Interlude: The Hand Benefit (Part II)
The healing of Laura Greene's hand is not yet complete.  Laura, Mike, Bob and Stephen have spent the last three weekends rebuilding her hand after Domesday severed it.  Their power, their toil, and their knowledge, enabled this miraculous process.  They gather one last time and finish the reconstruction of her three missing fingers.
For each of the last three weeks, as Laura's fingers were healed, the Maranatha Christian Fellowship has given praise.  Their prayer leader, Matthew Walker, has led their prayers for Laura.  The prayers have been that the Lord may continue his divine healing process upon her.
Laura has told Matthew how her healing is coming about: her teammates in the Balance are responsible!
On the fourth week, Matthew opens their prayer for Laura by emphasizing the eminent role of Jesus in answering their prayers for rebuilding her hand; all forces in this world, whether good or evil, must act toward this end at the Lord's direction.  Amen.  (Laura IS about ready to respond that her teammates in the Balance are not evil! But she sees no opportunity.) 
Stephen Wolcott is at a remote computer terminal in the same building, working in seclusion, but he has taken the time to eavesdrop mentally to this session.  If this goes on, it might tear Laura apart from her fellowship or from the Balance.  For no good reason.  Enough is enough... 
The leader continues, "Yes, Jesus works through all forces - and he smiles upon all forces that willingly work his will ~ The rest of the Balance, Laura's friends that she refers to, have worked to restore her hand!  And so Jesus smiles upon them!”  And the congregation says, “Amen!" 
Laura is surprised at her leader's unexpected speech: that didn't seem to be what he was saying! But Praise Jesus! 
Stephen is satisfied.  The balance is retained...
Adventure: Into the Darkness 
Christine Lassiter has a problem: when she fought alongside the Balance against the Doom Bear, it was in the bar where her band was performing.  The bar management held her and the band responsible for damage.
She's going to try and straighten things out.  Bob Brannigan (Captain Gonzo) is going along as a witness of that night’s events.  Stephen Wolcott (Ellipsis) will be along as soon as he completes a job interview; naturally, once he intervenes, everything will be all right.  
Chris and Bob proceed to meet the bar manager.  Shortly, before Stephen can arrive, he dismisses them out of hand, and promises to sue the band for damages.  They leave via the alley entrance.  
As they walk out the door, Bob is promptly thumped with a blackjack and drops to the ground.  Five hoodlums then surround Chris.  
Stephen hurries to join the meeting with the bar management.  (It is funny that he should have more commitments with other people than he can handle, when he barely 1ikes other people at all.)  As he nears the bar, he notes something strange about the man standing at the opening of the alleyway.  At his will, the man sits aside.
Chris drives her assailants off with fire, then creates an ice wall behind them and pelts them with ice until they drop.  As Bob revives, the ice wall inexplicably parts.  A man stands in the breach.  
Chris aims sleet and then fire at him, but he repels each in turn.  He then steps forward to reveal himself as Stephen Wolcott in a three-piece suit.  (Chris is somewhat surprised at the attire; she remembers the guy being dressed 1ike a normal guy in a scuzzy hat, the night she met him at the bar.) 
Stephen retains his ice and fire powers when in proximity to Chris.  Thus he repelled her attacks.  Good thing too, he thinks.  
Having read the mind of one of the hoods, Stephen now knows their mission and origin: they were sent to make sure nobody left the building until a local criminal leader arrived to talk with the bar owner.  
Suddenly, a man jumps from the other end of the alley and attacks Bob.  Christine backs away by reaction, until she gets next to Stephen.  
Bob recognizes the attacker [or does he?] as FOAD, the Forward Observer and Decimator: absent without leave from the U.S. Army.  They came after FOAD before but he escaped.  Why is he after them now?
Bob tries to restrain him, but he throws a grenade after Stephen and Chris.  Chris tries to block it off with an ice wall but the wall shatters and hits them as large blocks.  FOAD throws another grenade.  This blows a hole in the street, where Stephen and Chris were standing.  Stephen grabs onto Chris, and barely keeps his balance as they slide down the rubble.  It must have been shaped explosive.
Bob tries to fight the attacker, but FOAD is too agile for him.  Stephen flees with Chris into the sewers, but the man gets past Bob and pursues them.  (His mission is to bring Christine Lassiter back alive.)  Chris puts up a wall of fire between them and the pursuer, and Stephen starts a wall of ice behind it (with the ice/fire powers he now derives from Chris).  But the pursuer jumps through the fire and smashes through the ice.
