Superhero Adventures, UK Style

This episode follows on immediately from “Scholars Mate in Four Moves”

As the team stood in front of their big screen that someone has managed to remotely activate, watching the flashing “Checkmate?” the background map and co-ordinates for Richmond Park, Akira asked what they were all thinking, this was obviously a trap, did they have an alternative other than just walking into it?

The clock on the screen continued its remorseless count down.

Other than heading to the location as soon as possible in the Raft, they didn’t have a lot to go on. They had no information on the person or persons behind the hostage/chess game; all they had was the fact that they’d used the analogy of a chess game to link the kidnappings together.

Things hadn’t gone all the kidnappers way though, as they’d had to substitute Jean for Annie when that attempt didn’t quite go the way they expected. However, there was no obvious plan B The Balance could put together in the time remaining.

As they headed to the hangar, Annie looked concerned, “I do wonder how they identified their hostages? I’ve searched the internet – the only possible link I’ve found is to the office, which is publicly known to be connected to The Balance. The kidnapping attempt on myself made sense as I was in there when they attacked me, though they obviously were not expecting someone capable of defending themselves.

Akira regularly walks to the Sensei’s premises from the office and he doesn’t maintain a secret identity so it would not be too difficult to have followed him from there to the dojo.

Mai-li’s kidnapping may just have been just a case of random choice of anyone with whom you had regular and frequent contact and who was important there  – or it could be that any one of the other students might have seen your reaction to Mai-Li and intentionally or otherwise have passed the information on to someone else.

Jean received a relatively public visit from Mary, she has visited here and Mary’s identity is not exactly the worlds’ best kept secret. Sorry, but you do seem to tell almost everyone you meet your real name, however it’s not yet on the internet, darkweb or public knowledge as far as I’ve been able to find. I’m afraid all of the MacCarty clan in future may need to be added to my ‘Bolting the Stable Door’ protocol.

Adam is the real surprise – other than attending the Endeavour at the same time as the team and going to town for a surprise family dinner at New Year, there is nothing to link him directly to Sam or the Balance.

Someone would need to have serious resources to have identified Adam. So who else knew about his connection to the Balance or who would have been able to have access to the types of resources needed to find out?”

Sam remarked, “Adam was piloting us to and from crime scenes so someone may well have seen him working with us or standing beside the Raft.”

“Yes but Adam usually decamped separately if he got out at all, and didn’t usually appear beside you  in public and I don’t think it was that obvious he was a member of the team. No, I think this means it’s someone who had a connection to you or has been watching you closely.”

As they reached the hangar, she grabbed a small box off one of the workbenches. Annie then explained, “As part of my ‘Bolting the Stable Door’ protocol, I have been updating trackers for everyone. If each of you takes one with you, Jeeves and I may be able to track your location and follow you in the Crate.

Once you rescue the hostages, we’ll also add them to the system. The devices work by being in physical contact with the wearers’ pre-programmed bio-signature but otherwise will remain inert. If removed they will automatically trigger as will using a pre-agreed trigger word to activate them.  They are very small and work by using any nearby mobile masts to send out a GPS signal to myself.  Does mean Mary’s will temporarily stop working when she goes insubstantial, but will not accidentally activate. Nothing electronic on her functions when she’s in that state.

I did consider suggesting that we embed these in your bodies but I realised that all that would happen is that once they realised you had a tracker, is that they’d remove it with extreme prejudice. Better to keep you healthy and give us a starting point… Mikey and I will create a number of these for everyone you think needs them. I’ve already equipped Jeeves, Rascal, Sam’s parents and Tony with the prototypes. I’ve a set for the four of you.

The range isn’t great – they are useless if they get more than a couple of miles from a mast and I need at least two separate mast signals to triangulate a location.”

Sam asked, “Who’ll pilot the Raft? I’m happy to try…” Annie smiled, “wrong sort of flying, Sam. Mace..?”

“I need my bike if possible.” In the end, Annie elected to fly them with Mace accompanying them on her grav-bike. After dropping them off, Annie would immediately head back to swop over to the Crate so they would be able to transport the hostages to safety as well. No one wanted to consider the possibility that they wouldn’t be successful.

Annie’s piloting skills seemed even more reckless than Bethany’s, but in a faster time than they had expected, they found themselves standing in Richmond Forest far away from the public areas. Annie immediately departed after activating the various tracking devices; including the camera drone ‘tinks’ that she’d covertly hidden in the small of Sam’s back.

A slim, platinum blonde girl suddenly appeared. There was an overwhelming smell of ozone, a fizzing sound and occasional hysterical giggling from her as they slowly recognised her as Fizzgig of the Untouchables. This time she was both substantial and dressed in some sort of amplifier jumpsuit, without the armour she’d worn previously. She obviously still retained her teleporter powers at least.

