Campaign Notes so far

[Shikarr]

Here are the notes taken by one of my extremely good note taking players. They are an enjoyable read if nothing else and give an idea of my campaign style. Tell me what you think of the campaign so far and also what you think of the notes taken. I shall pass them along back to her to pump her ego even higher. Hope you all enjoy

 

Base notes for campaign and then her journal of campaign notes to follow

 

Hudson City - Located between Millennium City and Toledo Ohio, on the banks of Lake Erie.

*********

History according to G.O.D.

In 1912 a group of mystics in Germany had stolen an ancient tome in order to cast a spell that would empower

them for all time. The book comes from the depths of the underworld where demons lie. The spell is cast.

However, the Trigrimagus (or Council of wizards) understanding what the spell would do, interrupted halfway

through, disrupting the incantation for being completed. The backlash of power from the spell vaporized the

mages and the all but one of the Council. The power flashes across the entire planet raising the levels of magic

500%. This has an additional side effect; humanity, once exposed to this intense burst of power, is forever

altered, a gene is triggered-creating in the first generation of children born after 1912-Mutants.

Unbeknownst to the world, that one sole remaining wizard believed that the raising of the magic levels of this

world could be disastrous. To counter this he summoned a Greater Demon, to go out into the world and destroy

all magic using creatures that would be born from this effect. The Demon told the wizard “your crazyâ€, the

wizard said, “It’s not my problem it’s yours.†So the Demon decided to kill the first magic using thing he saw,

the wizard that summoned him. The Demon then remained stuck within the vicinity of the original explosion

just trying to keep up with the job. After several years he figured that he was fighting a loosing battle so he

summoned up lesser demons to assist him. The total of demons running about became 66; the last one

summoned had some little brainpower to her and noted that the spell keeping the Greater Demon here could be

erased if the summoner agreed to release him. Unfortunately the Greater Demon had killed the wizard who

summoned him. However the younger demon figured that if any of the wizard’s bloodline survived, they would

be able to release the Greater Demon from his duties.

The lesser demon went out and found the granddaughter of the wizard who had cast the spell. The woman,

smelling an opportunity, agreed to let the Greater Demon go but under conditions. He would be able to visit

Hell but must be able to make return trips to this plain ever now and then to continue her bidding, part of which

was to leave behind one of the 66 he had summoned to assist her in observing the world. To which, the Greater

Demon summoned the more intelligent lesser demon who had figured out the bloodline problem, handed over

her true name to the witch and told them both goodbye. The lesser has been working for the female witch ever

since.

*********

Fast forward…

In 1992 Dr Destroyer held the world hostage in the largest blackmail scheme ever concocted by this power-mad

lunatic. He had set a large tractor beam towards an asteroid in space towing it towards the earth, either they paid

him what he wanted or the earth would experience another “destruction of the dinosaursâ€. Many heroes decided

that attacking Dr. Destroyer would be the better plan of action, since they new his broadcasts were coming from

his base on the island of Disturgia. However when they got there they didn’t get Dr. Destroyer or the tractor

beam and 34 heroes died in the process, killed by Dr. Destroyer himself. Although, those remaining heroes

destroyed Disturgia, they were unable to locate the tractor beam for the asteroid (it wasn’t on the island). Fastforward

to 3 months later, the world powers figure out how to destroy the asteroid still hurling towards the

earth. With Dr. Destroyer’s base on Disturgia destroyed the world powers and heroes alike are unable to find

him. Until Seeker of the Champions falls down a grate and follows his nose, accidentally finding the Detroit

base of Dr. Destroyer.

Seeker manages to get off a message to the rest of the Champions before Dr. Destroyer murders him. With this

newfound purpose the Champions and 30 other heroes descend into Detroit to do battle with Dr. Destroyer.

Only 12 are left alive when the base is destroyed, 4 remaining heroes die by Dr. Destroyer’s own hands in the

first minute of the attack. The last 8 survivors actually defeat Dr. Destroyer and in that gracious way of all

insipid heroes, give Dr. Destroyer the opportunity to surrender.

Dr. Destroyer, rather than surrender to the likes of these idiots or be imprisoned or killed by the government,

declares, “he would rather die by his own handâ€, then surrender. Dr. Destroyer activates and sub-orbital cannon

which he targets upon himself and the base, vaporizing him and 6 of the remaining heroes in a mile wide swath

of power. With no one controlling the cannon the beam wanders aimlessly around Detroit for 40 minutes until

the USA sends up a nuke with blows the thing to kingdom-come; unfortunately, since the cannon was suborbital

the radiation hammers its way back down onto Detroit, irradiating it completely. It is the worst disaster

ever experienced on U.S. soil.

**********

The aftermath

In 1994 President Bush declares Detroit to be a national disaster and swears to rebuild Detroit better than before,

to be a shining beacon for the future. Bush creates the Millennium Bill, 5 Trillion dollars are to go to

completing by 2000 the greatest of all cities ever designed by mortal man; Millennium City is to stand of the

ashes of old Detroit.

Of course when Bill Clinton enters the picture, the following election the fucks things up completely. Declaring

that, although it is a great picture for the future, there is no way that the American economy can support 5

Trillion dollars dumped into Millennium City, so he cuts funding and opens up funding to corporate sponsors.

Microsoft, Gablesoft, Omega Corp., Pharos Inc. join hands and bankbooks to build Millennium City. A true

marvel of the modern world; the city is tremendous, with computer-controlled freeways and chipped cars (no

gridlock!), each automobile is also equipped with a life monitor (heaven forbid someone has a heart attack while

in the vehicle under control).

Mechanon almost used the computer driven roads as a means of taking over Millennium City when he sent

hundreds of androids into the city behind the wheel of the chipped cars (1999). However he didn’t get far since

once the cars hit the highways of Millennium City, the computers realized that there was nothing living driving

the cars and shut every one of them down and alerted the authorities.

Millennium City has the lowest street crime rate, but the highest super-villain crime rate ever. It seems that as

much as heroes are drawn towards Millennium City so are villains.

**********

Meta-Human Registration Act

Since the destruction of the Detroit was caused by a super-villain the social climate of the world became rather

cold towards people exhibiting above human abilities, and without much of a fuss the Meta-human Registration

act passed in 1995. It simply stated that all mutants will be registered, names, blood, finger prints and DNA,

addresses, aliases, and powers; however, this list would not be available to the general populace the file is kept

in the most secured locations possible Crystal Palace (NORAD) and the Pentagon hold the database. Part of the

bill was to insure that very specific laws were in place to keep normal people from attempting to harm mutants,

which included legislation that added anti-mutant attacks to the list of hate crimes.

In 1996 PRIMUS was created to be the legal response to the rise of mutants across the globe. However the

military thought that wasn’t quite enough and formed the Metahuman Armed Response System (MARS). For

every Primus base in a city, there is at least one squad of MARS right along side of them.

**********

To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question….

To combat the rise of metahuman crimes, the USA created three locations, Stronghold, Ironhold and Tinhold to

hold super-humans.

Stronghold is a maximum-security prison involving permanent incarceration known as “Hot Sleep.†The most

violent, dangerous and murderous of the mutant population is kept here. Hot Sleep is a process in which the

body is kept in a constant state of deep sleep, in which they remain until they die of old age. The murder of one

person will get a mutant permanently incarcerated in Stronghold. The mass murderer Jason is kept here in Hot

Sleep. The only mutant not kept in Hot Sleep is Freddy Kruger (the Nightmare); he is kept in a constant state

of wakefulness in order to keep him from escaping in dream state. The only metahuman ever rumored to of

broken out of Stronghold is Menton, the most powerful telepath in the world today, Menton was not completely

under in Hot Sleep and was powerful enough to control the guards into releasing him.

Ironhold is a maximum-security prison involving permanent incarceration for mutants that have not killed

anyone but are still harmful or a threat to society.

Tinhold is a maximum-security prison involving permanent incarceration for mutants that have been neutered

in some form or fashion. An example would be cyborgs that have had most of their equipment ripped out.

(Incidentally the government can do that now).

********

“There are no such things as Telepaths.â€

Anyone exhibiting powers that resemble Telepathy in any shape form or fashion will disappear within one

month of demonstrating their powers; no exceptions. The meta-human could be walking down a crowded street

in broad daylight and vanish in thin air. No one knows what happens to them.

********

Fingers in every pot

The military, feeling that there would be times when PRIMUS and MARS would just not be enough, formed an

elite force to deal with extreme cases of meta-human activity, where safety of the citizens and property is

priority and the capture or destruction of the meta-human is paramount. Superbeing Elimination Control

Retrieval Team (SECRET) was established with full backing by the Military in 1998 and utilizes some of the

most powerful mutants in the country.

**********

9/11

Super powered terrorists hired by al-Qaidah detonated a nuclear bomb in Tower 1 of the World Trade Centers.

The only reason why the nuke didn’t take out all of NYC is because a mutant named Aquarian happened to be

riding the subway pulling into Tower 2 at the moment the bomb went off. Aquarian’s power was that of energy

absorption (any energy) however once absorbed it had to be released. As he came into the basement of Tower 2

he could feel the nuke going off above at Tower 1. Aquarian absorbed the energy of the nuke, however he had

to release it immediately, which unfortunately the beam of energy he released destroyed all of Tower 2 killing

over 600 civilians. In anguish because of the loss of life he had caused (although he had saved thousands more),

Aquarian took his own life. However, the survivors in the subway surrounding him acknowledged Aquarian as

a hero, and he was given a medial posthumously for saving the lives of thousands of New Yorkers. Aquarian’s

selfless act turned public opinion about mutants around (well not all of them must be bad.)

*********

The Villains

DEMON

During the 1990’s it was suspected that DEMON had gone to high-tech, which couldn’t have been further from

the truth; the technological show was to hide the real agenda. If it hadn’t of been for the infiltration of a

“Mulder†into their organization the “good guys†might never of learned of their true goals. DEMON is

working on restoring the Kings of EDOM otherwise known to the world as the Elder Gods (yes the

Necronomicon is real folks and so is Chthuluh). DEMON believes that if they are the ones to let thought the

Elder Gods when the stars align and the worlds are whispered through at their times, they, as the servitors of the

Elder Gods they will be given dominion over the remaining world as it is slowly eaten away. (Figure they’ll be

the last ones eaten…)

THE CIRCLE

However, the innermost circle of DEMON’s power took at look at the agenda of the others and decided it would

be better for them to start tending their own garden. Mordaki the Undead Knight, Lucian the Necromancer,

Baba Yaga the witch-hag of Russia, The Rose mystic martial artist and Bloodspurt a blood “elementalist†form

The Circle. What their agenda is, only they know.

LORD DEMONICUS

While all the other Greater Demons of Hell decided it would be fine and dandy to keep up with the “Jonesâ€, one

decided that he had quite enough of the souls of this world and struck out from Hell to find “greener pastures.â€

What he found was alternative dimensions and whole new worlds to suck the soul energy out of. Each time he

finished with one dimension he would make steps towards the next, becoming more and more powerful with

quite the army of souls to summon when he needed to fight. He was recently foiled by the Charleston

Champions upon his attempt to enter into this dimension, leaving a very pissed off and stranded Lord

Demonicus in an alternate dimension to plot his next moves.

GENOCIDE

Nothing sends a chill down the spines of mutants faster than knowing the GENOCIDE is out looking for them.

GENOCIDE is out to do one of two things to all mutants, to either capture or kill them. GENOCIDE is in

control of the large AI driven robots known as Minutemen.

GENESIS

Technology is their goal, but what their primary goal is completely unknown. We know that GENESIS’s

primary motivation is for life extension technology, superb technology in general and any mutant that has

energy producing abilities. GENESIS did have mostly human agents to begin with, until they started running

into mutants with mind control. Then they tried all robots, until they ran into mutants with machine control.

Now GENESIS uses a combination of both types of squads, with unique little bombs loaded into the chest of

both human and Skelebot.

MECHANON

The bane of all life, he exists only to eradiate any living organism from the planet. Mechanon is known for

having more lives than a Cheshire cat, when his body is close to destruction, it sends out a signal to a local base

alerting it to build a new Mechanon and download its saved data. Mechanon is also known for planting 2

kiloton explosives in its machine body should it be shut down by some means; this takes out both Mechanon

and the one that took it down. Mechanon was recently destroyed in 2001 when a new machine-manipulation

mutant named Technique (formerly of the FBI) shut his off (quite to his surprise were sure). However this did

not save her from the auto-destruct sequence, which killed her and all plant life in the airport where the battle

took place. Technique’s powers were never fully studied, so it is unlikely that they will be copied any time

soon. One saving grace to Technique’s sacrifice is that Mechanon’s shut down occurred so quickly that it was

unable to send the reconstruction signal. The world had a slight reprieve from Mechanon until 2002 when a

thief ran across one of Mechanon’s secret bases and began removing materials. By the time the security system

had activated there wasn’t enough parts left to make a new Mechanon. So the system tried its best with what it

had and created Mechana the female version; (once this was completed the base sent out another signal to the

next base to begin processing of a new Mechanon. However, as time wore on, her own programming and

personality began to break through the previously programmed personality, Mechana began developing her own

ideas about how to take over the world. Mechana is not out to eradicate every living thing on the planet, but to

enslave it. Although Mechana does not have all of Mechanon’s powers she is no less dangerous to humanity, or

even possibly Mechanon himself.

3 NINJAS

Assassins for hire, known to be the most deadly trio on the planet with a 99.9% success rate on their contract.

Information on who exactly the 3 Ninjas were before they became their known personas is completely

unavailable.

White Ninja is a Japanese Vampire; he is not affected by any of the standard European Vampire means of

destruction or control.

Grey Ninja is a ghost with complete possession powers, able to travel along any means and able to hop bodies

as necessary to make his kill. He cannot control, or more specifically has trouble controlling the body of anyone

with a high willpower. If he cannot completely control the body he inhabits the he cannot manifest all of his

Ninja abilities. If he has complete control, lets just say you wont notice your friend cutting your head off for

long.

Black Ninja is not only a Ninja of extraordinary skill but a Demon as well.

RED BANNER

A triad of martial artists with skills and powers of some renown, all members of Red Banner are known for the

use of black magic as well as their martial skills.

DR. YIN WU

Possibly the foremost martial artist/mystic super-villain in the world. He is known for dealing with anyone in

order to make a goal or objective he has set for himself. It is completely unknown why Dr. Yin Wu does what

he does or how he does it. Rumors exist that he is immortal and has been alive now for over 600 years. Dr.

Wu’s favored home is in a valley in China that no one has ever been able to conquer or attack; although it is

known that Dr. Wu dose have other locations where he occasionally visits (per conversations with people who

have met with him) no one knows how he moves from place to place.

VOICE

Vanguard Organization for International Crime and Espionage. VOICE is the brainchild of Red Dragon a

martial artist of incredible talent (though no one believes that Red Dragon is in charge due to much

misdirection). VOICE is the crime syndicate from hell, there may be no illegal business in the world that they

do not have their fingers into (or are trying to get their fingers into). VOICE is notorious for panicking heroes

by announcing the VOICE is recruiting in the area. Which means that all martial artist villains usually come out

of the woodwork to take on the heroes that stay in the area (usually killing a hero means instant entry into

VOICE), and to do the crime that they have set up to lure the heroes out of hiding (could be anything from a

bank heist to, well anything else). VOICE’s known inner circle is filled by Goshawk a razor tipped winged

assassin who loves taking people’s heads off; Red Dragon teleportation/mesmerism and martial artist from hell;

Plague disease creation; Centurion growth/strength and supposedly reported to be from ancient Rome; Barron

an axe wielding maniac, the axe happens to have a demon trapped inside of it giving the axe infernal powers and

Black Hawke or Raven depending on her mood she has communication with birds, wings of her own and uses

javelins and a shield.

********

Not quite villains but their a little extreme

Followers of Light:

This group of “heroes†(and we use the term loosely) are Demon hunters that are supposedly of Angelic

properties. Their methods are extreme and sometimes have huge amounts of collateral damage when attempting

to take down Demons.

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts of V.H.S. Journal

 

May 15, 1992

Mother, you always told me "Vi, make sure no matter what you choose to do, you do it well." Well mother, I know your listening up there, so I'd like to say, "I've chosen well, now I'm going to do my damndest do to the incredible!"

 

I know you know that Science has been studying the human genome since the discovery of the double helix in 1953, after being accepted into the University of California at Santa Cruse my sophomore year of high school (which I know you and dad must have been doing cartwheels up there in heaven about that one!) I was able to worm my way into UCSC's part of the Genome project. Nobody, not even myself knew how far we could reach, or how much information we could learn. I must say that for my PhD. thesis, "DNA Mutation and the Origins of Mutants in Society" took Bioinformatics quite by surprise.

 

And now I know you and dad have got to be collecting bets off the silver platter up there. I'm graduating from Santa Cruse 2 years earlier than expected; I've got my PhD in Genetics (sub-specialty evolutionary genetics & DNA research) I've been accepted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information to work on the Human Genome Project!

 

I've been told by NCBI that I'm going to be one busy little scientist once I get there. Although the normal DNA sequencing is still going on (and will probably continue till into the year 2000 or so), no one has ever been able to understand the DNA of a mutant. At 24 I'm now officially the youngest scientist in charge of a team totally responsible for sequencing mutant DNA. We have our samples from a member of the Champions! Though they wont tell us which one was willing to donate. I'm all a twitter! This is going to be the most magnificent experience in my life! It's going to be a long, occasionally dull trip, but it's going to be totally worth it. We mapping the DNA of mutants, how cool is that?!

 

Ever since dad bought me my first comic book, it's always been my dream to understand mutants. And then Toby was so instrumental in getting me into serious study of the mutant phenomenon, I wish he could of seen why his "stupid power" inspired in me, drove me to lean why it happens. I miss Toby as much as I miss you two, I hope your all-playing canasta in heaven on Thursday nights. The mutant phenomenon has increased over the years and now your best friend or neighbor could be someone with special powers. If things go well, I will be able to continue working on why mutants are occurring as well as the mapping project. Wish me luck.

 

With much love,

Ahem. PhD. Vivian Helen Stratford!

 

 

 

 

 

July 10, 1992

My God, how can such evil exist? Mom, dad I know your watching, I hope your prodding God in the ribs and asking him why the hell he lets things like this happen? Dr. Destroyer is holding the world hostage. There is a tractor beam pulling from somewhere on the planet aimed at a huge freaking asteroid pulling it towards earth; with Destroyer holding the reigns. I hope our world's heroes can do what they need to in order to destroy him and stop the asteroid. Yes, I know mom, but evil deserves to be destroyed, no questions asked no quarter given. There are too many good mutants out there who try to live normal lives or to actually do good deeds, and yet we have things like Dr. Destroyer threatening the world.

 

Sigh, on a lighter note, NCBI treats me like gold, the sequencing is long and drawn out process. However, my research into mutant DNA and its origins has caught the eye of a few government operations. I don't know much about them, though they have shown up on television fighting super-villains, reminds me of some of the groups in the comic books. High minded humans who bond together under the government to fight evil, bizarre but true. .... oh wait the news is on about Disturgia.

 

Oh God, we've attacked Disturgia, I'm sure your seeing this from up there mom and dad, but can you believe it! A league of superheroes have gone to fight Dr. Destroyer on his island of Disturgia to stop the tractor beam and have failed miserably. I, I, I'm going to have to stop; I need a drink and time to think. So many dead, the island is gone but Destroyer lives on and the asteroid is still on its way.

 

 

July 12, 1993

34 heroes dead. Destroyer still on the loose. It's just so mind-boggling how this can keep happening. We have so much science and technology at our disposal, we have incredible super powered people willing to do what's right. He outsmarted them, not to mention just over powered them (according to the survivors). Is he really that powerful? I've read some of Destroyers manifestos, he is a brilliant scientist, but so amoral. I'd love to know his history, why he became what he is, is it genetic or nurture? The age-old question, nature or nurture. I believe it's both.

 

I wonder if it's possible to make a mutant? What would it take?

 

November 20, 1993

Well mom, dad I wont be joining you folks any time soon, the world powers sent up a team of scientists and several tons of heavy explosives and blew up the asteroid Destroyer had set on course towards earth. Hurrah for the mundanes of the human race lets have a drink.

 

The government has been to the facility several times now and has interviewed me regarding my theories on mutants and DNA. I must admit, despite the growing ranks of super villains around the world, I still believe in the greater good of man, both homo sapiens and homo-superior.

 

My theories on mutant development and mutant DNA have been published in several medical and scientific journals now (publish or perish the credo of the PhD.!) I've caught the attention of several groups, both scientific community and mutant community. After Thanksgiving I'm going to be guest speaker in Luxembourg at a conference on Mutant Evolution. I'm both honored and a little worried; my topics are very controversial, even though I'm presenting only scientific data, not personal opinion it becomes moot in the face of fanatics.

 

 

January 4, 1994

Hope you and dad had a great new year. Mine was wonderful. I spent the weekend in NYC and watched the ball drop from a penthouse in Manhattan with a very special man. Dr. Peter Maximilian Vann of Rheine Germany, fellow researcher in the mutant experience. I'm enjoying a completely sexual and mental relationship that is only going to last for another, oh, I'd say 3 or

4 more days, and then Peter is back to Rheine and the wonders of German science. It's been a great fling, I feel like an episode of Sex in the City. I know mom but for heavens sake I'm what, 25, to be 26 in June, and I've only ever had sex but two other times? If it wasn't for the fact that

I'm so completely absorbed in my work I'd worry about the fact there isn't a bouncing baby Stratford in my life. But you both know better, I'm not going to have kids, I'm married to my work, so I'm not going to delude myself into thinking I'm going to live the "American Dream", Like Benjamin Franklin's quote, "If you're not to be forgotten, when you're dead and rotten; write something worth reading, or do something worth the writing."

 

I plan on both. Peter has given me some interesting insight into the mutant phenomena in cross genetics of plants and animals. I've been so focused on humans I forgot about the basics of mutation in the most basic of life forms. When I return to the lab on Monday, I've got a whole new angle of how to look at my problem of mutant human DNA. Time to look outside the box.

 

Oh, Congress is trying to get a bill passed to register mutants. It doesn't have my vote, how could the meta-human community survive if it was general knowledge of what they were? It would be Nazi concentration camps all over again.

 

April 1, 1994

Detroit is gone, wiped away by the hand of Dr. Destroyer. We thought he was gone, boy were we wrong. News came out of Ohio that Seeker of the Champions had found Dr. Destroyer's hideout in Detroit. Every single Champion and then some came do to battle. The report from the 2 survivors was that Destroyer held out for as long as he could and when the Champions had him on the ropes, actually defeated, they could of killed him, gotten rid of him for good... what do they do, but back off and ask him to surrender. You know mom, dad, I never thought of how much I could look at some of the most honorable people in the world as being the most stupid, but I do. They gave him the opportunity to think and to act. A sub-orbital laser cannon was set off right on Dr. Destroyer's position, wiping out all but 2 of the champions and vaporizing a miles worth of city surrounding them. Then! With no one controlling it, it cuts a 40-minute path of devastation through the remains of Detroit. Oh but wait mom it gets better! Some one of very little brain at the Pentagon figures that if we send up a low powered nuke we can knock out the satellite and destroy the cannon, some other brilliant homo sapiens agrees and bang, no more satellite. Did I fail to mention it was a sub-orbital satellite? Did I fail to mention that enough nuclear fallout coated what remained of Detroit to keep it radioactive for the next 1000 years? I need a drink.

 

May 8, 1994

Well at least Bush is doing something right. The Millennium Bill looks like a good push into the right direction, the 5 trillion dollar bill passed by Congress and the House will raze the remains of Detroit to the ground and rebuild it as Millennium City. Good luck and blessings upon them.

 

Btw mom and dad, My contract has been bought out. My specialty in mutant genetics (incidentally its become my second PhD.! Kudos to me!) NCGR the National Center for Genome Resources has tapped me for continued research on mutant DNA. I'm moving from Tennessee (WHOOPIE!) to Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love. I'll be there by the time my birthday roll around, so that's one heck of a 26th birthday present! I’m getting my own lab, my own research team and my own projects, with no one breathing down my neck. Now that's something to be proud of. Oh, and the raise isn't bad either.

 

I know one of my first private projects will be what triggers the mutant DNA from non active to active, why is it that some children going through puberty have the change, while others are born already able to utilized their abilities, and some with the DNA strain don't activate till their adults or sometimes never. We'll see, that one will be my pet project.

 

November 1994

Oh God a Democrat has been elected to the White House, were doomed.

 

 

February 4, 1995

Happy Birthday to me. And to top it all off the Mutant Registration Act has been passed, only 5 congressmen and 7 senators voted no. On the good side of the coin, only Crystal Palace and the Pentagon will have the database and of course, they put wording into the bill that makes it illegal to discriminate against a mutant, but everyone will have to register. Millicent broke down and cried in the office this morning; her son Jim exhibited mutant powers only earlier this year, he can build up a static charge and "zot" things with a mild shock discharge, caused some low level magnetism in some iron ore we had in the office (and made the lab rats hair stand on end. Mil is thinking about leaving the country and taking Jim with her to avoid having to register him. I've convinced her to at least think about it rationally and not to panic.

 

I did something that could almost be considered unethical; actually I'm sure it's unethical. I took a sample of Jim's blood. He is going to be the target point of my private research on mutant DNA. I will use Mil's blood and my own as secondary and base line. 3 DNA tests running at once, I'm going to blow the computers to hell.

 

March 10, 1995

Clinton has handed over Millennium City to big business. He had congress cut spending and opened up sponsoring of the bill to corporations. Microsoft, Gablesoft, Omega Corp., Pharos Corp, (to name a few) is pumping billions and billions of dollars into building the city. If I see a Nike swoop on the side of a building I think I'll throw up. Why in Gods name would he do such a thing? It’s ridiculous; leave it to a Democrat to fuck up a perfectly good recovery bill by cutting it in half.

 

December 1995

Mil and Jim left the country today, she's moving to Spain to avoid registering Jim. I'm loosing an incredible friend and researcher because of anti-mutant protests and a government registration act. It's going to be a depressing Christmas, I think I'll work through it.

 

 

February 29, 2000

Well mom, dad is been five years of straight research ever since getting my samples. To top it off, I've been bought out again and I'm now working for PRIMUS as civilian consultant on metahuman's, and although I'm still running the ongoing DNA Tests, my secondary research on metahumans as become more important. The origins of homo-superior are fairly prevalent now, and I'm eyeball deep in the research.

 

Having government contacts has been very beneficial to the project, I begged for blood samples of people dating back year, after year after year. I actually have a viable sample of blood from 1910. There has to bee a change in DNA somewhere along the lines when mutations became present into the mainstream of human biology. Some "Trigger Event", as I've come to call it, had to have occurred to trigger the mutant response.

 

It does appear that biologically speaking, a homo-superior were exceedingly rare prior to 1910, there are a few cases of scientific experimentation or mystical effects that have created some heroes and villains prior to WW1, but those are few and very rare. For the most part more mystical augmentation has been seen then scientific prior to WW2. Historical research shows that somewhere around 1924 is when the first large batch of "mutants" started appearing (although still a much smaller group of people then we have today). These first batches, which were teenage hormone triggers, are from children born around 1912 and 1913. Which means the trigger event had to have occurred during one of those years. I'm hoping to get my hands on further information once I reach PRIMUS.

 

My base is now Hudson City Ohio; however, it is within spitting distance of Millennium City. I will be allowed to study mutants and metahumans on a regular basis now. This should be fascinating.

 

I’ve also discovered a comic book called The Authority, I find myself associating with the character called The Engineer, a self proclaimed geek that made herself into a superhero. I’ve toyed with the idea for years, there has got to be a way to make a mutant, somewhere is the trigger.

 

 

July 16, 2001

Been busier than hell mom, who knew so many metahumans existed in the world, and so many classifications, scientific alteration, mystical alteration, chemical, biological. I've been up to my eyeballs in researching the origins of mutation; I feel I'm closer now then ever before. PRIMUS has given access to an incredible laboratory for research. The DNA is perking along quite well, haven't had any problems transferring research to Hudson City. My research is now locked up tighter than a drum though; some of it is now considered Top Secret security levels. Sigh, of course the government has their hands into it, what I'm working on now could have repercussions across the globe.

 

September 11, 2001

God help us all. God have mercy on Aquarius and all of those people in NY. I'm numb, who could believe such absolute destruction from a group no one ever thought touched American soil. It's just too terrible. What if we had other mutants like Aquarius who thought of saving the world instead of destroying it. I've been given access to his file, I understand why Tower 2 went up now, that poor boy, no wonder he took his own life in grief over what he did, even though he saved all the rest of NYC from the nuke. It must be possible to create others like him, moral, upstanding, and with his powers, it must be possible, but to find the trigger.

 

 

February 15, 2002

For a late birthday present I treated myself to watching Spiderman; it was cool to see them take it from a DNA point of view instead of just irradiated spiders. I can't believe I never thought of this sooner; it's all very simple now; hard to believe it took a revisit to my favorite comic books to finally get it. I've begun working on a trigger serum; a cocktail meant to revise DNA, it will be a crapshoot, a shot in the dark. And a lot of time and effort, this is not going to be an easy task. There might be a way to predict which way the powers could go based upon the trigger serum; I will run more tests.

 

March 20, 2002

Happy Late Birthday Vi, your trigger serum is now a viable option let the testing begin!

 

May 10, 2002

The trigger serum so far is too random; it's killed more than its created. There is something I'm missing; something about mutant DNA I'm not seeing. DAMN I wish the sequences would be completed.

 

October 20, 2002

SUCCESS! The genome project is done! Data complied from the GENOME PROJECT begun back in 1953 is finally complete. The human genome is mapped. Mutant DNA is mapped; my triumvirate is now a permanent part of history. Celebration! Drinks are on me! Ok, well maybe after I start using the computers to pull the comparisons down to look for the variant.

 

November 12, 2002

Mom, dad, thank God for me for the creation of fast processors and worldwide databases. I've found Variant, my life as a research scientist will go down in history, as the woman who found MV1-190 the mutant gene in human DNA. Last year I took samplings of both human and metahuman tissue, we ran the sequencer (along with Mil's, Jim's and my samples as well) and did a cross sectional analysis. Turns out mom that almost everyone born after 1912 has specific sections of DNA that are susceptible to the mutant trigger event. However, not this entire DNA is capable of being triggered, a small percentage, almost .0000001% of the sampling has the genomes necessary for a trigger event to manifest into a mutant power. Mom that means, roughly estimated, one person in every one million people will be born with the gene, which will allow a trigger event to create a mutation. It's mind boggling, that there could be so many.

 

Oh, yes! God I can see it. I can compare the genomes of DNA and see the 1% that makes a mutant. Jim bless you dear boy I can see what makes you, you. I also see where you got the original variant from your mother. Jim it's hereditary, but yours took whatever it needed in a trigger event, which turned the variant into a mutation, probably puberty since you were "normal" until your 14th birthday.

 

Mother, guess what, I have the variant too.

 

November 21, 2002

"Trigger" works! When I exposed "MV1-190" to "Trigger" I got a full-blown mutation array! A complete shift in the 1% from Variant to Mutant, however I can't tell what sort of powers have developed. I'm going to have to inject Trigger into a living-thinking organism to test it completely…

 

Well, nothing like a lab rat that grows batwings and spits acid... I think that one goes down in the history books for lab animals. I have already bred several rats with specific MV1-190 DNA; the results were spectacular but none of them predictable. Not a single one actually manifested an attempted power, I tried for teleportation I got knobby skin and superior strength; I tried for spider powers and got dragon rat; I tried for superior strength and got superior bouncing. Thank God it didn't come up with invulnerability, I wouldn't have been able to kill them. However of the 3 that did generate powers, the other 3 died rather horrible deaths. All six of them were in horrible pain as the mutation ripped through their DNA, they had all passed out roughly 10 minutes into the procedure. Full manifestation of powers occurred, 5.9 hours after injection in rats 1, 2 and 3, but rats 4, 5, and 6 never awoke from the coma, their bodily functions ceased after 9.5 hours.

 

Sigh, it's a crapshoot; the genome is so specific I am unable to yet understand what sort of power could actually manifest. But I have done it; I am now able to create a mutant, I am perhaps the first scientist in the world to do so. I'm not sure if this would get me the Noble Prize, incarceration at Stronghold, or a trip to Arkham Sanatorium.

 

Given what I now understand about MV-190; oh yes Mother I am really planning this, If I test Trigger on myself, since I have the gene, I too will develop some sort of super power. What knowledge I now hold is beyond dangerous and must be kept secret, if what I have created would ever be stolen or myself captured, the villains of the world would wreak havoc. If I were to give myself super powers, then I could defend myself better, not to mention I would fall under several clauses within the Mutant Registration act that would give me quite the lot of immunity to prosecution (time to make that law work for me). I just need to decide when to make the attempt.

 

December 4, 2002

I’ve stabilized “Trigger,†each subsequent lab test has come up positive with 100% viability results and best of all, no further deaths. Timing of mutation activation increased based on body mass, lab rats 5-6 hours, monkeys’ 7-8 hours as I moved up in tissue mass, the two swine experiments increased time to 8.7 hours on alpha and 9.3 hours on beta; before coming out of what I’ve termed “chrysalisâ€; the period of time in which the injection reacts to MV-190 and creates the flip within the gene activating the mutant potential.

 

Although I administering anesthesia to the test subjects to “take the edge off†the pain of transformation, it didn’t do squat. Test subject baseline temperature rises 15 to 30°; fever does not break until almost 88.9% of the transformation is complete; muscle spasms were present within all test subjects not anesthetized; however all subjects showed high pain thresholds 20% above normal. I can cut the spasms, but the pain of transformation and the high fever is still present. Each subject is terminated after confirmation of mutation becomes manifest. Powers are a wide variable, with no basis for determining what power will manifest. That above all is the most annoying thing I’m dealing with.

 

December 19, 2002

Several attempted anesthesia cocktails created adverse affects in mutation dropping the live subject success rate from 99.7% to 43.5%. Deaths became cumulative the more relaxed the subject became, under induced coma death was 100%. Bare minimum anesthesia, .5cc or less, is tolerated, just enough to stop muscle spasms. Further testing will determine if I begin human subject testing.

 

December 24, 2002

Merry Christmas up there in Heaven Mom & Dad. PRIMUS states that human testing is out of the question, I’ve been allowed to experiment on cloned tissue and blood samples but that is all. I’ve decided to begin experimentation on my own blood samples. Trigger flips MV-190 completely activating the gene. An examination of the difference between the original sample and the mutated sample is unexceptional; under maximum magnification of the electron microscope alterations to the blood are not apparent; however when samples are run through the DNA identifiers the alteration is remarkable, full mutant array. I’m beyond pleased and I feel that the time for human work is required. Corpse experimentation is out of the question; I cannot experiment on dead DNA although it is there, its hardly viable. Besides; heaven forbid the possibility of an undead rising could occur (at least in horror movies, I’m reminded of Resident Evil), I’m not going to accidentally create a group of undead supers.

 

No, I plan on injecting myself at the beginning of the new year. It will be painful, I’ll avoid giving myself the anesthetic to insure 100% success rate. I just wish there was some way of determining what type of mutant I will become. There is something I’m overlooking I wish I could get an inkling of what it was. More brooding later. I’m late to the PRIMUS Christmas party.

 

 

 

January 3, 2003

Mother, Father pray for me, I've done it.

 

The lab is locked and within 2 minutes my temperature should rise by 15 degrees if not more and the muscle spasms should commence. I’ve cleared a section of the lab; some convulsions in the animals have been very violent. I’m using the audio program to record for as long as I am conscious. At 1 minute 15 seconds hands have begun trembling. I have broken into a sweat. The wrist monitor and remote sensors will record thought the session the rises in all biorhythms, I can, oh, ah, (holly shit that hurts) only 3 minutes, it’s accelerated!………end recording….

 

-----------

I'm awake. It’s now 10.3 hours after injection. I've survived the night; I can't describe how much pain I caused myself. My lab looks like the Hulk tore through it on a binger; I had put myself on a table and strapped myself in, yet I still broke through them and awoke on the floor of the lab broken test tubes and beakers everywhere, I’m lucky I had sense of mind to turn of the burners otherwise I would have had a fire.

 

But I now, am amazingly unaltered; at least I look normal, no outward signs of any changes. The mutant indicators pick up a slight variation in my structure but they don't "ping" and I'm not sure why they don't. Is it possible that the experiment failed in giving me a power? Do I still need an EVENT to spur the power into being? I thought powers would become immediately evident, as they did in the animals; the simplified mental process of the animal causes immediate evidence. Although we share many similar traits with animals the human nervous system is more complex, I was unconscious just under what I had calculated for my height and weight, so apparently that theory works. I'm going to test if anything happened or if I merely came close to poisoning myself to death last night.

 

Damn it. Still nothing, I haven't been able to trigger anything! Oh this just sucks. I set off the mutant detectors at close range on the highest setting, but once I move more than 3 feet away nothing registers and short of causing damage to myself I have not been able to trigger any powers yet. I feel like Peter Parker and the "go web" scene. Fortunately there are no odd protrusions or new crevasses formed anywhere on me.

 

Come Monday, I'll head to PRIMUS base and run the tests on the DNA sampler to check if MV-190 actually flipped. It might be a good test their mutant sniffing technology as well.

 

January 6, 2003

Well they went off. I'm a mutant! Huzzah, break out the champagne. PRIMUS base almost blew a new hole in me before I got the chance to speak with Livingston. Commander Knight is going to transfer me to the Washington base to run me through the big “danger room†to discover what I can do. This is not a test I want to take, I know it’s will hurt, it’s guaranteed the way to trigger my mutant event will be detrimental to my health.

 

Jan, 6, afternoon...

Well, it appears I can manipulate and create both hot and cold, from below freezing temperatures to super heated plasma. I also appear to generate a type of frozen/fire armor when I shift over to me "hero" form. Incidentally it took getting tagged with the laser to trigger the first change, getting shot, stabbed, and almost dissolved in acid did nothing to help the Trigger Effect, why couldn't it of been high emotional stress like most other triggers, God knows there was enough stress.

 

OK, so, now I'm a mutant, and I will have to register. Apparently I have two forms, I generate a strong mutant signature only when I'm in "Hero" form (as Dr. Baly said) otherwise I'm "normal" and only the strongest sniffers will be able to pick me up when I'm just plain old Vi. I think I'll call my alter ego Celsius. PRIMUS is getting ready to register me in the database.

 

Oops, can't do Celsius he already exists in the database. So we had to think up a new name. Dr. Baly came up with it actually; he took the simplest of ideas to do it. I generate hot and cold, fire and frost, so he christened me Firefrost. Now its official, I'm in the database and a permanent member of mutant society. This is either a really bad thing or a really good thing; I'm not sure which yet.

 

January 10, 2003

Oh wow, Mom, Dad I know you two have got to be in heaven right now just shaking your heads in wonder. Don't feel too badly about what I've done, I'm planning on making it work out all for the better.

 

Well, we now have a full listing of my powers as Firefrost; I fly, create plasma and ice and have this really impressive take off when I need to move fast, lets just hope I do not have to use that very often, my "blast off" looks like the space shuttle launching with almost as much destructive force behind it and is just gawd awful exhausting.

 

Something else happened today, I've been told I'm a national treasure. My knowledge of mutant DNA & genetics is specialized and since I have now created a mutant (myself) my brain is worth more than Einstein's. Which also means, I am unable to publish any of my findings. There was no way I was going to publish Trigger but the events and information leading up to it would of made Noble Prize winning material. It is simply too dangerous, as I remember thinking on this earlier, all it takes is one villain out there creating a league of super monsters to take over the world and were screwed. In my heart of hearts, I know that at some point in time I will regret my research and where I have taken it, but it is far too late for me now.

 

I have been assigned a cyborg bodyguard to protect me, he's not happy about it since is specialty was infiltration and killing people, yea team;-) but he's doing the job very well, he sneaks about so well he scared the hell out of Captain Yurato when he came into the lab unexpectedly.

 

January 23, 2003

Mom, Dad, I've been tapped to be a mentor to an 18-year-old mutant named Succor; he can absorb or boost any energy. He's improved my computers output by 90%. Succor found a 14-year-old I've named Geiger, who has the ability to absorb either physical or energy kinetics to boost not only living body armor but his strength as well. I have Succor and Geiger training together on PRIMUS base when I'm not running tests on them myself.

 

February 9, 2003

My 3rd child has been handed to me by Commander Stone of the Charleston SC branch (and member of the Charleston Champions). This 18-year-old boy is apparently the son of his one time teammate Jester. The boy calls himself Wire-Runner; I think it's going to get shortened down to Wire; he appears to have some control over magnetism. He also claims to be from an alternate dimension he calls DEVA. I researched Commander Stone's and the rest of the Charleston Champions PRIMUS reports, which confirm that dimension travel does exist and I am officially now in WAY over my head. I'm going the way of Dr. Hank Pym and Reed Richards and suddenly I have the Teen Titans showing me "their moves." My life has officially become a comic book.

 

 

March 15, 2003

What a way to start a new career. While working at Hudson base, we (as in me and the pizza hogging kids) get a call about a man in armor bleeding to death on the rooftop of 15th and Vine. I’m told to grab Succor, since Jacob is the closest thing we have to a healer and launch myself off the roof, 3.5 seconds later were there, (at least I’ll never need a taxi in the city). So here is this guy, in body armor with the chest plate ripped off and his rib cage exposed, (watching his heart beat through the remains of his chest was interesting). Succor immediately went to work healing the guy, I managed to get a little bit of information out of him, mostly, “check on the girlâ€. The two boys in blue downstairs were just about as lucid. It kinda went like this, “this huge dark thing with claws jumped out and tried to kill the guy in armor, and oh he managed to save this kidâ€. See what I mean? Is that coherent? No, well try writing it up in a report sometime. Wire Walker and Geiger managed to follow us to the location. Jason (Wire) entertained the 6-year-old girl in the back of the police car, where she told him her story…she was more articulate then the adults’…sheesh.

 

I noted we had a few other “supers†in the area, some guy in blue with a cape and a rope, some guy all in ninja black (not more ninja, please) and some lady, that looked like a lawyer. The cape swung away after stalling in an alleyway. When I went to investigate I came across the “chest wound†looking at an oddly drawn pentagram. He says there is something familiar about it but he can’t put a finger on it. Well I sure the hell didn’t know what it was so I had Succor leave him my business card and tell him to get in touch with me if he felt that something might come out of this. Little did I know…..

