Eco Warriors.

If we don't act now, the arctic will be Ice free during the summer months by 2015. If this happens, we're basically screwed. Stupid evil oil companies, who don't give a damn, are destroying the arctic by drilling for oil. Greenpeace are trying to stop them, and so are we.

You can read about the Greenpeace work, and join the cause, here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/arctic

And you can read about OUR work here:

A vast, beautiful snowy landscape, with the piercing arctic winds sweeping across the snowdunes, flakes of snow drifting through the air. A small fleet of snowmobiles surge forward in an arrowhead formation, carrying members of VHS across tundra, our approach cloaked by a whirling cloud of snow. Rising above the dunes, a dark, sinister, metallic blot on the otherwise tranquil scene, a huge, ugly drilling rig tears into the ice, searching for oil that we shouldn't really use. Stuck to the side is a large pod bearing the Greenpeace logo. This pod contained some members of Greenpeace, who had attached themselves to the rig to prevent it from drilling, but the drill had started up again, and its crew were attempting to remove the pod.

One of the drill workers, who was leaning over a railing to push at the pod, looked up, his eyes peering out from many layers of fur coat. 'What's that over there?'
His friend followed his gaze. 'Some sort of..I dunno, localized snowstorm. What?!'
The first one squinted. 'There's shapes in it. What are those?'
A patch of snow gathered itself up, becoming a ramp, which hardened to ice. We shot out of the snowstorm, rushing up the ramp and soaring through the air. We leapt from our snowmobiles, a thick snowbank forming on a walkway to cushion our landing.
'Step away from the pod.' I said.
'Nice entrance, but no can do. These people are in our way.'
'Yeah, well, now so are we.'
'Look, that pod needs to shift-'
'Yes, but not for the reason you think'
'Oh really? What are you gonna do?'
'That depends. Would you like the Greenpeace way, or the non Greenpeace?'
'Spare me the 'save the whales' pitch.'
'Uuurgh, that's all anyone thinks of when they think about Greenpeace. So you refuse to leave peacefully?'
'Yeah, 'fraid I do.'
'Very well, non Greenpeace it is.'
I shot lightning from my hands, throwing him backwards and blasting a hole in his coat. His friend saw, and ran at me, but I sidestepped, freezing the snow beneath me, sending him sliding past, tumbling over the rail. I called out to the others 'Get the pod and the Greenpeacers to safety!'
I turned to the nearby door. 'I've got an appointment with the leader of this little operation.'

I could feel the rig's radio crackling into life. 'Not just yet.' I thought, and shut it down as I reached the door to the control room. Doom ran by behind me, shooting sleeper darts at rig workers. Centaur (in angel form) and Jump were taking the slumped people to safety.

The control room door fell to the floor and I walked over it, getting my phone out of my pocket. The head of the rig was frantically jabbing buttons on the dead radio. 'Come on, come on!'
'Here, let me get that for you.'
I clicked my fingers, and the little light on the radio flickered into life. 'There you go, you're now live to every major radio station in the world. why don't you tell them where you are?'
'I-What?!'
'Tell the nice people where you are.'
'I-The Arctic, but-'
'And why are you here?'
'Uh, I'm just following orders.'
'And those orders are?'
'To-to drill oil-but-'
'And, remind me, this oil drilling, is it GOOD for the Arctic?'
'Well, we need the oil to-'
'Ahem. We don't NEED it, Russia alone spills 7 horizons of oil a year! Why don't you focus on stopping that from happening, and solve two big Environment problems at once? Speaking of which, I'll ASK YOU AGAIN. Is this drilling GOOD for the Arctic?'
'Well, we've done research that suggests-'
'IS. IT?'
'.....No! Ok? It's bad for the Arctic. Happy now?'
'No. Listeners, we have arrived at the interactive portion of today's show. If you are against Arctic abuse, and if you aren't already signed up, go to the Greenpeace website now, and sign the petition. Do you love the Arctic? Do you love Polar Bears? Are you fed up of smug, big-headed businesses steamrollering over us little people and doing whatever the hell they like, at the cost of our planet? What's more important? Money, or an Eco-system that supports us? Destroy the Arctic, and Earth will never recover. Show your support! Sign the petition, and help us save the world!'
I loaded the page on my phone, zooming in so that the list of supporters filled the screen. It was scrolling like mad, the number shooting upwards. I held it out so the rig captain could see. 'The people have spoken. Shut everything down.'
'I-I can't. My bosses, they'll-'
'Oh right, them. Well, I made sure they could hear, so let's see what they think.'
Hana had the number ready, and put me through to the board room.
'Hello? Yes, it's me. Yep, from the radio, glad you were listening. So, as you may have heard, your bloke here-' I broke off to turn to him. 'What IS your name, by the way?'
'Sam..'
'Thanks' I turned my attention back to the phone. '-Sam, Sam is a little nervous about shutting everything down without your say-so, so can he......Ah. Well would you mind if I shut it down? I have the support of several million people....oh. Well can you suggest how you're going to STOP me? Uh-huh....well yes, that MIGHT work, and it's true that I'm not there to stop you...of course, this phone line gets me close enough to access your security system-....no, it works like that, I can do that. No, I know YOU didn't know your building had a lockdown protocol, but in fairness, it didn't until last week.....yep, that surprise security check, that us. The 'upgrade' we installed? You're stuck in it. Don't worry, the radio still works, I want you to hear the next bit.'
I hung up, and turned to Sam. 'Ready to go? Trust me, you don't want to stick around.'
'What are you going to do?'
'Let's just say....we're making it as Greenpeace-y as we can, but they aren't involved, they haven't approved it, and they are in no way responsible. Make sure you tell everyone that.'
I dropped a small box, then grabbed his hand and pulled him outside. We passed Rag, running for a railing opposite, overlooking the centre of the rig, including the drill itself. 'How long 'til you're in position?'
'Gimme 10 seconds.'
'You sure about this?'
He stopped by the railing, climbing over. He held on, leaning back over the drill. 'Yep, should be fine.'
'Ok. Need more snow for landing?'
'If I time it right. I won't need it. I'm hoping to be halway down, exactly central.'
'Perfect. See you in a minute.'
'Let's hope so.'
I dragged Sam on, towards a railing at the edge with some low crates piled up by it.
'Two interesting things you should know Sam. 1, Our Snowmobiles crashed perfectly at the base of your Rig, and 2-' We leapt onto the crates, then over the railing. I turned to see Rag let go, falling backwards, towards the drill.
'-I made them HIGHLY explosive.'
I clicked my fingers again, just as Centaur swooped down and grabbed us, gliding us down, away from the rig.
KABOOM!
Fire erupted from the base, consuming the rig in moments. A second explosion tore the top into pieces. 'I MAY also have left a bomb in your office.'
'But-but the fire! The wreckage! And you have a go at me about damaging the Arct-'
Sam gasped as the explosion, having completely consumed the rig, began to swell inwards, becoming an implosion. It shrank, condensing as Rag's ability absorbed it. Ragnarok, glowing, became clear, visible inside the rapidly shrinking ball of smoke and fire.
'I'm glad the oil wells are so far down,' I said as we landed 'if they'd caught fire, well, THAT would have been awkward....'
The explosion was gone, and Rag, still glowing a blinding, firey orange, plummeted into a large, steaming hot pool in the ice created by the blast. I rushed over and helped him out. 'You ok?'
He burped fire, and coughed out some smoke. 'Think so. Really getting the hang of this Chaos Touch, aren't I?'
'You certainly are! Well done!'
I knelt down and held out a hand over the pool, refreezing it. There was no sign the rig had ever been there. I turned to Sam. 'See? We know what we're doing.'
'Small problem' Rag said, looking around. 'How do we get everyone home?'
Ah. Well, I'm sure we'll think of something.

