Jerry J. Vahn
Jerry J. Vahn (a.k.a. Li'l Rocket)
Growing up in different cities and states, Jerry spent most of his time with books and learning. He was an introverted person in school, but usually made at least one true friend everywhere he lived.
Being a midget was a struggle, as the world only ever saw him as a 'little' kid. He didn't let that deter him from following his dreams.
He graduated from MIT shortly after his 17th birthday.
He started his own business shortly after his birthday in 2000, and sold 49% of it in 2015.
He has been working in his home lab, and keeping tabs on his company for the last several years. He had developed a compound that increased his body's metabolism thus allowing him to move much faster than most people. He also created a super suit with boots and gloves that help him move even faster and protect him from damage.
He is just starting out on his superhero career to help those who are unable to help themselves, and find out what happened to the old supers.
Semi reclusive inventor with super speed who has just begun his 'hero' career.
View Character Profile
Age
44 years old
Date of Birth
4/2/1976
Children
Current Residence
Millennium City
Gender
Male
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Fair
Height
3ft 3in
Weight
49 lbs
Related Reports
- Danger Room Gone Wrong Report
- Education Camps: Finale Report
- Education Camps: Part 1 Report
- Recreating the Danger Room Session Report
- The Resistance - Part 3 | Prison Escape Report
- The Resistance - Part 4 | The Superior Five Report
- To Russia With Vengeance: Part 1
- To Russia With Vengeance: Part 2 Finale
Can I really do this?
It's only been a couple of days since Rocket was Vanished. I'm still learning to cope with how my implants are working. I'm reacting faster than I was, and I'm finding it easier to jump into cyberspace.
Before I had to find access to the internet to jump into cyberspace. It seems now that I am able to tap into the power of cyberspace itself. I've found that I can actually use the cyberspace to move my body now. I seem to actually digitize it now and take it with me sometimes. Before I could feel my consciousness leave my body, now it's like part of me. I can move my physical body and transverse cyberspace to find computing systems directly.
We get a notice from SCRT that a senator is being targeted, but what was strange, is that it came across as Cypher was the one attacking the senator. We head out, hoping that he wasn't the one actually hunting the man.
We arrive to a scene that is in chaos. There are four black talons, several destroyer agents and some destroids arriving. Dragon Lady is the fastest reacting New Champion now. That girl can leap. She jumps over a house and lands on a black talon and takes it down.
I start scanning the local cyberspace for access to the black talons. Two of them jump onto the roof of the house that we came in behind. They both target Max and Ghost, that gives me a second to get into their systems a bit. Max goes desolid and I use this as a way to help protect him. I jump into his system and 'erase' max from his scanners. Ghost on the other hand, decided that the one I targeted would be a good target. She leaps into the air and slams into that black talon and another one who had fired at Dragon Lady.
Dragon Lady leaps onto the other black talon on the room and knocks it off the roof. Max zaps it with electricity and shuts it down. About this time, a destroid jumps up on the roof of the next building. I quickly jump over to attempting to control the destroid. I try to change its friend / foe recognition against Dragon Lady. I fail. These systems are more complex.
I really feel that I am not strong enough to help the team out. At least I could help Stevie get out of the combat zone.
Rocket, why did you trust me to carry on for you. I can't fill your shoes.
You will be missed by all.
The End is Nigh!
Rocket drops the two restauranters off several blocks away. He reaches into his pouch and pulls out a wad of money.
The woman still looks like she is about to scream so he addresses the man. “Ok, here’s some money to help you get out of town. I’m sorry that Destroyer’s goons used you to get to me.” He looks around quickly.
“I know that you both have been trying to help the resistance, and keep doing so, but you have to get out of the city.” He pulls the man down so that he can whisper in his ear, then tells him how to contact a resistance cell.
He lets the man go, “There are several cells around the country. Go to one and let them know you were sent by one of the New Champions.”
The woman is still looking around, trying to get her bearings. Rocket says to the man, “I am going to miss both of your cooking. Go help others of like mind. Protect her, and get out of the city, now.”
The man shakes his head and begins tugging on the woman. She slowly comes out of her daze then whispers, “Thank you.”
Rocket watches them as they start away. <<I hope they get out safely.>> He turns and takes a couple of steps back towards the warehouse. <<I should probably head back to Homestead, but those agents have really made me angry. They were going to shoot those two just to get to me. Why can’t we get out positive ‘press’ for us.>> He shakes his head. <<Anyway, time for some payback.>>
ooO<<I don’t know if this link is on, but if anyone can hear me, I’m heading back to the warehouse, and it would be nice to have some backup.>>Ooo
Over the coms ##This is Rocket. I just freed two restauranters from inside the warehouse. I’m going back. If anyone is available for Back-Up, please respond. ## Rocket waits a few seconds, and doesn’t get a response so he heads out…
Sparks is in the Comm room working trying to improve the system due to Destroyer’s destruction of communication satellites. He catches the end of Rocket’s transmission.
“Socrates? Is there a mission going on at the moment?”
“I do not believe there is a team action being performed today.” His voice pauses for a moment, “Although, there is a strange blip in the data that I have been receiving from SCRT. It does seem to match up with a possible action tonight.”
Sparks nods, “Ok, let me work at cleaning up this transmission and see what I can get from it.”
About a minute later, “Not good…. Rocket called for backup. Where was he?”
Socrates gives Sparks the location as he is running out of the room and towards the access to the hidden garage. <<I hope I can get there in time.>>
Sparks jumps on one of the jet cycles that he helped liberate from NAGA. After adjusting his skillwires he rapidly runs through a preflight and takes off. Just before he leaves the base, he taps into NAGA’s net and ‘registers’ the cycle as on a regular patrol.
Sparks gets to the location that Socrates had given him. The run-down building screams trap to him as he shakes his head. <<I hope that Rocket didn’t go in blind. >> As he makes his way there, he doesn’t notice any activity. He finds an external access for the net and plugs in.
After a small bit of searching, he finds a video file that was about to be deleted. He is just able to scan it into the decks memory before it was deleted.
He reviews the video. It shows Rocket arriving from one end the warehouse then the laser grid popping up. Rocket moves up the side of the closest supports and runs along the underside of the roof. Turrets pop up and begin firing on Rocket. He drops down behind the two hostages. He reaches out and touches the woman who becomes ‘out of phase’ and starts to reach for the man but stops.
Sparks can see the laser targets begin to paint the man. Rocket makes some wild gestures, and the agents turn their head. Rocket touches the man and the three of them disappear into the floor.
Sparks is about to stop the feed when he realizes that Rocket has returned alone. <<No, what are you doing? Get out of there!>>
Rocket blasts one of the air agents out of the air <<Great shot!>> Sparks elation is short lived at two of the other air agents get smart and work together. Rocket is blasted and seem that he might survive the attack until the third one hits him. Rocket falls to the floor and the lasers start smoking on his suit.
The air agent’s high 5 each other and then shut the grid down. While one of them is checking on the agent Rocket took out, and the other two are watching over Rocket, a truck backs up to the building. Rocket is bound and tossed in the back of the truck.
Sparks hacks into the traffic cams and follows the truck to it destination. It pulls into a compound and the gate closes.
Sparks leaps onto the jet cycle and heads towards the compound. <<I hope I can get there on time.>>
He stops nearby and finds an open wi-fi connection. He hopes into the net and begins hacking into the compound. He finds video feeds and sees that someone is looking at Rocket’s suit. He also finds a single power damping device in the compound. <<Got to be where they are keeping Rocket.>>
He is just able to get into the circuitry of the device when he sees that someone is tampering with it. <<You go Rocket!>> Sparks does what he can from the outside. <<Get out Rocket, this thing is gonna blow, and blow big.>>
Sparks sees that the doors are electronically locked. He just catches that one of them is being tampered with, so he helps it along. <<Come on Rocket, move it!>> Sparks checks the device and sees that it is about ready to go. He fiddles just a little bit, and the explosion is going to be a bit larger than it should normally be.
The video feed shows Jerry pop out of the door and sneak behind some barrels. << Good job! >> About this time, the device explodes. It causes the agent standing outside of the container to be thrown across the parking area. Several people run out of the building and towards the explosion. Sparks sees that everyone is out of the building. <<Go in! Your suit is in there.>>
Jerry sneaks out from behind the barrels and into the first room. <<Keep going, it’s in the next room>> Jerry spends a couple of seconds looking in this room then notices the door to the next room. He quickly moves into the next room and sees his suit. Jerry quickly moves over towards the suit, and in a blink of the eye, he is suited up as Rocket again. Rocket looks around and scratches his head.
##Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I was captured, I have escaped, but need some help. ## A couple of the New Champions come back with offers of getting to him. ##I’m going to leave the area, as I have no idea where I am. I’ll contact you when I know where I am.##
Sparks starts to pull out of the net as he watches Rocket phase out and run through the wall. Sparks jumps on the jet cycle and starts heading the direction that Rocket took off.
##I’m at the corner of 5th and Main, just outside of the city. ##
Sparks heads that way and breaks into another wi-fi signal. He looks at the chatter on the net to be sure that Rocket’s escape hasn’t triggered any alarms yet.
Sparks notices that there is a strange buildup of energy in the area. He can feel it in the real world, and in the cyberspace. It seems to be centered on Rocket. Sparks tries to pinpoint the source, but it is hidden. He tries to reach SCRT but the firewall still has him blocked. ##Socrates, I think something bad is about to happen! ##
Just as he sends the message, he gets pulled harder into Cyberspace. He moves towards Rocket and the power surge. He sees Rocket begin running. He tries to follow as it stretches his connection to the real world almost to the breaking point.
He watches as Rocket tries to phase out of cyberspace and the power just holds him in. Sparks watches at the color is drained from Rocket’s after images. Rocket turns and looks at Sparks. “tell the team I didn’t give any of them up! Tell them I didn’t tell…… I… don’t… want… to… die!” Rocket throws a blast of energy toward Sparks. When it hits Sparks is thrown back into his body.
After what feels like just a moment to Sparks, he opens his eyes. The sky above him is just starting to turn into morning. Sparks is hurting across his whole body like someone has beaten him to within an inch of his life. He crawls over to the jet cycle and heads back to the hidden garage. He lands and slides off the cycle and heads towards Homestead. “Socrates….. I believe that Rocket has been vanished.
He collapses to the floor.
Fires Bricks Snakes and Cats
After Ghost and the big guy, who talked in third person and called himself Der Westcoute or something like that, he had a really bad German accent so it was hard to tell, went through the wall and I followed over the wall.
What a nice surprise, a nest full of NAGA. While ostensibly the cops, they are more corrupt than many of the old police were. I figure that I should be able to begin to take away their guns. Off I go. I get the first gun then run outside.
Just as I turn around to go get another gun, Wildthing lands on the hood of the car coming up the street. Wildthing roars something at the direction that she flew from. At first, I thought she was just upset about landing on the car upside-down, but no, it couldn't be that easy.
There was this cat lady standing there, and unfortunately it wasn't some old cat lady with a clower around her, no this was a disaster. As I am looking at her, a bright flash of lightning hits her. Hey thanks.....
Well all that did was pass her off, she turns and flips a car over. What is it with these people, leave the civilians alone!
I run over to her to try and punch her "Really? A car, with people in it? Try to hit me!" Apparently I talk to much, she was able to evade my punches. She was really sniffing the air and that seemed to let her know where I was.
Oh man, you have to be careful for what you wish for. She really rang my bell. What was I thinking in taunting her. Well, on the good side, she stopped going after the people in the car.
After I clear my head, I go and do what I can to help the people in the car. I get the man out and to the side of the building. "Hidedude,whileItrytogettheladyout!" I'm not sure that the guy understood me, I might have been speaking too fast.
I get back to the car, and start to reach in when it is suddenly flipping in the air again. It lands on its roof again and I am pinned underneath it.
I wiggle and push my way out from under the car and look down the street. What a surprise, two NAGA dips with big guns are firing. This is no good. It's bad enough that all these other powered buffoons are out and about, now we also have to contend with two dimwits don't have any fire control.
I shake my head and run down the street to take the guns from these two idiots. "Whereisyourfirecontrolyouidiots? Can'tyouseethereareinnocentpeoearound?"
Over the radio, I hear that the flame guy has taken off. Apparently Wildthing has taken off after him, Ghost slams into the crazy cat lady into the back of the blue bubble she is in. Not sure when that happened, but she umps to the bottom of the bubble. That's good.
They caught the flame guy, good.
A Real 'Education' Decamped
It's a good thing these power dampeners are so susceptible to electricity. I was able to disable two within five seconds. The third and fourth ones took a bit longer. I had to fire at the third one twice. I wasn't able to build up enough static electricity to short-out the third one with my first strike. The second strike took it out. That fourth one was past the first one that I attacked in the beginning.
I learned a valuable lesson today. Be careful approaching big machines outside of prison complexes.
For some reason, we were pretty quiet on the coms today. Sharpe did cry out in anguish at one point, something about being too late.
There was a surprisingly few guards working this camp. Well, I guess when you are immune to the effects of the field, and no one has any energy to move, then, I guess it is fairly easy to guard your prisoners.
Liliana took out the remaining dampeners on the other side of the camp, so I turned in to see what I could see. As I get past the walls, there are two other 'costumed' people heading towards the back of the camp towards where the prisoners are kept. Max had englobed them, but I could see that one of them was out of phase with the other, so I asked Max to drop the englobing around them so I could wrap the woman up in light, keeping her there and under control.
