Weird Britannia- My real life rpg

Chapter 1 cont

Insight set Ghost to go over the paper work and files to see what she could find about CLAWs plans.
Being interrogated, Strife said that they were all selling out to their enemies, and allowing themselves to be manipulated to fight their own kind. He had the greatest contempt for Carter, as a human that Strife saw as an oppressor.
Carter said angrily that he fought along side adaptives in the Falklands.
Strife responded that of course he did! The original programs to create adaptives were done to fight wars, wars that the humans started to benefit themselves. Humans are happy for adaptives to die for their causes but then caste them aside when they are of no use. CLAW was fighting back against the injustice that all adaptives were suffering under.
It was clear they were not going to get much information from Strife, at least not before another attack would happen.
While discussing this, Sidewinder said that maybe Strife had a point with some of the issues he was raising.
Frost and Carter scolded him for saying this.
Riptide went out of the room to smoke, and ran into Ghost.
Riptide told her that this shook her faith in what they were doing. They were siding against other adaptives, where as at least CLAW are trying to improve things from adaptives. It made her doubt their whole cause.
Ghost, who can't speak very well, held up a file and said "Attack plan".
It became clear that Ghost's great reading and research skills had allowed her to track down the precise
It turned out that CLAW were planning to kidnap the US ambassador to the UK, the adopted adaptive son of Richard Nixon, Checkers.
The group quickly piled into their vehicles to rush to stop the attack.
Steel jumped in the van to come with them, without telling Insight.
The group are equipped with walkie talkies, using the plastic casings of children's walkie talkies, but the internal components have been put together by Frost and are very powerful and sophisticated.
Carter noticed Sidewinder talking on one of these as he climbed into the Red Sled, but there was no time to question this.
Frost, Riptide, Steel, Carter and Sidewinder were on there way...

Checkers was arriving in the country and travelling to the embassy in a convoy with his car and 2 black CIA cars, 2 police cars and 4 police bikes.

A Black van containing Bulletproof and Paradox pulled in front of the convoy, and Bulletproof lept out, slamming him armoured back into the bonnet of a car to stop it.
From a roof top, Hazzard fired an rocket propelled grenade to blow up a car at the back, effectively trapping the convoy.
Gloom and Trace attack on motorbikes, Trace firing guns and throwing grenades, and Gloom leaping onto vehicles to attack them with swords and grenades.
The CLAW agents made short work of Checkers security, Bulletproof throwing CIA guards aside and hurling a card door to kill another, before throwing Checkers into the black van. Hazard repelled down the side of the building she was on to jump into the front of the van so they could escape.
At this point the good guys arrived and a chase began.
Frost jumped into the back of the black van as it was driving off, and started going toe to toe with Bulletproof. Fortunately, Frost had his power armour on, and so could hold his own.


Trace pulled alongside Frost's van (now being driven by Steel and holding Riptide) and fired at the windows with an Uzi. Fortunately, the glass on the van was armoured and the bullets deflected harmlessly. Trace flipped them a v sign and pulled away as the Red Sled closed in on her, holding Sidewinder and Carter.
Gloom jumped from a chasing police car onto the roof of Frost's van (the police car exploding from a grenade he had thrown through the window before hand.)
Steel cursed and said Riptide would have to go on the roof to stop him, as Steel's hooves would not let him balance on a shaking metal roof.
Riptide didn't like it, but climb up to take on Gloom.
Gloom was very cocky, as he had great martial art skills but then Sidewinder jumped from the Red Sled to grab onto the back of Frost's van and start climbing up to help fight Gloom.
Realising he was in danger of getting over whelmed, Gloom jumped off the van to grab onto the side of a passing double-decker bus, pushing the button to let himself in.
Riptide leapt on after him.
The two of them fought more, while the passengers and driver (who Gloom had threatened to keep driving or else) were terrified.
Gloom fled to the upper level, throwing a grenade at Riptide as she reached the upper level. She dived down the steps to the lower level to avoid the explosion.
She then saw Gloom, who had leapt through the hole in the roof of the bus, clinging to the underside of the passing police helicopter and being carried away.
Trace hurled a grenade under the Red Sled, blowing it, and Carter inside, up.
Sidewinder had Steel slow down so he could jump off to help Carter, who was in the burning, trashed car.

Frost used his stun prod repeatedly on Bulletproof, who was big and tough enough to keep fighting even after it jolted him.
Checkers cowered in fear while this was happening!

At one point Hazard leaned out of the side of their van and shot the wheels on Frost's van, but another fancy feature caused the tires to instantly re-inflate when damaged, so this didn't stop the chase.

Frost managed to hurl Bulletproof out of the back of the van, with Bulletproof gabbing onto the back door handle to hang on.
Hazard fired at Frost with hand guns, though she noticeably seemed to be trying to wing him rather than kill him. Fortunately his armour deflected the bullets. Then Paradox held up her hand and caused Frosts vision to become blurred and throw him off balance.
As he stumbled back, Bulletproof grabbed him and threw him out of the back of the
Van. As this happened Hazard shouted not to kill him, but it was too late and Frost Bounced across the road in his armour. Steel swerved to avoid him and the good guys van tipped over and crashed.

Riptide got off the bus, flagged down a car and then pulled a knife on the couple inside and stole the vehicle in order to rejoin the chase, but arrived too late.

Steel and Frost were captured by CLAW who then escaped with them and the captured Checkers.

Carter awoke to find himself floating in a strange tank with a breathing mask on his face. Outside the tank he could dimly make out Insight and Tranquillity.
He then realised all his limbs had been replaced with the mechanical ones they recovered from Strife's flat!

Frost awoke with his eyes covered, tied down. He heard voices talking about someone called Purity, and one of the voices warning that she was not one of them and they should not deal with her.
After a while of being transported, He is placed in a chair and a bag removed from his head to reveal Judgement sat across the table from him.

"Greetings, Frost. I am Judgement."

Meanwhile, Mr Tarun Patel, leader of the British Human Party, gives a speech from a pres conference in France.
"I've been warning for years of the dangers of unrestricted Adaptive production, now the numbers are out of control, with the government having no way to track how many are actually in the population. What's more, they've made our nation the destination for adaptives all over the world hoping to take advantage of our welfare state.
I've said again and again that the spread of Unity would lead to violence, but I've been mocked and ridiculed in the press, called an extremist, a racist...but who are the real racists? Who are the real extremists? Unity preaches unity between adaptives, not with humans. It preaches racial superiority and CLAW have now taken it to its logical conclusion.
No one is claiming most adaptives support terrorism or violence. However, there is determined and growing minority amongst them that do, and if our leaders continue to bury their heads in the sand..."

This television report leads into the opening montage....
The Landlady (Maxy Ross) of the Steward pub changes the channel.
Dr Norah McGregor (Flower) vs Dr Beans on Tough Talk, arguing if she will condemn CLAW.
She changes it again to football, where Broltin United are playing against Liverpool.
In the pub, several adaptives watch this. A Ferret announces to the others at his table that at least CLAW are doing something, its about time someone started fighting back. Louie keeps his head down and looks at his drink.
Carter is being helped to walk at Tranquillity's clinic, along too bars, learning to work his mechanical limbs, while Risq looks on nervously.
Tranquillity is treating Sabre's neck (from where it got bitten in the fight at London Zoo) when there is a crash outside. They rush outside to see "CLOSE THE GAPS" sprayed on the wall, a window shattered and a blue car speeding away. Sabre goes to chase but is stopped by Tranquility, who leads him back inside.
Meanwhile, Sidewinder is leaning on a storage container in a junk yard. A biker pulls up and hands him some carrier bags, which he hands over some money for. When the biker has left he takes the bags into a storage container where Strife is sat in a chair, chained to the wall.
He gives Strife playing cards, curry he has in the carrier bags and drink.
Strife mocks him as a house pet and asks if he will get his human boss to hit Strife again. Sidewinder says that hitting him wasn't right. Even if they aren't on the same side him and Strife are still both adaptives, and they shouldn't be enemies.
He sits down and the two of them talk.

Riptide is sat in the basement looking depressed. Ghost brings her a cup of tea.
Stealth is sat in the corner, talking to Silver, one of the Unity Priests at the Temple and playing with his tape recorder.
Sentinel comes in and chews her out for causing carnage and that she was obviously the one that carjacked some people. He says he can't keep covering for everything they do and maybe Davina was right that going to them for help was a bad idea.
Insight steps in and tells him off. "If you could do this legally, you already would have. When you came to us it was because you knew we'd do things you couldn't, so you don't have the right to criticise the methods we choose to use. We're going to break the law and we're going to hurt people, but we're also the only ones getting anywhere near to stopping CLAW. So don't come here acting self righteous to us. Its my people putting themselves in danger doing your job. Now if you aren't here to help, you need to go."
Sentinel warns that Chief Inspector Williams is getting desperate and he can only hold him off for so long before the police launch mass arrests.
After he departs, Riptide complains that they shouldn't just be sitting here, how are they going to get Frost back?
Insight says she has received a letter from CLAW offering a prisoner exchange of Strife for Steel and Frost. She says "Obviously I intend to cooperate, getting our people back is my first priority."
Everyone agrees to go ahead with the exchange.
Insight says that she is sure Judgement wont harm then as he is against harming adaptives. She explains that Judgement was always closest to Accuity and was the one people expected to be his successor, but instead he dropped out of the public eye and resurfaced more recently as a terrorist leader.
She gives the impression she considers Judgement a greater leader than herself and was obviously once close friends with him.

Meanwhile, at the CLAW secret base, a dank, cold stone series of rooms and corridors.
Steel is sat in a cell, cross legged, as if in calm meditation.

Checkers paces nervously in his own cell.

Judgement and Frost sit across the table from each other. Trace and Hazzard are there to stand guard. Trace gives Frost a cigarette.
Judgement reads a film about Frost outloud.
"Adopted by the Casterwills, both Dentists, middle class, respectable. Successful at school, well liked...described as gifted by your teachers. A well adjusted, properly socialised adaptive. A true success story for the system, and yet despite all that...you are still a part of the struggle. You can still see the truth, you can still see the injustice we face. You could walk away from Insight anytime you wanted, but you don't. Something pulls you back."
He proceeds to make his case to Frost, explaining his motivations and the ideology behind CLAW.
Judgement makes clear that Frost is NOT his enemy and he does not want to spill adaptive blood if it can possibly be avoided.
He explains that violence is needed because the BHP is gaining in the poles all the time, and eventually either them or someone like them will win and shut down the institutes that make adaptives. If they do that adaptives will be destroyed as a culture.
"We are one election away from genocide until we control our own reproduction."
Judgement states that in his home country in the past humans considered to be "Negros" were considered less than human and were exploited as slaves. It took a war that killed half a million men before they were freed. Do you think they will liberate people who are not human at all with less of a struggle?

Despite this, Frost is unmoved.
He counters that violence will only escalate things and make their situation harder, and that CLAW kills civilians.
Judgement disputes Frost's definition of civilians, as Judgement considers the police and BHP supporters enemies.