 

Geiger decides to further case the area and winds up meeting an ole PRIMUS baddy, Black Paladin, who in turn introduces Geiger to his mace with a follow through to the wall across the street. Of course I didn’t know this at the time because I was half a block away but I heard the THUD of the impact. So flying down the street (I love that!) I zoom past not only Black Paladin but teleporting into the area is Mordachi previously of DEMON now of the CIRCLE. BP and M face off but when Wire Walker decided to try and distract them, Mord vaps out of the area leaving us to play with BP. Who apparently not wanting to play pulls out a brand new weapon, a black sword, which causes the entire area to become pitch black. I had swooped down and grabbed the “chest wound†since he had decided to take of what remained of his torso armor and then run back into battle (idiot, you can get killed that way, not to mention have your soul sucked out of you by Mordachi’s sword). Once we got out of the dark area (with Succors help calling us towards him) we could see perfectly clearly.

 

Geiger tried to get himself out of the wall but proceeded to jump into the other building (Dennis still needs work), BP tore open a portal with the sword and went away. Thank god, I don’t know if it’s the same sword that we have registered to him before, but with swords that suck people’s souls out and/or mentally dominates you, but I wasn’t willing to risk the mundane to check out a theory. Danny Darko of Remington Steel Investigations was there to photograph it all, bless his fuzzy little heart and his incredible camera. The boy got some excellent shots in several different visual fields of the fight, including BP’s new blade. I’ve put into my report getting Darko or at least Remington Steel onto the payroll for photo updates and research. (Remember put new sword powers into database).

 

Did an analysis of the blood and ichors on the child’s shirt, the human blood is the “chest woundsâ€, I’m going to run his blood through the analysis, he might be human but I’d like to check if he has to the potential for evolution. The ichor is of no type previously identified but does have some similar traits to that of a reanimated corpse. Our dead looking killer really is dead. Perhaps this is why he stays in the dark and all attacks have happened at night, he can’t stand sunlight. If he is a reanimated corpse then this also explains the removal of the gland, since the secretions from it allow for movement.

 

I fill out more paperwork now as a member of PRIMUS then I ever did in my 15 years of research.

Off for a soak and sleep…Oh wait, I’ve got a new series of tests to run, ok maybe sleep later.

March 19, 2003 morning

Why is it that when you want to sleep you can never get a break? Very early this morning I get a call from the “chest woundâ€. He calls himself Matt Slate (did he tell me last night? I can’t remember) and tells me that he has found information on the pentagram thingy. It’s apparently some part of a spell that this killer is creating to bring for the rise of an ancient demon. Just what I need to hear this early in the morning. According to Mr. Slate, the Huntsman (guy in blue w/cape) has been following this thing (killer) for several months now; the murders stared in Rio D., females, ages 6 to 36 have been murdered, over similar pentagrams, with their thalamus removed. According to Mr. Slate, he and the 3 other individuals from last night went to the local authority on the supernatural in the city Father O’Malley of St. Ignatius Church; this is where they got their information. Going to drop off for some sleep now. Before we (as in me and the kids) head to St. Ignatius to interview Father O’Malley. This Slate guy is pretty good with research, I wonder what ever prompted him to get into the “superhero†business, I mean he’s mundane, no powers at all, that’s even more dangerous than doing it with powers!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note to self, never to have a conversation with a priest while a demon sits outside the building. Apparently the lawyer looking female is actually a demon in human guise. <> I’ve been introduced to the three magical type people are Jet-a.k.a. Ebony Chase (aforementioned demon), a Shadowkahn hunter of evil and slayer of demons (her keeper? why isn’t she dead yet?) and The Huntsman (dude in cape) another hunter of supernatural evil. A cape, he actually wears a cape. So its official, the supernatural is running loose in our city trying to raise a huge earth shattering, pre-Christianity, possibly pre-evolution of man, DEMON. Yea, I am so freaking thrilled. The meeting, needless to say, was strange. Came back went back to run tests batch A.L.G. 122-329, results sill nominal.

 

Got another call from Mr. Slate, honestly, this guy would make a great private investigator; he’s got the tenacity of a bulldog with a T-bone in sight; dose he do anything else with his life? A lot of hints and workups later, we’ve gotten an ok for an active search pattern in the city. We have an estimation of where the killings would be “required†to fit the type of ritual necessary to break down the barriers to this demon the Killer is trying to release. The Huntsman volunteered information that he has located several other murders within the city that fall under the same categories as the current ones and it would appear that several of them are starting to crop up in our area specifically. We put a tab on the little girl we rescued and discover that within a 6 or so block radius would the next victim. We have the 6-year-old, an 8-year-old and a 16 year old; Succor volunteered himself, Geiger and Wire to go to the 16 year olds house to check on her, yea right, like Succor isn’t trolling for a date.

 

Just got an emergency call from Succor, he found Huntsman near death and they’re under attack by the Killer at the girl’s house, updates later.

 

March 19/20, 2003

Really freakin early in the morning.

Luck, sheer freakin luck that’s what it is. I seem to remember there being a quote about “I’d rather be lucky than good?-or something to that effect. I find Mr. Slate on route to the 16’s house, so with a little fancy flying from me, he paraglide onto the roof of the house. I flew into the house through the open kitchen doors. I could hear a lot of screaming and yelling from inside the home, but when I got there the only thing I could manage to do was get blasted by the Killer. Fortunately the funky barrier he put around the house and the kitchen sink managed to keep me from flying out back through the window (my back still hurts). I managed to catch a glimpse of Geiger and the teenager trapped in pentagrams in the dining room, unfortunately by the time I was able to do something the Killer teleported away with the girl. Somebody was able to free Geiger from the field and next thing I know there is this huge bright light coming down the halls from across the house. There was this incredibly ghastly scream that came along with that bright light. After I pried my ass out of the kitchen sink, I was able to fly around the house, to survey the damage. Apparently the Killer had grabbed the girl along with Succor at the same time and had managed to teleport across the house to the ballroom (or something like that), he was about ready to kill them both when Succor, sensing her to be a mutant, “pushed†her powers to activate at the highest level. Which, as he explained to me, happened to be light generation. (Just about everyone had burned retinas except for me; I guess there was something good out of being useless in the fight.) He’s not sure what happened to the Killer but we can assume from the fine ash I discovered on the floor that he was highly allergic to sunlight and vaporized.

 

I called in an ambulance for the girl and a pickup for my “teamâ€. The kids and Slate were in bad shape having taken quite a lot of damage from the Killer (not including the retinal burns), Slate agreed to come with us back to base for cleanup and The Huntsman somehow managed, recovering from a sucking chest wound, to somehow get away without us knowing it; irritating little git, who the hell does he think he is with the mysterious disappearing acts, Batman?!

 

Slate was suitably impressed with the lab; I was rather impressed about how much he knows. His expertise in sciences is much more technology based, he’s more Tony Stark to my Dr. Bruce Banner. I let him and the boys sleep in at the bases dorm to recuperate from all the damage, Succor managed to heal most of the wounds but the retina damage will still take time, plus its always a good idea to rest up after a fight, you have to get the fatigue out.

 

I on the other hand, decided that being slow really sucked, so I went to the gym to start a training program to increase my speed and strength. I filed the report with Artemis and got in a few hours of working out; I think I’ll try and do this on a continual basis to put my body into better shape. Though I did notice something, I went back through some old family photos and noticed that since January my physiology has changed. When I actually benched weights back in 2000 I was fairly weak, now I’m pressing some serious weights, not like Geiger but I’m able to carry him and others without any strain. I’m leaner than I was just 5 months back. I’ve also noticed something else, I’ve always had nice deep black hair, midnight shiny with a slight hint of red; I’ve noted at the tips, have faded, there are white streaks about a half inch from the edges, almost as if I’d dyed them in that new fashion fad. But I haven’t, I wonder if that is part of my process? Am I still evolving as a mutant?

 

In comic books there are second evolutions usually caused by drastic alterations or attacks on the mutants’ body. I haven’t had anything drastic happen but I am using my powers more frequently now, perhaps there is a continued evolution as you grow into powers. There is so much I wish I didn’t have to look at comics for, I’m still guessing at half the shit necessary to do what I do. Still, my life is not as dull as it was just 2 years ago.

 

Oh and the boys have decided to take up a permanent patrol of the city, I applauded the efforts of the Junior Justice League.

 

 

March 21, 2003

I am now officially a PRIMUS agent, as in street agent with police powers and everything. Why? Because the freakin media got a hold of the story about us taking down the Necro Killer and I got tagged as a hero and the savior to us all. Sarcasm! Honestly I didn’t do any of the footwork, or the research, I mean it was just silly, I even told that to the media once I got wind of the story hitting the airwaves and papers, I told them of the people who had done the work and that they were the heroes not me. And what did that get me? A louder pat on the back for being so “selfless†in making sure that the “little people†gets noticed. Shit. I was alerted to all of this by Commander Stone of the SE PRIMUS Division calling to congratulate me and notify me of my promotion; I swear nobody cares about who does the work, just who appears best on camera. It sucks. On a related point, Succor got a date with the 16 year old.

 

 

April 1, 2003

If it weren’t for the fact I’ve seen it with my own eyes I’d say that it was an April fools joke. But there it was larger than life. Someone or something has large robots that generate plasma blasts and rob armored trucks. Our ever vigilant Mr. Slate calls me to tell me he’s being attacked by some large rocket that followed him down the interstate, he managed to jump from his van before it impacted; however, it didn’t blow up, it shimmered and vanished. I did a scan through the area and sure enough we pick up a blip of Genesis radiation, they hit him with a teleported rocket and stole his truck, what luck. Why did he drive around in a van that has all of his electronics stuff for his armor? I don’t know but I can bet you Genesis will be finding out shortly. Anyway, he’s walking along the road looking for me to come pick him up when he comes across an armored care robbery, only its not your everyday normal kinda day robbery, the driver and guard were killed by a single shot to the chest of a plasma bolt, burned straight through the glass right into the back of the cab. The cargo hold was ripped open with such ease it could have been a kid with a candy wrapper and whatever was inside stolen.

 

Mr. Slate is telling me all this while I’m getting there (useful radios eh what); he said there was a cabinet unsealed still in the hold. So I told him to do what any nosy PRIMUS agent would do, told him to rifle through the top two shelves and take whatever he could find and stash it until I got to him. By the time I pulled up Mr. Slate was in the middle of getting a pat down by the boys in blue, (not like you can do that real well in body armor) and the Army was pulling up. Mr. Slate is not the most diplomatic of people I’ve met, so I did all the talking to the Boys and the Army to make sure he didn’t wind up under lock and key. I brought him and the files back to base where we could review them. Mr. Slate was able to scrape some samples off the cab and get a metal sample from the door; I lent him my smaller lab and let him run the samples at the lab in PRIMUS while I peruse the TS files.

 

Turns out it was a good call on my behalf the files hold strategic information and partial building designs of a TOP SECRET satellite created by US Army, yippie! I wonder if I can get into the Pentagon database and snoop around.

 

April 2, 2003, early am.

Oh wow, never let it be said that I can’t hack! Actually I’ll go with the pure freakin luck theory again. I managed to tap the Pentagon database and get the information on the satellites. These satellites are totally spies, super magnification down to picking out the number of freckles on your face; talk about scary. Apparently a control chip was stolen; but who would want access to that technology, what good would it do? Martek Co. and the Army created them and Martek is not too far away from where the truck was hit, I’m going to work on a hunch that we need to go around the facility and see if another attack is immanent to steal more technology. I’ll grab Geiger and Succor in a few hours to do a little bit of surveillance. Mr. Slate is also working very hard on creating a scanner for the energy signal robots put out and the type of rare metals that the things are made of. He’s got persistence and quite the hand at technology creations, I’ll give him that. I wonder what his mutation would be?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wish you were here Mom to help administer that TLC love that helps healing. Crap I hurt, crap we sucked big time. Surveillance on Martek went well with Slate’s scanners picking up those unique energy signals, until we got close enough to the building to see that there was obviously a fire or something of that nature going on, so utilizing my new found police powers we (Slate, Geiger, Succor and myself) zoomed into action. To which we found in a warehouse, 4 new fangled robots that had a basic understanding of my powers, Geiger’s powers, and Succors powers (them feeling that Slate and his big gun were inconsequential until he hurt them HARD, then he got a new threat assessment). They were stealing parts and some Martek employees were holed up in a room. Then the shit really hit the fan, we blasted, beat upon, shot and tried to ice over (one had a force field) the bots, which then proceeded to try every freakin beam weapon on us until we were pulverized. It took them several tries to finally get through Geiger’s defenses; he’s learned to fear the “green†beam, and the skinny one with the force field that had all the parts teleported away! Since when do bots TELEPORT?! After the one teleported away the rest of them went into self-destruct mode (we had managed to blast 1 to pieces once Wire decided to show up and magnetize the hell out of them), Geiger thinking that the one going into self-destruct would of blown up the civilians along with us so Succor powered him up to max and Geiger took himself and the bot through the wall into the parking lot away from everyone. He’s a good kid, he’s sometimes a little to impetuous but he’s got is hero thinking in the right place, save the civilians. Fortunately the bots didn’t explode; actually they had internal meltdowns, liquid plasma right down to the feet, nothing left but the shell. We dragged one back with us to the lab, Slate spent a lot of time examining it while we recovered, he is well and truly pissed at the thing, I guess he was hoping to salvage some technology but nothing survived. So now he’s playing Quincy searching for clues on the body itself.

 

Right now I just want some coffee and something other than pizza to eat, I’m beat. I’ll check on Lot A.L.G. 421-519 later, assimilation of structure seems to be plausible after 16 hours, integrity check at 20 hours.

 

 

April 8, 2003

I hate magic people, did I ever mention that Mom? I got a call from Slate on behalf of the cape called the Huntsman, who wanted to meet me down at the City Morgue. Needless to say I was a little freaked by this, you don’t usually get phone calls from an elusive caped figure looking to meet you at a morgue. So I go, sans unique self but in “costume,†after all I have a secret ID to maintain. Oh, Slate told me he found a pine needle stuck to the foot of one of the robots, he’s researching where the genus comes from, that might be our only clue as to where this threat originates.

 

So I went to the morgue to meet the cape. I did not like the reception. Now that I’ve gotten a good look at Huntsman I’m not sure of my first impression. He is a paranormal investigator and very used to solitary work, very secretive but only because its part of the nature of working alone. I can understand this, after all scientists, unless your working on a project together, are solitary creatures and have a tendency not to tell anyone what they are doing until the findings are confirmed and your putting it into print; this cuts down on the theft of theories and formula. However, when you become aware of crimes you really should make it known to other crime fighters in the area that something is up. I’m going to try and explain that to him over time, because if he doesn’t open up a little more and become a team player, what’s the sense in working with him, we wont be able to trust him and we’ll always be finding things out second hand.

 

But he is thorough, which explains why it took a few killings before he presented his findings, I did point out to him that we would like to avoid multiple killings and if we could keep it down to one in the future that would be grand. Anyway, now we have 2 unexplained, very unnatural killings present in our city morgue; one set of murders involves a college professor at Hudson City University and a student: death is by a stab wound to the chest which pierced sternum, a item was then inserted into the wound and the chest cavity torn open to expose the heart, the heart is missing and blood exsanguinate from the body prior to death; blood was not found at scene.

 

Murder two is stranger: 3 women all of different ethnic heritages, one single strike in the heart by a slightly curved blade. Here is the really freaky part, a Black woman is now Caucasian, a blond now has black hair and a brown-eyed girl now has yellow eyes. A large predatory bird feather was found clutched in the hand of on victim, a tuft of golden animal hair in the hands of another, each victim was supine and exsanguinate.

 

And here is where I hate secretive magic people; Huntsman tells me that he had a vision of one of these girls falling from a great height into the river. I asked him where he had this vision, he said it was from an obsidian mirror that he, Shadowkahn and Jet found in the lair of the now permanently deceased Necro Killer, apparently they all had a different vision when they touched the mirror and looked into it. Shadowkahn saw another victim fall to their death and Jet saw some black hair, Goth looking woman with a dagger. Why the hell didn’t they say anything sooner?!?!?!?!

 

I very nicely asked for Huntsman to begin looking through the rest of the morgues in the city for similar victims, since Shadowkahn’s victim hasn’t shown up yet. I also spoke with the coroner and asked for the bodies and any similar bodies to be brought to PRIMUS after they had been examined by the city, along with any findings and a complete case file, the gentleman said he would notify the other morgues and do just that.

 

I’m very confused by the physical alterations, such dramatic chemical alterations are not easily identified or created, how would it be possible? I hate to say it but magic, especially true mystical work like the freaky stuff the Charleston Champions used to run into, really scares the hell out of me. Magic is too unpredictable an abominably of reality, it just creeps me out.

 

I think I’ll give Dennis the task of looking up the friends of the Professor that died at the university; he’s really gotten into researching things online who knows what he’ll find. I’ve put in a call to Slate to notify Shadowkahn what where on the lookout for 2 serial killers with odd magical items one sucking all the blood out of the body the other transforming the victims. I hate magic.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh this is cute. I find a note on my refrigerator, Dear Dr. Stratford, your security sucks and you should meet me at the Happy Fun Park last stall to discuss your security problems on the morning of the 14th. Yea freaking rah. Who the hell did this and why shouldn’t I be totally freaked out beyond my wits. I’m sleeping at the base.

 

 

April 13, 2003

Blue Herron Pine, which means Blue Herron State Part. I’ll have Slate take one vehicle and Succor take another, we called Shadowkahn and left a message, I wish we had more backup but we don’t. So Slate, Succor, Wire, Geiger and myself are headed to Blue Herron to look for these robots. More later.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

God help us all, if I hadn’t been there to see it I would of never of believed it. We went to the park, followed Slate’s nifty little detectors to a small cabin on the side of the mountain set there for tired hikers. After examining the shack Geiger discovered a trap door in the floor. We proceeded down the hole (there being no ladder) carefully and lo to our wondering eyes did appear a fully decked out computer room with 4 robots playing Command and Conquer with the satellites they stole. The fight was just plain ugly, they blasted us, we resisted, blasted them; then they turned the energy beams on to funky settings and teleported part of Slate’s shoulder off. The worst part is that throughout the entire fight they kept identifying targets, assessing targets and reprioritizing target as abilities or powers were downloaded and updated (we know because they kept saying so, same thing they did at Martek).

 

Once we had them down enough they started to go into meltdown, no matter what we did to try and stop it. Then it happened. The video screens came on with Doctor Destroyer announcing his return; gloating about the technology he’s created and with the tech he stole from Martek he blows up all the spy satellites in orbit. Effectively blanketing the USA completely. I noticed that plans for the satellites were left behind so we grabbed them and one of the computers hoping to get some information out of the hard drive. Succor put Slate’s shoulder back together as we fled from the rapidly self-destructing base.

 

Destroyer is alive, he has incredible new Destroids at his command and is more powerful then we remember: life officially sucks big time. I doubt I’m getting much sleep tonight, Shadowkahn returned our call and asked for assistance in a case he’s working on, I’m leaving Slate and the kids to recuperate and work out the information on the computer we salvaged. I’m heading to a bookstore that Shadowkahn is waiting at. I’ve got to file my report as soon as I come back.

 

 

April 13/14, 2003

Magic sucks; there is no two ways about it. Shadowkahn and Jet are waiting for me at the bookstore, which is currently infested with some odd supernatural ghostly worm-type-fish thing. There is a corpse with its face eaten out lying on the floor; Jet assumes that the worm-thing is probably what killed the guy. Shadowkahn assumes that the body is that of the bookseller; believing that the worm-thing was a guardian of the book, when the bookseller opened the book it ate his face off and that by shutting the book it would be possible to put the worm away. With that theory in place, Shadowkahn being very careful about where he walks (i.e. keeping away from a book the worm thing is circling) heads into the room to try and identify the body. Now I don’t anything about supernatural but I know when I see someone’s ass about to be chewed off by a vicious worm-lantern fish thing I move. Shadowkahn tried to shut the book the worm-fish thing moved in to eat him, I flew in grabbed Shadowkahn and flew out before he lost his face to the set of teeth on that thing. Fortunately the worm-fish thing couldn’t go too far away from the book. I asked both of them if they had a theory on how to get rid of it, they both said no considering that Shadowkahn managed to shut the book but the worm-fish thing was still swimming around. Personally I was wondering what the hell Jet was supposed to be doing to help, especially since she wasn’t doing jack shit.

 

Good thing about PRIMUS police powers, I called Jonsey at the base and had him put me through to Lynn Chou of the supernatural division of PRIMUS. She said she would get in contact with Crystal Claire (late of Charleston Champions files fame). I have never seen a more colorful individual in my life, Mohawk, piercing, tie-dye, black leather and a bundle of mystical mumbo-jumbo that I’m sure even David Copperfield wouldn’t have been able to decipher. She sets up this intricate little ritual that manages to trap the worm-fish thing in a small ceramic dish (don’t ask Mom, I have no idea). I asked her if she knew of how to clean up the body, not to mention the oogy-creepy-evil feeling that Shadowkahn and her had felt. She suggested a Mr. Alan Quartermain for cleanup, gave me his number and left. Shadowkahn and Jet did the same as I told them I would need to call this in; mystical people don’t like being associated to odd deaths much.

 

Now Alan, that is one odd guy, actually he’s very handsome, highly educated and very debonair…did I mention handsome? He and his team arrived to do the dirty work, I got some new insights into the world of magic talking to him; which included the fact that he could see right though my ice/fire field and into my face; that sucks much too, apparently nothing I can do about it though, mystical sight and all that. Sheesh, what a night. At least Jet told me that in order for her to work with me I would have to clear it with her “ownerâ€, apparently she only works for the summonor, I’ll have to set up an appointment with the lady in the next few days and clear having the demon work for me, what the hell am I saying?

 

This sounds so bad. I had to tell Silver Avenger Clark about what happened in Hudson City and the blow up at the cabin, so now they are aware of our involvement with the Doctor Destroyer incident. I also let Clark know about the satellite plans and part of the Top Secret information used in the creation of these satellites that we were able to scrounge. I have been informed to keep these under wraps in our safe. I have also been notified to update Artemis with all pertinent information on Destroyer and his bots.

 

 

April 14, 2003, early morning

I so want to sleep but I have to zoom over to the Happy Fun Park and find out who is stalking me and why. I have a meeting with Jet’s “boss†in 5 hours in Millennium City, coffee! I need coffee!

 

 

April 14, 2003, not so early morning

Life sucks. You know this is just too much, Remington Steel himself has been tailing me and has found out, through sources he would probably kill me over, that VIPER is out hunting for my blood…Literally. Someone in VIPER knows my secret ID and wants either my or several vials of blood for whatever nefarious purposes they can think of. I have to notify PRIMUS of this new development, I’ll have to move to a secure location. Why would they want me?? I’ve told the kids and the rest of the supers that work with me, Succor ticked off on his fingers, “no leaving the base without escort, no super hero business, etc.,†I laughed but he’s serious, how am I supposed to be a hero if I’m too scared to move out of my own office? Either way, I have a job to do, no matter how afraid I am for others or myself; I’m off to my meeting with Jet’s “bossâ€.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh God I’m beat and what’s worse we had a total of 5 bodies that fit the MO for the single cut/body alteration murders. I’ll look at them later. Jet’s boss didn’t do the whole fire and brimstone “I summon the demon from hell†thing, she just called Jet on the phone and said, “You can take orders from her.†I now have a demon working for me, which means their working for PRIMUS. How the hell do I get that on an ID card, the supernatural division is going to have a field day.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Geiger came up with info on the dead professor, I’ve sent him and Slate off to the University to verify some things before we go talk to the man’s coworker.

 

Me, I need to lie down and die for a few hours. Oh, batch 34 turned out to be 99.78% viable, the sequence is now shorter, I’d crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate but I’m just too damn tired, I’m gong to get a shower and then drop. Oh shit, I forgot about the report to headquarters.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh well, headquarters took it much better than I thought they would, they’ll be moving my stuff into Harborcore Towers (nice and secure) shortly, until them I’m to stay at base or be under guard. Makes me wish they had kept that commando guy on my tail. There was another killing last night involving the exsanguination and removal of heart, why do villains like going out in the rain; were going to talk to the original victims coworker, Professor Johnson, tomorrow. I’m going to update Artemis now and then collapse.

 

Note to self, hide credit card from boys so they stop ordering pizza with my ID.

 

 

April 15, 2003

Huntsman is finally getting in touch with us on a regular basis since we seem to be of great assistance in helping him solve these supernatural cases (damn Batman complex!) This is the worst fight I’ve ever been in and it was completely supernatural driven. Slate and Geiger found out from the University that the deceased professor’s coworker had been in South America studying a blood god worshiped by ancient Incans, some Tshagua (or something like that). This coworker, a Professor Louis Johnson had recently returned, round about the same time the other professor died, from South America, with several relics of the area, including an odd bronze dagger. Prof. Johnson apparently was recuperating at home from a case of suspected Yellow Fever. So we went to Prof. Johnson’s home Slate, Geiger, Huntsman and myself all to speak with him, already under the assumption that Professor Johnson was guilty of something. We got to the Profs’ house and noted that there were very muddy sneakers sitting outside on the porch. I had Geiger and Slate hang back out of sight and let Huntsman and I do all the talking. Working with him is odd, we mesh on a few levels but then the rest is like oil and water.

 

The professor was an old man, middle/late 50’s and kept himself hidden partially behind the open front door, talking to us through the screen door. I introduced myself from PRIMUS and went into my best “good cop†interview scenario, explaining why we were there, sorry for his loss, etc. The muddy shoes wouldn’t have been a big deal if the professor hadn’t lied to us that he had remained indoors since his return. Feeling that tingling feeling about being lied to, I did a low audio call for Slate and Geiger to head around the back of the house to the back door. Obviously were going to have to take the man one way or the other. Slate caused a distraction near the back door, which got the professor to walk away from the front door, and here is where I got a NEW surprise, Huntsman “shadow walks†when he sneaks, when he’s in light you can just see him but in shadow, he vanishes; so he went from shadow to shadow getting into the house. It probably would of worked out fine if the professor hadn’t turned and actually managed to see him.

 

And Mom, that’s when things got weird. I heard Huntsman get blasted by something and the back door slammed, so I shifted forms and went in to help. Inside standing over Huntsman, zapping him with purple eyebeams was this frog type humanoid. I flung an ice bolt at it, which it seemed to go right through him, which then he turned and tried to eyeball me! Fortunately I was able to absorb it. On the com radios I could hear Slate and Geiger yelling for backup, a second being was attacking them and had managed to stab Geiger hurting the boy terribly. I radioed back that we had our own problems and for Slate to get Geiger out of there. At that point I had returned to fighting the frog thing and keeping him from trying to chew Huntsman’s face off. Fortunately a well-placed fire blast took the thing down fast. Huntsman started to recover from the initial attack and I radioed Slate for their position. They were on the porch and Geiger had just taken a second shot from the dagger and had gone unconscious, Slate had also been stabbed. I yelled for them to “hit the dirt†and blasted an ice-ball through the front picture window blowing it out so I had a clear line of fire to the threat. What I got was a nasty surprise; it looked like the desiccated version of the professor and moved with a speed that was phenomenal, it leapt through the opening I had made and stabbed me through the shoulder, straight through my own armor like it was a hot knife through butter. I felt weak as the dagger drew and immense amount of blood out of my body and came close to blacking out, but I had managed to grab a hold of the thing and hold him against me, one to keep him from pulling out the dagger and hitting me again, secondly I was going to go up like a roman candle in another breath, be damned the building, it was going to burn. Fortunately, Huntsman had managed to shake off the creatures attack and shot lightning out of his hands into the creature, electrocuting it! That boy has more interesting powers popping up the longer I’m around him. The thing fell dead in my arms and I toasted it to ash, just to be sure.

 

We staggered out of the house, I set to healing Geiger, his breath was very shallow and his heart beat low, if the dagger drew out blood every time it struck, he was probably down at least 2 pints, maybe more. Slate dragged him into my vehicle and we drove back to base with me conducting first aid and keeping his body temp low. I put in a call to S.I.D. PRIMUS and told Chou about the situation and required cleanup; I also told her we had the dagger that was being used to send blood sacrifices to that horrible god the professor had taken to worshiping. Huntsman had suggested incasing it in a nice block of lead to keep it from being used again, S.I.D. PRIMUS agreed and said they would meet us at base.

 

Succor also met us at base, which was good because although Geiger was stabilized he was still very bad off and I had felt myself black out for a moment. Slate actually survived the encounter fairly well and only required some stitches and a pint. Huntsman took up the responsibility of sitting in with S.I.D. and overseeing the encasement of the dagger while the rest of us got several pints of blood pumped into us intravenously. The dagger is now sitting in the vault of S.I.D. and good riddance to bad things. I went to congratulate Huntsman with his assistance but by the time I had gotten there, he was already gone, he must really enjoy being all mysterious.

 

Aside:

When PRIMUS returned to the home of the late Dr. Johnson we found the desiccated remains of a Caucasian male, approximately 56 years old on the floor of the basement. His wife, who the monster had declared was visiting a sister, was found dead in the basement freezer, murdered by the same blade that had killed the others. It’s so horrific how an ancient evil can reach though time and technology and destroy the present; I’ve prayed for both their souls, may God grant them peace.

 

 

April 23, 2003

Oh Mom I’m so screwed. That little lead about VIPER out for my blood wasn’t a fake. Geiger and Wire Walker were out on their usual daily patrol when they were attacked. It was a pretty good trap actually, falling piano on innocent bystanders, the boys doing the right thing, and then a car door explodes out sending shrapnel into everything. So of course they called in for backup, which actually managed to get Slate, myself, Succor, Jet and Shadowkahn to the area. Which is exactly what the bad guys wanted. Turns out that this well designed trap was to lure me into the area so that these agents could get me. While flying above a building that an agent had been sighted on, a ninja appeared above me and with a katana and cut me in two. At least that’s what I thought happened, I had never felt such pain, even after the dagger incident and I dropped like a rock unconscious to the rooftop. From then the gang tells me they attempted to get to me before I was kidnapped, perhaps kidnapping was the plan, perhaps not, but the ninja got at least part of me, 2 vials of blood hastily drawn from my neck. Then, according to Shadowkahn the group had advanced close enough for him to escape with his samples but not with me. Geiger attempted to follow down into the sewers only to find the shaped charges, which blew out a 2-block radius worth of tunnels as well as damaging himself. Succor healed me and brought me back to consciousness.

 

PRIMUS is furious and I can’t blame them, they have started a full sweep patrol to look for the VIPER base in the area. I can only hope they find it in time.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve just been notified that PRIMUS found a VIPER base in a warehouse; however, by the time they got there a massacre had occurred. Charred bodies, limbs and organs vaporized or gaping holes found in remains of heads, horrific. Col. Bowman told me they found a message indicating that Telios had contracted VIPER to steal my blood. My blood in the hands of that genetics madman, guarantees that he’ll tinker with it and create a new version of me. It would be flattering if it weren’t so ghastly.

 

All indications at the VIPER base point towards Vengeance being the one in on the kills. Vengeance is in the area; this is going to be one bloody city if he has his way. He might have started out with a noble idea but he has slipped too far into the madness of revenge to be considered anything other than a madman and a villain now.

 

Hmm, my 3 supernaturals and Slate are at my door; let’s see what they want.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Nightmare Club decided they would tell me about the obsidian mirror and brought it out. Huntsman (who appears to be showing up on our doorstep more and more) had gone over the reports about the 5 other murders and the abnormal alterations to their bodies; he noted a particular similarity amongst all of the murdered women; they were all born between the Winter and Spring Solstices, which I pointed out, includes me, Feb. 4. That statement from me sent them into a bit of a tailspin, now they think I might be on the murders list, (wonderful thoughts we have isn’t it).

 

The mirror is how they found 2 of the murders, so I suggested looking into it again to find the next murders and perhaps, to find the next victim before they become a victim. Shadowkahn and Huntsman looked and got nothing; Jet, upon looking for the female she had seen earlier with the dagger had a spell from the 7th plane of hell thrown at her which popped her into her demon form and did horrific damage to her, skin split and bleeding; Shadowkahn managed to grab the mirror before it hit the ground. We brought Jet into the “danger room†and set fire around her mangled form so she could recover. She was so hurt, I felt sorry for her.

 

When I got back to the guys I took the mirror and asked to see the next victim, which it graciously allowed me to see a young smiling woman in an office, a drawing of the bridges in the background and large planners file cabinets in the background; it also gave me a nosebleed. I called for the sketch artists so we could start immediately looking for this girl to try and save her from her horrible fate. Slate borrowed the mirror and asked if I was going to become a victim (sweet of him to ask but rather creepy), to which he got a vision of me sitting at my computer desk in the lab before it went fuzzy blank and he got a nosebleed. I kinda pointed out to him that he should of asked worded it differently considering just about every woman in Hudson City born between December 21, and March 20 between the ages of 18 and 35 were at risk. But before Slate could try again, Shadowkahn took the mirror away to keep us from further hurting ourselves; honestly it is a dangerous thing and we really don’t know what it does to us each time we use it.

 

I gave the artist my description of the girl; we scanned the photo and then hijacked the DMV database to do a scan of all females meeting the criteria for becoming a victim; that is going to take some time, hopefully not too long. I don’t care if we have to do a door-to-door search of every office planners building in the city, were going to try and find this girl.

 

 

April 24, 2003

Geiger has been kidnapped by the Black Ninja. Even after my warning to him and Wire Walker about splitting up during their daily patrols they still separated and Geiger was captured. Jason wound up with a sprained arm trying to keep Black from kidnapping him. I chewed him out about his carelessness and then felt bad about it, after all what is someone so young to do against the demon that is Black Ninja. What the hell am I going to do? Why does it seem like everything is falling apart? I’ve felt like leading this “team†is a bad idea, after all I’m responsible for them.

 

I swear I’m coming off as a nag; its just that all of these people, for whatever reasons they have, are trying to stop evil from being loose in the world but gave up their individual ways of fighting to become a member of my team. Although they didn’t have to, hell Hunstman is doing a pretty good job of staying fringeworthy, I feel responsible for those under “my commandâ€, I even feel responsible for Hunstman.

 

For so many years I’ve been responsible for nothing more than my own work and my own life, now I work with people, who on a day-to-day basis, have super powered villains trying to make us take the big dirt nap. Maybe I’m over reacting, I’m probably over reacting, but then look at what’s happened. Geiger’s been kidnapped and God only knows where he’s been taken to or how I’m going to find him. How do I tell his mother?

 

I never collected the original comic but I wonder if Superman ever had days like this? Maybe I should go pick up a few Justice League’s and see how they somehow manage to work as a team.

 

 

April 25, 2003

Shadowkhan just called, he’s got a lead on Dennis.