Once that was done, I went looking for Jimmy, the son of one of the restaurants that was attacked while I was there eating. The young man looked like he had been aged several years, but he had only been there a few weeks. I do not understand how people can allow this kind of thing to happen.
Sharpe and Liliana were talking with several of the other captives. They had their coms open, so we all heard what was said.
One of the last ones that they talked to was mostly out of his head. He was muttering incoherently to himself, until Sharpe mentioned something about being with the resistance. It could be heard over the coms that he snapped to lucidity for a couple of seconds and clearly stated "Destroyer is Dead and I can Prove it." He snapped right back into muttering nonsense.
Destroyer is dead? I wish that this guy was clear headed enough to tell us more.
Maybe with time, he might come out of it. The real question here is, do we HAVE the time available for him to come back to his senses to get the information, and be able to do something with it.
Oh, how nice it would be if we could figure out how to travel in time, but I think that is an adventure for someone else.
Chef's United?
So, what is a hungry speedster suppose to do? I am heading out of the base to get something to eat, when Socrates suggests that I order food to be delivered, which at the time, sounded like a good idea.
I order from one of my favorite French restaurants to be delivered to a park nearby. I'm sitting near buy where the food is to be delivered. The bag is placed on the table and there is a note on it. That is a bit unusual, but not too out of the ordinary.
The note reads "Fast Food Man", not a good start. I pull out the food as I am reading the rest of the note.
"I'm sorry you can't come into the shop." I start eating while I digest this. "Too many of us are being targeted by Destroyer." No joke, this is why I ordered it to be delivered. "We have a warehouse of supplies,"
another bite is chewed and swallowed, ok now this is getting a bit strange. Why would they be offering me access to their supplies. "if you need anything. We know you are good for it."
Ok, now it occurs to me that it might not have been a good time to start eating the food. This is really quite strange. Absentmindedly, I continue to eat while I am pondering the situation. There is an address on the note. Something just does not feel right.
I try to contact Socrates through the L-nanite, and luckily it is active at this point. oOO(Socrates, what information do you have on the following location)OOo I show a picture to him of the address. At least the French onion soup was hot and well made. I do enjoy a good soup. I eat some of the extra croutons they sent with the soup while I wait for his reply.
He sends me an overhead shot of the warehouse, and the fact that it is about the only warehouse not owned by some shell company of Destroyers, still doesn't sit well with me. It is currently listed as being owned by a group of restaurantiers in the city though.
oOO(Thanks Socrates, uh, do me a favor, pass on to the rest of the team that I may be walking into a trap, but I have to investigate. I'm going to go in around dusk to help me hide in the shadows. If there is anyone else that might be available, that would be great. Thanks.)OOo
Shortly after the sun sets in that area, I go and begin to scout the area. No one was able to come along and help me out. I'm sure it is a trap, but, I'm wondering what they are using as bait. I know it's not just the food. Bad news, I'm outside the range of the L-nanite, so, I'm probably on my own.
Nothing on the outside of the building or outside of the fence around the building. I don't see anyone in any of the other close buy warehouses either. The overhead pictures that Socrates downloaded to me shows that the building is not in the greatest of shape. Why would anyone store food stuffs in a warehouse with leaks and holes in the ceiling. I guess they think I am lead only by my stomach. I may be a bit impulsive, but I'm not completely stupid.
As I enter the building, I realize that they have laced it with laser beams. I also notice that there are several turrets pop up out of the ground, and a couple tied together at the other end of the building. I guess I picked the wrong side to enter.
I adjust my magnetics to a different frequency and begin moving up the support post nearest to me to get to the roof. The turrets start trying to fire at me while I make my way to the far end. I send a 911 over our fobs, but no one is near enough to be of any help. Fools rush in.....
I drop down behind the couple and whisper to them that I'm here to help, be calm. Apparently I scare the woman, who screams as I touch her to change her magnetic resonance to match mine and pull her out of phase with the rest of the world.
So far, I haven't been too bothered by the turrets, or the air agents that have dropped in, but then a digitized and garbled voice speaks out "Surrender now, Fast Food Man. We know you are supporting the resistance, and you will be vanished soon. Maybe if you tell us who you are working with, we can spare you for a little while....." Oh, yea, sure. Give up my fellow resistance to live a couple of more minutes, not gonna happen. If you can call being 'spared' kept in an 'education' camp or worse until they can televise my 'vanishing' along with everyone I gave up. I think I'm going to have the spare 'little while' on my own. If they could vanish me right now, they would have. They have figured out enough about me. I wonder if they know who I am under this mask.
Now, finally, some of the agents are starting to get a bit smarter. Great, I have to get the Einsteins of the group. Three of them turn and put the man under 'cover'. I can see the laser pointers lining up on the man. They warn me that if I move to touch him, or move at all, they will kill him.
Think.... Think..... What can I do. I'm not sure that I am fast enough to get the drop on them and be able to change his magnetic resonance fast enough that if they fire before he is fully out of phase... I wait a couple of more heart beats! Ah! Yes! Liliana did it at the last restaurant, maybe I can get them to turn their heads so that I have just that slight extra half heart beat that I need.
So, I yell "NO!!!! DON'T DO IT!!! THEY HAVE GUNS AIMED AT THE MAN!!!!" I hope that Liliana will be proud that I am trying to follow in her footsteps of acting.
Whoa, it worked! Fantastic. It's a good thing that we usually work in teams and not alone, they lose their concentration and I reach out and begin to change the magnetic resonance of the man as I am starting to move us underground to get out of there. It's a good thing I move fast, so that I'm not underground for too long.
When we are far enough away, I pop up above ground in a dark alley. "Ok, now, here's some money, get out of town." I hand them several hundred dollars. "I'm sorry that they used you to try to get me. Good luck"
I turn before they can say anything and start back towards the warehouse. Ok, now they are gonna pay..... I'm hungry again!
Danger Room?
So, Socrates is trying to upgrade the Danger Room simulator. Six of us join the room, Lilliana, Dragon Lady and the Hot Shot on one team, Maximum Resistance, Shamrock, and me on the other.
Max turns the three of us invisible. I rush out and around the center obstacles and there standing on items are Dragon Lady and Lilliana. Perhaps, our lunch date colored my choice of targets, so I throw lighting at Dragon Lady. Perhaps that wasn't the best choice of attacks. I really shouldn't be that predictable. I have a tendency to lead with that.
Anyway, the shot strikes and sends her for a loop. That was the good news. Why did I use that attack? It helped Lilliana strike out with her spirits. They pack a punch. They stopped me in my tracks, making my head spin. It's a good thing that I'm as fast as I am, as I was able to recover from that before Dragon Lady could recover and attack. She leaps at me and misjudges my height and lands just behind me. The Hot Shot steps out from behind the box that Lilliana was standing on. She starts to level her rifle at me. Not a good thing, she's a good shot.
I rush over there and grab her gun from her hands. The look on her face is priceless. I run around the corner to drop the gun when several Destroids materialize in the room.
Ok, I thought the plan was to 'knock' the others out. I don't like Destroids. I rush over and punch one of them just showing up. I try something that I've been working on and find a way to vibrate my hand in such a way as that it strikes the Destroid in such a way and to limit the armor it is made of to protect it. It flies back against another obstacle in the room. Before it can really reorient itself, I throw another lightning bolt at it.
That was the best choice I could make. It blew up.
I try to contact Socrates, but there is only static on our communicators, and he doesn't respond.
We were all able to take out the Destroids, as Socrates powers down the simulation.
This is very concerting. Socrates did not program any Destroids in the simulation.
So, do we have a mole in the team, or is there some weakness in our security that all of our coming and goings has shown Destroyer.
Great, just something else to worry about.......
Peaceful Lunch?
After just about killing myself working and NOT eating, Lilliana figured out my muddled hints and clues. I'm glad that she did, because even I couldn't figure it out.
After a box of dry UNFROSTED strawberry poptarts, got to remember to keep those off the shopping list, and a microwave frozen meal, I felt a lot more like my 'new' old self.
It turns out that Lilliana is actually a movie starlet, Victoria. She suggested going out to get a 'real' meal. Good idea, and man, am I lucky, Jerry Vahn going to be seen out with a beautiful woman.
I suggest going out to an Indian restaurant where I know the owners. I call them and let them know that we are on the way.
We get up to the roof top and are seated back in a corner. A nice spread of Tapis waiting for us as we sat down. They had just brought us our main course, oversized for me as they knew me, and regular for Victoria, when she got a text. Turns out it was from her father.
She calls him back, using our 'fobs' to secure the line. I sit back and try to keep quiet while I eat, and she talks. It seems that she is keeping her 'alternate' id a secret from him. Not that it matters, as he was keeping the fact that he was working with the resistance from her.
Just as they were finishing up their call, we hear a helicopter approaching the restaurant. As they get overhead, four destroyer agents drop down from the copter on to the roof. Victoria and I dive under the table while the loud speaker begins calling for the owners to show themselves. I mutter, "not again." I get a look from Victoria, "This has happened before at another restaurant I was at. I was alone then, and able to dispatch the agents, as they didn't see me. I gave the owners some money, and they asked me to find their son."
We call over the darkR fobs for some backup. Lyzen is available, and will get there in a couple of seconds, Ghost was on the moon. Unfortunatly, one of the agents heard us mumbling under the table, so was watching us closely. Victoria was able to distract him enough for me to change and drop us through the roof.
A couple of seconds later, and I'm back on the roof, and taking away their guns. Unfortunatly Lyzen is getting pelted by the helicopter's guns. Lyzen leaves, the agents begin to run, so I wrap them in light to keep them there.
Suddenly, the helicopter if falling, and Ghost arrives. Ghost takes the agents somewhere, and the rest of us take off.
I run in, change to my normal ID then find the owners and leave them some money, "Find somewhere safe to run to. I hear your food is wonderful! Hopefully, things will change soon to be more like what it was before. Good luck. Oh, do you have a to go box? I would hate for the meal to go to waste." He turns and retrieves the meals then when no one is looking changes back to Rocket and leaves over the side of the building.....
Rocket Research
Things have happened fairly quickly since I joined The New Champions.
I've learned a lot about being a 'superhero'. The media calls us terrorists. Little do they realize who the real terrorists are.
Anyway, I found that my original designs were fairly well thought out, but a bit on the light side.
So, I've been spending time in a lab working on new ideas and designs, then time in the 'danger room' working on attacks and trying to improve myself to be more help to the team.
I was working on learning how to adjust my magnetic signature to be able to move though 'solid' objects.
At first, I really had to concentrate, and it took me some time to achieve the correct resonance.
Sandcrab, Dragon Lady, Hot Shot and I did a session together. The magnetic resonance came in handy, up to a point. It kept Sandcrab from squeezing the life out of me. But it sure didn't protect me when he knocked me for a loop de loop and through a wall. That really hurt, alot.
Since the loss of the Xplore plane, I've been trying to figure out a way to get most or all of the team into or out of combat quickly.
I've been playing around with it in the danger room and have finally learned how to create a magnetic bubble that allows me to move the team quickly, and I think I have figured out how to move us all safely without having to worry about running into things.
It will take some more testing before I'll offer it up to the team.
I stumble out of the lab that I am using at Homestead, and I am feeling a bit confused. When was the last time I ate anything. I'm not sure. I go looking for the kitchen......
"Education" Camp
Yea, right, 'education' camp. Not very likely. More like the communistic 're-education' camps where people who think for themselves are held captive until their spirit is broken.
Sharp asked for some help from the team. It seems that one of the destroyer agents has a sister being held in the camp near Millenium City. Socrates let us know that there is some sort of energy field near the little town where the agent said his sister was. Also, he finally found that there are similar energy fields around other areas of country.
We come up on the 'camp' from the south. Max says that the big transformers around the factory area are emitting the dampening field over the area. There appear to be 13 of these things. Most of the group stay on the south side of the factory as I head to the north side to try to draw as many to that side as possible to increase our odds a bit.
As I approach the generator, I know why it is there. Man, it makes me feel tired, and quickly too. Good thing Max made me invisible, I'm not sure that I could have made it otherwise.
After what we had to deal with when we found Lilliana, I had a feeling that the energy field around the factory was going to be something like this, I just didn't know how much it was going to hurt. I warn the rest of the team about the energy dampening field. I go in and do what I can to take the power supply apart. It works, but at what a cost.
It is a cost that I will pay over and over again if needed. These people in here didn't do a thing to be there other than wanting to live their life the way that we were raised here in the US.
Good news, the power supply dropping does draw some of the agents to check on it. Bad news, not enough. After heading back to the group, it is quickly decided that we need to start dropping more of the transformers. Ghost takes out one and Dragon Lady another one. Remind me NOT to spar with her. She broke that thing open like it was a tin can, and she was a can opener.
Liliana and Sharp fire at another one and I let Max take the next one over as I move forward to the 6th one to take it out. I fire electricity at it, and it begins to wind down.
That was a few intense seconds......
Overkill
Things were going fairly well in Nebraska. Between Ghost, Sandcrab, and I we had taken down 4 of the Black Talon agents when the two destroids arrived.
Not too bad, we had protected many of the resistance fighters up to this point. I really hope that the officer will be ok. Those Talon agents fire on anything, not worrying about collateral damage, and we are called Terrorists....
Anyway, I run up the support pole to the roof top of the gas station. I just about knock the Black Talon out but the other one takes a double pot shot at me.
I fall unconscious. I don't know how long I'm asleep, but I wake up underground. I appreciate Sandcrab saving my life, but did he have to put me in the ground! Waking up in a dark confined space is probably one of my greatest fears. I absolutely lose it, screaming both in my mind and out. I hope that it didn't go across the link to the others.