Various Hero Situations

So as I said, we've been tackling problems all over the country in smaller groups. This being the case, you can expect quite a few posts from the others, as there are plenty of missions I don't go on.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Future Diffy is staying for now, we can't work out how to send him back, and besides, his future no longer exists. We've heard nothing from Moira, he hoped she'd open another portal door thing, but apparently not.

Ok, here's a group upload of a bunch of recent missions:

Doolittle here, I'm going to fill you in on that 'Psycho Cowboy' incident in Ely that was on the news a few weeks back.
So we heard about the disturbance, and as me, Jump, and Jingle were free, Jump teleported us over. We found the guy almost immediately, marching up the street, laughing like a maniac. Don't ask me what his ability is, I still have no idea, but I would guess Telekinesis. All I know is he had a Lasso, which he had EXCELLENT control over, and twin pistols that never seemed to run out of bullets. He was firing wildly in every direction, two people were dead already, and at the rate he was shooting, there would be more casualties soon if we didn't stop him.
'I'll cordon off the area!' Jingle yelled, running off to block the sidestreets with trees and tinsel. I started chirping and twittering to the sky as Jump ran towards the cowboy, taunting him. He began shooting again, and she set off on a series of quick jumps, flashing in and out of sight as she dodged round him in a circle. The last few people were fleeing the scene, and the cowboy was running out of people to terrify with his Lasso. He used it to grab Jump, binding her arms to her sides, holding her in place. She just grinned. 'Sucker!' She vanished, taking the Lasso with her. It had been attached to his belt, and he let out a yell of panic, looking round for where she'd gone. Jump reappeared, still caught in the rope, then teleported again, leaving it behind. It was his turn to laugh, turns out he just summon his Lasso! It flew back to him, and he whipped it out towards me! I flinched, but the rope was deflected by a long strand of green tinsel. 'Nope!' called Jingle, whirling it round his head. 'Have at thee! Haha!'
It was some sort of crazy Indiana Jones fight. They whirled and whipped their weapons, Tinsel and Rope dancing wildly through the air. The Cowboy raised a gun, aiming at Jingle, but a pigeon swooped down, stealing it from his hand.
'Yes!' I punched the air as he screamed with rage. He tried the other gun, and the same thing happened. I heard flapping behind me, hundreds of wings flapping in harmony, and raised my arms. 'Get out of the way!'
Jingle's eyes widened, and he leapt behind a car for safety. Jump grabbed the shoulder of a last civilian cowering on the pavement and vanished with her.
'ATTACK!' I swept my arms forwards, and the huge flock of birds surged forwards, covering the cowboy. He screamed, and the Lasso, which had been weaving through the airabove him, fell to the ground. 'Phew! Thanks guys.' I dismissed the birds, and Jump took us and the cowboy to the special holding facility we've been setting up.

That's it really, hope you enjoyed reading!


