Recently the tension at Claremont could be cut with a knife, assuming one actually needed a blade, given who were facing off against each other, on an almost daily basis.
It had only been a few weeks since the hostage situation had occurred and the school was almost back to normal, if by normal you meant that the mansion was still a building site and an out-and-out war was threatening to erupt on the playground every day.
Best start at the beginning, Colin thought as he tried to make sense of everything.
The Ministry of Powers in consultation with Ofsted had elected to close the Pryde Institute, at least temporarily, while they investigated the situation that had led to three of their senior students joining forces with a group of criminals and terrorists. Given Kitty’s previous, admittedly unsubstantiated testimony as to the PITT’s training methods, the authorities had elected to send all of their pupil’s ‘home’ until their initial investigation had been completed.
That’s when things turned awkward. These students had all been considered troubled teens, delinquents with uncontrolled powers who had been sent to the school, often as a result of facing charges for what had been perceived as criminal or dangerous behaviour. Almost 75% of their parents or guardians had refused to take them back and a good half of the pupil body had subsequently upped and vanished, supposedly having run away. Colin however thought it more likely that they had been spirited away to their school’s secret campus in Cornwell.
The care system wasn’t equipped to deal with the remaining powered teens, so Claremont had ‘offered’ to take them in and continue their training to enable them to learn how to better control their powers.
A few days later ten Pryde students arrived at Claremont. Colin was aware that the Courts were also considering releasing the three arrested Metas, Apex, Winter and Scorpion on bail and two of them might be coming to the school as well; a round dozen new, publicly outed pupils who were all very angry and confused.
It didn’t help that at least initially they were being allowed to attend Claremont without having to wear the school uniform. If they elected to stay after the investigation into Pryde was concluded, then they would be expected to comply with the school’s uniform code, but in the short term, their non-conformity made them stand out even more.
They initially tried housing them with their age groups across all three dormitories, but after several unpleasant incidents it was decided to keep the two groups of students apart at least to begin with. Now the PITT group were being housed together, regardless of age in the empty upper floor of Drummond House, away from Colin and the school’s own powered students in Albion.
A couple of incidents on their first day attending classes had set the tone since then. Their treatment of, and hostility towards their former classmate Amalia, Kitty had raised a few hackles amongst the Claremont students. Colin feared that young Chris was about to change into Smash in public at the way they either completely ignored her like she was something they’d found on the sole of their shoes or had tried to spit at her when they had first seen her. Thankfully, his friend Chris having taken over from Gus’ as the younger Chris’s guardian angel steered both of them away to the safety of their own friends. Colin smiled when he realised that the sudden unexpected appearance of a strong wind had caused their spittle to fly back and splash onto the spitter’s own faces. Thank you, Serena!
The whole lot of them remained together when out of classes, treating the Claremont students as though they were several stages beneath them on the evolutionary scale. That is except for a weird incident on their first day when one of their students, a Year Two girl called Zoe Robinson – or Brimstone when she was Down Below – caught sight of their Audrey Avery for the first time. Audrey, who would be in the same year and classes as her, was waiting outside the school entrance when Zoe suddenly rushed forward and genuflected before her on the steps, arms outspread. Young Audrey looked genuinely upset at this and went over and whispered something in her ear that had caused the other girl to run back immediately to her own group, but her face had still been full of awe. After that, it seemed the Zoe girl kept away but her eyes were always following young Audrey.
Audrey Avery
Anyway, this non-integration didn’t help when Ces’ Morgan and his Keep Claremont Human cronies decided to make the newcomers ‘welcome’. That fight had been nearly epic. The only thing that had stopped it from turning into outright murder was the intervention by the school’s own HCP students who tried to keep the two groups apart and the discovery that all the new students had been issued with power inhibitor collars under their clothes. Before the Pryde students could remove them and access their powers, Camille and the teachers had appeared and shut the fight down completely. Ces’ and his cronies had come off worse, though at least a couple of the PITT kids, Erik Brandt and Oli Rodriguez in particular, had come away with some serious bruises and black eyes.
It seemed that unlike Casanova’s collar, which had been locked by the Courts, theirs had been left unlocked but they had been honour bound by the teaching staff to not remove them or use their powers outside the training facility. Yip, thanks to the earlier misadventure, Down Below was also no longer a secret. Even the school’s own pupils had its existence confirmed when they overheard the Pryde students talk aloud about how primitive the school’s training facilities were compared to what they had been used to at the PITT.
It did mean he and his fellow HCP students were now using the lift under Albion House and other entrances in the school to access Down Below rather than be seen entering via the mansion’s library. Who’d known previously that there was an entrance off the language labs for example?
Thankfully, the only entrance the PITT students knew about was in the library of the Big House and once inside they were only allowed entry to the changing rooms and training facility. The rest of Down Below was currently off-limits to the ‘guests’.
So, the PITT students were acting like a pack, all staying together when not in class and not making any effort to integrate with any of the other students. The KCH mob continued to campaign openly against them, though thankfully there had been no further fighting. Kitty was still seen by them as a pariah and had taken to being covertly escorted when not in class by either one of the NeXt or the Amazons.
Training though had taken a more exciting turn as the school tried initially to pair up their own students against the PITT students. It was clear the word ‘restraint’ was not in their vocabulary and they had never learnt how to pull their punches. Colin smiled, Dr Lockheart and school councillor Dave Dean must be being kept busy doing psych-profiles and evaluations on the new group. He’d even heard that if that Apex fellow did end up attending Claremont that they would have to allow him to break the school rules and retain his ponytail. Apparently, he had a bit of a Sampson complex about it being cut off.
