Next Morning, whilst Sam was recovering with a hangover, Akira picked up Mace from the Steadman Investigations office and teleported her into the Reception Room; empty except for a large crystal. He then escorted her around, showing her Sam’s Black Room with its moving targets, balancing beams and chimney before moving through the entire base, arriving at the room below the Hangar. Entering, the room stood empty except for an industrial sized 3D replicator. Adam explained that he’d asked their mysterious ‘sponsor’, whoever ‘she’ was, to provide it for her to enable her to fabricate her specialist devices. The room was large with plenty of space for a laboratory, tool shop and living quarters if she ever wanted or she could potentially take one of the unused bedrooms in the living area of the BASEment.
Sam especially enjoyed showing off the newly finished VR training room to their new guest.
After the tup’penny tour, Akira guided her back to the lounge where she met the rest of the crew. They were watching the large screen television and a newsreader, a photo of Omniweapon in the studio background…
The newsreader continued, “Omniweapon has stated that, contrary to reports in the media, he was not downed by an unidentified Meta-human the previous day. Instead, he stated that someone sabotaged his suit using a stolen, experimental gravitic nullification module that Omnitech had designed for the military. The military has denied that they had ever commissioned such a device but Marcus Moore stated that they wouldn’t want to admit to losing such a powerful device and confirmed his intention to recover the module as soon as possible.”
The newsreader paused and checked his notes “Report just in that a large reptilian figure has been seen by the London Eye and some tourists are trapped on the Eye itself. We are currently unable to confirm, as we are not receiving any television footage from the area. There also appears to be a similar incident in Greenwich which is being dealt with by London Watch.”
Sam shouted at the screen, “What size? Are we talking medium sized reptilian? What size is it? Is it as big as me? I look like a lizard…”
The reporter continued, apparently undisturbed by Sam’s long distance outburst, “there is speculation that this may be some sort of publicity stunt as there does seem to be some sort of unofficial costume parade going on across Westminster Bridge consisting of what appears to be Elvis impersonators on the bridge. There is also a group tap dancing on the Thames including, according to one unconfirmed report, that one of the Thames walkers resembles Jesus Christ.” The reporter looked embarrassed at reading out the last statement.
He continued, “I can confirm that people are trapped on the London Eye and are unable to get down presently.”
Akira muttered, “That thing is slow enough anyway Sam, the people trapped must be worried out of their minds.” Sam nodded, “If it was going any slower it would have to travel back in time.”
Akira continued, “We need to prioritise, getting those poor devils off the Eye.”
Jeeves asked, “there isn’t a magic show taking place in town or Dynamo shooting a new TV series and no-one mentioned it by any chance?”
Akira immediately teleported Mace back to his office in Chinatown so she could get her grav-cycle and then waited and joined the others when the Raft arrived hovering outside, then headed for the Embankment in London where Mace would join them.
As they passed over Westminster Bridge, they could see five Elvis figures (impersonators?) doing karate kicks and chops whilst singing ‘Love me Tender’ as they marched across the bridge, everyone else were getting out of their way but it was obvious that anyone who tried to stop them would end up being attacked.
They appeared identical in appearance. To add to the confusion there also appeared to be people walking on the River Thames; as far as they could tell there was someone resembling Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha and a Lucifer in full devil mode; with horns, tail and pitchfork; all arm in arm, tap dancing on, or possibly just above the water.
Then next to the Raft there appeared a winged figure flying beside them and he was talking to a film crew on the Eye and three females in the topmost carriage; three women who appeared to be Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Hedy Lamarr in their heyday. The three women appeared to have a set of scorecards each and seemed untroubled by being trapped at the top of the eye. There was no sign of the large reptile.
There were 32 carriages on the Eye, each containing up to 25 people. The ones nearest the ground were evacuating themselves but the remaining passengers were still trapped.
A quick conference resulted in Sam stating that “apart from the people trapped on the Eye, the situation seemed relatively contained” and volunteering to go down and get hit by the ‘league of Elvis’, with a “if they’re going to punch anyone it should be me really”, whilst the others spread out and tackled the emerging situations.
Akira muttered to Sam, “You just want to tangle with Elvis, prove you’re harder than him. Let’s sort out the people trapped on the Eye first.”
The winged man flew towards them; he was over 6 feet tall, brown neat-slicked back hair and blue eyes, handsome in a Clark Gable sort of way. His wings were extended and he looked to be in his 40’s. He looked slightly familiar.
