Turning back the clock a bit to cover what was going on, on the other side of the city, we find Voltage buzzing across town on her Hovermower - a very dangerous-looking device constructed from various "spare parts" from Scars's garage. She leaves neatly trimmed yards in her wake, and she is struck by inspiration: she could actually make money with this thing!

So, Voltage buzzes over to Park Island. Where better to invent a quick way to keep the grass looking nice and trim than there? Park Island is home to most of Superior City's most interesting attractions for all ages. The "island" is separated from the mainland by a narrow strait, connected to the city proper by several bridges, and ferry crossings. It's home to several theme parks, sports arenas, and to the prestigious "Center for Xenozoological Studies".

The Center for Xenozoological Studies is known less formally as the "Alien Zoo". Here, several bizarre creatures from other worlds are kept in replicas of their native habitats. Some time ago, when alien life was first discovered on other worlds by means of the "gateways" to other planets, someone got the "bright" idea that some of the cuter and more social varieties would make great "pets". A craze swept Superior City, wherein the wealthiest children could expect to have their very own "Megamon" pet, a cute little creature, its popular name dictated by whatever noise it happened to make.

Unfortunately, another popular aspect of this craze was that children began to pit their cute little creatures in battles against each other, since many of these aliens had rather exotic means of hunting and self-defense. Some companies even began to cash in on the craze, until there was a terrible uproar over what amounted to "cock-fighting" with alien pets. Laws were passed, banning the keeping of these alien creatures as pets, and most of them were returned to their native environments. However, some of the creatures were so traumatized by their experiences, so prone to fighting for no particular purpose, that it was determined that they couldn't be let back into the wild. These creatures were moved to the Center for Xenozoological Studies in the hopes of rehabilitating them - or at least making their stay comfortable in a place where they couldn't harm themselves or others.

So, the Center for Xenozoological Studies is a wondrous place, with large habitats representing the biospheres of many alien worlds, complete with flora of those habitats. Energy fields provide a durable containment system, without such crude constructs as cages or bars to suggest that these creatures are prisoners. (In fact, the creatures are all referred to as "guests" in all the literature.)

Voltage buzzes around, bewildering the staff and visitors, until she notices Darla Dazzle, Ace Reporter for News Channel 99, and her cameraman. She's reporting on something, but Voltage can't hear just what she's saying, over the buzz of her own creation. There's a zookeeper standing around, in an ill-fitting uniform, looking somewhat dazed and distracted. Voltage heads up to him and tries to sell him on the wonders of her invention, asking if she might be allowed to mow the grass of the habitats as a demonstration. The zookeeper, looking lost and bewildered, passively gives her something resembling permission (or, at least, he doesn't say "no"), though he's unsure just how he's supposed to let her into the enclosures. (In fact, he's pretty sure he's been hit on the head by something, because he's having trouble remembering what he was just doing, and what he's doing right there.)

Darla Dazzle comes up and starts pressing him for an interview, which makes him only more bewildered. She wonders at the safety of experimental energy fields being used to contain dangerous alien species, especially with the antics of radical groups like PETAA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Alien Animals). She gives an annoyed look at the source of all the noise that's all but drowning out her voice, and then her eyes widen as she recognizes ... "Sparky!"

Rose, the Little Goth Girl, walks up as well, since she couldn't help but notice the mayhem caused by a crazy lady on a hovering lawnmower racing through the place.

"Sparky" (aka Voltage) decides to put a little more distance between herself and Darla Dazzle, so she heads over to another part of the "Arboretum". She powers down the hovermower for a bit, while she tries to figure out the best way to arrange for a demonstration. Once the noise level dies down, she can hear an alarm going off, and a strangely calm voice urging visitors to "calmly proceed toward the nearest exit". Some of the lights flicker ... and then Voltage sees a crackling blue haze in the area where the normally invisible force barriers are located. She hears the distinctive descending hum of the force barriers collapsing. "Uh oh."

In one of the habitats, "Rawr" the Fire-Lizard starts running around like crazy. Apparently he can tell that something has changed, but he doesn't know what, so he rampages around his habitat. (This consists of a forest flanked by what looks like a pool of blazing mineral oils - which Rawr likes to bathe in, and which visitors can cross and look down on via a rickety-looking bridge.) In another habitat, "Cannonball" rolls toward the edge of his enclosure to investigate. (He's one of those rare Megamons who makes no distinctive noise at all; his name is appropriate enough, since he's largely spherical, and has a tough shell that seems almost like he's made out of iron.) In another habitat, filled with rubbery "trees", a stretchy creature, "Bandit", reaches out with an elastic limb to test the boundaries of his enclosure, and makes a happy squeal when he finds that he's no longer trapped. He celebrates by grabbing Voltage ... and yanking her into his enclosure!

Across the Arboretum, Darla Dazzle's evidently excited by this turn of events, as she is torn between getting good shots, catching people for interviews, or finding the nearest exit as directed. Several kids and a lady scramble about in a panic. Rose, the Little Goth Girl, leaves one of the side walkways just in time to avoid being rolled over by Cannonball, as he gleefully escapes from his enclosure and goes on a bowling rampage. Rawr the Fire-Lizard encounters a screaming lady, and he gleefully shouts his trademark "Rawr!" - which is accompanied by a gout of flame. The lady, covered in soot and ash, faints at the spot.

Voltage manages to scramble back to her hovermower, and buzzes back into the "rubber tree" enclosure. She ends of snagging some of Bandit's stretchy limbs on her vehicle, and then proceeds to fly a circuit around the rubbery alien trees, tying Bandit up somewhat and stretching him to his limits! Bandit manages to snag Voltage off of her hovermower, and slaps her around. However, Voltage gives him a "zot" for good measure, which sends Bandit into a limp daze. Taking no time to gloat over her victory, she warily watches the approach of the juggernaut, Cannonball. An idea strikes her, and she positions herself in an area behind Bandit's stretchy body, suspended between two trees. Cannonball, sure enough, sees her, makes a gleeful squeak, then drops and rolls across the walkway, picking up speed, and catapulting down into the enclosure, aiming right for Voltage. She pulls down on Bandit's stretchy body, and pulls herself out of the way, so that Cannonball smacks right into Bandit's body ... and, like a slingshot, it pulls back, stretches ... stretches some more ... then snaps back! Cannonball goes hurtling through the air, arcing high ... and then lands right in Rawr's molten pool! Cannonball lets out an unhappy squeal, and then he's down for the count.

Back to Darla Dazzle and the bewildered zookeeper, there's a matter of another "cute" creature, the famous Zotapi. It blinks cutely with its big eyes, and flaps its ears like wings to bring itself closer to the edge, then squeals in delight when it finds that it can land right outside of the barrier - right in front of the zookeeper and Darla Dazzle and a few screaming visitors. One kid calls out "Zotapi!" with glee, and rushes up, but then thinks the better of it when he sees several other visitors screaming and running the other way. Zotapi looks cutely at the zookeeper with mesmerizing eyes, even while the zookeeper pleads with Zotapi to please return to his enclosure. It's almost as if Zotapi is "speaking" to the zookeeper, trying to compel him ... to attack Darla Dazzle. For a moment, the zookeeper falls under Zotapi's influence, but, just as he turns around to attack Darla, he stumbles, and, whether an accident or a last moment of heroic resistance, he ends up hurting himself instead. "Why do we always hurt the ones we love?" he wails.

Standing back up with renewed determination - and more than a little disappointed with Zotapi at pulling a stunt like that - the zookeeper tries to push Zotapi back into the enclosure. The zookeeper seems surprised with himself, when he finds that he can execute quite a few martial arts moves, though most of them seem to have little effect on the soft and almost plush-like body of the big-eyed alien. Darla Dazzle seems aghast at this, and asks, "How can you possibly bring yourself to treat creatures like this?"

"Well, Darla, it's heartbreaking," the zookeeper says, pulled aside from the serious business of dealing with a furious Zotapi (who all the time is trying, again and again, to regain control of his mind, pouting when it fails to succeed). He goes on to make a stirring speech about how he has come to know these creatures, even to feel like he's one with them, and how much it hurts him to have to do things like this, but when there's the safety of the public that's in question ... and so on and so on. Darla Dazzle seems positively moved by the zookeeper's heart-rending anguish at his situation. And then he goes back to punching and kicking Zotapi, until he finally gives Zotapi a well-placed boot-to-the-head, and sends the squeaking creature back into its little woodland habitat.

