Nuclear Option

[Supercape]

GM

 

Five stinkin' minutes later...

 

"Home! of a sort!" said Marie. 

 

And she had done a fairly good job of it. Running water, TV, computer, electricity, even a poster of "Hyperquest!", a 1970s Sci Fi show which had inspired many young (or not so young scientists) of the modern day. Best of all, Marie had concealed it. It would be a devil to find, and had unknown passages off to several parts of Freedom City Sewers. 

 

Rather disconcertingly, two men resided there. Both were tall, both were strong, and both had automatic weapons. They had a distinct military feel for them. 

 

"Jack" was bald, scarred, and grinning. "Karl" had dreadlocks, a dark complexion, and grinned not at all. A few tattoos, suggestive of some regiment or another, dotted their exposed skin. 

 

There was a moment of tension when Jack and Karl saw Bonfire, until Marie calmed things down, explaining the situation. 

 

"I needed some help, I got these guys. French Foreign Legion, or at least they used to be..." she told Bonfire. "They are...backup...."

 

This appeared not to apply to their firearms so much as their skill with demolitions and the plastic explosives that Marie had somehow acquired. 

[olopi]

Now this was a hideout! As luxurious as it would get, considering it was right in the sewers of Freedom city, where all kinds of nasty things resided. Running water, a TV running the news, and even a computer. Internet access too, probably. The rooms themselves were really nice too, cosy. Stone and all that, but hey, cosy.  And it was really well hidden. Now it made some sense why this place was right where everything would go down. It was hidden well enough for Neutron to not find it. And even if they did, it was well protected.

 

The two men definitely knew what they were doing. French soldiers, made sense. No idea why they knew Marie, or what their connection was, but there was time to figure that one out later. Their guns certainly looked powerful too. Moments like these, being more or less immune to bullets was really comforting. The amount of explosives however, was disconcerting. If Cass’ basic knowledge was anything to go by, this was enough to level a building. Well, was a plan, sure. Not the best, but certainly one. He’d object if it’d come to that.

 

“Oh, right, French. I totally forgot, sorry. I’m fluent, so why not.“

 

“[Hey. So, plans? I’m ready to move whenever …. But if you have anything flammable you don’t need down here, refuelling might not be a bad idea.]”

 

The French classes he was forced to take at art school finally paid off. French was a nice language, but hardly ever useful. Well, this was the one time it was, and being pretty much fluent was a good thing!

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

GM

 

"[Flammable?]" answered Marie, quite pleased to speak her native tongue*. 

 

All language in French at this point, unless otherwise noted

 

"Yes, best to speak in French. I did not know you spoke it. If people overhear us, it affords us some protection, yes?" she explained. 

 

"We have C4 Plastic Explosive. A back up, in case I cannot dismantle the experimental reactor. I would prefer not to use it. Dangerous. But, be assured, I will not rest till I have taken down Neutron Industries, one way or another! They cannot do...what they have done...." she said, containing her fury. 

 

"I'd keep it as back up..." she said, recomposing herself. "So, unless you must, please refrain from eating it!" she said, actually lightening up with a gay laugh. 

 

"But now, I think we must act, and soon...the rats have only doubled my resolve, and we may have been followed. We must go, and up!" she said, pointing overhead. 

 

A rusted iron ladder lead upwards to blackness, and, with flashlights pointed, a steel trapdoor. Above them lay the offices of Neutron Industries. 

 

"I am grateful for your assistance, Monsieur Bonfire. For if I am to disable the plant, the Uranium would need to be super-heated...something I think you would be most helpful with!"

 

 

 

[olopi]

“Yeah, I think I might be able to help with that.”

 

“But first, a small question. What are they going to do beyond just creating a dangerous bit of uranium? I like to have some information before charging in. It’s saved my hide a few times before. “

 

This was all nice and good, and there definitely was a plan, but it all moved a bit too quickly. This was urgent, yes, but not too urgent for some basic information. At least knowing who he’d be up against beyond “they’re bad”. Especially when it came to destroying an entire company. If this wasn’t properly planned out, and there was enough evidence, getting back on the law’s good side would be difficult.

