T minus 15 minutes. People settle down and prepare to the show. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin have boarded, the area has been cleaned, and all seems to be according to order. On the highway, cars have given up on moving back and forth and are just sitting and waiting.

Three of Team Olympus are present at this, one of the greatest achievements of Mankind. They greet people as they make their way through the crowd, trying not to stay in one place so they don't overshadow the real heroes, the ones in the rocket.

Thunderstrike sits and watches the rocket, his heart racing. Every once in a while he looks at the sky. He says to whomever is next to him, "Nice weather. Good for the launch!"

Karen is up with the press, holding her camera up and taking photos. She is giddy with excitement.

Ce'cetar is quietly looking around at anything and everything, the same way he did his first time to Olympus Island.

Some people look curiously at the out-of-town superheroes and wonder who they are.

Karen adjusts her telephoto lens and zooms in on the Saturn.

Time slowly passes, as the heroes walk around and are sociable. T minus 10 minutes. Minus 5. 4... The rocket begins to hum, preparing the various systems for takeoff.

Ce'cetar says, "Why is that truck humming?"

The click of Karen's camera is heard as she snaps more photos. o O (I bet I can get a good sum for this.)

Point looks over at the truck, thinking it might be a news vehicle of some kind. . o O (Hmmm. No markings.)

Ce'cetar points to the truck in question, and looks over it for any particular markings.

Thunderstrike looks over at the truck, with some concern, and walks towards it.

Flow glances over at the truck, also, then back to the rocket.

The aforementioned truck is parked on the highway, twenty yards away or so. It's unmarked, and little can be seen inside the shadowy canopy.

Point thinks . o O (You guys wait here. I'm going to check this out.)

Vox now looks at Point, walking towards the truck. He looks past Point, and sees Thunderstrike as well.

Ce'cetar then looks around for any similar trucks.

Not many other trucks around. Most decided to take other highways today.

The sun reflects off the truck windows, making it hard to discern who's inside. The driver looks at Thunderstrike and asks, "Any problem, senor?"

Ce'cetar listens for anything else making a similar hum.

Thunderstrike says, "No, no, of course not. Just wanted to get away from the crowds. You from around here?"

Point looks over the back of the truck, standing about 5 or 6 feet away.

Vox looks back at the rocket now, sure that Point is just being nosy.

The driver says, "Not really, senor. I'm from beautiful Cuba."

Thunderstrike blinks a few times, "Cuba? As in... Castro? Cuba?"

The driver says, "Si, senor. Beautiful Cuba the Americans destroyed. And you know?"

Thunderstrike takes a step or two back, "Know what?"

The door FLIES off its hinges and towards Thunderstrike.

Point steps a little closer, to try and look into the back of the truck and locate the source of the humming.

Thunderstrike instinctively moves his hands, and a strong blast of wind knocks the door aside!

Ce'cetar hears the grunch of metal being torn asunder and looks back at the truck, with a suddenly troubled expression.

The back doors of the truck open, and four giant robots come rushing out!

Point starts, jerking his hand away from the truck, and crouching into a ready stance.

Iguana says, "Yo creo que es tempo para VENGANZA."

GunBot

This metal humanoid shape stands 8 feet tall. It has many of the parts of a normal human: two arms, two legs, body, head -- but there the resemblance breaks down. It has a single bubble on the front of its head, which is itself a cylinder with a short, complicated antenna rising from its top. The neck is really a rotation joint assembly, as are the shoulder, elbow, wrist, waist, hip, knee, and ankle junctures. Most of the arms and legs are solid metal constructs. The right forearm is a large cylindrical affair with a gun barrel where the right hand should be. The left hand is a simple grasping clamp. The torso is also a cylinder, slightly larger around the shoulders and narrower at the waist. The robot is colored a uniform dully-gleaming silver, save for the joints, which are a darker, non-reflective metal.

Point thinks . o O (TROUBLE!)

Iguana

Iguana is a massive figure, almost seven feet tall and about as large in width. His blue-gray scaly outfit shows muscles better than most anatomical charts. The only body part not covered by the costume is the face, appearing out of the open mouth of the lizard-like head of the outfit: He has a medium complexion, dark green eyes and a thin black moustache. Out the back of the costume a long segmented tail extends, tipped with four axe-shaped blades.

Flow and Vox turn as one to look at Point and the truck.

Thunderstrike swirls the winds around him, "Iggy! Long time no see!"

Point slaps a hand onto the butt of his Pneumoblaster, his eyes going wide behind his visor.

Iguana steps off the cab. "Trueno. Don't you have an island to defend?"

