Superhero Adventures, UK Style

After the team had been summoned to visit King M’Balla and, despite his statement that he did not hold them responsible for the previous night’s attack, they were all confined to their suites whilst the Shujaa Wa’Usiku (Honour Guards) searched the city and countryside for the saboteurs that had managed to get away.

Next morning they awoke to discover that, in the early hours, someone had managed to penetrate the cellblocks within the Palace and successfully liberated the prisoners they’d captured before they could be interrogated. They had killed several guards in the process. Whoever was leading this knew the most intimate of the Palaces’ secrets and had used passages known only to a few, to spirit the doppelgänger and others away. That couldn’t be placed at their door even by Mercy and the Princess had still been explaining her actions and intentions to the King and his Council at the time of the escape, which ruled her out.

While the Balance and others brooded in their rooms, back in the UK things were taking a decidedly ‘Annie-avellian’ turn for Young Sam.

He’d returned, after a troubled couple of days away to find the BASEment nearly deserted. There had been several messages left on his phone a couple of days before, inviting him to visit Dakata with them. Jeeves was the only person present in the underground facility and he seemed to be keeping busy doing something mysterious in the kitchen but he took time out from his domestic wizardry to inform him that the others had left in the Crate but that Annie had left a personal message for him in the Raft.

He immediately headed down to the hangar and clambered onboard, grabbing for the backseat display unit and activating it with his thumbprint.

To his surprise, the doors immediately locked and a message appeared on the screen telling him to hold tight, as she’d programmed the Raft to follow the Crates’ flight plan to Dakata. He was to make himself comfortable as he had a five-hour journey in front of him.

He fell headfirst into his usual rear seat as the BASEment’s hangar doors swung open and the Raft automatically took off at excessive speed; Annie’s voice, sounding emotionally detached, continued talking explaining that she had placed a small parcel consisting of a couple of changes of clothes and snacks under his seat.

For a moment, he wondered if this was Annie’s revenge; intending to crash the ship into the ground, moments after take-off. Instead, it continued its steep rise into the upper stratosphere. Annie might still be angry with him but she hadn’t turned homicidal, at least not yet.

He settled in for a long flight as the Raft duplicated exactly, Adam’s earlier flight plan obtained remotely from the Crate.

Back in Dakata, it was early evening when the sound of several explosions and gunshots caught the team’s attention.

Within minutes, Mercy and several of her female guards came to their suite and explained that there was an attack on the country in progress. Somehow, the sky shield had been destroyed leaving the country vulnerable to an aerial attack. In addition, the vast majority of the attacking forces had amassed themselves at the Breach and were working their way down the Thousand Step Staircase.

The country was also being attacked at a third location and King M’Balla had asked her to request their help. Could they deal with the assault on the mines and vault inside M’Taalamu at the centre of the dusty plain where the Daka Crystals were mined, whilst the King, his family and his guards protect the Shield Wall and the city? The vast majority of the Paradise in Africa Army were attacking on foot down the staircase whilst the city seemed about to be subjected to an aerial attack.

It was obvious the request for their help did not sit easily on her lips, but Mercy was loyal to the throne and would obey her King even if she didn’t agree with his decision to use the outsiders.

As soon as the team nodded their consent, she and her remaining guards headed off at speed to either get the civilians to safety or join the defenders in the shadow of the mountains.

In the sky several, black, insect-like craft were materialising over the city, dropping their stealth capability to attack. From the courtyard they could see several black-clad females, Shujaa Wa’Usiku, led by the Princess dressed in a white cat suit tried to herd the civilians off the streets of Kiburi and away from the strafing fly-bys by the invading craft.

The Team (including Annie and Adam) headed to the courtyard and the Crate intending to head off to the mines, only to be confronted by several people in Hyena masks being directed by the red-masked male between themselves and the Crate.

Their hyena-masked intruders seemed to consist of at least some of the original saboteurs from the previous night and they seemed to be attacking the remaining security in the Palace, possibly with the intention of crippling any of the country’s remaining defences now the sky shield had been sabotaged.

Banshee flew over the hyena-masked attackers straight at the man in the full red facemask who, revealing inhuman agility successfully dodged as Banshee sailed passed.

