[ TEAM ONE ] - Dai Thomas, Colossus, Vanguard - St Petersburg - Crimson Dynamo Production Facility

[ TEAM TWO ] - Psylocke, Tek, Black Widow - Nimsk - Abandoned nuclear bunker

[ TEAM THREE ] - Peter Wisdom, Crazy Ivan, Morning Star - Moscow - Guardian Project Compound

High above them in the Crimson Dynamo Production Facility, chaos has broken out as the renegade Super Soldier, Vanguard and his cronies try to secure Colossus and find their former ally, the Shadow agent known as Emil. The time manipulating mutant is under their noses, far below them in a service duct with Commander Dai Thomas, a man who the Russians think is dead. He is not dead. He is very much alive and VERY angry!

" Keep watch Emil. It's about time we let these bastards know we mean business." Dai unzips the sleeve on his heavy weatherproof jacket to reveal a communicator. "I hope this still works after the battering I just got!" He presses a button and raises it to his mouth. " Shadow Clearance Alpha One. Passname Welsh Bastard. Status Check."

He waits for a few seconds and then a familiar voice comes through the communicator. " Commander Thomas, is that you sir?"

" It is indeed boy. I assume you and the rest of the base staff have gone underground?"

" Yes sir, as per regulations. We're on stand-by though."

" OK. I'm going to hand you over to Agent Andrevitch and he is going to give you some information. Have you still got the telepaths with you?"

" Of course sir."

" Excellent. It's about time Lomax's lot earned their keep. I need you to get the information out of the country and to Commander Harkness as fast as you can, OK?"

" Consider it done sir."

Dai turns and hands the communicator to Emil. " Here you are. Tell him everything. It's about time we blew this thing open!"

Psylocke feels the embrace of the shadows wrap around her body as she passes from the real world into the realm of The Dark. It has taken her a long time to come to terms with her new powers but now she likes them. She likes The Dark and the effect is has on her. The environment is strangely calming, almost serene. When she is here it takes her mind off the problems she is having in the real world. The sudden return of her memories remains a jarring alteration to the semi-stable reality she had created.

Gah! What is she doing, reflecting like that when she has a job to do. She reaches out with her mind and tries to become one with The Dark, seeking out the foreign objects in her midst.

Back at the nuclear bunker, Red Ghost screams with indignation as she disappears. " <Where has she gone! What has she done!>"

"<I thought that would have been plainly obvious, Comrade Ghost. She has began our escape! Did you really think these shackles could hold me?>" Black Widow twists her hands and feet and they slip from the fastenings. Beside her Tek closes her eyes and the manacles pop open at her command.

" <Get Them!!>" screams The Red Ghost. His entourage of simians, supersoldiers and soldier pour past him towards the two women.

[ TEAM THREE ] - Peter Wisdom, Morningstar and Crazy Ivan

The streets of Moscow erupt in a fury of white hot flames and Peter Wisdom tries to save his skin. How many more of these little buggers were they going to throw at them before they got the message - no matter how well trained your super soldiers were, if they were only capable of hand-to-hand combat and two of their prey have ranged attacks, they can't hit them!

Morningstar hovers with her back to him, blasting away as hard as she can. How could these icons of the Soviet Union be so addled by this new regime? What were they thinking they could achieve?

As if in answer to both of their queries, a few of the Guardians break through the firestorm that Wisdom is laying down and make a break for the British hero. His comrade-in-arms, Crazy Ivan moves to intercept them, laughing as he flexes his muscles, but too late, Wisdom sees the ruse that he has been drawn into. Through the smoke of the explosions, a tank trundles forwards and BOOM!

A shell erupts from it's barrel and impacts a few feet away from the insane Russian mercenary. He didn't stand a chance.

" Christ!" Wisdom turns to Morningstar and grabs her hands. " If you can fly with me, get us out of her , now!"

Dai and Emil sneak down a gleaming metal corridor, hoping against hope that they can get to their objective in time. Dai knew he had a very difficult decision to make. Emil had revealed that the Red Ghost was using this facility to mass manufacture Crimson Dynamo armour, for use against western forces in his battle to secure the rest of the former Soviet State. Dai knew all about the firepower within the CD armour. It would be like battling an army of Iron Men - a battle that the west was bound to lose. Even against the improved Shockforce equipment that Myers had, the Dynamos would win by sheer force of numbers

Emil had also revealed that this base was the source of the blocking field that was disrupting all of the communications in and out of Russia. Dai knows that he has to destroy that field and the Crimson Dynamos if they are going to stand a chance against the Red Ghost, but he also knows that inside each of those suits there is an innocent soldier, probably brainwashed, who might well die if he destroys them in the way he is thinking of - and somewhere in this base is their ally, Colossus. Could he survive?

