Superhero Adventures, UK Style

“For those that maintain a clandestine identity there are always three of us  – us in our secret identity, us in our public personae and the person the news reports talk about, who always appears to live a much more exciting life that the other two.

As a result, most people believe that being a HCP-authorised superhero consists of battles with new supervillains every day. Not true, most of our work consists of patrols, reports, briefings and rescue work with nothing ever happening on our day off, unless of course, it does.”

Locker – Vlog

After a long and arduous day catching up on outstanding witness statements and patrol logs, the team were called through to the lounge by Locker. There was a report on BBC News at Ten that earlier that night, at 8:48pm to be precise, Westminster Bridge had suddenly and mysteriously vanished. The camera shots showed no signs of the road either side being damaged. Where the ends of the bridges on both sides used to join the road, they now looked as though they ended in ancient jetty’s of some sort. It was as if the bridge had never been built.

The newsreader then went on to report that within minutes, a number of windows and mirrors emanating out from the centre of London had shattered.

A couple of witnesses stated that it appeared to be only those windows and mirrors that were showing a reflection of a person at the time that broke. All other mirrored surfaces came through the suspected shockwave undamaged.

Mace turned to Akira at that point, “You seem to know a lot about mirrors, Akira any idea about what’s going on?” He smiled and fingered the topaz talisman round his neck, “It’s true I used to have certain acuity when it came to mirrors but I’m not sure I want to go down that route again.”

He did try to unleash his mystical insight to see if somehow the bridge and its occupants had been transported, mirrored away, but got nothing.

Locker immediately suggested they should head to Westminster and try and get a read on the situation there. The team set off to the hangar bay when suddenly it went pitch black. They rushed to the hangar (and the backup generator which hadn’t automatically activated) with Locker using his suit-mounted floodlights to light the way.

Something was definitely off as the walls and floors seemed to shred their refurbishments with every step, reverting back to the tumbled down concrete and metal surfaces that had been there prior to their moving in. Locker and Mace had never seen the place like this before.

They reached the hangar just in time to see the Crate mysteriously fade out of existence and vanish as though it had never been and the rest of the BASEment returned to its original, pre-renovated state. The hangar door to the surface was gone. To everyone’s surprise, Mace’s grav-bike however remained on its cradle. For some reason it appeared unaltered. Mace let out a sigh of relief at her good fortune as Locker muttered “I’ve heard of a minimalist look, but this is ridiculous!”

Both Mary and Akira assumed this had to be the result of magic and tried to get a reading on what was happening. Nothing; as far as they could tell there was no mysticism involved with or linked to whatever was happening.

They needed to get to the surface and until they knew what else had changed up-top it would be better not to teleport the team to the surface blind. They walked through puddles of water, passed the junkyard entrance now reverted to its pre-Balance state of being collapsed in and headed to the lift shaft that was (had been?) located under Mary’s container on the surface. Everyone else was apparently missing. Jeeves and Mikey as well as the robotic dwarves had all disappeared despite having been there when they’d left the lounge only several minutes earlier. Eventually they reached the lift shaft, having passed by the now derelict lounge and found the shaft no longer had a lift and appeared to be covered on the surface with nothing except several sheets of corrugated iron. Instead of the container roof, stars could be seen through the gaps in the sheeting.

Akira teleported the team up to the surface, expecting to see Container Town around them, instead, they were surrounded by a sea of tents, makeshift dwellings and campfires. Container Town no longer existed. The shambling inhabitants for the most part ignored them as Mary realised that most of the people were completely unknown to her and there were lot more people present than had been there earlier. She did see one familiar face she recognised, Bertha. She changed back into Mary and approached her. To her surprise, Bertha didn’t seem to know her.

Over the radio, reports were coming in of buildings vanishing or being replaced, whatever that meant. They walked and flew towards the centre of Wessex only to see a terrace of Georgian street houses change before their eyes into a shambles of tumbling down Jacobean houses almost toppling in on top of each other amidst the more modern terraces.

TVs and the internet appeared to still be working as Locker checked out whether the Birmingham Incident had still occurred and whether the Protectors were back. No, the massive crater caused by the Terminus raid was still there and the Protectors were still missing, believed dead. It was almost random what was happening where.

“I’m not sure I have the right skill sets to deal with this problem, any suggestions as to what is happening?” Locker asked. Akira fingered the Topaz Amulet round his neck thoughtfully.

As they wandered through the streets Locker used his speaker to tell the frightened and disoriented people to “Please remain calm, the Balance are investigating.” He really wasn’t sure how much people actually paid attention to them as they tried to rescue any caught in random shifts in reality.

