1.14 Endgame Part 1

“Let’s see how well you can take this!” I yell as I fire a pair of missiles at Sam as we engage each other in aerial battle.

He crushes one with his telekinesis, but the other explodes into a dozen micro-warheads. Unable to respond in time, the warheads hit Sam, engulfing him in explosions which send him flying backwards.

For some context, James, Vance, Stefan, Lucy, Sky and I are currently facing off against Sam in the training room while Alex, Narszara and some others watch on from the control room.

He is coming in low James warns me.

I see him I think back as I spot Sam flying close to the floor.

I’m on it says Stefan as he unleashes several bolts of lightning at Sam.

While the lightning doesn’t actually do anything to hurt or even slow Sam, it does block his line of sight and forces him to pull upwards.

Hit him Vance! yells Stefan and Vance obliges as unleashes two beam of energy from his hands directly at Sam.

Good use of teamwork so far. While Sam may have started with the upper hand and has already taken out Lucy and Sky, I was able to force him back and between me and Stefan, we have been able to control Sam’s path of attack. Now Vance, one of the few of us with an attack actually able to stand a chance of taking Sam down, is hitting Sam dead on.

Sam grunts as the beams of energy blast hit. He raises his arms to block the attack as he is slowly forced backwards and downwards.

My turn I tell the others as I grin beneath my armour.

I unleash the other four missiles at Sam before firing both of my sonics at him. The missiles go directly for Sam, but curve as they fly through the air so when they explode into the micro-warheads, they’ll hit him in the side.

Unlike most with super senses, my sonics won’t do much against Sam as his psionic field protects him, shielding him from most of it. But a little will help quite a bit when used to support other attacks.

The missiles hit Sam, engulfing him in a large explosion. Barely a split-second later, Vance’s energy beams blast Sam out of the explosion and into the ground.

Sam crashes into the floor, leaving a small crater. Vance and I keep our respective energy beam and sonic attacks, but after a moment we cease.

“Lantern is-” starts Alex from up in the control room when Sam suddenly springs to life. He zooms straight at me, catching me off guard.

He punches me in the chest, sending me flying. It takes me a moment to stabilise myself, but when I do, it’s just in time for me to hear Alex declaring Stefan out of the match, just as she had with Sky and Lucy earlier and almost did so with Sam just now.

Stefan is down James informs me.

I heard I reply

Look out! yells Vance.

I feel a mental strike of pain from James a mere moment before the mental connection is broken.

“Vision is out,” declares Alex.

“I’ll hold him, you hit him,” I yell at Vance as I fly at Sam.

This time it is my turn to catch Sam off guard as I tackle him mid-air. He huffs in surprise as we slam into the wall.

But Lantern has always been stronger than the Sentinel and Sam easily breaks free of my grip. He slams his fist into my face and I go flying.

“It’s not going to be that easy Daniel,” says Sam with a grin on face.

“That’s soon going to be mutual,” I reply.

“We’ll see,” says Sam as he swings another fist at me.

I sidestep and roll to his side just as Vance blasts him in the back again.

“Don’t count me out just yet,” says Vance as he blasts Sam with another energy beam.

“Oh, I’m getting to you-” starts Sam as he blocks Vance’s energy beam with a raised up, but I cut him off as I punch him.

“You’re still out numbered,” I point out.

“But you’re out of heavy firepower,” retorts Sam.

“Then bring it on!” I tell him as swing another punch at him.

But Sam dodges easily, his flight being much more manoeuvrable than that of the Sentinel armour. He punches at me and I raise both my arms to block. Not very effective as Sam’s strike still sends me flying.

I hear Sam zooming off and Vance blasting with his energy beams. As I gain control of my flight once again, I hear Alex’s voice.

“Bolt is out!” declares Alex, “Good luck Sentinel, you’re going to need it.”

“Oh, I won’t need luck,” I reply.

Unbeknownst to the others, I still have one last trick up my sleeve.

“Want to call it quits?” asks Sam, “I got you outnumbered and outpowered.”

“You wish,” I reply, “Bring it on! I’m ready for you.”

“As you say,” grins Sam and he zooms at me.

