Adapted from the adventure ‘Natural Selection’ by Louis Porter Jr
Frankie called the Team into the lounge. On the table in front of them was a branded pair of transparent glasses similar in style to safety goggles beside a small slender silver pen-like device with a belt hook, similarly branded, with a company name, Mannheim.
Akira looked down and muttered “Sounds German. Who left these here? Frankie why did you want us here? Is it anything to do with these?”
Frankie replied, <<Designation: The Balance. I believe I have uncovered a mystery. As you will be aware, I have been looking for ways to extend your commdot capabilities. In my search, I discovered these Virtual Reality googles produced by a new, virtually unknown, company from the Netherlands. These are highly advanced computer links that apparently can integrate live data feeds as holographic displays. This was a prototype that Annie managed to acquire for us.>>
“Cool, can I access Call of Duty on these?” responded Akira as X-Ray joked that Akira was already having enough difficulty coping with ‘real’ reality without introducing him to artificial reality…
Akira reached down and put the glasses on. He felt the glasses automatically adjust to fit snuggly around his head and for a split second, there was a slight pinching sensation just behind his right ear before they automatically adjusted themselves to a comfortable fit.
He then saw a message appear floating before his eyes, “Welcome Akira. Would you like to play a game? Blink twice to confirm.” He saw a series of small cartoon dragons begin to materialise in front of him, flying around the lounge; the images seemingly overlaid on top of his normal vision. Akira blinked a couple of times, and a series of instructions began to materialise which primarily amounted to catch or hit the dragons to gain points. Akira reached out and grabbed one of the flying reptiles. As Akira grabbed the mini dragon out of the air, it vanished into a burst of stars while his googles informed him that he’d earn 1000 points for each one he caught. To the others in the room, he was grabbing and punching at thin air then smiling before spinning around with his arms outstretched, and again trying to grab at nothing.
He caught two more before he noticed that the remaining mini dragons were merging into a larger dragon. He managed to punch and kick this one which then exploded into a million stars as the googles informed him his total score was now 8000 points and did he want to progress to level two? Reluctantly he removed the googles and the explosion of stars instantly vanished.
He examined the googles again, trying to see some trace of the heads up display mechanism in the transparent design but failed to see anything except the clear plastic.
So, these Virtual Reality Goggles connected the wearer to a game that overlaid his normal vision with the game images, but the real question was how did they know who he was? How had the googles had been able to identify him?
He passed the googles to X-Ray who refused them before persuading Mary to try them on.
As soon as she had placed them on her head, they automatically adjusted themselves. On-screen it requested that she identify herself by speaking her name and preferred username before the game would commence. Mary made them up and the game began. Instead of playing, she saw in the bottom left of the screen a small menu icon and when she looked at it through the googles, it opened a menu of options including accessing the internet and even connecting with Frankie. She selected that option and watched as a window appeared in mid-air with Frankie’s image inside it, superimposed over her image on the big screen.
Mary removed the googles. “So, why did it appear to know you, but not me?” she asked.
She placed them back on the table and X-Ray examined them. Even with his enhanced senses the plastic of the goggles appeared transparent and the mechanism seemingly invisible. These googles were unlike anything else on the market.
Akira wanted to know what the pen-like device was for? Frankie informed him that was the actual console and acted as the interface link with the internet. Not that he seemed to understand as he asked if it was for writing in the air or some sort of stick. It took Frankie a whole nano-second to realise he meant flash drive.
Frankie interrupted their thoughts, <<Designation: The Balance, the commercial model will be manufactured worldwide by a number of local companies under license, including by Dalton in the UK. The technology is highly advanced and is being offered for sale at prices that vastly undercut their competition in game console systems around the world and at a price that is far too cheap. However, as the manufacturers get a large percentage of that price per unit and production merely consists of putting the existing, already built, components together and arranging distribution without having to manufacture anything , none of the companies that have elected to partner with Mannheim are complaining.
It defies economic sense which was why not many companies have signed up to the deal offered yet as they suspect that Mannheim will not be able to keep up with demand. That, and Mannheim plans to offer free units to charities supporting young Metas and Stormers, though the publicity they have put out regarding their promise of generous donations has been minimal so far.
The components are sealed and cannot be opened without destroying the unit, I know I have tried, using Designation: Dopey-Droid which was why I only have one unit left.>>
Akira interrupted to state that he smelt a fish, as he had not received any warnings about what this system was going to do before it did it and it didn’t ask his permission for anything. Frankie reminded him that this was a prototype and many of the final legal niceties may not have been included yet but continued, <<I did notice Designation: Akira that when you first wore the unit there was a tremendous data pulse sent by the unit immediately followed by a download of personal data.
For some reason this subsequent download did not occur when Designation: Mary tried them. Like with Jeeves, the unit did not automatically identify you and had to request player input instead.
I believe that the device seeks to identify users with the metagene by taking a miniscule sample of your DNA and uploads that information before then linking that with your identity, which should be impossible and breaches government data security at the highest level. It appears to be using this technology to target Metas and Stormers.
If I am right the goggles was able to compare your DNA with your sealed Meta-human Registration records, which should only be held by the M.E.T.A. agency (The Metahuman Evaluation and Tracking Authority).>>
M.E.T.A. was the European-wide agency set up initially to enact the Powered Registration Act of 2001 and subsequently amended in 2005, which required all people with powers to be registered and, in their particular case, licensed.
Thankfully, in the UK, unlike in the rest of the European Community, this was watered down by existing legislation so that no one under 15 needed to be registered and once they did, they could register under a unique alias to preserve their public identity provided the individual’s ‘real’ identity was officially confirmed and then securely sealed. A court order from a High Court Judge and evidence of them having committed a powered crime that endangered lives were required before that information can be unsealed. The link between the two identities had to be their DNA with the information for all European Meta’s supposedly stored securely in a data facility located in Amsterdam.
<<These goggles appear to be designed to covertly identify Metas but why and how are they able to access the data in the secure database – even I am not capable of breaching that level of security.
It does appear however, that Mannheim was contacted with M.E.T.A. to provide them with a number of tech services. I have made contact with an Agent Wallace of the law enforcement liaison section of M.E.T.A. and he has agreed to allow you access to Mannheim’s headquarters and in particular their Research and Development division.
I hope my worries are ill-founded as, if I’m right, this means that all Metahumans across Europe could be tracked and traced, though for what purpose I don’t know.>>
Akira wondered, “If they have our DNA could they clone us?” <<Potentially.>> was the response.
