Superhero Adventures, UK Style

Adapted from the novel Deep Six by Ian Thomas Healy
& The Lockdown Sourcebook by Lucien Soulban

AEGIS Director Harry Powers had contacted the team to see if they would be able to assist with accompanying an unusual ‘guest’ to the pokey… There were concerns that this particular prisoner might be up to something, it was just no one knew what and they wondered if The Balance, having encountered and fought the prisoner and his Kult of Destruction before, might be able to assist?

To everyone’s surprise, the international terrorist known as Kaos had voluntarily handed himself in to the Police in London and was due to be transported to His Majesty’s Prison Rannoch Secure, better known as Deep Six!

Kaos had ‘ruled’ over the Eastern European crime syndicates with ruthless efficiency for years, practically running the Czechian government from behind the scenes. Then he’d expanded into Germany when he’d kidnapped the German Chancellor and taken an entire district of Frankfurt hostage, killing and crucifying its Police officers as well as some residents. He had escaped, as Banshee and Akira knew only too well. In fact, his criminal exploits had made him most wanted across the whole of the European Community and his subsequent crimes on the continent had continued to shock and horrify the civilian population.

Over the years there had been arrests made of some of his powered followers though some such as Bloody Mary had subsequently managed to escape custody, at least until she was recaptured in the Highlands of Scotland, thanks to them.

Of course, no one had expected Kaos to just turn himself in to the British Authorities. Akira quipped that he bet he’d had a long wait. Harry and the others ignored him.

Due to difficulties in keeping them imprisoned, most of the powered members of the Kult had already been sent to the Rannoch Moor High Security Penitentiary, which was considered one of the most secure prisons on the planet as no one had ever escaped from there. The prison was built just over a kilometre underground and some wag during construction had noted that was equal to 600 fathoms, which had led to its most common nickname, Deep Six.

Now Kaos was due to be transferred under the watchful eyes of London Watch to a Prison Transport heading towards Deep Six. As the only team so far to have defeated the Kult and stopped Kaos, would they be willing to ride along to ensure nothing goes wrong with the transfer?

The team were wary and had a number of questions they wanted answering before they would commit. X-Ray wanted to know if he would be able to question him during the journey, but Harry explained that an anti-grav trolley known as an ‘egg’ – a single person life support transport, so named because of its shape, would be used during transport. This kept the prisoner in an unconscious state throughout the journey while monitoring his vitals. This was in addition to his wearing restraints and a full suite of power dampeners and neutralisers until he was safely in his new accommodations.

If they wanted to question him, they would have to wait until he was securely imprisoned in his cell. Banshee asked if all of his ‘old crew’ were also in Deep Six to which Harry explained only those captured on British soil or transferred there from abroad as part of an agreement.

Of all the people they’d encountered on the alien ship, Kaos had been the only one to escape and now he’d elected to hand himself in.

Banshee continued, “What about his portals or did somebody else create them? Can’t he just teleport out with his team?”

Harry smiled, “No, thanks to you we now know about his teleport abilities but Deep Six has a device, a transportal matrix that shunts, displaces, a teleporter or phased individual away from its target or current location within the shaft and forces them to materialise at a randomised location inside the rock. Using those powers while the shunt is functioning is an automatic death sentence. In addition if a lockdown is enacted then the lift shaft is locked down with 200 tonne blocks of granite sliding into place blocked the shaft at regular intervals. The areas in-between are flooded with a compound invented by the Challenger-Wildemans’ that expands to fill the empty shaft that is both ablative and viscous under pressure making it physically impossible to travel though. The shunt however is always active.

It takes an authorised person on both the surface and well as in the Command Room in Deep Six to switch off the lockdown procedures together. The process takes a couple of hours to drain the shaft and slide the blocks back into the walls of the tunnel.

The shunt device was unique and only one person, its inventor in Amsterdam, knows how it works. His identity is a closely guarded secret.”

X-Ray wanted to know if it would still work if a portal were created instead of just teleporting themselves out. Harry merely nodded. It might not kill the creator but it would still relocate the other end into the rocks underground.  He was fairly confident that once a prisoner was in Deep Six, he would be unable to escape.

Banshee agreed that they would go along for the ride in case someone tried to hijack the prison transport mid-journey as had happened with the Black Dragonkin. X-Ray remained wary, especially of Kaos’s motives in handing himself in and heading to the same prison as all his cronies were imprisoned.

Harry pointed out that in fairness he hadn’t select the prison. Admittedly, Deep Six was believed to be the only prison in Europe that should be able to hold him or his team, especially since Bloody Mary could turn insubstantial, as they discovered in the alien ship and the Etched Man’s tattoos were an unknown element as to what they could do.

They discussed Kaos’s known powers and the abilities of the shunt. Banshee was glad to hear that its influence only affected the area above and around the prison so they should be able to use their powers within the prison itself; assuming neutralisers and dampening fields weren’t active where they were. However if prisoners were out of their cell for any reason then the various neutraliser fields would be engaged throughout the communal areas, as was the case in the cells themselves.

Secretly Akira wondered if they could affect his own arcane abilities or Banshee’s fae-based powers.

Unaware of his thoughts, Harry continued. He explained that it took a command from both the surface and from the Governor Warren Creed, or his deputy Charles Franks, initiated simultaneously to deactivate lockdown protocols. Harry acknowledged that the system wasn’t perfect and that someday someone might figure out how to override it, but it was as secure as they could make it. X-Ray asked about staff and was reassured that staffing wasn’t an issue and most of the guards were equipped with Spartan Armour or stationed in the security booths located central to each cell block. He explained that if they wanted a tour of the prison when they arrived he would authorise that they just had to ask. It was clear that he felt confident about the prison’s security and its ability to dampen or neutralise a prisoners powers.

X-Ray nodded and asked about the security of the surface facility. Harry assured him that access to the prison complex was only possible by flying in and the air space above the prison was a secure no-fly zone. He explained that if there was a hostage situation Down Below at the same time as an attack on the surface, the attackers wouldn’t be able to force their way in and there were procedures to prevent an escape, not least the time it would take to clear the lift shaft and the shunt would remain operational at all times. He refused to say more than that.

“Any idea why Kaos has handed himself in?” Harry mumbled that Kaos claimed that he was dying and didn’t want to spend the last few months of his life on the run. The Balance looked at each other; it seemed they were heading to Heathrow airport and another meeting with Kaos. They remained suspicious as to his motives but that was the reason Harry wanted them to ride along, just in case.

Once they got him to Deep Six they would hopefully be able to verify whether or not he really did have cancer and how advanced the illness was, if so.

The Balance arrived at Heathrow airport and made their way to the secure section used for prisoner transfers. The nearest public terminal that overlooked the area of the airport they were heading to was crowded.

Striding around in the terminal were patrols of Armed Response as well as dozens of reporters doing their piece to camera surrounded by microphone booms and satellite dishes, mounted cameras and sound engineers as they awaited the arrival of Kaos. Given the potential risks, the best they could hope for would be a long distance shot of the terrorist as he was escorted across the tarmac to an AEGIS transport where a number of prison guards dressed in tactical gear stood waiting.

The team passed through AEGIS security and headed towards the waiting transport. They saw several members of London Watch, including the precog Foreshadow escorting Kaos across to the transport where he was fitted with a full suite of neutralisers – helmet, collar, tracker, cuffs. Once activated, he would then be temporarily stunned unconscious. These devices would only be removed once the prisoner was locked inside Deep Six.

To the Balance’s surprise, Kaos made no effort to struggle as the neutraliser devices that robbed him of his Meta abilities were fitted, his head hung low and his shoulders were slumped, to X-Ray’s expert gaze he looked defeated and sick. He coughed and spat out blood-covered phlegm onto the tarmac.

Akira and Banshee waited by the transport until he was rendered unconscious, but X-Ray had walked over to examine the procedure.

Foreshadow of London Watch introduced himself to the guards stating that since his arrest the prisoner had been docile and cooperative. He then shook X-Ray’s hand and explained that Kaos had claimed to have advanced cancer but that this had not been possible to confirm.

Kaos coughed uncontrollably again but stood docile while they stunned him unconscious before laying his ultra-heavy body onto a grav-powered sealed transport trolley (this was what the correctional officers referred to as an ‘Egg’) before struggling to load him on to the transport.

Due to his body’s density and the toughness of his skin and muscle tissue, a standard MRI had been unable to read his internal structure, but he seemed genuinely sick. X-Ray used his enhanced vision to ‘see’ a large dense lump in the middle of his chest over one of his lungs. Its shape seemed to indicate that it was a cancerous tumour on his lung, but he couldn’t be sure though the coughing up blood did make advanced cancer on one of his lungs appear feasible.  He was definitely not healthy.

