#2 – The Funeral of Master Mannix – On Delta, Red Baron flies the five new Vindicators in the Vindi-Jet from England to the coordinates found on Mannix’s body, which takes them deep into the Canadian Northwest Territories. There in the remote wilderness they find a memory viewing device and a note. Returning to the monastery in San Francisco, Mr. Fiks offers to sponsor the team and introduces them to one of his agents from the future, VX, who they warmly welcome. After VX encourages them to increase security, the heroes create a fake body and help coordinate the funeral proceedings. Hundreds begin arriving, including Lord Malek and many current and retired heroes and villains. Skarhone, Titan, CoMet, Mr. Fiks, and a hologram of Lance Dragon show their admiration and respect with speeches on how Mannix enhanced their lives. Shortly after, missiles rain down from above, followed by four large robots! In addition to killing civilians, the missiles disrupt phones and recording devices, though many are protected by Titan’s Fist and Red Baron. The Vindicators and many other capes begin battling the powerful automatons, but find it nearly impossible to damage their high-tech, mystical armor. All bear a symbol indicating their allegiance to Doctor Apocalypse, but each robot has powers relating to its name: War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death. War breaks into the monastery vault and takes a gemstone, ignoring Mannix’s body. VX suddenly turns on the Vindicators, draining everyone’s strength! He takes Escanor’s sword before disappearing into the earth. Famine scans Spatial Shock and identifies him as Daniel Dragon, son of Lance, before War wraps tendrils around him. The combined forces destroy Pestilence, but the other three robots fly away, taking Spatial Shock. Mr. Fiks apologizes for his agent and offers a choice for the next day’s headlines: beaten in their own home? Or save hundreds in senseless funeral bombing? The adventurers choose the latter, and later leaked news footage backs up that narrative. The group convinces Skarhone to let them use the device on him and delve into his memories from the ‘incident’ 84 years prior. Epilogue: The new Horsemen robots give Doctor Apocalypse (Alpha) the second gemstone his Delta counterpart created before his death.
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