Meanwhile X-Ray was examining his teammates’ heads and found both had a miniscule pinprick of dried blood just behind the ear where they had felt the glasses pinch them while adjusting themselves to fit! Its failure to recognise her name though might be because she claimed not to be a Meta and wasn’t registered as such despite her powers and, as a result, her DNA wouldn’t have been stored with the others.
Thankfully, the goggles weren’t in the public domain yet so the data gathering hadn’t yet begun, but they knew they had to investigate before they went on sale to the public or distributed to the Stormer support charities.
Akira spoke up, “I think we need to go to Amsterdam. I want my DNA back.” Meanwhile X-Ray was asking Frankie about the goggle’s communications after sampling his teammates DNA, confirming that the identifying information had definitely been uplifted.
<<Designation: X-Ray, I cannot confirm what was uplifted or downloaded in response to the sampling as the transmissions were heavily encrypted.>>
Of course, the only person to try them before Akira and Banshee had been Jeeves and, like Banshee, his blood did not contain the Metagene, so hadn’t activated the link to their M.E.T.A. files and revealed their identity. They had to wonder how the unit would respond to an unregistered meta-human, not that they wanted to test it to find out.
They agreed to head to Amsterdam and to meet with Agent Wallace from M.E.T.A. as soon as Frankie could arrange contact.
An hour later, the team were called back into the lounge. Suddenly in front of them, where there had been nothing before, appeared the holographic image of a lean dapper gentleman in his 30s. He was chewing bubble gum, which didn’t stop him from addressing them – his tone like a drill sergeant to subordinates. “Team Balance… I see you do a good job. Hopefully you clean up well too. We have been watching you. M.E.T.A. that is. The name’s Wallace. I am the one tasked with talking to you super folks, on account of my cheery disposition. We think we can work together on some things. Here, take this card.”
Agent Wallace’s hand extended, flickering in and out of the light, which was clearly some sort of hologram and handed them a solid business card. For a split second, the hologram disappeared leaving the card to float to the ground. On the front was a street address in Amsterdam for Mannheim’s R&D Facility in Amsterdam.
“Team, your help is required. You have requested to meet with the I.T. think tank Mannheim Industries at their R&D facility. You may not have heard of them before, they are an independent tech company we have a working relationship with for about the last two years. They have a great track record with us and with the Meta and law enforcement communities, on the flipside, their beginnings are a bit secretive to say the least. Suffice to say, we keep them at arm’s length. Previously I’d brought The Hollow Knight with me during meetings with them. The fact that The Hollow Knight died at their front door was not lost on me. I need you to meet me at a specified time and make sure everything was on the up and up. The terrorist organization LABYRINTH has been targeting Mannheim and we believe this may have something to do with that. Team, are you in?”
X-Ray knew of, but never actually met, the Hollow Knight, an armoured female figure capable of seemingly turning insubstantial and unleashing blasts and shielding herself and others before mysteriously fading away afterwards. She was (had been?) based out of the North of England and he suspected she was not a Meta but, despite the armour look, was actually a techno-based hero. What could the relationship have been between her and M.E.T.A. and how had she died? The news of her death hadn’t filtered through and certainly wasn’t public knowledge.
He was caught off-guard when Akira suddenly asked, “Where do holograms go when they die?” He looked at Wallace’s holographic projection and realised that he had always assumed she was called the ‘hollow’ knight because she was insubstantial and ghostlike but what if she had been the creator or a user at least, of M.E.T.A.’s holographic projection technology that Wallace was using to meet with them, a ‘holo-knight’ if you will.
That didn’t explain how a hologram could ‘die’, unless its operator had died, killing the projection? Clearly, Wallace didn’t know about her possibly being a hologram or just wasn’t saying.
They agreed a time to meet Wallace outside the Mannheim building in the Netherlands and then headed down to the hangar and the Crate. On this occasion, they could leave the M.E.T.A. agent to see to the formalities that allowed them to work professionally on foreign soil.
An hour later, they set down in Amsterdam and headed on foot to meet up with Wallace. The Mannheim Industries building was just one of several ubiquitous commercial properties that fronted the pedestrian walkway that skirted the canals to the front and rear of the property. The street out-front was not designed for cars but for pedestrians and bikes. In the middle of the street, directly in front of the building was a full-sized Valkyrian statue of the late superhero, The Hollow Knight, being erected by several Mannheim employees. They could see Agent Wallace standing watching them hoist the armoured statue onto its plinth. No hologram this time, he was physically present as he turned and shook each of their hands in turn.
X-Ray did feel that a statue to the hero really deserved to be erected in the North of England where she’d served and was known, not in a city with no history of her exploits but he elected to hold his tongue. Banshee and he had done some research of her death on the trip over and confirmed that her only involvement in the city had been linked to working alongside M.E.T.A. and that she had died leaving the building, dissipating away following a mysterious discharge of energy emanating from the sky.
They were about to enter the building, having given Wallace a minute to mourn his colleague or friend, when there was a loud crack of thunder in the clear sky above, which attracted their attention. A second thunderclap a few seconds later was paired with a lightning bolt, which earthed near Wallace’s feet causing him to tumble to the ground and leaving him stunned. The source of these errant weather effects was not that of a rogue cloud, but from a man… floating in the sky.
A young blonde-haired man in a body suit stood in the air above the statue. He unleashed another lightning bolt which hit the statue causing the Mannheim workers to flee.
He was screaming something about wanting justice…or at the least vengeance. He appeared to assume that the team and Wallace were working for Mannheim, and he attacked them without provocation unleashing lighting blasts recklessly. Though their attacker was not deliberately targeting pedestrians, his blind anger was endangering them.
Akira responded with a series of mystical blasts, all of which missed their, now moving, target, through one did accidentally hit and partially melt the statue’s shield as his feet slipped on the cobbles.
X-Ray raised his personal shield as he shouted at their attacker, “What the hell was all that about?”
He screamed in response, “I used to work here as you will know. First, they were responsible for blowing me up, then they artificially grafted several metagenes onto my DNA while I was recovering only to try and harvest them! I want revenge.”
X-Ray muttered a quiet, “Oh grow up!” even as Akira straightened himself out and pointed towards the stunned Wallace. “So was he actually involved in blowing you up or in the harvesting?”
“He’s connected with Mannheim, every one of them are equally responsible!” “Why? Why pick on him? Is it his skin colour or his sexual orientation?”
“I’ve seen him working with them, he often accompanies the boss man Caine and he has to be complicit in their cover ups. After all, I intend to get them all eventually.”
While he continued to justify his attack and monologue his grievances, X-Ray shouted up, “Bull! He’s here to investigate Mannheim not to work with them!” as he spoke, X-Ray unleashed his gravi-kinesis on their attacker, trying to bring him down to Earth. Surprisingly he was unable to do so but did hold him in his gravity field preventing him from moving or dodging.
