Black to move.

'So, Tingle's going to, what? Chess us across to Don?'

'Looks like it.'

'But he's talking all technical. Who's Knight supposed to be?'

A discussion was starting up, mostly about which chess piece looked most like a suit of armour. Centaur hardly knew the game, and Broadcast was used to the belgian names and his set looked different. FDiffy was straining to remember, and looked at me.

'Oh! You showed your set when I was little, and I got confused and made up different names because they didn't look right! Argh! Which one was it!'

I sighed. 'It's the one that looks like a Horse? You know, that Knights ride?'

'Oooooooh. Yeah. Now what?'

'May I suggest the one of us with hooves moves where Tingle wants him?'

A look of understanding came over Centaur's face, and he reached down to run a hand through his horsehair.

'Oh yeah. Duh.'

He approached the board, and, once he'd been told how a Knight moved, started acorss. There were two possible squares he could start from, but one was where I'd thrown the orange, so that decided that. Nervously stepped across three squares, and then one to the right. Nothing happened.

FDiffy grinned. 'Haha, I knew it! The man has skills. Let the game begin.'

We looked at Tingle. 'What next?'

'Pawn to D9'

FDiffy looked puzzled. 'Pawn? Which one of us that?'

'Oh come on. The smallest member, that has the potential to transform himself?'

He blew a raspberry at me, just like his old self, and took his place on the board.

'Rook to F13'

'That'd be me.'

So Tingle started guiding us across the giant board. Jump was Queen, Broadcast was a Bishop, and Scorch was King. Slowly, one move at a time, we started making our way towards Don. FDiffy wondered at one point why we couldn't just all follow one path, but I found out with an apple that the electric squares moved around every few seconds. Only Tingle could see some sort of pattern, a way across, the safe tiles, and he called out instructions, guiding us on our way.Jump wanted to know why she couldn't just teleport over to Don, and tried, but as she vanished, the edges of her square glowed and she reappeared. She stepped forward, crossing one of the lines, and made it to the next one with no trouble. It seems that lines need crossing manually, by walking or in the air, but you cant skip squares, you need an actual path. You've got to admit, HG has serious skills, for all his faults.

Then Broadcast seemed to trigger something. He'd just been directed two squares forward on the diagonal North-West (assume North is forwards) and was now the furthest ahead, one square ahead of centaur. All the squares on his row flashed blue, as did every square beyond it. Don's headband beeped, and from the booths at the side, shadowy figures, like those we'd seen on the screens, walked calmly out and took up positions at the other side.

'Oh Goody' I sighed. 'I thought this rescue was missing something.'

Across the board?

Once Jump got everybody out of the tower, I was introduced to the new guy. He calls himself Scorch, or at least he does now, Jump looked confused at first. but he shared a look with FDiffy, who glanced at me, and backed him up. I hate people not telling me things because I'm from the past. I got annoyed. 'What aren't you letting on? TELL ME!'
Diffy actually smiled. A proper smile, as if he found it funny. 'Persuasion? Really? Please, it just about worked when I was little, if you caught me by surprise. I worked my way round that ages ago.'
'Whuh? How?'
'And don't bother doing the others, I'm the only one with more than a couple of pieces of your whole picture. now, who are we saving next?'
'I've got the location of Don. If we all hold onto each other, I should be able to jump us all at once.'
Next thing I knew, everything quivered and vanished again. We landed almost instantly, with no sign of disturbance. Seems smooth trips are easier if you're not being shot at.
I got up, looking round. 'We were fairly close then?'
'Nope. My Awesomeness has increased since you last saw me.'
Good old Jump, always could make me smile. I saw we were inside a huge room, that seemed to stretch impossibly into the distance. In the middle, so far away, Don was suspended in a harness, with a thin metal band round his head, and a power patch stabbed into his arm. Lights flashed on the metal band, and little booths based around the walls flashed in response. On a view screen nearby we could see another room, with at least twenty of the booths, all lined up against a wall. Every time a green light flashed on the band, green lights flashed on each of the booths, and a shadowy figure, as if made out of black smoke, but more solid, stepped from each one and walked purposefully away.
'What. The Hell.'
Centaur looked sick. He trotted on the spot nervously, staring at the screen.
'What?'
'Something...about them...so wrong...so very, very wrong..run, we should run. No, I need to focus.'
He held his nose, scrunching up his eyes and puffing out his cheeks, as if he was trying to clear his ears. His ears, nose, and eyes flashed wildly between between different animal features, a new one every fraction of a second, bat, dog, fox, wolf, bird, lion, too many to count, then it suddenly stopped, and he let go of his nose, tipping his head back, breathing deeply, and slapping his cheeks a couple of times. 'There, that's got it, I can't feel them anymore.' He noticed our looks of bewilderment. 'What now?'
'.......We get Don.'
I started forward, but Tingle, who'd been almost comatose since his rescue, only muttering occasional strings of gibberish quietly, suddenly spoke up, raising his head to me.
'Stop! Bzzzt! Rook can't move yet! Knight to C7!'
'What?'
'I think he's trying to communicate with us, but he's still messed up from his capture. His power is telling him there's a problem.'
I took an orange from my survival kit, and threw it towards the floor. As is passed over one of the nearest squares, the square lit up, and electricity flashed into being round the fruit. There was a flash and a smell of burning, and a wrinkled black lump fell to the floor.
We all stared, and several jaws dropped open. It was a couple of seconds before I could speak.
'Ah. So that's what you mean by 'Bzzzt'. Great.'