 

~~~~~~~~

We got a lead, from the freakiest means possible, the ones who kidnapped him. Actually Dr. Lee (now owner of the evil aura and demon infested Ravens Claw Bookstore), called Shadowkahn to say that White Ninja wanted to speak with him and for some reason I was invited along. These magic types have so many rules involved in what they do. White Ninja was in the back room with a small tea ceremony going on; when Shadowkahn and I walked in he offered some tea, which Shadow accepted, me not knowing any better and under the paranoia of poisoning, declined. Here’s a little something about White Ninja I didn’t know, if your visiting with him, you are safe from attack by him or the other 2 Ninjas if your drinking tea with him. I dropped the tough attitude and sat down to tea; honestly, they scare the shit out of me and I thoroughly believe that White Ninja knew that.

 

WN then asked Shadowkahn about if he had made a decision about joining their organization, now that’s not something you learn about your comrade every day, Shadow politely declined and WN reminded him that the offer would only stand till the end of the year. Shadowkahn told WN he knew that and would continue to think about the decision, (I was beyond uncomfortable at that point!) Then WN apologized to both of us, the stupid look on my face must have been easily seen through the layer of ice, since he laughed a little at my surprise. He explained that they only take contracts if the 3 of them find them to be a challenge and one, taking the contract to get some of my blood (or myself) was quite the challenge with everyone surrounding me and two, the contract to get Geiger for Viper had appeared to be quite an enjoyable physical test. He apologized for taking my blood and for any discomfort I might of experienced! He also then apologized for taking a comrade and then he blew my mind further by offering to tell us where they had taken Geiger! When I asked him wouldn’t that be betraying the confidence of the contract, White Ninja very calmly told me the contract was only for obtaining Geiger and nothing more. So he told us, Madame Dragon at the Dragon Place Viper base in Millennium City.

 

Did I mention that I don’t understand these magic types??! I also got a very odd compliment; White Ninja asked Shadowkahn if I was “with himâ€. I didn’t understand the extent of the question until WN spoke about how shapely and good looking I was… I have been “hit on†by a vampire ninja, what’s the world coming to?

 

We didn’t stay much longer; I had phone calls to make to PRIMUS Millennium City and personally, getting eyeballed by a vampire ninja didn’t make me overly comfortable either. We found Jet outside the building, she had spent our time during the meeting speaking with Grey Ninja, who apparently in another life had been a Demon hunter himself (small world) and had trained Shadowkahn. No wonder they were asking for him to join them. Implications aside, I put those thoughts on the back burner. I got Jonesy to put me through to Silver Avenger in MC and alerted him to the newest developments in Geiger’s abduction; i.e. to beg for troops and assistance, were hitting Millennium City tonight as soon as I can scrape together everyone at Hudson City base, I’m not letting him stay in Vipers clutches any longer.

 

 

 

 

May 6, 2003

Sorry it took so long Ma but I’ve been really busy and away from the journal for 12 days. Let me try and sum up what’s gone on.

 

We got to Millennium City that night April 24th and staked out the Viper base “Dragon Palace†Avenger Clark lent me 2 squads of agents for the assault. PRIMUS Squad leaders usually have some training before they get assigned a team. Me, I met this odd group of people and suddenly were a team and I’m leader, how the hell did that happen? Though falling into “commander†mode was incredibly easy, I had been told I have a natural presence, apparently that helps greatly with barking orders. We came packing, the whole team, Slate, Jet, Shadowkahn, Huntsman and Wirewalker. I left Succor hanging back with the recovery team just incase we needed healing, I’m so glad I had the presence of mind to plan this out.

 

Clark supplied us with blueprints of the sewer system and the initial design of the upper building, I had split the two squads, 30 of them uptop, 10 down here with us “powersâ€. Shadowkahn and Huntsman, being the sneakiest of us ran the gauntlet down the sewers making sure the way was clear for us to follow. They volunteered, which surprised me because I didn’t know that their abilities consisted of being sneaky like that, well Shadowkahn is a ninja, so I guess it stands to reason he’d be sneaky.

 

A few deactivated cameras later we were at the threshold, only for them to find some metallic monstrosities on the other side, which they made short work of (really short work!) We followed in down a hall past abandoned gun posts, at that point I was worried and called into team A; team A upstairs was meeting little to no resistance, mostly robots and such; there was just something about the situation that was making me increasingly nervous. Shadowkahn and Huntsman met two new cyborgs at the end of the hallway where it T-sectioned.

 

Somebody noted that there was heat building up under our feet as apparently some reactors were set off and had begun to melt the floor in the section we were in, but that might of happened after the second blast. Or was it one blast? I’m trying to remember but honestly everything is a large blur. Unfortunately the rest of us managed to find the two claymores hidden within the abandoned posts, with some warning from Slate and Wire Walker I was able to get B team out of the way of the blast with an ice wall; unfortunately, Wire Walker and Jet took most of the blast from the claymores; Jet actually shielding Wire from the majority of the blast (check mark in her report card for good behavior). I radioed team B to make sure they were all right, which they were (phew!) and rather then have them rejoin us I sent them to rendezvous with team A. When something else exploded near us, Slate grabbed me and sent me sliding down the hall out of the vicinity of the blast.

 

I caught radio chatter from team A, there was no further resistance and they were beginning to come across deceased VIPER agents, with a few descriptions of the deceased I deduced that Vengeance was in front of them and heading our way. I ordered all of PRIMUS to evacuate the building to avoid Vengeance attacking us as well as the VIPER agents. There was so much chaos I couldn’t tell what was happening with Shadowkahn and Huntsman and those two cyborgs and something was going on behind me; then the world blew up.

 

I mean it felt like literally the world blew up, if I hadn’t been on the floor already I would have been bowled over like the rest of the team. Shadowkahn and Huntsman seemed to take the explosion the hardest since they were closest to it. When the smoke cleared debris was everywhere and the walls looked as if they had rippled from the discharge, doors blown off, windows shattered. Shadowkahn and Hunstman had survived the blast and as the rest of the team dusted themselves off I headed into the epicenter.

 

Words can never describe how much horror I felt when I found his remains of the room. If it hadn’t been for the tiniest sliver of his armor on an exposed hand, it would of taken dental records to identify Geiger. When I first examined him I thought he was dead, Dennis’s body looked like so much charred meat. I caught the barest hint of a pulse; somehow he had lived through whatever VIPER had done to him, but only just. I did the only thing I knew would keep him alive, I froze him almost solid, I had never thought about maintaining my ice as a cryogenic field, but it worked.

 

I screamed for the rest of the team to find us a way out and everyone scrambled to find an exit, the rumbling continued on down the hall behind us, apparently the building was supposed to self-destruct. Down one hallway somebody found a tunnel leading to an abandoned subway, I radioed Geiger’s situation in to Clark ordering for Succor to meet us at the opening; honestly my hopes of saving Dennis were fading fast, I didn’t think Succor could heal him enough to recover. Then word from Clark broke over the communicators; I had been given clearance to fly to Washington base to get Dennis into the regeneration tanks PRIMUS had salvaged from Disturgia. By the time I got to the edge of tunnel everyone had cleared a path far enough away from my blast radius and all air traffic between Millennium City and DC emptied. I radioed word to the team to come to DC to report (and honestly for emotional and moral support for me) and keeping Geiger tight and blasted off. No other flight in the world would ever be able to make it from Millennium City to DC in less than ten minutes.

 

What happened next is such a blur of activity I can barely remember it, Dr. Baly and team met me at the platform and we rushed into ER, somehow I had presence of mind to defrost the boy before they plugged him in and dumped him into the tank. Much to my relief, he didn’t cardiac upon entering the tank, there was one hurdle overcome, now if he could just survive the next 48 hours things might not be as dire as I thought they were.

 

After that is was report, questioning, more reports, more questioning. Silver Avenger Clark called in from Millennium to tell me he was sending Ms. Crane and the rest of the team on the next flight (once air traffic had returned to normal) to DC. Dr. Baly was really supportive and let me slept next to his tank until the team arrived.

 

Surprisingly enough, everyone came. I was at least expecting Huntsman to take a hike, but no, even he showed up. That was really heartwarming. Everyone who needed it got patched up, fed and placed their reports on how the situation unfolded. While they finished that I went to visit Ms. Crane, I found her in front of her boys’ tank, watching him. Honestly I didn’t know what to expect, or to say; I mean this woman places her sons livelihood in my hands every day, and here he was a fried bird under glass. Much to my surprise all she did was hug me and say thank you for trying. I couldn’t take any more and I broke down and cried in her arms, we sat and cried together for a while; I eventually left her sitting watching her son.

 

Mom, Dad, it’s so difficult for me, I put up this very brave front but inside I’m terrified of failing. Here is a mother, who knows what her son is capable of and what he wants to do with his life, she’s already resigned to the idea that at some point her son is going to die fighting, and yet he is only 15. Do parents of military personnel who go off to war feel the same? She is braver than I, I’ll admit that. There are too many “what ifs†that go through my mind about how it could have gone down, what could have happened, how much could of gone wrong.

 

It was around midnight when Baly called me into his office; they had just completed the first set of scans. The results made me sick, Geiger was worse off than we first thought, part of his stomach, kidney, liver and intestines were missing; a large swirled mass of ruptured tissue were all that remained. Remaining internal tissue and organs had a level of charring, as if burnt from inside, his dermal layers had been completely burned off. Geiger absorbs both kinetic and basic energy, the damage to his tissue shows two things, one VIPER was feeding him enough energy to overload his ability to absorb and two, Vengeance decided, for whatever reasons, to fire his warp gun at the boy. I can only assume that Vengeance died in the explosion being so close to Geiger at the time when he went up. If he didn’t, we’ll, I’ll probably die trying to murder the bastard.

 

However, this started me on another line of thinking, VIPER’s intelligence network is more thorough than we originally thought. Whether it was for Vengeance, ourselves or to take out both of us, it was a well-made trap. They have twice now used information that was classified against our group, one can only surmise that there has been a breach in security somewhere and VIPER took full advantage of it. I’ve already included my theories within my report.

 

That morning Commander Armstrong called everyone on my team together and gave them the official rundown of “you are now affiliated to PRIMUS and work under Firefrost in Hudson City, don’t embarrass us, have a nice day.†Which when asked, I explained that basically everyone has been officially accepted as my “team†when it came to missions for PRIMUS, which meant, they were limited hired, limited police powers and currently in a probationary period. Basically if they manage to survive another few months with me, they can or I can officially appeal to PIRMUS to have them accepted into the system, which would mean getting paid for getting blown up; needless to say I got a mixed reaction. There are after all, pros and cons to being an agent.

 

With that being done, I told everyone they could go home, I would remain in DC until Geiger recovered, which could take some time, and we had too much to do still in Hudson City. I asked Slate to go back to base and see if our DMV search had come up with a match (to which it did find about 300 women of similar looks) so Slate volunteered to start looking at every planner’s office in the city, if that’s what it would take to find this girl. Now that’s real dedication to the cause I tell you. Huntsman, Shadowkahn and Jet stayed in DC to take in the sights for a few days and then returned to the city. Succor and Wire Walker returned shortly after their own tour.

 

DC gave Ms. Crane room at a nice hotel while Dennis remained in tank. I took up residence in the base barracks; life consisted of running tests, analysis and working out, no need to let the physical suffer from the emotional. Ms. Crane and I talked about her and Dennis, their family life, how proud she is of him for doing the right thing; how hard it was to deal with him when his powers first appeared. From a scientific aspect I got a greater understanding of how the home life effected being a mutant; from an emotional aspect I learned a lot about what it meant to be a mother; it’s sad that it takes a tragedy to for people to talk to each other, I’ve vowed to take more time with both of them.

 

On day ten, Geiger came out of his coma. He was confused, disoriented but remembered his own name, his mother, me and, importantly in the eyes of PRIMUS, the events that led up to the explosion. By mid afternoon PRIMUS had a full account of what happened to him that night.

 

He was hounded by the Black Ninja, captured and knocked out. When he awoke he found himself in a large open room, starkers, bound to the wall by restraints over his hands, chest and feet. At intermittent times he would be either jolted or prodded as VIPER forced energy into him. They even had a ray gun hitting him with some sort of energy. Dennis said he could feel himself grow stronger and weaker as the cycle kept repeating, he doesn’t know for how long; at first it wasn’t painful but after awhile he says he became aware of different things hurting. Finally some old creepy oriental lady, (to use his exact words) walked in with two samurai robots. The Dragon Lady taunted him about how she couldn’t play with him any more and that the bombs left behind for his friends coming to rescue him should be sufficient. With that, the lady left the room, leaving behind the two robots. Dennis said that he could feel himself getting stronger since they weren’t draining the energy from him any more and when he flexed his hand to try and break the restraint it just about shattered off of him, but then he noticed there were cracks in the armor on his hand, with fine glowing lines underneath. He was trying to remove himself from the rest of the restraints when Vengeance walked into the room. Apparently without any feelings of remorse or even attempting to help Geiger out, Vengeance pointed his gun at Dennis, still attached to the wall, said something like, “I’m not letting another of their abominations live†and pulled the trigger. Dennis said he felt a strange twisting sensation in his gut and the world went white, he thinks he remembers seeing the wave hit the two samurai robots and watched them vaporize; he also thinks he saw a strange warp hole around Vengeance for a second and he remembered nothing more.

 

Dr. Baly let Dennis get some normal sleep in the tank; this will be his last night in it, as everything has regrown back to “normalâ€. Baly, Commander Armstrong and I talked about Geiger’s revelation; which confirmed my earlier suspicions about VIPER, their intelligence database has defiantly improved. They knew exactly what they were getting when they took Geiger and knew how to set him into overload. The trap was meant for Vengeance or both of us, either way they got part of what they wanted to achieve. There is a good chance that Vengeance is dead, though my gut instincts say there is still the possibility of him being alive. No matter, Armstrong is updating Vengeance’s listing from hero to villain in Artemis; we now have a “highly dangerous, shoot to kill†order. Once I had pity for Vengeance and all that he suffered; loosing his wife and unborn son to the villainy that is VIPER but now, now he is no better than the other psychopathic killers out there and deserves to be put down like the rabid dog he is.

 

The next morning we pulled Dennis from the tank and let him get used to walking again, his recovery is truly remarkable and I thank God every day that PRIMUS had managed to save 3 regen tanks from Disturgia.

 

After Dennis has had time to eat and get himself acclimated Dr. Baly will begin running him through the Danger Room to see what changes may of taken place within his mutant physiology. A long time ago (i.e. before PRIMUS) I had written a journal article on mutations and the continued evolution of powers under diverse/extreme conditions; Baly and I agree, with the overload there is a good chance that Geiger’s powers have altered to “deal†with his event. We’ll see this afternoon.

[Reln]

Wow no one has responed yet...i guess it did take me three days to get enough free time to read it all.

 

oh can i barrow her for my games I would love a note taker like that.

 

I think it may have inspired me to keep a journel with one of my characters.

[lemming]

It's been three days!? Sorry, I started reading, then got distracted. story of my ooo shiny

 

Good notes are to be rewarded.

[gewing]

Really interesting. I enjoyed reading it.

[Southern Cross]

Same here.Any more campaign notes yet?

[Mayday]

I like the campaign world, how she ties everything together. It's really nice.

[Shikarr]

No new ones yet although within the next few days. Just ran them through a game last Sunday.

[Bluefire]

WOW..... I feel so pathetic now.

 

...oooOOOO(Must Try Harder!!!)

[Shikarr]

Newest Update

 

May 6, 2003

Sorry it took so long Ma but I’ve been really busy and away from the journal for 12 days. Let me try and sum up what’s gone on.

 

We got to Millennium City that night April 24th and staked out the Viper base “Dragon Palace†Avenger Clark lent me 2 squads of agents for the assault. PRIMUS Squad leaders usually have some training before they get assigned a team. Me, I met this odd group of people and suddenly were a team and I’m leader, how the hell did that happen? Though falling into “commander†mode was incredibly easy, I had been told I have a natural presence, apparently that helps greatly with barking orders. We came packing, the whole team, Slate, Jet, Shadowkahn, Huntsman and Wirewalker. I left Succor hanging back with the recovery team just incase we needed healing, I’m so glad I had the presence of mind to plan this out.

 

Clark supplied us with blueprints of the sewer system and the initial design of the upper building, I had split the two squads, 30 of them uptop, 10 down here with us “powersâ€. Shadowkahn and Huntsman, being the sneakiest of us ran the gauntlet down the sewers making sure the way was clear for us to follow. They volunteered, which surprised me because I didn’t know that their abilities consisted of being sneaky like that, well Shadowkahn is a ninja, so I guess it stands to reason he’d be sneaky and as I’ve discovered Huntsman can hide in shadows really well.

 

A few deactivated cameras later we were at the threshold, only for them to find some metallic monstrosities on the other side, which they made short work of (really short work!) We followed in down a hall past abandoned gun posts, at that point I was worried and called into team A; team A upstairs was meeting little to no resistance, mostly robots and such; there was just something about the situation that was making me increasingly nervous. Shadowkahn and Huntsman met two new cyborgs at the end of the hallway where it T-sectioned and their fight ensued.

 

Somebody noted that there was heat building up under our feet as apparently some reactors were set off and had begun to melt the floor in the section we were in, but that might of happened after the second blast. Or was it one blast? I’m trying to remember but honestly everything is a large blur. Unfortunately the rest of us managed to find the two claymores hidden within the abandoned posts, with some warning from Slate and Wire Walker I was able to get B team out of the way of the blast with an ice wall; unfortunately, Wire Walker and Jet took most of the blast from the claymores; Jet actually shielding Wire from the majority of the blast (check mark in her report card for heroic behavior). I radioed team B to make sure they were all right, which they were (phew!) and rather then have them rejoin us I sent them to rendezvous with team A. When something else exploded near us, Slate grabbed me and sent me sliding down the hall out of the vicinity of the blast.

 

I caught radio chatter from team A, there was no further resistance and they were beginning to come across deceased VIPER agents, team A gave me a description of some of the damage to the Viper agents and I deduced that Vengeance was in front of team A and heading our way. I ordered all of PRIMUS to evacuate the building to avoid Vengeance attacking us as well as the VIPER agents. There was so much chaos I couldn’t tell what was happening with Shadowkahn and Huntsman and those two cyborgs and something was going on behind me; then the world blew up.

 

I mean it felt like literally the world blew up, if I hadn’t been on the floor already I would have been bowled over like the rest of the team. Shadowkahn and Huntsman seemed to take the explosion the hardest since they were closest to it. When the smoke cleared debris was everywhere and the walls looked as if they had rippled from the discharge, doors blown off, windows shattered, etc. Shadowkahn and Hunstman had survived the blast and as the rest of the team dusted themselves off I headed into the epicenter.

 

Words can never describe how much horror I felt when I found his remains of the room. If it hadn’t been for the tiniest sliver of his armor on an exposed hand, it would of taken dental records to identify Geiger. When I first examined him I thought he was dead, Dennis’s (Geiger’s real name) body looked like so much charred meat. I caught the barest hint of a pulse; somehow he had lived through whatever VIPER had done to him, but only just. I did the only thing I knew would keep him alive, I froze him almost solid, I had never thought about maintaining my ice as a cryogenic field, but it worked.

 

I screamed for the rest of the team to find us a way out and everyone scrambled to find an exit, the rumbling continued on down the hall behind us, apparently the building was supposed to self-destruct. Down one hallway somebody found a tunnel leading to an abandoned subway, I radioed Geiger’s situation in to Clark ordering for Succor to meet us at the opening; honestly my hopes of saving Dennis were fading fast, I didn’t think Succor could heal him enough to recover. Then word from Clark broke over the communicators; I had been given clearance to fly to Washington base to get Dennis into the regeneration tanks PRIMUS had salvaged from Disturgia. By the time I got to the edge of tunnel everyone had cleared a path far enough away from my blast radius and all air traffic between Millennium City and DC emptied. I radioed word to the team to come to DC to report (and honestly for emotional and moral support for me) and keeping Geiger tight and blasted off. No other flight in the world would ever be able to make it from Millennium City to DC in less than ten minutes.

 

What happened next is such a blur of activity I can barely remember it, Dr. Baly and team met me at the platform and we rushed into ER, somehow we were able merge my cryo-suspension into a sustaining field that evaporated once we plugged him in and dumped him into the tank. Much to my relief, he didn’t cardiac upon entering the tank, that was one hurdle overcome, now if he could just survive the next 24/48 hours things might not be as dire as I thought they were.

 

After that is was report, questioning, more reports, more questioning. Silver Avenger Clark called in from Millennium to tell me he was sending Ms. Crane and the rest of the team on the next flight (once air traffic had returned to normal) to DC. Dr. Baly was really supportive and let me stay next to his tank (which is where I passed out from exhaustion) until the team arrived.

 

Surprisingly enough, everyone came. I was at least expecting Huntsman to take a hike, but no, even he showed up. That was really heartwarming. Everyone who needed it got patched up, fed and placed their reports on how the situation unfolded. While they finished that I went to visit Ms. Crane, I found her in front of her boys’ tank, watching him. Honestly I didn’t know what to expect, or to say; I mean this woman places her sons livelihood in my hands every day, and here he was a fried bird under glass. Much to my surprise all she did was hug me and say thank you for trying. I couldn’t take any more and I broke down and cried in her arms, we sat and cried together for a while; I eventually left her sitting watching her son.

 

Mom, Dad, it’s so difficult for me, I put up this very brave front but inside I’m terrified of failing. Here is a mother, who knows what her son is capable of and what he wants to do with his life, she’s already resigned to the idea that at some point her son is going to die fighting, and yet he is only 15. Do parents of military personnel who go off to war feel the same? She is braver than I, I’ll admit that. There are too many “what ifs†that go through my mind about how it could have gone down, what could have happened, how much could of gone wrong.

 

It was around midnight when Baly called me into his office; they had just completed the first set of scans. The results made me sick, Geiger was worse off than we first thought, part of his stomach, kidney, liver and intestines were missing; a large swirled mass of ruptured tissue were all that remained. Remaining internal tissue and organs had a level of charring, as if burnt from inside, his dermal layers had been completely burned off. Geiger absorbs both kinetic and basic energy, the damage to his tissue shows two things, one VIPER was feeding him enough energy to overload his ability to absorb and two, Vengeance decided, for whatever reasons, to fire his “black hole†gun at the boy. I can only assume that Vengeance died in the explosion being so close to Geiger at the time when he went up. If he didn’t, well, I’ll probably die trying to murder the bastard next time I see him.

 

However, this started me on another line of thinking, VIPER’s intelligence network is more thorough than we originally thought. Whether it was for Vengeance, ourselves or to take out both of us, it was a well-made trap. They have twice now used information that was classified against our group, one can only surmise that there has been a breach in security somewhere and VIPER took full advantage of it. I’ve already included my theories within my report.

 

That morning Commander Armstrong called everyone on my team together and gave them the official rundown of “you are now affiliated to PRIMUS and work under Firefrost in Hudson City, don’t embarrass us, have a nice day.†Which when asked, I explained that basically everyone has been officially accepted as my “team†when it came to missions for PRIMUS, which meant, they were limited hired, limited police powers and currently in a probationary period. Basically if they manage to survive another few months with me, they can or I can officially appeal to PIRMUS to have them accepted into the system, which would mean getting paid for getting blown up; needless to say I got a mixed reaction. There are after all, pros and cons to being an agent.

 

With that being done, I told everyone they could go home, I would remain in DC until Geiger recovered, which could take some time, and we had too much to do still in Hudson City. I asked Slate to go back to base and see if our DMV search had come up with a match (to which it did find about 300 women of similar looks) so Slate volunteered to start looking at every planner’s office in the city, if that’s what it would take to find this girl. Now that’s real dedication to the cause I tell you. Huntsman, Shadowkahn and Jet stayed in DC to take in the sights for a few days and then returned to the city. Succor and Wire Walker returned shortly after their own tour.

 

DC gave Ms. Crane room at a nice hotel while Dennis remained in tank. I took up residence in the base barracks; life consisted of running tests, analysis and working out, no need to let the physical suffer from the emotional. Ms. Crane and I talked about her and Dennis, their family life, how proud she is of him for doing the right thing; how hard it was to deal with him when his powers first appeared. From a scientific aspect I got a greater understanding of how the home life effected being a mutant; from an emotional aspect I learned a lot about what it meant to be a mother; it’s sad that it takes a tragedy to for people to talk to each other, I’ve vowed to take more time with both of them.

 

On day ten, Geiger came out of his coma. He was confused, disoriented but remembered his own name, his mother, me and, importantly in the eyes of PRIMUS, the events that led up to the explosion. By mid afternoon PRIMUS had a full account of what happened to him that night.

 

He was hounded by the Black Ninja, captured and knocked out. When he awoke he found himself in a large open room, starkers, bound to the wall by restraints over his hands, chest and feet. At intermittent times he would be either jolted or prodded as VIPER forced energy into him. They even had a ray gun hitting him with some sort of energy. Dennis said he could feel himself grow stronger and weaker as the cycle kept repeating, he doesn’t know for how long; at first it wasn’t painful but after awhile he says he became aware of different things hurting. Finally some old creepy oriental lady, (to use his exact words) walked in with two samurai robots. The Dragon Lady taunted him about how she couldn’t play with him any more and that the bombs left behind for his friends coming to rescue him should be sufficient. With that, the lady left the room, leaving behind the two robots. Dennis said that he could feel himself getting stronger since they weren’t draining the energy from him any more and when he flexed his hand to try and break the restraint it just about shattered off of him, but then he noticed there were cracks in the armor on his hand, with fine glowing lines underneath. He was trying to remove himself from the rest of the restraints when Vengeance walked into the room. Apparently without any feelings of remorse or even attempting to help Geiger out, Vengeance pointed his gun at Dennis (still attached to the wall), said something like, “I’m not letting another of their abominations live†and pulled the trigger. Dennis said he felt a strange twisting sensation in his gut and the world went white, he thinks he remembers seeing the wave hit the two samurai robots and watched them vaporize; he also thinks he saw a strange warp hole around Vengeance for a second and he remembered nothing more.

 

Dr. Baly let Dennis get some normal sleep in the tank; this will be his last night in it, as everything has regrown back to “normalâ€. Baly, Commander Armstrong and I talked about Geiger’s revelation; which confirmed my earlier suspicions about VIPER, their intelligence database has defiantly improved. They knew exactly what they were getting when they took Geiger and knew how to set him into overload. The trap was meant for Vengeance or both of us, either way they got part of what they wanted to achieve. There is a good chance that Vengeance is dead, though my gut instincts say there is still the possibility of him being alive. No matter, Armstrong is updating Vengeance’s listing from hero to villain in Artemis; we now have a “highly dangerous, shoot to kill†order. Once I had pity for Vengeance and all that he suffered; loosing his wife and unborn son to the villainy that is VIPER but now, now he is no better than the other psychopathic killers out there and deserves to be put down like the rabid dog he is.

 

The next morning we pulled Dennis from the tank and let him get used to walking again, his recovery is truly remarkable and I thank God every day that PRIMUS had managed to save 3 regen tanks from Disturgia.

 

After Dennis has had time to eat and get himself acclimated Dr. Baly will begin running him through the Danger Room to see what changes may of taken place within his mutant physiology. A long time ago (i.e. before PRIMUS) I had written a journal article on mutations and the continued evolution of powers under diverse/extreme conditions; Baly and I agree, with the overload there is a good chance that Geiger’s powers have altered to “deal†with his event. We’ll see this afternoon.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Well as I have stated before in other journal reports as well as in several papers I published before PRIMUS pull me out of the scientific world and put me on the sidelines, mutants continue to evolve powers. Evolution takes time, energy, mental and physical growing up and sometimes-catastrophic alterations to the mutants’ environment to induce changes. Geiger has had a catastrophic event; his body plugged into the VIPER facility with nothing to drop his excess energy into overloaded. His powers have changed to protect him from that ever happening again and his powers have also evolved into something more suitable for his physical attacks. He has “tricks†now (as we’ve been taught to call them) he can thunderclap, shake the ground, he’s even developed a super leap. His armor no longer holds his energy absorption but rather improves his body’s resistance to attacks; also, energy given to him heals him. Not a bad tradeoff for what occurred; there have been other cases of mutants going into overload and totally burning out their powers completely. Geiger is lucky, very lucky. Hell we all are. I’ll be with him here until the 8th and then we will be going home to Hudson City.

 

 

May 10, 2003

Shadowkahn informed me that he and Jet had been invited to An Evening With Geniuses (why don’t they invite us adult geniuses to these shindigs?) on May 6th; that night they found out that wealthy socialites Elliot and Linda Randolph have been missing for about a month. Out of curiosity they inquired as to who these great philanthropists were and got the lowdown. Wealthy, own a townhouse and the infamous Delacroix Mansion, no kids, etc. the great American well-heeled couple.

 

You know it just dawned on me that I haven’t gotten any of my usual invites to the scientific communities annual bashes for about 2 years, I’m still an active member of the scientific community, what is PRIMUS doing with my mail?

 

Anyway, the oddest thing about these affluent people vanishing from the face of the earth is that they own the Delacroix Mansion. No creeper place exists in Hudson City, even if it’s on the outskirts by 20 miles (well there is the old Rourk place but “nobody†lives there now.)

 

Delacroix Mansion has a history as bloody and as freaky as any Cthulhu Mythos home; the land was originally owned by Indians and as the story goes, a stag with a black pelt appeared to a hunting band of Indians leading them on a wild hunt; 4 months later the leader of the Indian band returns alone and changed. He tells them he is now known as Red Moon Waxing and that he and his band were cursed in hunting the stag. He tells the tale of how they could only hunt the stag at night and it would appear on the edged of the western shore of the lake. He tells of the stag becoming a giant serpent of black scales, it spoke to them in their language, “welcome to my domain,†it said to them, “you have the meat I have offered to you until the next red moon waxes,†then the Indian says, the serpent vanished. No matter how hard they tried they could not leave the woods near the lake, there was no game to hunt and although the ground writhed with smaller serpents, they could not kill them or eat them. The story goes that the Indians looked at Red Moon Waxing in horror at what his words implied and turned to speak among them; when they turned back, Red Moon was gone. Since then the land was considered cursed, guess what spot the Delacroix Mansion stands on, yep, you guessed it, western shore.

 

After that, there is nothing but continual bloodshed that rains down on that section of forest, everything from vile monks to murderous British captains and crazy smugglers. Now, back in 2000 the Randolph’s purchased the mansion built by Allexandero Delacroix in 1902. Only now have they gone missing after having the home for almost two full years.

 

Out of courtesy we’ll check on the Randolph’s townhouse and ask their neighbors if they have seen them.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Well, I wasn’t expecting this, on a lark I check through Artemis to see if PRIMUS had anything on this Delacroix Mansion. Apparently back in 1967-1970 VIPER used the house as a base. A Jebediah Stoe purchased the mansion to use it in his Tree of Liberty plot; VIPER placed psychotropic generators in various locations to induce violent thoughts, along with a device to create the worst heat wave in history. The Scarlet Shield the local Black Panther association and the local police joined together to fight the VIPER menace in the mansion. The Scarlet Shield and his team won the day, VIPER was vanquished and all remained well with the world. Which is total bullshit since there are no further records on exactly what happened that night. Nothing, nada, zip. Shield never talked about what happened at the mansion other than Stoe was not amongst the agents taken living or dead. How creepy is this? Why hasn’t anyone just blown the place to hell where it belongs?

 

I admit I’m more than curious now about the Randolph’s disappearance and the Delacroix Mansion. Is it like other places, things we see in fantasy like Buffy’s Hellmouth, are they real nexuses of power and evil? I did another little search through Artemis looking for places of power; I’ve managed to scare the hell out of myself. There is more in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

 

 

May 14, 2003

Ran the final test sequence. Going off of the Spiderman Theory (I love naming my projects after comic book characters) >< if we introduce a specifically created combination of DNA into a mutation sequence, we should get the specified results. Nice theory, didn’t pan out. What the hell am I doing wrong?

 

 

 

May15, 2003

It’s quiet, like the lull before a storm. Jonesy told me today that PRIMUS isn’t sure if Tellios got my blood sample before Vengeance hit the VIPER base and blew everything to hell. I’m to lay low if I’m not on assignment. I’m worried, so I’m going to keep occupied to keep from worrying. Ok, that sounded asinine.

 

I measured the white fade on the hair today; it’s gained 1.2 inches. I look like an anime character. I’ve also noticed that I don’t have my laugh lines around the eyes anymore, the skin has smoothed out. What the hell is all this about? I know I’m working out but I don’t see how this could affect my wrinkles. I’m dying the hair tonight.

 

Slate is still looking for our next victim. The boys are back out on a 3 man nightly patrol. I haven’t heard from Huntsman. Shadowkahn said he’d get back with me once he got a little more on the Randolphs.

 

I’m playing with a new batch, the only way you can get anything to work is by eliminating all the incorrect parts, eventually you get only what’s correct. I will figure out how to make a mutant correctly eventually, I just have to keep trying.

 

 

May 16, 2003

The dye didn’t take; maybe I should get a haircut.

 

 

May 21, 2003

Mom, sometimes I think it takes acts of God to get something accomplished. It’s been a really long day and we’re all very tired. There is still so much to get used to and I’m discovering more and more about these folks I’m working with every day. I wish they wouldn’t be so secretive about powers and about what they can do. I get suggestions thrown at me that sound crazy so I push them aside and stick to the plan I come up with. Granted I don’t have a lot of experience in this kind of work but so far things have worked out for the better. Teamwork in an office setting is a committee, teamwork in a combat situation is following direction stated by your leader, and I’m the “leader†so what I say goes. I’m still too paranoid right now about playing Scooby Doo and separating everyone out, so long as we do everything in teams of at least 3 I’m a little more at ease for people to be out doing their nightly romps through the city.

 

Tonight we finally wrapped up those horrible transformation murders; quite by accident we found a correlation between the two philanthropists i.e., Randolphs, the witch Talisman and Black Paladin, and quite by accident we solved it. We were quickly on our way to overanalyzing everything we had found today and it took a couple of good cops to shake us out of our mindset and get our asses in gear. Fortunately we were able to save the girl before she became a deadite, unfortunately she is still in a coma, as a side note she’s partially transformed, her hair is black and straight and her eyes are yellow, I hope she recovers from her coma soon, I also hope she can get over her possibly, very permanent physical transformations.

 

Ok, that was totally out of sequence, let me start from the beginning.

 

When we inquired to the Randolph’s neighbors about them we got the total cold shoulder, apparently being a superhero doesn’t impress the idol rich, also apparently money doesn’t buy manners. Rich people are total snobs, you ask them “don’t you leave notes or tell your friends that you’re going away for a while?†They answer, “No you do, what an odd person you are if you do.†Freaks, what ever happened to friendly neighborhoods? The most we got out of them was that they saw the Randolph auto was parked in the driveway last night.

 

Somehow Jet broke into the Randolph townhouse and Shadowkahn turned off the security system before she could open the doors (I’m surprised motion detectors didn’t go off) and let us in. All we found was a big painting of them from 2 years ago and standard home furnishings, everywhere except one room, there were crow feathers everywhere. Something else I didn’t know Shadowkahn, Jet and Huntsman all have a special mystical vision, Jet and Shadowkahn can see evil (don’t know how, but they do) and Huntsman can see magic. I really need to get a lowdown on peoples powers so I can more accurately utilize these folks.

 

I’m really getting pissed off at Genesis. While we (everyone) were at the Randolph townhouse the detectors in the cars went off, I caught the edge of a laser track and sighted something oddly feline and mechanical bounded out of my line of sight over the townhouses. Within the hour after us investigating the house one of my PRIMUS cars got teleported away, almost with Geiger in it! They are really pissing me off; it takes forever to replace the damn cars and now that means we have to alter all the technology we have for identifying their power signals since now they will know how we track them. Huge technology upgrades on both sides just so we can keep up, I’m sure the folks with the calculators will be upset about how much its going to cost to change tech.

 

Round the time were at the townhouse, I get a call on police band that another girl was kidnapped last night, however, this time we have a witness sitting down at police headquarters. I took a photo of the painting of the Randolph’s and had Geiger print out a copy. I drove down to the station with photos in hand, however the young lady (Gail) when questioned did not recognize the two in the photo as the one that kidnapped her friend (Margery). Gail’s description of what happened to her friend was pretty odd. They had both left the club when she forgot to ask Marge about their next plans, when she turned to speak with her, Marge was between a male and a female, the female has been identified as Talisman the male is currently unknown, but with the description I’d swear its Black Paladin out of his usual costume, they then got into a cab and headed away.

 

Why do I make that assumption? Because we have managed to find information linking Black Paladin to this dagger, well him and his thousand-year-old dead girlfriend, who is still buried in France; more on that later.

 

Shadowkahn, Jet and Huntsman went down to the club to take a look at it. Their various odd eyesight abilities were able to pick up a field of evil badness where the girl was intercepted and on top of one of the buildings across from where the cab picked her up, were bipedal claw marks and another golden feather.

 

There are times when we scientists need a swift kick in the ass to get us out of “investigate†mode and fortunately God was able to deliver one before it became too late. Since the Randolphs live in Millennium City as well has Hudson City their car has a tracker, so when it passed through the autopilot gates the system picked them up as traversing out of the city at 5:14 am. When Shadowkahn called in the fact the girl had gotten into a cab (despite the fact that the witness had said she had gone off in a cab) the light bulb went off in my head. I immediately called the cab company and after having to prove my identity, asked for the driver and rout that he took at 2am last night. Sure enough it went right to the Randolph townhouse at 4am. I gathered everyone up into my remaining cars and we drove like mad for the Delacroix Mansion.

 

The drive was taken in high tension and painful silence, we had no way of knowing if we would be able to get there in time; it was nearing midnight when we came through those foul woods to the sight of the Delacroix Mansion sitting silently on the edge of that black water. We passed under the boughs of the dark trees with hundreds of crows cawing at us as we drove up the walk. As we stepped out of the cars looking at the mansion before us and noted a thin trail of smoke arising from a chimney the in the back of the house; one lone crow sat sentinel atop of the old monks stone cross, glairing at us. Huntsman sent it to an early death with a blast of lightning from his hands. He said the house draws away from this world, like it doesn’t belong in this reality; I am very thankful that I cannot see as he does, I don’t know how you could keep your sanity seeing the world that way.

 

We quickly discussed what we would do, the plans that had been given to us showed a 3rd doorway close to where we saw the smoke trailing into the sky. We started to cross the grass towards the back of the house, when much to my horror Jet started speaking to the snakes she could see crawling on the ground none of us could see the snakes! only she could see these serpents and she tried talking to them. I have never been squeamish; you can’t be a scientist and have that emotion survive long within you, but I couldn’t stand the idea of walking across land writing with invisible inter-dimensional snakes; I told everyone back into the cars, despite Slate’s protests about kicking in the front door for a distraction. No way in hell was I having any of us track through what could have been a minefield of invisible extra-dimensional poisonous snakes; something in my mind also told me that given the chance, the murder of crows would do their duty (since there were way to many of them for it to be natural) and make an attempt to destroy us, pecked to death is not a way I envision dieing.

 

We drove around to the back, completely unseen by anyone in the house, lights were out and curtains drawn, the dimmest light hardly seen through the curtains from the room where the fireplace would be. In a mad dash we headed to the back door and into a large kitchen area. Huntsman said the house seemed to snap into focus, which made perfect sense (yea right) since down the hall to our left, through the doorway, out of the room where the firelight glowed came 3 demonic hellhounds. Jet cooed at them like you would a puppy, but apparently they weren’t impressed and jumped our sorry assess. Wire Walker and I leapt into the air to improve our distance attacks and to cover those below us; Jet leapt to the front along with Geiger to take on the hellhounds in hand to hand combat. Slate, Huntsman and Shadowkahn took up positions behind them using distance attacks; Succor stayed to the back to enhance powers and to heal when necessary. Geiger went into hand-to-hand combat with one, smashing his fist through its skull, killing it instantly; he had driven his fist so far into it that his hand became stuck in its remains, he found it amusing if not disgusting and tried to shake it off before the next attack came.

 

I supposed as we continue to work together, fighting together will become easier, though it doesn’t make me feel good knowing that were going to have to learn to teamwork to keep our screw-ups down in battle. I’m starting to prefer the idea of there not being anything to battle; such is the life of a powered super, I don’t see where I have any choices anymore. How the hell generals were able to keep track of their troops in battle is beyond me, I guess I really need to learn before my lack of knowledge kills us.

 

Something else new was learned tonight, Wire Walker creates a strong enough magnetic field around himself that it attracts lightning; Huntsman sent a bolt from his hands towards one of the hell hounds, only to have it arch back strike Wire Walker, rebound off of him into the hound. Combined with Slate’s firepower, the combined blast destroyed the hound from the magnified power of it, but Wire Walker took damage in the process. Science at its best couldn’t of foreseen that little “wonder twin†workout.

 

I heard a yell and turned to see Succor enveloped in a murder of crows, I hollered for him to hit the dirt and sent a fireball blasting over him into the crows, leaving nothing but charred bits to fall to the floor. Succor’s comment was “eww, I’m staying off fried chicken for awhile,†I agree, that smell will stay with me for days. I missed who took out the other hellhound; I suspect it was probably a combination of Jet and Shadowkahn.

 

The door in front of Geiger opened again and a woman (she was in a black dress) wearing a horrific bone mask on her face, it looked like a skeleton crow with black feathers cascading down her head and shoulders; she was also sporting 8 inch claws, came into the fight going straight for Geiger. Coming right behind her was the owner of those giant golden eagle feathers we had found earlier; tall, muscular and looking every bit as vicious as its mythological namesake came the Griffon. After Griffon came a demon servitor (as Jet called him) something that looked like a squat preying mantis, it walked towards Jet and she yelled at it “How dare you lesser creature dare to attack against ME! You don’t even qualify as a true demon and you dare to attack ME!†It looked at her, seemed to think better of it and turned to attack Geiger. Apparently rank does mean something in the underworld, who knew?

 

Things are quite the blur during all this; all I know is that at some point, Shadowkahn put the choke-hold on Lady Crow (which turned out to be her name), we hear a scream come from the room where all this crap originated from; Geiger planted his other fist into the servitor killing it and getting it stuck on his other hand; Slate shot the Griffon which drove it berserk, it then wing buffed all of us but Shadowkahn backwards into the back wall. Slate went to stand up and go toe to toe with the Griffon, which I looked at him and yelled “NO! Are you crazy!†That things claws tore apart stone, what good was his armor going to do? We’d wind up with another case of watching his heart beating through his open chest and him out of commission for the rest of the fight, I needed him whole incase this wasn’t the last of them. Jet and I fire-blasted the Griffon knocking it unconscious; Succor skated down the hallway past the struggling Shadowkahn and Lady Crow into the room; Huntsman lightning bolts both Shadowkahn and Lady Crow knocking her out and stunning him; when I looked at Huntsman to scold him he shrugged and said “I knew he’d survive itâ€. I guess sometimes you just need to do what you need to do, even at the expense of your teammates comfort, I’m just glad it wasn’t as damaging as I had seen the lightning be.

 

We heard a second scream and a shout of triumph from the room and expected the worst. There are some fortunate and unfortunate things that happened. Succor told us that when he entered the room he saw the victim floating in air above a pentagram (already transformed) struggling with the weird dagger. He saw Talisman chanting and, of all people Black Paladin standing by. Succor figured that Talisman was somehow controlling the dagger from the weird mumbling that she was doing and tackled her out of her own pentagram. The shout was that of Black Paladin snatching the dagger out of the air as the victim flung it into the air away from her. Black Paladin teleported away and as Succor went to the victim, Talisman apparently did another incantation and was enveloped by hellfire (he assumes) and she teleported away (that’s a new power, btw).

 