In response, the school had decided to spend the next few months working on teamwork rather than individual combat sessions – his match against ‘Gravity Master’ Lawrence Smalls was cancelled as a result. Pity, he had wondered how he would cope now that the staff had managed to obtain a regulator belt to help him control his abilities.
The HCP student body was having their training schedule interrupted while they tried to form workable teams. Unsurprisingly the PITT students had already formed their own groups – calling themselves The Pryde and the Superiors, though he did notice that some of their own students weren’t invited to join them.
Year one students were exempt though the faculty made it clear that they could be invited to join a group provided staff agreed.
The Claremont students already had two pre-formed groups, Arcana’s Amazons and the senior team known as the NeXt (as in the ‘next’ big thing).
The NeXt consisted of Raven, Princess, Lance, Seven and interestingly enough Changeling who always disguised herself as a male during training sessions. Velocity also joined them on occasion though his training wasn’t combat-focused. Cadet had been asked if he would like to join with them but felt that his skill set was already covered by Raven.
The Amazons consisted of Lady Arcana, Hocus Pocus, the petite alien Amethyst, Aura, Firestarter and of course Outrage. That had been a closed group since they had arrived at Claremont and weren’t recruiting even if he had been the right sex.
If you didn’t count Kitty and Smash who were Year One students (though Colin thought they would make good team members and didn’t want to automatically discount them) that left himself and Firewall as well as L33t, the werewolf ‘Mongrel‘, Tendril, The Mayson Twins, Permafrost, Proxy, Kid Arachnid and never forgetting Bubbles or Kilowatt available to form new training teams. He was sure that the Mayson’s would be allowed to not participate if they wanted given their focus was on learning mystical rituals rather than magic that could be used in combat.
He wasn’t counting Toxin or Gravity Master as they weren’t fully in control of their abilities yet or any of the non-combatant Metas.
The two PITT students who hadn’t been grouped in as part of a team were Erik Brandt who went by the moniker of Shade and Tiffany Gaither who was the shape changer Scythe. He had to wonder why they hadn’t been included especially as he remembered just how dangerous Tiffany had been in her Scythe personae when they had first encountered her at the fairground.
Of the two PITT teams, The Pryde were considered the alpha’s even though they had only four members at present; Martin Conte – Might, Ray Gardener – Bolt, the girl who had genuflected Zoe Robinson – Brimstone and Evie Freeman – Angst. Apparently, Apex and Winter had also been part of their team.
Their other team called themselves The Superiors and was led by a girl called Eva Melendez – Elite and included Aaron Gwynn – Samhain, Reena Sarin – Catalyst, Oli Rodriguez – Hi-Def and finally a Spanish girl Nina Cruz with energy wings who her team members called Eaglet but who preferred to be called Raptor.
Apparently, it had been Dr Lockheart and Co. who had suggested running a variety of training scenarios in the primary S.A.F.E. Chamber over the next few months and awarding points to whatever team achieved the objectives best. At the end of term, assuming everyone had gained full control of their powers, there would be a fight-off, both between teams and individuals. Whoever won outright got bragging rights to the title of best team and/or best player.
Obviously, that meant something important to the PITT crew and was intended to motivate them to gain better control over their abilities, even some of their own Claremont students had started getting excited about the possibility of winning the titles.
Well, he wasn’t great at taking orders from others so if he wanted to participate, he would need to consider putting together a team himself. A team could consist of no less than four members or more than seven according to the rules and if he didn’t act soon he might have to just work with whoever was left as he was pretty sure Kilowatt at least was planning on setting up his own team.
Cadet only hesitated for a moment over the wisdom of his trying to assemble and control a team, no manage – the language he used would be important if he was to persuade the others to work with him. There was fun to be had, but also the possibility of finding out a bit more about what was going on, and he was naturally, defensively curious.
It didn’t take him very long to choose who he would like to fight and work alongside. First stop was Firewall of course – they have been together through so many adventures by now that he didn’t take any persuading. Next stop was for the two of them to approach and build on the existing partnerships they’d developed with some of the other students, starting with Bubbles.
To say she was enthusiastic would be an understatement, motormouth that she was she was able to confirm that Kilowatt had also started to approach the remaining Special Curriculum students about joining ‘HIS’ team, though he’d elected to ignore her as he thought her abilities were too weak and instead had approached Kid Arachnid and Mongrel about auditioning.
Cadet smiled, so he was focusing on the male students first. Mongrel as a lycanthrope was still learning to control his abilities and as such hadn’t been on his own initial list of partners, however if the Kid agreed to team up with Kilowatt that would be a serious loss as he had hoped to persuade him to join their team.
He’d initially wanted to talk with Kitty next, but Bubbles persuaded him to talk with ‘Ant’ Andrews first to check if she would be allowed to participate before getting her hopes up. Seeing Kid Arachnid coming out of one of the VR pods the three of them wandered over and asked him if he had signed up for a team yet?
To their surprise, he explained that both Proxy and Kilowatt had already approached him, but he had turned them both down as he didn’t feel he was a team player. Cadet went to explain that he thought differently based on their shared extracurricular activities over the last few months. Before he could say any more Bubbles started burbling away about how his skills and abilities complimented theirs and how much he could gain from teaming up with them… After about five minutes of non-stop commentary and dissection of their proposed team, he raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I can see I’m not going to get any peace until I’ve paired up with one or other of the teams and, in fairness, your team seems to suck less than the others, so… Count me in, admittedly reluctantly and I’m going to be up front and state that if you lot turn out to be a bunch of complete and utter losers I will jump ship. We got an agreement?”