She tried to use her corrupting touch on the figure. She knew it had worked, felt the tension caused by the energy attacking her muscles but to her surprise, the attack seemed to be absorbed making him appear stronger, not weaker.

Back on the Raft, Sam watched as it stopped for a minute, hovering above a large empty encampment before continuing its flight towards the towering mountain range and the massed armed soldiers gathering at a pass through the mountains. Again, the Raft slowed as though either waiting for permission to proceed or awaiting further instructions.

He discovered that the team were now within range and began to initiate communications.

That’s when he heard the cacophony of weapons being unleashed at his transport. As he had no control of the craft, several hit, causing the ship to buck. “So Adam, when do I take my seatbelt off?” he muttered as he reached for the rear door and saw several missiles incoming. He couldn’t pilot the ship, couldn’t control it, all he could do was abandon her to her fate and get the hell out of there. He pulled the emergency door panel and watched it fall towards the ground as he jumped out, unfurling his wings as he did so and glided away only to realise that one of the incoming missiles was locked onto him. He briefly considered using it like an aerial surfboard and returning it to sender. It was too late for his transportation though, it was clear it would not survive the impact from the other missiles. He managed to put the Raft between himself and the missile targeting him whilst apologising to the team for what was about to happen. He tried to put some distance between himself and the Raft but knew he was out of time.

Mace came over his comms telling him to “Calm down.” “Good to have you back and good luck” shouted Akira as the first missile hit the raft causing it to shatter into smithereens and spiral into the mountainside. The other missiles also detonated due to their proximity to the explosion.

Sam survived only because the Raft absorbed most of the explosion but the shockwave still hit him as did shrapnel from the now disintegrating ship leaving him bruised, dazed and struggling to fly and dodge away from the hostile sky and the troops firing at him from below.

He headed up and over the mountain range itself, finding himself no longer a target he followed the homing signal from the other team members towards the futuristic city, surrounded by exotic jungle and lush green plains, he could see below.

“Wonder if they have Starbucks?” he muttered, as he tried to use the rising heat to glide over the city and towards what he assumed was the Palace.

On the ground, a blast of energy aimed at Akira came from the edge of the gardens. This appeared similar to the previous attack the night before. Akira saw the blast out of the corner of his eye and dropped to the ground just as the bolt hit the ground next to him, peppering him with stone fragments.

The hyena-masked cultists stood between them and their craft. Mace fired off a standard bolt at the nearest opponent, hitting him directly in the middle of his chest and knocking him to the ground. Whilst this was happening, the Red Mask immediately bolted across the courtyard for the Palace stairs leaving his minions to defend his departure.

She immediately unleashed a second bolt at the nearest Hyena Mask hitting him on the forehead making sure he stayed down and fired a third bolt into their attackers. This missed as the female mask-wearer must have dodged it at the last second. It was either that or it had gone through her shoulder somehow.

Akira tried to unleash a mystical blast at his two-time sniper even though all he had was the direction of the shot to guide him. He was rewarded with a scream from the trees as his blast obviously found its target.

Red Mask struck out with his metallic claws at Banshee as he ran towards the Palace. It missed her as she dropped back suddenly but struck the edge of a pillar and tore through the stone as though it were butter. Still substantial, Banshee continued to fly after him and tried to grab hold, hoping to then turn them both insubstantial as she did so.

She caught up with him and reached out and grabbed him whilst turning both insubstantial. That’s when she realised she had a fight on her hands. She managed to cling on, just. Thankfully whatever technology this man used, was rendered inert by being turned insubstantial.  Then she felt a compulsion flow over her to immediately let go of him.  It was compelling, demanding and had to be complied with.

Banshee immediately let go and the ‘man’ bound away from her at great speed. The team had felt a similar compulsion wash over them during the previous attack but that hadn’t been from the leader but had emanated from the doppelgänger!

The remaining soldiers in the courtyard seemed to focus their attention on Mace and a couple of them unleashed some form of sonic weapons at her.

She quickly dodged behind a fountain. One of the cultists turned and fired their sonic weapon at Akira who also managed to dodge.

Meanwhile, Sam glided over the city watching the citizens running to get off the streets and into underground bunkers. It was obvious that the attacking forces were not deliberately trying to destroy the city and that they were trying to herd the people out of the way rather than carrying out mass slaughter. As he passed overhead, he could see a number of hovering black aircraft, which were supporting the attackers who were all apparently augmented in some way and to his eyes seemed to be extremely young. A young woman in white led a troop of powerful warriors in defending the city and forcing them out.