 

Besides, it was probably around later afternoon, maybe early evening. Chances are there still were people in there. And from the sound of it, this included dismantling a reactor. This could go really bad if anything went wrong. Cass wasn’t exactly planning to go down in history books as “The guy who caused all of Hanover to become a nuclear wasteland”. He didn’t really understand nuclear physics, but from what he knew, reactors were something you did not want to mess with.

 

Edited April 19, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

Marie seemed irritated at the delay, but stopped nonetheless. 

 

"They are experimenting. And not in a safe way. Neutron Industries are purely interested in profit. And they make a lot of profit. They might not technically make nuclear weapons, but they certainly pave the way to interested parties, including unstable regimes, Russia, the Middle East..."

 

"And believe me, they do not treat their employees well" she said, angrily. Doing so, she tore off her goggles. 

 

Her eyes were gone. Instead, there were two fiery balls of radioactive light in there place. 

 

"You see what they did to me? A searing ball of fire! I doubt I have more than 5 years left before it consumes me!" she said, bitter and twisted. 

 

"I will not leave the world in ashes! They must be stopped! And there is no other way. If you do not believe me, then I beg of you to come, and I will show you!"

Edited April 19, 2016 by Supercape

[olopi]

Ooof, that was bad enough. Yes. There certainly was a reason to go after these people now. Still not quite convinced, but enough to go ahead with the plan. Cass didn’t really understand what had caused her eyes to become nuclear flames, nor did he feel like wanting to learn so. Some things were better left unknown. Either way, if she was speaking anything close to the truth, these people were a gathering of mad scientists. Villainous ones. The best and at the same time worst kind.

 

One last thing to establish, then it was time to move. Marie wouldn’t like him for the delay, but these last few seconds would hardly change the fate of the world. But they could change his personal fate. And that was something he’d prefer to avoid. Less of the whole “unwillingly become a supervillain” thing.

 

“Okay, one last thing, then I’m ready to move. This is primarily for myself. I need to make sure I can talk my way out of the consequences that could come from this. Do you have any kind of evidence on the PC? Just a single bit so I have something on me. I understand I’m delaying the mission, but I’d rather not run into serious trouble once this is over. After that I'm immediately ready to move, no further delays. I promise.  “

 

Edited April 19, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

GM

 

Marie seemed angry, but agreed. She placed her goggles back over her burning eye sockets, and brought him to the PC. It was a good one too, although without much in the way of niceties. There were a number of discs and drives stored, in neat order and neatly labelled. Clearly going through all the information would be a days work, if not more. 

 

"Here you go, my friend...I worked there, remember?" she said, a bit harshly, and then apparently softening as she realised she had been harsh. 

 

"I'm sorry, my friend, I am passionate about them. That can make me hard, brutal even. But I was not always this so, and I hope to have some kindness in my heart still..."

 

Files popped up on screen, detailing materials, research data, and the like. Clearly Marie did not have all the pieces of the jigsaw, but she had amassed a considerable amount of evidence from her time there...

[olopi]

A few clicks later, and all the data was stored on the Bonfire-Phone. Cass knew there was a good reason he’d bought one with this much free space, and he’d found it! Even if anything were to happen to it, as soon as his phone had any reception, this stuff would be uploaded onto the cloud, and from there onto his laptop at home. He didn’t check it closely, but this should at least be enough to not worry about explaining himself afterwards. This was a pretty big thing, corporations turning out to be unclean – or even experimenting around their employees, wasn’t something that happened too often. And chances are it would send out high waves around the industry, both that of nuclear science, which Cass didn’t really care about, and that of superheroes, which Cass did in fact care about a fair bit.

 

And now, for the big action part. It was time to deal with the evil corporation of mad scientists. It was time to smoke out some villains. Bonfire stretched, cracked his knuckles. He quickly made sure he still had enough fuel left, and chances were that unless there was a massive fight, he’d be fine. The briefcase was still in his hands, it was still full. He was as ready as he’d ever be. He looked over to Marie and nodded. It was time to get this started.

 

“Ready to go whenever you are! “

 

Edited April 19, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

GM

 

And ready they were. 

