Superhero Adventures, UK Style

For the last few weeks, the team had been trying to maintain a low profile. Exaggerated rumours had begun to circulate in the week after the prisoner escape, especially about Young Sam with stories floating on social media that he was actually a Government assassin. When the Balance had all gathered after the first such report surfaced, Mary floated the idea that they get Jimmy the Fish to release some of Tink’s footage from the Oktoberkynde fight onto YouTube and HeroNet. The footage chosen clearly showed the fake Sam appearing and attacking the real Sam, and various members of the Balance helping the real Sam and/or attacking the fake Sam…

Of course, conspiracy nuts used that as ‘proof’ that the Government was running a black-ops cover up. It had one benefit though; there had been no more assassination attempts on them since then, though it might be that any attackers were actually making plans before attempting any further assaults.

As the team sat in the lounge, they heard a klaxon sound and several red lights flared into life as the all the exits slammed shut, locking everyone inside the base. It seemed Annie’s ‘bolt the stable door’ protocol has suddenly been triggered and for once not by Banshee going insubstantial.

Annie dashed for the Monitoring Room and immediately reached for her Taser concealed under the primary console, a three-shot, laser guided model capable of bringing down an elephant. She dropped it onto her lap and got to work. Her fingers danced across her keyboard as she confirmed that there were multiple activations of the air pressure sensors throughout but the sensors are unable to locate and identify any specific intruders within the BASEment.  Checking for temperature variations and any alterations to light density proved inconclusive.

In line with security protocol, the lights went out throughout the base and the IR sensors, night vision CCTV and the motion detectors began scanning on all frequencies but picked up nothing unusual. The base remained in pitch darkness for the next 12 seconds then the lights began to randomly strobe but again nothing as internal doors also locked down.

As Jeeves and Adam went into the security of the Monitoring Room to be with Annie, the team stood in the lounge back-to-back waiting for the inevitable assault. After a couple of minutes, Mace suggested they had to investigate rather than wait for whatever it was to come to them.

They wandered over and checked that the teleport room was secure – it was empty apart from the dull white panels everywhere and the large quartz crystal in the centre. They stepped back into the lounge as Mary tried to see what her mystical senses could reveal. Something felt wrong somehow but she couldn’t quite figure out what, as something (or someone?) was both out there everywhere and at the same time wasn’t – a Schrödinger’s cat type of situation. She felt mystical reflections all around just for a second before vanishing. It was at the door and behind them coming from the direction of the TV screen at the same time; it was everywhere and nowhere and identical impressions was echoing from literally every room in the BASEment.

Mary knew something was amiss but where and what? When she told the others, Akira started to sing quietly, “There’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call?” as they headed towards the door to the corridor and using their ID override to open it, headed out.

Sam led the way as they advanced into the rest of the base with Akira erecting his force field around him just in case this wasn’t a case of false readings.

As they passed the bedrooms, Mary turned into an insubstantial Banshee and flowed through the first bedroom door then there was a quiet clattering sound and then nothing. They called out to her but there was no reply and when they opened the door, Banshee was gone. Since the ceiling was too thick to pass through, could she have gone down a level instead? They checked their comms; again nothing.

Banshee had stepped through the door and simply vanished! What the..? They looked for anything unusual but the only thing amiss was that there was a small puddle of water from a damaged pipe outside the bedrooms.

Akira used his mystical senses and felt something, an impression out of sync with the mundane coming from the puddle. It felt like mystical moonlight reflecting on the surface of the pool of water.

Then the lights again strobed and Mace and Sam thought they saw something in the reflection of the shiny door panel at the end of the corridor, there was a sudden intake of breath and both instantly vanished from sight right in front of Akira’s eyes. He was completely and utterly alone in the corridor.

As he tried to understand what he’d just seen, Annie’s voice came over his earpiece, “What’s happening out there? Sensors indicate that Mace’s grav-bike has gone into autonomous tracking mode, over-ridden the lockdown and is leaving the hangar unmanned. It appears to be setting a course for somewhere North-West of Wessex.”

Akira considered getting Adam and following the bikes trail. He walked back to the lounge, and asked Jeeves, Adam and Annie if they’d accompany him in attempting to follow the bike.

As they stepped back out of the lounge together, Akira went to step over the puddle and saw her, in the impossible depths of the pool.  As he found himself looking closer, the ripples merged together and in the water he saw the reflection of a young black woman with short curly hair dressed in a man’s evening suit smiling back. It was not a pleasant smile.