This couldn’t be the main attack surely? To Sam’s eyes it seemed more of a distraction than a genuine assault.

Seeming that the city defences were well in hand, he headed towards the Palace buildings and the Craft parked in the courtyard where another fight was going on. He switched his comms back to the dedicated team channel and said, “I think I’m here. There appears to be a lot going on. Do you want me at the Palace or joining the guards heading towards the mountain pass?”

Before he could get a reply he noticed someone in the trees below aiming a long rifle-like device in the direction of Akira. Having recovered somewhat whilst travelling from the explosion, Sam decided to drop in on the camouflaged sniper. He momentarily considered giving him a little advice on his aim; “a little bit higher and more to the left..?” he laughed as he fell from the sky and saw that the rifle was some sort of railgun that converted the shard-like bullets into energy. He was re-aiming the gun at Akira when Sam collided into him and made a grab for it.

Sam’s aim was slightly off and he hit the snipers body as he crashed through the canopy of the branches but failed to grab the rifle, which swung round towards Sam’s head. A shot whizzed by his ear and the assassin almost fell from the tree as the rapid redirecting and weight of the rifle unbalanced him. “You zigged when you should have zagged, but you will not understand a word I’m saying, do you?” The hood fell backwards revealing a shocked, young man staring open-mouthed at the draconic figure hovering in front of him. He dropped the rifle, which had threatened to pull him from the tree branch with its weight and spoke in heavily accented English, two words, “I surrender.”

Surprised, Sam immediately thanked him as Akira screamed at him over the comms to “interrogate him, slap him around and get some answers…” Sam unleashed his draconic persuasion to find out who he was and who he was with. He replied, again in English, that he was a mercenary employed by a woman known only as ‘R’ and they were working with the PAA to liberate some extremely powerful and valuable weapons.

The PAA must be the ‘army’ at the gates, the Paradise in Africa Army; a pretentious name for a bunch of terrorists he thought.

“Are you with the Red Masks?” Sam asked, pointing at the hyena-masked attackers. He quickly replied, “No, I was employed to further her own campaign, including deliberately targeting the members of the Balance.” Sam sighed, “Ah yes, I remember that threat far too well.” That was when Sam saw a flashing red light on the assassin’s belt and immediately thought he was about to blow himself up. His immediate thought was to get out of there. Instead he picked up the man and threw him and his flashing belt in the direction of the other attackers who had their backs to him. The assassin caught off-guard, landed midway in a painful heap. The belt didn’t explode. It had been a bluff belt, a disco light possibly or an indicator light on a comms unit. Whatever it had been it was now fragments beneath the snipers moaning body.

The sniper landed just short of three hyena men, moaning as they turned to stare at a floating draconic figure that smiled and waved at them.

Mace took the opportunity to unleash a wave of bolts at the cultists as the Red Mask reached the stairs and began to bound up them, several steps at a time.

The first bolt hit the man still whimpering on the ground, rendering him unconscious. A second bolt followed a second later at one of the standing cultists hitting him in the head and knocking him to the ground. A third bolt flew across the courtyard and was caught in mid-air by one of the remaining figures much to Mace’s surprise.

Another cultist seemed to release some sort of sickly-green gas at her and Akira, or at least that was what it appeared to be initially but she then realised that the figure was somehow slowly transforming herself into a form of gas that now drifted towards them.

They were far enough back that they were safe for the moment. She grabbed at her rebreather just in case.

Akira meanwhile unleashed a mystical blast at the cloaked assassin lying on the ground. The force struck out at the figure as with a single cut-off scream he was rendered unconscious. Mace murmured, “So much for interrogating him again anytime soon.”

The Red Hyena was now at the top of the stairs and about to vanish inside the Palace; Banshee meanwhile had successfully dismissed the compulsion and was now currently free from his influence.

Banshee unleashed a wail at the vanishing figure. The soundwaves washed over him and she could see him momentarily slammed forward only for the figure to straighten up, seemingly more powerful that before. It laughed but the voice producing the laughter did not sound like a man, it was too high pitched.

