The Annual Rhodes Charity Ball

It was a star-studded Friday Night on the 90th Floor of Pyramid Plaza 1. Antonio Cruz and the Rhodes Foundation threw their annual Rhodes Charity Ball, with their special guests Deathstroke and Speed Demon of the Freedom League. Also in attendance were all the wealthiest Freedom City had to offer, Fletcher Beaumont II, Duncan Summers, Mark LeRoche (along with his wife and his daughter, and FCPD’s Commissioner Barbara Kane.

The league worked the room, meeting and greeting. As Speed Demon was meeting with a man named Dr. Charles Lincoln who the league had saved from duplicates of the old Freedom League. Lincoln was excited about showing off his new breakthroughs in cybernetics, but was interrupted when the windows crash open to reveal an attack helicopter just outside.

Following the broken glass, a group of SHADOW agents swung down on ropes to enter the room. Along with Shadow came a group of super-mercenaries and criminals. Coda, armed with a sonic rifle, Anvil the metal-skinned hothead, who bowled through the crowd to swipe at Speed Demon and two Battle Brothers a pair of ex-con thugs with powered bracers. Coda was immediately shot out the open window by Deathstroke.

Speed Demon immediately grabbed some of the guests and attempted to run them out of the building only to find the doors to the ballroom locked shut, a violation of policy and fire-code. Luckily Mr. Summers was available to break the looks with a swipe from his cane and the guests were rushed to safety as Speed Demon batted rockets back at the helicopter.

The helicopter quickly went totally out of control, the pilots unable to explain why lights turned on and off and the stick jerked out of their hands and would not return to center position. Finally they turned the helicopter around and fled.

A strange figure dressed in shadow colors with a strange backpack started appearing among the crowd, grabbing people and disappearing again. Cruz, Commissioner Kane and a lawyer named Lucious Cabot were all kidnapped before the thugs called for a retreat, “The target has been aquired.”

The battle brothers lept out the window to disappear in to the night, while Anvil jumped out the window to plummet to the ground. Frustrated he was pursued by Speed Demon, who would not get close enough to hit until Anvil gave up and agreed to be arrested. Meanwhile Deathstroke and Raptor attempted to interrogate the remaining Shadow agents, ultimately leading to Deathstroke dangling people out the window and dropping them

The silent invisible figure helping the Freedom League followed the helicopter till it set down outside of town, then followed the pilots to an abandoned strip mall with an old K-mart. Inside the K-mart was a functioning SHADOW training base. An officer gave the pilots a dressing down for losing the helicopter . The invisible figure went looking for the captives, finding them locked up near a room with video equipment. Then he tracked down the apparent leader of the compound, a figure in armor with a mask hiding his face. After the leader went to sleep, the hero stole the leader’s helmet, crashed out a window and used the helmet to lead the Freedom League to the base.