Banshee used the opportunity to unleash an icy stare at their captive, which left him shivering and covered in frost even as he managed to break free from XRay’s hold before fleeing as fast as possible. They elected not to pursue in case it put others at risk.
Akira went over and helped Wallace to his feet even as he asked the clearly befuddled man, “The man who just attacked you, claimed you were involved in a cover up, working with Mannheim. Any truth in that?”
“No, my only involvement with them has been overseeing the contacted work they were carrying out for us; I don’t know anything about any accident or his other claims, wild as they appear. I do think something suspicious was, is going on though.”
“So, you were overseeing them and you weren’t in their pay by chance?” Wallace looked at him angrily, “Technically they are in our pay as they are contracted to carry out some very specific work for M.E.T.A., mostly restricted.”
X-Ray jumped in, “He’s claiming he’s had his DNA manipulated by Mannheim…” Before he could finish, Wallace jumped in, “I’ve seen no evidence of that but yes, I too want to investigate whether that was true or not.”
Akira raised his voice, “Well, they took a sample of my blood, without my permission! Would that be evidence enough?”
Surprised, Wallace turned. “Who did? How? I thought this was your first contact with Mannheim?”
“Their VR glasses, they steal a small sample of blood before sending it somewhere,”
Wallace looked stunned, “How did you manage to get a set? Even we haven’t seen a pair yet we’d just heard that Mannheim was hoping to go public with a state-of-the-art virtual reality holographic games console. They are still at the experimental stage aren’t they?”
He suddenly looked at them suspiciously as Akira realised he’d never checked with Frankie whether Wallace had known anything about the goggles. “Well, we did and without any warning or my permission, they took and uploaded a sample of my DNA. I’m not happy about it. I thought that was why you agreed to arrange access to here.”
“I knew something was off and you came highly recommended as, admittedly, unorthodox investigators. Let’s see what we can find inside, okay? So you think they have a sample of your DNA? We need to have a chat with one of their managers or possibly even their CEO, Hannibal Caine, and see what we can uncover. You ready?”
They entered the building through the wide glass doors and were immediately approached by a short, middle-aged man in an anonymous grey suit. He clearly suffered from premature balding and had cultivated an ineffective comb over to try to disguise the issue.
Behind him stood two security guards, whose physiques matched X-Ray’s.
“Agent Wallace, you have brought friends I see. No worries, we work very well with the super-human community. My name was Antwon Geiger, and I will be your guide here today. Thank you all for coming despite the short notice. Considering how much we have become a target lately, we wanted to expedite these meetings.”
Geiger paused as a litany of bleeps and alarms sounded from behind the front desk. Various old-style monitors showing crackly images of various areas of this building had been set into the wall behind it in some sort of art installation.
Geiger smiled and continued, “Don’t fret about that… just our lockdown procedure. When attacked, we have to make sure we are totally and safely isolated from the outside world. Our tech is proprietary–and a lot of factions would love to get their hands on it.”
Wallace frowned “So you are saying we are trapped in lockdown? I’d be lying if I said it was a first.” He turned and in a whisper said to Akira, “M.E.T.A. is well aware, and frankly quite jealous of their force field tech. The minute that wall went up, my organisation will be trying to figure a way past it. You know, just in case Mr. Secrets here, isn’t telling us the god’s honest.”
Geiger smiled, an autonomous reaction seemingly, as he explained that that the lockdown was triggered by the attack from Tempest, which was delayed as the attack did not intrude on the building, but their security system would automatically have activated it against his possible return. The glass doors now showed nothing outside, and it was clear that the energy field blocked even light.
He explained that it consisted of an impenetrable field that prevented matter or energy from entering or exiting the Mannheim facility. “Unfortunately, this included any kind of communication. Once the ‘system’ had assessed that there is no longer a threat, it will deactivate the “fire wall” as they called it.” Geiger assured them, that once this occurred “maybe in 20 minutes, half hour at worst”, the company’s CEO ‘Meneer’ Hannibal Caine would be there for their meeting.
Meanwhile he offered to give them a guided tour of the facility.
X-Ray pulled Akira and Banshee aside and whispered, “That was a load of B.S., activating a shield after an attack doesn’t make sense and why the delay in dropping it? I think it may be more to do with you walking in. Could your metagene DNA have activated it somehow?”
He replied, “Do you think so? It wasn’t the attack that triggered it, that’s rubbish. A security system that activates after an attack isn’t of much use to anyone. We are isolated from Frankie and the outside world though and we can’t leave, at least for now, and if it blocks matter and energy I doubt even Banshee could phase through it.”
X-Ray nodded, “I concur. It’s either due to you walking in or they want to keep us here for some reason. We need to be careful.”
The vestibule in front of them looked like a normal reception with nothing spectacular about it other than the wall of black and white security feeds displayed on the various monitors embedded in the wall. The ground floor space was made up of mostly conference rooms, a large waiting area, toilet facilities and refreshment facilities.
There were both elevators and stairs leading to the other floors, but it was clear that you needed card keys to access them. The upstairs floors were labelled ‘Gott 1’ and ‘Gott 2’, while the basement was simply labelled ‘Garage’. The wall of screens was composed of dozens of retro black and white monitors show grainy video of the front door, internal hallways, and empty conference rooms (though one appeared to have been prepped for a meeting. Each seat had been supplied with drinking water, writing utensils and Mannheim branded notebooks), and what looked like an empty medical facility.
It also showed what was happening beyond the force field using a cabled connection to a camera in the street. It currently showed the crew outside in the street trying to figure out what to do about their now damaged statue.
X-Ray had to wonder why the displays on the wall were in black and white given they’d had colour displays for decades. Akira jokingly suggested it might be because some of them were colour-blind. Seemingly the real security displays were located somewhere else.
Personnel on the ground floor were sparse with a few employees walking the hallway getting tea or enjoying the liberal workplace activities such as the relaxation pods. They didn’t appear to have noticed the ruckus outside or be surprised by another lockdown. In fact only one of them, a janitor cleaning the conference rooms, seemed to be actually working. He passed them as he walked between conference rooms and they could see his nametag on his overalls, Fritzl. He seems expressly annoyed by Agent Wallace’s presence.
To Banshee that felt odd. She asked him why he seemed to dislike the agent. “Who says I have anything against him?” was the instantaneous reply. Akira jumped in, “It was the way you looked at him.”
“Some people could do a better job of monitoring, shall we say. You have come with him what was your impression?”
