Superhero Adventures, UK Style

Adapted from the adventure ‘Forces of Nature’ by Louis Porter Jr
Synopsis only

Since returning from the Netherlands, Frankie had been in detective mode researching Mannheim’s CEO, Hannibal Caine and his growing following of people who wanted to use advanced technology to enable humanity to retreat to living a simpler, more agrarian lifestyle. Unfortunately, this philosophy was gaining support around the world.

She had failed to uncover any background details on him beyond his public personae for Mannheim Industries and there are no records of his birth or schooling. It’s as though he suddenly appeared for the first time as an adult about twenty years before.

Surprisingly their initial attacker outside Mannheim’s R&D facility was also a follower of Caine’s worldview. Facial recognition had identified him as Dr Quinn Kesin – a record of Kesin’s recent public media posts showed that he had come to think of the Earth as “out-of-balance”, and that humanity was responsible for nature losing control over her domain. He apparently thought that only without the presence of humans could the Earth once again achieve peace and balance.

He’d previously worked on A.I. development at Dalton Technologies’ London research facility before his project had been abandoned and he’d moved to work for Mannheim.

The team had first encountered Mekha Prime (though it had initially classified itself as a Saviour unit at that time) there a few years before. There was nothing to confirm or deny Kesin’s involvement with the ‘birth’ of a hostile A.I. but it was a worrying link given Mannheim’s subsequent creation of Eva.

Mannheim’s hacked personnel records showed that Kesin was also the scientist primarily responsible for inventing and designing the VR Goggles, and presumably for programming them to capture DNA from its wearers and use it to identify suitable recruits – but for what purpose?

What they were not aware of until now was they had also been in the presence of Dr Quinn Kesin, a.k.a. Tempest at the Memorial Service. Dr Kesin when he’d previously worked for Mannheim appeared to have attended a few of Caine’s speaking engagements and appeared to be swallowing the full effect of what Caine is trying to convey… or at least a version of Caine’s vision but presumably one that didn’t include Mannheim. He had also been a victim of an unsolved terrorist strike supposedly committed by Labyrinth before being illegally experimented on by Dr Geiger.

X-Ray suspected that the treatment that gave him his powers might have made Kesin a genetic chimera in that he might have two distinct sets of genes in his system, (similar to when someone had a bone marrow transplant).

If he has powers but wasn’t a meta, did he register as such? Would he emit meta pheromones and therefore attract the control parasites used by Terminus?  X-Ray suggested introducing a Terminus control bug to him to see what happened, a sort of speed dating, to test this hypothesis.

Frankie had also recently taken to monitoring international events that were either unusual in some way or involved superpowers. Three events had stood out, not least because they all shared an unusual common factor that concerned her.

In Bolivia’s Southern border region, archaeologists had discovered an ancient burial mound and excavated it—against the wishes of the local clergy and historical societies. The men broke open a clay sarcophagus and a purplish cloud engulfed the digging team and those people fell ill. The purple smoke issuing from their rapidly decaying lungs transferred to others and now almost 3,000 people locally were either sick or dying.

The region had been dominated by the Tiwanaku civilization until about 1200 AD, when the regional kingdom of the Aymara emerged as the most powerful of the ethnic groups living in the densely populated region surrounding Lake Titicaca. Power struggles continued until 1450, when the Incas incorporated upper Bolivia into their growing empire. The current theory was that the Tiwanaku died out as the result of a plague and those that survived were assimilated peacefully into the Aymara. What alerted Frankie was that several of the infected woke up with meta-powers and Frankie wondered if this plague had been a precursor to the Silver Storm, which activated those few born with the meta gene.

Another report was about a group of large container ships that had mysteriously ran aground in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the ocean bed had been raised apparently by a geomancer who was refusing to release them unless his demands were met. These ships running aground in the middle of the ocean had made it impossible for goods to be transferred off them and were now becoming a global issue.

