Trip to the Temple - Chapter 3.4

Simone Baptiste

Simone Baptiste - French
Rolf - German - Simone’s Dog
Chuck Naldrett - Canadian - DaveG
Sampson Strong - English - PJ
Leonid Rokossovsky - Russian - Sukh
Rosalyn De Steel - English - Dabe
Richard Bering - English - NPC
Alexander Wilson - American - NPC

Future Plans

The prisoners were led away and Richard arrived with Alexander. He wished us quick congratulations on our success and said he would talk to us more tomorrow. Just sleep well tonight. I chatted with a few people and then when I saw Alexander I said did he want to go for a fly, he seemed surprised that I was capable of flight but up we went. It was lovely up there looking over the lights of the port. You could so easily forget about the troubles of the world and in my case the traumas of the last few days. So we floated around by the light of the moon just chatting before flying back to the ship. There Alexander said bye and left for wherever he was staying in town, leaving me wondering if he has a girlfriend? I would be surprised if he has not at age 30. He is so very tall, almost 2m and he seems to like me but then he does seem to like everyone else as well. That night I slept a bit better but that was only in comparison with my previous night which had been truly awful. I tossed and turned for a while trying to not to think of Simone’s experiences the day before but failing. Eventually I did manage to get to sleep.

The next day Richard met us again and congratulated us on the capture of the Independence. He then brought us into his confidence by telling us that in about two days time we would retaking the base which would give us control of the whole island. But before then he needed a team to investigate Mordou Temple to the north. Apparently a force of the international military had been seen there and Richard wanted to know what they were up to. He would like us to do the investigation for this, bar Leonid who he needed for another job. Sampson, Chuck, Rosalyn and I had a quick discussion on how to get to Mordou but quickly decided to drive seeing that it was some kilometres away.

Temple Recon

When we arrived within about 2km of the temple we pulled the car off the road and approached the temple through the jungle. When we got close enough to the Temple we needed someone to go forward and scout it. Since there was not a rush for this role I said I would do it. So I slipped forward to go round the temple. I took on some of the traits of a chameleon to better blend into the background to help reduce the chances of me been spotted. Near the temple itself I spotted what seemed like locals tending the grounds. The temple looked intact though there was a large area of ruins and low walls to one side. It was all very quiet and I could feel an itch, sort of a strange feeling, impossible to say what was. It stuck with me for a while but faded when I moved off again.

Making my way towards the ruins I spotted a large military boat in a silted up canal basin, looking capable of transporting 30 odd people. In the ruins I observed multiple groups of soldiers on patrol; they all seemed to be operating in pairs. Also saw a large tent inside a wire fence enclosure but I could not see what was inside the tent. I then made my way back to the others to report what I had seen.

Attack on the Ruins

After I told the others on what I had observed we decided to attack on the end farthest away from the temple. Sampson, Rolf and I would go in with Chuck and Rosalyn acting as fire support. Sampson opens the attack, drawing guards towards our position. It was at this point I realised that the soldiers were French Legionaries when I heard them shouting. When the Legionaries were all nicely bunched in front of Sampson he clapped his hands in a deafening way, blasting everyone in front of him with a wall of sound. Two of them went down but then two of the others charged into him taking him over a side wall and down a bank towards the canal. Rolf and I had taken two down by this stage before I got knocked backwards over a wall. Getting back up I leapt over the wall into a veritable storm of firepower aimed in my direction. This almost made me duck back down but by force of willpower I kept going. Luckily all this firepower missed by some chance and when I shot with my shotgun I took another of the soldiers out. The legionaries were more accurate with their next round of fire staggering me backwards so I fell back over my wall. While I was lying there on the ground I felt a thump as a grenade went off back where the legionaries were.

Could not hear any movement over the wall after that but did hear Sampson screaming for help so I sent Rolf down to him. Rolf took out one of the legionaries on Sampson and then the last one surrendered to Sampson before Rolf attacked him. It now seemed that the legionaries had retired towards the temple where there seemed to be loads of activity. Chuck investigated the tent and found out that it was a booby trapped decoy communication centre. I then healed Chuck before we made a move on the temple itself.

In the quiet of the lull of combat I got that strange feeling again. I just cannot put my finger in what is it. Is it some other empath out there, feelings of a trap or anything like that? I cannot tell. I talked about this with the others and none of them are getting these feelings, not even Rolf. The thought crosses my mind is this because of my ‘sensitivity’ to others or something else. Why me and not them?

The Capture of Independence - Chapter 3.3

Simone Baptiste

Simone Baptiste - French
Rolf - German - Simone’s Dog
Chuck Naldrett - Canadian - DaveG
Sampson Strong - English - PJ
Leonid Rokossovsky - Russian - Sukh
Rosalyn De Steel - English - Dabe
Richard Bering - English - NPC

Planning

Once there Richard asked for our group to gather round a table at one end of the bar. There he told us he had another mission for us to further the cause of our independence. He would like us to go back to Estevelo to capture the ship that landed the troops. Estevelo would have been cleared of enemy troops by the time we got there and the supers operating there had managed to obtain the evacuation code to call in the ship. He suggested we use that code to get the ship in close and then board her. He also handed over some plans of the ship to enable us to better plan our attack. She was a good looking ship for sure and looked very fast. From the pictures she had three hulls and a flat deck at the back for helicopters to land on. We asked a series of questions on crew size, number of marines and such like questions. I also checked if we would have to meet the other supers in town and I was assured that would not be required. We decided to get on with it, as it was a matter of time before the people on the ship realised that the evacuation code had been compromised so we took a car down to Estevelo.

There on the beach which we had left just two days ago we started to plan our attack. In the end what we decided to do was for us to call the ship at dusk when the fishing fleet was out. The party bar one exception was to be hidden on one of the fishing boats with a zodiac hidden behind the boat. The exception to this was to be the person who was pretending to be one of the soldiers getting evacuated. I was to perform this role as I was the most suited for it and I guess I was trying to prove to myself that I was still a hero despite what else had happened. I was to send the message to the ship and then sail a zodiac full of wounded soldiers out to them. In actual fact the wounded soldiers were made up of dead soldiers we had found round Estevelo, while I was dressed up in one of the spare uniforms. When I decoyed the ship in close to the fishing boat, Chuck would hack the computer systems on the ship. At that point I would go and create a distraction on the ship while the others used their zodiac to approach and board the ship at speed.