Cadet nodded as he realised they were already two thirds there. Next, he needed to talk to Mr Andrews and suggested he went alone for this one, but he would meet up with them and tell them the outcome of his request before they elected to approach their next possible contender.
‘Ant’ Andrews was in the main control room when Colin caught up with him. He knocked and waited. He hadn’t thought to check if there was any training taking place in the primary combat chamber so he knew he might find himself being ignored or told to go away and come back later. Instead, the door slid open to reveal his prey hunched over the control console as he watched a training session going on below. “Come in Mr Duncan, you might find this interesting…”
Cadet crossed the walkway to the viewing panel and looked down. In the chamber below, he could see five of the PITT students running through a group training session. They were certainly skilled, if lethal, in the blows they were dishing out to the Combat MMD’s (Mobile Mannequin Decoys) and test equipment.
This was the first time he’d seen their powers in action and he elected to draw in as much information as he could. He could see the black youth who called himself Might fly in, protected seemingly by some sort of shimmering force shield before literally tearing the targets apart with his bare hands. The young girl Brimstone was clearly an energy projector of flames to be precise, but he felt that there was more to her than he was seeing, a possible mystical element to her? Bolt was another energy projector, in his case casting lightning bolts at the fleeing MMD’s as he flew above them; hopefully Firewall would be able to counter his abilities. Looking at the Indian girl, Catalyst she seemed to be yet another energy projector, but her powers were clearly focused through the strange-looking rod she carried. The older boy with the straggly beard and D&D cloak was seemingly a magic-user – no surprises there given he went by the moniker Samhain. He was being surrounded by magically grown trees that moved to block any blasts heading his way. The last one he could see was an alien-looking creature with blade-like claws. She was of particular interest to him, the shape-changer Scythe. Angst was apparently sitting out the session.
He continued to observe their skills for a few minutes more, soaking in their abilities while he had a chance. They were primary focusing on self-protection and damage-inflicting range attacks such as Might’s light blast, with each attacking individually rather than as a team. ‘Ant’ Andrews smiled, knowing this advanced observation was potentially giving Cadet and his group an unfair advantage. It wasn’t long though before he began to feel guilty about his decision and indicated to Cadet that he had wanted to speak to him about something?
Colin cleared his throat and made his pitch. To his surprise, the teacher nodded and said that he’d already cleared Smash to join with Kilowatt’s team and was happy to authorise both of Cadet’s requests as long as they agreed.
Time to go, he risked another glance down below at the PITT students even as the end of session siren sounded and the lights returned to normal. No, best wait and ask her last – he had another call to make and he wanted the rest of the team with him.
Fifteen minutes later, they had found Kitty and asked if she would like to join their team. If anything, she accepted the invite faster than even Bubbles had and was literally dancing round the four of them with joy. Even Reni cracked a smile at her exuberance. In part though Colin felt cheated, he’d this big persuasive spiel planned only to find he hadn’t needed it.
They agreed to meet up after school and chat about what they did next and how best to approach his proposed final team member. Sure enough, when classes were over for the day, they agreed to skip any clubs and meet up in the cafeteria for a quiet confab to discuss how best to proceed.
They found a quiet corner and worked out what to do next. He’d half expected Firewall and Kid Arachnid to bow out as they might not want to reveal to the others their civilian identities, but they had all arrived together in their usual after school attire. Kid explained that as Bubbles and Kitty were already outed and he knew Colin’s identity from the Diva Gaea affair that it seemed pointless to hide his own identity.
Firewall just shrugged and grinned, “Lockheart’ll wipe our memory of each other’s identity anyway when we graduate so what’s the harm? I think most of you had guessed who I was anyway. So, what’s the game plan, Colin?”
Colin grimaced, “Ah, now that isn’t my strong suit. I want to invite one final member to join us but first I want to explain that there is an investigative aspect to this, after all some of us have faced off against some of the other teams before and may have to do so again. Learning their weaknesses – and strengths – may come in useful someday. In addition, it’s a chance to let off steam and work-up our individual and teamwork skills on the off-chance we ever get involved together in something serious again” he said with an ironic grin. He went on to remind them of when they had each worked together and that as a result, he valued their individual skills and abilities. He paused and looked at Kitty, “And that includes you, regardless of age we’re all equal in this team.” He paused while Bubbles gave their youngest team member a quick hug.
“Besides which, I think someone needs to make a play for some sort of co-operation with the PITT-kids, otherwise it’s just going to be loggerheads all the way down the line, a never-ending feud, and that’s just a waste of energy and time. We need to get behind whatever it is they’re hiding and see if we can turn it round. Not that that’s going to happen overnight, or maybe even ever, but I think we do need to try, and start trying now. I’m thinking of asking Scythe onto our team if you agree and if she can be persuaded. Kitty, do you know if there is a reason she and Shade didn’t get invited onto the one of the PITT teams?”
Kitty quietly explained that she didn’t know Tiffany that well, but she was usually quiet and a bit shy. Erik on the other hand was the Headmistress’s son. He never fitted in with the other students as a result. She had to assume though that if Mistress Brandt had sent him to Claremont, she had to have her own reasons for doing so. Erik had a lot of resentment sent his way because of his mother but that relationship also protected him against being bullied as no one wanted to risk incurring the wrath of their Headmistress.
So, Colin wondered, was he a spy in the camp and if so, who was he spying on? Aloud he said, “I suggest we ask Scythe to join us and if she agrees, there’s a bit of divide-and-rule right there which might make her open to being drawn away from the Dark Side. She’s also one hell of a fighter… Are we all good with this?”
