Talyesin's Tales

Setting up their headquarters with a little help from Doc Sterling, the Crimefighters' League hears on the police radio that a powered crime is in progress at the Museum of Ancient Art and Archaeology...




Starring!

Matt Mattheson ......... as Squirrelman
Kimmy Sinclair ................ as Ragdoll
Rick Duncan ........................... as Ace
Lisa Dumont ................... as Physique
Jessica Wagner .............. as Rapunzel
Jay Allen .........................as Red Bolt

Guest starring

Hank Scott .................. as Powerband




The Museum of Ancient Art and Archaeology is a big, sprawling neo-Classical marble building in the heart of the art district of Lower Uptown, not far from the Museum of Pre-Reconstruction Memorabilia. We're there in less than five minutes. No sign of the ACPD, either, but there is a smoking hole in the wall, pretty clear indication that someone's inside who didn't want to pay the entrance fee. Chances are good they aren't there just to see the excellent collection of Greco-Roman and Near Eastern coins, either.

We're standing on one of the art galleries across the street that sell expensive replicas of famous artwork or originals by local artists.

"What's the plan, boss?" Physique asks me.

"I'll go in, scope it out," I say. "Call you guys on the nanobeads, give you the lowdown."

"I'm not nuts about that," Ragdoll says.

"We don't know what's going on in there," Rapunzel says. "Have we another choice?"

"I like to think there's always choices," a voice says above us.

Purple full-body suit, full-face mask. Yellow bands of metal around his waist, wrists, ankles, and one around his head at eye-level. He lands on the roof with us.

"Powerband," Ace greets him. They bop fists. I've never met him, but I know Ragdoll has, one time last year. Introductions all around.

"Whattaya hear?" Powerband asks us.

"Bunch of bad guys broke in," Ace tells him.

"No kidding?" Red Bolt says. He's just run up the side of the building.

"Hey Red," I say, shaking his hand and slipping him a nanobead. He lifts an eyebrow and gives me a grin. The nanobead disappears. Not even a red blur. He gives his fingers a little wiggle to let me know he's wearing it.

"Okay, this changes things," I tell them. "Red, scope it out?"

"You got it," he says, and blurs away. We see the red and yellow blur go into the hole. There's a pause of about a second, and the blur comes out of the hole again.

"Seven," he says. "Don't recognize them. One guy, leader-type, red and black armour, black goatee, big dramatic cape. Big guy in purple and grey, seven feet tall, five feet wide. Snake guy. Two guys, twins, yellow and black outfits. Thin guy in blue and white. A woman in white and pale green, sorta flame motif. Last one seems familiar, a woman in some kinda medieval armour, but it looks high-tech."

"Sound familiar?" I ask. "Anyone?"

"Does she have a symbol on her chest, sort of like the female symbol only the cross turns into a sword?" Ragdoll asks.

"Yeah," Powerband says.

Ragdoll nods and says, "Maidstone. Used to run with the Warpers. She and Captain Anglica had a falling out, and she went Blackdog."

"What about the others?" Rapunzel asks.

"Listen," Physique says, and in the distance we can hear the sirens coming closer.

"Gonna lose the collar, we don't hurry," Powerband says.

"Powerband, can your force fields carry us in?" I ask him.

"Sure."

"Red, where are they and what are they doing?"

"The Aztec exhibit, setting up some weird machine."

"That can't be good," Ace says.

"No shit," Ragdoll adds.

"Okay, hell with it," I decide. "Let's go. Red, run interference with the snake guy . Ace, you're on tech detail. Whatever they're setting up, knock it out. Physique, the big guy is all yours. Powerband, wanna take on Maidstone? Thanks. Ragdoll, Rapunzel and I will handle the twins, the flame girl, and the thin guy. Who'd I miss?"

"Just the leader," Red says.

"I got him," Ace says.

"Okay then, let's get to work," I say.

Powerband puts a yellow forcefield around all of us but Red Bolt and flies us all across the street and through the hole. He lets us off and we spread out. I climb the wall and along the ceiling, sneaking ahead toward the Aztec exhibit.

Just like Red Bolt said, they're setting up some weird tech around this big Aztec statue. The guy in red and black is giving orders to the big guy, who's moving the machines around, and the twins, who are attaching wires and electrodes and stuff to the statue. The flame girl, the thin guy, the snake guy and Maidstone are keeping an eye out. Three entrances to the room.

I head back to the others, give them the layout.

"Powerband, you carry Physique and when you get to the door, toss her past Maidstone at the big guy. You go that way. Red, you're going up the middle. The rest of us will come in from the left. Okay?"

Everyone nods or otherwise gives their approval and we split up.

One of the things we're going to set up as soon as possible is a database of known costumed criminals, their powers and all that. We'll program it into one of Ace's cards or something, connect with the database through the nanobeads somehow, because the kinds of surprises that are waiting for us aren't exactly something I'd ever care to repeat.

Ragdoll, Ace, Rapunzel and I are sneaking up on the thin guy. Rapunzel puts up a hand for us to wait and a tendril? lock? whatever of her hair slithers forward and wraps itself around the thin guy's ankle and snakes its way up to wrap around his mouth before he can make a sound, lifts him into the air as Ragdoll and I charge into the room.

"Ah, Squirrelman, excellent," the leader man in red and black power armour says. He drapes his cloak dramatically the light glinting off his red goggles, and I know this isn't going to be as easy as we thought, because anyone this full of himself has got to have a bunch of tricks up his sleeve.

