HEROES - PART 4 - SESSION 8

Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.


Session 4.7   Index   Session 4.9


Notes:


On board the Wilberforce Throckmorton Device II (WTDII), Sven has been brought up to date on our recent actions. Having done that we are about to phone to Noesis to explain what has happened recently (Noesis has had a foreboding that it was a mistake to let Blitz, Truth and John Doe go off alone...).


Void arrives in the officer's bar in Brize Norton, where Servo and Noesis have been waiting. He is carrying a wad of paperwork, including a passport and similar important documents. "Bloody Hell, at least that is over!" he comments.

It is at this point that Noesis receives a phone call and Servo observes Blitz, Truth and John Doe on the TV, at Downing Street. "Oh Shit", say Servo and Noesis simultaneously.

There is a brief phone conversation. The 'team' will meet up in the WTDII soon. Noesis says he will be 'having a word' with us when he gets back. Blitz orders a curry for dinner (it now being fairly late at night) and goes off for a (much-needed) shower.

Sven talks about the world economic structure as we wait for the others to arrive. This is quite dull.


At Brize Norton a 'space wagon' type taxi arrives and Noesis, Servo and Void are driven back to London. They make their stealthy way to the WTDII and come on board.

Noesis is far from happy about the 'drugs' allegations to the press. Blitz tries to defend what was said. "Well, the press take things out of context..."

John Doe and Truth hide. Noesis suggests we "are more careful about what we say to the press in future." He then says that his shell's systems seem to have been more damaged by the EMP of the Project Safeguard self-destruct device than was initially apparent, and he is going to Professor Barker's for a check-up. He goes off in a huff.

As he has been living in it for the last two weeks, Blitz is forced to wash his uniform as well as himself. He does not have a spare so he hangs around in 'civvies' for a while. Several of the rest of the group have never seen his face before now.

At about this point, John Doe gets a phone call. "Throckmorton Device Secure Wing," he answers. It is Scarlet of the Lost Girls. She invites us out for beers at the Archway club (opposite Archway Tube Station) having seen us on TV, and wanting to know what has been going on.

John Doe makes Blitz a new uniform out of himself (his real one is still drying) and we (John Doe, Servo, Truth and Blitz) head off; John Doe carries Truth and Servo, Blitz flies on his own. Void decides to have a cup of cocoa and go to bed. Noesis has gone off to see Professor Barker.


John Doe, in the form of a Black Dragon, lands in a side street near the Archway nightclub to avoid a traffic incident. Truth spots a mushroom person among the several homeless people in the alleyway. Blitz lands nearby too. The dragon shrinks and sprouts a collar and lead. Servo picks up the lead and they head for the club (the dragon breathing fire for effect).

The party walks past the bouncers into the club; they do not try to stop us, clearly having more sense. The cloakroom attendant boggles but also does not try to stop us. Loud music, flashing lights and a crowd of people greet them us as we enter the club proper. A wave of silence (amongst the crowd) moves out from the door as people notice our arrival. A red-clad figure waving from the back of the club leads us to where the Lost Girls are - in a booth in a darkened area at the back of the club, by a fire exit. We go over to them and the club starts to get back to normal as it becomes clear a battle of superhumans is not about to erupt. Servo gets the drinks in (mobile phones are used to call him and tell him what people want). All three of the Lost Girls are present:


They ask about the giant space fish and events on Project Safeguard. We tell them everything, and also tell them about SI-12 and so forth. We discuss known and potential escapees from the incident and go on to spill the beans about the fungus people and the giant spidery robots we fought six months ago. We also tell them about Void. As far as the Lost Girls are concerned it has been rather quiet recently.

John Doe changes from dragon form to one he assesses as suitable for this club - an attractive muscular black man in a sharp suit with a dreadlocked beard and a shaved head. Scarlet asks him to dance, and he just about manages to avoid treading on her feet.

Blitz tries to chat up Kate Bodkin, but with little success (she glares at him coldly).

Servo tries to chat up Mestnusen, who wants to know more about 'work' (i.e. superheroic activities) and does not want to dance. She is particularly interested in the magic circles, which she has some knowledge of (her powers being magical and all). When John Doe reproduces the circles we saw on Project Safeguard, she says that they look like normal, general purpose, magical circles. They could be used to summon things, transport people through to another circle elsewhere, summon power, and many other things. She is not sure of the range of the transportation of such a circle - it would depend on the power of the people using it - but from where Project Safeguard was (near the sun) to Earth would have been a very long distance for such a spell.

Scarlet and John Doe return from the dance floor. Scarlet asks Servo for a dance next and they take to the floor. A space forms around them as Servo and Scarlet make a very impressive show of it! Servo throws Scarlet about the floor, and she reciprocates by doing the same - body armour and all! Afterwards, they are asked by the DJ to take a bow on the stage. He knows who Servo is, but is less sure about who Scarlet is.