Sandcrab slaps me lightly enough to help me calm down, of course it was after he pulled me into the building in the gas station. A couple of deep breaths later, and I was feeling better.
About this time, Ghost lets us know that there are two supers that arrive through a gate opened by one of the destroids. I was just getting ready to go back out and try to take out either the destroids or one of the other's that showed up.
Lyzen breaks in over the coms and lets us know that they are being overwhelmed in Thunder Bay. We quickly put together an exit strategy. Load the civilians on the bus, let Ghost pick it up and carry them out of harm's way.
We all load the bus, and I plop the gas attendant in the driver's seat. "When the bus is put back on the ground, you are going to be going about 100 mph. Goose it now then let off the gas. Keep the changes to a minimum. NO BRAKES at first!" I hope he understood me. I might have spoken pretty quickly. I jump off the bus just before Ghost takes off with it and slow myself down enough to keep up with Ghost and the bus.
I grab Sandcrab and after Ghost drops the bus, I grab her. The driver seems to keep the bus straight as it lands. It begins to slow down so then I kick it into high gear and head back to the ship in Thunder Bay.
From Russia with Love?
So, we leave the Safehouse and walk out of town. We change back into our 'super' id's. Sandcrab and I figure out where we are going. He seems to break apart into small tiny pieces and disappears. I pick up Lyzen and Lilianna and I head out.
I really need to figure out a better way of doing his. It has to be very uncomfortable for my 'passengers'. Well, not for long anyway.
A couple of seconds later, we see a couple of helicopters and several tanks moving into the area that Socratics gave us that he was pretty sure the Prince and Princess were. I drop the two ladies off and make my way into town.
Before I left, Lilianna asked "What are we supposed to do about TANKS?" I gave her some flippant answer along the lines of "we'll figure it out" or something like that. That really was a good question, and I really don't have an idea of what to do about a tank. Lyzen seemed to be confident that she could handle them, so off I went.
I ran down towards where all the action was. Several troops on the ground with guns, so, well, what's the best way to keep someone from shooting you? Take away their guns. So that is what I did, until something shot me. I'm still not completly sure what hit me, but it blew me across the street from where I was. As I was rolling to a stop and getting back on my feet, I noticed that one of the tanks seemed to be targeting me. Ok, now this is interesting. A tank shooting at a 3 foot tall running man.
The machine guns blaze and blow me down the street, then another tank drops mortars on me. I guess I designed the magnetic infused fabric did it's job. It hurt like the dickens, but I survived being hit by a tank mortar shell, or maybe it was a couple of them, I don't know. My head was ringing.
I went back on the offensive while Sandcrab was looking for the Prince and Princess, our primary targets to save. Lilianna and Lyzen were working to stop the helicopters and slow down the tanks. I ran up the closest tank and tried to take apart the weapons turret. There just wasn't enough external areas for me to disassemble to do any good. I felt another tank start to take aim at me. While I took the earlier hits from a tank, I didn't want to chance it again, so I dropped underneath the tank.
What to do, what to do.... Wait, didn't some of the old guard of heroes that could move quickly were able to vibrate and 'pass' through things. I began to quickly study the magnetic fields of the area and work on meshing my magnetics with those of the tank.
OH YEA! I did it! I passed through the bottom of the tank and was inside. WHOO HOO!!!
Ok, now what? I moved over two the two in the tank and took a couple of swings at them. Those darn helmets protected them.
They SHOT me! How dare they! So, it's a good thing that I'm small, but man the inside of a tank is small. I begin to move, and the static charge builds back up and I throw lighting at the two of them, knocking them both out.
Quickly I get out of the tank and run over to one of the soldiers that had kept his gun. I ran up and over him snapping my fingers at him to get his attention. Wow! That was louder than I expected, so I did it again and he fell down.
It seems that Sandcrab had found the Prince and Princess and their security detail. He came back above ground and between him, Lyzen, and Lilianna took out the helicopters and the other tanks.
We quickly finished off the other soldiers. The Prince and Princess and their people got on the bus and headed out of town.
Hopefully, they can find a safe place to hide.
I grabbed Lyzen and Lilianna and headed back to homestead. See you there Sandcrab!
Flightus Interuptus
Runeforce and Phaser piloted the Xplore plane as we, Lilianna, Sandcrab and I, headed for Russia to try to find and make sure that her parents, the Prince Michael and Princess Michael were safe. Sandcrab installed his L-nanite in my head.
Now that was an experience. It went well, I think. I just hope it's not what caused the explosion.
We were flying along nicely, when, well, all hell broke loose. There was a shake rattle and roll as the Xplore plane began to break up. The entire area was flooded with energy, and we seemed to float rather than plummet to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Lilianna created a platform for us to stand on, just out of the water. Runeforce lay on it, unconscious and really torn up. The rest of us, including Phaser seemed unharmed. Sandcrab found an ocean platform fairly close, so we made our way there. The crew there only had the supplies and knowledge to stabilize Runeforce. It was decided that I would run him back to Homestead, as I could get the two of use there in a couple of seconds at best.
I dropped him off, then returned to the platform and we made our way to land. Sandcrab noticed that there were drones in the area, apparently searching, so we went underground.
It took everything in me to follow them underground. I know it may be strange, but I do NOT like small, confined places, especially if I cannot see a way out.
We finally made it to the outskirts of the town with the PRIMUS Doomsday safe house. We changed over to our 'regular' identities and walked into town. Who knew that Sandcrab was an old man? Phaser was having some issues with 'energy' flowing out of her body, but we made it to the safe house.
Sandcrab opened up the safehouse door, and we went in. Good news, it hadn't been found by the new authorities. Bad news, well, no one was there to help us out. We were able to get some stuff up and working, but there was a lot of dust.
Phaser, now Lyzen, was able to finally get her new abilities somewhat under control. It seems that the 'Rune Force' as they had been calling it, left Runeforce and moved into her. I wasn't really sure what to do, but I knew that I was hungry, so I went in search of some food. Food is always a good thing.
So close and so Far away
The Russia trip was, well, different, but that's for another story.
Not too long after returning to the States, and trying to get some down time at Homested, I was eating as usual when we got a call from not one, but two resistance cells.
One was fairly close, as in Thunder Bay and the other in Nebraska. Without the Xplore plane, getting around the US is harder for most of the team. It's not all that difficult for me, but, well, we'll see what we can do.
I grabbed Dragon Lady and Max and dropped them off on the ship in Thunder Bay where some Black Talons were attacking. I then ran back for Lyzen and just bairly got her on the back of the ship before I headed to Nebraska.
I need to get better at searching out where the Talons are attacking. I missed completly that there were non-combatants in the area.
I hope that Destroyer hasn't had the chance to upgrade the Talon's yet. It's nice that they have a weakness to electricity. Thank's to Max for finding that one out.
I blow into the area where the Talons are. Oh, what fun, another gas station. The Talons start to spread out, so I move down the street and blast the closest one with my Lightning Blast. I must have bled off some charge somewhere on the way here, as it didn't seem to be as effective as usual.
One of the Talons takes a shot at me, and thanks to my sense of the magnetics, it just misses me. That was the good news. The bad news is that it struck the police car I was next to, just as the officer inside had gotten out of the car and walked around the back to the side. That's what I mean about my not paying attention to my surroundings. Not my best moment. I think Sandcrab was behind me, so I hope he can help him out. Through our L-nanite link #Check the officer, I didn't see him as I ran past. # I really hope that it worked. I'm a bit focused on not getting shot again.
I spin towards the same Talon that I hit the first time. The suit lights are flickering, so, he's still active. I run past him and try to take out a leg. I bounce off the leg a bit but keep my feet. That stung a little bit. I think I'm going to have to come up with something to help protect me next time.
I 'feel' that something isn't right, and about that time one of the other Talons fires at me. I try to see where it is firing from, just about in time to see it fire off two large electrical rounds of some sort.
SOB that hurt. Well, from what I have been told, getting shot while wearing a bullet proof vest hurts ALOT. I can now tell you from experience, yes it DOES.
I was able to keep my feet under me, so that was a good thing, but just barely. The Talon had raised up into the air, so, I called him on it. "Chicken!!!! What, are you afraid of the Little Guy! Come on back down here and let's fight!" I guess that helped out my Lightning blast as it seemed to knock him out in one shot not two.
I really do hope that Destroyer doesn't figure out what we are doing and begin to upgrade these things.
I think I'm going to suggest that we start being a bit more pro-active against Destroyer's abilities to build these things. If we can disrupt the supply line for the suits of armor, and even the Destroids, then, we will be making progress towards defeating Destroyer. Even though he 'controls' the world, cost him enough, and he will lose.
Slanderous Libel
We really need to figure out if we have the 'real' Gigaton, or not.
He just broke into the regular broadcast with an emergency report of 'Electric Blue' and 'Yellow Crab' attacking and wiping out a town in the middle of America, a Madison Indiana. I'm pretty sure that they didn't do it. That just isn't our way.
While Sandcrab was going over the merits of his new invention. Placing a Nanite into our heads attached to our optic nerve to allow us all to communicate through his nanite swarm. Ah, but I digress.
We get a mayday call over our system. It was not a good connection. It appears that Destroyer is taking out the satellite system trying to disrupt our communications. Maybe Sandcrab has the right of it.
Again, I digress. My mind is all over the place right now. A rebel cell in American Flag, Arizona, called for help. I thought about running, but I would have gotten there before everyone else, and well, not knowing the full extent of what is going on, I actually thought, and felt it was prudent to arrive with everyone else.
I was silent on the flight, good thing the Xplore plane flies almost as fast as I can run, and Ghost only had to slow down a little bit.
Of course, as we arrive, the scene is chaos. It always is. Just once, it would be nice to get to a battle before the other side so that we could set up our own surprises for Destroyer and his minions. We are going to have to start working on thinking the way our enemy does to defeat him.
Again, that digression. My mind must really be someplace else.
Our first pass over the battleground showed a mostly deserted area. Four groups of resistance fighters, and only two groups of Destroyer agents. Yea, that's right, something the resistance fighters should have been able to handle themselves. Don't we know better those things are not as they first appear.
Just as we land, several Black Talon agents arrive on the scene. I knew it wasn't going to be that easy.
We all disembark from the Xplore plane, Max, Runeforce, Dragon Lady, Sandcrab and I, and land in various places. Ghost continues to fly around. As soon as the Talons arrive, we know that it is bad news for the resistance fighters. Max states that he can get them out, but only if they are all close together. Ok, close together, sounds like a job for me, the 'rocket' of the group. I run up the wall to the group that I see on the building nearest to me. "Hunker down here, we're here to evacuate you!" I look around quickly, and there are some other resistance fighters a couple of buildings over.
So, I start out for the next closest one. Well, appearently he didn't get the memo and he starts moving away. I bend over and worry more about picking him up than what is around me. Zoom. I accidentally knock the wind out of him as I pick him up on the fly. We move towards the other group. I can see that an energy field is forming around Max.
I'm sure that he is a bit confused as the quick change of scenery. "He'll get you out of here!" My next target is on the ground, so down the side of the building I go. Ok, this might be bad. There is a Black Talon and it looks like it is going to be firing at me. Ghost drops a car on some of the agents and at least a couple of the resistance fighters fire on the Talon that is about to shoot me. Nice timing guys! Thanks. By the time I get to the last guy on the ground, Max is gone. He fired at the Talon and hit it with some sort of wire wrap. I grab the shooter and up the building with the two shooting the big cannon at the Talon. Over the coms "Next pickup point at the big cannon!" To the fighters, "Someone will be here in a second to pick you up for extract."
Down the building and up a shipping container, I throw a lightning bolt at the Talon still standing there. Just out of the corner of my eye, I see another resistance fighter hiding behind a portable building. Just great, he looks unarmed. So down and around I go and get him.
Hum, we are starting to really work well together. By the time I've collected all the resistance fighters, and dropped them off at pickup points, we've taken out all of the Talons that were there, and there is only a couple of agents left to deal with. If Sandcrab hadn't buried several of them earlier, it might have gone a bit different.
Hopefully, we can get some footage of the incoming mechs destroying the town here that we can fight the next 'report' of our being terrorist.
Disinformation Intensifies
Good news and Bad news ...
Always best to start with good news. It appears that the Destroids and the Black Talon suits have a common weakness. At least until they get rebuilt.
Max and I used electrical energies on them, and they seemed to be affected more by it. Max blew apart a couple of the destroids, and it really affected the BT's. Ghost's mighty hits wasn't even denting the BT's armor. It probably knocked the person inside around quite a bit though.
My electro-static lightning affected them also, not quite as effective as what Max can toss at them though, but still enough to take out a destroid and blow a BT back and away.
We were able to stop the destroids and the BT's and most of the fire agents, and there ends the good news.
Destroyer is upping the ante. We are being classified as terrorist, which isn't new, but now we are being blamed for starting the fire at the gas station. Ok, yea, Sandcrab did cover it in dirt, but that kept the gas tanks from exploding.
When I pulled out the old man Smithers and his grandson from the back of the gas station, I asked them if they had an idea why the station was under attack. Well, it seems that the old man has been giving money to his son Timmy who is possibly in one of the resistance cells.
Max had a feeling that we were being set up, and it does look that way. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Socrates lets us know that there is a live broadcast going on. Strange that it shows Gigaton 'hosting' the report about what was happening. He is claiming that we started it.
So, I guess it is time that we start fighting back through the media too ...
Destroyer's Depravity begins
Well, we must be starting to really get under Destroyer's armor. He is starting to make mistakes.
