The assembled members of all branches of the Hellfire Clubs landed like a soft summer breeze on the lawns of the seemingly deserted orphanage. The stealth arrays Avalon had designed and implemented in the Jet-Copter worked like a dream and Jack Silver watched both Jon and Mischance covertly study it as it sat down in hopes of copying the technology.
"Impressive, isn't it?.....What young people can do when they are trained in more than just the arts of war." said Gomurr a bit distantly.
His mind was on the battle to come, and of the stories that Blink and Puma had told him of this place. He would never have been selected for this mission if Blink's description of what she simply called "The Alpha" hadn't sounded mystical in nature. He was not the best field operative, although great magical might rested in his diminutive frame. He collected himself and centered his energy as they reached the coordinates Puma had provided. As the almost completely silent engines shut down and the propellor ceased to spin. SuperGrover slid the door open and the group began to disembark.
The velvet skinned Grover surveyed the grounds carefully as he watched the others disembark. The members of the strikeforce were selected painstakingly as to best combine stealth and strength. SuperGrover, Gregor, Havok, Gomurr and Nemesis represented the Black's inner circle along with Puma and Blink to aid in their search of the place. The IFHC was also well represented by its membership. Nytshade, Mischance, Psyche and Shadowcat also disembarked eying their allies carefully.
"My hands are still chaffed from being restrained," said Nem venomously staring at Jon. "I hope I'm able to properly channel my powers should a fight break out."
"Quiet Nemesis!" Gregor snapped. "We agreed to help each other and you will stick to that agreement or I will destroy you myself."
"I don't need your protection, Gregor!" Jon hissed. "You certainly provided me with none the last time I was here."
Gomurr's eyes went wide and he raised his staff.
"SILENCE CHILDREN," he said as he bound the mouths of the three with currents of air. "If you want to spend the eye-blink of time we have to get in without being detected bickering, then go ahead, but I won't allow Puma to come to any more harm. Do not force me to depart with her, leaving you guideless."
"You are right old man," said Gregor quietly. "We came to defeat Paramount not relive old rivalries. Let us go."
Puma surveyed the grounds carefully. A cold mournful wind was blowing through the diseased trees that flanked the playground's perimeter. The swings and merry-go-rounds squeaked as the breeze twisted them to and fro. Puma remembered playing in that yard. It had been four years since she had left this place at the age of 13, but she still remembered the sensation that greeted her now. Someone was watching them.
Jon's mind also reeled backwards in time to the period that she was held captive here by the insane Paramount. She had not even been aware of the orphanage above ground until she had broken free and reached the surface that 18 years ago, but the sight of the delapitated building still brought a chill to her as she remembered his tortures.
"Let's go," whispered Gomurr as he moved toward the ramshackle building.
They had reached the outer perimeter when the Gregor tackled Gomurr and leaped in front of the group. Before Gomurr could pick himself up, he was rocked back to the ground by a deafening explosion. Gomurr looked up and saw a wall of energy in front of Gregor suddenly spring to life in hues of red and gold. Then he saw what had caused the explosion. The seemingly derelict playground equipment had come to terrifying life. The push power merry go round spun on an unseen motor assembly spraying bullets and mortars at the approaching group. The bars supporting the swings aimed lasers with pin-point accuracy. The wall of energy in front of them held however, and Gomurr, as he picked himself up, finally realized why. Gregor stood before the rest of the group, his hands placed palm out towards the onslaught of weapons. He had somehow noticed the oncoming danger before the rest of the group and had used his ability to turn pollutants into energy weapons in a new and effecitve way. He had actually formed a force field like the one that covered him while he was blasting, but had managed to shape it into a wall of energy that would deflect the attack. The effort was evident from the strained look on his face, and the beads of sweat that rolled down his forehead.
"I can't hold this for much longer," grunted Gregor.
"Nor shall you have to, Gregor," said Grover as he swooped into the air grabbing havok underneath the arms as he went.
Gomurr also took to the air and Shadowcat phased until she sunk beneath the ground. Gregor continued to hold the wall as blue streaks of electric beams, mortars, and bullets continued to pound against it. When Grover, Havok and Gomurr reached the top of the wall, Havok released a plasma burst and Gomurr a mystic blast at the laser equipped swing. The machinery exploded into brilliant blue sparks. Just as quickly Shadowcat phased up into the motor housing of the merry go round, thus shorting all the electrical power to it. The silence was deafening as Gregor dropped the shield and then fell to his knees exhausted. Jon's eyes turned to Gregor, but Nem was the first to speak.