Hiya! Future Diffy here, I'm going to tell you about a little foiled bomb plot that happened the other day. Tingle had agreed to help the police with a suspect they'd brought in for questioning, and me and Diffy (You know. little Diffy, Present Diffy) tagged along, because it sounded exciting, and Tempest says all official mission groups should consist of at least three, for safety. We watched through that one-way glass stuff while Tingle sat down opposite the wild looking man, who was handcuffed to the table between them.
'Hey, I know you. You're part of that freak group wots decided to stick your noses in and mess stuff up, aint ya?'
'We prefer to think of it as helping the world, but yes, I am, as you say, a part of that group.'
'Well I aint telling you nuffing, ya hear? Ya can't prove nuffing, and I ain't talking.'
'Oh but you are, and I am sure you'll give something away in time. Shall we start with the basics? Are you part of the group behind the bomb threat?'
'I said I ain't-'
'Simple yes or no please, or I will have to inform them you are not cooperating.'
The suited man next to the suspect whispered in his ear, and he shrugged.
'Fine. No.'
'Do you know the location of the bomb?'
'No.'
'Do you have any sort of remote trigger for the bomb?'
'No.'
'IS there a remote trigger for the bomb?'
'No.'
'Is your leader still in the area?'
'No.'
Tingle got up. 'Thank you. Your lies have been most helpful.'
'My wha-?'
'Be quiet. Wait here.'
Tingle left the room, meeting us and the DCI at the window. 'He's telling the truth about not having a trigger himself, and the leader's fled the scene, but everything else is a lie.'
'So, go and get the answers.'
'Sorry Inspector, I can only tell whether or not he's lying, not force the truth.'
'But Tempest told me of that incident where, didn't you make a man transform or something?'
'That is different, he was a shape shifter, my truth ability burned away his false image. This man has no powers.'
I coughed, and they turned to look at me. 'Uh, sorry to interrupt, but I know someone who might be able to help.'
Diffy strode past me, head held high. 'Step aside, it Diffy's turn!'
I turned to the DCI 'You have no objections?'
'People are going to die if we don't get those answers. If that strange creature thinks creature thinks he can help...'
Diffy turned to him, standing in the doorway, which Tingle was holding open for him. 'I not strange. I awesome!'
The suspect gawped. 'The hell is that thing?!'
Diffy climbed onto Tingle's empty chair, then onto the table. 'Shush! You Shushy your face. You only say answers now. The nice poleesy peeples with the hats and the shiny badges need you to say info stuff, and I is going to spooky you til you does.'
Rainbow mist began to pour from his eyes and paws, and he advanced towards the suspect.
I turned to the DCI. 'You may want to look away.'
The suited man tried to stop Diffy, but a small cloud of the mist flew at him, hitting him in the face, and he screamed, falling off his chair.
Four minutes later Diffy strutted back out. The DCI was already radioing several units, telling them where to go. Then he knelt down and personally thanked Diffy, who immediately went very shy, and then asked for a badge. He's pinned it to his hat. He's thrilled.

So, Tempest wants me to update you on adventures we've been having. Uh, let's see.......there was this guy at the bank, I shot his gun hand and his ankle so he couldn't get away, and there was that guy dressed like Bullseye...pfft, he thinks HE has good aim...aaaand there was that car chase I shot the tyres of....urgh I don't have time for this, I have crimes to stop!What is the point in being given shiny new plasma lasers if I just sit here NOT blasting stuff? Later guys.

Tactical rotation

Hey, sorry we've been a bit quiet, everyone's been trying to settle back into everyday life and be, well, normal for a bit. Turns out the reset restored our places at Uni, so we've been pretty busy there.

I thought I'd update you on how VHS works now, as we've gone through a bit of a change. With most of us at University, spread out up and down the country, and busy trying to have normal lives, we've decided to start rotating the VHS roster a bit, sort of like the Avengers. As there are so many of us now, and we each have our own powers that are best suited to certain different situations, we've decide that when each mission or crisis comes up, whoever is best suited to deal with it will be the only ones to go. Tingle is great at a crime scene, but wouldn't be able to do much at house fire. Playwrite is brilliant at hostage situations, but can't help much when giant robots try to eat liverpool (Don't ask, that was a looooong day). So for now, whenever something needs our attention, just a suitable group will go. This also means we can handle several emergencies at once, which is really handy, because we're the main group people know about, at least in Britain. Going public was definitely the right decision, but there's such a thing as too much attention, you know?

So yeah, that's where things stand. I've nearly identified the volcano that contains the hall of lost souls, just a few more locations to rule out. Still no sign of Precog, but we'll find him. We need to find him.

A reset world.

Just a short one for now I'm afraid, but I want to keep you up to date.

We're calling the whole 'circle of power that restored the world to it's previously un-buggered condition' thing the 'reset', because, well, that's basically what it was. The world is 97% how it was because HG took over, so only minor damage remains.

It has had some side effects though. The reset was really draining for all of us involved. I tried to take the brunt of the attack, but it means some of my abilities have been weakened. I can't fly us around by forcefield anymore. I can levitate myself a few inches off the ground with a forcefield, and make fairly long force ribbons that everyone can walk on, but proper flight is beyond me, for now anyway.

I don't know if it's because of the reset, or if Future me just stole it or what, but my black hole power seems to be gone too. My phasing also seems to be almost completely drained, if I really concentrate I can still just about manage it, but more than an arm and I feel really ill.

Healthbar's concentrated sunbeam has lost some strength, and her healing has slowed. I don't think she'll be able to resurrect anyone for a while. Everyone else is basically ok, just a little worn out.

That's about it for now, I'll update again soon.

Oh! Forgot to say, we've had a couple of ideas about the volcano of lost souls. Hopefully something will come up, because we have a plan. It's our duty. We owe them.