 

Marie and her friends had already carved out an entrance to Neutron industries, with cutters and torches. It must have been painstaking work, but carefully they had tunnelled upwards, following pipes, to the basement of the building. 

 

Almost silently, they opened a hatch to the basement, which appeared to be a cold steel room with cold dull glass. Gadgets and beeping machines were its wall paper. A central tank full of vaguely green-purple liquid gently simmered. 

 

"Cooling chamber...." explained Marie. "That tank is actually below a hundred degrees. Get in that, and you will be lucky to get out..." she explained. 

 

She pointed to one of the doors above them, up a ladder and onto a balcony. "That door above us, it leads to the reactor laboratory. If we get in there, we can introduce the Uranium 7 into the system, then superheat it. I hope you are feeling hot!" she said, giving Bonfire a squeeze on his arm. 

[olopi]

Now this was some serious craftsmanship. These people certainly knew how to carve a tunnel. Must’ve taken a while. And must’ve meant that all the plans also were in the files he’d downloaded. Might come in useful in the future? Doubtful, but who knew? At this point his phone might already have reception again, who knew? 

 

First course of action, a look around the room. This wasn’t just a bar-entering ritual, but something to always to when entering a room where adversity might be expected. Well, in this case, there was nothing. Best to stay away from all the green glowing things though. Well, apart from Marie, even if she wasn’t glowing right now.

 

The way onwards seemed simple enough. Hopefully there were no people around right now. Would make things easier. Doors randomly opening were quite suspicious, and the metal balcony didn’t help. The rest of the plan was simple enough. Get in, empty the briefcase, work some not-magic, get out. Without alarms, if possible. He turned his head toward the French woman and her friends, hopefully nobody would enter the room while he wasn’t looking.

 

“As hot as ever. Ready? Are we expecting anybody to be in there?”

 

Then the smoky body, still holding the briefcase moved on ahead, carefully floating at ground level.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

"We can hope not..." whispered Marie. "But be careful. Neutron Industries takes their security seriously. They have to..." she explained. 

 

Together, they climbed to the balcony and trod as lightly as they could on the steel. It creaked. 

 

Just before they hit the door to the laboratory, Bonfire noticed an alarm silently beeping. Marie was less than pleased with the alarm, and more than pleased with the eyes of Bonfire. 

"A close shave!" she explained as she set about disarming it. It took a few minutes of sweat. 

 

The laboratory itself was more cluttered, with various high end devices and computers, power cables on the floor, spectrograms, geigercounters, and shelves full of exotic and quite possibly dangerous materials. 

 

Marie paused a moment to open up a frosted cabinet, pulling out a dark heavy suit of black, with a radiation warning sign on its chest. "My old suit! I built this for the more dangerous work..." she explained, examining the geiger counter strapped to its wrist. 

 

"Radiation levels low, but I wouldn't linger" she explained, before moving to the centrepiece of the laboratory, a complex machine of pipes, lights, dials, laser beams, and glass tubes full of furiously glowing materials. 

 

"Once this is in" she explained, hauling the Uranium - 7 into an intake pipe "we just need to superheat it....but I need to introduce it slowly to avoid a critical meltdown...give me a minute..."

 

The temperature gauge of the reactor started flashing, and silent lights flipped on...

 

Bonfire could hear the gentle swish of powered doors opening beyond the laboratory...

[olopi]

This lab was quite fancy. High-tech. All the stuff in here was probably worth more than anything Cass had ever owned. Combined. And there he was, hoping this stuff wouldn’t all get blown to bits. Not getting sued for destruction would be nice. And then, a faint noise.

 

Oh why. Why did this have to happen now. Whoever this was, this was bad. A few seconds later and it would’ve been fine. But why now. Somebody was moving in. And they’d notice the suit missing even if Bonfire and Marie went invisible. But, it probably still was the best shot. Setting off the fire alarm would probably back-fire quite a bit. Well, there was no time to waste. They’d notice them, but maybe it would at least offer Cass a better position to fight, should it come down to that. He gulped, before whispering, hoping it would reach through the suit his ally was wearing.

