1.13 Breakout Part 7

I shove the section of solid metal wall aside as I get to my feet. The thing slammed me  into the wall.

“Everybody out!” I yell as I realise how bad the situation is.

Somebody let all of the prisoners out. Every single last one and the power restrainers won’t keep their power neutralised for long.

And the person to blame is without doubt Glenn Bateson.  I should have known, but it wasn’t like I could do anything about it without any proof or evidence of wrongdoing.

How would have that gone? Hey, I think is prison officer I just met isn’t to be trusted because I think he might be a bad guy. Let’s arrest him and throw him into one of the cells.

But that would explain why a chuck of the wall just flew into me.

All of the country’s native supervillains, Vengeance, Vistorix and a rogue superpowered prison officer scattered between the ground level and the two walkways versus me, Treves and the other officer on the tour.

I can take them. Or hold them off long enough for someone else to arrive.

“Hey Janelle,” I say into my League communicator, “We got a breakout here at Blackguard. Officer Bateson just released all of the inmates.”

“I understand,” comes the swift reply, “Informing all relevant authorities.”

“Don’t bother calling for help,” Bateson tells me as several more chucks of the wall hover around him, “I’m jamming all signals in or out. No one will hear you.”

Now there is a trick up my sleeve. If they don’t realise that I have already called for help and their jamming is actually affecting me, then I might be able to catch them off guard.

Both Treves and the other guard have drawn their stun guns, but they’ll do little against the freed prisoners.

At least the crowd of reporters are heading back out. No idiots hanging around to get some footage.

Target priority first. Who are the biggest threats and which ones to use spyders on and which to use missiles on?

Black Death’s touch won’t affect me through the Sentinel armour while Gaia’s Vengeance doesn’t have any vegetation to work with. Hall’s lightning and Avenger’s fire are also useless.

With high amounts of metal in Blackguard, Bateson and Forsworn could be pretty dangerous as well. The rest also have the potential to cause some trouble for me, but I can probably take them if I play if smart.

But Vistorix, along with Gravilord and Edison, is the most dangerous with a very real chance of beating me. The three of them are easily the biggest threats of the assorted supervillains.

Two missile for each of the Mad sisters and the last two for Vistorix. Electro-spyders will take care of Edison and Gravilord. The rest I should be able to take.

I open fire with all of my missiles and electro-spyders as I activate the rocket pack. I zoom straight at Bateson.

I crash into the rogue prison officer and we both slam into the other wall that has mostly been stripped away by Bateson.

I hear something cracking and huff of breath from Bateson before I pull away. Bateson starts to drop to his knees, but before he can collapse into a heap on the floor, I slug him one in the face.

Not too hard, just enough to break a jaw. That combined with the ribs I probably just broke will keep Bateson out of the fight.

I spin back around to face the rest of the supervillains. Both Mad sisters are transformed, but only Mad Cat is down with Mad Dog shaking off the effects the missiles that caught her. It seems that her missiles were intercepted by Forsworn and Avenger judging by how those two are on the ground.

I should have expected teamwork from Vengeance. They were a successful team back when they were ‘heroes’.

Gravilord is also out while Edison is staggered. It seems that he was able to catch two of the three spyders I sent at him in his temporal field.

Vistorix is getting back to his feet after being blown onto his back.

Time to thin the herd. I grab one of the chucks of metal that were floating around Bateson and lob it at Mad Dog before reactivating my rocket pack and flying up at Nightmare.

Best to take Vengeance out of the fight.

The metal takes out of the stunned Mad Dog and knocks her off the walkway while Nightmare is better prepared for me. He shapeshifts out of the way, but I still catch him with a kick that sends him flying.

I unleash a flurry of low-power laser shots at the other villains to scatter them. Edison is still busy dealing with the electro-spyders. That leaves only White Lord or Redmund McNamara as main threats until Vistorix or a member of Vengeance recovers.