I activate one of the training room’s attack features and a giant beam of purple energy fires from the wall behind me at Sam. Sam barely has a split-second to look shocked before it hits him dead on.

The energy attack slams him into the wall on the far side of the room and Sam drops face first into the floor.

“Lantern is out!” declares Alex, “Sentinel is the winner. By the virtue of cheating.”

“I didn’t cheat,” I protest, “I just used my home field advantage!”

1.5 The Machine Part 4

I sit upright, looking up at the machine. It is ploughing into the ground with Sam is hovering where it used to be.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened and I am a genius.

It occurs to me that while the machine’s builder might have created it to counter the League, it probably didn’t prepare for the Lantern. At least, not properly.

Samuel’s power is a psionic field powered by willpower. It allows for nigh invulnerability, superstrength, enhanced speed, flight, increased senses and reflexes. Not to mention telekinesis and near immunity to mind control.

Of course we haven’t had a chance to test his immunity to mind control against a hostile force yet and Sam is struggling to master his telekinesis beyond the basic tossing things about.

“Take out the optic ball Lantern,” I shout at Sam.

“Destroy the disco ball head,” replies Sam, “Got it.”

He zooms at the machine and grabs the optic ball. He pulls at it as the machine tries to get up. It is firing its lasers at Sam, but his psionic field is protecting him.

He finally yanks it out after a moment of pulling. He squeezes, crushing it with his superstrength. The machine rises as Sam floats up and tosses the wrecked optic ball aside.

It fires another set of four missiles at Sam. Sam gets three with this telekinesis, but the fourth keeps on going. Until I take it out with my lasers that is.

Sam grins and uses his telekinesis to rip out the lasers mounted into the shoulders. All four come out.

At this point the machine appears to have realised the tide has turned. It fires sixteen micro missiles at Sam and me.

We fly away from them as they explode into a total of almost two hundred mini micro missiles.

We both end up spending a few minutes taking them out. By the time we’re done, the machine has escaped.

“Damn it,” curses Sam.

“We both know who sent it,” I whisper to him as I land next to him.

“Yeah,” replies Sam before glancing at the crowd, “But they don’t need to know about that.”

“Agreed,” I answer.

“Someone attempting to collect the bounty sounds like the official story right,” says Sam in unusually serious voice

“That about sums it up,” I reply in the same serious tone.

Sam grins at me and I grin at him even though he can’t see it.

“What about the others?” I inquire.

“I took them back to one of the entrances and Narszara took them in and I gave them medical attention. When Storm Knight was back on his feet, he helped me bring them back to there while Bulk got out of his armour and brought them inside.”

“I bet Storm Knight wanted to continue the fight.”

“He did want another round, but I convinced him getting the others to safety was more important.”

We share a laugh before going to speak with the gathered press and police.

***

“Okay,” I say as we’re all gathered around the table in the meeting room back at base, “Let’s go over what we know so far.”

All of the new League of Heroes plus the old Bolt and Bulk are there. They came once they heard about the Machine on the news.

“Should have called us,” grumbles Charlie’s grandfather, Gregory.

“We all know that when Vistorix showed up, we stopped him,” I start, ignoring Gregory, “What we don’t know is what he was doing. I believe he was sent on a mission by our foe. That’s when our foe took interest in us and began to take action to stop us. Two days later, two supers and almost a score of robbers show up nearby with serious firepower. Not enough to raise an overt amount of suspicion, but too much that they could have only been given their guns. Our foe wanted us to get killed there and maybe scare the rest of us away. We succeed extremely well in the encounter and got on the good side of both the public and the local police. Another thing, Laura hasn’t been able to discover either Vistorix’s mission or the source of guns. I believe I know why after today, but I’ll say that later. Next Narszara showed up, which put a monkey wrench into our foe’s plans to deal with us. We then receive a tip off about the location of the weapons warehouse. Too dangerous for the police, but close enough for us and not the Defenders to respond. We also knew it was probably a trap, but couldn’t afford not to investigate. It was also at dark when the majority of the rest of us would busy at home and unable to respond quickly when trouble arose. But here is the main part of the trap. Shade told me that Vengeance was informed that Charlie and Stefan were behind the weapons. Only Shade realised they were being set up. The rest of them came and tried to kill Charlie, Stefan and anyone who got in the way. The Machine’s creator knew that we would defend Charlie and Stefan and hoped that some of us would die and the League would get bad press. Instead we took them down, all of us survived, got respect and didn’t have any major political fallouts. Now we’re stronger than ever despite our foe’s efforts so they put bounties on our heads. It used American dollars rather than pounds so it would seem like it merely some supporter of Vengeance who did it or one of the many supervillains who sees us as a threat. Now it has taken direct action against us today by building the Machine and sending it after us. It was created to counter the League and only Sam or Narszara could have beaten it. Here is some footage.”