Despite his force shield, her hand instantly reached out of the water and touched his foot. In front of the BASEmates eyes, Akira instantly vanished. To Akira though there was nothing instant about it as, suffering from light-headedness and severe vertigo, he found yourself being transported through the reflection, a sensation like drowning in a dry ocean. After what felt like an eternity he reappeared, washed up in a room covered from floor to ceiling in multiple framed mirrors of every shape and size, even on the floor and ceiling, only the external windows weren’t covered. He immediately recognised where he was, he’d visited this room twice before. They were inside Ffrwd Dylluan, Akiras’s family house of Mystery.  Giggling seemed to emanate from a couple of the mirrors.

The other three members of the Balance were already here, standing over by the windows staring out at two figures on the lawn. Looking back towards the house, stood a powerful-looking man in a tall wide brimmed hat, white hair and beard, dressed in a dark leather outfit and holding a large powerful antique-looking sledgehammer and a glowing green, fiery chain in the other. On the other end of the chain was a familiar figure shaped like a man who seemed to be composed of hellish lava, Abyss,though  his body burning less hot than usual whilst in the chain’s embrace.

Abyss suddenly let out a scream of frustration, a scream that was identical in sound to Banshee’s wail.

The team didn’t appear to be able to be seen from outside and the powerful hearth spell of the house appeared to be keeping the two figures outside at bay for now.

Looking round the room, the mystical nature of the mirrors again became apparent as though they were suffering from some sort of time dilation affect. Some of the mirrors showed them just arriving one by one, others showed scenes from the far past such as a formal dance from the 1890’s while yet others showed the black woman in the evening suit, smiling wickedly back at them. They turned and immediately recognised her as their abductor. “Looks a bit like Kid Creole” joked Akira. She only appeared in the mirrors, though in some of them she was clearly standing behind them. Sam gave a shiver as he turned hoping to not find her there.

Akira tried to use his ability to view the past to see if he could get a reading on the female in the mirror. After a few seconds, multiple impressions flooded over him as he tried to blank out all the other imprints to focus just on their female source of transportation.  He got the impression that although she might have been human at one time that was no longer the case, at least not completely.  She was displaced in time, from the early 1900’s or 1920’s possibly. A feeling that she’d been a ‘good time girl’ in a beautiful, chaotic city near water, a city that vaguely looked like New Orleans used to look over a century before. Obsessed with her looks, mirrors showed up everywhere in her memories and a strange-looking puzzle box. She had been dragged away, by something inhuman, to somewhere not of this world and altered. When she came back she was broken, fragmented somehow. All he could see were reflections within other reflections. There were lots of images of blood, whatever came back from the other side was psychopathic, then peace – she found something precious, something she valued and wanted to keep safe only to have it ripped away from her by something that enslaved her and forced her to work for them.  A voice he felt he should recognise, unshriven by time; “If you want your precious pet back you’ll do what we tell you.” Sometime later, a moment of wilful rebellion stolen from time that brought them here and… He snapped out of it as suddenly all of the visual echoes of the woman disappeared from view.

Then they heard from the hall, a London accent speaking from the other side as the doors opened. Everyone prepared for the worst. Stepping inside, only to stop in surprise, was Spring-heeled Jack of the Oktoberkynde.

“Ah, you’re here a lot earlier than I expected. Why we hadn’t even prepared a victim yet to attract you here. How utterly delightful and so wonderfully fortuitous. How did you get here, pray tell?” Pointing at Banshee he continued, “How did someone like yourself, a blend of mortal and Ban Sidhe, get passed Hexenhammer and his recently enslaved pet, the Abyss, standing guard outside?”

Not sure whether the woman in the mirror was friend or foe, they decided not to say anything but braced themselves for a battle. To their utter amazement Spring-heeled Jack stood in front of them, his arms folded, leaning on the doorframe looking totally unprepared for a fight.

Sam tried to use his draconian persuasion on him but all that happened was that Jack simply laughed at the attempt and then continued his evaluation, “You obviously didn’t walk here through the grounds otherwise Hexenhammer would have dealt with you and you weren’t here when we first arrived so… Some sort of mystical transportation I assume?  Anyway, this is quite fortuitous as I said; you see I have a deal for you.”