We're getting SOLAR back.

Silent Night (Again)

Hey, hope everyone had a good christmas and new year. Given the condition the world was in last year, I hope it was at least better than that one.

Anyway, we've had to adjust to our new 'status' as 'celebrities'. There was the inevitable kidnap attempt of family, with three thugs attempting to take Doolittle's family hostage. We'd been doing an interveiw at the same time, so we brought a camera along and televised the resulting battle. Within three minutes, one was a gibbering wreck, one was suffering burns and being mauled by a tiger, and one was, well, Blackmage sort of....accidentally turn him into a frog. He's still getting to grips with his power, but it was freaking cool. 'I trust this message is understood?'

Yeah, no trouble since then. :)

We recently had a spot of bother with a basic flaw of human nature. As a race, we have a tendency to panic when stuff we can't handle happens. HG, and our mass fixing of the world's  'injuries' fall into this category, so naturally, people started rioting.I suggested Broadcast and Jingle try a combined attack, as they both have abilities that can stir emotions, and, well, tis the season......

On the roof of the base, Broadcast and Jingle looked out at the city. Flurries of snow began to float gently down, and music filled the air. They clasped hands and began to sing.

'Silent night, do not fight,

 All be calm, all be bright,

 Round the world people have gone wild,

Calm your tempers, be tender and mild'

Rest and be at peace, 

Let this madness cease.'

The city ground to a halt as a calming blanket of snow covered it, and the beautiful, soothing melody rang out, sending everyone drifting off into the land of nod. I beamed it out across the radiowaves, and chaos up and down the counrty faded into quiet, restorative sleep.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Fallout

Hey. Sorry, it's been a while, hasn't it? There's been quite a lot of cleaning up to do in the aftermath of HG. Everyone's ok. I've got everyone new phones, Hana saved mine but HG took everyone else's and had them destroyed. Ragnarok got me to upgrade his with a bunch of stuff, just like his old one, so it connects to the SOLAR base etc, so I expect he'll be in touch soon.

We limped away from the ruins, flames leaping high behind us. My left leg was dragging, and I was glad to discover I could summon my staff from quantum storage to lean on.as I hobbled along. Healthbar was completely drained from the fight, and the dark sky offered no solar power for her to recharge. There was a hopeful pink glow off to our left, but for now, everyone was staying injured.

The adrenaline we'd all been running on had faded, and everyone was close to collapsing. Except Cecil, his RCR was working hard to repair him. He tugged at Healthbar's shirt. Hey, Healthbar, you can convert dark darker powers into the sunny healing ones, right?'
'Urgh....sort of. It's more of a trade though...ow...I need to take health before I can dispense it, so it's sort of a dark healing.'
'But the healing bit works the same right, same effects?'
'Basically, yeah...nngh...healing is healing.'
He grabbed her hand. 'Take what you need.'
'Uh..HUH?! No!'
'Oh come on, aren't I immortal? I've got more life left than you lot anyway.'
She didn't have the strength to argue further. Smiling gratefully, her hand glowed with dark light, making Cecil wince. She looked refreshed, and waved her free hand, casting a beam of light over the group. We felt a rush of energy, and several clicks were heard as broken bones reconnected, open wounds scabbed over, and aches and pains faded away. Healthbar screamed and the soothing warmth faded. We all turned to see her staring in horror at Cecil. He had looked about nine, but he'd visibly aged, now seeming to be about 12, with a couple of grey hairs in his fringe. He looked at himself, surprised, and grinned. 'Wow, I've been stuck for years! Oh we are DEFINITELY doing this again!' Then he noticed his fringe. 'Ah. Perhaps not...'

We thanked him for his sacrifice, but Healthbar flatly refused to do it again, and we agreed. We'd last until daybreak. He'd helped us enough. Healthbar's hair was a shade darker, and I didn't trust the Vampire not to try and seize control again.

We struggled on, still limping, but feeling a lot better. We'd gone about half a mile when we heard vehicles screeching to a halt, and found ourselves blinking and wincing in the sudden dazzling brightness of headlights.
'Stay where you are!' A voice yelled, and I could feel the buzz of cameras being turned on. A policeman strode out of the light, gun pointed at us. 'Freeze! Who are you? What happened here?!'
I realized the destruction of HG's base had attracted quite a lot of attention, and police and media were now investigating. I turned to face the others. 'Do you trust me?'
Everyone nodded. Some of the new recruits looked a bit unsure, but nodded with the rest.
'Good. We can't hide anymore. It's not working. We have to tell the world.'
'I said freeze!' The policeman yelled.
'Urgh, fine.' I sighed, turning back to him. I waved at his gun, and it began to freeze, ice coating the barrel. He screamed and dropped it, and a woman next to him turned to mutter to a man holding a camera.
'You may as well come forward, we need to talk to you.'
Gasping, the woman crept forwards, still whispering excitedly into her microphone.
'We are now approaching the group, who have been caught fleeing the scene of the explosion, and just moments ago disarmed a policeman from feet away-'
'Please stop, we can explain everything if you give us a chance.'
'Huh? Oh, uh, ok. And you are?'
'I'm Tempest, and we're a group called VHS. We are evolved humans with superhuman abilities, and we've been saving the world in secret for a few years now.'
She just stared. A crowd was forming behind her, and I could see more cameras.
'What channel are you on?'
'.....I'm BBC, we'll be sending this in for the morning news.'
'So we aren't live?'
'Uh, no.'
'Well we are now, and on every channel. We need everyone to see.'
'Wha-?'
I focused, and managed a small fireball in the palm of my hand. Wincing, I watched the reporter gasp, and the cameraman zoom in.
'See? We have powers, but we can't hide anymore. We want to help, do more, but we can't do that if we have to stay secret. The government tried to lock away people like us, and we were so busy hiding that we couldn't stop HG when he took over the world. Now the planet is in chaos, but we want to fix it. Put everything back as it was.'
I gestured to Healthbar, Lily, Pete, Cleone, and Tingle. We formed a circle, holding hands.
'This world is a mess right now, and I'm so sorry for everything you've all been through. We can't rewind time, we can't rewrite what happened, but we can repair the damage. Cleone and Pete are going to boost our powers, and we're going to try and reach out, to everything, everyone, everywhere. and undo as much damage as we can. I can restore plantlife and software, Healthbar can heal injuries and undo any of the more recent deaths, Tingle can wipe out any traces of HG's power, and Lily can control objects at a molecular level, fixing pretty much everything else. We can't undo what happened, but we can set the world straight again.'
The crowd waited expectantly, curious.
'Give it a sec, Healthbar needs to finish healing us first, and for that we need-'
Dawn finally arrived, the sun emerging from behind some ruins and bathing the scene in glorious sunlight. Healthbar began to glow, and all signs of harm vanished from her face, her hair returning to it's usual colour.
'There we go. Watch closely people, we're about to heal the world.'
Healthbar's glow spread round the circle, and a huge surge of power erupted from us, shooting out in all directions. Nothing but white light, everywhere. I whited out, locked into the circle as the world trembled.

