Superhero Adventures, UK Style

(Part 4 of the Faerie Realm Odyssey – The Journey Home)

Moments before, the team had stepped through a split in reality into a whirling white mist only to find themselves emerging into a dark alley, surrounded on all sides by tall new buildings and dozens of flying craft in the sky.

The constant rain burned their throats and the air was grey with pollutants and dirt. There weren’t any lights at street level, making it dark and dingy and there was apparently no-one else around as far as they could tell. That is when they realised that Akira was no longer present.

He’d stepped forward with the others but his astral form hadn’t crossed over. Hopefully it had returned to his physical body, wherever that was but looking at the scenery around them wherever that was, was apparently ‘not here’.

The skyscrapers appeared to have been erected on top of the desolate and decimated remains of previous bombed-out buildings, with no regard for aesthetics at street level. On the ground, large piles of rubbish were strewn everywhere as though tossed down from above.

For a minute, they stood in the middle of the road and stared, trying to get their bearings.

Behind them, they heard a quiet, almost imperceptible whirling sound. They turned and some distance away through the gloom, saw several large, floating robotic street sweepers which appeared to be pushing all of the dropped rubbish towards a wall of debris about a thousand metres away, on the edge of the settlement.

Banshee saw it first, a skinny, pale human arm sticking out of a tall pile of trash in the process of being cleared by one of the sweepers. As she looked closer, it was obviously attached to the rest of a body and it wasn’t alone. At least two other corpses could be seen in the debris being swept to the wall of garbage behind them, beyond the edge of the ‘new’ city.

She turned to point out what she’d seen to the others when there was a whoosh in front of them and a figure completely covered in heavy dark armour dropped out of the sky. In his hands was some form of advanced rifle and though he lacked any form of symbol, it was obvious that he had an air of authority about him that said cop.

Caught between the dead bodies behind them and the armoured figure in front, Mace turned and pointed at the corpses but before she could speak, the figure nodded, “Don’t worry about them” pointing to the sweepers, “ they’re just taking out the empties… Now ID’s and be quick” then added on seeing Sam’s draconic form “and licenses please given at least one of you is obviously a Meta. You need to be quick if you want to get indoors before curfew starts.”

He completely ignored the corpses being swept away, his hand outstretched as he cradled his rifle in apparent readiness.

Sam tried to ‘explain’ that he really didn’t like taking his license out when it was raining as it got all soggy. “I’m afraid that’s not a request sir” the armoured figure replied. Again, Sam tried to reason that ‘it will get all wet.”

The armoured figure shook his head and explained, “Put it this way, better wet that arrested, surely” as he repeated, “Now, licenses and ID’s and be quick about it.” Mace felt a mixture of frustration and anger at his attitude and seriously considered responding with a bit of unwarranted retribution. Sam however interrupted her chain of thought as he pretended to pull out a card and flash it in front of the helmeted figure and, using his draconic persuasion to try to make him think he had already seen it said, “As you can see it’s all in order.” The officer, assuming that an ID was what he was seeing, nodded as though slightly dazed and responded, “I would strongly suggest you get off the streets as fast as possible as the dark is coming.” He then turned and pointed towards Mace and Banshee, “and where are yours?”

Mary produced her Hero Certification ID and held it up. He looked closely at it, too closely. “Nice try ‘Junior’. Damn, now that’s an antique, it’s over 50 years out of date. Nice try though.

So, you’re non-IDs eh? Night’s almost on us, you got somewhere safe to go before the purge starts?  You’d better get off the streets quickly. You got a safe house to go to? Otherwise, you’d best head to DownTown quickly and hope they’ll take you in…”

As he spoke, he pointed towards the sweepers and the wall of garbage behind them and stood between them and the centre of the city.

Banshee nodded, so they were in the future and on their own world presumably? What had happened here? She nodded, “Thank you kindly sir” she muttered as he continued, “Just get off the street before the nightly purge, you’ve only got maybe half an hour before darkness.”

Again, Mace felt anger at his callous attitude and didn’t trust him. However the others whispered over their commdots that they shouldn’t risk anything yet, at least until they knew where they were. They needed to get out of the ‘officer’s’ sight before they made a decision about where they should head and once out of his sight they could take to the air.

The officer again reminded them that they needed to get indoors as soon as possible, as he rose into the air but continued to keep them under surveillance from on high. Sam started whistling as they walked away only for the armoured figure to begin laughing. “You might not want to bring any more attention on yourselves”, he shouted down.

Then they saw it, off to one side. A small skittering ape-like figure crouching down on top of the nearest trash barricade seemingly wearing a party dress, was silhouetted against the rising moon biting at one of the skinny, dead bodies lying on top of the garbage pile.

Behind them, they heard the armoured figure shout out, “Better hurry, looks as though someone’s let their pet out early.”

As Banshee looked closer, she could see it was actually a young girl of about five or six, blood all over its mouth and staining her pretty, little party dress. She hissed at them as they got closer, revealing large canines and wide dark eyes and appeared to be completely feral. The body she was biting was thankfully deceased. Sam was aghast, “She’s a cannibal, she’s a flipping cannibal… A cannibal in a dress” he kept on repeating quietly to himself.  Either side of them, amidst the ruins they could hear slithering movements.

Sam muttered, “No, we can’t adopt her; however I do think really we need to get out of here.”

