Superhero Adventures, UK Style

Netherwars Part 3 – Adapted from the adventure by Steve Kenson

Ever since the worlds’ Master Mage, Adrian Eldrich, had left to govern the Nether-Realms, dark magic had been on the rise in the world and public fascination with it had also increased. It was therefore not unexpected when the Horniman Museum in South London took a renewed interest in magical artefacts and the mystical arts and commissioned an exhibit on Myth, Magic and Lore. The museum already specialised in displays of anthropology, natural history and mystical objects, and was known for its large collection of taxidermy animals.

They approached the world expert on the subject, Adrian Eldrich, only to find he was not currently ‘available’. However, after a series of negotiations with Eldrich’s partner, Sallah who had legal control over Adrian’s estate, it was agreed that the museum could borrow from his collection a number of Adrian’s artefacts and journals for a new exhibition on mystical history around the world.

This was a joint project overseen by the museum curator Dr Jerry Thomas and funded by the local hero enthusiast and restaurateur, Todd Campion. The exhibition was well-supported and was going to be unveiled with a gala for museum patrons.

To the surprise of all but one of the team, they found themselves invited to the opening gala by Sallah himself.

Peter asked Seven, “Why? Is it to be guests or to act as additional security?” With a smile, she reluctantly admitted that having the Balance present at the event would help allay Sallah’s understandable worries and fears. “More importantly,” asked Akira, “would there be nibbles?” Seven nodded in response, “just go easy on the wine, though” she replied jokingly.

On the night, Peter elected to go in his costume. As Adrian’s latest protégé, so did Seven, but Akira proposed mingling among the guests so wanted to go in a Tux’. As he said, “I just couldn’t do with all that ego nonsense of signing autographs and being on display” while Mary could wear an evening dress knowing that if she had to transform into Banshee, her clothes would change with her anyway.

The gala was a well-appointed but reasonably sedate affair. The Museum had a number of high-society patrons attending, but the event had also attracted several well-off collectors who normally didn’t attend society events like museum galas, and the two crowds mixed poorly. In addition, there were several cos-players dressed as famous magical supers wandering among the slightly scandalised crowd.

Gentle, live music floated through the air, combining with the lazy burble of the central fountain to provide a sedate atmosphere for the patrons gathered for the Museum’s newest exhibition. One of the banners above the atrium proclaimed the exhibit included the “Secrets of Modern Day Mages,” and display cases throughout the room displayed magical baubles, notes, photographs, and even the former Master Mage’s iconic Cloak of Flight, a predecessor to Seven’s current mystical cloak. Despite the surreal subject matter, the crowd remained lukewarm, clearly divided between those with a passion for museums and those with a passion for those who claimed their superpowers were mystical in origin. Then of course, there were the cos-players who were, to the absolute horror of Dr Jerry Thomas and the other museum staff present, pretending to do magic.

Akira on the other hand loved it, and smiled benevolently at the young, slightly overweight man who had dressed up as him, who was currently doing some impressive acts of prestidigitation for a small crowd of guests. Since Eldrich’s reluctant ‘retirement’, Akira had been publicly elevated to being considered one of the world’s experts on the mystical arts.

Paragon took up a secure position in the upper gallery looking down on the attendees below, ever alert for trouble, while Seven escorted Sallah from one group of patrons to the next. The old man was fastidious and soft-spoken, with keen observation skills and a dry wit, which was on display as he entertained the patrons with his insight and knowledge of various mythological tales and legends while tacitly avoiding talking about Adrian or their many adventures together.

He had legal control of his depart­ed husbands’ legacy and had worked closely with the museum to make sure the artefacts and documents on loan were treated with respect. He was notably filled with caution about the museum’s security arrangements.

Mary wandered over to the bar and got herself a glass of whiskey, while the almost unidentifiable Akira followed the nibbles around the room while keeping a close eye on Seven. Up top, Paragon made conversation with any patrons who passed by, while maintaining a steely eye at all times on the exhibit cases on the floor below. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen. An exhibit like this felt as though it was a deliberate invite for mystical villains. Other than them, security was minimal and most were outside the museum itself, involved with screening the guests as they arrived. He made a note to suggest to Sallah that he insist on the museum beefing up the security before the exhibition opened to the public.

The music came to a sudden and awkward halt mid-note with a screeching sound, and several lights went dead or started to dim. This was followed a few seconds later, as the room’s chatter died down, with the atrium fountain malfunctioning, spewing a three metre-high cascade of water towards the ceiling and across a dozen nearby guests before falling silent and dying back again. As Dr Thomas started shrilly demanding towels for the soaked guests, the fountain again came alive, though this time in a more controlled manner.

A moment later, an ominous green fog swept across the floor, and the water erupted into a humanoid figure. Several party goers immediately panicked and rushed for the exits, only to find the way blocked by a massive man-shaped mass of stone bursting through the main entry point, and a figure of living flame exploded through one of the fire exits.

It seemed that this time the stone giant wasn’t there to sing karaoke.

The watery form loomed over the crowd and sneered. “Well, well, Society’s tiny minds once again gather to exalt their bet­ters. It’s really as if you were born to worship.” He flowed onto the floor, ripping a pearl necklace from an elderly woman’s neck. “But what is worship without a proper tithe, I ask you?”

The stone man’s voice boomed over his watery partner’s speech. “Time to pay up, folks!”

Akira and Banshee immediately recognised them. The Balance had last met the Factor Four several months ago when they stole a mystical object, the Mask of Janus, from another exhibition. They tried to frame Akira for the robbery and Mace for an assault on Fathom before the mask was seemingly teleported away. Akira and Banshee recognised Professor Fathom, Granite and Pyre, but there are usually four members – where was the air elemental Sylph?

Paragon, on the balcony above them, smacked his hands together and muttered, “Oh well, as the man said, it’s time to pay the tithe and I wouldn’t want them to feel excluded.” With that, he jumped over the railings and flew straight down towards the stony giant.

It seemed as though they hadn’t realised that he was there, focused as they were on intimidating both the security and crowd. He flew down as hard and as fast as he could, as he shouted, “How about this for a tithe.” Granite looked up even as Paragon hit him in the face with everything he had. He slammed into him but, to his surprise, the massive figure took the blow although he was forced to step back and some of his stone exterior chipped off. Paragon realised he had only done limited damage to the massive creature.

Akira raised his shields and unleashed a mystical blast to try and keep Granite from responding back at Paragon. He was lucky, a clear gap had appeared between them as the panicking crowd backed away, trying to stay well clear of the water demon in the middle of the room and the other two elemental attackers behind them.

The blast flew straight and true, and its effect on top of Paragon’s blow was to leave Granite dazed.

Mary manifested her harp and immediately started to play a destructive aire, but then a weird, unholy mood swept over her and over the crowd, as she found herself unable to concentrate, feeling confused and unable to hold the tune for more than a couple of seconds before a mental fog set in. Something or someone was affecting her mind. The others in the team, however, seemed to be either unaffected or able to shake the effects off.

Akira shook his head, what was going on? None of them had ever exhibited any sort of psychic attack before? Was this a new use of the Factor’s powers, or was there another powered being involved with them? Something really wasn’t right about this attack, not least the fact that they were being less than covert about this assault on the museum.

Paragon stepped back to ready himself for another attack on Granite when, from across the hall, the fiery dude, Pyre, aimed a blast of inferno straight at him, though he must have realised the blast would likely also hit Granite. He decided to take the blast and stood his ground. The flames washed over him, and he suddenly realised how grateful he was that he’d agreed to Jeeves’ suggestion to have his costume tailored by the Challenger-Wildeman’s group. Seemed the suit was fully flame-retardant as promised and he could cope with his instant sunburn. The blast did, however, heat up Granite’s craggy stone-like skin though, again, didn’t seem to do that much injury. He clearly wasn’t happy at Pyre, though.

Granite tried to punch Paragon, but he managed to parry the blow. Granite relied more on his brute strength than on his accuracy, it seemed. As he turned, he could hear the sound of grass breaking back towards the display cases, but the billowing green mist reduced even his ability to see clearly. Was it deliberate or the result of the heat blast?

That was when they all realised that had been the most likely purpose of the mist was to hide the exhibits from view, though there was no obvious movement in the mist or shadows indicating someone was stealing from the cases. Seven was the first to respond. She tried to manifest mystical shackles on the wrists of Pyre, but they failed to properly manifest on his wrists, possibly not recognising the anatomy of its target in the flames.

Mary knew the mental fuzziness that was preventing her from using her mystical abilities to attack was too disruptive for her music spell to work properly. She immediately changed into Banshee and turn insubstantial, that would allow the Sidhe inside her to counter the influence affecting both her and the museum security staff that were inside the hall. As she changed, there was a massive wave of water that flowed out of the fountain, splashed through her ghost-like form and gathered at the feet of security staff and patrons alike before it bubbled up, surrounding and engulfed them, trapping them inside watery coffins.

Banshee turned and saw what was happening. She reached through the liquid prisons on the two nearest victims, allowed herself to return to being substantial and pulled them clear of the water, which immediately lost their shape when they no longer surrounded their targets and splashed back down, partially flooding the hall.

Soggy, but free, Banshee pointed towards the gallery stairs then turned to see who else she needed to rescue. Behind her, she could see the water gather around the other patron’s legs and bodies, but thankfully hadn’t started to drown their heads yet.

Akira, meanwhile, was trying to use his mystical senses to find out where exactly the psychic or mystical attack had emanated from. He reached out with his senses, ‘identified’ a hole in reality that ‘felt’ dark with an overwhelming mental sense of sulphur and brimstone – it revealed a portal of some sort by the fountain directly behind Fathom. Did this mean there was a fifth member of the group that hadn’t revealed themselves before?

He could feel its shape, but where it originated he couldn’t tell. He could feel the wave after wave of mind-clouding energy flowing through the breach.

He reached down to the flooded water that soaked the floor and was now flowing up and over its victim’s heads, and unleashed his Theurgical-Kinesis to create a massive wave directed at the portal. It flowed out of existence with a sputtering sound as it vanished in a cloud of hot, wet steam that darkened the whole hall and reduced visibility considerably.

The patrons, now no longer drowning, immediately ran for the apparent safety of the stairs to the gallery.

A panicked Pyre responded with a flame blast at Akira but missed him, though it hit a couple of the nearest display cases, setting them on fire and vaporising the contents. Akira heard Sallah scream out in response, “Not the journals!”

Paragon meanwhile was knocked back even as he rose into the air to counter a ground strike by Granite that threatened to bring down the building. Thankfully, having risen into the air, he was insulated against the tremors.

