The Silver Age

A newspaper is slammed on the desk.

SLAM!

"Curse that brother of mine! The Lord of the Night and his Fearsome Four's crimes have constantly made headlines while my misdeeds never even make it on the front page! 'LORD OF THE NIGHT'S FLOOD FOILED!' 'LORD OF THE NIGHT'S MURDEROUS MACHINE MASHED!' I'm tired of living in the Lord of the Night's shadow! Soon, the world will know to fear the name Dylan!"

Meanwhile, at the King of Beasts Malt Shop...

Gezora, The Amazing Squid, polishes empty glasses after a good day of serving its clientele. Returning to its store room to prepare the next day's batch of special malt drinks. However, upon opening the store room's door, it finds it empty!

The Amazing Squid rushes quickly to its office and lifts the head of its Major Failure bust, revealing a secret button. Pressing the button, the Amazing Squid sends out a distress call to...

The Dawn Soldiers!

Deep in the Everglades, a transceiver begins to beep! Emerging from the foliage is the Giant Mantis! Once an ordinary mantis, a group of super scientists performed genetic experiments on her, increasing her strength and size to heroic proportions! And thus, The Giant Mantis was born! Using her "Mantis Sense", she can sense opportunities no other mortal could ever perceive! The Giant Mantis receives her communicator's message and takes off to rejoin her fellow Soldiers.

Meanwhile, another transceiver beeps in Celestia Labs. Roused from his work on robotic advancements, a certain doctor makes sure to sneak away from his fellow scientists to answer its call. For beneath the labcoat and glasses hid a hero! The robotic wind master, Air Man! Once a human named Victor Zephyrus, he was caught up in a robotics experiment to simulate the power of mother nature's wind. Luckily, the accident spared the young doctor and turned him into a blue robot with the power to manipulate the winds! Shedding his civilian clothes, Air Man rode a tornado towards the King of Beasts.

Teenage janitor Alex Triden was busy at work when the beep of a transceiver alerted him to trouble. Alex, a humble janitor working at his own high school, once happened upon a Crystal while seeking adventure in a nearby cave. A god of fortune had blessed the crystal with the powers of the Earth, and when the young Janitor picked it up, it granted him the ability to transform into the Earth Knight simply by activating his special gem. Alex snuck away and activated the crystal, rushing to meet up with his fellow heroes in time!

"I'll buy it for 100 dollars!" "100? That's not even a fourth of what I paid for it!" A street merchant argued with his customer over the price of a small object, but when it started glimmering with a distress signal, the merchant sheepishly rushed off. Hiding in an alley, the merchant removed his human mask to reveal a strange goat-like man, but quickly put on his superhero costume. For you see, this was The Saberwolf, a man mutated by gamma rays from an exploded atom bomb and turned into a superhuman mutant! The Saberwolf quickly hopped onto his Sabercycle to meet up with the others.

Deep in meditation, Nicholas Water levitates within a waterfall. Dressed in the garb of the Purple Ninja Clan, he is shielded from its powerful pounding force due to his amazing ability to control water. By tapping into his inner chi, he was able to calmly manipulate the water around him, creating beautiful rainbows and streamers of water. However, the sudden beeping of technology pulled him out of his ancient art, crashing into the pond below, Rain grumbles as he checks the transceiver and quickly swims away to his friends when he realizes he is needed.

The last two members of the group were the ones no one would ever suspect of superheroics. Billionaire couple Amanda Jones and Eran Silverman were busy laughing as they wined and dined at a high-class restaurant. However, the call of duty was the greatest in these two. The moment they heard the beeping, the quickly left the restaurant and suited up. Amanda was an ex-marine chosen by her superiors to be a new kind of soldier. Fitted with super armor and flamethrowers, she became the Fire Bat! Her long time boyfriend came from a similar background, a marine who had fought hard, but in his darkest hour, he was rescued by the Night Hunter, who gave him super powers and claws made of lightning. Joining his girlfriend in combat as the Lightning Claw, the two ran at top speed to the Malt Shop.

With the Dawn Soldiers assembled at the Malt Shop, their quirky companion form an alternate dimension appeared! Jumpy the ghost popped in with a big grin.

"Hello Dum Dums! Looks like the dawning of a new adventure!"

After a quick laugh with their silly sidekick, they quickly got the low down on the situation from the Amazing Squid.

"It must have been the Lord of the Night! Only he could have done something so dastardly!" stated the Earth Knight.

"Nay! He is locked up tightly in Friend Computer Asylum." exclaimed Rain.

"Wait! My Mantis Sense is tingling! He seems to have left a clue!" Giant Mantis observed.

The team lifted a note, with a manifesto written in dark ink!

"Don't think you can stop me!
You all should give up hope!
Look high and low,
And you won't find me!
Now you will all know my power!"

