Adapted from “Rise of the Tyrant” by Amber Scott
Prequel
In the primordial past, a series of meteor strikes permanently altered the environment and development of sentient life on Earth but in another parallel universe, the meteors never struck and the dinosaurs eventually evolved into a powerful and intelligent Saurian race. They crushed the burgeoning primate culture that developed alongside them, either killing or enslaving them.
Millennia later, the Saurians had split into constantly warring blocs however being a warrior race didn’t protect them when sentient, more technically advanced hominids from another dimension invaded. A devastating Final War ravaged that Earth and nearly destroyed all life before they started demolishing the planet and sending it back through a dimensional vortex. The remaining Saurian resistance were defeated, but one surviving Saurian, the brilliant scientist and inventor Sssethas Ruul, decided that he would not let his people die out forever.
In a final attempt to save his race, Ruul led an attack on one of the invaders inter-dimensional portals and succeeded in escaping through the fabric of reality into another parallel dimension in search of a new home for the dwindling Saurian people. He found another Earth, one where simians had become the dominant species. Unfortunately, the portal was both guarded and of limited size so he would have to find another path to bring his remaining species over. Ruul now planned to scour the Earth of its disgusting primates and turn the planet into a new home for the Saurian Empire, ruled over by him of course.
Now
The Balance was in the Lounge when Frankie switched on the big TV screen to display a request from Dispatch that Frankie thought they should be aware of. It apparently involved a traffic situation developing in the overpass in the affluent Southside district of the city but what caught their eyes was the media clip that Dispatch had obtained, posted just seconds before from someone’s social media account.
It started with a bored video clip showing yet another ordinary afternoon of people driving back from work on the highway. Commuters doing their best to hurry home, but rush hour traffic had resulted in bumper-to-bumper congestion on the Southside overpass.
Then there was a shriek of metal-on-metal splitting the air. Brake lights flared off and on, as cars tried to pull ahead, but there’s no space for anyone to move. The vehicles were stationary targets as a twelve-foot bipedal robot strode through the traffic. The robot grasped the bumper of the nearest car and—with almost casual grace—flipped the vehicle upside down. The car’s occupant screamed as he dangled from his seatbelt even as the clip went dead.
The robot didn’t resemble anything that the team had dealt with before, it looked as though it was designed for some sort of construction work. Akira jokingly asked the others “If we are doing roadside recovery now?” and suggested that X-Ray should be able to handle this on his own but that Banshee and him would come along to watch and give useful suggestions.
X-Ray smiled but muttered, “Once the new boy, always the new boy, obviously” as he started to head to the door. Akira continued, stating that after all, it was just a giant hunk of metal but they would be there to cheer him on and give him moral support!
As Dispatch confirmed that the task had been assigned to the team she mentioned that the job may or may not be related to a silent alarm that had just gone off at ExoTech, whose research facilities were located nearby. There was no further information and Police were on their way to both locations but were having to navigate the heavy Friday afternoon traffic. Frankie piped in that according to her data search, ExoTech did deal in robotic systems and had distant business links to Dalton Technology.
For a brief second or two they considered splitting up to deal with both situations but the need to save lives won out and they headed to the overpass first.
Minutes later, they arrived at the overpass, just in time to witness the massive ‘bot toss a car over the railings towards the ground ten metres below. As it plummeted, Akira reached out with his Theurgical-Kinesis and caught it in midair, though the now hysterical driver was slammed into the windscreen as a result.
Meanwhile the robot was continuing its rampage, overturning cars to check the underside of their chassis before pushing them out of its way or picking them up only to toss them away. Another car was grabbed and was about to be tossed over the safety rail when X-Ray used his gravi-kinesis to pull the Robot into the air, causing it to drop his vehicular ‘missile’ on the side of the overpass, its front wheels hanging over the edge even as the panicked driver tried to scramble to safety over the front seats of his seesawing car.
To X-Ray’s surprise, the robot extended its legs back down to the ground and fastened onto the roof of yet another car, anchoring it. Banshee turned insubstantial as a precaution and unleashed a shattering shriek, which severed both legs leaving it dangling in the air once more. It responded by extending its arms towards yet another car.
Akira immediately used his powers to move the cars out of its reach before rescuing the dangling car and its driver from its precarious dangling over the edge of the overpass even as the robot activated some sort of wielding torch in his direction. Akira was forced to move back. X-Ray responded immediately by pushing it high up into the sky, well beyond the range of its torch. He then unleashed an EMP-like pulse at it. Unfortunately, it appeared to be partially shielded and the blast failed to shut it down completely though the effects of the blast were apparent below as several cars died as a result.
Using his enhanced vision, he was able to spot ‘property of ExoTech’ markings on its frame even as Banshee unleashed another shattering shriek. This was followed up by a series of mystical blasts from Akira. Between them, the ‘bot exploded into a thousand fragments cascading towards the ground and overpass, and the people below, who were trying to flee. Before the metallic wreckage hit, X-Ray had created a force field overhead to stop the deadly fragments. Holding them in the air above, he considered what to do with them but decided to take them with them as they now headed towards ExoTech and the alarm. The drivers below started to cheer and clap as they left, heading towards their next destination.
