SSR: A Night in Lutonopolis (Introduction)

[Artificial Idiot]

(I figured while we got the characters resubmitted and hopefully wait for new people to join up, we could have a prolouge type chapter. A short chapter, involving just a few members of the team (Maverick, Equaliser, Charge) to not only give a decent introduction to the new, upcoming chapter, but also give a decent introduction into what SSR is all about to new members in the future. Who probably wouldn't want to read though the longer chapters anyway.

However, I must note that if anybody who isn't Nyerguds, Wesforce or Myself posts here, that post will be deleted without question.)

The light was flickering again. God damn it, it did that every time they used this place. Not like the rest of the room was appealing either. From what he'd heard, this building had once been a slaughterhouse, and this had been the freezer. It defiantly had the meat hooks and stench to prove it. Not to mentioned the intoxicating level of grime and dried on blood.

Not that it wasn't practical of course, heaven forbid. It had a nice sturdy table, good for playing cards and of course, the aforementioned rather inadequate lighting. No chairs though, not that he hadn't asked for them, but Wescorp just couldn't justify that kind of commitment. Just like they couldn't "justify" buying a proper meeting place, not yet anyway.

So, they got an abandoned slaughterhouse in the "bad part of town". Genius!
Charge and Equaliser were already here at least, and on time too! Not a rarity for Charge, but Miss Equaliser seemed to have quite a busy schedule. Something Maverick wouldn't know anything about. He lived to serve mostly, maybe play a bit of cards on the side.

"You know, I'm pretty sure comic book heroes have fights in places like these..." Equaliser thought aloud, absent mindedly studying one of the hooks. ".... And have huge bases in the centre of large cities, or on the moon or something... but no. Not us."

"You almost sound like you are being negative of Wescorp's policy, Miss Equaliser." Maverick said, somewhat sarcastically. People of this time seemed to see androids as very different from himself. Toneless killing machines that look a lot like many of those strange rolls of paper he saw in a bathroom once stuck together.

"I'm not. It's just, I don't see why they can't at least afford one of those hotel rooms over looking the river lea. I mean, we only use this room for planning anyway."

"Only room with a table." Charge pointed out.

"Unfortunately, We must make do with what we have."

Maverick opened a bag on the floor by the side of him. He removed a rolled up piece of paper and a box of pins with coloured heads. He carefully unrolled a map of Lutonpolis out on the table, pinning down each corner.

"What's that for?" Asked Charge, slightly narrowing his eyes.

"Don't you people listen to the radio?" Asked Maverick.

"Wescorp company policy, no radios during working hours." Equaliser stated. He assumed Charge had the same problem with the university. "And besides, we don't all have transmitters in our heads."

"Very well, I recorded this transmission earlier from Eye on the World...." Maverick pressed a small button where his ear should have been. Soon, the voice of Terrance Macdougal filled the room.

"Another blow to Lutonoplis' underworld was struck today, after the son of infamous mobster Duster Dent was kidnapped by an unknown rival. The mysterious kidnapper is asking a ransom of £1,000 along with a vast amount of Dent held territory and businesses. Police are no further to identifying the mobster or where he is located... *click*"

"Or at least, the police aren't telling the media where his located."

"And we do?" inquired Charge.

"Let's just say, we got it on the Sly." Maverick dimmed the light in one of his eyes in what he hoped look like a wink. "Fact is, Dent isn't going to pay up. He's sending in an armed battalion, and we got to be there to stop both of them. Or we might be seeing a whole, uglier side of this little underworld conflict that's been brewing."

"How do you suppose we do that?"

"Well, the hostage is being held here..." Maverick shoved a pin onto the map. "It's an abandoned glassworks come fort. It's been modified, and is heavily guarded. Walls have been reinforced with a titanium alloy, stationary gun posts have been implanted all over the place, however we have reason to believe there isn't much in the way of actual man power. If we move in at 8pm tomorrow, we should be able to get in, get out and have time to pass though the StreetSmart drive thru by the time Dent's lot show up.
"Problem is, we need to get over the outer fence, a good 10 feet tall, barbed wire at the top, maybe electrified. Then there's going to be those guns I was talking about and whatever is guarding the inside. On the upside, I imagine I'm strong enough to take us though any doors... or walls, we may encounter."