Judgement says that Insight is a great woman, she has made immeasurable contributions to the struggle, but she has become wealthy, successful...comfortable. And comfort breeds corruption.
She has stopped fighting to change the adpatives position and started fighting to maintain it. She doesn't want things to get worse, but will she risk her wealth, her comfort, to make it better?
Frost remains polite until Judgement criticises Insight, at which point he becomes clearly annoyed.
Judgement offers a hand shake before he departs, but Frost does not accept it.

Judgement goes to speak to Checkers.
Checkers says his government will not negotiate with terrorists (Checkers talks a lot like Richard Nixon.)
Judgement says we will see if President Reagan agrees with his assessment.
Checkers says "who are you people kidding? CLAW? Is that meant to sound scary?"
Judgement says "I am saddened that your enemies have so poisoned your mind that you consider a part of your own hand scary.
"You've always lived a life of ease, coddled by your human father, shielded from the hardships the rest of your people suffer. While thousands of others were sent to die in Asia, you avoided the draft. Your medical reports say it was because of an anal cyst. Does it still trouble you? I can assure you that what happened back then still troubles me greatly."

Carter returns to his flat and is finds a note telling him to meet them by the fountain in the Acuity memorial park.
He goes there with Risq/Helen. There a mysterious adaptive woman, covered up to hide her appearance but with hoofed feet, gives evidence against Tarun Patel, Chief Inspector William Wood and other important figures, showing they have ties to the hate group Human Defence League and are engaged in taking part in or covering up crimes and profiting from criminal activities.
As he leaves the park he gives a fiver to an adaptive mongoose that is begging. The guy noticably has shaky hands that are missing fur.
When he returns to Risq, she says the beggar will just spend the money on wag.
When he tells her he has important news, that will be really shocking, advising that she puts down her diet coke (she's usually drinking a can of it.) When he tells her she is initially confused.
"Sorry to bring this up...but is this a human thing? Where you don't know those people all support the HDL?"
He explains that the point is they now have proof.
She thinks about this and agrees that is potentially a big scoop.
She says that she thinks he is putting himself in too much danger. She says "There is adaptive culture and then there is ADAPTIVE culture. And Insight is very much ADAPTIVE culture. She is worried about how dangerous it is getting. He has nearly died once and she doesn't want to lose any more of him."
He says he will be careful, but feels he owes Insight and Tranquility for healing him and he has to try to get the truth of what is happening.
He decides to go check with Insight first, to see if she is okay with him running with this story. She suggests having Ghost check over it, since she is very good at that kind of thing. Carter agrees and will hold off on the story till Ghost has checked it.

A rat runs by Frost's cell.
Sat in the corridor outside, Hazard is throwing her tennis ball, bouncing it off the wall and catching it in her mouth.
She stops and asks if he knows Insight, saying Insight is one of her heroes.
She has a California accent and is very cheerful and friendly, though he thinking can seem a little simplistic.
She says she's never seen anyone beat Bulletproof before, and she is sorry she was shooting at him, insisting she didn't want him to get hurt.
She asks if Strife is okay. She says not to judge him too harshly. Sometimes when someone gets hurt so badly, they can't ever get better
She mentions that she loves Bertie Biscuits and British Humour!
Frost is cautious speaking to her, but polite.
He tries to suggest a less violent way might be better, she says she was created to kill humans, now she is just doing it for a good cause.
She offers him a fist bump, which he returns.
Though they are on different sides, she clearly sees them both as adaptives first.


Frost and Steel are set free, dropped off from the back of a van on a country road, with a duffle bag containing Frost's badly damaged armour.
Sidewinder comes in a very badly damaged Red Sled, with Riptide in Frost's battered van, to pick them up.
Sidewinder says not to worry about the car, he knows a good mechanic (implying Frost.)
Steel dismisses what Judgement had to say, saying it was just a load of crap.
Riptide greets Frost angrily, saying he was an idiot for getting captured and needs to be more careful. This is just her way, and Frost knows she only says it because she cares.
Heading back to the Temple
Carter meets with the others at the Temple. Risq is with him and people at the temple clearly know her and call her Risq. She seems embarrassed for Carter to see this side to her (the adaptive culture side) and when he asks if he should call her Helen or Risq she is very definite that he should say Helen.
Risq she is embarrassed to be seen at the temple and doesn't like him calling her Risq.
Ghost comes to Carter and gives him the paper work, saying "No good."
Looking at the papers, Carter finds them covered in red ink and complex notes, saying everything that is wrong with them. They are clever fakes, that pass initial inspection, but under closer examination they are clear forgeries.
Carter immediately decides not to run with the stories, as he has strong journalistic ethics.
The good guys theories that the story may well be a creation from CLAW to use Carter to undermine their enemies.

Sidewinder says he was speaking to Strife and managed to get some information. Strife would not betray his cause, but he let things slip or avoided certain topics.
He got the impression Strife was doing something with adaptive energy, though he didn't get what.
Ghost goes through Strifes things and bring them some overalls, saying "adative!"
Steel says "No, those are overalls."
Ghost looks a bit annoyed and indicates to smell them, offering them to Frost.
Smelling them (he, like Ghost, has a super sensitive dog nose). The overalls do indeed smell like they have been exposed to adaptive energy. (Note that actual adaptives don't have residual adaptive energy on them like this, as it was just used when they were created.)
The ponder if CLAW might be making adaptives themselves. Steel reminds them that the Human Defence League has used adaptive energy on their followers to turn them into hulking psycho super soldiers in the past.

Frost says he knows someone called Lotus from his days at university can help with this as she is an expert in adaptive energy. he says Carter should not come as Lotus can get a little militant about adaptive issues.
They go to see her, in a nice middle class neighbourhood.
To the surprise of everyone but Frost, she is a human, who is really into adaptive activism and Unity. She lives with her mother, who she is clearly very embarrassed by.
She corrects Sidewinder when he says adaptives "The correct term is Adaptive People." This leaves him very confused, even more so when she says he has "internalised racism."
She talks in buzz words and activist lingo.
"Solidarity brothers and sisters."
"Institutional, systematic racism."
"Most humans aren't comfortable having an honest conversation about race. Its so frustrating."
"Human-normative language."
She is doing a petition to have adaptive and human kids given separate classes so human kids can be educated about how oppressive they are to adaptives, and the adaptives can understand the institutional forces that are against him.
When she leaves the room Riptide starts ranting at Frost about how that woman is human and this is ridiculous.
Frost insists that Lotus is the best person for information on adaptive energy.
Lotus explains that tiny imperfections in the collectors mean that each collector of adaptive energy creates energy with a slightly different frequency.
This means that while you can hide adaptive energy from casual detection, if you know what frequency you are looking for you can track the source easily with the right equipment, which she can access at the university she works at.
After a couple of days Frost returns to her and she says she has tracked it to Barlington's College, an old boarding school that closed a long time ago.
She warns that adaptive energy can be very dangerous and using it without government approval is also highly illegal.
She also laments that her and Frost used to go out, but seemed to grow apart.
Frost looked very uncomfortable, made his excuses and left!

Sidewinder, Carter, Riptide and Frost drove out to the abandoned school to investigate.
There they found there were vehicles coming and going. Not in large numbers, but there was definitely activity.
Frost decided to call up Stealth, as he would be the best person they new to sneak in and gather intelligence.
Stealth agreed to come help, and a few hours later, he arrived in his party van with Psychosis and Sabre.
Stealth cheerfully set off on his mission, but returned a few hours later looking serious
He reports that CLAW are running an adaptive production facility, creating young adaptives and giving them to adaptive couples.
This causes uncertainty to come over the group.
Though they are against CLAW, Adaptives controlling their reproduction is something they are all in favour of. The idea of telling the human authorities and having police raid the place sits especially badly with them.
Isn't this a betrayal of the ideals they claim to fight for?
Carter says that he thinks they should shut the place down, its too dangerous to let CLAW gain influence and use this to recruit. Everyone else gives him some serious scorn for this black and white view of the situation. The divide between human and adaptive becomes very apparent, and the situation becomes uncomfortable.
Frost doesn't express an opinion, though clearly concerned he says they must contact Insight to determine what to do. Radioing Insight, she says she needs to consider this situation carefully. She tells them to remain there and monitor things.

Purity.
Definitely the villain.



Louie the mouse.


The gangster Fix the bat, Razor the cat and Blade the elephant.


Strife the donkey, a CLAW Terrorist.
Also Helen the Hippo, Carters lovable, enthusiastic assistant.


Judgement, leader of CLAW and Gloom, a bush baby. His goggles protect his large eyes in the day time.



Hazzard, the dog, and sniper for CLAW and Paradox, the goat, another CLAW member who has powerful psychic abilities.


Trace, the hare, right hand woman for Judgement and Bulletproof, the huge armoured feral armadillo.


Billy Biscuits the bulldog, star of cringe inducing TV show "In the Dog House" and Checkers, the US ambassador to the UK.

I will post chapter 2, more art and some articles when I get around to it!

Here is the rough timeline of Weird Britannia and how it deviates from the real world.

Weird Britannia Timeline

1880- A strange new energy begins to affect the earth. Known as "adaptive energy", this phenomenon causes adaptive animals to appear around the globe. Over the next 20 years the full extent of this event becomes clear. Government race to harness this energy, with Germany, The USA and Britain being the only ones to achieve any really success.

1933- The Nazi party takes power in Germany. Officially the Nazi’s consider adaptives to be sub-humans and begin mass exterminations. As such creatures are not human and are generally reviled and feared by the public, no effort to keep this policy secret is required. At the same time, a secret program is begun to harness these new creatures for the coming war, Project Kriegtier (war-animal).
Prof Friedrich Becker is placed in charge of Project Kriegtier. Under his command the project makes huge advances, discovering methods to rapidly mature and educate adaptive animals in the hopes of creating a vast, elite and expendable army.

1935- Pope Pius XII states that churches position on adaptive animals is that they are not in the image of God, nor are they descended from Adam and as such are on the same level as other non-human animals in God’s eyes. This rules them out from receiving communion or joining the church or indeed going to heaven. Though he does not endorse cruelty towards adaptives, the Pope’s words are seen as opening the way for further persecution. Most major denominations and faiths take a similar attitude.

1936- By this time, adaptive animals in much of the world have begun to be killed off or exiled for religious or cultural reasons. This takes place throughout Asia, Russia, and Africa.

1939- World War 2 begins in Europe.

1941 Dec 7th- Japan attacks Pearl Harbour, causing the USA to join WW2. The Americans have already been working on their own adaptive animal project (The Manhattan Project). Nuclear technology remains undiscovered as adaptive animals become the focus of scientific thinking. The Americans remain far behind the German Scientists in their understanding of Adaptive Energy.

1943- With the war turning decisively against the Axis powers on all fronts, the Nazi’s prepare to unleash the vast secret armies that have been built up under Project Kriegtier. Their plan is to unleash 500,000 Tieresoldaten (animal soldiers) on the eastern front. The shock of the sudden appearance of this new type of warrior is expected to swing the war in their favour and critically demoralize the Soviets. The Tieresoldaten are all based on adaptive Rotweiler dogs and are heavily indoctrinated in Nazi ideology. Two days before operation Neue Morgendämmerung (new dawn) is set to begin, the Tieressoldaten turn on their masters and attack Berlin. Hitler and most of the Nazi high command are killed and Germany is thrown into chaos. It becomes apparent that the Nazi’s have vastly underestimated the intelligence and organisational skills of their creations. These germany adaptives refer to themselves as Kriegtier, both in reference to the project that created them and as an allusion to references to man as a “fighting animal’ from Hitler’s own book Mein Kampf.
The Kriegtier strike with the same suddenness and efficiency as their human masters used to take Europe and much of Russia. German human units are left confused and disorganised, as their entire central command structure is destroyed by an internal enemy, while the western allies and soviets continue to attack. It was later suggested that Becker might have deliberately created the adaptives to behave this way, as revenge for perceived slights from his superiors or in a failed attempt to take power for himself. These ideas are impossible to verify as Becker disappears during the uprising and his final fate remains unknown to this day.