Execution

We then proceeded to put the plan into action and loaded my Zodiac up with bodies. I then arranged them to look like I was evacuating with wounded soldiers. The others left with the fishing fleet on a fishing boat that Rosalyn had somehow obtained. Rolf went with Chuck while Leonid piloted the boat. Once they were in position I sent the evacuation signal using a radio taken from one of the soldiers. I then waited an appropriate amount of time before starting to motor out from shore. I did feel very lonely on my boat with only dead bodies for company. As I got farther from shore I could see the ship quite clearly now as she closed in. I was now passing the line of the fishing fleet but could not see the rest of my party. Not helped that I did not know what their boat looked like. The ship had closed within 3km of me and seemed to be slowing to a halt. I could see no sign of any activity by Chuck so I eased off the throttle to give myself more time before I was committed to do something.
Distance was still closing and still no sign of any Chuck activity. Maybe the systems were beyond him or maybe they had not left shore. I cut the motor to stop myself closing as I did not want to get too close. To my consternation I heard a rumble from the ships engines as they ticked over to close in on me. On the positive side this would bring them closer to Chuck, if he was there on one of the fishing boats. I started to get the cover off the outboard and acted as though I was trying to fix the motor. While doing this I dropped various bits of cables off into the sea to make certain that it would not work again. The ship closed on my position, stopping maybe 100m off. I could see them lowering a ramp near the backend of the ship and launching another zodiac. Once that got to me the game would be up. So hearing the sound of its outboard I started to reach down towards the propeller on my outboard, acting as though I was at full stretch and then slipping and falling in. Once under the water I kept going straight down where I discarded the uniform jacket and helmet. Hopefully this would stop any friendly fire incident, presuming I was not on my own when I attacked the ship.

Distracting Action

Swimming under the ship I came up underneath in the gap between the central hull and the side hull. Once here I prepared myself for action taking my shotgun out of my backpack and unwrapping it from its plastic bag. After making certain that it was water free I flew up the side of the ship level with the flight deck, this was I hasten to add on the opposite side of the ship from where the Zodiac was. From the edge of the deck I could see that there was a flight crew working on a helicopter. I take a distraction shot at them before ducking back under the hull into the gap between the hulls. I can hear some shouting from the flight deck but no signs of any activity from anyone or anything else. I then move towards the bow of the ship where I read the ships name for the first time. She is called the “USS Independence” which is kind of ironic since that is what we wanted. I then fly up to the bridge windows and fire a two shots into the windows, which seem to be bullet proof as they do not break, I see people inside gesturing towards me and I wonder what would I look like from their point of view, a red haired young women wearing army trousers and t-shirt flying outside their window with a shotgun. An arresting sight I am sure. Then with a deafening roar the cannon on the top of the hanger opened fire and then came an explosion from the flight deck with a fireball rising into the sky. So Chuck has arrived at last! The alarm klaxon now sounded so we were in action.

Offensive Action

I flew down to the rear of the ship and entered the ship by a rear hatch under the flight deck. Once in I took out one marine before having to beat a hasty retreat from a second. It was at this point the rest of my group arrived up the ramp that had been lowered for the second zodiac launch. Together Sampson, Leonid, Rosalyn & I then cleared the hanger bay of any marines. Then Chuck and Rolf arrived also as they had been left behind on the fishing boat while the others arrived by zodiac. It was great to have Rolf back with me again. Chuck settled himself down against a wall to continue his activities while the rest of us took control of the ship. There were two corridors leading from the hanger deck going forward into the ship. Rolf and I went down the left one where we took out the guy that I had trouble with previously. While I was tying him up I heard the others shouting for help at the end of the corridor so sending Rolf ahead of me I went down to see what I could do. By time I got there it was all over as Rolf had taken out the guy that was giving them so much trouble. By now the standard sailors were surrendering so I instructed them to all move to the hanger bay and bring any of the wounded with them.

Leaving Leonid, Sampson and Rosalyn to take the Bridge, I proceeded to gather all the prisoners against the wall of the hanger bay. This potentially could have turned nasty very quickly as I was outnumbered some thirty or more to one. Luckily they did not seem to want a fight and I tried to keep things calm by speaking to the sailors and assuring them that no harm would come to them. The marines that potentially could have caused trouble were left tied up but I did heal their wounds. After all if I was going to be regarded as a good super hero, I had to start somewhere, it would also help keep things calm down on the hanger deck. In fact Rolf seemed a big hit, with lots of sailors finding him snacks to eat. After about quarter hour Chuck stood up and said “the ship is ours”.

He then plotted a course to the town of Houmanu which has a deep water port on the East Coast of the island. We then took it in turns in pairs to watch the prisoners to allow people to have a rest. While I was out getting some fresh air on the flightdeck, Alexander flew by checking who was in command of the Independence, seeing it was us he waved and shot off. He is so handsome! I also liberated some female clothing of my size from one of the crew. So now have a full range of clothing plus toiletries. Also careful to get a sealable water proof bag to put them in case I had to do any more water exploits. After a two hour sail we pulled into the harbour and Chuck cautiously manoeuvred the Independence up against the harbour pier where she was tied up. The time was now 9pm in the evening.

Unwelcome Visitors - Chapter 3.2

Simone Baptiste

Simone Baptiste - French
Rolf - German - Simone’s Dog
Chuck Naldrett - Canadian - DaveG
Sampson Strong - English - PJ
Leonid Rokossovsky - Russian - Sukh
Rosalyn De Steel - English - Dabe
Milan Zadradnik - Czech - NPC
Richard Bering - English - NPC
Pitik Loshang - Islander - NPC Bar owner

Rubbish Disposal

When I joined the rest by the van I found that two of the enemy Supers had been tied up. The one Rolf had taken out (Mr Duplicator) and the Earth Magic man. Electric girl was dead, apparently from a shot to the head. All the people we had came to rescue were ok so we transported everyone back to the village. Leaving them there we took the two Supers to Milan for him to lock up in his spooky church. I went in to the church/temple first as I had at least some rapport with Milan which put me some considerable distance ahead of the others. Milan showed some distaste for Leonid but luckily Leonid had stayed outside the church, so that helped kept things cool on that front. I handed over our prisoners to Milan and explained their powers. I gave Milan a warning about what Duplicator was capable of as he did not seem to take me seriously, as maybe he still considered me that “mere little girl”. Suddenly tentacles ripped out of the ground through the Duplicator spreading his body parts all round the church, so I guess not. Milan said he could make use of the earth magic Super and then both of them disappeared. We then made our way back to the village with me wondering what Milan meant by “I can make use of him”.
Since it was late afternoon and we were all so very tired we decided to get some food and rest. We asked the villagers to warn us if anybody approached from the Estevelo. I eat well, soaked for an hour in the bath and then crawled into bed and tried to forget all the trauma of what had happened to me that day. That day was the lowest of my life as I had seen me been molested before dying in my own arms. I just kept thinking of what it must have been like for the Simone copy with all my memories, been molested and then finally for it all to end with her feeling her life ebb away with her having no control over anything.
It was very hard to shift those thoughts, to stop empathiseing with her situation but eventually sheer tiredness enabled me to drop off in a restless sleep. Lets hope tomorrow is a better day.

