A pronged attack

So, at about the same time Cleo and TP were being attacked by a John, one wandered into our base. Yeah, I know, just sauntered in like he owned the place. I was in the main part of the 'shop' as it were, the ground floor bit at the front that used to be a shop anyway, checking my machines (Which is a lot harder and slower without Technopathy!) and Diffy was doing some maths behind me from some worksheets I'd printed out for him, and every now and then a brightly coloured number would float past me as Diffy illusioned visual aids. I heard the door's bell tinkle as it opened (Tingle can't always be on guard duty so we kept the shop bell) and then a shuffling noise as Diffy turned in his sitting position to look at the newcomer. 'I heard him yell 'Oi! Mr Stinky!'' and blow a huge raspberry and dived behind the counter. I know it seems stupid, but without my powers there didn't seem a lot of point trying to attack someone like John without the aid of surprise, and he'd already seen me. I heard him pace slowly across the floor, and stop just infront of Diffy 'You've got questions 3, 7, and 9 wrong' he said, and then there was a rasping noise of someone's windpipe slowly being crushed, strangely close, which nearly made me run at John, no doubt ending in my death, but I trusted Diffy, so I stayed down.

'I could take control of your mind, but everyone knows about your illusions already, and you are strong-willed for one so young. Mind you, that attack you pulled on me in Paris...but no, I can see it would be very hard to make you do that to your friends, your mind is not worth the effort.' Diffy sailed over the counter and smashed into the shelves behind me. He fell to the floor, bleeding heavily, and crawled under the counter with me, out of sight of John, only to disappear completely and reappear on my other side, completely fine.

'I nearly gasped out loud 'Diffy?!' I whispered, shocked and delighted.
'What, you not think I was going to stay with Mr Stinky to get all beatened up, did you? I learnt from before when he thowed me around the room. I made a spook of me and turned invisdable as soon as bell went tinkly tinkle.'
Wow. Well done.' I whispered back, and then clapped a hand over his mouth as John reached the counter and stopped to examine my machines. Then he turned and came round the edge of the counter to be standing just in front of us.

I whacked the back of his knees with the emergency cricket bat (Yep. Emergency cricket bat under the counter. I didn't see the point, but I'm glad Precog insisted now!) and as he buckled, almost keeling over, Diffy grabbed his leg and bit it, hard. John yelled, stood up, and kicked, sending Diffy flying into my arms. 'You think your pitiful attempts can stop me?' He cried, and we ran up the stairs, me throwing the cricket bat behind me getting a headshot with it giving us a couple of seconds spare.

'Playwrite?! Healthbar?! Dragon?! Please, someone with an offensive ability, do something!' I called, hoping someone was near the stairs and could help. Dragon was at the top waiting for us, and said 'Get out of the way please' in a surprisingly calm voice. Then a torrent of water shot from his hands, gushing and roaring down the stairs, and with a slight grin and a crackling sound, he electrified the water, sending John reeling and falling down the stairs. He sent a handful of the gooey weblike substance he used last time down after John, and then he lead us, including the rest of the group who'd arrived by then down the stairs again. Thinking about what John had meant to do to Diffy swept a surge of anger over me, and I felt a strange wave of heat pass through me. We made a circle around the webbed John, and what we could see of his face glared at Dragon.

'Playwrite, I will require your help blocking young John's powers' said Dragon, and Playwrite nodded, and then signalled for the webbing to be cleared from John's mouth.
'Don't think you can stop me' said John, and he stared at Healthbar, frowned slightly, and Playwrite and Dragon both winced, but Healthbar seemed fine, and swirled her hand, smiling at John, and sent a small cloud of her dark fog stuff settling over Johns head like a helmet, and Playwrite and Dragon seemed to relax a bit, as she joined in fighting his control. John seethed, and then said 'I knew there would be resistance. I knew the best chance was to isolate you into your pathetic friend groups. I'm currently attacking Cleo's little band and Damian as well.

'Yeah, Cleo just tried to reach me' said Playwrite. 'At least, it felt like Cleo, it feels like she's signalling from the other side of the planet, it's very faint. All I got was: 'Playw..... ..t Tem.... ... ... ...ers and come ... ..lp .... John. We're .. ... ....ey ....... brid...' It was really quiet. It's lucky we both have such good range or I wouldn't have got so much.'

'Ah, clearly I'm doing well over there then' said John, and Dragon started quivering as John started, very faintly, to glow orange. Playwrite's nose started to bleed and he was starting to shake as the fog faded and Healthbar keeled over backwards, got caught by Tingle and set gently on the floor. I went to whack John with the cricket bat again (I'd picked it up again on the way down) but it flew out of my hand and embedded itself in the wall behind me. Diffy ran up behind John and yelled 'Slappy slappy slappy slappy!' while repeatedly smacking him in the back of the head, but he soon froze where he stood and slid back wards out of the shop door, which slammed shut after hum, leaving him pounding on it angrily.

