Back in New York, the Crew are visited by Heather Haggarty on New Year's Eve. But before they can celebrate, they are called to Beckford Labs, now known as Bayer Labs, where a new horror has escaped it's confines while the Assassins are powerless to defend against it. Reaching there, the Crew meet up with tough-as-nails New York cop Monique Kanters, as they find themselves squaring off against the false Guardian, who reveals himself to be Uriel, Harbinger of Harbinger.....And they find themselves totally powerless to stop him from unleashing his terrible white fire on the unsuspecting city of New York.....

Uriel wasted no time in attacking the Crew where they stood in awe of him at the mouth of the lab. Jason leapt to the side just in time as white fire incinerated the elevator doors behind him, revealing the forboding black shaft behind them. The Crew scrambled for position, but it was no use. They were fighting a being with the power of a God in a confined space. But they faught on anyhow, bravely, against these impossible odds. As Sergeant Monique Kanters watched them, something almost like admiration stretched across her face. And then she was leaping herself into the battle. At that moment, New York cop and Scotland Yard agent and Crew alike were utterly prepared to die to save the city from this beast which had awakened before them.

Heather had retreated to the farend of the room, near where the tattered and rotting false shroud lay. She leapt for it, meaning to use its pollens as a weapon against Uriel, but the dark angel showed her no quarter. White fire licked out from his idly outstretched hand, surrounding her in a constricting cone of flame. As he twirled his fingers, the cone closed more and more around her, singing her hair and melting her suit in places. Reddened burned flesh showed through the places where the plastic had melted away on her legs and chest. She screamed out her helplessness, and drew her arms into herself, hiding her face from the macabre burning cyclone around her. Monique, seeing this, rushed to her side and with a sound solid kick cracked a long sliver of wood from off of a table nearby her. She thrust the wooden javelin through the fire on the walls and hooked a fire extinguisher hanging there behind the flames. As the stake broke away in ashes, Monique flipped the extinguisher into the air, and leapt up to catch it. Pulling the pin before even hitting the ground, she attacked the flames with foam, opening a small rapidly-closing channel to the terrified agent. Tossing the empty extinguisher aside, Monique leapt into the cone of fire, and hooked Heather under the arms, dragging her to safety. Collapsing backwards with the burned agent in her lap, she held her down until Heather calmed a little and took stock of the situation.

"He's playing with us...not killing us outright, but placing us in near-death situations. What on earth is he waiting for?"

Monique could only shake her head, her lips bleeding where she was biting them to cope with her exquisite pain. Heather saw this, and turned both of the policewoman's hands upright. They were blistered and burned to the muscle from grasping the superheated extinguisher. A look of horror and gratitude swept across Heather's face. "You did this...for me?"

Monique tried to choke back the tears of pain and made an effort not to retch at the stench of her own burning flesh. "To serve and protect...Don't worry about me...."

Meanwhile, Jason had rolled to his feet, and brandished the Triple Hedron in his hands. Shanna and Laurie had covered him while he prepared to unleash his own power at the silently smirking Uriel. With grim determination, Jason focused his energy on the small metallic ankh between his fingers. "Uriel....Fire of God, meet the flame of the Universe and be cleansed!"