I stop talking and replay some of today’s footage about the machine’s lasers. I hope Kennet and Gregory spot what I’ve noticed due their past experience

“£%*@,” curses Gregory.

“It can’t be,” mutters Kennet.

“What is it?” demands Skyler as I pause the footage.

“That was Sektain laser tech,” explains Kennet, “Alien tech. Very few have alien tech and even fewer have Sektain stuff.”

“And the Sektain are one of the two most powerful superpowers in the galaxy,” growls Gregory, 

“They are also greatest threat to sentient life that we currently know of. Anything to do with them has to be taken with deadly seriousness.”

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 5

“I’m glad to hear somebody going to stop these monsters escaping justice if it comes to that,” replies Oakley, “I would warn you to think of the consequences of doing that, but I doubt you or the rest of the League care after what Vengeance has done”

He sighs.

“I don’t understand why Vengeance would arm Hall and Edison’s gang,” says Oakley.

“I don’t think they did,” I say, drawing a look from Oakley, “When I brought that up to them whilst they had me pinned down, it confused them. I think it was a set up by whoever did supply the weapons to kill off some of the League, maybe scare the rest of us away.”

“You think so,” mutters Oakley, his face deep in thought.

“We still don’t know what Vistorix was after when we stopped him,” I explained, “We stopped him then some heavily armed gangsters and supers attack nearby to us. I think the suppler wanted some of the League to get killed in that. Then Narszara shows up and this happens. And how it was set up make it seem so clearly like a trap in hindsight. We were closer enough to check it out instead the Defenders. Too dangerous for the police, but not too dangerous for us. And at the same time, it was quite far from are base so it take the rest of a while to respond. Vengeance would easily take an excuse to kill Bulk and Storm Knight and anybody who fought alongside them. And if someone died, some of us might quit in fear while the others would be too angry at Vengeance to see it was too unlikely for them to have been the ones behind all of this. We would have blamed Vengeance for setting us up not whoever actually did set it up. We would be weaken and unaware of our true enemy, leaving he or she or they to continue pursuing their goals without our interference.”

“That does make a lot of sense,” says Oakley.

“Narszara figured out most of it, but Lantern and I still figured out someone else has been behind recent trouble,” I say.

“Here comes Britannia,” says Oakley, looking up.

I look up just in time to see Britannia come down to land.

“What happened?” demands Britannia, “All Warden told me was that Bulk, Storm Knight and Bolt were attacked by Vengeance and Sentinel and Narszara were on their way to help.”

“Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight went to investigate a warehouse where Hall and Edison got their weapons,” I explain, “They walked into an ambush by Vengeance minus Shade. I and Narszara put on our armour and flew over here. I then called the police, MI9, Warden and Aquiline while in flight. I arrived when Storm Knight was down and Bulk and Bolt were going down. I held Vengeance off so they couldn’t kill the others. They had me pinned down when Narszara arrived. Then she wiped the floor with them while I watched in awe.”

“Aquiline is on her way here?” asks Britannia, “And Narszara took out all five of them while you just watched?”

“Laura will be here in about thirteen, fourteen minutes,” I answer, “And Narszara turns out to be a Class 6.”

For the first time I have ever since her, Britannia looks shocked. She shakes her head before replying.

“Damn,” says Britannia, “A Class 6. Now I don’t feel so bad about her breaking my arm the other day. Still a Class 6. Damn.”

