Superhero Adventures, UK Style

(Part 2 of the Faerie Realm Odyssey)

As they watched an astral Akira dissipate into the dusk, presumably back to the waking world and with the Fate’s prophesy to try and decipher, the remainder of the group found themselves seeking rest at a nearby shelter after confirming that it was being offered ‘freely and without obligation’.

Their companion and guide, the white-furred Mèirleach, took his leave for the night and ‘said’ he would meet them again on the new cycle, heading away presumably to join with others of its own kind.

They were offered a selection of weird-looking fruit by several small goblins. After much debate about what they could bargain for them and whether it was safe to consume, they discovered that Mary’s gift for music and a couple of tunes on her harp were considered ample payment, as everyone who heard her play happily contributed to the cost of a small sack of elfin fruit for them in gratitude. Their hosts and other ‘guests’ all seemed to put great value on Mary’s music.

Despite the wonderful taste and the desire it produced in them to gorge themselves, the three mortals forced themselves to only consume what they needed to satisfy their appetites and again discovered a few bites were sufficient in that respect leaving them with enough food to last them for a number of days.

After the impromptu concert, the three of them gathered in a corner to go over the words of the prophesy – certain phrases stood out; the need to stop the entropy was clear even if the identity of the threat wasn’t. The mention of the undead worried Sam but Mace pointed out that the wording clearly stated that they weren’t all in that state and who knew what undead meant in the Faerie realm anyway? What was clear was that they had to stop them here or their own world would be next.

The following sunrise, Akira reappeared in the morning sunlight as the Companion Sun went from dim to bright light in the sky and this system’s distant and dimmer star rose in what they assumed was the East.

They now knew that the Companion Sun was a mystical object created and maintained by the Summer Court in low geosynchronous orbit over the Royal Palace of Midsummalcazar.

There, the Elfin priests fed it daily with mystical energy channelled through the Queen. Despite this, its power had begun to wane, in part due to the missing presence of the Summer Knight to add his own mystical energy to the pyre. It was also in part due to the presence of the Dark, a Dark light-absorbing energy slowly creeping through the forest, supposedly emanating from the Winter Court.

Mèirleach caught up with them as they took their leave of the shelter. He explained that **the final Duello Arcane would take place at the Summer Queen’s Palace once all of the other qualified duels were completed at the other three primary locations of the Summerlands and their chosen champions had all gathered at the Palace.**  Meanwhile he would continue to guide them wherever they wanted to go.

First thing Akira said as he solidified was to tell them, “I’ve been doing some research whilst I’ve been away and whatever you do, don’t eat any of the food or play any music while you are here…” The silence from the other three was deafening until Sam timidly asked, “So, how long have we been gone?” This time it was Akira’s turn to ignore the question.

“As I said, back on Earth I’ve been doing a lot of research about fairies, I’ve read all of the books and tales,” and couldn’t resist adding, “You know, Grimm’s fairy Tales, Hans Christian – all of the experts.” Sam laughed, “So roughly how long did all that take? You spent what, two, maybe three hours in research?” Akira tried to look serious as he explained, “More than that Sam several hours, most of those films weren’t short you know…”

Sam laughed, “Thanks Akira that makes me feel so much better.”

It wasn’t long before Sam and Akira got into a loud discussion about the viability, morality and consequences of creating doppelgängers to trade, with Akira reduced to screaming, “no, never, no way, I don’t think that would be a good idea I’m not doing that, not ever, that way madness lies. Once bitten, three times shy, I’ve learnt from my mistakes.”  In reality none of the others were actually sure just how seriously to take Sam’s suggestion especially when he then proposed that the Goblin Market could possibly make a copy of Sam instead.

As they walked and Mary and Sam discussed with their honourable thief of a guide what to do next,  Akira took Mace aside. “I’ve been thinking on this for some time and I wondered if your grav-gauntlets could be used to provide you with some form of flight. I think if you were to tinker with the grav-compensators to create a negative alternate wave whilst overclocking the generator you should be able to use one glove to levitate and the other as thrust. Would it be worth trying?”

Mace was amazed at Akira’s unexpected insight, “It might, it would mean that whilst flying I couldn’t use my arms for anything else but should be able to hover on the output of a single glove and use the alternate arm to fire assuming I account for any possible recoil. I’d also only be able to reach a maximum ceiling of about 30 metres at most from the ground before the contrawave negated itself, but…” She focused on how she could achieve the desired effect.