A Relaxed Morning

After a restless night I got up at six in the morning unable to sleep any longer. I just felt I had been put through the emotional wringer, I felt so twisted up inside. Decided to go and see if Pitik was up, so I could have some food and someone to chat to. If I could keep my mind occupied maybe I could stop my mind wandering onto yesterday’s activities. Wandered into the bar area but it was all empty with the stools on the table tops. Since I knew Pitik was relaxed about these things I switched on the coffee percolator behind the bar and started to prepare myself a sandwich. I was munching on this when Pitik arrived in the bar. I chatted to him for some time about anything, other than what had occurred yesterday. This, and the food seemed to settle my stomach down to a more normal level so I felt a bit more relaxed and was able to chat to the others when they rolled in later. Found out from Pitik that Richard was expected later that afternoon so we decided to have a relaxed day while waiting for him. We did ask the villagers to set up watches on the roads into the village to warn of potential trouble while we carried our communicators with us. I took this opportunity to wonder round the village with Rolf, talking to the locals when I met them, with me playing at normal life to keep my mind occupied. Rosalyn and Leonid stayed in the bar while Chuck and Sampson had gone for a walk also.

Visitors

This idyllic morning was brought was to halt by a burst of static from the communicator, then a voice said “column of cars inbound”, someone then asked “from Estevelo?”. The response took me by surprise when they said “No, from the mountains” as I was expecting it to be soldiers from the coast. Time stood still for a little while someone somewhere examined the convoy to see who it was. I then heard a voice say “It’s ROSS”. I did not hear what else they said, as the fight/flight reflex kicked in with a vengeance. ROSS that bastard who first of all had launched a sexual attack on me and later tried to kill me, his name was enough to send a tremor down my spine. Well I was not going to be attacked by him again if I could help it. I was no longer that same girl from the prison and Rolf was with me now! I positioned myself in a place where I could observe the main square and Pitik’s bar with the jungle to my back.
The convoy pulled to a halt outside the bar, four vehicles in all, with twelve people getting out. The two that I recognised were Ross and his plague friend. I could hear Ross issuing orders as though he owned the place, the arrogant bastard. I had hoped that someone would have killed him by now but it looked like he had built his own gang. They all then walked into the bar leaving no one outside. It was all quiet for a while but I was certainly not going down to investigate. Did see some flickering down by the cars so either Leonid or Chuck was up to something. Eventually trouble started, as I know it would with the sounds of wood been smashed. Then there was a murmur of voices before Leonid shot out of the bar, on his own two feet I would add. Then Ross came out on the bar veranda and started to shout out for one of us to come forward. Chuck stepped forward which I have to say I thought was an insane thing to do since the last time they met Ross had tried to kill Chuck. There was much talk where Ross said he was leading a force of Supers against the International military surrounding this island. They were on their way to clean up Estevelo. He then started to talk about me “Asking where was Simone?” I had to stop myself from running at that point as that was my instinctive reaction! I was not the same girl! I am a future Super hero and I will NOT run from scum! So I stayed to listen to see what else was said. I caught Chuck saying that he did not know where I was and he strongly suspected I would not be showing up, oh that’s so true. In all this conversation I could see there was an undercurrent of hatred from Ross towards us so I was surprised he was so controlled. There was more conversation in which Ross said Richard would be along later. Ross then called the conversation short saying he had to get onto Estevelo to sort out the military there. He called all the other Supers out of the bar and told them to mount up, did I detect special relish in the way he said that? I could not be sure but it would not surprise me. It was at this moment the Supers found out their ignition keys had been taken. Ross demanded to know who had them, so Chuck threw them on the ground before backing away. Ross then sent his drivers forward to retrieve the keys before rolling out of town on the road to Estevelo. Doubt that improved Ross’s feelings for us either.

Visitors Aftermath

After Ross had left, Chuck came out to find me. Once we met up we talked over what had occurred and he tried to persuade me to join the others back at the bar. I was not having anything to do with that as I did not trust Ross and never would. My reading of his motivations still show him being the same low life he always was but been more controlled at the moment ... for some reason. With eleven Supers at his command Ross would be more than capable of coming back into Mweki at any time. In that situation I wanted to be in a place where I had options. I said I would join the rest of them at the bar when I saw Richard arrive.
Time went by until I saw Richard drive in from the mountains on the same road that Ross had arrived on. So off I trotted with Rolf to the bar to meet the others. Once there I found there was a bit of discussion about how Ross was a changed man and was now Ok! WHAT!!! Unlike the old days where I would have kept a low profile I now steamed in saying he was still the same person, i.e. just a petty thug who would attack anyone when he had the advantage. Leonid said he had been down to Estevelo to check out Ross’s story of taking on the soldiers there and that was apparently true. I was so fired up that I told them something that only Richard knew previously, that Ross had sexually assaulted me in prison. There was a flippant comment from someone “maybe he was just been friendly”. I exploded at this point shouting out " its attempted rape when they are holding you down by the shoulders”. Things went very quiet in the bar and conversation stopped before restarting at a low murmur. I caught Richards’s eye and indicated that we needed to talk.

A Friendly Chat

Richard led me into a back room where we could talk with more privacy, but I was still angry so I wonder looking back on it if I managed to keep my voice down. Can not recall the full detail of the conversation now but I know I let off steam about Ross and other peoples attitude re him and what he did. Eventually I calmed down enough to start to talk with less emotion. I did notice that Richard was being very careful to not tip more fuel on the fire and he was very careful about what words he used. He explained that he had met Ross and “persuaded” him to leave Chuck and me alone. Well that is all very well for Ross but the same rules would not apply to me! I told Richard that the best place for Ross would to be buried under the yard as he could not be trusted. But apparently it was a done deal but Richard said he would try and keep us separated. He then asked how our mission in Estevelo had gone? I was able to tell what we had done in Estevelo in a controlled manner but when I started to talk about our rescue of the low level Supers at the farm my voice started to break up and I broke down in tears. Richard came over and tentatively hugged me while I sobbed out what had happened to the Simone copy with my head on his chest He tried to comfort me in a very English way in a loose hug but I guess only time will heal my wounds.
He then talked about his future plans to distract me from my own thoughts. I think Richard was underestimating the military here. He seemed to think that if we took the island and demonstrated that we were a force to be reckoned with that the world governments would then negotiate with us. All I could think was that this was just painting a great big target on our heads and with large force of Supers on one island what a great target we were. If the English or the Americans did not have the guts to nuke us, the French certainly would! We need to get off the Island! I hope Richard has some super up his sleeve that can shield the whole island like in War of World’s. Richard said he had a mission for us but he would need to talk to the others so we rejoined the others in the bar.

Rescue Mission - Chapter 3.1

Simone Baptiste

Simone Baptiste - French
Rolf - German - Simone’s Dog
Chuck Naldrett - Canadian - DaveG
Sampson Strong - English - PJ
Leonid Rokossovsky - Russian - Sukh
Rosalyn De Steel - English - Dabe
Richard Bering - English - NPC
Pitik Loshang - Islander - NPC Bar owner

A Hero’s Job is Never Done.