During this time, in the middle of all the panicked running about, Rose the Little Goth Girl has been rushing around, trying (often vainly) to corral the panicked visitors, and herd them toward the exit. One kid stumbles into Zotapi's enclosure, and falls into a pool of water, flailing about and exclaiming, "I can't swim!" Rose has to let go of one kid she was ushering toward the door, to go rescue the other. Finally, she grabs both of them, and - with the added incentive of a good pinch to the arm when it looks like they're about to run off again - gets them to the exit.

There's still one alien to contend with, however - Rawr, who has started ripping up some of the decoration and barricades. He makes a game of flinging them into the enclosure where Voltage runs about. Voltage tries to clamber up and out of the enclosure, only to be foiled when Rawr flings another brick wall section her way. To her anguish, Rawr smacks her hovermower with a section of bricks, knocking the vehicle out of commission. She manages to goad Rawr into throwing a section of brick wall in her direction while she tries the "slingshot" trick with Bandit's stretchy body again. It works - to a point - as the section flies back, and takes out another barricade, thus depriving Rawr of his ready supply of "ammunition". Somewhat frustrated, the big lizard-like alien hops down into the rubber-tree habitat, and starts chasing Voltage around. She runs about, screaming, hiding behind trees, only to have Rawr walk up to the other side, and rip up the tree, roaring gleefully when he discovers Voltage on the other side. She squeals and runs to the next tree, Rawr rips it up and does a happy-dance, and so forth. Voltage soon realizes that she's running out of trees....

Pursued by Darla Dazzle, who seems bent on tying him up for a prolonged interview, the zookeeper rushes down the main walkway, toward the "rubber tree" enclosure, just as Rose the Little Goth Girl returns from expelling some more panicked visitors from the section. He leaps down into the enclosure, and delivers a flurry of blows to Rawr's backside. Rawr responds by giving the zookeeper a hefty tail-slap, but Rose pelts him with a barrage of sharp-stemmed roses. As Rawr flounders about (and Voltage tries to pretend to be part of the shrubbery), the zookeeper chastises him and then gives him another decisive flurry of kicks. Rawr groans, and falls over, unconscious.

Once things have quieted down a bit, Darla Dazzle corners a couple of teenagers and starts questioning them while her cameraman films. Voltage digs out her hovermower from underneath a small pile of bricks, and enacts some hasty repairs. The zookeeper dusts himself off, and tries to regain his bearings. The little goth girl shows no discernable change in expression, though she points out that the alarms are still going off, and that there is still a lot of screaming to be heard from the other sections.

The zookeeper hikes his pants a bit (for it seems he's in sore need of a belt), and leads the other heroes toward the "employees only" back door of the Arboretum. He fumbles through his keys, then opens the door, revealing some back-way passages that provide short-cuts to any of the ten alien habitats, or to the "back-area" sections of the complex, such as the security center, supplies, and maintenance. The zookeeper, still somewhat befuddles and uncertain of where to go next, randomly chooses a section - "Dimension X".

The zookeeper, Voltage and the Little Goth Girl buzz through the corridors, crammed onto the back of the hovermower and hanging on for dear life, until they reach the back entrance to the "Dimension X" exhibit. When they get inside, they are horrified to see what with the collapse of the containment fields, there are micro-gate portals floating around the enclosure, and some of the more horrible "guests" of the Center for Xenozoological Studies are on the loose.

A few woman scream and run about, thwarted in their attempts to escape by the floating portals: just when it seems that one of them is about to reach the exit, she runs through one of the shimmering, translucent portals ... and then pops out of one of the other portals in the room, seemingly at random. The shambling, slimy inhabitants of the exhibits prove to be able to use the portals as well, popping out and in again in unexpected places.

Voltage bravely dives into one of the enclosures, past a shambling, slimy, blob-like creature that seems to be a shifting mass of gibbering mouths and blind eyes, dodging the pseudopod tentacles that it launches after her. She veers past what seems to be a holographic projection of a planet - the projector for some reason mis-aligned into the middle of the habitat - though for a moment, she gets a disturbing feeling that it isn't a hologram at all ... and she's not sure just what else it might be. Rather than investigating further, she veers down toward a screaming visitor, and gives her a hand up onto the hovermower. She races back to the exit, and somewhat roughly hurls her out the back door, just in time to avoid another blobby, sliming, hovering orb-like creature, its body covered in eyes.

The zookeeper runs behind one of the portals ... and, strangely, rather than coming out the other side, a large white saber-toothed tiger-like creature (wearing a strange vaguely Indian-looking necklace) bounds over toward a monster, to give it a good claw-swipe. The little goth girl unleashes a barrage of roses at a slimy tentacle monster, causing it to spew vile and obnoxious gases when it's punctured. Gagging at the wretchedness, and with the prospect of a burbling eye-monster descending upon her, she bolts for the exit, and disappears into the access hallway.

One of the "land-sharks" descends upon a hapless visitor ... and then swallows her whole. Roaring angrily, the giant white tiger bounds up to the land-shark, and takes a mighty swipe at it, raking across its armored hide. Across the way, the other land-shark pops out of a portal ... and the other remaining screaming visitor is just as quickly silenced.

Voltage looks about, bewildered. She sees the zookeeper's tattered uniform lying on the floor. She sees no sign of Rose, the little goth girl. The last of the innocent bystanders just got gobbled up by a land-shark. Dismayed at this horrible turn of events, and seeing no one left to rescue, she spins her hovermower toward the exit ... and disappears down the accessway.

Meanwhile, the white tiger roars, venting his rage on the land-shark that gobbled up the lady he was trying to rescue. The land-shark tears into him viciously, but the white tiger keeps pounding and slashing at the land-shark, until the monster falls over. The other shambling and hovering blob-like monsters begin to wink through portals and pop out in other places, slowly converging upon the white tiger. Somehow, it seems that despite the fact that they are all aliens to each other, they are united in their interest to remove this one that doesn't belong.

Nonetheless, the white tiger keeps ripping at the body of the fallen monster, tearing open its belly. Out falls a sludge-covered body - the woman who just got swallowed whole! Without taking the time to try to find out if she's alive or dead, the white tiger snatches her up in his mouth (careful not to bite hard), and leaps through a nearby portal. The white tiger pops out again, though not in any particularly useful location at the moment: it's an exit, but as the white tiger bounds up to it, he fumbles around at his flank with a paw, and suddenly the light of understanding shows in his eyes. He doesn't have hands right now ... and he certainly doesn't have keys!

Several blob-like and tentacled monsters emerge from nearby portals, converging on the white tiger. The air is filled with noxious, acidic vapors, that make the white tiger's fur turn slightly yellow. He takes a wild swipe at one of the monsters to get it out of his way ... he leaps into a portal, taking a gamble ... and it pays off! It's not the closest to the exit, but good enough: he pushes himself to make a final bolt for the door, and into the accessway.

Back in the maintenance corridor, the white tiger shrinks back to the proportions of a human man. His shirt is torn up, though an ID badge still hangs from it, and he finally finds the keys now that he has hands again. He takes the unconscious woman to a first aid station, makes sure that she's all right, and then supplements his sparce attire with a pair of trousers and some boots (once again, a size or two too large) commandeered from the locker room. As he comes out of the locker room, trying to figure out how to add another notch to his belt to get his pants to stay on right, he hears the distinctive echoing whirr of the hovermower. He flags down Voltage as she speeds past, and hitches a ride.

Relieved to find out that the zookeeper hasn't been eaten after all, Voltage gives him a ride to the maintenance section. They resolve that, while they could try to race through the habitats to rescue what visitors they can, restoring the security systems and containment fields is of highest priority, before any of these creatures can manage to escape into the city at large.

As they make their way into the maintenance area, they find evidence of trauma: there are large sections of black on the walls, shattered pieces of furniture and equipment, huge dents in metal barricades and walls (in some cases shaped like a giant fist or even a human face), and other signs of considerable struggle. There's only one remaining access corridor that they can get through to reach the central shield generator room, and the metal plates are bowed out as if something very large and powerful had to bash them out in order to fit through. Voltage powers down her hovermower so she can scout ahead more quietly with the zookeeper. They look down the corridor and see a room full of machinery and high-tech gizmos, causing Voltage to have to restrain herself to avoid squealing in delight. Her emotions are a bit more mixed when she sees a huge robotic construct that looks something like a robotic hermit crab - with a missile launcher and a cannon on its back, and huge crushing claws. Smoke fills the room, and there are small fires. The machine thrashes about, systematically tearing the place apart ... though it stops, and begins probing about, as if something has attracted its attention, but it hasn't noticed the two snoops just yet.

