Alpha Omega Fraternity House

"Here spider, spider, spider…" Johnny Gallo, sometimes known as the mutant hero Ricochet, whispered to himself as he rushed thru the halls of the Alpha Omega Fraternity House at a frantic pace. He was searching for his friend Mattie Franklin, a high schooler whom he, like an idiot, had brought to a college party, and wasn't meeting with any success. It wasn't like searching for a needle in a haystack. It was like searching for one specific needle in a pile of other needles.

"Okay, I'm only going to find her one way, and it's a long shot," Johnny thought to himself. He pressed his back up against a wall where he was out of the way of the many partygoers, closed his eyes and concentrated, reaching inwards. Ever since he was fourteen years old, Johnny had possessed a danger sense that had saved his neck more times than Johnny could count. It was like having a direct line to a guardian angel, twenty-four seven. If Johnny needed to be warned of any danger, he was, easy as that. But now, Johnny didn't need it to warn him about danger, he needed his danger sense to find someone for him, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. Johnny opened his eyes, and started walking on instinct. His instincts quickly led him upstairs and towards the end the hall to a locked door.

"Sonofabitch," Johnny snarled at himself as he kicked the door in. He saw Mattie lying prone on a bed with her eyes glazed over and her belt unbuckled with some boy's hands at the side of her pants, trying to pull them down.

"What the…" Franklin Brown didn't get a chance to complete his sentence before Johnny's fist smashed into his face and sent him careening into the wall.

"You better stay the hell down, you sick bastard," Johnny snapped, "'cause I really want to smack your ass down again! I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I know it ain't legal." Johnny turned towards Mattie. "You okay, kid?"

"Johnny?" Mattie rasped, flickering in and out of consciousness, "I…can't move."

"I knew this was a freakin' mistake," Johnny muttered. He buckled Mattie's belt as gentlemanly as he could, pulled her up and propped her up against himself. He then wheeled around to leave.

"Hey, come on, man!" Frank Brown said as he stood up and scrambled to get between the door and Johnny, "We were…"

"Thanks," Johnny spat. Johnny's foot flew up and struck the crotch of Brown's pants. Brown squeaked out an'oh' as he collapsed to the floor. Johnny, propping Mattie up and ignoring the odd looks he got from his fellow party goers as he left, after all, he was all of carrying an obviously impaired young woman out of the party. Thankfully, though perhaps saying something about the social conscious of college students, no one made any attempt to stop him. Johnny with Mattie put about two blocks between him and the Frat party before he ducked into an alley.

"Come on, Eddie, be there, be there," he mumbled as he pulled his Warrior's communicator out of his pocket.

Warriors Crash Pad

Chris Bradley trashed about in his bed, desperate to get to sleep. Why he wanted to get to sleep, he didn't know sometimes. After all, the majority of his dreams were filled with nightmares about his time as a Dark Rider. But sleep was the answer to his tired body right now, and he was being kept from it. By people who were supposed to be his friends. Chris suspected that Hornet and Carlton were playing video games on the Warrior's main computer, or as Ricochet called it, 'the X box on crack'. Dreadfully tired, Chris pulled himself out of his bed, and wearing his boxers and a plain white T-shirt, hauled himself upstairs where his teammates Hornet and Ricochet were arguing, with Hindsight off to the side.

"Guys, what's going on? Some of us are trying to sleep, ya know," Chris mumbled, half asleep, and more than ready for the other half.

"Rico let Mattie get drugged at a frat party!" Hornet exclaimed while pointing a finger at the silver haired mutant.

"What! How did you let that happen?" Chris demanded, now fully awake.

"I didn't let her get drugged," Johnny said defensively, "and can we bust my balls later? What are we gonna do about Mattie?"

"The medi lab down stairs is fully equipped, and says she's in no danger, but I think that we should take her to the hospital," Carlton suggested.

"But what if while they're running their blood tests, they find out about Mattie's powers?" Johnny asked, "then what?"

"And what if the med scanners are wrong, and something happens to her?" Hornet replied. "What do we do then?"

"If the scanners say that Mattie is fine, then she is fine," a cold voice stated, cutting thru the argument like a knife. The four young men turned to see Night Thrasher standing behind them with his arms crossed and though his face was hidden behind a helmet, everyone present could tell his eyes were narrowed and his face was contorted in anger. "Those scanners are some of the best money can buy, and were designed for laymen use."

"Hooboy." Ricochet muttered.