On arrival at the bar we found that Rosalyn was waiting for us. She explained that the others had been tasked with some other jobs for Richard. But they did not matter as she had some more important news. She did not explain how she had come upon this info, just that she had managed to pick it up around the village, my guess was that she had been mind rummaging again. Apparently there were three Supers who had taken as prisoners the people who had been at the lodging house in Estevelo. They were holed up in a farm house just outside town. We were all too tired to check out this story straight away so we decided to grab a few hours sleep and leave for the farm at noon. So my bath turned out to be more a quick dip before slipping into my bed. I slept like a log before been woken by Pitik at 11am as arranged. We had a quick bit of food before driving tiredly off to the farm.

Trouble at Farm

Parking at the end of a rough track we made our way cautiously along it amongst the dappled shade of the trees and bushes. When we got a glimpse of the buildings we stopped and hid alongside the track. Rosalyn turned invisible and went ahead to see what was happening. She soon came running back to tell us that she had observed three people leading others into the back of a large van. She could not be certain but she thought the ones been shut in the back of the van were the people we had come to rescue. The van started off, moving slowly down the rutted track towards us. We could see a man driving and female passenger but could not see the third person. As the van got close to our position, Leonid stepped out in the track in front of it, forcing it to a halt with a squeal of brakes. A spirited conversation then took place between the people in the van and Leonid. This all came to an end when Leonid cut the conversation short by sending a shower of projectiles at the man in van. This smashed the front screen sending glass shrapnel in all directions. Leonid then shot off into the bushes on the far side of the road. Rosalyn also disappeared into the bushes on this side of the road after firing at the people in the van. At our side of the road I shot at the driver while Sampson moved towards the rear of the van. There was then a blast of electrical energy out of the cab into the bushes where Leonid and Rosalyn were hiding. This caused many bushes to burst into flame but from where Chuck and I were standing we could not see if Leonid or Rosalyn were hit. What we did observe was the women getting out of the van before our view was blocked by a wall of earth appearing between us and the van. Since I could not see anyone to shoot anymore, Rolf and I moved off to help out Rosalyn & Leonid.

When we got around the front of the van I could see that the enemy super was a women in her 40’s. She certainly seemed to be a bit wound up by Rosalyn as she fired shot after shot into the bushes. She soon stopped that when I opened fire and Rolf steamed in. When Leonid also opened fire on her she was in serious trouble. Suddenly the ground literally disappeared from under us, I found myself perched on the edge of the hole cartmilling my arms trying to stop myself falling in. By performing a little hop I managed to make a step backwards from the hole but Rolf was not so lucky. He ended up 10’ down in the bottom of hole but with no damage. I just had to get him out before whoever was doing this earth magic filled the hole back in again. So pulling on the power of flight and strength I dived into the hole, grabbed Rolf and then flew out landing behind the van out of sight of electric girl and hopefully the earth magic person.

Mirror Images

There I saw a very strange sight, where Sampson was fighting Samson as there was two of him. I could not tell
them apart as they were also dressed alike. From what I could see one of them was losing but should I help him or the other, I could not tell. I did see a Super I did not recognise so he was fair game as far as I was concerned. But before I could make a move he looked at me and suddenly there was another me standing along side him. She was identical to me, the only differences I could spot was that the copy did not seem to have my back pack and guns but other than a perfect copy but ..... thinking about it, the Simone copy seemed to be a bit blank eyed as though no one was at home or she was been controlled. Rolf seemed confused, so to make things easier for him I sent him after the enemy Super rather than Simone. One quick vicious attack by Rolf and the enemy Super was down and out. Then suddenly the van shot backwards, Rolf and Simone jumped out of the way but the van slammed into me knocking me down, also hitting one of the Sampson copies. As I was getting back up Simone got hit by an electrical blast which just washed over her with no effect. Taking advantage of me been stunned Simone advanced and hit me which forced me backwards, stunning me again. Rolf was no use and just yelped in confusion as he did not know that I was the real Simone. I was now staggering backwards just trying to get away, It was terrifying facing Simone as she was relentless and so dead in the eyes. She then smacked me with such a hit that I flew backwards through the air for what seemed ages, I landed under a tree smacking my head on a rock, for a few seconds I saw stars before everything went black.

I came too with a worried Rolf licking my face. I saw Simone advancing on me so I tried to scrabble backwards away from her. I pleaded to Rolf to keep Simone away from me and just keep us separated but Rolf was still uncertain on what to do. While I was unable to defend myself Simone grabbed me and bit me in the throat, I suddenly felt cold and I felt my strength draining away. But at least I was not stunned so I rolled away and tried to get us much distance between me and Simone as I could. Even Rolf seemed to work out who was who now and stood between me and the false Simone growling at her.

Breaking Free of Control

The fact that Rolf was growling at Simone seemed to have a strange effect on Simone which stopped her advancing. For the first time I observed emotions on her face. It was though she was unfreezing from some sort of control that her controller had on her. Maybe it helped that Rolf had taken him out earlier. I took advantage of this respite to back off some more and heal some of my wounds. It was at this point that one of the Sampson copies intervened. He came running up and wrapped his arms round Simone from behind and then started to run his hands up and down her body. I almost instantly had flashbacks to Ross in the prison and felt cold shivers. Seeing what was happening to Simone, it was all too easy to play Ross’s attack on top what I was seeing making me feel nauseous. I could see Simone struggling as though she had those thoughts to and then she shot straight up into the sky. Since she was me I guessed she was going to fly very high and eventually shake off Sampson at height.

While this was going on, the second Sampson approached me. I warned Rolf to be alert in case he attacked me the same way as the other Sampson was doing to Simone. I just could not trust anyone as they all could be fake. Sampson apparently wanted healing, and to be honest he did look like he had been hammered. When I asked him about what the other Samson was doing he said that he must be controlled, as he, Sampson would never take advantage of anyone. This statement did not fit very well with what I had witnessed him doing on the beach but a quick glance at Rosalyn did show her concentrating on something so I guess he could be telling the truth. He continued to try and persuade me that he was a real Samson saying if he was a fake he would have simply attacked me. I was convinced when he whimpered that he just wanted Rolf to lick him, so Rolf and I cautiously healed Sampson’s wounds. The rest of the party were about 20m up the road by the van where they had captured the earth magic guy. I could see no sight of the electrical women.

Then with a rushing of air Samson and Simone was back, barrowing down from out of the blue towards the party by the van. I could see that Samson2 had stopped molesting Simone. They landed by the van. Even from here I could see something had changed as they did not seem to have the aggressive posture that they had before. Sampson (the one I had healed) walked up to the rest of the group but I kept my distance as I did not trust this situation. I could see conversation taking place at the van and then one of the Samson’s ran off into the woods but I could not see if was the healed Sampson or molesting Sampson. Heard my name been mentioned and someone pointed down in my direction and then Simone started to walk towards me. None of the others followed which did not make me feel any more supported other than by Rolf and I was uncertain how he would behave in this situation.