Banshee was trying to find the reality breach that Akira had identified by targeting the water at it a few seconds before, it had either closed or relocated. Seven ran towards her and gestured at the burning display cabinets. As she did so, the flames took on a life of its own and immediately flowed across the chamber to engulf Granite. Fathom tried to block it with a spray of fountain water, which immediately turned to even more steam but failed to put out the flames, which hit Granite with such a force that it staggered him.

All the remaining water in the fountain suddenly flowed up and hit Paragon like a water cannon as directed by a now very angry Fathom. The water hit but failed to faze him. Paragon smiled, a wicked grin, then responded with an eye blast at the water elemental. Enough was enough!

The blast, as hot as the surface of the sun, immediately hit and staggered Fathom back into the fountain. He reformed his watery form from the remaining fluid in the base, but the attempt left him completely staggered.

Paragon then reached out with his ultra-senses and realised that Adrian’s Cloak of Flight had been taken from its case but there was nothing to indicate what had happened to it, but he did feel a draught that seemed to be swirling the mist and steam around. He immediately shouted out what he’d found, though in fairness he wasn’t completely sure what it meant, never having met or dealt with Factor Four before meeting the three of them currently present,

Banshee tried to chase the wind that Paragon had just pointed out, but she couldn’t find the source. Best focus on what she could see, Granite. She immediately flew across the hall and unleashed a corrupting touch on him. His body might be protected against physical hits, but not against attacks that bypassed that and attacked his nervous system. He collapsed, falling on top of Paragon. He pushed him back towards the fountain, only for a strong smell of sulphur to emerge as he started to disappear into some sort of mysterious void until he vanished completely. The others looked around the room as Fathom shouted out, “Get out of here now.” As the remaining two members of Factor Four seemed to be preparing to flee, they noticed that where Granite had disappeared, there was a continuous flow of air into the hall, admittedly a draught that stank of sulphur. The green mist was also starting to dissipate. With the pattern forming around it, they could identify the location of the portal with their own eyes. They watched as Pyre ran past them and jumped into the air, only to vanish, but not before blasting Paragon one last time. It hit but again did no real damage. Peter shouted out “stop it!” as he vanished from sight.

Akira shouted out, “We should follow them!” Paragon glanced over, “but how do we get back from wherever that leads?” “Just go with it, we’ll worry about that later,” was the reply.

In response, Akira began to cast the Airts of Ahgrazul, a spell used to guide travellers on the winding coils between worlds, hoping to use it to identify where the portal ended up. Their end of the bridge was constantly moving, phasing in and out as though it was opening and closing at irregular intervals. Akira thought following would be worth the risk, though.

As they prepared themselves, Fathom appeared to vanish. They had mere seconds at most before the portal closed. Paragon grabbed Seven and flew towards the portal with her, only to hear Seven suddenly pull free with a shout of “This way!” and fly into a spot in the air, whereupon she disappeared. Paragon tried to follow, but the portal either moved or closed, only to open again off to one side. He shouted out to Akira, asking where he needed to go so he could try again.

Akira responded by using his Theurgical-Kinesis to grab Paragon and immediately fling him through the newly reopened portal before he could realign his spell, the Airts of Ahgrazul.

Paragon disappeared from this world, only to reappear a second later on a flat, dusty plain. There was nothing in sight, nothing living at least, he was completely alone. He was sure he was no longer on Earth though, nothing this desolate could exist on Earth, surely? Worse, there was no sight of Seven. What he could see was the portal moving and shrinking.

Back on the other side, Akira lost concentration as a massive blast of water hit him and Banshee from behind, projected by a re-substantiated Fathom. Akira managed to move aside so, other than getting soaked, the blast failed to hit him with any real force, but Banshee wasn’t that lucky and was knocked to the ground. Akira shouted through the portal, “Come back!” even as the portal began to shrink. Paragon shouted out for Seven and reluctantly jumped through the portal back to Earth. He flew out into the hall and saw fathom waterboarding Banshee. He responded by firing off his eye blast at the Professor again. There was plenty of steam where his blast hit, but as it started to dissipate, he realised that Fathom had vanished again. The three of them were now alone on the soggy floor of the hall. The patrons and staff had either fled or were hiding on the gallery above.

“Where’s Seven?” shouted a clearly distressed Paragon. Akira responded with a flippant, “Hold on, or do you want me to throw you back through again? I’m not sure where she might be.” Meanwhile, he was busy analysing what had just happened. He was aware that after they had tried to frame him for the theft of the mask that the portal they had used then was clearly different to this one. 

Once the immediate danger has passed, Dr Jerry Thomas and Sallah approached to thank them for their swift action, but also to let them know that two artefacts were missing from the displays: El­drich’s Cloak of Flight and one of the Hellstones of Vhoka, presumably stolen by their fourth member, the seemingly invisible air elemental, Sylph.

The cloak wasn’t especially powerful or dangerous, but Sallah was extremely concerned about the Hellstone. “I do not know much of the Hellstones personally, but Vhoka is a terrible entity, sometimes called the Oathbreaker, the Devour­er, and the Eater of Gods. Any artefacts associated with him will likely be equally destructive. Adrian recovered the Hellstones some years ago as a set alongside his young apprentice. She may know considerably more about them. Where is she, by the way?”

An abashed Akira muttered something about her “just popping out for the moment.”

Meanwhile, a distressed Dr Thomas was making a few calls before he ap­proached the group, his face white with distress, “Oh hell. I’ve just got off the phone with Professor Ahpook at London University. The museum loaned the University the other Hell­stone from Adrian Eldrich’s collection for analysis, but it was also stolen this morning. The stone… not the university. This… this is going to be an insur­ance nightmare.”

Sallah had to wonder whether someone might be gathering all of the Hellstones of Vhoka. He suggested they should reach out to Adrian, and handed them a silver scry­ing mirror from one of the display cabinets that had survived being torched by Pyre so they could get in contact with him, ignoring the alarm that went off when he opened the case.

Sallah pulled banshee to one side, “There were five stones in total I think. Adrian only ever had two of them in his possession, not sure what he did with the remaining three. Perhaps if you reach out to him?”

Sallah finally excused himself as he began reviewing the damage and ensure no other loaned treasures were missing or destroyed. Paragon in particular felt extremely frustrated at Seven’s disappearance and the team’s inability to find and rescue her.

Dr Thomas meanwhile insisted on offering some unrequested insights on the Hellstones’ mundane his­tory and their appearances in Sumerian, Middle Eastern and Norse history, but knew nothing about their magical properties or the other stones’ current locations.

They elected to try to contact Adrian by way of the silver scrying mirror given them by Sallah.

The mirror rippled and their reflection melted away to show a raven-haired man with a white streak in his hair, dressed in a dark cloak, rolling his eyes at some sort of Oni demon. “-on’t care if wheat is new and scary. People need to eat. Have them – Oh?” He turned in their direction, and the vaulted halls of the museum seem to dissolve away and break apart, as they found yourselves seemingly standing on floating fragments of solid ground in a kaleidoscopic vista. “Who’s there?” said the new ruler of the 999 realms.

Akira quickly reintroduced themselves and explained they were looking for Seven, apologetically mentioning that she seemed to have gone through a portal, presumably into another dimension… Adrian interrupted him with a, “Why the hell would she do that? She was taught to never break away from the team.” He appeared extremely flustered at the idea that Seven was lost. The flames that formed the crown around his head glowed larger and brighter as his frustration increased.

After a few minutes of trying to cover up what a disaster they had made of things, he finally admitted the team had made a mistake and she had tried to follow the people stealing the Hellstones.

“The Hellstones? They stole the hellstones?” Akira admitted they had stolen two of the stones, that the exhibit at the museum has been robbed.

“Oh gods… I told Sallah this would happen. He assured me the museum would bring in ‘adequate security.’ Oh… I guess he meant you. On my first adventure with Seven, we took them from this doomsday cult. They were using them to power up their human sacrifices. Those things are bloody danger­ous! They augment any act of sacrifice. If someone ever managed to get all five… “

“And someone they could sacrifice, presumably?” asked Akira.

Wait, no… I only kept one, or was it two? I hung onto the rest for a while to study, but I quickly returned the other three of them that the cult had stolen.”

As Adrian spoke, a call came in over Mary’s commdot, on the team’s encrypted channel. It was an equally frustrated Seven. “Hiya, any idea why I have found myself in this Penthouse?” “Seven, which penthouse? Where?” Mary asked, relieved at finding their lost apprentice.

“I think, looking outside, that I’m in London. I can see the Telecom Tower from the balcony. At least I think I’m in London, north of the Thames somewhere.” Mary had to wonder, “The real London? Our London or..?”

A happier Akira shouted over as soon as he overheard, “Ours, I hope. It must be, otherwise how would she be able to call us?” Seven continued, “There is a summoning circle newly etched into the floor of the living room. I’m sure the housekeeping staff are going to hate it. I’ve also found some research notes about the Hellstones. Better warn Sallah and the museum to keep them safe? They didn’t manage to steal it, have they?” Mary admitted they had got hold of two of them. “Only got two” confirmed Akira, shouting over and seemingly ignoring his ongoing communication with Adrian.

Seven confirmed that she thought it would be best to contact Adrian and admitted it might take her a while before she rejoined them, as she still wasn’t sure where she was, other than North of the river. Paragon said to wait there and he would join her in investigating her arrival point. Seven explained that she suspected that this had been some sort of halfway house before being moved to their intended destination by the mysterious fifth team member, just in case they did end up being followed. She assumed the portal had been booby-trapped. “Thank God, no one followed me through” she muttered, “or they would have likely ended up trapped in some hellhole…”

Paragon suddenly vanished as he stepped away from the scrying mirror and back into the reality of the museum before heading away just as the Police arrived. Akira and Banshee resumed their conversation with Adrian. “What can someone do with the Hellstones and where can we find the remaining three stones?” asked Akira.

“Let’s see… One was returned to Dakata in Africa. It was originally part of the royal treasury. I remember because I had to learn some Daku for the ceremony. Another one went to an old ruin in Antarctica, a valley called Nullatempus. The last one we returned to the Terra-King in Sub-Terra. He was… not grateful.

As for what someone would want with them? I mean, there was a whole doomsday cult formed around them, so… kind of a lot. They’re ancient artefacts associated with Vhoka the Destroyer, and they act like lenses to magnify pain and sacrifice and the more lenses you arrange together, the bigger the magni­fication. Even without a sacrifice, they’re dripping with arcane en­ergy. Whoever has them is probably getting a magical power-up just holding them.