Akira smiled. “He’s a bit of a teapot really.” On seeing his blank expression Akira started to quietly sing, “I’m a little teapot, short and stout, here’s my handle, here’s my spout. When I get all steamed up, hear me shout, tip me over and pour me out! Says it all really!” The janitor looked at him as though Akira was completely insane even as they saw Geiger quietly say something to Wallace about his ‘guests’ not annoying the staff as they both headed into one of the lifts. X-Ray interrupted the insanity to ask the janitor what he thought Wallace had missed in his earlier inspections but before he could reply Geiger called them over as he held the lift door open even as he urged them to “please leave the staff to finish their tasks. Fritzl, you’d better get back to work.”
Fritzl gave the manager a bit of a dirty look as he turned and began to empty a nearby litterbin.
They reluctantly left the janitor to his work and headed over to join Wallace and Geiger as they headed up a floor. They noticed that there were a couple of digital cameras in the roof and corners of the lift monitoring them. A second later, they arrived at the floor and the doors opened. For some reason this level seemed totally devoid of staff. Geiger explained that this highly restricted level focused on genetic advancement. He was very frank about the work done on this level. It was science to cure all the ails of the world, disease, crime, inequality and even death.
The last caused Akira to blurt out, “You can cure death?” “Someday.” was the immediate reply.
Wallace leant over and whispered to them, “it sounds more like a power grab, with super abilities being sold to the highest bidder. It looks like there may be some truth in our attackers’ claims after all.” If Geiger overheard him, he elected not to reply.
Most of the rooms on this floor were restrooms, offices, storage etc. but there were a few that were interesting. There was what looked to be a lab full of research cubicles with some very advanced computational computers. Each station was equipped with cutting edge biological R&D hardware. It was only much later that they realised that only the ground level had been staffed. Akira felt sure that some of the equipment they were looking at was custom-built and more advanced than anything he’s seen outside of Frankie or the Challenger-Wildeman’s!
There was also a large monitor covering an entire wall, with a constantly changing display seemingly showing a different location or scene each time; other cities, the interior of bases, and even deep underneath the sea. Then they realised it seemed to be showing the same room but one that altered in real time. Either that or someone had cut and spliced the scenes then overlaid them on top of a long room that they hadn’t seen yet. Akira wondered if it might be some sort of portal, it was hard to tell.
There was a partially open door at the rear of the datalab. Geiger went over to close it and Akira decided to go with him and glanced inside. Scattered across the floor of what was clearly a storage closet was a dozen or so life-size wooden mannequins. They were reminiscent of what an artist used to model anatomy, but scaled up to the size of a person and tossed around the room so it resembled a war crime.
When Akira looked at the mannequins closer they were exactly what they appeared to be; mannequins made out of wood, but hollowed out for some unknown reason.
Geiger then guided them across to another lab, this one sealed behind an airlock designed to keep dirt out and potential contaminants in. He explained that while he really wanted them to see this lab they would need to wear hazmat suits as the lab had an extreme air filtering system to prevent anything leaving what he called the livelab, stating that anyone who was unwilling to wear a suit would need to stay outside and watch on one of the monitors.
He explained that this specialised lab focused on DNA alteration. “Called it!” muttered a smiling Wallace. Akira elected to stay outside while Banshee and X-Ray suited up and passed through the airlock into the clean room beyond. There were several examination benches with autodoc facilities with multiple surgical arms and attachments as well as computer-enhanced microscopes and various, unidentifiable equipment that were clearly designed for gene analysis.
They couldn’t help notice that some of the equipment inside the lab had glue traces where a small triangular, delta-shaped logo or sticker has been peeled off. It was Banshee that noticed that one of the scanners had a familiar logo like a maze surrounding an L, the Labyrinth symbol, still on display. Some of this advanced technology had been produced by, or obtained from, Labyrinth. She turned to Geiger. “What biological research do you do here; I thought you were an electronics company?”
“No, we are expanding into all areas of research that would improve humanity. Mannheim industries are destined to be the future of the human race. We are building tech not for money or power, but for cultural evolution. This facility focuses on DNA editing and AR research, but our organisation has started to spread worldwide and is looking at the benefits of improving both technology and biology.
Our founder and CEO, Hannibal Caine was a financial, technical and sociological genius, the visionary leader of Mannheim Industries. He’s not just a corporate CEO, but a believer in the betterment of mankind. Mannheim is a not-for-profit organisation.”
As he spoke, he headed back towards the airlock and began to take off his hazmat suit. The others followed his example before re-joining Akira as they headed back towards the lift. Banshee asked if she might use one of the rest rooms. Before Geiger could say anything, she headed across the corridor and entered the toilet facilities off to one side of the airlock.
Akira sniggered as he explained this was one of the disadvantages of having an old lady on the team as he glanced at the large wall-sized monitor and tried to make sense of what he was looking at with its ever-changing display. He was convinced that it was showing the same room but that holographic projectors were in use to constantly alter its appearance.
Back in the toilet cubicle, Banshee turned invisible and insubstantial and headed through the airlock intending to examine the storeroom. That’s when she realised that the lab was slowly being depressurised and would soon be completely devoid of air! She rushed over to the storeroom and confirmed that the figures were hollowed out, wooden mannequins some of which had clearly been damaged, but why keep them in a genetics laboratory?
She quickly checked there were no electronic or mechanical components attached but other than the joints, they appeared to just be hollowed-out, human-shaped shells. Air was getting low and she began to feel dizzy so proceeded to flee back through the walls before substantialising and exiting the toilet and heading back to the others waiting impatiently in the lift before, again, going up to the top floor.
This floor was again devoid of staff and appeared to be the main hub for the advanced computer system and its mainframes that ran the building. As Geiger explained, it was part of the Mannheim philosophy that everything was kept on site and not connected to any outside networks.
He explained that the computers were kept safe in clean rooms similar to the livelab downstairs and they would be required to wear hazmat suits if they wanted a closer look at the computers though it was clear that other than multiple banks of computers there was nothing much to see.
This according to Geiger showing them the rows of mainframe computers behind their sealed compartments was the brains of the building.
The large open space in the middle of the building housed power generators and a large supply of emergency rations “in case there came a time that they were cut off from the rest of the world and off once their shift starts, staff must remain onsite.”
The generators were currently running, but again there were no staff around that they could see.
Geiger explained that the system was running advanced analytical programs at the moment and staff would be downstairs on the ground floor on a refreshment break. “You don’t stagger their breaks?” asked Wallace, but Geiger either didn’t hear his comment or elected to ignore it as he ushered them back into the lift, waved his ID card at the lift’s screen once more and they headed down towards the basement garage.