The group briefly considered the puzzling conundrum.

"Who could it be?" pondered Air Man.

"Maybe the Warrior Poet?" chimed in Jumpy.

"Wait! Look at the letters! Each sentence starts with a different letter!" the Earth Knight notices.

"Dylan! That dastardly brother of the deliverer of darkness himself!" Lightning Claw states.

"Quickly! We must track him down and foil his nefarious scheme!" Fire Bat says,  running off to the lair.

"But we'll never get there in time! Unless..." The Saberwolf whistles, and in a split second a giant dragon descends from the sky!

"Hop on!" Draco the Super-Dragon shouts. The Soldiers board the dragon and fly off to Dylan's headquarters, the Second Banana Shipping Company.

Our heroes land at the doors of the warehouse, bidding farewell to the friendly dragon who carried them there. Opening the warehouse doors, they all gasp in shock! Dylan is standing on a high platform, tinkering with the controls to a doomsday device!

"Ah, the Dawn Soldiers, so good of you all to come!" Dylan turned to the heroes, and quickly, Giant Mantis's mantis senses alert her to an opportunity!

"While he tells you his plan, I'll try to sneak up behind him!" Giant Mantis scurries off as Dylan continues goading our heroes.

"You see, my brother always tried to destroy the world, but he always did it the wrong way! I knew the Amazing Squid's special malt drinks had chemicals that, when mixed together, would created a gas so powerful that the whole world will become intensely thirsty! When they drink, they will drink up their entire water supply, leaving humanity without any water and collapsing from thirst!"

"Your scheme will never succeed Dylan!" Air Man shouts.

"Ah, but I knew you would try to destroy my gas ray the minute you showed up, so I have made sure you will not want to break it! Behold!"

Switching on a spotlight, Dylan reveals that there are people tied to machine! Sarah, girlfriend of Earth Knight and daughter of famed robotic expert Celestia; Sine Cosine, Air Man's on-again off-again love interest who has never returned his feelings... yet; and Stella, the wife of the purple ninja and a high ranking public speaker! With these three lovely ladies tied to the weapon, how could our heroes possibly stop Dylan?

"And that is not all!" continued the archfiend, "While my brother had a Fearsome Four, I have rounded up a Furious Five!"

From out of the shadows step five foes familiar to our band of heroes!

"The Closet Monster!" Air Man said.

"Jeff, The Painted Man!" exclaimed Fire Bat.

"The Technological Magician!" shouted Lightning Claw.

"Sister Alice, The Black Nun!" The Earth Knight screamed.

"The Servitor!" Rain finished.

The villains surrounded the Dawn Soldiers, getting closer and closer to our heroes! Will the Dawn Soldiers be able to stop Dylan's nefarious plot? Can they defeat the Furious Five? Where is Giant Mantis? Will the girls be saved in time?

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As the villains closed in, Dylan prepped his gas ray to fire the chemicals across the globe. What he didn't notice was a gigantic insect lurking in the shadows. As Giant Mantis tried to sneak up on the dreadful Dylan, the rest of the Dawn Soldiers were closed in on by the Furious Five. With a burst of power, our heroes set into motion!

Air Man charged towards the hulking brown mass that is the Closet Monster. Firing a large tornado, Air Man tried to blow the beast away, but its feet seemed to be firmly planted in the ground. It chuckled, and then from its mouth shot out a snake-like tongue. The tongue snapped at Air Man, who dodged it nimbly, but even a robot could not keep out of its reach for long.

Meanwhile, Fire Bat tried to melt the Painted Man with her flamethrowers, but the unique composition of his body allowed him to dodge the flames like he was made of fluid! Flames roared all around him, but the Painted Man quickly closed in on her and began to drench her suit in his vile liquid body. The paint began to turn the bright red armor of Fire Bat into goo!

Lightning Claw saw his girlfriend in trouble, but he was quickly interrupted by the wily Technological Magician. He had clashed with the Magician before, but the distractions gave the villain an edge. With a wave of his metal wand, the Technological Wizard caused Lightning Claw's signature weapon to malfunction. Lightning bounced all around Claw, and the hero was forced to dodge his own weapon as the Magician laughed maniacally.

The Black Nun was a ruthless woman, but the Earth Knight was keeping her at bay. Her sharp fingernails clashed with the Earth Knight's blade, neither one of them gaining any ground. That was until the knight used his earth powers to fire the ground at her. However, the Black Nun quickly shattered the stones with a single blow! A sly grin appeared on her face as she glowed black and charged forward, forcing the Earth Knight to the ground. The Nun slashed constantly at him, her claws blocked only barely by the struggling teenage hero.