I could construct a ritual that Seven could use to get you to Argatha, the Kingdom Below, but it would take me a couple of days as it’s not an easy location to get to, though you can walk in if you know the right locations. The Alternity Atlas in the Nexus lists various locations that lead to the Terra-King’s realm, if that would help.”

The Nexus library and its contents were now relocated to Ffrwd Dylluan.

Akira asked. “Is there a way to make these Hellstones safe? Can we destroy them, perhaps?”

Adrian paused for a few seconds, “They mustn’t be destroyed that could potentially unleash Vhoka on the world or at least ensure his powers manifested in the caster. I’m not sure. Keeping them apart helps. Who stole them anyway?”

Akira told him. “Factor Four? Those elemental villains? They’re just a pack of greedy treasure-hunters who got cursed by powerful magical gems called the Prime Elements. I did try to help them return to their human forms at one point, but the only solution I found would’ve permanently removed their powers; they didn’t go for it. They very violently did not go for it. They couldn’t have portalled out unassisted, though.”

Akira mentioned the portal had a stench of Brimstone and sulphur, which made Adrian think that they had to be working with either Bres the Beautiful, the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, the Crimson Mask of Dakata, the rebellious god Hades, or perhaps the villainess who called herself Hellqueen. He just couldn’t be sure.

He would not explain why he returned the other three Hellstones to their original owners, except that it was not a good idea to keep the entire set of evil artefacts in one place. Then the transmission ended.

They considered their options when Peter and Seven arrived back at the museum, then they voted on where to go first. They finally settled on Antarctica as their first destination, even though Dakata was the easiest to reach if difficult to enter.

Seven had to return to school, but requested and got special dispensation from the teaching staff to keep her phone with her in case her expertise was needed.

The others headed back to the BASEment and prepared The Crate for their journey. It would take over 20 hours to travel to Antarctica. It was agreed that to save time Paragon would check out the location of Nullatempus in Antarctica in the Atlas and catch them up, after he persuaded the house spirits of Ffrwd Dylluan to let him access the newly expanded library. Several hours later, he returned to the Crate with it and guided the team to a bleak mountain range deep in the frozen wastes.

This particular Hellstone of Vhoka was being hidden at the literal ends of the Earth: on an altar in an ancient ruin in Antarctica, in a valley named Nullatempus—the place outside time. The mountain valley had spent millennia shielded from outsiders by high cliffs and unpredictable winds. It was home to little life except within the temple itself, which apparently shielded some hardy lichen and moss, and a miserable wingless species of fly. Seven had mentioned before leaving for Claremont that, according to Adrian, the dark wizard Malador the Mystic had once used the valley and its ruins, but it had remained secluded, silent and unvisited for over a decade. She also remembered that Adrian had once called the temple complex a “death trap”.

Nullatempus was a land removed from the passage of time, figuratively at least. Barren, sun-bleached scree and somehow liquid pools of black water covered the valley floor, while imposing glacial cliffs climbed the rocky mountain slopes. Thick, red brine stained the glaciers around the valley where million-year-old deposits of saltwater oozed from cracks in the ice, casting an ominous flash of colour over the monotonous, monochrome setting. Only a wind-battered abstract sculpture in the valley below and a stone archway peeking out from one of the glacial walls suggest any other eyes, human or otherwise, have looked upon this wasteland.

As they stepped out of the Crate, they immediately confirmed that the stark Antarctic cold and blistering winds could kill an unprotected human in minutes.

Whatever original function the buried ruin had once served, its occasional visitors had all referred to it as the “temple,” and the name had stuck. The stone structure set into the cliff face consisted of a multitude of empty rooms and extensive stone hallways covered in glyphs whose meaning has long been forgotten. The oversized five-metre high hallways and irregular stairs leading into the depths of the Earth seem either too small or too large for human use; the uneven steps seemed almost to be an added afterthought by the mysterious architects.

Peter pulled everyone back to the Crate and suggested he explore the temple first. He flew into the labyrinthine complex which had been carved out of the volcanic rock landscape. The rooms were uneven and abstract in the extreme. Each of the rooms, corridors and chambers felt wrong on every level. Its multi-storey interior had multiple concealed ventilation shafts and large, empty chambers that had a series of large glyphs and insanity-inducing, yet incomprehensible, bas-reliefs carved on the walls and floor that made no sense, to him anyway.

The deeper Paragon went into the temple, the more of a warmer, if still chilly, sub-zero microclimate he experienced. Paragon recorded the glyphs as he passed them and sent the feed, back to the Crate’s monitors, for the others to examine, just in case.

He followed one of the paths that led deeper into the Earth, flying over the floor, to not risk setting off any traps that might be present within the chambers. It also helped to traverse the uneven, wonky steps safely. Who would build stairwells like this anyway? Some of the steps were five or six metres wide while others were mere centimetres wide and the drop varied from step to step. The route also twisted and turned as it spiralled into the depths. They were clearly not designed for anyone who walked on two legs, surely?

Peter smiled and muttered aloud, “This is a health and safety nightmare, it would fail all known building reg’s, you know.”

Back in the Crate, Akira was trying to interpret the images of the glyphs that Peter was videoing as he flew past. Focused on the potential dangers, Peter wasn’t looking at the glyphs himself, just recording them as he went past.

Inside the Crate, Akira realised that the latest series of reliefs he’d sent through were presumably some form of warning not to proceed any further.

In the lower temple, Peter was now confronted by fifteen large doorways, several of which led even further underground. Adrian would surely have left the stone somewhere special but secure and not just cast it into the depths, and that meant only one of the entrances in front of him seemed right as it alone was decorated with various, admittedly inhuman, symbols that seemed to be of a religious nature. It looked the right type of entrance that would lead to an altar, perhaps, that Adrian could safely have left a Hellstone on?

He tried to sense for magic, but the whole structure radiated a dark, near-blinding magic that prevented him from tracing the stone, or any intruders for that matter.

He did however notice that he was getting a heat signal from the chamber in front of him as he flew through the misshapen entrance; as though someone was alive in there, then saw that the stones on the ground were moving of their own volition towards the centre like a stone whirlpool of some sort. The heat signature was clearly emanating from the entrance on the opposite side. He started to try to fly over it when he heard Akira shout through his commdot to “keep to the wall”. The vortex was some sort of gravity misalignment that was pulling everything toward itself before the stone floor reappeared again, coming out from beneath the walls. Peter pushed on, flying fast and furious along the wall, and was rewarded with finding the anomaly ended once he went through the next door.

That chamber was likely booby-trapped as well, but he flew through it while recording the patterns and symbols on the wall as he went, ignoring them himself as he knew Akira was manning the monitor and trying to interpret what they meant. He felt one of the symbols on the wall claw at his mind, trying to get him to stare at it directly, but he fought the impulse to look, despite the headache it left behind. Akira wasn’t so lucky. He saw the full vision of the symbol and felt it eat at his mind.

Viewed by someone less used to the unearthly, it would have driven them completely mad, but Akira sitting inside The Crate he only ‘saw’ a legion of attacking ice spider-like creatures and immediately realised what they were as he tried to shake off the vision and regain full control of his own senses once again.

Inside that chamber, the heat signature felt stronger, closer. Someone was nearby and their body heat, limited though it was, in this sub-zero chill it was giving off a clear heat presence for him to follow.

In front of him was a massive stone door, sealing off whatever was behind it. The heat trace seemed to indicate that its originator was somewhere just beyond. He looked at the fresh scrape marks and concluded that it had slammed close fairly recently. He walked towards it and tried to raise it open even as a still hallucinating Akira screamed over his commdot, “don’t open the door, whatever you do, don’t open it or the ice spiders will get you too.”

Peter ignored him and raised the massive stone block until it caught on the concealed latch. In the darkness, his enhanced sight could make out an altar over by the far wall and several collapsed stones each radiating some sort of dark magic heaped on the floor in front of it. The dust floating in the air seemed to indicate that they had collapsed fairly recently.

He looked again at the altar and saw a solar symbol carved into its surface, surrounding a shallow indentation in the middle that might have once held a stone or jewel of some sort. Whatever it was, it was now missing.

He looked again at the collapsed stones and realised that beneath them was the heat signature he’d followed. Peter took a photo of the altar, then of the rockfall, before he set to lifting the stone blocks off whatever or whoever was underneath them.

Back in the Crate, the altar symbol flashed onto the screen and Akira felt the assault on his mind fade until everything was back to normal, whatever normal was for the mage at least.

As Paragon cleared the surface of the floor he could ‘see’ a heat haze lying on the ground that was clearly human-shaped, despite being invisible, and heard it say in a female voice. “It’s about bloody ti…” before going quiet as she rose from the ground.

Paragon said aloud, “I’m not your enemy. Were you left behind?” The invisible creature was apparently formed out of the very air itself. She responded by saying, “I’m a victim, a meta they tried to blame for this. I’ve been told if I didn’t help them they would hurt, would kill my daughter.”

Peter immediately responded by asking, “Do you know where your daughter is being held?” As he spoke, the air round his head started to vanish. He smiled, she obviously didn’t realise he didn’t need to breathe. Sneaky, she was trying to suffocate him by creating a vacuum around his head; did that mean the daughter was a fraud, though?

Unable to speak, he pulled out his own phone and typed on it, ‘I can survive space…’ and held it out to her. The air suddenly flooded back into the vacuum as he heard a “damn!” emanate from the heat haze in front of him. He offered again to help her rescue her daughter, only to be caught off-guard by her laughing, “Shouldn’t believe everything you hear. I’ve not actually got a daughter, I, ah just wanted to have you off balance and feeling sympathetic towards me…”

As she spoke, he noticed the voice was on the move, towards the door to the chamber trying to flee. Paragon flew in front of her and, with his hands raised, said, “Look, I just want to help you.”

The figure paused, “If you want to help me, get out of my way! I just needed to get to this…” and reaching out touched one of the sigils on the wall, her hand appeared on its surface green and solid-looking as it pressed it down he realised she was trying to activate another of the nightmare glyphs. As soon as he realised what she was doing he looked away, Just in time seemingly, as no nightmares invaded his reality.

As he did so, he realised there was another, different heat signature like a hole in space trying to manifest into their reality, but for some reason it couldn’t anchor itself properly and faded in and out multiple times. She tried to run towards the stench of sulphur but it failed to properly materialise and after several attempts, it faded away completely. Seems the portal couldn’t materialise within the temple itself. He unleashed an eye blast at it anyway, just before it vanished. He couldn’t be sure he did any damage, but it made him feel better.

