B-Team: The Pagan and the Pauper

Criminal Activity

Emily Ackley's investigation into the magical lockboxes that once belonged to Havock has brought her into the dangerous world of The Railyard, but she soon realises that she'll need some extra help with this one.

The Railyard has always been fairly hostile towards the police and those that work with them, and today is no exception. Pagan, at the behest of Havock, has been tracking down the various arcane lockboxes the villain had hidden around the city, hoping to get to them before Combat can, and can sense one among the disused railcars of the shanty town. Unfortunately for her however, her reputation has come to proceed her, and as such, the residents want nothing to do with her as a police collaborator. Before long, Emma comes face-to-face with Stubby Sally, one of the Railyard's more cantankerous residents, and her chicken, who told her in no uncertain terms to "beat it."   Knowing she wouldn't get far by fighting against one of the City's biggest populations, Emma elects to leave amicably and call in the help of her team's resident Railyard roach; Rue. The two meet up back at the tower, and Emily explains what she's been doing, having to do little explaining as Rue is happy to try and get one over on Combat after all the trouble he's caused them.   The two head back to the Railyard, with Rue able to smooth things over with Sally as they begin to search the area. Pagan gives them Havock's old notebook to see if they can't pick up a scent, and it leads them to something of a market deep within the Railyard. Surrounded on all sides by people dealing in both legal and illegal goods, playing games and singing songs. It's a rare sight of the communal nature of the Railyard for someonoe like Pagan who'd always been on the outside of it, but for Rue, it's like coming home.   Pagan tells her companion that there's a distinct, though diffuse, magical signature in the area. Their search eventually leads them to a particular railcar with some sort of symbol on it that doesn't really look like any of the hoboglyphs that Rue knows. Pagan however, is quickly able to identify it as the chaos magick sigil that Havock had devised in order to keep his lockboxes hidden, now inert due to his murder.   The railcar in question stands behind another of the market stalls, with a sign that reads "Russel's", beneath which sat the eponymous gentleman himself, a familiar figure to Rue, having been a local even longer than they had. The two engage in some smalltalk as Russel tries to not-so-subtly sell the pair of bolt cutters that he'd used to break into the railcar in the first place.   After some direct questioning, Russel reveals that within the car he found a box that matches the description of what they're looking for and, despite Pagan's hope, had indeed opened it. He tells them that inside the box was an old storybook and a wierd totem, but that he'd sold the totem to Stella, the new bouncer at The Six-Nines. A fact that makes Rue immediately tense.   Sensing the shift in her companion's demeanour, Pagan quickly asks Russel if he's still got the story book and, after some rummaging, he's able to dig it out, offering to sell it to her along with the bolt cutters for a bargain. The book appears to be a collection of short stories titled "Princess Isadora: The Collected Stories," and is practically a beacon of positive energy, making Pagan worry about what it was being used to couonterbalance. She agrees to Russel's deal and takes the book and even the bolt cutters, thinking they may well come in handy later on, but as soon as the book is in her possession, it flips open and the magic within begins to activate.   A portal opens up nearby and, despite Rue's protestations about having to deal with any more portals  , a figure walks through the portal. Clad in what appears to be an armoured purple dress, with flowing blonde hair and bright blue eyes, Princess Isadora of Elvaria herself steps into the Railyard, looking the two heroes over and asking "Is one of you Alie?"   Rue and Pagan find themselves speechless as a literal fairytale princess appears before them, the portal closing again behind her. Upon recieving no immediate response from the pair, she continues her questioning, asking if they know where the totem that was stored along with her book is. They're eventually able to shake themselves out of their stupor and actually speak with the princess, finding out that she indeed comes from the castle within the book and that she once helped Havock and his daughter, at the time known as Francis and Alie, to imprison an evil wizard named Nocturnis in the totem, stopping his plan to extinguish the sun and plunge the world into eternal night.   With the stakes thoroughly raised, the heroes decide to make haste to the Six-Nines, but are waylaid when a loud explosion can be heard elsewhere in the railyard and they're forced to divert towards a billowing cloud of smoke in the distance. They quickly close the distance, and Rue notices the familiar  form of the White Knight shouting at the various residents of the Railyard to repent while trying to cleanse them of sins via flamethrower. However, as opposed to the last time Rue had faced him, this time the knight had brought some minions clad in chainmail who quickly get to work menacing the civilians before the trio arrive.   Rue and Pagan immediately jump into action, with Rue squaring up to the Knight, reminding him of how they'd defeated him last time, and how his flame couldn't hurt them. He accuses them of being a false prophet and attacks them, but Rue is able to avoid the blow. Just as well too, as a moment later a cannonball flies past their head and tears into the Knight's armour, with Rue turning to see that the Princess had opened a portal back to her castle and allowed her own soldiers to fire at the supervillain. She then takes a few steps forward and, opening another portal beneath his feet, sentences him to "ten-thousand years in the dungeon," quickly removing him from this plane of reality altogether.   