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ENTRY # : |
99 |
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TITLE : |
AND NO BIRDS SANG... |
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ARC : |
SOLDIERS OF MISFORTUNE XIV |
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ENTERED BY : |
Hazardman |
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DATE RANGE : |
August 29th - September 5th, 2001 |
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HEROES : |
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PEOPLE : |
Ariadne,
Caliber,
Crucible,
General Howard,
Lady Liberty,
Onyx,
StarSeed,
U.S. Agent,
Victor Stewart,
Captain Whitmore
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OTHERS : |
Attenborough Seismological Institute,
Big Al's Steakhouse,
C.C.P.D. - Exotic Response Unit,
Coast City,
Crucible's Submarine,
The "Digitus Iustitia",
F.O.R.C.E.,
The Freedom Brigade,
The Fortress of Smellitude,
The Knights of the Coast,
MAYHEM™,
The Old Guard,
Operation Goody Goody Two Shoes,
The Power Patrol,
The Rock Against Registration Tour,
The Santa Clara Skyway,
The SkullBox (Communicator),
The Sword of Amaterasu,
The New Injustice Gang,
The Ultramarines,
The Volcano Base
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ENTRY : |
"But whether on the scaffold high,
Or in the battle's van,
The fittest place where man can die
Is where he dies for man."
- Michael Joseph Barry, "The Dublin Nation"
Log Entry by: Hazardman. The return trip home was a very grim affair, and filled
with bickering and finger-pointing. More than one member threatened to quit the group. All told
it was a miserable episode in our history, but one that needs mentioning because all of us came
out of it with a new understanding as to what was personally at stake, above and beyond
the other costs to friends, family and countrymen should we fail.
We also came out of this discussion with a new leader. Or rather having reaffirmed our dedication
to a former leader.
Phoenix.
The debriefing of the fight revealed to us that Ariadne and StarSeed had died because of our lack
of a clear leader. They died because of a failure in communication before the battle and
because of a lack of a unified strategy once the shooting started. From here on out Phoenix
would call the shots in battle, and we all would be responsible for acting as but one part in a
team, rather than according to our individual whims, and to clearly communicate with and support
our teammates. Hopefully if we could succeed in this transition, we could avoid the type of
disasters that were becoming all-too-common for us of late.
The other issue on many of our minds - the slaughter of so many of the soldiers - was not addressed.
Not now, while the state of the group remains so fragile. And while so many other lives depended
upon our success.
The trip north also gave us some minimal amount of time to come to grips with our grief, each in our
own way. There was some argument (led by Sub-Zero of all people) that we should take a brief side
trip to return Ariadne to her homeland, which I gathered was relatively close by. This proposal was
shot down, however, as Templar reminded everyone what had happened 'last time'
(continuing the infuriating tendency of the others to keep secret elements of her background) and
stressing the urgency of our mission.
At a refuelling stop in Panama we made some attempts to start alerting other superhero groups as
to the threat posed by MAYHEM, and to get in touch with Agents Finn or Goodspeed. All of these
were general failures. Neither the Freedom Brigade nor the Power Patrol were reachable. Cipher
did manage to get in touch with a new team called the Ultramarines, headed by our old friend
the American Agent, but was unable to convince whoever answered the phone to pass her onto
anyone of authority. We were stonewalled by FORCE and the CIA. Phoenix did get in touch with
General Howard to get some official clearance to return to the country, but the General could do
no more than to make some inquiries to help get our warnings to the proper authorities.
Despite the assurances from the General, Phoenix nonetheless flew us back into the country at an
alarmingly low altitude, and keeping away from civilized areas in an attempt to avoid detection.
We landed outside Coast City, then cautiously slipped into that city to continue our efforts.
The first bit of good news we'd had in a long, long while happened when Victor got in touch
with us through our one remaining functional SkullBox. He had continued upgrading the volcano
base once used by The New Injustice Gang, and had even managed to
anticipate our need for replacement communicators!