I launch myself at White Lord, ignoring Hall’s crackling lightning. My armour can more than handle bit of lightning.

White Lord attempts to dodge, but even with his enhanced speed, I’m still faster in the Sentinel armour. I catch his arm and yank it out of the socket before tossing White Lord into a wall.

I feel something ding against me and somebody yelp in pain. I turn around to find Gaia’s Vengeance clutching her fist in pain.

I punch her in the gut, kick her knee before finishing her off with a backhanded slap that knocks her aside.

I spare a glance at Treves and his officer. The two of them are covering the door and have even taken out Black Death with their stun guns.

I turn to take on Vistorix only to find his fist coming straight at me.

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 6

Once Aquiline shows up, I decide to leave. Narszara is taking care of Storm Knight and Bolt while Britannia and Aquiline talk and Oakley has taken control of the arrests of Vengeance. He has agreed that I can send in my police statement later.

I am still bothered by a few things. The first one is the political consequences of tonight. The second is the fact people allow people like Vengeance to operate. The third is Shade, the sixth member of Vengeance and the only one missing tonight.

Shade is easily the most dangerous member of Vengeance. Not only has he got powers like his teammates, he also has multiple powers. And his powers are capable of harming me unlike the rest of his team. He’s also the smartest of them and that what worries me the most.

Shade is ruthless and not worried about killing his enemies. He is cold and calculating and because of that I doubt he would just try to kill Stefan and Charlie because of their grandfathers. That would explain why he wasn’t with Vengeance tonight.

Regardless of that, Shade is still dangerous if he tries to break out Vengeance.

“I’ll just have to find him,” I mutter as I descent.

Luckily not many people are still out at dark tonight and I go unnoticed by anyone. Except for one man.

He walks out of the shadows. A black cloak obscures his body from sight and only his glowing white eyes can be seen.

Shade.

I instantly prepare for battle, adopting a defensive stance. What could Shade possibly want?

“We need to talk,” says Shade, his voice cold and uncaring.

Shade may be cold hearted and a have a very poor choice in friends, but he’s smart and could be counted as decent person. His claim of wanting to talk is reasonable enough for me to believe and he’s right, we do need to talk.

“I’m listening,” I reply, relaxing a little, but still keeping my guard up.

“I wish to apologise for my former teammates’ actions tonight,” says Shade, “I left them when they refused to investigate the matter further. Something seemed off so I investigated our information that lead to us being here tonight. I am pleased to say I was successful in that matter. I assume you wish to hear about what I found?”

“Let me summarise what I know first,” I answer, “We knew it was set up. It was too perfectly set up to be otherwise, but we couldn’t afford not to go. An enemy is working against the League of Heroes. He, let’s call our foe a he for now, supplied Hall and Edison with their weaponry. You may not understand being an American, but guns are extremely serious here and there’s only a few ways to get that kind of firepower undiscovered. The only one of those ways open to Hall and Edison was to have been given them. In addition this all started after the League stopped Vistorix and we still don’t know what Vistorix was after despite what the public believes.”

“That pretty much covers what I discovered,” replies Shade, “We were given a tip off about Bulk and Storm Knight secretly supplying Hall and Edison. The others were all too willing to believe that. I wasn’t. Something wasn’t right about what was going on and I felt we were being used. To go over and kill Bulk, Storm Knight and any Leaguers who defended them. And the others’ reactions confirmed that for me.”

“So you left and found proof that you were set up to attack and kill us?” I inquire.

“Would like to see it?” asks Shade.

“Send to the League of Heroes under message from Ven-Shade,” I reply, “Do you need a way to get home?”

“Shadow Stepping, but thanks for offering,” replies Shade, “Anything else?”

“No,” I start to say, but I change my mind as a thought hits me, “Actually yes. Vengeance tried to use some of my own tech against me. I would like to find out how they got it as there’s isn’t any way they could have legally brought it.”