1943 March 1st- The Kriegtier’s chosen leader, Kaltes Herz (Cold Heart, a codename assigned by his former human masters) gives a radio address announcing he is the new Fuhrer and the creation of the 4th Reich. He goes on to state that the Kriegtier are the protectors of the Aryan master race and are dedicated to safe guarding it from all threats, both physical and moral.
While this message is met with bewilderment in the outside world, in Germany it leads to rioting and rebellion. The Kriegtier, who are now producing new soldiers on an industrial scale, with up to a thousand an hour coming off their assembly lines, deal with this insurrection with the merciless brutality instilled in them by their creators.
The same day, a message is sent to the western allies, proposing a truce. The Kriegtier explain they were willing to cease all hostilities and return large amounts of western Europe to the its former rulers. This would leave them to pursue their war against the Soviets and their “Jewish Masters” in the east.
The Allies initially scoff at such a deal, but the Kriegtier then offer to share the technology that allowed their creation in exchange for peace.
The lure of this technology is too great to refuse and the Americans agree to end hostilities, realising it will allow them to end the war against the Japanese with minimal lost of human American troops. The British, under Winston Churchill argue to continue the war, but with the Americans aiming to make peace, are pressured into accepting an end to hostilities.
Within just a few months, adaptive creation programs in America and Britain are moving ahead with great speed.

1943 July onwards- The German forces are thrown back in disarray and the Soviets surge forward, Stalin now confident that victory will be just a matter of weeks. However, the Kriegtier, having crushed rebellion at home counter attack. Kriegtier forces and the human forces now freed up from fighting in Italy and protecting France against an Anglo-American invasion drive the soviets back after much hard fighting, the Kriegtier proving to be the relentless, fanatical warriors they were originally created to be.

1944-The western front in Europe does not exist anymore. D-day never happens.

1945- Though clearly losing the war to the might of the USA, the Japanese refuse to surrender and are clearly intent on fighting to the death. In the Battle of Iwo Jima the Americans, unleash their new army of Adaptives, code named “Little Boys” for the first time. The Little Boys are made from a variety of different animals, in the hopes of avoiding them becoming overly unified against their masters, as happened in Germany.
The Japanese soldiers are horrified by these inhuman opponents, but fight on anyway. After fierce fighting, the Island is taken. The American Flag is raised over the island by a Stag, a rabbit, a tiger, a horse and an antelope.
The Japanese leadership is stunned by this turn of events and appalled at the prospect of this horde of monsters being let loose on the mainland. Also, tactically, they realise that the lives of these new soldiers mean nothing to the American commanders and so they will be more then willing to produce the many thousands of them required to defeat Japan.
This leads to the unconditional surrender of Japan.

1945 onwards- With the war over, Britain elects a new liberal government, promising social equality and introducing new policies designed to integrate adaptives into human society. This is applied to both natural adaptives and those created for the war effort (though British Adaptives were created in large numbers, they were not used in the actual fighting).
Both America and Britain agree to no longer create adaptives for military purposes, adaptive military units are disbanded and the technology used to rapidly age and indoctrinate adaptives is labeled “cruel and unusual” and its use is banned. The Nazi are the only nation to continue using it, ensuring their population of Kriegtier remains as high as the civilian population can support. The life expectancy of each Kriegtier is relatively short, sometimes just ten years, but more are always being made to replace those that expire.
Other parts of Europe are fearful of their adaptive populations (associating them with the Kiretier) leading to various civil wars, insurgencies and genocides, so the British governments approach is widely accepted by the public at the time.
In the post war years, special institutes are set up to educate young adaptives and prepare them to take their place within society. It is mostly envisaged that adaptives will provide much needed cheap manual labour and other low skilled jobs.
In America various states take different approaches to the adaptive problem, some granting them full citizen city and all the rights that go with it, others treating them as on the same level as animals (in Alabama it is legal to shoot an adaptive as long as you have a hunting license), and most falling somewhere in between.

1948- The war in Europe ends with the victory of the 4th Reich and the final, complete destruction of the Soviet Union. The Kriegtier’s war has left German battered and broken, with industry in ruins and millions dead. The slow process of rebuilding begins.
The “final solution” has by this time reached near complete fruition. The Jews of Eastern Europe are almost entirely destroyed, along with none-Kriegtier adaptives, homosexuals, communists and anyone else viewed as undesirable by the Nazi’s. The state of Israel is never formed.

1952- The Right to Reproduce Act passes in Britain, stating that since all adaptives are unable to reproduce the government has a responsibility to create more of them in order to sustain a stable population. The government presents this as a superior method to the exploitative way adaptives are being treated in other countries, aiming to integrate them into the population. It also helps to deal with fears of the tension that will arise if adaptive production is suddenly stopped or reduced, as has happened in France.
Opponents argue that the act is unnecessary as adaptives fleeing to Britain from America and Europe as well as ones natural occurring are enough to maintain their population.
Some of the new generation of adaptives this act creates are homed with adaptive or human families but most are homed in The Institutes for Genetically Adaptive People. These facilities are designed to educate adaptives, instilling in them a love for the country, its people, a desire to integrate and become useful members of society. Adaptives are trained for various low paid jobs, in heavy industry and the service industry. The institutes are hailed at the time as a symbol of a new and hopeful future for both adaptives and humans.

1953- Largely in response to the Right to Reproduce Act, the British Human Party is formed, whose express policies are to forcibly deport all none human citizens of the U.K. The party is a small fringe group, largely mocked and not taken seriously in the main stream press.

1954- Having rebuilt and reordered Germany, eastern European and Russian society, the 4th Reich begins to remerge as a world player. Gradually, a cold war begins to develop between east and west. However, in china and else where in Asia, communism continues to exist, but it is not a massive global force any more. From this point onwards, America comes to fight several proxy wars against the Reich, in Asia and Africa as the two super powers come to regard each other more and more as enemies but neither feels ready for an all out conflict. Frantic diplomacy on both sides manages to defuse several tense situations that threaten to trigger world war 3 and this “unstable balancing act” continues.

1955- Vietnam War begins, as between North Vietnam, supported by the 4th Reich and South Vietnam, supported by the USA. American forces make use of mainly human soldiers, though many adaptive troops are also deployed. Due to their superior fighting abilities and perceived expendability, Adaptives use increases throughout the war.

1958- Some reports begin to emerge of adaptives exhibiting strange abilities, such as telekinesis or telepathy. These cases remain very rare and little understood, despite government investigation. Attempts to determine the cause or nature of these phenomenon end in failure and most governments dismiss them as myths.

1961- The Institutes for the Education and Integration of Genetically Altered People send out their first generation of pupils into the outside worlds. The institutes are cut off from the rest of the world and (though set up with well meaning intentions) raise the adaptives poorly equipped to deal with the prejudice and resentment they face from the human majority. Each adaptive is assigned a first and last name (a random first name and a second name linked to the institute where they were raised. Those born before the institutes are all given the last name “Jones” as a matter of convenience). After their name the letters G.A.P. appear, denoting the adaptive as a genetically altered person (an attempt at a P.C. term for adaptives). This is also the year that the term “gap” begins to be used as a derogatory term for adaptives.

1969- President Nixon promotes of policy of "Adaptivization" of the Vietnam conflict, to draw down human involvement completely.
At this time, the “Adaptive Religion” Unity is started by American adaptive Alexander Roosevelt, who renames himself Acuity, while he is serving in Vietnam This new religion (whose followers refer to themselves as Unifiers) is controlled by a secretive priesthood of adaptives who give each adaptive a “true name”.
This causes adpative soldiers to refuse to fight and their units and sent back to America and disbanded.
Unity gains a great deal of popularity within the adaptive community and soon adaptives begin refusing to acknowledge their human appointed names. The religion teaches that adaptive energy is a divine force that has created the adaptive race for some special purpose. If they can draw closer to this divine force through spiritual self improvement, they can learn their place in this greater purpose. Though they appear different on the outside, Unity teaches that inside adaptives are a single people.
Acuity makes predictions, stating that adaptives will gain control over their own reproduction, that the sign that this is coming will be a adaptive child being born to two adaptive parents and that this will bring about the liberation of the adaptive race. This idea of “liberation” is widely seen as dangerous and threatening amongst humans, but the religion spreads very rapidly amongst the adaptives around the world, adding to the already growing idea of an adaptive identity and a rejection by adaptives of the values and roles humans have placed on them.

1970- The institutes, once a supposed to be a beacon for a brave new society, suffer increasingly from under funding and mismanagement. Reports or appalling conditions and abuse at institutes cause outrage amongst adaptives. Many adaptives come to see the promises of integration as lies to cover up the governments intentions to exploit them as labour or soldiers.

1972- As Adaptives increasingly seek to define themselves separately from the humans, largely rejecting the principles of integration the institutes were set up to promote, underground night clubs and raves begin to emerge.

1973- Acuity is shot and killed by an unknown gunman at a rally of supporters and human sympathisers in Washington DC. Members of the Inner Priesthood flee to Britain to escape the growing tide of anti adaptive feeling in America.
Meanwhile, in the UK the B.H.P’s support also continues to grow as the party becomes more and more mainstream.

1979- Margaret Thatcher and the conservative party win the general election in Britain with a mandate to reverse Britain’s economic decline and to deal with the growing unrest regarding the “adaptive situation”. The B.H.P. come a close second. Many Adaptives vote in favour of Thatcher, realising that the previous liberal government (dogged by scandal, presiding over the decline of Britain and having failed to resolve the integration of adaptives) was doomed to lose and the alternative (the B.H.P.) is unthinkable. Tensions with the 4th Reich are now reaching crisis point, and fears grow of a new and even more terrible war against the Kriegtier (led by the aging but still formidable Kaltes Herz. How he has survived so much longer than most Kriegtier is unknown.)

1981- Daniel Stribley is born. There is much rejoicing.

Here is Insights assistant at the Unity Temple, Silver the llama. FOr some reason I got mixed up and thought she was called Clarity, but Silver is the correct name.
She deals with the regular running of the temple, and is only somewhat aware of the more shady things Insight engages in.
The Ocelot is Accuity, the original leader of Unity.
After fighting in Vietnam, he renounced violence and founded Unity to bring adaptives together as one people.
He was kind of a likeable hippy type...I imagine him being a bit like Jim Henson.