Epic showdown. Again.

I woke up, bleary eyed and with a pounding headache, lifting my head from the floor to squint around as the room slowly came into focus. I was in a small, square red stone room, with a security camera in a high corner. I felt a tugging at the sharp pain in my shoulder, and looked round to see a tiny robot pulling desperately at the patch that had been stabbed in there. The robot had slightly blocky limbs and a rectangular body that were still recognisable as having been an iPhone. A piece of the touch screen served as the head, with thin wires flowing from behind hair. On the screen, Hana's face was filled with concentration as she pulled weakly at the power patch with tiny wire fingers, trying to remove it.

'Hana! The transformer modifications work then?!'

'Yeah, and I still have full use of my powers. I've disabled your patch, but there's only so much strength you can put in a phone...'

I glanced up at the camera, focusing hard as I blinked at it. It froze, and I reached for the patch, swearing as I tugged it out of my shoulder. I rolled over, staring up at the ceiling. Eventually, I managed to sit up, feeling my strength returning. 'Thanks Hana. Splitting up before they stole all my tech was a wise decision.'

'Yeah, I've seen what they did to the rest of it. Ouch.'

'Aww, I wanted it back! Damn. Oh well, we'd best be getting on.'

I faced the door. There was no keypad, no lock, nothing. It was just a slab of metal. Right, plan B. I stared at the stone wall next to door and clenched my fist, making a crushing gesture. A door sized area shattered, crumbling to dust. With Hana's on my shoulder, I ran out into the corridor. It seemed like the lower levels of the facility had been carved out of the layers of rock beneath the main building. My room was on its own in the corridor, and we ran off, looking for the others. 'Hana, did you disable everyone else's patches too?'

'Doing it now.'

I found a staircase and hurtled up it. 'How long before they recover?'

'Quicker than you, they're already awake.'

A guard came round a corner. I froze the floor and shot along it, sliding into him and slammed him into the wall. He collapsed, and I started running again. 'Come on guys, where are you?!' I thought as loud as I could. I heard a faint buzzing a regular, dull thud noise from up ahead. Another guard ran out of a doorway and raised his gun, but used it to gesture further down the corridor. 'We're close' he said in a strangely flat tone. 'Left at the junction.' He winced and collapsed. I turned left as he' d instructed, and saw two guards running at me. They had their guns pointed at me before I could blast them, but one suddenly clutched his neck, letting out a cry of pain and collapsing. I saw three wasps flying out from under his collar as he fell. The other guards gasped as a ghostly vision of a young woman flashed into being between him and me. Tildy yelled 'Hurry! They know we're breaking out!' before screaming and rushing at the other guard. He shrieked as she passed through him. Now I could hear music, guiding me onwards.

At the next junction I turned right, following the bright glow and smell of burning metal. I had reached the right corridor. The thuds were explained as a metal fist burst through the wall on my left, and I heard Ragnarok cheering. Healthbar had melted her door, and offered me a drained smile as I approached. 'Woah, that takes some getting used to' she chuckled, looking me up and down. 'that is you right?'

'Yup.' I laughed. The first real proper laugh for a long time. I made my crushing motion again, breaking open doorways for Doolittle, Tingle and Playwrite.

Rag had finished forcing his way out of his room, and did a double take when he saw me. 'Whoah, sorry. Mind giving me a buzz?' I sent a jolt of electricity at him, and his metallic body crackled with the energy.

I ran along the corridor, breaking everyone else out. Doolittle was confused at my yelp of joy and a hug that lifted her off her feet. Once everyone was gathered, we set off for the upper levels.

'Why hasn't HG come and stopped us?' Doolittle asked as we ran.

'FDiffy bought me some time.' I said. 'I hope he's OK.'

'Who's Fdiffy?'

We were approaching the comms centre. There was a troop of guards outside, and they turned as they heard us approach.

'Keep them busy guys, I need to have a word with our host.'

