Superhero Adventures, UK Style

Inspired by the adventure “The Persephone Extraction”

Following Stacy’s abduction and subsequent rescue, Brian had decided to take a month off work and rent a chalet in Italy just for the two of them. Unfortunately, Stacy had her new job to prepare for and insisted they had to return home after only three weeks away. Then, to add to his woes, there had been an incident with Singularity as they were arriving back in the UK.

In a normal teen, staying out all night wasn’t necessarily such a big deal; but Singularity wasn’t a normal teen. He had refused to say where he’d been all night or why he hadn’t returned ‘home’ when he should have and of course there was the matter of the cut lip and black eye he’d acquired while AWOL. His refusal to discuss the matter meant that alarm bells had begun to ring. There were thankfully no Police incidents that might be linked to him or any tales of gravity acting abnormally in the local news, not that that meant he hadn’t used his powers of course, or not gotten into trouble.

Should he contact the kid’s social worker? Not that he thought much of the man if he was being honest. Chris’s current carer had felt that he deserved another chance (especially as his pee test that morning was still negative) but they had left the final decision of what to do about his still unexplained overnight absence to X-Ray; passing the buck more like.

What to do? Meanwhile he still had a week off and Frankie appeared to have some news for them about the origins of the enhanced Marburg virus that had been destroyed in the laboratory fire in Paris.

As soon as they were all gathered, Frankie explained. <<Designation: The Balance, as requested I have undertaken a search and found a link to the ex-Soviet biopreparat source mentioned by designation: Countess Elana Dolengen of Gratz with the name or phrase “Sobotsky”.

The All-Union Science Production Association Biopreparat was the Soviet agency created in April 1974, which spearheaded the largest and most sophisticated offensive biological warfare programme the world has ever seen. They were based in Moscow, but operated throughout the whole of the Soviet Union. Their redacted records show a link with the late General Leonid Sobotsky, a well-known figure in the Western arms dealing fairs in the late 1990s.

Further research uncovered a short obituary written up by the ITAR-TASS news agency dated 20^th of March 2011. I quote, “The funeral took place today of General Leonid Yakovlevich Sobotsky. A hero of the Afghan War, he rose through the ranks to positions of great authority in the Siberian Military District. At the establishment of the Russian Federation and the opening of the economy, he was in the vanguard of the promotion of Russian military technology to new customers around the world. He passed away whilst receiving treatment for aggressive cancer at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine based in Krasnoyarsk Krai. He was buried in Moscow with full military honours.”

A search of MI-6 historical records put him at the heart of some of the biggest deals for high technology and biological weaponry.>>

Frankie flashed up several photos of the General taken from arms trade journals, all shiny medals and a shark’s grin, usually shaking the hands of representatives of a third world dictator.

<<That coupled with reports that there have been several victims of exsanguination discovered in Moscow and numerous reports in the Russian equivalent of social media of vampire-related posts and related hysteria makes me think that the Pale Brotherhood has also made the same connection. I believe their agents are already in Russia looking for the remaining Soviet Mar-V virus in order to restart their deadly research and bring about their desired near-extinction event.

Sobotsky is, unfortunately, our only clue to its whereabouts at present. He made his fortune selling weapons, moving in high-powered business circles in the West. In 2009, a French magazine, the Paris Match, reported that Sobotsky had been arrested during a police raid of several French Riviera properties. The police uncovered a prostitution ring catering to high society, footballers, and industrialists alike. Seemingly, this was thought to be a case of mistaken identity as no charges were filed against Sobotsky.

The magazine inferred that some very dodgy dealing was involved. The prostitution ring was likely an SVR honeypot to provide juicy blackmail material for later use; Sobotsky was almost certainly an SVR asset at this point in his career.

SVR is the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. It is entirely possible that the SVR faked Sobotsky’s death after his utility as an asset was compromised in the Riviera raids. Sobotsky had previously set up a company called Arctran, likely to handle his cut from arms deals. Arctran is still trading. At the time of the police raid, Sobotsky’s Arctran officially owned all of the various Riviera villas.

Sobotsky’s post-military career gives a picture of a very sharp operator with few ethical qualms and a keen eye on his personal cut from any deal. Intriguingly, the exact details of his post-Afghan military service are obscured in the general military archives, indicating that he was involved with state secrets. There is a lot inferred but not stated. I suggest seeking out the journalist Irina Maksimova to see what else she knows. While there is no proof that Sobotsky sold the weaponised Marburg V variant of the virus, he could have had access to its existence and known where it would have been stored. Hope it’s of assistance. Anything you would like me to do? I have identified an address for the reporter who wrote both articles but due to the repressive situation in Russia at present I’m unable to contact her so she would need to be interviewed in person.>>

Akira smiled, “She wouldn’t happen to live at one of these honey pots you mentioned, would she?”

<<Negative, her last known address was in Moscow.>>

They were very aware that access to the Russian Federation was heavily restricted, especially to powered individuals, and any who tried to enter (or leave) the country were subject to immediate arrest and detention in a Siberian Super-Gulag where they were believed to undergo brainwashing to make them compliant to the state. The choices available for a captive were either conscription into the Russian Army as a weaponised asset or imprisonment potentially for life and subject to experimentation, if the rumours coming out of Russia were to be believed.