Akira was still not convinced and before they sealed up the Egg he went down and reached over to touch Kaos while trying to activate the medallion and read his mind. It seemed the Modrossus was willing to allow it as an echo of genuine pain and suffering flooded his mind, reflected from Kaos. It was so intense he struggled to read anything else. That was very real, as was Kaos’s discomfort despite being rendered unconscious. Akira couldn’t maintain his psychic connection for more than a few seconds.

X-Ray turned to Foreshadow and asked him, “Has he been coughing up blood regularly since London Watch has been looking after him?” Foreshadow replied that he’d noticed that he’d been spitting out globules of blood on a regular basis since he was taken into custody; the blood had been bright red but he acknowledged that he’d tried to take a reading from him and got nothing. He explained that his abilities allowed him to see the possible future of people and objects up to 30 seconds ahead of the present but he got nothing from Kaos at all, no reading, no possible futures, and that was unusual to say the least. “It may mean he’s not presenting as a threat, at least in the immediate future or somehow he’s immune to my precognitive abilities.”

X-Ray wondered if it could it be another power that they were unaware of. He asked, “To the best of your knowledge there has been no interference with him by any external party?” Foreshadow confirmed he’d had no contact with anyone, not even a lawyer, at least since they had been involved. He’d been held overnight by AEGIS and the handover had gone without incident, so far.  He mentioned that there were several extradition warrants for him including from Germany and Türkiye, but he was unlikely to live long enough for him to be extradited.

X-Ray thanked Foreshadow and approached the man in charge of the transport team. This turned out to be the Prison Deputy Governor, Charles Franks, who’d elected to oversee the transfer personally.

Franks thanked the team for agreeing to assist with the transfer and expected that they should be able to leave after Kaos had been booked in, if they wanted. X-Ray asked about the prison’s medical facilities and was assured that they were as good as any in the country with access to specialist Meta-specific medical equipment.  The transport however was another matter and while they had the usual first aid equipment, ECG monitor and defibrillator onboard, they had no specialist equipment other than the monitoring equipment built into the ‘Egg’. It would have to do until they arrived at Deep Six and he would remain anesthetised and neutralised throughout the journey.

Franks smiled. “I appreciate your concerns but as soon as we reach Deep Six, Doctor Mayfair will examine him and see what they can do to deal with his condition and document how far advanced it is. Best leave it to the professionals. Hopefully he will be able to confirm whether or not he’s faking. Yes, we are suspicious about his motives and reasons for surrendering and will need the doc’ to confirm one way or another.”

X-Ray smiled; he couldn’t explain his concerns without revealing information about his civilian identity. He did request attending the medical and Franks assured him he would ask Governor Creed if he could attend, not least because Kaos would need to be awake for the tests.

A couple of hours later the Transport taxied into a secure hangar on the surface and once the doors had been sealed the still unconscious prisoner was transported down to the prison levels and booking by a DNA-secured lift.

The lift shaft dropped a thousand metres underground from the hangar to the reception area where the booking-in process was started. The lift from the surface had a number of security protocols built in; both the surface and Deep Six had to authorise the lift before it would function and a live guard’s handprint was required to activate it, as well as testing that their DNA matched before the lift would function.

There were four lifts available, though access was limited from the Administration Tier to the surface to a single lift at any one time.

As they travelled down, Franks explained that the prisoners were housed according to their threat level and powers. Type I prisoners were those that relied on an external energy source or item for their powers, without which they were just as powerful as a normal, unpowered human. They were located away from others for their own protection.

Type II were enhanced individuals who relied on their skills or augmented attributes.

Type III were prisoners such as Electrocutioner and Arsenal who possessed metamorphic abilities or could manipulate energy and chemical states, metamorphs that required some form of power inhibition such as Meta dampeners, power disruption fields to reduce their ability to activate their powers or even white noise generators to reduce their ability to concentrate.

Type IV were the convicts such as Kaos who possessed abilities too powerful to quantify or control easily. They were located in cells that included energy suppression fields coupled with anaesthetic gas units built into the cell walls to render the prisoner unconscious if needed. X-Ray was surprised to discover that Kaos would be sharing the same floor as Bloody Mary who apparently was listed as a Type IV/V undetermined.

Lastly were the Type V’s, convicts such as the Etched Man whose powers defied explanation and were presumed to be psionic or mystical in origin.

Deep Six was deliberately kept at 50 to 75% capacity in case its facilities were needed in an emergency.

The Tiers or floors were built around the lift levels with the cellblocks located in between. The top floor, known as Tier One was the administration wing and was included within the shunt’s tesseract web so they had to be careful about teleporting or phasing in whilst on that level. This was their destination. Below that were Cellblocks A to E.

The more dangerous prisoners were housed in the Cellblocks located below Tier One as psychologically, if they somehow broke out, they would be more likely to head up rather than further down into the complex and away from freedom.

Tier Two contained the prisoners’ common area for those prisoners not held in 23-hour isolation and included the medical wing, the cafeteria and study areas, as well as an extensive library. Kaos would be transported down to the medical wing for a full medical examination after he was booked in.

Tier Three was currently designated as an exercise zone with individual workout areas to ensure prisoners could remain fit and healthy but still remain isolated. It was worth noting that each prisoner was on their own exercise schedule.  

Tier Four was off limits to everyone but the guards and contained the prison maintenance facilities such as life support and power generators but not the facility’s security. That was located ‘elsewhere’ but if they knew no one was willing to discuss where.

The fact that they were so deep underground and reliant on life support to maintain the air circulating made it feel claustrophobic to the extreme, but they forced themselves to focus – after all, they wouldn’t be here for long.

Most of the prisoners linked to the Kult were located in Cellblocks C and D.

X-Ray examined the list of prisoners, but only recognised a few of the names. Arsenal and Electrocutioner were in the level Cell Block C, but who or what was Leech? The Etched Man and Bloody Mary were in Cell Block D with a prisoner he’d sent here from his old hometown, the psychotic pyrokinetic Napalm and he’d heard of the Spaniard brick, el Puño, the Fist, but he’d never heard of Brainstorm or any of the others listed.

What was a Slaed for example in Cell Block A or Sandstone in C?

There was a note on the files that Bloody Mary had originally been allocated a cell on E Block but a few days ago, her cell had been moved to D after an incident, though the records didn’t specify why. The move had been authorised by the Governor on the recommendation of both Franks and Dr Mayfair.

This was quite the set up!  If a prisoner was travelling between levels, they had to be authorised and accompanied by a living guard, which should limit any riots. Access to the lifts were through armoured airlocks that allowed each cell block to be flooded with anaesthetic gas (as well as each individual cell) and the floor’s central security booth was again isolated with a separate air supply.

The excessive heat and humidity this far down, despite the advanced air conditioning that was in perpetual operation, was oppressive as was the mechanical hum from all that mechanical equipment that the sonic dampeners wasn’t totally able to counter.

They transferred Kaos to the secure processing area, which was overseen by the stern-looking Comptroller Jacqueline Verro and her staff including a petite young woman the others called Cassie typing in the responses on the secure terminal. An elderly woman whom the others called Ms Parker was supervising her. Several guards, correctional officers, were suited up in Spartan Armour including one in a Brute Suit standing next to the prisoner.

A middle-aged and seemingly jaundiced Doctor Mayfair administered the antidote to the anaesthetic. On awakening, Kaos immediately began to struggle and he broke some of his restraints causing the guards to raise their stunners until he realised where he was and calmed down, much to the officers apparent relief.

He refused to state his birth names but confirmed all of his other details and was booked into Cell Block D, but first he had to have a medical and he was transported out, still in his ‘Egg’ with X-Ray following Doc’ Mayfair back to the lifts.

 The other two were offered a tour by the Governor and he tasked two guards to be their guides. As he left to head to his office, they were taken down in a different lift to Cell Block D, passing through the armoured airlocks and blast door protected emergency stairwells into the common area. They were shown an empty cell and the various security facilities built in to each including screened access to life support, water and air conditioning. Each cell was capable of being detached and moved with the prisoner still inside if needed. Next, they were shown the inside of a security booth with one-way crystalline matrix security glass. The booth’s controls enabled the guards on duty to gas a cell’s inhabitant as well as gas the entire common area and showers if needed.  One of the guards, Dan who stated that his sister was young Cassie, then whispered that the booth also had an escape hatch in the roof in case things ever kicked off and the floor had to be locked down. The concealed hatch led to a series of air conduits and maintenance tunnels that ran between the separate floors. Thankfully, it had never been needed.

He explained that all of the cells were similar in design and only the forms of power dampening and neutralising of the prisoner’s powers varied from cell to cell though the tranquilliser gas containers and power suppression fields were fitted as standard in all cells. Dan confided that all of their inmates needed to breathe and the gas used had proven 100% effective so far. In another cell, a psi-jammer was in use creating a form of psychic white noise that made it impossible for the inmate to focus or concentrate when it was in operation.