ExoTech turned out to be a sprawling factory complex, ringed by a wire fence taking up most of the block. The main gate stood open, and bits of debris littered the near empty parking lot. Twisted scraps of metal some blackened and smoking marked a trail to the door of the main building.
More destruction awaited inside the factory. Holes in the walls showed where large pieces of machinery had been ripped away. Storage lockers had been forced open and emptied onto the ground. Trailing cables appeared to indicate that computers have been stolen as well. Four people in lab coats, bound and gagged, were lying on the floor. A muffed scream of rage emanated from one of the storage cupboards. Akira headed over, discovered a female in a lab coat inside bound and gagged. He freed her as Banshee and X-Ray untied the technicians.
The woman thanked them and introduced herself as the factory manager, Amy Yang. She explained that she and the four technicians were working late at the factory when a group of masked people attacked. She went on “It was an ordinary day, and then the doors blew open. A masked man with some kind of puzzle pattern on his leotard burst in, along with a bunch of muscle heads and some snappy little robots. There was no way we could fight them. They tied us up and then ransacked the lab. The leader, the guy in the Question mark costume, he seemed to know exactly what he was looking for. He stole a bunch of data from the computers and some control modules. But one of his goons damaged the QAR-57, and it went berserk and I think he cut out before he got everything he wanted. They left this, though.” She pointed towards an envelope on the table that she and her technicians have refused to touch, for fear it was booby-trapped.
Akira smiled and interrupted her to explain that they had brought her QAR-57 back, it was in the car park but that it was a little the worse for wear, and would need a little renovation, but the good news was that it hadn’t killed anyone.
She explained that the activated Robot was a prototype construction robot – the Quality Assurance Robot, or QAR. Its job was to inspect and move large metal components. If the Robot found a component with flaws, it would break the piece down to be melted down and reforged.
During the robbery, the Robot was damaged and accidentally activated. It had left the factory and must have wandered onto the overpass, where it would have mistaken the vehicles there for components waiting to be inspected.
Ms Yang began to show them CCTV footage of the man who had orchestrated the attack the factory as well: He was about six feet tall and wore a purple leotard with puzzle pieces on it, like a jigsaw. His face was completely covered with a white mask, and there was a big black question mark across the front. The guys who were with him wore black clothes with question marks on them, and clown masks. She went on to state, “The masks were almost scarier than the attack robots—I hate clowns!”
X-Ray asked what they had stolen and was given a tablet which one of the technicians was using to catalogue the loses. Ms Yang explained, “This is all very advanced equipment. Judging by what happened with the QAR-57, this guy doesn’t care if people get hurt. He stole our prototype Hyper-Cortex processor. Only someone with really advanced scientific knowledge could use these components. The processor was tagged with a GPS locator, but it must have been damaged in the robbery, because I haven’t been able to get a signal.”
Developed by ExoTech’s computers division, the Hyper-Cortex was a powerful computer board with the processing power of a supercomputer, but it must be maintained at sub-zero temperatures for its superconductor parts to function properly. The company had sent a few sample processors to their robotics division to experiment with integrating the processors into their AI projects, but the upgrade is simply too delicate and its cooling requirements too stringent to easily incorporate into robot systems. The Hyper-Cortex was better suited for permanent emplacements, and ideal for handling huge amounts of data like one would need for quantum physics experiments, rather than the pattern recognition and fast reorganisation required for AI.
The technicians meanwhile were trying to describe the robots used by the thieves and seemed impressed stating that they were marvellous examples of the discipline—lightweight, responsive, and graceful. One of the technicians thought that they looked like lizards, but one of the other technicians chimed in to say they were clearly giant birds. They spiralled off into guessing about their design, materials, and capabilities in technical terms.
The envelope still remained untouched on the table – Akira used his TK to seal it inside a force cage the opened it remotely with his mind. It was labelled Riddle of Conundrum and read;
a building of steel reaching up to the sky;
a giant who stands well Above everyone;
the slopes of mount Everest, where norgay did Climb;
Or a great redwood tree blotting the sun.
untangle the Ribbon that binds them together,
and you shall arrive at my lair—if you’re clever.
It was Banshee that noted the unusual placement of capitals and asked if AECOR meant anything while Akira wondered if the verses were anything to do with the Angel of the North or Blackpool Tower?
X-Ray noted that ‘norgay’ was likely a reference to Tenzing Norgay, the Nepalese mountaineer who had conquered Everest with Hillary.
A quick consultation with Frankie revealed that aecor was a Latin word for a flat plain and she noted that the riddle Conundrum has left behind has two components to it. First, as they had noted the initial four lines that begin the riddle all referenced things with great height. The second section appeared to highlight the word aecor or flat plain.
The tallest place in the city of Wessex was The Tower, a property owned by Dalton, which was located in the Southside district of the city and overlooked the flattest piece of land in Wessex. The River Thames ran through the centre of the district; was that the ribbon mentioned? With the exception of The Tower, the majority of the flat area was poorly developed due to it being subject to regular flooding. One of the most prominent parts housed a disused amusement park, which overlooked the stretch of the city known locally as the Narrows.
