HEROES - PART 5 - SESSION 14

Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.


Session 5.13   Index   Session 5.15


We are all in the laboratory under Boston Castle, having just defeated the New Commonwealth superhumans.

Truth and Servo search through the mass of wreckage thrown at us, telekinetically, by the man with the rainbow force field. They are looking for the Blessed Detector device, as they want to check to see if John Smith and the Witch-Hunter are indeed de-powered.

After a short while they find the detector, but it proved to be damaged. The screen is cracked, and the case dented. Some controls have been ripped off. Sparks fizz from inside. Servo turns it off and looks at trying to fix it.

At this point Servo, Noesis and Void notice large numbers of New Commonwealth soldiers moving down into the laboratory level from above. Perhaps it is time to go.

We would like to take the Telluric Energy Projector (TEP) with us, but it is far too large to fit through Void's gate. Void suggests that taking the 'black boxes' that Quincy, the mad scientist, made is the way forward.

Apart from those Servo certainly thinks he can reproduce the device given time and parts. He considers how to remove the black boxes from the TEP (the Blessed Detector will fit through Void's gate without having to be disassembled).

As the soldiers approach, Noesis attempts to use his powers to seal the doorway so they cannot get in. However, this takes time, and before he can finish some soldiers run in.

"YOU LOT!! STAND WHERE YOU ARE!" barks their leader.

We ignore them.

They open fire.

We quickly deal with them, Truth being especially effective at this.

Having though about it, Servo starts to take the TEP machine apart.

However, more soldiers are coming down the stairs. Unluckily for them, by now Noesis has sealed the doors into the walls, so they cannot get in. They begin trying to break down the doors.

Wishing to discourage this behaviour, Void opens a gate into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean and sprays water into the rooms outside the laboratory. The soldiers stop banging on the door and start retreating up the stairs instead.


With no-one shooting at us, we remove the Blessed Detector and the black boxes from the TEP and Void gates them into the warehouse we had commandeered. Along with them go Quincy's stocks of electronic valves and anything else useful that we can remove.

When we have done, Servo asks Abraham, the Duplicating Dwarf, if he would like to come with us.

Abraham considers this, then shakes his head. He tells us he would rather not be on the run for the rest of his life. Instead, he asks to be transported out of the lab so that he can 'escape' from the attack without suspicion.

We agree to this, so Void moves him into his room in the now water-filled part of the laboratory level. And he is gone.

We go back to moving things through Void's gate into the warehouse.


As we do this, there is a sudden roar of engines from outside, and armoured cars smash through the two main sets of doors into the warehouse. They are followed by large numbers of New Commonwealth troops.

"HALT! STAND WHERE YOU ARE!" booms a voice through a megaphone.

We decide not to do this, but instead that now is the time to move elsewhere.

Truth acts as a human shield while the rest of us move everything, along with Quincy, through Void's gate and into the woods where we first arrived in North America.

This being done, not without a few close calls, we dive through into the woods.

Void then uses his gate to move the water he sent into Boston Castle into the warehouse instead. This has little effect, though.


But we are in the woods, and appear to be safe for now.

Void speaks to Quincy.

He does not seem to be very happy. He rants at Servo to put him back where he was and let him continue his work, and also to "take his face off".

Happy to oblige, Noesis uses his power and removes Servo's face like a rubber mask, revealing his true face underneath.

Quincy quietens down.

We discuss what to do next.

As a first step we ask Bethany to go to see if John Smith and Witch-Hunter have been transformed back into non-Blessed.

She agrees to do this, and fades out of Void's head.

That being done, we discuss how to set up the TEP machine so that we can continue to use it, but on our terms. Something mobile seems to be the best idea. Servo thinks he could re-build the TEP to fit into a large vehicle of some kind. However, the TEP, even reversed, would also need access to some large electrical power source, and to some way of dissipating the large amounts of power it sucks out of those it de-powers.

This is all discussed with Quincy.

He comes up with a long-winded rambling rant on how the TEP could be converted. Unfortunately, none of us, not even Servo, understand what he is talking about...

We decide to handle it ourselves.

A large van or lorry, a ship, or a train goods wagon are discussed as possibilities. The ship is probably the worst solution as they all seem to be steam powered, and so although they have some electricity on board, they do not have the large amounts of electrical power that we would need to have available. A lorry or a train car could be moved to where the power was, and moved around more easily.

Void scans around for more information:

Considering all of this, a lorry or a railway goods truck seems the best solution. Discussing it further, we conclude that railways are too limited in where they go and options for escape should it be required. Lorries and vans are too obvious in the countryside, so we will have to hide where they are common - in a city. Boston seems to be the best solution.