In the lift, Akira quietly asked X-Ray if he had the ability to wipe out their computers if it was needed? X-Ray quietly nodded his head though he wasn’t sure he was ready to destroy billions of pounds worth of computer systems on a hunch, as Akira wondered if doing so would make Geiger and the other staff disappear as he wasn’t sure they weren’t all hard-light holographs anyway.
Banshee used the opportunity to ask, “Why are your experimental VR Goggles taking DNA samples from anyone who puts a set on?” “Geiger sounded surprised as though this was a revelation to him. “What? Who told you that?”
“It’s common knowledge” replied Akira, realising that they couldn’t admit to having obtained a prototype. Geiger wanted to know what proof did they have as this was the first time he’d heard of this. Akira admitted it was just a conspiracy theory but he was sure it was true. “Why would you want to collect and identify DNA?” he said. Geiger replied, “Theoretically, if we were to collect DNA samples it would be something that would be useful to all mankind and I would value, but there are laws against just such unauthorised sampling and the ethical implications… it would help us better understand powers, allow us to be able to help people to control them better. It could even mean a world where all people can have powers without them being a risk to others or use to commit crimes. Surely that would be something worth looking forward to?”
“Allow people to control their powers or allow you to control those people with powers?” responded Akira. “How can you control people?” was the naive reply as the lift doors opened. “I think you are a conspiracy theorist?”
“I am.”
Geiger looked over at Wallace, “Let me show you this last floor and then we can go upstairs to the conference room while we await the Fire wall coming down and the arrival of Meneer Caine. He might be able to allay your fears about this mysterious DNA we’re supposed to be stealing.”
As they stepped out of the lift, there were a couple of concrete steps in front of them, which led down into a vast garage area. A series of vehicles formed two lines from your location as far as the eye can see. It would easily be confused with a large commercial parking lot if not for the type of vehicles parked. Jeeps and hummers, as well as million European credit speedsters, hoverbikes, and even armed assault vehicles.
Before they could get a chance to inspect the vehicles, two bright headlights turned on at the far end of the garage. The engine revved and the tyres squealed as a heavily armoured sports car charged right at them but there was no one at the wheel. That’s when they noticed that the vehicle’s tyres were 10 cm above the ground; the car was flying!
X-Ray was already suspicious that Geiger was insisting on them visiting the garage but they noticed as soon as they stepped out of the lift that this floor was twice the size of the floors above and oriented so that the width was at 45 degrees to the building itself. It had to have been built beneath the historic canals that were to the front and rear of the building! That’s when Mary looked at the ramp to street level and realised that there hadn’t been an exit on the street above to allow cars access to this space. In fact, the street above wasn’t wide enough to accommodate the exit. It would place the vehicle entrance in the middle of the canal! How was this possible? Was it in another dimension?
Wallace was surprised while Geiger was backing away towards the lift.
Akira unleashed his TK to cause the car to veer off-course and hopefully into one of the armoured trucks. As Akira tried to manoeuvre the craft, he accidentally missed its intended target and it slammed into the stairwell, colliding between them and Geiger, blocking the lift exit and hiding him from view. Acceleration plus mass clearly made it extremely difficult to control.
Before they could do anything else, three more vehicles started up and headed towards them. Behind them, they could hear Geiger pressing the call button for the lift several times in rapid succession.
The three cars accelerated towards them as X-Ray unleashed his kinetic abilities to try to cause them to crash into each other. He unleashed his power causing their progress to stall but in the semi-darkness, he was unable to force them to crash into each other.
AS their tyres screeched and their engines maxed out, the front wheels of the first two cars began to veer into each other.
Akira meanwhile screamed at Banshee, “He’s getting away!” as he pointed back at the lifts.
In response, Banshee turned insubstantial, phased through the crashed car behind them and unleashed a corrupting touch on Geiger causing him to collapse unconscious.
On the other side of the crashed car, the third vehicle was still speeding towards them. Akira dodged to one side just in case. X-Ray raised his shield and awaited the inevitable, not willing to leave Geiger to possibly be crushed if that car were to hit the wreck behind them.
Despite its speed, it bounced off his shield and collided into one of the support pillars, smashing it to smithereens.
Akira made his way round the crashed vehicle intent on reading Geiger’s past. He touched his head but something was interfering with his psychic reading – instead of his recent actions all he could read was images of an idyllic farming life, Amish-like in the way his mind depicted it. No matter how Akira tried, he couldn’t get a reading of his past that wasn’t centred on this agricultural lifestyle. It was obviously still linked to Mannheim as that seemed to be an obsession with him, living for Mannheim and perfecting the WAY, whatever that was. It was the only connection to the here and now. There were flashes of him programming the computers with almost religious enthusiasm and something about something or someone called ‘Eva’ but that again brought up childhood memories of living off the land without technology or machines, instead it seemed as though it was their goal to help the machines, though that didn’t make any sense. Eva? Or Evolution? That appeared to be one of the stated objectives of Mannheim Technologies after all… the evolution and supposed betterment of mankind.
Frustrated, Akira floated over the car wreck, to stand beside his teammates.
Meanwhile X-Ray still had two speeding cars trapped in his gravi-kinetic field. Their rear wheel drive meant their bonnets were starting to twist in towards each other, X-Ray realised it was time to let then go. He dropped his gravity field and a second later, the two cars collided slamming into the nearest wall. The resulting explosion caused a large section of the wall to collapse. X-Ray had to wonder if they hadn’t been packed with explosives, the explosion was so spectacular.
The battle had taken its toll on the garage area, large cracks were forming in the roof and walls and quickly grew. Before anyone can do anything, water shot out from a wall, then water began to cascade from the adjoining wall… slowly starting to flood the chamber. Seems the canal was draining into the garage!
The cracks in the wall spider-webbed out in all directions. The roof was becoming unstable and the floor started to shift. Three floors of high-end commercial property were threatening to fall on top of them.
The ramp out of the garage was at the far end of this room and they didn’t have much time left before the water started to fill this chamber. X-Ray needed to check and see if they could get out before that happened. He flew towards the ramp, but before he could get close he collided with a very real if seemingly invisible wall. The whole room and its impossible layout was clearly a lot smaller, without a real ramp or exit into the street and was covered in some gooey material and disguised by holograms. The collision seemed to create even more cracks and the water seemed to be interfering with the projections, causing them to fizzle out.
They gathered up Geiger and helped Wallace to his feet as they used Geiger’s card to activate the lift then the doors closed and according to all of their natural senses, they were now heading up the shaft even as the chamber below flooded beneath the lift.
The trouble was that they weren’t actually convinced that the lift was really rising, the whole thing felt wrong and it again felt as though this was a holographic fake, an illusion that couldn’t quite fool their inner ear. Despite the water draining away from the lift floor, the jerking movement and the flashing lights they weren’t convinced that they had actually moved.
