Episode 10 Recap

The Welcoming Committee

The team drags themselves from the wreckage of Gumshoe’s flying Mercury, only to find themselves surrounded by five of Doctor Destroyer’s mechanical minions, the Destroids. After a hard fought battle, in which the team destroys or deactivates all of the Destroids, Cypher spends several hours repairing the Mercury.

The team then proceeds to Destroyer’s underground bunker beneath a cabin a few miles away. They confront Destroyer, wearing his original blue and black armor and the cracked helmet recovered from the wreckage of Destruga (and presumably stolen from the Homestead vault during the events of Episode 2).

Dawn of Destroyer

Destroyer gestures imperiously to a set of monitors behind him. He declares that he has set the first phase of his plan in motion—to destroy the spy satellites of the united states with submarine launched ballistic missiles. On his orders, the Outlaws and his Destroids have already destroyed the only supply of chips vital to the construction of the next generation of satellites. It will be sometime before the U.S. can hope to rebuild and launch new satellites into orbit. The viewscreens show the paths of the missiles and, moments later, the views from the nosecones as they slam into the satellites.

The team charges Destroyer, who uses his plasma blasts to brutal effect against Feral Cat—blasting him point blank in the face and costing him an eye; he is able to survive only because of his ability to regenerate. Overcome with rage, he throws himself at Destroyer. Gumshoe uses his spectral gun to pepper Destroyer with ectoplasmic bullets.

Dementia lashes out with her ego blasts, though Destroyer’s helmet provides him some protection against her attacks. She also acts as support in the battle by reviving Feral Cat and protecting Cypher in a force bubble while she accesses Destroyer’s computers for the location of the submarines—Cypher also discovers a single, massive submarine that launched its missiles from the Great Lakes.

Just when it seems that Destroyer may have fought them to a standstill, Sentry arrives to even the odds. The heroes launch a final, coordinated strike against Destroyer and are able to incapacitate him. The bases self-destruct function initiates and the team seizes Destroyer and flees the complex, a rolling ball of fire at their heels.

A fire rages among the rare blue pines and the Watch arrives with Victor Bashang, firefighters, and PRIMUS agents to secure Destroyer and put out the fire.

Destroyer’s Doppleganger

Bashang examines the unconscious Destroyer, noting that the horrid facial scarring does not extend to the rest of his body; he also observes that the armor is of the exact same design as that worn by Destroyer fifteen years ago. It is inconceivable, he observes, that Destroyer would not have made substantial modifications to his armor in that time. The heroes and Bashang also discover that the armor has essentially anchored itself into the flesh of its wearer, injecting a radioactive toxin into his system. This, the team concludes, is not Destroyer, but someone masquerading as Destroyer, a Destroyer Double.

Aftermath

The team, exhausted and battered, returns to Silverback’s lab in the early morning hours. They learn that Sentry is, in actuality, a double of Multitude, though it appears he is psychologically incapable of accepting this fact. Presto receives an urgent message from the Invincibles regarding the missile attack. The prestigious New York team has called the ten most prominent, independent (i.e., non-government affiliated) superteams in the nation to Invincibles Tower for a strategy meeting in the wake of the missile strikes. As the only remaining member of the Champions, Presto was sent the message.

The New Champions

Presto proposes that the heroes, now known for sometime as the Replacements, reorganize themselves under the Champions charter as the New Champions and that they attend the meeting in their place. The team agrees, and, as the acting chair, Presto inducts them.