NAGA is so bent on taking out the resistance that it is creating more resistance. It seems that most people didn't really like the political leaders that much, so, when Dr. D took them out and things didn't change all that much, they though, eh, maybe things will get better this way.
Despots rely on the inactivity of the populace. Make things seem to stay close to the thing everyone feels is right, and no one will fight the outcome.
Well, we've kicked over a hornets nest now.
We had a little 'round' table discussion about what to do with the 'old' villains that we catch. The 'Superior' Five wanted to kill Gigaton. Well, what they really wanted to do was to kill Gigaton in cold blood.
I know that it is wrong to kill.... I know that it is wrong to kill in cold blood. That is what Destroyer and his minions did. Gigaton was one of the worse. He seemed to take glee in it.
It is getting harder and harder for me to really hold back against some of the opponents that we have been going up against.
I have a slight problem with imprisoning some of these people without a trial. That makes us as guilty as they are.
Well, we're going to see if we can find someone in the legal system that is willing to stand up for what is just, what is right morally. To stand up for our laws from before Destroyer took over the world. The older members of the New Champions remembered a Judge that was apparently taken by some men in dark robes. So, now we go looking for those men, to see what they are all about.
We get a call about something going on in one of the warehouse districts. We respond to the scene. What a grizzly scene, there are several somethings shooting fire at a Gas Station. Really smart thing to do. Oh, there are also a couple of the Black Talon agents. Those large robot like mech suits.
Ghost approaches a police officer, not part of the NAGA team, who is making a call on his radio. She finds out that there are some people still INSIDE of the gas station. Well, that will never do...
So, off I go, like a rocket. Just about the time I get to the station, Sandcrab has pinpointed the location of the two. An elderly gent and a younger male. I run to where they are and pick them up. Now this puts me in a quandry. I can handle passing through the flames because I am wearing some protective clothing, but they aren't. Well, nothing to do but blow out the window and some of the wall. I quickly run out the hole I made and head up the street.
I get a couple of blocks away and I drop them off. "You need to keep moving away from the area. We'll do what we can to save your gas station. Can you give me an idea why NAGA was trying to burn down your station?"
More Cells Call Out
Lilianna and I were sitting in the situation room watching some Lord of the Rings movies when we get a call over the DarkR web.
Another resistance cell was being attacked by Destroyer's minions. Runeforce said that the girl that we saved during the first round was at this one again.
Maybe, she's not a good luck charm.
Anyway, they were on the west coast of Oregon and the Space Plane was there. Runforce portalled us all there.
The resistance cell was getting its backside handed to it. Just as we set foot on the ground, three of them went down in one volley of fire. I zipped over there and picked up the two that were still mostly standing and put them behind the building.
Lillianna said something about this being a movie set just as I took off running, so, I don't think the walls will protect against anything really high powered.
I saw a big walking 'mech', is the best way I can describe it, take out another of the resistance fighters as I got there. There were also five agents with glowing weapons.
They moved up and lined up nicely for me to fire my lightning bolt at them. I tried to 'swing' it a bit, like the movie with those crazy curving bullets. I'm sure Lillianna would know the name, but I've forgotten it.
I got a lucky shot in and took out all three of them with a single shot. Neat. I'm gonna have to remember that. I think I need to start working on other ways to use the static electricity that I build up for other things.
As I step out, what I missed was that there was another agent right there, and behind them a blue wall. Guess Max was busy trying to slow them down.
The 'mech', that apparently the others had fought before, landed as I was punching the last glow agent, so I ran over and punched him too. The slight upgrade that I did to the gloves seems to have made my punches better. Both of them went flying back and out for the count.
As I turned back towards the plane, there were MORE of the mechs landing. Runeforce and Lillianna were hit, so I took off down the street. My lightning didn't seem to affect this mech as much as it did the glow agents, but it did move back a small bit.
I looked up quickly to be sure that there weren't any other surprises coming in from the skies. Max wasn't saying anything about the Destroid electric teleport fields, so that was good.
The last standing mech was taken out between Ghost and I. She distracted it as I ran over and punched it.
We quickly gathered up the agents and the mechs, who had agents inside of them, and removed all of their equipment.
At least this one went better than the last, in some ways. At least four of the resistance fighters were killed. Not good, but we did get the majority of them out of there and removed several destroyer agents from the field.
Rescue missions are all well and good, but I think it is time that we start taking the fight to them...
The Long Night Ends
They asked me questions about why I was in the room where the power cells disappeared. They didn't believe me at first.
Tabor brought the being from the room in and started questioning him. I am the only one that really believed him. The other Kazars felt that he was responsible for the disappearance of the power cells. I was sure that he wasn't.
He was taken from the room. I began to meditate and seek Soal's guidance when I heard some commotion in the hallway. I thought I heard my companions in the hall confronting the guards around the 'prisoner'.
As I step out of the room I'm in, I see Chronos and Stellar Sentinel down the hallway attacking the guards around the prisoner. Just as I start to step forward, times seems to stand still.
The next moment, I am in a different room with Chronos, Stellar Sentinel, the prisoner, and a guard.
We calm the guard and question the prisoner.
The answers that we get do not completely make sense, but his answers are believable.
We confront Tabor, and we return to the room where the power cells were and we are transported to the surface of Soal.
In that long moment, my mind returns to ...
Thoughts of Home
Oh, how has Soal changed my life.
Not too many years ago, I was swimming with my pod and enjoying the freedom of the waters of my world, Aquaian. Aquaian is a mostly water world. It spins on an axis, in an orbit around Soal, that is slightly out of the ecliptic of the rest of the system. This gives us a strange series of seasons. There are no permanent ice caps on the world, so there are areas of lands that cover and uncover during an orbit. About 20 percent of the world has permanent land masses that stay above the water levels, and none of them connect enough to block the oceans of the world from connecting. One could circumnavigate our world east to west, or north to south.
Early in my life I found that I didn't eat or sleep as much as most of my kin. This allowed me time for other things. My parents were concerned that something was wrong, so we saw the healers. They couldn't find anything wrong. I was just different. My genetics were different from the norm, but not so much that I was unhealthy or a danger to my pod.
For most Ungali, our skin does some of the work of taking in and expelling the gasses that our cells need to work. We have organs in our chests that also do the same work as most other races. It appears that my system is able to recycle most of these without exchanging with the environment. Our healers and scientists have taken samples of my genetics throughout my life. If they can find a way to replicate what my body does, it could be helpful for those who are unable to leave the water of our world.
While many Ungali would be sleeping, I would go exploring. One of the permanent land masses wasn't too far from my pod's regular hunting areas. I would go exploring there. I was able to walk the land for more time than most other Ungali, so I could walk farther on the land than others. Perhaps the time I spent exposed to Soal made changes to my body that I later experience, who knows for sure. The land masses had life on it, but nothing like what lived underwater. There were animals and plants that looked similar to what lived in the seas, and others that were completely different. I enjoyed walking around and studying the life of the land animals.
I knew that I was different than most, as I always had an attraction to the surface of the waters of our world. I would float on the surface and listen to the sounds of the air, and study the skies of Aquaian, and the stars in the night sky.
Some of our scientists had created suits that we could wear that would allow Ungali to walk the land for more time that even I could at a young age. They carried the Sea with them. So, we knew about the land, but just couldn't explore all of it at a time. I could be out of the water about the same amount of time that our scientists could in their suits. As I grew, I found that I could spend almost as much time out of the water as in it.
As I sit in the chamber waiting, I close my eyes and think back to those days. A calm comes over me as I think about lying on my back just floating on the surface of the sea near my home.
I felt Soal calling me then, as I feel him calling me now.
My mind drifts to my first assignment to the Kazar cast. Aquaian was visited by representatives of the Council of Oqthcal, the central government of our solar system. They visited every season. Tests were done to see where we would continue our work. With my special abilities, I was chosen by the Kazar leader to join one of the mining teams on Soal. A chance to be closer to that which powers our Solar System, feeds our worlds, and powers our equipment.
I was still young when I started in the mines. It was hard work, but worth it. I was doing something that benefitted all the inhabited worlds in our system.
I eventually learned that my mutation allowed me to survive in many different environments. The heat or the cold didn't seem to affect me. Areas that were dangerous to others without special gear, didn't seem to affect me. I'm not sure exactly why Soal gifted me with these abilities, but he did.
I soon found that I had other abilities also. An area of the tunnel we were in started to collapse. I quickly prayed for protection from Soal, and I was able to create a 'wall' of energy that held the collapse at bay long enough for us to escape the area. I was also covered in a shimmering field of energy around my body.
One of the transport ships that I was on, had an accident, causing the atmosphere in the ship to be evacuated. I was blown out of the ship, which for most would have been a death sentence, but I found that I could feel the solar winds coming off of Soal, they felt like the currents of the sea, and I found that I was able to 'swim' the seas of the solar system. On one of my rest days, I tried to see if I could swim in the atmosphere of a planet. I was able to do that also. It was such a joy to be able to move freely. Blessed by Soal I was and am.
I continued to be blessed by Soal. The more I dedicated my life to its teachings, the more I learned to do.
I am awakened from my musing by the entrance of someone into the cell that I am in. I open my eyes, and realize that I am floating off the floor, as I had been when I was young, looking up at the sky from the waters of my world.
And Back in to the Fire
Well, we took a long time getting back to the site, all of about 3 or so.
The five new supers, who called themselves the Superior 5, are mostly holding their own.
I run up towards the fight and take a shot at one of the floating gun platforms. The lightning blast does a little bit of damage, but not too much. It did knock it back from where it started.
Gigaton blast most of us with one of his 'Gigablasts'. It really rang my bell. That stung a lot. I'm going to have to do something about that. Apparently, energy is a weak point of my system.
One of the members of the Superior 5, uses some of my tricks, and somehow seems to be as fast, if not faster than I am.
I start pulling my dissassembly trick on one of the Destroids, while the 5 decide that Gigaton is their only target.
Liliana, one of the ones that we helped free, came back with us. Not sure if that was a good choice on her part, but maybe it was.
I'm not sure what she hit Gigaton with, but it made him drop like a stone.
We quickly did a clean up of the destroids and gun turrets. The 5 weren't interested in anything other than beating up on Gigaton.
We couldn't have that, so we took what was left of Gigaton, (more like half-a-ton now) to our prison base.
I don't think we made any friends out of the '5', but maybe we won't have made serious enemies.
Time to see if I can reconfigure some things and make it so that I don't get my bell rung so bad next time.
Out of a Frying Pan
Because I was contemplating life, the universe and just about anything else, I missed helping another group of resistance fighters get away from NAGA.
The team helped save several resistance fighters get away from another group of NAGA.
I finally realized that I'm in it for the long term, and I have to do whatever it takes to help get rid of Destroyer, well almost anything. I don't think that I can become a cold-blooded killer. I'm not sure that I can kill. I believe that killing is wrong.
What Destroyer and his followers are doing is wrong also, but two wrongs don't make something 'right'.
XO seemed to step through some sort of portal and arrived at a major NAGA base. He was able to surprise them enough and take them out, so it was decided that we should try to put a DarKr web devise on the base so that maybe we can intercept NAGA communications.
We arrive on the scene, and Wildthing takes the device to the top of one of the communication towers while the rest of us try to keep the agents busy.
Shortly after we arrive, a woman breaks out of a shipping container. So, now they are trapping metas to do who knows what. She hears others in some of the other containers, so they go around and start to set them free. I run around and take out a couple of the flying NAGA agents and on the way back around the back side of the building, I help tear open another container.
Just as we've gotten all of the 'guest' of the NAGA hotel out of their rooms, Gigaton arrives with some Destroids following behind him. Just great, Gigaton, one of the worst of the worst, and titularly the head of the United States under Destroyer. I guess if you are a good psychopath, you get to run a country.
We decide that the better part of Valor, is to beat feet with our newly liberated super friends, well, hopefully they will continue to fight against the current regime.
Just as we are leaving, five other 'supers' arrive, and start fighting Gigaton.
Ghost and I agree that we can't just let them take on Gigaton alone, but first we have to get these others that had been trapped out of here, and back to safety.
Secrets of The Commission
I have felt that something is off since I took this posting from the Kazar cast leaders.
Rka'Lin, who said that he was tasked with retrieving the heavy energy crate by The Council, the Council that hasn't been heard from in more than 6 cycles, feels that he failed, and that his family will suffer. I blessed him in the name of Soal, but he still would not come with us to explain his part. We watched his retrieval vehicle turn and leave, when it saw us outside the door to the sector. I pray that Soal is merciful to his family. He did not fail other than the fact that we were able to overpower him.
We return to the commission building and give our report. The Avril leader seemed to be very excited about our information. The commission asked us to investigate something on the moon. We agreed, but the others needed rest and sustenance. I chose to use the time to commune with Soal.
I walked to building, and found the main alter. As I was meditating, I was drawn to the alter. I extended my hand to touch the alter.... My hand passes through, I then climb on through and arrive at the top of the stairs to an underground storage area. I fly down the stairs, and there at the bottom of the stairs is a room holding three of the power chests, including the largest one. There is also someone there who I have never seen.
He starts moving towards me and when he steps between two of the chests, he starts to disappear. I fly into him and knock him into the wall. I was hoping that would stop the containers disappearing. No luck. Soal's will, I will be lead to a way to retrieve the Kazars missing equipment.
I have been lead away to be questioned.
Now, I wait until they arrive to question me.
What Happens in Vegas...