" There, around the corner. That is where we must go." Emil stops and whispers to Dai.

" The reactor room?"

" Da..."

Dai draws his trusty STRIKE issue blaster pistol and leaps around the corner, peppering the two guards with stunning shots. Despite the deafening claxon of the alert siren, they never expected a direct assault like this and fall to the ground before they can react. Dai beckons Emil forwards and the Russian hero taps in his access code to the reactor room. The doors swoosh open to reveal a small control room over a nuclear reactor, Dai looks at Emil and he nods. They both know what they have to do.

High above them, Colossus has reverted to his human form and his semi-conscious body is being slammed into a wall by his captor, the manic Vanguard. " <Where has Andrevitch gone? Why haven't we found Thomas' body?>" Vanguard growls and hurls Colossus' body to the ground. Suddenly a mechanical voice resonates around the base.

"<What! Stop it now!"> A fist grasps around the ankle of Vanguard and glitters as it turns into organic metal.

" Time to pay for your sins Vanguard." Colossus twists his hand and hurls Vanguard to the ground.

Psylocke spins her way through the ebon sterility of The Dark. She can feel her mind expanding far beyond it's normal range as the strange properties of this sub-dimension extend her powers. It's almost hypnotic. So seductive.

Metal

Huge great canisters of metal and death.

She has them, before her, the entire contents of a Russian nuclear base's payload. Enough material to decimate most of the planet, and she had it at her disposal. Something deep within Psylocke's mind shivered as she felt the power surge through her. All of the hatred and resentment she had stored inside her welled up. All the humans screaming 'mutie' at her and her friends, all of the pain she has been put through, all of the lies and the deceit. It would be so easy. Open up The Dark. Drop a bomb. End it all....

Damn it! No! That was the darkness talking, moving in on her mind and subverting her thoughts. She shakes her head and reaches out with her hand, creating a shimmering sword. She jumps forwards and severs the long, black threads that tie the warheads down to The Dark. Slowly, they twist and turn and then tumble away through the inky blackness. The Red Ghost may think he has them, but when he comes to get them, he'll find nothing.

Meanwhile, back at the installation Black Widow begins to see the sheer size of the task ahead of her. The Soviet Super Soldiers - Ursa Major, Darkstar and Airstrike - would have been bad enough, but with the Red Ghost and his apes added and the subtle interference of Blind Faith in the background, it may well prove impossible. She can see her targets - Blind Faith first and then Darkstar. She can avoid the others until she needs to deal with them.

Tek, on the other hand, had one singular objective. She takes a deep breath and sprints across the room towards the central computer terminal. Airstrike peels off and fires a couple of heat-seeking missiles at her. She sighs and raises her hand, dropping the missiles in mid-air. " Jesus! Don't you ever learn?! Me TECH EMPATH. You MAN IN SUIT?? Savvy."

Airstrike falls flat on his face. In the corner, Blind Faith smiles. Tek reaches the computer and slams her hand down onto the screen. " Download in 5..4..3..2..1..download.' Her mind is filled with the coded engrams of a very familiar creation.

The screen flickers and goes blank only to be replaced by a holographic representation of a man

Tek tries terribly hard not to look smug. Van Gogh is the Eurostar's own artificial intelligence program, one that she can carry in her mind. Van Gogh is also one sneak SOB and he can settle a system down faster than a fast thing from fast land. The smug grin is wiped off her face as a hairy fist smashes into her chin. Bloody apes!

Black Widow leaps high into the air and spins, leveling her hands over Ursa Major's shoulder as she leaps off him and shots at Blind Faith. The Widow's Bite hits the grey haired man hard, stunning him into the wall. Ursa Major growls and catches her ankle, smashing her into the ground. She had forgotten how quick he can be. Ursa Major sneers and wraps her in his gigantic arms. Things were not going right!

In the future, when he thought things were really bad, he would look back on this time and remember it, realising that things can and have been a whole lot worse! He is being pulled through the air above Moscow in a blizzard by a woman who could well be described as a borderline psychotic, whilst being fired at from below by trainee super soldiers who have been brainwashed by one of the most inane villains every to waste a heroes time. About as low as you can go!

" We need to land somewhere!"

" Tell me about it! Must all westerners be so heavy!"