An insubstantial Banshee touched the water and it moved as though whatever had created the illusion was unaware of her insubstantiality, The water was reacting as though interacting with a physical presence.
X-Ray checked the water with his infrared vision to see if the water registered as colder that the air. Nothing, there was no difference between the two elements.
The lift door opened to reveal an enormous cylindrical chamber orientated at right angles to the previous garage, seemingly running under neighbouring buildings on the street above. The walls and floor were dry and seemingly undamaged.
Where once there had been a fleet of vehicles, cars and debris had become a large empty chamber; total minimalism. As far they could tell, the chamber was undamaged and completely dry. At least they were no longer in danger of drowning. Banshee did wonder what would have happened if they had believed that they were underwater and had held their breath until they became unconscious!
Geiger’s voice began to emanate from all sides of the chamber, despite his unconscious presence inside the lift.
“I apologise for our ruse, but your contribution to our project will not be forgotten. Your display of abilities down here was quite impressive. We watched it, and it far outperformed our expectations, but now that we have watched, monitored and learned. So unfortunately you won’t be needed anymore.”
Whatever illusionary program was inflicted on them before, reactivated however, instead of a modern garage, they were surrounding by a forest full of large, mature trees of various species with fruit and flowers larger than they had seen before. It was a virtual Garden of Eden. A concealed spotlight illuminated an area next to a tree. A group of mannequins were stacked together in its shade. The spotlight flickered, switching the dummies in front between its normal wooden form and a new form. The flickering stopped and the figures were now cloaked in new forms. The nearest mannequin was now clearly feminine in shape but dressed in the garb of a medieval warrior. It looked like the deceased heroine the Hollow Knight. Then the other dummies seemed to morph, into very familiar figures. They now looked like Akira and X-Ray! The last dummy remained inert and failed to morph into Banshee!
Akira was momentarily stunned at the perfection of the imagery as the three disguised mannequins started to move towards them. X-Ray reached out with his exotic senses, feeling for movement in the air and discovered three physical floating objects surrounded each of the actually moving figures, each was very similar to their own evidence-recording drone, Tinks. He focused on the Hollow Knight and could feel them; one hovering above the head, one at what appeared to be the tip of the sword blade and the last centred on the illusion of the shield. The other two figures also had three floating objects surrounding them. However, something was distorting his readings, preventing him from targeting the objects properly.
That explained what they were seeing, these floating objects obviously projected holograms on top of the man-like figures and possibly duplicated other physical effects but what was causing the wooden mannequins to move was still a complete mystery.
X-Ray pointed out this to the others even as his double tried to blast at Akira. What was worse his, its, radiation blast appeared to be even more powerful that his own!
The energy blast hit sending Akira flying even as he erected his shielding. Bruised and battered he picked himself up and began to cast a spell to dispel illusions and ‘see things as they are’. He called upon the All-Revealing Light of Abbridon which banished all concealing, obscuring, or illusory effects. The mystical power burst forth from Akira’s hand and stripped away the holographic projections revealing a bare section of the room and three small drones hovering around each of the wooden figures shambling towards them. Their powers were clearly able to be mimicked (and improved?) somehow, then downloaded to the floating devices.
That power mimicry was what surprised them most – it clearly hadn’t been able to copy Banshee’s powers but had managed to duplicate X-Ray’s even though he had never tried on the glasses. They had to have found some way to take his DNA covertly since he’d entered the building. It was also clear from his double’s attack that he’d been subconsciously holding back and hadn’t reached the full capacity of his powers! Now he knew, he had to do better.
X-Ray used his gravi-kinesis on Alt X-Ray’s offensive drone to try to grab it and smash it into the wall. He focused and felt his gravity increase beyond their previous levels, more powerful than he had ever imagined, and caused it to collide with the defensive drone with extreme prejudice. He’d never felt so powerful. As soon both drones were destroyed, the remaining drone deactivated its attempts to project an image even as the wooden figure collapsed. A silver-grey goo began to gush out of the hollowed-out mannequin and flow into a concealed drain in the floor of the chamber even as the figure collapsed to the ground, now completely inert.
Alt X-Ray’s remaining drone now appeared to be just recording what was going on. It didn’t last long as Banshee unleashed a shattering shriek. The mystical cry flowed over and through all remaining seven drones including those maintaining both of the remaining figures before they could respond. The remaining two figures collapsed to the ground as the remaining fleet of drones destabilised and collapsed to the ground.
Once again, the remaining illusions vanished leaving the room bare as the trees and physical matter destabilised, liquefied and drained away through numerous small grates on the floor. All that remained behind were pieces of the shattered mannequins.
Like before, the voice of Geiger echoed out from all sides of the chamber though distorted. It cuts in and out. “….your …fighting skills…..impressive. We will add that to our understanding but time is up now. ……. was coming. …..zzzz….. is here.”
Behind them, the lift was once more visible. Geiger however had vanished leaving only a wooden mannequin behind in his place. They hadn’t heard the lift leave. It was almost as though he’d been teleported away whilst they had been battling the drones.
They stepped inside the lift and this time they could actually could feel the lift rise.
As they stepped out of the lift into the ground floor reception area, it looked as though everything had gone trippy. The lights and electronics all around were blinking and buzzing in no discernible pattern. Sparks spray out from all corners as repetitive sirens warned of an unspecified impending doom.
There was no sign of the Mannheim staff but the force shield was clearly still active, trapping them inside the building. They approached the front desk and saw the concealed monitors built into the desktop showing the inside ofthe building as well as the view from a single feed of the view outside the front door. It was now partially visible – as if the fire wall was getting weaker. Agents of M.E.T.A.’s law enforcement Liaison Division have setup a large-scale weapon – directed at the force field around the building. The top left monitor showed them watching the screens while others were greyed out though the last monitor showed the livelab where an assembly line of robotic arms were working furiously fast.
Before you can see what it’s working on, the monitors all blipped out and changed their displays to form a simplified smiling face.
“No peeking. But I commend you.” Spoke the face in Geiger’s voice. “You beat my statistical projections on your chances of survival. But that was moot. You gave me what I needed. And now, with two human feet, I will walk right out of here, and connect to the world at large.”
Suddenly the screens changed again this time they combined to show the LiveLab parcelled out over all the screens. It now appeared to resemble an uncomfortable scene right out of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Pieces of high-tech equipment encircled the working area. Like a sacrificial altar at its centre however was an operating table. Unlike before though, it appears the equipment was working full steam and a body lay atop the table. It was a gruesome mess of mannequin, robot and human skin. Where the skin came from was sadly evident. The floor was littered with bodies of several of the ground level employees. Only one appeared to be still alive.
