(Adapted from the published adventure by Stephen Beeman)
Chrono & Banshee were sitting in the Dexter Investigations office when they were approached by Rabbi Shallach Ben Holmz who they’d met recently in relation to the Raggedy Anne case. He explained that he wanted to hire them as he was worried about some of his “people” who were in the process of being dispossessed by Vandam Properties who were trying to get their homes in the Shambles condemned so they could build a shopping precinct and hotel complex there instead.
The properties were slums owned by unscrupulous landlords and needed replacing but these people would have nowhere else to go and would end up back on the streets if the development went ahead.
“There was a protest outside Vandam Plaza on the Waterfront in London last week which ended up in violence. The news was lost in all the reports coming in about the Birmingham Incident. The protest got out of hand leaving one dead (one of my people) and five injured.”
He went on, “There is another protest planned for tomorrow and I’m concerned that feelings will again get out of hand and the Police will again go in heavy handed.”
He went on to explain that if there were some superheroes present he hoped they would be better able to prevent any further incidents. Would they be willing to take the job?
Young Sam had been at a comic convention in Bristol (one of the few places where his Dragonic “looks” were not considered odd) when he received an email on his old University email account (which he thought had been closed down years ago) which somehow had managed to get forwarded to his Trouble Alert account…
The email was from an old roommate at University, Frank Mason who he hadn’t heard from in years. Frank stated that his younger sister Sue had ran off to attend the AML (Anti-Metahuman League) counter rally that was protesting Ted Reichman’s (the Humanity First Party’s only MP) address against meta-humans near Romaine Wharf where the famous group of meta-humans, the Challenger-Wildeman family resided. He couldn’t get back to the country in time (he was working in Amsterdam now) and wondered if Sam could possibly do him a big, big favour and watch out for her at the counter-protest tomorrow? He reminded Sam of the many favours he owed him when they had shared a room together at University all those many years ago… Pretty please? He enclosed a photo of Sue and details about the AML route which cut past Vandam Plaza as it headed towards the Docklands.
Dawn Rises; Chrono and Mary were at Vandam Plaza looking at a crowd of about 70 very noisy but good tempered people, several of whom were obviously homeless, protesting against the proposed clearance.
At the same time Young Sam was down at the main road walking alongside the 50 or so noisy AML supporters with Ted Reichman at the head as they head towards the nearby Romaine Wharf. Beside them were about 150 anti-AML protestors separated by the Police who, although noisy, were peaceful as well as about 100 police officers in total cordoning off and keeping the two protests separate.
Then, just as Matt Vandam appeared and tried to get in his car surrounded by his bodyguards – there was a tension in the air and the mood changed dramatically. Scuffles started to break out between the bodyguards and the protesters and on the corner AML supporters and those around them started fighting and hurling bricks at each other, with Young Sam in particular being targeted by the AML supporters. The Police suddenly reacted – hitting out at everyone around them with their truncheons. Chrono, himself filled with anger, started pulling fighting people apart so that their punches swung through empty space and then bricks and 2 by 4’s started flying from the AML group and the sound of breaking glass could be heard so he headed down to help deal with that as well.
Only Banshee seems unaffected by the rise in tensions. Looking round she spotted a smiling man standing between the two groups calmly smoking, seemingly unaffected by the fighting going on around them.
Chrono initially began to disarm the crowd and then spotted Young Sam who was trying to stop members of the counter rally from making Molotov cocktails out of bottles of spirit stolen from a smashed off licence window. Sue was right there in the middle of the crowd stuffing rags into a bottle and was about to light it when Young Sam intervened and started to shield her from the AML bombardment. Chrono made his way across to the off-license and rescued a couple of bottles (for his own personal consumption later).
It was at this point he noticed someone he thought he recognised standing by some metal shutters – Death Metal? She smiled at him and turned but before he can do anything she had vanished from view into the escalating melee.
Throughout, the Police in particular were being extremely heavy handed in their handling of protestors and everyone seemed to be involved in just dealing with the situation around them.