I encased Lady Crow and Griffon in ice up to their mouths (no spells from them!) and got into the summoning room as quickly as I could. Miss Marge (the victim) was shaking from shock and God knows what else that witch had done to her, Succor found a bathrobe to wrap her in while I applied first aid. Shadowkahn began looking around the house, sniffing around for Black Paladin; we know that his teleports aren’t for distance, just for evasion, so he had to still be around; Slate & Geiger (now missing the things stuck on his hands) joined him in the search.

 

I could hear the police vehicles coming up the drive, sirens blazing, thank God we had managed to secure most of the area but with Talisman and Black Paladin gone it was still dangerous for normal people; fortunately PRIMUS was right along side them with a containment team for the Randolphs and an ambulance for the young lady.

 

Unfortunately, Lady Crow and Griffon are the Randolphs, (we were able to positively identify Lady Crow as Linda Randolph) whether voluntarily or under some spell they were our culprits and going under lock and key. As Shadowkahn, Huntsman and Slate cased the house looking for clues, we found traces of Talisman (her clothing) everywhere, the police also found her clothing at the Randolph townhouse, apparently Talisman had been living large off of her cohorts.

 

Succor and Wire Walker off with the ambulance to keep Marge safe. I went outside to check on the police officers (you know to make sure nothing on the land decided to eat them), and one of them shouted about seeing a tall snake-man stare at him and then slither into the swamps that border the western edge of the property and a tall silver cat-like creature not too far away from the swamp before it vanished too. I was not happy about this; we did not need to be having visitations from the demon creature that owns the land; fortunately the thing left. The silver cat is now officially a concern, I’ve got to researching it (i.e. Geiger and Slate) when we get home.

 

Shadowkahn radioed me to say he had found a set of stairs leading down the cliff face to a small beach out onto the lake; there was an indentation in the sand for a skiff, which was missing. Not wanting to go running off into the air on my lonesome I headed that way with Jet. Apparently Jet hadn’t ever flown out of sight of land before and had a panic attack about it. I don’t know what I found stranger, that Jet was agoraphobic or that she was “clingy†when in the middle of a panic attack. Demons should not be “clingyâ€; those spikes all over her did not make for a cuddly reception. I decided to “ice slide†leaving us a trail to find land again; so the two of us did an aerial search for 30 minutes trying to find the skiff, no luck. It was probably a wild goose chase anyway.

 

We left after the police and PRIMUS took every clue they could find and cordoned off the property. I asked for everyone to meet back at base but Shadowkahn said he had to visit Father O’Malley first. Apparently he had visited the Father before we went to the mansion and Father O’Malley told him “if you come back, see me.†Nice. Nothing like that kinda assurance from the church to bolster your confidence in fighting supernatural evil.

 

I’m praying that it’s going to be a slow month.

 

 

May 22, 2003

Shadowkahn came back to us this evening with a perplexed look on his face (ok as much as I could see of his eyes). Father O’Malley was surprised to see him again after dealing with the Mansion. O’Malley was concerned about the police officer seeing the incarnation of the Serpent-Man but apparently we lucked out since it wasn’t the horned version of him. (?!Whatever!?) Apparently O’Malley stated that the mansion/land lived on two different planes (which explains why Hunstman’s statements). Father thought that Black Paladin might of teleported to the crypts under the house, but we didn’t find any entrances to crypts under the house, Shadowkahn explained; which meant that there had to be a secret location somewhere on the grounds that lead to this crypt, the monks that had originally built the abbey would have had a crypt for their fallen brethren. Father O’Malley also suggested we investigate what information we could get from the group known as the Thurmaturgia (?!?) Where can I get more information on this group?!

 

I’ll have Geiger take a look into information on them since he’s my computer hound, I’ve got to convince him to start looking at locations other than the internet though. If Slate’s not busy I’ll have him start looking for information too. Of course this revelation freaks me out; it means we have to go back to the property, eventually. It’s been 2 days Black Paladin should be long gone by now.

 

 

May 24, 2003

Geiger found out that an MIT student that “mysteriously vanished†created the armor; the suit was never finished. Yea right, then why did it hound us for 2 days? It a Combat Armored Tactical suit (CATs get it?) Supposed to make you highly dexterous as well as a few other interesting physical upgrades. Now, what evil villain group would of murdered an MIT student for his cool cyber armor? Jesus pick one, Genesis, Genocide, VIPER, VOICE, etc. Man who the hell is hounding us with this thing?

 

Jonesy showed me a great video of the car getting hit by the Genesis missile and teleporting the car away (great thing about security cameras), apparently the missile destroys itself to create a field around the object to be teleported away. The warhead separates from the rest of the casing just before impact; the missiles destruction enables the energy necessary to burst the field around the object. Quite the ingenious little gadget, if we can take out the warhead right before the missile goes up it can’t create the field, i.e. no teleport. Oh and I was right, the techs are totally pissed off about having to recalibrate and reconfigure all of the PRIMUS vehicles since ours got kidnapped by Genesis; a load of work they didn’t want to have.

 

 

May 25, 2003

Life has become more interesting. I have a feeling I’m going to say that a lot in my lifetime. Now granted I don’t pay attention to politics and I’ve been sequestered in my lab for the last few days so I hadn’t paid much attention to the news, which explains why Silver Avenger Clark’s visit and subsequent announcement was quite a shock. Everyone was summoned to the PRIMUS base (everyone showed up too!) for this little conference; I’ve always known that PRIMUS isn’t in the superhero business, they’re in the law enforcement business, having a growing number of supers at this base must have been getting on Clark’s nerves; which is what prompted him volunteering us for the project. Oh wait, I’m getting ahead of myself again.

 

Michigan is passing the Paranormals Activities Act, IMPAB (their calling it). A Board made up of MI state police, 2 Senators and 3 superheroes will be appointed to oversee IMPAB. Apparently Oregon, Ohio and several other states are trying to keep superheroes in line. Understandable since vigilantism causes most of the major structural damage in most cities; too bad you can’t schedule hero/villain fights around buildings that are supposed to be demolished, you could cut demolition costs immensely.

 

Anyway, this act and the Board will oversee the rights and privileges of all supers that apply to this registration act. Once you apply, have the membership dues and your damage insurance paid up, it makes you a card carrying member of the organization which means you get police powers, the ability to legally stop a crime when you see it and the ever so cool capacity to be a hero and not get yelled at about it; accepted and enforced, credible hero status. You can testify in costume at the trial of the villains you capture and help put them away for good. Of course the dues are high and the insurance is astronomical but ooh it is so worth it. Nothing feels quite so good as vanquishing the bad guys, (it’s a great rush!)

 

Here’s a few of the downsides, a computer will have all of your statistics, DNA, fingerprints, retina scan, hair, etc, your costume, your real name, your background and every teeny tiny bit of mystery you might have had about yourself is put into a safe housed computer; secret IDs everything (which sent me into a panic but Clark assured me that since I’m already registered as an agent of PRIMUS and into a different database I’m immune from some of the requirements they will be demanding, but all the rest of the info goes), which is cool, I can deal with that. However, Huntsman had a conniption fit; he is so Batman that the idea of being on a database freaks him totally.

 

However, the downside to not registering is you don’t get to pay. What grinds the rest of the group is that if you don’t register and you use your powers, or shoot your guns or do whatever little dance you do as a vigilante will automatically get you thrown in jail, do not pass go, do not collect a pension, no questions asked and sent to trial as a menace to society. I.E. you don’t register, your obviously a bad guy, you obviously need to be in one of the holds.

 

Which means-No pay, no play, it’s that simple. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Only people wanting to use their powers for good are the ones that will join, everyone else is expected to be “normal†or a villain. Pretty cut and dry don’t you think? How many blossoming vigilantes out there will have to hang up the ole cape and retire back to a normal life is unknown, but it means that they now have no choice, pay up or shut up. I can see a lot of people who live in states that pass these laws moving to ones that don’t; I wonder how long it will be before it becomes a nation wide mandate?

 

So anyway, you could imagine everyone’s surprise when Clark announced that, a part of this Act, WE (i.e. all of us) were going to be registered, courtesy of PRIMUS and set up at a new base on the outskirts of town. Needless to say I’m ecstatic, I get a secured estate, a big mansion to live in, with a live in staff and secret secured underground training levels!!! I am SO Bruce Wayne! Lookout Xavier Institute, X-Men here we come!!! This ROCKS TOTALLY!!! Ooh, I’m so drooling over the memory of the blueprints right now! The base starts out as a mansion with three levels worth of space, bathrooms galore, bedrooms the size of a full apartment, formal and informal dining room, ball room, library, humongous kitchen, a nice pool, observatory, sigh…. Level 1 enters the underground security level, which is guarded by nasty robot dudes; this is our official “base of operationsâ€. Level 2 houses the testing areas, maintenance and the garage with new PRIMUS cars and space for our on vehicles and plenty of tinkering space for our gadget guys. Level 2 also has the hypertunnel, we have a small launcher that heads into the tunnels. A hypertunnel is the grav-transit system between the main PRIMUS locations across the USA, and it goes from Millennium City, St. Louis, Dallas, LA, Sacramento, Seattle, Salt-Lake City, NY, Boston, Washington DC, Jacksonville and Tallahassee. Level 3 holds the laboratories (GLEE!) and the training facility (which should be strong enough to survive what some of us will do to it). Level 4 houses the fusion reactor (nice clean energy) and the VAULT. Heehee, we have a vault, oh God they expect us to store the freaky shit we get off of villains, hmm lets see, freaky equipment and world destructive devices on the left, supernatural weirdness and soul sucking weaponry on the right, do not mix. I’ve read reports on some of the things that go into PRIMUS vaults; I’m not kidding about the soul sucking weaponry Ma.

 

Well needless to say we got a mixed reaction from the Scooby Gang, we’ll see who bails and who stays. It means a lot of freedom to actually be a sanctioned superhero, but it’s quite the sacrifice for some of them to give up their secret IDs. They can either give up their mysterious background or hang up the cape for good. It’s going to be a rough decision.

 

Oh, Clark talked to me before we went into the meeting with everyone. Ahem, perhaps I should say ass chewing. I have never been bitched at like that in my life, not since college when I turned the chemistry professor green with my experimental chlorophyll kool-aid have I been chewed out like that. But what he said is very true, we were God damned lucky to of gotten to that young lady in time, if we hadn’t been so busy jerking around with our scientific analysis of the situation we might of gotten to them sooner. I’ve also been damn lucky, he said, luckier than most. Frankly he’s amazed at our track record so far, for a group that’s been operating less than 6 months we have quite a few impressive arrests and “solved†cases in such a short period of time. Patton once said, “I don’t care if he’s good. Is he lucky?†Well I’ve been lucky. Maybe I should say we’ve been lucky, it could be the combination of people that’s given us that luck, it sure the hell ain’t skill. We’ve fallen over our own asses more often then not, but somehow were still getting the job done. Maybe it’s the combination of science and magic, maybe it’s the demon in our midst, somehow it works. God help us.

 

Anyway, the chew out was for my ears only, I’m in charge, therefore it’s my responsibility for not only my fuck-ups but there’s as well (standard procedure throughout most companies and government agencies). Therefore it’s my ass that will continue to get the chewing out when we screw up. Me, my job it to make sure the team gets encouragement along with a firm hand; I’m not going to talk to them like Clark did; part of being in charge is the responsibility for everyone’s conduct, they are still adults not children. However, they are going to have to learn that for every action there is a reaction and consequences. I’ll whip them into a team but they will be my team damn it. The fight earlier between us and the monsters from hell only confirmed that the only way were going to act like a team is if we train like a team. Even Batman was able to work side by side effectively with the rest of the Justice League once they all got their act together. All of our mavericks and lone-gunmen will have to become part of a great whole, a greater good. If not, well then their out, it will have to be that simple. Clark backs me on this decision, so it might as well be written in stone.

 

Backbone girl, backbone.

 

 

May 27, 2003

Lady Crow, a.k.a Linda Randolph is totally psychotic and an animal spirit possesses Griffon, a.k.a. Elliot Randolph. I’ve asked the PRIMUS supernatural division to find us someone, like a shaman, to see about getting the spirits exorcised, they tell me these things take time and will keep me informed.

 

Ms. Marge DeWolf is still in a coma, hair black and eyes yellow. What did they do to her? How do we stop it? Damn it, Talisman got away; Black Paladin got away with the dagger. How long before we start seeing this crap again.

 

 

May 28, 2003

You guys must be laughing your asses off in heaven right now Ma, I guess living too long can drive one insane.

 

The War of the Immortals

That’s what the media is calling it. You know, the Mayan calendar says the world should have its great cataclysm in 2030; it looks like the immortals are trying to get their licks in early.

 

Article 1: The 3 Ninjas (yes those guys) are seen attacking Red Dragon (head of VOICE super bad guy agency) in Chinatown, California. Red Dragon fights the 3 Ninjas to a standstill and manages to escape (no word on how the 3 Ninjas faired).

 

**Red Dragon is supposed to be an immortal martial artist of some form or another, very mysterious.

 

Article 2: Van Helsing Armaments (of the Van Helsing Organization) in England was destroyed in a massive explosion, over 100 Van Helsing personnel killed. Their top agent Alucard was presumed to be on site at the time of the explosion; his demise has not yet been reported.

 

**Alucard is one of the most powerful vampires in the known world and has ties to the infamous Count Dracula. (I.e. look at the anagram of the name you idiots!)

 

Article 3: A small atomic explosion occurred in a valley in China (reportedly the site of a small nuclear testing facility). However, no nuclear fallout has been discovered in the air and surrounding countryside.

 

**The valley is known by PRIMUS (and several high powered supernatural people) to be the residence of a Dr. Li Wu, one of the most powerful practitioners of the mystical arts and thought to be immortal.

 

Article 4: Taurus leader of the super-villain group The Zodiac was attacked today on Sanctuary Island by a vampire. Other than that statement, no further information on the attack is forthcoming.

 

** Sanctuary Island, a location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean; the ultimate Switzerland, no act of hostility against anyone staying on the island is allowed, no matter their status of hero or villain.

 

**Taurus the Minotaur. Mythology says he is either the bastard son of Queen Pasiphae wife of King Minos of Crete and a white bull created by the gods for sacrifice to Poseidon. Or the son of Zeus and Callisto or the son of Zeus and Demeter, or the son of Zeus and Europa. Take your pick, either way he’s a god.

 

I guess they’ve gotten bored with living so long.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Other possible players in the war that haven’t shown up yet, Techophans, the Omega Threat- a great Lich Lord (yep, think undead mage of D&D) of great power, can raise whole armies of undead to attack at once. Some idiot once thought it would be a great idea to attack him; needless to say, they are now part of that great undead army. Rumored to be the creator of the Crowns of Krim, greatest supernatural artifacts known to man, allowing even a layman to do some incredible shit with their powers. With one crown, i.e. Techophan’s, rules over them all (think Lord of the Rings).

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Which all adds into the Death Dragon and the fact that only 3 years ago, a group of idiots started waking it up earlier than its scheduled 66 years. From what I’ve read in the PRIMUS files, it took the intervention of the Time Lord LaDean Fairfax (formally of Charleston Champions, whereabouts currently unknown) slowing down time around the entire world, long enough for a group of heroes and villains to put the Death Dragon back to sleep. It’s still on schedule for it’s usual wakeup call in, oh, 6 more years. We have six years until the best and the brightest of the supernatural martial art’s world can figure out how to put it to sleep again. According to the file, the last several times the Dragon had to be beat down into sleep, Red Dragon had done it, yep, that bad guy. The one, one of the other immortals is trying to kill.

 

The Death Dragon, the Midgard Serpent, the death of the world.

 

 

I’m going to go curl up on the couch with my favorite quilt, a bottle of wine and watch some I Love Lucy reruns.

[Shikarr]

And as always let me know what you all think

 

And as always let me know what you all think

[Mayday]

How much of all this is yours or your research (did you make it up or borrow from libraries)? Particularly wondering about the indian and the snakes but the red dragon thing too.

 

Kind of wish there were some other points of view being written, especially Batman and the mystics rather than the 'tech' side but very nice.

 

Might want to break them up into smaller doses as well next time.

[Shikarr]

Most of the stuff in my games is borrowed from other stuff. The snakes and such were used in the excellent Shades of Black PDF adventure sold on here, Red Dragon is from the module VOICE of Doom. The 3 Ninja are all mine as is my villan tech organization Genesis and the 2 more major NPC's used Katana and Vengence. Generally my games are a combination or everything I have read and some stuff I make up and then mixed to taste. Balnce is hard to achieve at times although over the years I have gotten much better at judgeing threat levels.

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Well some of you have written me as to what else has happened in my game and I am happy to say my wonderful note takeing character has done another of the game months worth. Remember this game month took approximately 3 months to play out.

 

Enjoy

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

June 1, 2003

Oh I’m in heaven, I’m in heaven! It was quiet over the weekend so I supervised the transfer of my experiments to the new lab. My very own new lab! It’s as good if not better as the ones I had at NCBI and NCGR. The processing power of the computers alone would make any scientist at NCBI drool with envy. And such security! The keypad is secured with a blood sample and palm print, required for access’ it can also be programmed for retinal print; though we may need to add a codeword since I might have a clone running around! Considering the tight security access down here, the lab is even more secure than what I had at PRIMUS. I’ve assumed that with the new Acts in so many states, I’ll be doing more sample analysis for the various government bodies. That testing as well as my own experiments is now on a secured server, no other access but mine and mine alone (though I’m sure that the powers that be have a way of checking up on me if they need to).

 

I am exceedingly happy over the new secured conditions. Especially since Matt’s confession, I am so upset and disappointed in that man. I mean for God’s sakes if your going to spy on someone you don’t go and tell them about it later; what did he think he was doing by telling me he tried to break into my computer to hack my journals to find out information on me? It certainly didn’t win him a friend! What the hell is wrong with communicating on a regular basis, just going up to someone over coffee and say “hey, tell me about yourself.†You know what he said Mom? Slate said, “well I know how you scientist types think, the only way to find out anything about who you are is to go through your journals.†WTF?! Maybe that’s the way his ever-so-touted scientific parents might of done it, maybe they didn’t talk to him so he had to hack their computers to see how they lived (could be that anti-social tendency in him I’m seeing). Me, I’m still normal enough to enjoy a good discussion over a cuppa. Jesus, I’m not some antisocial freak, I’m a normal person in that mutant exterior, why the hell didn’t he just ask? Besides I have two journals, one to you two and my scientific journal; doesn’t he realize that so many scientists have had their work stolen from them that were overly paranoid about it. Especially mine! I’m constantly changing passwords and acceptance codes. I know Artemis can track the access but she’s not copying or tracking the work, all my work is encoded/encrypted as it saves within the computer, if you don’t have the right pass code you don’t see squat! It’s like the Enigma Device, same principles except on a computer; even these personal journals are encrypted.

 

Ok, here is what he did, a few nights ago; in order to try and get information on me (that he could of asked for!) he tried hacking into the computer system from a peer terminal in another room. Well one, PRIMUS knew about it automatically since Artemis tracks all access. Which she detected his hacking attempts and reported it immediately. They kept an eye on him as he continued to try and break in, which he eventually gave up and left. Slate told me about it today. I went to Clark, personally I want Slate off the team now, he’s broken any trust he had started to develop with me; am I supposed to trust someone who is willing to B&E within his own command structure? Slate is an excellent engineer, but he’s really lacking in the common sense department, he’s also a security risk. I was immensely peeved with Clark over not telling me about the break-in to begin with, Clark told me that Artemis notified him immediately of the attempted break; they waited to see how far he could get; apparently he didn’t get too far, either way Slate is now on their watched list.

 

With the possibility of their being a mole in PRIMUS leaking information to VIPER on our team (and other information) we cant afford to have any leaks. We were all watched to begin with, now he’s got some extra surveillance. No matter, as Johann Lavater once said, “Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.†We’ll see how long Slate lasts.

 

 

June 5, 2003

I was able to catch a sneak preview of The Hulk today. A highly cartooned version of the comic and the TV show, enjoyable but ultimately silly and a bit of a disappointment. However, it did clue me into something I was missing. Gene therapy. I’ll have to ask permission to contact several other scientists working in the field and the folks at ASGT in Milwaukee. I have an excellent working knowledge of the process; however, I’ll need to collect some information on what’s been going on in the last few years while I’ve been “on sabbatical†and I will have to somehow see about getting accepted to the protocol.

 

Incase you didn’t know Ma, Gene Therapy is an approach to treating disease by either modifying the expressions of an individual's genes or correction of abnormal genes. By administration of DNA rather than a drug, many different diseases are currently being investigated as candidates for gene therapy. These include cystic fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases such as AIDS and cancer. The first successful gene therapy on humans was performed in 1990 by Drs. William French Anderson, Michael Blaese and Ken Culver, researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Four-year-old Ashanthi DeSilva was treated for adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency, a rare genetic disease in which children are born with severe immunodeficiency and are prone to repeated serious infections.

 

It’s incredible work in the fight against cancer and other diseases. If I can use that same therapy as a way of treating the mutant genome, I might be able to actually activate a “script†within the genome, thereby allowing for a more confined variable of mutant powers. Imagine, being able to inject a specified grouping of Trigger particles and able to actually get one of the powers you tried for; it would be like pulling from a deck of 52 cards only the diamonds and picking only from the diamonds; ah, I can dream.

 

I’ve got a lot of begging to do.

 

 

June 7, 2003

The tetramethylrhodamine dye assay for group 10E study, subcellular distribution and lateral mobility is running smoothly. The PCR for templates OT2 and the Theta 12 genome are nominal.

 

Everyone will be arriving tomorrow either to move in and or get the tour. The kids are going to freak; they no longer get to live off of just pizza and soda, not if Mrs. Beulah Pinckney has anything to say about it. She intercommed me 4 times as a reminder about lunch and then groused at me for 20 minutes about missing breakfast, (coffee and toast does not qualify as “proper breakfast†in her book) and being late for lunch once I finally got up there. It’s like living with my dorm RF again.

 

Mr. Walter Nelson (our butler) is a wonderfully proper English gentleman’s gentleman, he reminds me of Sir John Gielgud as Hobson in Arthur; he’s very proper; however I have no doubt that he’d tell me I’m an idiot in a second if he felt the need to.

 

Ms. Kimberli Abel is the maid, I have no doubt that the boys will be hitting on her as soon as they get here, she’s in her late-twenties but looks younger than that. She is also very proper and a wonderful conversationalist once we got past the odd first meeting. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come into the bedroom to awaken me promptly at 7am for breakfast, especially since I hadn’t gotten to bed till almost 3am. I must admit I wasn’t the most gracious or verbally kind at that point and I apologized profusely to Ms. Kim immediately after I got my head back together. It was taken in stride and she accepted my apology graciously.

 

One must remember never piss off the household staff; they run the house, not you!

 

I’ve been able to chat with each member of the staff individually now. They themselves are PRIMUS agents so we don’t have to worry about security problems and such, you can also guarantee that they will be submitting reports back to PRIMUS on our conduct. I’ve asked Nelson to come up a good list of general rules for the members of the team to abide by as to avoid bugging the staff unnecessarily, he has agreed to undertake the task and will have it prepared by the time the team is ready to move in.

 

Captain John Caldwell is my eyes and ears down in the base. He gets to sit behind that unfortunate clear wall keeping the lifts’ under surveillance, allowing access to the lower levels. I have no doubt that if I pissed him off he’d deny me access in a heartbeat. He’s not happy with the position (he made that quite clear to me); however he has accepted the responsibility with all the decorum of an old military man. I wonder what sort of security measures they have in the lifts?

 

 

June 8, 2003

Everyone has arrived (yes, even our Batman wannabe Huntsman). A full tour of the house became the event of the day, with ooohing and aaahing everywhere (copious drooling too). The van and hover van are for general use, so were, technically, the motorcycle and hover motorcycle but Huntsman laid claim to them both (hence the drooling). >< Slate is already all over the engineering lab (more drooling). I haven’t told the rest of the team about his little escapade, I’ll keep my own counsel on him for now. Jet came really, really close to pissing off Capt. Caldwell by taunting him (I’ll call you Bob, comments didn’t go over well). I’ve asked everyone to not bother my security guard in the future. Caldwell put her straight though, Jet asked what could he do to her and he said simply “deny you entrance to the base.†She shut up; kudos and 5 points to him.

 

I explained to the team that everyone has own room (there are over 40 in the mansion) even if they don’t plan on making it a permanent residence, to at least think of this base as their safe house and home away from home.

 

We sat down for an early dinner and to discuss some of the day’s findings. Nelson brought the mail and my heart skipped a few beats. PRIMUS forwarded to us invitations to a gala ball/benefit on June 6th, on behalf of Dr. Tellios, who will be giving his cure for AIDS to the world that night.

 

Huntsman and Shadowkahn noticed my surprise and fear and asked what had scared me, so I told them.

 

Dr. Tellios, the one who contracted VIPER for my blood. Tellios is one of the most amoral men in the world experimenting on anything and everything he can get his hands on, creating clones (illegal!) without regard for the original and yet, one of the true genius in the world of genetics. Oh how I admire him, oh how I drool over him, oh how I fear him. While I was at University and during my stint at NCGR I corresponded with him over several ideas on DNA, this was long before I knew his record; I still respect him and the work he does; I must admit he is also one hell of a good looking man.

 

PRIMUS has a dossier on him, but there is absolutely nothing we can pin officially on him. And now this, a cure for AIDS, he’ll be the most beloved man in the world. Even if PRIMUS was to try and take him out one, there is no guarantee that it would actually be the real Dr. Tellios and not a clone and two, taking down the man who created the cure for AIDS would ruin PRIMUS’s reputation forever. However, PRIMUS wishes us to attend this gala as our “normal†selves and I will not miss this incredibly opportunity to once again talk to Tellios scientist to scientist.

 

At that point everyone the team began talking about how they would go, Huntsman was worried about his having to be out of costume, to which Shadowkahn pointed out that we have never seen him out of his mask either and there was nothing wrong with a good disguise. Wire Walker started talking about colors for a tux that would make clowns vomit. Jet was worried that she might meet Angelica again. And somebody asked me, who exactly are you? So I figured it was time for a good introduction, so I stood and told them all “I am Vivian Stratford, Doctor of Medicine and Professor of Genetics specializing in mutant genetics.†To which I got some decent appreciative nods and then from the end of the table out of Slate’s mouth came “gene freak.†Everybody clamed up and stared at him, I said the only thing you can say to insults like that and I told him in loud bold terms, “FUCK YOU!â€

 

Needless to say the group immediately found something else to speak about at that point.

 

He doesn’t know jack shit about me and he’s calling me a gene freak? Doesn’t he know that geneticists are responsible for finding cures to cancer, for stem cell treatment, for finding cures to genetic diseases? What the fuck is his problem?! That’s strike two, one more and if I don’t fry his ass in the process, he’s out of here. I’ll not stand for unconstructive insubordination of any caliber, it will ruin what little cohesiveness we have if I allow anyone onboard to harass another member of the team including myself. PRIMUS has rules just like any company about harassment it will not be tolerated. I don’t mind constructive insubordination, after all I am new at command and suggestions would be helpful and if you don’t question how do you find out anything new?

 

Granted I shouldn’t have given in to my emotions and responded like I did; this isn’t a schoolyard we aren’t children. Next time it will be handled in a businesslike manner as team leader and not some pissed off chick. I’ll write it up and keep it on file, along with my response, Clark will have to address both of us at some point. Maybe with some outside mediation we can find out what the hell is bothering Slate.

 

As a side note, after I had gone upstairs to change for dinner I noticed that the white edges of my hair had tinged red/orange. I’m starting to wonder if the odd hair bleaching changes with whichever power I use more often. I had been using my fire more often than the ice lately, especially during training. I’ll start to keep a chart to test this theory.

 

An hour later, Shadowkahn came to the team tonight with some good news. It seems that his contacts on the street have heard that Talisman is trying to contact a member of Demon called Sebastian Sarrazine, according to PRIMUS files he’s a Morbane (middle/upper management) of Demon and a necromancer. Yippie. Anyway, Shadowkahn heard that they would be meeting at the waterfront warehouses at 2am tonight. A little computer poking around told us that all 5 warehouses are currently rented by The Great Sarrazine Magical Shop (go fig) aaaand the warehouses all form up in the shape of a pentagram. Sigh…. magic…grumble…

 

Huntsman upon hearing this news took off to scout the area before we could move in. He broke in, knocked out the guard with a gas grenade and then began rifling through the paperwork on the desk as to what sort of stuff this Morbane of Demon might be holding onto. We had all piled into the van to follow and get to the warehouse prior to the meeting so we could ambush them both. We got a little suspicious of the “farm equipment†from Idaho and told Huntsman to check the crates. As he did so he started to notice that there was some magical residue in certain big barrels filled with “hydraulic fluidâ€.

 

After a little radio debate he broke one open dumping out the fluid and what should pop out but a Skelebot from Genesis, which then pulled one of its power rifles out and started talking about “destroy the intruder†and “all other Skelebots active attack modeâ€. I yelled for Huntsman to get the hell out of the warehouse, but as he began to move the Skelebot’s gun disintegrated and then as it switched to its secondary weapon (the arm blade, nasty!) and took a step out of the barrel, the Skelebot disintegrated. At that point we were all a little confused as to what the hell happened, I mean Skelebots don’t disintegrate themselves, they disintegrate you.

 

One of the magic trios got a good look at the spell on the barrel and identified it as a type of preservation spell. Which meant for every little glowing spot they saw, could be a Genesis robot of some type, there was quite a few of them and we resolved to get the bots out of the area so they couldn’t be used against us. Shadowkahn and Jet joined Huntsman in the warehouse to await Talisman and Sarrazine.

 

All I can say now, looking back at it, we must have been out of our minds. In a fit of absolute stupidity, we loaded another barrel into the van and Wire Walker, myself, Geiger and Slate drove off to the city dump to unload the barrel and see what surprise might pop out of that Kinder Egg. I claim insanity brought on by the panic created by finding intact Skelebots in a necromancers warehouse, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

We drove to the dump and brought the barrel under the electro magnet, I figured that the Skelebot, should it prove to not disintegrate on leaving the barrel, would be zapped by the magnet and get it out of our way; oh how wrong I was.

 

We set up a good distance away from the barrel and Wire Walker popped the top and floated above it so we could get a good shot at it if necessary. However, what stood up in the barrel wasn’t a Skelebot, nnnooooo, we had to have picked something different. Christ, we picked up a Genesis Mechwarior Mark 3, in ICT self-destruct mode. I had pushed the button for the electro magnet, thinking that might blow the Mark 3, I was so wrong.

 

Apparently Wire Walker’s personal magnetic field holds the same attraction and got sucked up into the magnet instead of the Mark 3. My God, how embarrassing for a scientist to freakin not remember polarity. As the Mark 3 stared it’s meltdown I flipped the off switch on the magnet releasing Wire; and flew at Slate and Geiger grabbing them both by the collar and took off away from the Mark 3, Wire Walker flying in hot pursuit.

 

Let me explain something Ma, Mark 3s don’t go down in a bang, they go out with a small thermonuclear explosion that is contained in a magnetic field generated by the Mark 3, it encompasses its targets and itself and then blows to kingdom come, creating a circular crater where it once stood. Only one PRIMUS agent has even been known to of survive a ground zero blast and even then Commander Stone took weeks to be repaired/healed. Needless to say we got to the van and got the hell out of the city dump as fast as those little wheels could carry us. After the static died down I called into Huntsman and Shadowkahn and told them not to open any more barrels.

 

Shadowkahn radioed that the warehouse had magical protection vs. teleportation on it and this would be perfect to capture Talisman since once she stepped through the doorway she wouldn’t be able to utilize her teleport spell. I gave the go ahead for capture (since we had the inducers in the van, we could easily keep her unconscious until we got her back to PRIMUS base). Shadowkahn and Huntsman made themselves comfortable in the rafters, taking positions for stealth and observation.

 

At 2am Shadowkahn radioed in that 4 living persons in robes had just stepped out of the 12-foot crate in the middle of the warehouse and were moving into positions to observe, with Salazar and 4 zombies walking out behind them, a strange green fog crawled out of the box following Sarrazine and completely covered the floor of the warehouse. Coincidently, on the floor right under Shadowkahn and Huntsman’s positions, they went to radio silence after that. We waited in the van a block away, while Jet played Gargoyle on the rooftop.

 

A minute after 2am a black car pulled up outside the warehouse and Talisman got out of the drivers side and went into the warehouse. What followed afterwards is just what we were able to hear from Shadowkahn’s and Huntsman’s headsets. Talisman greeted Sarrazine and cut right to the chase, she had raised a soul from the past with an artifact, but not as a summon spell but to contact it for information; unfortunately the soul manifested and Talisman was afraid for herself and felt she needed protection. Sarrazine was understandably concerned since the spell she did shouldn’t of had the effect it did, and he wondered if the soul was in hell somehow tied to the dagger or a demon disguised as the soul. Sarrazine said he would research what could have happened to the spell. He tells her goodbye and leaves through the same box he came through. Talisman begins walking towards the door.

 

I hear some chatter across the line saying to let her leave so we could follow her and all I can think of is the moment she thinks she’s in trouble she’ll teleport away, keeping her in the warehouse is the only way to keep her from teleporting. So I break silence with Shadowkahn and tell him to take her out.

 

What happened while we were on route from the van to the warehouse was relayed to me afterwards. As Talisman gets halfway to the door he jumps her and the shit hits the fan. The guys in hoods and capes pull out wands and start attacking Huntsman and Shadowkahn with spells. Talisman slips out of Shadowkahns grasp and heads towards the door, Jet swoops down and kicks open the door and tries to scare the hell out of Talisman, which I’m not sure worked since Jet gets blasted tail over teakettle over the car a second later. Slate takes up a snipers position and sends several shots into the building, keeping Talisman away from the door. Jet gets up in a rage (very scary!) and roars flying back through the door and right into Talisman knocking her backwards into the warehouse. Talisman in a fit of panic starts fireballing the warehouse, so instead of getting the chance to attack her, I start playing fire engine and start icing everywhere she’s hit with fire, it’s a large warehouse so I fly above the commotion below. Geiger makes it into the warehouse and jumps Talisman bear-hugging her and Jet, who’s grappled with Talisman as well; we hear a tiny gasp and Talisman passes out.

 

During that fight Huntsman and Shadowkahn had to grapple with 2 of the guys in robes. The other 2 remaining guys aim their wands at Jet and Geiger blasting them off of Talisman and into the warehouse wall. We hear some strange words from within the crate and suddenly the 4 guys with the wands start screaming; their cloaks have come alive and are eating them! The cloaks eat themselves and there is nothing left but the spray of blood. I call for Slate to bring the alpha wave inducer from the van so we can keep Talisman unconscious.

 

Huntsman investigates the 12-foot crate only to hear another strange whispering and he sees all the magic fade from the building, including the drums. So if Sarrazine was using a stasis spell on the various Genesis robots they will of all disintegrated once he turned off the spell. So we have no evidence of Sarrazine’s wrongdoing.

 

We gather all of us up, pick up Talisman and get to the van long before the police and the fire department show up at the warehouse. Which is good since we’ve committed several illegal acts in getting Talisman. Huntsman, breaking and entering, assault, damage to private property; Shadowkahn, breaking and entering, assault, damage to private property; Jet, damage to private property, assault; Slate, discharge of a weapon in city limits, damage to private property; myself damage to private property; Geiger, assault. Sigh. Isn’t it nice that we’re the good guys? That discussion about how we explain how we did what we did goes on till we reach base and a consensus is reached that we simply tell the truth, that Shadowkahn had a lead on Talisman and we followed it. Were not exactly lying are we?

 

It’s a long night, but very fulfilling, Talisman is in lockup at PRIMUS base and we’ve gotten a pat on the back from the powers that be. Minimal damage, no loss of life (unless you count the bad guys) and one known supervillian under wraps. Even better is that Miss. DeWolff has come out of her coma and is now sleeping normally.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

But I’m worried. What was Talisman saying about the spirit manifesting? Could this young woman not be Miss. DeWolff but that spirit instead? I’ve voiced my concerns to the others an to PRIMUS, which assured me they would continue their surveillance of Miss DeWolff anyway, since she is the only living witness we have to Talisman’s murder spree.

 

And what about Black Paladin? Did he really leave Talisman behind to survive on her own or is he waiting to come get her? And now we have Sarrazine and DEMON drawn into the mix. If it were a chemical combination, I’d say I was heading towards and explosive and unstable compound.

 

Tomorrow night is the ball with Tellios, the team will be there as “normal†as can be. So far my ID as Vi and Firefrost have remained separate and secret from the population at large, let’s pray nothing happens that will change that.

 

Well I’m retiring with a nice hot bath, a glass of wine and some chocolate. I’ll sleep in tomorrow since it’s nearly 4am now, I do want to look my best for the ball. I’ll give another shot at dying my hair tomorrow afternoon since the dye stays in until the first mutant shift after application. I’ve got a sexy yet conservative dress all picked out in a dazzling black and gold with that lovely onyx and gold set you left me for jewelry. I think I’ll wear my hair in a partial up-do to cover the radio I know we’ll wind up having attached to our heads, (need ear buds).

 

Good night Mom, Dad, I’ll tell you all about tomorrow, tomorrow.

 

Love ya,

Vi

 

 

June 10, 2003

Oooh, I love being who I am. We scientists have a very odd (we’d call unique) way of looking at the world; similar to Georges Seurat, we are fascinated with our dot, knowing the dot is key to the relationship of all that is around us. Renoir once said of Seurat, “the dots are not simply technique; they are a tangible surface and the ground of important qualities,†I’m paraphrasing, but you get the point Mom. Seurat's dots are a means of creating a special kind of order. They are his tangible and ever-present unit of measure. Through the difference in color alone, these almost uniform particles of the painter modulate and integrate molar forms; varying densities in the distribution of light and dark dots generate the boundaries that define figures, buildings, and the edges of land, sea and sky. A passionate striving for unity and simplicity together with the utmost fullness. Mutant DNA is my dot. Up close it is a single speck of color within the grand canvas, which is the human form.

 

I know I’m waxing poetic, but that is what is singing away within my soul tonight. I was amongst my peers, able to speak on subjects, which boggled lesser minds. Espousing the virtues of the protein data bank and the nucletic acid database, RNA solution structure of the mutant complex. Ah, it was magnificent; I haven’t had such stimulating conversations in years, I had forgotten how wonderful it could be amongst one’s peers, if only it could have lasted longer.

 

Though I imagine, it must have been like watching aliens from another planet converse in their native tongue for the non-scientific members of my team.

 

But such excellent ideas I have now! Dr. Quentin and Dr. Goodwater suggested RNA for mutation acceleration purposes (I danced around the subject quite well actually).

 

Many scientists believe that with the discovery of ribozymes it added to the evidence that RNA, not DNA, was the earliest genetic material. Many scientists think that the earliest genetic molecule was simple in structure and capable of enzymatic activity. Furthermore, the molecule would necessarily exist in all organisms. The enzyme ribonuclease-P, which exists in all organisms, is made of protein and a form of RNA that has enzymatic activity. Based on this evidence, some scientists suspect that the RNA portion of ribonuclease-P may be the modern equivalent of the earliest genetic molecule, the molecule that first enabled replication to occur in primitive cells.

 

In all honesty, I never even thought about RNA, as I said, DNA is my dot. I believe I need to step backwards and look at Un dimanche après-midi à l’Ile de la Grande Jatte without the magnifying glass.

 

Oh and what a night it was, our grand ball awaiting Dr. Tellios and his grand gift to the world, Tellios was more than fashionably late, of course. I had made sure that Rose Crane had a ticket and Dennis had a tux for the evening (after all when does a 15-year old ever get to take his mother out for a fancy dinner?) Wire Walker surprised me with a very elegant and somewhat understated silk tux with high a French collar to cover the gorget, the purple paisley with yellow and green accents cummerbund was excusable. Succor came in a nice tux, without the skates, thank God. Jet was dressed in a plunging neckline long sleeve gown; so blue it looked black, defiantly dressed to kill-or to tempt men’s souls; I’m not sure which. Slate looked fine in his tux, but you could tell it didn’t fit quite right on him; we all knew the armor was on underneath without him telling us, smart though, since the only way he could have it immediately available was if he wore it. Shadowkahn altered his face to look like and everyday Caucasian male and was dressed in a simple but elegant tux (not like I know what he looks like anyway). Huntsman surprised the hell out of us by coming down not only in a tux, but also as a black man! He had worried about his being noticed; somehow I didn’t see anyone knowing the 6-foot tall sandy blond white guy for this dashing, almost Denzel Washington looking black gentleman. I think we all cut quite the fashionable and tasteful group, thank you Lord.

 

I had called Shadowkahn into the study earlier for a private conversation. I wanted a bodyguard for the evening and had decided that amongst all of our freaky little darlings, he was the one I trusted the most with my safety. Even though I had learned some interesting things about him only a short time ago, Shadokahn had never lied to me, never done anything that I hadn’t seen as totally upfront and honest, when the others tried to hide the mirror, he brought it forward; he didn’t hide his past when we were confronted by it but explained it to us. Out of all of them, I felt I could trust Shadowkahn to do everything possible to keep me safe should the shit hit the fan this evening at the gala. Not like I didn’t believe the kids would do whatever it took to keep me alive, they simply weren’t adult enough to be able to remain focused. Huntsman and Jet would have been my next in line when it came to trusting for my safety; Jet probably over Huntsman because of her ties to me; I know Huntsman wouldn’t let anything happen but if he had to go and be elusive/mysterious on us I’d be SOL; Slate is still on the shit list so no way was I asking him.

 

For those of us who hadn’t really been in Millennium City it was quite an experience, like entering NYC or Chicago for the first time. Almost at the edge of the city the buildings spring up, there is nothing under 30 stories within the city itself. There are autoways everywhere, most of them connecting buildings at the 10th, 20th, and 30th floors; it is truly quite the masterpiece of engineering.

 

8 PRIMUS agents and 8 UNTIL agents handled security, on their best behavior; which we all knew was strained since there isn’t any love loss between our two factions. Another 6 suites of Italian Renaissance armor stood at attention (we were trying to sneak looks all night to see if they were cyber-suits). Wire could sense all of the wi-fi in the building adding to the security/surveillance. Actually Wire had commented he had had a headache within minutes of entering Millennium City, which would make sense considering how heavily wi-fied out the entire city is.

 

Over two hundred individuals were invited; reporters, scientists, super heroes, amongst that group of notables were the Vision and Scarlet Witch of the Avengers; the Millennium City Champions and the Millennium 7 (which is another trial group like ourselves, except we have more magic vs. they have more tech).

 

I never realized that supers were just as rumor-mongering as any old human, the topics of most of the conversations surrounded who was doing who and how. The War of the Immortals was also on just about everyone’s lips. Here are the latest rumors and confirmed events for posterity:

 

 According to reports out of the UK; Thor is dead, he had been summoned from NY to a small island off the coast of Ireland by a Catholic Werewolf (who knew?) where a 20 megaton bomb went off, killing them both. *Not 100% confirmed but close.

 The White Ninja is dead, Grey’s whereabouts is unknown and Black was severely hurt when they went up against Red Dragon for the second time. Apparently Kigeri of the Shadowclan Assassins, (reportedly to be Red Dragons son), jumped into the battle from behind and beheaded the White Ninja. *White Ninja is dead, 100% confirmed by his 2 remaining buddies.

 Taurus and Hercules fought each other somewhere in the Mediterranean. *It has been confirmed that Hercules died with the Minotaur’s great axe buried in his chest.

 Doctor Destroyer and Techophanes attacked each other while down in Antarctica. Techophanes had to retreat from Doctor Destroyer’s onslaught. One manned onslaught; Doc Destroyer took on Techophanes and his army of undead alone and won! That fact alone scares the shit out of me more than seeing his face on the monitors in that secret base. While Techophanes was retreating, he was attacked by an entire Genesis battalion (incase you didn’t know Mom, that’s over a thousand Skelebots with Mark 3, Mark 4 and a Mark 5 at the lead). Techophanes is reported to have been killed. Which makes me wonder what the hell Genesis was doing in Antarctica.