They began to climb down the great staircase carved into the great tree towards the skydocks and market place hoping to seek passage from Skyfall to the Royal Palace of Midsummalcazar. As they reached the root-tethered main floating island, they passed a crowd of Fae gathering at the entrance to the market.

A staggering metre tall figure suddenly pushed his way through the throng and accosted them. He looked very familiar to all but Mace, even down to the cut down trench coat and feather in his hat – It was Puck who they’d previously met in passing at the Tea Party in the park.

(See https://mm3e.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/episode-10-the-time-has-come-the-walrus-said/)

He was obviously seriously injured, bleeding a black, ink-like substance from several wounds. After a few staggered steps, he fell to the ground and started trying to pack the most serious wound in his stomach with ‘dream stuff’ but it failed to do anything, just dropping away. Some in the crowd gasped and stared at him incredulously as he continued to bleed out.

Sam and Mace rushed over and examined his wounds as Mèirleach in disbelief explained to the others that **all Fae can use dreaming to repair their injuries so I don’t understand why it’s not working on him.**

It was obvious to both of them that the wounds required some means of sewing up if he was to survive.

A couple of the smaller goblin could be heard arguing that these had to be wounds inflicted by Iron or steel which is why the wounds will not heal. His physical manifestation must have been contaminated with the ‘Cold’.

Mary quickly unfastened her harp and began to play a healing spell, which slowed down the ‘blood’ loss whilst Sam pulled out his emergency first aid kit, stanched the bleeding and then with Mace’s help began to sew up his wounds. The needle Sam used was thankfully made of titanium alloy and didn’t affect him the way they assumed iron or steel would.

Several minutes later, still surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, it was obvious that they had managed to stabilise him. Sam gently lifted him to one side and propped him up against a nearby wall as he checked the stiches were holding. Behind them, his spilt black blood began to dissipate back into the cobbled road as though it had never been present.

Puck, frowned and telepathically thanked them. **However, despite my life debt to you for your assistance, I would yet ask a further favour from you… Not for myself I hasten to add but for the Kingdom itself.

I must confess that I was sent on a task to investigate the disappearance of the Summer Knight from Skyfall by Queen Titania.**  Sam smiled, “like a detective?” looking at Puck’s chosen form of dress. He ignored the question and continued, **Instead of the evidence leading to Queen Maub’s court as everyone assumed it would, I found myself following his psychic trail deep inside the Autumn wastelands and away from both kingdoms, deep within the Sea of Leaves beneath the Skeletal Forest.

The Summer Knight’s human ‘scent’ was mixed with that of other mortals, one’s that were physically present just like most of you…**  He seemed to be aware that Akira was only astrally present. **I  was attacked near the Valley of Screams by a mortal female in armour made of cold iron who carried an iron sword and a mortal pistol that fired an entropy that dissolved dream matter.**

Sam, not sure who the woman might be, did wonder if the entropy weapon might be some form of blaster. Akira whispered as Puck continued with his tale, “could it have been the mortal female Madrigal, who’d been an observer of the contest the day before?”  Sam responded, “I remember, we fought her before when we went forward in time. I didn’t like her.” Akira agreed, “I did wonder why someone so dangerous elected to not take part in the challenge.”

Puck continued, **I was wounded by her blade quite a few times but I managed to use my seven league boots to escape back to the Summerlands before she could completely extinguish me.

One thing I am personally sure of is that it wasn’t the Morgaine, The Winter Court’s Knight, despite all the evidence seeming to point to her as the culprit.**

He explained that he needed them to continue the investigation that he was now too physically injured to carry out himself. Suddenly Puck pointed into the crowd all around them, at a certain woman in what appeared to be wearing a modern-looking little black dress. It was the astral form of Lady Jennifer Caedmon-Davis. As she passed by, Puck whispered, **that devil is the Morgaine, wrapped within one of her favourite glamour’s. She’ll be heading back to the Unseelie Court to persuade Queen Maub to raise her army now whilst the Summerlands is currently weakened.**

Akira wondered whether to attack her but Mace realised that any unprovoked assault could make the situation for the Summerlands worse.

Sam wondered whether they were allowing themselves to be diverted from getting back home by Puck’s request. However, Akira pointed out that the only way they knew how to cross back was either for one of them to become the Summer Knight with the power to walk between worlds or gain the favour of one of the Queens and be rewarded with a way of returning home. Finding out what really happened to the Summer Knight and potentially stopping a war between the two courts would be a powerful favour.