She looked upset and nervously giggled again. “I’m your transport for the next stage. You don’t have to come with me but if you don’t, the hostages will die.”

Akira stopped his ogling of the ‘hot, nervous girl’ and confirmed that they’d go with her, in fact he was happy to go anywhere with her. A sudden look of relief immediately crossed her face. Sam felt sure she wasn’t a willing participant in this and anyway they didn’t really have too much choice in the matter.

She looked at Mace, “leave the bike, where you are going you aren’t going to need it.” Mace looked upset but again Fizzgig made it clear she wouldn’t agree to transport the bike with them…

Mace set the bike on security mode and set the retrieve signal to alert Annie to collect it – she knew that somehow Annie would be able to bypass her security procedures so collecting it wouldn’t be a problem for her.

Fizzgig gestured and a large portal appeared in the air in front of them.  They stepped forward and instantly reappeared in an underground chamber made of thick concrete. There were four large columns supporting the roof and a large metallic wall on one side, a view screen started to come down from the ceiling in front of it. Opposite in a curved alcove stood a nine-foot tall security robot. Fizzgig immediately vanished, leaving them alone – to either side of the chamber were circular passageways curving away from them. On the walls were floorplans showing various rooms and chambers set around a circular passageway. Inside that and linked by what had to be tunnels, was an inner ring of chambers and in the immediate centre, some form of circular room or tower?  As they examined the maps and looked at the stationary robot, the screen sprang into life. On the screen was a man in his 50’s with cruel, hard eyes, his hair dark but greying at the temples and on his beard. His face had a couple of poorly healed scars that confirmed that he was not a man who backed down easily.

Behind him stood a much shorter man, a face the original three members of the Balance immediately recognised; Sir Damien Dalton. Beside him was a middle-aged woman dressed as though for Ascot, all in white and smoking a cigarette in a long cigarette holder. Her eyes were cruel and her lips were curled into a smirk. Whoever she was, she obviously knew them and was enjoying their discomfort.

The first man spoke, “Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Slaughterhouse. I am your host, the Gamemaster and tonight we are playing a version of the classic Dungeons and Dragons; or to be more precise Dungeon and Dragon. Thank you for bringing one along with you.

At the request of my two esteemed guests, this death duel is to work out who of all those present are the strongest. Some of you have ‘guests’ staying with us. If you wish to rescue them then you have only two hours to do so before their quarters become death traps. After that point, a siren will sound and the first eight to this location will be allowed to escape. The rest of you will die a horrible and painful death. So, let the games begin and if you want to ensure your continued survival then its best to ensure your competitors do not survive to reach this location. Ah, my opposition, be aware that failure to fight will lead to pain and then death so do not hesitate to attack. Let the game begin…”

Dalton could be seen arguing with the woman that this was “supposed to prove who was stronger, the so-called Balance or my chosen meta’s, not kill them…”

The woman replied, “grow up.” The screen suddenly went blank and several metallic walls sprang up and out from the floor and walls trying to separate everyone off and forcing them to leave their current location. The robot immediately activated and began to advance on them.

The Gamemaster’s voice came over the blank screens again, “Oh, and until then this area will be off limits… Anyone found waiting will be an easy target for everyone else.”

Sam felt something crawling up his back and tried to see what it was. It was Tinks, moving up from Sam’s back to his shoulder, where it settled down as though shoulder-mounted whereupon it activated its cameras and sent out a continuous tracking signal.

They needed to figure out some way to cheat the Gamemaster’s rules if they can.

The walls started to close; they had either to choose a path together as a team or risk separation and the robot was starting to advance; what looked like its shoulder-mounted blasters beginning to target them.

They glanced at the maps again and Sam, Akira and Mace dived for the anti-clockwise corridor as Banshee turned insubstantial and was immediately greeted with flashing red columns of lights on the wall and on the floor moving with her, identifying her exact location. They must be using a combination of air pressure, temperature sensors and some form of motion detectors to track her even though she was insubstantial.  Banshee rushed straight at and through the robot, turning substantial and then re-insubstantial again grabbing the back of the robot in her arms. The metallic creature began to system reboot repeatedly as it tried to adjust to the phased interference.

Sam muttered, “does this remind anyone else of that film; the Hunger Games?” as the walls began to block off the whole area. Banshee, having prevented the robot from following them, let go and phased through the walls to join her companions as the robot fell between the closing walls on the clockwise side of the passageway, Banshee hoped it would either be crushed as the walls slammed shut or at least trapped on the other side of the corridor.