 Alucard and Viperia fought each other. Viperia is VIPERS major league weapon, she too is supposed to be immortal and as she is a nasty ass bitch herself VIPER doesn’t let her out much because they can’t control her; to a certain extent it’s open the box and run like hell when they let her out (she has single handily destroyed two Genocide Minute-Men, if that ain’t tough I don’t know what is). Although the rumors say that Alucard supposedly survived the onslaught, we don’t have much proof as the African village they were fighting in and roughly 2 miles of the surrounding area is nothing so much as a fiery smoking ruin; over 150 villagers were killed, fortunately most of the villagers escaped before the shit really hit the fan.

 There has been no word on any attacks on the immortals of DEMON or The CIRCLE; however, nothing has been heard of The Master of CIRCLE for the last 6 months.

 Mechanon has reportedly had more than one of him running at one time, it has been unconfirmed that up to 5 of him have been around and active at some point in time. Which could be anything from a malfunction to some bizarre psychotic AI plan we just don’t understand.

 The Catholic Church claims that since Immortals are out of the grand scheme of things according to GOD, they must be of Satan and therefore, their executing each other is fine with the Holy Seat. The Holy Seat also has 2 organizations that work within it to get rid of heretics and enemies of the Catholic Church, the 13 and a subgroup of the 13 called the Sanction. Incidentally, an enemy of the Church means anyone that isn’t following the Catholic Church. Sheesh, makes me ashamed to be Catholic, didn’t we stop this stupidity back in the middle ages with the Crusades?

 

We mingled around for the first hour or so drinking and chatting; that’s where we heard all the rumors filtering in. I spoke with some of the other doctors I knew, got caught up in several conversations about our relative fields. We sat down for the dinner about an hour after being there and lo to my the Remington Steel agency were at the round table next to us. Mr. Steel, Ms. Takanada and Danny Darko were easily identified; however, a young oriental gentleman, a beautiful black haired (non oriental) woman with a fan and an absolutely gorgeous blond sitting with them were totally unknown to us.

 

Steel, acting like the gentleman he is, asked if there had been any resolution to the situation we had discussed earlier (i.e. Tellios/VIPER wanting my blood). I had to tell him that we really weren’t sure, after all we didn’t know if VIPER had gotten the samples to Tellios before the base went up. Kimeiko Takanada was dressed like a dragon lady, quite the expressive figure actually and I noted that Dennis shivered whenever he looked at her, probably thinking about his last encounter with a Dragon Lady. Danny was having loads of fun photographing everyone with his “special cameraâ€, I asked for copies of the photos tonight (I’ll pay out of my own pocket for these!) and he agreed. I was introduced to the oriental gentleman, who responded “your a lot better looking without your armor on.†Which confused the shit out of me until he phased a ghostly hand out of the hand I was holding. I managed to keep my response calm but Lord knows I was about ready to jump out of my skin! Here I was holding the hand of some poor schmuck that Grey Ninja had bodynapped. I looked at Grey in shock, how did he know who I was? Then it hit me; they had hunted me down, so of course they knew that PhD. Stratford is Firefrost.

 

I said, “obviously the reports of your demise are greatly exaggerated†and looking at the two females asked Grey if the reports were true. Which is where I got the confirmation that White was 100% dead. Black, waved from behind her/his fan, apparently demons can not only change their looks but change their sexual disguise as well (I wonder if Jet could?). I refrained from telling Dennis about Black Ninja sitting within arms reach of him. However, the gorgeous blond turned out to be a Miss Angelica Gates; Jet and Shadowkahn filled me in that she’s an Angelic being (yea.)

 

Shadowkahn simply stuck with the name Kane and refused to give Remington any further info; so although Remington knew it was Shadowkahn he didn’t get any further. With Remington’s usual perceptive abilities he picked out who in disguise was whom, which I noted pissed off Huntsman, but Remington gave him quite the complement on his disguise skills, since the only way he figured out it was him was by process of elimination within our group, Huntsman took it in stride. I find it amazing the different types of people that Remington can call “friends,†he truly has a remarkably diverse cliental.

 

The evening was fairly quite until Tellios finally arrived. He strode out onto the stage to the podium, two incredible blond women to his right, two equally devastatingly beautiful brunette women to his left. Rumors I had heard years ago were that these women bodyguards had limited life spans and were completely devoted to saving his life, to the point of standing in front of any threat and dieing for him. I spent some time staring at the women, wondering if my DNA might be part of them, if one of them could be me, it would have been classic irony really, but I’m being egotistical.

 

Tellios opened right away, no apologies for being tardy, no explanations of the ladies at his side; so typically Tellios, indifferent to anything other than himself. Well maybe I’m being a little harsh, Tellios is a magnificent scientist and one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, and I’d say he is even more intelligent than Einstein. He simply has, what some of us has come to call, “the scientist mentality flaw.†I and many other scientists have fallen into this way of thinking; you become too involved in your work, to obsessed with it, you begin to not see humanity as individuals with souls, one begins to look at humans around them as nothing more than a future experiment, another lab animal to be picked apart and studied. There have been many times in my life when I have looked at that gray wash of humanity around me and thought; “I wonder what would happen to him if I did this?†How often I have crossed the line and looked at mutants and humans and wondered about the possibility of splicing genes, altering DNA, tweaking this and tweaking that; all for the sake of scientific advancement; for the sake of what, where, when and why. When you stray over that line of thinking for too long you become armorial, thinking how above everyone else you are, how it is your right to “fix†things to make things better, be damned that the thing on the slab your experimenting on might have been a human being at one point, it doesn’t matter, all that maters is the outcome of the experiment, you are the creator of life and death, God. Tellios is playing God and by all accounts, doing it quite well at it; let me explain.

 

Tellios owns the island of Tiagua, population 75,000; it is a sovereign nation recognized by the UN, it is a tropical paradise, where everyone is beautiful and perfect; beautiful and perfect because the majority of the population (if not the entire population) are clones. Cloning is illegal everywhere in the world except on Tiagua, actually it’s illegal there too but Tellios dosen’t care. Although the UN has listed 75,000 people as it’s population, the UN also has listed a standing army of over 1 million; makes me think that he’s got his extras in cold storage. Tellios owns MI Pharmaceuticals and several other companies that research pharmaceuticals. As I said, playing God very well. But in all, he’s a great man. Even now after meeting him all those years ago I got a little thrill hearing his deep, slightly accented voice. My God, I’m 35 and his voice still sends a thrill down my spine. Such genius, so unperturbed by humanities foibles, or at least uncaring for the lesser life forms; why cant they understand why I find it to be such an honor for Tellios to of selected me, my blood, to become part of his experimentation. No matter what I continue to do with my life, this body, another “me†will live on in a genetically perfect world as a genetically perfect individual, it’s quite flattering really.

 

But I digress. I knew his donation would be a great gift to humanity, but his distaste for the idiots of this imperfect world dose show through time and time again; though I kept my thoughts to myself, I believed there would be a catch to his “gift†and I was quickly proven right. Parts of Tellios’s speech are reprinted here. “The AIDS cure is not a complete cure; it puts the disease into remission, so long as the person takes the drug over an extended period of five years it will eventually cure them. His drug should eradicate the disease in roughly six to seven years. There are no side effects, although rigorous testing was done to try and prove there were, none were discovered. The drug can be stored for up to ten years and it’s complete cost, including marketing and materials is $35 dollars.†The CE had already approved the drug without any information of its chemical make up; however, the FDA is fighting its approval since Tellios will not turn over its formula for analysis. Which means that the USA will be sending requests overseas to fill the drug requests (kind of like the morning after pill the FDA fought for 6 years). Amongst the reporters yelling, Tellios continued. “I care very much about the world and it pains me to think that the world could not come up with such an easy solution.†Which the papers will have a great fun in reprinting I’m sure. Immediately after his announcement he left, bodyguards forward and trailing him.

 

We spent roughly another 20 minutes chatting with other guests (that’s when I ran into Dr. Quentin and Dr. Goodwater and we proceeded into our chat about RNA). The lights slowly dimmed as the hotel subtlety told us to get the hell out of dodge. So we hung it up and headed towards the cars. It had turned out to be a very nice, elegant evening. Then it all went to hell.

 

As we were getting into the hover van (which it so cool), an explosion from about two blocks away drew our attention. Before I could begin to assess the situation and get folks into some sort of working team, Geiger had Succor boost his leaping power and he leapt away, clearing the two blocks in record time. Once again, putting himself into the middle of the situation before we even knew what the hell was going on. I ordered for the rest of the team to follow and assess the situation while I got Mrs. Crane out of the danger area. I rode with Rose till we were roughly four blocks away, programmed the car to take her home, told her goodnight and sent her on her way with Huntsman and Jet as bodyguards (just in case). I’ve ruined the dress I wore as I shifted into my hero form and flew towards the commotion, trying to raise anyone on the radio (which appeared to be frequency jammed).

 

By the time I got there, it was a total mess; three limos were under attack, the lead limo had been blown to pieces; same with the chase limo, there was one surviving limo in the center but it’s front end had been reduced to so much rubble, I could see the remains of one of Tellios’s guards in the twisted metal of the drivers compartment, there would be no saving her. Another girl lay not too far from the passenger side, not much remained of her either. An occasional pistol-waving arm would sneak out of the passenger compartment and fire at the attacking skelebots. Oh, I had forgotten to mention that the limo-train was under attack by 4 Genesis skelebots and 1 Mark 1? Right as I fly up I see the Mark 1 “paint a dot†on Geiger, who’s pounding the hell out of a skelebot, and within seconds a missile drops out of the sky at sub-sonic speeds (we all heard the crack! as it came into range) and proceeded to plow into Geiger. It didn’t teleport him like I thought it would, instead it went boom. A plasma boom, apparently Genesis wasn’t going to take any chances with Geiger. The plasma wave radiated out from Geiger enveloping the limo, Mark 1 and skelebots. When the light cleared, the bots were unharmed, save the one Geiger had damaged, it vaporized. Geiger was unconscious on the ground and the limo had vaporized, leaving behind only the armored passenger compartment clanging to the ground. The rest of the team slowly came into the fight, thank God after the plasma blast had torn through.

 

You know, I’m starting to believe that were going to get ourselves killed. Our luck is going to hold out for only so long and then it’s going to go to hell. We had already jumped into the situation without knowing what the hell was going on and one of us was already down. Then the Mark 1 painted a dot onto Slate; as the missile came in I tried blasting it out of the sky but my shot wasn’t powerful enough to destroy it and Slate was blasted by the missile, except this one exploded over him covering him in what looked like a ton of marshmallow whip; I was reminded of the scene from Ghostbusters when Mr. Peck is almost drowned by the remains of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man; except this stuff solidified as it hit Slate and sealed him within a thick cocoon.

 

Two members of the team down. Shadowkahn tried several of his throwing stars into the skelebots only to have them bounce off. Succor had been holding back and I yelled for him to skate in and at least pick up Geiger, heal him and get the two of them back under cover; only to see another dot appear on Succor’s chest. I knew we had to get rid of the Mark 1 otherwise I’d spend all day trying to blast missiles out of the sky but I couldn’t move fast enough to get a shot in before the missile came into range. The suddenly a little blue dot appeared on the Mark 1’s head and we heard it say “SKADE Detected.†All I felt was the velocity draft rush past me as the Mark 1’s head turned into Swiss cheese; it exploded a moment later. (What SKADE is and what it means to Genesis will be looked into later.) I launched a giant icicle into the other skelebot that was attacking Succor damaging it; the missile that had been summoned up by the Mark 1 appeared above searching for Succor, it took a concentrated shot to take it down before it found him. Shadowkahn attacked the skelebot behind Wire Walker and punches through the thinks chest destroying its power source; Wire Walker attacked the skelebot next to him freezing it in place. In the mean time Shadowkahn finished off the one I had speared with the icicle. It was finally over; we had won but, my God, we had been pathetic. I had to land because I had exhausted myself flying and attacking, Succor managed to heal Geiger but the poor boy was still unconscious. The cocoon Slate was stuck in was porous enough for him to breath normally but we couldn’t break it open, it resisted all attempts to burn it, chop it or cut it off. Genesis must have an enzyme that dissolves it once its transported back to their base. The police and fire department arrived on scene, it took the rescue crews almost an hour to pry open the cocoon with the jaws-of-life.

 

Tellios was safe in the confines of armored passenger compartment, one of his bodyguards had the gun fused/melted to her hand and obviously she hadn’t been quick enough to avoid the plasma explosion. What freaked me out was that she made no noise, didn’t cry, didn’t complain; here she is with all that nerve/tissue damage and she acts as if nothing happened. That right there was proof to me that Tellios was playing God, to have created these women to withstand anything as his bodyguards; they aren’t truly human are they? Tellios was very happy to see us, especially since we had just saved his life (though I’m not sure it’s really him and not a clone, but…) I watched Tellios’s eyes slide over everyone, appraising, they finally landed on Succor and looked at him for a moment longer than the rest of us. Tellios pulled out a business card and handed it to Succor “call me we need to talk.†Tellios and his two bodyguards got into a police car and they drove him away.

 

Geiger was just sitting up holding his head and groaning; I walked over to him and asked if he was ok. He flexed a few times and said yes; I then smiled at him and cupped his chin in my hands, “I’m glad your alright,†I told him, “because your GROUNDED!! You are going to spend the next two weeks training, learning how to restrain that impulsive attitude of yours that is going to get you killed! You are going to learn how to WAIT and WORK WITH BACKUP!†I whorled around at looked at Succor, and yell at him “You too young man! Your going to learn how to moderate how much power you dump into people, I am not having this stupidity happen again.†I looked at the rest of the team, “now gentlemen, if you don’t mind,†I said, “were all going to head back to the base, check and make sure that Ms. Crane is safe and then were all going to fill out our reports on this fight and work on this little thing known as teamwork.†I radioed into PRIMUS headquarters and they sent us a car to travel back to Hudson City.

 

I am not making myself popular, but this idiocy needs to stop. We lost two team members in the first few moments of combat, if it hadn’t been for our luck holding out and that SKADE thing showing up blowing holes into the Mark 1, I’m sure that we would all of been carted off to Genesis by now. I’ve heard the kids tell Slate to just listen to what I say and then do what they do and ignore me, well that’s bullshit; I’ve tried being nice about it; I’m through being nice, were going to become a team if it kills them.

 

 

June 11, 2003

God what a day its been, I woke up still fatigued from yesterday, I had nearly exhausted all my internal energy during that fight, that was the first time since I obtained my abilities and begun training that I had gotten so close to passing out from using my powers. I found a note at breakfast from Shadowkahn, he has been spending time watching our last Talisman victim, Margery DeWolf. Were not sure if she might be still on their hit list, after all, too much of what went on during that incident is way over my head. There was also an urgent message from PRIMUS regarding the fight with the Genesis squad last night, and that Talisman would be available for questioning today.

 

I asked Slate to begin work on some little unnoticeable tracker bugs so we could place them on Miss. DeWolf. Actually it would be a good idea to have tracker bugs for use anyway so if we manage to loose prey during a fight we can find them later. Granted the bug might not have much of a range but if we properly utilize the electronic surveillance systems already in place within Hudson City and Millennium City we might really get somewhere. I was having flashbacks of Batman comics when that thought came up.

 

I rang in Shadowkahn and told him that I thought it would be best if he and Huntsman would interrogate Talisman. They would have the best possible understanding of what she would be talking about and they would also be able to tell if she was lying. Shadowkahn was reluctant to leave Miss. DeWolf but I assured him I would take over watching her and as a plus, during her lucid moments I could ask her questions about what occurred during her kidnapping and possession. Having that extra degree in psychology would allow me to ask her questions without disturbing her further and to ascertain if there had been any odd personality shifts. I would have to travel to Millennium City anyway to sit in on the briefing PRIMUS wanted on Genesis, so it wouldn’t be difficult to stop at her hospital afterwards and have the guys go to interrogate Talisman in the special holding cells for magic users in the Millennium City PRIMUS base.

 

I left Geiger, Succor and Jet training in our facility, with strict instructions to Jet not to hurt the kids; they were to learn restraint after all. Slate buried himself in the tech labs to work on the bugs.

The briefing at PRIMUS was mostly an interrogation on my behalf; the Commander wanted a full explanation of what had occurred. The main problem with what had happened is that Genesis had changed their tactics, 4 skelebots and a Mark 1 with a mobile missile platform launching within city limits (they found traces of the casings and grounding marks at a parking lot); Genesis attacks usually consisted of an entire squad of skelebots with a Mark 1 running the show. The missiles were tiny things, roughly 12 or 15 inches long, they looked like toys, but they were launched from this mobile platform at sub-sonic speeds, like a rail-gun. This was totally unprecedented, Genesis had never worked like this before and PRIMUS was worried, after all, somewhere out amongst the crowded city streets were a mobile rail-gun platform doing Genesis’s bidding, it wasn’t a happy thought.

 

Before I left to meet Shadowkahn at the hospital I stopped at ARTEMIS to do a checkup on what SCADE was. Unfortunately there was no real information in the database; although there were some notations that the Charleston Champions had a few run-ins with something called SCADE, there were no specifics. I sent a request through processing for someone to wrack Commander Stone’s brain for more information on SCADE; after all, if Genesis bots were “afraid†of it, they could be quite the asset to our fight against Genesis.

 

I relieved Shadowkahn at the hospital and sent him off with Huntsman to PRIMUS. I had them keep their radios on transmit, they could only receive if one of us pushed the send button, that would keep outside questions down to a minimum. I settled into the chair in her room and awaited Miss. DeWolf’s next waking period; while I waited I pulled out a notepad and jotted down Talismans answers broadcast over the radio; the interview was quite disturbing.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Here is a brief transcript of Talisman’s interrogation; Shadowkahn did most of the talking. Talisman was talkative but very arrogant, as I listened and took notes from my chair in the hospital, I could hear her words seethe with contempt and although she answered the questions her answers were vague. This was a woman that knew she had been used as a tool and was angry, but if angry with us or angry with Black Paladin who was to say?

 

Q: What is your association with Black Paladin?

A: We seek to bring for the antichrist the woman is the vessel.

Q: Who is the woman?

A: Her soul will open the way.

Q: What does the dagger have to do with the ritual?

A: It focuses the witchery we do.

Q: What is the purpose behind the altering of the victims?

A: The antichrist wants to be beautiful when she walks the earth.

Q: What were the Randolphs doing with you and Black Paladin?

A: They are lackeys of Black Paladin.

Q: Who transformed them?

A: I don’t know, they were like that when I got to the mansion.

Q: Is there anyway to reverse what was done to the Randolphs?

A: I don’t know, I didn’t do the spell; you’ll have to ask Black Paladin.

Q: Did the antichrist manifest?

A: Only partially.

Q: Where did it go since she didn’t completely manifest?

A: Wherever spirits go to.

Q: Why do you need a protector? 2. Your conversation with Sarrazine?

A: What? What are you talking about? Well it is always good to have extra information. Just like you are doing now, is it not?

Q: Where is Black Paladin?

A: I don’t know. I was supposed to meet him at a time and place but it’s unknown to me.

Q: Are you sure he just didn’t take the dagger and run?

A: He did not abandon me.

Q: Are you sure that Black Paladin still needs you?

A: Of course he needs me; everyone had needs, including you.

Q: Where did the dagger come from?

A: The past.

Q: Why raise the antichrist?

A: It would remake the world in a better image. The world would be a better place for the likes of us.

Q: Better image? If it were the antichrist it would be Armageddon.

A: That would depend on if you were on the loosing side wouldn’t it.

Q: What did Black Paladin originally approach you to do?

A: To contact a spirit.

Q: Do you know what Black Paladin wanted with the dagger?

A: To contact the spirit, the dagger has direct contact with the spirit, the spirit is the

antichrist.

Q: Is there a way to change the victim back to her normal looks?

A: That would be up to the antichrist, after all she is the one that transformed the victim, she

would be the one to change them back.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Shadowkahn then called for the guard and told them the interview was over. Huntsman radioed that he would go talk with Father O’Malley and Shadowkahn stated he would have to go off radio for a little while that he needed to make a phone call. I patiently waited watching over Miss. DeWolf and mulled over what I had heard.

 

Could it be possible that a soul trapped in hell could be the antichrist? I had been taught that it would arise as a new birth on this world, not an old soul. The more I thought about it, the more I believed that we were probably talking about Black Paladins girlfriend over in France and his wanting to raise her from the dead. What a horrible love they must have had for thousands of years later to be still trying to bring her back to him. While I was pondering this, Shadowkahn radioed in that he had confirmed they couldn’t be trying to raise the antichrist, that prophecies strictly state it would be another three hundred to four hundred years in the future that the term “antichrist†was not to be taken in the Judea-Christian context.

 

Huntsman went over to the church with Father O’Malley. The Father was so shocked with Huntsman telling him that Black Paladin and Talisman were trying to raise the antichrist that his accent dropped right off. Father O’Malley stated that Sir. Demorphant (Black Paladins original name) had indeed lived back during King Arthur’s time and had been gravely wounded (unto death) by Sir. Galahad. Back in that time Demorphant had found a local village woman that was a beautiful as she was evil and that together the plumbed new depths of depravity and evil that had never been seen before. The story goes that when Chantal found Demorphant near death she used her witchcraft to place him under a spell, which put him into a healing sleep, but the sleep would last thousands of years before he would be completely healed. Knowing that she would never live to see him rise again, Chantal committed suicide with the dagger and was laid beside him. There was a poem that was written about their love, “When it rains, the world is weeping for Demorphant’s love.â€

 

Father O’Malley went into a little more, but the jist of it was that this woman was so evil; calling her the antichrist was probably not too far off the mark. Huntsman told O’Malley of what had been happening with the murders and O’Malley assured us that Miss. DeWolf would not be attacked again. If the spirit manifests and transforms the person’s body, it is because the spirit is trying to take over and evict the current soul, but if the spirit finds the body not to it likes the spirit uses the dagger to destroy the victim. Since Succor told us that Miss. DeWolf was struggling with the dagger to keep it from plunging into her chest, more than likely she wasn’t suitable. Father O’Malley said that the soul of the victim would need to be of a particular quality; to have the capacity for great evil to exist at all, they would need to find someone with the potential for great evil within them, even if it wasn’t acted upon, the intent had to be there. I radioed Huntsman if Father O’Malley knew of a way to destroy an evil spirit, which I should of thought about what I said before Huntsman repeated it. I could Father O’Malley’s indignation over the radio, “souls are not meant to be destroyed,†he spoke, â€souls are to be judged and sent to where ever they were to receive their judgment, be it heaven or hellâ€. So I reworded myself (I’m so going to have to deal with confession this Sunday…) and had Huntsman ask Father O’Malley if a soul could be banned from being summoned. Father O’Malley said that if the dagger is what she used to kill herself and its part of the rituals, than having the dagger blessed, by holy water on holy ground would destroy the link the spirit has with the item and it could not be used again for its purpose. Shadowkahn had arrived around that time and asked if Father O’Malley wouldn’t mind donating a gallon of holy water so we could purify the dagger. We got a pint.

 

Huntsman thanked Father O’Malley and both he and Shadowkahn returned to our base. I flew in from the hospital; Miss. DeWolf had not awakened while I was there and with a consensus that she would not be preyed upon again I felt it was appropriate to leave her in the care of the PRIMUS guards and hospital staff’s care.

 

We gathered everyone around the planning room table in the base; Jet told me that Succor and Geiger had done well during their training. Huntsman and Shadowkahn told Succor that Talisman had asked about him, probably to hurt him for clocking her during the spell. For those who hadn’t been on radio during the interrogation and the subsequent conversation with Father O’Malley, Huntsman and Shadowkahn repeated each interview. At the last comment about needing a woman for the sacrifice that had an amoral soul, I noticed that quite a few looks briefly came my way. Now come on guys, I’m not evil, nor am I drawn that way. Yea so I experiment on animals and such but that’s a normal scientist thing; I haven’t experimented on people without their permission, I haven’t done anything illegal; yea so I occasionally feel that the world is full of nothing more than specimens to study, but I haven’t turned to the Dark Side. I couldn’t see what they were hinting at it was insulting really.

 

We had a long conversation about Black Paladin; he was still out there, with the dagger that would raise his beloved and all he needed was another evil magic user that could summon spirits. Shadowkahn figured that since, by all accounts, Black Paladin couldn’t teleport far, he would be using the catacombs under the Delecroix mansion. The old catacombs were where the monks would of buried their members during the time the grounds held the abbey and Shadowkahn was sure that is where we would find him. With some general reluctance everyone agreed to be part of the attack, we would begin tomorrow morning.

 

I watched Succor and Geiger shudder momentarily; I’ve read their files and know that the boys and I share one psychological disadvantage; all three of us are claustrophobic. Succor reacts the harshest, with even hating to get into any form of enclosed transportation. Now here we are going to go underground into man made catacombs, I could practically feel the panic radiating off of him. I’ll discuss with them, us taking a little anti-anxiety medication before we go underground. We certainly don’t want to have any of us freaking out underground, while the rest of the team are trying to get that dagger away from Black Paladin and to subdue him; it would be disastrous and potentially deadly.

 

At dinner we caught the local news, apparently the Immortals War is still going strong. Black Ninja was dead (Geiger cheered at that sound clip). One of Red Dragon’s other sons had taken the task of defending his father; it had been a simultaneous kill between the son and Black Ninja. Grey Ninja has fled, but now knowing that they never take a contract they don’t intend to enforce, we know that he will return to try and kill Red Dragon again. I could see little lines of worry crinkle around Shadowkahn’s eyes, but gave no other response to the news. Jet on the other hand, was quite upset; she had so hoped to date Black Ninja at some point in the future.

 

A call came in from Millennium City PRIMUS on some of the information requests I had made. Apparently Technophanes had accidentally run into Genesis down in the Antarctica because Genesis had (I underscore HAD) a base down there. While the humans of Genesis escaped, they send every robot in the facility out to attack. The “crunch all you want, we’ll make more’ mentalityâ€, someone echoed. Nothing yet on SCADE, but they would keep trying Commander Stone. Two sets of invitations came to us through PRIMUS; apparently Dr. Tellios was very impressed with us saving his life and had invited all of us to dine with him in two days. The other invitation came addressed to me, specifically, PhD. Stratford, inviting her to dine with Tellios in three days. Shadowkahn said that he’d still play bodyguard for me if I wanted it. Though with almost all of us (except Jet and Huntsman) on the invitation the day before, if he wanted something from us, he’d certainly have the chance to get it then.

 

We all went in our separate directions after that information came in. I retreated to my lab to catch up on the solution structure of the RNASE P RNA (M1 RNA) P4 stem C70U mutant oligoribonucleotide complex with cobalt (III) hexamine, NMR, ensemble. And to write in today’s entry in the journal. I hadn’t realized how important this journal is to me. I’ve kept my ideas in here, my worries and fears, my hopes and dreams. It’s my way of speaking to you, Mom & Dad and I suppose, in a way, I’m also talking to God. You know I’ve always hated the idea of going to confession to a Father, I’ve always felt that in the teachings God let’s you talk directly with him, why did you need a surrogate? I’ve always asked the difficult questions, the ones that demanded something more than the “it is a miracle†quote. As a scientist I’m searching for the link of God and man, looking into who, what, why and how. Somehow I hold onto my faith, even in these times, even with all that I’m seeing, with what I do! I mean I’m working side by side with a Demon, how can that be a good thing even though she “working†for the side of good to do good? Sigh, I guess I need to go and sit down with a Father or someone and talk about it, do churches council superheroes? Hah, could you see a Father in the confessional, hearing “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned, it’s been seven days since my last confession. Let’s see, I had to kill a undead creature that was trying to summon an evil demon…†Hah! They’d have you sodden certified!

 

I don’t know Mom; I guess I’ll have to figure it out though.

 

Love you both. Goodnight.

 

 

June 13, 2003

With the unpleasant idea of going underground looming in the damnably near future I contacted PRIMUS for a psychiatrist to help me get over my claustrophobia. I told Avenger Clark about our upcoming return to the “Mansion of the Dammed†and he put me in touch with the departments’ psychiatrist, Dr. Tieshia Goodwater, ASAP. We made an appointment to begin this afternoon.

 

While I had that planned, Shadowkahn and Slate caught the investigator bug about the timely intervention of this thing called SLADE and why it happened to pop in during our excursion with GENESIS yesterday and went back to the combat site. With some proper digging they were able to get a video clip of the shots flying past me, when slowed down it turns out they were actually fléchettes rounds, Titanium fléchette rounds, hundreds of them, flying at Mock 8x the speed of sound, fired from over 2 miles away. I about passed out when they showed the video, no wonder I had only felt the wind and heard a wine when the shots few by, my shields would have been tissue paper to those rounds. Thank God that SKADE is more pissed off at GENESIS than at the rest of us. Between Shadowkahn and Slate they found one fléchette, 45ft down imbedded in the road, it took a lot of work but they managed to get it out and bring it back with them. Slate took a scraping sample for his personal experimentation processes and we turned it over to PRIMUS for further analysis. Which lead to several other questions that popped up. SKADE does not exist in Artemis’s database; however in the reports we received from PRIMUS (not bad timing really) there are 3 references to SKADE in reports from the Charleston Champions but only blurbs of “SKADE was here;†as we dug through the reports from Charleston further, we discovered what looked like, for lack of better words, a “lack of information†on SKADE from the C. C. Information not deleted but for whatever reasons, glossed over by in the reports, like it didn’t mean anything. Commander Stone made most of the reports with a few from Professor LaDeane Shadowfax. Professor Shadowfax’s whereabouts and that of her son Damien are currently unknown, suspected to be off world, possibly off dimension, but Stone, we could still be grilled on what they didn’t say in the reports.

 

Dr. Goodwater arrived a little after lunch. I was unable to get Succor and Geiger in to see her with me, both of them saying claustrophobia wasn’t a problem for them…right. Succor never wants to get into a car and it’s not a problem for him. Sigh, hopefully they’ll come to their senses before we head underground and get therapy instead of acting all manly and in denial. I am worried about me going ballistic underground, hence the psychiatrist. Dr. Goodwater’s voice is very modulated, I have a feeling she always speaks in a neutral tone, but it was very natural and immediately comforting. She shook hands with enough pressure to not be “girly,†her left and right hands cupping my right, her nails were well manicured and unpainted. She’s a very attractive black woman, coffee “light on the cream†skin dark brown eyes that were almost black, her salt and pepper hair pulled up in a slightly schoolmarmish sort of way. She was striking, quite an incredibly presence and to be honest, I felt sort of dazzled by her, not sexually God no, but well, I just knew instinctively that she could help me, would help me.

 

Looking back on the session, it’s a little bit of a blur. I don’t remember a lot of what we talked about; we spoke about other subjects for a while, taking about professions and such. She drew out my concerns and thoughts never interrupting until I had finished my statement. I know we eventually got around to talking about my childhood, the accident that caused your deaths and what I suspected to be the birthplace of my claustrophobia. She suggested a hypnosis trial, to which I agreed, after all I trusted her, PRIMUS had sent her, if I couldn’t trust this then I’d never survive working with them. I had thought I would be a hard sell for hypnosis, in my college days I had put myself in for a sleep trial and failed miserably in the hypnosis session, but listening to her voice talk me down, I went right under. When I awoke I felt refreshed and, well, “different,†I felt different. I couldn’t place my finger on it. It wasn’t the “burden lifted†feeling but something totally different. Dr. Goodwater and I spoke for a few minutes afterwards about how I felt and she complimented me on how well I did under hypnosis. As I walked her to the door, she suggested just 3 more sessions over the next 3 days. Nothing had been “regularly†scheduled in the hero department, so I readily agreed. I am truly amazed at how good I feel.

 

Later that evening we managed to actually get a video call through to Commander Stone. What we learned was amazing. Although Stone stated that Professor Shadowfax had had a little more “personal†contact with SKADE, he hadn’t realized that they had left so much information out of his reports to PRIMUS and avowed to correct that oversight. It took some coaxing to get the living stone monolith to talk a little more freely about the adventures of the Charleston Champions, or as he had said Diversified Dynamics, LaDeans favored name for the troop. He was also quite pleased to see Jester’s son, Wire Walker amongst us carrying on the grand tradition of superheroing; I think that, amongst anything else is what got Stone to talk to us freely about SKADE.

 

GENESIS created SKADE; it is an AI, probably the most powerful AI in the world, with one driving goal, the obliteration of its creator GENESIS. He couldn’t remember all the specifics but he did remember several items about the SKADE androids. One of them can pass for human, right up unto the time the laser comes out of the head and tries to kill you; there were 3 types, one didn’t look human at all, actually rather spider like; infiltration bots that take on the personality and knowledge of those they emulate, and the “Hero†model that has actually emulates a superhero. The good news was that SKADE is out to destroy GENESIS at any cost; the bad news was that SKADE is out to destroy GENESIS at any cost. For whatever reason, the SKADE bot that fired the fléchette rounds into the Mark 1 decided to not fire through me but past me, it could of just as easily been the other way around.

 

 

June 14, 2003

Tomorrow all of us will be meeting with Tellios for lunch at his Millennium City office, he prefers lunches; this is our congratulatory for saving his life. It should be interesting, though since we learned of his penchant for unsolicited blood donations, were going paranoid, very paranoid.

 

Dr. Goodwater came by after lunch again. Again I felt relieved to be in her presence. She must be a mutant of some sort for her to have these “vibes.†Again we talked about life liberty and the pursuit of happiness though this time we spoke a little more a about my love life, or more specifically the lack there of. I must admit my first love has been and always will be science; I’ve had my sexual fling with various guys, starting in college going over the last 10 years, but no one man set my world on fire. Well, that New Years Eve with that professor from Germany was quite the blowout, but that was a one-week shot (giggle). I’m just not interested in dull men. After all, why would I want to engage in sex with something that couldn’t have an intellectual conversation with me? Did I just write something? Yes I did, hmmm. I wonder if I said “something†instead of “someone†when I spoke with Dr. Goodwater, Freudian slip, perhaps? That’s one of the reasons I have such a “crush†on Tellios, intellectual superiority is so much more stimulating, though I did have to admit that I’ve had my share of sexual fantasies involving Tellios and myself. I know I have a superiority complex, but what genius scientist doesn’t? 

I went under hypnosis just as easily as yesterday and awoke just as refreshed, with that feeling of “different.†She suggested that tonight in the Danger Room I begin testing the limitations of my phobia; we discussed how to program the computer to allow me complete control over the experiment. I will try it tonight.

 

****

My hands are shaking as I write this but I need to, it’s good therapy she says. Writing is a good therapy. After I had digested dinner and the rest of the team had gone to sleep or off to their various nighttime excursions; I went below to the Danger Room and set up the claustrophobia program. I created a maze to go through with various items to attack and defend against, including traps, several of which would be, if trapped within, enclosed blocks. These blocks would seal, I would then have to try and control my fear of the claustrophobia. If I couldn’t control the fear with my code words the trap would shut off and I’d get free. Or so I led myself to believe. I programmed the scenario and ran myself through the gauntlet; doing fairly well with dodges and attacks with both fire and ice, until I blew an attack on a target and the trap hit me. It pinned me under the block as the four walls went up sealing me inside. I was ok for a few minutes, until I realized the air was starting to taste bad and my flames looked odd; God help me, for all my smarts I didn’t remember the first rule of chemistry, I’m surprised I didn’t kill myself. There I was standing in an enclosed box with my fires still burning, eating up the oxygen trapped with me. That realization alone freaked me out beyond my capacity for rational thought and I blew the trap apart. The shockwave alone tore the steel to shrapnel and send me careening into walls, thank God not at full thrust or I would have killed myself; instead I’m badly bruised, cut up, sore as hell with a mild dislocation in my left shoulder, which I reset as soon as I had presence of mind enough to. The room shut itself down and the sprinklers came on dowsing the fires I left burning in the metal.

 

Freaking idiot, that’s what I am. I would have suffocated and nobody would of learned until they came down to the room for their own workouts, freaking, I.Q. of turnip. I set the computer to auto-repair to get the room back up to snuff. I either need a good dose of brains or to mutate some life support, I think the brains will come first.

 

 

June 15, 2003

I hid the damage under a lovely sapphire business suit-dress, dark stockings hid the bruises on my legs; fortunately I hadn’t damaged my face. We got to Tellios’s penthouse 10 minutes early and were seated by his incredibly proper butler in the drawing room. The rooms were tastefully decorated with nothing but the finest materials, books of every type and philosophy sat on the bookshelves. Through a large window we could see Tellios moving through his morning workout. I watched Shadowkahn with interest as he followed Tellios’s every move with his eyes. Tellios was fighting animated arrows, flying at him with amazing speed, he dodged or deflected each of them as they came, sending them careening into the statues in the arena, chipping and shattering them. Sweat glistened off of Tellios’s torso and, Lord have mercy, as I watched him, places tightened in me that hadn’t reacted in that way for years. I leaned over Shadowkahn’s shoulder and whispered, “How good is he?†Kahn whispered back, “better than me, he’s at least an 8th degree;†his honesty surprised me, but at least Kahn is aware that this show was for our benefit as much as it was for Tellios’s morning work out. I turned away to look at the specimens in jars in several locations amongst the shelves, honestly trying to avoid drooling over Tellios and letting that heat get the better of me. Tellios finished and disappeared through a doorway that opened in the wall of the arena. While I looked over two jars with organs in them, one labeled Lightning organ, one named Clear-sight organ, Tellios’s butler asked us into the dining room for brunch. There he stood at the head of the table clean, dry and dapper dressed, I felt vaguely reminded of the scene from Star Wars when Princess Leila, Han Solo, Chewbacca are invited to lunch by Lando, only to find Darth Vader waiting on the other side of the table.

 

His four ladies were in positions around the room; the one that had had the gun fused to her hand had a nice new shiny cybernetic attachment. Everyone was on their best behavior, ultimately paranoid but we slowly relaxed, well some of us, Shadowkahn going in full disguise didn’t touch a thing; but honestly, if Tellios had wanted anything from us he already had access to it. We sat and talked for a while; he was very gracious to all of us talking to each of us; especially as to why GENESIS was trying to either capture or kill him. Tellios explained that he often provides GENESIS with medical knowledge when they come to him. Tellios was especially interested in Succor. I should have realized he was never in fear of his life during the attack and I should of guarded my comments in bitching at Succor and Geiger for the stunt that landed Geiger early into the fight. Tellios heard everything I said and then some.

 

We asked him if he knew anything of SCADE and he supplied to us the same information that Stone had. As we were getting ready to leave I looked at him and asked if he had gotten the blood sample he had requested from VIPER on me, all he did was blink and smile, he replied, “yes, however it came long distance, by way of Zuric, UPS.†I smiled back at him, shook hands and we agreed on lunch on the 16th at Lucanios. We all piled out after that and headed home.

 

My third session with Dr. Goodwater went well, I told her of the fiasco last night and she actually laughed! After feeling mortified for a minute, so did I. We talked in earnest about how to overcome some of the training obstacles in the future and chatted about my theories on running a gang of diversified nutcases for PRIMUS. We laughed some more before she put me under. Again I awoke refreshed and feeling good. Dr. Goodwater said that despite the setback in the Danger Room, I had progressed very well and should only need one more session tomorrow. I was incredibly happy with this news. We decided to try a Danger Room session without my powers on just to test how well I adapted to the idea of confinement. I did very well, no phobic reaction for over an hour; I didn’t want to stay longer since I was bored out of my skull. Next time I bring a notepad and pen. Actually I got bored enough I started reciting the table of elements and then moved onto various chemical computations.

 

 

June 16, 2003

I awoke from an incredibly steamy dream involving Tellios and myself, hadn’t had a dream like that in many, many years. I can’t lie; I’m drooling over my luncheon with Tellios tomorrow. Took a long shower and spent the rest of the day catching up on research until my final session with the psychiatrist. Dr. Goodwater put me under again and after I woke up suggested going down to the Danger Room to give our newfound freedom from phobia a try. We ran another non-powers test (brought computations to do while I waited) I lasted over 2 hours. Then we ran the powers test, I didn’t freak out this time, we had modified the box to allow for normal oxygen flow and we ran it until I was exhausted from using my powers. (Snowmen keep for quite some time in enclosed spaces.) Dr. Goodwater congratulated me on a job well done and looked forward to keeping in touch for future counseling if we ever needed her.

 

 

June18, 2003

It’s around midnight, I’ve been thinking a lot about this afternoon’s lunch. Tellios is brilliant, mentally he is everything I’ve ever aspired to be, well, honestly, physically too. His science is pure genius and God knows he has given me some wonderful ideas on improving my research, but then, then I think about what he has done, or more specifically rumored to have done (since the law can’t pin anything on him). Illegal experimentation, cloning, murder; he has gotten so far along in life, rich beyond the dreams of Midas and yet at what cost? I was a struggling scientist, living from grant to grant, trying to do something good with my knowledge, a genius in my own right, but there is such a difference in our lives. Is conscience what divides us? My morals keeping me back? He’s accomplished so much, obtained so much; yet here I sit a product of my own design, living the life of scientist and super hero. Am I really trying to make life better for others? My knowledge could be used for horrific purposes, put on the block for the highest bidder any country could begin creating their own mutants for destruction; I am one of the greatest medical miracles of all time, ok besides Tellios’s clones, but no one can know of it. I cannot publish all my findings; I cannot patent my formula for fear of misuse. How much danger would I be in if the world at large knew I could create mutations on a whim?

 

I had started wondering why the government hasn’t asked me to create a new line of superheroes, so I did some digging and what I found only confirmed my thoughts that governments are dangerous. Back during WWII several military personnel volunteered to be part of an experiment involving radiation. They were told that it was to check the protection levels of new radiation suits, to insure that Americans military would be safe from fallout. The suits they were given to test did nothing to protect them from the lethal doses of radiation they were exposed to it was nothing but a thin layer of cloth. Why? Because the American government and military thought it would be a good idea to start creating their own mutants to fight the war, their own super powered army men, and they did it without the men’s permission, experimented on them without their knowledge or consent. Out of the 10 men exposed, nine perished, horribly, ravaged by the radiation. The 10th mutated, his base atomic structure became unstable and in essence, he became as deadly as the atomic explosion he had been exposed to; his name is now Gigaton, guess what he does. Can you guess who he works for? Doctor Destroyer, and even he won’t unleash the power within Gigaton, you don’t set off a nuclear explosion capable of shattering the planet you live on, its not good policy.

 

Now here I am with the knowledge to create stable mutations, even if the powers (right now) are on the roll of the dice. Can I honestly let that knowledge roam free and not expect the consequences to be ghastly? I’m still experimenting, still trying to refine the process to lower the variable of the mutation properties, but at what cost do I keep doing this? I can never let my knowledge be used for evil purposes. I’m condemning myself to permanent disappointment, there will never be a Nobel Prize, no recognition from peers; I’ve trapped myself in a loop of unusable logic. Why do I keep experimenting, why do I go on with it knowing that there cannot be a application that wouldn’t be destructive to the human race by those in charge?

 

Why am I being attacked by throws of conscience now instead of when I started the project? I’ve grown up over the years, perhaps my vision has widened from the narrow it had been. Perhaps it is because I look at Tellios and see what I could become if I let my conscience and morals slip, let my guard down and allow the pure scientist through without regard for others, I will become as much the void as he is.

 

