Interlude: We May Have to Fight Ellipsis 
It is the night of the terrorists in New York City.  The Balance is there.  So far this night they have participated in the capture of the terrorist leader (the Golden Raj) and his field headquarters in Manhattan.  They have also seen the rebirth of one of their greatest foes: Dominatra.  They have also stood against the power of their former teammate, Ellipsis.  He may have gone completely mad.  
And the night's not over yet.  
Though the Raj is in Federal custody now, several concentrations of his followers have refused to follow his order to surrender.  (This order was issued under mental compulsion from Ellipsis earlier in the night.)  The Federal special agents which were rushed into Manhattan plan their mopping-up operation.  As the Balance recover from their battle with Ellipsis and the Raj, the Mighty Tim (their leader) reminds them that the terrorists - their real reason for coming to New York - still need subduing.  
Throughout the night the Balance assists the Federal special agents in restoring order.  At each nest, Morningstar restrains the terrorists with hostages and Mighty Tim teleports terrorists from strategic positions to confinement.  FOAD just helps the Feds kick some ass in general.  
The last remaining terrorist group is finally subdued.  Then everyone's attention turns to Ellipsis.  The Balance separate themselves from the Federals to discuss the matter.  
FOAD saw Ellipsis disappear from full sight, in a flash of light.  Mighty Tim reminds them all that Ellipsis could easily make any number of people think he disappeared.  FOAD says: "Not me, man." 
It seems like what set Ellipsis off was the terrorist shooting of his girlfriend, Julie Moretti.  Did she survive?  Where is she now?
The Feds, in their deliberations, ask these same questions.  Unlike the Balance, they get the answers easily.  A medical unit is sent to one of the local hospitals to keep guard on Moretti.  She is moved to a secure medical facility in the morning.  For her own safety, presumably.  
The Balance spend the night on cots alongside the Federal forces.  In the morning they return to Lansing, Michigan.  
The coordinator of the Department of Internal Security has ordered Julie Moretti, the supposed fiancée of Ellipsis, taken into custody.  He fears that the worst will happen when Ellipsis finally comes out of hiding.  He does not relish having to respond to an attack by the world's most powerful mutant.  But according to the evaluation of the Manhattan action, the others of the Balance seems trustworthy.  Maybe he can get them in between him and Ellipsis.  He has his people set up a meeting with them in Michigan.  
The Balance agrees to be present.  Mighty Tim specifies a price, though.  The communications equipment which is to summon them quickly, to whichever part of the country, is to remain property of the Balance afterwards.  No more loss of communication on their patrols! 
The Balance later draws its plan.  To show peaceful intent, his longest friends Morningstar and Mighty Tim will face Ellipsis first; Tim can always fetch FOAD if necessary.  If it comes down to actual battle, they're probably in trouble anyway.  Mighty Tim has the feeling that if they give Ellipsis five seconds, he can subdue them all mentally.  Without even using his physical powers.  Morningstar shivers.  
Weeks pass.

Interlude: The Raven Flies 
A monstrous bird screams in the skies over Massachusetts.  The ground trembles.  Grey clouds build.  As the bird screams again, the clouds flash red.  
Marie, within a building whose top was suddenly sliced open before her eyes, can still feel the link Jon told her he had with her.  And it's Jon doing this now! 
Maybe the link will work both ways.  Marie concentrates.  She can feel him now! He mentally screams, "Go Away! You don't want this link anyway!" 
"No - I still don't! But I never meant for this to happen!" 
“I never did either!"
'So calm down and come back down here!' 
"No!! • 
The raven disappears.  
"I've lost him!”  Marie says.
The storm breaks upon Massachusetts.  The raven flies over Michigan.  
Jonathon Gaunt glides within the raven now, not knowing where he is.  He dives through the clouds beneath him to find out.
The clouds are too close to the ground! The Raven Gaunt breaks through them, barely above the campus of Michigan State University.  Jonathon streaks out of his dive, taking the tops of several trees with him.  The raven zooms across the campus as students dive for cover.  