Here is an interview where he explains his religion-

"Think about it like this.
80 years ago there were green lights in the sky and from then on, we've had animals that talk and walk around. I mean right now you're talking to an ocelot, how crazy is that, when you stop and think about it? I'm the ocelot and even I'm blown away when I stop and think about it.
People try to tell me that's all just a coincidence, like just by chance all that came about. No one can explain to me the science of how that could have happened, how everything could have changed so quickly.
That's not a random event, something so specific, so strange as that. No, there's an intent there, a purpose, right? Someone caused this and that means they must had had a reason.
I don't want to call it a god, because that's a word with a lot of baggage, y' know? That's a very loaded word. The human man in the sky with a beard, giving orders.
I asked a lot of humans about their god, and back then they were all pretty sure we were nothing to do with him, so I started looking for something else.
I like to think of it as a Great Spirit, not an authority, more like a subtle guide.
It's a gentle voice, helping us find our way, y'know?
If we reach out to it, and listen to it, we can start to understand our part in the great plan it has for us.
Everything that happens, I think, happens for a reason. Calling it destiny sounds kinda dramatic, but I absolutely believe that. When we face tough times, you know, we've got to understand where its taking us, what the meaning of it is.
Now I'm not saying we have to accept when things are bad, not at all. We're not just, like, puppets being moved around. We're the ones that make this plan happen. But if we're going to see it happen, we have to figure out how each thing that happens fits into it.
So, you probably ask, what is this great destiny?
The short answer is, I don't know.
Yeah, its not many religious figures will give you that answer, huh?
The point is, we need to learned what the plan for us is, that's the journey we're all on right now.
But I can tell you as much as I've managed to put together so far, and you see what you think.
Adpatives are here for a reason, that means we are all part of the same thing, the same design, right? The same grand plan. We're one people, there's something that connects us.
We need to come together, cooperate and care for each other. It's so easy to give up and look inward, but we're meant to help each other, to lift each other up.
Now sometimes humans hear that and they feel worried, like I'm saying adaptives are better somehow, or they're the only ones I care about.
It's...it's like....every adaptive comes into this world alone. Humans have parents and families, but we don't have that, we don't have any family in that sense. So adaptives need each other, we need to be united. All adaptives are my brothers and sisters. But I'm not here to divide us from humans. If a human wants to be my brother, than he's my brother. We're not the same as you, we're not just funny looking humans, we're something else, something very special. We need to be who we are, just as you need to be who you are. But that's okay, that doesn't make us enemies, that doesn't mean we have to be against each other.
My people suffer, we suffer so much, I don't ....I don't know if I can explain it in a way you can understand. But when you push someone down, they drag you down a little too. It hurts you too, hurting someone else always does. Every injury you cause, you injure yourself with a part of that.. And that means that when we finally are free we can't be free at someone else's expense, y'know? I think we have so much potential, and I think we can do so much to help the human race...and I think someday we will. When we rise up, we'll all rise up together., humans and adaptives and anyone else we've come up with by then.
Look how bright the sun is, there's enough of that for everyone, right?
The end of the road, the end of this journey can seem a long way off, but you have to think about how far we've all come, how much better things are. There's still so much more to do, but the fact we've come this far shows what's possible.
That's what this march is about, taking one more step down the road.
Huh, I march more these days than I did in the army, always marching somewhere. Crazy.
I know that when it gets better for us, it will get better for you too.
Maybe when we understand our purpose...it might help you understand yours?"

Acuity-1972

Here is an interview by Emily Chong, Carter's rival reporter.
Chong is always happy to chase what ever story will sell, with little moral regard for the implications of what she is doing.
She isn't hostile to adaptives, but if slandering them and pushing scare stories will sell, she is happy to do it.
Here she interviews the leader of Chimera, a dangerous left wing paramilitary organisation and drug cartel, who is called King.
She is happy to kiss King's ass and paint a nice picture of him, since this means she gets this exclusive interview.

The Court of the King
by Emily Chong
Disclosure: Some names have had to be changed, locations not named, and an understanding was brokered with the subject that this piece would be submitted for the subject’s approval before publication. The subject did not ask for any changes.

As I approach his estate, my head is swimming and my heart is pounding in my chest.
After numerous meetings with contacts, dead ends and tense encounters, I've finally had my chance to speak to the man known only as King.
The Chimera organisation are so often associated with guerrilla armies and hidden jungle wars that the elegantly decorated villa, gleaming blue swimming pool and air conditioning were almost startling to me. This was not the lair of the crazed warlord I had come to expect.
But in truth these lush surroundings, in the most exclusive area of Rio, over looked by the statue of Christ the Redeemer, are fitting. There are two systems of government in South and Central America now.
One is the official governments, corrupt and frightened, put in place by questionable democracies.
The other is Chimera.
In many places people are dependant on them for the vital services their governments wont provide.
Undoubtedly, if it was not for Chimera's fighters, Colombia would have fallen to Nazi backed Fascists years ago.
Chimera is made up of dangerous, fierce men and women, but in such a climate perhaps they are the only types of people who can hope to thrive.
King himself remained hidden under a shroud to avoid identification, and removing any specific details about his appearance or location was an essential condition of being allowed to interview him, for obvious reasons.
Despite this, his power and magnetism were obvious. This was a man of captivating charisma and I was in no doubt about why he inspired such devotion in his followers. Him being an adaptive is never commented on by his followers, who are both human and adaptive.
Many characterise Chimera as a drug cartel and a criminal gang, to others they are unsung heroes. Now was the chance for the man himself to speak.

How did you come to join Chimera?
Like so many, was initially seeking to escape poverty. It was hard life, I had nothing, not even a family to care for me. I would run odd jobs, carry messages, selling whatever I could to survive. There was no one moment when I was declared a member, Chimera does not work that way.

How has your life changed since then?
All for the better. My life is very normal now, very pleasant. I am thankful for all the blessing I have received.

How would you describe Chimera?
We are a family, an extended family. We work to keep the forces of facism at bay and support communities. The governments in so many countries in this region care nothing for their people, so Chimera takes care of them. We provide what those in power will not.

In Europe and North America, the main images people see relating to Chimera is of conflicts with governments and rival guerrilla factions, is that a correct understanding of Chimera?
We aren't violent people. We defend ourselves and nothing more. Sometimes we have to defend our businesses from corrupt officials and police, at other times we have to defend our freedom from fascist forces. We look after the people under out protection, sometimes that involves fighting.

How do you respond to people who associate Chimera with the drugs trade?
Its a reality that drugs help to fund some of what we do. Our efforts cost money. We did not create the drug trade, we did not even increase it. The demand is always there. It is better that the money it produces goes towards a noble cause.
I could walk away from this business tomorrow, it would make no difference to the drugs or the fighting. These are global problems.

How has Chimera changed over time?
We are better organised, better equipped and more effective than ever before.
Previously our fighters were using stolen AK-47's. I found that disgusting. Using a fascist's gun, what can that do but spit more fascism?
Now we have own weapons, from more reliable sources.
Our influence is far greater than at anytime before.

There are some who think governments in the region do not want to capture you, despite public claims to the contrary. Do you think that's true?
Many leaders care only for their own power and wealth, so at first they saw Chimera as a threat to that and wanted to stop us.
Now they have learned we are not so easily cast aside. They have realised they need to work with us, for mutual benefit. When people cooperate with us rather than fighting us, everyone prospers.

Many consider you a hero, like a modern day Robin Hood. Do you think that's a fair comparison?
Ah, those are kind words. I do what I can but I am just one man. There are thousands of people all across the world that work to help use achieve our goals.

In many parts of the world there are great tension between Adaptives and Humans, how do you feel about this?
Racial politics is a fascist lie, Chimera opposes such thinking.
In Chimera the only thing we demand is loyalty and loyalty can come from anyone.

Are you optimistic about the future?
Absolutely. Chimera continues to grow everyday.
Our enemies have to force people to accept their ideologies, but we do not need to do this. We simply provide what people want, things their governments deny them, whether its security, freedom, drugs or food. People will always be drawn to that.
People can try to fight it back, but ultimately peoples basic desires will triumph.

Do you use drugs yourself?
No, never. I have no need for it.

Chapter 2- Plague

Weird Britannia Chapter 2- Plague

Somewhere in America... police officers, and men in suits get out of their cars at a harbour.
They are joined by a Adaptive Mandrill pimp in an outrageous, brightly coloured costume, with a wide hat with a feather, platform shoes etc.
He declares "We now control every pimp, pusher and punk in the city, we are outta sight, baby! Ain't no one left to stop us."
A fat man in a suit asks "What about our...little problem?"
The Pimp responds "Let's just say I put him...on ice."
Suddenly another figure arrives and states "You locked the door, but this horse had already bolted."
He then proceeds to mow everyone down with two revolvers.
He is revealed to be a handsome, sandy coloured adaptive horse with a long mane.
Scenes of fighting, explosions and gun fire follow as a voice over intones.
"They think they run the city, but there's one horse that wont be reigned in.
He's more than a horse! He's a death machine!"
Scenes of him getting it on with numerous human and adaptive women follow.
"He's spreading his wild oats, and the ladies love his big....hard....hooves."
Evil police chief character "Call in every hit man out there! I want him dead, you hear me? DEAD!"
As our hero stands on the back of a truck firing a machine gun to mow down waves of attackers, a voice over intones "John 'The Stallion' Cleveland IS-"
Title pops up "THE MANE MAN!"

Carter, Sidewinder, Steel, Risq and Psychosis are at the VHS shop called the Video Sett, run by Wavelength, a somewhat spaced out hippy adaptive badger.
Sidewinder expresses why The Stallion's movies are awesome. Showing his encyclopedic knowledge of the "gapsploitation" genre.
Carter is uncomfortable with the whole genre. Being a human, he's not sure he should be enjoying this type of thing!
Risq loves the films, but ironically, finding them hilariously awful.
Her impression "He's a big horse with a big horse cock! The Stallion IS Horse Cock....wait didn't he actually used to do porn?"
She also makes the observation that you can see the boom mike in the trailer, which she finds amazing.
Psychosis says that "Those movie stars are just a bunch of poofs! What would they do if they had to charge a Argy machine gun nest? They'd piss themselves!"
Wavelength says "Yeah man, but, like, in Rodeo of Death he makes a lasso out of barbed wire and throws it on the mob boss when the bloke drives away and the blokes head comes off."
Psychosis says "Yeah okay that's pretty good, I'll rent that."
He continues with purchasing some weed, while Sidewinder hurries to explain the wonders of the genre to him, with such great films by The Stallion (the greatest star of the genre) as-
Unsaddled
Thunder Hooves
The Horse that Killed
Boss Stallion
Gapula
Gapula vs The Mummy
Though Sidewinder admits that Stable of Fear isn't so good, as its just patched together out of left over footage from other films and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Steel is quite grumpy, unimpressed with such nonsense. He tries to subtly purchase a workout video featuring a large breasted woman on the box (it is unlikely Steel needs help with his exercise routine). Wavelength ruins any attempts to have this go unnoticed stating "hmm, good choice, man. Nice tits."