 

“Somebody’s coming. We’ll go invis again, they’ll probably notice us but still, better position. “

 

And then, a flick of the hand later, there was a small cloud of smoke, not enough to set off any alarms, and both …intruders… were invisible. This was what it had come down for. Breaking and entering. And hiding. Hopefully, once this was done, that would no longer be necessary. He could go back to working with police and security, no against.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

The other door to the lab swished open with a swish. 

 

STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP came the sound of steel feet on a steel floor, and in marched two robots. 

 

They were seven feet of glistening steel and smooth curves. Like a Ferrari, but clearly not fast. Huge hands to grip, glowing red eyes, and "Neutron Industries!" written proudly in comic book style over their chest. 

 

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" they screamed in unpleasant static voices. 

 

The intercom cut in. 

 

"This is security Chief Green! Pull the plug on the reactor!" came the command over the intercom. 

 

"AFF-ERM-A-TIVE" they said in tandem, and started stomping towards the reactor. 

 

"No! I haven't finished yet!" hissed a tearful Marie. 

[olopi]

Robots. This was both good, and bad. On one hand, no need to hold back. On the other, good luck trying to talk with a robot. Ain’t gonna go down too well. No time to wait, time to act. What was the best thing to do now?

 

They probably had heat-vision. They could probably see him. They probably were strong enough to run him over. No time to think, time to act.

 

C’mon Cass, quick. Quick. …

 

And then, without really thinking about it too much, he took a quick step towards the robots, into their way. He thrust his arms forward, turning off the invisibility from his elbows downwards, and also turning them into flesh again. The robots could still stop if they needed to, but it was in their way, so they would, if nothing else, have to walk around them. And at the same time, with the most booming voice possible, and a low tone, he shouted.

 

“Halt, Evildoers!”

 

Okay, that was pretty loud. He’d underestimated what having all the smoke in his lungs leave at once could cause. Maybe it’d do something, maybe not. He made sure to be ready for combat still, it would probably get a bit messy. Protecting somebody wasn’t exactly something Bonfire was good at either.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

The Robots stomped past Bonfire uncaring, unfeeling, and without the faintest signs of intelligence. 

 

"Securitons! Powered by Lithium-13 Batteries!" shouted Marie. "They have no AI, just programmed to obey..." she said, furious with the turn of events. She shuddered with the effort of containing her emotion, but perhaps a little to much Uranium-7 was being added to the reactor than was wise. Dials started wobbling into the red zone, and there were more bubbles in the frothing liquid than there had been. 

 

The two French Soldiers started backing off, and flicking the safety off their submachine guns....

[Supercape]

The Robots were slow, and, if not quite clumsy, not making much effort to avoid the raking machine guns of the two French Soldiers. 

 

The room filled with reverberating deafening noise. Sparks flew off the two robots. They were tough ones, but bullets were bullets, and the shiny sleek surface exploded with scratches and sparks. 

 

"ERROR! ERROR! COMMENCE VIOLENCE!" they chorused, although they looked creaky. 

 

"Stop it!" hissed Marie, still hard at work feeding the reactor with Uranium. 

[olopi]

Commence Violence indeed. This wasn’t some small fight. This was about the fate of this entire thing. And he was up against robots. No need to hold back. The two soldiers could hopefully handle the heat, and Marie was safe. It was time to ignite.

 

The hands, floating in mid-air disconnected from any body, started to glow. And then, fire. Suddenly, there was a flame, barely in the form of hands. And it moved upwards the arm, slowly more and more fire appearing. Until there was a flame, about the size of a human, flickering on its edges. Barely resembling a human anymore, only the arms still noticeable. Playtime was over. There was a lot of valuable stuff in here, but this was too important.

 

And before his body was fully ignited, Bonfire had gathered enough flames to act. It had been a while since he’d last used it. His aim probably wasn’t too great. Good thing these robots were pretty bulky. He held out his hand, and pointed at the robot forming a finger-gun. Then, a Ball of Fire, around the size of a head, emerged from it, heading directly for the robot at high speed. He realized his aim wasn’t perfect, this would be a close one….

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

Robot 2 (And yes, he did have a big "2" painted in resplendent gold on his forehead) was on one knee, sparking. 

 

"INTROOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-DER ALER-ER-ER-ER-ERT!" he declared like a broken record. 