Sam laughed, “I bet you he’s the Angel Gabriel” and to his utter surprise, when he spoke he said, “I am the Archangel Gabriel, but you can call me Gabby… You know..? Gabby by name and Gabby by nature…” He comes over to the Raft and grav-cycle and looked them up and down; “Ok people, this is the Rapture.” Sam interrupted. “The, THE Rapture?”
“Yes, this is definitely the Rapture. We haven’t got to the sequel yet; this is the first take. “
Sam continued, “I’d have thought you’d have given us more warning you know, perhaps had it on the calendar at least. Do you do the same thing with Easter? Just make it up?”
Akira came over the team comms, “I think we’re dealing with a mentalist who thinks he’s the Archangel Gabriel.”
Gabby continued, “So, we’re doing a bit of change of script here, instead of going to heaven, the people, yes that’s you my sweets, lucky extra’s that you are… find themselves confronted with Superior Rex.”
He clicks his fingers and a 10-foot high Tyrannosaurus Rex – with longer, manipulative arms and dressed in a costume with mask and cloak suddenly appeared, walking towards the London Eye.
“So, Superior Rex is the ultimate survivor of the Cretaceous Period. Rex, darling – your motivation is that you’ve just woken up to find your civilisation gone, replaced by the ancestors of what you used to consider lunch. Now get angry and remember lots of blood and screaming, blood and screaming!”
Gabby turned back towards Sam who was now flying close by, “and who are you?” Sam introduced himself and his fellow team members, Akira, Banshee and Mace, known collectively as the Balance.
Gabby looked at his clipboard and muttered, “Ah yes, you’re down as extras.” Sam played along, as gabby continued, “I’ll just have to accept some studio interference in my masterpiece; well Superior Rex is about to destroy London, the main team have already failed their audition, so get busy, busy, busy, busy!” Main team? London Watch?
He shouted at his Elvis parade, “Elvis, Elvi? Anyway, a bit more of the synchronicity and a little less of the Prima Donna please and Elvis three, I saw that burger, get rid of it now please!”
Turning to the Hollywood starlets and film crew in the capsule cried out, “Lights, Camera, Action!”
Sam tried to check if Rex was a real dinosaur but he was too far away to check his scent.
Gabby turned back to them, “You know what you have to do, and your motivations are? They spoke up “To save London” and, “to save the people on the Eye.”
Gabby smiled and suddenly flew up into the air as Superior Rex roared.
Akira tried to throw a force cage around the approaching Superior Rex, with Sam jokingly calling for ‘make-up’. The cage encircled the creature but instantly shattered under the reptiles’ blows as it burst free. He immediately teleported away, into the module with the starlets, He asked what the store cards were for and they held up the scores for his opening shot; two, three and five.
Gabby shouted out “Miss Monroe, please stop flirting with the actors, I will deduct points if you do not act with some decorum – and you know you will not like that!”
Mace remained on her Grav-Cycle and she circled around trying to figure out how to best help the team. Sam explained that the team always tried to give their opponents a chance to surrender first but in this case..? She elected to fire off a stun bolt at the dinosaur, which hit some form of force wall and exploded 30 metres short of its target.
The team assumed it was a deliberate warning shot and congratulated her with Sam quipping “that really gave him flak!”
The scorecards now read four, six and a two (from Marilyn).
While this was going on the team saw that on the bridge a photographer had got too close to the Elvis’s and one of them had kicked him to the side of the bridge leaving him bleeding and concussed.
Gabby started shouting, “I need more action, MORE ACTION!!!”
Sam muttered “but we’re only extras!” as Mary stretched out her mystic senses and to her surprise got nothing, no sense of magic or of life’ it was like there was a void of life from all of them. She turned into Banshee and headed towards Rex.
As soon as Sam saw others being attacked by the Elvis’s he flew to the bridge and landed in the middle and initially blocked their movement by play fighting, avoiding their blows but pulling his own attacks though a few of their attacks actually hit. Sam joked, “hey Elvis, your hits were all years ago.”
Back on the Embankment, Rex took to the air and flew slowly towards the Eye as a massive force wave emanated out from its body. The wave hit everyone and knocked everyone back, including two of the Elvis off the bridge where they melted into organic green goo, as soon as they hit the water, in what appeared to be a Wizard of Oz moment. The force wave also hit the carriages on the Eye and caused one of the carriage connectors to shatter causing the carriage to tilt dangerously and look as though it was going to fall to the ground. The 20 plus passengers slid helplessly towards the fallen end with a lot of screaming and shouting.
