Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
By a stone circle somewhere in France we continue to talk about what to do now.
There is some discussion whether we could build something like Project Safeguard or Project Stronghold in this universe. However, we quickly reject this as being both too difficult, given the low level of the local technology, and too dangerous in case the prisoners escape. Also, who would look after them? Besides, there is not enough time.
Servo points out that he could leap the technology of this world forward decades quite quickly, given the opportunity. No-one, not even him, thinks this is a good idea, though.
Noesis goes to check on Charity in her cell.
Again, she has enlarged the air shaft using sheer muscle power for some distance above the cell.
Noesis, not wanting her to carry on doing this, reforms her cell into a walnut-oil-covered Teflon sphere of larger diameter than her height, with no lantern, furniture or toilet hole.
Charity is briefly bemused at this, and then apoplectic.
He rejoins the discussion.
Further ideas are put forward. These include:
Below, Charity starts talking to God as if praying, or more as if she is getting a response.
Noesis wonders whether this sort of schizophrenia is common and whether we could cure them all with modern drugs.
Void wonders whether this is the Witchhunter's power - the ability to alter people's minds so that they hear a voice from God. That might explain a lot...
Back in our world, Truth returns to her wrecked flat, tidies up and goes to bed, quickly drifting off to sleep.
She soon finds herself on the grey misty plain again.
With the rest of us, Madame Drakulich somehow notices this and informs the rest of us.
She enters the stone circle and starts her trance, her humming resonating from the stones in strange sound-patterns.
In the dream-world Truth sees an image swim into focus ahead of her, as of a window out into Puritan World.
The rest of us see her image appear partially solidify out of the mist in the stone circle.
And we can all talk to each other.
Truth passes on the news of London.
The fact that our alternate selves are showing no sign of giving up their Puritan ways now that they are outside the Puritan World is not received well. Noesis in particular was hoping that exposing them to our society might cure them of their religious fervour, but this seems not to have happened.
Plans are discussed.
Noesis suggests feeding drugs into his shell via his maintenance systems would restrain 'Bad Noesis'.
When told that 'Bad Void' has not been seen since the attack on Southwark Cathedral, Void also suggests that his alternative self has run low on energy and is keeping a low profile. Given that he recharges from kinetic energy, such as that obtained by leaping off buildings or in front of traffic, he is unlikely to willingly recharge soon.
Truth takes these suggestions on board and we agree to talk again the next night at the same time.
We discuss what to do next, and also what to do with Charity.
Blitz suggests trying to find an alternative 'good', but powerless, Charity from another world and swapping them.
Madame Drakulich says this is possible but would take a long, long time to do. Finding people is not a trivial task. Let alone the increased danger of inter-world slippage this might cause.
Noesis again suggests methods of dealing with her. Not killing, but certainly not good things.
Servo again objects to any killing or anything that can be deemed 'bad'.
No practical way of keeping some of the supervillians under control is suggested and Blitz concedes that killing them may be the only alternative.
Servo is not at all happy at this.
Noesis suggests that the first step is to abduct the relevant people that need to be taken out of action - the Witchhunter and so on.
It is suggested that drugs could be used to keep him unconscious so he cannot do anything.
Noesis lists various possibilities, including some, such as strychnine, which may involve him dying unless treated very quickly. The advantage of strychnine would be that it acts very quickly, whereas the others, although less potentially dangerous, act much more slowly, dangerously so as far as fighting supervillains is concerned.
Void suggests putting together a target list to see just how many people there are to deal with.
It is suggested that speaking to the representatives of the Octuple Alliance so that they can put their prime targets on the list is the way forward.
Servo is very unhappy at all of this.
With the conversation over, Madame Drakulich relaxes from her humming trance and the mist in the stone circle fades away, carrying Truth with it. She falls into a more natural sleep.
After a little thought, our target list so far is:
Void opens a gate back to the cave with the stone circle to visit the Octuple Alliance representatives, in particular Baron Charles de Bourges.
We all go through the gate into the cave, and are greeted by the guards. In fact, only they are there.
They tell us that the Baron is asleep.
We explain the situation, and ask to speak to him. They consider this, but then decide it is not worth waking the Baron over. The guard commander asks us to come back in the morning. Hmm.
We go back through Void's gate.
It is decided to sleep and visit again in the morning to get the information we require.
Void gates all of us, and Madame Drakulich, back to the barn. Some people complain about the lack of beds, so Noesis uses his powers to make us some beds and we all drift off to sleep.
We all have dreams of a misty place, and everyone sees their counterpart from this world drifting about there too...
Morning comes, and we decide to check on Charity before doing anything else.