He paused to let his two partners take it all in.

"Suggestions anyone?"

[Wesforce]

Equaliser - AKA Commissar Tanya Wescorp - arched her back, stretching out ther silver lycra and limbering up for a short workout, yet retaining her proud, upright posture - A posture that spoke of martial training in times recently past, and an instilled sense of confidence

'On the one hand, I'd like to sit back and let these chaps do our work for us.' She smiled, quite genially. 'Why waste a nice evening when someone is doing our work for us?'

By now she was receiving odd looks from her companions.

'I'm joking, of course.'

But her face, eyes concealed behind the mirrored visor, gave no indication of this.

She sashayed over to the map, and pointed at the fence, then the titanium walls.

'I may be able to deal with the fence, but my Blastmaster might attract undue attention. However, I may be able to create a silent zone for your strength to deal with the walls, or the fence if it proves not to be electrified. There's no guarantee of that, and I can only do one thing at a time.'

She tapped the control panel to her Sonic Displacer screen.

Should I? No... Better to see what my comrades gave in mind. Besides... Better to save something for a party trick.

[Nyerguds]

"An electrified fence won't be any trouble." Charge said. "I can just drain it. Or even overload it... heck, if we're lucky I might black out the entire building with that."
"Or the entire city." Equalizer said sarcastically.
"Hey, I only did that once." Charge grinned. "And that wasn't an overload; I was charging."

"Guns are the only real problem I see here." Charge said. "Titanium is not ferromagnetic, so I can't just magnetize walls to suck up a rain of bullets, but I can make a magnetic field to throw bullets off their course."
He looked at Maverick. "Are these gun emplacements manned?"
"No, they're automated." Maverick answered.
"Hm. Then we probably won't be able to sneek up on them. Pity, since a simple lightning bolt might be enough to take those things out. But I can't shield off bullets and attack at the same time."
"I can take them out while you shield us off." Equalizer said.
"Yes.. that should work." Charge said.
He looked at Maverick. "What will happen if we get the kid out?" he asked. "I mean, as long as Dent doesn't know his son isn't there anymore, he'll still attack."

[Artificial Idiot]

"Which is why we'll have to work quickly." Maverick said, gravely. "Very quickly."

"How long we got?" Asked Equaliser.

"Estimates say about an hour. Although, as I said, most of the defences are automated. Not much manpower, little around the perimeter, a little where the hostage is being held." If Maverick had a mouth, he would have smirked. Instead, he rested both his hands on the table in a laid back fashion. "We get the kid to a safe drop off point where his father is bound to find him, leave a little calling card and get the rest of the goons in jail where they belong. Simple."

"Sounds like a plan..." Equaliser mused. "But what happens to these aforementioned guards?"

"I can distract the one's on the perimeter with your help, however the one's inside..." Once again, he wished he had a mouth. "... Well, I think some good old fashioned backside kicking will soon sort them."

"Then it's settled then?" Charge asked, eyeing a meat hook with disdain.

"We'll meet here in an hour..." Maverick slammed another pin into the map. "It's close to the target location, we should be able to gather behind this building without drawing too much attention. In the meantime, get prepared... it's going to be a long night.

* * *

Rain pattered off Maverick's hat, the water slipping down coat with an elegance that few appreciated. Maverick wasn't one of these few however, he was more worried about the task at hand. It was now exactly 57 minutes since the meeting had ended, no sign of Equaliser yet. Charge however, had arrived just 2-3 minutes ago.
Suddenly, the patterning raindrops burst into a buzzing noise, a lot like the static from a radio. Directly after that, Equaliser appeared. Fists on hips, legs spread apart, a true Super Hero pose.