The mechanical monstrosity called the Servitor extended its many metal tentacles at the watery ninja Rain, whose water abilities allowed him to weave through them with ease. Rain tried his best to break the machines tough exterior, but the Servitor's tough armor was just too hard to crack! Servitor quickly sent out an electric shock, stunning the water based ninja due to the conductive properties of water!

Seeing his teammates getting trounced, The Saberwolf decided to try and attack the problem at its source. Leaping up to Dylan, The Saberwolf began to swap blows with the archfiend. Dylan laughed as he easily blocked the assault, but he managed to start a countdown timer, 1 minute until the gas was released!!!

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Things were looking bleak for our heroes, but out of the darkness emerged the Giant Mantis! With a quick swipe of her massive claws, she severed the ropes binding the girls to the doom machine. The girls climbed up onto the insect's back as it began to tear away the paneling of the gas ray.

Back on the ground, the Closet Monster's assault met with an unexpected surprise! As Air Man was dodging the snake-like tongue, he managed to position himself just so, causing the tongue to careen into the giant fan the robot had in his chest. Before it could retract, Air Man began to spin his chest fan. The Closet Monster was unable to free itself, and soon it was spinning in the air! Air Man stopped the turning blades and let his foe loose, tossing him into a wall and knocking the Closet Monster unconscious.

"What's wrong? Feeling a little tongue-tied?" Air Man chuckled.

As the Painted Man began to sink into her quickly liquefying armor, Fire Bat thought of a perfect plan. Instead of trying to hit the supervillain with her flamethrowers, she turned the weapons on her own metal suit! The suit quickly heated up, causing the Painted Man's liquid form to boil! The villain slid off her armor, and she quickly contained the liquid fiend in a glass jar.

"Things getting too hot for you, Painted Man?" Fire Bat asked.

As the electricity from his claws danced a dangerous dance around him, Lightning Claw tried to get his bearings. The Technological Magician was beginning to animate nearby appliances to go in and defeat the hero, and Claw needed to think fast. Realizing he was unable to control the path of the electricity, Lightning Claw thought quickly of electricity's properties. Seeing the metal wand of the Technological Magician, Lightning Claw navigated himself toward the Magician. Lightning took its natural course and struck the metal wand like it was a lightning rod, knocking out the Technological Wizard and undoing his magical spells.

"Hope you didn't find that too shocking!" boasted the Lightning Claw.

With the Black Nun about to slash at his face, Earth Knight desperately tried to find a way to free himself. Calling upon the power of his Crystal once more, he used a slab of stone to knock the old woman off of him. Getting up before she could, he quickly formed two slabs of dirt around her powerful claws, effectively handcuffing the criminal. As she tried desperately to free her hands, the Earth Knight fused his sword with the stone in the ground and lashed forward, knocking out the old evil nun.

"Did I just rock your world?"  laughed the Earth Knight.

As the other foes fell, Servitor still stood strong. The machine did not seem to be harmed at all, but Rain seemed to be exhausted from its electrical assault. The tentacles seized the ninja and pulled him in toward the body, where a gaping maw opened up. Rain smiled, having set up the situation just for this opportunity. Turning into liquid, Rain flowed out of the machine's tentacles and into its mouth, where he began to flow through the wiring, destroying any and all wires he could! Rain flowed back out of the body and reformed into a human from his watery shape. Servitor quickly short circuited and shut down from the internal assault.

"You are all washed up Servitor!" Rain exclaimed.

Giant Mantis's claws had finally broken into the interior of the gas ray. As the countdown reached the last few seconds, she had to deliberate on which wire to cut. Luckily, her mantis sense quickly told her to cut all the wires, and as the countdown hit 1 second left, the mantis's claws disabled the doomsday device.

Hearing his minions fall and his machine being destroyed distracted Dylan. The Saberwolf delivered a strong series of blows and then swept out a leg, tripping the villain and sending him over the railing. The Saberwolf reached out and grabbed Dylan's foot, leaving him suspended over the vat of chemicals that powered the gas ray. Dylan sputtered, "Don't drop me!"

"Don't worry Dylan, the only place you will be dropped is into a cell in Friend Computer Asylum!" The Saberwolf taunted.

As the police arrived to apprehend Dylan and his minions, the girls were reunited with their heroes. As the group embraced and celebrated a job well done, that old jokester Jumpy chimed in, "Hey guys, look at the paper!" Jumpy produced a newspaper, showing them the front page. "DEADLY DYLAN'S DASTARDLY DOOMSDAY DEVICE DESTROYED!" "Looks like he finally made the front page! I bet he would really get a gas out of that!" The whole gang laughed as their most exciting adventure yet comes to a close.

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Join us next week, when the Dawn Soldiers face their greatest foe yet! How will our brave heroes be able to stop Jaxx, the Invincible Man!?!?!

With a special guest appearance by prominent radio personality Randy Avalon! Make sure you don't miss it!