Simone

My feelings/thoughts were all over the shop at this point as the initial combat rush had been changed in the middle, to fear of facing myself with no help from my best friend. Then things had conspired to bring back recent traumatic memories so I was not at my strongest to face what occurred next. To be honest I suspect no matter what emotional state I had been in, I would have found what occurred next traumatic.

When Simone was within a few paces I asked her to stop which she did thankfully. We then started to talk with both us thinking that we were the real Simone. Our discussions were very wide ranging starting with our childhood. Simone had all the same memories that I had including the same emotional response that I had to these memories. Her feelings about my father were the same as me for example. So we talked about our more recent memories and she was still an exact copy right up to the combat that had just taken place which is where our paths divided. We discussed in depth what occurred just after I rescued Rolf from the hole and the lack of backpack and guns. I could see the truth dawning across Simone’s face then she exclaimed “I am a copy and you are the real Simone”. I just hugged her and said “you are a real person now, as live as me”. We talked a bit more before she said she was feeling a bit tired. In fact she was feeling very weak. She suddenly sat down with a thump, I instantly tried to do as much healing as I could but to no effect. Simone said she could feel her life ebbing away and my healing was having no effect. Since Simone was the same as me it was all too easy to empathise with Simone and really feel ... her ... life ... ebbing ... away. I tried to make her as comfortable as I could with her head in my lap. I was looking into her eyes as they glazed over and she died in front of me. I could not stop myself and I burst into tears. I found that I could not stop sobbing as it was me that had died and I found in impossible not to put myself into her place. It is such a cruel thing to create a real person with a finite lifespan, when they can feel their life leaving them.

No one came down from the rest of the party to join me to see how things were getting on, all I got was a shout saying to “hurry up, they were almost ready to go”. Could none of them think what it was like? To see themselves die! All I had was Rolf to hug and release my anguish with. I could hear them freeing the prisoners in the back of the van so I pulled myself together. I was not going to leave Simone lying there on the side of the road so pulling on a burrowing power I dug a deep hole for Simone’s burial. I placed her in it and filled it in. I suppose some people would question why bother? as she was just a copy but she had nineteen years of memories and about one hour of life. So what makes a person human? In her one hour of life she had demonstrated more human qualities than some people do in a lifetime … mentioning no names. I gave one last hug to Rolf and then wiped my eyes before joining the rest of the party.

Fight on the Beach - Chapter 3

Simone Baptiste

Simone Baptiste - French
Rolf - German - Simone’s Dog
Chuck Naldrett - Canadian - DaveG
Sampson Strong - English - PJ
Leonid Rokossovsky - Russian - Sukh
Rosalyn De Steel - English - Dabe
Richard Bering - English - NPC
Pitik Loshang - Islander - NPC Bar owner

Beach Party Preparations

Chuck, Leonid, Samson and I decided to investigate the communication equipment to see if we could glean any more information about the military forces landing at the beach. After to be honest not much success we went back down to the sitting room to meet the others. There we met Rosalyn who was by herself and seemed to be a bit agitated. She explained that the others had left to ‘apprehend’ the Philippino and had taken the prisoner with them. Wishing us the best of luck in defending the beach she said she also had to go help in the pursuit and leaping into a car outside, sped off in the direction of Mweki leaving a cloud of dust behind her.
The four of us left in the house then had much discussion on what to do with the landings by the Military. I argued that we should show at least some resistance to the invasion; after all we were heroes, while the others thought that it would be a pointless exercise in the face of the incoming firepower. In the end we decided to defend one end of the beach but to position the truck that we had taken from the big house in a position to allow us to make a rapid escape. Leonid and Samson went off to get the truck and place it in position while Chuck and I stayed at the Beach on watch. I was feeling a bit overconfident about my powers at this point so I thought that I could maybe take on the powers of a dolphin and swim out to sea and observe the ship (or ships) off shore. So stripping off to my underwear, I handed my sarong and backpack to Chuck to take care of. Thinking back to this he was a bit slack jawed at this point but I guess he has never been to the beaches of southern France or Spain. So telling Rolf to take care of Chuck I dived into the water and swam out to sea. After 15 minutes of swimming and getting out 2-3 km from shore I had still seen no sight of any ships. It started to dawn on me that this was not a particularly bright idea so I started to make my way back to shore. One thing I did learn was that when I took on the aquatic adaptation of a dolphin, is that I picked up its smoothness through the water with its lessoned drag. So the next time I would not need to leave my bag behind. So a useful lesson learnt there, other than lets not swim miles out to sea. When I arrived at the beach Leonid and Samson were just parking up so I quickly recovered my sarong from Chuck and slipped it on before the others arrived on the beach.
After a bit more discussion we did come up with a sort of plan for the fight. Chuck would use his machine control powers to mess with the boats while they approached the beach. Leonid and Sampson would engage small groups of marines amongst the houses. I was to place myself in the water so I could engage targets of opportunity from hopefully an unexpected direction. I told Rolf to stay close to Chuck unless the others were hurt. We then just sat around to wait for the arrival of the invasion with Chuck manning the transmitter in the house.

Beach Party Kicks off

After a while we picked up the sound of multiple boats incoming into the beach. I slipped into the water and some swam some small distance from the shore. The others then deployed themselves in their chosen locations, Rolf with Chuck and Leonid and Sampson together. When the boats got closer I dived and allowed them to pass overhead. I then popped up to see what was happening whereupon I observed five inflatable’s inbound to the beach. They looking similar to what I had seen the coastguard use down on the Med. Each seemed to have a handful of Marines aboard plus a pilot. The two boats at the far end of the beach were heading into the harbour while the three remaining boats were spread out evenly along the length of the beach between us and the harbour entrance. The third boat seemed to lose power and then started to drift. Some sort of engine problem I guess but it could have been Chuck. Suddenly the second boat along took a sudden change of direction and speed, started to rip along parallel to the beach. This to me looked very much like something that Chuck would have done. The change of speed and direction had been so violent that one of the soldiers had fallen overboard so I swam over to see if I could reduce the odds against us somewhat. I felt sad when I found out that he was been dragged down by the weight of his own kit. I had to suppress these feeling reminding myself that the military would suppress us without a seconds thought when we had done nothing wrong other than be gifted with these new powers. We were fighting for our freedom and I was afraid that blood would be split even if I wished otherwise.
At this point the first boat hit the shore at our end of the beach and six soldiers deployed onto the beach before starting to move towards the buildings leaving the naval pilot in charge of the boat. I started to move towards this boat while keeping myself hidden in the sea. At this point I saw an act of suicidal bravery with Leonid and Sampson leaping into the middle of the six soldiers. Leonid then did an attack moving almost faster than the eye could follow. This attack unfortunately seemed to prove ineffectual so Leonid then faded into a blur. The soldiers did not seem to be phased by this and unleashed lots of fire into Samson. This did not seem to do Sampson any good at all. Next round Leonid and Samson disappeared off to the buildings again, with the soldiers resuming their advance on the buildings.
While the soldiers were busy I decided this was my moment to strike, so pulling my shotgun out of my backpack I rose out of the sea like an avenging angel behind the pilot. Over the next minute a series of shotgun blasts drove the pilot backwards, with his armour taking the vast majority of the damage. At the same time there was lots of sounds of guns been fired and vehicles crashing up by the buildings. Even though it was taking longer than expected I was confident that the pilot was going down. Then there was a large clap of thunder and I felt a sudden disconnection, ROLF WAS DOWN! I looked up and saw Rolf and a Soldier was down on the beach with Samson standing over them. Sampson then moved up to the soldier and broke his neck!!! Not surprisingly this disconcerted me and my next shot at the pilot was somewhat off target. Sampson then advanced towards Rolf, he then gripped Rolf by the jaw and put his hand down Rolf’s throat, at this point I was almost going into mental lockdown at the thought of what Sampson was going to do next. Sampson then pulled his hand out of Rolf’s throat and wiped his hand on Rolf’s coat. At that moment my contemplation of “what in hell was Sampson was up to?” was cut short by a strike to my torso knocking me backwards. The pilot had taken advantage of my lapse in concentration and drawn his pistol and shot me. If I hadn’t got increased toughness I would have been in serious trouble. I saw Sampson throw Rolf over his shoulder and sprint down the beach in my direction. Arriving with me he dropped Rolf onto the beach at my feet and gripping the boat he lifted it right over dropping it onto the pilot. While I rushed to stabilise Rolf and bring him round, Chuck made a break from his building teleporting in our direction. The remaining soldiers then appeared from behind the buildings and unleashed a fusillade of fire in our direction. From sounds of a car been driven at speed I guessed that Leonid had found a getaway vehicle. To protect us on the exposed beach I dug a hole but was not quick enough to save myself from damage as I got hit, collapsing into the hole. Samson was using the boat for protection, holding it in front of him like a big shield.