Finally, a number of blue-eyed native Bedouin children had gone missing presumably kidnapped in North Africa, particularly from the rural areas of Algeria. A strange situation when the story first broke with the loss of five children, it was now on everyone’s feed as the toll had now risen to twenty. No one has claimed responsibility for the missing children and no ransom notes have surfaced. Blue-eyed Africans were not common and X-Ray assumed the victims might all be related in some way or shared a similar genetic background. Frankie confirmed that although they came from a number of different villages or nomadic tribes, they were all native to a particular region, ‘close’ to the ancient city of Constantine.

Odd things happen across the world almost every day, some were hoaxes, some dealt with disturbed individuals, and some were part of a larger conspiracy. What linked these for Frankie was that each of these locations had reported ‘someone’ going by the vague description, possibly even the same person, observing in the background who when confronted or challenged had been reported to have ‘melted’ into a silver-grey liquid, a bit like mercury, and flowed away. The reports sounded not unlike what the team had witnessed in the underground chamber of Mannheim’s building after they had defeated their wooden mannequin attackers and a liquid had flowed away.

Frankie hypothesised that the silver-grey goo they’d witnessed flowing away from the animated mannequins had been Computronium, a rare liquid “mimetic poly-alloy”, clearly engineered to maximize its use as a computing substrate and apparently capable of rapid shape shifting, near-perfect mimicry and self-repair.

They voted and the majority of the team agreed to head to investigate North Africa first. They headed off in the Crate taking the Tinks droid with them in case they needed a spy in the sky. They arrived at one of the villages that still had a couple of teenage blue-eyed youth and Akira cast the illusions of Idolon on himself to make him appear to be a young 13 year-old blue-eyed native accompanying Brian and Mary.

The good news was that there had been no additional youth vanishing since the last one had been reported in the settlements or camps. There were however several pre-pubescents and some adults with blue eyes they could see. They approached the parents and elders of the settlements to find out more information. One of the wise men they spoke to (the team having downloaded the native languages to their commdots) warned them to be cautious, as he believed their missing youths had been taken as slaves.

They noticed that they were constantly being followed by the local people but one figure was everywhere they were, videoing them on his phone. When they changed settlements, he appeared there as well still videoing them, or at least they were videoing both Brian and the disguised Akira but ignoring Mary when she separated from the others. His shabby linen jacket and appearance marked him as a city dweller rather than a local. Frankie hacked his phone and confirmed that the videos of Brian and Akira were being uploaded to an IP address in the nearby city of Constantine, to a business calling itself Speedypost, a parcel delivery service. The local women confirmed to Mary that their children had not been videoed or followed around before they had vanished and one of the mothers admitted seeing her child vanish in a ball of light just days before their arrival. Teleported away possibly?

It was clear from his new shiny shoes and inexperience in trailing them that he had recently come into money and he was not very good at covertly following them around. Akira called on the power of the Modrossus and the medallion around his neck as he tried to read their stalkers mind. Akira got a series of impressions – it was clear that their stalker had been paid to follow X-Ray and the disguised Akira around but not Mary or Banshee for some reason and to upload the videos he took. For this, he’d been paid 500 European Credits in advance.

Why focus on just the two of them? Was this related somehow to what had happened in Amsterdam where there had been a similar focus on the two metas?

He knew nothing more though he had a memory of seeing someone earlier that day, a white bald-headed man, possibly a mercenary though he couldn’t say why he thought that at the time, in the shadows also watching them as they walked around the latest camp before he appeared to vanish into the  almost as though he’d melted. It bothered him that he hadn’t seen him leave and he wondered if possibly he’d imagined him.

X-Ray used his gravi-kinesis to grab and drag the stalker across to him. Then he began to interrogate the near hysterical man as he held him off the ground. He confirmed what Akira had dredged from his mind that he’d been paid to follow and video them and upload the files. He had known in advance, where they would be which surprised them as even they hadn’t known for certain.

