As Miss America was investigating the theft of Sledge Hammer's tomb from Arlington National Cemetery, Colonel Tarnhelm delivered an urgent message to her from General Terranova.

Vice-president Gore would be traveling to Big City as part of his campaign to run for President in the next election. The security chief for this portion of the Vice-President's trip has suddenly become very ill. Gore, running on a "man of the people" platform, and eager to refute allegations by his opponent that he was afraid of the American people, wanted only minimal security for the tour. No Secret Service agents in the crowd, no sniper spotters on the rooftops, and only two policemen at each intersection. The security for the Vice-President's limo would consist of only two police cars and two motorcycle units. No secret service agents in the limousine, only a driver.

The replacement security chief received orders sending him to Antarctica. With no one else willing to oppose him, the Vice-President got his way.

General Terranova, feeling that the Vice-Presidents plan was, while courageous, only marginally better than "Lets remove the bubbletop...", contacted Miss America and asked her to accompany the VP. Miss America agreed, and a waiting Harrier jet quickly flew her to Big City.

Hundreds of cheering people lined the street. There was something in the air, and not just excitement: a huge cloud, thousands of feet overhead, was moving against the wind toward the limousine as it was passing the Big City Museaum (Yes, thatŐs spelled right, thereŐs a history behind it, but that's another story) of Natural History. It had been recently remodeled, the new star attraction being a life-sized animatronic stegosaurus mounted on a huge meteor fragment in the fountain outside. Miss America was walking alongside the limousine.

Suddenly, a large robot burst through the road in front of the slowly-moving limousine. Covered with spikes and blood-red metal, and possessing long monofilament talons, the robot looked truly terrifying! Terrorbyte spoke, "Surrender yourselves, pathetic organic lifeforms! Comply immediately, and you will receive a swift and painless death."

Immediately, several things happened at once:

1. Both police cars transformed into heavily armored tanks (called Shields).
2. Both police motorcycles transformed into heavily armed robots, called Tsunami. The occupants of the vehicles were killed by this transformation.
3. Four gargoyles on the roof of the museaum burst apart to reveal strange spider-like robots (Arachnoids) with n-ray laser pods mounted on their backs.
4. Four skeletal, spiked, and clawed robots (little versions of Terrorbyte, called Demons) burst from the sidewalk and attacked the crowd.
5. Unknown to the heroes, Catapults(they look like a cross between a small tank, and a steam calliope) on the roof of a parking garage half a mile away began launching airborne biological weapons at the crowd, covering the entire battlefield and severely wounding hundreds of people.
6. Ominously, the Stegosaurus began to move.
7. Miss America attacked Terrorbyte, damaging it but being wounded in return.
8. Interceptor donned his armor in back of Electron House, where he had been shopping.
9. Isaac, waiting outside Big City First National Bank, commanded the robots to cease hostilities and submit to having their damaged programming repaired.
10. Vector donned his costume in a changing room in 7070 (Double 70, a 1970's memorabilia store).
11. Talos transformed into his golem form.
12. The BCTV news helicopter continued their live television broadcast of the parade route turned battle ground.

A tremendous battle ensued!

Some of the high-points:

• Miss America was able to carry the vice-president to safety, and return to the battle.
• Interceptor picked off most of the Arachnoids, and was injured fighting Terrorbyte.
• Isaac began firing various heavy energy weapons at different robots to distract them from the crowd, and draw their attention toward him, and captured the Stegosaurus.
• Talos began throwing cement trashcans at the Demons, the tremendous impact crushing them instantly.
• Vector altered the trajectory of the robots weapons, so that they struck the robots themselves, instead of their intended targets. He also began deflecting the CatapultŐs biological weapons high into the ionosphere, where they exploded harmlessly, and the microorganisms were killed by the intense ultraviolet light.
• Dr. Enigma began destroying the Orbs that were sending targeting information to the Catapults.

Finally, only Terrorbyte, and the captured Stegosaurus were left. Triple-teamed by Miss America, Talos, and the injured Interceptor, Terrorbyte finally went down. The Stegosaurus was defeated moments later. Captured, both Terrorbyte and Stegosaurus began a self destruct sequence.

By covering Terrorbyte with their bodies, Miss America, Talos, and Interceptor were able to shield the crowd from the effects of the blast, but the larger and more unstable fission reactor inside Stegosaurus was another matter! When it reached critical mass it explode like an atomic bomb!

