An all new team that I've known for months.

Sorry for such a long absence, we've had to be VERY careful sneaking around gathering everyone. HG's takeover has definitely been slowed by something/someone, but he's watching for us. The worst thing I've come across so far has been these sort of tower/beacon things he's set up, that emit some sort of Electromagnetic field. It detects any use of technopathy, and tries to shut down the source, while warning HG about it! If it wasn't for Hana, I'd have been knocked out (again), and we only just escaped capture, but he knows we're active, so we've had to work extra hard to avoid detection.

But we've done it. We've got our new recruits.
It was weird to meet them all for the first time, having known them for so long. Especially as I knew some of them from Uni. But this was meeting them as future heroes, seeing them as they would become, if that makes sense. Very little does about all this.

We got to Doom's and were reaching out to knock when the door opened.
'Hey, you must be Tempest.'
'Oh, uh, hey. Yeah, I am. How do you know?'
'Hana's been showing me the blog. I'd have found it hard to believe if it weren't for the fact that the digital remains of a dead woman was right there nodding at me. Plus that thing in france with the T-rex was all over the news. And of course-' She pointed up at the dark sky, and round at the otherwise deserted street, with an HG tower visible a few streets over. '-and everything.'
'UH, yeah. So-'
'Will I join you, gain a superpower, and blast evil in the face with lasers?'
'Well, yeah.'
'Do you have my laser blasters?'
I held two out. 'Stolen yesterday, upgraded this morning.'
She took them, tucking one into her belt. She fired the other, narrowly missing an empty crisp packet and sending a lamppost crashing onto the road. She looked at me. 'Soooooo, super aiming powers?'
I showed her a small phial of black liquid 'Ready and waiting'
'Then let's go and show HG who he's dealing with.'





'I can't believe I'm hearing this.'
'Why? Seems like a perfectly reasonable response to me.'
'Maelstrom, please! We need you!'
'Nope.'
'Hana showed you the blog?'
'She did.'
'And?'
'We have a terrible time.'
'No we don-'
'We get shot at! Bullets, lasers, Psychos with superpowers! Everyone tries to KILL US!'
'But they fail!'
'They got Doolittle.'
I winced. 'Don't remind me. But she isn't dead yet, and I'm not going to let it happen!'
'Not interested.'
'But we save the world!'
'You plan the attack before I show up. Why should I help? You've got trigger happy over there, go get magic guy, he seems to do more.'
'You help keep us all alive at the end!'
'And nearly destroy myself in the process by the sound of it! What's in this for me?'
'Uh...Superpowers?'
He pointed at FDiffy. 'According to him, I get that fairly soon anyway.'
'Yes, and you are forced to use them to fight for your life. This is choosing to go into battle, head held high, trying to stop HG before the world becomes utterly screwed.'
He raised an eyebrow. 'and?'
I sighed. 'And every member of VHS gets access to our bottomless bank account, free use of almost all the advanced tech in our super awesome base, a bullet proof vest, protection of family members, and a goodie bag containing a membership pendant, a small taser, and lollipops.'
Doom waggled the lollipop stick protruding from her mouth at Maelstrom. 'They're really nice!' She said with difficulty.
Maelstrom narrowed his eyes. 'Hmmmm. I DO like money. and lollipops. and you swear I won't die?'
'You were still alive in the future, weren't you?'
'Aren't you trying to change that future?'
'...........Valid point. I swear to do everything in my power to keep you alive.'
Maelstrom considered. 'Ok, I'm in.'




'So let me get this straight. I get to fight bad guys, save the world, and be a Hero, AND, according to the blog, I get to use magic?'
'It's not really magic, it's a weak form of reality warping that allows you manipulate a form of energy that can transmute one form of matter to another, resulting in-'
'MAGIC?!'
'Yeah, it basically gives you magic.'
'YES!Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!And I shall be called Blackmage, and ALL SHALL FEAR ME!'
'Excellent!'
I turned to Maelstrom 'See? That's more the sort of reaction we were looking for.'
He pulled a face, adjusting his bulletproof vest.