The robots hold their gun-arms towards Point, and then around as they position themselves around the truck.

Ce'cetar snarls back toward Iguana, whom he has never met before, "Tu elige la actitud incorrecta. Ahora debo DESTRUIRLE."

Karen turns to take some photos of the crowd watching the launch, as well.

Point draws his blaster, jumping back a couple feet. Vox and Flow also draw their blasters, and start into a run.

Iguana says, "Nobody try anything silly... Ahh, uno hablas espanol. Hombre Pescado desea desafiarme?"

Point calls out to the metal beings. "Stand where you are and lower your weapons!"

Flow rolls his eyes as he runs.

Iguana jumps on the cab with a single bound. It crumples slightly. "Me disgusta no poder jugar, but I have a rocket to destroy."

Thunderstrike says, "Iguana, whatever you're trying, it's silly. You wanna move, I'll blast you into next week!"

Ce'cetar draws both knives and runs full-tilt toward the fight, calling back "No, deseo matarle!"

Karen clicks a few photos of the people watching the launch.

Ce'cetar sizes up the positions of the robots and Iguana, in preparation for running up and doing the most damage.

Point says, "No response, eh? Okay, moon launch, Iguana, unfriendly-looking, uh, things. That spells 'Time For Point To Save The Day'. And that means it's time for you guys to punch out." He aims his Pneumoblaster at the nearest metal thing and fires.

Point's blast whooshes by the robot, maybe cooling it down a little.

Thunderstrike motions quickly, the wind swirling around him. He rises from the ground, and his hand extends towards Iguana, sending a pounding wind blast

Iguana is carried all the way over the truck, over its back, and onto the asphalt. "Hrrrrrgh... Now I'm mad..."

Flow says, almost under his breath, "Oh, for cryin' out LOUD, can you knock off the grandstanding and get the JOB done!" He skids to a halt about 15 feet away from a different robot, aims his blaster, and fires.

The charge KLANGS loudly against the metal... but the robot doesn't seem at all fazed. Actually, it doesn't seem anything at all, given its face is a bubble.

Flow 's attack cools down his target even more directly, but has little other effect.

Vox says nothing, merely takes his place at Flow's side, and fires at the same robot.

KLANG again. No effect again.

GunBot-B aims its gun-arm at Flow and fires.

Flow flips backwards, his Pneumoblaster flying out of his hand, and he lands in a heap, face down, barely stirring.

Iguana says, "Ah, si, they seem to be living up to the specificacions. But enough for play, it is time!"

Thunderstrike says, "Time for me to blow you back to Cuba? Well, if you insist..."

Ce'cetar runs up to one of the gunbots (GBA) and takes a murderous-looking swing at it with his knives.

The knife does a scratch mark on the metal skin, but not much else.

The back of the truck bends and tears with a loud, grating noise. It opens like a flower, and a large, squarish MISSILE LAUNCHER bends upwards and turns towards a point somewhere in the sky above the rocket. It has four no-nonsense-looking missiles, each as long as a car. On the part that connects to the truck, there's a control panel, operated by two robots.

MissileBot

This metal humanoid shape stands 8 feet tall. It has many of the parts of a normal human: two arms, two legs, body, head -- but there the resemblance breaks down. It has a single bubble on the front of its head, which is itself a cylinder with a short, complicated antenna rising from its top. The neck is really a rotation joint assembly, as are the shoulder, elbow, wrist, waist, hip, knee, and ankle junctures. Most of the arms and legs are solid metal constructs. The hands and fingers are complicated affairs of wires and tiny rods. The torso is also a cylinder, slightly larger around the shoulders and narrower at the waist. The robot is colored a uniform dully-gleaming silver, save for the joints, which are a darker, non-reflective metal.

MissileBot-A presses keys and flips switches on the control panel. The launcher's humming increases significantly.

Gunbots C and D turn their weapons towards Thunderstrike and fire.

Thunderstrike winces slightly as the bullets are knocked aside by the winds swirling around him. "Iguana, call this off NOW!"

The people around the truck scream and yell. This alerts the people farther away, that look at the truck, THEN scream and yell. Soon, the entire beach is a screaming and yelling mess.

GunBot-A aims its gun at its attacker, Point, and fires.

And misses.

Iguana jumps atop the missile launcher. "Today, America will fly... and have its wings burn down!"

Karen frowns as she notices the ruckus through her telephoto lens. She quickly moves out of the stands and somewhere hidden. She sets up her camera to take automatic photos of the Saturn as it launches, and then begins to swiftly change to Dasher.