Time to Leave.

So there we were, Chuck, Rolf and I lying in our hole with Rolf licking my wounds, while bullets impacted all round us and against the hull of the boat as Samson made his way up the beach. Surprisingly it did not take long for us to conclude that we had outstayed our welcome. I was the first to get out in the face of that firepower, shooting off at high speed. Little did I know that only a few of the soldiers were doing suppressing fire, the rest of them holding their fire for targets of opportunity and I was that target! I had not done more than a few paces before the bullets were winging in my direction, shooting all around me. Got clipped by one which I shrugged off, before been hit by a full bust which hammered me to the ground. I was still conscious but I was feeling very exposed lying on that beach a good 50 meters from cover. The only positive I saw was that Rolf had made it to the cover of the houses, as apparently I had drawn all the fire onto myself by been the first person out of the hole, lucky me. I just felt like merde.
Suddenly with a splash of sand I was back in the hole. Chuck explained he could teleport us all the way to the cover of the houses in one jump. Since I was not feeling too well I hung onto Chuck while he did this. When we arrived in the cover of the houses I observed that Sampson was climbing into the new car that Leonid had arrived in. I started to wonder what had happened to our nice 4*4 that we had, before the sound of more shooting broke up my concentration. Leonid drove off at high speed, in reverse!!! while I held onto Chuck as we teleported in pursuit. I called on Rolf who then bounded off after us, easily keeping up. When we had put some considerable distance between us and the soldiers we stopped to treat our wounds. Even though we had caused some casualties to the military none of us particularly wanted to re-engage so we decided to drive back to Mweki to see if we could find the rest of the party and to tell Richard what had happened. On arrival in Mweki all travel and combat stained, it was very quiet which I suppose should be expected since it was very early in the morning. We drove to Pitik’s bar to see who we can find, and ideally to get some rest, oh I could do with a long soak in a hot bath to ease some of my aches.

Fighting for Independence - Chapter 2

Simone Baptiste

Simone Baptiste - French

Rolf - German - Simone’s Dog

Sampson Strong - English - PJ

Leonid Rokossovsky - Russian - Sukh

Rosalyn De Steel - English - Dabe

Marcel Ventoux - French - Kell

Leopoldo Lugones - Argentina - Rich

Poncio Medina Jimenez - Spanish - PhilJ

Chuck Naldrett - Canadian - DaveG - Not here for this session

Milan Zadradnik - Czech - NPC

Richard Bering - English - NPC

Next morning I noticed more changes in powers, I no longer seem to be see other people’s auras any more but I can almost literally feel as if I am Rolf, with his strength, speed and his senses. Oh yes his senses, when you sense the world, the way a dog senses the world, its mind blowing! With a dog’s sense of smell the world looks so different, if seeing is the correct term, so multi coloured with a different layer of colour and texture on everything

Milan Zadradnik

So with a new sense a wonder I joined the rest of the party as we trooped out to do the favour for Richard. Our party is made up of Leonid, Marcel, Leopoldo (still wearing his codpiece), Rosalyn, Chuck (strangely distant), Rolf and me.

After a twenty minute walk down the indicated road we come to the temple nestling in a clearing, or what was the temple. It certain looks like it has seen better days with the roof having large holes. On one corner there is what looks like a minaret but it does not look too stable to me. We all venture inside and I try and get Milan’s attention. Since I had been told that Milan is a Czech I speak out in his native language to get his attention. He does appear, so I succeeded so far, but then he brushes me off “as a mere girl” and says that someone here is more worthy of his attention. Milan is a lot older than I expected looking like someone 70+, in fact thinking about what I know about the Czech’s he could have been involved in the Czechoslovakian rebellion of the 60’s, he was that old. That supposition was only further enforced with the tirade Milan directed in Leonid’s direction who took the criticism of the Russians as well as he normally did.

Then Milan turned his attention to Leopoldo saying that he showed promise but would need to be tested to see if he could put in the effort required to master his craft. Then both Leopoldo and Milan disappeared. A few minutes later we heard some explosions from the top of the minaret so it sounded like that is where they had gone. But when we tried to get up the tower we found that we could not, as the stairs had rotted and collapsed. We could hear voices from up there with Milan’s voice taking on a more exasperated tone over time telling Leopoldo to put in more effort. Suddenly around the temple a wall of green tentacles shot up completely enclosing us inside. It even shot over the roof to stop us getting out that way, as if we could fly. In the dim green light Milan and Leopoldo reappeared with a bang. Milan said that we were all worthless and deserved our fate. He then rips off his fingers and throws them onto on the ground, whereupon they all turn into Demons. Oh yes the situation was not good and things proceeded to get worse. These Demons seemed to be immune to most of our weapons and I wish I could say the same for us but I can’t. Even invisibility seemed to provide no defence as the demons seemed able to sense people even when hidden. I used super speed to keep myself at a distance while shooting, while Rolf would nip in and out for attacks in support of Leonid. Marcel got caught by two of the Demons and pounded into the ground. Chuck teleported in, grabbed Marcel and then teleported him out just before he was hammered again. It was not all one way as we did take out a few of the smaller demons but two of them did seem particularly hard. It all came to a head when one of the big Demons landed a particularly powerful blow on Leonid. He flew backwards about 10m into the base of the Minaret where his landing was softened by encountering Rosalyn and Leopoldo. Because of this Leonid was down but not out, very Russian you might say. Shame the same could not be said for Rosalyn and Leopoldo who were definitely down and out.