The other guard interrupted to point out that Kaos’s cell had all their countermeasures built in just in case. He whispered that he was a Meta himself. Although his powers were fairly low level he hated being around when the countermeasures were in use as they ‘leaked’, affecting him as well.

On the Tier below, Dr Mayfair completed his preliminary examination of Kaos. His temporary inhibitor equipment had been removed, he’d been decanted from his ‘Egg’, and he had undergone a series of medical scans and tests.

Dr Mayfair had to confess he’d found nothing that contradicted Kaos’s testimony that he had advanced lung cancer, which would likely be inoperable due to the nature of his Meta-enhanced metabolism. According to Kaos he was not currently taking any medication for the condition. The Doctor had been unable to get a blood sample directly due to the tensile strength of his patient’s skin and his muscle density but took a sample of his blood-stained spit. His various scans had been unable to get a clear image of Kaos’s internal organs, only of a large black dense lump over one of his lungs showed up on the scans.

His bloodstained spit did reveal cancerous cells. Everything was consistent with his own diagnosis of aggressive cancer and confirmed that he likely had a few months to live, though the Doc’ had also discovered that Kaos had a healing ability but for some reason it was having no effect on the tumour. This was not unknown in Metas though as some diseases were too virulent to self-heal.

He was placed in his cell, which was then taken up to his new home in Cell Block D by forklift and locked down. Ignoring the guards, he turned his back to the cameras and started to cough up bloody phlegm into his hands.

Akira asked who was in the cell on the Block immediately above? The guard who had revealed that he was a Meta confirmed that would be Cell Block B, separated by a hundred metres of granite and the cell above was currently empty. He touched the door of the cell and confirmed that it hadn’t been tampered with as far as he could tell, though if any of the inbuilt devices had been altered or damaged he wasn’t able to tell. The cell connections for sewage, water and life support seemed to be as expected.

They returned to Control Centre to join X-Ray after which the two guards returned to Floor D to join the others in the security booth while lunch was distributed to those who were confined to their cells. They approached Cassie who had returned from Reception and was now monitoring Kaos’s cell. He still was coughing up blood.  She moved one of the cameras to a different position even as she did a check of the previous recording in slow-mo. The team looked closely at the new feed and saw that he was clawing at his own chest, ripping into the flesh as though he was trying to dig out the tumour. His organic metallic skin had been peeled open at his own hands. His hands were covered in blood but then he wiped his bloody hands over the back of his neck before hacking up blood again. Akira thought he had taken something from his chest and, though he didn’t know what it was, he thought it had actually moved of its own volition. Kaos continued to cover the back of his neck as they saw that it too was now bloody when he removed his hands back to his chest. Akira was convinced that whatever Kaos had removed from his chest had apparently burrowed into his head.  

An alarm sounded as a dozen security systems throughout the prison shut down simultaneously. Before they could investigate, they heard the Governor’s secretary, a Ben Talbot, shouting from the Governor’s office. They rushed in with Franks and saw that Creed was sprawled across the desk, clearly dead. There was no sign of violence, but the timing was clearly suspicious not least because the Comptroller, Mrs Verro announced that the power neutralising systems in the cells had all just been deactivated throughout the prison. The prisoners were still locked in, but their powers were no longer being blocked. Franks went to reboot the system but admitted that it would take time as the system had clearly been compromised, which automatically made this death suspicious, despite it looking like a heart attack.

Franks immediately authorised the guards to head down to the cells and prepare to fit neutralising equipment to each powered prisoner as per protocol and he ignored the team’s concerns that that wouldn’t be safe.  He explained that the prisoners would be tranquilised using gas before the guards entered the cells.

Akira tried to read the past of the corpse. He ‘saw’ the governor sitting behind his desk signing documents perfectly normally. Then the papers flapped slightly as though a draft had blown them though in this atmosphere-controlled environment there was no obvious source for the wind. Creed moved slightly as though aware of the anomaly even as he reached up to his neck then collapsed to the desk as he spasmed and died a couple of seconds later.

Akira surfaced from his trace and muttered, “He really shouldn’t have been sitting in a draft.”

X-Ray took the opportunity to examine the Governor’s neck using his enhanced vision and saw a small needle mark or pinprick over the carotid artery on his neck. It appeared as though he’d been murdered, poisoned, but by whom? All the prisoners had been in their cells and Franks stated that none of them were listed as being able to turn invisible and any with phasing ability would have been blocked from doing so prior to the neutraliser web going down which had only happened when or just after the Governor had been killed.

Franks ordered a full system lockdown until the security systems came back online. As he authorised it, massive granite blocks slid into place in the lift shafts to the surface and the areas in between were flooded with the gel. At the same time, the canned life support systems activated and contact with the surface was reduced to a single dedicated telephone line.

With the internal power suppressors offline Franks confirmed the command for the guards to knock each of the prisoners’ unconscious with tranquilliser gas flooding into their cells, even the empty ones. He then ordered the guards to suit up, then enter each cell in turn to fit individual neutralising suites to each inmate until the cell deterrent systems had been fully tested and had come back online.

It appeared that Franks was a ‘by the book’ sort and intended to follow the lockdown protocol as written. Thankfully, the lockdown procedures still worked, access to the surface was now blocked and the Shunt was still fully operational. Whatever happened now, access to the surface was not a possibility.

They checked the cameras in Kaos’s cell as the guards started to flood his cell with tranq’ gas. Although he had his back to the main camera, they could see that his chest was still bleeding and that he had some sort of small electronic device in his hand.  One of the other cameras caught something inside his bloody chest cavity. Despite this, he was clearly being rendered unconscious, despite trying to resist the gas. The prisoner Napalm was one of those trying to fight its effects and had to be manually stunned.

Kaos either was no longer resisting or had succumbed to the gas as he didn’t resist the gear being fitted to his unconscious body though the now healing wound in his chest took them by surprise. Akira wanted to desperately to shout a warning to the two guards that they needed to be aware that this had to be a trap.

Having fitted all of the neutraliser gear they started to leave when the door started to malfunction and refused to drop into the floor. Protocol was that the other two guards remained inside the monitoring booth.

Banshee suggested they head down to D immediately even as X-Ray asked Franks to “make sure that security personnel secure any vital equipment that control the cells.” He responded by immediately asking Ms Parker to order all available guards to secure Tiers One and Four. He hesitated then stated that Doc would have to leave the medical bay and head up to control immediately. There was no way they could secure that if a riot were to break out, especially if they gained access to the stairwells.

Meanwhile it seemed likely that they had a fifth column saboteur (and assassin?) in their midst.

X-Ray approached Cassie and asked if they had any form of thermal imagery that could be handed to their staff. She confirmed that all of the cameras were so equipped and temporarily switched the bank of cameras over to look for an invisible intruder. She searched the control room first using the internal camera system’s thermal imagery but found nothing. She then proceeded to check the whole Tier but still nothing showed up. Either the intruder(s) were thermally shielded or possibly not invisible. He did wonder if Banshee would show up when she was both insubstantial and invisible? One day he would need to check but also didn’t want to make his partner a suspect by testing it on her just now.

Cassie then tried to check the Cellblocks with thermal imagery. They had to keep on top of everyone in the control room so hopefully there would be no more murders or security ‘malfunctions’. Based on the reports coming in from the staff all of the prisoners appeared to be in their cells, which re-enforced their suspicions.

Only a single lift had been left operational between the Tiers, so they immediately headed down to D. As far as Franks could confirm all of the prisoners should now be unconscious and fully neutralised. The operative words were ‘should be’. They also took a lift override keycard with them rather than risk endangering a guard to operate the lift. Their long-term survival wasn’t guaranteed if Kaos or his gang were faking it.

Meanwhile Dr Mayfair had examined the governor and reported his preliminary findings that he thought that some form of neurotoxin or batrachotoxin had killed the governor. Injected into his bloodstream, death would have been near instantaneous.  

As the Balance exited the armoured airlock on D everything seemed to be in lockdown and all of the prisoners appeared to be unconscious including Kaos or as Akira muttered, “He might be a good actor.” The tranquilliser gas had been released into his cell and he was wearing a full suite of power dampening gear as per protocol.  

They approached the cell looking for the item he’d taken from his still bleeding but now healing chest and saw the blood drying on the rear of his neck and over his chest. Both wounds had scabbed over since they’d last seen him. Inside the cell, the two guards were still struggling to get the door to drop.

Banshee wanted to enter the cell insubstantially but the power dampeners Kaos was now wearing were interfering with her ability to turn. What worried X-Ray was whether Kaos had used his own body to transport control bugs into the prison. With hindsight that might have been what he’d seen on the screen being taken from his chest to his neck, just one but could there be more inside his body? It would have been the right size.

Banshee tried to turn insubstantial and found if she forced it and ignored the pain in her head, she could turn but she was sure that the dampening field she was encountering would prevent her teammates from using their Meta powers. Thankfully, she wasn’t a Meta though the other two were.