Ce'cetar looks at the gunbot he just tried to smash, then up at the missile that's about to go off... finally he decides to slap his knives onto his hips (where they stick inexplicably as usual), jump up onto the launcher, and point his arms down the tube. Then, SHNAP! He fires a volley of spurs down the tube.

The spur lodges firmly on the missile, and sparks fly.

Iguana says, "... Tonto! You want to kill all of us?"

Vox never takes his gaze off the robot that just shot his teammate, even as Flow flips and nearly hits him on the way to the ground. He calmly thumbs a certain switch, and fires again.

Ce'cetar shouts back, "!Venga para arriba aqui y pareme, lagarto!"

Thunderstrike flies down, "You're as tough as I remember, Iguana. But I can't let you do this..." He moves in close to one of the robots working on the missile, and takes a swing at him.

Sand flies everywhere as Flow's shot skids to a side.

And the thunder rolls...

The robot flies back, rolling on the asphalt like a cheap toy.

Point takes note of Flow's distress from the corner of his eye, but never takes his full gaze from his opponent. Moving his thumb over that same switch on _his_ Pneumoblaster, he then takes careful aim and fires.

And more sand flies. Maybe the guns buckle with so much charge?

Iguana says, "I'd love to stay and fight, but your little joke probably will drive the missile off course... so I will have to give it a bit of help!"

Dasher finishes setting up the camera, then takes off in a fast sprint, heading to help the others.

MissileBot-B turns and tries to hit Thunderstrike with its sharp claws.

Thunderstrike once again shifts slightly as the robotic attack skids off his protective wind. "These servants of yours, Iguana... Useless. Just like their master."

Point frowns beneath his mask at his missed shot, then his gaze follows the launched missile up and up, even as he irrationally crouches low to avoid being hit by it.

Gunbots A and B aim at Point and Vox, respectively.

Point fairly BAWLS, "Thunderstrike! THE MISSILE!"

Thunderstrike's eyes flash electric blue, "On it!"

Gunbots C and D home on Thunderstrike.

Thunderstrike laughs as the bullets ricochet around him.

MissileBot-A stands up and shuffles towards the missile launcher, sparking slightly.

Point flies backwards, his Pneumoblaster sailing in another direction. He crashes bonelessly to the ground and does not move.

Ce'cetar still stands atop the launcher. He tracks the missiles with his outstretched arms, following Iguana and the projectile, and finally *SHNAP!* another volley of ten spurs go flying off at high speed after the rocket.

Vox is hit, and staggers back a half-step, but manages to keep his feet and his grip on his blaster. He throws a glance at Point, then up at the missile, then back at the bot with a gun arm still pointed at him.

Iguana gets a rearful of spikes. "What the... You'll pay for this when I come back!"

Flow bestirs himself, trying to make sense of that loud roaring he's hearing.

Thunderstrike flies towards the missile launcher and waits, "I'll catch the next one... Use it to get to his..."

The second missile launches, moving at an amazing speed. The wind pulls incredibly, but the wind is Thunderstrike's friend.

Thunderstrike snags the missile and hangs on for dear life!

Vox clenches his fist, muttering under his breath as he glances between his opponent and Thunderstrike and the new missile. "Go. Go! GO!"

Dasher gasps as she pours it on, and skids to a halt by the missile launch control. Her wind wake whips past her, "Okay. I wish I was El Cid, now. Or that Point was awake." She looks at the thing, then her hands move out and flick a couple of switches.

The missile launcher stops most of the humming.

Flow shakes his head, then leaps to his feet. With a quick glance about, he spies his Pneumoblaster, then _leaps_ towards it.

GunBot-A thinks . o O (01000111 1011011 01101011)

GunBot-B thinks . o O (01000111 1011011 01101010)

With his Pneumoblaster still at boosted strength, Vox takes aim at his robotic opponent and gives it another go.

GunBot-B flies back and under the truck.

Iguana looks over his shoulder. "Trueno? Por Dios, don't you ever quit?"

Dasher stands near the missile launcher, "You know, um, Team O, I'm not really good at this electronic stuff." She bites her lip, "Let's see. In Hawaii 5-0, it's always the red wire."

The panel jars lightly, but resists. Some lights start blinking erratically.

Vox thinks . o O (I need to get past these robots and up to that control panel!)

The launcher wobbles left and right.

Dasher frowns. o O (I really wish Altura were here.)

Ce'cetar sees that there's little he can do about the missiles already in flight, but there are still robots on the ground he can strike at. He grabs his garasha knives again and takes a screaming lunge at Gunbot A again.