Reddish flamres shot out from the Hedron, met Uriel's flame head on. But neither one gave way enough to win the battle, and Jason grew tired quickly. Uriel, to his dismay, still looked bored. "Insolent mortal....Your powers can't save you now...I am of the immortals..brought back to life by mortal hands....And I shall destroy you and this entire pitious globe with you!" And Uriel's fire began to press back against the Hedron's flares...Closer and closer to Jason, who looked on the point of exhaustion. With all the strength he could muster, he looked over to Marisol where she stood at ready, begged her help with his eyes. She understood immediately. Days before, their combined strengths had saved the entire Crew from a fiery death at the bottom of the Matterhorn in a crashing plane. Now, as she looked inside of herself and drew upon her strength, she was certain it would be enough again. Her energy arced out to join Jason's in a brilliant flash of blue, and Marisol wondered briefly at the fact that every time she used this mysterious new power of hers, it seemed to strengthen and intensify. Laurie looked over to Shanna, and motioned her out of the way. The two of them went to aid Gabriele in dragging the wounded and dying scientists to a neutral corner of the lab. Meanwhile, Marisol's and Jason's energies mixed and throbbed within one another, and the beam from the Triple Hedron shone in pure white radience, a thousand times brighter than Uriel's fire. And they succeeded in halting the flame from the dark angel, and sending it back towards him. Uriel screamed in anger and surprise as the cusp of power came for him, faster and faster, and for the first time Jason saw incertainty in the deamon's eyes. Then, he regained himself, and raised his left hand at a slight angle to his right. A new rush of flame shot out, rushing towards Marisol where she stood. Before Jason or the Crew could react, it engulfed her, and sent her staggering backwards into the elevator shaft. Jason broke off his offensive, and Uriel thankfully also halted his fire to regain his strength, while Jason leapt for the shaft to find Marisol holding on by her fingertips to the edge. Her face was a mass of reddened flesh and her lower jaw hung at an impossible angle through its charred skin. She seemed to be trying to cry out, but no sound would come from her mutilated face. Tears began to flow in Jason's eyes as he reached for her, too late. She lost her grip, and fell into the blackness of the shaft. Jason watched her fall, and cried out with more anguish than he ever had as she disappeared from him. Then she was gone, and he lay there beaten, waiting for the deathblow to come from Uriel, as tears streamed down his cheeks. Laurie and Gabriele ran to his side, tried to tear him away from the shaft and into a defensive area, but he would not leave it. He clung to it with torn fingers and cried out her name over and over again. Then Shanna came up behind him, lifted his face to hers by the hair, and slapped him mightily across the cheek. "Do you think that she would want you to die as well? To give up? For Christ's sake, man, she loved you! And it's obvious that you loved her! Don't let her death go unanswered!"

Jason stared into Shanna's face, and then over her shoulder. Shoving her out of the way and into Laurie and Gabriele beside him, he raised the Hedron once more and let loose a furious white glare that met Uriel's new attack halfway across the lab. The Dark Angel was frantic now, but Jason faught with the fury of vengeance. And the two flames burned brighter and brighter, before burning each other out. Then, spent, Jason collapsed to the floor as Uriel moved forward to stand above him. With his characteristic sneer, the Fire of God began to laugh at the fallen crewleader. "Such a pittance, this resistance from the one who holds the lifeblood of the Nameless One within him....Such waste of flesh..."

And he raised his arms, prepared to burn Jason into oblivion. The Crew had huddled with Monique and Heather in the far corner of the room, and were powerless to stop him. Laurie stood and flung her sword at the Dark Angel, but Uriel simply raised his arm and let it skewer him nicely, not even flinching. With a casual glance towards the huddled Crew, he drew the sword out of his arm, and cauterized the wound with his own fire. It melted down and reformed into a perfect, blemish-free appendage immediately. Dropping the sword to the floor, Uriel reared back his head and laughed. "And now, you die...."

Jason clenched his eyes shut and waited for the deathblow, but what came instead was a voice from the shaft behind him. Turning his head, he saw the source of that voice, and hope flowed through him anew. "Howsabout you and I dance now, partner? You think you're immortal enough to go a few rounds with the baddest mutherfucking guardian on the planet?"

As Jason stood and Uriel shrank back in shock, Michael floated up the shaft and into the room on a cushion of divine silver light. He held Marisol in his hands, burned but alive. Landing on the floor, he passed the wounded and unconscious crewmember over into Jason's arms. "Get them out of here. There's about to be fireworks, because this sunofabitch needs a good spanking..."

Jason took a second to register that Marisol was indeed alive and in his arms, and then hurried over to the Crew where they now stood in disbelief. Monique held Heather steady, and the group prepared to move out. Laurie stopped short of the stairway on the far side of the room, and signalled them onward. "I'm staying. He's going to need some backup."

Gabriele nodded, and brandished his bat standing at her side. I'll stay to watch your back so you don't go and get killed or anything. Go on ahead, Jason. We'll be down soon."

