When the Blue Tango opened his eyes, the once lively little club hidden away within the city was no more.  The attack brought on by whatever supervillain it was left many, if not all, dead and the place completely destroyed.  He remembered the armored behemoth blasting through the wall, saying a few things, then everything going to hell in a handbasket.  It was a mere blur with only fragments to piece together which all consisted of just screaming and more explosions.

Tango lied there for a few seconds and listened to the different fires crackling around him.  After wiggling his toes and gathering his thoughts, he began to slowly push the rubble off of him and scope out the situation.  There were lifeless bodies scattered around everywhere from henchmen to the same villains Tango once called his own.  He noticed Vain and Sackman, Richie Dick, then Kevin Spacey all lying face-down bloodied, battered, and deceased.

As he walked through the wreckage, he searched for anyone that could still be alive…  After all, evil-doers or not, he's still a hero and doesn't want anyone meeting their end like this.  Plus, it was an opportunity to get some much needed intel on what exactly went down here tonight. 

He stepped over a few henchmen and got back to the area he was when stuff hit the fan.  He noticed there was no sign of Smoker, but before he could investigate further he heard moans coming from across (what used to be) the bar.  On the other side, under more rubble, was Toxicity gasping as if any breath could be her last.  She noticed Tango (who, to her, was still just some random, hooded stranger) and Tango noticed her right back.  He rushed over to her side and held up her head.  They stared each other in the eyes for a moment before she managed to curl up a smile and reach up to touch the side of his face.

"I knew there was something different about you."

Tango looked away, but only for a moment, then back into Toxicity's bright green eyes.

"Who was that?"

Toxicity struggled to breathe and broke her own stare away from Tango's.

"The bane to all existence.  The destroyer of everything."

Her smile remained, but she started to sob.

"The bringer of death."

"Who IS he, Toxicity?!  Tell me!"

Tango knew he was running out of time, or not so much he but her.  She knew it, too.  Even though Tango spent a lot of his heroeing foiling whatever plans she had to "save the planet" in her own way, the two shared a moment.

"Doomsayer."

She managed to reach up through the rubble and grab tightly around Tango's hand.

"He's not like the rest of us, Tango…  He's not…  *GASP!*  Ugh…  We–"

Tango tightly squeezed back as the bright green eyes staring back at him began to fade.

"Why has he come?  What are his plans?  What's his purpose here?"

Toxicity smirks.

"Heh…  It isn't obvious?"

She takes one last painful deep breath.

"To murder us all."





After a grueling night of fighting crime, Atomic Bat made her way back to HQ. Her once-pristine superhero suit was now tattered and torn, and her face was smudged with dirt and sweat. As she entered the room, she was greeted by the soft glow of Harlot Quinn's computer screen. Harlot sat diligently at her desk, her fingers clicking away on the keyboard as dawn slowly approached. The atmosphere was hushed, and the room seemed to hum with an eerie energy.

"Welcome back, Miss J," Harlot said, smiling warmly. "How was your night?"

Atomic Bat let out a deep sigh.

"Long, but productive. The gadget you made for me worked wonders. It allowed me to subdue villains without unnecessary violence. Thanks again for that."

Harlot smiled, pleased to hear that her gadget had helped The Atomic Bat.

"I'm glad it worked out for you. So, what's next on the agenda, Miss J?"

Atomic Bat was about to reply when her cellphone rang. It was Blue Tango, and his voice was strained with panic.

"They're dead! They're all dead!" Tango exclaimed.

Atomic Bat furrowed her brow in confusion. "Wait, who's dead?"

"ALL OF THEM!!!!" Tango yelled, his voice crackling loudly through the speaker.

"ALL OF WHO?!"

"THE VILLAINS!  VAIN!  SACKMAN!  KEVIN SPACEY!"  Tango paused and took a deep breath.  "Even Toxicity."

"Wait, what?!  Where are you?!"

"Okay, look.  I went undercover and squeezed out a little intel from one of my, ya know, squeezes…  about a place where all of these no-do-gooders liked to cool off, right?  I was among them, AB.  Every single one of them.  Now they're dead."

Atomic Bat's eyes widened in shock, and for a moment, a horrible suspicion crossed her mind. "Um... Did you?" she asked tentatively.

"What? Uh, no.  Not even close."

Atomic Bat breathed a sigh of relief, feeling guilty for even considering that Tango could have done such a thing.

"Of course, of course," she said quickly. "Tell me what happened?"

"There was some huge guy called Doomsayer," Tango explained, "He blew through the wall like the Kool-Aid guy and he and a bunch of henchmen that were already there attacked and killed everyone.  The place is a total disaster."

Atomic Bat's heart sank as she heard about the destruction and loss of life. "I've never heard of him," she admitted, "but we need to find out everything we can about him if we're going to stop him."

"No doubt!"  Tango pauses for a moment.  "I'm gonna look around a bit more to see if I can find any clues.  I'll be in touch.  Tango out."

