

"The security alarm-- what did it ring like that?!"

"That was probably because, Gene, darling, there is an intruder in the house. We better investigate, try to find out what's amiss!"      

Racing out of the bedroom, Gene and Jenny run through the hallway, meeting Travis Juarez, on the way to the main chamber.  He is a paranormal, with the ability to master the electromagnetic spectrum. Also, they rendezvous with Charly Beck, who has been recently staying here to better control her friction powers.  The four of them enter the main chamber council room with the expedience of a black cat.        

They expect to find a villain of enormous intensity that plans to destroy the planet entire. What they find instead is a young woman, blood covered over her entire frail form, lying near death on the only table present in  the room.        

Gene is the only one to respond at this most crucial moment, the rest of them are too flabbergasted to say anything. "Oh my lord! What's goin' on here?"       

Ignoring her partner's heartfelt question, Jenny approaches the girl, setting her upright, leaning her against the chair.

"Miss, are you all right...? Please, try to rest and explain what has happened to you?" Jenny tries to use her calm and cool voice to help the young girl arouse her explanation and fortunately, it works.     

“My name is Janice Zoya Gregarin. I was part of the old Siberian Project and recently recruited by Derek Shiningstar to help create an army of paranormals. Michael Proudhawk and Dreamscape and the Hex Squad were the first. He wants a war.”

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