According to Frankie, that piece of land had been purchased several years before by the late Desmond Lettam, better known as Toy Boy; the orb of Ghorummas, which currently resided inside a secure vault in the Dungeon Dimension, had absorbed his spirit. Could he be free again and working with this Conundrum fella?
In the absence of a circus site, this seemed their best starting point. It even had a partial wooden constructed rollercoaster named the Everest Ride, once the highest in England.
They headed towards the area known locally as the Narrows and the amusement park, its colourful buildings and cheerful atmosphere muted by the stillness of the early evening. Its rides now stood silent. Leering painted faces looked down from every sign and booth, while the wind pushed everything into gentle, creaking motion.
A chain-link fence surrounded the park, but teenagers and the curious had made numerous openings in the fence over the years that staff had haphazardly patched. Not that was a problem as they floated over the fence. Inside, the park was filled with fast rides and shoddily constructed booths, not all of which were padlocked. X-Ray used his enhanced senses to search for body heat and located several near the middle of the park.
Akira muttered something about “the caretaker did it and would have got away with it if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids…” as they headed towards the heat signatures and the centre of the park. They erected their defences with Banshee turning insubstantial as they spotted the cluster of men wearing security guard uniforms gathered round the entrance to the mirror maze. As though in response, the park lights flared into life and the parks’ tannoy speakers activated.
“So, you solved my little riddle. I trust a good time was had by all? Or, at least it will. You can visit my house for a few laughs, but first my neighbours want to play a little game. The fun is just beginning.”
The security guards suddenly pulled out some sort of rod-like weapons and fired, the energy beam hit X-Ray and Akira’s force fields creating a spectacular display of light as the energy dissipated. The bolt aimed at Banshee passed straight though her and shattered a booth behind her into a thousand fragments.
X-Ray responded by increasing the gravity around them causing them to collapse to their knees. Banshee followed it up with an aura of fear that caused the guards to crawl and slither in abject terror into the maze. The team followed. Inside leering faces adorned the exterior of the funhouse. The metallic mirrors that had once delighted visitors by day seemed sinister in the dark. It didn’t help that the guards had vanished from sight.
It was Akira that spotted that one of the wall mirrors appeared to conceal a door. As he approached it, he heard a hissing sound and instinctively reshaped his force field into a bubble shape surrounding him as darts trailing metal cables bounced off his field and a sticky foam sprayed over him. Banshee in her insubstantial form ignored them and walked through the mirror frame and into a darkened corridor beyond. X-Ray’s whose shield started to be covered by the hardening foam unleashed a beam of heat and began to melt it away though the stench from the burning foam was almost overwhelming. Regardless, he walked over to the foam nozzles either side of the frame and melted them so no more of the fluid could spray onto the two of them as Akira teleported out of the hardened egg-like prison that the solidified foam had formed around him.
Inside the passageway, Banshee heard the sound of the nozzles exploding followed by a low, intimidating growl behind her as she turned to face a metallic dinosaur that tried to bite and claw at her ghostly form. Outside Akira activated the panel that opened the mirror and they both stepped through to see a two-metre tall dinosaur-shaped robot trying to eat Banshee.
He immediately unleashed a series of mystical blasts at it through Banshee’s insubstantial body even as X-Ray tried to rip it apart with his gravity powers. The combined assault caused it to explode peppering both of them with fragments, which bounced off their shields.
Stepping over the smouldering wreckage they began to walk down the corridor towards the light – this was no doubt some forgotten control centre for the park above—and lead to its heart: a huge chamber filled with 70s-era equipment from the amusement park above. The walls were painted with wide stripes of alternating colours and covered in disorienting shards of reflective metal mirrors. A jumble of upright roller coaster tracks and cars formed a barrier halfway across the room. The only way through the barrier was a slowly rotating tunnel painted with images of prancing devils. Machinery hissed and chugged, powering unseen equipment.
On the other side of the barrier, a wide flight of uneven steps led to a platform. Banks of tall computers sat against the wall, behind tables covered with bits of electronic equipment. A mural of question marks in different designs decorated the back wall.
Mist drifted down from vents in the ceiling, filling the room with a haze that made it difficult to see anything other than the largest objects in the room. They assumed at first that the mist would be laughing gas or poison but it appeared to have no physical effect on them other than limiting what they could see.
A man in a now familiar question mark costume sat on a raised platform on the far end of the room, protected by the height and the barrier. This was Conundrum, surely? Before they could approach any closer, a booming voice echoed through the chamber, coming from a magpie-size robotic lizard-bird clinging to the ceiling.
“I am disappointed, Conundrum. So few sapiens show the promise you do, I had hoped to keep you as a preferred pet. No matter, I have all I need now. Consider our arrangement… extinct.” The mechanical messenger jerked and smoked for a moment, then exploded in a shower of sparks.
The messenger had been a mechanical representation of a bird-like reptile with feathered wings, with a beak filled with sharp teeth and a long bony tail. X-Ray identified it as a robotic representation of an Archaeopteryx. “Looks as though Conundrum here was just dumped by his bird!” laughed Akira as he proceeded to teleport to the area beyond the spinning tunnel.
