POWERNAUT 2008 Part 4!

In the 1990s, the villainous Philippe St. Joseph Lateran was involved in a plot to kidnap superhumans to the Caribbean island of Barbuda. Apparently my brother-in-law was secretly the Hard Falcon, a mercenary in this plot! Apparently my sister and my oldest nephew discovered their superhuman powers on this island. And apparently they rebelled.

I have my suspicions on who the master villain is. But he's still in hiding, so I can't be really sure. We know about the minions, though. This must be the point in the strip where you've seen them all (unless the master villain has something else to reveal). And they all had targets, though the Power School's operational plan complicated things.

• Imperilus. American brawler with mid-to-high level superhuman strength, plus lots of practical experience. Assigned to take on the Powernaut. And he did so, happily.
• Hard Falcon. American mercenary with unprecedented durability; he can regenerate himself from any of his own cells. Unlike some people with similar power, though, he tries not to need it that much. Assigned to take on Lauren Ferguson. And he did so, happily.
• Free Sky. Russian mercenary with personal flight gear originally developed by his government. Assigned to take on Vnesa Stalker. He didn't much like taking on a vampire, though.
• Chas Speed. American rogue with super-speed, given by the Ministry of Speed (a group of super-speedsters with access to some kind of speed force). Assigned to take on Capture, but instead served as scout and reserve.
• Toledoth Torpedoth. Israelite warrior from the time of Joshua, transplanted to the modern age alongside tens of thousands of his comrades. Assigned and fated to confront the Toledo Torpedo, to determine who has the best Shadow Warrior powers. And he did that happily.
• Boom Chick. British girl who can go Boom, and withstand any shock. Assigned to take on Zorch. So to speak. She wasn't much for combat skill, but that's not what she was there for. And she did that happily.
• Patriotic Homeland of France. The Patriotic Homeland Corps lets one representative in from each nation where someone wants to volunteer. These are not required to have superhuman powers, though larger nations such as France can at least find someone with low-level superhuman strength. He got assigned by his Corps to patrol the area of this incident that night. He was alerted to the possibility of an American girl who might need France's protection that night. So he was expected to take on Intensity - and it happened.

ehh, that's exactly what Reality House was *not* going to have. My sister actually made the right decision there.

We now know our master villain to be the Strategos, an ancient contemporary of the galactic warrior Zenobia. The Strategos secretly *sponsored* this Reality House TV show, and provided most of the excitement! He thereby made some money. I guess he really *is* strategic.

Chas Speed, that lovable loser, did about one night of jail time. Then he got charged with public disorder, which was the most the Paris authorities could charge him with. He promptly skipped bail and left the country.

Boom Chick and Hard Falcon were trapped within Capture cards for a while. The Strategos was eventually able to break them out of the cards - but then he was left with plain old playing cards. The power of those cards lies within Capture himself. He can use new cards any time he likes; he merely likes to play with a full deck.

The house wisely decided on a "Secret Santa" gift swap. Otto gave Amy a Little Doom Pony. From that, the rest should be obvious.

And this is a refreshing opportunity to see what kind of pajamas Our Heroes wear. I can vouch for Lauren's.