Russia was a police state. Individuals (and especially any foreign nationals allowed in) were tracked at all times while within the cities (the rural areas were apparently too technologically-impoverished to do so) using AI-enabled facial recognition and tracking programs. All transmissions such as phone signals or internet access were subject to interception and monitoring at all times. Internet access was restricted to a monitored, internal, state run ‘interweb’ that blocked access to all external sites so Frankie would be unable to keep in touch with or help them while they were in Russia.

Akira meanwhile was muttering under his breath about how if he was captured he would likely end up in a honey pot as a major ‘cash cow’ and wondering why they needed to go to Russia, that all they needed to do was write her a letter as they wouldn’t be expecting that in this day and age.

X-Ray was worried about how they would bypass the facial recognition software. Frankie interrupted the verbal chaos to state that she should be able to insert identities for them, provided they weren’t examined too closely and she wouldn’t be able to intercede once they were in Russia itself. They would have to behave and avoid drawing attention to themselves. Powered individuals weren’t entitled to any legal protections, just having unregistered powers was sufficient to end up for the rest of their lives in jail or ‘enlisted’ and anyone accused of being a spy would be executed.

Their commdots, updated with Russian translation capability, would allow them to communicate with the locals. They would also provide secure team communications while they were within 100 metres of each other using encrypted and untraceable Bluetooth connectivity – the range having been extended by a new system created by Frankie since their return from Starhaven, but the use of radio signals for more extended communication would be traceable though unintelligible due to their encryption. They elected to take mobile phones with them as well. If nothing else, they showed that they were rich and connected if they had access to Western technology.

Their main issue while in Russian territory would be avoiding being noticed by the FSB, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB.

In the end, Frankie hacked the FSB’s internal security database and inserted their new citizen identities. X-Ray became Doctor Vassily Dobromyslov, Mary elected to use the glamour of young Mary as her disguise and became his nurse, Marya Solokhova. Akira, in a characteristic touch of humour, asked Frankie to create an identity for him as a lieutenant in the SVR by the name of Bogdan Inneit, assuming that the Russian authorities wouldn’t recognise it for what it was, an in-joke. He also asked Frankie to create links for his character to several high-flying oligarchs and political powerhouses in the higher echelons of the Federation’s Government. These ‘connections’ wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny but he hoped a little subtle namedropping might prove useful.

Frankie also created identity cards for their new identities. Meanwhile Brian, no Vassily, checked out a bag full of medical supplies for his alter ego, including garlic sprays, ampules of holy water amongst the sedatives with a couple of wooden stakes hidden in the lining. Personally, Brian just preferred to blast any vampires with ultraviolet light.

The Crate thankfully had been upgraded some time before with Dakatan stealth capability and was more that capable of breaching the Federation’s border security without being detected but once in Russia it would be impossible to explain. No costumes this time though.

Moscow was the capital of the Russian Federation and one of the largest cities in the world. It sat on the banks of the Moskva River and was the northernmost megacity on earth with a population of 12 million residents within the city limits – quarter again as many as in London.   

Moscow was the major political, economic, cultural and scientific centre of Russia, one of the world’s largest urban economies and one of the most expensive cities in the world. The fall of the Soviet Union, the establishment of the Russian Federation and a market economy led to a flood of new money into the high society of Moscow as well private (criminal) hands, mostly based around the exploitation of vast natural resources, and the rise of a new semi-criminal class of billionaires – the oligarchs. The links between the oligarchs, the Mafiyah or Russian Mafia known locally as ‘Bratva’, who were responsible for smuggling and human trafficking as well as almost everything else shady going on in Russia – coupled with the ex-KGB rulers of the state were at the heart of tensions in Moscow.

They have Sobotsky’s and the reporter’s name and the fact that he ran a Moscow-based arms dealing company, but not much else to go on. It was time for a road trip.

Arriving unseen over the centre of Moscow several hours later, the Crate uncloaked beneath a dark bridge and decanted Mary and Brian onto the walkway before Akira recloaked and dropped the transport into the murky depths of the River Moskva to lie, anchored on the bottom. Akira made sure his teleport senses had a good fix on its location, and then dressed in his new clothes coated with a Teflon-style coating to prevent them from retaining moisture; he grabbed a rebreather and swam up to the surface to join the others on the riverside walkway. As soon as Akira’s clothes had dried enough, they headed away from the river, towards the Novodevichy district in the centre of Moscow and the last known address for Irina Maksimova. There were no addresses still linked to Sobotsky that they had managed to find.

As they left the riverbank they could see that the Politsiya (Police) seemed to be everywhere, all dressed in power armour and carrying heavy weaponry. They were stationed on every street corner, using hand scanners to check everyone’s facial ID as the citizenry stepped by, eyes downcast while surveillance drones hovered overheard tracking their route and scanned them for weapons or cash.

One of officers approached them, demanded to see their ID cards and compared it to their database and facial ID scanner. Akira and Mary’s new IDs worked instantly and without any issues. Brian’s however seemed to be having problems being confirmed.