Akira tried to use the mirrors on Mace’s bike to try to scry what had happened at Westminister Bridge. It was as though the bridge had never existed, though whatever was affecting everything around them definitely had London at its epicentre. The glimpses the pendant showed him revealed that whatever was affecting their reality was also affecting at least some neighbouring dimensions as well.

They headed to London as fast as they could. Once there they immediately joined in the various rescue works ongoing.

Over the next twelve hours the world was increasingly subject to earthquakes, disasters, climate hazards, volcanoes, tsunamis, and great storms becoming increasingly violent the further from England they were. They tried to see if the disasters were equidistant from Westminister Bridge but there were too many factors to pin down the epicentre precisely.

Attempts to contact the Library failed and a side trip to their building found it unoccupied as though they had never existed.

Dawn brought its own problems as the UK was increasingly being hidden under a blanket of smothering smog, the air tainted brown with smoke and fumes, the pollutants leaving a foul, bleach-like taste in everyone’s mouth and the stench causing people to cough up blood. Visibility was down to less than 100 metres, even at midday.

It immediately reminded Mary of the great smog’s of the 50’s, only worse.

Then they realised that people’s memories of what had been had begun to fade and more and more were entering into a zombified, catatonic state, with no memories of their past or of the world as it used to be before the Bridge vanished. Thankfully so far, the Balance had been able to hold onto their own memories as well as a sense of what used to be though they had no idea why they seemed uniquely immune to the memory loss.

No one really knew what was happening or why, but many seemed to believe that the soul of the world was actively trying to kill humanity.

Then reports began to come in of corpses turning up in all the major cities with bite marks on their necks and drained of blood. People claimed to have seen them collapse in the street; apparently healthy then minutes later wounded and drained but with no signs of their attackers.

In the brutal smog they actually saw it happen for themselves; two people collapsed in front of them, wounds mysteriously appearing in their necks as they began to fit and their lives drained away before their eyes, turning withered and anaemic yet there was no blood. As Mary and Akira tried to administer medical assistance, Mace pulled out her night vision googles and set them to IR.

There was nothing she could see attacking the victims but she did read a massive temperature drop in front of the two collapsed victims, as something was between her and the dying figures.

She told Locker what she’d ‘seen’ and he tried firing a web-strand where she directed but it hit the writhing victim instead. Whatever was causing the two people’s deaths must also be insubstantial. Locker apologised profusely for the ‘accidental’ firing. Still neither Mary nor Akira could sense anything mystical nearby. There was nothing they could do as the two people died in front of their eyes, drained.

Angry and disgusted at their inability to save them, they headed back to the bridge only to see a female figure in a type of armour appear out of nowhere, right in front of them. The armour was familiar to some of them, having seen it previously. The wearer removed her helmet, shook out the unshaved portion of her hair and smiled, staring at them with her radiant pink eyes. It was the time traveller, Danni.

Before they could say anything, she immediately ushered them to follow her as she headed to a nearby street café and ordered their largest coffee, explaining that the others would pay. She smiled, “One of the few perks of the job, getting to drink a decent coffee. It doesn’t exist in my paratime, would you believe it? No coffee!!! Ah thank you.” She pounced on the coffee as it was delivered by a smiling waitress who refused payment saying it was on the house and could she bring the others something?

Akira and the others immediately began asking if Danni knew what was going on, if she knew what had happened to the bridge. She stopped them, took a deep drink before replying mysteriously “unresolved time paradox…” as though that explained everything and took another satisfying sip.

As they sat around the small table amidst the chaos and confusion, she tried to explain that the time monitors, she called them TimeWatch, had registered that this parallel timeline was about to collapse. She believed that it was most likely that “a massive time paradox has occurred recently that that has caused the recent temporal inconsistencies, leading to a split in the timeline and resulting in this world being shunted into a dead-end parallel that is in the process of self-destructing.”

“So, nothing to worry about then” murmured Akira, “we just need to travel back in time and undo whatever we’ve done.” Danni looked at them in surprise, “This doesn’t revolve around you, despite your immunity to its effects.”

Seeing the confusion on at least some of their faces, Danni asked them if they knew how time travel worked and smiled as Mace immediately likened it to Schrödinger’s cat. Mace obviously understood quantum reality and was able to fully comprehend the seriousness of their situation.

Still that left the other three to ‘educate’. “Have you heard of the observer effect in relation to time?” she asked. “Yes, but I don’t believe in it” responded Akira.

“Good.” She gulped some more of her coffee then lent in to explain, “Most people’s understanding of the observer theory is that, once an event is witnessed to happen it can’t be altered or changed. You can visit the past but all of your actions are already part of recorded history; you can’t change anything. Any deviation from existing history is impossible and if you try events will occur to prevent you from altering it.