They moved off together, at Sam’s insistence moving towards the first corridor on the right. The door was solid but flowed open silently revealing a woman with a multi-coloured mohawk and dressed like a 1980’s punk. Another person they recognised; Solvent stood there, anger in her eyes and a strong sharp smell as she extended her acidic field to block the doorway. “No-one passes,” she hissed as the metal frame slowly melted.

“Mace isn’t that your friend?” said Sam and Mace admitted she remembered and felt sorry for her. As they tried to figure out how best to deal with her, another figure appeared in the room behind her; another young woman, long blonde hair and dressed in a protective purple bodysuit. This one was gesturing with her hands and bands of energy emanated out from her palms.

Akira joked, “I knew it was a mistake to come this way. I told you just remember that. I told you it would be a mistake… There is nothing down here except trouble!” Sam replied, “Did anyone remember to write a will?”

Akira manifested his shield around himself to avoid being ‘fried’ by Solvent’s acidic aura as he reminded Mace that she’d had a bit of a rapport with Solvent last time. Mace replied, “yeah but who know what had happened to her since then.”

Solvent maintained her acidic barrier and said, “We’ve been told its either you or us. Sorry, but I need it to be me; I will not stay here to die. I want to be one of the survivors.” She knew as did they that only eight can survive – at least if they played it by the Gamemasters’ rules.

Instead of fighting her, Mace activated the gyroscopic hypnotic device in the palm of her glove, its’ whirling mesmeric action drawing in Solvent’s glare and captivating her. Mace increased its light output drawing her deeper in to a suggestive state. She was totally entranced. “Join us, come along with us.” Suggested Mace aware that if things forced them to choose who to save, she might not be one of them. Hypnotised, Solvent’s acidic field collapsed to skin level. Behind her, the other woman looked both confused and angry. Mace felt a wave of cold energy hit her, she instinctively realised that the woman somehow used their own powers against them but of course her ‘powers’ were her mind and her tools so the attack had no effect on her. Sam rushed through towards the room behind them both, pushing Solvent aside, slightly scalding his scales on her skin-tight acidic aura. He rushed passed the woman attacking Mace without stopping and slammed into the door, knocking it open. Time was essential if they were to save their family and friends. In front of him stood an activating robot identical to the first one, he immediately took a defensive stance. Two other sealed rooms challenged him either side. A blaster flared at his head leaving Sam dazed and bruised. “Allow me to retort,” he muttered as he replied with a blast of fiery breath, leaving the robot’s chest partly melted as it staggered backwards.

The woman in purple motioned towards Akira and he suddenly found himself teleported into a sealed room by the attacking woman, surrounded on three sides by robots. Sam could hear his voice suddenly appear off to the right of him, behind one of the sealed doors.

Banshee tried to see if she could persuade the woman to join them, to break out of here together. The comments seemed to have no impact but it did give the woman the opportunity to try and assess Banshee in her insubstantial form, as though deciding on how best to attack. Banshee could see Sam facing off against the partially damaged robot, both behind the hypnotised Solvent. Ignoring the woman momentarily, Banshee unleashed a shattering shriek into the far chamber, too finely pitched to affect people it devastated all technology it its path, including the damaged robot and unfortunately Sam’s precious; his concealed tablet. Sam squealed as it shattered in his pocket. “No!!!” The robot in front of him meanwhile collapsed in a column of smoke. Akira yell reached them through the sealed door, “Help, I need assistance in here, I’ve three of the robots about to attack me.” He quickly activated a spell, the Fifth Wheel of Weyan that, if he managed to cast it correctly, should freeze time within a limited locality. Time stopped within the chamber except for himself. He used his Theurgical-Kinesis to float one robot to the ceiling intending to drop it on top of another as he again shouted for help. “Well, stop playing with your toys Akira and get out here” replied Sam. The floating robot crashed down on top of another, destroying both. That still left him with a functional robot when time unfroze.

Mace had had enough of wasting time on their attackers; she quickly unfolded her wrist-bow and fired off a sleep arrow straight at the attacking female. It hit her on the chest and activated, knocking her instantly unconscious as she dropped to the ground. Technology and skill 1; meta-abilities, in this case 0.

Sam shouted, “Akira what happened? I heard a loud crash” as he ran to the chamber that appeared to hold his teammate, He could hear Akira’s plea for help in defeating the last remaining robot and smashed down the door. Time restarted as the door splintered into metallic fragments and Sam ran at the remaining robot and unleashed several strikes with his claws on it, shredding its control panel and removing its head. He turned, smiled and said to Akira, “was that what you wanted?” Akira smiled back, “yes, thank you Sam.”