It drew the attention of a heavy armoured riot officer who had been standing behind an anonymous black armoured Kamaz-manufactured van; his armour modelled on the suit design they had previously seen worn by the mercenaries of the Totally Metal Krewe. Clearly, someone had copied their technology and designs, though it appeared to have been manufactured at a lower technology level.

He approached them, demanding to see Brian’s ID Card. “Seychas! Now!” Brian quickly showed his card to the armoured figure. “Ah, a doctor!” was the mechanically amplified response. Then the other officer’s scanner beeped its approval of his identity and Brian gave a silent prayer that Frankie clearly had excellent forgery and hacking skills.

The riot officer turned and walked back towards the van just as they saw a tall, muscular, armoured figure step out of a nearby side street wearing a heavy containment suit and radiating energy. His skeletal face reminded them that they had heard rumours about Russia creating their own enhanced, which were referred to as ‘Boyegolovki’, Warheads; they clearly had ‘copied’ or ‘created’ the same type of nuclear-powered human deterrent Banshee and Akira had seen previously in the Babylonian Caliphate. Standing in front of them was a walking, talking(?) organic nuclear bomb!

It clearly wasn’t that well shielded, as Brian could ‘see’ waves of radiation seeping out of the suit. Thankfully he wasn’t paying attention to them, instead he was observing a slim figure in a worn out, oversized hoodie cross the road, away from them.

As they watched, the Warhead pointed at the young, poorly dressed young woman in the hoodie and two armoured Police suddenly grabbed hold of her. One of them pulled her hood back, kicked her hard in the leg causing her to drop to the ground before he threw a black bag over her head. The other forced her skinny, undernourished arms behind her back and zip-tied them together before throwing her into the back of the armoured van.

Before the hood went over her head, Akira swore he had seen that instead of hair, her scalp had been covered in medusa-like tendrils wiggling like blind worms. She was obviously a Meta, possibly a Russian Stormer. Under the hood, her tendrils were constantly writhing like a nest of snakes. He wondered if she had medusa’s ability to turn people to stone and that was why they had put a hood over her head? Then they saw the vicious way they tossed her in the van and all Akira could think about was how to rescue her.

The rest of the citizenry nearby kept their eyes down and pretended to ignore what had just happened.

Akira reacted instinctively. He marched over and confronted the officers, “I am Lieutenant Bogdan Inneit of the SVR.” He held out his ID card in front of him as though it was a celebrity all-access pass to Disney World. “Where are you taking this… creature?”

The armoured officer snapped to attention and replied, “We are taking her to a secure containment facility downtown, SIR! As you can see, she is a Meta, unregistered and walking around like a normal human.” The look on his face when he’d called her a Meta made it clear he’d wanted to spit on the ground but had to swallow it instead because of Akira’s presence.

Akira continued, “Which containment facility are you taking her to?” “Central sir, near the Kremlin. Her abilities are unknown and needs to be assessed first, before deciding where to send her.”

Akira smiled, “Ahhh, that is excellent news. You can take myself, the good Doctor here, Doctor Dobromyslov who is a specialist in that field and his assistant with you. We were heading there when we saw your excellent work in rounding up and detaining this Meta.” He signalled for Brian and Mary to join him standing by the van. He continued, “You will give us a lift there, yes?”

It was presented as an order and not a request and he immediately clambered into the back of the van with the other officer and the hooded girl leaving the other two to follow on, whether they wanted to or not.

He nodded at the other officer sitting beside the prisoner who was whimpering to herself under the hood. “We can help keep an eye of the prisoner.” The officer tried to protest, “there is no need, we are perfectly capable of handling a single stormer, especially one who seems to lack any offensive capabilities…” Akira just kept up his conversation about how important Doctor Dobromyslov was in the field of Meta-human research, that he was here to carry out research and when better than with one newly apprehended? “His expertise in the treatment of genetic mutations would be invaluable and he is offering and willing to make time in his busy schedule to assist now, how kind of him, yes? Now, move over. He will not leave his lovely assistant behind.” As he spoke, the young, white haired vision of Young Mary entered the van, smiled and sat down next to the officer before she helped the prisoner off the floor and into the seat opposite her.

Brian entered the van after her, looked at the prisoner and muttered to the officer, “Good thing I’m here, she appears to be unstable. You may need my expertise enroute if she starts to manifest further abilities.” as he spoke, he tapped his doctor’s bag for emphasis.

The police officer still on the street, heard this and nervously asked, “Unstable sir?” “Absolutely,” replied Akira, “The Doctor is of the opinion that she may, at any time, undergo further transformation.” The officer’s voice registered surprise that they wanted to put themselves at risk by travelling in the back with her. Akira smiled, “Who better to anesthetise her or prevent a deadly breakout?”

As Akira was speaking, the officer looked over at the riot officer as though seeking guidance as to how to respond to this outlandish request only to see the juggernaut figure nod his approval. It seemed that he was the senior ranked officer on the scene.

The officer waited until everyone was seated then clambered in the now crowded back of the van, closed the door and banged the partition wall between them and the driver a couple of times. A second later, the van roared away in a belch of black exhaust fumes.

As they headed towards the containment facility close to the Kremlin itself, the officer warned them that the ‘Zashchitnik Naroda’s’ (People’s Defenders) – Team Alpha was based in the same facility and it would be best to not draw their attention, especially to the Doctor’s area of expertise as they were known to be a bit ‘sensitive’ about their status.