The zookeeper and Voltage "discuss" the matter of what to do next. Voltage insists that she can't head down that corridor - she'll get lost! "You'll get lost ... in a straight corridor?" the zookeeper protests, but Voltage only shrugs. At last, the zookeeper agrees to scout ahead, but only of Voltage can provide him with some sort of cover: he doesn't like the idea of turning this into a "shooting fish in a barrel" exercise, when that heavily-armed robot spots him coming down the very narrow tunnel. So Voltage finds a few broken pipes venting trace amounts of coolant steam, she overrides some emergency shut-off valves, and fills the corridor with obscuring vapors. The zookeeper removes his shoes so he can move more quietly, covers his mouth with a sleeve ... and then makes his way into the tunnel, disappearing into the vapors, while Voltage counts down seconds, planning on heading in a minute later.

Midway down the tunnel, the zookeeper's uniform falls to the floor, as a small white cat, wearing a necklace of Indian design, struggles out from them, then tiptoes on light paws down the remainder of the corridor, squinting its eyes and keeping low.

In the room, the white cat lightly leaps from spot to spot, keeping behind billowing gouts of steam and smoke, pieces of fallen equipment and rubble, and blazing fires, keeping out of the range of the robot's swiveling cameras. It clambers up onto a bank of generators, behind the hermit-crab ... and suddenly the little white cat becomes a very large white saber-toothed cat. Immediately, the robot notices the sudden appearance of something that massive behind it, and it starts to swivel around, but the saber-toothed cat gives it a great rake of its claws ... which send sparks flying, but find no purchase in the robot's armor.

Voltage, hearing the mayhem in the room, decides to count the rest of the seconds a lot more quickly, then fires up the hovermower and goes blasting into the room - not noticing the pile of zookeeper clothes lying on the floor amidst the vapors on the way in. She zips into the room, discovering the giant hermit-crab robot ... and a big white cat attacking it! Deciding not to question a bit of help at the moment, she focuses on attacking the robot, ramming into it. She finds a few external cables, and tears at them, then gives them an overload surge of electricity from her body. The creature spins around, blades whirling and claws snapping, cannon firing wildly, but the big white cat - inspired by Voltage's example - starts tearing away at more vulnerable-looking accessories outside the robot's main shell. Parts fly, sparks fly, smoke pours out ... and finally the robot overloads and collapses, twitching and falling still.

Voltage squeals in delight. She powers down her hovermower, parking it to one side, as she rushes over with some tools and starts disassembling the giant robot, piece by piece, pocketing expensive-looking or otherwise interesting components. She finally reaches the central power core, and then notices a little count-down timer next to it. Lacking vital bomb-defusing skills, she nonetheless hastily starts removing various potentially explosive components from the robot, getting them as clear from the central core as possible, so at least she can minimize the blast effect. The big white cat flees the room, bounding down the smoky corridor. Voltage dives for cover, as the central power core detonates, sending pieces of robot shell flying around the room. Some smoldering piece lands by, with a slogan on it, "Aliens are people, too!" (Other pieces of the shell bear slogans in a similar vein, such as "Equal rights for animals," "We're not alone in the galaxy," "Free the aliens," etc.)

About this time, the zookeeper stumbles out of the smoky corridor, his uniform a bit slashed up, as if someone had run over it with a lawnmower. A shiny bangle necklace - vaguely Indian in look - shows underneath his tattered jacket.

"Where were you?" Voltage insists.

"I got lost," the zookeeper says. "It was hard to see!"

Voltage just groans, and looks about for a fire extinguisher to put out some of the blazes. Alas, it looks like all the fire extinguishers had been destroyed, their contents spilled out uselessly, by the rampaging robot. She rushes over to some of the controls, reattaching wires and repairing what she can, so that she can divert some of the coolant to gout out of some burst pipes into the room. This makes quite a mess, but puts out the remaining fires - and douses the smoke - in short order.

The zookeeper looks around the room for any useful supplies, locating a first aid kit, some lab coats, work gloves, heavy boots ... and a supply cabinet. He finds a holographic display table over in the corner, randomly showing displays from around the room and on the exhibits. Some debris has fallen on the controls, so he sweeps that off, and then uses the controls to see how the rest of the place is faring. To his amazement, he sees scenes of costumed heroes duking it out with troublesome aliens, and rescuing innocent bystanders, in every area. He's fairly sure he's heard rumors, or urban legends about "superheroes" before, but he had no idea that they were real ... or that there were so many of them! It looks like the tide has turned in the favor of the heroes. Voltage hastily goes about the business of restoring power to several of the security systems, and broadcasts warnings that she is about to restore the containment fields in one minute. Once the zookeeper gives her the all-clear from his vantage point at the holographic table, she restores the containment fields, one by one, and restores the other security systems to make sure that any remaining wandering aliens don't get into the city at large.

The zookeeper wanders over to the supply closet, in hopes of finding something useful - like, say, some pants that he doesn't have to keep hiking back up, and that don't have jagged slashes down both sides. He finally finds the right key, but discovers that the closet has already been forced open. He pops the door open, and inside is a large, vaguely humanoid, fuzzy yellow creature. He gawks for a moment, unsure of what to do, so the creature reaches out with a paw, grabs the door, and slams it back shut. He knocks on the door. A muffled voice says, "There's nothing in here. Go away."

This baffles him even more. He's known that some of the aliens could make distinctive noises - that they could "speak", in a sense, with some odd-sounding syllables that comprised their own names (like "Zot-a-pi") - but he'd never heard any of them talk, that he could recall. It was generally assumed that these were just animals, albeit alien ones.

While he puzzles this over, he and Voltage and hear some noises coming down the corridor. Some people in brightly-colored costumes make their way through the smoke, waving their hands to try to clear the air. It's Warhawk, Wingman (formerly known as "Valkyrie" until someone informed him that Valkyries are girls, and formerly "Skyhawk", until someone informed him that the name was already taken), Vampire Huntress, and Mysterio (floating along magically) - plus the legendary Mr. Coffee. Warhawk looks somewhat disappointed at the pieces of the big robot, and asks what happened. After he's filled in, he comments, "Oh, so this time it was a lobster, huh?" (After all, that's what it looked like to Voltage, and there's little left of it now to make it too particular about what sort of animal it was "supposed to" look like.) Voltage is a bit surprised by this, wondering if this sort of thing happens often. Warhawk starts to talk about how there's this super-genius fellow who creates robots in the "perfect image" of animals to "liberate" his "brethren", and how each time his creation looks like a different animal ... so after superheroes trashing his creations so many times, it only stands to reason that he'd be down to something like a lobster for his latest invention.

Warhawk observes the bizarre contraption in the corner - Voltage's hovermower - and she proudly announces that it's her invention, an all-terrain vehicle that can not only keep your yard well-trimmed, but mow down bad guys, too! Warhawk and his companions are impressed. "Wow. I always wanted my own super-vehicle. But, like, nobody has one." Voltage announces that she's in the business of building super-vehicles now, and she asks how she can contact these heroes, in case they'd like some custom-built vehicles. Warhawk hands her his superhero team card, for "Heroes 'R' Us".

Meanwhile, however, Warhawk's companions bemoan the fact that there aren't any aliens left to track down, and that all the other superheroes have gotten the "good ones". (That is, except for Mr. Coffee, who spends the time going around and making sure that everyone present is happily caffeinated. He notes that the zookeeper's badge identifies him as "Mr. Venezuela", so he addresses him as such.)

"Mr. Venezuela" notes that there's a yellow alien in the closet. Warhawk, Vampire Huntress, Mysterio and Wingman ready for battle, urging him to open up the closet so they can deal with the alien. Mr. Venezuela assures them that the situation is already under control, which prompts the would-be heroes to look at each other in confusion. They start discussing this amongst themselves, until Mr. Coffee reminds them of "superhero etiquette", and notes that "Voltage" is already here. They start to grumble in disappointment, then file out, in the hopes of tracking down some loose aliens elsewhere, while Mr. Coffee remains behind.