“I know your attitude to people like me and Vengeance,” says Shade, “And after tonight, I can see why. Still I hope you don’t mind if I continue using your tech.”

“Can’t say I do mind after having met you,” I reply, “But how did any of you get it in the first place?”

“Some of the heroes back in the states like us more than you do,” answers Shade, “Prefer to help us as fellow superheroes.”

“Your way of doing it things conflicts with my way of doing it,” I counter coolly.

“That’s because you and the League, both new and old, are old school when comes to ethics and morals,” says Shade and I’m sure he’s grinning, “Don’t worry kid, it’s nice to see that in today’s youth. I’ll tell our fellows back in states about tonight and that you Leaguers were right and Vengeance were downright wrong and crossed a line. I feel that we’ll meet again someday Sentinel. Good luck.”

“Good luck to you too,” I reply as Shades moves to leave, “Oh and I’ll let you buy tech now.”

Before he Shadow Steps away, Shade turns and flashes me a brief smile. And then he’s gone.

What a hectic evening it has been tonight.

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 4

Narszara roars at Vengeance and they all stagger backwards. That roar of hers must have had some force behind to physically affect Vengeance. Maybe Narszara enhanced it with magic?

She slams into Avenger as she lands. Avenger groans before slumping over.

Narszara rushes the other members of Vengeance and they scatter before her. Forsworn sends his spears at her, but they barely dent her armour without slowing her down at all.

Nightmare covers himself in blades and charges her, but he suddenly gets frozen in a block of ice with a glance from her. She must have used some of her magic on him.

The Mad sisters leap at her at the same time, but Narszara zooms out of the way and slams into Forsworn. He is sent flying as Avenger starts to get up.

Mad Cat rushes Narszara while Mad Dog jumps over Mad Cat at Narszara. Narszara roars at them again. Mad Dog is sent off course while Mad Cat staggers. Now I’m certain it must be magic roar of some kind.

Faster than me or my armour can track her, Narszara punches Mad Cat into the ground whilst stabbing her in the side with her sword. It doesn’t look too deep, but Narszara has made it clear that she doesn’t have any qualms with killing her enemies.

Mad Dog grabs Narszara by the head, but she rolls away, leaving her helmet in Dog’s grip.

As she rises, Narszara has a genuinely happy smile on her face and lets out a laugh.

Not a crazy laugh like ones Vengeance or other nuts like them have, but the kind when you’re on a roller coaster or winning a game of sports or something like that.

Mad Dogs halts her attacks, seeming unnerved by Narszara’s smile and laughter. Plus the disregard for her secret identity is probably confusing for the vigilante.

Mad Dog makes a decision and grabs a large chunk of broken wall. Mad Dog tosses at Narszara, who rushes at the villainess.

A moment before it hits her, Narszara’s entire body turns light blue and transparent. Like a ghost or spirit.

The block of wall goes straight through Narszara and she turns back to normal. She then uses her speed and momentum to slam into Mad Dog. Narszara breathes fire straight out of her mouth at Mad Dog as they tumble. Mad Dog screams as she burns. For that fire to come out her like that without burning her, Narszara has to be fireproof.

Narszara punches Mad Dog in the stomach before grabbing Dog by the back of her head. Narszara slams Mad Dog’s head into the ground repeatedly until the villainess is without a doubt unconscious.

As Narszara stands up straight, the flames on Mad Dog go out while Nightmare breaks out of the ice. He stumbles towards to Forsworn, who is getting to his feet.

Narszara calmly walks towards the two of them, her blade trailing along the ground.

“Do something!” yells Nightmare at his teammate, “The others are down!”

“Don’t worry,” replies Forsworn as he winces in pain, “That bitch’s armour is metal.”

He appears to be attempting to grab Narszara’s armour with his metal control and tries to send her flying.

Emphasis on tries.

 Narszara is staggered, but pushes on, stomping towards them.

“£$%*, “£*$, @#$&,” curses Forsworn, “She’s resisting it.”

