A 'reformed' Soviet Space Station several thousand miles above the earth's crust...

ACK 2.0 opened his eyes.

All he could see through his armor's open visor was the ceiling of one of the corridors in the space station. A disturbingly close rattling noise and the faint presence of sparks coming from under him soon joined. Very soon he realized he was moving, and not by his own will.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" he exclaimed.

"If you don't want to be punched again..." a deep strong voice said "...you'll keep your mouth shut until we get there."

ACK finally saw the person carrying him (or carrying his armor, rather) against the metal floor of the space station. It was Hero II. He didn't look like his usual shy self, though... ACK had never seen the man so angry.

And then ACK remembered. He HAD seen the man that angry, even angrier in fact. Just a few minutes ago, in fact... when his secret was revealed*.

* in the instant classic Strikeforce 3 #3 -- still on sale, if you're lucky!

"Listen, Hero... Brandon... This is not what you think... I can e--"

"You have nothing to explain!" Hero yelled. "You betrayed us! First we find out that you're actually the first ACK and not a different person -- and then, when we put you under survellaince, we realize that you're nothing but a spy of Merlin! Nobody in the team completely trusted Merlin... but we never suspected he would actually place a spy in our ranks!"

"...geez, you sound like a plot synopsis..." ACK joked to himself, not loud enough for Hero to hear. The japanese 'hero' recognized his surroundings: they were reaching Merlin's office, a place restriced for every Strikeforcer. Except him, of course. At least, before he carelessly let his secret come out.

"MERLIN!" Hero's voice thundered as the door of Merlin's office slided open. The Strikeforce field leader walked inside and threw ACK in front of Merlin's desk. "Explain this."

Merlin, who was sitting in his leather chair facing the large window looking into space behind his desk, said nothing. Hero could picture the irritating grin he probably had in his face.

"Oh, no, you won't ignore me..." Hero said as he walked over to Merlin. Disturbing Merlin during meditative moments like these was forbidden to all Strikeforce members. Often important matters had to be delayed to respect Merlin's privacy. "...not this time..."

"...Brandon..."

"Shut up, ACK!" Hero said, his left hand at the top of Merlin's
chair.

"...Brandon, this is..." said ACK from the floor.

"SHUT UP!" Hero violently spun the chair around and came face to face with Merlin.

"...this is blood..."

There was no grin on his face.