Kathmandu spends much of the week sparring with Vixa. While she has the occasional surprise trick she can pull, it's fairly clear that she has no chance of standing up to Kathmandu in anything resembling a fair fight. Nonetheless, that doesn't spare Kathmandu from Voltage's twisted sense of humor: she comes out with a video game controller, and play-acts "controlling" Kathmandu's moves as if she's in a video game - until Vixa and Kathmandu chase her off.

Voltage has taken over the garage, working on Scars's car. Scars is often out on errands on foot, since he hasn't the car to take him anywhere. Mikey is parked in the living room most of the time, playing video games, or occasionally watching action flicks or cartoons. It's hard for anyone else to pry him away long enough to catch the news or anything else "boring".

Kathmandu finds Scars's library to be woefully lacking in books on the supernatural. So, short of risking another visit to the central library (or one of its satellites around town), Kathmandu's major avenue of research would be Scars's internet connection - mindful of the risk of headaches and ears-ringing sensations, that is.

On the internet, Kathmandu finds all sorts of "interesting" stuff, in his search for information on the supernatural. The real trick is to try to pry through it all to find out what is fantasy, and what might possibly have some real substance to it. Kathmandu finds several sites with interesting legends and such - but at the very least, he doesn't find anything that sheds any more light on the origins or powers of the magical necklace he wears. Also, there seems to be a blurred line between belief in the supernatural and belief in extraterrestrials in some quarters, so he runs across a whole bunch of "alien conspiracy" sites. There's the usual business about the face on Mars, of course, and Roswell. There are lots of references to the Moon Base, and the tiny "Mars Colony"; there are suggestions of strange goings-on out there, one way or another, and government cover-ups of the details. Kathmandu finds a lot of buzz about a Mars rover mission heading out from the Mars Colony, and arguments about whether some discoveries in the soil were evidence of bacterial life forms on Mars, or contamination caused by the Mars Colony itself. Several sites are trumpeting these discoveries as proof that life exists (or existed) outside of Earth - even if found only as fossilized bacteria - suggesting that more advanced life forms might be elsewhere.

Still, Kathmandu finds some articles on seemingly reputable news sites that suggest some kind of trend in increased "UFO sightings" and "reports of ghosts" and such in the last year or so. There are articles/editorials hypothesizing that some recent bestseller books have revived interest in the supernatural and the weird, and are therefore responsible for this "mass hysteria". Kathmandu finds an interview with Damon Hauksbee, a partially paralyzed wheelchair-bound computer programmer, who is defending himself against some unspecified accusations; he makes a weird reference about how "the world is entering a new age", and "reality as we know it will be forever changed". He has a lot more to say than that, but for some reason Kathmandu gets intense headaches just trying to read the article. Even what he manages to read, he can't remember very clearly later. Kathmandu has the unnerving sensation of feeling "watched" for a bit, until he takes a break; the feeling eventually subsides.

Kathmandu decides to check out the Superior City Community Forums. He doesn't remember the address of the site right away, so he uses Google to find it. In the process, he runs across a broken link to an older but once-hot thread, on the subject of "Re: whose Morpehus?" {sic}. By the little Google sample text bits, Kathmandu can tell that "Mr_Coffee(R)" posted a few times in this thread, and it looks like there was a post from Zeus as well. However, when he clicks on one of the sub-pages to head over to the Superior City Community Forums, he finds that the thread has been closed, and messages purged. He has no choice but to head over to the Superior City Community Forums main page.

Kathmandu finds posts from such familiar personalities as "Warhawk11", "Mr_Coffee(R)", "Faerie_Queen", "LUNAR" (all caps), "Mysterio", etc. There are several system administrator posts under the user name of "Zeus". (There are a few other posts from forum moderators who have names that follow the Greek mythology theme, with names like Calliope, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania, and so forth.)

From there, Kathmandu browses around a bit. The trouble is, it seems that any long time spent on the forums produces headaches, even when he isn't sure exactly what should have been so headache-inducing in the first place. Nonetheless, he braves the threads, even as headaches eventually turn into a persistent nose-bleed.

A few paraphrases of some of the threads that catch Kathmandu's attention:

"Vixa SPOTTED!"
An excited claim from SpiderD00D that he saw Vixa in a trench coat at the vehicle registration office. Some other heroes - no familiar names here - claiming to have also seen her. Some other posts along the lines of, "Well, why didn't you DO something about it, stupid?" SpiderD00D's response, "What? If I beat up Vixa, my little sis would hate my guts!" Another post from "Crimson_Hunter" that he saw Vixa in the library, but that she didn't do anything except read children's books and get a drink of water. Says Crimson_Hunter: "What gives? Isn't she supposed to go psycho or something? Is this some kind of set-up? I mean, don't get me wrong - I'm not a sucker for 'cute' - but this was going to be like a scene out of Blade Runner. If this sort of stuff happens when the whole thing goes public, it's going to cause massive backlash." One of the response posts from SpiderD00D: "What's Blade Runner?" A post from Mr_Coffee(R): "You're showing your age, CH!" Crimson_Hunter: "Hey, did anybody notice that there's a new Beta in the register, named Kathmandu? Is this some kind of joke?"