Matt Vandam’s car was overturned by the suddenly extremely hostile crowd and as he was hustled back inside the building one of his security guards was stabbed with a broken bottle in the neck.
The man Banshee had seen earlier just sat there, smoking his cigarette. An AML member rushed towards him, he smiled and his would-be attacker suddenly started punching a nearby Police officer instead.
Banshee elected to use her shriek to intimidate the rioting crowd as she worked her way towards the smiling man but to her surprise it merely stopped them in their tracks, temporarily stunning them; Their fight or flight responses seemed to be frozen. It was then he realised that the smiling man was aware of what was happening and had dived into an alley way. Pushing her way through she found the alley empty. The smiling man appeared to have vanished as though he had turned invisible to everyone. The fighting continued but slowly tensions began to return to normal as the rioters became aware of their actions.
Within seconds of his disappearance the crowd started calming down. Confused, most of them dropped their makeshift weapons and the Police started rounding them up.
Meeting up with Chrono and the new ‘meta-human’ who called himself ‘Young Sam’ afterwards, Banshee was surprised to find that neither of them seemed to have seen the smiling man even though Chrono had to have walked right passed him.
The worst violence had been from the Police who were at a loss to explain their unprofessional attitude and behaviour.
Questioning the Police and crowd it would appear as though no-one else saw the smiling man either. The Police Inspector, who was managing the two events, agreed to let them check out the Plaza’s CCTV cameras with his own officers. As they looked through the recordings they saw the smiling man walk into the area between the two protests, light up a cigarette and smile. He does nothing obvious but fighting immediately began to break out around him.
Checking out the alley they discovered a muddy footprint on a drainpipe and as Young Sam and Banshee flew up onto the roof they discovered signs that he may have escaped via an open skylight into a busy warehouse and left that way.
Further down the street they saw Ted Reichman holding an impromptu press conference where he blamed the violent outburt on the counter rally and the Police who he accused of targeting the AML crowd in particular. He called for the Police to be prosecuted and for all the counter rally attendees to be locked up.
While this was going on, a young paparazzi turns up. He approached them and introduced himself as Tony Jason, thanked the three of them for their efforts in quelling the rioting and asked if he could interview them. Only Young Sam agreed though he did manage to take some covert pictures of both Banshee and Chrono without them noticing.
As the three of them headed back to the Plaza to see if the Police have managed to identify the smiling man, a bewildered police officer approached Chrono with a steel, still warm metal rose in his hands that was given to him by a pretty woman with long hair who asked him to hand it to Chrono. It seems Death Metal really had been present.
No-one appeared to remember why they’d rioted just that they found themselves becoming very angry and wanting to kill the people around them.
As they walked back to the Plaza they meet a very shaken Matt Vandam and tried and persuade him to cancel his planned walkabout the next day in the Shambles. However they were unsuccessful as the arrogant individual was determined to proceed even with the assault on his security.
At this point the three of them offered to hire themselves out to Vandam who refused their service.
The Police confiscated his security footage from Vandam’s CCTV cameras which revealed that the smiling man had also been caught attnding the previous riot as well, though he was not seen actually doing anything except smoking a cigarette and smiling on either occasion.
A facial recognition search of the smiling man revealed him to be an Irish troublemaker called Jack O’Connell who was believed to be a member of the Irish Liberation Army and was wanted for questioning. He has a nickname, Disunity Jack… Although he has never been tested for the meta-gene, his nickname said it all.
There was a note on his file that he was believed to have been involved in the bombing of a hotel complex built a couple of years by Vandam Properties in Dublin.
Using their street contacts and links, Banshee and Chrono discovered that his last known address (where he had once lived with his mother was a street pulled down to build the Vandam Hotel in Dublin. His mother had subsequently died a few weeks later in a homeless shelter. Maybe O’Connell felt there was some poetic justice in using the homeless and dispossessed as his weapon to take down Matt Vandam?