The door to the cell suddenly dropped into the ground and Banshee entered the cell as all the cameras in the cellblock appeared to die.

As soon as the cell door opened, the gas inside the chamber began to dissipate. Thankfully, in the dayroom area it was too weak to do more than make the others yawn uncontrollably as the door fans sucked up the excess gas and replaced it with fresh air. Dan assured Banshee that the effects would mean that Kaos would still be out cold as the cell door suddenly closed behind her.

X-Ray and Akira had stayed outside the cell itself but prepared themselves for the worst particularly in case there were any control bugs crawling around ready to try to take them over. Luckily, he couldn’t see any bugs inside the cell. One of the guards reached out and turned the body over to examine the wound in his chest. The large rip in his chest was no longer bleeding but it still looked raw and had begun to heal over.

They remembered that the doc had said he should have a healing factor, and this clearly proved that he did. As he landed on his back, they could see he was holding some sort of small device in his fist.

His eyes were open, unblinking and glowing silver. Banshee shouted to his teammates, “He’s controlled!” To the guard’s surprise, Kaos stood up, his movements jerky and uncoordinated, like a zombie in a bad horror movie as he advanced towards one of the guards, despite clearly still being tranquillised. The stormers that had been controlled had acted in a similar manner as though their body was reacting to pre-programmed commands.

The wound in his chest was severe enough to make X-Ray wonder if what he was seeing was an animated corpse rather than an unconscious person effectively ‘sleep walking’ or should that he sleep attacking? The two guards began to panic.

Akira considered unleashing a spell to bind Kaos even as they saw Dan’s companion, they never did learn his name, try to escape by phasing through the cell walls but the dampening field flickering back on made it impossible to maintain his concentration and he materialised halfway through the wall and died instantly of shock. The other guard Dan tried to open the cell door but stumbled against the door itself as zombie Kaos grabbed hold of him by the neck as he began to remove all of the neutralising equipment from his own body with his other hand, ignoring the pain that the unauthorised removal was causing. In fact, the electrical discharge this unauthorised removal did more harm to his captive. The discharge froze his armour and shut down its primary functions.

Akira contemplated calling forth the Chains of Kar’Kradas to wrap Kaos in chain-like bonds forged of pure darkness, but realised he wouldn’t be able to stop them from also affecting the guard, Dan. In the end, he decided to not risk it. Meanwhile Banshee decided to try to target the device in Kaos hand when he saw something moving beneath the scabbed over wound in his chest. The silver eyes indicated he had a modified control bug in his head. Kaos had the small flashing device in his hand and now thought he saw something in his chest moving beneath his still healing skin! Was it more control bugs or something else? She elected to target the device in his hand with a shattering shriek.

The sonic blast washed over the room, taking out the integral cell-dampening field and suppressors but Kaos’s metallic hand shielded the device, and the shriek had no effect on it. The device remained intact. Kaos responded by firing off a heat blast from his eyes at her but the blast went through her and hit the wall instead. Even as he did so he raised the surviving guard off the ground, tightened his grip on the armour around his neck and began to pinch it closed. The pinched metal started to cut off his ability to breathe. They knew Kaos was not averse to killing to achieve his aims, whatever they were.

Kaos opened his mouth, started to speak but the voice that they heard sounded programmed, emotionless, and devoid of humanity as it stated, “Step. Back. Or. I. Will. Kill.”

Banshee stepped back as instructed, closer to the cell door. X-Ray standing outside the cell also stepped back, thinking his powers wouldn’t work if he attacked inside the cell unaware that the shattering shriek had taken out the Meta inhibitors. He asked Kaos, “What do you want with this place?” In that same creepy programmed voice he replied, “I want my people back…”

X-Ray continued to try to negotiate, “Let’s talk about this.” But as though Kaos was a recording on a loop he again stated, I want my people back…” Then “If you do not want the guards killed, then step back and head away – leave this level alone or I will kill every single guard I come across. This is your only warning.”

X-Ray continued, “Who are we speaking to, you or someone else? Is someone controlling you? Are you Terminus?” There was no reply. It seemed they had reached the end of his programming. His only response was to pinch the metal at Dan the guard’s neck even tighter, puncturing the suits’ internal air supply and forcing the metal into his neck.

Akira called forth the Bidding of Bal’Hemoth, which hopefully would ensnare Kaos’s will as surely as the Baleful Bindings ensnared the body. With a wave, a mutter, he focused his will on trying to make Kaos put the guard down and step back.

To his surprise and annoyance, it didn’t work. The spell washed over the living zombie that was Kaos and failed to take control of him. Damn, damn and triple damn. His mystical powers weakened by the attempt Akira staggered back as Dan tried to claw at the hand holding him off the ground and slowly, inevitably, suffocating him. 

Over the speakers, they heard Cassie shout, “Just let him out, he’s locked down and once he drops Dan he’s limited to this block. Please, save my brother!” Akira had to wonder if the cameras were down how did she know about her brother? Was she in on it? It never occurred to him that the prison might monitor the cells for sound separately.

Dan clawed at the door panel and tried to open the cell door, hoping that granting Kaos the freedom he sought might save his own life. The door dropped into the ground with a swish and Kaos stepped out still holding his prisoner by his throat.

X-Ray was sure he didn’t want to see any more deaths this day and he was sure that Kaos whether in control of himself or otherwise was more that capable of killing everyone that opposed him.

Banshee exited the open cell door to join the others even as X-Ray tried to position himself so he was on Kaos’s left. Kaos reached towards the back of his head and there was a snapping sound as his eyes resumed their normal black colour. When he spoke, it was again in his own voice.

With his left hand, he tapped the scab on his chest, “Inside my body is a device attached to my heart filled with neurotoxin. If my heart stops for more than a couple of seconds that device will explode sending the neurotoxin into the air automatically. From there it will enter into the life support and from there through the entire prison complex killing everyone within minutes. If I think I am about to be rendered unconscious, I will release the toxin. This is your one and only warning. I hope you are listening Mr Franks? Congratulations by the way on your recent promotion to Acting Governor… Heed my words Governor; this will be your only warning.”

He turned back to the Balance and again spoke. “I will count to ten then I will snap this guard’s neck unless you leave this area. As soon as you leave, I will release this guard. The choice is yours.”

An alarm sounded and it was clear that the fans had been activated, clearing each cell of its anaesthetic gas. Franks or their fifth columnist upstairs? Someone had overridden the lockdown protocol again. Could it be Cassie?  That was whom Akira suspected. It was only a matter of time before they had a full-blown prison riot on their hands and a second dead guard on their consciences. Did that mean that an insubstantial Bloody Mary was free to roam?

The preservation of life took priority as they backed towards the lift shafts and emergency stairwell. Akira wanted to check out if Cassie was assisting Kaos with the prison break so immediately turned, got into one of the lifts and headed up towards Tier One and the security control room for a question-and-answer session with her.

Banshee followed her towards the airlock that was between the block and the lifts but instead of entering with Akira, she turned invisible so she was now a non-visible ghost and floated back into the chamber hoping that Kaos was unaware of her return.

Kaos had started his count as he smiled at X-Ray. He started backing off after stating, “If you do not keep your word, if you kill that man…” Kaos interrupted him, “I always keep my word.” X-Ray continued “I will come back for you. “

“I always keep my word,” Kaos repeated, “especially when I promise to kill someone. Just ask any one of my enemies. Oh sorry, you can’t they’re all dead as you will be if you don’t leave.” He smiled and pinched the armour around Dan’s throat even tighter even as beneath his visor Dan started to turn blue in the face and stopped struggling.

“This is your final chance to do something good and let him live or I’m coming back for you.”

“I look forward to that, assuming you survive, now leave. Seven, eight…”

X-Ray stepped back and headed towards the open lift.

Banshee appeared to be invisible to Kaos as the lift door closed and she watched him drop the now unconscious guard to the floor. It looked as though he was struggling to breathe as Kaos stepped towards the security booth in the centre of the room, ripped the door off its hinges and casually knocked the remaining two guards’ unconscious. He then began to override the door locks of all of the other cells freeing the other prisoners on that block. Dazed but otherwise uninjured, she saw Napalm, Brainstorm and El Puño stagger out of their cells and strip off their power dampening units. Almost reluctantly, she saw the Etched Man join them, tearing off his own deactivated neutralising gear; his tattoos crawled over his skin like spiders. His emaciated appearance, shaved head and general dislike of non-essential clothing made him look like a circus freak.

Banshee heard Kaos say something in a language she didn’t understand, presumably Czechian, and most of the liberated prisoners began to head towards the stairwells that led between the various cellblocks.