Precog was staring at a bit of paper in his hand in horror, and said to me 'Tempest, please tell me you're calm right now'
'Not really' I said, seething, as John slowly but surely gained the upper hand again. 'How could I be?' I felt that heat rising in me again, an a burning sensation made my hands feel strange.
'Ah, right. Dragon? You said that the power sqaushing thing Howard made you do could last a couple of weeks, yeah? And that the Dragon's Pyrokinesis would be the first to re-manifest?'
'Yes, that's true Precog' Dragon said, frantically adding another coat of webbing to John.
'Could emotions cause a manifestation? I mean if it was when they were able to manifest again?'
'That is usually the method'
'Right. Everyone upstairs. Now! Not you, Tempest. Stay down here and get as angry as you like.'
He showed everyone else a picture I couldn't see, and with widened eyes they all legged it for the stairs, except Dragon, who said 'I will help him through this.'
I watched them run and called out 'Guys? That's quite worrying actually. What's going on?'
Diffy blew a raspberry at John as he went past, and John imitated him, blowing one back with a perfect Diffy expression on his face.
This was, apparently, the final straw for me. I yelled at John, a wordless, senseless scream, and there were two whff! noises as my hands burst into flames. I stared down at them, pausing in my rage, and then fire poured from them, bigger than the flametrower Diffy had faked back at B26, and I pointed them at John.

A raging inferno surged from me hands, and Dragon held it from destroying the base with telekinesis while yelling 'Tempest, my friend, please, you have to bring your new ability under control!'
'Oh really, Ya think?!!!' I was leaning away from the flames as they threatened to consume the room, and I heard Healthbar call 'Woohoo! Roast that evil clone, he can take it!' from the stairs.

'Playwrite, I know you don't like messing with us, but I am officially asking you to get in my head and stop this!' He considered for a moment, and then suddenly my flames started to die down. I stopped them myself, but I was glad Playwrite had nulled it a bit first.

That was the main action over. Dragon gave me some training so I can control the flames on my own now, and I've started to hear little murmors within the hum of all our electronics, and started to understand some of the secret language of computers again, so my Technopathy is coming back aswell.

All that was left of this particular John was a very charred bit of floor. We had a very confusing ten minutes a little while ago when Damian teleported in, demanded Double, and then vanished again with him. I wasn't sure, but were his eyes bronze? It was hard to see. Precog said I had to go and see Cleo's new restaurant, so Dragon took me, Cleo's blog lists the details of that. Doolittle phoned me to say that Double was still in the safehouse, so clearly he'd sensed danger and sent a clone. I picked up some food for us lot (I had VeggieBurger, it was delicious, Cleo and Roxy, you are very good at this!) and then Dragon said we should get on with Zodiac stuff. Cleo and Damian, he says you both have vital parts to play in it, so please come over when you can.

Also Precog gave me a flat cardboard box, saying that he'd seen what was coming, and thought it was time I had this. 'Remember when me and Pete went shopping in DC, when I got imprinting, and there was something I refused to tell you about? This is it. I think you can find a use for it very soon.'

The music fades away.......

This is just a short post to say that a couple of days ago, Broadcast went back home. He said he would come back as soon as he could, but he wanted to check everyone at home was ok, and he promised a friend of his he'd do the music for his birthday party. For some reason, he's very good at that sort of thing.....

Also, Double is now staying in the same safehouse as Damian's mum at the moment because with all of the bad people running around at the moment, Shade, John, the looming promise of HIM returning, we figure the guy that can duplicate things should be kept well out of harms way. Look at the trouble with John now that he can clone. If he were to try and get double again to share the power to others, or if anyone else went for him, it could be really dangerous.

Not much else to say, except that we had a run in with a John atthe same time as Cleo and TP. Oh and Dragon has moved forward with the restoration of Zodiac. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Shadows

Ok, I'm so sorry that this is massively late, I just haven't had the time. This carries straight on from the last one, just after the explosion from ages ago.

So there we are, me, Precog and Diffy, standing in the control room of the abandoned B26, having just caught up with the dark figure that came from the shadows in the explosion room. He grinned at us, a thin, gloating smile, his teeth surprisingly white, even against his pale face.
'Well, if it isn't the computer whizz and the sketch boy. How long it's been since we last saw one another. Who's the egg?'
'Oi! Me Diffy, and I not like you!'
'Oh no, how tragic, you've hurt me deeply! Shut it, shorty.'
'Hello Shade. We thought you died. It seems that happy event is yet to take place.' I snarled.
'Too bad sketch over there couldn't see me coming. Whilst I'm a shadow, my identity is hidden, no matter how powerful someone's ability is.'
'So that's why I couldn't tell who we were looking for!' Precog exclaimed, hand glowing goldy-orange as he labeled shade on his picture.
'You catch on fast. I expect you know why I came. Howard* and John have joined my master's campaign, and soon, very soon, we shall rise together and the world will be his!'