He identified the man who’d paid him as white, in his 30’s with unruly black hair dressed in a rumpled suit with large sweat stains under his armpits. He’d not seen the person in person and he’d received his payment via a dead drop but he’d seen him on camera and had noticed a Speedypost logo on the wall behind him so he assumed he had to have worked there.

They headed to the Speedypost offices on the outskirts of the city of Constantine – the city was also the most likely destination of their teleporting kidnapper if they existed.

Despite the vague description, they quickly identified the person they thought had paid to have them followed, Sebastian. X-Ray played the angry guardian and ‘threated’ him with the Police for downloading illegal videos of the disguised Akira and managed to check out what was on his computer at the same time. He had been looking at video taken by drone of a container ship called ‘The Pearl of the Orient’ leaving port. What drew his attention was what appeared to be several young boys being escorted down into the cargo hold by armed men. According to Frankie, the ship was currently enroute to Hong King after being docked for a number of weeks, which was extremely unusual for a container ship of that type. There was also a sent email of a video file in a window on screen going to an Irish email address. This turned out to be the video of them.

X-Ray grabbed Sebastian and demanded to know what was going on. It appeared that he was an information broker of sorts, who acted for others without necessarily knowing the full picture. He just knew he had been paid to get video of them and send it to Éire as well as keep tabs on the ship by the same anonymous client.

The Pearl appeared to have the latest group of kidnapped children onboard and that had to be their priority. They elected to follow the ship after they had assured themselves that there was no more Sebastian could tell them.

They headed to the Crate in stealth mode and set off in pursuit of the Pearl. As they got close, they submerged after dropping off the three of them rendered insubstantial and invisible. The sailors they noticed were armed and there was also a large female, a meta, eight foot tall and completely covered in moss and lichen.

Akira substantiated, still disguised as a child and was almost immediately grabbed by a guard, aggressively marched his into the hold and taken towards a container. The guard unlocked and dragged the disguised Akira in amongst the others only to do a headcount and discover he now had eight children instead of seven.

Akira immediately opened a portal beneath their feet and teleported the now screaming children and the guard to the Crate before Akira blasted him multiple times rendering him unconscious.

An invisible Banshee and X-Ray were still on the deck of the Pearl as the monstrous female and the guards rushed down towards the container. X-Ray waited until most of the armed guards were gathered at the entrance before gravi-kinetically ramming them into the container and breaking the lock on the door, trapping them inside.

The female meta suddenly gestured and moss and water in the floor of the hold began to morph into large stone spikes that erupted from the hull. Thankfully X-Ray and Banshee were floating in the air insubstantial and weren’t affected. Moss was appearing all around her especially around her feet and expanding wherever she went. Battle ensued with Banshee unleash a wave of fear at her which appeared to have no effect. The attack did confirm that someone was still there even if the she-swamp couldn’t see them. She was clearly unhappy at being at sea. X-Ray tried to use his gravi-kinesis on her only to find she was increasing her mass massively forcing him to concentrate on floating her though uncontrollably. Banshee unleashed a wail but again it did no real damage.

Meanwhile one of the rescued children revealed to Akira on board the Crate that they had a secret; they each had powers that they weren’t supposed to tell anyone about but seeing as he looked like them but wasn’t from the settlements they wanted to tell him so he knew what to expect when his own powers manifested. The boy was aware that as ‘Children of the Sky’ they would all develop powers eventually though when theirs developed their parents would lose their own.

The boy demonstrated by creating a crystal in his hand but he lost control and the crystal continued to grow exponentially, threatening the hull integrity of the submerged Crate. Akira was forced to use the Somnambulant Spell of Sirrion causing all the children to fall into a deep slumber and causing the crystal to vanish.

On the ship, the guards on deck were now firing into the hold. The bullets passed through Banshee and her passenger’s insubstantial bodies but were being absorbed without injury by the massive swamp lady. It was time to leave even as Akira threatened to leave them behind if they didn’t head to the Crate now.