Just then, the Shop is suddenly attacked by a gang of adaptive robbers lead by Hunter, a drug addict Carter previously gave money to when he was begging. All of the gang have patchy fur on their hands, an obvious sign of addiction to Wag, a dangerous drug that is effective only on adaptives.
Shrew, Chipmunk, puma, rabbit, Elk with antlers + Hunter the mongoose.
Wavelength is spaced out and busy getting Rodeo of Death from under the counter and complete fails to notice Hunter stood at the counter holding a bat and demanding money.
This leads to an awkward pause, as the robbers clearly haven't brilliantly planned their attack. In this moment of hesitiation, Hunter looks at Psychosis and says "What are you supposed to be? A one eyed duck?"
Psychosis has a leathery bill and one eye, so has a pretty limited range of expressions. So its hard to tell what Psychosis is thinking at this comment...right up until he bounces Hunters head off the counter and violence breaks out.
Sidewinder is preoccupied trying to find a particular movie, and doesn't realise there is a robbery going on, Steel meanwhile proceeds to start brutally beating the robbers with his superior fighting skills, taking a club from one of them and using it to batter its owner and the others.
Carter defends himself with his mechannical arms to block weapon blows and then strike the robbers with great force.
Sidewider is caught off guard by a crazed robber rushing at him, swinging his weapon wildly, but Sidewinder steps into the defend him.
Realising they've bitten off a lot more than they can chew, the robbers flee, getting pelted with blows as they struggle to all get through the door at once, before spilling into the street.
Wavelength looks up from behind the counter and is bothered that some of his displays have been knocked over, but clearly oblivious to all the violence that just took place.
Risq is obviously quite upset by all this and when Sidewinder tries to comfort her she expresses that wag-heads are getting worse in Broltin.



Meanwhile...
A hugely tall adaptive Comodo Dragon arrives at Heathrow airport, some sections of which are still undergoing repairs from one of the terminals being destroyed during the CLAW attack.

He collects a very large case, which he carries easily with one hand and goes outside where he is met by a group of humans in suits, who greet him as Comodo and say they will take him to see their boss.
He doesn't speak and when one reaches to help with his bag he just glares at them.
He gets into a van, still holding his luggage. They try to make small talk but he doesn't respond or even acknowledge them speaking.
He is taking to a building where he meets with the gangster Butch Barcus
Comodo stil does not say anything, but puts his luggage on the table on the table unzips it and a small (about three foot tall) adaptive frog in a gimp suits with a breathing mask climbs out, much to everyone's shock.
Comodo says "I need your best man."
Butch proudly introduces Big Eddie.
Komodo proceeds to brutally beat Eddie, hurl everyone else away from him. The frog gimp leaps about with tremendous agility, knocking Butch's minions off their feet.
Comodo makes Eddie bite a tables edge and is about to stomp on his head with Butch pleads for mercy.
Komodo asks him who is in charge.
Butch says "You! You!"
Komodo says "Only till King arrives."


Meanwhile Steel and Sidewinder are at the Temple, speaking with Insight.
She expresses concern about the wag problem, and explains that Riptide is absent due to personal reason, and Frost is out looking for Riptide.
Ghost is setting traps to deal with the buildings rat problem, Steel commenting "trying to catch your lunch?"
Silver, an adaptive Lama that works at the Temple for Insight is very amused by this.
Steel is very obviously irritated with Ghost, and makes a disparaging remarks about her being a feral.
She then says that in brighter news she is going to go to a charity event, raising money for drug rehabilitation and wants Sidewinder, Ghost and Steel to attend with her.
It is at the Simon Hotel, and is being hosted by the Hope Foundation. They are a big backer of Unity and adaptive causes so its important to keep them sweet.
Ghost says "Not good. I C R." And shows a magazine article about this (one she actually wrote, it was posted on this forum previously.)
Insight "I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but you shouldn't be so political all the time, Ghost." She explains that the Hope foundation is a branch of ICR, but she is not in a position to demand her allies have perfectly clean records. "Perfect is the enemy of good."
Insight says Ghost should bring her boyfriend, there will be tons of security so she can take the night off. After all, Steel will be there, like old times.
Ghost perks up and leaves to get ready.
Silver rolls her eyes and questions if that is wise, "Are those two really the first impression we want to make on people?"
Insight says "I'll focus on our public relations, you focus on running things here while I'm out. There's an evening service you'll need to perform. I've left you some notes."

Sidewinder says he has some cool suits, he will make sure Steel and him look awesome. Steel is not impressed and decides to go in his own old suit, knowing the kind of weird stuff Sidewinder thinks is cool.
As expected, Sidewinder shows up in a tacky suit, bright pattern shirt and sunglasses that wont stay on because he doesn't have external ears.

When they arrive at the charity event, Insight tells Steel to stay in the car, keep an eye on things outside.
"Obviously I don't want you seen with me in there. I don't want reporters there to start trying to dig up any dirt on us, not at the moment when I'm trying to secure some major donations. I thought I made it clear I brought you here for security? Now don't be ridiculous about this, I don't have time for a debate."
Glumly, Steel stays in the car, listening to the radio.
It starts to rain.

Inside it is a huge, impressive event, with food, drinks and a big ice sculpture in the middle of a human hand pulling up an adaptive hand.
The people present are all extremely wealthy, they are mostly human but with a few wealthy adaptives.
Sidewinder rushes to the buffet but catches sight of a large rat scurrying off and loses his appetite.
Inside they meet Ghost and her boyfriend, a black human called Garrett. She hangs off his arm and seems complete enamoured with him. He explains that he works for a publishing company and is helping to get her book published. It's book for young adults "The Great Ruby Robbery." (It is about two adaptives, a chilled out great dane and a grumpy water vole, that solve crimes.)
He knows everyone's name and explains Ghost has told him all about them.
Sidewinders immediate thought is "how?"
Sidewinder warns them off the buffet!

Sidewinder meets Facade, the adaptive bulldog actor who plays Bertie Biscuits on television. In real life he's a camp acting lovey, who is always telling stories of working in the theatre.
Sidewinder gets his autograph, to sidewinder from Facade.
It occurs to him that people might not realise who facade is so asks for another signed "Bertie Biscuits", pretending it is for another person (using his human name of Kurt.)
Facade is obviously not thrilled about this. He would clearly prefer to be known for his work in the theatre, but unfortunately Bertie Biscuits is all anyone knows him for.

Other interesting people Sidewinder sees include Daydream, an adaptive wombat who owns the Munders super market chain ('The Right Savings!') Insight says Daydream is very prominent and the type of positive representation adaptives need.
He meets the organiser of the event, Tobias Coldwater, the CEO of the foundation. He constantly does humble-bragging like "I'm a hero, I'm just a man doing what I can. I just wish there was more I could."
Sidewinder catches sight of a strange looking human in a wheel chair with pink skin as though he is quite scarred, wearing large sunglasses and an obvious wig. Coldwater says that is Monsieur Chavel, a big backer of the Hope Foundation.
The star of the party, getting the most attention, is an adaptive lion in a sharp white suit. The lion is called Pablo, and he works in international banking in Brazil.
He is very friendly and seems pleased about the idea of the Hope Foundation doing such good work. He cheerfully write out large cheques to make big donations, borrowing a pen from Sidewinder to do this.
He has several American men in brown suits with him, who seem to be providing some kind of security or assistance. A large white man from amongst them tells Sidewinder to keep back, and speaking in a very dismissive way, refering to Sidewinder as "bugs" and asking him if he has one of those cute gap names.
Sidewinder responds "I'm Sidewinder...cold blooded." and does a little hand gesture because Sidewinder is incredibly lame.

Outside, a woman in a large rain cloak arrives. Steel sees her take out of a bow and arrow and advance on the building.

She managed to get a line of sight on one of Pablo's handlers (the one Sidewinder is talking to) and shoots him through the chest through the glass front of the building, shattering it
Steel tries to ram her with the car, but she leaps over the bonnet of another car and rushes inside, knocking a security guard who tries to stop her off his feet.
Inside chaos breaks out.
Pablos American helpers crowd around him pulling out hand guns, obviously planning to fire them pretty liberally around them. Ghost and Sidewinder jump into stop them from firing in the crowded room using their martial arts skills.
Carter unexpectedly reveals himself to be there, grabbing the end of one of the men's pistols, causing to backfire and explode.
Carter comments that he thought covering this event would be boring.
The attacking woman jumps onto a table and shoots one of pablo's guards through the head. She is revealed to be an adaptive polar bear who has the fur on her face dyed in bright colours like war paint. She is wearing body armour that includes Unity symbols on its shoulder.
Pablo faces off with her and she fire an arrow but he blocks it out of the air with his hand and flees through the hotel, with her chasing.
A black human amongst the brown suited guards tries to shoot Sidewinder, but Sidewinder spits venom at him, forcing the guard to cover his face with his arms and miss his shot.
Sidewinder turns around and is horrified to see himself facing off with Comodo, who is wearing a large bakc pack.
The good guys has tussled with Comodo and his helper Muerte previously, and know they are not to be fucked with!
Comodo assumes that Sidewinder is involved in this attack and intends to kill him for it. As Sidewinder flees from this giant attacker, Muerte the gimp frog jumps out of the back pack and chases after him.
Comodo goes after Steel, hurling him against a wall and attempting to smash a huge plant pot on top of him, Steel evades under a table, causing Comodo to start hurling tables around to try to catch up with him.
From previous encounters, they know that Muerte is a poison arrow frog, and can excrete a deadly contact nerve toxin from his skin. His gimp suit (aside from what ever personal enjoyment it might give him) serves to keep him from killing everyone he meets.
Sidewinder shouts to Comodo that he doesn't think he's so big (attempting to get his attention away from Steel.) Muerte leaps onto Sidewinders back, and says "I'm fucking huge!", before unzipping his mask and attempting to lick Sidewinder, but Steel runs over and hits Muerte with a serving tray and knocks him off.

The archer chases Pablo who runs up some stairs to the higher levels of the hotel. One of Pablos guards comes running down the stairs to try to stop her, but she leaps up, kicking off the wall and hits him around the face with her bow, sending him tumbling down the stairs.
Pablo turns over a laundry cart in the woman path as he flees through the hotal, but she leaps over it to keep after him.
She rounds a corner and finds him facing her at the end of the corridor. He gives a mocking wave and leaps down a laundry chute. Not wanting to risk going down the chute in case hes waiting at the bottom, she rushes back the way she came.

Insight steps in, using her martial arts skills to kick Comodo in the back of the knee and then jumping up to kick him across the head.

Pablo comes running back into the lobby and flees out of the front of the building. Realising they may be outmatched by the combined Ghost, Insight, Carter, Steel and Sidewinder, Comodo and Muerte flee with him, confirming they are his minions. Steel makes a comment about how Ghost isn't doing a very good job of protecting Insight.
The brown suited american guards also flee with him, firing their guns wildly as they retreat.
Steel takes cover behind the ice statue, which is hit repeatedly, toppling over and crashing to the floor.
The archer runs back into the Lobby, where she is tackled by Steel and Sidewinder.
Much to everyones shock, Insight recognises her, calling her Flare, a unity priestess from Brazil.
She agrees to go with them peacefully, and they hurry to the car to take her back to the Temple.
Ghost will get Garret home and than meet them there, and Carter will also make his own way there.

Once they get to the Temple, Flare explains that Pablo is King (who would have guessed!) and she is there to kill him. Her homeland has plagued with crime, violence and misery because of Chimera's evil influence. They've turned peaceful communities into war zones, corrupting the authorities and killing anyone who opposes them. She warns that they will destroy the UK adaptive community in the same way. She also warns them that King gets supplied with weapons and bodyguards by powerful American gangsters, who were the brown suited guards at the party.
Insight says we aren't about assassination, but perhaps they can cooperate to stop Chimera. Flare grudgingly agrees to not start slaughtering people on route to stopping Chimera.

