Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
In a barn somewhere in the French countryside of Puritan World, we discuss the situation. The fact that we have been summoned here to fix the problems of this world while our counterparts have been sent home and may be rampaging through out London.
"We should kidnap the witch who performed the ritual to swap our minds here from the people she is working with and then convince or force her to send us back home," says Void.
Blitz provisionally agrees to this.
"We, or someone else, will just be dragged back again," says Truth.
"Assisting these people would be the moral thing to do," Noesis suggests. "As allowing the 'Joyless Puritans' to take over this world would be a terrible thing to have happen."
The discussion continues.
Void, perhaps being devils advocate, suggests that the people here might want to be ruled by 'Joyless Puritans'.
Truth reminds us that our own bodies could be wreaking 'Joyless Puritan' havoc back in our world. Because of this lack of care for our world she has little sympathy for the agents of the Octuple Alliance who brought us here.
Blitz argues that we cannot trust the Octuple Alliance. They have already kidnapped us, so why would they go out of their way to send us home and bring back their most powerful enemies once we have done what they ask?
Noesis suggests that the first step is to ask for Madame Drakulich be freed, following which we talk to her and get more information from a different viewpoint, which will perhaps allow us to make a more informed decision.
Void agrees with this idea. He suggests that step two should be to swap one of us back into our original body on our Earth in order to stop our counterparts wreaking whatever havoc they may be on our London. Perhaps Truth is the best qualified of us all to do this.
After some further discussion, we all agree that this is probably the best way forward.
"What we will do if they refuse?" Blitz then asks.
"We then attack them," Void suggests. He then asks if Blitz can freeze him in place using his powers offensively. Just in case he has to.
This is tried. Blitz concentrates, and the air solidifies, not around himself, but around Void. Void is held quite tightly, but can still move, although very slowly, and with a lot of effort being required on his part. It also seems that Blitz can only freeze one person at a time. Hmm...
We discuss the situation further. Noesis and Void will stay at the barn so that if we are attacked they don't get hurt, and can both evacuate us and heal any injuries we may acquire in the process.
"If Truth is sent back, will we be able to restrain her when her original minds takes over?" asks Servo. Good point.
We try this.
Noesis cannot hurt her when she has her force field up. Blitz seems significantly stronger and faster then her. Her force field seems to reflect the effects of Servo's powers. Void scoops her up in a gate, and drops her from fifteen feet up. She lands from this with no problems. He repeats the procedure from thirty feet. She manages this too, although with a little more effort. Void concludes that a couple of hundred feet up should be more than sufficient.
He also checks to see what closing one of his gates on something does to it, experimenting with a piece of straw. It seems to 'pop' out one way or the other, but not be trapped or cut in half by the closing gate.
Noesis thinks he can make a prison for Charity in the bedrock under our feet by using his powers.
So we think we can contain her should it be necessary. Good.
However, after some more discussion everyone is generally a little unsure as to what to do with the real Charity when she returns, because although she is a killer, we do not know whether this is just her or because of the system that raised her. Fair point.
But we've now got a way forward, so Void creates a gate back to the top of the hill under which was the cave where we met the representatives of the Octuple Alliance. Everything seems much as we left it, so we all step through onto the hill.
Void then prepares to open a new gate into the cave. Noesis makes his arms longer and equipped with large hands, ready to reach through and grab Madame Drakulich if required. Servo looks out for radio transmissions using his powers, and jams any that he finds.
Void opens a small gate into the cave. Everything seems as it was, and a voice seems to sound an alarm regarding our gate. He opens the gate to full size, and Blitz and Truth step through into the cave.
Baron Charles de Bourges, Master Lucius van der Stel and Duke Otto von Würzburg are sitting around the folding table to one side of the cave. Madame Drakulich is off to one side reading a black book. As before soldiers are standing around the walls of the cave, and guarding Madame Drakulich.
"Some guarantees are needed before we will help," Blitz tells them. "We also need Madame Drakulich freed so that we can talk to her in private, and we wish to send one of us back to sort out our world."
"If we could have a quarter of an hour to discuss this?" says the Baron.
