Superhero Adventures, UK Style

Romaine Wharf is a 50 storey building built by real estate financier Saul Romaine in 1984. The property was subsequently sold three years later to the Challenger-Wildeman Foundation. The Challenger-Wildeman Family makes their home on the top five floors of Romaine Wharf on the Thames, London. Romaine Wharf appears to be fairly unremarkable skyscraper of steel and concrete with armoured mirror-finish windows.

Access is via the reception area on the ground floor (Thames-side entrance) which is subject to high security at all times. The high level of security throughout the premises (the system was designed by Dr. Challenger-Wildeman and utilises full body sensors including DNA checks) and has a well-trained security team on the entrance at all times. For this reason, offices in the building are highly prized by businesses requiring secure office facilities including a number of high profile law firms. The majority of the ground level is a Thai restaurant and has no connection to the rest of the building.

Although parts of Romaine Wharf has been mortgaged and sold a few times over the years, it’s currently owned outright by the Challenger-Wildeman Foundation once more.

Internal security increases the higher up the building you go.

40^th to 44^th Floors are deliberately kept empty except for security devices and bomb-proof linings. They remain empty to act as a “buffer zone” between the headquarters and the rest of the building.

Nucleus

By the time you reach the 45^th floor, there are only three lift shafts – one express from the ground level to the 46^th floor only and two shafts running from the 45^th floor to the roof gardens (and the emergency stairs) all of which are fitted with sensor locks and bulletproof security doors on each level. These all exit out into a separate and armoured airlock with retinal, palm print (including DNA blood test which also checks oxygen and body heat levels to ensure the palm is still attached to a living body). Psi-shields (creating mental white noise) have been fitted throughout the top five floors (only floor 46 reception and the roof garden have it permanent switched on). AL’ and the house robots take care of the Nucleus’ upkeep.

45^th Floor is empty except for the emergency backup generator (for the lower floors), secondary life support and security systems. There is no access to the area to the north of the lift shafts. This is completely sealed off on this level and contains a shielded chamber filled with water (for use by Aquan guests) and accessed by the pool on the floor above). There are two lifepods specially designed to keep water-breathers alive located just off the chamber.

Crucible

46^th Floor is accessed from both the stairs and lifts to individual airlock security (shielded units with sealed life support allowing only authorised personnel to pass) with only two lifts in a separate sealed airlift reception area which reaches the higher levels.

The primary area, called the Crucible, is where Dr. Challenger-Wildeman and Tesla conduct research, workshops for constructing various technological devices, and the extensive Gen7 computer system that houses Dr. Challenger-Wildeman’s intellect.

It includes conference area, laboratories (forensic, biological, and manufacturing test facilities as well as the buildings robotic repair bay) and the nucleus’ central computer system. Every floor has multiple survival packs fitted into the walls accessed by a DNA/palm print security system each containing 2 x rebreather masks, 2 x stun blasters (multiple settings),  a psi-shield, a medic kit including defibrillator.

The north wing is accessed by a separate airlock and leads to the primary life support unit, changing rooms, gym area and pool.

47^th Floor contains two lift shafts and the door to the main part of the floor is a security door accessed by a separate security airlock.

This floor provides the training area including holo-training room, the back-up power supply, and primary life support and shield units.

Cube

The north wing leads to a safe “room” built as a three storey family unit. The Cube was built by Jack in response to frequent criticism from Jayne Mason that living at Romaine Wharf has resulted in an abnormal childhood for the children so he elected to build the Cube, a three storey security area with a standard family house inside. The “windows” are actually screens displaying outdoor views but can be made to display any video or computer output on demand. Default setting is an outside view of the building. The cube is EMP shielded, fully armoured and has an integrated anti-grav generator built into the base. The Cube is designed so that it could be dropped from space and the structure could actually survive the impact (though the built-in inertial dampeners might not be adequate to ensure the occupants survive the experience). The anti-grav is not powerful enough to make the Cube hover but does allow it to undertake a controlled ‘fall’ and the built-in manoeuvre jets allows it to have some limited manoeuvrability (max 100 m distance and direction).

The cube has fibre-optic links to the rest of the building and sits inside a void filled with a unique silica-base aerogel layer that absorbs all energy and force attacks. In the event of an attack, the access tunnel withdraws within the Cube, the void left behind immediately fills with the ablative gel which becomes more viscous when under pressure. The Cube is armoured with composite ceramic shielding (that includes a mesh of iron and silver built into the material as per Anne’s original specifications for the material).

All toilets and life support systems in the Cube are designed to fully recycle internally and are fully capable of sustaining ten people completely cut off from all external contact for at least six months. The Cube does have external (and shielded) links to the rest of the building and has built-in beacons and external wireless links.

48^th Floor is the medical floor with three semi-autonomous auto-docs (programmable for multiple races including Sasquatch), research and testing area, cloning and genetics laboratory and a secure cell area for supplying medical treatment to potential hostiles.

The cube on this level consists of adult bedrooms and each room is linked to a separate shielded lifepod.

Lifepods are fully environmentally maintained and have full stealth capability. In an emergency, the pods can be launched, landing up to a 100km distance away where it will allow the occupant to exit safely.

The top floors of the building are in the same dimensional soft spot where the first transpod entered Earth’s dimension from Terminus back in 1888. Dr. Challenger-Wildeman discovered lingering dimensional energies in the upper floors of the building, and constructed a special rift shield generator unit, incorporating elements of his wife’s original prototype, to ensure they would not spill over into Earth again using that rift (although they have anyway on a few occasions). The Nucleus also houses an artificial dimensional bridge device, which the Challenger-Wildeman’s use as a gateway to explore parallel worlds and dimensions and to monitor for signs of trouble.

49^th Floor houses the dimensional bridge device and the dimension shield generator as well as the security rooms / guest rooms.

50^th Floor is the hangar floor which houses three Challenger Anti-Grav Transport “sky-cars” (C.A.T.s or “Kitty’s” as the children refer to them) which exits the building through sliding doors (known as the CAT Flap). There is also a selection of experimental transports including skybikes, anti-grave sled (“mule”) and various repair equipment.

The C.A.T.’s can be docked together and flown as a single vehicle or separated (even in midair) and flown as separate vehicles if required.

The North wing is the family museum and storage area and is located under a sloping roof.

The teams’ near orbital/long distance transporter is stored at a nearby warehouse on the bank of the River Thames belonging to Hidalgo Trading Ltd.

The rooftop is an environmentally sealed roof garden covered by a shielded glass pyramid to prevent access from above. Nani uses the roof garden as his personal quarters when he’s not looking after the children.

Despite its transparency, the glass roof is made of a suspended liquid aeroceramic with programmable transparency. The “glass” both fully armoured and act as specially designed solar panels, which helps supplement the buildings electricity supply.