[Izulde]

We skipped a week for the third issue, watching as Tree of Woe declined in popularity. For the next week, the writers wanted a mismatched team against Vexxer Daemonchild, but I insisted on Big Chill and Miss Atomic after the writers required Raging Fire as the primary protagonist. The Nuclear Family was fair game for inclusion by Hank's standards since they weren't The Wonderfuls.

***

"Princess Corral got jailed after the fight The Round Table lost. Merlin's magic sucked her back in along with the rest of the heroes so they didn't die. She's in the Camelot dungeon now."

"Who cares?"

Trent laughed at Geoff's shrug.

"Yeah I figured you wouldn't care - you don't even like The Round Table because Midnight Fox isn't in it."

"Yeah, yeah. It kinda sucked they didn't have something for us to read last week."

"All good, though. They got a new one this week, and Vexxer Daemonchild is on the cover. Talking about how he's fresh off beating The Round Table."

Geoff had seen the bragging quote on the cover and wondered what the purple-horned villain was up to now. He found out when he read the issue after a supper of TV dinner chicken nuggets and fries nuked in the microwave.

The Nuclear Family easily outsmarted Vexxer Daemonchild, who was feeling cocky after his defeat of The Round Table, and got him to admit where Xtinction was located. But before Raging Fire, Miss Atomic, and Backlash - who'd joined the duo to give them a physically tough fighter - could track down their foe, they were suddenly stopped by Crippling Fear, Hisshi, and Major Graves at The Rigged Table, Boomtown's dive bar.

"Heard you're hunting for Xtinction," Major Graves sneered. "We can't allow that."

In response, Raging Fire let loose a searing ring of fire that burned Graves and Fear, sending them screaming and reeling. Backlash sent out a wave of energy that completed the knockout of the downed duo.

Left alone, Hisshi attacked Backlash with her katana and bloodied him, but was counterpunched in return and dazed by Miss Atomic's followup energized punch.

But the plucky assassin wasn't finished yet. Another member of her clan appeared and the nameless minion's throwing stars stunned each of the three heroes, Raging Fire in particular feeling the hurt.

That bleeding made Raging Fire miss, but Miss Atomic relied on good old physical punching to knock out Hisshi. The nameless ninja fled, taking his master and Graves with him, leaving Chilling Fear to be arrested on assault charges.

"So cool!" Miss Atomic grinned.

While the group was recovering, the Agents of CATS showed up.

"Heard you could use a hand to take down Xtinction," said Agent Fortuna, the group leader.

"That we could," smiled Raging Fire.

And so the three agents teamed up with Raging Fire, Miss Atomic, and Backlash, the six heroes returning to The Rigged Table after they heard Xtinction was hanging out there.

The villains got the drop on the heroes, Xtinction joined by Anathema, Colonel Deft, High Velocity, and Le Rapide. Though they managed to wound Backlash considerably, Xtinction found himself quickly taken out of commission, as Agent Fortuna hit him with bad luck, and Miss Atomic and Raging Fire combined to finish him off.

Miss Atomic was in trouble when the remaining opponents ganged up on her, but on the return, the heroes greatly weakened Anathema and Colonel Dent, which appeared to firmly turn the tide of the battle in their favor - especially thanks to Agent Fortuna's leadership and ability to curse their opponents.

The team roared with anger when High Velocity slammed into Miss Atomic and knocked her unconscious. "You'll pay for that, you asshole!" screamed Raging Fire.

But first, there were Anathema and Colonel Deft to take care of, which Raging Fire and Agent Spark quickly respectively did.

Backlash fell, but Agent Fortuna turned her curses to High Velocity, and the tag team attack of fellow Agents Torrent and Spark were enough to knock the speedster out, leaving the Canadian villain Le Rapide as the last remaining.

Although it took a considerable amount of time, Raging Fire finally took down the speedy Le Rapide.

After the fight was finally over, Colonel Deft was jailed and Xtinction was committed to a maximum security mental health facility. Everyone else escaped.

"Great three-parter," Geoff said out loud to himself. "Man, Agent Fortuna is so awesome! She's like, the best leader ever!"