While they were arguing amongst themselves, Mary saw the disguised Morgaine head to the nearest dock, everyone standing out her way even the trolls, as she walked on-board a Dark-winged craft; apparently her own ship going by the self-translating enchantment painted across the bow of the ship, which translated before their eyes into ‘The Maleficent’. A tall dark figure at the wheel nodded as she went below then shouted orders at his malign Dark Fae crew who immediately began to cast off the mooring lines and the ship took her leave of Skyfall. As they watched, the alien-looking crew became more human looking though with demonic horns on their heads. This was obviously their glamour working on those watching them.

Puck gave out a deep sigh to regain their attention and continued, ** the Summer Queen is convinced her Winter Sister, Queen Maub of the Unseelie, is ultimately responsible and is preparing to go to outright war. The only way to convince her Majesty to not start a war is for someone to actually find the Summer Knight, whether dead or alive and prove who actually kidnapped him. I believe from a number of witnesses that Thomas Rhymer was still alive when they came for him and was similarly alive but weakened when they flew him away from the Summerlands into what I believe to be the Autumn wastelands of Twilight.

There are some low caste Fae who actually witnessed the assault and described his attackers as beetle-like figures, who were no longer alive – they said that they stank of death – who grabbed the Knight Rhymer and used cold iron to bind him before they carried him inside a large flying beetle and took him away…**

Mary muttered, “Sounds a bit like the prophesy.” Misunderstanding the comment, Puck tried to stand and collapsed down again, **this was no prophesy, I swear this is what these people said they saw happen on that fateful night.**

Mary apologised and asked if he had any idea how they might best get to the Autumnlands?

He brightened up immediately. **You will accept my commission? Thank you kind cousins, thank you. As for guidance…** He gestured in the air and a pulse of bright light left his body and manifested as an intricate, glowing glyph which, like a will-of-the-wisp, darted off towards the rising sun and away from the Companion Sun before speeding back. **This will guide you to the place of the ignoble assault on my personage, deep within the Sea of Leaves.

I cannot accompany you, I fear it will be some time before I am sufficiently recovered to undertake such a journey but if you could get me to the Palace of the Princess of Skyfall  I will happily tell you anything you want and provide what help I can.**

Sam picked him up gently and began to walk back towards the living staircase and the Palace located on the upmost floating sky island.

As they walked, Puck explained about the role of the Summer Knight.

The Summer Knight was a position within the Summer Court, held by a chosen mortal (though not necessarily human). A mortal Knight, they were the champions elect in both of the Sidhe Courts. They got powers in line with their court and they were the only ones allowed to act in affairs that weren’t directly related to the Sidhe. The Knights were granted the ability to physically dimension-walk between Earth and the Dreaming whenever they wanted, however once they crossed over into this realm they had to spend at least one Faerie ‘cycle’ before returning. There were only a few beings (mortal or Fae) who were able to physically cross between the two realities and the Knights of the various courts were amongst that elect few. They were the only mortals who were also members of the courts.

Should the two Courts go to war, the Knight’s power to wield cold iron, deadly to all Fae as Puck could testify, AND be able to focus their mystical energy through the metal made them a powerful weapon for their Court and a serious disadvantage in battle if they were absent.

Thomas Rhymer had gone missing whilst physically visiting Skyfall – most Fae believed he had been killed. The rumour is that he was killed by the Unseelie Court at the hands of the Morgaine but Puck was convinced that someone was trying to engineer a war between the Courts and if the two sides go to war then everyone will lose.

There has not been a war between the two courts for thousands of years and should one happen now neither side would emerge from it undamaged or strong. If the Summer Knight is not found alive and well soon, Queen Titania will be forced to march her forces to the Plain of the Stone Circle in the Autumnlands, midway between the two kingdom’s to try and stop Queen Maub’s main force and the mysterious ‘Dark’ from advancing any further.

Mèirleach tagged along but kept his distance from Mace who seemed unsettled by his presence. He found these mortals’ interactions to be most entertaining.

Before they left him at the Palace hopefully to heal, they asked him what information could he provide in relation to his attacker. He listed off what he knew, mortal, deadly, physically present in the Realm, she was able to handle cold iron without injury, which indicated she had no trace of Fae in her and had attacked him while following a psychic trail through a wilderness. Not a lot to go on unfortunately.

To get to the Autumnlands they had some distance to travel and of course, it was a long way from the life-giving heat of the Companion Sun and a much colder climate as a result, though not as cold as the Winterlands, which were presumably on the opposite side of the planet or at the poles.