Void opens a small gate above ground level over the cell. The air shaft seems to be intact. A second gate into the cell shows Charity curled up in the centre of the pool of walnut oil, which now seems to be contaminated with her own wastes, there being no toilet hole any more. Void takes pity on her and drains off the walnut oil.
We then go back to the cave for breakfast with the Octuple Alliance representatives.
Entering the cave we find Baron Charles de Bourges, Master Lucius van der Stel and Duke Otto von Würzburg all having breakfast on their folding table.
They greet us as we appear, and their valets bring up a second table for us. We all have breakfast.
Void passes some food and a lantern through a small gate to Charity.
The list of people to be removed is discussed.
We add the five Puritan superhumans who we are currently controlling to the list, as they do need to be removed over the longer term. At the Baron's orders, a soldier brings up some dossiers that he passes to us. These contain the details of various people he thinks we should deal with. These include:
We also request, and are given, a list of other Puritan superhumans, who include:
They say the Puritan superhumans, and indeed their own superhumans too, do not act as a team like we do. Hmm...
One thing we do know is that Cromwell and his entourage are staying at the Hotel New England in London. Which is more than they do - they thought he was staying at the Whitehall Palace.
We ask them to provide us with various equipment to help us in our task, guns, clothing, explosives (including the local equivalent of dynamite) and so on. Soldiers go off to assemble this.
The Baron and the others agree to take charge of the prisoners if we gate them back through to the cave when we get hold of them. We consider this.
And we plan what we are going to do.
Back in our world, Truth wakes up.
Going out, she calls S.T.O.P. and when she is put through asks for an update of the London Knights situation.
She is told that Void has not turned up and Noesis has not moved since last night. She passes on the plan of 'Good Noesis' to drug 'Bad Noesis' through his external nutrient ports. Captain Tyler considers this, and agrees that this is probably the best way forward. Some suitable sedatives and a power suppression box are to be arranged by S.T.O.P. and will be taken to Professor Barker's house. [Power Suppression cuffs and boxes are quite large and bulky, though tough; they have to be 'tuned' to the powers of the individual they are suppressing, which takes some time.]
Some time later a S.T.O.P. minibus picks up Truth from a pre-designated location not far from her flat, and they head off to Professor Barker's house just outside London.
On arrival, the place proves to have been sealed off, and there are a number of S.T.O.P. vans in the road outside, including a monitoring van. Truth goes inside and asks for a report. She is told that there is still no sign of activity from 'Bad Noesis'.
She picks up the vials of sedative drugs, goes desolid and invisible, and moves in.
Truth drifts into Professor Barker's house and into the lab. Noesis does indeed still seem comatose, or asleep.
Stealthily examining him she sees that the maintenance port is already open as Noesis' shell is connected to the bench for routine maintenance and detoxification. She fumbles around in the maintenance systems until she finds the appropriate pipe and injects the drug. There is no noticeable change from Noesis after the injection.
Truth leaves.
When she gets outside, the S.T.O.P. person in charge asks Truth to go back to check that Noesis is really unconscious.
She goes back into the house in stealth mode, then becomes solid and gives Noesis a prod. There is no response.
Shortly after this S.T.O.P. enter with the power suppression box, disconnect Noesis from the bench and bundle him into it. They then proceed to cart him off to Project Stronghold.
That done, Truth is taken back to London where she wanders the streets, looking for Void. She also recruits S.T.O.P. to assist. Although S.T.O.P. do stop quite a lot of black men who they think are Void over the course of the day, neither have any luck, and 'Bad Void' remains at large.
Truth then asks for a cell in Project Stronghold, ready for her to swap back with her Puritan counterpart.
One is arranged, to which she will be taken once asleep. She is also given a set of power suppression handcuffs. After questioning the S.T.O.P. people to ensure that these will not interfere with the powers of Madame Drakulich, and finding that they will not, she allows herself to drift off to sleep...
Back in Puritan World, the Alliance soldiers gather the tools we want for our plan. Air guns are procured and Servo sets to work making drug darts for them.
Madame Drakulich goes off with the Alliance forces again.
Void requests a twenty gallon glass carboy of sulphuric acid. He doesn't know what for. It's just in case. When this outrageously dangerous artefact arrives he puts it to one side whilst he thinks of something to do with it. At least he can gate to it so we do not have to carry it with us!
Various other weapons and tools are obtained. We also suggest that a squad of soldiers ready for a suicide mission into London could be inserted with us. The Baron agrees to consider this.
We discuss how to cope with the Witchhunter and his mental powers. Something to put him out of action mentally.