Without turning, he headed into the dark recesses of the Palace. Akira found himself being targeted by one of the remaining masked figures. He seemed to preparing himself to punch him yet for some reason was momentarily holding back as though trying to make Akira throw the first blow.

He continued to bait and threaten. Akira asked him in Swahili, “What are you and the guy in the red cloak were trying to accomplish?” He replied by throwing a near-miss punch. Akira dodged and turning, he called upon Ghorummaz, the Dragon within the Earth, Lord of Storms, The Earth-Binder; Ghorummaz the primal, elemental force, a serpentine dragon of stone and fire, spitting molten magma; Ghorummaz, the Lord of Earthquakes and Storms and binder of what is unnatural.  He could feel its power burning through his body.

It was strongly connected to “dragon lines” of force within the Earth and with the elements. The ease in which he was able to summon the aspect meant this area had to be located on a powerful ley line.

With the Dragon within the Earth still burning through his veins, Akira summoned the Grasp of Ghorummaz to create a clawed hand of stone, bursting up from the stonework around the Red Masks feet to seize and hold him.

The hand created a wave of pressure emanating outwards from it as its stone fingers tightened around the writhing figure in its grip. Then the stone fingers began to crack as they constricted. The Red Masked individual seemed to be getting stronger the harder the construct squeezed.

Behind him Akira felt several blows striking his back as he unleashed the spell.

Sam found himself becoming the target of one of the hyena-masked attackers and heard him shouting something only for the scream to become a sonic attack, possibly emanating from the rifle in his hands. Was the rifle sound activated or was it amplifying and weaponising the attacker’s voice via a microphone? Sam managed to roll out of the way of the sonic wave just in time as it hit where he had been standing and shattered the courtyard floor behind him.

Sam rushed towards the railgun still lying nearby in the courtyard, as he grabbed it he muttered, “Really shouldn’t leave that lying around, better pick it up.” He pointed it towards his attacker and pulled the trigger hoping there wasn’t a safety on it. It made a weird humming sound then a bolt of light flashed out.

It hit the man square in the chest, leaving a small hole on his upper body and a football sized exit wound in his back as he collapsed in front of him. Surprisingly, Sam felt nothing. Not knowing how to reload, he dropped the weapon…

Mace watched the remaining attackers, one of whom was turning into some form of green gas and the other was still trying to taunt Akira into hitting him.

Muttering about the “gas-woman cometh” she unleashed a bolt at her head taking her out completely. The gas immediately began to flow back into the body and began to manifest as flesh again.

She decided to try and deal with Akira’s attacker. She fired but when the bolt hit he suddenly split into another clone of the attacker. She did notice that the original of the two looked tired and slightly weaker than the duplicate and she immediately targeted him again. Once more a bolt flew straight and again another pair of clones appeared as soon as he was hit. Her standard bolts only seemed to be making things worse as the clones pummelled on Akira, so she elected to change arrow heads to avoid kinetically-charged attacks.

“Just keep on firing and see where this goes.” shouted Sam, watching the multiplying attackers manifest themselves. She changed to a stun bolt head and the bolt flew straight at the original. It hit, discharged and he collapsed. As he did so, his duplicates seemed to collapse back inside the original body and vanished from view.

A bruised and battered Akira struggled to maintain his spell as its supposed victim seemed to be constantly growing stronger. It was only a matter of time before the red masked person broke free.

Akira shouted out “Anyone got any clues how to deal with him? Any suggestions?”  Sam said, “It looks as though he is able to absorb force and then redirect that into himself.”

As the team tried to analyse his powers, they wondered what was the opposite of force and could they somehow manifest a controlled black hole? That was when Annie muttered over the radio “The opposite of speed is cold, interestingly enough.” Sam tried a friendly “Hi Annie” greeting only to have zero response.  She was obviously still not talking to him.

Mace was the only one equipped with anything that could cause freezing. Even the thought of it was enough for Sam to start shuddering. As Adam and Annie dived across the courtyard to unseal the Crate and get it ready for flight, Mace selected her experimental freeze-bolt and unleashed it at the captured masked figure just as he successfully smashed one of the fingers off the animated stone hand and looked to be about to climb free.