Jason nodded, and lowered his head. His hands were filled with Marisol's limp body, Which Shanna offered to take from him. He refused to let her go, and summoning all of his remaining strength, he fired up the triple Hedron and lifted the Crew over the burning stairway and down through a shattered bay window to the waiting paramedics on the street below. When he got there, the technicians rushed to their side, hurrying both Heather and Monique off to be treated for their burns as others worked frantically at Marisol, trying desperately to keep her heart beating. Jason refused to leave her side. A medical technician took him by the shoulders, and pulled him aside. "She's gone into anabolic shock. We have to get her to the hospital and treat those wounds or she'll not last too long. We're moving her now."

Jason looked over to Shanna, and ushered her to his side. "I'm going with her. I made her a promise to keep her safe, I made that promise to all of you when you joined the Crew. She needs me right now. I want you to get that police copter and fly up to the penthouse control room. See where the hell Stefan and the Assassins are. If you find them, then go back down to get Gabriele and Laurie, and Michael if he's still alive. Get them out of the building. If worse comes to worse, we'll retreat and take on Uriel another day on our own terms. It's not worth us dying for. Do you understand?"

Shanna nodded, and ran off to apprehend the chopper, currently manned by a daydreaming New York rookie cop. "All right, buddy...Take me up there now."

He looked at her as if she were out of ehr mind. "Are you crazy? I can't take you up there! It's not in my orders anyhow..."

Shanna reached over and grabbed him by the neck, squeezing so hard the rookie's eyeballs bugged out of his head and beads of blood welled up at her nails. "Now is not the time to fuck with me...Now, TAKE ME THE FUCK UP THERE!!!!"

Releasing his neck, Shanna proceeded to strap herself in. The rookie choked back breath into his lungs, and began to work the controls. "Yes...Yes, maam! Right away!"

And the chopper lifted off for the rooftop control room of Bayer Labs.

Meanwhile, Michael and Uriel squared off, as Laurie and Gabriele watched from the sidelines. Laurie had retrieved her blackened sword. Michael calmly paced around the room, sizing up the Dark Angel with a sly look on his face. "So, you're the genetic misfit that Stefan Bayer wakened out in Fatima with that rediculous false shroud of his. When will these fucking humans ever learn not to mess around with their Gods? I mean, the first rule of magic is never summon something you can't put down...And now I have to take out their trash again..."

Uriel scoffed at the Guardian, and began to match his pace. "I think you'll find that my purpose is far more powerful than yours, Michael. I am the righteous fire of God.....And now is time for my dominion to begin on the Earth!"

"First of all, God has nothing to do with fire. I know God. Had lunch with him a few centuries ago, and believe me, he has no part of fire. For his sake, he lives in a bloody ethereal plane! Ever try to light a fire where there's no oxygen? Doesn't work too well, does it?"

Uriel was growing agitated, and flames licked out from his fingers in anticipation of the brawl to come. "You tire me, Guardian. You claim to know God, yet you walk among these humans. A glorified policeman for the Immortals, doing their work for them. And still you claim to be a divine emissary? What higher power needs a clean up crew to follow him around?"

Michael had had enough. He lunged towards Uriel, intending to unleash his full power upon him. But the Dark Angel was swift, and whirled around to grab Laurie in his red-hot arms. She had been sneaking up behind him, intending to skewer him while he was distracted. Grasping her to his torso, the Deamon began to laugh once again, knowing that Michael was totally powerless to work against him. "Your love for this human life weakens you, Guardian. Go ahead...do away with me! What consequence is one small mortal in exchange for the lives of all on Earth?"

Michael started, as if in indecision. Then his eyes met Laurie's, and he stood down. "Let her go, Uriel. Your quarrel is with me, not them. Or do you have to hide behind these sheep to avoid fighting one of your own?"