With the pursuer nearly upon them, Stephen resorts to his mental powers to subdue him.  It stops the pursuit - but it produces a psychic scream !n response! (The central theme of this scream is, "Fuck Off And Die!") The scream overwhelms Stephen, and he falls.
The pursuer then fights Christine, hand to hand.  After eight seconds of this she is on the brink of unconsciousness.  And she suspects he's only playing with her.
But by this time Bob has caught up, alerted mentally by Stephen earlier.  Bob rips the street surface, to expose the pursuer beneath.  Christine IS relieved.
Her relief is short-lived:  FOAD subdues Bob Brannigan with one mental burst.  "NOOO!' Christine, on her last legs, immolates the-attacker.
He staggers through the flames at her.  But no mental attack.
Chris staggers forward as well, and leans into him with the best punch she can make.  She loses her balance and falls, but her opponent falls unconscious.
Ellipsis exerts himself back to consciousness within the next few seconds, and revives Captain Gonzo.
Ellipsis does not dare probe FOAD beyond his surface thoughts, though.  In the end, the heroes retreat to Stephen's apartment to recover and plan strategy.
Stephen's impulse is to call for the Balance - but his mental powers aren't reliable yet, with the feedback from FOAD.  Bob's ready to go on regardless.  Stephen insists on leaving telephone messages with them; there's no response at either end.  Bob's ready to go on regardless.  
Stephen then trembles and states: "I wish I could overcome this weakness.  I wish I could be of significant help to you without my mental powers.  I'll go with you nonetheless if you wish." Bob says, "Fuck- we need you!"
Christine can't get out of this one, anymore than she could against the Doom Bear.
The three sneak into a warehouse toward the west side of the metro area, where the mental scan of FOAD reveals their assailants were given their mission.  As they enter, Ellipsis notices a psionic inhibitor field in place.  Expensive hardware for such cheap thugs; indeed, he's not felt one of those since last he fought Domesday!  But he thinks they can count on Domesday not keeping company with this class of criminal.  (And the inhibitor doesn't hurt him any more than FOAD did: he's still recovering from that assault.)
Gaining silent entry for the three thus becomes the job of Captain Gonzo.  He subdues every man he finds, and none is given a chance to call for help.
They enter a large storage area.  One of the several rooms to the side is lit, though Ellipsis cannot determine who is within.  As they proceed to the stairway leading to the room, the warehouse 1ights up and their longstanding foe Dominatra appears.  She proclaims: ·”You are surrounded by my forces.  If I were you, I would surrender.”· (Damn my obtuseness!! Ellipsis thinks.  Of course Domesday could make a deal with such criminals as these!  Even he once tried to infiltrate them!) 
Meanwhile, unnoticed by all, a girl named Julie Moretti sneaks into the warehouse behind the heroes.  Having learned about the meeting and having seen the heroes go in, she means to get a news item for the local student newspaper.  
Naturally, the heroes fight.  Their opponents are four mildly - powered superbeings gathered by Dominatra.  They include: Swordhand, a young man who can polarize molecules around him to penetrate most substances; Target, a woman who can shock opponents on contact and can influence them to attack close up; Wolven, a feral woman With artificial claws and various wolf-like abilities; and Image a student who resides in the Silicon Valley of California but who can send an energy simulacrum of himself to the battle.  The heroes find this out because Dominatra introduces her squad as her Counter-Balance.
The battle begins.  Wolven charges at Ellipsis, but he pelts her with fire.  This drives her berserk: not at all what he intended!  The fire emerged outside his will! 
Fortunately, he has heightened his reflexes to defend himself, and holds his own against the feral woman.  Despite his lack of mental powers, he confines himself to his natural abilities: the ones he derives from Christine are too unpredictable.
Gonzo takes on Swordhand.  Swordhand slices his first Frisbee shot apart.  Oh, shit.
Chris, under compulsion to grapple with Target, advances in flame.  Target, getting more than she bargained for, backs away until she can get a halfway decent chance to shock her opponent.  The encounter ends with Chris taking some damage but Target in shock with severe burns.
Dominatra, holding the Image in reserve, orders him in.  With his touch he issues electricity, shocking Chris insensate.
Despite the skill of Ellipsis in dodging and counter-striking, Wolven finally gets a good shot with her artificial claws.  Ellipsis sinks to the floor, though with his Will he refuses to surrender to unconsciousness.  His dominant will must be good for something! 
Wolven and the Image move on to Captain Gonzo, who has subdued his own opponent Swordhand with one hell of a good punch.  Gonzo, dodging like crazy and using his boom frisbees as he gets opportunity, gives as good as he gets.
