B-Team: 'Til Death do us Part

Expedition

After a calamitous run-in with the crew of The Roadway Renegade, The B-Team are asked to help Detective Alva Marquez investigate the disappearances of several men around the city. A trail that leads them straight to the doorstep of some of Emma's old friends.

It’s a bright, sunny day in Bathala City, the cool breeze announcing the end of summer. The B-Team and Detective Marquez are in hot pursuit of The Roadway Renegade, the pirate ship on wheels, under the command of Captain Boltbeard and his crew of cybernetically enhanced pirates, with harpoons sunk into the shell of an armoured cash transport van.   Meanwhile, high above the chase, Mercy is caught in an airborne wrestling match with a buff luchador going by The Parrot, which eventually ends with a mutual knockout as they plummet to the ground, both of them pinning each other's wings until they crash down on the asphalt.   Zero takes on the form of a crow and flies over to the ship, beginning to engage with the pirates while Emma blows out one of the wheels of the ship to slow it down, giving Rue the opportunity to telekinetically grab the whole rig and lift it up into the air, slowing it down further. The cyber pirates retaliate by blasting a cannonball at the team that misses the Warpmobile and instead hits Detective Marquez’ sports car, forcing her to fall back.   Emma continues to shoot at the engine of the ship to ensure they cannot get away even when Rue puts the ship back down, and Zero partially morphs into a shark to fight the cyber pirates that have boarded the roof of the armoured van, though he eventually gets knocked out by an insanely lucky cyber pirate.   Warp manages to drive beneath the harpoon cables tying it to the Renegade and quickly uses his power to snap them, at which point Rue can safely bring the ship to a stop, flipping it upside down in the air and bringing an end to the chase, throwing several pirates to the ground in the meantime. The lucky cyber pirate tries to run away from the scene, somehow avoiding various snares and attacks from the heroes until finally, his luck runs out and Emma manages to knock the man out cold.   Placing the ship on its side, Rue hurries back towards the unconscious Mercy and parrot, summoning Joan of Arc with the time sceptre to heal them. Detective Marquez reaches the ship alongside a couple of police cars to take the crew away.   Detective Marquez is not done with the team yet, as she tells the heroes that she’s been looking into a string of disappearances in the city. She presents Emma with a magical object that she stumbled across during her investigation, and asks her for her help with the case, saying that magical problems aren't exactly her specialty. The magic orb has iron banding around it and seems to consist of several layers of magic, deeming Emma to coin it "The Lasagne of Evil".   Bagging the magic object, the team listens as Marquez briefs them on a person of interest: Adelade ‘Addy’ Matthews, also known as the Voidsister, has been seen near one of the crime scenes. She and her husband Nicholas are no strangers to Emma, who tells the team that they are arcane investigators that Emma had previously helped negotiate with local law enforcement when their home, a flying tower, was ‘illegally parked’. The tower is currently moored in the Seafaring District, so the team agree that they’ll pay the couple a visit to figure out how Adelade is involved in the case.   After Rue quickly sends a photo of the Roadway Renegade to Rani, the team gets into the Warp mobile once more, driving towards the Seafaring District. Rue points out a few warehouses that formerly functioned as villain hideouts along the way, and Emma explains that whilst the tower is stationary, it can only be seen from the level it’s anchored to.   Parking by the nondescript warehouse, the team ventures up towards the rooftop, where they discover a garden, of sorts, containing a litany of statues of Nicholas. The statues are in various poses and various states of undress, causing Warp to question if the statues are anatomically correct.   There are turquoise crystals floating around the tower, which Emma explains hold the building up in the air by linking the crystals to an external focus. Some of the crystals appear ‘offline’ but there are enough active ones to keep the building afloat, though it may be a little unstable.   There is an ethereal staircase leading up to the floating tower, but before the heroes get to it, one of the statues begins to move, announcing that the residents aren’t available to see them today, but that they are more than welcome to return at a later date.   When Mercy threatens to go in anyway, the statues attack the group. The heroes make quick work of pulverising the statues, after which Emma performs a ritual to magically solidify the stairs and the team heads inside. As he is still uninvited, Mercy has to be pushed over the threshold by Zero.   Inside the building, Adelade speaks to the team, her voice projected throughout the tower, asking Emma what they’re doing at her home. Emma explains that the police are looking at her as a person of interest in an investigation, at which point Adelade starts to sound a little panicked. She finally agrees to speak to the heroes (thereby also welcoming Mercy into the house), but asks them to wait in the living room whilst she wraps something up upstairs.   A little suspicious of Adelade’s behaviour, Rue looks through the walls of the tower, seeing the spaces up ahead - a library on the first floor, a laboratory on the second floor, and an attic space above it. They can see a humanoid lump of flesh in the laboratory, hooked up to several medical devices and seeming to be slowly breathing in and out, next to Adelade and a retro looking computer. Aside from the rooms, Rue also notices various cubbies in the walls and ceilings holding humanoid creatures therein.   As Rue fills the team in on their findings as Nicky, a Frankenstein-esque version of Nicholas, walks into the living room from the kitchen, gruntingly offering the team a cup of tea and biscuits. Emma graciously accepts the tea (arguing ‘’Tea first, law second.’’). Zero, Rue and Mercy decline, and Warp gets a cup placed atop his head when he points up at his helmet.   Rue asks Adelade where she gets the meat for her magic experiments from over the magical intercom, but can see that the sorceress is busy speaking animatedly to the computer before moving over to the alchemy equipment nearby.   