It was all the delay needed. Gabriele had snuck up behind Uriel, and unleashed a mighty blow at the Deamon's head with his bat. It rebounded heavily against his arms, making him reel backwards, but it didn't shatter. Scorch marks lined it where it had dented the Dark Angel's head. Howling in pain, Uriel dropped Laurie and grasped his injured cranium. Michael was a blur of motion as he scooped her up and tossed her towards her partner. She landed with a thud on Gabriele's chest. As Michael turned back to the Deamon, he saw a brilliant flash of White Light explode from him. It shattered the remaining windows, and brought the ceiling down upon their heads. Michael dove to cover the two downed Crewmembers as debris crashed down all around them. Luckily, the upper floors held fast, and only the floor above them impacted. The building was well built, and it withstood this trauma. Michael found himself standing in the settling dust with Laurie and Gabriele lying under him. A large shaft of metal pierced the Guardian through his heart, and he shuddered and fell to his knees. Laurie rose instantly, and helped him to his feet. Gripping the shft with both hands, Michael pulled it from his torso, leaving a three-inch-wide hole around his shattered and crushed heart.

But he didn't allow i t to consume him. He rose, and staggered with Laurie's help over to where Uriel lay twitching unnaturally in the debris. The Dark Angel had been pinned down by two large steel girders through his hands, and another through both feet...effectively crucifying him on the floor. As Michael stood over him, Uriel began to smile. "You're too late....Guardian. My work is done. My master is awakened."

Michael knew that he was right. Turning, he lifted Laurie's sword from its scabbard, and raised it over the head of the fallen angel. "Pity you won't have the chance to meet him...."

And Michael dropped the sword down, severing Uriel's head from his body. In a flash of white fire, the Dark angel ignited, and burned in seconds to ash. Laurie and Gabriele held Michael as he dropped the sword, and fell again to one knee. Laurie lifted his face in her hand.

"What did he mean/ What has he done here?"

Michael coughed back blood, and fell deeper into Gabriele's arms. "While I was distracted....he released his life energy to awaken his master...To awaken Harbinger. He will come now, sooner or later. And he will be a hundred times stronger than Uriel ever was."

Laurie dropped her eyes. "Tell me this...can you stop him?"

Michael looked at her in shock, as if the question had never even occured to him. "I don't know. I need to go and rest...Repair my body and get my strength back...Guardians are not mortal, but we're not eternal either. I only prey that he returns after my convalescence is completed. Or else we're all fucked."

And with that, Michael faded into etherealness, and receeded into the astral plane to repair his battered body. Laurie and Gabriele stood alone as a helicopter flew up to the blown-out windows nearby. Shanna leaned her head out and into the destroyed room. "Come on....We're going after Stefan and the Assassins....we can use your help."

The two dusty, bruised crewmembers checked themselves for injuries, and finding none, went to the window to climb aboard the helicopter. After they were safely aboard, it rose up to the roof of the decimated Bayer Labs.

Upon landing, the three piled out, leaving the rookie pilot relieved to stay and guard the copter. With Shanna in the lead, the Crew made their way down the stairway to the double doors that marked the office of Stefan Bayer. Shanna gave a mighty kick, and both doors imploded, revealing a darkened room where a figure stood by his windows, the massive lettering reflecting across his body. Stefan Bayer looked defeated. At the first sight of the Crew, he started and turned to face them, looking for a way to flee. But then his shoulders dropped, and he slouched down into his padded chair dejectedly. "All this...all this ruin..all because of my greed. And now the building is destroyed, the Assassins sleep while this entity rips apart my fortune. Is this what I took control of Beckford Labs for? Is this what I have wrought on myself?"

Shanna entered the room, and dealt him a thunderous blow, snapping his head to the side as he slumped into the chair further. Laurie held her hand before she could hit him again, and Gabriele stood at ready with his bat by the door, in case of a trap. But Stefan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and sighed heavily. "You know, I only wanted to save them, in the long run. I wasn't motivated by greed like Sebastien, or by a sense of higher purpose like the Crew. Sure, I let myself go a little mad with the power, but I only really wanted to save them at the beginning. That's why I went to Africa..Why I wanted the Guardian for myself....I wanted to awaken him here, without sadlding him down with emotional attachment by introducing him to the Crew. I knew, you see, that to save the world, some must die....I didn't know I was playing right into the evil's hands..."

The Crew were silent, all but Shanna. No compassion showed on her face. "You stole the Shroud of Turin, tried to kill us, and now you expect us to believe that all you really wanted was to help out? I'm afraid you're going to have to try a little harder than that..."