He tried to see if she was carrying the Hellstone, but it had to also be transformed into air like its incorporeal courier. She turned and again tried to get to the exit. Thankfully for her, the traps only seemed to work against people entering, not leaving the chambers and she seemed to know a faster route out of the labyrinth, hindering Paragon’s pursuit by activating stone blocks that slammed shut in front of him, supposedly sealing him in, though in reality it merely slowed him down slightly.

As she reached the surface, she found himself confronted by a very cold ghostly Banshee. They grappled but she broke free just as Akira stepped out of the Crate’s entrance and manifested a force cage around her, trapping her inside. She tried to break free but couldn’t.

After struggling for several minutes, she settled down and became a more solid, if still gaseous, green form, the red Hellstone materialising in her hand.  Paragon followed her out of the temple and onto the chilly surface. Behind him, he heard an inhuman roar emanating from the depths of the temple structure, as though something large and monstrous was about to break free.

All he knew was that in the bowels of the earth, deep beneath the structure, something was moving. He could see the vibrations like an earthquake shattering at the ice-covered cliffs around them. He couldn’t help wonder if removing the Hellstone from the altar had awakened the Kraken, or possibly something even worse?

He shouted out, “We need to get out of here. Something’s coming from below…” though even as he spoke, he wasn’t totally sure that was true or not, just that something was responding to their presence here. He suddenly felt the urge to go fight whatever it was.

The team approached Sylph, who was still trapped inside the force cage. Paragon suggested taking her inside the Crate and leave, taking her back with them to the UK. It was Akira that quietly pointed out how near impossible it would be to maintain a force cage for so many hours, and how would they renew the air inside the cage without risking her escaping? Instead, she offered them a deal, the Hellstone for her freedom. She had no desire to spend any time in prison, and there was no actual evidence that she had ever broken any laws.

She held out the Hellstone, an uncut blood-red rock, and smiled. Akira explained that he proposed to teleport the stone free from the cage before he would agree to let her go. She laid the stone on the ground in front of her, muttering, “I hope your aim is good.”

Akira nodded then teleported it out of the bubble onto Paragon’s outstretched hand. He turned and headed back to the Crate, not seeing Paragon’s face as he gripped the stone and suddenly felt an immense sense of fear and panic flow over him. Nothing he could do seemed to stop it. He could feel a desire to rip someone’s head off, and the only people nearby were his teammates and Sylph. The pain was immense, the worst he had ever experienced in his life. He dropped the stone and the overload of emotions and rage began to dissipate, though he had this feeling that someone, somewhere was now aware of his weaknesses, as though there was now a crack, a hole, in his mental armour that someone, something could use to hurt or kill him. For the first time in his short, conscious life, he felt vulnerable and exposed, and he didn’t like the feeling.

Sylph spoke up, “I’ve kept my side of the bargain, and now let me go. The Hellqueen will rescue me and retrieve the stone from you. You’ll come to regret this interference in her plans, I promise you. She now knows who you are.”

Akira turned as he entered the Crate, “We’ll let you go once we’re far enough away that you can’t steal the stone back.” Sylph protested, but Akira just waved back. He couldn’t maintain his force field over any great distance, after all. He saw that Paragon had dropped the Hellstone on the ground and Tk’ed it over to the Crate where he dropped it into a nearby storage box as Mary piloted their vessel away from the hidden valley.

Akira meanwhile let his force cage dissipate from around Sylph as he sat back in his chair in relief. He had been feeling physically drained ever since he’d used the scrying mirror to contact Adrian, though he wasn’t sure why. He watched Mary pilot the Crate and tried to relax, recover his energy, but this fatigue just wouldn’t disappear. It didn’t help that he hadn’t slept. He looked in the mirror and for a second, thought he saw a much older version of him looking back. It had to be a side effect of his exhaustion, surely?

He looked over at Mary and Paragon and asked, “Okay, so where to next? Head to Dakata or try to figure out how to get to this Sub-Terra? We could re-contact Adrian and see if has managed to work out how to transport us there yet?” He reached over and tapped the Atlas. “Otherwise, this might be able to find us an entrance.”

Mary explained to Paragon that they might have difficulty in gaining entry to Dakata if they headed there next, as they only allowed a few people to visit the country and never allowed tourists.

Dakata was a small, landlocked country in the central of a range of impassable mountains and jungles around its borders, which had helped Dakata isolate itself from outsiders.

Thanks to their longstanding policy of isolation and secrecy, most of the world regarded Dakata as little more than a traditional and stable, but otherwise impoverished Sub-Saharan African kingdom that has inexplicably evaded colonial rule throughout its many centuries of history. The nation imported little and exported even less.

In reality, the interior of the country consisted of a very fertile and lush river valley surrounded by mountain ranges rich in natural resources. Dakata had established a thriving technological base long before Europeans and most menial or difficult labour was automated, leaving the citizenry free to study science, art, and the humanities. The nation was also home to Princess Tafari, the heroic White Lioness, who protected the nation, and continent, from outside threats on behalf of her father, King M’Balla, the previous White Lion.

 The Balance had visited before and both Mary and Akira knew the truth about how the use of a unique mineral, the Daka crystals, had meant that Dakata was a paradise for its inhabitants. Last time they had only gained entry due to transporting Philip – Farasi – M’Shumba, the Dakatan Ambassador to London, and had the covert support of Princess Tafari.

Perhaps they would be welcomed back; after all, they had helped stop an invasion and coup last time.

The country had been attacked many times over the centuries but had never been conquered and was extremely difficult to enter unless you flew in and that was near impossible as Dakata was completely surrounded by impassable mountains. They could park the Crate outside the border that was the Ngao Mountains and climb (or float) down the Thousand Step Staircase, which was the only land-based entrance into the country, in the hope that they would be allowed to visit. You couldn’t just fly in without permission, not safely anyway, as a concealed sky shield covered the whole country.

They needed to contact and gain permission to enter the country and it fell to Akira to try to figure out how. In the end, he decided to contact Princess Tafari directly and hope she could persuade the King to grant them entry.

He got through to her personal comm-unit immediately and initially tried to butter her up claiming that they wanted to visit for some ‘R and R’ but she wasn’t going to fall for flattery or such an obviously false tale and demanded the truth. “But we’re just got back from Antarctica and it was bloody cold and we thought we would like to drop in and see how you’re doing”, he pled. “And see if you need any help.” He continued.

The Princess immediately changed the subject and began to discuss the gravitics factories she had set up since their visit and she heard the discomfort in his voice as Akira tried unsuccessfully to try to turn the conversation back again to being allowed entry into Dakata. After teasing him for several minutes, she agreed to approach the King and see if he was willing to grant them entry “but honestly, what is the reason you want access? The truth is always best when it comes to my dad…”

Reluctantly, Akira explained that they believed that Dakata was storing an extra-dimensional threat in the form of a mystical ruby-like stone and that there were a group of elemental thieves who was trying to steal them all. They had stopped the theft of one stone and wanted to help stop the Dakatans’ stone from being stolen. Not least because he thought they might want to use all of the stones to destroy the multiverse though, he admitted, he wasn’t totally sure about the last bit. Her response was almost triumphant at finally getting to the truth, “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, like sneaking into the shine of the Goddess S’Khmet this time.” Akira smiled, “My team ah, I mean my teammates, are under instructions not to do anything stupid,” he promised.

She ended the call with a promise to call them back before they entered Dakatan airspace. All they could do was continue their journey towards the African coast and hope. A couple of hours later she called back and explained that the king had ‘reluctantly’ agreed to their entry.

Paragon listened to the conversation and wondered what was really going on. That confusion grew as they neared the mountains that surrounded the country and then flew into the heavy cloud cover that concealed the mountain peaks. Inside the thick cloud cover, he realised they were a hologram. Beneath which was an energy shield covering the mountain range that surrounded the whole country. To his surprise, Mary flew straight at the top of the nearest mountainside only for it to vanish a second later, as the shielding formed from millions of heptagon-shaped energy began to dissipate, revealing a pass through the mountain. On the other side of the pass, they saw vibrant grass plains on the valley bottom as they dropped down and hovered above a city, more advanced than any he would have expected.

From above, Dakata’s primary city of Kiburi was absolutely beautiful with primitive looking buildings, such as stone temples, intermixed with futuristic towers covered in advanced solar panels soaking in the sunlight shining down from the now cloudless sky.

They went to land beside a fleet of unusual-looking grav-vehicles and were immediately surrounded by a group of women in black body suits, which Akira explained were capable of absorbing and redirecting kinetic energy; this was the Shujaa Wa’Usiku, Dakata’s Honour Guards led by a white haired woman, Imani M’Kusini (who Mary and Akira addressed as Mercy).

She nodded at them as they stepped out of the Crate but didn’t smile. She introduced them to Gawiji Habimana the country’s Internal Security Director who would accompany them on their visit with the king. Princess Tafari approached as they reached the Palace, warning them that neither Mercy nor her dad was a hundred percent convinced about their motives but they would allow them limited access within Dakata, if they told him truthfully why they were here.

They admitted that they were there to prevent the Factor Four from stealing another of the Hellstones. She asked, “What are you going to do with it? Then admitted that what they called a Hellstone did form part of a headdress taken from a defeated crocodile cult many centuries ago. It was currently kept secure in the National Treasury Building in the capital, as the headdress was a valuable part of their country’s inauguration ceremony for a new ruler. Its fear and rage-inducing abilities in whoever wore it was a valuable test of a righteous ruler’s ability to be in total control of their emotions and make righteous judgments at all times. It was one of the tests that the would-be ruler had to successfully overcome before they took up the mantle of king or queen of Dakata.

The Daka crystals incorporated into the vault’s security system prevented anyone from teleporting in or turning incorporeal. She was pretty sure the stone was secure in their hands. Regardless, they would never agree to allow it to leave this land.

“We just want to protect it,” explained Mary. Akira jumped in, “If it feels the stone is safe from being stolen then that’s fine, but we are dealing with mystical entities, the like of which we’ve never encountered before this. They’re extremely powerful.”

After a short but intense interview with the king, they were allowed to review the treasury’s security and even suggest recommendations to improve it but his majesty was sure that no one or thing would be able to steal it.

If that was true, the team wondered if the Dakatans might be able to keep the Antarctica Hellstone safe as well, though they remembered that Adrian had warned them against keeping all of the stones together in one place, but after all he’d kept two of them in the Nexus hasn’t he?