The other officer laughed and kicked at the hooded girl’s legs, “Sensitive? Fucking insane and arrogant with it would be a better description, especially their Paragon, Alph. He has an oversized ego and the trigger temper to match… I think he’s on duty tonight so is likely to be there when we arrive. Avoid eye contact and don’t take offence if he refers to you as a ‘vanilla’ – the powers he wields have gone to his head.”

Akira felt the need to respond with a rant about hating all Meta’s. The other officer quietly reminded them that all of the People’s Defenders were soldiers, heroes of the Federation and were to be treated with respect despite their unclean genome.

He continued, “They are arrogant though, especially Alph. I have no idea whether he was named after the team designation; they were named after him or whether it’s just a coincidence. Personally, he acts as though he is the boss of all of us. Imagine, a Meta thinking he is in command of pure genetic humans… Hah!!”

Akira responded with a “They should all be neutralised but they can be useful at times, eh?”

The rest of the journey was thankfully silent except for the constant sobbing of the young female prisoner still restrained and hooded. X-Ray tried to get some insight into her abilities. He was sure that they were primarily sensory in nature. She definitely reacted to his secretive ‘sparks’ of infrared radiation from the tips of his fingertips and the… whatever the things on her head were, they definitely responded to the energy despite them still being hidden under the hood and she turned her head in his direction in response.

 He winked at her only to realise she couldn’t see him, but she did react by jerking her head away from him at the gesture. It could just be a coincidence but he didn’t think so.

Akira waited until the two officers were talking to each other to whisper to her, “don’t panic but we’re actually here to help! Just play along.” One of the guards must have overheard and seemed to be about to react but Akira smiled and put his index finger to his lips. Of course, they were used to the idea of FSB and SVR operatives lying to prisoners.

The prisoner responded by saying, “I’d rather die than allow you to reprogram me into a slave of this corrupt state! I’ll not allow myself to be brainwashed, I’ll kill myself first.”

Is that what had happened to the powered members of the Zashchitnik Naroda? Had they been brainwashed or were they willing participants? No way to tell, but if the alternative was to end up in a Gulag for the remainder of their lives who were they to judge?

The van arrived at a multi-storey grey building with mirrored and presumably armoured windows and drove down a ramp towards an armoured garage door in a sub-basement. The door slowly opened to reveal several guards waiting for them.

The van was then sent through to a second security door and parked up. They were deep in the belly of the beast, now to rip out its spleen, unless they died first of course.

As they started to exit the van, a man in a black and red suit approached flying through the air. He had a van dyke beard minus the moustache and had an arrogant look about him so they were not surprised to hear the two officers confirm that this was the Meta, Alph. X-Ray could feel an abundance of solar energy, especially infrared, emanating off him.

He appeared to be focusing his attention on the ‘good Doctor’ in particular. X-Ray tried to dampen down his own energy levels just in case the energy readings were mutual. He might be able to read his abilities in the same way as he was reading Alph’s. Damn. Thankfully, his companions wouldn’t show us as unusual in any way, only him.

Akira asked the ‘Doctor’ if he was sure that the radioactive isotopes he had in his back were properly shielded? The Officer that had exited first took several steps back when he realised what Akira had said and instinctively his armoured gloves covered his groin.

Brian almost smiled, but managed to restrain himself. “The containment vessel is from the Great War and therefore there are no guarantees that it is providing full protection. The sooner we get it into a shielded environment the better.” He turned and looked at the other officer, “I need its mutagenic properties for my tests. Don’t worry the radiation levels are well within safe parameters for short-term exposure.”

Alph smiled as the prisoner was dragged out of the van by the officer who made a detour around the three of them to avoid getting too close to THAT case, as Alph demanded to see their IDs.

They showed their cards to him. He glanced at them then responded, “I have no record of your involvement with this prisoner, or any other detainee here for that matter.” Akira interrupted to explain, “We have a particular interest in this girl and…”

“Why? She was picked up at a random street search and hadn’t been on our records until her arrest. She appears to be an unregistered Stormer, admittedly she appears to have been sheltered by the underground for some time since the last Silver Storm event in Moscow was over a couple of years ago. It’s unusual that she has managed to stay hidden for that long.”

“She may have links to a possible dissident called Irina Maksimova that I want to interview.” Alph responded by walking over to a security terminal and typed in the name. Damn, Akira’d hoped he could bluff getting information on her whereabouts whilst here then declare her a loyal follower of the State. Getting her records marked as a suspect hadn’t been part of his plan. That hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped.

The response on screen was in Cyrillic and their commdots couldn’t translate written data. He watched Alph type something in and a red flag appeared by what he assumed was a name. That wasn’t good.

Alph turned back towards Akira, “There is no record that an Irina Maksimova is involved with the mutant underground movement.”

Akira screamed out in response, “Are you questioning the word of a lieutenant in the SVR?”

Alph angrily responded with “Do you know my rank?” “I don’t care, my authority in the SVR supersedes any other departments. This is a matter of national security and supersedes local affairs. Would you like to take it up with the President himself?”

Alph continued, “I hold a position that is the equivalent of a General in the FSB.” though he looked at Akira’s ID card again.

