Superhero Adventures, UK Style

It was late morning when Inspector Marcus Tolliver called them on their shared mobile number.

The young male informant had again made contact. Marcus played them the 999 recording that had come through to the Police switchboard less than 10 minutes before and confirmed that it was the same voice that had tipped them off previously about the warehouse.

A clearly upset young person was announcing that the missing people had been moved to a disused railway station and the people responsible were testing out some sort of gas on them. Some of them were at risk of being murdered.  He gave an address and then the phone cut out. They’d tried to trace the call but the phone had been deactivated, the call had come from the location he had given though. It had taken them a further 5 minutes to link this call with the warehouse call and as it had started as a Wessex Police operation, it was then routed through to Inspector Tolliver as an A1 priority.

Marcus wanted to know whether they would be willing to take point on this as he had to assume Meta-humans were involved. They quickly agreed and called Adam who’d just finished modifying the raft. He grabbed a satchel, jumped into the pilot’s seat and they were off.

The location given by the youth turned out to be the deserted Battersea Park Road railway station in South London. As they flew there, Adam had pulled up maps and googled the history; built by the Chatham and Dover Railway in 1867, that particular station had closed in 1916 along with other inner-London stations on the Main Line. THE Battersea Park railway station nearby, was on a different line; the London Victoria and that had remained open.

Less than 20 minutes after they had received the call, Adam was setting the Raft down near Battersea Dogs and Cat home in London.

Stepping out of the air-raft, Mary, Sam and Akira headed to where the Police cordon was being erected. They had about 10 to 15 minute window before the lack of traffic passing become obvious to anyone inside. Aegis was on their way but without collaborative evidence they were reluctant to deploy resources yet, but they were on standby. A few second later Adam joined them under the rail bridge with his satchel.

There is no evidence of the station at street level, just a bricked-up entrance and bricked over windows could be seen.  The Met had allowed Marcus to take charge and had allocated him about 20 Met’ Police Officers including a squad of Territorial Support Group in Riot gear and battle armour ready.

He approached the group and handed over a tablet with historic floorplans of the station displayed.

“We believe they are all on this level. The walls are too thick for decent thermal imaging… How do you want to approach this?”

It was Akira who suggested that he try and astrally project himself inside first. The others agreed and Akira sat down outside the bricked up entrance and seconds later his head slumped as his astral body departed; leaving his physical body abandoned, left to fend on biological autopilot.

He passed through the wall into the entrance corridor which had several infra-red alarms installed at varying heights as well as the original ticket barriers with their metallic rotating single entry ticket-ways.

Akira wanders through the premises; identifying first an empty baggage room at the far end of the building, three Foundry Knights in the next door store room (what was their connection to Labyrinth?), passing through the ticket office onto the concourse he saw five transparent tubes, each holding a slumped and occasionally unconscious prisoner and again a further three guards. In his astral form he got more of a reading than a visual of each. Turning into the occupied room in the opposite side of the abandoned station he found a number of angry figures as well as two cold and dead or dying bodies on autopsy tables. If that wasn’t enough he saw that there was a young woman chained to the wall next to a swirling, gigantic mass of hostility; that it was alive was beyond doubt going by the strength of anger boiling off the figure but what it was, was unreadable to his astral senses. Backing away quickly he checked out the rest of the floor but found it empty.

Travelling back, he reoccupied his physical form and informed the others. It didn’t look like a trap but if they were to save the remaining victim they had to go in quickly and covertly.

Looking at the plans Young Sam identified that there were a number of sealed and slabbed over entrances located outside the building but it wasn’t clear what they led to. Selecting what appeared to be a sealed drain cover, Young Sam removed the welded-shut heavy metal cover and Mary, turning into her insubstantial Banshee form, misted down. It appeared to be a disused drain running underneath the baggage area. A rusty and dangerous looking ladder lead upwards, but the original drain inside the room had been sealed over. Sam would have trouble fitting down here and he was likely the only one who could break through the sealed entrance above and that wouldn’t be quiet. Filing the information away, they looked at what their other options were.

Quickly a plan was agreed. Sam couldn’t get inside covertly so he would be back up and the heavy hitter. Akira would teleport into the storeroom and try and take out the three armoured guards. If he did so successfully, then he’d use the code word ‘Jenga’ over their earpieces to signal Young Sam to come in via the Baggage room wall – hopefully it would be far enough away from the others that they wouldn’t hear (or at least not be able to identify) the noise and that would be their escape route for the kidnapped people inside. If however things went south and covert was no longer an option, he’d scream “help” to signal that Sam needed to come through the storage room wall instead. In the meantime, Banshee had identified an old smoke stack to the rear of the ticket office which in her insubstantial form she could use to gain access. Even if that was alarmed, her mist form would hopefully not set anything off.