They approached the door on the opposite side and began a gentle argument about who should go in first – could Akira teleport in blind or Mace charge in with several EMP bolts readied? Meanwhile Banshee phased through, saw the lights showing her position and by that light realised the room only contained three more robots in the process of activating. She flowed back out and the moved back quickly towards the corridor. They checked out the remaining room, which seemed to have been used as living quarters by the two women.

Mace gestured for Solvent to come with them while Sam worried about the other unconscious woman and whether he should be giving her medical attention. Time was running out. Sam went to pick her up as Mace and Akira tried to argue that they didn’t have time to take any of their attackers with them and anyway as Akira pointed out “he really shouldn’t make a habit out of picking up comatose women. It’s not right, it’s not appropriate behaviour.” Instead, Sam took her to the exit point and left her there for their eventual return.

Joining the others, they continued down the passageway until a sudden bolt of energy caused them to drop to the ground. In front of them in his full body containment suit was another they had met previously, the electro-kinetic energy projector called Cannon, previously seen in that warehouse months before. The bolt hit the hypnotised Solvent knocking her to the ground and ricocheted into Sam bringing up the rear. As Solvent fell unconscious to the ground, Akira muttered, “she’s Cannon fodder and Sam looks to be in shock!” Banshee immediately unleashed a terrorising scream at the armoured villain, knocking him backwards.

To either side of them were a set of double screens. The inner screens appeared to be mounted on a set of sealed blast doors and remembering the map, should lead to a tunnel or passageway to the inner passage.

Sam turned as a slightly squashy sound could be heard behind him – slowly but methodically advancing down the corridor towards them was a lime green, gelatinous cube that completely filled the whole of the passage. Inside it, he could see what looked to be the last remains of a human skeleton gradually dissolving away. Sam recognised what it was supposed to represent, he just never thought he’d actually see one in real life…

Mace quickly began to use her skills to check out the doors, looking for some means to activate them. Touching them showed a ‘click’ response on all four panels but nothing happened when either one or both panels were pushed, what if this was to test teamwork and all four panels needed pushing simultaneously? Meanwhile Akira tried using his postcognition on the inner-wall screens; possibly this game had been played before but failed to get a reading of the screens.

Mace told the others they needed to push in the screens simultaneously so Sam, with a broad smile said he’d do the countdown; “1, 4, 7, 3!!!” Thankfully, Mace and Akira had both been doing their own internal countdown and pressed all the screens in on Sam’s count of seven! The blast doors sprung open leaving a deep narrow corridor leading towards the central passageway.

Sam told them not to worry about trying to carry the unconscious Solvent, “If I know my Dungeons and Dragons, and I may have played a game or two in my time, they’re both acidic so should cancel each other out. She should be fine; saves one of us suffering chemical burns by grabbing hold of her.” He still made sure she would be able to keep her airways free from being suffocated though when the gelatinous cube passed over her, thankfully without having to actually touch her.

They all jumped in the corridor towards the “inner circle”, to avoid what Akira referred to as the “lime flavoured Chivers jelly that had already eaten someone” that was slowly advancing towards them. They entered and headed clockwise towards the first circular chamber. The doors opened to reveal the huge four-armed figure of Tangleweb. Was it his fate to be always be captured and used in this way, Mary wondered? It did prove that this group was also connected with the island in some way for him to be present here.

Akira jokingly said, “I think you’ve lost weight since we last saw you…” The creature gestured with its top two claws making patterns in the air around its face and chest. He moved menacingly towards them, obviously ready to fight if he had to but looking increasingly unhappy. The gestures continued, repeated with more urgency… The gestures looked slightly familiar, like some sort of a mime? Was he hungry or in need of a hug possibly? The team stepped back trying not to threaten him. What now?

The gestures became more intense. Then Akira remembered where he’d seen similar signing before; when he was a child they’d had a family stay with them for a few days and the mum had used similar signs to communicate because she’d been deaf, non-verbal… This was sign language! The upper arms seemed to be repeating something, question, something again he didn’t recognise followed by the sign for out? Then he ran his flattened claws up his chest before moving them forwards with his thumbs up… He knew that sign, ‘how’. Tangleweb was asking how they could get out of there! Then he again signed with his claws moving in front of his body, palms facing inward and claws spread which looked as though he’d just had a big fright… Tangleweb was telling them that he was frightened! As Akira quickly explained to the rest of the team that the reason they’d never managed to communicate with Tangleweb before, was because he was deaf.  Akira touched his ears and then formed the sign for question. Tangleweb smiled, revealing several rows of shark-like teeth behind the mandibles and he nodded, then it touched its ear and mouth. Ah, he was also deaf, non-verbal, it, no he, didn’t speak because he couldn’t.

