It had been a couple of days since their return. Sam was glad of the regular reports from Aramis of the Nouveaux Chevaliers de Paris that the criminal case against the Black Dragonkin was ongoing though apparently there was some talk about his suddenly acquiring diplomatic immunity from the Carpathian Embassy in Paris, but as it had never been filed with the French authorities before the arrest this claim had serious political ramifications for Carpathia who were having to deny claims that Igor Vasilescu (apparently that was his real name) was in fact a state-sponsored spy and assassin working illegally on French soil.
Sam chuckled to himself, it was always nice when good things happen to ‘nice’ people wasn’t it? But in all seriousness, he was very glad of the professionalism and quality of the Nouveaux Chevaliers. It also created links into the European Community superhero teams that may prove useful someday.
Lillian had once suggested that in order to grow, he’d somehow have to absorb some of Igor’s draconic essense, but quite frankly if he could have as little to do with Igor and prove Lillian wrong somehow, the better.
During his brief career, this seemed like the first time that an arrest of a major meta-human threat had seemed to stick. Though, as he thought about it,he realised that Dreadnought and Cannon were (surprisingly) still behind bars and Tangleweb was currently receiving treatment so maybe their success rate was higher than he realised.
Akira had spent some time trying to communicate with the spirit of Doctor Avery, or Doctor Arcane as he was apparently also known in his younger years. The time spent had gained him a reveal spell that cast aside illusions which the good doctor felt would prove useful but Akira was struggling to master.
In the meantime, Adam and Mikey were apparently working on perfecting the freeze ray as requested. Outside of mealtimes even Jeeves had taken to being a bit mysterious and seemed to be avoiding them.
Mary walked into the lounge and saw Jeeves waiting for her. “Ah what’s up Edward?”
“I need you ma’am to call a team meeting. I think we are almost ready for the assault on the Seminarium but I do wonder if you have fully considered what might be awaiting you on the other side or considered the full measure of the resources available to the team. Could we all possibly meet back here in one hour?”
It was unlike Jeeves to be so bossy! She agreed and put a call through for others to join her in an hour in the lounge.
Sam, Akira and Mary sat on the sofa as Jeeves and Adam came in. “I have no idea what plan you have conceived for rescuing the young lady ma’am, young sirs but I would like to inform you as to the full capacity of what resources are available to you. I feel it only proper to point out that this will be an assault in a foreign country against unknown odds. The very name of the group indicates that this is some form of training facility and we do not know who exactly you will be fighting. To that end I have taken the liberty of rounding up a few additional resources. Adam?”
Adam looked a little embarrassed but spoke up firmly. “Thanks to Annie’s notes and some assistance from my old boss Alec Farraday, we will have managed to build several pulse rifles, capable of stunning the guards and two man-portable freeze guns. I have also mounted a larger version of both temporarily onto the Raft – it will fly like a fish out of water with them surface mounted but if I only have to take the raft through the portal with you we should be OK. We can use the Raft to set up a defence perimeter and hold the line as well as providing some physical shielding if required. I may have a couple of additional surprises ready by then as well.” He finished and finally took a deep breath. “I’m part of this team too…” Jeeves smiled, “I too will be there with Adam armed with one of the pulse rifles. I have some skills as a sniper in… Ah, shall we say one of my previous careers?”
He turned as a noise of something heavy stomped down the corridor. Suddenly a nearly 4 metre tall robotic figure partially squeezed itself through the door and the domed head popped open to reveal Mikey. “I’m going too. I’ve just finished Junkpile here and we figure we can add a bit of confusion to the enemy – this bad boy is fully shielded, capable of emitting a directional EMP pulse that should fry the bases’ circuitry and although she’s not otherwise armed she will do her bit… Junkpile is also rigged to explode on a timer once I’m gone…” She smiled and climbed out and down to stand beside Adam and Jeeves. “I’m part of this too if you’ll have me?”