Servo suggests Blitz hitting him hard until he falls unconscious. It might work...
Night begins to fall, and we are ready for the off. Servo has made a good lot of drug-tipped darts. Some of them are tipped with strychnine, which Servo has been persuaded is allowable, as we have the antidote too and should be able to use it quickly.
The Baron and the others have decided that sending a squad of soldiers with us on a suicide mission is not the way forward.
It is decided to bring Truth back before letting her out of the cell. Charity being quite a hard case and all.
Noesis suggests that soaking her in tomato juice will remove the smell of the walnut oil and faeces. No tomato juice being available in such quantities, a bath and a new set of clothes are put on standby too.
Madame Drakulich plus the rest of us return to the stone circle via Void's gate.
Checking on her, we find Charity is attempting to escape again. She is now half way up the air shaft, smashing herself arm and footholds en route.
Noesis again extends his powers, and seals the air shaft below her. She begins to curse.
We then pour chloroform down the shaft to gas her into unconsciousness.
She holds her breath for a long time, but eventually cannot any more, and falls unconscious.
Madame Drakulich enters the circle, falls into a trance, and begins her humming. The mist rises again.
In our world, Truth enters the dream and follows the calling to the other world again. En route she passes a comatose dream-Charity going the other way.
Truth wakes to find herself covered in walnut oil and shit. She is not exactly filled with joy at this. She is also very hungry.
A gate appears below her in the air shaft and she falls through it to the surface.
We quickly return to the Alliance camp at the cave, where she uses the bath and so on provided by the Baron in one of the tents outside. Then, feeling a bit more human, she eats. However, she continues to be not very happy with this treatment.
Truth tells them that Noesis is in safeguard, but Void seems to have disappeared.
We discuss whether he may be trying to build weapons to use against our world. Perhaps. Though if his powers are currently not working he may be no more than a lone terrorist in a world he knows very little about...
Now that Truth is cleaned up, Noesis uses his powers to change her appearance into that of someone else. We all now have a plain and average look, and are dressed in the Puritan style. We have bags for our equipment.
We discuss what to do next, and where in London to go.
From the maps she saw in the police barracks, Truth remembers that St James Park exists here. This seems like a plan.
Scanning using his gates, Void moves us closer to England, to the coast near Calais, then further on and into St James Park. It is night time. Military patrols wander past now and again.
We decide to lie low until morning, then carry on. Most of the large impressive buildings around Whitehall and Westminster seem to have guards on their roofs. Void suggests Covent Garden, and sends a reconnaissance gate there. It seems to be some kind of market, closed now, but still frequented by what appear to be prostitutes and their customers. We find a nearby rooftop where we will lie low on for the night. Using his powers, Noesis creates a shelter for us (it is February, not the best time for camping out on rooftops). It looks like a part of the roof.
We discuss whether to go though the documents of the Hotel New England to find where in the building the Witchhunter and the rest of our targets are located.
Voids sends off his gate, guided by Noesis' directions of where the hotel is, and we quickly spy the hotel's registration book, on the main desk, although the hotel seems to be closed, with soldiers guarding the lobby.
Using a gate opened below the level of the desk Noesis reaches through, creates a book-shaped 'shell' around the real book, and removes the book to our location.
We peruse it. It seems that the New Commonwealth occupies the top two floors of the hotel. However, it does not specify any further who is in which room.
Void opens a small gate between the floorboards of the hotel and subtly inserts sticks of dynamite into the gap.
Servo and Truth do not notice this.
It is decided that Cromwell is likely to be in the main room, the 'Protector's Suite', with the Witchhunter and John Smith quite close by.
On consideration, we decide that the Witchhunter is the prime target.
Void opens a small gate inside the room next door to the Protector's Suite. Inside, it is dark. The gate is moved above the bed, where a figure is dimly visible. It is shot with a dart. Then Servo looks through the small gate with his radar vision to see who or what we have got (given the need for a stealthy gate, he could not do this before).
Unfortunately we seem to have just shot a pile of pillows arranged into the shape of a person under the sheets. Damn.
The dart is removed, and we check the Protector's Suite. Unfortunately this is the same. Double damn.
Void closes his gate, and then removes some of the dynamite from between the floorboards.
Thinking Cromwell and the others may have moved, Void sends his gate to the Whitehall Palace instead.
Whitehall Palace is a large and impressive building, which Void begins to examine.
This takes quite some time. A few guards are around, and sleeping inside the most impressive suite we find the Governor General of England, Paul Windebanke. We hunt through the rest of the rooms, but do not find the Lord Protector or any of his entourage.
Now what?