Above, the scorecards held up for Rex read nine, nine and eight. Akira had to find out, “So tell me ladies, these score cards you’re holding up, would it affect Superior Rex if you were to give him a lower score? Are you somehow feeding him with your scores?”
Hedy turned towards him, “No, we’re evaluating your performance.” “In that case” said Akira and he unleashed his TK to hold and break the hanging carriage free from the Eye and lowered it carefully to the ground. The screaming passengers immediately ran for safety.
The three women held up scorecards of nine, nine and finally a ten from Marilyn. Akira took a bow and said “Thank you Marilyn, you were always my favourite” much to Mace’s disgust over the comms.
Banshee changed back into Mary and realised that the Jesus crew were actually walking about a foot above the water rather than ON the water. She unbridled her harp on the Lizard King; which unleashed a mental blast in reply that left Mary on the ground twitching and shocked.
Gabriel shouted to the Rapture Crew “Buddha less of the smirking or you will get dropped from the sequel! As for you, Satan stop teasing Jesus and please PUT THAT AWAY NOW!!! Damn, you just can’t get the staff these days!”
Sam meanwhile had one of the Elvis try and do an elbow strike to the top of his head only to be pushed away, over the safety rail and into the water where he exploded.
He heard Akira shout in his earpiece, “Yeah, just don’t step on the green suede sludge!” and Mary quipped, “Elvis has left the building” as she forced herself back to her feet, shakily.
Mace rushed in close to Rex and flicked on her holographic hypnotic gyroscope, which after a few seconds left the creature dazed. Mace flew back towards the Eye without being attacked.
The scorecards now read eight, eight and a nine. Sam clapped, despite the ensuing Elvis attacks murmured over the comms, “Special effects will love it, though it will need a seizure notice at the beginning of the film.”
However Gabriel flew up obviously upset and screamed, “no, no, no, NO! and clicked his fingers. He then put himself between Mace and Rex, obviously upset. Rex seemed to gain some energy with the click but still seemed a bit lethargic.
Meanwhile the Holy Crew had landed on the quayside and was moving towards them, looking as though they were about go into a high kick routine. The thought occurred to some of them that this ‘film’ was called the ‘Rapture’; perhaps Rex wasn’t the main villain?
Back on the bridge, Sam broke free of the remaining two Elvis and shouting “Okay Elvis we’ve had a good time but..” he turned his back on them both and unleashed a massive back draft that knocked them into the water. Smiling He shouted, “Now Elvis has left the building” and started to fly back towards the Rapturites.
Rex released a massive burst of energy, a force wave towards the Eye, also hitting Mace in the air, who managed to ride out the shockwave however all of the compartments were hit; including the starlet’s carriage who struggled to hold on to their scorecards with seven, seven and eight selected.
In the capsule below theirs, the connections broke loose leaving it hanging by a single connector.
Akira thought he could use a new spell he’d been learning to reduce the damage by repairing the carriage itself using the first Wheel of Weyan, to repair the metal; if he could somehow hold the capsule in place whilst he repaired the metal on the wheel..?
“Sam, I need some teamwork. Can you get here and hold the carriage in place while I carry out some repairs before they plummet to their death..? I want to try and fix it!”
Sam who was flying towards the Rapture Crew, suddenly squealed in laughter, “But what about Jesus, I want to meet Jesus” Akira laughed, “Jesus is not the answer Sam, leave him, he really isn’t the answer, now get here now…”
Mary changed to Banshee and flying over, picked up a circular bin filled it full of water and rushed towards Gabby and poured the container of water over his head.
Gabby shook his head, “No, if you want rain, I will bring the rain.” She did notice that there was a flicker of static in his hair from the water shower, a ‘short circuit’ possibly, as the starlets held up a clear row of ten’s; she’d obviously done something right.
Sam flew in, grabbed the ten tonne capsule and pushed it back in place whilst Akira unleashed his spell repairing the connections, weaving itself as if it were brand new.
The scorecards now read ten, ten and nine, which quickly become a third ten.
Banshee realised that Gabriel was possibly a robot, mechanical… She unleashed a shattering shriek – having poured a bucket of water over him she was now screaming at him. Gabby started to burst into flames and quickly turned him into ash falling to the ground, screaming “not again!”
Akira shouted, “No, I wanted him for the trophy room!”