"You shouldn't be out in this weather like that, you'll catch your death of cold." Maverick warned her in a mock authoritarian tone. Equaliser frowned at him. "Equaliser, can those things throw your voice?"

"Yes, why?" Asked a voice from behind him.

"I need you to throw it to these co-ordinates." He handed her a piece of paper. "After that, Charge should be safe to nullify the fence and then we'll be in."

"Care to explain?"

"You'll no doubt hear all about it on the news." Maverick checked his inbuilt clock. "We have exactly 61 minutes, let's get moving."

[Wesforce]

'Aye sir, moving!' Said Equalizer half-mockingly , with a clenched-fist-across heart salute, one hand dropping to the panel for her Sonic-Displacer screen. She took in the coordinates, and quickly calculated the settings she'd have to program in to throw the voices to, if this plan was going to work.

Before she left, still holding her pose, Equaliser turned her head slightly to glance at Charge.

'Forgive me if its none of my business, but doesn't the rain play havoc with your... Equipment?' She smirked.

She disappeared before Charge could reply.

[Nyerguds]

Hah. Charge thought. I'm not some battery that short-circuits when it gets wet.

Rain didn't bother him at all. Quite the opposite, even; the moisture in the air made it conduct electricity a lot better. And he had his internal energy storage well under control.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Charge asked Maverick.

[Artificial Idiot]

Sonic Equaliser landed perfectly behind some bushes not far from the set co-ordinates. She'd guessed she didn't want to be too close when whatever happened happened. She also guessed she should keep out of sight.

"I'll hear it on the news... yeah, right!" She muttered, flipping over the piece of paper Maverick had given her.

Cause a big distracstion. It read. Oh, she'd do thaty all right, but NOT by throwing her voice.
She aimed one of her displacer screens up towards the night sky. It wasn't long before a deafening shriek filled the air, surely alerting anybody to her postion.
It was only about 3-4 minutes before the guards came, pretty professional for hired mobsters. Too organised, far too organised.
There were ten of them to begin with, too many for her to handle alone. She was about to displace herself back to the others when, much to her surprise, the five guards at the front fell straight though the Earth it's self.

of course! Equaliser thought, mentally kicking herself. Ground was too perfect, no stray pieces of dirt, grass, paving, stone... had to be a hologram.

And now she knew that, she could get up close and person with the others.

* * *

Maverick's reply was cut off by a deafening burst of sound coming from several feet away.

"Nevermind." Charge sighed. "We go for the fence?"

"Yes. Most the guards should be otherwise engaged by the time we arrive."

[Nyerguds]

Charge and Maverick quickly reached the fence. Charge didn't waste any time looking at the battle between Equalizer and the guards, and grabbed the fence with his bare hands.
"And?" Maverick asked.
"Enough to kill a herd of bulls." Charge replied casually, still holding the fence.
"So, what are you going to do?" Maverick asked.
"I might just overload it... but why waste energy when I can gain it instead?" Charge smirked. "I'll just drain its power until something melts through somewhere. I'm feeling a bit weak anyway."
"Nice."

Charge put both his hands on the fence now. As he absorbed the electricity, he felt the flow of power behind the fence, right up to the generator. From there on, weaker flows spread out through the building. Lighting, heating, and most probably even the sentry guns. He couldn't feel heat from such a distance, but he knew the generator was heating up to keep up with the fence's ever increasing demand for power. There was no protection fuse whatsoever, most probably to make sure the fence would stay powered at all cost.

Then, suddenly, the whole network of electric energy flows disappeared. Charge smiled, released the fence and heated it up intensely with IR rays until it started melting. When the molten hole was big enough to walk through he grabbed the fence, allowing his absorbtion system to cool it down, converting the heat back into electricity for his internal batteries.

"Looks like we're in." he said.

[Wesforce]

'Hello boys!' Said Equalizer, standing, silhouetted by the moonlight - yet another classic pose. If nothing else, Equalizer was going to at least start this in style.