"If you're wondering, I know everything, Johnny. I gave standing orders to Carlton to contact me in an emergency, and this certainly qualifies," Night Thrasher spat. He looked towards Hornet and Carlton, "Leave, now." Night Thrasher then looked towards Bolt. "Chris, go back to bed. I'll try to keep the noise down."

The three hesitated for the briefest of moments, before giving Ricochet sympathetic looks and leaving. Night Thrasher pointed yet another accusing finger (in Johnny's opinion, anyways) at him and snarled. "Go wait for me in the meeting room, or else."

Night Thrasher turned his back to Ricochet, and stalked towards the medi lab.

Mattie Franklin carefully sat up from the medical bed Hornet had placed her on and rubbed her temple. Whatever that guy had slipped her was beginning to wear off, thankfully.

"Feeling better?" A voice asked in the most sincere voice possible that still made Mattie's blood run cold. She knew that voice.

"I'm…okay, Thrash," she answered sheepishly

"Then maybe you could explain to me what the hell you were thinking?" Night Thrasher spat, making no attempt to hide his anger.

"I… I thought I was just going to a party!" Mattie said defensively, "It's not like I wanted this to happen!"

"Then how did it happen? How did you allow yourself to ingest a sedative designed for the express purpose of rape!" Night Thrasher demanded.

"I…asked a guy to hold my drink," Mattie muttered. She realized in retrospect her (incredibly huge) mistake, but at the time it didn't seem to matter. The guys were really nice and very friendly, after all. Only now did she realize why they were being so nice, "it was a stupid mistake, I just didn't consider it at the time."

"And have you even considered what might have happened to your teammates? What if while you were drugged, you happened to let slip the fact that you're Spiderwoman? You could have revealed the secret identities of the entire team and we would never have known it until it was too late!" Night Thrasher spat. "Did you even consider that!"

Mattie was in tears now, and all she could manage to say, in a slight whisper was, "I'm sorry."

"So am I. Make a mistake like this again, and you're out of here," Night Thrasher said as he left the medi lab.

Ricochet fiddled with his hands nervously as he waited for Night Thrasher. It wasn't the inevitable chewing out that he was expecting, rather he was concerned out Mattie. What if the drug had some reaction to her powers?

"She's fine," Night Thrasher deadpanned as he entered the meeting room, answering Ricochet's unasked question. "And I have only one question for you Johnny."

Ricochet gulped, "Only one?"

"Yes, did she offer sex?"

The question completely floored Johnny. Of the things he expected Night Thrasher to ask, that wasn't even on the list. "Excuse me?"

"Did Mattie offer sex in return for you taking her to that party?" Night Thrasher

Johnny, still somewhat floored by the question managed to stammer out, "What? No way, man! What the hell makes you think that?"

"Because that's the only reason I can think of for you being so stupid," Night Thrasher explained. "Just what the hell were you thinking! I thought you were smarter than this!"

Ricochet rubbed his temples as Night Thrasher continued to relentlessly berate him, until Ricochet finally said, "Shut up."

"Excuse me?" Night Thrasher snarled

"Shut up. I nearly got a friend raped; you think you can possibly make me feel worse about this situation than I already do? You're wrong. So whatever punishment you have in mind, just spit it out. I'm more than willing to take it."

Night Thrasher snorted, "No punishment, this time. But if you're this stupid again…"

"I'm off the team," Ricochet finished.

"If you're lucky," Night Thrasher stated coldly. "Be ready to explain what happened tomorrow. According to the medical scanners, the roofie your friends slipped Mattie is a new and improved version. We're going to find the source, and shut them down. Hard."

Interlude - Virginia

Danny Hunter collapsed to his knees as his body demanded rest and his lungs burned for air. He was exhausted to say the least, and the grueling day had barely begun. The negator collar strapped to his leg kept his mutant powers dormant, thus making him helpless against his captors.

"Get up, you worthless punk," a voice stated. Danny felt a huge hand grab him by the shoulder and heft him up to his feet, "we still got a few miles left. You and your girl friend won't be allowed to slack off for a single step, either."

Danny looked up a little farther ahead where his girl friend, Lorna Kangston, a beautiful brunette of fourteen years of age, was standing. Lorna was being screamed at by a female staff member Lucia Callasantos for being lazy, but Danny knew the truth. Lorna had fallen behind to stay close to him. Even so, poor Lorna was in tears because of Ms. Callasantos.