There is another, alternate theory called the multiverse theorem that state that any event for which two or more possible actions exist,  all can occur and each outcome will create its own parallel timeline or universe. A time traveller could go back and change the past all they like but by doing so would merely create another, separate parallel timeline or paratime as we call it in ‘the trade’.

Both theories are at least partially correct but only under certain circumstances. In reality, time is more like Schrödinger’s cat in the box; Quantum Theory states that until the outcome is externally observed and interacted with, the cat continues to exist in a state of flux, both alive and dead.

In other words a multiversal state exists until an observer opens the box, looks in and checks on the cat, at which point the observer effect causes multiple realities branching off from that event to collide into a single state of reality. Under normal circumstances this would then become a fixed moment in time, unalterable; otherwise it would have continued in a state of parallel flux.”

Akira nodded, “So we need to find out what went wrong and somehow go back and change it?”

Danni nodded and took a final gulp of her coffee and almost choked when Akira continued, “So we need to find this cat in a box!” Locker asked, “I’d like to know where the parrots come into this?” and Mary responded with “oh, they were eaten by the cat.”

Time to try and pull this back. She continued ignoring their banter, “If the crisis event that spawned the multiversal paratimes is interfered in by an external visitor from the primary paratime’s future (and they have to be from that paratime’s future and not from an alternate, stabilised reality shaped before that particular crisis event) then they will become quantum entangled in the event. This forces it to become the only possible reality and causes all other paratimes branching out from that point in time to collapse in. These unstable paratimes will either be absorbed into the most likely outcome or be destroyed.

The time traveller no longer acts as an observer regardless of what they remember or recorded previously – their active participation renders the observer effect void.

Time travel can and does result in the destruction of parallel timelines and is therefore heavily restricted as a result. It is generally only authorised in order to stop other time travellers from interfering with the past or to stop temporal paradoxes from occurring.

In this state, if say Hitler was killed while still a boy the event could only be undone by a second time traveller travelling back prior to the now fixed point in time and preventing the original external intervention from ever occurring, altering the outcome and creating an earlier start to the fixed point in time.

Any subsequent attempt to alter the timeline at that point or trying to repeat the previous intervention will result in the traveller suffering uncontrolled temporal exclusion by being cast out into space-time and the memory of the event wiped from the natives minds preventing a paradox from occurring.

Most TimeWatch personnel such as me are recruited from alternative parallel universes to ensure we cannot accidentally disrupt the primary paratimes.

Minor alterations to the timeline can be easily accommodated and will generally merge back into general history without altering the timeline significantly, like a pebble cast into a stream; the pebble causes ripples but will not alter the stream’s path.”

Akira interrupted, “so we need to go back and catch this pebble before it lands in the river?” Locker said, “I think it’s more like stopping a dam from collapsing into the river in this case.”

Danni nodded then continued. “Major events such as the removal of important historical figures or unresolved temporal paradoxes may need to be corrected if the timeline is to remain undamaged, generally by travelling back and preventing the fixed point from occurring in the first place.

Temporal paradoxes are generally resolved by reality’s own defence mechanisms. Nature will always try to remove the alien presence usually by involuntary expulsion into the timestream and wiping the event from everyone’s memory, unless some sort of paradox shielding is deployed by the time traveller.

A Chronal Anchor is the name we give to any means of protecting yourself against paradox retribution. They are extremely dangerous and can result in the utter collapse of a paratime as we are seeing now, if the paradox isn’t prevented or resolved.

It also stops the event from becoming a fixed point in time until the paradox is resolved in some way; however the cost is the continued collapse of that paratime eventually leading to its destruction. Temporal amnesia is already starting to settle on everyone native to this reality. Its’ taking longer for yourselves because most of you have already been exposed to time travel. I’ve no idea why Locker is currently not being affected, but I can’t imagine it will continue for much longer.”

She again paused to let it sink in before continuing, “I think that a recent time traveller has somehow created something like a grandfather paradox by killing a recent ancestor of theirs which should have rendered their own existence impossible but somehow they avoided it being rectified. Usually the time traveller is cast out of the timeline and causes memory loss of the event in the intended victim and witnesses.

For some reason that hasn’t happened and I can only assume that the time traveller must have had some sort of Chronal Anchor to protect them, but as long as they remain in the present they are causing ever-increasing temporal disruption resulting in this reality, this paratime collapsing.

If the situation isn’t rectified, this paratime will either cease to exist or be absorbed by one of the other realities trying to take hold. Nature abhors duplication and unresolved alteration.”

Mary asked, “And our part in all this? I assume there is a reason you’re talking to us first?”

