Annie walked out of the team meeting and straight into the Monitoring Room. The new team had just agreed to release a press statement stating that Young Sam would be taking a sabbatical from the team and would temporarily be replaced by Beltane. Annie immediately sent that message to Jimmy the Fish for wider distribution to the media.
They’d also agreed that Annie and Adam’s upgrades to the Holo-ghost suite meant that ‘Frankie’ could handle the drone’s deployment under most normal circumstances without full-time monitoring.
With a heavy sigh, she sat down and began checking the recordings for last night’s latest security breach whilst she played the latest of Locker’s Vlogs, which had just arrived.
It started with the now familiar introduction – he really needed to mix that up a bit. Yes, the use of a familiar intro meant he had brand identification but it got boring after a while.
This time, Locker appeared on screen immediately. Behind him was a picture of a giant doll-like automaton designed to resemble a Victorian vagabond child complete with a makeshift crutch, like something straight out of Dicken’s ‘A Christmas Carol’.
Locker was standing in front of the image. “Ok, so again it’s been another period of mixed results. The positive was my taking down of Tiny Tim here… Yeah, thanks all of you who sent me the cartoons of my battling a Barbie doll and no, I didn’t pick on a crippled orphan – in the book Tiny Tim has, had a family!
For those who hadn’t followed the event on the news, This particular Tiny Tim was a seven metres tall disguised assault robot that had been designed to resemble a toy doll and no it wasn’t easy to put down. Tiny Tim’s assault on E.B. Nezzer’s Toyland Store in Wessex was a major event even if I have to say so myself.”
<The screen showed a three-minute mash up of clips showing Locker fighting the giant automaton. The final picture revealed the robot’s interior, showing that it was apparently clockwork.>
“Some of you will remember last year’s Christmas Eve assault on the same store by the fake Krampus, in reality Oskar Weihnachten. On that occasion, the Balance took him down after a major assault on the store, which included rescuing several kidnapped kids, but in what is starting to look like becoming an annual event, yours truly got to the scene first this year and was able to take down this attacking robot before it managed to wreck the store. I’m still trying to figure out who built the thing and why. It’s a bit elaborate for a simple robbery surely?
Anyway, the bad is yet another membership rejection, this time from the latest team to form in the UK, the New Knights. I’ve already faced prejudice for not being a Meta from Dal… a couple of established teams but didn’t expect that a non-meta team such as the Knights would dismiss my application so quickly. Apparently, I have to be one of Arthur’s knights ‘reincarnated’ to apply, even though the Knights of the Round Table obviously never existed in the first place. What the..!
I’m still waiting to hear back from… ah, several other options, but must admit I’m feeling a bit blue at the moment… Put it this way, I’m considering either continuing solo or possibly learning another language so I can consider joining a team in the Big Easy.”
Annie smiled, so he’s even considering applying to a European team over on the continent, eh?
He continued, “I had wanted to award this week’s giveaway to the anonymous commentator who sent me some advice on how to upgrade my suit to avoid any future mishaps like my recent fiasco with Death Metal. I’ve ah, passed on your suggestions to Dalton in the hope they will consider including them in their commercial model body armour and – in a departure to my usual M.O. of only using existing commercial products, I’ve modified my Exoskeleton so the connections are now fibre optic with gold connectors. I’ve also changed the clasps to ceramic, making the whole unit non-magnetic. Thank you.
But, as I said you elected to comment anonymously, so I can’t award you the prize. PITY!!! Anyway this week’s prize goes instead to…”
Annie didn’t listen to the rest of the broadcast. Ok, so that was good to know. He was teachable at least and wasn’t so commercial that he wasn’t willing to upgrade even if his sponsors didn’t.
She automatically posted the video to the team’s inboxes and then checked the security feed results. There had been a number of issues over the last week with that alien corgi-like creature reappearing inside the Base. She was aware that the sub-basement in particular was where the dog (?) was appearing the most often, even if it was only for a few seconds. Why was it appearing there and not in Akira’s teleport beacon room?
As she was triangulating the several locations looking for a common pattern, Adam entered the Monitoring Room and looked over her shoulder. “Ah, what are you checking? It wasn’t a female figure was it?” “What?” Adam seemed embarrassed, “Ah, nothing, it doesn’t matter…” he murmured.
Annie reached over and grabbed his shoulder as he turned to leave. “Is this about your ghost again? You’ve seen her again haven’t you? Come on Adam be honest with me. The team’s dealt with a ghost before you know. Ok, so it might have just been Banshee and Chrono who dealt with Raggedy Anne but isn’t Banshee supposed to be some sort of mystical bonding between a ghost and a person herself? Look, you can trust me…”
Adam looked embarrassed for a few seconds then quietly muttered, “Ah check out the sub-basement, Sector SK – the Gym, last night, about midnight.”
Now that was interesting, as that was where that dog appeared the most frequently, though admittedly not last night. Last night it had appeared just before midnight in the Combat Simulator room barking at the northern wall, the wall that separated the chamber and the room they used as their gym!
She checked all the sensor feeds inside the gym but there was nothing else there though Adam could be seen in the doorway staring at the wall opposite.
She checked the temperature sensors and sure enough at midnight for about a minute there was an intense cold spot over by the Western wall of the room and that was what the ‘corgi’ was apparently barking at in the room next door before it vanished. She checked the sensor array again. This time looking at the non-visible spectrum and sure enough there was a female figure, by the wall.
She turned to Adam, “Was that what you saw before?” The white figure was kneeling and shaking back and forth as though in agony before it vanished.
“Yip, that’s the BASEment ghost. So, I’m not insane, well, not totally insane then?”
Annie smiled, “No, not totally and not about this, but I think I will need to program Tinks, in its Holo-Ghost personae to be present next time she appears. See if we can find out more about her, why she’s there and what if any the connection is with the teleporting terrier that keeps on coming back to the same location.”
Meanwhile she needed to check the sensor readings again and see if the ghost always appeared in the same spot and doing the same actions over and over – like a recording?
She explained her proposal to Adam as they agreed to wait before taking this little mystery to the rest of the team, after all they had enough on their plate at the moment without adding a ghost story to the mix.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 
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