Release Date: February 2009

"Chapter 7"

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pencils: Simon Coleby
Colorist: Carrie Strachan
Letters: Wes Abbott
Assistant Editor: Kristy Quinn
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover by Simon Coleby

"The Tao of Tao-Part 2"

Writer: Christos Gage
Artist" John Paul Leon
Colorist: J.D. Mettler
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Assistant Editor: Kristy Quinn
Editor: Ben Abernathy

Solicitation:
StormWatch and The Authority’s reunion is cut short as their attempts to rebuild the Carrier haven’t gone unnoticed...as the Eidolon and his army of the Mad take an interest! The first major battle of “World’s End” begins!

Plus, Christos Gage and artist John Paul Leon (EX MACHINA, SCALPED) continue their dark backup story featuring SLEEPER villain Tao!


SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!
Synopsis
With Fuji down, both The Authority and Stormwatch continue their battle against Eidolon's Army of the Mad.

Within The Carrier, Angie, now in Engineer mode once again, is face to face with Eidolon. She unleashes a barrage of gun fire that rips Eidolon to shreds. But much to Angie's horror, Eidolon's remains regenerate. Eidolon pounces Angie and she is unable to evade. Angie resorts to blades and slices at Eidolon but it is futile as he continually regenerates. Angie's powers begin to disappear again and she reverts back to her normal self. Taking this opportunity to strike, Eidolon advances but Angie kicks him in the face, knocking him backwards. Suddenly, a teleportation Door appears and Eidolon falls into it.

Christine Trelane rushes in to find Angie. She asks what happened and Angie tells her she thinks The Carrier woke up momentarily and created the door to help her against Eidolon. She says her nanites are trying to reboot but they keep shutting down to repair her Biosystemware. Angie says The Carrier has gone dormant again and glances outside. She sees Jackson King unleashing a way of energy that tears through dozens of Eidolon's soldiers. Just then, Swift and Hellstrike appear telling Angie and Christine that Fuji is dying.

They arrive at the side of the fallen Fuji. Christine tells Angie to use her nanites to repair him. But the nanites won't response to Angie's will. Winter begins to call for an emergency evacuation for Fuji but Angie tells him to wait. She grabs her knife and cuts into her skin. Her silver blood pours onto Fuji's wound and repairs him.

Christine gives Angie a timetable of rendezvous points and refugee relocation. Midnighter asks Winter to keep an eye out for the missing Apollo. Stormwatch teleports back to Skywatch III. But unknown to both teams, somewhere out in space Apollo drifts as his body succumbs to the effects of the Incubite bite.

With their communications up again, a message from Mr. Hawthorne at Rendelsham comes on-screen. He tells them about their missing scouting teams and asks for The Authority's help in finding them. Jack Hawksmoor doesn't trust them but Angie tells him that they need to start helping people again. Angie, Midnighter, and Swift head out to find the missing scout team. Jack stays behind alone. But soon he hears something. Suddenly, a huge Incubite attacks him.

Swift, Angie, and Midnigther meet one of Rendlesham's teams on the edge of a field where an abandoned cottage sits in the distance. They are told that it was near the cottage the other scout team disappeared. Much to Swift's objections, Midnigther heads towards the cottage. Expecting to detect danger before it happens, Midnighter approaches the cottage. A weird sensation flows over him. He closes his eyes and tries to discern it. He opens his eyes to find he is no longer out in front of the abandoned cottage, but is in a sunny place full of people in the middle of some kind of celebration. An old woman asks if Midnighter would like some more tea calling him a "vicar". Midnighter sees that his costume is gone and he's dressed like a priest.

"The Tao of Tao-Part 2"
As Providence pleads with Void to stop fighting her and help her fix the world, Tao watches. Tao tells Providence that after he escaped from Internal Operations he observed Armageddon was coming. He even admitted that he might have helped it along. He knew that the entity called Void existed and that she had reshaped the world. He could not allow that unless he controlled it.

He met the current host for the Void entity, a paramedic named Nikola Hanssen. Tao posed as a doctor and easily bent her to his will. Controlling Nikola also meant controlling Void and now he had her power at his disposal. He determined who was most likely to prevent Armageddon and under the guise of enlisting their help to stop it, he had Void show them just enough to ensure that it would come to pass and that they could do nothing about it (as seen in Wildstorm: Armageddon).

The problem was that Tao's mind and voice were impossible to resist but there were those who where determined not to allow him to speak. But with Void's help, he could now project his voice directly into their minds controlling them, which included the heroes Jackson King and Majestic.

Notes:

• This issue crosses over with Stormwatch: P.H.D. #19.

• This issue is collected in The Authority: World's End-Book One trade.

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