The old saying about not keeping all your eggs in one basket came to mind. Did that still apply though if it was in a crate, quipped Akira?

The Princess was sure no one could sneak into the country unchallenged but Banshee reminded her that the Red Mask had done just that and then ensured the way was open for the PAA, the Paradise in Africa Army, to try and invade. Akira suggested that in order to test their security they should try to steal the jewel themselves only for Mercy to stop and say aloud, “and yet again.” Forcing Akira to try to explain he meant only as a way of testing their security. This conversation continued until they arrived at their destination with Mercy demanding to know if Akira was “a man of his word?”

In the end, they offered their own crystal as security while they tried to test the treasury’s security. Mercy accepted the deal and had one of her team take the secure box the Antarctica stone was being stored in into their keeping (after testing it to ensure it wasn’t a fake). She smiled at the thought that their security systems might succeed in trapping Akira and muttered, “Now that is a deal I could live with.”

The Royal Treasury was located on the edge of the city of Kiburi, buried deep beneath the Ngao Mountains, and would have put Western military nuclear bunkers to shame. The area was extremely secure against normal intruders but, to the Balance’s well-trained eye, would be ineffective against powerful supers like the Factor Four. They passed a dozen security scanners, laser sensors and an excess of black suited females as they made their way to the vaults deep in the bowels of the mountain.

Tafari stopped outside a heavy metallic vault door. “The headdress is stored with other items of importance including the crown jewels, three chambers back, each built from Neutronium alloy mixed with Daka crystal fragments, which resonate at a frequency that blocks most of the exotic powers such as teleport or insubstantial. The first vault is secure behind a laser grid which leads to another door where our Shujaa Wa’Usiku, skilled warriors all, prevents entry to the actual vault itself.”

“Yes,” said Akira but will it protect against someone teleporting in from another dimension or against magic?”

“Magic is just technology we don’t yet fully understand surely, and yes I believe our vault is as secure as any on the planet.”

Akira realised that was the problem, the Dakatans assumed that the laws of physics as they knew them, would apply to any attempt on the treasury and failed to understand that magic was not constrained by physical laws as this world understood them.

Access to the vault, even for the royal family, usually had to be cleared and agreed in advance, Mercy explained, “It is usually only accessed during an inauguration. Most of the items inside the vault have not seen the light of day since King M’Balla ascended the throne.”

Princess Tafari went over and switched on a monitor to show them each of the chambers in turn. It was the second chamber that the team focused on, as they realised that this was the weak point in the Dakatan’s security. They relied heavily on their own technology in the hands of their trusted guards and so they had live guards inside the second chamber and that meant electricity feeds, CCTV of the innermost vault for monitoring and water for drinking and toilet purposes. That room also had fresh air pumped in from somewhere. Oh, all of these systems would no doubt be monitored and securely filtered in some way, but an elemental such as Sylph or Fathom should be able to bypass them even if it meant travelling down a one centimetre wide feed or through air scrubbers in order to gain entry to the middle chamber. Then the only thing stopping them was a bank vault door. Supposedly, nothing could get beyond that.

Akira turned to his two companions, “So, anyone got any prior experience in robbing banks?” as they discussed their various options.  

They asked how strong was the doors and were assured they were strong enough. Paragon stepped up, “You willing to let me try?” “Sure, we can fix it or if necessary replace it. The vault doors are formed of Polymorphic Neutronium, also known as synthetic neutron stellar matter, alloyed with steel and includes a weave with free neutrons pressed into it. In its molten state, neutronium can be pressed, moulded, and formed into whatever shape is required. Once neutronium cools and hardens, it becomes more durable and resilient than any other substance. As a downside, however, neutronium weighs five times more than a similar volume of lead.”

Banshee smiled, “Mr Muscles, you’re up” as Akira reminded him to “just rip the bloody door off!” “Just as long as I don’t have to pay for the repairs” muttered Paragon.

He stepped forward, got a good grip on the top of the massive door and tried to rip it open. He struggled and was forced to use all of his effort. In the end, he managed to bend the top of the door sufficiently wide enough for someone to be able to crawl through. Then he felt a massive electrical shock run through his body as his assault on the door registered on the security system. Akira tried to use his Theurgical-Kinesis to break the circuit by lifting him off the ground and pull him away from the door – and failed, as the Daka crystals embedded in the walls and vault door interfered with his mystical ability.

The team was grateful when Mercy rushed forward and switched off the defense system. Seemed this setting wasn’t set to kill. Paragon fell back shuddering as the electrical assault left him stunned and exhausted. He had however, gained access to the first of the chambers and the laser grid within.

Princess Tafari looked impressed at his achievement and so were they when she stepped forward; put her hand on the entry panel of the twisted door and the metal reformed itself, exactly as it had been a few seconds before. She smiled, “I did say it was polymorphic. Its memory metal, coded to repair itself and resume its programmed shape once someone with the royal DNA signature starts the process. Does that answer your question?”

They had to admit that seemed quite secure. They turned back to the monitor and realised something was happening in the middle chamber. Several of the guards could be seen clutching their throats as they collapsed to the ground, in spasms. From what they could see this wasn’t a gas attack, as they saw a trickle of clear liquid dripping out of the corners of each of their mouths; they were apparently being drowned. Then the trickles of clear liquid flowed together and joined with a watery cascade from a tap and reformed into a humanoid shape, just before the monitor feed died. They now had no idea what was happening inside that room.

“Princess, It’s not us,” Banshee pled, as the Princess turned pale. Mercy rushed over and began programming in the override code to gain entry to the first chamber and close down the laser grid. The door to the first chamber suddenly sprung open. They all rushed in and advanced on the door to the second chamber where Mercy again placed her hand on the entry panel but, to her surprise, nothing happened.  Princess Tafari pushed in and tried to override the door. Something was blocking her override authority but she had no idea how.

Paragon stepped up and gripped the door knowing he was about to get shocked again.  He braced himself and pulled, even as he lifted himself off the ground in preparation. The security rods that secured the door snapped and the door sprung open even as a killer-strength discharge of electricity arced through his body. He tried to gain height even as the electricity tried to complete the circuit. He felt as though his internal organs were being fried. Then the shock died and he fell back to the ground.

No time to rest and heal, he joined the other inside the second chamber. The guards were all either dead or unconscious on the ground but what really caught their eyes was that the vault door to the inner chamber was wide open, they just didn’t know how, but Banshee suspected that the intense cold radiating from the metal of the door had something to do with it.

Standing in the doorway, holding an alien-looking headdress with a large ruby-like centrepiece in his watery hand was Professor fathom! 

Paragon had had enough and unleashed a full-on eye blast at the ‘hand’ holding the crown. The blast boiled his arm causing the headdress to start to fall, only for Akira to ‘catch’ it in his TK and fly it across the room, towards him.

Banshee looked around quickly to see if Fathom was alone. Unable to see anyone with him she then unleashed a terrorising scream at him leaving him dazed even though Paragon also caught the edge of Banshee’s attack.

Fathom responded by sending a wave of water back at her, encasing his head and she suddenly realised just how bad it had to feel to be waterboarded, as she felt the water pour into her throat and try to drown her. She responded by turning insubstantial. The water attacking her face and lungs splashed to the floor.  She responded with a scream, hoping to affect his fluidic nervous system. It worked and he staggered back and immediately tried to flee.

Akira manifested a force cage around him and dragged him back as he tried, unsuccessfully, to turn into a pool of liquid and escape. As he was flown towards Mercy and several newly arrived Shujaa Wa’Usiku guards, Paragon took the opportunity to confirm that Fathom had broken in alone, using his enhanced senses.

To the team’s surprise, he seemed nonchalant  and relaxed about being caught, though he did warn them all that they would have to deal with the consequences as the ‘Hellqueen’ would make sure they suffered for preventing her getting her prize. “Take me to prison, I surrender. Get me out of here, now!” The demand made Akira wonder if they shouldn’t just keep him down here, just to spite him. “Are you able to keep him imprisoned?” he asked Mercy. She nodded, “We’ll probably need to be creative but yes, a completely sealed cell should work.” He continued, “Perhaps the crystal might be safer in our hands..?” Mercy responded with just “No.” After a short pause, she explained that they would upgrade, remove the human element from their security that had left them so vulnerable, but in the end, they needed the crown, as it was an important aspect of their inauguration ceremony. 

As he was walked out of the treasury, they wondered whom or what was the Hellqueen.  Fathom admitted she had once been known by another, earthly name, but it wasn’t one she had ever used around them.

He did admit that she had promised to ‘liberate’ him, and the others, from their elemental forms while retaining their powers, so they could finally achieve their full potential, but to do so she had said that she required the Hellstones.

Akira tried to bluff him into revealing her other identity but he refused to say anything more until Banshee  intimidated him into revealing more.  That persuaded him to talk, “Gwen Nugent was nobody until a demon cult tried to sacrifice her to their master. Instead the powerful infernal force saw her as the ideal host—a chosen one through whom she could rule the Earth—and bonded with her to become the hellfire-manipulating Hellqueen. Cruel and revenge-oriented, she desires what others have and will unleash all the powers of the inferno to get it, or to take revenge on those who stand in her way.

Possessed by a powerful succubus. The link between them is strong. Eldrich never managed to break it permanently. She has powerful demonic magic: summoning, illusions, sapping willpower. Succubi are spirits of jealousy, too, so she can shapeshift and manipulate others. Come to think of it… jealousy is her whole thing.”

The crown was carefully replaced in the vault until a more secure storage location could be prepared with the security guards careful to avoid touching the stone directly.

Having examined the inner door it seemed that Fathom had gained access by filling the door mechanism with water then freezing it, possibly using a spell. The rapid temperature change had caused the locks to fail.

They reached the outside of the treasury with Professor Fathom still secure inside the force cage, still surrounded by several Shujaa Wa’Usiku, when, to their horror, they noticed he had turned into fluid again and seemed to leak away while still inside the cage, apparently evaporated into nothing.  Akira dropped the cage and a stench of sulphur wafted over them all. Seemed the Hellqueen had elected to rescue him after all.

Later that day they explained to Mercy that their next destination had to be this underground land of Sub-Terra, if they could figure out how to get there.  Thankfully, they had the Alternity Atlas to consult, if Akira could just manage to understand it. After a few hours of study, they realised that one of the entrances was actually very close. According to the Atlas, there was a passage to the kingdom of Agartha in the subterranean world, located beneath the sacred Shrine of the Goddess S’Khmet on T’Katifu Peak.