There was a click on the other end of the line.  Atomic Bat swiped the call from her screen as she turned to Harlot.

"Harlot, we have a situation," Atomic Bat began, her voice grave.

"A new villain attacked a club downtown, and according to Tango, there were a lot of casualties, all of them seemingly villains and henchmen."

Harlot's eyes widened with concern. "What about Smoker?"

As she spoke, Atomic Bat couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy towards Harlot's feelings for The Smoker. She knew that Harlot had left her criminal past behind and was now on the side of justice, but it still made her uneasy, but she pushed those thoughts aside for now, focusing on the task at hand.

"I'll see if I can get more information on the victims, but right now, we need to focus on locating and stopping this new big bad before he causes any more harm."

Atomic Bat tilted her head, deep in thought as she realized something.

"Harlot," Atomic Bat paused, narrowing her eyes in contemplation, "You used to be a part of the criminal underworld. Do you have any knowledge about this Doomsayer character?"

Harlot's eyes widened in shock at the mere mention of the name.

"Oh my, Miss J! Doomsayer? Yeah I know him, and let me tell you, he's bad news. I remember asking Smokey…  *AHEM* Smoker once why all his friends and associates tremble at the mere mention of his name, but even he was too terrified to speak of it."

Atomic Bat's expression hardened. "Our ignorance of Doomsayer is unacceptable. If we are to put an end to his reign of terror, we must gather every bit of information available on him."

Harlot nodded, her expression serious. "I'll start looking into any leads I can find."





Several hours later, the Blue Tango finally arrives at the Atomic Bat's HQ…

"Tango!  It's about time you got here!"

Tango entered the room and stood silently in front of the Atomic Bat and Harlot, who stopped what she was doing on the computer to look up.

"Tango?"

Still no words from the Night Knight.

"Hmm…  The silent treatment, huh?"  She whispered over to the Atomic Bat.

"There was no sign of Smoker.  Everyone else was accounted for, but I couldn't find him."

Harlot's eyes lit up brighter than the computer screen.

"Smokey's alive?!"

"Are you sure?  There was no trace of him at all?"

"No, I'm not sure, but if he made it out he's the only one that did.  And that means he's the only one that can tell us anything about Doomsayer…"

Tango narrowed his eyes and slowly turned his look over to Harlot.

"Except for you."

"Wait a minute, Tango," Atomic Bat interjected. "Harlot doesn't know anything about Doomsayer, except that all the other villains feared him. Smoker never told her why."

“Yeah, Nighty Knight!  I don't know nuthin'!  I swear!”

The Blue Tango narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Harlot, but he wanted to trust Atomic Bat's judgment and backed off.

"Look, we will find this Doomsayer, but we have other problems right now," Atomic Bat continued. "We need to focus on our upcoming Tag Team Title shot at May Day 2."

Tango nodded in agreement, his focus shifting back to their upcoming match.

"Right, and I've dealt with Smoker enough times that I know we'll easily be able to sniff him out.  As for our match?  I've been looking forward to this opportunity, Bats, but before we get into the politics of tag teams and such….  Check out the comeback kid, huh?  Raion Kido.  You have to really adore and appreciate his enthusiasm, ya know?  Ever since he lost that Uni belt, his sole purpose in life was to prove himself again to not just everyone around here, but ESPECIALLY to HIMself.  I think he's his own worst enemy and so much so that I actually began to worry a little bit here.  Pride can be a powerful thing and all Kido does is nothing but preach about honor and all that fancy superhero jargon that we all know, but then goes full warrior on us and I've seen enough samurai movies in my day to know what "seppuku" is and let me tell ya…  If the cash-in thing on Sid didn't work for the kid I was gonna text Theo and tell him to keep an extra eye on him for a little while if ya catch my drift."

"You know what the sad part is?  As great as this guy can be, I usually skip over his stuff cause he bores the daylights out of me.  I DID watch one of his matches recently.  The one against Peter Vaughn in the March Madness tourney.  Well, I fast-forwarded to the end only to see Vaughn win and I got mad and turned it off…  That Vaughn couldn't win his way out of a paper bag without cheating because that's pretty much the only way he's gotten anything done since he invaded the place.  I might be mad about it, but I'm not nearly as livid as Kido is about it.  Didn't his sensei ever tell him that all of that honor and dignity and soul bonding crap goes out the window when you start whining about being cheated out of win?  He kinda looks like a cry baby loser pants, T.B.H.  And that doesn't look very 'lion-like'.  Rarrr.  Do better.  There's no honor without adversity the same as there's no pain, no gain.  And we all know that the position he's in right now has nothing to do with overcoming ANY kind of adversity or pain.  Not doing good enough and losing doesn't give points to either of those categories.  Was it the fact that the deadline was coming up to use that briefcase?  Was that instant transmission trip to the top of the mountain burning a hole in his chincy cheap suit of armor?  Or was his heart so broken after getting bounced out of March Madness so early that it finally broke him and he decided to cash-in?  Wait, wait.  He did it the 'honorable' way right?  Bologna.  Just because he didn't sneak up behind her and take it like most people would, he still took the easy-way and didn't do squat to earn a title shot.  Heck, she was giving a title shot away on Anarchy if he wanted one that bad or wasn't that flashy enough?  I mean, case or no case, open challenge or no, Sidney Grey's so nice I'm sure if he begged her long enough he would get one.  Or is that too dishonorable?  Is it as dishonorable as teaming up with someone like Jason Cashe?  That guy's a freakin' jerk, man!  He's another one of those failed invaders that showed up from OCW that didn't realize that they weren't swimming in a pond anymore, but an ocean.  Even after the failed invasion, we allowed them to stay and apparently he had some big plans with a different tag team partner back then.  He failed, of course, just like the rest of his crew.  He admits that him winning the Xtreme Tite was a fluke anyway and Vaughn winning the Uni wasn't much more than that, either."