Another very weird rescue......

Hey, another quick update to let you know how it's going.
We've got Tingle, and someone else, and met a new friend. Well, new to me at least.

Tingle was underground, in what was left of New York. It took a while to fly there, I can only carry three humans and a centaur across an ocean so fast.

Inside the facility, Tingle's body was encased in a metal box, with his head sticking out of the top, with a metal band round his forehead, with wires flowing from it. His eyes were glowing black, and he mumbled incoherently as a stream of data and images scrolled by on a screen.

I ran to him, putting forcefields up round everyone as guards appeared, guns raised.
Disaster. These guns shot pellets of energy that hit hard at the forcefields, making me stumble as I fought to hold them up.

I knocked three guards over with a huge gust of wind, and heard drumbeats as Broadcast raised his arms. I saw Centaur's right arm morph into a scorpion's tail and plunge into the shoulder of a guard, who collapsed. FDiffy became huge and hulk-like, and guards ran from his swiping hands. I made it to Tingle, and as Hana got to work on the power patch, I pushed through the metal box, phasing Tingle out of the other side.
A bullet of energy smashed through the forcefield round FDiffy, and another hit him in the chest. His hulkish form flickered and died, and he fell to the floor. More forcefields shattered, causing ripples of pain through my head. I staggered, clutching my head as I went round the box to get Tingle.
Centaur leapt infront of Broadcast as a laser blast flew at him. It hit him in the shoulder and he crashed to the floor. Broadcast, looking angry, dived behind a protruding vent. The drums faded, and violin music filled the air. I swept my hand to make another forcefield as the guards fired at me, and another ripple of agony tore through my brain as they destroyed it. I tried to shelter Tingle as the guards ran forward, but I couldn't concentrate on my powers with such a throbbing pain in my head.
But the guards were slowing down. Tears were springing to their eyes, and they were going limp. Broadcast stood up from behind the vent, miming violin playing (Air-violin? Like Air-guitar? Meh.) and swept forwards into the middle of the room. He played a slow, sad tune, causing the guards to sink to the floor. The air was filled sorrow, and I started to feel cold, as if all the happiness was leaking out of me.
'Fingers in ears!' called FDiffy, sitting up with difficulty, blocking out the song with his hands. I stood up and did the same, and tried to pull Tingle. It was too hard. I freed my left hand to try and pull him to his feet, but then the music flooded in, bringing me to tears. The guards were sobbing now, collapsed on the floor, drowning in their own misery. Broadcast suddenly clapped his hands, and something like a sonic boom smacked them in the face, and they all crumpled.
I felt the wave of anguish fading, to be replaced by fear as doors slammed open and HG himself strode in. There was a dull thud as someone landed on the floor near me, and as Centaur charged at HG, FDiffy turned to the newcomer.
'At last! Help T, protecting us has left him weak!'
Someone grabbed my arm as I took hold of Tingle. 'Going my way? One exit, coming up!'
Everything shimmered, and went black.