 Akira continued, “Check my security level if you like, you’ll see it is of the highest level.” Suddenly hoping that Frankie had given him the security level he now hoped he had or that his accuser wouldn’t call his bluff.

It appeared to have worked as Alph failed to check his identity on the terminal behind him and backed down as the prisoner was escorted over to a heavily armoured door that apparently led to the cells or the interrogation rooms. He was clearly not happy though and Mary was sure that once they were gone he’d think to check their security levels. It was only a matter of time.

The door opened and on the other side, she was booked in and their IDs checked again. Surprisingly Mary’s ID as a nurse didn’t have high enough security rating to warrant entry beyond that point and she was forced to remain behind, with an angry Alph who was again typing something into the terminal.

Inside the corridor they could see that there were cameras everywhere as the prisoner, who was now without the hood over her head but still zip-tied, was taken to an interrogation room for questioning.

Back at the van Mary was trying to distract and flirt with Alph, not totally successfully. He did appear to think he was very popular and Mary played up the hero worship to try to distract him. She pretended to be awestruck to be in his presence despite his being totally unknown outside of the Federation itself. He did want to know more about the lieutenant and why he was working outside of his jurisdiction. “Where did you meet him?”

“He’s a good friend of the Doctor.” was her guarded response. “They share a common interest in the Meta-transformation process.” “And his particular interest in this prisoner, do you know?” Mary responded, “I’m not sure. He hasn’t taken me into his confidence but I believe he thinks there is something special about her.”

He continued, “It just seems strange the way this has occurred and your doctors connection to the lieutenant, Meta-hunting is not the usual task assigned to the SVR, and his arrogance…” Mary passed the latter off as his having high-powered connections and access to money as she waited nervously for their return.

Inside the interrogation room the other two managed to get the officers to agree to let them have a few minutes alone with the girl before she was processed. They explained that if they wanted longer then they would need permission from the Station Commander herself. X-Ray asked about the obligatory medical examination and was told that would be carried out by their own medical personnel as per standard protocol for all suspects. They did state that if he wanted he could be allowed to sit in on the examination but not participate. Meanwhile they had five minutes with the prisoner.

As soon as the doors closed on the room, X-Ray glanced around spotting the surveillance cameras and likely there would be additional concealed microphones recording everything. The red lights on the cameras were off but he could sense that they were still recording. He unleashed a pulse of energy to knock out the cameras and create static on the microphones. They’d likely be able to clean up the sound recordings given time, but for the moment they had privacy.

Akira asked her what she was frightened about? “Would you not be afraid of being brainwashed, of losing yourself?” He replied, “Alph seems to accept it.”

She glowered at him, “He is not been brainwashed, he considers himself a patriot, a ‘hero. A willing participant in this corrupt state, raised since birth to believe in the righteousness of the cause.”

“A true believer.” She nodded and glowered at them. “Those of us who, like myself, were changed by the Silver Storm, are considered tools, weapons for the Government to use as they will.”

“What are your powers?” She looked at him “You will soon know I have no doubt. You’re different though, there is something…” her head tendrils wiggled. “You, you’re like me.” and glanced across at the camera opposite.

“Yes, we are and don’t worry about the cameras, we’ve…” At that a couple of guards entered to find out why the cameras weren’t working only for Akira to scream at them to get out as he hadn’t finished his interrogation yet. They hastily retreated to find out how best to proceed.

Akira continued, “We’re here to help you, you clearly have extra-sensory perception through your…” and he pointed to the organs on the top of her head.

“Since I was changed these things on my head can sense energies. This one” she pointed at X-Ray, “has strange energies emanating from him.”

“Yes, he’s the strangest Doctor you’ll ever meet. We’ll level with you, alright?  We can help you extricate yourself from this situation however, we need to be able to trust you and we will need to keep you with us for a while at least.”

Akira seemed to be lost for words.  As she responded, “You are one of THEM. You are SVR and this is a trap isn’t it?”

“No, no, no. I said I was SVR but that was to gain entry to here, to help you.”

“Why? No-one helps others any more, not here and not outside of the underground railway anyway.”

“Conscience is the one thing that is not ruled by the majority. My conscience tells me that I should help you as a human being needing my help.” Replied Akira.

“I’ve already been caught, I’m imprisoned here with no way to escape, this is just a trick. My chance of being able to escape this place are nil. This is just you trying to trick me possibly to betray those still in hiding. It’s too late. As soon as the underground know I’ve been captured they will move the others to another, safer location, one I don’t know about. Your mind tricks will be for nothing.”

“No, we’re the Balance. You might have heard of us? No? We can transport you out of here and take you somewhere safe. We have a ship anchored nearby. We can transport you there… You’d have to stay there until our work was completed and we’d need to be able to trust you.”

There was banging on the door then it was flung open. A Captain in the FSB was standing in the doorway with several armed guards. Time to leave.

Akira immediately opened a portal to the ship and dragged the girl through with them, closing it behind them before the guards could do anything. The young woman, they were later to learn she called herself Darya, was amazed to suddenly find herself in a modern craft underwater.