As Danny picked himself up, he steeled himself. One way or another, he and Lorna were getting the hell out of this place. And so, he prayed no one noticed the small, jagged rock he had hidden in his shoe.

Warriors Crashpad

To say the Warriors usual meeting was emotional would be an understatement. After learning what had happened to Mattie, the team was thirsty for blood, Crux in particular.

"We need to burn these bastards!" Crux declared. Her costume was a full body suit with fire emblems on one side and fire on another. At the moment, her body was literally smoking in rage. The other Warriors had to back away from her to avoid her heat, "How dare they do something like this to her, I mean to women!"

"I have to agree with the spirit of that statement," Hornet stated. "I mean, isn't this what the Warriors are about? Fighting the fights no one else will?"

"That's exactly what we're about," Night Thrasher stated, "and that's what we're going to do today. Hornet, you and Ultra Girl will squeeze the frat boy who drugged Mattie. The rest of us will be stirring up trouble for pushers today, see if we can turn anything up. According to the medical scanners, the roofie Mattie was slipped had to have been made by a professional."

As the team filed out, Mattie took a second to pull Johnny aside. Swallowing the lump in her throat and began, "Look, about last night…" and then she ran out of words.

Johnny rubbed the back of his head as he attempted to say something. "Yeah, I wanted you to know…"

They looked each other in the eyes for a long moment before Mattie finally said, "Let's just say both of us screwed up big, it'll never happen again and we're still friends," Mattie suggested.

"Works for me."

Empire University

Franklin Brown limped along the sidewalk that led to his dorm room from the library. The shot from last night still hurt, though not as much as his pride. He was angry that that silver haired bastard had interrupted him.

"Excuse me, could I have a word with you? " a feminine voice stated from above Brown. He looked up to see a stunning blond woman in a body-hugging suit. Suzy set down in front of the drooling college student.

"Sure babe, about what?" he stammered out. Franklin wished someone, anyone was around to see him talking to this drop dead gorgeous woman who had just stepped down from the sky.

Suzy smiled and grabbed the boy's crotch, "This." Then, with about as much effort it took an average person to flip a quarter, Suzy catapulted Brown high into the air. He screamed for all he was worth. The would be rapist was only air borne for a few seconds before Hornet caught him and set him down on the roofs of a nearby dorm.

"You guys are freakin' crazy, I ought to call the cops!" he shouted.

"We're not making a mistake," Hornet said flatly as he stood five feet away from Brown. Brown was frozen in place while Hornet slowly began circled him, like a shark gauging its prey.

"Mistake?" Brown asked. Hornet replied with a sharp right cross that sent Brown sprawling.

"Mistake," he repeated. "See, when we were told that you were using roofies on unsuspecting women, we decided to go with the classic good cop bad cop routine. Ultra Girl drew good cop," Hornet activated his wrist laser and aimed it at the ground near Brown's foot. "Want to see my bad cop?"

"You're crazy, man!" Brown screamed as he backpedaled away from the burning laser. Try as he might, he didn't get far. Hornet kept it within two feet, and closing slowly, of Brown's manhood.

"No, but I am curious as to how someone who never passed a chemistry class had such high quality drugs in his possession. Do you happen to have an answer?"

Several answers and a few vague threats about future repercussions later, Hornet and Ultra Girl were heading back to the Crash Pad via their flight abilities.

"Man, Eddie, that was some cool acting!" Suzy smiled as they flew thru the air. "I got that idea from a movie I was an extra in, I didn't think that would actually work! You could teach me a thing about acting!"

"I…I'm just really ticked about what happened," Hornet said bashfully, "I'm not really that mean to people."

"Don't sweat it, Eddie. I wanted to tear that guy apart myself," Suzy answered as she swooped under Eddie, looking him in the face, smiling and flashing her pearly white teeth. "Still, that was some pretty good acting. Maybe you could give me some lessons sometime."

Reaching for a collar that didn't exist, Eddie managed to stammer out a 'sure thing'.

Hells Kitchen, later

Standing on top of a roof with his team, Night Thrasher surveyed the building across the street from their position. According to the information they had gathered, across from them was the birthplace of the sedative that was slipped to Mattie and, according to some sources, the birthplace certain other designer drugs as well. But there was still a big problem.

That, was all the New Warriors knew. They had no idea who was running this lab. They had no idea who was funding it. All they really knew for sure was one particular drug was being manufactured there.