Leaving the ship to continue without its prisoners for now, they headed back to the children’s homes before heading to Éire. There Frankie directed them to the recipient at the Dublin Vale Power Corporation Steam Station which powered a large part of the city. On the roof, they saw a familiar figure, Tempest. Despite initial hostility, they finally agreed to work together on the assumption that the enemy of my enemy is my “frienemy” after discovering that inside the power station was a Mannheim facility holding metas having their powers stolen from them.  

As suspected, they found a massive cube of a building protected by a Mannheim firewall energy shield inside, which was rendered inoperable, as was the rest of the facility when X-Ray managed to duplicate an energy pulse that took out the electrics. Phased inside they found a number of Mannheim autodocs shut down by the blast as well as total darkness. Casting the Shining Suns of Sirrion spell, they used the spell to lead them to dozens of patients who had agreed to have their meta powers removed unaware of the effect it might have on their survival. While they tried to keep the patients safe and get them out, Tempest headed of searching for a database he wanted for some reason.

X-Ray found the computer backups first and immediately removed the hard disk before leaving with it and the rescued patients leaving a frustrated Tempest to destroy the covert facility when he couldn’t find the hard disk directory of powered individuals and the DNA of people Mannheim had ‘treated’.

Once they were back at the BASEment, Frankie got to work analysing the data on the hard disk. It proved to be a list of newly activated powered individuals that hadn’t yet been fully appraised by M.E.T.A. and who appeared to have had their data stolen before they could be registered. It did include the initial assessment of their powers and level as well as identification. Mannheim had gained access to this information and removed their data before they could be included on the Government database. X-Ray wondered if M.E.T.A. had a mole in their service able to harvest this information, which was something no person should be able to do. Most of those listed were low-level supers or had just discovered they had powers and were still untrained.

What bothered X-Ray most was that young Chris was on this database, though since his arrest he was also now listed on the Government’s register though only from the time of his arrest.

Frankie also suggested that one or more of the ships trapped on the risen seabed in the Indian Ocean could possibly have the remaining missing Bedouin children onboard but advised them to wait until the matter was resolved and the ships could reach their destination before they took action. It didn’t feel right to leave the remaining 13 children in captivity but if they wanted to find the people behind the kidnapping and stop them for good then it made sense to wait until the children reached their destination before rescuing them.

The Indian superheroes, Team Karma, had defeated the geomancer responsible for trapping the ships and the seabed was slowly returning to normal once more. The ships should be able to start sailing again in the next few days.

Meanwhile, young Chris had received four free tickets to attend the Waterworld adventure park near Wessex, which included a local water slide, the Angel Falls – reputed to be the largest and most thrilling new ride at the park. Angel Falls was the park’s most popular attraction. Singularity dared the three of them to ride its 100-foot waterslide, which is very much in demand. Luckily, they had reservations to ride just before lunchtime so wouldn’t have to wait in line.

They attended in their civilian identities with their swimming costumes on underneath though a child did recognise Akira from his action figure. They also confronted a thief at the lockers and followed him. He responded by pulling a knife on Akira who proceeded to talk him out of doing anything ‘silly’ and wanted to know why he was stealing wallets and suggested he do an honest days’ work instead. The thief returned the wallet (but not the money) and did a runner. It was now time for them to ride Angel Falls so they headed to the slide, got on their inflatable tubes and set off.

The slide featured a precipitous, near-vertical drop before levelling out into a pool of waist-deep water, then through several pitch-black tunnels before emerging into the main swimming pool. At least, everyone else’s ride emerged into the pool. The three of them blasted through the first dark tunnel and emerged in a violent uncontrolled slide through the main street of what seemed to be a small foreign town, minus Singularity. They eventually came to a stop in the main street surrounded by armed Police having seemingly exited a portable glowing arch behind them, dressed only in their swimming costumes.

Standing beside them was Agent Wallace and a small group of lightly armed M.E.T.A. agents. “Welcome to the town of Richmann in Liechtenstein, team. I apologize for the abrupt teleport, but time is of the essence. We have a hostage situation and there is an indication of a super involved. I need your assistance.”