Back at the detention centre, the alarms began to ring and Alph went to grab hold of the glamoured Mary’s arm a few seconds after she received a radio transmission from Akira telling her to get out of there and she was on her own. She immediately transformed into Banshee and turned insubstantial and invisible.

Their identities were clearly blown. She headed towards the garage doors as fast as she could and passed through them into the street outside. Alph started to chase after her as soon as the doors opened. He reached the street and looked around extending his senses to try to see where the mutant traitor had gone.

A wave of fear flowed over him and he suddenly felt confused, unable to focus on his pursuit. He still managed to blast out a discharge of solar energy in response. The wave of energy melted the glass in nearby windows and stripped the paint off doors but failed to hit the fleeing Banshee.

Unable to see her, he had no idea how to pursue her. Behind him, vans full of Police were starting to depart, searching for the escapees. Banshee was no longer on the streets however, having elected to phase through a manhole cover and was fleeing down one of the main sewers towards the discharge pipes on the River Moskva. She still had to figure out how to reach the Crate when she arrived at the river.

She managed to navigate the sewers until she found herself close to where the ship was anchored underwater. She turned substantial and used the extended bluetooth connection in her commdot to contact the ship and request help reaching them.

Inside the ship Akira was busy trying to explain to Darya what had just occurred and where she was. She was still not convinced that this wasn’t some sort of trick. She wanted to know what they intended to do with her. “You’re free now, you can do whatever you want” was the reply. “As a fugitive for the rest of my life? I will not take you to the underground. I’ll not put them at risk no matter what.” Akira tried to reassure her but her paranoia had the better of her. She had to know, “Can you get me out of Russia? That’s the only way I could ever be safe.” “Eventually. We will be returning to the good old U of K…” That confused her as he explained he meant the United Kingdom and yes she was welcome to return with them and seek asylum there.

That seemed to calm her down as Akira tried to explain who the Balance were and explain that they had a great ‘gaff’ whatever a ‘gaff’ was.

Their Russian IDs were now burnt, useless, and they still had to find this Irina Maksimova. That was when Akira remembered that he’d mentioned her name to Alph as someone they wanted to interview.

“Oh no, Irina, we’ve, I’ve landed her in the shit a bit. We didn’t mean to but I needed to cover ourselves and she was the only name I could remember in my panic. It was either her or Marya. I needed a reason to… Oh, never mind we need to get to her and warn her that we’d accidentally flagged her as a possible dissident.”

Darya immediately went on the defence, “I didn’t ask you to get involved and I definitely would not have wanted someone else named as connected with me…”

“No, no-one is blaming you – this is clearly on us but I didn’t feel we had a choice. We just need to find her and quickly before the FSB find her. This is the only address we have for her. It’s about ten years out of date but would you know if this is nearby?” He handed her a piece of paper with Irina’s old address on it in Cyrillic. “Why are you trying to find her?”

It was X-Ray that replied. “We believe that she might have information that will enable us to track down a quantity of a very deadly virus known as the Marburg V variant.”

In response her eyes seemed to glaze over and without looking at the paper she began to quote the address that Frankie had found for Irina.

Then she started to quote as though she was reading something off a non-existent screen. “According to the FSB’s ‘interveb’, Irina Maksimova is 35 years old and started her career in the Federal Tax Police service before it was disbanded and its duties transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. She was eventually forced out by a restructure when it became clear that the investigative role of the Tax Police was much lower priority than it had been. Irina is recorded as stating to her ‘friend’ Tatyana that she was convinced that the lack of action against the kleptocracy was sanctioned from the very top of Russian society. Since then your Irina has freelanced as a security consultant and analyst: mostly through checking the backgrounds of business deals for international clients. She also appears to have a sideline publishing, under a nom-de-plume, stories to embarrass the tasteless decadence of the ’new rich’ and their shady business dealings. This is still her current address.”

Her eyes returned to normal and she smiled shyly. “This is one reason they wanted to find me because I can ‘tap’ into secure networks. The NVR will be on their way there now, you will need to hurry if you want to talk to her before they get to her. She’s not part of the rebellion but that will not stop them locking her away as a traitor to the State.”

Akira acknowledged that Darya had a lot of useful ‘skills’ that might help them in their mission, was she willing to help them?

“I thought you said I had to stay on the ship?” Akira replied, “I thought you would have to, but are you happy to help out and come with us..?” “I’m not, I don’t want to risk being seen or captured again.” “Then stay here but keep in communication with us in case you can access anything that puts us or Irina in any further danger, please? The ship’s transmitter is linked to our commdots, our personal communicators. How far do your powers reach anyway?”

“I don’t know. I can sense your devices just now but I’m not sure if I’ll still be able to do so when you are some distance away. All I can promise is that I will try.”

Above, in the sewer pipe outflow Banshee was still waiting, very aware that the sky above was swarming with surveillance drones and the Police had swamped the area and carrying out facial recognition on everyone.

Akira and X-Ray grabbed a spare rebreather and they both swam to the surface and joined Banshee. Then with them all rendered invisible, X-Ray flew them towards the address they had for Irina. The building was an extremely long terrace of multi-level apartments with Irina’s apartment on the top floor of one of the central buildings, opposite a well-kept graveyard and what appeared to be a public park.

