File:Rom Vol 1 40 001.jpg

Description
A number of Wraiths gather and the male ‘science’ Wraiths begin to recount the failures of the female ‘magic’ Wraiths in their recent plans to use the children of Earth in their sinister schemes. Elsewhere Rom scours the countryside for signs of Wraiths and thinks back on his quest, the loss of Ray-Na and his own humanity. So lost in thought, he careens into a mountainside but is unharmed. Rising, he hears eerie pipes playing from a nearby hamlet. He finds a figure leading an entranced group of children to a nearby hilltop with the magical pipes. The Piper mystically opens a portal and through it is revealed the dreaded Dark Nebula. Rom steps between the portal and the children and confronts the Piper. In Clairton, Doctor Dredd has subdued Steve Jackson and continues to mystically merge Brandy Clark with the Starshine armor. The Torpedo crashes into the lab and sees Doctor Dredd as a Wraith with his newly activated Wraith Detector-Visor. Doctor Dredd reveals that he is no ordinary Wraith but a Wraith Warlock and powerful in the mystic arts. He attacks the Torpedo with sorcery but Brock Jones pushes through to strike him with a Jet-punch. As the Torpedo moves in, he is struck from behind by the now fully merged Starshine/Brandy Clark who has been entranced by the Wraith Warlock. Back in England the Piper plays a mystic tune that seeks to bind Rom and allow the Dweller on the Threshold to cross over the portal to Earth. Rom banishes the Wraith Piper and enters the portal to thwart the Dweller. The portal closes behind him and the children awaken from their trance, unharmed.