'Hey, we're-'
'VHS, yeah.'
'Hana showed you the blog, didn't she?'
'Yes.'
'Well?'
'How exactly do I get the giant cheeseknife sword?'
You pull it from a stone pillar. The structural integrity of the pillar is weakened though.'
'So I can pull swords from stone? Like King Arthur?'
'Future you told me you can draw weapons out of almost anything.'
Darkblade nodded. 'Sounds good. Alright, I'll join.'
'Yay!'


FDiffy says Jingle will be nearer the area the others are being held in, so we'll try and find him when we get there. Bye for now!

HG's base, part 2

We reappeared a in a small corridor. I could still hear all the noise, so I looked towards one end, and saw fire rush past. 'Where are we?'
'About 300m away. Once that dies down, we pop out that way and head straight for the central chamber.'
'Better get going then.'
'Hang on.'
'Doom had gone over to a door, and was shooting the lock. Remembering we were supposed to be meeting other people, I followed her in, along with everybody else. Doom pressed a button on her watch, and a small red light on it started flashing.
'Ok, they should be here in a moment.'
'Cool. What is that? Where'd you get it?'
'The watch? Our new way of signalling each other. Can't use phones anymore. And let's see, where might I have obtained a TECHNOLOGICAL gadget such as this? Who could I possibly know with enough skill with TECHNOLOGY to make something like this? Hmmm.....'
'Ok, ok, I get it. I made them, but haven't yet.'
I was distracted by movement further in the room. We were in one of those rooms with a pool leading to open water that every base/evil lair seems to have (except us, we should get one of those) with a submarine, small by submarine standards but very big for a one-seater, floating in it. The sub was rocking, as small waves appeared in the water. They rippled across the surface, getting larger and larger, until a swirl started to form. It became a vortex of water, spiraling slowly into the air. A figure leapt out of it at the same moment there was a flash of blue light and a large part of a wall erupted inwards. The pieces slowed in the air, becoming coated in a wispy blue aura, and faded into nothingness before they hit the floor. Somebody was standing just outside the gap onto a circle of blue light, arms raised, two fingers pointed towards what had been the wall, both hands surrounded by the same wispy blue energy, but with the occasional black wisp. The circle faded and he strolled in towards us. He had a big black coat, and a wide-brimmed black hat.
'Of the two of you, I'm guessing you're Blackmage?'
'Yup. Nice to see you again, Tempest'
'Ah, no, I'm the one from the past? Surely Doom said? That's why I was guessing which-'
He lifted the brim of his hat and I suddenly saw what he'd meant. Getting a clear look at his face, I recognised him. He was a friend from Uni!'
'Oh! Hey! So you're Blackmage now?'
'Yeah we've both changed since you last saw us.'
Getting the hint, I turned to look at Maelstrom. He was standing at the side of the pool, shaking the water out of his hair. He was wearing some sort of wetsuit. It was shimmering with greens and blues, with faint silvery white, frothy looking swirls and spirals coiling round it. It made him look like his whole body, except hands, feet and head, was made of water, hiding him from sight inside his vortex of water. I'd met him at Uni before aswell!
Once the introductions were done, and we'd caught them up on how it was going so far, They explained that only they had come because there had been problems sneaking everyone in past the guards, and that HG had put in more precautions than we had thought. Jump offered to help, so they told her exactly where everyone else was waiting, and she teleported away.
The rest of us went back out to the corridor, and, seeing the flames had died down, started to head for the central chamber. We all seemed calmer now, like we knew that, whatever happened, this was it. Behind that door ahead of us, he was waiting. Hooded Guy. Nothing could stop us now....
Guards poured out of every sidedoor, huge numbers streaming out, taking aim. Maelstrom started to spin on the spot, Water appearing from thin air around him as he came a huge, writhing vortex of water, surging down the passage and sweeping away any guard in his way. The circle of light reappeared as Blackmage adopted a battlestance, hands beginning to give of wisps of power again. Bullets rained down on him, but turned to butterflies as the blue aura swept over them. A guard started giving glowing with the fog like energy, black streaks growing to consume him, turning him to stone. We all started fighting with everything we had, and I wondered, not for the first time, quite how many guards HG had. He seemed determined to make sure we didn't make it to that chamber. That means he's scared. He should be.