She nodded, “I’m from a different paratime to this one, my presence can’t create a fixed point in time in this reality. The best I can do is create a separate reality however the paradox means unless its corrected this parallel universe does not have a future to recruit or spur off from. As most of you have previously been exposed to time travel you should be able to spot temporal anomalies and possibly figure out a way to repair the timeline. I have no idea why your colleague here,” she pointed at Locker, “remains unaffected by the temporal amnesia but that’s a bonus. I need you to save this reality, create an earlier fixed point and prevent the paradox from ever occurring.”

She paused looked wistfully at her empty mug then asked, “So have you any idea who the time traveller might be?”

Banshee nodded at the others before asking, “Do you think it might have anything to do with the bunch that came back and stole the emerald key from the Library?” Mace nodded, “They would be our best bet.”

Akira asked, “There coming back in itself wouldn’t have created a paradox would it?” Danni shook her head, “No, if anything their presence might stabilise the present, no they would have to actively interfere with the timeline in some way, such as wiping out someone famous or a recent ancestor of theirs and somehow remain so the timeline couldn’t correct itself, to create this kind of disaster.”

Mace asked if they could travel back through time using the Faerie realm, Akira explained, “I don’t think so, that’s just a way to travel forward not back but Danni here can, can’t you?”

She nodded wearily, “In 24 hours I can, my suit needs to recharge. In the meantime,” she pointed at her mug, “is there any chance I can have some more?”

Twenty-four hours later, the team had discussed whether to try to travel back and stop the Outer Circle from the future from stealing the Emerald Key though not only might that be a fixed point in time now, but also what if their suspicions were wrong and someone else had caused the reality collapse at Westminster Bridge? In the end, they agreed that they needed to head for Westminster Bridge and be there before it had vanished, settling on 6:30pm on the same night.

Akira had used the time to prep a couple of spells in preparation and Mace put together an experimental bolt which she stored in a spare magazine.

Then it was time. Danni suited up and got ready. Seconds later a glowing, bright portal opened in front of her and everyone jumped through (or in Mace’s case, flew into with her bike). There was a moment like swimming through an airless void before appearing on the northern side of the bridge.

Danni reminded them that she would need another 24 hours to recharge and that whatever they did they needed to remember that they could not themselves return to this point in time again or risk meeting themselves without risking creating their own temporal paradox.

She also reminded them to not use their commdots, or at least not until they’d changed the frequency, so their past selves didn’t overhear their conversations. She borrowed some money and having used a hologram to disguise herself she went over and sat in a nearby café so she could recover from her exhaustion after jaunting through time.

The team headed to a nearby side alley as Mace immediately advised her teammates to change their commdots to Channel 7 and began altering their frequency and encryption key to ensure no-one from their past would be able to overhear their conversations.

For the next half hour, Mace and Akira (using his invisibility to shield them and the bike from sight) hovered above the roofs watching the bridge while Banshee and Locker stayed out of sight in the alley.

They had to stop whatever was due to happen and make sure that the time-traveller would be cast out of this paratime though preferably without whatever they are using as a Chronal Anchor otherwise it would merely allow them to travel to a different location in space and time and still survive paradoxes.

Then, on the bridge walking in their general direction towards the Houses of Parliament were four figures, some of whom looked familiar.

In front was a man in red armour and full facemask, armour that was identical to that worn by the Keepers of the Court of Shadows they’d met in the future. He was obviously under a simple glamour to prevent others from noticing his unusual appearance. It was so low level though that it didn’t work on the four of them with their now temporally-enhanced sight.

The man walking in the middle with the steely-cold, violet eyes looked vaguely familiar to Akira. Based on a portrait he had seen at the Library, he thought he might be Adrian Vandaleu, believed to be the progenitor of the Vandaleu clan, a family renowned for their mystical ability. According to the genealogies Akira had read the Vandaleu’s had intermarried with the Steadman’s throughout history and Adrian had apparently been alive for several centuries and been the father of several generations of his family.

The female according to Mace was Lady Amaryst Venda, a well-known socialite with some dubious business links. Akira also recognised the name, as she was another Vandaleu descendant and possibly one of Adrian’s own granddaughters though they looked more like brother and sister.

The final member of the group, hiding under a heavy hooded long coat, was a face they also recognised from their most recent jaunt to the future. It was the vampire, Boire; except they felt sure that it wasn’t the same Boire they’d met previously. Despite everything, Mary and Akira felt sure this was actually a younger version of the vampire they’d met. He was obviously unhappy about being out in the late daylight, despite the heavy clothes wrapped around and sheltering him.

As they watched, the four figures entered a heavily guarded side entrance into the Houses of Parliament. Banshee immediately turned herself and Locker invisible and insubstantial and followed them as closely as they dared.