As they walked back to the docks to seek transport, they saw several possible mortal contestants in the astral, including some of those who’d already taken part in the duel the day before. They were  seeking passage on moored ships, hoping to head to the other primary settlements across the Summerlands either to watch the combats or to participate.

They approached the Captain of the Aerie but she would not agree to fly them into either the Dark or Autumnlands (nor would any other ship moored at Skyfall), though they did see the young Tristan LaStrange, astrally reformed after their contest, taking passage on another ship for the settlement of Emberwyld, perhaps to participate in their championship contest?  The Aerie was scheduled to head to Deeptides and then back to Skyfall before finally heading to Midsummalcazar, hopefully in time for the final contest between all four champions.

Nothing else for it, they would need to make their own way to the land between the Suns of Summer and the eternal cold of the dim and distant Winterlands.

After a few hours of experimentation and fine-tuning by Mace of her gauntlets, it was agreed that they would fly there under their own steam so to speak. Mèirleach took passage with them, clinging on to Sam’s tail.

To everyone’s delight, they found that Mace’s adaptations to her gauntlets gave her a good cruising speed and they were able to make excellent time once she got used to them. They flew away from the Companion Sun into the twilight, guided by the impatient glyph. It was obvious that at one time the life-giving rays of the mystical second sun had reached much further than now and that the decrease in its size or range must had happened relatively recently. The trees in this part of the world still stood tall, majestic, though the treetops were crooked, stunted, and most of their leaves had fallen from their branches.

A few hours later, the trees were now so much smaller, stunted and gnarly and totally bare of leaves. The Companion Sun was now quite distant and the cold more intense as a result. To their surprise, they began to hear strange, compelling music reaching them from the forest floor beneath them. Sam slowed down on hearing it and Mace was also curious as to what was making the music.

Below they could see several unglamoured Dark Fae gathered on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the trees, seemingly playing music and apparently dancing and gyrating. The group dropped down lower and the tempo of the music become more intense as the gathered Fae began to morph into a more human look. In total there were twelve of them gathered in a circle though it appeared as though none were actually making the music. It got more and more entrancing and they found themselves struggling against the compulsion to forget everything and just join the dance.

Realising what appeared to be happening, Mace shouted to the others, “We’re getting sucked in to this, we must fight it!” Unfortunately, Sam already felt compelled by the music, flew down and  landed.

On the ground, Sam had joined in the dance with a frantic Mèirleach clinging for dear life to his swaying tail. At first, he seemed to be dancing along to YMCA, despite the music they were hearing being completely unsuitable and out of sync with his wild moves.  Then mid-tune he started emulating the dance steps from Footloose. It seemed that Sam was hearing something very different from everyone else.

The others managed to shake off the compulsion but tried to work out how to rescue their companion. Banshee considered using her harp to counter the mysterious music but that would require her to land and revert to Mary. She tried to use her will to banish the music and the Fae but failed. It seemed that you couldn’t banish something from the Dreaming that was native to this place.

Meanwhile Akira and Mace tried to use their consciousness to reveal the glamour of the music but all they eventually managed was to counter the visual glamour as the Dark Sidhe reverted to their bestial, alien appearance before their eyes.

The Sidhe meanwhile had joined in the dance whilst circling and seemingly protecting Sam as he swayed and pirouetted with complete abandon. Up to this point, all Sam had wanted to do was dance the night away with his new ‘friends’ – nothing was more important to him that continuing.  Suddenly he felt a pain on his tail and the music began to grate on his ears as it began to sound badly out of tune as though someone was dragging long nails across a record.

He immediately tried to fly away as several of the Sidhe grabbed hold of him to prevent it. His ‘passenger’, Mèirleach tried to bite and claw at them as he held on for his life. Sam spun and pushed them away as he flew straight up causing his attackers to fall back towards the ground.

As he reached the others, he could hear the music begin to reform. Mary shouted out, “stick your fingers in your ears everybody!” Focusing her gauntlets on flying, Mace screamed, “I can’t, I need to focus on flying.” Down below the irked and irritated Dark Fae began to unleash bolts of elf-shot up at them, missing thankfully due to the height. Mace seemed to be affected by the music and had stopped fleeing with the others. Akira flew back and tried to stick his own fingers in her ears with his hands – the unwelcome contact succeeding in breaking her immediate fascination with the sounds emanating from below.  She responded by slamming him away with the gauntlet she’d been using for thrust blasting him away from her. “Help me,” she pleaded as she began to drop towards the gathered Sidhe, now screeching in anticipation.