Banshee unleashed a terrorising shriek to try to scare her and whatever else was stalking them, away.  It didn’t work, but the scream did make her (and the others?) very aware of their presence. The girl hissed louder and made sure everyone was aware of her ‘ownership’ of her prize.  She was joined by similar hissing emanating from elsewhere in the deep dark around them.

Sam made a suggestion, “The officer seemed to act as though he was safe when he was in the air.  Perhaps we should emulate his behaviour and ‘rise’ to the occasion?” as he immediately spread his wings and took flight. The others joined him in the air.  From the sky, they suddenly recognised their location. They were in what remained of the city of Wessex and in the direction they had been pointed they could see in the distance somewhere they recognised – the area in front of them was Port Meadow Park though it appeared to under heavy cultivation. That meant the BASEment was quite close and in the same direction as the armoured figure had told them to head. This place had been built on top of their city of Wessex. Rhymer’s spell had brought them home all right, just not to their own time unfortunately.

From the air they could also see several human-looking figures in the alleys and on the rooftops apparently watching them, their eyes shining in the dusk and light of the rising moon. The way they moved across the remnants of rooftops or clung to the walls, the look on their faces – there was something abnormal about all of it.

As they looked around, they realised that the city was a lot smaller than it had been in their day with much of the suburbs decaying and deserted.

Through the bombed out and crumbling streets surrounding their old base, they recognised Container Town, now heavily fortified. Next to it, in what used to be the scrapyard was a large bombed out crater where most of the BASEment used to be. Container Town however was much larger now and overflowed onto the streets and park nearby. Heavy security barricades surrounded it on all sides with armed guards standing in the several security towers and walkway along the top of the walls. A hand-written cardboard sign on the gate read “Welcome to DownTown”

A young female dressed in studded leathers and several layers of clothes bundled round her neck stood immediately behind the main gate with a large mastiff on a chain. In fact, everyone they could see was either in power armour or apparently wearing several thick layers of clothes and armed with ancient-looking AK47’s and shotguns.

They were later to learn that these weapons were capable of firing dum-dum bullets made of burnt and compacted carbon as well as carrying homemade garlic and silver-filled fragment grenades.

A weird, purple lamp was shining down in front of the gate. As they got closer, they realised the light didn’t show a lot of visible light. Sam quickly realised it had to be ultra-violet which confirmed a theory he had. Then a sudden emotion overcame them – a compulsion not to get any closer. It only lasted for a moment then it faded. Banshee realised that they had just encountered a powerful hex; it felt like the same threshold spell they’d been received from Mahzi and the Library ‘decades’ before, still in use but subsequently strengthened over the years.

The guards along the wall signalled for them to wait, guns aimed. Then they signalled for them to enter a fully enclosed chamber behind the gate. It was equipped with showers, lighting units and a wall covered in religious symbols, intermingled with several digital cameras for some reason.  One of the armoured guards shouted down, “If you want ta enter here yay’ll have ta go through decontam’ ta prove yay’re ‘human”.

Banshee in particular felt a jolt of horror go through her as the comparison with the shower rooms at Auschwitz came unbidden to her mind. She hadn’t experienced it personally but she had been alive when the news of the concentration camp atrocities had been revealed to the general public.

She was actually glad when the showers suddenly came to life and a fine mist of water, though with the strong stench of garlic, hit them at the same time as a bank of UV lights flared into life above them. Then the cameras began clicking and flashing away. Finally, the girl with the dog approached them via a concealed doorway behind the wall of cameras. She signalled for them to put their hand flat, reached over and pricked their thumbs with a shiny, silver pin to show her that they could bleed. She looked pained when she tried to prick Sam’s hand through his thick scales and didn’t manage to produce any blood. However as the others each had been successfully pierced and bled, she pulled the dog aside and muttered, “Don’t look like they’re leeches… Welcome to Sanctuary folks.”

The narrow inner door opened wide. This treatment confirmed it, as Mace stated for all of them, the use of garlic, UV, even the recording of themselves on cameras all pointed to a major problem with vampires here and now.  Banshee admitted that the Fisher King had warned them that a vampire apocalypse was possible, was this the result?

One of the armoured figures inside the encampment signalled for them to come through. “You’re clear” he shouted then continued looking at Sam, “It’s not always easy to differentiate Metas from Vamp’s you know. There was one I remember a few years ago.” He turned to a fellow guard and asked, “What was his name? Called himself Ash or Ashes? Claimed to be a teacher who’d survived the Claremont Massacre. Didn’t help he was a Goth with white hair and red eyes. He was scary; anyway, he reacted to the garlic and UV but showed up on the cameras; one of the guards on that day got twitchy and accidentally staked him with vamp-ammo. Well he bled out rather than exploded into dust but better one dead that everyone, eh?” “Yeah, No ashes from Ashes, eh?”

Sam wondered if this Ashes person was the same young Meta he and Akira had met at Claremont a few months ago (or should that be half a century ago?). Inside the barrier, they noticed the people walking around inside were dressed similar to the girl in thick leathers, studs, even metal collars and cuffs round their wrists. Coming towards them was a very elderly bald-headed man in his seventies or eighties. It took them a couple of seconds to realise this was indeed their Akira finally in the flesh, ancient though it was.