After briefly settling in, and locking our captive in the cell once inhabited
by Dr. Stewart himself, we all went our own ways pretty much, while we dealt with personal matters
and our grief. I took the time to visit my father, who wasn't doing well, and to try to deal with
family issues.
I'd like to keep the journal up-to-date on what the others were doing, but a lot of it wasn't
really clear to me. I know that Cipher was generally hanging around the volcano base, but she
did disappear (more than usual) for a few days. Phoenix was spending a lot of time on the phone
trying to track down someone in FORCE to warn, or communicating with General Howard. Sub-Zero,
meanwhile, blew us off to retreat to his Fortress of Smellitude. And then there was Templar who
when he wasn't lurking about, was doing something with StarSeed's body that I wasn't really
comfortable with. (It turns out that he actually chopped one of Hikaru's fingers off to
convert it into some sort of tracking device to locate Major Fist, which gives me considerable
cause to question his sanity...)
Blur was the only one of us to really resume our duties as superheroes. He went back to patrolling
the city the day we arrived, trying to track down rumours of a 'werewolf' stalking the streets.
After some sort of attempted bank robbery, he did locate a strongly cat-like individual (sort
of like that villain ManTiger, or some of the UnMen) who he invited back to the base to introduce
to the rest of the team (who then generally snubbed and/or insulted him - nice way to make a first
impression, guys).
Come Tuesday we finally managed to get in touch with another superhero - Lady Liberty - who was
willing to come down and hear us out. The team was to meet her at Big Al's. I felt I was a little
too well-known there and decided to check out the old submarine that Crucible had bought on a
hunch. I found it moored at the docks, apparently repaired (if forgotten since
Crucible's death). Lacking a good way to get back to the base on my
own, I went to crash for the night.
I was awoken in the wee hours of the morning by the alert signal from the SkullBox. Apparently I
had missed some momentous events! After meeting Liberty at the restaurant, the group retired to
the base where they put Caliber to further questioning (with some mental prodding from Templar).
It turns out that French miscreant had been holding out on us, and had known the date of the attack
all along! Worse, it would be today!
I rushed to meet the team at the Santa Clara Skyway bridge where I found a confusing scene awaiting
me. Phoenix had rigged erstwhile barricades on both ends of the bridge using city buses, and
with one of the main thoroughfares crossing the channel closed, gridlock reigned in Coast City.
Adding to the confusion were huge crowds of onlookers and police barracades. It took some work
to slip past these to where I could get back in touch with the team (who were patrolling the
bridge). We had but an hour or two before the anticipated attack!
With Operation Face-Off about to be launched, the group had taken other actions as well. Liberty
had run off back to the East Coast to rouse the Freedom Brigade (and hopefully the Power Patrol)
in defence of the Statue after which she had drawn her name. The team had tried to raise
the alarm amongst FORCE and the Feds, and had turned Caliber over to support their contentions.
With the situation desperate, and the time running short they sent Victor off to persuade the Old
Guard to mount a defence of Mount Rushmore and had attempted to contact any of the heroes
associated with the Rock Against Registration tour in hopes of getting them out to Fort Knox,
before finally resorting to contacting the Ultramarines and taunting U.S. Agent in an attempt to
draw him there.
This left us to defend the Santa Clara Skyway singlehandedly, against whatever Major Fist and
MAYHEM could throw at us!
That's when Templar, who was coordinating with Captain Whitmore, was able to pass along some new
information they had discovered about the threat. Apparently the Attenborough Seismological
Institute was picking up indications of a 'seismological anomaly' which was in motion and heading
towards us. Although I wasn't with the team at the time, this immediately brought to mind a
previous entanglement between the Knights and MAYHEM.
From the looks of it, they had built a new Maelstrom Machine!
The attack might well be in the form of a tidal wave against which we would be almost impotent!
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WRAPUP : |
Time had run out. The forces of evil were striking - in an unanticipated manner that we had no way
to prevent!
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