It appeared that Wallace was starting to view the Balance as his own personal back up team as he explained that the Richmann Babel Data Centre was on lockdown with most of the staff still inside. M.E.T.A.’s presence here was not always welcome despite being their primary client as this was an independent data assessment centre. Wallace shrugged as he threw them a package containing civilian clothes, M.E.T.A. ID badges, and a data tablet.

He went on to explain that there were 16 staff unaccounted for who did not evacuate when the centre was locked down, presumably hostages. “I need you to get in there and prevent the super doing anything stupid. We have no information other that that’s he’s male and he appears to know that we process confidential data on Meta-humans through here.”

Wallace explained that M.E.T.A. often used small, decentralised data centres as a way to store the massive amounts of data they processed each day.  Security wasn’t normally a worry as M.E.T.A. encryption was beyond secure.  He supplied them with a one-use password that would unlock any data in this centre and a tablet to store the encrypted and compressed data once unlocked so they could make a back-up onto the tablet then delete the servers. He seemed more concerned about preserving the data than he was about the hostages.

A slim woman in a business suit approached from the building. She appeared to be one of the hostages and was crying. Her mascara had run, making her eyes deep pools of black. Her voice broke as she addressed the team. “He has been expecting you. Please follow me.”

The woman, she said her name was Enola Klimt, had a Bluetooth earbud in and was unwillingly acting as his mouthpiece, taking orders from the terrorist. She explained that he would kill all the hostages if the team did not immediately proceed to the basement and retrieve the data stored on the servers. Surprisingly he seemed to know who they were and told her to address them by their superhero codenames.

Akira used the medallion to read her mind and discovered that her young daughter was in the nearby town and was being observed by a concealed assassin apparently, forcing her to comply as were several of the staff inside the data centre, three of whom had been fitted with devices, presumably bombs, strapped to their bodies. She was listening to the terrorist as she proceeded to walk with the team back to the data centre. Akira thought the voice she was hearing might be Tempest’s, not least because he had a tendency to blow things up.

They entered the building and saw the hostages but no guards, though the presence of the bombs and the fact that most of them were wearing earbuds indicated that Tempest was continually monitoring them.

Having recently tried to acquire Mannheim’s stolen data, Tempest appeared to now be trying to get hold of a copy of M.E.T.A.’s register.

Akira created an illusion of Mary even as the real Mary turned into Banshee and vanished from sight so she could scout around invisible and insubstantial without alerting anyone. Meanwhile Enola took the ‘three’ inside and headed to the basement where she relayed that they were to switch off the server security and then wirelessly download a copy of the M.E.T.A. register to their tablet. If they didn’t he would kill all the hostages including the children. The last statement caused Enola to collapse to the ground sobbing and pleading.

They began to download the data even as they were told that once completed they were to transfer the data once more to each of the people waiting to receive it upstairs before allowing them to head to their destinations, otherwise everyone went boom.

They did as requested and entered the password to open up the network before starting to download the compressed and encrypted data to their tablet. X-Ray listened in to the transmission in the room with the hostages above, which appeared to consist of a lot of crying. Tempest had gone further than he’d gone previously. He’d been angry previously but not been a deliberate killer; that seemed a step further this time with the threat to children and the bombs on the hostages. However, his philosophy was that the Earth would be better off without humanity, so what did a few lives matter.

Meanwhile, Banshee found Tempest on the roof, surrounded by several control panels and a tablet that was apparently receiving data. Unfortunately, while insubstantial Banshee’s electronics, including her commdot, didn’t work.

Banshee crept up behind Tempest and turned substantial long enough to grab him and turn them both insubstantial. A struggle ensued as both were now phased, as she tried to appeal to him and find out what he was planning. Tempest threatened to kill the hostages and explained that he would let everyone live if they did what they were told. Banshee continued to appeal to his better nature but he eventually broke free even as he tried to blast Banshee with his lightning but surprisingly failed to do her any harm. A responding corrupting touch left Tempest dazed but still struggling to break free of Banshee’s grasp.