They also discovered that Matt Vandam had caught in a riot in Dublin Airport shortly after that which resulted in 23 people being injured including three of his security detail.
Both Young Sam and Chrono briefly discussed making their way over to Ireland to research the matter further but wiser heads (in this case Banshee’s) prevailed.
Having been told that there was also a counter proposal to redevelop the area – this time by the Challenger-Wildeman Foundation, Chrono contacted Bethany Dalton and through her ended up talking with the Challenger-Wildeman children’s guardian, Jack Wolfe about their proposal to replace that section of the Shambles with an eco-village that the current residents would be encouraged to become part-owners of.
Wolfe pointed out that the rioting was actually benefiting Vandam as the local Council was starting to feel that the best way to reduce community tension was to allow the shopping and hotel complex to go ahead and separate up the people whothey felt were causing the violence to a number of different locations across the city.
Unknowingly, Disunity Jack was actually helping Vandam Properties!
Having discovered this, the three three of them decided instead to see if they could move the protest away from the Shambles and the Councillor’s visit and back to the Plaza. If the Councillors had a visit undisturbed by violent protest, perhaps they would realise that decimating the existing community wasn’t the answer.
Mary then contacted the good Rabbi and arranged for the next day’s protest to be moved to outside Vandam Plaza rather than at the Shambles.
Finally the three of them made their way back to Wessex for the night, Chrono having invited Young Sam to join him at the Jade Garden Restaurant where he had an idea. After the meal Flint suggested to Mama Chi (and Eddie) that they could employ Young Sam as a Greeter – they loved the idea of a red dragon, symbol of prosperity and wealth being linked to their restaurant and Mary offered him somewhere to temporary live at Container Town.
A Friendly Chat
The next day, a small but noisy contingent of locals arrived at the Plaza and word had got out for the other resident’s to stay indoors. The Police were caught out and only gradually realised that the protest had switched back to the Plaza. As they started to arrive, Disunity Jack appeared again from the alley, this time he had a parcel under his arm. Almost instantly the crowd started getting angry and one man, a tourist, flew into the air with a bin ready to smash it into the crowd.
The wave of hate and anger hit the three of them but this time they were prepared for it and managed to fight their way through the feelings. Young Sam decided to see if he could deal with the flying meta-human and flew in close enough to use his power of suggestion on him which was sufficient to calm him down – he really didn’t want to fight anyone anyway. He introduced himself as Ajax, the premier hero of the Netherlands. “Named after the football club?” asks Sam, with a perfectly straight face Ajax replies “No, they’re named after me!”
In the meantime on the ground, Banshee used her shriek to stall the anger. Disdunity reacted by pulling a handgun out of the package under his arm – before he could fire it Chrono had wrestled the gun away and then grappled him to the ground. Chrono then had a private conversation with him explaining that this wasn’t the way to get revenge as the rioting was actually helping Matt Vandam get what he wanted and told him to stop using the protesters as that was actually working in Vandam’s favour… he then let him go before the Police can figure out what happened and Disunity again disappeared having prepared his escape route beforehand.
Later that day they realised that Tony Jason has sold his story to the Sun, complete with pictures of all three of them. Beneath the pictures was a favourable story about Young Sam and his two mystery friends stopping the rioting.
Back in Dexter Investigations, Young Sam tried to explain how he had became a Dragonkin – a fantastic tale of meeting a dragon beneath Welsh hills, a dragon who then indentured him and how now he was duty-bound to bring it wealth by any means possible otherwise he would be punished…
Chrono seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t necessarily try and stop him gaining that wealth by any means necessary. Banshee kept quiet sucking on her unlit pipe but wondering how exactly did Young Sam had got his powers really (she could feel a mystical element to them) and why this elaborate fantasy background he’d created like something out of a bad D&D game? She also wondered whether it was sensible to allow a drunk such as Chrono to encourage this?