"~~ Agent Wisdom. Land on the building with the broken skylight, 2 o'clock on your current course ~~"

Who the Hell was that?

" ~~ Psi Division Agent Meredith sir. Moscow staff. ~~"

Well knock me sideways with a feather! The support services have finally got their arses into gear! " You know we'll have a lot of heat coming in after us? Can you handle that?"

" ~~ Yes sir. We have the hardware.~~"

" God Bless. Hey, blondie! Take us down there!"

" What?"

" Just land!! The cavalry have arrived.!"

The pair descend swiftly onto the rooftop and through the broken skylight. Inside, they fly into a large open area, filled with dusty boxes and musty smells. In the centre of the room stand the five STRIKE agents that make up the Moscow office contingent. All of them are wearing the standard blue/black STRIKE active uniform and are bristling with weapons.

" Good to see you ladies and gentlemen. How many hostiles do we have outside the building?"

" Roughly four dozen."

Wisdom grins madly. " Excellent. Do we have the... you know?"

" We didn't bring it with us, but we have got the remote."

" Great. Everyone take a defensive position. Morningstar? You can fight if you want to, otherwise stay out of the way. Agent Meredith. Lets call up our friend and give these Russians the fright of their lives!"

The stern face of Commander Harkness is centered on the massive conference screen that dominates the Ops Room. He takes a deep breath and begins.

" Psi Division operatives within the Russian borders have transmitted us this information, relayed to them by Commander Thomas and Agent Andrevitch. Russia has been sequestered by the villain known as the Red Ghost. He has brainwashed the entire cadre of Red Guardians and a large part of the Russian military. He has control of the Soviet Supersoldiers, he has an army of Crimson Dynamo armour and he has the ability to teleport nuclear devices to anywhere on Earth. Shadows agents are engaging him as we speak, but we cannot be sure whether they are successful or not."

Solemnly, the President of the United States enters the conversation. " We need to stop this threat as soon as possible. I have troops and the Avengers on red alert. They can go whenever you want. Colonel Jacobs? "

" With all due respect, Mr President. I think a direct invasion of Russian soil by US troops could have longer lasting effects than anything this Ghost character could cook up."

" I agree sir. We should give the Shadows more time." Commander Reston fiddles with his pencil. He will never get used to talking to world leaders like this.

" I'm afraid the ante has been upped gentlemen.. I can't sit by and let this madman drop nuclear weapons into our cities. he has the world held to ransom. You have one more hour and then I will request that the Avengers take over this situation."

Arsehole, thought Reston.

The massive metal hand of the former X-Man, Colossus hammers into the skull of Vanguard, breaking his nose and knocking him further back across the room, tumbling over a table and falling to the floor. The renegade Russian mutant raises his hand and drags Colossus across the room towards him, rolling and flinging him slingshot fashion into a stand of vacant Crimson Dynamo armour.

A group of soldiers open fire on him, their bullets ricocheting off his invulnerable epidermis. Behind them three Crimson Dynamos have come on-line and are powering up their devastating weapons. Colossus reacts quicker and grabs one of the empty suits, hurling it over the soldiers head and smashing it into the powered armour.

Vanguard blasts him again, smashing him into the wall and then maintains his repulsion power on the throat and head of Colossus, choking the life out of him. Colossus knows Vanguard. He is a good man. This is the Red Ghosts doing. Vanguard struts towards him, hand still outstretched.

" I'm going to wring the life out of you, traitor!"

Colossus prays he has the reach and lashes out with his feet. His right foot catches Vanguard between the legs, doubling him up in agony. Gasping for air, Colossus grabs Vanguard by his wrists and with grim determination snaps them. Vanguard hollers in agony and passes out. Colossus hoists him over his shoulder and then grabs one of the cowering soldiers.

" Take me to the reactor room. NOW!"

Meanwhile in the reactor room, Dai and Emil ponder their fate." Did you ever think it would end like this? Sitting in a Russian tunnel complex, waiting for the world to meltdown around our ears?"

" I can't say I did. When I defected to the west I had some archaic notion of retiring to one of your seaside resorts with a homely woman and playing with my grandchildren. "

" Still, worse things have happened at sea, yeah?"

" That is a curious phrase. This is a nuclear plant about to meltdown and destroy a huge chunk of the Russian countryside, probably decimating most of St Petersburg and killing hundreds of people, including ourselves. No. Worse things have not happened at sea."