(*Note: Cleo and John both say Howard is dead now, but AT THE TIME, he was planning to side up with HIM. HE is very hard to resist if he wants you.)

'Ooooh, a villainous monologue, that's original' I said, while discreetly tapping keys on a keyboard next to me. The computer of course did nothing, but Diffy was watching me do it, and saw me tap the keys to spell: spook my power so he thinks i still have them?
Diffy grinned, and a small smiley face appeared behind Shade, and nodded. Shade was still going: ' I was going to approach Tavara, My ability lets me enter other's minds and I was all set to control her but her mental barrier proved to strong. She will let down her guard one day though, and then I will have her!'
'Excuse me' said Precog, waving his hands in front of Shade, who stopped ranting, looking slightly confused.
One thing you need to know about Shade, is that although he may be powerful, he is very stupid. HE had to warp Shade's mind in order to have him as a lackey, and his intelligence took quite a knock.
'This is the bit where my drawing's say you get beaten up.' said Precog, and I saw him imprint something into his notebook behind his back, even though his eyes were completely normal.
'Really?' said Shade, his scary act dropped a bit as he thought about this. 'The boss said it would be fine, and you two would be dead before you knew what had happened'
Precog showed him the newly imprinted page, which had someone being pelted with fire, and cringing, as me and Diffy edged round to be side on to him and a few feet away.
'How do you know that's me?'
'Because I can't identify him'
'Oh, I see. Wait, what if I try and stop this happening? I don't want to be roasted'
'Too late!' I yelled, and with a small wink to Diffy, unleashed the dragon fire we had heard so much about. Diffy copied the boy that Howard had created, but in a huge flamethrower, with it changing colour as it shot towards Shade, and he screamed as it reached him, and then stood, staring at me.
'This doesn't hurt. Why doesn't this hurt? Oh you little tricksters. That's why you were so easy to find, Technotwit, you don't have your powers! You three are just harmless kids, trying to fool me into letting you live!' He turned to Precog 'That wasn't real, was it? Well, your pictures can't help you now. You're defenseless. Goodbye, sketch.'

Shade raised his hands and began to slowly grow, gradually surging upwards as he got darker and darker. Precog glared, clenched his fists, and said angrily 'My name is not sketch. It's Precog. I may not be the most dangerous kid you've met, but thinking that I'm harmless is the biggest mistake you've ever made!' and he clapped a glowing hand over Shades eyes, just before they were too high to reach.
Shad yelled, his face darkening because of the ink now, not just his power. He shrank again, becoming his normal size as he grabbed Precog's neck with both hands, and started strangling him as Ink spread over his face and in his eyes. Precog pulled at Shade with his spare hand, and Diffy ran and joined in, desperately trying to get Shade off Precog's neck. I ran up behind him and punched Shade, hard, in the back of the head. He fell to the floor, and I said 'I still have hands. Don't mess with me and my friends.'
We joined the others back at the hotel, and I had barely got my phone back from Tingle when it rang. It was Dragon, reminding me that Cleo and Damain needed to be told about Zodiac, and their roles in it's continuation. I decided we needed some time to recover, so Cleo sent us home.
Not a lot has happened since then, I'll tell you later.

The explosion

Sorry this has taken ages to post, I thought I'd done it a few days ago, but that was me thinking it at my computer, which of course doesn't work at the moment.

Ok, we went over to the two Cleos, and one told the other to run off, so we were left with present Cleo. Her blog lists the details of the day, so I'll just cut to the bit where we differ:

We were all standing around Lily and the strange boy, and the other Cleo was creeping around, silently signalling for us to ignore her, and I'd got Diffy to illusion Forcefields I could have made, I couldn't let Cleo and her TP crew know I was powerless yet, it wasn't a good time, when Playwrite opened a telepathic link with me, to tell me that Sage/Howard was around somewhere, and thinking about the boy he'd used as a model for this one, someone he'd met in the past who 'could do things with fire he'd never seen before'. 'Sound familiar?' he asked in my mind, as we all stared, unable to move towards the two people inside our circle. 'Let me talk to Lily and Precog' I asked, and he spread his mind field wider to include them.
'Lily, Tingle told us that it's really you. Are you alright? What's going on?'
'Cuz! Oh my god, thank goodness your doing this through telepathy, or I'd be stuck telling you some lie and secretly squashing your molecules! Ok, Tild DID tell me to come over and see yu, and she said that I had to go quickly, because time was short, but I was too late. Howard and John caught me, and did this big mind lock thing, meaning I was completely under their control, and made sure that it couldn't be sensed with telepathy, but they couldn't actually stop me thinking so now that we're TALKING through telepathy, there's a loophole. I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop myself. They were the reason I nearly destroyed your base th first time I visited. They wanted me to, it's just when I fought them and held in the more destructive elements of my power they went for me fooling you instead. I'm really sorry.'
'It's ok, I'm just glad you're alright, and thank you for fighting them. Cleo, Omni and Precog all say you're going to explode, is it true? Will you be ok?'
'I should survive if I hold it in a bit, keep control of myself and reel in the range and power a bit, but they'll know. They want me dead. They'll know I survived.'
'Diffy's already set up to create a cover explosion round whatever happens here, with Playwrite convincing everyone as much as he can that it's all real. Howard/Sage and John won't be fooled for long, but hopefully they'll just think it was a cover for three of us running off.'
'What?'
'Precog, tell her your plan'
'Hurry, Precog, I'm starting to feel pressure from them to explode- AAARGH!'
A bolt of red energy had slammed into her back.
'Ok, I've drawn me, Tempest and Diffy chasing someone who appears from that shadow over there, and is here to involve Howard/Sage and John with HIM. We need to chase him without the others noticing, so Diffy is going to make a fake explosion before yours for us to hide in.'
'We've got to hurry. Cleo looks like she's about to blow aswell.'
It was at this point that Cleo telepathed me asking me not to stop the explosion and to keep up my forcefields, which I conveyed to Diffy, who did.
'That's a point Tempest, why are there two of her?'
'Not now Lily, I'll explain later. Playwrite, you have to make sure nobody realizes we're gone for as long as you can'
'Of course'
'Tempest! Over there! He's on the move!'
Precog was right. I could just make out a dark figure, seemingly made out of shadows himself, creeping out of the dark corner. He was behind present Cleo, and seemed to concentrate on her for a second, then his eyes widened, he staggered back, and winced, shaking his head. Then he fled, out of a hole in the wall near his corner, just as Cleo started to glow, and Lily crackled, as all her molecules vibrated suddenly. 'Diffy!' I thought-yelled, and heard 'okey-dokey. KABOOM!' in my head, as the room filled with a huge explosion, and Playwrite made us all feel like a shockwave had rippled through us, and me, Precog and Diffy ran for the hole in the wall.
As I went through, there was another loud bang from behind me, and I turned breifly to see Cleo and Lily explode violenty, as did the oy, and Cleo forcefield everyone and teleport us out. I could hear Howard/Sage and John laughing, and turned to run from the wave of heat and energy hurtling towards me. A few particles of radioactive dust floated down past me as I ran down the shadowy passage, and I heard Lily, very faintly, yelling 'I'll be fine -I think. I'm alive anyway. Now run!'
I caught up with the others, and asked Diffy about the 'spooks' he'd left in our place. 'They'll be fine as long as she not taken them too far' he explained 'as soon as I out of range, POOF! they gone. but Precog says she only took us outside this building, so they still there unless this takes us too far away'
We reached the end and saw that it had come out in the control room of B26. This guy had made a tunnel that wound through the walls, and had packed it round with rubble, blocking us from seeing we hadn't left the building. The twists and turns had saved us from the explosion, but now we were confronted by a very weird man. He had long fingers, he was slightly hunched, and a pale, sickly face, with dark bags under his eyes and sagging skin. His face seemed permanently in shadow, although daylight was pouring in through a window. As he walked towards us grinning, a laptop near me, clearly left asleep, saving what little battery it had left, woke up and opened it's email program. A new one said 'You left me behind, your phone fell out of your pocket. Past Cleo just got a weird call, I've saved it and I'm trying to trace it. Tingle has me for when you get back. Hana.'

I'll leave you with this for now, so that at least I have posted something. Sorry this took so long, I've got out of practise at typing!