Girls loiter around our table for a while, obviously wanting to dance with Servo. He doesn't fancy the first two - they remind him of his dead wife - but he does dance with the third. John Doe experiments with shape shifting and bioluminescence in time to the music. Later he tries Dragon Dancing. People clear a space for him, too.

Blitz and Truth join in the dancing. Blitz uses his flight power in his dancing, but even so they do not measure up to Servo and Scarlet's dancing. Scarlet cuts in and dances with Blitz. John Doe dances off with Truth. He changes to Devil form so that Truth can experience 'Dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight'. Blitz's dancing improves noticeably with Scarlet, although still not quite up to Servo's standards. The DJ asks Blitz and Scarlet to the stage too.

John Doe goes back to the booth to keep the other two girls company for a while. Servo dances with Truth. They are also invited onto the stage.

Mestnusen, when asked, says that she is not a nightclub type of person. She prefers reading. John Doe, deciding that she may be able to help him, asks her "What is Good?"

She tries to help, going off into a long, metaphysical spiel that goes over John Doe's head. She has to dumb it down quite a few times as John Doe just keeps repeating the question and still cannot give him a satisfactory answer. Servo joins in the conversation. Others return to the table but do not fancy joining in the heavy conversation. Blitz and Truth go off to dance again.

Kate Bodkin, when asked the same opening question ("What do you do for fun?") responds "Go to the cinema, listen to music, watch people and stuff like that." She is concerned that people are scared of her, because she appears to be made of plastic. Servo asks her what her powers are. "Cybernetics," she replies. "I had an accident."

This leads to conversation round to the subject of how people got their powers. People discuss their origins:

Much discussion of people's history accompanies this. We all learn a lot more about each other and the Lost Girls.


Eventually the nightclub starts throwing people out. Blitz invites the girls back to the boat. John Doe turns to dragon form and proffers a wing to anyone who wants a lift. All of the Lost Girls, Truth and Servo accept.

Before we can fly off, an autograph hunter gets signatures from most of us. This inspires us to try to invent titles for ourselves, along the lines of 'Chronos, Master Of Time'.

The Lost Girls and Servo dismount from the dragon before reaching the WTDII, to make their own way in (rather than go underwater with John Doe). The rest of us board the WTDII.

Scarlet arrives at the WTDII in civilian clothes. Mestnusen arrives invisibly, becoming visible as if unwrapping a cloak from about herself. Kate Bodkin arrives in a stealthy flash of speed. Servo gets the drinks (again).

Sven is asleep and cannot be woken up by Truth. Void was asleep but Truth does manage to wake him up and introduce him to the Lost Girls.

We party on. The drunken title game continues. Ideas include:

Somehow, no one is convinced that these titles are as good as 'Chronos, Master of Time'...


Truth drinks a lot, at least as much as anyone else, but it does not affect her. Similarly Kate Bodkin does not appear to be affected by the alcohol she is drinking. Mestnusen drinks only water. Scarlet gets drunk. Blitz gets drunk. Servo gets drunk. John Doe gets drunk (this is a first for him). Void goes back to bed after a very short while, looking disapprovingly at the others.

Truth examines Sven (he is alive but in a trance). She examines him in detail - he appears entirely human. John Doe's simulated emergencies also do not wake him.

Truth, Kate Bodkin and Mestnusen talk quietly in one corner while the others get drunk. Eventually they go to bed leaving the drunkards to their revels.


A drunken plan is hatched to drive the boat to the site where the Canary Wharf tower crash-landed...


DATE: TUESDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 1995

The next morning the people who remained sober last night wake up, bright and cheerful and bouncy.


Blitz wakes up in bed, naked, with a strange woman, of average height and average looks with a round face, mousy brown hair and brown eyes. She is also naked. The last thing he remembers is driving the boat. He feels terrible. The woman speaks in Scarlet's voice and quickly reverts to Scarlet's form. Blitz gets to feels her flesh reforming itself against him. Strange.


Servo wakes up, in his armour, on the couch. He feels terrible too but uses a healing pack to cure his hangover and aches he has acquired from sleeping in his armour.


John Doe wakes up and discovers that he is a figurehead on the WTDII! He is feeling fine, if a little bemused. He notices that no one is steering, so goes to find Blitz (the last person seen steering).


Truth starts singing and making a fried breakfast. Servo tries to help.


John Doe kicks in the door of Blitz's cabin. It breaks. He says "Oops," but it is not clear whether this is at breaking the door or discovering Blitz in bed with Scarlet with their costumes scattered about the cabin. He and Blitz discuss things, then he leaves to steer the boat.

On the bridge he discovers that the engine is off, and the boat is drifting with the current. He drives the boat off at speed. There is no sign of London!


Truth makes bacon sandwiches and offers them around. Only Blitz does not partake, nearly throwing up instead. Scarlet props the door closed and drags Blitz back to bed to take his mind off the hangover. This she does quite effectively.