Meanwhile in the server room, the download was complete but Enola appeared to be waiting for further instruction and not receiving any. Akira started to delete the server data leaving them with the only copy (unaware that Tempest had also downloaded a copy onto his own tablet on the roof of the building).

X-Ray persuaded Enola to give him her earpiece and placed it in his own ear but all he could hear was static. They headed upstairs to the hostages, three of whom were wearing suicide vests. There were nine of the other hostages holding data tablets, waiting nervously for a copy of the data to be transferred, as they watched a procession of video shots of their children and families on the screen. Akira noticed their tablets were identical to the one Wallace had provided them with.

That’s when Akira and X-Ray realised that the video shots were all taken from the same unchanging position in each case; no movement, no shaking. The cameras were stationary in each case and only the changing from one camera to the next and the fear of the hostages had prevented them noticing the video cameras were not handheld.  It was likely that Tempest might be working alone and the hostages families were not under threat.

X-Ray erected a force field around himself and the three bombers. That way he hoped to keep the other hostages alive if Tempest carried out his threat. He immediately started looking for a way to remove the bombs from them.

Akira used the view on the screen to teleport to Enola’s daughter and her friends in a small, Rooftop Park in the city where they were being watched over by a nanny. He looked around but there was no one else there and he found a remote camera in the trees. It had been a bluff, there was no one there threatening them. Tempest was clearly working alone. Akira teleported the nanny and the children back to the data centre and explained that none of their children are at risk so their parents should flee with the kids. Get out now!

Meanwhile X-Ray was trying to remove the bombs from their hosts when he realised that the explosives themselves weren’t real. It had all been a bluff. Now all 16 hostages were fleeing, leaving their tablets behind so the team downloaded the data onto one of them in the hope that they could examine the data later, assuming Frankie could unencrypt it. Wallace wouldn’t allow them to be just walk away with one of the tablets so Akira elected to drop his illusion of Mary and considered using the illusion power to disguise the second tablet.

They both headed to the roof just as Tempest breaks free from Banshee’s grasp and resubstantialises himself before their eyes. He immediately rushed them intending to grab his tablet that was still lying on the roof. Akira unleashed the Enchantment of Ios on him. The smell created a fascination that bound him in the air and held his attention so nothing else mattered. For the moment at least Akira was able to convince him that he’d failed in his mission and he couldn’t win unless he fled.

He turned, grabbed his tablet and fled in a panic though he did unleash blasts and attacks on the people below as he sped away. A few minutes later Wallace and his men appeared on the balcony demanding the original data tablet and asked them to confirm that the servers had been deleted.

Akira confirmed this as he handed over the data tablet that he’d supplied them with but failed to see through the illusion he’d cast on the second tablet. They changed into their swimming costumes and re-entered the portal. A second later they reappeared on the slide and slid into the water – soaking the concealed tablet and a very surprised young Chris in the process. They tried to explain where they’d been for the last half hour even as Akira tried to drain the pool water from the now waterlogged tablet.

Frankie was subsequently able to recover the data from the tablet once it had been dried out and the hard disk transferred to Frankie’s setup. As well as the most recent version of M.E.T.A.’s registry, it also contained a number of confidential EU government reports and confidential banking files that Frankie found extremely interesting.

The M.E.T.A. registry was clearly what Tempest had been looking for, it contained the list of European-registered powered and their assessments and psychological profiles. Frankie was still struggling to unencrypt some of the data but what she had accessed so far was frightening; a who’s who of powered criminals who were either born in the EC or had been involved in criminal behaviour at some point in the European Community and were known to M.E.T.A. and the local Police.

A call came a few days later from Wallace about a siege in a small town in the Walshklein Valley in Austria. Austria did not have its own superteam and generally relied on support from The EC but no one was currently available. Could the Balance help out again, given this appeared to be an assault by a powerful elemental?