Sidewinder decides that he can probably get information from MI6.
There he meets with his superiors, who refer to him as Agent Smith.
Director Hall is an older white human man, who is a mentor to Sidewinder and has great faith in him. However, Director Castle, a middle aged white human woman has a dim view of Sidewinder, saying he has yet to offer them any actionable intelligence they can use against Insight. She says he has yet to give them useful intelligence to use against Insight. Director Hall says without Agent Smith they wouldn't have been able to stop Claw's attack on Heathrow.
Hall seems uncomfortable at the suggestion of Sidewinder looking into Chimera and King, but allows Agent Smith access to their archives.
While he is gathering information from filing cabinets, he is approached by the American men in brown suits.
The lead one is Agent Wyatt, a light black skinned human male that Sidewinder fought with at the party. They go into a room to speak with him. Wyatt is mocking and patronizing to Sidewinder, calling him "boy" and "bugs". They reveal that they are agents for the CIA.
(Yeah, you saw all guessed Pablo was King but you didn't see that coming, did you? CIA surprise!)
They explain that Uncle Sam considers this a vitally important matter in the on going struggle against Facism.
He says that Director Hall has promised full cooperation, so Sidewinder needs to make sure he keeps out of their way, or he's going to disrupt a very delicate situation.
What chimera are doing is part of a much large struggle, and a certain amount of collateral damage is inevitable. He says Sidewinder should walk away and forget he saw anything about it.

Steel finds he cannot get in touch with anyone from Fixes gang, or other major criminal groups, they seem to have gone to ground. Apparantly the Human Defence League, a militant human racist group with connection to the British Human Party, have been attacking adaptive criminal gangs. Interestingly their vigilante actions don't seem to be reducing the amount of wag on the streets, as it seems to be increasing all the time.

Insight says some of the victims will have received treatment from Tranquillity, so they should ask her for information.
Flare and Steel go to see Tranquility, and find her clinic is crowded with large numbers of addicts suffering the effects of wag abuse (loss of circulation to the extremities being the most distinctive one, causing their finger tips to lose their fur, turn black and potentially fall off.)
Tranquillity has treated will not allow them access to the information, as it would break doctor patient confidentiality.
Tranquility is exasperated with Steel due to his rude manner and the way he is always showing up at her clinic with injuries but then being difficult about accepting treatment. Steel makes a comment that she isn't "exactly the NHS" and claims shes not a real doctor. Tranquility is quick to point out that her clinic gets a government grant and is very much a real doctor!
When she leaves the room as a new patient arrives, Steel raids her files while Flare keeps watch.
They get information on the home address of Razor, a scared black cat adaptive from Fixes gang, including his home address.
Flare asks him why he is hostile to Ghost all the time, Steel explains that he is annoyed that she has taken the job that used to be his. He refers to her as a "bin licker" and Flare (being from abroad) asks him to clarify what that is.
While he is explaining it (it is a term for ferals, implying that they grew up raiding bins for food in the wild) Tranquility comes in and makes clear that she is also a feral and is annoyed by the way he talks...but still provides him with some pain killers for his bruises from the fight at the party because Tranquility is a medical professional!
As they Steel drinks from his hip flask and Tranquility shouts that he shouldnt' be drinking with those tablets, and as they drive awawy she shouts that Steel shouldn't be drinking when hes driving either!

Going to his flat in a grim concrete high rise, with stairs that smell of piss.
A human woman opens the door a small way on a chain, but when she wont let them in, Steel busts it open. The flat is small and quite a mess, and there is a human toddler crying in a crib.
Razor is watching football on television and is clearly terrified, especially of what they may do while the baby and his girlfriend are there.
His hands are heavily bandaged, and he explains that the HDL have declawed him.
He says that the HDL are bolder and better organised, seemingly being given specific information on who to go after.
Steel and Flare are pretty intimidating to him, but seeing his pitiful condition (he can't use his hands and is unable to work) Steel's demenour softens a little and he says Razor is an adaptive, and they won't let the HDL get away with doing this to him.

Insight has lots of information on BHP membership (she keeps her enemies close), and suggests monitoring them. Unfortunately HDL members are more secretive, but monitor one organisation can provide a windows onto the other.
When he is informed bout this, Sidewinder is able to get information on the HDL activies. He cant get info on Chimera but HDL are not problem. He doesn't tell the others where he's getting information, just that hes looking into contacts. Since the others have plenty of shady contacts, they accept this. He does not mention the CIA, as that would be hard to explain!
he gives the information he gathers to Ghost to look through, as she is very good at that kind of thing.
Carter says he can keep an ear out for information, especially if he can find Frost and Riptide.

Sidewinder uses his skills to tap into phone conversations by known HDL members.
The HDL are cagey talking on the phone, obviously aware they might be over heard, but Sidewinder finds one strange call which is to continental Europe and is conducted entirely in German.

They need someone that speaks German to translate...they realise their friend Sabre would be able to help.
Steel manages to track Sabre, Stealth and Sabre to an abandoned factory. Inside the three of them are crowded around a burning barrel, tearing apart cassette tapes and burning them. They have piles of boxes with "monkey nuts" written on the side containing more cassettes. They freeze when Flare, Steel and Sidewinder show up.
They act way too friendly and are clearly up to something suspicious. They insist they are too busy to help.
Sabre evnetually agrees to help them, as long as its quick and will translate the message.
The person speaking is Professor Fishcer (and x nazi scientist who they have tangledwith before who works for the HDL) who is creeping and crawling to a Krieg Tier agent, who says they are interested in his efforts to weaponise Adaptive energy to make super soldiers. Based on his work the Forth Reich may be willing to take him back in and offer him a prestigious position again.
Fishcer speaks with contempt of the HDL, clearly just using them as tools to help him regain his old wealth and power.
having helped with this Sabre gives a big thumbs up and grin, saying things are "wunderbar".
Sabre smiling is pretty unsettling and after he hurries back into the old factory Flare comments that she gets the sense he is an incredibly dangerous person to be around..

While they were gone, Ghost found another conversation, Fishcer calling Tarun Patel, the leader of the British Human Party.
In the conversation Fischer is furious that Tarun has stepped down, harming their movement. Tarun says that Fischers weird experiments and super soldiers are going too far, Tarun wants to be legitimate poltician not start a race war! Also he was keenly aware that during the terrorist attack it was "fucking gaps" saving him, while Fischers enhanced security guards were making things worse!
The information gathered says that there is a lot of anger at Tarun Patel for quitting as leader, when they could have used the terrorist attacks to build more support.

Ghost also uncovers information from the info Sidewinder brought them, that Simon Broker, a prominent HDL spokesmanwas bought a large, disused prison complex at a reduced price. Mostly likely his allies in the police force helped arrange this for him.
Ghost has got a map of the prison from the local library that they can use to plan their attack.
Steel doesn't want to bring Ghost with them, so Steel, Flare and Sidewinder head to the prison, intent on capturing Fishcer and finding out what the hell is going on!
They use ropes to climb the wall into the exercise yard.
There they see two HDL thugs standing guard and quickly knock them unconscious and tie them up.

Once inside, they start to explore the complex.
One cell block contains adaptive prisoners, who appear to have been given large amounts of wag and are all in a very bad condition. The place absolutely stinks of vomit and feces.
One of the prisoners is revealed to be the gang boss Fix (an adaptive bat you might recall from chapter one) who pleads for Steel to rescue her. She doesn't know where the keys to the cells are so they head off to find them.
In the next cell block they see a couple of guards stood talking worriedly.
One walk way over head an adaptive Sloth woman with a mechannical arm walks passed, seemingly not paying them much attention.
An adaptive working with the HDL seems strange to say the least!
One of the guards heads off towards the prisons entrance area.
The group heads over to the cells, Steel knocking the guards head against the bars to knock him out.
Inside, they see Albert Wise, a large human man that has been enhanced into a hulking mutant with boney spikes on his arm. He is the result of Fishcer crazy experiments. He now appears very unwell and is vomiting blood.
There are more enhanced thugs in the other cells in this block.
One of them turns out to be awake and lunges to grab Steel but fortunately can't reach. The enhanced thug roar incoherently in his cell and the group hurries after the other guard that wentto the entrance area.
This section has been converted into a bizarre science labratory.
Some of the equipment is got wag productions, but it seems quite small scale, not the vast quantities Chimera have been supplying. Most of the equipment seems to be for other research.
Professor Fishcer is ignoring the guard who is ranting angrily (clearly distressed by Wise's condition). Fishcer
is busy working on another enhanced thug who is strapped to a table.
At this point, Purity (dressed in her parker coat and ski goggles) comes over and leans on the table.
Fishcer shoos her away, complaining that she was meant to help with his research but all she does is act the fool and make stupid jokes.
Purity says "I'm just waiting and watching till you get as far as you can with this. Eventually you'll get right up to the edge of the cliff, and then I'll be there to help us take one more step."
The guard, getting no help here, leaves and goes across the prison (followed by Sidewinder, Flare and Steel.)
There is another cell block where HDL members are bunking. Their cells are much better with tvs and personal belongings they have brought in (and obviously they are not locked in them!)
The guard goes into the buildings dinning area.
Inside, a man is sat in a chair along in the dark, smoking cigars and watching old nazi propaganda films on a projectors on the wall. This is all pre-Kriegtier stuff (the HDL obviously dont care for the direction the forth reich has taken!) He has the keys on a stand beside his chair.
There are british flags and nazi banners hanging on the walls.
The guard explains that Wise is getting worse and Fishcer is doing nothing to help him.
The guy in the chair (who sounds english) says "Sometimes sacrifices must be made. Albert will be a martyr to our cause"
Flare runs over and axe kicks the guard on the head.
The man in the chair jumps up, revealing he is a white human male with bulging muscles, in a tight vest, with crew cut hair.
He pulls out a combat knife but Steel strikes the mans inner elbow and stabs him in the shoulder with his own knife.As the man falls over, Steel stomps on his head (steel has hooves, so thats really painful!) and takes the keys.
As they exit the room, large numbers of guards rush to try to stop them.
Steel says he will go free the prisoners and Flare sends Sidewinder to capture Fishcer, while she holds off the guards.

She uses her bow to shoot charging guards in the knees (the guards have various clubs, bats and knives) before engaging them in hand to hand, using her bow to strike them.

Steel gets to the cells and starts releasing the prisoners. While he is opening cells on the upper level, three guard rush onto the walk way to try to stop him.
Steel is a bad ass and uses his superior fighting skills to batter the three of them, sending two of them tumbling off the walkway. As the last one stumbles back from Steels blows, Purity walks up behind the guard and throws him off the walk way.
Steel flying kicks Purity, but when he hits her chest he just rebounds off her.
She says "Looks like one of us was smart enough to wear body armour."
He attacks her, but his blows seem to have no effect and she has tremendous strength, throwing him around with ease.
She does a mocking impression of his martial arts, making exaggerated Chinese voice sounds "ah so, me so horney...PLEASE! What a load of crap." and rips off a piece of metal railing saying, swings it a couple of times to test its wieht nad says "yeah, this'll so."
Steel leaps over the balcony to the lower level (realising he cant stop this maniac!)