Truth and Blitz agree to this, and step back through Void's gate onto the hilltop. Void leaves the gate open, but small, so that we can hear them through it.
However, they can clearly see the gate, and avoid saying anything when it approaches. To overcome this, Noesis merges into the hill and begins sending a thread of himself down towards the cave so that he can put an eye and an ear into the cave to listen in on things.
This is a slow process, but after ten minutes he reaches the cave and forms a camouflaged eye and ear on the end of his tendril before sending it around the roof of the cave towards the talking people.
The three of them are having an animated discussion in French. Which Noesis does not speak. Damn.
He relays what he is hearing, and Blitz, who does speak fluent French, translates.
"They are not happy about us making demands on them," Blitz tells us. "They say that we could take her if that is the price to be paid, and that they have her tribe as hostages against her good behaviour."
They consider this some more, and finally seem to agree that to let us have our way.
When the fifteen minutes are up, Void re-opens his gate and we go back into the cave.
The Baron reluctantly agrees to let us take Madame Drakulich and for us to do the other things we want to.
He gestures at the troops, and the soldiers step back from Madame Drakulich.
She steps forward towards Blitz and Truth.
"We have her family so do not forget to bring her back," says the Baron warningly.
We bring her through the portal to the hilltop.
That done, Void gates us directly back to the barn.
Away from the representatives of the Octuple Alliance, we ask Madame Drakulich about all that has been said so far.
She confirms, in English, that her family - her tribe - is being held. "Could we go to somewhere with armchairs"? she asks.
Noesis uses his powers to make some of the straw into an armchair.
She sits, looking grateful.
"What is your opinion of the Octuple Alliance?" Noesis asks her.
She does not seem to have a terribly high opinion of the Alliance, but says that she prefers it over the New Commonwealth. She confirms she is a gypsy - a Roma as she puts it - and that the alliance do not persecute them as much as the Commonwealth.
She tells us that she was basically blackmailed into calling us here. The people we met in the cave tracked her down through means she does not quite understand, and used the taking of her tribe as hostages to bend her to their will. However, she says that they are messing with matters outside the ken of mortal man here, against her advice and judgement. "Too much of this kind of thing, will disrupt the balance between the worlds, cause them slip, and cause seepage between worlds," she says.
She also mentions that she had not done this sort of thing before, it was just something she knew from ancient lore. She did not choose us specifically - she just sent out the spell and it latched onto us as the best possibility.
It happened now because "the stars are right" at the present time. She could send us back for the next few days, but after that the stars move out of alignment again and it will be months before they align again. The ritual itself also had to be done at the standing stones, where "the Earth Power is strong".
She apologises for bringing us here, but repeats that she had no choice.
"Is there anything you think could help this world?" asks Noesis.
Madam Drakulich thinks about this. She tells us that the countries of the Netherlands and Spain are the best of the Octuple Alliance, certainly better than the New Commonwealth and also when compared to the others in the Alliance.
We worry that once her job has been done she and her tribe will simply be killed out of hand, stranding us here.
Understandably, she has thought about this. She says that she has been told she will be rewarded for her assistance, and does not think they intend to simply wipe them out.
Noesis asks what the reward will be. For example, a free homeland for her people?
She looks at him like he is mad. "No, just money," she says. From what she says she doesn't trust them not to use her this time, and then force her to do so again at some later time.
Based on all of this, Noesis thinks that Truth should be sent back now and while the rest of us will wait for the next period. That is, in three to four months.
Madame Drakulich tells us that she can contact Truth in dreams while she is in our world if needed, although this will not be easy. However, she will require a stone circle to do this, and to send Truth home now.
Void uses his powers to hunt around, with assistance and directions from Madame Drakulich, until he finds a stone circle in an isolated part of the French countryside, well away from the war-zone. Then we take our supplies and step through the gate to the stone circle.
We decide that to contain Charity when she returns to her body, we need a secure, strong cell. Noesis merges with the ground a little and makes a large cell about a hundred feet down in the ground, in the bedrock, with toilet hole, shaft to pass food down (not directly above the toilet hole!), a nice bed, a lantern and so on.
Void plans a gate so he can put Charity directly into the 'Charity Trap' when needed.