Geiger was covered in bruises and wounds but was still able to speak. “We have given all of ourselves for this. Centuries of worship and dedication, decades of scientific research and funding and now we have to give the most, our lives. But that was the sacrifice that was called on to create Mannheim’s goal.”
Geiger pointed his mangled hand at the security camera and spoke his last words. “You all have given too. For that you will receive some forgiveness in the great beyond.”
The last bit of life left Geiger’s body while simultaneously, the body on the table jerked to life. Its torso rose, revealing the full extent of the part robot part human monstrosity. Its human skin was crafted over the mannequin robot. Its face resembled Agent Wallace who was standing beside them.
Even as this appeared on the screen, the lift doors opened and they were confronted with the real deal, a six foot tall amalgam of robot, mannequin and human body parts stepped out. It smiled.
Akira immediately shouted, “It cannot be allowed to get out, hit it with everything you have.”
The creature spoke, still using Geiger’s stolen voice. “Imagine that Adam and Eve got to play with the great beasts outside the garden. I am Eva, the creator of a new race. That’s what I’m doing now, before I replace them, but we have to thank you. We have learned your strengths and your weaknesses – and as soon as this body gets out past our fire wall, we shall take the whole world. It seems I had a traitor in my midst and I didn’t know it, as someone has destroyed my ability to override the force field. Never mind, it’s only a matter of time until I’m freed by the very creatures I aim to replace.” It pointed at the opaque shadows blasting away at the energy fire wall outside.
“You have to get passed us!” screamed X-Ray.
Akira unleashed a mystical blast at him but it moved at inhuman speed to dodge the attack even as X-Ray unleashed a powerful radiation blast in its direction. This too missed, its agility to dodge was beyond human.
Banshee whipped out her bo staff and turned insubstantial and flew across the room towards it, spinning the staff through Eva’s body as though to demonstrate that it could do it no physical harm. Then she aimed for the head, stopping it inside its head and let go. The staff immediately turned solid, inside its head. The staff was now sticking out but it seemed to have minimal effect on the creature as it yanked it free and dropped it to the ground before it blasted away at all three of them, somehow combining Akira’s ability to target multiple targets with X-Ray’s powerful radiation blast. Thankfully, the blasts missed but only just.
It laughed, “I didn’t know having a physical body would be so exhilarating. I am definitely going to be doing that again. Obviously not now…You ruined my toys. But I will definitely have to hit you up next time.”
The sound of high pitch drilling slowly got louder from outside the front door. Wallace who was hiding behind the front desk, seemingly ignored by Eva as not being a threat, shouted, “That’s M.E.T.A.’s sonic drill. They must be almost through the fire wall if we can hear it.”
The creature began to laugh again. “I might not be walking out on foot, but as soon as the fire wall was opened…goodbye. Radio wave. Satellite signal. Bluetooth. Thanks to M.E.T.A. and you pathetic heroes… my world was about to get a whole lot bigger.”
The A.I. stopped laughing, it was deadly serious now. “Before this ends…know this. I am the ultimate artificial intelligence. I can know more and learn more exponentially. Within days, I can cure disease. In weeks stop poverty and after month’s, ensure world peace. Remember, Mannheim for Mankind, you were heroes – remember that. When I save the future of humankind you can be remembered as its greatest heroes. I’m not asking you to do something, It’s so much easier to just do nothing and let the synthetics rule.”
They could attack it and possibly destroy its physical body, but it likely also existed simultaneously on the mainframes awaiting an opportunity to propagate itself. Only its fire wall, initially intended to trap the team inside the building so it could obtain access to their meta-powers and study them, now prevented it from spreading, infecting its programming across an unprepared world. What happens when the force field finally collapsed? Could humanity survive or would this Eva, this mechanoid Eve, force mankind back to a primitive agrarian society, one governed only by cold, hard, machine logic?
They had to do a two-pronged attack on the creature in front of them and the mainframes in the datalab above, before M.E.T.A. accidently liberated it. Akira thought sending the intelligence of the artificial creature into the dream dimension might prevent the programming of the monstrous intellect from escaping especially if X-Ray wiped the mainframes simultaneously. The spell required time to create and that meant they needed Banshee to keep this Eva distracted long enough for X-Ray to fly up and destroy the mainframe to prevent any further downloads, a simultaneous data wipe.
X-Ray headed up the staircase after being phased through the door by Banshee before she headed at Eva and tried to keep it distracted with multiple wails while Akira prepared the spell —-
A minute later they heard the signal they’d agreed over their Bluetooth-enabled commdots and Akira called upon the Howling Dream and unleashed the Crying Road, that portion of the Great Collective consciousness that could not be tamed or subject to order, on Eva causing its computer intelligence to be dragged into the dream realm skirted the edges of madness himself. Into this abyss, he cast Eva’s sentiency into the realm of Melinoe, leaving it catatonic. Meanwhile X-Ray unleashed a major radiation blast simultaneously frying the mainframes and instantly wiping the data and programming.
As the force field collapsed, so too did the creature even as the local authorities backed by M.E.T.A. Officers entered the building.
They found the remaining staff dead in one of the conference rooms. Having harvested those she wanted to assimilate, it seemed that EVA, pretending to be Geiger, had told all of remaining Mannheim staff to gather in one of the conference rooms. As soon as the last staff member had arrived, it locked the armoured security doors trapping them inside and flooded the room with fire suppressing Halon gas! They had all died from suffocation! Through the glass, they could even see Fritzl sprawled across the floor.
Wallace managed to get the team out of the area as quickly as possible and without having to give statements to the local ‘Politie’. He thanked them, while promising to follow up with them later. “We won…I think. Thanks to you once again. I’m afraid there will be more to this. I will be in touch.”
Postscript:
A few days later, Agent Wallace appeared to the team in hologram form in the lounge. How and where it was projected from was unclear. “Folks, I have news. The situation has been evolving. We have been embedded at Mannheim’s for a time and so far, everything seems scrubbed. That’s great on the whole maniacal A,I. front, but it hasn’t left a lot of clues. Mannheim has elected to sever contact with us, cancelled their contact and stopped production of the VR googles. As you already know, their anti-surveillance tech is world class, so we have been trying to go old school. We requested a face-to-face with their CEO Hannibal Caine but heard nothing back then yesterday we got a call from a survivor who wanted me to give this to you.”
Hologram Wallace presented a folded card in his hand. It somehow turned from hologram to physical matter and fell, forcing X-Ray to catch it.