Boy, things come fast and furious with this group. We hardly get back from getting away from Dr. Destroyer, and off we go to Los Vegas to help out a resistance cell there, with Runeforce's daughter. I quickly run to get Wildthing, and off we go to Vegas.
In the couple of seconds that it took to get there, I'm beginning to wonder if we have been going around this the right way. I hope so. So many people have been hurt, and so many more put in danger. Destroyer is the larger evil... At least I think he is...
We arrive at the warehouse where the resistance cell was hiding out. There are several Air Agents around the building. We all try to hit about the same time. I'm surprised that I am able to affect them as much as I can. That lightning really does effect electronics.
I run up the side of the building to get closer to the one on the roof. I try to wrap him in an entangle of light. It works for a moment, then I blast him with another lightning bolt.
It seems that we've taken care of the three outside, so I run into the building.
What luck, there are two of them in a line. I throw another lightning blast at the one closest to me. Airball in the left pocket off the Screwball. I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but, we did it.
Great, on top of it, now there are some Destroids coming. We are able to catch one by surprise, and I 'take' it apart. The parts get teleported to somewhere that Sandcrab and Cyper wanted.
I take some time getting back, to hide my traces, and think.
I turned off my communicator.
That may have been a mistake, but I had to think and get my mind straight.
Well, I have a new outlook. Dr. Destroyer has to go down for what he has done to the world, and if that means fighting him and his minions, then that is what I am going to do.
An Empty City Sector
Very shortly after we get back from helping people who were harmed by the Ancestor in the woods, we're informed that the energy signatures of the forming ancestors has appeared in Chinatown. Great, just great. It took all of us working together to take out just ONE ancestor, and when he appeared, he wiped out miles around him. If these things emerge in Chinatown, all of Millennium City will be blasted off the face of the earth.
We still don't know who's idea it was to try to merge the ancestors to take on Dr. Destroyer. That person better watch out when we find them. What an asinine idea. "I know, let's put several thermonuclear bombs together and see how easy it is to take out Dr. Destroyer."
We make our way quickly to Chinatown, near where we rescued Luo Jian's friend. Good news, the ancestors hadn't taken full form yet, bad news, there were 7 of them.
I quickly run over and spin around one of the smaller ones. Not sure how well it worked out, as it just sat there. Ghost did her usual and tried to plow through one. Ouch, that hurt me just watching it. She normally dishes out a lot of damage, but where she touched the ancestor globe, an energy spread to Ghost. She curled up into a fetal position. I don't think that I've ever seen her stopped in her tracks like that. Well, quick lesson learned there, DO NOT TOUCH the ancestor globes. That takes out most of what I can do.
What to do.... What to do? Ah, ok, hey, lightning, yea, maybe that will work.....
Well, it didn't work enough, so, It's time to push it, give it a heck of a wind up..... Oh, and right, work with the others, have to time it just right.....
These things are tough. Most of us hit it at the same time, and it just barely got smaller.
Cypher passes on some information that there are electrical fields starting to form near each of the ancestor globes.
We work together again, and attach the same globe. Sandcrab hits it with a manhole cover, and Ghost rips out a light pole and swings at it. Sandcrab switches to a light pole also. We time it better, and it get's pretty small. Ghost grabs a box, and takes off for the skies.
We turn our attention to the smallest one that I had dropped a light field around. I drop the field, and we all go after it again. This time, when we hit it, it drops, and then breaks apart into lots of tiny little energyless sparkles. About that time, it dons on me, that someone's soul had to be sacrificed for the ancestor to come back. I think we just killed two souls this way. The original ancestor, and the one who had sacrificed itself. I guess this is a situation where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or even the one, to slightly misquote that old Star Trek movie.
About the time that we finish up with the small one, so, we're down to just 5 of them left, in the energy fields, Destroids form. They look a bit different than the first one that we met helping Luo Jain's friend. Maybe I'll be able to affect it.
Before it is completely formed, I start trying to take apart it's weapon. Boy, this thing is complex. I get some of the parts off of it on the first go-around, so I keep going.
Ok, now, what do we do..... The Destroids are attacking the ancestor globes. Do I take it out, or do I help it attack the globes.
I'm not sure, with all the noise going on in the fight, but someone on the team states that, hey, we'll still have to deal with the Destroids after the ancestors are destroyed. Oh, and Max states that we now have LESS time to take all of them out. The 'countdown' sped up as the others were destroyed. Just great. Oh well, 'Today is a good day to die....." Although, I really DO NOT want to die today.
I finally get the weapon dismantled on the Destroid, and it flies up, and states something about self-destruct mode initiated.... It and the orb explode, and the orb is gone. Ok, perhaps this may be the way. I head over to the next Destroid near an ancestor orb. I start taking his weapon apart. It is weird that the Destroids are ignoring me as I take their weapon apart. They seem to be focused only on the orbs.
Sandcrab takes my toy away, and wraps it and an orb up in the tin roof of the building near him. ((You know what, Sandcrab is a bit destructive. He keeps tearing up the ground, or parts of buildings to cover opponents.))
Since my target is gone, on to the next one.....
Oh, not good, not good at all. We attracted Dr. Destroyer's attention, his PERSONAL attention. He shows up on a roof top, then drops down on the other side of the Destroid that I'm next to. Dr. D fires at one of the ancestor globes, and it is blasted to pieces in one shot. We are SO not ready to take this guy on. We have to find out what his weakness is. There has to be a kink in his armor somewhere.
We all agree that it is time to LEAVE Dr. D to deal with the ancestor globes, and for us to NOT be here when he is done. We all split up and head out in different directions. I'm going to go around to several different places, and wait to get an all clear from the others.
Soal's Legacy
I was called to the Kazar's council. I strode into the room before the leaders of my cast. Mining and resource gathering and distribution is our mandate. As I was entering the quild hall, I felt the memories of my past well up in my mind. I was not born on Oqthcali, but with my abilities I was tasked to come to the center of our solar system as a child. I grew up in the mines of Soal, and learned of Soal's significance within our culture. The more time that I spent inside of our star, the more it empowered my body.
My race, the Ungali, originated on the water world, Aquaian, of the Soal stellar system. Our world rotates on it's axis, unlike Oqthcali, which makes living on Oqthcali different that what I was born into. Unlike most members of my race, I do not have to spend much time in a liquid. I am unique among my people, and that has set me apart from them. My family pod still communicates with me, and I do all that I can for my world. I have not moved far enough up my cast structure to be able to do much, but, as I don't need the rest or food that others of my race, or even most of the other races within the Soal system, I am able to allocate more credits to be returned to my homeworld.
I am part of a group that worships Soal for it's power and all that it gives to us, and also, all that it takes from us also. Perhaps, that is why I am being called into the council chambers. Most of the others of my cast do not follow any form of worship. Many of the Ungali still follow other deities, we are not as advanced in some ways as the other planets in our system, but we are not without our technologies. I smile at the thought of some of the things that I had as a child.
I shake my head to clear it as I come up to the doors to the chamber. The guards open them upon my approach. I nod to both of them, and thank them as I pass, "Soal, bringer of light, may he bless you both for your dedication to your job." Neither one of them respond, but I see that the one on the left stand just a bit straighter. I smile to myself as I enter the chamber.
This is both a small private arena, and yet, can hold many of our cast at the same time. I have heard that some of the council chambers are very ornate places, but we know the value of the resources that we collect, so are not an ornate cast. I enter to the center spot, and stand in front of the three council that are there. I glance to the left and right, and see that two of the council are not there. This is a good sign, I do not believe that I am to be punished. Those council meetings always have all council members in attendance.
"Council of the Kazar, I, Ozar of Ungali, navigator of the Sea Horse, have come before you as requested. May Soal bless all in this room." I look at each of the members in turn. Council Sazar, who is sitting in the center is the third of the council, so, while what I have been summoned for is important for the cast, it is not enough to require High Council Benic to preside over the meeting.
Sazar speaks "Welcome Ozar of Ungali, son of Soal. We have summoned you here to task you with a new assignment. Will you accept?"
I cock my head slightly, my head fins betraying my confusion and curiosity. "Council Sazar, I am the cast's to command. Soal guides me to do what must be done for the Kazar's needs. I formally accept the new assignment." I nod my head in respect to the council. "Where am I to be assigned, and what duties am I to be required?"
Sazar chuckles lightly, and glances at the other two. "I told you he would be the correct choice. He has always followed orders." He glances at me "Although, sometimes, he as been very creative in following those orders." My head crest flattens to my head, am I being reprimanded for my creativity, or praised. I keep my voice to myself. "Ozar, we are sending you to help with the retrieval of resources on a newly dark section of Oqthcali. The planet has rotated slightly, and several sectors are now in full dark. Citizens were evacuated quickly, and in some cases, too quickly, as some very important items were left behind. You will report to the commander in charge of the retrieval."
I bow again, "As the council commands. I will travel there as quickly as possible." Sazar passes me an info chip with the information that I need on. I take the chip and look to each of the council members. They all nod to me and then turn to each other. That is my clue to leave. I turn and walk back to the doors, and they again open upon my approach. I stand tall and continue to stride down the hall, as I insert the chip into the reader on my arm. It displays the shuttle that I need to board, and where I am going. I have to concentrate to keep my tail from knocking things over as I walk.
I arrive at a compound near the newly dark side of the planet. There are several others that have arrived near the same time as I have. I stride over to the Abril who seems to be recording who is here. I wait my turn in the que, then step up, "Ozar of the Kazar reporting to the commander." The Abril barely looks up at me as he motions towards a door behind him. "That way, down the hall, and on the left." He makes a note on his tablet as I start to leave, "Soal's blessings upon you." I don't stay long enough to see his reaction.
I enter the building and go in the direction indicated, careful to keep my toe claws relaxed so that they don't cause any damage.
I enter the room, and there are seating pods for many. I look around, and see that each seat has a holo name on the desk in front of the seats. I raise my eyebrows in surprise, as the spot for me the seat is designed to accept my tail. I move to the spot with my name, and see two other empty seats near mine. I sit down and wrap my tail around the base of the seat, to keep it out of the way. I begin to study the information in the display before me.
While I was distracted the other seats in the hall fill, and shortly the commander comes in.
"Welcome. We have a dire situation on our hands. The information packet has told you about the latest quakes that caused Oqthcali to turn slightly. There are now new areas exposed to the light that were in the dark, and others that have been plunged into darkness. You all have been sent from your respective planets and casts to help out. You will be split into teams of three to investigate and retrieve the power systems from your sectors. Any questions?"
I receive this assignment with little question. It appears to be straight forward. We are given the information on what needs to be retrieved from our sector. Five of the power systems were left behind. I go to my assigned transport, and there I meet the other two members of my team.
Chronos and Kaylon'tar are the others on the group that I am assigned. We talk a little bit, mostly to know each others names. We quickly arrive at the gate to Sector Seven. As soon as we are through the gate, it slams shut behind us. I turn my head, and think to myself, <<So, are we prisoners now, or is there something in here they are trying to keep in. Not as straight a current as I had hoped.>> At the end of the street is a large armored thing just ripping apart some thraum. Thraum, concidered the bottom dwellers. Every egosystem needs the bottom dwellers. As we approach the first intersection, there is a group of 4 thraum standing around one of the power supplies that we were tasked with retrieving. Pulling on the power of Soal I reach out and try to lift the power supply. It was heavier than we were lead to believe. As the waves of light emit from my hand and wrap around the power supply, I speak to the thraum, "That is not your, by the Power of Soal, I command you to leave." Surprisingly, the thraum turn and move towards me. I am not concerned, as they are nothing more than a nuance. How wrong I was. One of the thraum laid his hand on me. I hadn't put up my shield yet. I was thrown back away from the thraum as images filled my mind, overwhelming me. My body seemed to be acting on autopilot. I moved back towards the power supply and started to lift it again. I really didn't see that another thraum was moving towards me.
Suddenly, I couldn't see anything, as I was blinded by a great light, different than that of Soals. I felt another touch and was again thrown back. I was fighting to clear my head of the images bombarding me. It seemed like from a great distance, I could hear someone telling me to do something. It was enough that I was able to put up my shielding so that I wouldn't be touched again.
I have no clear idea what has happened around me. Slowly the images began to fade as I picked up the power supply and moved it towards the gate. Chronos and Kaylon'tar informed me of what happened. I believe that it was unknown what the thraum could do with just a touch. Perhaps the Abril will learn more.
The large armored thing at the end of the street was subdued by Chronos. Chronos 'walked' through him and projected information for us. He was also dropped off by an official vehicle. This current has plenty of eddies and cross currents to navigate through. I let the others know "Other factions are out there, and perhaps there are splits in the ruling council, and instead of swimming with the school, they are swimming on the outside."
We return the power supplies, and takes a thraum and the armored guy back with us. Kaylon'tar is an abril, and they are all interested in gathering knowledge.
We shall see where the tide takes us. Lead on Soal, may your light guide the way.
Ancestor in the Woods
After our rescue mission, off we went to try to retrieve one of the ancestors that had been stolen.
What started off as a nice walk in the woods turned horribly wrong.
We caught up with the two that had been at every site where an ancestor was stolen. They had open bed truck that had been transporting a box that had apparently been holding the ancestor. As you can see, we got there just a couple of moments too late.
Max and Nemesis let us know that there appeared to be some sort of energy source on the wrists of the two, so, I liberated it from them. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, but, the 'watches' came right off. I'll let the other main tech guys look them over, and see what they are, and how we might be able to counter act them in the future. They at least hide your real form, because after I took the watches off of them, they appeared as samurai, similar to the Oni ones we meet earlier.