The other two floated through to join him on the other side as they heard a now familiar growl behind them, emanating from deep inside the mist. Akira used the opportunity to call out to the man opposite, “Did you have an arrangement with that exploding bird?” In front of them Conundrum responded, “Not with it specifically but yes, it does appear as though my partnership has come to an end!”
“What was the nature of that arrangement?”
“I admit it! I used my wits and cunning to devise the perfect robbery. The fools in the factory didn’t stand a chance! If it wasn’t for my bumbling cohort of minions, we would have gotten well away. Instead, they damaged that horrible robot and almost ruined everything. Yes, I admit that I was working with another supervillain. A charming and persuasive fellow offered me these delightful robots in exchange for my help with the robbery. I imagine he needed someone with a quick wit to carry out such an important task. I had such plans for my new metal minions. Alas, they will have to be postponed.”
Banshee, ignoring the now increased growling behind them asked who his partner was. Conundrum admitted that he didn’t know who hired him, though he has deduced some information regarding his benefactor’s identity and hinted “He used a burner phone that lead in circles; a rather inglorious vanishing. He gave me a detailed TAXONOMY of everything he wanted stolen and arranged a drop point for the goods to evade any TERRIBLEinterference. We arrived with the truck full of parts and my new robots were waiting for me. I don’t believe he SAW’RUS at all. A bit taken aback by their motif; I suppose he needs THERAPY, but then I’m stretching. But I’m quite content to be free of that TYRANT’S oversight.”
He appeared to be emphasising certain words in particular as he spoke though it was hard to concentrate with the growling increasing in volume behind them. Akira asked if Conundrum was in control of the dinosaurs or were they just happy to see them? Conundrum laughed and said, “That would be telling surely, let’s see what happens shall we? I’ll sit here and not do anything or say a word and we will see if you still get bitten?”
Akira responded, “I’ve had enough of these silly little games, I’m giving you one change to answer MY riddle, when is a jar not a jar?” A confused Conundrum responded, “that’s not right, it should be when is a door not a door, surely?” Akira hit him with a mystical blast as he responded, “When it’s a door, fool!” even as several mechanical dinosaurs began to attack the three of them.
One of them jumped on Akira and tried to bite at his head and limbs but was unable to breach his force field. X-Ray responded by blasting the robot attacking Akira and sending it flying across the room hitting the wall. Banshee meanwhile unleashed a wail that caused one to explode and the others to collapse to the ground. Akira followed it up with a series of mystical blasts that caused the remaining robots to stop working. Opposite, Conundrum sighed and shook his head. “I’m disappointed; I thought he would have built better than that!”
“Who?” asked Banshee. “Alas, but I’ve already told you exactly who to look for. I’ve given you enough clues.” was the reply.
He pointed towards the table filled with components and said, “These are the parts I retained, his robotic companions took some away. Good luck!”
Banshee changed back to allow Mary to examine the stolen components. Some of the items were clearly not designed for robotic construction and why was there iridium fragments on the table?
As she did that, Akira picked up one of the fragments of the exploded ‘bird’ and got a flashback to its master; a creature that resembled a two-metre tall sentient dinosaur but dressed in various items of tech and with its brain exposed. Its hostile, yellow reptilian eyes gave Akira the jitters. This was the controller of the robots and clearly was not from this world. Suddenly Conundrum’s comments made sense. His partner had been a sentient dinosaur!
On the platform, Conundrum was explaining that the team would have no choice but to let him go free as they had no evidence that he’d actually committed a crime. As he spoke five people dressed identically to him pranced onto the platform and all six of them began, a frantic weaving to and fro in some sort of human ‘find the lady (or in this case the guy)’. It was no longer possible to identify who was who. One of them explained that they could have a hundred more people available, all dressed identically to them, within an hour if they insisted on trying to arrest one or all of them. It didn’t help that the components on the table seemed, despite their value, to be commercial units and interchangeable. Only the Hyper-Cortex was unique and they weren’t sure that was present.
Again, one of the Conundrum’s spoke as they swopped places back and forth, “One clue I will give. I got the impression that my… partner, was not from this Earth but was fleeing a disaster on his own. I do wonder what his reasons were and did wonder if his presence might be detrimental to humanity in the long run.”
Akira explained to his teammates what he had ‘viewed’ and went on, “I think he wants to open a portal and bring over an influx of extra-dimensional ‘illegal immigrants.”
They had to find out what the Hyper-Cortex was able to be used for and if it was present or not?
Akira immediately teleported back to ExoTech and asked a very nervous Ms Yang if she would come back with him to try and identify what was present in Conundrum’s lair, even as X-Ray marched across and grabbed at the Conundrums’ and began to rip off their hoods so he could photograph each of those present unmasked. They might not be able to decide who was the real boss, but it was information they could pass on to the Police to investigate further even after they had let them go.
As this was going on Akira returned with his passenger and she confirmed that the Hyper-Cortex was missing. Akira asked her if the unit could be used as part of a directional inter-dimensional portal and confirmed that it alongside some of the missing stolen components it might be used to create a stable Einstein-Rosen Bridge; a stable, directional dimensional portal.