Stefan shook his head slowly, and looked more and more like a beaten man. "No. I don't want your forgiveness. I could never ask you for that....I know that the power corrupted me, that I got caught up in Sebastien's legacy...And I didn't have a trophy wife waiting for me over in Italy for when things got too rough to handle..."

Laurie and Gabriele exchanged a distasteful glance. "Trophy wife? Shannalina?"

Stefan went on, oblivious to them. "I have to face the consequences of my mistakes, and I don't want to do that. I can't bear to see the world destroyed at my hands. I want you to kill me..."

Laurie spoke up first. "No. You're going to come with us, and you're going to stand trial like any man. You're not going to conjure up the forces of hell and take the easy way out. I will personally make sure that you atone and are held accountable for every one of your actions. I will not let you wimp out and run away from them."

Stefan looked at her, a glimpse of his old anger in his eyes. "I thought you'd say that. So be it. Live with your choices." He pulled a grenade from under the desk,a dn ripped out the pin. Shanna leapt into action immediately, kicking blindly at his wrist. He held fast to the round object, refusing to let go. Apparantly his German strength was still intact. What he didn't see, however, was Laurie's blade as it arced through the air and sliced off his hand at the wrist. As it fell to the floor, Shanna grabbed for it, and hurled it out the window. Dropping to the floor aong with the others, she shielded her head as the grenade detonated. A few seconds later, they rose to see the massive letters marking the building as Bayer Labs gouged and tattered. Nothing else had been harmed by the blast. Gathering Stefan in his arms in a powerful vice grip, and covering his bleeding stump with his own shirt, Gabriele followed the others back to the roof and the waiting helicopter....

Back on the ground, the three met up with Monique Kanters as Stefan was lead away in protective custody. The Sergeant was none the worse for wear, except for a few burn marks on her PVC pants and two large gauze bandages around her hands. Agent Heather Haggerty stood close behind her, also patched up and sporting a police uniform graciously donated to her in lieu of her melted bodysuit. Monique watched as Stefan was lead away. "Well, that's the last we'll see of him for a while. Since the hand was, um, not available for reattachment, he'll be fitted with a prosthetic and relegated to mental health facilites under close surveilance. As for the Assassins, I'm told that they're undergoing some sort of monthly treatment and that they'll be fine here. The building has been taken over by a stockholder...one John Mayo....Although I admit that the concept of Mayo Labs is a little unsettling, well, there's really nothing that can be done about it."

Laurie looked uneased. "You mean, you're leaving the Assassins here under control of this John Mayo person? You're not apprehending them?"

Monique shrugged. "No reason to. Besides, it wasn't my call anyways. I've resigned from the force...I need a little more adventure than police work was giving me, and I understand there was an opening in the Yard for an operative. Heather put in a good word for me over the radio a minute ago, and I'll probably be working with her from now on as her new partner. I'm looking forward to lots of undercover work in the near future....."

Heather blushed, and waved goodbye to the Crew once again as he and Monique returned to their waiting transport for a flight back to the Yard. Heather asked Laurie to contact her about Marisol's condition as soon as they reached their new base, and then they were gone. Laurie watched them go. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen Heather blush before...Think it's love?"

Gabriele shook his head. "I just don't wanna know."

And the three departed to meet Jason at the hospital where Marisol was being treated....

Later that evening, on the upper floors of the battered building, a man strode purposefully into the room where the Assasisns slept in their chambers. He nodded over to a lab attendant, who was busily repairin gthe minor damage to the room. "Are they all right?"

The attendant looked over to him. He was a tall man, with a shock of red hair atop his head. He wore jeans and a woolen longsleeve shirt. And the attendant had never seen him before. "Who wants to know?"

"John Mayo....The new owner and CEO of the new Mayo Labs...and your boss....that's who. Now how are they?"

"Um..sorry, sir! You took me by surprise! I'm not ued to my boss looking so..."

"Casual? Well, you know, it's the quiet ones that are always the deadliest. Now, how are my men? Or are you looking for a paycut?"

"They're in perfect hibernation. When the building comes back online, we'll be ready to revive them right away."

John shook his head, fingering his lower lip thoughtfully. "Right.....And principal reparis to the building should be done in under two weeks....All right, keep me informed."