“You can’t control her armour!” exclaims Nightmare, panic in his voice.

“No,” replies Forsworn, his voice strained, “I have full control, she’s just too strong for me overwhelm.”

“Let’s see how she deals with this,” snarls Nightmare and he charges at Narszara.

Narszara roars at him again and he goes flying backwards into another wall. Nightmare goes limp and morphs back to his normal self.

Narszara grins at Forsworn and uses her speed to rapidly approach him. Forsworn soon goes down in a fury of superfast punches.

It is only once it’s all over I realise I have just been standing there watching her.

“Narszara!” I call, “Storm Knight and Bolt need help! Can you heal them?”

“Yes milord,” replies Narszara as she causally strolls over to me.

Now it’s over, the police are swarming in to arrest Vengeance.

Narszara bends over Stefan and breaths a green light over him. It heals Stefan’s wounds as Inspector Oakley walks over to me. Another magic power of hers

“Good work taking out Vengeance,” says Oakley as Narszara heals Vance, “You and Narszara did well.”

“The others held out for almost ten minutes,” I point out, “And it helped that Narszara has turned out to be a Class 6.”

Oakley freezes before shaking his head. Sam lands next to me.

“You took them out already,” he says.

“Narszara is a Class 6,” I reply.

Sam looks at me for a moment before laughing.

“You got to be kidding me,” laughs Sam, “That’s awesome! We got a Class 6 as part of the League!”

“I can’t say for certain that Narszara is a Class 6, but after seeing her in action tonight, I would bet good money on it,” I tell him, “Can you carry Bulk back to base? His suit is trashed.”

“I can do that,” replies Sam.

I turn to face Oakley.

“Now what?” I ask him.

“Lock them in power draining cuffs,” says Oakley, “And bring them to justice in court. Just hope that some American heroes don’t cause any problems with that.”

“Why would they do that?” I ask, confused, “Most of the ones that I know hate people like Vengeance.”

“Sticking together against false foreign justice is their reasoning most of the time,” replies Oakley, “Most of them are okay as you said, but you always get a few wackos like that.”

“Has it happened before?” I inquire.

“Nothing in public,” explains Oakley, “It has all been in private or out of public eye or just pressure on government.”

“That won’t happen this time,” I reply quietly.

“You can’t know that,” he replies, shaking his head again.

He starts to say something else, but I cut him off.

“I know it will because the League of Heroes won’t let Vengeance get away with this,” I state in a harsh voice, giving Oakley a hard look, “They just tried to murder two of us based on their grandfathers, one of whom is currently a member of the League himself and other dead before he had grandkids.”

I pause for effect.

“If anyone tries to break Vengeance out, we’ll stop them.”

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 3

When I reach them, the situation is downright awful. The Bulk armour has lost an arm and is barely standing with the Mad Sisters circling Charlie. Storm Knight is down and I can see blood on the ground next to him. Bolt is staggering backwards, blasting away at Forsworn’s metal spikes and 

Avenger’s firebolts. Nightmare is walking up to Stefan, his hands transformed into bloody razor sharp blades.

The police are only just arriving and Narszara is still two minutes behind me.

I zoom at Nightmare before he can harm Stefan anymore. I slam into him and we crash into the wall behind Storm Knight.

I can hear bones crunching. I don’t care because Nightmare just tried to kill Stefan, my friend and teammate, and I know he can recover quickly with his shapeshifting. I look around and grab a few metal poles. I stab each one into Nightmare’s chest. He’ll have to pull them out and heal the wounds before he can get back into the fight.

I fly back out of the warehouse that we landed in and see Bulk crash into ground in front of me. None of the armour’s limbs are still working.

I spot Mad Dog a few metres away. I raise my sonics at her, but Mad Cat pounces on me.