Everyone nodded, and I leapt through the locked door, opening an audio link to HG's grand hall. I studied the monitors showing the room. HG was gloating, but the figure in front of him grinned.

'Did you really think ou could best me? ME?! You fool! I am the greatest Equinox who ever lived!I have beaten you at every turn! Which reminds me, I really must thank you for posting everything you were up to, it was very useful. Your virtual defences were pitiful, I've been reading your blog for months! I've known your every move all the time! You even posted your invasion plan for here! As soon as I read it, I knew exactly where your new team was heading! I've sent a group of guards after each of them! It's over! You've lost!'

A cut and bruised face tilted upwards to stare at him. 'And how'd that work out?'

HG faltered. 'What?'

'Allow me to explain.' I cut in over the comms. 'He's referring to the fact that you must have sent them quite a long time ago. Have you heard from any of them?'

'Who's that?'

'Answer the question.'

'Well, no.'

'Oh dear, that can't be good, can it?'

'Who are you? What are you talking about?'

'I'm talking about nobody being where you think they are.'

'What?!'

'Well, it serves you right for snooping doesn't it? You read something you shouldn't have, and now you're in trouble.'

'What?! WHO ARE YOU?'

'Can't you guess?'

I cut the connection and left the room.there were no guards left to fight, so we made our way to the grand hall. We didn't come across any more guards. Clearly Jingle had his job well.

As we got closer to th hall I could hear rushing water. 'Ah, the ammo stores, excellent. I lined myself up so I had a straight path, and ran through the wall, holding my breath. The room was completely full of water, and in the middle, someone was whirling frantically round and round. Freezing cold emanated from me as I ran through, spreading through the water and turning it to ice. I grabbed Maelstrom and pushed him ahead of the me, phasing him through the wall on the other side, leaving a solid room of ice behind us. 'Well, I'd like to see them reload now! How are you?'

'Dizzy....really dizzy....'

Healthbar placed a hand on his shoulder, and he seemed to feel better.

We had reached a door, and I pushed it open. We were on a metal walkway, looking down on HG. He was staring at a screen showing the remains of the holding area.

'How did they get out?! What have you done!?' He stared at the figure in front of him, and then blinked, confused. 'Wait! Something's wrong! What....no.....No!'

'Yes.' I called, and he whipped round to gaze up at me. He took in the rest of VHS behind me, and a look of panic flickered across his face. 'But you don't have the ability to....and the patches...you couldn't....' his eyes flicked between me and his captive, and what little colour there was drained from his face. 'Nooo!'

'We had to keep you distracted enough to let the passive illusions slip under your radar, but I guess you had to notice sometime.'

The grey face and black cloak of Shade faded from me, and down on the floor below, FDiffy was revealed as his illusion of me vanished.

HG stared at us. 'No! That's not how it went! That's not what you said!' He pointed at FDiffy. 'HE's Shade, not you!'

'Nope. That's just what I put in the post. We know you've been reading it. You KNOW we know. I put that in the blog too.'

I leapt over the railing, landing safely on the floor with a puff of air. I started walking towards him. 'I can't believe you fell for it! Was it the bit about you not knowing about FDiffy? Is that what you got you?' I grinned. 'YOU fool.'

I tried to grab him, but he backed away. 'You still can't stop me! I can stop anything you send at me! You have no idea of my power!'

'Actually, I do. You can 'flip' things. Reversal, switching, whatever you want to call it. My blog's defenses didn't trust you. Flip! They do. You've been treating people's minds like computers. Someone has willpower. Flip! They don't. I'm guessing that's the only way you could catch Healthbar. I assume you flipped the effects of her powers, meaning she healed you when she meant to harm?'

'He did!' She yelled from above.

'It's true, that IS my power.'

He waved a hand, and FDiffy gulped. He gasped, and looked woozy.

'What did you do?'

'I 'flipped' his breathing. Now oxygen goes out, and CO2 goes in. I didn't change which of the two his body needs though.'

'You monster!'
'He will only be the first!'
I could smell burning again, and an angry golden glow was coming from above.
'You have gathered your friends here, now see them die!'

He swept a hand in the direction of the railings, but flinched, his hand seeming to bounce off the air, as if burned.

'No.'

We looked up, and I had to shield my eyes. Healthbar was ablaze with golden light, and there was fury in her eyes. She was holding hands with Playwrite and Doolittle. The whole group was holding hands, standing in a line, with the golden light surrounding them like a protective aura.

'No.' Healthbar said again. 'You will not harm us. I will not allow it.'

HG snarled and made a flipping motion with his hand. Healthbar smiled as the cloud of darkness she'd created in front of her was morphed into golden light, which was absorbed into her protective barrier. He tried again, and the same thing happened. FDiffy seemed to recover a little. His body was fighting the swap, HG was having to focus on holding it in place!

'Keep going Healthbar!' I yelled, launching streams of lightning at him. I knew it wouldn't kill him, he'd be able to recover, but I had to take his attention off FDiffy. He was distracted by Healthbar, and gave a cry of pain as the lightning hit, and turned to me. He screamed at me, but kept motioning at Healthbar, who kept making more dark smog.

FDiffy was recovering, his body slowly winning the fight for control of his breathing. HG yelled, flying backwards, and Healthbar let out a 'Ha!' of triumph. While his attention was on me, she'd shone a beam of healing light at HG, who, not realizing, had flipped it, so that what hit him was a glowing black beam of her dark powers, blasting him off his feet. FDiffy seemed to gulp, and breathed in deeply, free at last. He pulled himself up onto his knees, gasping for air, and glared at HG.