That being essentially decided, we discuss how they managed to locate us. We conclude that it must have been by either their detecting Quincy, by the powers of another Blessed, or because Bethany gave us away, either deliberately or inadvertently. Hmm...

We decide that we need to get the Blessed Detector up and running as a high priority.

Void starts to look around for lorry or similar we can use. There are lots of such in Boston, in a few different models. The largest seems to be a type of steam-powered articulated lorry, common across the city, in a variety of different liveries of a variety of companies. The liveries are mostly simply the name of the owner, but a few also include some rather subdued advertising slogans.

Scanning around, we locate a number of vehicle factories in Boston. The largest belongs to the Massachusetts Motor Company, the MMC. Their factory has ranks of the steam trucks drawn up outside it awaiting collection or delivery. We observe how this is done.

People seem to pay before collection, and turn up at the MMC with a stack of paperwork that is dealt with there before they take their vehicle away.

With help from Void, Noesis is easily able to find and duplicate a set of the necessary paperwork. This being done, we present ourselves at the MMC and after a lot of tedious bureaucracy are duly given our truck.

The truck is stoked, a head of steam builds up, and we drive away.

As soon as we can, we turn into a dark alleyway and Noesis uses his powers to change the lorry's registration number as well as its' appearance, making it look a bit old and battered. A livery and colour scheme is created over it, and an advertisement put on the side so that we blend in with the other lorries around Boston.


By the time have done this Servo has managed to get the Blessed Detector working. This is gated into the back of the truck, and secured there.

That done, we talk about how to get power for it. Tapping into different sub-stations around the city, and moving from time to time seems to be the best way forward.


Shortly afterwards, Bethany arrives back in Void.

Though him, she tells us that she has located Cromwell. He is still in the Lord Protectors Residence with lots of extra bodyguards as the Witch-Hunter and John Smith seem to have lost their Blessed powers.

That being so, we discuss what to do next. We conclude that the first thing is to reverse the Blessed created by the TEP, and then to also pursue the Cromwell plan (although there is some dispute over what the plan was).

In the end we decide that we will swap him for someone more reasonable, who will hopefully bring things to a peaceful solution. We will do this by blowing up the Lord Protectors Residence. The Lord Protector will 'miraculously' be the 'only survivor' and have a sudden change of heart about the war and the direction of the New Commonwealth generally because of it.

The only problem with this is what to do with all of the other people we would have to blow up to carry out this plan. Servo in particular is not in favour of blowing up so many people. It is decided that we will have to stealthily evacuate everyone from the place, substitute other already-dead bodies for them, then blow the place up.


We plug in the Blessed Detector. It is currently showing France, and not very much in the way of Blessed. We zoom out, and as we do so see the dots of potential and actual Blessed appearing.

Servo zooms in on our location, and the six Blessed present (we five and Quincy) appear. As before two of the dots are more concentrated, presumably Noesis and Quincy.

He zooms out from us. We see that one Blessed is approaching Boston Castle from above at high speed. We surmise that it is the rainbow force-field man again, having survived his trip to low Earth orbit!

Void suggests trying to put him back into space, but for now we decide to just watch him.

Looking further out over the Atlantic Ocean we also see that there is one Blessed out there moving fast towards land. From the scale he must be moving at supersonic speeds. There is also another who is alive but not moving.


We finalise the plan.

Noesis heads for Boston Castle with Bethany to scout out the lie of the land there.

Void and Truth go off to source a supply of explosives and bodies ready for our operation.

Servo and Blitz stay with the van, Servo working on the machine and Blitz assisting with this and moving the truck to a new location from time to time.

Quincy is left in Noesis' hotel room at the St John's Hotel on Martyr Street, tied up.


In the Lord Protectors Residence, Noesis sees Cromwell working hard behind his desk in his office. He is talking about the loss of Quincy with various military types. From what they say they seem to know that Quincy was replaced with an impostor.

Noesis also overhears that "there has been no news from Cooper since they entered the basement". However, he has no idea who this Cooper may be.

Searching around he also locates the Witch-Hunter. Several doctors are examining him. John Smith, now a normal man, is also in the building, and does not look very happy.


In the truck, Servo works on the reversed TEP machine.

It is suggested that the beam of Telluric energy could be sent via a portal into the ocean and thence to its target. However, this is eventually considered to be too complicated. Instead, the Telluric energy beam projector will extend down from under the truck to the ground there.

Blitz proves to be very useful in all of this as he can lift very heavy weights and his friction powers are also useful in the assembly of things.


Elsewhere, Truth and Void hunt around for explosives and bodies.