Akira’s awakening (a couple of minutes previously)

Akira didn’t know where he was and didn’t know how he came to be here, wherever here was. He was lying flat on his back staring up at a ceiling coated in peeling cream paint. Artificial light was streaming in through a makeshift window, casting long rectangles across the floor and bed. A white curtain, now faded to brown covered the window. To its left hung a small white hand basin, which was leaning badly, clinging on by a single bracket. A small square mirror sat directly above and a plain round clock was on the wall beside it, counting the minutes. This place had all the trappings of a seedy hotel room. It even smelt like one, stale. The floor was unkempt and even the mattress smelt badly, covered as it was by a grimy, grey bed sheet.

Akira staggered over to the hand basin; his head felt heavy as he looked in the mirror. The face staring back looked at him was unfamiliar. This was the face of a man in his late seventies or eighties, not twenties. The years hadn’t been kind and the face and body showed signs of malnutrition and a lack of regular sunlight. There were deep wrinkles in his face and to add to his troubles, his muscles hurt.

Suddenly, a young man knocked on his door and entered without waiting for an invite, “Ancient One, there are some new arrivals at the gate and they seem to match the description for the original Balance. Can you come at once?”

Akira was confused, his body was old, in his 80’s at least, but he has no idea why – he had no memories since he had been with the team in the Faerie Realm. He did notice however, that he was wearing a small Topaz Blade pendant round his neck.

—o0o—

“Sam!!!” trying to run towards his friend then seeing the others, shouted to them as well, “it’s me Akira. Well time’s seems to have been kinder to you than to me.” Behind him a woman shouted out, “She can’t be Banshee, Banshee’s already here. It must be a vampire!!!”

Several of the people jumped back in surprise and a number of guns were immediately aimed in Banshee’s direction. She was about to warn them to not get an itchy trigger finger as her own voice came over the nearest speakers.

<<Query – recognition, designation: Banshee^1.0 – the original, also known as ‘Mary Weirdigan, Mary MacCarty and missing original member of the Balance. Welcome. I am designation: Banshee^7.2 , but you used to refer to me as designation: ‘Frankie’. Welcome back!>>

Akira tried to explain, “You see we tried to keep the Balance going in your absence and..” He drifted off for a couple of seconds, clearly embarrassed before continuing, “we used various means to make people think that, that ah, you were all still around. Of course I’ve been around throughout and not all of the members remained as they were, are…” He stopped and said, “It looks like humanity is again in a bit of a pickle.”

Looking around they could see that most of the people inside the compound were badly emaciated, with bad teeth and smelt as though they hadn’t washed in years.  Most of the guards were wearing ancient suits of power armour. One of them was very curious about where they’d come from if they were the originals and hinting at the ‘Ancient One’ that he needed to explain to his long-lost friends what had happened since their departure and why the world had gone to hell in the meantime.

Banshee asked Akira what had happened over the last fifty years. Akira pointed out that they’d been in the Faerie Realm where time moved differently from back in the ‘real’ world. Mace interrupted him, “we need to know what’s happening now; there is no point in worrying about the past, only in knowing what we are facing here and now.” Her pragmatism cut through Akira’s attempts to try to explain what little he really knew about the now. She continued, “No, I’m not going to get philosophical about this, we need to take action.”

Akira replied, “What type of action do you want to take Mace?”  She replied, “I want to learn what action we can take, but looking back to what happened fifty years ago isn’t necessarily going to help us now.” The argument between the two of them went on for some time, as complaints about acting quickly competed with accusations from the ‘Ancient One’ (it was obvious that Akira secretly liked the title) that Mace was being a bit of a ‘hothead’ throwing in a patronising “my dear” and claiming he’d learn “over the years the art of patience” which set Mace off again. Mostly Akira just revealed how little he actually knew beyond supposition about the current situation.

Banshee and Sam silently disagreed.  There was always a possibility they could successfully alter the ‘now’ for the better if they were able to return to their own time. After all, that would appear to have been the result of their last trip to the future since Terminus had apparently failed to commence strip-mining the planet and moon in this reality.

As this was going on, Young Sam noticed that a couple of the residents seemed extremely surprised by his appearance and had been whispering amongst themselves before hurrying off. He had initially assumed that they were not used to being around physically altered Metas so he was taken off-guard when a video screen behind him suddenly flared into life and one of the guards passed him muttering, “Looks like someone’s finally let Dispatch know her granddad’s turned up.”

The screen, which hung slightly lopsided on the inside of the wall, showed a young female hacker with blue hair in a padded control chair stared out. “Well what do you know? Grandma’s old beau finally returns from the dead. Sorry, I can’t come down but I’m sort of reliant on this chair to keep me alive. So ‘Granddad’ where you been all of my and my mother’s lives eh?”

Caught off-guard at the idea that he might be a grandfather, they chatted on-screen. In response to his questions, she admitted that she doesn’t know how he’d fathered her mother, but yes her grandmother had been Annie and yes she had still had an android body, she assumed he had to have left Grandma a ‘donation’ before he’d disappeared. She’d died in the final war when her mum was still quite young and then her mum died herself a couple of years ago, during an assault on Downtown by the Outer Circle leaving her daughter, Sammi to take over as Dispatch.

She did however confirm that he never returned after entering that ‘trice-cursed Library’. She offered to chat with him later but accepted it was probably weird to speak to a grand-daughter he’d never met before.

Meanwhile one of the guards overheard the ongoing argument between Mace and  Akira and asked ‘The Ancient One’ for permission to provide some background, which Akira readily agreed to.