It would be fairer to say that no one voted against the suggestion than that they all voted in favour. They did agree that they would decide on a name for their team after they had approached Tiffany.
In the end, it was agreed that Bubbles and Kitty would accompany Cadet (with him in costume at least initially) to make their pitch to Tiffany. They found her alone, sitting reading in the memorial gardens in front of the dormitories.
The first good sign was that she didn’t immediately run away, the second was that she nodded to Kitty and asked how she was… Given the behaviour of her schoolmates previously, that had to be a good sign.
Cadet explained that they were putting together a team for the competition. They had all agreed that they would like to formally ask her to join them as part of that team. She momentarily looked both scared and confused but muttered, “go on?” Cadet continued his pitch, stressing his appreciation for her moves in the fairground and his feeling that there ought to be some sort of cross-school team in play, to highlight the need to work together and try to defuse some of the tension. He finished with, “It would be great if we could and come out tops over all the exclusive teams in the competition, a real example.”
The girls had been primed to add in some feminine reassurance that she would be valued as a full team member and pointing out that Scythe joining would make it an equal-gendered team. She looked as though she was about to agree when they saw Erik approaching, his shoulders hunched over. He was presumably seeking his own place of solitude. Seeing the three of them hanging around Tiffany he rushed over. On seeing no sign of fear on Tiffany’s face or any signs of intimidation on theirs, he paused and asked her if she was okay?
She nodded and explained that they were here to ask her to join their team in the competition. Then she turned back to Cadet, “But what about Erik? Shade? He’s not part of a team either. Surely two of us would send a better message than just one?”
Cadet hesitated, what was the reason that his mother had sent him here and why did his own school mates not want to include him in their own teams? Still, if Tiffany was not willing to join up without Erik, he was up for making it a team of seven, and just hoped his teammates would agree.
He was caught off guard when Erik immediately refused saying that he preferred not to be part of any team as he hated violence. He stopped and looked at them for what seemed to be a long, long time but was probably only for a minute. Then he said very quietly, “Perhaps I could train with you occasionally, though? I don’t want in, just it would be nice to keep my skills up and it would still help you to demonstrate your stated goal of “highlighting the need to work together and trying to defuse some of the tensions…”
“You heard that?” Cadet was surprised; he’d been nowhere close by when he’d been talking about that. Erik smiled “I’ve great hearing especially when I use one of my shades as an extended set of ears. I understand if you would like to run the idea passed the others in the team. I would also fully understand if the answers no.” With that, he nodded to both Kitty and Tiffany and headed back to his Dorm.
Tiffany looked up, “So, if you agree that Erik can train occasionally with your team, I’m in. What are you calling yourselves anyway?”
The two girls looked confused as they turned towards Cadet, “What are we calling ourselves?” He replied, “We need to vote on that as a team but I’m sort of partial to something like New Horizons…?”
A day later, they heard that Kilowatt had confirmed his team. Led by himself, he had managed to recruit Mongrel, L33t, Permafrost, Alan Mayson (but not his sister Ali, what was going on there?), interestingly Gravity Master and finally Smash. They had chosen to call themselves Team Exemplar.
Colin did wonder if Kilowatt had ever figured out who L33t was when she was out of her suit? He was pretty sure he thought she was another bloke!
Proxy had seemingly given up on forming her own team and she and the other non-participants, including Ali Mayson, Tendril and Shade would still be undergoing their existing, individual training regimes.
Team training sessions started the next day immediately after school. Their normal HCP sessions were to resume as usual during school time with a stronger emphasis on ethics.
Their first team session was to be a simple labyrinth set with traps and a variety of disguised MMD’s – both civilian and villains, including at least one in disguise.
Silver, as one of the session adjudicators, was explaining the rules to Team New Horizon even as The Pryde stormed passed, clearly upset at the outcome of their session. Silver ignored them and continued to explain that all the villains needed to be captured before the end of the session without injuring any of the innocent bystanders – that there was a minus two points for every bystander injured and a minus five for each one ‘killed’. That capturing a villain was worth five points, while injuring or killing one reduced that by the same point loss as a civilian. Identifying and capturing the leader was worth ten points but each of their team members captured, lost them five points as well unless rescued before the session siren sounded.
There was also a series of traps set up, some targeting them and some the bystander MMD’s. The play was on teamwork so all members of team New Horizon had to participate in some form whether that was in defeating a trap, capturing a villain or defending the bystanders otherwise it would cost them a further five points per non-participant in their team. Cadet almost burst out laughing when he saw that Kitty was busy making copious notes in a small notepad in Arabic.
Silver pointed to the entrance to the central chamber, “You will enter a full-sized labyrinth; the majority of the prisoners are in the centre and the bad guys if, or should I say when, they become aware you are in there will come hunting you. You will be wearing these harnesses…” She passed each of them a crossed chest harness that reminded Cadet of laser tag. Speaking quietly, she continued, “We’ve turned off the suit’s integral combat sensors for, ah security reasons. These will activate if you take a hit on a part of the body that is not shielded and you are honour bound to NOT use that limb for the rest of the session. Should you do so and we notice, then it’s the same penalty as getting captured. Any more questions?”
A couple of hands went up which she completely ignored. “Good, time to enter. Good luck New Horizons…”
Cadet put up his hand again and spoke anyway, “Are we allowed a few minutes to confer before starting the session?” Silver nodded, a grin spreading across her shiny metallic face, “Yes, but only two minutes max. Make it snappy.”
