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Number of the Beast #7 is an issue of the series Number of the Beast with a cover date of September, 2008.

Quote1 There was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the great dragon was hurled down, wasn't he? Quote2
Zebulon McCandless

Appearing in "Verse Seven: The Greatest Generation"

Featured Characters:

  • The High (appears in both flashback and main story)

Supporting Characters:

Other Characters

Antagonists:

Locations:

Items:

  • None

Vehicles:

Synopsis for "Verse Seven: The Greatest Generation"

In 1945, a Daemonite spacecraft crash-landed in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. General Zebulon McCandless and the United States Army have already arrive on the scene. McCandless personally compares the spacecraft to the star Wormwood from the Book of Revelations as a sign of the "End Times". McCandless then states to an officer on planning to have the spaceship leave where it is and buried. This was the beginning of the Number of the Beast program.

In the present, Jackson King uses his telepathic abilities to help The High understand everything that's happened after his attack on Skywatch. He shows The High that after his supposed death, his genetic remains were recovered by the American government and used for a clone army of super soldiers based on notes from Dr. Jacob Krigstein. This army would act as a last resort for the government to prevent end of the world scenarios involving superhumans. Though many of the experiments suffered many costly setbacks, the United States Army Corps succeeded in the process under the "Reaper Initiative", creating weaponized multiple clones known as the "Reaper Ballistic Missile Arsenal", or Reapers. After having finished with The High's remains, the government had no where else to put him but inside the Number of the Beast program where they thought he could be kept safely. And since the Paladins have escape from their prison, General Somerset has launched the Reapers in response, and The High senses them.

Somerset and the Daemonite Slyxx observes the battle between The Authority and the Paladins. In the midst of the conflict, Jenny Quarx and The Doctor explore the NOTB bunker in looking for answers and finds a brain-damaged Lieutenant Welles.

Jackson continues to use his telepathic powers to further uncover the mystery behind Number of the Beast through the mind of a retired McCandless. He discovers that McCandless over-zealously believed in the end of the world and he orchestrated the disappearance of Earth's generation of heroes (such as the Paladins) and kept them asleep through Daemonite technology in order to keep them ready for the Apocalypse.

As The Authority and the Paladins continue their battle, while some have already realized their error and decide to sit it out, The Doctor has easily healed Welles. Recovered, she tells them that if the bunker is ever breached, then the Reapers would be activated.

On Skywatch, The High decides himself to stop the Reapers, while ignoring Jackson's insistence of having only Stormwatch handle the situation, and immediately flies to his clones. The High engages the missiles and attempts to stop them, but is unsuccessful. Jackson telepathically contacts him and reasons that the only way to stop the Reapers is to find and stop their source, as the Reapers are controlled by General Somerset and others at the Pentagon.

As The Doctor and Jenny Quantum discuss ways to end this, Lieutenant Welles reveals to them that the Reapers have a fail-safe that causes them to explode. As Welles flees back inside the bunker for safety, The Doctor strongly suggests having everyone retreat to the Carrier, in which both The Authority and the Paladins are then teleported through to the Carrier's Shift-Doors.

Back in 1945, the military are constructing the NOTB facility over the Daemonite spaceship. McCandless was brief on the ship's stasis tubes and greets a Daemonite survivor that is being held a prisoner.

In the present, outrage of the superpowered beings absent from the bunker, Somerset then orders the Reapers to find the Carrier. The Reapers then change a single Reaper into a gateway to The Bleed.

On the Carrier, the Paladins are being contained on the shiftship. Mago then remembers about Zebulon McCandless and plans on having a "talk" with him. The Authority then introduce themselves to the Paladins and informs them of the current situation. Suddenly, the Reapers breach and board the Carrier.

Notes

  • The comic includes a passage from the Book of Isaiah (Isiah 14:12): "How you have fallen from Heaven, a Morning Star, Son of the Dawn!/You have been cast down to the Earth, You who once laid low the nations!"

See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

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