They suddenly decided to run away. Ghost captured one of them, and Nemesis went after the other after Sandcrab tagged it with a tracer. Nemesis could have easily caught her, but just followed along behind to let it think it got away.
Well, we waited too long again, the ancestor began to grow, pushing us back. Max tried to englobe it, and that slowed it down a bit, but it finally broke out of his shield.
It's a good thing that we had come to a stop behind a bolder, as the ancestor decided to explode. When we looked again, there in the air sat a golden form sitting in the, I think it was the lotus position, humming. Around it was this field of glowing energy that also had different type of debris floating around in it.
He said something about destroying the Destroyer. We hoped that he was talking about the Dr. D, but there wasn't any way to be sure. The ancestor was doing a lot damage himself. When he emerged, we could feel the damage he did for miles around.
I had no idea what I could do. The guy was up in the air, about 45 feet in the air, I'm stuck to the ground and only about 3 feet tall. I can reach somethings, but that is way to high for me.
Ghost flies at him, and comes to a complete stop and is getting pounded by the debris. I don't think I've ever seen her just flat out stopped before.
The ancestor just ignored us, and started moving towards Millennium City. We spread out to start moving people out his way.
Sandcrab found a river with a power line near it. He came up with a plan to try to slow the ancestor down. The ancestor appeared to be made of gold. Gold is one of the best conductors in the world as we know it, so why not try to electrocute him.
So, because we have been working in the new 'danger room' at the base, we tried to do our best to hit the ancestor at the same time.
Ghost shoves a rock down on him, Nemesis and Wild thing work together to hit him with another rock. Sandcrab sets off the electrical line, Max and I throw lightning at him.
So, teamwork is a good thing. All of the attacks do damage to the ancestor. It begins to shrink. We were going to try and put it back into it's box, so, yea, run and get it.
Within just under a second, I return with the box and toss it up to Ghost who is able to get the ancestor back in the box.
Wham slam, thank you ma'am.... Now, it's time to get the flock out of here......
The trip back to the base was heartbreaking. The devastation from the Ancestor's emergence was horrific. I had to slow down and stopped to help where ever I could. I'm not super strong, but, I am smaller than most, so I could get into spots that I wouldn't normally been able to.
Strange, the small spaces didn't affect me as much as they use to. I'm not sure if I am getting over it, or I just pushed it aside to help out those who were in need. I don't think those images will ever leave my memory. I just hope that I was able to be a help to those in need. People like me use to be called superheroes. I just have abilities above the normal. Those without any extra powers that were helping people, those are the real heroes.
I don't know if anyone who saw what I was doing reported anything or not. I just hope that I haven't put the rest of the New Champions in extra danger, but I couldn't go though those areas without helping. That is why I created this suit.
We have got to stop all of this. We must get rid of Dr. Destroyer, but, this was too high a price to pay, much too high. We must get the other ancestors back, and to their clans.
Maybe, we need to start being a bit more 'open' with what we are doing, so that those without hope, can start to hope again.
I can only hope that we are soon able to come up with a way to take Destroyer down, and help make the world a better place for all.
My First Rescue Mission
Luo Jian got a call from someone that he had worked with on his next book. He said that the call was strange. The person that he was talking to was a careful speaker, but this time he was very chatty and 'happy'. Luo said that there was a pause in the conversation, and his contact said that 'I am not me'. Luo asked us to see if we could 'rescue' his friend.
Well, off we went. There were a lot of guards out and about in the Chinatown area. Strange, but not really since there had been so many thefts of sacred items.
I may have made a mistake. You know the old saying, Fools Rush In. Well, there was this weird energy source at the end of the street near where our rescue target was. I ran past it on the side of the building to be out of site of the guards.
I must have made the energy mad or something, because three floating guns popped up out of the crackling energy. Well, I couldn't let that stand, so I ran over and punched the middle one. There was some sort of energy protecting the gun, It hurt a bit, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. The gun went flying towards where Sandcrab was hiding underground. I don't know how he stands being underground all the time, it would just freak me out.
Anyway, the gun exploded on Sandcrab. It had to have really hurt, he screamed. I have never heard him make that sound before. It was a big explosion though.
The other two guns were handled by the others. I was getting ready to head up to the apartment, when this big robot thing appeared out of the energy. Oh, not good...
Wait, did it say that is downloaded it's orders from Destroyer? Oh, not good at all..... What can I do, what.... I got it, lets see if I can take it apart. Yea, that's the ticket. I run over to start disassemble it.
Well, that didn't work. It was but wasn't there. My hands just passed through it. Well, nothing to do here folks, so I turned and started moving towards the building and up the stairs to the apartment.
By the time I get there, Sandcrab has jumped up through the window and tossed our target out of the window. XO caught him and passed him off to Ghost. A good idea, as she is almost as fast as me. Off she went with Luo's friend. The robot started following Ghost, but couldn't keep up. Well, that is good to know, I should be able to out run one if it comes after me.
The rest of us head out in different directions, just in case there was some way of tracking us.
Overall, I think, we were successful in what we did. I guess we'll find out in the long run.
hee hee... Long Run.....
Down to the Spiders lair
After working together on the mystery of the disappearing items, we figured a couple of things out,
1) There were two people at all of the disappearance
2) There were a lot of ancestors stolen
3) We needed more information.
Ghost flew to China and talked with a specialist. She was able to convince him to come to Millennium City to talk further with us. Fazer flew out to meet them and bring them back.
When they get back we learn some very important information. Putting these containers that the ancestors were in near each other is VERY bad. Like take out most of the city bad.
It is decided that we need to look at where these items were taken from to see if we can figure out a better way to track them to be able to find them.
Well, you know the old saying, best laid plans and all.
We get to the one where the horned defenders were, under the market that may have been the first ancestor stolen, there was nothing. Everything had been cleared out. They were completely gone.
Nemesis couldn't really read the 'magic' in the area, but Maximum Resistance was able to get a bit of a reading.
So, we start traveling in the underground looking for the next place that an ancestor was stolen from. Good news, it turns out that the ancestor that had been stored and revered here, may have been the most powerful.
Of course, there is always bad news. This ancestor was, according to Luo Jian, called The Spider King. Well, his defenders were covered in spider tattoos, and some of the tattoos seemed alive. Just a bit scary. They were also very strong. Nemesis wasn't able to break out of one of their hold. Also, weirdly, they all seemed to talk together, almost as if they had a single mind.
While Nemesis was being held, one of the defenders bit her, well, she looked like an old man at the time. They started to converge on Nemesis, so I went into overdrive, and ran around one of them. It was strange, as I circled defender, I was thinking of trying to figure out some way to tie him up. I came around, and started running through my afterimages, and it created some sort of barrier.
It didn't stop him, but at least it slowed him down. I'm going to have to do some experimenting with it to see what it was doing.
Anyway, I must have been slightly distracted due to looking at what I had just done when the defender reached out and slapped me with his pointy bracers... The blow threw me at the wall, and I rolled back to my feet. Working out has helped me out. Learning to fall and roll out of it. Just about that time, Ghost chimes in on our coms, "It would be smart to Leave."
I think about it for a split second, and well, she has been doing this stuff for a while, so it is probably a smart tactical choice, so, instead of trying anything else, I start running back to where she was.
It must have been the correct choice, because everyone else left too. We went back to the base, and talked with Luo Jian again, and that is when we found out who we had been fighting.
We all worked together to get some sort of sensor system up and running so that Max could look around for the energy signature that he and Nemesis saw at that point.
It finally started to pay off. We found many of the ancestor energy signatures being moved around the country, but a couple of them just disappeared. Ghost and I went there and looked around for any physical evidence, but nothing was in the area.
I thought it was worth a try, to at least try to bring the containers that the ancestors were stored in back to the ones who had been protecting it. As maybe a way to get them to understand that we are trying to work with them to restore what was taken from them.
So, we really needed to get to a spot where the energy was still active. We made our way there as a group, and when we arrived, I recognized two of the people there. They had been at all of the sites where the ancestors had been stolen, and that we had video of.
And so, the plot thickens.......
Li'l Trouble in Little China
I was contacted by Runeforce and asked to join in an interesting investigation.
There was a strange robbery in the china town section of the city. Seems that a refrigerator unit was stolen from a store in china town. Just before it disappeared, the people nearest to it were blown back and away from it, then it just disappeared. What was even stranger, is that it reappeared the next day, in almost the same exact way as it disappeared, except that there wasn't the 'explosion' from before.
Sandcrab decided that he would tunnel underneath the store and use some of his tech to investigate the store. I was going to go with him, right up to the point that I realized that I would be in a small tunnel.... I almost started to hyperventilate. I glad that we were talking over the coms, so I was able to not transmit while I collected my thought. I told him that I would wait topside in an alley near by if he needed me in the store for anything.
Some of the others, Maximum Resistance, Wildthing, and Ghost were also topside and near by. Maybe they know something that I didn't about Sandcrab's tunnels.
Anyway, we're up topside outside the store when Sandcrab calls us that apparently there is an open area under the store that wasn't on any maps, and there are some people there trying to cut him up. Socrates sends us a location beacon of where he is at. I run over and pick up Wildthing and down we go.
Wow, I didn't know there was a whole group of people living in the sewers. There were houses and businesses and all sorts of things down there. Not exactly sure what all I saw, as we were moving so fast.
I drop Wildthing off just outside of the area where Sandcrab is. I'm not sure what good we'd do, as he had already dropped the roof down on some of the people with swords. Ghost arrives just about the same time as us, and takes the sword away from the one guy, well, I say guy because I think he was male, but his face, well, it looked like he had horns on his head and his skin was reddish... He really looked more demonic in the old sense than anything else. Anyway, I'm not sure what I can do at this point.
Wildthing jumps over at the guy / demon, and threatens him. He seemed a bit cowed by her. I start moving around the room, just making sure that there are no other surprises waiting for us.
Well, there was another surprise, the roof was starting to cave in. "Hey, uh, the roof is about to cave in, I'm going to go topside and clear everyone out of the store, just to be sure." I take off to above ground.
I get up to the store, and start pulling people out of the store and putting them outside across the street. I tell each one, "Stay here, the floor may collapse." While I'm doing this, Ghost appears, and lifts up the freezer unit that had disappeared. "Hey Ghost, that is the unit that disappeared." I don't know if she heard me, or what, but she put it back down.
About the time that I get everyone out, the group underground calls over the coms that they have the roof fixed, and that we are going to investigate something else related to the disappearing freezer.
Socrates called over the coms that there wasn't any reports of 'superpowered' activity.... Weird, but, good I guess.....
Meetings
So, the time in Greenland wasn't a total waste. I get a call from the team asking for a meet. They decide that we should meet in the city. I suggest a park downtown. It has a nice pond where the kids can play.
Of course, if I wanted to, I could look like a child. I've been lucky that if I shave, I can pass for much younger than I am.
So, there I am, just sitting on the bench, swinging my legs. I have so much energy since the accident on new years day, the day of the Vanishing.
I get a call. It's the strange silhouette woman. She calls herself Ghost. Her and a young man come around the corner.
Ghost is dressed in a full on Habib. Covers her completely. Apparently she is always the star field silhouette. Makes sense to cover completely. It's what I do, but the other way around. I can't say that I'm not just a little bit nervous discussing Li'l Rocket out in the open, but, I hope everything will work out. Technically we are engaging in criminal activity. I have a feeling that those that I have met so far, are doing this because they feel that things need to do what is morally correct.
Well the conversation seemed to be going in the right direction. Max and Ghost want to see what I can do. We start around the side of the building when all hell breaks out up the street. We hear screaming. I spin around and activate my suit. I think this surprised Max. Not sure if anything surprises Ghost. I look at Max and say "Guess we're doing this now." I smile, not like he can tell.
I run around the corner and people are running every which way away from the street I'm coming up on. As I get to the corner, there's a guy on fire and flying right down the middle of the street. Not sure what I could do, I begin helping people move faster away from him. I pick up this older guy who can’t walk very well and move him down the street. Apparently this really upset the fire guy. He threw a ring of fire around me and some of the other civilians. A couple of them couldn't stop in time, and got badly burned. Luckily, I was able to stop in time to not hurt the man I was carrying. This really burned my chaps....
That really did burn my 'chaps'. That fire was hot. I am pleased that my creation worked as well as it did. I was somewhat protected from the heat of the fire. I snap my fingers at him to get his attention. Don't know why I thought that would work, but I yelled at him to. Surprisingly, when I snapped my fingers, I snapped faster that I expected and it created a very loud sound. It didn't really seem to affect him much though. Hum, it might actually work if I'm next to someone, it might make it harder for them to hear afterwards. I'll have to try that again sometime later.
Suddenly, some other large guy jumps out of the same building that the flaming due does.... Ok, no way do I think I can handle this guy by myself, not that I am really alone anymore.
I look around quickly and make sure that no other civilians are in harms way. Ghost hits the fire guy, and he goes flying into a building. The big guy from down the street leaps up at Ghost, and misses. I'm unsure what I can do so I just keep making sure that there are no civilians too close. Other than those in the cars, things aren't too bad.
Boy, this guy is bouncy, does he think he is Tigger or something? Anyway, he jumps up grabs Ghost and yells something about tearing her limb from limb.... He almost does so. Ghost dives with him into a building on the corner. They go smashing through the wall... Ah, finally something I might be able to help with, so off I go.........
First Live Trial
I finally did it. I put on the suit and went for a run.
Man, was it invigorating. At first I was doing about 96 kilometers an hour. I got on the outside of Millennium City and decided to try to put on the speed.