There was one major weakness in the prison’s design: health and safety. The law demanded that since prisoners couldn’t be easily evacuated in the event of a fire breaking out during a lockdown, the Health and Safety Executive had insisted on a compromise – Stairwells between the cellblocks and safe spaces, sealed using armoured airlocks to prevent access when not required. When coupled with the neutralisers preventing the use of (most) powers and anaesthetic gas available to flood the cells and corridors it was felt to be a minor risk. They were clearly mistaken. Kaos was intending to head up to the next cellblock and after that, where? His eyeblasts sliced through the hinges and locks and the door to the airlock collapsed, allowing him access.

The guard lay on the ground where Kaos had dropped him, discarded like litter and forgotten. The Etched Man walked by and stopped to examine the guard even as the others began to exit the floor following Kaos up the stairwell.

Banshee pulled out her Bo Staff and approached, aware that she had only minutes at most to save the guards life. As she got closer, something must have alerted the Etched Man as he began to peel off one of his tattoos as a sort of guard beast.

Upstairs Akira and X-Ray stepped out of the lift and headed to the control centre where Franks was clearly having a nervous breakdown as Cassie announced that Cell Block C was being ‘liberated’. Akira approached her and subtly began to cast a spell. Akira discretely undertook the necessary  words, will and waving of his hands necessary to bring forth the Light of Lamal, also known as the “Light of Law,” a pure, streaming ray of white light seen only by the caster and the those illuminated by it who were compelled to speak the truth under its glow.

The mystical light shone on Cassie as Akira whispered, “Now Cassie, under the light I command you to speak the truth. Have you interfered with the neutralisers?”

Hesitantly she was compelled to speak, “No, but it had to be someone who had authority to switch off the systems, not a guard – only some of the staff could do so, someone such as the comptroller Jacqueline Verro, Dr Mayfair could do so, I could do it as could deputy Governor Charles Franks.”

“But he was here?” “Yes I could see him. He only left the control room after the Governor had been murdered, I think would have seen if he’d left before then. The only other possibility is the Governor’s personal secretary, Ben Talbot. He has to be aware of the lockdown protocol. He came in here after the cell neutralisers had been deactivated but he didn’t have access to the equipment to do so. They can only be accessed from this room and I didn’t see anyone near the equipment until it had already been switched off.”

X-Ray asked her about the cameras in the room and she felt compelled to display the recordings from earlier, but a quick check showed no one going near the equipment when they were switched off. Even in infrared, there was nothing to see in the time period they were watching but again they saw a draught flicking at some papers above the sealed controls on the recording just seconds before the power dampening equipment was deactivated.

Frustrated Akira allowed the light to fade, but not before asking where the other possible suspects had been at the time. She’d been at the security monitors and that was clear from the recordings. The elderly Comptroller Jacqueline had been out of the room as had the Doc and Ben Talbot.

Had someone a secret identity or had it been a ghost or the return of Tempus? Super speed would have shown up on the cameras surely? It had to be someone with the necessary authority to switch off the equipment, the only one there at the time was Cassie.

He asked her if she had spotted anything unusual about the Deputy Governor recently? Franks overheard the question and stared at him. Akira watched to see how he reacted. He was clearly angry and embarrassed that his integrity was being questioned and so openly in front of his staff. The light’s effect was wearing off but she muttered, “Yes, Franks has always wanted the Governor’s job and now he’s the acting Governor but I’m sure he wouldn’t kill for that!” Akira could feel the hostility washing over him from Franks though he said nothing, as he continued trying to restore the systems and ensure the lockdown protocol remained in force.

Then Block C went dark. Kaos had apparently started to free the prisoners there as well, though apparently not all of the prisoners according to the lock sensors, for the moment at least. X-Ray asked Franks since he was sure it wasn’t him or Cassie that was responsible for the sabotage, who did he suspect?  He replied angrily, “Brainstorm, one of the prisoners in D. As well as his psi-attacks, he can disrupt and redirect electrical signals. He should have been locked down at the time, but that’s who I suspect. He must have found a way to switch off the security in his cell. He’d also worked with Kaos before.

I’m going to call the guards out of the cellblocks for their own security and we hold the line here and on Tier Four. The prisoners can fight it out amongst themselves if they want; I’m not willing to risk any more officers lives. It’s no longer safe for them out there. Disagree with me if you want but I want to protect my staff first and foremost.”

Franks turned back to Akira and X-Ray, “I realise that you don’t trust me but I’m a damn good prison guard with a distinguished career, with many years of experience and I look after my own. I just wish to hell that we can save Cassie’s brother, Officer McKenzie.”

Cassie, trying desperately to be professional, confirmed that all but six of the guards, not counting Harry who had died and her brother, had made it to safety, having left the cellblocks unstaffed.

X-Ray asked for permission to return to D before he locked down all the lifts. Franks paused but reluctantly agreed to send him down but warned that the Etched Man was extremely dangerous. Akira laughed, “He isn’t but his tattoos are.” Franks began overriding the lift lockdown.

“I’ll be quick, I don’t intend on a long fight I just intend a quick smash and grab.” He headed for the lift. Akira considered teleporting them down, but they had been warned that the effect of doing so, so close to the shunt might result in it translocating him into the rock face.

It did have the element of surprise which the lift didn’t. He asked X-Ray if he wanted to risk it. He nodded, and they immediately teleported down instead to the tunnel in front of the lifts.

On D, Banshee had given up on trying to sneak past the Etched Man’s shadow demons and watched as his teammates stepped out of thin air behind him. Akira immediately unleashed a mystical blast at the Etched Man; the energy passed through one of his now animated and full-size tattoos and he was knocked back against the wall of the booth even as the liberated tattoo dissipated, having tried to protect its creator.

Now aware of their presence, he released two large spider-like tattoos at both X-Ray and Akira. They dodged their attacks but otherwise ignored the creepy-looking monsters as Banshee rushed forward and tried to grab hold of him even as she resubstantialised herself and tried to unleash a corrupting touch on him. He spasmed at the attack and his tattoos began to fade on his skin. X-Ray raised his force field and focused. He needed to risk blasting the Etched Man while pulling the suffocating guard, Dan towards the lift using his gravi-kinesis. The extra effort required might prove too much even for him.

Dan’s body raised off the ground as X-Ray altered the gravitational flow around his prone body, kinetically pulling it across the floor towards him. He suspected that Dan had a crushed trachea. At the same time, he blasted the Etched Man hitting him in the head and rendering him unconscious. The shadow creatures trying to attack him and Akira, immediately vanished, reappearing as tattoos on his body even as Akira lifted his body into the air and slammed him into one of the cells with his TK before fusing the lock shut.

Dan appeared to have stopped breathing and X-Ray had to use his gravi-Kinetics to remove his helmet in an attempt to aid his ability to breathe. He considered his options but decided not to try to perform an emergency tracheostomy using a blunt spoon and a biro. He shouted for the others to join him, and they headed by lift towards Tier Two and the medical bay. Since Akira had never been there, he was unable to teleport them directly.

As the lift dropped, they could hear over the speakers the sound of rioting and fighting in the lower cellblocks. They got the impression at least one prisoner or guard had been killed as a result. They reached Two which thankfully was still prisoner free. As the door opened, Dr Mayfair stood ready to head up to the control room but instead turned and rushed Dan into the medical bay.

While the Doc operated on Dan’s crushed throat, they wandered over to the desk and logged into the prison computer system to see if there was any information as to what was happening where. The data was sparse as the cameras were still down, but they thought it likely that there would be some prisoner grudges settled this day as well as whatever Kaos planned. They managed to log into the communication channel and heard Franks apparently speaking with Kaos. They heard him say aloud, “…We will make a deal, just don’t kill anyone else.”

Kaos replied, “A deal? Very well here are my terms. You will do exactly what I say when I say it and I won’t tear you and your staff limb from limb. You have 30 seconds to accept them and open the Command Centre otherwise we will start by killing the guards out here then we will force our way in and kill you and the rest of your staff slowly and painfully.” Franks must have agreed as the next thing they heard was Kaos, “I’m pleased you can be reasoned with, hopefully you will remain reasonable.”

The team checked that Dr Mayfair was able to cope on his own as they entered the lift and headed up toward Tier One…

The lift arrived at the control room floor and the doors opened to reveal an empty interior. On the way up Banshee had turned both herself and X-Ray insubstantial and invisible, while Akira had also rendered himself invisible and put his shield up enroute.

Apparently Kaos, the hostages and his reunited mob of murderers and criminals were still heading towards the stairwell entrance and hadn’t entered this tier yet, but they saw Franks authorise the armoured airlock unlocked in readiness for his arrival. He was keeping his word then; he wasn’t going to resist. Given that, the majority of those present were civilian admin staff with no training in dealing directly with violent prisoners, that decision might have been for the best, but it felt wrong somehow to offer no resistance at all.