They did wonder who Wallace thought he was to ‘request’ their assistance so often, almost as if he viewed them as his personal intervention team. Angry at his arrogance, they still elected to jump in the Crate and head towards the Austrian Alps and the Walshklien Valley.

When they arrived, they could see that this was a major disaster, snow and ice was everywhere and of such depth despite the warm season, that it seemed as though a mini ice age had suddenly befallen the valley. There was no power, traffic was at a standstill due to the number of crashes, several buildings were on fire and the rescue services appeared to be able to get to them. There were snowploughs and bulldozers on the nearby autobahn but the sudden onset of such extreme weather had defeated even them. The temperature was so cold that fuel had frozen in their fuel tanks.

Akira asked Frankie if the database had information on the possible suspect but she stated she would need more information to narrow down the possible culprit.

On arrival, they put on the extreme weather gear that was stored in the Crate and headed out. There was no obvious suspect they could see, but this small town could clearly benefit from their help. The sudden onset of Arctic temperatures had frozen both rivers running through the valley solid.They set off on a rescue mission.

Thankfully, the area affected was only about a mile across and it was a small town with a population of about 5,000, so X-Ray scanned the area for heat signatures then generated heat to free trapped motorists and create a safe passage to the nearest building for anyone he found outdoors.

Several of those he rescued described how the weather had come on after a woman made of ice had appeared, describing her as ‘like ice’ and “It seemed as though part of the mountain came to life!”  Another referred to her as “A beast ripped through the school. Shards of ice splintered the stone building in a matter of minutes.”

Frankie hypothesised that this might be the work of a local Meta who’d accidentally had her powers increased to near uncontrollable levels – she called herself Frost.

A blizzard was starting as they watched a blue icy female wandered towards them even as thunder and lightning erupted around her. Had they wandered into a battle between two powered individuals? What was clear from her actions so far, Frost wasn’t bothered about taking lives as she appeared to freeze two people still on the street. X-Ray tried to unfreeze them but it was too late, they had both died instantly. Other victims of hers were already dead, instantly frozen.

Akira blew out the fires in the buildings using the spell to create a hurricane even as an alarm went off at a local public museum with a display of art that had been recovered after the Second World War. The poster stated that the artwork on display had been stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families and no survivors of the owners family had ever been found.

In the entrance were a dozen men trying to remove the artwork. The swastika tattoos on their necks seemed to indicate an alliance to the neo Nazis movement. Their leader shouted out that the paintings were his and had been stolen back after the war. He was merely reclaiming his inheritance. Given these had been stolen during the war was he actually claiming ownership based on his family having stolen them in the first place? An injured museum guard responded by calling him a “Nazi pig!”

Akira felt the anger build up inside him. He used his TK to grab the eleven pictures out of their hands and fly them towards him. All but one of one of the pictures pulled themselves free. Their so-called leader tried to escape with the last icon but Akira pulled it out of his hands before teleporting away with all of the paintings. He placed them in the Crate leaving the thieves to try to escape in a sub-zero blizzard if they could.

Meanwhile X-Ray and Banshee headed towards Frost only to see she was struggling and arguing with Tempest who seemed to be trying to persuade her to come with him. X-Ray erected his force field and then blasted her with thermal energy. The blast hit and left her dazed. She responded back with a blast of freezing cold which both X-Ray and Banshee were able to avoid even as Banshee responded with a devastating Wail that affected both her and Tempest who had been trying to convince her to join him in his battle to save the Earth. X-Ray blasted Tempest even as he responded by manifesting a gale causing a car to slam into a fuel tank and burst into flames.

An injured Tempest grabbed the now unconscious Frost and fled into the storm. They elected to not give chase into the arctic blizzard that now hid them from view.

The paintings were subsequently returned to the Austrian Government but not before Frankie and Akira had managed to trace relations for eight of them and inform them that the artwork was theirs to claim. The rest remained with the Austrian government.

To be continued