The New Commonwealth Navy Base in Boston Harbour proves to be a rich source of explosives, mostly in the form of packs ready to be loaded into naval guns. They stealthily filch large quantities of these from the naval base and store them in the St John's Hotel on Martyr Street in Boston, which Noesis is still booked into.

Quincy is moved from the hotel room to the truck, and kept secure. We just don't want him in the vicinity of large amounts of explosives...

They then work on finding bodies.

They use Void's gate to hunt through the hospitals close to the Cathedral of Christ and the Lord Protectors Residence. All of them have morgues in the basement, with various bodies in them. However, we worry what will happen if bodies start to go missing.

As a possible solution, we see what happens to the unclaimed dead. There are a number of these, and we track them to Potter's Field, on the edge of the city, where they seem to be being buried in unmarked pauper's graves. This provides us with a large supply of bodies that no-one will miss.

That being so, they look for somewhere to keep them until we are ready to use them.

Some more hunting around locates a disused fish market down by the docks that should do as a place to store them in.

And so they are ready to go...


Back in the Lord Protectors Residence Noesis notes that there are lots of soldiers around, far more than there were before. Almost as if there was some kind of alert in progress...

As the day passes Noesis watches Cromwell working hard. He has lunch with his wife, then carries on working.

During the afternoon the two remaining Blessed from the Southampton Six arrive at the Residence and are shown in to the Lord Protectors office.

There, Cromwell congratulates them for work well done, then slams them for letting us get away. He refers to them as Brother McBeal (the large Native American with glowing rainbow eyes and force fields) and Brother Kay (the red-haired, pale skinned, green-eyed man with speed powers). They refer to him as 'Master'.

Cromwell concludes the interview by sending them to France to assist with the 'big push' there, and to help the New Commonwealth forces cope with the supply difficulties they are having.

McBeal and Kay leave the Residence. Outside, McBeal wraps himself and Kay up in a rainbow force field, takes off, and they disappear off towards the east at ridiculous speed.


Bethany goes to Void to pass on this news.

In the disused fish market, Void has used his gate to supply Truth and himself with enough ice to store the bodies in, largely stolen from frozen lakes and rivers within a few hundred miles of Boston.

He senses Bethany slide into his mind, and greets her.

She tells him and Truth what happened in the Residence.


That done, she goes off to tell Servo and Blitz the same.

When she has done this she goes off to France to advise the Octuple Alliance forces there of what is happening.


In the truck, Blitz keeps an eye on the detector and moves the van around from time to time.


A store of bodies are procured from Potters Field and put on ice.


Time passes. Everything proceeds.

Using the Blessed Detector, Blitz watches Kay and McBeal in France and Britain respectively. With help from Noesis, he is coached in 'being Cromwell'. He also allows Bethany to make a strong link to him so that he can communicate with the rest of us while impersonating Cromwell.

Noesis also spends some time figuring out how to create mock mustard gas out of himself. That is, something that looks and smells like mustard gas, but which is harmless. This takes a while, but eventually he manages it. This will be used to assist in emptying the Lord Protectors Residence before we blow it up.


Eventually Servo finishes the new reversed TEP machine. The important parts are built in a modular design so that they can be quickly removed should we require a fast getaway.

When it is to be used it will be connected to the energy-dissipation cable Noesis constructed using Void's gate.

The machine is connected up to an out-of-the-way electrical sub-station ready for use. We plan to de-power McBeal as a test of it, and because he is the more dangerous of the two remaining Southampton Blessed.


In the Lord Protectors Residence, Noesis watches Cromwell retire for the night. There are some hundred guards around him, outside his room and in adjacent rooms to both sides and above and below.

With Void's assistance he leaves the Residence and rejoins the rest of us.


From the truck, Void connects the reversed TEP machine into Noesis' cable using his gate.

Using the Blessed Detector, Servo pinpoints McBeal and, waiting until he is over land, hits him with the full force from the reversed TEP machine.

As we watch, the dot fades back to the dim light of a potential.

We disconnect the reversed TEP machine from the electrical sub-station and the lorry drives away.

As we go, Servo assesses the damage to the machine. He thinks it will only require a few hours repair work before it is ready to go again.


Void and Truth plant the explosives in various places about the Lord Protectors Residence.


In the disused fish market, Noesis spends some time transforming all of the bodies he can to resemble the guards he saw at the Lord Protectors Residence. Those that he does not have time to do this to he mutilates so as to give them a simulation of explosion damage. Servo gently microwaves the bodies so that, when found, they are not already ice-cold.

With help from Void, Noesis then seals up an empty train goods wagon and lines it with straw, ready to receive all of the living people we want to remove from the Lord Protectors Residence.


We also plan an escape route in case of need.


And we are all ready to go...


Session 5.13   Index   Session 5.15

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