They sneaked passed the armed Police without activating the meta-sensors and metal detectors on the entrance (thanks to neither of them being meta-enhanced and Locker’s non-metallic armour) and were lucky enough to see their quarry entering a conference room at the end of a corridor. What were they up to?

Banshee with Locker flowed through the door and into the chamber. Inside the Vandaleu’s were meeting with a couple of ministers and from what was being said, it sounded as though they were in the process of blackmailing them.

Somehow, their invisible presence despite being out of phase alerted the female, Lady Amaryst. She turned in their general direction and although she wasn’t looking directly at them she seemed to be aware that someone or something was present in the room. Still staring at the door, she tapped the shoulder of the man beside her. He glanced around then gestured, freezing the unknown MP’s in place, mid-sentence.

Their vampire guard started wandering round the room looking for someone, walking through their insubstantial forms trying to figure out where they might be.

The Keeper in the body armour suddenly multiplied. Where there had been one before there were now four surrounding the man and his companion. The seemingly younger Boire, put his hood up completely hiding his face as he pushed the door open and the visitors immediately headed into the corridor. It seemed the invisible presence of Banshee and Locker had cut the meeting short.

Banshee substantialised herself and Locker and rushed over the desk searching for the panic button she was sure had to be there. A second or two later she found it hidden under the desk and a siren sounded in the corridor.

Locker shouted, “Surprise!” as the others in the room suddenly unfroze and found themselves facing Banshee and Locker in armour across the desk from them and with their ‘guests’ vanished.

The ministers started to ask, “Who are you and what happened to our guests?” Banshee smiled, “and who were your guests?” The ministers ignored the question and again asked who they were and why they were here. Locker admitted that they were the Balance as Banshee again warned them about their previous guests and asked why they were there. “They were just business acquaintances here to discuss some opportunities. You on the other hand weren’t invited. Security will be here soon.” was the embarrassed response.

Over their comms they could both hear Akira laughing “Oh please don’t let Locker do anything stupid!” As Locker headed out the door and into a corridor filling with security, he muttered “I love it when a plan comes together!” As he chased after them he pulling out his ID card noticing that the other four people seemed to be ignored by the armed Police rushing towards them. “Sorry! Big misunderstanding, we’re HCP…” he shouted as he ran passed through the shocked officers who stood out of his way and didn’t try and stop him.

Back on the bridge, the hovering Mace and Akira saw their suspected time-travellers walking in their direction.

There was the ‘Pierce Brosnan’ look-alike, the one they believed the others referred to as ‘Bishop’ (though whether that was a name or a title they didn’t know), the witch Whittard and under some sort of mystical shadow ‘umbrella’ was the whitehaired female vampire and another Boire! Did that make the earlier version they’d seen with the Valdaleu’s the right one from this time period? The concept made their heads spin. They stopped in the middle of the bridge waiting, talking amongst themselves and apparently preparing for something. Other pedestrians were avoiding the four of them and Akira and Mace couldn’t help wondering what had happened to the fifth person who’d crossed over with them.

Akira also had to wonder if the possibility of Boire meeting with his earlier self was the cause of the paradox?

Just behind them, the Vandaleu’s and their escorts including Boire the Younger rushed into the street heading towards Westminster Bridge, though admittedly it was about an hour and a half before the bridge was due to vanish. Mace seemed to focus on the ‘brother and sister’. She was sure that the armoured figures and the vampire were acting as the other two’s bodyguards. Locker who was shouting “Stop!” over his speakers followed out them into the road.

The white-haired female on the bridge reacted to the shouting and did something that caused a blanket of darkness to spread above the bridge, panicking the other pedestrians. Then the male Vandaleu gestured in response as light flared around him and began to counter the darkness, which had now enveloped everyone on the bridge. Inside the darkness, Mace was sure the Outer Circle was preparing themselves for a battle.

Akira was sure Adrian Vandaleu was casting one of the eleven lights of Luathon. He’d read about these spells in a couple of rare grimoires he’d studied in the Library but hadn’t found any trace of how to cast them. They were a series of very powerful, light-based mystical spells apparently lost centuries before. Adrian and his party were surrounded for about ten metres by the ‘first light’, a primeval brightness leeched from the surrounding area leaving the rest of the bridge in oppressive darkness as those on the bridge stumbled and fell, unable to see where they were going and cars crashed into lampposts and the concrete barriers protecting the pavement.

The armoured figures surrounding the Vandaleu’s again split until there was now eight of him acting as a physical barrier, in front of them stood this era’s version of Boire.

Locker speeded up and ran into the rearmost of the armoured figures. Adrian turned and gestured. A sudden swirl of brilliant light almost engulfed Locker as he were forced to dodge behind a nearest post box as the eleventh light of Luathon burnt the paint off the metal cylinder.