Sam immediately began a dialogue with him until Akira gently reminded him he was deaf and didn’t apparently read lips. He then did his best to try and explain that he could go with them if he wanted but they had to explore before getting out? He seemed to understand and quietly joined on at the back of them. They felt the best solution currently, was to find their way into the inner ‘tower’ though some of team argued that it was unlikely to be the central control room, that could be hidden anywhere. Still it was worth checking out. They passed another pair of blank wall-mounted screens.

Rather than risk opening the doors to the next chamber, Banshee flowed inside in her insubstantial form. Inside was a young man in a blue military-like uniform and breather mask and dyed blue hair. As soon as he recognised Banshee, he gestured and wave after wave of thick ice flowed from his hands through her and formed an icy barrier on the still sealed door. On the other side, a thin layer of ice formed on the door seals and under the door much to Sam’s abject horror. Banshee shouted out “Not your favourite flavour of villain Sam, the ice man cometh” and quickly exited just as the door jerkily opened. Cryo, one of Dalton’s Defenders stood in the partially open doorway!

Sam went into scared mode, “he’s obviously a very bad man, bad, bad, bad!” Cryo started screaming, “I have to get out of here” as he unleashed an electrical blast towards Banshee. Even in her insubstantial form, that could affect her! The lighting arced out from him, hit her and flowed down through her body causing her to spasm. She forced herself to hold on despite the immense pain. She struggled to not go unconscious, but was still left feeling dazed and in shock.

He shattered the remaining iced-up door and stepped out into the corridor. Akira unleashed a mystical blast, which seemed to miss but reflected off the ice beneath his feet and struck him with such intensity it left Cryo staggered. Akira shouted for Mace to hit him with a bolt or three, “He’ll recover unless you stop him. Always kick a man when he’s down, I learnt that from horror films… Quickly!” Mace hesitated for a second; “I’d prefer a more honourable fight but…” Sam shouted, from the rear “Normally I’d agree with you, but he does have frost powers, which means he’s automatically evil…” He shivered at the thought of possibly having to face him.

Mace reluctantly unleashed a bolt that hit him square in the forehead knocking him unconscious. As he collapsed to the ground, the floor started to ice over all around his body. As Sam tiptoed over him, it looked as though he was ice-skating on the claws of his toes.

Akira quickly suggested that they head straight for what looked to be doors in front of them leading to the central tower in the hope that the controls were located there. They hurried over to examine the twin panels. “If we can take out the controls, then that should be the endgame.”

Mace immediately pulled the first panel off and examined the circuitry behind looking to try and jury-rig some sort of access to the corridor behind. As it opened, it revealed a terrified Jean hanging on to the walls standing on a very small platform over a massive drop, which was slowly retracting. On the opposite side standing on another platform connected to some sort of metallic tower was another of the security droids, which seemed to be automatically targeting their doorway. Jean was obviously terrified and frozen with fear as Mace and Akira grabbed at her trembling arms and pulled her off the platform and into the corridor. As they looked they realised what they were staring at wasn’t a tower, it was some form of large rocket sitting in a silo or blastpad!

Below them they could the engines ignite and a hot blast of air shot up the blast walls followed by the roar of intense heat from the engines. If that reached them before they could close the door, they’d all be nothing more than ash!

Sam rushed in interposing himself between the blast of intensely hot air and initial flames, grabbed both of the retracted doors and pulled them closed leaving claw mark indentations in the metal as the roar of the engines fully igniting thundered at their eardrums and the heat of their engines melted the seals. Only Tangleweb was unaffected by the thundering roar.

Then, absolute silence. For a moment, the Balance thought they too were deaf and then they heard Jean quietly sobbing as she straightened herself up, helped by the gentle support of a very concerned Tangleweb. Well one hostage rescued, only thing for it was to check the other chambers. Banshee struggled to force her injured self to materialise through the door of the next circular chamber. Inside Fizzgig grabbed hold of her and to Banshee’s surprise she turned substantial, inside the chamber. Seemingly, Fizzgig still retained the same phase frequency as when Banshee had rescued her in China Town months before. She stuttered, “I have to get out, I need to get out…” Banshee replied, “We all have to.” “Yeah, but you don’t have an explosive collar round your neck. I can’t teleport out without setting it off. You must help me.” She clung to Banshee as though her life depended on it.

Mace opened the door as this was being said, and immediately approached Fizzgig to examine the collar. Sam jokingly offered her a toothpick and reminded her “Lefty loosey, righty tighty.”

Mace ignored him as she realised that removing the collar wouldn’t be the problem but it would immediately arm it and then they’d have at best a couple of seconds to dispose of it before it exploded. Akira used his Theurgical-Kinesis to remove it and immediately fly it at speed towards one of the empty cells but it exploded mid-flight; thankfully, the explosion was limited and no-one was hurt.

