The team were still busy trying to implement their new “Defenders of the Planet” proposal. They’d successfully persuaded the Challenger-Wildeman’s to come on-board with their suggestion and, in turn, they’d reached out on their behalf to Daedalus and Marcus Moore. It had had taken a covert visit to Starhaven on Europa to convince Moore that it would be worth his time handing over his designs. In the end, they had negotiated an agreement that 25% of all the suits made in Starhaven would be given to him to sell on and the remaining suits would be stored in various safe locations around the world, ready for an invasion.
Finding and recruiting Metas and elementals not villains or aligned with existing teams had proved less successful, though Lady Door of London Below had promised the assistance of her people if and when needed. Meanwhile life continued as normal.
A call came in over Trouble Alert channel that there was a hostage situation developing in a mansion downtown. They responded and was told that the request for assistance was unable to give a precise location other than it was one of the unoccupied big houses located on the hills above the residential, Summerwell District to the south of the city. The channel then went quiet, all reports and requests ended suddenly leaving the channel totally silent. That in itself was unusual but Akira had noticed some irregularities in the transmission and suspected that the transmission wasn’t the real Dispatch but had been a recording of Dispatch’s voice patched together to form the request and sent to them specifically. Suspiciously, the channel going totally silent immediately after meant someone was apparently now jamming real transmissions to prevent anyone from revealing the deception.
Akira muttered that the mansions above Summerwell were “where they had all the swinger parties” and he wasn’t going there even as he headed towards the surface. The other two followed him out into the scrapyard above.
They were about to leave for a flyover of the area when X-Ray received a text from his wife Stacy. It stated that she would likely be late home as her boss, the mysterious CEO Mr Helmz himself, (admittedly by text, she had still to meet him in the flesh) had asked her to check out an abandoned mansion in Wessex that he was considering converting into an activity centre for the local youth.
It didn’t state where the mansion was, but X-Ray had a bad feeling about it and checked the GPS on her phone. The signal placed her inside one of the nearby buildings. Worse, no sooner had he checked when all mobile and online signals in the area went dead, seemingly jammed.
The building she was in was clearly unoccupied with boarded up windows and overgrown grounds. Several tiles had come loose from the roof and graffiti was sprayed across the door and walls of the building giving a clear indication that the premises she was in had been abandoned some time ago.
Checking their commdots and phones it was clear that they were now on their own without access to Frankie or the Police. Banshee muttered that this was clearly a set up though if Stacy was inside that clearly indicated that X-Ray’s identity had likely been compromised. It was clear that he was extremely upset.
The commdots communicators still allowed for local Bluetooth communication, limited to a range of about 30 metres though X-Ray confirmed that his radio sense allowed him to hear his teammate’s transmissions over a much longer range, but he would be unable to reply unless within bluetooth or shouting range.
X-Ray was reluctantly persuaded to scan the building before rushing in, using his infrared sight. His scan of the building revealed random pulses of heat only but it was a large stone-built structure and the walls and depth of the rooms could be concealing heat signatures showing up though that didn’t explain the moving heat pulse appearing and disappearing inside.
As they tried to figure out how best to respond to what was clearly a trap, they heard three loud shots ring out from inside the building, one after the other.
Without warning, X-Ray surged towards the main door, smashing it open as though it was papier Mache and rushed inside. There was a breathless second when he felt as though he had just stepped into a vacuum then he found himself standing in a long dark corridor made of roughly-hewed stone walls and roof, with misshapen doors and a tainted yellow light shining from inside revealing a long stone corridor heading off into the distance.
Up ahead his enhanced vision allowed him to see that the corridor he was in split into two passages open onto long, dim corridors of grey, blood-splattered stone and stale air, lit intermittently with pale orbs that flickered like torches.
He looked around and realised that the door behind him that he had smashed open was no longer there. Instead, the seemingly endless corridor continued until it vanished into the darkness. He turned back and confirmed that the corridor in front of him was also abnormally long, but it was hard to estimate the distance. No decorations adorned the plain walls, and the only features were the occasional intersecting hallway. The air carried the faint sickeningly dry, sweet metallic scent of drying blood, dust and bleach. Far off in the distance were echoes of metal clanking, indecipherable voices, and the ragged sound of stone grinding against stone.