'You.....you....I....that was.......you.....you're just....just...'

He was struggling to find the right word, trying to describe exactly what he was feeling.

'You're....you're....'

He was on his feet now, and pointed an accusing finger. 'You're..just....just....STINKY!!'

I don't think I'd really believed it until then. Sure he had the colour scheme, and the ability, but I think there had always been a part of me, deep down, that refused to believe that the Diffy I knew could have become this hardened warrior. But hearing him now, and seeing that familiar look on his face, I knew. I finally saw a shadow of the old Diffy in his eyes.

HG shot something at Diffy, who was hunched over again, breathing heavily. I saw HG shoot, and leapt. 'Diffy, look out!'

I knocked him to the floor, just dodging being shot myself. Diffy was staring at me. 'What?'

'You called me Diffy.'

'Yeah...'

'Without the F'

'Oh, yeah, well...'

Next thing I knew he was hugging me, beaming.

'Tempest! So you don't think I'm a fake anymore?!''

'Fake? The F stood for Future...'

'Oh. I don't care I'm just happy! Thank you for saving me!'

'Uh, you're welcome?'

'Does this mean you forgive me about Precog?'

'No, but I'm not mad at you anymore.'

'I'll take that. I'm sorry I had to lie, but-'

'WHEN YOU TWO HAVE QUITE FINISHED?!'

Healthbar had been blocking us from shots with a cloud of darkness, but seemed to be weakening. She grimaced as another shot hit our cover.

'Sorry!' I got up, and faced HG.'Face it, you've lost!'
'Oh really?'
He smiled, and the back wall slid upwards to reveal a solid mass of monsters, horrific creatures that belonged in nightmares. claws, pincers, bat wings, horn, fangs, hooves, a crazy mish-mash of animal and human, demonic versions of fairytale characters, and golems made of stone.
Me and Diffy shared a look, and sighed. 'When does this guy NOT have an army?'
'As you say Tempest, I can bend the obedience of others to my will. A familiar face, I believe?'
I peered into the swarm, and noticed someone near the front, with glazed eyes, moving her arms like a puppeteer. 'Jorgia?! I thought she died?'
'She can Warp Reality! You really think she would surrender to death so easily?'
The hellish creations charged. Me and Diffy ran for the nearest wall, desperate to limit how many angles we could be attacked from.
We nearly made it. We were only a couple of metres away when the creatures got to us. We found ourselves drowning in a sea of monsters, all jabbing and slashing at us. Diffy grabbed the nearest head, and beams of multicoloured foggy light started to waft from his eyes. HG laughed, and flipped his hand, and the beams began to retreat. Diffy began to scream, and cut off his attack at once. 'He flipped my spooky cloud! I can't do it!'
'Same here!' All my powers were being flipped into nothingness, fading before they did any good. I resorted to punching a vampiric tinkerbell in the face, sending her flying, but a large grey cyclops took her place, reaching for me with it's huge hands.