While she confirmed that the components present were similar to some of those stolen, she was unable to positively confirm that they were ExoTech’s. Only the Hyper-Cortex was unique and the tracker they had built-in was currently offline. She hoped that the GPS chip would hopefully activate when the unit came online… But of course it may have been damaged in the robbery.
Akira transported Ms Yang back to ExoTech while the others called the Police and waited for their arrival even as each of the now unmasked Conundrum’s did a runner.
Conundrum’s longwinded speech is a sly admission of his partner’s identity: “taxonomy” meaning the Latin classification, beginning with “terrible” (the taxonomic clade “dinosauria” meaning “terrible lizard”), “saw us” (“saurus”), “therapy” (“therapod”), and finally “tyrant” for “tyrannosauridae.”
Forty-eight hours later
Having completed their statements to the Police regarding the robotic rampage and robbery at ExoTech, they got a message from Dispatch stating that a robbery at the Wessex Museum of Science and Technology had just occurred. This was linked as various dinosaur-themed robots had carried out the theft.
They immediately headed to the Museum to see what clues they might uncover that might lead them to the mysterious creature that had hired Conundrum. Enroute, they were confronted by a massive swarm of hundreds of small winged robotic dinosaurs; mini robo-pterodactyls which immediately began to target them.
X-Ray flew into the middle of the swarm and extended his gravi-kinetic field, capturing 90 percent of the robotic sterling-sized opponents, He was relying on the increased gravity inside the field to throw the attackers aim off enough that his natural toughness would keep him safe until he or his companions could deal with the threat.
Akira immediately targeted the remaining swarm with multiple mystical blasts. Instead of aiming at individual attackers, he relied on their closeness to each other to bring down the remaining swarm using the exploding robots to take out those nearest to them, like fragmentation grenades. It worked as they were all flying in close formation to each other. Those robo-dactyls not destroyed by Akira were forced to crash by Banshee unleashing her infamous shattering shriek. This also penetrated X-Ray’s energy bubble and shattered the remaining captured robots even as X-Ray crushed them by flying outside then shrinking his gravity bubble, compressing them into each other.
They dumped the remnants in a nearby scrapyard and proceeded to head to the Museum having now had their suspicions that Conundrum’s mysterious partner has responsible for that robbery too.
On arrival, they were allowed access to the security footage and again confirmed that the theft had been carried out by ‘metallic dinosaurs’. Akira reached out with his mystical senses and began to read the past from the now empty display cabinets. This confirmed what the security cameras had shown them but was unable to show anything about where they had gone with their stolen rocks having ignored more valuable treasure located nearby. They also had only taken certain of the meteorites and ignored others, including Ignoring a meteor containing gold for Iridium-rich meteorites.
There was a faint radioactive signature in the empty cases that seemed to indicate that the meteorites stolen had all been formed from Iridium but as this was also found in mobile phones and some electronic components he was unable to follow the signature reading.
Iridium was a very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal, it was considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal. It was one of the most corrosion-resistant metals, even at temperatures as high as 2,000 °C. Iridium is one of the rarest elements in Earth’s crust though Iridium was found in meteorites in much higher abundance than in the Earth’s crust.
As though by magic, Frankie contacted them to say that Amy Yang had contacted them on their public contact number and said she needed to speak with them urgently and put her through.
“Remember I told you the thieves had stolen a prototype processor, the Hyper-Cortex? Its GPS beacon was damaged when it was stolen, but I kept monitoring for it, just in case. The Hyper-Cortex was worth almost as much as everything else they stole combined. Earlier today, the beacon went off! It only stayed on for about a minute, but I got a location and wrote it down for you. If you find the Hyper-Cortex, it would really help me out!”
The signal was close to a solitary business premises in an otherwise residential area and they elected to check that out first. They arrive at the scene and sure enough X-Ray was able to sense a now familiar though admittedly faint energy signal to the only shop, Hudson Antiques.
Behind the armoured glass windows of the shop, sat an assortment of dusty antiques. Most seem to be cheap and in relatively poor condition, but there are a few various odds and ends—a pair of English Civil-War-era spurs, a Victorian sword cane, a pristine set of Elvis records—on display which looked to be well-maintained and of value. They entered.
Inside the shop, a portly man with a fringe of hair around his shiny head was sorting through a bag of tarnished coins. He looked up as they entered and immediately put the coins under the counter. “How can I help you?” he asked.
Akira immediately asked him if he was Elvis. A bemused smile crossed the shopkeeper’s face as Akira continued, “It’s just that you have kept the records in really good condition and you sort of look like I’d imagine Elvis would look in his older years… I have never subscribed to the conspiracy theory that he had died.”
The shopkeeper responded, “If I WAS Elvis I wouldn’t need to sell that collection of records now would I? I could just put on a performance and make a lot more money that I do now. Anyway, my name’s Bob Hudson, the proprietor. How may I help you?”
He confirmed that he was the only person on the premises, that the only electronic equipment in the shop was his phone and the card reader and that he had no objections to them looking around, as he had nothing to hide. Akira used the opportunity to reach out again with his ability to read the past and touched his hand for a second. Suddenly Akira’s mind was flooded with them entering the store and Bob’s hope that they didn’t find the concealed door at the back of the shop. He was also nervous that they didn’t find the stolen goods he’d just received. It was clear that Bob was a fence for stolen goods and had just received the stolen coins as payment for something… Spanish gold doubloons that he’d been examining when they arrived. Payment by the shadowy figures for something connected with the concealed door.