Outside Akira and Banshee had just witnessed X-Ray’s entrance followed by his sudden disappearance.
Akira stepped forward and stretched out his mystical senses to see if there was an occult explanation for what had just happened. It revealed that while the house had a taint of magic, it was a recent addition and the property was otherwise normal. He then touched the shattered doorframe and proceeded to read its past. He could ‘feel’ a recent visitor and then X-Rays’ dramatic entrance but nothing else. “I’m not afraid of the dark,” he muttered as he reached out to hold Banshee’s hand so she could turn them both insubstantial and invisible before entering the dark interior. He was convinced someone had teleported X-Ray away, possibly the same person that X-Ray had felt possibly speeding around inside causing the pulses of body heat earlier.
To his surprise, Banshee took another step forward and immediately vanished, just in front of the main staircase. Akira suddenly found himself re-substantiated and standing alone in the deserted hallway. He immediately stepped back outside and into the sunlight while he considered what to do next.
Inside the depressingly long misshapen corridor, X-Ray found himself suddenly joined by an equally surprised Banshee gasping for air. She looked behind her, clearly expecting to see Akira, only to find that instead of the entrance all she could see was a long, shadowy corridor stretching far into the distance. Then she began to recognise the misshapen doors and warped walls as an identifiable stench reached her nostrils. “We’re in the Dungeon Dimension, someone’s just sent us to a pocket dimension that was, is, used as a prison. We’ve been here once before, Akira and I. It apparently adheres only to its own complex laws and geometries — straight paths weren’t always straight and down wasn’t always down—making it difficult to navigate. It exists outside of Earth’s space and time, making it an ideal prison and hideout.”
X-Ray smiled, “You escaped before so we can clearly do so again.” Banshee nodded but decided not to mention the skeletal dragon who’d helped them before. If the Gamemaster was back in charge, it might not be so ready to help them this time, assuming it still existed of course.
Outside, Akira manifested the compass of Ahgrazul and sent it inside the building to see what it might reveal. The compass identified dozens of invisible, free-floating portals in the hallway drifting through the space uncontrollably. To Akira’s surprise then all apparently led to the same destination, though he was unable to identify where that was. His plan to use the blade pendant and psychic compass to form a pathway to join the others, wherever they might be, wouldn’t be necessary as all of the portals led to the same place, presumably the same location as Banshee and X-Ray. He stepped forward and allowed the compass to reveal one of the portals before he allowed the spell to vanish. He stepped inside and felt his lungs being ripped out through his throat as the pathway passed through a vacuum. A second later, he collapsed to the ground behind his two teammates. Gasping for breath, he looked around at the corridor with its grey walls, its oddly-shaped doors and the floating globules of light and breathed in the taste of old blood and decay. “It’s… the… Prison… Realm… isn’t… it?…” He finally managed to say between deep gasps of the stale air.
Banshee nodded as X-Ray suddenly noticed that the gravity in the hallway wasn’t constant, that it too varied. Banshee helped Akira to his feet and muttered that there should be a circular chamber, one of many if her memory served, that the Gamemaster had used as gladiatorial arenas when they’d been here previously and reminded the others to watch out for traps, as the Gamemaster liked his little games with those he judged deserved to be ‘punished’. They needed to either obtain the key or find the dragon Mac Aodha and hope they can persuade her to assist them in escaping this place.
X-Ray, still unused to magic, murmured, “If I wasn’t here as well, I’d assume you’d consumed too many magic mushrooms!”
Banshee set off, turning insubstantial down the corridor towards the nearby junction. A second later, the other two caught up with her. At the junction they took the left hand path and soon came across one of the circular arenas surrounded by on both sides by dozens of cells, each open and currently unoccupied.