Jonathon pulls up.  What a mess today has been.
A girl on the campus below him picks herself up.  Whatever that thing which buzzed the campus was, someone ought to be following it.  And it looks like she's the only one to do it.  After all, she's the only person she-knows in town who can fly.  
North of the city of Lansing, the raven slows above a town, and circles down to the ground.  Jonathon needs a beer.  The raven folds its wings and sinks back into him.  
Only one person sees this: the girl who followed him.  She watches as Jonathon goes into the bar.  He almost looks like... no, it couldn't be.  Not him.  Not here! But she has to check.  
She sees the man from behind as he sits at the bar.  She can't tell what his hair looks like, for he has a hat on.  His chin is shaved, but it looks a lot like... 
Jonathon Gaunt feels a hand land softly on his arm.  "Stephen?' 
'No, you have the wrong guy...' But she looks familiar.  She's wearing a mask.  'You're Morningstar, aren't you?" 
“Yes.  I'm sorry I bothered you.  I thought •.• •· The girl sobs once.  

In a booth Laura Greene tells her story as she sips a soda.  She's looking for... a friend of hers.  
“Can't Ellipsis help you look?" Jon says.  He knows about the Balance.  
"No, he can't... it's him we're looking for!" The story unfolds.  The Balance last saw Ellipsis in New York City, the night of the terrorist attack.  Jonathon read all the newspaper stories about how they crushed the terrorists together.  But the papers didn't say everything.  
Ellipsis may have gone mad! He's somewhere in hiding now.  And the Balance has to be ready to fight him when he turns up again.:.  Laura shudders.  
Jon puts his arm around her.  "It'll be all right.  You're the Balance!” He's always wished he could be part of something like them.  If only he hadn't been before their time at MSU...
"But he's so powerful ! He can't just beat us up like all the villains do - he can attack our minds!" 
Nobody could ever change my mind! Jonathon ponders...

The next day, Jonathon Gaunt calls the people back East.  Marie answers.  
Jon says "I'd like to take a leave of absence.' 
"You can't run away from what happened.  Jon.  The State Police are already asking questions...' 
"I'll come back.  But I may need to stay out here a while.  It's something I have to do." 
Adventure: Lightning in the Pit 
The alien allies of Ellipsis in their fight against Urr return him and Molly Flanagan (“Shamrock") to Earth.  Stephen Wolcott, choosing his Ellipsis outfit, is teleported back to Manhattan, to the exact alley from which the aliens originally took him.  It is (of course) deserted.  
Stephen has to search for Julie his love whom he believes was wounded before he was taken from the Earth.  Is she dead? Is she hospitalized? Was she even wounded? His memories are quite hazy.  Thus, the logical place to begin his search is at their apartment.  Something tells him to be cautious as he searches, though.  He flies there, landing on a building top nearby, and mentally scans for her.  
Julie is not present, but Ellipsis notices...  A man is standing outside the building, with the duty of accosting Stephen Wolcott upon his return.  Ellipsis inconspicuously examines the man's mind for all relevant information.  Julie was indeed wounded; the government is holding her!  The man works for the government Department of Internal Security (DIS), which is the same as which holds Julie.  He was given his assignment in a certain office in New York City.  Ellipsis flies there within minutes and scans the building.  It registers null to him.  He changes to civilian form.• 
He inquires with the building secretaries reinforcing his questions with his mental powers, and gets nowhere.  His mental powers are neutralized.  This leaves him two immediate options: either wait for people to leave the building where he might gain information from them, or search for Julie on his own.  He begins the search on his own.
His mind guests out through New York City as it did once before.  That previous time, it drew the notice of all within the city as Ellipsis searched for vengeance against those who wounded his love.  This time, however, Ellipsis makes his probe unnoticed.  Subtly he probes each mind he finds within the city.  No mind he finds has information for him.  However, he notices a new null area in uptown Manhattan.  He flies there.  
Once near the area, he scans again.  One building is null.  He has now run into the null effect several times; each time it was used against him by an enemy.  That is enough! He flies above the building, to attack it only.  From his energized field an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) blankets the building.  The lights within go off.