Akira asked, “What deal would this be then?” His interest peaked at the possibility of not having to fight all of the Oktoberkynde, as well this Hexenhammer AND Abyss.

Jack turned his head towards him and replied, “Our ‘friends’ out in the grounds know there are mystics currently inside the house and has caught the scent of our mystical taint. Now if my partners and I try and leave – by whatever means, whether mundane or mystical, his pet Abyss will be able to trace our psychic auras and hunt us down until either we or the pair of them have been utterly destroyed, however Abyss already knows your mystical ‘scent’.” He turned to look at Banshee, “In fact I understand from the Professor that you are even related to that abomination out there aren’t you? “ Banshee reluctantly admitted, “Allegedly”.

Jack continued, “If you were to step outside, your presence would likely disguise our existence inside. Your marvellous house is doing a wonderful job of cloaking our existence, even if it can’t do anything about our mystical traces from when we first arrived. All Hexenhammer knows is someone with mystical abilities arrived here recently and is still inside, protected by the houses Wards.

Very efficient defences by the way, dear Akira. More vicious that I expected of you…” He licked some blood off a deep cut in his hand.

“So, here’s my deal. We will stop attacking you; we’ll walk away from our contract leaving you with only those two outside to deal with and all we ask is for you to remove Hexenhammer and Abyss from the grounds long enough for us to escape.

The alternative is you face us inside and then them afterwards…”

Banshee said, “Why would we do that? “

Jack explained, grinning behind the mask, “Well, In return we would no longer try and kill you. After all, there are more of us inside the house than you.  We’d even be willing to go further than that, we would tell you who took out the contact on you; give you the name of our employer (not on record of course).”

Banshee was intrigued, “You’d cancel the contact permanently?” Jack nodded.

Akira spoke up, his voice failing to disguise his anger and disgust, “And we’d have to do is throw Mary to the wolves?” as he turned and looked out the windows at the figures hammering away at the houses’ protective barrier.

“No, all four of you. Hexenhammer knows there are more than one person inside the house, even if he doesn’t know exactly who or how many.  You’d have to leave the protection of the house, deal with both of them outside and in return we would agree to drop our contact.”

Mace wasn’t sure about the deal but admitted going against two rather than seven sounded better odds especially if the team all fought together.

Jack confirmed their fears as he reminded them, “The alternative is you fight all of us and if you win you still have to face those two outside anyway.” He lent back against the wall and folded his arms allowing the four of them to discuss their options.  The rest of Oktoberkynde were somewhere within the building, possibly prepared for combat and if they did win would they still be fit enough to then take on the two outside but could they trust Jack, a self-confessed half-demon to keep his word?

Akira turned round and asked Jack, “Ok, so who took out the contract then?”  Jack laughed and replied, “No, we’ll tell you that when you come back in having defeated them, after all if we tell you now there would be no reason for you to step outside and fight would there?” He turned, “take as much time as you need but be aware this truce can’t last forever.”

Akira said, “How do we know you’ll keep your word? We could step out there fight and win but be so weakened you could then turn on us?” Jack replied, “You don’t trust a half-demon?”

Mace stepped towards him and unleashed her hypnotic gyroscope from her glove, asking him if there was any chance at all, that he was being honest with this offer.  Jack pointed to his mask and laughed, “And I’m half-demonic, remember?” Her attempt to subjugate him had obviously failed.

Jack said, “Before you go out let’s even things up a bit shall we?  Let’s go to the reception room and talk with the Professor, I think you think of him as the floating skull? He might be able to answer some of your questions. After all, there is no benefit in you going outside and being immediately slaughtered. It’s more entertaining if you survive for a little while at least. Have a fighting chance.”

He walked out the door and down the corridor. The Balance followed slowly. From the room in front of them came several sharp bangs interrupted by a scream of “Dammit!” from inside the room. As they opened the door they saw the floating skull in the air and heard it say, “Amazing. Ah Akira, how did you” it suddenly dodged a flying poker from the fireplace, “manage to enchant such a powerful spell? Did you incarcerate a pookah or fae spirit into the foundations or is it something else powering the house enchantments? Simply” It dodged the poker again and bolted for the hall, telekinetically slamming the door closed as it did so, “amazing. Simply amazing.”

Akira looked smug. The skull continued, “So have you, ah accepted my simplistic friends’ offer of a truce or not? Sorry, it’s hard not to overhear such primitive thoughts.”