All I remember next is crashing onto dusty ground. I looked up to see a boy of about 15 looking down at me, grinning. He looked away. You got him! Are the others ok?'
'Just popping back now to get them out.'
I looked round to see who'd spoken. The surprise nearly knocked me out.
'Jump! You're-'
She beamed. 'Saving the world? Yeah. A good friend once told me it kind of goes with the territory for people like us.'
My bruised mind was reeling. 'Who was that?'
She rolled her eyes. 'You. Duh.'
She vanished.

Divide and conquer

We've split up into two groups, to cover ground better. Pete and Jingle are off on reindeer to the african jungle, where FDiffy suspects Doolittle is hiding out after her recent escape. Apparently she was rescued by a termite while they were repairing the global translator that they used her for. It was linked to Broadcast for when HG had to transmit to other countries.

We're off to rescue Tingle. We're going to meet up in the Forest of Dean, where there's a huge tree that FDiffy has hidden at before. Apparently, I'll 'know it when we get there' because it 'just feels right' to him, so my plant manipulation should guide me there if we get separated. This place just gets weirder and weirder. Oh well. Wish us luck.

I believe in Father Christmas

Today we saved Centaur and Pete. Pete was at a main facility back in England, but we had to go after Broadcast first, because now news of our attacks on strongholds will travel much slower.

Centaur was made to guard Pete's facility, and is apparently the only surviving member of the Zodiac members that Dragon introduced us to. HG tried to use Blast as a defense system, and overloaded her. She didn't make it. Cecil escaped before HG had a chance to experiment on him, and after healing, went for HG alone. He did fairly well, until he grabbed HG by the arm, and his power was automatically flipped. Turned to dust, poor guy. I hate this future, I want to go home. Broadcast's the only Pen-friend to have lasted this long aswell. While being moved to her facility, Shockwave managed to get off the power blocker, and brought down the transport vehicle, but it came down on top of her. She was crushed. He had big plans for freezeframe, but overworked her power, spread it too thin, and caused something of a cave-in of her mind. Left in a coma, she was no good to him, and he 'disposed of her'. I'm going to kill him. Then I'm going to go back in time to the present and kill him again.

So, Broadcast was in some sort of stunned state, we had to carry him, he had this glazed look in his eyes and just kept mumbling. Having made it back into England, we managed to get to the outskirts of London. The 'Power Station' was just at the edge of London, fortunately, because London is one of the places that's still running, and is something of a hotspot for HG-ness.
We approached a large silver box with two aerials on it's roof, a wind turbine propeller on either side, and the whole place seemed to crackle with energy. The propellers were spinning fast, and as we crept towards the door, I was slammed to the floor. Rolling away and leaping up, I saw a man with glowing red eyes, bat's ears, a dog nose, four legs ending in two spiked hooves and two giant birds claws, four arms, two of which were tentacles, one a huge Gorilla arm, and one an arm sized scorpion tail. there was a patch like Broadcast had had stabbed into his shoulder.
'Centaur?! I can just about tell it's you. It's Tempest. Can you understand us? What's wrong? Waaah!'
I dodged as the scorpion tail lunged, and saw the power blocker patch flashing madly. thin sparks of red energy shot from it and danced over him.
'I think they're using Pete to boost his power, and the patch is controlling him!' yelled Diffy, who was helping Jingle lie Broadcast down, as I'd left him with them to check out the main building.
'I can't get past that thing, what do we do?' I caught him in a forcefield, and grimaced as he beat against it, snarling.
'Let me have a go, my ability gives me a different approach to yours.' I heard Hana from my pocket. I reached for my phone in time to see her shrinking to a small blue dot. The wi-fi symbol flashed, and the dot disappeared. The red light on the power blocker flicked suddenly between red and blue. Then it turned green, and Hana's faced smiled up from my phone. I can get it to it's default: Power regulation only. He won't be under it's control anymore, so it should deny his ability access. Centaur was, it had to be said, turning human again. He slumped in the forcefield, and I released him.
'Wha? What..what happened? You? Tempest? But, you look a bit too young?'
'Long story. Diffy, Catch him up and look after Broadcast. Me and Jingle'll have to do this one.'
'You sure?'
'These two aren't fit to help yet, and you know most about what's going on.'
'Be careful.'
'Duh.'
Me and Jingle set off for the door. The guards acted strange. They looked as if they were pretending not to notice us, looking the other way as we snuck behind. No complaints from us.
'You know who we need?' I whispered as we carefully entered and I searched the system for Pete's location 'Dragon. He'd be so great with all this.'
'Yeah, I wish I'd met him'
'Huh?'
'He was destroyed. Didn't Diff tell you?'
'No...he did not.'
'Gave himself up trying to save everyone. Completely destroyed.'
'That's a lie. He'll have survived, I know it.'
'I really wish I could believe that, but he's gone.'
'.......No. He'll have got through it, you'll see. I believe in him. If he couldn't survive, I doubt any of us will. Ah, two up, third on the left, off we go!'
I phased and FF'ed us upwards, thinking. Dragon? Really? NO! I couldn't believe it. I won't believe it. I DO NOT BELIEVE IT.
We found the right door. It wasn't locked. Or blocked. Or anything. Let us in with out any trouble, to a middling sized dark room, with a red glow in the middle.
We walked, slowly and carefully, towards the silhouette of a person, giving off red flashes of light.