The team huddled round as Cadet offered up his ideas and asked for any improvements or suggestions from the team. “What I’d think is – Kitty with her stealth and cat-like senses should act as our scout, if you’re willing? It would be good if Firewall could infiltrate any electronics in the room and use those to scout with and keep Kitty covered… but probably that won’t be possible?” he said as he noticed Firewall’s head shaking negatively.
“The room’s too heavily shielded mate, but I could turn myself into data format and keep as close as I can to Kitty without crowding her action. I reckon I’m the best placed to spot any tech traps that we come to before we trip them.”
Cadet nodded, “Thanks, I’ll be close by as well and will if I’m lucky, try and disarm them. Best you stay in your data mode Firewall. Bubbles, your skill-set is just perfect for stopping folk from getting ‘hurt’, both civilians, villains – and ourselves! Remember we all have to be non-lethal and try to be non-damaging, protect bystanders from being collateral damage. Kid, your webs are the next best thing for protecting, saving and confining targets without injuring them. Firewall, I guess you’ve got a “stun’ setting on your energy bolts.” He paused for a second to see if there was any dissent then continued. “I’m not sure what sort of maze we’re going into, how wide the passages might be, or whether it’s just one route to the centre or there’s a chance of getting lost. Just in case, I vaguely recall a way of making sure you don’t go round in circles in a proper maze; when you come to a choice of ways you make a mark on the route you take, and if you come to take it again you make a second mark. Never ever take a path that’s got two marks on it. Apart from that, we should be prepared for almost anything, with rebreathers and eye-protection if you have them. I guess I’m quite likely to be using flash and sleep bombs in the circumstances, so be ready for that. Don’t take anything at face-value; one of the apparent bystanders may be a villain, so it would be good when ’saving’ them if we could also confine them. When it comes to moving, it will depend on the width of the passages. If they’re very narrow I guess Tiffany might not want to become Scythe until there’s room to manoeuvre? In any case, we shouldn’t tread too wide a path, maybe a sort of staged Indian-file, following as closely in Kitty’s footsteps as we can? And of course, cover one another at all times – though I’m sure we’d do that anyway.”
Silver suddenly interrupted them and pointed again at the chamber door, “Time’s up, good luck!” Cadet had a feeling they might need it. With Kitty and Firewall in the lead, they entered the primary chamber. In front of them, they could see the control room in the centre underneath which were a cluster of gangly-looking robotic MMD’s, then the session light flashed red and grey concrete walls suddenly shot up all around them, all the way to the ceiling leaving them with three corridors off from where they were standing. Cadet noticed that the corridors weren’t all the same width either.
Quietly he muttered over their shared comms channel “Stay together but watch your backs.” They headed towards the corridor to the right marking the entrance with a slash from his pocketknife as Firewall transformed into his insubstantial form before setting off.
They had barely got fifty metres in when they saw three people running towards them. When they saw the team, they suddenly stopped then walked forward slowly, hesitantly. Kitty sniffed the air. It was Kid who realised first what was happening. When they had been told that there were MMDs involved they had immediately assumed that it would be up against the combat mannequins they usually faced in training, metallic humanoid silhouettes clearly not designed to resemble real living humans. The three approaching them now looked very human indeed. It took them by surprise; they had no warning that the droids would be holographically-enhanced in this way.
Suddenly Scythe began to morph into her monster personae even as Kid shouted out something about a trap ahead. As though in response, a dome suddenly emerged from the floor in front of them and a feeling of intense nausea washed over them. The MMD’s opposite suddenly began to collapse to the ground, apparently in pain. Cadet tried to speak but something was dampening out his voice… This device had to be emitting Sonics.
To his surprise, he saw Scythe grab Bubbles and leap over the device, reaching down to try and slice at the dome with one of her claws as she did so. It sliced the surface but failed to penetrate the dome itself. Cadet reached into his utility belt and pulled out a set of earplugs, which he managed to shove in his ears even as he rushed forward towards the dome, looking for some sort of panel to allow him access to the mechanics inside.
As he did so he felt the air next to him heat up as Firewall unleashed an electrical blast at it and Kid swung above it heading to join Bubbles and Scythe as they tried to protect the ‘civilians’. He arrived a few seconds too late and slammed into a wall of sound-absorbing bubbles.
Seemingly, in intense aural pain Kitty was clearly hearing even more of the broadcast than they were. Cadet reached the dome and immediately started searching for some sort of access panel. He saw Kid mouth something but was unable to read his lips. Then a string of webbing shot out from Kid’s wrist narrowly missing hitting Cadet, but which did hit a section on the top of the dome, a section already partially mangled by Scythe’s claw. He then yanked hard and a panel suddenly sprung open. Inside were a number of wires, all black, connected to a control panel. Cadet didn’t pause, he grabbed all of them and yanked hard. As the connectors tore loose, he turned and looked back at Kitty who raised her thumb and then stood up and, admittedly shakily, walked forward. Cadet took it as a sign and removed his earplugs. Nothing, blissful silence.
He watched as Scythe began to burst the bubble barrier sufficiently so that the ‘civilians’ could clamber through. What now though? Did they just abandon them or was this about to become a convoy, one that would lead these make-believe civilians into the middle of a battle?
As he was contemplating their options, the leader of the MMDs approached and thanked them then stated that they were now safe and would leave the chamber as soon as they reached the entrance the team had just departed from. Good, that was one less complication for the team to worry about though Cadet felt a momentary worry that this was a set-up to enable the MMD’s, no better think of them as civilians, to attack them from the rear.