"Are you all right, Gregor?" she asked with concern.
"I am fine, Black Queen," said Gregor stiffly. "My welfare is no longer your concern, but I thank you for the sentiment just the same. Let's keep moving."
Puma, at point, scouted around to the entrance. Shifting into her transitional form, she sniffed the air cautiously. She smelled where she had been here before, but also the more recent scent of Paramount.
"He's in there!" she said with a growl in her throat.
Grover swung the door open. It banged against side board and they all jumped a little.
"I've walked into a lot of traps in my life," said Havok, "but this may be the grandaddy of them all."
"I agree," said Grover, "but if we are to find this fiend, and end his schemes once and for all, then we must continue."
Puma once again led the way, down the halls that smelled of antiseptic and death. The flourescent lighting on the ceiling hummed and flickered, casting eerie shadows of the group. They paused at a wall and Puma reached forward to touch it.
"Stop!!!!" Psyche shouted. "There's great danger here. Don't move...anyone!!"
The group froze in place. Mischance reached out to touch Psyche's shoulder.
"Vanessa, what's wrong?" he asked.
"I'm sensing something. Behind this wall is a passage. My psychometry allows me to see the history behind objects, but if we move one more step, we are doomed." she continued.
"Shadowcat," Jon said. "Do a perimeter sweep quickly...full phased mode. We need to know what's setting her off that we can't see."
Shadowcat concentrated and allowed her molecular density to decrease. She moved slowly towards the wall. She passed through first Gregor, then Grover and Gomurr in her attempt to move as little as possible but stil reach her goal. The all supressed a shiver. Her power, even at this non-agressive level, was enough to make your skin crawl. Gomurr, said silent wards agains possession out of force of habit, even though he knew Shadowcat's powers were strictly mutant in nature. Finally she went through Mischance, and then through the wall...or at least began to go through the wall. Suddenly her body was bombarded with what felt like a million tiny hooks all tearing her flesh in different directions. She tried to pull away, but somehow the barbs held her in place and pulled her deeper into the wall. She cried out and began to give into the insanity that this ultimate pain caused, but before she gave into the cold embrace of shock, she was suddenly free . She looked down and Mischance's arm was sticking through her phased shoulder. Somehow Mischance's probability altering field had allowed him to grip her shoulder as she was being pulled into the wall, and rescue her from the prison she had stumbled into.
"What happened," screamed Shadowcat, as she resolidified on the floor with the others.
"Apparently he was expecting us," said Grover. "If my guess is right, then he had that wall equipped with a spooling field."
Most present grew silent, in remembrance of the horrible device that the time traveller Trevor Fitzroy had introduced to them in an attempt to gain control of the Hellfire Club. Only Nemesis and Grover among them could give first hand knowledge of the excruciating pain involved in the process, but the rest could attest to the horrible screams and looks of anguish as they were tortured by Fitzroy. In the end, Fitzroy's own slave, Bantam, had betrayed him and freed them all, but to this day, all that were there still were almost panicked by the mere mention of the device. The spooling field was capable of literally tearing someone apart cell by cell and then reforming them over and over again, without the release of death. It's technology was even capable of cellular restructuring of phased matter, so even Shadowcat was helpless against it, but what was a madman like Paramount doing with such technology?
"Now what?" said Shadowcat, trying to recover from the physical assault.
"NOW YOU DIE!!!" screamed Paramount as he came down the hall, riding ridiculously on the hunched back and shoulder of a horribly disfigured behemoth with the head of a beautiful green haired woman and the body of what appeared to be a four armed Juggernaut. Dozens of his mutant hybrids flanked him, running or skidding along clumsily on disproportinate appendages. Thier scarred bodies seemed to sprout arms and legs and even fins at random.....and the smell of them rushed before them like a sickening wave of antiseptic and dying flesh. The ferocity in their eyes and their grotesquely distorted bodies was enough to strike fear in the hearts of the IFHC members, but the hate and insanity etched on Paramount's own face was what really froze the blood of the now cornered group.
"Oh god," whispered Jon under her breath. "Please not again."
And then the battle began.