Meanwhile, Sidewinder runs through the prison when a metal claw on a chain flies down towards him. he evades it and realises that the adaptive sloth is swining on the under side of the walk way and attacking him with the claw of her mechannical forearm.
He leaps up to kick her, but she blocks his leg with one of hers and tries to kick him with the other.
Fortunately he manages to bite her leg, causing her to cry out in pain.
As he drops back to the floor, she uses her chain claw to swing to another walk way and swings away from him allowing him to continue to reach Fishcer's lab.

Flare reteats from the gang of thugs, fleeing up onto a walk way, being pelted with thrown clubs and bottles as she goes.
She gets off another arrow into a mans shin before engaging them again. This time, she is able to fight them one at a time on the narrow walkway. She is a dangerous combatant, using her bow as a weapon and dealing out brutal injuries. Some guards get knocked off the walk way, while others are left lying on it wounded.
She receives several blows but between her armour and aggressiveness this doesn't slow her down.
At one point she leaps on a man, biting him in the side of the neck. As he falls over backwards the other guards strike at Flare to get her off him, but the blows to her limbs and armour don't stop her.
Suddenly she leaps over the side of the walkway to ground level and flees away from the guards towards the lab.
One of the guards jumps after her, but lackign her superior agility injures his leg and falls over.
The rest think better of it and run to get to the stairs back down.

Sidewinder bursts into the lab. Fishcer pulls out a luger pistol but Sidewinder weaves quickly so Fishcer cant' get a shot and punches out the nazi doctor.

Purity, looking down at Steel and the freed hostage, thougtfully twists the railing she was holding as a club around her forearm.
Hearing gunshots at Fishcers lab she drops the railing and rushes off in that direction, leaping dramatically down to ground level.

A couple of thugs burst in on Sidewinder, but he is able to defeat them with his martial arts skills.
Purity bursts in and breaks the last guard facing Sidewinders neck.
Holding his body by the head she says "Oh wiat...he was on my side, wasn't he? I really suck at this. I can't be the only one that finds having just two teams a little too restrictive?"
She then pulls the leg off a desk...before throwing the desk at Sidewinder.
He dodges and she says "I'll spare you some snake skin boots pun, you probably get that all the time." And proceeds to try to club him with the chair leg.
Sidewinder quickly realises that he can't do much to her with punches and kicks, so in desperation grabs the luger pistol and shoots her repeatedly in the Chest.
She stumbles but stays standing, saying angrily "BULLSHIT! You dont use guns! That's CLAWS gimic!"

Flare runs past the injured Purity, causing Purity to yell "Hey! Don't ignore the main villain!"
Flare carries the unconcious nazi scientist to the entrance, which is locked. As they attempt to get it open. Flare is hit with a throw fire extinguisher as they realise is still on her feet and limping after them.
Purity syas "I think you've misjudged whose winning this fight right now."
Sidewinder shoots her in the knee with the pistol, and Flare puts an arrow in Purity's other knee, but she won't go down!
Flare leaps over and hits Purity across the face with her bow. Purity recoils and then swings back and strikes Flare, sending Flare flying back (fortunately she hit FLare in her armoured body!)
Steel arrives and, still annoyed that Purity got the better of him, grabs the pistol and advances on Purity firing into her body.
Purity stumbles into the machinery, which she starts to break as she struggles to get up.
Purity says "You will have to do better than that to stop..." before Steel puts the last shot point blank through her ski mask, causing Purity to collapse.
The broken machines around her begin to catch fire.

Steel opens the front door and the group flees with the rescued prisoners.

As they head across the rough waste ground around the building towards their van, guards emerge from the building after them.
The musclebound man Steel stabbed has put his arm in a sling and is leading his followers after them.
Cars containing HDL reinforcements pull up, containing some members with firearms.
Enhanced thugs come racing after them.
The fastest is a huge hunched brute, running with his knuckles on the ground, and he starts to gain on the group (who are slowed helping the freed prisoners.)

Just then...we see the view through a sniper rifle scope.
It moves over Steels head, and then moves to Flare....

The sniper opens fire...
Blowing the head off the huge enhanced thug chasing the good guys!
Gun fire takes out more of the HDL thugs.
A hot pink motorbike jumps over a dirt ridge, with its rider firing a submachine gun.
A black van comes racing after it.
The rider leaps off her motorbike and kicks the HDL leader with the injured arm, sending him flying with the power of her kick.
The van pulls up and out jumps CLAW terrorists Strife the Donkey with an assault rifle, Gloom the Bushbaby with dark glasses and two katannas and Bulletproof, the huge armadillo.
The remained HDl thugs flee from this new attack and Bulletproof grabs the HDL leader and throws him in the van.
Gloom point to the good guys and the rescued hostages and says "What about them?"
Trace (the hare who was on the motorbike) pauses and says "They aren't our enemy...lets go."

As suddenly as they arrived, Claw depart with their captive.
Flare says how completely insane that was, and no one can really argue.

The good guys escape with their own hostage, Professor Fishcer.
They take the rescued captives to Tranquillity's clinic. Tranquillity immediately starts smacking Steel with a piece of paper angrily saying that he went through her files! She complains that he goes through her cabinets, calls her a binlicker and she still treats him when he keeps showing up injured from all the fights he gets into. She says she should change her Unity name to Mug!
Seeing the rescued prisoners though, she forgets about yelling at Steel and hurries to take care of them.
Sidewinder whispers to Steel "Bin licker is a bit harsh, Steel!"

Planning what to do with their prisoner, Steel says they shouldn't go to Insight, who will say to release her.
Fortunately the group have some storage containers they use for keeping prisoners in (sounds bad when you come to say it...). They used these before when they captured Strife.

When he comes around, Fishcer is eager to talk, clearly having no real loyalty to the HDL.
It becomes clear that he is only interested in his science, and assumes they want to know about his super soldier project. When asked abou the wag production he explains that he was improving the formula, to make it more potent and cheaper for Chimera, something he views as a side project to his main work. He talks about things without any thought or understanding of moral implications. He is proud of his successes and progress and the fact he is destroying lives doesn't seem to enter into his thinking. Some of the things he talks about with pride (making more powerful wag) are obviously horrible and will clear antagonise them, but Fishcer seems oblivious to these kind of moral concerns.
Fishcer isn't ideologically motivated, he simply lacks any kind of moral compass and cares only about advancing his own accomplishment and prestige.
He tells them that Purity was hired by Chimera to help with his work, but that she was useless and contributed nothing, just messing around and getting in the way with her silliness.
He also explains that the HDL are being paid by Chimera to take out rival factions, which suits HDL fine as brutalising adaptive criminals makes them feel righteous and they get money to fund their group.
He tells them that the one group that the HDL weren't targetting were the gang of Butch Barkus. Though Barkus is human, there are adaptives in his gang, so it seemed strange that they were off limits, but Fishcer didnt' care at the time to ask why this was.
Having got as much information as they can, Sidewinder says they should release him.
Flare says she doesn't want to release such a scum bag unharmed, implying she wishes to torture or kill him.
Steel says he will go speak to Insight and decide what to do next and that Flare should stay and guard Fishcer.
Once Sidewinder has left he goes back to Flare and tells her that she should teach Fishcer a lesson and then release him.
Once Steel leaves a second time, Flare beats Fishcer brutally, then threats him with the tip of one of her arrows that she will kill him if she ever sees him again.
After this she blind folds him, drives him out into another part of the city and dumps him by the side of the road.

Bloodied and shaken, Fishcer stumbles through the city to his home.
When he gets there, an english voice behind him says "Professor Fishcer?"
When he looks around a bunch of adaptives in special foces armour and helmets leap out around him, pull a black bag over his head, taser him and beat him with batons.
Their leader, who has a black berret and is a wolf with an eye patch says "It's time you put your skills good use Professor Fischer" He then speaks into a radio "This is Green Pack, we have the target."
They load him into a vehicle and escape.

Steel then goes and reports to Insight. Insight is worried that CLAW are around, but their involvement means the battle will be blamed on CLAW. She says they have to keep a lower profile as they made not be this lucky again.
She also says that whoever Purity was, it was a shame they were forced to kill her.}
Steel doesnt mention brutalising the captured nazi, and just tell her they questioned him and then released him.

Sidewinder sends information he's uncovered to MI-6 regarding the HDL and what they have learned about Chimera, leaving out any mention of that good guys shady activities.

Steel goes to Fix at Tranquility's clinic to get information about Barcus.
Tranquility insists angrily that if he harasses Fix or causes any trouble she will never treat him again! She comes along with him to make sure he behaves.
Fix does have information about Barcus. She had realised that his gang was not being targeted, despite having adaptive people in his crew. She had learned about an important meeting between Barcus and some of his allies, but before she could take any action she was abducted by the HDL.
The meeting is at a very expensive restaurant called the Marble Palace.
Fix is eager that Steel get revenge for her on Barcus and Chimera.
The meeting is in a few days.

In the mean time, Sidewinder runs into Carter at the Temple, who tells Sidewinder he has information about where to find Frost. He has been visiting a particular night club.
He seems nervous giving this information, and says that Sidewinder should keep it to himself.
He hands over an envelope with the details but warns Sidewinder to be careful going there, as the place has a bad reputation.

Puzzled, Sidewinder heads to the club that night, which is called the Pink Cocktail.
The bouncer lets him in, which Sidewinder puts down to the fact he's such a well dressed, stylish guy.
Inside he realises that this is actually a gay bar.
He gets quite a lot of attention (an adaptive is rather exotic) and gets bought a few drinks while he's asking around for Frost. He accepts these, failing to realise the significance and is pointed to where Frost is, who is referred to as "teddy bear".
Frost is at the back of the room surrounded by handsome human males, laughing and joking, while chewing ice cubes that are in a bowl on the table. He has his shirt open and one of the men has his hand on Frost's chest.
When he sees Sidewinder, Frost removes the mans hand, stands bolt upright and does up his shirt, looking extremely worried.
Though everyone is keen to get to know Sidewinder, Frost hurriedly takes Sidewinder outside to talk.
Frost laughs and says "Haha, I didn't realise it was THAT kind of place. Thanks for getting me out of there." then says earnestly "Please don't tell anyone you saw me here."
Sidewinder says a quip about how he's sidewinder and can be trusted to play it cool.
Frost says "No but seriously don't tell anyone."
Sidewinder says, more seriously, "Don't worry, I wont say anything."
Frost says he assumes Macavity will be involved, a dangerous gangster they have tangled with before who has ties to Chimera.
Sidewinder says they haven't seen him yet, but Frost says they will "despite his name, Macavity is usually there."
Frost asks if they are investigating the wag epidemic and says assumes Chimera have returned. He promises that he can get Riptide back (pointed out he hasn't been spending all his time hanging around in bars!). He says Riptide needs to be dealt with carefully, but she will come around in time to help them.

Steel knows someone who works as a waiter at the Marble Palace, and can make arrangements to get them a table (Insight gives them the money to bribe the guy to get them a table and to buy food.)