"Seems you have me at a disadvantage," I say to the leader.

"Several," he says. "I.. am the Crimson Shadow!"

"Never heard of you," I say. Great, he's one of those melodramatic talkers. He's probably got a hidden lair filled with needlessly complicated deathtraps and monologues to himself.

Physique comes flying into the room courtesy of Powerband. She tackles the big guy. Or rather, she would have, if she hadn't bounced right off him. Red Bolt is at the door, the snake guy has stretched his body and wrapped it right around Red, opening his mouth full of fangs to bite Red. Maidstone flies up to meet Powerband, who blocks her two-handed energy sword with one of his forcefields, and forms a sword of his own to fight her.

"Mr. Twister, if you would?" Crimson Shadow says, and the thin guy Rapunzel lifted into the air suddenly starts spinning and Rapunzel goes flying into the wall.

"So this is your Crimefighters League, is it?" he asks. "We... are the Revolutionists!"

Ah, crap.

He turns to the twins and says, "Plex, keep them from reaching the device."

The twins nod and suddenly they're quadruplets then octuplets and so on and so on until there's 32 identical guys between us and Crimson Shadow, who turns back to the machine he's attaching to the Aztec statue.

Physique and the big guy are duking it out, he's stronger but she's smarter and faster. Red Bolt's gotten out of the snake guy's grip but the snake guy is fast and keeps stretching out of the way of Red's rapid-fire fists. Powerband and Maidstone are crossing energy swords up near the ceiling. The thin guy, Mr. Twister, is having fun keeping Rapunzel off her feet. And Ragdoll, Ace and I are facing a mob of Plex.

It's a bit of a mess. We get mobbed and try to kick ass our way through them, but every guy we put down gets replaced by two more, as Plex just creates his own reinforcements.

"This ain't getting us anywhere!" Ace yells at me.

"I know, duck!" I yell back. The big guy goes flying through the air over our heads. Physique's about to jump over us toward him and I say, "No, Physique, help Powerband!"

Physique turns her jump into a jump straight up, grabbing Maidstone and laying into her with one fist. They crash to the ground.

I flip a Plex into another Plex and kick a Plex in the face. Ragdoll flips over my back to kick a Plex off Ace and I slash at a Plex to get him off Ragdoll. That's when I realize that I've lost track of the flame girl. She pretty much solves that problem for me by appearing directly overhead, sort of see-through and misty. She raises her hands and half-invisible flames wash over me and Ace and the world is just pain, just pain everywhere.

Soulfire. Great.

Ragdoll tosses a Plex through the ghost chick, distracting her and I yell, "Powerband, get this bitch!"

A force bubble forms itself around the ghost chick. She screams and fills the bubble with flames. Powerband aims both hands at her, channelling all his power into keeping her trapped inside.

"Red, little help!" I call over to Red Bolt. He rushes over and starts knocking out Plexes faster than they can duplicate themselves.

"Ace, the machine!"

"Too late, masks!" Crimson Shadow yells triumphantly. "Slugfest! Throw the switch!"

The big guy rushes over to the machine and pulls on a huge lever. Electricity sparks all over the place and lights up the circuitry they've laid all over the Aztec statue.

"Cobra! Free Ghostfire!" Crimson Shadow yells, and the snake guy stretches his arms across the room, wrapping around Powerband. The force bubble disappears and Ghostfire turns on Ragdoll and me.

"Sweet Jesus!" Powerband yells as Cobra's head reaches him. Cobra's mouth opens wide, venom dripping from his fangs, looks about ready to strike when Ace launches a card right into the roof of his mouth. Cobra shrieks and hisses and lets go of Powerband.

"Shit shit shit," I say mainly to myself, ducking under a wave of soulfire. I climb up a column and jump on Mr. Twister, tackling him by the head. He's distracted from playing with Rapunzel enough for her to get up and out of range, and my tackle pulls Mr. Twister into aiming his tornado blast at Ghostfire, forcing her to rematerialize. Ragdoll jumps her and wraps her legs around her head, flipping her over and into the machine.

Too late. The statue starts to rumble and move and suddenly stands up.

"Arise!" Crimson Shadow yells. "Arise, my Aztech!"

Yeah. Just like that. You could hear how he had changed the word.

Of course, by then, Mr. Twister's knocked me off and I'm flying into Physique. Let me tell you, distractingly stacked invulnerable superstrong boobs are hard.

I'm seeing stars and Crimson Shadow says, "Until we meet again, Crimefighters!"

He wiggles his fingers in a little toodle-loo wave goodbye, and the Revolutionists disappear.

"Mass transit?!" Ace yells, pissed off.

"That is so cheap," Rapunzel adds, just as pissed.

"And we don't get the collar," Powerband says, just as the ACPD Special Tactics Unit storms the room.

We explain things, tell the cops what happened. They are not happy. Neither are we.

But they aren't angry long, because they all suddenly stop talking and start listening to their helmet radios and the next thing we know they're all rushing out of the museum.

"What's up?" I ask as they're leaving.

"Oh Jesus," Powerband says. He's got a hand up to his head band near his ear.

"What is it?" Physique asks him.

"I just got the police band," he says, pointing to the head band. "It's an Action City Alert."

"What is?" Ragdoll asks.

"It's the Mime," Powerband says. "The Mime is back."