'Ha, boss man said you'd come here next. Powers half his buildings with that kid, makes sense you'd want to come here soon.'
'Ooooooooh, so the guards made it easy for us so we could get to you and YOU would kill us. Fine, who are you then?'
'That doesn't matter. Why waste your last few minutes talking?'
He ran at us as the lights came on. I heard a beep from my phone. Turning to avoid him, I saw the frame Pete was in properly. It was like a goalpost without a net, but with large metal cuffs bolting him arms and wrists to it, and crackling with red energy, like his eyes. His Power Blocker was flickering between red and blue, but it was still forcing him to send streams of power from the cuffs to cables, out of the room and across the world. Our Attacker's nails had became huge, long claws, and were sealing together into blades. spikes of bone were sliding out of his arm, and he slashed at me. I ducked, froze his arm where it stuck in the wall, and pulled out the power blocker as it turned green. Pete woke with a groan of pain and I clicked my fingers, causing the cuffs to undo. He fell, and I just managed to catch him and help him to the floor. looking at the spike of the underside of the blocker, I stabbed it into Bone guy as he lunged. He gasped, reeling, then, as Pete was coming round, I was slammed against a wall by a fist coated in bone armour. Holding his other arm up as a shield against needles, he sneered at me, a sharp needle of bone growing towards my throat.
'Oi!'
Jingle shouted as hooves were heard outside. Centaur, a centaur again, entered, with Broadcast on his back, and Diffy following behind. They looked horrified, but were stopped from getting closer by a hail of bone quills.
'What do you want, pine tree boy?'
'Let him go.'
'Why? Because otherwise, the deadly, deadly power of bits of plant will continue to uselessly hit my boneshield?'
'You went straight for Tempest. What am I? Useless?'
'Yes. Boss wants Enemy number one, he don't care about you.'
'But you will.'
Pete was shaking his head and looked up. A few red sparks shot from his finger and sank into Jingle. He started to glow white, and looked pleased. As he talked, noises and lights filled the air, and his power grew to fill the room, spreading from him in all directions, and warmth and hope filled each of us.
'Wow. Well, I may not have a bounty on my head or multiple powers, but I'll tell you what I do have. I have memories of Christmas morning. A winters light, and a distant choir. The peal of a bell, and that Christmas tree smell. I have eyes full of TINSEL AND FIRE!'
He did. His eyes glowed, as if they were alight, and the noise of bells and choirs broke out around us, as he glowed with warmth, and the smell of pine filled the room. Tinsel shot from him to cover the floor and walls. Baubles grew like apples from the tinsel, and paper chains spread across the ceiling. I saw Broadcast stir as sleigh bell and church bells rang out, and as he wiggled his fingers, fanfares and drums joined the noise, creating an orchestral crescendo, and as the tinsel moved to swarm Boneman and started mummifying him, pine needles whirling through the air and baubles exploding, damaging the machines, the fire in his eyes seemed to break free, and the tinsel burst into flame. A screen came on showing HG, looking smug, but a look of horror replaced it as he stared at the room. Bone man was screaming, ablaze, and baubles had blown a hole in the wall. Jingle, smiling, needles in his hair, warm light spilling from his eyes and a clenched fist shaking as red sparks danced over it, whistled. Reindeer appeared in the gap, kicking at the air, as if treading water. Broadcast was now conducting the invisible orchestra, looking restored, as we rushed to the hole.
'You can do more than one reindeer?'
'Apparently!'
'Laughing, we looked back at the screen, which was now being engulfed in flames.
'Hallelujah!'
'Noel!'
Jingle stared straight at HG 'Be it Heaven or Hell, the Christmas you get, you DESERVE!'
I saw now what had been happening with his fist. Opening it, he threw a lump of coal straight at the screen, smashing it. We leapt aboard a ride each, as Centaur grew wings and took to the air, and we flew off into the night. I looked back as we rose. The whole facility was burning now, and I could still hear bells and choirs and drums. A burning strand of tinsel was swept out of the hole, fluttering in the night air. Mistletoe was growing up the outside, catching fire helping to spread the damage.
'Weirdest. Rescue. Ever. Jingle, that was awesome!'