The table they get is a small one, on a balcony, that has obviously been pushed into make room for them. Steels friend is not working that night, but has already made the arrangement for them.
The Marble Palace has very fancy marble decor (naturally!) and also has a red marble floor, made to resemble the marbling of beef.
It is £100 for a steak (which is even more in 80's money!) so they just order the soup (which is £10!) Steel just get a cola and pours some booze from his hip flask into it.
He then goes and keeps a look out for people arriving.
When Barcus arrives, Steel goes and slashes his tires before returning to his table.
Barcus arrives with Big Eddie (who still has some bruises from the beating Comodo gave him.) He has two human minions and one adaptive goat minion.
A short while later, King arrives, accompanied by Chance and several CIA minions.

Flare handles her spoon angrily, obviously fighting to resist the urge to jump down and use it to kill King.

From the balcony the heroes can't hear much of what is being said.
However, king seems to become irate as the everyone is ordering.
He raises his voice, speaking in disbelief that Barcus has ordered a lobster. King says that Catholics say that a piece of bread is the flesh of god, but this, this meat is truly devouring the divine. He says that this restaurant serves the finest meat in this nations capital, cooked to perfection, but instead Barcus has chosen to eat a dirty crab.
King seems to get louder and more irate as he talks, eventually standing up from his chair and shouting "WHY DIDN'T YOU ORDER THE MEAT? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
He then laughs, pats Barcus on the cheek and sits back down, clearly giving the impression that his out burst was a joke. Barcus obviously doesn't find it funny.
After a while more, Big Eddie seems to get annoyed and starts to raise his voice.
He points angrily at King, but King raises a hand in the air and clicks his fingers.
At this point all the customers on the lower floor of the restaurant and all the waiters throughout the whole restaurant, grab their steak knives and stand up staring at Big Eddie. It is evident that King has filled the building with his minions to insure his safety. Eddie backs down and keeps quiet and everyone goes back to their food/serving tables.
This explains why Steel's contact at the restaurant has the night off. On the balcony Steel, Sidewinder and Flare decide King is too well protected and agree to wait to capture Barcus.
King speaks cheerfully while cramming large quantities of red meat into his mouth. He takes food off other peoples plates and generally acts like he has the run of the place.
Eventually he gets up and departs with Chance and the CIA minions.
After king leaves, the "customers" start filing out a bit at a time.
Barcus stays a little longer, clearly pissed off, ranting to his followers.
When Barcus and his followers leave and get to his car, they find the tires slashed, causing Barcus to yell angrily.
Steel, Sidewinder and Flare go after them.
(Pointless but amusing detail, the goat adaptive with Butch Barcus is referred to as Johnny the Gap.)
Steel says "Need a lift?"
Barcus tells him to fuck off.
Steel responds by kicking Eddie in the head and then head butting Johnny the Gap in the face. One of the mooks goes for a revolver, but Sidewinder grabs him and chokes him out, while Flare smacks the other one with her bow.

Barcus, realising he is now undefended, surrenders, asking who sent them and offering to beat whatever they are being paid.
They grab him, taking him prisoner and throwing him into their van to drive him off to interrogate.

Taken back to the cargo container they use to keep prisoners (cause apparently that's a thing they need to do often!) Barkus is initially defiant, but seeing the blood on the walls from Flare beating up Fishcer, he comes to the conclusion he might not get out of their alive and starts talking!
He explains that Chimera are moving to producing Wag in the UK rather than importing it.
Chimera keep him out of the loop on a lot of what they do, but he is aware that the production site is near Liverpool and can give a general location. From there, the drugs are distributed around the country.

He desperately pleads that they not tell anyone they got this information from him, because Chimera will kill him and his family if they find out. When Flare questions if he can be trusted not to warn Chimera that they are coming, Barkus says that would reveal that he betrayed Chimera, so he would never do that.
Sidewinder, Steel and Flare agree to release Barkus, warning that they will visit him again if they find out he lied to them.

Heading back to the temple, the group meets up with Frost and Riptide.
Riptide sneers at Flare, making fun of the idea of using a bow and arrow. Flare threatens to show Riptide how effective a bow and arrow can be, which Riptide seems amused by. Riptide says they will need some upgraded equipment if they are going to take on Chimera.
Frost says they should bring Carter along, as he can gather evidence on whatever is happening out there that he can release to the media.
A couple of days later, Riptide supplies the group with armoured vests, night vision goggles (which will compensate against flash bombs and bright lights as well) and gives Flare some custom arrows with flash bangs on them or concussion bombs. She tells Flare that the bombs should stun anyone within about ten feet...and mockingly asks if Flare can get an arrow within ten feet of someone.

The group packs up their gear and heads out to discover what Chimera are up to...

At the police station, Sentinel and his partner Davina Smith are stood outside of an interrogation room, look through the one way mirror at a nervous looking woman inside.
Chief Inspector Wood comes over and Sentinel explains that this woman is telling them a crazy story and refusing to give more details without police protection. What she is saying seems hard to believe, talking about a national network of drug distribution run under their noses by Chimera, but the woman seems so serious and so frightened that they feel they should take it seriously.
Just then, Agent Wyatt and several of the CIA come over and say that they are taking control of this, as it is essential to the on going global struggle.
Sentinel and Davina are outraged by this, made worse by Wyatts patronising attitude to Sentinel, but Wood says that they are to let Wyatt handle this, and not look into it any further.
After Wood, Sentinel and Smith depart, Wyatt says they will need to take care of this lose end, and then head down to the site to make sure everything is proceeding correctly.
His men then go into the room gag the woman, hand cuff her and drag her out of the room.

At a beautiful villa in Brazil, with a nice view of the Status of Christ the Redeemer, a Latino human woman sits by the pool side sun bathing. An adaptive horse woman swimming lengths in the pool.
Guards, both adaptive and human, stand around the area, watching as a car arrives and a large male adaptive bull arrives.
He is brought in to speak to the woman, who he addresses as Ms Diaz (She is Gabrielle Diaz, the leader of Chimera and King's wife. Flare mentioned earlier that King is rumour to have killed and eaten her previous husband.)
She greets the bull as 'Damage', and is friendly to him. He sounds English and explains that things are going well but Mr Macavity has had problems with Insight before and they shouldn't underestimate her or the threat she poses.
Diaz laughs and says that she hears a lot about Insight, and finds it silly that they should be scared of some priest. She says she will show Damage how Chimera deals with priests.
Three adaptives, dressed in the robes of Unity priests, with sacks over their heads, are brought out and made to kneel by the pool.
The swimming horse gets out of the pool, walks over to a sun bed.
Damage is clearly checking her out as she walks past him.

The horse then picks up and UZI, walks back over too the three priests and proceeds to pull the bags off their heads and shoot them in the head, one at a time.
Their lifeless bodies fall back into the pool, clouding the water with blood.
Diaz says that Whisper (who she indicates is the horse) will go back to the UK with Damage, to help make sure there are no further problems.
Whisper throws asside her empty gun and dives back into the water to continue swimming.


The group, with Frost, Riptide, Steel, Flare, Sidewinder, and Carter set off to investigate the mysterious location of Chimera's operation.

On the way, Carter seems a bit awkward talking to Frost.
Steel makes various crass homophobic jokes on the way. Frost laughs along, because Frost hangs around with Riptide so its basically impossible to upset him with insults, let alone unintentional ones. As his name implies, Frost is always chill.

When they arrive, the group spreads out to search the area and soon finds a large business park, by the river Mersey, with boats and trucks arriving and leaving all the time.
Observing the area through binoculars, they realise it seems to be a chicken processing and packing plant for the Munders Supermarket chain ("The right savings!")
The place has guards, but they are just normal security, though they can't tell what additional security might be inside.
Riptide makes the observation.
"Why are all the workers spics?"
Frost sighs and says "The workers do appear to be Hispanic and they are being housed within the sight. Chimera must have brought in workers from abroad that they can more easily control."
Flare says to Riptide "well at least they aren't a bunch of micks, huh?"
Riptide says that if they were all Irish they would be bringing over Guinness instead of wag and there wouldn't be a problem.
The group plots their attack. Riptide says the security system looks like pretty standard cameras, which she should be able to easily subvert.
Frost points to apower substation, saying that if he cant reach that he can take control of the buildings systems.
Sidewinder says "take control just from reaching the power relay?" in amazement.
Frost clarifies "I mean I'll be able to turn things on and off. I'm not going to make the security cameras start shooting lasers."

Carter, taking pictures with his camera through a long lens, observes the arrival of Daydream, the owner of Munders (the wombat that Sidewinder briefly met at the Hope Foundation event, suggesting she was there for more than just charity work.)
The group decides to make their move, in order to catch her in the act and gather more evidence.
Frost hands everyone a radio, made from the casings of pink plastic childrens' radios with far more sophisticated insides of his own creation that will allow the team to coordinate their efforts.

Riptide and Frost move in first, disabling, tying up and gagging guards to reach the power and security systems.
After a short period, they radio for the others to move in.
Sidewinder, Steel and Riptide go into the loading area where trucks are arriving, while Frost, Riptide and Carter go into the main factory.


Anticipating the interior will be cold, everyone puts on warm coats and gloves.
In the loading depo, Sidewinder and Steel see boxes of packed frozen chicken being loaded onto Munders trucks and other, unmarked, boxes being loaded into other Munders trucks.
They meet up with Riptide, who makes snide comments about the two of then standing around like idiots. She opens her back pack, which contains large amounts of plastic explosive and detonators.
Riptide starts gleefully setting those around the building while the other two keep watch.

Inside the main factory, large numbers of workers are toiling in the chilled factory packing frozen chicken.
There is a large freezer chamber at one side of the room, as well as an entrance to the loading area.
There are armed guards with gun patrolling the area. The workers are clearly working under harsh conditions, having been brought in as effective slave labour, kept under the radar from the authorities.
On a walk way, watching the factory intently, is a mutant Cat called Macavity.
He is a previous enemy that our heroes tangled with, who Frost brutally beat after his attempts to work with Chimera to bring drugs into the adaptive community. He now walks with a cane and has been left disabled by the injuries inflicted on him the last time. This new operation, however, is on a far bigger scale.
His involvement is not welcome, but is certainly not a surprise to anyone.

He is, as always, accompanied by his violent, dim witted, but extreme loyal adaptive bull henchman, Damage.

Daydream comes over to speak to him, accompanied by a couple of men in suits who seem to be in her employ.
Carter takes some pictures, clearly thrilled to get such a scoop.
On the walk way, Macavity suddenly shushes Daydream, irritably.
He says "Something's wrong." peering at the factory and tapping his walking stick on the walkway.
Danger says that when the boss says somethings wrong, something is wrong.
Macavity limps along the walk way hurriedly going into the security room.
He smacks the man watching the monitors out of the way with his cane and starts peering at the screens.
Suddenly, he points to one of the screens where they can see a blade of grass keeps jerking back into position, showing the footage is playing on a loop.
Damage is about to beat the crap out of Daydream and her people, but Macavity says they didn't do this.
Daydream asks if it could be the police, since she definitely cannot be seen here!
Macavity says its much worse than the police. He takes out a device with a button with a cover over it. He flips off the cover and pushes the button, saying he will summon help to deal with this.
Daydream asks if he is calling the police.
Macavity looks at her and says "What the fuck is with you and the police?"

(Right, we should be up to speed again, when I get chance I will type out the next bit!)