The figure sheltering under the cloak and cowl was definitely a vampire and the others mages. Akira had prepared a couple of spells before leaving their own time for just such an event. He considered using Sirrion’s banishment of magic but reconsidered when he realised that it was the mystical equivalent of the nuclear option, scouring the area clear of all magic, including devouring his own mana and breaking Mary’s bond with her Banshee. Last time he’d used such a spell, he’d almost killed her. Instead, he formed the words and gestures that called forth the Shining Suns of Sirrion, a blazing reddish-gold light that tried to envelope the Vandaleu’s version of Boire, dropping his aura of invisibility as he did so.

The ‘sun’ itself was invisible to those without mystical sight though not its effects – in this case the light it cast, though constant exposure to Banshee and Akira had heightened Mace’s own mystical senses so she knew something had just happened even if she couldn’t ‘see’ the attack itself. They were rewarded as the younger Boire cowered and collapsed to the ground, weakened. Mace immediately unleashed a wooden bolt at the collapsed figure. It hit him but missed his heart. He responded with a sharp, grunt of pain as he pulled the bolt out of his chest.

Lady Amaryst, assuming this was some sort of ambush, responded with a motion of her hands. She began muttering the words that called forth the Bitter Lash of Bal’Hemoth into her hand and as she gestured a crackling lash of dark energy ripped through and ‘punished’ the air, leaving a smell of ozone behind, thankfully it missed Locker.

Mace and Akira were trapped, hovering in the air between the Vandaleu’s and their security entourage, which included Boire the Younger and the time-travelling Outer Circle. The witch Whittard, advanced towards them and the Vandaleu’s and used the opportunity of Lady Amaryst’s assault to unleash a spell of her own in their general direction. It thankfully missed Mace and Akira but left them momentarily hearing a fugue-like music however the citizens on the bridge weren’t so lucky as it forced them to lose touch with their surroundings and begin to dance in a disjointed, macabre way in the mystical dusk.

Having turned insubstantial again but not invisible, Banshee had followed Locker out into the street, ignoring the security trying unsuccessfully to stop her passage. She took in the eight figures in armour surrounding the man and woman and the kneeling Vampire in front of them.

Then the rest of the Balance heard a terrorising scream emanate from behind the Vandaleu’s. Banshee’s sonic devastation failed to affect the Vandaleu’s or the armoured figures surrounding their masters but the scream did cause the dancing citizens on the bridge to collapse to the ground, thankfully unconscious though still twitching as the witch’s spell burnt itself out of their systems.

Boire the Younger used the distraction to leap onto the air, straight at Mace and her passenger. Mace saw what was happening and dropped with Akira hanging on for dear life. Unfortunately, Boire seemed able to float. “Zut!” Could she risk taking him out without recreating the paradox? Thankfully, the darkness on the bridge had meant he hadn’t seen his older self yet.

Advancing towards them on the bridge, Bishop gestured and a series of teleporting disks appeared, spinning towards them. The disks teleported away part of the cars and lampposts by cutting them in half, leaving the remaining sections of the objects behind. It missed Locker but decimated four of the armoured guards protecting the Vandaleu’s. As the disks sliced into the figures, they collapsed into smoke-like insubstantiality taking the teleport ‘blades’ with them.

Locker struggled with one of the remaining armoured figures staggering him and repelling the others as he shouted, “Stop what you’re doing, you’re destroying the world!” They ignored his pleas as Adrian responded to the teleportation disks with another of his light of Luathon spells as spears of light shot from his fingers like flares. Bishop and Whittard created some form of invisible shield that scattered and deflected the bolts into the twitching and unconscious civilians lying on the bridge to be absorbed. Bishop shouted to the others, “Focus! Our target is the Vandaleu’s. We want their place on this time’s Inner Circle!” Boire the Elder seemed more focused on attacking his own, younger self than the Vandaleu’s however.

Adrian’s spears of light began to dispel the darkness on the bridge, shredding through it and exposing the attackers in front of them. It also exposed the invisible as Akira and Banshee felt that particular power temporarily supressed inside them.

That’s when they saw around Boire the Elder’s neck was a pendant in the shape of a glowing emerald blade. Boire had the time key!

Mace felt sure that Boire was their Schrödinger’s cat, but which one of him? Before she could even finish the thought, Boire the Younger, who was floating nearby, suddenly surged at her and she was forced to fire a tranq’ bolt directly at his head. It hit him just behind the ear and unloaded its fluid contents into his bloodstream.

To her surprise, it worked. The floating version of Boire suddenly fell out of the sky, fatigued. He hit the ground hard and struggled to stand as Akira jumped off the back of the bike, only using his meta ability to levitate to soften his landing at the last second.