Mr. Coffee offers Mr. Venezuela another cup of coffee, and then, curious, asks him what he thinks of the brew. Mr. Venezuela loves it, and starts critiquing the brew in exquisite detail. Mr. Coffee looks enormously pleased - and for some reason surprised. He adopts a thoughtful pose, which prompts Mr. Venezuela to wonder if there's something wrong. Mr. Coffee waves it off, and then heads over to Voltage, offering her a cup. She tries it out, and when he prompts her to describe what she thinks about it, she says that it's "really good", but she doesn't offer anything near the specific descriptions of taste that Mr. Venezuela did. Mr. Venezuela starts to helpfully prompt Voltage, but Mr. Coffee insists that she just use her own words. Voltage seems somewhat confused by this, and wonders what's in this coffee. Mr. Coffee says that it's just some field work - that he's trying to find the perfect brews of coffee for heroes in the line of work. (He asides to Mr. Venezuela, asking if he is in the superheroing business - but Mr. Venezuela insists that he's no superhero, just a zookeeper doing his job.)

Mr. Coffee looks around a bit more, then bids the heroes farewell, and heads off down the access corridor, in search of more people in need of the Power of Caffeine.

Mr. Venezuela fills in Voltage on the fact that there's an alien in the closet (now that she's done fixing things and fighting small fires), and his concerns about the fact that she can talk. They go over to the holographic terminal, and start going through the xenozoological database, for information on the different aliens in the habitats. Voltage scans through the entries, while Mr. Venezuela watches. He calls out for her to stop, then go back a few entries: a holographic image of a vaguely humanoid, somewhat vulpine-looking creature with golden and white fur hovers above the table, rotating slightly. The entry shows its name as "Vixa", from the arboreal world of "VIK-356". In the Center for Xenozoological Studies, its habitat would be back in the Arboretum ... but Mr. Venezuela realizes that "Vixa" certainly wasn't back in the Arboretum at the time that the containment fields went down. She would have had to escape before the emergency.

"How long have you been in that closet?" he asks.

"A while," Vixa answers, but responds only with silence when prompted to be more specific.

"So, you can talk?"

"Yes."

"But ... if you can talk, why didn't you just talk back when you were in your habitat, and ask someone to let you out?"

A long pause, and then, "I don't know. I don't ... I don't even remember how I got out."

After talking with Vixa some more (through the door) and learning more about her strange gaps in memory, Mr. Venezuela starts to feel a cold chill. He goes back to the holo-terminal and asks Voltage to search through the database. He asks her if she's seen a creature ... something like a large white saber-toothed tiger. She notes that, yes, she has, twice. He asks her if she can search through to see if she can find something like that in the database.

Sure enough, she finds such a creature, known as "Kathmandu", from planet KAT-896. Statistics are given on its speed, stamina, agility, strength and such, but it is surprisingly sparse about the sort of "dull" statistics one would usually expect to find when looking up information on a species in a zoo. There is no indication that "Kathmandu" is particularly intelligent - nor does it indicate any such thing about "Vixa". Mr. Venezuela starts to get a headache. He heads over to the closet, and coaxes Vixa to come out - he lets her know that he's not going to return her to an enclosure. He's going to help her escape.

Voltage is taken by surprise at this proclamation - after all, weren't they just trying to capture all the escaped aliens? Mr. Venezuela insists that there's something fishy about all of this: Vixa isn't supposed to be intelligent, and there's too much about all this data that just doesn't make sense. Out of all of these alien worlds that have been discovered, why are all the habitable ones characterized by only a single climate each? Why is each planet an "ice world" or a "jungle world" or a "desert world" or a "forest world"? Why is there exactly one noteworthy alien species - non-intelligent - that has been brought back from each? Why is it that each planet's classification code just happens to have a letter key that sounds a lot like the alien's given name? He brings up the possibility of genetic engineering, though even as he says it, he boggles at the idea that someone would try to enact such a "conspiracy" and expect anyone to actually be fooled. And he's wondering why he's developing an even more crushing headache. (Even more curious, Vixa seems to be developing one as well.)

Vixa starts to look especially nervous and alarmed. She can't explain just why, but she says that they all need to leave, now, or Vixa might go back to the way she was.

Voltage commandeers one of the lab coats and a safety helmet, putting them on Vixa, declaring that it works great for Turtle Ninjas, so it should work just fine for six-foot-tall alien foxes as well. She then sets about undoing several of the repairs she enacted on the security systems, shutting down the video cameras and biological sensors, and deactivating the locks along their planned escape route. Now that power had been restored to the complex, it would only be a matter of time before things calmed down again and whoever was manning the security room would be able to restore those systems as well ... but not so quick as to beat Voltage on a high-speed hovermower!

So, somewhat against their better judgement, Vixa and "Mr. Venezuela" hop onto the back of the hovermower, hanging on tightly, as Voltage goes blasting down the corridors, shouting out "MAINTENANCE!" just in case someone might not already be alerted by the sound of a high-powered lawnmower buzzing through the corridors.

Back outside, Voltage, Vixa and Venezuela buzz along, until they're waved down by a little goth girl in a black dress with a black parasol.

"What happened to you?" Voltage asks.

"Mother called me home for dinner," the little goth girl says in a near-monotone.

So, the goth girl gets the others to squeeze over as she hops on to hitch a ride, and they make their way out of Park Island, and out to the suburbs to pay a visit to Scars at his place. (Mr. Venezuela is relieved to discover that, somewhere along the way, his headache has gone away.)

Back at Scars's place, the garage door is open, so Voltage buzzes right on in. She finds that the hood on the car is up, and the door is open. She recalls that - oh yes! - she had to borrow a few "spare parts" from the car to get her hovermower going. But now she has plenty of spares salvaged from the robot, so she starts emptying her pockets and the storage compartments on the hovermower, making some hasty swap-outs on her creation, and back on the car. While she's working on the car, she's astounded at some of the inner workings - namely, just how they could be so wrong. It's so inefficient, to her reasoning, it's a wonder Scars's car would work at all! Well, she gets it back to the way it was ... and then a bit better, in her estimate, with a few parts left over to spare. This done, she heads to the door to the house, and finds that it's locked. She knocks. No one answers. She rings the bell. No luck there, either. She puts her ear to the door, and she can hear the holo-TV blaring out the "Turtle Ninja" theme song, followed by what seems to be an advertisement of their "latest adventures" ... and then news coverage of some sort of disaster happening across town. There are sounds of explosions, and Darla Dazzle of News Channel 99 is on the scene: she reports that some man has been slammed into the ground by a giant collosus ... but then, amazingly, the man is still alive, in the bottom of the crater ... and he climbs out!

With the others clamoring over Voltage's shoulder over what she hears and what's going on, she misses bits, but she picks up something about some more explosions, and then a firefighter using a hose to hold a giant robot back ... and Mr. Coffee and a doctor on the scene, helping the firefighter. "Oh, he's down! No, he's back up again! Oh, he's down! He's back up again!" Voltage frowns, unable to pick out exactly what's going on, but she becomes certain that the "guy in the middle of the crater" must be Scars. She hears the announcer declare that the robot is falling over ... and then figures that everything is tidily taken care of. She figures that the others will come back here afterward ... but she is anxious to get back on the internet to check on some leads, and she decides that she's just not that patient to wait around. So, she rounds up the others to clamber back onto her hovermower, and she sets course across town, back to Fire Station No. 36 - where she has rented an auxiliary garage/storage shed from the fire department, in exchange for doing repairs and maintenance work for them.

They get to the garage, and see that the fire engine is out, probably fighting blazes connected with that giant robot rampage at the mall. Voltage lets everyone in to her garage and living-space - basically, a mechanical shop littered with gizmos, and bare evidence that someone actually lives here as well. She powers up her computer and opens up a web browser, while Vixa finds a chair to sit down on, Mr. Venezuela helps himself to some sodas from the fridge, and the little goth girl looks on with an expression that always looks vaguely disapproving.