The villainess slashes away at me, but my armour can withstand punches from Vistorix and her attacks don’t even scratch the armour. I grab one of her arms and twist it in what is certainly the wrong way. Mad Cat screams in pain and I fire my sonics into her face at point blank range. Mad Cat slumps and I throw her into a wall just in time to see Mad Dog rushing me.

I fly up into the air and Mad Dog smashes into the ground where I was. I fire both sonics at her and Mad Dog yowls. Before she can recover, I drop and stomp her into the ground. She’ll be fine and if she isn’t, I don’t really care.

I jump off her, but before I can move, I’m bathed in flames.

Stupid Avenger doesn’t realise that the Sentinel armour has been fireproof since before the World War 2 ended. Granddad wouldn’t have survived if it couldn’t withstand a bit of fire.

I use my HUD to see through the blaze. Forsworn is trying to use his powers on me despite any decent set of power armour being immune to magnetism.

Idiots.

“It’s not working!” shouts Forsworn.

“My wrath is doing nothing!” snarls Avenger in reply, “Try the explosives.”

Forsworn throws a handful small of explosive balls at me. I know because my HUD identifies them as my own creations.

I send the deactivation codes to them. As Avenger stops his flames, the balls hit me. They bounce off of the armour harmless.

“What £$%*?” says Avenger, “You used duds!”

“I did not you moron!” yells Forsworn back.

“Don’t use my own tech against me if you want it to work,” I say as I fly into the air.

I spot Vance behind them. His cos-mat costume and powers protected him from the worse of Avengers flames. Stefan is still down. Charlie is personally okay, but the Bulk armour is junk right now. Just me to take on these two until Narszara arrives.

“Your tech?” mutters Forsworn, “Damn it!”

“Get him!” yells Avenger.

Forsworn summons a swarm of metal spears whilst Avenger’s hands light up with fire. I prepare to attack when I hear Nightmare waking up behind me. Mad Dog is struggling to her feet.

Four to one is a lot worse than two to one especially when that four is a team of highly experienced killers. At least none of them can fly. I really like having that advantage.

Unless Nightmare grows wings or Forsworn uses a metal platform. Then I’ll really be in trouble.

“You’re not going to win this,” I shout, “I’m wearing Class 4 power armour. Narszara is almost here and both Britannia and the Aquiline will be here in less than half an hour.”

Avenger and Forsworn exchange worried looks. I’m about to fire my sonics when Forsworn grins savagely.

“You won’t kill us,” he laughs, “You’re too weak! You won’t even hurt us too badly because you’re so soft!”

Next thing I know, Mad Cat and Mad Dog have jumped up and each grabbed one of my legs. Between the two of them, they’re pulling me down.

Forsworn sends the metal spears at me, but they barely dent the outer armour. That’s when they start spinning. Forsworn is using them as drills.

I’m not worried. I know the metal will break before the armour does.

I’m finally pulled down by the Mad Sisters. Then pin me down and are too strong for me to break free. Forsworn and Avenger stand over me, both are grinning like the madmen they are.

Nightmare walks over to them, his face furious.

“This is the Sentinel?” he scoffs, “I guess it was to be expected he would defend his criminal pals from justice.”

“Justice for what?” I yell at them, “Being born?!”

“They need to pay for their grandfathers’ crimes,” says Avenger, “Don’t you realise that Sentinel? After all, your own grandfather fought to stop theirs.”

“I’m a hero unlike you as was my grandfather,” I retort, “You talk of criminals yet you’re the ones committing the crimes here. Assault and attempted murder this night alone! Not to mention you armed Hall and Edison’s people with all of that firepower!”

Confusion appears on their faces at my last sentence. Something isn’t right I realise.

Before I can anything else a strong gush blows against us, staggering Vengeance. A barrage of flames bombards us.

Vengeance leaps back to avoid getting burn. The Mad sisters are snarling, Nightmare has his hands as blades again while Forsworn has his spears around him again.

I hear a familiar battle cry and look up.

Narszara is swooping down; flames surround her while her sword is drawn in her right hand. 

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.