Tingle's return

So, there we are, me powerless, Healthbar and Dragon unconscious, and Howard and John looming over us.Playwrite stared at Howard in horror, more than the rest of us, and Howard smiled. 'Finally worked it out, have you? I wondered how long I'd be able to hide my thoughts from you.' and he morphed into Sage. We all gaped, shellshocked (not having heard this from Cleo at this point in time) and I said 'It's a trick, it has to be. He's just trying to creep us out'
'I'm afraid not' sighed Playwrite. They are the same person. I'm not sure if that was always true, they may have been separate people once, but Sage has been hiding as Howard for a while now.' Sage grinned, but gasped as Diffy head butted him in the knee. He bent over, clutched his knee, and then made a grab for Diffy, who ducked round him, leapt on his back, and started to do his private cloud of horror thing 'Why do meanies keep being nasty to Healthy and Tempest!' he yelled, and John started to back away, obviously he had the memories of the John that Diffy did this too, he looked terrified. He opened his mouth and started to say 'ST...' but Broadcast had made a pinching motion with his fingers, and John muted out. He yelled and roaredbut no sound came out. I rugby-tackled him to the floor, and out of the corner of my eye saw Playwrite edge towards the window, and lift the curtain slightly, so that a thin beam of light shone down on part of Healthbar's hand, which twitched. John shook violently under me and I felt myself thrown away, colliding with a man with a goatee that had just entered the room. He fell to the floor, and a girl floated into the room, followed by a small group of other people. The girl lifted me off the ground, and threw me again, this time I crashed into Precog and Doolittle. Playwrite put two fingers of his left hand to his temple, yelled 'Headache Attack!' and swept his right hand round in a long wave at the new people. They all yelled, clutched their heads, and the girl crashed to the floor. Howard called 'that won't work on us!' and John blasted him back with some sort of bright light from his hand. John was standing up again, and had clearly been practising his brain control whilst in hiding, because he was slowly gaining control of Diffy and Broadcast through thought alone. He concentrated hard on Broadcast, making him release his volume hold just enough to let John's shouts come out as whispers. He commanded them to stop, and slowly Diffy's cloud of horror faded, and Howard threw him to the floor, whilst John froze everyone in place. Howard dampened everyone's powers, and they both smiled 'A good attempt I suppose, but it was never going to work. Now, who shall I kill first?' As he looked around at all of us, I glimpsed Healthbar slowly open her eyes, create a tiny cloud of dark, as if testing herself, and, slowly streching out so that she could just about touch Dragon's ankle with her finger.
'Ah, I think the little egg boy first, we've both been subjected to his little cloud, but I should tell you, illusion boy, your visions didn't scare me. I fear nothing. You think I couldn't stand up against the things you showed me? They wouldn't even reach me. Yes, you're going first.'
The room lit up as he said this, and Diffy pouted at him, stood up, and just said 'Oooh, Tingle's going to be veeeery maaaaad at you, big stinky meany' Howard laughed, and gloated 'What could he do? Notice I can shapeshift? Hahahaha! Anyway, I tricked one of his old friends to kidnap him, she thinks he's vital for some warning she kept yammering on about, I couldn't have him notice my plan, now could I?'
'Are you referring to the fact that you took control of Lily so she helped you and that everything she showed us from Tildy was fake and made by you to trick us and were afraid I would see through her which is why I was taken from DC minutes before she showed up? Too late, I noticed.' Said Tingle, stepping out of a column of white light that had appeared at the edge of the room, and was lighting up Howards astonished face. John's hands started to glow orange and he leapt at Tingle, but Tingle waved a hand and John was lifted into the air and slammed against a wall, slumping down unconscious. 'My friends, it is good to see you again. Moira and her associates allowed me to channel their powers briefly. Please keep that portal open, as soon as it closes, the link is lost and I will not be able to help as much.' Those of us that could still stand rushed to the column of light, it was like the room back at the hotel, but confined to a smaller space. We could look inside and see endless white in all directions, but it was definately only this small column of light, and we could look into it from any angle. It was starting to shrink, so we tried to grab it, pulling at non-existent edges, doing anything we could to stop it. Nothing was working, and it had nerly closed, when Diffy sat in it. Half in, half out of the light. It kept trying to push him out so it could close, but the closing was slowed alot.

Mean while, Tingle was in a heated battle with Howard, blocking everything Howard shot at him, and teleporting round him, first infront, then behind for a quick blast of what seemed to be particles of coloured light to the back of the head, then to the side in order to jab him in the ribs, and then back to the front again. It was almost even, with Howard looking more enraged with every move, but John came from behind and froze Tingle in place. John started to speak, but a huge blast of water slammed him to the floor, leaving him gurgling and spluttering on the floor. Dragon was standing up, brushing the dust from his robes (he wears chinese robes most of the time) and helping Healthbar to her feet. 'Only giving people a precautionary slight wave of power numbing because they appear to be unconsious so you can concentrate on others is a mistake' he said, walking over to John and covering him in a thick substance that stopped him moving. There was a slight pop as Diffy was finally shunted out of the light and it closed, and the crackling energy in Tingle's hands faded. Howard gave a cry of victory and knocked Tingle to the floor, but it turned to anguish as Tingle grabbed his leg, which started to smoke. 'You fool' said Tingle, standing and grabbing Howards arm, causing him to kneel in pain 'Your body has been warped so often that it now reeks of it, and you're more ability than human. Just like I can destroy reality warped objects with a touch, I can affect shapeshifters too. I don't need extra help from Moira to defeat you. Your body is constantly changing, though you may not realize it, and that is why I burn! Now leave me and my friends alone, you foul wrech!' Healthbar healed us all, and Dragon was gathering up the henchpeople, but Howard kept staring at Tingle 'You think...this can stop me? I...have been torn apart before...and come back...a little...pain won't stop me now!' 'Not alone, maybe' Tingle agreed, and looked over at Diffy, who was sticking his tongue out at John 'But Moira showed me what Diffy showed you. And I have four words to say to you about them.' and he leant down and whispered in Howard's ear. Howard looked deeply shocked, and I could see true fear on his face for just a second. Then it vanished, and he looked angrier than ever 'YOU LIE!' He screamed, Tingle flying off him as he stood, grabbed John, and as he strode across to the flying girl, I could see a deep red mark in the shape of a hand, burnt into his arm, hollowed out, as if the skin there had just burnt away. He roared, made a sweeping gesture with his arm, and he, John, and all his thugs dissappeared.
After that we had a lot of catching up to do, we heard from Tingle what had been going on with him, and caught him up with things out here. Then Precog told us we all had to get to DC, but Dragon said he would stay at the base, clean up, and rest. I couldn't fly us of course, but luckily I knew exactly what my Hotel room looked like, and had visited it before, so Jorge's Doorknob got us there quickly. Precog told me that we needed to be alert, because we would see something that we needed to follow up, so I asked Diffy to prepare some illusions and the three of us rejoined the others as we left the hotel to see Cleo talking to herself. Literally.

