Challengers of the Unknown
Volume 4, 4
November 2004

"Stolen Moments, Borrowed Time - Part 4"

Covers by Howard Chaykin and Rian Hughes
Written and Illustrated by Howard Chaykin
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Richard Starkings
Edited by Scott Dunbier
22 pages
$2.95

Synopsis: Continuing... Five not-yet Challengers land on a ship with guns blazing. They're part of a massive conspiracy reaching to the President and - whoever's above him!.. Continued...




The five unknowing assassins - Harte, Crosse, Starr, Crowne, and Dyamond - land on a ship at sea. They shoot at everyone.


Challengers shoot up a ship

Byshop, in charge, tells them to hold their fire. "We're on your side." Our heroes doubt that: lots of people on "their side" have tried to kill them.

Byshop explains he set off the freighter-bomb in Long Beach Harbor that killed 15,000 people. But he has an explanation...

We see more KnowNowNet News video urging everyone to vote Republican. The President chastises Jessi Brydge for failing to catch the five rogues, and shoots her dead. Mr Kingge takes over the "simple retrieval mission."

The President then calls up another "pawn cadre". People named Blayde, Challis, Gunn etc are summoned from all over the country. Unsavory people.


Multibillionaires plot. Again someone refers to "Morgan, Ryan, Haley, and Rocky Davis." A plotter recalls "All of us bending over backwards to keep the four occupied with wild fabricated fantasies... just to keep our existence a secret."

Aboard ship, Byshop explains how these five rogues were unwittingly programmed and medically augmented to be perfect assassins. (Which we already know.)



Challengers secretly programmed as pawns
(Just to keep you confused, the "heroes" have different haircuts in past sequences, but those are three neo-Challs trashing sparring partners.)

Byshop explains he escaped the Hegemony too. They're multibillionaires who run the world.

Alarm! A submarine surfaces alongside. More assassins - the Blayde, Challis, Gunn etc gang - board. Lots more shooting ensues.

Zach Dyamond's borrowed time runs out. He takes a bullet through the throat. The four survivors think, "It could've been me."


Find answers in Part 5!



Comment

A wasted issue. We know their background by now and don't learn much else. Get on with the story!

But now we know why the original tag for the series was, "Everything you know is a lie!" Apparently, nothing in history was random. Every event down to the tiniest detail was engineered by the Illuminati, the Masons, the Trilateral Commission, the Whoevers that conspiracy theorists love so well.

OK... This story doesn't take place on OUR world anyway. Yes, we're subject to wacky events, but it's wackier to think someone's in control.