Dai cocks an eyebrow. " Oh Shit! I forgot about St Petersburg! Aw bollocks! Reston wouldn't mind if this was in Siberia but I can't just go around blowing up European history. Guess we had better shut this thing down then?"

" I think we had better. Go on then."

" What do you mean, 'go on then.' - it's your reactor."

" Commander Thomas? Are you telling me that you can't stop the meltdown?"

" No, can you?"

" No."

" Bugger!"

" Bugger indeed, Commander Thomas.."

" We have heard nothing. We can only assume that the mission has failed. Gentlemen, we need to send in more...professional agents to finish this off." The President of the United States looks at each of the members of the video-conference call.

None of the UK members seem to impressed by his assessment of their team

Suddenly Lomax, the head of Psi-Division jerks up in his seat, his eyes clouding over black. " It's Betsy. She's contacting me from somewhere...dark. She says that everything is under control. All targets have been engaged."

Harkness and Reston look smugly at the President.

Colossus smashes through the doors of the reactor room and throws the limp body of Vanguard to the ground. " What the Hell have you done?!"

" Hush!" Dai chides Colossus and turns back to his task. He is frantically flicking through a pile of instruction manuals trying to work out how to save his life. Beside him Emil is standing absolutely still, sweat running down his forehead.

" What's he doing?"
" He's using his power to keep the rods suspended in time. If he can hold them there it might buy us some time."

Colossus' face erupts in a grin. " Tell him to stop. Tell him to do the exact opposite. Comrade Andrevitch, do not focus on the mechanism of the reactor, focus on the rods themselves. Speed up their time. As fast as you can."

" You genius! Yes Emil, age those rods. If you can get them passed the time when they are radioactive, the reactor core won't meltdown... I think.."

Emil nodded and focused his power in on the reactor. He was used to slowing down the flow of time, he rarely had to speed it up. He bit his lip as he concentrated, blood dripping onto his chin.

Slowly the reactor continued it's inevitable meeting with disaster, Colossus and Dai glanced nervously at each other.

Emil felt his knees beginning to buckle and grabbed a nearby desk to steady himself. He has to continue on has to, no matter how much it hurts. A tear of blood trickles down from the corner of his eye and blood begins to seep from his ears

His head is filled with blinding light and he feels his body slump to the ground. His mind just stops and everything fades to black.

" Wake up Emil. Wake up." He could hear a woman's voice. A gentle British woman's voice.

" Betsy."

" Yes. You did it Emil. Dai has told me all about it."

" Where are we?" Around him Emil could see nothing but darkness.

" We are in The Dark, Emil. We need to help the others. Dai and Colossus are here to. Rest now friend, you're safe."

[ TEAM THREE ] - Peter Wisdom and Morningstar

Everyone had questioned the feasibility of the Total Shock project. How could you smuggle a set of Shockforce armour into a foreign country without them knowing? Quite simply really. You either brought it in piece by piece, which was a pain and inevitably meant that some gizmo was missed in transit and everything went wrong. The other way was , of course, to build your design around the old mechanic that made the Credit Card Soldiers possible! A couple of folded Shockforce suits had been dropped from good old British Airways flights, activated below the radar level and picked up by the team. Shockforce armour, on tap, whenever they need it.

Meredith presses a blue stud on the handset he is holding, and looks down at the small screen. 5..4..3..2..1..the roof of the building is shattered as a remote suit of Shockforce armour crashes down. At that moment, the Guardians burst up the stairs and pour into the open room.

" Ok troops, lets hit them hard!" Wisdom opens up with his hot knives, the armour with it's stunners, Morningstar with her blasts and the four other STRIKE agents with their weapons. They aren't going to go down without a fight!"

Minute pass and still the Guardians keep coming, reinforced by Russian troops.

" How many of these little bastards have they produced?" Wisdom is losing his patience now, as well as his power beginning to take a terrible strain on his system. To be truly honest he wasn't too sure about the structural integrity of the building either.

Suddenly, a pitch black hole appears behind him and Psylocke steps out. " You are needed elsewhere."

" Betsy, you may not have noticed, but we're busy!"

" Come with me, all of you!" Hearing Psylocke's command, the STRIKE agents begin to retreat through the portal.

" I'll hold them off." Morningstar waves at Wisdom.

" You'll die!"

" For the Soviet Union, Comrade Wisdom, my life is nothing."

Wisdom nods and turns to jump through the portal. Before he does he turns and looks back. Morningstar is still there, but in the corner of his eye he sees another figure slipping away. Sneaky bitch! Why didn't he know she could create holograms!