The guard cleared his throat and began, “The Terminus invaded as the ‘Ancient One’ had predicted they would but we caught them wrong footed. It’s just a shame how we won.” He sat down in front of them and continued, “Ah, it was thanks to the technological competition between several tech companies worldwide back in the day that we had a stockpile of powered armour; the whole situation was engineered by ‘M’ (I think in your day, he was simply known as The Professor?). He used Labyrinth and the Foundry to create a stockpile of suits ready for the invasion.

It was them New ‘Nights who opened up all of the hidden warehouses stockpiled full of powered armour. That caused a stink at the time with some of them rich bastards I tell you, as most of the suits were based on the designs for Omniweapon and Spartan armour. Anyway, the Silver Storm was unleashed and a lot of potentials underwent sudden breakthrough but we’s were ready. Their fifth columnists had already been identified and their control bugs secretly removed.

Thanks to ‘M’, the Terminus never managed to establish their ‘Conversion Towers’ but then as the enemy focused on exterminating Metas, he was equipping humanity for survival. Damn I miss ‘im.

There was some billionaire back in the day who’d built an army of meta’s in preparation for the invasion. They were taken out in the first few weeks. Anyway, when they unleashed the first wave of control bugs we were ready for them, stopped them controlling our Metas, though Dalton, yes that was his name I remember now, his meta-army fell because he refused to work with ‘M’ and us…

Anyways, the Reivers were facing an effective resistance from the start though it came damn close. Even with the armoured defence, we were almost defeated… Then the Ancient One discovered that their technology had no immunity to magic’s. Said he was hoping some friends would bring back help from some mystical realm, but they never did appear. Instead, many of the mages, from both sides of the divide came together with some meta-mystical monsters created apparently in Carpathia and together with our armoured soldiers began to push them back through that hole in reality, before they could get properly established.

Seemed those who had magic in their blood couldn’t be controlled properly by the mind-slugs an’ nor could ‘em hybrids. It would have worked if the Library hadn’t formed an alliance with the vampire nations (you know that old ‘the enemy of my enemy’ line?) and subsequently sold us all out.

Seems vampires also couldn’t  be taken over by the control parasites and were immune to most Terminus attacks so they were free to fight back alongside us armoured grunts, but once the war was over they saw a chance to take control…”

He stopped for a moment as though deep in thought then continued, “Well as I said, most of the  Meta’s were wiped out in the first few weeks of the Invasion (Though the majority of the Terminus’s 5^th Columnists under their control pre-invasion, were eliminated before the attack so their advance foothold was limited). The Library formed an alliance with other mages who then allied with the Vampire Clans to drive the Terminus out. That was before the Court of Shadows aided by the Vampires turned on the Library and most of the remaining heroes so they could take control over the human survivors.

The Library’s now run by the Vandaleu family and the remaining Court of Shadows, allied to the Vampire Nations (who we now know agreed to help in order to protect their food supply).

After the war, with humanity exhausted, the world was divided into estates run by the Vampire houses and mages with overall control invested in the Court of Shadows. They turned on the Library and used it’s resources to empower themselves. Only a few of the surviving Metas and the armoured defenders managed to survive the initial Purge and they formed the remaining free enclaves on the outskirts of the main cities and still continue the fight.”

Again he paused, then spat at the ground as though he wanted to get rid of a bad taste from his mouth. “Most people these days are content to live in their high towers and pay their tithe of blood. The monthly lottery offers every one of them the chance of immortality as a Vampire for the payment of some blood. Not convinced all of those new vampires live that long or that well though. Anyone who disagrees is cast out to be prey for the vampires sport.”

A guard on the wall suddenly shouted down, “Looks like another batch of banished are heading our way, best get the Balance ready for a rescue, master.” Akira turned to the man in front of them, “These ‘Banished’ are they the ones who’ve lost the lottery?” He looked surprised at the ‘Ancient One’s’ lack of knowledge but explained, “no. these are the sick, the poor and the unwanted. The one’s who have in some way displeased their Vampire Masters.”

Behind them four costumed individuals rushed over to the wall. Apparently, they were their latest replacements. The New Balance was composed of the few surviving Metas. Sam having ended his chat with his granddaughter, immediately recognised the stocky turtle-like figure from his ‘recent’ visit to Claremont as Smash but he showed no sign of recognition towards him – not surprising given it had been a brief encounter over fifty years before. He did briefly wonder who his ‘co-pilot’ or whatever he called his human host, was now. Beside him was a figure, could have been either sex or none inside that billowing dark cape and facemask, they called Psion, a young female archer with a crossbow was introduced as Neith and the male in the speedos and full facemask, presumably a speedster was referred to as Fleet. Beside them stood another Banshee – presumably the hologram used by the AI Frankie.

Frankie explained, <<We need to try to rescue the refugees but we cannot risk leaving Down Town unprotected. The people inside are our priority, not those beyond the walls. The Vampires have tried before to use a convoy of Banished to draw us out so they could attempt to attack the camp. It is a matter of priorities and ours remain those people gathered inside the walls.>>

Sam and the others rushed to the top of the wall where they could see what was going on in the streets beyond the camp. Approaching from the dark of the city were about twenty people carrying bags of possessions, children and babies. They also noticed that there were at least as many dark figures clinging to the walls and trees, stalking them. Several of the vampires, some distance away from the barricade begin to taunt them to come out and try to stop them from feasting.