Merry Christmas Everyone

and then all we need to do is get out again.
Oh God. Broadcast, what the HELL have they done to you?
He's in a chamber of weird fluid, but his head's above the surface. There are wires plugged into him, it looks like they've just been stabbed in, man they look so painful, he's got a silver patch stabbed into his shoulder, and a strange metal headset. He looks like he's in a coma or something.
He's connected to a machine for controlling the transmissions near the roof, and that's connected to the dishes outside.
Damn, guards are trying to break through the doors. Luckily their own defenses are working against them.
Oh, hello, what's that screen saying? Huh, incoming transmission eh? Hooded wants to say something to the new world, and is about to patch it through my friend here.
'People of the world, this is your leader. Glorious news! The infamous rebels, Hana Phonebot and Eric Bermuda, known accomplices of Enemy one, Tempest, and the captive Broadcast, have been captured. Sadly, rebel Doolittle, who escaped using a termite last July, is still loose. Any loyal subjects who find or capture the fugitive will be rewarded. Anyone found to be aiding her in any way will be destroyed.'
So many questions, but he's making Broadcast moan and struggle with pain. That's a mistake. Let's fix that shall we?
Right, screens off, he'll be a bit surprised, bigger things to worry about though. Namely, Broadcast and the guards.
'Diffy, find a way to shut off the power, and Jingle, block the doors. I'll get working on Broadcast.'
'Right!'
Webs of Tinsel, nice. Diffy's exploring switches in the corner, I've nearly found the way round the security of the Transmission machine...What?! The screens back on?
'Intruders! Sound pillar! Stop them! Broadcast! Wall of noise!'
Wall of noise? I know Broadcast was getting better at his power, but surely-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whaaaaaaaaaaa!
Ouch! It's like a gale force of wind made of screeching and booming. Broadcast's actually screaming, and it's making this huge wind that's pushing us all against the wall. It's causing Broadcast so much pain, and killing our ears. This must end. I can't create a big enough stone slab solo, and not being on the ground floor means I can't just flip up a bit of earth. Forcefield? Flying towards me aswell. Right old fashioned way. Arms up, brace self, and... step. .....Step. .......Step. Not...working....Phasing! Viola! Much easier! It's sound, so it's still getting at me, but it's solid element is much easier.
'You guys ok?'
'Pardon! This things killing us!'
Well, that answers that. Oh no! Now the guards have got through! Ha! They were knocked back by the sound too! Ok, try turning off the patch on B's shoulder, it's blinking as if it was involved in the wall of noise.