Voltage's attempts to find information connected to the alien species at the Center for Xenozoological Studies are surprisingly frustrating. She keeps finding links to some sort of game based off of these alien species, and even pages with some theoretically more informative biological data appear to be on the same site. She gets distracted when she finds that there's a Flash game she can play, and she can pick which alien to use to battle the computer. She selects "Kathmandu", and a muscular sabertoothed tiger-creature appears, poised in a semi-crouched stance that makes it uncertain whether it's more natively suited to standing on its hind legs, or on all fours. The computer selects Vixa as the opponent. The computer-generated Vixa leaps into view, landing lightly on one foot, bathed in soft light, accompanied by a sound of chiming bells, announcing her own name in a cheery "Vixa!" even as she extends vicious-looking sharp claws.

Meanwhile, the Vixa in a lab coat seated in the corner of the room cringes as she hears several cries of "Vix-VIXA!" from the computer, and some roars, accompanied by sounds of combat. Finally, with a lamenting squeak of "Vi!" - the computer-animated Vixa flops to the arena floor. Kathmandu's body is obscured in a puff of white smoke ... and then a little white cat takes his place, sitting atop Vixa, and cutely licking its paw and grooming itself in a "victory pose" as the camera view rotates on the scene. Voltage cheers.

"So ... how's the research coming?" Mr. Venezuela asks.

Voltage grumbles, closes the window, and goes back to her search engines.

She's able to find some information on "Kathmandu" and on "Vixa", but it's all oriented toward "combat statistics", and any particular information about homeworld or habitat comes across as just "color fluff". When she does some searches to try to find out where one goes to treat one's "Megamon" pet, she finds another page on the same site, and it asks her for her registration key. Apparently she's supposed to have a registration key that comes with her "Megamon" Blu-Ray CD case. As she hunts around on it, all indications seem to point to the existence of a Megamon video game, and some related collectible card games, board games, merchandise, toys, cartoons ... but nothing that seems to tie to the real world, such as the Center for Xenozoological Studies located right over on Park Island in Superior City. As she continues to search, she starts to get a terrible headache, and her eyes start getting bleary. For one thing, it's getting late on in the day. But she's determined to press on, so, once she finds a "Superior City" chat room and message board, she goes over to the fridge to get a highly caffeinated beverage, while Mr. Venezuela takes her place at the chair to try to sort out some of the messages on the board.

There are several chat rooms on a site apparently meant for citizens of Superior City, talking about local events. He finds, to his surprise, that there are actually posters on one of the board threads with familiar names: Warhawk, Wingman, Mysterio, Faerie Queen, and even Mr. Coffee, among others. There are also posts by someone called "Zeus", though these seem to be administrative posts about fair use of the boards, proper etiquette, warnings of removal if inappropriate language is used in the all-ages boards, and so forth. (It appears that all boards relating to "Park Island" are designated as "all ages".)

Posts by "Warhawk" are, oddly enough, written in "leet-speak". Posts from Mr. Coffee are written in some sort of lofty jargon about topics that go way over Mr. Venezuela's head. In one post, Mr. Coffee makes some statement - or question - about "New advanced AIs". Whatever he has to say further in his post, it comes across as a bunch of mind-bending gobbledygook. When Voltage gets back to take over the chair, she finds that she is able to make little more headway than Mr. Venezuela, so she starts picking words and copying them over into a notepad document to research later. Voltage and Mr. Venezuela start exchanging theories - about whether maybe this is some sort of encrypted message and they might have to use some sort of codebreaker program to decipher it. Regardless, they find that they are both starting to get some pretty hefty headaches, and they start to wonder whether there was something strange in that brew that Mr. Coffee gave them earlier.

Meanwhile, Rose the Little Goth Girl has some halting exchanges of conversation with Vixa. She notes that Vixa is supposed to be happy and cheery ... but presently shows no evidence of that. (Vixa tries to oblige with a "smile" but the result doesn't look convincing. Actually, it's disturbing.) Vixa tries to offer some "happy songs", but all of the songs she knows have very simplistic lyrics - that is, every single "word" in the song is some part of her own name. (Vi. Vik. Vix. Vixa.) After a brief sample of this, the group convinces Vixa that now's not a time for singing, and the creature goes back to her glum state. Rose manages to pry out of Vixa a little more of what little she remembers: namely, Vixa recalls being in her "habitat", but that there was some child with a red balloon who began to speak to her ... and she could understand this child in a way that she didn't recall being able to understand anyone else. She thinks that this child may have had something to do with her escape ... but she's not sure.

Suddenly, Vixa's ears perk up. She looks around, alarmed. She warns the others that ... someone's coming.

They all hush down, quiet, listening. They can hear a humming drone, and they can feel a strange tingle down their spines. There's a hasty exchange of whispers - is there a back way out? Should someone see what it is? What's going on? Mr. Venezuela suggests someone go out to scout, and the others quickly agree - and offer him the chance to do it. So, he goes through the adjoining garage and picks up a fireman's coat and helmet - and a broom - and goes out to the street, making a show of sweeping up the drive at the entrance.

As he looks out, he sees a woman in a green suit, hovering above the street, gliding along. Her hair is purple, but she otherwise seems to be human. Strange bands - Mr. Venezuela can only assume them to be holographic projections of some sort - orbit around her. They're translucent rings and spheres, something like an elaborate armillary spheres, with various runes and symbols, something vaguely like those of the Zodiac. As she drifts closer, he can hear a buzz of whispered voices, something vaguely like radio static, coming from the orbs and the woman. Her eyes are closed, her hands to her head, concentrating. She speaks to the air around her - something about, "Reached vicinity of anamoly."

Mr. Venezuela looks up and waves. "Hello there!" At that moment, it seemed like the woman was about to glide on, just as she was ... but she stops. Her eyes open, and she looks directly at Mr. Venezuela. He waves again, trying to look friendly. She begins to speak, but it's as if she's talking to some unseen person - not to the man right in front of her. She talks in some sort of jargon again, and there's that word again: "anamoly". "Seek authority to initiate zone reset."

"Excuse me?" Mr. Venezuela tries to tap her with the broom handle, but it strikes the seeming "holographic" projections as if they're quite solid. "Is something wrong?" Hearing her continue to talk about a "reset", he starts to get a sinking feeling. He backs away, then bolts into the garage to warn the others. He's not sure what's going to happen ... but he's pretty sure it's not good!

There's a brief moment of panic - once again, asking whether there's some back way out, and so forth. Just then, there's a knock on the side door.

Voltage, warily, asks, "Who is it?"

"I've come to help you get out of here," comes a voice that sounds like some teenager with a faddish "stoned" drawl.

There's a quick and heated exchange - heated on Voltage's point, at least, since she's bewildered enough as it is, and wondering how everyone knows to come knocking at her door now. "I can't explain it all right now," the kid says, "and if I told you my name, you'd just forget it. But I know a way out of here." Lacking any other alternative, the group bolts out after the kid - a skateboarder - who shows them to an access hatch in the floor of the main fire engine garage. Voltage doesn't remember seeing it there before, but it's located underneath where the fire engine would come in ... which just might explain why she wouldn't have seen it. Maybe.

The kid urges them along, and they shuffle on down, Voltage using her hovermower as a noisy but rather fast "elevator" down to the sewers. Down in Superior City's famously oversized sewer system, they hunker down, and the kid urges them to be quiet. They hear a humming drone, and then they see a holographic projection emerge from the ceiling and walls above their heads. It looks to Mr. Venezuela as if that spherical projection around the floating woman had expanded to a much wider circumference ... and as if they are seeing the very edge of that, extended through the solid walls. The images remain there, and the space within them blackens ... and then returns. The images shrink away. The humming dies off. Suddenly, all of them (who were experiencing some mild headaches and strong spine-tingling by now) feel their headaches fade a bit, and that "bad feeling" drifts off. At the same time, the kid announces, "Okay. You're safe for now."

Of course, our heroes demand something in the way of explanation. There's a long and awkward exchange of questions and not-quite answers on the part of the kid. He still won't give them a name. "It's going to be really hard to explain this to you. In fact, I can't tell you all of it. Right now, if I did, you'd all, like, go totally nuts, dudes. But I can tell you this: you want to be careful of the Guardians - or the Muses, as they are also called. You aren't supposed to notice them. Some people can notice them ... but not you. If you pay notice to them, they'll notice that you're an 'anamoly' and try to 'reset' you. Then, you'll wake up somewhere, think that this was all just a dream, and you'll forget just about everything ... and you'll be back to the way you were."

"Trapped?" Mr. Venezuela interjects.