Sam, realising the danger she faced, got as close as he dared and tried using his draconic persuasion to counter the entrancement. He quietly but firmly whispered to her whilst looking her in the eyes, deliberately forcing her to focus on his words, his suggestions. “We’re your friends, we need you more than you need that music.” Her eyes unclouded and she again began to rise into the sky and leave the clearing with Sam (and his unwitting passenger) trying to shield her from the elf-shot, which peppered his back as they departed at speed.

The Companion Sun was no longer visible as they got further and further away from the Summerlands. It was also darker than they had expected as the systems admittedly dimmer star was still in the sky. It was almost as though there was a creeping darkness absorbing the light.

To Sam’s despair, the Autumnlands weren’t full of colour as he’d anticipated – the trees once tall and proud were bent and gnarled, completely bare of leaves and the ground beneath them was covered in dead and decaying leaves, who knew to what depth? The fallen leaves had been bleached of all autumn colours as though someone had blanched the chlorophyll out of them, leaving a sea of disintegrating white dust and ancient white leaves beneath them.

Their guiding glyph had also slowed down, either due to being close to their goal or due to mystical exhaustion. The looked around them and saw a little pixie, similar to Sam’s little thief, flitting passed, heading towards a large knot in the trunk of a petrified tree. As they looked closely, they could see the knot concealed a small but perfect door.

Sam tried to catch its attention before it vanished ‘in-doors’. “Hey, little pixie can you help us?” It turned cautiously towards them.  **Be warned mortals, not safe, not safe. The Wylde hunt is loose in the land ever since the “Cold Cousins” arrived and set up their strange shelters nearby. Whatever these mortals are doing, it’s cooling the land and slowly this part of the Great Forest is dying and joining with the Eternal Cold.**

He directed them towards a nearby valley. It matched the direction that the glyph also seemed to want to head.  They thanked the pixie as he quickly dived inside the tree. It was already darker than it should be for that time of the day, even without the comfort of the Companion Sun.

Sam reached down into the bleached, leaf-covered surface and tried to create a small sun. A few seconds later a ceramic-looking model of a stylised sun appeared on the ground apparently floating on top of the leaves. “That’s cool!” he said as Akira criticised him for “wasting time making toys, Sam. You’d be better off using your fiery breath to heat things up.” Sam looked aghast, “I don’t want to risk burning down the Autumnlands! That would seem like an act of war.” he responded.

They followed the glyph, heading deeper into what they assumed was a large bare plain filled with the bleached leaves. What gave them pause was that this ‘sea of leaves’ seemed to be occupied, by what appeared to be some form of large shark! There was no water beneath the deep leaf fall so how were they able to swim and breath..?  Akira shuddered, “I don’t like sharks” he murmured, realising that what they were seeing might be some form of glamour in action.  As they watched more fins appeared, cutting through the surface of the leaves.

How deep was this layer of leaves anyway and could it bear their weight? Sam tried to test it by dropping his model sun but a second after he released it and stopped focusing, it reverted back to dust and merged into the shark-infested surface below. Nothing was permanent in the Dreaming he realised.

Mèirleach shouted a warning not to get too close or they could bite them in half. That was warning enough, they flew slightly higher as the glyph stopped and hovered over a nearby valley. Was this where Puck had been assaulted?

As they got closer, they found themselves being assaulted by a series of familiar-sounding screams and a number of distorted, spectre-like figures began to rise from beneath the white, almost snow-like leaf covered ground.  To her surprise and horror, Banshee felt a sense of kinship towards these creatures, realising that they were banished spirits. Were these the echoes of banshees, Ban Sidh’s to use their Fae title, who’s mortal families had become extinct? Was this what would have happened to the MacCarty banshee if they hadn’t agreed to merge and she had died as the last of her family? She couldn’t shake the impression that this was the Ban Sidh equivalent of the mythical elephant’s graveyard.

Sam recognised the sound as identical to Mary’s terrorising attack, “Friends of yours?” he asked. “Not necessarily” was the response. “Maybe you should form a choir?” joked Sam as they tried to get clear.

Mèirleach blocked his ears whilst still trying to hang on with his elbows and legs. Mace felt the fear building up and responded by flying higher and away. This was obviously the Valley of Screams Puck had mentioned. As though in confirmation, the floating glyph vanished.