Zodiac

I meant to upload this earlier, sorry, I've been busy.

So, from Tingle's messages, we agreed to contact Zodiac. I called their leader, Dragon, who me, Precog and my cousins had met previously, and he came round to the base, I thought he could help explain about the group to the others, because we still didn't know everything. He got to us within a minute of me hanging up the phone, he's picked up a lot of skills over the years.

Zodiac is a group of twelve individuals founded to destroy HIM long ago, when he first rose to power. The title of each animal is passed down through the ages, to those with the chosen power, or some variant thereof, each selected by the current members of the group. There have been generations of members, and our friend Dragon is currently the oldest member. The Dragon was famous for being multi-powered, using an ability only known as 'The Dragon's Claw' to gain powers, traditionally gaining Pyrokinesis as their first new power. (Interesting point, one of the now deceased members was a writer, and got involved in writing episodes for Jackie Chan Adventures, which I belive Damian has mentioned before, and that is where the Talisman's powers came from. He changed some of them a bit though, so some don't quite match up to the member of the same name.)

'Ah, my friends' he smiled at me and Precog, and then gazed around at everyone else 'I see your little troup of superheros is up and running then. It has been a long time since we last spoke. Too long.' He sighed. 'You have heard the rumors too then. Ah, but of course, your eldest cousin, miss tildy. It is true. HE that we vanquished so long ago is returning. Our group must once again gather for it's primary obligation. Our numbers are depleted, alas, as you will remember, but I can sense the ones suitable for the mantles are good friends of yours?'

'Er, yeah, probably' I said, unsure of exactly what he had in mind. I introduced him to everyone, and told him their powers. 'So' he breathed heavily, almost sadly, as we reached Pete. 'You have found your Claw. It is an honour to meet you Sir.' and he bowed very low to Pete, who looked surprised and unsure of what to do. 'My own Claw was killed many years ago, taking down one of HIS greatest creations alongside me. He was a great friend, and a Hero of the first class. I miss him terribly, and regret a thousand times a day that I could not save him.' Dragon turned to me, and said 'You look after this boy, Tempest. I can already see that you are great friends, and your life will depend on him in times to come.'

I was still a bit confused. 'Hang on, your saying that the dragon's claw isn't an ability, but a person? I thought that the Dragon HAD that as an ability, and used it to get more, starting with Pyrokinesis?'
'Ah no' he said, smiling. 'That is the legend, but that has never been so. The very first Dragon had Pyrokinesis. He was the most powerful Pyrokinetic the world has ever seen, and done things with fire than nobody else has ever been able to. And then, one day, he saved the life of a young woman, and discovered she had the same power as young Pete here. She swore to help him in gratitude for him saving her, and he realized he could help more people if he had more power. They travelled the world, and much like you, gathered abilities from those who needed saving from it, and used his new skills to help humanity. Then HE arose, and our hero gathered a team of eleven others, to form Zodiac. They vanquished him, but they knew he would rise again, so Dragon used two of his most dangerous abilities, allowing him to both see all of time at once, and manipulate the strings of fate, to reach through time and tie a Dragon and a Claw together through all of history, as well as twisting together that of potential other members, and making the lines of fate cross, so that whenever they were needed, new chosen Zodiac members would rise, along with two prophets and a veil, who would lead our team along the right path.'