Then four things happened at once.
There was a yell from above, and Healthbar led the charge over the railing, dropping onto the monsters below.
A series of bangs rang out as doors slammed open. The rest of my new team had arrived from their various missions of sabotage.
The main doors blew off their hinges, crumpled and broken, and Dragon stormed in, livid. 'STOP! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HARM THESE NOBLE SOULS! THEY ARE UNDER MY PROTECTION!'
The wall off to my right exploded, clouds of brick dust swept over us, and, coughing, I looked up to see a very short, oddly shaped silhouette.
Diffy beamed. 'I told you! Secret weapon!'
'What?'
'I told you someone was working up a attack. When you arrived in the future, who was free?'
'...Oh.....No way....'
the shape looked rather like a rather spiky lion, about the size of a dog, being ridden by something like a very large egg, wearing a sailors hat and holding up something pointy.
The dust began to clear, and there he was. Sitting on blue and black spiky cat creature, weilding a dagger like a sword, his red hat emblazened with it's signature smiley face.
'DIFFY!'
'Oi! Stinky! You has my frends. Now you in BIIIIIG trubble.'
He turned to call behind him 'Code Cheescake! Code Cheesecake! Go Go Go!'
Figures ran in past him. I saw Cleone, Freezeframe, Evan, the guy we rescued who can turn things to dust, and so many more. Diffy had gone and found anyone and everyone he could that we had helped over the past few years. True, he only seemed to have about 7 people, but it was impressive. Dust guy was pushing into the creatures, reducing them to dust. Across the room, Tingle was having a similar effect. Diffy had clambered off his mount, and it had let out a small roar and leapt into the fray, crackling with energy. 'Teempeeest!' Diffy was running over to me in the cute, waddling way I'd missed so much.
'Tempest! You's ALIVE! Also, I has an ouchy, look.'
He held out a yellow paw with a small cut on it. Beaming, I got out a plaster, and stuck it on, wrapping him in a hug. I felt how solid he seemed, and thought back to what else Future Diffy had said to me. Something about his power that I'd missed, something about Paris.....
I felt Diffy hug me, and then pull away. 'Tempest! I is liking the hug, and all the happy, but I needs to go. I has peeple saving to do.'
'Of course, but promise me something?'
'What?'
'Never let anything change you. I know we might get annoyed sometimes, but we all love you, and we're proud of you. Look at what you did! Thank you. Thank you for coming and saving us. You are awesome, and you must never let anyone or anything change that. Just keep being you. Promise?'
'Of corse! Hehe, you being all soppy!'
'Ha! Yeah. Now go. Save the world.'
Diffy beamed, and turned away, running at the monsters. He lashed out with his blade, jabbing at ankles, shins and tails.
'Stabby! Stabby Stabbity stabbity stab stab! You all in biiiiig trouble! 1 for you, 1 for you, ooh, you has 4 legs, you gets 2! Jab! Take dat! and dis! Raaar!'
He vanished from sight, but his progress was marked by the wiggly line of creatures crying out in pain and falling to the floor.
I turned to look at Future Diffy. 'I know he hasn't gone all dark yet, but you were never very innocent were you?'
'Nah, I'm pretty twisted inside.'
I saw that dust guy bad become a whirling vortex of dust, surging through the creatures, writhing wildly, as if he was losing control.
Future Diffy grinned and leapt to his feet. He looked over at HG, who was looking advancing on Dragon. 'He looks suitably distracted, let's try this again.'
He spun slowly on the spot, and coloured light whirled round him, turning him into...
'Woah. And I thought Shade fighting for us sounded fun.'
'EX-TER-MIN-ATE!!'
He'd become a Dalek. He whirred off, blasting at foes as he went.
'Huh....the beams....they're....working? OH.'
My train of thought was derailed by a Squid faced pirate swiping at me. He was electrocuted and burst into nothingness. I started making my way over to intercept HG, who was still after Dragon. Dragon had reached Jorgia, and held a hand up to her head. 'Sleep now, little one. You have been used and mistreated, and must stop this while you still can.'
His hand glowed, and she looked like she'd been struck between the eyes. She collapsed, and her army faded from sight.
Diffy cheered, and ran over to Healthbar, hugging her leg tightly. 'Healthy! I did good!'
'Yes you did! Well done Diffy!'
Future Diffy became himself again, and walked over to them. 'Oh, Diffy, I wonder if you could help me with something.'
Diffy narrowed his eyes, suspicious. 'Who's you?'
'I'm..a new friend of Tempest's. A new, old friend. I can do what you can do, and I was hoping you could help me with something.'
'I'z listening...'
'Well, the stinker with the hood is currently distracte trying to get near Dragon, but he's holding him off. Now, I want to nightmare cloud him to pay him to give him some idea of the hell we've all been through, but I can't do it on my own. Do you think we could do it together?'
Diffy looked surprised. 'You...you WANTS me to spooky face him? Help yoo do one?'
Future Diffy bowed low. 'It would be an Honour to work with you.'
Diffy looked up at Healthbar, and then at me. Everyone was nodding.
Diffy glared at HG. 'Let's spooky!'
He and his future self ran At HG, wisps of colourful light streaming from their eyes. The combined force was too much for HG to stop, and he reeled, screaming as a cloud of flickering light surrounded his head. I ran over to the others, and was relieved to see that Doolittle had survived this time. Dust guy hadn't made it though. He'd forced his power into overdrive, become that tornado, and lost control. It looked like he hadn't managed to change back, fading and scattering. I wish we could have done something to help him. There had been too many deaths around HG. He had to be stopped.
The building groaned and rumbled, and cracks appeared on some of the walls. I heard a explosion somewhere far off.
'Ah, that's my bad.' Doom winced. 'I thought we'd be out by now.'
Blackmage had a go at fusing some of the cracks closed, but the building shook, knocking us all off our feet.
The Diffys yelled, slammed to the floor by the quake, and HG took his chance, dispelling the cloud and swooping down on them. He face was locked in a grimace of hatred, and dark energy was burning round him like an Aura. A beam of it shot at Diffy, who grabbed by Future Diffy, rolling out of the way.
'Oh come on! You can shoot energy beams?! How does that even work?!'
The Diffys were in a corner, they had nowhere to go. We were all charging at HG, trying to stop him, block the beam anything-
Dragon got there first. He flew towards HG with a roar, and HG turned to face him, his beam of dark energy striking him squarely in the chest. Dragon stopped, frozen in midair, and let out a yell. He began to glow with red and orange energy, which became an Aura to rival HG's. the beam that linked the two of them burst into flames, and HG snarled.
They both seemed frozen now, eyes locked on each other as their power struggle raged. At the centre of the beam, a ball of energy was growing, crackling and flickering between orangey gold and deepest. The ball of energy kept letting loose small shot, blasts firing off in all directions. The walls wer crumbling, chunks of ceiling were falling around us, and several small fires had started. I hauled Future Diffy to his feet, and he ran to the others, hugging Diffy close to his chest. We all gathered in a terrified huddle, watching Dragon and HG as they leant towards each other, throwing everything they had into the fight. Dragon started to shake, and vibrate, starting to blur. HG's cloak was aflame, fire consuming him, but all his focus was on the beam. Dragon grimaced, coming back into focus, but his whole body was glowing orange, and he was becoming transparent. He closed his eyes for a second, brow furrowed, and burst into flames, his robes ablaze. He turned to us, with tears in his eyes. 'Fly you fools!' and exploded in a ball of fire.
I scooped us all up in a forcefield and shot us out of the door, landing on the road outside with a thump. We all turned back to see the building come crashing down, a raging inferno reducing the entire complex to rubble.
There was another explosion, huge this time, destroying everything that remained. I put up a forcefield against flying chunks of burning rubble, and shared a look with the rest of the team. We'd done it. We'd beaten HG and survived. Well, most of us.
Dragon.
Thank you Dragon. Thank you for watching over us, for helping us. For saving our lives. You will be missed.
Thank you for everything.