At this point I truly know where the battle was going and it was not going to be good. But I had an inkling of an idea that might get us out of the merde. I would try talking to Milan again as talking had saved me in the village and it was our best hope here. I called out to Milan” to stop as we did not want to fight him”. Milan answered “and that is not of my concern little girl”. But now I was beginning to fire on all cylinders and I responded “you are no better than the Russians in Czechoslovakia, just killing people who cannot defend against you. You say you hate them and everything they did to your country and then here you are, now acting like them”. Things went very cold and dark, and then suddenly I was taken to a church in some other dimension to talk to Milan. I then talked very rapidly and passionately to Milan, explaining that we meant him no harm but needed his help otherwise the American military would roll over us, all of us, like the Russians did in Czechoslovakia. Milan said he did not want to get involved, but I said “that like in the 60’s there would be no place to hide, as the military would kill us all, so we needed everyone to help and he was so very powerful. Would he at least talk to Richard?” Milan said he was willing to do this and suddenly we were back in the temple. With a whisk of his hands the tentacles disappeared along with the demons bar the two big ones who changed into men who then promptly collapsed. Then Milan disappeared again leaving us alone in the temple. I then sent Rolf to give a healing lick to the injured members of our party. It was only later that the thought occurred to me that if I can take on Rolf’s powers I can also take on his healing kiss, wonder who I should bestow that favour on? I find it hard to stop a smile crossing my face.

New Companions and Mission

After a bit of discussion we decide to revive the two unconscious ex-Demons. They seem to be very disoriented when they come around asking where did the demons go that they had been fighting. Rosalyn does a quick mind probe to confirm this and yes apparently they had been fooled into seeing us as Demons. We start to see if we did not before, why Richard wanted to recruit Milan. So we all troop back to Mweki where I informed Richard that Milan was willing to talk to him. I give Richard a briefing on my conversation with Milan so he does not ruin the foundations I have laid. He seems very pleased with me and what has been achieved. Sadly Richard’s flying friend Alexander was not about.

Richard then calls the group together to say it appears that the military have apparently got some informers in a town on the coast called Estevelo. Well that is what there communication intercepts are telling them. This does feel a bit like the French revolution with the people been oppressed and used by the military machine. I am beginning to feel a bit like a heroine.

Well anyway Richard would like us to go to Estevelo to investigate and find out what is going on. He thinks he can trust us as we have shown resilience in coping with situations so far.

On this mission the new guys decide to join us. Sampson Strong looks like a body builder and used to be part of a strong man act in a circus so a clever naming strategy there.

The other more rounded fatherly figure is called Poncio Medina Jimenez. He describes himself as a simple Spanish fisherman.

Estevelo

Next day we set out for Estevelo and after most of a day of solid walking we arrived in the late afternoon, feeling a bit foot sore. When there I enquire with the locals for a good place to stay. They direct us to a lodging house where apparently all the foreigners stay. Wonder what about our party gave us away. Well since we were tired, the lodging house was as good a place to start our investigation as anywhere. When we arrived we booked ourselves in and then met the other guests in the communal living/eating area. There were not many other guests, only 5 in number. Like our own party they were a mix of nationalities. The only thing they had in common was that they were all supers and were on the run from the military like us. One thing that we were doing though was that we were fighting back unlike them! We did try and persuade them to join the resistance but they just did not want to get involved. Three were US citizens who whilst not liking the situation, felt uncomfortable going up against their own government. The other two said they would help where they could but did not want anything to do with any fighting. Even though they had super powers, at heart they were just scared people who wanted their old life back. While I understood their attitude I thought they were falling into the same trap as Milan. There was no way they could wish their powers away so they would be part of the war if they liked it or not. We asked them about other strangers in town but they knew nothing. We resolved to start our investigation of town tomorrow.

Into Town

Next morning we decide to disperse all over town to find any leads to new people in town, military sympathisers etc. Just looking for anyone or anything out of place really. One firm idea we did come up with is for Chuck to ensconce himself at the local phone exchange to see if he can intercept any Military calls and if so, identify where they originated from. The rest of us would meet up at the harbour at midday to discuss our findings. I personally did not have much luck in finding out anything suspicious. The only strangers in town were the ones at the lodging house and us apparently.

I checked in on Chuck before I went to the harbour to see what progress he had made. He told me had got some leads but because of the analog nature of the exchange he was finding it difficult to pin down the actual location. He would get there eventually though. I said I would tell the others and we would see him later.

When I arrived at the harbour it seemed like a big impromptu beach party had been kicked off by Poncio with his fine culinary skills and Sampson was helping to haul fishing boats out of the water. Rosalyn had managed to get a nifty Western Office suit and a pair of heels. I have no idea how she afforded that as we had no money. But other than that success, none of us had found out anything other than Chuck. But being the relaxed kind of group that we are, people started to get actively into the party mood.

Leopoldo starting to get a feeling that someone was watching our people, when he looked round he spotted that it was a young lad. This lad then started to run towards the centre of town so Leopoldo decided to follow. They went down a street towards the exchange so Leopoldo thought he should warn Chuck. He went into a shop to use their phone and rang up Chuck at the exchange.

Chuck announced himself with “Chuck!”

Leopoldo says “Leopoldo!”

...silence...click. Leopoldo puts the phone down, he can only speak Spanish.

He comes out of the shop where he is confronted by the young lad on why Leopoldo is following him. This soon degenerates into a fight where it turns out that the young lad is in fact a Super with Mimic powers. After hitting Leopoldo he uses teleport to escape. At the harbour, Leonid and I had noticed that Leopoldo had gone missing so when explosions started happening we shot off into town at max speed. Rolf and I were fast but Leonid was that bit faster. We found Leopoldo battered and bruised in the street but basically ok. So we decided to leave him to be taken care by the rest of our group who were following along in our wake, while we go and see how Chuck is. When we arrived we found the exchange was under attack and Chuck was down. Rolf and Leonid charged in to engage the enemy Super while I shot at him with my pistol. After he had taken some damage he decided to bug out by using Leopoldo’s mimicked teleport power. The exchange had been wrecked and the best that Chuck can do now is give us an area of town for the origin point of the military transmissions.

Tracking

While the others checked over the exchange I went out to see if I could find any trace of the bad Super. By using Rolf’s senses I started to search for the scent path of the Super by searching in greater circles round the exchange. I eventually picked up his trail and followed it out of town. This was all going fine until we came to a river. He had evidently teleported across which was fine for him. To me it was going to be a bit more difficult, since this was no stream, this was a full blown river off the mountains and I had never learnt to swim!