As soon as the plan was agreed Banshee left for the remains of the stack while Akira teleported into the store room catching the three guards by surprise and immediately blasted the one nearest the door so hard into the wall that he was knocked unconscious. One of the other guards turned and fired his rifle-like weapon (thankfully it was silenced) but was still sufficiently unnerved that he missed, peppering the wall just above Akira’s head which was showered with ricocheting plaster. So much for the element of surprise! “Help!”  The cry came over Sam’s earpiece and he immediately ran at, and effectively through, the bricked over window and into the store room, continuing to run until he stood in front of Akira interposing himself between his companion and the remaining guards. He after all was effectively bulletproof!

In the meantime Banshee had heard the call through the wall. Whilst insubstantial her devices didn’t function but her hearing was enhanced. There was a thin plaster wall between her and the guards… Could she..? She let loose with a highly focused terrorising scream that cut through the physicality of the wall and hammered the remaining two guards, while countering and cancelling out the noise of the attack to anyone else.

Hammered by the death wail, the two guards gave up any pretense at fighting and collapsed in a huddle on the floor. The sharp smell of ammonia filled the air from one or both of them as they dropped their weapons and cried to themselves.

No time to waste, Akira ran into the Concourse and using his focused TK tried to lift the first of the prison tanks and free the young girl inside. It raised off the ground, tilted and crashed into the one next to it knocking it free also, allowing its prisoner to crawl out as well. Two for the price of one, karma rewarded indeed. Three chambers left to go. Turning to the two escapees, “Run for the baggage room, the room at the end, there” he screamed and pointed. “We’ll arrange to get you out of there soon, but you’ll be safe there as long as you stay quiet. GO!!” One of the guards ran towards him but Young Sam ran out, heading towards the dissection room and knocked him unconscious with a single punch without stopping. Before the other two guards could aim, Banshee flowed out from the ticket office and again unleashed her terrorising scream and they collapsed into a catatonic state.

Arriving at the door, Sam looked inside. In the middle of the room was a man in a full face mask with the Labyrinth logo on the forehead and unadorned armour who seemed to be watching and evaluating the two scientists who had been in the process of dissecting the bodies on the tables. Sam tried to take it all in, chained to the wall was a semi-conscious young girl with brown hair next to a monstrosity; taller than Sam with bug-like eyes, a mouth filled with fangs, four muscular arms tipped with sharp claws and two heavy, stump-like legs. The creature radiated hate and anger. Behind the Man in the Mask stood two more figures, one in shadow but the other he recognised immediately… Cannon! The figure immediately raised his hand and fired off a shot that whistled passed the Man in the Mask and struck Sam solidly on the chest. Damn that hurt! Shrugging it off, Sam immediately flew towards Cannon, hitting him and knocking them both back into the wall.

Back in the concourse, Akira continued to try and raise the prison chambers to release the prisoner inside and then directing them to the Baggage Room. Whilst this was going on, Banshee spotted a handsome young youth who appeared to have been hiding behind one of the fallen containers and saw that he had a mobile phone in his hand and seemed to be trying to dial. Our mystery informant? She then realised that she is not the only one to spot him as one of the guards has regained his composure and looked about to fire at the youth!  Banshee flowed over and reaching out used her corrupting touch on the weapon causing it to become inoperable.  The mere presence of her ghostly figure was enough to cause him to choose to return to unconsciousness. Moving towards the youth she whispered “If you are who we think you are we’re the help you asked for.” She directed him to join the others but he remained rooted to his current location. Realising Sam may need help, Banshee left him be for the moment and headed towards the room only to feel a force hit her that made it extremely difficult to remain insubstantial. It seemed to emanate from a small device held in the hands of the Man in the Mask. He tilted his head slightly to one side and started to clap, slowly and rhythmically. Mary knew that should she give up the struggle even for a moment and turned substantial, she would be unable to return to mist again whilst in the presence of that device, whatever it was…

A vision of a similar device in the hands of the knights who attacked them in the S.A.F.E. Chamber passed momentarily through her mind.

The Man in the Mask stopped clapping and pressed a small button on his belt; immediately the chains on the monstrous figure and the young girl fell away. The creature started swinging its four arms around as though trying to figure what to do first. His companion, shrieking in terror, tried to get away and unconsciously starts crawling backwards up the wall. It was pretty obvious that spiders were used as the catalyst for their meta-human breakthrough!