'Whafuh? Lets get 'er, lads, innit!' Said the lead gangster.

'Gorblimey guv'na. Luv a duck!'

'Grab yer shootas lads, I don't think this bint's out fer a bit of slap an' tickle, knoworramean?'

'Indeed.' Said Equalizer, running down the hill, as the staccatto blasts of Webley .38 revolvers sent lead towards her. She started picking up space. It was stepper than she thought, and for a few seconds she thought she was going to slip and tuimble into a bullet-riddled heap of flaming ignominy.

Thae mobsters started adjusting their aim, the five-strong firing line struck up turf to her front - but Equalizer had launched herself into a somersaulting charge, and bore down on the lead man, a Bulldog-faced lardbucket with a grinmacing Chelsea smile.

'Sorry bitch.' He said, getting her dead to rights, pistol held one-handed dead on target. He squeezed, not pulled the trigger.

A sound caught the teeth at the back of his throat. He winced, teeth rattling.

The bullet hung in the air just before Sonic Equalizer, clearly visible. Then it was gone. Displaced.

Sonic Equalizer's leap ended with a knee in the Bulldog's flabby face. The man was big, but he was out of shape, and collapsed as if poleaxed. Equalizer landed behind him, but with her hands on his flabby shoulders, and used her considerable momentum to flip the man up and over her, knocking two others flat. Two bullets whistled over her head as she dropped into a roundhouse sweep - one gang member collapsed as his legs gave up the fight against gravity, while the other's trigger finger pulled the hammer on an empty round.

'Oh-oh.' He said, knocking his revolver against his hand, as if knocking it would help it.

Equalizer straightened her back, easing out the stress and showing off her shapely form under stretched lycra, before sighing contentedly. Her arm swung down with the Blastmaster 3000 held in guitar-fashion, aimed at the hapless goon.

'Are you ready,' She said, smiling wickedly. 'For Equalisation?'

She flicked her finger. A plectrum appeared inbetween her thumb and forefinger...

[Artificial Idiot]

"Cor.... YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"

Charge gave Maverick the "we don't want to know" look as the scream of a mobster without hope was carried on the wind. Maverick nodded, and they made for the door.

"They won't be bothering us for awhile." Said a voice from above them as they approached.

On a small ledge, right above the entrace, stood the Sonic Equaliser. Hands by her side, legs straight, hair flowing into the wind. A stray spotlight abandoned by the hired guns was illuminating her perfectly against the brick wall. It couldn't get anymore dramatic.

"Took out the guns?" She asked as she lept from her postions. Landing with liquid grace.

"complete power outage." Charge replied, matter of factly.

"Shame. I was just starting to have fun."

Maverick, after removing his coat and hat, quickly shifted into his Exo-suit form. He bacame a hulking titan, far taller then either of the two others and much bulkier to boot. But to him, it was nothing special. Just like being on steroids, only without the bad side effects.

He ripped the door from it's hinges with the ease a normal person would tear paper. He tossed it aside, taking out even more of the damaged fence in the process.

"Ladies first." He said, gesturing Equaliser to go first.

The rest of the misson seemed like it was was going to be rather uneventful from this point on. The corridors were devoid of light, lifeless sentry machinegun posts giving them menacing glares, but never striking.

"Do we even know where we are going?" Asked Charge.

"This way." Replied Maverick, causually walking though a wall.

Wescorp had informed him on the most direct route though the passageways, but the building was like a maze. It would have taken far too long to navigate, and what if they got lost? He'd decided to map his own route, one where doors and walls didn't enter the equasion.

Soon enough, they should themselves outside a new type of door. It was like the vault doors they had in banks, only it looked far more solid. No petty criminals were going to get in her in a hurry.

"Think this is it?" Asked Maverick.

"I'd bet my displacer screen on it." Replied Equaliser.

Maverick grabbed the metal wheel, tried to spin it, but to no avail. He'd just have to do it the old fashioned way. He pulled at it, but it snapped off in his hands.