I’ve managed to depress myself thoroughly. The worst part of this is that I must work alongside individuals that I am unsure of, whose personalities are very different from mine. I believe that if necessary, they would kill all threats regardless of their being human or not. I worry about the kids, especially Geiger being corrupted by the others. You know I’ve never associated well with children, even when I was a child, I’m unsure as to where the kidding ends and the serious talk begins. There have been several times when his impetuous nature overrides any impulses of self-preservation he might have, which drags us into one combat or another. I’m still unsure about Slate, he hasn’t given me anything new to doubt him for, but he hasn’t bothered to come forward to the others or discuss further his actions, it’s almost like he’s just biding his time. I trust Shadowkahn because he has never lied to me and has proven to be an effective bodyguard, it was so strange seeing him sit and talk with Tellios’s bodyguards at the table next to us, but he does his job well. Huntsman is still as elusive as ever, I haven’t been able to pin him down yet; however, he has proven to stand strong when necessary. Wire and Succor still give me pause, I feel like I’m talking in out ear and out the other, nothing sticks. Succor is much more likely to get himself hurt while trying to keep us alive, I’d love to keep him away from combat, I’m insisting he work on defensive maneuvers. Wire’s lack of understanding of our world is somewhat crippling, he looks at everything very innocently, though if I understand correctly he’s be raised in one of the most devious locations in the known universe; which confuses the hell out of me how he cannot understand some of the simplest things. They are so thickheaded and very into the teenage idea of 10 feet tall and bullet proof. I know it’s the same for children everywhere, we did it to our parents, you did it to yours, our children do it to us; when were young we always think we know everything, not realizing that the adults really are the voice of experience.

 

We have fought so much, and yet so little. So far we have fought demons, creatures, ghouls, hellhounds, robots and possessed humans. We’ve killed several VIPER agents trying to kill us, self-defense of course; we almost killed the possessed humans. But does self-defense justify our killing people? I’ve had a badge to hide behind for a while now, now everyone falls under the Act. Dose that mean we can kill any easier? It’s the same fear I’ve seen in comic book heroes, providing their morally responsible, your extremes would be Spider Man who’s very paladin like and wouldn’t kill, to The Authority who are anarchists but believe in setting things to right no matter who they step on. I especially worry about being in Jet’s proximity; she is a demon from hell, although she works with us to do “good†she is still inherently evil and made of the sins of the world. I fear we contaminate ourselves being with her. I’m continually worried by these thoughts, I need a spiritual councilor, I don’t know if PRIMUS can suggest one, I think I shall visit Father O’Malley, I believe that he would be understanding, he after all is a protector of the city, should he not protect and pray for us as well?

 

I think its time for bed. Pray for me Mom & Dad, how long can one hunt the monsters before becoming one?

 

 

June 21 & 22, 2003

I woke up later than I had originally wanted to after my late night insomnia writing; though I do feel better that I did last night. Today’s fight was one for the records books; I don’t think I have ever had such a day battle of ups and downs in all my life. Though I’m sure read back in the future and see these words and go “yep, been worseâ€.

 

Shadowkahn came to us this morning with a strange look, he showed us a news report stating that last night Red Dragon and Grey Ninja went at it again; knowing that the Ninja’s were under oath to complete their contract Grey went back. He is now rumored to of been killed in the final showdown with Red Dragon. The “Immortals Wars†appears to be slowing down, Dr. Yin Wu had resurfaced back in China, and there hadn’t been any further deaths. I had concern for Shadowkahn’s mentor Grey Ninja, no matter what they had done to us in the past; they had always acted honorably in accordance with their code of honor, I hoped for Shadowkahn’s sake that the rumors were false.

 

However, Shadowkahn had come up with a plan for finishing off Black Paladin and his girlfriend’s dagger in the catacombs under the mansion. We visit Father O’Malley for blessings upon our weapons and us; he also gave us a supply of vials of holy water to destroy that damned dagger.

 

We drove to the mansion and using the architectural designs one of the team had found, we decided to go into the catacombs through the entrance under the giant cross. Jet (or Dark Hunter) could still feel some remnants of holy power from the cross, but it wasn’t enough to deter the overwhelming stench of evil that permeates the place. After Geiger moved the cross, those that couldn’t fly descended a set of rusty handholds stamped into the wall. I floated down keeping my fires low but it was good enough for everyone to still see. Huntsman, Shadowkahn and Jet could all feel the evil still in the air. Succor had a case of the sweats about 3/4ths of the way down as the light above got smaller, but he kept his claustrophobia under control. I’m glad I had gone to therapy, I wasn’t feeling any panic. We bottomed out into a long man made tunnel, heavy rocks were used to build the passageway heading into the catacombs of the old mansion. Huntsman told us that he could “see†the magic in the stonework itself, the entire place nearly hummed of magic. He couldn’t identify the type but was sure that the magic reinforced the walls of the entire structure.

 

We walked for a while, finally coming to a large room, that broke into 2 other corridors, both of them dark, with some strange writing (or sigil) as Huntsman called them, carved into the archways of the halls, the sigil to our right said “summon†the one directly in front of us said “fireâ€. We investigated the stonework of the room, coming close to the archway and hall closest on the right. There, Huntsman spied 4 odd objects in a line on the stonework: a drop of dried blood, a small dagger, a snake fang and a piece of iron; under these were odd sigils he translated as “summon†as well and told us to avoid disturbing the 4 objects.

 

Here is where the age and treachery overcomes youth and skill, Black Paladin set his traps well. Geiger decided to try and get a better look down the hallway with the “summon†sigil on its archway and stepped OVER the 4 objects on the floor. To my eyes he didn’t touch a damn thing; however apparently something on him brushed the piece of iron. Next thing we know the 4 items glow, disappear and in their place are 4 demons, one made of blood oozing everywhere, a serpent demon with antlers, a goat hoofed Greek warrior with a 4 foot long sword and a shield and finally a iron demon that looks like it has scale mail for a body; they moved in for the attack.

 

Shadowkahn immediately leapt into the battle using some sort of claw hand attack against the snake demon ripping its torso open, the demon healed itself but we could see it was staggered. Slate blasted the blood demon and I fry it with a fireball. Succor came up behind me and I felt him touch me, next thing I know, I get this incredible surge of energy and my shields thicken. However while that was happening the blood demon oozed up to me, grabbed me by the head and planted a kiss on my lips, I convulsed and tasted blood in my mouth as it started to drain me of blood, healing it. I felt a blast of heat rip past us both and the blood demon flowed away and I staggered back badly hurt into Succors arms. I watched through dazed eyes at Geiger and the iron demon beat pounded on each other until Geiger grappled it, the iron demon reforming itself into thousands of spikes piercing Geiger, pinning them together. Shadowkahn continued ripping into the snake not giving it a chance to heal; Slate continued to fire at the blood demon and Huntsman and Wire Walker kept the war demon (as Jet called the one with the sword) occupied.

 

Succor tells me to hold on and I feel power surge back into my limbs clearing my head but I was still staggered and he tells me to stay close because he’ll hit me again with another “upgrade†in powers. I stay in front of him and watch as Shadowkahn rips the chest away from the snake demon. One of Wire Walkers “disks of doom†fly past the war demon, I take a chance and send a fireball into the war demon and then get the shit beat out of me when it hefts the sword, transforms it into a spear and rams it into me. I heard the meaty sound of bone shattering and screamed in pain as the spear shatters my humerus and pins me to the wall and for the moment I black out.

 

The next thing I know I’m wide-awake and howling in pain as the bones and flesh of my arm try to knit back together around the spear shaft because Succor, not seeing my left arm pinned touched me to heal me again. I couldn’t pull the spear out of the wall so I had to pull myself down the length of the shaft, and as I fell to the floor in more pain, the arm slowly closed up around the open hole. Succor came up behind me again and I again flared to life, but this time he increased my fire potential. I staggered up and tried to get an appraisal of the situation.

 

Shadowkahn plunged his fist into its snake demons chest crushing its heart killing it. The spear disappeared out of the wall and back into the hands of the war demon, where it transformed into flail and the demon advanced on Slate, as Slate was busy reloading. Wire Walker tried another spinning disk of doom and it “spangs†off the war demon careening down the hall past Succor’s hiding spot. Geiger punched the iron demon in the head separating the two of them. Jet attacked the war demon with claw attacks along its back and strikes with a huge fire attack staggering it, in its dying act it retaliates by transforming the flail into a war pick and slams it home into her shoulder, then falls away to dust. The iron demon seemed to pull its fist out of Pittsburgh and punches Geiger so hard the boy goes flying over our heads into the hallway with the arch that says “summoning†on it and into the darkness, we don’t hear him land.

 

I lit up; my flames are white hot and I sent a blast into the blood demon vaporizing it into gray ash and then turn towards the last remaining demon; Jet sends a blast of hellfire into the iron golem the same time I hit it with my fireball. Then it does something bizarre, it liquefies and moves again into the attack. Jet and I looked at each other stuptified, the power of both our heat blasts not only healed the iron demon but gave it its secondary form. It flows towards Jet, forming a blade out of its arm and slams it through her, the smell of charring demon flesh follows with it and Jet howled in pain and anger. Wire tried to magnetize it, the demon swung at him knocking him flat into Slate and Huntsman bowling them over. I figured since our combined heat healed it, cold should revert it and do it harm, so I turned up the ice powers and encased it a block of ice. The demon solidified and with a second shot of ice bolts it shattered.

 

Then all was quiet. Strangely quiet.

 

In the aftermath of everything a sudden calm came over us, over the area and suddenly a figure in samurai armor appeared kneeling in front of Shadowkahn a long wooden case in its armored hands. We could see inside the helmet, there was nothing inside. We watched Shadowkahn take a reactive step backwards and then catch himself as a sepulchered voice echoed out of the armor. “Let the Oath be completed,†Shadowkahn reverently took hold of the case and the armor disappeared. Shadowkahn looked up at all of us for a moment and then turned his gaze back to the symbol on the box, 3 green cloverleaves in a field of black. “My oath, my clan,†Shadowkahn said, “This means the rumors of Grey Ninjas death are not rumors but fact.†My heart went out to him; I had begun to assume that Grey was something of a father figure as well as teacher to Shadowkahn. Shadowkhan opened the case revealing a scroll and a Ying Yang symbol formed in clay. He read it to himself and looked thoughtful for a moment, rolled up the scroll and placed it back into the box. He took out the symbol and closed the case and then tucked it into his shirt. He looked at us and said, “I’m sorry, but my oath comes due,†and snapped the clay symbol in half. Jet shrieked aloud and screamed “NO!†she seemed to struggle with her own body and marched forward wrapping her arms around Shadowkahn and they both vanished in a flare of fire and brimstone.

 

We all blinked at each other for a minute or two and then from down the hallway he had flown we all heard a loud, “I landed in something squishy,†from Geiger. The entire episode dealing with the summons had taken God knows how long but it was as if time had stood still. The worst thing is that all I could think was there goes our two powerhouse fighters against evil. There was a collective shrug as the remainder of us ran down the hallway towards Geiger’s voice. I didn’t know at the time that Huntsman had lingered behind and had gone into combat with a monk zombie that had shambled out of “fire†hallway as we entered the other; he finished it off admirably.

 

Before we got to the end Wire sent a magnetic light source down the hallway illuminating the room Geiger had landed in. We saw strange tentacles wiggling from the ceiling with Geiger arms waving at us from below ground level; apparently he had landed in a pit of some kind. Huntsman came up behind us and commented that he had seen some more sigils on the walls, ones to keep something in, he said, pointing to the tentacles waving up above Geiger. Double-checking that Wire didn’t have his force field on to redirect his fire, Huntsman launched a lightning bolt into the tentacles above and we watched the thing writhe in pain. I launched myself into the air and flew towards Geiger’s flailing arms, I pulled him from the pit he was in, unfortunately the far wall was too close and I wound up smacking both of us into it. The creature above disengaged itself from the ceiling and started flying towards Huntsman to attack. Geiger picked himself up and looked down into the pit he had recently been floundering in and swore. I looked around him and stared in horror, the “wormy†things that had been flailing around him were small tentacles grasping down into a toothed maw, they thing had been trying to eat him. This look of revulsion went over Geiger’s face and he used a power we hadn’t seen since his time training after his “upgrade,†two bolts of energy lanced out of his hands as he blasted the creature in the pit. It writhed in pain and went up in flames.

 

While Huntsman dodged the freaky flying squid, apparently the thing in the pit was related to the thing in air because the extra dimensional thing in the air decided that putting its beak through Geiger’s chest was a good idea. Succor tried sneaking around the edge of the room only to scream as he almost walked into a zombie dressed in monks’ robes shambled out of a smaller hallway leading out of the room, I spent no time in blasting the zombie to atoms. I then turned and tried to fire blast (should I name my attacks? Komaha maha!) the flying squid but missed and wound up hitting Geiger, fortunately since my fire is energy based it healed him, but I was mortified that I had hit a teammate. Huntsman launched another volley of lightning into the flying squid killing it, and it floated to the ceiling as fried calamari.

 

We took a breather, letting Slate reload his weaponry the rest of us healing. Huntsman took time to really analyze the walls surrounding the room and came across a second passage, this one had stairs leading down. The one the zombie had come from was a long decline, we debated for a few minutes as to which way to go, I decided to send a giant iceball down the slope to see how far it went, we lost track of the light from the glow stick I encased in the ice long before the hallway ended. We gathered ourselves and talked down the hall, following my slowly melting iceball. After walking/flying the length of the passage for a mile and some we came to a door, and quite the strange looking door it was. While Huntsman peered at it trying to configure its message I did some quick mental calculations based upon how far we had actually traveled underground; I figured that by now we were probably under Lake Erie (that almost brought on a panic attack); I didn’t voice my theory out loud though.

 

The door had strange qabalistic symbols on it, symbols of holding, Huntsman said, and very old. However there was a new symbol on the door, the symbol of the raven, which we had come to know as Black Paladins symbol. Huntsman could also feel some serious power behind the door, he said, a lay line of some sort (which in magic terms means extra power from the earth, go fig) and a “huge freaking flaming pit of evil blacknessâ€. At that point the rest of us started a debate as to what in Gods name we were to actually do, finally it came down to, lets just peek in. Carefully (I swear we must of looked like the Marx Brothers) we all peeked in, the room was huge, about the size of a football field with rows and rows of bleachers with hundreds of monks, sitting, chanting. In the middle of the room, standing on a raised dais was Black Paladin, on the large alter next to him laying down it an appearance of sleep, was the woman with black hair the dagger clasped in her hands, presumably Chantal’s body. There were strange motes of dark black and blue in dark streams of light (how light can be dark I don’t know but it was “dark†light), Huntsman whispered, “summoning magic†to the question of what the chant and dark colors were. Black Paladin was chanting along with the undead monks, and for once, not dressed in his usual armor. He stood dressed in old style garb and he looked rather good, no wonder women used to fall all over him, he was quite the looker.

 

It was impossible for Slate to shoot him from this distance, but after further surveying the room and noticing the open beams in the ceiling above we came up with a plan. Wire would fly Slate up to a beam so he could be cover fire and active fire against Black Paladin. I would fly in with Geiger and drop the kid off in front of BP to start the pounding, Huntsman would sneak in to grab the dagger and get out with it, Succor would go for the girl (hopefully it was another victim and not Chantal herself, that doesn’t sound right does it? Hoping that it was some innocent victim and not an evil bitch from Hell.) Wire would help me take out zombies and led attack support against Black Paladin. It’s so easy to look back on what we did and actually understand the plan, because when we decided on it, it sounded stupid. We took off.

 

Geiger and I did well, until the monks stood up as part of the ritual and then it was like mowing very rotten grass. Body parts and fluid in colors I never want to think of again flew past us as I barreled into the zombies with Geiger’s body. By the time we got to the alter; Geiger was coated in zombie goo, I think we splatted about 25 to 35 zombies, it was kinda hard to tell actually. Paladin looked up at us heading towards him, frowned at us and his armor suddenly appeared around him, lance in hand, sword in the other a large mace at his side. He tried lancing Geiger and myself but I managed an evasive maneuver that kept us out of range. Wire dropped off Slate in the rafters and started attacking zombies; Slate took up a good position and began firing; getting Black Paladins attention as Slate’s first volley slammed into him. Things got a little crazy when Black Paladins Nightmare horse (the ones that breathe fire and have fire on their hooves) started chasing Succor around the room threatening to run him over, that kid and his roller blades barely kept in front of it until Wire was able to grab him and then both of them barely kept in front of it flying at full speed. I had pulled out a vial of holy water from Father O’Malley and was going to pour it on the blade…only problem is when I popped the cork, the holy water exploded, I was showered in shattered glass and glass was embedded in the palm of my hand, my armor sheared off by the force of the blast. My scream took everyone by surprise, and I heard Huntsman over the radio say, “I guess this isn’t our home dimension, the environment here is toxic to holy objects, the holy water is like a grenade.â€

 

Huntsman had managed to sneak up and snatch the dagger from out of the girl’s hands while Black Paladin’s attention was focused on launching his lance into Slate. I couldn’t stop it before it hit Slate in the side, but it vanished after it hit. None of us realized what had happened until a steady drip of blood began to rain down from Slate’s side, apparently the Lance of Unvanquished Pain makes an wound open. Geiger saw the oncoming crowd of zombies and used his “quake†attack, pounding both fists into the ground, it was pretty cool to see most of the creatures fall, some of them with legs snapping off, his attacks are good for group battles, I hope he starts using them more when we have mob situations. Slate was really professional about it though, he kept his sights targeted on Paladin and kept firing at him even as his blood seeped away; I must admit I’m very proud of him, I still have some misgivings and we still argue like cats and dogs but, in a pinch, in a fight, he’s reliable and tries his damnedest to do the job right. Geiger got whacked by Paladins sword and from my vantage height flying above them I could see his shadow get sucked away from him, we didn’t know what that meant until just about every trick or attack he tried started to fail, it was as if all his luck had become bad luck, which was exemplified when he grabbed the girl off the alter and tried to jump the length of the room only to whack himself in the head on the beams above.

 

The Nightmare changed targets heading after Huntsman to stop him escaping with the dagger, it bowled into him but Huntsman managed to keep hold of the dagger and kept running; Succor got the idea of using one of the holy water vials as a suppository against the Nightmare, Succor and Wire managed to get rid of the Nightmare using the holy water as a grenade against it, when it toppled over the Nightmare vanished. I reformed my armor (that and it kept the glass from doing more damage) and formed a long ice blade, stabbing Black Paladin at the neck and shoulder joint, I actually did damage but he appeared not to care.

 

It was very creepy, all of a sudden, Black Paladin turned and looked at me, I could see his eyes almost glowing in fury, “you will all pay for this,†he said; despite being comfortable in sub zero temperatures I shivered. I looked up to see Slate trying to get one more shot off but he slumped against the beam, fortunately not falling off. I yelled into the headset for everyone to make a run for it, the dagger was already out of the room; Geiger handed over the girl to Succor and I ordered Succor to find Huntsman and stay with him; Wire picked up Geiger dropped him off at the doorway, then laid down cover fire against the zombies as I flew up and grabbed Slate off the ceiling and headed towards the door; I gave the order for Geiger to shut the door as soon as we were all through. I could see Black Paladin apparently summon the Nightmare back to him; he mounted the horse and with a quick gallop disappeared. I shivered again, I know we have made an enemy for life, his or ours, Black Paladin will never forgive us.

 

Geiger slammed the door home before the zombies could get any closer and the team either flew or ran down the hallway until we caught up with Huntsman and Succor; the trip out of the catacombs seemed to take forever. Slate woke up about halfway up the hall, so I put him down and let him jog the rest of the way, the lance only does damage if BP continues to concentrate on it. When we finally got to the end of the catacombs and emerged into the first room, the girl’s body disintegrated, turned to ash and blew away. Apparently Chantal hadn’t been brought fully back into the world, and with our plans for the dagger, never would be. Black Paladin would only know is love again in Hell.

 

We made it back to the van and drove back to Father O’Malley’s. During the trip, everything Geiger touched or came within his “personal space†began to go wrong. He had tripped or walked into things as he had gotten to the van, tripped getting into the van, broke the handle pulling the door closed, the headphone radios went dead or couldn’t get a line, our cell phones lost signal, we hit every traffic light, he broke the door getting out of the van, tripped over each step to the church and knocked over the pews. I kept him from shaking hands with Father O’Malley just in case he over exerted and broke the mans hand. Father O’Malley suggested that with the removal of his shadow the boy was cursed with bad luck, we all looked at Father and said “no kidding.â€

 

After Father dragged Geiger off to a special room for “cleaningâ€, he did the rite for the dagger, submerging it in holy water, I was expecting some frothing or boiling of the water, but the dagger went quietly. After it was submerged for a few minutes, Father removed the dagger to have it placed in their vault below. Succor spent the rest of the afternoon healing everyone; we also used a salve that Father O’Malley gave to us to make sure that our wounds weren’t tainted by our exposure to the evil dimension. Personally after getting French kissed by a blood demon and having to pick glass shards out of my hand, I was pretty happy to get any blessings I could. We had spent all of last night (the 21st) in that hellhole and I was more than happy to be in the sunshine again. Huntsman spent some time talking to Father O’Malley about what had happened down there in the catacombs, several odd magical things were discussed that I don’t have any clue about and would prefer to remain ignorant of. While the rest of us rested in the eves of the church who should walk in but Shadowkahn, our reception of him was warm and inviting but wholly sarcastic, so nice of him to miss all the fun.

 

Shadowkahn explained that as Grey Ninja had been his sensei (teacher), and a member of his clan, it fell to him to make sure that Grey’s remains were brought together for the Reverend Elder to send his soul to peace. While he spent time in Tibet (after going through Hell, literally to get there) with the Reverend Elder, who explained that the Destroyer (as in Doctor Destroyer) had set the wheels in motion to destroy the Immortals, simply to see how immortality works. The Destroyer was also determined to see the last of the Reverend Elders clan destroyed, Grey Ninja apparently being the last. But Shadowkahn told us; the Reverend Elder said that “his†clan would last long enough to get the job done.

 

Doctor Destroyer studying immortality, so many good and bad dead, Taurus, Hercules, Thor, the Ninjas, Technophanes; all so Destroyer could learn. Talk about eggs breaking for the omelet; with as many times as Destroyer has resurfaced you could swear he was already immortal. We greeted this news rather somberly.

 

In the mean time, Father O’Malley had tried everything he could think of to fix Geiger’s lack-of-shadow problem and stated that he would have to stay until tomorrow in the special room in the church before he could, in good conscience, let the boy back out into the world. Dennis had become a living embodiment of bad luck, if would have been homicidal, possibly suicidal for Geiger to leave. We agreed and left him to Father O’Malley’s superior knowledge.

 

The ride home was much easier without Geiger’s bad luck sabotaging the van.

 

I am beyond tired; the day, hell, two days have been hard. I’m very proud of this team. In the face of adversity and strange circumstance, we did very well. We did the job and nobody on our side died, injured yes, but no deaths; Geiger is my only worry, how long it will take him to recover is unknown but Father will keep us informed.

 

Before I wrote this I composed my report to PRIMUS and then headed to the bath. I showered and soaked myself until the water went cold and then I powered up and boiled the water some more, I think I soaked for almost 3 hours. I have some interesting scar tissue, a circle where the spear went through the humerus in my left arm, the crescent and crosscut scars on my right hand from the glass, fortunately there is no permanent damage to the tendons, bone or muscle. Succor does an incredible job of healing and although it’s appropriate, I think we should refrain from calling him “band aid.†Everyone really outdid themselves, I would of preferred for Huntsman not to of snuck out, but he kept his eye on the ball and let us handle the damage control, he had taken more than his share of hurts in the game so I’m not going to fault him. There were some odd ups and downs errors and some serious flying trajectory mistakes but in all we did well. I’m going to hang up the pen and go lay down in my nice soft cushy bed and pray for a good nights sleep and no aches and pains in the morning.

 

Love you

 

Vi

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

And because someone asked here are the doc files of the previous game months

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Great stuff! I am only halfway through reading it. I was distracted by the word neutered. I am hoping this means neutralized.

 

Thanks for sharing this. Man, I wish I had kept notes half this good from my campaigns over the years.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Talk about someone whose life is the Chinese Curse...

 

Major Tom

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Yep they certainly live in interesting times. Considering for the game time only 4 months has happened in the course of real time a year.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

I finally finished. Great stuff! Thanks again for sharing. I really felt the fatigue and confusion of what has to have been the worst month ever.

 

Can't wait to read what happens next.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Oh, yeah, this is definitely some interesting reading. Considering that the PC

group is on Black Paladin's "Knaves upon whose a$$es to Get Medieval on"

list, has a member whose poor choice of words marks him as a potential future

poster-boy for GENOCIDE, and whose teenaged members routinely take

immense leaps from the precipice of common sense -- and let's not for-

get the fact that it looks like the team leader seems to be developing an

attraction to a certain genetic wizard with a major god complex -- well,

suffice it to say, I can't wait to see the next installment of the Firefrost

Chronicles.

 

Major Tom

[SKJAM!]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Some thoughts upon reading the thread so far....

 

No telepaths, yet Menton exists. Either he's the one eliminating the competition, or he's figured out how not to be zapped. Hm.

 

I have to wonder if the character's political prejudices have influenced the way the campaign notes are written, or vice versa.

 

Slate obviously has the hots for Frostfire, and she hasn't noticed yet.

 

If this were a commercial comic book, I'd be very disappointed that all the characters caved so easily on the "must disclose everything to the state government" rule. (As a RPG campaign, I can understand the players not wanting to have to come up with new characters.)

 

I'd like to see more followup on that last one, actually. An angry hero or two calling a press conference to announce their retirement in disgust, a superteam suddenly being very short-handed, opposition politicians making hay....

 

After all, it's a *state* law, so the information would be going into a state database, much more easily accessible by VIPER or VOICE than the Federal one (which is only safe by fiat, as far as I can tell.) If the GM is uncomfortable with presenting the consequences of such a database raid on the player characters, I'd suggest having it happen in one of the other states mentioned that had passed a similar law.

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

And the newest installment

 

 

June 29, 2003

I firmly believe I am living under the Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times,†but then again it seems to be the curse that all heroes live under, otherwise how could they become heroes? Today started out with a simple trip to pick up Geiger from Father O’Malley’s tender care and ended with running into Viper.

 

I had gotten up around 10, much later than my usual 5 am rise for workout and morning labs. I felt disoriented and groggy; apparently I wasn’t the only one reluctant to get up early after last night’s excursion into alternate reality hell. The rest of the team straggled in and out of the common rooms yawning with mumbles of “good morningâ€.

 

I started a new experiment in the DNA sampler, incorporating some of the ideas given to me at the news conference and the idea Tellios gave me a few days ago. The sequences will take 72 to 120 hours to run but it will be interesting to see what comes out in the wash. Nothing like a new experiment to get the blood flowing in the morning!

 

While under the psychiatric care of Dr. Goodwater she suggested that I try and find a place where I could relax, a mediation spot, to help me stay focused and relaxed, I’m supposed to set aside at least 1 or 2 hours where I do nothing, well nothing in particular at least, just relax. The first day of therapy, we had talk about how much stress I was under, how being new to command had started wearing away at my peace of mind. Apparently I’m not alone in the annals of commander stress history, not everyone fits into that position automatically so it’s natural for stumbling blocks and stress for team and commander alike. I’ve gotten better at the hard decisions and the training sessions under the PRIMUS computers has helped me get a better grasp on what I’m supposed to be doing, but that doesn’t make the stress go away. Meditation on the other hand, that helps.

 

So I kind of went a little overboard in transforming a storage room connected to my office into a meditation room/private playhouse. I ripped out the door and replaced it with a heavy gold brocade curtain, sealed the outside door, painted the walls a soft inviting golden color, put down a cream-colored thick shag carpet, installed natural light bulbs, put down low Japanese style tables, flung blue and cream silk sitting pillows everywhere, installed a copper “rainbow falls†floor fountain, planted tea and lemon trees, and installed a CD player with hidden speakers for meditation music. Jones gave me strange looks after I had walked by him with “stuff†for the umpteenth time, I just smiled and continued on my way, he’ll forgive a genius her eccentricities; after a while I made it into a secret agent game and had tons of fun with it trying not to get seen by him or the others. When I had completed the room I added one more item, my pièce de résistance, a mandala. Years ago during a medical conference in India I found this beautifully complex hand loomed mandala hidden away in an old antique store. For being over seventy-five to a hundred years old, the colors are still vibrant, the details in the design so finely done it reminds me of complex chemical equations, patterns within patterns. I fell in love with it and paid through the nose to have it. I had hung in the bedroom back in my apartment before all the moving for security reasons. I would study its complex patterns, before I slept, sometimes gaining inspirational dreams. I had forgotten about it until last week. Now it’s the only object on the wall in the meditation room. The overall effect is soothing and inspiring, like walking through clouds to gaze at the evening sun, candles for mood, meditation music floating in from above, the gentle trickle of water and my mandala to focus on as I lay back on pillows. My own private retreat within easy reach, I love it.

 

Father O’Malley called letting us know that Daniel would be ready shortly. I sent word around for anyone who wanted to come get him, to meet up in the car park. Shadowkahn, Jet, and myself piled into the van and headed towards the city. We arrived at St. Ignatius late in the afternoon and walked into the church, leaving Jet behind in the van (well she can’t come into the church anyway, she might as well watch the vehicle). Father O’Malley and Geiger were waiting for us; Daniel looked better but we could see he still only had a minimal shadow. O’Malley stated it was the best he could do, that the drain effects on Daniel’s shadow would wear off eventually. None of us were thrilled with the idea of Daniel being a walking bad luck charm but at least this was recoverable, albeit possibly painful.

 

We were just getting into the van when an explosion several blocks away distracted us, the plume of smoke and debris mushrooming up into the sky. I iced my way over towards the explosion. Jet parked the van a block away and we set ourselves into surveillance positions to see what was going on. Shadowkan taking forward position on the roof across from the bank (where the explosion occurred), Slate down near a line of mailboxes, and myself just out of sight down the road; Geiger, Jet and Wire Walker advanced towards my position.

 

In front of the bank was a squad of VIPER agents, their uniforms were new and on their shoulders was an unknown symbol, a Snowflake. I pointed it out to Geiger and he wracked his brain for info, but couldn’t ever remember seeing a Snowflake as a standard symbol in VIPER. We both pondered over it for a moment and came to the unanimous conclusion that we were dealing with a new cell in the Hudson City area. After all, they looked too new and they were robbing a bank, VIPER very rarely, if ever robbed banks like this. The squad had 2 big guns slung on harnesses; they looked like the guns from Aliens that Vasquez had carried, 3 large guns, 2 medium guns and two small guns. The team conversed a few moments over the harness guns and I relayed the information back to PRIMUS for an update on VIPER weapons. Apparently these were called “Brick Busters,†the Mark 1 version, the Mark 2 versions have power packs attached to the harnesses, and so we were dealing with weapons that had a limited power capacity, thank God. The VIPER team is holding up the bank, with hostages inside so we go into action.

 

We started in a combination of attacks; I launched a fireball attack against the three closest to me; Shadowkahn sent throwing stars into another. Unfortunately they managed to catch sight of us just as our attack occurred and managed to get up their force fields, my fire managed to melt one gun that had been outside of the field and gave everyone inside a severe sunburn but that’s all I had managed to do. Stars began bouncing off the fields. Two of the agents aimed at me and even with my armor on the combined force of the blast hit me like a jackhammer knocking me off my slide and into the pavement, knocking me senseless for a moment. In the time it had taken me to recover, Geiger, Jet and Shadowkahn had moved into hand-to-hand combat with the agents, apparently force fields only stop bullet type attacks, because those shields did nothing to keep the 3 of them from beating the agents to a pulp. Jet had grabbed an agent by the arms and splatted him into the outer wall of the bank, killing him instantly, Geiger had somehow missed his agent so Jet picked Geiger up and tossed him into several of the VIPER agents crushing them against the wall.

 

As I staggered up I noticed a man in a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, sandals and a briefcase casually comes walking out of the bank, as if there wasn’t a supers fight going on around him. I flew so I could keep an eye on him as he calmly walked between the combat towards his waiting car. I couldn’t tell if this guy was a plainclothes VIPER agent, suicidal, stupid or just plain crazy; turns out he wasn’t any of those. Geiger had staggered away from the agents he had smooshed into the wall towards the street and in an effort to keep the Brick Busters from firing at us, proceeded to utilize one of his new found strength tricks, the Earthquake. He curled up both fists in the traditional “HULK SMASH!†way and slammed them into the road, the kinetic force knocked over several of the agents, only one of the Busters managed to keep himself steady. Unfortunately, the guy in the shorts (who hadn’t’ budged a centimeter during the quake) turned around, looked at Geiger and yelled at him, “How Dare You Attack Me! Even VIPER Didn’t Attack Me!†and proceeds to change form into a guy with a Kendo sword. Shadowkan backed up and swore, we then heard over the radio, “it’s Kendo, the Kendo master, this is going to hurt, whatever you do, don’t anyone of us attack him!†Kendo then proceeded to step towards Geiger (which made his shadow flair to full size again, woot!) and swung at Geiger like he was aiming for New York. The boy plowed backwards into the agents again, knocking him and two of the agents senseless. Several of the VIPER agents took offense at this and decided attacking the guy with the wooden sword would be a good idea, this was incredibly stupid. Shadowkahn had been in hand to hand with one of the agents and was in the way when Kendo swung again, somehow, somehow Kendo’s strike completely missed Shadowkahn, as the strike went through 3 of the VIPER agents, knocking them all to the ground. Meanwhile, the leader of this strike team, a Doctor Kennison I heard yelled from one of the agents, has finally gotten his act together and yells for them to attack the demon (i.e. Jet) with their sonic guns. Now I don’t know if sonics would actually work against Jet, but I know they sure cause a hell of a lot of damage to me; so I gave Jet the order to take them down ASAP; however, she didn’t quite get to them in time and the guns went off, amazingly enough I seemed to be far enough away that all it did was ring my ears, Jet decided to turn on of the agents into so much hamburger meat. Kendo, who was also in the middle of the sonic attack, turned to go after the remaining agents, one of the VIPER agents somehow survived all of the blows that had destroyed his compatriots and was still standing. Kendo, turned on this agent with such indignant fury he yelled, “Your Dare Stand Against My Attack?!?!!†and proceeded to beat the living shit out of the guy. I actually felt sorry for him. The local police arrived to mop up the pummeled remains of the VIPER team and transferred them all to the PRIMUS lock-up. Shadowkahn and Kendo had some private words before Kendo left. Everyone in the bank was safe and unharmed and we were declared the local heroes. Kennison had managed to steal a hex cut 100 karat emerald, which was easily placed back into the banks care.

 

Honestly, I have no idea how the fight would of gone if we hadn’t run into Kendo. It might of worked out fine since we were doing well before he arrived, but boy he sure kicked ass, theirs and ours.

 

We took Dr. Kennison into interrogation at PRIMUS and that man began spilling his guts about anything and everything. He was a scientist, an inventor; he had come up with the Brick Buster guns and several other weapons. He was an experimenter, a creator, but when he had been “invited†into VIPER his technology had been perverted. Kennison talked about Dr. Tarn Kane the creator of the Brick Buster Mark 2 and of his jealousy because Kane had a better budget. He also, unfortunately, had been the inventor of the environmental suits for the government in Project Holocaust. Very proudly so, even though his suits were the ones that the solders wore during their exposure to harmful radiation, resulting in all of them but one dieing, Gigaton. This man was, in part, responsible for the creation of Gigaton. As he spilled his guts to the interviewers, including Jet in her human form, I listened behind the one-way glass. Everything Kennison had ever created had been perverted or altered to the usage of creating a weapon, I was disgusted; Kennison was the living embodiment of corrupted science. He continued to talk about his technology and creations; I listened to Clark behind me talking to Advisor Currin; Currin was talking about how Kennison’s work could be put to PRIMUS projects, Clark agreed with him. I whorled around in my chair and looked at the two of them incredulously. “How can you even think of letting this doctor (I used that term lightly) into PRIMUS? He’s selling out VIPER right now, what’s to stop him from selling out PRIMUS to the next group he gets captured by?†I yelled, I couldn’t believe it, letting somebody like him with the morals of a mollusk work for PRIMUS?! Clark looked at me and very calmly said, “he already knows he can’t survive in the outside world, VIPER will kill him the moment they get their hands on him, other groups would probably like to have his technology as well, we might as well keep him, he’s signed his death warrant as it is.†I was taken aback, of course Clark was right, I was being naive. “Your team will be responsible for transporting him to our facility in Millennium City, you’ll be transporting him either tomorrow or the day after, so get everyone rested and ready.†And with that statement Clark left, Currin following behind him.

 

I turned back to the glass and continued watched Jet’s fascination with Kinnison’s self incrimination monologue, I couldn’t understand why we would bother to remain involved with this man; however as I watched the two something occurred to me, in a way I had the same problem with Jet that PRIMUS had with Kinnison, the evil you know versus the evil you don’t know. I had often wondered why Huntsman and Shadowkahn, who were both out to eradicate supernatural evil, were willing to work side by side with a demon; I mean, why not just destroy her and send her back to Hell? But therein lies the problem, another demon would appear to replace her to fulfill the ancient contract, it might no longer be a problem for us, but it would still remain a problem. Same with Kinnison, we could let him go and watch another villain group scoop him up and use his technology against us, or we could keep him and use him against them. I pondered about this while Matt furiously scribbled notes on several projects Kinnison described, hearing Matt occasionally mumble, “he’s just like me.†I left shortly afterwards for the Supernaturals Division of PRIMUS to check up on our unwelcome Black Paladin guests.

 

I was please to find Shaman with Madame Edelstin and was easily brought up to speed on how the Randolphs were doing. After 30 days without the mask, Mrs. Randolph had transformed back to her normal self, the dear woman was in a state of confusion and panic, unsure of what had really happened; she suffered regularly from nightmares of her experience. Fortunately therapy for her was already underway.

 

Mr. Randolph however, had not yet transformed back but Shaman believes there is still hope for the man. Madame Edelstin has had a psychoanalyst come and talk with them and under hypnosis; Mr. Randolph remembers a childhood memory of his father being careful to lock away his anger. It is currently believed that his psychosis and physical transformation to the griffin are connected. Further investigation into curing Mr. Randolph continues.

 

On the way home I radioed everyone and told them about the trip we would be taking within the next day or two.

 

I rechecked the current sequences running through the computer system, only 3% done, I had had a feeling this new batch would take longer. It’s a good thing PRIMUS was willing to give me enough computer power and a large enough lab for me to run several different projects at once, ah the wonders of research in solitude.

 

During our evening “news and review hour†after dinner (we all sit down in the lounge, drink, read the paper, bring the rest of the team up to date on projects, outcomes and other tidbits of info we find interesting); one of the group pointed to an article in the newspaper; over the last several days a different building went up in flames every night in the 101st block of Bourbon Street. A combination of buildings within a mile area had gone up, some were fixed housing apartments others were warehouses, so far there had not been a loss of life. That article sparked (ha ha) a flurry of activity amongst our more Internet inclined individuals, sending Matt and Daniel into haze of bits and bites searching for more information. Turns out that that territory is currently under contract by the city to be demolished and turned into a wonderful maximum-security prison, bids were still sealed and in city possession.

 

Slate found that Teunonics Inc. was buying up properties in the area as quickly as prices plummeted. Daniel found that the police arson investigations department had work-ups of the buildings that had gone up; these mockups followed a path of the fire, which moved like nothing they had ever seen before. There was no accelerant used, at least not one that could be detected by the standard police tests; however, the fires originated in areas where a fire would not of started, it also moved incredibly fast, faster than a “normal†fire would. If the brand new fire alarms hadn’t gone off, (newly installed) there would have been many deaths.

 

Huntsman, Shadowkahn and Jet volunteered to go to the incident sites to check for magical oogyness. Over the radios, Huntsman reported back that there was a kind of not magic, but an odd energy form, sort of extra dimensional but not quite. Yes, vague is what you get when magic folks don’t have a clue. With Daniel tacking away at the computer still searching for clues, Matt sat at the other end of the library quietly thinking. Huntsman asked if anyone knew of something that could burn without an accelerant and move fire like that. My response took a second echo over the radios, “meâ€. Geiger, Wire and Slate all stared at me and I stared back and smiled sadly. “The few mutants with fire based powers would be more than able to set the burn where ever they wanted to, some might have kinetic control over it, others, like myself don’t have that ability. Either way, its relatively easy to burn a building down when you’re a fire starter.†I was very impressed by the silence that followed. Granted not everything had to be magic or mutant based but sometimes it was easier to believe in the abnormal than in the normal.

 

From the edge of the table Slate mumbled something, and when I asked him to speak up he said, “there are two chemicals that can create a fire that do not show up on chemical analysis, the government has access to them.†He looked at us and then it dawned on me, his file said ex-military but I hadn’t bothered to remember. I asked Slate if he thought someone he knew could do something like this, but he wasn’t sure enough to answer. Daniel looked up from the computer screen for a moment and notified us that Teunonics was right in the middle of the bidding war for the new prison complex. When I asked how he found out, Geiger beamed and told me, “I looked it up in the companies online portfolio.†Damn if the boy isn’t getting smarter in research every day. Geiger pointed out that Teunonics appears to be in the winning round of final bids along with, Austin Industries, Omega Corporation and GenCon (isn’t that a gamers convention?) We immediately scurried to the rest of the open computers to look up each of the other companies. Austin Industries dealt with medicine and of all things, body armor; GenCon does medicine, genetics, cybernetics; Omega Corp is well Omega Corp. they do everything and then some and finally Teunonics dealing with improving humanity (figure out what that means).

 

Shadowkahn radioed in from the doctor guy’s store, (I can’t remember his name, Lee?) Anyway he runs the occult bookstore where we dealt with the demon ghost lantern fish. According to his research the area was known to have belonged to a cult of ghouls back in the 1900s, you know the typical flesh eating types; apparently they lived in the sewers but were all wiped out way back when. I thanked Shadowkahn for his research and silently prayed that not everything we deal with would be supernatural based.

 

Huntsman reported in that he had found something bizarre he couldn’t identify. He described a section of floor and wall, L shaped that was completely undamaged by the burn, in fact it seemed to be a somewhat regular circular outline and right in the middle of it, was a single footprint; melted into the concrete with stress cracks edging out from it. He got a little more descriptive and the concerned looks started around the table again. Obviously this section hadn’t reached the flashpoint the rest of the building had, but there had been enough of a temperature change to melt the concrete and resolidify it to cause stress fractures, i.e. somebody that had control over hot and cold, more looks came in my direction. A few more murmurs went around the table and someone spoke up if we could possibly get a shoe mold of it, I announced I’d gladly come over and take the sample (anything to help exonerate myself). Finally, I think it was Daniel, said something about, “how many villains and heroes in the world do have control over hot and coldâ€, not including myself. I am very proud of him, it was a touchy subject but he was willing to at least dance around the idea that I could be involved in the destruction of these buildings.

 

Unfortunately he couldn’t hunt that information up from the PRIMUS database as he has limited access, I quickly called on the phone to PRIMUS and Artemis and asked if they could give Geiger villains/heroes database access, he was immediately rewarded with a flood of information, albeit temporarily. Surprisingly enough there are very few of us hero/villain wise that actually control both hot and cold, myself included. However, only one villain popped up as being recently seen within our territory, a gentleman called Fire & Ice. He had been a nondescript VIPER agent until there was an assault on the base and he had been exposed to chemical 49 and then the massive explosion triggered the mutation, yadda, yadda, yadda. He’s currently nothing more than a living embodiment of these two elements with no true physical human form of his own. Current known accomplices/affiliations is the Instigators; the group does corporate espionage, which fit the profile perfectly; accomplices, Overwatch, Lioness, Gears and Albatross. We plugged the visuals of each of them onto the main screen for easy id; turns out that Lioness was the silver cyber cat suit we had been seeing the last few months popping up and watching us.

 

Matt gasped and choked as the names and visuals came up and a panicked look crossed his face.

