1 – Relations are Relative
Mary knocked on the door and waited. The flat in Newcastle was located in a good (and extremely expensive) area and the building and surrounding gardens were well looked after. This Jean seemed to have done well for herself.
She’d have really benefited from Annie being around about now to have ran a background check so she wasn’t going in completely blind. The pseudo-creature Annie left behind could have possibly done it, if asked, but… Mary however felt ‘uncomfortable’ asking a verbal lightshow to do a bit of research for her.
She knocked again; a little louder this time and waited.
Damn, what was it about this particular situation that made her more nervous than walking into a firefight or a..?
The door opened suddenly and a confident woman, with the red hair of the MacCarty’s she couldn’t help noticing, in her mid-30’s stood in front of her. “Yes, can I help you?”
Mary smiled, “Where to start? Yes, Hello, I’m looking for a young girl, Mary?” Before she could say anything more, the door suddenly opened a little wider and young Mary’s face popped round the edge of the door. “Hiya wondered how long it would take you. Auntie Jean, this is the other Mary I mentioned, the woman who took me in after… When I ran away.” Before she could say any more, Mary found herself being physically dragged inside the apartment by an excited youngster.
Seemed neither Mary nor Jean were going to have a say in this!
In her commlink she could hear Adam sniggering. She quickly switched the earpiece to standby mode silencing Adam and blocking his ability to eavesdrop; this was family business after all, not the Balance’s.
Jean took her inside to a living room decorated with comfortable, and she couldn’t help noticing expensive, furniture; the walls were decorated with masks and wooden ornaments from around the world. A framed certificate had pride of place on the wall. Psychiatrist eh? On the coffee table was a large photo album overflowing with photos.
Young Mary looked excited. “You’re late.” Mary was taken back. “Sorry?” Though not sure for what.
“So Rory… He’s not here, He’s a freelance engineer apparently and away on work. Jean doesn’t know where. Or when he’ll be back. He sort of does consultancy work. Jean is a trained psychiatrist and has worked all over the world in war zones would you believe it? I mean, who’d have believed you could travel around the world as a shrink..? Oh sorry, that’s insulting isn’t it?”
Jean smiled and explained, “I used to work with Médecins Sans Frontières providing support and counselling to survivors in war and disaster zones until a few years ago when I elected to return home and try and set up my own practice. Must admit I miss it. Well, not the dodging of bullets or the survivors’ guilt, but… Anyway, I was explaining some of the family history to Mary here. You took her to visit Great-Grandpa, I understand. Thank you!”
“So, have either you or Rory married? Kids? No?”
Jean shook her head and continued, “After Dad, that would be your grandfather Shane, Mary, died our mother moved us back to England. Mum died when I was 17 and I had to bring up Rory on my own until he enlisted at 18 anyway – Marines, inherited the adventurous streak from our father. Ah, that was after he and your mum separated. I don’t think he ever knew about you I mean.
Ah, how much do you know about your grandfather? Did you know about the Aontacht Éire connection?”
Young Mary mentioned that Colm had mentioned his connection with the group and looked surprised when Jean sniggered. “The connection goes deeper than that. My father had been the third person to wear the Illustrious armour. When Sammy, the second person to carry the Illustrious title decided to not carry on the family tradition any longer, his father, the original Illustrious, asked Shane to keep the legend alive and he was so proud to do so. That was why the terrorist Emerald targeted him and grandma you know? It was no accident. I, I had to try so hard to stop Rory from putting the suit on and going after the bastard when he found out. Anyway, when your dad came back he took to working contracts as an engineering specialist – a lot of his work is confidential and is for the Government. Very hush-hush and all that.”
She reached over and started to flick through the album until she came to a serious of pictures of an armoured superhero. “This is the Illustrious armour. Your father still has it in a lock up somewhere in Wessex – he has a flat there, you know. Still tinkers with it now and then, threatening to wear it though his… Ah, do you know he was disabled out of the army? Was injured in the Bosnian War, never did get the full story. Oh, he’ll outlive us all, takes after Great-Grandda that way but can’t take the stress of wearing the suit, at least not anymore.”
Jean stopped and suddenly turned on Mary. “The youngster’s been very quiet on your involvement in all this so, my apologies but…” She suddenly reached out and pinched the old lady’s ear gently apparently searching – and finding – what she was looking for in Mary’s ear. She nodded. “Yeah you’ve got it. Didn’t you know about the MacCarty genetic marker? Small bone in the ear – we’ve all got it, just here.” She reached over again and touched her ear. Mary had known about the minuscule lump of gristle in her left ear, just hadn’t realised that everyone in the family also had it.
“So you’re definitely family; but who?”
Old Mary decided to go with “Yes I’m family but the relationship is so distant as to be difficult to explain.”
Jean tilted her head and looked her in the eyes, “So what happens about Mary? She going back with you and I’ll get Rory to contact you when he gets home or, well sweetie you can stay here for a while. Get to know each other. What would you prefer?”
2 – Frustrations
Akira was starting to wonder about the practicality of maintaining an investigation agency – especially without the whirlwind that was Annie managing the day-to-day aspects. Oh, Pseudo-Annie still solved 70% of the legwork for him by hacking into the CCTV networks and carrying out the online investigations but – well, the pseudo-version just didn’t have any of Annie’s imagination or flair. ‘She’ could do the online investigations if asked but needed to be told what to do and couldn’t make Annie’s intuitive leaps or come up with new and imaginative ways to solve the cases without direction. Frustrating.
He’d also had several calls from Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley trying to convince him to contact Lucius Cabot, provide a DNA sample and claim his ‘inheritance’. He’d also received a call from the National Trust asking him to contact them urgently about his apparent claim on FFrwd Dylluan.
Actually he needed to make a decision about that property and soon. Before, his oaths had prevented him from claiming the property but his recent change of heart meant that was no longer an issue. And did he really want to find out what happens when a location so charged with magic became a tourist attraction?
He also needed to find some way to confirm whether Lucius really had killed his parents and why his mother’s family had, was being targeted? Maybe there were others out there also at risk?
If so, how would he deal with him? He knew what he wanted to do but even in his anger he knew he needed proof, not just suspicion.
In the meantime, he had several cases of businesses in Dragon’s Gate being targeted by gangs and a request to find a lost dog – really. Interestingly the last case offered the biggest reward as well as his regular fee. What was a Nepalese Dragon Dog anyway?
And of course there was the Library. The Doctor had proved he had a facility with the magic arts but lacked the knowledge or even the fundamentals of magic. Why had the reveal spell gone from his memory after using it for example? Was it normal that you needed to relearn a spell after you used it? The spell he’d learnt from the Doctor for example was something he still understood but couldn’t apparently reactivate – at least for the moment. It was like being a sculptor without hands to actually shape anything… As he said before, frustrating. Perhaps a better comparison was owning a device that was uncharged without knowing how to charge it.
3 – Upgrade
Adam supervised the installation of the small but powerful fusion ARC reactor he’d managed to beg from the Challenger-Wildeman’s. He really did need to have a talk with the others about the deal he’d agreed for the power unit that would run off water from the river that ran under the BASEment, or at least the hydrogen it got from the water. Enough power for the whole city if need be and definitely enough to make the stealth shielding viable.
Just wonder how they will feel about being bodyguards for the family’s trip to Israel?
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 