"Let me try." Sighed Charge, glancing at the hinges.

[Nyerguds]

Odd, Charge thought, looking at the hinges. Normally in banks this kind of door only opens to the inside, to prevent people from messing with the hinges.
He grabbed the lowest of the two big hinges and started heating it up. The door seemed to be made of a pretty heat-resistant metal, but that didn't bother Charge. Any excess heat that could have burnt him was automatically absorbed by his skin and converted again.
Slowly, the metal started to melt. He pulled back his hands to prevent his energy absorbers from cooling the metal down again, and started on the second hinge.

"It's done... but it opens to the outside." Charge said. "You'll need to pull it out. Will be safer for the kid anyway."
"I don't have any way to hold it." Maverick said in a somewhat apologetic tone, looking at the metal wheel on the ground.

Charge sighed. "Right..."
He went to the middle of the door, and started concentrating, producing more and more heat around his right hand, until the sleeve of his suit started smoking. Then, with one precise blow, he punched his arm about one foot into the door, melting the metal like butter.
He looked at the others, sweating profusely. "This isn't something I want to do every day." He sighed, keeping his arm in the hole to absorb the heat. "This is one really thick door... I don't think I'm even half through it."
He pulled his arm out of the hole and looked at his hand. He streched his fingers with a painful expression on his face. Absorbing energy was a piece of cake... it's what he was made for, after all. But converting it back at this rate... that actually hurt. It most likely felt like he had a severe sunburn, but being Moroccan, Murat had no way of knowing what that felt like.

But it was worth it. The hinges were one thing, but melting a hole in the middle of the door would have taken him at least another fifteen minutes. And that was time they didn't have.

He looked up to Maverick. "Is it big enough?" he asked.
"Oh, it'll do." Maverick replied, looking at the hole. It was way too small for the exo-suit's hand to fit in, but Maverick didn't seem to care about that. He pushed three fingers into the hole and clawed them inside the door. Even though he only had three fingers inside it, he effortlessly pulled the door out of the way and put it against the wall.

[Artificial Idiot]

"My word..." Gasped Tanya as they ented. Charge followed her, the lumbering form of Maverick brought up the rear.

The room was simple enough, to the human eye of course. The walls appeared to be made of a metal that just didn't register on Maverick's scanners, although he was willing to bet it was indestructable.
However, not many rooms were dominated by what looked like a radio mast. only it was different, more like a circular tower with a point at the top. A turrent was perhaps the right word, but Maverick could have sworn he saw shadows moving up there.

"I can sense excess heat coming from up there. Body temprature, two people if I'm not mistaken." Said Charge. "No doubt that's our hostage and kidnapper."

"What about those... things?" Said Equaliser, wrinkling her nose at one of the four, rectangular plastic containers at each corner of the room.
Each container was filled to the brim with a bubbling, green liquid. And each contained the foulest creatures Marverick had ever seen since Equaliser in a bad mood.

They were mammels he supposed, hairless ones. Thier skin convered in blehmises, pores, horribly disfigured. One even had a shoulder blade protruding from his skin.
The fun didn't stop there though. Each had two heads, nasty, sabertooth tiger like fangs in each and some pretty evil looking normal teeth as a fail safe. The claws looked like they could rip though solid steel too.

"Charge, go get the hostage, hopefully we can leave without a confro..." Maverick stopped mid-sentance.

Steam was starting to fill the room as it hissed out of the cracks that were begining to show in the cracks. The bubbling green liquid was oozing out onto the floor. Whatever these things were, they were coming alive!

"Charge! GO!" Maverick yells as one of the monstrosities opens a beady, yellow eye and ponces for him. The creatures claws barely mark his Exo-suit. He punches it away with ease. But as blood from the creatures mouth splatters his metal casing, he hears it begin to hiss.

Acid!

"Equaliser, don't let them bleed on you!" He warned her, as the others started to awake from their slumber like state.