With their boss serving time in a storybook prison, his underlings quickly find themselves dispersing, with the heroes rounding them up and taking them down until the final begins to remove his helmet, seeming wholly pleased to see them. Charlie the Freelance Henchman greets the pair like old friends, asking how they've been and asking about the others, but they are hardly in the mood to talk. Pagan simply dismisses him, saying she'd expected a little better of him than working for a genocidal maniac, but Rue's reaction is somewhat more intense.   In a display of hitherto unknown power, Rue grabs the man up with their telekinesis, the metal of his chainmail digging into his skin as the air around him becomes crushing. He is dragged through the air towards them as they growl "Do you have any idea what you did!?", referring to his place in the blackout  that eventually got Harmony possessed by Zaebos and turned into Discord. When he explains that he actually had no idea about any of that due to being knocked unconscious by the team, Rue summarily throws him through one of the nearby railcars, telling some of the locals to keep an eye on him while they go and deal with the missing totem.   Having proven herself a formiddable combatant, the heroes have no problem inviting Isadora to join them in their investigation, but warn her that the Six-Nines is not a nice place to be. Unperturbed, the Princess follows the team into the dingy part of the Recreation district and towards the flickering neon signage outside the burlesque club. The bouncer is sat at the door, on the same stool that had been there since the days that Rue had spent working for The Spider, and stands up as they get close, looking the trio up and down as they approach.   A remarkably tall woman with rugged features and a muscular physique, Stella was every bit the tough type one would expect to be guarding the club belonging to Bathala City's number one organised crime lord. At first Stella makes no secret of the fact that superheroes aren't welcome in the Six-Nines, but Rue knows better than to simply take no for an answer, reminding the bouncer that there's no way Alloysius Creel would pass up the opportunity to see them again. Begrudgingly, she checks in with him and, sure enough, the three are ushered upstairs, towards the office of the man who'd made Rue's life Hell some years ago.   The office door opens and the all-too-familiar scent of cigar smoke and cheap collogne makes Rue almost want to vomit, but they soon push through it and come face-to-face with the man himself. Grinning widely, the Spider greets the three in turn, offering his bare hand to shake, but is quickly rebuffed, the two women having been warned by Rue about the dangers of skin contact with Creel. As he leers at the three of them with the hunger of a lecher in a whorehouse (not far from the case), Rue and Pagan try to pry information from him about the totem. He's happy to tell them that he had it, but says that he's since passed it along, but to whom is information that he won't part with so easily.   Rue knows the Spider's game. For all his various enterprises, at the forefront of it all, he's an information broker. He believes in the power of information and what it can get someone, and so, he won't give up a secret without a suitably juicy secret in return. With a resigned sigh, they agree to share something with him. The man leans forward on his seat as Rue tells him the events  that they and Harmony had investigated back at Blackmoore Hospital, and about Null, cursing herself for whatever trouble this might cause Dr Indigo Upton.   Satisfied by the information received, Spider tells the group that he passed off the totem to none other than Combat himself, in return for the Gorgon's eyes that he'd procured during the chaos  at the Century Holding Facility a little while prior. When Rue asked him what he could possibly want the eyes for, he said simply that he didn't, but he knew someone who did, and that they send their regards. Understanding his implication perfectly, Rue feels sick to their stomach. Spider is a monster, sure, but Quade is a nightmare straight from their childhood, and the thought of what he could do with the eyes is almost more than they can bear. Before they leave, Creel offers them one final piece of information, a heading for their mission, one of Combat's most recent bases, at 18215 Everbrook Hill.   Leaving the establishment with as much haste as their shaking legs can muster, with Creel calling back about how nice it was to see them again, Rue manages to make it only as far as the nearest alleyway before collapsing into a full-blown panic attack. The idea of going back to the laboratory where Quade had experimented on them, implanting them with the blood and organs of murder victims and subjecting them to inhumane tests, was too much to bear. They clutched at their heart as panic washed over them, collapsing to their knees in the filth. The other two stood by, having little idea of how to help and realising that this was simply something that Rue needed time to deal with. They sat in the alley for a little while, until Rue was ready to keep going once again.   The trio make their way back into the Railyard, and to the burnt out husks of warehouses near the outside perimeter. Rue remembers the way perfectly, and directs their companions over to the secret hatch that once hid Quade's laboratory, finding it replaced with a fairly new secured trap door. Unperturbed, the team open the hatch and make their way inside. It's far different from how Rue remembers it. Gone are the charred remains of Quade's lab and the hideous crematory furnace that had been used to dispose of his victims, in their place was a fairly sparse bedroom, an armory stocked with weapons and a prep room. It looks like Combat only ever used the place as a stopping point or hideout, and not for long-term habitation. Nevertheless, the team are able to find an aged newspaper article in the bedside table, and Pagan is able to decipher some of the notes pinned to a board in the prep room.   