“At least no one died tonight,” I note, “I been having unpleasant dreams about Gorlack recently and I hope never to have repeat of that. I should also mention that I can’t fully say for certain Narszara is Class 6.”

“His death was a very good thing you know,” says Britannia, “And you got Narszara because of it.”

“I’m feeling better about it,” I reply, “But better doesn’t mean good. Takes Vengeance for example. They’re better than some of their enemies, but that doesn’t make them heroes or even the good guys.”

“You’re smarter than you seem kid,” comments Britannia.

“Smarter than Forsworn and Avenger,” I reply, “Tried to use my own tech against me. Oh yeah, Inspector Oakley you should check them for dangerous weaponry. I deactivated the stuff I built that they had, but they might have other stuff.”

“How do you know that they have your tech?” inquires Britannia.

Instead of being accusing like I would expect from her, it appears to be simply curiosity.

“Neither I or my granddad would sell folks like them anything so they didn’t legally acquire them,” I answer, “Unless they got them second hand. I wouldn’t put it past an American superhero to pass on my tech to them. That’ll be something I have to look into one day even if it isn’t that major.”

“I’ll into it to as well,” says Britannia, “What about the Evil Empire that Gorlack belonged to? Should we be expecting trouble from them anytime soon?”

“Narszara says we don’t need to worry about them for the next year or two,” I reply, “And maybe not at all.”

“Good,” replies Britannia, “I take it you’re not going to let Vengeance get away with this despite whatever the Americans might do. I know I wouldn’t if was my team that was attacked.”

“If any American supers try to get them out of this mess, the League will fight them,” I reply harshly, 

“They just tried to murder two innocents. They will not get away with that not if I have any say. Not here, not today, not anywhere, not ever. But I doubt it will come to that.”

“If it does comes to a fight,” says Britannia, “You kids can count on me to be by your side.”

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 2

“Look out!” shouts Vance as I hear fire crackling and metal screeching.

“Narszara!” I call as I send out a yellow alert, “We have to help them!”

“We shall put on our armours and fly to their aid,” declares Narszara as she puts on her still damaged helmet.

I dash for the lab as I hear fighting breaking out for the others. As I run, I go through a mental checklist of Vengeance’s members.

Nightmare likes to terrorise people who have been accused of breaking the law. Preferably by breaking into their homes and threatening them in front of their families.

Mad Cat and Mad Dog are twin sisters who both can change their form, into a werecat and weredog respectively. Sort of like Carrie except she doesn’t lose control like the Mad sisters like to. They generally brutally assault murderers, wife beaters and other crimes of that calibre they claim. 

Not that I personally consider hitting your wife to be as bad as murder even if I still strongly disapprove of domestic abuse.

Avenger can shoot fire from his hands. He likes to burn up murderers and attempted murderer. He also includes those that have committed manslaughter as members of the first two groups.

Forsworn can control metal. He prefers to go after petty criminals such as thieves and speeders. Fortunately the Sentinel and Bulk armours have contained trace amounts of metals for a while now, instead relying on a ceramic that my granddad and the first Bulk came up with following the Invasion.

Shade is the final member of them and only decent one. He can phase and travel through shadows. He can also make darkness solid. Like hard light except it is more hard dark than light. He likes to go after mobsters, gangster and other parts of organised crime. He is also the only one that rarely kills. When he does, his victims really deserve it or innocent lives are at stake.

Despite almost all of them being monsters, a large amount of the public supports them for some inexplicable reason that is beyond my ken.

Despite neither granddad or me selling equipment to supers like them, they have still acquired some of my tech somehow. Part of me wants them to try and use it against me so they can find out what happens when you use someone’s own inventions against them.

I’ll bet they’re going after us because of Charlie and Stefan. People like Vengeance have no problem with going after the families of criminals how wrong that is.  They probably want to punish Charlie and Stefan for the crime of being related to their grandfathers.

At this point, I’m already suiting up. Just as the process finishes, Narszara rushes into the lab, wearing her armour and armed with her green-bladed sword.

“Are you ready milord?” ask Narszara.

“Yes,” I reply, “I’ll take me seven minutes to reach them at full speed.”

“I will take me ten,” says Narszara, “If you go first, I will arrive second. We cannot afford to fly together.”