* * *

"Oh God! Oh God! I'm saved!" Exclaims Howard Dent, as the sounds of fighting echo across the room. Although, from his postion up here, he couldn't see much. "I knew my Dad would come for me!"

His kidnapper gives him a glare that could stop ten thousand watches. He was a tall man, well built, in fact, professional body-builders and circus strongmen would be jealous of him.
He wore a black suit, tie, white shirt, the whole deal. it was almost unreal. His hair was pitch black, his eyes heavy set and he had no facial hair at all. Not even one bit of stubble.
However, that wasn't the amazing thing. Howard had seen what this man could do. Bullets bonced off him like snowballs, crowbars just bent over his head, not even a flicker. It was like he was indestuctable, immune to pain. The only thing that ever got damaged was his clothes.

But Dad had to save him... he just had too.

The man stood perfectly upright, blocking Howard's view completely. It was clear now, anybody who wanted Howard, would have to get though him first.

[Nyerguds]

One of the abominations jumped at Charge. But he reacted quickly, floated beyond the monster's reach and aimed a lightning bolt in its neck.
The creature dropped, and stopped moving. Charge wasn't sure if it was dead or just knocked out, but he didn't get time to find out. "Charge, GO!" Maverick yelled at him. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

Charge floated up to the platform, and looked at the man standing there. He looked like a typical goon, good at smashing people's faces. Even though the man was unarmed, Charge knew better than to get in his reach.

Uhuh. Not friendly.

Still floating besides the platform, he shot a lightning bolt at the man.

[Wesforce]

Equalizer had jumped and somersaulted away the moment one of the creatures had come anywhere near. Maverick's warning was timely, and she heeded his advice.

Maverick had one of the creatures all to himself, and though the creature couldn't seem to hurt him too much, what that acid would do to his suit woykd be another thing entirely.

'No mess, no trouble.' She said, and hunkered down with her Blastmaster 3000 aimed at the grappling duo. Strumming out a juddering, rapid series of sonic blasts, Equalizer adjusted the settings on the blastmaster's amps to get the desired affect. Maverick suffered a headache-inducing distortion-wave, but not one on the right frequency to induce serious damage. The organic creature, however, reeled back in pain as the renegade soundwaves crashed into it's chest.

Claws swiped over her head from behind - Equalizer ducked and rolled forward, ending her attack on the other prematurely but saving her lithe skin. She kicked out and upwards from the roll and twirled in the air - wielding her Blastmaster like an axe. The creature was where she expected it to be, but too fast. The weapon's body also swiped over it's head - if that's what it was.

It got up and lunged at her, but she had shouldered her Blastmaster and was deploying her Displacer Screen...

'Bye.'

The whiole building seemed to shake from deafening feedback. Circular three-dimensional waves rippled out from the epicentre and the creature was flung back at breakneck speeds to slam against the far wall. Stunned, it wiped acidic blood from its mouth and stood again.

What?' Equalizer asked. 'Want an encore?'

[Artificial Idiot]

The two heads growled at Tanya, baring their teeth. It's powerful back legs hunched, it launched it's self at Equaliser. Maverick didn't have time to see the results of this.

The final creature, the last to fully awaken, leaped at him from out of nowhere. He grabbed it in one of his powerful hands, swinging it and slamming it into the nearest wall with a thud.

It was hardly dazed for a second, it leapt to it's feet, growling. Maverick had only a split second to make a plan before pounced again.

At the last second of the jump, Maverick thrust out his hand. He heard the teeth of one of the heads fall to the floor and bounce across the room
Before the beast had time to react, he swung it around as if it was nothing. Grabbing it's hind legs in his other hand and lifting it over his head.

"Forgive me..." He whispered. Closing the shutters on his eyes, he pulled both hands downwards sharply.

The beasts back snapped like a twig. Bone protruded though the mutated skin, dripping acidic blood onto Maverick's head. He couldn't afford to take any chances though.
He pulled his arms apart, finally ripping the beast in too and giving his armour an acid bath.