Sam immediately reached over and headbutted Fizzgig before anyone could say anything and rendered her unconscious. As she collapsed to the ground the rest of the team began to object, but he merely explained that he wasn’t going to give her an opportunity to betray them. “She can teleport remember, if she gets to the exit first she could end up stopping us from leaving.”

Akira asked, “She’s your responsibility now. What you going to do with your unconscious prize, Sam?” In reply, he pulled out a restraint zip-tie and fastened it round her wrists.

Sam seemed as though he was going to just leave her when Tangleweb gently pushed him aside and picked her up placing her unconscious body on his massive shoulders then started to walk with her round the circular corridor. Akira muttered, “Maybe we need to ask him to join us in the Balance?”

Leaving the central chamber, they made their way to the nearest exit back to the outer corridor. The screens on this side appeared to be booby-trapped so they headed back to their entry corridor. Looking out of the doorway, the gelatinous cube had thankfully passed. Sam immediately started following it round only to see Cannon and another familiar person from the island, the yellow mutant called Leech standing near the corridor to the various lower chambers.

A still partially dazed but again insubstantial Banshee rushed passed them both, with Cannon firing off a blast which passed through her towards the team, as she headed through the sealed door and into the chamber behind them leaving Sam and the others to deal with the attack. Inside, there were a number of columns, a door at the far end and a young, geeky looking boy sitting on a bed. His facial features seemed Spanish and we was wearing an orange windcheater over a t-shirt that had the legend, “Ah, the element of Surprise” emblazoned like a periodic table entry across his under-developed chest. Another familiar face, this was one of the stormers rescued from the labs, the one with the seismic powers if she remembered what Sam had said. As soon as the kid saw Banshee the room began to shake, he was obviously terrified of Banshee in this form having arrived through a closed door.

Banshee materialised and changed into the glamour of his young Mary form as she did so. “Do you want out of here? We can get you out but you need to stop trying to collapse the room on top of us, okay?”

The tremors stopped but he still appeared traumatised, “You a stormer too?” Mary shook her head, “No not a stormer, just a born natural. Take my hand I’ll get you out.”

“I’m Terra-Quake.” Mary looked surprised, “Terror Quake?” He looked slightly embarrassed, “no Terra, not TerrOR, its’ Latin; you here to rescue me? You can trust me, you can trust me” as he held both thumbs up. “There does appear to be a girl trapped in one of the nearby rooms” and pointed behind Mary, “I heard her screaming at one point, through the walls” and gestured behind her.

Back outside, Akira’s shield was being blasted by Cannon’s repeated detonations, which left him battered and dazed. Akira responded with his mystical blast, enforcing it with his luck to ensure it hit. Cannon looked stunned. Mace responded with multiple bolts, the first standard bolt hit cannon leaving him staggered as her second bolt followed through hitting him in the shoulder and rendered him incapacitated on the ground. A third bolt quickly followed this time at Leech, which again hit but didn’t pierce his skin and he then managed to avoid the last bolt. Sam, acutely aware time was running out, turned and started to try to follow Adam’s unique scent. He got the impression he was located along the corridor, beyond the ambush, then got a whiff of someone that smelt a bit like tar. That was another scent he remembered.

He ran as fast as he could, passed Leech and the prone Cannon without stopping, and headed for the entrance at the other corner of the complex. He saw as he ran that the gelatinous cube was reaching the far end of the corridor and would be reversing back soon. He dived into the side corridor and found himself in an empty, rectangular room.

Meanwhile Banshee had turned insubstantial again though still in her younger glamour and headed into a nearby room off the corridor that she’d missed in her earlier haste. Inside, sitting on a bed was a young Chinese girl. Ah, this had to be Mai-Li. Thankfully, unlike Terra-Quake, she seemed untroubled by the sudden appearance of Banshee’s ghost-like presence. She substantiated herself, grabbed the girl off the bed and rushed through the door and headed back from smiley-boy taking both with her as, insubstantialised, they tried to get passed Leech.

Akira on seeing Mai-Li, smiled, even though the pain he felt made it hard to concentrate and unleashed a mystical blast at Leech rendering him unconscious, pouring every ounce of luck he still possessed into making this blast count. Leech collapsed as Banshee with both of her rescuees floated over the fallen attackers.

Akira started counting heads, at present with Fizzgig there were now nine of them and, if they played by the rules, only eight of them could escape and that was without trying to get Cannon, Cryo, Leech or any of the other possible inhabitants with them and Sam still hadn’t found Adam! They rushed after Sam; time was running out if they were going to be in the right location to get out.