Since I had been blocked in my pursuit I decided to reverse direction and work out where he came from rather than where he was going to. So I popped back to the exchange to see what everyone else was up to. When I arrived they had all finished their investigation so I explained my plan. In the absence of anything better they decided to follow my plan. Best not fail on my tracking then.

So we set off, Rolf soon lost the scent and just ran around as though it was a game. Fortunately I was on top form and the scent trail could not have been brighter if it had been painted with a fluorescent orange paint. As well as the harbour and exchange, he had spent some serious amount of time scouting out the lodging house from positions where he could remain hidden. From there the trail led out to a big house at the edge of town. Since I had done my job I was happy to step back into the background to let the others plan the next stage of the investigation.

House Break In

I was feeling fatigued after all my exertions of the day so my recollections of the next stage of operations are a bit vague so I will just summarize what I can recall

The house had a high wall round it with what looked like some sort of security system also in place.

When we got into the compound we found a large colonial house with attached garage and yard.

There was an old man in the hallway, who was monitoring the cameras. He then got killed by Leonid who did not know his own strength.

We found more staff upstairs, a young girl and her Grandmother, apparently Granddad was downstairs *cough*. I stayed with them to make certain they did not interfere with our search of the house. They told us that the owner had left some days ago and then returned. He had acted a bit strange since then as though he was not himself. From the smell in the owners room, he was the Super that I had tracked all afternoon. There was also the smell of someone else who had apparently visited the Super but this scent was very faint. We were told he looked like a Philippino, an army officer from his mannerisms.

Some of the others found a large satellite dish + equipment in the yard. This equipment was checked out for any information we could find before we disabled it.

The police then arrived.

We all scarpered in all directions, some over the wall and others past the police via invisibility or speed. This worked well for the majority but not for everyone. Leonid was fast, very fast but not fast enough, getting hit by a pistol shot as he exited the area. This took him out where upon he was rescued by another member of the party.

R & R

It been early evening we headed back to the lodgings. Leonid was ensconced in his room upstairs while I headed to my own room as I had things to do. In my room using materials I had obtained from Pitik Loshang in Mweki I proceeded to change my appearance. The thought had occurred to me that my description would have been reported to the police so maybe a change of appearance would be called for. When I finished I was really impressed with the change that I had effected, so I thought that I would go see how Leonid was faring. When I went into his room he was initially very shaken as apparently as I looked completely different. He was still not feeling well so using a healing power that I copied from Rolf; I held his hands created a feeling of wellbeing in him which enabled him to shake off his injuries.

While all this was going on upstairs, downstairs we had been visited by the police. Apparently it had not been a hard bit of deduction by them that Supers had been involved and they were all staying at the lodgings. Apparently they had been scared of us so had just issued a warning. I have no idea how we got away with the death of the old man.

Since Leonid was now feeling much better, we went downstairs to join the others to discuss what we could/should do next. This did not take long as we only had one remaining lead and that was the area of town which Chuck had identified as the origin point of the military calls. One of the other Supers in the lodgings was sent off to Mweki to tell Pitik Loshang, and Richard what was going on and what our next action was going to be.

Beach Road

The area of town we needed to explore was spread along a beach road which has a range of bungalows along it, some with dormers. These bungalows backed onto the beach so would have been nice to stay in, in happier times. Not particularly wanting to investigate every bungalow we decide to do a sweep of the area, Chuck seeing if he can spot any dodgy electromagnetic transmissions and Rolf & I using our more old fashioned senses to see if we can spot any smell out of place. We worked our way along the front before I identified the smell that I had noticed at the big house. It was the smell of the visitor to the Super, so we had our target bungalow. We decided to split our group into two even sized groups with people who could speak the same language. Going into the back of the bungalow from the beach side we had Leopoldo, Poncio, Rolf & me. Ok I know Rolf can not speak Spanish but at least I could control him. At the front of the house we had Sampson, Leonid, Marcel & Rosalyn. Chuck stayed outside to keep watch for anyone else arriving.

Our team entered the house by the backdoor which was not locked. Ahead of us was a short hallway with a door to the right. At the end it turned left with a stairs straight ahead dog-legged upstairs. We all crept in and opened the door to the right, it was a bedroom and unoccupied. There were signs of occupation but no one there at the moment so we continued down the hall to the corner. Down the hall to the left were doors to the right and left with a door at the end. The door to the right led into another unoccupied bedroom while the left also led into a bedroom. In this room all the furniture had been pushed to one side and various equipment had been set up. I guess its communication stuff as I can see a microphone and speakers & what looks like a satellite dish aiming out of the window across the beach and out to sea. I now went to investigate upstairs with Rolf while Leopoldo and Poncio checked out the door at the end of the hall.

A bit of a Tussle

Now this description of what happened at the front of the house I pieced together from talking to various people after the event.

Chuck picked the lock on the front door for team Frontal before going on sentry duty. They looked in to the room which seemed to be a living room judging by the sofas and chairs. Asleep on the sofas were two guys in military uniforms. Team Frontal now felt very happy as here was an opportunity to take down some guards down before they could fight back. They managed to sneak in without waking the soldiers and then lined up their most powerful attacks. This was going to be too easy!!! Then in a display of ineptitude that has not been seen for years, they did zip, nothing, zero damage to the guards. The sofa took a bit though. Then in a long, long drawn out fight the living room was trashed, it only came to an end when Leopoldo and Poncio came in from the kitchen and finished off the soldiers. A woman was also taken prisoner who had been sleeping in a bedroom above the living room. So victory for 6 of our team over 3 sleeping military personnel! Hurrah.

Elsewhere in the house things were very different. Rolf and I sneaked upstairs where we found a door at the top. When I tried the door handle it was locked but the door looked very flimsy so a quick shoulder charge and it should be open. Unfortunately that proved incorrect and it took two before we had burst into the room. In there we found a fully alert officer, a Philippino by the look of him, i.e. the top man, top boss, the big cheese. He also proved to be very skilled in martial arts as you would expect any top combat officer to be. The problem we had was that he was very hard to hit while he could hit us at will. Rolf fought protectively for a serious for amount of time, with me trying to get an accurate shot off to take him down but the guy was just too evasive. After the rest of the party managed to eventually overcome the sleeping soldiers Poncio and Samson came up to help. The enemy officer was more than capable of avoiding them also. During this period he was choked Rolf until Rolf blacked out. As more people arrived in the room I lined up an aimed shot to give myself the maximum possible chance of getting a hit. At that point he leapt out of the window before he could be shot. I leapt out of the window after him, tumbling down the roof to fall to the ground 10ft below. Everyone else did not seem keen to follow so I gave up the pursuit and ran back in to check on Rolf. When I arrived he was recovering so I gave him a healing hug.

After talking to the female prisoner we found out that the military had been strong arming Supers into helping them and there was going to be an imminent military invasion from the sea at this point in the next few hours. Oh merde!! Even though it was only supposed to be 30 odd marines none of us were confident of us stopping them after our last combat experiences.