General Terranova had a problem.

An artifact of unknown origin, a small silver sphere, had been captured in the last battle with AIM. It was apparently indestructible, and composed of no substance known to man. If AIM began building combat robots out of this material, AIM would become unstoppable! It was imperative that the Orb be taken to Stellar Labs for analysis.

Hmmm... (looking through daily reports on new superhumans) What's this? High intelligence, places the welfare of others before his own, suspect multiple class 5 powers, PLACES THE WELFARE OF OTHERS BEFORE HIS OWN... Just what the doctor ordered!

Spectrum agreed to transport the Orb to Stellar labs. The Orb was suspended in an electromagnetic forcefield, inside an armored briefcase. An armored car and driver would transport Spectrum and the Orb to Stellar Labs. They would have an air escort, consisting of one stealth fighter.

Enroute, while driving past Big City Lake, they were ambushed!

The electrical systems in the armored car were disabled by an electromagnetic pulse, and it rolled to a stop. Thinking quickly, Spectrum made a hologram of the armored car rolling to a stop about 90' from its actual position.

A group of nine silver Orbs, orbiting a single, larger, red orb, appeared over the armored car hologram, and began emitting a pale blue glow. Terrorbyte burst from the roadway, causing two tanker trucks to collide head-on, while its minions burst from the ground, and moved toward the (hologram) armored car.

A dragon like armored vehicle drove out of the lake and began to spray the dozens of swimmers, and picnickers with a flamethrower, while an even stranger, new robot and a dozen minions appeared out of thin air, moving toward the armored car hologram! The new leader robot had an unusual sphere in it's chest that absorbed all light.

Shocker, who had been scuba diving nearby, began shooting lightning bolts at Terrorbyte. The stealth fighter was destroyed by four AIM air combat units as the Channel One news helicopter (BCTV) continued their live television broadcast of the lakeside turned battle ground.

A tremendous battle ensued!

Some of the high-points:

• Spectrum's hologram of the armored car caused all three groups to waste valuable time, allowing him to commandeer a passing sports-car, and send the Orb, and the armored car driver safely to Stellar Labs.
• The new leader robot eventually penetrated the hologram, teleporting to Spectrum's side just as he was handing the case containing the Orb to the armored car driver.
• The new leader robot fired a stasis field at Spectrum, missing, and striking one of Terrorbyte's Demons instead.
• Terrorbyte ran over to Spectrum, and attacked the case containing the Orb. One second later, the silver orbs began rotating around the red orb at great speed, and began emitting a red glow. Then, all nine of the silver orbs struck both Terrorbyte, and the new leader robot, hurling them back over 50'.
• Shocker continued to attack, and discovered that Terrorbyte, and his minions are very vulnerable to electrical attacks.
• Spectrum used his flash attack on the Dragon-bot,. The Dragon-bot did not move for the rest of the battle.
• The Demons fired on Spectrum, Shocker, the Orbs, the new leader robot, and its minions. The new leader robot's minions fired on the Demons. Then, the new leader robot, and its minions vanished!
• The Orbs began to move slowly in the direction of the sports-car containing the captured Orb.
• Between them, Spectrum and Shocker were able to defeat Terrorbyte and the remaining Demons.
• Knowing that Terrorbyte's power source explodes with the force of nuclear bomb upon his defeat, the heroes wisely placed it inside the stasis field around the only remaining Demon.

Less than 15 minutes later, Channel One broadcast a apology to it's viewers. Due to technical problems, Worlds Greatest Car Crashes was accidentally broadcast simultaneously with a video clip from the still in production robot film: Disintegrator III. Any viewer who taped today's broadcast should send it to Channel One.
Viewers who do so will receive a letter of apology, $20, and a new blank video tape.

Puzzles that remain:

1. How did the robots know where to ambush the armored car?
2. Who are these two new groups of robots, and where did they come from?
3. Why did the robots suddenly attack each other?
4. What's that thing in the new leader robot's chest?