Akira nodded to X-Ray who started to question the man in an intimidating manner until he started to admit that yes some people had come to his shop and had gone into his secret back room earlier that day. He hadn’t been back there since they’d hired the space from him a month ago. He didn’t know, didn’t want to know, what they were up to as they really scared him, dressed in some sort of dinosaur styled armour all the time. He admitted that he had rented out the room to other criminals previously but groups like the Power Corps hadn’t frightened him the way these people did. Their costumes were very realistic and very scary and he’d never seen them out of them. They also didn’t always come and leave through the shop, though how they managed that he didn’t know as the room beyond didn’t have any other exits.
He showed them how to access the secret door to the room beyond and asked if they could keep his involvement out of any reports to the police, he was only a business man after all, trying to make a bit of money on the side. They passed through the hidden door to the large windowless room behind and to their (and apparently Bob’s) surprise, found it totally empty. What they found instead was a recently dug tunnel located behind a locked metal gate.
Again, Akira reached out and touched Bob’s hand as he tried to read his recent past. It was clear that the tunnel was not a new discovery to him despite his protestations; he had been back here since the thieves had built the tunnel and thought that it may prove useful one day if he needed to escape the law, but hadn’t mustered up the courage yet to find out where it led to. The fact that it was chained closed had also helped deter his curiosity.
Akira stepped back and returned to the present, as Bob was pleading with the other two to not have him arrested and, in return, he promised that he wouldn’t try and warn his mysterious tenants of their presence. It was a bluff Akira was sure but they had bigger fish to reel in than a man renting out a backroom to other criminals.
X0Ray and Akira raised their shields as Banshee turned the team insubstantial and invisible before proceeding.
Banshee phased the three of them through the gate and they immediately headed down the tunnel towards a featureless, white-panelled hallway which opened up into a long chamber with a high ceiling. The walls were white plaster and fluorescent lights hung above steel tables, making the scene almost painfully bright and blinding, casting the far ends of the room into darkness. Gears and motors, soldering irons, circuit boards, and other assorted equipment covered the tables. Along the walls stand giant machines, some with pincer-like arms, others with hollow centres filled with what looked like multiple lasers.
Three people were working on reconstructing a robotic T-Rex, while a couple of armed goons kept a close eye on them. It was clear that the three were not there willingly and appeared to be building more and more advanced robosaurs.
That’s when they saw the giant 3 metre-tall robotic bipedal stegosaurus walk towards the three men out of the darkness. The creature resembled a king-sized toy, but with a transparent sensory dome covering the top half of its head. In addition, it appeared to have a powerful laser cannon built into its tail. Its front limbs ended in claws and it used one to signal to something or someone in the opposite side of the chamber. Above the workbenches several robo-archaeopteryx monitored the rooms, occasionally delivering parts to the three by the repair benches.
As they watched from the tunnel exit, another guard dragged a small Indian man from the darkness towards the robot, screaming as he did so. “Caught him in the back of the room looking furtive. He dropped this…” In his other hand he held out a small circular transceiver, “and tried to smash it under his foot as we got closer. I think it was previously attached to the ‘Cortex thingy when it was brought in but must have been removed by him before we sent the unit to the boss. What do you want to do with him; do you want us to punish him?”
He dragged the small, extremely scared man towards the towering robot, who reached out and grabbed him around the neck before raising him half a metre off the ground. He was clearly choking the man as he struggled ineffectively to break free.
X-Ray pulled away from Banshee and ‘reappeared’ as he unleashed a high-energy heat beam at the robotic overlord. The beam hit the robots head and it staggered back before its tail swivelled round to return a blast at X-Ray that thankfully was absorbed by his force field.
The robot dropped his captive (the team were later to discover his name was Chatar Singh) as a series of mystical blasts emanated out of the thin air, leaving it battered and smoking. A second later a shattering shriek emanated also from nowhere and smashed into it, leaving it immobile and non-functional. The guard that had brought Chatar across to the robo-overlord, reached over and grabbed him again and, using him as a human shield, moved across the room towards the far side once more. As he did so he screamed, “I’m getting out of here, if you try and follow me, I’ll kill this guy!”
X-Ray could see that he seemed to be heading towards a metal grate in the floor. Banshee materialised and unleashed an aura of fear across the chamber that caused everyone unused to it to cry out, fall to the ground or cower but not before the guard had released Chatar and jumped down the drain into whatever lay below. Banshee immediately rushed across and zip-tied the remaining guards even as X-Ray rushed over to see if the escaped guard was still in sight. Through the grate in the floor he smelt the stench of a sewer and then realised that the remaining guards trouser bottoms were also smeared in the same. This sewer was clearly the way they came and went from this chamber when not using the backroom of the shop.
A rematerialised Akira walked over and helped Chatar to his feet. He thanked them gratefully. “I’ve been trapped in this cursed place for a week! Those thugs and their robot allies grabbed me when I was walking home. They brought me here and forced me to work for them.”