OMG!!!!! One second I was just east of Millennium City, and the next, I was in Greenland, well, I think it was Greenland. It was cold, and in the north. Once I figured out the time, I knew it had to be Greenland.
I slide to a stop, and smash into the side of a glacier, or mountain, or something. Good thing I was slowing down, otherwise that would have really hurt.
I turn to the side, and there is this woman jumping at me, I step slightly to the side and she lands. She asks me who I am. I quickly think to my self, << Good questions lady... Uh, who am I. Well, I kinda rocketed over here... I'm, little... Ok... >>
I stumble over my my words, and eventually I get it out, "I'm Rocket, uh, Li'l Rocket"
She tells me to move over to the side of the mountain. I comply.
I still don't know who these people are, but, I think they are after the same thing I am in the long run. Maybe they are what passes for the good guys now.
There was this one who was all dark and starry, just that, nothing but a shadow. She, at least I think it's a she, flies over to the tower and puts something on it, I think. The others begin moving around the mountain, so I follow suit.
There is some sort of research station around the mountain. The other four make their way that way. The crazy lady, lands on the top of the control tower. The shadow one flies farther around, I can see her up in the air. I'm not sure where the other two go.
I go a ahead and move on around the side of the buildings. What in the world is that! It looks like a UFO. Big, round flying disk. I thought that was just made up stuff, but I still wanted to believe in it.
The Shadow lady drops down towards two, apparent research scientist. They start running back towards the building. I continue on towards the space craft.
One of the others puts something in front of all the doors of the building. The rest of us make our way to the UFO. At least once we get up here, they start talking out loud. The starry shadow woman is called Ghost.
The crazy lady goes by Wild Thing. Maybe not too crazy, but a bit scary.
After a few minutes, Ghost begins saying things, it seems a bit odd at first, then I realize that she is reading the script on the door panel. I begin to listen closer, and thinking, and it starts to make sense, well, as much sense as you can make from single words.
I eventually hear about an override, I don't think I could break into their system very easy, it is alien after all. I just mash the override command when Ghost points it out.
Ok, maybe that was NOT a good choice.... Lights and sirens blazing, but the door isn't opening.
Suddenly, everything stops, and the doors begin to open. The outer door opens, and inside is a glowing field. We all stand around for a moment. I make a comment about can they breath our air, or can we breath theirs. No one seems to listen. I guess they have worked together for long enough to know what they can do.
I know that I can't breath anything but oxygen. I think maybe I need to work on that.
The one called Nemesis, another female, heck, they were all females, just walks through the field like it was nothing. Those aliens are really alien.. I have no other way to describe it. They seem to be trilateral, at least on the upper part of their body.
Their arms, tentacles, what ever wave about, it seems to be in a pattern, but I haven't gotten it yet. It seems that maybe Rampage might have figured it out. I know Ghost has figured out their 'written' language.
Eventually, I hear the others talk about getting supplies and moving them to the ship. I offer to run and get them. I think I can recreate the pattern that got me here. Now that I've done it once, I should be a bit better at controlling it.
They decide that the best thing to do is wait. Ghost and I go and start moving snow. I tell you what, I'm glad that I'm wearing gloves, but I'm getting very hungry. I move to over-watch, while the others work on the ship.
I know I shouldn't, but I need to eat. I pop back down to the US, grab some food real quick. Leave some money on the counter, and head back. I'm not gone for more than 2 or three seconds. I hope I wasn't seen, but I had to eat.
About 12 hours later, the plane that they showed up in returns, with another guy with runes all over his body. I think they call him Runeforce. I pick up some of the smaller items, and start carrying them over to the ship. I let the others who can breath in there move it in.
I quickly search the plane while no one is there and see if I can find some food. There is a voice, "May I help you?" I look around quickly. No one is there. "Uh, I'm sorry, but, uh, I'm called Li'l Rocket, and I need something to eat, please."
He pauses, "Uh, I'm sorry, but if I don't eat soon, I'm going to run out of energy." There is a pause, and a compartment opens. There is some snacks there, "Uh, do any of the others eat? If so, I'll take some to them. I'm sure that they are hungry too."
He takes the snacks, and while he is waiting, he begins to eat the snacks that was there. He takes some food and drinks to the others.
After another 12 hours, the ship begins to rise and shake as it begins to pull out of the snow it had gotten stuck in, and begins to fly backwards, in the apparent same path that it crashed into. Suddenly, it disappears.
Well, that was interesting, weird but interesting. They give me a communicator, and warn me not to use it, without being in a secure location. I take the communicator, put it in my belt, and make sure that it is secure.
"Ok. It was interesting. I hope to hear from you all again in the future. If you ever need a Li'l Rocket", he giggles slightly, "just give me a call. You have my number." He pats the communicator that he put in his belt.
This was a DUMB thing....
After opening the case and investigating the intel we decided to see if we could liberate the power sources for our own use.
Surprisingly, the site was fairly close to us.
We arrived at the site, and it was a large underground bunker area, similar to the opening of the Cheyenne Mountain 'secret' base the government uses.
It was short work for the 5 of us: Hunter, Ricochet, Tinker, Eclipse and I, to enter the base.
On our way down, I do my best to keep connected to the net, but the signal gets weaker the deeper we go.
I'm glad that Eclipse was here with all of his climbing gear, some of those shafts were difficult to climb down.
We finally reach the bottom level of the base. It looks like it has been unused for several years.
Hunter and Ricochet move out and start clearing the area. I pull out my service pistol as Eclipse returns topside to guard the transport.
Electronic signatures are almost non-existent down here. I start, somewhat stupidly and blindly, walking into the room. Hunter and Ricochet have my back, I know that. They have their strengths, and high ground is it.
Tinker checks over to our right, as I continue looking for the power sources.
Ah, there they are, #Against the far wall appears to be our targets.# I continue to make my way over that way.
While I have found the em-source, there isn't any electronic means to expose the cores. #Tinker, this looks like something you need to do. No electronic controls on these containments cells.#
I continue to focus on the electronic signatures, looking for anything else. Suddenly, the ground begins to shake, I stumble a bit to the side, and just in time too. The whole room flips into something else, and comes to life. Lights power up, the floor panels between the barricades flip over, and suddenly, there are robots in the room. I am almost blinded by the electronic signatures that spring to life.
I glance around, and Tinker is caught in some mechanics that flipped over where she was.
We are scanned by something up high. I look up, and where one of the pillars were, it has grown in size, and on top, there is some sort of robot. It is what scanned us. I jump back into my cyberdeck and begin trying to hack the system. I try to change it's programming enough to show that we are friend, not foe..... over the radio I say #Don't sh.....#
Just as I begin speaking, I hear the report from Hunter's rifle. <<Well, that didn't go as expected.....>>
Ok, new plan, reprogram the weapons systems to be unusable. This is going to take some time. This is a fairly tough system.
I'm making slow progress, but progress none the same.
Suddenly, my world goes black. My breath is knocked out of me. "owwwwwwwweeeeeee" I'm laying on the ground... Wait, I'm on the ground! Something must have hit me. I open my eyes carefully, and I'm looking where Tinker had been standing. One of the robots has reached some sort of control panel, and one of the machines near me powers up. I feel weak. But, I have to try to do something, I switch my control systems over to controlling the robot at the controls. <<#Cease current command#>>" is what I send to the robot. Ah, good. It worked. A second robot arrives to the control panels and activates a second machine. Both of the machines have almost the exact same power signature of the power sources we were here to collect. Over the coms, #The power supplies appear to be over here.#
Ricochet, Hunter, and Tinker were all attacking the sentry robot at the top of the pillar. They finally shut it down, that was the good news...... Bad news, well, something large and mean appeared out of the vat over by the door. Hunter, true to form fires at it. Not good, I hear the shot ricochet, never a good sign with that rifle and ammo of his. Tinker whispers something about Mechanon. Not a good thing....
Speakers come to life, and a voice begins speaking. I try to pin point the source, but fail. What ever it is, it is encoding it's transmission.
Mechanon steps out of the vat, and speaks in a voice similar to what we heard over the speakers, asks Hunter if he is smart enough to not fire again. I guess he is, as I don't hear Hunter's rifle report.
I know that there is no way that we could get out of here alive with Mechanon here, so I quickly shut down my cyberdeck so he can't find me that way. Not that is really much protection, but, like a cockroach, if you can't be seen, you don't get stepped on.
Wait, that wasn't Mechanon? I know that there hadn't been any reports on the web about Mechanon for several years, but it sure looked like one of his bodies. Did it just call itself 'Algorithm'. Great, we just upgraded one of the newest big bad AI's out there. Just fantastic. We are so hosed, so very hosed.......
Another voice begins speaking to us over our com-system rather than the speakers. Just great, someone has cracked my code.....
#Hello Agents. Allow me to introduce myself, I am sorry for the intrusion. I am Socrates, and I would like to invite you to a special meeting with the New Champions#
Tinker looks at Sparks, and he looks back at her and shrugs, with a look of confusion on his face. He speaks out loud, "I don't know, but, we need to get these power sources and get out of here, before anyone or anything else shows up."
The four of us each grab one of the power sources and begin our trek out of this bunker, and back towards the surface. Luckily, we don't run into any Mechanon agents, or Algorithm. We return to our base, and sit down and decide what to do.
NAGA Equipment Liberation
After doing more research on the info given to us by one of our informants, I was able to verify most of it.
Hunter, Eclipse, Ricochet and I begin going over the information available to us, which isn’t too much, but at least enough for us to make up a couple of possible mission plans.
NAGA is getting better at hiding their information, even with some of my back doors, I was unable to get all the information that I wanted.
We decided that we would drop down onto the train at the tunnel exit. Eclipse had some equipment that we could use to attach to the train, and board in a stealthy manner. We’ll see how that works out.
With Hunter’s help, I plant a wi-fi booster before the entrance of the tunnel to help me be able to enter the train’s computer system.
We are stationed on the top of the tunnel at the exit side. So far so good.
Wow, that was a hard jerk when we jumped off the tunnel entrance. Good thing we were only dropping a few feet. Sudden acceleration to over 50 mph in a split second, even when you think you are ready for it is tough, but man what a thrill!
We make our way to the first car that appears to be a cargo car. These NAGA guys were somewhat smart, separating the cargo between personnel cars. I had hoped that they had put the cargo in the middle and personnel on each end, but no such luck. Two personnel / miscellaneous cars on each end of a cargo car, and just three cargo cars.
After we drop in the car, and clear it, I hack into the onboard computer system to complete the takeover of the system. I had adjusted the speed readout to keep the train moving just a bit slower than what the engineers thought we were moving so that we could move across the top of the train easier.
Taking over the computer system was a simple hack. They hadn’t changed the security codes. I lock down the doors out of the personnel / miscellaneous cars and the top hatches. I also monitored the internal com system and any local radio transmissions.
The rest of the team moved rearward to find the main target of our raid, the hoverbikes. This front cargo car had a bonus, an ATV command vehicle. I quickly lock it out of being controlled by NAGA remotely.
Oh boy, we almost lost Eclipse off the side of the train. I catch a transmission between an agent and a superior. I fill their radio channel with static.
The rest of the team makes it to the back section of the train. My initial thought was that I could force a decouple electronically, but there are mechanical aspects of it. I shut down the security systems and block the alarms for when the cars decouple. Eclipse handles the mechanical decoupling as I keep the alarms quiet.
Things were going well, almost too well. The engineers figured out that the train wasn’t getting up to speed and turn off the electronic controls. At least they don’t know that the rear cars were decoupled.
The last cargo car carried a couple of non-descript troop carriers. No way to removed them safely while the train is moving. We all quickly agree it is best to just drop them off the train and deny them to NAGA. Eclipse finds a briefcase in one of the transports and takes it with him as he forces the carriers to drop off the train.
The rest make their way forward while I try to wrest control of the train out of the engineer’s manual control. They find two combat hover bikes. I quickly try to see if they can be slaved together, but there is no autopilot. Eclipse should be able to tow one of them with the other. Good thing he is a pilot.
Between Eclipse and I, we decouple the three cars. Hunter and Ricochet make their way back into the first cargo car while Eclipse quickly travels back towards the hover bikes and takes off.
The hover bikes don’t fly fast enough to catch up with the rest of the train. I try to engage the electric brakes to try and slow the train down a little bit so that maybe Eclipse can catch up, but I am unable to keep them engaged long enough to do anything. It’s hard to fight a cyberwar when the opponent uses mechanical means.
I disconnect from the train’s web, shake my head to clear it. “I can’t slow the train down.” My eyes lock on the turret on top of the command vehicle. “Guys, I have an idea, not sure if it is good, but hey, we’ll either succeed or die.” And evil grin crosses his face, “One of you get in the driver seat, the other, hit that button over there to open the cargo doors.” He says this as he is climbing up into the turret. “When this goes off, there is going to be a lot of damage. As soon as I fire, gun it out the side. Let me know when you guys are secure.”
I quickly finish my climb into the turret and strap myself in tight. I quickly scan the controls and power up the weapon systems. “Good” I think to myself, “they have the guns loaded. May not have been the best idea on their part, but it makes it easier for me.” He jacks into the system so that he can control them electronically.
Ricochet jumps in the driver side while Hunter actives the door controls and dives into the second seat. The doors start buffeting the car “Three, two, one, GO” I yell as I engage the weapon. I shake my head as I realize that I didn’t slot my ranged weapon program, “Opps…”
I brace myself a best I can to limit the chances of knocking myself out as we start to rocket out of the car. Just as we start out, the train car starts to twist and flip. “Well, at least I got us decoupled!” I don’t think this thing was made to fly.