GunBot-A flies one way and his non-gun arm the other way.

Thunderstrike keeps his grip on the missile, moving closer to the first one. His eyes glow with a blue fire, and out of the clear blue sky, a bolt of lightning snaps downward towards Iguana's missile.

The missile was not designed to take damage. It was designed to explode. And so, it does.

The sky over the river goes white for a moment.

Dasher grimaces, "Oh my god!!!" . o O (I hope my camera got that)

Thunderstrike thinks. o O (One down... One to go.)

Iguana soars through the air like the great eagle.

Ce'cetar takes a (hopefully) equally harsh swing at the next available gunbot.

The MissileBots leap at Dasher to claw at her. They're the operators, not her.

Dasher has a sharp intake of breath. She ducks easily past their attacks. "This is technology for the wrong reasons."

Gunbots C and D turn around and aim at Ce'cetar.

Ce'cetar raises an arm to further block the incoming shot.

Gunbot A props itself up, and fires at Vox. Gunbot B crawls out from under the truck and fires at Dasher.

Dasher frowns. o O (Team O needs to get into the Training Room more...agggh, I may have to run him to a hospital.) O o . A shot aimed at her doesn't even come close.

Vox spins around with the force of the shot, sagging and almost going to one knee, but righting himself and twisting back into a ready stance thru sheer force of will. His left arm hangs loosely by his side, and he's a bit wobbly.

Thunderstrike's missile flies on, shaking as it passes the shockwave of the explosion.

Vox scarcely misses a beat as he spins back into a ready crouch. His right arm flies up and takes aim with the Pneumoblaster at the robot that just shot him. He bares his teeth unseen beneath his cloth mask and squeezes off a boosted shot.

The little antenna on the robot's head shatters.

GunBot-A thinks . o O (00110001 MALFUNCTION - NO COMBAT SIGNAL CARRIER)

Point comes to and looks around groggily.

Point takes a Recovery and is now at 5 STUN, 5 END.

Flow scoops up his Pneumoblaster, giving a quick and vigorous shake, then slings it up and around towards the robot that's shooting at Vox.

Vox's antenna shattering is a bit useless now, as the entire head of the robot blows off.

Iguana shakes his head clear. "Madre de dios... Where is the ground?"

Iguana falls into the river with a SPLASH

Flow thinks . o O (Antenna. Now why do they have antenna?)

Dasher ducks beneath the two Missilebots attacking her. She winds up her fist and swings at the one nearest her, aiming for the head and antennae. "You aren't getting to work the controls."

Dasher's fist hits with a resounding KLANGGGGGG.

Ce'cetar lunges at Gunbot C, not terribly concerned about their fire. It seems only to be bullets anyway.

MissileBot-B 's face bubble cracks, and it reels backwards.

Thunderstrike turns around, facing the back of the rocket, and cocks his fist back. "May the wings of liberty never lose a feather..."

Vox thinks . o O (I'm not doing so well, and my blaster's empty.)

Flow thinks . o O (I know. Hang in there, and get ready to move.)

The missile happily flies forward. 30 seconds for the rocket takeoff.

Dasher turns and swings again, this time at Missilebot B's bubblehead.

The robot's head does a full 360 turn, but doesn't seem otherwise damaged.

Ce'cetar takes another hard swing at Gunbot C, trying to dislodge or destroy whatever he can.

GunBot-C 's gun arm flies off.

Ce'cetar growls something gutteral as he removes another bot-part, and turns his attention toward bot D.

The propulsion explodes and ceases working, and the missile starts doing a wide arch towards the water.

Thunderstrike slams his fist down onto the back of the rocket, then leaps off into the air, allowing the wind currents to cary him away.

Flow takes aim with his Pneumoblaster one last time, this time at the robot that Ce'cetar is not currently attacking (GunBot-D?).

Gunbot-D gets a big hole through its chest.

Vox staggers over to where Point is, and helps him to his feet.

Point is helped up by Vox, and then moves over to get his dropped weapon.

Iguana doesn't resurface.

Gunbot B fires at Dasher. Gunbot D fires at Ce'cetar. Gunbot A fires anywhere, and Gunbot C just stands there.

Ce'cetar lowers an arm to catch some of the damage on the forearm, but the being pelted back does shake him up somewhat.

The shot is in slow motion to Dasher. She steps aside from the trajectory, and bites her lip as Ce'cetar is shot.

GunBot-C hits a coconut, which falls and rolls off.

Missilebots A and B lunge at Dasher, one from each side.