"Uh-huh," the skateboarder kid says. "I can tell you that there's something really big going on here. This is gonna sound cliche, but, you know, the whole world is in danger. Like, reality. There are people trying to change the world, twist it. And if you aren't what they want, they can twist you, too. You guys are, like, on the right track. You've got to try to find yourselves, remember who you really are, and don't forget. Don't let them take that from you. Then, I can tell you more."

He asks Mr. Venezuela a few questions about himself - particularly about the necklace. Mr. Venezuela reveals that he got the necklace when he traveled to India, to learn more about the martial arts. The kid prods Mr. Venezuela some more, asking him, "And did anything interesting happen there?" but Mr. Venezuela is reluctant to elaborate. Nonetheless the kid seems pleased, and urges him to remember all of that about himself, and not to lose his identity.

Voltage notices that the skateboarder is holding a skateboard that is emblazoned with cartoon images of the "Turtle Ninjas". "Whoa," she says. "I didn't know he had his own ... merchandise."

"Oh yeah, that dude," the kid says. "I feel mighty sorry for him. Things are gonna be real rough for him."

The kid goes on, trying, virtually fumbling to explain things in vague terms. He talks of how there are "a bunch of other places ... other cities". He warns them to beware of "Zeus". When they mention their headaches, he remarks, "Oh, so you're that far along, eh? Well, that's part of what you're going through...."

All in all, it's not much in the way of real answers, and at last he says, "Hey, I gotta go. If I hang in one place too long, the Guardians'll notice me, and then, well, that'll be bad." So, he heads off, disappearing into the gloom.

Voltage, Mr. Venezuela, Vixa and the Little Goth Girl stand around, trying not to step in the sludge too much, as they wonder about what to do next, nursing their headaches. Vixa wonders aloud whether it's safe to go back up. At last, they decide to check it out, sending Mr. Venezuela to do the scouting again. He heads up, and opens the hatch ... but finds that it bumps up against the underside of the fire engine, which has returned in the meantime. He finds that he can squeeze out, but he can't be sure that the others can do the same - and surely Voltage wouldn't want to leave her hovermower down in the sewer.

So, he heads back down, and they decide to head down the sewer passage to find another access to the surface. Along the way, Voltage fills them in on the perils, warning them against alligators in the sewage (such as the one that swims by), and ninjas. Ninjas are everywhere, after all.

And, sure enough, they get ambushed by ninjas.

Voltage revs up her hovermower, as the others leap for solid footing. She rams it into one of the ninjas, shredding his costume and sending him flailing into raw sewage. At first, Vixa deftly dodges a few throwing stars, but then she takes a few hits. Rose tries throwing bursts of roses at the ninjas, whittling them down. In the confusion, she pricks herself nastily on some thorns, and then - she does it again! Luck is definitely not on her side. Then, she tries again, flinging several roses, and it looks as if they're all going to miss their marks ... but then, Vixa swishes her tail, and for some reason - no, the roses were right on their mark! Vixa winks at the Little Goth Girl. "Any time you need a little luck, just let me know!" The Little Goth Girl frowns back ... and poor Vixa gets slugged by a ninja.

Voltage zaps and mows away, but she gets knocked off her hovermower by a barrage of shuriken, and slumps against the wall. Mr. Venezuela cries out, "NOOOOO!" and tosses his lab coat aside. Suddenly, his body changes shape, swelling into a huge saber-toothed cat, and he SMASHES one of the ninja, and then sends another one flying. Voltage, just before she passes out, sees the hazy scene, and says, "Cool."

Vixa keeps trying to move up close enough to the ninjas to use her claws, but she then keeps getting kicked back. At last, when she's kicked back, she stays down. Rose unleashes another nasty barrage of sharp stems, sending another ninja into the sewage. The big white cat finishes off one opponent ... then suddenly turns into a little one, and leaps across to the other side ... and turns back into a big white cat again! With a roar, he tears his way through the ninjas. With a combination of lethal blows of a giant sabertooth cat, and the steady whittling away of Rose's barrage, the last of the ninjas falls. There's a massive explosion of smoke in the corridor ... and when it clears, the ninjas are gone!

"Mr. Venezuela" turns back to human form, rushing over to Voltage to make sure she's okay ... and then he suddenly realizes that his clothes are on the other side of the sewer passage, so he somewhat sheepishly heads back over there to regain what little modesty he has remaining. Rose slaps Vixa back to consciousness, and our heroes wearily make their way along - "Mr. Venezuela" now revealed to be "Kathmandu".

Along the way, Voltage is intent upon finding out more about "Kathmandu". He confesses that he knows little about why he was there. He doesn't remember being imprisoned, let alone escaping. He just remembers getting the uniform out of a locker that looked like it had been smashed by a large beast (perhaps himself). He remembers stumbling around in a daze, and then all the mayhem that broke loose when the containment fields collapsed.

At last, they get up another manhole access. By this time, they all smell rather "fragrant", and the zookeeper/Kathmandu/"Mr. Venezuela" looks like a ragamuffin. They make their way back to the firehouse, and to the side garage, but Voltage's key doesn't fit. She peeks into the window, and sees a bunch of excess gear stored there ... but it's not her gear. A dark realization creeps across her expression, and she glowers. "All ... my ... stuff ... is gone," she reports to the others. "Everything! My inventions ... my computer...."

"Even the fridge?" Kathmandu asks, sounding worried.

"Even the fridge," Voltage says, fuming. "Come on. Let's get the sewer washed off."

She heads into the office of the fire department, open even at this hour, and there's a lady covering the night shift at the desk. She evidences no recognition of Voltage. Nonetheless, Voltage concocts a story about a terrible accident involving the sewer, and asks if they can wash off in the lockerroom. The secretary, engrossed in a novel, nods ascent and lets them by, paying no notice to the large yellow fox-thing in a lab coat and hard hat.

A while later, somewhat less fragrant, our heroes file back out ... and then stand out in the street, in the wee hours of the morning, unsure of what to do next. "I've got to find out if I still exist," Voltage declares. "Let's go find an ATM!"

So, they make their way along the street, and find a 24-hour bank. Voltage puts a quarter in the meter and parks her hovermower in the parking lot across the street, and adjusts her outfit, wiping the makeup off her face, and leaving some accessories with her vehicle, and adding a pair of glasses, for her "secret identity ordinary innocent bystander" look, as she heads up to the ATM. There are several unsavory characters gathered around the ATM.

More conspicuously, however, there are a couple of costumed superheroes - Lunar and Faerie Queen - who are noisily making out in the park, at a picnic bench. As Voltage starts to walk toward the bank, she hears some mild cursing from the superheroic couple, and then she hears Lunar call out, "Psst! Hey! You! Don't go to that bank!"

"Why not?" Voltage asks.

Lunar responds with a few excuses. "The ATM doesn't work." "Then I'll go inside. Oh, wait, do you mean they're on break?" "Uh ... yeah!" "All of them ... at once?" "Aw man! Listen, just don't go to that one. Uhm ... there's another one. Down the street. That way." In the direction indicated - where Voltage just walked from - she's fairly certain that she didn't pass any banks. Voltage stubbornly heads on up to the ATM, despite Lunar's mild protests. He groans, and goes back to loud smacking noises with Faerie Queen.

Lunar goes up to the ATM, whereupon the thugs there seem to show certain interest in her transaction. She checks her balance, and finds that she has exactly $1200, to the penny, in her account. Breathing a great sigh of relief, she retrieves her card, and prepares to leave.

"Hey. Ain't you gonna get some money out?"

She explains that she just wanted to check her balance. The others insist that if you go to an ATM, you need to get some money - in fact, a lot of money. Voltage continues to feign innocence and oblivion, as they surround her. Meanwhile, the Little Goth Girl and Vixa quietly sneak around the corner ... and, not so quietly, Kathmandu becomes a large saber-toothed cat-thing, picks up a parked car, and starts heading across the street with it.

About all the thugs manage to get out is, "Holy--!"

And then Voltage says, "Oh no, look, the ATM has an electrical short!" She lets loose with a high-powered electrical charge, zapping the thugs around her - and knocking out the security camera. (A pity, too, since surely that would have been quite an interesting scene, as the barrage was followed by a car dropping on what thugs still stood after Voltage's electrical shocks and Rose's "floral arrangements".) That done, she tries to see if she can withdraw some money from the ATM. Alas, it's on the fritz, and she has no way to reset it ... so she goes inside. The night-shift teller, apparently unaware of the odd activities outside, helps Voltage close out her account. Voltage heads out on a quest to find a cheap motel to spend the night in - collecting her thoughts on what to do now that most of her material possessions have been blipped out of existence.