In front of them they could see, floating nearby, on top of the ‘sea’ and linked together by strings of lights what seemed to be a synthetic, man-made settlement. It looked alien and out of place in this location, the buildings had obviously been fabricated and constructed before being transferred to this place. The camp consisted of a dozen buildings apparently moored together to form a continuous ‘L’ shape that allowed for movement from one end to the other without having to try and cross the white sea of leaves they sailed on top of. On the opposite side of the encampment were two free-floating stores and several large tanks. In the centre were three more stores and something that at first glance resembled a large solar panel but one that appeared to emanate darkness in waves that quickly rose into the sky and appeared to absorb light, before spreading out in all directions.

The L-shaped collection of dwellings was being guarded on the roofs by several armoured figures that looked familiar. The rest of the camp was apparently unoccupied and there were no obvious vehicles moored that to allow the occupants to cross to the buildings opposite or leave the area. Whilst the Omegadrones could fly, their other warriors in the future had used grav vehicles to get around – metallic floaters could be thought of as looking beetle-like.

As they looked closer, they saw several fins gliding beneath the fluid surface.

The tried to do their best to stay hidden from the guards, who they confirmed were Omegadrones, on the roofs – animated corpses created by the Terminus. That explained the presence of Madrigal at the Duello Arcane and possibly even the beetle-like description of the Knight’s attackers in their armour. At present, they seemed oblivious of them whilst the team kept their distance.

The tanks nearest to them appeared to be fuel tanks and a generator but someone had disconnected the power cables. Instead, they could see that the whole camp was strung with power lines each connected to hundreds of small glass containers that shone like lights defying the absorbing darkness emanating from the middle of the camp. Lights that fluttered inside their glass prisons. These containers were sealed with iron stoppers that apparently prevented the tiny glowing sprites inside from escaping and somehow transferred the captives’ life energy to power the camp, turning the sentient little creatures into living batteries.

Many of the glass bottles only glowed faintly and the creatures lacked the energy to maintain any form of glamour in the presence of their undead captors. These Autumn-kin Fae must have been enslaved by the ‘cold’ mortals with many of them now weakened, skeletal creatures which lay listless inside their glass gaols.

Akira was for freeing the sprites first and depriving the encampment of power while others dealt with the undead intruders. Finally, the Fate’s prophesy made sense. The Terminus was planning to assault this realm before attacking their own.

Behind them, they could hear the howling of savage beasts in the distance – could this be the Wylde Hunt catching up with them? They’d been warned by the pixie that they were nearby. They needed to make a move and soon but they knew the instant they attacked the rest of the Omegadrones in the area would be aware of their presence and respond accordingly.  Akira recommended that if they all attacked at the same time it might divide their attention and they’d have more chance of defeating them, though of course who knew how many more were actually inside the buildings.

Perhaps Mace could try to take out a number of guards before they became aware of their presence? Mace immediately headed towards the roof of one of the stores while Banshee headed towards the corner of the dwellings where she was joined by Akira.

As Sam prepared to move in, Mèirleach dropped from Sam’s tail and instantly vanished beneath the waves of leaves, his white fur disguising him perfectly as he swam covertly passed the shark-like creatures.

No time to wonder what he was up to, Sam prepared himself for his own assault against the ‘drones standing guard on the roofs. They had the element of surprise in their favour at least and a simultaneous attack from multiple locations seemed their best option.

Banshee uttered a shattering shriek at the cables, hoping to smash the glass prisons, power down the base in particular and possibly take out a couple of the guards at the same time.

Half the base was immediately affected by Banshee’s wail, echoed as it was by the inhabitants of the valley nearby. Most of the glass prisons in the surrounding area shattered releasing their exhausted and drained insect-like captives who tried to crawl or fly away. The cry also caused a power out in that whole corner of the base and staggered two of the drone guards who collapsed out of sight though to what extent they had been affected it was hard to say.

Simultaneously Mace stood up on the store roof and unleashed an EMP bolt across at another part of the base. The blast didn’t affect the glass prisons or the glowing inhabitants inside but it did drain some of internal distribution circuitry inside the buildings which instantly went dark.

Sam flew in grabbed a central pole with multiple cables linked to it. He pulled the pole off the building, cables still attached and chucked it across at the building opposite with two drones on the roof. The cables tore loose causing the bottles hanging from the cables connected to it to begin to sink into the sea of leaves.