(Meanwhile, Julie Moretti is hidden in a corner and getting good pictures of everything.) 
Chris revives, and pelts Gonzo's opponents with fire.  Wolven then charges her and hits with a glancing blow.  Ellipsis finally picks himself up and keeps Wolven occupied for a moment, shouting to Chris, 'Freeze her!".  Christine's ice bolts and Stephen's resulting icy touch together freeze Wolven into unconsciousness.
The Image is now alone against all three heroes.  (Dominatra, noticing this, begins to depart.) Chris, pissed off at the Image, aims a fire bolt at his heart.  This comes close to dissipating his energy form.  but he maintains coherence and slaps her into final unconsciousness.
Julie Moretti, figuring Dominatra may have left something newsworthy behind in the office she abandoned, sneaks into the office.  Five mob leaders then draw their guns on her.  
Ellipsis and Gonzo both notice the departure of Dominatra.  After a brief argument Ellipsis sends Gonzo off after her, staying behind to face the Image alone (and still without his mental powers).
The Image begins to follow Captain Gonzo, but Ellipsis turns a fire hose upon him.  He crackles and fades out - only to reappear from a puddle on the warehouse floor.  
As Ellipsis dodges the Image, he tries to convince him that Dominatra is a criminal whom he ought not work for.  As the running discussion proceeds, the frightened mobsters emerge holding Julie hostage.  The Image, chastened, helps subdue the remaining mobsters (who were meeting with Dominatra) and guard the prisoners.
Gonzo follows the trail of Dominatra through the wall she broke through, to find her limousine pulling away.  He disables two tires with a slash frisbee, and subdues the driver as he emerges to fire on him.
Dominatra emerges on the other side of the car, and tries to overturn the car atop him.  They wrestle first with the car, then with each other (following a groin kick by Dominatra and a good slug by Gonzo).  Dominatra, with surprising strength, subdues the tired Gonzo.  
As he is at her mercy, she wonders what to do with him: surely she should not leave a foe alive if she has the choice.  In the end, she slits his throat and departs.
Julie Moretti does manage to examine the office before the police arrive.  (Ellipsis, on his feet by will alone, does not notice.) She finds and takes some files.  As it turns out, these files are vital to one crime lord, Louis Giambetti, who did not attend the meeting.  
Ellipsis and the Image, with Julie's help, call the police, isolate the psionic inhibitor, and destroy it.  They both notice their mental powers return.  After Ellipsis tells him to beware the possible vengeance of Dominatra, the Image returns to the West.
Ellipsis casts around for Captain Gonzo, and cannot find him.  As he cleans up after the battle, the police that were summoned find Gonzo lying dead on the street outside.  When Ellipsis finds out, he goes berserk.  With progressively greater force, he gives a mental cry of grief which is finally felt by all within the metropolitan area.  He ends it with an accusation: “DOMINATRA!!”  He then collapses.  
As the paramedics strip off his mask to give him air, Julie Moretti snaps a picture.
Adventure:  Night of the Balance
Ellipsis is taken to Lansing Sparrow Hospital with his mask removed by the medics.
Morningstar and the Mighty Tim, mobilized by his cry of grief, are left to find out what happened together.  They can do no more than wait until Christine Lassiter', also taken to the hospital, is released.  From her they get a description of how it all happened.  
Chris is very shocked when she finds out what happened while she was unconscious: Ellipsis hospitalized, and Captain Gonzo dead.  When Tim asks if she'll help against Dominatra, Chris replies, ·No ... I can't.  Not 1ike this."  Tim leaves with contempt, because this woman got his teammates into this.  Morningstar leaves sorrowfully, because this is just another woman drawn into other people's battles.
The campus newspaper tells about the battle the next day.  One of the pictures on the front page shows Stephen Wolcott unmasked.  
Two nights later Chris visits Stephen as he revives.  She apologizes for not avenging Gonzo; but she always thought her powers were something to use for ••• well, for joy, not for vengeance.  Stephen knows better than to argue, and is no mood to argue in any case.  He tel s her to let him know if she somehow finds that joy again; he could use some joy too.
That same night, Mike and Laura check in and find him awake.  They conclude that Dominatra must be neutralized - permanently, one way or another.
At that moment a man materializes in a burst of thunder.  His hands, with discs of metal strapped to them and connected to a power pack, are aimed toward Stephen.  The assassin called Thunderstrike has' accepted a contract to slay Ellipsis.  
The death bolt is intercepted by a burst of flame.  Mike, having saved Stephen's life with his quick reaction, then charges the assassin.  Thunderstrike throws him off, but by that time Laura has retrieved her power stone from her purse.  She erects a force field around the assassin.  In a clap of thunder he disappears.