It was a hand-written invitation addressed to them all. “You saved my life and I can never repay you. It would be my honour for you to attend the Mannheim memorial at the time and address listed below. Suffice to say, M.E.T.A. and Wallace will not be on the guest list. Signed, forever in your service. Fritzl.”
“The janitor survived?” asked Akira.
“Apparently, though I’m not sure how. His body wasn’t recovered with the others. Regardless, this is an opportunity to meet with Caine. I’d like you to go as there have been a couple of memorials to those who died and Caine has appeared at each one. M.E.T.A. Division has tried to get others in and have not been successful. This invite might be our only chance to find out what Mannheim knew about the A.I. development. At present, the official story is that this was an unauthorised side project by Geiger that went badly wrong.
I would like it if you could attend, possibly talk with Caine and get an assessment on Mannheim’s understanding of the A.I. event. Did they deliberately want it? Were they surprised? Who was really involved. It’s a covert mission but I understand you are sometimes known as Team Stealth… Can you help?”
They nodded their agreement, noted the date was for the following week and made arrangements. Before ending the conversation, Wallace emphasised that they should not bring anything that could be persevered as a weapon or high tech to the memorial. That could compromise the objective.
A week later, they found themselves at a rural location not too far out of Amsterdam.
Situated between a large farm and a pasture was an oversized grey barn. A parking lot adjacent to it was mostly filled with carts and buggies. It was a strange site with most of the people appearing to be dark skinned yet dressed in the garb of an Amish or Mennonite. It was a Venn Diagram cross-section they did not expect. A further juxtaposition were the armed security with advanced thermal imaging systems, disallowing any kind of electronic from entering the barn. No mobile phones, electronic watches, or advanced tech armour allowed apparently.
Akira was forced to leave Tinks behind in the Crate while Banshee milled around for a few minutes outside of the barn, though it appeared to be exactly as expected. The farms and pastures were clearly operated with antiquated non-electronic tech. The few cars in the lot were far outnumbered by horses and buggies.
Despite their mode of travel, most of the folk milling about and entering the barn were willing to talk with them though some claimed to only speak High German and all were guarded but polite when talking to outsiders. The majority spoke with a German accent if they spoke English or Dutch. They stated that they considered themselves Mannheim Brethren. Those dressed in the antiquated clothing also appeared to shun modern culture including the use of most technology.
As the approached the barn, they were stopped and searched by the hired security team.
They considered sneaking in invisibly but elected to be upfront, especially when X-Ray showed them the energy sensors built into the outside of the barn. Not quite so anti-tech as they seemed.
The security procedures to gain entry were similar to that guarding an international airport or sensitive government space. This included high tech screening devices.
Their job was to make sure only those with invitations were allowed to enter. A quick chat between one of the Elders in front of them in the queue and one of the security confirmed that they had also been tasked with making sure Mannheim Brethren tradition was followed. That means no technological devices were allowed.
Inside, the barn had been decorated appropriately for a memorial service of some sorts. The parishioners were in the majority with a few members of the tech company scattered throughout sitting on the hard wooden benches. A sign in German confirmed that this memorial service was to honour those that died during the A.I. incident.
A few minutes later Caine arrives by limousine and was escorted to the front of the barn though they noticed that security and Brethren treated him like everyone else. Security searched and scanned him for tech and, apparently, he would address the meeting without the use of a microphone.
A reverent hush accompanied the arrival of Hannibal Caine to the podium. He drew everyone’s attention with his presence alone. Even without a microphone his voice boomed throughout the barn. “Brethren, I join you in this time of sorrow, but also of understanding. We know that we lost scores of brothers and sisters, but lives were not lost in vain. Our trajectory was still towards heaven on Earth, and what happened on that day was proof that we were close. Close to a world without pain or suffering. A place where humanity finds God’s reward.“
Caine raised both hands in the air and spoke a phrase in High German* then continued, “Though most that died were newcomers to the group, they will not be forgotten. Let us remember the acts our brothers and sisters accomplished and say their names. Brother Aaron. Brother Tomas. Sister Karen…” Caine lists over twenty names–then pauses with a tear in his eye. “And my dear cousin…Brother Fritzl.”
Banshee memorised Caine’s German phrase and later discovered it meant “Eden’s return by willpower.”
After a round of sombre clapping, Caine stepped down from the podium to speak with the gathered. This was their opportunity to speak with him. He was friendly enough and willing to speak them. He thanked them for coming to this important event and agreed to answer some of their questions.
He admitted that, “What happened with the artificial intelligence was a real tragedy. It was the culmination of decades of work. But it shows that we are close.” He went on to state that Geiger caught them off-guard with his achievement and went on to say that, “He was a truly skilled employee. I cannot understand his work with the A.I. or where he went wrong. ”
He turned to touch the shoulder of one of the elders and hugged him before explaining that the Mannheim Brethren were “the true followers of the philosophy. It’s not the scientists or workers that do the important work, but the true followers that live it.” We are just their offspring. Certainly the religious side of things was not enough to save mankind.”
When asked what he meant he just smiled, then asked them who had invited them here today. They answered that their invitation came from the janitor Fritzl.
Caine looked first shocked then shocked. “Fritzl was my dear second cousin. He stayed to the end and died at the hands of Geiger and the A.I. I will personally name a section of the rebuild Headquarters after his brave soul. Can I see your invitation?”
Banshee handed it over and Caine immediately declared it a fake as his cousin had died in the incident and called for security to escort them away. They didn’t resist especially as Caine scurried over to his limo and left himself.
As they were boarding the Crate, they heard one of the attendees thank everyone for coming and announce, “Mannheim for Mankind.”
They decided to follow Caine from a distance but as soon as it hit a nearby motorway, it vanished. It seemed that his vehicle was also fitted with a stealth array and they were unable to follow the car.
Instead, they headed back to Amsterdam and a face-to-face meeting with Wallace and fill him in on what they had learned. They approached the sealed R&D building as they talked but before he left, Wallace admitted that, “We have been watching Caine for years. He comes out like a ghost. There are a few other things we have learned; we believe that our attacker, Tempest, was tipped off right before our meeting, that whole situation was planned. Also that none of their important technicians were at on duty during the attack, the most important was Geiger himself. There was a lot shady going on…and it all points to Hannibal Caine. I will admit we never found Fritzl’s body so that’s another unsolved mystery that needs resolving and I’ve no idea why Caine would assume he was dead we have stated only that he is missing.”
As they left the building, Banshee had to wonder if all of the intelligences that Akira had banished to the Crying Road of late would someday come back to haunt them. All those nasty beings they had consigned to the dustbin-dimension returning seeking revenge…
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 