The guard who’d been talking to them earlier explained, “They always cast out the unwanted and the sick just before dark. Makes them sport for the newly reborn, though this lot look to be stalked by Adam’s horde. Too bad, I doubt the Balance will be able to keep them away long enough to rescue all of the refugees…” Under his breath he murmured, “We’ve become food. Our free range days are well and truly over, welcome to the battery farm!”

The New Balance split up with Fleet entering the gate, Neith above on the wall with Smash. The cloaked figure and the Holo-Banshee headed to the rear of the camp with several armoured guards in case of a surprise attack from the rear.

Akira turned to the others and said, “Now the original Balance is back together again, how do you feel about joining in the defence?” The others nodded their agreement and joined Fleet in the tunnel area of the camp’s makeshift barbican, where they’d been showered previously.

Fleet explained that his priority was to try to rescue the kids and the banished, but they had to be careful and test them all, in case they accidentally ‘rescued’ a vampire and gave them entry to the settlement. The time needed to test everyone properly seriously limited his ability to rescue them, especially while trying to keep himself safe.

Banshee spoke up, “Looks like we need to put ourselves between the people outside and the vamps’ attacking, to give ah, Fleet here a chance to pull off the rescue.” Seeing Akira’s elderly form beside him, he muttered, “You sure you’re up for this?” Akira nodded, “I should be ok, I’ve had my nap.”

Banshee immediately turned insubstantial and flew out so she was between the refugees and shadowy people hunting them and unleashed a Wail of the Banshee into the eerie darkness as Fleet rushed out, grabbed a young child and fled back into the entrance now protected by the Balance advancing in readiness. The scream didn’t appear to have much affect against the advancing horde as about a dozen figures appeared in the street with at least as many in the ruins behind.

Mace braced herself and unleashed a brace of baton rounds at the advancing vampires.  The first couple of bolts missed in the gloom of the unlit street, as she tried to work out the distance. They were a group of slippery ‘bâtards’ in any case. The next two bolts hit but the baton rounds just bounced off. The next bolt hit an advancing vampire in the head leaving it seriously dazed. Behind her she could hear the other archer shouting down, “take the ruddy rubber heads off and stake the bastards.” She was unleashing a number of arrows to keep the attackers from getting too close to the panicking group of ‘banished’.

Mace pulled out another weapons cartridge, quickly stripped off the protective heads to reveal the bladed arrowheads beneath, slammed the magazine of now lethal bolts into her wristbow and unleashed a bolt. This pierced the closest vampire through the heart and caused it to collapse to the ground unmoving. No time to check, she unleashed another at its nearest companion. It hit him in the shoulder and knocking him backwards pinned him to the ground.

Akira had a thought as Banshee shouted, “We could do with some light here” and unleashed the Illumination of Abbridon. Akira began to chant the now familiar incantation, which seconds later resulted in the creation of an admittedly very small Sun, which rose from his outstretched palms and into the sky. Several of the more feral-looking vampires immediately turned to dust. The more human looking vampire seemed weakened but survived its rays as they tried to skitter back into the safety of the shadows.

One of them was instantly familiar. It was Adam, Sam’s brother and their pilot, seemingly unaged since they had last seen him over half a century before. He appeared to be the leader of this little soirée. He turned and smiled at Sam, revealing a pair of prominent canines in the process, “Ah brother dearest, it has been decades since you were last seen. Welcome back. Unfortunately, I must ensure this little enclave is brought back under my sire’s control. You’re looking good though, seems I’m not the only one who doesn’t age.”

Sam pulled himself together and unleashed a blast of fiery breath at the slowest of the vampires skittering away.  Three of them were caught in the burst and fell to the ground as the flames took hold.

The miniature Sun was fading as Akira did his best to maintain the spell. Banshee used the sunlight to target several hiding in the shadows of a ruined building opposite and unleashed a shattering shriek. It caused a large section of the building to collapse, burying and crushing five of the creatures under a tonne of falling masonry.

Three of the vampires elected to run at the slowest of the ‘refugees’ and dragged one of the older females with a scream into the shadows before running back and grabbing another. Smash was still doing his best to shield and herd the rest towards the safety of the gates while Fleet continued to retrieve the children and babies one at a time, placing them inside the entrance before returning for the next. He was fast but he was not strong enough to carry any of the adults or more than one child at speed. Neith kept up her attempts to maintain a distance between the vampires and the rear of the convoy. Unfortunately, as the attack and kidnappings confirmed, she was not always successful. She was accurate but lacked Maces’ speed at reloading.

One vampire ignored the convoy and rushed through the fading light from Akira’s Sun straight at Mace. She dodged him easily and fired off a shot at her attacker, taking his head off with a bolt that severed the spine.

She then spotted the other two, close by. Her next bolt struck one of them in the chest. It might not be fatal she thought but it had definitely rendered it unconscious. A final bolt fired at the remaining vampire appeared to miss but this was a homing bolt – it suddenly turned in mid-air and flew back at its intended target smashing its skull open and taking off the top of the creatures head.

Unfortunately, there were still about a dozen of the vile creatures remaining in the darkness as well as Adam. Akira poured more mystical energy into his Sun and it returned to dazzling brightness. Some of the vampires that had been incapacitated and lying on the ground suddenly turned to dust, though the other bodies didn’t respond the same way, mummifying instead, as though all the moisture in their bodies had been removed suddenly. Akira suddenly realised that he knew very little about what Vampirism actually was and how it altered them.