“Agreed,” I say and we run for the closest exit.

Once up in the air, it occurs to me I haven’t called the police, MI9 or the Defenders.

“Norris Oakley,” I hear him say after he answers his phone.

It was easy enough to find his personal mobile number.

“This is the Sentinel,” I say, “Vengeance has ambushed Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight in Portsmouth. Narszara and I are flying to them.”

“Those American thugs here!” exclaims Oakley.

“Yes, I need to make some other calls,” I say before I hang up.

“Agent Lewis?” I say as I once I called our MI9 liaison.

“Yes Daniel?” replies Lewis, “Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight are investigating the weapons warehouse in Portsmouth right?”

“It was a trap set by Vengeance,” I reply, “Narszara and I are flying to help them now.”

“Damn it!” shouts Lewis, “This is not going to go well. Especially with the Americans.”

“I’m going to call the Defenders now,” I say before hanging up again.

“Hello Daniel,” says Aunt Mary as she answers.

“Mary,” I say, “Charlie, Vance and Stefan were investigating a suspected weapons warehouse in Portsmouth. It turned out to by a trap by Vengeance. Narszara and I are heading there now to help them.”

“Vengeance?” says Mary, “&*%$!”

That startles me. Aunt Mary never swears unless it’s really bad.

“I’m not going to bother telling you to stay away and wait for back up,” says Mary, “Just be careful. I’m not going to get there in time. Only Britannia can. But even then she’ll take fifteen to twenty minutes. How close are you?”

“Just over four minutes out,” I reply, “Narszara while be a couple of minutes behind me.”

“Try not to die,” says Mary wearily, “And call Laura.”

“Good idea,” I say before cutting the connection and dialling Laura Aquiline.

“Yes Daniel,” says Laura as she answers

“Vengeance has ambushed Charlie, Vance and Stefan in Portsmouth,” I say to her.

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” replies Laura, “Try to keep all of you alive and don’t worry about hurting any members of Vengeance. They deserve whatever get.”

As Laura hangs up, I get a call from Sam.

“What’s going on?” demands Sam, “You just sent a yellow alert.”

“Change it to red,” I say, “Vengeance has ambushed the others in Portsmouth. Britannia is twenty minutes away and Laura is thirty.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” replies Sam, “Give them heck until I get there.”

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 1

“How is the patrol going?” I ask Charlie over his League communicator.

“Fine,” answers Charlie, “How’s Narszara doing?”

It has been two days since Narszara arrived. Since then, I have been helping her with repairs to her armour. We have come to the agreement that even once her armour is fixed, she will still wear cos-mat beneath it.

When it comes to more casual clothing, I was going to order clothing better suited to her like, I don’t know, fur coats or something made of leather? Instead Narszara has convinced me that if I got her the raw materials, she could make her own clothes to wear and that she would be happier with that.

Meanwhile we received an anonymous tip off about a weapon storage warehouse in Portsmouth. So we informed MI9 and the local police and decided to investigate it. Charlie, Stefan and Vance when out together to investigate it.

“She’s still uncomfortable with being outside of her armour,” I reply.

“Despite being the hottest girl in the League,” Stefan cuts in.

“Don’t let her hear you say that Storm Knight,” jokes Vance, “Lantern barely survive intact even with his powers.”

“None of us were expecting that,” notes Charlie.

“In fairness to Narszara, she did warn us before she came out,” I point out, “And she is clearly embarrassed when outside of her armour.”

“True,” admits Charlie, “Hopefully the two of you will get her armour fixed soon.”

“Almost done even if we won’t get as good as new,” I reply, “We have repaired the holes where she got injured and most of the dents and scratches. Only some of the outer plating and her helmet need to be finished. Narszara is working on them now. Have you found the site yet?”

“I can’t help, but feel that we’re being watched,” comments Vance, “And no, we haven’t reached the site yet, but we are almost there.”

“Yeah,” says Charlie, “By the way, I also feel uneasy as well.”

“The fact it is getting dark doesn’t help,” mutters Stefan.

“I know it’s late, but if anything does go wrong, Narszara and I are ready to come and help,” I tell them.