So, they head to the nearest cheap motel - the Motel 9 - and after some discussion on the most appropriate way to divide up rooms, they get three rooms. Vixa and Kathmandu haven't a penny between them. Rose, being a minor, would presumably have a home to go to, but she opts to share a room with Vixa: Rose proposes that Vixa could be her "sidekick", and this could be an opportunity for them to get to know each other better, and come up with a "sidekick identity". (Vixa isn't keen on having a name that is, in essence, her species.) Kathmandu suggests that Vixa could be his sidekick, prompting Vixa to be momentarily torn, but then Voltage comes up with the bright idea that Kathmandu could be her sidekick, further muddling the issue.

Finally, they check in. Voltage, reminded that she appears to be currently unemployeed, takes a short break to find a pay phone. She pulls out the card she got from Warhawk ("Heroes 'R' Us") and tries to call him up. She gets a recorded message, so she leaves a message with the phone number of the hotel and her room number, then gives up and tries to get some sleep, since it's already into the wee hours of the morning by now.

It's not long until the sun comes back up ... and then the housecleaning lady starts knocking on doors. Voltage, Kathmandu and then Rose turn away the housecleaning lady when she stops by, hoping to get some more sleep. Kathmandu, however, tosses and turns a bit, but he's too shaken up by recent events (and his lack of memory of many of them) to get any decent rest. So, he picks up his few (and tattered) belongings, and heads out across the street to a small park. He idly checks the grass to see if it could use mowing. (It doesn't need it.) So, he heads to the corner and goes to a newspaper box to get out a copy of the Superior Times. It's only after he gets the newspaper out that he stops to think that he hasn't any money ... but he must have put a coin in to get the newspaper, right? That thought just gives him another headache, so he drops that line and goes back to reading the paper. While he's reading, the street is quiet - he only sees a single car go by. It's an old Volkswagen "bug", the original kind (or, as Kathmandu says, "Old school!") - painted white, with racing stripes, with a number "53" on the side. It's only after the car drives off that Kathmandu thinks to wonder whether he actually saw a driver in the vehicle. Shaking off that thought, he goes back to the newspaper.

On the top half of the page runs, "IRON COLLOSUS TRAMPLES DOWNTOWN" - about a giant cyborg and a gang of renegade mutants and cyborgs making a path of destruction, stopped by a team of superheroes right before reaching Superior Shopping Center. The lead photograph showed a gigantic creature - mostly machine - blasting, while surrounded by an assortment of heroes. Kathmandu follows the article into the paper, finding more photos, including one showing a dark-skinned muscular man in the bottom of a giant crater, looking surprisingly intact despite the state of the pavement and exposed water works around him. Other shots show a brave fireman directing a hose on the creature, flanked by a field medic and the legendary Mr. Coffee. In the background, Kathmandu spots a nice-looking hovering bike-like vehicle, and he catches a glimpse of some green-skinned fellow in a trenchcoat. A few other brightly costumed characters can be seen - including Warhawk. There's a photo of poor Wingman, who looks like he's been sent skidding across a parking lot.

Back on the front page, there's another article, under the fold, about a power fluctuation at the Center for Xenozoological Studies, resulting in the escape of several "guests". The story reports that, due to the efforts of "Superior City's Finest" (the police?), the center's staff, and the intervention of several "duty-conscious civilians", the aliens were returned to their habitats, and no one was seriously injured. Buried in the article is mention that two of the aliens were unaccounted for, possibly eaten by some of their fellow "guests" in an unfortunate encounter. The incident is blamed on a robot created by a mad scientist associated with the radical "PETAA" organization.

Kathmandu frowns at this. "No one was seriously injured?" He remembers seeing that one lady who was swallowed by a land-shark, and surely that other lady who got hit point-blank by a fiery gout from "Rawr" required hospitalization. Even the lady he rescued from the belly of the first land-shark couldn't be in perfect condition. Kathmandu ponders various possibilities, but then flips through the newspaper to see what else there is to see. He finds surprisingly little - actually nothing - about politics. In the comics section, he finds that every last one of the comic strips is about superheroes - some of them reprints of old serials from ages past, some of them newer adventures, and some of them one-shot gags - but all still following the "superhero" theme. Even in the advertisements and classifieds, he sees a disproportionate number of ads that either openly or covertly lend themselves toward interpretation as catering toward superheroic interests. He takes particular interest in a clothing store called "One Size Fits All", promising to be able to provide durable wear for all sizes and forms.

By this time, it's about 11 o'clock, and the housecleaning lady is making her rounds again. Voltage reluctantly surrenders her room and goes to check out for herself and the others. Kathmandu meets up with her and shows her what he's found in the newspaper - including the ads for the stores, which he'd like to visit. A little while later, the cleaning lady knocks on the door to Rose's room, ignores protests to "go away", and opens the door ... whereupon she startles Vixa. At the sight of the large fuzzy fox-like alien thing, the cleaning lady screams. Vixa screams back. More screaming. Rose looks positively annoyed.

Says Kathmandu, "I think Rose and Vixa are up now."

Vixa throws on her lab coat awkwardly and rushes out of the hotel room, while Rose briefly tries to communicate (in vain) with the housecleaning lady. She gets as far as persuading her that it was a "pet", whereupon the housecleaning lady repeats the mantra of "No pets allowed!" and then proceeds to drag in the vacuum to start sucking up shed Vixa fur from the spare bed. Rose grumbles and departs, black lace parasol in hand.

Back outside, our heroes regroup, and they spend a bit trying to figure out where to go next. As it so happens, none of them have any pressing appointments. Voltage assumes that since everything at Fire Station Number 36 got "reset" to blot out her existence there, that she doesn't have a job there to attend, so she'd like to see if she can find employment elsewhere. Alas, despite her message on Warhawk's answering machine, nobody has called the hotel back to check on her. So, she gives up, and figures they may as well all head to the mall to see if they can find a more appropriate disguise for Vixa ... and some new clothes (hopefully stretchable) for Kathmandu.

Voltage gives directions to the others on how to get across town on the monorail system, while she takes the more direct route on her hovermower. She gives them some money for the monorail ... but Vixa, Rose and Kathmandu find that the public monorail system is free. (No wonder there's so little traffic!)

On the monorail, Kathmandu notes that there's an abnormally tall, muscular guy with red skin and horns, wearing a battered brown trenchcoat and a crumpled fedora. (A small red spaded tail peeks out from the back of the coat.) Kathmandu suggests that he and the others move over to stand next to that guy, since they'll "blend in better". They ride the monorail, checking the stops as per Voltage's directions. The red guy in the trenchcoat gets off, and a couple of guys in blatant "superhero costumes" get on the monorail. Nobody seems to pay the least bit of attention to them. One of them starts berating the other, "Oh, come on, you can't seriously be going with the green scaly underwear look! We've got to get you a real costume." Eventually, they reach the stop for Superior Shopping Center; Kathmandu, Vixa and Rose get off the monorail and head the same way as the two obvious superhero types, and they easily spot Voltage buzzing around the parking lot on her hovermower.

Once reunited with Voltage, they head on in. There's a food court, a huge arcade, a sports supply store, an electronics shop ("Tech World" - Voltage looks at their displays enviously), and several clothing stores. One boutique, "One Size Fits All", sports several holographic displays in the front, proudly showing outrageous outfits that by and large fit the idea of "superhero costumes". Each holographic display has a button on it. A fellow in a battered trenchcoat talks with a sales clerk nearby. (Or, rather, the sales clerk does a lot of the talking.) The sales clerk stands before a holographic model of a woman in business formal, wearing a stylish trenchcoat. He hits the button, and the holographic display shows some unsavory-looking sludge being dumped on the trenchcoat. Then, the holographic model pushes a button on her belt buckle, and the trenchcoat vibrates; the sludge sloughs cleanly off! She smiles a perfect smile. The trenchcoat-wearing fellow seems to be sold on it, and heads back to the fitting room.