Ce'cetar snarls, "You're next" at Gunbot-D.

Dasher tries to avoid them, but cannot. Too many opponents. The Missilebots connect, and it's not a pretty sight. Her body is tossed aside, and she lands unceremoniously across the road from the truck, unconscious.

Ce'cetar looks over at the missilebots. "No. On second thought, *you're* next."

The missile soars into the water... and there's a BOOM and it rains for a moment.

Ce'cetar takes a lunging series of slashes at one of the missilebots ...whichever one provides a suitable rear-attack.

MissileBot-B flies into MissileBot-A, sparking. They short circuit each other, and fall in a mound of crumpled metal.

Thunderstrike flies back towards the missile launcher

Vox gathers himself, then LEAPS up onto the truck bed beside Dasher.

Flow does pretty much the same thing, leaping over the GunBots and landing on the truck bed.

Gunbot-B flies onto the bot heap and shorts out as well.

Gunbot-A fires a shot randomly.

Gunbot-A hits another coconut, that falls on its head and makes it fall.

GunBot-D aims its gun at Cetar, not knowing it's a lost battle.

GunBot-D sparks and shoots the ground.

Ce'cetar stalks after Gunbot-D, growling "NOW it's your turn." Finally he jumps after it too, slashing.

Ce'cetar swings hard, with a good follow-through, and hopes he knocks something big off of it.

Gunbot-D loses its head, veers around randomly, and oddly, ends up on the bot pile.

Ce'cetar bounds off down toward the river. Possibly for a swim. Possibly to bag Iguana. It's hard to tell with that one.

Thunderstrike flies in low, and whips a quick thunderstrike onto the remaining robot.

The robot moves to dodge, but topples to the ground and crashes heavily.

The heavily wounded Team Olympus gathers around the unconscious Dasher.

As the last robot falls, the people around the truck (at a safe distance) cheer the heroes!

Thunderstrike looks to see that Team Olympus and Dasher are okay, then turns to the crowd, "Don't cheer us. Those are the heroes today." He points at the rocket on the launch pad.

As Thunderstrike speaks, the rocket starts rumbling. 10... 9... 8...

Dasher wakes up as Team Olympus helps. She stands, then says, "GREAT SPEEDING GHOSTS!!" and with a burst of wind, is headed back to the main photography area, changing as she runs. She grabs the camera she left and starts snapping shots.

Ce'cetar slows his running toward the water as the countdown enters the final ten seconds, not sure what is going to happen on the launching pad.

Smoke pours from the bottom of the rocket. 3... 2... 1... Blastoff!

Dasher smiles, "Wow. This is so far out!!"

Ce'cetar thinks . o O (Swimming up through the ocean of air... I wonder what they'll find up there?)

Meanwhile, back on the Island, a silver alien watches on the TV waves and grins, "Such quaint ship!"

The people on the beach cheer as Apollo 11 flies upwards, into the clear blue skies.

Ce'cetar finally goes into the water and starts swimming back and forth looking either for a) Iguana, or b) shellfish.

Thunderstrike looks to the skies, "Today, those men become legend."

Ce'cetar comes out of the water carrying something large and blue-grey. But not as large as Iguana. There will be fish for lunch, it seems.

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Daily Olympian: July 17, 1969. page 1. Photos by Karen Carter

The first human journey to the surface of the Moon began at Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at Cape Canaveral, Florida with the liftoff of Apollo 11 on a Saturn V booster at 9:32 a.m. EDT (13:32 UT) on a clear sunny Wednesday, 16 July 1969. Crowds gathered along US Highway 1 to watch, as did the members of the press and political dignitaries.

[Photos of the press members, long-shot of people and cars lined up along the highway]

A T minus 14, the mood became far more tense, as Cuban villain Iguana appeared with a truck armed with a missile launcher and several robots. As luck would have it, a few of Olympus Island's superheroes happened to have been watching the launch, and they intervened to stop the communist madman. Thunderstrike, Members of Team Olympus and Ce'Cetar were in attendance that day. Thunderstrike acted quickly to stop the two missiles that had been launched at the Saturn V, destroying both before they reached their target.

[Photo of missile exploding over the Indian River, with Iguana falling]

Meanwhile, Members of Team Olympus and Ce'cetar managed to stop the various robots, as well as the launching of additional missiles. The launch went off as planned.

[Photos of the Apollo 11 launch]

Authorities arrived quickly and took all of Iguana's equipment for investigation. Members of Team Olympus had been injured in the battle and were taken to a local hospital near Titusville, Florida.

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