Tea and biscuits consumed, the team find a blood trail leading to a hatch in the living room. Emma opens the hatch, dreading the worst, and the body of one of the missing men falls out. Between the statues outside, the zombie-like Nicholas who served them, and the body in the cubby, it becomes clear that Nicholas has passed away, and Adelade is attempting to bring him back through necromancy.   The team heads up the stairs, ignoring Adelade’s pleas not to, and two hatches open up to reveal two more Nicholas lookalikes, these with red skin and devil’s tails. Hoping that whatever has been done to the missing men can still be reversed, the heroes are careful in their fight against them, knocking one of them out and locking the other back into the cubby.   In the library, another Nicholas appeared, this one nicely dressed and welcoming the team to stay and read in his domain. Zero declines the offer, saying it sounds too much like homework, at which point Emma snares this vampiric Nicholas. With the vampire captured, Emma notices a birthmark on his neck that matches one of the missing people.   With Adelade getting more and more distressed, the tower suddenly starts to move, pulling away from its mooring and floating up higher over the Seafaring district. The team can feel that the magic holding the building up is unstable, and so they hurry further up the stairs, coming across another hatch in the wall.   The iron golem that comes out still somewhat resembles Nicholas, but Warp makes quick work of him by softening the steps beneath his feet, causing the golem to come crashing down all the way to the ground floor where it lands on the unfortunate Nicky, still groaning "Tea!?" as he's crushed.   The laboratory upstairs is aglow with sickly green electricity, the old computer that Adelade has seemingly been speaking with located in the corner of the room. On one of the tables, there’s some equipment that’s being used to distil some sort of glowing liquid, whereas the other table holds the pile of flesh attached to a heart monitor and intubation tube. Through the window leading towards a balcony, the team can see that the tower is flying towards the more populated areas of Bathala City.   A blast of green energy emanates from Adelade’s palm as she screeches that the team shouldn’t be there. The (highly magical) computer springs to life, coaxing her on by saying that the heroes are there to keep her and Nicholas apart.   Acting swiftly, Warp tries to launch a shard at the computer to break it, but it immediately loses its momentum when the computer springs to life again and the pleading voice of Mina DeTroy comes through, begging him not to hurt her.   Emma tries to ensnare the witch, but she blocks it with a counterspell and combat ensues, with Mercy and Zero joining in against Adelade whilst Warp and Rue focus their attention on the computer. Warp tries to unplug and smash the computer on the ground, but Mina’s voice puts him into a trance so that, when Rue tries to blast the item with a fireball, he interposes himself before the attack and retaliates against them.   The computer unsuccessfully tries to compel Rue by using Billy Crystal's voice to guilt them whilst Emma takes a hit from Warp. Mercy gets knocked out, but Zero jumps up and bites Adelade at the same time as Rue yanks the magical floppy disk out of the computer.   Emma heals Mercy, but there is a rumbling coming from her bag - the magical sphere that Detective Marquez handed her is reacting to something. Adelade breaks free from the fight, grabbing the vial and escaping towards the balcony, at which point her attention is drawn upward.   The Stranger has appeared on the roof of the tower, and the magic orb bursts out of the bag, releasing a magical EMP of sorts. The flesh pile on the table stops moving, the tattoo on Adelade's chest, that Emma had identified as the focal point of the tower's crystals, fading as the building begins to plummet towards the ground.   Rue is the first to respond, shouting ‘Catch!’ at Mercy as they rocket blast out of the tower into a freefall. The vampire follows them out of the window, with Warp flying out to do what he can to help. Zero transforms into a crow to follow Adelade, who leaves the building in an appaerent attempt to escape, but remains nearby.   Mercy grabs Rue mid-air and helps them land on a nearby rooftop before flying back up. With Warp and Mercy positioned underneath the tower, helping to alleviate some of the burden, Rue telekinetically catches the tower, the three heroes gently lowering it towards an open space next to The Railyard.   In the meantime, Emma, who'd thrown herself into a nearby morgue drawer in the laboratory to try and withstand the fall, finds herself locked in a desperate battle against the Stranger, the mysterious villain having stuck around to see to Emma's demise personally. As the tower is telekinetically carried, the two clash swords and magic, with Emma able to identify some of her gear, though eventually being forced back out to the balcony, where the villain kicks her over the railing. She's quickly caught by Mercy and the stranger disappears once again, opting to try again another day.   Adelade has lands in the open space near where the tower has fallen, looking mournfully at her home as sirens can be heard in the background. The team gathers around her, but it's clear she's in no state to cause any more trouble as she falls to her knees and breaks down, the vial falling limply at her side. Not knowing what to do immediately with the crying woman, Emma and Rue quickly feel a certain voice carried on the wind and the latter has an idea.   Rue steps forward, holding out the spectral spectacles to Adelade who quickly examines them with her magic vision and takes them. Whilst the glasses can’t help to bring him back, it does allow them a proper farewell, and Adelade leaps forward to hug her late husband’s spirit the moment she can see him, tears streaming down her face as he explains how he'll always be watching over her.   The team wraps up the case: Adelade is taken into custody, Emma keeps hold of the magical floppy disk to investigate it further, and the creatures from the tower are brought to Century to investigate if the effects of the experiments can be reversed. Warp asks Rue to borrow the spectacles for a little while, which they agree to, and the team say their goodbyes for the night.   Mercy returns to his new flat feeling a little out of sorts, the reason why only becoming apparent when he wakes up the next morning on the floor. He knows that he didn’t get knocked out, but perhaps it would’ve been less disturbing than the realisation that, for the first time in hundreds of years, he has slept.