They arrived only a minute or two after setting off despite having to navigate around the drones. They’d arrived before the Police or FSB but going by the sirens, they weren’t that far behind. X-Ray could sense a stream of solar energy coming in their direction; Alph was clearly heading their way as well.

 They flew up the outside of the building where Banshee turned them insubstantial as well as inviable and they phased through into Irina’s apartment. Irina was sitting at a small table typing away on a chunky old laptop. As they arrived, her mobile phone began to ring. Irina answered it, her face turning pale at whatever the caller said to her. “Da? WHAT!!?” She slammed the phone down then pulled out the sim card, dropped it into her teacup before turning and looking around the apartment in a panic. She grabbed a bag and stuffed the laptop in it then she began grabbing a few items of clothes and other personal items before throwing them into the bag.

She screamed when a disembodied voice called out, “Listen Irina, we can help you. There are Meta’s here and we want to help you but you will need to trust us. You don’t have a lot of time. The FSB are about to raid you but we can get you out. There isn’t time to explain but we can rescue you and take you somewhere safe. But for now, we need to get you out of here and I’ll explain after what’s going on.”

She looked towards the source of the voice as Akira materialised. She responded by throwing a vase at him which he caught and placed on the floor beside him.

“Look, I know it’s scary but we need to get you away before Alph arrives.” “Alph the Meta-hunter? Coming after me? Why? I have no powers.”

Akira kept up a steady stream of nonsense about being proper Metas, having special abilities and wanting to keep her safe even as she recovered her composure and continued packing her bag. He continued, “As a security consultant with connections to the West, you must have heard of the Balance? That’s us, the good guys.”

She acknowledged that she’d heard of the team, just not what she’d heard. “But you cannot be here, if the catch you they will execute you as spies and me alongside you.” “Don’t worry I can transport us all to safety.” She responded by grabbing her bag then heading over towards the kitchen counter she snatched her cat up from the floor. “I’m ready, now let’s go.”

Akira immediately teleported them all back to the ship. As they arrived inside the hull, Akira murmured, “Looks as though we’ve just inherited a Ship’s cat.” Despite her surprise, she and a hooded Darya began talking to each other as Irina tried to make sense out of what had just happened. She glowered a couple of times at Akira but settled down on being told that they planned to relocate both Darya and her to the West once their mission was complete.

She responded to Akira with “You sold me out?”

“It was an accident, it sort of slipped out and we had to rescue Darya…” what followed was a major argument about ruining her life that only ended when she began to wonder why they knew her name and what they’d wanted from her in the first place.

“We need to know what you know about General Sobotsky and could he have faked his death? You wrote both his obituary and an earlier article, admittedly anonymously, for the Paris March. Is there any chance he’s still alive?”

“He’s dead, I saw his funeral and his grave’s in Novodevichy Cemetery, across the street from my…” She burst into tears as she spoke and had to be comforted by Darya who glowered at Akira all of the time she was doing so.

Eventually she calmed down enough to answer a few more questions. She confirmed that she had witnessed the burial of the General, in a lead-lined coffin no less, due to the fact that he had died of radiation poisoning.

Having confirmed with Darya that the majority of Police and FSB personnel had moved on in their search they reluctantly agreed to return to the street and visit the gravesite and confirm one way or another whether Sobotsky was dead.

Irina hadn’t heard of the MAR-V virus but confirmed that Sobotsky had been reputed to trade in exotic weaponry after the collapse of the Soviet Union. She knew that he’d been selling radioactive material supposedly stolen from one of the hidden Soviet cities located in Siberia but now she thought about it, there had been rumours about viruses being sold on the black market, “could that be the same thing? I did some research into it, but there had been no evidence to back them up. I checked.”

Darya elected to stay behind in the ship, especially as she felt more assured that this wasn’t an elaborate FSB trick. Given that night was falling, X-Ray felt assured that he could safely carry Irina with them and be unobserved as they headed off to the crematory. Irina also wanted to see if her apartment was being staked out by the Police.

When they arrived it was clear the Police were still in the vicinity and Alph was still patrolling the skies above. They headed in to the cemetery with Irina guiding them to the right gravesite.

Novodevichy Cemetery was enclosed by fifteen-to-twenty feet high brick walls and looked like a fortress. Inside was a tree-lined park, with pedestrian walkways between rows of elaborate tombs and memorials for famous Russians including Chekhov, Khrushchev and Yeltsin. The slightly less famous have their ashes interred in wall niches on the perimeter. There is one main entrance for cars, and a second smaller service gate on the east side.

There’s something unusual about Sobotsky’s grave and it wasn’t just the statue of the general siting next to the gravestone with another statue of a large hound at the foot of the grave. It was well tended, even though the general had no surviving close family. There are offerings left on it too, as though it was a little shrine. Coins, cheap jewellery, a few empty perfume vials stained with a brownish residue, and a lot of pomegranate seeds.

X-Ray muttered that there was a legend that vampires felt compelled to count the seeds and therefore would not attack the person leaving the offering. Then he noticed that the stone slab over the grave appeared to have been disturbed.

A gardener was still present, wandering around the cemetery helping himself to the offerings and bottles of alcohol left on the graves but despite the money on this grave he was avoiding it. It wasn’t their presence as Akira was still rendering them invisible. He approached the graveside and tidied up the offerings but didn’t remove any, muttering under his breath something that sounded like “bloody vampires.”