Two vampires by the wall were caught unexpectedly by the restored sunlight and collapsed but again instead of turning to dust like their more feral companions, seemed to become instantly dehydrated and shrunken. Young Sam ran forward and again unleashed a blast of his Fiery breath at the two vampires lying incapacitated in the street. One immediately exploded into dust, the other burst into flames and became almost a flame-covered skeleton. Nearby his flames again spread and began to burn two more cowering creatures trying to avoid the mystical light. They both burst into flames.

That left Adam and two of his guards who were forced out into the open as Smash elected to do some demolition of the building ruins they were cowering beside. Collapsing the buildings had been something he’d intended to do anyway, this just seemed an opportune time to remove them.

The people on the wall were now cheering. Banshee saw that one of the woman the vampires had grabbed earlier was still being drained. She appeared to be alive and struggling, admittedly weakly. Banshee rushed forward, dodged a swipe by the vampire who had been busy drinking, turned material for a split-second before re-insubstantialising now holding the bleeding and terrified woman. Holding her hand over the deep wound in the woman’s jugular, she headed as fast as she could back towards the gate and hopefully medical attention.

The vampire was left confused and surprised at its meal vanished. That left just it, Adam and a remaining companion now left without shelter due to Smashes’ urban remodelling though they knew there were likely other vampires still hiding in the darkness.

Mace elected to not unleash a bolt at Adam, even though she knew this was not the same person anymore that she’d known, instead she fired at his ‘companions’. The first bolt hit and dusted its target as the bolt pierced its heart. The second bolt hit the other non-Adam target in the throat and it collapsed, apparently unconscious.

Sam immediately rushed towards Adam, trying to use his draconic persuasion to get his brother to surrender. Sam’s voice washed over him and seemed to have some effect as he elected to not attack in response. “Come to your senses Adam, this is not the way you should be acting. Put those teeth away and follow us to the med-bay and we’ll see if we can sort this out.”

For a second or two, Sam thought his influence had worked then noticed that on the wall Neith was aiming a bolt straight at Adam’s heart. Sam immediately tried to interpose himself between the bolt and his brother. Akira, seeing what was about to happen, manifested a force cage round Sam as the bolt flew and shattered on the mystical shielding. “Sorry about the bubble wrap, Sam” Akira said.

For a moment, everyone just stood still in shock except for Banshee who insisted on flying her ‘passenger’ straight through the containment chamber into the base and demanded immediate medical attention for her. The refugee group had lost a couple of its members in the attack but the rest were fine though the rest were warned that they would need to undergo testing under the garlic spray and UV before being allowed to enter the camp proper.

On the wall the guards readied their weapons waiting for the ‘Ancient One’ to move the Meta aside so they could dispose of The Fisher King’s lieutenant. They wouldn’t, couldn’t let these strangers endanger the entire camp by allowing a vampire in. Sam, trapped inside the force cage wanted to rescue his brother, keep him safe until he could turn him back… Nothing would stop him from saving his brother no matter what, even if meant going with him.

The team, still standing outside the walls tried to decide what to do to break the stalemate. Akira knew he had to break Sam’s compulsion if Adam was to escape. He allowed the orb above him to dissipate then unleased the mystical Mists of Malador in the hope that would help break Sam’s influence. A dark grey, swirling cloud surrounded them both, obscuring the area and seconds later, he was rewarded with the sound of running as Adam broke free and ran for the remnants of the buildings opposite. Neith unleashed several bolts but through the mist and darkness apparently missed. Smash, realising the moral dilemma elected not to try to stop Adam’s escape. It was only after he was sure that Adam had escaped that Akira dissolved his force cage.

With the threat at least temporarily removed, several of the armoured guards exited the compound and, to the Balance’s surprise, started to gather up the residual vampire dust, placing them into sealed containers. They also severed the heads of the mummified corpses and staking them through their hearts but didn’t do anything about removing the corpses from the street, electing to leave them where they lay until daylight.

They had to ask. One of the gatherers stopped and looked in surprise at Akira, not understanding why the Ancient One didn’t explain himself. He shrugged and then explained that they tried to gather up and store the ashes of exterminated vampires to prevent them from being reincarnated. Apparently this could be done using a master vampire’s blood in a dark, satanic ritual listed in an ancient tome, “Iter per Mors de Piscator Rex” using something they referred to as the Vampire Chalice. Akira thought he might have previously read the book. It was only when Sam translated the title for him that he realised he hadn’t. Translated from the original Latin, its title read “The Journey through Death of the Fisher King…”

Newly created vampires still undergoing their transformation, when killed remained corpses, though their bodies decayed extremely quickly. It was assumed they couldn’t be brought back, or perhaps it just wasn’t worth a master vampire’s blood to do so, who knew? The containers of vampire ashes were taken inside the camp and stored in the remnants of the BASEment while they were invited to stay the night. They hoped there would be no more assaults tonight given Adam had to have lost about half of his war party.