He went on to explain that they were given daily instructions via USB drive brought by one of the human minions. “The instructions were very clear and quite ingenious. Obviously written by a skilled engineer. I was to use the supplied parts to upgrade these robotic dinosaurs and to make them more dangerous. I never met the person in charge, but the humans who came here always seemed afraid of him. I heard one call him ‘the King.’”
One of the other captives corrected him, “He called him Rex not king and I heard one of the other guards say that they thought the boss was someone called Toy Boy…”
Chatar admitted that he had found, hid and subsequently activated the Hyper-Cortex’s beacon. “When I saw the processor, I knew it came from a professional laboratory. They discarded the packaging and took the component down below, and I found the damaged GPS beacon while cleaning up. I took a risk and repaired it. I thought perhaps, someone might come rescue me. I worried the overlord or whoever was in charge might notice the signal, so I only left it on for a bit. Thank goodness it worked!”
Chatar admitted he knew very little about what was going on but said, “I know the humans who came here often had muddy boots. A robot or one of us would have to clean up after they left. They smelled bad too, like bad eggs.” He also noted that the robosaurs came and went from a hatch at the room’s far end, where there was a ramp down to what he assumed were sewers.
This part of the sewer system had been clearly disused for some years and the mud on the floor of the tunnel was ankle-deep. The tunnel was small enough that they wouldn’t able to fly faster than walking speed.
Banshee tied the guards with additional zip ties to the benches and rendered them unconscious before taking the four ex-prisoners back to Bob’s back room and phasing them through the gate with instructions to call the police and report their kidnapping, before flying back to join his teammates heading down the ramp and into the abandoned Victorian sewers below.
They again went into team stealth mode and elected to fly above the squelchy mud that had lain in the bottom of the sewer since it had been abandoned for a more modern sewage system after the Second Wold War when much of the badly bombed city of Wessex had been rebuilt.
There was just enough light seeping in for X-Ray to use his ultra-vision and guide them after the distant sound of the fleeing guard. He was also able to see the occasional discarded cigarette butt or muddy footprint depression to work out where to go when they reached a junction. He stopped short a few minutes later to explain that there were several of the bird-like robo-dinosaurs flying up ahead, seemingly acting as watch. In stealth mode and flying mere centimetres above the surface, they managed to get passed without alerting anyone to their presence.
Eventually they arrived at a mud-covered ladder that led to an old subway platform, sealed off and long disused, stretching along the edge of an old tunnel. railway carriages with their doors cut open sat against the walls, forming small workstations. Monitors lined the walls show newsfeeds from around the world. Ranks of car-sized robotic dinosaurs stood motionless and dim in the subway tunnel, filling it with their silent rows.
An arch of black stone dominated this massive art deco chamber. In sharp contrast to the primitive looking arch-shaped monolith was a number of shining metal nodes that lined the inside of the arch. Cables connected to the electronic nodes led back to a large bank of computers.
The arch appeared to have been formed from meteoric rock and a cooling system next to the computers seemed to indicate that the Hyper-Cortex might be incorporated inside.
The inside of the arch flickered, revealing an image of a vast jungle, massive alien-looking ziggurats, and row upon row of living beings, Saurian soldiers clearly waiting nervously for something.
Behind them, they could see a massive energy beam appear in the sky and where it touched the ground a massive section of the ground, a couple of kilometres across and deep was sucked up towards a shining circle in the sky, whereupon it vanished. This was repeated very few seconds as large tracts of the world vanished into the sky; disintegrated or teleported away. In the distance, the team could see other beams doing the same.
The beams then moved over a few kilometres and repeated the action again and again, destroying the jungle, the ziggurats and even living creatures trapped by the beam.
Next to the arch, an attached screen shows a progress bar slowly ticking toward 100%. It currently showed 23%, but what was it counting up to? The row upon row of nervous Saurian troops seemed to indicate that when it reached its maximum the arch would stop being a window and become an inter-dimensional doorway instead. Their armour and weaponry seemed to indicate that the Saurians were not only fleeing the destruction but also planning an invasion of their Earth.
Standing close to the computers was a living descendant of the dinosaurs but one dressed in armour with its massive brain on view. A Saurian in the flesh, so to speak!
They needed more time so Akira began to manifest the Fourth Wheel of Weyan, or Wheel of Waiting, to place the timer mechanism outside of time itself and thereby prevent the ‘doorway’ from opening until they were ready. The counter froze on 31%.
X-Ray again stepped clear of Banshee’s stealth effect and ‘materialised’ levitating just above the platform. “I am X-Ray of The Balance, What are you doing and is there any way we can resolve this peacefully otherwise I will have no option but to stop you.”
“Foolish sapiens. You are far too late. No mere monkey could match my wit! Conundrum provided me with what I needed to complete my dimensional portal, the Saurian Gate. Soon, my armies will be able to escape our planet’s destruction and march across the face of your Earth. You pathetic primitive primates will live under the rule of the true master of all Earths: Cerebrus Rex!”
X-Ray asked, “So, you’re race isn’t causing the destruction themselves? That’s happening to your homeworld?”
