The Eternal Nemesis

It all began when records captured by Elite Force alumn Ligress led to a connection between Lockhart Aerotech and the Nemesis Army. Ligress raided a storehouse full of ammunition made by Lockhart for the Nemesis Army, and found the location of a lab where Lockhart had helped Nemesis test his latest alloys against military weapons. She delivered all of the evidence, and waited to hear the verdict in the Lockhart trial.

When the guilty verdict came down on Tyrone Lockhart, he bolted and tried to protect himself with Nemesis Army troops but Ligress was still able to catch him.

Using files taken from Lockhart Aerotech, she found out that Nemesis often used the Sky Raiders to do work for him by having Lockhart Aerotech ask them to. One such incident was the recent abduction of an immortal man named Bentley Berkeley for reasons unknown. Ligress squeezed the Raiders for information, but by the time she arrived where they had been told to drop Berkeley off, he had already been moved.

Ligress then went to rescue Bentley Berkeley, but found herself in the middle of a battle between Nemesis and the Council, who wanted revenge on Berkeley for helping to foil one of their plans. When she freed him, Bentley told her that Nemesis' scientists had wanted to compare his version of immortality to their own plans to make a person live forever.

The tensions between the Nemesis Army and the Council erupted into battle as both sides took to the streets. Ligress managed to handle the situation, and one of the defeated soldiers told her that Requiem thought the Nemesis Army so weakened by her recent successes that it could be taken over!

With the Nemesis Army reeling, the prospect of Requiem taking them over and having Nemesis himself as a replacement for the imprisoned Vandal was too great. Ligress had to help the Nemesis Army by disrupting the Council's supplies and strategies. However, something seemed amiss.

Almost too late, Ligress realized she'd been used by Nemesis! He'd only played at being weak while he subverted the Council's robots and computers, and was about to take them over! She rushed back and forth and barely stopped Nemesis' plan, only to find out that she'd been deceived again! While Ligress had been fighting and the Council distracted, Nemesis had abducted Nosferatu, the Council's mad biologist and the creator of the vampyri!

Ligress moved quickly, and was able to capture Nosferatu himself from Nemesis' clutches.

According to Nosferatu's interrogation, Nemesis had kidnapped him for his knowledge of longevity techniques. According to Nosferatu, Nemesis himself was little more than a 180-year-old brain being kept alive by his armor, and now that brain was finally dying. Nosferatu's interrogation also revealed Nemesis was interested in Rikti brain altering bio-gel and Crey mind control technology. Ligress investigated the bio-gel first, only to find Rikti fighting each other. An injured Rikti who had once been a member of the Lost explained the uses of the bio-gel in the Rikti transformation process, in part because of the threat of Nemesis and in part because Ligress once saved his cousin.

She next tracked down experimental artificial brains stolen from Crey by Nemesis. Originally for use in the Revenant Hero program, Ligress found a report comparing them with Nemesis' own designs for an advanced artificial brain. Now she understood the plan. Nemesis sought to replace the one part of his body that could still die of old age: his own brain! By transferring his mind to a vastly improved artificial brain, he would be immortal.

Ligress attempted to stop the fabrication of the artificial brain, but was too late.

With only one chance left to stop Nemesis once and for all, she struck the small lab where the operation had taken place. She defeated a mindless shell that had once housed Nemesis, and then fought Nemesis himself, defeating the Prussian Prince of Automatons at last.

Or so she hoped. After all, if Nemesis wanted to fake his own death, he'd need an incontrovertible way of showing that he'd died. Ligress already seen him manipulate his enemies to do his will, and with the ability to manufacture a new brain to house his mad mind, could even physical destruction truly stop Nemesis? Only time will tell.

The Fall of the Clockwork King

Synapse the speedster recruited a group of heroes to take on the Clockwork King. The group consisted of Elite Force member Doc Curie, Izura of the Hmong Warriors, Masterman, Misty Fox, Hunter Smith and ElctroCroc. Named Task Force Lightning the group first detected an electrical anomaly in Steel Canyon. While checking it out, they found a Clockwork minion carrying an electrical power router. When they found a second power router on annother robot, Synapse sent them to Positron for advice. Positron guided the heroes to the three power grid substations in Steel Canyon, where they battled the Clockwork to prevent them from stealing the city's power. Using a device created by Positron, they were able to find the headquarters for the entire operation and shut it down.

Synapse then sent Task Force Lightning to Boomtown to search for the lair of the Clockwork King. After defeating a number of his minions, they found a distinctive mechanical piece amid the remains of one of the fallen robots. Synapse traced the piece to a storage warehouse and sent the group to investigate. After they saved the foreman from some Clockwork attackers, he told them of three locations where similar parts had been shipped.

As they investigated the warehouses, it became evident that they were closing in on the Clockwork King. Armed with determination and one of Positron's inventions, the heroes came face to face with the Clockwork King. Through their valiant efforts the King was captured.