Akira joked they should share some ghost stories. The others just shook their heads and tried to find somewhere to bed down for the night. As they headed towards one of the spare containers, a lot of people of people thanked them and offered them food but they had seen a rusty old plaque dedicated to The Balance on the side of one of the few remaining walls. They approached it and saw their names etched into it followed by about twenty other names in smaller type of several subsequent members of the Balance: Including Chrono, Illustrious, Locker, Partisan, Young Sam(antha), Tangl… That was all they were able to read before being ushered away quickly from the memorial by one of the guards with an “It’s not good to know too much about your own history.”  Had these been the names of future members of the Balance or of its dead? Akira muttered, “We really don’t want to know the future, fine lines and all that…”

Sam wandered off to have that long delayed chat with Dispatch, his apparent granddaughter. As they settled down for the night, Frankie’s holo-ghost drifted over. Mary had to admit it was disconcerting to stare up and see herself looking down and talking in her voice. She assumed this image had to be projected by a holo-bee or possibly a drone?

Akira meanwhile found himself thinking out loud about the powers attached to each of the keys of power. Could his Topaz Blade for example create a mirror path back through time?  Frankie asked them all to describe what the blades they had seen could do. Akira explained that his Topaz Blade allowed him to scry and to create a mirror path as well as provide directions but it took Thomas Rhymer’s Diamond Blade to dimension walk back from the Faerie Realm.

Frankie hypothesised that each of the mystical keys did a different task – The Diamond Blade used by Rhymer was capable of dimensional travel, the Topaz Blade guidance to travel back to their own space– but they had arrived back half a century after they had left. They therefore needed a third key to travel through time.

Six of the seven keys had been in the Faerie Realm yet the opportunity to travel back to their own time had not been mentioned even by Rhymer. Frankie conjectured that the key of power they needed had to have been missing and the only key not present in the Faerie realm was the Emerald Blade so she thought that key might be required for time travel.

Akira reminded them that the Emerald key had been stolen at the same time as the Illumination of Abbridon spell and apparently by the same mage.  If it was on Earth (and after all he’d found the spell here while researching in the Library) would his Topaz Blade be able to point the way?

He took the pendant from around his neck, placed it on his palm and to his amazement and delight it twisted until the blade pointed Southwest, in the general direction of London. Not only did the Emerald Blade appear to be in this realm, it was apparently somewhere in Britain, possibly London.

Sam did not have the heart to point out that it could just as easily be pointing towards Stuttgart in Germany or even beyond. Akira’s key of power gave him a direction, not distance. Still, they had to start somewhere.

Frankie and the others gathered nearby advised them to wait until dawn before leaving but cautioned them that trying to enter any of the cities without proper IDs would be extremely dangerous. The Vampires were extremely protective of their territories. They would need to travel covertly somehow.

They decide that they could fly there, avoiding the streets and possibly if they doubled up they could even access each other’s abilities to be invisible and in Banshee’s case also insubstantial, but there was no guarantee that a vampire would not be able to find them. Who knew what they could actually do such as seeing the invisible or smelling them out?

They agreed to risk it, travelling by day Banshee and Mace and Akira and Sam paired up together and using their abilities to try and covertly get in. That’s when the million dollar question was asked by the holographic Banshee, <<If you do find this key of power and assuming it does provide a means to travel through time, do any of you know how to use it?>>

Akira looked at his teammates blank expressions and murmured “We’ll figure it out I’m sure, after all I’m a bright young man.” “Not any more” laughed Sam looking at the elderly frame standing before him. “Ah, oh no, I’d forgotten about that” Akira admitted as he headed to bed. This body would need sleep it could get if it was to manage the journey to wherever the lost key was.

Banshee found herself unable to sleep and asked Frankie if they had any plans to defeat the vampires. Frankie admitted that they hadn’t. <<The people in the cities have surrendered. They do not have a problem with how the world is run. They are fed, clothed, have a roof over their heads and access to health care, all they have to do in return is donate a litre of blood every month, they even have the chance to join the ruling class and gain immortality provided they obey the rules and do what they are told. The only problem they face is if they ever get too sick, old, commit a crime or upset one of their vampire masters they will be banished to the wilderness that they believe now exists everywhere outside the towers and used as sport. However for the present they are safe and they have accepted that.>>

Next morning, just as the Sun was rising they elected to set off. Everyone came out to wish them well and to mourn the likely loss of their ‘Ancient One’ who they were sure would not return. They were warned that London was heavily guarded and even the skies were monitored. They might need to risk going underground and using the myriad drains and old tunnels to get about, though they contained their own dangers as down below vampires and their creatures would be able to move about freely, safe from the perils of the day. As far as they were aware, all resistance in the city had been wiped out many years before, though of course it was possible new networks had developed independently.

Pairing up and turning invisible (as well as insubstantial in Banshee and Mace’s case), they elected to fly at the speed of the slowest member in the team, which meant they would need an hour to travel to the outskirts of the city.

As they got closer to London, Akira’s pendant seemed to be indicating the Emerald key was near the centre of the city. They also began to see patrols by red armoured figures in the sky. The way they moved and the all-over armour leaving nothing exposed made them think that the occupants might no longer be mortal, after all if humans could benefit from using powered armour, why not vampires?

They appeared to be policing the skies over the city and at least one of the armoured figures seemed to focus on their invisible convoy, even though they were still some distance away. Could they be using radar or some other means of tracking?

There were several vehicles ahead of them being forced to land where they were searched. No one was being allowed access to London without being examined. It was time for them to try travelling underground they thought. Looking around, there were a number of cratered locations and they managed to spot a large smashed open street drain that ran in the general direction they wanted to head. Thankfully there had been no attempt to clear away the ruins left over from the Terminus War instead they’d just elected to erect their new towers on top of the ruins without anyone bothering to  clear them away.