And he strode out of the room. The technician looked to his co-worker, and nodded after him. "You know, that there's a thinker...a strategist. And probably the most dangerous man we've ever worked for...."

Meanwhile, the Crew sat nervously in the waiting room at the local General Hospital. Their cuts and bruises had been patched up, and for the most they were all right. Laurie and Shanna had filled Jason in on the battle and its conclusion as Gabriele tipped his hat down and fell into a deep sleep of exhaustion. Jason too looked ready to fall. But his determination was strong, and he paced the room waiting for word from the Intensive Care Unit. Finally, a doctor came out to meet him.

"What's the word....Oh, God, tell me she's all right..."

"Well, I'm afraid she's not. We've run into some complications with the enzymes in her bloodstream, and it seems that she's not accepting our transfusions. Her face is still a mess, and the jaw is unset because we can't stabalize her to put her under. I'm afraid that unless she starts taking blood from us, she won't make it through the night."

Jason fell to his knees, and Laurie placed a hand on his shoulders, comforting him. His eyes brimming over with tears, he raised his head to look at the doctor. "Can I see her? I need to see her."

"Well, it's not standard policy...."

"TO HELL WITH STANDARD POLICY! She's dying in there and you said yourself you can't help her. Now get out of my way, because I'm going to do what I can for her...."

The doctor nodded, and moved aside. Jason strode into the Intensive Care unit, his eyes blurred and burning from his tears. He came to the side for her bed, saw he cumpled body lying there, dying. It was more than he could bear, and he fell to her side, taking her hand up in his. "I never got the chance to be there for Mark....for Angela....For even Carol when she died.....But you, I'm here for you, Marisol. Like I promised I would be. I'm right here, and I'm not going away, and you're not going to die because I won't let you...because I never got the chance to tell you how I feel about you....and I can't let you go like this."

Rising to his feet, he pulled the Triple Hedron out of his tattered shirt, and brandished it before him. "Forgive me for this."

With a brief flash of light, the final essence of the Nameless One drifted down into Marisol's body. As soon as it came into contact with her, sank into her torn and melted skin, she began to glow. Her own power flared up from within her, knitting bone and repairing flesh. Within seconds, and before Jason's startled eyes, her body healed itself and she lay intact before him, her eyes opening to look at his tear-streaked face. "Jason....Where am I? What happened to me?"

Jason's mouth moved, but no sound came out. Marisol realized where she was, and leapt from the bed. A look of stark terror lashed across her face. "I'm in a hospital! Oh dear God, not another hospital! Not after what happened the last time..."

Jason found his center, and rushed forward to throw his arms around her, calm her down from her rising terror. Looking in her face, he brushed her hair away from where seconds ago her jaw had hung out from the torn and melted flesh. "I thought I had lost you..that I had failed you...."

"You're not getitng rid of me that easy, you know....and you'll never lose me.."

Jason brushed his lips across her chin, and she pushed him away in a sudden flare of pain. "Owwww!"

"What the hell? I kiss you and you say Owww? What's that all about?"

She was tenderly touching her jaw where it had knitted, grimacing in pain. "It's not right...It hurts when I touch it, and it's numb..."

Jason nodded. "I guess the nerves couldn't mend properly because of all the damage. I'm sorry....."

She waved him off. "What did you do to me? How did you set off this power inside of me?"

Jason hung his head. "I gave you the essence you refused before. I gave you a part of my power to combine with your own. That brought you back.."

She looked astonished, and stared at her hands as, on command, twin blue flames shot up towards the ceiling. "Oh, Jason...I refused it for a reason! You have no idea what this power inside me is...how strong it is...I have no idea even! Oh, God, what have you made me into?" As Jason looked into her eyes, he saw that they had gone jet black with power.

"We'll find out, Marisol. I promise you that. We'll see what needs to be done about Harbinger, and then we'll find out what caused this in you. And where your parents have gone. Because you're not getting rid of me either, kid. I'm with you until the end....Just, don't ever fucking scare me like that again, all right?"

Shaking, he took up her hadn as they strode out of the Intensive Care ward to meet the startled Crew, and depart for their newly rebuilt home in the countryside to prepare for the coming storm.....