Mary looked at her teammates and nodded, “Anything you want to ask? I don’t have a lot of information about the Abyss other than he is hellfire incarnate but Hexenhammer on the other hand is unfortunately relatively well known to us.”

“Ok so tell us what you know about this Hexenhammer.”

The skull explained, “Born in the mid-15th Century, Erich Adler was a witch-hunter. Raised a devote Catholic, young Erich became a soldier in the service of Church and was even involved in a failed attempt to start a new crusade. It was during these years he took a bride. While away on one of his many missions for the church, his wife was taken by outlaws. Hearing of her abduction, he rushed home. He slaughtered the bandits but was too late to save his wife. Looking around her killers’ lair at the satanic imagery and pagan trappings the outlaws used to intimidate the populace, his hatred and zealotry grew. Reeling from the loss, he joined the church’s crusade against heresy, magic, and witchcraft. Possessing the blind devotion of a fanatic and the skills of a warrior, he dedicated his life to the extermination of magic in all its forms. Adler apparently viewed the supernatural as a disease; a plague that could only be snuffed out by the elimination of all who carried it in their blood. Unlike some of his more moderate peers, he made no distinctions between white and black magic or active and potential magic skill. All who used magic were the enemy of himself, God, and man… in roughly that order.

Adler’s hate-fuelled personal crusades were hell on the local equivalent of feminists who he branded witches, herbalists, pagans, and yes even the occasional supernatural creature. However, he lacked the true power to oppose most major magical threats and this resulted in several defeats at the hands of various magicians and monsters. To aid his efforts he founded a covert arm within the Inquisition, the Order of St. Henricus. The order had more success than Adler alone, but as he grew older he realized the forces he so loathed would long outlast his efforts to wipe them out. So, with a hefty dose of hypocrisy and irony, he turned to magic himself. Capturing and torturing various mystics, Adler learned how to craft a terrible weapon that would give him the power and immortality necessary to continue his mission indefinitely. The result was the Hexenhammer, the “witch hammer.” The weapon would protect its wielder from magical assault and sustain his existence until all sorcerers, witches, and magicians and their descendants were wiped from the earth. When Adler grasped the hammer in his hands, his fate was sealed.

Erich Adler’s physical body dropped lifeless to the floor as his soul was drawn into the hammer itself. A stunned blacksmith named Eberhardt was the first to touch the Hexenhammer. In moments, the craftsmen’s soul was forced from his body and Adler’s spirit took over. This began a cycle of death and rebirth, as Adler, now the Hexenhammer, used up one host body after another only to return when the next poor, unknowing soul grasped the Hexenhammer.

For centuries, the mad spirit in the Hexenhammer has continued his bloody mission, hunting all who would use magic for any ends. Now he’s outside and he’s apparently sought out and imprisoned the Abyss, another creature seeking to apparently end all magic as well as the last of its bloodline. A mystical bloodhound if you will, capable of not just tracking but following it’s prey indefinitely. That’s a bad combination for all of us. As for Abyss, we probably know less than yourselves. A demonic creature, part human, part Ban Sidhe. Last of his family though you” motioning towards Banshee, “apparently proved that wasn’t the case, with a hatred of both magic and its own family. Both are immune to most mystical spells, both are extremely powerful and they have us all trapped in here.

How did you get here, out of curiosity? If you got in then perhaps we can all get back out the same way..?” When they refused to answer, the skull joked, “The Gods forbid you’ve actually learnt how to travel by mirror. I’d have thought that a spell well beyond your simplistic capabilities despite having done such a good job with the house. Seeing you here though, I can’t help feel this is a family heirloom, its magic passed down from earlier, more powerful ancestors.”

“As regards the house, I was just born lucky  I guess,” replied Akira and then claimed that he never even look in mirrors whilst Mace muttered that she looked in them all the time; the small talk disguising the fact that the skull had accidentally uncovered their mode of transport.

They entered the reception room and began to quietly discuss their options including Hexenhammer’s apparent enslavement of Abyss.

Inside, Mace looked at her wrist computer and saw that her grav-bike appeared to be about half an hour away, locked into her tracking unit. They could also now clearly hear Annie on their comms informing them that Jeeves, Adam and her were tracking the bike and would be with them in the Raft about the same time. Unfortunately, in their haste, they hadn’t packed any additional heavy weaponry.