Rex responded, “Our homeworld was invaded by primates who call their planet Terminus. They conquered our world and now seek its total destruction, taking it away bit by bit, I don’t know why but they seem intent on our planet’s total destruction. They have enslaved my people, destroyed our culture and now ransack our very soil and rock itself. Even our dead are recycled as troops for their future invasions of other Earths. We failed to save our Earth so now we will conquer and take yours.”
“I understand, we know Terminus rapes other Earths to benefit themselves. We have fought them before and managed to chase them away. Why do you think you have to try and conquer this world though? You could request asylum here, a place for you and your surviving people to live here peacefully, on land we don’t use ourselves, instead of going to war against us?”
Rex bellowed and touched a unit on his wrist as he replied, “We are warriors, rulers not serfs who need to negotiate an ignoble surrender. We are the apex of sentiency, the alpha species, we do not need the pity of monkeys when we can just take. We are supreme beings, evolved to rule! When the gate opens my people will march across and take what we need. Our survival will be your demise, simian.”
It was clear that Cerebrus Rex believed that he was fighting for what he thought was a good cause: conquering a home for what remains of his people… and thereby acquiring a readily available slave force? He clearly couldn’t imagine what he thought of as ‘simple-minded’ simians posing any true threat to him or his people.
X-Ray had to try to get them to negotiate. “I’ll give you one last chance; either negotiate for sanctuary here or I will destroy you!” he glanced over towards the computers that controlled the gate and gestured towards them. “Decide now or accept the results.”
“A monkey thinks it can destroy me?” Rex touched the device on his wrist and before X-Ray could unleash a blast a force bubble materialised around the gate and computers. X-Ray elected to unleash a radiation blast at Rex’s wrist device, which exploded, burning the creatures’ wrist but failed to dispel the energy shield.
Banshee however unleashed a shattering shriek at the computer a few seconds later, revealing that there was at least one other present in the chamber albeit one that was concealed. The sonic scream bypassed the shield and took out the cooling system as smoke began to flow from the system but the window was still functional and the counter continued to show activation sequence at 31%.
Rex unleashed a blast in the general direction of the scream but failed to hit Banshee as he cried out, “I will win, I’m fighting for the survival of my people, not crawling on their bellies with their throats exposed but as conquerors. Why just survive when we can rule? Better death than to beg for mercy from an inferior species…”
Again X-Ray tried to negotiate, to beg him to come over as potential allies against a greater enemy, Terminus but his pleas fell on deaf ears. As he did so, they could hear the robot dinosaurs start to activate. He was out of time.
He unleashed a heat blast at the shield around the computer and watched as it overheated and exploded. As it did so, the window inside the arch vanished, the doorway to that world closed.
“No! The impudence of you pests! But no matter! I can build a hundred gates after I deal with you meddlesome mammals!” Rex screamed as he targeted X-Ray.
Akira materialised and unleashed a series of mystical blasts at him before he could do so. He staggered back, clearly injured by the assault.
In response, he tried to grab Akira but he moved close again to Banshee and again was turned insubstantial even as a robotic T-Rex tried to bite off his head. Neither assault worked as a result.
Banshee used the opportunity to unleash a wail that clearly injured Rex even as a Robo-saurus smashed its tail into X-Ray’s stomach and tried to trample him. X-Ray was forced to dodge the stomp and take to the air again. He unleashed a radiation blast at Rex which succeeded in knocking him unconscious even as Banshee let loose with a shattering shriek that took out the Robo-T-Rex and the robo-saurus! That just left Akira facing a Robo-Raptor. He destroyed it with another mystical blast only to remember that raptors were pack animals and never hunted alone. He ducked and spun round in time to see two more Robo-Raptors appear and leap at him only to bounce off as they hit his force field. Before they could attack again, X-Ray grabbed them both with his gravi-kinesis and smashed them into the station wall.
Looking at the now deactivated gateway they felt a mixture of emotions overwhelm them; anger at Rex’s unwillingness to negotiate and shame that they had been unable to save them even if it was their own choice.
They looked at the lone survivor of his race as he lay unconscious on the ground. He would need to be taken into custody but was this a job for AEGIS or should Mary contact her pseudo-gran’nephew Rory and ask the secretive Covert Surveillance Bureau that had been established to monitor and deal with aliens, handle this? In the end they did both, leaving the two agencies to decide who should deal with Rex and hopefully as Akira put it, “prolong his misery as long as possible!”
As X-Ray grabbed the now severed head of the Robo-saurus as a trophy for display in the BASEment (to go along with the other robotic head of the London Eye T-Rex that the team had salvaged previously), Akira was complaining that he wanted to ‘negotiate’ with Bob for the antique sword cane in his shop window, though all he could offer was a lot of antique mud from the abandoned Victorian Sewer.
Banshee meanwhile remained quiet as she wondered if it would be their planet’s fate to be re-invaded by Terminus as they terraform more of their Dyson Sphere home… It seemed a strong possibility given their use of Silver Storm Nanites, and their clandestine attempts to mind control politicians and world leaders. Was a full out invasion next?
Only time could tell…
TO BE CONTINUED
The Covert Surveillance Bureau is a secret arm of G.R.E.E.T., The Galactic Reception Embassy for Extra-Terrestrials.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 