Champions of the Omniverse - Part 7

Having traveled to New York City, our heroes and The Fixer begin to investigate the rooftop where "Firenado" killed Mentallo, or at least where that event appears to have happened, if indeed it did happen. With the usual smattering of scientists that every superhero team seems to have, the Champions start to investigate the crime scene. The location of the "murder" and the cameraman are soon uncovered and Spiderstrike elects to open up a skylight and climb down into the abandoned cannery and investigate. Inside, our multi-limbed hero finds Mentallo strapped to a strange computerised device, he calls up for help and Koga, Gigawatt, Firenado, Firestarter and The Fixer come down. An argument erupts between the heroes over what to do about the machine and Mentallo, whilst unobserved, The Fixer walks over and starts to sabotage the machine. Spiderstrike dives to stop Fixer, but it's too late, the machine's defenses activate, with a laser turret popping out on both the north and south walls whilst, on the roof, exact duplicates of Firenado and Mentallo burst out of the water tank! 

Catching our heroes by surprise, the laser cannons wound Spiderstrike and blast Fixer into unconsciousness. Thinking quickly, Koga uses the light-bending technology in his suit to direct the laser blasts into each other, destroying the guns before they can do any more damage. Up on the roof, Manzilla uses his Ionic Breath to generate a storm-cloud above the cannery, but the reduced visibility doesn't prevent Mentallo from shooting down Sonic Tsunami whilst Firenado blasts fire back at Manzilla. Inside the cannery, Koga and Gigawatt are having a time of it freeing Mentallo from the machine, so Firenado and Spiderstrike head back up to the roof, leaving both Firenado and Manzilla confused at the presence of two Firenados. Enraged at probably finding the true killer, Firenado blasts the Mentallo doppelganger, revealing the imposter to actually be a sophisticated robot! No longer worried about hurting his friend, Manzilla blasts "Firenado" with his ionic breath, freezing him in a block of ice. 
 

Meanwhile, back at the X-mansion, Professor X has examined the robots, discovering a magnetic memory tape inside one that shows none other than the X-Men's arch-nemesis, Magneto! The vision shows Magneto working on a high-tech device and an electronic map in the background with lights in the USA, Central America, Australia and Northern Asia. An interrogation of Mentallo reveals that he was working with Magneto to create "Breeder Bombs", weapons that would change the levels of radiation in the atmosphere and create more mutants in the next generations. Once Mentallo had used his powers (enhanced by one of Magneto's machines) to help Magneto gather all of the parts necessary for the Breeder Bombs, he was betrayed and left in the machine to rot. Professor X discerns that the first of the bombs is in Colorado and the team prepares to depart.