Truth tells us that she will go and see S.T.O.P. straight away as soon as she returns and explain the situation to them.
With everything set up, Madame Drakulich tells Truth to go to sleep in the stone circle so that she can be sent back. It is now late afternoon on our first day in this world.
Noesis makes beds out of the local materials so that people can lie down and rest. Eventually Truth falls asleep, and dusk falls.
Once Truth is asleep, Madame Drakulich tells us not to disturb her as bad things will happen if we do, and then goes into a trance.
Servo flies around on patrol to ensure that we are not disturbed.
Madame Drakulich starts to hum, a sound that seems to resonate with the standing stones and fill the whole area.
As she does so, a mist gradually rises up around Truth.
In the thickening mist, the hazy form of the real Truth hovers above the body of Charity Lynch, and then fades and dissipates away.
Truth wakes up in a misty grey plain, like the misty grey expanse we found ourselves in when we came here. She has a feeling of a tug from one direction, and lets herself go with it.
As she drifts through the misty landscape, ahead of her a figure appears out of the mist. As it comes closer, this resolves into Charity Lynch, dressed in her full Puritan Security Services uniform.
Charity sees her, and begins to shout abuse, calling her "the Whore of Babylon", "Minion of Satan" and similar unflattering things. She is in a very bad mood.
Truth moves on past Charity as quickly as she can, and she is lost to sight in the mist.
Eventually a light becomes visible through the mist ahead and brightens into a daylight-like state. Truth steps into the light. Objects begin to resolve themselves out of the light and she feels a wrenching sensation as if of internal adjustment, as if something inside us, something fundamental, is changing shape to fit into something else, although this time it feels easier than when we went into the bodies in the other world. There is a sense of whatever-it-is sliding home somehow.
And Truth wakes up.
Looking around her she sees that she is in a church. It appears to be a small, fairly normal-looking church. However, all of its insides have been whitewashed and all unnecessary ornamentation has been removed, including the pews. Sat against one wall are two men in the vestments of a vicar and a verger. They seem rather stupefied, as if mind controlled.
Truth gets up quietly, goes desolid and invisible and stalks off, knowing that the vicar and verger will eventually recover from the mind control on their own.
Looking down at herself, Truth discovers that she is wearing long, black and white extremely frumpy clothes with sensible shoes. And a tweed jacket.
Looking around, she discovers that she is in the East End of London, near Whitechapel, outside St Mary's church.
She decides to head off to the 'Wilberforce Throckmorton Device III', which should be tied up in St Catherine's Dock.
Taking a good look around at things, she finds that London appears to be normal. No widespread fires are visible, and all of the nearby landmarks, such as the skyscrapers in the City of London, are still where they should be. Good!
As she heads through the streets back towards central London, Truth picks up a copy of the Evening Standard for today. There are two headlines that immediately leap out at her:
Westminster Cathedral (as opposed to Westminster Abbey) and Southwark Cathedral are both major Catholic Cathedrals...
She searches the rest of the paper but finds no news of Noesis (who she surmises may be having a bad time having found himself to be a brain in a tank) or of Void. Hmm...
Having seen the headlines, Truth finds a public payphone, uses her desolidification power to steal some change from it to make a call, and rings S.T.O.P.
When she gets through, she states her identity and asks to speak to Sergeant Nick Courtould.
She is quickly put through and explains everything that has happened in the last day to him.
He is quite sceptical, but on the other hand knows he is talking to Truth and so knows that she cannot lie. So he has no choice but to accept her story.
A plan for Truth to meet up with the S.T.O.P. people who are sorting things out at Westminster Cathedral and then see about tackling her rogue team-mates is discussed and agreed.
That being done, Truth goes off to her flat - which is not too far away - to change into her costume before heading onward.
Back in the other world, we all see a misty version of Charity Lynch appear out of the mist over her body and then float down into it. Her eyes open and she starts to move.
However, Void has been waiting for this, and quickly moves his portal over her from behind and drops her into the cell before quickly closing it down to small size again. He keeps the small portal open into the cell.
"In God's name let me out of here," she demands.
"I can't," says Void. "But I wanted to check that you were all right."