Banshee again warned the others to be wary as they attempted to cross the arena in case there were booby-traps. As they stepped out, they saw three red lights clustered close together in a triangular pattern, head height in the corridor opposite, followed a second later by a series of loud cough-like sounds and multiple muzzle flares as the helmeted figure opposite opened fire with a Russian-made assault rifle. The gloom made them difficult targets to hit at that range but the first bullet passed through Banshee, the second aimed at Akira missed but X-Ray wasn’t so lucky and caught with his shield down the third bullet skimmed his shoulder and drew blood.
“Carpathian soldiers!” declared Akira. It looked as though someone in authority over there was out to assassinate them, again! Akira snarled as both he and X-Ray both raised their meta-shielding, “Hunters from the Seminarium Sinister of Setekh. Wonder if they are in cahoots with Labyrinth?” Akira responded.
As he spoke, another set of red lens appeared behind the first hunter and began to take sniping shots at them. X-Ray responded back with a radiation blast at them and succeeded in knocking the first hunter unconscious. A series of mystical blasts by Akira at the other hunter left him staggered as another familiar figure appeared behind them, the misery-loving, ice princess Dementia!
No loving ‘family’ chats with Banshee, her ‘sort-of’ great-aunt, a couple of parallel universes removed. Instead, she sent a wave of ice cascading across the arena at them while unleashing a psychic storm of despair and misery. The ice left them all frozen and shivering but both Akira and Banshee were prepared for the follow up of emotional and psychological misery that accompanied such an attack, X-Ray wasn’t, and he felt the agony of his memories being ripped from his mind as the emptiness was replaced with despair and loss. He’d had a loving wife, once. What had happened to her and why couldn’t he remember anything about her beyond her loss, and what was his own name again? Bree? Bry..? Intimate Memories were swallowed up by the pain and misery that overwhelmed him.
Akira asked Banshee to turn her insubstantial again even as she turned and slapped at X-Ray’s face. The fingers now rendered ghost-like passed right through X-Ray’s jaw forcing him to focus on the slapping by a ghostly hand rather than his own feelings of despair. Banshee meanwhile was unleashing a series of wails at their attackers but so far, with minimal results.
X-Ray turned and stared at Akira even as he questioned, “Did you just put your hand through my face?” only to be struck again by Dementia’s icy assault. Before she could follow up with a psychic assault on his mind, Banshee unleashed another wail that left her staggered.
Unfortunately, her collapsing as a result meant X-Ray’s gravi-kinetic attack missed its target though not Akira’s assault on the remaining hunter and Dementia. A tall female figure, dressed surprisingly in a deep crimson dress stepped up for a split second and gestured towards them as she muttered something quietly. Suddenly X-Ray felt something on his back trying to claw through his shield, felt it move trying to reach his throat with an invisible claw. Something unseen was behind him and trying to kill him! Akira risked looking at the new arrival opposite only to then cast a series of mystical blasts at the three of them. He called upon his magical awareness and realised that the woman was the Baroness Natasha, hereditary ruler of Carpathia and clearly a mage of great power herself. She obviously didn’t mind getting her hands dirty, so time to reward her. He unleashed a series of mystical blasts at her and was rewarded with a hit on her shoulder and her then fleeing down the corridor though her invisible beast remained behind.
In his attempt to escape the stalker’s assault, X-Ray accidently moved into the open where he received a bullet to his ribs from the remaining hunter. Thankfully, his shield absorbed most of the bullets’ momentum and he only suffered a painful bruise, which thankfully it failed to rip through his skin.
Banshee heard X-Ray’s cry and responded by pushing Akira away and allowed him to re-substantualise even as she physically reached over towards X-Ray as she thought the stalker was on his back and unleashed a corrupting touch on the creature. It vanished, presumably dissipated by the assault and without the Baroness to maintain its form in this realm. At last, X-Ray was free from invisible attack and he could now focus on breaking free of the last of Dementia’s mental assault on him.
A third man had now appeared opposite, though this one was not in any obvious uniform. X-Ray heard Banshee identify him as the Gamemaster, as he used a customised assault rifle to target their position. Thankfully, both Akira and X-Ray had again got their fields up and Banshee had once more turned insubstantial as their attacker was an excellent shot and several bullets found their mark only to either pass through her or bounce off the others shielding.