“Good because this feels like a set up to me,” says Vance.

“Good luck,” I say before cutting the signal.

I pause for the moment. Might as well get an update from Narszara. It’s not like I got anything better to do.

“Narszara,” I call over the bases internal communication system.

“Yes milord,” replies Narszara, her face appearing on a section of the main screen in front of me.

“How is your armour coming along?” I ask.

“It will be finished before dawn,” replies Narszara, she pauses before speaking again, “How do the others feel about their mission?”

“They feel uneasy about it,” I answer, “Why?”

“I feel the same,” explains Narszara, “I am certain is a trap.”

“A trap?” I repeat, confused.

“Aye,” says Narszara, “First you faced villain Vistorix. His mission remains unclear. Then after you stopped him, robbers with powers and weaponry attack. Weaponry that they should not have had and must have been given to them. Yet not enough to draw undue suspicion. I believe that was to draw some of you out and to slay you lest you interfere with their plans further. Then, while the League is all still live and stronger than before, we receive a tip off about the unusual weaponry used by the robbers. On that, we all feel uneasy about it, but we cannot afford to ignore it and must act upon it. In addition, its danger means that the watchmen cannot deal with it and its location means we, not the Albion Defenders, are closer and respond to it. As a result, we send a small force out at dark and quite far from our base and the rest of us. Plus most of those that did not go will be busy or unaware of any trouble that may occur until it is too late to act. So yes, I believe it is a trap set by a force with hostile intent and is attempting to remove or weaken the League so we cannot oppose it and its plans.”

I freeze. So that is what has been bugging me and Sam ever since Hall and Edison’s attempted robbery last Friday. Of neither of us figured it out like Narszara despite our suspicions.

“Darn it,” I curse, “You’re right. How close are you to finishing your armour?”

“Part from the helmet, only one dent requires repairing,” answers Narszara.

“Good,” I say, “Put on your armour once you’re done. We need to help the others.”

“We should warn them first,” suggests Narszara.

“Good idea,” I say, open the channel with the others, “Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight, it’s a trap. We’ve been set up.”

“What do you mean it’s a trap?” inquires Charlie.

“Your friend is right,” rasps another voice.

I can barely hear it, but the speaker has to right on top of Charlie for him to overhear Charlie and for me to hear him.

“Oh £$*&, it’s Nightmare,” says Stefan.

I also curse though my language is polite than Stefan’s. Nightmare is a Class 3 with shapeshifting. What is worse is he is part of a six-person team known Vengeance.

Vengeance is made up of darker and vicious superheroes from America. And when I say heroes, I mean they got better PR than the villains that they fight and don’t go after the innocent.

Most of the time at least.

The old League members hate them and so do I. ‘Heroes’ like them are grim and dark and have no qualms with casual killing and generally don’t care about the crime as long as their victim is ‘guilty’.

And too often they take it upon themselves to decide who is guilty and who is not.

1.3 Dragon Knight Part 4

My helmet’s facial plate flies up and back into place before staying there.

“I’m using telekinesis,” explains Sam over our League communicators as I give him a look.

“I guess you took your mask off to puke,” says Oakley as he reaches us and looks down at the mess I left on the ground.

I nod in reply and Narszara points to the fallen power armour man.

“Ah,” says Oakley, “This is going to be a really bad report to write up. All five of them are dead. Did he kill him as well?”

“Narszara here is a girl,” I answer, “She stabbed him in the head before I fire my lasers.”

“Things just keep getting worse,” says Oakley.

“They were really evil and they all needed to die,” offers Narszara, “They were also soldiers, not criminals or supervillains. Their deaths were those of warriors falling upon the battlefield.”

“Yeah, that might help a little,” says Oakley, “You’re all going to have to write reports.”

“Can we do that later?” I ask, “We need to get back to base at the moment.”

“If you must,” sighs Oakley, “Can you at least explain who she is?”

“This is Narszara Geous Coura,” I explain, “She’s an interdimensional warrior. She’s also a badass and has just sworn loyalty to me. She’s a Norgardian who has just lost her team stopping us from getting invaded. We’re going to find out more back at our base.”