Whilst this was happening, Sam decided to try a different tack and tried his persuasion ability on the shocked Cannon; encouraging him to “do the right thing.” It worked; all his attempts to struggle free ended. Now to focus on the figure in the shadows.

At the other end of the room the creature, seeming nicknamed Tangleweb, going by the screaming obscenities emanating from the mouth of the Foundry scientist it attacked first, was busy.

Banshee tried to flow further into the room but whatever was affecting her ability to remain insubstantial was stronger the closer she got to the Man in the Mask. Time for a change of tactics. Turning her head she unleashed a terrorising scream on the nearest scientists and guards who immediately tried to run to the far end of the room away from her.

Outside as Akira approached and begins to lift the last container, he realised that a fine silver mist was starting to emanate from the top of it. Someone had begun to release the Nanites and the final victim was still trapped inside the chamber with it. Akira had to decide whether to break the chamber and rescue the youth but release the Nanites into the air or..? When he’d lifted the previous container he’d replaced it upright. Could it still work as a sealed unit? Focusing he tried to open a portal inside the remaining container and into the one behind him. A bright flash and… No way to check, he TK’ed the final chamber up and told the remaining two victims to run to the baggage room. If any of the Silver Storm still remained perhaps they could outrun it?

It did mean they would have to run passed the doorway to the dissection room and possibly be hit by any shots passing through Banshee.  No time to erect a shield, he ran behind Mary imposing himself between any possible shots and the two remaining victims. To his relief no shots were fired but he saw what Mary and Sam saw; the figure that had been in the shadows was Dreadnought! He stepped forward and fired a shot off from his wrist cannon at Young Sam which missed but smashed a hole through the wall. Cannon saw his opportunity and ran for it (unknowingly straight into the Police cordon outside).

The remaining guards and scientists all followed his exodus, leaving only the girl now clinging from the roof, The Man in the Mask, Dreadnought, Tangleweb and the two heroes inside the room. Denied any further revenge on the scientists, the latter now turned his attentions to Dreadnought and swung a double punch at him, only to miss with both. Mary took the opportunity during the distraction to flow towards the Masked Man and reach out with her corrupting touch but was blocked by some unknown field mere inches from him. He appeared to be studying and evaluating her. Mary had the feeling that she’d just been graded and not very highly at that. Infuriating little… Well saving the victims was the priority and so she turned and immediately flew towards the baggage room in an attempt to get them safely out of the building. As she arrived she spotted the young informant, struggling to get off the floor and coughing violently. On his shoulders was a scattering of silver dust; deactivated Nanites! Had he been..? Banshee approached the stone slab that covered the drain and rickety ladder down and tried to wrestle it off only for the young informant to reach down and single-handedly pull it loose, throwing it over his shoulder hitting the ceiling as it did so. Well that answered that! She immediately started to get the people to head down and out to the comparative safety of the Police.

Heading back to the room she passed what seemed to be a small floating device which seemed to be recording what was going on… Then she remembered as she was planning the assault seeing Adam take it from his satchel.

Ignoring it for the moment she got to the door in time to see Dreadnought fire off an electrical shock that caught Tangleweb but thankfully missed Young Sam at the same time as Akira tried to telekinetically ‘grab’ the Masked Man’s device but finds his powers were also weakened in its presence. Sam unleashed his fiery breath on Dreadnought but was similarly restricted.

Whatever this device was it seemed designed to reduce their specific abilities. Banshee elected to stay by the doorway just outside the devices reach and unleashed a terrorising wail that caught both Dreadnought and Tangleweb in its blast and caused them to run for the hole in the wall.

The Masked Man turned and slowly clapped. “Seems I under-estimated you. Introductions are in order, I am known as the Professor and you, you need no introduction. Well done, well done indeed. Despite my research you proved worthy adversaries.  Your reward will be answers… Go ahead?”

He stood at ease, his hands behind his back waiting. “Labyrinth?” said Sam. “I am part of that organisation.”

“Why all this?” Said Mary.

“Have you heard of kairomones? Stormers; meta-humans created by the Silver Storm produce a chemical signal that attracts the control bugs to bring them into the comfort and control of the creatures hive mind…

Stormers are a form of fifth columnists, designed initially to weaken us by ensuring the majority of meta-human breakthroughs are psychotic and uncontrollable. Then when the control bugs take them over, they become the Terminus’ advance army. Powered, controlled, disposable.