They had half an hour to plan. They went outside and asked if there was any food to be had, Jack replied, “You could try the kitchen, it seems to be mystically stocked and who knows perhaps it will not try and stab you like it did us.”

Akira, having visited the kitchens both times before, led them down to the kitchen area with its 1920’s décor and sure enough, the sharp knives quivered in their wooden rack as they entered but remained sheathed and although there was no refrigerator, the pantry turned out to be well stocked with fresh produce, all remarkably well preserved. They couldn’t help wonder when and by whom though since the house had been deserted for decades at least.

Akira immediately made himself a sandwich for breakfast and wondered if he might be able to talk with the woman in the mirror and work out some way of leaving. If he tried though would that mean having to reveal to the Oktoberkynde how they arrived?

They decided to have a bit of an explore whilst they waited for the bike and Raft to arrive. As the wandered, they could hear an angry voice coming from the other side of the building, near where Akira knew the Library should be. The house was otherwise quiet but felt unhappy at being invaded.

As they opened the door, they saw the young woman from the forest holding a book, “Damn this Bloody library. How does it do that? Every time I take a book down and open it, I find myself reading one of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Sylvie and Bruno’. Every time I try and turn a page, I get a paper cut. Trice damn this accursed room!” Behind him, a tall blonde-haired, well-dressed man in a long grey coat, Fedora and walking stick stood in the middle of the room and laughed.

Mace was convinced some of the books were actually muttering to themselves.

The woman went over to the shelves and went to take down an ancient tome from the shelves only for it to change into a children’s not-so-famous classic in her hands. The grimoire she’d tried to take down reappeared high up on the library shelves. The woman let loose a primeval scream of sheer frustration.

Akira turned to the stranger, “I don’t recognise you, are you a member of the Oktoberkynde sir?”

He laughed and in a strong Germanic accent replied, “I realise you will not recognise me, we have met before but I admit I looked a bit different at the time.”

Akira tried to tease the information out of him as to his identity but the man quickly changed the subject, “I understand from Herr Spring-heel that he has given you an offer and for that reason alone I will not draw your blood.” Mace immediately assumed he had to be a vampire but they hadn’t met any vampires had they? Meanwhile the woman in the business suit continued her obviously frustrating attempts to try to steal a book. She seemed to be unaware of the Balance’s presence she was so occupied.

Behind them, they heard Spring-heel speak to them, “Enough time, I need you to give me a decision.”

“We agree but we wondered if this lady might be of assistance if she would just stop trying to steal books from my shelves. What are her powers anyway?”

The woman turned anger in her eyes, “I’m a libriomancer and no, I will not expose myself to those beasts outside and none of my spells, even were I to bring characters out of a book, would be able to deal with either Abyss or Hexenhammer.”

Akira realised that the library was filled with magical books and spells and they would welcome him unlike the woman, but they lacked the time to search for anything useful. He’d also probably need to brush up on his Enochian or Lemurian anyway. Would magic work against them anyway?

Then there was the hammer, which apparently was capable of ripping their soul from their bodies and filling the empty vessel with Adler’s own.

Mace’s wrist-computer told them that her bike was nearing the house and that the Raft was only a few minutes behind. Mace ordered the bike to land whilst Akira created a portal to it and teleported both Mace and himself beside it. Abyss unleashed a burst of hellfire specifically aimed at Akira but risked hitting Mace as well. It missed, just. Jumping on the bike, it accelerated at speed into the sky and out of the range of the creatures rage.

Meanwhile an insubstantial Banshee and Sam headed for the terrace, where they were still shielded by the house. Staring at their opponents, Banshee saw the way Abyss was bound. Wondering if it were freed, would it possibly turn on its enslaver instead of them, Banshee unleashed a shattering scream at middle of the hellish chain. It hit and weakened one of the central links so the shattered link held, but only because the chain was being pulled tight by Abyss.

Mace stabilised her bike at about a hundred metres, made sure Akira was secure before she began to unleash several bolts at Hexenhammer. The first bolt hit deep into his shoulder, the next followed almost immediately and hit him in the chest, staggering him and almost knocking him to the ground. The next bolt bounced off his leather jerkin and the next missed due to fall. He picked himself up but was unable to dodge.

Akira elected to make both himself, Mace and the bike invisible but the way Hexenhammer watched where they were, made it clear the spell had limited effect on the witch hunter.

