The ad in the mercenary magazines received a lot of crankpots, but eventually turned up a promising candidate. He gave his name as Scarab. The mercenary group Spectrum worked with knew Scarab by reputation only. He was reputed to be able to get into and out of anywhere, and is the choice for covert assignments. He's damn expensive, though, and has his pick of missions.

During the meeting with Spectrum, Scarab came off as the sort of man Spectrum was looking for. He didn't blink twice at being asked to provide a way into and out of the White House, although he did seem interested in the idea of providing a reusable method of entering and exiting. Most of his assignments had been one-shot entry and exit.

Scarab dressed in a dark suit and wore sunglasses. He bore a suspicious resemblence to a standard issue government agent, but his mannerisms were definitely not government issue. Before long Spectrum had him hired and working on a solution.

Lyle finally managed to obtain entrance to the White House after months of planning, wheedling, and timely donations. It was one of the things that made the current administation so revolting to him, the unbelievable graft. He hated stooping to their level but figured that he could use their vices against them and not feel ashamed. He clinched the deal by getting in good with the cousin of the events coordinator and playing up his involvement with orphans. Although politics made him feel dirty one day he would bleach the whole system, given a chance. Getting in would allow him to annalyze the security. preparing the way for his more important actions as Spectrum. He had brought along a date, one Melissa Vainwright, part of the deal which got him in the door. She was rather attractive, but a blue-blood north-eastern republican to the core. Too liberal for his tastes and he could not wait to ditch her at the party. Fortunately, she seemed to feel the same way.

The pair were exquisitely dressed: he in a tailed tux and she in a lovely blue evening gown with an aluring slit down the side. The occasion was a fund raiser for the children but Clinton made the event a mockery in his eyes. Hopefully some of the money he donated would actually get to the right places. Still, there were people to meet and connections to be made that could very well propell him into the Mayors seat in D.C. His efforts to that end had been progressing rather nicely. Much of his time was spent speaking to various local groups (church groups, women's groups, investor's groups, etc.). Basically anyone who needed a speaker for an event. It was cheap publicity and a good way to get his message across. Given the controversy surrounding Clinton, removing corruption sounded good to people, but most citizens of D.C. were pretty jaded.

Security in the White House was quite good. Many areas were shielded by materials dense enough to block his X-Ray vision. What he did see, though, impressed him. The Secret Service agents seemed to be armed fairly simply, with conventional firearms, but they also have other devices hidden about their person. The operational centers for security were all shielded, so he couldn't see them. There were no costumes about; apparently the White House doesn't trust its security to vigilantes or they were there incognito.

"Oh, Lyle!" With a start, he turned and recognized Vivian from the Mockery Brigade. She was wearing a low cut outfit with a short skirt that seemed designed to draw attention away from her face. She came up next to Lyle and kissed him on the cheek. He caught a whiff of her perfume, and immediately started to feel protective about Vivian.

"Sorry I'm late, dear," she said, "but I had the most difficult time with the men at the door. You didn't forget to tell them I was your date, did you?" She winked at him and looked around the room. "Quite a party, isn't it?"

Suddenly she pointed and jumped up and down slightly. "Isn't that the President? Oh, Lyle, can we go meet him?" As she pointed, Lyle noticed her bracelet, and noticed the strange runes carved around it. He had a sick feeling but felt strangely unwilling to do anything about it. If she started acting up and dragged him into it his reputation wouldgo down the drain, not to mention his political ambitions and far more attention of the wrong kind than he could weather. The fact that she just proclaimed her association with him just prior to a probable assassination frustrated him.

"Meet Clinton, that old fuddy duddy? What’s the point? He’ll just smother you with drivel and invite you to a private meeting in the oval office."

"Perhaps after I finish this custard." Lyle proceded to eat VERY slowly.

"Lyle! I declare you are purposely stalling!"

"Is it that obvious? Look Vivian, if you get near the president I know you are going to start a very dangerous encounter. You know I can’t let you do that."

"Lyle, dear, don’t think you can stop it now. I guess I’ll have to do this myself. Sigh." She pouted slightly and broke away, obviously determined to meet the president with or without his help. "I think I'll just go up and say hi." As she walked in the direction of the President, she played slightly with the runed bracelet and winked over her back at Lyle.

Lyle had already tuned into the secret serviced frequency. They were unaware of the incident unfolding. If he did not do anything there would probably be bodies everywhere. He moved as fast as he could without betraying his super powers and reached a secluded spot out of sight. Instantly he transformed into Spectrum and teleported to the presidents side, long before Vivian could get near. Using his he addressed the President and crowd. Perhaps he could shock the president into telling the truth for once or stir up the security enough so that Vivian would back off.

He nmade eye contact with Vivian and spoke to the people at large. "Hold! And noone will get hurt. Mr. President, you can not hide from the Truth any longer. The Barbarians are at the Gate (again he stared at Vivian) and this is your chance for salvation. The Truth Bill Clinton, admit your crimes now, or face your trial!"

Vivian, for once, appeared surprised. She stoped where she was at, and when Spectrum looked at her, she frowned slightly. The Secret Service, meanwhile, mvoed into position around Lyle and the President. A sniper reported that he had Spectrum in his sights, while the head of security told him to hold fire until he gave the word.

"Admit my crimes? Of course." He addressed the crowd. "My crimes are that I haven't been able to fully eliminate the suffering of the elderly in this country, that we still have poverty-stricken citizens eking out a below substinence living..." etc. etc. He was clearly determined to turn the whole thing into a political win, and trusted to the Secret Service to keep him safe. Most of the guests laughed or smiled at his words, but they have a different

effect on Vivian and Spectrum. She looked like she swallowed something vile, and her

face betrayed a mounting fury.

Spectrum went cold all of a sudden and made a choice he knew he would regret later. He backed off slightly as Vivian threw her bracelt into the air. "So be it. I could have and would have prevented this, had you only spoke the truth. Behold your jury of peers!" The finger that could have caught the magical device intead pointed meaningfully at it. While the rest of the crowd was still quiet, all hell broke loose on the Secret Service band. Orders were shouted and the security forces moved into action.

Several of them surrounded the President and start moving him toward an exit, while two moved toward Spectrum, two toward Vivian, and one courageous soul made a diving leap to catch the bracelet before it hit the ground. He missed and the bracelet cracked when it hit the floor. There was a flash of light and, as Spectrum expected, the rest of the Mockery

Brigade appeared.

"Vivian the Sorceress, I thought I recognized you! Mind if I watch?" Boy did Clinton piss him off. He was almost ready to fry him himself. By this time, the President was out of the room, and the security forces were trying to clear the rest of the guests out while they also tried to contain the Mockery Brigade and Spectrum.

The two who moved toward Vivian grabed her and kept her from using her hands for any magical gestures. There was an almost perceptible change in attitude as Vivian's perfume took hold on them. They looked around, saw quite a bit of danger to her in the room, and hustled her out of the room. Instead of taking her into custody, they showed her to the nearest exit and let her go.

The two who moved toward Spectrum tried to take him but they were no match for his speed.

The rest of the Mockery Brigade went down surprisingly quickly. From the SS chatter, Spectrum could tell that the security forces have been prepared for this attack for some time. They had special devices to immobilize Klash's armor; Greyskull was taken out by a specially formulated tranquilizing dart; Flagstaff managed to escape by crashing through a window.

Avoiding capture was easy enough; a couple of illusions, a flash or two, and Lyle was be ushered out of the room along with the rest of the crowd. He knew he had made some enemies with his stunt but he had learned a lot too. The White House would be a very hard nut to crack.