From what she can make out, Combat is planning some sort of ritual making use of the totem. She sees that he needs some candles, a ritual circle, an incantation and a focus object of great magical power, but most tellingly of all, the ritual must be performed at a place "where the practitioner may touch the sky" or, for those of a more literal mind, somewhere very high up. It doesn't take the two superheroes long to realise that Combat has already proven himself able to break in to one of the tallest buildings in the city, and so they quickly decide to make it back to the tower.   The moment they realise this though, the hatch slams shut behind them and locks into place, and the telltale sound of gas seeping into the room can be heard. Rue tries to force the hatch open, but it's no use, and eventually they are forced to rely on one of Isadora's portals to transport them safely outside. They look over the building and see someone they don't recognise, covered head-to-toe in magical equipment and body armour in a similar, though darker, style to Combat, and wearing some sort of tribal mask. The team call out to the mysterious woman and take a few steps forward but, before they're able to speak with her, she pulls a small device out of her pocket and clicks a button, the whole complex beneath them exploding as she makes her escape.   Isadora and Pagan are able to escape the blast, but Rue soon finds themselves in a bad way, accruing several injuries and landing beneath a pile of rubble. The other two quickly make their way into the wreckage, with Isadora summoning two of her guards to assist in clearing the debris to allow Rue to escape, with Pagan making a point to heal them up as best they can. Unfortunately, with the explosion having disturbed the air, there's no way for Rue to track their unidentified assailant, and so the team begin making their way towards Vigilant tower.   Arriving at the tower looking like they'd just climbed out of the grave, the team takes no detours on their way up to the roof to find Combat making the final preparations for his ritual under the light of the moon, his equipment bolstered with further magical artifacts from the last time they'd seen him, and the small amount of demonic corruption he'd parted from them with having developed into a full demonic arm, the corruption of which seems to be slowly making its way up his shoulder.   Without a moment to lose, Pagan steps into the fray, ready to test out her new swordsmanship skills against the villain. Never one to turn down a challenge, Combat accepts what he sees as a duel and draws his own sword, wielding it in his uncorrupted hand as opposed to his usual two-handed stance. The two engage in a trade of blows, with Emma proving herself to be something of a natural with the blade, allowing her to make several strikes against Combat's body that he only weathers due to his enchanted armour. The others soon join the battle however, and Combat is forced to pull up his triplicate cloak, allowing him to fight the three of them on an almost even basis.   The battle is a spectacular one, with the Combat duplicates making use of their array of weapons and tools, while Rue and Isadora return fire with a remarkable blend of telekinetic and portal-based attacks, a dragon even appearing briefly to breathe fire over the battlefield and the Princess' guards returning to do battle with the villain. Eventually, Combat realises that he's being forced back and decides to make a final play. Using the demonic strength of his corrupted arm to knock Emma aside, he quickly moves to the makeshift alter at the centre of the ritual circle and takes up the totem. He holds it up to the moon and speaks an incantation before anyone else can stop him, the light of the moon shining down on him via the totem and, before the team's eyes, the corruption begins to receed, eventually leaving his arm normal once again.   With his task completed, Combat lowers his hood, dissipating the two duplicates and prepares to flee, taking a few steps towards the edge as the heroes dust them off. Rue catches him with their telekinesis however, and he's forced to speak with them. He explains that, while he did enjoy the extra strength the corruption gave him, he wasn't about to let himself be controlled by anyone. Rue asks him how he found the ritual, and what else there is to counter Zaebos' demon magic. He responds that he can't give them anything right now, but if they let him go, then he'll promise to find some way to help them in return.   Reluctantly, Rue agrees, taking the totem from him and releasing their hold. He thanks them and reiterates his promise before taking a swan-dive off the roof in uncharacteristically dramatic fashion. As Rue watches him plummet to the ground below, they see him activate the toymaker's ring, temporarily turning him into a plush toy and allowing him to land softly on the ground below before continuing his escape.   The team gather once again, agreeing that firstly, the tower needs better security, and secondly, that Emma will safeguard the book and totem from then on, with Isadora thanking the two of them for helping her avert a potential catastrophe. She wishes the two heroes well before returning to her castle via another portal and allowing the pair to recover from everything they've just experienced, with Rue especially realising they've got a lot of loose ends they need to tidy up.