"So, what's the plan, boss man?" Ricochet asked.

Night Thrasher already knew the plan, at least the usual Warriors plan. One of the more stealthy members, (i.e. Night Thrasher) would infiltrate the building, recon what threats there were and report back. But that wasn't possible with Night Thrasher's current armor, and there weren't any members on the team that Thrasher thought were experienced enough to undertake the mission alone. Which didn't leave a lot of options.

"We'll take the direct route. Frontal assault," Night Thrasher declared.

"Are you sure that's a wise choice?" Bolt asked.

"Only choice," Thrasher answered.

"Enough talk!" Crux declared as she activated her flame powers and floated into the air, "These men has been free long enough. It's past time we dealt with them!"

"Alright then, lets do this by the numbers then," Night Thrasher stated as he activated his boot jets. "Turbo, carry Bolt and Ricochet. Ultra Girl, take point with me. The rest of you follow behind."

Within moments, the young heroes exploded thru the walls of the drug factory, greatly startling the chemists within.

"No body move!" Night Thrasher ordered. The Warriors spread out, securing the chemists quickly. The chemists had fear written all over their face, though the Warriors didn't seem to be the source.

"Who are you people working for?" Night Thrasher shouted, half expecting no answer.

"What's this?" a voice that sounded like stones grinding together boomed. "The New Warriors? I was so hoping to see my old friend, the man without fear."

The Warriors' eyes darted around, searching for the source of the voice. They found nothing, and the chemists grew more fearful. The Warriors would later realize the reason why they couldn't find the source of the voice was because it was in their minds.

"Who's there?" Bolt asked

"Who? Why, simply a lowly scientist who was interested in the dark side of his own mind," as the voice continued, Ultra Girl, Hornet and Turbo carefully flew about the room, searching for the source of the voice. "But now, now I've been paid to explore the darkness of others. Kindly observe the demonstration."

The New Warriors screamed as one as their most secret nightmares came to life before their very eyes. Bolt was attacked by his victims from his time as a Dark Rider, Spiderwoman was besieged by horrific images of the future, Turbo was confronted by the decaying body of her best friend, Michael Jeffries and on it went, as all the Warriors were brought face to face with their darkest fears.

Hornet squeezed his eyes shut, "This…"

Suzy looked at her blue skin and said "…isn't…"

"…real!" Ricochet shouted as he forced the images out of his mind. Ultra Girl, Crux, Night Thrasher, Hornet, and Turbo followed suit, driving the invading force out of their minds. Whoever their foe was, he was by no means an experienced, or even powerful, telepath.

"That was ugly," Suzy muttered as she rubbed her head to clear the images.

"Uh guys? Bolt and Spiderwoman aren't doing so well," Hornet stated. The team looked towards their friends, who were writhing on the floor in terror. Bolt's horror manifested in an electrical storm that kept the others at bay. Thankfully, he was a safe distance from his friends.

"What is wrong with them?" Crux asked.

"Spider girl told me once she could catch glimpses of the future, maybe something went haywire during our Freddy attack," Ricochet suggested.

"And Bolt?" Ultra Girl asked.

"Don't know." Ricochet replied, but Turbo did. She didn't have to be a genius to realize that Bolt was being tortured with the images of his time as a Dark Rider

"Is that your best shot?" Night Thrasher demanded aloud, ignoring Spiderwoman and Bolt's plight until he knew what they were dealing with, "show yourself before we tear this building down!"

In response to Night Thrasher's threat, the ceiling above him cracked exploded downwards. Night Thrasher, used to depended on his own senses (which were dampened while wearing this particular armor) and not the sensors in his current armor didn't realize what was happening until a large, green figure landed on top of his, smashing Night Thrasher into the cement floor and cracking his high tech armor.

"Oh good God…" Hornet gasped as he saw the figure that had defeated their leader. The figure was hunched over and his face looked like it was two sizes too small for the body it was attached to. His teeth were crooked and disordered, and he had an incredible sneer on his face. Though he was wearing a sweat-covered tee shirt and baggy brown pants, everyone recognized him instantly. He was a man beast who'd fought legends, a man who'd stymied Thor himself.

"You're not Daredevil, no," Mr. Hyde stated, "but you'll do. My thirst for violence being what it is, well, you'll just have to do."

Next: Remember when I promised the most brutal battle in M2K? Well, that's next issue. It's the New Warriors against a foe who's held his own against some of the mightiest Marvels around. It won't be pretty