Some religious and unbalanced-sounding ranting drifts through the portal and up the shaft from below. Charity is praying loudly for God to smite all sinners in this world and in the other world.
Then we hear sounds of her hitting the rock walls of her cell with her fists.
Noesis points out to her that the cell will fall in if she carries on doing this.
She carries on.
We look at one another with some concern over what will happen with her next.
Arriving at her flat, Truth finds that all of her costumes and most of her other clothes have been burned. Only the dowdy stuff like that she is wearing now is left. Damn.
She heads off to Westminster. En route she goes to one of her hidey-holes where she has stashed a spare costume and other bits and pieces. There is no way that Charity could have known about this, and indeed all of her stuff there seems to be intact.
Changing into her skin-tight silvery-white costume, Truth then heads towards Westminster.
Making her way across Westminster upon arrival there, Truth sees that the abbey is just fine but that the Cathedral is badly damaged. Mainly, it appears, by energy blasts.
Firemen, normal Police and S.T.O.P. people are milling around, keeping back the public and organising rescue and repair work.
Truth heads for the S.T.O.P. Captain invisibly and appears next to him. She recognises him as Tyler.
"Who are you then?" he asks cautiously while stepping back.
Truth elucidates.
It takes a little explaining to convince him that the story he has just heard over the radio is in fact true. Truths reputation for speaking nothing but the Truth helps a great deal in this, and eventually he accepts the tale.
Once he is convinced Truth tells him the plan. This consists of telling Blitz/Henry Smith that he must stop what he is doing otherwise his family back in the other world will be hurt.
She asks about Void and Noesis.
Captain Tyler tells her that the policemen who were sent to Professor Barker's house to talk to Noesis have been making gibbering noises over the radio since not long after that, and S.T.O.P. are considering their options. Nothing has been heard of Void since his attack on Southwark Cathedral.
They decide to leave Noesis and Void until later.
Truth tells Captain Tyler that she will go and hunt down and deal with Blitz.
He thanks her for her help. "Although he wasn't wearing a mask, the TV camera's didn't get a good enough shot to identify him," he says.
That being so, Truth helpfully tells him Blitz's real name and address.
She then skips merrily away to Blitz's flat.
Entering his building and desolid and invisibly drifting into Blitz's flat, Truth finds that the place has been trashed. However, Blitz is there, sitting in a chair amongst the devastation holding a big bible - like one from a cathedral - on his lap, apparently searching for help in its pages.
Truth goes out again and knocks on the door. There is no answer, so she enters the room anyway, still in desolid gaseous form.
"It's all right Henry. I'm Truth, I've been sent to help you," she tells him reassuringly.
"Who are you? Where is this place? Are you one of the Lords Exalted?" he asks in a slightly stressed tone.
"It's not your world," Truth tells him, carefully picking her words. "And yes, I am one of The Lord's exalted."
"What's going on?"
"There's been a bit of an accident," she says helpfully. "We'll try and get you back as soon as possible. But you have to stop destroying things, otherwise helping you will be much harder."
"I am the Lord's tool to destroy Popery," he says discovery. "It is God's will that I am here. If you are trying to convince me not to act as I should here, then you are not an agent of the Lord, but of the Devil."
"I will leave you now," Truth tells 'Blitz', seeing that her attempts at persuasion are going nowhere.
She does indeed leave, but then goes invisible and floats back into the next room and, peeping out at him, goes solid and then attacks his mind. Silvery gas floats across the room and envelops 'Blitz's' mind, forcing to hold still.
She then knocks him out with her sleeping gas.
With 'Blitz' thoroughly unconscious, she calls S.T.O.P. and tells him that she has 'Blitz'.
They asks her wait, and shortly a pair of S.T.O.P. vans pull up outside, and S.T.O.P. agents come in bearing a set of power-dampening cuffs. These are put on the unconscious Henry Smith and he is wheeled away, heading for the new Project Stronghold oil rig in the mid-Atlantic.
From talking to the S.T.O.P. people here Truth finds out that S.T.O.P. had sent people round to Void's house, but they found nothing there, other than some destruction.
