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.