You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette – thanks to this little experiment we have found a way to block the kairomone signals that attract the control parasites and prevent the meta-breakthroughs becoming psychotic. A simple treatment of lithium and zinc compounds at the right concentrations should act as cure. Currently a gas compound is successful 72.37% of the time and I’m sure the Challenger-Wildeman’s will be able to tweak that slightly to improve its effectiveness. Slightly.

You see, I’m not your enemy. They say the enemy of your enemy is your friend, don’t they? The real enemy is Terminus. Terminus wants to destroy our civilisation; I just want to be able to play behind the scenes a little…”

Akira looked puzzled and asked Young Sam what Terminus was.

The Professor answered instead. “They’re a threat even the Ziru Sirka are afraid of. Inter-dimensional conquerors who once established in a paraverse, enslave the people, strip-mine the planet leaving it barren and lifeless then, having established a foothold in this parallel move on to the next planet and the next; a dimensional cancer with the resources of numerous other parallels to call on.

Even their dead continue to serve their ruler, zombified soldiers; warriors without fear – or individual thought.

I’ll leave you a copy of my notes, they make for interesting reading. Is that it? No questions about PISCES or the Carpathian Connection?”

Akira looked confused having misheard, “Isis? What do you mean Isis?” Sam smiled, noticing the small drone for the first time, recording it all. “No PISCES, the covert intelligence group. OK I’ll bite what is the Carpathian connection?”

“They are developing biological super weapons for use against Terminus…” he pointed to Young Sam, “Like you! Oh did you really think you were unique? By the way, you now have less than 3 minutes to evacuate the area before the bombs I left goes boom and takes out the entire block!”

The figure started to fade as though no longer receiving sufficient power, and the device apparently held in his hands fell to the ground. “What you thought I stayed behind to monologue? This is a hologram and you now have 2 minutes 22 seconds. Goodbye!”

With that the figure immediately vanished and Akira rushed forward and picked up the device. “Bombs, so what do we do? Evacuate or..?”

Mary replied, “We may not be able to get everyone far enough away and if we did this building is underneath a railway bridge. It goes up who knows who else might be at risk especially if there’s a train nearby. No we have to find them but where?”
Quickly looking round the room they then rush onto the concourse and see that on the roof there were four can-sized containers bleeping red. “Those? How do we deactivate?”

Sam suddenly shouts out, “There are a couple of canisters of liquid nitrogen here; must have been using them for quick freezing samples. If we freeze the trigger mechanisms perhaps it would stop the explosions? Worth a shot but we’ve less than 40 seconds before they explode how do we reach them all?” With that he flew up straight for the first one and grabbed it then flew towards the second. In the meantime Akira teleported to another one but failed to grab it and as he changed his focus to try and levitate, plunged towards the ground. OK so, while Sam grabbed his third which he dropped towards Mary who was showering the devices in liquid nitrogen Akira again teleported up, grabbed the final bomb and allowed himself to fall clutching the bomb. This would hurt. At the last second he threw it towards Mary who blasted it with liquid nitrogen. Landing badly, Akira got up bruised but happy as the deadline to destruction passed.

Stepping outside all three of them were happy to see that the Police has successfully captured the fleeing Cannon and Dreadnought, (Sam just wondered how long before Tempus broke them free this time?) however Tangleweb had broken through the cordon and was headed towards Battersea Park and the boating lake. A park filled with mothers and children.

Heading after him, his trail cleared by the path of destruction and the terrified look on the faces of passer-by’s, they caught up with him by the edge of the boating lake. Looking around Akira had an idea how best to deal and rushing forward he grabbed and held onto one of tangleweb’s flailing arms and teleported him to the island in the middle of the lake, then let’s go and teleported back.

Out of breath he muttered, “Just hope he doesn’t realise just how shallow the water is here, it can’t be more than 6 foot deep at most, he could wade ashore if he wanted… “

He collapsed to the ground just as a Police sharpshooter arrived with a Tranquiller rifle obviously intended to anesthetise elephants. They left him to take down Tangleweb. It took several shots before he finally collapsed.

Back at the raft, they watched Adam recall his surveillance Drone. Sam cleared his throat and spoke “So, this is why you wanted the miniaturised gravitics unit?” “Yeah, hope you don’t mind but this way you can safely gather evidence and record your actions without any encumbrance to yourselves. The gravitics unit means low power consumption hence the 18 centimetre size and of course they’re completely silent. Perhaps if we can get some mini drives I can create a couple more..?” Sam looked at him, “smart! Now if only we can mount a small snipers rifle on them so… What..?”

The others laughed as they turned back to watch the victims being ambulanced away. In amongst them was the young Mary.  Mary knew she should go speak to her but say what?

Hopefully she’d have a chance after everyone had given their statements…