Number of the Beast Vol 1 5
From DC Database
Television certainly has evolved since its invention. 
- -- Doctor Sin
Appearing in "Verse Five: This Is How The World Ends"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- The Eidolon
- Hotfoot
- General William Somerset
- Lieutenant Welles
Other Characters
- Captain Rosado (Dies in this issue)
- Sergeant Timothy Stringer
- Aeronaut (Dies in this issue)
Villains:
Locations:
- NOTB Bunker #1
- The City
- NOTB Bunker #1
Items:
- Sintrino Cannon
- None
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Verse Five: This Is How The World Ends"
Rosado and Stringer are forced at gunpoint by Doctor Sin into putting the High's unconscious body inside one of the containment "coffins" (sleep-tubes). When the bunker's alarm rings, Rosado confirms that it is the Army strike team that have arrived. Sin then order them into deciding which of the soldiers will put themselves into the last unoccupied sleep-tube: Stringer himself is contained. Rosado then questions Dr. Sin of what he will do to him, in which Sin instantly disintegrate him with his nutrino cannon (Sintrino Cannon). Sin then returns to the control room and shuts off the bunker's alarm system, alerting General Somerset at command of Sin's actions. The strike team then exploded the bunker's entrance. Alerted by this, Dr. Sin activated the defense systems leaving Lieutenant Welles the only survivor to safely enter the bunker.
Back in the City, the High has awoken and quickly subdue Pestilence, saving Hotfoot and Johnny Ray-Gun. On Paladin Hill, Mite explained to the Paladins of what the High did to Dr. Sin. In the bunker, Dr. Sin is amuse of the situation going inside the City and then deactivates the Horsemen. Mago and Tumbleweed fight the Horsemen of War and suddenly seeing him and his mount digitally deleted, much to their confusion. Mage then tends to a wounded Engine Joe and is surprise to discover that under his body armor are that remains of his heart and lung, thus leaving Joe's impalement without any fatal injuries. On the other side of the City, Pestilence has also been deleted and the High tries to explain to Johnny Ray-Gun and Hotfoot that they and the other heroes and villains are trapped in a virtual reality world. Also supporting the High's words is Sergeant Stringer, who then introduce himself and about the NOTB Bunker #1.
Seeing this and planning to escape Dr. Sin releases Aeronaut from his containment and immediately knocks him out.
The High angrily demands Stringer, by grasping his throat, of freeing everyone from the system. Stringer answer that the only way for everyone to be free from the system is for them to 'die' and allowing to be awaken back in the real world. Hearing enough from him, The High then leaves with Hotfoot and Johnny Ray-Gun to Palatine Hill. As Stringer complains of not being kill in order for him to be free from the system, he is then attack by simulated zombies and let himself be eaten.
Back in the real world, Welles have reached the control room and kills Dr. Sin; however, she doesn't realize that she has instead killed a disguised and constrained Aeronaut as Sin has planned this and is in a entire different location of the bunker.
The High, Johnny Ray-Gun, and Hotfoot has arrived to Paladin Hill. After telling Ray-Gun and Hotfoot to tend their wounds, the High talks to The Eidolon demanding him why he of all people who knew about the simulation never fully told anyone but him. Eidolon tells High that he wasn't "ready" for the 'role' he have to free everyone and that in order for everyone to die, they have to believe that they are fighting something real. When ask by High about his role in the simulation in which the Eidolon explain to him that he is intended to be the villain (the "Anit-Christ") for the Paladins to kill him in order to 'save' their City during the 'apocalypse'. Much to the Eidolon's amusement he further tells the High of his role to the Paladins beforehand and the High is then attacked by the heroes, in which Redeemer brought out the High's weakness: highnium. However, the High is unfazed by this (as he founded a cure to his weakness in the 1970s) and begins 'killing' every member of the Paladins allowing them to be awaken in the real world. After killing Johnny Ray-Gun, the High is then contacted by Lt. Welles who then informs him that he and everyone in the City will be killed as per orders from the American government. However, the High tells Hotfoot that after he wakes up, he needs him to "run as fast as [he] can" in stopping Welles. After quickly killing Hotfoot, who has now awaken and speeding in searching Welles' location, High reason with Welles for what the government has done in returning the "favor" for the Paladins after the amount of generosity and good deeds that they have done for the world.
In the last panel of the issue is a memorandum written by General Zebulon McCandless to President Harry Truman concerning about the 1940s metahumans while interlaced with panels of an undisclosed location in a remote mountain range, in which a military hatch opens and revealing a room containing rows of clones of the High.
Notes
- This comic included some ancillary notes on members of the Crime Corps: Tinderbox, Taipan, Skeleton Crew, Stink Bug, Third Rail, and Ragamuffin.
Trivia
- Sergeant Stringer's first name is reveal to be Timothy.
Related Articles
- None
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- None