Akira grabbed hold of the younger version of Boire on the ground and called the magic forth. He muttered the words and expressed the gesturing that created the right mental attitude in his mind to manifest the Airts of Ahgrazul. He teleported with his struggling ‘cargo’ into the brilliant light that separated ‘here’ from ‘there’. Time slowed and several dimensional breaches appeared in front of him, illustrated by dimensional ‘vapour trails’ from previous passage through the Bleed.

He hoped that by separating the two Boire’s he could prevent the paradox from even starting, after all that happened at 8:48pm, not an hour and a half earlier? He would return him once the situation on the bridge was hopefully resolved.

Up ahead of them was an unhealed scar in reality and he pulled his struggling passenger through it heading to, where?

The phase transition between the two very different dimensions momentarily threatened to turn the two of them into crystalline form then they were through the breach and ended up in a dimension where the temperature was well below freezing, and everything around them was dead. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop his passenger from trying to wrestle free of his grip and bite him.

Suddenly a sense of dread came upon Akira as he sensed something had his psychic scent. That something was nearby and to his surprise his mystical vision gave it shape. He felt sure that they were being stalked by an interdimensional being, hound-like, carnivorous and formed of pure trans-dimensional matter.

He felt worried that whatever it was just might follow them, him back to their own reality. A sense of panic almost overwhelmed him then he saw a rip in the space-time and dragged his struggling passenger who was now trying desperately to rip out his throat, through with him.

They were back on Westminster Bridge and for a moment, he ‘saw’ another Boire. It was only later that he realised they had to have been in an alternative timeline as it appeared to be a lot later in the evening. The temporal shock of the native Boire seeking his time-twin exploded them out of that reality and back into the dimensional bleed. As he vanished from that reality, he ‘saw’ something translucent yet bestial and hound-like, attack the other Boire and begin to rip him to shreds. Akira shuddered and allowed himself to go with the flow.

They ended up in a dimension so beautiful, so alluring and free from pain that both of them desperately wanted to stay but the haunting feeling of being chased, forced him to have to transpose themselves into yet another dimension, fleeing the panic that was starting to overwhelm him.

Back ‘home’ a three-way battle was ensuing with Mace trapped in the middle. A compulsion washed over Locker as Whittard targeted him with a spell that thankfully hit a shield generated by Adrian.

Lady Amaryst called on Heshem, the dark robed goddess of the between places and her eyes glowed in response to her dark prayer and a shadowy ectoplasmic hand appeared beside Mace, emulating the movements of the witches’ grasp. It swiped out causing her to collide into the wall of a nearby building, scraping the paint of the side and almost ripping her leg off, before it swiped again and ‘threw’ the bike across the road.

The bridge was starting to flutter insubstantial as though it was interacting with an unresolved paradox, though what? No one was dead, so what was causing reality to react? It never occurred to anyone until later that with the younger Boire removed from reality by Akira that the older Boire should not still exist in the here and now. Reality was rebelling against him but was having no effect on him for some reason.

Banshee flew straight across the bridge at Bishop and unleashed a corrupting touch to his head causing him to collapse, unable to think straight and he managed to finger a talisman hanging from his sleeve cuff that teleported him away. His disappearance from their midst broke Lady Amaryst’s concentration and the shadowy ectoplasmic hand vanished.

Locker attacked the surviving Keepers, causing another of them to dissipate as the Vandaleu male unleashed bolts of light from his fingertips aimed at Mace. The light bolts caught the undercarriage and almost damaged Mace’s bike again.

Meanwhile the white-haired vampire seemed to lock eyes with Locker compelling him to stop fighting. He managed to mutter, “Don’t feel so good!” over his commdot before the compulsion froze him. The witch whispered and Locker was forced to fire off a series of flares at Mace on her bike and through Banshee’s insubstantial form.

The surviving Keeper doppelgängers, seemingly working in unison unleashed multiple attacks against Mace’s bike causing it to collide into the side of the houses of Parliament and further denting it. Any further attacks and it might fail completely

The elder Boire now aware his younger self was no longer present apparently wanted them to leave. Mace really wasn’t sure what would happen if the Balance took him out.

Seeing most of his guards vanish or dissipate, Adrian grabbed Lady Amaryst and gestured. The Cloak of Idolon surrounded them both and rendered the “wearer” invisible and difficult to locate or detect using magical means. Despite this, Banshee was still sure that they hadn’t teleported away. They were undetectable and unless they were hit by an extremely lucky shot, it appeared to take them out of the equation. She smiled as she turned insubstantial again as the next attack by Whittard passed through her and disintegrated against the cold iron of the bridge.