Ursa Major hugs Black Widow in a deadly bear hug. She can feel his animal breath inches from her face. She can see his razor sharp teeth. She flexes her pinned wrists and blasts the bear-man's feet, releasing her and send him reeling to the ground. She spins and blasts him again, repeatedly in the face. Not the nicest thing to do to someone you have more than a civil working relationship with, but the Red Ghost had these Super Soldiers so brainwashed she doubted they could remember who they knew at the moment.

Natasha jerks forwards and then backwards as her body is caught in the vice-like-grip of a darkforce hand. She feels the pressure on her ribs again. but this time the darkness was insinuating itself throughout her body. Into her ears, down her throat. She can feel the life draining out of her and everything went black.

Tek takes her time and grabs a handful of debris. Her mind spins and twists the metal until she raises an impromptu crossbow and sends a stunning blow into the forehead of the manic Darkstar. The blond Russian heroine's head snaps back and she falls from the air. Tek raises the crossbow for a mocking 'smokeblow' only to feel a hand grasp around her throat as the Red Ghost emerges from the wall.

" I have you now girl. Now this lunacy ends!"

Shadows spin around the room, enveloping everything within it. The Red Ghost looks up from his fist and the struggling head of Tek and gasps as the room is filled with people. Dai Thomas, Colossus, a groggy Vanguard, Emil Andrevitch, Peter Wisdom, some Shockforce armour, five STRIKE agents and finally Psylocke.

" Ladies and Gentlemen, the cavalry has arrived!" Wisdom flashes his hands and white hot energy knives appear.

" You can never beat me. One word and I'll obliterate London!" In desperation he turns and screams, " Payload: London!"

Nothing happens

" Payload: London!"

" You're bombs aren't there, Red Ghost. I severed their tethers in The Dark. You'll never find them again. And your computer is.."

" Never! Never! I was so close!"

" For the love of God, will someone shut him up before he tells us he would have done it if it wasn't for those damned kids!" Dai waves wildly at the Red Ghost through the carnage wrought by Tek and Black Widow.

The Ghost slips backwards and dives onto the dark circle that marks his darkforce transporter. With a wicked laugh, he shimmers in darkness and then disappears.

" Betsy!" Dai looks at her wide eyed.

" Don't worry Dai. If he's lucky he'll go insane. I assure you, he's gone."

Dai looks around at the piles of debris and unconscious bodies. " I take it we won then?"

" So, Commander Thomas, can you update me on the final outcome of your mission?" For once Dai was dealing with a superior who actually saw these debriefing things as a way of gathering information as opposed to laying blame. Colonel Jacobs wasn't all that bad. Maybe he should put in for a secondment?

" All of the sites have been secured. We lost the Red Ghost but we have trashed enough of his infrastructure to make it almost impossible for him to do this again."

" Almost?"

" You know how these things work Sir. If you don't see the body etc. Sadly we also lost two of our team. Crazy Ivan and Morningstar."

" Both of them dead?"

" Ivan was sir. Morningstar is MIA. The Russian mutants are trying to piece together exactly how many of their number the Ghost captured before he felt he could enact his plan and they are helping with the clean-up operation. Agent Andrevitch has decided to stay here for a while and help out. Under the circumstances I agreed."

" That's an internal STRIKE matter, Commander Thomas. Good work Thomas. Reston should be proud of you."

" Oh I'm sure he'll have a unique outlook on the matter sir."

" No Thomas, I mean it. It takes a special team of people to do this sort of dirty work and come out of it smelling of roses. Everyone involved in your operation should be proud. You do what needs to be done."

Dai thought. Betsy. Abbot. Malachi. Rose. Wisdom. Sadie. Robyn. Emil - hell, even Byrne - The Shadows.

He was damned proud!

Next Issue - Cut straight to the Crusaders/Shadows Special and see what sort of chaos has been unfolding at home whilst the gang has been away. It's the Shadows final hurrah and it's a cracker!

And at last it all comes to an end. I made my apologies at the end of the last issue, so in this one I just want to say a big 'thank you' to all the people that have helped me out over the last few years. I could list them, but I think everyone who has had a hand in the formation of all the incarnations of the Crusaders knows who they are. I couldn't have done it without you all. Thanks.

And of course, as you all know by now this is not the end of the line as previously planned. The gang are back in my new maxi-series, Crusaders:Millennium - and there is a load of Shadows Style Action to keep you all happy.

God Bless the Queen ( and her fascist regime)

Neil