The bolt hit at the figure and the ice extended out and over him, rendering him unconscious. As he slumped the figure began to change. It was the female doppelgänger who had duplicated their guard on the night of the attack that collapsed to the ground. She was wearing an outfit very similar to that worn by the Shujaa Wa’Usiku (Honour Guards) which, as it iced up, seemed to power down.

Seemed the Red Mask was the doppelgänger but that couldn’t be right, could it? On the night of the previous attack, she’d been present at the same time as the Red Mask.  Regardless she was incapacitated and wasn’t going anywhere.

As they tried to analyse what had just happened (and Akira joked that she’d wanted to get him into bed back then) they ran towards the Crate.

Adam was in the pilot seat and took off as soon as they were all aboard. Annie was also on-board but had managed to disappear into the cargo hold, keeping out of their way.

As the Craft set off for M’Taalamu they could see the battle at the Breach Wall and it was clear that the main attacking force primarily consisted mainly of augmented teenagers fighting for the PAA and they were intended as cannon fodder.

The King’s troops were about to be joined by a herd of rhino’s being ridden by black uniformed females. Seems someone had remembered their traditions and decided to augment their troops with a sight not seen for hundreds of years; Unicorn Riders.
The Kings’ voice came over the radio ordering his troops to switch to sonic weaponry rather than continue the slaughter of brainwashed children, even if they were cybernetically or meta enhanced.

The Crate turned round and quickly set off for the mountains to the South and the dusty plain surrounding the mining town of M’Taalamu. Its surrounding dusty plain contrasted with the lush landscape everywhere else in Dakata. The only thing growing nearby was a cultivated red flower in rooftop gardens. Several of these gardens were now in flames.

Nearby, on T’Katifu Peak they could be seen the massive carving of the Lion’s head which was regularly repainted in white ochre and beneath the chin a cave that apparently led to the sacred Shrine of the Goddess S’Khmet.

On the ground, several people in armoured “brute” suits could be seen patrolling the town centre and supporting soldiers who were attacking the civilian population ruthlessly whilst trying to gain access to some buildings off the main square.

Various firefights were taking place beneath them; soldiers in heavy armoured suits, several people dressed in full body suits and a number of cyborg and meta-enhanced were fighting members of the black-suited honour guard. They appeared to be trying to gain entry to the heavy security gates that led to the mines and the crystal storage they assumed was also there.  There also appeared to be two groups of white furred human-leopard chimaera roaming the town, randomly attacking people.

As the ship came into land, shots bounced off the hull. Annie reminded them that not only was M’Taalamu, the site of the Daka mines but also the Country’s primary weapon vaults. It was impossible to tell whether or not the attackers had gained access to the vaults yet or not.

In the distance they could see a large woman in a dress surrounded by soldiers and young metas; this was Massai, Akira point out. Massai N’Ambo of the Paradise of Africa Army was apparently leading the attack on the mine and weapons cache. Was this their primary target after all?

The others explained to Sam that she was married to the leader of the PAA and she was believed to have abilities; not just the power to create meta-breakthroughs in people with potential but also that she could influence and alter people’s meta abilities. As Sam said, “That is both interesting and scary.”

Before they landed, Akira tried to reach out and again summon forth again the Dragon within the Earth, Lord of Storms. As soon as the connection was formed, Akira summoned forth the Great Gale of Ghorummaz; a powerful storm centred on the opposition severely limiting their movement and visibility. Out of nowhere, a thick, blanketing storm appeared that surrounded the town, affecting everyone below.

Adam headed into land and found the ship being surrounded by the hybrid leopard men, but before anyone could do anything, Annie’s voice boomed out over the external speakers – a shout consisting of just two words, a name – ‘Edward Prendick’. Again and again she repeated the name, each time the leopard men around the craft acted as though someone had just tasered them. The fur on the scruff of their necks stood upright as though their fight or flee instinct was set on maximum.

Then they noticed the creatures had stopped advancing and several had stepped back as though in fear. Annie popped out of the cargo hold, muttered, “It’s all I can do at the moment” and opening the hatch ran straight into the middle of them smashing into the paralysed-by-fear creatures.

“Way to go Annie!” shouted Akira. Whatever the words she was shouting meant the leopard men were unable or unwilling to advance and with a ferocious Annie in the middle of them they vanished back into the storm.

Unsure what exactly had just happened, the rest of the team quickly decamped and rushed forward towards the waiting brute suits, cyborgs and men in black.