He left to ‘tend’ to another grave where a bottle of cheap vodka had been left behind, vanishing from sight as the four of them again examined the graveside.

X-Ray moved away from Akira and became visible as he approached the gardener and asked him about his comment, about vampires. He looked startled and stated that he didn’t believe in vampires then asked if X-Ray was one. He also asked if he had he been the one that had moved the stone slab over the grave as he crossed himself and after one last look at Sobotsky’s grave hurried away with a warning that X-Ray should do the same.

As he left, he warned him to be careful and watch out for the bald-headed man with the grey skin he’d been seen nearby earlier wearing an expensive suit and a heavy winter coat despite the season. He glanced around, fear on his face as he whispered “Nosferatu! Or possibly Bratva, máfiya gangster, I do not know which. He has been coming late at night several times now. I fear his presence. He is around here somewhere I’m sure.”

He hurried away and X-Ray again approached the graveside.

The lead coffin blocked X-Ray’s senses from confirming what was inside so Akira sat down cross-legged and astrally projected himself into the ground. A minute later he was able to confirm that there was a skeleton inside the lead casket wearing the remnants of a military uniform. Then everything went haywire. In the distance, a figure appeared next to a stately mausoleum. Despite this, they could still hear his chanting as though he was standing right beside them.

As though in response, a mirage-like figure, similar in appearance to the photos of the general appeared, hovering above the grave, its face warped as though in pain. This was no mirage though. The ghostly figure howled and Banshee felt the Fae within her respond in kind, as if something was torturing it to speak. Suddenly it screamed, “What do you seek in the darkness of murky Hades?” As though in response, the chanting got both closer and louder. The ghostly apparition howled as though it was being ripped in two. “Norilsk, it’s in Norilsk, but the vault is hidden… Box 21…” before it began to dissipate.

In the distance, they could see a bald-headed figure standing beside an ancient mausoleum. He gestured and several graves suddenly erupted. It took them a few seconds to realise that several dead and rotting corpses were stumbling and staggering towards them, their mouths clattering in eager anticipation.

The grey figure was clearly a necromancer and had called forth the decaying corpses of the recent dead to prevent them from leaving. The stench of their remaining flesh made the four of them want to vomit.

There was no sense in remaining invisible as they clearly were able to sense where they were.

Akira was for fleeing back to the ship and leaving the police to deal with the sudden zombie invasion, but X-Ray felt they needed to deal with the threat, after all how often did you get to deal with a zombie uprising and in Moscow no less. Unfortunately, Irina’s unrestrained screams also appeared to be drawing the attention of the Police and FSB personnel in the street outside.

X-Ray tried to grab with his gravi-kinesis the figure that he assumed was the summoner, but failed to connect as the figure apparently turned into mist and seemed to vanish. Unfortunately the zombies didn’t vanish with him, they still continued to advance. X-Ray flew towards where the necromancer summoner had been standing. Meanwhile Banshee unleashed a wail at the shambling figures and was rewarded with most of their limbs cracking or being crushed but still they tried to reach them as they collapsed to the ground and dragging their decayed and shattered limbs towards them, their teeth clattering in anticipation.

Akira suddenly felt inspired to try a spell he’d heard about in The Library but had never used, until now. Vhoka the Destroyer was the legendary Eater of Gods, a primal force supposedly capable of destroying all in his path, consuming it so it may be reborn anew.

Although many feared Vhoka’s power, in many respects, he was an entity beyond good and evil. Still, he was opposed to the forces of creation, so magicians allied with order tended to call upon him with great caution, if at all, while those devoted solely to their own power have fewer qualms about calling Vhoka’s wrath down upon their foes.

Despite this, Akira called forth the Dance of Vhoka, which imparted movement to a weapon, allowing it to fight on its own. In this case he hoped to animate a statue, that of the faithful hound. He manifested the gestures, spoke the words of power and willed the statue into existence then let it loose at the remaining zombies who were unable to pierce its metal body but with its iron teeth it ripped and tore the shambling figures into inanimate shreds of rotting flesh and decaying bones.

Meanwhile X-Ray reached the mausoleum. This close, he could see the misty figure. It was fanged and its skin grey and shrivelled. This was a vampire. Despite its insubstantial nature, X-Ray elected to unleash a massive blast of ultraviolet but it failed to destroy the creature though it did cause him to flee. Meanwhile behind them they could hear the sounds of the Police and FSB approaching their position. In the sky they could see Alph approaching at high speed. It was time to leave, but Akira felt the need to wait for X-Ray’s return first though he wanted to avoid a major confrontation if at all possible. There was no point in starting World War Three. As soon as X-Ray was heading back, Akira gestured. opened a portal and the four of them vanished into it leaving the remnants of several shattered corpses scattered around by the animated hound.

Irina needed a sedative to calm down after but was still able to tell them that she thought that Norilsk was a city in Siberia, once one of the hidden cities of the Soviet Union but what box 21 meant was beyond her knowledge. The installation to which Sobotsky had been referring to had to be somewhere near the city of Norilsk, three thousand kilometres northeast of Moscow.

To be continued.

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