Down the stairs, Sam could smell a burning tar smell that he identified with Blackstuff and Adam was off in one of the nearby rooms. Lots of interesting swearing in a Geordie accent was emanating from the same direction as the smell of tar.

Sam was busy trying to break down a door, but without much success as he heard someone running towards them. Sam turned and shouted out, “Is that you Blackstuff?” A large well-built man with black skin and shaved head came into view at the top of the stairs. “Yeah, you’s seen Solvent? I need to find her.” Sam did a little prayer to the patron saint of lying and replied, “Yeah she’s at the far end of the corridor” Blackstuff seemed less concerned about the gathering crowd and seemed determined to go get her. Of course that meant they’d both then be by the exit gates when the timer sounded its demise for all but the first eight to try and leave.

Blackstuff immediately noticed Fizzgig hanging over Tanglewebs’ shoulders, and once he’d got over the shock of Tanglewebs’ appearance, retrieved her and put her on his own with a “team’s gotta stick together don’t they? No matter what.” Banshee meanwhile had phased through the door and immediately substantiated, grabbed Adam and phased him out, as the room began to fill up rapidly with sand.

While the rest of the team headed as fast as they could for their entry point and the location Gamemaster had said would be the exit, Akira argued to check out a feeling of magic coming from the room that Blackstuff had been in. wandered down the stairs towards a circular area marked with what looked like runic characters. He wandered up close to read the characters…

Then he collapsed, feeling decidedly sick and with a distinct feeling of Déjà Vu and that now-familiar physical weakness that he knew always accompanied the use of a spell.

This was a trap, the runic letters, if read as English, spelt out ‘Sucker’ on either side of the disk. Standing on or beside the disk would have instantly teleported him into a sealed and darkened semi-circular room somewhere inside the complex. A room without a door that would slowly fill with water even as the roof would start to collapse in. A trap that had forced him to use again the ‘Auspicious Augury of Ahgrazul’ spell to rewind time and warn himself.

He ran up the stairs and tried to catch up with the others. What would they do about trying to get everyone with them, out anti-clockwise away from the slowly following gelatinous cube.

As they reached near the top of the passageway, they could see that the metal doors had opened slightly to leave a gap just big enough for a single person to pass at a time. Behind that could be glimpsed what looked like a set of stairs and sunlight shown down from above them. The way out presumably.

Two figures blocked their access though, the blonde female in the purple armour stood beside a man who seemed to be partially a skeleton and held together by some form of flashing energy field. He floated slightly above the ground and energy flared out from him every couple of seconds.

They appeared to be waiting for the siren to release the collars round their neck. To get out they would need to get passed them. Akira suggested that, “you follow us out of here.” The male with half a physical body grimaced, “Nice try but looking at the number of you, if we come after you we’ll be doomed. No, we go first!” Sam asked, “Why haven’t you stepped through already?” He motioned towards their collars, “If we step through before the siren the collars will explode. We’ll die. We’ don’t want to fight you but we’re going through first, that’s the only way you get to go through as well – us first ok? We have to wait for the siren…”

Sam murmured, “How about we play rock, paper, scissors for it instead?” If they heard, they ignored the comment.

The team had a quick conference to decide what to do and Akira suggested, “What if we took your collars off and then we can all leave now rather than waiting?” The man, the one Blackstuff nicknamed Agony said, “We go through first. With or without the collars we go through first. That’s the only way we’ll agree to anything. We’re not going to be left behind to die.”

Mace had an idea, if Akira went through after them and made it to the surface, he could then teleport back down and rescue everyone else by creating a portal to get them out. It wouldn’t matter then if these two went first, just as long as they got everyone out, and without worrying about the ‘first eight’ rule imposed on them by the Gamemaster!

Of course, if Fizzgig had still been conscious she could have helped but… Akira had to agree to being the third person out. Mace agreed to remove their collars as the siren went off and tossed them down the corridor where they exploded. Agony and the girl immediately dashed through the gap in the wall and up the stairs followed by Akira. Blackstuff had wandered back and proceeded to pick up Solvent’s unconscious body then walked towards the gap in the wall, looking confused. He obviously couldn’t get through carrying them. Sam pushed Adam through next, regardless.

As Akira reached the surface, the first thing he saw was the crate skipping erratically just metres above the surface piloted by Annie. Where did she get her pilot’s license anyway? It bounced twice and came to a stop and Annie bounded out.

“Sorry, I only managed to pick up a single signal from your transponders to just the one mast so was forced to try and work out an approximate line of sight and maximum signal radius. You ok?” As Adam reached the top of the stairs she ran to collect him as Akira teleported back down to the corridor and the others. As he teleported he could hear Adam, “What have you done to the Crate? Where have all the bumps and scrapes come from?” and Annie replied, “It’s a lot harder to fly in real life than the simulators make it appear, you know.”