Better pause and be prepared for treason just in case. After they had watched the three of them depart down the corridor, they pushed through the remnants of the bubble barrier and continued forward as before. Less than a hundred metres in they discovered that the corridor ended. Cadet contemplated asking Scythe to smash her way through the wall but was sure that would be against the rules. He walked back towards the dome and the entrance and saw that a new corridor had now opened next to the deactivated sonic thingamabob. He asked Scythe to mark the wall of the tunnel they had just reversed down but the advent of a new corridor appearing had added a whole new dimension to their attempts to traverse the maze if it was constantly changing. He signalled for Scythe to mark this new corridor as they resumed their search with Kitty and Firewall once more in the lead.
This corridor was narrower and they had to walk single file as well as forcing Scythe to resume her human form in order to progress. They reached a junction with another three corridors off it. This time they took the middle passage as it seemed the most likely to lead into the centre of the chamber, again marking their route as they went.
As they reached the next junction Cadet heard Kitty shout out to halt as she suddenly leapt towards a far wall and began to climb. A bolt of energy slashed across the ground where she has been standing a second before. Cadet and Firewall rushed in to see what looked like a well-built man with dreadlocks hanging from the ceiling, concealed in the semi-darkness of the roof, firing off blasts of energy at the party.
Cadet went running forward, his bolo in hand ready to unleash it when he felt himself yanked off his feet by a string of webbing and pulled back into Kid’s grasp. Where he had been about to stand, was now an open pit out of which a dozen metal tentacles were emerging and had begun to flail about. Firewall ignored them while in his data format as he unleashed a Taser blast at the figure hanging from the roof. It hit and the figure suddenly fell into the trap of tentacles below. Realising their mistake, Cadet tried to use his grapnel to pull their attacker to safety only for a metal tentacle to intercept forcing him to rewind it. A second later Kid tried to pull their attacker free but again the tentacles got in the way of his webbing though he was rewarded with being able to pull one of the metal arms loose.
In the end, Kitty bounded over grabbed the attackers’ arm and pulled him to safety even as Firewall started to sever the cephalopod-like limbs with his laser attacks before they could grab her. Bubbles immediately cast a massive bubble around both Kitty and the injured attacker and allowed it to float back towards them utilising a blanket of opaque bubbles to hide their retreat.
As Kitty pulled the injured figure clear of the extended tentacles, it was obvious that one of the mannequin’s legs was ‘broken’. Cadet inserted his rebreather between his lips then rushed in as the rescue bubble burst on landing and immediately snapped a sleeping gas pellet beneath their sniper’s nose. Programmed to respond, the unit powered down within seconds. Meanwhile, Cadet used his staff to knock away a couple of the flailing mechanical limbs that came too close as Firewall proceeded to sever them with extreme prejudice.
What now? There was no way they could just abandon their attacker while it was supposedly injured. Then a voice came over their earpieces, “Assistance is on their way. Please make the patient comfortable and we will ‘rescue’ them as soon as possible.”
As he placed their attacker in the recovery position, he realised that the corridor ended only a few metres beyond the trap. They would have to turn round again and try another passageway. Leaving the scene he realised that Tiffany was feeling frustrated at the narrowness of the corridor, which rendered her abilities useless. It might be best to try the wider corridors for now. So, having returned to the junction they marked it for the second time before they set off again, electing to take the left corridor this time. This quickly widened out and Scythe was once more able to resume her alter ego.
Soon after they were forced to confront and subsequently disarm a vertigo beam projector which had been coupled with an antigravity pod to unbalance everyone by reducing the local gravity to .25g. The team successfully navigated their way across, admittedly suffering a few bruises in the process, after Scythe had successfully savaged the control units. As Kitty, Firewall and Cadet stepped clear of the danger zone they felt themselves being pushed aside as heavy granite walls unexpectedly appeared out of the ground and surrounded the rest of the team in a stone cage. Before any of them could work out what to do next, the corridor wall in front of them dropped into the ground to reveal four ‘men’ each armed with stun rifles standing facing them. To their rear were a dozen young ‘females’ looking terrified, though a couple looked more angry than scared. One in particular seemed slightly older, more defiant that the others as the men rushed towards the three of them.
Behind Cadet, the stone trap suddenly expanded completely blocking off the corridor and they could hear gunfire. Seems they weren’t the only one’s on the team facing a fight. As he tried to evaluate the opponents facing them, he found their appearance very impressive. To the untrained eye they appeared human in every way, but he was able to pick out the small details that marked them as non-human and he’d faced a few steely-eyed opponents in his time; the Gamesmaster for one.
To his rear he could hear the fight commencing between Scythe, Bubbles and Kid Arachnid against their opponents and just for a moment, Cadet felt sorry for whatever automatons were up against them. He quickly re-focused his attention on the challenge confronting them – which seemed to consist of painlessly taking down the four stun-men without damaging either them or the wall of innocents behind. If innocents they all were, something they intended to withhold judgement on for now, at least until all hands were shown.
He nodded towards Firewall and signalled to his right relying on Firewall to deploy his Taser accurately on the opponent to his right, while shielding himself with his own firewall barrier. He nodded to Kitty and signalled left even as he separated his staff into his pair of Escrima sticks and shoulder-rolled fast towards the centre, hoping to dodge their stun-shots until he got close enough to strike with his sticks.
Several stun shots fired wildly as the team separated. It was as he was rolling that he realised that one of their attackers was a bit heavy-footed despite his apparent normal stature and was leaving craters in the ground with every step. Too late to stop himself in time, he found himself hitting an immovable object. Slightly dazed, he saw his opponent drop his rifle, tear a post free from the ground and attempt to swat at him with it. The unwieldy pole glanced off Cadet’s torso before hitting him in the collarbone as he tried to change direction mid-roll and redirect his attack towards the other central attacker.