They could hear Cassie report, “…and I’ve got smoke and increased temperature gradients in C-Wing. Containment breach failures displaying in cells C1, 3 and 4. It’s a full-blown breakout sir.” Franks nodded and replied, “The radio systems are down and we have no way to recall any of the guards.”

Then, quietly Cassie declared, “We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”

It was at that point that she realised the lift had arrived. She glanced at the apparently empty lift then back at her monitors and gave out a quiet gasp of breath. Akira hurried over behind her and stared over her shoulder at her screens. She still had thermal imaging active, and it clearly showed his presence behind her office partition as a human-shaped heat source. It also showed Banshee and X-Rays’ breathing as unidentified heat traces. He leant over and whispered to her, “It’s okay, it’s us.”

She gave out a gasp in surprise and almost turned to look at the place the voice had been but thankfully resisted the temptation and instead continued looking at her consoles. Good girl, after all there was a traitor amongst the staff, and they still didn’t know who it was.

Just then the stairwell airlock opened to reveal Kaos with his Kult, herding the hostages as well as a few more freed prisoners – el Puño he assumed was the figure with the enormous crystalline fists, X-Ray whispered that he recognised the bald-headed figure as Napalm but did not recognise the yellow or purple-skinned figures with them.

X-Ray could see that both were humanoid, but they were either severely mutated Stormers or aliens – the yellow-skinned one seemed nervous and wary, his skin hung from his arms and legs as though shredded, and his mouth was circular, always open and full of teeth – this presumably was the prisoner known as Leech? The other was elephantine in proportions, with a long neck and a delicate, gazelle-like face. He seemed very self-assured and was half-naked, showing off his purple-skinned physique for all to admire. He walked in last, behind the hostages. He heard Banshee and Akira over his commdot subvocalise a confirmation of their identities as Leech the walking Meta neutraliser and Slaed. Clearly, they had encountered them before somewhere.

Kaos was accompanied by Arsenal, Electrocutioner and a figure that they couldn’t see properly.

Something made their view of him indistinct and blurry. Just looking at him for more than a few seconds was giving them all a migraine as though something was interfering with their senses but Akira was convinced it was mental not physical. This had to be the prisoner they’d heard about, the one known as Brainstorm. X-Ray tried using his enhanced vision to break through the mental storm to reveal a small, skinny figure in his forties. He could make out angry eyes, a scrawny moustache and a thin, cruel mouth then the mental blurriness resumed and he was forced to look away.

No Etched Man, so they assumed he was still unconscious and locked in the cell they’d left him in. Thankfully for Banshee, Bloody Mary wasn’t with them, at least not yet. Despite this, they were clearly outnumbered.

They had six downtrodden guards as their prisoners and a further dozen civilian staff (presumably cooks, cleaners etc). One of the guards has been severely beaten and was missing his arm where Kaos has ripped it off and he was still bleeding out, despite a ragged tourniquet being tied round the stump.

Akira was for Banshee turning into Mary so she could do something to stop the blood loss, thinking she could pretend to be one of the staff. Banshee whispered over her commdot that she’d still be a stranger to the staff and would need to use her harp which would be a bit conspicuous. No, they really needed to figure out some way to treat the wound properly.

As this was going on, Kaos looked around the control room and smiled, “Surrender to me now and I will personally guarantee you will not be killed unless you force my hand, force me to fight and I make no such promise. I will slaughter those who have opposed me, on that you have my word.”

The team noticed that he dropped something on the floor as he entered – fragments of a small device – it resembled a thin metallic crushed beetle in shape, its inners packed with a complicated array of crystals and molecular wires attached to a solid-state recorder and miniaturised battery pack, a band of hair-fine cilia around its edge. This apparently had been the device he’d been holding in his hand in the cells.

El Puño turned round and punched the door of the armoured airlock with his massive crystal-covered fist leaving a massive bulge in the armoured airlock door so it could no longer seal shut.

From his location behind Cassie, looking over the partition at Cassie’s computer it showed which cells have been opened and in what order. All of D, several on C though some had been opened after Kaos and his Kult had left and only one cell on A; Slaed’s, presumably freed by Kaos, but why?

Other cells on other floors were still being opened, presumably by the prisoners themselves but the passage between their floors remained sealed, leaving them to riot and settle old scores but only within their own cell blocks. It didn’t look as though Kaos had planned a complete prison breakout, only those who he either needed or wanted for some reason. Akira was reasonably sure that el Puño, Napalm, Leech and Slaed had never worked with him before, at least as far as he was aware.

Napalm looked around the room and an evil leer appeared on his face on seeing Cassie. He immediately walked over and started whispering in her ear several lewd suggestions, much to her embarrassment, as he clawed at his groin. Afraid, she tried to back away as he stepped round the desk and began to pull down the zip on his prison jumpsuit.

Akira was sure he would need to intervene and to hell with remaining covert but to his surprise, Kaos intervened instead. In a quiet voice, he explained to Napalm that if he valued his life, he had better leave the hostages alone and unharmed. “I have given my word and you will not break it for your lusts.”

He looked at Cassie who had backed herself into the corner of her partition and was trying to shield herself with her arms. “Please accept my apologies, and no harm will come to you as long as you obey my orders and do not betray me. Please establish communications with the surface, I would speak with whoever is currently in charge up there.

Meanwhile Napalm, you will control your desires and take this… demonstration of mine down to the medical bay on Tier Two, before he makes any more of a bloody mess. It is for the doctor to decide whether there is anything he can do to save him. Now go, and if I hear you have abused any of our guests without being ordered by me, I shall do to you what I did to him. Nod if you understand me?”

Napalm, clearly afraid of the metallic figure, nodded. Cursing quietly about not being allowed to ‘get his rocks off’ he grabbed the unconscious guard’s other arm and dragged him towards the lift leaving a bloody smear on the floor behind him.

Kaos was meanwhile ordering Franks to unlock the lift and contact Doctor Mayfair, “tell him to remain in the medical bay and prepare to receive a patient. Inform him that there may be more if there is any resistance.”

Franks nodded to the elderly Comptroller to do so, before replying “Okay, but I refuse to give you access to the lowest tier, you might as well kill us all now than have you kill us slowly by interfering with the prison’s life support and cooling systems.”

Kaos nodded, “I may take you up on that offer, later, but for now I need you to contact the surface so negotiations can begin.”

The lift doors opened, and Napalm stepped in with his now unconscious ‘companion’. He was covertly joined in the lift by the invisible team who chose to tackle the fact that they were vastly outnumbered by using the strategy of divide and conquer.

They had briefly considered Banshee turning back into Mary and using her harp to stabilise the guard’s injury. If she and X-Ray was rendered invisible by Akira before she changed back, would her healing harping be interpreted as ‘elevator muzak’ by Napalm? It would be easier to just take him out in the lift once the lift doors closed.

They saw Kaos step forward and physically drag Franks over to the Governor’s office as the lift doors closed and the lift with its passengers plunged deeper into the Earth towards Tier Two. There was a built-in camera but hopefully only Cassie could monitor it.

An invisible X-Ray unleashed a blast straight at Napalm’s head just as he bent down to check his human burden was still alive. Instead of taking out Napalm, the blast hit the shiny walls of the lift and was reflected around the compact chamber, forcing his attackers to dodge. Napalm stared up surprised and began to flame up even though he was still holding the unconscious wrist of the guard.

Banshee turned substantial though she remained invisible, grabbed hold of him and unleashed a corrupting touch even as Akira blasted him multiple times.

He collapsed as the tiny flames he had started to manifest died before they could do any damage to anyone. A second later, there was a pinging as the lift signalled that it had arrived at Tier Two.

They turned visible as the door opened revealing a startled Dr Mayfair and a pretty nurse in her late 30’s whose nametag read Senior Nurse Beverley. They remained professional and immediately focused their attention on the injured guard, though Nurse Beverly did manage to spare the time to get in a single sharp kick at the unconscious Napalm’s ribs. It seemed that Cassie wasn’t only person that Napalm had offended. She immediately grabbed a medical trolley and helped X-Ray and Dr Mayfair move the guard’s unconscious body to it then ran with them to the medic bay to try and stabilise his life.

Akira and Banshee dragged Napalm’s body over to an examination table, anesthetised and restrained him before Nurse Beverley came back and sprayed him down with an accelerant, cooking oil apparently, to prevent him from waking up and going full flame on and burning through his restraints. It appeared that although he was immune to his own flames, he wasn’t invulnerable to fire in general and if he ignited the oil he would burn just as surely as his previous victims. Even X-Ray, once he returned, admitted he appeared unredeemable.

The three of them began a search for possible weapons. A quick look in the medical cabinets revealed several vials of Propofol, Etomidate, and Ketamine – intravenous sedative-hypnotic agents commonly used to induce general aesthesia. X-Ray grabbed the largest syringe he could find and mixed up a cocktail that he hoped might be fast acting.