Split second later he was back in the artificial light of the corridor as the roof began to crack, threatening to collapse in on top of everyone. Seems eight through to the surface wasn’t the signal to begin demolishing the structure.

The question was what about those not with them? Sam and Tangleweb elected to wait and make their own way up after trying to hold up the roof for as long as possible. Akira forced himself to focus and began to weave a portal large enough for everyone else. He had to hold the gate open no matter what. As the gathered people jumped through the portal, Sam and Tangleweb kept the tunnel roof from collapsing in. As those gathered began to step through into the daylight, they could see the large circular hole left by the central rocket blasting out and the concentric area around it was slowly collapsing in as the hidden complex’s roof began to cave in.

There were still people in there though. Cryo, Cannon, Leech – who knew how many more?

Down below, Sam checked but no one else seemed to appear near the exit. They’d need to get themselves to the surface soon, Annie was busy treating the injured including Fizzgig who was approached by Akira and Banshee to find out if she knew who else was in there and was she willing to help rescue them. She reluctantly agreed to help but wasn’t willing to go in alone. “I’m not brave that way, you understand?” Over the comms Sam offered to dig his way through but Banshee stepped up and offered to go in with her. She identified, Cryo, Cannon, Leech and Grendel – who’d they’d not met yet.

As they vanished, a dusty and battered Sam and Tangleweb crawled up the collapsing stairs and collapsed onto the ground just clear of the subsiding structure. Annie rushed to them and began tending to Sam’s torn scales and Tangleweb’s many cuts.

A second later Banshee and Fizzgig appeared inside the complex beside Leech and Cannon’s bodies, “You know where Cryo would be?” Banshee confirmed where they’d left him but they’d need to go exploring for Grendel. Banshee elected to stay behind whilst Fizzgig portalled both of the others out and into the Crate itself. An insubstantial Banshee flowed through the rock falls and made his way to the inner corridor, grabbed at Cryo turning both of them insubstantial before contact could result in frostbite and agreed that the only room she’d never checked was… He headed towards the room and as they opened it and saw inside a man shaped mass of mobile clay that as she flowed through the door began to change into a shape, not dissimilar to the xenomorph from the aliens’ film. His shape apparently changed as dictated by Darwinian necessity! He was using his claws to dig his way out of the partially collapsed room. “We’re here to rescue you.” He looked at the earless figure and muttered, “Can you understand me?” The creature smiled, “Yeah, I’m not deaf like that other big dude” obviously referring to Tangleweb. “Grab hold and I’ll keep us safe until our transport arrives.” With that, Banshee turned all three of them insubstantial again as a near hysterical Fizzgig returned and ran down the corridor towards them. Banshee rushed with her ‘passengers’ towards her, aware suddenly that she might turn her physical again with her presence. Fizzgig opened a portal as Banshee arrived and was teleported, then jumped through it herself and collapsed crying on the grass. Banshee was reminded that being a hero sometimes meant being afraid of something but doing it anyway. Behind them, the ground shuddered then collapsed inwards.

Sam and Annie began triaging the patients as Mary tried to help Fizzgig get over her terrors. Mace and Akira approached her, “Fizz…” “Charlie, my names Charlie ok?” Ah, Charlie, do you know who was behind this, we know Dalton, but do you know who the other two involved were at all?”

“No, but the woman seemed to be something to do with the Government, someone powerful I think. She kept on about a recent attack on ‘her’ facility. This was to be revenge, and some of those chosen to be the ‘opposition’ had apparently come from there. The other one only ever referred to himself as the Gamemaster and was for hire. He hired himself out to the woman and other man and built this facility especially for them. Gasmesmaster was the only one I ever actually saw though, sorry.” Sam smiled, “I think I’d seen the Gamemaster on Crystal Maze before.” Fizzgig… Charlie smiled at that.

They had emerged about 3 or 4 miles from Richmond Park, the ‘Slaughterhouse’ having been built within the ruins of a mill basement apparently. It had now collapsed in completely. Annie stated she’d called the Police who would be arriving soon and taking statements as well as arresting the only actual criminal – Cannon. The three members of the Untouchables wandered off without a word, heading back towards the centre of London and Repulse? Some of the others sat around waiting for someone to tell them what to do. As soon as the First response arrived, Annie handed over one of Tinks’ recordings and arranged to take the team and their three rescued friends and family away from the scene as soon as possible. What would they do about Dalton?

Annie said she’d just checked the news and Dalton had apparently been in Brussels opening a new factory; he had been in the media eye all day. Actually when they later spoke to Bethany, she admitted that her father had several body doubles, obviously providing him with a cast-iron alibi.