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He felt power course through his body- the strength of ten men.

He walked to a wall panel and depressed another hidden button; the wall panel slid aside and he stepped through, into darkness. His night-vision contact lenses made the going easy. He went down steps cut from the rock of the mountain itself. Behind him, the panel closed noiselessly.

He emerged from the tunnel into an underground cave. He went to a jet black helicopter with The Santo stenciled in white on the side, opened the door, and climbed inside. His fingers moved nimbly over the controls as he programmed the automatic pilot. Then he got out, went to one of the two submersible speedboats languishing in the underground pool, and jumped aboard. He took from the onboard trunk a small, square device with an antenna and a gauge, and carried it back to the chopper and put it aboard. This was a Nullifier, a machine capable of dissipating Supernatural Force of the type used by Romero.

The Avenger looked around the cave. The cars and the motorcycles would be useless on the island; even the speedboats were out: Romero's werewolf-like sentries would hear them coming. Besides, the Were-beasts could pick up the scent of anything Supernatural, including the Power Belt: The Avenger would have to go in in the chopper, drop into the ocean a mile or so from shore, and swim to the island. He would have to plant the Nullifier on the beach: the island would be acrawl with Zombies and Were-beasts…

The jet-black helicopter rose silently through the open mouth of the volcano and veered off in the direction of Romero's island. The Avenger glanced back at his moonlit castle, which was perched atop the highest mountain on the island. He never knew when he might be seeing it for the final time…

He rose from the water fifty feet from shore, Nullifier in hand, and scanned the beach. The tree line was forty feet from the edge of the beach. He waded ashore. Behind him, the chopper hovered silently, fifty feet in the air, waiting. A ladder dangled from its belly.

He stepped up onto the beach, peering intently into the jungle beyond. He saw no movement, but his sixth sense was tingling: something was wrong…

It crouched just beyond the tree line, sniffing the air; its wolf-like snout wrinkled and its mouth opened slightly to reveal yellow fangs. It loped forward through the foliage and stopped just this side of the trees. It could see someone on the beach.

An intruder.

The Avenger went to one knee and placed the Nullifier on the sand next to him. He drove one hand straight down into the ground, brought up a handful of sand, and tossed it aside. He repeated the action, again and again, digging deeper, moving quickly. When the hole was deep enough, he picked up the Nullifier and placed it into the hole. He would activate it from his helicopter.

He was covering it when the Were-beast struck.

He heard it growl and rose to meet its charge, using a perfectly timed hip-toss to send it headfirst into the sand. It scrambled up and whirled and he saw the wolf-like features twist into a mask of pure animal hatred. It sprang at him again. He sidestepped, reaching out to catch the beast around the head and neck. He gave a vicious twist and the creature's neck broke with an audible snap.

He lowered the lifeless body to the sand and stood for a moment staring down at the hapless creature: Romero had spliced the DNA of animals with the DNA of humans to create an army of manimals. These poor unfortunates (shipwreck victims and the like) were then forced into servitude. Death was their only release.

Romero must pay for this evil, The Avenger thought.

He suddenly froze, listening. Footsteps. He turned slowly toward the trees.

Zombies lurched into view, coming through the trees. There were a dozen of them, and their necrosis was pronounced. Their clothes hung in tatters from dead, gray flesh; their eyes had rolled over white (Romero saw through their eyes and guided their every movement; they were "blind" without his guidance). They moved slowly at first, then faster as they were directed toward their prey. [Romero sat motionless in a chair inside his castle, in a Trance, "watching."] The zombies moaned, and The Avenger felt his skin crawl.

The first zombie to reach him tried to grab him, but he ducked and rolled forward, knocking its legs from under it; it fell heavily and began slowly to rise. The Avenger came up rolling, whirled back to the zombie, and straddled it from behind, applying a choke hold. The zombie struggled in his grip. He snapped its neck. The flow of life from brain to body stopped. He released the useless corpse and swung around to meet his next attacker.

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