System status: His on board computers tried to tell him though the hissing of his "skin", he turned his external hearing off. Major external damage, minor internal damage.

good.

* * *

The man seemed in pain a first, but soon, as if by magic (which Charge wouldn't rule out) he seemed to become instantly immune. He stood tall, facing Charge as if nothing was happening. Charge upped the voltage, but still nothing.

"Don't bother!" Yelled what must be the hostage. "He's indes-ARGH!"

The man pulled him from his binds by the hair, dangling him over the edge of the platform. Charge stopped firing instantly.
The man glared at him, and then liberally tossed him across the room. There was no way of telling if he'd die or not from this height, but it wouldn't be wise to find out.

[Wesforce]

'Stay Down.'

Tanya Jerked the Blastmaster to the port-arms position, flicked a rocker switch to 'hold', and dragged the plectrum down the full length of the strings, perpendicular. Jagged waves of screeching distortion made the implement buck a writhe like a live thing while the deadly noise reached a crescendo, the creature moving in slow-mo towards her.

She kick turned, whirled into a crouch and let fly with a deafening barre chord. This released the pent-up distortion wave, obliterating the charging creature. It just seemed to come apart in the air like a tight plastic-wrap of strawberry and banana pulp encountering a cricket-bat with a breeze-block nailed to it, scattering acid-blood in a huge arc.

Equalizer had accounted for this, and carried on spinning.

She displaced herself, into the air above the acid-splunge.

She landed on acid-soaked concrete with a little somersault and pirouette.

'How was that?'

She nimbly stepped off the eroding concrete, musing numbly that no-one had been there to see the performance.

But when she looked at what was happening with Charge...

[Nyerguds]

Charge looked at the kid. Even if he'd survive the fall, there were still two of these monsters alive, and the floor was full of their acid blood. But if he'd dive after him he'd still just fall, and wouldn't catch up with him.
His brain processed all information in a split second. He jumped on the platform just before the guard, let himself fall of the side, and pushed his feet off on the bottom of the platform, shooting towards the ground like an arrow.


Come on... Charge though. I just have to get him in the range of my anti-grav field...
Four meters... three... two...

He grabbed the kid's wrist and pulled him into the now expanded anti-gravity field. A few seconds later, they were both safely on the ground.

That is, if there hadn't been two lion-sized abominations on that ground.
"Look out!" Dent Jr. yelled. Charge looked back, and shot another lightning bolt at the monster he'd stunned earlier.

"Let's get out of here!" he yelled to Maverick, pulling Dent into the anti-grav field again and floating towards the door.

[Artificial Idiot]

(Heading out for the weekend, so if this seems a little off or rushed, it's because I wanted to get it over with before I left. Thanks Wesforce, Thanks Nyerguds! You've been great! :D)

The man glared down at the retreating heroes from his perch above the room. His mistress would not be pleased, not at all. Luckily, he had a back-up plan. Howard Dent had to die, and he would.

He straightened his suit, and then made his way over to a lead lined box. You never knew when these "super heroes" had X-ray vision or something. He opened the box, carefully taking out a detonator. The signal was good for a few miles, they wouldn't get that far quite yet. He doubted they were out of the building.

He taped in a specialized code, and then pressed a small red button that read "Armed". The placed the Detonator back on top of the lead box and walked away.

* * *

"Maverick... Did you feel that?" Charge suddenly stopped. They were back in the corridor with the lifeless sentry guns again, Dent jr. over Maverick's shoulder.

"Feel what?" He asked, stopping. Tanya came to a graceful halt by them both.

"Somebody has started an electronic device. It's a faint reading, but it appears to be much akin to a stop... Oh God!" Charge grabbed Dent and ripped off his shirt to reveal a scar the length of his chest. "You had any surgery recently?"

"N-no... W-what's going on?"

"Somebody has implanted a bomb in his stomach, haven't they?" Maverick sighed. "Any chance of disarming it?"

"It's too late! If I try I could blow us all to.."