Somersaulting to his feet, Cadet struck out twice with the sticks aiming to numb nerves and disarm his new target. He succeeded in both, rendering ‘him’ unconscious. He then dodged the swinging pole again before trying to get behind the strong man, hoping to try for a nerve pinch.
As he leapt over the pole, he risked a glance behind him. Firewall was clearly holding his own while Kitty had clambered up the left-hand wall to gain height and evade the blasts, knocking away the stun rifle from her surprised opponent, leaving him disarmed. However, as she somersaulted in ready to try and knock him to the ground, the end of the pole being swung by Cadet’s strongman hit her and sent her flying against the wall. Her original opponent was subsequently downed by a Taser blast from Firewall.
On the other side of the dividing barrier, Cadet could hear continuous digging sounds and intermittent muffled screams but couldn’t work out whose. No time to investigate, he grabbed a handful of sleeping gas pellets from his belt, fitted his rebreather between his teeth and jumped straight for the strongman’s head, rolling over the swinging pole which, for in-close fighting was more of a liability than an asset.
Cadet grabbed his neck and swung behind him even as he slammed a handful of smashed sleeping gas pellets into his mouth and nose. A second later Cadet found himself in free-fall as he was thrown clear. He rolled with it, pulling out his bolo and threw it towards the strong man’s legs. As the cable tightened around his opponent’s calves he fell forwards onto his face and let out a deep snore. Cadet glanced right as he tried to stand despite the bruises and saw Firewall down their remaining opponent. Then all hell broke loose as Cadet was forced to run towards the civilians even as the trap wall behind them exploded outwards. Out of the dust and rubble stepped Scythe who was shouting out a single word from her distorted mouth; “Help!”
Behind her stood the Kid, who was firing his ‘darts’ at a shadowy figure behind Alaina as she tried to raise a shield wall of bubbles, only to have the bubbles turn frosty, crystallise and shatter.
Reni rushed towards Bubbles and pulled her out of the way, as her barrier finally gave way and a wave of freezing air blasted through the gap in the wall, covering the concrete in ice.
The creature that then stepped through in pursuit was covered head to foot in thick icy armour.
Cadet glanced towards Firewall and Kitty and over their comms asked Kitty to keep an eye on the civilians but not get too close as he suspected it was a trap, even as he asked Firewall to unleash a full blast at the recently appeared ‘Frostie’.
He had to assume that Kid Arachnid was out of webbing for the moment as he was firing darts which were just bouncing off the ice armour.
Would a real injury be counted against him, he wondered momentarily favouring his injured side? If it did, then he’d already lost his team some points. His only real regret was not having a heat-weapon of some kind available, though maybe Firewall’s laser could incapacitate him?
He glanced over and saw that Firewall was already trying to weaken the armour by slicing layers of ice away but Frostie was countering it by re-layering it just as fast. He was sure a direct shot at the ‘winter warrior’ at full strength would take him out but did he want to risk suggesting it in case it proved to be a ‘killing’ shot? Would that be any more deadly than the cascade of concrete fragments that Scythe was currently peppering him with?
Their attacker seemed focused for the moment on attacking Scythe who, while thick-skinned and able to smash through the walls of ice he tried to surround her with, clearly hated the cold. Cadet crouched down and fired his grapnel towards the biggest lump of rubble behind Frostie. It managed to snag itself onto the edge and Cadet did a combination of hurling and rolling (on his injured arm he realised as he did it) forward and to the opposite side of their attacker. In position, he yanked the cord tight even as a boulder of concrete thrown by Scythe rebounded off the remnants of the wall behind it and knocked it forwards, into the makeshift tripwire. Frostie went sprawling across the ground even as Bubbles tried to imprison him inside a large hardened bubble. It lasted about five or six seconds before it too iced up and shattered. It did give Cadet time though to pull out an eclectic mix of flare bombs, sleeping and tear-gas pellets and throw them at his face, just before Bubbles again ensnared him in a second airtight prison trapping him inside as the various bombs erupted. For a second or two everyone was momentarily blinded as the flares exploded inside the opaque skinned bubble followed by the gases mixing and taking him out once and for all. Cadet had to wonder what was left. He didn’t have to wait long. Almost immediately he heard Kitty shout out a warning as she retracted her claws and literally began to throw the females she’d been keeping an eye on, towards them. That’s when Cadet realised that certain members of his team would make world-class goalies as the Kid and surprisingly Scythe carefully caught the girls in mid-air and safely dropped them behind them.
Cadet spun round on the spot. Standing in what had been the centre of the group the older woman suddenly exploded out in a blinding light to reveal a hovering sphere-like drone with multiple metallic arms that unleashed a bombardment of ballistic-headed missiles in all directions. Cadet and the others were temporarily forced to look away as they came under attack.
One of the missiles hit Kitty’s arm and her belt immediately lit up to indicate a major hit. Firewall hardened his barrier as he jumped in front of the civilians the others had just pulled clear even as Scythe interposed herself beside him. Missiles hit her but failed to light up her belt. So unfair Cadet thought.
Cadet yanked at his grapnel to pull it free and reeled it in until it was just long enough to twirl in from of him and the girls like a propeller, angling the plane of it slightly forward at the bottom so it just skimmed the floor. Its spin was sufficiently powerful to knock incoming projectiles off-course even as he began to step forward. Bubbles kept up a steady stream of bullet-like bubbles at its central sphere.