 

Robot 1 (also having a number on his forehead in equally resplendent gold) decided to take more direct action. 

 

"ACTIVATING LASER VISION!" he declared, his eyes glowing. Pencil thin beams of light sprang through the air and cut a livid line of burnt clothes and scarred flesh across poor Jacks chest. 

 

The other soldier fled. "I didn't sign up for giant killer robots!" he shouted, running for his life...

 

"COWARD!" retorted Marie. 

 

A few bullets had embedded themselves in the reactor. It was now bubbling away, and the heat was rising...horribly rising...

[olopi]

A glancing hit. A glancing hit doing no damage. And now they no longer had the advantage of numbers. Foreign Legion unfortunately did not mean perfect willpower. Also, it was getting rather hot in here. Really, really hot. Considering everybody but ..Karl, was it? Was protected, not too big of a worry. He’d be fine for a while, and the same probably applied for the other people in here.

 

Well, it was time to do more damage. A lot of it, hopefully. No need to just fire a single shot. There was enough heat in this room for Bonfire to amass a good amount of fire. Enough for a volley. It was time to release the last safety, time to fire.

 

And so, where Bonfire’s head would have been, a glowing orb, like a miniature sun appeared. Flaming, bright, and flickering. And then, various fireballs, much like before, shot out, at both of the robots. This would probably have further increased the heat in here, if it hadn’t been for the reactor overloading either way. One was pretty solid, the other got a bit dragged by the amount of shots fired.

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

GM

 

The furious fire of the fiery fellow burst straight onto the Robots chest. Shiny and curved it may have been, but it melted all the same. 

 

"CORE SYSTEM FAILURE! CORE SYSTEM FAILURE!" it declared as the lights of its eyes faded to black, and melted circuit boards tumbled out of its chest cavity. 

 

"Quick! The reactor has been damaged!" screamed Marie. It was hard to tell if she was angry, scared, or excited, or possibly all three. The dials on the reactor were testament to her truthfulness. 

 

"You have to superheat the Uranium! NOW! Before it explodes!" she screamed. 

 

And then...

 

"Stop right there, sunshine!" came a clipped voice. A tall man dressed in a radiation suit and holding some kind of blaster pistol stepped into the room. Fast, grey haired, and with a well trimmed moustache. His eyes covered by dark sunglasses. 

 

"Security chief Green!" hissed Marie. She turned the full force of her voice onto Bonfire. "Don't listen to him! We have to shut this down NOW!"

 

"Do that, and you are aiding a known terrorist!" retorted Chief Green. "She plans to shut down every nuclear reactor in North America!!!! And I won't let you! God bless the USA!!!!" he added, pointing his blaster straight at Bonfire...

Edited April 21, 2016 by Supercape

[olopi]

A solid hit! The robot was out good. There was something about the thrill of seeing an enemy go down for real that was incredibly exciting to Cass. Not just go unconscious, but properly break down. Whatever these thoughts were, he’d have to supress them later on. For now? Probably not too bad to have them.

 

And it was time to end this. If this wouldn’t be done there’d be a lot more than this room missing in just a few seconds. And, as he’d thought before, Cass didn’t want to be known as the guy who turned Freedom into a nuclear wasteland. So he got ready to unleash all this heat, send a few fireballs that way. And then security arrived. This was the guy that had sent the robots after them. And he was wearing a radiation suit. Well, he’d be protected from the heat, but what about the fire? Bonfire was no longer in a mood for playing, not after everything that had happened today. This was about more than a terrorist, maybe Marie was one, maybe not. He could always fight her later if that was necessary.

 

This was about not destroying all of Freedom. Cass had grown to like the city, for all its problems. And this man was indirectly trying to make him turn it into a nuclear wasteland. Not today. Nuclear reactors were dangerous anyways, so shutting them down did have its good aspects. And honestly? Ass had never been a fan of the whole “God Bless the USA” thing. Sure, he was an American citizen too and for the most part liked his country, but all this patriotism didn’t help Green’s argument.

 

“Too late.”