"Did you say a BOMB?" Equaliser cut Charge off.

"Yes, he did." Charge said. "And if my calculations are correct, we have 10 seconds starting now..."

Equaliser's eyes went wide and she displaced herself into thin air. Maverick picked up a panicking Dent jr.

"I DON'T WANNA DIE, MAN!" He yells.

"I am sorry, Personally, I'd really prefer you didn't die either..." Maverick liberally threw Dent Jr. across the room, turning around and embracing Charge.

"You Ba-" Yelled Dent as a small explosion went off in his stomach. Blood, bone and things that Maverick didn't even want to process splattered against his back. Luckily, it was a contained explosion... whoever wanted Dent gone, wanted enough of him left to identify.

"Are you alright?" Maverick asked Charge as he released him.

"Just fine. But I'd prefer it if we didn't do that again, I have a wife you know..."

"Nothing personal, Just saving your life."

"We really messed this one up, haven't we boys?" Equaliser said as she reappeared, trying hard to avoid the blood puddles on the floor least she stain her boots.

Charge frowned, looking over the remains of Dent.

"I can't help feeling something wasn't quite right about this whole thing... They knew we were coming." He said, after a few moments thought.

"We'll worry about that later." Said Maverick, now his normal, silver self again. "We better get out of here before Duster Dent turns up. We don't need any more trouble tonight."

* * *

"Hello, I'm Terrance Mcdougal and this is, Eye on the World! Tonight's headlines....

*DONG*

The Queen has announced that her annual "Healing Hands" tour around Neo-England will start in Lutonoplis early next year.

*DONG*

CKW Enterprises accused of harbouring illegal Super Humans, claims denied as "Lies cooked up by Wescorp!" by a speaker for the company.

*DONG*

And, an escaped Communist scientist brings grave warnings of horrific genetic technology.

But first, Ten wanted criminals were captured, and the son of the notorious crime boss, Duster Dent, was killed, in an incident at an abandoned glass works late last night.
There were no wittiness' to the incident, however, it is believed that Tony Bones, another dark figure in the underworld of Lutonplis, had Dent's son executed over a dispute over territory.
Howard Dent was found by his father at Midnight tied to a nearby fence post. The Police have yet to report any injury or cause of death.
This shocking new development adds a new strain on Lutonoplis police department, as Duster Dent declares all out war on Tony Bones over the incident..."

*CLICK*

"Somebody moved the body." Charge frowned as he turned off the radio.

"Yeah." Agreed Equaliser. "Something was rotten about the whole operation. Those "gangsters" I fought, they were too precise, too professional. Not your average..."

"It all fits. The professional guards, those monstrosities in there, Indestructoman, the complete lack of man power, the bomb..."

"They were expecting us?" Asked Maverick, placed a card down on the table.

"Defiantly. The only thing I can't place is why."

"And neither can the government. And they ain't to happy." Said another voice. Commander Serge O'brian entered the SSR's make shift HQ, glaring at each of them. "So unhappy, they are demanding we employ some new... staff to look into it."

"Anyone we know?" Asked Equaliser, somewhat cheekily.

"You'll meet them all later, just let us in the security corps do the worrying, we'll have the man behind all this by tea time." He paced into the room. "In the meantime, Something bad is going down in Stalwalk Lane. Probably only take one of you, but you better all get over there anyway."

"Great, any good news?" Sighed Equaliser.

"Yeah, the sooner you get back, the sooner you can check out your brand new headquarters." O'brian frowned. "Now get outta my sight, We can't afford any more screw up's here, got it?"

"Yes, sir." Said Maverick, packing away one of his many sets of playing cards. As he left with the others, he couldn't help ponder what Charge had said. But it soon left his mind. People needed saving, and although little had been said about the actual death ... nobody wanted a repeat of last night.

He grabbed his hat and coat, giving Charge a knowing glance before leaving the freezer room.

"Super Humans..." O'brian sighed. He shook his head, and then turned and left himself.

The End (for now)