Hexenhammer let out the fiery chain allowing Abyss to hurl towards the terrace and the two standing outside. Sam turned and unleashed a powerful back blast from his wings at the hellish creature. The wind generated a powerful storm that forced the creature backwards and dazing him. It reached the houses’ barrier but couldn’t advance any further due to the wind. It unleashed a fiery lash of hellfire at its hated relative, Mary. The lash burnt its way through the air and the house wards and only missed as an insubstantial Banshee successfully dodged just in time.

Banshee noticed that the mystically expanded chain was stretched taut and she rushed out to the middle and grabbed at the section she’d damaged before, turned substantial and tried to wrestle the chain apart and holding the chain that hopefully controlled her ancestral horror.

The chain broke leaving her holding the chain and an angry hell beast turning on her.

As the Raft came into view, Akira advised them to temporarily stay in the air until the battle was resolved though the question then would be whether the Oktoberkynde would honour their deal.

Akira briefly considered making a run for the Raft and leaving but Banshee reminded him that Abyss would merely hunt them down having tasted their auras again.

Mace followed with another crossbow attack on Hexenhammer who seemed to have no mystical defence against a non-magical attack. Another series of bolts streamed down, leaving him with further injuries.  He collapsed in pain as bolt after bolt hit him deep in the chest, his hammer still in his hand. He shouted something but they couldn’t hear what he said. They came down closer to hear and discovered him muttering in Latin – initiating a spell possibly? Was he trying to transfer his spirit into another body?

Akira tried to throw a force cage around Abyss. The energy gathered round him but shattered when it hammered its way free.  Sam again unleashed another blast from his wings. Abyss was blown to the ground, forced further away from the house and from a now wind-battered Banshee who was still trying to figure out how to use the chain to control the creature.

Abyss tried to wrestle the chain free from Banshees hands, but Banshee managed to hold on. Banshee replied by unleashing a scream that knocked it to the ground apparently incapacitated.

Akira teleported down only to suddenly discover that Hexenhammer could heal at a remarkable rate. As Akira reached for the hammer, planning to transform it temporarily into something harmless like – a sandwich – The imagery appealed to his sense of humour, the witch hunter suddenly reached out tries to grab his wrist and swung the hammer towards his force field. Akira fell back with the force of the blow.

Up above, Mace realised that Hexenhammer would just keep restoring any injuries but until they came up with a better solution, she needed to keep him off-balance. She reloaded her crossbow and unleashed a cascade of bolts again but this time only one bolt hit.

Akira saw that the witch hunter was ‘distracted’ by the bolt, dropped his shield and grabbed at the hammer trying to transform it into a sandwich. He wrestled the object free as the hammers composition changed to bread and the appearance of food layers through the middle but retained the shape of the hammer. He could change its atomic structure from one thing into another but not its appearance. “Allow me to relieve you of that sandwich, sir.” He seriously considered creating an illusion of it as a liver sandwich as he held the transformed hellish weapon in his hands.

The unarmed witch hunter tried to grab him but missed but the mystical nature of the object in his hands began to affect him, despite its transformation. It was as if the object was draining his energy.

Back at the House, Abyss forced his ever-healing body up, only for Sam to again try and blow him to the ground again with his wings. It failed. It unleashed a burst of hellish energy that pummelled at Banshee who managed to hold on, just. She replied by unleashing a banshee cry forgetting Abyss would be immune to attacks from its unearthly doppelgänger. The cry washed over it but failed to affect.

Meanwhile Mace continued her attack, firing additional bolts at the healing figure of the witch hunter as he pulled several bolts from his ever-healing flesh. The first bolt hit him deep in the chest but the rest missed. It looked as though he was taking longer to heal though.

Back on the ground, Akira found transforming the enchanted hammer didn’t appear to stop the hex embedded in the object from absorbing and replacing his soul, and a voice in his head, a Germanic-sounding voice, was telling him to destroy anything mystical.  He may have transformed the physical composition of the object but not its mystical purpose – his body was about to become the next vessel for Hexenhammer if he didn’t do something about it.

He immediately tried to throw the hammer at Abyss with a shout of “Food fight!” As soon as it left his hands, it reconstituted itself back into its original form and hit the creature, knocking it to the ground.

Mace smiled, “Never thought I’d see the day when you’d throw a sandwich away, Akira.” Akira looked up and explained, “Had to. It was sapping my mojo.”

