 |
|
Challengers of the Unknown
|
Our story opens with a passenger jet flying into California from Orlando. (Not from. That's a typo.) The pilot, bathed in a blinding white light, exclaims, "Holy Mother of -" and the jet is gone from the radar.  And five minutes later, is back intact. The pilot is grounded for a hoax, and calls on his friend Marlon, also a pilot, and the Challengers for help. Clay is unimpressed, but Kenn is intrigued by the bright light - just like the light the B Team Challs saw when they crashed. (The jetliner passed over the Mojave Desert. For full details on the jet disappearances, see the Challengers of the Crashes page.) |
Brenda, meanwhile, is in Pasadena visiting an old professor at Cal Tech. But his lab is on fire. Breaking the window with a fire extinguisher, she gets in and fights smoke and flame to find the teacher on the floor.  She's jumped by Saxon, the Challs' arch-enemy, who tries to brain her with a wrecking bar. But he gets knocked aside (by an explosion? It's unclear.) Brenda hauls her teacher out to EMTs. He'll be okay, and so is she. |
 Kenn and Clay cruise in a convertible (remember that). Kenn's found fourteen cases of jets blipping off the radar for a minute or three in the last three years. The pair don't know they're being followed by a mustached thug named Slate, who takes orders from a mystery man over the radio. |
 Cut to... A house in the desert hills. Marlon has been summoned by a black guy, Sands, to meet Rocky Davis, of the original Challs. Rocky, gray-haired in a brown suit, has bad news. He's taking back the name: the new Challs "can't be Challengers any more". |
Brenda has a map from her teacher's lab. On a side trip to the FBI(?), the Challs are told they're "persona non grata" on this case. Leaving, Kenn reports that, from a peek in the Records Room, the Feds aren't allowed to investigate. So Someone Big is quashing the investigation. And then some. The stalker Slate tracks them with a sniper scope. But Saxon pops up. "They (the Challs) don't die yet, though they don't realize their work will open the gates of Hell." But Saxon hates the Mystery Boss more than Challs, so will let them live - so he can use them. He tosses the sniper Slate off the roof. The Challs confer. The plane blips match the teacher's map, and center around an area in the Mojave Desert. They call Marlon, who reports they've lost the Challs name. Clay: "Who cares what we call ourselves?" They're heading for the desert. Rocky overhears over the phone. "We've got to the stop them! They don't know what they're doing!" Marlon is mystified. The two can use Sands' plane to meet the others in the Mojave. Flying above the black desert, Marlon and Rocky spot the convertible containing Brenda, Kenn, and Clay. Things happen fast. The Mystery Man, watching on a screen, pushes a button. A brilliant light grows. The convertible disappears into it.  Above in the plane, Marlon is shocked. Rocky groans, "Not again!" Marlon: "Again?" Then a missile blows off their wing. |
The plane crashes. Marlon and Rocky are shaken but whole. Rocky moans, "It's all my fault! The team should have died with the original Challengers." Marlon wants the whole story now. But they're interrupted by a voice.  Ace, asking, "What do you mean we died?" |
Continued in "Last Days, Part 2". |
Comments The three-issue story recounts flashback after flashback all out of order, so the sequence can be confusing. For a linear explanation, see The Complete History of the Challs. |
 |