Banshee and Akira had accidentally visited the Holy mountain last time they had been here, and not only seen the ancient shrine, but had viewed the Goddess herself and had realised that the ancient being was apparently one of the Fteirle, an alien interstellar race sometimes referred to as Aslani.

Their last encounter with the three thousand year old Goddess haven’t been received well by King M’Balla but they had to try and get permission as the alternative was to wait until Adrian had successfully formulated his teleportation spell and that could take days, weeks even. To their surprise, the King agreed, admittedly reluctantly, but only if the Goddess gave her permission before they passed beyond the entrance, otherwise they must not trespass in the shrine.

That interview had gone better than expected, Mary thought, as the team approached the cavern that led to the holy shrine and, standing at the waterfall next to the entrance to the shrine, looked down at the distant figure in the red cloak meditating outside the temple. 

Mercy was also present to ensure that S’Khmet agreed to their request and they didn’t anger the creator of this kingdom. They had parked the Crate on the plain nearby.

Akira elected himself their spokesperson. “Great lady in red, we wish permission to enter your temple if we may, in order to pass beyond, into the world below.  We ask, with great reverence, as we believe our cause is just. We only ask as we believe this world is at risk as is your kingdom of Dakata.”

She gestured in their direction and, in their minds, they heard a faint voice speaking though there was a weird, alien edge to the words as they resonated in their minds, <<Passage+you+may+have+ONCE. Again+never. Enter+you+may+but+leave+by+another+way+you+must. Access+grant+I+to+Sub-Terra+GO!>>

They thanked the Goddess then went and grabbed their equipment and torches from the Crate as they arranged with Jeeves to remote pilot the vessel back to the BASEment, as there was no way they could travel into the underworld with it. After some discussion, they finally agreed to leave their Hellstone behind with the Dakatans rather that either take it with them or fly it back unguarded, just in case the Hellqueen could track its location.

 Having done that, they headed down into the temple and continued into the depths of the earth to the tunnels that they assumed, hoped, led to the underworld.

They travelled for several hours, flying through narrow, twisting caverns and sloping passageways, always leading deeper into the Earth until Akira sensed a portal up ahead. The pathway to Sub-Terra hopefully? Sub-Terra was supposedly a vast series of interconnected caverns and tunnels that appeared to exist deep inside the Earth, but according to the Atlas also existed within a number of dimensional fault-lines, meaning the realm had to exist, at least partially, in a series of interconnected “pocket dimensions” that didn’t necessarily obey the ordinary rules of geology, or even physics.

They stepped forward and instantly found themselves looking at something quite different: They now stood in the  interior of a vast cavern, filled with a strange and ancient city of jade towers and serpentine archways, covered in alien symbols and inhuman carvings. A grand, palatial structure loomed above the city itself. There was something reptilian about the city, though they would struggle to say why, exactly. Akira did remember seeing something about Agartha having apparently been built by the ancient Serpent People, survivors of sunken Lemuria but they had abandoned it for some reason.

It clearly wasn’t deserted now though.

A plume of flames in the middle distance caught their eyes, and when they looked through the gloom, they could see several unconscious bodies nearby, like bloated humanoids, but clearly not human, small in stature with jaundiced, hairless skin and round, blind fish-like eyes, clad in kilts and equipment harnesses. Their bodies lay scattered on the stone pavement amidst scorch-marks and cracked stone. Odd-looking pikes and clubs lay where they had fallen or had been thrown.

This trail of corpses led to a courtyard where a hundred of the creatures were trying to assault two familiar figures; a stony behemoth and fiery figure they recognised as Granite and Pyre. In the distance, they could hear a powerful drumbeat echoing through the cavern, the sound of an alarm ,while high above, on the top of the pyramid-like palace, stood a more human-looking figure with a staff and golden mask covering his face. That had to be their ruler or priest surely.

They flew towards the battle and confirmed that Granite was holding a small transparent crystal box, which had a ruby-like stone in it. This had to be fabled city of Agartha and it appeared they had arrived just in time to prevent Granite and Pyre escaping with the last of the Hellstones.

They flew in closer, towards the fighting, as the apparently blind natives tried to prevent the two invaders from getting away from the temple or palace with the crystal. The natives swarmed over them both to no real effect and the howls of their dying filled the cavern.

One of the natives knocked the crystal box to the ground as Granite snatched the falling crystal and clutched it in his rocky hand. Banshee immediately flew towards Granite and tried to unleash a corrupting touch on him, hoping to bypass his stony skin and affect his nervous system. Her touch left the giant figure dazed.

Several of the Sub-Terrans tried to grab at him but he pulled free. Paragon flew at ‘Rocky’ and grabbed him, lifted his feet off the ground, then punched him, hard. He hung from Paragon’s fist staggered by the blow. Akira waded in and elected to fire mystical blasts at both the man in the mask on high while also blasting Granite. The first blast hit Granite a glancing blow while the next failed to hit the figure with the staff. Akira had just declared war on the Sub-Terrans, his teammates realised.

Pyre, seeing the attack on his companion, elected to ‘fire’ on Banshee, but only succeeded in a glancing blow. Locked in mortal combat, Granite tried to fight back against Paragon and punched out, but it was like punching a brick wall as Paragon ignored the blow, much to Granite’s dismay.

The Sub-Terrans tried to swarm the new invaders, only for Banshee to unleash a terrorising scream that washed over the pack forcing those closest to turn and try to flee. Their flight was blocked by those behind them who had managed to cope with its effects. Paragon felt the terror of his companions scream rip at his psyche and make him want to run away, but he pushed the fear away.

He flew up to the ceiling of the cavern with his passenger, and punched him unconscious before throwing him straight at Pyre even as the Hellstone fell out of his unconscious hand. The priest or king on high raised his staff and unleashed a blast of electricity at Akira, which thankfully missed as he flew into the air, trying to intercept the tumbling Hellstone before it hit the ground, slowing its fall and bringing it into his hand. The man-meteorite meanwhile had headed towards the ground and smashed into Pyre who, even in his elemental form, was left dazed by the unexpected attack.

At that moment there was a loud monstrous roar coming from one of the nearby chambers, as though in response.

Akira now held the stone and immediately felt a strong of fear and panic flow over him, followed by wave after wave of uncontrollable anger and rage. Nothing he could do seemed to stop it. He immediately felt anger at everyone for once again leaving him to deal with everything on his own.

He responded with attacks at both friend and foe; starting with the enemy on high, the man with the staff who’d tried to fry him. The blast hit but he managed to remain on his feet. Akira then turned and fired on Pyre but missed. Then, to his teammates surprise, he fired on Banshee, thankfully missing before finally turning on Paragon. That last blast brought him back slightly from the edge of madness and paranoia. It was too late; the blast had staggered his teammate. Pyre also elected to unleash a blast of flame into the sky against Paragon, who was flying above him at that same moment.  The flames flared out from Pyre’s outstretched hands like an out of control bonfire, but thankfully failed to hit.

Paragon glanced down and saw two, balrog-like, giant kaiju, seemingly summoned by the man on high, had wandered out of a tunnel and began to roar as they strode into the courtyard, scattering Sub-Terrans, who fled in panic.

Banshee responded to the echoing roars by ghosting herself. With the Hellstone compelling Akira to attack them as well as the others, it seemed the safest thing to do. The ‘Morlocks’, on hearing the roars, turned and tried to flee in their direction even as the magnificently large kaiju strolled into view. Their backs scrapped along the cavern ceiling as they came into view. Both had a similar lizard-like appearance but one seemed as though it was formed of magma, its back and skin veined in fire, the other was its twin except it had veins of icy-white covering its body. Akira also noticed that only the red-veined one was ‘running hot’.

“Come forth my pets!” screamed the man on high as he raised his staff. He surprisingly spoke in English with a soft American accent and his voice was thin and squeaky.  He turned towards them and as he pointed his staff straight at Akira, he screamed, “How dare you attack me and mine. How dare you trespass on my kingdom! You pollute my realm by your very presence. I will punish you, rip your skin from your…”

The Balance, recognising that this apoplectic tirade was liable to continue indefinitely, or at least until someone forcibly shut the hysteric up, tuned out the rest of his words while they focused on their current situation.

As though in response, the two gigantic monsters began to stride towards them, the Sub-Terrans trying to flee as they stamped and fed upon anyone too slow to get out of their path.  Akira looked up at their screaming master and saw a lightning blast emanate from the tip of the staff, heading towards him. He responded by casually sidestepping the blast, which shattered the pavement close to where he had been standing but failed to hit. It did arc and electrocute several of his own subjects who’d failed to get out of the blast zone. If the deaths of his own subjects at his own hands concerned him in any way, his ranting and demeanour failed to reveal it. It seemed he considered the lives of his subjects as having no value.

Banshee tried to work out if she could unleash a fearful scream without affecting her team members. She realised Akira would still be within the scream’s range but decided to risk it anyway. For their own safety, he had to clear the subterranean dwellers away from the courtyard before any more of them were massacred by their own so-called defenders.  Unfortunately the ‘dragons’ were currently too far away to be affected by her assault.

She unleashed her scream and was rewarded with Pyre collapsing to the ground, unable to stand. The Sub-Terrans, unable to flee away from her because of the advancing kaiju, stampeded forward, trying to get past them. Some did try to claw at Akira, but failed as he dodged their attempts to grab him. They tried grabbing a ghostly Banshee and trying to grab Paragon’s legs dangling in the air, but their attempts were also to no effect.  A fallen Pyre tried to twist himself round and fired at Paragon with a flaming discharge of plasma. The shot missed completely, and only succeeded in bringing down a cloud of dust and a small avalanche of rubble from the roof of the cavern, which he had accidentally melted with his missed blast.

Akira looked up and gave thanks that the cavern roof wasn’t covered in polystyrene tiles. Looking at the ‘king-on-high’ he was willing to bet moaner there had them on the ceiling of his palace though. The irreverent thought suddenly made him question why he was attacking his teammates, as he realised that it had to be connected to the Hellstone he was holding in his hand.

Meanwhile Paragon decided that if this tantrum-throwing ‘baby-king’ was going to continue to throw an outburst he would take away his rattle, or at least his staff, which he assumed was somehow controlling the two shambling beasts being unleashed on them. He flew down towards the solitary figure on high and slammed him to the ground, dazing him. He stood in front of him and with the back of his hand wiped a small stream of blood away from his nose before reaching down and grabbing the staff.

Akira turned round and felt a compulsion flow over him to blast Peter. Instead, he focused on dropping the stone. A second later, the Hellstone clattered on to the paving at his feet. Liberated, he immediately teleported himself away from the stone and the advancing kaiju. He stepped out some distance behind Banshee and gestured. A force cage immediately formed around the demonic stone and forced it off the ground.