Coming towards them were several of the cyborg child-soldiers fighting against four of the Shujaa Wa’Usiku including one they recognised, Fortune. They were doing their best to try and disarm them whilst trying not to kill them.

Seeing the warriors in their black body suits, Mace joked she must have been ahead of the fashion curve and really needed to open a clothing franchise here.

As they moved towards the buildings a grenade was lobbed towards the Crate. With no cricket bat to hand, Young Sam turned and used his wings to try and create a rival storm to batter the grenade away. It didn’t look as though it wasn’t going to work, but as soon as it got close the hurricane from his wings caught it and hurled it back taking out the soldier who’d thrown it. The sound of the explosion was absorbed by the Gale of Ghorummaz.

Annie was still battling through the leopard men. “Quite the bad ass” muttered Sam as he saw one of the brute suits heading their way. It unleashed an attack that Sam dodged, causing the building behind him to explode. Banshee turned insubstantial and then emerged from the ship and headed straight at two of the armoured attackers unleashing a shattering shriek as she did so. The attack hit both of them causing various small malfunctions including one of the servos on the leg of one of her assailants.

Most of the soldiers were busy carrying crates out from the buildings nearby and loading them into the insect-like black aircraft.  With Annie busy, the other group of leopard men elected to attack, supported by the cyborgs. They also couldn’t help notice that the hybrid creatures were apparently all male. Why?

Fortune charged in with her Shujaa Wa’Usiku and as they were punched by the leopard men and punched back, the Shujaa suits, like the Red Mask, seemed to gain strength from the assaults on them somehow converting the kinetic attacks on them into even greater strength and speed.

The team noticed that the attackers seemed to be deliberately trying to allow the others to load up their ships with crates and boxes taken from inside the town.

Adam announced that the King was still fighting at the Breach Wall against the main force with the majority of his tribes and Honour Guard but they were facing mainly untrained and poorly equipped child soldiers. Then the Princess announced that she thought the attack on the city was also being carried out by child soldiers and they too seemed ill-trained and badly equipped.

“More of a distraction that a proper assault” said Banshee, “This here has to be their primary reason for the attack.”

It did look as though most of the aircraft that had flown over the mountains had made their way here and were in the process of loading up.

Mace found herself being targeted by several leopard men and, advancing slowly on her, were two of the armoured suits. She decided to leave the leopard hybrids to Fortune and unleashed an EMP bolt at the first of the armoured figures advancing on her. The bolt hit but its shielding held. She unleashed a second bolt but again it failed to affect them.

Sam flew straight towards the melee of leopard men, focusing in on Annie’s voice screaming ‘Edward Prendick’ over and over again which seemed to cause the attackers to back off her or not return her blows. Sam repeated the name, adding draconic persuasion to his voice and saw the fur on the back of their necks rise in fear. He hit out with his claws and scattered several of them.

Coming towards the others, running as fast as she could, her hands outstretched, energy sparkling between the fingers, was Massai N’Ambo. She seemed to want to try and grab hold of them though given her reputation, what would such a grab do to them, especially if they were metas?

One of the Honour Guards bounded over the top of the cyborgs trying to protect Massai’s passage towards then, and slammed into her hard sending her flying across the ground. Another of the Shujaa Wa’Usiku jumped in front of one of the black suited male figures protecting the loading of crates onto their black ships. They seemed to dance around each other, neither risking a punch against their opponent’s suit. For some reason the suit reminded Akira of similar armour he’d seen the P.I.S.C.E.S. soldiers’ use, back on St. Kilda?

“What are they?” he shouted at the Shujaa Wa’Usiku.

“They’re using stolen kinetically charged suits, similar to the one’s we wear,” she shouted back in English. “They can convert any physical attacks into strength.” Sam heard the exchange and asked, “So if you keep on punching them do they keep on gaining infinite energy and strength?” The Shujaa ducked a blow aimed at her unshielded head and shouted, “No, eventually the Daka crystals in the suit will reach a point where they will then begin to power down rather than exceed their capacity to hold the energy.”

“Maybe we can overwhelm them?” Sam asked. She ducked again and shouted,” they’re wearing the equivalent of our suits. That will require a lot of energy before the failsafe’s cut in and begin to power them down.” “Then team up and take them down” suggested Mace.