Sam raised a scaly brow and nodded silently along to each of their BASEmates offers for help. He was very impressed and it was certainly above and beyond their usual call-to-action, if anything they seemed keen and excited to come and participate and Sam wasn’t prepared to turn them down, they can always use the help, it was only a couple of days ago another team-mate running around would have improved their combat situation massively.
He did have one reservation though: It was beginning to sound like a venture of a terrible kind, of great risk and destruction. Adam had already begun to sound nervous and it was only a couple of days ago someone was pointing a gun at his chest. He looked over but Adam stood tall – maybe he was coping better than he thought? Still want to keep an eye out for him though.
In addition, Jeeves was literally hounded by mental demons and Mikey was a young, talented artist, not a trained combatant. Sam would feel terribly guilty if these kind people suffered harm of any kind, physical or PTSD. Their grit and enthusiasm was a good sign, after-all, it was only a few years ago Sam was a book-worm himself. He’d have to endeavour to speak to them privately and make sure they knew what they were getting into. Admittedly Adam had coped better than he’d expected and didn’t appear to be suffering too much from his experiences. Regardless he wanted to keep a close eye on him.
At that Jeeves coughed slightly to catch their attention. “Ah’m we also have some allies who have stated they would like to come along, provide a distraction whilst you locate and free any prisoners.
The young lady, Naomi Van Helsing wishes to support you in your endeavours and has informed me she will join you. I don’t believe that is a request by the way. I have also received notification from the Library that Lillian and some members of what she calls the ‘Black Chapter’ also plan an assault on their facility. Lillian has informed me that they will co-ordinate their attack with ours to act as a distraction. I believe they intend to retrieve the two scrolls that were stolen, if not any other books and spells if at all possible.”
Sam briefly wondered if there was any ulterior motives to this visit, but disregarded them quickly, no time to be picky. Here’s hoping that they choose a different entry point though to the one ‘proposed’ by their spectral advisor, Dr. Arcane, who had been a sworn Library ‘disliker’ during his life.
“Ma’am, young sirs – the Balance (and by that I also include young Adam, Ms. Angelo and myself) and your allies stand ready. What do you propose?”
Mary sucked on her pipe and aimed a slow smile at Akira and Sam. “Seems like our supposed back-up folk are well ahead of us in doing any thinking about this.”
Sam chuckled “Isn’t that always the case?”
After a wrinkled pause for thought Mary continued, “Maybe what we have to work out first is just what we mean to achieve. First up has to be to get Donna out safely – for which it would be handy to be able to locate her on the hoof. Akira – can your Doctor Arcane help us with that?”
Akira had already considered that and had already asked the Doctor if he’d be able to home his portal directly on Donna. The answer hadn’t been encouraging.
“Sorry, he was able to track her to the building and can home in on her if she was to leave it but the Seminarium’s mystical wards make it impossible to do so whilst she’s inside. Ah, he also thinks it likely she’s not the only prisoner.”
Mary continued, “The way we’re tooling-up, and the kind of threats we face, seems like we’re also aiming to do some real damage here. Just have to be careful we don’t take out any innocents along the way.”
Sam noticed that Jeeves had stepped into the corridor to answer a telephone call. Whoever it was, Jeeves was obviously upset about something.
Mary carried on “So are we saying that it’s OK to stamp on (or blow-up) Serpent Folk – or do we just need to inhibit them while’s dealing with Dementia and her underlings? “
Sam nodded. “Good point. I’m not too sure where they sit on the innocence definition. They could be victims in all of this if they are being forced to take part by Dementia. We’ll have to see if they attack us, and the severity of their attacks. Who knows, they may try to run and escape with the chance provided.”
She paused and Mikey spoke in a quiet, hesitant voice; “Are there definitely going to be these serpent people present?”
Akira answered her, “the Doctor seemed to think so… He also seemed to think there would be other dangers.”
