New Warriors #23

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New Warriors #23 (Volume 1)

The page opens with the guards who happen to be wearing armor exactly like Night Thrasher’s attack the Folding Circle. With one extremely powerful blast, Left Hand eliminates the guards. When asked if he has been holding back, he informs them that being closer to the temple seems to be invigorating him. When Midnight Fire notes that Left Hand hasn’t answered the question about the relation between their armor and Night Thrasher’s, Left Hand says, “Ask not why they look like Night Thrasher’s armor, but perhaps why does Night Thrasher’s armor look like theirs?”

Thrasher manages to figure out that it is because, as Left Hand had said, that Chord was here a long time ago, and modeled Thrasher’s armor after the guards. When they step into the temple they are greeted by an all too familiar figure.

Tai.

She goes on to say, “You have been very busy Diego Casseas, usurping your son’s power-right for yourself. Gathering the Children of the Pact before I was ready. What foolish desires have driven you to defy me? A lust for power perhaps? Or a lust for Death?”

Back in the United States, the courthouse for Vance. Mr. Rosen of Genetech is called to the stand, where after being questioned, he points out that Vance has shown great control over his powers. He has surpassed what Genetech thought he was capable of, not only showing advancement over his powers but a control over them that they had not thought he could achieve.

Back over Cambodian airspace, the Warriors find themselves being tailed. Just before landing, they agree that the best thing to do is to lie. Though they admit they don’t like it, it will also ease any complications they might run into otherwise. So upon arrival, Nita flashes Rage’s Avenger’s Membership Card claiming to be on official business. Then she asks for information about The Temple of Dragon’s Breadth, which gets a very shocked reaction out of the soldiers in the airport!

Speaking of the Temple of Dragon Breadth, we move there where the Folding Circle confronts Tai. Tai goes on to say, “If you’re so desperate to seek the truth, let me tell you then. It began in 1966. A unit of soldiers from the United States was scouring the Plateau Dus Bolovens, north of the Se Kong River, looking to create a landing base for their aircraft to wage war on North Vietnamese. Their names? Lt. Mark Conroy, father of Bloodstike. Private Diego Casseas, whom you know as Left Hand. Sgt. Andrew Chord and Lt. Daryl Taylor. South Vietnamese army, Lt. Go Vin Ng, father of Silk Fever. And finally, Private Collier Mack, father of Smiling Tiger. They were called the Half-Fulls. They were all very young men performing a very unglamorous service. They found the temple – and one must ask – was it fate or destiny? Who really to fill the Pact better than those who cared only for themselves? She brings out maidens, and tells the soldiers that they are to marry the daughts of the Dragon and give her offspring, and they will have power and wealth beyond their imagination.”

Back to the courthouse, things look grim, when Foggy asks if there’s anything Firestar can say that would harm Vance’s case. When she tells him there is nothing she can say that would hurt Vance’s case, Foggy looks concerned and says, “So tell me, why are they calling you to testify against him?”

Firestar takes the stand, and after questioning about Vance’s better control, Firestar agrees that he does have better control. So much better, in fact, that the nosebleeds and headaches he used to get have ceased. So when she’s asked if Vance could have stopped his father without resorting to fatal force, Firestar has no choice but to say, “Yes, he could have stopped him…”

Back in the Temple, Tai’s explanation continues. “The Cult has anticipated the fulfillment of the prophecies by carefully breeding a mother-race which would mate with western ways and create the children who would assume control of the Well.”

Midnight’s Fire shakes his head, and shouts, “Wait – you mean to tell me they were our fathers? One of them was… my father?”

Immediately Thrasher guesses Chord.

Left Hand informs the others that the Pact was broken when Thrasher’s father refused to accept the Pact, and got himself killed. Just at that moment, in a rather dramatic way, the Warriors appear vowing that all of this ends here and now!