Two of the Shujaa immediately teamed up against one of the black-suited attackers and pummelled him while dodging its lethal blows until the suit reached its capacity and then began to gradually power down.

Akira made a series of unconscious funny noises as he engaged his thought processes as to how to deal with the men in armour; he moved in, dodging beneath its arms and rendered a force cage round the nearest armoured attacker. It bubbled round, catching him inside. The pilot beat away at the inside of the power bubble but failed to break through.

A cyber soldier fired a fragmentation grenade at Sam. He immediately jumped in front of Annie to protect her, shielding her from the blast. He succeeded but took the full blast against his scales which knocking him to the ground on top of Annie. He stood up and growled as the remaining leopard men began to close in on them. He could hear Annie cursing followed by a “damn you Dad!”

A bright flash landed in the midst of them. Sam was the only member of the team affected. Temporarily blinded, he punched out blind. The leopard men leapt in and tried to bite and claw at his scales bruising and tearing at him.

Banshee unleashed another shattering shriek at the two in the brute suits. One of the armoured characters suit was incapacitated by the attack as relay after relay capitulated to the scream. The other however seemed unaffected.

One of the honour guards rushed at Massai and hammered her unconscious. The other guard joined Fortune and the other guard jointly attacking one of P.I.S.C.E.S. suited individuals. Between the three of them, they overwhelmed the suits capacity and it began to crash.

Mace unleashed a standard bolt to add to the attack. Unable to dodge, it hit reducing his capacity even further.

The first two Shujaa moved on to attack the remaining kinetically-powered, be-suited soldier but failed to do any damage and suffered injury themselves.

Sam, blinded and under attack cried out, hoping for sympathy from Annie. Instead all he could hear was her attacks on the remaining chimaera hybrids intermixed with curses against her father and promises that she would make him pay, cursing the Foundry and the whole concept of creating ‘Manimal’ soldiers.

He tried to clear his eyes and blinked. His vision was coming back gradually. Seeing the outline of their attackers still standing, he unleashed his fiery breath at them leaving the remaining leopard men staggering away covered in singed and smoking pelt. The stench of their burnt cat fur assailed his nose.

The remaining two guards teamed up on the remaining P.I.S.C.E.S. suited individual who tried to attack Mace but missed and was again attacked by the guards.

Akira tried picking up one of the Brute Suits using his Theurgical-Kinesis and tossed him as hard and as fast as he could at the other, partially immobilised suit of armour. They hit leaving their pilots injured and struggling to right themselves.

The remaining soldiers unleashed their assault weapons at Sam and Banshee. The bullets went right through her hitting the stealth ship behind her blowing it up as they hit the power plant. Sam however managed to dodge and the bullets hit the retreating leopard men, badly wounding them.

Banshee responded with another shattering shriek against the armoured suits, finally finishing them off leaving the suits in locked-out mode, taking then both offline and trapping the pilots inside.

The only threat left was the K-suited soldier who the Shujaa were pummelling into submission.

Their ships had either been grounded or seriously damaged. That’s when they saw her: ‘R’ – Lady Marjorie Rittingham, the Duchess of Staffordshire running away with several professional-looking soldiers. She appeared to have been hiding within the vault with her remaining soldiers during the fighting and was now heading up the mountain towards the sculpture of the Lion’s head or to be precise the shrine beneath.

Making sure none of the grounded ships could take off and that all of the attackers were dealt with, the Balance then set off after her.

She had already entered the cavern when they got there. Inside they could see that the cave entrance led to an ancient temple complex, apparently thousands of years old. The Pillars on the cavern floor either side of an entrance deep inside the mountain had been carved into the figure of woman with the heads of lions. “D-size columns”, muttered Akira noticing the feminine shape of the lion-headed pillar carvings.

They looked down from the cave entrance and saw ‘R’ and her followers climbing down the side of the cascading waterfall towards the cavern floor.

Then the saw on the temple floor, someone in a cloak sitting cross-legged in contemplation.

They looked closely and could see that the figure was obviously inhuman despite being human-sized and apparently bipedal; it’s lion-like head showed it was descended from some form of felidoid race. As far as they could tell it was a female. It immediately reminded them of a certain barbarian race (at least as far as the Ziru Sirka were concerned) that attacked Prince Ishugi and them (or Prince Tamesha as they had known him at the time) in the Libreville spaceport – the race known them as the Fteirle and sometimes referred to by humans as Aslan.