The post javelined in and smashed the roof opposite, splintering in the process but failed to crush the two figures though the attack knocked them off-balance.

Akira had erected his shield just before Banshee unleashed her shriek. He picked up one of the gigantic fuel cells at the opposite side of the base with his theurgical-Kinesis and ‘threw’ it at the barracks opposite. Seeing Sam’s efforts, he redirected it so it crashed on top of the two stunned guards, crushing them.

Sam looked down in panic as the imprisoned sprites began to sink beneath the surface. Then two small white-furred paws appeared, popping out with a couple of bottles at the end of the cable. With a stifled cry of pain, the honourable thief began tearing off the iron stoppers, burning its paws in the process but allowing the enfeebled creatures trapped inside to escape into the air before the next bottle in the line was pulled up. He carefully broke that bottle, trying desperately not to touch the metal before diving down to retrieve the next on the line.

The attack had alerted the rest of the base but to their surprise, only four more figures appeared from the largest of the buildings. They had expected given its size that this place would have housed at least a hundred. Banshee responded by turning insubstantial.

The four were apparently human, three females and one male, each dressed in different coloured armour. The dark skinned female in blue, Sam nicknamed Cestus after her metallic power gauntlets, the provocative female in pink with the white stripe in her hair they named Lorelei, the woman in red, with cybernetic spikes like fangs on her arms and on her feet got named Venin (French for Venom). The male in yellow armour was initially unnamed but when they saw that he had a plastic dome embedded in his skull showing his brain, the immediate assumption was that he would be a psychic. He was immediately nicknamed by Mace who insisted on referring him to as ‘Banana Man’.

Banshee unleashed the wail of the banshee at the newcomers, leaving Lorelei and Venin staggered.

Sam responded by flying straight at the female with the gauntlets, Cestus, striking her several times with his claws and leaving her dazed and staggering towards the edge as he flew passed.

The male, the other three seemed to refer to him as Psi-Scream, unleashed a paralytic psychic attack that affected all of them, even Mèirleach who also appeared to be trying to avoid a shark attack beneath the leaves.

His attack radiated out but they managed after a few seconds to shake off its effects. In response, Akira unleashed a mystical blast at Venin knocking her down as mace unleashed several ballistic bolts at the others. The first bolt cracked Psi-scream’s dome causing him to collapse unconscious, the second bolt hit Lorelei knocking her back inside the building and this time she failed to stand back up. A third bolt hit the still staggered cyborg with the spikes as she attempted to stand, also knocking her out. A fourth bolt hit the gauntleted woman but caused her no apparent damage or injury. She responded with a blast back at Mace from her gauntlets. Mace dropped out of the way of the attack, as the remaining Omegadrones started unleashing their blasters at each of them. In each case, the blast thankfully missed but caused them to temporarily keep their heads down. Banshee risked unleashing a terrorising scream at the remaining living enemy, Cestus. Despite her toughness, she had no real defence against a sonic attack and the attack left her comatose.

That only left the few remaining Omegadrones, fighting on automatic response. They were already dead so Sam elected to give a couple of them a Viking funeral as he interposed himself between his teammates and the remaining attackers and unleashed a blast of his fiery breath at the two closest attackers.

Akira tried to stop their burning bodies from falling into the leaves and starting a massive forest fire by grabbing their corpses using his theurgical-kinesis before they fell off the roof and flinging their burning corpses at the other drone on the next roof over. All three collapsed as the flames from their fiery cadavers spread to the building itself.

Mace knocked the remaining Omegadrone on the far rooftop inoperative with a final bolt to the head while Akira pled with Sam to use the wind from his wings to try to put out the pyre of flaming corpses. He tried, but the wind from his flapping wings seemed to spread the fire across the whole of the roof instead. A second or two later as the flames obviously began to spread inside the building they heard a scream for help – actual physical shouting, in English.

Banshee still insubstantial, followed Sam inside where they saw a tall red haired man in an old raincoat, chained to the wall, his face and body covered in bruises and blood from several  wounds though none were life threatening. They would appear to have found the missing Summer Knight, Thomas Rhymer. In a strong Irish accent, he swore at them to get him out before the whole roof collapsed in on top of them all. He looked at his rescuers and asked, “What the bloody hell took you wankers so long? Get me the fuck out of here.”

“We didn’t know that you were here?” Replied Sam as Banshee turned insubstantial with their rescued Knight and flowed him out of his chains and the now flaming tomb.