'T! Wake up!'
'What?! What's happening?! What went wrong?'
'You stared at Broadcast, collapsed, became solid again and got slammed against the wall. One of the guards shot at us, the noise made it hit the thing over my head, which seems to be a power source for the tank, because the wall of noise got weaker. We managed to move, and Jingle's covering us while I woke you up?'
'Covering us? With the guards?'
'Pine needles. Hundreds of them. Tiny scented needles of pain.'
'Nice. Thanks. OK, let's try this again.'
Enter patch, bypass security, oooh, kickback of feedback to cause strong interference incase of tampering. Nasty. Ok, past that, onto the secondary loop. Secondary loop? What secondary loop? Oh Bugg


'Went well did it?'
'Yeah yeah, shut up Diffy, I'm doing my best. He's good. I need to pull it off manually.'
'Good luck, I'll help Jingle.'
He's leapt up and tackled a guard. Urgh my head. OK, standing up, I can do that. Oooh, room spinning. Yay, this is going to go well. And these guards seem more alert than the ones outside, great. Diffy seems happy about that though.
'Is that a glint in the eye? That's a glint in your eye. Excellent. Glints mean you're aware. Goody.
Aaaaaaaaand now there's quite a lot of fire and some sort of little red demons. Guards are scared though, that's good.

Oooh, still windy. OK, arms up again, and push. Step forward. Lightning guard. Step. Step again. Forcefield between Jingle and bullets. Move it to be between Diffy and bullets. Hold bullets statically in Forcefield. Spin forcefield. Release bullets. Cause fire where that fake bit is to actually burn that guard. Step again. Try and build a run. Nearly there now. Grab guard from behind. Phase into floor. Release grip. Cone of water around guard with two guns. Freeze water. Made it. Which power can I use that won't harm Broadcast. Oh well. Punching it is.

Oww! Ok, really thick glass. Forcefield fist. Ah, slightly better. just a thin layer left. Feeling weak. OK, no Forcefield this time apparently.

CRASH!!!

Argh! Glas in hand! Glassin hand! Owowowowowowowow! arhahahahahahhhhh, and this liquid stings too. Ow! OK, wires next. Let's hope I can phase for this. Grab Broadcast, phase, and, yes! The wires have dropped! Hanging loosely! Right, drag Broadcast away...Wall of noise has stopped, that's helpful...forcefield against stray needles, fire them at guards, grab Diffy and Jingle, and we are out of here!

'Wha? Tempest, is that really you? Why do you look weird?'
'Later Broadcast, rest now.'
'I see why Diffy called you in now. Apart from fainting twice, that was all rather impressive.'
'Thanks.'
'Yeah, thanks T, we couldn't have done it without you. I'm glad you're here.'

Well, not as stealthy as we planned, but we're one down. Quite a few to go, but watch out HG, we're coming!

Merry Christmas Everyone

We've traveled for so long to get here. A huge tower, gleaming silver, with a giant transmission aerial at the top, covered in dishes, surrounded by wasteland. Reaching into the sky, walls so smooth I doubt any sort of ability would give you grip, a massive cylinder of impregnability.

Or so they think.

I've got the guards uniform from the 'flipbrain' that we captured, and his ID and whatnot. He looks nothing like me, but I don't plan on showing it to anyone, I just need it for getting in. If anyone tries to Technopath it from outside, and alarm goes off. Any tampering, and all hell breaks loose. Inside however, safe guarded by ID's, guards, and fortified walls, and useful for any Equinoxes that may be working for HG, abilities should be fine. Assuming FDiffy's research is right. Let's hope. According to Diffy, it's Christmas Eve. You wouldn't know it to look around though. No sign anywhere. I asked FDiffy about this as we were making our way here.
'Christmas? You've got to be kidding. Jingle's as close as anyone is going to get these days, and as you can see he's pretty down about it all. HG finds it trivial and frivolous, so he got rid of that very quickly. I remember, the first Christmas under HG's control, Glutton kept fighting for Christmas. HG tried to cancel it in Britain as soon as he took over. It interfered with his plan. I actually miss Glutton.' He smiled sadly. 'Wow, didn't expect to ever hear myself say that. No, not even Jingle's used his REALLY Christmassy stuff for a while.'
He sighed, and then Jingle caught up and we stopped talking about it.