We hit the ground hard as I watch the end of the train flip over the top of us. That landing almost knocked me out. I hope the other two are doing better in the front.
Ricochet tries everything he can to get us under control, and we eventually slide to a stop at the bottom of the hill. The train engine started slowing down, not that it really had a choice. I slot in my weapon program, and take a pot shot at the engine, and surprise, I hit. “I’m gonna have to remember to do that more often.”
We make our way back to our base of operations. By this time, I’m starting to get a bit of a headache. It’s near the end of my last dose. I get my meds and dry swallow them.
Sparks walks into the common area after disappearing into his area of our operations center. He sees the attaché case on the table. "So, what do we have here?"
Ricochet looks at the case “just something interesting Eclipse picked up from one of the vans we demolished.”
Sparks looks over the top and sides while walking around the case. “Well, so far it looks like a fairly standard NAGA intel case. This shouldn’t be a problem.” He sets his cyberdeck on the table and jacks in. He also pulls out his infiltration kit and starts setting out the contents that he thinks he is going to need.
He mutters and picks up different tools, uses them a couple of times then puts them down, mutters some more, reaches over touches his cyberdeck without looking at it, his left hand flying over it touching and scrolling, “Ah ha!” He then looks up at the others just as they hear a click. “Ok, there you go! Who wants the privilege of opening it up?” He looks at Eclipse, “Well, you found it.”
When the case is opened, we find some very interesting intel. Close by us, there is a power source that we could use to power these vehicles and weapons. We begin making plans to infiltrate the area and liberate the power sources.
Before we leave, I make a couple of upgrades to my cyberdeck and add a couple of programs on it.
End of the Journey
I fight through the pain of the cold rain that has been falling for the last little bit.
I turned to the little witch whom my brother had felled. Moving closer, I change form to call the lightning down on her.
The electricity flows from the ground to the sky through the little witch.
The cursed cold rain has stopped. Good. I feel the strength returning to me. There is another one moving towards the witch who called the cold. I call forth the lightning again. It strikes true!
She is still moving; I will strike her again.
I am held still, I cannot move!
“Wait master! I haven’t failed you! My brothers and I will do as you tasked us!”
I feel my grip on the earthly plane fade from me. I fall to my knees as I return to my neither worldly form. I bow my head, and with a strong voice, “What is thy will my lord?”
Reclining luxuriously on his throne of sighing flesh, the Lord Andramelech turned his ember gaze on the servitors. "Tell me of how matters progressed, of these 'Heroes', their nature and character. And tell me, was Axul successful?"
" As you command my Lord, ," the lowly one raises his head slightly, looking at his lord's feet. "We were guarding Axul's summoning on the earthly plane as you directed. An airplane landed and the 'heroes' began trekking towards the mountain peak. They turned their attention towards our earthly portals. There was one who moved through the air quickly." He chuckles, "Axul had laid a beautiful trap around our portals. This dark one, seemingly of stars, stopped dead in the air, moving naught in any direction. The others with the dark one worked to free her." He smiles at the memory of the one trapped. “The others with her attempted to destroy our portals. Their best attacks only scuffed the statues.”
Tapping a finger thoughtfully on the arm of the chair "So they attacked, bringing you into play. Were you able to defeat them? Was Axul summoned?"
"Yes my Lord. They did attack, as you predicted. We were freed and set about to destroy them." He bows his head slightly. "They proved to be made of hardier stuff than most mortals. We set the winds, slowing them and trying to suck the very air from their lungs." He almost mumbles "They proved to not need to breathe.” He dares to raise his head slightly with a look of hope that the following information will please the Lord, "There was one of the dragonkind. I thought they were all destroyed. It was a young one, as it chose to walk instead of fly in our winds. It must not have had the strength of a true adult."
"Likely a wanderer from Faerie, back into the mortal realm as its mana-flows surge. You underestimated the mortals” the lowly one dips towards the floor at these words, “but that is well enough, these new beings are like unto their heroes of old, or even demi-gods. A worthy challenge." A surge of relief passes across the lowly one’s face.
"There was a metal golem who also seemed to be a witch, who called down cold rain upon us. My brother struck her, causing much damage to himself. He seems to have only dazed her."
"Another magical being? Fascinating. Old Powers and New."
"Yes, my Lord." He pauses but a moment, "As for Axul, he did not make his presence known to us. As I and one of my brothers were moving to stop the heroes from reaching the mountain top and the temple, we were returned here." He bows his head again, "my Lord, I do not have all the answers you have requested of me."
"He dismissed you, without allowing you to complete your duty - before he had appeared. So, my end of the bargain is complete. His releasing you from duty ere he made manifest, but while you were still in conflict...” the lowly one listens with rapt attention, “suggests that he achieved something that he did not wish me to see, or that he had some goal other than that which I was told. So, I have the door opened a crack, and I have Axul of the Crimson Flower Headdress in my debt... and he has achieved something he does not wish me to know of. You have done better than I had expected, if not as well as I might have hoped. You and your brothers may disport yourselves amongst the Wrathful on the 5th until I call upon you again."
He bows, his head touching the floor "Thank you oh gracious Lord!" He rises to his feet, head still down, and backs to the door, "We are ever at your beck and call." When he reaches the door and it opens, he backs out of it. As the door closes, he disappears in a puff of fire and brimstone with a wicked smile upon his face.
Long Watch Over
The partial awareness is eternal. Guard the temple on the mount. That is my duty, that is my honor.
One of us has been fully awakened. My awareness has increased. What do the mortals think they are doing? This area is ours!
Release me! Let me help you brother!
I have been released. One of the mortals is trying to scale the mount. I move closer. We can defeat these mortals brother!
There are so few, how do they think they can defeat us!
Some of them try to fly, foolish mortal, the winds are ours to control. You can not succeed!
One of them must be a witch, she causes the cold wet that hurts. My brother tells me to smash the witch! I move, there is a dragon. It is being wise, it walks.
My brother rams into the witch, and is stopped? I can not reach the witch yet. I strike the dragon with the power of the skies.
The dragon continues, I do what my brother did and ram the dragon! Yes! The dragon is defeated! I turn to help my brother!
Where is the little witch!
Another brother is released! Tremble before us mortals, your doom is nigh!!!
Strange Dreams
Current Date: Well, that was a VERY strange dream.
I was cold, so very cold, but the cold felt safe. Something very warm approached my place of slumber. I begin to rouse when my lord calls to me. I rise and bring two of my brothers with me.
I quickly look around. A mountain, we rise near the peak. Ah, over there is the source of the heat. Must destroy the heat. My brothers and I move towards the heat. This must be bad, our lord has brought forth four other brothers. I will be with you soon my brothers! I yell.
There are small heat makers moving around also.
NOOOOO!!! How is this possible! One of the insignificant ones has knocked one of my brothers down! Move! We must Move! I call to my nearer two brothers.
I scoop up a handful of ice and throw it at the one who has knocked my brother down. I did not have time to pack it well, and it misses the small one. One of my brothers who is nearer to the small one pounces and slams the small one back. Good shot brother! I yell. We will show these little ones that the cold is not to be disturbed!
One of my brothers follows my example and throws ice at one that is flying. Those small ones are hard to hit from far away. We must get closer brothers!
What? Another one of my brothers is taken from the cold. I feel his essence depart from this realm. We run at the small ones. I strike out at one and it goes flying. Ha!! Take that squishy small one! as I slap it into the mountain side.
One of my brothers attacks the large heat maker! Yes Brother! Destroy the heat! Return it to the cold! We turn to destroy the mechanical thing! What has happened, my thoughts are so slow. This cold of mind is wrong! I try to shake the bonds holding my thoughts.
It takes all of my will to force myself back in control. As I can feely think again, the small ones have destroyed three of my brothers. There are just two of us left. This is wrong. One of the small ones strikes my brother with a metal pole. How foolish of that one!
I feel my lord arrive. I feel shame that we have not dispatched these small ones. I feel elation that my lord is here! He strikes the large heat maker. Great blow my Lord! I shall help him. I swing at the heat maker with my blade. What? My blade is turned? I have failed my lord again.
Time stops again. I cannot think! I try to free my mind again!
Thankfully, I woke up at that point. Strange, strange dream. Well, time to get something to eat, and check on Pinky and The Brain.......
Jerry J. Vahn's Journal
Saturday, December 31st, 2015 / Sunday, January 1st, 2016: I was in my basement lab working with some unstable elements, when there was a small explosion. I am not sure what happened. While the elements are unstable, they were not explosive. I woke up several hours later, extremely hungry. While eating a sandwich, I returned downstairs and began cleaning up. It was weird, I was able to clean up the lab in just under an hour. The amount of damage done should have taken me several hours. Also, I have been eating a tremendous amount of food today. I cannot seem to satiate my hunger.
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2016: What is going on? All the world’s superheroes are gone, and they Vanished on the 1st? Was the explosion in my lab and the Vanishing connected somehow? It does not seem likely, but maybe. I do not know. I will have to spend more time on this.
Friday, May 13th, 2016: The world is topsy-turvy. The criminals are in control. Dr. Destroyer is the emperor or something along those lines. The bad guys are now the good guys, and the maniac is murdering world leaders, and no one is around to stop him, and the media appears to support it now. What is weird is that most of the people in the world seen to be surviving as if there was not the tyrant in charge. I wonder if there is anything that I can do. On a side note, my appetite still seems accelerated, but I am not gaining weight, like somehow my metabolism is running in overdrive.
Saturday, January 1st, 2017: It has been a year since the explosion, and every test or experiment I run, those chemicals should not have exploded. My appetite has decreased some, but I am still eating about twice what I was in 1999. My weight is still holding, and the doctors cannot find any reason for the increased appetite. I have been extra careful about my movements. Every day I hear stories about ‘metas' being ‘disappeared.’
Sunday, July 8th, 2018: I have finally been able to spend more time working in my personal lab at home. I am getting close to recreating the state of the explosion back in 2016. I must be careful that no hint of what I am doing gets out. My appetite has almost returned to normal. I have noticed that I am not moving quite as quickly as I was 2 years ago. Somehow, the chemicals, and some sort of energy surge boosted my metabolism, allowing me to move faster. I am going to keep trying. I am witnessing more and more injustices happening and I can no longer stay in the background. I must find some way to help.
Wednesday, November 14th, 2018: I think, I have the formula right. With a controlled explosion and enhanced magnetics, I have recreated the compound that covered my body New Year’s Day two years ago. Now onto lab testing on a couple of lab mice.
Friday, February 22nd, 2019: The test subjects are still doing great. They seem healthy. The one dosed with the mixture, whom I have named Pinky, moves around much faster than the control, whom I have name The Brain, and eats around 3 times normal for his size. Tests will continue, but I need something to hide my identity, if I want to go out in the world and protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Thursday, October 24th, 2019: I have infused some ballistic cloth with my air friction design. Wind tunnel test with a scale model is showing positive results. Both Pinky and The Brain are still doing well. Pinky still eats an increased amount and moves around much faster than The Brain. Maze tests show that Pinky seems to react faster than The Brain in addition to just moving faster.
Monday, March 1st, 2020: An interesting development, by alternating the field patterns and layering the cloth, it appears that incoming damage is reduced. I have only tested with physical impact. I do not know how it will work against energy attacks. By theory, it should work just as well, but we all know that theory does not always transpose into reality. Until now I have let both mice eat as much as they want. I am now going to feed the same exact measured amounts to each mouse.
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2020: In just less than 24 hours, Pinky began showing some very distressing results. I could visibility see a decrease in weight. Pinky had already lost 8% of his body weight. I immediately gave him more food. I will have to watch carefully to be sure that the effects of the weight loss can be reversed.
Friday, March 5th, 2020: Good news, Pinky seems to have recovered from the feeding test. I will not be doing that again. This proves that Pinky's metabolism is indeed in overdrive. This could be a detrimental side effect. I will keep enough food for Pinky in the future.
Wednesday, May 13th, 2020: I have begun working on a set of boots and gloves for a super suit, as Edna Mode said, “No capes!” If I am to take the compound and go out to right the wrongs in the city, I need some help. Sometimes Pinky get moving so fast that he has trouble maintaining his grip and will slide into the wall of his cage. It is funny and sad when it happens. I always check on him when I see it happen. The Brain seems to be a little jealous of the time I spend with Pinky. I am going to need to spend some more time with him.
Saturday, July 18th, 2020: The gloves were easier to create than I thought. They are surprisingly supple and protective. Pinky does not seem to be aging faster than The Brain, so at least Pinky’s increased metabolism does not seem to correspond to faster aging.
Tuesday, September 8th, 2020: The boots and gloves are complete. I have started putting together the suit. Sewing is harder than it looks. I have had to restart three times.
Friday, November 13th, 2020: The suit is finally complete. I was missing something, a set of goggles to protect my eyes, and hopefully my identity.
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2020: Today is the day. I have run every test I could think of on Pinky and The Brain over the last several months. I have been doing physical training to improve myself as much as possible. All that is left is to take the compound.
Friday, January 1st, 2021: A new year, and a new me. I took the compound 8 days ago. I was unconscious for 24 hours. After I woke up, I ate everything in the house and had to have more groceries delivered. My appetite has finally slowed down a little bit. If my calculations are correct, I need approximately 4 times the normal calories a day then everyone else. I seem to do best at 10000 calories. My reaction time seems to have increased to about 3 times normal. Without wearing the suit, boots, and gloves I can move faster than I could before. The combination of the suit, boots, and gloves seem to allow me to run anywhere I can make contact. Now, to do a real-world test…
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