The image was also a perfect match for the Goddess S’Khmet but according to the Dakatans the shrine had supposedly housed their Goddess for thousands of years. What the..? Fteirle weren’t known to be a long-lived race and there was no indication that the temple supported a viable colony of them.

‘R’ and her soldiers had reached the midpoint of their descent and presumably assumed that if they reached the temple they would either be able to escape through the mountains or seek sanctuary by threatening the Dakatans’ living Goddess.

As they began their descent to the temple floor, climbing down the side of the waterfall Sam set off after them. Flying down he snatched a struggling ‘R’ and flew her back up to the cave entrance. Her soldiers, armed with assault weapons fired at an insubstantial Banshee as she used her terrorising shriek on the remaining soldiers forcing them to drop their weapons and allowing Akira, Sam and Banshee to fly them out before they could do any further damage.

Akira considered trying to commune with the Goddess face-to-face but was talked out of it in case it was seen as sacrilege. He claimed he wanted to pay his respects and apologise for the intrusion but whilst they argued, she walked off into the dark of the temple complex. The others talked him out of heading down to meet her. He joked about his being intrigued by her and wanting to her to know that he recognised another divine creature when he saw it.

Back on the surface a call from the palace confirmed that the PAA have backed off, but the Red Mask had escaped and some were even saying that there had been more than one of them. They were now sure the assault on the country had been a ploy and the real target had been stealing the Daka crystals and their advanced weaponry.

That night as the Dakatans dealt with the issue of the captured child-soldiers and the effort of removing their cyborg weapons, the team took stock.

The raft had been destroyed but they still had the Crate and the Dakatans had offered to equip it out for them, including upgrading the power supply to a Zero Point Module and fitting it out with stealth capability and shields. They’d even offered to fit a catapult to allow Mace to exit the craft on her gravbike while it was in mid-air. Adam was convinced that fitting the ZPM would make the ship at least as fast and as manoeuvrable as the Raft had been.

He had also agreed to help the Princess and Farasi to develop their own grav-modules, even though Akira tried to talk him out of giving away any “trade secrets”.

In the meantime, the team were expected to attend a number of banquets in their honour and were made honorary citizens of Dakata for their efforts in trying to prevent the theft from the weapon vaults. Unfortunately, while the store of Daka Crystals had been kept safe, ‘R’ and the PAA had managed to get some of the weapons out in ships that had left Dakata airspace before they had arrived at M’Taalamu. That they hadn’t managed to steal all of Dakata’s secrets and armaments was down to their contribution. Well theirs and the Shujaa Wa’Usiku of course.

The King was even talking about allowing Princess Tafari to continue her contact with the Challenger-Wildeman’s and to discuss ways they could support relief work across the African continent.

At their request, the Dakatans used the scanner they brought with them to scan ‘R’ and her personal guard to see if they had control parasites in their brains. The scanner confirmed that she and two of her lieutenants had been infected and they arranged to remove them using Adam’s gravitic extractor.

As she recovered the question on the team’s lips was simple; had it been the influence of the control parasite that made her the cold-blooded killer who had put a contract out on them or was that just how she was?

It didn’t take long to realise that she really was a cold-hearted, killer bitch who regretted nothing about trying to have them killed. She still hated their guts even after the parasite had been extracted. The decision was taken by the King that ‘R’ would be held by the Dekatans as a terrorist at least until they could confirm whether the UK wanted her returned. Given the limited diplomatic relations and the fact that Dakata needed nothing from the UK Government meant they had nothing they could use to force their hand.

One question everyone wanted to know, from her and the rest of the prisoners – who was the Red Mask? He was obviously behind the Bultu cult and apparently a Dakatan. It was clear that he had used the meta doppelgänger to provide him with cover but no-one apparently amongst the captured knew who he was. Even Massai N’Ambo didn’t know. In her case they had agreed to allow her to be extradited to Kenya to pay for her crimes there.

In the end the team stayed for a week then elected to do a bit of sightseeing (after dropping off Massai N’Ambo at Konza City for King M’Balla) – Dr Kitengi N’Ambo and the remains of his ‘Army’ had managed to get away.