â€Any of these names ring a bell their Matt?†I asked; the boy was really sweating; it took him a few minutes to compose himself, it was suspicious. “Gears and Albatross used to be my teammates before I retired from the HAWKS team. They went rogue about the same time I left.†As he continued to describe what he remembered about his ex-teammates I did I quick pull-up on his PRIMUS file. Apparently Matt Slate had been known as FO, recon specialist with minimal weapons; his gadgeteering took some burden off of Gears who was the main gadget/explosives freak, but in reality, Slate was a second stringer, reserve usage. According to his file he had to kill a teenager in order to save one of his teammates, shot the kid right in the face and after that his skills in the team had slid downhill. No wonder Slate has issues, I pulled up his military file, while the rest of them continued talking about the HAWKS and the Instigators, and sure enough there it was right in his psych file. I have really got to remember to read these things more thoroughly. Simplified Matt’s profile listed him as very argumentative with tendencies towards poor jokes and wise guy attitudes when he’s under stress, low/poor self esteem, but overconfident when he feels himself in the right; vengeful and believing himself to be above the law. He has a tendency to find himself in odd situations and seems to have a sense about when trouble is about to hit in his vicinity. He holds himself to a set of personal codes of conduct and doesn’t believe in leaving a teammate behind, which lead to one psychiatrist stating that he believed Matt had begun to suffer from a Martyr complex as apparently his conduct under ops started going from FO to Rear Guard. Lord knows that he sure has taken the “I’ll hold them off while you get to safety†thing way too much while he’s been with us in a short while; I wonder if he’s suffering from suicidal urges as well; God knows that if he had had his way, he would have been the last one struggling out the door amongst the zombies.

 

I’m going to have to address this with PRIMUS and possibly MPAB, he may be a danger to himself and to others. I don’t doubt he’ll do the job, but I do doubt his capacity to want to survive doing it. I also noted in his file that he was currently listed as AWOL from the military. Apparently the same time his paperwork for retirement from the HAWKS team was going through was about the same time his team went rogue. He’s listed as still being with them. The little sadistic part of me thought about letting that stay on his record so he could get arrested; hell part of me wanted to alert the military and have them come get him right now, but I relented to the shoulder angel and sent through the request to PRIMUS while I was online to have them notify the military of his change in status. Score another one for the shoulder angel.

 

I pulled myself back out of my musings and back into the conversation as Daniel told us that so far, Teunonics owned 35 of the buildings, 5 lots after the fire.

 

We were all ready to get started into this new investigation into the fires, when I received a com call reminding me of our rendezvous tomorrow morning with Dr. Kennison and the PRIMUS prisoner transportation system. Yea, we get to play guard dog.

 

I radioed over to our misfits out in the field about tomorrow morning’s trip telling them to make it home soon and bid everyone a goodnight. I made my way downstairs, said goodnight to Jones and checked up in the lab on the latest batch. The “T†strain, I’m calling it in honor of Tellios’s suggestion. You know Ma; at 35 you would think I’d be above crushes but apparently not. I really do have the world’s largest old-fashioned gushing schoolgirl crush on Tellios. He’s gorgeous, intellectual, creative, gorgeous, did I mention really, really cute? I’ve had some of the best wake-in-the-morning-needing-a-shower dreams lately because of him. I’m assuming that since I hit my sexual peak at 32 and haven’t done a damn thing with it, its excess hormones and a whole lot of pent up sexual frustration. Why did nature give us men who hit their sexual peak at 18 and women that hit at 30? At our age were just hitting our sex crazed highs and the guys are looking for their favorite comfy chair. I would have had to go and make myself a mutant right at 32 wouldn’t I? I admitted it to myself a while ago, that’s the main reason I haven’t gotten involved with anyone is that I’m terrified that during orgasm I’ll “flame on†and torch the guy or go the other way and freeze it off. Wouldn’t that be an interesting headline, Don’t Play With Fire, man’s genitals burnt off during sex with PRIMUS agent Firefrost, film at eleven. Before that I never really met anyone that I clicked with, I mean there was a few times in college and then that weekend in NY, but I’ve been too involved with my career to really worry about it. But now, oh now, watching Tellios bat those darts out of the air…hot tamales. ;-P Snicker, but then again Black Paladin looked good out of his armor too, sigh, I’m just horny that’s all there is to it.

 

Crush aside, realistically Tellio’s personality sucks, he has the ego the size of the moon and the moral turpitude of child molester. I there is no way in hell anything will come of it; the shoulder angel wins again. He’s a villain, stole my blood for God knows what purposes (though kidnapping if possible was also listed), worked for various evil organizations for money, broken every cloning law there is, broke the laws of nature, duplicated himself and others breaking God’s rules, all the while doing it with a smile and a shrug. He’s amoral, supremely overconfident, and maliciously cruel and above all else, he is playing God.

 

Only He has those rights that privilege that gift. There had been times in the past when I had concerns about science and God, but as I grew older I gained better understanding of my two worlds. Science searches for answers to the universal questions; at one point all questions were once spiritual. Since the beginning of time, spirituality and religion had been called on to fill in the gaps that science did not understand. The rising and setting of the sun was once attributed to Helios and a flaming chariot. Earthquakes and tidal waves were the wrath of Poseidon. Science has now proven those gods to be false idols. Since has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask. There are only a few questions left, and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe? Originally there was a clash of two philosophical titans, and unsettling blur of opposing forces, but now, if one is spiritual in both paths you see physics and sciences as God’s natural law. Try reading The God Particle, or God: The Evidence or even The Tao of Physics and not find His grace in what we do. Tellios is wrong, he will always be wrong, regardless of my physical feelings; my soul will always know the difference. Such is the fun in playing “grown up†for the boys, I can act all commando but what is inside will not change.

 

I’m laying on my back right now staring between the keyboard and the mandala, I shouldn’t of brought the laptop into my meditation room but I wanted to finish before I zonked out on the pillows. So much to think on, so much to do; I know one thing though, I’ve been granted a gift, it is my choice how to use it and I chose to use it for good.

 

Night Ma, night Dad, sleep well.

 

June 30, 2003

I believe we will never have to do babysitting/transportation duty again. God, what an incredible screw up this was, just about everything that could of gone wrong did, Murphy’s Law struck with lightning precision.

 

Huntsman, Shadowkah, Jet, Slate, Geiger, Wire and myself arrived early for the transport, but that was a good thing since the times were changed at the last minute to avoid someone using the previous schedule for attack purposes. Oh how wrong we were, error number 1. Jet looked at me as we were piling into the vans and asked, “if we are attacked do you want me to keep Dr. Kennison out of their hands?†I agreed, we were supposed to protect him after all, mistake number 2. We piled into two unmarked vans; Slate driving, Geiger, Wire and Shadowkahn in the rear van; Huntsman driving, Jet, Succor and myself with Dr. Kennison in the lead van. As we drove through the city we switched positions several times to avoid anyone getting lock on which van Kennison was in. We did everything by the book, for all the good it did, mistake number 3.

 

Between National Boulevard and Victoria Avenue the vans went dead, flat dead, all electronics equipment went dead, much to Slate and Wire’s annoyance; the vans coasted to a stop. Suddenly the vans rocked violently as the feet (connected to the rest of) a Genocide Minute Man land in front of Slate’s van. A loud metallic voice announced for the world to hear “RELEASE DR. KENNISON,†we cringed, so much for avoiding an attack. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, there was a bright flash to our left and what to our wondering eyes should appear but 4 Genesis skelebots and a Mark 3! Yippie! From the Mark 3 we hear “PRIMARY ACQUISITION MODE NOW TANGO ALPHA 4.â€

 

I looked out the windows at the Genocide 50ft mutant hating murdering robot trying for Kennison but also the Genesis skelebot team and yelled at them both, “why don’t you two fight it out amongst yourselves first to see who gets Kinnison and we’ll fight the winner of that battle!†Needless to say they didn’t go for my suggestion, needless to say, life was suddenly that much more fucked up. Radios are dead because of the Minuteman’s dampening field, cant call for assistance; say hello to battle mode, welcome to pain central, how can I help you.

 

Well Geiger, Wire, Shadowkahn and Slate probably did the smartest thing possible and jumped from their van into combat. Geiger wound up a powerful punch and rammed right into the Minute Man’s leg; it responded by picking up the van and hammering it into Geiger like a child with a rock smashing a bug. Slate had rolled to the ground and came up firing at the skelebots, Wire did something to the Mark 3, Shadowkahn attacked one of the other skelebots and to wind it up, Huntsman (from our van) send a lightning bolt into the Mark 3 (after making sure it wouldn’t redirect into Wire).

 

Jet looks at me and asks if she should take care of Dr. Kennison; I, watching the fight through the van windows and not knowing the proper etiquette in giving commands to demons tell her, yes, error number 2. Jet goes to full freak mode and sends both claws rending into Dr. Kinnison. I see Huntsman jerk upright and lean back towards us as Kennison screams for his life. I froze. I swear all of a sudden I couldn’t think, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; mostly I think, on some level, I couldn’t believe that I had been so naive about Jet, she had done everything else up to this point on our level, I had begun to forget what I was dealing with. Now, suddenly there it was in full bloody blazing infernal glory. I screamed “NO!! DON’T KILL HIM!!!†at the top of my lungs at Jet, which stopped her claws in mid strike. I howled at her, “Your orders are to keep him alive at any cost, do you understand me! You are to protect him with your life!†Which was a good thing, because at that moment the entire right side of the van peeled outwards, exposing the three of us to the two skelebots that had opened it up like a sardine can.

 

In the street, Wire got a good enough shot for his “Frisbee of Doom†to rip through two skelebots, one of them crumpled to the ground, the other one followed shortly after Huntsman sent a bolt of lighting into it. Unfortunately, the Mark 3 decided that Huntsman was too much of a threat and blasted him with one of its arm cannons, knocking him backwards and into unconsciousness.

 

While I tried to staunch Kinnison’s bleeding, Jet steppes over us both and hellblasts the 2 skelebots that opened the van up. Over her shoulder I see one of them start to spark from wiring that had been exposed, my anger must of fueled my attack because I aimed a hand at it and send a fireball over Jet into it roasting it completely; 1 bot down, 3 more to go or so I thought.

 

Then from overhead we hear the Minuteman start ticking off our names, and apparently it decides that Wire is the most dangerous to it (duh he manipulates magnetism), lifts its hand and from its palm a cord shoots out towards Wire snaring and electrocuting him, Succor heads to Wire’s rescue.

 

Geiger, tired of being on the receiving end of the Minuteman’s pounding, picked up the van and returned the favor by leaping up into the air and slamming the van into the Minuteman’s chest, putting a huge frigging dent into its torso, cracking the armor and actually staggering it back a pace. Totally impressive, way to go Geiger!

 

It was hard to keep up with everything after that, I caught up with everyone’s accounts as the shit hit the fan all at once. While Succor skated over to Huntsman prone body to heal him; the skelebot I though I had fried completed stands back up grabs Kinnison out of my hands and starts to make a run for it, past the Minuteman’s energy dampening field (I forgot to mention that it stops teleportation as well); Shadowkahn leapt over to the Mark 3 to start taking it out with his magic claws; Wire had gotten out of the tangle and tried to attack the bot holding Kinnison but missed; Jet launched herself into the remaining skelebot and began tearing into it like a kid with a Christmas package; Slate shoots one of the other remaining skelebots destroying it; Huntsman waking up from Succors care, launches another lightning bolt into the Mark 3; the Minuteman launches a net at Geiger pinning him to the ground; I fly after the skelebot and rather deftly get Kinnison out of its arms as I blast it for the final time destroying it; Succor gets over to Geiger and boosts his strength enough to rip out of the net; Slate seeing one more bot near him leaps up with a kick that punches through the torso of the skelebot destroying it (well he told me he was strong, but I didn’t believe it!); the skelebot Jet was tearing into blasts apart sending her reeling backwards and into unconsciousness; I hear the Minuteman rotating through weapons before I feel the sonic blast tear through me as I raced past its legs with Kinnison in arms, I tumbled for a moment but kept my flight up, as I got further away from the Minuteman I felt the blood start to crawl out my ears and nose from the damage (my mutant form is particularly venerable to sonics); Geiger seeing the Minuteman distracted by trying to kill me leaps again to the attack and focusing on the damage in the armor sends a devastating punch into it, destroying the Minuteman, unfortunately it’s head launches off and although Huntsman tried to destroy it misses, so it soared away to make its report to Genocide.

 

Amidst all of this happening, one final shock awaited us; the Marks have a self-destruct mode that is devastating to everything within its vicinity once it takes enough damage to destroy it; as a final “fuck you†from Genesis to whatever might in hand to hand combat with it, a force field bubble erupts around the Mark to contain the blast and keep its victim in. Huntsman’s last blast into the Mark 3 was apparently enough to set off its self-destruct, trapping Shadowkahn inside the bubble with it. In less than a minute Shadowkah would be vaporized along with the Mark 3. As we regrouped at the feet of the defunct Minuteman, we watched in dismay as Shadowkahn made several attempts at forcing his way out of the field, to no avail. Someone yelled, “We need to blast the shield to get him out,†and as guns and arms rose to fire, I commanded them to stop; everyone looked at me in horror. I could barely hear myself speak but I know they all heard me, as I told them why we couldn’t help. “If we break the shield around the Mark 3, we’ll be responsible for the destruction of this area filled with civilians. The field contains the blast; it’s powerful enough to destroy several blocks if unchecked. Shadowkahn will have to get himself out of it somehow or he dies with it.†Although the radios between all of us were dead, Shadowkahn was close enough to hear us; he nodded and went back to work trying to find his own way out. Below his feet was a manhole cover leading to the sewers; someone suggested that he try for escape or at least some protection that way and Shadowkahn headed below ground, all we could do was wait.

 

Command means you make the hard decisions, no matter how painful those might be. I knew the Mark 3’s force-field was a sphere and would enclose the ground, even the pipes underneath it; I knew that the only change Shadowkahn had was if he managed to somehow give himself a break in the field big enough to get himself out; otherwise, the manhole cover and the road would give him no cover at all, it would all vaporize with the Mark 3 and him along with it. Succor healed Kinnison and me as we watched in tense silence. I realized how distraught I was at the prospect of loosing Shadowkahn; he was not only a teammate but also a friend. Out of all of the “magic†folks, he and I had formed a relationship; we enjoyed each others company, sometimes spent time together away from the “office;†he had accepted the honor of being my bodyguard and chaperone without complaint and had actually remarked about how much fun he had trying to keep me out of trouble, and to a certain extent, even though he did not need to remain bodyguard after those times, he still seemed to watch out for me. That damned sob line from Star Trek went through my mind as I closed my eyes to the brilliance of the blast and prayed; “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one,†I had cursed the day I had finally understood it, I understood what command meant and damned if I didn’t hate it all.

 

The glow and the aftermath faded quickly, leaving a perfectly scooped crater into the sewer lines of the city, no body, no bot, nothing left behind. We silently walked towards the hole peering into the darkness and I fervently prayed again that somehow Shadowkahn had gotten away. In the distance we could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles coming our way, finally somebody decided to come to assist. Well you can’t blame the normals, why would they want to get hurt fighting super freaks? It seems to be the curse of heroes to always arrive on the scene first, we always take the brunt of the damage before the normals make it, and I guess its only fair, though none of us are Superman. We all hear through the crackling headsets PRIMUS stating their ETA is 5 minutes and I quietly tell them to make sure they bring along an ambulance for Kinnison. We stared down through the hole at the sewer water rushing past below, all in a state of somber shock, when echoing from below, we here Shadowkahn’s voice saying “can I get a hand up please?†Shadowkahn stares up from the edge of the cut pipelines, soaked, smelly and beaten terribly. I don’t remember who got him out of there but I do remember the hugs and pats on the back as we congratulated him on his amazing survival skills and incredible luck. I don’t think I had ever been so happy to see anyone in my life. He spoke briefly of concentrating all of his attacks on one point at the base of the bubble, he was able to disrupt it briefly enough for him to fall through before it resealed just before the Mark 3 blew. The strain of the attacks and the concussion from the blast had nock him unconscious for a minute or two, which had allowed us to gather at the hole and begin to mourn him.

 

Shadowkahn looked at me for a moment and I stared back at his eyes, “I am so glad your alive,†I said embarrassed and blushing from relief (thank God you cant see that through the ice), I turned it into a joke and grinned, “I need an instruction manual on the care and feeding of your pet demon, if you don’t mind.†I could see the edges of his eyes crinkle up in laughter, “you know, I was going to talk to you about how to word your commands better.†We all laughed then, and cradling our wounded and unconscious, (Jet had apparently taken a lot more damage than we had originally thought since she remained unconscious the rest of the evening); sat down within the remains of our battle and waited for the authorities to arrive.

 

Kinnison was in a state of shock and was rushed to the emergency room for immediate surgery, his next waking moment, according to the nurses was “Keep that thing away from me!!†Needless to say, I don’t think were going to be doing transport duty with Jet again.

 

Also, needless to say, I got one hell of a chewing out from Clark about Jet and my use of “non-specific commands,†with her. I vowed it would never happen again and that I would put in a call to her handler within minutes of getting out of Clark’s office (and reattaching my chewed off ass). I actually did call her within minutes of getting out of the office and she was able to explain to me several points on how to verbally control Jet. The rules were actually fairly easy to remember, give your orders clearly and simply to the demon, anything too involved and they start to find loopholes. Ok, so that was easy, now how to convey that.

 

The team headed home bruised, battered and bloody with folks retiring to their rooms or bathrooms to clean up and relax, (Jet was left in the infirmary to heal). I’m praying for a little quite for just a while. After dinner Shadowkahn and I sat down and talked about Jet and how best to deal with her. It’s strange; how we can face death and then hours later, talk as if nothing happened. We came up with the rule for Jet and would give it to her the next morning once she woke up. 1. No killing unless directly told to do so by either myself, Shadowkahn or Huntsman. See, nice and easy.

 

We spent the rest of the night talking while; Slate, Succor, Geiger and Wire worked on finding out more information on the warehouses and who to talk to regarding hostile takeovers and burned out buildings. Within the first few days of July we would have a list of property owners within the 101st block to speak with, the owners of the 3 remaining warehouses, the homeowner on Bourbon & Walker Streets and the owners of the remaining apartment complex. It would be nice to learn if anyone had come by making “an offer you cant refuse†for folks to sell.

 

I’m actually going to finish this and go straight to bed, no lab, no nothing; my ears are still ringing and my ass still hurts. A good nights sleep should fix that.

 

Night Mom, Dad, sleep well in the wings of angels.

 

July 2, 2003

 

As long as evil has yet to ripen, the fool mistakes it for honey. But when that evil ripens, the fool falls into pain. Month after month the fool might eat only a tip-of-grass measure of food, but he wouldn't be worth one sixteenth of those who've fathomed the Dhamma.

 

For some reason that quote of the Dhammapada keeps resurfacing in my mind every time I read Matt’s letter. The Dhammapada consists of 423 verses in Pali uttered by the Buddha on some 305 occasions for the benefit of a wide range of human beings. These sayings were selected and compiled into one book as being worthy of special note on account of their beauty and relevance for molding the lives of future generations of Buddhists. Although I am a follower of the Holy Roman Church and the Pope, I find spiritual guidance in the teachings of other religions as well; Buddhists have a “visionary†way of looking at the world that I find to be soothing and beautiful. I remember another quote from Yaakov Yitzhak, from Buber’s “Way of Man.†What sort of God would that be who has only one way in which He can be served! I believe that truth can be seen in any text any language, otherwise why would I have become a geneticists, the ultimate searchers for truth. Ok, I’m being egotistical, but I do feel that way.

 

I’m so mad I’m rambling. During the year, as we have progressed in teamwork and duties, I have come to doubt my command less and less, I listen to my fellow teammates, let them lead with ideas and direct when necessary, hell there have actually been some uses of teamwork, what a novel concept. I will always have reservations about sending anyone into battle, even myself. Hell, anyone who doesn’t have second thoughts about being in combat should be registered as psychotic and placed under medicated observation. I know in today’s day and age, only those how have never been to war look forward to it. I’m speaking metaphorically about war, battle; however, each time we head out to fight evil in all its forms we do the same as any normal in Kevlar and a M-16, were just doing it with powers.

 

I’m not sure where I’m going with this entry; I just know Matt’s letter disturbs me. I found it under my door this morning. He didn’t even have the courage to sit down and talk to me face to face or to hand it to me, just slid it under the door.

 

Here’s the letter:

 

Frost

 

I know I am not you most favorite person. I have had a lot of doubts about you. When this started and I basically got drafted I did not like the idea of following a untried leader into a life threatening situation. I have seen war, I have been pinned down under fire and I have had to kill face to face. You are slowly getting better. You do not seem to know much about us on the team except the kids. I learn from watching. You are a lab specialist you are happier in a lab, me I am a techno super freak, send me into Radio Shack and I can cause the federal government to cringe. I am also a combat monster.

 

You’re a mutant; I just push myself harder than any normal human. You’re probably wondering why someone with my credentials is out here in this tin can. I found over the years I can keep good people alive, that is what I am trying to do with this team. These are very good people on it…even Dark Hunter (Jet). I know when bad things are going to happen, its why I tossed you across the floor under the Viper base. I know putting on this armor and doing what I am doing will be me killed but if I keep people alive then my death will be worth it. I was not thrilled with a lab specialist as a combat leader, but your learning. I hope your luck holds, if not then I will die to make sure you guys get out alive if need be. Look you are never going to like me, and I am never going to apologize for doing what I did. I did it because I did not want to see anyone on this team die, including you; you’re a very good scientist.

 

I will say this, you’re trying but you do need to ask advice a bit more often when we are planning attacks. Also you are doing a better job of trying to get the right person to do the right job. You don’t like me and I’m won’t ask you to. I will do my damndest to keep the kids out of the worst of it. I have seen you struggle with sending them against the ugly things we deal with. Geiger wants to do good, I just want to make sure he stays alive to do it. I know this job will kill me, but I will make sure the guys can keep their head and stay alive.

 

Oh I have been working on a project, so after your year if we are still up and running, to make the mansion self-sufficient. By that I mean the salaries are covered, our dues for the whole team are covered, and the insurance is covered. This group will never have to turn to anyone for a handout or help with the bills if I do this right. The mansion and the team will be covered for as long as a team is here even if I am not. So this is all I got to say, so no matter what you know a little of what’s going on with me. If you haven’t read my file you should.

 

The one you called

Ranger

 

If this were Matt’s way of “reaching out†to his fellow teammates I’d say this was a complete failure, he couldn’t even sign it with his name, but slang I used to id him once, once! If I thought he had a martyr complex before this certainly can confirm it! What’s with all the “I’m gonna die trying to save the team†crap? If he is so worried about his life then why doesn’t he improve his amour, why doesn’t’ he drop being on the team? Hell Geiger can take more damage than most of us all put together! Well except maybe Jet, but that’s not the point, if he’s trying to help with this letter it’s poorly done. The entire idea is not to die for your cause but to make the other poor sap die for their cause, first rule of war. Perhaps I should suggest to Matt to read The Art Of War at some point, I found it to be fascinating reading and very enlightening. I think he would be surprised at what he’d learn.

 

I certainly don’t understand why the mansion would need to be self sufficient, the mansion is our base provided by PRIMUS because of the Act. I work for PRIMUS, I get a paycheck, and they’re my bosses, just as if I worked for a mundane company. I’m not indebted to them for anything and neither are the kids; Daniel’s mother sent him our way once his powers showed, Wire’s dad is Jester of the Charleston Champions, Wire was practically shoved into PRIMUS’s arms saying “here take him, train him in the ways of the FORCE!†(Basic gist anyway, hell his dad pays him in gold to stay on Earth) same with Succor, he came to PRIMUS to put his powers to good use. None of us are begging for funds, nor are the kids family members, Mrs. Craven gets a financial support check from PRIMUS for Geiger’s work, PRIMUS puts him through a special programs school to keep up with his education as well as physical training, same with Jester and Succor. We couldn’t pay Jester for taking Wire off his hands, and Succor squirrels his paycheck away for his own uses. Plus we all have medical coverage beyond what any company could ever provide. If Matt were really paying attention the only ones that aren’t getting a working paycheck from PRIMUS are the members of the magic team and only they know how they subsidize their spending for non-crime related items. PRIMUS provides us with everything we need (basically) because it’s in our contract to do so, besides were also a pilot program from MPAB working through a 5 year grant, were paid. No need for the mansion to be self sufficient, it’s not even ours.

So what is Matt really trying to do? He didn’t have to join our group; after the incident with the Shadow Killer he could have left, but he instated himself in with the magic trio and was our go between for whatever reason he thought he had to be, but we don’t need that from him anymore. What is some normal human trying to get himself turned into pork chops by the aberrant creatures and things we run into is beyond me, most people would think he’s certifiable. Drafted? The military drafts and if I’m not mistaken that hasn’t happened since the Vietnam War, PRIMUS sure the hell didn’t draft him, he volunteered. Now true, if Matt wanted to run around the city with his armor and pop-guns he still needed to register under the MPAB, or he would have to of moved out of the state. So how is it in his mind we are responsible for putting him into situations he volunteered for?

 

I’ve read his file fairly thoroughly now, the “I’ve seen war†part was one action, Desert Storm, a conflict and it lasted less than two months; he’s been in more combat since he left the military. The “I’ve had to kill†part was during Desert Storm he had to kill a kid face to face to save his buddy, what would of happened if he hadn’t, he’d be dead and so would his buddy, big deal, were doing that every day now aren’t we? How many times have we had to kill, creatures, humans, robots, demons, and worse in a non-war situation? What makes him think he’s any different from the rest of us? Does he think his pain should be up on a pedestal while the rest of the team suffers? What about Daniel who at age 14 has already seen death and been party to it? Just because he was in a “warâ€, well he volunteered for that tour of duty as well, so I doubt he should complain.

 

“You’ll never like meâ€, what the hell? How am I ever supposed to like anyone who makes themselves so unlikable? He’s made himself totally unacceptable in social situations, sniping comments at me ever since we started; not good enough to lead, not qualified, don’t know enough, gene freak, lab tech, lab specialist. “I learn by paying attentionâ€, what the hell has he learned, not a damn thing, nothing! I’m a GENETICIST, with a double PHD, not a freakin laboratory technician. My IQ is 170 for Christ’s sake, I can identify and create mutants and I’ve made myself one! Granted such a high IQ doesn’t necessarily mean I have common sense, but so what. So I brilliant enough not to join the military and get shot at, but I was stupid enough to make myself a mutant and then join an organization that wanted me, would putting it into those terms make it easier for him to understand?

 

I’m sure his archeologist father and scientist mother must have been very proud when their brilliant son joined the military to be a grunt. How impressed they must have been, we came from a poor background, average family with an average income with an above average kid, and look at me now. I know your proud Mom, Dad, you told me so long before I had to tilt my head to the heavens to hear you. The accident took you away from me, but it couldn’t take away that love and pride I had for you and you for me. I truly wonder if Matt ever understood his parents, did that brilliant IQ of his register anything beyond his own rebellious world; I doubt I’ll ever know.

 

If Matt really learned by paying attention he would of figured out that he pisses me off every time he snipes at me. If he learned by paying attention he would of noticed that the group is working better as a team when I give them the reigns and let them run with their ideas only pulling back when necessary. If he learned by paying attention he would of figured out that his grandstanding and solo shooter bits only worked if he had backup.

 

The “I’ll never apologize for what I did†part I think is what finally pushed me over; “did it to save the team?†Attempting to hack my computer files and invades my laboratory files, thereby attempting a hacking of Artemis? What the hell kind of explanation is that? He needs to apologize not only to me but to PRIMUS as well, for being an imbecile and jeopardizing PRIMUS security. Couldn’t he of acted like a normal human being and just talking to me? I manage to talk to the rest of the team like “normal†people, getting to know them beyond the job; Geiger’s into sports, Succor loves comic books, Wire’s into everything, Kahn likes fine wine, Jet really isn’t a lawyer, Huntsman follows old Celtic beliefs; that I all got from asking (though Huntsman’s still the most closed lipped of them all). I’ve read their open files as well, which anyone can do if they ask, albeit the “open†files are restricted in info they do give at least the basics. I’ve read their closed files too, but that information is for me only, I don’t flaunt it out in the wind.

 

Man, I have such a headache and its name is Matt Slate. A report and a copy of the letter are going to Clark. I’m making a formal request to get him either off the team or into therapy before he does get killed or worse, takes someone along with him.

 

God help me, at this point I can’t even figure out how to talk to him without wanting to blast his head off. I’ll go take out my frustrations in the danger room. What’s wrong with me? I can create some of the most beautiful work in the universe, but I cant figure out how to talk to one man. Gah!

 

 

 

 

July 9, 2003

Freaky things happening in Hudson City tonight, well even for this town it was odd. Around 6pm I was working on batch T32 when the power went down, complete brown out and the emergency generator kicked in. Loosing power for a 10th of a second ruined the test (2 weeks work down the drain), so I spent a few minutes dumping all of batch T32 and loading batch T33. I called up to the mansion to hear Geiger on the line to PRIMUS, with Succor relaying to me that the power had gone out everywhere, all of Hudson city had gone out for an entire 10 seconds. I conferenced Geiger’s call and the three of us spoke about the situation with Lieutenant Marces. Marces paused for a moment obviously listening to someone on his end, and relayed to us that the incident had occurred at the switching station and PRIMUS had already taken care of it; Marces also told me that Clark would tell us everything in the morning. I told Marces to tell Clark we would be there at 10am and I’d drag in whoever was available in for the briefing, he said he would tell Clark and signed off.

 

Geiger and Wire still wanted to go out for their patrol, so I let them head off to do their nightly routine. Matt had been avoiding me since the 2nd but I left messages via radio and note, with everyone to be at PRIMUS headquarters in Millennium City at 10am tomorrow for the brief.

 

Matt’s avoiding me; I still haven’t figured out how to talk to him yet. Though PRIMUS has given me the heads up that they will start him in therapy. Actually they have volunteered to get everyone into therapy, including the boys so the claustrophobia isn’t quite so overwhelming. I’ll have to work on it but honestly; I just don’t have the strength.

 

 

July 10, 2003

Geiger, Wire and I were the first to start out this morning. I told Nelson to make sure whoever was going to the briefing that we would meet them there. Over breakfast Geiger had talked me into going to the substation to check on what had happened last night, though honestly my curiosity had been killing me all night and I just had to see what was up; I grabbed the micro radiation counters (mini-micro Geiger counters, we joked as we kept pointing them at Geiger to see if they registered anything. Hey look, I can count Geiger! Bad otherworlder jokes via Wire.)

 

When we arrived the guards checked ID and allowed us in, at the first floor of the substation is where the incident took place and it was easy to identify. We were shown a large perfectly fused circular hole through the concrete wall into the radiation room. Within we found two connector cables on the ground and a ball bearing that had buried itself into the deck plates denting the section in at least a good inch. The counters barely picked up the radiation; so weak it was ambient, unlike the readings we were supposed to be seeing this close to radiation. Geiger bent down to retrieve the bearing and couldn’t get his fingers around it, so Wire did his magnetic lift and was surprised at the weight of it, he broke into a sweat just getting it high enough out of the plate for Geiger to get his hands underneath it. When Wire released the bearing, Geiger was practically pitched forward as the weight of it plowed into his hands and arms, “it’s at least two thousand pounds!†Geiger exclaimed, and carefully let it drop back into its dent in the floor. I tried to get a scraping from the metal but was unable to do anything other than shave the edges off my scalpels. Whatever this was, the material was beyond a density that we could easily identify. I asked the guard if there had been a videotape of the incident, and he told me that PRIMUS had already taken everything they could, including the tapes; apparently a team would be by this morning to retrieve the ball bearing. So with questions burning our minds we headed to our meeting in Millennium City.

 

At 10am we were shown into Silver Avengers Clark’s office and told to sit immediately for the briefing, Slate, Succor and Shadowkahn had arrived moments before we had. Clark started a videotape as we sat down around the conference table. Men and women in VIPER uniforms ran across the screen, the volume was obviously turned down but we could still hear screams in the background. As we watched the chaos continue Clark’s voice gave a narrative, “we have several agents that have become moles within VIPER, one of our agents had installed a video camera at this one base in Hudson City.†I flinched as some man suddenly shuddered and without explanation exploded across screen, “please tell me our agent wasn’t at the base,†I asked, Clark should his head no and continued, “Fortunately he was out on a VIPER assignment and wasn’t in the base. This is what happened last night around 5pm, the tape is several different videos spliced together from the hidden cameras.†As we watched, Vengeance stalked onto the screen and Geiger sighed, “Damn, he did survive.†Clark replied, “Yes but apparently not without some strange side effects to being blown up by you, keep watching.†As we watched Vengeance raised his arm at another agent, this one quivered for a moment before blowing apart as one had earlier. We all gasped in horror, surely he hadn’t mutated and this was his new power? “Clark, please tell me this isn’t a mutant power.†“Keep watching,†was all he would say. As Vengeance hunted agents through the VIPER base we watched others die in equally horrible ways, until he reached the lead Serpent. The man tried to make threats but with a raised hand Vengeance pinned him against the wall, and then, raising his other hand, pointed his index finger at the mans chest and dropped his finger downwards; the VIPER leaders innards splashed out through the bottom of his uniform, Vengeance had used gravity to rip the leaders organs through and out of his body. I heard the collective gasp in revulsion from everyone seated; Succor gulped nosily and I felt bile rise to the back of my throat, “God let this not be a mutant power, sweet Jesus, nobody deserves that,†I whispered, more to myself than for an answer from the others.

 

Clark stood for a moment, pointing the remote at the video. “Now here is what happened at 6pm last night. Vengeance came into the nuclear station all that was caught on video as well, watch.†The next video clip started with a view of level one of the substation, Vengeance walked into view and pointed at a wall, within seconds an odd little bubble appeared in the center of the concrete wall widening outwards in a spiral pattern consuming the concrete until it was wide enough to walk through. Inside the room where we found the cords and the ball bearing, stood new armor, strangely sci-fi looking, with silver blue swirls and odd hovering spheres. Vengeance stripped out of his old armor, stark naked we got another shock, half of Vengeances body was blackened, burnt and somehow, somehow that man was surviving with a burn trauma that would of put anyone else 6 feet under. He got into his new armor, disconnected the cables (power dropped at that point, so there was the explanation for the brownout). Once suited Vengeance turned and pointed at his old armor, it rose from off the metal sheeting and suddenly it began to compact, swirling imploding until the old armor was nothing bigger than the ball bearing, which he then released and it dropped into the flooring with a resounding clang (hence the buried bearing). Vengeance then turned and stalked out of the room; Clark cut the video, turned on the lights and looked at us.

 

There was some mumbled poor taste jokes from Matt; Succor asked if Vengeance would be coming after Geiger or if he knew if Geiger was a hero. Geiger mumbled, how he hoped to hell Vengeance knew he was a hero. A thousand thoughts ran through my head each scenario getting worse than the last when Clark finally spoke up.

 

“To answer your question Frost, no, it’s not a new mutant power. Apparently after his last run in with us, Vengeance learned how to control gravity on a new level. His new armor encases a miniature black hole, that’s why it was charging in the substation. The bastards got a whole new level of power, a new and improved Vengeance.†Clark paused before continuing, “We could assume that Vengeance has seen the latest videos of our little team and learned that Geiger is one of the good guys, but as demented as he is, were not sure if it matters.†Geiger swallowed hard at the comment; Clark continued, “regardless, Vengeances status has been changed across the board by all agencies, he’s no longer just a vigilantly, villain status has been added, along with a Code Red warning on any attempts at apprehending. Let’s just hope he stays away from us and stays focused on VIPER, they’ll sure have one hell of a time on their hands keeping themselves alive now.†We murmured our agreement with Clark’s assessment of VIPER’s future problems.

 

“Now then, we have something else to discuss,†Clark started only to be interrupted by the ringing of the black phone at his desk. There were some puzzled looks as Clark fairly leapt to catch the phone before the second ring; I understood why he had reacted so, that line only rang if the powers above called and usually it was because it was an emergency. Clark answered and we watched his eyebrows shoot upwards, “yes she’s still here, why? No, why her? Operation Jehosaphat, hmm; nobody closer, alright hold on,†Clark extended the phone towards me, “it’s for you."

 

I took the phone, the gravely voice of Director Stone greeted me. “Firefrost, is that kid Succor there near you?†I murmured yes, “Yes, good. Listen, in 15 minutes a satellite that has been in a decaying orbit is going to come down between Hudson City and Millennium City, you’re the closest and we need you to get your ass up there as quickly as possible and make sure it crashes somewhere safe. Direct it if you have to, keep it away from the populated areas. Its falling fast, the visual we have, it’s about the size of a ping-pong table, one wing sheered off, but its solid, and it’s hotter than hell. Have Clark give you the mini cam/audio setup so we can monitor once you get up there. Get your ass going girl. You’ve got 14 minutes.†And with that, Stone hung up. I repeated what was going on as quickly as I could and looked at Succor as Clark went to get the monitoring setup. “Well Succor, you’re going to have to boost me enough to support a boost in flight and my capacity to keep it going. Think you can do it?†I added with a smile, as I hooked up the headset-radio Clark handed to me (nicknamed spyglass by the PRIMUS techies); I love these things, direct video feed with full diagnostic capacity through little sensors connected to the eyepiece, PRIMUS had taken the idea for the eyeglasses computer and had improved it. Succor cracked his knuckles and grinned, “are you sure you can take it Captain?†and then he touched me. I shivered and gasped, for that split second raw energy flooded into my nervous system and set my world aglow; I felt a smile go from ear to ear in the euphoric state of raw power. I wonder if its possible to become addicted to that rush, I have often wondered if it was the same feeling that drug addicts had when they shot up on their particular brain of poison.

 

I did a video/sensor/audio check on spyglass, while the timer in my eye kept the countdown as the elevator ticked off the floors to the roof launching pad: 13:37 and dropping; the rest of the team stood behind the clear blast panels as I ran to the center of the pad, looked up to locate that little bright light that was the satellite and launched.

 

They say that most of the world population has dreams of flying; there is nothing in the world like it, I love it and thank God every day that its one of my abilities. My two forms of flight resemble one another, the simple more gentle one is where fire and ice combine to allow steam based flight; the more complex flight looks like the space shuttle lifting off with fire and ice blowing off below me in the most damaging capacity. But now, with Succor’s energy assist, my “blast off†was all that and a bag of chips, I was a comet blasting through the atmosphere. All that scientific thinking goes out the window while I’m in the euphoric state of flying, I revert right back to a 8 year old kid with her comic books dreaming about flying with Superman.

 

Within seconds I reached the satellite, did a really rather graceful snap turn to match its falling trajectory (apparently in open space I can turn on a dime, heaven forbid I learn how to do this in tight quarters) and sped along side of it. I did a quick corkscrew around the satellite and stopped at the most damaged area where I could see within the wreckage itself. The roar of my own power and the falling satellite was almost overpowering to the audio but MC could still get their readings and as I peered within they saw what I saw, a coffin, black, sleek with several tubes and wire leading out of it into the satellite. MC cycled through their readings when spyglass caught something that threw all of us for a loop, one of the screens inside the satellite was a medical monitor, as I got closer I could read blood pressure 180-40 with EKG delta readings spiking up to alpha, whoever it was, was waking up inside the coffin. That changed everything, something, someone was alive within that satellite, and we couldn’t just let it smash into the water and kill whoever it was. MC and I discussed it for a moment before coming to the logical conclusion, I’d have to stop or slow its descent, traveling hundreds of miles an hour and I would have to stop it; God willing I still had enough power in me from the boost to be able to do it.

 

I flew ahead and began to use my flight against it; I put my back against the ruined front of the satellite and using my flight did my Superman vs. the speeding train impression and pushed. I may be fireproof but I’m not damage resistant, the searing metal didn’t harm me but the jagged metal pressing into my back did. MC kept a countdown and trajectory as each burst slowed our descent, but I had already calculated I would not be able to slow it down enough before we hit Lake Erie. I was exhausted, I had never used so much of my power before and even with the boost, I could feel things inside me going wrong and I still had too far to go in slowing our descent; Lake Erie was coming up too fast, I tasted blood in my mouth as something else snapped inside as I made one final attempt before we hit, I flipped over the edge of the satellite and onto the top of the coffin, and encased myself and the satellite completely in the largest ice cube I could generate and prayed we’d survive the impact. We hit Lake Erie a meteoric ball of fire and ice.

 

Fortunately like all good ice cubes, we bobbed to the surface a moment later. In that moment after the impact, amidst the low beeping of the onboard system, I gave a silent prayer of thanks and looked down at the coffin below me. I shocked to see a pair of beautiful violet eyes staring back at me. There was a small view port in the top of the coffin and I hurried to undo the containment system. Spyglass squawked in my ear as Clark took com, “Frost that was on hell of a show, we have a boat on its way out to tow you back in, what else can you give us?†I replied back, “well I have a human male, white hair, solid violet eyes no whites, approximate age early 20’s, physically fit and healthy according to the readouts; you may want to start a search on whose been missing, †I replied, after the last bolt popped off and I flipped the lid off the coffin and looked down at our guest. And well endowed, I thought to myself; my God, what is it with the gorgeous men and me lately? Here was this kid I just rescued from a fiery death and I‘m staring at his genitals. Thank God no one could see me blushing and I made the attempt to make my voice professional again and started giving feedback to the conversation going on the other side of my headset, as MC started reporting back to me the vitals they were getting from spyglass; along with some other snide comments I started hearing as well; there was one comment about space germs getting out of the coffin that came from Matt, to which I quickly sniped back that with the levels of heat in here any germ that survived would have to be a superbug to begin with and that’s why I had put up the ice ball, so get off the line and shut up.

 

The boy was hooked up to a complete life support system; an intubation tube and mask covered the lower half of his face, metal ports in his arms where tubes had pulled out or I had pulled them out. The heat coming off of him was incredible, defiantly a fire starter like myself. I watched the heat readings climb from 600 Kelvin to 1400 Kelvin, as a look of panic raised his eyebrows, and I realized that I wasn’t talking to him but just to MC, so I decided to start including him into the conversation. I also turned off my armor so he could see it was a normal person talking to him, and not some sheen of fire licked ice. I spoke to the boy, don’t worry, we’ll get you out, your safe, all those wonderfully reassuring words you use on people in panic situations. MC radioed in that Wire and Geiger were outside of our ice cube now and were trying to push us towards shore. Geiger told me that he could feel the heat radiating off of the ice and it was melting fast, I concentrated for a moment and added enough ice to us to keep us afloat, and deciding to be a little artistic in my endeavor, shaped the ice cube into a tugboat complete with steaming smokestack (venting our heat was easier that way).

 

MC radioed in that the only person that was listed as missing that had signature white hair and full violet eyes was a young heroine that had been on the scene for only a few months and had vanished back in 1987, her name Plasma. Could this kid be her son? But if she vanished 16 years ago, he was looked too old to be her child. We’d get our answers as soon as I got the tube from down his throat, or so I thought.

 

The temperature skyrocketed and the wave of heat blasted out of him as I removed the tube. Suddenly he could move, his arms curled up against his chest and his hands balled into fists and with his first short breath of air he wailed; a child’s cry of distress. With his second breath, radiation counter at my side screeched in overload and the spyglass readout blinked briefly in warning FAST NEUTRON FLUX DETECTED IMMEDIATE EVACUATION CRITICAL, I got my armor up seconds before the explosion blew me through the remains of the satellite, the ice boat and into the air, unconscious.

 