Mary nodded, “Speaking of which – seems like enticing Abyss into the fracas would be a good move for us. Putting me and my evil niece (as well as maybe her dad) and Akira all together in an atmosphere high-charged with magic should make sure he turns up – ‘specially if Akira can find some way of dialling down that pookah effect that’s keeping him off Abyss’ radar for now? Maybe Abyss can warm Dementia up a bit, and then we can cool him down with these freezer-gun things (and I guess we have to decide which teams of two are carrying them) – which should also work against the Serpent Folk. But that’s about as far as I have got. Guess we need a bit more tactical planning than that…”
Sam picked up one of the weapons. It was rifle-sized, heavy and cumbersome. It required two hands to hold and fire. The weight wouldn’t be a problem with Sam’s innate strength but it was extremely awkward to hold. Guns, unwieldy bloody things.
Whoever used them would be burdened down and might have difficulty using their other powers. The only definite was that Jeeves was the only one of them trained to use one.
Jeeves re-entered the room. “Ma’am that was Ms Van Helsing; she wants to know if anyone has any experience with using a crossbow? She apparently feels that they will be useful. Also we’re to expect the arrival of some disorientation grenades. Ah, she also wanted to know if anyone was allergic to garlic and recommended everyone wears a factor 50 suntan lotion on the day as some of her weapons apparently utilise an excessive amount of UV radiation.”
Adam smiled and muttered “that will be my old boss, Alec. He had a thing about building weapons that used both garlic extract and UV. Never found out why.”
Sam hefted the freeze ray, trying to get attuned to its bulk; he figured providing that the freeze-tech was pointing away from him that would most likely be the safest place for him. “Jeeves, Adam. Do y’think you could show me how to use this thing? It’s not likely to explode in my hands at-all, is it?”
Jeeves smiled. “Target practice in the Black Room in 30 minutes, if that would be agreeable?”
Sam nodded his thanks. He hoped that if he was able to spend an hour or two practicing it may be a rudimentary skill he could learn, but he doubted it. People spend years training to be marksmen. Perhaps Sam would be more useful carrying something large and bullet-proof as to provide mobile cover for everyone else?
Freeze rays, pulse-stun rifles, disorientation grenades? Someone should keep a list. If only there was a self-confessed gadgeteer amongst them. The best thing to do would be to spread out the equipment among the members who could use them best (but let’s not try to over-encumber Jeeves, shall we?). Equipment and devices tend to be “ooh, shiny!” when it comes to this line of work, he suspected there wouldn’t be much left by the time it finished. Anything spare they could put in their empty armoury for a rainy day, he supposed.
Sam dropped the aim on the freeze-ray, pointing the barrel down at the floor and stood centrally to speak. “We’re doing a raid, right? SWAT teams and armed-response teams have this kind of thing down to a science. Maybe we should ask Jeeves and the Inspector for a quick 101 guide, though time is of the essence.”
Jeeves nodded, “I’m happy to offer advice but how legal is this action? You may prefer to avoid future legal complications by not involving and informing an officer of the law in advance?”
Ah! Sam continued. “Akira, the Doctor says he can make a bridge to the drop point, he must get a feeling as to where it is somehow? I’m not asking him to trace or search anything. I mean, hell, we’ve been there before Akira; can you do some hocus-pocus or a ritual or something? If we can find their general area on the map, we may be able to pull an old architecture blueprint with a bit of luck.” He sighed, “I’m sure Frankie would be able to pull something up. Being able to briefly guess where the rooms are and what they might be for, it could save us valuable time on-location and keep us all safer.”
Akira nodded, “I’ll ask” I get the impression it’s on the outskirts of the Capital Iași, but he either can’t or won’t get more accurate than that, sorry!”
Sam continued, “We already lost Annie for the time being. I’d prefer it if we didn’t lose anyone else.” Sam spoke seriously, trying to curb the excitement and to emphasis the reality of their situation. Looking around the room catching eyes for a moment, he smiled, “By the way, do we even keep sun-cream in the BASEment?”
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 