"Wingman plucked!"
Reports from several heroes, including Warhawk11, Mr_Coffee(R), Mysterio, NightHunter, and Fl33tF00t, about an ill-fated superheroic mission to protect some policemen and firefighters heading into the dangerous Factory district to put out massive fires. The firefighters were attacked by rioting mobs and sniper fire - some "snipers" being equipped with rocket launchers. Apparently several fire engines and police cars were destroyed, and quite a few policemen and firefighters were hospitalized or killed outright. Among the casualties was Wingman, a winged superhero, who had been accompanying Fire Engine #2 from Fire Station #36. There are several posts of condolences, and then a post from some fellow by the name of "Crowbar", who claims to be Wingman's illegitimate winged "lovechild"; he volunteers to take Wingman's place in the "Heroes 'R' Us" team. Warhawk11 jokes back at him, "Dude - did you get your costume at the 'One Size Fits All' ninja costume sale?" Crowbar's is an embarrassed, "Well ... yeah. I didn't want to waste any of my CPs on a costume. I want wheels! Besides, at least my underwear isn't showing!" Several posts in reply to this one have been deleted, though there's a dangling post warning Warhawk11 to refrain from thinly veiled threats in his posts.

"Lunar in hospitel!!11!"
Warhawk11 apparently knows LUNAR's secret identity, and reports that LUNAR is in the hospital after an attempted suicide via drug overdose. Mr_Coffee(R) reports that he's paid a visit to LUNAR, and that he's in pretty bad condition, but he hopes he'll make it through. After some requests, Warhawk11 leaves information on where to send get-well cards, flowers, etc., at Bayview Hospital, in California.

"Leaving Superior City for Time of Reflection..."
Thread started by Mr_Coffee(R), thanking his many heroic friends in Superior City, and indicating that he's taking a vacation from Superior City. He suggests that he feels in some way responsible for LUNAR's predicament, or that he wasn't supportive enough, or something - it's not very clear. Mr_Coffee(R) makes some comments about things getting "out of hand", and how some people "are too creative in finding and exploiting the Universe's flaws". He makes an odd reference: "Even if we are protected from suffering physical pain, we should all know that there are even deeper, darker ways of hurting someone - and calling it 'just a joke' is no excuse." There's a post from Faerie_Queen, but the Community Forums employ a censoring feature that blots out naughty language. So much of Faerie_Queen's message is "bleeped out", that the only thing you can tell is that Faerie_Queen is angry with Mr_Coffee(R), and a great many other people. This is followed by a host of very angry and very bleeped posts from others in the forum, and it looks like there are a great many other posts that have been since deleted (though replies still exist - one of them warning Warhawk11 against making "thinly veiled death threats").

"What gives with Memorial Park mutant rampage?"
Post by The_Blizz, paraphrased, "Hey, what's the deal with Memorial park? Who keeps setting off the mutants and then running off?" Post by Iron_Angel: "I set them off Wednesday, sorry. I used to always visit the park; nobody told me when I came back that it was the new stomping grounds for Crash, Smash and Bash. Did anybody catch the Monday edition of the Superior Sentinel? There's a little Molly in black in the picture. I decided to hang around after the battle, and I saw the little Molly show up afterward. It looked like she was asking questions. Since when do Mollies dress in black, anyway? She was kind of creepy. By the way, has anyone seen Iron_Fist recently? He asked me to come back, that there was something 'really special', but he's not answering calls." This is followed by an avalanche of posts from all and sundry, all sorts of gush-posts about "It's great you're back, Angel!"

"I GOTS WHEELS!!1!!"
There are several posts by various members - starting with "GreeceMonkey" - with image links to photographs of their "new wheels". Someone posts a picture that looks a lot like the 1966 "Batmobile". There's another picture of what looks like an armored dune buggy with spikes all over it. Another one looks like a cross between a Lamborghini Countach and KITT from Knight Rider. There are several that look just like Scars's car, but with different paint jobs, and "tricked out" in different ways. (Spoilers, rocket boosters, pop-up armaments, fins, light-up details, etc.) There are a few motorcycles and "hoverbikes", too. There's one post from Neptunus: "Hey, when am I going to be able to get my battle-sub?" Warhawk11: "C00LIES! I wanana know what Ironfist is gonna be driving. His ahs got to be the most killers wheels of all! Hauksbee rocks11!!!! And way thanks to Doctor Wray1!!!!!!1!"

