You know the kind of world we live in. All these post-humans, aliens and robots running around acting like they own it. Let's show them humanity's not dead yet. 
Stormwatch: Post Human Division #3 is an issue of the series Stormwatch: Post Human Division (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 2007.
Synopsis for "What Happens in Vegas"
The New York P.H.D. is in Las Vegas to train the city's new Post Human Division. They are given a warm welcome by the mayor in which they get first-class treatment at a resort hotel. But John Doran is not amused with the mayor's patronage and bluntly want to train the new division and the real reason why his team is needed in the city. The mayor shows the team that a bunker-buster bomb test conducted in the Nevada test site uncovered a Daemonite hangar that was conducting experiments on Daemonite/human hybrids.
The team and the mayor visit the hangar where Fahrenheit takes note that it is similar to one such site previously discovered by Stormwatch in Serbia. Then without warning, a Daemonite hybrid is awakened from its hibernation and nearly attacks Lauren but it is eliminated by Paris. Dr. Shaw fears that his presence, his alien nature may awaken the creature due to how Daemonites communicate chemically similar to pheromones. The mayor also reveals that more Daemonites have escaped the bunker and may have possessed several missing people in the city.
The P.H.D. begins training the new division. Paris spars with the Special Forces recruits. Dr. Shaw works with Dr. Sarah Burke to develop a device to detect disguised Daemonites. Black Betty teaches the team about extraterrestrial magic.
Fahrenheit develops an attraction for Paris, who brings her to his home outside of Las Vegas. There, Paris shows her that he keeps and takes care of rescued exotic animals which includes lions, dogs, wolves and bears, in which he has a staff to look after while he is away. Eventually the two slept together. That night, Lauren asks Paris how he got his instinctual skills to detect his opponents. Paris admits that his story is not pleasant, but he reluctantly obliges to tell at Lauren's insistence.
Liam grew up with his father and mother in the desert near the California border. His mother was a waitress and his father made a living on a number of illegal activities, mostly selling meth. On the side, mostly as a hobby, he arranged dog fights. When Liam was four years old, his mother disappeared (it is unknown whether she walked out on her family or she was murdered by her husband) and he took care of the dogs. One day, animal services confiscated all of his father's dogs on the morning of a big fight. His father and his clientele were unhappy about this and they resorted to having their own children including Liam engaged in an underage blood sport. Liam, who was five years old at the time, was forced to fight the clientele's older and larger son, in which he nearly killed his opponent. His father's clienteles loved the fight and they made it a regular event for every two months, in which Liam fought other children who were twice his size and twice his age. It was through his fights that he developed his instinct for finding an opponent's weak spot in order to survive.
One night, Liam's opponent did not show up and his father compensated for this fight without losing a lot of money by letting his son fight one of his dogs instead. However, the dog did not attack Liam but showed its affection to him, as he grew closely bonded with the dogs whom they considered each other as their only friend. His father became deeply furious over the dog and his son for looking weak in front of his audience. He used a shotgun to kill the dog before turning his barrel to Liam. But Liam got away, letting his father shoot the man who was holding him, and released the dogs. The dogs killed and ate Liam's father and the men that were with him, and Liam started living alone with the dogs. Liam still continued to make a living in blood sports to earn money to support himself and the exotic animals he rescued. He finally got arrested and was given the choice between jail and the Army. Liam chose the latter and his superiors recognized his skills and they appointed him in the Special Forces. Eventually Paris was recruited to Stormwatch and now P.H.D.
After finishing telling his story, Paris feels oddly happy to tell his life to Lauren. But Lauren is left too disturbed and horrified by the man she fell in love with; she subsequently ends her affairs with Paris.
Meanwhile, Dr. Shaw is having a difficult time thinking over controlling the Monstrosity during his stay in Vegas. He returns to the lab where he finds Dr. Burke killed by Lady Decadence and the disguised Daemonites. Lady Decadence tells Shaw that she had destroyed his research and berates him for "betraying" his kind. Shaw reminds her that she and Lord Defile abandoned him to cover their escape, and he refuses her offer to return to them. Decadence replies that he was left to kill the humans and return. She then goads and threatens Shaw to release the Monstrosity before Doran arrives to find only Shaw in a fetal position and words scrawled in blood around him: "SEE YOU SOON".
Elsewhere, Lady Decadence returns to Lord Defile and informs him that she was able to gain the loyalty from the awakened Daemonites from the bunker and steering them away from Helspont. When Defile asks her about the P.H.D., she assures him that "everything proceeds perfectly."
Appearing in "What Happens in Vegas"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Dr. Sarah Burke (Single appearance; dies)
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Notes
- The Daemonite bunker that was discovered by StormWatch's in Serbia was depicted in StormWatch #47.
- After Paris saves Fahrenheit from the Daemonite hybrid, Fahrenheit remarks that she's "not a big fan of aliens, y'know." This is a reference to Fahrenheit's death at the hands of the Xenomorphs depicted in WildC.A.T.s/Aliens #1.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Stormwatch: Post Human Division series
- Images from Stormwatch: Post Human Division Vol 1 3