She tells them that she is off to see Servo. She manages to refrain from telling them exactly where he lives and who he is, but does tell them roughly where in London he is to be found.
That done, off she goes.
Back in the other world, we talk further with Madame Drakulich about this world and its superhumans.
She tells us that the families of the those us our counterparts who have them are all being kept, not exactly prisoners, but certainly watched hostages to keep them all in line. They are mostly in America.
"Would killing Cromwell help?" asks Void.
"We aren't going to kill anyone," Servo says firmly.
It is then discussed whether to kidnap and change the face of Cromwell, John Smith and the Witch-hunter so as to effectively remove them from power without having to do any killing.
We also discuss what mental powers the Witchhunter has. We certainly think he has some, given how quickly he picked up that Noesis was not who he was claiming to be.
Void suggests bombarding London with asteroids, using his gate powers.
Servo again objects to the killing thing.
It is pointed out that is lucky that Void's imagination is not shared by his counterpart here!
In the end we decide to visit London to get an idea of the situation there, then decide based on that.
That decided, Noesis uses his powers and changes the appearance and identity cards of us all, so that we can blend into the crowd.
Below us the sound of Charity attempting to punch her way out of her cell continues to be heard.
"The Commonwealth authorities will kill me given the chance," Madame Drakulich says.
Nobody knows what to do with Charity.
We wonder whether speaking to Truth in dreams may help.
Void checks on Charity. She is damaging the walls, and we notice, through Void's spy-hole, that she can extend her force field a couple of metres from her hands alone, giving her the ability to punch at range. She has made the first part of the air shaft bigger and is crawling up it.
Noesis fixes the damage.
She curses us.
It is suggested that gassing her into unconsciousness would help.
Servo goes through Noesis' medical bag to find some gas we could use to knock her out for now. The only thing really suitable is the ether. He thinks he could rig something up, given time, but that may not be something we have.
Perhaps we will just have to live with the fact that if she does get out of the cell, Charity will be in hostile countryside miles from Commonwealth lines with no idea where she is. But then there is the problem of what happens if Charity is killed and Truth is pulled back into her body. Complications, complications...
Back in our London, Truth reaches Servo's company headquarters, and sneaks inside invisible and desolid.
It looks as if there has been a fight there, signs of disorder everywhere. However, Truth also sees that Servo is strapped to a chair, wrapped up in the tentacles of one of his own metal binding eggs. Standing over him is Brian Clinton, demanding to know what is wrong with 'Malcolm'.
Truth then appears out of thin air next to him, just another shock for poor old Brian, and tells him the full story.
Brian accepts the story quite readily, given what has happened, and discuss what to do now.
They agree that 'Malcolm' should not go to S.T.O.P. as that would ruin his secret identity. Instead, he will remain here, where he seems quite well restrained. Brian will attend all of the company meetings in the meantime, explaining the Malcolm "is not feeling himself" and "is a bit tied up".
Leaving, Truth calls S.T.O.P. again and tells them that Servo is under control.
S.T.O.P. tell her that there is still no sign of Void, so she decides to go on to Noesis instead.
Truth approaches Professor Barker's house desolid and invisibly. She passes through the walls of the lab and can see Noesis's shell sitting on a bench in the laboratory there. It seems to be rocking back and forth, and muttered prayers are issuing from its speakers. Professor Barker himself is lying on the floor by the bench, with dried blood about his mouth and ears.
Curled up in a foetal position on the floor in the doorway are two S.T.O.P. agents, gibbering quietly to themselves.
She leaves and confers with S.T.O.P. by mobile telephone.
They decide that she should hang around until 'Noesis' falls asleep, then go in and get the three victims out. They will have to leave 'Noesis' there until they can do something to help him, and stop him dying of starvation when his nutrient pack runs out.
This is done; eventually 'Noesis' nods off and she sneaks in and drags out Professor Barker and the two S.T.O.P. people. At the suggestion of S.T.O.P. she also installs some small hidden observation cameras so that 'Noesis' can be watched until they decide what to do with him.
With the immediate casualties rescued, Truth then tells S.T.O.P. that she is going to have a rest, but to contact her if Void turns up.
And she goes off to do this thing...