That meant what had been underground originally might still be there and London was thankfully honeycombed with underground structures, linked together during the time of the resistance.

They headed down towards the ground and discovered what appeared to be a covered over river or stream, just in time as a couple of the red-armoured figures jetted over in their general direction. Out of sight for the moment at least, they began to head towards the tunnel.

Sam tore the metal grate from the river cover and tossed to one side. There wasn’t time to do more as the armoured figures could be heard getting closer. Inside the tunnel, it was pitch black.  Mace pulled out her night vision goggles – it helped but only slightly and almost not at all once they moved completely away from the entrance they’d made into the stygian darkness.

Forming a chain, hands on shoulder they flew down the tunnel trying to avoid the roof. Behind them, they could hear something following them some distance behind and they could see their lights. It also didn’t help that the tunnel ran due south not in the same direction as their pendant-compass which meant they were now definitely off-course.

A short time later they realised that not only were they being followed, something was in front of them. It was the size of a small bear but resembled a bat. They’d encountered something very similar when they had tried to escape from Kilmaur Manor, the Vault, with the Sanguine Grail. It was a transformed vampire and one of some great age for it to manage such a metamorphosis. Irreverently Mace wondered what it had to have done to be banished into the sewers.

Close behind them, two of the red-armoured guards were approaching, talking quietly to each other. The way forward was blocked by the Bat-like creature though as yet it had made no hostile moves. Sam pushed forward and quietly asked it “Do you know your way around down here?  Would you be willing to lead us away from here, we’re looking for a path that branches off to the left?”

It made no reply but continued to stand in their path. Sam elected to try his draconic persuasion on it, “Come on, we need your assistance.” It failed.

The two figures appeared behind them, their facemasks raised showing the dark eyes and prominent canines of vampires. The suit designs close up bore a striking resemblance to Omniweapon’s technology from their own time. They heard them say “Stay where you are and hold still. What are you doing down here?”

Banshee elected to unleash a shattering shriek at the bat-like creature in front of them and was rewarded with blood seeping from his ears as it staggered backwards but continued to block their path.

Mace felt sympathy for the creature and elected to turn on the spot, closing her eyes so the goggles over her eyes didn’t blind her when she faced their helmet-mounted lights and unleashed an EMP bolt in the direction of the voice seconds before. The bolt hit true against one their chest plates and activated. The first figure was left fully powered down and he immediately began unfastening his  armour. His companion’s suit had been partially shielded by the other’s armour and still had some power left.

Akira followed the EMP with a couple of mystical blasts. The first blast hit the vampire trying to get out of the suit. He might not yet be an elder but he was still powerful enough to survive though the blow still left him staggered. His partner was hit by the second blast and was left dazed.

Behind them the bat-like vampire elected to attack, in this case a very surprised Sam who got out a “But, but I was talking to you nicely!” before its claws raked the scales on his chest. Sam used the attack to respond in kind with a berserker attack, using both his claws and teeth. The response left the creature battered and staggered by its ferocity.

Banshee elected to leave them to tussle and unleashed a wail of the Banshee at the figures behind them, incapacitating the vampire trying to escape its shutdown armour and leaving the other staggered. Mace followed it up with a series of standard bolts against the chest plate of the remaining armoured attacker.  The first two bolts hit the same location weakening the armour. The third arrow cracked the armour and pierced its heart causing the vampire to ‘dust’ inside the suit.

Akira followed it up with a mystical blast against the surviving armoured vampire and he collapsed apparently dead though he did not turn to ash.

Sam meanwhile was still wrestling with the Bat-like creature. Whatever had happened that had resulted in the creatures reign in the sewers, it was still a powerful and apparently ancient vampire that thirsted after their blood. Sam was striking out with his claws again and again while trying to avoid the creatures fangs. Badly wounded, it finally fled down a nearby side tunnel and vanished into the darkness.

Ignoring the two suits behind them they followed the side tunnel and continued their trek along the narrow walkways on either side of the stinking river turned sewer.  It was almost two hours later that the found themselves looking through a grate in the road surface at a familiar location, one unchanged from their own day. In front of them they could see the building that used to house the St. Catherine’s Private Members Library, in Holborn.  A dozen figures in now familiar red armour guarded the entrance.

Seems the Library must house the Emerald Blade. It made a sort of sense since that was also where he’d discovered the Illumination of Abbridon spell that had been stolen from the Faerie Realm, in an old, forgotten tome.

As they stared out of the street drain at the Library, Akira’s mind went unbidden to their escape from the Faeries. There, Thomas Rhymer had used his Diamond Blade to cut through the surface of a mirror, through which they stepped. He had felt a pull from his own pendant then even as he had awoken back in the waking world, a pull that he was now sure resulted in the other members of the Balance ending up in Wessex, even if it was half a century or more after they had left.

Could this be the same method required to send his teammates back in time? If he used the Emerald Blade to cut through a mirror or reflective surface provided the Topaz Blade went through as well would it be sufficient to guide his teammates back home to their own time and place? What he was aware of was that the wielder of the Blades had to keep the portal open. As soon as it was dropped or withdrawn, the portal would close. He had witnessed Rhymer collapse from exhaustion as he had closed the portal behind them. He wasn’t sure what that would mean for the wielder though.

To be continued