Then another psychic pressure wave swept over the bridge and for a moment, it vanished completely, only to reappear a micro-second later. Reality was apparently still throwing a tantrum, just earlier than expected. Something they had done was causing this new paradox to form. Could it even be the same paradox? No one was dead so it wasn’t that; unless a disappearance from reality was the same as killing someone whose future self was still clearly in existence in the here and now?

Had Akira taking the younger Boire on a dimensional walk-about caused this and if so, would taking out Boire the Elder resolve it?

A doppelgänger echo of the vampire Boire momentarily appeared on the pavement of the bridge, wounded and crazed, only for it to be shredded by something invisible before his tattered remains were dragged back into the dimensional æther. Boire the Elder was obviously shocked and the pendant round his neck suddenly shone brighter.

Mace used the opportunity to fly down and manifested the hypnotic gyroscope built into the palm of her glove into Boire the Elder’s eyes, leaving him entranced but she was unable to compel him to act.

Invisible, Banshee ‘felt’ the cloaked Adrian and Lady Amaryst walk towards an equally invisible teleportation portal. She ignored them, she was just happy to see them gone.

Then reality stabilised. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Balance Akira and the younger Boire had returned to this reality, in a park several miles away. Akira dropped him down and immediately teleported away. He shivered; he was sure the dimensional predator he’d felt earlier was still attracted to him. He transmitted a message over the commdot, “I’m on my way, the potential for a paradox should be resolved for now but you need to find some way to get rid of the time travelling male vampire, Boire…” and with that sent, he teleported back towards the bridge.

As he arrived, he saw Whittard manifest some sort of ectoplasmic root-like snare from the ground, sickly yellow and foul smelling, it cracked the tarmac and spread across the bridge trying to attack Banshee only for the roots to slide through her insubstantial body.

Banshee reached over and momentarily risked substantialisng herself to shake Locker out of his compulsion, allowing him to break free of the impulse. She followed it up with a corrupting touch on the witch Whittard causing the snaring roots to vanish and leaving the witch staggered and dazed. Locker followed it with a punch, which incapacitated her. As he did so, he shouted, “that’s for compelling me against my will, witch! Fair exchange…”

Meanwhile the last of the surviving doppelgängers fired on Mace and again missed as she twisted the bike out of the way. Mace again tried to strengthen her compulsion on the entranced Boire. She was in control.

Akira rushed passed the confused armoured guards, now deprived of their charges, over towards Boire and reaching down at the tarmac at his feet changed the surface into a mirrored, reflective surface hoping that Mace would compel him to use his pendant to return to his own time.

The witch was teleporting out herself and the white-haired vampire somewhere (though not necessarily to somewhen) leaving the controlled Boire behind. Banshee reached over and unleashed a final corrupting touch on the vampire causing her to collapse only for her to be grabbed by the witch and pulled away just leaving the confused clones at one end of the bridge and a hypnotised Boire standing beside them.

The remaining guards unleashed a series of final, unaimed blasts in the general direction of Mace’s bike before collapsing into a single figure that then fled, down the street.

Locker reached over and grabbed Boire’s hand. The sudden and unexpected act shook him out of his hypnotic state. He grabbed hold tight of locker’s wrist in response, grasped at the pendant round his neck with his other hand and vanished with Locker through the mirrored surface beneath him. The others jumped forward to try to help save him, only for the temporal ‘gravity’ to take hold and drag them through, bike and all.

The three of them appeared together on a quayside surrounded by Tudor style houses crowded together on the streets. Below, on the quayside were dozens of small boats being used to ferry people from one side of the stinking cesspit that was the Thames to the other. The people were dressed in dirty, medieval clothes except for a group of people disembarking – which included a female in fine white silks and wearing a full face Venetian-looking carnival mask.

 

She was surrounded by several male figures dressed all in Black with plague doctor masks covering their faces under their tri-corner hats. The last to step up from the ferryboat was a male figure wearing a mask that consisted of three different facial expressions. Its current expression was a grimace but as soon as he stepped onto land he proceeded to rotate the mask until it showed the smiling face at the front.

A strong smell of oil emanated from them as two of the crow-like figures approached a primitive sedan chair and its carriers and proceeded to buy it using small gold bars. Then two of the black masked figures took over as carriers as the lady in white sat on the seat which bent dramatically indicating that she was apparently a lot heavier than the chair was used to. They then headed downriver towards London Bridge.

They really did not look as though they belonged but them again neither did the three of them.

As the whole group ran passed them and headed into the claustrophobic, muck-covered city, a faint whirling sound emanated from them, followed some distance behind by the original, confused bearers.

Night was falling. Now where or more accurately when were they and where were Locker and Boire?

To be continued.