I awoke in Wire Walkers arms; the two of us flying towards the remains of my ice tugboat, coming towards us from the opposite direction us was the PRIMUS boat. The thin wail of a terrified child came in waves from inside the remains of my tugboat. “I thought you were flying with Geiger,†I asked Wire, he blushed for a moment and replied, “I had to drop him to save you, if you had hit the water it would of killed you. He’s probably on the bottom of the lake by now.†I let out a low laugh, Geiger’s life support system would keep him alive and trucking, but it would be quite the walk for him towards shore, his armored form sure doesn’t allow him to swim; maybe he’d pick up a catfish along his way back. Spyglass was gone, blasted off, but the radio had survived and so had the radiometer at my side, its readout ticking off in pulses, showing that for every cry, a wave of radiation was released. I radioed for PRIMUS to stay back, Wire, Geiger and I had been irradiated, no need for PRIMUS to get closer until we could get the baby quieted down. I had fervently prayed that the ice and layers of metal between the Wire and Geiger might have kept the radiation levels down for them, but I knew that the possibility of lethal dosing was there. I know I certainly was heavily irradiated, in that split second before the explosion, the radiometer had spiked, and therefore I was already lethally exposed. Wire dropped me onto the remains of the tugboat and I made my way back to the baby, rebuilding the ice to keep the satellite afloat.

 

Heat and radiation rolled off of him in waves as he howled in fear, probably pain. I did the only thing I could think of, put my arms around him and made mommy noises. Mom, I remember whenever I was scared you would sing to me, that sappy Disney song from Dumbo, and as I stat there, arms curled around this twenty-year-old sobbing baby, I cooed to him and sang. I heard Slates snide comment over the radio “Firefrost you must hate having to do that.†I didn’t dignify with a comment. Slate knew nothing of me personally, so he was talking out his ass again. He didn’t know how close I was to you both, how much I had wanted a husband and my own children, someone to share my life with, how terrified I was of my own needs as a woman; so I sat and sang, fortunately nobody could see the tears evaporating off my cheeks. Someone evil had done something terrible to this child, and all I could do was try and comfort him wrapped in my own emotions.

 

Slowly he quieted down, his sobs less gulps and more regular breathing, the radometer stopped screeching and the temperature dropped to a steady 200 Kelvin. PRIMUS pulled up slowly next to us and tethered the satellite to the side of the boat; someone reached over to me gleaming syringe in hand, “quick take it, it will knock him out.†The metal link into his arm there the satellites wires where hooked into him was open, just where it enters the vein, so I quickly put the needle in and pushed the trigger home, within seconds he slumped against me in slumber and I sighed in relief.

 

We pulled into the civilian docks, long since evacuated. Suddenly about a half mile out there was a violent bubbling in the water and suddenly a beam of energy erupted from below the surface of the lake. Wire laughed, “I’d say that Geiger survived.†I replied that there might be a chance he could find the Edmond Fitzgerald down there. PRIMUS carted the remains of the satellite onto a truck at the gangway and put the kid into one of our ambulances and headed off for headquarters. Shadowkahn and Slate and Succor met Wire and I at the docks; I dropped my powers and staggered, I was exhausted, irradiated and broken. Succor scooped me up into his arms in a hug, healing me in an instant but inside still felt wrong. “You realize were all going to have to go through decontamination procedures back at base, don’t you?†I mumbled into his shoulder, hoping everyone could hear me. Clark answered over the radio, “everyone at the crash site will be heading back into MC headquarters for deco, and the next van is for you folks so just pile in. We’ll post a team to wait for Geiger to get himself out of the lake and bring him along later. Good job Firefrost, good job, I’ll debrief you later.â€

 

The trip back to Millennium City was uneventful; decontamination was uneventful. By the time we were done, Geiger had finally made it back and was just starting procedures, I could see the cracks along his armored skin and he grinned that silly grin he has after he’s survived whatever been thrown at him. “I cracked!†he said, “I got red hot pushing the tug and when Wire dropped me into the lake to save you, I cracked from the heat stress! Good thing I’m so invulnerable huh?†I smiled at him, I wondered if he had ever read some of the X-Men comic books involving Colossus and immediate extreme changes in temperature.

 

With the rest of the team still unexposed and waiting for us; Wire, Geiger and myself took the mandatory tour past MC labs for Dr. Coss to take blood and skin samples. I asked him to make sure a set went to my lab at the base so I could follow through on the mutations in the DNA. Not every mutant is invulnerable to radiation in fact, very few are, but varying doses of radiation does seem to have a further mutating effect on our DNA; one of my papers years ago had actually been on that same subject so maybe, just maybe Geiger and Wire still had a chance.

 

You know Mom it’s strange knowing that death is coming for you. Clark and I sat down to talk about it while the rest of the team went off on our Bourbon Street Mission, to question the owners of the buildings in the Bourbon Street area. Everything we had worn when Starchild (that’s what they’ve decided to name the kid) went off will be encased in lead and concrete, though somehow, Wire’s gorget wasn’t radioactive, ah the miracles of other-dimension technology. The radiometer I had been wearing had redlined at 3217.89 rads/hour when we had gone boom. I already feel “odd†that was the easiest way of putting it, a sort of drawn, withered feeling; I am 99.9% sure that my exposure is terminal, it will just be a matter of how long it will take before I drop dead.

 

The kids would call me fatalistic and silly, but you cant be this brilliant and not know your dieing from radiation exposure. Succor’s healing kept me from expiring on the docks but the radiation is still doing its work, I can already see it in the mirror, there’s a slight hollowing in the eyes; what’s happening now is textbook, cell mitosis had stopped and DNA synthesis next would be cerebral syndrome, nausea, confusion, tremors, ataxia convulsions and finally death. I have a lot to look forward to don’t I, I’m going to drop dead in the next few hours or days and there is nothing I can do about it. PRIMUS might be able to help, the Dystergia healing tanks do wonders but well, who knows, they can’t fix everything can they. Can they?

 

During our decontamination, Clark had Starchilds DNA run and was analyzing the remains of the satellite, (fast little bastards aren’t they) and came up with some interesting facts: 1. The child was defiantly Plasma’s, 2. The child was only 16 years old but was aging at 1.5 times the normal rate and 3. Starchild was also Gigaton’s son. Which meant that that Doctor Destroyer had a hand in Starchilds birth and subsequent incarceration. As Clark said, the boy was still a baby because all he was supposed to do was power the satellite, no need for a Matrix education; the boy was nothing more than then a battery that wasn’t supposed to wake up. How nice. I swear Destroyer exists just so we can remember how wonderful the rest of the world is. I don’t think we’ll ever know the whole story behind Starchild but PRIMUS was sure the hell going to make sure he has a happy ending that involves them; Clark’s sending him to Stronghold to put the kid through what he would need to evolve into a normal (and I use that term relatively), kid. I am hopeful that something good will come out of that child, God knows he deserves a chance at a “normal†life; who knows, perhaps he’ll join my little team of killer toddlers at some point.

 

My team. Hmm, I’ll do what I can for them while I still can. No Children’s Crusade for them.

 

Good news, bless these research hounds; warehouse one is owned by Omega Corp. and, according to the interview done by our intrepid hounds, won’t see unless the dollar signs come up, same with the shipping Concordat that owns the other warehouse, give us a bigger payoff and we’ll sell, as easy as that. Warehouse number three was so buried in whitewash I’m amazed at how many layers of paint we had to take off before we found the greasy underside of the Giovanni mob lying at the bottom of it all. So we have 3 warehouses that are going to sell if their price is met, one apartment complex that was just bought out so that’s no threat and one little old man named Mr. Kingston who’s sweet old wife passed away leaving him his memories and her rose garden. So, can you guess who’s going to get hit by the next arson, I’ll give you 3 tries…if you guessed Mr. Kingston you win the solid gold cupie doll! Tomorrow we’ll begin our old fashioned stake out of the area; I’ll keep the team spread out over the warehouses and Mr. Kingston’s home, Shadowkahn and Wire will sit on Mr. Kingston’s porch and wait, if the Instigators show up they have the best chance of keeping them occupied long enough for the rest of us to swoop in. Geiger and Slate will take the Omega Corp and Concordat’s warehouses and I’ll keep track of the Giovanni’s; I can get the three of us there fast enough if need be. There have been rumors about Omega Corp and I must admit I’ve always been more than curious about them, I know PRIMUS is as well, keeping Geiger (Mr. Nosey) over there will be a guarantee that he’ll find something. Here’s to hoping I don’t drop dead in the middle of the mission.

 

 

July 11, 2003

Short entry. A comedy of errors occurred tonight, I’m writing it down before I forget, I’m feeling a little more short fused (ok a hell of a lot more short fused) then normal, I’m putting that off to the radiation poisoning though I haven’t dropped yet (Yippee!)

 

We headed out to the stakeout points earlier this night, Wire and Shadowkahn on Mr. Kingston’s home, Geiger and Ranger Matt on the Omega Corp and Concordat’s warehouses and I perched on the Giovanni’s (after checking for alarms).

 

Geiger took note that if you got within 5 feet of the Omega building the radios went dead, so they kept on top of the Concordat building. Everything was quite until Geiger noted that there was an open rooftop window on the Omega Corp warehouse where it had been closed a moment before. And like a good stakeout investigator, leapt across space to the Omega Corp building to check it out, unfortunately he jumped before I could give him orders, effectively cutting himself out of audio communication, though Matt could still see him fine (unfortunately pissed me off just a little more than I wanted to be).

 

While Geiger investigated, Matt looked up and spotted an airborne humanoid, little jet wings, suit, etc., and panicked howling over the radios “I’ve got a possible Albatross sighting!†And then the worst thing possible happened, he fired.

 

He blew his cover (since it was flying away from them) blew Geiger’s cover by firing on an unknown target of unknown FF signature (friend-foe see I do read!) I could swear I heard a communal gasp of shock across the radios. I could see the figure in the air from my position and wasn’t surprised to see it turn in midair, lookdown and fire on his position. What I didn’t expect was to hear was the “oh shits†that started from Matt’s line as the teleport beacon hit near him and teleported in 3 Mark 1s and 2 unknowns. Needless to say I practically launched myself from the warehouse on an intercept course for Wire Walker and Shadowkahn. I had already decided that 3 Mark 1s was more than what our team could handle and I wasn’t about to let Matt or Geiger go out in a blaze of idiotic glory. Wire and Shadowkahn would help on the pickup if necessary but I was going to get them and Matt and Geiger before the shit hit too hard. Little did I know, as I listened to the radio of Matt’s play by play; Geiger had jumped back over behind the Genesis bots to try and flank them, but it didn’t help. As soon as the kid had landed one of the unknown bots, which Matt described as a spider looking, jumped onto Geiger and promptly exploded, knocking Geiger to his knees, the Mark 1s then all torso turned and fired simultaneously into Geiger’s chest, practically flipping him backwards and dropping him out for the count. The other Genesis unknown had turned and dropped a grenade towards Matt, which Matt had managed to dodge, here’s the new twist; the grenade explodes, but not a normal “kaboom!†no this was something different, the explosion was dark and swirled around in a small vortex before compressing in on itself and vanishing. Warp grenades, how nice, when the hell did Genesis get those? Matt seeing no other options dove down into the hole in the roof that had just been so conveniently created for him and dodged his way into the 2nd story of the warehouse.

 

You know what Matt’s words were? “You guys get out of here, I’ll meet up with you.†Bullshit, totally bullshit and I told him as much. Here was the confrontation I had so desperately wanted to avoid and now had to deal with under probably the worst possible circumstances. I had picked up (one in each arm) Wire and Shadowkahn by that point and I poured on the speed, rocketing towards the Concordat warehouse. The plan was to have either Shadowkahn or Wire grab Geiger’s unconscious body off the roof and we would pick up Slate on the downbeat. The whole time Matt is arguing with me! I couldn’t believe it, this was a desperate attempt on my behalf to get all of us out of Genesis’s hands alive and he wanted to grandstand and make it on his own. I snapped, hard and growled into the radio that he better get his ass out the 2nd story window and onto the pavement below, before it gets blown off by Genesis (who were stalking him in the warehouse by then), and not to argue it with me or so help me God I would be the one to kill him. We came rocketing over the warehouse and somehow (God was with me on this one) maneuvering Wire so he could grab Geiger as I did the flyby. Wire dexterously managed to grab Geiger’s legs and held on tight as we roared across the rooftop (fortunately not setting it on fire but defiantly bubbling the tar!) I spun over the edge of the roof and headed for the street. Sill arguing with me, Matt crashed through the window and landed in the street two stories below; I could just see him start to run as we came about for his pickup. Shadowkahn had decided that picking up Slate while still being held in my arms would probably hurt, so he maneuvered out of my arm by wrapping his legs around my stomach and flipping over arms outstretched for Slates. Thank God the embarrassment didn’t hit me till after we were out of danger, but wow talk about odd positions, we must of looked ridiculous; but it worked. Slate gave a run and as we passed overhead, Shadowkahn latched onto Matt and we took off burning like a rocket through the streets away to safety.

 

Needless to say the argument didn’t end there. I think Matt and I went off on each other for at least another hour. It took the better part of that hour before Geiger woke up and in my anger bitched at him for doing his job. I later apologized to Geiger; after all, he had done his job, trying to check out why a window was suddenly open. So that leads us to another question, did the Genesis fly bot come from the Omega Corp building? What would Geiger had seen if Matt hadn’t freaked out and shot the airborne? We’ll never know; I’m sure by tomorrow there will be nothing in the Omega Corp building, whether they do or do not have something in common with Genesis. Nobody likes to have supers fighting over their property if they can avoid it.

 

As for Matt, well lets just say it’s another straw on the camels back, perhaps this one will break it; obviously this incident will go into tonight’s report. He fired on an unknown and non-threatening target (at the time) and blew cover, thereby blowing the mission objectives, even if it was something as simple as stakeout. He disobeyed and argued several orders from me, when then turned into one hell of a bitchfest between the two of us over radio, if this was the military wouldn’t he be getting court-martialed for that offense, would I? He panicked and fired, what if it had been another superhero that just happened to be going over at that moment? A lot of “what ifs†but one thing is certain. He’s proved his unstable I’m not going to let him take this team down. Come hell or high water, I want him out, no more second chances. I landed where we had parked the transport van and dropped them all off, putting Geiger into the back and throwing the keys at Matt for him to drive home. I couldn’t stay in the car with him, no matter the usual danger, I was flying home; or at least at that moment, walking home.

 

I groused as I walked away from the van, Shadowkahn following beside me. That at least penetrated my anger, stalwart bodyguard to the last. I was mumbling, mostly under my breath, but apparently loud enough for Shadowkahn to hear me quite well. He put a hand on my shoulder, “You know, you need some time off, I’m going to take you out to dinner tonight and get you drunk so you can relax.†That stopped me dead in my tracks; did Shadowkahn just offer to take me out and get me drunk? He smiled at me, I could see that around his eyes and for the first time in days, I laughed. Why the hell not, I said, and we walked.

Date Unknown.

I’m not sure, not much is making sense. I went to sleep in a perfectly “normal†world and awoke to abysmal horror. It’s all too confusing. Let me try and put my thoughts together to understand, to explain.

 

I’d awoken in a pool of ice water, it wouldn’t have mattered much except I had gone to sleep in my bed. Lying on my side, breath bubbling into the water, lingerie soaked through to the skin, I puzzled the strangeness of it all and then sat bolt-upright trailing water and ice crystals with me. The bizarre thought of “I’ve awoken in the Wampa cave on Hoth, shouldn’t I be hanging upside down?†until I began to look around the room. My bed a broken cocoon of ice, the walls and floor of my bedroom enshrouded so thickly by layer after layer of ice I could barely see the outline of furniture. I sat in a state of panic, surely the radiation poisoning had hit me during the night and I had lost all control of my powers as evident by all the ice. My gaze traveled upwards unto the ceiling and a thin wail of fear escaped me; the ceiling was gone, burned straight through up into a dark cloud shrouded sky. My God, had I done this? Had I hurt anyone as my powers had exploded? I shifted to hero form and flew slowly through the charred remains of the roof, rising above the ruins of the mansion.

 

I do mean ruins; half the second floor and was gone, sheared away, the attic gone completely. Another whimper escaped me as I slowly turned in midair to surveying the surrounded blasted land; the trees were gone, charred stumps remained amidst a barren frozen landscape; 80 feet up was a coating of thick clouds as far as my eyes could see, blocking any sunlight, leaving the world deathly quiet trapped in a dismal grey snowfall.

 

My curiosity and fear had peaked, I must know how far the damage went so into the atmosphere I traveled, using my slower flight, not wanting to super-burn through the cloud cover, who knew if it would combust or not; I had a brief horrific vision of my flames touching off a fire that would burn the sky but quickly squelched the image, I had to know if this was just an area disturbance. The clouds were dingy grey and the air tasted awful, at 8 miles up I was still enshrouded in foul cloud but I would not stop, and flew until I finally burst through the topmost layer into the brilliant sunlight. I was 10 miles up; the thin icy air barely filled my lungs. At least I am immune to the effects of cold; however the thin air did nothing to nourish my fires (highly required for my flight capacity). I hugged myself in anxiety; as I rotated in place, I saw no break in the cloud cover whatsoever; nothing but grey foul surging clouds from horizon to horizon.

 

I did not want to leave that brilliant sunlight, but as I surveyed the rolling clouds below me, I realized that I could not be the sole cause of such a cataclysmic event; I might be responsible for what happened to the mansion but even at my projected worst power explosion (yes I had done projections), there was no way I could of darkened the sky and blocked the sun; something else was afoot. I closed my eyes and turning towards the sun, back flipped into the cloud cover, heading for grey snow-covered terra firma.

 

I broke cover over what I suspected to be Lake Erie, though nothing moved across its dismal surface. I knew the earth would rotate under me during my flight up, but I hadn’t expected to be so far off course. I zigzagged across its surface, looking for any signs of life, finding none. I eventually found my landmarks and flew back towards the remains of the mansion and the gnawing fear that had been growing inside my belly; would I find anyone alive within or was I alone? Geiger might have survived what I did to the mansion but could have anyone else? Who else had been inside last night? Had Kane and I made it home, made it to the bar so he could get me drunk? I couldn’t remember, I couldn’t’ remember making it home at all. I looked down at my watch, 3:28 am, July 12th, but then I noticed that the hands weren’t moving, I had no idea when I was. I tried the earbud radio that I had forgotten was in my left ear, but I only picked up two signals, a strange ‘deet, deet’ sound and the UTC signal? The atomic clock signal was still running, how odd.

 

Something gnawed at the back of my mind, doubts about this entire situation surfacing but nothing to put my finger on. I landed in my bedroom and looked, really looked at my bed and the remaining cocoon of ice. I had been completely enshrouded by the ice until something had prompted me to melt outwards and awaken, but that meant I had been encased in my ice, completely encased in my ice. I might be immune to cold and hot environments but that doesn’t mean I have life support like Geiger does. I should of suffocated during my entombment, but I hadn’t, that was my first real inclination that something was a little more “offâ€, something, hell this whole thing wasn’t right but now I had an actual point I could put my finger on and although it was a disturbing thought “I should be dead,†it was one that my mind could focus and gnaw on.

 

I found the outline of the doorway and began burning my way towards it, reached it and finding the door frozen solid, consuming it burning my way through the ice into the hallway beyond. Here too the ice covered everything, it all looked too much like Star Wars in my mind. Geiger’s room was closest to mine so I burned my way into his room. He was completely enshrouded by enough layers of ice I couldn’t make out any details and I spent several minutes burning down to his armored skin; the water pooling around his unconscious body begin to steam as I kicked it up hot enough to wake Geiger out of the “suspended animation†he had gone under. He sat up with that goofy grin on his face quickly fading to a frown “why am I wet?†he asked and I answered as best as I could. I had awoken covered in ice, the mansion was mostly destroyed, the world was a desolate frozen wasteland, etc. And all he could do was look at me and say, “Wow, so did you do all that?†I pointed my finger at him and hit him with a snowball, “no I didn’t do all that but I might of done the mansion, I’m not sure, come one†and he followed me out into the hallway towards the next room.

 

As I burned through the hallway, Daniel asked me if I thought he might be able to use his plasma blast as a low level, like a low torch to help me out, I told him to give it a try, after all you never know unless you try. Geiger looked at his right hand for a moment as it flared to life, a low red pulse he turned his palm towards the walls of ice in front of us and let loose a low blast; ice vaporized before us, he grinned that cute goofy grin of his and took over burning. I was grateful for it and turned off my powers for a moment as we kept walking towards the next door; I was tiring, I had been burning my endurance ever since awakening and desperately needed the break.

 

Steam clouded up around us and a river of freezing water began flowing down the hallway as we burned our way through the ice choking the hall, I found the stairwell down to the mansion, which also lead to the elevator leading to the base and blasted through the ice down to the first floor. I then moved into the next room while Geiger moved towards Shadowkahn’s room. I was surprised to find Buzzy’s face peering from under the distorting layers of ice, I hadn’t remembered him being in the house last night; but then again, I couldn’t remember much about the night before, that thought nagged at me, I had never suffered from lapses in memory before, so this one greatly disturbed me. My thoughts wheeled around in my head as Geiger melted the ice surrounding Buzzy, and watched as his eyes flickered open as the last of the frost faded from his skin. It was disturbing watching him “reboot,†his eyes were open, the unseeing white eyes of the dead; I watched in dread fascination as color slowly bled back into his irises and the pupils dilated with the rush of blood; the mottled dead gray of his skin suddenly flushed with color and with his first breath of air the computerized version of his voice spoke one word “working.†This six foot three version of Sergeant Rock never ceased to amaze me, to die and be reborn rebuilt each time. Although nano-technology was not within my forte I had studied its uses in medicine and learned of its uses in revitalization procedures; from what I understood, Buzzy was a sort of abbreviated name for Biomechanical Enhanced Human-Zeta, Buzzy was definitely easier. A solder from the US Marine Corps with enhanced reflexes, senses, strength, a computer in his brain, and combat abilities and a continually renewing source of life, nanites. I asked him how he felt, that same metallic voice answered, “reviewing parameters, rebuilding database, current efficiency 73% and improving,†then his voice softened as the more human aspects of him began to take over, “I am not feeling as well as I should be, my computer states I am only running at 98% efficient and it is unable to figure out why it’s unable to regain that 2%,†then he looked at me “what happened Firefrost?â€

 

“I’m not sure Buzz, I’m really not sure. At first I thought it might be that my powers mutated from the exposure to the radiation but now, now I really don’t know, the world outside is a blasted wasteland and the mansion is partially destroyed.†I thought for a moment, “your radio working Buzzy?†he nodded in assent as he got to his feet and began to dress, “you have greater range than I do on this headset, see if you cant find someone out there, all I have are two frequencies a ATF signal and some sort of computer sounding noise.†He got that far away look in his eyes he sometimes gets when concentrating on what the computer does, (sometimes he clicks and beeps but I think that’s mostly for humor value), “no just those two signals you identified, although the one computer signal seems to be a form of ongoing communication, I will continue to try and work on deciphering it.†I thought about that for a moment and then sighed, his answer to the next question was the one I was dreading, “Buzzy, you have a computerized chronometer correct? Can you tell me what time and date you have?†I could tell he checked even as I asked, his eyes widened in surprise and confusion, his voice echoing that surprise as he said, “the UTC signal I am receiving tells me that its is 2pm EST, July 19, 3004.†That’s not possible, it can’t be. We could not of survived that long frozen, it’s just not possible, I kept mumbling to myself as we waded the ice water river across the hallway and into Shadowkahn’s room to join Geiger in his resuscitation efforts.

 

Geiger had melted the room down to a miniature lake, with Shadowkahn’s bed a frozen island and on that island was a strange pulsing, glowing cocoon, part energy, part material, which fell away at our touch revealing Kane’s sleeping form within. “A magical cocoon, cool,†Geiger whispered, with that little noise Kane’s eyes shot open in surprise, “What the hell is going on?†was all he said. Once again I launched into the confusing explanation of what I had discovered so far, depending on how many more of us we found alive meant I would be telling it all over again. Kane did his little ninja trick and switched into his uniform and gear and followed us out as we headed towards the next sets of doors. “What do you remember from last night?†I asked, after all, he had supposed to of taken me to dinner. His eyes creased in suspicion as he pulled up the mask, “nothing, I remember nothing and that disturbs me.†“I agree,†and we headed in mass to the next room.

 

Since I’m comfortable in hot or cold environments without being in hero form, I had quit using my powers since I had begun to tire and let Geiger burn Wire out of the block of ice. My suspicions grew as we found Wire Walker sheathed in a strange metal casing, our touch sent it clacking backwards, piece upon piece until it retreated back completely into his gorget. Wire blinked and sat up as soon as it had completed its task; “Dude, your gorget is a life support system, cool!†was Geiger’s response. Once again I went into my explanation of what had gone on, Wire’s only comment to finding out that he had been asleep for close to a thousand years was “crap, I bet Dad would be pissed.†And I wondered if our time here would have the same meaning over in the alternate dimension of Deva.

 

 

 

We found Matt, sitting in his gear, at his desk in front of a long dead computer. Geiger’s low level energy blasts brought Matt out of his frozen uncomfortable sitting position. He stood slowly, stretching before pulling off his helmet. That itself was another nail in the disbelief coffin that this was some sort of test; Matt might have life support in that suit but it wouldn’t last over a thousand years. Even if we had been cryogenically frozen, our barbaric way of waking everyone up wouldn’t get these results. I know, I’d had practiced in the lab, you can’t just throw fire at something under that much ice and expect it to wake up without problems, it was an impossibility.

 

“Well that sucked,†Matt said. “What do you remember,†I asked. Matt continued to stretch as he explained, “I was doing some computer research online when the signal went dead and then next thing I know I feel the life support go off in the suit and you guys waking me up.†Once again I spouted of what I had found. “Have you looked for the staff yet? Or tried to restart the power in the house?†Matt asked. “No, I started waking everyone up first. After we find Succor, why don’t you and Geiger work your way down to the base so you can startup the emergency generators?†Matt and Geiger nodded in agreement, but then I noticed that Geiger, although armored up, was still in his shorts and tee shirt, “you may want to change into uniform though before you go Geiger.†I heard a throat-clearing cough from behind me from Buzzy and a snicker from Geiger; Wire then quoted a line from a movie, “Ah, you may want to get dressed before you fight crime today, ok.†It was then I noticed that Matt and Shadowkahn were looking at me, really looking at me, a hit of red rising in their faces. I was confused for a moment as my eyes drifted downwards…then I gasped aloud, in all of my haste to try and understand what was going on I had forgotten what I was wearing, my satin chemise nightie was soaked through from the water and ice and clung to me accenting everything I wasn’t wearing; in that moment I realized just how feminine I am; and how alone I am, one lone woman surrounded by all these men (Jet doesn’t count she’s a demon after all). The blush rose so fast I could feel the heat of it, I turned quickly and almost ran back to my bedroom to defrost my uniform and change, the echo of manly laughter followed me down the hall; so nice of them to let me know they were all getting a free show, typical.

 

I pushed aside my embarrassment and reappeared beside them as Geiger (who had changed clothes as well) tried the last door, Succors room. He had burned down to the wood and found he was unable to get the door open. Finally he just gave up, pushed his fingers into the framework and tore the door out of the wall. We were very surprised to find the room almost opaque in solid ice; whereas the rest of the rooms had looked like stalagmite ice caverns, this was one solid block.

 

We were all confused by this development and I went to hero form to help Geiger burn our way through the block. It was perfectly layered, thicker and thicker from Succor’s body outwards, I might have been the reason everything was frozen Succor appeared to be the catalyst; It appeared that we had been bouncing the layers of ice between the two of us for a long time. I hadn’t thought Succor could pull power from a distance never mind while he was asleep, had he been asleep when whatever cataclysm occurred? We would find out soon enough, it took longer to burn through to him than any of the others.

 

Succor was a little more confused then the rest of them but incredibly tired, God only knows when he stopped pulling on my power, he had obviously pulled on Geiger’s life support to survive what the two of us had done together. Succor told us that he had felt a “fiery danger†during the night and he had done what he could do, boosted my ice powers and then yanked my ice building ability and started layering protection down. Unfortunately after he passed out his powers kept doing it, long after the danger had passed, some several hundred years ago.

 

Matt and Geiger began their trek down into the base, keeping us abreast of the situation via the headsets (see there’s another inconsistency, how could these things still have good batteries?) Matt notified us that after Geiger had melted the ice heading down the stairway he found the robotic remains of our 3 members of the household staff, “did you know they were robots.†Matt asked. “No I had no idea. I know their PRIMUS agents, but not robots.†Something else odd about that, wouldn’t Wire of detected them as robots? “Hey, Matt,†I said into the radio as we headed down the hall towards Jet’s room, “Check and see if my lab specimens of mine are still alive wont you?†I chuckled, “by now they’ve probably mutated into another life form and have a full colony in the petri dish.†Matt laughed at that as well, “sure thing, I’ll have them declare us gods and we’ll take over.â€

 

Although it seemed like only last week (indeed it still could be) we had been at each other’s throats, how is it that such cooperation can be achieved when the group is threatened? We had been threatened before, our whole lives are nothing but one threatening situation after another, how is it that we suddenly decided it was time to work together. I’ll never understand it, really I don’t.

 

We found a strange red leathery cocoon floating in the ice that we assumed was Jet, but after we freed it, try as we might, we could not pry it open or release her from her sleep. Shadowkahn leaned into it and sniffed, then backing away tested the air again; he turned and looked at us, something obviously troubling him, “she doesn’t smell right. I can’t identify why, but even the air around us doesn’t smell right.†“Could it be the fact were a few hundred years into an apocalypse would make the air smell bad,†Geiger quipped. “No, its something else, but I cant put my finger on it,†Shadowkahn replied. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who found this situation more than abnormal and finally I voiced my opinion, “There is something about this entire situation that doesn’t feel right. But lets keep waking up the others and we’ll work it out as we go.â€

 

In another room, after getting rid of the block of ice surrounding him, we found Huntsman, lying in repose on the bed, his hands wrapped around his Celtic dagger, very, very dead. That took us aback; we stared at the desiccated corpse trying to make sense of it. Wire exclaimed, “He’s here! He’s never here; Huntsman doesn’t stay at the house! Why is he here!†The thoughts whirling in my head came to a screeching halt, why was Huntsman dead? I had assumed it was a simulation of some sort because of the odd state we had awakened in and the ongoing theme, a thousand years in the future, the frozen blasted wasteland, the UTC signal, which could keep Buzzy from knowing the real time, our surviving by unconventional and somewhat questionable means, Shadowkahn’s acknowledgement that the air tasted differently; all of it pointed me in the direction of a trap of some sort, a trial perhaps; I had wondered if we had been kidnapped or were in a computer simulation, now I latched onto that theory. I just couldn’t understand why Jet and Huntsman weren’t part of it, was something else happening to them in the real world and we were being kept unaware of it in our simulation? I snapped out of my ruminations, as Wire reached for Huntsman’s precious dagger, “don’t touch it,†I snapped at him, “don’t touch anything, just leave him alone.†I looked hard at everyone and nodded my head towards the ruined door, “come on time to recon outside.â€

 

We waded through the ice water down the stairway, but found it impossible to get out of the first floor; the mansion was under some 50 feet of ice and snow. Shadowkahn wanted to get an early recon, so I suggested that Wire fly the two of them out through the open roof. Succor apparently thought it would be a good idea as well, so he tapped me on the shoulder and borrowed my flight; only problem is he wasn’t too careful as to which flight he took. Just as Wire had cleared the edge of the rooftop with Shadowkahn in hand; Succor blasted off into the air. I do mean blasted, Succor had accidentally borrowed my super flight, and now looked like a comet streaking off into the cloud cover. Well so much for being unobtrusive, I thought watching Succor’s contrails through the clouds, a great glowing mass of fire trailing through that soupy grey mess.

 

I began melting the layers towards the outside, blowing through the front doors and eventually to the outside of the small glacier that was the remains of our home. I then flew to the top of the mansion, were I watched them all stare in horror at what I been the first to see; the blasted wasteland of dead frozen trees, the dark bleak cloud cover. What hadn’t been present before when I had flown up into the atmosphere was a group of strange dark figures coming towards the remains of the mansion. “Can anyone make them out?†I asked, perhaps they were survivors like us, I wondered. Buzzy (who had climbed the ice walls like it was a ladder) looked out across the grey landscape, “I don’t think they’re friendly. I see six black skele-bot looking things, two of which look spiderish with assault rifles.†He looked at me, “orders?â€

 

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what one, “everyone stay hidden, lets see how close they get. Find yourselves a good defensive position.†Everyone scrambled, “Oh and Succor, get your ass down here and stop showing off.†Succor barely managed to stop before impacting the roof; fortunately he wasn’t hurt in his fiery dive, I refrained from yelling at him about giving away our position, it was fairly evident that they were going to come this way no matter what.

 

Matt’s voice suddenly radioed in “I’ve got a bad feeling guys, something’s coming our way.†To which I replied, “thanks for the confirm Matt, we’ve got them in our sights, they’ve stopped at,†I looked over at Buzzy for a triangulation, “300 feet†he replied. “300 feet Matt,†I relayed, “just you worry about getting that reactor back online, we’ll take care of it.†“Geiger, you listening?†I got a “yes mamm,†from him. “Get back up here, once you break through the iced levels of the base; you’re not going to be able to help Matt with the reactor and we’ll probably need your firepower up here.†“Ok I’ll be on my way,†was his reply.

 

We watched cautiously as the bots closed to 200 feet and then once again stopped. Buzzy looked curious for a moment, “I think I’ve figured out what the other noise is, it’s not binary but decadecimal, I think its how they are communicating with each other.â€

 

The radio clicked in our ears, Matt calling in, “we’ve made it below, after 30 ft there isn’t any more ice, Geiger on his way back up.†“Oh,†he continued, “I found the staff, 25 or so skeletons and 3 decayed robotic bodies that look like the serving staff, did you know our butler was a robot, Firefrost?†“No that’s news to me, I know their PRIMUS agents, but I didn’t know they were robots. Actually that doesn’t make much sense, how could they be robots and where did the 25 skeletons come from? We don’t employ extra staff.†My initial confusion over Huntsman and Jet being ‘dead’ evaporated, we never kept staff in the labs or in the base with the exception of Jones at security, this had to be some sort of trap or test, I was sure of it now; but how to get out of it. Matt’s voice broke me out of my thoughts, “it will take me 35 minutes to restart the reactor.†“Good get working on it, we’ll hold off whatever coming our way.â€

 

“I’ll try and get a closer look at them,†Shadowkahn said, as he began to work his way around the front of the building on the ground towards their position. Slowly a fog began to form outward from his point and it rolled thickly across the frozen ground, and I watched in wonder as Shadowkahn slowly blended into the fog and vanished. Neat trick, I thought, I hope it works. The robots began to advance on us again, stopping at 100 feet, they were close enough for the rest of us to see the strange design they were made of, the two spiderish looking ones with the hand guns and then four with humanoid tops on eight legs, two ball turrets on its shoulders. We also noticed they weren’t skelebots, whatever they were; they weren’t Genesis bots or Genocide bots.

 

Geiger joined us on the roof as we watched them watch us. Then I noticed that one of the ones with the turrets started ‘looking’ in the area of the fog; much to my horror the turret swiveled towards the fogbank and a red dot painted the area. “Oh shit, I bet you they see thermals,†was Buzzy’s comment and seconds later the shots started thudding into the ground within Shadowkhan’s fog. Shadowkahn seemed to appear out of nowhere back flipping and contorting his way out of the gunfire. “Everyone!†I yelled, “Join with me, concentrated fire on that one bot!†I checked as Wire and Geiger both raised their hands and we counted down together, “On 3! 1. 2. 3!†We released, fire, electric magnetism and plasma blast roared through the air and into the Drider looking bot (go check D&D for that reference folks), searing it and sending it exploding into a thousand pieces. Shadowkahn scrambled up the frozen side of the mansion, heading for our position. The remaining guns aimed at our position and let loose a volley of lead.

 

We ducked for cover as the ice chipped into a secondary volley of shrapnel from the bullets peppering the building. We stayed under cover until the initial hail of bullets stopped heading in our direction. Wire looked confused for a moment and I asked what was wrong. “It’s not working! My gorget isn’t working!†and a look of panic overcame him as a second volley of bullets rained into the ledge near us. Then unexpectedly we heard a ‘crack!’ from Wire’s gorget and a thin fracture appeared in it as suddenly his force field burst into life in a circle around him. We’ll that’s different, I thought, it didn’t do that before. Wire looked as confused as we did, though he was just as relieved to have his force field back again, “Dad’s gonna kill me,†was all he said. Shadowkahn cleared the wall after the last volley of bullets and swiftly turned in the air and landed in a fighting stance, as one of the bots clambered over the edge and into our position right after him.

 

I think there was a quick round of “oh shit,†from us as Shadowkahn squared off against it. We continued to fire down on the other ones advancing on us, and I watched for an opportunity to send some blasting power towards the one that Shadowkahn was fighting. Shadowkhan’s maneuvers were sharp, fast as he punched and fire clawed into the body of the machine. I watched for an opening until I caught sight of another set of legs coming over the edge of the roof. “Geiger, Wire! To our left!†I yelled again, “combo again, now!†And we again concentrated fire, this time blowing the torso off its legs, which then collapsed on the roof, inert. Shadowkahn had taken out the one he had been fighting and was now peering at it cautiously.

 

“There is something wrong with this,†Shadowkahn said, “its not built properly, it wouldn’t’ be able to hold itself up on these legs.†He straightened up looking at us, “it wouldn’t have been able to do what it did, and it’s built all wrong.â€

 

“Ok, I’ve had enough,†I shouted, “this is bullshit and I don’t believe it anymore. This is so not real.â€

 

Suddenly we heard all around us, “Oh shit, you’re kidding me. Damn it, end program, bring them out.†And the world went white.

 

I awoke, hearing my breathing all around me; I opened my eyes only to see distortedly through a greenish gel. A facemask covered me from chin to forehead an air tube was firmly set into my mouth clamped between my teeth. I was floating, suspended within a case in this green gel. Needless to say I was beyond pissed off. Hands reached in and gently pulled me into a sitting position and helped take the facemask off pulling the trachea tube along with it and I coughed on the regular air, feeling the burn of the tube as it came out. Someone handed me a glass of water and said “drink, your throat will be sore,†and I gulped it down. My eyes cleared and I focused on the person standing in front of my suspension case, “You bastard,†I croaked out, “What gave you the right to do this to us?†I demanded. “That’s Commander Bastard to you young lady. And to answer your question, you did, you all did; each of you signed the waver to do this experiment. Get cleaned up and we’ll debrief you.†And with that Commander Stone turned and walked away.

 

Forty-five minutes later all of my team, excluding Jet and Huntsman were sitting around Stone’s conference table nursing various hot drinks and plates of food. Wire was looking forlornly at his broken gorget, the crack through its outer casing actually had happened, “I’m going to have to go home and have this fixed,†he said, “Dad’s going to kill me,†and with that comment he refastened it around his throat. Stone stared at us as only a man with no eyes can stare, his visor taking us in 180 degrees of vision, “before you bitch me out Frost, I’ll explain what happened and why we did it.†Stone stood and began pacing around us as he explained, “Frost you collapsed from radiation poisoning shortly after decontamination procedures and debriefing, you never made it out of the building.†I looked shocked at that comment, after all hadn’t we gone on a stakeout? “The DNA samples we took of Wire and Geiger began mutating within 12 hours of your collapse, Wire’s mutation appears to of granted him new abilities, like that force field of his, it’s not coming from the gorget anymore; Geiger’s mutations started altering his armored skin to a more shell like consistency, however it looked as if your DNA was regressing, in other words Geiger, you would have been utterly undamageable but dumb as a rock; not a good combination.†Stone looked at me as he continued, “your sample Firefrost died, a very quick and what would have been disgustingly painful death.†“So we pulled you all in, we had to run you and the kids through the tanks to get rid of the radiation screwing with your DNA, but while we were doing that, our R&D boys had an idea.†He smiled as he explained, “you see we’ve been working on ways to improve teamwork and compatibility between combat groups so since 3 of you were going to be tanked anyway, we thought why not get the rest of you to join them in the simulation.†Everyone looked incredulous at that comment, certainly nobody remembered volunteering for that little jaunt, and I know I hadn’t, or had I?

 

“Before you all have a fit, each of you signed the forms agreeing to the test.†Mumbling began around the table and Stone quickly continued, “obviously to keep you all from blowing the simulation by knowing about it, we wiped your short term memory of the event after we dunked you all. But don’t worry, I have everyone’s signatures right here.†He patted a folder on his desk. “What about Huntsman and Jet?†asked Shadowkahn. “Ah yes, well, Huntsman we couldn’t find to come join in this little test and Jet was completely resistant to the test and the mind wipe, so we had to send her home.†More mumbling around the table from us and I spoke up, “but what about the simulation, what did you run us through?†Stone smiled, “well we ran you through the warehouse situation, which unfortunately you all blew chunks on,†he stared at Matt, “you shot without your danger sense coming on and created a liability, maybe you should pay attention to that more often,†Matt looked sheepishly away. “You were all able to deal with the reality of the warehouse situation, but the future scenario thru you all off and put you on our scent, what happened?†Each of us explained what we had found in the future scenario that had put into our minds that something was off: the smell, the continual UTC signal keeping Buzzy’s clock off, Buzzy’s inability to reconfigure that last 2% of his systems, the inability of several of us to survive 200 years of unregulated cryogenic sleep, the bots design, etc. So Stone debriefed us and we talked about it; in all we had come together as a team in the end, but how long would it last?

 

Stone also let us know that when Starchild was on his way to Stronghold, the PRIMUS transport team had been ambushed by Genesis, and the boy taken by them. This news depressed me thoroughly, I had such high hopes for the boy to be able to lead as normal a life as one of us can; to of been used by Doctor Destroyer in such a manner and now at the hands of Genesis, what sort of future would he have? Not one that I could easily foresee and I prayed silently that we would never have to meet him as an enemy.

 

Wire was in a panic about his gorget and we promised him that within two days we would take him to Deva and get it fixed. A trip onto The Way, the highway of and to all dimensions, this would be on hell of a trip, one that not many people outside of the Time Lords ever get to make, certainly not regular PRIMUS operatives. We would travel from out of our dimension of Earth 3 and onto The Way, I’ve read some of the files from Professor LaDene, their almost indiscernible in their information, cryptic and vague; I must admit I’m excited and terrified at the same time.

 

So, I would have died, I knew it would of happen eventually, but the collapse came so quickly I don’t even remember it. Of course that’s probably in part of the memory wipe, but still, death was coming for me and was cheated. I’m not sure how that makes me feel really, I’m happy I’m alive, but there is a part of me that wonders what would of come next. I’m finishing this journal entry and dating it properly, its July 19, 2004, we spent a week in chamber.

 

You know, I wonder if Shadowkhan’s promise for a dinner date made in the simulation should carry over into the real world; I’ll have to ask him about it before we go.

 

Good night Mom, Dad, I’m off to get some real sleep. I guess I’ll meet with you soon enough, no need to rush things eh.

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

**Actually Menton is one of the 4 reasons that telepaths have grave difficulties in the game yes.

 

 

 

**Of course they have. After all they are a personal type journal.

 

 

**Probably true. At least I suspect that is one of the reasons. Of course his character is a tad psychotic as well

 

**Very true also the enormous debate that went on for that she seems to have minimized a great deal in her entry, but in truth there was much wiggling and coniving by all to check every aspect of it out. In the game world several Superheroes did just stop or go rogue but that is being dealt with in a manner off camera so to speak.

 

Some thoughts upon reading the thread so far....

 

No telepaths, yet Menton exists. Either he's the one eliminating the competition, or he's figured out how not to be zapped. Hm.

 

 

I have to wonder if the character's political prejudices have influenced the way the campaign notes are written, or vice versa.

 

 

Slate obviously has the hots for Frostfire, and she hasn't noticed yet.

 

 

If this were a commercial comic book, I'd be very disappointed that all the characters caved so easily on the "must disclose everything to the state government" rule. (As a RPG campaign, I can understand the players not wanting to have to come up with new characters.)

 

 

I'd like to see more followup on that last one, actually. An angry hero or two calling a press conference to announce their retirement in disgust, a superteam suddenly being very short-handed, opposition politicians making hay....

 

After all, it's a *state* law, so the information would be going into a state database, much more easily accessible by VIPER or VOICE than the Federal one (which is only safe by fiat, as far as I can tell.) If the GM is uncomfortable with presenting the consequences of such a database raid on the player characters, I'd suggest having it happen in one of the other states mentioned that had passed a similar law.

[Shikarr]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

So what does everyone think so far?

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Campaign Notes so far

 

Ah, yes... Interesting (and amusing) reading, indeed -- in fact, I couldn't help

but think how much like a Hero Alliance storyline this reads like (minus the

R- and NC17-rated plot elements, of course). I especially got a chuckle out of

the negligee scene in the simulation sequence (poor Firefrost... >SNICKER<).

 

This installment of the Firefrost Chronicles is every bit as entertaining as the

first.

 

Major Tom