Ellipsis can suddenly sense Julie within the building.  She has been drugged! He causes his field to absorb all light (rendering his body totally black), and enters the building.  He shifts his energy field to convert infrared radiation to normal light; thus, he moves through the building without visible light.  He easily causes the few who notice his movement in the darkness to ignore him.  
Soon he finds Julie.  She is strapped to a couch in a room where two people (easily subdued) were trying to restore the power.  He easily slices her off the couch, and examines her.  She will revive.  But his job is not yet finished.  
Julie was taken from the hospital to one of their local “safe houses"; so her mind tells him as he checks it.  They called it protective custody; it was really house arrest.  They interrogated her to try to find Ellipsis.  She told them he was Stephen Wolcott.  But she could not tell them where he was.  
First he mentally subdues all within the building.  One of them - the local coordinator - is the one who was given orders to interrogate Julie Moretti.  Ellipsis erases those orders, and causes him to draft letters ordering her freedom.  Then he mentally interrogates the coordinator.  His orders were given from Columbus, Ohio (of all places).  That is enough to know - now.  
Then Ellipsis logs into the building security computer system and, through it, into the nationwide DIS system.  He gets such passwords as are necessary from the building security officers, still solidly under his control.  From every database he accesses, he erases the knowledge of Julie Moretti, Ellipsis, and Stephen Wolcott.  That is enough – for now.  He knows that there are some records he could not access - but they will have to wait.  Ellipsis takes Julie Moretti in his arms and flies home.  
Two and a half hours later, Julie comes out of her drug-induced trance.  Stephen waits beside her.  As she looks up surprised, he chooses her vernacular tongue to whisper: "Hi, honey, I'm home.”· 
One and a half hours after that, Ellipsis streaks toward the west.  He cannot stand to leave Julie now, but his logic says he must.  His chances of remaining a free man are incredibly slim as it is.  He knows he can escape individual men, but never an entire bureaucracy.  He's never felt more trapped.  
But if he is to be trapped in their pit, he will at least ravage the walls.  Preferably, he will do much better than that.  
In Columbus, the Department of Internal Security Coordinator (DISCO) is pissed off: he had to take his daughter to the dentist tonight! What the hell is happening this time? He finds out quickly: Ellipsis is on the move.  He's raided them in New York City before they could react.  It's time for help.  
Ellipsis, invisible to radar.  approaches Columbus and splashes into the Scioto River near the center of town.  He emerges downstream under the 1-70 bridge, not the least bit wet.  Ellipsis then takes a mental scan.  One area downtown is null to him; he moves directly toward that area.  At its epicenter is one of the top floors of one building.  Ellipsis walks in, and takes the elevator to the floor with a government office on it.  He floats an inch above the ground, fully for combat, into the DIS office... even though he doubts they have weapons that can harm him.  
Morningstar and the Mighty Tim are there, talking with another man.  They turn around in surprise.  
So they do have something that can harm me, Ellipsis thinks.  
Ellipsis speaks: 'So there is a conspiracy.  I thought I'd dreamed that part..."
'We're here to help you, Stephen," says the Mighty Tim.  
"But we can't let you hurt anyone," Morningstar adds, clutching her stone tightly.  
Ellipsis remembers the Balance - somewhat.  Those two were his teammates once.  But he left them; why? 
"Very well...  If you truly wish to help, let us step outdoors and talk,' he says.  
'You can talk here,'· orders the government man.  Mighty Tim and Morningstar remain beside him.  
Ellipsis responds: "No." He drops through the floor".
Morningstar:  'Now what do we do?' 
"Don't go after him!" Mighty Tim's mind races.  "Can you couer the floor with a force field?" 
The DIS-coordinator: ·'Will that hold him?' 
Morningstar: 'It should.  He can't stop telekinesis - I don't think.  But..."
'I think it's time to get help,' Mighty Tim says grimly.  
"Please... hurry,"· Morningstar"says-as her teammate leaves her.  