Truth ends up on the bridge too. Servo joins her and looks at the GPS satellite navigation system. We seem to be in the Thames Estuary. Truth turns on the TV:

There is no news about:

We all go 'phew' at the lack of these latter items.


Truth phones STOP for a mushroom people update. She speaks to Sergeant Nick Courtould who she spoke to regarding them last time. He tells that STOP made some enquiries, picked up some of the mushroom people and found that they were not contagious and not appearing to be an immediate danger for any other reason. As a result they have been classed as low priority (compared to the likes of Viper, DEMON and so on), with only an occasional watch being kept on them. Truth offers to investigate before our next No. 10 meeting on Thursday.


There is some discussion about how to drive and navigate the boat as only Blitz is qualified and he is otherwise engaged at the moment. We approach the Canary Wharf tower crash site. Police boats cordon it off with a few helicopters patrolling too. We sail by without calling attention to ourselves.


Blitz and Scarlet go to the bridge after Blitz finally realises that the boat is moving and he is the only one he can drive it.


Sven comes up to the bridge too. He is interested in what this 'partying' thing is. Some of it is explained to him.


Truth, looking at the water, suddenly mentions her alter ego (Verity) with the watery alternative form, last seen entering the Thames, and whether we could be in danger from her now. She also mentions about the burning down of the abandoned cinema that she did to try and get the other Verity. The others give her a bit of a hard time about this.

In the end it is generally agreed that as it was more than three weeks ago, the other Verity has probably left the Thames by now.


After a while we reach St Katherine's dock and the WTDII is moored in its usual place. We agree to party with the Lost Girls again some time. We exchange phone numbers and agree to keep in touch.

Scarlet grabs Blitz and gives him a damn good snogging before departing. Kate Bodkin tuts and mumbles "not again" under her breath. The Lost Girls leave.


Once the Lost Girls are gone, Truth states that she has smelt 'strange things' in the underground - creatures and blood, and that this might relate to the fungus people. This intrigues everyone else so we go off to investigate.

Before we get very far, Noesis phones. He says his shell is more damaged than he first thought, so he will not be joining us for a while.

Void also says he will not be joining us. He wants to have a look around this world's version of London. Sven volunteers to act as his guide, and the two of them go off.


We get onto the tube system for free at the nearest station (Tower Hill) by showing our STOP passes (which are like the free travel passes police officers get). John Doe is in businesswoman guise; everyone else is in costume.

We discuss going onto the track and down the tunnel to see what we can find. Blitz flatly refuses to do this so Truth goes off alone while everyone else hangs around to see what she can find. She does not find any scent trails.


We cruise around the Circle Line on the tube trains for a while to see what we (well, Truth) can find.

There do not seem to be any trails to these strange smells Truth can detect. Truth does detect a fungus-person smell on the tubes that seems to be strongest to the north of the Circle Line, particularly between the Farringdon and Great Portland Street stations. She hunts around and after a while tracks it down as emanating from the eastern branch of the Northern Line tube tunnels, to the North of where they intersect with the Circle Line. We take the tube that way. Finally the fungus smell starts to fade after Highgate tube station.

As we are travelling around, Servo starts thinking about and jotting down notes for a fungus-person-detecting device.

We go back to Highgate station and get off the train there. Servo can also now pick out a faint musty smell of fungus in the station, though no one else (other than Truth, of course) can. The smell is very strong to Truth. Going up the escalators to the surface the smell gets stronger and stronger but then fades in and out near the entrance. Outside the station the smell is present but fainter yet. Hmmm.


Servo goes in search of the stationmaster. Truth goes desolid and starts following he scent within the station.

When the stationmaster comes up, Servo requests access to the service tunnels and other areas. The stationmaster agrees to provide this, and a wizened old man in the London Underground uniform who is introduced as Mr Regis comes up. He accompanies Servo and the rest of us with a set of keys to the various non-public parts of the station.


Truth wanders around the part of the escalator where the smell was strongest. She finds access tunnels - and the smell appears to be coming from one unused section. She phones Servo.


Up above, Servo, John Doe and Blitz have, with the aid of Mr Regis, been opening doors and rummaging around in various parts of the station. There is some mould and fungus in a few rooms, but they have not come up with any large-scale fungal infestations.

Servo's phone rings. It is Truth. She gives him directions to where she is and he, John Doe and Blitz head off that way.


When we get to the door Mr Regis states that is has not been opened for some time - years. It was intended for a generator set that was never fitted. He finds the key on his large key ring and opens the door.

The smell of fungus can now be sensed by all of us. A yard down the tunnel, white fungus covers the concrete walls of the tunnel, which, in the light of our torches seems to go off into the distance, getting bigger as it goes. Strands of fungus hang from floor to ceiling, and the air is misty, though whether with spores or dampness is unclear. Figures can be dimly seen moving around in the distance. Mr Regis gasps...


Session 4.7   Index   Session 4.9

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