As Gabby vanished, the Jesus Crew started another dance routine and Rex flew towards them.
Behind the crew, a plastic-looking figure flew in on metallic wings, despite that; the resemblance to Gabriel was unmistakable. “Jazz hands, Jesus, let’s have more of the jazz hands! This is the Rapture after all.” seeing the Balance he stopped and asked “And who are you again?”
Sam laughed, “We’re the extras” – Gabby II’s face and hair especially looks mechanical and plastic. However as they watched feathers started to grow out of the mechanical wings and his face and body become more organic and natural looking as his hair started to cover the painted on hair effect; the more like the original Gabriel it became.
From a distance, Mace selected and unleashed an EMP headed bolt straight at the angelic figure, hitting it square on the chest as it unleashed its electromagnetic pulse into the figure. The transformation was immediately halted and even began to reverse; the feathers fell out and the skin tone again reverted and turned plastic and artificial.
Sam used the interruption to fly up to Rex, screaming, “Rex, I am one of your people! Stop this madness” and tried to wrestle the dinosaur only to be grabbed and turned upside down before being dropped to the ground. Rex then unleashed a psychokinetic blast, causing Sam to slam into the ground bruised and battered and a ball of mental energy hit everyone nearby. The scorecards again on show.
Akira lifted Rex with his TK and dumped him head first in the water, maybe he’s allergic to water. Rex landed with a loud splash screaming in a lispy voice, “It burns, it burns!” only for it to fly out unharmed, a grin on its toothy face. What a tease he is… Well at least Akira had given the lizard a bath.
He tried the same again with Gabriel, who flew out instantly shaking himself instantly dried; Sam muttered “this isn’t total wipe out. We don’t have the movie rights!”
Banshee immediately followed it up with another shattering shriek at the winged creature, which left the automaton dazed and twitching and affecting his speech pattern, though he managed to shout out “Auto-mode Superior Rex, auto-mode,” before its speech became too badly affected. The scorecards read ten, nine and a nine for her attack.
Sam shouted, “Did he say auto-mode? Mace, Rex may also be a robot, can you unleash another EMP bolt at it? We don’t know what he can do.” Rex meanwhile was trying to grab at people on the Eye. Mace unleashed the bolt, hitting it square in the chest incapacitating the creature. The pulse forced it into shutdown mode. As it did so, it suddenly exploded.
Sam walked slowly away and thought as Rex exploded, “this will look great on film”; bits bouncing off Sam’s scales in the process. His final score was a ten, ten and ten as the film crew and starlets three started packing up then they stepped out of the capsule and began walking across the air.
Gabby shook himself and a few seconds later was back to his original form. He turned, looked at the team and in a friendly manner said “Well thank you for that folks that was entertaining. Some good shots there but it was always a B-Movie at best, so perhaps I should bring back a remake of Godzilla instead?”
Sam laughed, “well it will need a lot of editing, but…” Gabriel interrupted, “there were bits that were uncalled for, I needed to borrow another pair of wings from the props department and do you know how long it takes to grow a decent pair of wings? And you destroyed my robot, my little Rexy but the end result we can work with. You actually did better than the other team.”
“Other team?” said Sam, “you mean London Watch?”
“Yes, they flunked the whole exercise; couldn’t get into the whole ethos behind the film… But I’ve enjoyed it, been fun and when I come back for the sequel I’ll definitely give you a call.” Gabriel handed them a card with the image of a stick figure with a halo and wings on it.
Sam smiled, “Before we do our next film, can we get contracts?”
Gabriel looked upset, “Contracts? Extras. Why would extras need contracts?”
Akira said, “We’re more than extras, we’re fully accredited actors” and Sam argued, “if we’re going to win Oscars we can’t just be extras. There are no Oscars for extras after all only for best actors and best supporting actors.”
Gabriel ignored their playful pleas and said, “I enjoyed the performances, we will be in touch, oh and by the way, Annie says hello.”
Sam looked shocked and surprised at the news. At that point, Gabriel started to fly upwards. Rather than chase him they looked around. Behind them lay a large reptilian-shaped robot smouldering away. On the embankment, the Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and Satan suddenly stopped functioning and fell backwards into the water, turning into green goo as they hit the water.
As Gabriel caught up with the starlets and film crew, the television crews now entered the area and started taking shots of the team with the large smouldering robotic dinosaur in the background.
The team smiled and headed back to Wessex.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 