While in another realm that they plan to liberate, the heroes are attacked by the 'Slaughterhouse Six'. Their ally, Matthew Ryan has his power activated and becomes the mad being Abadon. Attempts to contact the peaceful persona of Ryan fail. The group escape back to Earth, leaving Ryan/Abadon trapped.
Synopsis
On Arena World, Cable and the Shadow Riders are at the mercy of Porlock and Abadon (a former, yet very short-lived member of the Shadow Riders named Matthew Ryan). Porlock turns Abadon's powers on Vorin as repayment for centuries of pestering. The Shadow Riders aren't altogether positive on making it out alive, but Goodfellow shows up and blasts Abadon. While Abadon is distracted with Goodfellow, the Stranger notes that his shackles are weakening and he attempts to phase through them. Roadie gives him a psy-boost. The Stranger is able to vanish and the rest of the shackles are loosened. Returning, the Stranger is weak. Porlock sees his captives are free and orders the Slaughter-House Six to attack. Boot somehow knows that one of the attackers has a time-phase ability and asks Goodfellow to pilfer it. He does and bestows the power on Boot, who phases the team (plus Cable, who grabs Che) into a time bubble. The team is technically still in the vicinity of Porlock and Abadon, the enemies just don't know it.
In the time bubble, Vorin shows his anger towards Boot for being a part of the Warhead troop that helped destroy Vorin's homeland. Roadie hopes to focus on this later, as she wants to see if the team can save Abadon. Vorin thinks that destruction is the only way the team gets off the planet.
Porlock decides to depart back to Earth. Abadon refutes Porlock's notion of control and the two begin to fight. Porlock morphs into a monster but is quite easily overcome by Abadon's powers. Back on Earch, the other MyS-Tech board members sense that things are not right and retreat. Abadon explains to Porlock that he isn't a mere man with extraordinary powers. Abadon was formed by Mephisto himself. He had escaped Mephisto's realm and come to Earth with no memory. MyS-Tech's abuse awakened Abadon's memories and he was set on killing Porlock. The Shadow Riders return, however, and begin blasting away at Abadon. Unseen by most, Goodfellow filches a trinket from the planet.
Unnoticed, Porlock escapes out the wormhole. Abadon gets distracted by Roadie who makes a heartfelt plea to him to remember who he was. The supplication seems to work, though the other Rough Riders see an opportunity to pour on more firepower. Abadon becomes enraged and vows to trust no other human again. He anger is shown through the wormhole when soldiers are killed by blasts of power. Seeing that fighting is futile, the Shadow Riders make for the wormhole. Once through, Vorin goes to shut the wormhole down. As he does so, however, he is grabbed by Abadon and pulled back in. Boot reaches through and pulls Vorin back just before the wormhole closes forever. Porlock has his men open fire on the Shadow Riders but Cable has the Professor bodyslide the group out. Che is killed in the escape.
At the Shadow Riders' base, the group licks its wounds. Vorin brings Che back from the dead and he becomes the newest Shadow Rider, though his transformation did not go quite as easily as others. He is now severely deformed. Goodfellow pipes up and tells Vorin about the artifact that he took from Arena World. Vorin gets excited, as it looks like a component that could allow some of his people to have departed Arena World before it became a desolate wasteland. Taking that as his cue, Cable leaves.
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