Ellipsis, five floors down, can't tell what's going on behind their defensive psi-screens; but, apparently, they're not coming after him.  That has the makings of a stalemate.  The best thing to do is to break the stalemate now.  He heads outside.
Morningstar is fast approaching absolute terror.  She never expected to face the rampage of Ellipsis alone! If her field can't stop Ellipsis... 
She screams as the wall collapses!  Morningstar swivels to face the hole in the wall.  
Ellipsis bursts through the walls behind her, on the other side of the building! Before she can react, he's rammed her, and carried her through the hole she was facing.  
Ellipsis, now beyond the psi-devices' power, can now feel Morningstar's terror.  She's been preparing to fight him for weeks! - and dreading the prospect more and more with every thought she makes.  When she finally reacts, she could burst his inside organs without thinking! - if she doesn't go into mental seizure first! 
As he plummets to ground level With her, he bombards her mind with four words, over and over - "I MEAN NO HARM!" 
They land in an alley, behind a trash bin.  Ellipsis sits Morningstar down; she gazes up dumbly, not knowing what comes next - and almost beyond caring.  Quick mental exam tells him the rest of the Balance is returning, and will be guided to her by her radio beacon.  With his exterior emmisions he jams its signal.  
He sits down opposite her.  "Forgive me... but you will know me, before this is lethal!"· He pours his recent memories into her.  
Julie Moretti - now his fiancee! - shot in New York City, as he watched.  Her trip to hospital.  His wrath against the terrorists who'd shot her - but suddenly he was out in space!  Alongside strange allies, fighting an ultimately powerful extraterrestrial.  They almost died entirely - but they won!  His body and mind were rebuilt on that brink - soundly, and with more power than ever!  But now, Julie captured and drugged.  Wrath again, too much wrath...
As Morningstar regains the light in her eyes, Stephen Wolcott stands up and takes off his Ellipsis mask.  
"I am returned, I am sane, and ready to live again.  And they will not let me!" 
'Oh, Stephen - I was so afraid!' Laura Greene, behind the Morningstar mask,  breaks into tears.  At last, her personal nightmare - an all-out attack by the power of Ellipsis - is over.  Stephen turns his field off (knowing it will stop jamming her radio) , and takes her into her arms.  
A wall of flame rolls down the alley at them! As Stephen reactivates his field and covers Laura with his body, it washes past and dissipates.  
And so the rest of the Balance arrives: Mighty Tim appears, with FOAD, on a buildingtop overlooking them.  How did they find him?
Mighty Tim says nothing; after all, Ellipsis can read his thoughts.  "Let her go, Stephen."· Mighty Tim also wastes no timej a burst of flame immediately goes off in Ellipsis's eyes.  	- 
While Ellipsis is temporarily blinded, FOAD strikes to incapacitate.  FOAD is probably the one quickest human being in the world, and probably the deadliest.  And Ellipsis, despite all his powers, has always been susceptible to a good slug in the face.  FOAD strikes home.
And does absolutely no damage.  Ellipsis has changed during his absence.  
Ellipsis can read the Mighty Tim's thoughts; he knows that Mighty Tim has planned it that way.  Ellipsis can tell what they want: step away from Morningstar, and prepare for final reckoning.  He considers: he could escape them easily, but then never finish his business this night.  Perhaps he should give in...
'No.  No retreat.  Not tonight.· 
Ellipsis begins his counterstrike with mental power.  The Mighty Tim, despite all his determination, despite all his familiarity with the mind of Ellipsis, is cut down within one second.  FOAD will take more effort; it will be easiest just to blast him with energy.  
The Raven Gaunt is circling above them.  He's already been helpful to the Balance tonight, despite their doubts.  The Raven sees all; it was he who tracked Ellipsis through Columbus.  He thought maybe the Balance really could take Ellipsis on their own.  But they seem to need help now.
Before Ellipsis can react, a black shape swoops out of the sky.  Its wings, grown impossibly large, smash him into the ground.  Windows in the alley break just from the sound of the impact.  
Morningstar finally comes out of her daze, and gasps.  The nightmare is starting all over again! She has to stop it! 