Sam realising he hadn’t a clue how to prevent the fire from spreading, rushed outside to try to rescue both Mèirleach and the remaining cables with their strings of living batteries from the sea and the circling sharks. He pulled them all up, hauling them out from beneath the leaves and onto the central storage units next to the large panel and began liberating the remaining sprites from their iron sealed glass prisons. He kept one hand near to his Tablet though, just in case any of the creatures he rescued decided to help themselves to his property. Once bitten as they say, even if it would take several of them working together to even lift the device.

As soon as everyone was free, Sam went over to examine the solar panel in reverse. Sam considered taking it back with them so they could examine it but it was too large and bulky to be transported. Instead he asked Mace to examine it. She realised that it emitted energy that acted like a black hole without any of the gravity effects – it absorbed heat and light, trapping them somehow and the more dark energy this device produced the more it absorbed leaving the ever-expanding area trapped beneath it without heat and light.

Mace made some schematics of the device, and examined it closely. She realised that although it would have normally been powered by an electrical system, in this case they had jury-rigged it so that it had been powered by the living batteries instead. It was totally alien and the principles under which it absorbed both light and heat was something she had never seen before. She could see how to switch it off or render in inoperable but not how to build such a device for herself.

She made sure it couldn’t be used again as the building on fire opposite began to spread.

Akira manifested a force cage round the building and began to slowly compact the cage as the flames consumed only the material inside the barrier. The heat from the flames did singe the surrounding leaves but thankfully didn’t kindle any fires beyond the TK construct.

Once the flames were completely out, they began to properly explore the base – it was a big camp, much too big for the few they had seen so far. As they explored they came across about a hundred coffin-like containers. If as they suspected, Omegadrones might be transported in these pods, did this indicate that there was a small but sizeable army somewhere, possibly armed with steel or iron weapons? Was this a landing site for an invasion or a test site established by the Terminus in this ever-changing environment; were they trying to discover whether the Dreaming could be transformed into something useful like the Conversion Towers on future world which transported raw material back to their homeworld? It was hard to say and Thomas wasn’t able to help.

He’d been tortured, beaten and literally kept in the dark since his kidnapping. The only reason they’d kept him alive was because what they had called a T-Port station didn’t appear to work which meant they needed some other means of opening a gate to their homeworld in order to bring over their main army. That other means was apparently to use the Keys of Power starting with Thomas’s symbol of Office, The Diamond key.

His interrogators, the four they had defeated, had tortured him to reveal the location of the Key, not realising that the key was actually hidden inside him. He gestured and a small pendant, like a sword, appeared in his hand. “This is what they wanted but I wouldn’t let them have it. We do however have to stop the war. Have the Courts and their armies set off for the Stone Table yet, do you know?

Mary asked, “Do you know the way there?” Thomas grimaced, “It’s midpoint between Winter and Summer, some distance from here.” “You going to come with us?” asked Akira. Thomas replied, “I’m in no condition to fight but if you can help get me there we may be able to stop a war.”

Mary used her healing magic on him and managed to stabilise his wounds as the others discussed what to do about the base full of equipment?  To make matters worse, the baying of hounds, indicated that the Wylde Hunt, was getting closer.

Thomas continued, “Apparently they wanted a war to start and they needed a couple of the keys, starting with mine, so they could transport more of their kind here. There was another female warrior here. She seemed to be the one in charge. I’m not sure where she went to but I hadn’t seen her for a couple of days and I don’t know where they have headed with their zombie army, I assume it was to the Plain of the Stone Circle.

The Stone Table had been mentioned a couple of times now by Thomas and Akira had to know what it was. Thomas gestured and an image appeared in the air that expanded out – what they saw was a twilight region dominated by a giant circle of upright stones – one that was an undamaged duplicate of the one at Amesbury on their own Earth as it had looked before it was desecrated.

Sam asked about whether this acted as a gateway but Thomas explained that if it did, it had not been used that way for a long time. He continued, “if you can get me there I believe I can persuade Queen Titania not to fight and also convince Queen Maub that Summer isn’t as underpowered as she might think.”

He explained, “They really need to find all of the seven keys if they are to totally control this realm and lock all physical entry out by others into the Dreaming whilst allowing themselves full access. Three of the keys are held by Summer and a further three by Winter. The seventh key, the Emerald has been lost for centuries. You need to get me to the Queen if we are to stop a war with the Dark Sidhe and not leave the planet open to invasion by these intruders.”

To be continued.