On high, the Terra King began to scream at his pets, “It’s feeding time, eat the intruders!” as they hurried into the courtyard, apparently ignoring the scattering sentient morsels trying to escape their presence to focus on the now nearby surface dwellers.  Banshee unleashed another terrifying scream, this time aimed at the two monstrous beasts heading straight towards them. The beasts staggered back, affected by the sonic attack as she saw Pyre stand up and try to run towards the stone levitating in the air even as lightning branched out from Terra-King’s hand towards Banshee and Akira but without the staff to direct the blast, it grounded before hitting either of them.

Pyre used the attack as cover as he unleashed several plasma pulses at the force cage surrounding the Hellstone but the shielding held. He then reached down and tried to force his fiery hand through the energy barrier but again failed even as he was forced to dodge a mystical blast from Akira who then unleashed a second attack at the Terra-King, which knocked him unconscious. Unfortunately, that meant his ‘pets’ were now no longer being controlled, and again took to snacking on the remaining inhabitants still trying to flee.

The fiery-veined creature began to elongate its neck as a torrent of superhot breath was expelled towards Paragon. The ultra-heated air rolled over him but failed to char-boil him as his uniform absorbed and protected him against most of the heat. He pointed his recently acquired staff at his massive attacker’s head while shouting, “Stop!” It didn’t work, but then again maybe he had to speak in whatever language the chicken scratchings engraved on the shaft were? He spun round and flung the staff down towards Akira in the hope that his mystically inclined friend might be able to make it work. The staff shot like an Olympic javelin to clatter near Akira’s feet, having passed right through Akira’s force cage as though it didn’t exist.

Meanwhile, Paragon readied himself for combat even as the other, white-veined kaiju unleashed a baleful shriek that made their blood turn cold. Paragon and Akira felt it rip at their minds, leaving them feeling slightly confused and befuddled. Paragon responded with an eye blast but he missed due to still feeling disorientated.

Akira grabbed up the staff, recognised the engraved characters as being ancient Lemurian, though he didn’t know the language and wasn’t able to translate them.  There was power in the staff though, power that controlled both the Sub-Terrans and possibly the kaiju and other creatures native to this realm. He grasped that he was holding the control rod, if only he could figure out how to use it. He allowed himself to open up to the magic inside the staff and realised that in order to control the beasties he needed to touch them on the forehead with the staff first to gain control over them. The Sub-Terrans, on the other hand, he already had command of, as long as he pointed the staff at them and mentally commanded them to do something.  It was somehow psychically connected to some sort of mental enslavement device located in the city and wouldn’t work outside of this subterranean realm.

He flew up into the air and soared towards Paragon and his attacker, what Akira thought of as the ‘hot’ dragon (though not in an attraction sort of way), intending to try to take control of it by touching it gently on the forehead with the staff. The creature responded by growing several additional clawed limbs in preparation for a fight even as it began to shred some of its molten, glass-like scales that it flung at him. Akira felt the melted shards fly past but they failed to hit him and he managed to get close to its head, only for it to jerk its head away at the last second.

Banshee unleashed another terrorising scream that resulted in Pyre battering himself again the outside of the force cage in a panic to try to flee the fear. It washed over the fiery dragon trying to attack Paragon and caused it to jerk its head away for the second time.  It staggered its companion though.

Pyre was still trying to break through the psychic cage surrounding the stone with his fiery blasts, but thankfully, the shield was holding, for the moment at least. Akira’s concentration waivered though, as the red-veined beast struck out at him and glassy shards again peppered him, but failed to hit. It was affecting his concentration though and he shouted, “I can’t hold that force cage against Pyre much longer.”

Paragon nodded and flew down to where Pyre was hiding behind the force cage trying to gain access to the power jewel within. He slammed down on him from above hitting the fiery being so hard that his flames were almost extinguished and rendered him unconscious, just as Akira was forced to relinquish the cage in order to deal with his own defence, as he again was forced to fly away.

 The other beast loomed into the view, breathing out a milky vapour from its nostrils that was animating the corpses of the Sub-Terrans scattered around it. Slowly they reanimated and shambled forward, towards Banshee and Paragon. Akira looked down and gestured with the Terra-King’s staff even as he commanded them to leave the area. Looking down, his mind drifted and to his surprise, the animated dead began to re-enact the dance from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video as they shuffled away, in a co-ordinated manner. Akira smiled; a single stray random thought had changed his command from a simple go away into a retake of a music video. The staff was indeed powerful, perhaps too much.

Akira, now he was able to focus completely on his task and, now he no longer had to also maintain the cage, again flew towards the fiery kaiju and this time succeeded in touching the staff to its forehead. Instantly its eyes glazed over and it stopped moving as Akira took control of its actions.

That meant that Banshee and Paragon still had the white-veined beast to deal with. Banshee flew towards the creature, turning substantial at the last second in the hope of unleashing a corrupting touch on it. She reached out, touched its icy-cold body and… nothing, the creature seemed unaffected as her own hand went through the creatures head, as it turned insubstantial in response.

Paragon flew down but could not figure out how to deal with it, this ability rendered his powers, well powerless. All he had left were his good looks, and he wasn’t sure he was this creature’s type. All he could do was wait and hope it re-substantialised itself soon. He elected to check on Pyre and Granite. He wanted to move the fiery, unconscious body away from the Hellstone but discovered he couldn’t move the elemental body, composed as it was of flames. He has forced to leave him where he was and went to check that Granite was still unconscious.

Akira wondered if his controlled kaiju could affect the other, but of course, there was no way he could tell what abilities or powers it had. Instead, he realised that he needed the advice of their expert in the insubstantial, Banshee, and flew over to her. Akira smiled and said to her in his sexiest voice, “Touch me!” and raised the staff. Banshee laughed and grabbed him while turning both of them insubstantial. In the past Banshee had found that others had been able to be physically affected when both were phased and Akira had remembered that. As both of them ghosted, Akira teleported them both paired together, towards the ghosted beast arriving just above its forehead and he reached down with the staff and took control of its mind.

Like the other kaiju, it froze in position. He was now in total command of the two enormous beasts.  He laughed, the sense of power momentarily overpowering him.

Then, over their commdots, they heard the distant and partially distorted voice of Jeeves’, “Akira, why have you risked teleporting onboard the Crate mid-flight? What are you doing with the Atlas?” then the comms again went dead. A few seconds later, before he could figure out what to do next, he ‘heard’ a sweet, seductive and almost familiar female voice whispering in the wind, “The first seal is breached.” He wasn’t sure he’d really heard anything, it could have just been his imagination after all.

This was followed almost immediately by another burst of transmission, again from Jeeves, “The flight has resumed” then again it went dead as contact was broken again.

Akira began to wonder if perhaps they were still on the crate and this was some sort of imposed reality where they existed both there and here? It would account for him being in both places but if that were the case, why would he need to teleport onboard?

While they were discussing what this transmission, assuming it was genuine, actually meant, out of the corner of his eye Paragon saw a slight movement by the supposedly unconscious Pyre as he reached out towards the fallen Hellstone. Then everything happened too quickly to respond. Pyre touched the crystal and the stone seemed to evaporate as though his body was absorbing it, even as his lower limbs began to vanish as though something or someone was absorbing or enveloping him as he lay on the ground. A brief smell of sulphur wafted their way as the three of them flew towards where Pyre had been a second or two before.

Paragon tried to grab him but failed. Should they follow him through the portal, given what had happened last time with Paragon? “Should we go or should we stay?” muttered Akira as Paragon lunged forward while shouting, “Follow him!”  It would mean leaving Granite behind in Sub-Terra if they did; they had a couple of seconds at most to decide.

Akira realised that he would need to leave the control staff behind as well, otherwise the kaiju would be uncontrollable and of course, he had just made an enemy of their ruler, the Terra-King! Oh well.  If only there was time to leave a note apologising?

They followed each other through the and found themselves in a cold, windy, barren plain close to an erupting volcano and surrounded by rivers of molten lava. This had somewhere close to one of the poles going by the near zero temperature, despite their closeness to a live and active volcano, though the fumes and ash being flung into the atmosphere might account for some of that.

Then they heard Jeeves’ voice over their commdots again, “According to your trackers, you appear to be in the South of Iceland. There is news that the Helvítis’Mȕnnurinn volcano has just started to erupt after being stable for over 500 years, the name translates as Hel’s Mouth though some of the local’s still called it by its original name, the Maw of Vhoka.

The previous eruption, centuries before, had caused dust clouds and haze to appear over most of Europe and parts of Asia and Africa for several months afterwards, and had affected the climate, creating a mini ice age. This time it is disrupting air traffic over the Northern Hemisphere by spewing smoke and ash into the atmosphere.”

Behind him, they could hear Seven’s voice – she was obviously with him, as she explained, “I’ve been researching ritual sites associated with Vhoka, and I found that the Mouth of Vhoka might be an arcane furnace that could potentially destroy magical artefacts. I think… I think Hellqueen’s planning to use the volcano to destroy the Hellstones, which sounds like a good idea, except all that magical energy needs to go somewhere, and I’m betting she’s set it up to flow right into her. That might even be enough power for her to claim the title of Master Mage and take control of Earth’s magic.”

She went silent for a few seconds, and then continued, “But the ritual needs five sacrifices to work. What other magical gems could she possibly sacrifice instead? You saved two of them so she no longer has access to the full set.”

After confirming they were okay, for the moment at least, Jeeves signed off as they set off for the top of the volcano where four shadowy silhouettes could be seen standing on the edge of the erupting crater.

The heat hit them like a wall as they reached a broad ledge of black stone overlooking a boiling pit of molten rock. The air above it shimmered with the intense heat. Rising tendrils of volcanic gases and narrow branches of solidified rock stretched across the pool. Sheer black-glass walls rose around the crater on all sides, save for several ledges that had been seemingly carved into the glossy surface. Fathom, Sylph and a still recovering Pyre of the Factor Four stood around the opposite edge from them. Standing between them was a tall woman with long, flaming red hair, with two horns on her forehead. She was dressed in a black corset and thigh-high boots, with a flowing black cape and surrounded by flames;

she appeared to be controlling the eruption. She smiled and then laughed, a wicked sound to their ears, “Welcome to the Maw of Vhoka, the Great Devourer,” she said in a husky voice, “You’re just in time for dinner.”

Akira laughed, “So what’s for dinner then? I have a feeling it might end up overcooked.”