Time to end this thought Akira as he blasted both Dementia and the last remaining hunter and knocked them both unconscious even as Banshee wailed and succeeded in dazing the Gamemaster and causing him to drop his rifle. That didn’t stop him, he reached behind him and pulled into his hands a power staff which he unleashed on the three of them. His blast missed Akira by a fraction of a centimetre, the bullet aimed at Banshee passed through her and hit the corridor behind her, only X-Ray was hit and his force field absorbed most of the potential damage but a blast still managed to graze him on his forehead.
Akira unleashed a series of mystical blasts targeting the staff and succeeded in knocking it out of the Gamemaster’s hands but failed to hit the fast moving target himself. He managed to recover his rifle from the ground. As he targeted X-Ray, Akira responded with a mystical blast back. The shot missed as Akira succeeded in blasting him unconscious even as X-Ray used his gravi-kinesis to pin the staff to the wall.
It now seemed safe to cross the arena and check on their attackers. As they stepped out the corridor into the open space, they ‘heard’ a voice in their heads tell them to ‘find the key and use it to leave.’ The voice did not sound human though there was something about the way it spoke; a feeling that they had better comply with its demands.
They found a familiar large gold key on the Gamemaster. It would fit any of the locked doors in the corridor they had just come down but once through they ‘knew’ they had to throw it back through or risk having ‘Mac Aodha’ as an enemy.
Before they left though, Akira attempted to read the past from the Gamemaster and could confirmed that he had been paid to capture them and allow the Carpathians access so they could hunt them down and kill them. He had no knowledge though of Stacy. He was aware though that his ‘employers’ had targeted three women, each dating or married to men of a similar build and look to X-Ray hoping that one of them would lead them to his other identity. His unconscious self didn’t know why those women were chosen or what they had done to them.
As Akira surfaced, he seriously considered sending the Gamemaster to his personal refuse dimension but decided eventually against it. He briefly examined the power staff without touching it and wondered about taking it as a souvenir but changed his mind when he discovered it had been rigged to explode if handled by anyone other than the Gamemaster. Instead, he opened a portal and dispatched the staff through. One less toy for him to retain and use when he awoke.
They used the key on a random door and stepped through back into their own universe. Akira immediately threw the key back through and closed the door allowing it to transition back into a normal door again.
Hopefully Mac Aodha would find it first and resume control over the pocket dimension and possibly even imprison Dementia and the Gamemaster but they were reasonably sure that the Baroness would not have agreed to enter this realm without ensuring she could return home whenever she desired.
They had only been back a few seconds when they found that their commdots and phones were no longer jammed. X-Ray immediately phoned Stacy and discovered that she had never been anywhere near the Summerwell area. Her phone had clearly been cloned by someone and they had clearly faked the GPS data that had been received by her husband!
In fact, the whole situation had been faked; she’d been in the office the whole time and no, she’d never received any requests from Mr Helmz, even by text.
Frankie also confirmed that social media had revealed that two other men had also received similar messages from their partners. Interestingly, both of their men shared a similar muscular structure and partial facial features to Brian though both of them had short hair. They both had recently moved from Stoke-on-Trent to Wessex around the same time as him and both had extensive medical experience – one being part of Brian’s medical team who had transferred to Wessex with him and the other was a paramedic and ambulance driver. Someone had clearly done their research. After all, X-Ray had been actively fighting crime in Stoke-on-Trent until he had joined the Balance in Wessex and he had publicly demonstrated a knowledge of advanced medical procedures on several occasions. He couldn’t hide his physique and as the Balance had only checked Stacy’s GPS and not either of the other two whose husbands had received similar spoofed messages to the one he’d supposedly received from ‘Stacy’ it was clear that someone, most likely Labyrinth, had identified X-Ray’s other identity and his partner. He just had to decide what he could do about it, not least because there was no way he’d be able to persuade Stacy to quit her work or hole up in the BASEment (or anywhere else for that matter) until the matter was resolved one way or another.
(The Dungeon Dimension – See Episode 67: Broken Strings)
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 