“You best be off now then,” says Oakley wearily.

As we fly off, Narszara flying alongside us, I realise that Inspector Oakley had a gash across his upper arm and bloodied nose. He didn’t mention his own wounds once.

***

I stand facing Narszara once I have taken off the Sentinel armour. This the first time I taken a good look at her.

Her armour covers her entire body like the Sentinel and Warden armours. Hers has taken a lot of battle damage. Several chucks of varying size are missing while it all seems rather charred and burnt with the exception of her sword and scabbard. It seems to be coloured a mixture of green, brown and grey. Beneath the metal armour, you can see what looks like used to be leather and fur, but that’s all pretty much burnt away.

Her helmet has metal horns point backwards on it and only her eyes can be seen beneath it. Her left cheek has a hole which looks a lot like bullet hole. It has other dents which also like bullet holes, but none of them have gone through like the cheek one.

The armour that covers her body easily conceals it shape and any curves that might lie beneath. At least it explains how no one noticed she was female straight away. It has a multitude of bullet dents and lots of slashes and grazes. A small hole has gone through and has dried blood around it.

Her lower left leg has a cut to it while her upper right has also been cut open, but it’s not as long and appears to be slightly deeper. Her upper left leg has a more serious wound where it’s been stabbed straight through by a blade or spear.

On her upper left arm is another more serious wound. One of Gorlack’s soldiers has brutally slashed it open with a jagged weapon.

Normally such injuries would make me vomit, but after today, I’m too worn out to care that much. Plus how Narszara is coping with these injuries, which is to say that she doesn’t appear to be bothered by them, makes them seem not as bad as they really are.

“She looks really bad,” says James.

Along with me and Narszara, are Samuel, Vance, Stefan, James, Skyler and Lucy.

“Some of the Defenders on their way here,” says Sam, “Restorer is with them. They thought somebody might get hurt and need healing.”

For some reason, our eyes all stray to the corpse of the Colonel Gorlack at the back of the room. Narszara insisted that we bring his body with us and none of us felt like arguing with her at the time.

“He is beyond saving,” says Narszara, “In both Jari and Sari.”

One of the annoying things Narszara seems to be doing is speaking in her birth language, Norgardian, randomly whilst speaking English.

“Jari and Sari?” inquires Sam.

“Body and Soul,” answers Narszara.

“So Narszara,” says Skyler, “Can you tell us more about yourself?”

“Aye,” answers Narszara, “Where shall I start?”

“Summarise please,” replies James.

“I was born to one of the Norgardian Roaming Fleets,” says Narszara, “They travel throughout the Multiverse, seeking out and destroying evil. Mine came across a battalion of the Evil Empire’s forces under the command of Colonel Gorlack. Your grandparents faced another division of the Empire’s forces over four of your decades ago. While the fleet’s main force did battle, I and my squad hunted Gorlack. He had a personal guard of two platoons and a squad of elite soldiers. Laiana fell first in the first clash while Surikos was beheaded by Gorlack in our second encounter.  At our third and final battle, Gorlack had only two squads and two of his elite left. But he also had a dozen of the local mercenaries with him as he tried to flee to your world with his surviving forces. I forged ahead while Stea and Ardi dealt with his first squad. We rallied at the platform after felling half of the mercenaries and Gorlack’s squad.”

Narszara falls silent and closes her eyes. She opens them after a moment.

“Stea and Ardi had suffered many wounds fighting against Gorlack’s men,” continues Narszara, sadness in her voice, “As we leapt across to the platform, Ardi was gunned down while Stea was blasted off the edge as she provide covering fire. I survived unleashed by Mordi and Sari upon the mercenaries. I blow up one of Gorlack’s men as he travelled here.”

“The explosion on the other side of the portal,” I mutter.

“Correct,” says Narszara, “He lost one and the other was set on fire, leaving only him and his two elite. I had to best the remaining mercenaries before I could purse Gorlack. When I did go through, I saw your watchmen fighting the elites. I felled them before they could harm your people further. I then went to the aid of Verigar. When he defeated Gorlack, I pledged my loyalty to him.”

“So what has happened now!?” suddenly demands Britannia as she enters the room.