Having talked about the need for money, Young Sam jumped on the idea of being Heroes for Hire and being in Sir Damien Dalton’s employ but by this time he was too drunk to care anymore even after Chrono handed him Bethany’s contact details. The subsequent call did not go well, an eleven year old girl woken up by a unknown, heavy-breathing man wanting to speak to her father resulted in the call being terminated and, in a fit of anger, she responded by hacking the phone company and deleting his account, killing the SIM. He was advised by the others to use Dalton’s normal contact details during normal hours as Chrono tried to persuade him to go for a flight with Bethany some time.
Discussion of his fire powers resulted in Sam dialling 999 to warn them he is now in the area only for that call to end up being thought of as a hoax! It appeared that Sam wasn’t as immune to the effect of alcohol as he’d previously thought!
Both Chrono and Young Sam then went down to the restaurant for a meal and a discussion about obtaining money, barbequed cows and supermarkets.
Aftermath
Few days later, Matt Vandam died when a lift at the Vandam Plaza malfunctioned. He was on his own when the lift plummetted uncontrollably down 30 floors. The use of substandard construction materials was blamed, in particular the steel safety tether which seemed to have snapped.
A week after
Chrono was in his office when Superintendent Cunningham barged in. She stood directly in front of him and said in a quiet, controlled voice; “Do you want to tell me why you deliberately let a suspected terrorist, wanted for questioning, just walk away after you’d captured him?” Her voice was like steel and he felt as though she would like to reach across the desk and happily snap his neck.
“I’ve been reviewing the CCTV footage from the last riot. One minute Jack O’Connell has what looks like a handgun and is set to fire it and a second later his hand is empty, you’ve then grappled him to the ground and then, then you let him go? Why???”
She paused for a moment before continuing, “Word on the street is that you’re dirty. That you and your cronies will do anything for money… So, tell me, did O’Connell kill Vandam? Did he use Death Metal to make it look like an accident? You’re really cosy with her aren’t you? You let her get away as well. You let two stone cold murderers walk away, you know it and I know it… You’re the only common denominator bewteen the two of them… A bit suspicious don’t you think?”
“Well I’m putting in an official complaint and I’m asking for your HCP certification to be revoked. You’ll be summoned to the Ministry of Powers to explain your actions.” She slammed a long brown envelope down on his desk, scowled at him before marching out…
Note both Young Sam and Banshee also received a similar summons as witnesses:
HCP Complaints Commission Summons
Addressed to Chrono: You are summoned to appear at a Misconduct hearing
Overseen by the Ministry of Powers, the HCP Complaints Commission is established to investigate failures to uphold HCP standards or to look into allegations of criminal misconduct by HCP-authorised supers.
HCP Misconduct hearings are held to present the facts of the case to a panel of three independent adjudicators and to allow HCP-authorised supers to give an explanation of their conduct and the circumstances surrounding the allegation. Witnesses may also be called to be give evidence. The purpose is to show that the HCP disciplinary system is open and transparent, will demonstrate that we do hold HCP-authorised supers that breach the Standards of Professional Behaviour, or those that are found guilty of misconduct, accountable for their actions.
This is not a criminal court and punishment is limited to a period of suspension or withdrawal of HCP status though any evidence of a criminal nature uncovered during a HCP Misconduct hearing may result in separate criminal proceedings if the Crown Prosecution Service elects to do so.
The investigating officer for this case is Superintendent Julia Cunningham (CI-5)
The allegations against Chrono are:
Failure to retain/hand over evidence relevant to a crime – (handgun removed from the hands of an unregistered individual – one Jack O’Connell aka “Disunity Jack”)
Failure to arrest a suspected criminal – Jack O’Connell aka “Disunity Jack” wanted for questioning for terrorist activities
Failure to report a crime/ carry out an arrest – the attempted discharge of a firearm in a public place by Jack O’Connell aka “Disunity Jack”
Failure to report a known criminal to the Police and/or failing to carry out an adequate attempt to arrest said individual – Chelsea Lincoln aka “Death Metal”
Behaviour unbecoming of a HCP-authorised Super – abhorrent behaviour resulting from chronic alcoholism whilst on HCP duties.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 