Over their comms, Banshee and Akira heard Paragon wonder if there was some way they could direct the power from the crystals into themselves instead of her? Akira said it was possible, though they would likely end up corrupted in the process, given what had happened to them when they had just held the stones.

They viewed the magma bubbling  in the crater only a few metres below, the heat was intense and left them feeling faint. They rushed forward, too late to stop her from tossing one of her stolen Hellstones into the fiery maw of the volcano. There was a flash of black that, for a couple of seconds turned everything dark, as the stone sank into the magma. It was accompanied by the stench of death and decay assaulted their senses, as though a hundred rotten and decomposing corpses were being burnt nearby. The darkness then flowed into and was absorbed by the woman as she arched her back in surprise at the apparent pain that accompanied the transfer. She gestured and suddenly two little gargoyles began to manifest from the stone beneath her and break free, growing larger and larger until they towered over the woman.

Akira realised he needed to end this quickly. It was time to unleash their ‘nuclear option’ – unfortunately the last time he’d done this it had nearly killed him and left Mary extremely vulnerable but she realised that with at least one more Hellstone to power her up, they needed a way to even things up, and fast.

Akira focused and began the complicated and intricate weavings of his hands and mind, even as the spoke the words of power to unleash the Wondrous Working of Weyan. It created around Akira a wondrous phantasmal device of complex interlocking gears, powered by even as it exhausted the ambient magic in the surrounding area. The gears and cogs began to spin, faster and faster as the Wondrous Working used up all the nearby magic, temporarily stripping the area of mystic power and denying all magicians and magical beings use of their abilities for a time. It spun away all the ambient magic in the area before fading away, back to the clockwork realm of its master. It had overcome the balance of the Lumenvirate in the here and now; cast out any influence of demon as well as Modrossus, leaving a mystically sterile area that Weyan would have considered ‘perfection’.

That included stripping away all of Akira’s own mystical powers as well, though thankfully, not Paragon’s or his meta abilities. Worst of all, it temporarily banished the Sidhe from Banshee, stripping her of her Fae abilities and reverting her to a nearly 200 year old lady, admittedly one that had been maintained by her bond with her symbiont in the peak of health. Reverting to Mary did mean she still had access to Mary’s own abilities, as they had not been present when the Working had been cast. Mary looked over at Akira, clearly in pain, but still she gestured and manifested her harp out of whatever dimension it was stored in when not in use.

They watched as the two newly formed gargoyles melted back into the stone but it looked as though the factor three’s powers, while weakened by the casting, could not be removed completely, not without killing them and the Workings would not allow such an ‘inbalance’.

Fathom, lacking a nearby water source, was forced to use his own liquid form to strike at Akira, sending superheated spirts of water, like bullets, at him from the other side of the crater. The water ‘pellets’ hit with such force that he was forced to stagger away from the edge as the boiling water burnt his flesh. Meanwhile Mary found herself unable to breathe as Sylph tried to pull the air from her lungs. She lunged forward and to her surprise found that being below the edge of the crater blocked the attack. She looked over and to her surprise saw that the female, presumably the Hellqueen, had crossed over and grabbed hold of Pyre, and with unexpected strength, tossed him bodily into the fiery pit of the crater below. Akira also saw what was happening and realised that, as he had absorbed the Hellstone, she was sacrificing him to gain the power he’d stolen. Hadn’t there also been some sort of other mystical gem involved in their transformation into elementals as well? Possibly this was some sort of  two for one deal to power her back up? This was followed a second or two later by another flare of darkness from the pit that the Hellqueen absorbed into herself with a shout of triumph.

Mary started to gesture with her hands and several crystals appeared in front of her and sped across the rim towards the ledge she was standing on, causing it to collapse. Akira looked surprised, he’d never seen Mary create crystal missiles before, nor manifest powers without using her harp as a foci. Caught by surprise, the Hellqueen started to fall, sliding into the flames. She stopped her uncontrolled descent by clinging to the ledge one handed, by her fingernails as she tried to retrieve the last of her Hellstones from her outfit.

Paragon immediately flew over towards her, grabbed her wrist in one hand and pulled her up and away from a flaming death while relieving her of the stone with his other hand, intending to throw it as far away as he could. As his hand closed round the Hellstone he suddenly realised that he didn’t want to get rid of it, he was the only person in the world worthy of such power. He was born to hold it; it was his God-given right to control it. He tried to shake of the impulse to retain such a precious jewel and, with a final effort, he resisted its insidious urges as he threw it away, across the plain with all of his strength. The crystal went flying over the horizon, landing over twenty kilometres away. Hellqueen let out a scream of fury mixed with frustration, as he flew her away from what he was sure would have been certain death.

Meanwhile Mary began to play a soothing tune to calm everyone down, only for fathom to try and attack her with his water ‘bullets’ in an attempt to stop her. Fortunately, he missed. He stopped, electing to retain his spare water supply for the moment.

Sylph had no such limitations as she created whirlwinds to gather up the flames from the crater and create balls of fire that she unleashed on Paragon and the captive Hellqueen. He pulled his captive in closer to himself to shield her and dodged as he gave Sylph a dirty look.

Mary saw Sylph’s outline in the heat haze and discharged a series of crystals in her direction. They flew through her insubstantial form though, they appeared to distract her for the moment. It gave Akira the change he needed to throw a force cage around where he thought she was standing but he was sure he’d missed.

In the air, Paragon heard her influence try to flow into him as she pleaded with him to let her go; the words worming their way into his mind, not strong enough yet to compel him to comply. He landed with her on one of the ledges and asked, “Is this power really worth your life?” Her husky voice responded in a tantalising whisper, “Such power is worth everything. If you were to join with me, you would enjoy having control over this little world, ruling at my side. I can be anyone you wanted me to be, look like anyone you’d ever wanted. You like beautiful, busty Blondes?”  She gestured with her fingers and her hair, face and figure immediately changed to match her words.

“How about redheads?” with another wave of her fingers she returned to her original form. “Asian?” and again her figure shrunk as it matched her words and she changed into a beautiful, petite, Korean woman. “I can be anyone you want. What is your wish? What is it you desire, truly desire?”

The compulsion spell slipped through his mental barrier and he found himself saying, “I suppose, to know who I really am!”

She smiled a predatory grin, “That’s easy. I can find that out for you, but you need to join with me, help me to gain the power I need to find out who you truly are. The two desires are intertwined, I cannot help you without the power of the Hellstones. I can still complete the ceremony if get the other stone back and we sacrifice the other two elementals…”

Below, he could hear Akira shouting up, “Don’t get sucked in, nothing good will come of such a deal as I know from bitter experience.” Paragon felt sure that she would deliver what she promised, that she could be trusted, while in the back of his mind a small voice reminded him that she was a succubus, who would promise anything to gain her own desires.  He then thought of his foster mum, Thorn and knew he could never disappoint her, “No” he said, “a heroes journey is a heroes journey, there are no shortcuts and I would lose too much of myself if I was to cheat.” He immediately hit her, relatively gently on her forehead, but hard enough to knock her unconscious which resulted in his mind fog clearing. In his arms, the Hellqueen began to revert into an equally unconscious mousy, plain woman, who knew herself only as Gwen Nugent.

Seeing what was happening and having overheard Hellqueen’s desire to sacrifice them, Professor Fathom and Sylph used the situation to sneak away. Unwilling to waste time trying to stop them, the team watched as the volcano’s crater and the rivers of magma cooled down and solidified once more. It seemed that without the Hellqueen’s influence and the sacrifices, the maw was no longer desirous of devouring anything else.

Now the crisis was resolved they contacted Jeeves and Seven back to find out if everything else had calmed down. While they tried to connect to the nearest communications tower, Akira heard a faint, remotely familiar, female voice in the wind whispering triumphantly, “The second seal has been opened…” He looked around but there was no one is there.

Instead, all he could hear was Jeeves’s voice over his commdot, asking if they were all right, and did they need any assistance?

Akira tried to focus on locating the Hellstone that Paragon had thrown. It wasn’t something that should be left lying around to be found by some unsuspecting individual after all. Unfortunately, his magic was still MIA though he did have a general direction to go look for it and now the battle was over and the Hellqueen no longer a threat, he had no desire to hunt down the fleeing members of Factor Four.

He heard Seven explain that she thought she could get them home by using the same spell she’d used outside the ARC several weeks before, when Seven had accidently summoned the Balance to her aid. She thought that she could use it again though she would have to be very specific which members of the Balance she summoned.

 Akira was sure that Sam and Annie would not be happy if they were suddenly dragged away from their current investigation, as for the others? Mace was still AWOL, doing whatever it was she was doing on her own, Locker couldn’t learn he’d once been Locker without risking undoing his deprogramming, and who knew where, when or what Chrono was up to? No, they had to use that spell only if she knew exactly whom she was summoning.

Alternatively Jeeves could just send the Crate to collect them? Collectively they agreed they weren’t in any rush and would wait for their lift. That’s when they heard Jeeves again. “Ah, I’m afraid the person masquerading as Akira destroyed the Alternity Atlas while it was enroute back to the BASEment. A blade was stabbed through the plates, which somehow caused the maps and all of the written knowledge inside to disappear, bled away apparently. The pages are blank, drained in some way. I’m sorry.”

Two of the crystals had gone into the flames and had been destroyed but Akira was sure that once his powers returned that he would be able to track down the missing Hellstone. Added to the stone they had left behind in Dakata (with Paragon offering to go retrieve it) that meant Adrian had his two stones back. Okay, maybe not exactly the same ones but a Hellstone was a Hellstone, surely?

Hours later, using the scrying mirror Adrian had lent them they contacted Adrian and asked him what he wanted to do with the two stones they’d retrieved. He elected to open up a small portal and suggested that they entrusted the dangerous mystical artefacts to his care. They would be safer off the Earth he suggested and they agreed.

A Day Later

Granite was languishing in a subterranean cell, awaiting his execution when a portal opened in front of him and two voices, one male and the other female speaking together, told him that if he wanted to live he had to step through. He assumed it had to be the Hellqueen’s doing but instead found himself wandering a labyrinth of dark, damp corridors fighting against others, each more hellish that the next, for his continued survival…

On the grassy plains of Iceland, Fathom and Sylph had been forced to drift in search of civilisation while avoiding the authorities, only to find themselves facing a portal, as two voices – Adrian’s and an unfamiliar female voice both speaking as one – told them that they could either be destroyed or enter the mystical gateway. They stepped through to find themselves in a dark corridor watching Granite rip his latest opponent in two.