Without hesitation Scythe suddenly ran towards it throwing chunks of rubble, even as it tried to grab at the remaining females around it with its mechanical arms. Her fearsome appearance thankfully caused the other girls to fall or run towards the back of the chamber as Scythe jumped in and proceeded to shred the sphere into scrap metal. It was a second or two before Cadet started to wonder if it would be classed as a villain or as a trap. He shouted out a loud “No, stop!” as Scythe unleashed a final killing attack on the orb. As it crashed to the ground between the remaining girls and them, Scythe turned and asked, “What?” Her monstrous eyes innocent.
Too late to worry about the consequences now, Cadet waited for a second to see if the end of session siren sounded. No, the teachers obviously didn’t think the test was over yet. They hadn’t identified anyone as the leader though he did think Frostie or the strongman might have been contenders. Did that mean the leader was either in amongst the civilians or was still to confront them?
Looking at the clusters of victims only one of them stood alone. He approached Kitty and as he reminded her to not use her ‘injured’ arm, whispered that he thought the leader was still to reveal themselves and wondered if it might be the girl flying solo. Kitty nodded and wandered across to keep her in her sight as the others began to gather the others together.
Over their comms they could hear that the session would end when they escorted the civilians out of chamber and that a safe route had been identified. Those injured and prisoners were to be left where they were for either medi-evac or containment. Good, hopefully they could trust the voice in their ear and there would be no more traps to contend with, only the possibility of either an ambush or a traitor in their midst.
Goody!
The shattered trap wall collapsed into the ground and the girls all started to turn and walk down the corridor with Kitty in the lead, Kid Arachnid shadowing the loner and Firewall still in data format ready for anything. Bubbles was acting as reassurance to the realistic MMDs that were acting scared which left him and Scythe to bring up the rear.
They had just passed a junction with a now de-activated trap when Cadet’s suspicions were aroused. The Loner suddenly flew into the air and blasted the corridor in front of the convoy causing it to collapse. His suspicions confirmed, she was clearly the leader and it had been powered as a paragon.
Cadet signalled for the others to get the remaining civilians to safety, back the way they had come while they dealt with Prima Donna here. He snatched out the remaining flash bombs and flung them at her even as he made sure he had some sleep-gas pellets left, after all even Paragons had to breathe, usually…
Scythe jumped up and tried to drag them both down to the ground. In reality, it was a diversion. Cadet had originally hoped that Kid would have been able to catch her in his webbing, but he still hadn’t managed to recharge yet but was happy to leap up and dangle precariously from their opponent’s left foot. Kitty grabbed the other leg one-handed and used the claws on her feet to try and pierce the skin but without success.
He handed his remaining sleeping gas pellets to Bubbles. “Can you deploy when I give you the signal? Firewall hold fire until then as well, I need this to be coordinated just right.” With that he fired off his grapnel and managed to tie her arms down though he knew she’d break free in a few seconds. “Now!” he screamed as her ‘hanger-on’s’ all let go together and their opponent, unprepared for such a sudden and unexpected change of weight, suddenly flew into the roof of the chamber. Hitting the roof hard she was unprepared and defenceless when Bubbles enveloped her head in the gas pellet-filled bubble helmet and Firewall unleashed every last joule of energy he had left in him into a chest strike that caused her to convulse uncontrollably and her head smash open the pellets inside the bubble with her.
A second or two later she hit the floor unconscious. Three of the civilians suddenly collapsed with her, powered down when the leader had been rendered powerless.
Cadet smiled, “Need to remember that manoeuvre for the future. What are we going to call it?”
As he spoke the lights came to full brightness and the end of session siren sounded even as the corridor walls collapsed and the holographs on their MMD convoy went dormant. They had completed the session, all that remained was to see how they had done…
Silver was outside the chamber waiting as they noticed the next team preparing to enter, Amazon time, apparently. They were about to shout over good luck when she shushed them. “No helping each other. Not bad, you lost some points for not accounting for your injury Cadet and for the injuries to two of the attackers but otherwise a very respectable round. Pryde beat you on time and the NeXt pipped you on points but you’re still in second place currently with three teams still to go… Not bad for your first outing. We’ll announce the final scores tomorrow when we debrief. Now go get changed…”
Next day
The team looked at the scoreboard. They had been pipped from second place by an outstanding round by the Amazons pushing the Next into second place instead. Team New Horizons came after that joint third with Pryde. Team Exemplar was last as it seemed Gravity Master had lost control and ‘killed’ several civilians while trying to ground the final villain, only for Alan and L33t to be taken by surprise by the hidden attackers in the crowd. Pryde and the Superiors had primarily lost points for the lethality of their attacks and their willingness to allow collateral damage and death amongst the civilians.
It still stung Cadet though that an actual physical injury he had really suffered was counted against his team though he acknowledged that it wouldn’t have altered their position on the scoreboard, just made them third in their own right and Pryde fourth.
He was feeling slightly euphoric after a healing session with the student healer, no absorber, there was a difference as he still had to rest his cracked collarbone until they could make an appointment for Doctor Collins to pay a house visit and heal the injury properly. All the student from South Africa, Kenneth St. Germain – or Mundunugu as he was codenamed Down Below, could do was remove the pain and start the fracture mending. He couldn’t completely and instantaneously remove the injury the same way as Doc’ Collins could, at least not yet, but it was better than having either his arm in plaster or waiting in pain for the Doc’ to be available for a visit. Thanks to Mundunugu it no longer hurt. No, it was much worse; it itched!
Meanwhile, he and his team had training to do before the next competition.
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 