Meanwhile Akira who had been searching another previously locked cabinet (the lock having been temporarily turned to dripping pink blancmange), gave out a small squeal of delight as he discovered a fully charged sonic rifle, which he immediately took possession of.

Armed, they headed back towards the lift and again turned invisible, destination Tier One. They briefly discussed whether to risk Akira disguising himself as Napalm and act like a jerk when they arrived. In the end he realised he would struggle to carry it off if questioned.

The doors opened and they could see that the device attached to Kaos’ heart was now showing on the surface of this organic metal skin on the centre of his chest. They also noticed that the wound on the rear of his neck where the control bug had entered was still healing, it hadn’t scabbed over yet and remained an open wound despite the more serious chest wound being almost fully healed around the semi-transparent device which was filled with a clear liquid.

They glanced at Franks who looked older than he’d done when they’d first seen him at Heathrow, his hair was now tinged grey at the sideburns – had he been using hair dye to disguise his age and if so, why was it wearing off now?

Cassie reported that the Caledonian Protectorate had arrived on the surface and, at the First Minister’s request, their leader Rig had taken control of the containment operation on the surface.

They needed a plan and quickly. X-Ray had primed a double dose of aesthesia, sufficient he hoped to knock out an elephant (admittedly a small one) which he planned to administer to Kaos through the still unhealed wound on the back of his neck.

The Protectors leader, Rig, surprisingly has a cultured English accent, not Scots. “Kaos, what do you want?”

“Why we want what every prisoner desires, we wish to escape our confinement.”

“You know I can’t allow that!”

“I beg to differ. You are in no position to argue with me. I am in control of this facility now, not you.”

“You’re not up here yet.”

“And you my dear Rig are not down here. The lives of all the staff are very much in my hands and I will execute them if necessary.”

Kaos signalled and one of the guards he’d captured below was psychically dragged forward by Brainstorm, even as Kaos reached out his hand to grab his skull.

X-Ray increased the gravity on the guard to make him harder to drag forward. Brainstorm found he was unable to move him, leaving him apparently confused as well as annoyed. Then they heard a scream come out of the guard’s mouth and his eyes rolled into his head as a weak scream emanated from his mouth. Brainstorm had apparently unleashed a psychic blast at him out of anger at being frustrated. Banshee realised Brainstorm had to be disrupting the electrical signals to his victim’s brain as she realised that Akira’s so-called ‘cunning plan’ consisted of firing the sonic rifle at the guards’ tormentor.

“Boys and their toys, eh?” thought Banshee as Akira fired the rifle at close range and Brainstorm collapsed to the ground, spasming.

Everyone began to stare, trying to see where the unexpected auditory attack had come from. Then Banshee physically materialised but remained invisible in front of the guard, grabbed him even as she turned both of them insubstantial and extended her invisibility onto him. Both Arsenal and Electrocutioner tried to grab at the disappearing guard only for their hands to pass straight through him. Banshee heard Arsenal shout for “Krvavá Marie”, Bloody Mary! Damn, Banshee just hoped they didn’t figure out how the guard had vanished as she flew him towards the rear of the floor, away from the prisoners and the action.

As the guard vanished, they heard Rig ask what had just happened, having seen on her screen Brainstorm collapse and then the guard disappear.

Kaos continued speaking calmly to Rig, even though he too was baffled at what had just occurred but didn’t want to admit he wasn’t in total control. “We have removed one of the guards,” he said as Cassie vomited into a waste bin and el Puño cheered loudly.

 Kaos continued, “His ‘death’ is on you, for forcing me to prove my resolve. Shall I kill another? One of the catering staff perhaps, or are you ready to negotiate in a manner more civilised?”

They felt Leech begin to activate his neutralising ability, as X-Ray asked Akira to get him behind Kaos so he could inject the syringe of anaesthetic cocktail into the unhealed wound on the back of his neck.

This felt risky so Akira elected to cast the Auspicious Augury of Ahgrazul; a potent ritual involving an omen of the future, which resulted in precognitive visions. He ‘saw’ X-Ray jab his syringe into Kaos’s neck and inject his drug cocktail into his bloodstream. The injection succeeded, it just wasn’t strong enough to affect Kaos quickly enough and instead of Kaos collapsing, he realised that something or someone had attacked him as he turned and blasted his attacker…

The vision rewound and restarted again. A few seconds later, Akira stopped the mental simulation. That plan had failed as had several other attempts the augury had shown him.

Before X-Ray was about to inject Kaos, Akira signalled him to stop. He pulled him back and whispering explained that he’d viewed the future and it wouldn’t be sufficient to knock Kaos out, at least not straight away. He whispered that X-Ray would need to seriously up the dose, but how? It wasn’t as though he was carrying several large syringes with him.

Akira and X-Ray discussed how to proceed after their mini Groundhog Day. Kaos’ ego seemed relevant, as the various scenarios had showed he didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Rig or break off his demands in front of her. It was also clear that he was either already in agony or didn’t feel pain, but the injection still had to be directly in the unhealed wound and on its own it clearly wasn’t enough.

In the end, X-Ray decided he would administer the largest doze he could into Kaos’ bloodstream as he had previously planned but with half again the doze he’d intended to administer before and then smash the remaining vials of aesthesia he had with him into Kaos neck and hope it would seep into the open wound.

Meanwhile Kaos had continued his demands, “These people are more useful to me alive than dead just now. Should that change, I will not hesitate to order their deaths. What is your preference?”

Several seconds passed then, “Okay then we can make a deal, just don’t kill anyone else.”

In the meantime, X-Ray had increased the strength and dosage of the anaesthetic he injected but this time followed it up with smashing the remaining vials into the back of Kaos neck and the wound hoping that most would be absorbed despite the rest dripping down the back of his neck.

It immediately left Kaos staggered as the cocktail of drugs kicked in. Unwell and angry, he partially turned as he reached up and felt the fluid and tiny glass fragments on his neck with then signalled to someone in the room just as Bloody Mary came through the door of the airlock.

She saw an invisible Banshee at least, but either couldn’t see X-Ray and Akira or ignored them as she turned insubstantial, manifested a crystal blade into her hand and attacked.

 Meanwhile Kaos tried to pretend everything was still under his control as he continued, his voice slurring slightly, “Here then is the deal and it is non-negotiable. You will do exactly what I say and I will refrain from killing these … captives. Those are my terms. I have 30 captives in the control centre and within my power and control. The remaining guards either are below dealing with the released prisoners or locked inside Tier Four. They are still within my reach though if I run out of hostages up here in command. It is up to you to keep them alive my dear Rig. Here is my demand. There is a parahuman in Amsterdam called Ulrich Graf. You have 24 hours to locate him and bring him here. Should you fail, I will start to execute one hostage every fifteen minutes until you stop delaying or I run out of hostages, your choice. Your superhero allies are dead, or will be when I find them.”

“Find one man in the city of Amsterdam and bring him here, I need more time. Be reasonable please?” was Rig’s plea. Franks gasped, “How did you find out about Ul… ah, Graf? No one outside of this facility and the heads of AEGIS should know who he is.”

Kaos ignored him and continued talking to Rig as the drugs in his system continued to affect his balance and speech. “I am being reasonable, he’s a long-distance teleporter, once you have located him, he can get here in what is that old English saying? A blink of the eye?”

Rig paused, then responded, “You know how this works; we scratch your back you scratch ours. I want half the prisoner’s free…” Kaos was no longer listening and had cut the transmission as he focused on trying to find his attacker. “There is somebody, an enemy in this room, find and kill him!” he screamed as he was forced to hold on to the edge of the table to stay upright even as he clutched at the device embedded in his chest.

“Whoever’s in this room be aware. Embedded in my chest and attached to my heart is an explosive device holding a powerful Russian nerve toxin – named ‘Mgnovennaya Smert’. It is a thousand times more toxic than Botulinum toxin. I obtained it from the PRX Biogenetics laboratory in Paris. Please feel free to check it out if any of you manage to survive. Although the theft was hushed up for political reasons, I am sure someone has the necessary clearance to confirm the theft occurred.

The device can be detonated either manually by me or by means of a dead man’s switch connected to my heart. If you just poisoned me, then you have just condemned everyone to death. It guarantees the death by asphyxiation of everyone in the prison and then through the prison air ventilation system to everyone above before spreading. I estimate within a couple of days that five thousand deaths is not an unrealistic figure. Do you want to risk it?  I’m possibly a dead man walking if you have poisoned me, in which case you will have condemned thousands to death.” He turned and shouted to his people, “Find them and when you do, kill them slowly and painfully.”