He smiled at me and Pete. 'I assume that the first time you met, some sort of danger was threatening our new Claw, and that you saved him, thus creating a great bond?'
We nodded, in awe of the tale he'd just told.
'Then that is that. My time to retire, and become the guide for a new Dragon has finally come. I have waited for this moment for hundreds of years. I am both saddened, and relieved. I am glad that at last, my advancement has come. Now I must pass to you the four powers handed down to every Dragon. The Pyrokinesis of our very first Dragon, and the three abilities he kept closest to his heart. Two, you may use as much as you wish, to help you in your adventures, but the other two must be treated with great caution, for if used to much, or used incorrectly, the world could stand still, and be torn apart.

'I will set you up as the new Dragon, and then we will gather the others' he said, clasping Pete's hand as I nervously did the same. Pete's red energy craclked up round us, and I felt a surge of power rushing into me. Fire danced around us, and I saw all of time spread before me, like a map, or a book, with the pages constantly turning. I can't describe that transfer, partly because I wouldn't be able to think of the right words, and partly because I want to spare you from some of the things I experienced. As it ended, a huge pressure seemed to press down on me, and then it was like all my powers were blocked like when John or Howard does it, but different, it seemed more normal, and all the stranger for it. I couldn't hear all the machines in the base anymore, couldn't feel the particular patterns of the air around me anymore. I was normal again.

'What the hell?' I called out, Pete'e energy starting to sting a little now that I had no powers. He was still transferring them across, but they seemed to just sink inside me and disappear. 'It is the trial of the Dragon' my old friend winced, straining with effort as the transfer and my de-powering continued 'every Dragon must prove that he can cope without abilities, to show he will use them wisely when he has them. I haven't stolen them, don't think that, please, you have just had them...wiped from your bodies senses and cognitive functions. It is the reason every Dragon gets the ancient Pyrokinesis as their first new power. after their own, it is the first to re-manifest. For a few days, you will be powerless, my friend. I deeply regret my actions, this is not my doing, I had prepared the conditions seperately, I did not realize this would come to pass until it began, but now I recall. I was visited by a man and a boy a few days ago, they said I was phase two, and then everything went black. I am so sorry, Tempest, forgive me!'

We were thrown from Pete as the transfer finished, and he fell to the floor, panting. Healthbar went to heck he was ok, and patch up the nosebleed he'd got from doing such a big transfer, but she was lifted up into the air, thrown against a wall, and sank down to the floor, unconsious.

'No no no, I don't think we want you healing people, do we?' said a voice I had grown to hate 'Tempest powerless, and the healer and the old man unconsious. That seems like our cue.' Howard and John entered the base, and smiled gloatingly at everyone. 'Techpower's all rounded up, and we've already been to see Cleo, so we thought we'd see how VHS was doing. Looks like we arrived just in time.'

Next post: Tingle's return.

Tingle gets in touch

I feel that before I begin this post properly, I should explain the latest on some of the people we've met recently, because I've just stopped writing about them, and it might be a bit confusing:

Arthur Dowland: The kid who could ignite things. He went home to his mum and dad, after I wiped him from any government records that could put him and his family in danger. There had been some incidents when he first manifested, but I've made sure that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, he's just a normal teenager. He promised to help if we need it again.

Evan: Has gone home to his family. Same thing as Arthur.

Justin: Cleo's smoky friend. We decided it was best if he didn't try talking to her just yet, we needed to make sure she wouldn't kill him. We sent him back with Shifter, inside his lamp, and she said she'd look after him. He's probably still with her belongings at TP, now that she's dead.

The people we rescued from B26: Other than Molly of course. The three other people that came back with us, we helped the green lady with the panic attack calm down, and they all left. I think the young guy, about Cleo's age, who'd had his powers taken, was heading to join TP, so he'll probably turn up there eventually. Not sure where the others went, but they left.

Penfriends: Double and Broadcast are still with us, they stayed to help, but Freezeframe and Shockwave went back home, but promised to keep in touch and come back if they were needed.


Ok, on to me:
so Damian took me and Precog back to DC, and Precog showed us the room. It was just, white. There was nothing there. It went on forever. I flew into it for about Ten minutes, at top speed, and met nothing. No obstacles, walls, turbulence, nothing. I turned back and couldn't even see the door anymore.I turned straight round, hoping that was still the right direction, but too unsure too move, until I saw a red line of light steak past me, a bit off straight, making a thin line of red in the air. I followed it back to find Damian holding a very powerful laser pointer he'd TFP'd, showing me the right way back. After thanking him, he said he had to go, he had things he urgently needed to sort out, and could we fly back. Realizing we shouldn't just make Damian some sort of pack mule, I apologised for getting him to teleport for us all the time, and he said it was fine and left. Precog tried to get a reading off the void for a drawing, but there was nothing. No sign of Tingle, or of the room. It defied nature. The white void went on forever, but we could see the walls of the room forom the outside.