"This probably isn't all Kido's fault, though.  They're apparently some random pairing, which is weird considering Theo Pryce represents them both…  How random is that?  You know the type of people that Theo Pryce represents, though?  The ones that need that rub.  They need to be touching elbows with someone of his stature in order to get that bump of uhhhhhhh……  momentum to the top.  Funny how that works, isn't it?  I've seen it fail before, too, though…  So hopefully they're smart enough to use their resources and capitalize.  Well, I hope not I guess, right?  Bats…  You spent a lot of time on Anarchy and apparently that's the only place that Cashe was able to get relevant before his random pairing with a fellow comrade, what do you know?" 

“Jason Cashe. A man with the gall to question the integrity of Ruby, but can't even stand up for his own stablemate when he's being attacked. I mean, I saw the footage of Vanilla Gorilla taking down Ned Kaye, and Cashe's reaction was initially to laugh. That is, until Vanilla Gorilla back tagged him, of course. Then an injured and angry Cashe was all action. Is that the kind of person you want watching your back in the ring? A man who would laugh than leap to action? A man who obviously cares only for himself? A man that isn’t even sure what the names of his Godchildren are?"

"Sure, Kido and Cashe were able to capture those Tag Team titles, but let's be real here. They haven't faced a team like us before. We’re not The Cool Kids, and we certainly aren’t Graves and Cadryn. Blue Tango and I have been policing this city, fighting off supervillains and putting our lives on the line night after night. We know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and we have each other's backs no matter what. That's the kind of team the XWF needs to be champions."

"We're heroes who share a common goal, a common purpose. We're fighting for something bigger than ourselves. We're fighting for the honor and integrity of this sport, for the safety and security of this city, and for the people, whether they believe in us or not."

"At the end of the day, Blue Tango and I don't just want to be champions for the sake of having gold around our waists. We seek to be champions to inspire and uplift those who look up to us. We want to show that you can achieve greatness through hard work, perseverance, and a commitment to honor and fair play. Two things that both of our opponents lack to various degrees."

“Let's not overlook Raion Kido's stance on holding the Tag Team titles. According to him, grasping the gold was merely "nice," but his mind was already fixed on a bigger goal, reclaiming the Universal Championship. This doesn't strike me as the behavior of a good teammate. It seems like his priorities are scattered and disorganized, which is why he now finds himself defending two titles in one night. It begs the question, where will his priorities lie on May 6th? On the other hand, Atomic Bat and Blue Tango have made our priorities crystal clear.”

"We aspire to be the ultimate team, fighting with unwavering honor and integrity, showcasing to the world what genuine heroes embody. As we head into the highly-anticipated XWF Tag Team Championship match at MayDay 2, we are determined to demonstrate that very notion. Raion Kido and Jason Cashe will witness the true meaning of teamwork as we claim those coveted titles. Prepare yourselves, gentlemen, for we are coming with full force to bring home the gold and set an example of what it truly means to be champions!"

"Oh, dang, nice touch, Bats!  We've already proven to the world that we can get the job done.  We've grown as a team in the past several weeks and EARNED our place here.  Those two?  They live in two different worlds and live two different kinds of lives.  Different tribes.  Different wavelengths.  The Blue Tango and the Atomic Bat?  We are one.  A single brute force that from this day will be the new standard of, according to Cashe, such a sad Tag Team Division.  Not all teams are what he says they are and when that truth swoops down from the shadows and smacks him in the face…  It will be HIS shoulders on the mat getting pinned and bringing that truth into reality."

BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!

As Tango finishes his thought, alarms start going off throughout the HQ!

"Harlot!  What's going on?"

Harlot starts rapping away at the keys on the keyboard.  The screen flashes and her eyes go wide.  Atomic Bat hovers behind her and has a similar reaction.

"What is it?!"

Atomic Bat looks up.

"It's the Heroes Guild…….  It's gone."