Issac communicated with Stegosaurus, and found out that 2 min. and 40 sec. remained until detonation. This was too little time to take Stegosaurus into space where he could explode safely. Using an experimental space-warping device from Interceptor's armor to magnify Dr. Enigma's power to travel anywhere in space/time, they were able to send the Stegosaurus to a dead, alternate Earth, where it could explode safely.

Some puzzles that remain:

1. Where did all of these damn robots come from?
2. What did Terrorbyte want with the Vice-President? Its claws can cut through Interceptor's armor and it seemed to have several opportunities to kill the Vice-president, but it didn't.

The heroes were assisting the police and fire departments with the wounded and cleaning up debris from the battle when Colonel Tarnhelm arrived. Attached to the belly of his specially-modified helicopter was an experimental prototype Parabolic Interception Nacelle or PIN.

Colonel Tarnhelm located Miss America , and informed her that moment the attack on the Vice-President began, A.I.M. also launched a simultaneous attack on a secret military base in the Mojave desert.

General Terranova ordered Miss America to escort the Vice-President to a safe location (already done), and to proceed via PIN to the base. He told the heroes that speed was imperative because the underground levels of the base were used for the disassembly and storage of recently-decommissioned nuclear warheads. Miss America quickly gathered the other heroes.

The heroes studied satellite photos of the base. Due to intense electronic warfare, none of the attacking robots could be seen in the photo, but they could see dozens of dead and wounded soldiers, as well as demolished buildings and burning tanks.

It was decided that ISAAC and Dr. Enigma would remain behind, both to assist the wounded, and to act as a deterrent, in case any active A.I.M. units remained in the area. The other heroes (Miss America, Interceptor, Vector, and Talos) boarded the PIN.

The helicopter released the PIN at an altitude of 2000 feet. The PIN's rocket engines fired, boosting it into space. For two minutes, the Earth rotated under the module's parabolic orbit. As the Mojave Desert came into view, the module then began its descent. Retro-rockets firing, the PIN landed in the center of the base and the heroes leapt into the fray.

Again. a lot happened all at once:

1. One small flat helicopter (an Air Warrior) fired over a dozen explosive/incendiary rockets at the heroes. A quick-thinking (and acting!) Interceptor protected the heroes and the PIN with his forcewall projector.
2. Four long-legged bipedal units (Striders) began firing stun rays.
3. Four Tsunami began firing missile missiles that burst on impact, and were filled with contracting liquid steel.
4. Five Demons began firing machine guns, while moving slowly toward the nuclear storage elevator.
5. Five small, silver spheres (Orbs) watched the battle from high in the air.
6. One massive bipedal unit (a Strong Arm) attempted to open the huge door to the nuclear storage elevator.
7. One Catapult began firing multi-warhead missiles filled with knockout gas..
8. One fifty foot tall, bipedal robot(an Excaliber) began targeting its particle cannons on the heroes.
9. Haywire began trying to over-ride the man/machine cybernetic interface in InterceptorŐs armor.

Once again, a tremendous battle ensued! (Like you didn't see this coming!)

Some of the high points:

• Miss America dealt a devastating blow to the Excaliber, perforating 14" of armor and destroying the fire control circuitry for one of its two particle cannon.
• Vector turned the robots' own attacks against them, destroying many.
• Talos destroyed many more robots, even crushing several at once with one of the damaged tanks. Talos also managed to capture one of the Orbs by throwing a tank at it.
• Through the use of his vast knowledge of cybernetics, Interceptor was able to block Haywire's attempts to control the cybernetic interface of his armor long enough to enable him to destroy Haywire.
• The heroes collectively rescued Olga and Anna Terranova from the base control tower.

Of course, more puzzles remain:

A.I.M. obviously has access to very advanced technology. Why did the Demons want to enter the Nuclear Storage Facility? The heroes surmised that A.I.M. could probably build a nuclear device if they wanted one.

Everyone in the control tower was killed except Olga and Anna Terranova. They said that they escaped harm by hiding in a broom closet. The Demons' thermal imagers can easily see through a wooden door.

The captured Orb is currently inert. All of the other A.I.M. robots utilize very advanced human technology. This small sphere, obviously produced by no earthly technology, remains an enigma.