As Stephen tries to track the assassin, he determines that the hospital is being infiltrated by a team of Dominatra's minions.  Dominatra wishes to ensure that Ellipsis and the team are neutralized before they can revenge themselves upon her.
Mike and Laura quickly don costume.  Stephen is without his own costume, and thus has to borrow Mighty Tim's cloak to wear over his hospital clothes.  
Shortly, Ellipsis has Mighty Tim teleport the three of them to the roof of a liquor store nearby.
Observing the mayhem, Morningstar then cleans out the hospital corridors with battering rams (with Ellipsis' help in aiming).  Tim then teleports the offenders to the lobby of the Lansing Pol ice Department.
Ellipsis determines that Target and Swordhand are in the assault.  Mighty Tim takes care to teleport the woman Target into Lake Michigan about a mile off shore.  He brings Swordhand alongside them, and then teleports them all to a secluded field on the MSU farms outside East Lansing.  As they arrive, Morningstar immobilizes Swordhand and Ellipsis begins interrogation.
As it progresses, Swordhand tries to push his powers to cut through Morningstar's force field.  Ellipsis proclaims to him: 'You cannot exert yourself enough to escape us ••• much like you cannot -”
"- You leave my girlfriend out of this!" 
“Your personal inadequacies are of no importance to us now.  You can only tell us where Dominatra hides.  Other than that, you are of absolutely no use.  DO YOU UNDERSTAND?' 
Swordhand sags; Morningstar lets h~ drop to the ground weeping.  A few moments later, he says haltingly, 'She's got a base about five miles northwest of Saginaw ••• and I hope she kills you."
Ellipsis and Mighty Tim move away to confer on strategy.  It's the same base they chased her out of the last time.
Mor'ningstar moves over to Swordhand and says tenderly, “Whatever·problems you think you may have ••• Jesus Christ can help.' 
'Go away!· 
'He lived as a man, and he Knows all the problems that a man can have.  If you pray to him, he can help.”
Ellipsis places Swordhand under mental compulsion to surrender to the police.  The Balance then teleports to Stephen's apartment to draw their plans.  
They locate the base on a map, and Mighty Tim says he's ready for some more teleporting.  Ellipsis, finally in his own costume, claims he is likewise ready despite his injuries.  Nonetheless, he takes a satchel that Tim urges upon him as an extra defense, and straps it on.  The heroes depart to topple Dominatra.
They arrive outside the base.  Ellipsis scans the area.  There is an area around one building that registers null to his senses: doubtless that is where Dominatra hides, behind a psionic deflector field.  Mighty Tim sets that building on fire, and a few others for good measure.  Morningstar batters the defenders from afar as they emerge.  
Dominatra is indeed within the building.  She has spent the last few days ensuring that her forces are prepared for a pitched battle with the remainder of the Balance.  Unfortunately, she is not faced with a pitched battle now; her forces have been unable to locate the foe which attacks them.  Oh, shit: she did not realize the Balance was that powerful.  She can do nothing but escape the burning building through an escape tunnel.
Ellipsis has remained on watch.  As soon as Dominatra has moved outside the radius of her protective psi field, he has Tim teleport her several miles away.  The Balance then follow into the starry night.  
As soon as they arrive, Morningstar strikes physically and Ellipsis strikes mentally.  Unfortunately, Morningstar is tired from using her power at full all night, Ellipsis was injured, and their foe is desperate.
Under the starlight, Dominatra struggles through the attacks and hits Ellipsis with a glancing blow.  As the attack upon her thus lessens, she unbalances Morningstar by ripping out the ground beneath her.
The Mighty Tim then enters the fray.  He drives Dominatra back to the wall of a barn, but she knocks him out there.
She jeers at Ellipsis and Morningstar, 'You can't win!  Give up or he dies!”· She throws a piece of barn wall at them; Morningstar repels it.  
Ellipsis responds, "Give up? NEVER.”· He whips out one of Captain Gonzo's boom frisbees from his satchel.  His aim is good enough to drop the barn wall on top of Dominatra as Morningstar yanks the Mighty Tim away.  Despite his exertion and his wounds, Ellipsis maintains enough presence of mind to mentally blast the surprised Dominatra into submission.  
Faced with a subdued foe the Balance is unable to slay Dominatra in cold blood.  After- some argument, Ellipsis overwrites Dominatra's mind such that she'll never be able even to hurt another person or to do anything which might lead to hurt.  They then leave her to wander.
The Balance has utterly neutralized their greatest foe to now.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to matter.