Meanwhile, the hammer sapped and nullified Abyss’ mystical nature leaving it dazed and unable to heal the attack. The character known as Hexenhammer meanwhile was shrivelling up without his mystical weapon sustaining his body, growing older and older until, as they watched, the figure that had held Adler’s spirit died of immense old age, his body turning skeletal and withered.

Meanwhile could Abyss be changing into Hexenhammer in some form of mystical metamorphosis? Sam used the opportunity to go berserk on Abyss with his claws. The hellfire hide no longer functional, the claws dug deep as they struck several times leaving the creatures unconscious and unable to heal due to the malignant influence of the hammer but as they watched it looked as though Adler’s soul might be in the process of occupying Abyss’ body. Could they end up with something that combined the powers of both together?

This was a catch 22. If they left the hammer on top of Abyss, it would continue to nullify his mystical abilities but they risked creating something even more powerful if the spirit of Adler managed to take control of Abyss’ body yet if they removed it, Abyss would be able to heal itself and attack them again.

Sam suggested that if they could somehow break the physical contact between Abyss and the hammer it should still nullify the creature but the separation might stop the transference as he thought it had to be in physical contact to enable Adler’s soul to consume Abyss.

Akira tried to place his force cage round the hammer and levitate it slightly above the creatures’ chest. It failed. The chain was no longer glowing since the death of the witch hunter, could it be used to raise the hammer from maintaining physical contact?

They tried and failed to wrap the chain round the hammers handle. Then Akira had an idea – there was a spell he’d learnt, a particularly dangerous spell known as the Wondrous Working of Weyan; a particularly intricate and dangerous enchantment that used up all of the mystical mana in the area, temporarily stripping the area and magic users of mystical powers.

He’d never tried the spell before but it potentially provided a solution, even if it might only be temporary. It was risky, if the spell failed to work, the caster would suffer a powerful psychic backlash, but…

As he focused, using up all of his personal mystical energy in the effort, a device appeared between him and the downed Abyss, apparently composed of phantasmal ectoplasm, forming complex interlocking gears, powered by the ambient magic in the surrounding area. The ghostly gears spun faster and faster as the spell temporarily stripped the area of mystic power for a time.

As it whirled, mystical energy evaporated in wave after wave.

Akira collapsed, stripped of his mystical energy. His serpent brand dissipated as he went unconscious, then it washed over Banshee stripping her of her abilities leaving an old and decrepit old woman; unable to remain standing she collapsed gratefully to the ground, temporarily stripped of her bond with the family Ban Sidhe, which still resided inside her but currently rendered powerless. Sam was next, his physical form changing back into his original human form.

Only Mace was unaffected.

Then the house shields collapsed as the house was rendered magically inert and a scream came from within. All they could hear from inside the property as Spring-Heeled Jack’s angry voice shouting, “What the hell have you done?” as he exited onto the terrace – his body was altered leaving his body half human and half demonic. That half was being dragged along as though his body had just suffered a stroke.

The skull was lying on the floor, completely inert, banished by the spell and from their shouts all of the other members of the group were similarly depowered.

The threat of the Oktoberkynde attacking them if they succeeded was no longer a threat. As soon as the spell was cast, Sister Sanguine escaped through the green leaving the others to be stripped of their mystical abilities.

They gathered round Abyss as the spell stripped him of his curse and turned him back into human, a badly injured man over a hundred years old. A man covered in wounds from more than a hundred years of misadventures. Shamus looked up at Mary and breathed his last breath.

They were left with two corpses on the lawn, one who died of old age and one very ancient and pierced with crossbow bolts.

The raft dropped down and Jeeves helped Mary inside where Annie began carrying out a full examination.

Spring-heeled Jack hobbled over to the others and admitted they had kept their part of the deal and in return he explained that the contact they had accepted had been from Dementia and consisted of attacking and possibly dispose of them whilst she carried out a jail break but that wasn’t what they really wanted though, was it? No, he would keep the spirit of the deal as well. Although they hadn’t sought the tome, they had heard that it had been a person high up in the Country’s Government, a Director of a secret organisation who signed themselves as R, one of several to use that title. In this case, the current R was a Lady Marjorie Rittingham, the Duchess of Staffordshire. Her husband had been attending the House of Lords.

The only issue they had was how would they explain the two corpses on the lawn of Akira’s property?