LAST ISSUE...
Episode One: So You Think You’re a Superhero?
Arbiter, Fabulon, Gatekeeper, Hydroponic, and Madlad entered the Ascension competition and introduced themselves to the world in front of a live audience and millions of viewers at home. Once the cameras started rolling, a series of backstage challenges gave them the chance to size up one another—and to meet the competition: Cascade, Cognate, Ghostlight, Stampede, and Mantle.
Then came the ratings.
The contestants judged one another across a range of categories, and when the scores were tallied, Arbiter emerged as the clear audience favorite.
That distinction put him at the center of The Hot Seat, where he wasted no time turning the pressure on his own teammate, Gatekeeper. Faced with a barrage of tough questions, Gatekeeper responded with a level of frankness that was, for once, remarkably un-catlike.
The early rounds also delivered a few unexpected romantic developments. Fabulon openly flirted with Stampede, Cascade made her interest in Hydroponic known, and Cognate attempted to flirt with Cascade in a display so painfully awkward it may have qualified as its own endurance challenge. Elsewhere, the contestants roasted one another with wildly varying degrees of success.
Then the lights came up on The Crucible, where each contestant faced a rival in single combat.
Fabulon took on Stampede, reached the beacon, claimed the custom hard-light ranged weapon reward, and used it to secure the victory. Madlad did the same against Cascade, Hydroponic overcame Mantle, and Gatekeeper prevailed over Ghostlight. Arbiter and Cognate, meanwhile, remained locked in an evenly matched contest that ended in a tie.
And then came The Crisis. The two teams collided in a full-scale battle that demanded power, strategy, and more than a little improvisation.
Hydroponic transformed into living water and concealed herself within the fountain, using it as both disguise and cover while launching attacks from inside it. Gatekeeper flooded the battlefield with illusory duplicates of the entire team, leaving their opponents struggling to identify the real heroes—or guess where the next attack would come from.
One by one, the rival contestants fell.
Stampede. Cognate. Mantle. Ghostlight. Cascade.
By the end of the battle, Madlad had delivered the finishing blows against Stampede, Cognate, and Mantle, earning the title of Crisis MVP with three knockouts.
With all five rivals defeated, Arbiter, Fabulon, Gatekeeper, Hydroponic, and Madlad stood victorious.
Then came The Moment—the triumphant team photograph meant to present the winners to the world.
The flash went off. And the lie came apart.
For one terrible instant, the five heroes saw what was truly standing behind the faces of The Guard. The world’s most celebrated heroes were, in fact, the villains of The Ascendancy, concealed beneath a powerful veil and smiling for the cameras as though nothing had changed.
The team HAD to keep smiling, but it was too great a shock.
Three of the five failed their deception checks.
Their reactions gave them away immediately.
The applause continued. The cameras kept rolling. Millions watched as heroes and monsters posed together beneath the lights.
But behind the smiles, both sides now understood the truth.
The veil had been broken.
And the Ascendancy knew they had been seen.
Before the heroes could react, their bodies locked in place.
Unable to move, they caught only part of the exchange around them—just enough to hear that by morning, the world would believe the other team had won.
Then everything went black.