Banshee left the brain-addled guard hidden away from the fighting and headed back, knowing that Bloody Mary would be hunting for her. He had to take out Leech before she ended up in a deadly fight with Bloody Mary. She headed straight for him, knowing his neutralising abilities could not affect her. She turned physical just long enough to unleash a corrupting touch on the yellow-skinned creature. She grabbed him and gave him a ‘buzz’. The creature tried to stagger back as she unleashed another corrupting touch. Leech collapsed unconscious even as Bloody Mary saw her. She rushed in and tried to stab her. The blade cut at her costume but thankfully it didn’t cut her flesh.

Arsenal turned one of her arms into an organic cannon and waved it around looking for a target. Electrocutioner and el Puño were left overseeing the prison guards and staff that they’d taken hostage.

The hostages all dropped to the floor and huddled together in fear; the escaped prisoners were too busy protecting themselves against potential invisible attackers to grab a hostage and use them as human shields. The control room admin staff meanwhile used the office dividers as cover to allow them to start crawling towards the armoured booking area and its shielded walls. Only the guards and staff that had arrived with Kaos were left exposed.

Slaed remained with them but appeared to have no obvious powers other than being Terminus’s bug controller. Akira wondered if he was somehow controlling the others, as there was no reason to include him in the breakout that he could discover.

X-Ray separated himself from Akira’s influence, ‘materialised’ even as he unleashed his rad-blast at Arsenal, revealing his location. She immediately dropped unconscious, her morphed arm cannon resuming its original human form.

Banshee was now in a violent, hand-to-hand combat with Bloody Mary. They both danced around each other, both insubstantial but in phase with each other, as Bloody Mary tried to stab her crystal dagger into her opponent. Banshee unleashed a shattering shriek against the blade and it crumbled into fragments but to Banshee’s horror, she dug her nails into her palm and materialised another blade in her hand. She was clearly a practitioner of blood magic. She immediately stabbed at Banshee with the mystical blade, thankfully she managed to turn the blade causing Bloody Mary to accidentally drop it.

A Battle Royale ensued between the two of them as they hit out at each other as Banshee picked up Mary’s crystal blade, grabbed hold of Bloody Mary and unleashed a corrupting touch on her that left her dazed. Bloody Mary manifested another blade in her hands as the two crystal shards clashed before Banshee had to parry a stab towards her heart.

El Puño was screaming in accented English, “Start killing them now!” even as he spun around and tried to grab one of the hostages to punish the heroes for daring to attack them.

Akira fired the sonic rifle at Slaed while shouting “Cum on feel the Noize!” The blast deafened Slaed and left him stunned and bleeding from the ears.

X-Ray used his gravi-kinetic power on Electrocutioner, using it to throw him across the room and away from the hostages even as he knocked him into el Puño. The Spanish crook was knocked down, away from the hostages. El Puño stood up and immediately ran at X-Ray and tried to smash him. X-Ray dodged by flying into the air, as Electrocutioner unleashed a lightning bolt against Akira. He managed to dodge the strike as he fired multiple blasts at Slaed.

The multiple blasts connected and left him comatose and bleeding from his mouth, nose and eyes. There was something about Slaed that horrified Akira, something about his physique that reminded him of an Egyptian deity.

Kaos, although staggered by the drugs in his blood, fired an energy blast from his eyes. The blast hit Akira causing burns and bruises. In response, X-Ray responded with a rad-blast against an already semi-comatose Kaos and he dropped unconscious as X-Ray screamed “Yes!” as the blast meant he hadn’t had a chance to set off the bomb in his chest.

El Puño tried to run at X-Ray intending to punch into a pulp but in his blind rage, he tripped over a chair in his path and slammed face first into the ground. Nearby Banshee tried to hold onto Bloody Mary so could unleash another corrupting touch on her but she managed to break free.

Electrocutioner sent another lightning blast at Akira but again he dodged before responding with mystical blasts against both el Puño and Electrocutioner, spinning around to unleash blasts at each of them in turn – His blasts missed Electrocutioner as he sped out of the way but it did hit el Puño on the ground leaving him staggered.

Bloody Mary was waltzing around Banshee as she tried to stab her. She spun round and her blade sliced Banshee’s arm. She seriously thought about returning the favour rather than continuing to try to find non-lethal alternatives. She could hear in her mind a little demon version of Akira sat on her shoulder, nagging her to use a blade or her staff to deadly efficiency on the bitch. Instead, she unleashed a wail at Bloody Mary, that washed over her and she fell to the ground hard but recovered quickly.

Meanwhile X-Ray blasted el Puño while he was still lying on the ground. The blast rendered him unconscious and shattered his crystal fists into fragments.

Electrocutioner fired another lightning blast against Akira, which forced him to dodge.He responded with several blasts back, all of which missed only to leave him exposed for an attack by X-Ray. Despite his inhuman speed, the rad-blast hit and Electrocutioner collapsed at last.

That just left Bloody Mary who was still ‘mano a mano’ or more precisely ‘femenano a femenano’ as Akira called it, against Banshee. The two of them continued their deadly ballet of trying to grab or stab each other until Akira elected to use the Sonic rifle, knowing he would hit Banshee as well.

The sonic pulse knocked Bloody Mary out and she screamed as she collapsed in a heap. Unfortunately, as he expected the assault also affected Banshee leaving her temporarily deaf and stunned due to the aural onslaught.

Thankfully, the whole thing was over in minutes and no more hostages were harmed. Franks immediately demanded the staff start repairing and activating the neutralising systems while he authorised all cellblocks, including the corridors and security booths, be flooded with knockout gas on the theory that it was better to render everyone unconscious than allow any further violence. The remaining prisoners were recaptured and reinterned in their cells.

In total, four guards and six prisoners had died, though the guard who’d had his arm ripped off by Kaos survived as had Dan.

They still had no idea how the Kult intended to escape from Deep Six during a full lockdown and with the shunt active other than Graf’s ability to teleport, but surely the shunt would have affected him just as readily as Kaos own teleport power?

Finally, the murder of the Governor remained unsolved and that annoyed them. They were pretty sure only Kaos would know who their fifth columnist was and he was unlikely to reveal that information unless it was of benefit to him.

They were sure though that the same toxin that Kaos had in his heart-bomb would turn out to have been used to murder Creed. That was another problem, the device had to be removed, but Doc’ Mayfair was not a surgeon and they didn’t feel it was safe to transfer Kaos to a hospital or leave the bomb in situ longer than was absolutely necessary.

Finally, they still had no idea why Kaos had chosen to free Slaed out of all the unaffiliated prisoners in Deep Six.

One problem at a time. X-Ray elected to reveal that he was a surgeon to Dr Mayfair and Nurse Beverly and swear them both to secrecy, as he was the only person there qualified to detach the chemical bomb in Kaos’ chest. It was the first time he’d had to perform open heart surgery where the heart was already exposed but they couldn’t risk him waking up with the device still attached.

Upstairs it was clear that, while it appeared that Franks was happy that the breakout had been prevented, he still had a prison riot to deal with. Akira assumed he was just glad that his part in the escape had apparently remained undiscovered though, like several others, he remained a suspect.

Undiscovered that was by everyone except the Balance. While they had waited for the lockdown to be lifted Akira had sought divine guidance from the trinity of the Modrossus requesting the Judgment of the Modrossus; a fearsome invocation, calling upon the highest mystic order to appear, judge the petitioner’s worthiness and reveal the truth. The judgment rendered by the triple-power was fair but dispassionate. Although Franks had been blind to their presence, an amalgam of The Modrossus, of Abbridon, Heshem, and Lamal, a glowing being with three heads: male, female, and androgyne, each with a glowing rune on its forehead had appeared and, at Akira’s request, had judged the Deputy Governor and found him guilty. He was not as he seemed.

He had no actual proof of course, no way to confirm what the god-like beings had revealed to him, that Franks was an undeclared powered who’d somehow carried out the murder of the Governor and the sabotage of the prison restraint systems. How he’d achieved this, Akira wasn’t sure, it was almost as though he could step between time.

The trouble was, like telepathy, the use of mystical or psychic powers to gain information was considered both illegal and inadmissible in a court of law.

Unless Kaos talked, and that seemed unlikely, Franks would remain just another suspect. Best Akira could do was contact Harry Powers at AEGIS and share his ‘suspicions’ about the man. Akira still elected to whisper in his ear, “We know” and followed it up with a wink.

Harry was to later contact them to confirm that Franks had vanished while being escorted to the AEGIS offices in Edinburgh for questioning. He was about to enter the building under full escort when he just vanished. Not teleported or sped away, vanished. One second, he was there walking up the steps then, nothing. He was no longer there. A citywide search had shown him appear on CCTV a couple of streets away only to disappear again a few seconds later.

His current whereabouts were unknown.

None of that mattered as the Balance, as soon as contact was re-established, headed back as fast as the grav-vehicle they had chartered could fly, faster than safety advised, to investigate what had happened to X-Ray’s wife.

A.E.G.I.S. – Authority for Enforcement, Gaols and Intervention Services

.

.

.

.