 

There was no time to waste. It was time for more fire. He channelled all the heat he could get from inside the room, the temperature quickly dropping to outside levels, before rising again a second later, with a massive blast of fire engulfing the reactor.  He’d never put out this much heat before, it was definitely draining him a bit. But it was time to make sure there’d be no blaster poking a hole through him.

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

GM

 

Something green and awful, like liquid light, flooded the chamber for one half of a second. It did not burn. The astute might have noticed a stinging. High end medical scanners might have noticed something shocking with DNA. 

 

"Goddamn you, traitor!" screamed a furious Chief Green, firing a yellow blast of energy from his gun. Whilst it was impressive in luminescence and its firework of sparks and embers, it missed. But it still looked pretty. 

 

"I DID IT!" hopped Marie, ecstatic, before turning her fury to the security chief. Her goggles glowed, and a screeching ray of green radiation came from her eyes, burning a glowing scar into the ceiling. She was too mad to even aim. 

 

The final soldier, bewildered, fired a stream of bullets, emptying his clip completely, at the security chief, whose radiation suit appeared to be made of kevlar or stronger. He took a few steps back, but was not bleeding. 

 

 

[olopi]

Ouch. The radiation itself did not hurt. But what would come from it probably would. Best case, nothing. Maybe a hospital stay. Maybe he’d get some fancy new power, which might be a positive? But then again, maybe he’d get some disease or something from all this radiation. Being this close to a superheating reactor had to be bad for the body, even if it was made of smoke, or in this case, fire.

 

Green wasn’t the best at aiming, that was good. That gun looked rather nasty, even in fire-form. The less chances he’d get to use it the better. But the soldier also shot him with a gun. …this wasn’t good. Bonfire still was a hero, having somebody die wasn’t part of his MO at all. Maybe if he’d knock him out quickly it wouldn’t be a problem, and it looked like the soldier had to reload either way. Marie … well, she had powers, so much was proven.

 

For now, it was time to finish this fight. There was enough fuel left for a bit, but after that Bonfire would burn out. And that generally was something to be avoided. Especially while in combat. The glowing orb, which had lost most of its light suddenly flared up again, and various fireballs of all sizes flew towards the chief of security. This was a matter of making sure the others didn’t kill him, even if it meant giving him some high-degree burns.

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2016 by olopi

[Supercape]

GM

 

Searing heat landed on the Security chief who let out a high pitched scream. The chest of his radiation suit, neatly decorated with a "Neutron Industries!" logo, was on fire. He patted it, but only succeeded in setting his gloves on fire too. 

 

Chief green dropped to his knees, then to the floor, rolling around. He succeeded in putting out the flames but there was an unpleasant ozone smell in the air. If one was feeling morbid, one could imagine it smelt like roasted meat. 

 

"What have you done?" he said to Bonfire. "She is a terrorist! she tried to blow up this facility!"

 

"Liar!" shouted Marie. "Neutron industries is unsafe, corrupt! Have you any idea what your waste has done in the sewers? What your experiments did to me????" she said, pointing at her furiously glowing goggles, eyes blazing. "Ill be lucky if I live another five years!"

[olopi]

Now that was a hit. Bonfire hadn’t set somebody on fire in a while. It felt … strangely pleasing, kind of good? No, bad thoughts. This was a pretty bad thing to do. Something inside Cass’s head made him feel like attacking the Chief of Security, lying on the floor, again. Put him out of service properly. He had no idea what this was, he’d never felt like this before. And it certainly wasn’t pleasant. Maybe something with all the radiation? Maybe it had just screwed with his brain. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe a combination of both.

 

Either way, that was not the right thing to do. It was time to cool off a bit, take it easy. Talk it out. Make sure nobody died. Hero Business. And probably evacuate too. This place hardly was safe to stay in. For now it was time to talk however.

 

“Should’a interrupted us before we were up here. I don’t really care about what this facility had to do with it, but all this Uranium business is too unsafe. Probably a good thing this place is gone for now. “

 

Then, a quick glance over to Marie, not that it was something anybody could tell, considering Cass’s Body was just a flame at this point.

 

“So, what now? Do we just get out of here? “

 

He had a suspicion of what her next move would be, and hopefully that wouldn’t be the case. Hopefully she’d suggest just getting out.

 

Edited April 21, 2016 by olopi