FOAD, saved from the Raven's strike by his intuition, has dived out of the way and is ready to resume the attack.  But now he and the raven thing are invisibly shoved out of the alley! 
Ellipsis lies 20 feet below the ground now, considering his options.  The Balance apparently has enough physical power to defeat him now!  He s no idea whence it came.  Fortunately, they cannot attack him down here... 
Suddenly he is held above the ground in an invisible vise grip - strong enough to break his ribs! 
Had his body not been rebuilt by the aliens, that is.  Ellipsis masters the pain and turns his gaze upon Morningstar.  She says, ·”This has to stop! You're the only one who can stop it!”  The rest of the Balance regroups behind her.  
Ellipsis responds: “will not.  I cannot.  Not until  I have made my bargain with those hive-minded bureaucrats.”  
"...Bargain?" 
By the time the night is over Ellipsis has his bargain - signed on paper, by the DIS coordinator and by Stephen Wolcott, and witnessed by the members of the Balance.  (It seems his secret identity is common knowledge by now.  This time it's beyond his power to fight; the story of his last escapade in New York City was distributed nationwide.  His identity was not revealed in the story, but any with sufficient wit could determine it.) 
At least his bargain frees Julie from further scrutiny.  And the bargain will give him his freedom (eventually), when he-has the proof that he is of sound mind.  This is the proof he needs.  And should the government renege, he shall certainly make them reconsider.  When that happens, he can continue with Julie where he apparently left off! 
He faces the DIS coordinator across the man's desk.  "Very well, you now have me in prison like you wanted." 
"You know it's not that,' responds the government man.  'Otherwise, I'm sure you never would have consented." 
“Am full aware the agreement says 'open-ended observation period' instead of 'prison'.  Merely wonder what the difference is." 
“Haven't you ever had to visit the doctor, young man? That's what this is: something you have to do to live with yourself.' 
"No: something I have to do to live you." 
Stephen Wolcott turns to the Balance.  "And you now work with the government.  Next time, it may be you they come for.”
·Stephen...” says the Mighty Tim, "society has to be careful with people like us.  I guess I haven't understood that up till now.  But it's something you'll have to understand too.”
FOAD joins in: "But they're going to be fair about this.  Or else we're gonna shut 'em down." 
'Would love to help you do that.  Unfortunately, I'll be held prisoner at-the time.' Ellipsis turns to leave the room.  
'Stephen, wait...”  Ellipsis turns as Morningstar addresses him.  "I'm sorry it came to this.  I know you're bitter now, but one day it'll be over.  When you're out of there, please... look us up.· 
"It is unlikely .•• but I cannot rule that out.  Very well.'
Prologue 1: The Balance returns to Lansing, and disperses.  But when they next meet, Mike Roberts (the mighty Tim) can't help but express his misgivings.  Was that fight they had with Ellipsis really unavoidable?  What if the government concludes he has to be locked up forever?  What if they think all super-powered beings have to?  And what if Ellipsis holds a grudge? 
Together they conclude: They did the they could.  Luckily, in  Ellipsis didn't want a fight any more than they did, He and they together stopped a disaster.  Anything beyond that, they'll just have to cope with. 
They all acknowledge the Raven Gaunt's part in the fight. the Mighty Tim asks if he'd like to stay.  Jonathon Gaunt is thoroughly fed up with life in the real world.  Maybe he should have stayed in school.  Maybe he should go back to school now.  Why not? 
Prologue 2: Stephen returns to New York, He finds Julie astir within the Jersey City motel room where she is hidden, and tells her of his compromise.  She is outraged.  
·What the hell gives them the right? And what made you give into them?" 
'My body is reborn - and restructured, I believe my madIS gone.  But they claim to be able to measure it, and prove my claim beyond dispute.  I want that proof.  Once I have it - I will return to you." 
“You can't know they'll let you go!”
"They will ... or I shall topple their bureaucracy.  Believe it ." 
Nonetheless, Julie intends to move to free him.  Stephen heartily approves before he departs.