So, with FDiffy's illusions near useless against the guards, our plan is: Me, being the least recognizable, uses the guard disguise to get in, and then....get the others in somehow. To be honest that bit really hasn't been thought through. OK, here we go! Walking, still walking, calmly, I do this everyday, I've been flipped so nothing shows as I do the job I do everyday...approaching another guard....'You, new guard, why are you here?'
'Orders to check inside. Reports of resistance members in the area. I'm extra security for the control room.'
'That is logical. Wait, we have had no reports of Resistance?'
'Until now. I have come to let control know, they will spread the message to all guards. Let me pass.'
come on, come on....yes! He's standing aside. Persuasion, I love you! Ok, at the door, swipe card...eye scan! What eye scan! I suppose they need SOME sort of security against stolen cards, oh hell! Wait, I can do this, The scanning tube is still sliding out, there's still time, quick, glance at card. Dazzling blue, I can do that. Colour manipulation, look down tube like I'm having an eye test, yes! I'm in! Slip through the door before anyone stops me. Right, how to help the others.....Aha! Parked security carts, for driving out into the wastes, or catching resistance members. One with tinted windows, excellent, no chance of seeing inside. Check it's empty, Technopath my way in.....there we go. Off you drive, little empty cart, trundle trundle, round behind the broken remains of cottage, remotely open the door pointedly....Argh, how do I know if they're in? Ah, they're randomly jabbing buttons on the dashboard. Good thing I'm blocking the signals they just called for back up. Ok, swing door shut, and back you come trundle trundle, dum-de-dum-de-doo, voila!
'Nice one!'
'I do my best. Where now?'
'Up to the top.'
'Ok, express route I think, they're suspicious, we can't waste time.'
'Hey Diff, when he says Express route, what does he me-Waaaaaah!'
Forcefield plus phasing. A handy combination.
'You should really warn people before doing this!'
'Sorry, forgot you're new to it.'
Wait, was that a yell! and a bang?
'Yaaaaergh!'
What! FDiffy! something got him in the arm! As we came up through the floor some guy shot at us! Over there! Taking aim again!
'Oi!'
Jingle just lunged for him, and, what? Haha!
'Did you just...spiderman him with Tinsle?'
He's staring at his wrist. 'Uh.....yeah.'
'I have no idea how your power works, and what sort of brain you must have to get a power like it, you strange, strange boy, but I'm very glad I met you.'
'Thanks, I'm glad to have met you too.'
He's smiling, but the guards struggling. I hate to do it to him, it's not his fault, but needs must. Lightning to the leg. He's not following us now.
Up we go. 'You ok Diffy?'
Yeah, thanks T, although it's times like this I REALLY miss Healthbar, you know? Good work Jingle.'
'Thanks.'
'Hang on, the bullet's embedded. I'm going to try something. Eww,eww,eww...'
I'm poking into the wound, urgh, this is gross...poor FDiffy..There it is! Viola, the bullet is now in a subdimension. Water for my hand, bit of soothing cool air on the wound, bit of guard sleeve tied round it, best we can do.
'Ah, thanks, that's better.'
'Well, I'm no super solar battery life goddess, but it should help. Ah, and here we are.'
Top floor. Just the one room, taking up the whole, huge floor, save the ring of corridor round the edge of every level, with stairs etc. . Right, first things first, click fingers...every entrance locked. Now, Mr. Big fancy machine in the middle, give us Broadcast.
HG is using Broadcast as a sort of global speaker. Any announcement he wants to make to the world, he sends through here, and the machine uses Broadcast to transmit it to the whole planet. Plus HG can use him as a sound system. No idea why, and his taste in music is probably horrible, but apparently it happens. Ok, that's clearly a chamber of some sort. Aha! I've TP'ed into the override. Open! That's it, should be a piece of cake now to