Meanwhile, our heroes fiddle around with the other holographic displays. One hologram of a scantily clad woman interests Kathmandu. He hits the button, and suddenly her form expands out into that of a giant eagle. Her costume neatly melds into the feathers of the bird-form - and then reappears to preserve modesty when she returns to her normal form. The recorded voice chatters off a few bits of technobabble, though no explanation is really given as to just how the costume works: whether it changes shape, melts into nonexistence, or whatever, when its user changes shape ... let alone just why the makers believe that the average consumer should expect to be concerned about proper attire when turning into a giant bird.

Another hologram shows a superhero's suit that's able to join its wearer when shifting into a fiery energy form. Another outfit joins its wearer when the hero becomes ethereal and wraith-like. A holographic model of a scantily clad female martial artist reveals a special change feature: when the button is pushed, the costume transforms into a respectable looking business formal skirt, blouse and jacket, with accessories, with a remarkable resemblance to Ace Reporter Darla Dazzle. Our heroes immediately start buzzing, wondering if Darla Dazzle might have a secret side-job as a ninja. Kathmandu dismisses the idea, suggesting that she's dangerous enough with her ability to incapacitate most anyone with her microphone and a demand for an interview.

Over in the corner there's a clearance special on ninja outfits. (No one bothers to go push the button to find out what the special feature is for the ninja suit.) Vixa starts going through a cape clearance rack, and she tries on one purple cape (matching the purple of her arm bands) that sports a pointy oversized collar, and it seems to billow in the "wind", even though no wind is actually present. Her fellows note the interesting complementary color scheme of yellow/purple, but suggest that capes are just too much of a safety hazard.

Kathmandu inquires about the "bird-woman" costume, and as to whether there might be some costume more appropriate for a male wearer. The salesperson suggests that there are several varieties available, but when he starts showing models and listing prices, our heroes are somewhat disheartened: costumes range in the tens of thousands of dollars with such features. (The cheapest "ninja outfit" or "super cape" is as low as $50 by comparison.)

Seeing the expressions of his customers, the sales clerk suggests that if they're in the "responsible citizen" business, there's a special program instituted by the City Council for "Superior City's Finest" - the Commendation Point System. Our heroes exchange bewildered looks, as none of them (not even Voltage) has heard of such a thing before. The sales man says that there's a system in place where the heroic duties of Superior City's citizens are recorded, and rewarded with "Commendation Points". When pressed, he suggests that such duties might include the apprehension of criminals, stopping of crimes and disasters, recovery of stolen goods, rescuing of endangered civilians, and so forth. He shows a hand-scanner device at the desk, where he says that with a proper identification, he can look up their current Commendation Point Totals. A balance of at least 1000 Commendation Points would be enough to get an improved-feature costume.

Voltage puts her hand on the device, and the sales clerk notes that she's listed as "Voltage ... aka 'Sparky'". Voltage grimaces at this last bit, insisting that it's "just Voltage", whereupon the sales clerk puts up his hands and suggests that she just fill out the proper paperwork to submit to the city for a proper "name change". Voltage finds that she's got a number of Commendation Points to her name in the database. Rose goes up next, and the sales clerk looks surprised. "Oh dear. I'm sorry, little girl, but I'm fairly certain there are no children in the database." Rose is about to have none of that, so she puts her hand on the scanner anyway. An error message comes up. This perplexes the sales clerk, so he calls out his assistant, "Beckie" - a muscular "pretty boy" modeling a caped spandex superhero suit. Beckie checks out the system, restarts the scanner, and then suggests that they try again. Rose puts her hand back on the scanner, and it pulls up an entry for "Rose, aka 'Little Goth Girl'" - also with a Commendation Points balance. Rose frowns at the "Little Goth Girl" subtitle ... and the fact that neither she nor Voltage have anything like 1000 of the points on hand.

Voltage asks a bit more about how these points are used - for instance, can they be used for others? She's assured that, yes, she can use Commendation Points for a sidekick or friends, and can recommend that some of her points be transferred to another account. She asks what other things they can be spent on, other than nicer costumes. The sales clerk indicates that they can be used for "all sorts of things" - secret hideaways, gadgets, matching services for the proper sidekick, or "maybe someday super-vehicles".

The sales clerk tries to get Kathmandu to put his hand on the scanner, so he can check his balance, but Kathmandu isn't so keen on it. Kathmandu decides to head out to get some "fresh air", while Voltage stays behind, looking for cheaper options. In the end, for fifty bucks, she gets a "Jungle Lord" loincloth, in a white tiger-stripe fabric, which the sales clerk assures her "will reform to accommodate the wearer when he's expressing his inner beast". Whatever that means. Voltage giggles to herself, and then heads out to present Kathmandu with the "gift", and bringing up the idea about how he could be her "sidekick". Kathmandu groans, but then relents that, at least for now, he can have it underneath whatever else he's wearing, so he at least won't have to worry about finding himself naked after every battle with sewer ninjas and petty crooks.

So, our heroes head out again. They go out to the suburbs to check on Scars's place. He's still not back yet. Either that, or he got back and left in a hurry again. Whatever the case, the holo-TV is still on, and when Voltage peers through the window, she can see that it's showing an old Batman animated cartoon ... something of a waste, really, to show a 2D show on a 3D holographic projector, she reasons. Frustrated, and not willing to break into Scars's place (especially since they have no idea what sort of security measures he might have in place), they head out to a park on a whim, as Rose says she'd like to get some cotton candy.

The first place they spot is a nice enough park with a cotton candy vendor. There's a lady in a tie-died shirt, selling cotton candy, and Rose goes up.

"What color would you like? Pink or blue or yellow or maybe a whole rainbow of colors?"

"I'd like black, please."

"Black? Well, I don't have black ... but maybe...." The lady fixes up some cotton candy, using purple coloring to get it to the darkest shade of purple she can, which is close enough to black to please Rose ... until she is struck by a distinct feeling of deja vu.

Across the park, she notices a threesome of especially large fellows, wearing trenchcoats and battered fedoras. One has red skin, the other green, the other brownish perhaps. Across the street is a motor shop with some exposed machinery that would present a distinct safety hazard, were someone to stumble into it. Next to a fence is an ordinary lawnmower, unattended. Rose exchanges looks with Voltage: Voltage looks uneasy as well. They both start to walk away purposefully. Vixa and Kathmandu hurry after them. "What's up?" Kathmandu asks.

"Nothing. We just have to leave. It's not our business," Voltage says, but then she and Rose exchange looks again, and look back to the happy, oblivious cotton candy booth vendor who is destined to have her booth used as a projectile by raging mutants. They head back. They start suggesting to the lady that there's a much nicer park just down the street where kids play all the time, where she could sell a lot more cotton candy. In fact, she could go right now!

But the lady just smiles and insists that she always sets up shop here. "After all, there's never any trouble in this part of town."

Exasperated, Voltage and Rose give up, and hurry away. "There's nothing we can do," Voltage insists. "Besides, I'm sure some superheroes will come along to take care of it." Behind them, they can hear some screams and smashing noises. They hear the boastful roars: "Smash!" "Crash!" "Bash!" Overhead, they notice a guy in a cape soaring by.

Kathmandu and Vixa hurry to keep up with Voltage and Rose. Rose frowns, nursing something of a headache. Voltage begins to blurt out a bunch of thoughts. Among them, "Have you ever heard of goldfish? It's like ... it's like they have a three second memory. So, you know, every time they swim around the goldfish bowl ... it's a new bowl!" She starts to spill out a theory - that somehow Superior City is some sort of "bubble reality" ... that the superheroes are really just prisoners here, and that all of this is set up to keep them occupied, to keep them busy, so they won't think about why they're here or how to get out. Even while she talks and the others listen, they all began to get terrible headaches. Suddenly, they try very hard to not think about it, until the headaches start going away. They start talking about other things, like going back to the mall, or else going back to Scars's place, to see if he's back. After all, surely he's back from that battle at the mall by now.

And then it dawns on them that they were just at the mall a little while ago. There were no signs of destruction. No giant cyborgs lying on the ground. No burning buildings. No cleared out rubble. No construction crews trying to repair the damage. Headaches follow. "Ah, that's ... that's because the cyborg didn't actually reach the mall!" Voltage announces, loudly, and the others groan and try to concur with that as an explanation.

After a little while, the headaches subside, and they make their way along, dreading the inevitable onslaught of a whole new batch of headaches once they try to compare notes with Scars once they find him....

Tune in next time, for the continuing adventures of our heroes in ... Superior City!