"DEATHRACE 3000!"
There's a post from Teh_Maxx, declaring that everyone who wants to participate in "Deathrace 3000" should meet outside the Onionskin Game Shop on Friday at noon. You don't actually see this message until Friday evening, so it's a bit too late to make an appearance. There are several excited posts about eager participants. From Warhawk11: "Are you NUTS? Your supposed to be superheroes!" And a few other posts to that effect, with responses along the lines of, "Just you try to stop us, loser! We whooped you Thursday, and we can do it again! Sides, how you gonna catch up with us? You got no wheels, and you know Faerie_Queen ain't gonna carry you no more! Ha ha!" Another post from Teh_Maxx: "Hey, what can I say? We're all betas, right? Gotta test the stress!" Several posts that follow this one are marked as deleted, though there's a dangling reply warning Warhawk11 against making death threats.

"Q About Secret Identities"
Post from Crowbar: "Hey, Mr_Coffee(R) left me a bunch of his Commendation Points, so I'm gonna get some wheelz! But I have to get a registration, right? Hey, a Q about the Zeus hand-scanner thingie - if it's able to ID me as a superhero, then doesn't that mean it can ID me in my secret ID, too? Doesn't that like totally blow the whole secret ID thing? What if I'm in my secret ID and it blurts out my superhero ID to the sales guy? I hate to ask stupid questions, but I never had enough CPs to get anything cool before, so I've never been shopping." Lots of posts along the lines of, "You can trust Zeus!" or "Stop over-thinking it!" And, "No fair! Mr_Coffee(R) left you his CPs? I thought he was gonna get a coffee van!"

"What happened to Colonel Chaos?"
Post from Crimson_Hunter: "My granddaughter's new to Superior City, and we went down sewer-ninja-hunting to show her the ropes. I just let her lead the way, while N_H and I followed, and she found the toxic barrels. We went down for the Madame X and Colonel Chaos showdown ... but Chaos wasn't there! Madame X seemed like she didn't know what was going on and the ninjas attacked us. She just blipped through the wall, didn't show up again. We clobbered the ninjas - though poor Star_Hunter fell in the sewage (ick) - and we managed to get into the secret lab. The cyborg wasn't there, either. No Mister Big speech, no Colonel Chaos gloat, not even any decent explosions when we tore the place up. And I know nobody set it off yet." A few posts from different members, some suggesting sightings of "Colonel Chaos" in the Factory. Someone theorizes that the Guardians got tired of all the cyborg rampages.

"Oh no! Turtle Trouble!"
Post paraphrase from GeishaGirl: "Hey, I heard that after that Comedian weirdness at the Ninja Pizzeria opening, Mirage is pulling out of the public release." There are some follow-up posts confirming her report and suggesting that if anyone wants to get in some "Foot Ninja bashing action with the Turtles", they'd better get to the Pizzeria before it closes. And then there are several posts grumbling about corporate greed and "artistes" and how Mirage consists of a bunch of "wimps" who don't understand Superior City, etc.

"Only One Book Remains to Open the Portal!"
Post from Mysterio: "I located another volume of the Tome of Dark Portals in a rather peculiar place - one that seemed so obvious that it's no wonder that none of us thought to look there before. What's more is that, shortly after I left, a Guardian reverted the entire library. When I returned, the tome was gone. I am fortunate to have made diligent notes. To my fellows, please meet me in the usual place, and we will discuss our next step." A response post from Warhawk11: "Hey Mysteriero, you know this sort a thing could a been done by letter or phone call or something not the community forum where everybaody can see. Like ahow am I supposed to **not** know your planning something? Don't be surpressed if my intuition makes me suspict your up to something!"

"DEVASTATION TIME!"
Post from Doctor_Devastation: "MWAHAHAHAHAHAA! So, you think you do-gooders are suddenly unstoppable, what with your so-called 'super-vehicles'? Let's put it to the test, then! I challenge each and every one of you 'heroes' to stop me, as I seize (what remains of) SR-1 this Sunday, noon, PST. That is, if you don't mind a few 'scratches and dents'. MWAHAHAHAHHAAA! Not even Iron_Fist himself can stop me!" Several follow-up posts with puffed-up defiant responses and insults from just about everybody else you've seen post to this forum so far. No retort from Iron_Fist that you can see, however. No reply from Mr_Coffee(R), either.

Tune in next time, as our heroes put together disturbing clues in ... Superior City!