Then I got a strange call from Cleo, she sounded stressed, and I didn't quite catch what she was saying, but I had to hang up when there was a large crash from a few corridors away. Hana said she'd work on slowing it down and clearing up the reception abit, and play it back to me later.

Then we heard people round the corner, and a deep voice saying 'Tempest, Precog, I know you're here. I believe you know my friend John, and I know you know Cleo. She must have nobody to help her, and we're starting with you. Your powers are blocked, there is no escape. It is time for you to die.' We hid in the void, because Precog said he'd check my room first. It saved our lives. We weren't standing on anything, but we didn't fall. It was like floating, but without the sense of weightlessness. We discovered that our powers worked again, so I made a forcefield just in case. I tried phoning Cleo, and then Damian, but there was no signal, and Hana was nowhere to be seen. We could hear Howard and John on the other side of the door. Howard said he couldn't sense us anymore, John accused him of not blocking our powers, Howard shouted back that he had and he didn't know what happened, they went and checked my room, and were about to check the void one when a maid came round the corner to change the sheets in my room. I didn't hear anything for a few seconds, but then there was a horrible cracking noise, and a dull thud of a body falling to the floor. Then they came back to the door. So we did the oldest trick in the book, and hid behind the door. They stormed in, and my forcefield went out. They wandered forwards, in shock, and we just had time to hear Howard say 'They must be here. Whatever this is, I didn't detect it. Perfect hiding place.' as we snuck behind them and through the door. As we got out, Howard yelled 'Wait! I can sense them now!' and turned to us, just in time for us to slam the door. Our powers came back on, and Hana reappeared on my phone, so I held the door shut with a wall of rock, covered in Ice, and a forcefield, while I frantically called people. Cleo and Damian were both unreachable, but I got through to Jorge, who seemed the next best choice to help. There was a loud noise were he was, so I couldn't hear very well, but I shouted the situation, and explained that we couldn't just fly off because they'd follow us. 'Damian's with me now!' he called, and there was a yell in the background, and a low booming sound. 'His phone's been shattered, I'll fix it later, We can't come and get you, but I can give you this.' I heard a gasp as Precog caught something that appeared in front of him. 'I just made it. Push the button to stick it to a surface, and then turn it like a normal one. I would just teleport you, but this is re-usable without mine or Damian's help. It only works on places you know and have visited before.' I turned to Precog, and he showed me a golden doorknob, like you'd find in old houses. I relayed the instructions, and he stuck it to the wall next opposite, next to the door to my room. He pushed the button, and the doorknob stuck to the wall. He turned it, and part of the wall swung inwards to show the VHS Base, and several surprised faces. Precog ran through, and held it open for me, as I kept my barriers in place as long as I could, sweating with effort, and made it through just as I could hold them no more. Precog removed the doorknob and swung the wall shut in two angry and surprised faces. 'Your warping ability is awesome, you know that?' I said down the phone. 'Thanks' said Jorge, and he sounded in pain. 'Need any help?' I asked, and got shouted at at desperately. 'NO! Don't come here. None of you. No matter what. Listen to me. Jorgia is back, Tempest. She dissappeared in Paris, remember? She's back, and angry.' and then he hung up. Or his phone got destroyed. The line went dead anyway.

We explained everything to the others, and were just about to go check my machines for signs of Tingle, when he made contact. Everyone in the room cried out suddenly, as our powers surged on their own, bringing us all to our knees, screaming. I clutched my head, strings of binary running through my mind as my Technopathy went crazy. This had never happened before, and it scared me. I could just make out Precog's hands glowing as words appeared everywhere, he was imprinting on everything he could find, I was making everything technical go haywire, Everyone's phones went off and the computer alerted us to email as Hana went nuts, Healthbar was shining bright white, a concentrated beam of sunlight scorching the walls, noise exploded around us from Broadcast, Double was replicating Anything of Tingle's within reach, Diffy made an image of Tingle appear, speaking words we couldn't hear over the noise, but Playwrite was beaming the same thing into our minds, over and over again, as Doolittle yelled it in different languages, constantly changing. I noticed Broadcast was emitting several songs at once, all overlapping, like 'I'm still standing', 'S.O.S', all things to do with being alive, and wanting help, and warning and danger. As we all calmed down, our powers dying down, we all looked up. One message had been imprinted on paper, texted to phones, emailed hundreds of times, scorched into the walls, imprinted on piles of paper and the surrounding floor, scrolled across the TV, telepathed into our minds and was now being spoken by Diffy's fake Tingle:

I am safe. They are teaming against us. The apocalypse must be stopped. Go to Zodiac. Tingle.

'You heard him.' I said, staring to clear up while wondering how it even happened. 'It's time me and Precog filled the rest of you in. We're going to meet some old friends.'